South Africa: Minister Pandor undertakes a working visit to Burundi International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor, has undertaken a working visit to Burundi to co-chair an inaugural Burundi-South Africa Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC). The JCC will provide a platform for South African institutions to explore further cooperation with Burundi in existing and new areas, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said ahead of the 4 November 2022 session. Pandor will be joined by her Burundi counterpart, Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Minister, Ambassador Albert Shingiro. According to the department, South Africa has identified several economic priorities. These include agriculture, food processing, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure development, oil and gas, energy, mining, waste management, packaging, and tourism. South Africas relations with Burundi are sound and cordial and have improved since the establishment of official diplomatic ties on 23 June 1995. Meanwhile, South Africa played a key role in the African Union (AU)-led Burundi Peace Process that resulted in the signing of the Arusha Peace Accords in 2000. However, bilateral trade with Burundi remains low. Data shows that major exports from South Africa to Burundi n 2021 amounted to R83 233 390 million. This included coal, petroleum and electricity, vehicles and accessories, beverages, spirits and vinegar, sugar and sugar confectionery, catalytic converters, computers and mechanical appliances and medical and photographic equipment. In addition, exports from Burundi to South Africa in 2021 amounted to R7 730 580 million. They constitute coffee, tea, mate and spices, medical and photographic equipment, clothing, and accessories, knitted or crocheted, oil seeds and oleaginous fruits and footwear and gaiters. The Minister is leading a delegation comprising senior official representatives from over 10 national departments, including the School of Government. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Iranian Envoy to India Dr Iran Elahi on Friday said despite US sanctions Tehran is ready to supply oil to India as both countries have close ties. In an exclusive interview with ANI, envoy Elahi said, "We always express our readiness to increase our economic ties with India. It is up to India, we are ready to deliver oil." The United States recently announced sanctions for an international network of companies involved in selling Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products, including an India-based petrochemical company. The Iranian envoy reacted sharply saying the US sanctions on oil are illegal. "Sanctions are an obstacle. India and Iran should find a way to solve this problem according to their national interests and not according to illegal US sanctions. We want to sell oil to India and buy what we need from India," the Iranian Ambassador told ANI. The Embassy of Iran organised a condolence prayer ceremony to pay tribute to the victims of the ISIS terror attack in Shah Cheragh in Iran at the India Islamic Culture Centre, New Delhi under the theme of "The World United Against Terrorism." "Iranian govt has close relations and close cooperation with India against terrorist groups and we hope we enforce that cooperation," Dr Iraj Elahi said. DP Srivastava, former Indian Ambassador to Iran, Trilochan Singh, former chairman of National Commissioner for Minorities (NCM) and several Muslim clerics and scholars participated in the condolence prayer. The US continues to reiterate that Iran is accelerating its nuclear program in violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka Iran nuclear deal). US government had said it will continue to accelerate its enforcement of sanctions on Iran's petroleum and petrochemical sales. "These enforcement actions will continue on a regular basis, with an aim to severely restrict Iran's oil and petrochemical exports. Anyone involved in facilitating these illegal sales and transactions should cease and desist immediately if they wish to avoid U.S. sanctions," the US treasury department had said. The US government continues to remain concerned about a wide range of Iranian policies, from their nuclear program to "abuses" perpetrated against their own people, to supporting "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine" with drones and military training, and destabilizing activities across the region. (ANI) "Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, will be the Chief Guest at the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention which will be held from 8-10 January 2023 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention is the flagship event of the Ministry of External Affairs and provides an important platform to engage and connect with overseas Indians. Australian Member of Parliament (MP) Zaneta Mascarenhas will be the guest of honour at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which. "Ms. Zaneta Mascarenhas, Member of Parliament of Australia, will be the Guest of Honour at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which will be held on 8 January, 2023," the MEA added. Last year, the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention was organized on January 9, despite the ongoing Covid pandemic. The Convention was held in a virtual format. The theme of the 16th PBD Convention 2021 was "Contributing to Aatmanirbhar Bharat". The Youth PBD was also celebrated virtually on the theme "Bringing together Young Achievers from India and Indian Diaspora" on January 8, 2021. (ANI) Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was injured when bullets were fired on his vehicle during a protest march on Thursday, has said he "already came to know a day before that there will be attack" on him. "I already came to know a day before that there will be an attack on me. They planned the attack either in Wazirabad or Gujrat in Punjab provinces," Imran Khan said while addressing the people a day after he suffered four bullet injuries on his leg in a firing incident during Haqeeqi march. On Thursday, Imran Khan was attacked near his container in Punjab province during his long march in Wazirabad. He sustained injuries on his leg and was shifted to a hospital for treatment. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders said that Imran Khan's condition is stable and he is out of danger. The Punjab police have confirmed that seven people were injured and a person was killed during the firing incident. As per the police, the deceased has been identified as Muazzam Nawaz. The suspected shooter who opened fire during the rally was caught by Punjab police where he admitted that he wanted to kill Imran Khan because "he was misleading the public." "I thought of this as there was Azaan going on and on the other side, Imran Khan is taking out his container and making noise. My conscience did not approve of this. I decided this suddenly... I conspired against Imran Khan when he kicked off his long march from Lahore. I made up my mind that I will not leave him alive," the shooter said according to a video shared on social media. Responding to whether there was someone else in the conspiracy, the shooter said, "I have conspired this alone and no one else is involved in this. I came on a bike and I parked it at my uncle's shop. He has a motorcycle showroom." Hours after the assassination attempt against Imran Khan, people held protests in front of the Corps Commander House in Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTI senior leader Asad has demanded that all three people -- the premier, the interior minister, and the senior military officer -- should be removed from their offices. On Thursday, Pakistan Electronic and Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) prohibited news channels from airing PTI leader Asad Umar's video wherein he said that Imran Khan believed "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the country's Interior Minister and a top ISI General" were behind the attack. PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has also condemned the firing incident on Imran Khan and the party members. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report from Interior Minister. He also directed the Interior Minister to get a report from the Punjab Chief Secretary and IGP Punjab. PTI Senator Faisal Javed Khan who was injured in "the firing incident" near the container carrying Imran during the long march, said it was an "assassination attempt" on the former Pakistan PM. Imran Khan had started the long march last week towards Islamabad and had targeted the country's spy chief and accused him of holding a "political presser". He had also targeted a few other officers. (ANI) "The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced the second batch of illegal online gambling-related deportations," Philippines's Bureau of Immigration said in a Facebook post. According to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, 21 additional Chinese nationals boarded a Philippine Airlines flight to Wuhan, China afternoon of November 2. This comes after the initial batch of six Chinese nationals deported last October 19. Subjects were escorted by operatives from the BI's Warden Facility Protection Unit, Border Control and Intelligence Unit, and Intelligence Division. The BI earlier reported that it will implement the deportation of more than 300 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese citizens, who have been arrested by local law enforcement agencies for involvement in illegal online gambling. Tansingco said that they have reported the update to the Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, who attended and monitored the departure of the first batch of deportees. "We will ensure that those involved in illegal activities will be deported and blacklisted," said Tansingco. "This is to create a safe space for foreign nationals who comply with immigration policies are here in the country legally," he added. Tansingco said they expect the next batch to be implemented soon, as they are in close coordination with the Chinese Embassy for the expeditious release of the deportees' travel documents. (ANI) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday showered praises on Indians calling them "talented" and "driven" and added India has much potential with no doubts that it will achieve outstanding results in terms of development, as per Reuters translation of Putin's speech Friday. Marking the occasion of Russia's Unity Day on November 4, the Russian president praised India as having much potential. "India will achieve outstanding results in terms of its development - there are no doubts - and almost one-and-a-half billion people: now that's potential," he said, according to Putin's translated speech originally delivered in Russian. "Let's look at India: a talented, very driven people with such a drive for internal development. It (India) will certainly achieve outstanding results. India will achieve outstanding results in terms of its development. There are no doubts. And almost one-and-a-half billion people. Now that's potential," Putin said. The Russian President spoke about colonialism in Africa, the potential of India and how Russia has a 'unique civilisation and culture.' Putin said that Western empires had robbed Africa during a speech about Russian and global history. "To a great extent, the level of prosperity that has been achieved in former colonial powers is grounded in the robbery of Africa. Everyone knows that. Yes, actually, and researchers in Europe don't hide this. That's how it is. They say it was built on the grief and suffering of the African peoples to a significant extent - I'm not saying entirely, no - but to a significant extent the prosperity of the colonial powers (was built that way). This is an obvious fact. Robbery, slave trade - of course," Putin said. Putin said Russia was a "multinational state" and a "multi-confessional state" that had a "unique civilisation and culture." He however also said the country, in a significant way, is part of European culture and linked to the continent by religion, as per Reuters translation. He said, "Russia is, in a significant way, part of this culture (of the European powers), based on Christianity," but added that "Russia formed as a united major world power... by becoming a major power as a multinational state and a multi-confessional one, too. And it's there that its uniqueness lies. It is truly a unique civilisation and a unique culture." (ANI) "On November 4, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced approximately USD 400 million in additional security assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI)," Pentagon said in a statement. The US government said this USAI package underscores its continued commitment to supporting Ukraine by meeting its most urgent needs, while also building the capacity of Ukraine's Armed Forces to defend its sovereignty over the long term. "Unlike Presidential Drawdown authority (PDA), which DoD has continued to leverage to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry," the statement added. Pentagon said this announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine. The latest US aid to Ukraine includes: funding to refurbish HAWK air defense missiles for inclusion in future Presidential Drawdown packages; 45 Refurbished T-72B Tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor packages; 1,100 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; and 40 Armored Riverine Boats. In total, the United States has now committed more than USD 18.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than USD 21 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and more than USD 18.2 billion since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24. "Through both PDA and USAI, DoD continues to work with Ukraine to meet both its immediate and longer-term security assistance needs," the Department of Defense said. With Russia's unrelenting and brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilian critical infrastructure, additional air defense capabilities are critical, it added. (ANI) The Group of Seven (G7) countries have called, in a joint statement, for an extension of the UN-brokered grain deal. "We strongly support the United Nations Secretary-General's call for the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), which has reduced global food prices. We urge Russia to heed the Secretary-General's call," the foreign ministers said in a joint statement . On Wednesday, Russia resumed its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, after securing guarantees from Ukraine on the non-use of the humanitarian corridor and ports designated for the export of agricultural products for military operations. "With the help of an international organisation and Turkey, the necessary written guarantees from Ukraine on the non-use of the humanitarian corridor and Ukrainian ports designated for the export of agricultural products for military operations against the Russian Federation were obtained and submitted to the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) on November 1," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. "The Russian Federation believes that the guarantees received at this time are adequate and resumes implementation of the agreement - the Initiative for the Safe Transportation of Grain and Food from Ukrainian Ports (the Black Sea Initiative) - which had been halted following the terrorist attack in Sevastopol," the statement added. Moscow said the Ukrainian side, in particular, officially assured that 'the maritime humanitarian corridor will be used only in accordance with the provisions of the Black Sea Initiative and the related JCC regulation'. The UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed during a ceremony in Istanbul in July. Under the deal, ships transporting grain from three Ukrainian ports travel along an agreed corridor to markets worldwide. On Monday, UN officials told the Security Council the landmark agreement to export grain and related foodstuffs from Ukraine must be kept alive amid the ongoing war and the global cost of living crisis. "Ukraine's grain exports are not a food aid operation. They do operate as a huge lever on price, with positive ripple effects throughout the world. New security allegations are a cause of grave concern to the Secretary-General and many Member States are worried now that the deal is in trouble," said UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths. This UNSC debate comes after Russia requested the meeting following its decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative "for an unspecified period of time", announced this past weekend, in response to alleged Ukrainian attacks against its ships. (ANI) Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the National Congress appears to provide assurance of reducing the use of coal as the focal point in energy production mix but the international community raises concerns over the leader's allusions to the country's energy strategy. In the opening address at the 20th National Congress, Xi said, "We will advance the clean and low-carbon transition in the industry, building, transportation, and other sectors by promoting the use of clean, low-carbon, and high-efficiency energy. We will progress the energy revolution significantly. Greater efforts will be made to discover and produce petroleum, while coal will be used in a cleaner and more effective manner,"Hong Kong Post reported. This statement shows that Xi is trying to make changes in its gas emission. This one reference to coal serves as a reminder that prior attempts to lessen China's reliance on coal were unworkable. However, it is hinted that deviation from those plans won't matter much because coal consumption will get "cleaner and more efficient" going forward, according to Hong kong Post. Xi has given several recommendations on future energy policy. He also said that they will pursue programmes to attain peak carbon emissions in a planned and gradual approach in keeping with the idea of constructing the new before discarding the old. Here he referred to China's abundance of energy and resources. Xi has talked about various things including carbon emissions but still in one reference to climate change in a 72-page report that has significant implications for his party, his people, and most definitely the outside world, President said, "We will get actively involved in global governance in response to climate change." In reality, China is already "engaged in global governance" on climate change concerns thanks to the influence it has garnered throughout the UN, rendering Xi's claim at best untrue, reported Hong Kong Post. This is not to imply that Xi has avoided making grand promises in any manner in his repeated allusions to China's energy strategy for the future. He actually addresses a variety of energy-related issues. There will be "planning and development of a system for new energy sources." Nuclear power will be produced in an "active, safe, and orderly way," while hydropower development will be balanced with ecological preservation. Along with this, Xi pledged to "accelerate the R&D, promotion, and application of advanced energy-saving and carbon emission reduction technologies, encourage green consumption and promote green and low-carbon ways of production and life," all the while "better controlling the amount and intensity of energy consumption, particularly of fossil fuels, and transition gradually toward controlling both the amount and intensity of carbon emissions," according to Hong Kong Post. Given that Xi Jinping was recently elected to a third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and is almost certainly going to be re-elected as president of China in March 2023, his support for coal solidifies coal's position as a major component of China's energy production mix for at least the foreseeable future. (ANI) (Adds lawmaker) DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Videos on social media showing Iranian security forces severely beating protesters have gone viral as anger grows at a widening crackdown with arrests of prominent figures from rappers to economists and lawyers aimed at ending seven weeks of unrest. Protests ignited by the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 after her arrest for inappropriate attire have shaken Iran's clerical establishment with people from all layers of society demanding wholesale political change. The nationwide demonstrations which have called for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are posing one of the boldest challenges to Iran's rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Amini case and the crackdown on the protests that followed her death drew international condemnation for Iran's rulers. Iranian leaders, meanwhile, have blamed the crisis on the United States and other Western powers, a narrative few Iranians believe. Khamenei said on Wednesday that U.S. officials who support protests are "shameless", state media reported. "Those who think the U.S. is an untouchable power are wrong," Khamenei said. "It is completely vulnerable as seen with current events." Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Saleh Jokar said Iranians living abroad who are provoking "riots" at home should have their citizenships revoked. Defying a harsh warning by the chief of the widely feared elite Revolutionary Guards, Iranians have risked their lives and arrest by remaining in the street despite a bloody crackdown. One video dated Oct. 22 that went viral on social media showed a dozen riot police beating a man at night on a street in southern Tehran. One of the officers on a motorbike ran him over then another shot him at close range. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the footage. "This shocking video sent from Tehran today is another horrific reminder that the cruelty of Iran's security forces knows no bounds," Amnesty International said on Twitter about the Oct. 22 video. Story continues "Amid a crisis of impunity, they're given free rein to brutally beat & shoot protesters. @UN_HRC must urgently investigate these crimes." Other videos of the beating of protesters, which Reuters has been unable to verify, have also spread online. Iran's police issued a communique on Tuesday saying that a special order was issued to examine the details of a video showing police officers beating a citizen, without giving any detail on the video in question. "The police does not approve of harsh and unconventional treatment, the offending police officers will certainly be dealt with according to the law," the statement read, according to Tasnim news agency. The activist HRANA news agency said around 300 people had been killed in the unrest, including 46 minors. Iran said at least 36 members of the security forces were also killed. Some 14,160 people have been arrested, including about 300 students, in protests in 133 cities and towns, and 129 universities, it said. The crisis has hit Iran's currency. The U.S. dollar was selling for as much as 342,600 rials on the unofficial market on Wednesday, losing nearly 7% of its value since the protests started, according to Bonbast.com. On Monday night, security forces went to the house of prominent economist Davoud Souri and arrested him. The officers took his laptop and mobile phone with them, and after his arrest, they informed his family that he was at Evin prison, according to a social media post that Reuters could not verify. Iranian media published on Wednesday a video of the arrest of famous Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, showing him blindfolded and saying he did not mean what he had said in previous comments critical of the authorities. He was detained following his release of several rap clips in support of the protests. (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Nick Macfie) A man shows oil contamination inside Block 192, a dormant Amazon oil field in Peru. Reuters Locals from a Peruvian area of the Amazon rainforest have reportedly taken up to 150 tourists hostage. Those detained reportedly include citizens from the US, UK, Spain, France, and Switzerland. Locals took the hostages in protest of repeated oil spills plaguing the region, RPP Noticias reported. Locals from an Indigenous tribe in a Peruvian area of the Amazon rainforest have taken up to 150 tourists, including Americans, hostage in protest of repeated oil spills plaguing the region, according to a local report. Angela Ramirez, who was among those taken hostage on Thursday while traveling by boat near Cuninico in the Loreto province of Peru, told local media that those taken captive include elderly people, pregnant women, and a one-month-old baby. "They told us that it was because they wanted attention from the state, in search of a solution for oil spills that have happened 46 times, which led to the death of two children and a woman," Ramirez told RPP Noticias. The people being held include Peruvian nationals as well as citizens from the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Switzerland, Ramirez told the news outlet. The woman said that it has been indicated that the hostages could be held for up to eight days. No one had been harmed. Ramirez's mother, Araceli Alva, told RPP Noticias that her daughter had been traveling with cyclists through the Peruvian jungle last week. Ramirez decided to leave by boat via the river on Thursday and was taken, Alva said. Ramirez issued a plea on her Facebook story, saying, "The sooner they're heard, the sooner they'll let us go. Help me share, we are well physically. Help me help them be heard," according to the news outlet. Watson Trujillo Acosta, the leader of the Cuninico community behind the action, told RPP Noticias that the tourists were taken hostage "in a radical and indefinite manner" in order "to be able to attract the attention of the government." "They are in a safe place on the banks of the Maranon River gorge in front of the native community of Cuninico," said Acosta, who claimed 70 tourists and nationals were taken, according to the news outlet. Story continues Acosta said that his community is seeking "a state of emergency [to] be declared due to the constant [oil] spills that have been taking place in our territory." He also wants the Peruvian government to lead an investigation into the matter. The US Department of State and Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the situation by Insider on Friday. Read the original article on Insider The Tri-Cities 19-year-old found dead in his car last weekend was shot from the backseat during an apparent robbery, police say. Investigators believe the 14-year-old suspect may have intended to rob Julian Chavez of Kennewick under the pretense of buying some vape pens. New court documents shed more light on Chavezs death last Saturday. He was found shot to death in the drivers seat of his car, which had crashed into a parked car on the 1100 block of West Fifth Avenue in Kennewick at 9:15 p.m. Oct. 29. Possible robbery Investigators say the 14-year-old arrested in his murder appeared to have set Chavez up to be robbed, luring him to meet him as a potential buyer for vaping cartridges. Witnesses, who reported Chavez appeared to have been shot several times in the chest, told investigators they saw a male running east wearing a beanie and possibly holding a gun. Investigators say Chavez was shot three times from the backseat of his car. They also found bullet casings and an unspent bullet in the car. A warrant was issued to search Chavezs cellphone, which led investigators to believe he was in the process of selling someone flavored vape cartridges when he was killed. Chavez had been messaging someone with the name AK_Lokote13 on Instagram about the vapes, according to the documents. When investigators obtained a warrant for that account they identified the Kennewick teen, who is being held at the juvenile detention center in Kennewick. Five days before the shooting, investigators say the teen suspect had messaged someone telling them lets hit a lick on some plugs, which investigators said means they were going to rob someone. Video surveillance shows someone else was walking with the teen to Chavezs car, but turned off and headed a different direction. That person has yet to be identified. Soon after, muzzle flashes can be seen inside the car and then it crashes into a parked car. After the crash, someone is seen running from the rear drivers side seat. Story continues Messages recovered from Chavezs phone show he had talked about meeting up with someone he didnt know to sell them the vapes. Court documents say other messages between Chavez and the suspect discuss selling the vape pens, an ounce of marijuana and rolling papers. Investigators said no vape cartridges or marijuana was found in the car. The documents do not detail what Chavez might have intended to sell, only that vapes were agreed on. Messages between the suspect and his sister show that a few hours after the shooting, she messaged him worried he and his friends may have done something. Another message shows someone telling the suspect to deactivate his account. A similar robbery incident resulted in the death of a 17-year-old in September. In that instance, investigators said Ricardo Rivera was dropping off $25 worth of marijuana oil when a group of teens shot and killed him on the 2100 block of Rhode Island Court in Kennewick. Suspect arrested The teen was arrested Wednesday at a home on the 1100 block of West Fifth Avenue. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder. His bail is set at $1 million. The teen is expected back in court next week. Prosecutors have until 5 p.m. Monday to file charges. If hes charged, it is unclear if prosecutors will file to try the teen as an adult. If so, he will have what is known as a decline hearing. Under Washington state law, juveniles can face adult criminal prosecution if they are 15 or older and have committed a serious crime or 14 or younger charged with first- or second-degree murder. A judge would hold a discretionary decline hearing to determine whether to transfer the case to adult court. He is the second young teen arrested on suspicion of murder in Benton County this week. On Thursday, Layshawne Bethea, 13, was arrested on a warrant for aggravated first-degree murder in the ambush shooting of Jatzivy Sarabia. He is the third teen arrested related to the killing of the recent Hanford High School grad. One thing investors are not lacking for after 2022s market rout: beaten-down stocks going for cheap compared to levels seen at the start of the year. The problem is how can investors sift through the stock debris to pick out the names which will dust themselves down and push ahead again? As with anything, there are multiple ways to run a stock through the litmus test, but one tried-and-true method is to watch out for the moves the insiders make. These corporate officers know the inner workings of the companies they serve like no one else and when those running the ship load up on shares, it sends a signal they must believe they are undervalued. To keep the playing field level, they must make their purchases (or sells for that matter) public and investors can track the transactions. The TipRanks Insiders Hot Stocks tool provides just such information and weve dug up the details on two names which fit a specific profile; down by significant amounts this year but which those in the know have been getting the wallet out for recently, signifying the possibility a bottom might be in sight. Even better, Street analysts also see the pair as good bets; both are rated as Strong Buys by the analyst consensus and projected to deliver strong gains over the coming months. Let see what all the fuss is about. Insmed Incorporated (INSM) Well start in the biotech sector with Insmed, a company concentrating on the development of treatments for rare diseases. All biotechs hope to get a drug across the finish line and out to the public and this is a feat already achieved by Insmed. The company's Arikayce received the FDAs nod of approval in 2018 and is indicated to treat refractory nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung disease caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection. In the recently released Q3 report, Arikayce's sales increased by 45% year-over-year to reach $67.7 million. This keeps the company on track to meet its 2022 target of at least 30% sales growth. Story continues In contrast to many biotech company, then, Insmed has a reliable revenue generator and that can help with the progress of the pipeline. Drugs currently being developed include brensocatib, which is earmarked as a treatment for patients with bronchiectasis, with enrollment currently taking place for the Phase 3 ASPEN study. Enrollment should be completed in 1Q23, with a topline data readout anticipated in 2Q24. Brensocatib is also being tested in a Phase 2 pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic trial in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, including both those who are and are not currently taking background CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulator medications. This study is completely enrolled and there should be topline data released for both groups of patients by the end of 2022. The company is also enrolling for two Phase 2 studies of treprostinil palmitil inhalation powder (TPIP), while there is also a post-marketing confirmatory, frontline clinical trial program of Arikayce in progress (the ARISE and ENCORE trials). Data from the former trial should be put forth throughout 2023. Despite the sound pipeline, INSM shares are down 34% for the year. Yet, two insiders evidently think the time is right to pounce. This week, director Melvin Sharoky bought 30,000 shares now worth 527,700, while director Leo Lee purchased 45,000 shares worth $791,550. Stifel's analyst Stephen Willey is also impressed with INSM's execution, writing: "Operationally, we believe continued growth of the U.S. Arikayce business remains encouraging particularly in the context of continued COVID/Fx headwinds in Japan. Clinically, we believe YE22 results from the P2 trial evaluating brensocatib in CF and preliminary 1H23 PRO data from ARISE could prove interesting (NSP inhibition) and important (ENCORE visibility) events, respectively." Willey's confidence is conveyed with a Buy rating and $37 price target, suggesting shares have room for robust growth of 106% in the year ahead. (To watch Willey's track record, click here) Willey's bullish thesis gets the full backing of his colleagues. The stock gets a full house of Buys 8, in total - which all coalesce to a Strong Buy consensus rating. The average target is even more bullish than Willey will allow; at $44.50, the figure represents upside of ~148% from current levels. (See Insmed stock forecast on TipRanks) Taysha Gene Therapies (TSHA) For one biotech to another. Taysha Gene Therapies modus operandi is to develop and bring to market a variety of gene therapies to treat monogenic central nervous system (CNS) diseases both common and rare. At the forefront of its AAV (adeno-associated virus) gene therapy pipeline, is the most advanced clinical asset, TSHA-120, indicated to treat giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), a rare inherited genetic condition that impacts both the central and peripheral nervous systems. TSHA-120 has received orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations from the FDA and data from the phase 1/2 clinical trial showed that individuals with giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) who took the treatment reclaimed sensory nerve amplitudes (SNAPs) whilst also displaying clinical improvement. The company anticipates meeting with the FDA on December 13th for an end-of-Phase 2 Type B meeting in which the regulatory path forward for the drug will be discussed. The pipeline also boasts TSHA-102, the first-and-only gene therapy being developed to treat Rett syndrome, rare genetic condition that affects the development of the brain. TSHA-102 has obtained orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations from the FDA and data from the Phase 1/2 study is expected in 1H23. Drug development is a costly venture and biotechs need money to progress its pipeline. Here, the company had a positive development recently. In October, Taysha announced that Astellas is making a $50 million strategic investment in the company, which gives it a ~15% stake along with the option to secure exclusive licenses for TSHA-102 for Rett syndrome and TSHA-120 for giant axonal neuropathy (GAN). Its not the only investment made in recent times. This week, director Paul B Manning loaded up - by buying 1.5 million shares, for a total of $3 million. The purchase comes at a time of a massive pullback for the stock, which is now down 83% on a year-to-date basis. Looking at Astellas investment, and given its track record, Baird analyst Jack Allen thinks it signals some serious intent. While we note this deal may ultimately result in Taysha ceding control of its two lead programs, we are quite encouraged by the interest being expressed by Astellas and note that Astellas' clear interest in the gene therapy space could potentially lead to a takeout offer in the near/medium-term should TSHA-120 and TSHA-102 produce positive updates in 1H23, Allen opined. To this end, Allen rates the shares an Outperform (i.e., Buy) while his $21 price target makes room for a whooping 977% in the year ahead. (To watch Allens track record, click here) Think that is some outlandish forecast? Well, other analysts are hardly less enthusiastic. The Streets average target stands at $20.67, which could generate returns of 960% over the coming months. The ratings are no less effusive; with a unanimous set of 10 Buys, the stock receives a Strong Buy consensus rating. (See TSHA stock forecast on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. Every investor in Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:KSENG) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 36% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn). So, insiders of Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad have a lot at stake and every decision they make on the companys future is important to them from a financial point of view. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad, beginning with the chart below. See our latest analysis for Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. Less than 5% of Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the company is growing earnings, that may indicate that it is just beginning to catch the attention of these deep-pocketed investors. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad. Ho Yeow Koon & Sons Pte Ltd is currently the largest shareholder, with 16% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 14% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 11% by the third-largest shareholder. Two of the top three shareholders happen to be Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively. That is, insiders feature higher up in the heirarchy of the company's top shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO Cheng Chong Ho directly holds 6.9% of the total shares outstanding. Story continues To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making. Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held. Insider Ownership Of Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad. It has a market capitalization of just RM1.2b, and insiders have RM447m worth of shares in their own names. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling. General Public Ownership The general public-- including retail investors -- own 34% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders. Private Company Ownership It seems that Private Companies own 25%, of the Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company. Next Steps: It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Keck Seng (Malaysia) Berhad (including 1 which is concerning) . If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. 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. Join A Paid User Research Session Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here ABC News Republican officials in two counties in Arizona and Pennsylvania declined on Monday to certify their midterm election results, with some citing concerns about the integrity of the voting system that have become commonplace among conservatives. Republicans on the election boards of Cochise County in Arizona and Luzerne County in Pennsylvania voted against motions to certify the election results there. Firefighters worked to rescue drivers in Colorado after at least 80 vehicles crashed in a massive pileup along an icy overpass early Friday, Denver authorities said. The crash happened shortly before 6 a.m. and left about a dozen people injured, most with minor injuries, according to the Denver Fire Department. Of those transported to the hospital, one driver's condition was serious. No deaths were reported, said fire department captain J.D. Chism. "It's just the weather conditions, when people are driving too fast," Chism told USA TODAY. Crews were clearing dozens of cars from the blocked-off east Denver roadway mid-morning after the crash. NO REELECTION PLANS: The Great Resignation hits school boards. Only 38% of members want to run again POLICE REPORT LEAK: Former LAPD captain probed in tipoff to CBS chief Six drivers had to be removed using extrication tools used to pry open vehicles, Chism said. Overpasses generally freeze more quickly than other road surfaces, which may have contributed to the "chain-reaction" crash, said Denver Police spokesperson Doug Schepman. "We had a crash and then people continued to crash at that location," said Schepman, who described a crash of that magnitude as "not typical." "Certainly when we start to get into winter weather driving conditions, we encourage people to drive an appropriate speed," he said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 80-car pileup in Denver amid snow, icy roads Bag beauty deals with an array of advent calendars (Holland & Barrett/PA) As Christmas edges perilously closer, weve got a major decision to make: which Advent calendar should we choose this year? And while you cant go wrong with a classic chocolate calendar, beauty buffs out there know its also the perfect opportunity to try some new products. Over the years, beauty Advent calendars have become bigger and better, boasting top products and some seriously killer deals. However, with the cost-of-living crisis at the front of everyones minds this winter, you might not want to shell out hundreds of pounds even if it is promising a bargain. Luckily, there are still plenty of options under 80 if you still want a festive treat, without entirely blowing your budget 1. Nuxe Advent Calendar, 65, Escentual If winter has your skin feeling dry and lacklustre, the 24 treats in Nuxes Advent calendar will help restore your moisture and glow. It features miniatures from the brands popular Reve de Miel range skincare formulated with the nourishing properties of honey as well as other fan favourites, including gold-flecked oils and perfumes. 2. PrettyLittleThing Beauty Advent Calendar 2022, 45 Manchester-based brand PrettyLittleThing isnt just about fashion, its also got an eye on the world of beauty too. This Advent calendar is a brilliant introduction into the hair, make-up and skincare offerings you can get on the site. In total, the products are worth 141, ranging from well-known names, such as Olaplex and Mario Badescu, to PLTs own-brand make-up. 3. River Island 24 Day Beauty Advent Calendar, 50 (was 79) The best thing about this Advent calendar is the sheer range of beauty products youll get to unveil throughout December. Whether its press-on nails, fake tan or mascara, theres something here for everyone plus, youll bag yourself 290 worth of products for just 50. 4. Holland & Barrett 25 Days of Conscious Beauty Advent Calendar, 55 If youre a clean beauty fan wanting to get in on the Yuletide fun, look no further than Holland & Barretts Advent calendar, dedicated to conscious beauty. Story continues With over 180 worth of goodies inside, it features 14 full-size products all from clean beauty brands, including Q+A and Ethique. Needless to say, everything inside is suitable for vegans. 5. Soap & Glory 24 Days To Treat Yule-Self Advent Calendar, 45, Boots December can be a hectic time of year, but unwrapping a new treat from Soap & Glory could be the calm you need to power through. The 24 products are all about treating yourself from body butters to lip masks, worth more than 80 in total. It will give you the perfect excuse to carve out some me-time during party season. 6. Ciate Mini Mani Month, 65 If you switch up your nail colour as regularly as you change your clothes, this is the Advent calendar for you. By the end of the month, youll have 23 minis and one full-sized polish to experiment with, meaning you never have to have a boring manicure. The hardest part? Deciding which colour to paint on first 7. Sephora Collection Wishing You Premium Beauty Advent Calendar, 69.99 FeelUnique has been rebranded its now Sephora in the UK, and is coming in with not one, but two Advent calendars. If you really wanted to splash out, you could spend 139 on Sephoras main advent calendar, featuring 34 products worth over 700. However, if you wanted to treat yourself without going too far over your limit, the premium version is still a taste of luxury. You certainly get bang for your buck with this one, with 24 coveted beauty treats inside all of which are full size, ranging from mascara to a quartz roller. 8. Clarins Men 12 Day Advent Calendar, 57.20, Escentual While the majority of beauty Advent calendars are aimed towards women (although, it should be noted anyone and everyone can enjoy the products), there are a few specifically geared towards men. Take the Clarins calendar while it wont keep you going for the whole of December (there are only 12 products to unwrap) theres still plenty of fun to be had, with a full-sized face cream popping up against various cult products in miniature including a hydration mask and a hand treatment. 9. Benefit Sincerely Yours, Beauty Advent Calendar, 50.55 (was 59.50), Escentual Want to look your best for the Christmas party season? Benefits Advent calendar will help you get ready for any festive shindigs, with 12 of its bestselling products ready to be unwrapped. From mascaras to bronzers and brow pencils, it will be just the refresher your make-up bag needs. A woman accused of shoplifting by a security guard began shooting at him and he returned fire in a grocery store in Maryland, police say. Now both are dead. Officers were called around 10:25 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 to a shooting at a Giant Food grocery store in Oxon Hill where they found the security guard and woman wounded by gunfire, according to a statement shared by the Prince Georges County Police Department in Maryland. The security guard was dead when police arrived, and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she died, police say. An investigation revealed the security guard confronted the woman while she was stealing an unspecified item at the store, Police Maj. Zachary OLare said during a news conference. In response, the woman pulled a handgun from her backpack and began shooting at the man, OLare said. Then he shot back at her. No one else was injured in the shooting, according to OLare. Quite concerning that these brazen acts are occurring across the country and in our backyard, OLare told reporters. The identities of the security guard and woman were not specified at the conference. Police said more information on the shooting will be released in a statement. In July 2021, a Giant Food security guard shot and killed a man and woman at one of its Baltimore locations following a physical altercation, WBAL TV reported. Few details were released about the matter. Oxon Hill is about 60 miles southwest of Baltimore. Driver followed and shot repeatedly in deadly road-rage incident, Georgia cops say Man found shot dead in his yard, North Carolina deputies say. Now his cousin is charged Teen shot 16 times on his way to play basketball, DC prosecutors say. Man found guilty Chief of police arrested after burglarizing home, Georgia investigators say The AV Club Aubrey Plaza is perhaps our most idiosyncratic star, though she insists shes so much more normal than people think I am in a new GQ profile. Look at me, Im eating yogurt, she says, her approximation of average (despite later admitting shes not necessarily your average Jane). All of this would be a lot more believable if she hadnt already admitted to psychologically torturing her co-star Adam DiMarco on the set of the second season of The White Lotus. (Bloomberg) -- A Mexico City judge has issued arrest warrants for current and former executives at top global private equity firm Advent International Corp. who are accused of hiding debts from the buyers of Mexican funeral service provider Gayosso in 2021. Most Read from Bloomberg Six warrants were issued in early October following an investigation by Mexico City prosecutors, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg News. Defendants can seek injunctions to block such orders and fraud cases only require initial appearances before judges in Mexico. Separately, Advent faces a civil suit in federal court from the buyer of Gayosso that was filed earlier this year, according to court records. We believe these proceedings are entirely without merit and represent an egregious attempt to add further pressure to a baseless civil lawsuit, Advent said in an emailed statement, referring to the criminal probe. Advent intends to make that clear as we work expeditiously to dismiss this matter. The companys outside representative in Mexico issued a further statement Thursday saying neither Advent or its executives have been notified of the alleged warrants. Had such orders been issued, they would have been made without the knowledge of Advent executives and without any opportunity to refute the allegations, the spokesperson said. Mexico City prosecutors office said it doesnt comment on existing investigations. Advent acquired Gayosso in 2007 in a $317 million leveraged buyout. After longer than most private equity turnarounds, it sold the company in 2021 to Servicios Funerarios GG in a deal valued at 3.74 billion pesos ($190 million) that involved other parties. Advent received $50 million, according to court records. Story continues Servicios Funerarios GG alleged in a June criminal complaint that after the sale it discovered that accounting records were manipulated to reduce and hide debt and costs which werent disclosed to the buyer, according to the documents. A company representative declined to comment. A forensic accountant working for Mexico City prosecutors said in an Oct. 3 report that, at the time of the sale, Gayosso had about 2.6 billion pesos of unregistered debt and liabilities that, according to Gayossos own accounting polices, should have been recorded and yet were not disclosed to the buyers. The bulk of the unreported debt was from pre-sold funeral packages, along with other unreported debts and contractual obligations to maintain grave sites, according to the report. (Updates with Advent comment in fifth paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Affirmative Action was always about giving qualified people opportunities because of the inequality created by historical systemic racism and sexism. It was not about taking away from white people. A majority conservative Supreme Court could soon reverse affirmative action, making Black and other minority students vulnerable to discriminatory admission practices at predominately white colleges and universities. Protesters gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as affirmative action cases involving Harvard and University of North Carolina admissions are heard by the court in Washington on Monday, October 31, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) Students for Fair Admissions, with the help of activist Edward Blum, filed suits against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University, alleging UNC discriminated against both Asian American and white students and Harvard University discriminated against Asian Americans during the admissions process. The suit also claims Black and Latino students were given an unfair advantage while applying to both universities. This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in favor and against permitting private and public collegiate institutions to consider race during the admissions process. On Monday, the six conservative justices on the court made it clear that they are leaning toward prohibiting the practice. If the court decides to rule in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, it will overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, a landmark decision that permitted the use of race in the admissions process at the University of Michigans law school in 2003. Affirmative action was always about giving qualified people opportunities because of the inequality created by historical systemic racism and sexism, attorney Sue-Ann Robinson told theGrio. It was not about taking away from white people. Rakim Brooks, president of the advocacy group, Alliance for Justice, told theGrio that affirmative action is not discriminating against white Americans, Asian Americans, or any other race of people. Instead, he said, it was implemented to prevent discrimination and create a diverse learning environment. Diversity is one of the key ways that were able to reduce biases and produce better outcomes. So, we have to then make the point that affirmative action is good for all of us because diversity is good for all of us, said Brooks. Story continues In the past, the court, which leaned toward a politically equitable status, granted certiorari to similar cases and ruled to uphold affirmative action. However, during former President Donald J. Trumps term, he filled the two vacant liberal justice seats previously held by Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg with two conservative justices, Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Now that the court stands at a 6-3 conservative majority, it is less likely that affirmative action will be upheld this time around. U.S. Supreme Court associate justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh arrive in the House Chamber for U.S. President Joe Bidens State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol March 01, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Newly-appointed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who made history as the nations first Black female justice, recused herself from Harvards affirmative action case citing a conflict of interest. Jackson is an alumna of Harvard and served on the universitys board for six years. However, she weighed in on the UNC controversial case and expressed concern that reversing the Grutter ruling would have the potential of causing more of an equal protection problem than its actually solving. Jackson used an example where she compared two prospective students applying for enrollment at the same institution. The first student wrote an essay detailing their desire for admittance to the college due to family legacy and the other applicant discussed their family history of being a descendant of slaves and wanting to attend a university that once excluded the enrollment of Black Americans. The first applicant would be able to have his family background considered and valued by the institution as part of its consideration of whether or not to admit him, while the second one wouldnt be able to because his story is in many ways bound up with his race and with the race of his ancestors, she stated, adding that this would be an equal protection violation. Brooks said some conservatives who are anti-affirmative action tend to be hypocritical and have no issue supporting or even participating in legacy admissions. When we talk about something like legacy admissions, which are not under attack, those are fundamentally vestiges of white supremacy because only white people were admitted to any of these institutions, he said. He continued, So to say that there can be a preference for someone whose parent or grandparent, great grandparent attended a public university, for instance, when those universities would not admit Black students is a racial preference. But they dont see it as such, and I think they dont see it as such because its an attack on their privilege. Critics of affirmative action have argued that it is an act of reverse discrimination, however, Robinson told theGrio that those individuals are insecure about their own talents and qualifications not rising to the top on an equal playing field. She added, Theyve rewritten history and created a narrative around affirmative action thats always been false as opposed to using that same energy to work as hard as the underrepresented have always worked to be rewarded and recognized. Supporters pose for a group photo during a rally in support affirmative action policies outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on October 31, 2022. (Eric Lee for The Washington Post via Getty Images) If the high court does overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, Brooks said for Black Americans, the short-term results will be somewhat disastrous, and so the question is how do we intend to respond to that? Will there be greater enrollment in HBCUs? He added that if Students for Fair Admissions prevails, there will be a mass exodus of Black enrollment at predominantly white institutions, which will greatly impact white and Asian Americans students. During Wednesdays White House briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to the possible overturning of Grutter and said, So much is at stake for the American people when you think about our freedoms when you think about our rights. She continued, This is why the work that [President Joe Biden] has been doing and congressional Democrats have been so important because we are fighting for the freedom of Americans. We are fighting for the rights of Americans. Robinson said, Affirmative action supporters have to take a page from the oppositions book and fight on. Equality for all is the most important work of our time. The Supreme Court is slated to issue a decision on the pending affirmative action cases by the end of June 2023. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post Advocates debunk claims affirmative action discriminates against white, Asian students after Supreme Court hearing appeared first on TheGrio. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. (Bloomberg) -- The number of Albanians crossing the English Channel on small boats has spiked over the past two years, with Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick saying they now account for 80% of people the government regards as arriving illegally in the UK. Most Read from Bloomberg Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week described the trend as an invasion, triggering a firestorm of criticism both in the UK and abroad including from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who said the rhetoric risks fuels xenophobic attacks against his countrymen. Heres what to know. How many Albanians have arrived? A total of 2,165 people registered Albania as their country of origin when they landed on the south coast, according to UK Home Office data from January to June 2022. Thats up from 800 last year, and 50 the year before. Why are Albanians coming to UK? Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan OMahoney told the Home Affairs Select Committee last week that the exponential rise is likely in the main due to the fact that Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France. Why are there so many Albanian asylum seekers? At the Conservative Party conference last month, Braverman accused Albanians of arriving in the UK of abusing UK modern slavery laws. The truth is that many of them are not modern slaves and their claims of being trafficked are lies, she said. Rama has said in a tweet that the UK should fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating versus Albanians to excuse policy failures. Why are people leaving Albania? A study by the University of Bedfordshire and International Organisation for Migration says that trafficking in Albania is linked to low levels of education, forced marriage arrangements and limited options for safe and legal migration. Poverty and other economic factors was also cited as a major driver. Albanias unemployment in 2021 was at 11.8%, higher than Europes figure but lower than Greeces 14.8% and Spains 14.7%. Story continues Is Albania a safe country? Albania ranks 41 on the Global Peace Index of 163 countries analyzed by the Institute for Economics and Peace. The index measures peacefulness based on social safety, ongoing conflict, and degree of militarization. Thats safer than South Korea (43) and neighboring EU member Greece (53). The UK ranks 34. Is Albania part of the EU? No. Albania has been holding the status of candidate country to joining the EU since 2014, and the process is ongoing for it to meet the blocs conditions for membership. Following last months assessment of the countrys preparedness, the EU highlighted the need for Albania to keep improving the public administration, judicial system, fight against corruption and organized crime, among other things in its report. Once it becomes a member, its citizens could have access to free movement across the rest of the member states. Rama, in an interview with Newsnight on Wednesday, admitted that the country had its own problems, and not being in Europes free labor market leads its citizens to search for different ways to cross borders into other countries. Where is Albania on the map? Located in the Western Balkans on the Adriatic Sea, Albania borders Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece. A non-stop road journey from its capital, Tirana, to Calais in France would take around 28 hours, according to Google Maps. What is the population of Albania? Albanias population has been declining after peaking in the 1990s. World Banks 2021 data show the country is currently home to 2.8 million people, a smaller population than Wales. What is Albanias GDP per capita? Albanias gross domestic product is $51 billion based on purchasing power parity, according to IMFs World Economic Outlook for October 2022. Thats less than 10% of the GDP of Iraq, the fourth most common country of origin of the migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel. Albanias GDP per capita on PPP is $17,860, almost a third of the UKs. Where are other migrants coming from? After Albania, the greatest number of people crossing the Channel on small boats this year to June come from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria, Home Office data show. Thats in contrast to 2021, when people mostly came from Iran, Iraq and Eritrea with Albania ranking 8th on the list. --With assistance from Irina Anghel. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Amber Heards Twitter account appears to have been removed just days after her ex-boyfriend, Elon Musk, took ownership of the social media platform. The American actors handle, @realAmberHeard, was no longer an active account on the social media platform as of Thursday, Insider reported, but it was unclear when it had been deactivated, nor were there any public statements from the Hollywood star providing an explanation for its absence. As of September, Ms Heards account was active, according to the Internet Archives Wayback Machine. Ms Heard had last posted on the social media platform, alongside her still active Instagram account, back in June to share a statement about the outcome of the weeks-long defamation trial brought against her by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. The disappointment I feel today is beyond words, the Aquaman actress wrote in her statement, which was concurrently posted on her now-deactivated Twitter account and still active Instagram. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex husband. Over the course of the highly publicised and dramatic six-week trial, the Virginia jury awarded Depp $15m in damages and his ex-wife $2m in their defamation lawsuits. Depps claims of defamation were based on a 2018 op-ed published in the Washington Post, in which Ms Heard outlined claims of domestic abuse but did not ever directly mention or name her ex-husband. While the jury had also found Depp to be liable for a statement his attorney made, in which hed called Heards claims of domestic violence a hoax, the Pirates of the Caribbean star was ultimately awarded more money in the outcome. Heard and Musk were rumoured to have gotten together sometime in 2016, though the billionaire insisted publicly that they were just friends until both their divorces were official. Musk was in the midst of finalising his divorce from then-wife Talulah Riley. Story continues Musk and Heard dated for about a year, with the tech titan confirming during an interview with Rolling Stone at the start of 2018 that they were no longer seeing each other. I just broke up with my girlfriend. I was really in love and it hurt bad, Musk said to the magazine. While its unclear when Heards account was deactivated, or whether her ex-partners new ownership influenced its removal, Musk seemed to only have kind words to offer his former girlfriend at the end of last years contentious trial. I hope they both move on. At their best, they are each incredible, Musk said at the close of the six-week trial. A photo posted online by Angela Ramirez on November 3, 2022, shows a group of tourists, including Ramirez, being held on a boat in Peru's Amazon region by an Indigenous group protesting what they say is the government's failure to help after an oil spill. / Credit: Angela Ramirez/Facebook A group of Indigenous people in Peru's Amazon region has taken dozens of foreign and Peruvian tourists hostage as they made their way through the area on river tour boat. The Indigenous group says it took the action to protest the lack of government aid following an oil spill in the area, according to local media and members of the tour group. "(We want) to call the government's attention with this action, there are foreigners and Peruvians, there are about 70 people," Watson Trujillo Acosta, the leader of the Cuninico community, told the country's national RPP radio network. The tourists include citizens from the United States, Spain, France, the U.K. and Switzerland. Lon Haldeman, one of the Americans held captive, said in a statement shared with CBS News on Friday by his wife that the group had been held "for the past 26 hours." He said that the hostage-takers were demanding "medical help and clean water and food" after an oil spill in the area "contaminated the wells and river." "The villagers are peaceful toward us but they did take over the boat with spears and clubs," Haldeman said in the statement. "No one had guns. We were parked near an island last night and the villagers took the battery from the boat motor. The captain and drivers are being held in a village jail. The village wants to keep the big boat for ransom. We might get some small rescue boats. There is new action every hour." Angela Ramirez, a Peruvian national who said she was among the hostages, said in a Facebook post on Thursday afternoon that there were children, pregnant women and disabled people among those seized on the boat. Ramirez also said the Indigenous community was treating them with kindness and respect, adding that holding the tourists was "the only way they have found to look for solutions for their community" after oil spills that allegedly led to the deaths of two children and one woman. "The sooner they are heard, the sooner they will let us go," said Ramirez in the online post. "Help me help them be heard." Story continues Acosta said his group had taken the "radical measure" in an effort to put pressure on the government to send a delegation to assess the environmental damage from a September 16 incident that spilled 2,500 tons of crude oil into the Cuninico River. He said the detainees would spend the night inside the vessel while awaiting a resolution to the situation. Susan Notorangelo, Haldeman's wife, told CBS News her husband had been sending sporadic updates to let her know he was OK, but not responding to many questions, which she suspected was an effort to conserve battery power on his iPad. Notorangelo said she had been told the U.S. State Department was sending a boat with food and water, but didn't believe it had yet arrived at the remote location. Haldeman is a tour guide, but was not running the tour that was detained. Notorangelo said her husband and the other tourists were supposed to have ended their boat ride at noon on Thursday and then ridden bikes to the nearby town of Iquitos. She said her husband has an airline ticket to leave Peru on Tuesday, and hopes he and the other hostages will be released in time for him to make the flight. Ramirez told RPP that the Cuninico community had said it was prepared to hold the hostages for six to eight days, until it receives a response from the government. She said they were "physically fine," but in a new post on Friday morning she said the sun was strong, babies were crying and they were almost out of water. Local media indicated no public comment from the Peruvian government or police on the incident, which took place on a tributary of the Maranon River. Environmental activists protest outside the headquarters of the Peruvian Petroleum Company (Petroperu) in Lima, Peru, August 22, 2016. / Credit: Getty Indigenous communities had already been blocking the transit of all vessels on the river in protest against the spill, which was caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline. On September 27, the government declared a 90-day state of emergency in the impacted region, which is home to about 2,500 members of the Cuninico and Urarinas communities. The roughly 500-mile-long Norperuano pipeline, owned by the state-run Petroperu, was built four decades ago to transport crude oil from the Amazon region to the ports of Piura, on the coast. According to Petroperu, the spill was the result of an eight-inch cut made deliberately in the pipeline, which the company said had suffered over a dozen similar attacks in the past. CBS News' Maddie Richards and April Alexander contributed to this report. Study finds psychedelic mushrooms can be used to treat depression Twitter employees laid off a week after Elon Musk's takeover What does October's strong jobs report say about the U.S. economy? The majority of polled Americans said they are concerned by the threat of politically motivated violence, with nearly half of all poll takers pointing the blame on the media. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday showed that as many as 88% of Americans are concerned that "political divisions have gotten to the point" in the U.S. "that theres an increased risk of politically motivated violence," with 63% noting they are "very concerned" by the threat. TREY GOWDY: POLITICAL VIOLENCE HAS BECOME A 'RECURRING THEME' IN AMERICAN POLITICS The poll was largely split between party lines with 28% identifying as Democrats, 25% as Republicans and 38% as Independents. Another 8% identified as "other" or "no opinion." The poll was largely split when people were asked which party they blamed for the political turmoil, with 25% blaming Democrats, while 31% blamed the Republican Party. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP Another 32% blamed both sides "equally," while 11% said neither side was to blame. DEMS BLAME ATTACK ON GOP RHETORIC THAT TURNED PELOSI INTO A TARGET However, when it came to whether the media was to blame for partisan divides that have motivated political violence, 47% said they believe media coverage has "encouraged" such action. Some 15% said they thought the media "discouraged" violence, while 33% argued that U.S. media neither discouraged nor encouraged violence. Another question asked poll participants if they thought Trump was to blame for "encouraging" politically motivated violence. Nearly half of all participants answered in the affirmative. A video of former President Trump played on a screen during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Trump's 187 minutes of inaction as an armed mob attacked the US Capitol will be the focus of the second prime-time hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Nearly 20% argued Trump has "discouraged" violence, while another near 30% said he "neither" encourages nor discourages violence. The poll, which questioned just over 1,000 Americans by cellphone and landline, occurred the same week that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked by a home intruder who said he was looking for the California congresswoman. Vladimir Putin, then Russia's prime minister, with a replica Kalashnikov rifle in April 2012. ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/GettyImages Kalashnikov, the famed weapons maker behind the AK-47, has reported a spike in small-arms sales. The Russian company says there's been a boom in exports and sales to civilians overseas. The increase comes as Moscow calls up troops who will likely be armed with Kalashnikovs to fight in Ukraine. As many Russians suffer in the pursuit of Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine, one beneficiary seems to be emerging. Kalashnikov, maker of the legendary AK-47, is reporting a huge increase in small arms sales. Though the company is attributing the boom to increased overseas exports and sales to civilians, the fact that it is happening alongside the war in Ukraine seems more than coincidental. Russia has already suffered an estimated 65,000 dead and is drafting 200,000 or more men who are being sent to the front with little training. Many of those troops are already complaining about being issued old and rusty AK-47s dating to the Cold War. Many of the new rifles these reluctant conscripts will inevitably need will come from Kalashnikov, which manufactures most Russian small arms. A Ukrainian military instructor with Kalashnikov rifles and wooden replicas in Kyiv on February 6. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images "The Kalashnikov Concern increased the production of small arms by 40 percent," the company said. "A significant increase in the production of small arms in 2022 was achieved through export contracts for the supply of military products and an increase in the export of civilian weapons. Already in September, actual exports of civilian weapons were equal to the total figure for 2021." Kalashnikov says its production goals are at a 20-year high. "This year, we see an increase in demand on the market for civilian small arms compared to last year," said company president Alan Lushnikov. "That is why our production capacities are quite intensively loaded this year." Kalashnikov, which comprises a group of manufacturing firms, provides 95% of Russian small arms. The firm is partly owned by Russia's state-owned Rostec arms conglomerate. Lushnikov a former Russian deputy transport minister who acquired a 75% stake in the company in 2020 has previously said that 79% of revenue comes from military orders and the remainder from civilian purchases. Story continues Small arms, big sales A Kalashnikov AK-12 on display at an international military forum outside Moscow in June 2015. VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP via Getty Images In addition to the AK-12, a 5.45 mm weapon that is the Russian military's standard assault rifle, Kalashnikov makes sniper rifles, shotguns, anti-aircraft missiles, drones, laser-guided artillery shells, assault boats, and armored vehicles. The US government banned imports of Russian-made Kalashnikovs after Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. In August 2021, the US State Department banned importation of Russian-made ammunition after opposition politician Aleksey Navalny was poisoned by Russian security services. But the weapons are still available through Kalashnikov USA, a separate company that manufactures the weapons in America. "Originally an importer of Russian-made firearms, the company began manufacturing its own guns based on the Russian specifications after the US government banned their importation," says Kalashnikov USA's website. "Today, the company produces a wide variety of semi-auto AK pattern rifles, shotguns and pistols for the US civilian marketplace." Firearms sales have soared both in the US and globally in recent years, with most weapons owned by civilians rather than the military or law enforcement. Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47, with an AK-74 on the 55th anniversary of the release of the first Kalashnikov gun in November 2002. Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images US-based research firm Small Arms Analytics estimated that at least 12.7 million guns were sold in the US between January and September 2022 down from the same periods in 2021 and 2020 but well above the 9.7 million sold in 2019. The Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based nongovernmental organization, estimated in 2020 that "the global stockpile has increased over the past decade, largely due to civilian holdings, which grew from 650 million in 2006 to 857 million in 2017." Like the US, European nations have banned imports of Russian arms. Nonetheless, in addition to domestic sales in Russia, there are plenty of other nations some with AK-47s on their national flags that might still order Kalashnikovs because of price, familiarity, or nostalgia. Ironically, what's good for Kalashnikov may not be good for Russian soldiers. The deadliest weapons in Ukraine have been artillery, tanks, and missiles, and Russia is running out of them. Sending ill-trained conscripts onto a modern battlefield without the support of those heavy weapons will get many of them killed no matter how new their rifles are. Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Read the original article on Business Insider By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Economic sanctions, the primary means the United States has used for years to try to exert pressure on North Korea, have abjectly failed to halt its nuclear and missile programs or to bring the reclusive northeast Asian state back to the negotiating table. Instead, North Korea's ballistic missile program has become stronger and it has carried out a record-breaking testing regime of multiple types of weapons this year - including of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland. Expectations are that it may soon end a self-imposed five-year moratorium on nuclear bomb testing. Now, U.S. policy makers and their predecessors can do little more than pick through the wreckage and seek to determine what went wrong, and who might be to blame. "We've had a policy failure. It's a generational policy failure," said Joseph DeThomas, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on North Korea and Iran sanctions and served in the administrations of Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. "An entire generation of people worked on this. It's failed ... so alright, now we have to go to the next step, figure out what we do about it." Biden administration officials concede that sanctions have failed to stop North Korea's weapons programs - but they maintain they have at least been effective in slowing North Korea's nuclear program. "I would disagree with the idea that sanctions have failed. Sanctions have failed to stop their programs - that's absolutely true," a senior administration official told Reuters. "But I think that if the sanctions didn't exist, (North Korea) would be much, much further along, and much more of a threat to its neighbors to the region and to the world." In response to a request for comment, a State Department spokesperson said, in apparent reference to China and Russia: "The U.N. Security Council has passed multiple resolutions to establish a robust sanctions regime intended to impede these unlawful weapons programs. It is incumbent upon all member states to fully implement these resolutions, and we will continue to call upon them to do so." Story continues Former officials and experts say sanctions were never imposed and enforced robustly enough for long enough and blame faltering U.S. overtures to North Korea as well as pressures like Russia's war in Ukraine and U.S-China tensions over Taiwan for making them ineffective and easy for North Korea to circumvent. North Korea has long been forbidden to conduct nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches by the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006 to choke off funding for it nuclear and ballistic missile programs. They now include exports bans coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. However U.N. experts regularly report that North Korea is evading sanctions and continuing to develop its programs. Russia and China backed toughened sanctions after North Korea's last nuclear test in 2017, but it is not clear what U.N action - if any - they might agree to if Pyongyang conducts another nuclear test. CHINESE AND RUSSIAN INFLUENCE The senior Biden administration official told Reuters Washington believes China and Russia have leverage to persuade North Korea not to resume nuclear bomb testing. But the Biden administration has accused China and Russia of enabling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Anthony Ruggiero, who headed North Korea sanctions efforts under former President Donald Trump, said they were only pursued vigorously enough from the last year of the Obama administration to early in Trump's second year. They then dropped off in the ultimately vain hope of progress in summit negotiations between Trump and Kim. Some critics like sanctions expert Joshua Stanton fault both the Trump and Biden administrations for failing to exert maximum pressure to stop China allowing North Korea's sanctions evasion. They point to the powerful option of imposing sanctions on big Chinese banks that have facilitated this. "The sanctions we don't enforce don't work, and we haven't been enforcing them since mid-2018," Stanton said, noting that history had shown a correlation between stronger enforcement and North Korea willingness to engage diplomatically. "The Biden administration's most significant failure is its failure to prosecute or penalize the Chinese banks we know are laundering Kim Jong Un's money," he said. Some experts like DeThomas argue that taking what some call the "nuclear option" of going after Chinese banks could exclude huge Chinese institutions from the international financial system and have catastrophic consequences not just for the Chinese, but for the U.S. and global economies - something Stanton considers unfounded. "Going full bore against the Chinese over North Korea is always a possibility, but it's a high-risk option," said DeThomas, arguing that such a measure should be reserved for an even more pressing scenario, such as deterring any move by China to all-out support for Russia's war in Ukraine. "You want them to be thinking about that. And you can't fire that gun twice," he said. "And even if you sanctioned the Chinese banks, you wouldn't get the North Koreans to change." Some U.S. academic experts argue that Washington should recognize North Korea for what it is - a nuclear power that is never going to disarm - and use sanctions relief to incentivize better behavior. "I do think we can buy things other than disarmament with our economic leverage," Jeffrey Lewis, a non-proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told a conference in Ottawa on Wednesday. The senior Biden administration official said maintaining sanctions was not just punitive, but about the international community showing it is united. He rejected the idea that Washington should recognize North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. "There is an extraordinarily strong global consensus ... that the DPRK should not, and must not, be a nuclear nation," he said. "No country is calling for this ... the consequences of changing policy, I think would be profoundly negative." (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis) Friday, Oct. 28 - Nov. 4, 2022 This was a week in which families fled the fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese forces near Kibumb in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Beachgoers enjoyed unusually high temperatures in the southern French Mediterranean city of Marseille and the effects of climate change were seen at Lake Garda in Italy. Voters headed to the polls in Denmark, while migrant families in Cyprus fled the Pournara migrant reception camp after fighting broke out between rival groups inside the camp. Men were rescued from a shipwreck off the coast of Greece as other migrants faced severe overcrowding at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility in England. This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the week by The Associated Press from Europe and Africa. The selection was curated by Europe Africa photo editor Anne Marie Belgrave. Follow AP visual journalism: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com Uala, an Argentina-based fintech company, has enabled bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) trading for its customers in that country. At first, the new service will be available to a few thousand users, Andres Rodriguez Ledermann, vice president of Wealth Management at Uala, told CoinDesk, but it will be rolled out to all of the companys 4.5 million Argentine customers in coming weeks. The platform only allows for purchases and sales of the cryptos withdrawals are not available. The minimum transaction size is 250 pesos ($0.83). Rodriguez Ledermann did not rule out the company offering crypto trading in Mexico and Colombia, where it also operates, but added that there are regulatory matters that need to be studied. Uala is the first financial player to launch crypto trading in Argentina since the local central bank in May barred two banks from allowing its customers access to cryptocurrencies. In order to comply with current regulations in Argentina, said Rodriguez Ledermann, Uala created a special company to provide its crypto service Uanex, which is based in England and has the Latin American crypto company Bitso as its crypto liquidity provider. In August, Uala raised a $350 million Series D funding round co-led by SoftBank and Tencent affiliates. The investment gave the company a post-money valuation of $2.45 billion. Read more: Binance Joins Argentinas Crypto Prepaid Cards Boom Police have arrested the third suspect in a shooting on Pittsburghs North Side that killed three people. RELATED >> 2 charged in fatal North Side triple shooting Samuel Pegues, 30, is charged in connection with the Oct. 15 shooting on Cedar Avenue. He was taken into custody Thursday night. Pegues has been charged with homicide, aggravated assault, person not to possess a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license and criminal conspiracy. The other two suspects, Jaylone Hines, 21, and Charron Troutman, 19, were arrested Wednesday. They are being held in the Allegheny County Jail. According to court documents, Pegues shot and killed John Hornezes, who police said was also shooting that night. Six people were shot outside Hornezes funeral last week. Police have arrested two people in connection to that shooting. Pegues is not accused in the deaths of Betty Averett and Jacquelyn Mehalic, innocent bystanders who were killed Oct. 15. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: UPMC doctor charged with DUI, killing another doctor in July crash Some Shadyside residents having tires deflated, messages left behind Monroeville volunteer firefighter dies after complications from surgery VIDEO: The Case of the Headless Woman: Target 11 examines one of the regions most baffling unsolved cases DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts VIKTORIIA ANDRIEIEVA FRIDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2022 13:09 Ukrainian artillery units fire special agitation shells in the direction of the occupiers in Kharkiv Oblast. There are instructions inside those shells on how to surrender to Ukrainians, as the National Guard of Ukraine reported. The Ukrainian military has pointed out that the leaflets are addressed to the Russians and the conscripted occupiers from "DPR" and "LPR" [self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic - ed.]. Special shells from D-30 howitzers were used for information distribution. Each shell contains 1,500 leaflets. They are being fired in various directions to ensure that as many invaders as possible receive them. "We can inform our enemy that he can surrender on our land. Soldiers will be treated normally, in accordance with humanitarian law. We are calling on the Russians to evade conscription and surrender to Ukrainians, because it is better than dying from the devastating fire of our artillery," said the commander of the Howitzer Artillery Battalion. The Ukrainian military says that such an "information attack" is one of the most efficient ways to inform the Russians because the majority of them do not have any communication or Internet connection. This is a real chance for them to save their lives. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! A minute-and-a-half-long appearance on a 2013 episode of The Office can leave a lasting impression on viewers, as Randall Park would come to find out. For years, the ghost of Asian Jim who was briefly introduced in one of the shows iconic prank scenes as an Asian version of John Krasinskis character would follow Park around, even when the actor previously admitted at one point to forgetting hed taken on the role. For this latest workplace comedy series, however, Parks appearance is no joke. The actor emerges in Netflixs newly released sitcom Blockbuster as Timmy Yoon, a store manager for the once-popular video rental company based on the real-life Blockbuster brand. When he receives the notice that his store is the last Blockbuster standing, Timmy leads his team to find a way to keep the place running all while figuring out his feelings for his long-time crush Eliza (Melissa Fumero). More from NextShark: 'Bridgerton' star Simone Ashley studied snail mating to prepare for lovemaking scenes Park spoke with NextShark ahead of the shows release, diving into the sense of nostalgia the show evokes for Blockbusters reigning era in the 90s to 2000s. Like many at the time, Park was a regular at his own neighborhood Blockbuster store: The one on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles, right next to the In-n-Out, he recalls. "I would go there all the time and spend hours and hours trying to decide on a movie to watch for that weekend. I would have the hardest time and I would usually end up watching the same movie a billion times whether it be a rom-com or some movie that I just love. Even walking onto the set of our show, it just brought back a flood of memories. Its just so accurate to the actual design, down to the very last detail. It really did bring back a lot of memories. More from NextShark: Bling is back!: Netflix unveils new trailer for season 2 of Bling Empire Some of his favorite rentals, he says, were When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle I just love rom-coms, as Netflix fanatics might have already guessed from his role alongside Ali Wong in 2019s Always Be My Maybe. Story continues It was also during the early 2000s that Park began his career. He has since accumulated over 160 acting credits, including the notable role as the father figure in ABCs family sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. More from NextShark: 'Raya and the Last Dragon' director takes over live-action Your Name adaptation Last year, at the height of the pandemic, Gen Zers discovered Parks prolific filmography after he appeared in the popular Marvel series Wanda Vision as FBI agent Jimmy Woo. The supporting role had already gone viral on social media after fans discovered one of Marvels many easter eggs tied to the character, but what garnered even more attention was the familiar face behind it. A trend emerged in which TikTok users shared their favorite scenes from various films and shows featuring small, unexpected appearances by the actor. Thousands have left comments in awe of the actors omnipresence over the film industry. Even more have played along with the original prank from The Office, insisting in each video: Thats Asian Jim. More from NextShark: Thor: Love and Thunder was banned from Malaysian theaters due to LGBTQ content, reveals official Looking back, Park says hes touched by the sentiment: When that TikTok trend happened, my friends were sending me those links and I was like, Oh my god, I forgot that I did that. It was cool, very heartwarming to see that folks were, in their way, paying tribute to this journey that Ive been on. I always saw myself and I still see myself just as a working actor, you know. And for me, its always been about work and having fun and just kind of taking on any opportunity that I think will bring me joy. Im at this place now where Im kind of looking back and its like, Oh my god, Ive really done that much? Blockbuster is somewhat self-reverential in nature, considering Netflixs pioneering of streaming services effectively squashed the video store company out of business years ago. Likewise, Parks character seems to mirror his real-life persona when Timmy notes that his 5-year-old self would be in disbelief to hear that the biggest shows and bands in the world are going to be Korean. The Korean American actor agrees that he, too, would have flipped out. I wouldnt have believed it, he says. Even when I first started acting, I was very much resigned to never leading a show or starring in a movie. I was very much like, Oh Im going to at best, play a side character on a show. That was the dream just to be a regular on the show as a side character. And that was enough for me because thats just the industry. And if I get lucky enough to do more than that, that would be beyond my wildest dreams. I dont think about it too much, but it is a total trip that Im doing these things and Im extremely, extremely thankful. My hope is that every opportunity creates opportunities for others. And I think times are changing. Asian Jim or Blockbuster Tim, I offer up to him, wrapping up the trip down memory lane. Laughing, Park says, Im so grateful for just the fact that I got to be on The Office and the fact that that one scene blew up. But I would say Im all about Timmy and Blockbuster. This was definitely a real fun role to play and probably the closest role to my actual self that Ive gotten to play in a really long time. Season 1 of "Blockbuster" is now available to stream on Netflix. Featured Image via Netflix (Bloomberg) -- Europes top ESG fund class may be close to reaching a tipping point. Most Read from Bloomberg Known as Article 9, the designation may be stripped from hundreds of funds in the coming months, industry estimates show. There are now signs that investment clients are starting to retreat, as fresh data points to a marked slowdown in flows. And on Thursday, a report indicated that some Article 9 funds hold assets that may violate UN and OECD standards on everything from bribery to environmental damage. Many fund managers are trying their best and have spent millions on legal fees to ensure they take the right approach, but outcomes wont be coherent across the industry and that creates systemic risks, said Hugo Gallagher, senior policy adviser at the European Sustainable Investment Forum, whose members represent about $20 trillion in assets under management. Its a development that exposes gaps in an ESG regulatory framework once hailed as the worlds most ambitious. Since the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation was enforced in March 2021, the EU has had to provide several clarifications. These include telling the industry that all Article 9 funds must be entirely sustainable, with some allowances for hedging and liquidity. A study by Clarity AI found that close to 20% of the 750 Article 9 funds it analyzed have more than 10% exposure to companies that have violations of United Nations Global Compact principles or the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises. Its research also shows that 40% of the funds studied have more than a 5% exposure to such violations. The classification of funds according to the SFDR guidelines is increasingly used by fund providers as a shorthand for communicating that a product is sustainable, Clarity AI said in the report, which was compiled by a team led by Patricia Pina, the firms head of product research and innovation. Story continues However, our analysis shows that some of the Article 9 funds currently in the market might be falling short of complying with the do-no-significant-harm criteria as defined by the regulation, the authors wrote. Alexander Stafford, chairman of the UK parliamentary group on ESG, said the Clarity AI report highlights flaws in the EU's ESG instruments and regulatory framework,'' and added that the UK government now has its work cut out to avoid falling into similar traps as it designs its own ESG investing rules. The report followed a study last week by Morningstar which found that less than 5% of funds meet the EUs requirements of holding only sustainable assets. Morningstar also noted that some asset managers are taking a surprisingly lax approach toward Article 9, with 43% of funds analyzed targeting a sustainable-asset threshold of less than 50%. Now, asset managers wishing to avoid greenwashing accusations seem to be downgrading, said Lara Cuvelier, a campaigner at environmental nonprofit Reclaim Finance. National regulators will have to take up the issue and define red lines for what should not be in a sustainable fund. Minimum standards are needed. Article 9 funds attracted considerable client inflows in the first nine months of this year, while a less stringent SFDR category known as Article 8 lost money. In the third quarter, Article 9 products drew almost $13 billion, compared with close to $30 billion of outflows from Article 8, Morningstar estimates. Investments in Article 9 funds slowed last month with clients allocating just $1 billion to the top SFDR category, according to an analysis by Bloomberg, For now, Article 9 is still attracting money, said Hortense Bioy, Morningstars global director of sustainability research. But some managers are reporting lower client appetite because of both reclassification and greenwashing concerns. At the same time, the EUs ESG rulebook has been criticized for feeding confusion. The requirement that Article 9 funds be filled exclusively with sustainable assets, which was only clarified long after SFDR was enforced, means many firms with between 80% and 90% sustainable assets may also find themselves on the wrong side of regulations. That raises questions about the feasibility of the new regulatory guidance, Morningstar said. Due to the uncertainty that now exists around SFDR, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s NN Investment Partners said earlier this year it would downgrade some of its Article 9 funds, with 10 of those set to be reclassified this quarter following regulatory approval. Axa Investment Management plans to cut 24 Article 9 funds, after downgrading 21 funds in recent months. Robeco Institutional Asset Management BV has said it will take similar steps. Pacific Investment Management Co., Van Lanschot Kempen NV and Neuberger Berman Group LLC are among firms to have already stripped the Article 9 tag from several funds. We expect to see more reclassifications in the market, said Malene Christensen, a sustainable investment specialist at Robeco. Meanwhile, asset managers are waiting for the EU Commission to explain what it means by a sustainable investment, among other basic ESG concepts. The EU Commission said last month it has received such queries and will reply in due time. The confusion surrounding SFDR fund designations has led EU regulators to publicly criticize the blocs ESG investing framework. Verena Ross, the chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority, last month referred to the existing rule-set as a real challenge, and noted that its extremely difficult for market participants to navigate. The UKs Financial Conduct Authority has explicitly said its ESG investing framework will avoid making the same mistakes around fund categories. Some lawyers are advising asset managers not to take any steps until the EU has addressed the holes in SFDR. Anna Maleva-Otto, a partner at Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP who represents mostly UK and US-based alternative investment managers, said such a reclassification is likely to be a material issue from an investor relations standpoint, so such a decision would need to be made very carefully. --With assistance from Leonid Bershidsky. (Adds comment from UK lawmaker) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Asylum seekers have described how they were taken from a processing centre in Kent and left in central London without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire) Asylum seekers have described how they were taken from a processing centre in Kent and left in central London without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money. A young man from Afghanistan told The Guardian he was among a group of 11 people dropped on the street outside Victoria Station on Tuesday evening. He told the paper he asked a bus driver, who had picked the group up from the overcrowded Manston immigration holding centre then dropped them off in the capital, where they should go. They asked me if I had any friends or family and I replied I had no one in England Asylum seeker I thought there was going to be a hotel for us. He said: Go anywhere you want to go, its not my responsibility, said the man, who wished to remain anonymous. I told the driver I dont have any address or any relatives. He said: I cant do anything for you. The man said he had told Home Office staff during an earlier interview that he had no relatives or acquaintances in the country. They asked me if I had any friends or family and I replied I had no one in England, he said. A second asylum seeker, also from Afghanistan and speaking on condition of anonymity, told the paper he was among a group of 15 people taken from Manston on a bus and dropped in central London on Saturday evening. I was shocked to be left without help. I was cold. I was hungry and I was wondering how to sort it out, he said, adding that the group had planned to spend the night in Victoria coach station. The 20-year-old ex-police officer, who worked with international forces in his home country before fleeing when his parents were killed by the Taliban in 2021, was later able to get a bystander to help him contact a friend whose floor he was able to sleep on. A Home Office spokesperson said: The Home Secretary has taken urgent decisions to alleviate issues at Manston using all the legal powers available and sourcing alternative accommodation. The welfare of those in our care is of the utmost importance and asylum seekers are only released from Manston when they have assured us that they have accommodation to go to to suggest otherwise is wrong and misleading. Story continues The Home Secretary toured immigration centres on Thursday while battling to grip the migrant crisis amid threats of legal action, sexual assault allegations at a hotel housing asylum seekers and international criticism of her use of language. Suella Braverman, who was reinstated to her ministerial post just over a week ago, met Border Force teams in Dover to discuss Channel crossings operations before visiting the scandal-hit Manston processing centre to hear updates from staff. She has come under mounting political pressure over the illegal conditions at the site near Ramsgate, where at one point as many as 4,000 people were being detained for weeks in a site intended to hold 1,600 for a matter of days. Downing Street said the number has since reduced to 2,700, after more than 1,000 were moved in the last few days, and that the Prime Minister was receiving twice daily updates on the situation. The Home Secretary shied away from the media as she visited Dovers Western Jet Foil site the scene of a petrol bomb attack on Sunday amid concerns of rising far-right activity fuelled by the failure to control the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. STATEMENT | MCB condemns Dover terror attack The Muslim Council of Britain is shocked but not surprised by revelations that the Dover attacker was motivated by his hatred of Muslims. pic.twitter.com/yQyAY6bEbF MCB (@MuslimCouncil) November 3, 2022 The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said it was shocked but not surprised by revelations the petrol bomber was motivated by hatred of Muslims. Far-right extremism in the UK presents a clear and present danger to our country, MCB said in a statement. It prospers thanks to a prevailing narrative that normalises hostility to certain minorities, particularly Muslims, asylum seekers and refugees and allows disinformation to fester. In the last few days, divisive ideologues, right-wing media commentators and certain politicians have called us to focus less on the far-right threat. They must be held to account, while more needs to be done to combat the rise of far-right extremism, which is currently growing at an exponential rate. The group noted Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes said earlier this year that 41% of counter-terrorism arrests in 2021 were of far-right suspects. MCB said: Successive home secretaries have also failed to grasp the extent of the extreme far-right problem. Our Government must rectify its own policy agenda on migrants which has only further marginalised migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Police searched two towns in Western Massachusetts for a man accused of a violent crime in Connecticut Thursday night. Massachusetts State Police say they deployed numerous personnel and units in the towns of Blandford and Russell just before 8:00 a.m. Friday morning to search for Darnell Barnes, 22, of Hartford, Connecticut. Barnes is a black male, 55 tall with a slender build who previously lived in Bristol, Connecticut and is considered to be armed and dangerous, according to authorities. He is accused of shooting a victim multiple times in West Hartford, Connecticut, and law enforcement officials from the Constitution State believe Barnes could be in the Blandford or Russell area. Authorities are urging residents in both towns to keep their doors locked and to be aware of their surroundings. State Police say they found the black Nissan Pathfinder with New Mexico plates that Barnes was driving on the westbound side of the Pike in Blandford, near mile marker 31.6. Officers approached the car and saw that no one was in it. No guns were found in the vehicle either, so police canvassed the wooded area around that area of the Pike. The search yielded no results and crews have cleared the area. Officials say they will continue to work with West Hartford Police on the investigation to find the suspect. Anyone with information about Barness whereabouts is asked to call police. UPDATE #2--Search did not locate BARNES. Tactical units have cleared the area. We are working w/ @WestHartfordPD on the follow-up investigation. Residents should practice basic caution and maintain awareness for anyone/anything suspicious as they go about their normal activities https://t.co/9dTq3Z86Jp Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) November 4, 2022 Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. President Joe Biden gave a forceful defense of his economic record Thursday at a rally in the final days before the midterm elections, warning that Republicans are backing policies that would gut the social safety net families need for retirement and health care. Speaking at a campaign event for Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Biden struck a populist chord, blaming big oil companies for high gas prices and the pharmaceutical industry for making prescription drugs tough to afford. He also singled out Republican lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia for benefiting from pandemic relief loans aimed at businesses as they criticized his plan to forgive student loan debt. Take a look at whos complaining, Biden said. This I find fascinating. The people who are complaining the MAGA Republicans who sit in Congress had hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief forgiven. Who the hell do they think they are? he said, in perhaps the biggest applause line of his 30-minute address. Bidens appearance was part of a Western swing that took him to the West Coast later in the day for a get-out-the vote event with Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif. His remarks suggested that as Election Day approaches he is returning to bread-and-butter issues that voters tend to prioritize. He gave a speech Wednesday that focused on the fragile state of American democracy and the threats posed by far-right groups that wont accept the results of free elections. But in his address at a community center here, he spent only a few minutes on a theme some Democratic strategists worry is too abstract to sway voters. As an issue, the preservation of democracy pales in comparison to high prices and the economy. An NBC News survey last month found that given a chance to send a message with their vote, only 3% of respondents cited election integrity and voter rights as the ones theyd select. By contrast, 14% mentioned fixing the economy and reducing the cost of living. Story continues If our closing message is that democracy is on the ballot, it is really hard to tell that to voters who are paying more for groceries, gas and food, said Chris Kofinis, a longtime Democratic strategist. In fiery tones Thursday, Biden touted economic gains since he succeeded former President Donald Trump or, as he called him, my predecessor. When I took office, this economy was in ruins. Today, were in a much better place, although people are still hurting, he said, adding that 10 million jobs have been created since he became president in January 2021. Its been a rough four or five years for hard-working Americans, he added. A lot of families, things are still pretty darn tough. But he pointed to bright spots where America is reasserting itself. US President Joe Biden speaks at a rally hosted by the Democratic Party of New Mexico at Ted M. Gallegos Community Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on November 3, 2022. (Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images) At 3.5%, unemployment is at its lowest rate in decades, he said. Gas prices, which topped $5 a gallon over the summer, have been dropping steadily and now average less than $3.80 a gallon, although theyre still higher than when Trump left office. And people burdened by student loan debt will get more breathing room, he said, under his plan to wipe out $10,000 in federally backed loans for many borrowers. He asked the crowd how many were carrying student debt. When hands shot up, he said, Say goodbye! A federal appeals court last month temporarily blocked implementation of Bidens student debt relief program. Biden has said hes confident his administration will win the case. On the brink of an election that will decide control of Congress, Biden on Thursday dispensed with the unifying message that underpinned his inaugural address. He depicted Republican lawmakers and large, wealthy corporations as venal forces making life tougher for most Americans. Gas prices would drop further if only the major oil companies would make investments instead of using profits to buy back stock and enrich shareholders, he argued. These outrageous profits are the windfalls of war, Biden said. The industry has a choice: either invest in America or pay higher taxes for your excess profits and face restrictions. He skewered Republican policy proposals that he said would jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, mentioning a plan released this year by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that would require Congress to renew all federal legislation every five years. If it is enacted, you put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every five years Biden said. (Scott has said he does not want to end either entitlement program but instead wanted to draw attention to looming shortfalls that jeopardize their solvency.) Biden got a warm reception here a line of supporters wrapped around the building. Unable to squeeze inside, more than 100 people waited outdoors and were greeted by Biden before he gave his speech. Marni Elci, 75, said Biden is doing the best he can, adding: Hes not a charismatic soul like Barack Obama. Hes trying to get the economy in shape. Then she offered a caveat about Biden, 79: I think at his age he will be too old to run. I dont think people will vote for someone his age. I wish the Democrats would find someone with tremendous charisma and power and care for working people normal people aside from the wealthy. Thats what we need in this country. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Elon Musk sent Twitter staff a memo on Thursday confirming job cuts would be announced on Friday. Carina Johansen/Getty Images Tesla stock could soar 570% over the next decade to a $4.5 trillion valuation, according to billionaire investor Ron Baron. "But that's not including robots, that's not including autonomous vehicles, that's not including batteries," Baron said. Baron has been an investor in Tesla since 2014 and has a combined stake of about $4 billion. Billionaire investor Ron Baron of Baron Capital is still bullish on Tesla despite its year-to-date decline of nearly 40%. Baron told CNBC on Friday he expects Tesla to deliver outsized gains that ultimately propel the company to a valuation of about $4.5 trillion. Tesla, which is currently worth $670 billion, would have to surge 570% from current levels to reach Baron's valuation target. Baron has long been bullish on Tesla, having first acquired a stake in the company in 2014. Between Baron's personal holdings and his clients holdings at Baron Capital, the billionaire has a combined Tesla stake worth about $4 billion. Baron isn't done betting on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, even as he dives headfirst into his new Twitter venture. "We have made a lot of money with him," Baron said, adding that Tesla makes up 40% of his Baron's Partners fund because his cost is so low at about $13 per share. "I think in 2025 it [Tesla stock] will be $500 to $600. And in eight to ten years we ought to be somewhere around $4.5 trillion," Baron said. Baron agrees with Musk's recent comments that Tesla could grow to be bigger than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined, which implies a valuation of more than $4 trillion. The math behind Baron's bullish valuation target is solely predicated on Tesla significantly scaling its business over the next decade, selling about 20 million cars per year. Tesla is on track to sell just over 1 million vehicles in 2022. "In 2030, if he does 20 million cars per year, and they're $50,000 a car, that's $1 trillion in revenues, and he gets operating profits at somewhere around 30%," Baron explained, adding that a 15x multiple on those $300 billion in operating profits get you to $4.5 trillion. Story continues But Baron emphasizes that the bull case outlined solely by the revenue contribution of Tesla vehicles doesn't include the other areas the company is working on, providing somewhat of a margin of safety on his investment. "But that's not including robots, that's not including autonomous vehicles, that's not including batteries. He [Musk] thinks robots are going to be bigger than cars. So there's so many things happening at Tesla" it's hard to keep up, Baron said. Read the original article on Business Insider So it is time to celebrate your new year and youre considering a birthday destination to treat yourself. We have more than enough suggestions for the big day! If there is anything better than traveling, it can only be traveling during a birthday. There is a key to choosing the best destination and honestly, it requires a careful look at your personality. Whether you want to party your way into your birthday, spend the day floating carefree in the ocean, or disappear into complete zen, the world is full of options. Birthdays are special and deserve to be treated as such. Here are a few birthday destination options to help you along. All you need to do is get your passport and book the flight. Related: One Of The Most Exclusive Tourist Destinations Is Opening Its Doors, But Only To A Select Few For the strictly chilled traveler Ridofranz | Getty Images Youre ready to enter your new cycle with all the peace, zen, and ease that your year deserves. There is something precious about a birthday. You dont want anything complicated; just sunshine, good vibes, and melted coconut oil. With the constant sound of ocean waves and tweeting birds in the background, Senegals Goree Island is your top destination. This small island vibe is the go-to destination for locals and travelers alike in search of a blissful getaway. There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than to escape to the slow, tropical vibes that characterize Goree. Birthday prep reading: How To Spend A Perfect Sunday on Goree Island, Senegal For the traveler who wants to live large A post shared by LEBENE-(Media Ghel) (@lebenemawutor) > f you want to spend your birthday living large and showing off, Ghana is the perfect destination to do such a thing. We recommend Accra as a destination for both henjoyment and connecting with the Diasporaso your birthday squad multiplies in the most fabulous way. With more and more luxury travel options becoming available, it is certainly the place to pop bottles in honor of yourself. Story continues Birthday prep reading: Ghana: The Definitive Travel Guide For 2022 For the traveler who wants their own vibe Lorenzo Antonucci Hold your own vibe and live in your own movie? Absolutely. Florence has become a popular destination for many in recent months, but it is especially attractive for solo travelers looking to do nothing but wander around and be inspired. This year, celebrate your birthday by letting a beautiful city woo you. The sites to see in Florence are truly impeccable, the food is unmatched, and, to be clear, the wine is top-tier. What is a birthday without the added prestige of the finest cuisine for the finest gal or guy? In Florence, you celebrate life by indulging in it. Birthday prep reading: The Black Expat: My Life In Florence As A Black Artist From The Bahamas For the traveler who wants the squad on pure party vibes wundervisuals | Getty Images A birthday group trip, though manic in the planning stages, is absolutely worth it once you arrive and see how the vision exceeded itself. The joy, the memories, the polaroids, the ceaseless dancing, the sleepless nights, and all the rest that cant be put into words. It is always a good time when in loving company. For this birthday, youre choosing one of Africas most precious locations for a birthday worth remembering. Zanzibar awaits! Tanzanian hospitality paired with world-class beaches and vibrant nightlife complete with music you cant resist is the equation of all equations. Birthday prep reading: 5 Things To Do On The African Island Of Zanzibar For the family-orientated traveler A post shared by Trimble Family Bucket List (@trimblefamilybucketlist) > What better way to celebrate your birthday than in the Caribbean surrounded by your loved ones? A good rum punch, belly laughter, and your familys familiar warmth is all you need this year. Jamaica offers something for everyonewhether adventurous, beach-loving, waterfall-chasing, off-grid camping, or Black history buff. Everyone is happy, which means more time to clink glasses in honor of another trip around the sun. The carefree life in the beautiful land of Jamaica is so hard to leave that this might even become a family tradition. Birthday prep reading: Why You Should Add Trelawny Parish To Your Jamaican Itinerary For the wild and spontaneous traveler A post shared by Bri Ari Traveling Poet (@briaripoetry) > Well, the ambassador of joy and good chaos is turning another year older. This calls for a city that knows no limits. There is very little that Mexico City doesnt offer; this city is the peak of surprises. To celebrate in the most outrageous way possible, head to Mexico City and let the vibrant, random, and absolutely adorable capital of an endlessly interesting city guide you down mezcal-laden rabbit holes. Birthday prep reading: The Black Nomad: In Search Of Good Food And Black People Around The World For the first-timer A post shared by Candace | London Blogger (@candaceabroad) > Since it is your first time celebrating your birthday abroad (welcome to the good side) it is only fair that you ease yourself in, but with all of the style necessary. Were thinking, keep it local(ish). Keep it familiar but truly open-hearted to all things surprising. Celebrating abroad is the ideal way to invite newness and switch it up from routines. It might become addictive or it might be the one-off dream you always needed. Grab a bestie and head to the next state, booking things that youve always wanted to do. If youre in Europe, hop on a train to the neighboring country or even cityAmsterdam and London are great places for quick weekend getaways that make birthdays iconic. Alternatively, traveling to another country with a similar culture or language counts! Birthday prep reading: 15 Things To Keep In Mind Before Visiting London, England JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, the official WAFA news agency reported, in a first call after Israel's veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu led a far-right alliance to a general election victory. Abbas reiterated his demand that the United States pressure Israel to stop its "crimes against the Palestinian people", the WAFA report said, "including blockades, extrajudicial killings, home demolitions, and settlement construction". According to the news report, Blinken told Abbas the U.S. administration was making efforts to calm the situation. On Thursday, Blinken expressed his concern over spiralling violence in the occupied West Bank in a call with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and "underscored the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation.", a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement. More than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces this year, in what the United Nations said is set to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, when the organisation began tracking fatalities. A string of fatal street attacks by Palestinians has killed 20 people in Israel and Israeli settlements, and four members of Israel's security forces have also been killed this year. Blinken also commended Israel for its free and fair elections and "reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship", the spokesperson's statement said. Israel's fifth election in less than four years confirmed a comeback for Netanyahu, now buoyed by smaller ultranationalist and religious parties. His victorious bloc includes lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler and former member of Kach, a Jewish militant group on Israeli and U.S. terrorist watchlists. While Washington has publicly reserved judgment pending the new Israeli coalition's formation, the State Department spokesperson on Wednesday emphasised the countries' "shared values". (Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Henriette Chacar; Editing by David Gregorio) The Air Force is preparing to keep the current two Air Force One jets flying as late as 2028. Shutterstock Boeing's new Air Force One build is so behind schedule that taxpayers face a $340 million hit. The Air Force said the existing 747 jets may have to keep flying until 2028, per the WSJ. The project is three years behind schedule and delays have cost Boeing nearly $2 billion. Boeing is so behind on building two new Air Force One jets that taxpayers face a $340 million bill to keep the existing planes flying far longer than expected, The Wall Street Journal reported. Boeing struck a $3.9 billion deal in 2018 with the Trump administration to replace the aging 747-200Bs. The first of two new jets was set to start flying by late 2024. However, the project is as much as three years behind schedule due to a series of supply chain shortages, labor problems, and some quality control issues. In July, the Air Force said that it didn't expect the first plane which uses the call sign Air Force One when the President is aboard to be ready until September 2027, per CNN. The first of the two existing 747s, which have the designation VC-25, entered service in September 1990, per the Air Force's website, and the second in March 1991. The Air Force said the delays could keep them flying as late as the 2028 presidential election, per the Journal. In April, military publication The War Zone reported that it cost an average of $177,843 an hour to operate the planes. The figures were provided by the Air Force following its freedom of information request, and include the cost of fuel, flight consumables, and aircraft and engine maintenance. The existing planes cost $70 million more to operate each year than their replacements, according to the Journal. Potential maintenance being considered by the Air Force could cost a further $100 million apiece, it reported. Boeing declined to comment and the US Air Force did not immediately responded to Insider's request for comment. The news comes after Boeing revealed last week that it lost $766 million in the third quarter, taking its total losses on the project to $1.9 billion. Story continues While in the White House, President Trump played a close role in the negotiation of the deal to produce the new planes. Under the deal, Boeing is liable for the cost of any overruns. It is required to refit two Boeing 747-8i planes, rather than build them from scratch. Such has been the cost of the overruns, that in an April 2022 earnings call Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun conceded that the "unique negotiation" had exposed the company to "a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn't have taken". Nevertheless, he said Boeing was committed to delivering the planes. Read the original article on Business Insider Boston police are asking the public for help identifying the female and motor vehicle that are connected with an aggravated assault on Halloween night in Roxbury. Around 9:15 p.m., in the area of 145 Moreland Street, police say, an adult male suspect confronted another male and pulled out a pellet or BB gun which the suspect then fired several times toward the victim. The suspect then fled the scene in a white SUV with the female that police are trying to locate. The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male with a small beard. He stands 6 ft. tall, and was seen wearing a black shirt, jeans and possibly an exterior-worn ballistic vest. Anyone with information on this individual or the incident is urged to contact detectives at 617-343-4275. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW TAMPA, Fla. (AP) When Tom Brady ended his brief retirement, citing unfinished business as motivation for continuing his record-breaking football career, losing to the Los Angeles Rams in last seasons playoffs was still fresh on the Tampa Bay quarterbacks mind. The last two Super Bowl winners meet Sunday for the fourth time in three seasons, but the 45-year-old Brady will be looking for a lot more than payback. The Buccaneers (3-5) have lost five of six following a 2-0 start. Brady has dropped three straight starts for the first time in two decades, and the seven-time NFL champion has been unable to beat the Rams since moving from New England to Tampa Bay in 2020. The Rams (3-4) are also below .500, searching for answers to turning around a slower than expected start after ending Tampa Bays bid to repeat as Super Bowl champs last January and going on to win the Lombardi Trophy themselves. Its tough getting up here every week figuring out how to not be overly disappointed in what were doing. But were fighting hard and were going to try to make it better, Brady said. Theres a lot of football to play, and weve got to play better, Brady added. Thats just the reality of the situation were in. Brady just as well could have been speaking of the challenge the Rams also face moving forward. Injuries have been a factor. But much like the Bucs, a sputtering offense and inconsistent defense have contributed to the woes. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is confident the Rams will get better as the season progresses. Its not one of those things where you win one, you win them all," Stafford said. "Youve got to win them one at a time. We understand that its a long season, bunch of football still left. Urgency is high to go out there and fix whatever we need to fix, go out there and execute at a higher level, but not (be) too worried about the long term at the moment. Just trying to figure out what we can do to win this week. Story continues Despite losing the past three to Pittsburgh, Carolina and Baltimore to drop Brady two games below .500 for the first time in a 23-year career, the Bucs are just one game out of first place in the NFC South. Brady isnt taking anything for granted. The reality is theres a reason were 3-5. Youve got to fix why youre 3-5, he said. Its one game, but theres not like we have a huge margin of error when you take the field. We dont. Weve got to make the plays that are winning plays. ANOTHER MILESTONE Brady, the NFLs career passing leader, enters Sunday needing 164 yards to reach 100,000, including the postseason. For me, its a credit to all the guys that Ive played with, who have blocked for me, have caught passes. I think all those things are a great celebration of all those guys. I cant do (anything) in this league without guys doing what theyre amazing at, too, Brady said. Theyre great achievements, he added on the milestone But as much as people want to say, Oh, this is what Tom Brady did, in my mind, this is what myself and all these other people that have contributed to my life have done as well. KUPP ON THE CUSP Rams All-Pro receiver Cooper Kupp needs just three receptions to reach 500 for his career. If he hits the mark against Tampa Bay, hell be the second-fastest receiver in NFL history to 500 catches in just 79 games. Last seasons NFL leader in receptions, yards receiving and TD catches will be only the fourth wideout to make 500 catches in a career with the Rams, joining Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Henry Ellard. SHAKY LINE While the Rams carousel at running back gets plenty of attention, their struggles in the running game fall heavily on an offensive line thats a shadow of the unit that still two sacks and seven QB hits by the Buccaneers in last years playoff game. LAs line has lost four starters to injury this season, and only center Brian Allen has returned so far. No matter who ends up carrying the ball for the Rams, Tampa Bays defensive front will have a strong chance to improve its unimpressive performance against the run this season. ___ AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Bridgerton star Simone Ashley recently shared spoilers that have left fans burning even more for Season 3 of the hit Netflix period drama. During an interview with British Vogue, the 27-year-old actor, who plays witty and headstrong Kate Sharma, revealed that the series upcoming season will explore the honeymoon phase of the relationship between Sharma and her husband Anthony Bridgerton, who is played by Jonathan Bailey. Compared to the fiery enemies-to-lovers plot in Season 2, Sharma and Bridgertons story will take on a lighter tone in Season 3. Were filming a dance this week and tonally, its so different sweet, endearing and light, compared to the heaviness of their story last season, Ashley told British Vogue. More from NextShark: Adrenaline-fueled trailer for Netflix Korean action film 'Seoul Vibe' promises epic car chases Ashley also shared that Sharma will inevitably face the demanding responsibilities that come with being a viscountess. Even though she comes across as fierce, people like that are sometimes the softest on the inside, said Ashley, discussing her Bridgerton character. They develop that skin because theyre vulnerable. You see her insecurities and fears. Shes f*cking nervous, and I think theres strength in admitting that. Last month, Ashley declared that Season 3 will live up to all the hype. "Condensation central, it's going to get super steamy," she told E! News at the Time 100 Next Gala. More from NextShark: This hilarious Japanese Halloween trend celebrates the mundane Although the third season of Bridgerton is currently in production, Netflix has yet to announce an official release date. According to reports, however, it is likely that the Bridgertons will grace TV screens once more sometime in 2023. Featured Image via Netflix Philippines More from NextShark: Studio Ghibli producer reveals why Jiji no longer speaks at the end of Kikis Delivery Service Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! George Takei Receives Outpour of Support After He Shares One of His Biggest Regrets Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) has continued trimming its large stake in Chinese automaker BYD (1211.HK), according to a filing listed today with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As reported by Reuters, the filing states that Berkshire Hathaway unloaded 3.297 million Hong Kong-listed shares of BYD, netting $71.35 million in proceeds. Following the sale, Berkshires stake in BYD dropped to 17.92% from 18.22%, still keeping Berkshire a large shareholder. However, todays disclosure follows additional Berkshire sales of BYD shares that occurred in late August and early September, when Berkshire offloaded 3.05 million shares in total. Prior to these recent stock sales, Berkshire held 225 million shares of BYD. The future of Berkshires long-time holding of BYD was in doubt earlier this summer when a 20.49% position in BYD, which was identical in size to Berkshires BYD holding, was seen in the Hong Kong Stock Exchanges Central Clearing and Settlement System in July. The listing in the clearing and settlement system was seen as an indication that Berkshire may be selling some, or all, of its stake in BYD. Berkshire bought into BYD back in September of 2008 during the throes of the financial crisis, with a 225 million share purchase worth around $230 million. Before it started selling parts of the stake late in the summer, Berkshires stake was worth around $7.7 billion. BEIJING - SEPTEMBER 29: (CHINA OUT) Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman Charles Thomas Munger (L) and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren E. Buffett attend a BYD Co Ltd new product launch conference at China World Hotel on September 29, 2010 in Beijing, China. BYD, an electric car and battery maker, recently received a boost when Buffet delievered favorable remarks about the company during an event hosted by BYD. (Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images) According to Fortune, Buffett was intrigued by Charlie Munger's description of Wang Chuan-Fu, the founder of BYD, whom Munger had met through a mutual friend. "This guy," Munger said, "is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it." Buffett has been known to hang on to stakes in companies he likes for many, many years. But hes also been known to pull the plug on investments when he thinks its time, or at the very least, take some money off the table. It appears Berkshire was doing just that with BYD, beginning the initial share sales only a few days after BYD reported strong earnings for the first half of 2022, with net income tripling compared to a year ago. Story continues BYD is also the top new energy vehicle seller in the all-important Chinese car market, selling 217,518 vehicles in October alone. New energy vehicles include both hybrid and EVs. Hong Konglisted shares of BYD are down 26% year to date, but are up 5% today on the back of optimism surrounding the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions in China. Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube WARSAW, Poland Bulgarian lawmakers have voted to approve the purchase of eight F-16C/D Block 70 fighter jets for the countrys Air Force. The forthcoming acquisition is to be worth close to $1.3 billion. The National Assembly, the countrys unicameral parliament, approved the planned purchase by a majority of 162 votes, with 49 members voting against, and 11 abstentions. Under the plan, the first batch of eight F-16 that Bulgaria has already ordered is to be supplied to the countrys Air Force in 2025. The second batch of eight fighter jets is expected to be delivered in 2027, Bulgarian Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said in a statement. The minister said that the first F-16 deal from 2019 lacked sufficient weapons, air-to-ground missiles, and precision weapons for the aircraft. Under the second contract, the plan is to have additional spare engines, additional radar stations, additional containers for targeting, and additional weapons delivered, Stoyanov said. The minister added that Bulgarias military would not be able to protect the countrys airspace after 2023 when its outdated Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG 29 fighters are to be withdrawn from service. The first eight F-16 Block 70 fighter jets that will arrive in 2025 are grossly insufficient to carry combat air policing duty, according to Stoyanov. With this air power gap in mind, the ministry last month disclosed it had requested fighter jet lease offers from four countries to secure its air-combat capabilities until the first eight American F-16s become operational in 2027 or 2028. Bulgarias caretaker government seeks to evaluate offers from the United States, France, Sweden and Israel. At the time of the announcement, the minister said that France and Sweden had submitted their replies. (Reuters) - The Contra Costa County District Attorney on Friday said it has reached a settlement with Chevron Corp over a diesel spill into the San Francisco Bay from the company's 245,271 barrel-per-day Richmond, California refinery last year. Officials did not release financial details of the settlement, and Chevron was not immediately unavailable for comment. The settlement with Chevron by the Contra Costa District Attorney along with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife includes injunctive relief, civil penalties for wildlife funds, and enforcement costs, as per a release issued by the District Attorney's Office. "Corporations must be held strictly liable for any discharges of diesel into San Francisco Bay," said District Attorney Diana Becton in a statement. Around 757 gallons of a diesel water mixture leaked into the bay at the Richmond Refinery Marine Terminal in February last year. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Office of Spill Prevention and Response found a small hole in the line that spilled a mixture into the waters south of the Richmond Long Wharf to Cypress Point and north of the wharf to Point Molate, as per the release. Some provisions in the judgment mandate Chevron implement various prevention and response measures to address and mitigate the identified hazards discovered in the investigation. "They include a more comprehensive pipeline inspection program, the piloting of a leak detection system, a detailed review of existing systems, and improved training of staff." (Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio) NextShark A man arrested in connection with a brutal daytime attack of a 12-year-old Asian boy in Brooklyn earlier this month has been arrested nearly two dozen times in the past, according to reports. Police said Jamal McIlwain, 28, assaulted the victim with a crutch at the intersection of St. Pauls Court and St. Pauls Place at around 7:40 a.m. on Nov. 17. Surveillance footage of the attack shows a man in dark clothes running toward the boy and striking him twice with a single crutch. Attendees at a California high school board meeting got heated Wednesday over the displaying of a "Thin Blue Line" flag during school football games. The William S. Hart Union High School District meeting was purportedly "packed" with individuals both for and against the use of the "Thin Blue Line" flag used by the Saugus High School football team. The team brought the flag out last Friday despite a coach's prior decision to stop displaying it. "First and foremost, people have written to us and said that the Blue Line Flag does not belong on any football field, any sports field, on any field, which is not true, not right," said Joe Messina, a member of the school board, during the meeting. "There is a constitutional right to be able to wear those things at those events." Messina condemned those who called students donning the "Thin Blue Line" flag White supremacists, saying, "I think it's despicable that we keep calling them white supremacists and other things." Messina said he viewed the present situation as a possible learning experience for those involved. CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYERS FLY THIN BLUE LINE FLAG DESPITE BAN: REPORT READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP Other individuals in attendance spoke out against the use of the flag, with Valerie Bradford, president of the Santa Clarita Valley branch of the NAACP, being one of the many individuals present at the meeting in opposition to it. "We are here today to stand for the parents and the students that have spoken out against what's happening at Saugus High School and that is the presentation of them bringing the Thin Blue Line flag out on the field," Bradford said, according to Fox 11. "It makes students feel uncomfortable, and they reached out, so we're here in support of that." Protesters carryng a Blue Lives Matter flag Bradford continued on to state that those against the flag are not anti-law enforcement but rather for inclusion. "We feel that every student should be allowed to attend school, feel safe, feel comfortable in a peaceful environment, and this flag does not do that," said Bradford, according to the station. Story continues CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BANS FOOTBALL TEAM'S PRO-POLICE FLAG 3 YEARS AFTER STUDENTS WERE RESCUED FROM SCHOOL SHOOTER Mike Kuhlman, superintendent of the district, released a statement as to why the flag was not specifically addressed during the meeting. "In order for the Governing Board to discuss this issue, it would need to be agendized properly prior to the board meeting. The agenda was posted on Friday afternoon and therefore this issue is not included for discussion or action on Wednesday, November 2," Kuhlman wrote. The Hart Union High School District declined to comment on the meeting. The school district did note the subject would be on the agenda for discussion at an upcoming board meeting on Nov. 16. Sheriffs work at Saugus High School where a shooting took place in Santa Clarita on Nov. 14, 2019. WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH FIRED OVER PRAYERS TO BE REINSTATED: COURT DOCS "It was never an issue on the football team before somebody made it an issue on social media, so for [my son], he thought he was doing the right thing and being respectful and appreciating the law enforcement community as a whole," Saugus High School mother Lexi Hawk said during an October appearance on "Fox and Friends." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to Saugus High School for comment but did not immediately hear back. Fox News' Joe Morgan and Bailee Hill contributed to this report. A special civil jury in Northern California found a former longtime sheriff guilty on all six counts of corruption and willful misconduct in a case involving the issuing of concealed-carry weapons permits in exchange for campaign donations. Laurie Smith resigned from her post as sheriff of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office on Monday when the jury was already deliberating. Her attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case but the judge denied it. Smith had been sheriff of Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, since 1998 when she became the first woman elected sheriff in California. After the verdict was read, Smith wiped away tears, the Mercury News reported. Neither Smith nor her attorney Allen Ruby offered any comment outside the courtroom in San Jose. San Francisco assistant district attorney Gabriel Markoff, who prosecuted the case, also declined to comment, the newspaper reported. A guilty verdict on just one count would have led to Smith's removal from office but since she stepped down it is unclear what legal impact the guilty verdict could have. Smith will return to court on Nov. 16, when San Mateo County superior court judge is likely to issue the formal removal order for Smith, the newspaper reported. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen praised Thursdays verdict. Were gratified that the jury considered the evidence from our comprehensive and detailed investigation and found all the allegations against the sheriff to be true, he told the newspaper. I want to emphasize this is a very sad day when a law-enforcement leader has been found to have committed terrible misconduct. Rosen said its still possible that Smith could face criminal charges. The civil case against Smith started last year when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a vote of no-confidence in Smith and requested outside investigations by the attorney general as well as the county civil grand jury. In December, the civil grand jury filed a Superior Court complaint that accused Smith of six counts of willful and corrupt misconduct. The jury found her guilty on all counts. Story continues The first count accused her of implementing policy or practice of granting licenses to carry concealed firearms on the basis of whether an applicant was a campaign donor, a member of a sheriffs advisory board nonprofit organization, a prominent individual in the community or was associated with prominent individuals, corporations or otherwise had a personal connection to the sheriff. The grand jury alleged that Smith failed to make individual good-cause determinations of the basis for concealed-carry permit applications by people who were not VIPs, keeping them pending indefinitely. At the time of the Board of Supervisors no-confidence vote, they expressed concern about a pattern of conduct in the jails. In another count, the grand jury alleged Smith committed willful misconduct by failing to provide information to the county Office of Correction and Law Enforcement. That office was seeking information involving an internal affairs probe of a 2018 incident in which a mentally ill man inflicted serious injuries on himself while inside a jail transport van, leading to a $10 million settlement with his family. In 2015, a county inmate was beaten to death by three jail guards, and another inmate died after guards shot him with a riot gun at close range. Both inmates had a mental illness. NextShark Qatar World Cup coverage in China has sparked an uproar among Weibo users, who have been speaking out against the Chinese governments implementation of its strict zero-COVID policy. Initial coverage of the football tournament that showed audiences not wearing protective masks in Qatar has caused many in China to question the continued widespread lockdowns, quarantines and mass-testing campaigns in the country. Weibo users pointed out that the maskless crowds show that the rest of the world has found a means to live with COVID-19 without excessive measures, according to Agence France-Presse. By Anna Mehler Paperny and Ismail Shakil TORONTO (Reuters) - A split Canadian Supreme Court on Friday ruled limits on conditional sentences are constitutional, a setback for advocates of indigenous rights who argued the provisions discriminate against indigenous people, who are overrepresented in the country's prisons. Lawyers for Cheyenne Sharma, a First Nations woman, did not demonstrate that provisions limiting her eligibility for a conditional sentence "created or contributed to a disproportionate impact on Indigenous offenders" and the restrictions are in line with government objectives, the majority wrote. Sharma challenged the constitutionality of legal provisions making her ineligible for a conditional sentence after she pleaded guilty to importing cocaine. The then-20-year-old single mother, fearing eviction from her home, had imported nearly 2 kilograms for C$20,000. A 2012 law prevents judges from giving defendants conditional sentences for certain offences. Ontario's Court of Appeal found these provisions violated Sharma's rights to life, liberty and security of the person and to equal treatment under the law. Indigenous people, especially indigenous women, account for a disproportionate part of Canada's prison population, according to Canada's Correctional Investigator. Indigenous women make up half the women in Canada's prisons and 65% of the imprisoned women classified as maximum security despite comprising less than 5% of the country's female population. Conditional sentences, served in the community under close supervision and strict rules, are supposed to help address this disparity. The Canadian government appealed the Court of Appeal's ruling, arguing it would effectively prevent the government from enacting or amending the criminal law unless it is to make it more lenient. The government argued that limiting the availability of a penal sanction does not perpetuate the historic disadvantage facing indigenous offenders. Story continues But the same government also brought forward legislation, now before the Senate, that would have the same effect on the impugned provisions. Lawyers told Reuters a victory for Sharma and her allies could have opened the door to future cases arguing that even ostensibly neutral laws can have discriminatory impacts that make them unconstitutional. (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) The democracy promotion organisation founded by former president Jimmy Carter will monitor US elections for the first time during this years midterms. The Carter Center has monitored more than 110 elections in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989 as part of democracy promotion efforts around the world. But it has never before carried out similar operations in the US. This year, however, it will dispatch monitors in three states Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona each with a different mission, but with the overall aim of building confidence in the integrity of the voting process. David Carroll, director of the centres Democracy Programme, told The Independent that the move represents a recognition that the threats to democratic institutions and norms are greater in the United States than in a number of other countries around the world. And it merits close attention and prioritisation by groups like ours that work to advance respect for democracy and democratic principles, he added. The unprecedented decision to observe elections in the US comes amid a crisis of confidence in the democratic process across the country. The Republican Party, nominally led by Donald Trump, is now dominated by candidates who promote baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud, including some who have threatened to only accept the results of elections they win . According to a recent poll , some 28 per cent of all voters, including 41 per cent of Republicans, said they had little to no faith in the accuracy of this years midterm elections. Because US states each have their own election laws, the Carter Centers monitoring activities will look different in each state. Arizona, for example, does not have a provision in law for nonpartisan election observers to be present at polling sites on election day. The centres activities there will involve observing the pre-testing of ballot counting machines, monitoring livestreams of ballot drop box activity and observing other parts of the process that are open to the public. Story continues In Michigan, they will be partnering with two organisations that focus on disability rights and will be observing on election day on a limited scale. And in Georgia, the centre will be monitoring in Fulton County based on an agreement with the county and the Secretary of States office. Mr Carroll said the Carter Centers work in the midterms is different to its usual comprehensive country missions and was instead more a kind of piloting of different kinds of activities in different states depending upon the context and whats possible. In 2020, The Independent reported on the Carter Centers first ever election initiative in the US one that stopped short of the kind of monitoring activities it is known for worldwide. That effort involved awareness-raising and observing the post-election audit of ballots in Georgia. This years efforts represent a significantly increased engagement in the US election process, but with a similar goal of addressing a lack of public confidence in the accuracy and administration of elections, Mr Carroll said. Im under no illusions that what we do is necessarily going to, by itself, change the calculus on how our elections are understood, but I think do think that we can be part of a bigger picture, involving a range of different kinds of activities by many groups, to try to help people better understand what happens during elections, Mr Carroll said. The Carter Center is a non-profit organisation founded in 1982 by Jimmy Carter who served as president from 1977 to 1981 and his wife Rosalynn. Its website says it seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health. It works around the world to promote democracy by monitoring elections and educating on election integrity. President Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development much of which was done through his work with the centre. Pope Francis commemorates the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council by celebrating a Mass. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino The past 60 years have been a period of change and reflection for many in the Catholic Church, initiated by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and continued by the current synod on synodality. In the autumn of 2021, Pope Francis announced a new synod, an official meeting of Roman Catholic bishops to determine future directions for the church globally. The first working document issued by the synod was published on Oct. 27, 2022. This document was made public soon after the 60th anniversary of Pope John XXIIIs 1962 convocation of the Second Vatican Council. During the three years that followed, Catholic bishops from across the globe met in several sessions, assisted by expert theologians. Many guests were also invited as observers, which included prominent Catholic laity and representatives from other Christian churches. The council called for fresh ways to address 20th-century social and cultural issues and initiated official dialogue groups for Catholic theologians with others from different faith traditions. However, Catholics have become increasingly divided over this openness to contemporary cultural changes. As a specialist in Roman Catholic liturgy and worship, I find that one important flashpoint where these deeper disagreements become more painfully visible is in Catholic worship, particularly in the celebration of its seven major rituals, called the sacraments. This is especially true in the celebration of matrimony. Vatican II In the mid-20th century, the church was still shaken by the repercussions of World War II and struggling to contribute to a world connected by the reality of global communication and the threat of nuclear war. Vatican II was called to update and renew the church a process Pope John XXIII called aggiornamento. Vatican II was an attempt to renew the church in the midst of global changes. AP Photo One important theme connecting all of the councils documents was inculturation, a more open dialogue with the variety of global human cultures. With the document Sacrosanctum Concilium, the bishops addressed the need to revisit the centuries-old worship traditions of Catholicism, reforming the structures of the various rituals and encouraging the use of vernacular languages during prayer, rather than exclusive use of the ancient Latin texts. Story continues In the intervening decades, however, sharp contradictions and disagreements have arisen, especially over clashes between flexible cultural adaptation and rigorous moral and doctrinal standards. These have become much more visible during the past two pontificates: the more conservative Pope Benedict XVI pope from 2005 to 2013 and the more progressive Pope Francis. The synod on synodality For the present synod, Pope Francis began with a process of consultation with local church communities all over the world, stressing the inclusion of many different groups within the church, especially of those who are often marginalized, including the poor, migrants, LGBTQ people and women. However, there has also been criticism. Some feel that the church should more swiftly adapt its teaching and practice to the needs of a variety of contemporary cultural shifts, while others insist it should hold on to its own traditions even more tightly. Gay marriage In North America and Europe, a major cultural shift has taken place over recent decades concerning gays and lesbians, from marginalized rejection to acceptance and support. Over the years Pope Francis has come under fire for his comments about homosexuality. He has publicly stated that gay Catholics are not to be discriminated against, that they have a right to enter secular civil unions and that they are to be welcomed by the Catholic community. On the other hand, he has also refused bishops permission to offer gay couples a blessing. Progressive bishops in Germany and Belgium, who had been proponents of this practice, organized an open protest by setting aside a day just for the bestowal of these blessings. In contemporary Catholicism, discrimination or injustice against gay or lesbian individuals is condemned, because each human being is considered to be a child of God. However, homosexual orientation is still considered intrinsically disordered and homosexual activity seriously sinful. The Vatican has warned progressives of the danger that these blessings might be considered, in the eyes of the faithful, the equivalent of a sacramental marriage. Some might assume that homosexual activity is no longer considered sinful, a fundamental change that conservative Catholics would find completely unacceptable. This doctrinal perspective has led to other liturgical restrictions. For example, the baptism of children adopted by gay parents is considered a serious pastoral concern. In order for a child to receive the sacrament of Catholic baptism the blessing with water that makes the child a Catholic Christian there must be some hope that the child will be raised in the Catholic Church, yet the church teaches that homosexual activity is objectively wrong. Despite the current openness to gay Catholics, this conflict could lead to the childs being denied baptism. Following a document issued in 2005 under Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis in 2018 stated that candidates for the sacrament of ordination the ritual that makes a man a priest must be rejected if they demonstrate homosexual tendencies or a serious interest in gay culture. He also advised gay men who are already ordained to maintain strict celibacy or leave the priesthood. Polygamy and colonialism This recent cultural shift in Western nations has raised difficult questions for Catholics, both clergy and laity. In some non-Western countries, however, it is an older custom that has become an important issue. The culture of many African countries is supportive of polygamy more specifically, the practice of allowing men to take more than one wife. While the civil law in some countries might not allow for polygamy, the customary law rooted in traditional practice may still remain in force. In some countries, like Kenya in 2014, civil law has been changed to include an official recognition of polygamous marriage. Some have argued that monogamy is not an organic cultural shift but a colonial imposition on African cultural traditions. In some areas, Catholic men continue the practice, even those who act on behalf of the church in teaching others about the faith called catechists. At least one African bishop has made an interesting suggestion. The openness to alternative cultural approaches has already resulted in one change. Divorced and remarried Catholics were once forbidden from taking Communion the bread and wine consecrated at the celebration of the Catholic ritual of the Mass because the church did not recognize secular divorce. Today, they may receive communion under certain conditions. This flexibility might apply as well to Catholics in non-recognized polygamous unions, who are also not permitted to receive Communion at present. As Pope Francis wrote in his 2016 document on marriage, Amoris Laetitia, some matters should be left to local churches to decide based on their own culture and traditions. However, despite the need for increased awareness of and openness to diverse human cultures stressed during Vatican II and the current synod, this traditional custom is still considered a violation of Catholic teaching. Based on the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Catholic teaching continues to emphasize that marriage can take place only between one man and one woman as a lifelong commitment. How the current synod on synodality, in its effort to extend the insights of the Second Vatican Council, will deal with questions like these is still unclear. It is now set to run for an additional year, concluding in 2024 instead of 2023. This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Joanne M. Pierce, College of the Holy Cross. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Read more: I served as a Catholic member of an official ecumenical dialogue group, the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States, for seventeen years. Xi Jinping During a meeting with Scholz, Jinping noted that its necessary to prevent an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine to a nuclear stage. Read also: Scholz to Xi Jinping: Russias war in Ukraine causes great issues for the world Xi Jinping's comments send a clear message to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin that nuclear threats represent a red line for China, giving Beijing some common ground with the West. As Russia is becoming ever more isolated from Western markets, Moscows dependance on Chinese economic and diplomatic support deepens. Read also: German justice minister visits Kyiv to talk to human rights defenders The Chinese and German leaders also discussed the common goal of ensuring global food security and energy supply chain stability, disrupted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Read also: War in Ukraine is no ones interest, says China On Sept. 2, the United States said China has shown no interest in discussing steps to reduce the risk of a nuclear escalation. In recent years, China has embarked on making a significant expansion of its nuclear forces. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine CHINA-SPACE A Long March 5B rocket, carrying China's Mengtian science module, the final module of Tiangong space station, lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province on October 31, 2022. Credit - CNS/AFP via Getty Images Theres a lot that China would like you to pay attention to when it comes to its just completed Tiangong (Palace in the Sky) space stationand theres one thing the country would very much like you to ignore. On the upside, theres the thousand or more scientific studies that crew members hope to carry out over the decade or so the station will be in operation; there are the 17 nations that will be flying experiments, and perhaps some astronauts, along with the Chinese taikonauts; and theres the very speed with which the three module station was built. The core modulethe Tianhe (Harmony of the Heavens)was launched on April 29, 2021; the second modulethe Wentian (Quest for the Heavens)went aloft on July 24, 2022; and it was just this week, on Oct. 31 at 3:37 a.m. ET, that a Long March 5B rocket blasted off with the third and final componentthe 22-ton Mengtian module (Dreaming of the Heavens) measuring 18 m (59 ft.) long, 4.2 m (13.8 ft) widecompleting the T-shaped station. As for that bit the Chinese would just as soon you not discuss: There was another piece of hardwarea 10-story tall, 23-ton first stage of the Long March 5Bthat reached space along with the Mengtian before beginning an uncontrolled, somersaulting plunge back to Earth causing it to land, well, no one could say where. This is not the first time the Chinese have threatened the planet with a falling piece of Long March flotsam. The first stage of the rocket that launched both the Wentian and Tianhei followed a similar uncontrolled reentry pathboth crashing into the Indian Ocean. The very first launch of the Long March 5B, in 2020, resulted in an impact that scattered debris across portions of Ivory Coast, though no one was hurt. Story continues Once again, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement early this morning as the whereabouts of the rocket stage remained unknown, the Peoples Republic of China is taking unnecessary risks with the uncontrolled rocket stage reentry of their Long March 5B rocket stage. He continued: They did not share specific trajectory information which is needed to predict landing zones and reduce risk. It is critical that all spacefaring nations are responsible and transparent in their space activities and follow established best practices, especially, for the uncontrolled reentry of debris that could very well result in major damage or loss of life. Reassuringly, that risk to life is relatively small, since more than 70% of the worlds surface is water and much of the planets land mass is uninhabited. Henry Hertzfeld, a research professor at George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute, told TIME: I wouldnt lose sleep over this. Any one persons chance of getting hit by lightning is probably greater. Not long after Nelson made his statement, the good news went around that Earthlings appear once again to have dodged a Long March bullet. As the U.S. Space Command tweeted today, the spent first stage reentered the atmosphere and splashed down harmlessly in the south central Pacific Ocean at 6:01 a.m ET. Still, it remains not only provocative but perplexing that China doesnt take greater precautions with its Long March 5 Bs. Disposing of a rocket stage safely, after all, is a relatively easy thing to do. As a rule, government and private sector launchers keep a reserve of fuel in the spent stages tanks so that its engine can re-fire, aiming it for a guaranteed oceanic splashdown. SpaceX goes further, landing the first stages on an ocean barge and reusing them. We have the technology to control the reentries, says Hertzfeld. Why China isnt using it, I dont know. The question is especially mystifying since China is also a member of the 1972 Liability Convention, a pact brokered by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), which obligates signatory nations to compensate other parties for injury or damage caused by outer space activities. China remains mum, however, on the reason it allows its Long March 5B stages simply to free-fall back to Earth, and on whether it ever plans to modify the technology to make a controlled reentry possible. Even with the Liability Convention holding the country responsible, Beijing could be making the calculation that its cheaper to pay for any damages than fix the rocket. They know their obligations under this regime, but its all a little hollow, says Hertzfeld. I mean, all they have to do is write a check. The launch of a Long March 5B rocket on April 28, 2021. The booster from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket reentered Earths atmosphere at 6:01 a.m. ET Friday, with debris falling west of the Mexican coast. There are no reports of injuries, but the 22-metric-ton core stage threatened populated areas during its final orbit. U.S. Space Command confirmed the boosters atmospheric reentry through Twitter, saying it fell over the south-central Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, Space Command tracked a second atmospheric reentry connected with the Long March 5B rocket, suggesting the rocket snapped into two large pieces. Read more #USSPACECOM can confirm a second atmospheric reentry correlated with the #PRCs Long March 5B #CZ5B as it exited the #USSPACECOM Area of Responsibility over the Northeast Pacific Ocean region at 4:06am MDT/10:06 UTC on Nov. 4. https://t.co/keJdc1tmxi U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) November 4, 2022 The odds were good that the 108-foot-long (33-meter) booster would come down over the ocean, as two-thirds of Earth is covered in water. Still, China is choosing to play with peoples lives and property, designing a rocket that, instead of performing a safe and controlled reentry after launch, flies into a rapidly decaying orbit. The rocket, carrying the third and final module for Chinas Tiangong space station, launched from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan on October 31. This marks the fourth occasion that a Long March 5B rocket has entered into an uncontrolled state. Story continues Final trajectory for the CZ-5B core stage that #reentered over the eastern Pacific Ocean today: pic.twitter.com/BemiR8l8pu Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) November 4, 2022 Mission controllers had no way to control the booster once it entered orbit, forcing experts to predict where and when it might land, which is notoriously difficult to do. By yesterday evening, most projections had the booster reentering around 12:00 p.m. ET today, give or take a few hours. The rocket, falling at 6:01 ET this morning, fell well in advance of the estimates churned less than a half day before it finally dove into the atmosphere at speeds reaching 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kilometers per hour). Debris fell to the southwest of the Mexican coast, near 2.2 S 114.1 W. The booster was moving in a northeastly direction at the time, and had it kept going it would have flown over Mexico and parts of the United States. Debris footprints arent small, with widths often reaching 44 miles (70 km) wide and over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) in length, Ted Muelhaupt, a consultant with Aerospaces Corporate Chief Engineers Office, told reporters on Wednesday. Muelhaupt said that between 10% and 40% of the booster was likely to survive reentry. In fact, possible but not likely that debris could have made it as far as Tabasco province. However, no reports yet of debris found. Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) November 4, 2022 During its final orbit, the core stage flew over Spain, Saudi Arabia, and western Australia. Spain temporarily closed part of its airspace as the booster flew overhead, according to Reuters. No one was hurt (as far as we know), but the wayward booster did result in inconvenience. This is the fourth incident involving an out-of-control Long March 5B core stage. Two years ago, debris from the inaugural launch of the rocket fell onto the Ivory Coast, reportedly causing damage to property. Debris from the second flight fell harmlessly into the Indian Ocean, but the reentry from the third flight in July 2022 was visible from Malaysia, with dangerous bits of space junk raining down onto parts of Indonesia and Philippines. More: After 3 Months in Space, Chinas Mysterious Spaceplane Ejects Unknown Object. More from Gizmodo Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. clea In the opening scene of new Frevee series High School, Holes She Walks On Me blares over speakers while TikTok stars (but acting newcomers) Railey and Seazynn Gilliland rock out in flannel, tees, and wide-legged trousers, subtly evoking the 1990s. A queer icon of that decade, Clea DuVall is the perfect executive producer and showrunner, along with Laura Kittrell, to shepherd friends Tegan and Sarah Quins 2019 memoir High School to the small screen with an authentic depiction of uncertainty, heartbreak, and discovery set to a grunge and Riot Grrrl soundtrack. I wanted [the show] to feel timeless, she says. I wanted there to be a classic element to it where the show could be now or it could be three years ago not leaning too hard into Hey, look, nobody has cell phones, allowing it to be that simple, more innocent time even though theyre kids and are obviously doing things they shouldnt be doing. Clea DuVall and Laura Kittrell There was still such an innocence to the time that I feel like its not really there anymore, DuVall adds of the series in which Cobie Smulders plays the Quins progressive mom, wise to their experimentation with substances at high school parties. Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer The director of Happiest Season and The Intervention, DuVall has had acting career that dates back more than 26 years. She appeared in era-defining projects like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996), The Faculty (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999), and Jamie Babbits camp masterpiece, But Im a Cheerleader (1999). In the late '90s, DuVall was increasingly sought after in Hollywood, while in the Calgary suburbs, the twin Quin sisters were discovering music and catchy hooks (try to get the lyric Tegan didnt go to school today out of your head after watching High School), all while experiencing the love and heartbreak of first girlfriends chronicled in their memoir and the shows first season. Sara Quin and Railey Gilliland Story continues DuVall met The Quins (who released their first album Under Feet Like Ours the same year But Im a Cheerleader was released) at one of their concerts about 15 years ago but became good friends a few years later when they were all in Vancouver, DuVall says. While DuVall and the Quins had been close when she read their memoir, it still resonated with her in ways she hadnt experienced before. I felt when they were writing the book, they really tried to tap into the experiences of themselves then and not as the adults looking back on it really trying to get back into those feelings as they were feeling them in real-time at that time, she says. That was powerful to read to hear those thoughts and feelings articulated in such a vulnerable way was really moving. She muses, Then to also, for the first time, read something that I really connected to in terms of what my coming of age was like. Never before had I ever read or seen or heard of anything that [so closely] resembled my experience. The Gillilands The series captures that gray area of LGBTQ+ visibility when musicians like k.d. lang and Melissa Etheridge had come out earlier in the decade, along with the rise of very indie New Queer Cinema, but it was often still lonely and terrifying to come out. So, in addition to Tegan (Railey Gilliland) and Sara (Seazynn Gilliland) honing their musical prowess in the series, they also navigate first (queer) love practically simultaneously yet alone. Tegan Quin and Seazynn Gilliland Their story was so interesting because theyre twin sisters living in the same house. And theres the assumption made of 'You guys are best friends, you tell each other everything.' There was something about being queer at that time, at least for me," she adds. My experience of it was ... you werent even sure what that meant because there was so little visibility, because there werent a lot of discussions about it. Oftentimes, when you did hear anything about gay people, it was negative. So youre just like Is this OK? As High School demonstrates, that can be isolating, even with an ally seemingly in the same room. Having twin sisters whom you assume would do everything together, really going through the same thing at the same time and not connecting with each other about it really speaks to how singular the coming-out journey is, DuVall says. This story is part of The Advocates 2022 People of the Year issue, which is out on newsstands November 1. To get your own copy directly, support queer media and subscribe or download yours for Amazon, Kindle, Nook, or Apple News. The U.S. Coast guard rescued three men Thursday after their 23-foot boat capsized off the South Carolina coast, the agency said. A good Samaritan sounded the alarm to Coast Guard Sector Charleston just before 7:30 a.m. that they had spotted three men "clinging to the overturned hull" of a boat around 5 miles east of Charleston Harbor, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Search and rescue teams were dispatched and managed to pull the three men from the water to safety. The men were offered emergency medical care, but the Coast Guard said there were no reported medical concerns. It was not clear what exactly caused the boat to capsize. Related video: Sailor rescued after 16 hours under capsized boat However, Petty Officer 2nd Class Harry Seibert, the coxswain on the case, said it was "important mariners check their vessel for all the necessary safety equipment onboard and monitor weather conditions prior to getting on the water. This is a prime example of how quickly things can go wrong in a matter of seconds, Seibert said. The Coast Guard said the owner of the boat was coordinating with a commercial salvage company to recover the vessel. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com The Pueblo Police Department arrested a man accused of tampering with a ballot marking machine during Colorado's June 28 primary. Richard Patton, a 31-year-old from Pueblo, has been charged with tampering with a voting machine a class 5 felony under state law and cybercrime, which is a misdemeanor. The arrest, which occurred Thursday morning, marks the first potential prosecution after Colorado enacted a new law safeguarding elections against potential threats to voting equipment. The Colorado Election Security Act, which went into effect in June, makes it a felony to tamper with voting equipment or allow unauthorized access to voting equipment. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold called the 2022 contest the "first midterm elections when the country is facing an evolved threat of insider threats." Late on Colorado's primary Election Day, election workers at the Voter Service and Polling Center in the Pueblo Clerk's Office in Pueblo heard noises coming from a voting booth across the room, according to a senior official with the Colorado secretary of state's office. When an election judge went to the booth to investigate and to clean the machine, after a voter had left a booth, in accordance with regular protocol, there was an error message on the screen reading, "USB device change detected. Please call a poll worker for assistance." The supervising election judge was immediately notified and the incident was reported to the secretary of state's office and law enforcement. The Pueblo Police Department took possession of the ImageCast X voting machine, according to the official. "We would like to assure the community that all voter safeguards put in place to protect the voter process were successful," the Pueblo Police Department said in a press release. "No information has been found to be breached at this time." Law enforcement added that the investigation remains active and ongoing. Story continues In Colorado, Image Cast X ballot-marking devices used by in-person voters have various security measures to detect and mitigate the risk of tampering. Since only "whitelisted" removable storage media operate on devices, an error message appears on the screen if an individual plugs something into the machine that isn't authorized. The machine won't be operational until the issue is addressed. Tamper-proof seals are used on voting equipment across Colorado, including ImageCast X machines used for in-person voting. The official indicated that seals on the device in Pueblo appeared disturbed. Under Colorado law, a class 5 felony can be punished by a 1-2 year jail sentence and/or a fine of anywhere between $1,000-$100,000. Colorado's new law followed the sentencing of a prominent election official and secretary of state candidate. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was barred from overseeing elections after being indicted on charges of tampering with election equipment and official misconduct. Jen Easterly, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said Sunday that her agency has not seen "specific or credible threats" to compromise election infrastructure before Election Day. "It is a very complex threat environment," Easterly noted during an interview with "Face the Nation." "You have cyber threats, you have insider threats, you have rampant disinformation. And yes, very worryingly, you have threats of harassment, intimidation and violence against election officials, polling places and voters. Let's be really clear. That has to stop." Griswald counts herself among election officials who have encountered a barrage of violent threats since the 2020 election. Last month, a Nebraska man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for online threats issued to the secretary. Travis Ford, of Lincoln, was sentenced after pleading guilty to sending threats to Griswold, which prosecutors allege he did multiple times via an Instagram account. "The threats are ongoing," Griswald told CBS News. "They've been ongoing against me since June of 2021... I got an uptick in threats over the last couple of weeks." She estimates that her office has made thousands of referrals to the Justice Department since the 2020 election. Another new provision the Vote Without Fear Act signed into law this year, bans anyone in Colorado from openly carrying a firearm within 100 feet of a voting location, unless their property falls within that buffer. "You can't open carry. You can't dox or intimidate. You can't compromise the voting equipment. We've been tightening the laws. We have zero tolerance for voter intimidation," Griswald told CBS News. While election denialists including FEC United, a far-right group in Colorado with a militia wing, have threatened to monitor poll drop boxes in Colorado, the state has been given no indication that this sort of election monitoring is occurring. Still, the prospect lingers. "The level of disinformation has reached an unprecedented height," Griswold said. "And initially, it was our foreign adversaries trying to mislead folks. But now it's many elected officials and former elected officials and candidates, which is incredibly dangerous. The lies that the former president and people aligned with him continue to push out are dangerous they are leading to political violence." "The 'big lie' is why I have a county working behind bulletproof glass," Griswold continued, referencing new security measures in Salida, the county seat of Chaffee County. "It's the reason that the man who threatened my life is now serving 18 months in prison." Man who lost his legs after falling onto subway tracks prepares for second NYC Marathon Trump friend Thomas Barrack speaks, and dances, after acquittal in foreign lobbying case Trump weighs plans for 2024 White House bid An intensive care nurse has been arrested and charged with sexual assault after he allegedly took photos and videos of his patients for a self-described Dexter collection, according to authorities. Christopher Lambros, a 61-year-old nurse, was taken into custody in Grand Junction, Colorado, on 25 October, following a months-long investigation by law enforcement which uncovered evidence of him allegedly assaulting patients while they were unconscious and taking photographs and videos of their naked bodies. According to a probable cause affidavit, released by the Grand Junction Police Department this week, police were initially tipped off by a fellow employee at St Marys Hospital where he worked. The employee, whose identity is redacted in the affidavit, called police on 9 July saying they had seen Mr Lambros taking photos of a patients genitals that evening while the patient was unable to consent. When she pulled back the curtain she saw the patient, who was unconscious, with her gown pulled up, exposing her breasts, and the bed sheet was pulled down, exposing the patients genitals, the affidavit states. [The witness] said she saw a nurse, who she knew as Chris Lambros, with his head on the patients stomach, with his face toward the patients feet, with what she believed [was] his right arm extended, holding what she was sure was an unknown make/model cell phone in a black case, in a position as if he was taking a selfie picture. The employee called police and an officer was dispatched to Mr Lambros home where he voluntarily consented to his photo applications being checked on his phone. While there, the 61-year-old nurse attempted to explain away the accusations levelled against him by his co-worker, claiming that hed been injecting the patient for blood clots, saying that the shot is administered in the stomach area, the affidavit states. He also allegedly told the officer that he and the unnamed employee had some petty workplace issues which, he claimed, might explain her account of events. Story continues The officer didnt find any incriminating photos on the device but seized it as evidence for further testing, given that multimedia can be deleted from devices and stored on backup or alternative storage devices, the affidavit says. Christopher Lambros, 61, is accused of sexually assaulting patients and taking pictures and videos of the assaults as part of his Dexter collection (Mesa County Sheriffs Department) Though Mr Lambros did not cooperate by providing authorities with his cellphone pin, a search warrant was obatined for the phone and a digital forensic analysis was ran on the device. This digital analysis uncovered a trove of photographs and videos of Lambros posing with a number of victims who were unconscious, in the hospital setting, the affidavit states. Investigators also found a number of deleted pictures that allegedly showed the 61-year-old sucking on victims breasts and digitally penetrating victims. In one video taken in June, Mr Lambros allegedly alluded to the TV show Dexter, comparing his own alleged trove of photos and videos to that collected by the namesake character Dexter Morgan a serial killer who kept blood slides from each of his victims. In video recovered from 6/24/2022 at 17:30 hours, Lambros can be heard whispering to the camera saying dont ever get rid of these videos and you need to keep them forever this is your Dexter collection, the affidavit states. In total, 168 photos and videos taken between 30 April and 9 July and later deleted from the phone were uncovered. St Marys Hospital fired Mr Lambros after he was taken into custody and released a statement condemning his alleged actions. What this former nurse is accused of is reprehensible and goes against everything we believe and value at St. Marys Medical Center, said Bryan Johnson, President of St Marys Medical Center. Patients put their trust in us and should feel safe in our care. We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our patients from those who intend to cause harm. Mr Lambros has been charged with three counts of sexual assault. He is being held at Mesa County Jail on $250,000 bond. The Columbia Police Department said Friday that it had taken a man who pointed a gun at his family members and barricaded himself inside his house for hours into custody. No one was injured, police said. Devon M. Franklin was arrested shortly after 9 a.m. Friday and taken to a local hospital, Columbia Police said on Twitter. Franklin will then be taken to a local jail. Franklin will be charged with three counts of pointing and presenting a firearm at family members. Hes accused of forcing them out of the home at gunpoint Thursday, police said. Agents with the State Law Enforcement Division assisted at the scene after Franklin refused to comply with negotiators for hours in the Wood Creek Farms neighborhood. The standoff began at 4 p.m. Thursday, when Franklin behaved erratically, the department posted on Twitter. Police said he was likely armed and refused to come out of his house. Police said the mans family members are safe and unharmed. A woman working as a laundry technician was fired after requesting temporary leave to address her anxiety, which she had been seeing a doctor for, federal officials say. We cant let you work here when you have an issue, the woman was told. But she could fully perform the job, according to a complaint filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her firing led to the EEOCs lawsuit against West Meade Place, a nursing home facility in Nashville, Tennessee. Now a jury has ruled in the womans favor, years after she was fired in late 2015, the agency said in a Nov. 1 news release. The ruling awards her $6,000 in compensatory damages and $6,146 in pack pay. West Meade Place was accused of discriminating against the former worker, specifically by violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), because it viewed her anxiety as an impairment preventing her from working, according to the EEOC. We hope this case causes employers to ensure they have procedures in the workplace explaining employees rights under the ADA and train their employees on the ADA, Faye A. Williams, the EEOCs regional attorney for its Memphis district office, said in a statement. If employers fail to do this, there is a high cost to pay to defend these cases. McClatchy News contacted attorneys representing West Meade Place for comment on Nov. 4 and was awaiting a response. The case In February 2015, West Meade Place hired the woman as a laundry technician for its facility, according to the complaint. Typically, laundry technicians maintain laundry areas, washers and dryers. Before the woman was hired, she had been receiving anxiety treatment for more than a decade and was taking medication as prescribed by a doctor, according to the EEOC. Her anxiety limits her ability to regulate thought processes and emotions and her ability to think, to concentrate, to interact with others, and interferes with her daily activities, the complaint states. Story continues Williams noted how anxiety and depressive disorders have increased by 25% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to the release. After joining West Meade Place, the company allowed the woman to leave work early for her anxiety flare-ups, according to the complaint. In November 2015, the woman requested accommodation for her anxiety flare-ups, specifically temporary leave during three days of the month, under the Family Medical Leave Act, according to the EEOC. In response, the facilitys nursing director said she was ineligible for leave, and this meant she couldnt perform her job safely, the complaint says. We have to either let you go, because you cant perform it safely, or we have to get a statement from your doctor saying that you do, the nursing director told the woman, according to the EEOC. Afterward, the nursing director spoke with the womans doctor, who subsequently provided her a note saying the woman could perform her duties without medical restriction and without any emotional distress, the complaint states. However, that same day, the nursing director fired the woman, according to the EEOC. This represented a very important case for the EEOC in ensuring protection in the workplace for employees whose employers regard them as having impairments, Williams said. More than 40 million U.S. adults are living with an anxiety disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In passing the Americans with Disabilities Act more than 32 years ago, Congress recognized that discrimination against individuals with disabilities continues to be a serious and pervasive social problem and that continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and prejudice denies people of this community the opportunity to compete on an equal basis, Edmond Sims, the EEOCs director for its Memphis District Office, said in a statement. Worker was fired after telling boss about panic attack and PTSD medication, feds say Supervisor had employee shot to death after exposing underpaid workers, feds say Company takes back job offer because woman has one hand, feds say. Now itll pay EMT couldnt shave due to religious beliefs so he was fired, feds say. EEOC is suing (Reuters) - A Russian-installed official in the Ukrainian region of Kherson said on Friday that a curfew had been imposed in the city but then swiftly backtracked and said no such limits were in place. The Russian-installed deputy governor of the region, Kirill Stremousov, said in a video message on Friday that a round-the-clock curfew had been imposed ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive. But an hour later, he posted another video in which he said that no limits had been imposed and reposted an edited version of his earlier video message without any reference to a curfew. It was not immediately clear why Stremousov denied his own remarks. Reuters was not able to immediately verify if a curfew was or was not in place in Kherson. Stremousov repeated earlier calls for civilians to leave Kherson city, saying that columns of Ukrainian vehicles had been spotted on areas of the frontline and that an attack was possible. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that civilians should be evacuated from Kherson, a strategically vital region bordering annexed Crimea that Russia has held since the early days of its campaign in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have in recent drawn closer to Kherson city, the only regional capital to fall to Moscow since it deployed tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24, with Russia's overall commander in Ukraine acknowledging difficulties in the region. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) ABC News Early voting in Georgia's Senate runoff race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican opponent Herschel Walker opened statewide to all registered voters on Monday, following record-breaking turnout this weekend in the 34 counties that offered early voting on Saturday or Sunday. Voting locations for the Dec. 6 runoff are now open in all 159 of the state's counties through Friday, with more than 181,000 Georgians having cast their ballots either in-person or absentee through Sunday, according to state election data. While total numbers weren't yet available for Monday, as voting continues, state officials said the daily turnout was on track to grow even higher -- an indication that local interest in the race has not waned. A 73-year-old convicted sex offender has been charged in connection with the 1966 disappearance and death of a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl, a prosecutor said Thursday. Donald Mars was arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Betty Lou Zukowski, who left her Chicopee home on the evening of May 26, 1966 and was found beaten to death several days later in the Westfield River in West Springfield, prosecutors said in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield. A not guilty plea was entered on Mars behalf. His attorney did not object to his client being held without bail, but retained the right to seek bail at a later date. An email seeking comment was left with the defense. While this investigation will not bring Betty Lou back to her family, or grant her the opportunity to grow into a healthy adult that she and every child deserves, it is for them and for Betty Lou that we embark upon this journey of seeking justice, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said at a news conference after the arraignment. Donald Mars charged with first degree murder for the 1966 West Springfield homicide of Betty Lou Zukowski Posted by Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni on Thursday, November 3, 2022 Bettys Lous parents, Stanley and Mildred, have died but authorities have been in touch with surviving members of her family, he said. The victim left her familys Chicopee home after taking a phone call from what she told her parents was a girlfriend, Gulluni said. Her parents reported her missing later that night. Her beaten and mud-covered 4-foot-7 inch (1.4-meter), 75-pound (34-kilogram) body was found just offshore by boys fishing in the Westfield River in the town of West Springfield, he said. The cause of the death was determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be multiple blunt force injuries to her head, a skull fracture and terminal drowning, he said. Because she left her home voluntarily, investigators believe she knew her attacker. Story continues She was laid to rest on June 2, 1966, which would have been her 11th birthday, he said. Mars, who would have been a teenager at the time of Betty Lous death, was linked to the killing as long ago as 1997 but was not arrested, Gulluni said. Gullunis cold case unit refocused on the case in the last few months, he said, although he did not disclose what evidence led to Mars. According to the state sex offender registry, Mars was convicted of child rape and assault and battery on a child under 14 in 1995. He is listed as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most likely to reoffend. His most recent address was in Bedford. He attended the arraignment via video, and although he did not say anything, he shook his head several times as the prosecution read a list of past criminal cases he has been involved in. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW A Cook County judge Thursday denied a motion to reduce the bail of Bryant Hayes, who is in custody on charges in the shooting of Danny Golden. Three men including Hayes were charged in the shooting of Golden, an off-duty Chicago police officer who is now paralyzed from the waist down. Hayes, who is facing charges including attempted murder, filed a motion for bond review that Judge Diana Kenworthy denied Thursday, said Tandra Simonton, a spokesperson for the Cook County states attorneys office. Justen Krismantis has also been charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. And Demetrius Harrell was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm. All three men were ordered in July to be held without bail, where Hayes will remain after Kenworthys ruling. At the arraignment in August, all three men pleaded not guilty, Simonton said. Their next court date is Dec. 12. Ald. Matt OShea, who represents the 19th Ward, said he sent out an email to residents encouraging them to show up in person at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse or online for the hearing Thursday in support of Golden. He said more than 100 people showed up in person, packing the courtroom and overflowing into the hallway, and hundreds more attended online. OShea said he has attended every hearing in this case so far. Once the motion was denied, there was a collective sigh of relief from Goldens supporters, he said. Golden was shot in the middle of his back on July 8 while trying to break up a fight in the Beverly neighborhood. After the shooting, a GoFundMe raised almost $1.5 million in support funds. Golden left the rehabilitation facility he was being treated at in August with a police escort as officers, family, friends and residents gathered in support as he returned home. This is what every community needs to do when something tragic regarding gun violence happens, OShea said. mellis@chicagotribune.com King Charles greets PM Rishi Sunak, and designer and campaigner Stella McCartney at the palace King Charles III has hosted a reception to discuss tackling climate change, as global leaders prepare for the UN climate summit COP27. About 200 politicians and campaigners met at Buckingham Palace, including PM Rishi Sunak, US climate envoy John Kerry and COP President Alok Sharma. The King is internationally known for his climate work but it was agreed he would not go to COP27. The UN conference begins on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Mr Sunak told the meeting that the UK's global leadership on climate change will continue after its COP presidency ends this week. The UK hosted COP26 in Glasgow last year. "Every moment that we allow climate change to ravage our planet we will see more human suffering," he said. "If we do not act today we will risk leaving an ever more desperate inheritance for our children tomorrow." Mr Sunak, who will attend the opening days of the summit, had faced fierce criticism from climate activists and opposition politicians for initially saying he would not go due to pressing matters in the UK. The prime minister paid tribute to King Charles's work on climate, saying he had worked for 50 years to find solutions, long before the first UN COP meeting. When former PM Liz Truss entered No 10, it was announced King Charles would not go to the summit. The monarch has a long-standing interest in environmental issues and attended COP26 in Glasgow last year, but the Palace said it had sought advice from then-PM Ms Truss and that "with mutual friendship and respect there was agreement that the King would not attend". King Charles planted a common lime tree in Buckingham Palace garden after hosting the reception On Thursday a spokesperson for Mr Sunak said, "had the prime minister been in post earlier the situation might have been different". Buckingham Palace says the reception on Friday afternoon was organised to "facilitate discussion of sustainable growth, progress made since COP26 in Glasgow and collective and continued efforts to tackle climate change." Story continues At COP26 in Glasgow last year, the King told leaders: "I can only urge you, as the world's decision-makers, to find practical ways of overcoming differences so we can all get down to work, together, to rescue this precious planet and save the threatened future of our young people." Climate remains close to King's heart Analysis box by Justin Rowlatt, climate editor Buckingham Palace has been very consistent; it says King Charles is not disappointed that he will not be going to the UN climate conference in Egypt. The decision was made during discussions between the King and the then Prime Minister, Liz Truss, it says. That may be so, but today's event is a signal of how important the climate issue remains for King Charles. He has decided to bring part of the conference to Buckingham Palace by convening this meeting of key figures from his Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI). The SMI and its Terra Carta Action Forum aim to spur business to up its efforts on climate change. King Charles has long argued getting the private sector involved in the climate issue is essential. Shocking images show how a pensioner is living with only one tiny electric heater to heat her entire home after her gas supply was isolated. (Reach) Shocking images of a pensioner living in squalid conditions with only a small electric heater to warm her entire home have been shared as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit the most vulnerable. The woman, referred to as Irene, has been left without central heating or hot water after her gas supply was isolated, leaving her relying on the heater and only able to eat toast because she has no other means to cook food. One of the worrying images show the small electric heater in her dilapidated home in Huyton, Merseyside, while another shows her damaged back door, which doesn't close properly, and there is also a large hole in one of her walls. Another showed the pensioner, who relies on oxygen cylinders, making the conditions she is living in extremely dangerous, surviving on a piece of toast. Irene's dilapidated home has prompted fears she won't survive the winter. (Reach) Images show holes in the wall and a broken back door. (Reach) Read more: 'It will probably kill me': Shocking impact of rising prices on the elderly laid bare The pictures were shared online by James Anderson who runs the Depher Community Interest Company - a plumbing and heating repair company that works to help people who are living in squalid conditions and cannot afford to maintain properties. The Lancashire-based plumber said he had been alerted to the situation by Irene's neighbour who was worried about the state she was living in. Sharing her plight on Twitter as he called for help from local Merseyside businesses and tradespeople to help make her home fit for human habitation, he wrote: "This is where Irene lives. She is an elderly lady who needs urgent help, without it her neighbour said "she may not survive another winter." Picturing the electric heater, he added: "This is her only form of heating. Her gas has been isolated, leaving her without any form of warmth or hot water. Irene needs the help of the community and experts." With an image of Irene sat next to a piece of toast, he added: "Jam on toast is nice, but not as a set meal." Story continues James Anderson put a shout-out on Twitter asking for help for Irene. (Twitter/Depher cic uk) Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO, Anderson said: "It was Irene's neighbour that first alerted us to the situation as she was very worried. We went to the house and it was pretty terrible - it was freezing too as she has no heating. "Irene has had to get used to this, but she shouldn't have to - she nearly cried when we told her we were going to help her out." Anderson set up Depher after his young son died several years ago and said in recent times he has seen people living in increasingly grim conditions as they can no longer afford to repair and maintain their homes. Anderson helps people across the country by organising fundraisers. (Twitter/Depher cic uk) He is hoping that through donations and offers of help from local companies, work can begin to make Irene's home safe to live in. He added: "We need quite a lot of help. We need a door fitter, a kitchen fitter, a carpet fitter, plumbers, gas engineers and someone to provide a skip and help clear out the property. We also welcome any donations from people that will help with the project." A GoFundMe page to help improve Irene's home has been set up and any businesses or tradespeople that can offer services are asked to contact James on 07521702043 or at info@depher.co.uk. A married couple was accused of kidnapping after the body of a missing pregnant woman and her fetus were found in separate locations in Missouri, authorities said on Nov. 3. Ashley Bush, 33, of Benton County, Arkansas, appeared to have been fatally shot after responding to a job posting Oct. 31, prosecutor Nathan Smith told reporters. Bush was 31 weeks pregnant. Smith declined to say how the fetus, Valkyrie Grace Willis, was removed from the womans body but added: Clearly, the baby was not found with the mother. Ashley Bush (Benton County Sheriff's Office via Facebook) Smith said he expected more charges against the couple, Amber and Jamie Waterman. They were booked into the McDonald County Detention Center in Missouri on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping after the sheriffs office there said it served a search warrant on a local address. Human remains were found that appeared to be connected to Bushs missing persons case, the McDonald County Sheriffs Office said. It wasnt immediately clear if the Watermans have lawyers to speak on their behalf. This is just a reminder that there is evil in the world, Smith said. People do evil things. That would someone prey upon a pregnant woman at her most vulnerable state is unimaginable. Thats the world we live in. Smith said a motive remained unclear. Bush disappeared after corresponding online with someone named Lucy a woman authorities believe was actually Amber Waterman, Smith said. Bush had been looking for a job working from home, the Benton County Sheriffs Office said in a statement Nov. 1. The two met on the morning of Oct. 31 at a convenience store in Maysville, in Arkansas northwestern corner, where Bush was to be taken to a job interview nearly 30 miles away, in Bentonville, the sheriffs office said. Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway said authorities dont believe Bush ever went to Bentonville. Valkyrie was found Wednesday, Nov. 2, and Bush was found Thursday, Nov. 4 both in Missouri. Holloway declined to provide more details, citing an ongoing investigation. Story continues Two counts of homicide were possible in the case because state law allows the charge in the killing of a pregnant woman, Smith said. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. This article was originally published on TODAY.com A federal appeals court on Thursday instructed a lower court to dismiss Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greenes (R-Ga.) lawsuit over a challenge to her candidacy based on the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment, ruling that the dispute was no longer relevant. A group of voters in March challenged Greenes eligibility to run for office under the clause, claiming that the congresswoman had engaged in insurrection in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Greene sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) over the challenge and asked the court to block the states consideration of it, arguing that the Georgia statute that allows for such challenges was unconstitutional. The district court denied Greenes request, a decision she appealed. A state administrative law judge ultimately rejected the voters challenge, finding that Greene did not engage in the attack on the Capitol and was eligible to appear on the ballot. Raffensperger affirmed the ruling, and the Fulton County Superior Court in turn affirmed his adoption of it. The Georgia Supreme Court declined to review the superior courts decision. Since the challenge was resolved while Greenes appeal was pending, the appeals court said on Thursday that the issue was moot. Ultimately, Rep. Greene was not disqualified from being a candidate for Congress and is presently on the ballot for the upcoming election, the court said. Accordingly, we no longer have the ability to accord Rep. Greene meaningful relief. The court remanded the case to the district court with instructions to dismiss it. With only days left before voters head to the polls, Greene is all but assured victory in her solidly red district in Georgia. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Keith Bernstein / Netflix Netflix will not append a disclaimer making clear The Crown is a fictional rendering of historical events, The Daily Beast can exclusively reveal. A source at Netflix told The Daily Beast that a new disclaimer has not been added, and emphasized the company line that The Crown has always been presented as a drama inspired by historical events. However the final decision by Netflix not to add a disclaimer to the show, which drops Monday, will come as a major disappointment to King Charless friends and loyal supporters who have been quietly and not-so-quietly campaigning for the show to clarify it is fiction. They have been prompted to act over concerns that the new series will show Charles in a bad light. The Crown Spotlights Princess Dianas Face-Off Against the Palace Their hopes had been raised by a disclaimer being appended to the trailer of the new series. However, Netflix has now doubled down on its position that the show is so clearly fictional it does not need to make a further clarification. The new series deals extensively with Charles affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and his divorce from Diana. Early reports from the show, which will drop almost two months to the day since he inherited the throne, suggest that Charles will be portrayed as the villain of the piece. Friends of King Charles told The Daily Beast he will not be making any public statement on the show, instead following the example set by his mother and aiming to keep calm and carry on over the coming days and weeks. He has a series of high profile engagements in the U.K. this coming week. However, his friends and allies may come out fighting against the show, as they have already, giving voice to his true feelings and thoughts. One friend previously told The Daily Beast: Charles and Camilla wouldnt say or do anything, even if they wanted to, because it would just be great publicity for Netflix. Everyone knows its all rubbish anyway. They will follow the queens example of dignified silence, and keep calm and carry on. Story continues Despite his own silence, Charles has been bolstered, domestically in the U.K. at least, by some high-profile pushback to fictionalized scenes, including an attack by former British prime minister Sir John Major, who denied a scene in which Charles tells him the queen should abdicate had taken place. And in a letter to the London Times, the revered British actress Dame Judi Dench, a friend of Camillas, wrote: Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new seriesthat King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mothers parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentencethis is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they representthis cannot go unchallenged. The plea, it appears, has fallen on deaf ears. Netflix has always been clear the show is fiction based on real-life events, and is not going to be moved by the whipping up of tabloid hysteria over the showwhich likely only improves The Crowns ratings anyway. 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. Georgias speaker of the House says he will not seek nomination for the position in the next legislative season. Rep. David Ralston said he will finish his current term as House speaker, which ends in January, but said some health issues have come up so he will not seek the position next year. I need to take time to address a health challenge which has arisen recently, and the House needs a Speaker who can devote the necessary time and energy to the office. I love the House and want to see the honorable men and women who serve in it succeed. I will work the remainder of my term as Speaker to ensure a smooth transition for my successor, Ralston said in a news release Friday. Ralston is currently running unopposed for the states 7th House district and said he intends to remain a representative. TRENDING STORIES: Serving as Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives has been the honor of a lifetime, and I owe a heartfelt thank you to my colleagues for the trust and confidence they placed in me thirteen years ago, Ralston continued. In a statement, Gov. Brian Kemp praised Ralston as a great leader. David Ralston has been a steadfast leader for Georgia throughout his time as Speaker, and our state is better off thanks to his wisdom and commitment to all Georgians while guiding the House through challenging times. The Speaker and Sheree have been dear friends to Marty and me over the last few years, and we deeply appreciate their friendship. While his service as Speaker is coming to a close, I know I will continue to ask my friend for his advice and counsel. Ralston was first elected to the House in 2002 and was first elected as speaker of the House in 2010. He is currently the longest-serving state House speaker in the country. The next legislative session starts Jan. 9. IN OTHER NEWS: Kristian Hemmitt (left) was found competent to stand trial less than six months after she was ordered to undergo mental health treatment. A former daycare worker accused of assaulting a 1-year-old girl in her care was found competent to stand trial on Thursday, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. The ruling comes less than six months after Kristian Hemmitt, 28, was ordered to mental health treatment, court records show. According to prosecutors, Hemmitt, who worked at Small Kids Adventures Learning Center on Glenway Avenue, assaulted the toddler in March. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has said Hemmitt grabbed the 1-year-old girl by the hair, lifted her off the ground and then dragged her across the room. While still clutching the girl's hair, Deters said, Hemmitt jerked the girl back and forth, ripping hair from her scalp. Deters said Hemmitt tried covering up the toddlers bald spots and threw the hair away in a trash can. She's facing charges of felonious assault, child endangering and tampering with evidence. Hemmitt was found incompetent to stand trial in June, according to documents filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. She was ordered to undergo treatment at Summit Behavioral Healthcare before being reevaluated. Small Kids Adventures Learning Center was notified earlier this year of the state's intention to revoke its license, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The agency issued a suspension order in March, requiring the center to close pending a final determination of its license. Officials allege the center has violated numerous provisions of the state administrative code, according to a license revocation notice sent to the center. Among those violations, state officials say, the center didn't notify public children services agency officials of suspected child abuse or neglect. The center closed following an administrative hearing process to determine whether it could keep its license, a spokesperson for the department confirmed on Friday. In its notice, the department noted other incidents of alleged mistreatment by the daycare's staff. Story continues State officials, citing a March 29 complaint inspection, say a staff member confined a child to a "feeding table" for at least four hours. The incident was captured on video, according to the revocation notice. State officials also found that food was taken from a child while other children were allowed to continue eating, the notice states. The footage shows the child being confined to a bed and highchair for "extended periods of time," the notice states. The notice does not identify the staff member nor does it say when the incident occurred. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Daycare worker accused of assaulting toddler found competent to stand trial DIANA KRECHETOVA FRIDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2022 Defenders of the Azovstal plant and members of the Association of Families of the Azovstal plant defenders received the Solidarity award conferred by a famous Spanish media outlet, El Espanol. Among the recipients was Kateryna Polishchuk, a medic nicknamed "Ptashka". Source: Telegram channel of the Association Los Leones de El Espanol 2022 is an annual award given by the El Espanol media outlet to people for significant achievements in society. This year, the laureates of the award are the female Ukrainian soldiers who defended the city of Mariupol from the Russian invasion and members of the Association of families of the Azovstal plant defenders. Kateryna "Ptashka" Polishchuk, a medic, and Olha Andrianova, the wife of one of the defenders of Mariupol and the representative of the Association, received the Golden Lion award on their behalf. All photos: the Association of Families of the Azovstal plant Defenders Pedro Ramirez, the president of El Espanol, emphasised that the women who defended the Azovstal plant symbolise and synthesise the values of his media outlet. "Freedom, justice, equality, stamina, independence, militancy and, finally, authority these are values demonstrated by these women. For instance, by Kateryna Polishchuk, a paramedic, who held up through the Azovstal plant siege and then endured Russian captivity with this same stamina, and Olha Andrianova, a wife of one of the defenders of Mariupol and the co-founder of the Association which fights for the rights of all captives," he stated during the award ceremony held in Madrid on 3 November. Background: Kateryna "Ptashka" Polishchuk, a paramedic, was liberated from Russian captivity during a big prisoners-of-war swap on 21 September. 214 other Ukrainian soldiers returned home with her. During the months when the defenders of Mariupol were in captivity, the Association of Families of the Azovstal plant defenders called upon the international community to recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, held campaigns and demonstrations, trying to draw the attention of the whole world to the war in Ukraine and its consequences. After the tragedy in the Olenivka PoW camp, they called upon the UN and International Red Cross Community to immediately react to the terrorist act. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! The United States and South Korea have decided to extend military exercises in response to a recent spate of missile launches from North Korea, offering stern warnings for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should he hold a nuclear test. Well chat Washington and Seouls message to Pyongyang and defense steps the two counties are taking, plus fears of a Russian trap in Kherson and lawmakers make a trip to Ukraine to show broad Congressional support. This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, Im Ellen Mitchell. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here. US, South Korea extend response to Norths missiles The United States and South Korea have decided to extend Vigilant Storm joint military air drills after North Korea late Wednesday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with additional missile launches early Thursday. The U.S.-South Korea war games, which began on Monday, had been scheduled to end on Friday and include some 240 fighter jets and other aircraft holding more than 1,600 flights. Officials did not say how long the drills would be extended. In development: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking to reporters following a meeting with South Korea Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup at the Pentagon, said the nations decided to extend Vigilant Storm to further bolster our readiness and interoperability. He added that the two will continue to work closely together to develop options to protect the United States and our allies in the region. An extreme warning: And Lee threatened that should Kim use any use nuclear weapons against the South or other allies in the region such as Japan, it would result in the end of Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the Alliance. Earlier: The North Korean missile launches are the latest in a string of similar actions, including the firing of 23 missiles on Wednesday, including one that landed off the coast of South Korea for the first time, after testing several throughout the month of October. Story continues Washington and Seoul have condemned the launches, with the Biden administration pressing countries to enforce sanctions on Pyongyang for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the isolated nation from holding missile and nuclear tests. A strategy change?: Asked whether the U.S. needs to adjust its strategy in response to an increasingly bellicose North Korea, Austin would only say that Washington will implement a larger U.S. military rotational presence in South Korea. We dont have a plan to change our permanent positioning or staging of assets on the [peninsula] currently, he said. But youll see assets move in and out on a routine basis. Read the rest here WH condemns latest North Korea missile launch The White House late Wednesday condemned North Koreas latest missile launch, warning that it poses major security risks to the region. This launch, in addition to the launch of multiple other ballistic missiles this week, is a flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. On blast: This action demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people, Watson added. We urge all countries to condemn these violations and call on the DPRK to cease its destabilizing actions and engage in serious dialogue. Read that story here Russian flag removed in Kherson, Ukraine sees trap Russias flag has come down over the main administrative building in Kherson, Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials and war experts arent convinced surrender is nigh. They suspect Russia may be setting an elaborate trap, creating the illusion of surrender while simultaneously ramping up reinforcements for a major battle to come. Contradictory statements: The statements coming from Russia are contradictory. They seem very intent on convincing everybody that theyre going to leave, but what theyre doing doesnt seem to be consistent with that, said Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego, who writes about the war. Signs: The flag is just the latest sign of surrender coming from Russia in the city of Kherson, a key strategic position that is crucial to Russias aspirations of advancing farther west, toward the major port in Odesa. Russian-installed officials in Kherson have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from the city and surrounding areas in recent weeks. Pro-Kremlin media members have reported that withdrawing Russian troops carried away bronze statues of 18th-century Russian commanders. And occupying officials have moved their headquarters 50 miles to the southeast. All a ruse?: But at the same time, some 40,000 Russian troops are deployed on the west bank of the Dnieper River in the city, more than ever before. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kremlin-installed administration in Kherson, told state media on Thursday that those Russian troops will most likely leave for the east bank. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week told an Italian newspaper that the movement was a ruse. Their best-trained troops are in place. Nobody left. We see it and dont believe them, he said. Read the full story here Two Sens. visit Ukraine to underscore broad support A pair of senators traveled to Kyiv this week and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reinforcing bipartisan support ahead of midterm elections amid concern that both Republicans and Democrats are fracturing over American support to Ukraine. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) released a joint statement saying their arrival in Kyiv underscores the broad support that continues to exist in Congress for the Ukrainian people. We met with President Zelenskyy to discuss Ukraines needs as it continues to defend itself against this brutal Russian invasion and to show American solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the statement continued. The topics at hand: Zelensky tweeted that Coons and Portman are true friends of Ukraine and thanked them for leadership support. We discussed the situation at the front, the missile terror by the [Russian Federation] and the priority areas of aid for Ukraine, defense and economic. We believe in joint victory! Coons and Portman also met with Ukraines Foreign Minister Dymetro Kuleba, Ukraines Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, and other Ukrainian officials, the senators said in the statement. Some context: The majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress say they support continued U.S. military and economic support to Ukraine, but a minority of lawmakers in both parties have increased criticism of the nearly $18 billion in security assistance and $1.5 billion in humanitarian and economic assistance. In response to those criticisms, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) has said that a GOP-controlled House would not write a blank check for Ukraine, responding to calls from lawmakers that more oversight is needed on U.S. assistance to the country. And Progressive House Democrats caused a commotion last month when they released and then withdrew a letter calling for President Biden to prioritize negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which was criticized as out of step with the administrations stance on support for Kyivs strategy of gaining a military advantage over Russia before Read that story here ON TAP TOMORROW George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs will host a conference on The CCP 20th Party Congress and Chinas Road Ahead, at 12:30 p.m The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host an event on The 2022 Missile Defense Review, with John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, at 1 p.m. The U.S. Institute of Peace will hold a virtual discussion on Resolving Tensions Between South Korea and Japan: Creative Approaches to Strengthening the Relationship, at 1 p.m. The Wilson Center will host a virtual talk on U.S. Policy on Lebanon, with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, at 3 p.m. WHAT WERE READING For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Reuters Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump's real estate company rested their case on Monday after calling just two witnesses in the Trump Organization's criminal trial in a New York state court on tax fraud charges. Outside accountant Donald Bender wrapped up his testimony for the defense and was followed on the witness stand by a paralegal from the offices of one of the defense lawyers. Juan Merchan, the judge in the case, set closing arguments for Thursday and Friday with jury deliberations expected to begin next Monday. A guard walks between photovoltaic panels at a solar farm in Pavagada, Karnataka, India, February 24, 2022. / Credit: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty New Delhi When the COP27 United Nations climate conference kicks off this weekend in Egypt, India will likely approach the international gathering with a well-earned boast about its success in going green and an appeal for more help to continue down that path. But despite significant strides that one analyst says have made India the only nation with anything to brag about, it may find an international community with little appetite for generosity. Ahead of the climate summit, and clearly aiming to impress, India has set itself tougher targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions and increasing its clean energy generation capacity by 2030, largely off the back of significant progress in its solar power industry. Setting the bar higher As all nations were asked to do ahead of COP27, India submitted its updated "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in August. Under the terms of climate treaties signed by the COP nations, every country must submit its own goals for reducing emissions and explain how they'll be met and every year the nations are expected to show progress and make their goals more ambitious. With India's new NDCs, it has pledged to reduce the intensity of the emissions from its national economic output by 45% by 2030, compared to its 2005 level. The target was previously set at 30%. India has also promised to increase its total share of installed renewable power capacity to 50% by 2030. Currently it's less than 30%, as 70% of India's electricity still comes from coal. The country has also added a new target: It has pledged to create a "carbon sink," to absorb the equivalent of 2.5 to 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, through mass-tree planting. Toxic smog turns India's capital "into a gas chamber" Besides these official commitments, the Indian government also released an ambitious draft National Electricity Plan (NEP) in September. The plan is a policy document released every five years that guides the power sector's expansion. Story continues This year's plan seems to exceed commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 in Glasgow last year. The NEP aims to achieve 57% renewable capacity by 2027 and 68% by 2032. It also plans for a 24% increase in solar power production targets for 2027 compared to the previous plan. A solar powerhouse? India has set its ambitious targets based largely on significant progress made in its solar energy sector. The country has a current solar energy generation capacity of 59 gigawatts. That makes it the fifth-highest producer, behind the U.S. and China, but given the country's solar capacity growth rate of 47% annually between 2016 and 2021, many hope to see it emerge quickly as a global hub for solar energy. In September, online retail giant Amazon announced its first three solar farm projects in India, which it said would produce a total of 420 megawatts of clean energy. The company will also set up 23 new solar rooftop projects on its fulfilment centers across 14 Indian cities. "This indicates the fact that corporates are now really embarked on their decarbonization journeys," said Sumant Sinha, founder, chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, which is developing one of the solar farms for Amazon, a 210 MW plant in Rajasthan. A file photo from June 2021 shows workers inside a solar photovoltaic panel manufacturing facility at Central Electronics Ltd. in Ghaziabad, India. / Credit: Sakib Ali/Hindustan Times/Getty "Almost a quarter of our new capacity is being directly picked up by corporates. A couple of years ago, this was just two or three percent," he told CBS News. "They are doing it for two reasons: One is that they want to decarbonize their own operations, and two, because it's cheaper for them." Several other major global corporations are also investing in India's solar industry. Netherlands-based SHV Energy, a big player in the oil and gas industry, has acquired a majority stake in Sunsource Energy, one of the top solar companies in India, and Malaysia-based Petronas has also acquired a leading solar rooftop company in India. Solar panel arrays are seen on the rooftops of apartment buildings in Bengaluru, India, February 21, 2022. / Credit: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg/Getty Indian entrepreneurs are also investing in medium and micro-scaled solar power projects, and the government is backing a solar energy program for the country's vast agricultural sector, paving the way for the installation of 3.75 million solar-powered irrigation pumps over the next three years. "There is no way you can exclude India from the energy mix in the global scenario from now on," Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO of the National Solar Energy Federation of India, told CBS News. "I believe India will end up achieving the solar capacity target of 350 GW earlier than 2030." Touting success, and seeking help India emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than every other individual nation apart from China and the U.S. With a growing economy and some 1.35 billion people, it has faced pressure from more developed countries to phase out coal and end subsidies for oil and gas. While India's energy transition is happening at an impressive rate, it argues that abandoning fossil fuels too quickly would risk its economic development, and in a nation where so many remain mired in poverty, it can't afford that option. At least not without significant financial help from wealthier nations. "India's energy needs will grow, which means that in the short run, its emissions almost certainly will also grow, whether [for] five or 10 years, that is unclear," Navroz Dubash, a professor with the India-based Centre for Policy Research, told CBS News. He said that for the next decade or two, India should stress that it is "committed to a low-carbon future, but one that allows us to develop and meet our energy needs." An Indian shopkeeper sits near solar panels placed outside his stall in a temporary settlement along the Yamuna river in New Delhi, on World Sustainable Energy Day, June 22, 2022. / Credit: Pankaj Nangia/Anadolu Agency/Getty India has a relatively good report card to show off at the upcoming COP27 summit, and it will tout the success of its energy transition thus far to seek more global funding to decarbonize and mitigate the dangerous impacts of climate change, experts told CBS News. "India has demonstrated that in the past, it has been able to add more clean energy alternatives and has set up huge ambitions," Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), told CBS News. "India is the only country that has something to show as progress at COP27," said Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO of the National Solar Energy Federation of India. "Our renewable energy generation has not decreased but increased, even during the COVID pandemic and [Ukraine] war." At the last year's COP26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought $1 trillion in climate finance for India over the coming nine years, to help it meet its 2030 targets. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech during the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 2, 2021. / Credit: Robert Perry/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty India did see an increase in renewable energy investments last year compared to previous years, but Garg, the IEEFA economist, said the country would need "about two to three times more investment to meet the 2030 target." A recent report by the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute estimated that India would need $10.1 trillion in investments to achieve its pledge of complete carbon neutrality by 2070. But with the Ukraine war creating huge disruptions in the global energy supply chain and fueling geopolitical uncertainty, it's not clear if developing countries like India will be able to secure significant new financial commitments at COP27. Already developed nations have broken a promise they made at COP15 to ringfence $100 billion annually to help developing countries decarbonize and deal with the impacts of climate change. "And now that some of these developed countries are facing crises like rising prices of food and fuel in their own countries, things are becoming worse," Garg told CBS News. "So, I don't know how much finance they are going to make available to other countries to help them transition." MoneyWatch: U.S. job growth slows in October Preview: Steven Spielberg on making "The Fabelmans": "It was cathartic for me" Former President Trump faces deadline to hand over documents to the Jan. 6 Committee Five physicians are challenging a California misinformation law that would allow the state medical board to discipline doctors who disseminate information about Covid-19 that diverges from the contemporary scientific consensus. The group of doctors sued Governor Gavin Newsoms administration, asking a district court in California to block the law from taking effect. The group argues the law, which is set to take effect on January 1, would violate their First Amendment rights and constitutional right to due process. The complaint argues that the new law impedes their ability to communicate with their patients in the course of treatment. In safeguarding Americans rights to free speech and expression, the First Amendment applies not only to expression of majority opinions, but to minority views as well, the complaint reads, noting that minority views could include anything from the efficacy of mask mandates to the possible risks of post-vaccination adverse effects. The doctors argue that contemporary scientific consensus is undefined in the law and undefinable as a matter of logic. No one can know, at any given time, the consensus of doctors and scientists on various matters related to prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the complaint adds. And even if such a poll could theoretically be taken, who would qualify to be polled? Only those doctors treating COVID-19 patients? All doctors and scientists, or only those in certain fields? The law would apply to the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California. Both boards members are appointed by the governor and state lawmakers, the lawsuit says. Seven of the two boards 15 members are public members who may not be licensed physicians. Dr. Tracy Hoeg, a plaintiff in the suit who has been the senior author of nine epidemiological analyses, said in the complaint that she is afraid of saying something to my patients that I know is consistent with the current scientific literature but may not yet be accepted by the California Medical Board. Story continues Six of the nine epidemological analyses were published in peer-reviewed journals and covered topics including the efficacy of mask mandates and the risks and benefits of Covid-19 vaccines for children. Physicians must feel free to speak truthfully with their patients if they wish to gain and maintain their trust, she said. Jenin Younes, counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan civil rights firm that is representing the doctors, said in a statement that the law is the the result of an increasingly censorious mentality that has gripped many lawmakers in this country. That this shocking bill passed through the state legislature and was signed into law by Governor Newsom demonstrates that far too many Americans do not understand the First Amendment, Younes said. More from National Review (Bloomberg) -- US utility Dominion Energy Inc. replaced its chief financial officer and is initiating a top-to-bottom business review that could include selling assets after its shares dropped 14% this year. Most Read from Bloomberg The review will look at the Richmond, Virginia-based firms strategic actions, its capital allocation and regulatory options, the company said Friday in its third-quarter earnings release. Our relative share performance has not met our expectations, including over the past several years, Chief Executive Officer Bob Blue said in the statement. Therefore, I have initiated a top-to-bottom business review with the goal of ensuring that Dominion Energy is best positioned to create significant long-term value for our shareholders. Blue signaled on the call that future plans could include asset sales, saying the review would look at how capital is invested in businesses and what may be worth more to others than they are within our current regulated business profile. The review comes as Dominion promotes Steven D. Ridge, who currently runs the companys western gas operations, to CFO. The current CFO, James R. Chapman, is stepping down for a finance job at Exxon Mobil Corp. after four years in his post, the company said in a news release Friday. We are viewing the move as slightly cautious for the stock as it is being paired with a wider business review, Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note Friday. Dominion needs to ensure near-term economic and customer bill issues dont preclude the comprehensive energy transition strategy. Dominion shares fell 2.8% as of 11:26 a.m. in New York trading and are down about 14% this year. Story continues (Story updates with CFO move, analyst reaction, color from earnings call, and share price throughout.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. More than five dozen workers have filed suit against Gopher Resource, alleging they were harmed by high lead exposure at the Tampa factory. Across two separate lawsuits, 64 workers claim the company put profits over safety by failing to fix severe ventilation problems that allowed toxic lead dust to accumulate in the plant and to provide workers with proper respiratory protection. The latest suit was filed Wednesday in Hillsborough County on behalf of 22 workers and 12 of their children. The complaint alleges dusty conditions inside Floridas only lead smelter resulted in workers carrying lead particles to their cars and into their homes where they exposed children to the potent neurotoxin. Inside the factory, workers respirators didnt seal properly because they became so sweaty from the heat, according to the complaint. So much lead dust accumulated in work areas, the suit says, it resembled piles of dirt. The complaint further alleges that Gopher failed to provide workers with adequate medical evaluations or fully inform them about the dangers of living with lead exposure. It does not say how much the workers are seeking in damages. We look forward to proving our case at trial, Frank Miranda, a Tampa lawyer whos among the attorneys representing the workers, wrote in an email to the Tampa Bay Times. The second lawsuit was filed in September on behalf of 42 workers, who were employed in various areas of the plant, including the furnace, refinery and maintenance departments. That complaint alleges workers exposure to lead and other harmful substances such as cadmium, arsenic and sulfur dioxide caused them to have an array of health problems, including cancer, kidney damage, high blood pressure, cognitive disorders, memory loss, anemia and breathing problems. Gopher was negligent, the suit says, because the company failed to maintain a safe work environment, make timely repairs or warn employees about the dangers of lead. Story continues Gopher modeled their factory off of taking advantage of individuals that needed work and were desperate to find work, said Michael Fuller, a San Juan-based attorney representing the workers. And they put them in what they knew was a toxic situation. The lawsuits are the most recent fallout after a Times investigation published last year found that hundreds of workers at Gopher were exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other chemicals. Six of the plaintiffs were named in the newsrooms stories. Among them: Eric Autery, an Army vet and former furnace worker, who was exposed to lead levels seven times what his company-issued respirator could handle. Gopher recycles lead from used car batteries, melts it in furnaces and creates new metal to sell to other businesses. In a statement to the Times, Gopher did not address the allegations in the lawsuit, saying the company does not comment on pending litigation. Gopher said it provides thousands of hours of training to workers and allocates roughly a quarter of its annual budget to safety and environmental protections, including equipment for workers. Gopher is focused on continuous improvement and process enhancements, the company said. The recent filings are not the first lawsuits against Gopher. In June 2021, a worker sued the company on behalf of his young son alleging that the companys dangerous and dusty work environment resulted in the boy being exposed to the neurotoxin. That worker, Ko Brown, also is a plaintiff in the September suit and is represented by a team of attorneys, including Fuller and prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump. Brown and his family were featured in the Times three-part series on Gopher. The newsrooms investigation found that air-lead readings inside some parts of the plant were regularly hundreds of times above the federal limit, and many workers wore respirators that werent strong enough to adequately protect them. The factorys ventilation system for years didnt function correctly, adding to the high exposure levels. Most Gopher workers had enough lead in their blood to put them at risk of serious health problems, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and kidney problems. The Times investigation also found that dust from the plant was the suspected source of lead exposure in at least 16 children of workers who unknowingly brought the poison home in their cars or on their shoes. Authorities in East Chicago, Indiana, are recognizing the bravery of two students who stepped up and quite possibly helped prevent a severe tragedy at their Catholic school. As Blavity previously reported, a 25-year-old instructor named Angelica Carrasquillo-Torres was taken into custody last month after it was revealed that the 5th grade teacher had a kill list that included numerous students from St. Stanislaus School. On Wednesday October 12, 2022, at approximately 12:45 p.m. a 5th grade student told his/her Counselor that their 5th grade teacher made comments to him/her about killing herself, students and staff at St. Stanislaus School. The teacher further told the student that she has a list and that he/she was on the bottom of that list, the East Chicago Police Department (ECPD) wrote in an Oct. 13 Facebook post. She said that she wanted to kill her middle school friends, her high school friends and half of her family, Portia Jones, one of Carrasquillo-Torress students, shared, according to CBS News. Then she admitted that she had a kill list. Since the matter went down, the instructor in question has been fired and has agreed to a no-contact order with the school. An East Chicago teacher who is accused of threatening students and staff with a kill list agreed to a no-contact order with the school during a court hearing, according to court records.https://t.co/SlOwFL33zO Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) October 30, 2022 Additionally, the students who helped bring the situation to public attention are being honored with the ECPDs Heroism Award. We find it heroic, because how difficult is that for two children to have to speak up against someone they trust and were actually threatened by that one person? Jose Rivera, chief of the ECPD, shared, CBS News reports. Rivera went on to note that while most of the coverage has been on Carrasquillo-Torress misdeed he wants more people to acknowledge the heroism exhibited by the two students in question. Shoutout to the brave students at St. Stanislaus School who helped oust the troubled 5th grade teacher from her teaching position. Signatures for petitions are collected from grocery store patrons in Silver Lake in 2016. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) A few words of caution to any Californian approached by someone asking for your signature on a petition: Read carefully before you sign. Most of the clipboard-wielding people you encounter outside grocery stores and shopping centers are not volunteers trying to change a policy because they deeply believe in the cause. They are workers who are paid for each signature they gather. And they might be misleading you about the petition they want you to sign. Reports popping up around the state allege troubling instances of signature gatherers giving false or misleading descriptions to persuade people to sign petitions seeking to overturn two good laws Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed. One petition is sponsored by the fast-food industry to overturn a law to set a higher minimum wage for fast-food workers. The other is sponsored by fossil fuel companies to overturn a law banning new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes and schools. A complaint the Service Employees International Union filed with the attorney general about the fast-food campaign says that a signature gatherer in Los Angeles repeatedly told people they were signing a petition for the minimum wage to go up even though, in reality, the petition seeks to overturn a new law that could result in higher wages for fast-food workers. Another signature gatherer in Stockton claimed the petition would "raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to 22 bucks an hour, the complaint says. Thats the opposite of the intent of the petitions, which are part of a campaign paid for by the fast-food industry to repeal a law Newsom signed last month that creates a statewide council made up of workers and franchise owners to set minimum wages at chain restaurants that could go as high as $22 an hour. Fast-food restaurants, led by Chipotle, In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A, have pumped $20 million into the effort to gather at least 623,000 signatures. If theyre successful, the law could not take effect until voters decide in 2024 if they want to uphold it. Story continues Fossil fuel companies have put $9 million into a drive for signatures to repeal the oil and gas well ban. And their petition circulators are also stretching the truth, according to accounts shared on social media and with the press . A Times editorial board member encountered a man gathering signatures for that petition in Silver Lake with a sign reading, "Lower gas price$." When asked if the petition was to repeal the ban on oil drilling near houses and schools, he said no. State law makes it a misdemeanor to misrepresent the contents of a petition, but lackadaisical enforcement, a web of subcontracted services and ongoing demand from big-money campaigns have allowed some signature gatherers to act with impunity. The San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this year that a man accused of misleading tactics in multiple states who also was convicted of falsifying his own voter registration in California runs a company that deploys petition circulators around California and touts his companys reputation for collecting large numbers of signatures quickly. California lawmakers have repeatedly passed bills to ban the practice of paying people per signature gathered, saying it incentivizes deception. But the legislation was vetoed by Newsom and former Gov. Jerry Brown. Payment per signature remains one of the most economical methods to qualify for the ballot. This measure could therefore make the qualification of many initiatives cost-prohibitive for all but the wealthiest interests, Newsom wrote in a veto message. The onus is on voters to make sure they understand a petition before deciding to sign. Here are a couple of tips: Read the Title and summary of the measure that must be printed on the top of the petition. Its the official description explaining the proposed law, and its just a few sentences long. Ask to see the Official Top Funders disclosure . This information shows which interest groups or individuals are paying for the campaign and, by law, must be made available to anyone being asked to sign a petition. Voters who change their mind about a proposal after signing a petition can have their signature removed. Contact your county elections office for details about how to do that. Your signature is valuable, as evidenced by the fact that corporations are spending millions of dollars to collect it. Enough signatures on a referendum petition will force a good law to be delayed, and could lead to it being overturned by the voters in an expensive ballot campaign. So when deciding whether to put your name on a petition, it's best not to rely on the words of the person who passes you the pen. What's the most outrageous thing you've heard from someone gathering signatures? Share your stories with us at letters@latimes.com. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. (AFP via Getty Images) Elon Musk will begin massive Twitter layoffs on Friday one week after closing his $44bn deal for the social media platform, say reports. The San Francisco-based company currently has around 7,500 staff and around half the company is set to lose their jobs according to The New York Times. The billionaire reportedly told investors before the deal he wanted to get rid of 75 per cent of employees but appears to have settled on a lower number. Twitter employees were notified about the layoffs in an email on Thursday and told not to come into the office on Friday as the firings are carried out, according to The New York Times. Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, the email to staff read, according to The Washington Post. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward. Elon Musk. Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images Elon Musk talked about his sleeping habits, including past nights spent on Tesla's factory floor. He said he wanted to show that he's hard at work and not "drinking Mai Tais on a tropical island." Musk's comments come after a Twitter employee shared a photo of his boss sleeping in the office. Elon Musk opened up about his sleeping habits during the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference in New York on Friday, highlighting the work culture he promotes at his companies as Twitter's staff undergoes layoffs and an around-the-clock push to meet newly imposed deadlines. "I was living in the factory in Fremont and the one in Nevada for three years straight," Musk said. "Those were my primary residences." He said he used to sleep on a couch in the factories, but moved to sleeping on the floor under his desk so his team could see him during shift changes. Musk said that sleeping on the floor was "damn uncomfortable" and made him "smell like dust." Still, he said he wanted to show employees that he takes his job seriously and was not "drinking Mai Tais on a tropical island," with the hope that it would inspire them to "give it their all." Musk's comments come days after a Twitter employee shared a photo early Wednesday morning of his boss Esther Crawford, the director of product management at Twitter, sleeping on the office floor. Crawford replied that her team was "pushing round the clock to make deadlines," which highlights Musk's demands for his new employees to work longer hours. Musk has publicly talked about his sleeping habits in the past. In an interview with Bloomberg in 2018, Musk said that "The reason I slept on the floor was not because I couldn't go across the road and be at a hotel. It was because I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company. Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse." Story continues He has also criticized Americans for what he perceived as a weak work ethic, and praised Chinese workers. "There's just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing," Musk told the Financial Times. "They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil. They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all." Read the original article on Business Insider PROVIDENCE A federal judge this week shot down, once again, Institute for International Sport founder Daniel E. Doyle Jr.s effort to overturn his conviction for skimming more than $1 million from his once-celebrated nonprofit organization. U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy on Thursday dismissed Doyles latest challenge to his conviction for embezzling money from the nonprofit Institute to pay for personal expenses, including his daughters' college education, cosmetic surgery and a wedding rehearsal dinner. McElroy denied and dismissed Doyle arguments that his constitutional rights were violated when Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg let prosecutors present an avalanche of prejudicial evidence about actions for which Doyle was never charged. Instead, McElroy agreed with the state Supreme Courts finding that evidence about his prior bad acts was relevant to Doyles "intent and proof of motive" in the years-long embezzlement scheme. She also rejected arguments by Doyle challenging the inclusion of testimony by Rhode Island State Police Detective Courtney Elliot, a lay witness who determined which expenses were authorized and which were not, and instead were funded by embezzling from the institute. More news:Off-duty Providence cop who punched his political opponent at rally testifies he was armed McElroy agreed that a reasonable jurist could determine, as the Supreme Court did, that an expert opinion wasnt necessary to `prove that drawing two salaries, or paying for a childs college tuition from Institute funds, or making a donation to ones college alma mater amounts to embezzlement. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha's office praised the ruling. "We are pleased with the District Courts well-reasoned decision. It is imperative that those that abuse public trust and fraudulently capitalize on others good intentions face stiff punishment. In this case, Daniel Doyle embezzled charitable donations for his own personal use and violated not only those that believed in him and his purported mission, but also damaged public trust in our institutions," spokesman Brian Hodge said. Story continues Doyle's lawyers, Gary Pelletier and Tracy L. Greene, said they plan to appeal. We respectfully but strongly disagree with the courts decision. We intend to pursue all of Mr. Doyles appellate rights to the United States Court for Appeals for the First Circuit," the lawyers said in a statement. Doyle had strong words and planned to issue more through his substack. I am outraged by the courts decision. I continue to maintain my innocence. I emphatically state that I did not embezzle from anyone, and I did not receive a fair trial. The Due Process for Dan Doyle Initiative intends to issue a statement this week denouncing the decision, Doyle said. What happened with Dan Doyle and Institute for International Sport? Doyles efforts to undo his conviction or win early release have been shot down in state and now federal court, as well as the state Parole Board. According to the Due Process for Dan Doyle substack, Doyle,73, of Connecticut, was released from the Adult Correctional Institutions on Memorial Day, after serving four years and 10 months behind bars. He is in the process of writing a book about his experience in prison entitled "Behind The Cloud (A Silver Lining)." McElroys ruling traces Doyles downfall from founding the widely praised Institute for International Sport, whose mission was to achieve world peace through sports, to embezzler. More: newsInsults, accusations, bad blood in Woonsocket. How the mayor ended up in the center of it. In 2007, Doyle secured $575,000 in state grants to build a second Institute building on the University of Rhode Island grounds. Two years later, Marisa White, then director of the General Assemblys Joint Committee on Legislative Services, noticed the new building remained under construction, long after she believed it should have been completed, sparking an investigation and audit. In 2012, a grand jury indicted Doyle on 18 counts, including embezzlement, obtaining money under false pretenses and forgery. A jury convicted Doyle in December 2016 of draining money from the nonprofit institute for personal use by himself and his family after a three-month trial, one of the state's longest criminal trials. Judge Thunberg sentenced Doyle to 15 years, with 7 to serve, and ordered him to pay $550,000 to the Hassenfeld Foundation. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Institute for International Sport founder Dan Doyle's conviction stands Just two months after suing five chain pharmacies over the opioid crisis, Erie County is line to get a settlement from two of them. The county expects to get a piece of the $10 billion settlement that CVS Health and Walgreen Co. reached in principle to end lawsuits nationwide over the effects of opioids, the solicitor for Erie County said. CVS and Walgreens the two largest pharmacy chains in the United States are two of the five chains the county sued in Erie County Common Pleas Court on Sept. 7. The others are Walmart, Rite Aid and Giant Eagle. "We anticipate being part of the settlement, but the amount and terms still need to be determined," the county solicitor, William Speros, said on Thursday. Speros commented a day after Walgreens and CVS announced the proposed settlement. Each chain would pay $5 billion to close out the thousands of lawsuits that governments nationwide have filed against them. Walmart is in discussions for a deal of its own, according to the Associated Press. The suits, including Erie County's, claim the pharmacy chains fueled the opioid epidemic by negligently saturating the local market with prescription painkillers despite warning signs over suspicious orders. The suits against the pharmacies followed suits against drug distributors. The proposed settlement in the pharmacy suits concerns only Walgreens and CVS. Erie County would continue to sue the chains that do not reach settlements, Speros said. Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine, morphine and many others. Erie County is among scores of governments nationwide that have sued pharmacies over their handling of prescriptions for opioids. Settlement would benefit opioid-related programs in Erie The money from the proposed settlement with Walgreens and CVS is all but certain to help fund programs to aid the county in fighting opioid addiction, as has been in the case with proceeds from similar settlements. Speros said more negotiations must occur before the settlement becomes final for Erie County and other plaintiffs, including state governments. "We anticipate being part of the settlement, but the amount and terms still need to be determined," Speros said. Story continues Under the proposed settlement, neither Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS nor Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens is admitting wrongdoing, according to the AP. New Erie County lawsuit related to other opioid cases The AP also reported the settlement plans spring from mediation involving a group of state attorneys general. Before they move ahead, state and then local governments would need to sign on. So far, the detailed, formal deals have not been presented to the government entities so they can decide whether to join. Under the tentative plans, CVS would pay $4.9 billion to local governments and about $130 million to Native American tribes over a decade. Walgreens would pay $4.8 billion to governments and $155 million to tribes over 15 years. The exact amount depends on how many governments join the deals, according to the AP. Erie County sued the five pharmacy chains shortly after as it started to receive payments in another large case related to the opioid epidemic. The county was part of a settlement involving lawsuits several states filed against three major pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen as well as opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. Erie County Solicitor William Speros is overseeing the county's lawsuit against five pharmaceutical chains over the opioid crisis. The county received $673,818 in September, the first of 17 payments the county will receive on an annual basis until 2039. The county is expected to receive a total of nearly $16 million from the settlement. The money must go toward opioid prevention, treatment or any of a wide range of opioid remediation uses. The Erie County District Attorney's Office was involved in a separate lawsuit against the same drug companies. That office is to receive about $1.8 million through 2039, with an initial payment of $217,805. The money is to fund programs for prevention, education and abatement related to the opioid crisis. Erie County case aligned with successful Ohio suit The county's lawsuit against the pharmaceutical chains was based on strong precedent. The case is similar to a lawsuit that led to a $650 million judgment following a jury verdict against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart in federal court in Cleveland in November. The plaintiffs in that case were Lake and Trumbull counties, both outside Cleveland. Two other defendants Rite Aid and Giant Eagle settled with the counties before trial. That case represented the first national trial against national chains over the opioid crisis. Following the verdict, the judge held another hearing to determine damages and awarded the $650 million in August. In the Erie County case, the county is claiming the pharmacies contributed to the county getting flooded with opioids. Citing federal data, the suit states that 103,169,505 doses of the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone were prescribed in Erie County in 2006-2014. That amounts to "379 doses for every man, woman and child in the County," according to the suit. CVS, Walgreens comment on proposed settlement The pharmaceutical companies have yet to respond to the county's lawsuit in court. CVS and Walgreens issued statements with Wednesday's announcement about the proposed $10 billion settlement. "We are pleased to resolve these longstanding claims and putting them behind us is in the best interest of all parties, as well as our customers, colleagues and shareholders," Thomas Moriarty, CVS chief policy officer and general counsel, said, according to the AP. Walgreens said in its statement, according to the AP: As one of the largest pharmacy chains in the nation, we remain committed to being a part of the solution, and this settlement framework will allow us to keep our focus on the health and wellbeing of our customers and patients, while making positive contributions to address the opioid crisis." Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: $10 billion opioid settlement with drugstores to benefit Erie County Zhang Yao recalls the moment he realised something had gone deeply wrong at the Chinese mega-factory where he and hundreds of thousands of other workers assembled iPhones and other high-end electronics. In early October, supervisors suddenly warned him that 3,000 colleagues had been taken into quarantine after someone tested positive for Covid-19 at the factory. "They told us not to take our masks off," Zhang, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, told AFP by telephone. What followed was a weeks-long ordeal including food shortages and the ever-present fear of infection, before he finally escaped on Tuesday. Zhang's employer, Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, has said it faces a "protracted battle" against infections and imposed a "closed loop" bubble around its sprawling campus in central China's Zhengzhou city. Local authorities locked down the area surrounding the major Apple supplier's factory on Wednesday, but not before reports emerged of employees fleeing on foot and a lack of adequate medical care at the plant. China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks. But new variants have tested officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups and dragged down economic activity with the threat of sudden disruptions. - Desperation - Multiple workers have recounted scenes of chaos and increasing disorganisation at Foxconn's complex of workshops and dormitories, which form a city-within-a-city near Zhengzhou's airport. Zhang told AFP that "positive tests and double lines (on antigen tests) had become a common sight" in his workshop before he left. "Of course we were scared, it was so close to us." "People with fevers are not guaranteed to receive medicine," another Foxconn worker, a 30-year-old man who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP. "We are drowning," he said. Those who decided to stop working were not offered meals at their dormitories, Zhang said, adding that some were able to survive on personal stockpiles of instant noodles. Story continues Kai, a worker at in the complex who gave an interview to state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek, told the magazine Foxconn's "closed loop" involved cordoning off paths between dormitory compounds and the factory, and complained he was left to his own devices after being thrown in quarantine. TikTok videos geolocated by AFP showed mounds of uncollected rubbish outside buildings in late October, while employees in N95 masks squeezed onto packed shuttle buses taking them from dormitories to their work stations. A 27-year-old woman working at Foxconn, who asked not to be named, told AFP a roommate who tested positive for Covid was sent back to her dormitory on Thursday morning, crying, after she decided to hand in her notice while in quarantine. "Now the three of us are living in the same room: one a confirmed case and two of us testing positive on the rapid test, still waiting for our nucleic acid test results," the worker told AFP. Many became so desperate by the end of last month that they attempted to walk back to their hometowns to get around Covid transport curbs. As videos of people dragging their suitcases down motorways and struggling up hills spread on Chinese social media, the authorities rushed in to do damage control. The Zhengzhou city government on Sunday said it had arranged for special buses to take employees back to their hometowns. Surrounding Henan province has officially reported a spike of more than 600 Covid cases since the start of this week. - Distrust - When Zhang finally attempted to leave the Foxconn campus on Tuesday, he found the company had set up obstacle after obstacle. "There were people with loudspeakers advertising the latest Foxconn policy, saying that each day there would be a 400 yuan ($55) bonus," Zhang told AFP. A crowd of employees gathered at a pick-up point in front of empty buses but were not let on. People in hazmat suits, known colloquially as "big whites" in China, claimed they had been sent by the city government. "They tried to persuade people to stay in Zhengzhou... and avoid going home," Zhang said. "But when we asked to see their work ID, they had nothing to show us, so we suspected they were actually from Foxconn." Foxconn pointed to the local government's lockdown orders from Wednesday when asked by AFP if it attempted to stop employees from leaving, without giving any further response. The company had on Sunday said it was "providing employees with complimentary three meals a day" and cooperating with the government to provide transport home. Eventually, the crowd of unhappy workers who had gathered decided to take matters into their own hands and walked over seven kilometres on foot to the nearest highway entry ramp. There, more people claiming to be government officials pleaded with the employees to wait for the bus. The crowd had no choice as the road was blocked. Buses eventually arrived at five in the afternoon -- nearly nine hours after Zhang had begun his attempt to secure transport. "They were trying to grind us down," he said. Back in his hometown, Zhang is now waiting out the home quarantine period required by the local government. "All I feel is, I've finally left Zhengzhou," he told AFP. bur-tjx/oho/je/mca/cwl Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Signature Films Like it or not, were officially in the holiday season. For a sizable chunk of the population, that means having to start weeks of emotional and mental preparation just to deal with extended family. I myself do not have a difficult family. Ive been told its a gift: While others plan an exit strategy before the pie is served, Im nose-deep in the blueprints of where to hide the Christmas presents I bought a month early so they wont be found and ruin the surprise. My lack of detestable aunts and weird uncles is a godsend, yes, but it makes me that much more predisposed to seeking out stories about families fighting to the death over the dinner table. Thats part of what makes writer/director Dean Craigs new feature, The Estate, so alluring: Its a deliciously immoral story of warring, neer-do-well cousins, all battling over their rich aunts estate after shes diagnosed with terminal cancer. What better way to forget your own familial woes? And though the film ratchets its hereditary havoc up to impossible heights, The Estate proves itself a delightfully foul-mouthed family comedy thats tonally frenetic, but ultimately amusing. Macey (Toni Collette) and Savanna (Anna Faris) are two sisters already knee-deep in business debt when they hear about their aunt Hildas (Kathleen Turner) cancer diagnosis. They run a small New Orleans cafe that has been losing business since their father died. Without another loan from their bank, they face having to close down the one thing thats honoring his memory. Macey, more reluctant and rational than her impulsive sister, is hesitant when Savanna suggests they visit Hilda and try to worm their way into her will. But when Maceys boyfriend has to move or risk losing his job, shes on board. Why not try to bankroll a few extra millions to keep both the family business and her personal life from sinking? But when they arrive at Aunt Hildas massive mansion in their beat-up jalopy, theyre greeted by company. Their cousin Beatrice (Rosemarie Dewitt) and her husband James (Ron Livingston) have already arrived from New York, ladle-deep in a pot of soup and throwing scones into the oven at warp speed to care for poor, sick, impossible Hilda. And their other cousin, Richard (David Duchovny) isnt far behind. No one has shown up on Hildas porch with good intentions, and no one is leaving until the old lady croaks. Story continues What ensues is a madcap power grab for a spot in Aunt Hildas will, at which Macey and Savanna are already at a disadvantage. Though theyve remained in close proximity to Hilda their whole lives, their status as Hildas least favorite sisters kids is working against them. Aunt Hilda thinks that the sun shines out of my ass, Beatrice tells the sisters, and she thinks that the two of you are a couple of dipshits. That means that, while Beatrice and her husband remain on soup and scone duty, Macey and Savanna resort to draining Hildas colostomy bag in order to score some extra points. If this sounds like it could easily devolve into tasteless gross-out humor, youd be correct. But thankfullyand maybe to some viewers disgustThe Estate never quite stretches its jokes to the farthest reaches of their odious potential. For the scatological bedpan humor, thats a welcome relief; one colostomy bag joke is all a comedy really needs! But other times, like when Savanna and Macey kidnap Hilda to force a reconciliation between their mother and their aunt, the explosive reunion should be even bigger and more expletive-filled than it already is. Imagine that argument waged with Kathleen Turners iconic vocal rasp! Signature Films Theres a great joke that carries the rest of the filmthat happens halfway through the runtime. Given that, it would be easy for The Estate to lose steam fast. And it probably would, were it not for its roster of dedicated players. Faris and Collette spar just like real sisters; their rapport never feels false, even as the slapstick elements of the film escalate to bewildering levels. And as supporting players, Duchovny, Dewitt, and Turner all hold their own, spewing wicked vulgarities while ratcheting the obscenity higher and higher. Its so much fun to watch this group fightand to see Rosemarie Dewitt and Toni Collette reunite for their third project playing relatives (and second this year!)that The Estates farcical low points are almost forgettable. As Richard (who now prefers to be called Dick, which gets a slightly off-color but still chuckle-worthy gay joke), Duchovny combines his natural charm with a revolting smarm, continuously hitting on Macey, who is fresh off her second divorce. Their status as cousins is no issue, he assures her. But if she does decide to take him up on the offer, he says they should probably adopt in case they come out lookin a little weird. Its a funny enough joke the first time, but by the tenth, it feels older than Aunt Hilda. We get it, the guys a freak! Must there be a reminder of it every time hes on-screen? Cant we have any time to enjoy Duchovnys mustached good looks separate from his characters repulsiveness? Signature Films The films wannabe edginess often feels false, which is strange to say about a movie with a recurring incest joke, but its true. Its lewd for lewdness' sake at one minute and then bounces back to a smarter punchline the next, as if Craig was too afraid to punch up his own screenplay and risk losing the stoner demographic. Those who are looking for a feature-length episode of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia have come to the right place. But, like that show, The Estate feels smarter than lesser creations of the same ilk. The punchlines might feel safe, but one gets the feeling that, if The Estates crudeness were to cross the line into offensiveness, it would be a much less enjoyable 90 minutes. Some might arrive at this New Orleans mansion looking for a comedy rich with gross-out laughs and filthy digs, but like the gaggle of cousins who show up to vie for Hildas estate, it wont be quite what they expect. But theres enough unexpected raunch and hilarious impropriety in The Estate to entertain a family for a Thursday night on the couchpreferably the fourth one in November, after plenty of turkey, pie, and family fighting of your own. 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. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI network listens for signs of radio broadcasts from alien civilizations (Getty Images/iStockphoto) The US Department of Defense and Nasa are investigating UFOs while the James Webb Space Telescope and other scientific tools peer deeper into the universe than ever before: If aliens are out there, we could find them, or they us, at any moment. Thats why researchers at the University of St Andrews have joined forces with the UK Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) network to found the Seti Post-Detection Hub, which will pool experts to consider humanitys response should we discover intelligent life forms beyond our planet. Will we ever get a message from ET? We dont know, St Andrews computer science research fellow and Seti Post-Detection Hub coordinator John Elliott said in a statement. But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage. Its not that no one has thought about what to do if aliens announce themselves. The Seti community developed alien contact protocols in 1989, but they havent been updated since 2010, and are narrowly focused on what scientists should do rather than society-wide actions and impacts. We need to coordinate our expert knowledge not only for assessing the evidence but also for considering the human social response, as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we dont know is communicated, Dr Elliott said. And the time to do this is now. Research into UFOs, or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), in the preferred US government nomenclature, has picked up in recent years after decades of official quiet. In May, US intelligence officials briefed lawmakers in DC on UFOs for the first time since the 1970s, when the US Air Force closed its Project Blue Book investigation into UFOs by concluding there was no evidence to suggest they were extraterrestrial in origin. At the May hearing, officials told lawmakers that UFO sightings by US military members were frequent and ongoing, and that 143 such sightings since 2004 remained unexplained. A report to Congress on UFOs from the Director of National Intelligence was due on Halloween but has been delayed. Leaks to the New York Times, however, suggest the report found most instances of UFO sightings were weather balloons, other airborne trash, or foreign countries intelligence operations. A nine-month Nasa investigation into UFOs launched on 25 October, meanwhile, and will issue a public report sometime in the summer of 2023. Map of Ethiopia Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, it has never been colonised. It has a unique cultural heritage, being the home of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church - one of the oldest Christian denominations - and a monarchy that ended only in the coup of 1974. It served as a symbol of African independence throughout the continent's colonial period, and was a founder member of the United Nations and the African base for many international organisations. Drought and civil conflict left Ethiopia in a state of turmoil under a Marxist dictatorship from the fall of the monarchy until 1991, when the long authoritarian rule of Meles Zenawi brought a degree of stability. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a campaign of political liberalisation at home, and sought to end disputes with Ethiopia's neighbours, in particular Eritrea, after 2018. But these efforts were overshadowed by a dispute with the leaders of Tigray region that began in 2020 and swiftly escalated into armed conflict. See more country profiles - Profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring FACTS LEADERS President: Sahle-Work Zewde Ms Sahle-Work is the first female head of state since Empress Zawditu (1928-1930) Parliament elected Sahle-Work Zewde as the Ethiopia's first woman president in October 2018. Ms Sahle-Work, an experienced diplomat, promised to work to make gender equality a reality at her swearing-in to the largely ceremonial post. She took office a week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a cabinet with half the posts taken by women. Prime minister: Abiy Ahmed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Abiy Ahmed was chosen to lead the ruling Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition after the unexpected resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in 2018. He pledged to try to end longstanding tensions with neighbouring Eritrea, and within months the two countries declared that the state of war between them was over. Mr Abiy also pledged to bring more transparency to government and reconciliation to a country that had been torn by protests since 2015. Story continues But tensions with Tigray region in 2020 led the federal government to send in troops after an unsanctioned regional election, triggering armed conflict. MEDIA Man reads a newspaper in Addis Ababa The change of government in 2018 ushered in a new era for the media, which for many years had operated in one of the region's most restrictive environments. But Reporters Without Borders says there have been no significant improvements to harsh media laws. The state controls most broadcasting outlets, including national broadcasters ETV and Radio Ethiopia. Internet and mobile services have been restricted during periods of social unrest. Read full media profile TIMELINE The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are thought to have been built in the 11th and 12th century Some key dates in Ethiopia's history: 4th Century - Christianity becomes the state religion. 1855-1868 - Reign of Emperor Tewodros II, who lays the foundation for the modern Ethiopian state. 1896 - Invading Italian forces are defeated by Ethiopians at Adwa. 1935-1941 - Italy deposes Emperor Haile Selassie and annexes Ethiopia, before being driven out by British, Commonwealth and Ethiopian forces. 1962 - Haile Selassie annexes Eritrea, which becomes an Ethiopian province. 1974 - Haile Selassie overthrown in military coup after government fails to deal with famine. 1977-79 - Thousands are killed in "Red Terror" orchestrated by Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. 1984-85 - Another serious famine devastates much of the country. 1991 - Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front deposes Mengistu. Meles Zenawi establishes stability and achieves considerable economic progress in his 19-year authoritarian rule. 1993 - Eritrea becomes independent. 1999-2000 - Ethiopian-Eritrean border war. 2018 - Abiy Ahmed becomes prime minister and launches reform programme at home and abroad. 2020 - Tension with Tigray region leads to conflict. Eritrean troops intervene in the war with Tigrayan rebels on the side of Ethiopia's central government. SAO PAULO (AP) Brazilian prosecutors opened an investigation into three-time Formula One champion Nelson Piquet on Thursday after he was filmed wishing for the death of president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Da Silva narrowly won Sunday's presidential election against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, whom the 70-year-old Piquet staunchly supports. The former F1 driver is one of thousands of protesters taking to the streets to claim they don't accept the results, which were confirmed by Brazil's top electoral authorities. Piquet also wants the armed forces to stop the leftist from taking the office on Jan. 1. The federal prosecutor's office in Brasilia said in a statement that it will investigate Piquet for alleged incitation to violence and for stimulating rifts between the military and other branches of power. The probe was triggered after Piquet appeared on a video that went viral this week saying it is Lula in the cemetery," in a reference to da Silva, who held the presidency between 2003-10. Nelson Piquet is a person of public notoriety and, because of that, he should know his statements have the potential of reaching hundreds of thousands of people, the prosecutors office said in the statement. Piquet and the person who recorded the video are expected to testify before Brazil's federal police. Piquet did not make comments about the decision to investigate him. Earlier this year, other videos showed him using homophobic language and racial slurs about seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. The Brazilian was widely condemned by F1, drivers, teams, and governing body FIA. Piquet apologized to Hamilton later but said the terms, while ill thought out, were not meant to be offensive. ____ More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The trial of former Fresno police officer Raymond Eddy began Wednesday with allegations of fraud, assault and the belief in deities. Eddy, 53, is charged with assault with a firearm, brandishing a firearm and battery after getting into a dispute with former Fresno City Councilman Oliver Baines, who is also a former Fresno police officer. Baines has accused Eddy, a longtime friend, his former chief of staff and business associate, of having a mental health episode prior to shoving the muzzle of a Beretta pistol into his neck and threatening him. Prosecutor Leonel Salazar showed the jury photos of Bainess face with abrasions and cuts on his neck. The photos were taken by Fresno police after the incident at Eddys northwest Fresno apartment complex on April 21, 2021. Baines testified that he went to Eddys apartment that day because he was concerned about his mental health. Baines testified that Eddy had previously told him he believed he was a deity on more than one occasion. He had a belief that he was omnipotent, Baines said. And he told me that prior to this incident. Baines also said that when he found Eddy in the northwest Fresno apartment complex, he immediately saw a gun in his hand. He grabbed me, pushed me against a vehicle and within a few seconds put the gun to my throat, Baines testified. I put my hands up and told him, hey, whats going on? During the confrontation Baines testified that Eddy was making unintelligible statements about a senator or someone taking money from him. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Marco Aguiar, Baines was shown a video of the confrontation, taken by one of the residents in the apartment complex. The video shows Eddy confronting Baines and shouting in a loud voice about being lied to by Baines and wanting him out of his life. Aguiar asked Baines if he remembered hearing those things and Baines replied that he did not. Aguiar pointed out that he couldnt hear his client say anything about being a god or anything that didnt make sense. Baines said Eddy said those things quietly to him. Story continues So Mr. Eddy would scream at the top of his lungs and then lower his voice so only you could hear, Aguiar asked? Baines replied, yes. Fresno police officer CaroKasandra Moreno was the first officer on the scene and interviewed Eddy after he was detained. Morenos body worn camera captured the interview and it was shown to the jury. Aguiar asked her if Eddy ever said anything to her about being a god or did she believe he might be mentally ill. She said no. In the video, Eddy admits to the officer that he struck Baines several times in the face and he did have his gun with him. But he does not remember if he pointed it at Baines. Eddy also said he was angry with Baines over having lost thousands of dollars in a business deal, and he did not want to talk with Baines. Eddy told Moreno in the video that he felt betrayed by Baines. I just got off a phone call from Virginia and they confirmed to me that everything Ive been spoon fed for a year has been a lie, Eddy said in the video. The trial continues Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Judge Timothy Kams courtroom. By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -A former U.S. military pilot arrested in Australia and facing likely extradition to the United States on undisclosed charges listed the same Beijing address as a Chinese businessman jailed in the United States for conspiring to hack U.S. defence contractors' computers, documents show. The Beijing address is listed in Australian company filings for the pilot and a U.S. blacklisting for the Chinese businessman, however, it was unclear whether they used the Beijing address at the same time. Australian Federal Police arrested Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, a former U.S. citizen, in the rural town of Orange in New South Wales state last month, acting on a U.S. request for his arrest. Details of the U.S. arrest warrant and the charges he faces are sealed, his lawyer said. Consequently Reuters was unable to determine the specifics of Duggan's case. "He denies having breached any U.S. law, any Australian law, any international law," Duggan's lawyer Dennis Miralis of Nyman, Gibson and Miralis said outside a Sydney court on Friday. Miralis said Duggan was being moved to a maximum security prison in the regional town of Goulburn and that he did not seek bail at the directions hearing in the Sydney local court. The matter was adjourned until November 28. A former military pilot told Reuters that Duggan, who became an aviation consultant after his military service, moved from Australia to Beijing in 2013/2014 to work with a Chinese businessman called Stephen. Shown a photograph by a Reuters reporter, the former military pilot identified Stephen Su, the Chinese businessman convicted on hacking charges in the United States, but did not supply details about the business the two were involved in. Duggan's LinkedIn profile also said he was in China during this time. Another aviation source said Duggan went to Beijing to work with Stephen Su, also known as Su Bin in China. Su Bin was arrested in Canada in July 2014 and jailed in the United States two years later, in a high-profile hacking case involving the theft of U.S. military aircraft designs by the Chinese military in which he pleaded guilty, court records show. Story continues SAME BEIJING ADDRESS LISTED A Reuters review of company filings for Duggan's former business Top Gun Tasmania to the Australian corporate regulator showed Duggan had certified documents that notified of his change of address and his sale of the company in January and April 2014, stating his residential address from December 2013 was an apartment in Beijing's Chaoyang district. The same address appeared on the U.S. Entity List in August 2014 as belonging to Su Bin and his aviation technology company Nuodian Technology, also known as Lode Tech in English language marketing material. The U.S. Entity List, which refers to both company names, is a trade blacklist of people and companies deemed to pose a risk to U.S. national security. The address, Building 1-1, No. 67 Caiman Street, Chaoyang Road, remains on the U.S. blacklist for involvement in the unauthorised exploitation of U.S. Department of Defense contractor computer systems to illicitly obtain controlled technology related to military projects. When Reuters visited the Beijing address this week the reporter was told it was a residential building and denied entry. The U.S. blacklist also cites a second address for Nuodian Technology and Su Bin, in an office complex next to the residential building. Reuters was told by a building manager someone from Nuodian Technology had opened an office there, but added the company moved out seven to eight years ago. This is around the time of Su Bin's arrest. Chinese company records show Nuodian Technology first registered a Beijing office in 2003. Su Bin, 51, was sentenced to a 46-month prison term in 2016 by a Los Angeles court after being charged with taking part in a years-long scheme by Chinese military officers to obtain sensitive military information. Su Bin pleaded guilty to conspiring with two Chinese air force officers who hacked into the computer systems of Boeing and other companies to obtain data about military projects, violating the arms export control act. EXTRADITION UP TO U.S. Duggan arrived in Australia from China weeks before his arrest and had interacted with Australian intelligence agencies, his lawyer said. He did not name the agencies, provide details on what was under investigation or Duggan's possible role in it. Miralis said he would lodge a complaint with Australia's inspector-general of intelligence, an oversight body, about matters which touch on Australia's national security. The inspector-general's office declined to comment. Miralis said the United States should not make an extradition request until this complaint was resolved. Under Australia's extradition treaty with the United States, an extradition request must be made within 60 days of arrest. "It's important to understand the legal system in Australia has not yet seized jurisdiction of the matter, we are more in the area of international relations, and it is a decision for the United States State Department to determine whether or not it wishes to send an extradition request to Australia," said Miralis. "This has nothing to do with law, this has everything to do with international politics and international relations." The United States Department of Justice has declined to comment about Duggan's case. Australia's Attorney General's Department said it could not give details of any possible extradition request and China's foreign ministry said it was "not aware of this situation", in response to Reuters written questions. Robert Anello, the lawyer who represented Su Bin in the 2014 hacking case, declined to comment and Su Bin could not be reached for comment. Duggan's arrest came the same week Britain warned dozens of former military pilots to stop working in China or face prosecution by the British government on national security grounds under new laws to stop former RAF pilots training the Chinese military, because it risked the transfer of secrets and information about British air force capabilities. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry) (Reuters) -Russia wants the West to ease restrictions on state agriculture lender Rosselkhozbank to facilitate Russian grain exports, according to four sources familiar with the request, made during talks to extend a deal on food shipments from Ukraine. Moscow suspended its participation in the secure Black Sea grain corridor in late October but rejoined after four days, easing fears of further disruptions to grain exports from key supplier Ukraine at a time of rampant global food inflation. President Vladimir Putin has reserved Russia's right to halt the United Nations-brokered agreement again, while U.N. chief Antonio Guterres is pushing Moscow to agree to extend the pact beyond its scheduled expiry on Nov. 19. Russia has not detailed its demands publicly beyond calls to unblock Russian fertiliser stuck in European ports and warehouses and resume exports of ammonia, an important ingredient in fertiliser, through a Russia-Ukraine pipeline. The four sources, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said Russia was asking Western countries to allow state lender Rosselkhozbank to restore its relations with correspondent banks despite Western sanctions. This would allow the bank, which has not had a major role in the international grain trade so far, to process payments for Russian grain and other foodstuffs, two of the sources added. Before the latest sanctions, such payments were handled by international banks and subsidiaries of other Russian banks in Switzerland. The sources did not say what response, if any, Russia had got to its proposals. A U.N. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said facilitation of payments for Russian food and fertilizer through Rosselkhozbank was being discussed with the European Union and other parties. Russia has said the sanctions imposed after the start of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine make it hard for Russian grain and fertiliser traders to process payments and access vessels, insurance and ports, even though food is exempt. Story continues The U.N. has said it "remains committed to removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer". It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Russian proposal. Russia's Foreign Ministry and Rosselkhozbank did not reply to a request for comment. Asked to comment, a spokesperson for the EU's executive Commission said EU sanctions were designed not to target the trade in Russian agricultural and food products and included exemptions where that was the purpose. "Russia is using food as a weapon of war and this is yet another manipulation of the facts and spreading disinformation," the spokesperson said, declining to be named. "We urge all parties to renew the agreement." BANK'S ROLE MAY EXPAND Moscow has said its consent to extend the Black Sea grain deal depends on support for its own grain and fertiliser exports. Russia is a major agricultural producer and the world's largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine, whose shipments to global markets were blocked by the conflict and Russia's control of Black Sea waters until July, is one of the biggest suppliers of grains, oilseeds and vegetable oils. Russia's resumption of the deal on Nov. 2 followed mediation from Turkey, which helped broker the agreement alongside the United Nations. A Western diplomat briefed on the talks said Turkey had leaned heavily on Russia to stick to the deal and that Rosselkhozbank was a part of the discussions, but not directly related to Moscow's suspension of the deal or subsequent switch. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in September that there was a need to remove Western sanctions from Rosselkhozbank, because it was "serving the lion's share of all fertiliser and food transactions". Swiss banks which traditionally handled the trade have kept their distance since the latest Western sanctions were imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Before the Ukraine crisis, Rosselkhozbank mainly provided loans to Russian farmers. Dmitry Patrushev, son of Russian Security Council Secretary and Putin ally Nikolai Patrushev, was the bank's management board chairman from 2010-2018, and is now Russia's agriculture minister. The bank and both Patrushev family members are subject to Western sanctions. The U.S. Treasury has imposed some restrictions on U.S. citizens dealing in the bank's debt or equity but has not blocked dealings with it. A senior State Department official told Reuters the United States had taken steps to reassure the private sector that food exports were exempted from its sanctions, including by translating guidance into multiple languages and by issuing so-called comfort letters to companies seeking assurance that their business was not in breach of the sanctions. The official, who discussed the issue on condition of anonymity, said private actors sometimes "engage in de-risking" in response to sanctions and that the United States was willing to address specific issues if the U.N. raises them. "We want to see both Russian and Ukrainian grain on world markets," the official said. However, they said, "we can't tell our private sector what to do." Should Russia's request be granted, Rosselkhozbank's role in Russia's grain trade could expand significantly. The Agriculture Ministry and its head, Dmitry Patrushev, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Russian Union of Grain Exporters has proposed that the agriculture ministry include a more detailed plan for Rosselkhozbank in Russia's list of requests during negotiations, Eduard Zernin, head of the association, told Reuters. "We propose that the U.S. and the EU assign one authorised correspondent bank each for Rosselkhozbank to settle payments for grain and other agriculture products, as well as trade finance transactions, including bid and performance bonds," Zernin said, referring to deals to protect buyers and sellers. The association is also ready to prepare lists of Russian and international exporters to simplify compliance controls by such correspondent banks, he added. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Mike Collett-White, Guy Faulconbridge and Philippa Fletcher) By Curtis Williams and Marianna Parraga PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - The government of Trinidad and Tobago is asking the United States to authorize Venezuelan gas imports to restart an idled liquefaction train in the Caribbean nation, four sources close to the talks said. Under U.S. sanctions, companies and governments must obtain authorization from the U.S. Department of Treasury to do business with Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA. Trinidad's past requests for U.S. approval have gone unanswered, but the U.S. Biden administration's willingness to ease some sanctions on Venezuela if President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition progress in talks for a presidential election could provide a new opportunity. The gas would mainly come from Venezuela's Dragon field off the country's eastern cost, where PDVSA has found reserves of 4.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF). The project was headed for production almost a decade ago, but stalled over lack of capital and partners, and sanctions. If approved, its gas could restart an idled liquefaction train with a 500 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) capacity at Trinidad's flagship Atlantic LNG project. The facility is a venture mainly including Shell, BP and state-owned National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC). The U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment. Shell and NGC referred questions to the country's energy ministry, which did not reply to a request for comment. BP did not immediately reply to a request for comment. "All we need is access to additional natural gas supply, right next door, to immediate proven resources of gas in Venezuela," said Trinidad's energy minister Stuart Young last month. YEARS OF WORK AHEAD Trinidad is Latin America's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, with installed capacity to process 4.2 billion cf/d into LNG, petrochemicals and power. But its gas production is just under 3 billion cf/d. Even if Washington granted Trinidad's request, it could take years of investment and development to bring Venezuelan gas to Trinidad and boost LNG to Europe. Story continues "They don't see Trinidad's solution as being sufficiently immediate for Europe," one of the people familiar with the matter said. Starting the field is expected to take intensive engineering work and subsea inspections to check its wellhead integrity, which have not been made in years, experts said. Early talks between Trinidad and Venezuela have focused on building a 17 kilometer (10.5 mile) long gas line to connect the two nations, according to the sources. A pipeline originally earmarked for transporting Dragon's gas has been taken over by the Colibri offshore project between Shell and Trinidad's Heritage Petroleum Co., which delivered first gas in March. That project follows an amended production sharing contract for the Manatee gas field in Trinidad, which extends to Venezuela's Loran field. But despite a years-long effort to reach a deal to jointly develop the gas reservoirs, the Venezuelan fields remains completely idled, with no infrastructure installed. Maduro in 2020 gave green light to Trinidad to begin gas output on its side. "Minister Young is working very hard on it," Trinidad finance minister Colm Imbert said during a business meeting last week. "He has been the liaison between the United States and Venezuela...all in an effort to develop that project and get the United States to go along with getting Venezuela to send gas to us." (Reporting by Curtis Williams in Port of Spain and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Josie Kao) CHICAGO On Tuesday, puppeteer Jerry Halliday brought out one of his puppets during a show celebrating Touche's 45th anniversary and put on a performance that attendees have called racist and transphobic and which has since plunged the bar into controversy. One of four featured on Hallidays website, the puppet in the show was called Sista Girl and resembles a Black woman. The act prompted people who were present to speak up with two of them calling it a huge slap in the face and even caused a bartender to walk out in the middle of his shift. Touche manager David Boyer released a statement through the bars Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts Wednesday in which he apologized. (On Tuesday) at Touche's 45th anniversary celebration, puppeteer Jerry Halliday included racist and transphobic puppets and jokes in his act. We deeply regret not vetting the entertainer prior to the event, the statement reads. We apologize for not reacting and stopping the show. People were harmed by his words. Racism and transphobia are wrong, we need to do better. On Touche's website, the programming for the bars 45th anniversary included a description of Hallidays show, which it was welcoming alongside his colorful cast of characters in order to salute our early days on Lincoln Avenue. Halliday did not return a request for comment. On Twitter, Philip Smith shared his experience attending the show at the Rogers Park gay leather bar, explaining that patrons were asked not to record during the puppeteers act. However, he defied the request once he saw the puppet Halliday had brought out. When the show started, what went through my mind was: How am I able to be an ally in this moment? Smith told the Tribune. I said this in my (Twitter) thread, but victims of racism are oftentimes told that theyre exaggerating or being too sensitive, or cancel culture is invoked as a way to diminish their experiences. The performer made dated jokes, Smith said, some of which he said oversexualized Black women. Story continues After the shock wore off, it was sad and disappointing, because you would hope that people know better at this point. It also was frustrating because the general manager was sitting at a table right in front of the stage, Smith said. In the videos Smith shared on Twitter, attendees can be heard cheering on Halliday after someone from the audience confronts him, saying: Everyone in the crowd thinks this is a little weird for 2022. Mike Geier, the attendee who challenged Halliday, told the Tribune he didnt initially mean to confront the puppeteer. He said he initially was talking to some people near the front door and noticed people leaving and looking disturbed. I noticed what was going on onstage. I noticed a few other people around the bar kind of with pained faces on, so I was just kind of quietly going around and just checking in with my friends. (I) wasnt intentionally engaging with the puppeteer. He kind of called me out. Lots of people were talking I dont know why he singled me out for talking and having quiet conversations. He said that, while it isnt audible in Smiths videos, he told Halliday he thought it was inappropriate for a white man to perform with a Black puppet. All my friends were people of color that were there to have a good time at a bar that they love, Geier said. And they felt really uncomfortable and visibly upset and that was what really kind of made me a little bit upset because I was putting myself in their shoes and seeing how awful this was. Miguel Torres, Touches Mr. Chicago Leather 2014, was at Touche on Tuesday night, but closed his tab and left during Hallidays performance. Torres, a frequent patron, told the Tribune the performance felt like a huge slap in the face on the community, from all these people and from all the marginalized groups that have poured their free time, energy and soul into making this bar what it was. Old-school leather bars tend to be very focused on masculinity and that type of thing, so over the years, weve guided this management, done a lot of work to make sure that posters werent old, white men, that we had representation, Torres said. This guy had this puppet show, and he just brought out this African American doll called Sista Girl and this white male started doing these voices, racist voices, and played on all the stereotypes that you hope have been eradicated. It was just extremely upsetting, he said. Touche bartender Cris Bleaux walked out and quit in the middle of his shift Tuesday after feeling uncomfortable with the jokes Halliday was making. My job that night was to enjoy it, people, and make them feel good and affirmed and seen, the former bartender told the Tribune. And then my night dramatically did a 180 within 45 minutes to an hour. He said he texted a friend during his shift, saying, Hey, I need to leave. Its a really nasty, ugly, truly disappointing situation, Bleaux said. I just really feel like it was a huge slap in the face to many communities, specifically those two, he said, referring to people of color and transgender and nonbinary people, considering that there are racist jokes and transphobic jokes going on. In his statement, Boyer emphasized the bars 45-year history and asked patrons to let them prove their resolve and to not allow the controversy to overshadow the service it has provided to the community. Touche, Boyer said, is planning a community gathering at the Leather Archives & Museum at 7 p.m. Nov. 9 so members of the community can express their concerns and discuss ways of moving forward. But for some attendees, the statement didnt go far enough. Smith called it a boilerplate apology and really disappointing, and Geier said it was very formulaic. A statement came out and, as expected, it was apology bingo, what we call that was all the keywords, Torres said of the apology. I dont see many ways outside of the management quitting immediately for the community to heal. I dont know what the future of Touche will be. But I think that what it is right now is not OK, and I think acting like this is just like some misstep or confusion or a misunderstanding is really gross, Bleaux said. I think Chicago has had, for the past couple of years, a history of events within queer spaces that has not always been really affirming and sometimes its been dangerous, Bleaux added. Smith also sees the city as a space where theres a constant need for growth in regards to diversity and inclusivity, especially in the last few years. Chicago, I think particularly, is the epicenter of a lot of discussion about inclusivity in LGBTQ spaces and how we need to make Black folks and people of color feel like they belong in spaces that historically are overrun by gay white men and their interests, he said. The controversy at Touche follows one at another Chicago social space: On Tuesday, Bucktowns live-music fixture The Hideout announced it would close for the remainder of the year after a former employee shared allegations of a toxic work environment. ____ NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia's government and forces from the Tigray region have agreed to stop fighting, a dramatic breakthrough after two years of war that killed thousands, displaced millions and threatened to tear apart Africa's second most-populous country. The warring parties signed an agreement in Pretoria on Wednesday for a "permanent cessation of hostilities" after talks mediated by the African Union (AU). Below are some of the key points contained in the text shared by Redwan Hussien, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's national security adviser and the government's lead negotiator at the talks. CEASEFIRE AND RESTORATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER - Both sides agree to end all forms of hostilities, including acts of violence, sabotage, air strikes, and "hostile propaganda, rhetoric, and hate speech". - They agree they will not collude with any external force hostile to either party. - Federal authority will be restored in Tigray, including control of federal institutions. - The government will ensure that Tigray is represented in federal institutions, including parliament. DISARMAMENT - Both parties recognise that Ethiopia has only one defence force. - The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that dominates Tigray, agrees to fully disarm, including light weapons, within 30 days. - TPLF fighters will enter a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme. - Ethiopia's military will return to the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle. RECOGNITION AND NEW ELECTIONS - The agreement is between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF, and it makes no reference to an elected "government of Tigray." This was one of the bones of contention in the conflict, as the government did not recognise the last regional vote held in Tigray, which the TPLF won, as legal. - A new interim administration will be appointed to govern Tigray until elections are held at an unspecified date. Story continues - The federal government pledges to lift the TPLF's "terrorist" designation and begin a political dialogue with the group to resolve their differences. AID AND HUMAN RIGHTS - Both sides will protect civilians and uphold international humanitarian laws to which Ethiopia is a party. Reuters and other media have documented human rights violations by all sides, including extra-judicial killings, raping, and looting - allegations denied by the warring parties. - The government will work with humanitarian agencies to ensure aid begins quickly flowing back into Tigray. The United Nations says aid has effectively been blocked since violence erupted again in August, ending a previous ceasefire. The government has consistently denied blocking aid. - The government will facilitate the return of those displaced by the war where the security situation allows, and it will coordinate the restoration of essential services in Tigray. - The agreement provides for a new "transitional justice policy" aimed at ascertaining the truth, accountability, redress for victims, reconciliation and healing. MONITORING - A committee chaired by the AU will be formed to monitor and verify implementation of the agreement. - The committee will include representatives from the government, the TPLF and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in East Africa. WHAT'S MISSING? - Neither Eritrea nor forces from other Ethiopian regions that have fought alongside Ethiopia's army are mentioned in the agreement. The agreement does say the Ethiopian army will safeguard the security of the country from "foreign incursion", but analysts are concerned about whether Eritrea - the TPLF's sworn enemy - will listen. - Thorny political issues, such as the future of disputed territory claimed by both Tigray and the neighbouring region of Amhara, remain unresolved. - Also to be determined are details of how to implement key provisions in the deal, including who will be part of the Tigray's interim administration. (Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Mark Heinrich) Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who faced criticism earlier this year after a leaked video showed her singing and dancing at a private party, has been cleared of misconduct allegations, officials in Finland said Friday. Complaints filed to the countrys parliamentary ombudsman said her behavior at the gathering over the summer would have made her unable to perform her responsibilities as prime minister, according to multiple reports. But Finlands chancellor of justice, Tuomas Poysti, said Friday that Marin did not neglect her role as the country's leader. There was no reason to suspect the prime minister of unlawful conduct in the performance of her duties, or of any neglect of her official responsibilities, Poysti found, according to multiple reports. USA TODAY has reached out to Finland's chancellor of justice for additional information. Dozens of complaints filed after the video of Marin spread said her behavior undermined the countrys reputation, the BBC reported. But Poysti said the complaints he received did not cite specific duties she was unable to perform. Marin in August said she took a drug test to put an end to speculation that she may have used illegal substances at the gathering. Sanna Marin: What the controversy over Finnish Prime Minister's dancing videos reveals about women leaders Finland: Prime minister takes drug test as populace ponders whether she has a right to party She told reporters at the time, I hope that in the year 2022 its accepted that even decision-makers dance, sing and go to parties. I didnt wish for any images to be spread, but its up to the voters to decide what they think about it. Poysti this week also noted that "political accountability is also weighed periodically in democratic elections, according to multiple reports. Marin did garner some supporters after the video spread. Women around the world posted videos on social media of themselves dancing with the hashtag #solidaritywithsanna. Story continues "This was a woman public leader, who on her own time, in the privacy of a friend's home and she would, by the way, be entitled to do this at a club was engaging in normal human behavior, within all moral, ethical and legal bounds," Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, previously told USA TODAY. "The fact that she is being taken to task in this way is indicative of the narrowness of boundaries for women." Contributing: Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY; The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Finland PM Sanna Marin cleared over party video of her dancing Good Morning America Lisa Niemi Swayze is reflecting on her late husband Patrick Swayze's battle with pancreatic cancer 13 years after the actor's death from the disease. Speaking to "Good Morning America" for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, Niemi Swayze said Swayze "did not want to become the poster boy for cancer" but his "huge heart" kept him from sitting idly by and not stepping up to do what he could to help. The "Dirty Dancing" star was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in January 2008. A fit and healthy father diagnosed with stage four cancer says he was left looking like the Nightmare on Elm Street after a horrific reaction to chemotherapy left him too embarrassed to go to his young sons cricket matches and is now hoping to save his life with a ground-breaking vaccine. Geoffrey Seymour, 41, a procurement specialist, loved playing tennis, basketball and cricket and had always been healthy until just before his 41st birthday when he began experiencing blood in his stool. Geoffrey was aware of this being a symptom for cancer from adverts on the television, so quickly went to his GP. Geoffrey, who lives in Richmond, London, with his wife Santa, 44, and their son Marco, 10, was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer, which had spread from his colon to his liver a situation so severe and seemingly hopeless he likened it to being wrapped in a paper bag that is on fire. He also had a bad reaction to chemotherapy severely blistering the skin on his face and, according to Geoffrey, making him look like Freddy Krueger from the 1984 horror film, Nightmare on Elm Street. The chemotherapy stopped working however and now, in an attempt to save his life, Geoffrey has travelled to Germany for dendritic cell therapy where a personalised vaccine is created in a lab with the aim of stimulating the immune system. Research in this area is at an early stage, according to Cancer Research UK, and so the treatment was not cheap just one injection in Germany, on October 17, cost 17,000 and Geoffrey is now waiting to see if it was enough to help him, while continuing to fundraise to pay for it. He said: I couldnt even wait until the end of the fundraising to have it done just because Im so worried that the disease was going to spread. Geoffrey was determined to find a new approach after three sessions of five doses of chemotherapy didnt work and left him with side-effects so bad he no longer wanted to go out in public, even to see his little boy play cricket Story continues I had a really bad reaction in my face, it was full of painful blistering that made my face feel like it was on fire, he said. I just got to the point where I was looking a bit like Nightmare on Elm Street. Unless I went there with a bag on my head, Id have other people coming up to me and looking at me thinking, Whats wrong with this guy? when Im quite happy blending into the crowd. Geoffreys ordeal began in April 2021, just two weeks before his 41st birthday on March 4, when he got the first warning signals of cancer. After spotting blood in his stool, Geoffrey decided to visit his GP, as he knew it could be a symptom of cancer. And in late March at Kingston Hospital, he was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer, which had metastasized in the liver. After the diagnosis, in March 2021, he had five cycles of chemotherapy every three weeks which initially reduced the lesions in his liver. At this point he says he felt optimistic. In December 2021, he had surgery to have a third of his liver removed, and the medical team began getting him ready for radiotherapy which was going to be used on his colon he even had radio markers tattooed for the laser alignment. A month later, a scan showed more tumours in his liver, so he had another round of chemotherapy. This time it was a success and liver surgery was booked in for June 2022. But, just as things were looking up, a few weeks before the surgery, a scan revealed disease progression. Geoffrey was put back on chemotherapy with a different agent and the surgery was canceled. After just two cycles, blood work and a scan showed disease progression again, all while the side effects were getting unbearable for Geoffrey. He said: The side effects have gotten worse, worse, worse, and now, chemotherapy is just not effective anymore, the bodys gotten used to it. Explaining why he reacted badly to a chemotherapy drug, he said: Essentially it kills all your fast-growing cells, which include your cancer cells, but also includes your hair and nails. I had a really bad reaction to that in my face. Determined to find an alternative, Geoffrey started doing his own research by looking online and found dendritic cell therapy, only to be told it would not be available to him in the UK. He decided to fly to a laboratory in Ulm, Germany to have the week-long treatment on October 17 2022. Friends and family rallied round to contribute towards his Go Fund Me appeal, which has raised over 14,000 and helped to pay for the 17,000 injection. I am still in pain, I have a lot of pain, which Im trying to find a good balance of very strong medications, he said. Geoffrey is due to meet with his oncologist on November 1 in the UK, but knows he may well need to pay for further vaccine doses and more treatment abroad and is continuing to fundraise to pay for that. Specialist cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK Caroline Geraghty said: Dendritic cell therapy is a type of vaccine that can treat cancer. Dendritic cells help immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells, such as cancer cells. To make the vaccine, scientists grow dendritic cells alongside cancer cells in the lab. The vaccine then stimulates your immune system to attack the cancer. Its still being researched, so the evidence base is not yet strong enough for it to be available in the UK. Decisions about the best course of treatment must be based on sound evidence of benefit so its important patients talk to their doctor about any alternative treatment they might be considering. She added: Thanks to ongoing developments in research, there continues to be many new cancer drugs showing effectiveness in clinical trials, providing potential options for people with cancer. But while regulators have improved the speed at which they assess these for routine NHS use, there are still, unfortunately, times when particular drugs arent yet easily accessible for people who may benefit. We understand how frustrating this can be. Twitter Tamara Curtis, a member of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruzs defense counsel, is under investigation by the Florida state bar association, a spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast on Thursday night. News of the inquiry comes a day after Cruz was formally sentenced to life in prison, following an emotional two-day hearing during which the parents of his victims lambasted his attorneys for their conduct over the course of the trial. The Florida bars probe was first reported by Miami-based station WPLG. In a statement to The Daily Beast, bar association spokesperson Jennifer Krell Davis confirmed that the investigation was ongoing but did not elaborate. Curtis, an assistant public defender, was not present in court on Wednesday. She went unnamed by the relatives who gave testimony. But several of them referenced a moment during a pretrial hearing recess weeks ago when she appeared to flash an obscene gesture at the court, rubbing her middle finger on her cheek as she sat next to a smirking Cruz. The bar investigations subject and scope were unclear as of Thursday night, as was the exact date the inquiry was launched. A call to the office of Melisa McNeill, Cruzs chief public defender, was not immediately returned. THIS is the moment the judge was talking about. The week before the trial began and before a hearing began, two defense attorneys appear to notice the new camera setup. One seems to suggest they flip off the camera and then this happens: #ParklandShooter https://t.co/aGUC8MOSMv pic.twitter.com/wZxWjF314f Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) November 1, 2022 What prompted Curtis gesture is unknown, but Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, said last month that the attorney had been frustrated by how Judge Elizabeth Scherer was responding to her courtroom arguments. That moment was disgusting, immature, and reprehensible, he tweeted. It was also a reminder to me that this defense team long ago lost any humanity for the victims of this crime. Story continues In footage of the incident, Curtis appears to catch sight of a courtroom camera, making an inaudible comment to a woman sitting next to her. The woman seems to suggest the gesture, herself flashing a brief middle finger while looking at Curtis. The assistant public defender then moves her hands to her cheek. I will never, ever, ever forgive that moment, Guttenberg told reporters after Cruzs Oct. 13 verdict, in which a jury split 9-3 in favor of the death penalty, failing to reach the states unanimity requirement. Other parents echoed his words in Wednesdays hearing. Annika Dworet, who attended every day of the trial alongside her husband after their 17-year-old son, Nicholas Dworet, was killed by Cruz, reprimanded the defense for holding, touching, and giggling with this cold-blooded murderer. She called the behavior disgusting and unprofessional. The father of #JaimeGuttenberg expressed his distaste for the Parkland shooter's defense after the verdict was read Thursday. pic.twitter.com/AB5FUvpCkg Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) October 13, 2022 This man, this animal, this piece of shit, this bastard took the lives of 17 people, said Michael Schulman, the father of Scott Beigel, a slain Parkland teacher. You have a right to defend him. You have no right, no right to demean the people who lost somebody. None. The middle-finger incident was also referenced during a heated exchange between Judge Scherer and the defense on Tuesday. The confrontation was sparked after Cruzs attorneys complained the Parkland families were targeting them in their statements, with McNeill arguing, I did my job, and every member of this team did our job, and we should not be personally attacked for that. Parkland Parents Lose It Over Nikolas Cruzs Attorney Flipping the Bird The back and forth between the defense and the judge, with the prosecution chiming in at times, escalated until Scherer exploded on behalf of the victims families. When these people are upset about specific things that have gone on from that table, she snapped, like shooting the middle finger up at this court, and laughing, and jokingMrs. McNeill, be quietwhen these people have sat in this courtroom and watched this behavior from that table and they want to say that theyre not happy about it, what is the problem? 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. Floridas medical boards on Friday finalized a rule to ban gender-affirming health care including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for transgender youth as treatment for gender dysphoria. Members of the Florida Board of Medicine and the state Board of Osteopathic Medicine at Disney Springs in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., voted to adopt a rule preventing minors from accessing gender-affirming care despite guidance from leading medical organizations that the treatment is medically necessary. The new decision will not apply to transgender youth already receiving treatment. The two boards, however, did disagree on whether nonsurgical treatments for gender dysphoria may continue through Institutional Review Board-approved clinical trials. While the Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved the rule, the state Board of Medicine rejected the proposal. Most public testimony opposed the adoption of the new rule, though members of the public acknowledged that they were not expecting their positions to be taken seriously by the boards in what LGBTQ advocates have likened to a kangaroo court and called a sham hearing. I know you guys arent gonna listen to anything I say, which is why we didnt email you. We didnt waste our time, Sarah Parker, president of the group Womens Voices of Southwest Florida, said during the meeting. Parker spent the remainder of her allotted time reading off contributions made by each board member all of whom have been appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to the governors campaign and political committee. The contributions totaled more than $80,000, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis. DeSantis has been a vocal critic of gender-affirming health care for minors and said in August that physicians who provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth are disfiguring children and should be sued. Nikole Parker, the director of transgender equality at Equality Florida, an LGBTQ poltical advocacy organization, said in a statement following Fridays vote that board members in approving the rule have put toxic politics over peoples health and wellbeing. Story continues With young lives on the line, another state agency has placed the political ambitions of Ron DeSantis over its duty to protect Floridians, Parker said. In April, Floridas Health Department released guidance that said gender-affirming health care including social transition should not be accessible to youth under 18. That guidance was used by the states Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to enact a rule in August that prohibits transgender Floridians from using Medicaid to cover the cost of puberty blockers, hormones, gender-affirming surgeries or any other procedures that alter primary or secondary sexual characteristics when those procedures are used to treat gender dysphoria. Similar policies in other states including Arkansas and Alabama have been blocked by court orders. Once the rules finalized Friday are posted online, an additional hearing may be requested, which LGBTQ advocacy groups including Equality Florida have indicated they will petition for. If that request is denied, a 21-day period will begin in which members of the public can submit written comments before a final, procedural vote by both medical boards. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A former California Department of Motor Vehicles employee behind a scheme to fraudulently update commercial drive test scores in exchange for bribes will serve five years in federal prison. Shawana Denise Harris, 52, of Phelan was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, to commit unauthorized access of a computer and to commit identity fraud in April. Five years was the maximum to which Harris could be sentenced. Its unclear where she will serve her sentence; that decision falls to the federal Bureau of Prisons. A longtime DMV employee who had the ability to update test scores for commercial drivers license applicants in California, Harris used her position to accept bribes of at least $1,500 per applicant to make it appear that the applicant passed the test when they had not done so. She collected approximately $277,500 from at least 185 applicants, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Harris was charged with her crimes in November 2017, following a joint California DMV, FBI, Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Transportation investigation. CANON CITY A former state correctional officer accused of attempting to bring drugs into a medium-security Fremont prison was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation after pleading guilty to a felony contraband charge. Kyle Gotham Tatro, 33, of Colorado Springs, initially was charged with first-degree introduction of contraband in July 2021 after he was accused of attempting to bring methamphetamine and opiates into the prison. Tatro was working as a correctional officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections at the time. He was sentenced in Fremont County District Court to two years probation and ordered to work 100 hours of community service. Initially, an informant alerted authorities that Tatro was expected to bring contraband into Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City on June 25, 2021, according to an arrest affidavit. When confronted by authorities upon his arrival at the prison, Tatro reportedly handed over a clear, quart-size plastic bag that contained four plastic pens. According to the affidavit, one pen contained 5.9 grams of a white, crystal-like substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine; two pens contained 19.7 grams of a dark tar-like substance that tested positive for opiates and the fourth pen contained nine small blue pills that were identified as Oxycodone. During an interview with authorities, Tatro reportedly said he had agreed to bring in the pens and was paid $250 to deliver them. He allegedly admitted to being paid $340 cash the first time he brought drugs into the prison. Tatro knew it was wrong and illegal to do so," according to the affidavit. He reportedly described a financial hardship due to COVID-19 and said he put $100 of the first payment toward a vacation and used the other $240 to buy a remote-controlled car. Tatro started working for the DOC in 2019. He was initially placed on administrative leave but is no longer working for the department, said Annie Skinner, public information officer for the DOC. Story continues Prior to the incident, his salary was $4,368 monthly, Skinner said. More on the case:DOC officer charged with bringing contraband into Fremont prison Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps. This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Former prison guard sentenced in Canon City contraband case A former Dresden police officer was sentenced to four years in prison and must surrender his police certification for the crimes he committed while wearing his badge.Christopher Cheney, 31, of Coshocton, recently pleaded guilty to one third-degree felony count of theft in office, one third-degree felony count of tampering with evidence and one fourth-degree felony count of possession of drugs, Buprenorphine.Cheneys criminal behavior came to light in May of 2022 when Chief Scott Caldwell of the Dresden Police Department received complaints from citizens concerning Cheney, according to the Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office. Caldwell and the Muskingum County Sheriffs Office then began a months-long investigation in conjunction with the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force.They discovered Cheney had a long-standing addiction to the prescription narcotic buprenorphine, more commonly known as Suboxone.Detectives learned though their investigation that Cheney committed acts which violated his oath of office, his obligation to the citizens of Dresden and the laws of the State of Ohio.One incident involved Cheney taking a Dresden citizen to Walmart so that citizen could retrieve their prescription for Suboxone while Cheney stood by with his badge on his hip. In the parking lot, Cheney took half of the prescription from the citizen.As detectives investigated Cheney, they installed an electronic tracking device on his assigned police cruiser. In June, it became apparent that Cheney was not working as he indicated on his time sheets, leaving the Village of Dresden without proper law enforcement patrol.After comparing Cheneys hour log to activity log produced by the tracking device on the cruiser, investigators determined that Cheney stole more than $2,700 from village taxpayers in unworked hours.The case was upsetting to the case investigators, causing Muskingum County Sheriffs Office Det. Matt Wilhite to inform the court at sentencing that the fear that Mr. Cheney had instilled throughout the time that he was employed by the Village of Dresden as a police officer will remain with the citizens of the Village of Dresden and Muskingum County for years. At a time when the trust of law enforcement by the citizens is at an all-time low it will take many years for (those persons Cheney dealt with) to trust in any kind of law enforcement.Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch recognizes that while virtually all law enforcement officers do their jobs honorably and professionally, there are a few who choose to abuse the trust placed in them by citizens.The prosecution of cases like this is important to my office, the citizens of Muskingum County and to law enforcement, Welch said. This defendant used his badge as a license to abuse his power, and now he has not only lost that badge, but he lost his freedom as well. Supplied by the Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office. This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Former Dresden officer sentenced to prison A former Norfolk middle school teacher who admitted to starting a fire last year that caused substantial damage to a neighbors home with the family inside was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison. The term issued to Ryan Lee Elza by Circuit Judge Everett Martin was well over the maximum recommended by state sentencing guidelines, which had suggested no more than two years and 10 months. Martin also ordered Elza, 43, to have no contact with the couple who owned the house at the time, Patrick and Tiffany McGee, and to begin paying restitution to them once hes released. Elza was an English teacher at Lake Taylor Middle School and lived in an apartment building across the street from the McGees West Ghent home when the fire was set June 11, 2021. He was arrested about three weeks later, and pleaded guilty earlier this year to arson of an occupied dwelling and felony destruction of property. Investigators determined the blaze one of many suspicious fires in the area over a 16-month period was started by charcoal briquettes that had been lit under Tiffany McGees car. The blaze quickly spread to Patrick McGees car, then to their house. Patrick McGee testified during Fridays sentencing hearing that on the night of the fire, hed fallen asleep while watching a movie with his wife and their two young sons. I had just drifted off when I heard my wife screaming wildly, he said. When he looked outside, he saw both their cars engulfed in flames, as well as part of the house. The couple grabbed their sons, ran out their back door, and gathered with neighbors. All appeared to be distraught by the fire, he said, except for one. I looked up and I saw a man on a balcony, McGee said, referring to Elza. He appeared to just be watching. He was just quietly sitting there and watching. As McGee, a former Navy SEAL, got closer to Elza, he said the man started screaming at him. He complained that McGee had never asked about his military service, or about his familys car that had been destroyed in a fire about a week earlier. Story continues McGee said he recognized Elza from another bizarre encounter. That time, McGee said hed noticed a car parked nearby that had two flat tires and appeared to be abandoned. He opened it and started looking in the glove box when Elza drove up and confronted him. The car belonged to Elzas wife; he was upset that McGee was looking in it. McGee said Elza asked him how hed like it if Elza had done something similar to his wifes car. Tiffany McGee also testified, telling the judge about the trauma the fire caused their family. They moved away from the area, she said, and got counseling. She was running two businesses at the time of the fire, but gave up one because it had become too much of a burden in the aftermath. Elzas father and mother flew from San Antonio to attend Fridays sentencing. Alan Elza testified about the troubles his son faced while growing up with learning disabilities and mental health problems. Its hard for us to imagine our son would commit these crimes, Alan Elza said. Ryan Elza apologized for his actions before his sentence was issued. He said he didnt intend to hurt anyone and blamed much of his troubles on his alcohol problem and mental health issues, which include bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I feel really horrible about what Ive done, he said. I wanted to damage property but I didnt want to hurt anyone. Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com By Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari WAZIRABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday he would resume his protest march to Islamabad after recovering from an assassination attempt, as his supporters staged nationwide protests that blocked major roads. Khan was shot in the leg on Thursday as he waved to crowds from a container mounted on a truck from where he was leading a protest march on the capital to press for early elections and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif led a coalition of parties that ousted Khan from office through a parliamentary vote in April. "I will give a call to march on Islamabad once I get better," Khan, a former international cricket star-turned-politician, said in a live address on Friday from a hospital in Lahore where he has been receiving medical treatment. He said two shooters had tried to assassinate him, in a country with a history of politically motivated violence. He said one person was killed and 11 others were injured in Thursday's attack in Wazirabad, about 170 km (106 miles) southeast of Islamabad. Punjab Health Minister Yasmeen Rashid, a doctor and member of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters two bullets hit Khan, wounding him in the shin and thigh. Khan accused three people of devising the plan to assassinate him, naming Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Major-General Faisal Nasser. He did not provide evidence for his claim. The media wing of Pakistan's military called the allegations "baseless and irresponsible." "The government of Pakistan has been requested to investigate the matter and initiate legal action against those responsible for defamation and false accusations against the institution and its officials without any evidence whatsoever," the military's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. Story continues Sanaullah also rejected the allegations and said the coalition government had demanded an independent investigation. Sharif also condemned the shooting and ordered an investigation. The militarys media office did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation. It previously condemned the shooting. Khan's address came after his supporters came out on the streets of major cities on Friday, blocking major roads and clashing in some places with security forces. Some supporters gathered at the place where Khan was wounded and urged the former premier to resume his march on Islamabad. "It cannot stop. People are very angry, it will become more intense," Ansar Bashir, 40, a supporter who witnessed the shooting, told Reuters as he gripped a PTI party flag. In Lahore, the capital of Punjab state in the east, large groups of protesters burnt tyres and blocked roads. Some threw stones at the gate of the Punjab provincial governor's office, destroying security cameras and barriers, witnesses said. Khan's backers also blocked roads in the northwestern city of Peshawar, while local television channels showed police using tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Islamabad and the southern city of Karachi. Tahirul Qamar, a medical worker at Wazirabad market, said Khan should halt further protests to avoid more unrest. "He should stop, more lives will be lost," he said. The interior minister told reporters he was concerned that a video statement, widely carried by local media, in which a man presented as the alleged shooter said he was motivated by religious reasons to attack Khan, could inspire others. Reuters was unable to confirm authenticity of the video. Punjab police said they had made an arrest, but it was not clear if this was the same person shown in the video footage. The minister urged the PTI to review Khan's security arrangements. (Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Wazirabad and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Pakistan; Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and Gibran Peshimam in Karachi and Charlotte Greenfield in IslamabadEditing by John Stonestreet, Edmund Blair and Matthew Lewis) Twitter is being sued over new owner Elon Musks decision to cut 3,700 staff jobs. A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where Twitter headquarters are located, by a handful of former employees. The employees argue that Musk broke federal and California state law by not giving enough notice for mass layoffs. The lawsuit claims that Musk violated both the federal and state WARN Act, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires large companies to give 60 days notice before issuing mass layoffs. One of the plaintiffs named in the suit said they were terminated Tuesday and three other staffers were locked out of there Twitter accounts on Thursday, which they took to mean they are being let go, with no formal notice of a layoff, according to court documents. Now, plaintiffs are asking a judge to file an injunction to stop Twitter from laying off employees without advance written notice, according to the lawsuit. The attorney who filed the lawsuit on Thursday, Shannon Liss-Riordan, told Bloomberg that employees should fight for their rights. We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights, Liss-Riordan told the outlet. Shortly after taking over Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Musk planned to fire 3,700 employees, or about half of Twitters workforce, in order to cut costs and relieve the companys debt from overpaying its employees. Staff were told in a company-wide memo that layoffs would begin on Friday. In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, the memo read. Staff were also told in the memo that all employees would get an email on Friday and those employees being terminated would receive an email with next steps to their personal email accounts. Twitter has not responded to a request for comment. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. MILAN (AP) Italy's new far-right led government adopted a measure Friday formalizing the closure of its ports to rescue ships run by humanitarian groups as four vessels with more than 1,000 migrants continued to press for a safe port. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters Italy would allow a German migrant rescue ship to arrive in Sicily to land minors and those with medical emergencies, but he said the ship must then return to international waters with the rest of the migrants. Piantedosi said the German-flagged Humanity 1, carrying 179 people, forced the situation by entering into territorial waters.'' But he emphasized Italy's position that it is the flag country of each charity-operated ship that must intervene to provide a safe port and not Italy. The fate of the other ships was not addressed, but Piantedosi said France had indicated it could accept the possibility to disembark" the Norway-flagged Ocean Viking, which has 234 people on board. The Humanity 1 was on its way to the Sicilian port of Catania, Piantedosi said, adding it would be allowed to remain in Italian waters only long enough to disembark minors and people needing medical care. The move came after France and Germany asked Italys new government to grant a safe port to more than 1,000 people rescued by humanitarian groups in the central Mediterranean, some of whom have been stuck at sea for more than two weeks. The posture adopted by Premier Giorgia Meloni's new government marks a return to the anti-NGO position adopted by Matteo Salvini, now a deputy premier, when he was interior minister in 2018-2019. Salvini, currently the infrastructure minister in charge of ports, welcomed the new decree in a Facebook post, saying it would ensure that foreign ships cannot arrive solely in Italy with their illegal immigrants. "If there are minors or the sick on board they may disembark, as it should be. All of the others aboard a German ship leave Italian waters and go toward Germany,'' Salvini said. Story continues Humanitarian groups caring for the rescued migrants on four ships in the central Mediterranean have sounded alarms about deteriorating conditions, including people sleeping on floors in the cold and spreading fevers. A German charity, Mission Lifeline, reported that its ship was in extreme danger with 95 rescued people on board, half of them women and children, and bad weather forecast. Piantedosi drafted new measures contending the non-governmental groups violated procedure by not properly coordinating their rescues, setting the groundwork for Italy to close the ports. At the same time, Italian authorities continue to allow the arrivals of people rescued at sea by Italian patrols, including 456 arriving in Calabria on Thursday and some 6,000 over the last week. Charities have denied circumventing procedures, and say it is their duty to rescue people in distress at sea. According to the U.N. refugee agency, coastal states are obligated to accept people from rescue ships as soon as practicable, and governments should cooperate to provide a place of safety for survivors. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Friday that international law makes clear that Italy, as the closest port, must let the ship in. He cited the Ocean Viking operated by the group SOS Mediterranee, which has one of its headquarters in France. We have no doubt that Italy will welcome the ship ... that Italy will respect international law, he told French news broadcaster BFM TV. He also said France and Germany have told Italy that they are both ready to receive some of the migrants so Italy wont bear the burden alone. The German Foreign Ministry also asked Italy to intervene quickly to help those aboard the German-flagged Humanitarian 1. The boat was carrying 100 unaccompanied minors as well as a 7-month-old baby, the SOS Humanity charity said. They continue to be exposed to the elements, having to spend the cold nights on deck. Still, they are sleeping on the floor while winds and waves are increasing, said spokesman Wasil Schauseil, adding that the state of limbo was adding to their mental stress. Fever was also spreading among the rescued people, with COVID tests turning up negative. Also at sea is the Doctors Without Borders-run ship Geo Barents, also flagged by Norway, with 572 people on board, including 60 unaccompanied minors as well as families with children and the elderly. Another German-based charity, Mission Lifeline, said that its ship Rise Above picked up 95 people in three operations Thursday, and that neither Italy nor Malta had responded to requests for a port. The proportion of women, children and babies is unusually high, comprising about half of the people on board. We are particularly worried about the health of the eight babies as well as the small children. Many had been at sea for days at the time of the rescue and are extremely exhausted,'' said Heremine Poschmann, a Mission Life spokeswoman. The Rise Above is in extreme danger, Poschmann said, with bad weather forecast in the coming hours and with 104 people total on board a relatively small boat at 25 meters (82 feet) long. Normally they would transfer rescued people immediately to other bigger charity boats, but the other three are already at capacity, she said. The migrants rescued at sea have mostly traveled through Libya, often being subjected to torture by human traffickers along the way, as they seek a better life in Europe. ___ Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration. France's National Assembly voted Friday to sanction a far-right MP with a rare 15-day suspension and pay cut after he yelled "back to Africa" at a black colleague, a clash that drew outrage across the political spectrum. Gregoire de Fournas, a newly elected member of the National Rally, has denied any personal racist attack in the outburst, saying he was referring to a ship carrying rescued migrants in the Mediterranean. The penalty urged by the council of the lower-house National Assembly is the harshest possible under its rules, which broadly uphold free speech for MPs while in session. It was only the second time in the history of France's Fifth Republic, established by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, that an MP had received such a rebuke. The incident came as tensions over immigration are running high, with President Emmanuel Macron's government promising a new crackdown amid accusations of failing to stem new arrivals or deport those whose residency requests are denied. Carlos Martens Bilongo of the leftist France Unbowed party (LFI) was questioning the government Thursday on the request by the SOS Mediterranee NGO for Paris's help in finding a port for the ship that rescued 234 migrants at sea in recent days. "It should go back to Africa!" interrupted de Fournas, a winegrower from the southwestern Gironde department, drawing gasps of shock from many in parliament. In French, pronunciation is the same for the pronouns "it" and "he", which suggested to some that de Fournas was targeting Bilongo directly. "Racism, no matter its target, is a negation of the republican values that unite us in this assembly," its president Yael Braun-Pivet said after the vote. - 'Totally innocent' - The punishment comes as the RN prepares to vote Saturday on a successor to its leader Marine Le Pen, who backed her MP on Twitter by saying "the controversy created by our political opponents is obvious and will not fool the French people". Le Pen has been working for years to shed her party's extremist views and prove it can unite voters and govern as a mainstream party. Story continues Le Pen challenged President Emmanuel Macron in this year's presidential vote and then led her party to its best-ever performance in subsequent legislative elections, with 89 MPs. While acknowledging a "gaffe" by de Fournas, she told journalists Friday that "if a comment that lacks finesse justifies a suspension from parliament, there's room for plenty of others" in the assembly. De Fournas, who left the chamber immediately after the vote, reacted on Twitter saying "I am totally innocent... but respectful of the institution, and I accept" its decision. Bilongo responded by telling BFM television that "I have always been deeply convinced the RN is racist, and this only proves it once again." The 27-year-old Jordan Bardella is the overwhelming favourite to win the party leadership Saturday over his only rival Louis Aliot, a party veteran and former partner of Le Pen. By stepping down as party chief, Le Pen will focus on presiding the RN group in parliament, where she will could have a powerful platform for a potential fourth run at the presidency in 2027. parl-js/sjw/bp The Secretary of States Office said that it is expecting 2.4 million Georgians to have voted by the end of the day Friday, shattering voting records once again in the state. Channel 2s Audrey Washington went to an early voting polling location in South Fulton County, where she found a steady stream of people heading in to vote. People told Washington that they wanted to make sure their votes were cast and counted early. It was smooth and easy, voter Naomi Salaman said. It was good to get it in and out and get it off of my chest. Salaman was one of hundreds of thousands of Georgians to vote early. Friday, Washington spoke with the head of the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, Nadine Williams. RELATED STORIES: Williams said, as of Friday, more than 270,000 people in Fulton County have voted. Even if that line is down the block, you are permitted to vote but you have to be in that line by seven oclock, Williams said. Fulton County election officials are reminding people who plan to vote on Election Day, Nov. 8, to make sure they have their correct polling place. Do your research. You can go online to see your polling site and see a sample ballot, Williams said. Fulton County election officials said there will be 249 polling places open on Election Day in Fulton County. RELATED NEWS: George Lopez opened up about the moment when he knew he had to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter, Mayan. The 61-year-old comedian, who is co-starring with his 26-year-old daughter in the new family comedy "Lopez vs. Lopez," reflected on their past struggles. "I was divorced, and then Mayan and I didn't talk for a long time," Lopez recalled during a Wednesday appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." He continued, "She went on TikTok to respond to a video that someone made attacking me. It was a video of her twerking upside down." George Lopez said he knew he had to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter, Mayan, after seeing a TikTok of her twerking upside down. GEORGE LOPEZ TELLS TRUMP TO 'DEPORT THE POLICE' TO 'MAKE THE STREETS SAFER' "I realized I wasn't the best dad, but when your kid's twerking upside down, you've got some real f-----g problems. I didn't realize it was this serious." READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP After viewing the clip, the actor said he realized he needed to "get out there" and reconnect with Mayan. "The Tax Collector" star explained that the two began going to therapy together. "You have to be responsible for the trauma that you've caused," Lopez said. Lopez shares his only child with his ex-wife, Ann Serrano, 61, who famously donated one of her kidneys to him. In 2010, the former couple split after 17 years together when Mayan was 14 years old. "I didn't realize it was this serious," Lopez said. "I'm owning, for the first time in my life, my responsibility to the marriage and as a father," he said. He continued, "I said, Yeah, Im responsible for this, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life repairing it.'" Lopez joked that there was one particularly awkward part of the joint therapy experience. "If you think therapy is bad, what's worse is the elevator ride down after because it's all heavy stuff," he said. "You almost have to stagger it out, like when you dine and dash, somebody goes out the back, somebody goes out the front. Don't go in the same car when you're doing trauma therapy." Lopez and Mayan are starring together on the new NBC comedy "Lopez vs. Lopez." In "Lopez vs. Lopez," the father-daughter duo play fictionalized versions of themselves as they try to repair their fractured relationship after a long period of estrangement. The show follows Lopez's character, George, as he moves in with Mayan, her son and her boyfriend after his business goes under during the pandemic. Story continues Lopez and Mayan said that the pandemic also helped them mend the rift between them in real life. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER "There was a time where we didn't speak and were estranged for about three years," Mayan said in a recent virtual press conference via UPI. She continued, "Really, the pandemic brought us back together. I started making TikToks with my family to reconnect, and [showrunner] Debby Wolfe saw one of [the videos], and this whole Lopez vs. Lopez idea was kind of born from that idea." Mayan added, "This is an experience of a lifetime to be able to do this with my father." Lopez said, "To have Debby see Mayan do TikToks about our unfortunate break in our relationship and create a beautiful thing from something that was so painful and so much my fault is just a wonderful thing." "Lopez vs. Lopez" premieres on NBC on Nov. 4. Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! winner Georgia Toff Toffolo has said that Matt Hancocks appearance on the show makes her embarrassed to be a Tory. The former health secretary arrived in Australia this week ahead of his appearance on the ITV reality show, where he will join the 10 contestants already announced by ITV as a bombshell star. Hancock has been widely criticised for the decision, with many arguing that a sitting MP should not be allowed to leave their constituents in a cost-of-living crisis to appear on the show. He has been stripped of the Tory whip. Appearing on This Morning on Friday (4 November), former Queen of the Jungle Toffolo, who has been a vocal supporter of the Tories in the past, didnt mince her words as she laid into Hancock. Explaining that she was usually pretty soft on the Tories, the Made in Chelsea star said that she thought Hancock appearing in the jungle was disgraceful. What Matt is doing is, I think, showing to the country that the man who was meant to be in control of our health going through this pandemic, not only did he cheat on his wife and get caught, hes now leaving his constituents to go to Australia to earn loads of money on the show and flaunting it in front of people that lost so many loved ones and went through the most horrific pain, Toffolo said. Toffolo (right) with Stanley Johnson in 2018 (Getty Images) Ive never been more embarrassed about this Conservative Party, ever. Toffolo won Im a Celebrity in 2017, during which she became close friends with Boris Johnsons father Stanley. She has been a member of the Conservative Party since she was in school, saying in 2017 that she cant comprehend why someone my age would support the Labour Party. Hancocks appearance on Im a Celebrity has been the subject of much discussion, with many predicting the public will vote the MP to do all the Bushtucker Trials as punishment for his handling of the pandemic. Toffolo on Im A Celebrity (Picture: ITV/PA Wire) Nick Grimshaw predicted on Good Morning Britain: All I thought, when I saw him going in, was that the other people in the jungle will be so happy, because theyre not gonna have to do anything. They can just be in Australia for two weeks. Theyll be on holiday. Hes got to deliver. Story continues Elsewhere in the show, Susanna Reid was forced to apologise after right-wing journalist Andrew Pierce, who works for The Daily Mail, called Hancock a d***head. Pierce added that Hancock was a laughing stock, saying: Weve known Matt Hancock for a long time. When they see him, warts and all, it will not be nice. Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! begins Sunday 6 November at 9pm on ITV. Theres a steady stream of voters filing into the former Sams Club in Stonecrest, Georgia, by the time Dele Lowman Smith arrives at 10 a.m. and greets the poll workers. Overall, early voting is going smoothly, with numbers almost as high as in the 2020 presidential election virtually unheard of for a midterm. It hasnt been as easy as it looks. As chair of the Board of Registration and Elections in DeKalb County, a majority-Black area that includes part of the Atlanta metro area, Ms. Lowman Smith has had to scramble to implement changes required by a 2021 state voting law that sparked controversy across the United States. She sees Georgia as a microcosm of the entire country right now a newly nonwhite-majority state, in which voters of color are shifting the states longtime political leanings and leading to what Ms. Lowman Smith describes as a partisan power struggle over voting. During the 2020 election, at the height of the pandemic, DeKalb installed more than 30 drop boxes to increase access for voters and ease pressure on poll workers. Now the county is only allowed half a dozen, with the rest sitting in storage. DeKalbs elections board recently met to consider a challenge to 412 voters on the rolls the new law allows unlimited challenges, with some 65,000 brought statewide so far and its hearing chatter about more in the works. Ms. Lowman Smith and her team are also bracing for people who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day, since the new law limits the use of provisional ballots. Like many of the voters that we work on behalf of, we are motivated to work harder by barriers that are erected that could prevent our citizens from voting, says Ms. Lowman Smith, as voters cycle through the turquoise voting booths. For the past two years, Georgia has been ground zero for a national debate about how best to ensure election integrity while safeguarding the rights of eligible voters. According to the GOP-run state legislature, its package of new voting rules was designed to restore confidence across the political spectrum, with outside advocates holding it up as a model for other states. But critics have assailed the bill as a partisan effort to suppress the rising multiracial tide that put Georgia in Joe Bidens column in 2020 and sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate in January 2021. Story continues Some see this cycles record turnout as proof that concerns about voter suppression were unfounded. As of Nov. 1, a total of 1,947,191 voters had cast a ballot, just under the 1,979,963 who had done so at this point in the 2020 presidential election and nearly 750,000 higher than in 2018, according to the Georgia secretary of states office. All these claims that these reforms will somehow keep people from voting have turned out to be totally false, says Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission who now runs the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Others see the high turnout as a measure of determination by people who feel their rights are being threatened and are voting early in case any problems arise with their registration or ballots. The fact that people are voting is in spite of S.B. 202, not because of it, said voting rights advocate and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in her final debate with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Oct. 30. Ms. Abrams, through her organization Fair Fight Action, brought a lawsuit against the state after narrowly losing the 2018 election to Mr. Kemp, claiming serious and unconstitutional flaws in Georgias elections process. Fair Fight, which was joined by several faith-based organizations including Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnocks Ebenezer Baptist Church, alleged violations of due process, equal protection, the right to vote, and the ban on racial discrimination in voting. This fall, an Obama-appointed judge ruled against Fair Fights claims that a number of barriers in the 2018 election were racially discriminatory including absentee ballot rules and the exact match verification requirement for voter applications. Although Georgias election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act], wrote U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in his 288-page decision. Fallout from the 2020 election In 2020, amid concerns about in-person voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, many states rapidly scaled up their use of mail-in ballots and relaxed protocols around absentee voting. To some, that raised concerns about the security of the voting process. Republican Michael Cogan, the former chair of the Maryland Board of Elections who oversaw the 2020 vote and has since moved to Georgia, says he gives tremendous credit to the administrators, local boards, and staff for all they did to pull off Marylands first election held primarily by mail. But he admits he still has questions about some of his decisions, such as using drop boxes, even with 24/7 surveillance. Anytime youre working in an emergency situation, youre always worried you cut one corner too short, says Mr. Cogan. In order to make it more possible to vote, did I, by trying to solve this problem, just open up the door to another problem? Then-President Donald Trump stoked and exploited those fears, claiming there had been widespread fraud despite repeatedly being told by members of his own inner circle that there was no evidence of it. In a secretly recorded phone call that was later made public, he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes one more than the margin by which he had lost the state to Mr. Biden. Secretary Raffensperger refused. But many Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere believed Mr. Trumps claim that 2020 election was fraudulent, leading to an unprecedented civilian assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that interrupted the ceremonial tallying of the electoral count. Two months later, Georgias legislature passed the Election Integrity Act of 2021, known as S.B. 202, which placed new guardrails on the absentee and mail-in voting process. Among other things, the law prohibits election officials from automatically mailing absentee ballot applications to all voters, requires those voting absentee to provide photo ID, effectively limits both the number and hours of access to drop boxes in urban areas, and gives the state legislature currently controlled by Republicans more influence over both state and local election authorities. Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said the measures were geared toward making sure the same level of security you have when you go to vote in person is the level of security when you vote by mail. Critics of voter ID laws say they disproportionately affect voters of color and other traditionally disadvantaged groups, who are less likely to have drivers licenses or other forms of photo ID. But Heritages Mr. von Spakovsky points to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research that compared voter turnout from 2008 to 2018 in all 50 states and found that voter ID laws had no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any group defined by race, gender, age, or party affiliation. The study also found that the requirements had no effect on fraud, a key reason cited by advocates of voter ID. While proven instances of voter fraud are low one study put it at less than 0.00000013% of ballots cast in federal elections a Heritage database of just under 1,400 proven fraud cases shows the different ways it can happen. They mainly involve local elections, and include two dozen cases that resulted in the election being overturned. Concerns about voter fraud are just one factor that Republican legislators in Georgia cited as rationale for the new provisions. The laws authors also argued it would reduce the burden on election officials, in part by shortening the window for absentee ballots, and promote uniformity in voting across the state, including by banning outside grant funding that was unevenly distributed and by giving the state more power to address persistent dysfunction at the county level that in the past led to long lines and problems processing absentee ballots. In Georgia, its easy to vote and hard to cheat, and Im committed to keeping it that way, said Governor Kemp in the Oct. 30 debate with Ms. Abrams. A redux of Jim Crow Part of the reason the debate is so heated is that higher Black turnout in Georgia is likely to help Democrats still overwhelmingly the party of choice for Black voters, although that support has been softening at the margins in recent years. In Swainsboro, a city of 7,500 several hours east of Atlanta, Black residents make up more than half the population, but persistently low voter turnout means white Republican candidates tend to win by a lot. You dont feel like your issues are being looked after, says Shayna Boston, an entrepreneur who ran for mayor last year and lost, 520 to 868. She and other local Democrats are pushing hard to boost registration and turnout this year, following Ms. Abrams model. While the October ruling was a blow to Ms. Abrams, she maintains that her legal challenges and advocacy have already resulted in substantial changes that opened the way for more voters of color to register and vote, including the reinstatement of more than 22,000 voters removed from the rolls. She also continues to assert racial discrimination and voter suppression, contrary to the judges ruling. An Associated Press investigation found that nearly 70% of the 53,000 applications flagged in 2018 because a voters name did not match that on his or her government ID belonged to Black voters roughly twice the share of Georgias Black population. Ms. Abrams, who says her father was arrested as a teenager for helping Black people to register to vote, called the 2021 bill a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie. Critics of S.B. 202 also fault the law for giving the legislature more control over the state elections board as well as giving it power to suspend county officials. As a result of the law, Mr. Raffensperger, the secretary of state who stood up to Mr. Trump, was removed from the state elections board. Perhaps the most infamous measure in the bill bans people from handing out food and water within 25 feet of voters waiting in line, or 150 feet of a polling place. Often left out is the context: The ban is part of a broader prohibition on soliciting votes through gifts or other means. There are also concerns about the toll the laws provisions is taking on those tasked with enforcing it. Ms. Lowman Smith admits it can be challenging to face persistent resistance after all the clear evidence and arguments that citizen representatives, attorneys, and election officials have presented. It is tiresome, it is frustrating, and at points it is angering, says Ms. Lowman Smith, who is nevertheless determined to press on. I hope we are setting the example in DeKalb County for the ways that election officials and ordinary, everyday citizens need to fight everywhere in the country to preserve this democracy. Related stories Read this story at csmonitor.com Become a part of the Monitor community By Andreas Rinke and Eduardo Baptista BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday condemned threats to use atomic weapons in Ukraine, with Scholz warning that Russia risked "crossing a line" in the international community by resorting to nuclear force. In the first visit by a G7 leader to China since the COVID-19 pandemic, Scholz pressed Xi to prevail on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine, saying Beijing had a responsibility as a major power to do so. Xi agreed that both leaders "jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons" over Ukraine, according to a readout by the state-run Xinhua news agency, though he refrained from criticising Russia or calling on Moscow to withdraw its troops. Scholz arrived in Beijing on a one-day visit that tested the waters between China and the West after years of increasing tensions, with talks touching on reciprocal market access, climate change and COVID-19 vaccines. Scholz made the trip while facing criticism from within his own coalition about relations with Beijing. He has tried to balance securing a level playing field for European companies with shedding Germany's heavy reliance on the Chinese market. During lunch with Scholz, Xi stressed that it is easy to destroy political trust but difficult to rebuild it, and both sides need to take care of it, according to Xinhua. Earlier, while greeting Scholz at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing, Xi urged the two countries to work more closely on international issues. "President Xi and I agree: nuclear threats are irresponsible and incendiary," Scholz said after the meeting. "By using nuclear weapons, Russia would be crossing a line that the community of states has drawn together." Ukraine's Western allies have accused Russia of threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Moscow denies doing so and has repeatedly accused Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive "dirty bomb", without offering evidence. Story continues Before their lunch of beef strips, prawn and sweet and sour fish, Scholz told Xi that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was creating problems for the rules-based global order, according to a recording of the remarks provided by the German delegation. Scholz then met outgoing premier Li Keqiang. He told Li that it was clear China and Germany were no friends of "decoupling", alluding to their respective economies. During a news conference after his discussion with Li, Scholz said he raised the issue of Taiwan. China claims the island as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. "Like the U.S. and other countries, we are pursuing a one-China policy," Scholz said. "But I have made equally clear that any change in Taiwan's status quo must be peaceful or by mutual consent." COVID TESTS Scholz bluntly complained about access to the Chinese market while also touting a breakthrough deal to allow Germany's BioNTech to become the first non-Chinese drug manufacturer to sell its COVID-19 vaccine to expatriates in China. "However, we have to realise that economic exchange with China has become more difficult for German companies recently," Scholz said. "This applies to market access, which is very open on the European side, while China seals off many sectors." China also formally announced existing deals for Airbus worth $17 billion in what experts described as an effort to showcase concrete results from Scholz's visit that caught the European planemaker and China-watchers off guard. Scholz himself made no mention of the deal, and the aircraft announcement also marked an apparent signal by Beijing to the United States where Boeing remains largely frozen out of the Chinese market after several years of trade tensions. While touching on the human rights of minorities in China's Xinjiang region, Scholz denied Germany was meddling in domestic Chinese affairs. He also asked Xi, who has supported President Vladimir Putin since Russian forces swept into Ukraine in February, to promote peace. "I have told President Xi that it is important, that China uses its influence on Russia," he said. Scholz and the delegation of German business leaders flying with him were administered COVID-19 tests upon landing in Beijing on Friday morning. Chinese medical staff donned hazmat suits and entered the plane to conduct the tests, according to the Reuters reporter accompanying the delegation. China's strict zero-COVID policy and growing friction with the West have made it unfeasible for leaders of major Western powers to visit China, while Xi only resumed foreign trips in September. Scholz is pushing for greater market access at a time when the German economy, Europe's largest, is fighting decades-high inflation and a looming recession. His visit was likely a welcome development for the Chinese leadership, which is looking to shore up relations with the outside world. "China, in the present domestic and international environments, requires his visit and whatever both sides would jointly declare in Beijing, especially shortly after the (Party) Congress," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. (Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Eduardo Baptista and Tim Hepher; Writing by Eduardo Baptista and Matthias Williams; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kim Coghill, Christian Schmollinger, Alison Williams and Mark Heinrich) Marco Buschmann in Kyiv The ministry notes that Berlin firmly stands on the side of Ukraine and will provide further financial, military, and humanitarian support to Kyiv. According to Spiegel, Buschmann will hold talks with the Ukrainian government and human rights activists in Kyiv. "We support Ukraine today and will support it in the future," the German minister said after arriving at the railway station in Kyiv. During the visit, the official will focus on the international investigation of war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. According to Buschmann, Germany wants to provide support in this matter. In addition, Buschmann is expected to discuss plans for cooperation in the field of justice, in particular in view of the prospect of Ukraine's accession to the EU. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Ukraine on Oct. 25. Read also: Steinmeier says situation in Ukraine more terrible than we imagine after visit to country During his trip to Chernihiv Oblast in the north of the country, he was caught by an air raid alarm, and spoke to local residents in a nearby shelter. According to the German head of state, he was shocked by peoples stories of occupation. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, world leaders and high-ranking officials have been visiting Ukraine on a regular basis, ex-pressing support and condemning the actions of the Russian military. Often during such visits Russian troops attack Ukrainian cities with missiles and other weapons. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Chinese leaders in Beijing on Friday that Berlin expected equal treatment on trade as he tried to drum up greater economic cooperation despite growing distrust of the Asian superpower in the West. Scholz is under pressure to push Beijing to get tough on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and he said Friday that Germany and China had agreed they both opposed any use of nuclear weapons in the conflict. The German chancellor is the first G7 leader to visit China since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which led the world's number two economy to close its borders and President Xi Jinping to largely eschew in-person diplomacy. But his trip has prompted criticism at home over Berlin's growing economic reliance on Beijing, and sparked controversy for coming so soon after Xi strengthened his hold on power in China just last month. Tensions are also running high between the West and Beijing on issues ranging from Taiwan to alleged human rights abuses. Scholz held talks with human rights lawyers critical of the regime in Beijing ahead of the trip, a source in his entourage told AFP. Received by a smiling Xi at Beijing's Great Hall of the People shortly after arriving, Scholz said he hoped to "further develop" economic cooperation -- while alluding to areas of disagreement. "It is good that we are able to have an exchange here about all questions, including those questions where we have different perspectives -- that's what an exchange is for," Scholz said. "We also want to talk about how we can further develop our economic cooperation on other topics: climate change, food security, indebted countries." "Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to global peace and development," Beijing's Xinhua News Agency reported. Scholz also spoke with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a meeting in which he called for fair trade between the two countries. Story continues At a press briefing during which Chinese officials said there was "not enough time" for questions, Scholz urged Beijing to do more to "use its influence" on its ally Russia, currently engaged in a months-long war in Ukraine. Both sides said they opposed the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict, with Scholz telling reporters: "Everyone says clearly that an escalation via the use of a tactical nuclear weapon is ruled out". China has steadfastly avoided criticising Russia for invading Ukraine and instead blames the United States and NATO for the war. - 'Keep doing business' - The German delegation of more than 60 people was met on the tarmac at Beijing airport by a military guard -- as well as health workers in white hazmat suits who conducted mandatory PCR tests in buses converted into mobile laboratories. Scholz's PCR test was taken in his plane by a German doctor he brought with him and supervised by Chinese health officials, according to the German government. China's economic importance is seen by some in Berlin as more crucial than ever, as Germany hurtles towards a recession battling an energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war. China is a major market for German goods, from machinery to cars. But German industry's heavy dependence on China is facing fresh scrutiny after the over-reliance on Russian energy imports left it exposed when Moscow turned off the taps. Scholz's approach is still underpinned by the idea that "we want to keep doing business with China, no matter what that means for the dependence of our economy, and for our ability to act", opposition lawmaker Norbert Roettgen told the Rheinische Post newspaper. Concern about China has also come from within Germany's ruling coalition, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock saying past mistakes with Russia must not be repeated. - 'All the more important' - There are also concerns that the trip -- coming on the heels of Xi securing a historic third term at a Communist Party Congress last month -- may have unsettled the United States and the European Union. "For Beijing, this is less about concrete outcomes and more about the symbolism of the German chancellor paying Xi a visit so soon after the party congress," said Noah Barkin, visiting senior fellow in the Asia Program at the US German Marshall Fund. "It gives international legitimacy to his leader-for-life status, and it shows that China is not isolated," he added. Berlin, however, says there have been consultations with key partners, and Scholz has insisted he is visiting China as a "European" as well as the leader of Germany. In an article published before his departure, he said direct talks with Chinese leaders were "all the more important" after the long hiatus caused by the pandemic. He promised to raise thorny topics such as respect for civil liberties and the rights of minorities in Xinjiang. "We strongly agree with what he (Scholz) shared in that op-ed", including "encouraging President Xi to press President Putin on never using a nuclear weapon of any kind", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Germany. pw-reb-oho/sea/sst Days before his exit from The Witcher was announced, Henry Cavill gave an interview that fans believe foreshadowed the news. Last week, the British actor announced that he would be leaving the Netflix fantasy series after its next season. His role of Geralt of Rivia will be taken over by Liam Hemsworth. News of the sudden change has shocked fans, leading many to question why Cavill would leave the much-loved series. An interview that Cavill gave on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on 27 October days before the news of his exit was announced on 29 October appears to shed some light on his decision. Speaking about his work ethic and his approach to his projects, Cavill told host Josh Horowitz: Its just about belief. If you believe what youre doing is the right thing then youll be able to keep on doing it. Its also important to know that if you realise youre doing the wrong thing, thats when you stop doing the wrong thing. You dont just keep going just because, because that leads down a dark path. While his answer wasnt in response to a question about The Witcher exactly, his quotes are a strong indicator that the fan theory proposing Cavill left the series over creative differences may be correct. Many fans have reacted to the moment, with one person writing on social media: It pains me because he is genuinely such a fan of books they couldnt get a better Geralt and they threw it all away. You can tell something happened behind the scenes with The Witcher, said another, with someone else stating he clearly isnt comfortable lying on camera. He could have said nothing but he had to tell the truth. As per Gamesradar, according to Redanian Intelligence, a website that reports exclusively on The Witcher, the actor originally had his sights set on leaving during season two. Story continues Cavill allegedly considered leaving because he and the producers werent seeing eye to eye on the subject of the shows content and his characters role. Throughout the press tour for series two, as per Redanian, Cavill made it clear that he had been pushing for the show to stay true to the books on which it is based. The toughest part for me was finding that balance between the showrunners vision and my love for the books, and trying to bring that Geralt to the showrunners vision. Its about treading a fine line there. Its the showrunners story and so its an adaptation, he said. The tricky bit for me was finding Geralt from the books place within that and being able to serve both as much as I could. (HBO) The timing of the announcement has also not been lost on fans, many of whom pointed out that it was only recently revealed that Cavill would be returning to his role as Superman in the DC Extended Universe. Many people suggested that his return to the DCEU had something to do with his exit from The Witcher. Others, however, also suggested that his decision may stem from behind-the-scenes trouble as claimed by Redanian. The Independent has contacted Cavill and Netflix for comment. Netflix users are threatening to boycott the show once Cavill leaves. The Witcher is showrun by Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich. A 46-year-old Lincolnwood restaurant owner is accused of strangling to death a Chicago woman who was eight months pregnant with his child and then hiding her body, prosecutors said Thursday. Cook County Judge Mary Marubio denied bail for 46-year-old Yaer Shen during a hearing livestreamed on YouTube on Thursday. Shen was charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child and concealing a homicidal death, according to Chicago police. The victim, 40-year-old Bilian Fang, was last seen Oct. 9 in the 3000 block of South Lock Street near the citys Chinatown neighborhood, according to prosecutors and a Chicago missing persons report. Fangs body was found earlier this week in suburban Stickney. According to prosecutors, the two were dating, and on the afternoon of Oct. 9, they left the Lincolnwood restaurant that Shen owns and drove to Shens home, where they began arguing about money. Shen went into the home, where he lives with his ex-wife and children, while Fang walked to the front porch and began sobbing. Shen and Fang went into his vehicle again after his ex-wife told him there was a crying woman on the porch, prosecutors said. Around 10:50 p.m. Fang called her 14-year-old daughter using Shens cellphone because Shen had broken hers the day before during a fight, according to prosecutors. Fang asked her daughter to contacted one of Fangs friends and have him pick her up at 36th Street and California Avenue, prosecutors said. After the friend went there but couldnt find Fang, the teen called again and Shen answered saying that Fang could go if she wanted to, according to prosecutors. Fang called her daughter again, and thats when the teen heard Shen in the background arguing with Fang, prosecutors said. The daughter called a third time after midnight and nobody answered. The two continued fighting as Shen began driving, and after Fang slapped him in the face, Shen began choking her with his hands around her neck, according to prosecutors. He let go, leaving Fang still conscious, but after they continued to fight and Shen began to worry Fang would call police, he allegedly choked her again, and she lost consciousness. Story continues Shen tried to perform CPR on her after she stopped breathing and then dumped her body in a water reclamation area in Stickney, covering her with branches and hurling her pink jacket into a wooded area, according to prosecutors and the Cook County medical examiners office. Detectives using cellphone data tracked his whereabouts that night and obtained video of Shen at various points, including on southbound I-55 and near Morton College near a soccer field, where he stayed for about 45 minutes before driving to Stickney, and then back home, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said her body was found using the same cellphone data, and police found spotted her pink jacket, which contained her identification, keys, cash and a note handwritten in Cantonese, signed by Shen, which said: I am sorry. I am not a good person. I made you suffer. I got scammed. I know it is irresponsible for me to leave you. I hope we dont meet in another life. A Tuesday autopsy determined Fang died of multiple injuries from an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiners office. A separate autopsy was conducted on the unborn child, and the death was ruled a homicide, with a finding that the baby would have survived if it had been born at the time Fang was killed, according to prosecutors. While in custody, Shen told police he had done very bad things and wanted to kill himself but couldnt do it and also was afraid to go to prison so he didnt turn himself in, prosecutors said. Shen is due back in court on Nov. 22. A group of House Democrats sent a scathing letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Friday, accusing the coffee chain of wielding its workplace benefits as a cudgel against unionizing baristas. We are closely monitoring Starbucks broad strategy of union-busting, intimidation, and retaliation against employees, they wrote in the letter, which is posted below. Illinois Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Chuy Garcia spearheaded the missive. The lawmakers asked Starbucks to clarify its new policy reimbursing workers for travel expenses related to abortions following the Supreme Courts recent Dobbs decision striking down Roe v. Wade. In a June letter to employees on the new benefit, Starbucks said that all partners enrolled in the company health care plan would have access to it. But the letter added that when it comes to unionized stores, Starbucks cannot make promises or guarantees about any benefits because the two sides are negotiating contracts. The lawmakers called on Schultz to immediately issue clear guidance on the abortion care benefit. They warned that if the company continued its scorched earth policy toward organized labor, they would look into ending any operating rights the company might have on federal properties. Starbucks told HuffPost in a statement that our communications have consistently stated that Starbucks will provide all partners who participate in the Companys healthcare benefits plan access to abortion travel benefits and gender affirming care. But the union campaign, Starbucks Workers United, accused the company of being deliberately unclear on whether baristas would still be eligible for the travel reimbursement if their store formed a union. According to Starbucks, travel costs would be covered if an employee couldnt get an abortion within 100 miles of their home. Starbucks purposefully made it so it was confusing whether or not baristas had access to this benefit, said Casey Moore, a Starbucks worker who handles communications for the union campaign. People were asking, Do we have it or do we not have it? Managers didnt have the answer. They were saying conflicting things all over the country. Story continues House Democrats says Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been brewing up threats and retaliation. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images) House Democrats says Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been brewing up threats and retaliation. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images) In its June letter to employees, Starbucks said that even if we were to offer a certain benefit at the bargaining table, a union could decide to exchange it for something else. The union has been locked in a bitter fight with Starbucks while organizing more than 250 stores around the country over the past year. Workplace benefits are one of the main battlefronts. Starbucks has rolled out a slew of new benefits and wage increases but noted that it could not unilaterally implement some of them at unionized stores. Under the law, employers cant make certain changes to pay and benefits without consulting the workers union. But the union, Workers United, has waived its right to bargain over these new benefits, telling Starbucks to go ahead and apply them to unionized cafes. In response, Starbucks says the benefits must be bargained with other proposals. Although Starbucks says health care-related benefits are not being withheld, the union says managers have told workers they could lose the benefits by unionizing. On Tuesday, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint saying, among other charges, that the company wielded its transgender health benefits as a threat. Starbucks says the gender-affirming care benefit applies to all workers with health coverage, whether they are union or not. Still, the complaint alleges a store manager in Ithaca, New York, warned employees they could lose it if they were to unionize. The complaint was one of several issued by the boards general counsel accusing Starbucks of withholding or threatening to withhold benefits to punish union supporters and cool other workers on organizing. In their letter Friday, House Democrats said Starbucks was using employee health care as a weapon. While Starbucks has accused various outside groups of interfering with unionization efforts, they wrote, it is Starbucks who is weaponizing access to essential health care to intimidate and discourage employees from organizing. This story has been updated with comment from Starbucks. The Democrats letter: This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a lengthy staff report on Friday on alleged politicization and anti-conservative bias in the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), a document that will serve as a road map for more probes of the agencies if the GOP wins control of the House in next weeks midterm elections. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking member on the committee who is likely to chair the panel next year if Republicans win a majority, said in a tweet alongside the report. The bulk of the 1,050-page document is copies of letters that Republicans have already sent to the agencies, with 1,000 pages of the report covering correspondence from the last year. That includes multiple copies of a five-page letter, one for each of the 93 U.S. attorneys plus the FBI director and the acting assistant attorney general. But the report teases their desire for future investigations and includes on its fifth page a notice to FBI agents and DOJ employees that they have the right to speak with members of Congress. There is likely much more to be uncovered in the months ahead, the report said. The FBI and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report lays out a laundry list of complaints about FBI and DOJ handling of various matters, including alleged manipulation of domestic violent extremism statistics, communication with social media companies about misinformation, alleged retaliation against agents who attended rallies outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, alleged investigations into parents in school boardrelated cases and the FBIs seizure of Rep. Scott Perrys (R-Pa.) cellphone in connection with investigations about plans to overturn 2020 election results. It also includes a charitable review of former President Trumps level of cooperation with the bureau throughout the FBIs investigation into his handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. Story continues It called his initial return of some documents over-inclusive despite it taking numerous return visits, including one with a warrant, to secure more than 10,000 government records stored there. It also brings up longstanding anger from Republicans and Trump over the Justice Departments surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in connection with concerns about Russian influence in the 2016 election. The Justice Department later declared two of the four warrants invalid. Jordan has relied heavily on whistleblowers from within the FBI to make complaints against the agency, and the report includes quotes from unnamed whistleblowers who say the FBI hierarchy is rotted at its core, maintains a systemic culture of unaccountability and is full of rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse. Jordan has for months complained the FBI has politicized its response to domestic extremism, citing a whistleblower to contend that some cases have been inappropriately labeled as domestic violent extremism cases. The FBI has wholly rejected that, noting the dangerous uptick in extremism on all fronts while warning of a growth in those motivated by white supremacist beliefs. Jordan has also been laser-focused on a memo Garland signed in October of last year noting a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff amid broader discussions over COVID-19 policies and how issues such as race and gender are addressed at school. The memo largely encouraged coordination, asking the FBI to convene meetings with local law enforcement in the following 30 days to discuss how to respond to threats of violence. It ultimately resulted in little payoff, particularly given the swift GOP backlash. Jordan by his own count has sent more than 100 letters on the subject. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is likely to be Speaker if Republicans win the majority, has greenlighted future investigations into the DOJ. After the Mar-a-Lago search, McCarthy in a statement told Garland to preserve your documents and clear your calendar, signaling that Republicans will use the force of subpoenas to compel documents and testimony in connection with concerns about politicization. One key development in the GOP probes of alleged politicization will come next month, before any official change in the Houses power structure. Former FBI official Jill Sanborn is set to sit for a transcribed interview with the Judiciary panels Republicans on Dec. 2. Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) sought her testimony about whistleblower claims that the FBI pressured agents to improperly classify cases as domestic violent extremism. Jordan is scheduled to appear at a rally with Trump in Ohio on Monday, the day before Election Day. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Nov. 4Faith and family fueled Halle Giaudrone's softball journey. The Kiowa senior signed her National Letter of Intent to play college softball for Grayson College in Denison, Texas, during a ceremony at Kiowa High School on Friday. Giaudrone smiled as she was surrounded by her family, teammates, and coaches, and said the day was the latest blessing in her life and softball career. "God has just blessed me with such amazing opportunities throughout the whole thing," she said. "I would not be where I am without Him, and Him giving me my family and the ability to do this." Giaudrone started playing on the dirt diamond during her t-ball days, and has grown up with the game. She has been named a state champion in her time as a Cowgirl, and will now be fulfilling a dream of playing college softball. She said she enjoys many facets of the game, from the time with her teammates, to the competitiveness, and celebrating the victories. But most importantly, Giaudrone said her time on field has served to strengthen her faith. "Something that has really brought me closer with (softball) is my relationship with God, and working on my relationship with Him through it," she said. "Because every time I pray, something happens. And that just makes my relationship so much stronger with Him." Giaudrone said there are many people in her life to thank for being by her side all these years, but there were a few special people that stood out above the rest. "My dad is like number one. We go down and hit like every single night," she said. "And then my mom's good cop. So dad kinda pushes me, and mom is always there for me...and then literally my entire teammates, family, coaches everybody." Giaudrone has also had the opportunity to play high school softball with her younger sister Tyler this season, and said it was an incredible bonding experience. "I just love watching her grow in everything," she said. "Sometimes we argue and fight over stuff, but it's so special to get to do what I love with her." Story continues Giaudrone will be trading her Kiowa black and gold for Grayson blue after graduation, but is excited to have the opportunity to continue her faith-filled journey with softball. But she had some advice for the next generation of Cowgirls who will fill her shoes and embark on their own life's adventures. "I wasn't born with the most athletic ability. I just had to keep doing it and doing it over and over again," she said. "If you really just put your heart and your mind into it, and pray about it every day...you're going to end up in the best position." Contact Derek Hatridge at dhatridge@mcalesternews.com. Lisbon --News Direct-- Huobi Global Huobi, one of the worlds leading virtual asset exchanges, will be the main sponsor of the Solana Foundation Games Day, an event which is expected to draw some of the biggest investors, developers, and partners in the Solana community. Taking place on November 4 in Lisbon, Portugal, the event will feature a full day of activities centered on Learn, Connect and Play. There will be in-depth discussions and announcements on the future of web3 games, networking with some of the worlds best web3 gaming founders and developers, as well as real-time demos and showcases of the top games being built on Solana. Participants can also look forward to 33 game demo booths featuring games such as Aurory Project, Crypto Fantasy Town and Mini Nations, an open games area with 16 gaming laptop set-ups, and a mini esports stage. Games Day will be held immediately before Breakpoint 2022, which takes place on November 4-7. Breakpoint is a large-scale gathering organized by Solana Foundation for industry leaders, builders and innovators from around the globe, featuring four days of workshops, panels and talks from some of the biggest brains in the Solana ecosystem. His Excellency Justin Sun, Huobis global advisory board member and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO, said: We are pleased to be the main sponsor for Solana Foundation Games Day, which is one of the most anticipated events on the Solana community calendar. Huobi Global is excited to partner with the Solana Foundation and their game builders and developers. We look forward to more opportunities to collaborate with Solana and its partners. Edward Chen, Huobis Head of Asset Strategy Hub, said: We have successfully listed many tokens built on the Solana blockchain, and are always looking for good-quality projects that excite the community and want to be listed on a leading platform like Huobi. Participating in a prestigious event like Solana Foundation Games Day gives us a good opportunity to identify such promising projects. We look forward to working more closely with the Solana Foundation and its ecosystem partners. Story continues I am thankful for Huobis support in making the Solana Foundation Games Day possible, said Johnny Lee, General Manager of Games for Solana Foundation. Exchanges like Huobi are key to the adoption and eventual success of blockchain gaming, and their commitment to the Solana ecosystem is commendable. There are currently several Solana tokens listed on Huobi Global, including SOL, FTT, SRM, MPLX with more to come. About Huobi Founded in 2013, Huobi Global is one of the largest virtual asset exchanges in the world. Huobi Global serves millions of users across international markets. Since its establishment, Huobi Global has committed to providing first class virtual asset investment services. Huobi Global's robust infrastructure, product innovation and capital strength provides a truly customer-centric and secure trading environment to help our international users to achieve their investment objectives. Please refer to Huobis official website for more information: www.huobi.com Contact Details Huobi PR team intlpr@huobi.com Company Website https://www.huobi.com/ View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/huobi-is-the-main-sponsor-of-solana-foundation-games-day-2022-204813248 More than 280 immigration, faith-based and rights groups sent a letter to the Biden administration on Friday asking it not to send Haitian migrants interdicted at sea to Guantanamo Bay or a third-party country. The groups were responding to a Sunday report by NBC News that the White House's National Security Council had asked the Department of Homeland Security to model scenarios in case of a surge of Haitian migrants. Fuel supplies in Haiti are currently blocked, and officials said the Biden administration believes that when Haitians are again able to buy gas, there could be a mass exodus of migrants trying to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. by boat. The scenarios would estimate when the number of Haitians fleeing the country by sea would require sending them to a third-party country for processing, and also at what point that country would be overwhelmed and the U.S. would need to double capacity at the existing migrant facility at its Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The groups who signed the letter, led by the Haitian Bridge Alliance, urged the Biden administration to instead allow Haitians to be removed from dangerous vessels at sea and taken to the U.S. to claim asylum. We call on your administration to prioritize protections for Haitian nationals. This includes halting returns and expulsions to Haiti given the life-threatening conditions there. The administration must not under any circumstances send asylum seekers and migrants to the notorious Guantanamo Bay or other offshore detention locations, the groups said. The letter said sending migrants to the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay, which operates separately from the prison for suspected terrorists, would repeat policies of the 1990s that kept migrants in poor conditions. Reports from the time, which are cited in the letter, included migrants being given cardboard boxes rather than cribs for their babies to sleep. Your administration should not add yet another chapter to the shameful U.S. history of mistreatment and racism toward Haitian people seeking protection, including those forced to take to the seas, the letter said. Story continues They also said sending migrants to a third country, rather than allowing them into the U.S. to claim asylum, would be repeating Trump administration policies, such as those that sent migrants to Guatemala. The Biden administration should reject the prior administrations approach, which made a travesty of the U.S. commitment to non-refoulment, subverted international law and encouraged other countries to pursue similarly dangerous and inhumane asylum offshoring and detention agreements, the letter said. The groups said those policies disparately punished Black asylum seekers. Similar criticism arose in September 2021 after the Biden administration began mass deportations of Haitian asylum seekers who crowded by the thousands under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from the advocacy groups. The U.S. government always does contingency planning out of an abundance of caution, and for a wide range of potential scenarios. These contingencies for migration existed long before the Biden-Harris administration, an NSC spokesperson said. We have not seen an increase in Haitian maritime migration, and no decisions have been made. In fact, the number of Haitians interdicted at sea has significantly decreased in recent months. The United States continues to coordinate with our international partners first and foremost to support the people of Haiti and address the security and humanitarian situation in the country. In late September, violent gangs seeking to overturn Haitis government staged a land blockade of the countrys main fuel supply point, blocking fuel from leaving the depot and thwarting the hopes of those seeking to leave the country by boat. The Biden administration predicts that when the fuel is no longer blocked and migrants are able to buy gas to power boats, there could be a mass exodus of Haitians trying to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. by sea, the U.S. officials said. The UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, called on countries in the region this week to suspend deportations of Haitians given the poor conditions in the country. Violence, including sexual violence, kidnapping, looting and roadblocks by armed gangs, and the recent outbreak of cholera, has exacerbated an already dramatic humanitarian situation in Haiti, which is marked by acute food insecurity, fuel shortages, and limited health care and sanitation. Millions of children are unable to attend school, are malnourished and live in fear, the UNHCR said. In response to NBC Newss previous reporting on the planning for a possible surge, a DHS spokesperson said DHS continues to closely monitor the situation in Haiti, and there are longstanding contingency plans ready in the event of a surge in maritime migration. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com STORY: The protesters chanted: "Long live Imran Khan" and "Imran, you have numerous comrades to sacrifice their lives." Khan was shot in the shin on Thursday when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country, in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt by his rivals. Khan, ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary confidence vote in April, was six days into a protest procession bound for Islamabad, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck, when the shots rang out. Uddesh Pratim Nath became a certified drone pilot after taking a five-day course Newly qualified drone pilot Uddesh Pratim Nath is excited about the opportunities his new skills have opened up for him. "Being certified has opened new avenues for me. I have been working with different industries like survey mapping, asset inspection, agriculture and many others," he says. Drones come in all shapes and sizes. The smaller ones typically have three of four rotors and can carry something small like a camera. The biggest, usually used by the military, look more like aeroplanes and can carry substantial payloads. Mr Nath, 23, had been designing drones, but decided that being certified to fly them would bring more job satisfaction and financial rewards. A five-day course was enough to get him started, and he's now flight-testing drones that will be used for mapping. Next he wants to master flying heavier and more complicated models. The government wants India to become a leader in the drone industry Mr Nath is reaping the benefits of a big push by the Indian government into the drone industry. In February this year India banned the import of drones, except for those needed by the military or for research and development. The government wants to develop a home-grown industry that can design and assemble drones and make the components that go into their manufacture. "Drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their versatility, and ease of use, especially in India's remote areas," says Amber Dubey, former joint secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation. "Given its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and its huge domestic demand, India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub by 2030," he tells the BBC. Over the next three years Mr Dubey sees as much as 50bn rupees (550m; $630m) invested in the sector. Drone makers have "large order books", says Neel Mehta, co-founder of Asteria Aerospace Neel Mehta is the co-founder of Asteria Aerospace, which has been building drones for 10 years. He welcomes the government's efforts to boost the sector. It has allowed his company to expand beyond building drones for the defence sector and move into new areas. Story continues "Drone companies now have a clear growth roadmap, large order books and promising future trajectory. In India, we now have drones being used in real-world, impactful large-scale applications, while being economically viable," says Mr Mehta. Currently drones do all sorts of jobs in India. Police use them for monitoring the traffic and border security forces use them to search for smugglers and traffickers. They are also increasingly common in the farming sector, where they are used to monitor the health of crops and spray them with fertiliser and pesticides. However, despite the excitement and investment around India's drone industry, even those in the sector advise caution. "India has set a goal of being a hub of drones by 2030, but I think we should be cautious because we at present don't not have an ecosystem and technology initiatives in place," says Rajiv Kumar Narang, from the Drone Federation of India. Drones are used by India's police and security services He says the industry needs a robust regulator that can oversee safety and help develop an air traffic control system for drones. That will be particularly important as the aircraft become larger, says Mr Narang. "Initiatives have to come from the government. A single entity or a nodal ministry has to take this forward if we want to reach a goal of being the hub by 2030," he says. India also lacks the network of firms needed to make all the components that go into making a drone. At the moment many parts, including batteries, motors and flight controllers are imported. But the government is confident an incentive scheme will help boost domestic firms. "The components industry will take two to three years to build, since it traditionally works on low margin and high volumes," says Mr Dubey. Drone pilots are in demand Despite those reservations, firms are confident there will be demand for drones and people to fly them. Chirag Shara is the chief executive of Drone Destination, which has trained more than 800 pilots and instructors since the rules on drone use were first relaxed in August 2021. He estimates that India will need up to 500,000 certified pilots over the next five years. "With 5G around the corner, the drone technology will have the platform to unleash its full potential, especially for long-range, high-endurance operations," he says. More technology of business: Some companies are already using autonomous drones that use artificial intelligence (AI) to get to their destinations. Could that eliminate the need for drone pilots in the future? It's not something that concerns newly certified pilot Uddesh Nath. "Drones will always require a pilot or someone remotely controlling and monitoring them. Different drones require different handling and AI is not yet that advanced. "Even if it learns to control itself, we cannot teach the drone to react in every situation," he says. NEW DELHI (AP) Indian authorities on Friday shut factories and construction sites, restricted diesel-run vehicles and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control haze and smog enveloping the skyline of the capital region. The Delhi government closed primary schools and restricted outdoor activity for older students as the air quality index exceeded 470, considered severe and more than 10 times the global safety threshold, according to the state-run Central Pollution Control Board. In NOIDA, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, a city on the outskirts of New Delhi, schools shifted to online classes up to the eighth grade to meet the public health crisis. The haze enveloped monuments and high-rise buildings in and around New Delhi. India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav blamed the northern Punjab state, ruled by the opposition Aam Admi Party, for its failure to stop the burning of crop residues, a key contributor to the pollution, at the start of the winter wheat-sowing season. "There is no doubt over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber," Yadav tweeted on Wednesday. The state's top elected official, Bhagwant Mann, defended himself by saying that his government took office only six months ago and that the federal and state governments needed to tackle the pollution crisis together. Sarvjeet Singh, a 48-year-old autorickshaw driver, said the smog was hurting his eyes and he was finding it difficult to breathe. "There are problems, especially in the morning. Its difficult to drive my vehicle because of the pollution. My autorickshaw is open. It will affect us more than people in cars. We have to work, what can we do? Rahul Azmera, 29, a software engineer who works in the United States and is visiting New Delhi with his parents, said, I feel like if I stay here for one month, I would be hospitalized, definitely. That would scare me a lot. I feel a lot of heavy breathing here because of the pollution. I could barely see up to 100 meters (328 feet) or 200 meters (656 feet), he said. Story continues A full closure of schools, colleges, educational institutions and non-emergency commercial activities, and a restriction on private vehicles, is being considered in case the pollution level does not come down this weekend, a government statement said late Thursday. The government advised children, the elderly and those with respiratory, cardiovascular and other health problems to avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors as much as possible. New Delhi tops the list almost every year among the many Indian cities gasping for breath after the Diwali festival celebrations with their massive lighting of firecrackers. The crisis is exacerbated particularly in the winter when the burning of crop residues in neighboring states coincides with cooler temperatures that trap deadly smoke. That smoke travels to New Delhi, leading to a surge in pollution in the city of more than 20 million people. The government ban on construction and demolition activities includes projects such as highways, roads, flyovers, overhead bridges, power transmission and pipelines. The government also asked authorities in the Indian capital region covering New Delhi and parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh states to decide whether to allow public, municipal and private offices to work at 50% strength and ask others to work from home. The federal government also is considering whether to permit work from home for its offices. It said the overall air quality in New Delhi is likely to remain in the "severe" or very severe categories until Saturday. An Environment Ministry review will be held on Monday. Emissions from industries with no pollution control technology and coal, which helps produce most of the countrys electricity, have been linked to bad air quality in other urban areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the country will aim to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2070 two decades after the U.S. and at least 10 years later than China. Wesley Brownlee stands with public defender Allison Nobert during his arraignment in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Oct. 18. Prosecutors have charged Brownlee with murder in three fatal shootings. (Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee via AP) When it became clear that someone was killing random people on the streets of Stockton, police were blunt about who they were dealing with. "This persons on a mission, Police Chief Stanley McFadden said. It would take time for authorities to figure out that the killings which started in Oakland and then moved east to the Central Valley city were connected. They all occurred under cover of darkness, at night or in the early-morning hours, McFadden said, and each victim was alone. Some were shot multiple times. Authorities have arrested a suspect but released few details about a motive or other information. That has left many in the community with unanswered questions. Five victims were homeless men, yet it remains unclear whether they were targeted because of their unhoused status. Nonetheless, the killings sent shockwaves through Stockton's homeless community. Stephen Bentley, a deacon with St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, which provides resources and programs for homeless residents in Stockton, said fear in the community was palpable. "We've never had anything that was sinister, and stalking and very stealth," Bentley said. It begins to create a different type of fear. Its deep-set. Authorities initially announced that five fatal shootings from early July to late September were related and said they were seeking a person of interest. But within days, police said they had tied two additional shootings from April 2021 one in which a homeless woman was shot multiple times but survived to the same gunman. Mary Marsili, who runs an organization that provides mobile showers to those in need, including many homeless people, said residents were rocked by the news. "It's a real close-knit community," Marsili said. "They're scared to death." Marsili said one of the victims, Lawrence Lopez Sr., was a patron of her charity organization, Showered With Love. They knew him as Lorenzo. Lopez, 54, was found shot to death just before 2 a.m. Sept. 27 in the 900 block of Porter Avenue. His death came just a few days before police acknowledged during a news conference "a series of killings that are connected." Story continues Bentley, who often rides around Stockton on a tricycle, handing out hot coffee and snacks with other volunteers, said homeless residents changed their behaviors after news of the killings spread. "They're staying in groups and then spreading the word among themselves that this is what they have to do," he said. "They're not one on one, a person here and there; they are grouped in pretty close together now." Except for the first shooting police linked to the series a man who was killed in Oakland in April 2021 the attacks all occurred within a three-mile radius on Stockton's north side. But the repercussions reverberated far beyond those neighborhoods. Standing near the San Joaquin River waterfront in downtown Stockton, Danielle Richae rested alongside a man who identified himself only as Javier. Javier sipped coffee that Bentley had given him. Downtown, where many of Stockton's civic buildings are located, did not appear to be a hunting ground for the killer, but many homeless people congregate in nearby parks and around the water. Its scary for sure, said Richae, who has been unhoused for a year. Its made me more cautious, Javier said, adding that since he and Richae learned of the connected killings, they have been trying to sleep in places that could provide some protection or barrier. They didn't want anyone sneaking up on them. Im afraid for her, Javier added. The unease was not isolated to the unhoused population in this city of 322,000. Residents were especially fearful that Latino men were being targeted after police confirmed that five of the six fatalities were in that demographic group. Ines Ruiz-Huston, a longtime Stockton resident and vice president of the Latino outreach organization El Concilio California, said many are concerned about their fathers, husbands, sons and other family members or friends who seemingly fit the victims' profile. A lot of young people are worried about their dads because their dads are the ones that leave early in the morning or get home super late from work here, especially in this community, Ruiz-Huston said. "In a neighborhood, you kind of know who your neighbors are and you're kind of a bit more on the alert," she said. "If a car kind of goes slow, you're now like, 'Is this car looking for someone?' " From the time Stockton authorities connected the killings, on Sept. 31, and announced they were searching for a person of interest, the hunt for the potential serial killer became high profile. Nearby police departments joined the investigation. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were both called in. A reward for information leading to an arrest grew to $125,000. Stockton police launched email and telephone hotlines that garnered hundreds of daily tips. It didn't take long for two legitimate leads to surface, police said. Authorities identified a suspect, although his name was not initially released. Police surveilled the man for a couple of days, observing his movements, according to Stockton police spokesperson Joseph Silva. "[His actions] were all similar to the prior homicides that we had: going into parks, near apartment complexes, dark locations," Silva said. Around 2 a.m. Oct. 15, the suspect was spotted driving a van near Panella Park on Stockton's north side. Officers watched him get out of the vehicle and begin stalking another person. "There was someone in the park, and he was basically zeroing in on that person," Silva said. Police swooped in and took Wesley Brownlee into custody. They said he was armed with a gun and was "out hunting" when he was arrested. It was not clear whether the person in the park who seemed to have drawn Brownlee's attention was homeless, authorities said. Brownlee, a 43-year-old truck driver who moved to the Stockton area this summer, has since been charged with murder in three of the Stockton attacks. The murder charges are for the deaths of Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, on Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, on Sept. 21; and Lopez on Sept. 27, according to San Joaquin County Superior Court records. He faces potential firearm sentencing enhancements and special circumstances of committing multiple murders. He is due back in court Nov. 14. Prosecutors also said more charges could be added, including in the deaths of Paul Alexander Yaw, 35, on July 8; and Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, on Aug. 11. Authorities say the 2021 shooting death of Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano, 39, in Oakland as well as the nonfatal shooting of a homeless woman in Stockton also are connected to the case against Brownlee. Oakland police said they are still investigating Serrano's death. For now, those who live and work in Stockton are breathing a sigh of relief following the arrest. "They can sleep a little more safely," Bentley said. "They can let their guards down a little bit more." But Marsili noted that the homeless population has more than enough to worry about without possibly being stalked and killed. She said the slayings have added anxiety for those who face other dangers from living on the street, including drugs, trains and vehicles. "It's always going to be dangerous for them," she said. The experience seems to have formed bonds that have outlasted the threat, according to Bentley. Instead of dispersing back into isolated living situations, some groups of homeless people that formed during the killings have stuck together. "Part of it is they've made friendships," Bentley said. "There's a feeling of safety within your group bubble." And while the immediate threat seems to have passed, there is still anxiety among those who are unsheltered that they could be targeted. That lingering fear is keeping them vigilant, Bentley said. "They look after each other," he said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. To get a sense of who is truly in control of Koninklijke Philips N.V. (AMS:PHIA), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 63% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn). And so it follows that institutional investors was the group most impacted after the company's market cap fell to 11b last week after a 5.6% drop in the share price. Needless to say, the recent loss which further adds to the one-year loss to shareholders of 69% might not go down well especially with this category of shareholders. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. Hence, if weakness in Koninklijke Philips' share price continues, institutional investors may feel compelled to sell the stock, which might not be ideal for individual investors. In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Koninklijke Philips. View our latest analysis for Koninklijke Philips What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Koninklijke Philips? Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices. Koninklijke Philips already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Koninklijke Philips' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters. Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Koninklijke Philips. Our data shows that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 8.6% of shares outstanding. With 6.4% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and Artisan Partners Limited Partnership are the second and third largest shareholders. Story continues A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority. Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too. Insider Ownership Of Koninklijke Philips The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Koninklijke Philips N.V. in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own 13m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. General Public Ownership With a 37% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Koninklijke Philips. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. Next Steps: I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Koninklijke Philips (including 1 which is a bit unpleasant) . But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. 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. Join A Paid User Research Session Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Nasser Kanani, once again rejected the claims of Russian military support in the war against Ukraine and reiterated Tehran's offer to carry out a joint investigation on Thursday, 3 November. Source: Nasser Kanani cited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, European Pravda. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised the Ukrainian party to stay realistic and instead of publishing alleged false accusations against Tehran, seriously consider a constructive proposal to hold a bilateral expert-technical meeting once Kyiv may provide evidence. Kanani also reiterated that Iran adheres to active neutrality and makes efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis in Ukraine. He denied the supply of any military machinery and equipment used in the Russian war against Ukraine. At the end of October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, suggested setting a joint research group of Iranian and Ukrainian military experts to investigate allegations of the use of Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine. Russia has recently been massively using kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine, namely Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. Russian forces use them under the title "Geran". Tehran has repeatedly denied the supply of drones to Russia. The White House considers Iran's denials false. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that Iran's provision of weapons to Russia to wage a full-scale war makes it an accomplice to aggression and war crimes against Ukraine. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, submitted to the Ukrainian President a proposal to sever diplomatic relations with Iran due to Russia's use of Iranian drones against Ukraine. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! , According to CNNs sources, Iran has been asking Russia for help acquiring additional nuclear materials and with nuclear fuel fabrication. It is noted the fuel could help Iran power its nuclear reactors and could potentially further shorten Irans so-called breakout time to create a nu-clear weapon. According to CNN, it is not clear whether Russia has agreed to help as the Kremlin has long been outwardly opposed to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Read also: Russia may be storing suicide drones and Iranian missiles underground near Kursk nuclear plant On Nov. 1, CNN reported that Iran is preparing to send Russia approximately 1,000 additional weapons to use in its war against Ukraine, including short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones. Ukraines Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov earlier warned that Russia could deploy Iranian missiles against Ukraine as early as November. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Nov. 3 that Irans plans to supply Russia with drones and ballistic missiles are unacceptable. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine (Bloomberg) -- After months of reluctance, Israel is softening its opposition to providing military aid to Ukraine, as Irans deepening support for Russias invasion evolves into a threat to Israeli security. Most Read from Bloomberg A turning point came late last month, when Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz took a long-requested call from his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov. Israel committed to help Ukraine develop an early-warning system, similar to one that alerts Israelis to incoming fire from the Gaza Strip. Gantz also agreed to assess Ukraines air-defense alert needs, though Israel is declining to provide Ukraine the means to shoot down incoming drones and missiles. These are weapons that we have to be prepared to confront -- we are the only country in the world that knows how to do that, said Yossi Kuperwasser, a former top Israeli military intelligence official. Ukraine can be a testing ground for our counter-measures. While former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to return to power after winning elections on Nov. 1, an Israeli government led by him wont have significantly different security priorities from the current administration, Kuperwasser said. In another new development, Israel has begun to share its intelligence, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Oct. 26, welcoming what he called a positive trend. I am pleased with the last few days, we started working, he told reporters, citing information shared by Israel that he said confirmed Ukrainian intelligence. The Iranian collaboration with Russia was a big shift for us, Ukraines ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, said at his countrys embassy in Tel Aviv last week. Wed hoped Israel would choose to be on the right side of the war as a democratic country. But in the end, it happened because we have the same enemy, which is Iran. Story continues Spokespeople for Gantz and the Israeli prime ministers office declined to comment for this story. Russias foreign ministry and the foreign ministry in Tehran didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister, said Ukraine needs help as soon as possible to counter Iranian weapons. He said Reznikov had requested air-defense support on the call with Gantz. Battle Tested Russia in the past few weeks escalated its attacks on Ukraine after suffering a series of battlefield setbacks in its eight-month offensive, unleashing a blitz aimed at knocking out Ukrainian electricity, heating and other infrastructure ahead of the winter months. Ukrainian officials say 40% of the power system has been damaged. Relying increasingly on Iranian drones as it burns through its own stockpiles of precision-guided missiles, Russias attacks aim to create enough hardship for the population to persuade Kyiv to sue for peace, Ukrainian officials say. Russia denies using Iranian equipment, and Iran denies supplying it. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been more equivocal, acknowledging in a speech last month that the world was concerned about Iran selling drones and boasting about them being looked upon as "dangerous. Remnants of Iranian drones -- rebranded Geran-2 by Russia -- have been found after being shot down over Ukraine. How and Why Russia Is Using Iranian Drones in Ukraine: QuickTake Israel has been reluctant to get more involved because of fear that antagonizing Moscow could have direct security implications in the Mideast and for Russian Jews. Israel routinely carries out strikes over Syria in areas where Russia has control over airspace, to stop Iran from supplying its proxies there. There are an estimated one million Jews living in Russia whose safety is also a concern, especially with Russia-Israel relations at their worst in years. In July, Russian authorities set off alarms in Israel when they asked a Moscow court to liquidate the local offices of the Jewish Agency, which helps Jews emigrate, for alleged violations of Russian law. Putins Courting of Israel Fades as Ties Turn Bitter on Ukraine But the mass strikes on Ukrainian targets with Iranian drones and expected provision of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia have changed Israels calculations, with concern growing that the Ukrainian experience could allow Iran to hone its capacity to attack Israeli cities. Israel so far has only provided Ukraine with humanitarian assistance and defensive equipment such as helmets and protective vests. For an early-warning system based on Israeli designs, its radar technology and software would have to be used, according to former and current Israeli officials. The sale of such technologies requires export authorization, which is a complex process involving a number of ministries, including the defense ministry. Risk of Retaliation Russia has informed Israel that it will retaliate if Israeli-made air-defense missiles or other interceptors get to Ukraine, whether directly or via third countries, according to two people with knowledge of Russian policy. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior security official, warned Israel last month against providing arms to Ukraine, saying that such a step would be reckless and destroy ties between Russia and Israel. The real question is how to do it in a way that isnt provocative for the Russians, Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which lobbies for stronger measures to counter Iran, said in an interview in Tel Aviv. Israel could supply anti-drone and anti-missile equipment to other countries assisting Ukraine, in turn allowing those third countries to provide more of their own arsenals to Kyiv, said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general in the Israeli army. For example if you sell it to Germany and then Germany delivers another set of weapons, its not Israeli, no problem, he said. Drone Swarms Iran has mostly supplied Russia with the Shahed-136 single-use so-called suicide drones, which are difficult to detect because theyre relatively small and low-flying. Recently upgraded with commercial GPS systems, they can loiter for hours before locking onto a target. Iran delivered 1,000 of them in August, according to the US, and plans to deliver 2,400 eventually, Ukraine says. Drones based on Iranian technology have also been used in attacks on Saudi oil facilities and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in a reconnaissance mission Lebanese militia Hezbollah was attempting over a gas rig in the Mediterranean in July, according to the US and its allies. Israel shot down all three drones approaching the rig. Ukraine intercepts 70% or more of the drones, but when used in swarms, shooting them down becomes increasingly difficult. Produced at a cost of $20,000 each, according to Western defense experts, the air-defense missiles used to intercept them often cost multiples more. On October 17, an Iranian drone slammed into a four-story apartment block in Kyiv, killing five people. For Israel, even though its so-called Iron Dome System has a good track record of halting short-range rocket attacks by Palestinian militant groups and the Iranian-allied Hezbollah, the new mass drone tactics used by Iran represent an unprecedented challenge, said Avivi, the ex-general, who now heads the Israel Defense and Security Forum, an association of former and reserve members of the security forces. Imagine 100 suicide drones crossing the Israeli border toward the port of Haifa. As good as our air defense is, it would take 90 out of 100, still 10 will hit. Its a big threat, he said. Shadow War A shift in the Ukraine war into a proxy competition between Iranian and Israeli capabilities expands the shadow conflict the two countries have been fighting for years. The Iranian weapons have been effective on the ground because theyre causing damage and its also a great way for Iran to show its working with Russia and isnt isolated, said Dina Esfandiary, an analyst from the International Crisis Group in Brussels. Tehran has agreed to send surface-to-surface missiles to Russia and, as soon as November, the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar rockets, which are capable of striking targets from a range of 300 to 700 kilometers (180 to 420 miles), could be in use, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with The War Zone published Oct. 28. Russias growing dependence on Irans military potential in Ukraine is also fanning Israeli concerns that Tehran in return could seek Russian assistance with its nuclear program. Israel rejects Irans assertions that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and says it will take any steps necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a bomb. --With assistance from Daniel Avis, Golnar Motevalli and Daryna Krasnolutska. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's hardline president on Friday said that Iran had been freed by the 1979 Islamic revolution, responding to a vow by U.S. President Joe Biden to "free Iran". "I am telling Biden that Iran was freed 43 years ago," President Ebrahim Raisi said in a live televised speech. Biden on Thursday vowed to "free" Iran and said that demonstrators working against the country's government would soon succeed in freeing themselves. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by David Goodman) Veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu launched negotiations Friday with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies on forming what could be the most right-wing government in Israel's history, raising concerns at home and abroad. Netanyahu's Likud party won 32 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, according to the latest official results of the election released on Thursday night. That combined with 18 for two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and 14 for the rising extreme-right alliance called Religious Zionism gave the right-wing bloc supporting Netanyahu 64 seats. The centrist bloc of outgoing caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid won 51 seats, marking a definitive win for Netanyahu and an end to Israel's unprecedented era of political deadlock, which forced five elections in less than four years. That will likely mean prominent roles for the co-leaders of far-right Religious Zionism, which doubled its representation at Tuesday's election. "Where are they headed?" said the headline of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper with pictures of Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extreme-right figure who looks set to be a major player in the new administration. "It's going to be an unprecedented government," columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. "Most of the important portfolios will be in the hands of fanatics... everybody knows that if only a fraction of what the new government promised to do is carried out, this is going to be a different country with a different system of government," she added. - Ministries for far-right - The election result came amid the backdrop of soaring violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel army said its fighter jets early Friday targeted a rocket manufacturing site in the blockaded Gaza Strip, in response to several rockets fired towards Israel. On Thursday four Palestinians, including an assailant, were killed by Israeli forces in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Story continues US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced "deep concern" about the violence and called for de-escalation. Ben-Gvir, a firebrand known for anti-Arab rhetoric and incendiary calls for Israel to annex the entire West Bank, has said he wants to be public security minister in the new government, a post that would put him in charge of the police. In recent days, Ben-Gvir has called repeatedly for the security services to use more force in countering Palestinian unrest. "It's time we go back to being masters of our country," Ben-Gvir said on election night. Since clinching his comeback after roughly 14 months in opposition, the 73-year-old Netanyahu has already instructed Yariv Levin, a close ally, to begin talks with Religious Zionism over portfolios. Religious Zionism's Bezalel Smotrich has publicly said he wants to be defence minister. On the ultra-Orthodox wing of the alliance, Shas party head Aryeh Deri, invigorated by winning 11 seats, is also expected to play a major role in the government, with his eyes on either the interior or finance ministries. - 'International legitimacy' - Netanyahu was aware that propelling right-wing figures into key positions could "damage" relations abroad, said Shlomo Fischer of the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. "Bibi does not want Ben Gvir and Deri to lead the dance," he told AFP. "He is very careful. He does not want to lose his international legitimacy... I think he could try to widen his coalition to minimise their influence." News of Netanyahu's dramatic return was greeted by right-wing and nationalist leaders around the world: Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungary's Viktor Orban were among the first to offer their congratulations. Yet other tradition allies of Israel were more cautious. While declining to speculate on the government make-up, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington hoped "that all Israeli government officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society including tolerance and respect for all in civil society, particularly for minority groups." Britain called on "all Israeli parties to refrain from inflammatory language and demonstrate tolerance and respect for minority groups," in a statement, just hours after rejecting suggestions by previous UK prime minister Liz Truss that its embassy in Israel could be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. cgo-gb/dv A rioter who smashed a window at the US Capitol during the insurrection on January 6 2021 brought up the late convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein as he was led from court. Troy Faulkner from Ohio was sentenced to five months in federal prison on Thursday, according to NBC News. Faulkner said in court that he had supported former President Donald Trump because he believed he was combatting human trafficking an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory and he pointed to exaggerated figures of the number of children who go missing annually. During the riot, Faulkner wore a jacket with the name of his painting business on it, along with its phone number. Chief US District Judge Beryl Howell noted that Faulkner had burned the jacket, and she questioned if he had stopped believing in Mr Trumps lies that the 2020 election was rigged, something that Faulkners attorney suggested in a sentencing memo. Faulkners lawyer, John Machado, said that his client was and still is a fan of Mr Trump. The judge asked if he still thinks everything Mr Trump says is true, to which the lawyer said his client is now aware that Mr Trump isnt the legitimate commander-in-chief. The judge said it was proper to probe if Faulkner was still susceptible to a giant lie and if he could take part in politically motivated violence again. Troy Faulkner walks outside a DC courthouse after being sentenced to five months in prison (Screenshot / Twitter / Ryan Reilly) Faulkner brought up Epstein as he walked outside the courthouse. How about that Epstein Island list? How bout that one? Wanna talk about that? Wheres the Epstein Island list? he asked. The paedophile financier, who died by suicide in a Manhatten jail cell in August 2019, has been the subject of a litany of conspiracy theories. Troy Faulkner at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 ((FBI)) British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence in December for helping Epstein in the sex trafficking operation. After being sentenced to five months in federal prison and admitting to an anger management problem, Jan 6 defendant Troy Faulkner who smashed in a window at the US Capitol yelled at cameramen about Epstein, Ryan Reilly of NBC News tweeted. Story continues NEW: After being sentenced to five months in federal prison and admitting to an anger management problem, Jan. 6 defendant Troy Faulkner who smashed in a window at the U.S. Capitol yelled at cameramen about Epstein. pic.twitter.com/5wzK4jN1rg Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 3, 2022 At the sentencing hearing, the lawyer said Faulkner was at a better place compared to January 6, 2021. Then Faulkner seemed to intimate that the rioters had been set up by the police, according to NBC News. We were told by the president to go there, Faulkner said. I wasnt in my best state of mind ... Ive been remorseful every day. "This Is Our Killer." Those words, written vertically, one letter atop another, were printed on a ribbon that dangled Thursday night from the lone floral arrangement that had been placed on the casket that held the mortal remains of Jerry Lee Lewis. The casket was inside the Hernando Funeral Home on U.S. 51 in DeSoto County, Mississippi. Outside, Lewis was still indomitable, even immortal, in the memories and appraisals of the hundreds of fans, friends, peer musicians and others some in suitcoats and ties, some with tattoos and rockabilly pompadours who lined up to pay their respects to the rock 'n' roll pioneer who attacked his 87 years of life the way he attacked the keys of his piano: with passion, playfulness, recklessness, violence and tenderness. Jerry Lee Lewis' legacy:Rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis dies at 87 "This is as big as Elvis dying. I wasn't alive then, but this is the same kind of emotional experience for us," said Kyler Campbell, 27, of Nesbit, Mississippi, who wore cuffed blue jeans and a T-shirt decorated with multiple photographs of Jerry Lee Lewis at the height of his piano-pumping 1950s wildness. "A lot of the guys, like Elvis and Carl Perkins, those guys knew they were great performers, but Jerry Lee knew he was great," said Jerry Phillips, son of the late Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records, where Lewis cut such star-making rock 'n' roll assaults as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" and "Great Balls of Fire." Ive known him since I was 8 years old, weve had a lot of experiences together and hes a great guy," Phillips said, speaking in the present tense, as if Lewis' death did not yet seem real. "He can be mean, he can be hard, he can be tough, he can be great, he can be all those things." Jerry Lee Lewis:Celebrities remember rock legend for his influence, inspiration Increasingly frail and in ill health in recent weeks, Lewis died Oct. 28 at his home in DeSoto County. Thursday's public visitation in Hernando was an opportunity for Lewis' neighbors and Memphis music associates to pay homage to the artist known as The Killer, prior to the more elaborate funeral set for 11 a.m. Saturday in Lewis' birthplace of Ferriday, Louisiana. The main officiant will be Lewis' cousin, the celebrity evangelist Jimmy Swaggart himself no stranger to scandal and the tug of war between heaven and hell. Story continues People line up for a visitation for Jerry Lee Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, at Hernando Funeral Home in Mississippi. Lewis died on Oct. 28 at 87. His funeral will take place Saturday at his hometown in Ferriday, La. Some mourners arrived close to three hours before the funeral home's doors opened at 5 p.m.; home addresses inscribed inside the guest book included England, Ireland and the Netherlands. They lined the front of the building, which stretched parallel to the street. On the other side was Hernando's historic Velvet Cream burgers-and-shakes drive-in restaurant a destination made to order for the rockabillies in the queue and next door to the funeral home was Vampire Penguin, a shaved ice shop that offers what owner Krista Durtschi called "a signature Jerry Lee Lewis snow": vanilla topped with Atomic Fireball candy. Once the doors opened, the line snaked through the business and into a large room with cream-colored walls. The closed casket was placed on a bier in the center of the room, flanked by floral arrangements (some in the shape of musical notes, and one reading "Great Balls of Fire"), and two large posters on easels: one, a photograph of a gray-haired Lewis at the piano; the other, advertising Lewis' appearance at the Viva Las Vegas Car Show in 2011. Classic Sun recordings by Lewis were piped into the room, at low volume: "Breathless," "Little Queenie," "Lewis Boogie" ("But now you take my boogie, it keeps you in the groove/ Then your sacroiliac begins to shiver and to move"). The songs weren't hymns, but to the people in line, it was sacred music. Near the coffin, each mourner was greeted by Judith Coghlan Lewis, Jerry Lee's seventh wife; her daughter, Tiffany McKinnon; and Jerry Lee's son, Jerry Lee Lewis III. "We may have been old, but we had a wonderful time," Mrs. Lewis said. Kenny Lovelace, a band member for Jerry Lee Lewis, speaks during a visitation for Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, at Hernando Funeral Home in Mississippi. Lewis died on Oct. 28 at 87. His funeral will take place Saturday at his hometown in Ferriday, La. Some of Lewis' longtime musical colleagues attended people who had played with Jerry Lee for so many years they were "like brothers," said guitarist Kenny Lovelace. "I'm having a hard time getting over it," said drummer J.M. Van Eaton, who was a teenager when he accompanied Lewis on Jerry Lee's first recording for Sun, "Crazy Arms." "With the other guys I worked with, Charlie Rich, Johnny Cash, it was sad when they died, but I'm having a hard time with this one," said Van Eaton, 85. "We came up at the same time. It's heartbreaking in a way to realize that era is over. I guess I'm about the last of the Sun primary players." Drummer Jimmy Van Eaton speaks during a visitation for Jerry Lee Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, at Hernando Funeral Home in Mississippi. Lewis died on Oct. 28 at 87. His funeral will take place Saturday at his hometown in Ferriday, La. "You're the last man standing now," said Jerry Phillips, alluding to Lewis' assertively titled 2006 album, "Last Man Standing." Lovelace, 86, who lives in Franklin, Tennessee, had played guitar in Lewis' band and on Lewis records for 54 years. (He said he last played in concert with Lewis on Feb. 19, 2019, in Greenville, South Carolina). "You get to know somebody pretty well in 54 years, onstage and offstage," Lovelace said. Working with Lewis, he said, the concept of a "set list" was more or less theoretical. "Sometimes we wouldn't even know what he was going to do, he'd just take off. We got used to it." That unpredictability helps explains the devotion of some of Lewis' fans, including Darren and Daniel White, a father and son from Birmingham, England, who for close to 30 years have traveled around the world to attend Lewis shows. "I've seen him 60 times, which is not bad for a 34-year-old," said Daniel. "Jerry Lee was the one who excited me the most of everyone," said Darren, 54, who described himself as a former "rock 'n' roll deejay." Their passion for the music of The Killer was so evident and their presence at concerts so frequent that eventually they were befriended by Lewis and his camp. The duo flew from England for the Hernando visitation, and next they will travel to Ferriday, where Daniel will be a pall bearer. From the archives:Jerry Lee Lewis, 'Last Man' of rock and roll, looks back Memphis music history:Bluff City bicentennial: 200 Memphis music moments Jud Calkins, 81, drove to Hernando from St. Louis. He said he planned to drive back home Thursday night. "I didn't know what I was in for, coming here, but I wanted to pay my respects." A high school graduate from the Class of 1959, "I listened to my Sun Records 45's every morning before I went to school," he said. "Jerry Lee just captured my imagination like no one else." Kyler Campbell wipes his eyes before entering a visitation for Jerry Lee Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, at Hernando Funeral Home in Mississippi. Lewis died on Oct. 28 at 87. His funeral will take place Saturday at his hometown in Ferriday, La. Accompanied to the visitation by his wife, Juliette, 28, a native of France (the couple met at a rockabilly convention), Kyler Campbell said he grew up in Nesbit, "right down the road from Jerry Lee's house. So I used to see his house every morning on the way to school." The proximity fanned the flames of his fandom. "I saw him at a red light one time, he was in the passenger seat, somebody else was driving. I looked at him and waved, and he waved back. And that was about the No. 1 coolest experience of my life." Multiple Memphis officials also showed up, including Jim Holt, president of the Memphis in May International Festival; Memphis Tourism president Kevin Kane; and Memphis & Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler. Former Memphis mayor Willie W. Herenton said he was good friends with Lewis, and had visited him at his home recently. "His sense of humor and style were one of a kind," Herenton said. "Jerry's cool." Jerry Phillips, son of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, speaks during a visitation for Jerry Lee Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, at Hernando Funeral Home in Mississippi. Lewis died on Oct. 28 at 87. His funeral will take place Saturday at his hometown in Ferriday, La. The visitation was open to the public until 8 p.m., but by 7 almost everyone in line had made their way through the funeral home. Some mourners continued to mill about in the parking lot and share stories. "One of the greatest talents ever has left the planet, and the Earth is not going to be the same," Phillips said. "I really mean that. The Earth is not going to be the same." Said Lovelace: "I hope to see him one day, in heaven on the other side." Commercial Appeal reporter Gina Butkovich contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Jerry Lee Lewis: Fans, musical peers pay last respects to rock pioneer Johnny Depp filed documents Wednesday to appeal a Virginia court's ruling that one of Depp's lawyers defamed his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp was awarded $10.35 million in damages after a jury found Heard defamed Depp following a six-week trial . Heard lost the defamation case but was awarded $2 million in her countersuit as jurors found that Depp defamed her through his attorney. In documents reviewed by Fox News Digital, Depp argued the court "should reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard's counterclaim," but he was otherwise in favor of the jury's decision. JOHNNY DEPP SET TO MAKE HISTORY WITH RIHANNA Johnny Depp filed documents in the Court of Appeals of Virginia Wednesday following a jury's ruling in favor of awarding Amber Heard $2 million due to statements made by Depp's legal team. "The jurys emphatic favorable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr. Depp and restored his reputation," the documents stated. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP "However, the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous." HOLLYWOOD ON TRIAL: HARVEY WEINSTEIN, DANNY MASTERSON AND PAUL HAGGIS IN COURT OVER SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS Heard claimed Depp was "vicariously liable" for statements his attorney made to a tabloid in 2020, a point the jury agreed with when awarding her $2 million following the trial. His lawyers argued in Depp's appeal that the lawyer, Adam Waldman, was retained as an independent contractor and Depp wasn't liable for his statements. Another point of contention was proving Waldman acted with "actual malice." "No evidence of Mr. Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial, so the judgment against Mr. Depp cannot be sustained," the documents state. Depp's team also argued Waldman's words were a "non-actionable statement of opinion insufficient to support a claim of defamation." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star initially sought a $50 million payout over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed Heard wrote that didnt specifically name Depp but discussed her experiences with domestic abuse at the hands of a former partner. Heard countersued for $100 million in damages. Story continues Less than one month after the ruling, Heard filed a notice of appeal to overturn the verdict. "We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict," Heard's spokesperson said in a statement. A spokesperson for Depp said there is no basis for Heard's appeal. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the six-week trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp in multiple instances," a representative said. "We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand." Johnny Depp has joined Rihannas new Savage Fenty X Vol 4 fashion show in a brief cameo appearance. Earlier reports had suggested that Depp would be the focus of the shows star moments. In the past, celebrities such as Cindy Crawford and Erykah Badu have appeared in this capacity. Following recent rumours of Depps guest appearance, which alarmed Rihanna fans, The Independent has confirmed his name features in the shows end credits. The Savage X Fenty Vol 4 show is described as a fashion experience and will include performances from Anitta and Burna Boy, plus cameos from models including Irina Shayk, Cara Delevingne, and Precious Lee. It will premiere on Prime Video on 9 November. The Independent has contacted Amazon for comment about Depps role. Earlier this year, Depp was embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard concerning a 2018 piece published by The Washington Post. Depps legal team claimed that the op-ed, written by Heard, had defamed him by implying that he had abused Heard when the pair were married. A jury ultimately found that Heard had defamed Depp, and ordered the Aquaman star to pay Depp $10m (8m) in compensatory damages and $5m (4m) in punitive damages. However, the jury also awarded Heard $2m (1.6m) in a simultaneous countersuit, ruling that, in characterising her abuse allegations as a hoax, one of Depps attorneys had defamed her. Heard is set to appeal the verdict, with lawyers arguing that the two rulings handed down by the jury were contradictory. Lawyer Camille Vasquez and Johnny Depp at trial (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) A UK court previously ruled that The Sun had not defamed Depp by describing him as a wife beater. A judge described the statement as substantially true. Ahead of Depps confirmed appearance, fans of Rihanna reacted with unease to earlier rumours of Depps involvement in the fashion show, sharing their thoughts on social media. Rihanna cant be serious? With all these beautiful and unproblematic men in Hollywood, and Johnny Depp is the one that appeals to you the most? one person wrote. Still trying to figure out why Rihanna would chose to take this risk and feature Johnny Depp in the Savage X Fenty Show. Like, she knowsssss that is going to cause a whole lotta outrage so why even bother? wrote Daily Mail journalist Nola Ojomu. The Independent has contacted representatives of Rihanna and Depp for comment. Unionized journalists at the Journal News/LoHud engaged in a one-day walkout Friday. They joined reporters, photographers and others at more than a dozen Gannett Co. news sites in Arizona, New Jersey and New York. Members of the NewsGuild, part of the Communications Workers of America union, said they were protesting recent company cutbacks and are also seeking better pay and better benefits. The action comes as the company on Thursday posted a $54.1 million net third-quarter loss. The company said the one-day walkout should not impact news coverage. This action is in response to the company laying off 400 employees and cutting another 400 open positions in August, which represented 3% of staff, followed by additional cost-cutting austerity measures announced in October which included furloughs and cuts to the 401k plan, the NewsGuild said in a statement on its website. Gannett Chief Communications Officer Lark-Marie Anton issued this statement in response: Our goal is to preserve journalism and serve our communities across the country. Despite the work stoppage in some of our markets, we will not cease delivering trusted news to our loyal readers. In addition, we continue to bargain in good faith to finalize contracts that provide equitable wages and benefits for our valued employees. Gannett owns USA TODAY and is the largest local news company in the United States. This week, it announced the third-quarter loss but said cost-cutting and other stabilizing measures are improving the news companys finances. The company continues to respond decisively to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility and inflationary pressures, CEO and Chairman Michael Reed said in a news release Thursday. Contributing: USA TODAY reporters Bailey Schulz and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Journal News/LoHud journalists walk out Friday CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) A federal judge ruled this week that one of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justices businesses owes more than $1.5 million to a Swiss company for undelivered coal. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon on Tuesday granted a request from VISA Commodities to enforce an April order from a London-based arbitrator that found Bluestone Coal Sales Corp. liable for $1.5 million plus arbitration costs and interest, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. The problem started when Bluestone failed to supply 70,000 metric tons of coal under a November 2020 agreement, according to VISA Commodities court filings. In an April 2021 settlement, Bluestone agreed to pay VISA Commodities $1.5 million by July 30, 2021. But Bluestone failed to pay and also failed to participate in the subsequent arbitration, according to VISA Commodities filing with the Virginia Western District court. Neither the Governors Office nor an attorney for Justices coal companies responded to the newspaper's requests for comment. Justices coal companies have a long history of unpaid obligations. Federal officials have said nearly two dozen of Justices companies were consistently late in making monthly payments on $5.13 million in mine safety fines they agreed to pay in 2020. Justice is listed as controller of nearly 200 mines with safety fine delinquencies totaling $1.7 million, according to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration records obtained by the Gazette-Mail. Workers have also complained of missed obligations. Trustees of a United Mine Workers union benefit plan filed a federal lawsuit last year asserting that three of Justices coal companies failed to pay required monthly premiums over four years. And retirees of Justice's coal companies have complained in recent years of interruptions to their prescription drug coverage. Justice pledged to put his adult children in charge of his familys businesses after taking office in 2017. James C. Jay Justice III, the governor's son, is president of Bluestone Coal Sales Corp., based in Roanoke, Virginia. The governor has suggested in court proceedings and interviews since taking office that he remains familiar with his coal companies operations. In September 2021, the governor said Bluestone Resources, another one of his coal companies, had offered Credit Suisse $300 million and half the value of the family's coal firms to settle about $740 million in outstanding loans. The Justices' companies had been in talks with Credit Suisse after the downfall of London-based Greensill Capital, which had loaned them $850 million in 2018. Justice said he personally guaranteed those loans. Earlier this year, Bluestone Resources agreed to pay lenders up to $320 million in recurring payments starting in June. A federal judge on Thursday sharply rejected an effort by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, to reclaim a cellphone seized by the FBI in September. U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud ruled that the Justice Department had easily justified the seizure of Lindells phone in connection with an investigation into a breach of Colorado voting systems after the 2020 election. Lindell has been a longtime ally in former President Donald Trumps effort to subvert the election and lodge discredited claims of widespread fraud. He has not been charged with any crimes connected to the effort. Tostrud, a Trump appointee based in St. Paul, Minn., also denied an effort by Lindell to access the affidavit justifying the seizure. He described the affidavit as extensive, totaling 80 pages, and said it included identities of confidential informants and cooperating witnesses, as well as details of recorded communications. The judge said the exposure of sensitive details in the sealed submissions could interfere with the probe being conducted by Washington-based prosecutors and the FBI. Premature disclosure of these materials would significantly undermine the Governments ongoing criminal investigation, giving Plaintiffs (and potentially, other targets of the investigation) a window into the Governments investigation that could compromise the investigation as a whole," Tostrud wrote in his 36-page order. The judge also said there would be no practical way to provide a redacted version to Lindell. Lindell disclosed the seizure of his phone shortly after it occurred, confirming that agents confronted him at a Hardees drive-through in Mankato, Minn. He subsequently disclosed the details of the search warrant, which agents furnished to him after seizing his phone and questioning him. Lindell has alleged that the seizure violated his constitutional rights and that he was entitled to review the FBIs justification, as well as to enjoin the government from using it to further its criminal probe. But Tostrud said Lindell had fallen far short of providing any justification for taking the drastic steps. Story continues Rather, he said, if Lindell were indicted, he would have an opportunity to challenge the legitimacy of the warrant or seizure not before. Against Plaintiffs unsupported allegations of constitutional violations and conclusory assertions of harm, the Government has a significant interest in effective law enforcement and prompt resolution of criminal matters, Tostrud ruled. These interests would be harmed significantly, and criminal investigations and proceedings would be delayed, if litigants were allowed to use civil litigation to collaterally attack ongoing criminal investigations and proceedings. Tostrud also rejected Lindells claim that he has been harmed by losing access to his cellphone, noting that Lindell had confirmed he backed up all of his phones data to his iCloud account just days before the seizure. In September, Tostrud denied Lindell's request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred investigators from examining his phone as his lawsuit proceeded. The judge said at that time that Lindell's right to relief was "not obvious." In a footnote, Tostrud also appeared to offer a veiled brushback to a judges decision in another high-profile search the FBIs court-authorized seizure of records from Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. [T]here is a sound and well-established principle that a court should not exercise its equitable powers to interfere with or enjoin an ongoing criminal investigation when the defendant will have the opportunity to challenge any defects in the prosecution in the trial court or on direct appeal, Tostrud wrote, quoting from an appeals court ruling that reversed aspects of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling temporarily blocking investigators from access to records seized from Trump's Florida home in August. Rather, Tostrud said, the time for challenges to criminal processes is after an indictment is issued. Notably, Cannon took the precise approach Tostrud decried to block the Justice Departments criminal probe of the retention of highly sensitive national security documents at Trumps estate. The department is currently appealing her ruling and won earlier rounds of litigation at the appeals level. A Just Stop Oil activist sits in the middle of Whitehall Extra police officers will be on the streets of London over the weekend to deal with renewed demonstrations by environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil. The protesters have caused 32 days of disruption since the end of September. The Met Police said the group's activities in that time had caused officers to work nearly 10,000 extra shifts. More road-blocking demonstrations are expected on Saturday, the force said. Met Commander Jon Savell asked the public to "bear with" police tackling any unlawful protests, and said there would be "up to 900" additional officers deployed in London this weekend. Commander Jon Savell said "up to 900" extra officers would be on the streets of London this weekend "We will have hundreds of extra officers on duty this weekend in and around the areas where we believe that they will be, and we will be responding to them as and when they appear," he said. He added that the force "will help facilitate them protesting lawfully, but where they cross the boundaries we will act quickly". Some members of the Unison trade union are expected to stage a separate "Britain Is Broken" demonstration at Embankment in central London at noon on Saturday. Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, likely wont be able to profit from selling White Lives Matter Yeezy T-shirts for an excellent reason. The phrase has been trademarked by two Black radio hosts in Arizona who are determined to ensure the phrase wont be used to promote racism. Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, hosts of the national racial justice radio show Civic Cipher in Phoenix, trademarked the phrase for use on clothing last month. The two friends took control of the trademark when it became clear that Ye or one of his zealot followers could profit from the phrase. They regard owning the trademark as a serious responsibility that includes ensuring it doesnt end up in the wrong hands. Ye says some really hurtful, divisive and sometimes crazy things, Ward told CNN. He has a bit of a zealot following, and every time he releases something, it sells out. The words undercut the Black Lives Matter movement and arrogantly dismiss its message of the disproportionate number of Black people killed in America, particularly by law enforcement. The Anti-Defamation League has categorized the phrase as a hate slogan. Its used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Ye, who was bounced off Twitter last month for appalling antisemitic messages, brazenly wore the White Lives Matter shirt at his surprise Yeezy showcase on Oct. 3 during Paris fashion week. The trademark was transferred to Ja and Wards company, Civic Cipher LLC, on the same day. The earlier owner of the trademark is a Civic Cipher listener who transferred it to the radio hosts, but Ja and Ward did not identify the person. The listener didnt really love owning it because the purpose was not necessarily to get rich off of it; the purpose was to make sure that other people didnt get rich off of that pain, Ja told Black-led, nonprofit media company Capitol B, which was the first to report the story. Ye has spent the last few years spewing his racist and antisemitic positions, including his absurd 2018 claim that slavery sounds like a choice. Story continues Several companies, including Balenciaga, Adidas and JPMorganChase, terminated their promotional contracts with Ye after his antisemitic statements and tweets. He was allowed back on Twitter last month after Telsa CEO Elon Musk purchased the company. Civic Cipher addresses issues in Black and brown communities around the nation. The Black community is beyond rapping and singing, and the show goes beyond what a listener would typically hear on a hip-hop radio station, Ja told CNN. We deal with police violence, housing inequality, environmental racism, we deal with maternal health outcomes, he noted, things that disproportionately affect Black and brown communities. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/YouTube In 2022, its indisputable that Kathy Hilton is reality-TV gold. Over her two years as a friend-of on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the 63-year-old socialite has managed to unofficially trademark hunky dory (sorry to David Bowie), make hotel slippers chic, gag Lisa Rinna at a reunion, and convince me that caviar baked potatoes taste good. This past weekend, however, I discovered that this wasnt always the case for Americas favorite wacky matriarch. (Yes, shes currently beating Kris Jenner in the rankings). On a bored Saturday afternoon, I decided to binge all eight episodes of I Want To Be A Hilton, NBCs one-season reality competition hosted by the hotel heiress, on the streaming service Tubi. I had vague memories of the show premiering in 2005. But of course, my 9-year-old self had more compelling things to watch (Phil of the Future) than the mother of Paris Hilton teach a group of civilians how to row in a canoe. Little did I know that this failed knockoff of The Apprentice would have such archaeological value to me all these years later. After just one episode, I understood why this series wasnt the appropriate platform to turn Hilton into a notable television personality, nor was it the right time. But boy, did I enjoy myself and possibly concern my roommate, given all the involuntary laughing and yelping coming from my bedroom. Kathy Hilton Won Real Housewives, Threw Paris a Wedding, and Finally Healed Heres a synopsis: I Want To Be A Hilton, produced by Rick Hilton, follows 14 middle- and working-class contestants competing in various challenges for the opportunity to live like a Hilton for a year. The winner receives a $200,000 trust fund and a fully-furnished Manhattan apartment. The silliest prize in this package is access to the Hilton Rolodex, as if anyone who does business with the Hiltons would pick up the phone for a random reality-show winner. Divided into two teams, Madison and Park, the contestants are educated on aspects of high-society lifelike attending formal dinners, organizing charity events and handling press. (The job of a socialite, according to this show, is more like the job of a socialites assistant or publicist). Story continues In most episodes, theyre thrust into some uppercrust environment and forced to showcase their knowledge in front of Hilton and other illustrious guests like Billy Bush, Ted Allen, and Hiltons younger sister Kyle Richards. At the end, Hilton deliberates with the losing team and pretends to write a list of which contestants she wants to save. Whoever doesnt make the list is sent back home to Idaho (or wherever) to resume their humble life. The series shares the same DNA as popular reality competitions at the time like The Apprentice, Americas Next Top Model and Queer Eye for The Straight Guy. Those shows were more well-rounded in terms of what made them entertaining. But in the case of I Want to Be Hilton, the only amusing aspect is the contestants, who make a hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy out of a second-rate, copycat series. Among the shows eccentric candidates is a former pageant queen named Ann, who randomly breaks out into song; a mother named Latricia, who becomes increasingly fed up with her white peers; and a Vegas showgirl named Yvette, who has to be told to dress appropriately in every episode. I also must note the insanely long (and loud) Frank Sinatra-inspired theme song featuring the cast that has not left my head. I Want To Be A Hilton is not nearly as cringe-y as I expected an early-2000s program to be. Obviously, theres an inherent classism to aspirational shows that promote a wealthy lifestyle as the good life and equivocate etiquette to morals. But getting rich is the goal of practically every competition show. The series manages to capture the contestants naivete without looking down on them. It assumes that most viewers would identify with Johnny the plumber over a multi-millionaire. And then theres the shows main Achilles heelHilton, who might as well be a robot dressed in a silk blouse and diamond earrings. (It isnt that far outside of the realm of possibility.) Its not just Hilton who comes across as lifeless and unenthusiastic in nearly every scene. But she lacks an intimidating quality as a host that was popular on network television at the time. This was the era when Donald Trump made youre fired! a catchphrase, Gordon Ramsey verbally abused chefs for giggles, and Tyra Banks made 18-year-old women risk their lives for photoshoots. On American Idol, Simon Cowell ignited our brief obsession with scowling British men. Hilton, on the other hand, was clearly doing damage control for some unflattering publicity, including the release of Paris sex tape the year prior. During an assignment where the contestants have to speak at a press conference, one of them asks Hilton how she handled the backlash. We get a dramatic dun-dun before it cuts to commercial, suggesting that Hilton will not take this inquiry well. However, instead of a curt no comment, she provides an eloquent, seemingly publicist-provided answer and moves along to the next segment. The Real Housewives Just Aired the Best 8 Minutes of TV This Year During a deliberation, where a contestant shares a sob story to save themselves from the chopping block, Hilton immediately breaks down in tears. Hilton could very well just be a sweet, sentimental woman. But overall, it seemed like it was in her best interest at the time to present herself as powerful but approachable. Given my impression of Hilton now as extremely daffy, I was able to recognize some of her quirks. But in 2005, it makes sense that she wasnt able to grip the average viewer and give NBCs audience something memorable to hold onto. Also, why spend an hour with Paris Hiltons boring mother when you could watch the flashiest member of the Hilton clan on The Simple Life or frolicking around Beverly Hills on PerezHilton.com? Still, I implore anyone whos a fan of 2022 Kathy Hilton to watch I Want To Be A Hilton. Think of it as an interesting time capsule. Its a refreshing glimpse of some less-serious reality TV before social media ruined the genre forever. Additionally, the show and its brief time on air adds some interesting context to Hiltons alleged desire to, as alleged on Real Housewives, take down NBCalthough, shes in better standing now with the media conglomerate. Talk about aspirational. 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. By Duncan Miriri NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenya Airways PLC's pilots union will give its final decision later tonight on whether to begin a strike on Saturday after the government urged them to it call off, the transport minister said on Friday. The walkout, which is due to start at 6.00 am local time (0300 GMT), will affect thousands of business and leisure travellers at one of the most important aviation hubs in the continent. The pilots union has said it would call a strike over a dispute on pensions contributions and settlement of deferred pay for its members after a 14-day notice had passed without the airline's management addressing their grievances. The airline described the planned strike as unlawful and warned that it could jeopardise its recovery from the pandemic, and the airline could at a minimum lose 300 million shillings ($2.5 million) a day. In last-minute talks to avert a strike, Transport minister Kipchumba Murkomen said the government had issued a plea to the pilots union not to go ahead with the industrial action, adding that disruptions at the airline had already started. He also said he was hopeful the pilots would obey a court order invalidating the strike. "Im very optimistic that in the next two hours, the pilots will make the right decision," he said of the decision by the pilots expected at 9pm local time (1800 GMT). "They will not throw away the baby with the bath water." The airline - which is trying to recover from a downturn in earnings during the pandemic - said the action could also affect cargo freight and also cause huge losses to farmers whose perishable goods are due for export. "The intended unlawful industrial action negates the strides KQ (Kenya Airways) has made this year in improving its financial position following the COVID pandemic that affected the economy," the airline said in a statement. The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) a union that represents more than 400 pilots at the carrier has said it is at liberty to call a strike after its strike notice expired. Story continues "We are therefore at liberty to exercise our right to withdraw our labour forthwith," Murithi Nyagah, the general secretary of KALPA, said in a statement. ($1 = 121.4000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by James Macharia Chege and George Obulutsa; editing by Uttaresh.V and Louise Heavens) Pilots at troubled national flag carrier Kenya Airways plan to go on strike from Saturday to seek better working conditions despite a court order suspending the industrial action, their union said Friday. The airline, partly owned by the government as well as Dutch carrier KLM, is one of the continent's biggest, connecting multiple nations within Africa to Europe and Asia, but it is facing turbulent times. The Kenya Airlines Pilots Association (KALPA) said a series of meetings with the airline management had failed to resolve the pilots' grievances. No Kenya Airways flight will depart Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Saturday, said the union's secretary general, Captain Murithi Nyaga. "Kenya Airways management's actions have left us with no other option," Nyaga said, adding that a 14-day notice on the action had ended without a solution. "We had hoped that the management of the airline would soften its stance and engage in negotiation on the issues raised." The pilots, who have had a particularly fraught relationship with management, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund. They also want back payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid pandemic. Kenya Airways on Wednesday warned the strike would jeopardise its recovery and said none of the grievances by the pilots merited a strike. "Industrial action is unnecessary at this point, as it will delay and disrupt the financial and operational recovery and cause reputational damage to Kenya Airways," board chairman Michael Joseph said in a statement. On Monday, the airline won a court injunction stopping the strike but the pilots' union have nevertheless vowed to down tools. An official at KALPA told AFP the pilots "were acting within the provisions of the law", referring to the expiry of the strike notice. Kenya Airways was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways and flies over four million passengers to 42 destinations annually. But its "Pride of Africa" slogan rings hollow as it is operating thanks to state bailouts following years of losses. ho/txw/lth KYIV (Reuters) - Residents in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday snapped up a new postage stamp commemorating a blast that damaged a major bridge linking Russia to Crimea in a blow to the prestige of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There isn't a corner of the world which hasn't asked us to send them (the stamp)," said Liudmyla Samoilova, among dozens of people who lined up to get the stamps when they went on sale at Kyiv's post office. "We've sent them to America, Australia," she said as she stuck the stamps to envelopes. "People are excited about these events and wait for the good news." The bridge - a showcase project of Putin's rule and crucial supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine - was partially wrecked in an explosion last month. Russia blamed Ukraine but Kyiv has not claimed responsibility. The stamps show a man and a woman standing on the broken bridge in a pose echoing a famous scene from the movie "Titanic" as smoke billows behind them. Olena Tumanska, who is originally from Crimea, said she hoped for the destruction of the bridge. "I hope that justice prevails soon," said Tumanska, adding she hoped to visit Crimea next summer. Ukraine says it will one day retake Crimea, which was occupied by Russian forces in 2014. In April, the national postal service issued a stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier making a crude gesture at a Russian warship. It went on sale after the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet blew up and sank. (Reporting by Sergiy Karazy and Andrii Pryimachenko, editing by David Ljunggren and Rosalba O'Brien) Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty PHOENIXWhen Barack Obama came to Phoenix on Wednesday in the final days of the 2022 election, seemingly every Arizona Democrat of note was in the room, from Sen. Mark Kelly and governor candidate Katie Hobbs to prominent party messengers like Rep. Ruben Gallego. There was just one glaring absence: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. For months, Democrats in Arizona have been clawing against a difficult political environment in hopes of reelecting Kelly, boosting Hobbs to the governorship over the MAGA champion Kari Lake, and helping Adrian Fontes defeat the far-right election denier Mark Finchem in the Secretary of State race. The senior U.S. Senator from Arizona is not on the ballot herself until 2024. But while other Democratic senators in similar situations have played active roles boosting fellow Democrats in their home states, theres been a Sinema-sized hole in the Democratic campaign effort in Arizona. Sinema Trolls Democrats in Speech on McConnells Home Turf During the 2022 election season, Sinema has not campaigned publicly with her colleague Kelly, or with Hobbs, Fontes, or any other Democrat on the ballot in the state. It was not until two weeks before Election Day, with early voting underway, that Sinema even publicly confirmed she was supporting Hobbs. Typically a solid fundraiser, Sinema has donated the maximum of $10,000 to Kelly through her campaign and personal PAC, as well as $60,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has heavily supported Kelly. But according to federal and state campaign finance records, Sinema has not contributed to the campaigns of Hobbs or Fontes. When Sinema comes up on the campaign trail, awkwardness usually follows. When asked by The Daily Beast at a recent campaign stop if Sinema would campaign with him, Kelly responded that they work together very closely on a lot of different things, and Ive been in constant contact with her about the election. But pressed on whether hed asked her to campaign for him, Kelly avoided the question. Story continues Well, you know what, I spend a lot of time flying around the state on a little airplane, he said. Ive been in Prescott, Show Low, Flagstaff, Tuba City, Yuma in the last five days. So I hop in a little airplane and fly up there and meet with people and I do that over and over again. Speaking to the press last week in Phoenix, Hobbs was asked a similar question. Sen. Sinema said she did vote for me, Hobbs said. Were welcoming any support, and Im glad to have Sen. Sinemas. Will Kyrsten Sinemas Self-Destructive Moves Take Her Down? Naturally, Sinemas absence from the campaign trail has sparked a familiar pattern of backlash for a figure who, over the last two years, seemingly has not missed an opportunity to get crosswise with members of her own party. The senators moves to stymie the party's agenda in a 50-50 Senate and reshape key bills in her vision has poisoned her relationships with many Democratsincluding with the state party itself, which voted in January to formally censure Sinema after she opposed ending the Senates filibuster rule. But, as is often the case with Sinema, its not just what she does, but how she does it. For instance, some of her critics have seethed that she appeared more in public with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell in this campaign season than with Arizona Democratic candidates. In September, she gave a speech at McConnells foundation in Kentucky, which was filled with mutual praise between the two. If the likes of Kari Lake and Blake Masters are victorious on Election Day, those kinds of optics could deal yet another blow to Sinemas standing among Arizona Democratsright before she is expected to launch a reelection campaign in 2024. The MAGA extremist slate could do well in Arizona on Nov. 8, said Chris Herstam, a state lawmaker and former Supporter of Sinemas who has since become a vocal critic. But Kyrsten Sinema could care less. In response to questions for this story, a spokesperson for Sinema said the senator has fundraised for Kelly through events, calls, and emails. They referred The Daily Beast to a statement Sinema gave to the Arizona Republic, in which she called Kelly a great partner in our work securing the border, strengthening Arizonas water future, and lowering prices for everyday Arizona families I was proud to support his campaign in 2020, Sinema said, and Im laser focused on keeping him in the Senate. Regarding Hobbs, Sinema told HuffPost that Arizonans vote for the candidate they believe best represents Arizona values, and thats why I voted for Katie Hobbs for Governor. Manchin and Sinema Already Doom Any New Abortion Law There is nothing to indicate Sinema is refusing requests from Democrats to campaign for them, but theres also no indication she is being pressured to take on a more visible role. Still, neither Kelly nor Hobbs are strangers. Kelly is her Senate colleague and has been a figure in Arizona politics for years because of his wife, the former congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Like Sinema, Hobbs is a former social worker. He took over her State House district in 2011 when Sinema went to the State Senate. In the 2018 election, both scored upset statewide victories. It may seem ironic for Democrats who recoil at Sinemas every move to criticize her for not appearing more on the campaign trail. But in an election that could be decided by a few thousand votes, many feel their candidates need all the help they can get. Political experts in Arizona strongly believe Sinema could provide meaningful help. Chuck Coughlin, a GOP pollster in Phoenix, had a quick answer for whether Democratic candidates should welcome her help: fuck yeah, absolutely. Noting that Sinema has a higher approval rating among Republicans than among Democrats, he said she could help strengthen Kelly and Hobbs appeals to pivotal independent and right-leaning voters. While her recent political moves have puzzled operatives from Phoenix to Washington, Sinema is arguably the most electorally successful Arizona Democrat of the last two decades. In 2012, Sinema won the first of three highly competitive elections for Arizonas swingiest U.S. House seat. In 2018, she defeated Republican Martha McSally by roughly 2.5 points, becoming the first Democrat to win statewide since 2006. Running what The Atlantic called an aggressively centrist campaign, Sinema in 2018 demonstrated an early reluctance to go to bat for fellow Arizona Democrats. She was the only major Democratic candidate not to endorse the partys nominee for governor, David Garcia, prompting hackles from liberal commentators before he suffered a blowout loss to Gov. Doug Ducey. (Garcia, for what its worth, didnt endorse Sinema.) Because of her opposition to a number of Democratic priorities in the last two years, Sinema has seen her support among Democratic voters erodebut seen her appeal among Republicans rise. Kyrsten Sinema Is Unfriending Her Network Into Oblivion Brian, a middle-aged man who works in scientific sales and declined to give his last name, showed up to a Scottsdale polling place to cast his ballot for Masters, Kellys opponent, last week. But he told The Daily Beast he would likely vote for Sinema in 2024. Not even Masters has been immune to the GOP admiration for Sinema, as his opponent campaigns without her. On Wednesday, he told the Daily Mail that Sinema is a very talented politician. Shes good. Shes active. Shes really actively engaged. To be sure, Arizonas dynamics are different than that of other battleground states, but the active campaign schedules of Sinemas fellow Senate Democrats makes her absence all the more notable. In Pennsylvania, arguably the most contested state of the 2022 election, Sen. Bob Casey has been a key surrogate for Senate nominee John Fetterman. In closely divided Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin spoke at Obamas rally for Democratic candidates in Milwaukee and has campaigned with Senate nominee Mandela Barnes. In Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff has reprised his 2020 co-campaigning with Sen. Raphael Warnock, and in New Hampshire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is spending the final days of the campaign alongside Sen. Maggie Hassan. One particularly revealing data point: Casey has provided more support to the Arizona Democratic Party this year than Sinema, cutting a $10,000 check to the organization. Sinema has not donated at all to the party that censured her in January. With just a few days to go until Election Day, and with early voting underway, its unlikely that Sinemas course will change now, especially after she skipped the Wednesday event with Obama. But observers say it might not have just boosted Democrats for Sinema to get involvedit could have helped herself, too. One of the speakers at the Obama rally, Gallego, is a potential 2024 primary challenger to Sinema, and he has already castigated her publicly for her lack of public involvement in the campaign. Coughlin, the GOP pollster, said itd be a win-win for Sinema to campaign with fellow Democrats because it would ameliorate her toxicity with the Democrats. Paraphrasing her potential thinking, he said, if I can show we can win with this kind of ticket, then they are less inclined to be antagonistic towards me. 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. Los Angeles County has reached an $8 million settlement with the family of a teenager who was fatally shot by police, attorneys for the family announced on Tuesday. Eighteen-year-old Andres Guardado was shot five times in the back by a Los Angeles county deputy while running from police in June 2020, after he allegedly displayed a handgun. Deputy Miguel Vega claimed he fired at the teenager when he reached for the gun. The County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Tuesdays settlement, which resolved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Guardados parents, Elisa and Cristobal Guardado, in September 2020. It is difficult to imagine anything worse than losing ones child, yet Elisa and Cristobal remain hopeful that Andres death will not have been in vain that somehow through this tragedy, their loss can spark change in a department that is in such great need of change, the Guardados attorney, Nicholas Yoka, said in a statement. The Guardados attorneys noted that they are still waiting on the results of an investigation by the FBI and Los Angeles District Attorneys office into their sons death. Peace and justice will only come when the current investigations are completed, and Deputy Miguel Vega is held criminally responsible for Andres death, Cristobal Guardado said in a statement. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is keeping a close eye on layoffs in the tech sector, including Elon Musk's chaotic overhaul at Twitter. "As far as Twitter, that's a whole different situation [than the broader tech layoffs]," Walsh said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "I don't know enough about it, but I think that's Elon Musk looking at the business model. I am sure at some point that will fix itself out as it moves forward." To be sure, Musk's changes to Twitter are moving forward this Friday. Musk kicked off layoffs of reportedly 3,700 of Twitter's 7,500-strong workforce on Friday as he seeks to reposition the social media platform for profitable growth after a $44 billion acquisition. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at the Port of Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Most of the firing occurred in Twitter's ethical AI, marketing and communication, search, public policy, and wellness departments, according to reports. While ousted employees announced their departures on Twitter, Musk took to the platform to attack "activist" groups that he claims triggered a plunge in advertising revenue. The Twitter rightsizing comes against the backdrop of new hiring freezes at tech giants such as Amazon (AMZN) and Qualcomm (QCOM) amid slowing growth. Meanwhile, Twitter rival Snap (SNAP) has slashed its workforce this year, and Meta (META) is reportedly trimming the fat after several weak quarters. We havent seen, I dont think, a lot of layoffs yet, but theres been lots of talk of layoffs and freezing hiring, so thats something that would concern me because they are good-paying jobs, Walsh said, adding that he is "offering right now to any tech company out there, anything that we can do at the Department of Labor to help you and assist you, Id love to do that." This video grab taken from a video posted on the Twitter account of billionaire Tesla chief Elon Musk on October 26, 2022, shows him centering the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. (Photo by Twitter account of Elon Musk/AFP via Getty Images) Walsh has good reason to be eyeing Musk's moves at Twitter, as the world's richest person is a major employer through his other businesses, Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX. Moreover, the two appeared to find some common ground earlier this year when the Biden administration extended its first olive branch to the eccentric billionaire. In March, Musk gave Walsh a tour of Tesla's new Gigafactory after the Labor Secretary said on Yahoo Finance Live he would welcome a call from the EV titan. Story continues "We had a good conversation," Walsh told Yahoo Finance after the meeting with Musk. Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Click here for the latest technology business news, reviews, and useful articles on tech and gadgets Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube LaLiga and its president Javier Tebas say claims that a new Super League will be open and inclusive are false (Handout from The Playbook/PA) (PA Media) LaLiga has attacked the backers of the Super League who include the presidents of its two most prominent member clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona in a social media video published on Friday. Real and Barca bosses Florentino Perez and Joan Laporta were instrumental in the launch of the Super League last April. The league quickly collapsed amid outrage among fans of the Premier League teams who had signed up, with the British Government, UEFA and FIFA also coming out in opposition to the plans. One of the key objections to the league from fans was its closed nature, with the premise being that 15 of the continents top clubs would be permanent members. The promoters of the Super League are now preparing a model similar to the one put forward in 2019, which is still closed or mostly closed, which will destroy the national leagues and which has already been rejected by clubs and leagues in Europe.#EarnItOnThePitch pic.twitter.com/pKenJb1lWP LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) November 4, 2022 A video published on LaLigas Twitter account on Friday morning stated: The promoters of the Super League are trying to conceal its format, claiming that they still dont have a fixed model, although it will be inclusive and open. We know that this is false and that they want to present a semi-closed format similar to that of 2019, which has already been rejected by the clubs and (the) European Leagues (group). LaLiga sees this as a renewed attempt by the clubs involved to ensure participation in European competition, free from the risk of missing out in the event of a poor season in their domestic league. This model is based on promotion and relegation between European divisions where the national leagues do not provide direct access to the top tier, the video stated. Story continues On the contrary, they perpetuate the participation of a privileged view, even if they perform poorly in their domestic leagues. "Football can do better", states Bernd Reichart, our new CEO. That's why we will organize a broad dialogue with clubs, fans and all those who want to build a better home for #EuropeanClubFootball. Watch his video statement: pic.twitter.com/TbHntRy0pv A22 Sports (@A22Sports) October 19, 2022 LaLiga president Javier Tebas criticised recent efforts to reposition the league by A22, the company behind it, and said at this weeks Web Summit in Lisbon: They maybe look like lambs, but they are in fact wolves. The same wolves as before. A22s new chief executive, Bernd Reichart, spoke at the same event and said he had received an invitation to meet with UEFA, which would happen soon. Reicharts call for a meeting comes as A22 and UEFA await an update from the European Court of Justice. The ECJ has been asked to rule on whether UEFA and FIFA abused a dominant position under EU competition law by blocking the formation of the Super League last year, and in seeking to sanction the clubs involved. The Advocate Generals opinion on the matter is due to be published on December 15. That opinion is non-binding, but in many previous cases, the court judges final ruling has closely mirrored it, so it could provide a strong indication of the final outcome, which is expected next year. A Lawrence police officer was sentenced to ten to twelve years in state prison on Friday afternoon for raping a young boy he met on a dating app in 2018. Carlos Vieira, 53, of Lawrence, was found guilty on 2 counts of aggravated rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 on October 25. According to the Essex County DA, Vieira met the 13-year-old victim on a social media app GRINDR in the late summer of 2018. They met at Mt. Vernon Park and engaged in sexual acts inside Vieiras SUV. When the victim and his family were evacuated following the Merrimack Valley gas explosions, he recognized Vieira, who was directing traffic. The victims mother didnt learn of the sexual contact until a family dispute in January 2019. She immediately contacted authorities. The defendants conduct is an affront to the community he swore to protect, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said. Its important to acknowledge that many people were impacted by this defendants criminal behavior. The victim and his entire family will never be the same. I hope that they can now find some healing and peace. A Salem Superior Court Judge also ordered Vieira to serve five years of probation upon completion of his prison term which includes staying away from and having no contact with the victim and his family, seeking and completing sex offender evaluation and treatment, registering as a sex offender and having no unsupervised contact with children under 16. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW SPARKS, Nev. For more than a year, Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt has pitched Nevada voters on sending him to Washington with a simple message: He has little interest in working with Democrats when he gets there. The left should be put in the ash bin of history, and Republicans cant negotiate with Democrats, he said in separate June media appearances. In March he declared, The left must be defeated. We must destroy their radical ideology. And in the closing weeks of one of the tightest swing-state races in the country, Laxalt at a Reno event in October showed no interest in working with the radical, leftist Democrat Party. His pitch defies conventional wisdom, which traditionally sees candidates trying to broaden their appeal in the twilight of a general campaign that could hinge on swing voters. Since last year, Laxalt has made comments in media appearances, speeches and audio obtained by NBC News that show a Senate candidate who is preparing to back all manner of investigations into Democrats if he takes office, and whos grown impatient with Republicans who moderate. By contrast, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the Democratic incumbent, on the trail has boasted of Republican endorsements and highlighted her work with Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Asked whether he would take steps toward bipartisanship once he takes office, Laxalt campaign spokesman Brian Freimuth said, Adam will work with anybody to get the country back on track and undo the damage President Biden and Senator Cortez Masto have done to our economy. That Laxalt has suggested the opposite on the trail is a window into a new era of politics this election season, where, in hopes of turning out the base in droves, he has taken on more of a primary campaign posture. It also underscores the Nevada GOPs transformation, one thats marked by loyalty to former President Donald Trump and that has grown intolerant of any Republicans perceived to be bending to Democrats, even expelling members from the party structure whove stepped out of line. Story continues In a Tuesday campaign appearance in Elko, Laxalt dangled the prospect of investigations into Anthony Fauci, the presidents chief medical adviser, and President Joe Bidens son Hunter. Its no small deal for us to have the gavels. How many of you want to see Dr. Fauci in front of a Senate hearing? Laxalt said at that stop, where he also praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for going to war with Disney, according to audio obtained by NBC News. We need legitimate oversight because people feel like, What in the world is going on with the Hunter Biden investigation? Can you imagine if that was a Trump kid that had the laptop from hell? In Nevada, theres a palpable sentiment among Republicans that they have to forcefully combat traitors within their own party at the same time they're attempting to block Democrats from maintaining their hold on key offices, including the governorship and the U.S. Senate seat. I have more steak knives in my back from Republicans that have turned on us and stepped on us for their own benefit, Nevada GOP Party Chair Michael McDonald said at a recent event in Reno. Well, you know what? Theyll answer for that now. Theyre answering for it now because we have great people running for this office that will turn this around. McDonalds fiery sentiment is one thats permeated the GOP here over time, as Trumps popularity exploded in the 15 rural counties in 2016. In his path to electoral college victory that year, Trump narrowly lost Nevada to Hillary Clinton by 2 percentage points, suffering defeats in blue Clark County and in the battleground of Washoe County. In 2020, Biden carried Nevada by just more than 33,000 votes via a similar path of winning Clark and Washoe counties. On Tuesday, Laxalt is aiming to drive up numbers in those rural counties, attempting to flip Washoe red while keeping a check on margins in Clark County. On his side are economic forces unfavorable to Democrats in a midterm election where the party occupying the White House typically sees losses. Those dynamics are poised to boost Republicans across the board in Nevada, including in the governors race where Republican Joe Lombardo has led the Democratic incumbent, Steve Sisolak. McDonald, who had a close relationship to Trump, molded the GOP into one of fealty to the president, even after Trump lost in 2020. Thats created fault lines in a party where a contingent has grown weary of replaying the last presidential election. Laxalt, the former state attorney general who called the 2020 election rigged and filed lawsuits challenging the results, hasnt garnered a national reputation for divisiveness as other polarizing figures in his party have, including Wisconsins Ron Johnson and Arizonas Blake Masters. (Laxalts campaign told The New York Times that of course hell accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, even as other Republican candidates would not answer the question.) He is also a Republican whos backed by both Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and McConnell's chief antagonist: Trump. But in events and appearances on conservative news shows, Laxalt has railed against the left, depicting himself as someone who sees no room for compromise. They want people like President Trump, they want people like Sen. Josh Hawley, they want people like Gov. Ron DeSantis. All these people are supporting me in this race because they know me, Laxalt said on Steve Bannons War Room podcast in June. They know Im going to be that type of fighter that understands we have to defeat the left. This isnt a group that we can compromise with or negotiate with. They must be put in the ash bin of history and, weve got to be able to go on offense and sell our ideas. During an April event with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, he referred to failed leaders in his own party. We all know that the last couple decades, not only has our country moved in the wrong direction, but unfortunately, our Republican Party and a lot of its leaders have failed to stand up for our values, Laxalt said, according to audio of the event. We failed to actually learn to fight against the left, to actually go on offense. Laxalts messaging is a far cry from Cortez Masto, who has highlighted her support for bipartisan legislation and has hosted events in battleground Washoe County, the home of Reno, alongside Republicans who were endorsing her. Robert Cashell Jr., whose father was Renos longtime mayor and once served as lieutenant governor of Nevada, was among them. In an interview, he grew animated when asked about the state of his party. "The Republican Party has lost its mind," Cashell said. Ronald Reagan probably wouldnt get through a primary today in a Republican primary. Still, he said: The best way to change something is from the inside not the outside, thats why Im still a Republican. Its people like Cashell who state Republicans have raged against in recent months. Here in Washoe County, we have made it abundantly clear that if you as a Republican damage the Republican brand, there are consequences, Washoe County GOP Chair Bruce Parks said in an interview. The county, as well as other Republican county organizations in Nevada have formally censured Republicans, like former GOP party chair Amy Tarkanian, after she endorsed two Democrats in Tuesdays election. We no longer recognize them as Republicans, Parks said in an interview, specifically naming Tarkanian. They will never be supported by the Republican Party if they ever choose to run for public office. Tarkanian, who backs Laxalt's candidacy, is part of a group called Republicans for Ford who were censured by the party apparatus after endorsing Democrats over two GOP candidates including state Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is Black, for re-election. Tarkanian said she wouldnt back the Republican nominee Sigal Chattah, after leaked text messages revealed Chattah had said Ford should be hanging from an f---ing crane. Washoe Countys GOP and two other Republican organizations publicly condemned party members who endorsed any Democrat in Tuesdays election. The Nevada Republican Party issued a statement saying it decried failed grifters supporting Aaron Ford. Tarkanian, who said she voted twice for Donald Trump, responded to the rebuke saying it signifies the deterioration of the party since Trumps ascent. Everyone thought, We finally have someone who can teach us how to have a backbone, right? Then it just unraveled and now youve got a bunch of people who literally turned themselves into authoritarian-like, mini-dictators or bullies adult bullies, Tarkanian said in an interview. If you dont agree with them 100 percent on everything or you dont agree with every single Republican thats on the ticket, then you are shunned. (Chattah has told the Las-Vegas Review Journal the text was not racist and was purposely leaked to damage her politically.) Tarkanian stood by her decision not to endorse Chattah. They cant tell me how to think or who to vote for who do they think they are? Tarkanian said. Ill just wait for the pendulum to swing back to sanity. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Those who know Broadway, have heard of the Gershwin and Shubert theaters, which are New York institutions in and of themselves. But theres never been a Broadway theater named for a Black woman, until now. The honor was bestowed on Lena Horne this week. According to NBC News, the Brooks Atkinson Theater on West 47th Street, near Broadway in Manhattans Theater District, was renamed the Lena Horne Theater on Tuesday in recognition of Horne, the famed performer and civil rights activist. Shes only the third Black person to have a Broadway theater bear her name. The Theater's Original Name View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lena Horne (@mslenahorne) The theater had two other names first. Upon being built in 1926, it was called Mansfield Theater. In 1960, it was renamed Brooks Atkinson Theater, in honor of drama critic Brooks Atkinson. Now, Hornes name appears on the marquee. She Was A Legend View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lena Horne (@mslenahorne) Horne was the quintessential Renaissance woman, who sang, danced, and acted. She was also an activist. She got her start in show business at 16, when she joined the Cotton Club in Harlem to perform. According to Biography, she signed with MGM studios and became known as one of the top African American performers of her time, seen in such films as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. She was also known for her work with civil rights groups and refused to play roles that stereotyped African American women, a stance that many found controversial. Her last film appearance was alongside Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in The Wiz. Her Left-Leaning Activism Proved Costly View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lena Horne (@mslenahorne) When McCarthyism had the U.S. in a chokehold, many prominent figures were blacklisted. Black performers such as Lena and Paul Robeson were among them. Story continues Biography noted, Horne still performed primarily in posh nightclubs around the country as well as Europe and was also able to make some TV appearances. The ban had eased by the mid-1950s, and Horne returned to the screen in the 1956 comedy Meet Me in Las Vegas, though she would not act in another film for more than a decade. She Was A Decorated Performer Until Her Death View this post on Instagram post shared by Lena Horne (@mslenahorne) NBC News reported, Horne won several awards, including two Grammys, in 1982 and 1996, along with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989. In 1965, she released a memoir titled Lena. She died in 2010 in New York of heart failure. Lena Is The Third Black Person To Get The Broadway Honor View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lena Horne (@mslenahorne) In 2005, the Virginia Theater was renamed after playwright August Wilson. 17 years later, Cort Theater on West 48th Street was renamed the James Earl Jones Theater. For millennials, Jones is best known as the voice of Mufasa in both film versions of The Lion King, and Darth Vader. But his foray into show business was decades earlier. Related: Missy Elliott Gets A Boulevard In Her Home State Named After Her Map of Lesotho The Kingdom of Lesotho is made up mostly of highlands, where many of the villages can be reached only on horseback, by foot or light aircraft. Resources are scarce - a consequence of the harsh environment of the highland plateau and limited agricultural space in the lowlands. The former British protectorate has been heavily dependent on the country which completely surrounds it - South Africa. Over the decades thousands of workers have been forced by the lack of job opportunities to find work at South African mines. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was completed in the 1990s to export water to South Africa. Lesotho has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, with one in five adults living with HIV, and more infections per 100,000 people than most other countries, including neighbouring Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini. Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring FACTS LEADERS Head of state: King Letsie III Lesotho's King Letsie III King Letsie III succeeded his father, King Moshoeshoe II, who was dethroned in 1990. Five years later, after the return to civilian government and amid political instability, he abdicated and his father was reinstated as monarch. Letsie III was restored as king in 1996 after his father died in a car accident. The monarch has no legislative or executive powers. Prime minister: Sam Matekane Lesotho Revolution for Prosperity party (RFP) leader and Lesotho Prime Minister Sam Matekane Diamond magnate-turned-politician Sam Matekane became prime minster after winning October 2022 elections, just seven months after founding his Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party. He self-funded a political campaign which had a heavy social media presence. His party won 56 out of the 120 seats in the National Assembly. He campaigned on a platform of halting Lesotho's recent political instability. He says his priority will be dealing with corruption - "rooting it out completely" - turning around the country's economy as well as "de-politicising" the country's security forces. The outgoing prime minster, Moeketsi Majoro, had taken over as prime minister in May 2020, after the resignation of veteran leader Thomas Thabane, who had been named as a suspect in the murder of his own ex-wife. Story continues MEDIA Man riding a donkey in Lesotho Radio is the most-popular medium. As well as domestic outlets, South African radio and TV stations can be received. TIMELINE 1820s - Basutoland founded by Moshoeshoe, who unites various groups to repel challenges from Zulus. 1834 - Territorial encroachment by Boer trekkers starts decades of conflict. 1860s - Becomes a British protectorate. 1871 - Annexed to the Cape Colony without people's consent. 1884 - Becomes a British colony after revolt against Cape Colonial rule. Paramount chiefs retain large degree of autonomy. 1966 - Independence as Kingdom of Lesotho, with Moshoeshoe II as king and Chief Leabua Jonathan (Basotho National Party) as prime minister. 1998 - Troops from the region restore order following disputed elections. 2004 - Official opening of first phase of Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Nov. 4Pennsylvanians will cast their votes for the midterm elections on Nov. 8, choosing which candidates to elect during a highly polarized political time. Bucknell University Professor of Religious Studies Brantley Gasaway has researched the connection between religion and politics and its effects upon citizens' views of America's identity. Gasaway recently offered some thoughts on Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, and the ways in which Christian nationalism has defined his campaign. Mastriano, Gasaway said, "pulls support from conservative Christians and and those who view America as a Christian nation and express fears about their freedoms. "Christian Republicans overwhelmingly believe that conservative political and economic policies properly limit governmental interference with citizens' God-given individual rights," Gasaway said. "They also believe traditional Christianity, in order to preserve America's identity, should be privileged and protected by the government." Gasaway said he thinks that Mastriano's campaign is the most expressively Christian in any political race he's seen. "At least on a state level," Gasaway said. "He has really made his own Christian identity and religious language central to his appeal to voters, and that has brought him a great deal of support, and even criticism, sometimes from other Christians." At the center of Mastriano's campaign, Gasaway explained on Thursday, "is his promise to restore citizens' 'God-given freedoms,' and he denounces governmental restrictions designed to curb the COVID pandemic as 'tyranny.'" In addition, Gasaway said, "Mastriano portrays his campaign as a spiritual battle against evil and claims that his election will 'bring the state back to righteousness.'" While political critics denounce Mastriano for promoting Christian nationalism and political extremism, it is clear that religion will play a significant role in the outcome of Tuesday's midterms. Story continues Politics and religionsConservative Christian ideology and politics has converged for many years in this country, noted Robert Speel, associate professor of political science, Penn State University, the Behrend College. Conservative Christians have mostly been supporters of the Republican Party for over forty years, Speel explained. "Some reasons for that include reactions to the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, reactions to the civil rights movement among white Southerners, and intentional efforts among leaders in the televangelist industry to organize followers as Republican voters," he said. Organizers of the movement have used different labels over the decades, Speel points out The Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and Christian nationalism. But the voter base and the general political and social attitudes have remained similar," he said. "Not all fundamentalist and evangelical Christians identify with this political movement, but a majority have been voting Republican for several decades. In 2004, George W. Bush's political strategist Karl Rove publicized efforts to get proposed bans on same-sex marriage placed as state ballot measures in order to boost turnout for Bush in that presidential election, a strategy that seemed to succeed. It has been the only presidential election since 1988 in which the Republican candidate won the majority of the nationwide popular vote. "In Pennsylvania, conservative Christians outside of urban areas remain a large segment of voters, and Doug Mastriano's message will appeal to many of them, while others will vote for him just because he is the Republican on the ballot," Speel noted. But a majority of Pennsylvanians do not hold the same ideology, especially in urban and suburban areas, and Mastriano has not made much public effort to win over such voters, Speel said. "If he were to win the governor's election this month, it would likely be because most state voters are voting for Republicans in general." However, his support may be greater than polls have been measuring, because some Republicans may be reluctant to tell how they plan to vote to pollsters and others who say they are undecided usually vote Republican anyhow. If Mastriano were to defeat Shapiro, that may also cause concerns among Democrats and news articles in the media about the extent of anti-Semitism in Pennsylvania, Speel said. He also said if Mastriano were able to enact some of his proposed policies and ideas, it would likely affect Pennsylvania's reputation among people in other states. Nov. 3NEW LONDON The city will conduct an informational meeting Nov. 10 on a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Williams Street and Broad Street. The meeting will be on the third floor of City Hall at 7 p.m. and will present a preliminary design replacing the signalized intersection with a modern roundabout. "It is important that the community share its concerns to assist in the project's development," said the city's news release. The project scope includes complete roadway reconstruction for the roundabout implementation, designated crosswalks and new sidewalks, the addition of crosswalk lighting, enhanced bus stops and several drainage improvements. Based upon a conceptual assessment, the construction cost will be approximately $3,250,000 including construction inspection services and contingencies. The state Department of Transportation will reimburse 100% of construction costs through its Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program. Proposed benefits from the reconstruction include "reduced environmental impacts, decreased maintenance costs, increased pedestrian, bike and vehicle safety, enhanced traffic operations and improved aesthetics," said the city's release announcing the meeting. This is the second roundabout in the works in the city. Another project is replacing the traffic signal at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Chester Street with a three-legged roundabout. The meeting facility is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Persons with questions or needing ADA accommodations, hearing and/or speech accommodations, or language assistance may request such services by contacting Brian Sear, the city's public works director, at (860) 447-5250 or BSear@newlondonct.org. The city asks requests be made at least five business days prior to the meeting. Associated Press Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre is asking to be removed from a lawsuit by the state of Mississippi that seeks to recover millions of dollars in misspent welfare money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S. An attorney for Favre filed papers on Monday saying the Mississippi Department of Human Services groundlessly and irresponsibly seeks to blame Favre for its own grossly improper and unlawful handling of welfare funds and its own failure to properly monitor and audit how organizations used the money. Including Favre in this lawsuit has had the intended effect it has attracted national media attention to this case," Favres attorney, Eric D. Herschmann, wrote in the filing in Hinds County Circuit Court. The last meal for condemned prison inmates has become a thing of lore over the years as details about their gruesome crimes and culinary preferences in their final hours have garnered widespread media attention. Inmates on death row in prison systems across the country have included some of the most vicious and vile murderers whose crimes have shocked and sickened the public. John Wayne Gacy, the famed serial killer who murdered 33 boys and men in the 1970s, ordered a feast for his last day alive. Just before his 1994 execution inside an Illinois prison, Gacy had a bucket of KFC fried chicken, 12 fried shrimp, french fries and a pound of strawberries, among other items. Florida inmate Danny Rolling, known as the Gainesville Ripper, enjoyed lobster tail, butterfly shrimp, a baked potato, sweet tea and strawberry cheesecake before his 2006 death by lethal injection, according to local reports. Of course, there are always exceptions. Victor Feguer, the last man executed by the federal government years before Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, kidnapped and killed an Iowa doctor who refused to give him drugs. When he was hanged in 1963, all he asked for his last meal was an olive with the pit still inside. GABBY PETITO BODYCAM FOOTAGE: WHO IS OFFICER ERIC PRATT? READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP McVeigh had two pints of mint and chocolate chip ice cream before his 2001 lethal injection death. All four men were part of an ongoing tradition where inmates slated to die at the hands of the state are given the option of one last meal of their choice before going to the afterlife. Over the years, the meals have ranged from epic portions to a single vegetable in some cases. The last meal goes as far back as Ancient Greece and evolved over the years, according to a 2014 paper written by a faculty member at Mercer University School of Law in Georgia. "In Ancient Greece, you had to feed the person who was going to be executed, so that they could cross the River Styx into the underworld, and not come back as a hungry ghost," the paper states. Story continues Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, said the death penalty and last meal intertwine religion and retribution. "I don't think it's a stretch to compare the last meal to the Last Supper or it having some kind of religious element because it is a ritual," she told Fox News Digital. "It is kind of a final goodbye." The lore of the last meal has captivated the public imagination for years. Henry Hargreaves, a New Zealand-born photographer, has taken images of the last meals of some of America's most notorious killers. Despite not being allowed to take images of the actual food, Hargreaves has replicated the servings by purchasing the ingredients and cooking them himself. "Let's make people see the death sentence through another lens. That's all I'm trying to do," he told Fox News Digital. "I think too often, people on death row are kind of seen as statistics." News reports of executions almost always include information about a death row inmate's last meal and their last words. Books and websites have also gotten into the mix, such as "The Last Meals Project," "Last Suppers: Famous Final Meals from Death Row" and "Meals to Die For." Texas, the state with the highest execution rate, no longer offers the option of a customized last meal after one prisoner ordered an enormous amount of food and then refused to eat it, saying he was not hungry. The move left a bad taste in the mouths of state legislators. TEXAS ALLEGED SERIAL KILLER'S VICTIMS' FAMILIES PUSH FOR DEATH PENALTY: HE JUST REEKS EVIL' Lawrence Brewer was a White supremacist convicted of dragging James Byrd Jr., a Black man, to his death with a pickup truck in a crime that shocked the nation in the '90s. For his last meal, he asked for a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, two chicken steaks with gravy and onions, and a cheese omelet with ground beef, jalapenos and bell peppers, the Houston Chronicle reported. Additionally, he asked for a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, one pound of barbecue and a half loaf of white bread, a pizza meat lover's special, one pint of 'homemade vanilla' Blue Bell ice cream, one slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and three root beers, the report said. When the meal was placed before him, he refused to eat. That prompted lawmakers to get involved. Instead, Texas death row inmates now choose a "final meal" from a menu in the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, home to the state's death row unit. "If they choose to have a meal, it is served to them in the cell where they are held at the same time as the other inmates are served," Robert Hurst, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told Fox News Digital. "No one such as loved ones is permitted to be with them." STOCKTON SERIAL KILLER: HOW POLICE TRACKED DOWN SHADOWY MURDER SUSPECT In Florida, condemned inmates may request a last meal. However, the food used to prepare the meals must cost no more than $40 and is required to be purchased locally, the state Department of Corrections said. John Spenkelink, the first inmate executed after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, shared a flask of Jack Daniel's whiskey with the prison superintendent, who came up with the idea, the Orlando Sentinel reported. In Alabama, 166 inmates are currently on death row. Joe Nathan James Jr., who was executed in July, declined a last meal. Arizona inmate Joseph Wood only requested two cookies before his 2014 execution, according to the state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who killed several men in Florida, declined a last meal and asked for a cup of coffee. Utah inmate Ronnie Lee Garner ate steak, lobster tail, apple pie and vanilla ice cream, with 7Up soda before he was executed by firing squad in 2010. He also requested the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Over the years, there have been several odd last meal requests. Tennessee murderer Phillip Workman declined a last meal for himself and asked that a vegetarian pizza be given to a homeless person. Prison officials declined to fulfill the wish. The granting of a last meal is possibly a last humane gesture, Denno said. "It's a way of our recognizing that no matter what somebody has done that they're still a human and they're going to die soon," she said. "There's some humanity in that." Some believe the ritual of the last meal generates the appearance of the distinguishing between the violence of the execution committed by the state and the violence of what's being punished, Daniel LaChance, an associate professor of history at Emory University. "The meals serve as a reminder that this is a different violence," he told Fox News Digital of the views that some may hold. "That this is a righteous violence rather than a lawless or criminal violence." Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / Photo by Aaron C. Davis / Getty Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, took the stand in his own defense on Friday in the most significant trial yet over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Suffice it to say he did not back down from spreading deranged conspiracies about the 2020 election that helped fuel deadly violencethough he appeared to stumble along the way. Im good to go, Rhodes said in D.C. federal court, before launching into his personal history and his decision to start the far-right militia group. His decision to testify comes after prosecutors spent weeks arguing that Rhodes and his fellow Oath Keepers spent months planning an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy in a vain attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Bidens win over Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Rhodes and four other members have pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy, a rare, Civil War-era charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. On Friday, Rhodes confirmed that he was unhappy with the election and believed that it was unconstitutional. That made it invalid, he said. And you really cant have a winner of an unconstitutional election. That would mean that Donald Trump, too, was not the winner, Rhodes added. Oath Keepers Trial Rocked by Wacky Sexts Between Militia Boss and Lawyer Prosecutors allege that the plan to disrupt democracy began just days after Biden was declared the victor of the 2020 presidential election. For months, Oath Keepers allegedly trained, discussed the need to go to war, and even stockpiled weapons that would be held outside of the D.C. area on Jan. 6 in case Trump invoked the Insurrection Act. Their goal was to stop by whatever means necessary the lawful transfer of presidential power, including by taking up arms against the United States government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said during opening statements. They did not go to the Capitol to defend or help; they went to attack. Story continues For weeks, prosecutors have been showing jurors text messages, audio recordings, and surveillance footage to demonstrate the lengths the Oath Keepers allegedly went to execute their plan. On Wednesday, jurors were played a recording of Rhodes four days after the insurrectionwhere he is heard admitting his only regret was not bringing rifles to the Capitol. We could have fixed it right then and there. Id hang fuckin Pelosi from the lamppost, Rhodes said. Defense attorneys for the five individuals insist that the group committed no crime at the Capitoland that Rhodes did not even enter the building. Standing trial with Rhodes is Kelly Meggs, a leader of the Florida Oath Keepers chapter; Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer; member Kenneth Harrelson; and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group. Federal authorities have described the Oath Keepers group as a large but loosely organized collection of [the] militia who believe that the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights and who heavily recruit former military, law enforcement, and first responders. Rhodes on Friday gave jurors several reasons why he founded the Oath Keepersranging from his anger over the George W. Bush era to helping veterans learn they do not have to blindly obey the Constitution. I wanted to make sure they knew where the lines were and their duty to say no, he said. Describing the intended function of the group, Rhodes denied characterizations that the Oath Keepers are extremistinsisting that his members simply want to support demonstrations. Then he seemed to slip up. I support the right to riot, Rhodes said, before adjusting his phrasing: I support the right to protest. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here 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. An 18 year old who allegedly fired a gun on the edge of Tates Creeks campus was charged Friday with felony wanton endangerment, district officials said in a statement. Faezon Latrell Odom, 18, was arrested. He was not a Fayette school graduate or a student, district officials said. Just before 9 a.m., the statement said, while Tates Creek Middle School students were arriving at school, there were reports of shots fired in the Centre Parkway area. The student arrival process at the elementary and high schools was complete and instruction was already underway. School administrators, along with the Fayette County Public Schools Police Department, immediately began investigating along with Lexington Police. All three schools on the Tates Creek campus elementary, middle and high school were placed on heightened alert, which means students and staff remain inside the building and guests are restricted from entering. During the investigation, officers discovered evidence indicating that a gun had been discharged near the entrance to campus. School leaders also received reports from middle school students who possibly witnessed the incident while arriving at school. There was no indication that a student was responsible, the statement said. When officers determined that the gun shots took place on the edge of campus, they advised school leaders that the best course of action was to place the middle school on lockdown while they searched for the suspect. A lockdown means students and staff are not permitted to leave their classrooms, and no one is allowed to enter or exit the building. Reducing movement inside the building helps law enforcement conduct an investigation in a quick and orderly manner. Since students and staff were already in the buildings at the elementary and high schools when the incident occurred, they remained on heightened alert. Just after noon, officers located the suspect at his home. The lockdown and heightened alerts were then lifted. I am proud of the way our students and staff at all three schools responded today, said Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins. Everyone took immediate action and followed district safety protocols to keep our students and staff safe and our families informed. The message we have for our students, families, and community is that our campus continues to be a safe place, Liggins said. A man was fatally shot in his yard, North Carolina officials say. Now, his cousin is charged. Harnett County deputies said they responded to a report of trespassing that involved gunshots on Wednesday, Nov. 2. When they arrived, they found Christopher Joe Pearce, 42, lying in the yard with a gunshot wound to his chest. Deputies and EMS responders began life-saving measures, but Pearce was pronounced dead on the scene that morning, according to a news release from the sheriffs office. Investigators determined that Pearce had been shot multiple times with a pellet gun by his cousin, Rachel Ferguson, 21, deputies said. Pearce and Ferguson lived together with Fergusons husband and child. After an autopsy revealed that one of the pellets caused Pearces death, deputies said they charged Ferguson with second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Ferguson is being held in the Harnett County Detention Center, deputies say. Woman found dead after calling relative to say brother stabbed her, Georgia police say 14-year-old charged with murder after 10-year-old cousin shot and killed, NC cops say Man found shot dead in apartment as trio is seen running from scene, Virginia cops say A Pennsylvania man who pretended to be a Broward Sheriffs Office deputy scammed victims of tens of thousands of dollars by threatening to arrest them if they didnt pay bonds for arrest warrants that didnt exist, according to detectives. Raquan Hardy is behind bars in his home state awaiting trial in connection to similar cases, the sheriffs office said Thursday in a news release. In Broward, the 25-year-old faces a total of 21 counts including organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, impersonating a law enforcement officer, extortion and criminal use of personal identification information, his arrest warrant shows. According to investigators, at least four victims in Broward fell prey to the scam, handing over more than $50,000 to Hardy between Sept. 7 and Sept. 10. In Pennsylvania, Hardy and an accomplice are accused of tricking people into paying over $40,000, the Allegheny County Sheriffs Office said last month. The weeks-long investigation began in early September after a phone scam surfaced in Broward where an individual contacted the victims using a phone number that appeared to be from the sheriffs office. This type of scam, called spoofing, often involves just changing one digit from an agencys phone number to make the call appear legitimate, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Investigators say the scammer told his targets that there were active warrants for their arrest and that they needed to pay a bond in cash through a bail bond company to avoid getting locked up. The arrest warrants, detectives say, didnt exist. Detectives identified Hardy as a suspect,but before deputies could arrest him they say he fled. Broward detectives eventually tracked Hardy to Dallas, Texas, where local authorities arrested him on Sept. 22. He was later extradited to Pennsylvania. Please be aware that BSO will never call you to ask for money or personal information, demand bond money or any form of payment, the sheriffs office wrote. If you receive this type of call, do not provide any personal information or money. Instead, immediately hang up and contact law enforcement. Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday called for a broad bipartisan deal to protect the solvency of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, popular programs that face serious funding issues over the next few decades. Youre going to get your financial house in order. We cannot live with this crippling debt, Manchin, whose pivotal vote both delayed and helped pass big pieces of President Bidens agenda, told Fortunes Alan Murray at a CEO conference. If we dont look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether they be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones there are tremendous problems right now, Manchin said when asked where he sees areas of potential compromise in Washington after the Nov. 8 midterm elections. If we cant come to grips of how we face the financial challenge that this country has, then were all going to be paying a price that we cant afford, he said. Manchin, who sank Bidens ambitious $3 trillion Build Back Better agenda in December, has often talked about the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicaid. The Social Security Administration announced last year that it is not projected to have the funds to pay full benefits past 2033. In February, Manchin proposed addressing that shortfall by increasing the amount of income subject to taxation to fund Social Security from $147,000 to $400,000. And Manchin pushed back hard against Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanderss (I-Vt.) effort to expand Medicare to include vision, dental and hearing benefits by arguing that the core program itself was in danger because of the soaring federal debt. My big concern right now is the 2026 deadline [for] Medicare insolvency and if no ones concerned about that, Ive got people thats a lifeline. Medicare and Social Security is a lifeline for people back in West Virginia, most people around the country, Manchin told reporters in October of last year. Story continues If Manchin continues to push for a bipartisan deal to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare, he could have a negotiating partner in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has proposed broad entitlement reform on several previous occasions. After Republicans captured the Senate majority in the 2014 midterm election, McConnell decried what he called the unsustainable growth rate of Social Security and Medicare and warned we need to adjust these popular programs or they wont be there in the next generation. In October of 2018, when Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate and the House, McConnell said that entitlement spending, not the Republican push to cut taxes, was the main driver of the federal deficit. Its a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future, he told Bloomberg News at the time. Manchin, who appeared Thursday before a room full of CEOs via video link, urged the audience to stop making political donations to members of Congress without getting solid commitments to improve the nations governance in return. Quit writing checks to everybody, he said. He argued that successful CEOs build good companies because they expect return on their investment, yet too often, they write checks to lawmakers in Washington without expecting anything of real substance in return. The investments youve made in politics from the Democrat side and the Republican side by asking nothing in return is a foolish investment, he said. Why dont you do this? Tell a politician when they come to you, say, Listen, Im sorry I dont give checks, I dont give a donation or contribution to any politician, but Im willing to make an investment. What should I expect from you? What are you going to do? Manchin advised. He said too many donors are giving checks to bad behavior by supporting candidates and officeholders who are happy to let partisan gridlock rule the nations capital. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A group of journalists from Manila visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City allegedly became the target of anti-Asian hate just days after interviewing Filipino victims of similar experiences. Elmer Cato, the Consul General of the Republic of the Philippines in New York, shared news of the incidents on Twitter on Thursday. A few days after interviewing Filipino hate crime victims, a group of visiting journalists from Manila experienced anti-Asian hate themselves not just once but three times on Thursday, Cato, a former journalist himself, wrote. Bernadette E. Tamayo, one of the journalists, wrote about her experience in The Manila Times. According to Tamayo, the journalists became the target of hate speech three times on Wednesday afternoon. More from NextShark: California Lawmaker Passes $1.4 Million Bill to Track Anti-Asian Attacks The first incident occurred when a woman hurled racial slurs at their group while they were in a subway station, according to Tamayo. Story continues Go to hell! You f*cking monkeys! the woman allegedly yelled. A few hours later, her companions reportedly heard a man who was selling souvenir items shout corona at them as they passed by his stall on the Brooklyn bridge. More from NextShark: Amerie Jo Garza: BTS fans unite to honor the life of 10-year-old Uvalde hero and fellow Army The journalists then walked to the 9/11 Memorial, where another man allegedly tried approaching one of them before blurting out F*ck you! I was not able to witness these two incidents because I was walking way ahead of my companions. Why? I was too scared to be left behind and become a target, Tamayo wrote. The incident on the subway platform was traumatic enough for me. The other journalists have not been identified. More from NextShark: Repeat offender charged with hate crimes for punching NY elderly Asian woman over 125 times in the face According to Hate Crime Unit chief Hannah Yu, Asian hate crime incidents are taken seriously, but they cannot prosecute perpetrators if they are not identified. When there is no video and if the perpetrator can not be identified, that will lead to a closed investigation, Yu told Tamayo. Thats one of the impediments [to arresting the suspects]. If the perpetrator is not identified then there is not much we can do. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported 43 incidents of race-based violence and harassment involving Filipinos in August. According to DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza, most of the cases occurred in New York City, particularly in Manhattan and Queens. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on November 3, 2022. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at a rally in Iowa on Thursday ahead of the mid-term elections. She told the crowd that Paul Pelosi "should have been a gun owner and shot his attacker." Greene also said that Republicans will not send money to Ukraine if they retake Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene provoked a crowd to boo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband after he was hospitalized in a hammer attack, saying he should have shot the assailant. The Georgia lawmaker addressed the recent attack at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday ahead of next week's mid-term elections. "More Americans are robbed, stabbed, raped, kidnaped, carjacked, and murdered. But the only crime victim you hear about from Democrats in the media is Paul Pelosi," Greene said, drawing boos from the crowd. "Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked by a drugged-out illegal alien that should have been deported," she said, adding that he "should have been a gun owner and shot his attacker." Greene was referring to the fact that Paul Pelosi's suspected attacker, David DePape, is Canadian and had an expired immigration status. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) November 3, 2022 Pelosi, 82, was attacked last week by a man who broke into the couple's San Francisco home and hit him in the head with a hammer. The House Speaker was in Washington DC at the time. DePape, who previously spread right-wing conspiracy theories online, according to relatives, told authorities he was there to "hold Nancy hostage" and break her kneecaps. Pelosi, who sustained a fractured skull and other wounds from the attack, was released from the hospital on Thursday. During her speech, Greene also commented on the conflict in Ukraine and promised that Republicans will not send money to the country if they retake Congress in the mid-term elections. "Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine," Greene told rally-goers. "Our country comes first." Story continues Congress has approved around $60 billion in aid for Ukraine since the start of the invasion. However, some Republicans have started opposing the aid packages, arguing that President Joe Biden's administration should be focusing on domestic issues instead. Read the original article on Business Insider A married couple were accused of kidnapping Thursday after the body of a missing pregnant woman and her fetus were found in separate locations in Missouri, authorities said. Ashley Bush, 33, of Benton County, Arkansas, appeared to have been fatally shot after she responded to a job posting Monday, prosecutor Nathan Smith told reporters. Bush was 31 weeks pregnant. Smith declined to say how the fetus, Valkyrie Grace Willis, was removed from Bush's body but added: Clearly, the baby was not found with the mother. Ashley Bush. (Benton County Sheriff's Office via Facebook) Smith said he expected more charges against the couple, Amber and Jamie Waterman. They were booked into the McDonald County Detention Center in Missouri on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping after the sheriff's office there said it served a search warrant at a local address. Human remains that appeared to be connected to Bush's missing person's case were found, the McDonald County Sheriff's Office said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the Watermans have lawyers to speak on their behalf. "This is just a reminder that there is evil in the world, Smith said. People do evil things. That someone would prey upon a pregnant woman at her most vulnerable state is unimaginable. Thats the world we live in. Smith said a motive remained unclear. Bush disappeared after having corresponded online with someone named "Lucy" who authorities believe was actually Amber Waterman, Smith said. Bush had been looking for a job working from home, the Benton County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Tuesday. The two met Monday morning at a convenience store in Maysville, in Arkansas' northwestern corner, where Bush was to have been taken to a job interview nearly 30 miles away, in Bentonville, the sheriff's office said. Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway said authorities don't believe Bush ever went to Bentonville. Valkyrie was found Wednesday, and Bush was found Thursday both in Missouri. Holloway declined to provide more details, citing the ongoing investigation. Two counts of homicide are possible because state law allows the charge in the killing of a pregnant woman, Smith said. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com How much of a difference can the consumer champions wisdom really make? (iStock) Not all heroes wear capes; some are just very good at spreadsheets. As the cost of living crisis worsens, Martin Lewis has been hailed as a national hero for his advice on how to save cash. The MoneySavingExpert founder has won an army of devotees, having spent months holding the government to account in a climate of soaring food prices and rising energy bills, and his MSE website is full of advice on how to make your money work harder. Such is the service hes providing that one person took his pointer that we all put 1 in a HSBC account and suggested: Id give 1 to a pot to get Martin Lewis a lil Christmas present. a nice candle or somethin. for being a great teacher. But how much of a difference can his tips really make? The consumer champions wisdom isnt universally relevant although he offers plenty of advice on mortgage deals, many millennials and Gen Z-ers dont own a house. Some of the schemes he recommends have specific eligibility criteria, while some are very time-consuming. And yet its undeniable that well all need to change our spending behaviour in the coming months. So, in the name of frugality, we tested out some of the MSE tips over a three-week period to see how much money we could save or earn. Heres what we learnt... Actual free money Im a millennial woman who spends nearly half of my income on rent and whose visa status bars me from accessing public funds; the cost of living crisis has made me a ball of anxiety. Admittedly, Im more privileged than some, as I benefit from a dual-income household and I have no children. But increasing costs mean Im still looking for ways to save money. Which brings me to one of MSEs most useful tips: you can make money quickly simply by switching banks. Lewis repeatedly extols the virtues of doing so, as most banks offer some sort of cash incentive to entice new customers to switch over to them. Most recently, he alerted readers to switch offers by Nationwide, First Direct and NatWest, all of whom were giving new customers up to 200. Story continues I chose Nationwide, which is still offering a free 200 to switch to a new or existing Nationwide FlexDirect account. It was ridiculously easy I applied for the switch and let Nationwide do the rest of the work. Once the balance of my previous accounts was moved over, the 200 was added to my new account within just two days of the switch. This was by far the most straightforward and beneficial of the tips I found on MSE a free 200 just for changing banks? Ill take that. Kate Ng I bypassed my go-to Trainline app and opted to purchase my ticket from Splitmyfare.co.uk (iStock) A chunk off the commute Train tickets have always been one of the biggest expenses for those of us who commute during peak hours. And that got even pricier in March when fares increased by 3.8 per cent the biggest hike in nine years. But since the pandemic, working patterns have changed some workplaces, such as my own, now use a hybrid model, meaning employees only need to commute to the office two or three days a week. One helpful tip offered by the Money Saving Expert is to take advantage of split ticketing that is when, instead of buying a single ticket to take you from your departure location to your destination, you buy multiple tickets for each part of the journey. As someone who commutes into London from Essex, via just one 35-minute train, I was curious to see whether this could save me any money. To put it to the test, I bypassed my go-to Trainline app and opted to purchase my ticket from Splitmyfare.co.uk. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, this way, the tickets were 2 cheaper than I would usually pay. Helpfully, there is little to no hassle as you can buy them as E-tickets, meaning you wont be lumbered with multiple paper tickets. It may seem like a humble amount, but for someone who travels to the office three days a week, four times a month, it adds up to an annual saving of 300. The catch: I found that the cheaper tickets were only available when I had booked at least a week before I intended to travel. While the savings are worthwhile, this method does require more organisation and prior planning which can take some getting used to if you usually buy your tickets just before you travel. Saman Javed Hacks for the weekly food shop My husband and I have got our weekly grocery shop down to a tee we order online from Tesco and it costs about 40 between us. But in recent months, as the cost of living crisis pushes supermarket prices up, its moved closer towards the 45 to 50 mark. Martin Lewis offers a whole range of tips to reduce the costs of a food shop, so I gave two a try. The first one was to shop for staples in the world foods aisle. According to MoneySavingExpert, shopping in the world foods aisle can see products found cheaper gram for gram than the same product in different packaging. The other: crouching down to see if we could find own-brand alternatives. Apparently, the cheapest, non-branded items can usually be found on the bottom shelf. I find it harder to budget when shopping in person (iStock) I went into the shop with the mentality that I would shop for what we regularly cook, and simply use his pointers for items that would naturally fall into each category. As we already have a lot of the staples in our cupboards, all I needed from the world foods aisle was garlic paste which came to 1.35 for 210g, compared to Sainsburys own brand garlic paste which was 1.45 for 90g. As for crouching down, we picked up the Sainsburys own brand gravy granules for 75p compared to the branded 2 jars. Other crouching-down bargains we saw but didnt pick up included own-brand microwavable rice packets for 75p compared to 1.40 for a branded pouch, and Sainsburys own-brand crackers for 1 instead of a 1.70 branded packet. However, despite these cost decreases we ended up spending more than we usually would on a shop, with the total price sitting at 60. Full disclaimer: this had nothing to do with Martins tips. It was simply down to the fact we shopped at a different supermarket than usual, and it was our first in-person shop in two years. For me, I find it harder to budget when shopping in person, and Im more likely to buy extras that I normally wouldnt, simply because I can see them on the shelves. But, overall, I found that Lewiss grocery shopping tips did work. Buying staple items in the world foods aisle is a cheaper option, and looking at the bottom shelves led us to bargains we never normally would have seen. For me, however, Im going to stick to my online shop. If it aint broke... Laura Hampson Getting paid for market research Some of the MSE recommendations require more work than others. The website lists more than 30 sites and apps that help users make a bit of extra cash or get gift vouchers in exchange for doing odd marketing jobs or selling things like stock photos, so I downloaded three apps recommended by MSE: BeMyEye, Field Agent, and StreetSpotr. They all pay users to carry out small market research tasks anything from browsing pet stores to check if they carry particular pet food brands, to photographing shelves in pharmacies to see how products are being displayed, to checking prices and writing reviews of products. Unfortunately, it turns out that many of these tasks are not within walking distance. One mission offers to pay 6.70 to check a display in Boots in Peckham, but the bus return journey from where I live would take up around half the fee. Is travelling almost an hour for just over 3 worth it, I wonder? Probably not. You need to be dedicated to make savings from these apps. They require you to check for tasks frequently and pick them before someone else nabs them; time and vigilance is needed. I made all of 11 during the past three weeks, which was a nice bit of pocket money, even if it was a bit of a faff. Kate Ng Most people will be trying to save money where possible this Christmas (iStock) Savings on your Christmas shopping The most expensive time of the year is almost upon us. While one of the most enjoyable parts of the festive season is the opportunity to spoil your loved ones, most people will be trying to save money where possible this Christmas. Lewis suggests a helpful tool called Price Runner, which I have been incorporating into my own shopping. Its essentially a price comparison website and is extremely easy to use. You just type in the product youre looking for and it will present you with a list of retailers selling the product, with the price at which it is listed. For example, a search of the Adidas Adicolor Classics Teddy Fleece shows that while it retails for 55 on the brands own website, End Clothing is currently selling the item for 39. Id definitely recommend using this tool before making a purchase, as it lists more than two million items from over 6,000 shops across the UK. Saman Javed Massachusetts voters are being asked to decide if undocumented immigrants in the state should be allowed to legally obtain drivers licenses. The state recently passed a law opening access to drivers licenses for all residents regardless of legal status. Governor Charlie Baker vetoed the new law, but both houses of the legislature voted to override that veto. A committee called Fair and Secure Massachusetts later mobilized to get a referendum on the ballot during the general elections on November 8th. It will appear as Ballot Question 4. A Yes vote would keep the law in place. A No vote would repeal it. The first thing these people have done is come to the country illegally, and were giving them a drivers license when theyre still a foreign national, said Jay McMahon of Fair and Secure Massachusetts. McMahon, the Republican candidate for Massachusetts Attorney General, said he questions the Registry of Motor Vehicles capacity to vet foreign documents. Its sort of the legislature pouring onto the RMV, an agency thats troubled anyway. They cannot do this, said McMahon. We cannot substitute the Registry of Motor Vehicles for the State Department of the United States. Supporters say 17 states that passed similar laws saw a decline in uninsured drivers and hit-and-run crashes. That is a key reason why the measure is endorsed by over 60 law enforcement officials statewide. I want to know that every driver on that road has taken a vision test, a road test, has insurance, has paid into the system and is following the same rules that I am, said Senator Brendan Crighton, a Democrat from Lynn. Senator Crighton was a lead sponsor of the Work and Family Mobility Act, which became a new law over the summer. To apply for a drivers license, immigrants would have to show two documents proving their date of birth and identity. Acceptable documents include an unexpired foreign passport, a certified copy of a birth certificate or a consular identification document. Story continues Applicants would also have to show Massachusetts residency and meet the standard licensing requirements. Under the new law, the state is required to ensure that people who lack proof of legal residence are not automatically registered to vote under the state law that registers those seeking drivers licenses who are of voting age. This has nothing do with voting, nothing to do with immigration. It just has to do with safer roads, added Crighton. The folks are here. Theres no alternative to driving so theyre going to get behind the wheel. Were essentially forcing them to break the law . If the new law is upheld, it would go into effect beginning July 1, 2023. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW NEW YORK (AP) Time was, a television reporter assigned to democracy issues would have a quiet time on election night sets, occasionally popping up to talk about broken voting machines at a polling place or two. That's not the case in 2022. Between election deniers and threats to voting rights, news organizations have emphasized the beat. That will continue next Tuesday, with coverage plans for the midterms rounding into shape. CBS News will have its first-ever Democracy Desk to look at those issues and how law enforcement is dealing with threats. NBC News' Vote Watch Unit is looking at election security and disinformation. ABC News has assigned the team of Dan Abrams, Pierre Thomas, Terry Moran and Kate Shaw to the topic. News teams, mindful of public suspicion about journalists, also promise transparency in their own operations. Because there is an adamant disinformation campaign, there are efforts to sow chaos, one of the most important things we can do is stick to the facts, said CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell. Following a precedent set in the 2018 midterms, the broadcast networks will set aside their entire prime-time schedules to follow the action. CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC will have wall-to-wall coverage. There will be a wealth of online options for those whom one screen won't do. Expect surprises. Close pre-election polls, with control of the House and Senate up for grabs, combined with the lingering question of whether any politician will take Donald Trump's example from 2020 and not accept the results, make the night potentially combustible. The stakes are high, said David Chalian, CNN's political director. The results of this will alter the course of Biden's presidency. ABC News is preparing for the possibility that answers to which party controls the House and Senate won't be known when the network's planned cut-off point of 2 a.m. Eastern is reached and to extend that if necessary, said Marc Burstein, who's in charge of the coverage. Story continues There's just a lot of tight races, said Martha MacCallum, who will co-anchor Fox News' coverage with Bret Baier. As a reporter and anchor that makes it a lot more fun to cover. It's going to be a really exciting night in a lot of ways in terms of the drama that has already been built into this. Fox became a major part of the election night stories in 2018, when it declared long before its rivals that Democrats would control the House, and in 2020, when its first call of Arizona for Joe Biden infuriated Trump and his supporters. After the fallout, one of Fox's decision desk executives retired and another was reassigned, soon to leave the network even though Fox got it right. As a result, Fox viewers will probably see a lot of Arnon Mishkin, who returns to lead the network's decision desk. Fox wants to bring viewers into the process as much as possible this year, so they can see the communication between the anchors, decision desk and producers, MacCallum said. We want people to understand how the calls are made, she said. We're definitely making an effort to open up that process so viewers can see for themselves. Networks won't say they'll be more cautious than usual in calling races, not wanting the implication they weren't careful enough in the past. Executives noted that news organizations didn't declare Biden the winner in 2020 until the Saturday after the election. But transparency showing with perhaps mind-numbing detail how voting is going in close races was a byword. We care about being right, said Carrie Budoff Brown, senior vice president of Meet the Press and executive in charge of NBC News' election coverage, not necessarily being first. Burstein preached patience with so many local races. We're not going to jump to any conclusions that it's a red wave or a blue wave, he said. The Associated Press, which has counted the nation's votes for more than a century, does not declare a winner in an individual race until it has determined that there is no scenario under which trailing candidates can close the gap even if a candidate has declared victory or others have conceded. One of Tuesday's biggest mysteries is whether any 2020 election deniers become 2022 election deniers. I can't control what a politician comes out and says about the election results, Chalian said. What is in our control is our ability to present the factual results to the viewer. CNN will have more reporters out in the states than it ever has for a midterm election, he said. Other networks echo him; CBS News is preparing to tap into the expertise and staffing of its local stations across the country. NBC News has assigned six reporters each to Georgia and Pennsylvania alone. Through it all, they are going to have to be nimble and cover whatever story that emerges, Budoff Brown said. NBC News coverage will be led by the team of Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell. David Muir anchors ABCs coverage. CNN says its hosts include Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash and Don Lemon. With the exit of news anchor Brian Williams, MSNBC's coverage will be led by three anchors who host opinion shows: Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace. ___ David Bauder is the media writer for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dbauder By Brad Brooks CLOVIS, New Mexico (Reuters) - The city commission of Clovis on Thursday put off a vote on an ordinance designed to ban abortions within the New Mexico town near the Texas border, fearing challenges to the move in a state where the procedure remains legal. Clovis was set to become the first town to pass a so-called "sanctuary city for the unborn" ordinance in a state controlled by the Democratic Party, according to anti-abortion advocates, who say it is part of a national push into "blue" states. Clovis does not have an abortion clinic, but could be a place that could serve people from Republican-controlled Texas, to the east. Texas was one of the first states to impose a near-total ban on abortion and providers can face up to life in prison there. On Monday, the city commission of the nearby town of Hobbs is expected to take up a similar measure. Both Clovis and Hobbs are in conservative eastern New Mexico. Hobbs also does not have an abortion clinic. Thursday, all eight members of the Clovis commission said they want to ban abortions, but seven voted to delay until they could perfect the language to better protect against litigation. Mayor Mike Morris, who led the meeting, reaffirmed that he is anti-abortion, that he wants to see an ordinance pass and that he "does not want to see Clovis become a destination for abortions." But he said more work was needed on the proposed measure. The architect of the ordinance is Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative Texas lawyer who was the driving force behind Texas' 2021 "heartbeat" abortion law. Mitchell participated in the city commission meeting by phone. He said the ordinance was based on federal law that should trump state laws. But he acknowledged there could be benefit in delaying a final vote, if only to see what new abortion rights legislation New Mexico lawmakers may draft in their next session, which begins in January, and change the city ordinance to combat it. Story continues The office of New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told Reuters that the ordinance is clearly against state law protecting the right to an abortion, and that it is an affront to the rights and autonomy of all women in the region. President Joe Biden visited New Mexico on Thursday, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the possibility of Clovis banning abortions. "We have been very clear about what MAGA extreme Republicans are trying to do when it comes to a woman's rights to choose," she said. "They're trying to take that away, clearly, and in the most extreme ways. What it's doing is it's putting women women and girls' lives at risk." Mark Lee Dickson, a pastor from Texas, is the architect of the "sanctuary city" movement, which has seen over 50 cities adopt anti-abortion measures in Texas and other conservative states. He was kicked out of Tuesday's meeting in Clovis by the mayor after yelling "I'll pay for it!" in response to commissioners' worries about the city being sued over the ordinance. He said the decision to delay was a blow, but that he would continue the fight in Clovis. Laura Wight, a Clovis resident helping lead Eastern New Mexico Rising, a progressive group opposed to ordinance, welcomed the delay. "But we know there is still a fight ahead," she said. (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Clovis, New Mexico; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt aboard Air Force One; editing by Donna Bryson, Aurora Ellis and Gerry Doyle) NextShark A man arrested in connection with a brutal daytime attack of a 12-year-old Asian boy in Brooklyn earlier this month has been arrested nearly two dozen times in the past, according to reports. Police said Jamal McIlwain, 28, assaulted the victim with a crutch at the intersection of St. Pauls Court and St. Pauls Place at around 7:40 a.m. on Nov. 17. After failing to strike a third time, he "calmly" walks away, leaves the crutch on the sidewalk and heads north on St. Pauls Place, as per the New York Post. Miami Township will hold its fourth annual Holiday Home Decorating Contest. >> TRENDING: Daylight saving time 2022: When do we set our clocks back? Is DST ending? Residents can show off their holiday-inspired home decorations by submitting an entry form on Miami Townships website. Those interested can also pick up the entry form at Miami Township Government Center during normal business hours, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. The filled-out form can be emailed to contact@miamitownship.com, dropped off at the offices in Government Center, or mailed to Miami Township Holiday Contest, 2700 Lyons Road, Miamisburg, OH, 45342. You can also register by calling 937-433-9969. The deadline to enter is Friday, December 2nd, by 4:30 p.m. >> TRENDING: NTSB renews push for seatbelt requirements on school buses following deadly 2020 crash The winner will receive a $50 Lowes gift card and a special proclamation from the Board of Trustees, according to Miami Townships website. The winner will also be acknowledged in an online newsletter, on social media, and during a Board of Trustees meeting. Judges will tour each home Thursday, December 8th, between 5:30 - 8 p.m. Then, they will announce the winner during a Facebook Live event, December 12, at 10 a.m. You can find the rules on this website. Residents are encouraged to decorate for the holiday season even if they are not enrolling in the contest, a spokesperson said. For more information, you can visit Miami Townships website or call 937-433-9969. The Mothers of Gynecology Health and Wellness Clinic will pay homage to three iconic women, train doulas and midwives as well as provide womens healthcare. The historic building located at 33 S. Perry St. in downtown Montgomery, Alabama once served as a space where medical experiments were conducted on female slaves. Now the site is set to undergo a multimillion dollar transformation that will ultimately provide reproductive healthcare for Black women and others. Artist and activist Michelle Browder purchased the two-story building that 19th-century physician Dr. J. Marion Sims used for his medical experiments on Black enslaved women, PEOPLE reports. Browders acquired the building in response to a 1952 painting of Sims that depicts Sims considered the Father of Gynecology and two white men in suits studying a young Black girl on an exam table while two other Black girls observe nearby. Browder was an 18-year-old art student in Atlanta when she first came across the painting and she was moved to learn more about long-forgotten girls in the portrait. Michelle Browder, in the studio where she designed and constructed The Mothers of Gynecology Monument, has purchased a building that she will transform into a museum in honor of the three young women depicted in the monument. The building will also house a clinic specializing in womens healthcare. (Photo by Andi Rice for The Washington Post via Getty Images) They were girls, just a year maybe younger than me at the time, said Browder, 51, of the three women, PEOPLE reports. The look on their faces, I was troubled so bad. Browder later learned that the women were named Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, whom she dubbed the Mothers of Gynecology. It was a crime against humanity, the Alabama native said of Sims experiments on vulnerable patients. Often these girls would have to hold each other down. Lucy had 12 surgeries and it nearly killed her there are reports of her screaming in pain. Sims, who believed Black people were impervious to pain, performed invasive surgeries without using anesthesia. This mindset is still held by many modern medical students, according to recent studies. Meanwhile, Sims is celebrated as a pioneer in the medical industry for his contributions such as the development of the Sims vaginal speculum, a medical tool still used during certain gynecological surgeries and procedures. Story continues Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey served as the inspiration for Browders Mothers of Gynecology Monument, which opened this past Mothers Day in a historically Black neighborhood in Montgomery. The exhibit is seemingly her response to the statue of Sims that still stands in front of the state capitol building. In 2018, a Sims monument was removed from Central Park in New York City. The Mothers of Gynecology Monument features three sculptures representing Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey. Browder worked on the project with San Francisco-based artist Dana Albany. When Id see that statue of Sims, I was infuriated, said Browder. How can this one person be elevated and amplified and heralded as the father of modern gynecology but theres no mention of these enslaved women, girls that were raped and trafficked? I said, Im going to change that. Im going to erect a monument. The three young women were handed over to Sims by their plantation owners after traumatic childbirths left each unable to bear more children. J. Marion Sims represents so much more than just a medical practitioner that believed that Black folks had a high tolerance for pain, but he also represents systemic racism, whether its in health care, whether its in government, said Browder, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. Browders ongoing tribute to Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey will come full circle next year when she breaks ground on Sims old building to construct the $5.5 million Mothers of Gynecology Health and Wellness Clinic, according to PEOPLE. The space will boast a museum honoring the mothers, training center for doulas and midwives as well as womens healthcare. Its a museum that teaches the history of gynecology but also has a primary care unit upstairs where medical students from around this country can come, Browder told the Advertiser. If there are some uninsured women that need support, were going to be able to give them that. Browder purchased the building earlier this year, thanks in part to her nonprofits fundraising efforts. She expects to break ground on Mothers Day 2023. She also plans to hang her new mural in the clinic. It depicts a naked Sims on an exam table surrounded by modern, empowered versions of Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey. We needed to flip the script, put him in our shoes and see how it feels, Browder said, PEOPLE reported. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post Michelle Browder to build museum, clinic on site where experiments were done on enslaved women appeared first on TheGrio. A Blythewood woman was arrested Friday for allegedly helping her husband evade paying sales tax for their funeral home business. Bridgette Frederick, 39, was charged with one count of assisting in the preparation of a false sales tax return, according to a release from the South Carolina Department of Revenue. In 2019, Frederick filed a sales tax return stating that her husbands funeral home business had made zero sales in the first quarter of 2019, according to the arrest warrant. The funeral home actually allegedly made $26,948 during that time, according to the Department of Revenue. The warrant for Fredericks arrest alleges she was aware the sales tax return she filed was not accurate. If convicted, Frederick faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and/or a $500 fine. She is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County pending a bond hearing, according to the revenue department. This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to its newsletter. When Kate Germano a retired Marine who served for 20 years, including as the commanding officer of a training battalion at Parris Island, South Carolina returned home from her stint working as an elections judge in 2020, she looked at her husband and said, That was the most meaningful thing Ive done as an adult citizen. Her husband, Joe Plenzler, also a retired Marine, had just joined the board of We the Veterans, a nonpartisan coalition of veterans and military families dedicated to increasing civic engagement among those who have served. The organization was looking for a new initiative, and when Plenzler heard Germano say those words, he realized recruiting veterans to work as poll workers for the upcoming election could harness the energy of veterans looking for new ways to serve their country while simultaneously strengthening the democratic system. Marine Lt. Col. Kate Germano, battalion commander, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, addresses the audience during the 4th Battalion relief and appointment ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, in 2014. (Lance Cpl. Allison Lotz/Marine Corps) Democracy runs on elections, Plenzler says. And elections run on volunteer poll workers. A War Horse investigation two weeks ago showed some veteran candidates on the ballot this November are exploiting the publics trust of those who have served to push false narratives about voter fraud and election denialism. But other veterans are leading efforts to channel that trust and an ethos of service into pro-democracy initiatives, as well as to restore faith in elections and the democratic process. We the Veterans has recruited tens of thousands of veteran and military family poll workers to serve in their communities during the upcoming election. Other groups are raising awareness about the security of mail-in ballots and the militarys longtime reliance on them, as well as advocating for electoral changes to reduce polarization in the political process. Their members believe the voices of those who have served are critical in conversations about the countrys future, and that veterans, who swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, are in a unique position to continue that mission at a time when the constitution is under siege. Story continues This is civics, Plenzler says. Its not politics. Weve seen a lot of water under the keel Retired Navy Adm. Steve Abbot first worried about voting during the run-up to the 2020 elections, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. Abbot retired from the Navy in 2000, after more than 30 years of service. He commanded the USS Theodore Roosevelt and later the Sixth Fleet. After he retired, he served as the deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush. Even though we are overseas, I wanted to make sure our voices are heard, said Spc. Andrea Boyd at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in 2008. The native of Ankeny, Iowa, holds the election ballot she received in the mail. (Staff Sgt. Lynette Hoke/Army) As the 2020 election neared, Abbot watched as rumors surfaced about mail-in voting. Many states had expanded their mail-in ballot access because of the pandemic, and misinformation began to circulate about the security of this method of voting. The military has long been dependent on being able to vote absentee, Abbot says. As criticism of mail-in voting mounted, he grew concerned that troops ability to vote could be curtailed or that service members would worry their votes might not be counted. He wasnt the only one. Abbot says he started to talk about his concerns with some of his peers other retired four-star flag officers and former heads of service: Gen. Tony Zinni, a retired Marine who had served as the commander in chief of Central Command; Deborah Lee James, the former secretary of the Air Force; and Adm. James Loy, the former Coast Guard commandant. A few of us began to talk about whether it might be useful for some senior retired military and former service secretaries to come together to support the effort to ensure that the votes of active duty military were properly counted, Abbot says. It wasnt just about Covid and mail service. It was a concern that there was disinformation, or at least misinformation, rampant about absentee ballots and the mailing of ballots. Those conversations resulted in Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan coalition of retired flag officers and former service secretaries dedicated to protecting troops right to vote and fighting misinformation about absentee voting. Those of us that have served in uniform for a long time have seen a lot of water under the keel, as we say in my business, Abbot says. The group threw the weight of their clear commitment to the country behind outreach efforts highlighting the militarys record of relying on mail-in ballots to ensure those in uniform can fulfill their civic duty to vote. Soldiers have voted from afar since the American Revolution, when members of the Continental Army voted by proxy at town hall meetings. The first instance of widespread mail-in voting was during the Civil War, when nearly 150,000 Union soldiers submitted their ballots from the battlefield in 1864, leading to the reelection of Abraham Lincoln. Since then, service members have voted from far-flung locations in most elections during World War II, military absentee ballots comprised nearly 7% of the votes cast in the 1944 presidential election. Abbot says the group assumed they would disband or go dormant after the 2020 election. But when disinformation about the elections continued, they chose to expand instead. Retired Navy Adm. Steve Abbot, the president of Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, speaks to service members and families during an Active Duty Fund Drive award ceremony at the base theater at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in 2018. The relief society provides financial relief to active-duty and retired Marines and sailors as well as their eligible surviving family members through interest-free loans and grants. (Lance Cpl. Matthew Kirk/Marine Corps) We think that the proper functioning of our democracy is a prerequisite for us to feel secure as a nation, he says. The peaceful transfer of power is a prerequisite for acceptable national security. Count Every Hero now has six principles it promotes, including ensuring equal access to the polls, securing elections from foreign interference, and building civic literacy among the voting public. The group helps connect people to resources about these topics and uses the reach of its high-ranking members to educate the public on the importance of free and fair elections. Abbot practices what he preaches: I think every citizen should feel an obligation to try to contribute to the country in the way thats most appropriate for them, he says. Im a newly enlisted poll worker, by the way, for my precinct here in Arlington, Virginia. We set up a big goal then panicked Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of election-day poll workers has fallen off precipitously. These positions, typically low or unpaid volunteer positions, are fundamental to the work of conducting democratic elections: setting up polling stations, issuing ballots to voters, and maintaining and transferring custody of voting materials. Historically, poll workers have been older in part because Election Day is not a federal holiday, the ability to volunteer has often fallen to retirees and many ceased volunteering during the pandemic because of health concerns. Naval Air Station Sigonella Voting Assistance Officer Lt. J.G. Timothy Martin sets up a voting booth in Italy in 2020. (MCSN Triniti Lersch/Navy) On top of that, threats to poll workers and election officials skyrocketed as political tensions have risen and lies about the security and legitimacy of elections have proliferated. According to a survey conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, one out of every six election workers has been threatened. One in three knows a poll worker who has left the job because of these threats or other safety concerns. Taken together, the country is left with a dearth of poll workers at least a 130,000-person shortfall, according to Plenzlers group We the Veterans. We the Veterans saw an opportunity. Seventeen million vets, Plenzler says. If we can get a small number of them to volunteer, we can close that 130,000 gap in election poll workers. So the organization set out to do just that: recruit 100,000 veterans and family members to serve as poll workers in the four months that remained before election day. We set up this big, very audacious goal, Plenzler says. And then we started to panic. At first, recruitment was steady but slow. It grew as We the Veterans built a coalition of partners to help recruit poll workers, including the NFL, AMVETS, the Pat Tillman Foundation, and Count Every Hero. Then, in September, Veterans Affairs promoted the initiative, called Vet the Vote. Once that newsletter went out, within a few days we had like 34,000 people sign up, Plenzler says. The group has recruited more than 63,000 veterans and family members to work on election day. Plenzler says the 100,000 figure isnt what matters. We knew it would be a number that would grab peoples attention, because its big, he says. Can we do it? And if we can, awesome. If we fail to achieve that, at least well have failed higher than some other groups. Veterans make for ideal poll workers, We the Veterans argues. Youve got to have a little bit of endurance to do it, Plenzler says. Voting stations open early and close late. There are checklists and standard operating procedures. Poll workers assist harried and at times confused voters and, increasingly, keep an eye out for threatening situations. We have a security mindset, Plenzler says. Were kind of trained on how to defuse a situation, so it doesnt turn violent. And then theres the sheer efficiency. Veterans often know how to enter an unknown situation and make things happen. Youll never see a polling station set up faster or taken down faster than if two Marines are in charge, Plenzler says. Were all incredibly dissatisfied with Congress Other groups have harnessed the power of veterans not just to strengthen the security of the elections, but to advocate for ideas that will help cool the political temperature nationwide, fighting against the polarization and rhetoric that has allowed misinformation, like that surrounding voting security, to proliferate. Were all incredibly dissatisfied with Congress, says Todd Connor, a Navy veteran. We hate the two-party system. Even as we vote with our party, we dont even like the parties that were voting for. Connor founded Bunker Labs, an incubator for veteran-led businesses, after he left the Navy. Hes been politically involved for a long time: following races, donating to political campaigns, running for local office. But in recent years, he started thinking about the problems underpinning his frustration with political trends hed been seeing. I got to the point where I was like, OK, enough emotional exhaustion. Whats the answer? he says. Political polarization has deepened in recent years. Negative opinions about the other political party is increasing among Americans faster and more dramatically than in other democracies, according to research from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Studies show social media leads to the siloing of ideas and identities. This is particularly evident in primary elections, where fewer voters participate than in general elections and those who do tend to be more extreme. This leads to only about 10% of the electorate casting votes in primaries that effectively decide the vast majority of congressional winners, according to Connors group. When you look at closed partisan primaries, the incentives are for people to act extreme, Connor says. Thats how you win a closed partisan primary. Last year, Connor founded Veterans for Political Innovation, a nonprofit that mobilizes veterans to advocate for political process changes to try to make elections less polarized and more competitive. In particular, the group pushes for open primaries, where all candidates run on one ballot, and voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of party. Veterans for Political Innovation also advocates for ranked choice or approval voting. Ranked choice voting allows voters to vote for more than one candidate, ranked in order of preference. If a voters first choice is eliminated, their vote counts for their second choice, and so on. Similarly, approval voting allows voters to vote for as many candidates as they approve of, and the candidate with the most approvals wins. Advocates for ranked-choice voting from both sides of the aisle say the format can help prevent extremism in politics and encourage more moderate candidates. Maine and Alaska recently adopted ranked-choice voting, and 56 cities and counties across the country use it. Nevada and cities in five states will vote this November on whether to adopt ranked-choice voting. Early research has found that the voting format leads to independent and third-party candidates doing better and may reduce legislative polarization. When you implement these reforms, more people vote, Connor says. You get more centrist representation. Voters prefer it of both parties overwhelmingly. The problem, he says, is that its a message that needs a messenger. Thats where Connor sees veterans coming into play. Veterans are powerful messengers, he says. Who better to stand up and say, Look, we ought to demand better? This War Horse feature was reported by Sonner Kehrt, edited by Kelly Kennedy, fact-checked by Ben Kalin, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Headlines are by Abbie Bennett. Sonner Kehrt is an investigative reporter at The War Horse, where she covers the military and climate change, misinformation, and gender. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED magazine, Inside Climate News, The Verge, and other publications. Global lithium demand is surging. Lithium prices are soaring. For countries with an abundance of the mineral, and other battery metals like nickel and cobalt, the possibility of increasing their influence over the global supply of these sought-after commodities is a lucrative prospect. Read more Electric vehicles and energy storage systems will drive the bulk of lithium demand in coming decades. And as the EV revolution takes off, lithium demand is forecast to outstrip supply. The battery will be the defining technological and supply chain battleground for the industry in the next decade, and access to their constituent raw materials will be crucial, S&P Global noted in a report published this week on EV raw materials. One way for mineral-rich nations to secure more pricing power is to set up a cartel like the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose decisions to cut or increase oil production has global ramifications on crude prices, foreign policy, and the world economy. Now, interest among major battery mineral producing nations to set up OPEC-like groups is gaining traction from Southeast Asia to South America. Indonesia wants to build a battery minerals OPEC This week, Indonesias investment minister told the Financial Times that the country was considering setting up mechanisms modeled after OPEC to have greater control over the supply and pricing of metals and minerals critical for the global energy transition from fossil fuels. Indonesia is studying the possibility to form a similar governance structure [to OPEC] with regard to the minerals we have, including nickel, cobalt and manganese, Bahlil Lahadalia said in an interview with the newspaper. He added that Indonesia is working on a proposal to pitch the cartel initiative to other major nickel producers. Lithium triangle countries are eyeing a lithium OPEC Meanwhile, in South America, talk of establishing alithium OPEC is gathering pace. Story continues Telam, Argentinas national news agency, reported last month (link in Spanish) that foreign ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile are in advanced talks on creating a mechanism that would give them control over lithium prices at a global level. Like Indonesia, the three countries often called the lithium triangle because they represent 58% of the worlds identified lithium resources (pdf) [our style is no spaces between em dashes] are hoping to get other major producers on board. According to Brazils Rio Times, the trio of foreign ministers hope to have Australia, the worlds leading lithium producer, in the proposed lithium cartel. How would a battery minerals OPEC work? Its not the first time the idea of an OPEC-like cartel for non-oil commodities has been floated. The economist C. Fred Bergsten, for example, wrote in 1976 about a new OPEC in bauxite, the ore used to make aluminum. And in 1974, four major copper-producing countries formed an OPEC-inspired copper cartel, called the Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries (CIPEC). For now, there are few details about how a battery minerals cartel or a lithium OPEC would work. But there are at least two major factors that could complicate the establishment of such a cartel, or reduce its influence. First, governments opinions on how to manage national mineral resources may not align. In South America, for example, there is a very differing political landscape, meaning views on how to exploit lithium resources in different countries vary massively, and as such this could easily act as a stumbling block towards forming a cartel, said Daisy Jennings-Gray, an analyst at the consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence in an email. China has a lot of sway as a major lithium processor and consumer Then theres the question of China. China is the worlds largest producer of EVs, and currently commands 58% of global lithium processing capacity, even though it has barely 6% of global identified lithium resources. That means lithium producers would still be reliant on China to process the raw material into usable form, or to purchase the processed lithium carbonate or hydroxide for use in batteries. In the medium-term, any cartel would still be pretty dependent on China being its main customer, and thus China would still hold some power in this agreement, said Jennings-Gray. On a longer time frame, its harder to say, as various regions develop their own battery hubs and thus some demand shifts away from China. China buys influence by investing in foreign lithium projects Plus, China is heavily involved in lithium mining projects in South America. Indonesia is also reliant on Chinese investment to develop its nickel and cobalt projects. For example, a major cobalt project there is PT Huayue, a joint venture on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi established by Chinas Tsingshan Holding Group and China Molybdenum. So China, through its overseas investments, would also be able to exert influence over any mineral cartel. Shifting geopolitical winds could change that, however. This week, the Canadian government ordered three Chinese firms to divest from three Canadian lithium mining companies, citing national security. Two of those Canadian firms, Ultra Lithium and Lithium Chile, have lithium projects in South America. The other, Power Metals, has lithium projects in Canada. Ottawas divestiture order comes after a Chinese state-owned companys acquisition last year of Canadas Neo Lithium, which has a major lithium project in Argentina, sparked national security concerns. More from Quartz Sign up for Quartz's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. A Minnesota man allegedly fatally shot his female co-worker after she repeatedly rebuffed his sexual advances at work, police said. Early in the morning on 24 October, the body of Nicole Hammond, 28, was found in a St Cloud business parking lot, just metres away from where she was supposed to clock-in for work that day. According to the criminal complaint, officers had arrived at the scene just before 7am after responding to a call from a witness whod heard shots being fired on the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue in the small city. When they arrived, they found the 28-year-old victim lying beside her car with what appeared to be a gunshot wound and pool of blood spilling out from below her head. Officers attempted life-saving measures on the young woman, but she was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. Autopsy results from the coroners office revealed that she had been shot once on the right side of her neck, NBC News reported. A witness later came forward and told police that theyd seen a co-worker of Hammonds, Michael Jordan Carpenter, 36, leave his own car and approach the 28-year-olds vehicle around the time of the shooting, KNSI Radio reported. That witness then claimed that Mr Carpenter fled the scene shortly after theyd heard the shots rip through the parking lot and jog back to his own car before leaving. The St Cloud Police Department said in a release that they arrested Mr Carpenter at his residence at approximately 9.50am and he was taken into custody without incident. When police searched the 36-year-olds car, they recovered a 9mm pistol that still had a round inside the chamber and a loaded magazine in a carrying case on the drivers side rear seat. The bullets found inside the recovered handgun matched the shell casing found near Hammonds body, according to the filling, Fox 9 reported. Michael Jordan Carpenter, 36, was arrested for second-degree murder in connection with the homicide of his 28-year-old co-worker, Nicole Hammond (Benton County Jail) Under questioning, Mr Carpenter provided an unclear narrative about how the morning of 24 October had unfolded, with police noting that he made multiple contradictory statements. Story continues At first, Mr Carpenter told authorities that hed walked towards his co-workers car on that Monday morning but then heard a gunshot and saw that someone else was attending to her, the probable cause statement read. Police pushed back on this version of events, however, as they pointed out in the filing that it wouldve been difficult to near impossible for Mr Carpenter to be able to have a clear line of sight at that hour and from his supposed position. The 36-year-old suspect added in his statement that he did witness a lot of blood beside Hammonds body but was reportedly too traumatized so he fled the scene without calling emergency responders or going into work that day. Nicole Hammond, 28, was fatally shot in the neck on 24 October in St Cloud, Minnesota (Fox 9/video screengrab) At one point, Mr Carpenter claimed that he was aware that Hammond had not clocked into work that day at their shared place of employment, Dubow Textiles, a fact that he would not have been able to ascertain, police said, because he didnt go into work that day nor clock-in himself. Evidence uncovered from Hammonds phone revealed that the pair of co-workers had been messaging in the days leading up to her untimely death, including a message sent by the 28-year-old the night before where she reportedly said, did not want to be touched by the defendant, nor did she want to be manipulated by him, the probable cause statement said. Another message sent by Hammond to Mr Carpenter indicated that shed asked him to not make things uncomfortable at work, the filing said. Co-workers interviewed by authorities claimed that the 36-year-old defendant was known to have a bad temper, NBC News reported. Executives at Dubow Textiles, however, were reportedly left caught off guard by the assault, as they claim theyd been unaware that Mr Carpenter had been harassing his younger colleague. We are very attuned to our staffs needs, concerns and anytime that there is anything that requires our intervention, we step in, said Hammonds boss, Rob Dubow, chief executive at Dubow Textiles, in an interview with Fox 9 News. But in this case, we had no indication that there was anything awry. Mr Carpenter acknowledged under questioning that hed been left upset by the text conversation with his co-worker the night before her death, the filing said. The 36-year-old was charged with second-degree murder and was booked into Benton County Jail, where he remains. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in jail. A Virginia child was located and her abductor arrested in East Stroudsburg, the United States Marshals Service confirmed Thursday. Acting United States Marshal William Pugh announced the child's recovery, along with the arrest of her non-custodial mother, early Thursday evening. According to the United States Department of Justice, an arrest warrant was issued for Amber-Lynn Romero for violation of a court order related to the custody of her child, which also declared the seven-year-old missing, on Oct. 14, 2022 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. On Oct. 26, the the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office requested the assistance of the U.S. Marhals Service Fugitive Task Force following unsuccessful attempts to locate Romero. At that time, authorities believed the pair could have been in the New York or New Jersey area. Around 1 p.m. on Nov. 3, Romero and the child were located on the 1700 block of Little Creek Court in East Stroudsburg based on information developed by the Marshals' Task Force. Romero was apprehended and remanded to the Monroe County Correctional Facility to await arraignment, and the child was turned over to Monroe County Children and Youth Services to coordinate her return to proper custody in accordance with the order issued in Virginia. The USMS Fugitive Task Force in the Middle District of Pennsylvania is comprised of 22 state, county, and local police agencies, including the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, the Kingston Police Department, the Bradford County Sheriffs Office, and the Scranton Police Department all of whom participated in the investigation. This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Missing child found with mother in East Stroudsburg, mother arrested More than 240 tourists, including US and UK nationals, have been released after they were detained by an Indigenous group in Peru. The group was held hostage since 10am on 3 November as part of a protest against the Peruvian government after more than 40 oil spills in the area, community leaders in the locality of Cuninico told local media. Pregnant women, a one-month-old baby and elderly people were reportedly among those held hostage. The US Department of Justice said in a statement to ABC that the situation has since been resolved. A total of 248 people, including 228 Peruvian citizens, were held while they were on a riverboat for more than 24 hours, the DoJ said. Our very punctual request is that the government declares a state of emergency due to the constant oil spills in our territory, and a committee presided by the president is then commissioned, community leader Wadson Trujillo told national outlet TVPeru Noticias. Angela Ramirez, a local who claimed to have been detained by the indigenous group, had written on social media that there were infants among the hostages. We spent the night here. We are running out of water to drink, the sun is very strong, there are babies crying, the youngest is only one month old, pregnant women, disabled people, and elderly, Ms Ramirez said on Facebook. Now we do not have electricity to charge our phones, nor water to clean ourselves. Angela Ramirez, a local who claimed to have been detained by the indigenous group, wrote on social media that there were infants on the vessel (Angela Ramirez) Ms Ramirez said that the leaders who had detained them were kind and respectful and that the soonest the government answered to their request, the faster the group would be released. Former Peruvian Prime Minister Anibal Torres hit out at local media for reporting that the government was not actively assisting the hostages and went as far as claiming that some members of the Cuninico community were to blame for the spill of about 2,500 barrels of oil, which have killed at least three locals. According to El Pais, more than 6,000 people use the water affected by the oil spills in Cuninico and neighbouring communities. Leaders have previously blocked access to rivers and travelled to the capital to protest the government. Story continues The spills were caused by Perus longest pipeline, Norperuano. The government declared a 90-day state of emergency in late September after the spills in Cuninico and Urarinas, but no agreements were made with locals. The BBC reports that very few British nationals were in the detained group. We have started to run out of food and water. Were doing okayish but were concerned for the pregnant females we have on board, the diabetics, the children, the elderly and the other ill people so were starting to get quite desperate, Charlotte Wiltshire told the network. We are a little concerned that our boat has been now moved closer to the village but I understand that gives us a little more easy access to possible supplies later. PEORIA Electric school buses are starting to appear in central Illinois, and more are on the way thanks to a $1 billion federal grant. Producing zero emissions, the buses are a great choice for the environment and the health of children, but critics worry that the technology and infrastructure are not ready for electric to be adopted in a big way. Administrators at a school district in Peoria County learned pretty quickly that electric has limitations. Hollis Consolidated School District got a brand-new electric school bus in 2020 with money from the settlement of the Edwards coal plant lawsuit. While the bus works great for the districts daily 30-mile route, it left a group of children stranded during a field trip to Tanners Orchard in 2021. The heater actually affects the battery quite a bit, said Chad Jones, superintendent at Hollis schools. It depletes the battery at a faster rate than it would if its not on." It was a chilly day in October when the group left for a 45-minute trip to Tanners, and the bus had already been used to bring kids to school that morning. By the time they arrived at Tanners, the bus needed to be charged. There were no chargers at the orchard, so the driver went elsewhere, and finally found one at the Grand Prairie Hy-Vee. But it wasnt a fast charger, and the driver waited with the bus for the majority of the day. I had to call First Student, which is our third-party bus company here in Bartonville, and I sent a bus to pick the kids up when they were ready, Jones said. Though the tiny district only needs one bus, they now own two. The second bus is powered by diesel fuel. As much I love the electric bus, it's kind of tough when you can't take it from my school to Riverview, which is in East Peoria, because you think you're gonna run out of battery, Jones said. Maybe down the line, when everybody has an electric bus and everybody has a charging station, I can send my teams over to Riverview and theyve got a charger, and they can charge while the game is going on, and you have enough battery to get home. Story continues Local news:Mini, meaty, mightily missed: Remember tiny Jimbo's Jumbo in Peoria? More electric school buses are on the way While electric school buses are a rarity in central Illinois, that's about to change. The first round of funding from the Biden administrations $1 billion Clean School Bus program has been distributed, and two central Illinois districts will soon bring electric into their fleets. Galesburg Community Unified School District got more than $9 million to purchase 23 buses, and $2.675 million was awarded to Williamsfield Schools for seven buses. Williamsfield superintendent Tim Farquer is a proponent of electric buses. When the district gets its new buses, probably by the time school begins next year, all but one of its fleet of nine will be powered by electric. Weve already bought a re-powered bus that we should have in January. Its a 2015 diesel bus that they took the engine out of and put in an electric motor battery, Farquer said. Then were going to keep one diesel for longer trips, until the infrastructure gets built out across the state." Benefits to health and the environment Health benefits are the main reason Williamsfield is going all-in on electric school buses, Farquer said. If theres technology out there that can provide a more healthy environment for our kids, if its viable technology, we should deploy it, he said. And its well documented that, especially kids with asthma that rate does nothing but increase they suffer the most from riding a diesel bus to and from school. Anybody who has spent any time on bus duty in the winter when theres 12 or 15 of those buses hanging out in front of the school, I mean it can choke you. The benefits of electric buses go beyond the school and extend out into the community. During low usage periods, like in the summer when kids arent in school, the district will be producing a surplus of solar energy which can be used by the community. This will lessen the dependence on coal fired power plants, and was a key reason the district chose to install solar panels to power their buses, Farquer said. If we dont electrify in a way that supports renewable energy, all were doing is asking them to dump more coal in the Powerton Power plant, he said. The district is setting an example for students and the community when it comes to responsible energy usage. Being able to make a positive impact on the environment was a goal nearly as important as having a positive impact on students health, Farquer said. "We are teaching the dangers of carbon emissions, and were living through more extreme weather patterns. If we dont do everything in our power to reduce those emissions that science says are causing these climate events, then were just not living up to what we say should be done. What about Peoria schools? Hines Primary School students climb onto their buses after school Wednesday, April 28, 2021 in Peoria. Although Peoria Public Schools was not among the 15 Illinois school districts named in the first round of federal funding, they expect to get chosen in subsequent rounds. Planning is already underway for adding a few electric vehicles to their fleet of 100. There is a lot to think about when adding electric buses to a fleet. Josh Collins, director of Transportation and Fleet Services for Peoria Public Schools, has been weighing the pros and cons of the new technology. One con is the cost. While federal grant money is making adoption of the new technology possible for school districts now, what will happen in the future? Electric buses will need new batteries when they are about nine years old - batteries currently cost about $90,000 - and buses are typically replaced when they are about 15-years-old, Collins said. PPS buys used diesel buses, which typically cost between $70,000 and $80,000, verses the cost of a new electric bus, $350,000. If federal funds aren't available when batteries and buses begin to age out, districts may end up reverting to diesel fleets in the future, Collins said. In spite of these considerations, Collins said he was disappointed the district wasnt named in the grant. I was excited at the opportunity to be at the forefront of getting this technology and the opportunity to test this technology, and then to have our students and families have the benefits that come from EV vehicles, which is improved air quality, Collins said. We have areas in our city that have suffered due to heavy pollution and poor air quality. From that point of view, yes, it would be helpful for Peoria Public Schools, our students and their families, to have a lower emissions vehicle. Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken. This article originally appeared on Journal Star: What are the pros and cons of electric school buses? Each year, the church's 'Luz de las Naciones' event celebrates Latino cultures. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Every November since 2002, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has held an annual show called Luz de las Naciones, or Light of the Nations. With a cast of more than 500, most of whom are Latino members of the church, the program incorporates music, dancing and spiritual messages in a celebration of Latino identity across cultures. The theme for 2022 is Juntos es Mejor, which means Better Together. The free program is held in the LDS Conference Center, just north of the famous Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah: headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also historically known as the Mormon or LDS church. Luz de las Naciones is the only annual long-standing multilingual and multicultural televised celebration sponsored by the church headquarters. As a scholar of immigration, race and religion, particularly in the LDS church, I often encounter a stereotype that it is overwhelmingly conservative, white and American. Yet that is increasingly not the case. What was once a tiny religious movement has grown into a global faith with almost 17 million members, by the churchs count, and over 60% of members live outside the United States. Using LDS church statistics and Pew Research reports, I estimate around 40% of members worldwide are from Latin America, or descended from people who are. Two-century transformation Many stereotypes about the LDS church are rooted in its controversial history. Joseph Smith established the faith in 1830 in New York state, and early members moved to Ohio, then Missouri and then Illinois before they settled in present-day Utah, which led to conflicts and displacement of local Native American groups. Even today, LDS influence is strongest in the so-called Mormon Corridor: states in the western U.S. with large LDS populations, including Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona. Despite facing hostility in the churchs early decades, leaders emphasized the importance of evangelizing. This focus on every member a missionary resulted in one of the most organized worldwide missionary programs and, ultimately, large membership growth abroad. In the U.S., the primary sources of growth are Latinos, and there is continued push for immigrant outreach. Story continues Leaders vs. reality My ethnographic research focuses on the experiences of Latina Mormon mothers in the U.S. and internationally, highlighting the diversity of the modern church. One likely reason this diversity sometimes surprises Americans is the lack of representation within institutional LDS leadership. Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints listen to Russell M. Nelson after he was announced as the 17th president of the church in 2017. George Frey/Getty Images Only nine of the 130 roles in the churchs main leadership bodies, about 7%, are open to women. Of those nine, seven are currently held by U.S.-born white women. All are in temporary roles, often limited to a few years. More top roles reserved for men, on the other hand, are lifelong appointments. LDS congregations do not have ordained clergy, but all male members as young as 12 who are considered worthy are ordained into what is called the priesthood. Priesthood holders are believed to possess spiritual authority that empowers them to act in Gods name. Yet LDS women cannot be ordained to the priesthood, limiting their opportunities for formal leadership. Over the years, highly publicized public messaging campaigns like Im a Mormon have sought to subvert common assumptions about LDS doctrine and culture, but stereotypes endure. Events like Luz de las Naciones show institutional attempts to create a more international and multicultural image, specifically regarding Latino members. Beginning in 2021, for example, the church began a bilingual campaign using the holiday Dia de los Muertos as a way for members to share its teachings about life after death. Latino Saints In my three years of fieldwork in the U.S. Southwest, I have found that Latina women, in particular, are a backbone of local growth and support for the church, with more women active in their local congregations than men. Although women do not hold many institutionalized leadership positions, they are typically entrusted with the informal labor and community-building that is necessary for both small activities like congregational holiday parties or large-scale events like Luz de las Naciones. They often take on these responsibilities with limited institutional support or resources. Many women I interviewed between 2018 and 2021 felt great pride and satisfaction in contributing to the LDS community in this way, but also described frequent experiences of sexism, racism and discrimination by American-born members. Ana, a pseudonym for a member who is originally from El Salvador, told me shes met non-Latino church members who are super sweet, but many are very sheltered its difficult for them to accept us to see things from our perspective they dont know our experience. Another Latina member from Argentina, Camila, told me: Anglo members didnt really talk to us or give us service opportunities. For a couple years, church did not feel the same. We decided to go the Spanish-speaking LDS congregation. There, I met some of my best friends. Things changed, and we were happier. Both my research and other scholars studies have addressed these seeming contradictions and tensions in Latino members complicated experiences. Veronica Freire performs in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints annual Hispanic heritage celebration in 2009. Mark Gail/The The Washington Post via Getty Images These cultural divides felt particularly strong in areas where immigration has been deeply politicized. Arizona, for example, passed the controversial SB1070 in 2010, requiring immigrants to carry documentation of their legal status at all times and permitting law enforcement to demand it from anyone they deemed suspicious during traffic stops. SB1070 was widely criticized as a form of racial profiling and one of the most extreme anti-immigration laws at the time. SB1070 was sponsored by state Sen. Russell Pearce, a former sheriff and member of the LDS church. He was defeated in a recall election shortly afterward by charter school executive Jerry Lewis, a Republican and local Mormon leader who opposed Pearces stance on undocumented immigration. The overarching whiteness and conservatism of LDS leaders both in politics and in the church were often a point of contention for Latina Mormons I interviewed. Nora, a Mexican mother of two, told me that the fallout over immigration politics was unbelievable, causing so much of the churchs reputation to be damaged. She described members who support immigrants, like Lewis, as sent from heaven. Although there has been an alarming rise in online support for white supremacy among U.S. LDS membership, there are also ongoing significant efforts on the part of LDS progressives to rethink the churchs approaches to diversity and inclusion. As the Luz de las Naciones event emphasizes, parts of the church and its membership welcome the idea that it is Better Together. This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Brittany Romanello, Arizona State University. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Read more: Brittany Romanello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. I began to wonder if this trip to a pediatric urgent care with my son was even necessary. Sure, he had been diagnosed with pneumonia a week ago and didnt seem to be getting better. His cough sounded uglier. But here Ethan was in classic 2 1/2-year-old mode: running in big circles around the waiting room chairs and causing the kind of ruckus only a toddler can. Hed stuff some Pirates Booty I had hastily thrown into my purse in his mouth, before returning to his wild banshee ways and dashing around in circles again. Our pediatrician said their office was too swamped with sick kids to see us, and referred us to this place. We had been told the wait to see a doctor would be a minimum of an hour. We struggled to find a seat in the packed waiting room as far as possible from other coughing kids. We finally graduated from the waiting room to the doctors office, only for Ethan to continue his marathon by scooting a rolling chair back and forth, roaring with laughter every time it hit the examining table. When the physician walked in, I felt like I needed to defend wasting her time with this visit with my seemingly A-OK, albeit destructive, son. But Ethan wasnt OK. The doctor listened to his chest with her stethoscope and didnt like what she heard: wheezing, some crackling. She showed me how Ethans Pirates Booty-stuffed stomach moved heavily each time he inhaled and exhaled. They had Ethan complete a nebulizer treatment in the office, which meant slipping a device on his face that resembled an oxygen mask, while medicated air meant to open up his lungs flowed through a frightfully loud machine. I held him in my lap while the nebulizer was on, scrambling to find 100 different versions of Wheels on the Bus videos on YouTube to try to distract him from the vacuum-like whirring of the machine. The doctor listened to his lungs again. His breathing still didnt sound great, but she said the hospitals were too inundated right now. Story continues I knew all too well what she meant. A few days before our urgent care visit, I had flagged a report for editors at The Hill that said childrens hospitals in the Washington area were at capacity, flooded with young kids suffering from RSV, a potentially life-threatening respiratory illness that has no vaccine. After a three-hour visit, she gave Ethan a steroid and told us to follow up with his pediatrician the next day. By the time we got to the pediatricians office the following morning, my happy-go-lucky, playful little guy was anything but. He curled up in my lap as we went through a similar routine that the urgent care doctor had done just the night before. His oxygen levels were too low, and our pediatrician had him do another nebulizer treatment. Our goal is to keep you from going to the hospital, our pediatrician told us. It seemed like an unusual goal from a doctor, but I understood her reasoning. But after Ethans oxygen levels dipped lower still after the nebulizer, she said we should rush him straight to the hospital after all. My Blues Clues and vehicle-obsessed son, usually the epitome of toddler I can do it myself! independence, wouldnt let me put him down for even a moment as we waited in the emergency room lobby. Surprisingly, a separate waiting area in the ER just for children wasnt completely full, and I wondered if maybe news reports of endless waits were overblown. Not so. Hes so cute, a young mother in the waiting room told me, as she motioned to Ethans head of curls. She cradled her two-month-old in her arms, patiently rocking the baby after telling me she had waited three hours so far. I held Ethan as my husband rushed from work to the hospital, meeting us there and with us as we were brought to an ER triage area. They ran more oxygen tests on Ethan, got some of his history, and then sent us back to the waiting room. Finally, they called Ethans name and we were in the ER. My vibrant, otherwise-healthy kid was lethargic, laying on me with a glazed look in his eyes. We struggled to fit the two of us on an exam table meant for a single adult. They draped a lead apron over me and Ethan as they took X-rays of his tiny lungs. The nurse placed a cannula in Ethans nose for supplemental oxygen and put an IV in his arm to give him fluids, before wrapping it with a diaper so he wouldnt try to take out the tube. My husband and I, loopy from what was happening, laughed at the sight of a diaper being used MacGyver-style. Hey, it works! the nurse said, explaining that hed done the maneuver with kid after kid in recent weeks. The ER doctor finally came in our room and delivered a crash course in what might be to come. Everywhere is full. The entire Eastern seaboard, he said of hospitals. Weve been airlifting kids to Pittsburgh, sometimes to Richmond, he added. This hospital had a pediatric unit, but not an intensive care geared towards kids. So if Ethans condition became even more dire, they wouldnt be able to treat him there. Our only hope was that the pediatric unit, which had just a few remaining beds, accepted him. It was a gut punch. As the doctor left, my husband looked at Ethan, who had fallen asleep with a mask on as the nebulizer loudly buzzed away for another treatment. Hes just a baby. Hes not supposed to be here, my husband said, defeated. The pediatric unit doctor finally came into our room. She examined Ethan, and briefed us on how theyve been dealing with case after case of the same thing: RSV. But she offered us hope: He could head to the pediatric unit at the hospital. We wouldnt need to travel for his care, as long as he didnt worsen. Ten hours after we first entered the hospital, we had a bed for Ethan. Were among the lucky ones. We were told beyond airlifting, plenty of families had been spending multiple nights in the ER because there were no beds. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced last week that hospitals would receive $25 million in additional funding from the state to prioritize pediatric intensive care unit staffing. Children from birth to age two comprised 57 percent of hospitalizations last week, according to Hogans office. Next to the ghost decorations for Halloween adorning the doors of the pediatric unit, room after room had the same notice taped up: isolation guidelines. The rooms were all filled with kids facing the exact same thing as Ethan. RSV was everywhere. Theres no cure for RSV. Every two hours on the dot, the nurses would give Ethan the nebulizer treatment. New research announced by Pfizer showed vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall. (CDC via AP) A monitor affixed to his foot would alert nurses if his oxygen dipped dangerously low, which it did several times throughout the first night. I thought at one point to ask what happens if Ethan stopped responding to the treatments, but then didnt ask because I didnt want to know the answer. The goal was to get him going without the need for additional oxygen, and breathing well for at least four hours between treatments, two times in a row. That seemingly simple goal proved elusive for two full days. I originally thought it would be a nightmare trying to get a two-year-old to stay in a hospital bed for more than five minutes, but Ethan was in such bad shape that he barely made a fuss. Then, after midnight on our second night in the hospital, Ethan suddenly perked up. He sat up and rolled over in the hospital bed. Then, he rolled onto my head, spreading his arms and legs out as far as he could stretch, and giggled. Should I sleep here? he said, cracking himself up. It was like someone hit the power button on my kid, and suddenly he snapped back to himself. I didnt care that it was midnight and we needed to get some extremely interrupted sleep before the next nebulizer treatment. My son was back. A nurse later told me that she enjoyed working with kids because for as quickly as their health can deteriorate, they can just as speedily bounce back. After that, the doctor advised us to try stretching out his time between treatments. Finally, we were told he was stable enough to go home. I somehow hadnt shed a tear the entire time we were at the hospital, but when the doctor signed off on us leaving, I bawled. As nightmarish an experience as it was, I realize how incredibly fortunate my family is. My husband and I have jobs that allowed us to drop everything when our son needed help. We have health insurance policies, and resources to get through spending days at the hospital. Perhaps most importantly, we had access to an incredible team of doctors and nurses and the sheer fortune of being able to get a bed for our son during an unprecedented and unthinkable time for hospitals. At the risk of repeating one of those parenting cliches that I wouldve rolled my eyes at a week ago, Im thankful that I trusted my gut. Even when Ethan was being a wild child at urgent care, I knew something just wasnt right. What I didnt know was how much he had been struggling to breathe. At the hospital after being discharged, Ethan and I waited in the lobby as my husband went to get our car from the parking lot to pick us up. Ethan spotted some empty wheelchairs in the corner of the lobby, and immediately ran over to them. He giggled as he tried to roll one of the chairs into the automatic opening and closing doors. As I looked on as he laughed and laughed at the pint-sized commotion he created, I breathed a sigh of relief. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Production staff for her show, The Cross Connection, which began in late 2020, got word of the unexpected move on Friday morning. MSNBC has reportedly cut ties with Tiffany Cross, the popular host of The Cross Connection, its Saturday morning political show. According to Variety, sources shared that MSNBC opted not to extend Cross contract and severed ties with her immediately. Production staff for The Cross Connection, which began in late 2020, got word of the unexpected move on Friday morning. There have reportedly been rumors, Variety asserts, that Cross relationship with MSNBC was deteriorating because of her repeated responses to claims made by show hosts on other channels. She allegedly engaged in commentary, sources claimed, that select executives felt didnt meet the standards at NBC News and MSNBC, the cable news network owned by NBCUniversal. Tiffany Cross attends EBONY Power 100 at Milk Studios Los Angeles on Oct. 29 in Los Angeles. MSNBC has reportedly cut ties with Cross, the popular host of The Cross Connection, its two-hour Saturday morning show. (Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images for EBONY MEDIA GROUP) The Cross Connection was a two-hour political talk program that the now-former host extensively marketed on social media. MSNBCs decision to cut ties with Cross is even more shocking, considering she has established a loyal following among some target demographics: Black viewers and Black women. Variety reported that Cross, a former bureau chief for BET in Washington, D.C., had served as a political commentator for MSNBC and was a former resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. As noted by Deadline, she made incisive remarks on The Cross Connection, occasionally calling out other opinionated media personalities. Earlier this month, Megyn Kelly attacked Cross and called her the most racist person on television. In response, Cross referred to Kelly as the blackface expert. Kelly had struggled to get traction in ratings when she left Fox News for NBC in 2017, and faced criticism for remarks she made about donning blackface for Halloween. A rotating cast of MSNBC anchors will oversee Cross weekend shifts until the network finds a replacement. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post MSNBC cuts ties with Tiffany Cross, ends weekend show appeared first on TheGrio. Starbucks is officially ringing in the holidays, with the launch of the coffee shops iconic and festive drinks. On Thursday 3 November, Starbucks announced the return of its holiday menu, which includes new holiday food and seasonal drinks in festive cups. This is also the 25th year that Starbucks will be giving drinks out to customers in the brands signature red cups. In addition, Starbucks has brought back some of its familiar and beloved beverages, crafted specifically for the winter season. From a Peppermint Mocha to a Chestnut Praline Latte, each drink consists of different holiday flavours. Here are Starbucks six holiday drinks for this year and how much they tend to cost. Peppermint Mocha As noted by Starbucks, Peppermint Mocha has been a beloved holiday drink at the coffee chain for over 20 years. Similar to Starbucks hot chocolate, the drink includes four to six pumps of mocha sauce, depending on what size you get. The espresso and steamed milk beverage is then completed with peppermint syrup. While the price for a Starbucks beverage varies depending on where in the US you are, a grande Peppermint Mocha usually costs around $6.50. The price to upgrade the size of your drink is relatively small, as a venti Peppermint Mocha costs around $6.75. Caramel Brulee Latte The milk and espresso drink includes Starbucks signature Caramel Brulee Sauce. It is also topped with whipped cream Starbucks Caramel Brulee topping sprinkles. The costs of the hot beverage also goes for around $6.50 to $6.75, depending on what size you get and which Starbucks youre purchasing from. Toasted White Mocha Unlike Starbucks usual White Mocha lattes, a Toasted White Mocha includes a specific syrup made specifically for this holiday drink. The caffeinated beverage is also completed with red sprinkles, which the coffee chain describes as its Holiday Sugar Sparkles. Medium to large sizes of the beverages also range from $6 to $6.75 Chestnut Praline Latte This holiday drink includes two Starbucks-based ingredients: Chestnut Praline syrup and Chestnut Praline topping. The latte is then completed with whipped cream. Story continues Prices for different sizes of the drink vary, but it can cost up to $6.75 for a large. Iced Sugar Cookie Almond milk Latte This is one of Starbucks two cold beverages on its holiday menu, with the Almond milk and espresso drink including up to six pumps of the chains Sugar Cookie Syrup. It is also completed with red and green sprinkles. The beverage usually costs anywhere between $6 to $7, depending on size. Irish Cream Cold Brew The Irish Cream Cold Brew is the second iced beverage on the holiday menu. The cold brew-based beverage includes a few pumps of Irish Cream syrup, cocoa powder and Starbucks Irish Cream Cold Foam. Princes for the drink can range, with the medium size of it costing around $6.50. (Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. began notifying employees affected by a far-reaching round of job cuts, and some learned theyll be paid for two months. As this was happening, the new owner, Elon Musk, said the business experienced a massive drop in revenue as many advertisers withdrew. Most Read from Bloomberg The week after the billionaire took over and promised sweeping changes, workers around the world were checking two email addresses to find out if they still have a job, according to an internal memo sent to employees and seen by Bloomberg. An email to their work account means theyve been retained. A letter in their personal inbox means theyve been fired. Twitter temporarily closed offices and suspended badge access to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, the memo said. Musk plans to eliminate half of Twitters workforce to slash costs at the social media platform he acquired for $44 billion last month, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The company must also find ways to cope with interest costs on a massive debt pile. The speed of the changes is having repercussions. Twitter has already been sued for not giving proper notice of the plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs. Some advertisers are also wary of Musks plans to reexamine Twitters content moderation policy. Volkswagen AG, Europes largest carmaker, joined Pfizer Inc. and General Mills Inc. in temporarily pausing advertising on the platform. Bloomberg News will capture the news flow here. Civil Rights Groups Plan to Escalate Pressure on Advertisers (2:12 p.m.) A coalition called #StopToxicTwitter made up of more than 60 civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and Accountable Tech said on Friday it plans to escalate calls to Twitter advertisers that they stop buying ad space on the platform in the wake of Musks sweeping layoffs. Story continues We are witnessing the real-time destruction of one of the worlds most powerful communication systems, said Jessica J. Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, one of the advocacy groups in the coalition. Elon Musk is an erratic billionaire whos dangerously unqualified to run Twitter. Gonzales said the groups were stepping up their campaign in response to Musks failure to uphold his commitment to take the measures that would prevent Twitter from becoming a superspreader of racism and disenfranchisement. Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson criticized Musk for reportedly dismantling employee resource groups like Twitter Women and Blackbirds, a group for Black employees at the social media company. The groups were critical, Robinson said, not just for the employees, but for the communities they are connected to. Musk Addresses a Crowd in New York City (1:04 p.m.) Musk predicted Twitter could eventually become the worlds most valuable company, he said Friday at the Baron Investment Conference in New York City. He made essentially the same prediction about Tesla Inc. on its earnings call about two weeks ago. Read the full story here. Pregnant Workers Seek Answers About Health Benefits (12:33 p.m. NY) Many workers wrote on company Slack channels and in public Twitter posts to say goodbye. They used blue heart and salute emoji to thank their colleagues. But they lacked official information about their next steps. At least two pregnant staffers who were laid off had no information about their medical benefits going forward, according to people familiar with the matter. Even the employees who survived the cuts were reeling from the way the process occurred. Read more here. Read the Memo Sent to Employees (12:11 p.m. NY) Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward. Read the rest here. Twitter Has Massive Drop in Revenue Musk Says (10:33 a.m. NY) Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists, Musk said in a tweet. Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America. Some Employees Will Get Severance Pay for Two Months, Lawyer Says (10:26 a.m.) It looks like employees are getting their notices and at least some will be paid until January 4, said Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit in California on Thursday. I am pleased that Elon Musk learned something from the lawsuit we brought against him at Tesla and is making an effort to comply with the WARN Act. We filed this case preemptively to make sure a repeat of that violation did not happen. Twitter Employees Join Unions Ahead of Job Cuts (12 p.m. London) Twitter employees in the UK have been joining trade unions in an effort to better protect their employment rights during mass job cuts announced by the social media platforms new owner Elon Musk. Twitter is treating its people appallingly, said Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, a UK-based trade union that said it has seen an influx of sign-ups from Twitter employees over the last week. Clancy called on the UK government to ensure that Twitter doesnt become a digital P&O, referring to the ferry company that cut 800 jobs in March. We are supporting our members at Twitter and will be working with them to defend them and their livelihoods, he added. Britains United Tech and Allied Workers labor group also condemned the way employees were treated and encouraged Twitter workers to join. The UKs Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service says businesses must generally consult on redundancies and inform the governments Redundancy Payments Service. An ACAS spokesman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation. Ex-CEO Costolo Creates Twitter Alumni Network (11:30 a.m. London) Former Twitter Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo, who left the company in 2015, said his latest company has put together a resource for former Twitter employees who want to connect and figure out whats next. Costolo is founder of 01 Advisors, a venture capital and advisory firm for tech startups in San Francisco. Employees Notified in Dublin (11 a.m. London) Twitters Dublin office, which employs about 500 people, have begun notifying some employees via email, according to Irish news site RTE. Some employees in the UK also began to share on Twitter that theyd been locked out of their work systems. A representative for Twitter didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Volkswagen Tells Brands to Pause Spending (8:30 a.m. London) Volkswagen, Europes biggest carmaker, recommended that all of its brands pause their paid activities on Twitter until further notice, according to an emailed statement on Friday. Several advertisers have tapped the brakes on placing ads on the platform until they get a clearer idea of Musks plans. Musk has said he wants to remove some content moderation, giving rise to concerns that hate speech, misinformation and other potentially harmful material will flourish even more freely. General Mills said its temporarily pausing advertising on Twitter, joining General Motors Co. in rethinking their presence on the platform. Twitter Sued for Mass Layoffs (10:43 p.m. SF) Twitter was sued over Musks plan to eliminate jobs at the social-media platform, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of federal and California law. A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court. Employees Start Losing Email Access (9:13 p.m. SF) The company started cutting employee access to email and Slack on Thursday night. Some employees who were shut out of their work tools suspected their jobs were already cut, though they had received no official confirmation yet. Job Cuts Begin All told, Musk wants to cut about 3,700 jobs at San Francisco-based Twitter, people with knowledge of the matter said this week. The entrepreneur had begun dropping hints about his staffing priorities before the deal closed, saying he wants to focus on the core product. Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost, he tweeted in early October. Security staff at Twitters San Francisco headquarters carried out preparations for layoffs, while an internal directory used to look up colleagues was taken off line Thursday afternoon, people with knowledge of the matter said. Employees have been girding for firings for weeks. In recent days, they raced to connect via LinkedIn and other non-Twitter avenues, offering each other advice on how to weather losing ones job, the people said. Ex-Twitter engineers are also using social media to respond to former Tweeps looking to land jobs elsewhere. Musk has also been huddling with advisers to come up with new ways to make money from the blogging platform, including charging for verifications, which can help delineate real users from fake accounts. Hes also considering reviving a long-since-discontinued short-video tool called Vine, a way to vie with popular video-sharing apps like TikTok. Another product under consideration, the New York Times reported, is paid direct messages, which would let the rank and file send private messages to high-profile users. Read more: Musk to Restore Twitter Content Moderation Tools Before US Election --With assistance from Kurt Wagner, Olivia Solon, Monica Raymunt, Morwenna Coniam, Thomas Seal and Davey Alba. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. PwC's head of deals Lucy Stapleton has helped improve self-development for women in the workplace. Photo: PwC Lucy Stapleton is deals leader and a member of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers UK management board. Stapleton, 51, now oversees 2,500 people in the UK. One of the first deals partners to become a mother at PwC, she has been a UK partner since 2006 and has helped enforce change through programmes to keep skilled workers in careers after motherhood. Working my first summer job straight out of school, I soon realised the huge energy, warmth and personality of Charlotte Good, who had set up two childrens party shops in London, Frog Hollow and Frog Frolics. My role was managing one of the shops but also creating balloon decorations for parties. Charlotte was very organised, structured and empathetic in dealing with hyper-energetic people trying to run a party. She had an attitude that the customer came first and never questioned whether they were telling the truth or not if there was a problem. I learnt that having compassion and kindness, as well as a clear sense of direction, was equally important. Being late would simply damage your brand. Read more: My first boss: Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling Bank I personally placed high value on the experience of what I got out of my days. But the other thing I learnt early on was that I had a very low attention threshold and was easily bored with repetitive tasks. Mail order was new and she was always trying to push the boundaries of the business and extend the brand, but working in a shop was not something I wanted to do. I guess it was a big leap going from balloon animals into accountancy. I didn't do brilliantly academically and I knew that I wanted a professional qualification, but also to make up for the rebellious, fun years at school. I loved the idea of accountancy and wanted to join a big international business. What attracted me was that its a jobbing business. No one job is the same and you are constantly learning and developing at PwC. Not having one boss also means that you take the best bits of everybody. Story continues I was conscious of a more inclusive workplace as I had always been in the minority, particularly in deals which has traditionally been a male environment. Sometimes it can work to your advantage as people remember you, but equally it can give you self-doubt or make you feel excluded socially. It really struck me after I had my fourth child when I was building out a new healthcare team and had the opportunity to shape the team I wanted. Im not a scientist and I needed people who knew what they were talking about as well as different skills and perspectives. It is now around 60 staff and I saw the impact and success the team was having. PwC chairman Kevin Ellis. Photo: PwC I became a people partner for our transaction services in 2015 and each time it has given me a broader platform. I feel fortunate now that I can be myself and people want that authenticity. When I first started out in the workforce, people who were considered stronger leaders were much more authoritarian and direct in the way they work. In todays market environment, which is more complex and fast-changing, you still need someone who will steer the ship, but you need teamwork and collaboration, being able to take the best from everyone and create a course of action. Our current leader of the firm, chairman Kevin Ellis, recently said its okay not to be the smartest person in the room. If you feel like you want to be the smartest, the chances are you will have a fixed mindset and that wont stand you in good stead. Read more: My first boss: Jo Fairley, Green & Black's co-founder From a strong leader perspective, I remember around three years in questioning if this is the place I wanted to stay. One partner said, Take the path less travelled, do the thing you want to do. If you're passionate and believe in yourself, you will be successful. Ive always had a slight imposter syndrome. When I took on my current role, a colleague told me that it was actually a strength and what was driving me on every day. Every time I speak to other women now it puts a much more positive spin on something I feel is a negative holding me back, that it is actually a strength. Back in 2004, there was no maternity policy or structure for partners. As an employee you have rights but as a partner the rules are different. What I can now bring to the next generation is the experiences I have had and how to make life a bit easier. Lucy Stapleton took a career break to learn cooking but returned to PwC after realising a chef's long hours were longer than in the deals department. Photo: PwC We can see a lot of women coming up to their late twenties and starting to think about a different career. We have brought in the deals advanced programme, understanding the female's needs at that point of time and helping in self development. Equally, coming back from maternity leave is such a life-changing event, yet the business carries on regardless. Returning mothers must think wow, my life has turned upside down and I have all these responsibilities; will I still be the employee I was before I left? Often the answer is no but actually you would be a better employee; there is more balance, different perspectives and you bring something else into the workforce. Read more: My first boss: Sarah Willingham, founder of Nightcap PLC We have noticed that people feel isolated so we have created cohorts; we see now in deals that people are staying longer. The number of people who come through to partner in deals who are female was 40% last year Id love to get that to 50-50 but we are heading in the right direction with some of the interventions we are making. It is fair to say I still enjoy birthdays too my 50th was last year while the customer-centric focus has stuck with me over 25 years with PwC, although I am more prepared to challenge my clients around certain assumptions. The empathy aspect in business is important, too. When you turn up at a kids party and are faced with a highly-stressed mother, you wonder why you are bearing the brunt of this. The right thing to do is to be empathetic and not to take that burden on yourself, although they have manifested themselves in a different way today. Watch: Why do we still have a gender pay gap? UPDATE: Brian T. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder. His sentence began on Sept. 29, 2022, prison records show. A man now faces a homicide charge after his pregnant ex-girlfriend was shot last month, Nashville police said. She died of complications from her injuries Tuesday. Brian T. Mitchell, 23, was arrested April 29 in connection with the shooting, records show. Laquisha Terrell, 23, was several months pregnant when she was shot in the chest, abdomen and legs at an apartment complex in Antioch on April 28, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. Terell's daughter was delivered by emergency C-section and was in "extremely critical condition" for two weeks before dying Wednesday, police said. Her boyfriend, 28-year-old Michael D. Stewart, was also shot in the chest and hip and is now recovering at home. Mitchell is now charged with both homicide and attempted homicide, MNPD said. Find reporter Rachel Wegner at rawegner@tennessean.com or on Twitter @rachelannwegner. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville police: Man faces homicide charge after pregnant woman shot National Guard cybersecurity experts will be ready to offer assistance around the midterm elections in 14 states next week, National Guard officials said Friday. All hands on deck: The move is part of a wider effort to ensure the midterms are secure from cybersecurity threats, which have loomed large in recent years since Russian interference operations in 2016. The support ahead, during and after the midterm elections in the 14 states on Tuesday comes after National Guard Cyber Forces provided support to eight states during primary elections earlier this year. Overall, there are 38 cyber units within the National Guard as a whole consisting of over 2,200 personnel that provide support to state and local officials on issues including network assessments and risk mitigation. Federal involvement: In supporting the midterms, National Guard officials will work and receive security updates from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is the key agency tasked with protecting election infrastructure against cyber threats. Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, adjutant general of the North Carolina National Guard, told reporters during a virtual briefing Friday that his state has stood up a Joint Cyber Mission Center composed of National Guard personnel and federal liaisons from CISA and the Department of Homeland Security. Hunt noted that North Carolina has a core team of 10 cyber personnel, but that number will triple on Election Day to include federal and emergency management partners. We will surge during the election to ensure that we have 24 hour coverage throughout this whole process, Hunt said. We are citizen soldiers, we live in this state, and we do have a vested interest in our state elections as well as our federal elections. Across the map: North Carolina is not the only state mobilizing National Guard personnel to protect elections against cyber threats. Battleground states of Arizona, Iowa and Pennsylvania will participate, alongside Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Washington and West Virginia. Special insight: Brig. Gen. Gent Welsh, assistant adjutant general and commander of the Washington state Air National Guard, noted that the involvement of a military-grade helper from the National Guard was important to assist states and counties in defending against any potential nation state attacks. You dont train people in corporations and the state public sectors to do this kind of work, Welsh said. One of the unique things here is you have the National Guard whose mission it is in a lot of cases to do cyber missions against other military structures. A man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his wife in their Lemon Grove, California, home in April 2021. On April 16, 2021, deputies responded to a report of a domestic incident with a male and female reportedly arguing at a home on Dain Court at about 7:30 p.m. Deputies forced their way inside the home after hearing screams. Jay Barcelon, 32, and his wife Rhona Fantone, 30, were both found with stab wounds. They were both sent to the hospital, where Fantone died shortly after arriving. Barcelon underwent surgery and was later arrested on suspicion of murder. On April 30, 2021, he pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife. More from NextShark: Temporarily Closed Restaurant in New Mexico Receives Negative Reviews for Blame China! Sign During Wednesdays trial, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to using a knife in his wifes killing, according to Deputy District Attorney Miriam Shoval. Barcelon faces 16 years to life in state prison and is expected to be sentenced in December. Fantone, who was one of four sisters and a fraternal twin, was a certified nursing assistant at Sharp Coronado. She also became the mother of two young children after her family moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in the early 2000s. Barcelon was a United States Navy sailor. More from NextShark: Japanese NBA Star Rui Hachimura Reveals He Gets Racist Remarks 'Almost Every Day' The victims family has set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help with her funeral expenses and to help financially support her two children. She was always smiling, laughing. You could never tell there [were] any issues, Krissy Flauta, Fantones cousin, told 10 News. If youre in any trouble relationship trouble seek help. More from NextShark: San Francisco street walked by Vicha Ratanapakdee is renamed after him If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or visit www.thehotline.org for anonymous and confidential online chats. Story continues Featured Image via 10news More from NextShark: Survey: 2 in 3 AAPI in Los Angeles County worry about being victimized by racial attack Over two years after Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen was killed, Netflix has released a trailer for a documentary about her family and the events leading up to her disappearance and death at Fort Hood, Texas. When a young Mexican-American soldier vanishes from a U.S. Army base, her family leads an international movement to find her and expose ongoing corruption within the military ranks, the synopsis reads. Vanessa Guillen always dreamed of joining the U.S. Army, but after reporting being sexually harassed at Fort Hood in Texas, she disappeared. Guillens family alleged that before her death, she had been sexually harassed, and that there was a culture of negligence at Fort Hood. The film follows Vanessas sisters Lupe and Mayra as they carry her name from protests in the streets to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and offers a behind-the-scenes look at their tenacious pursuit to change a deeply rooted, controversial military justice system, according to the documentary synopsis. Guillen was murdered on April 22, 2020 by another soldier, Aaron David Robinson. Her remains were not discovered for over two months. Vanessas always been the bravest one of us, her sister, Mayra Guillen, says on camera. Something was wrong with her the few months after she was stationed at Fort Hood. According to an independent Army report released Dec. 8, 2020, there were significant command climate and culture issues at Fort Hood. The report found that Guillen was sexually harassed, but not by Robinson. He had, however, also been accused of sexual harassment. The following April, the Army completed its investigation into Fort Hood leadership, which resulted in the firing of 14 soldiers in connection with the case. Leaders, regardless of rank, are accountable for what happens in their units and must have the courage to speak up and intervene when they recognize actions that bring harm to our Soldiers and to the integrity of our institution, said former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy in response to the report. I Am Vanessa Guillen premieres on Nov. 17. The Dutch government has banned British conspiracy theorist David Icke from the Netherlands and the entire Schengen area of the European Union for two years over fears his presence could "disturb public order". Icke claimed that he had been banned by the "fascist Dutch regime" and published on his website a letter sent to him on Thursday by the Dutch immigration services, on behalf of State Secretary for Justice and Security Eric van der Burg. Icke is a former professional footballer and television presenter who has argued that the world is ruled by reptiles, a theory recently advocated by the Dutch populist parliamentarian Thierry Baudet. Icke was due to speak at a demonstration in Amsterdam on Sunday against the Ukraine war, the Dutch government and energy prices. Amsterdam officials fear that there will be clashes, even if Icke only appears by via video link. "With this letter I inform you that you have been flagged immediately in the Schengen Information System for two years and you are not allowed to enter the Schengen area," said the letter. "You have been internationally known for years as a propagator of conspiracy theories," it added. The presence of Icke, who has made "anti-Semitic and offensive statements in the past", could lead to unrest in the Netherlands at a time when violence and threats against politicians are on the rise, said the Dutch government. Dutch authorities say it is the second time they have taken such action, following the 2019 ban on Steven Anderson, an American preacher who believes that gay people should be executed. jwp/phz/ah (Photo Illustration: Yahoo News; Photos: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images, Getty Images (6)) On Friday, Twitter, which has over 200 million active users, temporarily closed its offices, as it informed thousands of employees of mass layoffs under the firm's new leadership. Aakash Raina, who was employed by Twitter to report tweets that included abusive content, was one of many people who lost their jobs, according to a tweet he posted. While the company makes drastic cuts, experts say content moderation on the platform has become a major concern. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, bought the social media giant for $44 billion on Oct. 27, and since he took over, researchers have noted a surge in hate speech on Twitter. On acquiring the social media platform, which was founded in 2006, Musk tweeted, The bird is free. Its no secret that Musk has strong views about free speech. He declared in a statement in April: Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. When he was talking about I'm going to free the bird, [he was] referring to the fact that Twitter has been kind of constrained, and he's going to make it unconstrained, Bond Benton, associate professor of communications of Montclair State University, told Yahoo News. SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks at a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint event on Aug. 25 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. (Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images) There was real excitement among certain portions of the online community that were probably going to try to take advantage of it. So we started watching, Benton said. On the day after the transaction, Benton and a team of faculty members at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., released a study on the impact of Musks ownership. Within the first nine hours of the date that Musk took over as CEO, we saw 4,778 instances of specific hate speech being shared, Benton said. In the week before, looking at the seven-year average, [hate speech] was never more than 84 times in an hour. So this was just a massive jump, he added. The study analyzed the use of specific terms that would usually be flagged or objected to on the platform. Overall, the researchers saw an uptick in racial slurs, religious terms used to offend Jews, and negative slurs against the LGBTQ community. Story continues And sort of like clockwork, when he took over as CEO, all of those terms spiked, Benton said. (Getty Images) The use of the N-word on Twitter also surged by over 500%, according to research by the cyber research organization National Contagion Research Institute. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People quickly responded and met with Musk to express their concerns about the life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated under his watch, Derrick Johnson, president of NAACP, said in a tweet. I think it was a positive meeting. There was agreement, and points that were raised, and as the civil rights and social justice community, we are cautiously optimistic, Johnson told Yahoo News. But the real question here is, what is he going to do? He said all the right things, now we're waiting to see what's actually going to take place. According to Johnson, several issues were discussed, including free speech, maintaining the election integrity unit and conducting thorough reviews before allowing people to return to the platform. And he agreed that [the] issues that were raised were based on concerns around the rise in racial hatred, ethnic hatred, demonization based on one's religious belief and the platform [becoming] a superspreader [that] could actually create an atmosphere to cause communities and individuals harm, Johnson said. Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, at the National Press Club on March 28, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) We're optimistic that we walked out of the meeting with a positive tone of agreement. But we're cautious to see what that means in terms of implementing the necessary safeguards to protect people and to protect communities, Johnson added. However, some high-profile users say it's too late, and that they plan to leave the platform altogether. In a tweet on Oct. 28, the Grammy-award winning artist Toni Braxton stated: I'm shocked and appalled at some of the free speech I've seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of free speech is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter, as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC (people of color)." LeBron James also acknowledged the negativity that has surfaced on the platform in a tweet on Oct. 29: I don't know Elon Musk and, tbh [to be honest], I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech. According to the social media platform, Twitter has made no changes to its content moderation. However, researchers believe that some users used Musks arrival as CEO as a call to spread hate online. They're saying (Twitter) that for the most part, this spike and these terms was a prank, Benton said. Thats what they're speculating. It was a prank where a large number of users, several hundred, decided to go on Twitter or create multiple accounts and just spam these words. Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Nov. 4. (Samantha Laurey/AFP via Getty Images) Montclair State University researchers found that the majority of accounts that used hate speech were unverified accounts. But the level of hate speech on the platform has still not dropped to the levels that were typical before Musk's arrival. Benton described this as a little bit of a red flag." "If they're claiming that moderation is taking care of this," he said, "we should be seeing hate speech levels return to their previous levels. We're not seeing that. As the culture of Twitter shifts, advertisements are being cut back. Reuters reported Friday that Volkswagen had recommended that its brands pause paid advertising on Twitter until further notice. Responding to the backlash the company is facing, Musk posted on Twitter that the company has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America. kinjavideo-192744 Bird alert: Scientists formally described a previously obscure species of owl this week. And, good news, its a flying meme-generator that sounds like a newborn puppy. Sadly, this special owl is already likely critically endangered. The small, brown, nocturnal birdnamed the Principe scops owl or Otus bikegiladwells on the island of Principe off of Africas western coast, in the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. Testimony about the owl from locals on the island dates back to 1928, and scientists initially proposed that it might be a distinct species in 2016. But now, for the first time, there is definitive proof. Read more Researchers published a study documenting their findings on Otus bikegila in the journal ZooKeys. Through a combination of specimen collection, call analysis, and DNA sequencing, they established that the petite owl is unique to its island home. It shares a most recent common ancestor with both the neighboring Sao Tome scops owl and the African scops owl, which is widespread on the continents mainland. But through millennia of isolation, Otus bikegila transformed. Owl in Repose Photo: c/o Martim Melo Compared with its relatives, the new species has longer wings and a larger bill. Eep Owl Photo of owl The Principe owls genetic code diverged enough to be distinguishable from other owls in its genus. And its call went from a haunting, shrill bark to a softer, cutesy peep. Very Mysterious Owl Photo: c/o Martim Melo As it turns out, that peep was central to the owls discovery and classification as a unique species. Martim Melo, the new studys lead researcher and a evolutionary biologist at the University of Porto in Portugal, first heard and recorded the distinctive, repetitive call in 2002. Four years earlier, a local parrot harvester named Ceciliano do Bom Jesus (nicknamed Bikegila) had told Melo about large-eyed birds living inside tree holes. Story continues After that, the sound recordings were the evidence needed to trigger biological surveys. The calls were unlike that of any other known species. Oh no Owl Photo: c/o Martim Melo Owl calls are genetically encoded, not learned, explained Melo in an email to Gizmodo. The animals recognize each other, communicate, and find mates though their calls. If two birds speak different languages, they are unlikely to reproduce. So, a singular owl call generally means a singular owl species. Principe Island Photo of island Unfortunately, the new owl is already in danger. The species is confined to just 3,700 acres, or less than 6 square milesan area about four times the size of Central Park. Its range lies entirely within the old growth forests of Principe Obo Natural Park on the island, and a section of its habitat is set to be affected by a planned dam construction. Based on its small range on a single island and the limited number of individuals (1,000 to 1,500), the researchers proposed that the new species should be listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in a companion study published in the journal Bird Conservation International. Its good news that the owl lives in an already protected park, said Melo. But that protection must continuefor the newly described owl species but also for the wider ecosystem, he added. In addition to Otus bikegila, Principe is home to other species found nowhere else in the world. Martim Melo + Owl photo of man holding small owl Researcher Martim Melo holding one of the newly described owls. To Melo, one of the most fascinating things about the bird is how long it was able to hide from researchers. His and his colleagues genetic analysis uncovered that, of all the scops owl species living on nearby islands, the Principe scops owl was the earliest to diverge. Birds from the mainland arrived on Principe first. Yet, somehow, the owl there was the last to be formally acknowledged by biology. I had a first-hand experience of its elusiveness, said Melo. From my first suspicions of its existence in 1998, it took me 20 years to first set eyes on it! Researchers + Owl photo of three people and small owl Three members of the research team, plus owl: (Left to Right) Barbara Freitas, Ceciliano do Bom Jesus aka Bikegila, and Martim Melo. Bom Jesus was once a parrot harvester but is now a park ranger and nature guide in Principe Obo Natural Park. In honor of his initial observations, invaluable local knowledge, and ongoing field assistance, Melo and colleagues named the owl bikegila, after Bom Jesus nickname. The formal name is also meant to acknowledge the often unrecognized contributions of Indigenous and local field guides in scientific research, said the study authors in a press release shared with Gizmodo. Now, with all that important information out of the way, please enjoy a few bonus owl pics. Unamused Owl Photo: c/o Martim Melo Alarmed Owl Photo: c/o Martim Melo Album Cover Owl Photo of owl face No Duh Owl photo of owl face More from Gizmodo Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Nick Cannon is going to be a father of 11. On Tuesday, the 42-year-old actor confirmed he is expecting his second baby with model Alyssa Scott, nearly one year after the death of their son, Zen. The model took to Instagram to celebrate the baby news, where she posted a series of pictures from a maternity photoshoot. The post featured Cannon and Scott posing nude in a bathtub, as Cannon cradled her growing baby bump. This is a MIRACLE & a BLESSING, the 29-year-old captioned one of the posts. In another black-and-white image, the Wild N Out host is seen kissing Scotts stomach as she covered her breasts. On 26 October, Scott announced on Instagram that she was expecting her third child, but did not share any further details at the time. She debuted her baby bump under a bodycon blue dress as she held her four-year-old daughter Zeela, who wore a matching blue top. With you by my side Scott captioned the post. The baby news comes just two months before the first anniversary of her sons death. In December 2021, Cannon and Scotts baby Zen died at five months old after suffering from a rare brain tumor called hydrocephalus. Cannon detailed his sons final days during an episode of the Nick Cannon Show last December. This weekend I made an effort to spend the most quality time with Zen, he tearfully told the audience. We woke up on Sunday and went to the ocean with him and Alyssa and then I had to fly back to New York for the show. I got a call on my way to the airport to head back to Zen, he said, adding that he wanted to go back to work and keep busy to help with his grieving process. The comedian previously admitted to feeling guilty that he didnt spend as much time with his son Zen before his death. In February, Cannon shared a clip from a podcast episode with Dr Laura Berman on his show, in which he discussed his grief and feelings of regret. One thing that keeps me up at night, theres this heavy, heavy guilt with the fact that I didnt get to spend time like I really wanted to with Zen, he said in the clip. Story continues Alyssa Scott marked her sons first birthday in June when she shared a video tribute of Zen to Instagram. Happy heavenly birthday Zen, she wrote in the caption. At the root of all the emotions I have today there is insurmountable love. I always try my best to remain positive but right now I cant help but cry out its not suppose to be like this. In my mind I can see him smashing his cake and crawling around, tugging at my legs, she continued. But the reality is I will be the one to blow out his first candle. I will be wishing he was still here with us. GO REST HIGH. In addition to Zen, Nick Cannon is also a father to nine other children. The rapper shares 11-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey; four-year-old Golden Sagon, one-year-old Powerful Queen, and one-month-old Rise Messiah with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx Ice Cole with LaNisha Cole. In September, Cannon welcomed his 10th child just two weeks after the birth of his ninth. Cannon received criticism earlier this year for announcing that hes expecting another child with Bre Tiesi only two months after Zens death. But the television personality quickly issued an apology on his talk show. I actually would like to take a moment just to be honest and even take a moment to listen and apologise properly, Cannon said. I wish to always protect and respect the privacy of the mothers of all my childrenwhether thats someone whos new or someone whos had my child and I have such a great relationship and great admiration for everyone in my life. I didnt know how to explain it, I didnt know what to say, so I was probably talking too fast and probably misspoke and I know I could do better when dealing with delicate and sensitive discussions, he continued. So I promise you, I promise the mothers of my children, I promise my family that I would do better, continue to be more understanding, caring, compassionate like they often show me, each and every day through these processes. (Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co. is willing to walk away from a deal with Renault SA to re-balance their alliance amid concerns the French carmaker wants to license hundreds of jointly developed patented technologies to other players, including new Chinese partner Geely, people familiar with the negotiations said. Most Read from Bloomberg While both sides appeared near a final agreement two weeks ago, Nissans board and management have recently expressed concern over Renaults plans for the intellectual property, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isnt public. It includes some 500 joint technologies, one of the people said, among them expertise in areas such as autonomous driving, hybrid powertrains, solid-state batteries, safety systems, battery-management software and other know-how critical for developing self-driving, electrified vehicles. Nissan sees risks in Renault Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meos plan to merge the French carmakers combustion-engine operations with Chinas Zheijiang Geely Holding Group, the people said, and are seeking assurances that key technologies will be protected under any deal with the Hangzhou-based automaker, owner of Volvo and Lotus car brands. Makoto Uchida, Nissans CEO, said he was surprised there is speculation the IP discussion may derail the wider deal, but acknowledged technology was a very important core asset for the alliance. Talks are ongoing, he added. Of course there are areas where we have to say this is our core technology, and that needs to be protected, Uchida said in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday. Thats my duty as CEO. Story continues Geely didnt immediately respond to questions from Bloomberg. A representative for Renault declined to comment. Shares in the French carmaker declined as much as 1.9% in Paris before recovering to rise 1.1% at 1 p.m. This was always going to be contentious, says RBC analyst Tom Narayan. Theres politics involved, theres shared technology, I understand Nissans concerns. Greater Control Talks have been underway for months to reshape the two-decade-old alliance, which gives Renault greater control over its Japanese partner. Under the current plan, the French company will reduce its ownership of Nissan over time to 15% from the current 43%. In return, Nissan may be willing to invest $500 million to $750 million for a stake of about 15% in the new electric-vehicle unit that Renault plans to carve out, code-named Ampere. There are things that we can say and we cannot say yet because we havent yet finalized, Uchida said. Im having very close discussions with Luca. We respect each other, because I know that Luca has to make Renault much stronger, and he understands I have to make Nissan stronger. And of course most important is trust. Read more: Renault, Nissan Said to Near Deal to Reshape Alliance Renault is scheduled to speak to investors on Nov. 8, when de Meo is expected to give an update on financial targets and the split-up plan. Renault, our partner, is going to have this capital markets day and thats what we have to support, Uchida said. And I want that to be successful. Ghosns Arrest The shift in ownership would alleviate an imbalance thats been a source of friction for years. Despite Renaults outsized stake, its the smaller carmaker with 2.7 million of vehicle sales in 2021, compared with 4 million for Nissan. The 2018 arrest of Carlos Ghosn, who was sent in to run the carmaking alliance when Renault rescued Nissan two decades ago, planted the early seeds for the re-balancing. The former chairman and chief executive officer, who denied the charges, escaped Japan in December 2019 while out on bail and is currently in Lebanon. Although de Meo has indicated that hes willing to split up Renault with or without a deal with Nissan, the Japanese company disengaging might make it harder to get the signoff of the French state -- which owns 15% of Renault and holds double voting rights -- for such a transformative move. Nissans concerns mean its unlikely an agreement on the re-balancing will be announced as planned in mid-November, when directors from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the junior member of the three-way alliance, are scheduled to meet in Tokyo, the people said. Great Technology, Great Assets Another sticking point is the valuation of Ampere. The lack of a specific figure backed by data is making it difficult for Nissan to determine how much to invest for a stake in the new entity, which Renault wants to list publicly, one of the people said. Uchida declined to comment on the timing of any announcement, or on the valuation of Ampere. Under Renaults plans, Ampere would be based in France and employ about 10,000 people by 2023. The entity with Geely, code-named Horse, would also have a staff of about 10,000. We have been discussing how we can make the alliance of each individual company stronger under the difficult circumstances we are facing, Uchida said. Thats how it started. We also wanted to speak about how the alliance could maximize the great technology and great assets that both companies have. --With assistance from Masatsugu Horie. (Updates with analyst comment in 8th paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. By Kevin Krolicki and David Dolan TOKYO (Reuters) -Nissan Motor Co's talks with Renault SA on revamping their alliance are focused on strengthening competitiveness as equal partners and getting the most from their investment in electric cars, the Japanese automaker's CEO told Reuters. The negotiations with Renault, Nissan's top shareholder, have less than two weeks remaining to meet a Nov. 15 target the companies had set to reach a deal, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida declined to comment on whether an agreement could be reached this month. But he said he was talking with Renault CEO Luca de Meo every weekend and the talks would be "ongoing for the future." People familiar with the negotiations have said the sharing of technology had emerged as one sticking point. Uchida, who has spent much of his Nissan career in positions related to the Franco-Japanese alliance, emphasised that the talks were based on mutual trust. Each company had valuable technology and discussions of technology transfers were to be expected, he added. He said the goal was to improve the automakers' ability to compete at a time of economic uncertainty and as the industry pushes toward what he described as its biggest transformation in a century with the shift to electric vehicles. "The discussion we are having is about how to make our competitiveness even stronger," Uchida said in an interview with Reuters on Friday. "That's number one." His comments were his first to media since the automakers last month said they were discussing the future of their alliance. The partnership, which began with a 1999 investment from Renault and was long overseen by former executive-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn, was critical to turning around the Japanese automaker. But Nissan executives have over the years bristled over the unequal ownership structure, with Renault owning 43% of Nissan and the Japanese automaker holding only a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. Story continues People with knowledge of the talks have said the two sides have been discussing a reduction in Renault's stake, potentially to 15%, and the terms under which that could happen. "We want it to be an equal partnership," Uchida said, adding that an "equal partnership would make sense and that would speed up the collaboration even more." He did not comment on potential stake levels. AMPERE AND HORSE The companies also said last month that Nissan is considering investing in Renault's new electric vehicle unit, code-named "Ampere" and which will be split off from its internal combustion engine business, code-named "Horse". Uchida declined to say whether Nissan is considering an increase to a previously announced plan to invest 2 trillion yen ($13.6 billion) in electric vehicles by 2026. On a separate track from its discussions with Nissan, Renault has also been talking to Geely Automobile Holdings about the Chinese automaker taking a stake in its internal combustion-engine unit, people familiar with those talks have said. That unit includes Renault production sites in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Romania and Latin America. Uchida said Nissan understood the transformation Renault was undertaking with the carving out of its gasoline-car business and that "fair treatment" for Nissan as part of a new partnership was an area of discussion. He did not mention Geely by name. "If they have their new partner, A or B or C, what does that mean? We are openly discussing that," he said. "Transparency is very important," he added. Uchida also said Nissan was making contingency plans for the prospect of a global recession. "For us to be sustainable in the market, we need to anticipate many scenarios, and that's what we're doing," he said. He cited the depreciation of the yen to its lowest level in decades as another concern for Nissan. ($1 = 147.6000 yen) (Reporting by Kevin Krolicki and David Dolan; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs) Though the investigation is continuing, police in Puerto Rico have found no evidence of foul play in the death of MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian. The body of Mushegian, 29, washed up on a beach in the Condado neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, last week. Hours before his death, the developer, a foundational figure in the early development of DAOs, stablecoins, and Web3 security, tweeted that mysterious forces, including the Mossad, the CIA and a pedo ring were planning to kill him. The tweet, predictably, fueled a number of simmering conspiracy theories. However, according to San Juan police records obtained by Decrypt, investigators have thus far found no indication of foul play in Mushegians death. Police found no signs of violence during a preliminary examination of Mushegians body, though he did suffer a small laceration to his skull. CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and caribbean islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex gf who was a spy. They will torture me to death. (@delete_shitcoin) October 28, 2022 Mushegians body was recovered on Ashford Beach, an area well-known in San Juan for its dangerous swimming conditions. Numerous swimmers, particularly tourists, have drowned in the area. The beach typically features ample signs warning beachgoers not to swim, due to strong undercurrents and rocky conditions; some of those signs may have been recently washed away, however, by the devastating hurricane that pummeled Puerto Rico in September. The area of Ashford Beach on which Mushegian was found is primarily frequented by surfers. There was no indication that Mushegian had been surfing prior to his death. Puerto Rico Police Bureaus homicide division is investigating the matterits involvement is standard practice for all drowning deaths. It is also standard practice for an official cause of death not to be determined until after a formal autopsy, the results of which routinely take a month or more to be filed. Story continues A source close to the investigation, however, did say they believe a number of factors in the investigation point to the possibility of Mushegians death being considered a suicide. Some who knew him mourned his passing as a preventable tragedy, one indicative of the prevalence of mental health issues afflicting brilliant but troubled leaders in the crypto space. In the months leading up to Mushegians death, the crypto founder began posting increasingly conspiratorial messages to Twitter, implying that his ex-girlfriend had implicated him in a criminal conspiracy involving government spies. Imagine how evil someone has to be to transform me from antistate cryptoanarchist of 12 years to someone who prays to god to guide the top of food chain national security feds and their ancient karmic laws of banking handlers to come demolish this illuminati roleplay circlejerk. (@delete_shitcoin) September 24, 2022 Rune Christensen, Mushegians fellow MakerDAO co-founder, told Decrypt that he spoke to Mushegian three months ago, and that Mushegian seemed to be in good spirits. He was however already exhibiting concerns about government and criminal conspiracies. He seemed happy to be building his new stablecoin RICO, said Christensen. But he was also worried about a criminal group he believed was trying to interfere with his work. What is MakerDAO? Mushegian left MakerDAO in 2018, reportedly dissatisfied with the projects straying from its initial ideals of decentralization and opposition to government and traditional capital. Christensen is still heavily involved with the protocol, which just last week approved a major partnership with publicly-traded crypto exchange Coinbase, and last month invested $500 million in U.S. government bonds. Mushegian was most recently building RICO, a decentralized stablecoin envisioned as a spiritual successor to DAI, MakerDAOs stablecoin, but that would be, in contrast, designed without compromises. However, during his final days, he appeared to be convinced that the stablecoin had provoked state actors who were worried about the cryptocurrencys potential to threaten the dominance of the central banking system, and that they were planning to assassinate him. yea so Nikolai is still FUCKING DEAD my money is on him being murdered he was found drowned 4 hours after his riskiest tweet ever he had all year to drown randomly or be mugged, so it seems unlikely that his death was unrelated to his tweet... https://t.co/2jnWDelSkG ameen.eth (@ameensol) November 3, 2022 Some industry leaders, including Ameen SoleimaniCEO of Spanchain and co-founder of Reflexer, the company behind RAI, an Ethereum-backed stablecoin heavily influenced by Mushegianhave in recent days doubled down on their beliefs that Mushegian was murdered. Juan Hernandez contributed reporting to this story. WATAUGA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA In the rural mountains of North Carolina's High Country, the population of Boone has boomed over the last two decades and so has its voting power. Not everyone is happy about it. "Are you tired of 6.3 square miles dictating the politics of all of Watauga County?" Melissa Goins Tauche, a Republican candidate for county commissioner, asks in a recent radio ad. Not that long ago the politics of Watauga County, home to Appalachian State University, were aligned with its western North Carolina neighbors. Back in 2000, George W. Bush won here by a 13-point margin, as Watauga joined surrounding counties in picking the Republican for president. By 2020, 53 percent of Watauga voters backed Joe Biden. The counties next door, including Alleghany and Ashe, became even more Republican, moving more than 12 points further in that direction, with more than 72 percent choosing Donald Trump. One of the biggest dividing lines? Education. Here in the High Country, Watauga County has long stood out. More than 40 percent of its residents hold a bachelors degree, well above North Carolinas average of 32 percent. In Alleghany and Ashe Counties, about 20 percent do. The voting shifts here mirror those in county after county across the United States, where the college degree has become a major marker in presidential politics. Places like Watauga, where high percentages of residents hold a bachelors degree, have almost uniformly moved toward Democrats since 2000, according to an Open Campus analysis of election results and U.S. Census Bureau data. Those where below-average proportions of adults have four-year degrees have moved toward Republicans. Education and politics. Political dividing lines? Sparta is the county seat of Alleghany County, a rural area where higher education is valued but has increasingly included community college and other technical programs, particularly as four-year degrees have become a dividing line in American politics The ties between education and politics havent always worked this way. In 2000, people with a college degree were actually slightly more likely to vote for the Republican for president. This new dynamic has turned places like Boone into popular political battlefields. Education may now be a statistical dividing line in American politics, but theres a distinctly physical one on the towns King Street, where the Watauga County Republicans have opened a campaign office across from Appalachian State University. Story continues In-depth: In America's suburbs, elections are a fight for the soul of local school districts More on races in North Carolina: GOP Rep. Ted Budd leads in NC Senate race against Democrat Cheri Beasley Would you like a judge sign? We need more conservative judges, its very important, says Jean Studeman, a volunteer, as she hands a fresh cup of coffee to a man in faded Army fatigues. Whenever we vote when we voted for conservative ID laws, for example the liberal judges take them down. Studeman, a former public school teacher, remembers the way her mom took pride in her education while learning Latin and French at a rural public school in central Florida. Studeman said she doesnt recognize todays education system, where she says students are lucky if they know cursive, much less Latin, by the time they graduate high school. The disconnect comes in small ways: She rolls her eyes, and asks if the university put him up to it, when her Purdue professor son-in-law puts he/him in his email signature. It also manifests in bigger ways, for example, when she hears that third graders have access to books that mention oral sex, referring to one of dozens of books facing bans in Florida since the state passed a law this summer giving parents more say over what makes it into school libraries. Studeman said she sees a decline of culture and of education that are intimately tied, and she doesnt think one can be fixed without addressing the other. She touts conservative school board candidates like Jennie Hannifan, who is running on her experience homeschooling her four kids as a Mama Bear with the slogan: Freedom: Your Child Your Choice. Around noon, Michele Bouvier, a 75-year-old retiree who lives down the road in Blowing Rock, stops by to pick up campaign signs. She notes how Boone has changed, and how appalled she was when a pro-choice college student handed her a pamphlet about abortion access at a 4th of July parade a few years back. Bouvier was frustrated because she felt abortion was an intensely private matter. You cant be passing this out at a family event! she said, after chasing down the student to hand the flier back. Complicated views on higher education Andrew Koricich is an associate professor at Appalachian State in Watauga County, a politically shifting county where a four-year degree has become a dividing line between it and its rural neighbors. A lot has been made of how public distrust in education has grown, particularly among Republicans. Theres talk of resentment, anti-intellectualism, and a view that higher education is a liberal bastion. But look closer and the sentiments are more complex. Rural parents are not naive about the value of education, even if they have complicated feelings about what it means for their family, says Andrew Koricich, an associate professor at Appalachian State and the executive director of the colleges Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. When asked, few people in the High Country had any direct criticisms of the university. If they did, the complaints were about the ways it affected their lifestyle, like how the doubling of Appalachian States enrollment to more than 20,000 students since the mid-1980s has led to an increased cost of living. The 2024 presidential race in 2022: What to know about Trump, DeSantis, Pence and Biden Real estate prices have surged in Watauga County, with university hires buying up homes, leading to higher property taxes. In September, the median home price was $633,000, according to Redfin, nearly doubling from the previous year. At the same time wages have remained stagnant, with a median household income of under $50,000 in 2020. Some High Country folks have said they had to move further out because they could no longer afford to live around Boone. The gentrification piece is a tension here, Koricich says. Higher education is still prized throughout the region, including in Sparta, the Alleghany County seat. It just may look different. In rural areas like Alleghany, continuing your education often may mean getting a certificate in high school or community college and immediately pursuing a trade. If there is a political connection, it might just be that those pathways often lead to careers that have trended more Republican in recent years. The expansion of remote jobs, though, has allowed residents to begin to move past the areas historic economic drivers such as health care, retail, and construction into other careers. Zack Barricklow, executive director of NC Tech Paths, a regional nonprofit group, has placed 24 local residents into tech support and software engineering jobs where they earned an average of 70 percent more than they did in their previous job. Some of those jobs require two-year programs, others, shorter-term certificates and training. Even though local jobs dont always require it, people in Sparta dont bristle at the four-year residential experience. In fact, they often see opportunity in it. Two-step over to the Hillbilly Hoedown at the Alleghany Jubilee on Tuesdays, and youll find a mix of former community college presidents, professors, and educators raving about the fiddler, an English teacher whose daughter just started her freshman year at the University of Chicago. Seniors from Sparta and the broader Appalachian region visit the Alleghany Jubilee to dance to mountain music at its weekly Hillbilly Hoe-down. Eat at Beccas Backwoods Bean Coffee Shop in town, and youre likely to run into the directors of the Alleghany Education Foundation on their lunch break. Since its founding in 1985, the foundation has raised millions of dollars for students, with many of the regions older residents creating their own scholarships managed by the nonprofit as well. The community prizes the scholarship fund so much that, when a loved one passes away, families will often ask for the creation of scholarship funds in lieu of flowers. The foundation gave out $150,000 last year, making sure each of the countys 57 graduates who were pursuing a postsecondary education received a scholarship. About 30 of those students went to four-year universities, but the scholarships cover a range of pathways, including community colleges and credential programs. Opinion: Poor, low-income voters can't afford to sit out this election. There's too much at stake. Despite having high-school graduation rates above the national average, rural students are the least likely to go to college right after high school, according to 2017 National Student Clearinghouse data. Just 59 percent of rural graduates went to college the subsequent fall, compared with 62 percent of urban and 67 percent of suburban graduates. Regardless of their political leanings, rural students also were more likely to drop out after their first year, meaning that, while they may still see the value in a four-year degree, pursuing one may pose a riskier proposition than community college or other paths. I always tell students to talk to your counselors, talk to your parents, talk to your preacher, get their input, and make your own decision, says Charlie White, the former president of multiple community colleges in nearby southwest Virginia. His oldest son went to a community college and studied instrumentation, a high-class word for a maintenance man, White says. Last year, with a two-year degree, he made $105,000 I never had a damn professor who worked for me that made $105,000. Republican or Democrat? It's a personal decision The stark divides in voting patterns here can obscure the complexities of individual experiences and how they complicate simplistic views, not just about politics but about college, too. John Kilmartin attended college only briefly, dropping out to follow a hotel chains management track in Raleigh. He moved to Sparta in 2004 to raise his family, gets his news from the BBC and Al Jazeera, and dreams of writing a book about the fascinating people he has met through his check-in window at the Alleghany Inn. More: More Americans die younger in states with conservative policies, study finds John Kilmartin said his daughter changed so much in college that it was as if she had changed her name from Kilmartin to Kardashian. However the owner of the Alleghany Inn in rural Sparta says he was proud of the ways her time at N.C. State had changed her life for the better. The inn manager was surprised when his daughter got into North Carolina State University. And it felt like a gut punch when he co-signed for what would eventually be $80,000 in student loans. He had watched some of the high schools best students go to college only to drop out, and worried she would, too, and then saddle them with debt. Kilmartin, who considers himself fiscally, but not socially, conservative, also couldnt help but notice how she changed while at the university. That first semester, I joked that she had changed her last name from Kilmartin to Kardashian, he says. Still, he didnt push her too hard. As a parent, you have to let your kids find their own way, Kilmartin says. His own views are far from settled: While he voted for Trump, he often supports Democrats down the ballot. Nobody here votes straight-ticket, that I know of, Kilmartin says. Everybody votes personally, because I know good Democrats and I know bad Republicans. I know bad Democrats and good Republicans. Despite his fears, his daughter graduated with a textiles degree and immediately got a high-paying job working for a tech company in Raleigh. Like thoughts on politics, views on education, can be messy and rooted in the personal. While Kilmartin didnt need a degree to get where he wanted, he appreciates the impact college had on his daughter. The university, he says, changed her life. Nick Fouriezos covers college in rural America for Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: In rural North Carolina, political divides mirror educational ones A local North Carolina judge had the power to transfer large amounts of taxpayer dollars from government coffers to state agencies to carry out a plan to address longstanding education inequities, the state Supreme Court ruled on Friday. RELATED: North Carolina justices weigh who has school spending authority In another landmark decision from school funding litigation that began three decades ago, the courts Democratic majority declared it was legitimate for Superior Court Judge David Lee last year to order the movement of $1.75 billion from state coffers to agencies to implement an education remedial plan he approved earlier. The transfer had been blocked on appeal. Fridays majority instructed another trial judge to order state officials to move those funds once he recalculates further how much money is needed to fulfill two years of that eight-year plan. Republican legislative leaders argued that only the General Assembly has authority to appropriate money, citing language within the North Carolina Constitution. But in a 4-3 decision, justices agreed with Lee who died last month that previous Supreme Court decisions in the case, along with the constitutions declaration addressing the peoples right to the privilege of education, gave him authority to order funds be spent without a specific General Assembly law. Associate Justice Robin Hudson, writing the 139-page majority opinion, described this an extraordinary situation for courts to intervene after a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that found there was a constitutionally protected right for children to obtain the opportunity for a sound basic education. In 2004, justices declared that the state had failed to live up to that mandate. As did Lee, Hudson cited the repeated unwillingness of other parts of state government to provide the resources necessary to comply with those rulings for affirming the transfer after years of judicial deference. Today, that deference expires, Hudson said. Story continues Now, this court must determine whether that duty is a binding obligation or an unenforceable suggestion, she added. We hold the former: the state may not indefinitely violate the constitutional rights of North Carolina schoolchildren without consequence. RELATED: NCs highest court again weighs in on school funding case The opinion is a major victory for the plaintiffs in the litigation filed in 1994 and their education allies, which include Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. He was not named a legal party in the case but his office helped develop the remedial plan that Lee ultimately ordered. As the (state) Supreme Court has affirmed today, we must do more for our students all across North Carolina, Cooper said in a news release. The justices ruled barely two months after hearing oral arguments and four days before statewide elections for two Supreme Court seats now held by Democrats Sam Ervin IV and Hudson. Ervin is seeking reelection, while Hudson is retiring. Republicans can obtain a majority if they win at least one of the seats, which could open the door for the Supreme Court to revisit the case. The remedial plan that Lee signed off on directed at least $5.6 billion be spent by 2028 on things like improving teacher recruitment and salaries, hiring more school support personnel and expanding pre-kindergarten. Lees successor, Judge Mike Robinson, earlier this year reduced Lees proposed transfer to $785 million, citing the passage of education funding in the 2021 state budget law. The Supreme Court ordered Friday another look at the figure in light of this years budget law. Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr., who wrote an 88-page dissenting opinion for the courts three Republicans, said its clear that the power to allot funds rests solely with the General Assembly. If legislative power over appropriations is absolute, then the judicial branch has no role in this endeavor, wrote Berger. He is the son of Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, who became a legal party in the case. Instead, the younger Berger wrote, the majority today now joins in denying legislative defendants due process, the fundamental fairness owed to any party, and usurps the legislative power by crafting policy and directly appropriating funds. ALSO READ: Plan aids NC principals otherwise penalized for pay change The legislative leader Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore were reviewing the ruling Friday, according to spokespersons. The GOP lawmakers hadnt been parties in the litigation known as Leandro named for an original plaintiff until recently and in legal briefs questioned whether Lee had any basis to impose a remedial plan that covered all 100 counties, and not just rural Hoke County. Hudson rejected that argument and others from lawmakers, calling them untimely, distortive, and meritless. Both major parties have controlled at one time the General Assembly and the Executive Mansion since the 2004 ruling. Democrats embraced the remedial plan. Republican legislators have touted state budget laws that keep increasing K-12 spending and education policy improvements. Every Child NC, a coalition urging full funding of the remedial plan, praised Fridays ruling, but some member representatives urged caution. >>Watch Channel 9s LIVE STREAM wherever you are, at this link People from across the state have been standing up for the rights of our children, said Angus Thompson of Lumberton, another original plaintiff with his daughter. We protested, we prayed, and now we vote. We need leaders to help us sustain this victory. VIDEO: NC Supreme Court rules HOAs cant ban solar panels, but can say where they go By Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini ROME (Reuters) -A row escalated on Friday over who should take care of migrants rescued by charity groups off the Italian coast, with Italy insisting that countries whose flag was flown by the boats should bear some of the responsibility and Norway disagreeing. Three charity vessels holding almost 1,000 migrants have been at sea off Italy for more than a week waiting for permission from the new rightist government in Rome to dock. All their requests have so far been rejected, they say. Two are flying the Norwegian flag and one is flying the German flag. Italy last week sent letters to the embassies of Germany and Norway, saying ships by non-governmental organizations flying their flags were not following European security rules and were undermining the fight against illegal immigration. But Norway replied that it could not intervene. "Norway has no responsibility under human rights conventions or the law of the sea for persons taken on board private Norwegian-flagged vessels in the Mediterranean," Ambassador Johan Vibe said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Friday. The German embassy on Wednesday urged Italy to provide help swiftly, saying the NGO ships made an important contribution to saving lives at sea. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told a news conference on Friday that the German-flagged Humanity 1 with 179 people aboard, including more than 100 unaccompanied minors, was heading towards the Sicilian city of Catania. He said the boat would be allowed to stop close to the port and Italy would take charge of those facing health emergencies and the minors. But the boat and the rest of those onboard would then be sent out of territorial waters. "We won't neglect humanitarian obligations... but we want to stick to the point regarding duties of flag states," Piantedosi said. Petra Krischok, a press officer at the German NGO who is aboard the vessel, said the migrants were sleeping on the deck and could soon face rough seas after days of good weather. Story continues More than a quarter of the group had been sick with flu-like symptoms, she said in emailed comments. PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY The two vessels flying Norwegian flags have more than 800 people onboard and are sailing off Sicily. Norway told Italy "the primary responsibility for coordinating the work to ensure a safe port for those in distress at sea lies with the state responsible for the search and rescue area where such assistance has been rendered". "Neighbouring coastal states also have a responsibility in such matters," the ambassador's statement added. On Thursday, charity SOS Mediterranee, which operates one of the two boats, the Ocean Viking, said it had asked Greece, Spain and France to help as Italy and Malta had not responded to its docking requests. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told RMC-BFMTV that international law said Italy should take in the migrants, but added that Paris and Berlin were ready to offer assistance. "We have told our Italian friends, together with our German friends, that we are ready to take in, as we have done in previous cases, some of the women and children so that Italy is not alone in receiving them," he said. Migrant numbers have surged in Italy over the last week, with more than 6,200 people arriving since Oct. 27, compared to 1,400 in the same period in 2021, government data shows. (Reporting by Alvise Armellini, Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Rosalba O'Brien) In police body camera footage, Eric Pratt talks to Brian Laundrie after Pratt and Daniel Robbins pulled over Laundrie and Petito on Aug. 12, 2021. On Thursday, Gabby Petitos parents filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the Moab, Utah, police department, specifically naming the two officers who pulled over Petito and her then-boyfriend Brian Laundrie on Aug. 12, 2021. The $50 million suit claims the officers should have recognized basic warning signs of intimate partner violence, which could have saved Petitos life about a month before Laundrie killed Petito at a Wyoming campsite. The lawsuit also unearths a bombshell allegation that one of the officers, Eric Pratt, was fundamentally biased against Petito because while he was police chief in a different small town in Utah, a woman alleges he threatened to kill her while they were in a relationship in 2017. Per the body camera footage of Petitos encounter with Pratt, despite how the officers were called by a witness who claimed to have seen Laundrie slap Petito, Pratt and his partner, Daniel Robbins, deemed Petito the predominant aggressor and threatened to put her in jail. Pratt told her and Laundrie at the time that victims like Laundrie end up getting worse and worse treatment, and then they end up getting killed. Instead of jailing Petito, the cops issued the two a warning and separated the couple by paying to put Laundrie up in a hotel while Petito slept alone in the couples van, in the midst of a visible mental health crisis. At no point did Pratt or Robbins interview or check in with the witness who saw Laundrie hit Petito, or other witnesses who saw the couple fighting. A month later, Petito was found dead, and shortly thereafter, Laundrie wrote a note confessing to killing her and died by suicide. Read more Now, per the lawsuit filed by Petitos parents, Nicole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, a woman says that while Pratt was police chief of Salina, Utah, in 2017, he threatened to kill her while they were dating. The Salt Lake Tribune interviewed the woman, who is unnamed in the lawsuit and the story, as well as her co-workers and friends who confirmed the relationship and that she told them of Pratts threats. When the woman learned Pratt was seeing other women, she threatened to expose their relationship; later, in a grocery store parking lot, she says Pratt pulled her over using the police siren attached to his personal truck. While her toddler was sitting in the back of the car, she claims Pratt threatened to kill her with a crowbar if she told anyone. Story continues Police body-cam footage of Gabby Petito after Moab, Utah, police officers confront her and Brian Laundrie. The woman said she eventually wrote about Pratt and his different relationships in a blog around that time, figuring it would be too suspicious for him to kill her if she publicly shared her claims about the other women, but she deleted the blog a year later. Pratt eventually resigned, telling the mayor of Salina he was burnt out, and took jobs in the police departments of Gunnison Valley, Utah, and then Moab. A year after Pratt threatened her, the woman says he reached out to clear the air between them; per the lawsuit, she recalled that he told her that if they met up a week earlier, he still would have been too angry to see her: I would have been digging a grave, and you would have been in it. The mayor of Salina, Dustin Deaton, told the Tribune that the woman had spoken to him about Pratts conduct and threats to her. Deaton, who had personally appointed Pratt police chief, asked if Pratt had been in uniform or using a police vehicle while making any of the alleged threats. When the woman said no, Deaton told the paper that he determined her complaints were more of a personal issue that didnt warrant intervention. Deaton further said that he continued to stand by Pratt and believes he responded to the Petito case as best as any officer could. Petitos parents suit further points to quotes from Pratt about being disillusioned by police work and hating his job. Photo: Octavio Jones (Getty Images) When they announced the lawsuit in August, Nicole Schmidt, Petitos mother, described watching the police body-cam footage of the fateful stop in Moab as very painful at a news conference. If the officers had been properly trained and followed the law, Gabby would still be alive today, James McConkie, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement at the time. At a press conference, McConkie said there were clear signs that were evident that morning that Gabby was a victim and that she was in serious need of immediate help and accused the Moab Police Department of having chronic problems with protecting domestic violence victims and failing to train officers to support them. The officers mishandling of Petitos case, he said, stemmed from an institutional failure plain and simple. To McConkies point, Petitos story is especially heartbreaking, because it very much does represent an institutional failure and systemic problems with policing as a response or solution to gender-based violence. If the allegations against Pratt are true, he isnt an anomalystudies from the 1990s found at least 40% of police officers responded to a survey by self-reporting as domestic abusers. One 2020 survey found 24% of women who have called the police to report intimate partner violence or sexual assault say that police responded by threatening to or actually arresting them, falsely identifying them as the primary aggressor. In addition to their lawsuit against Moab, Petitos parents also started a charitable foundation in Petitos name to help victims of interpersonal violence and missing persons and advocate for better law enforcement training and cultural change around intimate partner violence. Any money they receive from their lawsuit against Moab will go toward the foundation. More from Jezebel Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. A Blue Springs man and his attorney incurred the wrath of the chief judge who presides over the federal court in Washington, D.C., during a hearing Friday to set a trial date for his Capitol riot case. John George Todd III, 33, who prosecutors allege was caught on video making threatening remarks to police during the Jan. 6 insurrection, was originally scheduled to go to trial Nov. 14. But at Fridays hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held by video conference his newly hired attorney said he needed more time to prepare. John Pierce, of Woodland Hills, California, asked that the trial be moved to October 2023. Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell was stunned. Oh, come on, she said. This case has been pending now for some time. She wanted to set the date for early December. This courts going to be very, very busy with what were anticipating to be a number of new cases being filed by the government, Howell said. So I think this case needs to be tried as soon as possible. But Pierce said with all the other cases he had, a December trial would be a challenge. That didnt sit well with Howell. Well, you understand that when you took this case, there was a trial date scheduled for November 14, and you have professional and ethical obligations, Mr. Pierce, to only take on matters that you can handle given your other trial schedule, Howell said. So knowing that this trial date had been set for November 14, how could you take on this case? Pierce noted that the November date had been canceled because Todd needed to seek mental health treatment. Based on the pretrial services report, hes getting adequate mental health treatment, Howell said. And he seems to be functioning and doing fine. Todd, who was arrested in May, faces four misdemeanor counts related to the Capitol riot: entering or remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Story continues Prosecutors allege that Todd was in the Capitol building between 2:45 and 4:24 p.m. on Jan. 6. Authorities tracked his movements through images and videos captured in and around the Capitol, according to the charging documents. And body-worn camera footage obtained from the Metropolitan Police Department showed Todd yelling at law enforcement authorities, the documents said. At one point inside the rotunda, while near a law enforcement officer, Todd III yelled, I swear to God, Ill hip toss your ass into the f------ crowd, mother ------! the documents said. About four minutes into Fridays hearing, Howell paused. Im sorry, just a second. Mr. Todd, where are you? Yes, maam, Im dropping my son off at the school bus. Are you finding it hard to fit in your status conferences before this court, Howell said, where you can participate and focus without distractions from other daily routines? Im trying, Todd replied. I had my son today, and I dont have any help with him. So I had to manage with what I had at hand, Your Honor. You have my full attention. Well, Mr. Todd, let me make it clear to you, Howell said. These are important proceedings for you. You should be paying your full and undistracted attention to what is going on. If having these hearings remotely is not allowing you to do that, I will require you to come to court in D.C. for all future hearings. Do you understand that? I understand that, Your Honor. I dont want to see your face leave the screen. I dont want you to be doing anything else but paying attention to these proceedings. Do you understand me? Yes, Your Honor. During the hearing, Howell noted that Todd originally had been assigned a public defender because of his inability to afford an attorney. She wanted to know if he was now paying Pierce to represent him. Pierce said he was being paid a miniscule amount, but that Im actively raising funds through a 501(c)(4) that is meant to be assisting these defendants. Howell retorted: Are you spending too much time, Mr. Pierce, raising funds to pay yourself rather than paying attention to Mr. Todd and talking to him and figuring out precisely what his mental state is and whether hes ready to go to trial? Pierce said he wouldnt put it that way. Im obviously trying to balance a lot of things, he said. I was honestly under the impression that due to the mental health condition that the trial was not going to be proceeding, certainly November 14. Howell said delaying a case never works to the benefit of a defendant, because the government keeps investigating. Theyve already found more tapes, she said. Public tapes that they think might support additional charges. So its also incumbent on you as a defense lawyer in the interests of your client to usually get to trial as speedily as possible. She asked Todd if he was OK with having this thing hanging over your head until the fall of 2023 your sons next school year? Todd said he was fine with that. If I can get adequate counsel to where they can get up to speed on the case and get me a fair trial with what they feel comfortable with, then Im OK with that, he said. That also gives me the time to go through my VA counseling. That is a three-months-long processJust because Im doing OK right now does not mean Im fully OK. Howell then set a trial date for Oct. 16, 2023, but Pierce said that date wouldnt work. He has another Jan. 6 trial that day. OK, you know what? I dont have time for this, Howell said. She told both sides to come up with three trial dates that would work in October and get them to her by the end of the day. Howell also wasnt letting the government off easy. She expressed surprise that prosecutors intended to take Todd to trial for four misdemeanors. Is the government telling me that were gonna have a trial on misdemeanor charges? she asked Michael James, an assistant U.S. Attorney. James said the government was looking into filing a felony charge because of new information it had received. But I cannot say that were going to do that right now, he said. It is something that we have actively consideredbut we have not done so. Well, youre running out of time, Howell said. The owner of New Orleans only Black-owned sneaker shop is planning to expand to the citys historic French Quarter. Lawrence Wilright is the owner of Peddlers Ave in Kenner a suburb outside of Crescent City near the airport. What started out as a hustle inspired by his love for sneakers since he was a kid turned into a full business by 2010. RELATED: Vibe Check: Your Guide To New Orleans Black-Owned Brunch & Nightlife Venues But as Wilrights clientele and inventory increased, so did the need for a bigger space. He opened the brick-and-mortar in 2017. Were known in the city as a place that has everything exclusive under one roof, he tells Travel Noire. From new releases, old releases, to items that are not even released yet. In a city where a majority of the population is Black, less than 10 percent of businesses are Black-owned, according to U.S. Census data. Even worse, Wilright says he can count on one hand how many Black-owned businesses are in the citys French Quarter. Hes trying to change that. Answering The Demand View this post on Instagram A post shared by PEDDLERS AVE (@peddlersave504) Peddlers Ave is about 20 minutes away from the city with moderate traffic, but Wilright says thats a bit of a hike for New Orleanians. I have a lot of customers that live in New Orleans or further, and they really dont like traveling to Kenner, he says jokingly. If you know anything about the people in our city, theyre locals that dont like leaving New Orleans. Many people have been telling me how they cant wait for me to come to New Orleans. Theyve been asking, so Im going. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility View this post on Instagram A post shared by PEDDLERS AVE (@peddlersave504) Wilright has turned a dream hes had from age ten into a reality by following his heart and not giving up. Reselling has been an industry that you learn on the fly. Its so unorthodox and untapped. You learn as you go, he says. Story continues As he continues to strive higher, he recognizes the citys younger generation is watching and hopes his journey keeps them focused. Theres a lot of kids that come up to me, and theyre like, I want to do this. I recognize that this is showing them another way. Theyve seen it all here, but not a lot of them have seen people selling shoes for a living. You can follow Peddlers Ave on Instagram by clicking here. Today, thousands of Ontario education workers hit picket lines across the province as the first day of an indefinite walkout that shut down many schools. A union of 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is protesting after the Progressive Conservative government enacted Bill 28, a law that strips CUPE members right to strike, a sweeping move many critics are calling 'horrifying'. Many Canadians are supporting education workers on and off social media, including Canadian TV hosts blasting Fords government for imposing the controversial bill. Elaine Lui, co-host of The Social on CTV, explained the stigma CUPE workers endure during an impassioned segment. "You know there are unfortunately people out there who think that people go on strike are just demanding too much money. They're lazy. They don't want to go to work...," she exclaimed. Nobody really wants to go on strike, lets just disabuse people of that perception right now. Nobody wants to have their job in jeopardy.Elaine Lui, co-host of The Social In the comments, someone responded, Unfortunately the public is extremely misinformed about the whys being this strike and the reality of the work these CUPE members do. They are integral & deserve better. Breakfast Televisions Sid Seixeiro said hes angry about Bill 28. Im looking at some of the lowest paid public sector employees we have in the province, and Doug Ford just took out the biggest baseball bat he could find and went to town, and acted like none of us was going to notice.Sid Seixeiro, Breakfast Television "This is outrageous. This is outrageous......They had one job since June...Where are the kids today? I've been in this business 20 years, I know what incompetence is, and I know what incompetence looks like. When you can't do your job, you're incompetent... Doug Ford is incompetent. Stephen Lecce is incompetent." Story continues "I'm angry." @sid_seixeiro shares his thoughts as thousands of CUPE education workers prepare to walk off the job today. pic.twitter.com/rrh7us6I7X Breakfast Television (@breakfasttv) November 4, 2022 Some Canadians have mixed reactions to what Seixeiro expressed. Agree with everything @Sid_Seixeiro said. With regards to teachers, they cant do a thing until they are in a legal strike position. Most of us are doing everything we can to support, but in the working day at school, our hands are currently tied. Dippity-do (@do_dippity) November 4, 2022 Im also angry. My kids arent at school when they should be. They have missed enough. Im angry that CUPE has decided to use my kids education as a bargaining tool. The province was also wrong forcing a contract. The people losing are the kids. Shawn Routenburg (@FireRoutenburg) November 4, 2022 CUPE have been at the bargaining table for ages. @Sid_Seixeiro was saying this was a potential issue since last June, so its not like this is CUPEs first choice. The govt choosing to just destroy our rights before the strike even happens though? That is not right. Rebecca Bredin (@RebeccaBredin) November 4, 2022 I dont agree with syd on this one and I always agree with syd. I think the pendulum has swung and this is becoming about actually doing your job. It feels like no matter what they do the teachers always have a reason to complain. The unions are doing them a disservice. smartdoc (@yoursmartdocs) November 4, 2022 Beyond TV hosts, other Canadian media figures are also making their opinions known online. This is absolute insanity. The only proper response is for workers across the province -- better yet, the country -- to join with CUPE and bring the province to its knees. https://t.co/SpXSSauEp6 David Moscrop: Subscribe to my Substack. Its fun! (@David_Moscrop) November 2, 2022 The Ford government is crushing labour rights and undermining the power of workers by setting dangerous precedents and encouraging similar bad faith behaviour across the country. They must be met with unrelenting mass resistance. It's CUPE today. Tomorrow it'll be you. David Moscrop: Subscribe to my Substack. Its fun! (@David_Moscrop) November 2, 2022 Of all the reasons I support @CUPEOntario & all the #onted workers here in ON, here is my biggest: My late twin sister, Joslin, in a classroom with her EA. She was w/ other kids, was loved, was cared for. Joslin is why I am @NDP & stand w/ #EducationWorkers #cdnpoli #onpoli pic.twitter.com/wYq93QYHdF juliakolendp (@juliakolendp) November 3, 2022 I dont know who needs to hear this, but if CUPE workers are essential to keeping schools open and kids in classthen they are also essential enough to receive a decent wage. I urge you: Support CUPE workersand stand against starvation wages everywhere. #IStandWithCUPE Dr. Amit Arya (@AmitAryaMD) November 3, 2022 Happy Friday and good morning to the incredible CUPE education workers fighting back against the Ontario government's cruel & mean-spirited attacks. As you begin your strike today, remember: Today & everyday, the people of Ontario stand with you. #IStandWithCUPE Naheed Dosani (@NaheedD) November 4, 2022 This is our son, Anthony. He has multiple disabilities. He is in a mainstream classroom. EAs take care of him everyday. Toileting, feeding, dressing, constant supervision, being his voice, therapy sessions etc. Anthony could not attend school without EAs. #IStandWithCUPE pic.twitter.com/hI0jTkMxrG Katherine Reilley (she/her) (@MsReilley) November 4, 2022 Members of the CUPE are on strike indefinitely. Other educators, parents, and supporters are joining them on the front lines. Doug Ford and his RETROgressive conservative government crossed the line by enacting Bill 28 and banning 55 000 CUPE members from exercising their fundamental right to strike. A quick stop before work as #IStandWithCUPE to protect our Democracy. #39kIsNotEnough #CUPEStrong pic.twitter.com/ROUCIa03Sd Birgit Uwaila Umaigba (@birgitomo) November 4, 2022 Queens Park Circle right now as Bill 28/CUPE Ontario protesters wrap around the building. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/I6wlB8Yho5 Antonella Artuso (@suntooz) November 4, 2022 We stand shoulder to shoulder all across Ontario to say we stand with CUPE workers and we will always defend workers rights. This is all our fight! #onpoli #istandwithCUPE pic.twitter.com/d2K5wyDcTX Elementary Educators (@ETFOeducators) November 4, 2022 Oprah Winfrey threw her support behind Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman in his race for a U.S. Senate seat on Thursday, a major loss for his Republican competitor, Mehmet Oz. Winfrey made the comments during a virtual voting event with community leaders Thursday, part of her OWN Your Vote initiative to encourage Black women to participate in elections. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I wouldve already cast my vote for John Fetterman, for many reasons, Winfrey said during the Zoom call, The 19th News Jan Staley reported. HAPPENING NOW: I'm watching @oprah online event to mobilize voters. She just told people tuning in: "If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would've already cast my vote for John Fetterman, for many reasons." Jawn Staley (@errinhaines) November 4, 2022 HuffPost has reached out to Winfreys team for comment. The endorsement is a notable shift for Winfrey, a longtime friend of Oz who helped vault him to national fame, initially as doctor guest on her talk show. When she first welcomed Oz onto her daytime show in 2004, she referred to him as Americas doctor and gave him a national platform to promote health advice. She was responsible for launching his Dr. Oz Show in 2009 under her Harpo Productions banner, which made Oz a household name. Winfrey has been relatively quiet on Ozs bid, simply saying last year: One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for public office. Mehmet Oz has made that decision, she said at the time. And now its up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them. Oz has said he asked Winfrey to stay out of the race and not to support me because he didnt want her to get hurt. On Thursday, Winfrey said she supported many Democrats running around the nation, including Rep. Val Demings, whos running for a Senate seat in Florida; Beto ORourke, challenging the Texas governor; and, in Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock, whos running for reelection, and Stacey Abrams, whos seeking the governorship. Story continues If we do not show up to vote, if we do not get fired up in this moment, the people who will be in power will begin making decisions for us, Oprah said during the event, according to Today. Decisions about how we care for our bodies, how we care for our kids, what books your children can read, who gets protected by the police and who gets targeted. And right now, you have a say in these things we do, she added. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Oprah Winfrey, left, has endorsed Mehmet Oz's opponent in their Pennsylvania Senate race. (Associated Press / Getty Images) Oprah Winfrey has thrown her support behind Pennsylvania's Lt. Gov. John Fetterman instead of her former daytime TV colleague Mehmet Oz a mainstream personality whom she helped make famous in Pennsylvania's super-tight Senate race. "At the beginning of the midterm campaigns, I said it was up to citizens to vote for who would represent them. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman, for many reasons," Winfrey said Thursday during "A Virtual Voting Conversation," an online forum she hosted with community leaders ahead of next week's midterm elections. The 68-year-old Emmy winner urged voters to consider "dynamic candidates who are working to represent the values that so many of us hold dear," such as "inclusion, compassion and community." According to Politico, which cited Winfrey's unique clout among women, Black people and many other Americans, Fetterman's team had been working on the Winfrey endorsement for months because they "knew how powerful a nod from" her would be. She is a leader on so many issues fighting for our democracy, passing common-sense gun reform, and ensuring racial justice," Fetterman said in response to the endorsement. Fetterman supports the reproductive rights that were enshrined in Roe vs. Wade and raising the minimum wage. He also supports fracking, a politically fraught subject in Pennsylvania. The candidate, who suffered a stroke earlier this year that left him with difficulties speaking, appeared to underperform in his debate with Oz last week. But a line from Oz about abortion in which he said it should be between women, doctors and local political leaders" appeared to undermine the TV doctor's victory. In December, Oz asked Winfrey to stay away from the Pennsylvania senate race because he didn't want his friend to "get hurt." In a statement to Politico, a spokesperson for the candidate said Thursday that Oz "loves Oprah and respects the fact that they have different politics." Story continues Winfrey on Thursday also shared a number of other endorsements in state gubernatorial elections and key races that will determine which political party controls the U.S. Senate. That is not the only race that matters," Winfrey said. "If I was in North Carolina ... sister [Cheri] Beasley there, and if I was in Florida, Id be supporting Val Demings. If I was in Wisconsin, it would be Mandela Barnes, in Nevada it would be Catherine Cortez Masto. And in Texas, Beto ORourke, and Raphael Warnock and the incredible Stacey Abrams, of course, in Georgia. So there are clear choices out there and some dynamic candidates who are working to represent the values this is what were talking about the values that we hold dear, the values of inclusion, the values of compassion and community that so many of us share, she continued. Oz, best known as TV personality Dr. Oz, made a name for himself as a frequent guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in the early 2000s. The celebrity doctor went on to host his own talk series, "The Dr. Oz Show," which ran in syndication from 2009 until last January, ending shortly after he announced his political ambitions late last year. The Dr. Oz Show was promptly pulled from several media markets specifically those that reach Pennsylvania TV households after the heart surgeon announced his intention to run for the states open Senate seat as a Republican, in hopes of replacing retiring Sen. Pat Toomey. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Chris Pizzello / AP With just days until Election Day, Oprah Winfrey has endorsed John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania locked in a high-stakes race against her former protege, Mehmet Oz. "I said it was up to the citizens of Pennsylvania," Winfrey said during a Zoom roundtable about voting and the midterms on Thursday. "But I tell you all this, if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons." Long awaited video of the moment @Oprah delivered a massive November surprise at a virtual GOTV event with @MsLaToshaBrown, endorsing @JohnFetterman against her once-protege @DrOz: If I lived in PA, I wouldve already cast my vote for John Fettermanfor many reasons. 09:08 PM - 04 Nov 2022 Winfrey's endorsement comes just days ahead of Nov. 8, when many Pennsylvania voters have already cast their ballots during early voting. The Oz campaign chalked her endorsement up to a difference in politics. "Doctor Oz loves Oprah and respects the fact that they have different politics," spokesperson Rachel Tripp said in a statement. The media mogul initially avoided taking a side in the race, one of the most crucial in the midterm elections. Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, and the Pennsylvania seat is one of a handful that could tip the balance toward either party. Mark Makela / Getty Images In December 2021, a month after Oz declared his candidacy, Winfrey told New York magazine that the decision was in the hands of Pennsylvania voters. "One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for public office," she said. "Mehmet Oz has made that decision. And now its up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them." Winfrey elevated Oz's public profile and lent him medical credibility when he became a regular guest on her show starting in the mid-2000s. His spinoff series, The Dr. Oz Show, was co-produced by Winfrey's production company. It ran from 2009 until 2022, when production stopped after he announced his bid for Senate. Story continues Winfrey's late endorsement did not dissuade the Fetterman campaign. "It is an honor and privilege to have Oprah's support in this race," he said in a statement. "I'm grateful for Oprahs support and trust on the issues that matter to people across the country and Pennsylvania as we close out this campaign." On Twitter, the campaign welcomed her to #teamfetterman and added an "Oprah's Book Club" sticker to his Twitter profile picture. Both Democrats and Republicans have poured resources into the Senate race in Pennsylvania, which Donald Trump narrowly lost in the 2020 presidential election. On Saturday, President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama will appear at a rally in Philadelphia to give the Fetterman campaign a final boost before Election Day. Meanwhile, Oz is hoping that an appearance with Trump at a rally in Latrobe, also on Saturday, will do the same. More on this Tina Kotek Tina Kotek, one of two lesbian candidates poised to make history in runs for governor this year, exudes confidence on the campaign trail although its clear shes in a tough battle. Kotek is the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in deep-blue Oregon, which has already had the nations first out bisexual governor, Kate Brown, a Democrat whos retiring due to term limits. Kotek and fellow Dem Maura Healey, in Massachusetts, stand to become the first out lesbian governors in the U.S. But while polls show Healey with a lead of more than 20 points over her Republican opponent, Kotek is in pretty much a dead heat with Republican Christine Drazan. The race in Oregon has been complicated by the presence of an independent candidate, Betsy Johnson, a former Democratic state legislator. Johnson is far down in the polls, but shes getting enough support to make trouble for the other candidates. A recent poll from Nelson Research found 43 percent of likely voters supporting Drazan, 41 percent for Kotek, and 5 percent for the fast-fading Johnson. Leading up to Tuesdays election, Kotek, the former speaker of the Oregon House, is crossing the state and has brought in some big-name Democrats, such as President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Oregons two U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, have campaigned for her, and former President Barack Obama has done a video ad. Kelley Robinson, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and soon to be president of the Human Rights Campaign, has visited the state on Koteks behalf. Kotek has the endorsement of most major Oregon newspapers. Stopping recently in Bend, the largest city in central Oregon, Kotek allowed that a vote for Betsy Johnson could bring us a Republican governor, but she stressed that the race is primarily between herself and Drazan and shes taking steps to emphasize the differences between them. One of the major differences involves reproductive rights. Appearing with pro-choice activists, Kotek noted that when Drazan was a state representative, she proposed legislation to criminalize abortion providers, just part of a long antichoice record. Yet Drazan has scrubbed her campaign website of any reference to abortion, Kotek pointed out. Drazan is supported by Oregon Right to Life and a national antichoice group with the innocuous-sounding name of the Education and Policy Center, which is affiliated with the Abortion Survivors Network. Story continues Christine Drazan cant be trusted on this issue, Kotek said. Kotek, meanwhile, is endorsed by Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon and Pro-Choice Oregon, and shes been a staunch advocate of reproductive rights in the state legislature. She successfully pushed for the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which wrote the right to abortion into state law, and for expanded access to contraception. Reproductive rights and all health care are linked to economic security, Kotek said. Without access to the health services they need, people dont have the freedom to plan their own future, she said. Oregon may need to go further to protect this freedom, she added. That could include writing the right to privacy into the state constitution to guarantee that right no matter who the governor is or who controls the legislature, she said. The state will likely need to take steps to protect abortion providers who serve patients from states where the procedure is outlawed. On every issue, Kotek falls on the progressive side, Drazan on the conservative side whether its climate change, education, gun control, economic matters, etc. Koteks lesbian identity hasnt been much of a talking point in the governors race, but its been an issue below the surface, she said. This year, Drazan told an anti-LGBTQ+ group, the Oregon Family Council, that she supports religious exemptions from antidiscrimination law, so employers dont have to hire LGBTQ+ people or others who offend their beliefs. And both she and Johnson have expressed support for the exclusion of transgender women from womens sports. Oregon has strong LGBTQ+ rights laws, covering discrimination, hate crimes, conversion therapy, and more. Kotek said a priority of hers is to see that these laws are enforced. In some of the more rural, conservative parts of Oregon, people dont feel comfortable reporting anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, she said. If people do not feel safe in their communities to call law enforcement because theyre being harassed, we have to fix that, she told The Advocate. But LGBTQ+ rights havent been front and center in the governors race. Campaign ads have been dominated by homelessness and economic issues, with Drazan blaming Brown and Kotek for encampments of unhoused people in the states larger cities. Kotek, though, has pointed out that she called for a state of emergency on homelessness three years ago, and that Drazan, as a legislator, killed bills for homeless shelters and affordable housing. On economic issues, Drazan emphasizes cutting taxes and business regulations, while Kotek focuses on enhancing opportunities for workers. I have stood with working families throughout my career, she said during her Bend visit. Im the only candidate who really has put comprehensive plans on their website and detailed not only what Ive worked on but where were going to go and what were going to do together. Not only do I share the values of Oregonians, I can get the job done, she added. And as she has said frequently during the campaign, she noted,We do not need to take a right-wing turn to fix our problems. Tina Kotek Courtesy Tina Kotek ST. PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner Group, a private militia controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, opened a military technology centre in St. Petersburg on Friday, the latest move by the Putin ally who has criticized the Kremlin's defence top brass over the Ukraine conflict. The opening of the "Wagner Centre" is seen as another step by Prigozhin to publicise his military credentials and take a more public role in shaping Russia's defence policy. It follows several steps to bolster his public profile in recent weeks, in contrast to years the businessman spent operating in the shadows and denying he was behind Wagner, whose contract soldiers are supporting Russia's army in Ukraine. The opening of the large steel and glass office building was attended by a mix of veterans in military uniforms and young tech and cultural professionals, with lectures from nationalist and pro-Kremlin figures saying the centre would help "make our great country even better." A truck was parked outside emblazoned with the 'Z' symbol used by Russian forces in Ukraine. "We are inviting startups involved in IT, industrial technology and those developing new ideas which they are ready to apply in the field of national defence," said Anastasia Vasilevskaya, press secretary for the centre, where several drone aircraft were on display. "We are of course interested in projects that can act as import substitution," she said. Sanctions by Western countries made it harder for Russia to buy foreign weapons technology. Prigozhin has made a series of outspoken interventions about Russia's setbacks during what it calls the special military operation in Ukraine, joining Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in ridiculing the performance of Russias generals. Prigozhin last month publicly confirmed for the first time that he was the founder of Wagner, which has also deployed troops to Syria, Africa and Ukraine. The United States and European Union have sanctioned Prigozhin for his role in the group. Story continues There was no sign at the opening of Prigozhin himself - sometimes dubbed "Putin's Chef" for his sprawling catering businesses that have swept up government contracts. "The creation of such a centre was a long time coming. The only thing is that it appeared really late," said volunteer Alexey Savinsky, clad in military camouflage. "This centre had to be opened a year before the special military operation. So, its two years behind the schedule." (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel) The parents of a Gwinnett County student who was arrested after firing a gun at school said the shooting was the culmination of months of bullying that the school failed to stop. Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne was at Shiloh High School in Lawrenceville Thursday, where 17-year-old Kaleb Henderson is accused of firing the gun on campus on Oct. 21. No one was hit or injured, but Kaleb is now in jail and facing charges. Winne talked to Kalebs father, Decorian Henderson, who said his son admitted to firing the gun but said it was because he was at his wits end after months of harassment by another group of boys at the high school. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] We had a man-to-man conversation and he said, Dad I was just tired, the guys were just... there was too many of them. I cant beat them all. And I felt his pain, ** said. Like I felt it. scared. I was scared for him. New disciplinary rules went into effect in the district over the summer that put a focus on intervention before discipline and did away with attendance-related tribunals. Some parents say that gives the school few resources to address problems like bullying. Kalbes mother, Sonya Lucious said in the months before the shooting, she called and visited the high school numerous times about what she said was ongoing bullying of her son. I had been to the school about three times in the concerns of ongoing conflict and physical altercations with my son, Lucious said. RELATED STORIES: Lucious said she doesnt know what the bullying was about, but his sister said Kaleb didnt even know what it was about. Thats my best friend. He tells me everything, Janiyah Henderson said. (He said) kids were coming up to him wanting to jump him, but he dont even know what the beef is about. Story continues Lucious said that early on, the school suspended a couple of students, but an administrator told her new Gwinnett school rules limited discipline options. If I was silent and just let this go on, then it would be nothing that I could say, Lucious said. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Kalebs attorney, Manny Arora, alleges that in the weeks before the shooting, seven young men even showed up when Kaleb served in-school suspension and four attempted to get into the room. They were angry about a fight Arora maintains that Kaleb didnt start. Lucious had hoped a mediation with two of the young men resolved the issue, but it didnt. On Oct. 21, cellphone video captured a fight between Kaleb and another young man on camera minutes before Kaleb fired shots. Lucious said her son told her four or five boys had come to the school at dismissal and waited for him near the bus lanes. Kaleb tried unsuccessfully to avoid the boy who wanted to fight. After it was over, my son tried to retrieve his things, they tried to throw his book bag around, Lucious said. Arora said Kaleb got his bag and tried to leave the school, but the same boys came up in a car and started harassing him. Thats when Kaleb fired a gun. Lucious said she had no idea her son was carrying a gun in his backpack and that she doesnt know where it came from. Im not justifying having a gun, but the point is, put yourself in the mind thats getting relentlessly beat up, and you feel like theres nothing more than you can do, Arora said. Winne spoke to Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson, who said that for her, the issue is cut and dry: Dont bring guns to school. If a child feels threatened, that needs to be clearly reported to all of the authorities, the school, the policing authorities, Austin-Gatson said. Lucious said she never went to the police about the bullying because she believed it was the schools responsibility. And the school never gave her the full names of the other kids involved and Kaleb only gave her first names or Instagram names. Kaleb voluntarily turned himself in at the jail, where he is still in custody. A spokesman with the school district issued a statement, saying: Gwinnett County Public Schools is unable to comment on the incident that happened at Shiloh High School last week because it is an open criminal investigation. With that said, the possession and/or use of a firearm on school property is not only against district policy, it is against the law and violators will receive appropriate school disciplinary consequences and criminal charges. Kalebs dad said he wanted people to understand that his son was scared. My son is not a monster, he said. Hes a B-roll honor student. The shooting is just one of several violent incidents were reported recently near Gwinnett County Schools. Since Oct. 21 there has been a deadly shooting, a threat that sent a school into lockdown and a box cutter attack. An emergency meeting was held Wednesday night to talk about the violence plaguing the county. The district has been considering adding metal detectors and security wands. The meeting ended without a specific plan to tackle the violence. Reuters One focus of the redesign codenamed "Highland" is to reduce the number of components and complexity in the interior of the Model 3 while focusing on features that Tesla buyers value, including the display, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the revamp has not been announced. The revamp of the battery-powered sedan, which could also include some changes to the Model 3s exterior and powertrain performance, will go into production at Teslas factory in Shanghai and the companys Fremont, California plant, two of the people said. Teslas Shanghai Gigafactory will put the redesigned Model 3 into production in the third quarter of 2023, they said. The Parkland gunman is no longer in the custody of the Broward Sheriffs Office. Sentenced Wednesday to 34 consecutive life terms, Nikolas Cruz, 24, was taken from his cell at the Broward Main Jail early Friday morning and placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections, according to the Broward Sheriffs Office, which runs the jail. Law enforcement sources say hes not headed to the prison reception center in Miami but is instead on his way north, where he will be processed into the Department of Corrections and learn where he is to serve his sentence. Honestly, he didnt have a terrible life these last four and a half years, said Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was one of 17 murdered by Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Thats over. ... He is now going to hell on earth. The only time I will ever think about him again is when I read the inevitable reports that his fellow prisoners have taken care of justice. For the families of the victims, the sentencing of Cruz appears to have brought a feeling of unexpected catharsis. For observers, it brought a host of unexpected questions about boundaries the expressions of grief from the victims that ventured into pointed criticism of the defense lawyers, the conduct of those lawyers when they believed the world was watching (and when they believed no one was watching), and the judges embracing of prosecutors after the case was formally concluded. Watching Cruz leave the courtroom lifted a burden from the families shoulders, Guttenberg said, though he was reluctant to speak on anyone elses behalf. None of our families got what we had expected, he said. Its been a long, grueling, emotional process. He was being walked into his inevitable fate. The reality is, its done. Its over. I never, ever, ever have to think about him, the way hes being treated, it is over. In some ways, however, its not. The building where Cruz murdered 17 people and physically wounded 17 more remains intact and sealed off from the public for use next year in the trial of former Broward Sheriffs Deputy Scot Peterson, the school resource officer accused of taking cover instead of taking action to stop the gunman. The jury in his case will have to decide whether he knew or should have known where the shooting was coming from. He has insisted he did not. Story continues That case, on charges of child neglect, is set to pick a jury next May. For now, some of the participants in the Cruz penalty case are facing their own criticisms for their conduct during the trial. The Florida Bar confirmed it is looking into a complaint against Assistant Public Defender Tamara Curtis. While the substance of that complaint was not disclosed, Curtis was singled out by family members of the victims for an inappropriate gesture she made before the trial started. The incident did not take place during a court hearing. Neither the judge nor the victims family members were in the room. After the jury was picked, but before opening statements, defense lawyers had objected to the placement of a camera that the media could use to take pictures of the lawyers. They referred to the camera as The Constitution Violator for its ability to focus on documents and conversations that should be kept private. Curtis, seated next to the chuckling defendant, raised her middle finger to the camera while members of the media tested the equipment for lead defense lawyer Melisa McNeill to demonstrate compliance with court orders about what could and could not be photographed in the courtroom. Observers on the website Reddit watched the live feed, recorded it, and posted it to the social media page. It went unreported during the trial, but victims family members raised it as an example of unprofessional behavior after the jury returned without a death recommendation, guaranteeing the defendant a life sentence. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has been criticized since Wednesday for stepping down from the bench and embracing members of the prosecution team after Cruz was escorted from the courtroom. Scherer is a former prosecutor whose career began in the State Attorneys Office, then run by lead prosecutor Mike Satz. Co-counsel Jeff Marcus was Satzs chief lieutenant until the end of 2020, when current State Attorney Harold Pryor was elected. Satz and Marcus were hired to finish up the Cruz case and are expected to leave the office now that it is over. But the embraces between the prosecutors and the judge drew ire from court watchers and the defense bar, which saw it as an example of impermissible bias. The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers fired off a letter Thursday to Browards chief administrative judge, Jack Tuter, urging him to take action to ensure that Scherer is not in a position to prejudice any other criminal cases. They criticized Scherer for chastising McNeill and her boss, Public Defender Gordon Weekes, when they complained that the statements from members of victims families crossed the line. Lindsay Chase, president of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, sent Tuter a similar letter. The lawyers were not on trial, she wrote, and their actions and advocacy should not have been the subject of any statement regarding punishment or guilt. Members of the defense team have received threats since the trial concluded, Chase said Thursday, and their sensitivity in court should have been acknowledged rather than ignored. After dressing down the defense, physically embracing the prosecution appeared unprofessional and biased, the defense groups wrote. Tuter did not agree, praising all parties at the trial for their professionalism. Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Twitter @rolmeda. When Paul Biya first took the helm of Cameroon, Ronald Reagan was in his second year of presidency, Madonna had not yet made the charts and the Soviet Union was still nearly a decade away from break-up. Biya, who at 89 will notch up 40 years in power on Sunday, became one of the world's longest-serving leaders thanks to iron-fisted rule and support from loyalists in key positions. After seven years as the central African country's prime minister, he entered the presidential palace on November 6, 1982, becoming only the second head of state since independence from France in 1960. His four-decade-long grip is a tribute to tightrope-walker skills in a country facing social, political and security problems and struggling with economic disparity. His nicknames among the public are "Popol", an avuncular form of Paul, and "The Sphinx" -- a testament to his canniness. "All you have to do is lose your head for a second, and you're done with," Biya told a journalist in 1986. In October 2018, he won a seventh consecutive term after elections marred by allegations of fraud, low turnout and separatist violence in Cameroon's anglophone regions. He was declared victor with 71.28 percent of the vote. After the fall of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2017, Biya became Africa's oldest president and its longest-serving after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power in 1979. In recent years he has cracked down on all opposition, political and armed, earning him rare criticism from the United Nations and Western capitals. His public appearances are limited to pre-recorded, painstakingly delivered televised speeches. - The Biya 'system' - Biya's appointment of loyalists to key posts -- speaker of the National Assembly, head of the army and the head of the state-run oil and gas company among them -- has helped underpin his long rule. "We are all the creatures or the creations of President Paul Biya," his minister for higher education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, said in 2011. "We are just his servants, or even better, his slaves." Story continues Titus Edzoa, a former confidant of the president who was secretary general of Biya's presidency between 1994 and 1996 and held ministerial posts on several occasions, has said: "If you try to go against Biya, you'll be crushed." He said Biya used "violence and terror, according to his mood and rumours, to subjugate his associates and subdue the whole of the population". Edzoa resigned as a health minister in 1997 to stand in elections. After that, he was arrested, accused of theft and spent 17 years behind bars. Maurice Kamto, who lost to Biya in the 2018 elections, was arrested the following year after he said he had been a victim of an "electoral hold-up." He was held for nine months and only freed after international pressure. In the restive English-speaking west of this francophone-majority country, Biya for years rejected demands for federalism. The anglophone campaign radicalised, leading to the declaration of an independent state in October 2017 -- a move that triggered a crackdown by Biya. Fighting has claimed around 6,000 lives and forced more than a million to flee their homes, according to estimates. - Isolated from public - Born in 1933, the third in a family of nine children, Biya once undertook training to become a Catholic priest before enrolling at the elite Sciences Po university in Paris. France is an ally and major foreign investor. "He's a fervent Catholic. He has good relations with the Vatican. But he also consults spiritualists quite often," said an informed source in Yaounde. Two years after the death of his first wife, Jeanne-Irene, Biya in 1994 married Chantal, a former waitress and model almost 40 years younger than him, and who is famous for her exuberant hairstyles and high heels. He survived a coup attempt in 1984 that left a psychological mark, a security official in Yaounde said. "Before, he would step out in Yaounde, he was close to people. But think -- he was stuck for hours in a bunker and there were bullet marks all around when he emerged," the source said. Thereafter, unscripted public appearances became a rarity and when Biya's motorcade passed through the streets of the capital, crowds were kept at a distance. His repeated long absences from Cameroon, mostly in Switzerland or in his home village in his country's south, became bitterly criticised. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of investigative journalists, in 2018 found that Biya spent "at least four-and-a-half years of his (first) 35 years in power on private visits" abroad, at an estimated cost of $65 million. rek-bur/ah/imm/ri House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday made her first on-camera remarks since the attack that hospitalized her husband, saying he will improve and reading a poem to call for uniting the country. Its going to be a long haul, but he will be well, she told supporters before addressing Tuesdays midterm elections. Pelosi said the way her husband, Paul Pelosi, was injured was so tragic but added that we have to be optimistic. The Speaker read an excerpt from a poem by Israeli poet Ehud Manor that she previously read following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection in encouraging the country to come together. I have no other country. Although my land is burning, my veins, my soul with an aching body and with a hungry heart, here is my home, she read. I will not be silent. For my country has changed her face. I will not give up on her. We need to bring our country together, she added after she finished reading from the poem. So, when we are fighting this fight, getting out this vote, lets do so with the greatest respect for everyone. The suspect in the attack on Paul Pelosi is facing multiple federal and state charges, including assault and attempted kidnapping. Officials have alleged that David DePape broke into the Pelosis home in San Francisco and hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer. Paul Pelosi underwent surgery following the attack to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. He was released from the hospital Thursday. An affidavit from the Justice Department states that DePape was looking for the House Speaker upon entering and planned to kidnap her and eventually other officials. Politicians from both sides of the political aisle have condemned the attack, but some high-profile Republicans have either remained mostly silent or even joked about or mocked the incident. Donald Trump Jr. mocked the attack online, retweeting a photo of a hammer that was captioned Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready. Former President Trump has called the attack a terrible thing, and other Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have rebuked the attack. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Pentagon will pay for the Czech Republic to upgrade 45 Soviet-era T-72 tanks for use in Ukraine, as part of the Biden administrations latest $400 million package of military aid for the country, the department announced Friday. Meanwhile, the Netherlands will fund the refurbishment of another 45 Czech T-72 tanks for a total of 90 that are set to begin arriving in Ukraine by the end of the year, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh. Other NATO countries, including Poland, have already donated hundreds of older T-72s to Kyiv. But this is the first time the United States is paying the Czech defense industrial base to upgrade the tanks, Singh said. The refurbishment will include adding new optics, communications and armor, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the specifics of the deal. Upgraded tanks will be crucial on the battlefield, Singh said, as Ukraine continues to try to take back territory in the northeast in Kharkiv and in the southern Kherson region. Kyiv has pushed for western tanks, such as the U.S.-made Abrams or the German Leopard, but neither country has agreed to send them. The U.S. has hesitated to provide Abrams, which guzzle fuel and would require training for the Ukrainians to use. Introducing a new main battle tank would be a huge undertaking for the Ukrainian forces, Singh said. We do continue to consult with our allies and partners to assess our ability on what we can provide in terms of western armored platforms but these [T-72] tanks we will believe will make a difference on the battlefield. In another first, the latest U.S. aid package also includes funding to upgrade a number of American Hawk air defense missiles for use in Ukraine, Singh said. The Hawk missile is an older, surface-to-air guided missile that the U.S. no longer uses, and has longer range than the Stinger anti-air missiles the U.S. provided this year. The missiles will complement the Hawk launchers Spain recently committed to sending to Kyiv, she said. Story continues The new air defense equipment will help Ukraine defend against brutal attacks from Russian drones and cruise missiles, Singh added, although she declined to say how many missiles would be transferred or to give an exact timeline for the delivery. The package also includes money to send 250 M1117 armored vehicles for the first time, as well as 40 riverine boats, and 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones, according to a release from the State Department. The U.S. has committed more than $18.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including $18.2 billion since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. That includes 20 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that the U.S. has pulled from its own stocks to send to Ukraine, and have been a game-changer for Kyiv's ability to target Russian defenses. Moscow has not been able to destroy a single one of those HIMARS launchers to date, according to a senior Defense Department official who asked for anonymity to give candid assessments of the war. However, Ukraine still needs a significant amount of artillery for the coming fight, the official added. Consumption rates in this war are high: Ukraine fires 4,000-7000 artillery rounds each day, while Russia fires 20,000 a day. During the winter months, the front is likely to stabilize around Kharkiv and Bakhmut, in central Ukraine, but it's still not clear how the battle around Kherson will end up before the weather stalls the fight, the official said. Kherson may be decided in the next two to three weeks. But the fighting will get only tougher in the spring. Some U.S. officials question whether Ukraine can achieve its ultimate goal of expelling Russian forces from all of occupied Ukraine, including Crimea, the official said. Paul McLeary contributed to this report. The Pentagon on Friday announced it will be funding tanks sent to Ukraine for the first time, part of a $400 million military assistance package that will also provide armored vehicles, drones and a budget to refurbish air defense missiles. The additional military, ground and air capabilities come as Ukrainian forces are pushing forward on an offensive to retake the southern city of Kherson, even as they come under increased aerial attacks from Russia, including from Iranian-supplied drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called for NATO to supply tanks within the first weeks of Russias invasion, which began on Feb. 24. On Friday he tweeted that Ukraine is thankful to [President Biden] and the people of [the United States] for another $400 military assistance package. The weapons package includes 90 refurbished T-72 tanks, which will all come from the Czech Republic. The United States will pay for 45 of them to be refurbished, while the Netherlands will pay to refurbish the other 45, according to Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh. The T-72s mark the first provision of tanks from U.S. funds since the war in Ukraine began, with some of the vehicles expected to be delivered by the end of December, Singh said. Despite Russias efforts, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Ukraine is making incremental progress in the south. There is some incremental progress by the Ukrainians in the south and, quite frankly, up in the northeast as well, as they continue to try to push the Russian lines back even further, he said. Kirby added that the Russian lines are largely static and deepening and echoed reported observations of Russian military movements in the territory around Kherson and civilian evacuations. This could signal preparations for an upcoming battle. Part of the $400 million will be directed to manufacturers to refurbish HAWK air defense missiles, and their delivery is expected to be announced in a future presidential drawdown of military assistance to Ukraine, Kirby said. Story continues Well spend the money to get these HAWK interceptors back up to code, and then in the future presidential drawdown well deliver them right to Ukraine. Thats an example of evolving to meet the needs, he said. Also included in the package is 250 M1117 Armored Security Vehicles and 1,100 new Phoenix Ghost drones, although Singh did not have an exact timeline for when this next tranche of drones will be delivered. Kirby added that the administration is going to keep working with Congress to sustain military, financial and economic support for Ukraine amid pushback from a vocal minority of Republicans critical of sending American dollars to Kyiv. The U.S. has provided more than $18 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russias full-scale invasion in February. The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided $9.88 billion in development and humanitarian assistance. But the American publics support for providing assistance to Ukraine is growing increasingly partisan, according to recent polling by The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper found that while 57 percent of Americans support continued assistance to Ukraine, only 35 percent of Republicans do so, compared to 81 percent of Democrats. Among independents, 45 percent support providing aid to Ukraine. Some Republican lawmakers have warned they will scrutinize or oppose aid to Ukraine if they attain a majority in Congress following the midterm elections. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-Ga.) said on Thursday at a rally hosted by former President Trump in Sioux City, Iowa, that not another penny will go to Ukraine if Republicans retake control of Congress. And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said that a GOP-led House is unlikely to write a blank check for Ukraine. Republicans who have a national security and foreign policy portfolio on Capitol Hill have told The Hill that support remains strong among the GOP for supplying Ukraine with the military and economic assistance it needs to prosecute the war against Russia. And a bipartisan pair of senators visited Kyiv this week to underscore the commitment from both Republicans and Democrats. Ellen Mitchell contributed to this report. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Around 70 tourists in Peru have been transferred from a river boat, having been detained by indigenous protesters since early on Thursday. The group - which includes at least three British tourists - held the boat in protest at an earlier oil spill. "After dialogue with the [head[ of the Cuninico communities, our request to release people was accepted," officials in the Amazon region said. A British woman earlier said conditions were "starting to deteriorate". Charlotte Wiltshire told the BBC they were running out of food and water - adding there were pregnant, diabetic, elderly and sick people on the boat. Peruvian, Swiss, American, Spanish and French nationals were also believed to have been on board. Despite being transferred, it's thought the tourists' belongings will stay on the original boat. It's not known to where they are being transferred. The oil spill that sparked the protest from Cuninico's indigenous community happened on 16 September. Activists from the Cuninico community released a statement this week saying that from midnight on 1 November, no boats or vessels would be able to pass. "We demand that the government talks to the Cuninico community or face consequences - the ultimate responsibility lies with the President of the Republic [Pedro del Castillo]", their statement read. The community has been badly affected by a series of leaks from the 40-year-old Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline. Known locally as the Norperuano, it travels 497 miles (800 km) from the Amazon region to the Pacific Coast. Speaking to a local TV station, Prime Minister Anibal Torres appeared to blame the Cuninico community itself for cutting the pipeline involved in the spill. This picture, sent by a Peruvian passenger, shows indigenous leaders arriving to talk to the tourists on Friday One Peruvian passenger on the boat, Regina Mortua, said they were stranded at the mouth of the Cuninico River. "A few minutes ago the native community decided to take our [tourist] boat close to their town," she said. "A few hours ago another boat came for us to board, however it was not possible, because it only transports food." Story continues Another tourist told local TV the group had been fed, but had been told they would be held for up to eight days, if there was no resolution. The UK Foreign Office said: "We are providing assistance to a very small number of British nationals in Peru, and are in contact with the Peruvian authorities." This picture taken from the boat shows some of the protesters holding up the vessel With its stock down 5.5% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad (KLSE:PETDAG). We decided to study the company's financials to determine if the downtrend will continue as the long-term performance of a company usually dictates market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's ROE today. Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital. See our latest analysis for PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad How Is ROE Calculated? Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula: Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) Shareholders' Equity So, based on the above formula, the ROE for PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad is: 11% = RM617m RM5.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022). The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each MYR1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made MYR0.11 in profit. What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth? Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that dont share these attributes. PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE On the face of it, PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's ROE is not much to talk about. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 11%. But PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad saw a five year net income decline of 21% over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company does have a slightly low ROE. Therefore, the decline in earnings could also be the result of this. Story continues As a next step, we compared PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's performance with the industry and found thatPETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's performance is depressing even when compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 12% in the same period, which is a slower than the company. Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Has the market priced in the future outlook for PETDAG? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report. Is PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits? With a three-year median payout ratio as high as 117%,PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's shrinking earnings don't come as a surprise as the company is paying a dividend which is beyond its means. Paying a dividend higher than reported profits is not a sustainable move. You can see the 2 risks we have identified for PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here. In addition, PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 95%. However, PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad's ROE is predicted to rise to 13% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio. Conclusion In total, we would have a hard think before deciding on any investment action concerning PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad. The low ROE, combined with the fact that the company is paying out almost if not all, of its profits as dividends, has resulted in the lack or absence of growth in its earnings. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more. 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. Join A Paid User Research Session Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here Phoenix police. A man who was shot and killed by Phoenix police after they say he fired a weapon at people in a strip mall parking lot was identified on Friday. Police were dispatched to a call for service regarding a suspect with a gun near 37th Drive and McDowell Road Wednesday afternoon. The suspect, Leontae Kirk, 29, was among multiple people with guns in the parking lot of a strip mall when officers arrived, according to police. Police said one man was shooting a gun at other people, and they shot him, according to Phoenix police. Officials did not specify if Kirk was the man who was shooting. After the shooting, officers say they used a "less-lethal tool" on Kirk to encourage him to show his hands. When Kirk did not respond after the tool was used on him, the police said officers approached him to provide aid until the fire department arrived. Kirk was pronounced dead on the scene, and a gun was located near his body. Nobody else involved was injured. An investigation is ongoing. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man who shot at people in west Phoenix parking lot identified Tanker trucks being filled with fuel at the Varreux terminal in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in November 2021 Security forces in Haiti say they have taken control of a major fuel depot held by criminal gangs. The government says fuel distribution will resume from the Varreux terminal, in the rundown Cite Soleil area, on Monday. The gangs seized the port facility in September, blocking the delivery of imported fuel and hampering efforts to distribute food and medicines. The terminal supplies most of the oil products in Haiti. It has been controlled and blockaded by a coalition of powerful gangs, known as G9, for more than a month. The blockade has forced many businesses to close and complicated the distribution of petrol and bottled drinking water, while a cholera outbreak has worsened by the week. All of this has contributed to civil unrest across the country. The unrest has also escalated since Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced an end to government fuel subsidies on 11 September, which sent petrol and diesel prices skyrocketing. Amid the turmoil, police launched an operation to take control of the fuel terminal on Wednesday. Gunfire was heard in the area throughout the day. A day later, a police source told AFP they had succeeded in taking control of the facilities and were in the process of clearing the roads. Neither the police nor the government stated whether any deaths or injuries occurred. Prime Minister Henry congratulated the police for retaking the terminal in a statement. The police operation follows a recent warning from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Voker Turk, that a "protracted, multifaceted crisis" in Haiti could descend into the country's worst humanitarian emergency in decades. The UN also recently urged all countries to suspend the repatriation of Haitian migrants to the country. You may also be interested in: Breaking news Memphis After driving away from an attempted traffic stop, three people in what police say was a stolen car hit another car, sending a woman and child to the hospital. According to Maj. Karen Rudolph, a public information officer for the Memphis Police Department, police tried to stop three people who were thought to have stolen a car at gunpoint Friday morning. They did not stop the car and crashed after driving six miles. The trio left the car and attempted to run, but were later arrested by police. All three were taken to the hospital, with two being taken to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in non-critical condition and the other going to Regional One Hospital. Le Bonheur Children's Hospital generally assists in urgent juvenile injuries. The woman in the car that was hit was taken to Regional One Hospital in non-critical condition and the child was taken to Le Bonheur in critical condition. This story will be updated with more information as it becomes available. Lucas Finton is a news reporter for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at Lucas.Finton@CommercialAppeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Child in critical condition after police chase ends in car crash Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and his Republican rival, Herschel Walker, are heading into Election Day deadlocked, according to a new Marist College poll. The poll, released Friday, shows the two candidates tied at 48 percent each among voters who say they will definitely vote in the 2022 midterm elections. With a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points, the race could swing either way come Election Day. Warnock performs slightly better among registered voters overall, taking 49 percent support to Walkers 45 percent. He also has the edge among independents; 48 percent of those voters are backing Warnock, while 36 percent are supporting Walker. And there are also signs that some GOP voters could cross party lines to cast their ballots for Warnock. Eight percent of Republicans say they are supporting the Democratic incumbent, while only 1 percent of Democrats are behind Walker, the Marist poll found. Notably, neither candidate is breaching the 50 percent threshold needed to win the election outright. Georgia law requires a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. If the poll results hold up, the Georgia Senate race would head into overtime, culminating in a Dec. 6 runoff election. In another positive sign for Warnock, he has the support of 51 percent of voters who say theyve already cast their ballots. Walker holds 47 percent support among those voters, though Republicans tend to have higher Election Day turnout, meaning theres still time for Walker to close the gap. The Marist poll is only the latest survey to show the race between Warnock and Walker tightening in its final stretch. A poll released on Thursday from The Hill and Emerson College found Warnock with only a narrow, 2-point lead over Walker, putting the contest within the margin of error. Its one of a handful of races this year that will help determine control of the Senate. Democrats hold a slim 50-50 majority in the upper chamber, meaning that a Republican net gain of even one seat could cost Democrats their control. The Marist poll surveyed 1,168 registered voters in Georgia including 1,009 who say they will definitely vote from Oct. 31-Nov. 2. The margin of error among all registered voters is 3.9 percentage points. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Philip Pullella AWALI, Bahrain (Reuters) -Pope Francis on Friday appealed to religious leaders to help bring the world back from "the brink of a delicate precipice" and oppose a new race to rearm that he said was redesigning Cold War-era spheres of influence. Francis spoke on his first full day in Bahrain as he closed a forum on East-West dialogue promoted by the king of the Gulf country where, unlike Saudi Arabia, Christians are allowed to practice their faith publicly in churches. The visit continues the pope's policy of improving ties with the Islamic world following a historic visit to Abu Dhabi in 2019, the first by any pope to the Arabian peninsula. He has visited about 10 predominantly Muslim states since his election in 2013. Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment that forces him to use a wheelchair and cane, wove his speech around the role of religions in promoting peace, disarmament and social justice. "After two terrible world wars, a cold war that for decades kept the world in suspense, catastrophic conflicts taking place in every part of the globe, and in the midst of accusations, threats and condemnations, we continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall," he said in a gleaming marble courtyard of the royal palace. Apparently referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation where "a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs". RELIGIONS CANNOT BACK WAR Francis, who supports a total ban on nuclear weapons and has often condemned the global arms trade, said religious leaders cannot support wars - in apparent reference to Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, who has given enthusiastic backing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and who the pope has implicitly criticised before. Speaking before the pope, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa called for unanimity in stopping the war between Russia and Ukraine, and a "serious dialogue for the good of all humanity". Story continues The pope echoed the call, as did the third speaker, Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque and university, who signed the 2019 "Human Fraternity" document, a landmark manifesto on the role of religions in seeking peace. Francis, without naming any countries, also condemned the financing of terrorism. On Friday afternoon, Francis addressed Bahrain's Muslim Council of Elders in the courtyard of the royal mosque, where he praised those Muslim leaders who "see in extremism a danger that corrodes genuine religion" and called for more dialogue between Islam and other religions. "We need to put a future of fraternity ahead of a past of antagonism, overcoming historical prejudices and misunderstandings in the name of the One who is the source of peace," he said. A small boy recited a verse from the Koran and a girl read a passage from the Old Testament. Francis later presided at an ecumenical prayer attended by members of various Christian denominations in the cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest church on the Arabian peninsula and one of the two churches serving Bahrain's tiny Catholic community of about 160,000. The cathedral was built on land donated by the king and one of the monarch's sons welcomed him to the church. On Saturday, the pope was due to say Mass for an estimated 30,000 people at Bahrain's National Stadium. He returns to Rome on Sunday. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by John Stonestreet and Alison Williams) Pope Francis warned the world is on the edge of a "delicate precipice" and buffeted by "winds of war" as he held inter-faith talks with one of Sunni Islam's top leaders in Bahrain on Friday. The 85-year-old Argentine decried the "opposing blocs" of East and West, a veiled reference to the standoff over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in a speech to religious leaders in the tiny Gulf state. "We continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall," he told an audience including Bahrain's king and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque. "A few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs," he added. "We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: in the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs." The pope's visit, aimed at strengthening relations with Islam, comes with the Ukraine war in its ninth month, and as tensions grow on the Korean peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in September, told journalists that there had been "a few small signs" of progress in negotiations with Moscow, warning that peace initiatives should not be "exploited for other goals". Francis, who is on his second visit to the wealthy Gulf, later met privately with al-Tayeb, with whom he signed a Muslim-Christian manifesto for peace in the United Arab Emirates in 2019. "This meeting has great symbolic importance, both locally and internationally, for promoting peace and peaceful co-existence between different religions and civilisations," said Hala Ramzi Fayez, a Christian and member of Bahrain's parliament. - Sunni, Shiite talks? - Leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, Francis has placed inter-faith dialogue at the heart of his papacy, visiting other Muslim-majority countries including Egypt, Turkey and Iraq. Story continues Al-Tayeb, who met with the pope on previous Middle East visits, also called on Friday for talks between Islam's two main branches, Sunni and Shiite, to settle sectarian differences. Later, the pope addressed 17 members of the Muslim Council of Elders, an international group of Islamic scholars and dignitaries, at the mosque of the Sakhir Royal Palace. He told them dialogue was "the oxygen of peaceful coexistence". "In a world that is increasingly wounded and divided, that beneath the surface of globalisation senses anxiety and fear, the great religious traditions must be the heart that unites the members of the body," he said. He also struck out at the arms trade, a "commerce of death" that he said was "turning our common home into one great arsenal". The pope, who is using a wheelchair and a walking stick due to long-standing knee problems, began the first papal visit to Bahrain on Thursday by hitting out at the death penalty and urging respect for human rights and better conditions for workers. Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's minister of finance and national economy, insisted the country has "led the region" with its criminal justice reforms. "We have some of the most robust and wide-ranging human rights and criminal justice protections in the region," the minister told AFP on Friday. "There are very well-established channels through which any of these critics can go, well established institutions of accountability," he said, adding that the pope's comments on the death penalty did not single out Bahrain. "It is important to note that that reference... was a general reference to countries around the world," the minister said. Bahrain has executed six people since 2017, when it carried out its first execution in seven years. Some of the condemned were convicted following a 2011 uprising put down with military support from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. cmk-lar/par/ho/th/dwo One of the world's leading Islamic clerics on Friday called for dialogue between the faith's two main currents to settle sectarian differences, in an address to religious leaders including Pope Francis. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque, a centre of Sunni learning, made the rare appeal at the Bahrain Dialogue Forum aimed at promoting religious harmony. The major division in Islam is between Sunni and Shiite, and Tayeb's call came as sectarian divisions in the Middle East have exacerbated regional conflicts including in Yemen and Syria. "I... call on my brothers, Muslim scholars, across the world of every doctrine, sect and school of thought to hold an Islamic dialogue," al-Tayeb said. "Let us together chase away any talk of hate, provocation and excommunication and set aside ancient and modern conflict in all its forms," he added. Al-Tayeb told the forum, organised by the United Arab Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, that his words were a "special call to our Shia Muslim brothers". He said the senior scholars at Al-Azhar and the Muslim Council of Elders are ready to host a meeting "so we can sit down together on one roundtable to put aside our differences and strengthen our Islamic unity". The differences have been compounded by a years-long spat between Shiite-dominated Iran and the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which have held talks in an attempt to improve ties. Al-Tayeb's remarks came one day after Pope Francis, leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, arrived in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on an inter-faith dialogue mission. In 2019, the pontiff signed a Muslim-Christian manifesto for peace in the United Arab Emirates during the first papal visit to the Gulf region, where Islam was born. lar/ho/th/it Pope Francis warned in Bahrain on Friday that "opposing blocs" and global divisions have put humanity on a "delicate precipice", a veiled reference to the Ukraine war. "We are living at a time when humanity, connected as never before, appears much more divided than united," he said during a speech to religious leaders in the Gulf kingdom. "We continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall." Francis, who has made religious dialogue a pillar of his papacy, was speaking on the first full day of his trip to the tiny island state, where he arrived on Thursday afternoon. His visit comes with the Ukraine war in its ninth month, and tensions growing on the Korean Peninsula. In his speech on Friday, Francis warned that "a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs." "Instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred," he said. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and centre of Sunni learning, also addressed the gathering. Tayeb warned that "market economics, monopolisation of resources, greed and arms sales to the Third World" were "manufacturing victims of war". Ahead of the pope's speech, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in September, told journalists that there had been "a few small signs" of progress in negotiations with Moscow. "All peace initiatives are good. What's important is that we carry them out together and that they're not exploited for other goals," he said. The pontiff's 39th international trip since taking office comes three years after he signed a Muslim-Christian manifesto for peace in the United Arab Emirates during the first papal visit to the Gulf region, where Islam was born. Story continues The pope's visit to Bahrain has been shadowed by accusations of rights abuses, particularly against Shiites in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, allegations Manama rejects. On Thursday the pontiff criticised use of the death penalty and urged nations to respect human rights. cmk/par/ho/it Portugal has revealed that the country is set to scrap its popular Golden Visa scheme. In recent statements, Prime Minister Antonio Costa explained that it has fulfilled its function and is no longer needed. SchengenVisaInfo.com reports, Until now, Portugal Golden Visa is a residence visa issued to non-European Union nationals who have made a significant investment in Portugal, such as purchasing real estate, making a capital investment, or creating employment opportunities. The Golden Visa scheme, one of the most sought-after schemes by wealthy foreigners in the country, is currently under intense reevaluation. The scheme has also been heavily criticized, according to Forbes, for being involved in several unlawful affairs. Allegedly, it has also been accused of causing rising home prices and rent in Lisbon and other expat hotspot locations in the country. Recent efforts to adjust the nature of the Golden Visa scheme saw the government raise to 500,000 the minimum investment in properties and limit the areas of the country where such investments are permitted. It seems the country is taking a new approach to curbing the influx of foreigners wanting to apply by potentially ending it altogether. The decision also comes as the country offers its new Digital Nomad Visa, which allows remote workers with regular and specified monthly salaries to live and work in Portugal. This aligns with further intentions to shrink and regulate the multi-billion-euro visa and citizenship industries, according to Forbes. There are programs that we are currently re-evaluating and one of them is the gold visa which, probably, has already fulfilled the function it had to fulfill and which, at this moment, it is no longer justified to maintain, the Prime Minister said. The decision is in line with other decisions made in Europe. Malta, Cyprus, and Bulgaria, which also run Golden Visa schemes, are set on ending them. Related: Bali Wants To Give Digital Nomads A Second Home Visa One local contest in the 2022 elections is a rematch between two lawmen who want to be sheriff of North Carolinas most populous county. Willie Rowe, a retired 28-year veteran of the Wake County Sheriffs Office who beat incumbent Gerald Baker in the Democratic primary, wants his first term as sheriff. Republican Donnie Harrison, the countys former four-term sheriff who defeated Rowe in 2014 only to lose his 2018 re-election bid to Baker, wants his old job back. Wake County voters will choose between the two candidates on Tuesday, after in-person early voting ends Saturday. Veteran NC sheriff faces rematch First elected in 2002, Harrison is familiar with being in charge of a $100 million-plus budget and around 1,000 employees. Harrison was previously a 26-year veteran of the N.C. State Highway Patrol, assigned to Wake County. I know what it takes to run the Sheriffs Office, the 76-year-old said. That dont mean that we dont need to improve. Its helped me sit back and watch whats going on and come up with a team of people ... to make this the best sheriffs office that we can to save this county. Harrison touts his years as sheriff as a time when the county had less violent crime and many fewer staff vacancies. Violent crime in the county has gone up since Harrison left. It rose from 166 incidents in 2018, his last year in office, to 254 incidents in 2020. There 224 violent crimes reported in 2021, according to FBI crime data on Wake County. The FBI violent crime statistics are only those reported in the sheriffs jurisdiction. They do not include crimes inside cities and towns, which are the jurisdiction of local police departments. Voters in 2018, however, denied Harrison a fifth term. Baker won, helped by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and Latino voters after vowing to end the countys participation in the federal 287(g) program. The controversial agreement enabled the Sheriffs Officer under Harrison to collaborate with federal officials to detain and deport immigrants arrested in the county. Story continues Harrison has recently said he would not reinstate 287(g) but defends his previous use of it. The most recent campaign finance reports show Harrisons campaign well-positioned with $200,000 more than Rowe in cash. He also raised almost $300,000 more than Rowe, who raised a total of about $67,000, The N&O reported previously. Rowe desired to replace Wake Sheriff Baker ousted Harrison in 2018 riding support from Trump-era Democratic fervor, activists and Latino voters. But the 2022 primary made it clear that, while Republicans still preferred Harrison, Democrats no longer backed Baker. Rowe got just under 30% of the primary vote to Bakers 24%, triggering a runoff between the two in which Rowe took about 75% of the vote. I am of the people and for the people, Rowe, 62, told The N&O. I have a track record of working with all communities in Wake County. Rowe counts on support in large part from voters of color, whose experiences with racism he said he knows intimately. He was born in St. Agnes Hospital on the campus of St. Augustines University when it was a Black-only facility during segregation, which he lived under for the first 10 years of his life. His background, he says, informs his policy plans like opposing 287(g) and rebuilding trust in the Sheriffs Office among people of color. The candidates for Wake County sheriff, Democrat Willie Rowe, left, and Republican Donnie Harrison, right, participate in a Spanish-language forum in Raleigh held by El Centro Hispano on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Rowe has emphasized social justice and promoting racial equity in his campaign. He agrees with Harrison that proactive community engagement is needed but said hes been talking about it since he last ran for sheriff. If I was sheriff for 16 years, I would have put these things in place, Rowe said. I wouldnt have waited until now to talk about it. I brought these things up in 2014 and they werent addressed by him in 14 to 18, or before. He has proposed Spanish-language outreach, hiring a new full-time Latino community liaison, and hiring more officers representative of the community. His platform also proposes a Sheriffs Advisory Council with 18 members who would meet quarterly to review best practices and the performance of the Sheriffs Office. Harrison told The N&O he would not establish an independent review board, and said any criminal misconduct of an officer in the Sheriffs Office would be investigated and reviewed by local and state authorities. Current issues in the Wake Sheriffs Office Baker is the first Wake sheriff to lose re-election to a second term in decades, according to the countys electoral history. There were six Democratic candidates and four Republicans in the primaries. When you see 10 people running for sheriff, you know there is a problem, Harrison previously told The N&O. Records obtained by The N&O show that as of Oct. 7, there were 225 full-time vacancies among 837 employees at the Sheriffs Office, with at least 100 of those in the Wake County Detention Center. Both Rowe and Harrison say hiring is a priority they broadly intend to tackle through lateral hires and working with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to raise pay. Were the capital county; you want to be the example for the state to follow. You want to have a level of professionalism and respect, said David Blackwelder, the Wake County chapter president of the NC Police Sheriffs Alliance. The reputation of the current sheriff has not been good in the law enforcement community, he said. Although the N.C. Police Sheriffs Alliance endorsed Harrison, Blackwelder said they likely be satisfied with Rowe as well, because of dissatisfaction with Baker. Frank Sancineto, head of the Wake chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, says both their chapter and their statewide organization endorsed Harrison. Either way, youre gonna get another sheriff, said Sancineto. Willie Rowe could probably make a good sheriff, also. I just dont know. I couldnt tell you anything about the man. Harrison said he will rely on his reputation to begin robust hiring efforts, some which will involve hiring officers he said no longer wanted to work under Baker. Performance-based incentives and rearranging shifts to give officers time off are among plans Rowe mentioned to boost morale and hiring. Both candidates want to reduce jail populations because understaffing endangers both inmates and detention officers. But they talk about it differently. While working in the Wake Clerk of Superior Court offices, Rowe was part of the Pretrial Reform Project steering committee, which works to release people in jail for nonviolent crimes, including people who cannot afford bail. Being jailed hurts people economically and can lead people to commit crimes and being jailed again, Rowe said. Harrison is open to working with the district attorney to see which people in jail can be let out on pre-trial release, but he said hes concerned about any potential harm that might pose to victims of crimes. Dealing with crime Harrison says Wake County has become soft on crime. Weve got to have law and order in this county, Harrison said in an interview. I know we can do it with having more deputies on the street and better training with helping people with mental illness, drug problems. His platform emphasizes hiring, training and putting more deputies on patrol as a crime deterrent. Increasing jail staffing will improve safety for all, he said, noting that the jail population also struggles with mental illness. Rowe, specifically mentions community programs for residents, youths and jail inmates to prevent crime proactively. You cant arrest your way out of crime, he said. Most crimes are committed to address a particular need, he said. And so if were able to provide resources to address that need, then people will not have to resort to crime as a means of survival, acceptance or control. Thats where community engagement is so important, because you get to see people face-to-face, interact, understand the why. Issues with Black, Latino voters The ACLU called Harrisons reversal on 287(g) a step in the right direction, but said we cannot forget the harm caused by policies he implemented when previously in office. It spent over $100,000 in 2018 on ads attacking Harrison for collaborating with federal immigration authorities. Around 8,000 people arrested in Wake County were detained by ICE to be put in removal proceedings from 2009 to 2018 under the program, according to a Syracuse University immigration detention database. The topic remains relevant. In one forum in Raleigh, Harrison did not declare his opposition to future legislation that could mandates collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Rowe did. On two different occasions, K-9 dogs used by Harrisons deputies resulting in the dogs attacking unarmed Black people. One involved teenage girl, then 17 years old, who ran away from the scene of a Raleigh crash in 2016 into the woods. A K-9 deputy was deployed to search for her, which broke off from the deputy and mauled the girl, ripping her pants off and biting her legs, WRAL reported. The handler of the dog called it off once he located the girl. We dont want to hurt anybody, but we have a job to do, Harrison said then. And if we dont do our job, crime is going to escalate. In the case of Kyron Hinton, a man with mental health issues found standing in the middle of Raleigh Boulevard in April 2018, a Wake deputy unleashed a K-9 dog on him. Two state troopers on the scene were also involved. Hinton was beaten by officers while he was on the ground, according to body camera footage. Hinton said he suffered 21 dog bites, a broken nose and a fractured eye socket, The N&O reported previously. Harrison responded by saying that some supporters of Hinton were trying to exploit the case and defended the officers until they faced trial. One of the K-9 deputies pleaded guilty to charges in the case and was fired by Sheriff Gerald Baker in 2019. He was terrible on Black and brown people issues, said Dawn Blagrove, an attorney with the civil rights group Emancipate NC. Re-electing Harrison will set Wake County backwards from the type of progressive reforms and ideals that the people of Wake County want to see. While Harrison said he doesnt agree with that, he said: Weve learned a lot of lessons. You hate to say it, but you learn from failure. And so, I am always open for better relationships with our community. All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 near Lakeview Boulevard East in Seattle were blocked due to a protest Friday afternoon, according to Washington State Patrol. Both the eastbound and westbound I-90 offramps to northbound I-5 were closed as well, with backups extending an estimated four miles. WSDOT advised drivers to use alternate routes and expect congestion. All lanes of the freeway have since reopened. Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson said no one was injured and the freeway was cleared without incident. Protesters say theyre looking to bring awareness to the nearly 2-year long genocidal war committed against the people of Tigray, Ethiopia, the group said in a news release. In this situation I think there would be a better way to do it than this time of day, when a lot of people are getting off work and just trying to get home, said Jaffar Said, who lives in the area. I feel bad for them, but I understand theyre trying to prove a point, another resident said. Let them prove it. Correction: all police presence we see on scene is Washington State Patrol, since this is the highway. Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) November 4, 2022 #BREAKING #UPDATE: I-5 is now open! WSP worked with protestors to get them off the highway. This car leaving has the flag of the Tigray, Ethiopia region on it. FYI - Traffic in the area is still a mess. @KIRO7Seattle pic.twitter.com/M3iItLEK8k Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) November 4, 2022 A Pueblo man will be sentenced in January for killing his wife in August 2021. Albert Rodriguez, 65, pleaded guilty on Sept. 28 to manslaughter a lesser offense included in the original charge levied against him of second-degree murder in connection to the death of 52-year-old Valerie Munoz. Rodriguez was slated for trial in mid-October but accepted the plea beforehand. The plea deal does not stipulate a set sentence. However, a charge of manslaughter without major aggravating or mitigating circumstances carries a sentence of between two and six years, the plea agreement states. If found guilty by a jury of his peers, a charge of second-degree murder could have carried a sentence of up to 48 years in prison. Rodriguez is also ordered to pay restitution to the victim's family, according to the plea deal, though an amount has not yet been set. Rodriguez was arrested by Pueblo police in December 2021 after they'd spent several months investigating Munoz's death. Pueblo crime:Pueblo police say September fatal shooting stemmed from domestic fight In the early morning of Aug. 16, 2021, Rodriguez called 911 and reported he had "accidentally" shot his wife, Munoz. Rodriguez, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Chieftain, allegedly told Munoz after shooting her that he had believed her to be an intruder, though he admitted to police he and Munoz had been "having problems." Rodriguez told 911 emergency dispatchers that "it was dark," and the "lights were off completely" when he shot her. A Pueblo police officer arrived at the house at approximately 2:45 a.m. and cleared the residence before checking on Munoz, who was still alive and lying on the floor of the bedroom. The officer located a black Beretta firearm in the bedroom with Munoz, according to the affidavit. Pueblo firefighters and American Medical Response (AMR) arrived shortly after. While on scene, an AMR employee reportedly asked Munoz what happened. Munoz reportedly said that she got up in the night and was going to her chair in the living room when Rodriguez shot her in the back, according to the affidavit. Story continues Rodriguez allegedly asked her, "Hey, babe, why didn't you make any noise? I thought you were Trece." Pueblo police said they were unable to identify a person called "Trece" in the couple's life, according to the affidavit, and there was no sign of forced entry to the home. Munoz died at a hospital shortly after 4 a.m. that morning. An autopsy later revealed the gunshot hit Munoz in the chest, passing through her left lung before exiting her shoulder. According to ballistic reports, the shot was fired from between 6 inches to 3 feet away. Munoz's daughters allegedly told investigators that Rodriguez and their mother often fought and claimed Rodriguez used methamphetamine. According to a toxicology report from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Rodriguez had 338 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) of methamphetamine and 34 ng/ml of amphetamine in his system at the time of the shooting. One of Munoz's daughters, Hannah Vigil, also observed that the room had several light sources, countering the claim that the room was completely dark at the time of the shooting. In the final summary of the affidavit requesting an arrest warrant for Rodriguez, Detective Jose Medina described the couple's relationship as "dysfunctional" to the point that Valerie's daughter, who lives in northern Colorado, arranged her life so the victim could live with her permanently to get away from Rodriguez. More:Pueblo judge rules vehicular homicide case can proceed to trial Medina also stated he did not believe, based on the statements of Munoz's daughters, that it was completely dark as Rodriguez claimed and that based on the distance of the shot described in the ballistic report and the presence of methamphetamines in Rodriguez's system, he did not believe Rodriguez did not know who he was shooting. "Albert lived with Valerie alone in the residence and based on the investigation, had no reason to believe he was shooting "Trece" or anyone else who would be a threat as there was not any evidence of forced entry to the residence," Medina wrote in the affidavit's summary. Rodriguez will be sentenced by Judge William Alexander at 11 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2023. Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1. This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo man to be sentenced for manslaughter in wife's 2021 killing Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that allows conscripting citizens with unexpunged convictions for a number of serious crimes to be part of the mobilisation. Source: Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti (RIA News), referring to the law in question Details: The law stipulates that citizens with unexpunged or outstanding convictions for serious crimes, except for convictions for treason, espionage, violent seizure of power, committing a terrorist attack, committing crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors, public calls for extremist activities, etc., may be called up for military service as part of mobilisation. In another decree, Putin has allowed for alternative civil service during the period of mobilisation. The document states that citizens who perform alternative civilian service in the ranks of the armed forces, military formations and agencies as civilian personnel will continue to perform their duties during the announcement of mobilisation. The president of the aggressor country has also signed a law equating volunteers with other military personnel. The document states that they [the volunteers - ed.] and their family members will be covered by the social guarantees and compensation provided for military personnel. It is also reported that the financial support of volunteers must not be lower than that of contract servicemen who hold similar military posts. Volunteers are promised state insurance, the right to free travel by railway, plane and intercity buses, a pension for disability, a one-time payment of 3 million roubles [about US$48,231 - ed.] in case of death, and a survivor's pension for parents and spouses. In addition, when calculating the eligibility period for pension, the period of participation in the war in Ukraine in a voluntary formation is promised to be counted in double figures. This decree applies to voluntary formations, which are created by the Ministry of Defence upon the decision of the President of the Russian Federation. In addition, Putin has signed a law on procurement from a single supplier for the so-called "special military operation", to ensure the defence and security of the state. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Russian dictator Vladimir Putin continues to talk nonsense about his love for the Ukrainian people while his army attacks Ukrainian infrastructure. Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet RIA Novosti Quote from Putin: "Ukraines so-called friends [i.e. the West ed.] have brought Ukraines situation to the point where it has become deadly for Russia and suicidal for the Ukrainian people. We see this by the nature of the hostilities. Its just strange what is happening there. It's as if Ukrainians do not exist. They [Western countries ed.] are dumping them into a furnace and that's it. Its Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who are the main victims of the deliberate spreading of hatred towards Russians and Russia. The situation is the exact opposite in Russia. We have always treated the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth, and we still do, despite today's tragic confrontation." Details: Russians celebrate National Unity Day on 4 November. Putin made this statement about Ukraine at an event to mark the occasion, in front of an "updated" map of Russia which includes the annexed Ukrainian lands as Russian territory. Why this is important: Putin claimed that the "denazification" of Ukraine was one of the main reasons for the full-scale invasion. After the Russians defeats at the front, Russia changed its own narratives and stopped talking about "denazification". Instead, the Russian occupiers launched massive missile attacks on Ukraines critical infrastructure. Millions of Ukrainians have faced power and water outages. Despite the attacks, the Russian dictator cynically declares his readiness for "negotiations" and his love for Ukraine, which, according to him, "was created by Lenin". Putin no longer mentions "denazification", but his propagandists do not even ask him about it. Instead, the Kremlin is spreading a crazy narrative about "one people" and a "fratricidal war" started by the "collective West" and "Anglo-Saxons". Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! A man is fishing on the waterfront in Kherson, October 31 Putin said those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most intense combat action. Read also: Russians ready for another goodwill gesture outside Kherson, says Ukraines defense minister Despite Russia being responsible for numerous apparent war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, the dictator mused that the civilian population should not suffer from shelling. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov earlier said Russian troops are potentially ready for another gesture of good will in Kherson Oblast, suggesting that Moscow could be preparing to abandon Kherson City and retreat to the eastern bank of Dnipro River. Read also: Ukraine reportedly destroys enemy outpost in Kherson Oblast Earlier, collaborator and Moscows Kherson puppet Kyrylo Stremousov said that Russian troops in Kherson Oblast would most likely retreat to the left bank of the Dnipro. On Nov. 3, numerous eyewitnesses said that Russian troops have abandoned their checkpoints in several towns across the region. Similarly, the Russian flag is evidently gone from Kherson Regional Administration building, which Moscow used as the headquarters for its occupation administration in Kherson Oblast. Read also: Budanov suggests Ukraine will regain control over Kherson in 2022 Head of Ukraines Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, previously said Kherson could be liberated by the end of November. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine SAN FRANCISCO A state politician with an activist reputation was making what sounded like a stump speech to tech workers on the San Francisco waterfront, promising to tackle the major issues confronting the city. The politics of San Francisco are shifting, state Sen. Scott Wiener told Google employees last month, so were going to solve some of these problems. Wiener didnt mention one detail: He might be doing it from Washington. Whether his next stop is, in fact, Congress sits at the heart of a behind-the-scenes political drama one so sensitive the players wont mention it in public, even as the rest of San Francisco and the country chatters about it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a towering figure who has represented San Francisco for 35 years, is widely expected to step down if Republicans reclaim the House next week. In San Francisco, thats a generational political event opening up a seat in Congress that can amount to a lifetime tenure representing one of Americas wealthiest and most liberal cities. The scenario has everyone loyal to the speaker, including Wiener, tip-toeing around an impending political drama. Nancy Pelosi is so well respected and so well appreciated that no one is looking forward to seeing her leave, and the last thing anybody wants is to be viewed as making even the littlest insult to the speaker, said Todd David, a former political director for Wiener. From a pure practical, political point of view, no one wants to offend Nancy Pelosi. The speakers political stature was thrown into relief last week when a man who held extremist beliefs and sought to kidnap Pelosi broke into her home while she was in Washington and knocked her husband, Paul, unconscious with a hammer, according to prosecutors. The crime shocked San Francisco and underscored the extent to which Pelosi has become synonymous with the national Democratic Party. Wiener would be an obvious candidate for the open seat as a respected state politician whose legislative agenda makes him a fixture in the news. Except for one thing: The speaker may favor someone else who also happens to be named Pelosi. Story continues Christine Pelosi, a Democratic activist who has served as a surrogate for her mother, is widely expected to pursue the seat if it opens. While she has made no public statements that could even be construed as an acknowledgment of her intentions, she regularly comments on social media and is active in Democratic Party affairs. She declined requests to comment about the future race for the seat, adding that she could talk after the November election. But just because no one is publicly running for Nancy Pelosi's seat doesn't mean the campaign isn't already underway. Given the fact that these positions dont have term limits, and given the ATM that is San Francisco, this is going to be a brawl, said Max Szabo, a San Francisco-based Democratic consultant. No one is going to leave anything on the field. In a city where the political spectrum runs from left to center-left, party allegiance matters less than specific issues like housing and support from key Democratic factions. While Wiener is considered a centrist by some San Francisco standards, he has frequently challenged colleagues in Sacramento by defining the Legislature's progressive flank, this year pushing measures to allow supervised drug-consumption sites and decriminalize psychedelic drugs. Christine Pelosi embodies the speakers politics, publicly championing Democrats agenda while advocating for women and pushing the party to emphasize climate change and support for veterans. I think each of them would be formidable candidates, said David Campos, a former San Francisco supervisor who just lost a fiercely contested Assembly race to another Democrat, but the reality is that most of the people running for that seat will have similar views. Christine Pelosi often joins her mother at parades and campaign rallies in the Bay Area and events in Washington. She wrote a book about the speaker who has praised Christine by name on the House floor and tweets a clip, every Sunday morning, of her mother within the rising sun. She has never held elected office, though she served as a prosecutor in San Francisco, worked for the Clinton administration and was chief of staff to former Rep. John Tierney. She has a long history in the Democratic trenches, serving as a Democratic National Committee member and chairing the California Democratic Partys Womens Caucus. She also gave legal counsel to a movement that exposed sexual misconduct in California politics, fueling the resignations of multiple members of the state Legislature. Shes very thoughtful about how she uses her name, because she knows it does have weight, said Adama Iwu, a political consultant who helped lead the We Said Enough movement. Christine Pelosis party activism, Capitol Hill ties and work training emerging female leaders have helped her build a network of political players some of whom could become allies in a House race. The more people you are connected with, absolutely the better youre served if youre trying to do something else, said Carolyn Fowler, the current Womens Caucus chair. Having those connections, let me call so-and-so and see what they think, that becomes politically important. It could be far more consequential if Speaker Pelosi activates her formidable political machine on her daughters behalf, including a powerful national fundraising apparatus, helping to secure endorsements or pile up campaign funds. But Wiener brings advantages Pelosi lacks, including a decade in elected office. His sphere of establishment San Francisco power players includes Mayor London Breed as an ally. He knows the ground game of winning local endorsements, which would give him a head start over other contenders. When hes not working bills in Sacramento, Wiener can be found ricocheting between events and meetings on the streets of his district, where he is regularly recognized thanks in part to his 6-foot-7 frame. Strangers and political players will frequently stop to offer him praise, discuss their pet issue or simply to register recognition. He delights in antagonizing conservatives on Twitter. Wiener began a recent afternoon by visiting a church to discuss an affordable housing project, delving into zoning details. He huddled with San Francisco supervisors about how to tackle addiction after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed his controversial bill that would have allowed supervised drug use in the city. Then it was on to Googles offices, where he celebrated the companys 15-year anniversary in San Francisco by cutting a cake decorated with the company logo and a frosted Golden Gate bridge. He capped his day at a glittering gala for activists working to loosen restrictions on new housing in California. More than any other issue, Wiener is identified with housing policy, a champion of a movement to allay Californias severe housing crunch by easing barriers to construction, particularly of multi-unit buildings. That stance has aligned him with real estate interests that backed his election. It has also helped him build a fervent network of San Francisco supporters, some of whom work in the tech industry. At the housing gala, Wiener chatted at the entrance with San Franciscos mayor and then peeled off to ask a man about his Ask Me About Californias first Car-Free Community poster. Later, during a rooftop VIP reception, Wiener got sustained applause as an emcee read off a list of elected officials in attendance. We are winning, Wiener told the crowd. Were done with the bullshit around housing. San Franciscos LGBTQ community also has a champion in Wiener, who would be the first openly gay member of Congress to represent the city. Wiener has fought for bills and budget outlays that would directly boost the community and occasionally has received death threats for doing so, as with a bill to reform Californias sex registry law by erasing distinctions between penalties for same-sex and heterosexual acts. He has taken on some of the toughest issues regardless of any repercussions, said Tony Hoang, executive director of the group Equality California, which spent roughly a million dollars last cycle to help Wiener survive a challenge from the left. Its really important we have LGBTQ representation in a place like San Francisco that we could consider to be the mecca for queer folks, and that pipeline of leadership, Hoang added although he stressed his support for Speaker Pelosi. But Wiener has detractors as well. Skeptical progressives see Wiener as an extension of developers and other business interests who embody a gentrifying, increasingly homogeneous city driven by the regions tech boom. His aggressive housing agenda has antagonized both homeowners and union groups who believe Wiener is undercutting labor standards. Labor activists are considering whether to field an internal candidate. We know theres horses that have been jockeying for the seat for years, and we know there are going to be some new horses, San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Kim Tavaglione said. Wiener would really have to change his housing policy for him to get an endorsement. Anti-Wiener sentiment could benefit a Christine Pelosi run. It could also boost a candidate from San Franciscos progressive left like former Supervisor Jane Kim, a Bernie Sanders-aligned Democrat whom Wiener defeated in an enormously expensive 2016 state Senate race. Kim said she had not ruled out a House run. But progressive former Supervisor John Avalos, now a San Francisco Democratic Party official, was skeptical that a member of the partys left flank could prevail in an expensive citywide contest. I dont see that happening without some sort of cataclysmic event, Avalos said. Avalos also said he thinks Speaker Pelosi will have limited influence in the San Francisco race. Once she steps aside, he said, she becomes irrelevant in terms of determining whos going to be replacing her. Elon Musk could cut up to half of Twitter's workforce. Getty Images Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is in full swing after buying the company for $44 billion. He plans to slash the social media platform's workforce by up to 50%. Some employees have already been told they're being cut read the memo sent to UK staff. Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is in full swing as he implements his plan to overhaul the company. US-based employees have been told layoffs will be announced later on Friday, and UK staff have not escaped either. This is the notice sent to those employees based in Britain who are set to lose their jobs. (An email address has been obscured to maintain privacy): Hello, As shared earlier today, Twitter is conducting a workforce reduction to help improve the health of the company. These decisions are never easy and it is with regret that we write to inform you that your role at Twitter has been identified as potentially impacted or at risk of redundancy. Next steps will depend on which country you live in and we will share more information with you as soon as possible. To protect Twitter confidential information and user data, we have suspended your access to our systems. However, for the avoidance of doubt, this suspension does not mean your employment has been terminated. Please continue to comply with all company policies, including the Employee Playbook and Code of Conduct. It is vital that we have your current personal contact information so that we are able to consult with you. Please email xxxxxxx with any questions or if you need to update us regarding your personal information. Thank you. Read the original article on Business Insider Nov. 3Several residents expressed concern about a proposed warehouse project in south Bakersfield, citing pollution and the impact of heavy trucks on the neighborhood, during Wednesday's City Council meeting. Developers of the 91-acre site, titled as the Majesty Gateway Project, would erect several commercial buildings and a 50-feet-tall, 1-million-square-foot distribution center. Given the region's vastness and proximity to ports in Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley is an increasing hub for such expansion. "Residents are in favor of the commercial portion of the project... we would love to see a shopping center in the neighborhood," said Sandra Plascencia-Rodriguez, a policy advocate for Bakersfield Leadership Council. "Residents are against the zone change and warehouse." The proposed location, seated at the northwest corner of Hosking Avenue and South H Street, is currently undeveloped land. The project would house just under 200,000 square feet of several commercial stores, and a distribution center, the latter of which several residents took issue with. "The distribution center is one million square feet, that's what is taking most of the site," said resident and advocate Emma De La Rosa. She went on to say that if Majestic Realty wants "to support the community and the workers here that desperately need the work, then they can consider the commercial center by itself." Plascencia-Rodriguez and others cited pollution and the impact of heavy trucks on streets as their prime concerns, stating that the area is already congested and in dire need of road improvements. Citing the neighborhood's demographic, she added that this addition would disproportionately affect people of color and low-income residents, in violation of laws set by the Fair Employment and Housing Act. "With 19 schools within a two-mile radius, residents are worried about the impact of increased traffic ... cars are already zooming through Berkshire and Hosking (Avenue)," Plascencia-Rodriguez said. "There are no speed bumps, no streetlights, no safety measures in place to deal with the influx of traffic." Story continues In their Environmental Impact Report, local officials found no significant impacts to air quality and housing, but did state that this construction would produce significant greenhouse gas emissions and increase traffic congestion. "We have very high asthma rates, not just in the Central Valley but in that area specifically," said Natalie Santa Maria, a Ward 7 resident. "We already have very high traffic of trucks coming into other distribution centers. This does not represent what the community wants and what they have been asking for." "This area is in the 89th percentile pollution burden in the state," Plascencia-Rodriguez said. "With already alarming high rates of contamination that will only increase with this project, residents fear what health risks await them if this continues." The proposed site in recent years has made headlines for new buildings. Plans for a Bass Pro Shops were stalled in 2021 after over a decade of negotiations between officials and developers led nowhere. "At the end of the day, it still sits (as) a dirt field, with weeds, and trash and encampments," Randy Giumarra, vice president of sales at Giumarra Vineyards Corp. and owner of the site. "Our town deserves better. We now have Majestic, who has come in and done more in two years than their predecessors did in 10 years each working on this project... I think we have a great opportunity here and it would be a shame to let it go by." The project is estimated to generate $2.2 million annually for the city's coffers, and provide an estimated 1,700 construction jobs, and another 3,700 jobs for "build out and stabilization." Daniel Socorro, a local member of the Laborers' International Union of North America, said the work could not come soon enough. "When I started working, I traveled outside Bakersfield with 50,000 miles. Right now, my car has 152,000 miles, from driving out of town," he said. "Just imagine every day driving two hours to work and two hours driving back. Right now, we have the opportunity to work here in town." "They won't have to drive 90 miles out of town to L.A. or 100 miles to Fresno to get a load that's pollution and a waste of money," he added. The decision to move forward with the project falls on the council, which will reconvene in two weeks, while Majestic Realty addresses the submitted concerns. The Planning Commission recommended the project 9-1 and currently awaits the council's approval. "It's time Bakersfield takes on bigger projects that raise us to a level that we deserve as a city," Councilwoman Patty Gray said in closing remarks. PROVIDENCE The long-awaited RICAS scores, whose release has become a major issue in the governor's race, were released Thursday night and showed surprising gains in math and a slight decline in English. But student performance has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, reflecting a national trend reported by the recent National Assessment for Educational Progress, a highly regarded test that showed two decades of gains wiped out by the pandemic. The timing of the release of scores on the Rhode Island Common Assessment System has become a major issue in the increasingly contentious governors race, with Republican challenger Ashley Kalus accusing Gov. Dan McKee of deliberately withholding the test results until after Tuesdays election. McKee has denied asking the Department of Education to hold onto the results until after the election, but the issue blew up after WPRI reported that the vendor had already provided the data to the department. Searchable DatabaseRICAS 2022 results: Searchable by School and School District During Thursday's final debate with Kalus, McKee announced that he had just been briefed on the test scores and they would be made public Friday morning. On Friday, when told that Kalus was taking credit for the release, McKee said, Enough is enough. I wasnt holding onto the scores. I didnt have the briefing (until Wednesday). He said he did not pressure the Department of Education to release the scores ahead of time. Political Issue: 'Rhode Island's public education system is in crisis,' says local policy nonprofit RIDE Response: RICAS test results sent to state a month ago are 'not final' when will they be released? The election has nothing to do with it, McKee said before a news conference in East Providence. Then he accused Kalus of running a dishonest, shameful campaign, adding, I just hope everyone is as concerned about the issue after the election as they were before. A department spokesman said Fridays release date was in keeping with the general time frame of previous RICAS announcements. Story continues Here's what happened to RICAS math scores According to the department, math scores saw an increase of nearly 7%, a surprising feat given the states historically low performance in the subject. The department said all grades showed an increase in math proficiency. But scores are still low, with only 26.9% of all students meeting or exceeding the standard, and the scores are lower than their 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Last year, only 20% reached proficiency almost 10 percentage points lower than in 2019. The largest increases were seen in grades 3, 4 and 6, ranging between roughly 5.6% in grade 5 to almost 10% in grade 3. Comparing the numbersRICAS Math Results 2019-2022: Schools and District scores Here's what happened to RICAS English/Language scores In English, results dropped across the state by roughly 2%, from 33.2% to 31.1% in 2021. Elementary grades experienced the greatest losses, ranging from nearly 4% in grades 3 and 6 to 6.4% in grade 4. The department said the pandemic was particularly disruptive to reading and comprehension with the transition to remote learning and quarantining during critical years for learning and development. On a brighter note, more students took the test in both English and math. Gary Sasse, executive director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership, called the improvement in math scores promising, but said the decline in reading is very discouraging. "Student proficiency rates have not reached the pre-pandemic levels, which were low to begin with," he said. "It will be a challenge to reach and exceed pre COVID levels, and RIDE needs to approach this with a heightened sense of urgency." Comparing the numbers:RICAS ELA (English / Language Arts) Results 2019-2022: Schools and District scores More from the department's summary: One-third of students in grades 3 through 8 are proficient in English. English proficiency remains lower than in 2019, when 38% of students reached the bar. More students participated in both subjects in the testing, reaching 98%, according to the department. Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green: "A lot of work remains to get our students back up to speed ..." How did different demographics perform? White students are more than twice as proficient in English as Black students; similar gaps exist between white and Latino students. Students with special needs have scores in the single digits. Although there was a bump in math scores across all races, Black and Latino students lag far behind their white peers Justine Oliva, research manager for the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, worries that Rhode Island has accepted both low performance rates and the stark achievement gaps between the haves and the have-nots. "In math, we're starting to come back," she said, "but we don't want to lower the bar. These are persistent problems that are instrumental to address." What lawyers say about free speachA teacher's perceived anti-trans views led to protests, but could she be fired? And Rhode Island's performance continues to lag that of Massachusetts. Both states saw a significant decrease in English scores and similar increases in math performance. In Providence, less than 10% of students in grades 3-8 are proficient in math, a bump of 3 percentage points from 2021, but lower than pre-pandemic levels. In English, 13% of Providence students reached proficiency, 4 percentage points lower than in 2019. What does Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green say? The 2022 RICAS results show that while a lot of work remains to get our students back up to speed, Rhode Island is on its way to recovery, said state Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green. Were encouraged that some districts have returned to their pre-pandemic levels or exceeded them. And that our statewide focus on math instruction led to a significant jump in math performance across the state. Who should live in my neighborhood?Why URI students are in the middle of Narragansett's 'neighbor against neighbor' legal fight What are the RICAS tests? And who takes them? The RICAS, taken by students in grades 3 through 8 in March, is the most important gauge of how students are doing on the individual, school and state level. They measure how students are doing over time. And they show how groups of students are performing, including those with special needs, students of color and English language learners. The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment said last spring that it would take Rhode Island students three to five years of accelerated learning to recover from the pandemic, the department said. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RICAS test scores summary release: What it shows about RI students L.A. mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso. (Los Angeles Times) The race for mayor of Los Angeles was tightening rapidly as it entered its final week, with Rick Caruso cutting deeply into Rep. Karen Bass' lead, putting him within striking distance in the contest to run the nation's second-largest city. Bass continues to hold an edge, 45% to 41% among likely voters, with 13% saying they remain undecided, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by The Times. But Bass' advantage is within the poll's margin of error and strikingly smaller than the 15-point margin she held a month ago. Support for Bass, a longtime elected official, has not significantly declined she maintains strong backing among key groups of voters, including women, liberals and registered Democrats. But Caruso, a billionaire businessman and developer, has steadily gained ground as previously undecided voters have made up their minds. His push has been powered by tens of millions of dollars spent on attack ads that appear to have succeeded in raising doubts about Bass in many voters' minds. He has maintained big advantages among the relatively few conservative and Republican voters in Los Angeles while also opening up sizable leads among Latinos, moderates and people living in the San Fernando Valley. Bass leads across the rest of the city, relying on the electorate's polarized view of Caruso, the backing of the state's Democratic establishment and the liberal tilt of the city's electorate. She leads among both white and Black likely voters, the poll found. The survey comes on the heels of several other public and private polls that have shown significant tightening in the contest. "This race could go either way," said Tommy Newman, senior director at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, who is working with a coalition to pass a housing tax measure on the November ballot and is a close watcher of local politics "Nobody has this in the bag. There has been tremendous movement with Latino voters. The question is, will that correlate into votes?" Newman said. "[Caruso] is probably running the most robust field campaign we have ever seen in a mayor's race. In a tight race, that's when field campaigns matter." Story continues The tightening of the race has come during a period when the mayoral campaign has been somewhat overshadowed by the scandal that began with a leaked audio recording of three City Council members and a labor leader making racist remarks during a discussion last year about drawing new city council district boundaries. The resulting furor has focused attention on racial and ethnic tensions in the city. The poll found that 69% of registered voters said relations among various racial and ethnic groups were just fair or poor, while just 23% said they were excellent or good. The survey doesn't, however, show a clear impact from the scandal on the mayoral race. Bass and Caruso called for everyone involved in making racist comments to resign. They also each used the moment to make points they'd been pushing throughout the campaign. For Caruso the scandal reflected a continuation of what he sees as the corruption that's run rampant at City Hall and spoke to the need for an outsider to clean up city government. Bass said the scandal offered a moment for the city to come together and talk about its divisions while finding avenues to bridge them. The poll found that voters who put a high priority on building coalitions among racial and ethnic groups favor Bass. What clearly has had an effect is Caruso's money. With both campaigns now turning to get-out-the-vote efforts, Caruso has spent about $13 million mustering about 300 to 400 door knockers who have fanned out across the city to remind voters about the election. The field operation is designed to spur turnout among people especially Latino voters who have shown an interest in Caruso but won't necessarily cast a ballot unless pushed. That effort has been aided by the onslaught of advertising. Since the primary, Caruso is slated to spend $26 million on TV, radio and digital ads in the general election through Tuesday. That's more than eight times the $3.3 million Bass is scheduled to spend, according to data from media tracking firm AdImpact. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Karen Bass speaks during a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Playa Vista last month. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Bass will also be boosted by a number of independent supporters on the airwaves, including unions representing carpenters and electrical workers and a pro-Bass political action committee funded by labor and Hollywood money. Those groups, which can't legally coordinate with the Bass campaign, plan to spend several million on ads supporting the congresswoman. A good deal of Caruso's advertising is in Spanish. Together with the canvassing aimed at Latino voters, that pitch appears to be paying off. In the last Berkeley IGS poll just over a month ago, Bass led among Latino likely voters by 6 points, 35% to 29%; she now trails by 17% in that group, 48% to 31%. Many of Caruso's Latino supporters, however, don't routinely vote in every election, making turnout a challenge for him. "You got to give Caruso, a lot of credit. He's making big inroads into this segment, but they're not regular voters," said Mark DiCamillo, who directed the poll and has been surveying California voters for decades. "He's making inroads where he didn't have those inroads in June" in the primary, DiCamillo said. "The whole question is, will it be enough? It's definitely going to be close." Bass' biggest advantage remains her overwhelming support among liberals the voters who define the shape of Los Angeles' electorate. In recent elections, liberal voters powered Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who campaigned with Bass last week, to victory in Los Angeles during the Democratic primary in 2020 and propelled progressive candidates to the fore in this year's primary. If their sway holds, Bass will likely win. Bass leads by 40 percentage points among likely voters who identify as somewhat liberal (64% to 22%) and about 60 percentage points among those who are strongly liberal (74% to 12%). Those liberal voters are the bulwark that could block further growth of Caruso's support in the San Fernando Valley, where he now leads by 9 points (45% to 36%). Bass remains ahead in every other part of the city by nearly 20-point margins. The one exception is the South L.A. and Harbor region, where Bass leads 48% to 43%. "It's problematic for Caruso," said Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, political science professor at USC . Bass "has her base of support. We'll see if the structural advantage for Bass holds." In the last several weeks, the campaign has featured a volley of attacks on issues including each candidate's ties to USC. Caruso has lambasted Bass for taking a $95,000 scholarship to attend a graduate program, while Bass has attacked him for his involvement in the response to a sexual misconduct scandal. But Caruso's ads have been far more frequent. Their effect can be seen in the rise in the share of voters who have an unfavorable view of Bass and in an erosion of her standing among registered Democrats. About half the electorate still has a favorable view of Bass, but the share of likely voters who see her unfavorably is up 10 points since September to 35%. Among Latino voters, one-third now have an unfavorable view of Bass, compared with one-sixth in September. Bass continues to have a more favorable image than Caruso, however. In the current survey, 43% view him favorably and 42% unfavorably, compared with 38% to 40% last month. Caruso has gained some support among Democrats, who make up the majority of Los Angeles voters. In September, just 19% of Democratic likely voters backed him. Now, 28% do. That's still much less support than Bass, who is backed by 56% of Democrats, with 14% undecided, but it represents a significant inroad by the businessman, who was a Republican much of his life and only changed his party registration to Democrat in January. About 20% of voters surveyed had already voted. Caruso had a slight lead among them 49% to 46%. He also leads heavily among voters who said they planned to cast ballots in person on election day. Bass was doing much better with voters who plan to mail or drop off their ballots, leading 50% to 33% among them, the poll found. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso waves to motorists while crossing 6th Street during a campaign stop in Koreatown on Tuesday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) Beyond the negative ads, the central policy arguments of the race have been over homelessness and public safety. These two issues along with the economy and education are what voters say the next mayor must prioritize. Addressing climate change and coalition building between people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are seen as less important by most voters, although they are top priorities for Bass' backers. Even though Caruso is trailing, voters believe he would do a better job addressing crime, the economy and homelessness. They believe Bass would do a better job tackling education, climate change and coalition building. The Berkeley IGS poll was conducted Oct. 25-31 among 1,437 Los Angeles registered voters, of whom 1,131 were deemed likely to vote in the November election. The sample was weighted to match census and voter registration benchmarks. Because of weighting, precise estimates of the margin of error are difficult, but the results are estimated to have a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points in either direction for the full registered voter sample and 4 points for the likely voter sample. Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday praised King Charles for his far-sighted leadership on tackling climate change as the monarch hosted a reception for politicians and business leaders ahead of the U.N. COP27 summit. Charles, 73, who has long campaigned on environmental issues, will not himself be attending the summit which begins next week in Egypt, but instead held a reception at Buckingham Palace for more than 200 international figures including U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry. "His majesty has been working to help find practical solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss for more than 50 years, long before COP1, let alone COP27," Sunak told the gathering. He thanked him for his "long standing and far-sighted leadership". Buckingham Palace said last month it had sought advice from the British government under Sunak's predecessor Liz Truss and it agreed that Charles, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 2021 summit in Glasgow, would not go to COP27. Kerry has said his presence in Egypt would have been "very powerful". On Thursday, Sunak's spokeswoman suggested that if Sunak, who only became prime minister last week, had been in office longer, the king might have gone after all. Britain hosted the last COP26 summit, but it was only earlier this week that Sunak reversed his earlier decision not to go to Egypt himself and focus on pressing economic issues at home, amid criticism from environmental activists, political opponents and even some in his own party. "When you look at the challenge before us, it is easy to feel daunted but I believe the agreements we reached in Glasgow are a source of hope for the world," Sunak said. "If we do not act today, we will risk leaving an ever more desperate inheritance for our children tomorrow." (Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams) North Korea Koreas Tensions In this photo, taken sometime between Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, 2022, and provided on Oct. 10 by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a missile test at an undisclosed location in North Korea government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Credit - Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Hours after North Korea launched an unprecedented barrage of missiles Thursday, including one that could theoretically reach the U.S. mainland, the South Korean and American defense chiefs met at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong Sup condemned the missile launches as irresponsible and promptly announced an extension of the joint air force exercise over the Korean peninsula that drew the Norths fire in the first place. Then the two men addressed the threat that loomed above the tit-for-tat escalation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The United States remains fully committed to the defense of (South Korea), Austin told reporters at the Pentagon. Our extended deterrence commitment is firm. And it includes a full range of our nuclear and conventional and missile defense capabilities. Another day, another occasion for a senior Biden Administration official to address the real possibility of engaging in a nuclear war. Over the past year, global adversaries have routinely threatened to violate the decades-old taboo against the first-use of nuclear weapons. Launching a nuclear strike, once unthinkable in modern conflict, has become more and more normalized with each passing day of 2022. Meanwhile, the global revulsion against using the worlds most destructive weapons, which was borne out of the ashes of World War II, appears to have drastically abated. In its absence is emerging a dangerous and unpredictable era where threats to cross the nuclear threshold have become commonplace by world leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has routinely threatened to deploy his nations nuclear arsenal amid his nine-month-old military campaign against Ukraine, a non-nuclear state. Kim, in North Korea, has launched more missiles this year than any since he took power in 2011 and has put the world on notice that his nuclear forces are fully prepared for actual war. Story continues U.S. officials acknowledge the risk. Admiral Charles Richard, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the nations nuclear forces, warned Thursday the new threats from Russia are vividly illuminating what nuclear coercion looks like and the U.S. must be prepared for that. This Ukraine crisis that were in right now, this is just the warm-up, Richard said during a speech at the Naval Submarine League 2022 Annual Symposium and Industry Update. The big one is coming. And it isnt going to be very long before were going to get tested in ways that we havent been tested in a long time. Read More: Inside the $100 Billion Mission to Modernize Americas Aging Nuclear Missiles Adjusting to this new reality, government officials and nuclear experts worldwide are scrambling to find ways to reduce the risk of nuclear conflict. The first question is whether diplomacy can be revivified to help. During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union each had tens of thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each others major cities and military installations. A stability, however tenuous, was generated through the shared notion of mutually assured destruction (MAD), an expectation that one nations decision to launch a nuclear strike would result in its own demise through an overwhelming counter-strike. The two sides gradually drew down the numbers of weapons through various treaties designed to constrain the spread of nuclear arms. The current linchpin agreement, called the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), limits the U.S. and Russia each to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheadsstrategic weapons deployed in missile silos, submarines, and long-range bombers. Russia has a long, responsible history as a nuclear weapon state, one of the core creators of the Nonproliferation Treaty and its successor agreements, including 50 years of successful nuclear agreements with the U.S., says Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy secretary general of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a retired U.S. diplomat. That Putin is choosing to throw that all away to embrace nuclear pariah status along with Kim Jong Un is a tragedy, but I dont think its a precedent. There are now nine countries with stockpiles, and while the majority of these nations dont regularly threaten the use of nuclear weapons as Russia and North Korea recently have, they arent seeking reductions. No arms-control treaty exists, however, for smaller nonstrategic warheads. The modern proliferation of these tactical nuclear warheads, which are designed to fit on short-range missiles for regional targets, is an attempt to exploit the battlefield advantage offered by nuclear weapons without triggering the world-ending MAD calculus. The idea is that a single detonation of these lower yield bombs might be devastating enough to damage, and deter, an adversary but not powerful enough to kick-start Armageddon. In practical terms, a tactical nuke wouldnt reduce a city to rubble but could vaporize a command center or an advancing phalanx of tanks. Yet the consequences of crossing the nuclear threshold would nonetheless be dire, and unpredictable. For starters, a single detonation of a nonstrategic nuclear warhead could equal the power of the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 and cause thousands of casualties. And any use of a nuclear weapon would cross a strategic line for the first time in 77 years. The development and the modernization of nuclear weapons as a response to this new era will not ensure or restore security but rather imperil it all the more, says Shannon Bugos, senior policy analyst with the Arms Control Association, a Washington non-profit. Read More: Is The Biden Administrations Policy Toward North Korea Working? The possibilities for escalation increase by the day. North Korea launched at least 27 missiles and more than 100 artillery rounds into the seas surrounding the peninsula, beginning Wednesday in response to the U.S.-South Korean joint-military exercise. The salvos activated air raid sirens on a South Korean island and also in nearby Japan. One of the launches Thursday involved an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that plunged into the Sea of Japan after the second stage failed to properly separate. Analysts suspect it was a Hwasong-17, which is North Koreas most advanced ICBM, capable of reaching the United States. The launches came amid signs that the North may soon perform its seventh nuclear test at Punggye-ri underground facilities, where surveillance satellites have detected preparation activities. The escalation spiral of the last few days has served as the latest indication that coercive tactics by the U.S. and its allies are failing to compel North Korea to curtail its missile and nuclear programs, prompting questions about the possibility of assuming a new approach to the isolated nation. The U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs did not signal any policy changes toward North Korea, but Lee dismissed the prospect of hosting U.S. low-yield nuclear weapons again inside his country. We are currently not thinking to deploy tactical nukes on the Korean peninsula, Lee told reporters at the Pentagon. A poll published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs think-tank in February found 71% of South Koreans favor developing their own nuclear weapon while 56% wanted to once again host the American weapons, which were based on the peninsula for decades until they were removed in 1991. Austin, for his part, said he believed the Biden Administration approach toward North Korea was working. I believe that they are deterred from attacking South Korea, he said. And I also believe they are deterred from employing a nuclear device, either against the peninsula or against our homeland here in the U.S. But he also issued a stern threat in a joint communique with his counterpart, saying that any nuclear attack against the U.S. or its allies, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime. Down that road may lie the greatest danger of all. These developments call attention to the underlying truth that is not new: Nuclear weapons are unacceptably dangerous and for most countries that have them, one person alone has the authority to launch them with few checks and balances, says Lynn Rusten, vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and former senior official on arms control and nonproliferation issues at the White House and State Department. The idea that reliance on nuclear weapons for national and global security is sustainable for the long-term is delusional. A blunder will happen sooner or later. A Powder Springs police officer came to the rescue of a runner who suffered a medical emergency while on a jogging trail last week. Witnesses say the man was running on the Silver Comet on Oct. 29 when they saw he fall and stop breathing. They say they immediately began performing CPR on the man and called 911. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Officer Yates arrived a few minutes later and found that the man was not breathing, had no pulse and did not initially appear to be alive. Despite that, Officer Yates performed CPR on the runner for more than ten minutes. When paramedics arrived and took over CPR, it was just a few seconds until the man got his pulse back and woke up. Investigators say when the man was put on a stretcher, he began looking around and asked what happened. TRENDING STORIES: Police later learned that the man had suffered a cardiac emergency. Without a doubt, if it was not for the quick actions of the citizens on the trail who immediately began taking care of this stranger, and the endurance of Officer Yates, the Silver Comet would have claimed another life, the police department said in a statement. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: Russian reservists called up in its military draft, seen in the Rostov region of Russia on October 31, 2022, before being deployed to Ukraine. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov Russia is likely using "blocking units" to threaten to shoot retreating soldiers, UK intel said. A UK intelligence briefing ascribed the move to "low morale and reluctance to fight." It added that Russian generals probably want soldiers to defend positions in Ukraine "to the death." Russia's military is likely deploying units with the sole purpose of threatening to shoot soldiers caught retreating in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Friday. In an intelligence update, the ministry said that "due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying 'barrier troops' or 'blocking units.'" "These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been use in previous conflicts by Russian forces," it added. Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) November 4, 2022 The ministry also said that Russian generals have likely told their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorizing shooting to kill after a warning had been given. A swathe of reports and Western intelligence updates have pointed to low morale in the Russian army, as it continues its war in Ukraine, and in particular since Ukraine started to win back territory and push back Russian forces in September. The defense ministry said that the tactic of shooting deserters "likely attests to the low quality, low morale, and indiscipline of Russian forces". "Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death." Russia's army has retreated from Ukraine in some areas of the country, including the city of Lyman, in the eastern Donetsk region. There have also been cases of Russian troops refusing orders, leading to "armed stand-offs between officers and their troops," the UK defense ministry said in June, as did NATO. Ukraine has intercepted multiple conversations by Russian troops in which they bemoan the war, complain about their conditions, curse Russian leadership and even say they want to get injured so they can go home. Story continues Many young men in Russia have also left the country in a bid to avoid being called up to fight. Russian President Vladimir Putin has actively intervened to stop his troops retreating. The New York Times reported in September that Putin was desperate to keep control of the city of Kherson, where Ukraine is now approaching, and denied a request from the military to retreat from the city. Russia has also increased the punishment for deserting troops. In September, the State Duma passed a bill increasing jail time for soldiers who desert their unit from 5 years to up to 10 years. Putin signed a decree allowing the penalty to be enforced. Read the original article on Business Insider -30 According to him, at this stage Russia manufactures only one effective model of drones the Orlan-10, which is primarily a reconnaissance plat-form. "That's why they rushed hat in hand to Iran, he explained. Because they need their kamikaze drones. Although their model called Lancet, to which Orlan-10 acts as a repeater, is quite effective. But the question is again: why did they go to Iran? They cannot establish their internal massive, efficient flow to scale this process. At the same time, Rymaruk added that it is possible that the Russians "will reach large-scale production (at best) sometime at the end of the year or early spring next year". Read also: Russia trying to get weapons from Iran, North Korea, China has not helped Kremlin, says Pentagon Once Russia gets that production going, Ukraine will need forces to carry out preventive strikes on command posts and communication hubs, Rymaruk said. "The more efficiently we destroy their command posts, their rear, the harder it will be for them to understand where to launch this device, where this safe zone is, he stressed. That is, we must burn down all military facilities of the Russian Federation at any depth. The veteran added that command posts can be located at a distance of 20to 300 km from the front line and cannot be detected by radar reconnaissance. "This is solely agent work, stated Rymaruk. Read also: Austrian engines, South Korean and Malaysian microchips, US parts found in Iranian Mohajer-6 drones This is the work of external and internal intelligence with a clear under-standing of their movement plans, as the enemy is constantly changing the location in such active combat operations. It does not concentrate all the officers in one point, they are constantly scattered. But for now, we will track them down and inflict maximum fire damage. The time will come when there will be no one left to fight there. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 26 that the aggressor state wants to cooperate with the drone manufacturer Bayraktar. Prior to this, Baykar Makina CEO Haluk Bayraktar said that he would never allow the sale of Bayraktar drones to Russia and supports Ukraine in its struggle for sovereignty and independence. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Russia asks to lift sanctions against Rosselkhozbank According to the sources, Russia asked Western countries to allow Russian Agricultural Bank to be allowed access to its correspondent accounts in foreign banks, making an exemption from U.S. and EU sanctions. Read also: Canada to issue bonds to back Ukraine, slaps new sanctions on Russia Two of the Reuters sources said that would allow the bank to make payments for Russian grain and other food products. Prior to latest round of sanctions, such payments were handled by international banks and subsidiaries of other Russian banks in Switzerland. Russia said sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine make it difficult for Russian grain and fertilizer traders to process transactions related to freight, insurance, and port services. Moscow says that while food exports from Russia are not subject to Western sanctions, banking restrictions effectively undermine the ability of Russian agricultural companies to sell their produce abroad. Read also: Global oil market adjusting as Russia hit by sanctions, says Saudi Aramco The report did not specify whether Russias request was granted or not. Reuters source at the UN, speaking on conditions of anonymity, said that simplifying payments for Russian food and fertilizers through Russian Agricultural Bank is being discussed with the EU and other parties. Read also: EUs adopts 8th sanctions package, Reznikov doubts Russian nuke threats, and new NBU chief nominated If Russia's request is granted, the role of Russian Agricultural Bank in the grain trade in Russia could increase significantly. Eduard Zernin, chairman of the board of the Union of Grain Exporters of Russia, says that the United States and the EU are proposing to appoint one authorized correspondent bank for Russian Agricultural Bank to make payments through. Read also: Russian businessman asks Monaco to unfreeze accounts to transfer $1 b to Alfa-Bank Ukraine From 2010 to 2018, Dmitry Patrushev Russias Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushevs son served as the Chairman of the Board at Russian Agricultural Bank. Patrushev and his son were both sanctioned by the United States and the EU over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Fire after explosions in Sevastopol, October 29 Russia states that it has expressed this protest because of the active participation of British military specialists in the training and supply of Ukrainian troops, in particular for the purpose of sabotage operations at sea. Read also: Russian missiles strikes against Ukraine a response to Sevastopol Bay attack, Putin says "In case of continuation of such acts of aggression that threaten direct involvement in the conflict, the entire responsibility for their disastrous consequences and the growth of tension between our countries will lie entirely on the British side," the Russian ministry added. At the same time, Moscow did not provide concrete evidence to confirm its statements. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, they allegedly have information that the British Navy "handed over a certain number" of unmanned vehicles to the Ukrainian side. On Oct. 29, Russian occupation authorities reported a drone attack on ships moored in Sevastopol Bay. Read also: At least three Russian Black Sea Fleet ships damaged in Sevastopol, investigation shows The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine and the United Kingdom of being behind the attack. The Russians claimed that they had allegedly "destroyed all air targets." They maintained that "the attack by the Ukrainian military" took place "under the guidance of British specialists who are in Ochakiv (a town in Ukraines Mykolaiv Oblast, about 200 kilometers to the north-west of Sevastopol)." The Russian Ministry of Defense said that, in addition to the warship the Ivan Golubets, "minor damage" was caused to a protective barrier in the south bay. Read also: Russian Black Sea Fleet was attacked by "people of good will", Kuleba Ukraines Operational Command South said that the explosions in Sevastopol could have been caused by unsuccessful launches of air defense missiles. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine The Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, Mykola Lukashuk, reported that kamikaze drones were detected over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Thursday evening, 3 November. Source: Mykola Lukashuk on Telegram Quote: "Weve got the Russians and their scooters." Air Defence maintains the combat operation. Our defenders will catch the bastards." "Good news will follow. [Well provide] details in the morning." Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Russian invaders Natalia Chorna, the sister of the late woman, told the media that on Oct. 15, a woman called her and said that the Russians had publicly executed Tetiana. "She told me that Tanya was hanged, Chorna recalls. Read also: Polish Senate unanimously declares Russian government as terrorist regime They poured something into her mouth and then hung her in front of the courthouse building. Chorna called the local morgue to confirm her sister's death, but the staff refused to talk to her. Later, Natalia received Tetiana's death certificate, where the cause of death was stated as "mechanical asphyxia a medical term used to describe some physical force that prevents people from breathing, such as rope tightening around their neck. Read also: Invaders built torture chambers in most captured towns and villages, says Yenin According to media reports, in early October, Mudrenko criticized treasonous Ukrainian police forces in the town for having sided with the Russian occupiers, and yelled at them: "Skadovsk is Ukraine!" Some time later, according to Chorna and local eyewitnesses, Mudrenko and her husband, 60-year-old Anatoliy Orekhov, were abducted from the yard of their house by collaborating policemen. Neighbors claimed that Russians had searched Mudrenko's house and then stolen their car and bicycles. Read also: Ukraine uncovers mass graves with murdered civilians in recently liberated Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi According to the eyewitnesses, later the Russians released Orekhov from captivity and allowed him to bury his partner's body. His arm was broken, and other traces of beatings could be seen on his body. Then the man disappeared again, and since then no one has seen him. The Financial Times saw Tetiana's death certificate and heard testimonies from locals who confirmed Natalia Chorna's story. However, the media was unable to independently verify some details of the nurse's death, as these events took place in areas inaccessible to Western journalists. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Russia may experience a goodwill gesture near Kherson, Reznikov said The term goodwill gesture is a reference to a Russian excuse for their evacuation from Snake Island, in the Black Sea, on June 30. Read also: Ukrainian military believes disappearance of Russian flag from Kherson likely a trap According to minister, in order for this goodwill gesture to come to fruition, the Russian troops will have to lose some of their potential due to the appropriate actions of our Armed Forces. Their habit of goodwill gestures has long been known to us, Reznikov said. Yes, there was a goodwill gesture when they liberated the territory of Kyiv Oblast, then Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts thanks to the decisive actions of the security and defense sector. Later, there was Zmiinyi (Snake) Island another goodwill gesture. I think theyre potentially ready for another goodwill gesture regarding the left bank of the Dnipro River, namely outside the city of Kherson in Kherson Oblast. Read also: Ukraine reportedly destroys enemy outpost in Kherson Oblast Earlier Reznikov said that rainy weather has slowed down Ukraines offensive in Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said the operation to liberate Kherson is likely to last until the end of November. Satellite images show that Russian invaders in Kherson Oblast are urgently transferring military equipment and personnel to the other bank of the Dnipro River. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Ryan Reynolds has trolled his friend Nick Cannon after the TV host revealed that he is expecting his 11th child. On Thursday (3 November), it was revealed that Cannon was expecting his second child with Alyssa Scott. In an Instagram post, Scott wrote, This is a MIRACLE & a BLESSING, followed by a white heart emoji. Retweeting news of the announcement, Reynolds said: Were gonna need a bigger bottle. While Reynolds comment is of course a Jaws reference, its likely hes also referring to the advert he and Cannon did for his Aviation Gin brand. For Fathers Day earlier this year, Reynolds teamed up with Cannon to promote the Deadpool actors gin brand, joking about making a cocktail called The Vasectomy. In the advert, Cannon said: Lord knows I need one. Once the drink was made, Reynolds said: aaIll take it from here, Nick. I have three kids. In response, Cannon gave a deadpan look at the camera and said: I have eight. Were gonna need a bigger bottle. https://t.co/B5QuwUscCN Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) November 3, 2022 Since the adverts release, Reynolds wife Blake Lively revealed the couple are pregnant again and expecting their fourth child. Meanwhile, Cannon has welcomed two more children: a girl with model LaNisha Cole, and a boy with model Brittany Bell. Bell is the mother of two of Cannons other children, son Golden Sagon, six, and daughter, Powerful Queen, one. He shares one-year-old twins, Zion and Zillion, with Abby De La Rosa, and a three-month-old son, Legendary Love, with model Bre Tiesi. He also shares 11-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, with his ex-wife Mariah Carey. This will be Cannons second child with Alyssa Scott, the first of whom, Zen, died at five months old in December 2021. San Diego State University Is Reportedly In Talks With PAC-12 The PAC-12 is highly interested in SDSU as it eyes expansion. Contact/Follow @tedmcgovern & @MWCwire Commissioner George Kliavkoff needs to act if he wants his conference to survive. San Francisco, CA- Getting down to brass taxes: Oregon sports reporter and PAC-12 insider John Canzano broadcasted Wednesday on his The Bald Faced Truth blog that a source told him that the PAC-12 and San Diego State have been partaking in ongoing communication'. Canzano went on to note that SDSU is widely considered as the surefire future member of the PAC-12, as they are eyeing expansion possibilities. The Huron Consulting Group, who is advising San Diego State on making the jump to the Power 5 has declined to comment on the matter. The PAC-12 has already announced that securing the conferences media-rights deal is the main priority. Its also traditional that expansion news will happen publicly only when a deal is sealed. Canzano mentioned that the PAC-12 isnt the only conference with interest in the last available school in the So Cal market, as the Big 12 also might be in the picture. Canzano did say that according to former Fox Sports president, Bob Thompson, that of the two the PAC-12 is in better standing to add SDSU because the Big 12 wont stand to get any additional money by adding them. Current members would take a haircut, and this helps the PAC-12. San Diego State Athletic Director J.D. Wicker has positioned SDSU as the most likely addition to the PAC-12 if it decides to replace UCLA and USC when they depart for the Big Ten in 2024. News could come in the next few weeks, as the PAC-12 finalizes its new media rights deal and then considers expansion. It certainly helps that, complementing Tony Gwynn Stadium, and their celebrated Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl, the Aztecs just built a new 35,000 capacity football stadium, which is expandable to 50,000. Story continues The winds of change are blowing, and San Diego State is well positioned. Stay tuned. Story originally appeared on Mountain West Wire The German chancellor said direct talks were important and made clear he would not ignore controversial issues German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged China to use its influence on Russia to stop the war in Ukraine, during talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Mr Scholz said both countries had agreed Russia's nuclear threats were "irresponsible and highly dangerous". The Chinese president has refused to condemn Vladimir Putin's invasion. But he said the global community should back bids to end the crisis peacefully and oppose the use or threatened use of nuclear arms, Chinese reports said. Reporting on the two leaders' conclusions, China's foreign ministry did not quote President Xi as using the words "irresponsible" or "highly dangerous". The trip has sparked concern in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, after the Chinese leader recently cemented his grip on power. Mr Scholz's visit to China is both short, at just 11 hours, and controversial. He's the first Western leader to travel to Beijing since the global pandemic and the first to meet President Xi since he tightened his grip on power at the Communist Party National Congress last month. The timing is seen as highly questionable by many in Europe - including members of Mr Scholz's own government, who worry that his presence will serve to burnish the domestic reputation of an increasingly authoritarian Mr Xi. But the German chancellor, like his predecessor Angela Merkel, argues that global problems can only be solved through co-operation with China. Meeting face to face, he said, facilitated discussion, even of issues over which both countries strongly disagree. " We will seek co-operation where it lies in our mutual interest, but we will not ignore controversies... When I travel to Beijing as German chancellor, I do so also as a European", Source: Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Source description: In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Image: Olaf Scholz So what has he achieved? There was a mutual acknowledgment that times were tough; President Xi expressed his desire to work together in "times of change and turmoil". There was an agreement to keep talking - about the war in Ukraine, global food and energy security, climate change and the global pandemic. Mr Scholz repeated Germany's position on Taiwan - any change of the status quo must be peaceful and with mutual agreement - and on human rights - they must be protected, especially with regard to minorities in Xinjiang. Story continues The visit will be closely scrutinised in Europe's capitals. Mr Scholz came to power promising a values-led foreign policy and a change in Germany's approach to China; a pledge he reiterated prior to his visit. "If China is changing then our approach to China must change," he said. But many in Germany and in Europe simply don't trust him on that; in part because of a recent - and controversial - proposal to sell a stake in the port of Hamburg to a Chinese company. Six of his ministers opposed the deal and the security services urged caution but Mr Scholz reportedly forced through an agreement, albeit one that reduced the size and influence of the stake. The suspicion in Berlin was that he wanted a "gift" to take to China. And Mr Scholz chose to travel with a delegation of executives from German companies like BASF, Volkswagen and Bayer. "The signal that's being sent is that we want to extend and intensify our economic co-operation," said one Green politician, whose party has long sought a tougher stance on China. German company Daimler is expanding its resources in China Taking executives along was standard practice for Mr Scholz's predecessor, Angela Merkel, who pursued a policy of "Change through Trade," believing that economic ties could influence political relations with countries like China and Russia. But Germany's reliance on cheap Russian energy laid bare the inherent flaws of that strategy. And China, once a partner, is now also viewed as a rival in Berlin. And, when President Xi urged "deeper co-operation" with Berlin on Friday, a shudder will have run down the spine of those who worry that German business is too closely woven into China. What would happen they ask, in the event that China invaded Taiwan? More than a million German jobs depend on the relationship. Take, as an example, the car giant Daimler which sells more than a third of its vehicles in China. In the first half of this year, German businesses invested more in the country than ever before; the chemical company BASF has just opened a new plant in south China and expects to invest 10bn (8.75bn) in the site by the end of this decade. Few in Berlin would urge Germany to "decouple" from China. As one business leader put it on the eve of Mr Scholz's trip: "The advice can only be not to smash any Chinese porcelain now." But there is considerable appetite to insulate Germany against too great a dependency. And Mr Scholz must perform a tricky balancing act. Protect the German economy without risking accusations (there've been a fair few in recent months) that he's putting German business interests above all others. Mr Scholz's response to a shifting China may yet come to be the defining test of his chancellorship. Scholz trip ruffles feathers in Europe Analysis box by Katya Adler, Europe editor Germany is the EU's most powerful economy and arguably most influential member, so what it says and does matters. I once suggested former Angela Merkel could be viewed at times like a European Donald Trump for the way she tended to put Germany first. Wider EU concerns were ignored in favour of lucrative German energy and trade contracts with Russia and China. She demanded EU austerity measures for Mediterranean member states during the eurozone crisis to protect German taxpayers from incurring shared debt. Olaf Scholz is Mrs Merkel's successor in far more than just name, in the minds of many EU leaders. His massive aid package to help German businesses with high energy prices is viewed as giving them an unfair competitive advantage on the European single market. And his trip to China, announced but not co-ordinated with others in the EU, ruffled feathers Europe-wide. France's Emmanuel Macron recently warned Mr Scholz he risked becoming isolated. As Europe, and Germany first and foremost, weans itself off its dependency on Russian gas, the question is this: Is Berlin, blinded by the prospect of business deals, binding itself too close to China? French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for years for the EU to become less beholden to Beijing. Critics accused him of protectionism. But after global supply-chain breakdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, the "weaponisation" of energy imports/exports after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump's presidency, it became clear Europe should no longer rely so heavily on the US in terms of security. With Mr Macron's insistence on the continent becoming more cohesive and self-reliant, diversifying its trade partners began to seem sensible to Brussels. Olaf Scholz is viewed as worryingly out of step. Cellphones the ultimate distraction keep children from learning, educators say. But in attempts to keep the phones at bay, the most vocal pushback doesn't always come from students. In some cases, it's from parents. Bans on the devices were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since schools reopened, struggles with student behavior and mental health have given some schools even more reason to restrict access. But parents and caregivers who had constant access to their children during remote learning have been reluctant to give that up. Some fear losing touch with their kids during a school shooting. Shannon Moser, who has students in eighth and ninth grades in Rochester, New York, said she felt parents were being pushed away when the Greece Central School District this year began locking away student phones. Theres a form of accountability, she said, when students are able to record what goes on around them. Everything is just so politicized, so divisive. And I think parents just have a general fear of whats happening with their kids during the day, Moser said. She said she generally has liberal views, but many parents on either side of the political divide feel the same way. Amid heightened scrutiny of topics such as race and inclusion, some parents also view cellphone restrictions as a way of keeping them out of their kids education. Over a decade ago, around 90% of public schools prohibited cellphone use, but that shrank to 65% in the 2015-2016 school year. By the 2019-2020 school year, bans were in place at 76% of the schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. California and Tennessee recently have passed laws allowing schools to prohibit phones. Now, in particular, educators see a need to keep students on task to recover from pandemic shutdowns, when many students lost the equivalent of months of learning. And many school officials may feel empowered to ban the devices, given growing concern among parents about pandemic-era screen time, said Liz Keren-Kolb, clinical associate professor of education technologies at the University of Michigan. But she said parent views on the debate run the gamut. Story continues You still have the parents that want to have that direct line of communication and have concerns over their child not being able to have that communication, she said. But I do think that theres more of an empathy and an understanding toward their child being able to put away their device so they can really focus on the learning in the classroom, and wanting that face-to-face experience. Washington School District in western Pennsylvania implemented a ban this year as educators increasingly found cellphones to be an obstacle. Students were on their cellphones in the hallways and at the cafeteria tables. Some would call home or answer calls in the middle of a class, high school English teacher Treg Campbell said. The superintendent, George Lammay, said the ban was the right choice. Were looking to increase engagement and academic progress with kids not try to limit their contact with families. Thats not the point, he said. In some cases, pushback from parents has led to adjustments in policy. At the Brush School District in Colorado, cellphones were banned after teachers flagged concerns over online bullying. When parents spoke out, the district held a community meeting that lasted over two hours, with most testimony against the ban. The biggest takeaway, Superintendent Bill Wilson said, was that parents wanted their children to have access to their phones. The policy was adjusted to allow cellphones on campus, although they must be turned off and out of sight. The district also said it would accommodate a handful of students with unique circumstances. Theres not an intention to say cell phones are evil, Wilson said. Its a reset to say, How do we manage this in a way that makes sense for everybody? At the Richardson Independent School District, near Dallas, student cellphone use had been prohibited during instructional time before officials proposed buying magnetic pouches to seal them away during the school day. Parent feedback around the cost of the pouches and concerns about safety in emergencies led to a scaled-back plan to pilot the pouches at one of the district's eight middle schools, Forest Meadow Junior High. We used to get in touch with our kids when we wanted to, said Louise Boll, president of the Forest Meadow parent-teacher association. There was a lot of pushback and a lot of concern in the beginning of what this would look like, how this would unfold, how is it going to affect us getting in touch? Kids and their parents have largely adapted to the new policy, she said. In parent activists online discussions, there are plenty of defenders of cellphone bans. Some others, however, have railed against bans as efforts to keep parents from seeing violence and indoctrination inside schools. Legal action by parents remains rare, with one exception being an unsuccessful lawsuit by several parents against New York City's school cellphone ban in 2006, which ultimately was lifted in 2015. Still, petitions against school cellphone bans have increased on Change.org this year, a spokesperson said. Theres no perfect formula for cellphones in schools, said Kolb, who said the pendulum will likely swing back away from bans depending on how attitudes change regarding technology in schools. It really comes down to making sure that were educating students and parents about healthy habits with their digital devices," she said. ___ Brooke Schultz 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. ___ Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report. By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) -A union representing 55,000 education workers went on strike on Friday in Canada's most populous province of Ontario after failing to reach an agreement with the provincial government for better pay and more frontline staff in schools. The walkout by the workers, which include educational assistants, secretaries and library workers, forced hundreds of schools to keep their doors shut on Friday. The Toronto District School Board, Canada's largest with 247,000 students in 583 schools under its supervision, has said that all its schools would stay closed while the strike continues. The workers served a notice of strike on Sunday saying they had been unsuccessful in negotiating a new contract with Premier Doug Ford's right-leaning Progressive Conservative government. In anticipation of the strike, the Ford government passed a controversial law to force a contract on the workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and prevent them from going on strike. The legislation, introduced on Monday and passed into law on Thursday, has been widely criticized for its use of a so-called notwithstanding clause, which allows a provincial government to override certain aspects of Canada's Charter of Rights, which protects employees right to form unions. "The proactive use of the notwithstanding clause is actually an attack on people's fundamental rights, and in this case, is an attack on one of the most basic rights available that of collective bargaining," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Toronto on Friday. The Ford government argues that the workers' demands are too high and that the legislation was necessary to keep classrooms open after two years of disruptions to in-person schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Keeping Students in Class Act has made striking by CUPE workers an offence, carrying a fine of up to $C4,000 ($2970) for each individual. The union has said they will fight or pay the fine, if needed. Story continues Still, on Friday morning, workers started picket lines at dozens of locations across the province, including outside the office of Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce. Lecce, calling the strike "illegal" in a statement, said the government had filed a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board against CUPE workers. "Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so," Lecce said. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Josie Kao) Jamie Ritchie during the pre-Fiji captains run (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Wire) Captain Jamie Ritchie has called on Scotland to impose their game on Fiji as they bid to bounce back from last weekends agonising defeat by Australia. The Scots lost 16-15 to the Wallabies in their opening autumn Test but are red-hot favourites to notch a victory on Saturday when the Pacific Islanders visit Murrayfield. We obviously want to win every game we go into, but were confident this week that we learned some lessons from the game last weekend and were going in full of energy, said Ritchie. Well be looking to impose our game on them. We know what were expecting in terms of the things theyre going to bring to the game, but the most important thing for us is our performance and how we put that out there. We believe that if we put our best foot forward well come away with the win. After playing with an entirely home-based team last weekend as the match fell outwith the international window, Scotland are buoyed by welcoming key men like Stuart Hogg, Cam Redpath, Chris Harris, Rory Sutherland and Jonny Gray back into the mix. Its brilliant to have them back, said Ritchie. Theres a few more experienced heads in there and theyve brought a lot of energy to training this week. A few more voices talking, whether that be in the changing room or out on the pitch, so its great for us, and its great for me just to have that support as well. There are some familiar faces in the visiting camp, with Fiji under the charge of former Scotland head coach Vern Cotter, while number eight Bill Mata is a clubmate of Ritchies at Edinburgh. It will be good fun going up against Bill, said Ritchie. Hes pretty quiet. We have a laugh and stuff, but hes actually a very intelligent rugby player. He will rarely mess up a lineout call or wont know a play, and I expect hell be a leader within that group, for the Fijian guys. We know what he can do with the ball in hand, with his offloading game. Hes a pretty physical guy, so well be looking to get on the outside of him rather than run straight down his throat. Story continues My first game at Murrayfield back in 2018 was against Fiji and Bill was playing that day, and we swapped jerseys, so it will be special to run out with him again. Ritchie is still in the fledgling stages of his captaincy after being appointed to the role last month and he admits the pride of leading his country is unlikely to subside. Its a real privilege for me to be able to do this job, he said. I dont think that will ever wear off. Theres a wee bit more to be aware of and to do, but Im prepared and Im aware of it. I think if Id been caught off guard with that, a lot of it could have been a little bit overwhelming, but Im trying to embrace everything that comes with it and Im thoroughly enjoying it. A December court date has been set for a California judge to announce her decision whether Scott Peterson, the man convicted of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son, will be granted a new trial, Fox News has learned. Peterson, now 50, is expected to join his attorneys and prosecutors for the Dec. 2 hearing at the San Mateo County Superior Court, where Judge Anne-Christine Massullo will hand down her ruling regarding Petersons motion for a new trial, Fox News has learned. Peterson was transferred last month from California's San Quentin State Prison to Mule Creek State Prison. He was recently photographed with a salt-and-pepper beard, his typically short haircut and a slight smirk. SCOTT PETERSON FEELS RENEWED 'HOPE' AMID PRISON TRANSFER, CASE'S RESURGENCE: FAMILY The California Supreme Court overturned Petersons death sentence in 2020, after news that prospective jury candidates were improperly dismissed came to light, but maintained his conviction. SCOTT PETERSON MOVED OFF CALIFORNIA'S DEATH ROW AS JUDGE MULLS POSSIBLE NEW TRIAL READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP Peterson was convicted in 2004 for the murders of his 27-year-old wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner. Prosecutors argued at the time that he killed Laci and disposed of her body on Christmas Eve 2002 in San Francisco Bay. A child stops to look at a makeshift memorial and a missing person's banner offering a reward for the safe return of Laci Peterson at the East La Loma Park in Modesto, California, on Jan. 4, 2003. SCOTT PETERSON'S ATTORNEYS ARGUE FOR NEW TRIAL IN MURDERS OF WIFE LACI PETERSON AND UNBORN SON On Aug. 11 of this year, Peterson, his attorneys and Stanislaus County prosecutors delivered their closing arguments for roughly five and a half hours at the San Mateo County Superior Court regarding the potential for a retrial. LACI PETERSON DISAPPEARED 19 YEARS AGO: THE TRAGIC CASE THAT SENT FAMILY, PUBLIC ON CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE Defense attorneys have argued that juror Richelle Nice was biased and lied in her questionnaire to get on the jury. They pointed to evidence that during jury selection that Nice had neglected to share she had applied for a restraining order in 2000 while she was pregnant, and told authorities at the time that she "fears for her unborn child," The Associated Press reported at the time. Story continues During his arguments to the court at the time, Peterson attorney Cliff Gardner said Nice contradicted herself in multiple statements and later changed her answers to certain questions regarding her personal experiences and feelings. He argued she was inconsistent and uncooperative. Gardner said Nice refused to speak to the defense or the prosecution in 2015, and only testified in 2022 because she was granted immunity. LACI PETERSON DISAPPEARED 19 YEARS AGO: THE TRAGIC CASE THAT SENT FAMILY, PUBLIC ON CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE Gardner also said Nice responded "no" to a question asking whether she could base her decision entirely on the evidence produced in court and not from outside or pre-existing opinions or attitudes. However, Peterson's attorney at the time, who is no longer involved with the case, did not follow up on the answer, the judge said. However, Massullo questioned why Petersons attorneys did not ask follow-up questions to clarify some of Nices responses at the time. She noted that there were several inconsistencies in the prospective juror questionnaire in the original trial. David Harris, a prosecutor with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office told the court that Nice, when asked why she considered herself a "fair person," responded, "I know what it's like to be judged." The prosecution said Nice was a single mom who had never been on a jury before this trial and thought it would be a part of her civic duty. The 23-page questionnaire had 163 questions, and "she did the best that she could," he said. SCOTT PETERSON'S FORMER DEFENSE COUNSEL TOUTS NEW EVIDENCE: I REALLY BELIEVE IN SCOTTS INNOCENCE' Harris said there was no doubt that Nice made mistakes, but that she was not a liar. "She's inconsistent on her answers," he told the court. "But being wrong does not necessarily make it false or make her a liar. It just might be that she's really bad at filling out forms." Harris later added, "Nice showed sometimes that she could be a little bit confused about things." He further pointed to the evidence police had garnered against Peterson during the course of his investigation into Laci's and Conner's deaths. He explained, "From the simple fact that Laci and Conner, whose bodies washed ashore 90 miles from their home, but within sight of where Peterson admitted he went fishing on the day that they disappeared; to the research Peterson did on bay currents in the weeks preceding her disappearance; and the fishing boat he bought, but mentioned [to] no one; to Peterson's inability to explain what he was fishing for in the middle of the day; to his repeated subsequent, serendipitous trips to the marina in the weeks after her disappearance; to the many steps he took in the weeks after she went missing selling her car, exploring sale of the house, turning the nursery into a storage room that indicated that he already knew Laci and Conner were never coming back." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Nice previously told a court she did not have any bias against Peterson until after hearing the evidence presented at trial. Fox News' Michael Lundin contributed to this report. Do you think the mice in my apartment will go for my new crypto venture? Blockchain skeptics and critics often deride cryptocurrency as a whole as one big pyramid scheme. And though that point might have some room for debate, the Securities and Exchange Commission is officially adding at least one more crypto venture to the ever-growing list of definitely a scam operations. The SEC announced charges against four people in connection with a fraudulent crypto-themed Ponzi scheme called Trade Coin Club, on Friday. Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault are facing civil fines, along with other penalties, in Seattles U.S. District Court. Read more Trade Coin Club, which was founded by Braga, ran from 2016 to 2018 as a multi-level marketing program. And in that time, filings show the scheme defrauded more than 100,000 people out of 82,000 bitcointhen, worth about $295 million, according to the SEC complaint. Braga and his crew of promoters allegedly lured investors in with claims that their money would be managed by a finance bot that made millions of microtransactions per second. And thanks to the magical (read: nonexistent) bot, those same marks were told that they would receive a minimum of 0.35% return on their investment every day, the Commission said. But instead of putting the funds raised into a crypto investment account run by a lightning-fast trading AI, the SEC claims that Braga and co. pocketed it instead. Further, in classic Ponzi style, the money that a subset of investors were able to withdraw allegedly came from other investor contributionsnot from any crypto trading activity. We allege that Braga used Trade Coin Club to steal hundreds of millions from investors around the world and enrich himself by exploiting their interest in investing in digital assets, said David Hirsch, chief of the Commissions crypto assets and cyber enforcement unit. Story continues In total, the SEC is claiming that Braga walked away with $55 million worth of crypto, while Paradise received $1.4 million, Taylor got $2.6 million, and Tetreault netted $625,000. If the defendants are found liable in the case, theyll have to return those funds as well as pay hefty civil fines. And, theyll be barred from ever participating in another multi-level marketing venture or crypto investment operation. The alleged Trade Coin Club scam is far from the first Ponzi maneuver to pop-up in the crypto-verse in recent years. In fact, its so common that outlets covering the blockchain have explainer articles to help readers try to recognize and avoid the schemes. Back in August, the SEC filed a different set of charges against 11 people accused of stealing $300 million in a similar fraudulent set-up. And, between January 2021 and April 2022, the Federal Trade Commission reported that Americans have lost over $1 billion to crypto-related scams. So remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. And often, a Trade Coin Club can turn into a Betrayed Coin Club. More from Gizmodo Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. A woman is in trouble with the law after police say a drug deal with a student led to several children overdosing on marijuana-infused edibles at a Miami elementary and middle school. Thalia Aceves, 22, faces charges of selling a controlled substance and contributing to child delinquency, court documents show. She bonded out of jail on Thursday. On Wednesday, police and fire rescue were called to Citrus Grove elementary and middle schools after multiple children ranging in age from 9 to 13 years old were suffering from a THC overdose and rushed to the hospital, an arrest report read. One of the students has since been released; the conditions of the others are unknown. Detectives learned that a student bought edibles and handed them out to other students, the report read. The student told police they purchased the drugs through Instagram. Detectives quickly set up a sting operation. Pretending to be the student, they planned another meet to buy a bag of edibles from the dealer: Aceves, the arrest report read. Police arrested Aceves after she arrived at the meet, and cops seized from her 50 cannabis-infused vape cartridges, 244 grams of raw cannabis, two packs of cannabis-infused edibles, a scale and $400. Aceves told detectives shes been selling Mary Jane for the last two years, the report read and knowingly distributed it to minors. A divided Washington Supreme Court on Thursday approved a registered sex offenders application to become an attorney in the state though the man says hes not sure hell wind up practicing law after all. Zachary Leroy Stevens, 35, has been living in Arizona, where he attended law school and worked for a lawyer who represents American Indian tribes. He grew up in Utah, where he was convicted of voyeurism after sending child pornography to an undercover detective in 2006 at age 19 and where several years later he was arrested for drunken driving while on probation. In a 5-4 decision, the court noted his relative youth at the time of his offenses, that he wasnt much older than the people whose images he shared, and said he had since demonstrated the good moral character necessary to be allowed to practice law. Stevens was previously refused admission to the Arizona bar but said he would move to Washington state, where his wife had connections, if his application there was approved. Like all of us, Stevens is more than the sum of the worst moments of his life, Justice Mary Yu wrote for the majority. As an adult, he has abstained from engaging in any unlawful conduct since 2013. In that time, he has graduated from college and law school, he has been steadily employed, and he has developed a supportive network of friends and family. The dissenting justices, led by Justice Barbara Madsen, said they were concerned that Stevens had not completed his legal obligations he must continue to register as a sex offender until 2024 at least; that he had not provided a current mental health evaluation; and that the Arizona bar had rejected his application, a factor that Washington should respect, they said. The fact that Stevens must register as a sex offender until he is eligible to petition for remission is particularly concerning, especially because one of this courts key responsibilities is to guard the public and its confidence in the judicial system, Madsen wrote. Story continues That said, she suggested her analysis might be different once Stevens submitted a current evaluation and was no longer required to register as a sex offender. Under Utah law, sex offenders can petition to have their registration requirements canceled after 10 years. Stevens applied to become a lawyer in Washington in 2019, after Arizona rejected his application. A Washington State Bar Association committee reviewed his petition and rejected it 6-5. He appealed to the Supreme Court. In a phone interview Thursday night, he said he cried when he read the decision. Ive been trying to get admitted to the practice of law for longer than I attended law school, he said. Stevens said he is now working for the multinational conglomerate Honeywell, where he works on subcontracting for government projects. His plans to move to Washington state have been disrupted because he and his wife have split up, he said. As for legal work, he noted that he could stay in Phoenix and represent tribes as an attorney on gaming and water rights issues, because he wouldnt need to be a member of the Arizona bar to do so. Or he could move to Washington state anyway, since his brother recently moved to Portland, Oregon. I have a lot of options, Stevens said. The decision was extremely compassionately written, and it affords a lot of people opportunities that just werent available to them. Even if I dont pursue the practice of law, Im satisfied this court found merit in my case. More so than any other state, Washington has established parameters on what it takes to be admitted to the practice of law when you have a checkered background. The Washington Supreme Court has previously allowed people convicted of crimes to become lawyers. In 2014, the court ruled that Shon Hopwood, a convicted bank robber who became a jailhouse lawyer could take the state bar exam. Hopwood passed, was admitted to the bar and now teaches at Georgetown University Law Center and has been admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar. He also represented Tarra Simmons, who successfully petitioned the court to take the bar despite convictions for assault and drug and theft charges. In 2020, she became the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the Washington state Legislature, and she now works with the National Justice Impact Bar Association, which helps people with criminal backgrounds become lawyers. Simmons said Thursday the organization is aware of about 100 attorneys around the country who have been admitted to practice law despite past convictions but no others who have ongoing legal obligations such as probation or sex offender registration. She was thrilled for Stevens, but to the extent that criminal history has long been used as a proxy for race, the ruling is about more that just his admission to the bar, she said. This is about furthering justice and advancing policies against systemic racism, Simmons said. Tulsans are reacting to the sudden closure of the ahha Hardesty Arts Center. The Arts and Huminites Council of Tulsa, known as ahha Tulsa, was founded in 1961. They opened downtowns Hardesty Arts Center in 2012 to house art installations and resources for local artists. Tulsans like John Howland were surprised about the closure. For several years, Ive used the dark room facilities here and then the media room, which is where they have the computers setup, printers and whatnot. I use that for color photography and the dark room for black and white, said Howland. Howland is a retired attorney who shoots portraits and national park landscape photos in his free time. It was a shock, although Id seen a decline as far as operations, at least in the areas that I use, for some years, he said. A spokesperson with Ahha Tulsa said in a statement, Unfortunately, it has been increasingly difficult to operate ahha in its current form due to the most challenging economic and social time in recent history. We are working closely with our partners to ensure we find a long-term future for some of our programs and do this as quickly as possible. For our artists, partners and vendors, please know we are working as quickly as possible to get in touch with you. FOX23 dug into ahha Tulsas tax records available through ProPublica for further answers. With the exception of 2018, theyve lost money every year. In 2019, The ended up with a negative net income of 1.2 million dollars. Howlands not sure where hell go now to develop his photos, because ahha Tulsas facilities were one of kind in the region. Howland said, My daughter lives in St. Louis, and they have nothing anywhere near comparable to this, as far as the ability for someone in the public to come in, get a membership, and use the facilities for photography that we have. And, its unfortunate we wont have it. A Kentucky judge committed a long list of violations that included mismanaging his courtroom, pressuring people for campaign contributions, violating peoples rights and rigging bids for a home-detention monitoring service, a state ethics panel ruled Friday. The Judicial Conduct Commission issued an order removing Circuit Judge James T. Jameson from office. Jameson is up for reelection, but the panel went further to say that he is unfit for office in a new term as well. There is a good basis to conclude that Jameson should be permanently removed from judicial office because of the severity of his violations, the committee said in its order. His violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct were extensive and frequent, the commission said in its order. Jamesons attorney, Richard L. Walter, said he would appeal the order. Jameson has been circuit judge for Marshall and Calloway counties, in Western Kentucky, since 2015. Jameson strongly disputed the charges in his written responses, saying they were based on biased, misrepresented, and, in some cases, purely manufactured information from people who wanted to take him down politically. However, commission members voted against him unanimously on each of seven charges. The commission said there had been prior ethics complaints against Jameson, which it handled in two cases with private admonitions. Abusing his power Those cases involved some of the same allegations against Jameson as the current case, which was relevant because hed been cautioned about similar matters before, the panel said. Several of the charges against Jameson involved an effort to set up a home-incarceration program with electronic ankle monitors in order to finance a drug-treatment facility, which had been a longtime dream of Jamesons, according to the commissions order. Jameson improperly took part in preparing specifications for the program and submitting a bid to run it from a non-profit board he headed, which was a conflict of interest, the commission said. Story continues The commission said that good intentions didnt overcome Jamesons obligation to follow ethics rules. Other charges the commission ruled against Jameson on included: Abusing his power to hold people in contempt of court, which the commission said shocks the conscience. In one case, Jameson got upset when a bailiff told him that because of COVID-19 restrictions, a deputy jailer wouldnt accept someone Jameson had ordered jailed. The judge recessed court and ordered a deputy sheriff to take the deputy jailer into custody, the order said. Jameson held a hearing for the handcuffed deputy jailer without his attorney present, then admonished him and let him go, the order said. Retaliation In another case in which Jameson revoked a womans probation, her grandfather, who was in the courtroom, asked what he should do with her baby. Jameson said if the man couldnt take care of the baby, he should turn it over to the state. As the man left the courtroom, he commented out loud that he wouldnt vote for Jameson. The judge immediately held him in contempt, had him put in a holding cell and conducted a hearing for him a couple of hours later without an attorney. Jameson conditionally discharged the mans 360-day contempt sentence for two years, meaning he didnt have to serve if he stayed out of trouble, but that left him with a criminal record, the Judicial Conduct Commission noted. Jameson testified the man resisted arrest, but the video showed that was not the case, the commission said. Pressuring an attorney to file a complaint against another lawyer and to give a sworn statement backing Jameson in a complaint against him. Retaliating against an employee of the sheriffs office by seeking to have him fired or reassigned. Jameson believed the employee had leaked video of him in the judicial center to the media, though there was no evidence of that, the commission said. Information in the charges indicated the footage was of Jameson in the judicial center in his underwear. Jameson said in his response that he sometimes worked very late and slept in his office. On one occasion, his wife called him from outside the back door of the judicial center to come down and see his children, and, having gotten little sleep, he stumbled down to see them. Jameson later asked the manager at the Murray State University radio station to confirm he wouldnt run a story about the camera footage of you walking around in the courthouse in your underwear, according to the charge. That demonstrated Jameson tried to use the power of his office for personal gain, the commission said. Attempting to block the commissions authority to investigate the allegations against him. In its ruling, the commission cited the standards judges are supposed to follow, including maintaining the dignity of the office; avoiding impropriety; and aspiring to conduct themselves in ways that ensure public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and competence. Jameson, the panel said, failed in essentially every respect of this fundamental rule applicable to all judges. Sienna Miller said recently that a Broadway producer once told her to "f--- off" after she asked for pay equal to her male co-star on the production. The actress told British Vogue for its December issue she was making less than half of what her male counterpart was taking in and she told the "extremely powerful" producer "Its not about money its about fairness and respect, thinking theyd come back and say, Of course, of course. But they didnt. They just said, Well f--- off then.'" Miller didnt name the show because she didnt want to be "mean" but she has only headlined two shows on the Great White Way "After Miss Julie" in 2009 and "Cabaret" in 2015. She said while she at first felt "terrible about myself and embarrassed" about the incident she later found it to be a "pivotal moment" for her career and self-worth. US NATIONAL SOCCER SIGNS HISTORIC EQUAL PAY AGREEMENT IN WASHINGTON DC Sienna Miller of 'Wander Darkly' attends the IMDb Studio at Acura Festival Village on location at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. "I realized I had every right to be equally subsidized for the work that I would have done," she said. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP She also said when she shot 2019s "21 Bridges" with Chadwick Boseman the late actor reallocated some of his salary so she could earn an equal salary to him. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER "What you did was extraordinary and meant the world," she said she told Boseman at the time. "He came up to me when we wrapped and said, You got paid what you deserved." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP She added that actors "10 years younger" than her have the "word no in their language in a way that I didnt. [Now] if you say, I dont feel comfortable in front of any form of executive, theyre sh---ing their pants. Youre included in a conversation about your level of comfort. Its changed everything." PITTSBURGH Josh Shapiro is in as good of a position as any Democrat running in a critical swing-state race. But he is not leaving anything up to chance. Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, enjoys a substantial and widening lead in the polls over his GOP opponent, Republican Doug Mastriano. Still, Shapiro is spending the last week of the campaign on a barnstorming six-day, 25-stop bus tour of the state, where he is warning voters about how much is on the line in his battle against the "uniquely dangerous" Mastriano, a state senator who was outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, wants to overhaul Pennsylvania elections and has been accused of elevating antisemitism. NBC News joined Shapiro for the first leg of his statewide bus tour on Tuesday, during which he delivered four campaign speeches across western Pennsylvania. Zeroing in on his opponent, Shapiro said Mastrianos rhetoric is making Pennsylvanians "less safe." Mastriano "is by far the most extreme and dangerous person to ever run for public office in Pennsylvania," Shapiro told a small group of reporters aboard his bus. "And I think he poses a clear and present danger to democracy, our freedom and our safety." Shapiro, 49, is far from the only candidate in key swing states making the case to voters that the future of democracy is on the line this fall, though he appears among those best positioned for success. The state's attorney general, Shapiro has seen his poll numbers exceed those of John Fetterman, the state's lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate nominee, and other Democrats in key races across other battleground states in a cycle that looks promising for the GOP. Part of this can be attributed to Mastriano's struggles to expand his coalition outside of his base and a lack of resources to get out his message. Polling shows Shapiro winning over a small but sizable number of Republicans, and ticket-splitters backing Shapiro and Mehmet Oz, Fetterman's Republican opponent for Senate, are weighing heavily on the Pennsylvania races. But his supporters paint a fuller picture of why Shapiro, a former state representative and county commissioner who outperformed Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in his 2016 and 2020 runs, has emerged as a rare breakout star for Democrats this cycle. Story continues Supporters for gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro attend a campaign rally in Beaver, Pa. (Jeff Swensen for NBC News) At stops along the route, supporters described Shapiro as a dynamic speaker and hard-nosed campaigner who is delivering the right message at the right time: talking up boosting police and education spending and prioritizing protecting individual freedoms and democracy, all while highlighting his own record to enhance his credibility. Some supporters even said they could one day see Shapiro running for president, a suggestion he batted away among reporters. Kathy ONeil, 68, told NBC News at a campaign stop in Erie that she felt Shapiro has "done so much for us." His support from law enforcement, including the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police two groups that have endorsed Oz in the Senate race stood out to her, too. "Hes a champion of the people in Pennsylvania," she said. "I cant say anything negative about him. But you cant, unfortunately, say that about the Democrats [at large]. I mean, Im a Democrat. But hes run a great campaign. Look at all hes done. He didnt come out of nowhere." At each stop, Shapiro talked up his plans should he win, which include expanding public education funding and adding mental health counselors and more vocational tech opportunities in schools, hiring 2,000 police officers and boosting green energy jobs. He highlighted his achievements in office, which include negotiating an agreement between western Pennsylvanias largest health care and health insurance providers, staving off disruptions for people across the region, and advancing an investigation that found 1,000 Pennsylvania children had been abused by the Roman Catholic Church. (Mastriano, 58, has said Shapiro has a grudge against the church, while some Catholic organizations believe Shapiro went too far). "There is no fight too big, no mountain too high to climb," Shapiro said in Beaver. "We will take on any and all comers, including Doug Mastriano. And this guy is super dangerous, really extreme and must be defeated." Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., told NBC News ahead of Shapiros speech in Beaver that the campaign against Mastriano is "a different race than many," making it hard to draw out too many lessons for Democrats in other races "except to say that Josh spent a very long time actually doing a great job as a public servant." Pennsylvania Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro meets supporters (Jeff Swensen for NBC News) "When we look at who we are nominating for these big races, what personal record do they have separate and apart from whatever kind of social media cache they may have?" said Lamb, who lost to Fetterman in the Senate primary. "It could be an important lesson." To take on Shapiro, Mastriano has struggled greatly to raise money and draw financial support from outside Republican groups to boost his campaign. Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, also a Republican, has not endorsed his candidacy, while Oz has kept Mastriano at arm's length. Shapiro has been able to gain support from some wary Republicans who feel Mastriano is too extreme and believe Shapiro to be more of a moderate Democrat. "Hes one of those unique candidates where people tend to project their own values and ideology onto him," said Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist. "If youre a moderate Democrat, you think hes a moderate. If youre a progressive, you think hes a progressive." But Shapiro, as Mikus said, has also benefited from investing time in places across the state, including smaller and more Republican-leaning counties, during his tenure as attorney general. During a campaign stop in Clarion, Shapiro pledged to advocate for "forgotten" parts of the state. "Thats why hes just uniquely strong," Mikus said. "I mean, he may be the strongest candidate Ive seen for governor perhaps in my lifetime." Speaking on his campaign bus, Shapiro described himself as a pragmatist. "We have to find ways to get to working together again," he said. "If you want to label that as moderate or whatever word you used, I mean, you can choose whatever label you want for me. I just think its about pragmatism." Pennsylvania Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (Jeff Swensen for NBC News) His opponent has charted a different path, rising through the pandemic and aftermath of the 2020 election to lead Pennsylvanias far right and emerge from a deep Republican primary field that failed to coalesce around any single alternative. Through his campaign, Mastriano has suggested he could "decertify every machine in the state with the stroke of a pen via the secretary of state," whom the governor appoints, in addition to saying he could make every Pennsylvania voter have to re-register. He has also compared abortion to murder and has advocated for strict restrictions on the procedure. He says his views are irrelevant on abortion because he can only sign whatever the Legislature passes, but a Mastriano win would in all likelihood provide Republicans with unified control over Harrisburg, allowing them to pass new restrictions. In recent weeks, allegations of antisemitism have taken on more prominence in the race. This summer, Mastriano came under scrutiny for a campaign payment to the far-right social media site Gab. The sites founder has called for an exclusively Christian conservative movement, while the alleged assailant who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 posted antisemitic rants to Gab prior to the shooting. After the Gab payment was uncovered, Mastriano posted a statement saying, "I reject anti-Semitism in any form." But Mastriano later drew scrutiny for saying the Jewish day school that Shapiro, an observant Jew, had attended was privileged, exclusive, elite. A top campaign adviser called Shapiro "at best a secular Jew," while Mastrianos wife, Rebbie, responded to the allegations of antisemitism last month by saying, "As a family we so much love Israel, in fact, Im going to say we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do." Amid his own tour across the state during the final week, Mastriano challenged Shapiro at a rally in suburban Pittsburgh to "stare me in the eyes and call me an antisemite." "How do you respond to somebody who says youre antisemitic?" Mastriano later added. "Youre on the defense right away. Theres no way you can win." Mastrianos campaign against Shapiro is threefold tying him closely to Covid shutdown orders that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolfs administration enacted early in the pandemic; blaming Shapiro for rising crime in the state saying Wednesday that the state attorney general "has blood on his hands" and "doesnt care about anything but his own political ambition" and putting Shapiro on the side of culture war issues that infuriate conservatives. "Josh Shapiro stands for all that is wrong with the Democrat Party," Mastriano said. "He is the face of elitism. He is the face of entitlement. He is the face of political correctness." Where the two campaigns really contrast, though, is on how they talk about freedom. At each of Shapiro's stops, he sought to compare his vision for freedom with Mastrianos, whose campaign slogan is "Walk as Free People" (which Mastriano has said is based on biblical text). Pennsylvania Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (Jeff Swensen for NBC News) Along the bus tour, Shapiro framed Mastriano as someone who would curtail individual freedom in the state whether it be by restricting abortion, limiting voting rights or making it harder to form a union by signing a "right-to-work" law. "Real freedom comes in a commonwealth where we respect everyone, no matter what you look like or where you come from, who you love or who you pray to," Shapiro said in Clarion. "Thats real freedom." "This is about our democracy," he added later. "This is about our fundamental freedoms." This article was originally published on NBCNews.com While visiting ones former high school isnt exactly at the top of many peoples to-do lists, Will Smith recently made it a point to pop in and surprise students at his alma mater: Overbrook High School. The School District of Philadelphia announced the King Richard actors surprise visit on Thursday through an Instagram video, captioned, What an amazing surprise! Today, @willsmith made a surprise visit back to Overbrook High School. As he walks through the institutions hallways, Smith can be heard remarking Wow multiple times. Shortly thereafter, he walks into a classroom of awaiting students, who are thrilled to have Smith in their presence. View this post on Instagram A post shared by School District Philadelphia (@philly_schools) Further information about Smiths visit came through the school districts Facebook page. Digital Media students at Overbrook High got quite a surprise today when Philly native and Overbrook alum Will Smith visited their class! Thanks for everything Will, a Facebook post reads. In addition to these uploads, Tony B. Watlington Sr. superintendent of the school district shared a few photos of Smiths Overbrook High School visit on Twitter. Always a good day when Will Smith visits his alma mater Overbrook High School! @Overbrookhigh pic.twitter.com/rvgnjNZ6VZ Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr. (@watlington_sr) November 3, 2022 Social media users swiftly began reacting to Smiths visit, and many were thrilled to see it. I was a teacher at Bluford elementary, right down the street from Overbrook, and we were so proud to be affiliated with Will Smith in even the most incremental way. Im so glad he continues to recognize and honor the community which gave him his foundation, one Facebook user commented. Story continues That was so awesome! He wasnt too Hollywood to give hugs handshakes take pictures. This makes us (Philly) proud, someone penned on Instagram. Wow! Thats awesome! They are lucky to have Will Smith come to their school. He is a icon without a doubt, another person wrote. However, not everyone welcomed the surprise with open arms and took the opportunity to bring up the infamous slapgate incident that went down at the 2022 Academy Awards. No slaps? one user succinctly asked on Instagram. Glad to see hes doing his community service! Only 9,959 more hours to log, a Twitter user joked. You know he is messed up. He hasnt even been close to a Philly public school since he left lol its a shame he couldnt bother before he smacked a man on national tv, another person wrote on Facebook. Despite the mixed reactions, it appears as though the majority of the community was pleased with the actors visit. Shoutout to Will Smith for dropping by to essentially pay homage to his former high school! South Carolina broke its one-day early voting record for the second time on Wednesday, more than doubling the record set during the primary elections. The South Carolina State Election Commission (SEC) reported on Thursday that almost 50,000 ballots were cast the day before at early voting centers, bringing the count of early voters across the state up to around 383,000. The tens of thousands of absentee ballots already returned inflate the number of South Carolinians who have already voted to a total of 431,000. With three days left of early voting totals remaining to report, the SEC expects pre-election day turnout to continue to rise significantly, the organization wrote. South Carolina previously broke its one-day early voting record last week, when 40,000 voters cast ballots that Monday. Early voting across the country has exceeded 30 million, according to a measure from the University of Florida. That number includes 13 million in-person early votes and 18 million votes cast through mail-in ballots. Voters in Georgia beat their midterm early voting record in mid-October, casting a total of 131,318 ballots in one day. Comparatively, Georgians cast 70,849 ballots on the first day of early voting during the 2018 midterms, while the 2020 record (136,739) remains higher than the 2022 number. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. South Korean Air Force F-35 A Stealths fly by during the press day of the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2019 at the Seoul Military Airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2019. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon South Korea mobilized dozens of fighter jets after detecting 180 warplanes from the North. This comes after North Korea fired a barrage of ballistic missiles in recent days. The US and South Korea's air forces have been conducting joint air training all week. South Korea scrambled 80 military aircraft on Friday after it detected 180 North Korean warplanes flying north of the two countries' shared border. Fighters and bombers from North Korea's military were observed over land and off the country's eastern and western coasts between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time Friday, according to the South's Yonhap News Agency. Seoul responded by launching 80 warplanes, including the F-35A fighter jet, and there were no reports of clashes between the rival sides. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have soared this week, as Pyongyang expresses anger about joint military drills between the US and South Korea. Since Monday, the two allies have undergone large-scale training exercises in an event called Vigilant Storm, which the US Air Force said is to strengthen combat readiness and increase the two allies' abilities to work together. North Korea has long admonished the two sides for conducting these types of exercises. In response to the drills, which are ongoing, the North on Wednesday launched some two dozens short-range ballistic missiles or surface-to-air missiles the most it has ever fired in a single day. Later, Pyongyang went on to fire a few more missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile, and launched dozens of artillery rounds prompting an extension of Vigilant Storm. Pak Jong Chon, secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party of Korea, said the decision to extend joint air drills between the US and South Korea is "a very dangerous and false choice." "The irresponsible decision of the U.S. and South Korea is shoving the present situation caused by provocative military acts of the allied forces to an uncontrollable phase. The U.S. and south Korea will get to know what an irrevocable and awful mistake they made," Chon said in a Thursday statement published by North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA. Story continues According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project, North Korean missiles launches have soared in 2022 compared to previous years. And this week's tensions come amid mounting concerns that the North is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear weapons test and its first since 2017. North Korea's missile launching spree and threatening rhetoric have drawn international criticism, including from the US and South Korea. Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington on Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and South Korea's Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup condemned Pyongyang for escalating the situation. "Secretary Austin and I affirmed that any nuclear attack by the DPRK, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and result in the end of Kim Jong-un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance. This is a strong warning against the DPRK," Jong-Sup said through a translator. Read the original article on Business Insider The rocket took off from China on Monday Spain briefly closed parts of its airspace over risks posed by a Chinese rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Barcelona and Ibiza airports were among those impacted by the grounding, which lasted around 40 minutes on Friday. The decision came after China sent its powerful Long March 5B rocket to deliver the final module of its Tiangong space station. A remnant of the rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry, falling in the Pacific Ocean. It was described as one of the largest objects to re-enter the atmosphere in recent years by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. In May 2020, properties in Ivory Coast were damaged when debris from the rocket's first launch came back down to Earth. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking service had said on its website that the "statistical probability of an impact on the ground in populated areas" was low, with the remnant expected to land somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. However, it warned southern Italy, as well as northern Spain and Portugal were also in the trajectory. As a precaution, Spain's national airspace agency established an 100km (62-mile) wide exclusion zone on either side of the falling rocket's orbit. In the end, most of the rocket's remnants burnt up while the rest came down in the Pacific almost 1,000km southwest of Acapulco in Mexico. In the past, America's space agency Nasa has called on China to design rockets to disintegrate into smaller pieces upon re-entry, as is the international norm. MADRID (Reuters) -Spain briefly closed the airspace over the northeastern region of Catalonia and three other regions on Friday, causing delays to around 300 flights, as remnants of a Chinese rocket passed by before hitting the ocean off Mexico's coast, authorities said. "Due to the risk associated with the passage of the space object CZ-5B through the Spanish airspace, flights have been totally restricted from 9:38 a.m. to 10:18 a.m. (0838-0918 GMT) in Catalonia and other communities," Catalonia's emergency service said on its Twitter account. According to Spanish airport operator Aena, 300 flights out of the 5,484 scheduled to operate on Friday in its 46 Spanish airports were delayed due to air traffic restrictions. China Manned Space agency said remnants from China's most powerful rocket, the Long March 5B, re-entered the atmosphere at 6:08 p.m. Beijing time (1008 GMT), with most of them burning up and the rest touching down in the Pacific Ocean with coordinates 101.9 degrees west, 9.9 degrees north. That is almost 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southwest of Acapulco in Mexico. The rocket blasted off on Oct. 31 from southern China to deliver the last module of the Chinese space station. It was the fourth flight of the Long March 5B since its maiden launch in May 2020. On its first deployment, fragments of the rocket's boosters landed on the Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings in the West African nation, though no injuries were reported. Debris from the second flight landed harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, while remnants from the third fell into the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. A rocket's re-entry into the atmosphere is a common international practice, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a regular briefing on Friday when asked if China had taken measures to reduce the risks. Zhao said the probability of causing harm to aviation activities and the ground was "extremely low". (Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Joan Faus, Corina Pons and Charlie Devereux in Madrid, and Martin Quin Pollard and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Alison Williams and Mark Potter) If you havent heard, Puerto Viejo is a certified contender for paradise on earth, so it makes sense that a perfect Sunday in Puerto Viejo is on the to-experience list. On the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in the Limon province, it is a small tourist town known for its Jamaican roots. The slow port town is loved by many. While its true, every day could feel like a Sunday in this patch of Costa Rica, we gathered resources for the best possible Sunday. Offering all the goodness youd expect from a coastal town, Puerto Viejo has many beach options as well as a chance to escape into the dense beach-adjacent jungles. Here is what a perfect Sunday in Puerto Viejo looks like: Wake up to the beach There is nothing more precious than waking up to the sound of waves. Start the day off at the beach, taking time to revel in the secluded beach behind Salsa Brava or head up to the Black sand beach. You might find many meditating, taking a morning swim, or enjoying a fruit-filled breakfast on the beach. Bag full of fruit Speaking of tropical fruit, head over to the towns favorite, El Mercadito, and grab the freshest pineapples and mangos and anything else that catches your eye. On Sunday morning, it opens at 8 a.m. Time for a massage Getty Images Now that youve woken up a bit, what better way to ease into the day than with a massage? Puerto Viejo is a renowned wellness hub in Central America, particularly for Black traveling women. Many enjoy the abundance of retreats, wellness programs, and massage studios. Check out PURE Jungle Spa, just on the edge of the town, this massage studio has 15+ years in business and an abundance of experience/practice. Nothing can destroy your zen after a massage that resets your mind and body for another week in the Caribbean. Take a bike ride A post shared by PURE Jungle Spa (@purejunglespa) > Puerto Viejo is known for being a very bikeable location. Rent a bike and take a ride around the Irie town, taking in the Caribbean vibes and maybe stopping for a Jamaican patty once you reach the town center. Story continues Get a table at Lidias Place to get some authentic Caribbean food When you get hungry, there is one place that will fill your stomach but also your heart. Lidias Place is a favorite in Puerto Viejo and the eponymous owner can often be found ready to greet you and offer you some worldly advice. Lidias Place is the go-to for traditional Caribbean and Costa Rican classics. That is to say, youre going to get the best of both worlds and see why the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica is famous for its tasty cuisines. End the day with purple sunsets at Playa Cocles A post shared by Aleix Ristol Marcet (@aleixrm.films) > Save the final hours of the day for Playa Cocles, youll thank us for it. This prized beach has gorgeous sunset views guaranteed, and if youre lucky, youll have a chance to join a volleyball game or watch the bonfire. Another option is to simply chill and take in the joy of being in such a wonderful, slow town on a Sunday. A pura vida moment if ever there was one. Related: What To Know Before You Book Your Trip To Puerto Viejo, Costa Ricas Jamaican Town Wall Street is sipping on Starbucks shares after a better than expected quarter sparked optimism on a broader rebound in the business next year. Starbucks stock gained more than 9% in morning trading on Friday after fiscal fourth quarter sales, U.S. same store sales and profits handily beat analyst forecasts. The coffee giant had one of the Top 10 most visited ticker pages on Yahoo Finance ahead of the opening bell. On a call with analysts, execs stuck with upbeat guidance for earnings growth of 15% to 20% from fiscal year 2023 to 2025 and hinted sales in October were solid. "FY23 and long-term targets, although setting a high bar, appear on track with U.S. same-store sales/margin momentum likely to continue, in our opinion," Jefferies analyst Andy Barish wrote in a note to clients. "We think recent, ongoing and planned investments into the biz (people, equipment, tech, etc.) set to play well long-term for a large-cap global brand capable of weathering macro headwinds." Here is the vibe on Wall Street on SBUX coming off the results: Jefferies: Andy Barish Rating: Buy (reiterated) Price Target: $100 "Impressive same-store sales beat in U.S., multiple near/long-term drivers in place. U.S. same-store sales of 11% beat consensus of 8%, with 1% traffic and 10% average check, driven by mid to high single digit percentage pricing, strong food attach, digital (MOP 26% of sales), drive-thru, delivery, Rewards (28.7 million members, +16% year over year, and contributed record 55% of tender), cold beverage platform continuing to increase in mix (up 100bps quarter over quarter to 76%) and with more customizations/mods (now 60% of U.S. co-owned store beverages). FY23 comp guide reiterated: Global near high end of 7-9% range, U.S. 7-9%, China negative in 1Q given recent COVID flare-up but outsized gains rest of year on easy laps; F1Q Global same-store sales closer to 7%; fiscal year total revenue growth of 10-12% even with higher foreign exchange impact. Longer-term, we view ongoing and planned investments into team members (partners), operations, and equipment/tech discussed at the Sept analyst day event as supportive of strong same-store sales momentum. We raise our FY23 estimate to 10% fr 9%, and keep FY24 8%." Story continues An employee services in a Starbucks coffee truck at Wuhan International Plaza on October 6, 2022 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. (Photo by Getty Images Citigroup: Jon Tower Rating: Neutral (reiterated) Price Target: $93 (previous $90) "Hard to argue with the business momentum results confirmed a (widely expected) low double-digit F4Q U.S. and improving international trends (including China). However, we could see the near-term sentiment pendulum swinging with: (1) higher frequency foot traffic data somewhat contradicting company commentary/guidance that suggested building momentum into October in the U.S., and (2) guidance that requires a rapidly improving China backdrop in FY23 (after a setback in F1Q). At the same time, the call did little to clear up a key question coming out of the recent investor day: how revenue, profit and returns accretive will the U.S. initiatives be once fully installed (espescially the Siren remodel program)? Shares may see a pop on a U.S. headline beat/FY23 EPS estimates coming up, but we see little reason for a meaningful, sustained leg-up without color on how these initiatives build to long-term guidance." Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced charges Thursday against 17 members of the alleged 183 Gangster Bloods including two gang members from Athens. Joining Carr at a news conference in Atlanta to announce the indictments was Gov. Brian Kemp, who praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Gang Task Force and other agencies for the investigation. A House Bill signed by Kemp early this year gave concurrent jurisdiction for the Attorneys Generals Office to prosecute gang activity statewide, according to a news release from the offices of Kemp and Carr. The 183 Gangster Bloods, a set of the street gang known as the Bloods, is based in the Bronx, N.Y. The ages of those indicted ranged from 19 to 49. Among the suspects is Ralph Alicea, who is serving time in Attica State Prison in New York and is alleged to be the national leader of the gang. The two men from Athens were indicted as a result of crimes that officials said occurred in Athens. Charges: Probe by Attorney General Gang Unit leads to charges in Athens Arrests: 'Operation Washout Classic City': 49 suspects in Athens linked to violent crime, gangs arrested The indictments allege the gang members worked together to illegally obtain money, weapons and property and that the acts were perpetrated through various means including assault and threats of violence. Crimes by the gang occurred between January 2019 and October 2022 in Athens-Clarke, Barrow, Bulloch, Candler, Chattooga, Fulton, Gwinnett, Laurens, Monroe and Walton, according to the news release. The indictments reveal electronic communications including such gang recruitment statements where one member wrote start breeding like krazy. One item in the indictment shows the gang member scheduled a block party with the purpose of recruiting children. Another reads: Im working on it. I be buying the neighborhood kids ice cream when the truck come out there. And Im planning to put together a big cookout for the hood. The documents also disclose where some gang members purchased firearms from stores in the region with many being purchased at gun outlets in Athens. One communication also suggests that a firearm be taken by robbery from a rival gang member. This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: 17 members of alleged 183 Gangster Bloods gang charged in Athens crackdown Joel Garcia, from left, Kimberly Robertson, Farrah Ramos, Samantha Morales-Johnson, Isaac Michael, Elizabeth Recalde and Kimberly Morales-Johnson pose for a portrait during the Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration at Grand Park on Oct. 10 in Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) For the record: 11:46 a.m. Nov. 4, 2022: A previous version of this story referred to Monument Lab as Monumental Lab. In 2020, Confederate and Christopher Columbus statues across the United States began toppling, in large part catalyzed by protests against the murder of George Floyd. The Los Angeles-based arts and culture collaborative Meztli Projects was ahead of the curve. Huichol organizer and artist Joel Garcia, the organizations project director and program co-creative director, had long bristled at the presence of the Columbus statue in Grand Park. At the time, he worked as co-director of Self Help Graphics & Art, focusing on programming and operations, helming initiatives like the Know Your Rights workshops, which distributed posters with information about what to do in the event of an ICE raid. In 2017, Garcia coordinated with Taino artist Tanya Melendez to turn the Columbus statue into an altar for the victims of Hurricane Maria. Garcia says that a lot of his efforts at Self Help Graphics were about working to help folks understand the complexities around Indigenous identity. But in working with fellow Native and Indigenous artists and cultural producers, Garcia started to see the ways in which a non-hierarchical group could make an impact across the city. Joel Garcia is one of the founders of Meztli Projects, which aims to improve Indigenous representation in art. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) Garcias work, both as an arts professional and an artist, sparked the beginnings of Meztli Projects in 2018. Once Garcia left his post at Self Help Graphics & Art, the start of a new chapter began. Meztli Projects is a Native and Indigenous-focused group that focuses on centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles, as its website states. One of the groups first public activations involved organizing an event centered on the 2018 removal of that same Columbus statue. For Meztli Projects, the day wasnt just about the statue coming down, it was also about creating a space for Native and Indigenous community members to come together. Each member of the collective works across varied artistic mediums and comes from different academic backgrounds. Projects under the Meztli umbrella include public art, workshops, online educational resources, mentorship and more. Story continues The groups members are also practicing artists, something thats important to Garcia and a big part of the collectives mentorship focus. Tongva and Mexican artist River Tikwi Garza met Joel in his early 20s, when he displayed work at Self Help Graphics & Art. Hes now an artist and cultural worker apprentice for Meztli. It was very foundational for me, working with Joel and connecting with all kinds of people who are about this type of work, Garza says. Many of Meztlis activations require behind-the-scenes conversations with elders and community members. The group hopes to raise funds to support elder artists so that they might focus on their work more than being an elder as the cultural sustainer of all these other things that tribal communities have to sustain, Garcia says. This same ethos extends to members like River, who recently completed a residency with the Los Angeles Public Library and currently has work on view at the Catalina Museum for Art & Historys exhibition Crossing Waters: Contemporary Tongva Artists Carrying Pimugna. Garcia also continues his practice. In 2021, he did a residency through Oxy Arts and Monument Lab, along with three other artists, to create a virtual monument. He chose the former location of a Junipero Serra statue on Olvera Street, which was toppled in 2020. We hope that through their own creative practice, they're able to access these opportunities, Garcia says. That through developing this way of doing this work very slow, very gradual, very organic, very thoughtful, never alone, always in consultation with elders and other community members that then that later leads to opportunities such as the ones that River is participating in. Program Co-Creative Director and mentor Kimberly Robertson, a Mvskoke artist and professor, says, There are very few creative spaces for Native folks in Los Angeles to begin with, just plain and simply. For her, one of the biggest challenges has been looking for opportunities and spaces that can allow her to show up fully, particularly as a mother. Robertson began incorporating funding into workshops for child or dependent care, as well as activities that younger members could do alongside adult artists. The groups intergenerational approach is another strong thread woven through every project. Robertsons two kids actively participate in the group. One of them, when she was about 8 or 9, asked to develop a series of workshops for her own age group after seeing her older sister take part. The team paid her to plan the program. But that is not something that we developed, Garcia clarifies. This is very much how Indigenous peoples work everywhere. Meztli Projects hosted a plant dye workshop at the Getty on Oct. 15. Cultural educator Abe Sanchez shared knowledge on traditional California foods, and poet-songwriter Kelly Caballero performed. These events are part of the groups efforts to bring together the Indigenous and Native communities throughout L.A. and to make their presence seen and heard by everyone else. The fundamental thing that is holding everything together is how you care for people through creating, Garcia says. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. iStock.com Some student loan borrowers may be struggling to take the next step forward in applying for debt relief because theyre not sure if they qualify. Deciphering ones eligibility for student loan forgiveness has been difficult for borrowers who feel confused by the language in the loan relief guidelines. The Future of Finances: Gen Z & How They Relate to Money Student Loan Forgiveness: Mark These 4 Dates on Your Calendar Now The good news is the Federal Student Aid office has ironed out the answers for anyone still experiencing confusion. Heres how to see if you qualify. Do I Qualify For Student Loan Debt Relief? The Federal Student Aid office has streamlined the qualifications for borrowers looking to find out if theyre eligible for debt forgiveness on its website. According to its guidelines, borrowers may receive debt relief if they have eligible federal loans and meet the listed tax filing status and adjusted gross income requirements. Heres what that looks like: Did not file taxes: The borrower made less than the required income to file taxes in 2020 or 2021. Single: The borrower made under $125,000 in 2020 or 2021. Married, filed taxes separately: The borrower made under $125,000 in 2020 or 2021. Married, filed taxes jointly: The borrower made under $250,000 in 2020 or 2021. Head of household: The borrower made under $250,000 in 2020 or 2021. Qualifying widow(er): The borrower made under $250,000 in 2020 or 2021. Take Our Poll: Do You Believe in Quiet Quitting? Are Recently Enrolled Undergraduate Students Eligible? This depends on the guidelines put forth by the Federal Student Aid office. Dependent students may qualify for debt relief if they meet the following criteria. You were enrolled as an undergraduate student between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022. You were born after Jan. 1, 1998. You arent married. Who is a dependent student? Borrowers are advised by the Federal Student Aid office to apply for debt relief using their own income information. They will be identified as a dependent student by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Those identified as dependent students will receive an email with instructions for you and for your parent moving forward. Story continues Can Parents Qualify For Debt Relief? It depends on the eligibility of the loans. Parents who have taken out Parent PLUS Loans can also submit an application for student loan forgiveness. This application will be processed separately from the one submitted by their child. Does the Pell Grant Qualify For Debt Relief? The Pell Grant may qualify for an additional $10,000 in debt cancellation. However, the eligibility depends on the aforementioned adjusted gross income from tax years 2020 or 2021. Do Defaulted Loans Qualify For Debt Relief? They do. As stated by The New York Times, defaulted borrowers with federal direct loans, Federal Family Education loans (both privately held and government-owned) and Perkins loans held by the government are eligible for relief if they benefited from the payment freeze. Are Any Loans Not Eligible? Private loans are not eligible for student loan forgiveness. I Qualify! What Comes Next? If you find you are eligible for student debt relief, the next step is to submit an application. Once you submit your application, you will receive an email confirmation acknowledging your submission. No additional documents or logging in are necessary in order to fill out and complete this application. Please note, the Federal Student Aid office currently states on its website that applications to apply for debt relief are open, but debt discharge is paused. The ED, as a result of a court order, is temporarily blocked from processing debt discharges. The Federal Student Aid office will continue reviewing applications that have been submitted. Eligible borrowers are encouraged to continue applying for relief. More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Student Loan Forgiveness: Reasons You Might Not Know You Qualify in 2022 Alisha from Odessa, Ukraine. Brian Dowling Brian Dowling published a photography book of redheads around the world called "Readhead Beauty." He's photographed 130 models in 20 different countries. He hopes to help combat bullying and stigmas surrounding people with red hair. Less than two percent of the world's population has naturally red hair. Alia from Berlin. Brian Dowling Because they stand out, redheads are often bullied by their peers, ridiculed in pop culture, and perceived through negative stereotypes dating all the way back to medieval times. Brian Dowling is hoping to bring some positive attention to those with fiery red locks for a change. He's traveled to 20 countries and counting to photograph redheads around the world and celebrate their natural beauty through whimsical portraits. Pictured: Alia from Berlin. Photographer Brian Dowling has always appreciated the uniqueness of red hair. Ireland. Courtesy Brian Dowling Pictured: Ellis from Trillick, Northern Ireland. His Irish heritage might have something to do with it. Ireland. Brian Dowling Pictured: Grace from Malahide, Ireland. He decided to photograph redheads around the world. England. Brian Dowling Pictured: Natasha from London, England. He's compiled the images into a portrait book called "Redhead Beauty." Slovakia. Brian Dowling Pictured: Nena from Bratislava, Slovakia. Dowling photographed 130 models from 20 different countries. Russia. Brian Dowling Pictured: Daria from St. Petersburg, Russia. He self-published the book through a Kickstarter campaign. United States. Brian Dowling Pictured: Laura from Virginia, US. He found all of his models through social media. Scotland. Brian Dowling Pictured: Kristie from Glencoe, Scotland. "Before I even started the project, I posted a tweet if anyone wanted to take photos in Dublin," he said. Ireland. Dowling Pictured: Sarah Kennedy from Donegal, Ireland. "It happened to be a redhead named Aoife [who responded], and that probably was the catalyst for this project." Ireland. Brian Dowling Pictured: Aoife from Longford, Ireland. Surprisingly, he had a difficult time finding models in Dublin. Ireland. Brian Dowling Pictured: Alice from Dublin, Ireland. Many of the natural redheads there had dyed their hair brown or black due to bullying. Story continues Russia. Brian Dowling Pictured: Marina from Moscow, Russia. He had an easier time in Russia and Ukraine, where not as many people had been bullied. Ukraine. Brian Dowling Pictured: Alisha from Odessa, Ukraine. Because this kind of harassment is so common worldwide, Dowling observed the bond redheads share with each other. Germany. Brian Dowling Pictured: Krissy from Stuttgart, Germany. "There is a sense of camaraderie which I jokingly compare to seeing a fellow Marine," he said. United States. Brian Dowling Pictured: Megan in Studio City, California, US. "Marines respect each other because they all went through the same rigorous training, and I feel like redheads give each other a little acknowledgment nod because they often went through bullying during their school years," he said. United States. Brian Dowling Bridget from San Francisco, California. Dowling hopes to combat this negativity by celebrating redheads through his photos. Ukraine. Brian Dowling Pictured: Nastya in Odessa, Ukraine. He's already heard from people with red hair who say his work has helped them embrace their natural beauty. Poland. Brian Dowling Pictured: Beatta from Warsaw, Poland. "It's still hard for me to believe how a few photographs can brighten someone's day that has been bullied, but it has," he said. United States. Brian Dowling Pictured: Chelbie from South Carolina. Next, he hopes to spread his message to Brazil, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey. Netherlands. Brian Dowling Pictured: Judith from Breda, Netherlands. "I think people with red hair just want to be treated as normal people," he said. Sydney, Australia. Brian Dowling Pictured: Benedetta from Verona, Italy, photographed in Sydney, Australia. Read the original article on Insider Suri was filmed protesting moments before being shot A radical Hindu religious leader, Sudhir Suri, has been shot dead in north-western India. The 58-year-old was killed on Friday while protesting in Amritsar - home to the world famous Golden Temple, one of the holiest sites in Sikhism. Mr Suri was the self-styled leader of the fundamentalist religious group, Hindu Shiv Sena. A local shopkeeper was subsequently arrested in connection with the killing, authorities said. The Director General of Police in Punjab state, Gaurav Yadav, said the suspect was being questioned. "Whosoever is behind it and whosoever hatched the conspiracy will be unveiled and those who are behind it will be arrested," he said. Sikhs in India and abroad have previously accused Mr Suri of making derogatory comments about their faith and community. According to police, Mr Suri had been in Amritsar outside a local temple, to protest against the alleged desecration of Hindu deities. In recent years Amritsar has seen a spate of apparently religiously-motivated killings. In September, a man was killed in public after being accused of chewing tobacco and being drunk near the Golden Temple. Last year, a man was beaten to death after being suspected of trying to commit a sacrilegious act near the temple. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Kyiv on Friday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announce a new $400 million military assistance package the United States is sending amid the Russian invasion. The new security assistance package includes refurbished T-72 tanks, which is the first time the U.S. is sending tanks to Ukraine, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles and the refurbishment of 250 HAWK surface-to-air missiles for eventual transfer to Ukraine, according to the White House. Sullivan visited with Zelensky to underscore the United States steadfast support to Ukraine and its people as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity, the White House said. He also affirmed the continued provision of economic and humanitarian assistance, as well as ongoing efforts with partners to hold Russia accountable for its aggression. Along with Zelensky, Sullivan met with Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, and others. Earlier this week, Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) also traveled to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky to reinforce bipartisan support for the country ahead of midterm elections. Their visit came amid concern that both Republicans and Democrats are fracturing over American support to Ukraine after certain lawmakers in both parties have increased their criticism of the billions in military and economic support the U.S. has sent. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) recently said that a GOP-controlled House would not write a blank check for Ukraine, and progressive House Democrats last month released and then withdrew a letter calling for Biden to prioritize negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The U.S. has provided more than $18 billion in security assistance and $1.5 billion in humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a dispute between the Navajo Nation, the Biden administration and three states over the increasingly important question of whether the tribe has the right to draw water from the Colorado River. The justices will hear two appeals one brought by the federal government and another by the states of Arizona, Nevada and Colorado in addition to several California water districts that arise from the Navajo Nations efforts to assert rights to the river that flows alongside the reservations northwestern border. The tribe's land, the largest Native American reservation, is mostly in Arizona but also crosses into New Mexico and Utah. The Biden administration and the three states appealed after the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Navajo Nation in February, saying it could sue the government for an alleged failure to carry out its duties on behalf of the tribe. The dispute is over whether the government had a legal duty that the tribe can enforce in court. The tribe, which first signed a treaty with the United States in 1849, argues that under its agreements with the federal government that assured it would have access to land, it was assumed that the government also has a duty to provide necessary water. Legal precedent is clear that "when the United States creates an Indian reservation, it also promises and reserves for the tribe the amount of then-unappropriated water necessary to fulfill the reservations purposes," the tribe's lawyers say in court papers. Access to water in the arid West has always been a contentious issue and is set to become even more important because of the impact of climate change. Water from the Colorado River has been allocated through a compact between states dating back to 1922 and has been subject to litigation almost ever since, including a case brought against California and several of its water districts. Story continues The Navajo Nation can access water from other sources, including the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River, but the tribe says that is not enough. Many tribal members do not have access to running water and rely on wells and other localized water sources. The tribe originally sued the federal government in 2003 seeking access to the main branch of the Colorado River, with the litigation dragging on ever since. In separate litigation the tribe has fought for access to the Little Colorado River, another tributary of the Colorado River. The Biden administration, represented by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, says in court papers that the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that a tribe cannot sue to enforce an obligation it believes the federal government has unless it can point to a specific law or regulation that authorizes it. Nothing in the supposed sources the court of appeals cited imposes any specific and affirmative duties on the federal government on behalf of the Navajo Nation with respect to the water of the Colorado River, Prelogar wrote. The states, meanwhile, say that if the appeals court ruling is left in place, it would negatively impact them by imperiling existing water rights agreements at a time when water is already scarce because of longstanding drought conditions. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court looks more like America than it ever has. The lawyers who argue at the nation's highest court? Not so much. The current two-week session of arguments features 25 men and just two women, an imbalance so stark that the Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer made a point of it in her defense of race-conscious college admissions Monday. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued to the court that extreme racial or gender disparities between certain groups can cause people to wonder whether the path to leadership is open. Prelogar and Morgan Ratner, a lawyer in private practice, are the lone women who began arguments this week as attorneys customarily do, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. No woman will argue a case in the second week of the court session. The glaring lack of women was a common sense example," Prelogar said, that she hoped would resonate with the court, especially when women make up roughly half of law school graduates. And I think it would be reasonable for a woman to look at that and wonder, is that a path thats open to me, to be a Supreme Court advocate? Are private clients willing to hire women to argue their Supreme Court cases? When there is that kind of gross disparity in representation, it can matter and its common sense, she said. The month before wasnt much different. Eighteen men and four women, including Prelogar, argued eight cases. The racial and ethnic disparity among lawyers also is stark, at a time when there are four women, two African-Americans and a Latina among the nine justices. Just one Black man has made a Supreme Court argument this term, and the last time a Black woman appeared before the justices was in 2019. Prelogar is in the enviable position of choosing which cases to argue on behalf of the U.S. government. The solicitor general typically argues the most important case each month the court is in session. Prelogar is only the second woman to hold the position on a permanent basis, following now-Justice Elena Kagan. Story continues Women also serve as the top appellate lawyers for Louisiana and New York and argue regularly before the court. Lisa Blatt, the woman in private practice who appears most frequently at the court, delivered her 43rd high court argument last month in support of photographer Lynn Goldsmith in a dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation. Blatt chairs the Supreme Court and appellate practice at the Williams and Connolly law firm. But as Prelogar noted, there are few women with similar authority at private firms and in state offices. That partially explains why so few Supreme Court advocates are women and minorities. There also are a relatively small number of slots every year at a court that has been hearing around 60 cases a year recently. The private parties whose cases are before the court often pick lawyers with previous Supreme Court experience, which means the same lawyers come before the court again and again. Christina Swarns, formerly the litigation director of the NAACPs Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is one of the few Black women to argue before the court in recent years. Though it's been six years since her successful appearance on behalf of a Black death row inmate in Texas, Swarns said people all the time, all the time, all the time say to her: I heard your argument. I saw your argument. I cant tell you how proud you made us that day. Swarns said she is acutely aware of the singularity of her argument as a Black woman and felt pressure not wanting to falter and feeling that if she did, it would make it harder for the people who came behind me. When Justice Sonia Sotomayor was asked at an appearance earlier this year about the lack of diversity among advocates, she said that to fix this problem were going to have to work at every level. Sotomayor, who became the court's first Latina justice in 2009, said that meant reaching out to minority students in law school to encourage them to apply for clerkships with judges, which will get them into law firms that can put them in a position to argue before the court. The Appellate Project, a not-for-profit created in 2019, aims to create that pipeline to feed minority lawyers into appellate legal work. This year, the Supreme Court's own clerk class is about two-thirds male; it appears six of the 38 clerks are minorities, according to research by court watcher David Lat. But Sotomayor said judges in particular have have the power and have the responsibility to reach out to law school professors whose judgment we trust and to tell them that it is our expectation that they will give us diverse recommendations for law clerks and that we expect them to actually mentor students of color from their very first day in law school. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court. A "bathtub ring" marks the high-water line along Black Canyon on Lake Mead in 2013. (Julie Jacobson / Associated Press) With California and the Southwest facing a historic drought, the Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a 9th Circuit Court decision that held the Navajo Nation has a right to take more water from the Colorado River. The appeals court had pointed to the 1868 treaty in which the U.S. government agreed the Navajos would have a permanent home on their reservation, ruling the treaty necessarily implied rights to an adequate amount of water to live and farm. It is clear that the Reservation cannot exist as a viable homeland for the Nation without an adequate water supply, wrote Judge Ronald M. Gould, yet many homes on the Reservation lack running water. Based on the treaty, the Navajos are entitled to bring a breach of trust claim against the United States and the Department of the Interior, which he said have an irreversible and dramatically important trust duty requiring them to ensure adequate water for the health and safety of the Navajo Nations inhabitants in their permanent home reservation. The 3-0 ruling did not say how much extra water the Navajos were entitled to. The sprawling reservation previously used water from the San Juan River in Utah, a tributary of the Colorado, but the 9th Circuit panel said the Navajos were entitled to bring a claim for more water from the lower part of the main river. The Biden administration and the state of Arizona asked the justices to review and overturn the appeals court decision, as did water authorities including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Lawyers for Arizona said the 9th Circuits ruling immediately threatens the security of existing entitlements to water from the Colorado River. This water is already fully allocated and is experiencing a mega drought accompanied by drastically depleted storage in Lake Mead. The attorneys said the ruling, if allowed to stand, could give other tribes the right to more water. Arizonas lawyers said the 9th Circuit Court should have steered clear of the issue because the Supreme Court has overseen the allocation of water from the Colorado River for decades in the case of Arizona vs. California. Story continues Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Interior Department, told the justices that the 9th Circuits decision was clearly wrong and should be overturned. She said that the 1868 treaty did not include specific guarantees involving water rights. She also noted that the Navajo Nations borders had greatly expanded in the 20th century, and that the areas seeking more water from the Colorado River were not part of the reservation in 1868. The court plans to hear the two cases, Department of the Interior vs. Navajo Nation and Arizona vs. Navajo Nation, early next year and issue a decision by the end of June. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Childrens hospitals across the country are dealing with a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), stressing health care services and millions of parents with ailing children. RSV is a common and generally mild illness, but millions of children are being exposed later in life because of the coronavirus pandemic. Babies walled off during the pandemic didnt get RSV, and now children born just before or during the pandemic are getting it in droves. We had RSV last year, but it wasnt to the level this year, partially because we were still doing some of the mitigation efforts around masking and people were still staying away, said Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Washington University in St. Louis. Were seeing older patients that are being admitted with RSV because theyve just never seen it before, he said. And your first illness is usually the worst and its leading to some more people being hospitalized. The crowded hospitals are also a concern because the nation is expecting a difficult flu season and rising cases of COVID-19 as temperatures get colder and people spend more time indoors. Newland said St. Louis Childrens Hospital has seen super high RSV admissions in the past two to three weeks, levels he has not seen in the six years he has been at that location. Providers in other states have reported similarly high admissions. Caroline Njau, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Childrens Minnesota, said this years RSV surge far outpaces what she has seen in at least the past six years. The cases continue to rise and we have not seen a peak yet, said Njau. And RSV itself makes up about two-thirds of the respiratory viral illnesses that were seeing. Publicly available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates a strong presence of RSV in the Midwest, with states like Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri and Wisconsin among the top ten states in terms of positivity rates. This data, however, is incomplete, with about a quarter of states not reporting any case data. Story continues The CDC on Friday said in a briefing that RSV cases are rising in 8 out of the 10 regions that states are divided into under the Department of Health and Human Services. The southeast and south-central regions of the U.S. are seeing decreases in cases, including states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas. Andrew Pavia, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, noted that RSV cases moved in a wave from the southeast to the northwest this year, a reversal for the virus that has usually been observed from west to east across the U.S. Although RSV is a very common pathogen, Pavia said it is considerably more complicated in terms of how it transmits. We dont really understand why. It doesnt follow strict weather patterns. It doesnt follow strict people movement, said Pavia. But what you can say with some certainty is that once it starts to accelerate rapidly in a region, it will go up for eight to 12 weeks, or it will have an eight- to 12-week outbreak. Pavia noted that it could be a good thing that the virus is not reaching equal levels of severity across the entire U.S. There are regions in which the pediatric health care system is really overwhelmed and there are no ICU beds for children throughout the entire region. And thats happening right now in the Midwest where people are reaching across two or three states to find an ICU bed, he said. The health care providers who spoke with The Hill agreed that this recent RSV surge has highlighted issues within the U.S. pediatric health care system, both old and new. Newland said there are concerns that staffing at childrens hospitals may not be enough, which could lead to situations where some services like non-emergency surgeries are delayed, similar to what occurred during the hardest parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pavia noted that pediatric health systems have lost many staff members in the past three years and the remaining workers are dealing with burnout. Another issue that providers are citing is the lack of capacity at childrens hospitals. Stephen Dolter, division chief of pediatric hospital medicine at Childrens Hospital & Medical Center in Nebraska, said his primary concern during this viral surge was running out of space. Well stretch however we can to get them into the hospital, whether thats repurposing hospital space playrooms into treatment patient rooms, or repurposing our emergency department into an inpatient unit, said Dolter. There are no vaccines for RSV, though Pfizer announced promising results from a maternal vaccine earlier this week. Monoclonal antibodies are sometimes used as a mostly preventative measure for children who are at a high risk of developing severe illness. The providers who spoke with The Hill said they have so far not had any issue procuring and maintaining a sufficient supply of monoclonal antibodies. Health experts and providers say it is critical that parents recognize the signs that a child should go to the hospital for care if they do contract a respiratory infection. RSV symptoms usually manifest about two to eight days after exposure to the virus and the symptoms will typically last about a week on average. Njau from Minnesota Childrens advised that parents look out for signs that their child is struggling to breathe easily. If breathing has become difficult, then an infant will start taking short, quick breaths and may be grunting as they breathe. A childs ribcage going inward when they inhale is also an indicator that they are working too hard to breathe. A childs skin may also take on a blue or purple tint if they are not getting enough oxygen. In children with darker skin tones, a lack of oxygen can manifest in a similar change in coloring in their lips, gums and around their eyes. Njau said parents should also look out for signs that their child is dehydrated or has lost their appetite. Fortunately, almost all children recover from the infection on their own, but for those especially those who might have been born premature [and] have other co-morbidities [it] can have a significant impact in the respiratory system. And thats why its really important for them to seek care, Njau said. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A felony assault suspect was released from custody Thursday after being arrested in connection to an assault in Des Moines on Tuesday, the Des Moines Police Department announced. According to police, officers were called to a fight in progress near 11th Avenue South and South 222nd Street in Des Moines just after 3 p.m. Tuesday. Officers were told by the 911 caller that the 62-year-old victim was working for the King County Water District and was possibly unconscious on the ground. The 911 caller was a co-worker of the victim, police said. The co-worker began recording the assault on his phone. When officers arrived, they found the victim conscious, with his eyes and face swollen and shirt bloodied. Officers also saw a man matching the suspects description walking away from the victim. After a confrontation and struggle with officers, the suspect was taken into custody. The victim and his co-worker told police that they were working for the water district when the suspect approached the victim and said, Im having a bad day, before punching him in the face. According to police, the suspect continued to assault the victim on the ground before getting up to challenge the co-worker who was recording the incident. The suspect then returned to the victim, who had managed to stand up again, and punched him and wrestled him to the ground. Once he was on the ground, the victim was kicked in the face by the suspect, police said. The suspect was booked into the King County Jail on a 72-hour hold for investigation of second-degree assault. On Thursday, Des Moines police learned that the King County Prosecuting Attorneys office released the suspect before his first court hearing and before the office could gather all the facts from detectives about the victims injuries. According to the police, the probable cause certification that was filed by the case detective on Wednesday states that the victim suffered multiple facial fractures. However, the prosecuting attorneys office did not receive that information until after the decision was made to release the suspect. Police also said that the prosecuting attorneys office was sent a link to the video taken by the victims co-worker, but that also wasnt until after the decision was made to release the suspect. This is about community safety. Law enforcements job is to keep our community safe, yet this incident is another example this week of the criminal justice system in King County failing us, said Ken Thomas, chief of the Des Moines Police Department, on Thursday. We are trying to effect positive change in the system. The Des Moines Police Department is part of that system, and we are not perfect, but we will be part of the positive change. I spoke with the King County Prosecutors Office and they assured me prosecutors would rush file charges against the suspect as first priority tomorrow morning. A man is dead after he was shot by a Gwinnett County police officer Friday morning. Investigators said they received a call around 8:30 a.m. about a suspicious person walking near a soccer field who was carrying a pistol. Officers were able to find the man along Singleton Road and confronted him. TRENDING STORIES: At some point, police said the man pulled out a gun on the officers and that was when the officers opened fire on the man. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Active Investigation: Our officers are currently investigating an officer involved shooting in the area of 5220 Singleton Rd. This still an active scene. Please avoid the area and plan alternate routes, some lanes of Singleton Rd. are blocked. #GwinnettPD #Police pic.twitter.com/3rAMx16mV0 Gwinnett County Police (@GwinnettPd) November 4, 2022 Police said they later found a note that was addressed to Gwinnett County police. Investigators said that note has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has taken over the investigation. Police have not released the identity of the man who was shot and killed. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News App for alerts as news breaks] IN OTHER NEWS: The alleged New York City serial rapist, who was most recently accused of choking and sexually assaulting a female jogger, was ordered held without bail during his Friday afternoon arraignment, as the victim of Thursday's attack remains hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Carl Phanor, 29, appeared before Judge Jonathan Svetkey to face his initial charges of first-degree rape and two counts each of predatory sexual assault and strangulation, among several others. He was led into the courtroom just before 2:45 p.m. Friday, wearing a light gray hoodie sweatshirt, sweatpants and handcuffs. He swayed at times during the appearance. He did not enter a plea during the appearance, when Svetkey ordered him to be held without bail and to undergo a mental health assessment before his next court date on Nov. 9. NYC HOMELESS MAN ARRESTED IN JOGGER'S SEXUAL ASSAULT IS ALLEGED SERIAL RAPIST WITH 25 PRIORS Carl Phanor, 29, being taken by NYPD Detectives from the NYPD Special Victims Unit to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 3, 2022. Prosecutors said the victim of Thursday's attack was being treated in an intensive care unit for bone fractures. They said that Phanor goes by several aliases and has demonstrated a "clear predatory pattern." Phanor, who police said is homeless, is being represented by a court-appointed attorney. The defense attorney asked for bail to be set, and told the court that Phanor had been abandoned by his parents and needs mental health assistance. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP The suspect was taken into custody only hours after his most recent alleged attack on Thursday. WOMAN CHOKED, RAPED ON NYC MORNING JOG THROUGH SWANKY NEIGHBORHOOD The 43-year-old jogger had been running along a path near West Street and Pier 45 around 5:30 a.m. Thursday when Phanor approached her from behind, the New York Police Department said. The man grabbed her and began choking her, causing her to partially lose consciousness, police said. He allegedly knocked her to the pavement, then took off her clothes and raped her. He then fled, but not before grabbing the victim's debit card, wallet, cellphone and headphones, police said. Story continues The victim was able to get the attention of another jogger, who called the police. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation. Gabrielle Sumkin, who identified herself as the passerby who called police, told the New York Post she had spotted the woman with torn, dirty-looking clothes and no shoes. "She was just wearing one sock," Sumkin told the Post, adding that the woman was holding her eye. "This woman seemed like she was legitimately very hurt, and it was clear that something had happened to her." Carl Phanor, 29, being taken by NYPD Detectives from the NYPD Special Victims Unit to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 3, 2022. Sumkin reportedly recalled the woman saying, "I need help." Police said later Thursday that Phanor was also wanted for two prior incidents: one from October and another from March. A 48-year-old woman had been walking along the FDR Drive service road, near East 37th Street in Manhattan, around 5 a.m. on Oct. 6 when Phanor allegedly approached her from behind and choked her, police said. Hudson River Greenway Running Path, NYC, Nov. 3, 2022 He then ripped her pants as he tried to rape her, but the woman fought back, police said. Phanor allegedly stole her wallet and cell phone before he fled the scene on a bicycle. Police said he later tried using the victims credit card at a nearby smoke shop. And months earlier, on March 27, a 39-year-old woman had been jogging in the area of Pier 40, just blocks away from the scene of the November attack, when Phanor approached her on a bike, cops said. Phanor allegedly "pushed the victim to the ground and began to choke the victim," the NYPD said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He then sexually assaulted her and stole her cell phone before fleeing on the bicycle, police said. In all, Phanor was charged with first-degree rape, two counts each of predatory sexual assault, two counts of strangulation, two counts of robbery and a single count of a first-degree criminal sex act, court records show. The alleged serial sex criminal reportedly has had 25 prior arrests. Fox News' Paul Best contributed to this report. Over 4,000 cheese were sampled at this year's World Cheese Awards in Wales. Courtesy of Guild of Fine Food On Wednesday, 250 international judges made up of cheesemakers and mongers, chefs, writers, and more, descended onto Wales to participate in the World Cheese Awards and crown a new winner. After tasting thousands of entrants (4,434 to be exact), Le Gruyere AOP surchoix, a matured gruyere made from raw cow's milk from Switzerland, won the top prize. Entered by Swiss cheesemaker Vorderfultigen and affineur (refiner) Gourmino, the cheese was described by the judges as a "really refined, hand-crafted cheese," noting it melts in your mouth with just the right notes of herbs, fruits, and leather. "A cheese with a lot of taste and bouquet," the judges added, according to CNN. Courtesy of Guild of Fine Food CNN explained that to come to the winner, the judges scored thousands of cheeses based on their appearance (paying particular attention to the rind and the paste), aroma, body, texture, and mouthfeel. RELATED: The Best Cheese in America These Are the Top 50 U.S. Cheesemakers "What a final. To crown Le Gruyere AOP surchoix as this year's World Champion Cheese is so well deserved," John Farrand, the managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, which organizes the World Cheese Awards, shared in a statement. "The judges in the room today, our cheese experts from all over the world, were clearly blown away by the quality of the cheese and dedication shown by the cheesemakers." Though you'd think something like an international cheese competition would be a rather sedate affair, the World Cheese Awards tend to be anything but. In 2021, a nearly brand new cheese company from Spain took home the big prize. "We've been making cheese for less than five years, so we never imagined we could win the world's biggest prize in cheese so soon," Silvia Pelaez, head cheesemaker of the six-employee company Lacteos Romero Pelaez, shared after her victory. "Everything we do is inspired by our love for our family, including the name of the business itself, Quesos y Besos, so this is such a special moment for us. We've made it our mission to encapsulate the essence of our family in all of our cheeses, so to have such recognition from the World Cheese Awards judges is an incredible achievement and truly overwhelming." Story continues RELATED: 24 Cheeses These Chefs Always Have in Their Fridges And in 2019, an American cheesemaker Rogue Creamery from Oregon won for the very first time, though it narrowly edged out the competition. "This year's top prize was almost too close to call, and I would like to congratulate both Rogue Creamery and Nazionale del Parmigiano Reggiano Latteria Sociale Santo Stefano for going the distance and providing us with one of the most dramatic finales in World Cheese history," Farrand shared at the time. "Rogue Creamery has been at the forefront of the U.S. artisan cheese revolution for some years, so it seems very fitting for them to be the first American winners of our World Champion Cheese trophy." As for this year's winner, Dennis Kaser, international marketing manager of Le Gruyere AOP, says it all came down to a team effort. Courtesy of Guild of Fine Food "This is a result that shows the quality behind all these people working together; 1900 milk producers, 155 cheesemakers, and 11 refiners. This collaborative work results in such a high-quality cheese style, which is loved by the consumer," Kaser said. "I'm so very proud to be representing Le Gruyere. Huge congratulations to cheesemaker Vorderfultigen and affineur Gourmino." TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan and the United States will hold in-person trade talks next week in New York under a new joint initiative announced in June, the U.S. and Taiwanese governments said, a programme opposed by China, which views the island as its own territory. Washington and Taipei unveiled the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade in June, days after the Biden administration excluded Taiwan from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter China's growing influence. The U.S. Trade Representative's office said in a Thursday statement the "conceptual discussions" would take place Tuesday and Wednesday, with Assistant United States Trade Representative Terry McCartin as the lead trade official. The U.S. delegation will also include representatives from the National Economic Council, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Treasury, the Small Business Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration, it added. Taiwan's Cabinet said its delegation would include officials from the economy and finance ministries, as well as the Office of Trade Negotiations. "While we do not preset any timetables, both Taiwan and the United States have a high willingness to cooperate and believe that fruitful results can be achieved as soon as possible," it said in a statement. Taiwan has long pushed for a broad free trade deal with the United States, its most important international backer and foreign arms supplier even in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. China has said it "firmly" opposes the new trade talks. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Jeanny Kao. Editing by Gerry Doyle) Kids can feel stressed too (Alamay/PA) Its tempting to think of stress as an adult affliction but increasing numbers of children are getting stressed-out, often with no idea why they feel the way they do. Recent research found more than two-fifths (42%) of parents said their children were experiencing frequent anxiety, compared to less than a third (30%) in 2020. The Zurich Municipal (zurich.co.uk) study found children aged 11 were struggling most with day-to-day stress, and almost a quarter (24%) of parents said their kids were having trouble sleeping, and/or were frequently unwilling to go to school because of stress. Children may be stressed for many reasons, from reacting to issues in their own life or in the world around them, to picking up on their own parents stress. Parents may feel anxious and this can have a knock-on effect on children, who wont understand whats going on, says Carole Spiers, chair of the International Stress Management Association (ISMAUK isma.org.uk) and founder of International Stress Awareness Week (ISAW, November 7-11). Working Together to Build Resilience and Reduce Stress. Highly topical theme for #StressSummit2022, ISMAs interactive stress event. Major keynote #speeches, panel discussions and online #networking. pic.twitter.com/Wd0FBReYSu Stress Management (@ISMA_UK) October 21, 2022 Its really important to make time to sit and talk to the whole family and share any concerns you may have. Children need to feel secure, and giving them reassurance is vital. Keeping the door for conversation open is vital for everyone, so feelings and concerns can be shared. Psychotherapist Anna Mathur (annamathur.com) says the best approach is talking to kids about what stress is and how to deal with it . Empowering children with the understanding of what stress is, and how it manifests in their body is so important, she says. We want our children to feel able to come to us with their worries and stresses, and equipping them with insight and language is a way we can do this. Here, Mathur explains how to talk to children about stress, whether its them thats feeling it, or their parents 1. If mum or dad is feeling stressed Mathur, who wrote The Little Book Of Calm For New Mums (Penguin Life, priced 12.99), explains that firstly, its important for parents to recognise their own signs of stress. Start to question how you feel when youre stressed, she advises. She suggests parents try to calm down by using a breathing exercise or another calming tool, and then use a simple sentence to share this with their child, such as: I can feel a lot of stress in my body. Im just going to step away/do a breathing exercise, so I can think clearly again. This gives children insight that we can do something to help ourselves when we feel stressed. It also works to make them feel safe, in the knowledge you can do things to help regain control, says Mathur. 2. Describe how stress feels Mathur says that to talk to a child about their own stress, parents should explain simple stress mechanisms by saying something like: Stress is our bodys way of helping us get extra energy to tackle challenges. Its very normal, and helpful, but sometimes, it can feel like your mind is very busy and your body has a lot of energy. 3. Teach them calming exercises Share some simple calming exercises, such as box breathing, to help relieve your childs stress, suggests Mathur. Breathing exercises can support our minds and bodies when we feel wobbly, she says, and box breathing is a great tool. To teach your child to box breathe, tell them to inhale for a count of four, hold their breath for another count of four, exhale for four, hold for four, etc. Another fun exercise, she says, is to hold your 10 fingers up and imagine theyre candles, and encourage your child to slowly blow out each candle. 4. Talk them through it Help kids open up by talking to them about how they might be feeling. Mathur says: When you notice theyre stressed, simply feed this back to them in a calm and kind way. Your body looks very wiggly, your mind looks very busy. Do you feel stressed? Shall we do that breathing exercise together? The more they understand about stress, and are given the vocabulary to address it, the less awkward or embarrassed children will feel about opening up in stressful moments. 5. Label your own feelings Mathur suggests parents casually label their own feelings, along with what they might do about it, perhaps saying something like: Im feeling a bit stressed because Ive got so many emails. So, Im going to take a breather, and make some time to do them tomorrow, or Im feeling really sad about losing granny today. Im going to take it slowly because its OK to feel sad. Applying labels and words to our emotions helps children learn the language, and gain the confidence to start applying words and value to their own, explains Mathur. 6. Create a worry jar Give your child a jar so they can write down their worries and put the slips of paper in it, so you can talk about them together, suggests Mathur, who says children may also like to have a gratitude jar to fill with happy memories and experiences. 7. Use a glass of water to illustrate how stress works A simple glass of water can be a useful tool for explaining how stress works to a child, says Mathur. Nudge the glass these are stressful things happening, she explains. Watch the water wobble this is like the feeling inside us when stressful things happen. The nudges are the things that happen, and the movement and wobbling of the water is the stress. As the stressful things pass, the water calms and becomes still again. She says parents can then explain that an adult will support the child when things feel wobbly. 8. Dont dismiss how they feel Although what feels stressful to your child might not feel important to you, its crucial to acknowledge their feelings. Mathur says: If they say they feel stressed, dismissive sentences such as I wouldnt worry about that can shut down lines of communication, and find them opting not to open up about it again. Instead, she suggests parents respond with sentences such as: It sounds like thats really hard for you, how can I help? Feeling heard helps children feel supported, she explains. 9. Decide what to do together When problem solving is needed to help relieve your childs stress, explore resolutions alongside your child, instead of for them, suggests Mathur. So say: How can we work together to make this feel easier? Instead of You should do x. This teaches valuable skills, while making them feel like their concerns matter to you, she says. 10. Use positive reframing If a child says everything goes wrong at school, instead of saying Thats not true, Mathur says parents should encourage them to think about times when things went right, or they had fun. The ink had hardly dried on an agreement by four police departments in eastern Jackson County to create their own team to investigate police shootings before it was put to its first test early Thursday. An Independence police officer shot and seriously injured a man who allegedly pulled out a gun during a disturbance at the BP gas station at 23rd Street and Crysler Avenue, according to a spokesman for the investigative team. Ryland E. Polson, 30, has since been charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with first-degree assault or attempted murder of a special victim and unlawfully exhibiting a firearm. In the past, the Missouri State Highway Patrol would have handled the investigation into the shooting. Instead, detectives from the newly formed Eastern Jackson County Police Involved Incident Team descended on the scene. The team, being called PIIT, will now investigate police shootings and other officer use-of-force incidents in Blue Springs, Grandview, Independence and Lees Summit. The team is so new that the police chiefs were still contemplating how they would introduce its creation. They decided to use the shooting Thursday as the means to do so, Blue Springs Police Chief Bob Muenz said during a hastily assembled news conference with the police chiefs from the three other cities. The announcement from Muenz, Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman, Lees Summit Police Chief Travis Forbes and Grandview Police Chief Charles Iseman, was met with questions about whether the team will be unbiased and transparent. While this sort of team is considered a best practice, Johnson Countys equivalent has been criticized for its flawed investigation into the fatal shooting of a teenager by a police officer. Additionally, the eastern Jackson County team was created with no community input and its policies have not been made public. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker speaks with Blue Springs Police Chief Bob Muenz at the scene of a fatal shooting by police on Aug. 23 near Northeast Sunnyside School Road and Northeast R D Mize Road. Blue investigating blue The police chiefs said they began talking last year about how busy the highway patrol had become investigating police shootings in Kansas City. Story continues They also discussed how long those investigations were taking, Muenz said. Its three to six months before its even presented to the Jackson County Prosecutors Office, he said. As an example, Muenz mentioned a police shooting on Aug. 20 in which 28-year-old Michael D. Saunders was killed as officers tried to arrest him. That investigation still has not been concluded. The families, the communities and the officers involved, we need to get answers as quickly as we can, Muenz said. So were hoping that having this alternate resource that we can maybe expedite these investigations a little bit and still do a thorough job. Muenz said he thinks the new investigative team could do complete its investigation as quick as 30 days, depending on how complex the case is, how much evidence needs to be collected, whether search warrants for technology are needed and how fast results come back from the lab. Faster is only better if youre able to conduct a thorough, objective investigation, said Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. We certainly would not want to compromise accuracy and compromise the efficacy of the process just for the sake of speed. However, when investigations drag on, that causes a lot of suspicion, she said. The Missouri Highway Patrol investigated a shooting involving a Kansas City police officer in 2020. During a closed, special meeting in June 2020, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners approved having outside agencies review every police shooting and major use-of-force complaint against an officer. The meeting had followed a weekend of demonstrations in Kansas City and across the country expressing outrage over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism. The highway patrol agrees that it has had a busy workload. Since 2020, Troop A, which includes the Kansas City area, has investigated 38 police shootings, said Sgt. William Lowe, a spokesman for the highway patrol. Id say we have been consistently busy, said Lowe, who added most of those investigations involved the Kansas City and Independence police departments. Lowe doesnt think the time the highway patrol taken to investigate police shootings has been anything outrageous. He acknowledged the investigations were about as long as Muenz described. He noted it can be hard to put a number on how long an investigation should take because each one is different and unique, he said. While one case may have a lot of moving parts, another might not. The highway patrol will continue to investigate police shootings, but they will need to be asked, Lowe said. The new police shootings team, modeled after the Johnson County Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team and programs in cities north of the Missouri River, will investigate shootings and other use-of-force incidents. No agency will investigate its own incidents. The aim is to have the three agencies investigate the fourth agency involved in the incident, if staffing levels allow, Muenz said. We recognize that fact that its important to use an outside agency to investigate your use of force incidents, especially those that lead to fatalities, Muenz said. We are concerned about public trust and we know what that looks like and we believe that we can do that. A liaison from the police department involved in the shooting will assist the investigative team by obtaining evidence, statements or anything else that is needed. During the news conference, Muenz was asked about the publics desire to have an independent investigation of police activity and how to overcome peoples perception that the new program is still police investigating police. So I understand where youre coming from, it looks like blue investigating blue, but its the same as the highway patrol investigating theyre another law enforcement agency investigating another law enforcement agency, Muenz said. We can do that. And we can do that thoroughly. He said he thinks the other chiefs would agree with him that they are not going to lower themselves and cover something up. If an officer makes an act or decision and takes action, well evaluate that, Muenz said. If its wrong, its wrong. If its right, its right. And well present that to the prosecutors office. While multi-agency teams and outside investigators are considered a best practice, some in the public remain skeptical, pointing to the thin blue line that protects officers as well as instances where police have covered up evidence or planted evidence. During the trial last year of former KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere, who fatally shot a man in 2019, prosecutors alleged the crime scene was staged and evidence was planted. The four departments will still use the Missouri State Highway Patrol and partner with them and the Jackson County Sheriffs Department, Muenz said. The police departments included the Jackson County Prosecutors Office when they were developing the team and has its approval. Its commendable that these agencies, who are responsible for how these investigations are conducted, chose to design a system using outside investigators, the prosecutors office said in a statement. Our office believes that is necessary to maintain and build the communitys trust in law enforcement. The police chiefs said the team will operate in the same manner as the highway patrol: once an investigation is completed, the case file will be presented to the agency involved as well as the prosecutors office for a charging decision. Policies not made public This newly formed team was created without consulting with civic groups for input on how the program should operate. We have discussed this with certain other members of the community, but we have not reached out to any civic groups, Muenz said. I would be happy to do so if we need to do that and I think that at some point me we might. Again, let me back up, we had planned to roll this out and were preparing to do that. The policies and procedures have also not been made public. Grant, of the Urban League, said she was surprised to learn about the newly formed team. She believes these types of plans or collaborations should be public. To build community trust, agencies need to engage the public, civic groups and civil rights organizations early on in the process, not after all the systems are put into place, she said. Youre pretty much setting yourself up for failure in the quest to build strong community relations because its really coming after the fact and is not really an authentic approach to community building, she said. The group has advocated for an outside agency to investigate all excessive and deadly force incidents. Their preference is that the FBI handles them because of concerns over whether the network of law enforcement agencies would be totally objective, she said. When asked whether any of the policies that have been adopted would be published online so people could look at them, critique them and add their input, Muenz said it was a good question but they havent even talked about that. Well probably check with Johnson County, Kansas, or the agencies north of the river that have them up and see if theyve done anything like that and well probably imitate what they do, Muenz said. We may also have to check with legal, maybe get an attorney, and well see if we can release it. The policy manual for Johnson Countys team is not posted online, however it may be obtained by filing a Kansas open records request. The Star has requested a copy of PIITs policies and procedures under the Missouri Sunshine law. Sgt. Chris Depue, a spokesman for the Lees Summit Police Department, responded that it would take an estimated 10 days to secure the appropriate legal review of request and permission from all four agencies that make up the PIIT. When it comes to investigating use-of-force incidents, the team will release as much information as it can through the media just like any investigation, Muenz said. There may be parts of the investigation they are unable to release. Information that can be released will be done through the spokespersons of the agency involved or the Jackson County Prosecutors Office. Other police shooting teams The track record of multi-jurisdictional teams tasked with investigating police use of force has been mixed. On Jan. 20, 2018, an Overland Park police officer shot and killed 17-year-old John Albers. The homicide was investigated by the multi-jurisdictional Johnson County Officer Involved Shooting Team. No charges were filed. Facing pressure from a lawsuit, city officials in April 2021 released the investigative case file. It was missing key information called for in the task forces policy, such as a supervisors initial notes from the shooting officer and a scene reconstruction. Crime lab records, including a shooting reconstruction that detailed the bullet trajectories, were also not included. In the years since her sons death, Sheila Albers has fought for transparency. She said these multi-jurisdictional teams need to have their policies, procedures and contact information available on a website for the public. Johnson Countys team does not have a website. The community deserves that level of transparency regarding the loss of a life, Albers said. Without transparency there is no accountability. Albers pointed to places that have taken steps to be more transparent. In the Fort Collins, Colorado, area, the Critical Incident Response Team is comprised of nine police agencies and the district attorneys office, according to David Moore, a spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriffs Office. The group was established in 2005 and has 78-pages of protocols available online along with updates on specific cases and charging decisions. Its important that folks get that information and that they really understand that this was a very thorough and professional investigation that has been presented to the district attorney with all the facts available at the time and that the DA had all the information that they needed to make their decision, Moore said. In 2014, Wisconsin became the first state to mandate outside agencies investigate fatal police actions. If no charges are filed, the investigative file is published online. James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, said encounters with police that result in death are traumatic for communities. The public has every right to have questions about how officers conducted themselves, and the fact that our law provides such transparency helps provide the public with the answers frankly, that they deserve, he said. And I think thats beneficial from the public aspect and I think its also beneficial from a law enforcement perspective. The Texas Department of Public Safety has asked Dr. Mark Escott, the chief medical officer for the City of Austin, to spearhead a team that will investigate whether any of the victims in the Robb Elementary School shooting could have been saved by a faster law enforcement response to the tragedy. Nearly 400 officers responded to the school on May 24 in Uvalde, Texas, but more than 70 minutes elapsed before a Border Patrol tactical team breached the fourth-grade classroom where the gunman was hiding and stopped the carnage. Two teachers and 19 children were murdered. A spokesperson for the City of Austin told Fox News Digital that Escott's probe will examine "injuries sustained by the Uvalde shooting victims to determine whether there may have been opportunities to save lives had emergency medical care been provided sooner." The review will likely encompass autopsies, medical records, emergency medical personnel records and other data. "Our analysis is part of the criminal investigation through the Texas Rangers, so we will complete the report and turn that report over to the Rangers," Escott told Fox News Digital. "I imagine it will inform that investigation." TEXAS OFFICIALS: UVALDE SHOOTING REPORT REVEALS 'MULTIPLE SYSTEMIC FAILURES' READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP Four of the victims who were pulled from the classroom either still had a pulse or were still breathing, according to the Austin-American Statesman. Children run to safety after escaping through a window during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School where a gunman killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. May 24, 2022. Seven Texas Department of Public Safety officers are under investigation by the agency's inspector general for their actions during the shooting. One of those officers, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, was fired last month. Another former officer who was under review, Crimson Elizondo, was hired by the Uvalde School District's police force last month but was fired days later when it was revealed her actions at Robb Elementary School were being investigated. UVALDE VICTIMS' FAMILIES TO MEET WITH STATE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING POLICE RESPONSE TO SCHOOL SHOOTING Story continues Multiple lawmakers who represent Uvalde in the Texas Legislature and U.S. Congress including Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales and state Democratic Sen. Roland Gutierrez have called on Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw to resign. The Robb Elementary School sign is seen covered in flowers and gifts on June 17, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, the location of a May mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A spokesperson for the City of Austin said Escott's review is still in its early stages. "Similar reviews have been conducted in the past following mass shooting incidents to learn lessons, influence policy development and improve responses to future incidents," the spokesperson said. Dallas police are on the lookout for a woman who took off with more than $20,000 worth of fine jewelry. Security footage caught the suspect entering New World Jewelry, located at 10830 Grissom, on Thursday at 3:15 p.m. When the employee was distracted, the suspect began taking and concealing jewelry into her dress pockets. She continues to do so for 40 minutes. MALIBU CROWDED BALCONY COLLAPSE CAPTURED ON VIDEO Dallas authorities say that the suspect hid over $20,000 worth of jewelry during that time. Surveillance video showed that she left in a newer model white Nissan Rogue. Police described the suspect as a black woman, 50-60 years old, wearing a long shirt over gray pants, a knit hair cover, and glasses. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call Det. G. Waller at 214-670-6053 or email george.waller@dallaspolice.gov. (Bloomberg) -- Tiger Global Management, a long-time investor in China, has pulled back from the region and is pausing future stock investments. Most Read from Bloomberg The firms hedge and long-only funds have been reducing their exposure to the country this year and continued to do so last month, shrinking the percentage of Tiger Globals portfolio there from the mid-teens to mid-single digits, according to people familiar with the matter. The adjustments reflect the firms view that geopolitical tensions and Chinas Zero Covid policy, with lockdowns and quarantines, are all the more likely to persist after President Xi Jinping last month clinched a precedent-defying third term in office. Still, the money manager also sees a potential for the president to stimulate the economy to hit goals for the future. Tiger Global gained renown for its early bets on China, snapping up battered internet stocks there in 2002, but the market has become a minefield for investors in the past few years. Chinese regulators cracked down on the tech sector last year, imposing new restrictions and taking some executives into custody, sending once-high-flying stocks tumbling. Lockdowns have complicated companies operations. There are also heightened tensions with the US. The Hang Seng Index is down almost 44% since the end of 2020 through Thursday, compared with the S&P 500s decline of less than 1%. For now, Chase Colemans firm doesnt intend to snap up Chinese stocks on the cheap and is taking a wait-and-see approach to investments there until Xis next public statements, the people said. Instead, its focusing on India and Southeast Asia. Story continues The funds remaining China exposure is tied mostly to food delivery titan Meituan and online retailer JD.com, though even those positions have shrunk, the people said. A company spokeswoman declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the firms decision earlier Thursday. (Updates with Tiger Globals background in China from fourth paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Tigrayan authorities on Friday accused Ethiopia's government of carrying out a drone strike on civilians, less than 48 hours after the warring parties signed a deal to end their bloody conflict. The breakthrough agreement sealed in South Africa has been hailed internationally as a key step towards stopping a war that began exactly two years ago on Friday. A spokesman for the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) alleged that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government had carried out attacks against civilians in the Tigrayan city of Maychew on Thursday. "According to sources at Lemlem-Karl Hospital, drone of #Ethiopia has attacked civilians," Kindeya Gebrehiwot said on Twitter. "There was also shelling of artillaries in the same city that killed & wounded civilians. This happens after signing the peace agreement at #Pretoria," he said. 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. There was no immediate response from Ethiopian government officials or the African Union (AU) to requests from AFP. The agreement signed on Wednesday says both sides agreed "to permanently silence the guns" and to a "programme of disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration for the TPLF combatants." But observers say that key details and a clear roadmap that would help sustain momentum are absent, and distrust runs deep. Even as the AU-led negotiations began in Pretoria last week, fierce fighting was under way in Tigray between TPLF fighters and federal forces backed by soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea. Ethiopia's northernmost region has been in the throes of a severe humanitarian crisis due to lack of food and medicine, as well as limited access to basic services. Observers and diplomats have warned of the difficult road ahead, with the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday saying that arriving at a permanent ceasefire was "going to be very difficult." Story continues Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in the German city of Muenster, Borrell acknowledged that the agreement was "good news," but cautioned: "Making peace is much more difficult than making war." "The world is looking at Ukraine and blaming Russia. But Ethiopia is for sure the worst humanitarian crisis... and war in the last two years," Borrell said. Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sent troops into Tigray on November 4, 2020 to topple the TPLF, the region's ruling party, in response to what he said were attacks on federal army camps. amu/ri U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, stumping for votes in the final days before Election Day, asked voters on Thursday night to help him fight for more jobs in Ohio and preserve the big government staying out of our bedroom. The Democrat congressman from Ohio held a Dayton Workers First rally at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 82, where he spoke to a room full of supporters. >> How to Watch: Upcoming rallies in the Miami Valley for U.S. Senate candidates Theres no economic freedom is theres no jobs in the United States and thats what we got to fight to bring back to this country, he said. We have to make sure we preserve the big government staying out of our bedroom and big government staying out of our doctors offices. The Miami Valley has continues to be a busy place for Ryan and his Republican opponent, JD Vance. Both are vying to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman. The Miami Valley is always really important in Ohio elections, Vance said in an interview with News Center 7 this week. " I think in part because Im from here and because people know me here. Tim Ryan, candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, held a rally for workers Thursday night at the IBEW Local 82 hall on Poe Avenue in Vandalia. Vance will take yet another opportunity to shore up supporters and persuade undecided voters on Monday, Nov. 7, in Dayton when he is scheduled to speak at a rally featuring former President Donald Trump. A lot of people here, a lot of voters here and I know this is an area both me and President Trump love a great deal. And so not surprising that we decided to do the rally here. For more information on each candidate and the latest on the 2022 Election visit here. A top Democrat in Georgia has chosen to shun his party's gubernatorial nominee, Stacey Abrams, and instead throw his support behind incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Burt Jones. Kwanza Hall, the former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor who lost in a runoff to the current Democratic lieutenant governor nominee, Charlie Bailey, made his announcement Friday, citing Kemp's ability to make "tough decisions" in "unprecedented circumstances," and Jones' plans to reduce crime and improve the state's education system. "While we dont agree on every issue, its abundantly clear that Brian Kemp is a man of character, a strong leader, and someone who Georgians can trust to put them and their interests first," Hall said in a statement. FOR THE WIN: CONTROL OF THE SENATE HINGES ON THESE VOLATILE RACES Former Democratic Georgia Congressman Kwanza Hall endorsed Republican Brian Kemp for re-election over his fellow Democrat, Stacey Abrams. Hall is also a former member of the Atlanta City Council, and briefly served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th Congressional District following the death of former Democratic Rep. John Lewis, who represented the seat. Recent polls have shown both Kemp and Jones with leads over their opponents in their respective races. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the Kemp and Abrams campaigns for comment, but only heard back from the former's, who shared a statement he released Friday morning following the endorsement. PRO-KEMP GEORGIA SHERIFFS FURIOUS AT STACEY ABRAMS FOR GOOD OLE BOY REMARKS: VILE AND DISGUSTING "I greatly appreciate Congressman Hall's support in this campaign," Kemp said in the statement. "Kwanza has ably served our capital city and state for many years, and I look forward to working with him and other hardworking Georgians to put political differences aside and keep our state the best place to live, work, and raise a family for the next four years." Fox News' Power Rankings has rated the race between Abrams and Kemp as "lean Republican." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The election for both races will be held Tuesday. (Bloomberg) -- Conservative lawmakers -- and even some of his Cabinet -- are worried that Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks plans for stabilizing the UK public finances will sink their chances of surviving the next election. Most Read from Bloomberg One Cabinet minister said hes concerned that people will conclude Sunak is accepting Britains decline with his determination to raise taxes and cut spending as the economy enters recession. Thats the sort of idea that can define a prime minister, they said. And with public services already under pressure, it may well mean the Labour opposition extends its 20-point lead in polls. Sunak and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt are looking to find savings of about 50 billion ($56 billion) when they set out their budget plans on Nov. 17, an official familiar with their thinking said last month. That would be enough to plug a 35 billion gap in the public finances and give them some room to maneuver as they prepare for an election due by January 2025. After less than two weeks as premier, Sunak is focused on sorting out the economic nightmare from his predecessor Liz Truss, who was ousted by her party in record time last month. Trusss determination to deliver tax cuts regardless of the backlash from investors and mainstream economists sparked a run on the pound in September and drove up borrowing costs for the government. While most of that damage has been reversed by Hunts pledge to pursue a more conventional fiscal policy, the outlook remains bleak. The Bank of England said this week that the country is headed into a deep recession that may destroy at least half a million jobs. With the bank projecting that contraction could last as long as two years, Tory MPs are nervously asking how their party can produce a positive pitch to voters. Theyre looking both for policy and rhetoric --- in time for a general election. Story continues The main challenge for the new prime minister is to explain what he stands for and what he came into politics to achieve, multiple MPs and Tory strategists said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Otherwise, hell just be the public face of the orthodox Treasury world view that leads to fiscal consolidation, low growth and austerity, they said. Austerity and fiscal tightening will be self-defeating, said Anthony Yates, a former senior adviser at the Bank of England. Closing the fiscal hole by tightening spending will be really problematic and probably wont hold ultimately. It will worsen the governments chances of getting elected and they will find themselves booted out. One senior Tory said they hoped some of the stories being briefed by government aides about what Hunt is considering were intended to manage voters expectations rather than a sign of what was in the pipeline. They questioned reports that a new nuclear power plant at Sizewell was at risk, an idea later denied by the government, and claims that motorists would be targeted with new taxes. If Sunak and Hunt are trying to engineer a more positive reaction to their plans, then its a trick the prime minister appears to have used before. In May, some media were reporting that he would award a 600 energy subsidy for poorer households before the then-chancellor announced it would be 650. Allies of Sunak insist he does have a positive vision, pointing to commitments he has made to revolutionize education. Conservative headquarters informed staff this week that it was building a library to help aides come up with policy ideas, seeking donations of ideological right-leaning books for inspiration. One staffer said the only book they needed to read was an upcoming Truss biography, to sear into their minds everything they shouldnt do. Government officials argue they will be able to exploit issues such as crime and immigration and paint Labour leader Keir Starmer as weak on border security. A home affairs section has been added to the weekly government communications grid, showing it will be a key issue in the run up to the election. Some in Downing Street were pleased that Home Secretary Suella Braverman drew attention to illegal immigration this week, despite the huge criticism she endured for her handling of the debacle at Manston migrant center, where thousands of people have been kept in seriously overcrowded temporary accommodation. Yet others at the top of government were privately concerned. One government official conceded many did not agree with Bravermans inflammatory rhetoric about an invasion on the south coast. More fundamentally, some Sunak allies are wondering whether the focus on borders is a strategic error. One minister said that until the government comes up with a policy to properly address the small boat crossings, right-wing voters will not look kindly upon attempts to inflame the issue. Braverman took part in a photo op last week, flying in a Chinook helicopter to Manston, leaving a Cabinet colleague to despair that the home secretary should not be trying to make political capital out of an extremely difficult policy issue -- both because it was a distasteful move and because its likely to backfire. Even Bravermans allies on the right of the party fear her days in office are numbered. The home office is internally very concerned that upcoming legal action over Manston will force the release of evidence that she did not act on legal advice warning that stays at the center beyond 24 hours were illegal. There are worries among Sunaks senior team that Braverman will be shown to have misled parliament and be forced to resign. Contrary to claims by some in government, Bravermans most vocal detractors have not been progressives, but figures on the right of the Tory party who are deeply worried at her management of Manston. Conservative MPs said that if the government pushes illegal immigration to the top of the agenda in order to attack Labour, but fails to address the root problems, they open the door for former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to return to the political frontline. Farage and his allies are furious that the Tories didnt make good on a supposed deal to fix them with peerages and a route back into the Tory party following the 2019 election, according to a person familiar with their thinking. One Tory raised the possibility that Farage could wreak maximum damage if he timed his return to coincide with Donald Trump staging another run for the US presidency. Conservative MPs were also alarmed to see Sunak judged the loser to Starmer in prime ministers questions. The Tories have little respect for Starmers abilities at the despatch box. One said that coming off second beset should be considered unthinkable. A Tory who has sat in focus groups of voters also criticized Sunaks efforts in Parliament to liken Starmer to the left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. They said the one thing voters have consistently shown they know about Starmer is that he is not Corbyn, therefore, as a political attack line, the comparison is impotent. The fundamental problem for Sunak though is not how his rival is perceived, but how he is. One MP encapsulated the political, economic and electoral problems facing Sunak by saying that his politics so far consists of budget cuts and tough talk on illegal immigration but few serious solutions to fix it. Rather than carving out his own identity, he risks being seen as an amalgam of Braverman and George Osborne, the former chancellor who became synonymous with austerity. That is not likely to be a popular policy mix with voters, they said. --With assistance from Joe Mayes and Andrew Atkinson. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Once upon a time, Marine Reserve-run Toys for Tots got help from the animator and businessman who created some of the most iconic childrens films of the 20th century. More than seven decades ago, Walt Disney and his studio designed the original logo for Toys for Tots, an initiative that helps Santa deliver toys to children in low-income families, according to a Wednesday Disney press release about its annual Toys for Tots drive. As Toys for Tots enters its 75th year, the iconic train image that Disney designed is still part of the logo. Marine Corps Reserve celebrates 75 years of Toys for Tots Marine reservist Maj. Bill Hendricks had the idea for Toys for Tots in 1947 after his wife, Diane, told him she wanted to donate handcrafted dolls to an agency that would distribute them to children in need, according to the Toys for Tots website. No such agency existed. With help from the Marines in his Reserve unit in Los Angeles, Hendricks set out to change that. In its first year, the program distributed 5,000 toys to economically disadvantaged children. It so happened that Hendricks civilian job was as director of public relations at Warner Bros. Studios. Because the major regularly hobnobbed with Hollywood celebrities, Walt Disney was a part of Hendricks social world. As a favor to his friend, Disney and his studio artists designed the original poster for Toys for Tots. Walt Disney's original 1948 poster for Toys for Tots depicts a beaming Santa Claus wearing a belt with the Marine Corps insignia. (Toys for Tots) The poster features a beaming Santa Claus whose considerable belly is secured with a belt bearing an eagle, globe and anchor carrying a sack of toys. In front of Claus runs a three-car miniature train in which Toys for Tots is inscribed. A version of that train still appears in the programs logo today. The train logo is reminiscent of both toys in the mid-century, toy trains were one of the most popular gifts for boys and a distribution effort. And those are the two key components of what Toys for Tots does: Marines and volunteers across the country collect donated toys, sort and wrap them, and then distribute them to children in need. Story continues Since its founding seven and a half decades ago, Toys for Tots has distributed nearly 630 million toys to more than 280 million children, according to the Disney press release. After designing the logo, Walt Disney continued to support Toys for Tots by participating in public service advertising for the organization, according to Disney spokesman Cappy Surette, a retired Navy captain. And the company Disney founded has partnered with Toys for Tots throughout the decades, running annual toy drives through its stores, resorts and online. John J. Custer / BuzzFeed News; Bettmann / Getty Images On the night of Oct. 30, 1955, Ann Woodward shot her husband, William, in their lavish Long Island home. The banking fortune heir was dead by the time the police arrived at the North Shore estate, and Woodward, a former radio actor, cried as she confessed to officers that shed confused him with an intruder. Friends told police investigators that the couple, both expert hunters, had been talking about a rash of neighborhood break-ins at a dinner party that night. Weeks later, a burglar even admitted hed been on the homes roof and was scared off by the gunshot. Woodward testified in front of a grand jury, and ultimately, no charges were brought against her. Still, the story took off in the press. The couple wasnt just rich they were society-page fixtures. He had been called the countrys most eligible bachelor; she was a club showgirl who, in the classist and gendered parlance of the time, had married up when she became Woodwards wife. The story of the shooting was turned into a mystery about the marriage itself: Had she really not known it was her husband? Had it actually been an accident? Had he been trying to cut her out of the will? Even decades after the story faded from headlines, it easily sparked dinner party debates. Truman Capote included a thinly disguised fictionalized portrait of Woodward in his 1986 novel, Answered Prayers. Vanity Fair scribe Dominick Dunne wrote The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, another fictionalized version of the story told from the perspective of the mother-in-law, which was adapted into a 1987 miniseries. Now, Roseanne Montillo, a biographer of literary figures like Mary Shelley and the scientists behind the atomic bomb, sets out to reexamine the Woodward story. In Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century, she grapples with Capotes effects on Woodward through his novelization of her story. Putting the two in conversation the scandalous murder protagonist and the scandal-hungry journalist is potentially interesting, especially as true crime ethics becomes an even more heated topic of debate. But the premise of the CapoteWoodward connection requires a bit of stretching; Montillo plays up the causes and consequences through speculation and collapses Capotes narrator with Capote. Ultimately, the books intriguing conceit of historical nonfiction as an ethics lesson doesnt fully cohere into the new perspective it promises. Story continues Simon & Schuster Montillos skills as a historian are most evident when she focuses on Woodward, especially her backstory in Pittsburgh, Kansas. She zeroes in on Woodwards mother, Ethel Crowell, a transgressive figure who might have inspired her daughters ambition. Crowell got a sociology degree in the 20s and became a teacher and high school principal at a time when married women werent allowed to teach. She was charismatic and passionate, gave lectures about Kansas history at her local church, divorced her husband, and started a taxi cab business in the midst of the Depression. But she always struggled to make ends meet. Her daughter Ann, Montillo suggests, didnt want to experience her independent mothers difficulties. She took off for New York City as a model, then became a club showgirl, a radio actor, and the most beautiful girl on radio before she met William Woodward. Deliberate Cruelty is told in Montillos omniscient voice, and her interpretations are presented as fact. This isnt much of a problem in the expository chapters, but it becomes more limiting as the book moves into the more mysterious aspects of the Woodwards marriage from 1943. For instance, she wheels out what seem to be unsubstantiated rumors that William, known as Billy, a racehorse enthusiast, was gay and that his father set up his first meeting with Ann. No sources are cited; how does she know this? Was it true or is this conjecture drawn from the kind of gossip that emerged only after the public became greedy for scandal after the shooting? Depending on ones tastes, the prose comes off either readably breezy or insipidly efficient, but theres little dialogue, so the story never quite comes alive. Take Montillos description of that meeting: She knew very well the power she had over men, and she knew how to use it. Bill looked at her breasts spilling out from a bra that was too small, and at her legs in those black stockings that drove men wild. None of the quotes or descriptions are tied to citations, and its very difficult to discern whats fact and whats novelization. The book is based on press accounts and police reports, but theyre just rehashed, rather than analyzed or questioned. Just like the couples contemporaries, the book plays up that the marriage was in crisis. The household staff witnessed violent squabbles that are painted as mutually abusive, as if both had equal power: Ann flung bottles, shoes, ashtrays at Billy, and Billy retaliated by slapping her face, Montillo writes. After they had two children, Billy became abusive and asked for a divorce by 1948. Montillo suggests Ann had started losing power over her husband because her bedroom tricks began to seem dated, as he met and became involved with younger people who were even more interesting to him than a former chorus girl from Kansas. The story often feels more like retrospective projection onto historical caricatures rather than a true reconsideration making new connections that build up to an original narrative. A more probing revisitation might grapple more explicitly with the ways the speculation about Ann might have been classist and misogynist, propounded first within the couples circles and then in the press. Instead, Montillo relies on her critique of the cruelty of Capotes novel. By the 70s, Capote was hungry for content after the massive success of In Cold Blood. According to Montillo, before he went off to Kansas to investigate the murder of the Clutter family for his 1966 bestseller, he had originally wanted to write about the Woodward story, intrigued by headlines like Showgirl Wife Kills Heir with Shotgun Blast. Montillo shows how Capote, like Woodward, grew up with an ambitious mother who dumped her first husband, remarried, and reinvented herself. And Woodward was like a real-life version of Capotes Breakfast at Tiffanys protagonist Holly Golightly, desperately trying to leave her past behind. By then, Capote had outgrown his role as the gay pet of high-society women like Babe Paley and Lee Radziwill and wanted to show that there was nothing to envy about the upper classes. Answered Prayers, his last work unfinished, and only published posthumously was supposedly meant to be a critique of that echelons mores, narrated by a bisexual hustler, P.B. Jones. In the first published excerpt, Jones meets Lady Ina Coolbirth (later speculated to be based on Paley), who gets drunk and tells him all about Ann Hopkins (widely speculated to be based on Woodward). In Coolbirths telling, Hopkins was a ''jazzy little carrot-top killer'' who ''looked rather like a malicious Betty Grable'' and was known to men in the French Riviera as ''Madame Marmalade'' for an oral trick performed with jam. Shed killed her husband on purpose because otherwise shed be left with nothing in a forthcoming divorce. Arguably, this novelistic portrait was actually a critique of that kind of slut-shaming, but Montillo doesnt raise that possibility. Instead, she plays up how much Capote supposedly and purposefully meant to hurt Woodward through the portrait. She recreates a scene between Capote and Woodward again, based on the notoriously fabulistic Capotes telling where she supposedly called him an anti-gay slur and he called her Mrs. Bang Bang. She implies that he just spent years waiting for a way to get back at her, and the opportunity came with Answered Prayers. Its possible that Truman Capote loathed the socialite Ann Woodward because she reminded him so much of his mother, she writes. But he may also have been so cruel to her because Ann Woodward seemed too much like him as well. The speculation extends to Woodwards death by suicide three days before an excerpt of the novel was due to be published in Esquire. Montillo presents no evidence that Woodward knew that the particular excerpt would focus on her. Its not that one doubts that a revival of a scandal could have been the last straw for a woman who had been supposedly expelled from her former social circle and was trying to put her past behind her. But no suicide note was found. In some ways, Deliberate Cruelty highlights the problem with meta true crime. It also seems likely that Woodward had been experiencing feelings of isolation from her former friends and stress about her younger son, Jimmy, who attempted suicide before she did. The Woodward family would continue to experience mental health struggles. A year after her own death, Jimmy died by suicide. In 1999, William, her older son, also killed himself. Williams friends blamed his depression, and in no small part, a family history, Montillo writes. They could also have blamed Truman Capote. It seems a lot to put on the back of one persons fictional output. Arguably, social misogyny and classism were also responsible. In some ways, Deliberate Cruelty highlights the problem with meta true crime. People are often drawn to crime stories because murder mysteries provide voyeuristic glimpses into marriages and allow us to endlessly interpret motivations. But to repeat the lore about Woodward without addressing the gendered dynamics at play is to miss a huge piece of the puzzle. In recent years, Amanda Knox, exonerated of a 2007 crime that made her infamous, has repeatedly critiqued the medias framing of her story. Knox said the media mixed fact and gendered speculation to depict her as a dirty man-eater. She might as well have been talking about Montillos portrait of Woodward. BuzzFeed may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. More on this Tom Barrack, a former advisor to former president Donald Trump, leaves US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in a short recess during jury selection for his trial in New York City on September 19, 2022. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Trump ally Tom Barrack was acquitted on charges Friday of lobbying for a foreign government. A Brooklyn jury decided he and his co-defendant weren't guilty of sharing White House information with the UAE. Prosecutors alleged Barrack used his friendship with Trump to give UAE officials inside access to the administration. Former President Donald Trump's longtime friend and ally Tom Barrack has been acquitted on charges of lobbying for a foreign government. A jury in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, found Barrack not guilty on all charges on Friday, court documents show. Prosecutors had accused Barrack of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during Trump's presidency and alleged he later lied to the FBI about contacts he had in the UAE. Prosecutors alleged that Barrack used his friendship with Trump to provide UAE officials with inside access to Trump's administration and his 2016 campaign. In his defense, Barrack denied working with the UAE, maintaining that he only set up meetings between the UAE and White House officials and made comments praising the UAE because he wanted to, not because someone told him to, according to NBC News. "I'm so moved by them and the system," Barrack said of the jury after being acquitted Friday, NBC News reported. Barrack's co-defendant, former aide Matthew Grimes, was also acquitted of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent. This story is developing. Please check back for updates. Read the original article on Business Insider Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - The logo for General Mills appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 23, 2018, in New York. General Mills is the latest big advertiser to pause its ads on Twitter as questions swirl about how the social media platform will operate under new owner Elon Musk, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) General Mills and Audi are the latest big advertisers to pause ads on Twitter as questions swirl about how the social media platform will operate under new owner Elon Musk. Spokesperson Kelsey Roemhildt on Thursday confirmed the move by the Minneapolis-based maker of food brands such as Cheerios and Annies macaroni and cheese. As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend, she said. Audi spokesperson Whaewon Choi-Wiles said the German automaker is pausing ads and will continue to evaluate the situation. Advertisers are concerned about whether content moderation will remain as stringent under Musk a self-described free speech absolutist as it has been, and whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands. Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a free-for-all hellscape, an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence, or election and COVID-related misinformation. But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the sites policies were still being enforced. The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter under his watch. Last week, General Motors announced that it had temporarily paused its Twitter advertising while it works to understand the direction of the platform. GM described the pause as a normal step it takes when a media platform undergoes significant change. IPG Mediabrands sent a recommendation to clients on Monday that they pause advertising on Twitter for a week until more clarity emerges about brand safety on the site, according a person who had seen the recommendation. Other big Twitter advertisers like Warner Discovery, Coca-Cola and Nestle did not respond to requests for comment about their advertising plans. Some could evaluate their plans after Twitters new content moderation council meets. Musk has said he will not reinstate any accounts or make major content decisions before it is convened. No date has been announced for that meeting. About 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertisers but its far from the biggest platform that advertisers turn to for digital marketing. Google, Amazon and Meta account for about 75% of digital ads, with all other platforms combined making up the other 25%. Twitter will account for 0.9% of worldwide digital ad spending in 2022, according to projections by Insider Intelligence. Meta will account for 21.4% in 2022. Twitter has lost most of its top executives in the past week, including the one in charge of advertising sales. Sarah Personette, the site's chief customer officer, tweeted earlier this week that she resigned on Friday from Twitter and her work access was officially cut off Monday night. Days earlier, she said she had a great discussion with Musk and expressed optimism about the companys future. In announcing her resignation Tuesday, she said she still believes Twitters new administration understands the importance of upholding the brand safety standards she sought to champion. (Bloomberg) -- Tom Barrack was cleared of charges that he tried to influence the campaign and administration of his longtime friend, former President Donald Trump, as an agent of the United Arab Emirates. Most Read from Bloomberg The jury found Barrack, 75, not guilty of all nine counts against him, including failing to register as a foreign agent, obstructing justice and lying to federal agents. The Colony Capital LLC founders former assistant, Matthew Grimes, 29, was also acquitted on two foreign-agent counts following the six-week trial in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The verdict after barely two days of deliberations was a stinging rebuke to federal prosecutors, who claimed Barrack advanced the UAEs interests to help Colony secure $374 million in investments from the Gulf states sovereign wealth funds. As US District Judge Brian Cogan read the verdict, Barrack dropped his head down and began to weep, as did his ex-wife and children. One male juror pumped his fist in the air saluting Barrack, and a second shook his hand while the former defendant, accompanied by his family, supporters and lawyers, went to have his electronic ankle monitor removed. Later, outside the courthouse, Barrack praised the judge, jury and the US legal system. Amazing Im humbled, he said. The system is amazing. People are amazing. I have no hostility. Just proud to be American. Asked what he was going to do next, Barrack answered, Im going to go have a drink. The statement was in keeping with the sunny demeanor Barrack sought to project on the stand, and his testimony in his own defense clearly played well with the jury. Rebecca Lovaglio, 46, an alternate juror who didnt participate in the verdict but heard all of the evidence, said he appeared very genuine and truthful and sincere, recalling his expression of concern for Grimes as a testament to his character. Story continues Lovaglio had less kind words for the government. I thought much of the prosecutions evidence was very misleading and misrepresented the truth, she said. Abbe Lowell, Grimess lawyer, called the case another example of prosecutorial overreaching and overcharging and called for greater supervision of government cases. The Brooklyn US attorneys office, which brought the case, declined to comment on the verdict. Barrack first became a familiar face as a Trump campaign surrogate in 2016. Prosecutors alleged that many of Barracks campaign activities were undertaken at the behest of the UAE. During the trial, the government laid out his contacts with Emirati officials and said he agreed in May 2016 to serve as a secret back-channel to the Trump campaign and, later, administration. Barrack was accused of inserting language sought by the UAE into a Trump energy policy speech and providing intelligence on US Middle East diplomatic appointments, among other acts. On the witness stand, Barrack denied any sinister motive in his interactions with UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, or MBZ; his younger brother, Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed, the national security adviser, and other Emirati officials. He said he thought they sought him out because they were concerned about Trumps anti-Muslim campaign-trail rhetoric. Barrack acknowledged his desire for UAE sovereign wealth money but claimed that had no bearing on any informal advice he gave the Trump campaign or White House. He made some effort to distance himself from Trump, saying his friends time in office was disastrous for his business and criticizing the Republican Partys racist tone ahead of the 2016 election. He maintained a genial, self-deprecating demeanor for much of time on the stand, occasionally winning smiles from jurors. Before trial, the defense had expressed concern that dislike of Trump would hurt Barrack with the Brooklyn jury. During closing arguments on Tuesday, the government seemed more concerned that Barrack had succeeded in charming the jury. Hes an incredibly eloquent man who can turn a phrase better than anyone, prosecutor Ryan Harris said. Two Tom Barracks There are two Tom Barracks: the man who talks about weaving a web of tolerance and understanding, and the man he really is when the cameras are off, when no one is watching, when the facade is stripped away, Harris said. A man ultimately just leveraging his access and influence with the Trump campaign and the Trump administration to make money and acquire power. The governments case was built largely on hundreds of emails, texts and other communications among Barrack, Grimes, and an Emirati businessman indicted with them, Rashid al Malik, who is a fugitive. The US said he served as an intermediary to top UAE officials. Harris said the evidence is overwhelming that Rashid Al Malik asked Mr. Barrack to do things on behalf of the UAE time and time and time again. That is, at its essence, the heart of this case. Mr. Barrack denied these simple truths. Barrack attorney Randall Jackson in defense closing arguments said prosecutors failed to show why his client would act as a secret agent. What could possibly be the motive for an extraordinarily successful businessman at the end of his career, after a lifetime of doing good work, to decide for my final chapter, Im going to engage in serious international crimes? Jackson said. Jackson said the government had tried to falsely characterize the UAE investments in Colony as payoffs. Thats not money that goes into Toms pocket, Jackson said. Theres no $300 million that goes to Tom. It just goes into an account where it has to be invested by Colony; and only if it makes some money does Colony, as a company, not Tom, get some money from that. Two Trump cabinet officials testified during Barracks trial. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared for the prosecution and said he was not informed about outreach to the UAE by either Barrack or Jared Kushner. Testifying for the defense, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Barrack had expressed opposition to a blockade of Qatar that was supported by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries in the region. The case is US v. Al Malik Alshahhi, 21-cr-00371, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn). (Updates with detail from courtroom) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Donald Trump bashed a New York justice as a radical left lunatic for approving the appointment of a special monitor to stop what the judge described as further fraud at the Trump Organization. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron SICK and claimed that the states court system is being ridiculed all over the World! (Theres no evidence of that.) Last week, Trump claimed that Engoron was attempting a communist takeover of his company. In a major victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James, Engoron agreed Thursday to the appointment of a special monitor to oversee the Trump Organizations financial statements and barred the company from transferring any non-cash assets without first notifying the court and James office. James has battled for a monitor, arguing that Trump is likely already siphoning off assets in the wake of her September lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages from the former president, his company and his three eldest children for alleged fraud. Engoron ruled that the appointment of an independent monitor was justified given the persistent misrepresentations throughout every one of Trumps official statements on the financial condition of his businesses between 2011 and 2021. A monitor will ensure there is no further fraud or illegality that violates state law, Engoron wrote. James suit accuses the Trumps and the Trump Organization of staggering fraud involving a scheme of vastly overvaluing assets to hoodwink banks and obtain loans. The day James filed the case, the Trump Organization created another company, called Trump Organization II, incorporated in Delaware, according to James office, which argued that it was a strategy to shield assets. According to Engorons ruling, James evidence of fraudulent valuations by Trump and his businesses was more than sufficient to indicate that she is likely to succeed in her court action, which is seeking strict limits on the activities of Trump businesses and a ban on the Trumps from serving as officers of any New York corporation going forward. Story continues Donald Trump and the Trump Organization cannot move assets to evade liability and an independent monitor will be installed to oversee financial compliance at the Trump Organization. No matter how powerful you are, everyone has to play by the same set of rules. NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) November 3, 2022 Engoron issued his ruling a day after Trump filed his own lawsuit in Florida against James, accusing her of trespassing on his right to privacy and launching a crusade to seize his empire. A number of Trumps longtime legal advisers staged a failed intervention in a bid to block the former presidents tirade lawsuit from being filed, according to The New York Times. Those legal advisers warned the Florida attorneys who filed the lawsuit that it was frivolous and doomed to fail, sources told the Times. The general counsel of the Trump Organization even warned that they could be charged with malpractice for filing the suit, the newspaper reported. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Donald Trump made history in becoming the first president in US history to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. But while losing to Joe Biden in November 2020 may have dented the one-term presidents pride and fuelled 18-months of lies about rigged ballot boxes, it now seems almost certain that Mr Trump will run again for the White House in 2024. Mr Trump has not stopped fundraising since moving from Washington DC to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, amassing a war chest of well over $100m with which he can help boost Republicans who backed his Big Lie to defeat those in the GOP who did not. And Mr Trump has been back out on the road this year ahead of the midterm elections. Hes been holding MAGA rallies in state after state with candidates hes endorsed, insisting to crowds that he did not legitimately lose to Mr Biden and repeatedly hinting that he plans on avenging his defeat by running again. With under two weeks until Americans head to the polls for the midterm elections, Mr Trump is set to address his signature rallies in multiple states, including a swing through Pennsylvania and a stop in his adopted home state of Florida that will feature Senator Marco Rubio but not his former ally and potential 2024 rival, Governor Ron DeSantis. Mr Trump is widely expected to announce plans for a third presidential campaign after the midterms. And while some other potential candidates, such as Mr DeSantis and his ex-vice president, Mike Pence, do not appear to be considering the ex-presidents plans, its unclear whether either could garner enough GOP primary voters to claim the 2024 nomination. On 4 November, multiple reports indicated that Mr Trumps aides were eyeing 14 November as the date for the former president to announce his 2024 plans. So what, if anything, could stop him? Impeached and acquitted twice The ex-presidents run for a second term became a possibility in February 2021 when the Senate failed to convict him at his second impeachment trial, which was the shortest in presidential history. Story continues He had already been impeached by the Democratic-run House of Representatives on one charge of incitement for urging his supporters to fight like hell before they attacked the Capitol on January 6. Had the Senate voted to convict, Mr Trump could have been barred from ever standing again. Under the Constitution, judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust or profit under the United States. However, only seven Republicans voted to convict, along with all 50 Democrats on 13 February 2021 thus falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to find the former president guilty. Trumps hold on Republican party is overwhelming Today, Mr Trumps hold on the Republican party is overwhelming, and none of this years major candidates have broken from the former reality TV host. But that does not mean he faces no obstacles to a return to the White House. In reality, the biggest hurdle he may face could be a legal rather than electoral one. (Getty Images) Mr Trump is fighting law enforcement investigations on several fronts. The Trump Organization is on trial After three years of investigations by Manhattan prosecutors, Mr Trumps company The Trump Organization is on trial accused of aiding some of its top executives to avoid paying income taxes on the compensation they received in top of their salaries, such as rent-free apartments and expensive vehicles. The trial began on 24 October with jury selection. New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has said that his offices investigation into Mr Trump is active and ongoing, adding that no decision has been made on if Mr Trump may face criminal charges at a later date. Mr Trump has called the investigation a political witch hunt. The Trump Organization has rejected all claims of wrongdoing and said it looks forward to to having our day in court. Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer, is expected to be the main witness. In August, he pled guilty to receiving untaxed benefits valued at $1.7m. Lawsuit filed by New York attorney general In a separate case, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit last month accusing Mr Trump and the Trump Organization of misleading banks and other investors over the course of years concerning the value of Mr Trumps assets. The lawsuit is seeking $250m and a lifetime ban on Mr Trump operating businesses in the state of New York. A court hearing has been set for 31 October. Trump sued for defamation after blasting rape claim Mr Trump also faces a defamation case from writer E Jean Carroll, who sued Trump for defamation in 2019 in state court after he called her a liar for saying he raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. In denying her claims, Mr Trump said that she was not his type, and alleged she had made up the claim to help the sales of her book. Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington posted a statement by the former president on Truth Social ahead of his deposition in the case on 19 October. You have to fight for years, and spend a fortune, in order to get your reputation back from liars, cheaters, and hacksIt is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years, Mr Trump said in part. And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type! She has no idea what day, what week, what month, what year, or what decade this so-called event supposedly took place, he added. The new statement may open Mr Trump up to a new defamation claim, according to legal experts, as he launched the verbal assault as a private citizen and not as the president of the United States. The classified documents brought to Mar-a-Lago The FBI and the Department of Justice are also continuing their investigation of Mr Trumps handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. Georgia election investigation In addition, a special grand jury in Georgia is investigating if Mr Trump and his allies tried to influence election officials in the state. Subpoenaed by January 6 committee During its last hearing, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection voted unanimously to subpoena Mr Trump. If Trump is convicted, he could still run As things currently stand, Mr Trump could run again. If he is convicted of a crime, it is still possible he could run. Slate reported legal professor Kate Shaw as saying: When were talking about federal office, the limitations would really be political, not legal. The Constitution actually is really clear about what the qualifications to run for president, or a member of Congress or Senate are. In the annals of US political history, only three elected officials have ever been permanently barred from holding future office: former federal judges West Humphreys, Robert Archibald, and Thomas Porteous. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at The Rosen Shingle Creek on February 24, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. (Getty Images) Trump likely to win GOP nomination While the 2024 presidential election is still two years away, Mr Trump appears likely to win his partys nomination should he decide to run again. In a YouGov poll conducted between 17 and 19 October, 53 per cent of GOP primary voters said they preferred Mr Trump, to 29 per cent for Mr DeSantis and six per cent for Mr Pence. Meanwhile, Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, who is not running for re-election, has said he would love to run against Mr Trump in a primary election even if he crushed me. Former President Trump is signaling he could declare a 2024 White House bid soon after the midterm elections. Trump sent his clearest signal yet that he intends to announce a reelection campaign during a rally Thursday night in Iowa, the first caucus state in the GOP primary. I will very, very, very probably do it again, OK? Very, very, very probably, Trump said as a crowd of supporters cheered. Get ready. Thats all Im telling you. Very soon. Get ready. Get ready. Axios reported on Friday morning that Trump and his team are eyeing Nov. 14 as a possible launch day for his 2024 campaign, which would be followed by a string of political events. Kellyanne Conway, who previously served as Trumps 2016 campaign manager and a top adviser in the Trump White House, told reporters at a roundtable on Thursday that she expects the former president to announce soon. I give him a ton of credit for not announcing this year, for not stepping in the way of midterm candidates. I think you can expect him to announce soon, Conway said at a Christian Science Monitor event. Obviously theres a family wedding coming up on his property, and Election Day is late this year. But as he would say, wait and see, Conway added. Trumps daughter, Tiffany Trump, is scheduled to get married at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Nov. 12. An announcement could come shortly after that event. Trump is likely to seize on momentum from Republicans winning the House and possibly Senate and take credit for the feat, as the vast majority of candidates have embraced his administrations accomplishments and some are his hand-picked candidates. Conway noted that some in Trumps circle had urged him to announce before the midterms, but she and others advised him against doing so and potentially stepping on Republicans chances of taking back both chambers of Congress. Sources previously told The Hill that Trump had mulled an announcement as early as July of this year. Story continues The former president has teased a possible 2024 campaign for much of the time since he left office in January 2021. Trump still maintains a strong hold on the GOP electorate, making him a formidable candidate who would enter any primary as the favorite. Still, a number of polls in recent months have shown an increasing number of Republicans are ready to move on from Trump in favor of another candidate who would carry on his legacy. A July New York Times-Siena College poll found 49 percent of GOP primary voters said they would back Trump for a third nomination. A September NBC News poll found 33 percent of registered Republicans view themselves as a supporter of Donald Trump over a supporter of the Republican Party, down 10 percentage points from a year earlier. Other Republicans including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) have signaled they will consider a 2024 presidential campaign regardless of whether Trump is running. Others, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), have not said whether they plan to run. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Social media platform Twitter has halted its plans to build a crypto wallet as part of ongoing changes kick-started last week by its new owner, Elon Musk, the online publication Platformer wrote Thursday. "A recently revealed plan to build a crypto wallet for Twitter appears to be on pause," the article said. Dogecoin (DOGE) recently sank almost 10% in the aftermath of the news. The popular meme coin's price has consistently reacted to Musk's activities and pronouncements. The billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO has been a major advocate for the token. DOGE had more than doubled over the past week as Musk completed the deal, hitting the highest price since April amid optimism he might push crypto-favorable initiatives at Twitter. The company is expected to lay off about half its employees, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Last week, Musk ousted Twitter's CEO and other senior executives, and in the past has made no secret of his intent to change Twitter's direction. At the time of publication, Twitter had not responded to a CoinDesk request for comment about its plans for the crypto wallet. Read More: Dogecoin Led the Pack Among Cryptocurrencies in October With 17 Times Bitcoin's Gains UPDATE (Nov. 3, 2022, 01:17 UTC): Updates most recent DOGE price decline in headline and story. UPDATE (Nov. 3, 2022, 02:40 UTC): Updates with latest DOGE trading. Twitter will reportedly begin laying off workers on Friday, only a week after Elon Musk officially took control of the website. Around half of the company's staff members will lose their jobs, according to internal messages seen by The New York Times and The Washington Post. That's consistent with the previous reports that came out earlier this week. Musk didn't waste much time in making personnel changes after taking over Twitter. His first act was to dismiss then-CEO Parag Agrawal and other members of the leadership team. Several other executives have left the company over the last week. In an email sent to staff members, Twitter said that it has to "go through the difficult process of reducing [its] global workforce on Friday" and that the move "is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward." Twitter's offices will be closed on Friday, and all employees are asked to stay home and wait for an update regarding their fate. Those who get to keep their jobs will receive an email with the subject line "Your Role at Twitter" via their work emails. Twitter will contact people getting laid off through their personal emails with the next steps to take. Since Twitter is now a privately held entity, it doesn't ostensibly have to answer to shareholders anymore. However, the company still needs to improve the bottom line. It's on the hook for roughly $1 billion a year in interest payments on the debt Musk saddled the company with when he bought it. In the three months to June 30th, Twitter posted a net loss of $270 million. So, it needs to make more money and/or reduce costs, and to do so pretty swiftly. Some major advertisers are skittish about the new regime and Twitter is trying to diversify its sources of revenue. Musk plans to charge $8 per month for Twitter Blue, which verified users will need to pay for to retain their blue checkmark. The service will offer new features, according to Musk, with subscribers seeing fewer ads and the ability to include longer videos in tweets. Reports suggest the Twitter Blue may go up from $5 to $8 per month as soon as Monday. The company is also reportedly working on a plan to offer paid video posts, which it may use to monetize adult content. Mariella Moon contributed to this report. By Sheila Dang, Katie Paul and Paresh Dave (Reuters) -Twitter Inc laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation. Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams. The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk, the world's richest person, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" from the advertiser retreat. Musk blamed the losses on a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing Twitter's top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation - concerns heightened ahead of potential pivotal congressional elections on Tuesday. After the layoffs, the groups said they were escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally. "Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day," Musk tweeted of the layoffs, adding that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay. The company was silent about the depth of the cuts until late in the day, when head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted confirmation of internal plans, seen by Reuters earlier in the week, projecting the layoffs would affect about 3,700 people, or 50% of the staff. Among those let go were 784 employees from the company's San Francisco headquarters and 199 in San Jose and Los Angeles, according to filings to California's employment authority. Roth said the reductions hit about 15% of his team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, and that the company's "core moderation capabilities" remained in place. Story continues Musk endorsed the safety executive last week, citing his "high integrity" after Roth was called out over tweets critical of former President Donald Trump years earlier. Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a "hellscape." President Joe Biden said on Friday that Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world. "And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends - that spews lies all across the world... Theres no editors anymore in America. Theres no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?" Major advertisers have expressed apprehension about Musk's takeover for months. Brands including General Motors Co and General Mills Inc have said they stopped advertising on Twitter while awaiting information about the new direction of the platform. Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done "everything we could" to appease the groups. Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure "an attack on the First Amendment." Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. ACCESS TO SYSTEMS CUT The email notifying staff about layoffs was the first communication Twitter workers received from the company's leadership after Musk took over last week. It was signed only by "Twitter," without naming Musk or any other executives. Dozens of staffers tweeted they had lost access to work email and Slack channels overnight before receiving an official layoff notice on Friday morning, prompting an outpouring of laments by current and former employees on the platform they had built. They shared blue hearts and salute emojis expressing support for one another, using the hashtags #OneTeam and #LoveWhereYouWorked, a past-tense version of a slogan employees had used for years to celebrate the company's work culture. Twitter's curation team, which was responsible for "highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter," had been axed, employees wrote. Shannon Raj Singh, an attorney who was Twitter's acting head of human rights, tweeted that the entire human rights team at the company had been sacked. Another team that focused on research into how Twitter employed machine learning and algorithms, an issue that was a priority for Musk, was also eliminated, according to a tweet from a former senior manager at Twitter. Senior executives including vice president of engineering Arnaud Weber said their goodbyes on Twitter on Friday: "Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I'm proud of what we accomplished." Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service that Musk is bolstering, were also let go. An employee with the handle "SillyRobin" who had indicated they were laid off, quote-tweeted a previous Musk tweet saying Twitter Blue would include "paywall bypass" for certain publishers. "Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this," the employee said. DOORS LOCKED Twitter said in its email to staffers that offices would be temporarily closed and badge access suspended "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data." Offices in London and Dublin appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. At the London office, any evidence Twitter had once occupied the building was erased. A receptionist at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters said a few people had trickled in and were working in the floors above despite the notice to stay away. A class action was filed on Thursday against Twitter by several employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law. The lawsuit asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case. (Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas, Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, and Paresh Dave in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Fanny Potkin, Rusharti Mukherjee, Aditya Kalra, Martin Coulter, Hyunjoo Jin, Supantha Mukherjee and Arriana McLymore; Writing by Matt Scuffham and Katie Paul; Editing by Kenneth Li, Jason Neely, Matthew Lewis and William Mallard) Boston Police are asking the public for help in locating two men that allegedly attacked and robbed two employees of a convenience store on Wednesday night. Police responded to Adams Convenience store on Hanover Street just after 11 p.m. and located an adult male and an adult female who stated that they had been attacked and robbed as they took the trash out to a dumpster behind the building. According to police, the suspects kicked and punched the woman in the back of the head, causing a small laceration. She was transported to the hospital for her injuries. They then punched the man in the face multiple times and ripped off his gold chain with a pendant on it. Police said the suspects then fled the area on foot through the alley and onto Blackstone Street where they got into a small black SUV, possibly a Nissan Rogue, which then drove off towards Surface Road. Both victims stated the two men had been observed inside the store prior to the incident. Anyone with information on these individuals is urged to contact District A-1 Detectives at 617-343-4571. The investigation remains ongoing. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Ukrainian defenders shot down a Russian cruise missile on the southern front on Friday, 4 November. Source: Air Command Tsentr (Centre) Quote: "At approximately 16:00, soldiers of one of the separate anti-aircraft missile divisions of Air Command Tsentr (Centre) that were carrying out combat tasks on the southern front shot down an enemy cruise missile. A successful shot [by an anti-aircraft defence system] means an infrastructure facility saved and hundreds of peaceful lives." Details: The Command specified that one cruise missile was shot down above the Kherson region and one above the Mykolaiv region. Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force, specified in a comment for Ukrainska Pravda that on Friday, 4 November, two missiles were shot down on the southern front one by the members of Air Force Command Pivden (South) and the other by members Air Force Command Tsentr (Centre). Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Photo: The Canadian Press Police tape blocks a street outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her husband, Paul Pelosi, was released from the hospital Thursday after his treatment for injuries from a violent assault last week in which he was attacked with a hammer. Pelosi said, Paul remains under doctors care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home." Law enforcement officers who responded to the break-in early last Friday witnessed Paul Pelosi being struck in the head with the hammer at least once, according to court documents. Officials said the assault was captured on the officers body cameras. Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Speaker Pelosi said her husband was grateful to the 911 operator who directed police to the family residence, emergency responders and the entire hospital staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment." The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world," she said. Paul Pelosi's release from the hospital comes as a federal official says the Canadian man accused of breaking into their home and attacking him should have been flagged by immigration officials and blocked from getting back into the U.S. after overstaying his authorized entry more than two decades ago. David DePape, 42, legally entered the United States in 2000 and later left the country and returned a few times, including entering in March 2008 at San Diegos San Ysidro border crossing, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Most Canadians are not required to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. as tourists and can stay for up to six months. The official said it was unclear why U.S. authorities admitted DePape after he overstayed his entry in 2000. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about DePapes entry to the United States after he violated immigration law. It acknowledged in a statement that DePape was allowed into San Diego from Tijuana on March 8, 2008, but didnt address any other entries. San Francisco police said DePape confronted Paul Pelosi in the familys Pacific Heights home Oct. 28 and demanded to know where the House Speaker was. DePape pleaded not guilty to state charges on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. His public defender, Adam Lipson, said he looks forward to providing him with a vigorous legal defense. DePape faces state charges of attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He also faces federal charges including attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official. His state case will continue Friday, though the defendant will not appear in the courtroom. An arraignment on federal charges has not been scheduled. In the state court filing, prosecutors detailed the attack in stark terms, saying Paul Pelosi, 82, was knocked unconscious by the hammer attack and woke up in a pool of his own blood. DePape grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, but relocated to California to be with a girlfriend, stepfather Gene DePape told The Associated Press last week. He has three children with two women, he said. Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14 and had been a quiet boy. DePapes ex-girlfriend, Bay Area nudist activist Oxane Gypsy Taub, told the San Francisco Chronicle she met DePape in Hawaii in 2000. The pair lived in Berkeley and had two children during their 15-year relationship. U.S. officials have long struggled to quantify let alone track down people who enter the country legally and overstay visas, believed to be about 40% of the population who are in the country illegally. There were 684,499 visa overstays from October 2019 through September 2020 among visitors who arrived by plane or ship more than the population of Vermont or Wyoming according to the Department of Homeland Securitys latest annual report. The total number of overstays is much larger but has not been quantified because it doesnt include how many people arrive by land, the primary way for Canadians and Mexicans to enter the United States. The cost and technological hurdles to develop a checkout system at congested land crossings with Canada and Mexico are enormous. In the 12-month period through September 2020, more than 52,000 Canadians who came to the U.S. by air or sea had overstayed their legally authorized entry. Despite the challenges, the U.S. official said DePapes overstay should have been noted in immigration records, which, in theory, should have prevented authorities from admitting him. By Daphne Psaledakis and Rami Ayyub (Reuters) -The United States and Canada on Friday imposed sanctions on two Haitian politicians, including the president of the country's Senate, as Washington accused them of abusing their positions to traffic drugs and collaborate with gang networks in the country. The sanctions target Haitian Senate President Joseph Lambert and Youri Latortue, who served as president of the chamber from 2017 to 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department and Canada's foreign ministry said in separate statements. "Joseph Lambert and Youri Latortue have abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal and gang networks to undermine the rule of law in Haiti," the U.S. Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, said. "The United States and our international partners will continue to take action against those who facilitate drug trafficking, enable corruption, and seek to profit from instability in Haiti," he added. The sanctions essentially freeze any assets Lambert and Latortue may hold in the United States or Canada and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. The Haitian investments "go back and forth between Miami and Montreal," Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told Reuters. "There will be more sanctions coming," she said in a telephone interview from Muenster, Germany. Latortue in an interview with Haitian broadcaster Radio Television Caraibes denied the accusations against him and said U.S. officials had ignored his advice on police training and strategies to confront gangs. "They trained the police and today theyve inherited what they had trained," said Latortue. "I had said 'Here is how we have to fight in Haiti.' Ever since they were not happy." Lambert and Prime Minister Ariel Henry's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Story continues Haiti's gangs have expanded their power since the shocking 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, and Henry has faced difficulties in restoring order to the country. Sources on Thursday said Haitian police have taken control of a fuel terminal that had been blockaded by armed gangs since September, ending a standoff that triggered a humanitarian crisis and talks of foreign military intervention. The U.S. State Department also designated Lambert, barring him from traveling to the United States over accusations of involvement in "significant corruption and gross violation of human rights." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was credible information of Lambert's involvement in gross violation of human rights during his tenure, citing an extrajudicial killing. Canada and the United States did not identify which Haitian gangs they believed were tied to the officials. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Brian Ellsworth in Sao Paolo and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Josie Kao and Alistair Bell) By Nate Raymond (Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday again declined to block President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, this time in a challenge brought by two Indiana borrowers, even as a lower court considers whether to lift a freeze it imposed on the program in a different case. Barrett denied an emergency request by the Indiana borrowers, represented by a conservative legal group, to bar the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Democratic president's plan to forgive debt held by qualified people who had taken loans to pay for college. Barrett on Oct. 20 denied a similar request by a Wisconsin taxpayers organization represented by another conservative legal group. The justice acted in the cases because she is the justice assigned to handle certain emergency requests from a group of states that includes Indiana and Wisconsin. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 21 put the policy on hold in yet another conservative challenge by six Republican-led states while it considered their request for injunction pending their appeal of their case's dismissal. That request remains pending. Biden's plan, unveiled in August, was designed to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples. Borrowers who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that debt forgiveness would eliminate about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt and that more than 40 million Americans would be eligible to benefit. The policy fulfilled a promise Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign to help debt-saddled former college students. Democrats hope the policy will boost support for them in Tuesday's midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake. Story continues Friday's case was filed by two borrowers, Frank Garrison and Noel Johnson, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, and claimed they would be irreparably harmed if some of their student loans were automatically forgiven because they would face increased state tax liabilities. Soon after they sued, the Department of Education created an opt-out option for borrowers. U.S. District Judge Richard Young on Oct. 21 dismissed the case, finding that the debt forgiveness program did not injure Garrison and Johnson. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 28 declined to block the plan while Garrison and Johnson pursued an appeal, noting that the program is "not compulsory" and that the plaintiffs could avoid tax liability simply by opting out. Caleb Kruckenberg, a lawyer at the Pacific Legal Foundation, in a statement expressed disappointment that Barrett declined to block the plan while his clients pursued their appeal but said they will "continue to fight this program in court." "Practically since this program was announced, the administration has sought to avoid judicial scrutiny," he said. "Thus far they have succeeded. But that does not change the fact that this program is illegal from stem to stern." (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'Brien) One U.S. traveler has been caught trying to bring a live albino alligator through a German airport. The 42-year-old man was caught with a rare albino alligator in his suitcase. Customs officials found the alligator wrapped in cling film when they opened the mans suitcase. The discovery took place at Munich airport in Germany. Reportedly, the man was trying to travel to Singapore, according to Suddeutsche Zeitung reports. The man tried to bring the live albino alligator through the German airport because it was incredibly rare. Reportedly, rare animals go for a high price in Singapores illegal animal trade. Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that the alligator was fully wrapped ini cling film except for its nostrils. Related: A Pay As You Fly Model May Start In Germany Soon What we know: Officials Discover Live Albino Alligator in Suitcase https://t.co/Tuammlyirr Know Your News (@knowyournewz) November 3, 2022 > Images of the one-meter-long smuggled Albino Alligator have circulated social media. Investigation pending It is not yet clear if the travelers dangerous transportation method of the alligator was a smuggling attempt. Many of the species that were being offered for sale are exotic wildlife species that are not allowed to be sold or offered for sale, or kept as pets in Singapore, including several species that are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), Dr. Adrian Loo, group director of wildlife management within Singapores National Parks Board, told The Straits Times. Currently, the man faces criminal charges for violating Germanys Species Protection and Animal Welfare Act. He also must pay a five-figure fine and has had his phone confiscated by officials. Albino alligators are very rare, with only 100-200 being estimated to be left in the world. Related: 6 Human Skulls Bound For Iowa Seized At Chicago Airport (Bloomberg) -- The Group of Seven said it would hold Russia accountable for war crimes after recent attacks on Ukrainian energy and water facilities. Foreign ministers of the leading industrial nations slammed the Kremlins irresponsible nuclear rhetoric in a statement released after a two-day foreign ministers meeting in Muenster, Germany. Most Read from Bloomberg The White House announced $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine, including refurbished Soviet-era tanks and air defense missiles. The Netherlands will supply 120 million ($118 million) in aid including 45 million for tanks. Chinese President Xi Jinping told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he opposed the use of nuclear weapons in Europe, in his most direct remarks yet on the need to keep Russias war in Ukraine from escalating. (See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.) Key Developments Xi Tells Scholz China Opposes Nuclear Force in Message to Putin Superyacht Seized in Spain as Sanctioned Owner Stops Fees US Announces $400 Million in Tanks and Missiles for Ukraine Ukraine Seeks IT Investment at Web Summit as War Rages Back Home The Latest Russia Oil Mystery: Vostok Sale Announced Then Denied US National Security Advisor Visits Kyiv in Show of Support On the Ground Ukrainian forces shot down eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr missiles during past 24 hours, Zelenskiy said Friday. The heaviest fighting occurred in Donbas, near Bakhmut and Soledar. (All times CET) Ukrainian Lines Holding in Donetsk, Zelenskiy Says (10:30 p.m.) Fierce fighting took place this week in the Donetsk region towns of Bakhmut and Soledar and remain the most tense area of the front line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Friday. We hold our positions. Story continues Zelenskiy said that Russia has concealed its war losses from its people, and also lies to some foreign leaders about its alleged readiness for negotiations. When someone thinks about negotiations, he is not trying to deceive everyone around while sending thousands to death, the president added said. One Crop Vessel Left Ukraine Friday, Several Inbound Ships Cleared (8:22 p.m.) One vessel carrying sunflower oil left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on Friday for Romania under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Joint Coordination Centre said in a notice. Currently, there are only two vessels under the Initiative at the Ukrainian ports. On board inspections were concluded on seven inbound vessels, all of which were cleared to sail to Ukrainian ports. Putin Allows Russian Co. to Buy Baker Hughes Assets (5:27 p.m.) Russias President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing Russian company Oilfield Services Technologies LLC to buy Baker Hughes assets in the country, according to a decree published on Russias legal database on Friday. Read more: Putin Allows Russian Co. to Buy Baker Hughes Assets US Announces $400 Million in New Security Assistance (5:06 p.m.) The Biden administration announced $400 million in new security assistance for Ukraine, including refurbished Soviet-era T-72 tanks and the HAWK air-defense missiles that Ukraine has been seeking. The package also includes more of the Phoenix Ghost drones that have been effective against Russian forces in the east. The US and the Netherlands will split the cost of refurbishing 90 tanks in the Czech Republic, a Defense Department spokeswoman said. Some tanks will arrive before the end of the year. The Netherlands said the total value of its package would be 120m, of which 45m will be used for the T-72 tanks. Read more: US Announces $400 Million in New Security Assistance for Ukraine Russia Seeks Sanctions Relief for Agriculture Bank: Reuters (3:44 p.m.) Russia wants Western countries to ease curbs on state-owned agriculture lender Rosselkhozbank and clear the way for Russian grain exports, according to a Reuters report citing people it didnt identify. Moscow hasnt publicly detailed its demands beyond calling on European nations to release Russian fertilizer stuck in ports and warehouses, and allowing it to resume exports of ammonia. Slovak Premier Seeks Export Analysis on Russia Component Report (3:08 p.m.) Slovakias premier said hed ordered the government to analyze reports that his country had exported components to Russia that could be used for military purposes after the invasion of Ukraine started. Read more: Slovak Premier Seeks Export Analysis on Russia Component Report G-7 Creates Mechanism to Defend Ukraines Key Infrastructure (2:30 p.m.) The Group of Seven nations has agreed to coordinate assistance in repairing, restoring and protecting Ukraines energy and water facilities, which have been under a month of attacks from Kremlin troops. In the statement following their meeting in Germany, the G-7 foreign ministers said they have established a coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure. Strengthening Ukraines civilian resilience will be a focus of an international conference in Paris planned for Dec. 13, they said, adding that the group will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes. G-7 Vows to Hold Russia Accountable for War Crimes (2 p.m.) The Group of Seven condemned Russias recent move to terrorize Ukraines civilian population with ongoing, indiscriminate attacks against energy and water facilities that have left much of the nation in the dark. Those strikes constitute war crimes, and we reiterate our determination to ensure full accountability for these and crimes against humanity, G-7 foreign ministers said in a statement following their meeting in Muenster, Germany. The statement also condemned irresponsible nuclear rhetoric by the Kremlin. Any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences, the G-7 said, without laying out specific steps. The group reiterated a call to Belarus to stop enabling Russias war and said the Belarusian regime risks overwhelming additional costs. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Moscow has claimed it will publish proof that British specialist troops were involved in a drone attack over the weekend on Russias Black Sea Fleet. It comes as the British ministry of defence dismissed Russias allegation as an invented story which says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West. Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, said it will publish its evidence pretty soon, adding that the UK is in too deep with its Ukrainian involvement. He told Sky News: We perfectly know about participation of British specialists in training, preparation and execution of plans against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done, he said. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official has suggested that Russias decision to withdraw troops from the west bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson could be a trap as Moscow prepares the settlements for street battles. Key Points Russia warns Britain too deep into Ukraine conflict Russia trying to humiliate Ukrainians by attacking energy sites, says Zelensky Russia threatening to shoot own retreating soldiers, says UK Russia left with seven ships in Black Sea, says Ukraine Russia withdrawal from Kherson city could be a trap, says Ukraine Russia claims it will release proof of British involvement in Black Sea drone strike Russia claims it will release proof of British involvement in Black Sea drone strike 15:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Moscow has claimed it will publish proof that British specialist troops were involved in a drone attack over the weekend on Russias Black Sea Fleet. It comes as the British ministry of defence dismissed Russias allegation as an invented story which says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West. Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, said it will publish its evidence pretty soon, adding that the UK is in too deep with its Ukrainian involvement. Story continues Read more here: Russia claims it will release proof of British involvement in Black Sea strike US talk show host David Letterman interviews Zelensky for upcoming episode 14:50 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain American talk show host David Letterman travelled to Kyiv to interview Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for an upcoming episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. The episode will be released later this year. David Letterman recently traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an upcoming episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. The standalone special will premiere later this year. pic.twitter.com/M8GlLE5vtT Netflix (@netflix) November 3, 2022 In pictures: Russian shelling in the Donetsk region 14:35 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Photos show the cost of relentless shelling in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. A damaged Soviet-era Ukrainian car Ivan Kulta, 68, drinks tea next to his destroyed apartment building after Russian shelling in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region (AP) G7 foreign ministers condemn Mali abuses of Russia's Wagner mercenaries 14:15 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain The foreign ministers of the G7 group of advanced industrial democracies condemned the activities of the Russian-backed Wagner Group of mercenaries in Mali and elsewhere in Africa, where they have been linked to human rights violations. We are appalled by the violations and abuses of human rights against civilian populations, including those committed by terrorist groups and the Russia-affiliated Wagner Group forces in Mali, the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the U.S. said at the conclusion of their meeting in Muenster, Germany. Last month, the U.S. accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere to help fund Moscows war in Ukraine, a charge Russia rejected as anti-Russian rage. G7 agreed on coordination mechanism to help Ukraine defend its infrastructure 13:55 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Top diplomats from the Group of Seven countries have agreed on the need for a coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair and defend its critical energy and infrastructure from Russias attacks, a senior State Department official said on Friday. G7 countries gathered in the western German city of Muenster this week with Russias Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Irans deepening military alignment with Moscow over the war as well as Chinas growing assertiveness topping the agenda. The countries also discussed the state of the battlefield to figure out which weapons to provide to Kyiv, although this time the focus was more on assistance that would allow Ukraine to defend itself from the intensifying Russian attacks on its energy and water infrastructure, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. They discussed what needs Ukraine was facing as it heads into the winter and agreed that there needed to be a G7 coordinating mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure, the official told reporters. Thats something that will be a core focus of this group in the days and weeks ahead, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. There was a decent amount of discussion of that, and what countries have the ability to provide the individual systems and support that might enable Ukraine to better defend itself against these UAV and missile attacks, the official added. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba joined the G7 discussion virtually. Pentagon, U.S. arms makers to talk Russia, labor and supply chain 13:38 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Pentagon leaders plan to meet with defense industry executives next week to discuss ways to tackle supply-chain problems, a U.S. official told Reuters, amid an expected surge in demand for weapons from U.S. allies due to Moscows invasion of Ukraine. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kath Hicks will host a classified meeting with top U.S. defense contractors to discuss the National Defense Strategy, securing supply chains and shoring up the defense industrial base, including workforce challenges, spokesperson Eric Pahon told Reuters earlier this week. Concern among Pentagon officials is growing that top U.S. defense suppliers will struggle with a surge in orders for weapons from European nations like Germany and Poland, amid growing fears of Russian President Vladimir Putins ambitions in the region. Prior meetings between Pentagon officials and top arms makers including Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Technologies Corp and General Dynamics Corp were focused on Ukraine and hypersonic weapon development. Despite global interest in weapons, major U.S. arms makers continue to cite a tight labor market and lingering supply-chain problems from the coronavirus pandemic to tamp down expectations about how quickly they will be able to deliver on those expected orders. We have heard the concerns from industry regarding supply-chain challenges and workforce issues and we share them, the Pentagons chief weapons buyer Bill LaPlante told Reuters in a statement. Pandemic related supply-chain issues are still hurting defense contractors because components and materials fail to arrive on time, which delays production and ultimately payment. The Pentagon plans $500 million in workforce training and retention programs coupled with over $2 billion in supply-chain investments in the coming years as part of an effort to tackle the problems. But Russias invasion of Ukraine has prompted countries like the United States and Germany to raise their defense spending budgets to record levels. Finnish president optimistic Turkey will ratify Nato bid 13:23 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Finnish president Sauli Niinisto is optimistic Turkey will ratify Finlands application to join Nato, he told reporters on Friday. Im optimistic that at the end Turkey will ratify our membership, I hope it takes place as soon as possible, Niinisto told a joint news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Vilnius. Finland and neighbouring Sweden applied for membership of the defence alliance after Russias invasion of Ukraine. The process has been prolonged by negotiations between Finland, Sweden and Turkey after Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan claimed the Nordic countries support groups Turkey deems terrorists. Niinisto repeated his stance that Finland and Sweden joining together would benefit the whole alliance. Its very important to walk hand in hand with Sweden ... Swedish membership is important for all of us, he said. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is currently in Turkey and will meet with Erdogan on Friday while Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson is due to travel to Ankara on Nov. 8. Poland, Lithuania analysing Ukrainian troop training, says general 13:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Poland and Lithuania are looking at how to maintain the training of Ukrainian troops through what they expect to be a tough winter, a general was quoted as saying on Friday, as the nations signed an agreement to deepen defence cooperation. The Russians are... preparing for the next phase, so we are considering how to maintain the training rhythm of the Ukrainian army at various levels, integration, logistics, General Rajmund Andrzejczak, chief of the general staff of the Polish Armed Forces, was quoted as saying by state-run news agency PAP. Andrzejczak was speaking in Vilnius at the signing of an agreement on defence cooperation and intelligence sharing between Poland and Lithuania, PAP reported. The agreement contains concrete guidelines on the exchange of intelligence information in all dimensions, Lithuanias Chief of Defence General Valdemaras Rupsys was quoted as saying. Poland is already serving as a site for training Ukrainian troops. The European Union agreed in October to set up the Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine), and appointing Polish general Piotr Trytek to lead training that will mostly take place in Poland. Meanwhile, Canada said in October it would send 40 more combat engineers to help support Polish efforts to train Ukrainian forces. Japan to keep stake in Russian energy project in Sakhalin 12:47 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain A Japanese consortium has decided to retain its stake in the new Russian operator of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project and is set to notify Moscow, moving to secure stable energy supplies for resource-scarce Japan. Its an extremely important project, Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Friday in welcoming the unanimous decision by the shareholders in Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., or SODECO, a consortium of Japanese companies holding a 30% stake in Sakhalin-1 in Russias Far East. Nishimura said SODECO was expected to notify the Russian operator of its decision by Nov. 11, meeting a deadline set by Russia. The government will do its utmost to ensure Japans energy security by working closely with the private sector, he said. The decision by SODECO shareholders Friday came days after Nishimura met with consortium executives asking them to keep their stake in the Russian project. Many major Western energy companies have withdrawn from projects in Russia due to the war in Ukraine. Japanese officials maintain that oil and gas from Sakhalin is vital for the countrys energy security. Germany's Scholz urges Xi to exert influence on Russia 12:18 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain In a much-scrutinised meeting Friday with president Xi Jinping in Beijing, German chancellor Olaf Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear. Scholz is in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over Chinas tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip. It comes after Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month and as China continues to refuse to criticize Russia. At present, the international situation is complex and changeable, Xi was quoted as telling Scholz by state broadcaster CCTV. As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development. On Ukraine, Xi pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and promoting the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework, CCTV reported. That was apparently a nod to Russias anger over NATOs eastern expansion, largely a result of Moscows increasingly belligerent policies toward its neighbors. The international community should create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, Xi said. Putin signs mobilisation law for people who have committed serious crimes 11:57 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing the mobilisation of people who have committed serious crimes, RIA news agency said on Friday. The law excludes those convicted of child sex abuse, treason, spying or terrorism, RIA said. Putin says civilians in Ukraine's Kherson should be evacuated 11:39 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kherson which Russia declared it had annexed in September must be evacuated from the conflict zone, state-owned news agency RIA reported. RIA quoted Putin as saying during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists: Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer. Russian-installed officials in Kherson region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Putin declared part of Russia at a Kremlin ceremony in September, have pleaded for civilians to leave the regions west, where Ukrainian forces have retaken ground in recent weeks. On Thursday, Khersons Russian-appointed deputy governor Kirill Stremousov issued several video appeals for civilians to leave the part of the province on the west bank of the Dnipro river. He said that Russian forces would likely soon give up the west bank of the Dnipro to Ukraine. (AP) In pictures: 11:20 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Photos from Makiivka in eastern Ukraine show a destroyed building following shelling by Ukrainian forces. Rescuers, left, work at a site of a damaged apartment building after shelling by Ukrainian forces in Makiivka, Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine (AP) A covered lifeless body lies next to a damaged car after shelling by Ukrainian forces in Makiivka, Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine (AP) Investigators inspect a site of an apartment building after shelling by Ukrainian forces in Makiivka, Donetsk People's Republic, (AP) Russia withdrawal from Kherson city could be a trap, says Ukraine 11:13 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain A Ukrainian official has called Russias move to withdraw troops from the west bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson a trap and said it was making the settlements appear safer but setting them up as a pretext for street battles. This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street battles, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraines southern military command, said in televised remarks. This comes a day after a Russian-backed official in southern Ukraines Kherson city one of the four cities captured by Moscow in an illegal referendum last month said Russias soldiers will be leaving the critical riverside area which has served as a ground for Moscows military unit. Arpan Rai has more: Russia withdrawal from Kherson city could be a trap, says Ukraine Erdogan and Putin agree Russian grains should go to poor African countries for free 11:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he had agreed with counterpart Vladimir Putin that Russian grains sent under the Black Sea export deal should go to poor African countries for free. In my phone call with Vladimir Putin, he said Lets send this grain to countries such as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan for free - and we agreed, Erdogan said in a speech to businesspeople in Istanbul. The comment came after Moscow resumed on Wednesday its participation in the U.N. and Turkey-brokered grain agreement, ending four days of non-cooperation that still saw exports continue from Ukrainian ports. Earlier this week, Putin said even if Russia withdrew from the deal again, it would substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the poorest countries for free from its own stocks. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan (AP) Zelensky accuses Russia of energy terrorism' 10:49 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of engaging in energy terrorism after Russian strikes on Ukraines energy network left millions of residents without power. About 4.5 million people were without electricity across the country, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 apartments in the capital alone did not have on Friday. I appeal to all residents of the capital: save electricity as much as possible, because the situation remains difficult! the mayor wrote on Telegram. State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that emergency blackouts would be taking place across Kyiv. Russia has carried out missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power facilities, particularly in recent weeks. In his address, Zelenskyy described the targeting of energy infrastructure as a sign of weakness. The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy, he said. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way. Russia and North Korea forge closer ties amid shared isolation- Part Three 10:32 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Continued from previous post Economic ties Russia and North Korea recently restarted train travel for the first time since railway journeys were cut during the COVID pandemic with an unusually opulent cargo - 30 grey thoroughbred horses. Russias RIA state news agency said medicines would follow in later cargos. The vast majority of North Koreas trade goes through China, but Russia is a potentially important partner as well, particularly for providing oil, experts said. Moscow has denied breaking U.N. sanctions, but Russian tankers have been accused of helping evade caps on exporting oil to North Korea and sanctions monitors have reported labourers remain in Russia despite a ban. Russian officials have openly discussed working on political arrangements to employ 20,000 to 50,000 North Korean labours, despite U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban such arrangements. Russian officials and leaders in the breakaway regions in Ukraine have also discussed the possibility of having North Korean workers help rebuild those war-torn areas. Russia and North Korea forge closer ties amid shared isolation- Part Two 10:16 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Continued from previous post Ukraine war support North Korea has reciprocated with public support for Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine. It was one of the only countries to recognise the independence of breakaway Ukrainian regions, and it expressed support for Russias proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine. Moscows special military operation in Ukraine has ushered in a new geopolitical reality in which the Kremlin and (North Korea) may become increasingly close, perhaps even to the point of resurrecting the quasi-alliance relationship that had existed during the Cold War, Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, wrote in a recent report for 38 North. It is notable Pyongyang has begun using the new phrase tactical and strategic collaboration to describe its relationship with Russia, he added. Both Russia and North Korea have denied claims by the United States that Russia has sought to buy millions of rounds of ammunition and other weapons from North Korea. Russia and North Korea forge closer ties amid shared isolation- Part One 10:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain The United States said this week it has information indicating North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells, in what would be a further sign of deepening ties between the two pariah states. As Russias isolation over its war in Ukraine has grown, it has seen increasing value in North Korea. For North Koreas part, relations with Russia havent always been as warm as they were during the heady days of the Soviet Union, but now the country is reaping clear benefits from Moscows need for friends. Heres how North Korea-Russia relations began, and how they are becoming closer: Political backing Communist North Korea was formed in the early days of the Cold War with the backing of the Soviet Union. North Korea later battled the South and its U.S. and United Nations allies to a stalemate in the 1950-1953 Korean War with extensive aid from China and the Soviet Union. North Korea was heavily reliant on Soviet aid for decades, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, it helped spark a deadly famine in the North. Pyongyangs leaders have tended to try to use Beijing and Moscow to balance each other. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un initially had a relatively cool relationship with both countries, which both joined the United States in imposing strict sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests. After his countrys last nuclear test in 2017, Kim took steps to repair ties. Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019 for the first time in a summit in the Russian city of Vladivostok. In October, Kim sent a birthday greeting to Putin, congratulating him for crushing the challenges and threats of the United States. Russia has joined China in opposing new sanctions on North Korea, vetoing a U.S.-led push in May and publicly splitting the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006. Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant cut off from power grid by Russian shelling, says Ukraine 09:20 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain In case you missed it... Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been disconnected from the countrys grid after Russian shelling destroyed its last remaining high-voltage power lines, according to officials. Ukraines atomic energy company Energoatom had previously warned that Russias efforts to cut the Zaporizhzhia plant off from the grid risked a catastrophic failure of its cooling systems. The power plant only has 15 days worth of fuel left to run the generators, Energoatom said. The plants blocks 5 and 6 are being switched into cold state, it said. Namita Singh reports: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant cut off from power grid by Russian shelling, says Ukraine Poland orders construction of electric fence along Russias Kaliningrad border 09:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Polands defence minister has ordered the immediate construction of a temporary barrier along the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in order that the country feels safe. Mariusz Blaszczak said he had authorised the construction of a wall along the 210km (130-mile) border. A spokesperson for the border guard agency, Konrad Szwed, told the Associated Press that the barrier would consist of an electric fence. Warsaw suspects that Russia plans to use the border to facilitate the crossing of migrants. Amid current simmering tensions over the war in Ukraine, Mr Blaszczak referred to a crisis triggered last autumn when thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants tried to cross the Belarus border into Poland, some of whom died on the journey. Emily Atkinson reports: Poland orders construction of electric fence along Russias Kaliningrad border Zelensky welcomes UNs watchdog nuclear conclusion on dirty bomb allegations 08:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksy welcomed the UNs watchdog nuclear conclusion regarding the dirty bomb accusations in his nightly video address, anf added the only dirty thing in Ukraine now is Russia. We have invited the IAEA to check, we have given them full freedom of action at the relevant facilities, and we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in Ukraine has created or is creating any dirty bombs, he said. The only thing that is dirty in our region now is the heads of those in Moscow who, unfortunately, seized control of the Russian state and are terrorising Ukraine and the whole world. Russia-Ukraine war: What is a dirty bomb? 08:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Kyiv and western allies have accused Russia of claiming Ukraine plans to use a dirty bomb as a plot to use a threat of a missile laced with nuclear material as a pretext for escalation of the war. On Sunday night, amid a Ukrainian advance on Kherson, Moscows defence minister Sergei Shoigu phoned Western counterparts to tell them his country suspected Kyiv of planning to use a dirty bomb and that the war was trending towards uncontrolled escalation. Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons, while Russia has said it could protect its territory with its nuclear arsenal, writes Emily Atkinson. Russia-Ukraine war: What is a dirty bomb? We cannot put China at a level with Russia, EU top diplomat says 08:16 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Western countries need to reduce their dependencies on China but cannot put the country into one category with Russia, the European Unions top diplomat said on Friday. It is clear that China is consolidating a new era of its external policy, and internal also, (that) China (is) becoming much more assertive, much more on a self-reliant course, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with his G7 counterparts in the German city of Muenster. It is clear that we want to reduce our dependencies, we want to address our vulnerabilities, to strengthen our resilience, he added. But at the time being, many member states have a strong economic relationship with China and I dont think we can put China and Russia on the same level. Russia's Gazprom says gas shipments to Ukraine stable at 42.4 mcm Friday 07:53 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russias Gazprom on Friday said that it plans to ship 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, in line with recent days. (EPA) Medvedev says Russia is fighting a sacred battle against Satan 07:34 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday cast Russias war in Ukraine as a sacred conflict with Satan, warning that Moscow could send all its enemies to the eternal fires of Gehenna. Russias invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of thousands and triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war. Medvedev, who once cast himself as a liberal moderniser as president from 2008 to 2012, said Moscow was fighting crazy Nazi drug addicts in Ukraine backed by Westerners who he said had saliva running down their chins from degeneracy. Ukraine and the West have repeatedly dismissed President Vladimir Putins assertions that Ukraine is run by fascists who have persecuted Russian speakers. Instead, they cast the war as a brutal land grab by Moscow. In a message marking Russias Day of National Unity, Medvedev said the task of the fatherland was to stop the supreme ruler of Hell, whatever name he uses - Satan, Lucifer or Iblis. Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russias Security Council, said Russia had different weapons, including the ability to send all our enemies to fiery Gehenna, using a Hebrew term often translated as Hell. Since the war began, Medvedevs rhetoric has become increasingly fierce though his published views sometimes chime with thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite. Satans weapons, Medvedev said, were intricate lies. And our weapon is the truth. That is why our cause is right. That is why victory will be ours! Happy Holidays! Over 700 dolphins may have died in the Black Sea since Russias Ukraine invasion, report says 07:18 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russias invasion of Ukraine has put the entire Black Sea basin under a huge threat, according to a report that said more than 700 dolphins and porpoises have died in the region since the conflict began. The report, published recently by ACCOBAMS or the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Contiguous Atlantic Area warns that military activity in the area affects marine life forms in the region, including cetaceans such as dolphins and porpoises. It said over 700 deaths, primarily in dolphins and harbour porpoises, have been recorded on the coasts of countries bordering the Black Sea, including Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. Vishwam Sankaran reports: Over 700 dolphins may have died in the Black Sea since Putins Ukraine invasion Russia threatening to shoot own retreating soldiers, says UK 06:52 , Arpan Rai Russias forces are now threatening to gun down their own retreating soldiers to drive forward Moscows military objectives, the British defence ministry said today. Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying barrier troops or blocking units, the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update. These units are threatening to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces, the ministry added. Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorising shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given. Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death, according to the British ministry. It added that the tactic of shooting deserters likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces. Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 04 November 2022 Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/CWHuZrKery #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/bYLF2ONZOR Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) November 4, 2022 Russias cleansing operation in Bucha explained: Ive killed so many civilians' 06:41 , Arpan Rai Barely 18 miles from Kyiv centre, the town of Bucha saw some of the worst carnage since Russias invasion of Ukraine within days of the start of the war. What happened in early March in Bucha was dubbed as zachistka by Russian soldiers on intercepted audio calls cleansing. An investigation by the Associated Press and the PBS series Frontline found that Russians hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and kill potential threats. Surveillance camera footage recovered from Bucha shows, for the first time, what such a cleansing operation in Ukraine looks like. In the intercepted calls, Russian soldiers have also spoken about the massacre with their families. One soldier named Maksym told his wife on 21 March: I think Im going crazy. Ive already killed so many civilians. Read the full story here (warning, graphic pictures included): How Russian soldiers ran a 'cleansing' operation in Bucha Russia left with seven ships in Black Sea, says Ukraine 06:10 , Arpan Rai Russia is now left with seven ships in Black Sea as of Thursday, the Ukrainian military claimed today. The militarys southern command wing said that Ukraines troops have caused further damage to Russia after carrying out over 160 operations on Russias positions in the besieged countrys south. The latest attack has killed 32 Russian soldiers and destroyed two Russian ammunition depots and a tank, the Ukrainian militarys operational command in south said. Ukraine says it has downed double the number of warplanes Russia lost in Afghanistan 05:18 , Arpan Rai Ukraine has destroyed more than 270 Russian aircraft over eight months of fighting, according to the countrys commander-in-chief, surpassing the number the Soviet Union lost in its military intervention in Afghanistan. With the help of military equipment provided by its Western allies, Ukraine is now mounting pressure on Russian occupation forces in the south. During the full-scale aggression, (Ukrainian) defenders destroyed (more than) twice as many (Russian) aircraft as the Soviet Union lost during the 10-year war in Afghanistan - 278 (Russian) aircraft in Ukraine against 118 Soviet aircraft in Afghanistan, General Zaluzhny wrote on Twitter. Though general Valeriy Zaluzhnys statement could not be verified independently, his claim matches up with narratives of Ukraines soaring record of success on the battlefield, having reclaimed swathes of critical territory back from Russian occupiers of late. Read the full story here: Ukraine says it has downed double the number of warplanes Russia lost in Afghanistan Mass blackouts to hit Ukraine, says Zelensky 05:12 , Arpan Rai Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of looming blackouts in several regions of the war-hit country amid increasing Russian attacks on its energy sites. In general, there is damage to energy facilities in different areas across the country - this is the volume of electricity generation and transportation for millions of people, he said in his nightly address. He added: Only as of this evening, about 4.5 million consumers have been temporarily disconnected from consumption under emergency and stabilisation schedules. In particular, in Kyiv and ten regions: Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Zhytomyr region, Zaporizhzhia region, Sumy region, Kirovohrad region, Kharkiv region, Chernihiv region, Khmelnytskyi region, Cherkasy region. Blackouts may take place in other regions as well, Mr Zelensky said. Russia trying to humiliate Ukrainians by attacking energy sites, says Zelensky 04:54 , Arpan Rai Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is attacking Ukraines energy industry as it is facing heavy losses on the battlefield and it is an attempt to humiliate Ukrainians. The wartime president said enduring Russian energy terror and its challenges is now Ukraines national task. The very fact that Russia resorted to terror against the energy industry shows the weakness of the enemy. They cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and that is why they are trying to break our people in this way - to humiliate Ukrainians, to strike at the morale of our people, at the resistance of our people, he said in his nightly address. Mr Zelensky said that the Russian attacks on Ukraines energy sector and its energy facilities do not stop for a single day. Kryvyi Rih was attacked by Iranian drones this night. Such Russian terror must receive - and surely will eventually receive - a powerful global response. I am grateful to our friends in the United States who are helping with this, he said. Russian commanders fleeing Kherson and leaving behind ill-equipped troops 04:31 , Arpan Rai Russian commanders in Kherson are likely fleeing the war and leaving ill-equipped and demoralised troops to face increasing Ukrainian combat, western officials have said. While more of Vladimir Putins troops were arriving in an apparent attempt to shore up their defensive positions in the key city, officials have said many were recently mobilised reservists who were often woefully equipped and prepared. In Kherson, it is likely that most echelons of command have now withdrawn across the river leaving demoralised and leaderless men to face Ukrainian assaults. At least some reservists are arriving in theatre [of war] without weapons, one official said. Read the full story here: Russian commanders fleeing Kherson and leaving ill-equipped troops behind Moscow warns Britain is too deep into Ukraine conflict 04:11 , Arpan Rai Russia has warned Britian of risking a dangerous escalation in the ongoing Ukraine war as it accused Britain of being drawn too deep into the conflict. Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, claimed British specialists had been involved in an audacious drone attack on Russias Black Sea fleet at the weekend in which three warships were reportedly damaged, including the flagship HMS Makarov. After Britains ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert was earlier summoned to the Russian foreign ministry in connection with the claims, Mr Kelin said the Kremlin would publish its proof pretty soon. Read the full story here: Russia warns Britain is too deep into Ukraine conflict 03:30 , Arpan Rai Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on Friday, 4 November. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya I understand that if the missiles are launched from the territory of Belarus again, the Ukrainians and Ukraine have the right to attack in response, she said. Read also: Satellite images show Russia deployed in Belarus warplanes that can launch Kinzhal missiles That is why our task is to prevent Belarusian troops from invading Ukraine. Tsikhanouskaya stressed that the regime of Belarusian self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko became a co-belligerent in Russias war against Ukraine. Read also: Russia likely deploying Kinzhal missiles in Belarus for first time, UK intel says She also noted that Belarusians are helping Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country, with what little means they have, adding that Belarusians are very proud of their fellow citizens, who together with Ukrainians help Ukraine defend itself from the Russian aggression. According to Tsikhanouskaya, Russian and Belarusian propaganda is making a great effort to sow discord between Ukrainians and Belarusians. "...Do you think we arent hurt and ashamed because the attacks came from the territory of Belarus? said the president-elect. Read also: Belarusian president Tsikhanouskaya says Belarusian regime unlikely to attack Ukraine There are so many victims of these missiles, flying from the territory of Belarus. Of course we are ashamed. And we understand that we didn't push it to end in 2020 (during mass protests in Belarus). We could say that we had very little outside support. But this is also our fault, and we feel guilty. But you can't go far on guilt alone. We must learn to communicate, learn to share our pain. The most important thing right now is to not divide our nations, so that we dont become enemies to each other." Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Gromov previously said that Russian troops could prepare a strike group for a second attack on Ukraine from Belarus, even if that could only be done in two-three months at the earliest. Story continues Head of the Ukraines Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that there was no threat of a new invasion of Ukraine from the territory of Belarus right now, but the situation could change very quickly after the liberation of Kherson. Read also: Lukashenko turns Belarus into bridgehead for Russian army, says Ukrainian government agency On Oct. 10, Lukashenko announced that Belarus will host a joint grouping of forces, comprised of both Russian and Belarusian troops. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Ukraines air defence forces shot down 8 Russian Shahed-136 drones in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Source: Valentyn Reznichenko, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram Quote: "Our air defence forces did a great job last night. They shot down 8 enemy Shahed[-136 drones]. Forces of Air Command Skhid [East] have shot down all of the drones targetting the Nikopol district." Details: Reznichenko added that Russian forces have also deployed other types of weapons to attack the Nikopol district. They deployed Grad multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), along with heavy artillery, to fire on four hromadas: Nikopol, Chervonohryhorivka, Myrove and Marhanets. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories - ed.] There are no casualties. Several residential buildings, automobiles and a gas pipeline have been damaged in the Chervonohryhorivka hromada. A power line has been damaged there as well. Previously: Mykola Lukashuk, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, reported that kamikaze drones were detected over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on the evening of Thursday, 3 November. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russian soldiers are forcing Ukrainian civilians from their apartments in the occupied capital of the Kherson region and moving in themselves, a resident said Friday as the southern city became a growing focus of war in Ukraine. His account of soldiers spreading throughout the city of Kherson suggested that Russia could be preparing for intense urban warfare in anticipation of Ukrainian advances. Russia-installed authorities in Kherson continued to urge civilians to leave the city, which lies on the western bank of the Dnieper River and has been cut off from supplies and food by Ukrainian bombardment. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the region's Kremlin-appointed administration, reiterated calls for civilians to depart for the other bank of the river. Stremousov said Thursday that Russian forces might soon withdraw from Kherson city. On Friday, he said the statement was merely an attempt to encourage evacuations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson in order to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle. Zelenskyy called attempts to convince civilians to move deeper into Russian-controlled territory theater. A Kherson resident told The Associated Press that Russian soldiers were installing themselves in vacated apartments. Russian military personnel were going door to door, checking property deeds and forcing tenants to leave immediately if they can't prove ownership of apartments, he said. Theyre forcing city residents to evacuate, and then Russian soldiers move into freed-up apartments across all of Kherson," the resident, who spoke on condition that only his first name Konstantin was used for security reasons. "It is obvious that they are preparing for fighting the Ukrainian army in the city. Hospitals and clinics were not serving patients in Kherson, where residents also reported problems with food supplies. Story continues There are almost no deliveries of food into the city, the residents are using their own stocks and are queuing to the few shops that are still open, Konstantin said. Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told the AP that as part of its counteroffensive to reclaim the Kherson region, the Ukrainian army cut off the western bank of the Dnieper from supplies of weapons and food by shelling main transportation routes and ruining bridges across the river. The Russians understand the danger of transport routes being blocked and have practically put up with the fact that they will have to retreat from the right bank of the Dnieper, Zhdanov said. But the Russian troops are not prepared to leave Kherson peacefully and are preparing for battles within the city. Theyre deploying the mobilized reservists there and new tactical battalion groups. According to Zhdanov, the Ukrainian army has a significant advantage over the Russians in aviation and artillery on the right bank, which means that they could shell the city of Kherson and avoid a head-on clash. Kyiv is taking its time because the Russian resources in Kherson are evaporating, and theyre getting weaker by the day, which allows the Ukrainians to accumulate forces for the main strike, Zhdanov said. Russian forces seized Kherson city soon after invading Ukraine in late February. Russia illegally annexed the Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine in late September and subsequently declared martial law in the four provinces. The Kremlin-installed regional administration in Kherson already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city, citing the threat of increased shelling as Ukraine's army pursues its counteroffensive. Ukraines southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, told Ukrainian television that some Russian military personnel were disguising themselves as civilians. Neither sides claims could be independently verified. Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported shooting down drones launched by Russian forces: eight drones in the Nikopol area, which was also subjected to shelling, and another drone over the western Lviv region. The commander of Ukraines armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Russian forces had tripled the intensity of hostilities on certain areas of the front and were carrying out up to 80 attacks every day. Zelenskyy's office said at least nine civilians were killed and 16 wounded by attacks in Ukraine in the last day. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that there was still a steady stream of volunteers wanting to join the Russian military, with 318,000 people already mobilized. Authorities previously said the goal was to mobilize some 300,000 reservists. Putin said 49,000 were already in the army on combat missions, while the rest were still being trained. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that 87,000 were deployed to Ukraine. The discrepancy could not be reconciled. When Russia announced the mobilization drive in September, protests erupted in several regions and tens of thousands of Russians fled the country. Putin also signed a law Friday permitting the military mobilization of those with expunged or outstanding convictions, including those who have recently served time for murder, robbery and drug trafficking. On the Black Sea grain corridor, Russia agreed Wednesday to rejoin a wartime agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets through it. Moscow had suspended its participation in the grain deal over the weekend, citing an alleged drone attack against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. The Ukrainian Armed Forces said the functioning of grain corridors continues Friday. As a condition for returning to the deal, Russia has demanded the grain be sent to poorer countries, arguing that most of it was ending up in richer nations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he had discussed the issue of prioritizing less developed countries for the grain shipments during a call with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Erdogan said he also discussed the possibility of sending the grain to nations facing famine for free, during a recent call with Putin, and the two planned further talks at a Group of 20 meeting in Bali this month. ___ Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Russia has lost more than 840 military personnel in Ukraine in the course of the past 24 hours; most of these were killed on the Lyman and Avdiivka fronts. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook Quote from the General Staff: "840 occupiers and 28 armoured vehicles in 24 hours; though its not a record, these numbers are significant." Details: Total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February and 4 November 2022 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses ed.]: approximately 74,840 (+840) military personnel; 2,750 (+16) tanks; 5,580 (+28) armoured combat vehicles; 1,772 (+17) artillery systems; 391 (+1) multiple-launch rocket systems; 201 (+3) air defence systems; 277 (+0) fixed-wing aircraft; 258 (+0) helicopters; 1,450 (+8) operational-tactical UAVs; 397 (+0) cruise missiles; 16 (+0) ships/boats; 4,174 (+12) vehicles and tankers; 155 (+1) special vehicles and other equipment. The information is being clarified. Previously: The highest number of Russian military personnel killed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine was recorded on 29 October, when 950 soldiers lost their lives. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Photo: The Canadian Press Flags mark where ground-penetrating radar recorded hits of what are believed to be 751 unmarked graves near the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation, Sask. An independent official appointed to help communities investigate unmarked graves at former residential school sites says she is exploring the idea of whether a special tribunal should prosecute or investigate related crimes. Kimberly Murray, whom the federal government named as a special interlocutor on the file in June, says that questions of justice are arising often in her conversations with Indigenous communities and survivors. Murray is a former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which spent seven years investigating the residential school system. The creation of the independent office she now leads was spurred by announcements from First Nations across Western Canada, beginning last year, that ground-penetrating radar technology had detected the presence of what are believed to be hundreds of unmarked graves near where residential schools once operated. As of May, government statistics showed that at least 1,685 such graves had been reported across nine First Nations. The findings touched off a reckoning about the ongoing impacts of residential schools and raised questions of accountability around the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous children who were forced to attend the government-funded, church-run institutions. "I am not thinking that the current justice system in Canada is capable of doing this type of investigation and prosecution," Murray said in an interview Thursday. "And so, what's the right answer?" She said reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission document the history of distrust Indigenous communities have towards the justice system, so she is considering looking to international experts to get their advice. "How do we prosecute entities for any wrongdoing that happened?" she asked. "Is there a possibility for an ad hoc tribunal of some sort to do this?" Advocates including the Native Women's Association of Canada and the federal New Democrats have suggested appointing a special prosecutor. Justice officials explored the feasibility of doing so last year, according to a heavily redacted briefing note that was recently released to The Canadian Press through access-to-information legislation. "Crimes that may have been committed include those in relation to the children's deaths, those committed in relation to the disposal of the bodies, and past and present future crimes in relation to the burial sites themselves (including their management)," the document reads. In January, federal officials advised they did not think it would be possible to appoint a prosecutor but left the door open for the special interlocutor, who had not yet been appointed, to say otherwise. "As the Department of Justice has advised, the appointment of an independent federal 'special prosecutor' is not feasible within the current legislative framework, because of jurisdictional considerations," read a separate briefing note, also obtained by The Canadian Press through freedom of information laws. "The special interlocutor's mandate could include hearing the views of communities, families and survivors on what their expectations are when it comes to prosecutions and consider recommendations for a new legislated framework if a special prosecutor at the federal level is needed." While making policy recommendations is a major part of Murray's mandate, she said she has spent much of her time meeting with different communities, hosting gatherings and helping residential school survivors with their search for records. "I had survivor contact me and say, 'I don't know where I was,'" she said. 'I don't know if I was in an Indian residential school, I don't know if was in a sanatorium. All I know is I was taken away from a remote fly-in community and taken to southern Ontario. Can you find me?'" Murray has a two-year term, and a progress report on her office's work so far is expected to be released next week. STORY: Ukraine's National Guard of Ukraine said last week tanks, IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles) and APCs (armoured personnel carriers) left behind by Russian forces helping Ukrainian troops to increase their firepower and carry out counteroffensive on all fronts. "We are now at the damaged vehicle workshop of our brigade. We repair combat vehicles here, both the ones that are part of our equipment as well as "trophy" vehicles ," commander of the repair brigade, Oleksandr Bohatirev said. British Ministry of Defence said on Thursday (November 3) Russia lost over 40 armoured vehicles a day , equivalent to a battalions worth of equipment as Ukrainian forces continued its counteroffensives in the east and south of the country. GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief on Friday called on Afghanistan's Taliban government to release five people the U.N. says were detained during a news conference organised by a women's civil society organisation. Police disrupted a news conference in Kabul on Thursday intended to launch a new women's movement called 'Afghan Womens Movement for Equality', the U.N rights office said. A female activist, Zarifa Yaqobi, and four male colleagues were arrested. The other female participants in the room were also temporarily detained and subject to phone and body searches, before being released, it added. "We are concerned about the welfare of these five individuals and have sought information from the de facto authorities regarding their detention," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk via a spokesperson at a Geneva news briefing. A Taliban spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment and said he would look into the matter. Rights groups say women's freedoms in Afghanistan have been undermined since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as international forces backing a pro-Western government pulled out. They point to new curbs on their clothes, movement and education despite earlier Taliban vows to the contrary. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by Howard Goller) The University of Chicago said Thursday it has received seven reports of students having their drinks drugged since September, and one report of a sexual assault, CBS Chicago reports.Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen and Vice President for Safety and Security Eric Heath issued a safety and security notice about the predatory pattern Thursday. They said since September, there have been seven reports of undergraduate students having drugs put in their drinks by unknown people without their consent. The university said the drink spiking has been happening at different off-campus locations, with no clear pattern. In one case reported Tuesday to a campus security authority, an undergraduate student at the university reported being sexually assaulted in a residence hall room after a party on Oct. 28. The student suspected their drink had also been drugged, the notice said. "I mean, I think that's clearly gone too far. This is like something extremely serious. I don't think you can just like treat it as a safety alert," said Jess Xiong, a sophomore at the University of Chicago. "I feel like the issue with these campus safety alerts that they're like - it kind of just goes like: 'Okay, we're not going to do anything about. You guys should just be aware of it.'" The University of Chicago Police said they are looking into the complaints and told CBS Chicago that so far, none of the students have filed police reports. But university officials felt the need to alert the Hyde Park campus. "I appreciate that the university is keeping us up to date with these types of situations. I think that many institutions would be tempted to kind of shove things under the rug," said Joshua Pixley, a sophomore, "and so that definitely begs the question what else we need to know to prevent these types of things." Campus police are urging anyone who thinks they have been drugged to contact them. To make a police report, the university reminded the campus community they can call Chicago Police at 911, or University of Chicago Police at 123 from a campus phone or (773) 702-8181 from an off-campus phone.Sexual assault dean-on-call are also available at the university 24/7 to support students who have been subjected to gender-based violence. Anyone in the campus community can contact the sexual assault dean-on-call by calling the University of Chicago Police at (773) 702-8181 and asking dispatch to page them, or via text at the UChicago Safe App. Meanwhile, as for the student who believes she was sexually assaulted, there is no indication that anyone forced their way into a dorm room, leaving the impression that she is acquainted with her possible attacker. Story continues Three Meals in Georgia reveals what is on voters' minds heading into midterm election Georgia battleground: Early voter turnout shatters records Analysis on final midterms push and impact of Biden, Trump on campaign trail A respiratory virus is wreaking havoc on kids and childrens hospitals. Families are waiting in emergency rooms for more than five hours, and doctors say we are in the middle of an unusual surge that is making kids very sick. The virus causing all the trouble is respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Pediatric hospitals throughout western Washington are operating at maximum capacity, or even beyond. Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital in Tacoma said on Wednesday, 212 kids came to their emergency department for care about 70% more than normal. This week, the average wait time in our ED lobby has been 5-6 hours at any given time, said spokesperson Kalyn Kinomoto via email. She said thats because of unprecedented volumes of children with respiratory illnesses. A spokesperson for Seattle Childrens Hospital said its emergency department is fluctuating between 200% and 300% capacity, hitting record volumes. Parents Kyle and Chelsy Pease from Gig Harbor noticed their 6-month-old having a hard time breathing last week. They took their baby boy, Tez, to a pediatrician, who told them to get him to the emergency room. I walked through the ER waiting room (at Mary Bridge) and there are like 60 or 70 people waiting to get their kid in. So I was like, oh my gosh, thank God we had the ambulance take us in and we got directly into a room, Pease said. Now Tez has been in the hospital for eight days, diagnosed with RSV. He also developed pneumonia. He is hooked up to oxygen right now and thats kind of whats keeping him going, Pease said. With how much its attacking his lungs and how hard it is for him to breathe, its super, super serious and scary. Tez was born premature at 26 weeks, so the Peases say they were already taking every precaution to keep him healthy. No grocery stores, restaurants or anything like that, said mom Chelsy Pease, but Tez still got sick. At Swedish Hospital in Seattle, Dr. Elizabeth Meade is the medical director of quality pediatrics. Story continues Ive been working in hospital pediatrics for 15 years (and) Ive never seen an RSV season like were having now, said Meade. Every hospital in our region that cares for children is at capacity and has been for the last couple of weeks, she said. She says in older kids, the virus typically brings mild, cold-like symptoms. But for kids under 2 years old, it can cause very severe illness. I think this may be a particularly virulent or strong strain of RSV, so it may be more contagious, said Meade. She says it is very important to keep your kids home if they have respiratory symptoms. Not going to day care, not going to school, said Meade. Kyle and Chelsy Pease say they want other families to be aware of whats going on. "Unprecedented volumes" at Mary Bridge Children's rn. So many kids are sick with #RSV. Seattle Children's told me it's operating at 200-300% capacity. 6mo old Tez from Gig Harbor has been in the hospital for 8 days and his parents want you to know how severe this surge is. pic.twitter.com/UkhDKc2Qzn Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) November 3, 2022 Its definitely the most extreme virus weve encountered, said Kyle Pease. He said Tez was showing signs of recovery, but the situation was still a roller coaster of the worst to bad, and back to the worst and then to bad. We just need to be able to provide the resources for kids who do get sick, because it would be really scary if I were a mom and trying to get my kid in and not able to, said Chelsy Pease. Mary Bridge said people can help with hospital volume by taking their kids to urgent care instead of the ER when possible. Mary Bridge has the following advice on where to seek care: The emergency room is for any medical condition or injury that threatens life or limb. Its the best option when immediate medical attention is needed. These conditions include: Difficulty breathing Loss of consciousness Seizures Severe abdominal pain Severe allergic reactions Severe burns Severe skin infections Sudden visual changes High fever with headache Fast heartbeat that doesnt slow down Severe dehydration Persistent dizziness Urgent care is for illnesses or injuries that are not immediately life-threatening, but need to be treated today. These include: A KC-135 Stratotanker shows its refueling connector at the Chicago Air and Water Show 2022 in Chicago, the United States, on Aug. 20, 2022. The annual Chicago Air and Water Show was held here on Saturday. Joel Lerner/Xinhua via Getty Images A US military aircraft flew in a phallic pattern near the Syrian coast, flight data shows. The flight was near several Russian military facilities, including an air base and a naval outpost. It's unclear if the stratotanker drew the symbol intentionally on its Tuesday flight. A US Air Force refueler drew a phallic pattern in the sky near several Russian military facilities in Syria on Tuesday, according to data from air-traffic tracking site FlightRadar24. The Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, which is used to refuel military aircraft, set off from Chania International Airport on the Greek island of Crete around 2:15 p.m. UTC, the data shows. After an hour's journey of flying east and past the island nation of Cyprus, it spent two more hours flying in a pattern resembling a phallus, before breaking off and landing back in Chania at 6:45 p.m., per FlightRadar data. The stratotanker's flight was just off the Syrian coast, where several Russian military facilities are located. One is the sea port of Tartus, a naval facility established in the Soviet era that Russian media reported is used to repair and resupply ships. Another is Khmeimim Air Base, a Syrian air base operated by Russia, where the country has tested advanced jet fighters such as the Su-57. The air base has been "instrumental in servicing Russian air traffic" in the Middle East and Africa, according to an analysis by Middle East Institute scholar Anton Mardasov. US military pilots have encountered tense run-ins with Russian aircraft over the eastern Mediterranean before, such as when the Pentagon said in February that three US naval aircraft "experienced unprofessional intercepts by Russian aircraft." It's unclear if the stratotanker's flight pattern was intentionally made to resemble a phallus. The stratotanker also flew near Cyprus and Lebanon on Tuesday. The US Air Force and a representative for US Air Force Central did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Read the original article on Insider (Bloomberg) -- North Koreas unprecedented barrage of missiles is underscoring the cost of Washingtons tensions with Beijing, since China has shown little appetite for additional sanctions over the countrys nuclear program. Most Read from Bloomberg China, along with Russia, played a critical role in approving United Nations sanctions on their neighbor after Kim Jong Un tested an atomic bomb and launched a missile designed to carry warheads to the US five years ago. Theres little prospect of finding such unity on the UN Security Council now, even though North Korea has fired about 100 ballistic missiles since the UN approved its last penalties in 2017. The Biden administration has shown increasing frustration with China, which has long been North Koreas most important benefactor. And the stakes are rising because the US and its allies believe Kims regime is preparing to detonate a nuclear bomb for the first time in five years. The US sought to make another run at support for fresh measures against North Korea at a Security Council meeting Friday afternoon in New York. Beijing and Moscow have resisted US-led efforts to expand sanctions in recent years, arguing that Kim deserves relief for gestures he made before his unprecedented -- but ultimately unsuccessful -- summits with former President Donald Trump. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said North Korea had enjoyed blanket protection from two members of the council -- a thinly veiled reference to Russia and China. You dont get to abandon Security Council responsibilities because the DPRK might sell you weapons to fuel your war of aggression in Ukraine, or because you think they make a good regional buffer to the United States, Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council, using the abbreviation for North Koreas formal name. Story continues In his speech, Chinas ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun made clear his governments stance that the US, not North Korea, was responsible for the latest tension. He cited recent military exercises by the US and South Korea as needlessly inflammatory. We call on the US to stop unilaterally playing up tensions and confrontation, Zhang said. He said the US should demonstrate sincerity by earnestly responding to the legitimate and reasonable concerns of North Korea. More recently, US President Joe Biden has sanctioned Russia and sought to isolate its leader Vladimir Putin to halt its war in Ukraine. The administration has also warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he risks secondary sanctions if he helps Moscow, even as Washington and Beijing clash over everything from Taiwan to microchips. Those disputes have given Kim a freer hand to expand his nuclear program and build a more credible deterrent to prevent any US strike against the regime. North Koreas tests have demonstrated a wide array of new missiles and launching platforms that appear intended to evade detection and interception by the US. North Korea knows the recent provocations wont trigger any new UN resolutions, said Maiko Takeuchi, a former member of a UN Security Panel of Experts set up to monitor sanctions on North Korea. If current sanctions were strictly implemented, that would also seriously damage the regimes activity and economy, she said. The sanctions regime, which, among other things, includes a cap on fuel imports and limits on foreign income, has shown cracks. North Korea was on track to exceed its 500,000-barrel cap of annual imports this year, a Panel of Experts report released in September said. In addition, an oil pipeline between Dandong, China, and Sinuiju, North Korea, that was exempted from sanctions could be supplying more than 3.7 million barrels of oil each year, according to a report from specialists David von Hippel and Peter Hayes. Kim has also found ways to evade sanctions through cybercrimes and cryptocurrency theft. Investigators from the US and UN have said his regime has already taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in assets through online schemes, and is poised to rake in even more. The North Korean leader has repeatedly rebuffed US overtures to return to talks, reiterating in September that he would never give up nuclear arms or denuclearize first. Instead, he has rebuilt once-frayed ties with China and Russia -- whom both wield vetoes on the Security Council. Xi has recently reaffirmed his desire to maintain strategic talks with Kim. And the Biden administration has accused North Korea of covertly supplying Russia with artillery shells for use in the Ukraine invasion, something North Korea has denied. Without necessary support for UN sanctions, the US and South Korea have sought to deter North Korea from any more aggressive moves, jointly warning it that using a nuclear weapon against them would result in the end of the Kim regime. They also extended allied air force exercises in the region. One indication of Chinese support for additional sanctions will be its response to any North Korean nuclear test, especially after Xi told visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday that the international community must reject the use or threat of the use of nuclear weapons. China denounced North Koreas last test in September 2017, expressing firm opposition to and strong condemnation of it. North Korea may be banking that China wont be so critical the next time. Kims actions indicate a broader shift away from the countrys long-term goal of normalizing ties with Washington as a buffer against Beijing and Moscow, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, who worked as an analyst for the CIAs Open Source Enterprise for almost two decades. The true import of this policy shift extends beyond just North Koreas pivot to China and Russia, Lee wrote in a commentary published on the 38 North website. It signals a more fundamental transformation in Pyongyangs position on relations with Washington. --With assistance from Iain Marlow. (Updates with Security Council debate in top 8 paragraphs.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. American military equipment was allegedly misused in Guatemala, and the United States government does not have policies in place to address the situation, a recent government watchdog report said. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report published Wednesday found that from Aug. 2018 to Oct. 2021, Jeeps that were provided by the Department of Defense were abused in the Central American country and even used to intimidate U.S. embassy officials. The Pentagon and State Department initially recorded only one allegation of misuse in Guatemala in 2018. However, a review by the GAO found that the agencies examined at least five allegations. DoD does not have policies to investigate alleged misuse for equipment provided under certain authorities, and may not be addressing allegations of misuse effectively, the report said. The news comes only weeks after the U.S. embassy in Guatemala announced it received a donation of $4.4 million in American military equipment, according to an embassy news release. Models like the Toyota Hilux, Toyota Land Cruiser and Suzuki ATV were among the 95 vehicles included. Between 2013 and 2018, the U.S. sent Guatemala 220 Jeeps to combat crime in the country, the GAO report said. Additionally, from 2017 to 2021, the Pentagon provided the Northern Triangle countries of Central America Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras with more than $66 million in security assistance and equipment. Concern over equipment misuse in Guatemala was sparked in Aug. 2018, when seven DoD-provided Jeeps were allegedly used to intimidate officials at the U.S. embassy. A pattern of alleged misuse unfolded over the next three years in at least four other incidents, including times when Jeeps were used to intimidate protestors. The Pentagon signed an agreement in 2018, after the first two allegations of misuse occurred, to send 38 additional Jeeps worth almost $3 million to a Guatemalan interagency task force, the GAO report said. Although that transfer was later halted, in Sept. 2021 the DoD made plans to instead send them to Guatemalas army. For now, they remain in storage. Story continues Officials also asked the Guatemalan government to reassign the task forces remaining Jeeps to its military, but while the transfer was agreed to it has not taken place as of July. Separately, DoD and State Department officials told the GAO they did not investigate any allegations of misuse of DOD-provided equipment in either Honduras or El Salvador between 2017 and 2021, despite a 2018 report by the Miami Herald that Honduran military police used U.S.-made rifles to injure and kill civilians. Although DoD has long used a program to check that equipment it provides globally is being used appropriately by foreign nations, the GAO uncovered that the Pentagon was not maintaining accurate data on which equipment needed to be monitored. DoD officials reportedly told the GAO that the program is not designed to verify how recipients use equipment, simply whether they have maintained ownership of it. Because it has not designed its program to identify potential misuse, DOD may lack reasonable assurance that recipients are using equipment for authorized purposes only, the report said. According to officials, the Jeeps were not subject to the program. Even if the vehicles were, officials said their response would not have differed. I am appalled by todays GAO report, which provides unequivocal evidence that the Guatemalan government grossly misused military Jeeps provided by the United States on multiple occasions, including using them to intimidate American embassy officials, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif), a Guatemala-born lawmaker, said in a statement. The GAO report concluded with five recommendations to the Pentagon and State Department, including that they improve policies for recording misuse allegations and that the Pentagon improve its policies to maintain accurate equipment data. Although the State Department agreed with the advice, DoD disagreed with two of the recommendations, saying its current guidance is sufficient. NEW YORK (AP) The U.S. flu season is off to an unusually fast start, adding to an autumn mix of viruses that have been filling hospitals and doctor waiting rooms. Reports of flu are already high in 17 states, and the hospitalization rate hasnt been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, there have been an estimated 730 flu deaths, including at least two children. The winter flu season usually flu ramps up in December or January. We are seeing more cases than we would expect at this time, the CDC's Dr. Jose Romero said Friday. A busy flu season is not unexpected. The nation saw two mild seasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts have worried that flu might come back strong as a COVID-weary public has moved away from masks and other measures that tamp the spread of respiratory viruses. Community Montessori school in New Albany, Indiana, switched to virtual teaching at the end of the week because so many students were out sick with the flu. Beginning Monday, the school's 500 students will go back to wearing masks. Everybody just wants kids on campus, that is for sure, said the school's director, Burke Fondren. We will do what we need to do." There may be some good news: COVID-19 cases have been trending downwards and leveled off in the last three weeks, Romero said. And in a few parts of the country, health officials think they may be seeing early signs that a wave of another respiratory virus may be starting to wane. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause in kids of coldlike symptoms such as runny nose, cough and fever. While RSV continues to rise nationally, preliminary data suggest a decline in the Southeast, Southwest, and in an area that includes Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas, CDC officials said. Experts think infections from RSV increased recently because children are more vulnerable now, no longer sheltered from common bugs as they were during pandemic lockdowns. Also, the virus, which usually affects children at ages 1 and 2, is now sickening more kids up to age 5. Story continues At the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Childrens Hospital, beds have been full for 54 days straight. The curves are all going up for RSV and influenza, said Dr. John Cunningham, Comer's physician-in-chief. RSV illnesses seem to be unusually severe, he added. Comer has had to turn down transfer requests from other hospitals because there was no room. Chicago-area hospitals had been able to transfer kids to Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin, but that's stopped. They have no more beds, either, Cunningham said. Theres not yet a vaccine against RSV, but there are shots for flu and COVID-19. Health officials say flu vaccinations are down in both kids and adults compared to before the pandemic, although up in children from last year. So far this season, there have been an estimated 1.6 million flu illnesses and 13,000 hospitalizations. Flu activity is most intense in some of the areas where RSV is fading, including the Southeast, according to CDC data. ___ Babwin reported from Chicago. Tom Davies in Indianapolis contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Treated image of Trump Donald Trump has hinted he is likely to run for president again - but he probably won't announce until after next week's congressional elections. So what does he want to happen in the midterms? These elections will show to what extent the Republican Party has become what former President Donald Trump's son Eric has repeatedly termed "the Trump Party". "He literally brought in a whole new party that stands for something totally different than the wider class of the Republican Party ever stood for," Eric Trump told conservative TV network Newsmax. But what Mr Trump wants and what the wider party wants are not always aligned. He has endorsed dozens of candidates for Congress as well as others running in governor races and for state legislatures. While he's not on the ballot, many political observers see the midterms as a litmus test of his influence within the party and of his electoral viability ahead of a potential presidential bid in 2024. Will Trump's endorsements succeed? In the Republican primary contests - where they elected the party's candidates to take on the Democrats - 221 of candidates Mr Trump personally endorsed won their race, compared to just 20 losses. That's an 89% success record, although experts have said some of these candidates were already likely to win. For Mr Trump, the success of his favoured candidates may allow him to better gauge the level of influence he has over voters. "One of the measures of political clout is the ability to endorse candidates, and whether or not they win," John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Washington DC-based Brookings Institution who researches campaigns and elections, told the BBC. Top of midterms links box Bottom of midterms links box Mr Hudak added that while victories could help him in the future, the midterms could also mark a "double edged sword" for Mr Trump. Story continues "If his endorsed candidates lose, it could raise questions about his political acumen," he said. Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesman, questioned how successful the Trump endorsements really were. The president did not spend much on their campaigns, Mr Heye said, and his appearances amounted to a "grievance tour" more focused on himself than the candidates. Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz is among the politicians that have a Trump endorsement A helping hand for 2024 Historically, races for secretary of state - a position that helps administer elections - have been largely ignored by the US public. But they've now become the focus of intense national attention, particularly as some Republican nominees for these positions - such as Arizona's Mark Finchem and Michigan's Kristina Karamo - have repeated Mr Trump's unproven claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate. Some have warned that the election of Trump allies to these positions could help him in the event he tries to run for the presidency again in 2024. "Winning these would be helpful in the case of a disputed election," explained Matt Lacombe, an American politics professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. "Having allies, whether in national or subnational office is helpful to his political future, assuming he wants it." Mr Heye also expressed concern that Trump-aligned secretaries of state could potentially "overturn free and fair election results" in his own favour. No more Capitol riot hearings A more immediate benefit for Mr Trump would come from a Republican-controlled house, a midterms outcome now considered likely by most political analysts. If that happens, the House committee investigating the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol - which recently issued a legal summons ordering Mr Trump to testify - could be dismantled. Mr Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the committee as a ruse designed to distract voters from the "disaster" of Democratic governance ahead of the midterms. A Republican-controlled House is likely to disband the committee investigating the 6 January riot "That'll probably be dismantled," said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University. "He'll claim that vindicates him." House Republicans have also reportedly discussed launching their own investigations if they regain a majority, including into the 6 January committee itself or on the Biden administration. When will he announce a run? So far, Mr Trump hasn't officially announced his intention to run for president in 2024. But at a rally in Iowa on 3 November he dropped the strongest hint yet that he plans to do so. He told a crowd of thousands that "in order to make our country very successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again". "Get ready - that's all I'm telling you," he added, speaking over the applause of the crowd. "Very soon." Citing unnamed sources in the Trump camp, several US outlets including Axios and the New York Times later reported that the announcement could come as soon as 14 November. That is the same day the congressional committee investigating Mr Trump's alleged involvement in last year's Capitol riot has ordered him to appear for a deposition. While he's expected to take credit if the Republicans perform well in the elections, some experts have speculated that he may run regardless of how his candidates do. Close or contested elections in particular could end up helping shore up support from his base amid continued claims that he was robbed of a win in 2020. "If his candidates lose, he'll claim the elections were stolen," Mr Hudak said. "That could bolster him." Photo: The Canadian Press A North Vancouver mans eight-year prison sentence for sexual assault must stand, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. Canadas top court released a decision Oct. 27, ruling on a legal challenge brought against a provincial court judges sentencing. A publication ban covers the names of the victims and any information that may identify them. Because the offender was their uncle, his identity must be concealed. According to the court ruling, the offender began sexually assaulting his 13-year-old niece soon after she moved in with his family. Those assaults continued for five years. When he was 27, he sexually assaulted another niece, who was 15 at the time, while she was staying overnight at his familys home. The victims eventually reported the abuse to police and, in December 2019, the offender pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. At issue before Canadas highest court was the sentence. Following his guilty pleas, the Crown argued the offender should spend four to six years in prison, while his defence submitted that three to three and a half years would be more appropriate. But the North Vancouver judge went over and above both the Crown and defences submissions and sentenced him to eight years in jail, citing several aggravating factors: that his victims were family members and under the age of 18, that they were in a family home where they should have felt safe, and that the assailant did not use a condom, thereby exposing the victims to even greater risks. Under established case law in Canada, the courts will accept a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea that will spare the court from a lengthy and costly trial and spare the victims from the trauma of having to testify. When those guilty pleas are entered after the Crown and defence have already negotiated a joint submission on what the sentences should be, judges rarely go outside that range unless it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute, or is otherwise contrary to the public interest. The offender argued he should have been entitled to the certainty that comes from a joint submission given that his second guilty plea only came after thorough negotiation and assurance of the Crowns sentencing position. But, writing for the majority on Supreme Court, Justice Michael Moldaver noted that the offender and the Crown did not agree on the sentence, thereby requiring court time and negating much of the benefit that comes from a joint submission. [The offender's] sentencing hearing took an entire day. The Crown and the defence properly put their best foot forward, providing lengthy submissions in support of the reasonableness of their positions. Following the hearing, the judge needed two weeks to deliberate and render a written decision. Capping sentences at the high end of the range sought by the Crown would also effectively cede the responsibility of sentencing, which is supposed to remain with the judiciary to craft in proportion to the gravity of the offence and the offenders degree of responsibility, Moldavar added. The majority on the court agreed, though, that when a judge is considering a sentence higher than what the Crown is seeking, they should inform both the Crown and defence as soon as possible, and allow them to make further submissions that relate specifically to the concerns flagged by the judge. The offender argued that because his harsher sentence came as a surprise, he was denied procedural fairness. The majority on the court disagreed with that as well. Although the sentencing judge failed to provide notice that she was planning to exceed the Crown range and to provide an opportunity for further submissions, there was no impact on the sentence. [The assailant] has not demonstrated that he had information to provide to the sentencing judge that would have impacted his sentence, Moldaver wrote. Although the court had already decided that the offender wasnt entitled to a new or lesser sentence, they did opt to affirm the North Vancouver sentencing judges position noting that upper-single and double-digit penitentiary terms for sexual offences against children should not be unusual. [The offenders] prolonged and profoundly harmful actions irreparably impacted the lives of two young Indigenous women. His actions highlight the heightened risk of sexual assault faced by marginalized young women. [The assailant] was in a position of trust as the victims uncle and violated them while they were in a vulnerable position, asleep at their grandmothers house. Eight years cannot be said to be a demonstrably unfit sentence for his crimes. Jake Sullivan in Kyiv on November 4, 2022 According to the message, Ukrainian officials briefed Sullivan on the impact of persistent Russian air strikes at Ukraines energy infrastructure, the situation on the battlefield, and military needs of the countrys armed forces. Read also: Russia damaged nearly 40% of Ukraines energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy says In a comment to journalists, Sullivan said that Washington will remain unwavering and unflinching in supporting Ukraine after the upcoming midterm elections to the U.S. Congress. We fully intend to ensure that the resources are there as necessary and that we'll get votes from both sides of the isle to make that happen, Sullivan said. Read also: Ukraine will have bipartisan US support until war ends, White House says Bloomberg earlier reported that during his first visit to Ukraine since Feb. 24, Sullivan met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Chief-of-Staff, Andriy Yermak. Yermak noted the meeting was crucial and productive, adding that Ukraines partners understand the situation completely. Read also: Biden greenlights another $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine On Nov. 4, the United States announced a $400 million security assistance package to Ukraine, which will include 45 refurbished T-72 main battle tanks in addition to armored personnel carriers, drones, and air defense systems. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine The senior naval officer in charge of Americas nuclear triad says the current worldwide tensions sparked by Russias war against Ukraine could be the opening act for a larger conflict that the US must prepare for. In remarks at the Naval Submarine League's 2022 Annual Symposium & Industry Update, US Strategic Command commander Admiral Charles Richard said the Ukraine crisis is just the warmup. "The big one is coming, and it isn't going to be very long before we're going to get tested in ways that we haven't been tested a long time, he said. Mr Richard said US forces level of deterrence against China a major competitor and adversary is slowly sinking because the Chinese have been able to build and deploy more capability in the field at a faster rate than their American counterparts. As those curves keep going, it isn't going to matter how good our [operating plan] is or how good our commanders are, or how good our horses are we're not going to have enough of them. And that is a very near-term problem, he said, though he added that the US submarine force remains maybe the only true asymmetric advantage we still have against our opponents. In August, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday told the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank that the most significant barrier to boosting US naval capabilities is an industrial capacity thats limited. Successive waves of base closures and defence budget cuts have led the US to close formerly government-owned naval shipyards and transfer more and more responsibility to private contractors, leaving far fewer facilities capable of building or maintaining warships than were available during prior conflicts. (Bloomberg) -- The US Department of State on Thursday issued a $5 million bounty for information on a Singaporean businessman who broke international sanctions by transporting fuel to North Korea. Most Read from Bloomberg Kwek Kee Seng, director of the Singapore-based shipping company Swanseas Port Services (S) Pte. Ltd., is accused of directing the delivery of petroleum products to North Korea and using one of his own oil tankers, the M/T Courageous, to conduct illicit ship-to-ship transfers, according to a statement. The bounty comes as the US ratchets up pressure on anyone seen supporting the development of North Koreas weapons programs. The US has also condemned what it said was the test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by North Korea on Thursday, as Pyongyang continued a barrage of weapons tests to protest allied military drills. Kwek was among individuals and entities sanctioned last month for activities related to the exportation of petroleum to the regime. Kwek and his co-conspirators sought to obscure their identities and activities by conducting financial transactions through a series of shell companies, the US State Department said. It added that payments were routed through businesses based in Panama and Singapore, and through US banks to pay for the operations. These transactions violated the prohibition of the export of financial services for the benefit of the DPRK, the department said. He remains at large, though the US government said his known locales include North Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Cameroon and Cambodia. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Kwek in the US last year after he was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Story continues The bounty was issued Thursday by the State Departments Rewards for Justice program. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. The United States sanctioned two Haitian politicians on Friday over alleged corruption and drug trafficking. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa sanctions against Haitian Senate President Joseph Lambert for allegedly engaging in significant corruption and a gross violation of human rights. In particular, Blinken accused Lambert of involvement in an extrajudicial killing. The visa sanctions were coupled with Treasury Department sanctions against Lambert and former Haitian Senator Youri Latortue for their alleged involvement in the global drug trade. The Treasury accused both Lambert and Latortue of facilitating the trafficking of cocaine from Colombia to Haiti. Lambert allegedly also helped narcotics traffickers evade punishment in Haiti, according to the Treasury Department. Joseph Lambert and Youri Latortue have abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal and gang networks to undermine the rule of law in Haiti, Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson said in a statement. The United States and our international partners will continue to take action against those who facilitate drug trafficking, enable corruption, and seek to profit from instability in Haiti. Canada also sanctioned Lambert and Latortue on Friday for allegedly providing support to the armed gangs that are precipitating a humanitarian crisis in the island nation. The group of gangs known as G9 had blockaded a key fuel terminal in Haiti since September, blocking access to gas and diesel and creating food and water shortages. After the Haitian government issued a call for help, the U.S. and Canada sent armored vehicles to the embattled nation in October. The U.S. was also leading an effort to create a multinational military force to send to Haiti. However, Reuters reported on Friday that the government had retaken control of the fuel terminal from G9. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday announced that the US government is providing a new $400m defence assistance package to Ukraine which will include refurbished Soviet-made T-72 tanks, aerial drones and refurbished surface-to-air missile systems to augment the man-portable air defence systems the US has already provided. Mr Sullivan made the announcement following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, according to a statement released by the National Security Council. The visit by President Joe Bidens top national security aide was meant to underscore the United States steadfast support to Ukraine and its people as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity, the White House said. Also listed among the equipment to be transferred to Ukrainian forces as part of the aid package are refurbished MIM-23 HAWK missile systems, which will be provided under Mr Bidens drawdown authority allowing him to provide allies with existing stocks of weapons. The HAWK system which stands for Homing All The Way Killer would be an upgrade from the Stinger man-portable air defence system which Ukrainian forces have been employing against Russian jets and cruise missiles. Although HAWK dates back to the Vietnam era, the systems have recieved multiple upgrades over the years and although it was last fielded by the US Marine Corps in 2020, it has remained popular with US allies and is currently employed by Turkish and Iraqi defence forces. The White House also said Mr Sullivan affirmed the continued provision of economic and humanitarian assistance to Mr Zelenskys government in addition to the defence assistance package. Thanks to Russias prolonged war in Ukraine, sales of United States military weaponry in Europe are skyrocketing. Since late February, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, countries in the European Union have pledged to beef up their arsenals by some $230 billion, with Germany alone planning to modernize its military to the tune of $100 billion this year. And the United States arms industry, which produces and exports more weapons than any other country selling over 39% of the estimated $210 billion annual global arms sales from 2017 to 2021 has been the biggest beneficiary. In many European countries over half of recent military expenditures went to American arms manufacturers, with Norway devoting 83% to U.S. purchases, the U.K. 77%, Italy 72% and the Netherlands spending 95% on American-made weapons in the period from 2017 to 2021, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), with total European arms imports jumping 19 percent during that time frame from the previous five years. And that was before Europes recent arms-buying spree. This is certainly the biggest increase in defense spending in Europe since the end of the Cold War, Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, told Yahoo News. British soldiers in front of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS). (Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images) Russias war in Ukraine has shaken countries and people who got used to peace for a generation, said Bond. Many Europeans, he said, had basically convinced themselves that war on the continent had become an impossibility. Theyre waking up to the fact that not only is it very possible, but it is happening, and it's happening not that many miles away from them. When the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, defense spending in many countries across Europe plummeted, he said. But thats quickly changing. Many European countries have plans to increase their military spending very significantly, and to increase their purchases of arms as part of that, said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. And in some countries theyre accelerating purchases originally slated for later this decade. Story continues According to William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, since President Biden took office, European countries account for some $33 billion of arms offers, as the initial stage of arms negotiations is called, with $21 billion in deals on the table since February. Although some sales have not yet been officially contracted, Hartung told Yahoo News that the $21 billion estimate is assuredly low as it represents only government-to-government deals, not direct commercial sales, which are more difficult to track. President Biden speaking about the economy in Carlsbad, Calif., on Friday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Even before the war, according to SIPRI, European arms imports from 2017 through 2021 were up 19%. Theyre growing at a rapid clip, said Hartung. The amount of European arms deals being negotiated since February, he said, has almost doubled from last year. And we've still got a few months left. Thanks to Putin, Europe is now considered a hotspot for U.S. arms dealers. This is all very much driven by Russia's attack on Ukraine and the realization in Europe that defense stocks had been run down quite considerably over the last 30 years, said Bond. He added that one reason so many countries turn to U.S. arms manufacturers is the American defense industry is so large, countries dont have to wait for cutting-edge arms to be developed. Another reason, countries in East and Central Europe want to keep the U.S. on their side and show that they attach value to the Transatlantic alliance, including to NATO. And supporting American defense manufacturers is one way in which you can do that. By far, the most popular high-end item from the U.S. in Europe is the American F-35 combat airplane with Finland putting in an order for 54 of them in 2020, while Poland ordered 32. Another 71 planes were ordered by Norway, the Netherlands and the U.K., and even neutral Switzerland ordered three dozen of the fighter planes in September, for over $6 billion. Those kinds of big-money sales cause a lot of tension with European arms manufacturers, said Hartung, since across Europe, the American F-35 often outsells European-made fighter jets. A British Royal Air Force F-35 Lightning. (Ministry of Defence via Getty Images) Based on what arms buyers have told him, Wezeman said the F-35 has more bells and whistles than domestic models such as the Eurofighter Typhoon or Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Its more stealthy, it makes more use of advanced electronics, advanced communication systems, and network systems, he said. Maybe you pay a bit more, but overall, you get something that is often considered better than European alternatives. I cannot judge if that's true, but that's the message we generally hear. The U.S., however, doesnt lead every arms sector in Europe, where countries tend to buy tanks from Germany and artillery from France and submarines from Germany, France or the U.K. But because of their high price, F-35s often take a large part of a countrys defense budget pie. With a sticker price of around $79 million per plane, it often outcompetes other fighter aircraft, including French Dassault Rafale fighter jets. The French are not wildly enthusiastic about other European countries buying [F-35s] from the Americans, said Bond, and were especially unhappy when Germany announced in late July that it wanted to order 35 of the F-35 fighter planes in a deal worth $8.4 billion. Analysts in Europe are relieved to see Germany building up its military might again, despite its dark history of sparking World War II. West Germany, noted Bond, had one of NATOs biggest most powerful armies during the Cold War. Had the Soviet Union attacked Western Europe, the Bundeswehr would have been very much on the frontline, he said. Two Leopard 2 A6 heavy battle tanks and a Puma infantry fighting vehicle of the Bundeswehr's 9th Panzer Training Brigade. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Over the past 30 years, however, Germany largely neglected its military failing to meet NATOs requirement to put 2% of its GDP towards defense, a loud complaint of former President Donald Trump that was echoed by plenty of Europeans. Most of us have been trying to persuade the Germans to spend more on defense for quite a long time, said Bond. Germany should hit the 2% mark soon, he added, perhaps even exceed it. Devoting 2% of GDP on defense spending, he said, is no longer seen as a ceiling. In countries that are feeling particularly vulnerable, its seen more as the floor, the starting point. Poland, regarded as a satellite state of the Soviet Union after World War II, may soon be devoting 3%-5% of it GDP to defense it spent $6 billion this year on U.S. arms alone, according to Security Assistance Monitor, which tracks U.S. arms sales worldwide. Bond said that other countries, from the U.K. to Lithuania, from Finland to Greece, are boosting their arms budgets too. U.S. presidents, said Hartung, always talk about burden sharing, saying that European countries arent spending a big enough share of their economies, and the U.S. is paying disproportionately for the defense of Europe. But that doesnt take into account all the money thats flowing back from the U.S. arms sales to Europe. I think its a closer balance than U.S. politicians would want to admit. A fleet of helicopters are part of a large military transport operation between the United States and Germany. (Bas Czerwinski/ANP/AFP via Getty Images) Hartung and Wezeman are two arms analysts who believe that Europes skyrocketing purchases are just part of a growing global arms race. On the one hand, Hartung notes, if European arms purchases are coordinated, there could be less reliance on the United States, and perhaps more of a balance of power. On the other hand, countries appear to be buying without an integrated approach to European security. So its possible that this new surge of sales might not increase Europes defense capability in an effective way, Hartung said. How do you decide what is enough to deter Russia? Wezeman asked. Of the 469 House and Senate races on the ballot this fall, 18 of them will feature two veterans squaring off against each other for a congressional seat. Here is a look at a few of the more competitive matchups and what a win might mean for control of Congress next year: What a GOP win in November would mean for defense policy in 2023 Virginia 2nd Congressional District The incumbent, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, is a 20-year Navy veteran and two-term member of Congress. Her final assignment was commanding Assault Craft Unit Two, a unit of 400 sailors that provided support to Marine Corps operations. Luria has been a key figure on the House Armed Services Committee for the last four years, in some cases sparring with her own partys leadership to push for more defense funding and more resources for the Navy. But Luria was also a member of the Houses special committee on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a politically-charged assignment that altered some views of her as a centrist lawmaker. Shell square off on election night against fellow Navy veteran Jennifer Kiggans, the Republican nominee. Kiggans served as a CH-46 and SH-3 helicopter pilot before leaving the service and using the GI Bill to become a nurse practitioner. Each of Lurias past two election victories have come by less than 6% of the total votes cast. Recent polls show this years contest as a toss-up. Luria losing on election night would indicate that Democrats arent able to hold key swing districts, and will likely lose either the House or Senate, if not both chambers. Elaine Luria wants to fight for a stronger Navy but first she has to get reelected Indiana Senate seat This Hoosier State election is the only Senate race in the country this year featuring two veterans competing head-to-head. Incumbent Republican Sen. Todd Young is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served in the Marine Corps for a decade. He has served in Congress since 2011 and in the Senate since 2017. Story continues His opponent, Thomas McDermott Jr., spent six years in the Navy as a nuclear submariner. He has served as mayor of Hammond, Ind., since 2004. Youngs seat is a must win for Republicans if they have any hopes of taking control of the Senate. The chamber is currently divided 50-50, with Democrats controlling the agenda due to Vice President Kamala Harris role as the tiebreaker in all Senate votes. Young was comfortably ahead in polling earlier this summer, but surveys over the last few weeks have shown that lead shrinking. The race result could point to either broader Republican momentum on election night or Democratic candidates outperforming pre-voting polls. New York 18th Congressional District Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan is the incumbent here, but he has only been in Congress for a few weeks. Ryan won a special election in August to replace fellow Democrat Rep. Antonio Delgado, who stepped down in May to become the New York lieutenant governor. Ryans win was viewed by Democrats as a hopeful sign for the midterms, since the 18th district is almost evenly split politically. But hell have to win his second election in four months in order to remain in the seat. Ryan is a West Point graduate who served two tours in Iraq as an Army intelligence officer. His opponent, Colin Schmitt, is a New York State Assembly member who served in the New York Army National Guard. The Cook Political Report has the race listed as a toss-up, and recent polls have shown no clear advantage for either candidate. A full list of the 196 veterans running for Congress this year Georgia 6th Congressional District There is no incumbent in this newly redrawn district, since Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath was shifted to the 7th congressional district. That leaves two newcomer veterans vying to step into the role. Republican Rich McCormick is widely expected to win the contest, based on voting patterns for the constituency. He served 20 years in the Marine Corps and Navy, including time as a department head for emergency medicine in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Democrat Bob Christian spent 10 years in the Army, including a combat tour in Iraq. He has focused much of his campaign on countering what he calls extremist views by Republican leaders and McCormick. McCormick is already viewed by some Republican caucus members as a potential key voice on military and foreign affairs issues. A landslide victory would give him strong footing to start that phase of his political career. A narrow victory or upset, however, could hint at more victories for Democratic candidates across the country. HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam's information minister said on Friday authorities had tightened regulations to deal with "false" content on social media platforms so that it must be taken down within 24 hours instead of 48 hours previously. The new rules will enshrine Vietnam's position as one of the world's most stringently controlled regimes for social media firms and will strengthen the ruling Communist Party's hand as it cracks down on "anti-state" activity. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung told parliament there was risk that "false news, if it is handled in a slow manner, will spread very widely." Reuters had previously reported government plans to bring in the new regulations, as well rules so that very sensitive information has to be taken down within three hours. Most governments do not have laws imposing the taking down of content on social media firms, but Vietnam's move comes amid intensifying crackdowns in some parts of the world on online content. According to Hung, current penalties in Vietnam for posting and spreading misinformation were only one-tenth of the level imposed by Southeast Asian peers. "The ministry will propose to the government an increase in administrative fines to a level that is high enough to deter the public," he said. Speaking to the legislature, Hung proposed by 2023 to completely deal with "News-lisation", a term used by authorities to describe when people are misled into thinking that social media accounts are authorised news outlets. Reuters in September reported that the government was preparing rules to limit which social media accounts can post news-related content. Vietnam, which is a $1 billion market for Facebook, has tightened internet rules over the past few years, culminating in a cybersecurity law that came into effect in 2019 and national guidelines on social media behaviour introduced in June last year. Critics have raised concerns the laws could hand the authorities more power to crack down on dissidents. (Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Ed Davies) Richard Branson and Shai Weiss with Virgin's A330-900neo after inaugural to Tampa. Virgin Atlantic Airways Virgin Atlantic Airways just launched its first-ever flight between London and Tampa, Florida on Wednesday. The carrier used an Airbus A330-900neo on the route, which is the first of the type in its fleet. Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss told Insider the plane is preferred for its fuel and cost efficiency. Virgin Atlantic Airways just launched its first-ever route from London to Tampa, Florida on Wednesday, complementing its current service to Miami and Orlando. Richard Branson on Virgin's A330-900neo after inaugural to Tampa. Virgin Atlantic Airways Source: Virgin Atlantic Airways The England-based carrier used its swanky new Airbus A330-900neo for the flight, which it first flew to Boston on October 27. Virgin Atlantic's new A330-900neo. Airbus Virgin Atlantic has received its first-ever Airbus A330-900neo see inside the new jet featuring the airline's new premium 'Retreat Suite' The A330neo is the latest addition to the company's fleet, joining its Airbus A350, the previous-generation A330, and Boeing 787 widebodies. Virgin Atlantic A330-300s. Bradley Caslin/Shutterstock The aircraft, which was named Billie Holiday for the famous American jazz singer, will replace Virgin's aging A330s and modernize its fleet. Airbus Virgin CEO Shai Weiss told Insider that Tampa was of particular interest because it is a great destination for both leisure and business travelers, saying the plethora of UK companies based in the metropolitan area creates a large market. Richard Branson and Shai Weiss with Virgin's A330-900neo after inaugural to Tampa. Virgin Atlantic Airways With 15 more planes on order, the carrier plans to expand the A330neo service to Miami and New York, though Tampa will be the only city exclusively served by the new plane. Airbus Virgin is the first UK airline to acquire the A330neo, which it says will create the greenest fleet in the sky. Virgin's A330-900neo in the paint shop. Airbus Compared to its predecessor, the A330neo burns 11% less fuel, and is "leather-free" and "90% plastic-free," Weiss told Insider. Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine on Virgin's A330-900neo. Airbus "We're calling on all airlines to invest in fleets, and we're doing a big push on sustainable aviation fuels," Weiss said. "There's not enough SAF in the world, let alone the UK, so there is a lot of work to be done in our quest for net-zero by 2050 and 10% SAF by 2030." Story continues Fueling Virgin's A330-900neo with SAF before flying to London for delivery. Airbus While the company is laser-focused on sustainability, it has also taken great strides in its customer experience. Virgin Atlantic Airways The A330neo is a perfect example of its innovation, with new cabin products that bring more space and comfort than ever before take a look. Airbus The plane is configured with a total of 262 seats, including 32 in Upper Class in a 1x2x1 layout Virgin Atlantic Airways Source: Virgin Atlantic Airways 46 in premium economy in a 2x3x2 configuration... Virgin Atlantic Airways Source: Virgin Atlantic Airways and 184 in regular economy in a 2x4x2 layout. The total capacity is actually less than Virgin's A330ceos, which has up to 267 seats depending on the type. Economy class on Virgin's A330-300. Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider Source: Virgin Atlantic Airways Weiss told Insider this was because the company could only fit so many seats in the NEO with the new innovations in the cabin, like the Retreat Suite, that still ensured passengers are comfortable. Virgin's A330-900neo. Airbus The Retreat Suite is the newest product on Virgin, offering the most space in the carrier's history. It is located at the front of the carrier's signature Upper Class. The Retreat Suite before taking off from London to Tampa. Virgin Atlantic Airways Two Suites will be onboard, and luxuries include wireless phone charging, a long 6'7" bed, and a 27" touchscreen inflight screen with Bluetooth connectivity, which Weiss said are larger than many of Virgin's competitors. Rendering of the ottoman in the Retreat Suite on Virgin Atlantic's new A330-900neo. Virgin Atlantic There is also an ottoman for fellow passengers to use as an extra seat, meaning up to four people can socialize or conduct business in the Suite. Rendering of Virgin Atlantic's new A330-900neo. Virgin Atlantic In addition to the Suite, Virgin has improved its eight-person Loft, which replaced the inflight bar in 2019 and is only available to Upper Class passengers. Virgin Atlantic Airways "The Loft has a freezer and a fridge where people can interact, have meetings, play a bit, and interact with our crew," Weiss told Insider. The Loft is also available on Virgin's Airbus A350, though the design is different. David Slotnick/Insider Weiss explained that the front of the plane is extremely important for Virgin, saying the company will continue to "push the envelope to remain the most-loved travel airline across the Atlantic and beyond." Virgin Atlantic Airways While business class products are important, Virgin has also made improvements to its economy class. Virgin Atlantic Airways Its premium loungers boast 38 inches of pitch, wireless charging, 13.3", Bluetooth-capable seatback TVs, deep recline, and a leg rest. Rendering of Virgin Atlantic's A330-900neo premium economy. Virgin Atlantic Meanwhile, the regular economy section also has a large 13.3" TV with Bluetooth, wireless charging, AC power, and USB ports. Virgin Atlantic Airways Virgin offers two economy seat pitches: 31 inches for Classic and 34 inches for extra legroom Delight, with Classic being on par with competitors like United Airlines and British Airways. Virgin Atlantic Airways As Virgin continues to expand, particularly in the Sunshine State, Weiss says the company will have 46 widebody planes by the end of 2025. Airbus "We wouldn't be Virgin without the Atlantic, and we wouldn't be Virgin Atlantic without Florida." Richard Branson with Virgin's A330-900neo after inaugural to Tampa. Virgin Atlantic Airways Read the original article on Business Insider Photo: Glacier Media A Richmond man and woman were each sentenced to one-year of probation with the possibility of a criminal record for their part in a racist incident at Stevestons Rocanini Coffee Roasters last year. Michel Jean-Jacque Berthiaume and Astrid Maria Secreve, who represented themselves in court, had originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of mischief, but changed their minds during the trial last month. The couple was sentenced Thursday afternoon. Berthiaume and Secreve were charged with mischief for pouring coffee, throwing a coffee cup and making racist remarks such as "F***ing Chinese." These actions, said Richmond Provincial Court Judge Diana Vandor, were at least partially "motivated by bias, prejudice or hate" against the Chinese community. Vandor gave Berthiaume and Secreve a suspended sentence for 12 months, along with the conditions to not visit Rocanini Coffee Roasters, to have no contact with the victim Nikki Tan and fellow barista Raymond Chan and to not visit Tan and Chan's schools or places of worship. SALEM, Ore. (AP) As complaints about elections, many of them unfounded, pile up around the country, investigators tasked with dealing with them find themselves on the front line of defending the integrity of Americas system for choosing local, state and national leaders. In blue states like Oregon and red states like Idaho, elections officials say investigating the complaints is critical for maintaining voter confidence. Many are dealing with a sharp increase of complaints in the runup to the 2022 midterm election after unfounded claims of rampant voter fraud in 2020. In Oregon, the front line crosses the desk of Alma Whalen, a 28-year-old who oversees election law investigations, campaign finance disclosures and compliance for the state's elections division. At least 204 accusations have been filed this year, according to a complaints log obtained through a public records request. The complaints include accusations of campaign finance violations, public employees campaigning while on the job, and someone yelling about signs on lawns. Almost 20% of the accusations are about purported crimes. Details on those are exempt from disclosure under Oregon law and werent included in the document. Helping Whalen sort through hundreds of complaints are Russ Buttram, who spent 20 years in the Marines and the next five as executive director of operations for a school district, and campaign finance expert Amanda Kessel. Their cubicles are next to Whalen's in the elections division office in Salem, Oregon's capital city. Buttram started the job this year because "this seemed like a place where I could make a difference, where the work was important. Written on a whiteboard in Whalen's cubicle, next to her to-do lists, is the phone number of an FBI agent to call in case of trouble. Not only are we seeing more requests for investigation and more cases that were having to work on, were facing a lot of pressure from people to come up with a certain decision that favors them, Whalen said, adding that some people try to barge into the office to make demands. Story continues On her bookshelf is an inspirational slogan that once adorned an Oregon newspaper: No favor sways us, no fear shall awe. Investigators like Whalen are becoming more in demand, and more important, as elections and political campaigns become more contentious and divisive. For the first time in Oregon, Whalen's position received full funding from the Legislature in 2021. In the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers will be asked to provide funding for two more positions, said Ben Morris, spokesman for Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. Having dedicated staff for investigations is critical, Morris said. Trust in Americas elections was shaken by former President Donald Trump and his allies claiming widespread fraud in 2020, but there is no evidence to back up those allegations. Numerous judicial rulings have rejected Trumps unfounded claims. In Idaho, a Republican stronghold, Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane is in charge of elections in the state's most populous county. Neither he, nor the Idaho secretary of states office, has an employee dedicated exclusively to investigating election complaints, McGrane said. But the secretary of state works with the attorney general's office on them, said McGrane. McGrane is likely Idaho's next secretary of state, having won the Republican nomination. McGrane said he believes that the 2020 election was conducted properly and that Joe Biden won the presidency. In Ada County, which encompasses the state's largest city of Boise, McGrane's elections staff investigates complaints, which are often about campaign finance. It is important that we do these investigations, McGrane said in a telephone interview. "And I think now, more than ever, the whole issue of voter confidence has been rattled. Its really important, as election officials, for us to pursue those cases so we can show that we're following through. Another fairly common complaint in Idaho is felons voting before completing their sentence, McGrane said. He added, though, that voter fraud is rare. Ive seen two competing narratives as I campaigned over this last year: theres rampant fraud and rampant cheating or the alternative, that theres no fraud and no cheating," he said. And the problem is, neither of those is true. Cases do exist, but theyre not huge in volume, he said. "Our elections are working properly. The system is working. And part of that is having people investigate these situations and hold people accountable when the law has been broken. Back in Salem, Whalen said election law investigations are critically important. "The public cares about it. It impacts every person who is interested in voting or wants to vote, she said. As for attempts at intimidation, she said: "Ultimately we hold the line. And I think thats something election workers all around the country are doing. ___ Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections And follow the APs election coverage of the 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. Early voting is underway in Arizona, although not without ripple effects from unproven election fraud conspiracy theories. At least two right-wing groups organized people to observe as voters dropped off their early ballots. One voter filed a complaint that said "camo clad" people took photos of the vehicle license plate as the person dropped off a ballot outside Maricopa County's main election center in Phoenix. The Arizona Republic talked with drop box monitors seated in lawn chairs with an orange pizza box beside them. While it may have looked like a backyard barbecue, they were photographing voters and staffers at the county's election headquarters. A judge has since placed limits on one group of monitors, and the other group bowed out. A voter places a ballot in an election voting drop box in Mesa on Oct. 28, 2022. More than a million ballots for the Nov. 8 election already have been cast in Arizona, which was an early adopter of voting by mail. State lawmakers created the system in 1991 with bipartisan support. Three decades later, that's how the vast majority of Arizonans cast ballots. Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter Questions about the 2022 midterms?: USA TODAY is here to help Florida is heading to the polls: What to know about voting and ballot access in 2022 Fast-growing Arizona shifted from a reliably red state to choosing Democratic President Joe Biden by a narrow margin in 2020. That sparked months of lawsuits and a review of Phoenix area ballots by state Senate GOP leaders and allies of former President Donald Trump. Democracy in doubt: The origins of the Arizona election review Those efforts turned up no evidence of widespread fraud, but claims of a stolen election have been a rallying cry for some of the top GOP contenders in primary and general election campaigns, including Blake Masters running for U.S. Senate, Kari Lake vying for governor, Mark Finchem vying for secretary of state and Abe Hamadeh running for state attorney general. Story continues Arizona's election system has survived multiple legal challenges, although some appeals continue. Lake and Finchem sued to end the use of ballot-counting machines, but a federal judge tossed the case. They appealed the ruling. And the Republican Party of Arizona lost its lawsuit claiming the long practice of early voting violated the state's Constitution. That case now sits with the state Court of Appeals. Changing Arizona election laws Lawmakers have changed some of the state's election laws in recent years, and voters on Nov. 8 will decide on a ballot measure that would tighten voter ID requirements. Here's a look at those changes and how voting works in Arizona. Six years ago, Arizona lawmakers made it a felony for anyone other than a family member, household member or caregiver to return a voter's early ballot. Supporters sought to ease concerns over so-called "ballot harvesting," while critics said the law disproportionately impacted minority communities and those living in rural areas. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 upheld the state law passed in 2016. The ruling also upheld a state law that disqualifies ballots cast in the wrong precinct. Election guide: November 2022 A flurry of election-related proposals were introduced in this year's legislative session, although only a fraction became law and mostly made moderate changes. And one proposal will go before Arizona voters this month. Voters will decide whether to tighten ID laws. Arizona already verifies signatures of those who vote by mail and requires voters at the polls to present a photo ID or two items that show the name and address of the voter. But Proposition 309 would require early voters to write their birthdate and government ID number, in addition to their signature, on an early ballot affidavit. As for in-person voters, currently those without a photo ID can provide two items that show their name and address, such as utility bills. That would go away. Also, if the address on the voter's photo ID didn't match the voter rolls, then two items such as utility bills would be required. The Arizona Department of Transportation would have to issue IDs for voting purposes for free. More recounts likely. Arizona lawmakers this year passed a bill that widened the margin that would trigger an automatic recount of votes to 0.5% from 0.1%. It was a reaction to Biden's narrow win over Trump in 2020 but could have an impact on races this year. Further scrutiny of voter registration. State lawmakers this year passed a law that requires county election officials to attempt to confirm any information they receive that a voter registration isn't valid. The law is slated to take effect in the new year after a judge halted implementation too close to the start of this year's voting. Proof of citizenship. Arizona law already requires proof of citizenship to vote in state elections, but a law passed this year extends the requirement to federal-only voters. If they do not show documentary proof of citizenship, they will not be eligible to vote in presidential races or vote by mail. That law takes effect next year. Tightening who gets an early ballot. Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation in 2021 to remove voters who signed up to receive a ballot in the mail automatically ahead of each election if they haven't voted early at least once during two election cycles. A poll worker celebrates as people drive to cast an early vote in the 2020 election at an early ballot location at the Betania Presbyterian Church in Phoenix on Oct. 28, 2020. Voting in Arizona The deadline for Arizonans to register to vote was Oct. 11, and early voting began a day later. A voter must opt into the early voting, but once on the early list they automatically receive early ballots each election cycle as long as they remain an active voter. Voters can cast their ballots by mail, drop box or in person in the weeks leading up to the election and on Election Day. The recommended deadline to get it in the mail was Nov. 1 to ensure election officials have it in hand on Election Day. Wisconsin is voting: Here's what to know about voting and ballot access in 2022 More: Early voting has begun in Texas Pennsylvania: Here's what to know about voting and ballot access in 2022 In Maricopa County Arizona's most populous county and the fourth-largest in the U.S. voters don't go to specific polling places. Rather, a voter can choose the most convenient voting center across sprawling metro Phoenix. More than 200 voting centers will be open on Election Day. Arizonans voting in person must show ID. Acceptable forms of ID include a valid Arizona driver's license, tribal enrollment card or other government-issued identification. Voters also may show two forms of non-photo identification bearing their name and address. Voters who mail in their ballot must sign the envelope. That signature is then cross-referenced with several signatures election officials have on file for you. How a ballot is made: Inside Phoenix company that serves voters in 23 states Two girls mock a group of people watching the Maricopa County early ballot drop box on Oct. 24, 2022, in Mesa. Ensuring voters feel secure Some voters dropping off early ballots at outside locations in downtown Phoenix and Mesa began complaining in October that groups of people were filming them and taking photos of their license plates. Some of the observers touted the debunked film "2,000 Mules," which states without proof that widespread ballot harvesting occurred during the 2020 presidential election. The situation prompted Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone to warn that his deputies will babysit ballot drop-off sites to help voters feel secure and protect democracy. It also prompted voter rights groups to file lawsuits in federal court, arguing the stakeouts crossed the line into voter intimidation. Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in with a court filing that clarifies it "expresses no view on any factual dispute before the Court," but details when ballot monitoring could constitute voter intimidation. Although lawful poll-watching activities can support democratic transparency and accountability, when private citizens form 'ballot security forces' and attempt to take over the States legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections, the risk of voter intimidation and violating federal law is significant, the filing read. Voter guide: Where to drop off your Arizona ballot and how to track it The judge declined to fully ban the ballot box monitors with Clean Elections USA, a group founded by an Oklahoma woman, but he did place limits on them. Among the limits are that the group can't: Take photos of voters who are within 75 feet of a ballot box. Post identifying images or information about voters online. Make false statements about election law from now to the end of the voting period. Openly wear body armor or carry guns within 250 feet of a drop box, although they will not be in breach of the order if body armor or weapons are concealed. In this climate, the Carter Center helped form the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network. Its billed as a cross-partisan effort asking political candidates to: Cooperate with elections officials. Avoid spreading falsehoods. Acknowledge the legitimacy of election outcomes after results have been certified. The center's efforts to bolster democracy have historically been focused outside of the U.S., but it announced in 2020 that it would begin to look inward. When you have candidates talking about fraud when there's really been no evidence of fraud and fraud before an election is even held, it presents the kind of atmosphere out there that can lead to things down the road that you just don't want to see happen," said Network co-director Don Henninger of Scottsdale, a former media executive. The Arizona Republic's Mary Jo Pitzl and Ryan Randazzo contributed to this article. Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County and regional issues for The Arizona Republic with a focus on voting and democracy. Do you have a tip about elections or questions about voting? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Voting in Arizona: What to know on controversies, ballot access in 2022 New Zealand are the visitors to Cardiff this weekend (PA) (PA Archive) Wales kick off their Autumn Nations Series campaign when they tackle New Zealand in Cardiff on Saturday. While Wales claimed a first victory over the Springboks on South African soil four months ago, they have not beaten the All Blacks since 1953. Here we look at some of the talking points heading into the game. Wales 69 years of hurt Wales have not beaten New Zealand since toppling them 13-8 on December 19, 1953 in Cardiff. The subsequent 32 Tests between the countries have all gone one way, with New Zealand racking up more than 1,100 points in the process and winning 24 of those matches by 15 points or more. Wales and New Zealand have faced each other at 11 different venues Cardiff, Auckland, Christchurch, Brisbane, Johannesburg, London, Hamilton, Sydney, Dunedin, Wellington and Tokyo and only once in the professional era have Wales gone close, losing 26-25 in Cardiff 18 years ago. So what else happened in 1953? It was a year momentous for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, while Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Tony Blair was born, Joseph Stalin died and Dwight D Eisenhower was inaugurated as the United States 34th president. On a sporting front, Blackpool won the FA Cup after beating Bolton in the so-called Matthews Final, named after Blackpool winger Stanley Matthews, England lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley, Ben Hogan won The Open and Fred Davis beat Walter Donaldson 37-34 in a best of 71 frames world snooker final. Which New Zealand team will turn up? It is not a question that normally accompanies the All Blacks, but 2022 has been a rollercoaster year. It started with two home defeats against Ireland as Andy Farrells team claimed an historic 2-1 series triumph, then New Zealand opened their Rugby Championship campaign by losing comprehensively to South Africa. A home defeat followed against Argentina, pressure grew on head coach Ian Foster and New Zealand dropped to fourth in World Rugbys official rankings, but they responded by winning an eighth Rugby Championship title. Wales, Scotland and England now await. Story continues Welsh wing wizards When it comes to strike-power, Wales have two of the most destructive finishers in British rugby at their disposal. Gloucester speedster Louis Rees-Zammit has delivered world-class displays in the Gallagher Premiership, while Test debutant Rio Dyer has shone for the Dragons. They have a combined age of just 43, but both players are box-office material, and if Wales can secure them enough quality possession then expect fireworks. Referee Wayne Barnes joins 100-club Englishman Barnes will become only the second referee in rugby union history to control 100 Test matches when he takes charge of Saturdays clash. The 43-year-old follows Wales Nigel Owens, who reached the landmark two years ago. Barnes first international appointment arrived in 2006, having become a professional referee a year earlier. Barnes, a practising barrister who was born in the Forest of Dean, has officiated at the last four World Cup tournaments and also controlled more than 250 English Premiership games. Dan Biggar is heading for France (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Wire) Dan Biggar is to leave Northampton with immediate effect and join French Top 14 club Toulon. Saints announced last month that the Wales fly-half would depart Franklins Gardens at the end of this season. But they have now confirmed his earlier-than-expected departure at the players request. Biggar is not affected by Wales minimum 60-cap selection criteria for players plying their trade outside his country as he has made more than a century of Test appearances. He captained Wales in last seasons Guinness Six Nations Championship and on their summer tour to South Africa, which included a first victory over the Springboks on South African soil. Biggar, 33, is currently sidelined because of a knee injury and will miss Wales Autumn Nations Series campaign that kicks off against New Zealand on Saturday. As I said on the initial announcement of my departure, it has been a privilege to play for Northampton Saints and I have loved every minute of my time at the club, Biggar said. I know this is a squad which can challenge for major honours this season, so this has been a very difficult decision for me to make. I move on with a heavy heart and I am grateful to the club for their understanding throughout the process. I never envisaged leaving Saints midway through the season, but this opportunity came around very quickly, and I made my decision with a long-term view in mind for my family. Saints chief executive Mark Darbon added: Given the circumstances, with Dans contract ending at the end of the season, his availability for the rest of the current campaign, the multi-year offer to Dan from Toulon which was contingent on him moving immediately, and the quality of the up-and-coming fly-halves already at the club, we wanted to be pragmatic when Dan approached us. Dan is not just a world-class player, he is also one of the nicest blokes you could meet. He is someone who always did everything he could to help the club, on and off the pitch. So, we will miss him, but he departs with our very best wishes. GENEVA (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement has committed war crimes since the expiry of a peace agreement last month, the United Nations' human rights chief said on Friday, citing incidents of sniper attacks and shelling. Yemen's warring parties failed to renew a U.N.-brokered truce deal that expired a month ago, dashing the hopes of some Yemenis for a broader pact that would ease economic woes and prolong relative calm after more than seven years of fighting. Since then the U.N. human rights office said it has verified three incidents of shelling in government controlled-areas that killed a boy and a man and wounded others as well as three incidents of sniper shootings, attributing the attacks to Yemen's Houthi movement. "We are gravely concerned for the safety and security of civilians," said Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. "The deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects is prohibited by international law and constitutes a war crime". The Houthi side had no immediate comment. A U.N. spokesperson told the same Geneva briefing on Friday that efforts were continuing to revive the truce deal between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi group. The conflict, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed tens of thousands, devastated Yemen's economy and left millions hungry. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Gareth Jones) Jalopnik F-150 Lightning owners across the country will be facing their first winters with their EV pickups this year and for many, itll also be the first time they experience cold weather with an EV in general. Those unsure about what to do with charging and driving the vehicle dont have to worry though; Fords got their back. The automaker has a few tips that should put owners at ease. A total lunar eclipse will turn the Moon red for some observers on Tuesday 8 November, the last chance to catch such an eclipse until 2025. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth with respect to the Sun, passing through our planets shadow. A lunar eclipse is considered a total eclipse when the Moon passes through the deepest part of Earths shadow, the umbra, dimming the Moons light and shading it red as the only light reaching the lunar surface is filtered through Earths atmosphere. The 8 November lunar eclipse will appear total for observers in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America and parts of South America such as Colombia and Venezuela, according to a Nasa website about the eclipse. Sky watchers in Hawaii and Alaska will be able to view the entire eclipse, but the Moon will set over Puerto Rico just after the eclipse reaches totality. The UK, Europe, and most of Africa will not see the lunar eclipse at all. For most viewers in North America, the eclipse will last a bit more than three and a half hours in total, with the first hints of a partial eclipse beginning around 3.02am EST. This is when the Moon will move into the Earths outer, and lighter shadow, known as the penumbra, but wont be really noticeable until about an hour later at 4.09am EST. A map showing the path and timing of the 8 November 2022 total lunar eclipse (Nasa) To the naked eye, as the Moon moves into the umbra, it looks like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk, according to the Nasa website. Totality when the entire Moon is inside Earths umbra will begin around 5.17am EST, and end around 6.42am EST, returning the Moon to a partial eclipse state, looking less red, with a bite out of the opposite side from when the partial eclipse began. The Moon will have set for those in the eastern time zone before the eclipse ends, but for those on the West coast, the partial eclipse will end as the Moon slips back out of the Earths shadow around 4.49am PST. The most recent total lunar eclipse occurred on 15 May, while a partial lunar eclipse, visible to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, took place on 25 October. The 8 November eclipse will be the last total lunar eclipse until 14 March, 2025, according to Nasa, although there will be partial lunar eclipses visible in the intervening three years. And although they are different phenomena, resulting from the Moon passing between the Sun and the Earth, two solar eclipses will be visible from North America in 2023 and 2024. Nov. 3WATERFORD Even after 37 years of serving in the Army, Frank Levanti Jr. still honors his brothers and sisters who served, one brick at a time. Levanti, 74, a life-long resident, is a member of the Path of Honor Committee, which is responsible for laying bricks at the monument outside of Town Hall that contain the engraved names of veterans, both living and deceased. Anyone who wore the uniform and has a tie to the town, whether that be through family members or friends, is eligible to be honored on a brick. The monument will be comprised of 675 engraved bricks by the end of this week after the group installs the newest 10 bricks on Saturday. The bricks used to be installed monthly, now about 10 bricks are put in place twice a year, once before Memorial Day and again before Veterans Day. The initial goal was to get 500 bricks installed. Now, as the total nears 700, Levanti said 1,000 "would be fantastic," but is unsure if the group will ever reach that milestone. Levanti has trouble walking these days and no one else is in line to take over the project. "I don't think there's anyone who wants to take it," he said. "So when we're done, we're done." Levanti got the idea for the project after visiting his aunt in Rhode Island, who had laid two bricks for her five brothers at a similar monument. Levanti served in the U.S. Army Aviation for 37 years and in three wars. His brother was drafted into the Vietnam War and his father served in World War II. "Anybody that served is a brother to me, or a sister," Levanti said. "They're all brothers in arms to me. This is my way of recognizing them." He thought Waterford may have a location to create a brick monument of it's own, and found a space at Town Hall in 2007. He reached out to then-First Selectman Dan Steward, who granted permission for the project on town grounds, and told Levanti he should reach out to Bob Strohl Jr., the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 6573 commander in town. Story continues "He got it started because he thought it was a great project," Levanti said of Strohl, who served in the Navy. "He's helped me right along." Strohl was able to recruit VFW members William Bartelli and David Anderson of the Navy and Brian Anderson of the Air Force to help with the project. Gail Molly, the women's auxiliary president of the VFW accepts applications for bricks at the post while Linda Greer, a receptionist at Town Hall helps distribute applications. Strohl could not be reached for comment about the project. Donald Morton, a professional mason in town, volunteered to lay the bricks at no cost and continues to do so. Levanti explained Morton could not serve in the armed forces due to medical reasons, so he has used the project to give back. By Memorial Day of 2008, the first bricks were in the ground. Nowadays, Levanti said he and Strohl are the only two veterans still involved in the project, while the others are "really good people to have work with us." Levanti and his wife, Kathy, described the long process to get the bricks in the ground. Levanti is sent the applications and $50 checks from the VFW. He then inputs the information with Bricks R Us a brick engraving service based in Florida. Strohl proof reads everything before he submits the payment. The bricks are delivered within a month or so. The two then double check the bricks for any errors before scheduling a time with Morton and the town's Parks and Recreation Department to install them. "We've always done it and everyone seems to be appreciative of it," Levanti said. Levanti will also read through obituaries and reach out to families of veterans who have passed away about the project. Sometimes he reaches out to funeral homes as well. Levanti explained that any excess funds the project has go right back into the monument. Early on, they were able to add the insignia of each branch of the armed services to the granite stone slab at the center of the path. "We still have to acknowledge our veterans," Kathy Levanti said. "Without them, we wouldn't have our freedom." k.arnold@theday.com The Powerball jackpot has reached an estimated $1.9bn, but the odds of winning the lottery are rarely in your favour. After no winning ticket seemed to match all six numbers during Sunday nights Powerball drawing, the Powerball jackpot has climbed to a whopping $1.9bn prize. Now, lottery players are snatching up Powerball tickets for a chance at what Powerball has described as the worlds largest lotto prize ever offered. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292m. To play Powerball, hopefuls must pick five numbers between 1 to 69 and then choose one Powerball number between 1 to 26. The first five numbers drawn appear on the white balls, while the Powerball number is shown using a red ball. If a player has a ticket that matches all of the five winning numbers plus the Powerball number, then they win the jackpot. While theres no determining exactly what the lucky numbers will be at the next drawing, as it all comes down to random chance, it doesnt stop players from relying on a number of tricks and estimations. One strategy players are known to rely on when it comes to picking Powerball numbers is choosing the lotterys most commonly drawn numbers. According to Lotto Numbers, which tracks Powerball statistics over time, these are the most common white ball numbers that have been drawn from 2015 to 2022. The number 61 has been pulled 78 times throughout the past 800 Powerball drawings, the most recent time being 17 September. Next on the list of most common white ball numbers is 32, with a total of 77 times. Sixty-three, 21, 69, 23, 36, 62, 39, 59, 20, 37, 27, 3, 53, 10, 2 and 6 are also very common. Out of the Powerball numbers those displayed on the red ball the most popular winning number is 24. Since 2015, the number 24 has been the final Powerball number a total of 45 times, as recently as nine days ago. As for the least common numbers pulled, the least common white ball numbers have been 34, 26, 13, 4, 24, 35, 49, 46, 51, 9, 43, 60, 31, 66, 29, 58, 25, and 38. For the Powerball drawing, the least common winning red ball number is 23. Story continues Ironically, the red Powerball number pulled during Wednesday nights drawing was 23. The white balls drawn were also 22, 11, 60, 2, and 35. In the past month, the repeated Powerball numbers drawn were 23 which was also played on 26 October and six once on 5 October and again seven days later. However, it is important to remember there is no difference between choosing the numbers most chosen or relying on random numbers, as it all comes down to chance. Youre not really going to learn anything about what the likely picked numbers are going to be based on the previous picks, because theyre all done completely at random, Dr Mark Glickman, Senior Lecturer on Statistics at Harvard University, told The Independent. The information in previous drawings doesnt give you any information about the likelihood of picking numbers on any given day. Although, Derek Smith, professor of mathematics at Lafayette College, told The Independent that there are some strategies to help avoid splitting the jackpot with other players. Nothing can improve the odds that you will win the jackpot each time you play, Professor Smith said. That said, if by some great ridiculous luck your numbers do match the numbers drawn, youll have to split the jackpot if other folks picked the same set of numbers. Players often choose numbers such as birthdays, ages of children, or anniversary dates for their lottery numbers, but experts warn against using this strategy because it limits the number range between one and 31. If you do play, you might try to choose sets of numbers that reduce your chances of matching others picks, Professor Smith added. Although nobody snagged the grand prize during Wednesdays drawing, there were 16 winning tickets worth $1m matching all five white balls. Three other tickets were sold that won $2m, according to Powerball. This is only the second time the Powerball jackpot has reached $1bn in its 30-year history, according to the lottery website. The large prize will be given to winners who choose to take the full amount over 29 annual payments. The next Powerball drawing occurs on Monday 7 November at 10.59 pm ET. This article was amended on November 4 2022. A previous version implied that there might be an advantage in choosing numbers that have previously come up more frequently, but that is not the case. Each number has the same probability of being randomly generated, each time. Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed. So, the natural question for Gopeng Berhad (KLSE:GOPENG) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'. View our latest analysis for Gopeng Berhad How Long Is Gopeng Berhad's Cash Runway? A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In June 2022, Gopeng Berhad had RM73m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was RM5.6m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from June 2022. While this is only one measure of its cash burn situation, it certainly gives us the impression that holders have nothing to worry about. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years. How Well Is Gopeng Berhad Growing? On balance, we think it's mildly positive that Gopeng Berhad trimmed its cash burn by 5.9% over the last twelve months. Revenue also improved during the period, increasing by 16%. On balance, we'd say the company is improving over time. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. This graph of historic earnings and revenue shows how Gopeng Berhad is building its business over time. How Hard Would It Be For Gopeng Berhad To Raise More Cash For Growth? We are certainly impressed with the progress Gopeng Berhad has made over the last year, but it is also worth considering how costly it would be if it wanted to raise more cash to fund faster growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate). Story continues Gopeng Berhad's cash burn of RM5.6m is about 3.5% of its RM161m market capitalisation. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money. So, Should We Worry About Gopeng Berhad's Cash Burn? It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Gopeng Berhad is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. On this analysis its cash burn reduction was its weakest feature, but we are not concerned about it. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn; the company seems well on top of its medium-term spending needs. On another note, Gopeng Berhad has 5 warning signs (and 2 which make us uncomfortable) we think you should know about. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts) 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. Join A Paid User Research Session Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here Photo: The Canadian Press A laboratory technical assistant handles a specimen to be tested for COVID-19 in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. A tentative contract agreement has been reached between the British Columbia government and the union representing 22,000 health-science professionals. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck A tentative contract agreement has been reached between the British Columbia government and the union representing 22,000 health-science professionals. A statement from the Health Employers Association, which negotiates on behalf of the government, says details aren't being released yet, but the contract follows the conditions of the province's shared recovery mandate. The mandate promises a salary increase of 25 cents per hour plus 3.24 per cent in the first year, a 5.5 per cent salary bump in year two and a two per cent increase in year three. The Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association negotiates for a range of union positions, including medical technologists, lab workers, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers and physiotherapists. The Health Employers Association says specifics of the contract will be released after the ratification process for union members and health employers is complete. The latest agreement comes just days after tentative deals were announced with the public school teachers union and provincial doctors, although both of those contracts still need to be ratified. Moscow was, is and will be a threat to Europe, reminds Oleksandr Motyl He recalled the divisions between Western and Eastern Europe that had existed for years, and the somewhat dismissive attitude towards Eastern European countries. According to Motyl, there was a cultural problem, the problem of the mentality of Western Europeans, and at the same time a geographical and historical problem. Read also: US speeds up plans to deploy upgraded B61-12 nukes in Europe media reports In their (Western) experience, Moscow didnt play such a dominant role as it played in the historical or cultural experience for the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Motyl explained. So for them, the threat coming from Russia has always been theoretical and not quite as obvious as it was to Kyiv, Warsaw, or Tallinn. They tend to think that the Eastern Europeans are exaggerating, maybe a bit insane, that they don't quite understand the implications [of a more radical opposition to Moscow]. Read also: Russia steps up oppression, forced conscription in occupied Ukrainian territories Since Feb. 24, that all has changed, though. Motyl said that only now Western Europeans are forced to admit, at least to some extent, that Eastern Europeans, including Ukrainians, were right; they were right not only about Moscow always being a threat, but also about the necessity to defend against it. And that this threat exists not only for the Balts and Ukrainians - it exists for Europe itself, the expert added. Read also: From the archives: Military experts explains why Russia's threats against the Baltic states, NATO are only soundbites' He is convinced that its now hard for Europeans not to recognize Putin's genocidal, imperialist, fascist program, as a significant threat to Europe itself. Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia all these countries demanded an immediate response because they experience this threat right at their door, Motyl concludes. Read also: Latvia to refuse entry to Russians fleeing mobilization, says FM For Western Europeans, this threat is somewhat further. Again, the issue is the speed of their reaction to this threat. This is changing, but, unfortunately, rather slowly. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Story at a glance Most Americans agree its time to do away with daylight saving time. But, if that does happen, its still up for debate whether the United States will permanently switch to Daylight Saving Time or Standard Time. While a bill passed by the Senate purports permanent Daylight Saving Time will yield economic and safety benefits, sleep experts point to the host of health gains that accompany Standard Time. On Sunday, Nov. 6th, most Americans will reluctantly turn their clocks back one hour as Daylight Saving Time ends for the year. Most Americans want to abandon the time change we endure twice a year, with polls showing as much as 63 to 75 percent of Americans supporting an end to the practice. But, even if the country does do away with the time change, the question still remains whether the U.S. should permanently adapt to Daylight Saving Time (DST) or Standard Time (ST). On the one hand, sleep experts support a permanent ST, where mornings are lighter and evenings darker, as this shift would be more in line with humans circadian rhythms and help stave off disease. However, a law passed by the Senate in March 2022 would implement permanent DST, where mornings are darker and sunlight stretches into the evening hours. The Sunshine Protection Act argues permanent DST would give the economy a boost as more Americans stay out later and spend more money. For many, falling back or springing ahead is an inconvenience that disrupts daily schedules. But polls reveal no public consensus on which time should remain permanent should the switch be abolished. Currently, the United States spends about eight months out of the year operating on DST and around four months on ST, with the exception of Hawaii and most of Arizona, which remain on ST all year. The case for permanent ST Sleep experts say the health benefits that could come from a permanent ST are crucial for a chronically sleep-deprived nation. In response to darkness, the body naturally produces melatonin, a hormone that helps promote sleep but is suppressed by light. Thus, having too much sunlight in the evening can actually work against a good nights sleep. Story continues The status quo leads to circadian misalignment, or social jetlag, says Beth Malow, a professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt sleep division. Malow also authored the Sleep Research Societys position statement advocating for a permanent ST. Under DST, our work and school schedules dictate our actions; while in an ideal scenario, environmental changes like lighter mornings and darker evenings would regulate sleep patterns, Malow explained in an interview with Changing America. Theres a disconnect when we have to wake up early for work or school and its still dark outside and we want to sleep, she said. Light in the morning wakes humans up, provides us with energy, and sets our mood for the day. It actually aligns us so that our body clocks are in sync with whats going on in our environment, Malow said. Having more energy in the morning can also make it easier to fall asleep at night when its darker outside. Overall, ST maximizes our morning light and minimizes light too late at night, Malow said. When the body doesnt get enough sleep, risks of developing heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain all increase. Insufficient sleep is also linked to some forms of cancer. Polls show younger individuals are less likely to support abolishing the clock change, largely because theyre more flexible than their older counterparts who support nixing the practice. But teenagers and young adults are at a higher risk of negative impacts from permanent DST, partially because theyre already primed for sleep deprivation. What happens when you go through puberty and you become a teenager isyour natural melatonin levels shift by about two hours, so it takes you longer to fall asleep, said Malow. [Teenagers] end up going to bed or being tired at 11 oclock at night, even midnight sometimes, but they have to wake up early for school. Students who wake up in darker mornings and drive to school could be at a greater risk of car accidents. The same is true for workers with early commutes and individuals in the north or on western edges of time zones who tend to experience more darkness overall. Sleep is really, really important to our health. And right now, what were doing is imposing mandatory social jetlag for eight months out of the year, Malow said. And wed like torather than going to mandatory social jetlag for 12 months out of the yearto stop the clock and go back to Standard Time which is much more natural. The argument for DST Despite the myriad of health benefits that come from adopting ST year-round, having more sunlight in the evenings if DST were permanently adopted is a tempting prospect for many Americans, especially those who work or attend school indoors all day. The Sunshine Protection Act, spearheaded by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), taps into these sentiments, and argues adopting permanent DST could reduce the risk of seasonal depression and improve other aspects of Americans lives. The bill was first introduced in 2021 and has received bipartisan support. The Senate passed the bill in March of this year, and would go into effect next November if passed by the House. States that currently operate on ST would not be required to switch to DST under the law. Similar efforts have been made at the local level. In the past five years, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to adopt year-round DST should Congress permit the change. The efforts follow a trial period in the 1970s when the United States briefly implemented permanent DST. The country was in the midst of an energy crisis, and lawmakers anticipated more evening light would reduce excess fuel consumption for heating and light. However, it was unpopular among the American public and ended just 10 months later. In the years since, studies have pointed to additional benefits of more sunlight in the evening, ranging from economic growth to crime reduction. One study carried out by JP Morgan Chase and Company in 2016 found card spending in Los Angeles experienced a relative increase of 0.9 percent in the 30 days following the start of DST, and experienced a relative decline of 3.5 percent in the 30 days following the end of DST, leading authors to conclude DST could boost consumer spending. It is plausible that cities that utilize DST may see some benefit from the perspective of public safety, authors added. An additional report from 2015 revealed robberies fell an average of 7 percent for the entire day when clocks sprang forward to DST, with a much larger 27 percent drop during the evening hour that gained some extra sunlight, authors wrote. While promoting the bill on the senate floor, Rubio highlighted how permanent DST could lead more kids to be active outdoors Were a country [in which] we desperately want our kids to be outside, to be playing, to be doing sports, not just to be sitting in front of a TV or a computer terminal or playing video games all day. And it gets really tough, in many parts of the country, to be able to do that, Rubio said. If you look at the way we live in this country, you want to have the ability to spend more time in the evenings outdoors. Not just to enjoy the outdoors, but to make sporting and outdoor activities available for people at a time when, frankly, were losing an hour, an hour-and-a-half in some parts of the country, because of [the time change]. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Will Smith's post-Oscars spiritual journey has taken him back to his old high school. The King Richard actor famously "West Philadelphia, born and raised" visited Overbrook High School in the city on Thursday. He popped in, with a videographer in tow, to speak to students in a digital media class at the public school. The students screamed when he walked in, video showed. It was a moment. In addition to his remarks, the 54-year-old Oscar winner posed for a group photo with students and also cheesed for some selfies. He also looked at an old yearbook, with the photo of one "Willard Smith" in it, and interacted. Outside the school, he also greeted shocked students, taking selfies with them, shaking hands and giving hugs. The school district shared video and photos on social media, writing, "Thanks for everything Will!" The post led to many positive comments from people saying they were past classmates with Smith or students at that school who had met him on his previous trips back. (Some previous students talked about the time Smith took some of the top students to Africa to meet Nelson Mandela.) This is also the internet we're talking about, so there was also a lively debate in the comments about Smith's actions at the Academy Awards in March. Will Smith looked at his old yearbook while visiting his Philadelphia high school on Thursday. (Photo: Philadelphia Schools via Facebook) Oscars night, of course, was when Smith stormed the stage and hit presenter Chris Rock after the comedian made a G.I. Jane joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith said he was defending his wife, who has alopecia; Rock was apparently unaware there was a medical reason behind the Red Table Talk co-host's bald head. Smith went on to win the Best Actor Oscar after the slap, but resigned from the Academy after. He's been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years. In the wake of the scandal, Smith embarked on a "spiritual journey" to India for yoga and meditation. He's stayed off the red carpet and has kept his social media light with videos of spiders, toilets and such. Smith's first film since the scandal the Antoine Fuqua-directed Emancipation comes out Dec. 2. It's about an enslaved man named escaping from a Louisiana plantation and, in light of the scandal, Smith has been constructing his own press tour to promote the project. So far instead of lots of media interviews and splashy appearances, giving people Big Willie-style laughs, he's attending a series of private screenings of the film. Last month, he attended a screening in Washington, D.C., at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundations 51st annual Legislative Conference, hosted by the NAACP. In recent days, he joined Tyler Perry to show the film at Morehouse College in Atlanta and just before he did the same at another historically Black college, Dillard University. He also had a private screening for the L.A. Lakers and another for an A-list group of his famous friends, including Rihanna and Dave Chappelle. A routine traffic stop took an unusual turn late Wednesday night in Southwest Florida. According to a Facebook post from the Collier County Sheriffs Office, at almost midnight, a deputy on road patrol clocked a gray Nissan Rogue going 71 mph in a 50 mph zone on Immokalee Road in Naples. She was driving so fast she slammed on the brakes when she passed a deputys patrol car, the sheriffs office said in a statement. The deputy pulled over the SUV, and saw that the license for the driver, Julia Franklin, was suspended because she had not paid a traffic fine. The deputy then found that the 23-year-old Cape Coral resident had an outstanding warrant against her for not paying child support. READ MORE: A man got pulled over during a traffic stop in Florida. Then cops looked in his underwear When deputies ordered Franklin out of the vehicle, she became very upset and began to brace, tense, and pull away. During the struggle, the she bit one of the deputies on her ring finger, breaking the skin and drawing blood, according to the sheriffs office. READ MORE: She got pulled over in Florida. Then came the selfie, cops say Deputies then used their stun guns to secure Franklin. While being questioned, she admitted she had a Glock 19 in her purse in the car. A records search found she didnt have a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Franklin was arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and with carrying a concealed weapon. Every day deputies face unexpected dangers on the job while serving and protecting our great community, Collier Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. If you harm a deputy, you will be arrested and you will be held accountable. I will not tolerate violence against our deputies. Franklin was booked into the Collier County jail, and bonded out the following day. Ronald Rhoades and his fellow welders formed a union in October of last year, worried about unsafe rigging, crowding and other conditions at the shop in Morton, Illinois, where they built tractor decks. But by early 2022, the group of about 20 were out of their jobs. The company, G&D Integrated, had closed the factory, saying it had suddenly lost its decade-old contract with a Japanese company, workers said. The welders saw another motive: retaliation for the union effort. Theyve been building these decks for over 10 years, said Rhoades, 46. And then two months after we organize, theyre taking everything away from us. The welders filed complaints about the closure to the National Labor Relations Board, part of a sharp increase this year in worker grievances alleging retaliatory shutdowns and other illegal anti-union activity. Overall the numbers are still small, but organizers say store closings are one way companies have tried to tamp down union drives amid post-pandemic worker frustration and rising economic pressure. Welders at G&D in Morton, Ill., formed a union last October. (International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers) G&D Integrated denied it violated labor laws. The Company denies the charges that were filed, and has cooperated with the NLRB in its investigation of these unfounded allegations, spokesman Curt Fisher said in a statement, noting that no findings of any violations have been issued. The case is still pending. When asked specifically why the shop had been closed, Fisher responded by email, pointing a reporter to the companys statement. The issue would most likely have remained under the radar but for the rise in similar complaints following store closings at some of the nations most prominent companies. Starbucks closed multiple stores this year following union activity. In Maine, bosses shuttered a Chipotle outpost that was on track to become the first to vote on a union. This week, NLRB officials sided with Starbucks workers in Ithaca, New York, finding the company had violated multiple labor laws during the closing of a store there. And in a separate complaint, they agreed with workers in the Chipotle case, saying the company had unlawfully closed the store and laid off employees to discourage organizing. In both cases, officials asked that the companies reopen the stores. Story continues A spike in anti-union closure complaints So far this year, workers have filed 34 unfair labor charges under the legal category for complaints about retaliatory shutdowns, relocations and work subcontracting, according to an NBC News analysis of NLRB data. (The NLRB doesnt isolate shutdown data specifically.) That number more than doubled from 2021, NBC found, and jumped about 80 percent from 2017-2019, the three years before the pandemic, when complaints ranged from 16 to 23 annually. That rise comes as worker complaints about unfair labor practices more generally were up 19 percent as of September, compared to the same period in 2021, according to the NLRB. Many businesses say the closings are not directly related to union efforts but reflect new financial constraints in the economy. Trader Joes, for example, abruptly closed a wine shop in the center of New York City where workers had been organizing. Spokeswoman Nakia Rohde said the Manhattan closure had nothing to do with the organizing and that the wine shop was one of its least profitable stores. The closed Trader Joe's Wine in Manhattan on Aug. 11, 2022. (Bill Tompkins / Getty Images file) Chipotle said that the closure in Maine also had nothing to do with union activity at the store and that the company respected its employees rights to organize. A store in Lansing, Michigan later voted to unionize with the Teamsters. Our operational management reviewed this situation as it would any other restaurant with these unique staffing challenges, Laurie Schalow, Chipotles chief corporate affairs officer, said in a statement. The vegetarian food maker Amys Kitchen, which closed a Bay Area factory in July after employees and a local union filed charges of unfair labor practices, said its costs had gone up significantly. Spokeswoman Felicia Collins said that the facility was losing more than $1 million a month, and that the tight labor market, supply chain backlogs and rising prices of goods, like sunflower oil, had made business tough. We unconditionally respect our employees rights and freedoms regarding unionization, she said in a statement. While this was a difficult decision, it was necessary for the business so we could continue to support the rest of the company. Like many other aspects of labor law, closure violations can be hard to prove and enforce. Employers are forbidden from explicit retaliation for unionizing but are allowed to close stores if the legitimate economic consequences of unionization force it. And there arent significant financial penalties for companies even when they are found to have committed wrongdoing: Companies have to pay back wages for dismissed employees, minus any income those workers earned in the meantime. In rare cases, companies can be required to reopen a closed location. Its almost impossible to get a smoking gun, said John Logan, a San Francisco State University historian who has written extensively in support of labor rights. Grease traps At Starbucks, the poster child for the current organizing uptick, the closing of stores with union activity has been particularly pronounced. Workers at more than 315 stores held union elections in the last year, with a wide majority 80 percent voting in favor. But Starbucks has pushed back forcefully aided by the law firm Littler Mendelson, which states on its website we excel in union avoidance prompting workers to file hundreds of unfair labor practices complaints to the NLRB. Starbucks Seattle Workers Strike Unionized Store Closures (David Ryder / Bloomberg via Getty Images file) Starbucks announced the closure of at least 19 stores over the summer, mostly in urban areas, citing safety issues. More than 40 percent of the stores had union campaigns, according to data from Starbucks Workers United, the union that has been organizing the workers. Meanwhile, stores that have filed for union elections, including the more than 250 stores where workers have voted to form unions, make up less than 4 percent of the companies approximately 9,000 corporate-owned stores. Its because we had such a loud voice, said Evan Sunshine, 20, a student who worked at the Ithaca store, which abruptly closed in June. They wanted to turn us into an example to crush any other efforts. In an email to NBC News in October, Starbucks said that it had closed 29 stores since July, and that fewer than a quarter were unionized. More broadly, workers have filed 402 unfair labor charges against the company, alleging retaliation like firings, write-ups and other discipline for organizing work. NLRB officials have so far issued 45 complaints, in which they found merit in 149 of these charges, spokeswoman Kayla Blado said. Those complaints, except for two that judges have already ruled on, will be heard by administrative law judges at the NLRB. Starbucks has denied union busting in Ithaca or at any of its stores. We have and will continue to follow the established law and the NLRB processes for all negotiations. We respect our partners voices and their right to be represented by a union, the company said in part in a statement from spokesman Andrew W. Trull. When we close stores, it is done with deep care and urgency, our goal is to ensure that every partner is supported in their situation. Syndication: The Ithaca Journal (Matt Steecker / Ithaca Journal / USA Today Network) At its Ithaca store, Starbucks cited issues with the facility in a memo to workers in June, including a lack of enough ice bins and a faulty grease trap that dated to the previous tenant of the building, according to a copy reviewed by NBC News. Workers at the store had been the ones to raise the alarm about the grease trap in the first place, two of them said. They had even staged a one day strike the first by workers at the company over the issue in April. And the ice bin issue had been resolved months previously, they said. Workers said seeing those issues as a reason for closing the store made them feel like the company was using their work against them. They said the store, on a busy corner across from Cornell University, was clearly profitable, according to Sunshine. None of us thought theyd do it, 22-year-old Nadia Vitek, another worker at the store, said. They admitted to us that profit had nothing to do with the closure. The reasons didnt really make sense to me. I dont see how it could be anything other than retaliation. Starbucks did not respond to questions about the Ithaca stores financial stability. The NLRB is asking the company to reopen the location. A timeless tactic Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel for the NLRB, said in an interview that illegal threats of plant or store closings had been found to be one of the most effective tactics at quelling union activity and that it was one of many the board sought to regulate. Shutdowns serve as a reminder to employees that every time that they try to improve their working conditions, theyll be met with complete destruction of their livelihood, Abruzzo said. Logan, the historian, said closing stores that are unionizing has contributed to the offshoring of domestic jobs in recent decades, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, as companies have sought cheaper labor abroad. For several decades the threat was always like, Well move the plant to Mexico or some other low wage country if you guys form a union, he said. A Cornell University study in the years after the 1996 North American Free Trade Agreement found that employers made threats to close all or part of a facility in the event of a union win in 51 percent of union campaigns. In industries where jobs could easily be moved overseas manufacturing and call centers, as opposed to nursing homes, for example those threats were made in 68 percent of campaigns. Its not magical or mysterious. Its quite strategic, said Jane McAlevey, a veteran organizer and fellow, at the University of California at Berkeley. We were going to vote yes, no matter what Workers at shops that were shut down said the resulting job losses were crushing. In Augusta, Maine, after Chipotle closed its store on July 19 the same day a federal hearing was scheduled on the vote to unionize workers accused the company of blacklisting them from getting other jobs at Chipotle. Brandi McNease, left, and Laramie Rohr, a member of Chipotle United. (Brandi McNease) Brandi McNease, 38, a leader of the Augusta organizing effort, said she believed she had been blocked from applying for other jobs on the companys jobs site. She kept getting a message that her password needed to be reset, but the email to reset it never came. She says she was only able to apply for a job after making a new profile with a different email address on the site. And even then, she said she was told by a hiring manager that someone at the company had said that she was not supposed to be rehired. Chipotle brought in $7.5 billion last year during Covid. But they are so unwilling to let 18 people have a say in one store, McNease said. NLRB regional director Laura A. Sacks wrote in the complaint issued Thursday that Chipotle refused to rehire McNease because of her involvement in organizing in another violation of labor law. Chipotle did not comment on McNeases claims about her job application. Rhoades, the welder in Illinois, said the closure of his shop was devastating, sending him and his co-workers scrambling to line up other work after a decade of stability. Still, he doesnt regret their efforts. Somebody was going to end up getting killed if we didnt get some stuff fixed, he said. Every worker deserves some kind of representation. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to India and the Group of 20 Summit in Indonesia next week to bolster U.S.-India economic ties and to try to overcome G20 divisions prompted by Russia's war in Ukraine, the Treasury said on Friday. Yellen will visit New Delhi on November 11 to participate in a meeting of the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership and deliver remarks on the two democracies' deepening relationship at the Microsoft India Development Center, where she also will meet with technology sector leaders, according to a Treasury statement. Yellen also will meet with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss India's assumption of the G20 presidency, as the group of major economies continues to struggle with deep divisions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine as this year's leaders' summit in Indonesia approaches. Russia, a G20 member, has blocked the group from issuing communiques with language condemning the conflict. "For India, we clearly also will expect if the war is continuing, that there will likely be negative continuing economic fallout that the G20 will need to address and clearly highlight Russia's culpability for the war and the fallout," a Treasury official told reporters. Treasury officials said they were continuing to discuss with G7 allies and Australia how to set a price cap on Russian oil exports aimed at limiting Moscow's revenues while keeping Russian crude on the market, but declined to offer a timeline for announcing it. On Thursday, sources in the coalition told Reuters that the cap will be set at a fixed price that will be reviewed regularly rather than a discount to an index. While India has become a major buyer of Russian crude, the United States is not trying to pressure India to reduce such purchases, and the price cap was not a major focus of Yellen's trip, a second Treasury official siad. Story continues "So we are not trying to stop countries from purchasing (Russian) oil," the official added. "In fact, we see the biggest beneficiaries of the price cap being large emerging market countries like India, so we wouldn't be pressuring them away from it." Yellen will travel to the Indonesian island of Bali on Nov. 12 for a joint meeting of G20 finance and health ministers before joining President Joe Biden at the G20 leaders summit on Nov. 15 and 16, the Treasury said. On Nov. 13, Yellen will participate the launch of a G20-led pandemic preparedness fund, to which the United States and European Union have each committed $450 million, and on Nov. 14, she will participate in a seminar on Indonesia's transition to a low-carbon economy. In these and bilateral meetings, the first Treasury officials said Yellen will seek cooperation from G20 counterparts in improving the resilience of the global economy as it continues to weaken in the face of high energy and food costs and inflation. These efforts will include stronger debt restructuring efforts and more work to build up food security. Asked whether Yellen would meet with her Chinese counterpart while in Bali, the official said that Treasury had no specific meetings to announce at present. "We certainly recognize that the U.S.-China relationship is one of the most consequential ones that we have. While there are competitive and adversarial aspects. There are also cooperative aspects, and we look forward to engaging with Chinese authorities going forward," the official said. (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Retired teachers talk pandemic, inspiration The Council Bluffs Retired School Personnel Unit of the Iowa Retired School Personnel Association met on Oct. 19 for a noon luncheon at the Council Bluffs Country Club. Thirty-seven members and three guests were present. Our first guest was Superintendent Joel Beyenhof, Treynor Community Schools. He spoke about how the pandemic forced us to educate differently. He challenged us to promote careers in education by telling the positives of why we stayed so many years. The majority in attendance had taught 30 to 40 years. After our meal, Elaine Goodwin shared her inspiring story, No Hands? No Feet? Look Out World, Here I Come! Elaine, a retired nurse, shared the timeline of getting sepsis, being in several hospitals, losing her four limbs, living alone at home, going to rehab and how she does everyday tasks, which can take a little longer than normal. Elaine is very positive and shared that everyone has problems, some worse than hers, but her family and faith have gotten her through the difficult times. Our next meeting will be Nov. 16 at noon at the Council Bluffs Country Club. Membership is welcomed to all retired school employees from any public or nonpublic Iowa educational institution community school districts, licensed preschools, daycares and area education agencies. For more information you may contact us at cbrspa451503@gmail.com. P.E.O. Chapter FK celebrates fall Chapter FK held their monthly meeting on Oct. 14 at The Council Bluffs Country Club; 30 members attended. Kathy Thomsen and Patti Ford were hostesses with a fall theme. Pumpkins, pumpkin cookies and candy cups adorned each table. Lana Cruz provided the fundraiser, a beautiful floral arrangement in a ceramic pumpkin was the prize. Our program this month was provided by Judy Whalen and Marilyn Wymore. They instructed us on the designing of personal greeting cards. What a fun project to do. We were reminded of our upcoming High Tea on Nov. 12. Everyone is looking forward to this event. Each month we select a member to give the member spotlight. This gives each of us a little more insight into our fellow sisters and their past and current achievements. Beth Keenan was in our Member Spotlight this month. Our chapter will be providing a care package for a specific student of Cottey College in November. These packages provide needed supplies, support and encouragement needed for the young woman to continue to be successful in pursuing her education. Our next meeting will be on Nov. 11. P.E.O. Chapter LP to resume after short break Following Chapter LPs highly applauded autumn presentation on Sept. 27 of Taking Pride in our Schools a finely illustrated and delineated program by Kathleen Schmedding, head of the Council Bluffs Public School Districts Pathways Program in the capacity of liaison to Iowa Western Community College, Chapter LP of the P.E.O. Sisterhood took a short break and is scheduled to resume its regular business meetings and programs again on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 600 Bluff St. In a continuing series on historical places, people, and events to mark the 176th birthday of Council Bluffs, Tuesdays topic will focus on selected historic churches of Council Bluffs. Researched and presented by Darlene Schwarzkopf, president of the congregation of Our Saviors Lutheran Church and a member of Chapter LP, the founding and evolution of four prominent churches in downtown Council Bluffs will be discussed to include: St. Peters Catholic Church, the First Baptist Church, Broadway United Methodist Church and Our Saviors Lutheran Church. The program will be preceded by the serving of refreshments and informal visitation among chapter members and guests. Serving as co-hostesses for the day will be Monica Sciortino and Darlene Scharzkopf. Beverly Fletcher, Chapter LP president, will preside over the business portion of the meeting which is slated to include a review of recent scholarship and grant applications, committee reports and any revisions or additions to the upcoming Dec. 13 meeting to be held at New Horizon Presbyterian Church, when Chapter LP will meet at noon for Christmas Casseroles and Carols, highlighted by the presentation of Christmas music by the churchs Bell Choir under the direction of Cheryl Haines. Serving as official lead hostess for this occasion will be Pauline Larson, assisted by members of the chapter. Chapter LP will then pause until the New Year on Feb. 21, when members will mark P.E.O.s founding of 1869 at Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. In 2023, P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) will mark 154 years since its origination by seven college students. It now boasts of having grown into one of the largest organizations for women in the United States of America. 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. You do not have to be a member to participate in our church activities. Everyone is welcome. Gethsemane Presbyterian Church Gethsemane Presbyterian Church, 224 Wallace Ave., invites you to worship with us. We welcome the Rev. Nancy Ross-Hullinger, who will deliver the message. Our worship service runs from 9 to 10 a.m. Communion will be served. Children are invited to participate in Sunday school. Please join us for refreshments following the service. Adult Bible study meets on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 10 a.m. 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. Our Food Pantry is open on Mondays and Thursdays until 10:30 a.m. Donations are welcome. 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, caring, friendly, Bible-teaching church led by Pastor Jason Kinney. This Sundays message, titled True Religion, will continue through the book of James using Chapter 1:26-27 as the Bible reference. This is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Sunday School for all ages, including adults, begins at 9:15 a.m. Following worship, we enjoy donuts and coffee in the Fellowship Hall. Greeters are Lynda and Craig Wilson. The mens breakfast meets Saturday at 9 a.m. Each Wednesday at 7 p.m., Ladies Bible Study and Youth Groups meet. New member class meets at 6 p.m. each Sunday. Church cleaning day will be Saturday, Nov. 12. Visit our website at www.stpaulsecc.org for more information. We are handicapped accessible. Underwood Lutheran Church Underwood Lutheran Church, 10 Third Ave., will hold Sunday activities. Education begins at 9 a.m., followed by in-person worship featuring Holy Communion at 10:15. Pastor Scott Dalen will deliver a sermon based on Luke 6:20-31. The online video will be available later in the day. 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. The mens and womens Bible study groups meet Mondays from 7 to 8 p.m. On the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m., the Bridge young adults (ages 18-30) gather at Compass Christian Church. The next meeting is Nov. 8. Childcare is provided. 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. We hold a traditional worship service at 8:30 a.m. Sunday and a contemporary service at 10:30 (Dont forget to fall back). On Nov. 6, we will celebrate Holy Communion at both services. You are invited to bring a favorite item or photo of your loved ones to place on the rail as we say a prayer for those we have lost this year. Join us for coffee and donuts at 9:30 a.m. in the DeLong Lounge. Our services are held in person and livestreamed to our Facebook page or broadwayunitedmethodist.com/live. Masks are optional. Regular activities include Student Life Breakthrough Sundays at 6 p.m. in Room 203. 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. in the fellowship hall, 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 to 2 p.m. on Fridays. 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: Meal & Message, 6 p.m., Nov. 9; Craft Fair, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Nov. 12; free Community Thanksgiving Dinner, 4-6 p.m., Nov. 19. 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 a new time: 11 a.m. Pastor Nancy Ross-Hullingers message will be Stand Firm and Hold Fast. Liturgist is Shari Dillehay and greeters are Pat Flynn and Linda Cody. There will be a childrens chat. This is Communion/Pantry Sunday. The choir will sing. Dont forget the time change. Bible study will be at 11 a.m. on Monday. We are collecting snowpants, boots, socks and underwear for school kids. 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, Have Courage. Scripture readings for this week are Haggai 1:15b-2:9; Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21; Luke 20:27-38; and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17. Sunday school starts at 9:15 a.m. 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. 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 under God. If you want us to pray for you personally, let us know. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone: 712-323-3124. You can find us on Facebook at Friends of Epworth UMC-Facebook. We wish you a blessed Thanksgiving. Faith Lutheran Church Faith Lutheran Church (LCMS), 2100 S. 11th St., invites you to join us for traditional worship with Holy Communion at the 9 a.m. Sunday service. The Operation Barnabas donation box will be out to accept donations to help support relief efforts for veterans and members of the Armed Forces. 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. On Wednesday, the Praise Team practices at 5:30 p.m. and confirmation classes are at 5:45 p.m. The Faith LWML is accepting donations of winter gloves and hats for a mission project. Sunday worship 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 holds a traditional service at 8 and 11 a.m. and a praise service at 9 a.m. Communion will be served at all services on Sunday, Nov. 6. Sunday school for kindergarten through eighth grade meets from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Adult Sunday school meets at 10 a.m. On Wednesday, the Praise Team will meet at 5:45 p.m., bell choir at 6:30 and Chancel Choir at 7:30. On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the Building and Grounds Committee will meet at 4 p.m., followed by the Administrative Committee at 5. The Grief Group will meet on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. 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. During the month of October, we will be receiving Peace and Global Witness offering. We are handicapped accessible through the northeast door of the church. Corpus Christi Catholic Parish The month of November is dedicated to The Holy Souls in Purgatory. 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 for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time are 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; Psalms 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; and Luke 20:27-38. 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. A special Mass for All Souls Day will be held at noon Nov. 2 at St. Josephs Cemetery, 429 College Road, Council Bluffs. The Corpus Christi Parish Annual Chicken Dinner will be held Nov. 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with dine-in and take-out 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. Over 140 gift baskets, raffles, crafts and more. Tickets are on sale at St. Albert on the day of the event. Bingo will be offered on Nov. 12 at Corpus Christi Our Lady of Carter Lake. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the early bird game starting at 6:30. 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. Students will be dismissed to Sunday school after the Gospel lesson. Coffee and donuts in the community room after church. Other events this week include Tai Chi Monday and Thursday at 10 a.m. in the youth center and Bible study Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the conference room. Our worship service can be found on our YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter. 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, and our Facebook page is Saint John Lutheran Church Council Bluffs IA. We hold Bible studies at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Confirmation and high school youth also meet at 6:30. Bell choir practices Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., followed by Chancel Choir at 7:30. Other meetings this week include The Esther Group Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. and The Mary Group Thursday at 9 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. 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. 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. 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. and Friday 5 to 7 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. On Thursday, the Pottawattamie County Emergency Management department requested that the state fire marshal lift the current burn ban. Emergency Management based its request on the amount of anticipated precipitation in the most recent weather forecast, and its assessment that harvest is close to 80% complete throughout the county, according to the press release. Emergency Management urges residents to use caution in the first few days following the precipitation, as drought conditions have worsened in some areas of the county. Dead wood and vegetation wont take long to dry out and easily support rapidly spreading fires. Emergency Management also requests all residents sign up for Alert Iowa emergency notifications at pcema-ia.org. During emergencies or critical events, communication is key, and the Alert Iowa system is the primary method of distributing alerts and information. Photo: The Canadian Press CUPE members and supporters join a demonstration in the east-end of Ottawa, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Ontario is seeking to have a walkout by education workers declared illegal by the Ontario Labour Relations Board and actions by union leaders declared unlawful. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby Ontario's government has asked the province's labour relations board to declare a walkout by education workers illegal and actions by union leaders unlawful, while seeking to have any strike activity ceased. But the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the 55,000 education workers, argued Friday's job action did not meet the definition of a strike, rather it was a "legitimate political protest." The submissions from the two sides to the Ontario Labour Relations Board came as thousands of education workers walked off the job to protest the government passing legislation that banned strikes and imposed a four-year contract. The job action closed many schools to in-person learning across Ontario. The union has said the action will continue indefinitely. Education Minister Stephen Lecce filed the government's application against CUPE with the labour board on Thursday, with a hearing set for Friday afternoon. "Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so," Lecce wrote in a statement Friday. The minister alleges the union has "called or authorized or threatened to call or authorize an unlawful strike," documents filed with the board show. The province also alleges that Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions, "counselled, procured, supported, authorized, threatened, or encouraged an unlawful strike." They allege the same against Fred Hahn, the president of CUPE Ontario. CUPE argued in its board filings that the goal of its members' action is "to express opposition through political protest to the (province's) decision to trample upon employees constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and right to strike." Additionally, Hahn and Walton "deny that they authorized, counselled, procured, supported or encouraged an unlawful strike and that its members have engaged in an unlawful strike," documents filed with the labour board said. The government's new law has set fines for violating the ban on strikes of up to $4,000 per employee per day which could amount to $220 million for all 55,000 workers and up to $500,000 per day for the union. CUPE has said it will fight the fines, but will also pay them if it has to. The outcome of the labour board hearing should be straightforward, said Alison Braley-Rattai, a labour studies professor at Brock University. "Of course it's an illegal strike," she said. "The government made it illegal to strike yesterday." It's unclear how potential enforcement would work, she said, noting the government wasn't seeking fines in its application with the board. "That could come later," Braley-Rattai said. The Progressive Conservative government included the notwithstanding clause in its education-worker legislation, saying it intends to use it to guard against constitutional challenges. CUPE education workers and their supporters gathered at several protests across the province on Friday, including outside the legislature in Toronto. A Republican Iowa House member ousted in a June primary election by a fellow GOP lawmaker endorsed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has returned the favor, backing Reynolds Democratic challenger. Des Moines small-business owner and political organizer Deidre DeJear shared on social media Wednesday the endorsement of state Rep. David Maxwell, R-Gibson. DeJears campaign said it received Maxwells support in August with the release of her education policy and chose to share his sentiments via social media this week, highlighting Republican support for the campaign with less than a week to go until the Nov. 8 election. Iowa used to be a state that funded education first, Maxwell said in a statement posted by DeJears campaign on Facebook. Not doing so has been a disservice to all Iowans. I appreciate Deidres proposals because it prioritizes funding public schools and allows for reasonable solutions to educate our children. Maxwell, who did not immediately return a message Thursday seeking comment, has served in the Iowa House since 2013. His term expires in January after being defeated in the Republican primary by fellow state Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Montour. Redistricting threw the pair together into Iowa House District 53, which includes all of Poweshiek County and most of Tama County. Reynolds endorsed Fisher ahead of the June 7 primary for his stated willingness to work with the governor to enact a pro-taxpayer, pro-family and a pro-parent agenda in 2023, according to a statement from Reynolds campaign of its endorsement. Maxwell opposed Reynolds proposal to use $55 million in state public school funding to provide 10,000 students with scholarships to pay private school expenses. He also voted against a bill signed into law by Reynolds thats been blocked by the courts to ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, with limited exceptions. That can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. Fisher faces Democrat Sarah Smith of Grinnell in the House 53 race. Maxwell also has endorsed Smith. While we may not agree on all of the issues, we have found common ground on key platforms that greatly affect voters in this district, including funding public school education and womens health care access, Smith said in a statement. GROUP LAUNCHES AD TO MOBILIZE BLACK VOTERS: A national group of Black business leaders and advocates is launching an ad campaign to mobilize Black voters in four states, including Iowa. The Black Economic Alliance, a nonpartisan group, is running advertisements in Georgia, Maryland, Arkansas and Iowa. The ad features former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, one of two Black governors ever elected in the United States. Black voters need representatives who will actually represent us. Thats why its on each of us to vote and to get everyone around us to do the same, Patrick said. DeJear, the Democratic candidate for governor challenging incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds, is one of five Black gubernatorial candidates in the 2022 midterm elections. All five are Democrats, the others being Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Chris Jones of Arkansas, Yolanda Flowers of Alabama and Wes Moore of Maryland. Iowans have elected one Black state senator. On Tuesday, three Black candidates will be on the ballot for two state Senate seats, according to Black Iowa News. Mary Kathleen Figaro, a physician, is running for Senate District 47 in Scott County. The Senate District 17 in Des Moines has Democrat Izaah Knox running against Libertarian ToyA Johnson. Black voters have the power to elect leaders who will prioritize improving work, wages, and wealth in our community, David Clunie, executive director of the Black Economic Alliance, said in a news release. When we show up to vote, we can elect and hold accountable those who make decisions that impact our daily lives. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. International experts stressed, Thursday in Tangier during a panel held part of the ongoing 14th MEDays Forum, the pre-eminence of the Moroccan autonomy plan for the southern provinces as the only viable solution to the artificial dispute over the Sahara. Speaking at the panel entitled Moroccan Sahara: Focus on recent dynamics, the Managing Partner at Mazars Audit & Conseil, Abdou Diop, explained that the reality on the ground always prevails, highlighting the dynamics of development that the southern provinces are experiencing. This momentum, he said, is carried by a royal vision and a strong commitment of the public and private sectors and a very important adhesion of the population. In this regard, Diop noted that the southern provinces rank first among Moroccos regions in terms of GDP per capita, and that these provinces have become a pilot region in energy transition () and a real hub for Africa. In this sense, the expert said that the African Union can no longer afford to leave this subject on standby depending on the wishes of some and others, and that the artificial dispute over the Moroccan Sahara is a crucial issue for the economic integration of the continent. President of lInstitut de lEmergence, Mubarak Lo, called for the suspension of the pseudo sadr of the AU, calling on member states to amend the treaty of the continental organization, according to Article 32, to suspend this puppet entity. The Senegalese researcher who underscored that the inclusion of the pseudo sadr in the AU was a historical mistake, noted that the current balance of power on the African continent is largely favorable to Morocco. Today, the balance of power is clear, more than 70% of African states are in favor of the Moroccan position and the autonomy plan presented by Morocco, he said, estimating that many other countries will soon align themselves with the position of the majority of the continent because the Moroccan autonomy plan is the only viable solution to this dispute. For his part, president of lInstitut Prospective et Securite en Europe (IPSE), Emmanuel Dupuy, pointed to Algerias direct involvement in this artificial conflict. It is a question of survival for the Algerian regime which needs, among other things, to justify the increase in its defense budget, he said, adding that the Sahara issue should have been settled peacefully 40 years ago through diplomacy and democracy. The Sahara issue shows the great fragility of Algeria and its hyper dependence on hydrocarbons, he said, adding that some European countries have made a mistake to depend singularly on exports of Algerian gas at the expense of a privileged relationship with Rabat. The international expert in diplomacy and sovereignty, Amine Lahghidi, said that the UN Security Council resolution 2654 on the Sahara is a recognition by the international community of the seriousness and credibility of the Moroccan autonomy plan. Any solution to this dispute can only take place under the sovereignty of Morocco and in full respect of the integrity of the Kingdom, Emmanuel Dupuy said. The Moroccan autonomy initiative is a feasible plan, he stressed, recalling the expertise of Morocco in advanced regionalization, especially in the southern provinces, champions of participatory democracy in the Kingdom with a very high rate of voter turnout. In addition, he added, Resolution 2654 has enshrined the roundtable process and reaffirmed the full political, legal and moral responsibility of Algeria before history in relation to the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. The Security Council, he stressed, confirmed Algeria as a party to the conflict in a very clear way. Placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the 14th edition of the MEDays Forum is held on November 2-5 in Tangier under the theme From crisis to crisis: towards a new world order?. The 14th edition of the MEDays Forum is held November 2-5 in Tangier, under the theme, From crisis to crisis: towards a new world order? with the participation of president of Liberia, George Weah, as guest of honor. Moroccos National Police, Central Bank, the National Data Protection Authority and the Banks Association agreed to use an authentication system to secure online banking services against fraudsters and Identity theft. Developed by the security services, this system will enable bankers to verify the identity of clients wishing to access online banking services or in branch, while making their data more reliable. According to the partners, the system aims to promote the digitalization of banking services and the development of technological innovations in the banking sector. It enables actors in the banking sector to secure their operations against the risks of fraud and money laundering, while respecting the privacy and standards of personal data protection. Ethiopias announcement of a cessation of hostilities between the government and the rebels in Tigray after over a week of negotiations led by the African Union in Pretoria, South Africa has been hailed by the United Nations as a very welcome first step and as a major breakthrough by Washington, while other world leaders are reacting with cautious optimism. The warring sides announced Wednesday (2 October) an agreement to silence their guns after two years of devastating conflict that have claimed thousands of lives and left millions needing aid in Africas second most populous country. The surprise deal between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds government and Tigrayan rebels was unveiled after little over a week of negotiations led by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. The deal calls for the disarming of Tigrayan forces with both parties agreeing to permanently silence the guns. The parties agreed to stop all forms of conflicts, and hostile propaganda, calling Ethiopians within the country and abroad to support efforts for lasting peace. The brief joint statement notes a detailed program of disarmament and restoration of Constitutional order in Tigray. The Ethiopian government also committed to restoring public services in the Tigray region, where communications, transport and banking links for more than 5 million people have been severed since war broke out. Students must go to school, farmers, and pastoralists to their fields, and public servants to their offices, the statement read. The parties also committed to allowing unfettered access to humanitarian relief organizations. Uganda and neighboring Tanzania are seeking investments of up to $20bn for a slew of new projects across the oil value chain, including to develop an export pipeline before 2025. The CEO of Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), Proscovia Nabbanja, said that the state-owned oil company is pursuing several projects across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors after successfully achieving Final Investment Decisions (FID) for its Tilenga and Kingfisher upstream developments, and the midstream East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in February 2022. Nabbanja said the FIDs have unlocked an aggregate investment of about $15 billion for the next five years and allowed UNOC to start conversations on other critical projects including a refinery, an industrial park and the downstream sector. It is a strategic project for us because it will not only supply the domestic market but also Southern Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda and other regional markets, Nabbanja said. UNOC is planning to a 60,000 barrels of oil per day refinery project, which will supply products to both domestic and regional markets. The company has completed the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the project while the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is close to conclusion. Another midstream project coming off the drawing board is the Kabaale Industrial Park, an oil and gas industrial park spread over an area of 29.57 sq km, for which UNOC is seeking a joint venture development partner. In the downstream sector, UNOC is planning to set up a new refined products storage terminal, its second after the 30 million liter capacity Jinja Storage Terminal (JST) in Eastern Uganda. The African Development Bank, AfDB, has accorded $80 million credit facility earmarked to enhance food self-sufficiency and security, through securing the supply of soft wheat, barley and fertilizers. The loan deal was signed Thursday between Samir Said, Tunisias Minister of Economy and Planning and Mohamed El Azizi, the Director General, Regional Development and Service Delivery Office for North Africa of the Abidjan-based bank. Tunisia, per deal, Webdo Tunis reports, will use the funds to finance the enhancement of the Emergency Food Security Support Project known as PAUSAT. PAUSAT also seeks to provide support to the resilience of the cereal system to external shocks and climatic fluctuations, as well as the improvement of the productivity of fodder necessary for milk production and the development and digitalization of the cereal sector. Said argues that the financing is in line with government efforts to secure the supply of cereals, seeds and fertilizers, to improve the profitability of the field crop sector and to develop the governance of companies operating in the sector. Tunisia, like most countries has suffered from the brunt of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine which has affected global grain, gas and oil chain. Frances development agency, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), will build 500 school classrooms across Gabon for a total investment of 154 million euros in a bid to help address the issue of overcrowding of schools in the central African country, Gabon Actu reports. Marie Sennequier, Director of the agency in Gabon, during a press conference Thursday in capital Libreville indicated that the investment project known as PISE, will erect classrooms in Grand Libreville (Libreville, Owendo, Ntoum and Akanda) and the countrys second city Port Gentil. PISE also, according to the French official, aims to solve the perennial problem of overcrowding in Gabonese schools. It consists in building new primary, junior and high schools in order to provide students and teachers with better learning and working conditions. The project will also build the capacity of school inspectors in finance, life assistants and other supervisors in the education sector who are not teachers. We have 10 schools that have already been built in 2021, we have 5 schools that are currently under construction, and we have 13 others that will be built in Libreville and Port-Gentil, Sennequier also added. Investing in climate action now will reap important benefits for Morocco, creating new jobs, revitalizing rural areas and positioning the kingdom as a green industrial hub while helping to reach its broader development goals, according to a new World Bank report released Thursday. The Morocco Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR), the first in a series of CCDR reports to be released in the MENA region, said total investment needed to put Morocco firmly on a resilient and low carbon pathway by the 2050s would amount to around $78 billion. This investment could be gradual, but the pay-off would be large, making Morocco more attractive for direct foreign investment and exports, plus boosting economic growth. Given the impacts of climate change, Morocco is already making impressive progress in its pursuit of a low-carbon future, said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director of Operations. This groundbreaking report lays out priority areas to manage water and other resources and decarbonize the economy in a way that achieves both climate and development objectives, added Van Trotsenburg. The CCDR is a new World Bank diagnostic tool that explores the linkages between climate and development and identifies priority actions to build resilience and reduce carbon emissions while supporting economic growth and reducing poverty. The report identifies three priority areas for urgent climate action tackling water scarcity and droughts; enhancing resilience to floods; and decarbonizing the economy. The report also looks at the cross-cutting issues of financing, governance, and equity. Morocco is a climate hotspot and one of the worlds most water-stressed countries, quickly approaching the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic meters of water per person per year. More frequent and severe droughts are a major source of macroeconomic volatility and threaten food security. For example, a 25% reduction in the supply of water affecting all sectors of the economy and a drop in crop yields due to climate change could lead to a 6.5 percent reduction in GDP, the report said. The report argues that while investment in water infrastructure is vital, it should be complemented by policy reforms in the water sector and a shift in consumer behavior. The report identifies key pathways to decarbonize the economy by the 2050s, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and massively deploying solar and wind power. It forecasts that over 85 percent of electricity could be generated from renewable energy by 2050, up from 20 percent in 2021. There would be a net gain of at least 28,000 jobs per year (amounting to 140,000 jobs in five years) in the renewable energy and efficiency sectors alone. This excludes jobs from green hydrogen, electric mobility or other green industrial investment, which would boost employment further. The report estimated that decarbonization would cost around $53 billion over the next three decades, but that this would largely be shouldered by the private sector if suitable sector policies are implemented. The net economic impact would be positive: less need for fossil fuels and ammonia imports; increased energy security; reduced air pollution, plus less vulnerability to international hydrocarbon price shocks. Decarbonization could also open the door for Morocco to become a net exporter of green energy and green hydrogen and position the kingdom as a hub for green industrial investment and exports, most notably to the European Union. Overall, investment needs for both mitigation and adaptation would require an estimated $23.3 billion between now and 2030, with two-thirds of that focused on adaptation needs; $25 billion between 2031 and 2040; $29.5 billion between 2041 and 2050. Investment for adaptation needs are particularly important in rural areas where the report estimates that climate-induced changes (water availability and lower crop yields) could lead to more than 1.9 million Moroccans moving out of rural areas (about 5.4 percent of the total population) by 2050. While adaptive measures can limit the number of climate migrants from rural areas, Morocco will also need to take steps to provide more and diverse job opportunities in those areas. The report recalls that Morocco has launched several strategies and plans to tackle climate challenges including Plan Maroc Vert to support climate-smart agriculture, the National Energy Strategy to deploy renewable energy, the 2030 National Sustainable Development Strategy and the 2030 National Climate Plan. Photo: JANIS CLEUGH/THE TRI-CITY NEWS. The Vancouver Law Courts. A B.C. Supreme Court judge has sentenced a Richmond RCMP officer convicted of exposing himself to Vancouver private schoolgirls to 18 months in jail. The accused targeted schoolgirls dressed in uniform, Justice Catherine Wedge said Nov. 4 as she sentenced Andrew James Seangio, 37. Mr. Seangio was a sexual predator, she said. The incidents happened while Seangio was driving through Vancouvers Shaughnessy neighbourhood in early 2019. Seangio was convicted by a jury on a 10-count indictment, including three counts of exposing his genital organs to people under 16 for a sexual purpose. The other seven counts involve allegations of committing an indecent act in public. The convictions include two undercover officers dressed as schoolgirls, part of a sting set up after police were alerted to the issue. Most of the events in question took place close to the all-girl private schools Little Flower Academy and York House School. Seangio took the stand at trial. Mr. Seangio testified and gave a blanket denial that he ever exposed himself or masturbated in public at any time, Wedge said. She said the jury clearly rejected those denials. Crown prosecutor Geoff Baragar told Wedge during sentencing submissions that Seangios actions were very much a breach of the trust the public would expect of a person holding that position. In the case of the schoolgirls, Baragar said, Seangio offered no explanation. In the case of the female officers, he simply denied he was masturbating. His lawyer, Glen Orris, read out a letter from Seangio in which he expressed remorse and a "sincerest" apology. He said the situation has been hard for all involved, especially the victims and the trauma that has affected their lives. Wedge said the complainants were traumatized by the incidents. They were children, school-aged children, she said. And, she said, Seangio expressed no actual remorse. There was no acknowledgement of the trauma he caused the complainants, Wedge said, adding the defence showed a cavalier attitude toward the offences. Im very concerned about the risk Mr. Seangio continues to pose to young girls in the community. The trial evidence During the trial, Baragar told the court in his final submissions on July 5 that while no one identified Seangio as the driver of the vehicle, the facts lead to the conclusion in multiple instances that he was driving the vehicle in question. He said victims got partial or full licence plate numbers, that video cameras caught images of his car, that the sexual behaviour of the driver was the same in each instance and that the vehicle sped away when some victims or police officers attempted to see the driver. In each case, Baragar said, the vehicle would approach slowly with the passenger side near the victim. Court heard the driver used one hand to touch himself, with the other hand on the steering wheel. Baragar said cellphone records put Seangios phone in the area of the incidents at the time they occurred just as video surveillance caught his vehicle. It defies coincidence that another black SUV would be in the same area approaching schoolgirls in a similar manner, Baragar said. The Crown lawyer told the court a police officer in an undercover operation saw similar behaviour from the SUV driver. The court heard police followed Seangio as he left the Richmond detachment for Vancouver, on March 7, 2019. The defence Orris told the court July 4 his client has not been involved in any illegal act. Orris told the jury before Seangio was sworn in to testify that his client was not picked out of photo lineups shown to complainants. Once Seangio took the stand, Orris asked, Have you ever exposed yourself or masturbated while in your car? No, I have not, Seangio said. Seangio was employed with the Richmond RCMP detachment and also worked for military police reserves out of Richmonds Colonel Sherman Armoury. He has lost both those positions, Orris said. He said he drove to and from those places via Granville Street or Oak Street, occasionally detouring through Shaughnessy streets when traffic became heavy. He said he did this to save time or to take a call or a text on his phone. He lived in downtown Vancouver at the time of the events. He confirmed he had a black Hyundai Santa Fe sport utility vehicle. The identities of the complainants are covered by a publication ban. King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful chaired, on Friday at the Mohammed V Mausoleum in Rabat, a religious ceremony in commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the passing away of late King Hassan II. The religious ceremony was marked by the recitation of verses of the Holy Quran and the declamation of panegyrics of the Prophet Sidna Mohammed. On this occasion, the Sovereign, accompanied by Prince Moulay Rachid and his son Prince Moulay Ahmed and Prince Moulay Ismail, paid his respects to the grave of the late King Hassan II. The ceremony was attended by the Head of Government, the Presidents of the two Houses of Parliament, the Kings Advisors, members of the Government, the Presidents of constitutional bodies, the representatives of the Islamic diplomatic corps accredited to Rabat and several other civil and military personalities. A similar religious ceremony was held at the Assouna Mosque in Rabat under the chairmanship of Princess Lalla Meryem. The ceremony was attended by several female civil and military personalities. King Hassan II passed away on July 23, 1999, corresponding to Rabi II 12, 1420 AH (Hijrah year). This Friday, Rabi II 10, 1444 AH, marks the 24th anniversary of the late monarchs passing according to the Hijrah calendar. The late King reigned over Morocco for 38 years, from 1961 until his passing at the age of 70. The former monarch was renowned for his strong and wise character, as well as his peacemaking efforts in the Middle East and Africa. In what it says is a response to interest from customers, Black Hills Energy on Wednesday announced plans to offer a voluntary renewable natural gas and carbon offset program for residential and small-business customers. The program, which the company hopes to start next year, would allow customers to purchase monthly offset "blocks" that would represent a portion of their natural gas usage. Carbon offsets fund specific projects that either lower carbon emissions or sequester carbon by taking it out of the atmosphere and storing it. Some common examples of projects include reforestation, building or maintaining renewable energy sources, carbon-storing agricultural practices and waste and landfill management. Each block would consist of a mix of carbon offset credits and renewable natural gas attributes. The blocks would cost $5 apiece and would offset the equivalent of 20.5 therms of natural gas, or approximately 33% of an average residential Nebraska customers monthly usage. That means most customers could likely offset their total natural gas usage for about $15 extra a month. Our customers have told us they are interested in sustainable energy and were listening, said said Kevin Jarosz, Black Hills Energys vice president of Nebraska operations. Weve designed this voluntary RNG and carbon offset program with their direct feedback in mind, cultivated over the past two years through customer surveys, which indicated 56% would be interested in participating in a voluntary RNG and carbon offset program. Black Hills is planning to do four-year pilot programs in both Nebraska and Kansas. It has already received approval for the Kansas one and has a public hearing next week in front of the Nebraska Public Service Commission for its Nebraska proposal. Katie Fleming, Black Hills' sustainability director, said the company has done modeling that shows about 1-2% of customers are likely to sign up for the offset program. A strong response to the program could accelerate plans Black Hills has to expand its sustainability efforts. Well take this time to study a variety of performance factors such as customer interest and enrollments, which in turn have the potential to drive growth in the carbon offset market and in renewable natural gas development across the communities we serve," Jarosz said. Black Hills earlier this year announced plans to reach "net zero" by 2035, meaning it would totally offset whatever emissions it produces. It already has four renewable natural gas partnerships in Nebraska, including one involving the Lincoln wastewater treatment plant, and is working on additional ones. Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird called the program announced Wednesday an "innovative offering" that will give residents "the opportunity to take meaningful actions to help slow the pace of climate change and support our shared vision of a cleaner energy future for all. "We applaud Black Hills Energy for their leadership in sustainability, she said. Appointed state Sen. Mike Jacobson widened his fundraising lead over Lincoln County Board Chairman Chris Bruns in the District 42 candidates final campaign finance reports before Tuesdays general election. Jacobson had raised $337,283 between his Feb. 23 appointment and the reports Oct. 24 cutoff date. Bruns had brought in $138,655 since announcing his race in July 2021. But he had nearly twice as much cash on hand as Jacobson entering the campaigns last two weeks $40,496 to $21,780 in the latest reports filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Final reports wont be due until after the election for state, multicounty and local candidates who raised or spent at least $5,000 this calendar year. Also leading their races in donations as of Mondays second fall reporting deadline were Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg in his District 7 race for the University of Nebraska Board of Regents; State Board of Education District 7 challenger Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte; and Nebraska Public Power District Subdistrict 4 challenger David Gale of North Platte. The Nebraska Bankers Associations political action committee, with a combined $12,000 in donations, took over the lead among 62 businesses or organizations that have donated to Jacobsons campaign. The longtime banker is founder and CEO of North Platte-based NebraskaLand Bank. Thirty PACs, most of them based in Nebraska, have given to Jacobsons campaign for a full four-year term in the Legislature. Gov. Pete Ricketts appointed him to finish the last months of former Sen. Mike Groenes term. Jacobson, who has loaned $70,000 to his campaign and given it $30,000 outright, continues to lead his own list of individual donors. North Platte businessman Alan Erickson occupies second place at $10,000. Jacobsons latest individual donors include Rev Development LLC partners Mike Works and Justin Hernandez of Lincoln. The leaders of the $75 million transformation of North Plattes mall into District 177 each gave $5,000 to Jacobson, whose bank helped orchestrate their purchase of the mall. Nine PACs and the Nebraska Republican Party appear on Bruns list of donations not coming from individuals. The Kennedy Ranch of rural North Platte continues to lead that list with $9,000 donated since mid-2021. Five PACs, representing farm cooperatives, optometrists, insurance agents, Realtors and the SMART-TD union of railroad engineers and conductors, have donated to both Bruns and Jacobson. Robert Lundeen of North Platte remains Bruns top individual donor with cash and in-kind donations totaling $12,200. Former 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster of Falls City moved into second place at $7,500, counting a $2,500 gift made Oct. 10. Four individuals have donated to both District 42 candidates: Lundeen; his wife, Sandra; Pat Keenan of North Platte; and NPPD board candidate Gale. Teresa Ibach of rural Sumner, the lone remaining Unicameral candidate in neighboring District 44, went into six figures in donations with $106,915 as of the latest reports Oct. 24 cutoff. Outgoing Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has not contributed to either District 42 candidate, remains Ibachs largest overall donor at $10,000. Hes also the top contributor to Tegtmeier ($25,000) as she tries to unseat State Board of Education Vice Chairman Robin Stevens of Gothenburg; former state school board member Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City ($20,000), challenging Williams to succeed retiring NU Regent Bob Phares of North Platte; and Gale ($10,000) as he tries to topple NPPD incumbent Bill Hoyt of McCook. Tegtmeier and Williams, like Bruns, launched their campaigns in 2021. Williams leads all of west central Nebraskas state-level races with $421,882 in donations, although nearly half that total ($185,327) was rolled over from the term-limited lawmakers Unicameral campaign fund. ReportLinker The Global Military Simulation & Training Market size was estimated at USD 10. 88 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 12. 18 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 12. 23% to reach USD 21. New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Military Simulation & Training Market Research Report by Type, Technology, Solution, Platform, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06339946/?utm_source=GNW 75 billion by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Military Simulation & Training to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Type, the market was studied across Constructive, Live, and Virtual. Based on Technology, the market was studied across 3D Printing, AR & VR, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Blockchain, Cloud Computing & Master Data Management, Digital Twin, Internet Of Things, and Robotic Process Automation. Based on Solution, the market was studied across Hardware, Services, and Software. The Services is further studied across Maintenance & Support and Upgrades. Based on Platform, the market was studied across Airborne, Land, and Maritime. Based on Application, the market was studied across Army, Aviation, and Naval. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Military Simulation & Training market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Military Simulation & Training Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Military Simulation & Training Market, including Avion Group, AVT Simulation, Bohemia Interactive Simulations, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., CAE Inc., Cubic Corporation, ECA Group, Elbit Systems Ltd., Frasca International, Inc., Indra Sistemas, S.A., InVeris Training Solutions, Kongsberg Maritime, Leonardo S.p.A., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Rheinmetall AG, Saab AB, ST Engineering, Textron Inc., Thales Group, VirTra, and VSTEP BV. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Military Simulation & Training Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Military Simulation & Training Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06339946/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 The Rising Star Church property borders I-85 just past the Exit 42 going south. In its cemetery, Forney Calhoun is buried in an unmarked grave. Just over sixty years ago, up Wire Road closer to Auburn, Calhoun, a 67-year-old Black man, was beaten by two Auburn University employees. He would die two weeks later. The story is not part of Jim Crow lore in the state. Few people in Alabama know about it. His family members do; they also know that the man responsible for most of Calhouns injuries was acquitted. And for the past 60 years, that is about all they have known. A local family still is looking for answers as to how they lost their grandfather after a physical altercation on Wire Road that saw two white men chase a Black man down before a beating that led to his death, then led to a one-day trial and acquittal. The circuit clerks office said it has only one page recording a trial involving Leonard Hood, an Auburn campus safety officer who was indicted on charges related to Calhouns death and acquitted in May of 1961. No trial transcripts. The newspaper reports of Hoods acquittal include no details of the trial. As time passes, participants die or disappear, and others struggle to remember. The picture becomes no clearer. On Friday, Nov. 4, 1960, Forney Calhoun was finishing a week of sharecropping work. According to a report in the Nov. 18 Auburn Plainsman, he drove to Notasulga with a friend, to attend to some debts at the office of the Justice of the Peace. The business concluded quickly, so he drove back to his home in the Wire Road community. Although the words Wire Road bring to mind the Auburn veterinary school now, the community that bears the name was actually further down the road, closer to Interstate 85 and in Macon County. As Calhoun drove, he must have realized that he was being followed, his niece Essie Calhoun recalls. Forney Calhoun tried to escape, but Essie describes his car as an old jalopy that couldnt go fast. The car in pursuit was driven by Hood, identified in press reports as a campus safety officer for Auburn. The Plainsman report said Hood pulled in front of Calhouns car and forced it to stop. Essie Calhoun recalls hearing that Hood in fact forced Calhouns car off the road. When they pulled the car out of the ditch, it was bent like a U, she said. Hood was quickly joined by his brother-in-law, Hershel Berry, a painter for Auburns Building and Grounds department. (One report said Hood and Berry had married sisters, but Hoods wife is named Marie Berry Hood in burial records, so it is just as likely Hershel was Leonards brother-in-law.) Whether Berry was part of a scheme to attack Calhoun or happened to come up on the scene was never determined. With Berrys help, the witnesses said, Hood pulled Calhoun from his car and began to beat him. According to a report in The Lee County Bulletin, which was published in Auburn, Hood, who was not on duty for Auburn that day, said he was trying to arrest Calhoun for drunken driving. This was within his authority; campus safety officers of the time were deputized by the county sheriff. The justice of the peace would tell The Plainsman that Calhoun did not appear to be drunk earlier, minutes before Hood stopped him. His employer, Grady Fuller, would also tell The Plainsman that Calhoun had not been drinking. Calhoun apparently resisted the arrest, so Hood said he and Berry had to beat him to get him into Hoods car. Calhouns friend, identified by a family member as Sar Townsend, had fled. Hood and Berry planned to take Calhoun to the Lee County Jail, to be booked. They stopped at Berrys house so that Berry could change his clothes, according to reports and testimony at the time. The Calhoun family suggests a different motive. Several family members said that Hood was having an affair with a Black woman who worked with Calhoun. Calhoun frequently gave her a ride to and from work, and that convinced Hood that the two were involved. The Bulletin account does not attribute the information to either Hood or Berry but reported that while Hood waited outside of his car, Calhoun found Hoods unloaded shotgun. This started another fight, and Hood hit Calhoun in the head several times to get the shotgun away from him. After that, they drove Calhoun to the Lee County Jail in Opelika to book him for drunken driving. He spent the night there, and Fuller paid his bail the next day. His boss said he looked like he should be in the hospital, not in jail, Essie Calhoun said. They practically beat him to death. His family brought him to a Tuskegee doctor, who determined that Calhoun needed to be taken to the hospital quickly. They found a neurosurgeon in Columbus, who had him admitted to Cobb Hospital in Phenix City. Carvin Jones, whose mother was Forney Calhouns niece, Berta Lee Calhoun Jones, said his mother told him that as she walked down the hospital hallway to his room, she was hearing him grunting in so much pain before she even got to his room. Only death two weeks after the attack relieved the pain. Napoleon Withers, Calhouns grandson, remembers being taken to the funeral home as a seven-year-old to see his grandfathers bruised body laid out in a coffin. My father wanted me to see what they had done to him, he said, recalling both the lesson and the warning implied. Essie Calhoun remembers that her aunt, Forneys wife, was too frightened to pursue charges against Hood and Berry. A Calhoun family member did swear out warrants, however. The two were arrested on murder charges, according to a follow-up Plainsman report in December. They posted $2,000 bond each and were suspended from their jobs at Auburn. Hood was indicted by a Lee County grand jury on May 19, 1961, on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. The Opelika Daily Times report said, The indictment charged that Hood unlawfully but without malice or intent to kill, killed Forney Calhoun by negligently striking him about the head with his hands or with a shotgun. Berry was not indicted. If the Calhoun family was anticipating justice in Forneys death, they were quickly disappointed. Just two weeks later, on May 30, 1961, Hood was acquitted after a one-day trial. Less than seven months after Calhoun was pulled from his car and beaten, the man responsible for his eventual death walked out of the Lee County Courthouse, a free man. While no record exists, this was a time when juries in Alabama were all-white or predominantly. Decisions that increased the diversity of jury pools and limited who could be struck from a jury were years away. After Hoods and Berrys arrest, local newspapers pleaded for calm, to allow the legal process to take its course. That course, however, went largely unreported. Although the county court record shows witnesses identified for both the prosecution and the defense, neither the Opelika nor the Auburn newspaper reported any details of the trial, beyond the verdict. The Lee County Bulletin, under the leadership of Neal Davis, was developing a reputation for courageous advocacy of civil rights at a time when it was dangerous. But its report of the trial also lacked detail. The African-American press could also be activist on such issues, but the last such newspaper in Macon County had stopped publishing in 1958. After the verdict, according to Jones, Calhouns wife moved to New York. They had been living in a home owned by Fuller, as most sharecroppers did. Jones recalled hearing that for whatever reason, Fuller began tearing down the house the Calhouns lived in before she was completely moved out. With the acquittal and the familys relocation, Auburn moved on. Today, few people know or speak of that November 1960 day, when a Black man was pulled out of his car and beaten by two white men. Calhouns family members are aware of it, but as those involved die, it becomes a more distant outrage. Leonard Hood died in 1984 at the age of 57 and is buried in the Armstrong Methodist Church cemetery on Wire Road, near where he confronted Calhoun. His wife, Myrtle Berry Hood, died in 2001 and is buried next to him. Hood left family who live both in the area and in other states. The family members contacted did not return messages asking for interviews. Like the information surrounding his death, Calhoun remains buried as well, across I-85 from his attacker. And every day, thousands of cars drive past his unmarked grave and through the Wire Road exit, unaware of the incident that happened there more than 60 years ago. John Carvalho taught journalism at Auburn University for 18 years and retired in 2021. He teaches adjunct at Auburn and the Catholic University of Portugal. lol all she had to say was im sorry that wasn't my intention and GROW from it if she REALLY cared about bringing light to Indigenous issues, (ALTHOUGH IT ISNT HER PLACE AT ALL AS A WHITE LADY JEWISH OR NOT), not doubling down like a racist coward would. also it's like...... where IS the joke lmao Reply Thread Link She knew what she was doing with that joke. All those words from her after the callout are meaningless. Reply Thread Link i get what she's trying to do. she's just trying to point out the hypocrisy of catholics caring about fetuses but killing actual children. still, she's not really talented enough to do it? or idk, idk anything about her or her talent but what she's saying just doesn't work that well Reply Thread Link Exactly. It wasnt the right joke for her BUT its obvious shes not making fun of Native American kids; shes pointing out the hypocrisy of Catholics and the Catholic Church, who claim to value life so much. BUT as I said before she wasnt the right person to tell that joke. There were much better punchlines that she could have gone with without being culturally insensitive and offensive. Hopefully shell apologize, learn more about the issue and come to understand the difference between intent and impact and she wont do it again. Edited at 2022-11-04 12:33 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Just FYI - in Canada the term Native is considered somewhat outdated (Native American is rarely used) - Indigenous is more widely accepted Reply Parent Thread Link I feel like there's a way to do that joke but not doing THAT. That was AWFUL and I think ti paints her lack of talent as a comedian and a human being for thinking telling that joke was the best way to get that across because that got no laughs from me at all. Reply Thread Link how very may she continue not to prosper Reply Thread Link I don't understand the joke and I don't understand the point of the joke. Part of whiteness is seeing the tragedies of other peoples' lives as fodder for your own. Reply Thread Link Shes not a good comedian but she was mocking the Catholic Church and their utter hypocrisy; they are opposed to abortion and claim to be pro-life but covered up the deaths of indigenous children at schools run by them (and other Christians). BUT she wasnt the right person to tell that joke and if she was asked to stop before, she should have. Reply Parent Thread Link That's not "hypocrisy". White people don't see BIPOC, particularly the B and I, as human. And in using indigenous genocide as she did in her joke, shes showing the same lack of respect. That's why her joke doesn't land. Reply Parent Thread Link So she was told a year ago by an Indigenous comedian but she still left it in. Disgusting Edited at 2022-11-04 12:33 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link She probably could've gotten away with it if she had a coherent joke instead of just badly pointing out hypocrisy Reply Thread Link i understood the gist of the joke but she has a very clumsy delivery, leaving aside everything else. she needs to workshop her set a bit more before putting out a special. Reply Thread Link Never even heard of this "comedian" tbh. Her delivery is also awful, how did she get a special? Reply Thread Link It isn't a joke in terms of the topic nor in the structure. Set up and punchline is not that hard. The actual critique of the Catholic church is always welcome but in the way she did it, it really makes light of the thousands upon thousands of children who never came home. Crave never should have aired it in the original context. Bell talks a big game about Truth and Reconciliation but putting this harm into the world shows that it's not real at all. Reply Thread Link I feel like she didnt even need to say the part about the indigenous murders to get her point across? "Isnt it ironic that the Catholic Church condemns abortion? Considering all the atrocities theyve committed? I guess nowadays, its he who has committed the most sins that gets to cast all the stones. I wonder if its like a punch card system or " thank u, ill be here all week Edited at 2022-11-04 12:59 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link She sounds like a trash person, tbh. If youre an absolute nobody and someone reaches out to you to explain why you shouldnt use a certain topic thats triggering to many people.. take the damn advice and take that out of your set. Now, shes killed her career before it even started. GOOD. Reply Thread Link There might have been a way she could have used ~dark humor~ to bring attention to that topic, but this was not fucking it. I always remember that quote about how it's only "gallows humor" if you're one of the people on the gallows. Otherwise, it's just part of the execution. Reply Thread Link Doesn't sound like she was making fun of NA. Only calling out the fact that the government doesn't care.... Reply Thread Link Oh, yikes. How do you dunk on Catholics and yet insult indigenous people at the same time?? Like, do you understand 'don't punch down, punch up' or don't you? Dark humor can be used to make a point, just look at Hannibal Buress' infamous bit, but that wasn't her point to make. Reply Thread Link I didnt get it. As for her comments on dark humor? Honey, it wasnt funny. Where is the humor in mass genocide? Anyway, hope shes cancelled for life. Reply Thread Link wtf at sophie buddle being on ONTD i saw her at a standup gig earlier this year and was confused why she was being hyped up i just didn't find her funny like at all. bad jokes and bad delivery. op i'm with you in that i get what she's trying to frame a joke about but uh. yeah like i said, she does not have great delivery nor does she compose the jokes well enough to i guess "get away" with what she's saying. Reply Thread Link Eh, the joke was not well-constructed or particularly funny but she's dunking on the Catholic Church. Who gives a fuck Reply Thread Link "dark humour" I watch Daniel Sloss specials, lady. That's dark humour. You're just being an asshole. AND Daniel Sloss is not exactly the nicest person in his stand-ups either, so that tells a lot about you. Reply Thread Link Why oh why you stupid bitch? Indigenous women also had FORCED hysterectomies performed on them and they had their babies snatched away and given to white families to raise. Those women are still alive today. This is so fucking hateful I can't even understand how anyone would make a joke out of it. Reply Thread Link I'm all for dark humor but you clearly can't pull it off, lady. Her delivery is really awkward too. Reply Thread Link Ugh disgusting, he needs to be castrated and locked away. He looks like Hannibal Lector in the second picture, how fitting. Reply Thread Link This pasty demon needs to rot. All of this is horrific :( thank you, OP for having the stomach to summarize this for us. Reply Thread Link I know theres a trigger warning but Im wondering if the explicit details are necessary here. I did a quick scroll through but it seems exploitative to me. To what purpose does it serve people here to know the graphic details of these women being assaulted? It seems kind of icky. Reply Thread Link Perspective of his crimes? Reply Parent Thread Link I think its possible to get that, I would say we can absolutely get perspective of the crime without every graphic detail. Anyone who needs to read every abusive detail to understand that DM is a sexual sadist, rapist and a predator has some problems. It makes sense for the jury to hear this information not for it to be shared on celebrity gossip sitesI just think its odd but I understand YMMV. Reply Parent Thread Link fwiw I didn't know who this guy was and what he was accused of, and appreciated the write-up. It's detailed, but it's not exploitative Reply Parent Thread Link Under the jail. And Leah testifying FOR rapist Paul Haggis? What? Why? Reply Thread Link I'll have to see the facts of the case, but I think it has to do with the claim that she was a member of the Church of Scientology and that it was a setup orchestrated by the church for him speaking out. I believe victims, but I also don't put it past Scientology to pull something like that. I don't know if Leah has any information about the exact case or if she's just siding with him because she hates the church. Reply Parent Thread Link "The judge also dismissed Juror #10, a man who kept falling asleep during testimony." These are the people who decide if a rapist goes to jail or not. The USA is a goddamn joke. Reply Thread Link He needs to just fucking die. Reply Thread Link Ugh one of those details is exactly what happened to me and it made me doubt myself for years even though I knew what happened. Ive been staying out of these posts for this very reason. I dont care how much time he does as long as hes convicted. This rapist entitled scumbag. Reply Thread Link *hugs* I'm sorry you had to go through anything written here. I'm with you Reply Parent Thread Link nah it's ok, it actually made me feel better. it just sucks to know others have had the same experience. it also made me do a little dive back on the other posts and on bijou as well, and woof. mess all around. Reply Parent Thread Link Sadly it would have already ended for her right there here. No one forced you to go to his house. Why did you give him your number in the first place? - end of case Reply Thread Link This guy should never see the light of day again Reply Thread Link Employees of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago listen to John Lawrence, a vice president in Berkshire's Oak Park office, while working a community shred event at First Presbyterian Church in River Forest on Sept. 17, 2022. (Trent Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune) For Christmas, Diane Glass, CEO of residential real estate brokerage company Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, writes brief notes and hand-signs holiday cards she sends to employees and agents roughly 1,400 of them. At monthly meetings with staff and agents, company updates are shared as are announcements about new engagements, babies and pets. Advertisement Its all part of the culture of connection and support the company has created, a culture that helped Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices earn the No. 1 ranking among large employers in the Tribunes list of Top Workplaces, as measured by consultancy Energage in Exton, Pennsylvania. We know each other by name, Glass said. We talk to people, not about people. We dont get mad. We get curious. We assume good intentions and are clear with our words always. Advertisement The company, which has 24 offices and customers in the Chicago metropolitan area, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, prioritizes being transparent and learning from its team. It holds roundtables monthly with small groups of employees and agents in person and virtually, Glass said. We ask what are we doing well, what are we doing that we can do better, what are our blind spots and how can we help you thrive, she said. [ [Dont miss] Top Workplaces 2022: See the full list and read about the companies ] The roundtables are made up of a cross-section of individuals across departments. The company wants to know if its falling short in any area, said Joe Stacy, senior vice president and general sales manager. We need to know to fix it, he said, adding: Were approachable. Sarah O'Shea Munoz, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, stacks cans for a group photo during a community shredding event at First Presbyterian Church in River Forest on Sept. 17, 2022. (Trent Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune) I love that your opinions are valued, said Transaction Coordinator McKenzi Jackson, who has been with the company about seven years. This is probably one of the first companies Ive worked for where they actually asked you how you feel about something. Its not one of those things where they ask and nothing happens. There will be action. She said leaders asked how the company could enhance diversity, and the companys Belonging Council, a diversity council, formed from that discussion. Broker Associate Trese Hodges has been in the industry, and at the company, for three years. She loved the workplace culture from the first day she interviewed. When I walked in, it felt like home, she said. The admin was amazing and greeted me at the door. The managing broker was phenomenal. I didnt want to leave that meeting. People are provided with the resources they need to be successful, Hodges said, adding that what she loves most is that managers and Glass are accessible. Advertisement I can text (them) right now and say do you have a spare moment? and they are calling me in the next five minutes, Hodges said. That speaks volumes. Earlier this year, Glass invited Hodges and a few other agents to lunch. She wanted to learn more about us, who we are, where we come from and asked what could she do to make our jobs easier, to make our business grow better, Hodges said. They want you to grow and to do whatever they can to support you. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago has created a top workplace culture because it understands that actions speak louder than words, Hodges said. Its important to show your employees you care, to show up for your employees as much as you want them to show up for you. Advertisement Broker Alejandro Tribin has worked with several brokerages during his 12 years in the industry. At Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, the culture is not one of competition but of working together, seeing realtors as partners, he said. The other thing I love is how much they invest in training and constantly providing information on the newest trends in real estate, so everybody can continue to grow as a professional and continue to grow their business. In September, Stacy held workshops on identifying marketing opportunities amid changes in the residential real estate market. They covered topics including how to talk to clients so clients can stay informed on the state of the market, and how to get more listings and reconnect with buyers. Glass said training and workshops are designed to meet the needs of those who are new to the profession as well as seasoned veterans. Giving back to the community is a priority, said Vice President and Director of Human Resources Ellen Garippo. Through its Kindness Foundation, the company raises funds to support Sunshine Kids, a nonprofit that provides activities and trips for young cancer patients. It also works with Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity, and company volunteers participate in beach cleanups, food drives and shred events. Robert Hann, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, dumps paper during a community shred event at First Presbyterian Church in River Forest on Sept. 17, 2022. (Trent Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune) Realtors naturally are involved in communities, broker Elaine Pagels said. Its a nice way to enrich our communities. Advertisement She has been with the company eight years. Pagels shared the story of how her team heads up a volunteer food drive every year at the company. One year, before the day of the drive, she had unexpected gall bladder surgery. Working Lunch Weekdays Get the latest business news headlines, delivered to your inbox midday weekdays. > To help, my manager shows up, she said. Staff shows up to help and other agents. Thats symbolic of how we do things. Pagels admires Glass leadership, business acumen, professionalism and genuine caring, which she said permeates the organization. My daughter had a baby and got aggressive breast cancer, Pagels said. Diane contacts me, my daughter, sends her a cashmere blanket, candle, meals. Its the human touch that so many companies miss. Employers must be intentional about creating top workplace cultures, Glass stressed. Advertisement It starts at the top. The executive team, managers need to understand what that intentional culture is all about and then they need to walk that walk together with you, she said. Glass sees her role as surrounding herself with bright, thoughtful, curious and kind people and then I get out of their way, she said. I dont pretend to have all the answers. I know we can do more collectively than anyone can do individually. When leaders think collaboratively and understand the strength of the people they bring together, thats when the magic happens. Francine Knowles is a freelance writer. a healthy path would be if you weren't there, Elon Reply Thread Link He's truly a pos. Reply Thread Link he is just a genuine piece of shit. people are losing their jobs and he's out there tweeting like a 14yo edgelord. giving zero fucks. i hope he rots. ETA Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere. oh fuuuccckkkkkk thaaaaaaaat....you're gonna screw people over and gag them at the same time? there are already employees on Twitter spilling the tea, keep speaking up y'all Edited at 2022-11-04 09:06 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link that e-mail seems almost sadistic like why even send this. Just tell people! now its like "haha people are going to get fired but we are not going to tell you yet. good luck tomorrow" Reply Parent Thread Link it's giving the hunger games/the lottery Reply Parent Thread Link It truly is sadistic. I mean, I wasn't expecting them to send out something with summer camp vibes but the fact that they think THAT letter is an acceptable way of treating their employees?! JFC this shit is getting to be like something out of a movie. Reply Parent Thread Link I feel like a lot of employers nowadays have NDAs to keep employees from turning to the press and talking about negative experiences and force you into third-party arbitration rather than let you sue. It's so shitty. They really wield all the power. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Thats a poorly veiled threat Reply Parent Thread Link to get their severance, they're absolutely going to have to sign a non disparagement agreement. though it sounds like they're only offering one month's pay, so that's not very convincing lol Reply Parent Thread Link It's also not going to stop folks - the big tech reporters plaster their Signal numbers all over the place for a reason lol. Reply Parent Thread Link This is insane. I cant imagine the anxiety theyre feeling this morning. Lol @ dms photo choice for Elon Reply Thread Link I've been through really shitty layoffs. Like being hired for a job out of college and then a mass layoff occurred and we found out (those of us recruited at college) that THEY KNEW it was probably going to happen. So unethical then I think to hire people especially if it was a 1000 mile relocation for most of us. Employers are fucking cruel and we need employment contracts. These "At-Will" laws are a joke. So is having healthcare tied to your very unstable job. Reply Thread Link Healthcare being tied to employment is so fucking wrong and backwards. I just left a job I LOVED, with coworkers who were my friends, in an organization whose goals I supported and aligned with, simply because I needed health insurance. I took a pay cut and a step down in title just because this new job has excellent health insurance. Now I can stay caught up on my health, but I'm not happy, and I'm exhausted all the time because the schedule is different / it's a much longer work day for me. I shouldn't have had to make that choice. Reply Parent Thread Link I am currently looking for a new job because 5 days before open enrollment, our job informed us that they will no longer be covering our healthcare (which they have done for the entire history of the company and was on of the reasons I took the job where I am also very underpaid by at least 20k) and in order for me to keep my current coverage, I would have to pay $200/mo -- and the coverage isnt even the same because even the $200/mo plan, I have coinsurance after I hit my deductible, which we never had before. I am going to visit every doctor I can before January, waive coverage for 2023, and hope for a new job Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I took my healthcare benefits package for granted when I worked in government. Im seriously considering going back to my toxic (for me) work environment so I can have that sweet coverage again. My dude works for a big tech company and makes good money but his benefits are trash compared to what I had. What makes it all worse is that insurance itself is a predatory industry and having it doesnt even guarantee that youll get care, much less afford it. People deserve universal health care. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link One of my last employers only provided health care insurance for full time workers - they worked me 39.5 hrs a week to get out of having to provide it to me. :( Reply Parent Thread Link That's super fucked. Yeah, lol "At-will" is absolutely in favor of employers unless you're, like, a programmer or someone with some highly in-demand skill set. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah my first job outta school was a tech company and I was kind of hired at their peak and stuff started going downhill almost immediately. They would send out deranged layoff emails that were basically like "Thank you to our incredible staff! We're excited to announce [X initiative]! This change in approach means we need to rethink our workforce" Management was real inexperienced or I think they would have handled it a little better lmao. And ofc I was a new grad with no confidence so I didn't jump ship after surviving the first rounds. Live and learn lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I was laid off 4 times back to back during my 20s because of budget cuts and that shit is so traumatizing, especially when you have great performance reviews and client/peer feedback. It's the reason I quit working in Advertising in the first place. It's so demoralizing and awful to go through. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I don't think other companies will try to emulate this move. This is horrific PR and when it comes time to hire for any role, it'll be 3x harder given how clearly unstable and hostile the work environment is. Other tech companies are gonna try to grab fired talent ASAP bc 1. it'll look good publicly and 2. there's now a big pool of presumably decent talent out in the world Reply Thread Link yeah, that comment was unnecessary from the OP Reply Parent Thread Link Well it scared me into clicking on the post lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link MTE this is such an unhinged move and everyones watching. Reply Parent Thread Link Agreed. People keep citing WhatsApp as being the pinnacle of lean with only 50 engineers serving the whole app, but forget that WhatsApp is constantly reported as being down and costs the company allegedly $9k per minute of downtime. Its within a companys best interest to at least employ the number of people to keep the lights on and Im curious how Elon thinks this is at all financial beneficial to him outside of the disaster of a PR move. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Documents seen by The Times suggest that Twitter Blue subscribers will not need their identities authenticated in order to be verified. : https://t.co/F9KAR2fsGP pic.twitter.com/YipuxHee0E Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 4, 2022 "free speech" for $8 Reply Thread Link I don't understand this considering everyone saying the blue tick came about because someone sued Twitter for allowing someone else to impersonate him? No authentication just means they could be right back to that Reply Parent Thread Link You mean I can sign up and say I am Lea Michelle for 8 dollars? Reply Parent Thread Link but then you won't be able to read Reply Parent Thread Link they will know youre a fake because theres no way she would be able to read all the stuff to sign up for an account also, how is she going to get past the 'are you a robot' test Reply Parent Thread Link Well that will end well. Reply Parent Thread Link then why a dude with a blue mark who changed his name to Elon Musk was banned? Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao this a horrible idea. No one is going to buy this because everyone will know that they paid $8 for a blue checkmark and people will clown them. Even if you're part of the government or a legit celebrity, you shouldn't have to pay so people know it's really you on Twitter, and I suspect they will be sued (again lmao) It's stupid, why would you pay for something that used to be for free and isn't even vital to the Twitter experience Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Years ago, before verified accounts were a thing, back when I was on Eastenders, I was contacted multiple times by parents of children who had been conversing with me online. 11-15 year old children that had been talking with a fake me. I was informed one of these children- Rob Kazinsky (@RobertKazinsky) November 2, 2022 Edited at 2022-11-04 11:24 am (UTC) This tweet thread came across my feed yesterday and I think it's a pretty good reason why authentication exists. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link "Mr. Musk and his advisers have discussed adding paid direct messages which would let users send private messages to high-profile users " sounds like a super efficient way to get celebrities to abandon your platform!https://t.co/VpRcfI7H8T Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) November 3, 2022 and they're planning on marketing the $8 a month as a way for ppl harass other blue check users via a different messaging system Reply Parent Thread Link Yikes!!!!! This is awful. He's such a piece of shit!! Reply Thread Link I feel so bad for the employees, and hope they can all move on to bigger and better things. Reply Thread Link This is why I cant even be happy about this man losing money. Hes doing it by destroying peoples lives. Many of these folks will have trouble finding work right now because all of the major tech companies are on a hiring freeze. I sincerely hope the lawsuit is successful and the people who lost their jobs are able to get some form of compensation. Reply Parent Thread Link The only solace is knowing this local man will be ruining himself financially for getting himself involved in this mess to begin with. Lose money you dumb bitch Reply Thread Link Yeah that's the only positive takeaway from this, with the way it's going he's definitely about to fuck up his investment lmao I'm sure the government will bail him out tho, AGAIN lmfao Reply Parent Thread Link I hope this sends the message to his acolytes that he's a fucking dumbass who got lucky a few a times and isn't the genius they herald him as. Reply Parent Thread Link When I saw the fed gov is giving money for electric school busses, I immediately thought of Elon and hope he doesnt get the contract Reply Parent Thread Expand Link My ad agency sent through an doc about Twitter and while detailing who that man is, basically said he bought his way into his positions. It was essentially three pages of professional dragging. Reply Parent Thread Link This is dystopian as fuck. He goes out of his way to make this as shitty as possible and he still thinks people will love him. Reply Thread Link Unfortunately people will his fanboys think everything he does is right. One of my coworkers keeps insisting he was never an Elon fan but he keeps singing his praises now. He has been talking the whole day about what a smart move these layoffs are and how much of an advocate for ~free speech~ Elon is. People like him are only liking Elon more and more every time there is backlash against him. Reply Parent Thread Link god, you should get a raise for having to work with somebody that annoying Reply Parent Thread Expand Link christ he sounds annoying... ..and why do i get the feeling your coworker probably thinks Depp is simply misunderstood? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link What exactly is elon trying to do with Twitter? Burn it to the ground? Did he think owning an app company would be a piece of cake? Because since hes taken over its just been a dumpster fire, like why did he want to by Twitter in the first place ? Reply Thread Link he bought it because his massive ego didnt agreed twitter banning pp and want to preserve freedom of speech it was definitely not because he though it was a smart business decision. Reply Parent Thread Link from what we know, it was all done on a whim. it was firstly his ego but then he realized what a stupid mistake it was so he tried to back out of the deal he agreed to only for twitter to sue him and force his hand. fuck elon AND the shareholders who agreed to sell the company. Reply Parent Thread Link Shareholders wanted their payout and have someone else fire employees on their behalf. Reply Parent Thread Link What a stressful nightmare for everyone working there. Even if someone isn't fired now they will be walking on eggshells because this clown is in charge. Reply Thread Link Please, burn it. With which I mean Elon. Reply Thread Link He's a mother fucker who bought twitter for too much money (he didn't have) and now banks and investors are on his ass since so many ad companies are pulling out. So this asshole decided to fire 70% of his workforce. Not to mention, he asked his staff to print (on motherfucking PAPER) their code for the last 30 to 60 days, so that it can be reviewed by him (who has a master degree in silver spoon) and engineers from Testa (who: a. didn't ask for this. b. won't be paid for this shit). It's insulting to both teams (twitter and tesla) And then, when he got called out on his shit (like use GitHub like a normal human being, you stupid bitch) HR sent a memo saying "get your code on GitHub, if you already printed your code, please use the shredders") At this point a small forest was cut for this asshole Reply Thread Link There's several articles, direct accounts from people he already got rid and people are even trolling him over this bullshit My personal fave: "Propinquity is huge right now," one of the people said, saying employees feel it's better to be close to the action. There's a sense among workers that some of the recent things they've been asked to do, like print out their recent coding work for Musk to look at (only to be told to throw it away) and work the weekend, is a test to show who has been working hard and who is likely to keep doing so. Sadly I'm not jokingThere's several articles, direct accounts from people he already got rid and people are even trolling him over this bullshitMy personal fave: https://eloncodereview.com/ Reply Parent Thread Expand Link With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently bracing to battle for the city of Kherson, signs of Kremlin rule are disappearing from the citys streets. Russian soldiers, patrols and checkpoints have suddenly become extremely scarce, residents say. https://t.co/3Q4p1F2TqP The New York Times (@nytimes) November 4, 2022 Ukrainian forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the southern region of Kherson that Moscow occupied in February at the start of its invasion of Ukraine. Here is why the region is strategically important for the course of Russia's war in Ukraine https://t.co/HzI7Dnh6BY Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2022 Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has accused Russia of energy terrorism, with Russian strikes on the nation's energy network leaving millions of people without power. Zelenskyy said 4.5 million people across Ukraine were without electricity. https://t.co/MHNlHShYif The Associated Press (@AP) November 4, 2022 Russia withdrew from the grain deal 4 days ago. The UN, Turkey and Ukraine called Moscows bluff, continuing the ship convoys regardless. Faced with the choice of sinking third-country merchant ships or an embarrassing climbdown, Putin chose a climbdown. https://t.co/Wvwat7m00p Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) November 2, 2022 Russia said it had not committed to staying in the Black Sea grain deal, which has freed Ukraine's grain shipments from a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, beyond its current expiry date of Nov. 19 https://t.co/dm5eq2YcEc pic.twitter.com/bd1zh8zdNL Reuters (@Reuters) November 3, 2022 Putin: 318,000 men drafted in Russia for its war against Ukraine. Vladimir Putin said on Nov. 4 that Russia had conscripted 318,000 citizens, 49,000 of which are already fighting in Ukraine, according to Russian state-controlled news agency TASS. The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 4, 2022 In his most direct criticism of Vladimir Putin so far, Chinese leader Xi Jinping had warned the Russian president not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He also called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who's currently in Beijing, to push for peace talks.https://t.co/tbwWvzeUzw POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) November 4, 2022 As U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner faces a Russian penal colony, Maria Alyokhina, a member of feminist art ensemble Pussy Riot who spent two years in one for a punk protest against President Putin, says a penal colony is no ordinary prison https://t.co/V11jd2uthp pic.twitter.com/1tusCrD9cc Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2022 [ dont click if youre hungry ] Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, not only brave warriors, but also wonderful cooks. Soldier's cuisine in field front conditions pic.twitter.com/Hjm5e3hAch Igor Kyivskyi (@Igor_from_Kyiv_) November 3, 2022 -Russian soldiers, patrols and checkpoints have suddenly disappeared in the city center for the most part and most Russian civilians have left. -The Russian flag was taken down from official administrative sites (not clear by who)-Kremlin-appointed administrators have relocated to a site 50 miles away after looting anything of value they could take, residents and Ukrainian officials said.-Russian troops have not decamped from the area-Ukrainian military intelligence says Russia has deployed some 40,000 soldiers to the western bank of the Dnipro River to stop the Ukrainian military from reclaiming Kherson.-Vladimir Putin said on Friday that civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kherson must be removed from the conflict zone, state-owned news agency RIA reported.-Vladimir Putin said "most dangerous actions" are happening in Kherson as he calls for people to leave.-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of engaging in energy terrorism after Russian strikes on Ukraines energy network left millions of residents without power.-Russia has used drone/missile strikes to target energy infrastructure in recent weeks.-On Thursday, Zelenskyy said about 4.5 million people were without electricity across the country. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 apartments in the capital alone did not have on Friday. (lol)-President Vladimir Putin reserved Russia's right to withdraw again from an international agreement allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea-If Russia did so, however, Putin said it would not impede shipments of grain from Ukraine to Turkey. Some Big Oil companies are so confident that high oil prices are here to stay that they have completely ditched their hedges. Hedging is a popular trading strategy frequently used by oil and gas producers, airlines and other heavy consumers of energy commodities to protect themselves against market fluctuations. During times of falling crude prices, oil producers normally use a short hedge to lock in oil prices if they believe prices are likely to go even lower in the future. But with oil and gas prices recently touching multi-year highs, producers that typically lock up prices are hedging very lightly, or not at all, to avoid leaving money on the table if crude continues to soar. However, failing to hedge adequately has its downside, as a recent Standard Chartered report reveals. According to the commodity analysts, U.S. oil and gas companies are under-hedged for 2023, leaving them with unusually high price risk. This is a risky position to be in considering that the latest EIA data is bearish, with the inventory deficit relative to the five-year average at a 15-month low. While only one-third of U.S. oil and gas companies have reported Q3 results as of November 2nd market open, Standard Chartered commodity experts warn that initial data covering some 1 million bpd of crude oil output, which includes the traditionally big hedgers, their combined oil hedge book is now small at just 98mb, less than a fifth of the Q1-2020 peak of 563mb. The most striking aspect of the data is how little is hedged for 2023, Standard Chartered notes. Within this sample, companies have a next-year hedge ratio of just 16%; a year ago the ratio was 39%, and in 2017 it was 81%. While the commodities experts view the U.S. oil industry as having grown cautious in its drilling policies, maintaining a strict discipline against relentless calls from the White House to produce more, they also say risk appetite is highits just shifted. Related: UAE Believes The Oil Industry Is In Decline Mode In fact, Standard Chartered says that the U.S. oil industry has become risk-loving in terms of the price risk it is prepared to carry. The lack of hedging for 2023 could be the result of an extremely bullish price outlook by oil executives, but we think current company exposure to price sits uneasily with the message of prudent and careful company strategy projected by many recent investor calls, the report notes. Source: Standard Chartered Research The Best Hedge: A Strong Balance Sheet Buoyed by the best financial performance in years, oil executives are wagering that high oil and gas prices are here to stay, with less hedging activity reflecting this optimism. As Paul Cheng, an analyst at Scotiabank, has told Bloomberg, the best hedge for oil and gas companies is a strong balance sheet. Management teams have greater FOMO, or fear of missing out, being hedged in a runaway market. With prices rising and companies books stronger than theyve been in years, many drillers are opting out of their usual hedging activity, Cheng told Bloomberg. Likewise, RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Tran told Bloomberg, Fortified corporate balance sheets, reduced debt burdens and the most constructive market outlook in years has sapped producer hedging programs. Some Big Oil companies are so confident that high oil prices are here to stay that they have completely ditched their hedges. To wit, Pioneer Natural Resources Co .(NYSE: PXD), the biggest oil producer in the Permian Basin, has closed out almost all of its hedges for 2022 in a bid to capture any run-up in prices while shale producer Antero Resources Corp.(NYSE: AR) says its the least hedged in the companys history. Meanwhile, Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) is only about 20% hedged, way lower than the companys ~50% normally. Interestingly, some oil companies are being egged on by investors looking for more commodity exposure. It has been overwhelmingly the request of our investors. We have a stronger balance sheet than weve ever had, and we have more and more investors that want exposure to the commodity price, Devon Chief Executive Officer Rick Muncrief has told Bloomberg News when asked about the decision to hedge less. But the experts are now saying that the current trend of not hedging future output could have major implications up and down the forward price curve--in a good way. Thats the case because energy producers act as natural sellers in futures contracts some 12 to 18 months ahead. Without them, trading in later months has less liquidity and fewer checks, leading to more volatility and potentially even bigger rallies. In turn, higher oil prices in the future are likely to encourage producers to invest more in drilling projects, a trend that had slowed down considerably thanks in large part to the clean energy transition. Double-edged sword Other than leaving money on the table, theres another good reason why producers have been hedging less--avoiding potentially huge losses. Hedging is broadly meant to protect against a sudden collapse in prices. Many producer hedges are set up by selling a call option above the market, a so-called three-way collar structure. These options tend to be a relatively cheap way to hedge against price fluctuations as long as prices remain range bound. Indeed, collars are essentially costless. In theory, hedging allows producers to lock-in a certain price for their oil. The simplest way to do this is by buying a floor on the price using a put option then offsetting this cost by selling a ceiling using a call option. To trim costs even further, producers can sell what is commonly referred to as a subfloor, which is essentially a put option much lower than current oil prices. This is the three-way collar hedging strategy. Three-way collars tend to work well when oil prices are moving sideways; however, they can leave traders exposed when prices fall too much. Indeed, this strategy fell out of favor during the last oil crash of 2014 when prices fell too low leaving shale producers counting heavy losses. But exiting hedging positions can also be costly. Indeed, U.S. shale producers will suffer a staggering $42 billion in hedging losses in 2022, with EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) losing $2.8 billion in a single quarter while Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) and Pioneer paid $325M apiece to exit their hedging positions. Whether or not this dramatic cut in hedging activity will come back to bite U.S. producers remains to be seen. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Turkmenistan is also aiming to expand gas exports to Europe through the Trans-Caspian pipeline, but European buyers are not biting. A senior official from Turkmenistan this week again dangled the prospect of his country exporting its gas directly to European markets through a Trans-Caspian pipeline route, but with a lack of enthusiasm that should probably have Brussels concerned. Speaking at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, or ADIPEC, Shahym Abdrahmanov, the deputy prime minister with the portfolio for oil and gas, said the idea of building the TPC is not being removed from the agenda. The Europeans need to get in line. Turkmenistan supplies energy through major export gas pipelines to the north, thats Russia, to the east, thats China, as well as Iran. And now we are building the TAPI gas pipeline (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India). The implementation of TAPI will relieve pressure from Asian markets, and the released volumes can be redirected to the European market," Abdrahmanov was quoted as saying by Russias state-run RIA-Novosti news agency. Another priority, the Turkmen deputy prime minister said, was the development of domestic energy infrastructure, like the 800-kilometer East-West gas pipeline linking all the countrys gas fields that is now under construction. There were more encouraging noises last week from Batyr Amanov, chairman of state gas company Turkmengaz, who talked up hopes of exporting to Europe. Turkmenistan is a reliable gas exporter and a key player in the global energy arena, and it has great prospects for delivering natural gas in the direction of Europe, he said on October 26 at an oil and gas conference in Ashgabat. The remarks were notably noncommittal, though. In somewhat unexpected developments, Turkmenistan is coming to find that it has gas customers, albeit ones buying modest volumes, among its immediate neighbors. While he was visiting Ashgabat last month, Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev intimated that he would like to begin importing Turkmen gas. Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier in October, when Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov was visiting him in Astana, that his country was interested in reaching a long-term agreement to import 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Turkmenistan. Kyrgyzstans Energy Minister Taalaibek Ibrayev said on October 26 that his government was in talks with Turkmenistan to buy 350 billion cubic meters of gas, and 2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to boot. My first deputy is now in Ashgabat negotiating a price [for the gas], Ibrayev told parliament. This is more than slightly confusing since Ibrayev revealed in April that a deal hatched in June 2021 for Kyrgyzstan to import 270 million cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan had fallen through because it was found to be economically unprofitable. It is possible that something similar to what occurred last time will happen again now: that the gas will be passed on to Uzbekistan, which will then recompense Kyrgyzstan with a financially equivalent quantity of electricity, which is what Bishkek is most concerned about anyway. But that is pure speculation. In yet more energy trading, Berdymukhamedov on October 28 signed a decree authorizing the increase of electricity supplies to Uzbekistan. No volumes or cash figures were mentioned in Turkmen state media reports, but a spokesman for the Uzbek president said last month that Tashkent was looking to purchase 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from Turkmenistan. Afghanistan and Iran are the other countries that currently buy electricity from Turkmenistan. Even if the Trans-Caspian pipeline issue may be somewhat dormant, that does not mean there is not some activity around the seas energy potential. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are reportedly actively in discussions on involving Russian energy major LUKoil in their joint exploration of a subsea hydrocarbons field that was once a source of contention between them. It marked something of a major breakthrough in early 2021 when Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan finally, after decades of low-level hostility, laid aside their exclusive claims to the field known variously as Dostluk or Dostlug (Friendship) and decided it to go it together. Speaking at the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum on October 28, Azerbaijani Deputy Energy Minister Elnur Soltanov signaled that LUKoil may indeed end up taking the lead on developing the field. We know about their (LUKoils) intention to participate, we understand this and are discussing this with our Turkmen colleagues. I don't think there are any objections," Soltanov said. Related: Zelenskiy Accuses Russia Of Energy Terrorism Azerbaijan is gearing up for closer cooperation with Turkmenistan in other ways too. Russian news outlet Voice of the CIS reported on October 27 that Azerbaijani state-run oil company SOCAR is poised to open premises in Ashgabat. That news was broken by Emin Alekperov, the deputy head of SOCARs science and technology department, who offered an intriguing response when quizzed by the Voice of the CIS about prospects for a Trans-Caspian pipeline. Azerbaijans offshore oil and gas fields are connected to the shore by pipelines, as are those of Turkmenistan, he said. Using a business approach, they can be combined, which does not take large material resources, said Alekperov, describing a vision that aligns with one that has been lobbied most recently by Florida-based startup Trans Caspian Resources. Should a way be found to get Turkmen gas across the Caspian, Georgia wants in too. In his speech to the oil and gas conference in Ashgabat, Giorgi Chikovani, director general of the Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, said that his country wanted to eventually buy Turkmen fuel. Making that happen, he said, will require wider dialogue between the European Union, the governments of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and industry. Berdymukhamedovs father, Gurbanguly, the former president and current chair of the Senate, is pressing ahead with his backseat ruling role by taking the lead on what is being characterized as the optimization of local government. A recent joint session of the two chambers of parliament produced a resolution to rename a number of towns and villages across the country. No longer will they carry the name of Turkmenistans first post-independence autocrat, Saparmurat Niyazov, and his mother, Gurbansoltan eje. State media insists the move is in response to calls from the public, although it is more likely that Berdymukhamedov the elder is willing only to entertain the cult of personality that has been installed in his own honor. By Eurasianet.org More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: General Khalifa Haftar is again warning that he may move to war in Libya as the stalemate continues. Oil is still miraculously pumping, but that may not last, despite Turkeys meddling. Turkey has now endorsed the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) under current interim prime minister Dbeibah. This has angered Egypt. In the east, parliament appointed Fatih Bashagha as prime minister. It all led to a stalemate, with Dbeibah refusing to step down though his term had technically ended, and with Bashaghga failing to take Tripoli and losing some crucial militia loyalty in the process. Now, there is talk of a third government, provoking a stalemate thats just waiting to explode. The creation of a third government, ostensibly to unify all Libyans, is the brainchild of Ageela Saleh, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Khaled Mishri, the head of the High State Council. The two are conspiring to unify the countrys two governments. Now, Haftar is sending warnings to Turkey that he is willing to wage a decisive war to liberate the country. All peaceful efforts aimed at leading to the withdrawal of the occupiers have failed. We have no choice but to wage a decisive battle, no matter the cost and time, without hesitation and with all our might, he said. Haftar accuses Turkey of attempting to colonize Libya and resolve its own crises by exploiting the country. But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on Balkan leaders to overcome regional conflicts as they look to make progress down the path to European Union membership amid Russia's war against Ukraine. Speaking at a meeting of six Balkan leaders in Berlin on November 3, Scholz said EU membership for Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania is in the interest of the bloc, as well as the aspirants. Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine forces us to stand together to preserve Europe's freedom and security... It is high time to overcome regional conflicts that have continued for far too long -- conflicts that divide you and hold your countries back on your European path," he said. "That's why regional conflicts must be resolved. So, for example, the normalization process of Serbia and Kosovo must progress," Scholz said, amid simmering tensions between Belgrade and Pristina this week over a plan to phase out old vehicle license plates and documents issued by Serbia for the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska in Kosovo. Kosovo and Serbia fought a bloody war in the late 1990s, with Kosovo eventually declaring independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade -- as well as Russia, China, and five EU member states -- has not recognized its former province's independence and accuses Pristina of suppressing the rights of minority Serbs, who account for 5 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, which is 90 percent Albanian. Related: Saudi Arabia Reiterates Commitment To China, Regardless Of U.S. Concerns Leaders from the six Balkan countries are expected to sign three agreements related to freedom of movement, recognition of university degrees, and professional qualifications between the nations. Scholz said the EU is also pushing them to address the "challenges" of irregular migration, corruption, and organized crime. Serbia in particular has been pushed to tighten its entry policies as an increasing number of migrants have tried to reach wealthier Western European countries via the Balkans in recent months. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Guyanas next oil tender will be conducted under new rules that significantly increase the countrys share of the oil revenue. This is according to Guyanas vice president, who said this week that the government will offer 14 offshore blocks in its next auction, of them three deepwater and 11 shallow ones. We decided that to get the bids more competitive, we will allow locals and international companies to bid so there will be minimum technical and financial qualifications for the bids, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said. Per the new rules, the production-sharing agreements with the winning companies would see profits split on a 50:50 basis, plus a 10-percent royalty rate and 10-percent corporate tax rate, Reuters reported, citing an address by Jagdeo. Currently, Guyana only gets 15 percent of oil revenues plus a 2-percent royalty rate, which has been criticized as too unfavorable for the country - one of the poorest in South America. Also, there will be limits on how many blocks a company can be awarded, according to the governments new plans for the oil industry. Although a company could bid for as many blocks as it wants, it would only be awarded a maximum of three. The signing bonuses for the deepwater blocks were set at $20 million, and the bonuses for the shallow-water blocks at $10 million. Guyana has become the new hot spot in global oil after Exxon and its partners Hess and CNOOC made a string of discoveries off its coast. The string continues, by the way, with Exxon announcing another two discoveries in late October. This has brought the total since 2015 to more than 30 discoveries, with reserves in the billions of barrels. Production to date is 360,000 bpd, which is above design capacity, Exxon said in October. Plans are to boost this to over 1 million bpd by the end of the decade. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Saudi Arabia has lowered its official selling prices for oil for all its Asian clients, with the flagship Arab Light for December delivery now priced $0.40 lower, Bloomberg reported, citing the slowdown across Asian economies. The price cut is deeper than traders and refiners had expected, per a Bloomberg survey. Yet the final price remains considerably higher than it has been in previous years, with Arab Light at $5.45 per barrel above the Dubai/Oman benchmark. At the same time, the Saudis raised the price of the oil they will be selling to Europe in December, even though that continent is no less threatened by a recession than Asia. Prices for the United States remained unchanged. For Europe, Arab Light for December delivery would cost $1.70 over Brent, Reuters reported, and the Extra Light blend would cost $3.40 over Brent, with the price increase at $0.80 and $0.70, respectively. This is bad news for most of Europe as the European Union embargo on Russian crude comes into effect on December 5. This means the EUs oil import bill is set to swell at a time when it is already struggling with its gas import bill. Asia is a priority market for the Saudis, with China, India, South Korea, and Japan its biggest buyers. Meanwhile, relations with long-time friend and ally the United States have soured after the Biden administration slammed the Kingdom for approving a production cut across the OPEC+ group. The Saudis have maintained that it was a consensus decision and so have other OPEC+ members. The decision, however, comes at a delicate time for oil prices, which have been oscillating between demand concern prompted by forecasts of a global economic slowdown and fears of a supply shortage. It was concern about demand that OPEC+ said motivated the decision to reduce production by 1 million bpd from December. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Members of the G7 have agreed to set a fixed price for Russian oil exports as a cap rather than a price set as a discount to a benchmark, Reuters has reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the discussions. The price itself has yet to be determined, the source said, adding that, according to the G7, "This will increase market stability and simplify compliance to minimize the burden on market participants. Earlier, a price range in the mid-60s was mentioned as a possible target for the cap as it represented the range, in which Russian oil has traded before the last rally. It has taken the G7 several months to get to this point, with skeptics warning along the way that it might not be the wisest idea, especially after Russias President Vladimir Putin said plainly that Russia will not sell oil to countries enforcing a cap and Deputy Price Minister Alexander Novak echoed the statement. The World Bank was the latest to warn the G7 a cap will not work unless there were more countries on board with it. The implied countries are most likely China and India, the biggest buyers of Russian crude right now, both of which have declined to participate in a price cap scheme. Initially, getting China and India on board was a top priority for the G7 team but this appears to have changed, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who has spearheaded the price cap effort. "For us, success is going to be not how many countries raise their hand to say 'We endorse what you're doing, we're part of the coalition.' We're not looking for that. What we want to see is that Russian oil continues to flow into the market, and that countries are using the leverage provided by the existence of this cap to bargain lower prices, Yellen said last month. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The UK is banning countries from using the UKs services to transport Russian oil unless said oil is purchased at or below the price cap expected to be set by the G7, the UK government said, noting that legislation introduced on Thursday sets a ban on UK ships and services facilitating the maritime transport of Russian crude oil from December 5, 2022. This date is the official start of the EU embargo on imports of Russian crude oil by sea. The ban on services, including insurance, brokerage and shipping, will be coupled with a General Licence, expected shortly, that lays the basis for an Oil Price Cap exception that will allow third countries to continue accessing services only if purchasing Russian oil at or below the cap. The level of the price cap will be set by the coalition in due course, the UK government said. The UK is a global leader in the provision of protection and indemnity (P&I) cover, writing 60% of global cover, the government noted. Todays legislation on crude oil will come into force on 5th December with further measures on refined oil products coming into force on the 5th February, to align with EU timelines for a parallel measure, it said. Earlier this year, the G7 group of the most industrialized nations agreed to finalize and implement a price cap on Russian oil, aiming to reduce Vladimir Putins oil revenues for his war chest. The G7 will ban maritime transportation services for Russian oil unless the products are purchased at or below a certain price cap. European Union ambassadors also endorsed the price cap after reaching an agreement to impose a new package of sanctions on Russia. Yet, many analysts and experts doubt that the price cap would serve its dual purpose of cutting revenues for Putin while keeping Russian oil flowing because top importers China and India havent signed onto the price cap, and because Putin could simply make good on his promise to halt all energy supplyincluding crude, fuels, natural gas, and coalto the countries that sign up to cap the price of Russian oil. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Our annual Top Workplaces report spotlights what companies are doing to recruit and retain the best employees while also cultivating loyalty. Strong leadership, a culture of collaboration and communication, and a commitment to helping employees advance in their careers are fundamental strengths that the companies in our report share. Some go a little further by offering generous perks, including free massages, education reimbursements and access to company-owned vacation condos. Advertisement Explore the full list of Chicago-area winners (Energage / XX) These are the best small, midsize and large Chicagoland workplaces, according to rankings released by Energage on behalf of the Chicago Tribune. Read the full list here. Advertisement Employee loyalty is on the decline, particularly in Chicago. Heres how some companies are fighting back. Michael Peterson, center, stretches during a mindfulness and meditation seminar for employees of Dream Town Realty at their training facility in Chicago on Sept. 14, 2022. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune) Employee loyalty at companies in Illinois and across the country worsened over the past year. Employers have reason to worry and need to be laser-focused on fixing the costly problem, experts say. Read the full story here. Famous for its pizza, employees say family values and teamwork are what really sets Lou Malnatis apart Martin San Agustin works as a line cook at the Lou Malnatis restaurant in Buffalo Grove on Sept. 19, 2022. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Chicago Tribune) Considered by many to be the oldest name in Chicago pizza, Lou Malnatis is a 50-year-old family-owned company famous for its legendary deep-dish pizza. But executives and employees say its the culture, people and commitment to excellence that really sets the company apart. Read the full story here. At DVL Express, a well-maintained fleet and opportunities for employee advancement are key to success Fleet specialist Oleg Paletchi, left, talks with driver Jean Muhindo at DVL Express in Markham on Sept. 21, 2022. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Chicago Tribune) Fed up with bad working conditions and propelled by a desire to create a positive industry example, Oleksandr Alex Dovgal launched freight transportation trucking company DVL Express 11 years ago. Read the full story here. At Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, workplace culture starts at the top Employees of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago listen to John Lawrence, a vice president in Berkshire's Oak Park office, while working a community shred event at First Presbyterian Church in River Forest on Sept. 17, 2022. (Trent Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune) For Christmas, Diane Glass, CEO of residential real estate brokerage company Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, writes brief notes and hand-signs holiday cards she sends to employees and agents roughly 1,400 of them. At monthly meetings with staff and agents, company updates are shared as are announcements about new engagements, babies and pets. Read the full story here. Advertisement Insurance consultant Captive Resources encourages open, transparent culture Program manager Susan Brown, of Chicago, from left, program manager Caroline Madden, of Elmhurst, training coordinator Lauren Kyriazes, of Schaumburg, assistant vice president, human resources Ally Watkins, of South Elgin, vice president of information technology Jean-Paul Lupori, of Elk Grove Village and finance manager Syed Bukhara, of Aurora, during a meeting at Captive Resources, Sept. 19, 2022, in Itasca. (John Konstantaras/for the Chicago Tribune) When Captive Resources was created over 35 years ago, the companys founders set out to answer a simple question: How could they reimagine commercial insurance to benefit insureds rather than insurers? Read the full story here. At Magid Glove and Safety, an intentional approach to workplace culture attracts top talent Dave Forberg, Magid Safety's vice president of operations, leads a tour around Magid's manufacturing facility and warehouse at their Romeoville headquarters on Sept. 8, 2022. (Trent Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune) The manufacturer of personal protective equipment ranks 47th among mid-size companies on the Tribunes list of Top Workplaces. Read the full story here. How the winners were selected Our annual Top Workplaces report spotlights what companies are doing to recruit and retain the best employees while also cultivating loyalty. Read the full story here. It started off as a 3 a.m. idea. Thats how Joni Wheeler describes the creation of Ignite Nebraska. Launched in February in Omaha, the workforce development apprenticeship program is the culmination of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska executives desire to solve a multifaceted problem: a shortage of technology employees. Their solution: give economically disadvantaged people of color the training needed for those middle-class careers. If you give someone a meaningful job, you give them hope. You give them pride. You give them purpose. And you give them power to lift up their family, said Joni Wheeler, executive vice president of talent and enterprise solutions at Blue Cross. Jay Warren-Teamer, Blue Cross director of diversity and inclusion, said organization leadership set out to find suitable candidates. They reached out to various local and state entities to find people seeking career advancement who also qualify for government assistance programs. What came about was the first group of four adult students three of whom are Black who graduated from the program in October. A second group of five students started in September. The training comes at no cost to the students. Blue Cross has partnered with Bellevue University for the university to develop and carry out the training curriculum. Blue Cross also works with other community agencies to help Ignite students overcome issues such as transportation challenges. No stranger to workforce development programs, Bellevue University President Mary Hawkins said Ignite Nebraska stands out. Its been one of the most collaborative and innovative approaches to really working with a corporation to develop curriculum that allows them to actually hire the students right away knowing that they both had the trial by fire in the university and trial by fire in the workplace and succeeded on both ends, she said. At the start of the program, the initial group of students started making wages of $21 per hour and worked 20 hours per week for Blue Cross. Wheeler said that wage and schedule structure gave the students a decent wage while allowing them to continue to be enrolled in government assistance programs. As the students acquired more skills over time, their wages and hours also increased. At the end of the apprenticeship, Blue Cross offered them positions that pay between $50,000 and $60,000 per year. All four students accepted. Rama Kolli, the organizations chief information officer, said the employees are meeting, and in some cases exceeding, expectations. He added that the employees are skilled at creating data and presenting it through easy-to-understand visuals such as graphs. They can get creative in telling a story, he said, so it naturally fits into the day-to-day skills of any person. With the second group of five students now going through the program, the Blue Cross executives said they have a vision of expanding Ignite Nebraska to other Nebraska cities including Lincoln, Kearney and Columbus. Wheeler said Blue Cross also will continue to recruit within Omaha, particularly North Omaha and South Omaha. Blue Cross also plans to partner with five to seven more companies next year. The companies could sponsor cohorts that could collectively enroll as many as 30 people in the Ignite Nebraska program by next March. We have untapped talent across the community, Wheeler said. A Douglas County Jail inmate died Thursday, the same day she was taken into custody, authorities said. Aundrea Milnes, 47, was found unresponsive in her cell around 2:30 p.m., according to a press release from the Douglas County Department of Corrections. Jail staff attempted life-saving care, but Milnes was declared dead by Omaha Fire Department first responders at 2:49 p.m., according to the release. Milnes had been booked into the jail Thursday on suspicion of refusing a request to leave, according to the release. Nebraska law requires a grand jury investigation of any death that occurs in the custody of law enforcement. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Europes largest nuclear power plant was relying on emergency diesel generators to run its safety systems Thursday after external power from the Ukrainian electric grid was again cut off, Ukrainian and U.N. officials reported. Fighting in Ukraine has repeatedly damaged power lines and electrical substations that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant requires to operate its safety systems, forcing workers to turn to backup generators to cool its six reactors until regular power is restored. All six reactors have been shut down. The generators have enough fuel to maintain the plant in southeastern Ukraine for just 15 days, state nuclear power company Energoatom said. The countdown has begun, Energoatom said, noting it had limited possibilities to maintain the ZNPP in a safe mode." The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the switch to backup diesel generators and said that underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety and security situation." Rafael Grossi, the U.N. nuclear watchdog head, said relying on diesel generators is clearly not a sustainable way to operate a major nuclear facility" and urged again that a protection zone be established around the plant. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame during the war for shelling at and around the plant. Energoatom said Thursday that Russian shelling knocked out the last two high voltage transmission lines feeding the Zaporizhzhia plant. Russia gave a different account, blaming Ukraine. The Russian state-run news agency Tass quoted an official at Russia's nuclear power operator, Rosenergoatom, as claiming that Ukraine had switched off the two power lines and denied that Russian shelling of power lines had caused the problems. He said the move deprived the city of Energodar, where plant's workers live, of heating. Russian forces have occupied the plant since early in the war. It is located in the Zaporizhzhia region, one of four regions that Russia has illegally annexed. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree transferring the nuclear plant to Russian ownership, Ukrainian workers continue to run the station. Energoatom claimed Russian officials are trying to connect the power station to Russia's power grid so it could supply electricity to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and Ukraine's Donbas region, another area Putin annexed. The human toll from earlier battles became evident again Thursday, when Ukrainian officials said 868 bodies of civilians, including 24 children, were found in liberated areas of the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. National police official Oleksii Serhieiev also told reporters 34 torture sites were found after Russian troops retreated from those areas, as well as the Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. Elsewhere on the battlefront, Russia used drones, missiles and heavy artillery to hit Ukrainian cities, leaving six civilians dead and 16 wounded, according to the presidents office. Russian attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih left several districts without electricity or water. Further east in the Donetsk region, battles continued for the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, where authorities said the population was under constant shelling and living without electricity or heat. Six cities and villages in the region came under attack in the last day, while in the northeast, three Russian missiles hit Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv. Across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the city of Nikopol was also shelled again, damaging residential buildings, a gas station and several businesses, Zelenskyy's office said Thursday. In a rare hint of a possible retreat that Ukrainians treated with skepticism, a Moscow-appointed official in the occupied southern region of Kherson said Russian troops are most likely to move across the Dnieper River, away from the city of Kherson. Kirill Stremousov also told Russian state television that all Ukrainian attacks have been repelled. Tens of thousands of civilians have been evacuated from the city of Kherson in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian authorities removed their country's flag Thursday from the Kherson administration building, a week after the regional government moved out. Ukraine's southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, said the flag's removal may be a provocation and we should not hurry to rejoice. She also told Ukrainian television some Russian military personnel are disguising themselves as civilians. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. On the humanitarian front, seven ships carrying 290,000 tons of agricultural products sailed from Ukrainian seaports for Asia and Europe, a day after Russia resumed its participation in a program allowing the export of Ukrainian grain. Putin said Moscow had received assurances that Ukraine wouldn't use the humanitarian corridors to attack Russian forces. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko denied that Kyiv had made any new commitments or had used the grain corridor for military purposes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that Russias decision did not mean the grain deal would be extended after it expires Nov. 19. Russia had suspended its participation in the deal last weekend, citing an alleged Ukrainian drone attack against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. Ukraine said the Russians mishandled their own weapons. In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned British Ambassador Deborah Bronnert to protest what it alleged was British instructors' help in the Oct. 29 attack by drones on Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Bronnert made no comment after the meeting. Under the grain deal, Russia was allowed to resume fertilizer and grain exports, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday he hadn't seen progress on that. Since the deal was reached in July, 430 ships have exported 10 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe. Ukraine's infrastructure ministry said export volumes in October could have been 30-40% higher if Russia had not artificially blocked inspections. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the 10 million-ton milestone and appealed to all parties to renew the grain agreement. Im not optimistic, Im not pessimistic. Im determined, Guterres told reporters in New York, adding it's important to clear obstacles for Russian food and fertilizer exports. Both sides announced another prisoner exchange Thursday, involving 214 military personnel in total. Elsewhere, a Ukrainian military official said Russia is using Belarusian territory to launch drone strikes. Oleksii Hromov said Iranian drones are flying into Ukraine from a military base in the Belarusian city of Luninets, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the border. The U.N. nuclear agency, meanwhile, said Thursday its inspections have found no evidence to support Russia's unfounded claims that Ukraine is planning to set off radioactive dirty bombs" after examining three locations in Ukraine. Western nations have called Moscows claims transparently false. Zelenskky, in his nightly address, said the inspectors showed we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in Ukraine has created or is creating any 'dirty bombs.' And the only thing that is dirty in our region now is the heads of those in Moscow. - Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations and Frank Jordans reported from Berlin. Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine North Dakota's ballot on Tuesday offers some intrigue in the reliably red state from late congressional entries by independent candidates to term limits and marijuana legalization. Voters will decide whether to endorse changing the state constitution to limit the terms of the governor and state legislators. The citizen-led initiative would add a new article to the state constitution that limits lawmakers to eight cumulative years each in the House and Senate. The governor could not be elected more than twice. Another citizen-led initiative also will put the question of marijuana legalization before voters, who rejected the idea four years ago. The initiative would allow people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. The state could register up to seven marijuana manufacturing businesses and 18 dispensaries. Former Miss America Cara Mund qualified to appear on as an independent candidate for North Dakotas sole U.S. House seat. The Republican incumbent, Kelly Armstrong, is seeking a third term. Mund entered the race in August and said her support for abortion rights motivated her candidacy. Democrat Mark Haugen quit the race, citing pressure from some in his own party to make way for Mund. GOP state Rep. Rick Becker defected from his party by meeting the signature requirement to be listed on the ballot as an independent, challenging U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, who was first elected to the Senate in 2010 after serving as governor for a decade. Becker, a Bismarck plastic surgeon, narrowly lost the Republican endorsement to Hoeven in April. Democrat Katrina Christiansen, a political newcomer and University of Jamestown engineering professor, also will appear on the ballot. Democrats havent had a majority in the state House or Senate or held the governors office since the early 1990s. Democrats held all three of North Dakotas seats in Congress from 1987 to 2011, but the GOP now holds them all. North Dakota has 47 legislative districts. Each is represented by two House members and a senator, who are elected at large for four-year terms. Republicans have 80 House seats to Democrats 14, and the GOP has a 40-7 edge in the Senate. Ninety-eight of the Legislatures 141 seats are on the ballot due in part to redistricting that was required due to population shifts shown by the 2020 federal census. All but one Democrat is up for reelection this year. Contests for secretary of state, attorney general and other state offices also will appear on the ballot. Heres a look at what to expect on election night: ELECTION NIGHT Most polls close at 7 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET). HOW NORTH DAKOTA VOTES Most North Dakotans vote in person. Some counties also allow for early in-person voting Historically, only about one-third of residents vote by mail. North Dakota is the only state without voter registration. Any U.S. citizen over the age of 18 who has lived in a specific precinct for at least 30 days may vote with required identification, which includes a state-issued drivers license, state ID card, tribal ID or long-term care ID certificate. A voter who is standing in line at the time the polls close will be allowed to vote. DECISION NOTES The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when its determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. Should a candidate declare victory or offer a concession before the AP calls a race, we will cover newsworthy developments in our reporting. In doing so, we will make clear that the AP has not declared a winner and explain why. The AP may call a statewide or U.S. House race in which the margin between the top two candidates is 0.5% or less, if we determine the lead is too large for a recount to change the outcome. The AP will not call down-ballot races on election night if the margin between the top two candidates is less than 2% or if the leading candidate is within 2% of the 50% runoff threshold. The AP will revisit those races later in the week to confirm there arent enough outstanding votes left to count that could change the outcome. WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW? Q: WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE PRIMARY? A: Not much. That's because primaries increasingly have failed to settle who ultimately ends up on the November ballot and this year is no different, with the last-minute entries of Becker and Mund and the withdrawal of the Democratic U.S. House candidate. Q: WHATS CHANGED SINCE THE PANDEMIC ELECTION OF 2020? A: Secretary of State Al Jaeger said several counties added ballot drop boxes at that time and many of them remain. Q: WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE? A: As of Oct. 26, about 53% of the nearly 37,000 absentee and vote-by-mail ballots had been returned. There are about 590,000 North Dakotans eligible to vote in this election. Turnout historically is around 25%. Q: HOW LONG DOES COUNTING USUALLY TAKE? A: The bulk of the ballots are counted within a few hours after the polls have closed. Q: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER TUESDAY? A: Candidates may request a recount if their losing margin is more than one-half of 1% of the largest number of votes cast for the office, and less than 2% of that total. They must post a bond to cover the recount expense. Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections. Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections SIOUX CITY, Iowa For more than 70 minutes Thursday night, former President Donald Trump painted a picture of America as a place where nearly everything has gone to ruin since he left office. The Iowa way of life is under siege, the 45th president said at a Sioux Gateway Airport rally to support Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley. We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation, he said. The self-described law and order president also talked of open borders, violent crime, indoctrination of children with twisted race and gender lunacy, cresting communism and law enforcement officers who have been enfeebled by politically correct people in power. Out of control, was a phrase dropped into his speech more than once. But, according to Trump, who repeated lies about the 2020 election being rigged against him, Republican supporters in Iowa and elsewhere can regain some measure of control. If you want to stop destruction, save our country and save the American dream, then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave, Trump said. Specifically, Trump made sure to tell people to cast ballots for Grassley and Reynolds, who are both up for reelection this year. An October Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll showed Grassley with a 3% lead, among likely voters, over Democratic nominee Mike Franken of Sioux City. Were that figure to be the final margin on Nov. 8, it would be the closest Senate race of Grassleys 41-year career in the upper chamber. Trump caricatured Franken, a retired three-star Navy admiral, as an open borders extremist and someone who is terrible on the Second Amendment. Franken has repeatedly talked about civilian gun ownership in comparison to the use of firearms in the U.S. military. He told the Des Moines Register that in the military, no one handles firearms without strict training and understanding of the responsibilities associated. No one disputes the right to own firearms. The responsibility for safe use must be on the owners of firearms themselves. As for Grassley, the 89-year-old, seven-term incumbent, Trump downplayed his age and touted the legislative record of Iowas longest-serving U.S. senator. He looks like hes 40, Trump said of Grassley. Hes helped me more than just about anybody. The help Trump spoke of included Grassleys work to help appoint 174 district court judges, 54 appeals court judges and three U.S. Supreme Court justices, according to Axios. Then Trump, who while in office faced scrutiny from corn growers for being overly accommodating of oil refineries, said Grassley, a family farmer himself, was a staunch defender of ethanol. He loves ethanol. I said, How good is it? He said, It doesnt matter. We want it, Trump said of an exchange with Grassley. Grassley speaks When Grassley spoke, before Trump, he told the crowd that he would continue to pursue investigations into the FBI and the Biden family. Im not going to give up on trying to get political bias out of the FBI. And Im not going to give up on my investigation of Hunter Biden and the other Bidens. We follow the facts and we follow the money, Grassley said. That promise elicited cheers of Lock him up. At another point, the crowd jeered when Grassley mentioned Palestinians. He then suggested that Iran is the number one perpetrator of terrorism in the world and that the U.S. gives the country billions of dollars. (CNN reported in May 2021 that the Biden administration was weighing unfreezing $1 billion in Iranian money that the country could use for humanitarian relief, amid the negotiations for the U.S. to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal.) Immigration We must immediately force the restoration of every single Trump border security measure that achieved the strongest border in the history of the country by far, said Trump, who launched his 2016 campaign by saying Mexico was intentionally sending rapists and drug dealers to the country. To do that, he told the crowd, who chanted build the wall at one point, that the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers should be doubled and that legislation should be passed to allow the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. He also suggested drug dealers and drug traffickers should get the death penalty, which is currently allowed in 27 states. The prelude and Pelosi talk Nearly 12 hours before the event, more than 100 rallygoers were in line to get in as Who Let the Dogs Out? by the Baha Men blasted over a loudspeaker near a stage where My Pillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell later talked about the recent Brazilian election. Lindell, who has been repeatedly banned from Twitter for baselessly insisting Trump won the 2020 election, said outgoing Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro lost to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva because 5.1 million votes were stolen during the election in the South American country. Lindell was seen touring the event grounds with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was one of the first candidates to speak. Americans are robbed, stabbed, raped, kidnapped, carjacked and murdered. But the only crime victim you hear about from Democrats in the media is Paul Pelosi, said Greene, whose remark drew boos from the crowd. Last Friday, law enforcement officers said they responded to a break-in at the Pelosi home and witnessed the 82-year-old being struck in the head with a hammer at least once. The suspect, David DePape, a Canadian man, reportedly asked Wheres Nancy? in reference to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Greene delivered her remarks behind a podium with a sign that read Save America, the theme of the entire evening. Whats ahead? Trumps rally came as he appears poised to launch a 2024 White House bid once the midterms have concluded. At a recent event in Robstown, Texas, Trump talked about his successful 2016 campaign and failed 2020 reelection effort before teasing a third run. In order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again, Trump said, according to the AP. During the Sioux City speech, Trump said a nearly identical line: In order to make our country very successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again. As he potentially prepares to announce his candidacy, Trump continues to be mired in a litany of controversies and lawsuits. Trump told the crowd of several hundred that the reason for all of the lawsuits and all of the negativity directed his way was for one reason and one reason alone. Theyre coming after me because Im fighting for you, Trump said. Trump ended on the theme of fighting and said it would pay dividends. We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. UNO earned its sixth consecutive win, all of them sweeps, as it rolled past Summit League leader North Dakota 25-22, 25-12, 25-12 Thursday night at Baxter Arena. North Dakota entered the night 5-1 in league play, UNO was 5-2. The Mavs needed to win a close first set before taking command. There were seven ties in the first set, the last one being 22-all. UNO took the lead on a North Dakota error and then Kali Jurgensmeier and Marriah Buss had back-to-back kills to end the set. It was all UNO after that. Jurgensmeier finished the night with 11 kills and hit .647, while McKenna Ruch had nine kills and hit .400. Buss was next with seven kills, Sami Clarkson and Olivia Curry combined for 34 assists and Jaiden Centeno had a match-high 14 digs. UNO hit .293 as a team while the Mav defense held North Dakota to a (minus)-.019 hitting percentage. UND had 24 kills and 26 hitting errors. UNO will host North Dakota State at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Bison earned a sweep at Denver on Thursday. World-Herald staff writer Mike Patterson has everything you need to know about Friday's semifinal matches at the Nebraska high school state volleyball tournament. * * * Class A North Court Papillion-La Vista (28-9) vs. Papillion-La Vista South (32-5), 5 p.m. The Monarchs got 12 kills each from Anna Sis and Mia Tvrdy in a first-round win over Lincoln East. Lauren Medeck had 13 kills as the top-ranked Titans swept Omaha Marian in the first round. Omaha Westside (29-8) vs. Lincoln Southwest (31-3), 7 The Warriors got 21 kills from Samantha Laird and 18 from Destiny Ndam-Simpson in a four-set win over Gretna. The Silver Hawks survived the first round for the first time in their last nine trips to state, outlasting Millard West in five sets. Class B South Court Bennington (28-7) vs. Elkhorn North (31-4), 5 p.m. The Badgers will take another crack at their fellow Eastern Midlands Conference opponent, having gone 0-3 so far against the Wolves. Purdue commit Grace Heaney had 14 kills for Elkhorn North in a first-round sweep of Grand Island Northwest. Norris (29-7) vs. Omaha Skutt (28-10), 7 These tourney regulars meet again in a rematch of the last two Class B finals, both won by the SkyHawks. Skutt, seeking its eighth straight title, dropped its first set against Waverly on Wednesday before rallying for the four-set victory. Class C-1 North Court Gothenburg (32-3) vs. North Bend (31-1), 1 p.m. The Swedes were knocked out in the first round last year in their first tourney trip but outlasted Malcolm in four sets Wednesday. The Tigers, seeking their first state title, looked strong in a first-round sweep of Adams Central. Minden (33-3) vs. Grand Island Central Catholic (30-2), 3 The Whippets, 0-2 against GICC this season, used a balanced effort to knock out tourney newcomer Douglas County West on Wednesday. The top-ranked Crusaders got 15 kills from Lucy Ghaifan in a first-round sweep of Kearney Catholic. Class C-2 South Court Lincoln Lutheran (38-0) vs. Oakland-Craig (28-9), 1 p.m. Behind 19 kills from senior outside hitter Abby Wachal she has almost 500 this season the undefeated Warriors rolled to a three-set win over Bayard on Thursday. The defending state champion Knights lost the first two sets but bounced back to capture the next three, knocking out Southwest in the first round. Fremont Bergan (32-4) vs. Amherst, 3 The Knights remained on track for a return to the state final for the fourth straight time, putting away a scrappy Clarkson/Leigh squad in the first round. The Broncos posted their first state tourney win in five trips, sweeping Cross County on Thursday night. Class D-1 South Court Norfolk Catholic (29-4) vs. BDS (27-5), 9 a.m. The 29-4 Knights, the 2020 runners-up, got a 17-kill effort from Channatee Robles in a three-set win Thursday over Nebraska Christian. The two-time champion Eagles had one of the toughest first-round matches of the tourney, prevailing over SEM in five sets. Hartington Cedar Catholic (25-10) vs. Maywood-Hayes Center (26-2), 11 The Trojans bounced back from a 32-30, second-set loss to Cambridge on Thursday to post a five-set victory. The Wolves, who finished third at state last year, lost the first set against Meridian but won in four sets. Class D-2 North Court Howells-Dodge (27-4) vs. Shelton (31-2), 9 a.m. The top-ranked Jaguars, who captured Class D-1 last year, got 13 kills from Grace Baumert in a first-round sweep of Stuart. The Bulldogs survived a 32-kill performance by Karli Heidemann in a four-set win Thursday over Diller-Odell. Overton (29-4) vs. Humphrey St. Francis (26-4), 11 The Eagles got 17 kills from Natalie Wood in a first-round sweep of O'Neill St. Mary. The Flyers got off to a slow start in the first set but bounced back to defeat defending D-2 champion Falls City Sacred Heart in three. Considered by many to be the oldest name in Chicago pizza, Lou Malnatis is a 50-year-old family-owned company famous for its legendary deep-dish pizza. But executives and employees say its the culture, people and commitment to excellence that really sets the company apart. Lou Malnatis, which serves pizza in four states with over 60 locations, ranks 19th among large employers on the Tribunes list of Top Workplaces, as measured by the consultancy Energage in Exton, Pennsylvania. Advertisement In an era where job hopping is the new normal, Lou Malnatis employees say they have developed a sense of belonging at a company that was built on family values, a strong work ethic and teamwork. Jim DAngelo jumped plenty of hurdles as he worked his way up at Lou Malnatis. He started as a dishwasher and table busser when he was 15 and is now chief operating officer. Advertisement The Lou Malnatis restaurant in Buffalo Grove on Sept. 19, 2022. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Chicago Tribune) Im in a company thats like a family, he said. What better two things could you ask for: a place thats like home and a place where youre continually growing and having the opportunity to become more. What we fully understand is the path to our guests and in turn to our success is through our people, DAngelo said. Many of us didnt start off by thinking this was our career path, he said. But theres something you find here, which is usually a team youre working on, the family you start to become. And you combine it with opportunity and it becomes a viable option for you. I like to say that we are really a people business and we just happen to sell pizza because people are really our differentiator. They are definitely at the center of our world, DAngelo said. And were in the hospitality business, so obviously the guest voice is critical to us also. Our employees are No. 1 because they are the ones who actually take care of our guests. [ [Dont miss] Top Workplaces 2022: See the full list and read about the companies ] DAngelo sees the company, which recently had its 50th Lou Malnatis cancer benefit, as a place thats making a difference in its community. Were trying to do more than just be a pizza company or even be a people company, but also support something as big as cancer research, which has affected so many. Once a quarter, we are working in the community for greater causes. We do that as a team to make sure our team knows those things matter to us and we have the voice of our employees. Mindy Kaplan, senior director of communications and leadership, has been with the Northbrook company for 18 years. The first 15 years of that I was the senior director of marketing, she said. We really believe in growth and different opportunities within the company. I started to pursue leadership development for our team members, internal communication and things that I was way more passionate about than crunching numbers and analytics. Sally Glunz, who has been the director of sales for about 10 years, started working 36 years ago as a server at Lou Malnaltis Lincolnwood location when her kids were young and she wanted something to do. About five years later, she wanted to work full time. So I started working where we ship our pizzas anywhere in the country, she said. I started as a customer service rep, answering phones and taking customer orders. I became a manager pretty quickly and eventually became the director of our e-commerce and catering and then oversaw the field team as well. Glunz managed the companys e-commerce for 20 years before shifting to sales, private events and customer service. I still am heavily involved in our e-commerce where I work with all of our vendors featured on our Taste of Chicago website, where we ship our pizzas anywhere in the country along with other Chicago iconic foods, she said. Advertisement I love the people and have developed relationships over the years, Glunz said. We work hard, but we also like to have fun. Lou Malnatis is like my family, having been there for so long. I love developing new people and making customers happy. In addition to managing the sales team, Glunz sells and develops relationships with catering customers. Our catering is a drop-off catering business, she said. I travel downtown to River North, Gold Coast, South Loop, West Loop and Michigan Avenue, which is our newest location in the city. Glunz sometimes rides along with a driver to assist with a delivery. Doing this allows me to understand what its like for the store to prepare the food for a large catering order and get the delivery out the door in a timely manner, she said. Accompanying a delivery driver on an order helps me see what our drivers have to deal with when parking downtown, entering a building and bringing the food up to a high-rise within a 30-minute delivery window. I also work with our catering clients. I go on sales calls and meet with the customers. Town hall meetings are an important element of communication for the office staff, and the company offers a variety of opportunities for employees to gather for fun and service. Lou Malnatis hosts an employee picnic each year that now takes place at six different locations. Before COVID, the event was one big picnic. Working Lunch Weekdays Get the latest business news headlines, delivered to your inbox midday weekdays. > During Thanksgiving, we assemble 1,500 baskets of food for the homeless in our warehouse the week before Thanksgiving, said Debbi Archbold, who has been with Lou Malnatis for 45 years and works on the finance team. Sometimes there could be up to 100 people helping out. She added, We have a big celebration in January for the whole office, which includes our catering department, Taste of Chicago team, marketing department and finance. I had my 40-year anniversary five years ago. There was a big celebration, it was pretty cool. Advertisement Dawn Schwab is a server at the Lou Malnatis restaurant in Buffalo Grove. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Chicago Tribune) Dawn Schwab, who has been with Malnatis for 32 years, is a server in Buffalo Grove and recently joined the sales team in the corporate office. As a working mother of four kids, she said she is beyond grateful that Malnatis has never made her feel like she had to choose between her family or career. Malnatis let me have flexibility in scheduling when somebody got sick, somebody was born, somebody needed to be moved to college, she said. I was very fortunate in that aspect as well as in the flexibility that Im offered when my family needs it. Schwab also appreciates the family atmosphere. It just gives you that warm feeling that you know you always have someone to go to, she said. And I like that we always come together when theres a need, whether it be a benefit or a fellow employee needs something. Were always there as a family to support and help out. Lou Malnatis offers employee benefits that go beyond the usual health insurance and 401(k) plans. Perks range from group dental plans, a vision reimbursement program and paid holidays and vacation days to workplace wellness programs and rewards, safety rewards, and a college tuition benefit and scholarship. Brenda Richardson is a freelance writer. Downtown Bloomington to host First Friday Autumn Art Walk BLOOMINGTON The 22nd Annual Art Walk will be held on First Friday, Nov. 4 from 5-8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 5. Downtown Bloomington artists will host the event. Ten art studios and galleries will participate in the event. Everything from drawings, paintings, letterpresss, photography, pastels, ceramics, glass and collage, to bronze sculptures will be found. Guests will have the opportunity to speak with artists, get a glimpse of the studios where they work and view and purchase artwork created by over 65 local artists. Visit Art Scene in McLean County on Facebook to get involved in the local art scene. Participating studios and galleries include Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio, Art Vortex Studio & Gallery, Herb Eaton Gallery Studio, The Hangar Art Co., Inside Out: Accessible Art, Jeff Little Fine Art Studio, Joann Geoetzinger Studio and Gallery, Main Gallery 404, Mandy Roeing Fine Art Studio and Gallery (Grand Opening) and Threshold to Hope. Visit artcirclebn.com or Facebook.com/ArtCircleBN for more information, or contact artcirclebn@gmail.com. Greater Livingston Arts Council announces November gallery showPONTIAC The Greater Livingston Arts Council announced their November 2022 gallery show will be Art Therapy is My Necessity by Kathy Zehr. The exhibit will be featured in the Joe Bailey Gallery at the art center, 209 W. Madison St., Pontiac. The exhibit will be open starting Friday, Nov. 4 through Nov. 30. An opening reception will take place from 5-7 p.m. Friday. The Joe Bailey Gallery is located upstairs at the art center, and an elevator/lift is available. Zehrs show will feature various mediums, including ceramic, acrylic, wood, leather and glass, which were inspired by photographs and her imagination. Several of her paintings were also inspired by photographers Rita Hoch from Pontiac and Robert McGee from Colorado. The show may be viewed during regular business hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday; and 12-4 p.m., Sunday. The show is free and open to the public. Visit artsinpontiac.org for more information. Peoria Riverfront Museum to offer free admission to guild membersPEORIA The Peoria Riverfront Museum will offer free admission Nov. 4-6 for Peoria Art Guild Members. This comes as part of a partnership between the Peoria Art Guild and Peoria Riverfront Museum to provide a free weekend pass to museum members. The free weekend will be offered once a year to members and their immediate families. Visit peoriaartguild.org for more information. There is still time to sign up for a membership. Never-before-seen Lincoln letter on display at museum SPRINGFIELD The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened a display on Nov. 1 featuring a Lincoln letter that has never been seen by the public before. Lincoln wrote the letter to his friend Martin Morris from New Salem regarding his political frustrations. The letter was generously donated to the museum by Scott Terry of Bellevue, Washington, who is Morris great-great-grandson. Lincoln was 34 and newly married when he wrote the letter. He had served four terms in the Illinois legislature and was trying to land a seat in Congress. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1846. The letter will be displayed in the museums Treasures Gallery along with other artifacts from that period. The display will include Lincolns contract to purchase his Springfield home, the skirt Mary Todd wore when she married Lincoln, a campaign ribbon for Lincoln back in 1844 and letters between the Lincolns. The letter reveals that Lincoln did not how to spell aristocratic, exceptions and other words that Morris misspelled when he wrote out a copy. The items will be on display through May 17. Visit PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov for more information. Connect Transit said in a news release that they feel it is their responsibility to provide public transportation to provide better opportunities for those who wish to exercise their right to vote. "The League of Women Voters of McLean County thanks Connect Transit for continuing the practice of zero-fare rides on election day. Local voters can face various obstacles in their effort to exorcise their right to vote. Transportation can be an important one among them," Faith Russell, vice president of the League of Women Voters of McLean County, stated in the news release. "We appreciate operations like Connect Transit that do what they can to remove these obstacles." BLOOMINGTON The winners of the 2022 Why I See You (YICU) Service Awards will be announced Nov. 13, honoring area young people who have made a commitment to their community. The awards are given by For a Better Tomorrow, a local nonprofit. McLean County students from junior high to college are eligible. Youth are nominated by local organizations, individuals or their schools. For a Better Tomorrow will make a $250 donation toward a nonprofit for each award winner. Along with the individual awards, there are team, mentor and advocate awards given for groups and residents serving McLean County. The organization also plans to honor the participants of its Youth Global Citizen leadership training held over the summer. The participants will speak at the awards ceremony on Nov. 13. The 2022 YICU individual nominees are: Brooklyn Symone Caffey, Calvary Christian Academy Kamaya Coleman, Normal Community High School Manu V. Gadhiraju, Normal Community High School Richa Shukla, University High School River Stokes Dorsey, Normal Community High School Sristi Ganta, Normal Community High School Claire Campbell, Kolbe Academy Garrick Dickerson, Bloomington High School Reilley Owens, Normal West High School Shloka Ravinuthala, Normal Community High School Siddhi Hindurao, Normal Community High School Amaya Hursey, Normal West High School Anusha Nadkarni, Bloomington High School Hasna Mohamed Jamal, Normal Community High School Lauren R. Monk, Heyworth High School Shrikar Chennuru, Normal Community High School Sonika Tamilarasan, Normal Community High School Lauren Cutler, Normal Community High School Morgan Mouser, Tri-Valley High School The team nominees are: Olympia National Honor Society, Olympia High School Youth Engaged in Philanthropy, Illinois Prairie Community Foundation Willie Halbert is the only mentor nominee and the NAACP Youth Council is the only advocate nominee. Registration is open for the YICU Awards event, which is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Astroth Community Education Center at Heartland Community College. Registration can be found at https://tinyurl.com/rsvp-nov13. A nonprofit fair preceding the ceremony starts at 1:30 p.m. WASHINGTON (AP) Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with American officials that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom, three U.S. officials said Tuesday. The heightened concerns about a potential attack on Saudi Arabia come as the Biden administration is criticizing Tehran for its crackdown on widespread protests and condemning it for sending hundreds of drones as well as technical support to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. We are concerned about the threat picture, and we remain in constant contact through military and intelligence channels with the Saudis, the National Security Council said in a statement. We will not hesitate to act in the defense of our interests and partners in the region. Saudi Arabia did not respond to requests for comment. Iran's mission to the United Nations told The Associated Press on Wednesday the U.S. claims are baseless. Western and Zionist regimes spread biased news aimed at creating a negative mood towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and destroying the current positive trends with regional countries, the mission said in a statement. One of the officials who confirmed the intelligence sharing described it as a credible threat of an attack soon or within 48 hours. No U.S. embassy or consulate in the region has issued alerts or guidance to Americans in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Middle East based on the intelligence. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Asked about reports of the intelligence shared by the Saudis, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said U.S. military officials are concerned about the threat situation in the region." "Were in regular contact with our Saudi partners, in terms of what information they may have to provide on that front, Ryder said. But what weve said before, and Ill repeat it, is that we will reserve the right to protect and defend ourselves no matter where our forces are serving, whether in Iraq or elsewhere. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said America was concerned about the threat picture, without elaborating. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Saudis sharing the intelligence earlier on Tuesday. Iran has alleged without providing evidence that Saudi Arabia and other rivals are fomenting the dissent on its streets by ordinary Iranians. Of particular ire is protest coverage by Iran International, a London-based, Farsi-language satellite news channel once majority-owned by a Saudi national. The U.S. and Saudis blamed Iran in 2019 of being behind a major attack in eastern Saudi Arabia, which halved the oil-rich kingdoms production and caused energy prices to spike. The Iranians denied they were behind the attack, but the same triangle-shaped, bomb-carrying drones used in that attack are now being deployed by Russian forces in their war on Ukraine. The Saudis have also been hit repeatedly in recent years by drones, missiles and mortars launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia formed a coalition to battle the Houthis in 2015 and has been internationally criticized for its airstrikes in the war, which have killed scores of civilians. In recent weeks, the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials for the brutal crackdown on demonstrators after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September after her arrest by Iran's morality police. The administration has also hit Iran with sanctions for supplying drones to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. At least 288 people have been killed and 14,160 arrested during the protests, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Demonstrations have continued, even as the feared paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned young Iranians to stop. Iran already launched a series of attacks targeting Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq amid the protests, killing at least 16 people, including an American citizen. U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia have also been strained after the Riyadh-led alliance of oil producing nations, OPEC+, announced in October that it would cut production by 2 million barrels per day starting in November. The White House has said it is reviewing its relationship with the Saudis over the move. The administration said the production cut is effectively helping another OPEC+ member, Russia, pad its coffers as it continues its war in Ukraine, now in its ninth month. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday reiterated that the administration remains concerned that Iran may also provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles. We haven't seen that concern bear out, but it's a concern we have, Kirby said. Even as the U.S. and others raise concerns about possible Iranian action, the administration has not ruled out the possibility of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was brokered by the Obama administration and scrapped in 2018 by the Trump administration. The U.S. special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, said on Monday that the administration was not currently focused on the deal, which has been stalled since August. Still, Malley refused to declare the deal dead and said the administration makes no apology for trying to do everything we can to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The deal had provided Tehran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for the country agreeing to roll back its nuclear program. It includes caps on enrichment and how much material Iran can stockpile and limits the operation of advanced centrifuges needed to enrich. To all of the local citizens, the Bloomington Knights of Columbus wants to thank the community for supporting our I.D. Drive, more commonly known as the Tootsie Roll Drive. The drive is always held the third weekend of September. This drive supports the intellectually and physically challenged in this community. We do this by putting volunteers in front of local stores and handing out Tootsie Rolls in exchange for your donation. We have been doing this for 52 years and the money we raise goes to programs that support these individuals. We donate the money to programs that help these individuals. Programs such as the Special Education programs in the local school districts, and also the McLean County S.O.A.R. program administered by the City of Bloomington. We also donate to Illinois Special Olympics and other organizations that have a 501(c)(3) classifications. Your organizaition/group has to be so qualified by the I.R.S. We donate all the money we raise to these organizations and the special people they help. Again this year the goal was $10,000, and while we did not make the goal, we did raise $9,000. That will go to above mentioned organizations except for the money we have to pay for Tootsie Rolls, and for aprons and collection cans, which we reuse from year to year, except for a few we have to replace. No one is paid or receives any money for their volunteering. Our big limit is having enough volunteers to collect. Thank you again for all of your support. Dennis M. Fries for the committee and the Knights of Columbus The Ghana Revenue Authority on October 1, 2022 deployed the certified electronic invoicing system commonly known as E-VAT in accordance with the amended Valued Added Tax Act 870. The E-VAT certifies every invoice issued by taxpayers in near-real time for revenue assurance purposes. Speaking to the public on the Eye on Port programme, members of the E-VAT Technical Team of the Ghana Revenue Authority emphasised that the E-VAT is not a new tax. Mrs. Felicia Omotayo Owusu said the rate of tax remains the same for both the standard and flat rate schemes. The rate of tax for VAT in the standard rate is 4.5%, NHIL is 2.5%, GETFUND Levy is also 2.5% and COVID-19 Levy is 1%. For flat rate schemes, VAT is 3% and COVID-19 is 1%. Nothing has changed. It is just the process of issuing an invoice. We are using electronic means so we can authenticate and validate the invoices in real or near-real time. Mr. Patrick Frimpong Danso on his part said the E-VAT system has seen success in countries where it is being deployed such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. He added that: We have a lot of issues with the old system. The GRA had given certain big shops authorisation to print their own invoices. There was a possibility they could be suppressing sales. If they made 100,000 transactions in a month, they could declare only 200. We had no way to verify. There is a software they can use to suppress sales figures. The GRA in its commencement phase of the programme has begun with some 50 taxpayers, and by 2024 the Authority will onboard all registered taxpayers onto the E-VAT system. According to GRA officials, Mr. Dansos outfit has engaged the various companies being on-boarded onto the system, taught them how to operate the system and provided them with Relationship Managers to serve as a liaison between GRA and the said company in case of difficulties. The Melcom outlets are about 74 across the country, and they have all been on-boarded. Same for the China malls and Palace Mall. We started with them so we can learn from the challenges we faced, rectify them and then onboard the rest who have less complex processes, Mrs. Owusu said. The GRA officials however cautioned persons and business entities which may want to circumvent the system to evade tax. Mr. Frimpong Danso said the GRA is able to monitor all the activities of such tax payers pertaining to the issuance of VAT invoices and will send out a team whenever anomalies are detected. The officials explained that the invigilation exercise embarked on by GRA over the past few weeks to check compliance is necessary. The officers will cross-check receipts and record the sales so that at end of the week they will tally and compare them with returns on the taxpayer files. Invigilation is part of our compliance tools, Mrs. Owusu revealed. The Ghana Revenue Authority says these initiatives being undertaken will not only improve revenue collection on their part but also improve business processes. Source: B&FT Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Efforts are underway to make the Central Region a rice-producing hub. This, according to the Central Regional Minister, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, will enable the region to unleash its full agricultural potential in rice production. In pursuit of that, she revealed that a strong collaboration was being forged with Korea International Corporation, an expert organisation in upscaling rice production. Mrs Marigold Assan was speaking to the media on Thursday, November 3, 2022, in Cape Coast, Central Region during the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyies, working tour in the region. The visit to the Central Region formed part of the ministers second leg working tour in five regions across the country. Already, the tour has seen him visit Western, Western North and Central Regions. According to her, though her region was currently eighth on the log of rice-producing regions, Central Region was poised to move to the 7th position. She noted that talks were already ongoing in that regard. She gave the assurance that with the measures put in place one can only hope for the best from the region. She added that Central Region will institute a local market termed, "Farmers' Market where foodstuffs produced in the region would be assembled and sold to customers. Furthermore, Mrs Marigold Assan indicated that there were ongoing efforts to ensure that Ghanaians eat fresh foods from the farms while guaranteeing the benefits of their nutritional value. In his response, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriye, pledged his support to ensure that the nation rakes in the benefits of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) in the region. He is expected to visit Volta and Oti Regions in the coming days. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Police have arrested Francis Xavier Sosu, a member of Parliament for Madina for reckless and inconsiderate driving. The lawmaker, who broke the law was arrested on 3rd November, 2022 after he was seen driving in the middle of the road around the Airport in his vehicle with registration number GB-9776-21 with no regard for law-abiding pedestrians and other road users. According to our sources, his vehicle has been impounded by the police and he has been charged to appear in court to be put through the due process of the law. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Africa is facing a critical shortfall in funding for climate adaptation according to a new report, State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022, launched by the Global Center on Adaptation today. The report reveals that cumulative adaptation finance to 2030 will come to less than one-quarter of the estimated needs stated by African countries in their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) unless more funding for climate adaptation is secured. In 2019 and 2020 an estimated $11.4 billion was committed to climate adaptation finance in Africa with more than 97% of the funds coming from public actors and less than 3% from private sectors. This is significantly less than the $52.7 billion annually to 2030 it is estimated African countries will need. To increase the volume and efficacy of adaptation finance flows to Africa over the coming decade, the report makes a number of recommendations: Financial institutions must mainstream resilience into investments they are making. Policy makers and other stakeholders must build the enabling environment for adaptation investment. Financial innovation for adaptation must match country-level policy and market conditions. Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, commenting on the report findings said: Adaptation finance is scaling too slowly to close the investment gap in Africa, even as the costs of inaction rise. As we look forward to COP27, we must generate a breakthrough on finance for climate adaptation. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program endorsed by the African Union, is the best vehicle we have to ensure the adaptation investment shortfall in Africa is met with action from all available sources including the private sector. Speaking during the launch event for the report, Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations said: COP27 must be a turning point. Developed countries must put forward credible plans to double adaptation finance to reach 40 billion dollars a year by 2025. The Secretary-General has called for a new business model to deliver adaptation finance by turning adaptation priorities into pipelines of investment for projects. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group said: At the Global Center on Adaptation, they are doing incredible work in mapping out what the needs are, mapping out how to make climate resilient infrastructure. Already the Upstream [Financing] Facility at the Global Center on Adaptation, is doing so much analytical work to support countries to build climate resilience into infrastructure, into agriculture and to mainstream climate financing into national bodies but also into the financing of large multilateral development banks. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture for the African Union Commission said: Africas 1.4 billion people contribute less than 3% of the worlds total greenhouse gas emissions but finds itself on the frontline of this climate emergency with nine out of ten of the most vulnerable countries in Africa. Adaptation to climate change is very crucial to Africa. At COP27 it is adaptation and financing adaptation which is our priority. STA22 provides policy shaping recommendations in key areas such as livestock, agriculture, cities, nature-based solutions, blue economy, and coastal erosion. It is the most comprehensive guide to assess progress on climate adaptation in Africa and provide guidance and recommendations on best practices in adapting to the effects of a changing climate and building resilience to climate shocks. The report highlights successful adaptation initiatives from the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) which have the potential to be scaled up and replicated. It also presents key policies, skills and finance gaps that must be addressed if adaptation is to be effective and reach those who need it the most. Commenting on the reports findings, Dr Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez and Professor Jamal Saghir, Co-Directors of State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022 said: The climate is changing rapidly and Africa needs to Adapt. It must adapt to rising temperatures, more extreme storms and floods, rising sea levels , more intense heatwaves and longer and more severe droughts. Our report maps out not only the impacts of climate change, but also the available adaptation solutions. The report proves that adaptation is an opportunity for jobs and economic recovery . Adaptation pays. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) was developed by African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) to mobilize $25 billion by 2025 to implement, scale and accelerate climate adaptation across the African continent. AAAP works across four bold interconnected pillars to achieve transformational results: Climate-Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security; African Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator; Youth Empowerment for Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in Climate Adaptation and Resilience and Innovative Financial Initiatives for Africa. AAAP has already guided over $3.5 billion of upstream investments in 19 countries with every dollar spent influencing $100 downstream. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The board of governors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) has unanimously increased the banks authorised capital from US$1.5 billion to US$3.5 billion with effect from January 2023. The governors also called for the third tranche of the capital of the bank which is in the sum of US$438 million. The board comprising the ministers for finance and ministers for planning and development of the 15 ECOWAS member states took this decision at it just ended 10th extraordinary session held on 27 October 2022 in Praia, Republic of Cabo Verde. The president and chairman of the board of EBID, Dr George Agyekum Donkor, made this disclosure immediately after the session. According to Donkor, the decision by the governors was very strategic and timely, especially as the bank intensifies its resource mobilisation initiatives and seeks to position itself as the foremost regional development finance institution committed to playing a key and expansive role in assisting ECOWAS member states to navigate the path to socio-economic recovery from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian Ukraine war. Outlining the justifications for the governors decision, Donkor emphasised the need for the bank to improve leverage, capital adequacy, liquidity, and the overall risk-bearing capacity. He stressed on the need for the bank to be abreast with industry trends and improve its rating. According to him, calling the third tranche of the banks capital will no doubt enhance its capacity to grant concessionary resources to member states in order to accelerate economic recovery. The chairman of the board of governors, who is also the Vice-prime minister for finance and business development and minister for the digital economy of Cabo Verde, Dr Olavo Avelino Garcia Correia, commended the president of the bank and his team for the remarkable and exceptional performance within a short time which has led to the impressive operational and financial performance of EBID and the eventual upgrade of the banks rating by both Moody's and Fitch rating agencies. He urged the EBID management not to rest on its oars but to strive to obtain investment grade to attract competitive resources for ECOWAS members. 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. Featured Video Local couple Kathleen and John Schreiber are donating $25 million to Lurie Childrens Hospital to create a center to focus on the health and wellness of children from birth through age 5. The program will be named the Schreiber Family Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness, and will bring together Lurie experts and community organizations to support children and families. It will be part of Luries Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities, which focuses on community-based initiatives. Advertisement The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital pictured on June 9, 2012. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) It will support programs that connect expecting parents with doulas and home visits. It will also work with programs meant to help build childrens resiliency and social-emotional well-being, and work to improve training for early childhood workers. The centers work is expected to benefit children throughout the Chicago area, with a focus on the citys West Side. The money will also be used for research on ways to help newborns and very young children who face inequities. Advertisement Providing high-quality medical care and cutting-edge research is essential, but it is not enough to meet the critical needs of our youth, said Dr. Thomas Shanley, Lurie Childrens president and CEO. We need to focus on the upstream factors that lead to health and racial inequities our children and communities experience. The Schreiber familys visionary gift will support us in this work. Schreiber grew up in Chicago and attended Loyola University, before heading to Harvard Universitys business school. He then spent 20 years in real estate investment management and founded the New York-based Blackstone Groups real estate investment management business. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II and his retinue of chiefs will on Saturday November 5 join the chiefs and people of the 36 states of Anlo to celebrate the annual traditional festival, Hogbetsotsoza. Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II, the Kwahuhene and King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, the Ga Mantse are also expected to be guests at the famous festival. The festival also known as Hogbeza commemorates the legendary exodus of the Ewe-Dogbo folks from Notsie in present-day neighbouring Togo. The celebration is returning this year after its suspension in 2020 and 2021 in compliance with COVID-19 protocols. The presence of the Asantehene would mark the celebration of the age-long relationship between the Anlo State and the Asanteman while that of the Kwahuhene and Ga Mantse would help forge a bond with the two kingdoms as part of the bigger objective of using the Hogbeza platform to foster unity, peace and national cohesion. Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, Mamponghene represented the Asantehene at the 2019 Hogbetsotso Festival at Anloga after Togbi Sri III, the Awoamefia of Anlo visited the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi for the 2018 Akwasidae. Mr Ken Kpedor, President of Anlo Youth Council, the umbrella body of the youth of Anlo, in an earlier interview with the Ghana News Agency, called on citizens of Anlo, both home and abroad to patronise this years festival being held on the theme: 60 Years of Anlo Hogbetsotsoza: Uniting for Development, Sustaining our Unique Cultural Commonwealth for Future Generations. I urge all citizens of Anlo, especially the youth to come home for the single most important event on the Anlo calendar, the Hogbetsotsoza. It is ours and its celebration has benefits for us and the Anlo State. Lets patronise it to make it the best traditional festival in Ghana. Mr Silas Aidam, Publicity Chair, 2022 Hogbetsotsoza Planning Committee also appealed to the Anlo citizens, cultural enthusiasts, local and foreign tourists to the festival, which he said bounces back in a special form. Hogbeza is celebrated every first Saturday in November at Anloga, the traditional and ritual capital of Anlo State and is usually characterised by a display of rich tradition and culture with patrons treated to a variety of drumming and dancing, including the ever-popular agbadza, atsia and misego or husego, the incorporated dance style of the backward movement of the people during their escape from Notsie. 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. Featured Video The Institute for Energy Security(IES) has called on government to revive the Tema Oil Refinery(TOR) in the shortest possible time amid the increasing fuel prices. A statement issued by the IES on Thursday said the public ought to be updated on the status of the negotiation between TOR and the strategic partner announced some months ago, in respect of the time the refinery is re-commencing operation after several months of inactivity. [adrotate group="2"]Governments sudden appetite for imported fuels to address reliability and cost-related issues can best be described as reactionary, morally indefensible, misplaced priority, and a deliberate attempt to increase the fiscal burden of the Ghanaian economy. It must be stated forcefully that the state is better off prioritizing local crude refining, instead of importation of refined products. Once more, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) wishes to appeal to the President to look within bring back TOR in the shortest possible time, refine Ghanas crude domestically, work to strengthen the local currency, and ensure an adequate amount of Dollars is made available to importers of fuel, IES said. The refinery has not been operational for a while on the back several challenges, including the inability of the entity to pay its workers and the lack of crude, as managers of the facility were unable to raise letters of credit. In January 2019, the government announced an ambitious plan to build a new oil refinery to replace the Tema Oil Refinery within the next three to four years. Price of a liter of Diesel and Petrol has seen an astronomical increase of roughly 79 percent and 95 percent respectively. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) increased fuel prices thrice in a single pricing-window, a cumulative 46 percent for Diesel and 37 percent for Petrol. Some Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) declined to release fuel to the Ghanaian market, forcing some companies to shut down temporary. Source: starrfm Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A delegation of judges and judicial officers from Uganda are on a five-day working visit to the country to understudy Ghanas judicial system and how it works. The 13-member delegation is led by the Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda, Justice Richard Buteera. It has been in the country since Monday and is expected to leave today. Among the itinerary of the delegation were a courtesy call on the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah; visiting of courts, including the Supreme Court, to observe how justice is dispensed in the country, and the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) to acquaint itself with training programmes for judges and judicial officers. They also learnt about how the Judicial Service harnesses technology in the administration of justice, such as the automation of courts and e-justice, judicial reforms, the court-connected alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism system and infrastructure development. The team also visited Kumasi, where they called on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and inspected the new Court of Appeal residential complex in the metropolis. Rationale In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Justice Buteera said the visit was to learn at first-hand Ghanas developed justice delivery system and the progress made in improving access to justice. Ghana has developed strategies, systems, infrastructure and practices that have seen tremendous growth and effectiveness in its administration and delivery of justice, he said. According to him, Ghana and Uganda had similar judicial systems based on the common law legal tradition and, therefore, it was important for the two countries to share ideas. As a continent, we should be learning from one another and not always run to America, Europe and others. There is a lot we can offer one another as Africans, Justice Buteera said. He said the delegation was impressed by the technological and infrastructure drive Ghana was undertaking to expand access to justice and further reduce delays in the justice delivery system. We were impressed that in Ghana case backlog is when a case is one year old. This is a big achievement because for us, a case is backlog when it is two years in the system. We find the strategies adopted by Ghana useful and we will probably adopt some, the Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda said. Commendation Justice Buteera also commended Ghana for having a comprehensive ADR mechanism and the efficient manner in which it had been inculcated into the judicial set up. We were also impressed about how Ghana assesses the performance of judges and judicial officers. We will borrow some of the performance assessment tools and methods into our system, he added. According to Justice Buteera, Uganda would take the collaboration further by inviting judges from Ghana to Uganda, and vice versa, for peer-learning and capacity building. 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. Featured Video Investments in cassava production and processing in the Adaklu District of the Volta Region with the appropriate technology can rapidly turn around the fortunes of the area and lift the living standards of the people to astonishing heights, the District Director of Agriculture, Eugenia Bruce, has said. This will be a worthy venture with guaranteed and bountiful returns in the medium term, she said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic at Adaklu Waya last Thursday. Ms Bruce said there were now 6,000 cassava farmers and 3,000 gari processors in the district, adding that at least 3,200 hectares of the produce were cultivated annually. She said there was still vast and fertile land available to support large-scale cassava production in the district which had 98 communities and a population of almost 40,000. Tools The district director of agriculture said the tools needed most now were industrial gari fryers, smokeless stoves and solar dryers for processing the cassava into gari. Further, the processing of cassava into ethanol, starch, cassava chips and tapioca through modern and industrial methods would yield quicker results, jobs and good money, she added. Already, Ms Bruce said there was diversity in the processing of the locally produced gari which was often fortified with coconut, pawpaw, ginger and moringa, and that added value to it. Meanwhile, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has identified the Adaklu District as an ideal zone for meat processing. The Regional Director of GEPA, Chris Amponsa Sackey, said in an interview in Ho that the district had an enormous cattle, goat and sheep market which attracted buyers from various parts of the region and beyond. Processing the meat, he pointed out, would definitely be a worthy commercial venture with bright prospects for job creation. The District Chief Executive, Juliana Kpedekpo, for her part, said as a priority, the menace of nomadic Fulani herdsmen in the area letting loose their cattle to destroy crops of the farms would be addressed once and for all. She said plans were far advanced to create an isolated ranch for the herdsmen. This will enable our farmers to cultivate their crops in peace without any hindrance from the herdsmen and their cattle, the DCE added. Meanwhile, Ms Kpedekpo gave an assurance that work was about to commence on some key roads in the district and that would rapidly boost commercial activities in Adaklu, while work had begun to rebuild the bridge between Have and Dzakpo. 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. Featured Video The Chiefs and people of Owirenkyiman Traditional Area in the Central Region have celebrated their Kantamanto Festival with a call for all Ghanaians to prioritize good sanitation practices. This will not only help to reduce the disease burden on society but can contribute to environmental sustainability. This practice has earned Kushea the enviable accolade of the neatest community in Ghana. The well-patronized festival was also used to celebrate the 80th birthday, and 40 years of the enstoolment of the Paramount Chief of the Owirenkyiman Traditional Area, Ehunabobrim Prah Agyensaim. The festival of the chiefs and people of this traditional area is called Kantamanto and is characterized by a week-long of activities in the last week of the month of October. The celebration is heralded with the momentous occasion were royalty in splendour, glamour and glitz usher people from all walks of life into the area. The Owirenkyi is one of the 34 traditional areas of the Central Region. The festival attracted many dignitaries including the First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, Business Mogul, sir Sam Jonah, Members of the diplomatic corps, among a host of others. Ehunabobrim Prah Agyensaim, who has sanitation and tourism at heart said, Kushea being touted as the neatest community in Ghana is not a fluke. Still, it was achieved by dint of hard work and sacrifice in collaboration with his people. He noted that no effort would be spared to develop and promote the tourism potential of the area to rake in more revenue for development. The Okyehene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin challenged the gathering to emulate Nana Prah Agyensaim and strive to develop their communities. He said many people forget such responsibilities expecting others to do it for them. Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin indicated that such an indictment holds no place in fostering development, therefore it is incumbent on all to lend support to every effort to develop their communities. Kushea, the Capital of Owirenkyiman is not only noted for its neatness but also hosts arguably the biggest palace in Africa. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Twitter Inc will tell employees by email on Friday about whether they have been laid off, temporarily closing its offices and preventing staff access, following a week of uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk. The social media company said in an email to staff it would alert employees by 9 a.m. Pacific time on Friday (12 p.m. EDT/1600 GMT) about staff cuts. "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email sent on Thursday, seen by Reuters. Musk, the world's richest person, is looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce, as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters this week. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter said in the email that its offices would be temporarily closed and all badge access suspended in order "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data." The company said employees who were not affected by the layoffs would be notified via their work email addresses. Staff who had been laid off would be notified with next steps to their personal email addresses, the memo said. Some employees tweeted their access to the company's IT system had been blocked and feared whether that suggested they had been laid off. "Looks like Im unemployed yall. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack," tweeted a user with the @SBkcrn account, whose profile is described as former senior community manager at Twitter. Advertisement Scroll to continue A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday against Twitter by its employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law. The lawsuit also asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case. Musk has directed Twitter's teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters. He had already cleared out the company's senior ranks, firing its chief executive and top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company's advertising, marketing and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. Musk's first week as Twitter's owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled hours later. Employees told Reuters they were left to piece together information through media reports, private messaging groups and anonymous forums. The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been lauded by many of its employees. "If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," Twitter said in the email on Thursday. Shortly after the email landed in employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company's Slack channels to say goodbye, two employees told Reuters. Someone invited Musk to join the channel, the sources said. Source: Reuters Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has disclosed that the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, will not be able to present the 2023 budget before the November 15 deadline. According to him, the budget will belay because the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiation, which is likely not to be completed on time, will have to be factored into it (the budget). As you do know, the Public Financial Act provides that the budget should be presented to the House latest by (the) 15th of this month (November) . The discussions that are going on now involving the IMF, I think it is going to take a little bit of a while. My understanding is that it (the discussion) will go into the first few days of next week, around the 10th or so. If that is the case, we then have to strand out the conclusions and factor them into the budget. After we have succeeded in doing that, because it is a budget for government, it will have to go before cabinet for some discussions, integration and maybe additions and subtractions before it comes ultimately to Parliament. I believe it is going to be quite difficult to submit to the 15th (November) deadline, he said while addressing the press at Parliament on Thursday, November 3, 2022. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame, further stated that presenting the budget to Parliament after the November 15 deadline will not be a breach of the 1992 Constitution. Even though he did not give a date for the presentation of the budget, he said that the government would need some space to be able to do a tidy work. 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. Featured Video The Mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Sam Pyne, has replied critics bashing President Nana Addo for not accepting responsibility of Ghana's economic problems and rendering apology to Ghanaians. The President, during his nation address on the economy on Sunday, October 30, 2022, admitted the country is in crises but assured Ghanaians his government is working assiduously to restore the economy. "We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy. "I urge us all to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light. We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana Beyond Aid. "I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well," he stated. But critics want the President to apologize to the citizenry claiming he is the cause of the economic turmoil in Ghana. They are unhappy that the President didn't accept blame and show his remorse during his address. But to Sam Pyne, what the critics are saying is neither here nor there. Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, he wondered if they heard nothing at all from the President's speech and argued the President cannot know every person's want for him to have touched on during his address. Responding to them, he said; "So, at least with the about 12 points that the President laid out, didn't they hear anything at all about it? I, Sam Pyne, too wished the President had told us that he was sending the sea from Accra to Kumasi for me to catch fresh fish from it to eat because I don't like imported fish anymore." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Embattled Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has spoken about how invested he has been in the management of Ghanas economy citing the exertions that he has been going through. In an interview posted on Joy FMs social media handles, the Minister is heard stressing that the managers of the economy understood the task at hand. He stressed that they were dealing with incessant challenges and taking cognizance of the available resources. "Just to assure you that you have a finance minister who has gone through all the pains and aches and nobody can really come and say we dont understand what we are doing. The question is what resources do we have and how we are going to deploy them in the nation that we have in very difficult circumstances but being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and we are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going, Ofori-Atta added. Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana, he told the gathering believed to be a group of investors but the time of the meeting is, however, unknown. Calls for Ofori-Atta, Adu Boahen to be axed A group of NPP MPs, numbering over 80, on October 25 held a press conference demanding the removal of the Finance Minister and Minister of State at the Ministry, Charles Adu Biahen, over management of the economy and hard times that citizens were facing. President Akufo-Addo intervened and got a concession on two grounds, that the Ofori-Atta be allowed to conclude initial talks with the International Monetary Fund and present the 2022 budget and see to the passage of its appropriation. The president has also addressed the nation on the economic challenges and how the government intends to tackle them. The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has recently stated that the view advanced by the Ken Must Go MPs is now the Majority position. Meanwhile, the Minority Caucus is pushing a vote of censure t remove Ofori Atta from office. 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. Featured Video Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has finally responded to calls for his resignation. NPP MPs' threat More than 90 NPP MPs held a press conference demanding the dismissal of Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta and Charles Adu Boahen, Minister of State at the Finance Ministry. They threatened to boycott parliamentary business should President Akufo-Addo refuse to sack them. "If our request is not responded to positively, we will not be present for the budget hearing, neither will we participate in the debate," the MPs said. Subsequently, the President, following the MPs' protest, held an emergency meeting with them, pleading for some time. According to a statement from the Majority caucus, the President wants Ken Ofori-Atta to conclude with "the round of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the presentation of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy in November 2022 and the subsequent passage of the Appropriation Bill after which time the demand will be acted upon. Majority caucus align In a latest development, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has indicated that all NPP MPs are now in support of the calls for the Finance Minister to be sacked. Even though the issue started with the group of 80 plus, the caucus meeting aligned with the position of that group, so it is no longer the cause of the 80 plus MPs. It is the agenda for the entire caucus and we are having some discussions on that, he said. Ofori Atta's aches & pains Finance Minister reacting to these calls while addressing Members of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) on Thursday said: You have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and aches, and nobody can really come and say we dont understand what were doing...Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana; we can do it and we should do it". The question is what resources do we have and how were going to deploy them in the nation that we have and how do we stand firm in very difficult circumstances by being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and you are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going he added. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The store, which has since been rebranded as Cannabist, will be one of two Columbia Care locations sold to Sean 'Diddy' Combs as part of a deal to satisfy antitrust concerns surrounding Cresco's proposed $2 billion acquisition of Columbia Care. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Sean Diddy Combs has agreed to buy nine cannabis retail stores and three production facilities in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts for $185 million as part of required antitrust divestitures for the pending $2 billion Cresco-Columbia Care megamerger. The deal to sell off a portion of the combined Cresco-Columbia Care portfolio to Combs, announced Friday, includes the Columbia Care dispensaries in Villa Park and Chicagos Jefferson Park neighborhood, which have been rebranded as Cannabist, as well as a Columbia Care production facility in Aurora. Advertisement If approved by regulators, Combs would form the largest Black-owned cannabis company in the U.S. My mission has always been to create opportunities for Black entrepreneurs in industries where weve traditionally been denied access, and this acquisition provides the immediate scale and impact needed to create a more equitable future in cannabis, Combs said in a news release. Advertisement It is the first foray into the rapidly growing cannabis business for Combs, a successful rapper, record producer and entrepreneur also known by the stage name Puff Daddy. Combs would pay $110 million in cash and finance $45 million through seller notes, with the balance due post-closing after meeting market-based milestones. The Combs sale will bring Chicago-based Cresco Labs, one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies in the U.S., one step closer to becoming a lot bigger with its proposed acquisition of New York-based Columbia Care in an all-stock merger valued at about $2 billion. The Cresco-Columbiadeal, announced in March, would create a cannabis cultivation and retail giant with more than 180 stores across an 18-market footprint, and will likely require additional divestitures to win regulatory approval. Founded in 2013, Cresco is in 10 states with 21 production facilities and 49 dispensaries, most of which operate under the Sunnyside banner. In Illinois, Cresco has 10 retail dispensaries the maximum allowed by the state and three manufacturing facilities in Joliet, Kankakee and Lincoln. Columbia Care, which started as a medical-only operator 10 years ago, has grown into one of the largest multistate cannabis companies in the U.S. with a footprint in 18 states, including 99 dispensaries and 32 cultivation facilities. Cresco and Columbia Care are in the process of divesting other assets ahead of the proposed merger, and expect additional announcements to be forthcoming, according to the news release. The companies expect merger approval by the end of the first quarter of 2023. The Combs sale is expected to close concurrently with the larger Cresco-Columbia Care merger. Cannabis research firm Headset projects legal U.S. weed sales to surpass $30 billion this year and reach $45.8 billion by 2025. In Illinois, sales have been ramping up since the state legalized recreational marijuana in January 2020. The state legalized medical marijuana sales in 2015. Last year, the states 110 dispensaries sold nearly $1.78 billion in cannabis products, including $1.38 billion in recreational weed and more than $397 million in medical marijuana. Illinois is projected to generate $2.55 billion in annual cannabis sales by 2025, according to Headset. Advertisement Minority participation in the cannabis industry has lagged. This year, the state issued 185 conditional dispensary licenses to social equity applicants, generally defined as those with past minor cannabis convictions or from areas of high poverty or cannabis arrests. rchannick@chicagotribune.com Director of Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, has charged the media to play a part in keeping out calls for the president to resign. He is of the view that for a president who has the mandate to serve, the media harping on issues relating to calls for his resignation does not bode well for Ghana's democracy. "I concede we are in difficult times but it doesn't equal the calls for the president to resign. If he resigns right now, what happens? "How do we hold the president accountable for where we currently are? Are we going to hold the president responsible for the Covid crisis? "The president has a mandate and the media shouldn't engage in these kinds of conversations. It does not build our democracy in any way," he stressed in a November 3, 2022, interview on Accra-based Joy News. Ahiagbah was reacting to a recent report that said there was "pressure" on the president to resign after 54% of respondents to a poll called for his resignation. He dispelled the report as "biased, highly deficient and unscientific. "I just read through the report calling for the president to resign and I can say it is highly deficient and unscientific. "The report is biased because a prejudice was created for respondents to answer to. From which quarters are people calling for the president to resign? The question should have been asked directly without any prejudice. "What is the importance of such polls and reports in these current times?" he quizzed. The call for Akufo-Addo to resign has come up in recent times amid an economic crunch. Last week two appointees became the subject of calls for removal over the same issue. Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and Minister of State at the Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen; were the subject of a removal demand by over 80 NPP MPs. 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. Featured Video The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned the attack on the partys National Headquarters at Adabraka in Accra in the early hours of Monday 31st October, 2022. According to the NDC, a group of persons clad in red and fuming with rage gain entry into the premises of the Headquarters and entered the 3rd floor office of the Deputy General Secretary, Hon. Barbara Serwaa Asamoah and removed a prepaid meter. [adrotate group="2"]Soon thereafter, the spokesman of the group, addressed the crowd that accompanied him and threatened to deal with the Deputy General Secretary for allegedly installing a prepaid meter in her office. The Leadership of the NDC wish to condemn in no uncertain terms this blatant act of thuggery and criminality and will take immediate steps to involve the law enforcement agencies to deal with the miscreants and their sponsors, the General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia narrated in a statement. He continued: the party will take additional steps to identify all who entered the premises to carry out this dastardly act and to subject them to the disciplinary measures provided by the partys constitution. The General Secretary indicated that no member of the party has any right whatsoever to attack any leader of the party at any level for whatever reason. Any attack on a national officer is an attack on the entire leadership of the party. And any of those elements who are party members will be dealt with without fear or favour in accordance with the laws of the party. 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. Featured Video The former minister of finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, has officially declared his intention to contest in the presidential race of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) when the party opens nominations. Today, I officially announce my intention to contest for the flagbearership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) anytime the party opens nominations, the former governor of the Bank of Ghana told the media in Accra on Thursday (3 November 2022). I will offer myself once again to serve the land of my birth with humility and sacrifice when given the chance to do so, he added. The temporary shifts we have grown used to in this country must give way to a permanent change in attitude and priorities. We must witness the dawn of a new era, where country trumps person and progress trumps power. An era for all, the era of The Ghanaian Dream. Let us rescue our economy to end the hardship, pain, and suffering of our fellow citizens. We are a great nation and we have the capacity to rebuild our economy again as we did during 2009 2012. Lets all remember that even though Sika mp dede nanso km fr dede. Y ani abere, km de yn, he said. Will Mahama contest? Former president John Mahama has said he will keep his opponents guessing about his future political plans as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) goes to the polls next year to elect a presidential candidate. Speaking to VOA (Voice of America) in Washington, DC on Wednesday (12 October 2022), Mahama said he could not confirm or deny whether he will contest again, having lost the last two elections to the present incumbent, Nana Akufo-Addo. I havent, Mahama said in response to a question about whether he has decided to contest. Its good to keep your opponents guessing. He added: Even if I am not running, I am not going to say I am not running. A decision will be taken early next year the first quarter when well hold our partys primary for the presidential candidacy. So, well see. 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. Featured Video 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. Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has called on the Members of Parliament to speed up their investigation into the alleged bribery incident in the House. Leader of the Majority Caucus, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu revealed that a businessman tried to bribe some New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs who have called for the removal of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen. Although he cannot establish the motive behind the financial inducement by the unnamed businessman, Hon. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, at a press conference, disclosed that investigations are being commissioned into the matter to ascertain its veracity. We will investigate and if it is true, we will establish the motive of that person. What I can say of it (the allegations) as of now is that, we dont know the motive. Not knowing what the motive is, sometimes these things come up, so we will have to establish that. You remember the issue of a minister who was nominated to appear before the Vetting Committee, there were allegations that he attempted to bribe some people or influence some people, eventually, it turned out to be untrue. Even though this one has come before me, not having gone into it, I dont want to make any pronouncements on it. Lets see if indeed it is true and that is not an insult to the intelligence of those people who spoke to it, he said. Touching on the matter, Mr. Pratt was of a firm opinion that the investigation should be swift to dispel any illusions of people pointing fingers at some notable businessmen in the country. He called on the MPs to take the matter seriously and see to its proper conclusion. Contributing to Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme Friday morning, the Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper stressed; "They should speed up the investigation. This shouldn't take too long to investigate." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ohios districting map (shaded box, left) alongside one of 5,000 alternative maps the researchers simulated. Credit: Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology Project New waves of statisticians, including a team at Harvard, have developed tools they think can help police the longstanding problem of gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts in states by parties seeking to tip the scales for their candidates. Gerrymandering has been part of American politics since the 1800s, with results that are at the very least controversial and sometimes illegal, particularly if it's done to dilute the voting power of communities of color. The battle is renewed every decade in state legislatures when Census figures show which districts need to be rebalanced owing to population shifts. Sometimes violations appear blatant but often they are more subtle, and in either case they can be difficult to prove. By harnessing the quantitative power of big data computing, these statisticians have developed algorithms that can identify likely gerrymandered maps by putting redrawn districts through hundreds, even thousands of computational tests and simulations. These toolsdeveloped over the past decade often through open sourcingprovide powerful evidence of whether a plan falls outside the norm of a "fair" plan. The tests recently have been gaining traction and increasingly are being used as evidence of illegitimacy in court. One method started at Harvard in 2020 has been quickly making an impact. It's been used by researchers, journalists, and election analysts, and has played significant roles in recent legal cases where legislators were forced to throw out gerrymandered maps. Called "redist," the tool creates a vast pool of alternate nonpartisan plans (upwards of 5,000 to 10,000) that can be compared to a map that's being proposed or has already been enacted by local legislators or redistricting committees. This pool of nonpartisan baseline maps makes it possible to see whether the new map fairly represents the new shifts shown in the Census, or is an outlier. "What the algorithm does is that using the geography and distribution of different voters within the state, it shows what kind of partisan outcome we should expect," said Kosuke Imai, a professor in the departments of statistics and government. "But if we see something very different in comparison to this nonpartisan baseline, favoring one party under the enacted plan, that's evidence that there are some other factors influencing when the plan was drawn." For example, researchers say, consider a case in which the tool runs 5,000 simulations and finds that on average the legislative minority party should be winning about five to seven seats. But simulations using a map pushed through by the majority party has its rival winning only two seats. This signifies a rare or almost impossible occurrence and supports the likelihood of partisan gerrymandering, the researchers said. Graph looks at how each district of Ohios enacted plan compares to the set of simulated districts. Credit: Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology Project Imai developed redist with Cory McCartan, a Ph.D candidate at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences focusing on statistics. The pair found traditional methods for evaluating the fairness of redistricting plans weren't working well, because they didn't provide a neutral baseline to make objective comparisons. Fairness often became a subjective call, they said. "For a long time, people have done gerrymandering and the question is "OK, how do I prove it?'" McCartan said. "It's one thing to say, "Hey, I think that map looks unfair because the boundaries are super squiggly." But these things get litigated in court, so a judge has to clearly be able to decide: Is this fair or not?" The redist software uses what's called the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithm to run its simulations. The software starts with a blank map, then draws one district map at a time, then does it again and again. Each alternative map is drawn in parallel and incorporates that state's population, demographic data, and districting laws. Once these alternative maps are drawn, the redist software uses visualization tools to help users understand the data with charts and graphs summarizing the simulations. Unlike most similar algorithms, the SMC algorithm doesn't start from a single map and keep altering that one. Instead, the algorithm starts with a blank map and generates new alternative plans from new blank canvases. This random generation enables the algorithm to efficiently explore more unique alternatives and generate a representative sample of plans. Existing algorithms that don't do this run the risk of exploring plans that are very similar to the starting map, which may already have a partisan bias, the researchers said. "Say the enacted plan is favoring Democrats," Imai said. "If an algorithm only explores very similar plans [because it starts with this enacted plan], then maybe all the simulated plans based on it also favor Democrats. When this happens, that enacted plan doesn't look like a gerrymander." Redist has been used by plaintiffs in gerrymandering cases, including actions in Alabama, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina. In New York, an elections analyst used the SMC algorithm to produce 10,000 maps to help show the map drawn by New York state's Democratic legislature was an "'extreme outlier' that likely reduced the number of Republican congressional seats from eight to four." A state Appeals Court ordered the map be redrawn. In Ohio, Imai was called as an expert witness for plaintiffs accusing the Republican-controlled redistricting commission of gerrymandering. The SMC algorithm generated 5,000 maps for the case, none of which was as favorable to Republicans as the commission's proposal. The state Supreme Court ordered that body to revise. Maps show partisan lean across Alabama in a typical statewide election, and the share of minority voters around the state. Credit: Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology Project The algorithm is also being used in a case brought before the U.S. Supreme Court involving allegations of racial gerrymandering in Alabama. Imai served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, arguing that its new congressional map intentionally dilutes the Black vote. The case, which relies on protections in the Voting Rights Act, could eliminate one of the few remaining nationwide safeguards against rigged legislative maps. Redist has become a major focus in Imai's research group at Harvard called the Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology (ALARM) Project. The group recently launched the 50-State Redistricting Simulation Project and is using the software to evaluate the redistricting plans across the country by producing 5,000 alternative maps for each state. The easy-to-use tool lets users select a state and explore the maps. To make the data more accessible and digestible, ALARM provides a breakdown of how many congressional districts exist in that state, its redistricting requirements, its political geography, and a summary of what the computer found, including graphs and tables. All the data can be downloaded. The source code is provided so it can be used as a template to generate simulated plans under different specifications. The ALARM group memberswho includes undergraduates, graduate students, and even high school studentssay the process is rigorous since each state has different rules that need to be translated into the algorithm, and they need to run diagnostics to make sure everything goes smoothly. Still, they believe the effort is worth it. Up next for the ALARM Project is a plan to explore expanding redist from looking at the partisan bias of gerrymandering to racial gerrymandering, and to evaluate gerrymandering at more local levels. "There's always a question of how different ways of drawing boundaries can benefit some voters and harm others," Imai said. "It's important for social scientists to understand the nature of these types of political manipulations and address it." Provided by Harvard Gazette This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu. Brazilian study analyzed active fire occurrences between 2003 and 2020 in the nine countries with Amazon Rainforest areas. Brazil accounted on average for 73% of the fires detected in the period. Credit: Liana Anderson/CEMADEN A Brazilian study shows that the number of fires detected in the entire Amazon region between 2003 and 2020 was influenced more by uncontrolled human use of fire than by drought. According to the researchers, burning of vegetation to prepare areas for pasture and deforestation rather than extreme water deficits were the main cause of fire in most years with large numbers of fires. On average, pasture and other agricultural land accounted for 32% of annual burned areas in the Amazon, followed by natural grasslands with 29% and old-growth forests with 16%. Of the nine countries with areas of Amazon Rainforest, Brazil and Bolivia accounted together for most of the fires detected in the region annually, with more than half and about a third respectively. The lion's share of the Amazon is in Brazil (63%), but the lowland tropical rainforest biome also extends into Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, each with between 9% and 6.5% of the total area, which is 6.67 million square kilometers. An article on the study is published in a special issue of Global Ecology and Biogeography on the increasing threat posed to the world's forests by fire. The authors are scientists affiliated with Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN) and State University of Maranhao (UEMA). The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon is on the rise again. In the first nine months of 2022, especially in August and September, it was the highest since 2010, when 102,409 fires were detected, according to INPE. At the same time, since 2019 deforestation in the biome has reached the highest levels since 2009, surpassing 10,000 square kilometers per year. The trend continues, judging by the statistics available from DETER, INPE's deforestation alert platform. "The scientific literature on fire in the Amazon has tended to focus on the Brazilian portion of the biome. We extended the scope to the other countries in order to find out where fire is most critical and merits attention, particularly in light of the different land uses and types of plant cover. We concluded that fire is used in agriculture to renew the vegetation, mainly in pasturelands and especially in Brazil, but without proper fire management, heightening the risk of fire escaping into adjacent forest and causing wildfires," said Marcus Vinicius de Freitas Silveira, a Ph.D. candidate in INPE's Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division (DIOTG) and first author of the article. For Luiz Eduardo Oliveira e Cruz de Aragao, head of DIOTG-INPE and last author of the article, the study innovates by taking all of Amazonia and almost 20 years of data as its scope. "By analyzing this long period, we were able to identify anomalies in the time series, such as 2020. The results show dissemination of the use of fire throughout the Amazon, both in clearing and burning the forest and for continuing management of pasturelands," he said. Aragao is the leader of the Tropical Ecosystems and Environmental Sciences (TREES) Laboratory and a participant in the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change (RPGCC). As noted by Aragao, 2020 is an "anomaly in the time series". According to the study, environmental control operations in the region weakened in 2020, which followed the infamous 2019 Amazon fire season and was also a period when the COVID-19 pandemic was surging. In 2020, the total burned area in the Amazon was the largest since 2010, and burned area per active fire was the second highest of the time series despite a much lower area with an anomalously acute water deficit in comparison to the 2015-16 mega-drought, the authors write. Another important Brazilian biome, the Pantanalthe world's largest wetlands, with an area of 250,000 square kilometers, parts of which are in Argentina and Paraguaywas also devastated by unprecedented burning in 2020. The water surface area fell 34% more than the annual average in 2020, according to an article published in July 2022. Besides Aragao, its authors include Liana Anderson, penultimate author of the article on fire in the Amazon. As in the tropical rainforest, the fires in the Pantanal were a consequence of the intensification of fire-related human activities, with 70% occurring on rural properties, 5% on Indigenous reserves and 10% in protected areas, according to the study. For Anderson, the main short-term action required to reduce the risk of forest fires in the Amazon is eradicating illegal deforestation in the region and tackling the land grab problem. "Alongside this, training and dissemination of fire-free land management techniques are crucial to minimize the growing risk of major fires. Both the increasingly fragmented landscape and the warmer climate with less rain lead to heightened flammability," she said. Fires increased by 18% between January and September compared with the first nine months of 2021 in Maranhao, a Brazilian state located in the transition zone between the Amazon and the Cerrado, the country's second-largest biome and also threatened in various ways. "As noted in our article, recent fire activity in the region is closely linked to deforestation, which has increased because of the weakening of both federal and state environmental controls," said Celso Silva-Junior, affiliated with the State University of Maranhao (UEMA) and second author of the article. Impacts Fire is one of the main types of disturbance responsible for degradation in the Amazon, with negative impacts on forest structure and dynamics, primarily because it impairs the forest's capacity to capture carbon and releases stored carbon. Fire also damages the health of the people who live in the region by intensifying air pollution and increases hospitalizations due to respiratory disease. According to a report produced by the Health Policy Research Institute (IEPS) in partnership with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) and Human Rights Watch, burning associated with deforestation in the Amazon led to 2,195 hospitalizations for treatment of respiratory disease in 2019, with 49% involving people aged 60 or more, and 21% involving babies up to a year old. Pollution by smoke from forest fires in the Amazon, added to the dirt already in the air in big cities as well as low cloud, was responsible for changing day into night in Sao Paulo on August 19, 2019, despite the distance of 2,700 km to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. Data In the most recent Global Ecology and Biogeography article, the researchers describe their analysis of time series for 2003-2020 compiled from records of active fires and burned areas, cross-referencing these to annual data for land use and cover, measuring the areas with anomalous levels of fire, drought and deforestation for every year, and identifying the spatial distribution of these anomalies in 2020, all based on a 10 km x 10 km grid covering the entire Amazon region. The results showed that Brazil alone accounted on average for 73% of annual active fire detections in the Amazon between 2003 and 2020, followed by Bolivia with 14.5% and Peru with 5.3%. When annual active fire detections in each Amazon region were divided by the total area of the region, the authors found that the highest density occurred in Bolivia, with an average of six active fires per 100 square kilometers per year, followed by Brazil with three. In Brazil and Bolivia, active fires were more numerous in the 2000s and then fell, bottoming out in 2013-14 and rising again thereafter. Brazil contributed 56% of total annual burned area in the Amazon on average in the entire period, while Bolivia's share was 33%. Venezuela and Colombia each accounted for 4%. Although Peru was the third-ranking region in numbers of fires, it contributed only 0.63% of total annual burned area on average. Cropland and pasture, natural grasslands, old-growth forests and wetlands other than flooded forests were the types of land use and cover that burned the most in the entire Amazon during the period, accounting respectively for 32%, 29%, 16% and 13% of total annual burned area on average. Agricultural land also accounted for the largest proportion of total annual burned area in Brazil (48%) and Peru (51%). Old-growth forests burned most in Ecuador (76%), wetlands other than flooded forests in French Guiana (46.5%), and natural grasslands in the remaining Amazon regions (40% or more). "Fire is used to prepare areas for crops or pasture, but fire is a hazard not only for the forest and its biodiversity but also for the sustainability of agriculture itself," Aragao said. "The solution would be to develop strategic land use planning in all tiers of government and sectors of society, with training and assistance to use more advanced techniques." More information: Marcus V. F. Silveira et al, Amazon fires in the 21st century: The year of 2020 in evidence, Global Ecology and Biogeography (2022). DOI: 10.1111/geb.13577 Maria Lucia Ferreira Barbosa et al, Compound impact of land use and extreme climate on the 2020 fire record of the Brazilian Pantanal, Global Ecology and Biogeography (2022). DOI: 10.1111/geb.13563 Journal information: Global Ecology and Biogeography Provided by FAPESP Graphical abstract. Credit: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c12943 Hung-Jen Wu, associate professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is working to defeat bacteria that have become resistant to multiple types of antibiotics. To achieve interdisciplinary results, Wu is collaborating with researchers in the Texas A&M College of Engineering and the Texas A&M Health Science Center. "These bacteria are not just drug-resistant, they are multidrug-resistant," Wu said. "This means several different classes of antibiotics cannot kill them. This has become a really big threat to public health because doctors are unable to effectively treat these diseases with the same medications that were used in the past." The research has been published in Advanced Therapeutics and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. In the past, the medical research community has attempted to defeat antibiotic-resistant bacteria by developing new antibiotics. This approach is expensive and can take decades to accomplish. Wu is taking a different approach. By using a targeted system, he is delivering the antibiotics directly to the bacteria, thus allowing them to have a greater impact on the pathogen. "By using a targeted delivery system, we can actually reduce the dose of the antibiotic and still effectively kill the pathogen," Wu said. The idea to use a targeted approach emerged when researchers observed the behavior of the pathogens they were seeking to kill. When bacteria enter the body, they use a combination of strong and weak ligand connections to attach to a cell membrane and infect the cell. Ligands, which are molecular connections that exist on both the bacteria and cell membrane, allow the two cells to stick to each other by using unique molecular structures. Wu and his collaborators are exploiting this characteristic of bacteria by using this binding method to efficiently deliver antibiotics directly to the bacteria. "We noticed how bacteria attached to the host cell's strong and weak ligands simultaneously, and we wondered how we could use that," Wu said. "We were inspired by the bacteria to develop this new drug carrier system." While the medical community has tried to use these connections before, the effectiveness was low because researchers focused only on strong ligand pairs. "What makes our laboratory unique is our focus on the weak ligand pairs," Wu said. "While strong ligand pairs are important, researchers had trouble finding them on the cell membrane because they are scarce. The abundance of weak ligand pairs makes them more effective to deliver medication to the cell." To facilitate the targeted delivery, Wu has engineered molecular ligand structures on the outside of antibiotic particles that bind with the weak ligand pairs on the bacteria cell membrane. When an antibiotic particle encounters a bacteria cell, the abundance of weak ligand pairs causes the antibiotic particle to adhere to the cell in multiple locations, creating a more stable connection. This allows for more effective absorption of the antibiotic by the bacteria cell. This quick absorption of the antibiotic leads to a more effective destruction of the pathogen. Wu's research has focused on two types of bacteria, the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and one of the leading bacterial pathogens which has displayed antibiotic resistance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In the future, he hopes to apply his method to additional types of bacteria to help slow the spread of other infectious diseases. "This mechanism was designed to work with all types of bacteria," Wu said. "When we apply it to other types of bacteria, I can quickly identify the ligand pairs. We will be able to effectively treat many different types of bacteria with this new tool." More information: Anirudh Gairola et al, Recent Developments in Drug Delivery for Treatment of Tuberculosis by Targeting Macrophages, Advanced Therapeutics (2022). DOI: 10.1002/adtp.202100193 Akshi Singla et al, Hetero-Multivalent Targeted Liposomal Drug Delivery to Treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c12943 Journal information: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Credit: Shutterstock Backpackers on working holiday maker visas have been a crucial source of farm labor for decades, alongside smaller numbers of temporary migrants from the Pacific Islands, international students, and Australians. In the 2018-19 financial year more than 200,000 people came to Australia on working holiday maker visas. On average about 35,000 a monthand more than 40,000 in Decemberworked on farms, picking vegetables, fruit or nuts. Numbers declined with borders closed to visa holders from March 2020 to February 2022. But since borders reopened they have not recovered as hoped. By the end of June almost 100,000 Working Holiday Maker visas had been granted. But by the end of August just 54,000 visa holders had arrived. With labor shortages creating more job opportunities in cities and towns, fewer are taking up farm work. In regional communities facing extensive labor shortages there is growing uncertainty as to whenor indeed whetherenough backpackers will return to Australia to pick, pack, and process fruit and veggies. So why aren't backpackers coming? In recent months I've interviewed 35 peoplefarmers, hostel operators, government representatives and community leadersabout the reasons migrant workers aren't flocking back to Australia. This is an extension of my research into the pandemic impacts on seasonal farm workers. Their responses suggest three main reasons for why backpackers have cooled on Australia as a top destination for a working holiday: fear of future border closures; the federal government's poor treatment of migrants during the pandemic; and Australia's reputation more generally for exploiting backpackers. Credit: Chart: The Conversation Source: Department of Home Affairs One hostel operator said they were fielding calls and emails mid-year from backpackers overseas hesitant to come to Australia: "They want to come and do the working holiday, but Australia's known as the lockdown country now." Four other the hostel operators said they had heard similar concerns from young people in recent months, asking questions such as "What if we get stuck?" and "Who will help us book a flight back home?". When the federal government shut the border in 2020, its message to temporary visa holders was to "go home". Despite this, more than 50,000 backpackers, did stay for the first year of the pandemic, and 20,000 beyond thatproviding an essential agricultural workforce. But they were excluded from most support payments and left to to fend for themselves. Backpackers I interviewed last year said this had damaged Australia's reputation. On top of this are stories of exploitation, racism and mistreatment. A 2019 study by Unions NSW and the Migrant Workers Centre concluded 78% of horticulture workers were underpaid. Increasing incentives To entice tourists to the fields, the federal government has introduced incentives including a refund of the $495 Working Holiday Maker visa fee and relocation assistanceup to $2,000 for visa holders, and $6,000 for Australian workersto take up seasonal work. Credit: The Conversation. Source: ABARES Piece rates, a contentious industry practice leading to many stories of wage exploitation, were finally replaced in April, when the Fair Work Commission ruled that farm workers should be guaranteed minimum hourly rate of $25.41. Labor shortages have seen many farmers sign up to the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility scheme, a temporary migrant program open to workers from nine Pacific Island nations and Timor Leste. But these measures haven't solved the shortfall. According to the National Farmers Federation, there are still about 172,000 vacant agricultural jobs. What more can be done? Backpackers bring great benefits to regional communities. Fruit and vegetable farmers need seasonal workers. Many backpackers are happy to use farm work to travel the country. According to a representative from Harvest Trail, the government farm labor information service, they are an "essential pool of workers because they're so mobile." The working holiday maker visa is now available to 47 nations. India, Mongolia and Brazil were added this year. Longer visa options would encourage more backpackers to stay. The visa, which requires a yearly renewal application, is capped at three years. Many backpackers I've interviewed said they "feel part of the community" and would happily remain in their farming jobs if allowed. The Albanese government has promised to develop permanent resident pathways for some Pacific Island workers. It is worth exploring the feasibility of pathways to permanent residency for farm workers on working holiday maker visas. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: James Cook University Growing native bushfoods could reverse environmental degradation and offer better food security. But how do we get bushfoods in the agricultural sector in a market saturated by modern crops? New research from James Cook University's TropWATER has mapped Australia's entire landscape to uncover the best places to grow more than 170 bushfoods. The study found the Great Barrier Reef catchment area to be a hotspot for a wide range of bushfoods including those most in-demand commercially, including lemon myrtle, native plums and bush tomatoes. Author Dr. Adam Canning said identifying what native crops can grow where was an important first step in scoping potential native food industries to support farmers. "Native foods in Australia have a rich history and there is a growing demand to get bushfoods in the supermarket, yet the commercial production of native foods remains small," he said. "This research maps Australia's entire landscape to identify exactly what bushfoods can be grown whereand that's a big step toward boosting Australia's native food industry." Dr. Canning said transitioning the agricultural landscape to include a diversity of native bushfoods would help reverse environmental degradation. "Modern non-native crops such as sugarcane and wheat need intensive cultivation, irrigation, herbicides, and pesticides, and are grown as monocultures," he said. "This comes at a cost to the environment, and we've seen this happen along the Great Barrier Reef catchment. "Diversifying modern agricultural systems to include native plants would help restore balance in coastal ecosystems through reducing runoff, improving soil health and supporting biodiversity." Coastal areas of Queensland's wet tropics, south-east Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria were predicted to support the greatest diversity of native food and forage species. "These areas are the most agriculturally intensive areas with degraded environments, but they also have the greatest potential for regenerative agricultural practices," he said. "Farmers could start small by trialing intercropping, and slowly expand as knowledge and industries grow." To further incentivise these practices, more financial benefit schemes need to be developed to reward farmers for providing ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and reduced pollution. The research also indicates significant opportunity for Indigenous-led business models within the emerging bush foods sector. However, steps would need to be taken to ensure Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property are protected. The research paper, "Rediscovering wild food to diversify production across Australia's agricultural landscapes," was published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. More information: Adam D. Canning, Rediscovering wild food to diversify production across Australia's agricultural landscapes, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (2022). DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.865580 Among the lesser discussed subjects of the 2022 midterm elections has been a quiet campaign to elect J.B. Pritzker to the position of Great Khan of the Midwest and well, who knows what the borders of his empire shall resemble once he conquers? As youre probably aware, Pritzker is currently governor of Illinois, seeking a second term. He has made no formal announcement of his intent to deliver a horde into battle and crush Wisconsin or anywhere else. But that has not stopped Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker. It is, at the moment, a Twitter account. Advertisement But then as satiric, clever and strangely apolitical as Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker comes across, its no less nuts than a lot of social media about contemporary politics. Its an account slavishly devoted to memeing J.B. Pritzker on to the throne of a mighty Khanate that spans from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico. (A Khanate being a vast empire.) That Oct. 4 statement came paired with an image of Pritzker on horseback, waving a sword and shooting lasers from his eyes, before a map of a Pritzker-ruled America in which Springfield is now the winter capital and Chicago summer capital. Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker dream of an Illinois without borders, so vast even the Big Ten includes the Illinois Wolverines, the Illinois Cornhuskers, the Illinois Badgers .... Confused? Take a number. Advertisement Despite the name of the account, which was created by Trip Venturella of Champaign-Urbana, its not really for or against Pritzker. Rather, its tirelessly committed to a weird joke that no one can follow and its healthy but meager 6,700 followers suggest that joke is pretty inside. Its followed by Illinois campaign staff, journalists, pundits and political watchers, many of whom had wondered who is behind the account and if they took one too many Mongolian history courses. It features battle plans for a Pritzker-led military campaign across Iowa, faux polls, fun facts (J.B. Pritzker is the only governor recognizable from space) and Pritzkers face swapped into paintings of Genghis Khan promising Kneel or be broken. Well, mystery solved. Venturella, 32, works as an advertising copywriter for health care companies. Last summer, he said he was eager to blow off some creative steam when he noticed semi-ironic Twitter accounts such as Socialists for Pritzker, which has 13,000 followers. He read a David Weigel piece in the Washington Post referring to these joking-but-not-really accounts as Pritzkers pals. Venturella wanted in. He considered it a funny take on American political expression. An image created by Trip Venturella for his satirical Twitter account Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker. (Provided by Trip Venturella) For as long as there has been American politics, theres been a nonsensical strain of commentary, meant to underline the absurdity and big personalities of politics itself. A dozen years ago, former Columbia College journalism teacher Dan Sinker had an online sensation with @MayorEmanuel on Twitter, a foul-mouthed parody of Rahm Emanuel. Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker is more on a timeline that includes the Yippies who flooded Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, nominating a 145-pound pig for president, intending their spectacle to be as meaningless as (in their eyes) presidential conventions. But even Yippies were protesting Democratic Party support of the Vietnam War. Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker is more of a winking argument for nothing but an alternate reality, closer to the tradition of running cats and dogs for office. Indeed, Twitter offers Anarchists for JB Pritzker, Real Housewives for JB Pritzker, Swiss Farmers for Pritzker, Frat Bros for Pritzker, Post-Impressionists for Pritzker. About the accounts, the governor told Vanity Fair: I guess Im a good straight man. In a statement to the Tribune, his campaign said it does keep up with Nomadic Warriors: Nomadic Warriors and Frat Bros alike know Governor Pritzker is the strong leader we need during these challenging times. The campaign has even played along, posting an image of the governor transposed on the cover of Taylor Swifts new album, Midnights, with a reminder of how many midnights were left until Election Day. And though Darren Bailey, Pritzkers main opponent, has not inspired the same amount of online memeing, his campaign joined a recent social media trend, photoshopping the packaging for a Spirit Halloween J.B. Pritzker costume, along with a promise: Going out of style after November 8. As a reporter for the Daily Beast tweeted: Pritzker has a remarkably robust and self-sustaining meme ecosystem. Which was sort of the point of Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker. Advertisement Why Nomadic Warriors? It seemed like every ideology already had a Twitter account, Venturella said, so I thought, What ideology is so out there and random no one could have claimed it yet? He liked playing off the idea of a billionaire politician reaching beyond Springfield. (Many of these satirical accounts obliquely refer to Pritzker as possible a presidential contender.) Hed also studied Central and South Asian history in college, and when the account took off, he gave himself a crash course on Central Asian pre-Islamic nomadic empires. He never donated to the Pritzker campaign (Im too broke), though he did create a small line of Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker T-shirts and coffee mugs. Most of the Twitterverse response to Venturellas gag has been a mix of laughter and cosplay. May his glorious reign encompass all of the Midwest, wrote one fan. Venturella figures none of this will matter after Election Day. But as silly as it is, I like that someday someone will look at a Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker mug and think, Right! That was 2022! Before Pritzker was made emperor. cborrelli@chicagotribune.com Credit: Mark and Anna Photography / shutterstock Small island states are losing their patience with big polluting nations as they suffer the devastating impacts of climate change. Without significant movement at the forthcoming COP27 climate talks in Egypt, a pivotal vote at the next UN general assembly meeting, brought by the tiny Pacific islands of Vanuatu, could open the floodgates to international climate litigation. A core group of 16 states led by Vanuatu, will table a draft resolution at the general assembly in December requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gives an "advisory opinion" to clarify the rights and obligations of states under international law in relation to the adverse effects of climate change. Vanuatu needs only a simple majority of members present and voting (50% plus one), and support is growing. If successful, the baton passes to the ICJ to bring legal clarity to this complex issue. The advisory opinion would be non-binding. Nonetheless, such an opinion draws enormous moral power and legal authority. Although the vote takes place after COP27, Vanuatu's initiative could have an influence on negotiations in Egypt. Responsibility and compensation for loss and damage Low-income island states like Vanuatu have contributed the least to climate change, but as a group are the most directly affected by it. For low-lying atolls in particular, sea-level rise poses an existential threatsome Pacific nations will be entirely underwater by the end of the century. So it's not surprising to see states seeking clarity from the ICJ. Vanuatu has taken the lead in going to international courts, but others could follow suit. As far back as 1991, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) first called for a mechanism to compensate countries affected by sea level rise. These days, there are calls for "loss and damage" payments to address impacts associated with climate change that cannot be adapted to. But repeated attempts to raise the profile of loss and damage within the negotiations have been met with hostility from rich countries. At COP26 in Glasgow last year, AOSIS, supported by a coalition of 134 developing countries and China, called for a new facility to finance loss and damage, but this was firmly blocked by the US and EU. The costs of responding to climate disasters in developing countries could be in the trillions of dollars by 2050, and rich countries will want to avoid any legally binding commitment to meet these costs with public resources. But an ICJ advisory opinion could help unstick negotiations, as the threat of expansive litigation in the future may encourage the rich countries to capitulate. Vanuatu is one of many small island states in the Pacific threatened by rising seas. Credit: Peter Hermes Furian / shutterstock All of this plays into the increasingly contentious geopolitics between developing island states and larger, richer nations. A simple divide between rich and poor, north and south, or in the lingo of climate policy "Annex I" and "non-Annex I" countries does not tell the whole story. For instance many middle income "emerging" countries are rapidly industrializing. Their fast-growing emissions are causing their interests to diverge from those of small island states, and it is unclear whether the large group of developing countries will remain united in loss and damage negotiations. Recognizing the power of small states Vanuatu's initiative acknowledges the failures of the climate change negotiations but exemplifies the unique ways that small island developing states can exercise power. First, the recognition by the country's president that the ICJ is "the only principal organ of the UN system that has not yet been given an opportunity to help address the climate crisis" is extremely insightful. This seemingly banal observation about a process with no legal force, actually carries huge political significance because, if given the opportunity, the ICJ could make a judgment that powerful polluting countries would rather not have to hear. Second, Vanuatu's initiative is triggered by the low level of ambition under current nationally determined contributions (the amount each country pledges to cut its emissions by). International law requires states to prevent harm to the environment and protect human rights. At best, these obligations are not being met; at worst, they are actively being undermined by the lack of transformative climate action being demanded by vulnerable states. Third, this initiative is being spearheaded by a country of just 300,000 people across 83 islands and atolls, many of which are literally going under water. This is a remarkable example of the kind of leverage that can be exercised by small and vulnerable states. In the absence of conventional sources of power (size and military might) island states have been able to build multilateral coalitions and leverage institutional forms of influence (such as their UN membership, international law, and moral persuasion) to redress the imbalance. Powerful nations should stand up and take notice. Vanuatu and its partners are pursuing a ground-breaking diplomatic strategy and others will likely follow. But regardless of the ICJ initiative outcome, any acknowledged responsibility for loss and damage caused by climate change will only have meaningful effects when countries redress them. For the sake of the smallest, most vulnerable nations on earth, it's high time that they did. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Graphical abstract. Credit: Molecular Pharmaceutics (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.2c00220 In September, researchers from California and Denmark were awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of "click" chemistry, a process in which molecules snap together like LEGO, making them a potentially more efficient transportation device in delivering pharmaceuticals to cancer tumors. Now, in a recent study, a researcher at the University of Missouri has successfully shown for the first time how click chemistry can be used to more efficiently deliver drugs to treat tumors in large dogs with bone cancera process that had previously only been successful in small mice. "If you want to attack a tumor using the immune system, an antibody is an extremely specific way to deliver a drug or radioactive payload to the tumor, but the problem with antibodies is they are huge molecules that circulate in the bloodstream for days or even weeks," said Jeffrey Bryan, an associate professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and author on the study. "If you put a drug or radioactive molecule onto the antibody, you leave radioactivity circulating in the bloodstream for a long time, which can spread to and negatively impact organs, bone marrow and the liver while not getting as much dose to the specific tumor as you were hoping for." The goal with click chemistry is to maximize the delivery of therapeutic drugs specifically to the cancer tumor to increase effectiveness while minimizing the circulation of those drugs throughout the bloodstream and causing dangerous side effects. From mice to man's best friend For years, many chemists assumed that while click chemistry has been successful in mice, the strategy would not work in large dogs or people because the size of the body might be too big for the two sides of therapy-delivering molecules to find each other and snap, or "click," together. Bryan collaborated with Brian Zeglis, an associate professor at Hunter College in New York who specializes in click chemistry, to conduct the first-ever successful "proof-of-concept" study at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. Using click chemistry, doses of radiopharmaceuticals were delivered specifically to the tumors in five dogs that weighed more than 100 pounds and had bone cancer. "It is a huge step forward for the field to show that this worked in a human-sized body," Bryan said. "Going forward, this may pave the way for click chemistry to be used to help humans with cancer in the future." Bryan has been researching veterinary and comparative oncology for nearly two decades. He said some dogs with one known bone tumor have additional bone tumors hiding in their body's skeleton. An additional benefit of studies involving imaging scans and click chemistry is the ability to discover if additional cancer tumors are located in a dog's skeleton and impacting their health. "Osteosarcoma, a common form of bone cancer, impacts both dogs and people, and it causes severe pain, limping, swelling in the limbs, and treating the bone tumors with various radiation therapy and immune therapy approaches to take away the pain is something I am passionate about here at MU," Bryan said. "Everything we learn about treating these dogs can be translated to help humans down the road." A leader in treating cancerfor people and pets The MU College of Veterinary Medicine is the site of clinical trials for cancer that attract people and their pets from California, Florida, New York and states across the country. "It is heartwarming to be a part of it because the patients' families realize it is not just about better outcomes for their specific dog, but they are also contributing to better outcomes for other dogs in the future and hopefully better health outcomes for people as we translate these advances from the dogs to the human side," Bryan said. While this was a successful 'proof-of-concept' imaging study involving click chemistry, Bryan's long-term goal is to develop a therapy using radiopharmaceuticals, potentially involving an antibody-targeting molecule, to treat dogs with bone cancer that may not be well enough for other treatments that involve surgery. "This research is also an example of precision medicine, a key part of MU's NextGen Precision Health initiative, because we are using the molecules associated with the specific tumor to deliver the therapeutic dose of treatment," Bryan said. "We collaborate with the MU Research Reactor, the Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Center, and Washington University in St. Louis, so it is a team effort." In 2020, Bryan collaborated with ELIAS Animal Health to create a precision medicine approacha vaccine from a dog's own tumorto target and kill cancer cells in dogs suffering from osteosarcoma. The success of the treatment in dogs led the Food and Drug Administration to grant a rare fast-track designation for ELIAS Animal Health's parent organization, TVAX Biomedical, to study the ELIAS immunotherapy approach to treat glioblastoma multiforme, a cancerous brain tumor in humans. "The last dog that participated in that study just died a few weeks ago, five years out from their original diagnosis of bone cancer, and the dog never relapsed with its cancer, so the dog was able to live the rest of its life cancer-free due to the immunotherapy," Bryan said. "Our overall goal is to come up with different tools in our toolbox to effectively help treat dogs with cancer, and one day even people, too." The research was published in Molecular Pharmaceutics. More information: Charles A. Maitz et al, Pretargeted PET of Osteodestructive Lesions in Dogs, Molecular Pharmaceutics (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.2c00220 Journal information: Molecular Pharmaceutics The Buckland family tree. On the left-hand side is the plan of the cemetery and the location of each grave, illustrated by generation. On the right is the family tree with artifacts added. Credit: Duncan Sayer and Joscha Gretzinger, Author provided When you imagine life for ordinary people in ancient Britain, you'd be forgiven for picturing quaint villages where everyone looked and spoke the same way. But a recent study could change the way historians think about early medieval communities. Most of what we know about English history after the fall of the Roman Empire is limited to archaeological finds. There are only two contemporary accounts of this post Roman period. Gildas (sixth century) and Bede (eighth century) were both monks who give narrow descriptions of invasion by people from the continent and neither provide an objective account. My team's study, published in Nature, changes that. We analyzed DNA from the remains of 460 people from sites across northern Europe and found evidence of mass migration from Europe to England and movement of people from as far away as West Africa. Our study combined information from artifacts and human remains. That meant we could dig deeper into the data to explore the human details of migration. Journey into England's past This paper found that about 76% of the genetic ancestry in the early medieval English population we studied originated from what is today northern Germany and southern Scandinaviacontinental northern European (CNE). This number is an average taken from 278 ancient skeletons sampled from the south and east coasts of England. It is strong evidence for mass migration into the British Isles after the end of Roman administration. One of the most surprising discoveries was the skeleton of a young girl who died at about ten or 11 years of age, found in Updown near Eastry in Kent. She was buried in typical early seventh-century style with a finely made pot, knife, spoon and bone comb. Her DNA, however, tells a more complex story. As well as 67% CNE ancestry, she also had 33% West African ancestry. Her African ancestor was most closely related to the modern day Esan and Yoruda population in southern Nigeria. Evidence of far-reaching commercial connections with Kent at this time are known. The garnets in many brooches found in this this region came from Afghanistan for example. And the movement of the Updown girl's ancestors was likely linked to these ancient trading routes. Keeping it in the family Two women buried close by were sisters and had predominantly CNE ancestry. They were related to Updown girlperhaps her aunts. The fact that all three were buried in a similar way, with brooches, buckles and belt hangers, suggests the people who buried them chose to highlight similarities between Updown girl and her older female relatives when they dressed them and located the burials close together. They treated her as kin, as a girl from their village, because that is what she was. The gold bracteate from grave 250 at Dover Buckland. Credit: Duncan Sayer, Author provided The aunts also shared a close kinship with a young man buried with artifacts that implied some social status, including a spearhead and buckle. The graves of these four people were all close together. They were buried in a prominent position marked by small barrow mounds (ancient burial places covered with a large mound of earth and stones). The visibility of this spot, combined with their dress and DNA marks these people as part of an important local family. The site studied in most detailBuckland, near Dover in Kenthad kinship groups that spanned at least four generations. One family group with CNE ancestry is remarkable because of how quickly they integrated with western British and Irish (WBI) people. Within a few generations, traditions had merged between people born far away from each other. A 100% WBI woman had two daughters with a 100% CNE man. WBI ancestry entered this family again a generation later, in near 50/50 mixed-ancestry grandchildren. Objects including similar brooches and weapons were found in graves on both sides of this family, indicating shared values between people of different ancestries. This family was buried in graves close together for three generations. That is until a woman from the third generation was buried in a different cluster of graves, to the north of the family group. One of her children, a boy, died at about eight to ten years of age. He was buried in the cluster of graves that included his maternal grandparents and their close family and she laid her youngest child to rest in a grave surrounded by her family. But when the mother died, her adult children chose a spot close to their father for her grave. They considered her part of the paternal side of the family. Another woman from Buckland had a unique haplotype, a set of DNA variants that tend to be inherited together. Both males and females inherit their haplogroup from their mothers. So her DNA suggests she had no maternal family in the community she was buried with. The chemical isotopes, from her teeth and bones indicate she was not born in Kent but moved there when she was 1525 years old. An ornate gold pendant, called a bracteate, which may have been of Scandinavian origin, was found in her grave. This suggests she left home from Scandinavia in her youth, and her mother's family did not travel with her. She very likely had an exogamous marriage (marriage outside of your social group). What is striking is the physical distance that this partnership bridged. This woman traveled 700 miles, including a voyage across the North Sea, to start her family. Rethinking history These people were migrants and the children of migrants who traveled in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries. Their stories are of community and intermarriage. The genetic data points to profound mobility within a time of mass migration and the archaeological details help to complete the family histories. Migration did not happen at the same time, nor did it all come from the same place. Early Anglo-Saxon culture was a mixing pot of ideas, intermarriage and movement. This genetic coalescing and cultural diversity created something new in the south and east of England after the Roman empire ended. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain As climate impacts intensify across the globe, nations must dramatically increase funding and implementation of actions designed to help vulnerable nations and communities adapt to the climate storm, according to a new United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report. Released ahead of COP27the latest round of climate talks taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, EgyptThe Adaptation Gap Report 2022: Too Little, Too SlowClimate adaptation failure puts world at risk, finds that global efforts in adaptation planning, financing and implementation are not keeping pace with the growing risks. "Climate change is landing blow after blow upon humanity, as we saw throughout 2022: most viscerally in the floods that put much of Pakistan under water," said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. "The world must urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impacts of climate change. But we must also urgently increase efforts to adapt to the impacts that are already here and those to come. "Nations need to back the strong words in the Glasgow Climate Pact with strong action to increase adaptation investments and outcomes, starting at COP27." Climate risks rising A multiyear drought in the Horn of Africa, unprecedented flooding in South Asia and severe summer heat across the northern hemisphere point to mounting climate risks. These impacts are coming at only 1.1C above pre-industrial temperatures. According to UNEP's Emissions Gap Reportthe recently released sister publication of the Adaptation Gap ReportNationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement point towards global warming of 2.42.6C by the end of the century. Research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that climate risks will intensify with each tenth of a degree. Such trends mean that adaptation must take center stage alongside mitigation in the global response to climate change, the report finds. Since even ambitious investments in adaptation cannot fully prevent climate impacts, losses and damages must also be addressed. Progress on adaptation slow and spotty The report finds that more than eight out of ten countries have at least one national adaptation planning instrument, and they are getting better and more inclusive. One third of the 197 country Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have incorporated quantified and time-bound targets on adaptation. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of planning instruments analyzed display consideration for gender and disadvantaged groups, such as Indigenous peoples. However, financing to turn these plans into action isn't following. International adaptation finance flows to developing countries are 510 times below estimated needs and the gap continues to widen. International adaptation finance flows to developing countries reached USD 29 billion in 2020, as reported by donor countries, an increase of 4% from 2019. Combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 fell at least USD 17 billion short of the USD 100 billion pledged to developing countries. Significant acceleration is needed if a doubling of 2019 finance flows by 2025 is to be met, as urged by the Glasgow Climate Pact. Estimated annual adaptation needs are USD 160340 billion by 2030 and USD 315565 billion by 2050. Implementation of adaptation actionsconcentrated in agriculture, water, ecosystems and cross-cutting sectorsis increasing, but not keeping up with climate impacts. Without a step change in support, adaptation actions could be outstripped by accelerating climate risks. A united approach The report finds that linking adaptation and mitigation actionssuch as nature-based solutionsfrom the outset in planning, finance, and implementation can enhance co-benefits. It could also limit potential trade-offs, such as hydropower reducing food security or irrigation increasing energy consumption. The authors conclude that strong political will is needed to increase adaptation investments and outcomes. Crises such as the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to derail international efforts to increase adaptation. Unprecedented political will and more long-term investments in adaptation are urgently needed to avoid the adaptation gap from widening. More information: Adaptation Gap Report 2022: www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2022 Provided by UN Environment Programme Credit: Tina Rolf/Unsplash Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 yearsthe highest of any continent in the world. As the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate change impacts will affect society, economies and ecosystems, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The State of the Climate in Europe report, produced jointly with the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, focused on 2021. It provides information on rising temperatures, land and marine heatwaves, extreme weather, changing precipitation patterns and retreating ice and snow. Temperatures over Europe have warmed significantly over the 19912021 period, at an average rate of about +0.5 C per decade. As a result, Alpine glaciers lost 30 meters in ice thickness from 1997 to 2021. The Greenland ice sheet is melting and contributing to accelerating sea level rise. In summer 2021, Greenland saw a melt event and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point, Summit station. In 2021, high impact weather and climate events led to hundreds of fatalities, directly affected more than half a million people and caused economic damages exceeding US$ 50 billion. About 84% of the events were floods or storms. It's not all bad news. A number of countries in Europe have been very successful in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, in the European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions decreased 31% between 1990 and 2020, with a net 55% reduction target for 2030. Europe is also one of the most advanced regions in cross-border cooperation in climate change adaptation, in particular across transnational river basins. It is one of the world leaders in providing effective early warning systems, with about 75% of people protected. Heat-health action plans have saved many lives from extreme heat. But the challenges are formidable. "Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events. This year, like 2021, large parts of Europe have been affected by extensive heatwaves and drought, fueling wildfires. In 2021, exceptional floods caused death and devastation," said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas. "On the mitigation side, the good pace in reducing greenhouse gases emissions in the region should continue and ambition should be further increased. Europe can play a key role towards achieving a carbon neutral society by the middle of the century to meet the Paris Agreement," said Prof. Taalas. The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission, provides state-of-the-art climate monitoring data and tools to support climate mitigation and adaptation and initiatives such as the European Green Deal. "European society is vulnerable to climate variability and change, but Europe is also at the forefront of the international effort to mitigate climate change and to develop innovative solutions to adapt to the new climate Europeans will have to live with," said Dr. Carlo Buontempo, Director, Copernicus Climate Change Service, European Center of Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). "As the risks and impact of climate change become increasingly apparent in day-to-day life, the need and the appetite grow for climate intelligence, and rightly so. With this report we aim to bridge the gap between the data and the analysis to provide science-based but accessible information that is 'decision-ready,' across sectors, across professions," he said. The State of the Climate in Europe report builds on the C3S European State of the Climate published in April and information provided by the WMO RA VI Regional Climate Center Network. It is one of a series of regional reports compiled by WMO in order to provide localized scientific information to policy makers. It was presented at a regional conference of directors of European national meteorological and hydrological services. The report and an accompanying story map includes input from national meteorological and hydrological services, climate experts, regional bodies and UN partner agencies. It was issued ahead of the annual UN Climate Change negotiations, COP27, in Sharm-El Sheikh. Future scenarios Weather, climate and water-related disasters are projected to increase in the future, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (Working Group I, IPCC AR6 WGI). It assessed there was "high confidence" that: Regardless of future levels of global warming, temperatures will rise in all European areas at a rate exceeding global mean temperature changes, similar to past observations. The frequency and intensity of hot extremes, including marine heatwaves, have increased in recent decades and are projected to keep increasing regardless of the greenhouse gas emissions scenario. Critical thresholds relevant for ecosystems and humans are projected to be exceeded for global warming of 2 C and higher. Observations have a seasonal and regional pattern consistent with projected increase of precipitation in winter in Northern Europe. A precipitation decrease is projected in summer in the Mediterranean extending to northward regions. Extreme precipitation and pluvial flooding are projected to increase at global warming levels exceeding 1.5C in all regions except the Mediterranean. Climate impacts Health: European people's health is impacted by climate change in a myriad of ways, including death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events (heatwaves), increases in zoonoses and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues. The deadliest extreme climate events in Europe are heatwaves, particularly in western and in southern Europe. The combination of climate change, urbanization and population aging in the region creates, and will further exacerbate, vulnerability to heat. Climate change-induced alterations in the production and distribution of pollens and spores may lead to increases in allergic disorders. Over 24% of adults living in the European region suffer from various allergies, including severe asthma, while the proportion among children in the region is 3040% and rising. Climate change also affects the distribution of vector-borne diseases. Examples include ticks (Ixodes ricinus), which can spread Lyme illness and tick-borne encephalitis. According to WHO's Regional Office for Europe, about half-million premature deaths in the WHO European Region were caused by anthropogenic fine particle ambient air pollution in 2019, of which an important part were directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels. It is estimated that about 138,000 premature deaths could be avoided per year through reduced carbon emissions, potentially resulting in savings of US$ 244564 billion. Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than adults, both physically and psychologically. According to the UNICEF Children's Climate Risk Index (CCRI), nearly 125 million children in Europe live in countries with "medium to high" risk countries (the third of five levels classification used globally). Ecosystems: Most damage from wildfires is due to extreme events for which neither ecosystems nor communities are adapted. Climate change, human behaviors and other underlying factors are creating the conditions for more frequent, intense and devastating fires in Europe, with significant socioeconomic and ecological consequences. Transport: Transport infrastructure and operations are at risk from both incremental climate change and extreme events (e.g. heat waves, heavy downpours, high winds and extreme sea levels and waves). Much transport infrastructure wase constructed based on historic values for various weather phenomena thresholds and so are not resilient to current extremes. Climate policy Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of these long-term goals. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. As of March 2022, 51 European countries and the EU submitted an NDC. Mitigation to climate change has been a primary focus for many European Parties, as reflected in their NDCs, highlighting the following priority areas: energy supply; agriculture; waste; and land use, land-use change and forestry as top priorities for mitigation. In 2021, the European Union (EU) in its climate law made climate neutrality, the goal of zero net emissions by 2050, legally binding in the EU. It set an interim target of 55% emission reduction by 2030. Provided by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A trio of University of Arkansas at Little Rock investigators are exploring the role that Little Rock congregations play in faith-based, racial justice efforts, including the response of congregations after the 2020 death of George Floyd. The paper, "Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice," was presented at the American Political Science Association Conference in Montreal in September. The paper's authors include Dr. Rebecca Glazier, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the director of the Little Rock Congregations Study, Dr. Gerald Driskill, a professor of applied communication, and Dominika Hanson, a graduate student in rhetoric and writing. They collected data that included a survey of 2,293 congregants from 35 congregations in Little Rock; an analysis of 90 sermons from 15 congregations that reveal how clergy talked about race in the weeks following Floyd's death, 21 clergy interviews that illustrate how clergy use religion to engage on racial issues, and interviews with seven national leaders and focus groups with six congregations. "We have been talking with and listening to members of the Little Rock faith community for many years," Glazier said. "For us, it began in 2019 when we held the Religious Leaders Summit. Race was one of the key issues that congregation leaders told us they wanted us to explore more. Because of what we learned at that summit, our research team has spent more than two years studying race and faith issues." In a 2020 study of nearly 2,300 people from 35 diverse congregations across Little Rock, researchers found that the No. 1 issue participants wanted their congregation to do something about was race relations. Further research with clergy members found that 88 percent of them said that Little Rock has a problem with racial division, while 64% believe race relations will get better and that clergy are in a position to help make that happen. The professors had already decided to investigate the role of congregations in racial justice efforts, but the 2020 killing of Floyd had such an impact on the country that it presented a unique opportunity to understand how congregations in Little Rock respond. "During the summer of 2020 when America's reckoning with race relations happened, we did interviews with clergy to understand what was happening in the community after the death of George Floyd," Glazier said. "A lot of people turned to their places of worship and their faith to determine what they should be doing in this moment. How do we handle such a volatile time in our history? How do we grapple with racism?" The researchers found that Little Rock congregations were very active in engaging with faith-based racial justice work in many diverse ways that include forming book discussion groups, creating podcasts with people from other congregations, conducting audits of their church, and engaging with conversations with people from different backgrounds and religions. "Events like what happened to George Floyd have been going on for a long time," Driskill said. "Many of our congregations find that listening to different viewpoints is the right thing to do. We're looking at the event in a larger context, and our congregations are stepping up by better engaging the community and being proactive. Some congregations are doing remarkable work with getting those bridges built." Driskill described how one Little Rock church who provided food and other services to the homeless took an organic approach to really try to get to know the people they helped, many of whom are people of color. "Members started realizing that they really needed to get to know the people they are serving and not just give them things," he said. "Others are engaged in literacy programs to address the disproportionate number of minorities with low literacy rates. In another case, a church leader decided to load up a bus and take other faith leaders on a tour of places of interest in civil rights in the South. Good things are going on, and we hope that those can spark others to look at their options." In their analysis of sermons following Floyd's death, the researchers found clear differences based on racial lines. Black congregations see their religion more closely tied to racial justice than white congregations. "I think a lot of congregations, both Black and white, were talking about it," Glazier said. "Black congregations were more likely to talk about it in collective terms and say that it's a systemic problem. White congregations were more likely to talk about Floyd's death in individual terms, like this tragedy is sad on an individual level. We collected six weeks of data when people were out there protesting and talking about it all the time. There were some white congregations that didn't even say George Floyd's name." The researchers' interviews with national faith leaders and focus groups resulted in a collection of publicly available, faith-based racial justice resources. The free resources will be available to clergy participants of the Race and Faith Summit on Nov. 2. They will also be released to the general public by the Little Rock Studies Congregation later this fall. More information: Rebecca Glazier et al, Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice (2022). DOI: 10.33774/apsa-2022-2cq20 Two photofunctions, Photoluminescence (PL) and unidirectional rotation are combined by hybridizing a PL dye and a molecular motor. The molecular design provides photoregulation of these functions as well as additional synergistic effects. Credit: Ryojun Toyoda Rotary molecular motors were first created in 1999, in the laboratory of Ben Feringa, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Groningen. These motors are driven by light. For many reasons, it would be good to be able to make these motor molecules visible. The best way to do this is to make them fluoresce. However, combining two light-mediated functions in a single molecule is quite challenging. The Feringa laboratory has now succeeded in doing just that, in two different ways. These two types of fluorescing light-driven rotary motors were described in Nature Communications (September 30) and Science Advances (November 4). "After the successful design of molecular motors in the past decades, an important next goal was to control various functions and properties using such motors," explains Feringa, who shared in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016. "As these are light-powered rotary motors, it is particularly challenging to design a system that would have another function that is controlled by light energy, in addition to the rotary motion." Feringa and his team were particularly interested in fluorescence since this is a prime technique that is widely used for detection, for example in biomedical imaging. Usually, two such photochemical events are incompatible in the same molecule; either the light-driven motor operates and there is no fluorescence or there is fluorescence and the motor does not operate. Feringa says, "We have now demonstrated that both functions can exist in parallel in the same molecular system, which is rather unique." Ryojun Toyoda, a postdoctoral researcher in the Feringa group, who now holds a professor position at Tohoku University in Japan, added a fluorescent dye to a classic Feringa rotary motor. "The trick was to prevent these two functionalities from blocking each other," says Toyoda. He managed to quench the direct interactions between the dye and the motor. This was done by positioning the dye perpendicular to the upper part of the motor to which it was attached. "This limits the interaction," Toyoda explains. Different colors In this way, the fluorescence and the rotary function of the motor can coexist. Furthermore, it turned out that changing the solvent allows him to tune the system: "By varying the solvent polarity, the balance between both functions can be changed." This means that the motor has become sensitive to its environment, which could point the way for future applications. Co-author Shirin Faraji, professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the university of Groningen, helped to explain how this happens. Kiana Moghaddam, a postdoc in her group, performed extensive quantum mechanical calculations and demonstrated how the key energetics governing the photo-excited dynamics strongly depend on the solvent polarity. Another useful property of this fluorescing motor molecule is that different dyes could be attached to it as long as they have a similar structure. "So, it is relatively easy to create motors that are glowing in different colors," says Toyoda. The dual-function motor was prepared by chemically attaching an antenna to a molecular motor. Rotation and photoluminescence (PL) can be controlled using light of different wavelengths. Credit: Lukas Pfeifer Antenna A second fluorescent motor was constructed by Lukas Pfeifer, also while working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Feringa group. He has since joined the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland: "My solution was based on a motor molecule that I had already made, which is driven by two low-energy near-infrared photons." Motors that are powered by near-infrared light are useful in biological systems, as this light penetrates deeper into tissue than visible light and is less harmful to the tissue than UV light. "I added an antenna to the motor molecule that collects the energy of two infrared photons and transfers it to the motor. While working on this, we discovered that with some modifications, the antenna could also cause fluorescence," says Pfeifer. It turned out that the molecule can have two different excited states: in one state, the energy is transferred to the motor part and drives rotation, while the other state causes the molecule to fluoresce. Power "In the case of this second motor, the entire molecule fluoresces," explains Professor Maxim Pshenichnikov, who performed spectroscopic analysis of both types of fluorescent motor and who is a co-author of both papers. "This motor is one chemical entity on which the wave function is not localized and, depending on the energy level, can have two different effects. By altering the wavelength of the light, and thus the energy that the molecule receives, you get either rotation or fluorescence." Faraji adds, "Our synergized in-principle and in-practice approach highlights the interplay between theoretical and experimental studies, and it illustrates the power of such combined efforts." Now that the team has combined both motion and fluorescence in the same molecule, a next step would be to show motility and detect the molecule's location simultaneously by tracing the fluorescence. Feringa says, "This is very powerful and we might apply it to show how these motors might traverse a cell membrane or move inside a cell, as fluorescence is a widely used technique to show where molecules are in cells. We could also use it to trace the movement that is induced by the light-powered motor, for instance on a nanoscale trajectory or perhaps trace motor-induced transport on the nanoscale. This is all part of follow-up research." A heath hare in summer pelage. Credit: C.-G. Thulin Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, in collaboration with colleagues from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, Sveriges lantbruks universitet), have published seven draft genomes for Nordic hare species. The genomes include three heath hares (Lepus timidus sylvaticus), a subspecies of the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) that is unique to southern Scandinavia and western Estonia. Instead of a white winter pelage that is typical of boreal/arctic mountain hares (Lepus timidus timidus), the heath hare has a gray/blue winter pelage. It is generally believed that this form of winter coloration is a specific adaptation to the less reliable snow coverage in southern Scandinavia. The distribution of heath hares overlaps with that of the non-native brown hare, which seem to outcompete heath hares wherever they occur. Together with the threat from land use, this competition has pushed the uniquely adapted mountain hare subspecies at risk of going extinct. Genomic knowledge helps to understand the genetic basis for traits that are important for specific adaptations and provides information about the evolutionary relationships as well as historical origins of the populations. Therefore, the first whole genome sequences from three heath hares were acquired along with two mountain hares, and two brown hares. Rather surprisingly, the genome of the heath hare differed notably from the nominal mountain hares, despite the thousands of years of coexistence, demonstrating that the subspecies difference is not restricted to local adaptation but represents a unique, old evolutionary divergence. This suggests that the heath hare colonized Scandinavia from the south after the most recent ice age, whereas the contemporary mountain hare probably arrived later from the northeast. The obtained genome sequences are useful also for screening genetic variation that could be used for investigations of genetic differentiation and local adaptations. Hopefully, these sequence data will provide authorities with tools to assess the status of the unique heath hares and help conservation efforts. The results were published in Scientific Data. More information: Craig T. Michell et al, Mountain- and brown hare genetic polymorphisms to survey local adaptations and conservation status of the heath hare (Lepus timidus sylvaticus, Nilsson 1831), Scientific Data (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01794-5 Journal information: Scientific Data Researchers led by Valerie Payre, assistant professor in earth and environmental sciences at the University of Iowa, have found the early crust on Mars is more complex in origin than previously thought. The researchers located nine locations in Mars's southern hemisphere (see image, above) that were rich in a mineral called feldspar. Feldspar is associated with a terrain that has more than a simply volcanic origin. The finding may mean Mars's formation may be similar to Earth's planetary beginnings." Credit: Valerie Payre, University of Iowa Early crust on Mars may be more complex than previously thoughtand it may even be similar to our own planet's original crust. The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a product of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth, scientists had thought Mars's crustal history was a relatively simple tale. But in a new study, researchers found locations in the Red Planet's southern hemisphere with greater concentrations of silicon, a chemical element, than what would be expected in a purely basaltic setting. The silica concentration had been exposed by space rocks that slammed into Mars, excavating material that was embedded miles below the surface, and revealing a hidden past. The study, "An evolved early crust exposed on Mars revealed through spectroscopy," was published online Nov. 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "There is more silica in the composition that makes the rocks not basalt, but what we call more evolved in composition," says Valerie Payre, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iowa and the study's corresponding author. "That tells us how the crust formed on Mars is definitely more complex than what we knew. So, it's more about understanding that process, and especially what it means for how Earth's crust first formed." Scientists believe Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Exactly how the Red Planet came into being is a mystery, but there are theories. One idea is that Mars formed via a titanic collision of rocks in space, that with intense heat spawned an entirely liquefied state, also known as a magma ocean. The magma ocean gradually cooled, the theory goes, yielding a crust, like a layer of skin, that would be singularly basaltic. Another theory is that the magma ocean was not all-encompassing, and that parts of the first crust on Mars had a different origin, one that would show silica concentrations different from basaltic. Payre and her research partners analyzed data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the planet's southern hemisphere, which previous research had indicated was the oldest region. The researchers found nine locationssuch as craters and fractures in the terrainthat were rich in feldspar, a mineral associated with lava flows that are more silicic than basaltic. "This was the first clue," Payre says. "It is because the terrains are feldspar-rich that we explored the silica concentrations there." Feldspar had been found previously in other regions on Mars, but further analysis showed the chemical composition in those areas was more basaltic. That did not deter the researchers, who turned to another instrument, called THEMIS, which can detect silica concentrations through infrared wavelength reflections from the Martian surface. With data from THEMIS, the team determined the terrain at their chosen locations was more silicic than basaltic. Adding further credence to their observations, meteorites such as Erg Chech 002, discovered in the Sahara and dating roughly to the birth of the solar system, show similar silicic and other mineral compositions that the team observed in the nine locations on Mars. The researchers also dated the crust to about 4.2 billion years, which would make it the oldest crust found on Mars to date. Payre says she was mildly surprised at the discovery. "There have been rovers on the surface that have observed rocks that were more silicic than basaltic," she says. "So, there were ideas that the crust could be more silicic. But we never knew, and we still don't know, how the early crust was formed, or how old it is, so it's kind of a mystery still." While Mars' crustal origin remains shrouded, Earth's crustal history is even less clear, as any vestiges of our planet's original crust have been long erased due to the shifting of continental plates for billions of years. Still, the finding may offer insights into Earth's origins. "We don't know our planet's crust from the beginning; we don't even know when life first appeared," Payre says. "Many think the two could be related. So, understanding what the crust was like a long time ago could help us understand the whole evolution of our planet." Payre conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher at Northern Arizona University. She joined the UI in August. Contributing authors are Mark Salvatore and Christopher Edwards from Northern Arizona. More information: V. Payre et al, An Evolved Early Crust Exposed on Mars Revealed through Spectroscopy, Geophysical Research Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1029/2022GL099639 Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Morphological assessment of keratinocytes. A total of 1.5 10. 4 cells/well were seeded on the samples in 24-well plates. The images were taken after 4 days of incubation. Confocal images of a, b XL-R, c, d XL-A500, e, f XL-A1000, g, h XL-A1500, i, j. Credit: Advanced Fiber Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s42765-022-00216-w A team of researchers from Singapore has reported the development of a skin-mimicking scaffold by parallelly aligning nanofibers made up of a mixture of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin that enhances wound healing. Their research has recently been published in Advanced Fiber Materials. When the skin is injured, it can take a while to heal, depending on the level of injury. Bacteria present in the skin flora or from external sources migrate to the injured sites and their heightened presence delays the healing process. Infected wounds often take several weeks to heal. Emerging multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria further adds to the health burdens in wound care and represents a major healthcare problem. Wound management costs billions of dollars every year worldwide. In addition, delayed wound healing adds to the suffering of many people and their well-being. With the goal of accelerating the wound healing process, researchers prepared a novel composite dressing. They used two basic ingredientsPCL, which is a biodegradable polyester, and Gelatin, a biodegradable protein made from denatured collagen. They applied the electrospinning method to fabricate fibers made of PCL/Gelatin. They then incorporated a skin-compatible naturally occurring poly(amino acid) polymer, called -polylysine, into the fibrous scaffold. Researchers have earlier established excellent broad-spectrum anti-infective properties of -polylysine. In addition, they showed that -polylysine enhances the motility of skin cellsdermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes. "The idea of adding -polylysine to the nanofibrous scaffolds was to prevent bacterial colonization at the injured site. We leveraged our experience in designing durable antimicrobial nanofibers. The nanofibrous composite dressing prevented bacterial infection and effectively accelerated wound healing. This is mainly because the electrospun material mimicked the structure and properties of the natural skin, providing a suitable microenvironment on the wound bed," said Dr. Rajamani Lakshminarayanan, Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), one of the lead PI of the study. To further increase the mechanical strength, robustness, and durability of the scaffolds, researchers cross-linked the fibrous scaffolds using a chemical, called dopamine hydrochloride. Dressings made from these fibers were smooth, continuous, and bead-free, with a mean diameter that is supportive of skin cells. Moreover, nanofibrous mats were highly hydrophilic, which is crucial for enhancing dermal cell adhesion, polarization, migration, and thus wound dressing. "By controlling the speed of the rotating drum collector of the electrospinning system, we were able to tune fiber alignment," said Mr. Erfan Rezvani Ghomi, a Ph.D. student at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the first author of the paper. "The fiber alignment of the scaffolds improved their tensile strength and imparted hydrophilicity, i.e., creating a moistening environment, a desirable feature of wound dressing that can absorb excessive wound fluid allowing better cell growth, proliferation, and migration." Researchers experimented with different topologies of electrospun nanofibers using the in vitro cell culture system. When researchers arranged the fibers in a parallel topology, they were able to increase cell proliferation and the movement of cells in the direction of alignment, while fibers with random topology slowed cell motility. The extracellular matrix consists of fibrous structures through which skin cells move. "If we create and apply a similar structure on the injured tissue, it will provide a favorable microenvironment, support cell movement, and thus enhance wound healing. Our findings that applying parallelly aligned PCL/Gelatin scaffolds enhances cell migration would help in improving treatment outcomes of wounds and provide hope that new and better dressing could be developed to improve healing. We are continuing our research efforts and actively developing new scaffold designs tuned for regulating inflammation in the wounds," said Assistant Professor Navin Verma, Nanyang Technological university Singapore (NTU), one of the lead PI of the study. "A simple electrospinning technique was used in the current work to create dressing. The wound care industry is looking for this kind of innovative bioengineered materials. A simple next step would be to add more functionalities to this highly aligned fiber material such as anti-inflammatory properties," said Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, NUS. Although various dressings based on hydrogels, and other materials loaded with bioactive agents were developed for wound healing, the efficiency of these dressings was limited to their composition. But an important aspect about the biological influence of structure and topography is less studied. Professor S. C. Kundu, Research Coordinator and Former European Research Area Chair, Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, at the Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, University of Minho, Portugal, who was not involved in the study, said, "fiber fabrication designs will help us to improve treatments, which would provide wound patients with better benefits. Rapid wound healing is particularly desired in the case of chronic wounds or severe burns. But more research needs to be done." Highlighting the significance of the current work, the research team said, "Our study offers a general framework for future research, and we are beginning to explore the opportunities. We are now looking to develop this technique to the next stage that could lay the groundwork for new approaches in dealing with wound repair." More information: Erfan Rezvani Ghomi et al, Electrospun Aligned PCL/Gelatin Scaffolds Mimicking the Skin ECM for Effective Antimicrobial Wound Dressings, Advanced Fiber Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s42765-022-00216-w Provided by Nanyang Technological University Singapore A pedestrian passes Touche bar in Rogers Park on Nov. 3, 2022, after a puppet show attendees called racist and transphobic was featured at its 45th anniversary event. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) On Tuesday, puppeteer Jerry Halliday brought out one of his puppets during a show celebrating Touche's 45th anniversary and put on a performance that attendees have called racist and transphobic and which has since plunged the bar into controversy. One of four featured on Hallidays website, the puppet in the show was called Sista Girl and resembles a Black woman. The act prompted people who were present to speak up with two of them calling it a huge slap in the face and even caused a bartender to walk out in the middle of his shift. Advertisement Touche manager David Boyer released a statement through the bars Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts Wednesday in which he apologized. (On Tuesday) at Touche's 45th anniversary celebration, puppeteer Jerry Halliday included racist and transphobic puppets and jokes in his act. We deeply regret not vetting the entertainer prior to the event, the statement reads. We apologize for not reacting and stopping the show. People were harmed by his words. Racism and transphobia are wrong, we need to do better. Advertisement On Touche's website, the programming for the bars 45th anniversary included a description of Hallidays show, which it was welcoming alongside his colorful cast of characters in order to salute our early days on Lincoln Avenue. My show is naughty, its risky, but its not filthy dirty, and its intended to be funny, Halliday told the Tribune on Sunday. The fact that this has happened to me is a nightmare, because my intention has never been to come across as making fun of Black people. After Tuesdays controversy, Halliday has decided to retire the 24-year-old puppet Sista Girl a tremendous sacrifice on his part, he said and is currently in the process of creating a new puppet. He said he has performed with the puppet in casinos, comedy clubs, gay bars, strip clubs, cruise ships with no problem for more than 20 years. My Black puppet is my pride and joy. I love this character, and shes so sweet and charming and lovable, he said. Even though I feel like people that did not like it misinterpreted what Im doing, I decided its for the best just to retire (the puppet). Because I dont want to upset anybody else in the future. Halliday said hes been involved in equal rights causes since the 1960s. He said he believes cancel culture explains the reaction to his show Tuesday. People feel good about piling on, even though they werent (there), didnt see the show. They dont know anything about it, he said. You know, they just want to pile on, which makes them, makes those individuals feel better about themselves. On Twitter, Philip Smith shared his experience attending the show at the Rogers Park gay leather bar, explaining that patrons were asked not to record during the puppeteers act Halliday explained the request is due to the fact his shows are copyrighted, and if people record them, he has nothing to sell. However, Smith defied the request once he saw the puppet Halliday had brought out. When the show started, what went through my mind was: How am I able to be an ally in this moment? Smith told the Tribune. I said this in my (Twitter) thread, but victims of racism are oftentimes told that theyre exaggerating or being too sensitive, or cancel culture is invoked as a way to diminish their experiences. Advertisement Last night @ToucheChicago asked folks not to record during the act theyd hired to celebrate their 45th anniversary, however, shortly after Jerry Halliday was introduced with his featured puppet, Sista Girl, I got my camera out. crumb dumpster (@CraftBeardMI) November 2, 2022 The performer made dated jokes, Smith said, some of which he said oversexualized Black women. After the shock wore off, it was sad and disappointing, because you would hope that people know better at this point. It also was frustrating because the general manager was sitting at a table right in front of the stage, Smith said. In the videos Smith shared on Twitter, attendees can be heard cheering on Halliday after someone from the audience confronts him, saying: Everyone in the crowd thinks this is a little weird for 2022. Mike Geier, the attendee who challenged Halliday, told the Tribune he didnt initially mean to confront the puppeteer. He said he initially was talking to some people near the front door and noticed people leaving and looking disturbed. I noticed what was going on onstage. I noticed a few other people around the bar kind of with pained faces on, so I was just kind of quietly going around and just checking in with my friends. (I) wasnt intentionally engaging with the puppeteer. He kind of called me out. Lots of people were talking I dont know why he singled me out for talking and having quiet conversations. He said that, while it isnt audible in Smiths videos, he told Halliday he thought it was inappropriate for a white man to perform with a Black puppet. Advertisement All my friends were people of color that were there to have a good time at a bar that they love, Geier said. And they felt really uncomfortable and visibly upset and that was what really kind of made me a little bit upset because I was putting myself in their shoes and seeing how awful this was. Miguel Torres, Touches Mr. Chicago Leather 2014, was at Touche on Tuesday night, but closed his tab and left during Hallidays performance. Torres, a frequent patron, told the Tribune the performance felt like a huge slap in the face on the community, from all these people and from all the marginalized groups that have poured their free time, energy and soul into making this bar what it was. Old-school leather bars tend to be very focused on masculinity and that type of thing, so over the years, weve guided this management, done a lot of work to make sure that posters werent old, white men, that we had representation, Torres said. This guy had this puppet show, and he just brought out this African American doll called Sista Girl and this white male started doing these voices, racist voices, and played on all the stereotypes that you hope have been eradicated. It was just extremely upsetting, he said. Bartender Cris Bleaux, seen on Nov. 3, 2022, walked out of a puppet show attendees called racist and transphobic at Touche bar in Rogers Park. He quit in the middle of his shift Tuesday after feeling uncomfortable with the show. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Touche bartender Cris Bleaux walked out and quit in the middle of his shift Tuesday after feeling uncomfortable with the jokes Halliday was making. Advertisement My job that night was to enjoy it, people, and make them feel good and affirmed and seen, the former bartender told the Tribune. And then my night dramatically did a 180 within 45 minutes to an hour. He said he texted a friend during his shift, saying, Hey, I need to leave. Its a really nasty, ugly, truly disappointing situation, Bleaux said. I just really feel like it was a huge slap in the face to many communities, specifically those two, he said, referring to people of color and transgender and nonbinary people, considering that there are racist jokes and transphobic jokes going on. In his statement, Boyer emphasized the bars 45-year history and asked patrons to let them prove their resolve and to not allow the controversy to overshadow the service it has provided to the community. Touche, Boyer said, is planning a community gathering at the Leather Archives & Museum at 7 p.m. Wednesday so members of the community can express their concerns and discuss ways of moving forward. But for some attendees, the statement didnt go far enough. Smith called it a boilerplate apology and really disappointing, and Geier said it was very formulaic. Advertisement A statement came out and, as expected, it was apology bingo, what we call that was all the keywords, Torres said of the apology. I dont see many ways outside of the management quitting immediately for the community to heal. I dont know what the future of Touche will be. But I think that what it is right now is not OK, and I think acting like this is just like some misstep or confusion or a misunderstanding is really gross, Bleaux said. I think Chicago has had, for the past couple of years, a history of events within queer spaces that has not always been really affirming and sometimes its been dangerous, Bleaux added. Smith also sees the city as a space where theres a constant need for growth in regards to diversity and inclusivity, especially in the last few years. Chicago, I think particularly, is the epicenter of a lot of discussion about inclusivity in LGBTQ spaces and how we need to make Black folks and people of color feel like they belong in spaces that historically are overrun by gay white men and their interests, he said. The controversy at Touche follows one at another Chicago social space: On Tuesday, Bucktowns live-music fixture The Hideout announced it would close for the remainder of the year after a former employee shared allegations of a toxic work environment. Advertisement adperez@chicagotribune.com Yearly number of active internal armed conflicts with ceasefires, globally, 19892018. Credit: Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00220027221128300 The path to peace usually leads through a ceasefire. In an international project, ETH Zurich researchers have shown the conditions under which parties to civil wars are willing to stop fightingand why they decide to do so. Ceasefires are agreements by which one or more parties to a conflict agree to stop hostilities. Although they usually do not solve the problems underlying a conflict, they are always an important step towards ending civil wars. But why do parties to a conflict decide to lay down their arms in the first place? And when are they more likely to do so? To answer these questions, researchers from ETH Zurich, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in Norway and Uppsala University in Sweden have created the first comprehensive dataset on ceasefires in all civil wars between 1989 and 2020. They examined 2,202 agreements concluded during 109 civil conflicts across 66 countries. Their study, one of four published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, shows that the reasons for ceasefires in civil wars are more multifaceted than previously thought and that there are a number of conditions that favor them. The authors focus on intra-, rather than inter-state wars, as the later were the exception during the period under review. A global phenomenon In almost all the civil wars between 1989 and 2020, the parties decided at some point to stop fighting, even if just for a limited time. The five countries with the most ceasefires were Sudan (169) followed by India (167), the Philippines (157), Syria (140) and Israel (103). Most of the ceasefires between 1989 and the early 1990s occurred in Latin America, largely as a result of the peace processes in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Then, from the mid-1990s, most of the agreements were concluded in Europe in connection with the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. As a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the number of ceasefires in Europe increased again from 2014 on. In Africa and Asia, ceasefires occurred relatively consistently throughout the period covered by the dataset. In the Middle East, by contrast, agreements were relatively rare from 1990 until the early 2000s. Their numbers increased starting in 2014 due to the Gaza War between Hamas and Israel. When ceasefires come about The international research team's study shows that parties to a conflict are more likely to agree to a ceasefire in periods where the conflict is particularly bloody and when an above-average number of civilians have been accidentally killed by rebel attacks. In South Sudan, for example, the warring factions signed an agreement in June 2018 after the weeks leading up to it were among the bloodiest in the last 12 months. In addition, the researchers observed that ceasefires are often concluded in the first month of a conflict, as the parties seem to be testing whether or not they are really committed to the war, and if there is a chance for a peaceful settlement after all. If these "early" ceasefire do not succeed, it takes an average of four years for the chances of one to increase again. The research team also shows that voting out or overthrowing the government during a civil war increases the likelihood of a ceasefire. "The election of a new head of government shows that the people are dissatisfied with the current political situation. That makes it more feasible for a new person at the top to reach out to opponents," says Govinda Clayton, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich and one of the leaders of the research project. For example, Gustavo Petro, the new president of Colombia, announced his intention to negotiate a ceasefire with all armed groups after taking office in August 2022. However, this new-leader effect diminishes after a year, since by then the initial momentum has usually fizzled out. Political context and international support The researchers' analysis also shows that parties to a conflict are more willing to lay down their arms if they have a political justification for doing so. This may be a proposal from a mediating party asking for a ceasefire, or during religious holidays that allow the conflicting parties to stop fighting for a short time without losing face. In El Salvador, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front explicitly justified its willingness to lay down arms by calling it a concession to the mediator, the UN Secretary-General. And in the Afghan civil war from 1989 onwards, temporary ceasefires repeatedly occurred on the occasion of the breaking of the fast following Ramadan. Willingness to continue combat operations can also be influenced by support from external actors. "Additional troops, weapons or economic aid allow the state to sustain costly conflicts for extended periods of time," explains ETH researcher Clayton. Following this logic, the researchers from Zurich, Oslo and Uppsala find that ceasefires are less likely during periods when the state is supported by external actors in its fight against rebel groups. A signal for peace Although almost all the 2,202 ceasefires aim to stop violence, the reasons behind them vary considerably. One of their most important functions is to promote the peaceful resolution of a conflict. In nearly 70 percent of all the agreements in the research team's dataset the conflict parties cited this as a primary motivation. In Colombia, for example, a successful ceasefire agreement was an important part of the process that led to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group laying down its arms and ultimately to ending the war. And in Sudan, a local ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains proved a key starting point in the process that ultimately produced a comprehensive peace agreement. In their willingness to forgo violence, parties to a conflict signal their peaceful intentions, build trust and show that they are capable of controlling their own forces. Clayton and his coauthor Corinne Bara of Uppsala University demonstrate that states that conclude and honor ceasefires with a rebel group, for example, strengthen their reputation as a reliable cooperative partner, increasing the likelihood of agreements with other parties to the conflict. At the same time, however, there is a risk that the failure of a ceasefire could destroy the fragile trust between conflict parties and thus jeopardize ongoing peace negotiations. Military breathers and humanitarian ceasefires Previous research has focused on the peacemaking function of ceasefires, but Clayton and his co-authors have identified three other reasons why conflicting parties stop fighting. Ceasefires are often used to achieve political or military objectives that are incompatible with a peaceful resolution of the conflict. "Parties to a conflict use these pauses for instance to rearm or consolidate territorial control over an area," Clayton says. One-fifth of all agreements coded in the new dataset, however, are short-term agreements reached for humanitarian reasons, such as the delivery of relief supplies or the recovery of dead bodies from the battlefield. In Syria, local ceasefires gave the besieged population a temporary respite in some places, though the researchers note that these arrangements may also have served broader military strategic goals for the regime. Ceasefires are also used as a way to manage the conflict. "In these cases, the goal is to contain the devastating effects of violence without moving the parties closer to a peace settlement," Clayton says. Until Russia's invasion in February 2022, the 2015 Minsk Agreement between Russia and Ukraine for instance served to contain the violence without ending it altogether. More information: Govinda Clayton et al, Ceasefires in Civil Conflict: A Research Agenda, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00220027221128300 Govinda Clayton et al, Introducing the ETH/PRIO Civil Conflict Ceasefire Dataset, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00220027221129183 Corinne Bara et al, Your Reputation Precedes You: Ceasefires and Cooperative Credibility During Civil Conflict, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00220027221126725 Govinda Clayton et al, Costs and Cover: Explaining the Onset of Ceasefires in Civil Conflict, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00220027221129195 Credit: Fanfei Meng et al Topological nontrivial spin textures are intriguing in various physical systems, ranging from high energy to condensed matter physics. The magnetic Skyrmions formed by a swirling magnetization in magnetic materials have potential applications in high-density magnetic information storage and transfer. Moreover, photonic analogs of magnetic Skyrmions were proposed and demonstrated recently in both 2D and 3D forms. The deep-subwavelength features of spin structures provide novel tools for optical metrology, including high-precision displacement sensing and monitoring of magnetic domains. In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, a team of scientists led by Professors Luping Du and Xiaocong Yuan from Shenzhen University have developed a unique anapole probe to measure the photonic spin structures dominated by magnetic fields. Their paper, "Measuring the magnetic topological spin structure of light using an anapole probe," indicated that their proposed methods could be valuable in advancing spin photonics. The previous Skyrmion structures of light were observed in surface plasmon polaritons with electric fields dominating their wave properties. Many approaches have been proposed to map the electric-field distributions at near field, including fluorescence imaging, photoemission electron microscopy and near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) with fiber probes or nanoscatters. In addition to the electric part in optical spin, the magnetic part is essential for transverse electric (TE) modes (H-type waves). Although several near-field mapping techniques have been developed for characterizing the magnetic fields, either using an NSOM probe with specific apex or high refractive index nanoparticles, they succumb to inevitable influences from the electric field. It would affect the vector properties of the measured magnetic field and impair the system's robustness in characterizing the topological spin properties associated with the magnetic fields. The anapole mode of nanoparticles with pure magnetic field response might be a great solution. It has drawn much attention to near-field optics and nano-optics. (a1-a2) individual spin-Skyrmion, (b1-b2) spin-Meron lattice, (c1-c2) spin-Skyrmion lattice. Credit: Fanfei Meng et al The researchers proposed a unique magnetic probe with an anapole mode (hereafter named the anapole probe). It would help measure the topological spin structures of evanescent waves governed by magnetic fields. The probe comprises an Ag-core and Si-shell nanosphere, for which the excited electric dipole and toroidal dipole modes experience destructive interference. The anapole forms the anapole mode and suppresses scattered radiation caused by electric fields. This anapole mode overlaps with a strong magnetic dipole resonance, which guarantees a high detection efficiency of the magnetic field. A home-built near-field scanning system utilizing the anapole probe was assembled and with which the magnetic topological spin structures of the TE mode were characterized for the first time, including individual photonic Skyrmions and Skyrmion/Meron lattices. With high sensitivity and precision, the proposed method may become a valuable tool for studying the underlying physical processes related to the magnetic field components of light and facilitate the development of applications, including data storage, metrology, optical tweezers, and chiral nanoscopy. More information: Fanfei Meng et al, Measuring the magnetic topological spin structure of light using an anapole probe, Light: Science & Applications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-022-00970-x Journal information: Light: Science & Applications Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Weeks after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, floodwaters have mostly receded in the hard-hit town of Loiza, but mud, debris and collapsed roofs remain. Power has been restored in some areas but is still unstable. "Families have lost everything," said Gloriann Sacha Antonetty Lebron, founder of Revista Etnica, Puerto Rico's first magazine for Black women and a leader of a mutual aid operation providing support to Loiza. Yet when President Joe Biden initially approved an emergency declaration after the hurricane, Loiza and many other hard-hit communities were not included, experts told U.S. TODAY. The exclusion prompted concerns that the recovery effort will once again leave behind some of Puerto Rico's poorest areas five years after those same communities struggled to receive federal and local disaster aid when Hurricane Maria pummeled the U.S. territory. The Hurricane Fiona emergency declaration originally included 55 municipalities, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the days after the disaster, communities were added to the declaration until the most recent version included all 78 municipalities, including Loiza. The initial disaster declaration was "based on the available data and assessments at the time," Jeremy Edwards, the agency's press secretary, said in a statement to U.S. TODAY. "The intent was to get resources to survivors as quickly as possible. As the assessments continued and were completed, additional municipalities were added." But among many communities initially excluded, there is still a feeling of being left behind that builds on the trauma of Hurricane Maria, experts said. "We had Hurricane Maria five years ago, and we saw how structural racism and inequities put our most vulnerable communities in danger," Lebron said. "But now we're seeing it all happen again." What happened after Hurricane Maria? For many Puerto Ricans, Hurricane Fiona was a grim reminder of the disaster that struck five years before when Hurricane Maria, the deadliest natural disaster on the island in 100 years, left about 3,000 people dead and shattered the country's electrical system. While parts of the San Juan metropolitan area had power within days of the hurricane, many communities, often more rural and poorer municipalities, waited more than 300 days for power restoration crews to be sent to their communities, said Fernando Tormos-Aponte, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Tormos-Aponte's research, based on power restoration data and published in the journal Energy Policy last year, found that vulnerable communities and communities that were not as supportive of Puerto Rico's governing party in previous elections were significantly less likely to be prioritized in relief efforts. The study used a social vulnerability index from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on factors including poverty levels and minority status. The study found the more affluent Condado in San Juan had power restored in less than 40 days, while the nearby Luis Llorens Torres public housing project waited more than 100 days. And about 62% of the municipalities that went more than150 days before power restoration crews were deployed to them were municipalities that did not support the governing party in the previous election. "These systems that govern how we respond to disasters can be unequal by design and they tend to exclude marginalized communities, to neglect them," said Tormos-Aponte, who moved to the mainland United States from Puerto Rico in 2011. There are "major discrepancies in the way Puerto Rico has prioritized the response to Maria and Fiona," said Miguel O. Roman, a climate scientist with research company Leidos based in Virginia who uses satellite images to spot persistent power outages. Roman's research shows rural and poorer municipalities shouldered the longest outages after Hurricane Maria. He said first responders arriving in Puerto Rico start by settling in crisis centers that are concentrated in the island's wealthier tourist centers. "Looking at what happened after Hurricane Maria and the inequities that existed can help us understand how different degrees of damage impacts specific communities and what the needs are for different communities," Roman said. "We need to learn from Hurricane Maria." National research has shown disasters often exacerbate existing disparities marginalized communities face and "have more lasting impacts on communities that were disadvantaged prior to the disaster," according to a 2022 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which reviewed federal responses to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria. A reason cited by the report is that damage assessments are based on property ownership, which leads to concentrating federal resources in wealthier areas, said Kathleen Tierney, a research professor at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Disaster aid also typically makes up a small proportion of the funds needed for individual recovery and the remaining funding comes from loans that are "extremely burdensome and difficult to access," she said. Puerto Rico has little political representation on mainland U.S., which makes it more vulnerable to being sidelined, Tierney said. As a result, federal disaster aid "is wholly inadequate in terms of recovery," she said. Repeating history in Puerto Rico? There are already signs history is repeating itself, Tormos-Aponte said. In the initial emergency declaration, nine of the excluded municipalitiesHormigueros, San Sebastian, Moca, Rincon, Aguaba, Isabela, Quebradillas, Hatillo, Barcelonetawere also those with the highest levels of social vulnerability on the island, he said. Many of them also were led by opposition party leaders. Roman said he immediately thought of his grandmother in Hormigueros when the first declaration was released. "Her home was underwater, but her community was not included in the first declaration," he said. FEMA has since mobilized more than 30 disaster recovery centers on the island, including in Rincon, Isabela and Barceloneta, Edwards said. He said the agency collects data to determine what communities may be most vulnerable, including low-income populations and people 65 and older. In addition, hundreds of FEMA representatives going door to door to help survivors apply for assistance have visited all Puerto Rican municipalities, he said. Edwards said these efforts and recent policy changes meant to expand criteria for aid eligibility and simplify eligibility verification processes for people seeking aid reflect lessons learned from Hurricane Maria. Compared with Maria, more than 100,000 more survivors have received aid so far after Fiona, he said. "FEMA remains committed to helping survivors recover from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico, ensuring that they have equal access to our programs and that the federal disaster assistance process is more accessible," he told U.S. TODAY. Roman applauded the efforts and expressed hope that FEMA under President Joe Biden's administration has made progress in addressing equity in aid response, though more work is needed. Despite some improvements since past disasters, Elvia Melendez-Ackerman, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Puerto Rico, said low-income, rural and minority communities in Puerto Rico are once again being left behind in crisis response, leading many to leave Puerto Rico altogether. She said that of the University of Puerto Rico's 11 campuses, three are in cities initially excluded but were among the hardest-hit. All three are also governed by opposing parties, she said. "Some communities are being emptied out," she said. "Many are buying plane tickets and leaving. And those that stay, they are left to repair their homes with little help." 'It sends a message that some lives don't matter' Loiza, a town on the island's northeastern coast known for its African heritage and for having one of the largest Black populations on the island, is "a snapshot" of these inequities, said Tania Rosario-Mendez, executive director of Taller Salud Inc., a feminist social justice advocacy organization supporting grassroots aid in the area. Rosario-Mendez said Puerto Rico's poor, rural and Afro-Latino communities are bearing the brunt of the crisis without adequate aid. She said Loiza's initial exclusion from the declaration was an early sign the town, with roofs still covered with blue tarps from Hurricane Maria, may be left behind again. "The shock of having your home 5 feet underwater and then seeing that your community isn't even listed on the disaster declarationthat hits you," she said. "It was violent. I can't express the shock." She is thankful the declaration was amended, "but that feeling still lingers," especially after local governments and organizations had to fight to prove they needed aid amid an unfolding crisis, she said. "You realize that if you don't fight, you lose the possibility of surviving in a dignified manner. ... It sends a message that some lives don't matter," she said. In the first week after Hurricane Fiona, Lebron of Revista Etnica said she only saw one FEMA truck in Loiza. As a result, Lebron said, neighbors and community groups are working together to fill in the gaps, creating mutual aid networks to help rebuild homes, repair water damage and share food. "We're doing this work because governments have not been here for these communities," Lebron said. How can disaster relief be improved? To better protect vulnerable communities after disasters, experts told U.S. TODAY, utility companies and governments should move away from prioritizing power restoration based on only how densely populated an area is. Authorities should identify the most vulnerable communities as priorities for power restoration, they said. "The problem with that is that utility officials usually don't take into consideration race, gender, ethnicity, class and economics," Tormos-Aponte said. "By virtue of ignoring these things and using only the density-based approach, they may be reproducing inequalities that already exist." Other steps include changing the federal aid application process to be less burdensome for municipalities already struggling during a crisis and more accessible to areas without ready access to internet and Spanish-speaking communities. More data transparency and long-term data collection on how aid is allocated, especially among marginalized communities, also would make a difference, experts said. "It's a matter of life or death," Lebron said. "We all deserve the opportunity to live in wellness and dignity. Our people deserve better." (c)2022 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Cellphonesthe ultimate distractionkeep children from learning, educators say. But in attempts to keep the phones at bay, the most vocal pushback doesn't always come from students. In some cases, it's from parents. Bans on the devices were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since schools reopened, struggles with student behavior and mental health have given some schools even more reason to restrict access. But parents and caregivers who had constant access to their children during remote learning have been reluctant to give that up. Some fear losing touch with their kids during a school shooting. Shannon Moser, who has students in eighth and ninth grades in Rochester, New York, said she felt parents were being pushed away when the Greece Central School District this year began locking away student phones. There's a form of accountability, she said, when students are able to record what goes on around them. "Everything is just so politicized, so divisive. And I think parents just have a general fear of what's happening with their kids during the day," Moser said. She said she generally has liberal views, but many parents on either side of the political divide feel the same way. Amid heightened scrutiny of topics such as race and inclusion, some parents also view cellphone restrictions as a way of keeping them out of their kids' education. Over a decade ago, around 90% of public schools prohibited cellphone use, but that shrank to 65% in the 2015-2016 school year. By the 2019-2020 school year, bans were in place at 76% of the schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. California and Tennessee recently have passed laws allowing schools to prohibit phones. Now, in particular, educators see a need to keep students on task to recover from pandemic shutdowns, when many students lost the equivalent of months of learning. And many school officials may feel empowered to ban the devices, given growing concern among parents about pandemic-era screen time, said Liz Keren-Kolb, clinical associate professor of education technologies at the University of Michigan. But she said parent views on the debate run the gamut. "You still have the parents that want to have that direct line of communication and have concerns over their child not being able to have that communication," she said. "But I do think that there's more of an empathy and an understanding toward their child being able to put away their device so they can really focus on the learning in the classroom, and wanting that face-to-face experience." Washington School District in western Pennsylvania implemented a ban this year as educators increasingly found cellphones to be an obstacle. Students were on their cellphones in the hallways and at the cafeteria tables. Some would call home or answer calls in the middle of a class, high school English teacher Treg Campbell said. The superintendent, George Lammay, said the ban was the right choice. "We're looking to increase engagement and academic progress with kidsnot try to limit their contact with families. That's not the point," he said. In some cases, pushback from parents has led to adjustments in policy. At the Brush School District in Colorado, cellphones were banned after teachers flagged concerns over online bullying. When parents spoke out, the district held a community meeting that lasted over two hours, with most testimony against the ban. The biggest takeaway, Superintendent Bill Wilson said, was that parents wanted their children to have access to their phones. The policy was adjusted to allow cellphones on campus, although they must be turned off and out of sight. The district also said it would accommodate a handful of students with unique circumstances. "There's not an intention to say cell phones are evil," Wilson said. "It's a reset to say, 'How do we manage this in a way that makes sense for everybody?'" At the Richardson Independent School District, near Dallas, student cellphone use had been prohibited during instructional time before officials proposed buying magnetic pouches to seal them away during the school day. Parent feedback around the cost of the pouches and concerns about safety in emergencies led to a scaled-back plan to pilot the pouches at one of the district's eight middle schools, Forest Meadow Junior High. "We used to get in touch with our kids when we wanted to," said Louise Boll, president of the Forest Meadow parent-teacher association. "There was a lot of pushback and a lot of concern in the beginning of what this would look like, how this would unfold, how is it going to affect us getting in touch?" Kids and their parents have largely adapted to the new policy, she said. In parent activists' online discussions, there are plenty of defenders of cellphone bans. Some others, however, have railed against bans as efforts to keep parents from seeing "violence" and "indoctrination" inside schools. Legal action by parents remains rare, with one exception being an unsuccessful lawsuit by several parents against New York City's school cellphone ban in 2006, which ultimately was lifted in 2015. Still, petitions against school cellphone bans have increased on Change.org this year, a spokesperson said. There's no perfect formula for cellphones in schools, said Kolb, who said the pendulum will likely swing back away from bans depending on how attitudes change regarding technology in schools. "It really comes down to making sure that we're educating students and parents about healthy habits with their digital devices," she said. 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Name on ballot: Karen A. Heggen Ballot party line(s): Republican, Conservative Address: 11 Twinflower Court, Malta Occupation: Attorney Education: Ballston Spa High School, 1981; Middlebury College, 1985; Vermont Law School, 1991 Age: 59 Current public offices held: Saratoga County district attorney Past public offices held: Acting Saratoga County district attorney; first assistant district attorney; chief trial assistant district attorney; assistant district dttorney (part-time) Credentials for office: Duty, honor and justice are the three words on the seal of our District Attorneys Office and the guiding principles I follow each day. Duty encompasses knowing the job. I just started my 30th year in the office and have handled all kinds of cases including kidnapping and homicide. Honor reflects the significance of the position and the importance of doing the right thing. I rely on the strong relationships my office has with law enforcement to get the job done. Justice is the cornerstone of everything we do and what we strive to achieve for the victims and community. Top issues in this campaign: I submit the issues in this campaign center on choosing a candidate who knows the job, what is expected, has the experience to lead others and serve as a resource. I have been involved in over 50 felony trials, have assembled a team of attorneys and staff who regularly serve as trainers at local and state programs and who continue to achieve a 95% felony conviction rate. Saratoga County is one of the safest large counties in New York state. We have a proven track record. What I'd do if elected: I will work collaboratively with everyone in the criminal justice system to achieve justice for the victims of crime, the community and the defendant. This means continuing to be engaged with the treatment community to work to divert those non-violent offenders to programs which can address the issues underlying their criminal conduct such as addiction and mental health and support these offenders to become productive members of our community. I have been honored to spend my professional career as a criminal prosecutor in Saratoga County and humbly ask for the publics support to do so for four more years. *** Name on ballot: Michael John Phillips Ballot party line(s): Justice and Public Safety/Democratic Address: P.O. Box 5177, Saratoga Springs Occupation: Prosecutor, NYS Department of Health Education: Bachelor's, Mercyhurst College, Erie, Pennsylvania, 1980; Juris Doctor, Western New England School of Law, admitted to the NYS Bar in 1991 Age: 65 Current public offices held: N/A Past public offices held: N/A Credentials for office: I have been a lawyer in the private and public sectors for 32 years. I spent my first 10 years doing criminal defense work and civil litigation. When I worked for GE Energy, I attended management training in Crotonville, NY, which gave me the skills to train and lead an office. Ive practiced both civil and criminal law and I am presently a prosecutor with the NYS Department of Health. My combined training and skills give me the skills needed to lead an effective district attorneys office where one standard of justice is the rule and not the exception. Top issues in this campaign: Theres only one real issue in this campaign the district attorneys office itself. Its a ship that needs to be righted. Theres a 75% staff turnover rate (Saratoga Today). Retired corrections officer Mark Frenchs killer was allowed to plead down to a low-level assault charge and will only serve three years in jail. A predicate sexual offender, Jonathan Aronson, continues to walk the streets while his child rape case is delayed over and over again. The current DA has been caught lying about the establishment of a Veterans Treatment Court while her office loses court documents. Saratoga County deserves better. What I'd do if elected: Id start with a thorough review of open and pending cases with an eye toward prosecuting criminals and not cutting deals. I would meet staff to get their view on the office and gather input on creating a center of excellence that pursues one standard of justice not one for the politically connected and the wealthy and one for the rest of us. One standard of justice will be the hallmark of my tenure as Saratoga County district attorney. I will immediately work with bring local judges, other district attorneys and stakeholders to establish a regional Veterans Treatment Court. QUEENSBURY State police have arrested a Jackson man for allegedly stealing items from the AT&T store in Queensbury. State police responded to the store at about 3:14 p.m. on Oct. 22 for a report of a larceny. An investigation determined that Joseph M. Brandmeyer, 42, entered the store and stole multiple items. He then put them in a vehicle located in the parking lot, according to a news release. Brandmeyer was charged with misdemeanors of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and petit larceny. He was issued an appearance ticket and released. The vehicle was owned by 49-year-old Cambridge resident Penny R. Phillips. Police recovered an illegally possessed handgun and items containing drug residue. Police said he gun was stolen from Calamity Janes Firearms and Fine Shoes store on Dix Avenue in Kingsbury. Phillips is one of five people arrested in connection with the theft of Oct. 21 of guns from the store. Phillips was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a firearm and a misdemeanor count of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in that case. BALLSTON SPA A man accused of crashing a vehicle while intoxicated with a child inside in 2021 was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 3 years in state prison on Thursday. Saratoga County District Attorney Karen A. Heggen announced the sentenced imposed on Troy D. Cassell Jr., 39, of Schuylerville, after a Saratoga County jury convicted him of violating Leandras Law, which is a felony charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the car. Cassell was also convicted of misdemeanor counts of driving while ability impaired by drugs, third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and endangering the welfare of a child. The decision comes after a week-long trial in August. On Sept. 12, 2021, at 9:53 p.m., Cassell was arrested following an accident in which he crashed a Hyundai Tucson while driving with a suspended license and a 6-year-old in the back seat. Police determined that Cassell lost control of his vehicle and crashed in a ditch on Route 29 near Schuyler Farms in the town of Saratoga. State police located his vehicle shortly after the crash occurred, flipped over in a ditch. Upon conducting an interview with Cassell, police said he exhibited significant signs of impairment by a narcotic drug. He then failed multiple field sobriety tests and was arrested. At the state police station in the town of Malta, Cassell was evaluated and determined he was under the influence of a narcotic drug and unable to safely drive. The child was treated at the scene of the accident and released to relatives. At the sentencing on Thursday, Helen Kenyon read a statement detailing the trauma the child has experienced due to the accident and how the family has been affected as well. Our family is thankful that the defendant was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The decision to drive under the influence is a choice that can have tragic consequences, Kenyon said in a news release. The judge expressed even the maximum sentence did not suffice, due to Cassells continuous denial of responsibility. Both Judge James Murphy III and District Attorney Heggen noted Cassells lack of regard for the child victim. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to apprehend and prosecute to the fullest extent the law allows those who choose to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Our thoughts are with the child victim and her family as they continue to recover from the emotional harm caused by the defendants actions, Heggen said. WILTON A South Glens Falls man has been charged after police said he robbed a Rite Aid in Wilton back in June 2021. Eric J. Mcintosh, 32, is accused of entering the store at 3027 state Route 50 on June 3, 2021. He had a knife and stole over $3,000 worth of prescription medication from the pharmacy, according to a news release from the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office. Mcintosh is facing felony counts of first-degree robbery and third-degree grand larceny. Mcintosh is currently serving 1 to 3 years in prison for felony aggravated family offense, according to the state inmate database. He was arraigned and returned to the custody of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The New York State Police Forensic Identification Unit assisted the Sheriffs Office in the investigation. Mcintosh was sentenced in March 2018 in Saratoga County Court to 2 to 4 years in state prison for beating another man with a shovel in June 2017 in Corinth. He was released in 2020, according to the state inmate database. Name on ballot: Teneka Frost Ballot party line(s): Democrat Address: Not specified Occupation: Schenectady City Court judge Education: Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and African American Studies, Syracuse University, 1998 Juris Doctor and Master of Public Administration, dual degree program from Albany Law School and UAlbanys Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, 2002 Age: 46 Current public offices held: Schenectady City Court judge Past public offices held: Albany City School Board Why I should be elected: I currently preside over one of the busiest courts in the Fourth Judicial District Schenectady City Court handling thousands of civil and criminal matters. This experience coupled with serving as the chief administrative law judge at the NY Department of State gives me the qualifications and the experience needed to serve you in state Supreme Court. My goal as a judge is to guarantee that everyone who uses our court system is treated fairly and with dignity and respect. My commitment to justice led me to establish the UCAN (United Against Crime Action Network) program in the Schenectady City Court. It is a court monitored mentoring program that steers young offenders away from crime and toward a brighter future. I have the skills, the experience, the commitment to the law and to people needed to be your next state Supreme Court justice. *** Name on ballot: Richard A. Kupferman Ballot party line(s): Republican Address: Rock City Falls Occupation: Saratoga County Surrogate Court judge/acting NYS Supreme Court justice Education: Albany Law Juris Doctorate, 1987 Age: 60 Current public offices held: Saratoga County Surrogate Court judge/acting NYS Supreme Court justice Past public offices held: Administrative Law judge, NYS Office of Children and Family Services Counsel to NYS Sen. Steven Saland Counsel to NYS Senate Committees: Education and Children and Families Assistant county attorney, Saratoga County Town attorney: Town of Edinburg, Town of Northumberland Village attorney: Village of Ballston Spa Attorney for Town of Malta Ethics Committee Attorney for Town of Galway Zoning Board of Appeals Why I should be elected: In nearly 11 years as a judge, Ive presided over thousands of cases in Supreme Court, Surrogate, Family and County Courts ranging from divorces to complex medical malpractice claims. My duties have taken me to 9 of 11 counties in the Fourth Judicial District, including Warren and Washington counties. Every person who comes to my court is treated with dignity, respect and is given a fair shake. My experience, knowledge of the law and patience are a few of the characteristics that make me successful in my current position, acting Supreme Court justice. Having your vote would be an honor. *** Name on ballot: Allison M. McGahay Ballot party line(s): Republican and Conservative Address: Lake Placid Occupation: Private attorney, attorney for the Town of Wilmington Education: J.D., Albany Law School of Union University, and B.A., Public Justice, State University of New York at Oswego Age: 50 Current public offices held: N/A Past public offices held: N/A Why I should be elected: For over 100 years, Essex County had a resident Supreme Court justice in Elizabethtown. With the elections of 2008, Essex Countys justice was defeated. The 4th JD is geographically the largest in NY. It is important that justices elected come from every county to insure that litigants and their attorneys have access to the courts close to home. As a resident of Essex County, my election will insure that the Adirondacks have a Supreme Court justice who know the people, issues and the area. After 10 years as a private attorney in Lake Placid, I have represented clients on a wide variety of cases and disputes in every county in the 4th JD. If elected, I would be the first woman to serve as Supreme Court justice in the Adirondack Park. I believe my experience, qualifications and temperament are well-suited to effectively resolve disputes while rendering fair and just outcomes. *** Name: Robert J. Muller Ballot party line(s): Conservative and Democrat Address: Lake George Occupation: NYS Supreme Court justice, 4th Judicial District Education: Juris Doctorate, Ohio Northern University, 1978 Age: 67 Current public offices held: NYS Supreme Court justice, 4th Judicial District Past public offices held: Assistant district attorney, Warren County Why I should be elected: As a Supreme Court justice, I have issued over 8,000 decisions. Not only are they rarely reversed, over 500 have been published in statewide official reports and the New York Law Journal and relied upon frequently by other judges all across the state. For several years I have been chair of the "NY Bench Book for Trial Judges," a comprehensive guide to court proceedings for NY trial judges in state, county and local courts. I have a proven record of presiding over cases fairly and impartially. For this campaign, I have been endorsed by multiple police, fire and labor organizations, as well as over 100 distinguished members of the Bar, local elected officials and numerous retired members of the judiciary who strongly support my re-election. *** Name on ballot: Chris Obstarczyk Ballot party line(s): Republican Address: Saratoga Springs Occupation: Attorney in private practice Education: Albany Law School/SUNY Geneseo Age: 47 Current public offices held: None Past public office held: None Why should I be elected: It is important to have judges on the bench who have practical, real world litigation experience with an understanding of the communities being served. As a practicing trial attorney in the private sector for 22 years, I have successfully handled thousands of civil cases in a variety of matters representing people from all walks of life from complaint to trial to appeal. A judge is a judge for all the people and during the course of my career, I have represented a large cross-section of the people including poor people, wealthy people, single moms, working parents, businesses, municipalities, people with substance abuse and mental health issues, people of color, immigrants, refugees and children. I have an understanding of what the people's experiences and expectations are of the justice system, which will bring a fresh perspective and be a welcome addition to the bench. *** Name on ballot: Vincent W. Versaci Ballot party line(s): Democratic Party and Conservative Party Address: Schenectady Occupation: Schenectady County Surrogates Court judge and acting Supreme Court justice for Saratoga and Schenectady counties Education: Linton High School 1989, University of Rochester (B.A., 1993), Albany Law School (J.D., 1996) Age: 51 Current public offices held: Schenectady County Surrogates Court judge Past public offices held: Schenectady City Court judge Why I should be elected: I started my judicial career in 2002 when I was elected to the office of Schenectady City Court judge. I always treated people with respect and compassion, rendering timely decisions within the confines of the law. Since becoming Surrogates Court judge in 2010, I have adjudicated thousands of matters. In 2011, I was assigned to the Supreme Court in Schenectady and Saratoga counties. With 20 years of combined judicial experience, I am prepared to hit the ground running. My family has resided in upstate New York for three generations. My wife and I have been married for 23 years and have raised our three children here. We take every opportunity to emulate the importance of public service for our kids. I am mindful of the weight of this position and I strive to be a public servant worthy of the trust and confidence that the public has placed in me. QUEENSBURY SUNY Adirondack wants Warren and Washington counties to contribute a higher percentage of funding to support the college. The Warren County Personnel, Higher Education and Administration Committee welcomed SUNY Adirondack President Kristine Duffy to their Thursday meeting to share an adjustment system for the funding that comes from Warren and Washington counties. Acting County Administrator Craig Leggett introduced Duffys budget presentation by explaining Warren and Washington counties are both sponsors of SUNY Adirondack and provide a share of the colleges funding each year. When community colleges were created, the funding was designed to be one-third from the state, one-third from the county and one-third from student tuition, but what has happened over time is that the students are responsible for most of the costs associated with running the institution, Duffy said. She explained through data analysis, it was discovered that other SUNY or CUNY schools of similar size and budget received 15% or more of their funding from the sponsor shares, while SUNY Adirondack only receives about 12%. Duffys presentation listed the problem as the college needing to get up to $5 million in sponsor contributions in order to leverage investment from New York state and other counties and take the pressure off student tuition to make this college both competitive in the market and the workforce development tool that Warren County needs to continue our current positive trajectory. The new proposed system would help the raise the percentage of the sponsor shares to 15% over the next five to six years by raising funding 6.5% each year, instead of the 2% it is raised annually now. She stressed the importance of remaining competitive among local and non-local students, noting that enrollment was up 4% this year compared to last, but with projection data, if tuition continues to increase, the number of students will decrease. Duffy explained it is a little more complicated because the sponsorship is shared by the two counties, in a formula that requires Warren County to contribute more than Washington County. The president of the college also shared some background on the current agreement that began in 1961. She continued on to say in 2017 the college began having internal conversations to brainstorm ideas for a long-term sustainable funding plan and this plan has now taken shape. Committee members expressed concern that supporting this would green light an approval of any amount of funding the college requested for the next five or six years without discussion. However, it was clarified that the college would still need their budget reviewed and approved by the county each year. This change would only increase the percentages the counties were asked to contribute. Queensbury at-large Supervisor Doug Beaty said he was not inclined to pass the resolution on to the Finance Committee, which would review the proposal and make a recommendation to the full Board of Supervisors, without the full board first seeing the presentation from the schools president and budget officer. The committee members assured Beaty this was the process each year for approving SUNYs budget, but he felt it differed because a change was being proposed. Ultimately, the committee voted in favor of moving the proposal to the Finance Committee, with Beaty opposed. After the Finance Committee reviews the proposal, a recommendation will be made to the full board on how to proceed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of engaging in energy terrorism after Russian strikes on Ukraines energy network left millions of residents without power. About 4.5 million people were without electricity across the country, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 apartments in the capital alone did not have electricity on Friday. Advertisement I appeal to all residents of the capital: save electricity as much as possible, because the situation remains difficult! the mayor wrote on Telegram. State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that emergency blackouts would be taking place across Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly carried out missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power facilities, particularly in recent weeks. In his address, Zelenskyy described the targeting of energy infrastructure as a sign of weakness. Advertisement The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy, he said. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way. Zelenskyys spoke soon after Moscow-appointed authorities in southern Ukraines occupied Kherson region said Russian troops were likely to leave the city of Kherson a claim that Ukrainian officials greeted with some skepticism. The Kremlin-installed regional administration already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city, citing the threat of increased shelling as Ukraines army pursues a counteroffensive to reclaim the region. Authorities removed the Russian flag from the Kherson administration building on Thursday, a week after the regional government moved out. Ukraines southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, said the flags removal could be a ruse and we should not hurry to rejoice. She told Ukrainian television that some Russian military personnel are disguising themselves as civilians. Neither sides claims could be independently verified. Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported shooting down drones launched by Russian forces. Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said eight drones were shot down in the Nikopol area, which was also subjected to artillery shelling. Another drone was shot down over the western Lviv region, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said. The commander of Ukraines armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Thursday night that Russian forces had tripled the intensity of hostilities on certain areas of the front and were carrying out up to 80 attacks every day. Zelenskyys office said Friday that at least nine civilians were killed and 16 injured in Ukraine over the past 24 hours. Advertisement The Russian army attacked four cities close to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant with drones and heavy artillery. Governor of the Dnipropetrovsk province Valentyn Reznichenko said Friday that houses, cars and a gas pipeline had been damaged overnight in Chervonohryhorivka, and that the town was without electricity. In the eastern Donetsk province, the town of Pokrovsk was the hardest hit, with rocket attacks damaging a school and at least 22 residential buildings, killing one civilian and wounding another six. Donetsk province governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said 12 towns and villages were shelled, including Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which have been particularly hard hit in recent weeks. In the southern province of Kherson, which has been occupied and illegally annexed by Russia, the Ukrainian army shelled Russian bases and logistics facilities, destroying two ammunition warehouses, Ukrainian army officials said. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also said that in the Black Sea, the functioning of grain corridors continues according to plan. Russia agreed Wednesday to rejoin a wartime agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey allowing Ukrainian grain and other commodities to be shipped to world markets. Moscow had suspended its participation in the grain deal over the weekend, citing an alleged drone attack against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. As one condition for its return to the deal, Russia demanded the grain be sent to poorer countries, arguing that most of it was currently ending up in richer nations. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he had discussed the issue of prioritizing less developed countries for the grain shipments through the Black Sea during a call with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Advertisement Erdogan said he also discussed the possibility of sending the grain to nations facing famine for free, during a recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said Putin proposed sending free grain to countries that could face famine such as Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. The two leaders would hold further talks on the issue at a G-20 meeting in Bali later this month, Erdogan said. Should we send this grain and fertilizer to developed countries, or to underdeveloped, poor countries? Erdogan said during a speech to a business group. Lets give this support to less developed, down and out countries. We will ensure that grain ships reach all needy countries, primarily Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan, which are struggling with a serious food crisis, Erdogan said. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in the state of New Jersey. In 2022, the American Cancer Society estimates about 236,740 new cases of lung cancer will be found in the United States, resulting in over 130,180 deaths. While lung cancer mainly develops in older people, there are some preventable steps young people can take to reduce their risk of getting the disease. Since November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Atlantic County has such a high percentage of people dealing with it, this seems like the perfect time to let our community know some of the important facts about this deadly disease. Dr. John Wilson, a Penn Medicine radiation oncologist who cares for patients at Shore Medical Center, spoke on all things lung cancer. Q: Why do you think Atlantic County has such a high percentage of people with lung cancer? A: It's hard to say. The New Jersey Department State Health Assessment Data website lists lung and bronchus cancer incidence for males only for 2014-2018 (I don't see females listed or more recent results) as 69.9/100K males, versus a state average of 59.5, and no U.S. data available. However, this is an age-adjusted rate, which would not support an argument that this county is a little older (39.9 years average per Atlantic County website, versus 38.1 years per US Census Bureau). Also the smoking rate per US News and World Report 2022 report on healthiest communities reports a lower smoking rate of 17.8% in Atlantic County versus a national median of 20%. However, smoking leading to lung cancer usually has a long latency period, so it would be interesting to see what the rate of smoking was say 20 or 30 years ago, which is harder to access. This also raises the question about whether there is higher environmental exposures to non-smokers, such as casino workers being exposed to secondhand smoke. According to the Atlantic County Radon page, the average indoor radon level in Atlantic County is 1.4 pCi/L, just slightly above the national level of 1.3 pCi/L, and I don't suspect this slight increase would be a substantial part of the high incidence. According to the 2022 Healthy Community planning report from the New Jersey Departments of Health and Environmental Protection, our air quality is much better than the rest of the state, with the cancer risk due to the quality of air in Atlantic County estimated at 76 per million, much lower than the state risk of 155 per million. Q: What are the top causes of lung cancer? A: According to the New Jersey State Health Assessment Date website, cigarette smoking is believed to be responsible for almost 90% of all lung cancer cases, and other causes include secondhand smoke, radon exposure, radiation treatments, certain occupational exposures and air pollution especially from burning fossil fuels. Q: How do you treat lung cancer? A: All stages of lung cancer can be treated with radiation or chemotherapy, whether curatively or palliatively. Surgery is typically an option reserved for stages I-IIIA disease. Immunotherapy is typically used for stage III disease after chemoradiation, or stage IV (metastatic)disease. Q: What are some ways to prevent lung cancer that you give to patients? A: Smoking cessation by far is the most important for those still smoking, or for those who don't smoke, avoiding secondhand smoke. Although screening chest CTs for those eligible (50 to 80 years old, at least 20 pack year history, smoked within last 15 years) will not prevent lung cancer, they can detect earlier at a much more curable stage. Q: How often do you treat lung cancer patients from Atlantic County? A: We usually treat lung cancer patients every day at our center. Q: What is a common misconception about lung cancer? A: Common misconceptions about lung cancers are that they are all smoking related, or they are all incurable, so why bother with lung cancer screening. Another misconception is that smoking cessation counseling isn't helpful, you just have to "decide" to quit. Q: What would you say is the most important thing to do when one has this illness? A: Seek medical attention and find health care providers who you are comfortable with, who follow national guidelines such as NCCN (national comprehensive cancer network) and who listen to your concerns and needs. The man who posted a broad online threat against synagogues in New Jersey has been identified and was not planning to carry out a specific plot, a law enforcement official said Friday, relieving Jewish communities already unnerved amid an increasing climate of antisemitism and related violence. The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was questioned by law enforcement and told agents he had been bullied in the past and harbored anger toward Jewish people, the official said. Investigators do not believe the man had the means or motive to carry out any specific attack, according to the official, who could not discuss details publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The source of the threat no longer poses a danger to the community, the FBI in Newark tweeted. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin told the AP he couldnt comment on an ongoing investigation, including whether an arrest had been made. But he noted, like others, that concern is constant. Incidents of bias and hate have been rising in New Jersey, said Platkin, who more broadly voiced concern about the impact of recent comments by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and a social media post shared by NBA star Kyrie Irving. Stockton University, Ventnor synagogue announce free lecture series Stockton University and Ventnors Shirat Hayam synagogue on Tuesday announced a free, yearlo Look, bias and hate are on the rise. Antisemitism is on the rise. White nationalism is on the rise, and a big reason why theyre on the rise is because people in positions of power and positions of status who have platforms are using those platforms to at a minimum condone, tolerate, accept statements and positions that are anti-Semitic, said Platkin, a Democrat. The FBI had said Thursday it had received credible information about a broad threat to synagogues in New Jersey, a warning that prompted some municipalities to send extra police officers to guard houses of worship. The nature of the threat was vague. The Newark FBI released a statement urging synagogues to take all security precautions to protect your community and facility but wouldnt say anything about who made the threat or why. It raises the anxiety level, said Jason Shames, leader of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. This one for us was about vigilance. We keep having to say: See something, say something. Public warnings about nonspecific threats against Jewish institutions, made by groups including Christian supremacists and Islamist extremists, arent unusual in the New York City area, and many turn out to be false alarms. But the area has also seen deadly attacks, including the firebombings of two synagogues and an attack on a rabbis home in 2012, a fatal stabbing at a Hanukkah celebration in 2019, and a shooting in 2019 that killed three people in a kosher market and a police officer. 2022 general election municipal questions in Atlantic County In several municipalities, voters will not only have candidates to choose on Nov. 8, but in Outside the New York City region, the massacre that killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh four years ago left an indelible mark. Jewish people all over, and particularly identifiable Jewish people, are concerned and worried, said Chabad Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, director of Chabad of Hoboken and Jersey City. We recognize that its not only, God forbid, if someone wants to or does something terrible. It comes back to saying something anti-Semitic. It has that trickle-down effect. Additional security will remain in Hoboken and Jersey City during weekend services beginning Friday, including private security and uniformed police officers, Schapiro said. Individual Jewish communities need to decide what level of security is right for them, said Craig Fifer, a spokesperson for Secure Community Network, which advises Jewish communities on security. We encourage that people go ahead and live their Jewish lives, Fifer said. This really is a bigger conversation not tied to any one particular threat. A New York man was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday in a hit-and-run that occurred last year in Seaside Heights, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Thursday. Antwan McPhatter, 27, of Staten Island, also had his driving privileges suspended for six months as a result of his eluding charge and will spend 30 days in the Ocean County jail as a result of his leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage. McPhatter pleaded guilty to these charges Aug. 29. About 6:30 p.m. Aug. 19, 2021, Seaside Heights police responded to Blaine Avenue and the Boulevard for a report of a hit-and-run involving a 2015 Jeep Cherokee driven by McPhatter that crashed into an unoccupied vehicle and then fled, court records said. Officers attempted a motor vehicle stop when they saw McPhatter traveling in the wrong direction on Sheridan Avenue. As officers activated their lights and sirens, McPhatter sped away, ultimately traveling north on Route 35, records stated. Officers watched the Jeep make a right turn onto Beach Drive in Ortley Beach, then come to a stop at the end of Beach Drive but accelerate west toward Route 35. The Cherokee then sped through a stop sign, entered Route 35 and collided with a marked Seaside Heights police vehicle, records stated. McPhatter then struck a utility pole, which fell on top of the vehicle. He attempted to flee on foot but was arrested, records showed. Two officers were treated for minor injuries as a result of pursuing McPhatter. He had his blood drawn per court order and was later determined to be under the influence of alcohol and marijuana and deemed unfit to operate a vehicle, according to records. McPhatter has been in jail since. PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account. ATLANTIC CITY A daily outreach van will soon travel the city daily, offering to take substance abusers and those with mental illness into immediate treatment, officials said during Fridays Clean and Safe Atlantic City meeting. We are on the precipice of starting a seven-day mobile outreach, said Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds. Reynolds also said hed like to see the county follow the lead of Florida and consider adding a mental health facility to the county jail in Mays Landing, since an estimated 60% of inmates have mental illness and need medications and treatment. He said casinos and the state Attorney Generals Office have already pledged significant funding for the outreach van, and social services agencies will soon commit to what services they can provide. Atlantic County Sheriff Eric Scheffler and his Hope Exists program will coordinate the effort, Reynolds said, with cooperation from city police Chief James Sarkos, state Sen. Vince Polistina and the Prosecutors Office. Without these meetings none of that would be possible, Reynolds said of the biweekly Clean and Safe meetings organized by City Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz. The meetings bring together local, county and state officials with business owners and residents to tackle quality-of-life issues in the resort. Atlantic City Police charge 4 with receiving stolen merchandise from shoplifting ring ATLANTIC CITY Four men were recently charged with receiving stolen property from a shoplif Draft legislation to start a mental health court an idea that also grew out of the meetings is being fine tuned, said Joe Berg, chief of staff to Polistina and Assembly members Claire Swift and Don Guardian, all R-Atlantic. The meetings have also resulted in cooperative programs to crack down on quality-of-life crime and repeat offenders, to get broken streetlights fixed and to get services to the mentally ill and drug addicted. The daily outreach effort will be funded by government grants, including one recently pledged from the state Attorney Generals Office, and casino donations, Reynolds said. Social service providers including Jewish Family Service and Volunteers of America will help with staffing. The idea grew out of an experience the week before the national NAACP convention this summer. In one special seven-day effort, Schefflers mobile outreach van got 39 people off the street and into recovery. I said, Why not seven days a week, 365 days a year? Reynolds said. About 75 stakeholders recently met to discuss how to work together on the effort, he said, and at a Nov. 22 meeting, attendees will convene again and announce what their commitment is. Lights, cameras, action coming to improve safety, coalition says ATLANTIC CITY Boardwalk merchants came to a Friday morning Clean and Safe Atlantic City me Keeping the lights on The group also continues working to get all of the streetlights in the city functioning, and a new system in place to report and repair lights. Atlantic City Electrics Ken Mosca said the utility is down to just a couple dozen lights (still needing to be fixed). A few weeks ago, 142 of the utilitys 6,000 lights were out, Mosca said. We were able to redirect a lot of resources into the city, he said. The utility also is helping get the lights back on at the former Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, Mosca said, even though the utility does not own the lights there. Atlantic City Clean and Safe group gets results in turning on streetlights ATLANTIC CITY The city is brighter now that many problem streetlights have been repaired, The owner recently turned them back on but needed some help from the utility to do it, he said. We want to help where we can and lend the expertise, Mosca said. City-owned lights, however, seem to be the main problem now. Our streetlights belong to the city, and over 12 are out, said Rich Helfant, a resident of The Cove at Gardners Basin. There are a lot of kids playing there, seniors there. Its dark and dangerous. Helfant said he has repeatedly reported the nonfunctioning lights to the citys Public Works Department but has gotten no results. Ill hand carry the list up (to Public Works) and start the process, Shabazz said after asking Helfant to write down the addresses. No one from public works attended the meeting, but representatives have attended past Clean and Safe meetings. Reynolds said there soon will be a meeting with Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and staff members from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to discuss how to centralize response to broken streetlights. Currently, nonworking lights must be reported to the entity that owns them, which may be the city, Atlantic City Electric or a private business such as a casino. The ownership can be impossible for the average person to determine, and no one knows who owns some lights. Upcoming meetings The first CitiStat and CompStat meetings will be Nov. 16, Chief James Sarkos reminded the group. The public is invited to the CitiStat meeting at 10 a.m. at the city campus of Stockton University in the Fannie Lou Hamer room, where municipal department heads will hear from residents about their concerns and requests for service. The two technologies, CitiStat and CompStat, have helped major cities combat crime and better manage municipal services. The state Department of Community Affairs, which has oversight of the city under the state takeover, is partnering with Stockton, the city government and its Police Department to bring the CitiStat and CompStat programs to the city. The CitiStat system will allow residents and others to report potholes, streetlights that dont work, trash collection and code enforcement issues, and more. The next Clean and Safe Atlantic City meeting will be 8:30 a.m. Nov. 18 in City Council Chambers at City Hall, 1301 Bacharach Blvd. OCEAN CITY With little discussion, City Council on Thursday approved hiring the law firm of Cooper Levenson to appeal a state decision allowing power lines from a planned offshore wind power project to cross the city. The city approved paying the law firm $350 per hour, not to exceed $40,000, to represent it in appealing a decision from the Board of Public Utilities in the matter of Ocean Wind 1. In September, the BPU approved allowing the project to run power lines under the beach at 35th Street and across the island, eventually connecting the wind turbines off the beach to the power grid at the site of the former B.L. England power plant in the Beesleys Point section of Upper Township. The boards vote found that the easements through property protected under the states Green Acres program were reasonably necessary for the project. Although some members of the public praised the contract, and plans to appeal the BPU decision, council did not discuss the resolution before the vote. It took place as part of the consent agenda, in which multiple resolutions are decided in a single vote. Council member Tom Rotondi voted no. He did not give a reason at the meeting. He has previously voted against the consent agenda when he feels council members were not given enough time to review the included resolutions. BPU picks plan for getting offshore wind electricity into power grid TRENTON The state Board of Public Utilities voted Wednesday to award a joint proposal by M On Friday, Rotondi said members have asked to receive their agenda packets two days before the meeting. They received them late Wednesday, he said. He said he and other members have asked to get their packets the Friday before the meeting. The six other members of council voted yes. Residents will still have a chance to speak about the power line routes. A public hearing originally planned for Oct. 3 is now set for 6 p.m. Nov. 14. The original hearing was set to take place in person in Ocean City but was delayed due to coastal flooding brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ian. Advocates for and against the proposal had planned to attend that hearing. The rescheduled hearing will take place remotely, via Zoom or over the phone. More details can be found at https://bit.ly/ocw1-ga-pub-hearing along with instructions on how to participate. The Danish energy company rsted owns 75% of Ocean Wind, with PSE&G holding a 25% share. The proposal is to build almost 100 wind turbines about 15 miles off the coast, with more on the way as part of Ocean Wind 2 and other offshore wind projects. Gov. Phil Murphy has sought to massively increase renewable energy use, describing it as an important tool to reduce carbon emissions and curb climate change. He recently set a new goal for offshore power calling for 11,000 megawatts to be generated by offshore wind by 2040. A law enforcement official says that federal agents have identified the man they believe posted a broad online threat against synagogues in New Jersey but that they do not believe he was planning to carry out a specific plot. The official said Friday that the man was questioned by law enforcement and told agents he had been bullied in the past and harbored anger toward Jewish people. His name has not been released. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity and could not discuss details of the investigation publicly. New Jerseyans will have the opportunity Sunday to see an early morning NASA rocket launch from Virginia. However, weather conditions both in the state and near the rocket site may mean a failure to launch. Northrop Grummans Antares rocket is scheduled to launch from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula at 5:50 a.m. This will be Northrop Grummans 18th commercial resupply services mission for NASA, with its final destination the International Space Station. The space station orbits the Earth about 220 miles above it. If conditions are clear, South Jersey will be able to view the rocket 60 to 90 seconds after takeoff by looking to the southeast. However, clouds and possibly fog will likely prevent the region from viewing the rocket. The poor weather may extend to Wallops Island, too, scrubbing the flight. For South Jersey, a blanket of high clouds is expected Sunday morning. Light ground fog, which would reduce visibility to around 1 to 2 miles, is possible as well. This is due to the breaking warm air from the south moving inland, which condenses air into clouds near the ground, forming fog. Fog isnt likely at the rocket launch site in Wallops Island, but a mostly cloudy sky may be enough to cancel the event. If the event does occur and youd like to try to see whether the rocket will make it through the breaks in the clouds, itll be plenty warm. Morning low temperatures Sunday, which will occur right around the time of the launch, will be around 60 degrees. That may break records both inland and at the shore. Its also near Nov. 6s average high temperature. Live coverage of the mission will air on NASA TV at 5:30 a.m. at nasa.gov/nasatv. One man is dead after a shooting Thursday in Jackson County near Fulton, the Jackson County Sheriffs Department said in a news release. Sheriff Brent Kilburg said that at 5:35 p.m., the Jackson County Communications Center received a 911 call reporting that a man had been shot and was in need of assistance. Jackson County deputies and officers with the Maquoketa Police Department responded to the callers location in rural Jackson County near Fulton. The man, identified as 60-year-old Michael Berg, was transported to the Jackson County Regional Health Center where he was pronounce dead. Sheriffs investigators and agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed two involved persons and collected physical evidence related to the incident. All parties were cooperative and no persons interviewed were detained. Kilburg said the investigation is continuing and there are no threats to the community related to the incident. The investigation will be reviewed by the Jackson County Attorneys Office. A man and a woman were both sentenced in Pennington County court Thursday morning for their connection to the 2020 Christmas Eve killing of a 31-year-old Rapid City man. Clint Marshall, 22, was escorted into the courtroom wearing a Pennington County Jail uniform. Masheka Barnett, 43, arrived at the courthouse on her own volition. The duo are two of four defendants charged with crimes after Vernall Marshall was attacked, shot and killed. Vernall Marshall was found lying on the ground near the 1000 block of Silverleaf Avenue after being shot twice in the back around 11 p.m. Dec. 24, 2020. Journal archives show that the alleged facts and motive were outlined in a document filed last year by the Pennington County States Attorneys Office. Vernall Marshall allegedly sent inappropriate messages to one of Barnett's teenage relatives, law enforcement learned through its investigation. In response, Clint Marshall, 22-year-old Kaleb Lukkes and 23-year-old Elias Richard set up a fake drug buy so they could beat Vernall Marshall up. The three men and Barnett picked up Vernall Marshall in downtown Rapid City before driving him to another location. The three men pushed him out of the car and starting attacking him in the street before Richard took out a gun and shot Vernall Marshall. Clint Marshall pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aiding and abetting aggravated assault for his involvement. The charge carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to a $30,000 fine. Circuit Court Judge Craig Pfeifle sentenced Clint Marshall to 15 years in the state penitentiary. The judge suspended six of those years, and applied 347 days of time served, effectively lowering the sentence to just shy of eight remaining years. The judge did not impose a fine in the case, but he ruled that Clint Marshall will be required to pay $8,639.40 in court costs. Clint Marshall stood up and apologized to Vernall Marshall's family and said what he did was wrong. "That's it," he said before taking his seat again. His lawyer, Conor Duffy, discussed his client's difficult childhood, referencing an Indian Health Services report that noted in 2013 that his mother was dead, his father was in prison, and he was under the care of his then-pregnant 18-year-old sister. Duffy also noted that Clint Marshall suffered from seizures starting when he was 10-years-old, a condition that didn't improve with later methamphetamine use. Pfeifle said he recognized Clint Marshall's young age and challenges he's faced, but that he sought to fashion a sentence that recognized the nature of what he did and "allows you some hope." Barnett pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony having knowledge of the commission of a felony and concealing it or not immediately disclosing it to authorities. She shook and sobbed when the judge sentenced her to the maximum of one year in prison for the charge, along with 10 years in prison with seven years suspended for a possession of a controlled substance charge in another case. The sentences will run concurrent, so she will serve a total of 58 days shy of three years accounting for the 58 days of time served on the possession charge. "I'm going to prison," she told her fiance over the phone through tears before she was taken into custody. During the sentencing hearing, Barnett told the court about how she's achieved 11 months of sobriety after decades of addiction. "I'm better than what I used to be, and I want to continue to be better than I am today," she said. Judge Pfeifle said it was "extremely troubling" that it took Vernall Marshall's death to awaken her. He also noted that she set in motion a series of events that led to the man's death before departing from the defense's request for a probationary sentence, although he did acknowledge Barnett's recent progress. A jury convicted Richard of second-degree murder on July 28 for the shooting. Richard originally faced a first-degree murder charge in Vernall Marshall's death. The jury found Richard not guilty of first-degree murder. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 11. Lukkes pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aiding and abetting aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His sentencing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 16. Chicago police officers salute their fallen comrade outside United Missionary Baptist Church after the funeral service for Officer Clifton Lewis in Chicago on Jan. 5, 2012. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune) A Cook County judge on Friday declined for now defense attorneys request to make current and former Chicago police officers testify regarding allegations the department concealed evidence in the 2011 killing of an off-duty officer. The would-be witnesses, including former Superintendent Garry McCarthy, were excused, but Judge Erica Reddick hinted strongly that they might have to take the witness stand at a later hearing. Advertisement The specter that there was a whole separate investigation related to these matters that was never tendered ... that is a grave occurrence and it will require the court to address, she said. In the meantime, Reddick ordered Chicago police to turn over any materials that might conceivably relate to the 2011 killing of off-duty Officer Clifton Lewis. Advertisement I want you to go to the outer limits of what you have related to this case, and I want this to be a top priority matter, she told an attorney from the citys Law Department. Lewis was working a second job as a security guard at a West Side convenience store when two masked men came in and fatally shot him. Described as a gentle giant, Lewis had just gotten engaged a few days before he was killed. Prosecutors ultimately charged three men in the killing: Tyrone Clay, Alexander Villa and Edgardo Colon. Clay and Villa were accused of shooting Lewis, and Colon was allegedly their getaway driver. Since then, the cases have been marked with extraordinarily complicated twists and turns. Most recently, defense attorneys have alleged that police conducted an exhaustive investigation of Spanish Cobras gang members, code named Operation Snake Doctor, that was related to Lewis slaying but never disclosed to prosecutors or the defense. We believe we can show there was intentional misconduct regarding the evidence and exculpatory evidence, and there should be consequences for that, attorney Paul Vickrey, who represents Colon, said in court Friday. Attorneys wanted officers to testify related to a rule to show cause, or a request for them to show up and explain why they should not be held in contempt of court for not turning over the documents. The Operation Snake Doctor investigation came to light only after one of Villas attorneys subpoenaed the Police Department for emails with certain keywords. In a motion filed Monday before a different judge, Villa who is requesting a new trial after being convicted in 2019 also claimed that police kept key parts of their investigation separate from the files they turned over to attorneys. Advertisement Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. > In an effort to obtain evidence against Villa and the Cobras, the CPD interviewed hundreds of witnesses, had informants wear wires, put tracking devices on potential witnesses cars, obtained pen registers to monitor potential witnesses locations, created reports documenting their investigative steps, and hid all of this evidence from Villa by not placing any of it in the investigative file, the motion states. Nearly 11 years after Lewis was killed, the cases of the three men accused of his killing are in very different stages. Colon went to trial in 2017 and was found guilty; however, an appellate court threw out the conviction three years later, saying his constitutional rights were violated when police continued questioning him after he indicated he wanted a lawyer. Colon is now out on bond awaiting a second trial, during which prosecutors will not be able to use his statement to police. Clay, meanwhile, has been in jail for more than a decade without seeing trial. Attorneys spent years wrangling over whether his videotaped statements could be shown to jurors. His attorneys argued that Clays limited intelligence and verbal comprehension made him unable to competently waive his Miranda rights. Cook County Judge Erica Reddick ultimately agreed and threw out the statements. Prosecutors appealed that decision; it took the state appellate court a year and a half to render its order saying Reddick was correct and the confession should not go before a jury. Meanwhile, Villa was convicted in a late-night verdict in 2019. Three years later, he has yet to be sentenced. His request for a new trial is pending. Advertisement mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com Elevate Rapid City hosted a B-21 Update Critical Issues Luncheon Thursday to address community questions about the bombers pending arrival at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and preparedness with housing, schools and growth. Although the event was held at The Monument and was open to members of the public who wished to buy tickets, it was specifically stated the luncheon was closed to media. Instead, South Dakota Ellsworth Development Authority Executive Director Scott Landguth agreed to speak with the Journal Friday morning. He said the luncheon drew about 150 people and filled an hour and a half. Landguth and Ellsworth Air Force Base 28th Bomb Wing Commander Col. Joseph Sheffield each gave brief, 10-minute presentations before taking questions from the audience, moderated by Tom Johnson of Elevate Rapid City. Landguth told the Journal the audience questions mostly centered on housing and schools. He said the focus of his 10 minutes traced the evolution of the B-21 mission at Ellsworth, and the projects along the way that landed it there. He spoke to the importance of the Powder River Training Complex and the airspace expansion among critical accomplishments in bringing the B-21 to Ellsworth. Landguth also mentioned working on the encroachment area around the base, a wastewater treatment plant that SDEDA owns and runs for the city of Box Elder and its importance. SDEDA taking on the project freed up resources for the Air Force to build a new dormitory on base. So just those kinds of projects over the years that have changed where they were looking at closing us to putting the B-21 here, he said. Sheffield, Landguth said, spoke mostly to the B-21 timeline and the existing B-1 mission at Ellsworth. Landguth referenced a chart Sheffield had presented at a previous B-21 informational event in August, showing a projected gradual population growth over the course of 20 years. The chart estimated a total population increase of just over 4,000 between fiscal years 2022 and 2041. The growth is a lot more gradual than what people think, Landguth said. The topic of housing generated discussion about preparedness and timelines. A recent housing study conducted for Box Elder revealed an immediate need, and identified 150 names on a waiting list for base housing, constituting about a six-month wait. Housing is not being added on base, so the housing need is being picked up by the community, Landguth said. Discussion at Thursdays luncheon included a preference for rental homes among airmen, which are in short supply. The rise in popularity of Airbnb and VRBO homes have contributed to the shortage, Landguth said. The process of renting homes out for weekends rather than long-term hurts the rental availability for airmen. Landguth speculated that some Airbnb and VRBO renters may decide to rent long-term to airmen if more become aware of the issue. Theres so much housing going on, I think the housing want well get our quantity of homes that we need well get to where it needs to go at some point, he said. Landguth said SDEDA has partnered with the private sector to put homes on SDEDA land, and make it fairly economical for developers. There are currently three pieces of land from SDEDA, he said, where housing is being developed, in addition to multiple active housing projects within the city. Landguth described a perfect storm of unusual circumstances plaguing housing and development progress, including supply chain issues. All of the problems that you could have, happened all at one time, in a way, he said, People are adapting and figuring out how to do things differently. Schools also generated discussion Thursday, with the Douglas School District already experiencing growing pains and actively seeking funding for a new high school and elementary schools. Were working on trying to help the Douglas School District find some money, Landguth said of SDEDA. Theres some avenues to get money, but when youre talking about building a new high school and thats $130 million was their last estimate, I think theres programs within the Department of Defense where they could get $10 million, maybe. The school district is exploring all options, Landguth said, and SDEDA is trying to assist them any way they can. SDEDA successfully increased its cap on Federal Impact Aid an education grant program that provides funding to local school districts whose resources can be strained by nearby military installations. Landguth said they raised the cap from $3 million to $15 million. SDEDA has also worked with the school district to establish connections with the Department of Defense, including the same program that SDEDA obtained a $6 million grant from for the Liberty Center called the Defense Community Infrastructure Program. Landguth said construction on base was also discussed, with 36 major construction projects attached to the B-21, and balancing that with the active B-1 mission. Sheffield also spoke to the importance of the B-21 in terms of national defense. The B-21 is scheduled to be unveiled the beginning of December in Palmdale, Calif. The problems surrounding the B-21 are good problems to have, Landguth said, comparing them to the less-desirable challenges that faced Ellsworth in 2005 with the threat of closing. So these new things that are challenges or viewed as a problem, well, it's a pretty good problem to have. As Election Day approaches, the Journal has interviewed candidates for office in the Rapid City region. The Journal selected races in which there are competitive candidates. Election Day is Tuesday. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Additionally, in-person absentee voting is available at county auditor offices. District 33 is made up of portions of Pennington and Meade counties, mostly west and southwest of Rapid City. The senator is Republican David Johnson of Rapid City. Johnson is being challenged by Libertarian Darren Friedel of Rapid City. Senate District 33 One seat Darren Friedel Friedel said he grew up in Dimock. He's been in the Rapid City area since 2000 and works remotely as a cyber security engineer for a company out of Albany, New York. He was in the Army National Guard for 20 years, during which he worked in information technology. He has a wife and two teenage daughters. Friedel said he used to be a Republican, but he left the party around 2020 and became a Libertarian because he didn't like the direction the Republican Party was taking on a woman's right to choose and marriage equality. His key issues center around some of his disagreements with the Republican Party. "One of the things with having two daughters, is women's rights. I think that we definitely need to review our stance on a woman's right to choose what to do with her body," he said. "Another thing is the gay and lesbian rights, I think you shouldn't be penalized because of who you love and who you choose to marry." He also noted times that ballot measures have passed in the state, but have been blocked by the legislature, specifically Amendment A in 2020, which would have legalized recreational marijuana. "My thing would be to hold people accountable and push for what the will of the people is," he said. del noted that his opponent would have run unopposed and said he decided to run because he wanted to give the people an alternative option. "I really hope people get out and vote, no matter who they vote for," he said. "I just think that voting matters." David Johnson Johnson has worked in the Legislature for six years total, first as a representative in the House from 2017-2020 before becoming a senator for District 33 in 2021. Johnson said he's lived in Rapid City since 1965. He attended public schools in the area through high school and graduated from South Dakota Mines in 1983, and later earned a master's in business administration from the University of South Dakota in 2003. He served as an officer in the United States Air Force and reserve for eight years before returning to Rapid City in 1991 to operate his family's business, Johnson Tree Service. "He's the tree guy. That's how people know me," he said. Johnson is the chair of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and a member of the Joint Committee of Appropriations and the Senate Committee of Appropriations. He said one of his top priorities is supporting and advocating for the public school system. "That's an unusual stance for a Republican to make, but our school system needs support. They need encouragement. Our teachers need support from the community if they are to follow through on our constitutional mandate that the state of South Dakota provides free, public education to every single citizen," he said, adding that he's proud of his position as chair of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. "Veterans are in need of better healthcare because the VA system is overloaded. We need to recognize that men and women in uniform or who have been in uniform in the past have signed that blank check to support our Constitution, and so we need to support them in every way possible," Johnson said. Johnson has three grown daughters, four grandchildren and has been married to his wife for 36 years. He said he decided to run for the office because he feels he's been effective as a state legislator. "I've actually repealed more laws than I've authored and passed, and I think that's a critical part of the equation," he said. "The reason that I chose to serve in the first place, although it sounds cliche, is that western South Dakota and the community of Rapid City, Pennington County have been very, very good to my family and my family business operations for almost half a century. I'm 62 now and I just felt it was time to give back to the community." With only days left until counting begins, 35% of registered voters in Ravalli County have already cast their ballots in this years midterms elections. As of Friday, 12,188 of the 21,260 absentee ballots sent out in Ravalli County had been returned according to the Montana Secretary of States office. There are 34,513 registered voters in Ravalli County. The turnout is on par with past midterm elections, said Regina Plettenberg, Ravalli County clerk and recorder. As of Friday, 57% of absentee ballots sent out in Ravalli County had been returned. I think the return is about what we expected, Plettenberg said. I was anticipating about a 70% return, which would be about 14,000 ballots. And I definitely think were gonna hit that, if not more. For voters who have not turned in their ballots yet, Plettenberg said that dropping them off in person is the best way to ensure that your ballot reaches the Election Office in time to be counted. I would not recommend mailing at this point, Plettenberg said. They can either bring it down to my office if they want to do it ahead of the election, or on Election Day only they can drop them off at the polls or here at my office. We must get the ballots by 8 p.m. on Election Day. They cannot just be postmarked, we must have them in hand to count them. Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8. Voters will need to bring an ID to vote. If you are not a registered voter and still wish to participate in this Novembers election, you still have time, but you will have to make the trip to Hamilton. Same-day registration will only be available on Election Day at the Ravalli County Election Office. If someone is not registered, they cannot go to the polls to register, Plettenberg said. In Montana, you have to have been a resident for 30 days, and you have to come in person to my office here in Hamilton at the administration building to get registered and vote. The Election Office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Monday and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday for Election Day. It is located at 215 S. 4th St., Suite C, in Hamilton. Plettenberg said voters probably wont face long lines at the polls on Tuesday, but recommended avoiding peak times if youre in a rush. If people go during the high times which is right before work, lunch and right after work, thats probably when they would encounter the biggest volume at the polls, Plettenberg said. So if they can go at other times if they want to get in and out, thatd be best. Election security and results While some have cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election and have continued to push election integrity as a key issue going into the midterms, Plettenberg is confident in the security of elections in Ravalli County and across Montana. The county does use tabulators to count ballots. However, none of the machines used in the process are connected to the Internet, which is prohibited by law in Montana. They are also subject to regular audits for accuracy by state law. Ravalli County conducted an audit in June that confirmed the accuracy of the machinery. The event was open to the public and also streamed online. An audit of the midterm counts will be held on Nov. 17. That audit law has been in place since I believe 2009, Plettenberg said. So weve been auditing these machines after every federal election. Plettenberg said that they have never found an issue with the voting machines in Ravalli County during any of the audits they have conducted. We follow the laws, both federal and state, in maintaining our voter lists, in securing our equipment and testing our equipment, doing our post-election audits and our list maintenance, so we I feel that although maybe some practices are questioned, I think that as far as process goes, weve done what we can do and what were required to do, Plettenberg said. She also cited the open process in Ravalli County and stressed that everything they do is public. Absolutely anything that we do is public, she said. People can, and do, watch the processes, whether its at the polls, whether its at my office, whether its at the counting center, we do have people that have always been allowed. Everything we do is public. Although initial results will be given out on election night, Plettenberg said that official final count numbers probably wont be available until 2 or 3 a.m., and people could expect to know the official results from Ravalli County on Wednesday morning. Initial results on Tuesday night will be from the absentee ballots that are currently being received, while numbers from the polls will come in later in the night. We do give out those initials (numbers), which are absentees, and then the polls will come in later, Plettenberg said. Depending on how close races are, things can change at those points. So I always tell people when they give out results, whether its at 8:30, or midnight, they are unofficial for a reason. The last of four inmates who surrendered after walking away from a minimum-security federal prison camp near Petersburg was the first one to be sentenced for his June escape. He received 21 months of additional prison time on Thursday. During part of his 4 days of freedom, Lamonte Rashawn Willis, 31, drank wine and spent time with his girlfriend in a nearby hotel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Mastandrea-Miller told the court. In fact, all four inmates who escaped were picked up by an unknown party and taken to the same hotel after they walked away from the satellite camp at the Federal Correctional Complex Petersburg on June 17, the prosecutor said. Willis had to be coaxed into surrendering, Mastandrea-Miller said. Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force were able to track down his whereabouts in Suffolk, where hes from, and reached out to his family members to help convince him to come back, the prosecutor said. He agreed, and marshals met him at the facilitys gates. His three escaped companions surrendered earlier. They didnt do any harm to the community but the community was certainly concerned about what they could do, Mastandrea-Miller said, noting there was wine waiting for them when they escaped. At the time, Willis was serving an 18-year prison term he received in 2015 on convictions of possessing and concealing stolen firearms and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The offenses involved Willis and two co-defendants conspiring to break into numerous homes in Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina and stealing 31 firearms that they sought to sell. Federal authorities recovered 41 firearms during the course of the investigation, according to court records. The break-ins and thefts totaled more than $70,000 in damage and losses. Following a sentencing hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Judge Robert E. Payne sentenced Willis to 21 months in prison, with 18 months of that time to be served consecutively to his existing sentence. The punishment was within discretionary federal sentencing guidelines, which for Willis was calculated at a range of 18 to 24 months. The government sought an active term of 21 months, while the defense asked for 18 months to be served concurrently with Willis existing term. The inmates who escaped with Willis Corey Branch, 41; Kareem Shaw, 46; Tavares Graham, 44 have all pleaded guilty to federal charges of escaping from a federal prison. All three are to be sentenced Dec. 1. They will likely receive lesser punishments because they surrendered sooner than Willis. The four men left the prison satellite camp around 9:30 or 10 p.m., but werent discovered missing until about midnight. The U.S. Marshals Service was notified they were absent without permission about 1:45 a.m. the following day. The satellite camp houses low-security risk inmates in a dormitory, which is adjacent to the Federal Bureau of Prisons minimum-security facility at 1100 River Road in Prince George County. In a sentencing memorandum, Mastandrea-Miller said the Bureau of Prisons trusted Willis to abide by their rules when they placed him in the minimum-security satellite camp. His escape from the facility was a significant breach of the trust that was placed in him, she said. The community was aware that the defendant and three other inmates had escaped, and they were justifiably on edge until they learned that all four men were back in custody. Lawyers for a high school French teacher who was fired after he refused to use a transgender students pronouns argued before the Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday that the school violated his constitutional right to speak freely and exercise his religion. An attorney for the school said the teacher violated the schools anti-discrimination policy. Peter Vlaming sued the School Board and administrators at West Point High School after he was fired in 2018. Vlaming appealed a lower courts ruling dismissing the lawsuit and asked the Supreme Court to reinstate it. Vlamings lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that has filed six similar lawsuits three in Virginia, and one each in Ohio, Kansas and Indiana. ADF attorney Christopher Schandevel told the high court that Vlaming was not fired for something he said, but for something he couldnt say. This is a case about compelled speech, he said. Schandevel told the justices that Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by using his masculine name and avoiding the use of pronouns, but the student, his parents and the school told him he was required to use the students male pronouns. In his lawsuit, Vlaming said he could not use the students pronouns because of his sincerely held religious and philosophical beliefs that each persons sex is biologically fixed and cannot be changed. Vlaming also said he would be lying if he used the students pronouns. Justice Thomas Mann pushed back against the argument that using the boys new name but not his pronouns would allow the teacher to avoid discriminating against him. Whats the difference? he said. So why is [Vlamings] right not to lie more important than [the students] right to basic education and to not be discriminated against, Mann said. Alan Schoenfeld, an attorney who represents the School Board and school administrators, said Vlamings speech was part of his official teaching duties and his refusal to use the students pronouns clearly violated the anti-discrimination policy. A public school employee is not at liberty to declare he will not comply with school policy, he said. Justice Wesley Russell Jr. said that if Vlaming treated all students the same by using their names, how does that discriminate? Charges filed in case of Richmond teen found dead in trash can A teenager has been charged in the shooting death of Armstrong High School senior Tamel Durant, 17, who police found dead in a trash can last month. Schoenfeld said its inevitable that pronouns would come into play in a classroom setting. Vlaming once inadvertently referred to the student as she in class, but immediately apologized. After the hearing, Vlaming said he had hoped that he and the School Board could have come to an agreement. I can disagree with my students without provoking my students. Im there to teach French, he said. The justices did not indicate when they expect to issue a ruling. *** In another Virginia case filed by the ADF, the state Supreme Court last year affirmed a lower court ruling that required Loudoun County Public Schools to reinstate a teacher who was suspended after he spoke at a School Board meeting in opposition to a proposed policy requiring teachers to use the pronouns used by transgender students. Litigation over the school districts policy on pronouns is still pending. It was only 3 inches long but one of the little James Spinymussels that moved from Charles City County far up the James River to Scottsville this summer can filter up to 15 gallons of water a day. Thats a volume of water roughly a thousand times the size of that mussel, one of nearly 1,300 shipped from the Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery this summer and its why environmentalists now see the small shellfish as big helpers in their efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. To make sure the little guys find safe spots to settle, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is using a new $73,800 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundations new Chesapeake WILD program, along with $12,000 of matching funds to map stretches of bay tributary rivers and streams that provide good mussel habitat, to guide conservation efforts for Virginias 23 species including the endangered James Spinymussel, Atlantic Pigtoe and Dwarf Wedgemussel as well as the threatened Yellow Lance and Green Floater. The Mussel Richness Map will show where buffers of trees can best protect the shellfish from the pollutants in rain and snow runoff that can prove so deadly to them. The map will serve a double purpose of helping target stretches of rivers and streams where planting buffers could be especially helpful to trap the sediment that clouds waters and kills plant life, as well as the phosphorus and nitrogen that feed the algae blooms that create dead zones in the bay. Eroding stream banks can bury mussels too deeply to dig out of, and trees provide shade mussels are sensitive to temperature, said Erin Reilly, senior staff scientist with the James River Association. In tandem with the Chesapeake Bay Foundations mapping, the James River Association will develop a mussel restoration plan for the James watershed, with a $51,800 WILD grant and $25,000 of matching funds. Mapping and planning will help the foundation and association identify the right kinds of river bottom and vegetation that different kinds of mussels prefer generally, clayey ground doesnt work, since freshwater mussels, unlike the edible blue-shelled mussels of the seashore, like to bury themselves. For some, sandy soil is good, others like pebbly or gravelly bottoms, Reilly said. Wherever they plant themselves from way up in the mountain headwaters of the bays tributary rivers to just a bit downstream from Richmond, freshwater mussels can help clean the Chesapeake in a major and until recently unexpected way, said Joe Wood, senior Virginia scientist with the bay foundation. Biologists latest research found that mussels accumulate significant amounts of nitrogen in their bodies, keeping it out of the water and from flowing downstream to the bay, he said. Pollution and dams, the warmer water that climate change is bringing, as well as loss of habitat and disease have slashed freshwater mussel numbers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Scientists estimate the population is down 90% from the days European colonists arrived in the 1600s. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Harrison Lake Fish Hatchery has released or given others to release about 86,000 mussels this year, including 2,437 James Spinymussels. That summer trip to Scottsville for 1,300 James Spinymussels, though, marked a significant milestone. They were the first to be planted in the James River itself and the James Spinymussel hasnt been found in the James for more than 50 years. Theyre mainly found, when they can be found, in small streams in the James River watershed in Virginia and West Virginia, and in the Dan River watershed in Virginia and North Carolina. A joint effort of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been working toward that release in the James for more than two decades. The two agencies are hoping the planting will be a step toward bringing the species back to its namesake river. Its believed to have been lost over about 90 percent of its historic range, including the main stem of the James River, Brian Watson, Virginias State Malacologist (mollusk scientist) has said. A lot of it probably had to do with pollution due to historic uses on the James River, he said. And thats another bit of good news about mussels, said the James River Associations Reilly. Theres no point in planting them if they arent going to survive, she said. The fact that planted mussels are making it is a sign that the James is getting cleaner. We are making progress, she said. GOOCHLAND COURT HOUSE Shed had an early peek at the old wardens home at Virginia Correctional Center for Women, now refitted for family visits, and was bubbling happily about long weekend days to come in a homey environment with her children. And then, in a flash, Rebecca Mengelt was tearing up. She was thinking about what her youngest, now 11, must be feeling when school friends chattered happily about their weekends with their moms. Whats she going to say? she said, wiping her eyes. But time together, at whats now the Assisting Families of Inmates Reunification Home, maybe on the blue sofa by the bay window while watching a gas fire flicker in the bright big living room, maybe on a back porch overlooking the Goochland County woods, might help make the kind of memories that will help. Theres a completely stocked kitchen for cooking projects or just snacking, too. A chance to enjoy children laughing while scrambling over the playset out back. Itll be a lot different from the family visits that can already mean so much to incarcerated mothers. Its not, OK, stand up, heres your hug, said Christy Mabe, describing visits now, held in the VCCW chow hall, sitting on one of the four fixed-to-the-floor stools, on the other side of a formica-topped table, uniformed officers watching through the two hours allotted. You get one hug at the start, one hug at the end. ... Well be able to hug, and hug, and hug itll be like a home, she said. For little ones, the rehabbed old wardens house has two bedrooms set up for naps; a pillow with a friendly hippo advises be happy. In the finished basement, theres a miniature tent on a deep green shag carpet with two stuffed-cloth logs and a plastic cutout campfire to inspire imaginations. Big teddy bears in several corners, a toy kitchen and kiddie vanity in the main living room, shelves full of puzzles and games are all there for visits that will last from 8 a.m. to midafternoon; with the moms staying after to clean up, just like at home or at what they are hoping home will be when theyve done their time. Assisting Families of Inmates, a Richmond nonprofit, joined in the Department of Corrections initiative to redo the wardens house with the help of a $30,000 donation from the sale of paintings by Ross Ulbricht. He is serving life sentences plus 40 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics, by operating the online black market Silk Road. We got a sneak peek. Its so beautiful, Mabe said. But the idea of a daylong visit may be the best part of all, she said. Now, its drive two hours for a two-hour visit, then drive two hours back, Mabe said. For Mengelt, its the prospect of time with all four of her children at one time hard to do now, with those four fixed stools and children split between their two fathers homes. Well have a chance to all be together again, like being at home, she smiled. There will be more than visits in the family home. Mothers and children, using tablets, will follow a weekly structured curriculum, discussing what theyve learned in weekly videoconferences. Moms are to participate in 90-minute group sessions with prison and Assisting Families of Inmates staff to plan the visits and refresh parenting skills. During the visits, corrections officers, out of uniform and with training to help families that may still be upset by having mom in prison, will be on hand but as much to lend a hand as to watch for violations of the rules. Assisting Families will be on hand when the moms are released to connect them with community services. To be eligible, VCCW inmates cant have violated any of the prisons rules for at least six months, and have between six and nine months left on their sentences. Inmates doing time for homicide, registerable sex offenses and child abuse arent eligible. Mothers make up most of the women at VCCW a prison thats been unfenced since it was opened in the 1930s because the women there have, despite their crimes, earned the prison systems trust as they try to find a different path forward upon release. The Department of Corrections efforts to help inmates maintain family connections a key part of its mission to keep them from returning to lives of crime include repainting family visit rooms and stocking them with toys at St. Brides Correctional Center, State Farm and Fluvanna. The plan is to expand this to other prisons. And it has supplemented parenting class with its MILK (Mothers Inside Loving Kids) program, which includes three elements: regularly scheduled, child friendly visits; parent training; and group support. It hopes to open a family visit home like the old wardens house at VCCW at a mens prison, too. That effort can mean a hard, tough look at themselves and what brought them there, said Emily Aponte, a VCCW inmate whos trained as a peer recovery support in another Department of Corrections initiative. The old wardens home isnt really for her now. Her daughters a young adult now. Her son died in a car accident. Thats why shes in prison. And what shes learned from some soul-wrenching days behind bars, working on the lifelong task of recovering from addiction, living with guilt and loss and the challenge of trying to explain what happened and why to a child and to herself are what she shares with other inmates. In life, tomorrows not guaranteed, she said. Thats why I want to try to support these moms. For selling drugs to addicted women, and then coercing them to work as prostitutes in a Roanoke County motel to earn more money for their next fix, William Randy Jackson was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison. These crimes dehumanize people, and in this case very vulnerable people, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon said in pronouncing the sentence. Jackson, 40, managed an enterprise run out of the Knights Inn on Thirlane Road, where as many as a dozen women advertised online for paid sex in motel rooms at his direction. The woman would then use the proceeds to purchase cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Jackson, who replenished his supply on a near-daily basis from a dealer known as Ghost. None of the woman chose to appear in court or give victim-impact statements, figuring that would only add to their anguish. The fact that there are no victims here is not because there is anything less serious about Mr. Jacksons actions, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Swartz told Dillon in a nearly empty courtroom. In fact, it is to the contrary. Swartz and defense attorney Rick Derrico made a joint recommendation for a sentence of 166 months, or nearly 14 years. But Dillon chose to go higher, saying the case involved some of the worse crimes that the court sees. The women who stayed at the Knights Inn were victims of both their own addictions and Jacksons exploitation of them. Many of them had no transportation or other places to go, and became dependent on a resident drug dealer to avoid withdrawal or winding up on the streets. Jackson threatened women if they failed to earn their keep, meaning the women did not have (or had only a few) commercial sex dates, according to a stipulated statement of facts that was introduced as evidence. In September, federal authorities filed a civil action to seize the Knights Inn from its owner, saying he knew about and profited from an illegal business that was based at the property. Mehulsinh Vashi, who was identified in court records as the motels operator and a representative of its owner Khushi & Khushbu LLC, knew that a block of rooms at the motel off Interstate 581 was used for commercial sex and gave Jackson discounted rates because the business generated a steady flow of cash, the complaint alleges. Efforts to reach Vashi were unsuccessful Friday. A phone call to his attorney, Jennifer DeGraw, was not returned. DeGraw filed a response Oct. 28 to the forfeiture action, making an ownership claim on behalf of Khushi & Khushbu and indicating that she will contest the seizure. In taking the rare step of seeking control of the motel, federal authorities argued that it was a hotbed of criminal activity. During a 22-month period from late 2018 to 2020, Roanoke County police were called there 661 times. Of 127 calls for emergency medical services, at least 20 were for drug overdoses, according to the forfeiture complaint. Jackson is the second person to be prosecuted criminally in the case. Mickey Emma Jimenz was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year for conspiring to recruit a 15-year-old girl, a runaway from a foster home, to stay at the Knights Inn and to have sex on one occasion with Jackson. What Jimenez did was similar to what was done to her as a child: her mother sold her for sex with drug dealers to make money to support her addiction, according to earlier testimony in Roanokes federal court. A frequent guest at the motel, Jimenez admitted to setting up a deal, using Facebook to send pictures of her friend to Jackson and arranging for a one-hour sexual encounter for which Jimenez was to be paid $200. Jackson, who frequently carried a Browning .380-caliber pistol with him at the Knights Inn, laid the gun on a nightstand and looked directly at the victim before the two had sex. Prosecutors argued that amounted to use of force. Jackson, however, contended that the sex was consensual. He eventually pleaded guilty to five felonies, including a charge that he solicited a minor to engage in a commercial sex act. Other charges pertained to his recruiting adults to work as prostitutes, dealing drugs and using a firearm that he was barred from possessing because of a previous felony conviction. In asking for a lesser sentence, Derrico pointed to his clients horrific childhood. Raised in a broken home, he was placed in foster care at the age of 13 and soon showed up in juvenile court on criminal charges. Later in life, he suffered from anxiety, depression and drug abuse. Hes always been an outcast, Derrico said, which led Jackson to become involved in criminal activities at the Knights Inn as he searched for what turned out to be false dreams, false loyalties and a false family. Once he was charged, Jackson began to cooperate with authorities and identified significant white collar owners of the motel business, according to court papers. His assistance was one of the reasons prosecutors sought a sentence below a range of 262 to 327 months recommended by sentencing guidelines. Articles in The Roanoke Times about the case have prompted Jacksons fellow inmates at the Western Virginia Regional Jail to call him a child molester and a snitch. He has heard many times you know whats going to happen to you when you go down the road, Derrico wrote in court papers. Asked if he wanted to say anything Friday before his sentence was pronounced, Jackson indicated that he would like to, but was afraid that his comments would have consequences. Its been a hard journey, he said in a brief statement. But I apologize to my family and to the victims. A Salem native who spends a lot of time promoting the city of Salem through her civic and professional activities has been honored by Roanoke College. Laura Tucker recently received the Charles Brown Award from the college during its annual Salem Appreciation Breakfast, which recognizes Salem residents who have made significant professional and civic contributions to the citys quality of life. The award, first presented in 1997, is named after Charles Brown, Roanoke Colleges first dean and a former mayor of Salem. Tuckers history of public service includes mentoring students and bringing together the community to celebrate fun and unique events and causes in the city. Tucker, a staffer with the Salem Water Department and an instructional assistant in the Salem City Schools, volunteers with multiple civic initiatives. She mentors elementary students through Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia, a nonprofit that works with community volunteers across a 17-county region. JA named Tucker its volunteer of the year in 2018. When Salem was marking its 215th birthday, Tucker co-founded a grassroots social media group called Salem215 that was dedicated to highlighting positive happenings around the city. Shes also an advocate for Roanoke Colleges Toy Like Me program, a partnership of faculty, students and staff that modifies toys so that children with disabilities and medical conditions can see positive reflections of themselves. TAP seeks volunteers for free tax clinic Total Action for Progress free tax clinic provided income tax preparation to 521 households last fiscal year, but the clinic may not be able to serve as many during the coming tax season. An email release says TAP is in urgent need of volunteers for our free tax clinic, adding without volunteers the clinic cannot operate. A volunteers weekly time commitment is six hours per week for 10 weeks, and free online training is available. The tax clinic is available to people who have a household income of less than $58,000. The households helped by the clinic claimed $411,105 of Earned Income Tax Credit, the release said. Tuesday is the enrollment deadline to register as a volunteer. To learn more, contact Teffany Henderson at teffany.henderson@tapintohope.org. Miss Roanoke Valley pageant happens Nov. 12 Isabella Jessee, Miss Roanoke Valley 2022, will relinquish her crown Nov. 12 at the Dumas Center, 108 First St. N.W. Jessee of Roanoke is a 2022 graduate of Hollins University and an EMT for Roanoke City Fire and Rescue. She was second runner-up in the Miss Virginia pageant in June. The Miss RV scholarship competition is a preliminary to the Miss Virginia and Miss America pageants. Young ladies from across the state not only will be competing for the title of Miss RV but also for Miss RV's Outstanding Teen. A Teen N Training and several Princesses also will be selected. Miss RV's Outstanding Teen Ayana Johnson from Suffolk also will be giving up her crown. She won the title of Miss VA's Outstanding Teen in Roanoke in June. Miss Roanoke Valley gains a network of support and resources to promote her personal community service platform during her year of service. The pageant starts at 7 p.m.; tickets are $20 but free for children under 6. Essay on local D-Day vet earns honor In October 2018, Forest I. Jones and his brother interviewed William Dabney, an African American soldier who was at the D-Day Invasion but didnt receive the Legion of Honor award until 65 years later. Two months later, Dabney, then 94, passed away. His death, however, didnt stop Jones from detailing Dabneys World War II and non-military experiences in an essay. That essay Mr. William G. Dabney: I wasnt afraid of the D-Day invasion, but I didnt think Id come out alive earned Jones honorable mention in the nonfiction essay or article category of Writers Digests 91st annual writing competition. Jones, a Salem educator and school administrator, was among the nearly 500 winners from the over 2,800 submissions in May 2021. Film to tell story of Boys & Girls Clubs of SWVa Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia has been around a quarter of a century and is celebrating with the premiere a film documenting its history on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29. Impressions: 25 Years of Inspiring Local Youth is a joint project with Firefli, a Roanoke digital services company, and filmmaker Will Sellari. It will have two showings at the Grandin Theatre. The film features stories from current and former club members, parents, community partners, and founding board members, showcasing footage from BGCSWVAs 11 club locations in Roanoke and Salem and the counties of Roanoke, Montgomery and Franklin. Organizers call the event that occurs on Giving Tuesday, the global day of giving during the holiday season, a unique twist on BGCSWVAs largest fundraiser of the year. CEO Michelle Davis, Director of Development Emily Pinkerton, and Board Chair Scott Jenkins said in a news release they believe that taking this approach to the annual BGCSWVA fundraiser gives the community an opportunity to engage more deeply with our organization, be immersed in our mission, and have fun. We are pulling back the curtain on what happens behind the doors of Boys & Girls Club each day and the stories are powerful. I dont want you to miss it! Pinkerton added. The noon matinee includes popcorn, drinks, and lunch; and the 6 p.m. event includes popcorn, drinks, and heavy hors doeuvres. Admission is free, but please rsvp at www.bgcswva.org/moments to insure a seat. TAP announces Cabell Brand Hope Award recipient Abby Verdillo Hamilton, CEO of United Way Roanoke Valley, is the recipient of the 2022 Cabell Brand Hope Award given by Total Action for Progress. The award, recognizing the legacy of Brand who was TAPs founder, was presented during the kick for the organizations Bringing Hope Home campaign in October. Officials announced that $114,700 of the $300,000-goal has been raised. The campaign ends at the end of June 2023, and funds will go toward education, housing, and financial service programs. Verdillo Hamilton began her career with UW in 2002 and was promoted to CEO in 2020. She was recognized for her spirit of collaboration by engaging diverse audiences on community needs and issues. Her efforts include helping coordinate local governments, health departments, and nonprofits to meet the most immediate needs of families during the pandemic. She also serves on core teams for state-funded pilots and learning cohorts to explore innovative strategies to address community needs. Verdillo Hamilton also serves on a task force that works closely with the national UW leadership. In May 2022, she received the Roanoke NAACP Citizen of the Year Humanitarian of the Year Award in recognition of her contributions to the Roanoke Valley and beyond. TAP also selected Miz Lexima as the 2022 Client of the Year. As one of nearly 5,000 people TAP served, Lexima was a client in TAPs job training programs which she said set the foundation for her nursing career. A judge on Thursday found a northern Illinois woman fit to stand trial for the death of her 7-year-old son. An Ogle County judge ruled in the case of Sarah Safranek of Oregon, WREX-TV reported. She was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery in May 2021 for the death of Nathaniel Burton. Advertisement Court documents showed that police responded to Safraneks house in February 2021 and found the boy not breathing. Further investigation found he also had a ruptured liver. Safraneks case has been delayed on several occasion due to concerns over her health, including her vision. Advertisement A trial date for Safranek has not been set, the Ogle County States Attorneys Office said. Oregon is located 100 miles west of Chicago. WESTLAKE In a move that is a setback to efforts develop a Smith Mountain Lake community center, North Carolina-based boat dealership and outdoors retailer Rock Outdoors will be adding a new location at Smith Mountain Lake next summer. The retailer finalized plans this week to purchase the former Grand Home Furnishings building in Westlake and converting it into a third location. The other two North Carolina locations are in Lexington and Winston-Salem. Smith Mountain Lake Center Inc. has been raising money this year to purchase the same building to create a community center. Interior renderings were released last week providing details of how the building would have been renovated once the nonprofit was able to purchase it. Obviously, were disappointed but we always knew this was a possibility because the building was being actively marketed, Vicki Gardner, SML Center president, said in a news release on Friday. We had made great strides but just werent able to raise the funds quickly enough to purchase it. SML Center Inc. was attempting to raise more than $2 million to purchase the building. The group announced in August it had raised approximately 70% of the funds needed to purchase the vacant building. Gardner, a former SML chamber of commerce leader, said in the news release she had spoken to representatives of Rock Outdoors earlier this week and welcomed them to the community. Our board is pleased that its a great fit for the Smith Mountain Lake community, she said. Were all committed to enhancing the quality of life for our residents and visitors here. Gardner said the board will regroup in the coming months and discuss ways to move forward with the project. Due to the Grand Home Furnishings building no longer being an option, she also stated that anyone who donated to the fundraising campaign for the express purpose of purchasing the Grand building can have their money refunded. Well be reaching out to each and every person who donated to our Grand Plan campaign to thank them and explain the process for returning their contribution if that is their wish, Gardner said. Rock Outdoors sells gear and apparel for fishing, water sports, camping and hiking. The Westlake location is also expected to include a boat service department according to the retailers Facebook page. Few other details are available on the Facebook page and the company was unable to provide any additional information Friday. Despite the clouds that will cover most of Southwest Virginia this weekend, there will not be a lot of rain, and by November standards, it will not be especially cold. A broad area of high pressure off of the New England coast will be the main weather driver for Southwest Virginia this weekend, as its influence will nudge westward into Virginia while a weakening storm approaches from the Midwest and Ohio Valley. Ordinarily, we think of high pressure bringing fair weather, and when we are directly beneath the center of high pressure, that is generally the case. But with its center so far offshore and to our northeast, that means the clockwise winds around it move into Virginia from a southeast direction. For the Roanoke and the New River Valleys, that means the wind slowly drags Atlantic Ocean moisture up the eastern side of the Appalachians, forming a broad deck of low clouds. But those clouds remain in a relatively shallow layer, only able to produce areas of mist and drizzle. Steadier and heavier rainfall generally forms much higher up the atmosphere, and in spite of the clouds we see this weekend, the air will be much drier in areas above 10,000 feet. As a result, no consistent soaking rain is expected, just the occasional small showers, drizzle and mist. The southeast flow will also nudge the humidity higher than normal for early November and keep the temperature above normal. Clouds and higher humidity keep the nights from cooling as much, and any breaks of sunshine that do manage to squeak through the clouds will push the temperatures toward 70 degrees. That weather pattern breaks down Monday, allowing more sunshine for the first couple of days next week with temperatures holding several degrees normal. All signs still point to a large storm advancing on the Southeast coast for the middle of next week, with its precise track determining how much rain we get and when we get it. Right now, the time frame for a soaking rain appears to be late Wednesday night into Thursday, and it may bring the most rain from an individual storm since Ian moved through at the end of September and early October. In the two days between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Roanoke had 3.07 inches of rain. Since that time, there have only been only two days with at least a quarter inch of rain, Oct. 16 and 31. And once that rain pushes out late next week, the weather pattern for the following weekend (Nov. 12-13) looks dry with temperatures a little closer to normal, but certainly not cold. There is still no indication temperatures will drop enough for a hard freeze until after that weekend. Fall Back Dont forget that Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend. At 2 a.m. Sunday morning, the official time will shift back one hour. We will stay on Standard Time until the second weekend of March 2023. You may recall that the U.S. Senate passed a measure earlier this year that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but the House has not brought up the measure beyond basic committee meetings, so as it stands now, we will go through this change again next fall. If Daylight Saving Time became permanent, sunrises in Roanoke would not happen until after 8 a.m. for the period between Nov. 15 and Feb. 22. During the first week of the calendar year, when the sun rises the latest, the sun would not rise until 8:34 a.m. You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close " " Thomas A. Edison stands with a replica of his first successful incandescent lamp, which gave 16 candlepower of illumination, the earliest precursor to today's 50,000 watt, or 150,000 candlepower, lamps. Bettmann/GettyImages It is no exaggeration to say that the incandescent light bulb changed human civilization. With the advent of light bulbs, people could suddenly work and recreate deep into the night without relying on open flame (and its attendant heat, smoke and inherent danger) to illuminate a room. While the impact of the electric light bulb is without dispute, the origins of the invention tend to be more open for debate. Conventional wisdom gives the credit to American Thomas Alva Edison, who obtained the earliest patents for incandescent light bulbs, the first in 1879 and the second in 1880. Yet some historians argue that it's far too reductive to give Edison all the credit. They posit that Edison was the one who invented the light bulb, but it was simply one in a long string of similar inventions. Advertisement Others say that while Edison's electric light bulbs did stand out from their forebears, even more credit should go to British inventor Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, who worked on incandescent lamps at the same time and later partnered with Edison. And yet another set of historians argue that this revisionist history is an overcorrection, and Edison is indeed the rightful inventor of the light bulb. So what is the answer? Earlier in September, the project partners met in Rehovot, Israel, to launch and coordinate project eBeam4Therapy. The 3-year project has received funding of Eur2.5M from the European Union through the Horizon Europe EIC Transition grant. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science At present, the treatment of deep-tissue cancers by radiation is most often accomplished through the use of photon (X-ray) or particle (for example, proton) beams. While electrons at low energies have also been applied to cancer therapy, these are only effective in the treatment of superficial tumours, due to their low ability to penetrate through human tissues. Prof. Victor Malka's team at the Department of Physics of Complex Systems of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel have found a way to routinely generate focused, highly energetic electron beams by compact laser plasma accelerators in the ideal energy range for the treatment of tumours located deep within the body (such as prostate or lung cancer). The use of very high energy electrons (VHEE) has a number of important advantages over conventional radiotherapy methods in clinical use for cancer therapy. First, electrons at energies of around 240MeV can penetrate deep within the body with finer resolution and can achieve better tumour targeting, which means that a lower dose of radiation is delivered to 'healthy' tissues adjacent to the tumour, lowering the risk of side effects which may, in some cases, be very serious. Second, the electron beams are highly resilient to organ motion and changes in patient geometry, improving treatment effectiveness This may be of special relevance for the treatment of patients with obesity with radiation as these often suffer from poor outcomes due to heightened tissue and organ motion during therapy delivery. Finally, the machinery required to deliver the therapy is expected to be compact, simple to operate and significantly cheaper than the one required to deliver proton therapy. Professor Malka comments: "The added value of the approach is that, because we are able to produce this very intense electric field, we do not need meters and meters of accelerating distance to produce the very high energy electrons, so it gives a chance to deliver the very high energy electrons for radiotherapy in a machine that can be compact and that can be also affordable commercially"Victor Malka Acceler8, a Venture Builder specialising in the commercialisation of research-based innovations, have been tasked with managing the commercialisation of the technology. During the coming years, they will work towards demonstrating commercial feasibility, improving acceptance among key stakeholders (e.g., end users, policymakers, investors) and improving the investment readiness. The goal is to bring a compact and inexpensive radiotherapy instrument to the market during next decade. The Acceler8 CEO sees the extensive market demand: "It is already seen that several start-ups in this domain have emerged, which have raised considerable amounts of funding. At the same time the machines are getting smaller and more affordable, while policy makers are improving the general access to radiotherapy facilities. All these drive the market further and provide an exciting environment for us building this solution"Antti Heikkila To contact the team behind the project, email contact@ebeam4therapy.eu or get in touch through the website's contact form www.ebeam4therapy.eu More information: [1]T Fuchs et. alTreatment planning for laser-accelerated very-high energy electrons. Phys. Med. Biol. 54 (2009). dx.doi.org/10.1088/0031-9155/54/11/003 [2]M Grazia Ronga et. alBack to the Future: Very High-Energy Electrons (VHEEs) and Their Potential Application in Radiation Therapy. Cancers (Basel) (2021). doi.org/10.3390/cancers13194942 Provided by Weizmann Institute of Science The Municipalities of Anfeh (Lebanon) and Fikardou (Cyprus) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 19 October at a TExTOUR general assembly hosted by the Cyprus University of Technology. The aim is to strengthen collaboration between the two pilot sites and set the basis for a long-term partnership. From 19 to 21 October 2022, the members of TExTOUR met in Limassol (Cyprus) for the project's second general assembly. On the first day of the meeting, the project partners visited the village of Fikardou. Upon the arrival of the party, the local institutions and the residents welcomed them with a blessing ceremony held by the local orthodox priest. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was then signed between the two pilot sites in the presence of the Commissioner for the Development of Mountain Areas in Cyprus and a representative of the Department of Antiquities, which is responsible for the protection and preservation of the village. The visit to the village that followed was full of surprises, like the demonstration of the traditional waving method and tasting delicious local dishes. The second and third days were dedicated to an update on the project's activities. The pilots in the project have identified a number of actions to include in their cultural tourism strategies. These include: a small school of Gastronomy in Trebinje, the digitization of the Fikardou village, the ambassadorship program in Coa Parque, thematic tours in the Kreenholm district, the creation of a permanent consultation table on cultural tourism in Crespi D'Adda, the setup of a Trinational Umgebindehouse-road, the recovery of fair traditions in Dubno town, improving accessibility of tourism infrastructure in Tarnowskie Gory and the design of the label "Made in Anfeh" for the promotion of local products. During the last months, in fact, the pilots organised a series of workshops in which local communities were asked to map their aspirations, identify and select a set of cultural tourism actions (with the help of actions cards), fill in a business model canvas for each of the actions, and finally set out long- and short-term goals. The aim of the participatory process, designed by the researchers of Bologna University, was to include the four pillars of sustainability: social, economic, cultural, and environmental. The project is now entering a new phase: the strategies will be put into practice in the so-called Cultural Tourism Labs and will then feed the project's digital platform, whose first version will be available in early 2023. Soon the co-development methodology and the CT strategies that originated from it will be made public, serving as a helpful guide for other areas wishing to define their own cultural tourism strategy. Stay tuned! Provided by iCube Programme Dr. Esgar Guarin consults with a patient named Michael, last name not given, before performing a vasectomy in his mobile medical clinic Friday, Oct. 29, 2022, in Waterloo, Iowa. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) A few days a month, Dr. Esgar Guarin hits the road in his mobile vasectomy clinic, crisscrossing the Iowa heartland to reach patients throughout the state, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles from his Des Moines-area office. The 24-foot-long health facility on wheels is decorated on the outside with large images of sperm and bold-lettered slogans like One small snip for man, one giant leap for Humankind(ness) and Its time to be responsible: love with respect. Advertisement Some of Guarins friends nicknamed the mobile unit the Nutcracker, a humorous though potentially misleading moniker, as no testicles are harmed during the quick outpatient operation. The physician prefers to call the vehicle the myth-cracker, because he uses it to promote the ease and simplicity of vasectomies along all the highways and country roads he traverses. We dont crack anything, said Guarin, who performs the majority of procedures out of his main office in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, and a satellite office in Cedar Rapids, with around 15% of vasectomies taking place in the mobile unit. If Im cracking something, what Im cracking is the myths about vasectomies. Dispelling them. Making sure that people understand that a vasectomy is a simple procedure. Advertisement The entry side of Dr. Esgar Guarin's mobile medical clinic reads, "One small snip for man, one giant leap for Humankind(ness)," parked in a lot at a community health clinic, Oct. 29, 2022, in Waterloo, Iowa. Once a month, Dr. Guarin drives a truck with the hitched trailer from the Des Moines area to cities and towns throughout Iowa to provide vasectomies at a lower cost than in traditional hospital or clinic settings. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, Guarin and other medical providers across the country encountered a surge in patients rushing to get a vasectomy, a highly effective male sterilization procedure that cuts off the supply of sperm, preventing it from entering ejaculate fluid. While Guarins entire practice both traditional office and mobile clinic visits typically gets about 40 to 50 vasectomy appointments a month, he said 20 patients signed up for the procedure online over the first 48 hours following Roes demise. There was an immediate spike, he said. I mean, a 250% increase in the number of people coming to the website compared to previous weeks. That number increased to 300% within five days of Roe v. Wade being overturned. In June, 41 patients received vasectomies in his practice. In July the first full month after the end of federal abortion protections the number of vasectomies skyrocketed to 79. Virtually a 100% increase, he said. August and September continued to be higher than average, and the doctor expects to complete around 70 vasectomies in October. Dr. Esgar Guarin describes the equipment installed for providing vasectomies in his mobile medical clinic, parked at a community health clinic parking lot in Waterloo, Iowa. The trailer is decorated with photographs of himself with colleagues and patients involved in vasectomy procedures in domestic and international settings. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Guarin said some of these patients mentioned that they had been considering permanent birth control for years, but the end of Roe solidified the decision, spurring them to finally take action. Its just my tiny world, in my clinic, he said. But what that reflects to me is that men were just relaxing and chilling and letting women do everything. And once there was no backup plan, so to speak and there was a decision to rule over the bodies of women and limit their ability to choose they said, Well, I think we have to do something about it. And they began to make decisions. Advertisement In honor of World Vasectomy Day, which is observed Nov. 18, Guarin and a Planned Parenthood affiliate are offering more than 100 free vasectomies in Missouri and Iowa during November. Guarin has been in Missouri this week, where he and Planned Parenthood providers have been teaming up to perform 60 free vasectomies at clinics in St. Louis, Springfield and Joplin. Later this month, Guarin plans to drive his mobile clinic to several towns across Iowa, providing 50 more no-cost procedures along the route. Dr. Esgar Guarin consults with a patient named Michael, last name not given, before performing a vasectomy in his mobile medical clinic on Oct. 29, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) The rise in vasectomy demand is encouraging to Guarin, who hopes to shift conversations about abortion and reproductive health to focus on the responsibility of men in preventing unplanned pregnancies, as opposed to restricting the decisions and bodily autonomy of women. We need to start focusing more on the right individual, which is men, said Guarin, a board-certified family medicine specialist who serves on the medical advisory board for World Vasectomy Day. We need to focus more on the individual who is fertile 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And not on the individual who is fertile one or two days a month. Because thats the wrong strategy. On a recent weekday, a 45-year-old man had a vasectomy at the mobile clinic in Waterloo, Iowa. Two days later, he said he felt fine physically, though he had been taking it easy and not working out at the gym as he usually would. I felt almost nothing, just a little pressure, he said, describing the procedure. Advertisement The patient has a son in college and recently separated from his wife; the prospect of dating again brought up newfound concerns about unplanned pregnancy, and he doesnt want to have any more children. While the overturning of Roe wasnt the deciding factor, he said talk of vasectomies has recently become more prevalent on the news and late-night talk shows, making him think more about the permanent birth control option. It all just seemed to coincide together at the same time, the patient said. Role of men Like Guarin, other medical providers across the nation have reported a rise in vasectomy requests following the end of Roe. At Yale Medicine Urology, we have also seen a sharp uptick in vasectomy consults, said Dr. Stanton Honig in a July blog post for Yale School of Medicine. While family planning should be a couples decision, we especially advocate for male partners to take an active role. Currently, the only permanent option for men is a vasectomy. The governor of California in September signed legislation making vasectomies cheaper, part of a larger reproductive health measure. As of 2024, private insurance plans in the state will be required to cover vasectomies without charging copays or deductibles. Locally, Planned Parenthood of Illinois in August performed the most monthly vasectomy procedures since the agency reintroduced the service in January. October is on track to come close to the number of procedures performed in August, said officials from Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which has 17 health centers across the state, predominantly in the Chicago area. Advertisement The fall of Roe has definitely led to an increase in vasectomies, said Dr. Ahmad El-Arabi, director of vasectomy services at Planned Parenthood of Illinois. While abortion rights are still protected in Illinois, I believe the fall of Roe has highlighted the role of men in the overall reproductive landscape. Brittany, 30, observes as Dr. Esgar Guarin performs a vasectomy on a patient named Nicholas, 31, in his mobile medical clinic on Oct. 29, 2022, in Waterloo, Iowa. Nicholas and Brittany are not partners but are co-parenting their three children from when they were together in previous years. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) El-Arabi pointed to a September study in The Journal of Urology, which found an increased interest in vasectomies post-Roe based on Google search trends, with some of the highest search volumes coming from states where abortion was prohibited or the legality of terminating a pregnancy was uncertain. While this decision primarily impacts the management of womens reproductive health, urologists around the country may feel the rippling effect as more men start seeking options for contraception, the study said. Although the number of vasectomies performed in the United States has steadily declined across all age groups over the last decade, urologists may see a sudden reversal of this trend, particularly in states that are disproportionately affected by the SCOTUS decision. To the south, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri also reported a rise in sterilization procedures following the end of Roe. The agency which has been hosting the free vasectomies at three Missouri clinics this week performed 42 vasectomies in July, nearly double the 22 vasectomies it tracked in June. The increase continued in August with 42 vasectomies but dipped in September, when 23 male sterilization procedures were performed, according to data from the agency, which covers Southern Illinois and sections of Missouri. Overall, 202 vasectomies were performed so far this fiscal year through the end of the September, a rise from 146 in fiscal year 2021. The agency also experienced an increase in female sterilization procedures tubal ligations and hysterectomies after Roes demise, performing 18 female sterilizations in July compared with three in June. There were 52 female sterilization procedures performed there through the end of September this fiscal year, a marked increase from 34 in fiscal year 2021, according to the Planned Parenthood affiliate. Advertisement We are certainly seeing an increase both in patients requesting sterilizations vasectomies for male-bodied people and tubal ligations for female bodied people, said Dr. Margaret Baum, medical director at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. Baum said multiple patients have told her theyve been contemplated undergoing tubal ligation or a vasectomy for several years but recently decided I need to get it right now, because Im worried. Immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, abortions were banned in Missouri except in the narrowest of circumstances. Terminating a pregnancy remains legal in Illinois, which has strong reproductive rights protections. I think patients in Missouri are feeling the decision more strongly than patients in Illinois, Baum said. Late-afternoon sunlight shines on Dr. Esgar Guarin as he shows items from a post-procedure care box, including containers to send follow-up samples of semen, to a patient before performing a vasectomy in his mobile medical clinic. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) She added that she often performs sterilization procedures on patients who were turned down by other providers. She recently had an Illinois patient who drove several hours from another part of the state to the Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights, Illinois. The patient said she had asked her gynecologist to refer her to another provider for a tubal ligation and the gynecologist refused, arguing that the 25-year-old patient was too young for the permanent procedure. That is a common theme, Baum said. I hear it all the time. I was told I was too young. I was told I have to have a child. Or I have to have a certain number of children. I had someone tell me they were turned down because the doctor told them they should have a boy and a girl. Advertisement One Missouri patient told Baum another physician required consent from her husband. This was a patient who wasnt married, Baum added. I think Planned Parenthood has the reputation for respecting and promoting bodily autonomy, so patients end up with us, she said. And of course, were happy to see them, but it makes me sad that people are struggling to get care closer to home. Deeper empathy for patients The mobile vasectomy clinic which launched in spring 2021 includes a bathroom, small waiting room and an exam room with enough space so Guarin can perform the procedure. The surfaces inside are made of white aluminum, a material thats easy to clean; one patient enters at a time and others wait in their vehicles until their appointment time, he said. I thought it was a brilliant idea because it would be a terrific way for us to convey the simplicity of the vasectomy, he said, adding that the procedure doesnt require a hospital or surgical center. Its so simple that all you need is a very skilled surgeon. A sign on the back of the vehicle reads: Honk if you got a vasectomy! Advertisement People drive next to me and give me the thumbs-up or honk at me, he said. Occasionally, drivers will give Guarin a dirty look or flip him off. I love it, he said, laughing. Because that means they are going to be upset and generate that conversation. Because they are going to complain about it to someone else and that somebody else may agree with them or may say, No, I think its a good idea. Thats what we try to do: establish the conversation. Guarin stressed that the choice to undergo sterilization is very personal and that the procedure should be considered permanent; although there are vasectomy reversal surgeries, theyre expensive and not always successful. But for patients who are satisfied with their fertility the number of kids they have or the certainty that they want to remain child-free thats the time to consider the procedure, he said. What hes striving for is more gender parity when it comes to birth control and reproductive planning: He noted that far more women undergo tubal ligation surgeries even though the cost, time, recovery, risk and pain are far greater compared with a vasectomy, he said. A 2010 study in The Journal of Urology found that 175,000 to 354,000 vasectomies were done annually from 1998 to 2002, based on National Survey of Family Growth data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the same period about 546,000 to 789,000 tubal ligations were done in the United States each year. Advertisement Our purpose is to create a little more of a balanced relationship with what women have brought to the discussion of reproduction and what men have brought to the discussion, he said. Because listen, lets face it, we are left mostly with the joyful part of making babies and everything else has been dumped on women. Dr. Esgar Guarin talks with a patient named Nicholas, 31, and Brittany, 30, after performing a vasectomy on Nicholas in his mobile medical clinic on Oct. 29, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. > Guarin added that theres no change to the patients erection, testosterone levels or sexual performance after a vasectomy. If theres any change in the sexual performance of the individual, it is a positive one, he said. Because once you remove the weight off the shoulders of the man associated with the concern of potentially causing an unplanned pregnancy, spontaneity and a better sexual life will come. Six years ago, Guarin performed his own vasectomy, in part to help empathize with his patients. The recovery was quick; he said he was back at work two days later, running up and down hospital stairs. I wanted to be able to tell the patient, that what hes going through, I felt it, he said. Because the guy who is doing his vasectomy did my own vasectomy. This can be helpful for patients who are anxious before the procedure, he said. Advertisement All of a sudden you can see their face change, he said. That really makes them understand that I know what theyre going through. So it was a matter of just developing a deeper, empathetic relationship with them. The Associated Press contributed. The Greater Omaha Packing Co. beef plant in South Omaha will expand its capacity by nearly 30% and add 275 jobs thanks to a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Omaha on Wednesday to formally announce the grant, part of an initiative by the administration of President Joe Biden to increase competition in the heavily concentrated meat industry. The administration has said a lack of competition within the industry has both depressed prices producers receive for their cattle while leading to higher prices for consumers. I think this is a good day for producers, a good day for those interested in working in the facilities, a good day for the communities who will benefit and a good day for consumers, Vilsack said of the initial round of grants being released Wednesday. Many cattle producers and consumer advocates think a lack of competition in meat processing is giving packers too much market power, to the detriment of both consumers and farmers and ranchers. Some 85% of the more than 30 million head of cattle raised for slaughter each year in the United States are processed by just four leading meatpackers. Packers argue there is nothing inherently wrong with cattle markets. They attribute recent years higher prices for consumers and lower prices for cattle producers to natural supply and demand forces and to market disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Vilsack a year ago announced that the administration would make $500 million from the American Rescue Plan available as grants, loans and loan guarantees for small, startup meat-processing facilities, expanding national production capacity and giving local producers more places to market their livestock. Vilsack said the goal of the program is to increase competition, expand capacity, strengthen the nations food system, create jobs and lower food costs for consumers. The grant Greater Omaha will receive is part of an initial round of $73 million in grants to mostly small meat processors and one of two in Nebraska. From its base in South Omaha, Greater Omaha Packing lays claim to being the fifth-largest U.S. beef packer, behind only the Big Four of Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef. The South Omaha plant is among the largest ones to receive the new grants. The firms plant in South Omaha slaughters some 2,400 head of cattle daily cattle raised mostly by producers in Nebraska and Iowa and employs roughly 1,500 workers. The grant will help Omaha Packing add another processing line to the plant for an additional 700 head of daily capacity. There is no timetable yet for when construction of the line would begin. Its just going to allow us to be able to provide more opportunity for producers outside of the big four, and obviously provide more jobs, said Wendy Thornhill, director of marketing and communications with Greater Omaha Packing. The other Nebraska grant is $688,011 to Lot 279, a craft meat producer in Norfolk that sells beef products direct to consumers. The grant will help fund the construction of a processing facility for use by at least three family-owned cattle producers who are seeking to create their own brands of value-added beef products. The company will provide fee-based processing services to the producers. Cattle producers shrinking share of the beef dollar compared to packers was the subject of a series of stories in the World-Herald last year. Vilsack was scheduled to tour the Greater Omaha beef plant, which features robotic systems and conveyors controlled by computer software that sort and store as many as 65,000 boxes of refrigerated beef cuts. The system tracks the product in each box, its weight, when it was packed and makes decisions on what box to ship to the customer that requests it. The company ships beef across the nation and to more than 70 different countries. Henry Davis is the third-generation leader of the company founded in Omaha by his grandfather in 1920. Vilsack said the agriculture department will be taking applications on a second round of grants that will total roughly the same amount of funding. ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) President Joe Biden said Friday he was feeling really good about Democrats' chances in the midterm elections, even as he traveled to the Chicago area to support two House members who are facing more competitive reelection battles than expected. Folks, Im not buying the notion that were in trouble, he told the crowd at a political reception in a hotel for U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super political action committee, or super PAC, aligned with the GOP House leadership, this week announced a $1.8 million ad buy against Casten, who represents an Illinois district that Biden won by about 11 percentage points in 2020. Before a crowd of roughly 50 people, the president ticked off his administration's signature legislative achievements on infrastructure, climate and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, efforts he said were achieved in collaboration with Underwood and Casten. Sean and Lauren have been great partners with all of this across the board, he said. Of Casten, he said, "Sean is smart, effective and is one of the most honorable men Ive ever served with. He touted Underwood's ability to work across party lines, calling her a champion of families. The stops outside Chicago and earlier Friday in California and events to come in Joliet, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York this weekend are all part of Bidens down-to-the-minute efforts to shore up shaky ground that had once been reliably predicted to go for Democrats, in an effort to blunt the impact of projected losses in congressional seats and in governors races across the country in Tuesday's midterm elections. I feel really good about our chances, he told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for Illinois from Southern California. I think were going to keep the Senate and pick up a seat, and I think we have a chance of winning the House. So, I feel optimistic. In Carlsbad, California, Biden toured a communications company that was expected to benefit from his push to bolster American semiconductor manufacturing. He took along embattled Rep. Mike Levin for the visit to Viasat, as the president highlighted his CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion legislative package, and the work his administration has done for U.S. veterans. Mikes a champion for his constituents, especially veterans who live here," Biden said, noting throughout his remarks that he got signature bills passed with Mike's help. Levin, a two-term congressman representing a San Diego-area district that was once a Republican stronghold, is locked in a tight race with former San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott. Biden headlined a rally Thursday night in Oceanside, California, for Levin. Coronavirus pandemic-era supply disruptions and a dearth of domestic chip manufacturing hampered Viasat, which relies on such components for services it provides to industrial customers and the U.S. military. The company also makes a point of hiring returning veterans. Biden on Friday spoke of how the CHIPS act will help Viasat and other companies reduce their reliance on overseas chip manufacturers. It's a game-changer," he said of the ability to have chips readily available in the U.S.. Thanks to this law, this company hopes to significantly grow its global business and hire more workers in the next five years. Saturday morning hes to deliver remarks in nearby Joliet, Illinois, on Social Security and Medicare, before heading to Philadelphia to join former President Barack Obama to stump for Senate candidate John Fetterman. From there, Biden will travel to Westchester County, just north of New York City, to campaign for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who's in a tough race with Republican Lee Zeldin. If we just keep fighting, keep the House and Senate, were going to be okay, but if we lose the House and Senate, its going to be a horrible two years," Biden said, briefly abandoning his signature optimism before adding, The good news is I'll have the veto pen. ___ Long reported from Washington. Roast Beef Dinner Rustin Avenue United Methodist Church, 2901 Leech Ave., will host a roast beef dinner from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4. Cost is $10 for adults and $4.50 for children ages 3-10. Harvest Dinner Community United Methodist Church, 101 Baker Drive, Sergeant Bluff, will host a harvest dinner from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6. Menu includes turkey and all the fixings, salads, and desserts. Cost is $15 for adults and $6 for children 10 and under. Pumpkin Pie Sale St. John Lutheran Church will have a pumpkin pie sale. Orders will be taken from Nov. 1 through Nov. 20; pies are $12 each. The pies will be baked on Monday, Nov. 21, and will be available for pickup from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22, and from 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23. Pies can be ordered by stopping by at the church at 2801 Jackson St., calling the church office at 712-277-3945, or calling Barb Ulferts at 712-899-8231. All proceeds will go to the St. John Food Pantry Ministry. End of Life Issues from a Catholic Perspective Siouxland Catholic Radio and Catholic United Financial will host an educational End of Life Workshop Series told through a uniquely Catholic perspective on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 12:45 p.m. or 6 p.m. at the historic St. Boniface Rectory. Fr. Roger Linnan will address the Catholic Churchs position on medical choices facing the elderly and terminally ill (dignity of the human being, extension of life through medical treatments, use of medications, etc.) Butch Byers, Regional Director of Catholic United Financial, will also speak about the financial decisions which surround end-of-life decisions (probate, incapacity documents, wills, power of attorney, etc.) This is a popular End-of-Life Series recently presented at Holy Cross ParishSioux City; St. Marys Remsen, Iowa; All Saints Parish Le Mars, Iowa; and St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish Cluster Elk Point, Jefferson, and Dakota Dunes, S.D. Contact Siouxland Radio at 712-224-5342 or fhcradio@fhcradio.com to reserve a spot. Refreshments served. Journey to Bethlehem Grace United Methodist Church, 311 Second Ave. West, Spencer, Iowa, is hosting a Journey to Bethlehem from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 10 and 11. A cast of approximately 100 people will give guided tours to hear ancient prophesy, shepherds tending their flocks, King Herods Court, the town of Bethlehem and an unassuming inn and stable. Visitors can see and imagine life as it was many centuries ago when God sent His Son -- with real animals, the smell of bread baking and the chatter of a rumor in the ancient village of Bethlehem. This guided tour takes approximately 40 minutes and includes stairs. This is a free event for all ages. BEIJING (AP) In a much-scrutinized meeting Friday with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear. Scholz was in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over Chinas tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip. It comes after Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month and as China continues to refuse to criticize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Scholz's visit reflects the importance of Germanys trade ties with China, the worlds second-largest economy, particularly in the auto and manufacturing sectors. Mercedes Benz alone sold 758,863 cars in China last year, more than in any other country. Scholz, who traveled with several top German business leaders, received a formal welcome from Xi, who was recently reappointed head of the ruling Communist Party for a third term, at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. At present, the international situation is complex and changeable," Xi was quoted as telling Scholz by state broadcaster CCTV. As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development." On Ukraine, Xi pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and promoting the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework," CCTV reported. That was apparently a nod to Russia's anger over NATO's eastern expansion. The international community should create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons," Xi said. Scholz is the first leader from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations to meet with Xi since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China in 2019, and the first European leader to visit China since Russias invasion of Ukraine, which Germany has strongly opposed. The diplomatically delicate trip came as Germany and the European Union are working on their strategy toward an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China. Meanwhile on Friday, G-7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises. Beijing has provided Moscow with diplomatic backing by repeatedly calling for peace talks while refusing to support measures at the United Nations criticizing Russia's invasion. It has also accused the U.S. and NATO of provoking the attack and scathingly criticized economic sanctions imposed on Russia. In his opening remarks, Scholz referred directly to the conflict that has created millions of refugees and upended world food and energy markets, saying, We come together at a time of great tension." In particular, I want to highlight the Russian war against Ukraine, which poses many problems for our rules-based world order, Scholz said. Scholz also touched on global hunger, climate change and developing-world debt as important issues. At a later news conference, Scholz said he told Xi that its important for China to exert its influence on Russia." He gave no details on what the West wanted China to do. President Xi and I agree that nuclear threats are irresponsible and highly dangerous. By using nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line that the international community has drawn together, he said. Scholz also said he brought up human rights and market access, and told Xi that any change in the status of self-governing Taiwan can only happen peacefully and by mutual agreement. China claims the island republic as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. In an apparent reference to European lawmakers and the Baltic state of Lithuania that China has banned and boycotted over their relations with Taiwan, Scholz said, It is also important to be clear that economic measures against individual EU member states are directed against the entire EU single market, and sanctions against EU lawmakers are not acceptable for us. Scholz has come under criticism for making the visit to China so soon after Xi's triumph at last month's congress, at which he promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the economy and a more confrontational approach to the West. The visit is also occurring amid rising tensions over Taiwan and follows a U.N. report that said Chinese human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in its Xinjiang region may amount to crimes against humanity. Scholz was accompanied by about a dozen top German business leaders, including the CEOs of Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Bayer and Deutsche Bank, most of which are doing a thriving business in China. That has some German observers questioning whether the country is becoming overly reliant on the Chinese market, just as it did with Russia for energy supplies. VW's China head, Ralf Brandstatter, said Scholz's visit was important during politically and economically challenging times like these." China is Germanys most important trading partner, with 5,000 German companies active in the country and hundreds of thousands of German jobs tied to the Chinese market. More than 14 million jobs in China depend on business with European companies, Brandstatter said. Scholz also met with Premier Li Keqiang, who nominally has responsibility over China's economy. At home, some have criticized Scholz for normalizing China's behavior. While his nearly year-old government has signaled a departure from predecessor Angela Merkels firmly trade-first approach, his trip follows domestic discord over a Chinese shipping companys major investment in a container terminal in Germany's crucial port of Hamburg. With China still imposing tough COVID-19 restrictions, his delegation moved in an anti-virus bubble, undergoing testing and not staying in Beijing overnight. At just 11 hours, it is the shortest trip ever to China by a German leader. German officials say the trip sought to probe where China is going and what forms of cooperation are possible. Associated Press reporter Geir Moulson contributed to this story from Berlin. Metro Sioux City should build on its status as a blue-collar city to help grow the local economy, the new chair of The Siouxland Initiative said Friday. SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man who assaulted his mother and broke bones in her face has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Kevin Maas, 51, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Woodbury County District Court to two counts of willful injury. District Judge Robert Tiefenthaler on Thursday sentenced Maas to a total of 10 years in prison on the two charges. The sentence was added to a five-year prison sentence Maas received in February for an unrelated domestic abuse assault charge, a conviction he had appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals, which dismissed his appeal last month. Maas assaulted his mother on May 12 at her Sioux City home after she refused to go with him to pick up another person. After she offered him money for a cab, he hit her repeatedly in the face and tried to strangle her, then fled before police arrived. The 74-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, where she was treated for a left orbital fracture, multiple broken cheek and nasal bones and a head bleed. Maas was arrested in July. To taste, or not to taste. That is the question Rock Island High School staff asked themselves Thursday as they participated in the Hot Shakes Challenge to raise money for the annual River Bend Food Bank Student Hunger Drive competition. Staff ran the gamut of tasting increasing hot levels of hot sauce flavors as they simultaneously tried to read Shakespearean excerpts ranging from love stories such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet to tragedies such as Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Rockys Drama Club collaborated with the Student Hunger Drive committee to organize the event, which took place in the high schools auditorium. Audience members were charged either $1 or two nonperishable food items, all of which went toward the schools Student Hunger Drive efforts. It was a new idea and just another way to get people excited for the upcoming events, said Kaiya McKinley, the schools Student Hunger Drive ambassador. It was a lot of fun and a great idea. Having something new like this, throughout the years I think we can better it and make more people want to come more to these things. Ten Rocky staff members began the challenge, provided with gloves and chips to dip into the hot sauce samples milk and water were offered to staff as lifelines as heat levels increased. Principal Jeff Whitaker was one of the first to visibly struggle but to him, the heat was worth it. Its all for a good cause, raising money and collecting goods for people that need it, he said. Obviously, choking through the first couple of them and then regaining it was kind of tough but it was all for a good cause again, so I dont mind a little heat. Though Whitaker lasted until Round 7, audience members could see him walking it off to recover from the heat. I saw the word habanero on it [sauce sample]; I think it was more mental than anything else, he said. But I think its a great event; all the credit goes to Dori Foster, one of our great English teachers here. She had this great idea to try and raise funds and collect canned goods. The fifth round queued runny noses for several staff members. Engineering and welding teacher Jason Kitterman was the first to tap out after Round 6, adding the phrase in my mouth to the famous Macbeth quote: Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. The end of Round 7 marked the end of the road for Whitaker and English teacher Ann Boege. At least my sinus congestion is going away, Boege remarked before embarking on what would be her final round of the challenge. By the end of the challenge, six staff members remained many of whom were either visibly shaking, red-faced or watery-eyed at this point. One of the last standing was science and special services teacher Caitlin Clough who tackled the challenge with a strategy. I tried to eat my chip nice and slow, she said. And then I tried to read ahead of time, so I was really more focused on the words than the sauce itself. Though staff participation in the challenge was optional, Clough said she thought of it as an easy way to help her students and community out. The Student Hunger Drive is definitely something I want to support, she said. If it brings awareness to the students and raises funds, then Im all for making a fool of myself for feeling the heat. For those who missed Thursdays event, the high schools student council is hosting a drive-thru food drive from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Rocky Stadium, gathering more donations for the Student Hunger Drive. Starting at 1 p.m., Rocky Stadium will also hold the senior and junior girls Powderpuff Game. Admission is $2 or five cans, also toward the Student Hunger Drive. For those on the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities, Bettendorf High Schools student council will be door-to-door canvasing for canned or jarred food, seeds and monetary donations from 9 a.m. to noon today in surrounding Bettendorf neighborhoods. The drop-off location for donations is at the high schools main entrance. LE MARS, Iowa -- An unattended candle in a basement bedroom caused a fire that damaged a Le Mars home Wednesday. Two occupants at home when the fire started evacuated safely after smoke detectors activated, and firefighters were able to rescue a dog from the flames. Le Mars Fire-Rescue was dispatched at 1:11 p.m. to 24 Fourth St. NW, where they encountered heavy smoke upon arrival. After entering the house to search for the fire, firefighters had to retreat when the kitchen floor began to sag and drop. They were able to reenter through a door in the garage leading to the basement and kitchen. The kitchen floor collapsed into the basement, and firefighters attacked the fire coming up from the basement, advancing down the stairs through flames, heat and smoke to extinguish the fire, chief David Schipper said in a news release. Another crew entered the main floor and located the dog and treated it with an oxygen mask before it was taken to a local veterinarian. Two of the home's occupants were taken by private vehicle to Floyd Valley Healthcare for examination. No firefighters were hurt. An investigation determined the fire started in a basement bedroom, where a burning candle ignited combustibles before flames spread into the basement ceiling/kitchen floor. The house had heavy fire damage in the bedroom and kitchen and smoke damage throughout the basement and main floor. SIOUX CITY For more than 70 minutes Thursday night, former President Donald Trump painted America as a place where nearly everything has gone to ruin since he left office. "The Iowa way of life is under siege," the 45th president said at a Sioux Gateway Airport rally to support Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley. "We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation," he said. The self-described "law and order president" also talked of open borders, violent crime, "indoctrination" of children with "twisted race and gender lunacy," cresting communism and law enforcement officers who have been enfeebled by politically correct people in power. "Out of control," was a phrase dropped into his speech more than once. But, according to Trump, who repeated false claims about the 2020 election being "rigged" against him, Republican supporters in Iowa and elsewhere can regain some measure of control. "If you want to stop destruction, save our country and save the American dream, then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave," Trump said. Why the stop? Specifically, Trump made sure to tell people to cast ballots for Grassley and Reynolds who are both up for re-election this year. An October Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll showed Grassley with a 3% lead, among likely voters, over Democratic nominee Mike Franken of Sioux City. Were that figure to be the final margin on Nov. 8, it would be the closest Senate race of Grassley's 41-year career in the upper chamber. Trump caricatured Franken, a retired three-star Navy admiral, as an "open borders extremist" and someone who is "terrible on the Second Amendment." Franken has repeatedly talked about civilian gun ownership in comparison to the use of firearms in the U.S. military and said to the Des Moines Register "no one handles firearms without strict training and understanding of the responsibilities associated. No one disputes the right to own firearms. The responsibility for safe use must be on the owners of firearms themselves." As for Grassley, the 89-year-old, seven-term incumbent, Trump downplayed his age and touted the legislative record of Iowa's longest serving U.S. senator. "He looks like he's 40," Trump said of Grassley. "He's helped me more than just about anybody." The "help" Trump spoke of included Grassley's work to appoint 174 district court judges, 54 appeals court judges and three U.S. Supreme Court justices (per Axios). Then Trump, who while in office faced scrutiny from corn growers for being overly accommodating of oil refineries, said Grassley, a family farmer himself, was a staunch defender of ethanol. "He loves ethanol. I said, 'How good is it?' He said 'It doesn't matter. We want it,'" Trump said of an exchange with Grassley. To further drive home Grassley's relationship with farmers, numerous audience members sported green caps and held signs saying "Farmers for Trump." Grassley speaks When Grassley spoke, he told the crowd he would continue to pursue investigations into the FBI and the Biden family. "I'm not going to give up on trying to get political bias out of the FBI. And I'm not going to give up on my investigation of Hunter Biden and the other Bidens. We follow the facts and we follow the money," Grassley said. That promise elicited cheers of "Lock him up." At another point, the crowd jeered when Grassley mentioned Palestinians. He then suggested Iran is the "No. 1 perpetrator of terrorism in the world" and that the United States gives the country billions of dollars. (CNN reported in May 2021 that the Biden administration was "weighing unfreezing $1 billion in Iranian funds that the country could use for humanitarian relief, amid the negotiations for the US to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal.") Immigration "We must immediately force the restoration of every single Trump border security measure that achieved the strongest border in the history of country by far," said Trump, who launched his 2016 campaign by saying Mexico was intentionally sending rapists and drug dealers to the country. To do that, he told the crowd, who chanted "build the wall" at one point, the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers should be doubled and that legislation should be passed to allow for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. In the same section, Trump suggested drug dealers and drug traffickers should get the death penalty which is currently allowed in 27 states. Historically, the death penalty in the United States has only been handed down in murder cases and the American Civil Liberties Union has said, "There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment." Trump suggested law enforcement officers aren't able to do more to combat crime themselves because of alleged Democratic policies of defunding the police. (Spending for police budgets has increased in the country's three-largest cities since 2019, according to ABC News.) Interruptions More than once during his time at the podium, Trump cut short one train of thought to pursue another. Just after calling for large-scale deportations, Trump asked for his supporters, at least 60 of whom left before the event ended, to move closer to the stage and mocked the press for having a better spot. He then immediately pivoted, saying, "If you want safety for your family and security for your community, you need to throw every Democrat the hell out of office." Later, Trump mentioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (calling her "Crooked Hillary") and then riffed about getting seasick from trying to look at teleprompters blowing in the wind. Speeds for gusts got into the double digits and the temperature dropped into the low 40s. As his time came to a close, Trump asked attendees to sign up for Truth Social, the Twitter-like app his company created, and shouted out Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan, who is not up for re-election this year. "That's the guy," Trump said pointing. Earlier this year, Sheehan hosted an event with constitutional attorney KrisAnne Hall who has appeared on Alex Jones InfoWars network. While winding up to deliver his signature catchphrase, Trump alighted on a thought about air travel in the United States, "once a nation revered for its magnificent airports which are now a crowded mess. You sit and wait for hours and then youre notified that the plane wont leave and they have no idea when it will." And discussion about the estate tax, and Trump's work in office to, as Forbes said, "double the federal estate tax exemption for estate, gift and generations skipping taxes," the former president suggested some in the crowd might not want to give freely to future generations. "Some of us have horrible children, do you have any horrible children?" Trump asked. The prelude and Pelosi talk Nearly 12 hours before the event, more than 100 rally-goers were in line to get in as "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men blasted over a loudspeaker near a stage where My Pillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell later talked about the recent Brazilian election. Lindell, who has been repeatedly banned from Twitter for baselessly insisting Trump won the 2020 election, said outgoing Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro lost to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva because 5.1 million votes were stolen during the election in the South American country. Lindell was seen touring the event grounds with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who was one of the first candidates to speak. "Americans are robbed, stabbed, raped, kidnapped, carjacked and murdered. But the only crime victim you hear about from Democrats in the media is Paul Pelosi," said Greene, whose remark drew boos from the crowd. Last Friday, law enforcement officers said they responded to a break-in at the Pelosi home and witnessed the 82-year-old being struck in the head with a hammer at least once. The suspect, David DePape, a Canadian man, reportedly asked "Where's Nancy?" in reference to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Greene delivered her remarks behind a podium behind a sign which read "Save America," the theme of the evening. The slogan was one of a litany that could be found on Trump merchandise circulating throughout the airport grounds. Vendors sold flags saying, "Trump 2024," "Let's Go Brandon" (a euphemistic phrase deployed as a denunciation of President Joe Biden) and "White Lives Matter," while supporters strolled around in T-shirts with slogans such as "Mean Tweets and Cheap Gas." Closer to the start time, a video played on two big screens that described the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as "third world" and "bulls***." And though both Trump and Reynolds took Democrats to task for their support of transgender students and athletes, the event playlist featured "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie which has been described as a song about a transgender girl who eventually finds confidence in herself. What's ahead? Trump's rally came as the former president appears poised to launch a 2024 White House bid once the midterms have concluded. At a recent event in Robstown, Texas, Trump talked about his successful 2016 campaign and failed 2020 re-election effort before teasing a third run. During the Sioux City speech, Trump maintained the idea: "In order to make our country very successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again." As he toys with announcing his candidacy, Trump continues to be mired in a litany of controversies and lawsuits. "We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt, Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro wrote in a Dec. 31, 2020, email obtained by Congressional investigators. "Realistically, our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress, is from Thomas." On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to prevent Congress from formalizing the electoral votes to make Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States of America. Stronger after attacks Trump told the crowd of several hundred that the reason for all of the lawsuits and all of the negativity directed his way was for one reason and one reason alone. "Theyre coming after me because Im fighting for you," Trump said. Trump ended on the theme of fighting and said it would pay dividends. "We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again." SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- Four candidates are vying for four seats on the eight-member South Sioux City Council. The candidates running in the uncontested election on Nov. 8 are Daniel Bousquet and incumbents James Gunsolley, Jasper Kriens and John Sanders. Incumbent Bruce Davis is not seeking re-election. Sanders, a life-long resident of South Sioux City, served on the South Sioux City Police Department for 25 years. Then, he worked as a federal bailiff for the U.S. Marshals Service for eight years. He also founded John's Pancake Co., a family catering business his son now runs. "When I got done with the police department, I said, 'I think I'm going to run for council. I want to be involved with the city yet,'" Sanders recalled. "Most of the ones I talked to said, 'You'll never get elected. They won't elect a cop to a job like that.' I, then, more so, wanted to prove them wrong, so I ran. I've been in there five terms." Sanders said his top priority is being there for the residents when they need assistance. "I return all phone calls, regardless. I talk to people daily about any problems they might have or what they want to see happen," said Sanders, who said his experience is an asset. Kriens, who is a South Sioux City native, works as a project manager for B&B Rogers Excavating. He said he initially decided to run for a seat on the council because he wanted to give back to the community and try to make things better. "It's a team effort. It takes all eight of us to make things work," he said. "I just want to be a part of that." Kriens said he thinks one of the most important issues the city is facing is a shortage of housing. "We need more housing. That's probably one of the biggest things," said Kriens, who said his aggressiveness sets him apart from the other candidates. Bousquet is seeking a return to the council. He was first elected to the council in 2008 and served three terms. He initially opted against re-election in 2020, but, later, decided to mount a write-in campaign, which was unsuccessful. Bousquet is a U.S. Army veteran. He also served with the Iowa Air National Guard's 185th Air Refueling Wing. Back in 2008, when Bousquet first became a city council candidate, he said he was "very interested" in city government. Bousquet, who was managing rental properties at the time, attended council meetings and also watched them on TV. Bousquet said job creation, affordable housing, property taxes and quality education are among his priorities as he contends for a fourth term. He said his experience in city government sets him apart. Gunsolley is seeking his second term on the Council. He served with the 185th Air Refueling Wing and worked for 49 years as an educator. After serving 16 years on the South Sioux City Board of Education, Gunsolley opted to run for a seat on the city council. "I enjoy the prospect of trying to make lives better for the people of South Sioux City," he said. "I just have a real sincere interest in giving back to my community." Gunsolley said his top priorities include continuing to build housing and getting the new wastewater treatment plant up and running in 2023. "As kind of a money person, I do get concerned about indebtedness, and South Sioux does have some of that going on now with these major projects. But, they're good for the people," he said. "(The wastewater treatment plant) will help, for example, in controlling the sewer rates in South Sioux, because we'll be managing that ourselves, instead of relying on Sioux City." After last months violent assault on Paul Pelosi the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denunciations of the attack came swiftly from both sides of the political aisle. Yet that moment of unified condemnation quickly passed. Before long, a few Republicans, such as Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, were making light of the situation. On the other side of the political aisle, liberals such as Hillary Clinton and Democratic strategist David Axelrod were lamenting the unique pervasiveness of right-wing political extremism. Newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk bellyflopped into the mix by pushing a conspiracy theory involving Paul Pelosis personal life. Advertisement The suspect in the assault, David DePape, appears to have been active in online conspiracy theories. Upon entering the speakers home while Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, DePape allegedly shouted, Wheres Nancy? multiple times. Paul Pelosi wound up with a skull fracture after confronting DePape, who was wielding a hammer, according to authorities. Federal and state prosecutors have filed charges against DePape, including attempted murder and attempted kidnapping of a United States official. Political violence is nothing new in this country. From 1865 to 1901, the U.S. saw three presidents assassinated. This trend continued steadily throughout the 20th century. Theodore Roosevelt was shot while campaigning for a third run at the presidency. Franklin D. Roosevelt was nearly shot a month before his first inauguration. (The assassins bullet instead struck and killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing nearby.) John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Nearly two decades later, Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. During the last decade, two U.S. representatives were shot during assassination attempts: Democrat Gabby Giffords in 2011 and Republican Steve Scalise in 2017. Advertisement Yet, when it comes to violence from the political right, some pundits have worried about a trend that could be traced to Jan. 6, 2021, the day a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington. A recent Associated Press report found the attack on Paul Pelosi to be an unsettling echo of Jan. 6. In The New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd noted that DePape shouting Wheres Nancy? was eerily reminiscent of shouts that came from some of the Capitol rioters. President Joe Biden also made that connection in his prime-time speech on Wednesday, pointing out that the Jan. 6 protesters used those very same words. Its tempting to view political extremism through the prism of its most notorious recent example. But Jan. 6 was merely a symptom of the disease that plagues our politics. Its by no means the only symptom. While recriminations were still flying over the attack on Pelosi, news broke that a Chicago resident, Scott Lennox, was charged this past week with threatening to torture and murder Darren Bailey, the Illinois Republican nominee for governor. According to prosecutors, Lennox became enraged after watching one of Baileys political advertisements and felt compelled to deliver his threats in an expletive-laden voicemail. According to authorities, in his voicemail Lennox accused the gubernatorial candidate of being a racist and peddling misinformation and criticized his stance on abortion. (Bailey is staunchly anti-abortion rights.) This past June, a man carrying a pistol, ammunition and zip-ties staked out the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Authorities arrested Nicholas Roske before he was able to carry out his alleged plan. Roske later told investigators that he was motivated by the impending overturning of Roe v. Wade. Barely a month before police thwarted the attack on Kavanaugh, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board fretted that the lives of Supreme Court justices could be at risk following a leak of the draft opinion. Its an awful thought, the editorial board wrote, but we live in fanatical times. This seems hauntingly prescient. But why was it so predictable? Probably because partisans see themselves as battling for the countrys future while viewing the other side as an existential threat. Before the riot that broke out on Jan. 6, Trump gave a raucous speech in front of his supporters, advising the crowd to fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore. He further advised that if Biden became president, our country will be destroyed and were not going to stand for that. Tuesdays midterm elections are likewise being couched in dire terms. A seemingly endless stream of advertisements warns that your rights and freedoms are at risk of being taken away if this party or that party wins the election. Or, as Biden recently put it, Democracy itself is on the ballot. The political hyperbole that America will be destroyed or democracy subverted may rile up the political base, but it will also resonate with those who have been politically radicalized online. When the stakes are portrayed as being this high, those individuals can feel motivated to take drastic actions. Politicians are not responsible for the actions of disturbed individuals bent on violence, but its important to recognize that words matter. Advertisement The loudest voices in the political arena have been successful at seizing the political narrative. As moderate voices are drowned out by the most partisan, the center necessarily gives way to the fringe. If politicians care to regain control over the countrys passions, then its past time to set aside fiery political rhetoric and allow for cooler heads to prevail. Tyler Michals is an attorney in Chicago. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. There are 4 days until polls close on Election Day. Here's what to know, including the top stories of the day, the latest polls and key races in focus. STORY OF THE DAY VP Harris fights for Democrats' future and her own BOSTON (AP) Ruby Brown beamed with excitement in a community college gymnasium as she waited for Vice President Kamala Harris to take the stage at a political rally for the Democratic ticket in Massachusetts As soon as her name was announced, I said I had to find a way to go, said Brown, 58. The midterms are just days away, with control of Congress and statehouses across the country up for grabs, but Brown and her friends were really hoping for a hint of what might happen a few years down the line. Thats why were here, said Lisa Palmer-Glover, 56. To see whats next on the plate. The comments are just a glimpse of the expectations and special scrutiny that Harris faces as the first person of color and first woman to be vice president and someone who campaigned for the top job before agreeing to be Joe Bidens running mate. Full story here: *** MORE ELECTION 2022 COVERAGE *** *** WATCH *** SENATE IN FOCUS: ARIZONA Republican momentum in Arizona deepens Democratic worries over Senate Nowhere in the country has the struggle between election denialists and democracy defenders played out in more vivid detail than in Arizona, w Real Clear Politics polling average: Sen. Mark Kelly (D) 48.2%, Blake Masters (R) 47.2% *** HOUSE IN FOCUS: VIRGINIA'S 2ND DISTRICT Luria makes final case for democracy, vies for Black voters Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria is spending the closing days of her reelection campaign in the new parts of her Virginia district to gain the support of Black residents whose votes could well determine if she gets a third term. The church visits and front yard barbecues are different settings for the former Navy commander, who has often campaigned with a military backdrop. But Luria finds herself in a dead heat with her Republican challenger as she tries to make the closing argument that this race is a referendum on democracy itself. *** PODCAST *** WE EXPLAIN EXPLAINER: Threats to US election security grow more complex Top U.S. election security officials say current threats to the nation's voting systems are more complex than ever. The task of protecting those systems has become increasingly more difficult as next week's midterms loom. That's partly because millions of Americans embrace unfounded conspiracy theories about supposed election-rigging. Election officials are girding for harassment, intimidation and even physical violence at polling places and elections offices during and after voting, as ballots are counted and results certified. Making matters worse, global rivals are expected to deepen disinformation efforts. Experts say a disruptive cyberattack also is possible. Russia, Iran and China may have fewer qualms these days about destabilization-inducing aggression. *** BATTLE FOR THE SENATE OLATHE, Kan. (AP) A former elder in a Kansas City, Missouri, church was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for killing his wife, who was an associate pastor. Robert Lee Harris' sentencing comes after he was found guilty in August of first-degree murder in the death of 38-year-old Tanisha Harris. Police went to the couples apartment in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, on Jan. 8, 2018, to investigate a report of a domestic disturbance. Officers found Robert Harris alone in the apartment and left. They returned when he reported his wife missing. Her body was found later near Raymore, Missouri. The couple, married just 18 months at the time of the killing, were active in Repairers Kansas City, a nondenominational church. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Koreas recent barrage of missile tests, including Wednesdays record of at least 23 launches, is raising an important question about its weapons program: How does the impoverished country pay for the seemingly endless tests? While some experts say each North Korean launch could cost $2 million to $10 million, others say there is no way to estimate accurately given the Norths extremely secretive nature. They say North Korea likely manufactures weapons at a much cheaper cost than other countries because of free labor and possible clandestine Chinese and Russian support. Whichever is correct, there are no signs that North Korea's economic hardships are slowing its weapons tests. Instead, its testing spree signals that leader Kim Jong Un is determined to show he has the ability to launch nuclear strikes on South Korea and the United States in order to wrest future concessions. Here is a look at the financial dimensions of North Korea's missile tests. HOW MUCH DOES EACH TEST COST? North Korea launched at least 23 missiles on Wednesday and six more on Thursday, adding to its already record-breaking pace of weapons tests this year. Many were nuclear-capable ballistic missiles designed to destroy South Korean and U.S. targets. They likely include a developmental Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, surface-to-air missiles and a variety of short-range ballistic missiles. North Korea has a reputation for frequent missile tests, but it has never launched that many missiles in a single day. Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation, said the cost of a North Korean missile test could range between several million dollars to $10 million, which would be lower than similar tests in other countries, partly because North Korean labor is cheap. Bruce Bennet, another expert at the RAND Corporation, told Radio Free Asia that the short-range missiles Wednesday cost between $2 million to $3 million each and the total cost for the day was somewhere between $50 million and $75 million. RFA said the maximum estimate is about the amount of money that North Korea spent to import rice from China in 2019 to cover grain shortages that year. Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said its impossible for outsiders to accurately estimate weapons production costs in North Korea. There are no ways for us to find at what cost North Korea produces certain weapons parts. They could have manufactured them by themselves, or China might have given them for free or at an extremely cheap price, he said. In a report to the office of South Korean lawmaker Shin Won-sik in September, the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul said North Korea was estimated to have spent up to $1.6 billion on its nuclear program since the 1970s. The report used analyses of nuclear development programs in other countries. Some observers cautioned against the use of foreign data because the North Korean government doesn't have to pay for labor or land. HOW ARE THE LAUNCHES FUNDED? North Koreas economic difficulties have worsened because of COVID-19, but there have been no reports of substantial social unrest or food shortages. Its weapons development is being driven by a Soviet-style party-military complex in which the party leadership surrounding Kim Jong Un exercises full control over defense industries and faces little budgetary constraint in concentrating national resources on arms development, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification. In addition to the record number of missile tests this year, there are also signs that North Korea is expanding its munition facilities in a possible attempt to mass-produce newly developed weapons, Hong said. Soo Kim, the RAND Corporation analyst, said it is crucial to track how North Korea is financing its weapons programs despite U.S.-led economic sanctions and its own self-imposed isolation. This is where sanctions-violating activities, including (North Koreas) recent foray into cybercrime and cryptocurrency hacking, comes into play, she said. And of course, having witting partners in Beijing and Moscow aid in sanctions violations also helps the regimes weapons development prosper. Hong said Russias war in Ukraine appears to have opened a new opportunity for North Korea amid U.S. accusations that the North is covertly shipping a significant number of artillery shells to Russia. Hong said in return North Korea may seek Russian technology transfers and supplies needed to expand its military capabilities. WHAT DOES NORTH KOREA GAIN? Each of North Koreas missile and nuclear tests gives its scientists precious data on weapons development and also helps cement Kim Jong Uns leadership while rattling the South Korea-U.S. alliance, said Kim Taewoo, former head of Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification. Some people say we should let North Korea keep firing missiles toward the sea so that they would use up their resources. But I would say that is an extremely naive opinion, he said. South Korean media reported that the Hwasong-17 launch on Thursday ended in failure because it didnt follow a normal flight and crashed into the ocean after a stage separation. In an earlier test launch in March, the Hwasong-17 exploded soon after liftoff. The missile is under development. So its not the time to call its launch a failure and laugh at it, said Lee, the Korea Defense Network expert. This time, the missile had a stage separation, and I think theyve achieved quite a big technological progress. North Korea has argued its missile tests are meant as a warning against a series of U.S-South Korean joint military exercises that it views as an invasion rehearsal. Given that, North Koreas testing activities are likely to continue since Washington and Seoul regularly conduct drills. North Korea is estimated to have about 1,000 ballistic missiles, more than enough for it to continue its pressure campaign through the 2024 U.S. presidential election to try to win sanctions relief and other concessions, said Go Myong-hyun, an analyst at Seouls Asan Institute for Policy Studies. What North Korea wants to demonstrate before 2024 is that its nuclear weapons arsenal is very advanced, has been completed and represents a much more significant threat than before, Go said. Its crucial for them to maintain that threat perception with the United States and they arent suddenly going to quiet down. MUENSTER, Germany (AP) Top diplomats from the worlds major industrialized democracies on Friday rallied support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russias invasion, expressing unwavering commitment to Ukraine's defense, and expressed suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness amid a panoply of global crises. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations, wrapping up two days of talks in the historic western German city of Muenster, released a joint statement asserting common positions on Ukraine, Russia, China and recent developments in Iran and North Korea. Were aligned, were united and were working together as never before, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. A year after warning Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine, the G-7 ministers endorsed further punishments for the Kremlin, including setting a price cap for Russian oil exports in the coming weeks. They also pledged additional backing for Kyiv by creating a new way to assist with its reconstruction and to help other countries affected by the food and energy shortages exacerbated by the war. President (Vladimir) Putin bet that we wouldnt back up our words with actions. We proved him wrong, Blinken said, adding that G-7 sanctions and export controls have directly impacted Putins ability to wage war." We reiterate our unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defense, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement said. The ministers accused Russia of trying to terrorize the civilian population of Ukraine by targeting critical power, water and other infrastructure and demanded an end to the war. We will continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscows war of aggression," it said. The G-7 is made up of the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. As the meeting ended, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration boosted its military assistance to Ukraine by $400 million, bringing the U.S. contribution to more than $18.2 billion since Russia invaded Feb. 24. The ministers also called out Iran for allegedly supplying weapons including drones to Russia and for a violent crackdown on antigovernment protesters. They condemned Iran's brutal and disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters and children" as well as Tehran's continued destabilizing activities in and around the Middle East. All of that will draw consequences and the Iranian regime has to be aware of that, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. We have made it very clear we will impose further sanctions, significant packages of sanctions. In addition, the G-7 statement further condemned the recent escalation of tensions in Asia caused by North Korean missile launches and delivered a stern warning against a possible new nuclear test. Any nuclear test or other reckless action must be met with a swift, united, and robust international response, they said. One senior U.S. official said the group had demonstrated remarkable unity on virtually all major issues despite often-competing domestic interests, particularly in regards to China's growing economic clout and global ambitions, even as the leader of G-7 host Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visited Beijing. The ministers said they sought constructive cooperation with China, where possible and in our interest in areas like climate change, clean energy and health but cautioned that Beijing must abide by global regulations, especially as it relates to Taiwan. These challenges can only be tackled successfully through cooperation within the rules-based international order, the G-7 said. We remind China of the need to uphold the principles of the U.N. Charter on peaceful settlement of disputes and to abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of force. We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. The G-7 stands together in defense of the rules-based international order, Blinken said, referring to China and stressing that an understanding was reached about the need to align our policies in the face of growing coercion and unfair trade practices by Beijing. The convergence, the alignment on China, is increasingly strong and increasingly clear," he said. Yet Scholz was in Beijing on Friday, the first European and G-7 leader to make the trip since the war in Ukraine began. Chinese investment in a major port in Germany has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals that China might gain a controlling interest in critical infrastructure in the heart of an allied country. Scholz's visit has drawn criticism due to Chinas tacit support for Russia and for coming after Chinese leader Xi Jinping cemented his authoritarian rule at a Communist Party congress last month. But it reflects the importance of Germanys trade ties with China, the worlds second-largest economy. Despite the strong words, it remains unclear how much influence the G-7 actually wields. Its warnings to Putin last December to stay out of Ukraine went unheeded and Xi is forging ahead with plans to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, if necessary. In the meantime, Iran has ignored calls to return to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, started to supply weapons to Russia and launched a major crackdown on domestic dissent. Similarly, North Korea has shunned appeals to return to nuclear negotiations and stepped up missile launches, raising fears of an open conflict. In Germany, many noted the historic significance of the venue where the G-7 ministers met: the room where the Treaty of Westphalia ending Europes bloody 30 Years War was signed in 1648. Blinken referred to the 374-year-old document, saying Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an attack on the concepts of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that many believe the centuries-old treaty established. And, while chairing a meeting between her G-7 counterparts and the foreign ministers of Kenya and Ghana, Baerbock said she had raised the blocs concerns over the growing presence of Russian and Russia-affiliated security forces in Mali and elsewhere on the continent and called for accountability for all those responsible for human rights violations. Around 1,500 demonstrators gathered at the headquarters of Hungarys public media company have protested what they say is biased news coverage and state-sponsored propaganda that favors the countrys populist government. Demonstrators called for the director of the public media corporation, MTVA, to be replaced. They also demanded due coverage of a recent wave of major protests and strikes by Hungarian teachers and students for better pay and working conditions for educators. Hungarian public media ignored most of those actions despite some protests drawing tens of thousands of people. Under the leadership of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Hungarian government has been accused of eroding press freedom and rolling back democratic checks and balances. DENVER (AP) A Colorado man who is a registered Democratic voter has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with voting equipment by allegedly inserting a USB thumb drive into a voting machine at a polling station during the primary election in June, authorities said. No elections data were accessed, and the June 28 incident didn't cause any major disruption to voting, authorities said. But it heightened concerns among election officials and security experts that conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election could inspire some voters to meddle with or even attempt to sabotage election equipment. Experts say even unsuccessful breaches could become major problems in the days leading up to and on Tuesdays midterm election, causing delays at polling places or sowing the seeds of misinformation campaigns. Richard Patton, 31, of Pueblo was arrested on Thursday by members of the Pueblo Police Department High-Tech Crime Unit for investigation of tampering with voting equipment, a felony, and cybercrime-unauthorized access, a misdemeanor, the department said in a statement. Court records indicate Patton was being held without bond at the Pueblo County Judicial Center pending an advisement hearing later Friday in which he will hear the pending charges against him. Patton was being represented by an attorney from the public defender's office, which does not comment on pending cases. Gilbert Ortiz, Pueblo County's clerk and recorder, confirmed Friday that Patton has been a registered Democratic voter since 2019, when he switched his affiliation from the Green Party. Election officials in Colorado use locks and tamper-evident seals on voting equipment, so it becomes apparent if someone has tried to access it. Trigger alerts make machines inoperable if someone tries to tamper with them, which is what happened in Pueblo, according to Ortiz and the Colorado Secretary of State's office. On the afternoon of June 28, poll workers heard noises coming from a voting booth. When a poll worker went to investigate and clean the machine, they saw an error message and notified a supervisor. Tamper-evident seals on the machine appeared to be disturbed, the secretary's office said. The machine was immediately taken out of service for investigation. Activists who promote the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have been traveling the country peddling a narrative that electronic voting machines are being manipulated. Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Friday that this is the first arrest and potential prosecution under a new law broadening the definition of tampering with election equipment and strengthening the penalty for it. It is now a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. The continued spread of election conspiracies and the Big Lie is fueling threats to American elections, including efforts to interfere with election equipment," Griswold, a Democrat seeking reelection Tuesday, said in a statement. "It is vital that anyone who breaks the law in attempts of subverting the will of the people or undermining elections be held responsible. Citing an ongoing investigation, Pueblo police spokesperson Officer Meagan Chapman said the department could not release further information, including a warrant for Patton's arrest that could potentially suggest a possible motive for the alleged tampering. Ortiz said Patton was identified as a suspect because he presented a driver's license to poll workers as proof he was eligible to vote and that he did vote before the alleged tampering was discovered. The atmosphere we have around elections is so rumor-generated these days, and I feel like a lot of the public feel like were the enemy when our staff and judges are the ones protecting democracy, Ortiz said. This just proves to me that Colorados system has so many checks and balances it's just impossible for anybody to tamper with our elections. Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections. And follow the APs election coverage of the 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections HONOLULU (AP) The U.S. military said it's finished draining three pipelines connecting Pearl Harbor to a fuel storage facility that last year spilled jet fuel into the military installation's tap water and sickened 6,000 people. About 1 million gallons (3.79 million liters) of fuel had been sitting in the pipelines since the military stopped using the Red Fuel Bulk Fuel Storage Facility after last November's spill. The pipeline draining ended Thursday after starting a little more than a week earlier. The military said it will next repair equipment at the Red Hill tank farm to allow it to safely remove fuel from storage tanks in preparation for closing the facility. The Hawaii Department of Health ordered the Navy to shutter the facility after the spill, which also contaminated the ground underneath the tanks and threatened the health of an aquifer that provides water to 400,000 people in Honolulu. The military expects to finish draining the storage tanks by July 2024. The tanks still have 100 million gallons (379 million liters) in them. The entity managing the defueling, Joint Task Force Red Hill, said in a statement Thursday that it's working with Hawaii's health department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to find ways to safely drain the tanks sooner. BANGOR, Maine (AP) A federal jury has awarded $3 million to a former Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center worker who said racial discrimination led to his firing. Attorneys for David Ako-Annan, who is Black, said the damages represented the largest sum awarded for a racial discrimination case in Maine. The essence of Maine is that we are one big family where everyone is treated with respect and dignity and no one is more or less important. This case is critical to sending a message to EMMC that it must work harder to ensure the fair and equal treatment of workers who are Black or people of color," said David Webbert, one of Ako-Annan's attorney. Ako-Annan, 46, of Milford, immigrated from Ghana to Maine, where he graduated from the University of Maine, earned a master's degree in business administration and human relations and counseling from Husson University, and worked as a practice manager at a primary care medical office operated by Northern Light EMMC. In the lawsuit, he contended his intelligence was questioned and that he was subjected to intimidation and racially insensitive remarks. He said an internal complaint of racial discrimination was met with a disciplinary warning. EMCC contended that Ako-Annan failed to do his job properly, leading to his termination, but the all-white jury on Thursday concluded he was a victim of racial stereotyping and implicit bias. A spokesperson for Northern Light Health stood behind the contention that Ako-Annan was fired for poor performance. We continue to stand behind our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our workforce and believe it was amply demonstrated in this case, said Suzanne Spruce, chief marketing and communications officer. The jury awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages. He's also eligible for more than $300,000 in back pay, his attorneys said. TAMA A Tama man has been sentenced to more than 37 years in federal prison for sexually abusing a girl over several years. Prosecutors said Stephen Christopher Albert, 50, used threats to put the girl in fear of physical harm. District Court Judge C.J. Williams said Albert was manipulative, controlling and domineering over his wife and children and through his actions reaped irreparable harm to the victim. Albert was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. He was found guilty of one count of sexual abuse by threat and force and one count of sexual abuse of a minor during a March 2022 trial. He will be on supervised release for 10 years following his prison time. Authorities allege Albert began abusing the girl in 2012 and continued through October 2016. The abuse happened on the Meskwaki Settlement in various homes as well as at Alberts place of employment. Albert was also charged in state court in connection with the offenses. He pleaded to sex charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. Thirty-six years ago today, Nebraska provided a national first when two women candidates competed in the governor's race: Republican Kay Orr, 47, and Democrat Helen Boosalis, 67. Orr won, becoming the first elected woman Republican governor in the country. As the first women nominated as candidates for governor in Nebraska, Orr and Boosalis added to the previous "firsts" they'd had in their political careers. Then-Gov. Charles Thone appointed Orr as state treasurer in 1981, and she was elected in 1982 to a full term as treasurer, becoming the first woman elected to a statewide office in Nebraska. Boosalis was the first woman mayor of Lincoln, serving from 1975-1983, and first woman mayor of a city of 100,000 or more in the U.S. Orr won the Nebraska governorship by squeaking out a tiny edge in normally Democratic Douglas County, by running stronger than expected in southeast Nebraska and by winning big in the western part of the state. Overall, she got 53 percent of the vote; Boosalis received 47 percent. After conceding, Boosalis called the race "an open, honest forthright campaign." Orr said of her opponent, "We want to recognize Helen Boosalis, who devoted her life to serving her community." In an interview after her election was ensured, Orr also said: "I think I can serve the people and make a difference." Democrats have a stranglehold on Cook County governance. From Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on down, every executive office is held by a Democrat.On the current county board, Democrats have 15 of the 17 commissioner seats. Four incumbents three Democrats and one Republican are not running for reelection. Whether Republicans can make any gains is up to voters on Nov. 8. Here are the Tribune Editorial Boards endorsements in the races for Cook County commissioners. 1st District Democratic incumbent Brandon Johnson has announced hes running for Chicago mayor, but hell be on the ballot Tuesday. His opponent is Libertarian James Humay of Chicago. No endorsement. Advertisement 2nd District Crime is a dominant issue in this district, which includes parts of the South and West sides. Democrat incumbent Dennis Deer says violence prevention programs and street outreach must be part of the solution to violent crime. Republican Evan Kasal, a Chicago software salesman, says if the sheriffs department wants resources to hire more police, I am for it. Deer is endorsed. Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer speaks to the media as he drops off nomination petitions on March 7, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) 4th District Democratic incumbent Stanley Moore of Chicago did not participate in the Tribunes endorsement process. Hes running against Chicago Republican Lynn Franco, a library assistant. No endorsement. Advertisement 5th District Monica Gordon, candidate for the 5th district county board seat. (Campaign photo) This South Side and Southland district has communities that have been battered by decades of disinvestment and a dwindling tax base. Its an open seat now that Commissioner Deborah Sims is retiring amid a complaint alleging retaliation against one of her workers who had reported sexual harassment in her office. Democrat Monica Gordon of Chicago Heights is director of governmental affairs at Chicago State University. She says Southland communities could become an economic hub for Cook County, if the county ramps up job training and workforce development in the south suburbs. Gordon is endorsed over Libertarian Jason Decker. 6th District Democratic incumbent Donna Miller of Lynwood faces Republican Anna Biedrzycki of Palos Hills. No endorsement. 9th District GOP Commissioner Peter Silvestri is retiring. Can Matthew Podgorski keep this seat Republican? We think he should. Podgorski, a logistics director from Chicago, displays a commitment to fiscal responsibility and bipartisanship thats needed on the county board. Hes against relying on tax increases and says the better approach is to ease the tax and regulatory burden on businesses to encourage economic growth, and ultimately expand the countys tax base. His opponent, Democrat Maggie Trevor from Rolling Meadows, says her main focus is to improve Cook Countys health care system. Podgorski is endorsed. Matt Podgorski, a candidate for Cook County commissioner, campaigns on June 15, 2022, in Norwood Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) 10th District Republican Laura May Kotelman of Chicago says the best way to whittle down the countys pension debt is to make extra payments when possible. Thats good, but the county already has been doing that. She sees merit in Preckwinkles guaranteed income pilot program for qualifying suburban Cook County residents, but wants to track its performance and, if warranted, make sure it can be funded once American Rescue Plan funding gets used up. Democratic incumbent Bridget Gainer, who heads up the troubled Cook County Land Bank Authority, did not respond to our questionnaire. No endorsement. 11th District We like the energy shown by Chicago Republican Declan Smith, a 22-year-old college senior who wants to establish a more business-friendly environment to build up the countys tax base. Hes up against a member of the Daley clan longtime board member and Democrat John Daley, who chairs the countys finance committee. County finances is Daleys forte, and he correctly cites as a county achievement the boards policy of making extra pension payments to help stabilize the countys pension system and improve its credit rating. Daley is endorsed. Also on the ballot is Libertarian Brandon Sizelove. Commissioner John Daley confers with Board President Toni Preckwinkle during a Cook County Board meeting on Dec. 19, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) 12th District Republican Xiaoli Alice Hu is a global supply chain executive who would bring strong financial acumen to the board. She says the way to revive struggling Southland communities is to create economic opportunity zones to bolster micro-business and small business growth. She also supports relying on real estate tax credits to encourage businesses to set up shop in vacant buildings in Southland suburbs. We endorse Hu over Democratic incumbent Bridget Degnen. 13th District Democrat Josina Morita of Skokie has done an admirable job as a commissioner at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, pushing for the establishment of an MWRD inspector generals office. Along with her experience at the reclamation district, she would bring to the board a strong background in urban planning. Morita is running against Chicago Republican Andrew Border, who would push to trim funds set aside for commissioners offices and repeal the 10% pay hike for commissioners. Those are good ideas, but Morita has experience the board needs, and gets our endorsement. Josina Morita in 2015 (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) 14th District Fighting violent crime should entail a mix of fully funding law enforcement, ramping up violence prevention programs, and including mental health specialists on police calls to individuals in the midst of a mental health crisis, says Democratic incumbent Scott Britton of Glenview. Thats a multitiered approach we support. Brittons Republican opponent, Wilmette hedge fund manager Benton Howser, points out that Britton was one of 15 commissioners to back a post-George Floyd resolution stating that the county should redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably. That was a symbolic, nonbinding measure that did not take money away from law enforcement. Britton is endorsed. Advertisement Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton speaks at Jonquil Terrace Park in Niles on May 15, 2022. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Pioneer Press) 15th District For this northwest suburban district, Democratic incumbent Kevin Morrison of Mount Prospect faces Republican businessman Chuck Cerniglia of Hoffman Estates. No endorsement. 16th District We cant endorse Democratic incumbent Frank Aguilar for this west and southwest suburban district primarily because of the way he got the job. Jeffrey Tobolski previously represented this district, but stepped down after federal investigators looking into the red-light camera scandal raided his house and the McCook Village Hall, where Tobolski sat as mayor. Then Cook County and Chicago Democratic Party officials met quietly at a private club in Berwyn and handpicked Aguilar to replace Tobolski. Hardly a transparent process. Republican Kimberly Jagielski, a Cook County probation officer from Brookfield, says violent crime is a top issue in the district. Her strategy includes an expansion of mental health services combined with ensuring law enforcement is fully funded. Jagielski, who has an uphill battle against the incumbent, is endorsed. 17th District Republican Sean Morrison is being challenged in Cook County's 17th District by Dan Calandriello. (Sean Morrison) Republican incumbent Sean Morrison of Palos Park has been a strong supporter of ratcheting up the countys yearly pension contributions beyond the legally required amount, which has led to better credit ratings for the county. He has always offered a strong counterpoint to Democrats tax-and-spend approach. Morrison faces Democrat Daniel Calandriello, a southwest suburban Orland Park trustee. Our endorsement goes to Morrison. Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. A Chicago-based financial services and investment research firm has upgraded its financial rating of Iowa's college savings plan, naming it a bronze medalist. Davenport Republican state Sen. Roby Smith, who is challenging state Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald in the Nov. 8 election, had criticized Fitzgerald for Morningstars decision to downgrade the College Savings Iowa 529 Plan to "neutral" for investments. Fitzgerald, a Democrat and the longest-tenured state treasurer in the nations history, established the Iowa college savings plan. He said in October he expected Morningstar would soon raise Iowas rating and that the downgrade was the result of miscommunication. It comes as no surprise to me that College Savings Iowa is a medalist, Fitzgerald said in a statement. Iowa has a great plan that has helped thousands of families save for education expenses. We continue to provide individuals a plan that is low-cost and flexible enough to meet their savings needs. Morningstar analysts on Wednesday released its annual ratings for 54 of the nation's largest 529 college-savings plans. Two plans Michigan and Utah won gold ratings, with 32 plans rated as silver and bronze. According to the report, Investors in these medalist 529 plans should be well-positioned for the future. Twenty college savings plans were rated neutral or negative. College Savings Iowa is a 529-investment plan sponsored and overseen by the Iowa State Treasurer's Office and managed by Vanguard. The plan allows Iowa families to contribute after-tax dollars into one of four age-based savings tracks that allow participants to choose a portfolio that will gradually and automatically shift from more aggressive to more conservative as the beneficiary nears college age. Earnings are federally tax-deferred, and individuals can withdraw money tax free to cover educational expenses for trade and vocational schools; two- and four-year colleges; postgraduate programs; certified apprenticeship programs; and tuition at an elementary or secondary public, private or religious school. More information can be found at CollegeSavingsIowa.com or by calling 1-(888) 672-9116. This article contains spoilers. All Quiet on the Western Front may be the best war novel ever written, a work told entirely in first person and present tense that evokes the myriad aspects of combatits gruesome horrors, routine banalities, feverish otherworldliness, and fervent camaraderiewith engrossing vividity, in language at once sparse and explicit, though never gratuitously graphic or sentimental. These qualities make it a tough nut for would-be adapters to crack, though three directors have tried: Lewis Milestone in 1930, Delbert Mann in a CBS TV movie in 1979, and now Edward Berger for Netflix. Milestones film closely followed the novel, which had been published just two years earlier, and his battle scenes were remarkable for the era (it won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director), but the melodramatic acting makes it unwatchable today. The version by Mann, a veteran of Playhouse 90 productions, won a Golden Globe for best made-for-TV movie, but his directing was too stagey and his battlefields too clean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Berger, besides enjoying the benefits of modern technology (the ultra-high-definition images look spectacular on a well-calibrated 4K television), is the first German filmmaker to approach All Quietremarkable, given that the novel tells a German foot soldiers story of the First World War, and its author, Erich Maria Remarque, was a German foot soldier wounded in that war. Bergers background lends the tale an innate authenticity (its more convincing to hear German actors complaining in German about French or British soldiers than to hear unaccented American actors doing the same) and a more unnerving perspective. As Berger (best known for his TV spy series, Deutschland 83) said in an AV Club interview, he grew up watching American and British war movies, which were about heroic journeys because America and Britain had liberated Europe from fascism. But there is no heroic pride in Germanys story of 20th-century wars. Theres a sense of shame, guilt, horror, terror, responsibility towards history, he noted. Its in my DNA [] I wanted to get that out of my system and share it with other countries and tell that story. And to make a specifically German film. Advertisement Advertisement The opening sequence of his All Quiet is breathtaking: a misty forest, a tree-skimmed sky, a fox and its cub; then the rumble of cannons (war as an intrusion on nature) over an aerial view of a hill littered with dead bodies and suddenly pierced by gunfire; then soldiers ordered to climb out of their trench and charge into the maelstrom of smoke and dust and grime and noise, some of them felled at first exposure to the air, others dashing madly, desperately, to shoot or slice open the unnamed enemy before facing the same fate. Advertisement Nothing in the previous films of All Quietvery little in any war filmremotely captures what Remarques narrator calls the animal instinct awakened by the first droning of the shells [] We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: How Does Greyhound Compare to the World War II Novel by C.S. Forester?] Throughout, Bergers new film summons up the shifting tones, moods, and colors of Remarques novel so brilliantly, he can almost be forgiven for departing from it in other wayssome minor, others puzzling and significant. The novel follows Paul Baumer, a bright, 17-year-old literary idealist just out of high school, who, along with a handful of classmates, is inspired by an ultra-nationalist teacher to join the German army in its glorious crusade to conquer France. The new recruits march and sing their way to the front lines, then descend into a disillusioned misery as they discover the nightmare of trench warfare. Those that survive do so by gradually relinquishing their education, culture, ambitions, attachments to familyeverything they once thought made life worth livingto a soldiers straitened goal of survival and the survival of his comrades in arms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The themes sorrow and tragedy come off in the moviea remarkable achievementbut there are truncations and compromises. In the book, theres a long chapter following Baumer on an eight-day home leave, taking the train to his village, trudging to his house, greeting his family, settling into his old bedroom with its familiar objects, but realizing that he is utterly estranged from his old life. What was once important to him is now useless; his neighbors and relatives have no comprehension of what hes been through. Its as harrowing, yet understated, a portrait of the war years lost generation as anything in Hemingway. This whole chapter is missing from Bergers film, though one of the characters does recite a key line of dialogue from the book: The war has ruined us for everything. The chapters omission is understandable; to include it would have added another 20 minutes or so to an already 2-1/2-hour-long film. But maybe it should be that long. Maybe it should have been a multipart series like Tom Stoppard and Susanna Whites adaptation of Ford Madox Fords WWI epic, Parades End. Certainly, it deserves to be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the books most gripping scenes has Paul stabbing a French soldier, then apologizing to him, riffling through his papers, glimpsing a photo of his wife and daughter, promising the dying man that hell contact themthen walking away and shifting back into soldiers mode, almost instantly, realizing he wont keep his promise and thinking nothing of it. Theres a similar, and equally gripping, scene in the film, but Paul doesnt return to coldness. Instead, he hangs on to the papers and the emotion they unleash. It strikes one of the films few false notes. Throughout the film, Berger cuts to the true-life story of Matthias Erzberger, the German politician who pressed for and negotiated a cease-firewhich turned into an unbridled surrenderwith French officials. I see what Berger is doing. Hes drawing contrasts between the grunts in the filthy trenches and their leaders feasting on fine wine in the spotless boardrooms. I suspect he also means to create suspense between the soldiers fates and the countdown to peace. Nonetheless, the cutaways distract more than dramatize. Advertisement There are other annoying lapses. Pauls comrades are never fully traced as characters, except for Kat, the illiterate cobbler who emerges, in the novel and film, as the most moral and humanistic of the bunch. Berger omits another of the novels themes, the harsh cruelty imposed by small men who are elevated by war to junior officers. And its especially puzzling that a caption at the start of the film, when Paul and his chums join the army, reads Spring 1917. In the book, they join up two years earlier, closer to the start of the war. Advertisement Advertisement That discrepancy isnt trivial: By 1917, the Battle of the Somme had been fought; millions of men had died; soldiers had returned to all the combatant countries crippled or in body bags. It is extremely unlikely that, this far into the war, a hawkish schoolteacher could still lure naive students into merrily joining the fight. Yes, it would have been a stretchand a huge expensefor Berger, to say nothing of his producers, to expand the story from one year to three. Maybe the next generation can get an All Quiet miniseries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: We Should Remember World War I for What It Wasa Bloody Waste of Human Life] The films biggest change comes at the end. In the novel, Paul suddenly dies in October 1918, the month before the armistice, of a cause unspecified, on a day, Remarque writes, shifting to third-person, that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western front. By contrast, in Bergers film, a half-hour before the armistice goes into effect (at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month), Pauls commanding general orders his men to raid and conquer one bit of French land, so they can go home as heroes rather than cowards. In the course of this final insanity, Paul dies of a bayonet wound inflicted less than a minute before the ceasefire takes hold. Advertisement There was no such crazed order or final raid either in the novel or in the real First World War. Again, I understand what Berger is doing: Hes alerting or reminding the viewers that this war didnt end in 1918, that the German surrender embittered many generalsand their political leaders successor, Adolf Hitlerinto propagating the stab-in-the-back myth, the notion that Germany would have won the war but for the perfidy of Social Democrats and Jews. This is something Remarque could not have foreseen, having written his novel in 1928, five years before Hitler came to power, 11 years before World War II began. Still, Berger could have found some way of foretelling the next warand, looking a century ahead, wars to comewithout contorting Pauls death into something other than routine. Advertisement For all its shortcomings, this Netflix version is more than good enough, a deep immersion into the soul-sucking realities of warand a powerful supplement to whats going on around us. Berger started making the film well before Russias invasion of Ukraine, but a tide of nationalism had begun to overtake Britain, Hungary, Poland, the United States, and elsewhere; the European Union, which has helped prevent war from engulfing the continent, was under political attack. We felt like, this is the time to make this movie in German, Berger told AV Club. It felt very resonant of how it was 100 years ago. It felt like, Listen guys, this is what led us 100 years ago. Lets just be careful. This was already two and a half years ago, and now see what happens in Ukraine. It wasnt really and isnt really farfetched. 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, I am hosting an adults-only Thanksgiving this year. There will be a bunch of wine and our place is on the small side. I had six people RSVP, but my sister-in-law asked if she could bring her roommate. I said sure. My brother got wind of it and asked to bring his girlfriend of six months. She is a single mother of four. He didnt breathe a word about the kids, so I assumed they were at their dads. The girlfriend, however, texted me about her kids allergies and that her daughter needed vegan options. I confronted them both and it launched a fight. I told them they knew this event was adults only. My brothers girlfriend basically called me an idiot and said where she goes, her kids go. So I un-invited her. That sparked a bigger fight between my brother and me. He has not had a lot of luck with relationships and is very invested in this one. He told me I was being petty and sabotaging him. He said there is nothing wrong with kids, and that I am just hateful. We arent speaking. My husband has suggested we offer to buy them a Thanksgiving dinner package as a peace offering, but everywhere I called has them sold out. I dont know what to do now. Our than a few cousins and our estranged dad, my brother and I have only had each other since our mother died. Help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adults Only Dear AO, I understand how much your brother must mean to you and why its important that you two hold on to one another, but he is being absolutely unreasonable and should be made aware of that. You should talk to him one on one, independent of his girlfriend of a mere six months, and reiterate what has taken place thus far. You and your husband intentionally planned an adults-only holiday dinner, to be held in a small space; he took it upon himself to invite his girlfriend knowing that shed need to accommodate her childrenone of whom is a vegan! This is a completely ridiculous set of expectations for him to have for you, and he owes you an apology. Be clear that you have no issue with children, and that it isnt your intention to disrupt a relationship that obviously means a lot to him. However, him dating a woman with four kids does not obligate you to change the nature of your planned adults-only Thanksgiving, nor should it. Advertisement Advertisement Hopefully, your brother will see the error of his own ways and will offer you an apology. There isnt much else you can or should do in this situation; purchasing Thanksgiving dinner is an incredibly kind idea, but you shouldnt worry yourself over what this family and your brother end up doing to salvage the holiday. If this relationship is going to continue, your brother will likely have to figure out how to feed four children on a regular basis; let him get some practice this Thanksgiving. I hope your brother gets it together soon. Dear Care and Feeding, One of my teen daughters is a trans girl who, during the pandemic, began wearing gender-affirming clothes and using both her chosen female name and she/her pronouns. I absolutely support her. My elderly, ultra-conservative, religious father lives 400 miles away and doesnt yet know about any of this. I avoided saying anything the past two years because during that time, my mother died (they were together 54 years) and my father had multiple medical issues, so I didnt want to upset him or, honestly, deal with the blowback. Now Christmas is coming, and Im planning to bring my kids to my hometown to visit my extended family and, ideally, my dad, for a few days. Its time to tell him the truth, the sooner the better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on the totality of my experience with my father, and after consulting my daughters therapist, the best bet in terms of her emotional safety is for me to tell him. Hes not empathetic, and he emotionally and verbally abused me as a child and continued acting out in my adulthood until I set and maintained clear boundaries with him. He showed the same tendencies when my kids were little, so Ive never trusted him to be unsupervised around them, and Ive limited their contact with him as a result. Still, Im an only child, hes old, sick, and alone, and if I cut him off he has nobody. Maybe he deserves that, but my mother wouldnt have liked it. I have been able to forgive (but not forget) his past behavior, temper those memories with things he did right, and be a source of support for him, always subject to my boundaries. All of that said, if he does it says anything that harms my daughter, all bets are off. How do I go about this? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Worry for the Holidays Dear WftH, I am very concerned that your father will say something harmful to your daughter, considering the experiences you have had with him up through when your children were small. I understand you not wanting him to spend the holidays alone, but sometimes, people deserve to be alone. Sometimes, people have to be alone to protect other people. Your main priority has to be your daughter, and its worth acknowledging that you are already limiting your fathers access to your kids because of who he is; what about this situation makes you think that hes going to be enlightened, or different? You can, and should, tell your father this important development in your daughters life. You can give him an opportunity to accept the news and to participate in the family celebration, but only if he is willing to be completely accepting of your daughter. If he says that he embraces the news, and you believe in your heart that he is going to do his best to use the proper pronouns and name for her, then go see him. However, I am not optimistic that this will be the case considering what you endured in your childhood, and earlier in your childrens lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think it is important that you prepare yourself to have Christmas without Grandpa this year. You have devastating memories of being spoken to unkindly by this man; your children do not. I dont think its worth the risk to your daughters, both of them, for you to gamble with the probability of your father saying something inappropriate. Again, I think its fair for you to talk to him and to give him a chance to say for himself how he feels about your daughters identity so that you know whether or not it is safe to be around him anymore. But considering that he has a history of creating unsafe environments for you, youd be wise to develop a script to explain to your children, other loved ones, and your father himself, why he wont be part of your familys holiday celebrations going forward. Advertisement Maybe your mother wouldnt want him to be alone; maybe shed want him to pay penance for how he has treated his family. If the idea of going to your hometown without seeing him doesnt sit well with your soul, go see him by yourself. But whatever you do, you must protect your children from unnecessary harm at all times, and that is what your dad seems to represent. Wishing you all the best as you navigate this. Advertisement Advertisement 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, My 16-year-old daughter, Bailey just got her drivers license in June. I gave her my old car to drive to school, and she has a credit card (paid by me) which shes allowed to use for a few agreed-on things, including gas. I just got around to reviewing the last couple of statements and saw Bailey had spent more on gas than I expected. When I asked her about this, she revealed that instead of the 5-mile, 10 to 15-minute obvious route to her school, she has been driving about 4 miles in the opposite direction, 5 miles on the interstate, and (because there are no interstate exits anywhere near her school) an additional 5 miles to arrive at school from a completely different direction. This must take 25-30 minutes, at least in the morning. I leave for my own commute well before Bailey leaves for school, so I hadnt noticed her leaving earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I pulled up a map and started to explain this, but she said she knows, and prefers to go her way. She acted cagy and annoyed, so I pressed her a little. I asked if she was giving a classmate rides to school, and she said she wasnt. I asked if something had happened on the usual route, or if there was something she didnt like driving past, and she said no. Finally she said that she just likes driving and feels like it helps her de-stress. I told her I sympathize, but she should be able to find some way to de-stress that doesnt waste time and gas, or expose her to the increased accident risk on the interstate and the notoriously chaotic intersections around the on and off ramps. Bailey said disgustedly that theres no way shed ever have an accident because she has lightning reflexes from all the video games she plays. She is a very good driver, but when I told her Id still prefer she take the shorter route, she threatened to blow up, so I let it drop for the time being. So Id like your input. Is Bailey old enough to make this call for herself, or should she listen to my reasoning? Advertisement Advertisement Road Worrier Dear RW, Bailey is old enough to drive, but still young enough for you to set rules about where and when she drives. This alternate route isnt just costing money, but as you said, its increasing the risk that she could be involved in an accident. I think it would be fair for you to mandate the route that she takes to school as a condition of her being able to drive to school at all. You can offer her a compromise: perhaps she can drive aimlessly around the neighborhood for 20 minutes before making her way to school. However, I would draw the line at the daily, unnecessary interstate driving, conditions under which people with much more behind-the-wheel experience recognize to be dangerous and less-than-ideal. Advertisement Advertisement Furthermore, I dont think its cool that Bailey is threatening to blow up on you when for months, she has been somewhere you couldnt locate her on a daily basis. You expected her to be on the normal path to school and she was elsewhere; that is dishonest, though it may not have felt like it to her, and she should not have done that. There is a lot of trust required of teens who are allowed to drive, and one of the most important things they must do to maintain that trust is to be where they are expected to be with the car at all times. She can get angry all she wishes, but if she expects to have continued access to the car, she should adhere to the rules you set for its usage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you feel that the extra time and distance isnt the worst thing in the world, then allow Bailey to de-stress as she sees fit. From what Im reading, thats not where your heart is. Again, she can be upset with you about this; teenagers are upset about rules and boundaries all the time. You decide where that car goes and if you cant trust her to adhere to that, then she isnt mature enough to drive after all. 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, My parents are not good pet owners. They have an outdoor-only cat, and for the last decade I have been hearing stories about how he gets hurt and they basically dont care. A few months ago after yet another one of these stories, my wife suggested we wait until my folks were on vacation and then steal the cat and take him to the vet. We did, and he turned out to be in bad shape (he required a $1500 emergency procedure for a massively infected bite wound). We decided not to give him back to my parents; he is super sweet and friendly and we hoped to rehome him. However, Im getting really attached to him. Im not sure what to do as my parents still dont know we have him (they told me he must have died, and they werent particularly upset). Were planning to hide him with a friend for Christmas when they visit, but she wanted to know why we dont just come clean. I feel like that is a question that can only be asked by a person with a very unfraught parental relationship, which I dont have. Ive been wondering if we could just gaslight my parents into thinking hes a brand new cat, but he has some unique scars and a VERY unique meow, so even if that werent a bananas idea Im not sure we could pull it off. Should I stick to my original plan to rehome him? Should I be honest with my parents? Do any of your readers want a sweet old cat with a truly unique adoption story? I cant believe Im in this situation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cat Napper Dear CN, You know what? Sometimes, lying is just easier than telling the truth. And it sounds like even with the inconvenience of hiding the cat with a friend, it would be easier not to tell your parents what happened to their cat. If it is reasonable for you to keep up this lie foreverlike, if they only visit you once a year and you only have to hide the cat thenthen I suggest you go for it. Your relationship with your parents sounds delicate, and theres no reason to rock the boat if you can avoid it. However, if your parents are going to be in your house more frequently, then you should come clean. You dont have to do it just yet, maybe you just give yourself a break this holiday and enjoy your peace. But in advance of their next visit, you can give them a call and let them know what you did. Explain why, and how your trip to the vet confirmed your concerns that the cat was being mistreated. Apologize for taking him but remind them that they didnt seem overly concerned when he died in the first place. Hopefully, their ambivalence about the life of this cat will continue on through his resurrection. If his reemergence does cause tension between you and your folks, just know that you did the right thing. Considering all this poor little guy has been through, I dont think you should rehome him. Youve gotten attached and Im sure he has too. Hopefully, this wont be a big deal to your parents and if it is, well, they shouldnt have neglected him in the first place and they got what they deserved. All the best to you. Jamilah More Advice From Slate My husband and I are parents to an amazing 20-month-old boy. Before I became pregnant, my husband and I went out weekly with co-workers after work. My husband still attends these and ends up getting sloshed. I love staying home, and Im over these get-togethers, but my husband insists I need to get out more and should come along. What should I do? We have to talk about Baby A. When the doctor finally came in, I was aware something was wrong. I was pregnant with twins and 37 years old, so wed had many ultrasounds before. But something was taking too long. The ultrasound techs were usually cheerful and chatty, but this one kept asking how far along I was and remeasuring Baby As head. I was well aware from my time as an abortion lawyer that many terrible things can be discovered at the 20-week scan. But somehow it just seemed too on the nose for one of those terrible things to be happening to me. Advertisement Baby A had enlarged ventricles in his brain. This could mean nothing and resolve on its own, we were told. Or it could require surgery. Or it could be a symptom of a condition that is, as they say, incompatible with life. Baby As condition was also a potential threat to Baby B. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They gave me amniocentesis and ushered me and my husband to a genetic counselor. The counselor raised the possibility that we needed a selective termination. Then she told us we didnt have a lot of time to decide because 24 weeks was the legal cutoff to have an abortion in New York. I had the impulse to argue with herto explain that the abortion law then in place in New York predated Roe v. Wade and was technically unconstitutional (this was 2017, when Roe was still the law). I wanted to tell her abortion could not be banned prior to viability and that whether a fetus is viablemeaning, theoretically able to live outside of the wombis a medical determination specific to each particular pregnancy. Advertisement Advertisement But I did not launch into a soliloquy on abortion law, probably because I did not want an abortion. Also, I knew that it doesnt matter if the law arguably permits an abortion if no hospital will give you one. But the counselors warning grated on methere was something so awful about having to consider the law while trying to process this news. The next day, my husband and I rented a car and drove an hour out of town to a fetal MRI specialist. The results: The babys brain wasnt mush, as the doctor put it. If things got worse, however, excess fluid could escape Baby As brain, causing me to go into early labor and potentially lose them both. We had less than four weeks to decide what to do. Advertisement The results were as good as we could have hoped for. I threw up out the window of the rental car all over the West Side Highway on the way home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No one wants to have an abortion when they are far into a pregnancy. People with unwanted pregnancies prefer to have abortions as early as possible. This is why approximately 95 percent of abortions happen before 15 weeks, when a fetus is about the size of an apple. Advertisement Advertisement People have abortions after the first trimester when something has gone very wrong: a medical tragedy, being too young to recognize one is pregnant, or being unable to get the money, child care, or time off of work to travel to a clinic at an earlier stage. But Republicans tell us there are people who wish to have abortions up until birth and who must be stopped by force of law. In September, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel advised Republican candidates to accuse Democrats of having a policy of due date abortion. Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, Blake Masters, Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano, Herschel Walker, Ron Johnson, and many more did so, claiming on the campaign trail that some people want abortions up until birth. Mehmet Oz, in a debate last week with John Fetterman, argued his opponent would allow abortion at 38 weeks, on the delivery table. Advertisement The strategy is clear. Republicans must distract from the crisis that is the end of Roe, as well as the many unpopular bans enacted since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health decision in June. In order to frame supporters of Roe as the extremists, they pretend there exist women who are such vile monsters that they would carry a healthy baby to term and then try to abort it up until the momentand afterbirth, as House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik put it in September. The logic, insofar as there is logic to this, is that allowing post-viability abortion to save the life or health of the patientas Roe requiredamounts to supporting abortion up until birth because patients will lie about their health in order to abort viable babies for frivolous reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Back at home, in 2017, I called the genetic counselor and asked if people often had to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy before they had all the information they should. Unfortunately, that does happen, she told me. She was sympathetic, but she had little hope for us, noting our complicated genetic histories. (My husband and I have three cousins between us who did not survive childhood.) At 23 weeks, we met with a pediatric neurologist to prepare us for life with a disabled child, should Baby A survive. Instead, he gave us an even worse diagnosis. I was panicked, but skeptical. Id gone from being scared about the babies lack of motion to feeling like aliens were wrestling in my belly. This didnt seem consistent with the terrible condition the doctor described. Advertisement I spoke to an attorney friend who knew more about abortion in New York, a supposedly super-blue state, than I did. She confirmed I really wouldnt be able to get an abortion in-state if I waited but encouraged me to do what I needed to do. If things got worse, I could go to Maryland or Colorado. I knew this meant going to LeRoy Carhart or Warren Hern, two of the four or so doctors in the country who were openly providing third-trimester abortions despite constant harassment and threats to their lives. Id read about the torturous experience of a woman whod had to fly to Dr. Hern in Colorado just to receive the shot to induce demise in her baby with a fatal condition before returning to New York to endure 24 hours of labor to remove her dead baby. Id written about what anti-abortion activists had done to the family of a fellow New Yorker whom Dr. Carhart couldnt save. Not great options, but they were, ultimately, options. We decided to blow past New Yorks deadline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now that Roe is gone, Republican politicians and other abortion opponents are arguing that even that legal landscape was too permissive. Perhaps you think Im being unfair. Surely they arent talking about people in my situation? Well, lets consider some actual proposed legislation: When Sen. Lindsey Graham put out his proposed federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks, he did not include an exception for fatal fetal anomalies, or exceptions for the removal of a fetus that is dying, but not yet dead. Nor did his bill delineate how immediate the threat to a patients life must be for treatment to be legal. Now, writing a bill that would make exceptions for all the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy would be basically impossiblebut Graham didnt even try. Advertisement At his press conference announcing the bill, a woman named Ashbey Beasley (who survived the Highland Park shooting with her 6-year-old son and was in Washington to support gun control legislation) asked Graham what he would say to someone who finds out at 16 weeks, as she did, that her baby has a fatal fetal anomaly. Graham displayed not a shred of empathy for Beasley in his nonresponse and appeared to deny having any responsibility to address the practical implications of his bill. Advertisement Graham neednt bother to improve upon the dangerously poor drafting of the state-level abortion bans that are causing so much harm to people with pregnancy complications because it is not a good faith attempt to end abortions after 15 weeks. What the bill actually does is elevate a claim for which there is no evidence: that people choose to have abortions after 15 weeks when they could have or should have had them earlier. (Indeed, with the advent of medication abortion, we could make it the norm to end unwanted pregnancies as soon as a person suspects she is pregnantbut anti-abortion activists dont want that either.) Advertisement Advertisement The reality is, after the Dobbs ruling, clinics in states where abortion remains legal have been overwhelmed with patients from out of state, predictably resulting in more abortions after 15 weeks. A person who has been forced by legal barriers to end a pregnancy at a later gestation than she feels is appropriate, or at a point when the simplest and safest early abortion options are no longer available to her, has had her bodily integrity violatedshe has not made a choice to have a late abortion. Unfortunately, lying about later abortion works. Various polls have found support for 15-week bans at 37 percent, 48 percent, and 77 percent. Ive heard smart, kind people who consider themselves pro-choice casually repeat the claim that there are extremists on both sides because some Democrats want abortion up until birth. One pro-choice friend reached out to me during the 2020 campaign shaken because she thought abortion at eight months might actually be a Thing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These misperceptions are intended. Anti-abortion lawmakers and activists know more about abortion than the average person. But they vilify the people forced by medical circumstances or anti-abortion laws to have later abortions because even in the many states where legislators have banned abortion from the moment of fertilization, criminalizing all abortion is not popular. Early abortion is acceptable to much of the general public, so the people who have those make less useful targets. I was hospitalized three times during my pregnancy. My condition deteriorated, but Baby As did not. I had an array of complications, but made it to 33.5 weeks before my water broke, and I gave birth to two baby boys. Advertisement Advertisement Their NICU stay was the most exhausting experience of my life, but after two weeks, my premature but relatively healthy babies came home. Baby A has grown into a creative, opinionated little kid who still refuses to stop wrestling his brother. He has a slightly larger-than-average craniumprobably unrelated to how the heck hes reading at 4 years old. Most parents up against a gestational cutoff cannot take the risks my husband and I did. I owe my sons lives to the bravery of a few doctors I knew were out there, should I need them. And to my privilege. I could rely on having a late termination because I was unusually knowledgeable about abortion, could call people who knew even more than I did, and could come up with the money for travel out of state and a procedure that can cost more than $10,000. We do not need a law to stop later abortion in this country. Patients should be permitted to wait and pray as I was able to. In fact, we need more providers of third-trimester abortion for people who are losing wanted pregnancies, and much better access to very early abortion for those who do not want to be pregnant. Instead, the up until birth accusers are using the tragedies of those who didnt want abortions to take away the right from those who do. In March, special counsel to the sheriff of Hamilton County, Tennessee, Coty Wamp, was campaigning for district attorney when she met with a group of parents calling themselves Moms for Liberty. Wamp said afterwards that she had facilitated a meeting between the parents rights group and the sheriffs office because she thought law enforcement could help the group in its goal of banning books. I think that theres going to come a time with some of these books where it crosses a criminal line, Wamp said. Its called contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Wamp won that promotion to district attorney and was one of the earliest law enforcement figures to begin to establish a frightening new alliance between far-right sheriffs offices and the radical right-wing parents group seeking to upend Americas educational system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Wamps meeting, she did not shy away from the possibility of filing charges for criminal books, although she later told Jezebel that she did not intend to suggest she was going to go about arresting librarians. Whatever her actual intentions, the alliance Wamp sought to foster is a dangerous one and one that is spreading. Across the country, members of Mothers for Liberty, a far-right group focused on banning library books and whitewashing school curricula, have appealed to sheriffs as allies in these goals. Much like the partnerships between sheriffs and militia members, or sheriffs and election deniers, this alliance is another example of how sheriffs have become the arm of the law willing to enforce the radical agenda of the far-right. It also shows how determined groups like M4L are to be seen as having legal legitimacyand how willing sheriffs are to provide it. Advertisement Advertisement I have spent the past few years reporting on far-right sheriffs and their allies and confidants. One notable change since 2020 has been the increasing number of women who identify with the politics of far-right groups like the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. While most people associate groups like CSPOA with hyper-masculine-fueled violence, women are often key facilitators between these groups and voters. Advertisement Much of this alliance emerged during the pandemic, when far-right parent groups opposed masking in schools. On forums like Facebook, these parents, mostly mothers, passed around information about the so-called constitutional sheriff movement, citing its members as potential allies. This blossomed into an anti-public-school movement focused on altering classroom curricula to eliminate material about racism, sex, or LGBTQ people; policing classrooms and libraries; eliminating requirements for all forms of vaccines as well as masking for COVID; and pushing parents to embrace home-schooling as an ideal way to escape federal and state government indoctrination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While many anti-mask and election conspiracy rallies were filled with men clad in military-style apparel and carrying long guns, women presented a softer side and turned out in equalif not strongernumbers, in my observation. During the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Associations Arise USA Resurrection Tour last year, the two women founders of Freedom Angels appeared onstage to talk not just about resisting mask and vaccine orders but also about establishing entire communities free from government regulation, like food co-ops and alternative home-schooling. Large public events sponsored by CSPOA drew crowds approaching gender parity. Moms 4 Libertytheir slogan is Parents Rights is just one of these influential women-led groups. It was formed in Florida by Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice after both lost their reelection campaigns for their respective local school boards. Their latest conference theme was Joyful Warriors, another example of how far-right women mitigate the toxic masculinity associated with groups like the Oath Keepers, border militias, and the Proud Boys. According to recent reporting by Mother Jones, the group now claims 100,000 members across 38 states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While M4L has been accused of various direct actions like harassing local school board officials with emails, calls, and threats, it has lately begun to approach county sheriffs as a way to legitimize its grievances and gain actual traction in criminal courts. Granted, it hasnt been too successful yet. But these alliances suggest that should it not achieve its goals via democratic means, M4L is perfectly willing to find its own firepower. One strategy has been to bring criminal complaints to sympathetic sheriffs, which become sex crime investigations, further spreading the QAnon-influenced anxieties that children are being recruited or brainwashed by sex predators presenting as progressives. In the spring, Jennifer Pippin, who is an M4L chapter chair, filed a criminal complaint against a school library in Indian River County, Florida, for failing to remove dozens of books flagged by the members as inappropriate. The original list of books for examination included more than 150 titles, and while some were removed, not all of them were. In an email, Pippin told a member of the school board that she was focused on ALL of the books currently in the libraries that have sex, rape, drugs etc etc in them that need to be removed immediately so they dont get into the hands of anymore students in our district. She threatened, Im holding all of you accountable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowerswho last year was a Sheriff Fellow at the far-right think tank Claremont Instituteassigned a sergeant to investigate the issue, reviewing emails between an M4L representative and various local officials. There were even annotated pages of the books in question, including sections of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer about a 9-year-old boy whose father is killed in the 9/11 attacks. (The book has been the subject of previous attacks by some parents since it was published.) The pages are annotated with handwritten notes like sexual encounter and masterbation. The six-week investigation resulted in a 74-page report, which concluded that no crime occurred. Whether patently unconstitutional charges are ultimately filed in cases like these, though, is not the issue. The chilling effect of the threat is. Advertisement That threat is real. In a letter to the school superintendent, Flowers wrote that the totality of the circumstances do not allow us to make an arrest in this case, but added, We do not feel that this content is appropriate for young children even though it does not rise to the level of a crime. Flowers then recommended stricter oversight for childrens books. Advertisement Advertisement Other sheriffsespecially those in Florida, where M4L began and has garnered support from Gov. Ron DeSantishave conducted similar investigations into so-called dirty books, and while no criminal charges have resulted thus far, they indicate that going to the sheriff is an accepted strategy. In Flagler County, Florida, another M4L member filed an almost identical complaint to Pippins. And in Polk County, Florida, a dark money group called County Citizens Defending Freedom funded a series of complaints about books (under the guise of citizen complaints) to Sheriff Grady Judd, who deemed the material vile and nasty and inappropriate but not pornographic. Judd added that the matter was under review to determine if there will be a criminal investigation based on additional complaints, which all appear to have stemmed from the same dark money group that produced the initial complaints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff candidates in many counties are also courting M4L members as political allies, appearing alongside them at events, providing legal legitimacy to their fears, and contributing to the spread of misinformation. Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, who was recently exposed for potentially trying to bribe political candidates he did not like to exit races and endorse his preferred candidates, has embraced M4L-allied members for school board. Advertisement In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sheriff Vic Regalado did an April speaking event with an M4L county chair in which he supplied background on applicable laws, explaining that many criminal laws do not apply to book banning, even things that would make a normal person puke. He noted, however, regarding a book of poetry, If an individual on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were showing this to a child, they would be in cuffs like thatsnapping his fingersand they would be prosecuted, but I dont know that they would be convicted in todays world. Advertisement This is now accepted, he continued, waving a page around, arguing that a jury would be unlikely to convict because a lot of parents are apathetic, and blaming in particular single mothers. He ended by promising to consult with the district attorney about how we can insert law enforcement into this thing. It might seem unusual to have elected law enforcementespecially in a time of much-hyped fears of violent crime and alleged understaffinginsert themselves into whether a book should be in a school library. Sheriffs, as politicians, need not justify the use of their resources, though, whether they are used to solve murders, investigate non-existent election fraud, or thoroughly report out whether Jonathan Safran Foers book about 9/11 is too sexy for the youths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The alliance between sheriffs and M4L makes further levels of political sense as well. Local police chiefs are unlikely to be allies, as their budgets are scrutinized by city leadership and they tend to be in larger cities. Sheriffs serve longer terms than police chiefs and are politicians at heart, having the ability to deploy time and personnel however they see fit, with little if any oversight. And even if there were oversight, in most states where M4L is active, it has the support of state actors and other powerful politicians. Investigating a school book is both safe, easy, and popular in these jurisdictions, especially compared with solving actual crime. Finally, sheriffs are a natural extension of the M4L ideology. In a recent survey published by the Marshall Project, a significant number of sheriffs (as well as citizens) said that they fear the loss of the traditional American way of life enough to justify violence. This easily translates into helping M4L ban Toni Morrison from school libraries or trying to police how teachers talk about their partners. As of now, the only thing stopping these sheriffs has been the limits of criminal laws and courts. Given the state and national political and legal landscapes, the question is quickly becoming: How much longer will those limits hold? This article originally appeared in Zocalo Public Square. If you know where to go in Death Valley National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias Park and Preserve, Glacier Peak Wilderness, or Bears Ears National Monument, you might come across the remnants of a tramway or a pile of mine tailings or a rusted tank. The artifacts of industrial activity can be startling in the otherwise tranquil natural scene. But there is no mistake. Despite being miles inside a national park, a designated wilderness, or some other conservation area, you can encounter mining claimsthey are everywhere. With resource development on public lands once again a matter of national debate, it has become increasingly important to look back and ask: How did protected places and mining get so entangled? Advertisement One hundred and fifty years ago, Congress established two foundational precedents for our national landscape a mere 10 weeks apart: the Yellowstone National Park Act, setting in motion Americas best idea, and the General Mining Act, which opened public lands to mining exploration. Between March and May, it seems, President Ulysses S. Grant swung from one apex of the pendulum to the other, making it impossible to settle and privatize the public land in Yellowstone while making it easy to extract valuable minerals from almost anywhere they were found without paying a cent. While these decisions seem diametrically opposed, they have shared priorities that ushered in a new land regime in the U.S., based on a fundamental notion of American land defined by a history of Native expropriation, economic liberalism, and segregated land uses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On March 1, 1872, Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Act. It set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people some two million acres in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, leaning just a bit into Idaho and Montana. In this remarkable landscape of geysers and bison and bright sulfuric pools, no one was permitted to settle or occupy the land. The resourcestimber, minerals, and the likewere to be kept from injury or spoliation and all natural spectacles would be retained in their natural condition. No wanton destruction of game or fish for the purposes of merchandise or profit would be permitted. But on May 10, Grant enacted a bill that has facilitated wanton destruction across many of the countrys public lands and created massive wealth for a few. The General Mining Act of 1872 declared all the U.S. public domain where valuable minerals might be found to be free and open to exploration and purchase. This legislation legitimized mining on all surveyed or unsurveyed lands for personal or corporate gain. (The mining that preceded it, such as the California Gold Rush of 49er fame, was simply overlooked trespassing.) The law remains in effect, an emblem to the exploitation of natural wealth for profit as the highest possible good assigned to the natural world. Advertisement Advertisement Both laws thrummed with the cadence of dispossession. From the earliest days of the republic, the nations land policy was to take from Indigenous peoplesby war, by treaty, by duplicity or fraud, it did not matterand then transfer into the private hands of yeoman farmers producing food and virtue on homesteads scattered across the continent. These 1872 laws were partly made possible by the fact that the federal government had ended treaty-making in 1871. Underneath the seemingly empty pleasuring-grounds of Yellowstone were the forced absences of Apsaalooke and Shoshone peoples and many other Indigenous Nations in Yellowstone and subsequent public parks. Advertisement Advertisement Similarly, the great mineral rushes, both before and after the 1872 law, routinely invaded Indigenous territory, often in explicit violation of treaty agreements. This stripped land, wealth, and health from Native peoples and provoked ongoing violence, exemplifying a common North American story. The 1872 laws made land either a museum or a sacrifice zone, not a place to live. National parksand later, national forests, monuments, grasslands, or wildlife refugesand mining sites, once Native homes, quickly redefined those residents as trespassers. Advertisement Advertisement Both laws also hailed to corporate boards. The Northern Pacific Railroads tracks were not laid down yet, but the route took it near Yellowstones northern boundary. Like many of the transcontinental railroads, the Northern Pacific faced financial trouble and guarded its territory fiercely from competition. Jay Cooke, the head of the company, saw the possible park as a future revenue stream, and used his influence to encourage Congress to create the park, further entangling corporate interests with national parks. Advertisement Advertisement The General Mining Law benefited entrepreneurial and corporate development in a much more straightforward way. Obtaining land for mining was simple: locate valuable minerals; claim and take them. If they wanted, the mineral developers could also pay a low fee of $2.50 per acre for placer claims and $5 per acre for lode claims to buy the land. These easy terms conformed to a guiding belief of 19th-century economic liberalism- that the government was supposed to facilitate economic development (and then stand back). The federal government and U.S. taxpayers receive no royalties from the minerals subject to the mining law. Over the next century, an area almost the size of Connecticut dropped into private hands on the cheap. Although popular culture depicts a lone grizzled man with a mule and a pan bent over a creek, mining looked much more like underpaid workers with drills rat-a-tatting in the deep dark of Western mountains. Advertisement Advertisement In contrast to the conservation and recreation opportunities offered by the creation of the national parks, the General Mining Law brought about major environmental harms, including terrible wasteand continues to do so. Although few large-scale hardrock mining operations have launched in recent decades, 100 million acres of public land can still be explored and, if minerals are located, the process of claiming and taking them is largely the same as it was in the 1870s. Though Congress put a moratorium on patenting the claims in the 1990s, ending outright ownership, extracting minerals does not require land ownershipand mining claims close off the lands to other uses. Meanwhile, environmental regulations and the bonds posted to support reclamation often are insufficient. To date, more than 50 billion tons of waste have been left behind after mining and processing, harming all manner of lakes and lands surrounding mines. The laws rare reforms include a leasing system for some resources (like coal and gas) and improved environmental remediation. But the General Mining Law enjoys strong allies in resource-dependent congressional districts who have resisted the few calls for fundamental reform, such as fair royalties and a fund to clean up abandoned mines, that have popped up from time to time. Advertisement How can we square Ulysses S. Grants contradictory imperativesto protect the natural world at all costs versus to exploit it without concern? In addition to the way both laws alienated land from its original inhabitants, they reveal a fundamental idea that animates American culture and law: that land is meant to be owned or controlled. From that perspective, tonnage and tourism, price per ounce and entrance fees, show themselves as simply different forms of commodification. While open-pit mines differ from the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, both require, according to the prevailing ethos, an owner or management goals approved by Congress. One hundred and fifty years later, we find it hard to conceive of any other way. People have inhabited the continent since time immemorial, but this system is only a century and a half old: Change is possible. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The extremely online partisans of Twitter are convinced that Elon Musk is putting a big thumb on the U.S. electoral scale. On one side, Democrats, Never Trump Republicans, and various other fretters about the health of democracy are pleading with their followers to stick around the platform that the Tesla CEO just bought, at least through the midterms. The thesis seems to be that if they dont man the social media ramparts, theyll cede an important organizing tool to the right, mis- and disinformation will flood the website unchecked, and the Democrats messaging reach will shrink. Advertisement Musk 1000% timed this acquisition so people on the left would leave twitter in the home stretch of the most important midterm election in modern history. DO NOT GIVE IN over that prick. Stay and help Democrats WIN. We have 9 days to go. Lets DO IT. Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) October 30, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For those who are fighting to preserve our Constitutional Democracy, now is not the time to leave Twitter. Now is the time to VOTE BLUE! Rob Reiner (@robreiner) October 28, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Yes or No: Do you think Elon Musk is using Twitter to help deliver the midterm elections to the Republicans? Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) November 1, 2022 Hey giant accounts that are leaving Twitter! Can you PLEASE stay on Twitter through the midterms and just tweet links to voting information every hour on the hour? Asking for a democracy. Maya May (@mayaonstage) October 30, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, users on the right also think that Musks Twitter purchase is a midterms gift. The takeover means Twitters alleged election interference for Democrats will end, goes one representative tweet, citing the networks suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the waning days of the 2020 campaign. (The platform had initially blocked users from sharing an article in the New York Post about the laptop out of concern that it violated Twitter policies against use of hacked materials; the company later softened its response.) Since last week, conservatives have also claimed that #resistance accounts have seen an engagement drop. Twitter has turned off the Democrats bot machine and robbed Dems of the fake engagement, wrote former GOP congressional candidate Vic DeGrammont. For so long, social media companies have caved to the Lefts demands, and Elon Musk is putting an end to that, tweeted Ben Shapiro, claiming that the new Twitter era symbolizes an inflection point in history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Setting aside what happens to Twitter in the long run, are any of these people on to something? Undeniably, the past week has been a chaotic one, and many left-leaning users have made noise about quitting Twitter. Meanwhile, users on the rightnot to mention trolls and users with extreme viewshave been having a field day. Its clear we are, indeed, at an inflection point. Whats less clear is that it could have severe political ramifications already. Its reasonable to be concerned about the potential for immediate fallout from Twitters transition. After going full Apprentice on key company executives and restricting employees access to content moderation programs, Musk went through with plans to ax a large chunk of Twitters staff on Friday. Per the affected workers own tweets, this has so far included those working on algorithm transparency, content moderation, community management, human resources, and senior engineering roles, among others. [Update, Nov. 6, 2022, at 11:38 a.m.: Twitters head of safety and integrity tweeted Friday, While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place. with our front-line moderation staff experiencing the least impact.] All that, right as Musk directed the company to cut its infrastructure costs by at least $1 billion, as Reuters reported, and to present a plan for doing so by Nov. 7the day before the midterms. Sources told Reuters that the infrastructure rollback could put the Twitter website and app at risk of going down during critical events when users are rushing to Twitter to consume and share information, such as during moments of crisis or major political events. Coupled with the hasty rollout of Twitters new verification program, set to kick off early next week, its fair to worry that Twitters ability to weather a crisis will be a significantly diminished site by Election Daywith experienced workers gone, overall technical capacity reduced, resources for combating misinformation lacking, and a stage set for chaotic actors to wreak havoc. [Update, Nov. 6, 2022, at 2:29 p.m.: The New York Times reported Sunday that Twitter will delay launching the paid verification system until the day after the midterms, because many Twitter users and employees raised concerns that the new pay-for-play badges could cause confusion ahead of Tuesdays elections.] Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres also the matter of Musks own ideological journey. Once a bipartisan donor and voter who protested the Trump administrations stance on climate change, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has shed whatever liberal cred he once had. In moving Teslas headquarters from California to Texas late last year, he played into the conservative dream of making the Lone Star State a low-tax, low-regulation magnet to attract businesses away from liberal California. The Twitter takeover would seem to have erased whatever warm feelings remained for Musk on the left. His initial bid for the platform was encouraged by several conservative power players, and back in May, he tweeted that Democrats have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. More recently, hes made clear his worrying intention to review Twitters antitrans harassment policies, while bringing figures like longtime pal David Sacks, a prominent tech-industry right-winger, into his Twitter war room as he transforms the company. Advertisement Musks most public actions so far would appear to indicate just whom hes most sympathetic to. He took credit for the White House accounts deletion of a tweet (it had been fact-checked by Twitter users through a feature introduced before Musks purchase) and replied to Hillary Clinton with a bogus story claiming that Nancy Pelosis husband had been attacked by a gay former lover. (He later deleted his tweet promoting that conspiracy theory.) One Trump ally called on Twitters new owner to restore the allegedly suspended account of the Oath Keeper member running for Arizona secretary of state, writing that this shouldnt happen the week before an election! Musk personally responded that he was looking into it, and the candidate later thanked him for stopping the commie who suspended me a week before the election. Its still unclear whether or why that account was suspended, what rules its owner may have violated, what Musk specifically did on his behalf, or who this commie was. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, Musk does seem to be interested in appearing independent. Upon taking the helm, he tweeted out an open letter to Twitter advertisers promising to make the network warm and welcoming as opposed to a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences. On Wednesday, Musk held a Zoom meeting with concerned civil rights groups, in which he stated he would not reinstate banned accounts until a clear process is outlined, promised that the employees whod been restricted from content moderation control would regain their access, and pledged to enforce [Twitters] election integrity policiesthe latter two points likely alluding to the upcoming midterms. He seems to have some concrete ideals for Twitter in his reign, Dam Hee Kim, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Arizona, wrote to me in an email. These can be ambitious visions and very challenging tasks, and it is unclear if he can acquire the necessary expertise and resources to achieve them in the near futureespecially with midterms coming up. Advertisement Online libs probably wont be assuaged by then. Back in April, after Musk first announced the Twitter purchase, he set off an earthquake for liberal and conservative follower counts. For example, after April 25, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gained nearly 100,000 followers from new usersthey werent bots, eitherwhile Barack Obama lost up to 300,000. (Notably, that was also the first moment #resistance-aligned accounts proposed leaving Twitter, leading others to urge them to wait AT LEAST until after the mid-terms.) Right after the deal closed, a string of Hollywood celebrities bid farewell to the platform while other liberal commentators reported their Twitter followers steadily trickling downward. Trump-loyal Reps. Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene each gained about 40,000 new followers in the hours following Musks official takeover; some conservatives saw their engagement spikes as proof they were finally out of Twitter Prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its really not clear yet what these fluctuations are about. Whats known is that with this user and engagement influx came a flurry of hateful rhetoric on the platform: racism, antisemitism, homophobia, and transphobia. Yoel Roth, Twitters head of safety and integrity, tweeted that this hate-speech surge came from a small number of accounts that were almost entirely inauthentic, a message Musk amplified in response to criticism from LeBron James. (Its worth noting Roth also defended Musks move to suspend some employees content-moderation access as the consequence of a corporate transition, which wasnt too clarifying.) In reality, the Washington Post reported, much of it came either from bigoted users who felt emboldened by Musks professed hands-off approach or new accounts from users of pro-Trump social networks that organized troll campaigns on Twitter. Advertisement People know what theyre expecting from a Musk-overseen Twitter, in multiple directions. And theyre acting quickly on that perception, which could signal a cultural shift within the site. The vast majority of tweets is sent by people who would identify as very, very liberal, said Karsten Muller, a National University of Singapore professor who recently co-authored a working paper on how social media affects U.S. elections. So what I would be watching is the political leaning of tweets overall. Notably, the overall algorithm has been found to lean in favor of promoting and amplifying tweets from right-leaning accounts. Advertisement Advertisement What does any of this mean for the 2022 electionwhich, in some states, began long before Musk became Chief Twit? Its undoubtedly true that users ready to make Twitter a hate-speech paradise could spread false information about election logistics that can have a suppressive effect on the vote, as a former Twitter product director told ABC News. Emilio Ferrara, a University of Southern California professor and trial expert for the Musk v. Twitter proceedings, told me its quite possible that any significant shift in the population distribution [of Twitters user base] could lead to a change in the prevalence of misinformation, especially considering that right-wing users are more susceptible to such influence. Karsten Muller added that there is definitely evidence that social media can have very sudden effects, such as how Trumps tweets had a detectable impact on anti-minority sentiments within days. Advertisement Advertisement Still, whether these kinds of effects are large enough to affect voting in the short term is less clear, wrote Muller. For the elections to be affected, I think it would take a much more fundamental shift in Twitters algorithms and user base. Both he and Ferrara, in their respective research, found social medias overall impact on the 2018 midterms cycle to be negligible. Advertisement Its possible Twitters specific operations for the 2022 midterms will resemble the moderation and enforcement plans it had set up pre-Musk (and which had their own serious issues and oversights). Following the layoffs, certainly, there may be less staff on hand to execute them. Still, a former Facebook public policy director mentioned to Politico that its not that easy to turn off some of the algorithms that are set to proactively detect and remove misinformation and hate speech. Twitters Yoel Roth has written that his teams are staying vigilant against attempts to manipulate conversations about the 2022 US midterms. Its probably fanciful to assume that Twitter, which is smaller than other major social networks, could affect voting. But it could be where the next conspiracy theories that animate the right (or, for that matter, the left) gain currency, especially with diminished internal oversight. Advertisement In the meantime, though, we should perhaps pay attention to the right-wing outlets that are showing signs of visible election influence. Arizonan users of Donald Trumps Truth Social platformwhich has been endorsed by the states GOP governor nominee, Kari Lakehave been monitoring ballot drop boxes in their precincts to watch out for (nonexistent) attempts at voter fraud, NBC News reported. The GOPs Christian nationalist nominee for Pennsylvania governor was found to have a relationship with the Nazi-saturated social outlet Gab. The Atlantic notes that the free speechpromoting video app Rumble has gained tens of millions of users since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. An observer of extremist groups told my colleague Aymann Ismail that theres a risk of paramilitaries, usually quick to mobilize in response to online rumors, acting on social media incitements to threaten voters or election workers. No matter what happens in the near term, its clear major political threats may be brewing in the places where Twitter liberals would never go. Scholz visited Beijing as the first leader of one of the EU member states and the G7 group after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Photo: EPA We also want to talk about how we can continue to develop ours cooperation in other areas, according to the French news agency AFP, Scholz said in Beijing, mentioning climate change and food security. We believe that the visit will strengthen mutual understanding and trust, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and form solid plans for the development of China-Germany relations in the next phase, according to Chinese television CCTV said Sew. The German chancellor visited Beijing as the first leader of one of the EU member states and the G7 group after the outbreak of the pandemic covid 19. S I sew they are expected to discuss a range of issues, including bilateral relations, economic cooperation between Germany and China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and tensions over the status of Taiwan. Its good that we can exchange opinions here on all issues, even those on which we have different views, the chancellor also said. Scholz, who will also meet with the Chinese Prime Minister today Li to Kecjangis facing criticism because of the visit, and the German coalition is also concerned. Among others, the German Foreign Minister expressed concern Annalena Baerbock from the customer Green ones, who said before the visit that Germanys mistakes made in the past with Russia must not be repeated. At the same time, Scholza reminded that his government came to power with a promise to change its strategy towards China. The Chancellor is accompanied in Beijing by an economic delegation, which includes, among others, leading representatives of Volkswagen, BASF and Deutsche Bank. Otherwise, the visit will last only eleven hours. Borrell: We cannot put China in the same category as Russia EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell on the sidelines of the summit of the G7 group of foreign ministers in the German city of Munster, he said that Western countries must reduce their dependence on China, but that many EU members have strong economic relations with China and that they cannot put this country in the same category as Russia. You may not know much about what the Cook County assessor does, but its likely youre keenly aware of the offices impact on your bank account. The assessor calculates the fair market value of residential and commercial properties. That assessment of property value, along with the tax levies from school districts, municipal governments and other local taxing bodies, leads to a property tax rate calculated by the Cook County clerk thats used to produce your property tax bill. Advertisement Though its an arcane process, the job of assessor is vital to our lives and Cook Countys economy. Cook Countys current assessor, Democrat Fritz Kaegi, on the whole has done well handling the nuts and bolts of the job. His performance becomes even more praiseworthy when you consider what he inherited when he took office in 2019. His predecessor, Democrat Joseph Berrios, oversaw a deeply dysfunctional operation in which the wealthy relied on politically connected tax appeal attorneys to secure favorable valuations. Ethics rules were cast aside, and patronage and nepotism became routine. Advertisement Kaegi reformed the office, modernized its data system, got rid of Berrios top people and ended the offices practice of accepting campaign contributions from tax appeal lawyers. One problem that has happened under Kaegis watch is that second-installment property tax bills will be delivered to homes late, when they should have been sent in July. An extended delay could keep homeowners from realizing their maximum property tax deduction on 2022 federal income tax returns. However, both Kaegi and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle have pledged that the tax bills will be sent out (and thus will be payable) before the end of the year. Kaegis opponent on the ballot is Chicago Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis, who is frustrated with the overtaxation of Cook County properties and blames Kaegi for what he says is the incumbents failure to recognize that the problem is not the redistribution of the tax burden but the magnitude of the levy. However, its local taxing bodies, and not Kaegis office, that sets tax levies. Kaegi has delivered on his pledge to overhaul the assessors office, and we enthusiastically endorse Kaegi for another term. Also on the Cook County ballot are the offices of treasurer and clerk. Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas appears March 7, 2022, at a ceremony to mark Casimir Pulaski Day at the Polish Museum of America. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) To say that Maria Pappas has reinvented the office of treasurer is a whopping understatement. Other Cook County politicians should harness Pappas energy, efficiency and innovative thinking as a template for how they approach their offices. Take, for example, her offices deep dive into the legacy of redlining, and its relevance to the scale of blight that afflicts predominantly Black and Latino communities on the South and West sides. The report, released last summer, concluded that scavenger sales arent the answer to restoring thousands of distressed properties in communities suffering from long-standing housing discrimination. The analysis also offered sound, doable solutions to reform how vacant and abandoned properties are handled in Cook County. Pappas is also a skilled handler of taxpayer money. When she took over in 1998, the office had 250 employees. Today it has 58. If we had 250 employees today, our budget would be $55.5 million, she told us. Instead, the office budget is $12.7 million. Advertisement Also on the ballot: Republican Peter Kopsaftis of South Barrington and Libertarian Michael Murphy. Pappas is endorsed. Attorney Tony Peraica appears for a hearing at Daley Center in Chicago on Sept. 6, 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) The county clerks race pits Democratic incumbent Karen Yarbrough against Republican Tony Peraica, a lawyer and former Cook County commissioner. Libertarian Joseph Schreiner is also on the ballot. In 2020, a federal judge castigated Yarbrough for violating anti-patronage hiring rules, saying she disregarded requirements to post jobs and favored people with political connections. The judge put Yarbroughs office under court oversight. She faced similar accusations in her previous elected post, when she was county recorder of deeds. The recorder and clerk jobs are combined now. As clerk, Yarbrough organizes suburban elections, maintains various county records and records property ownership and liens. Yarbroughs history of clout-hiring accusations troubles us. Peraica says he wants to transition more operations currently done in-person at the counter to the offices website, to make those tasks more convenient and less costly to taxpayers. Our endorsement goes to Peraica. Advertisement Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. Engines, bearings and machines that Putin needs to manufacture weapons go to Russia from Slovakia, the daily revealed. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovak customs officers have allowed the export of goods to companies that supply Russian military contractors, the Dennik N daily reported on Friday. "We do not decide whether goods exported to Russia will or will not be used by the Russian army," the Financial Administration, the main authority overseeing taxes and customs, responded when asked about the exports by Dennik N. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Dennik N published a list of thousands of goods that Slovak customs officers have allowed to be exported directly to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some of these products, such as bearings, machines to produce tyre parts, and even entire engines, can be used in the manufacture of heavy weaponry. The daily also linked the suppliers of some of these products to producers of Russian military technology. "The main finding is that during the export approval process, the customs officers probably did not verify if the [exported] goods could be used to produce military technology that is, if these were dual-use goods, with military as well as civilian applications," the daily wrote. It is not clear, according to Dennik N, that the exporters are actually from Slovakia. The daily notes that EU rules allow customs proceedings to be done in Slovakia even for exporters from other EU countries, upon request. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said he was verifying the journalists' findings with the defence officials. Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad admitted that he knew about the findings and considered the practice to be a problem. "Once the whole list of supplied items is assessed, we will take appropriate measures," he told Dennik N. The parliamentary committees for defence and security and for finance are being convened for a joint meeting to discuss the issue. It wont technically go down as a flip if it happens, but the Oregon Ducks are virtually on flip watch for 3-star wide receiver Trech Kekahuna, a fast-rising prospect who announced his de-commitment from the Wisconsin Badgers on Thursday. Kekahuna, who is rated as the No. 185 WR in the 2023 class, committed to Wisconsin back in June, but after picking up an offer from Oregon, along with Washington State, Texas A&M, and Arizona State, opened up his recruitment once again. According to one of the top recruiting analysts in the nation, Kekahuna is likely to join the Ducks 2023 class now. 247Sports analyst Steve Wiltfong has Kekahuna predicted to Oregon, as does On3s Justin Hopkins, who predicted a flip back on October 20, before the de-commitment. We will see in the coming weeks whether or not the Ducks can land the Hawaiian prospect. Trech Kekahunas Recruiting Profile Ratings Stars Overall State Position 247 3 85 LV WR Rivals 3 5.5 LV WR ESPN 3 75 LV WR On3 Recruiting 3 85 LV WR 247 Composite 3 0.8483 LV WR Vitals Hometown Las Vegas, Nevada Projected Position Wide Receiver Height 5-foot-11 Weight 185 pounds Class 2023 Recruitment Received Oregon Offer on October 11, 2022 Visited Oregon on October 22, 2022 Decommitted from Wisconsin on November 3, 2022 Notable Offers Oregon Ducks Wisconsin Badgers Texas A&M Aggies Utah Utes Washington State Cougars Boise State Broncos Film Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire https://sputniknews.com/20221103/24-more-graves-excavated-in-1921-tulsa-race-massacre-1103773669.html 24 More Graves Excavated in 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre 24 More Graves Excavated in 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre For 18 hours between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked the Black-majority neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood was considered... 03.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-03T22:48+0000 2022-11-03T22:48+0000 2022-11-04T05:32+0000 americas tulsa black black lives matter racial attacks racism racism history us history /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/03/1103773797_0:23:753:447_1920x0_80_0_0_c771a9bcf681684db890ee6790e275a8.png Americas Black Wall Street, which consisted of brick and wood-framed homes, grocery stores, hotels, nightclubs, billiard halls, theaters, doctors offices and churches, took less than 24 hours to be destroyed by an angry mob of white supremacists. Hundreds of Black residents were murdered and $1.8 million worth of property was destroyed ($27 million today) and years of potential Black generational wealth for the communitys children and grandchildren were stomped out.On Tuesday forensic scientists uncovered 24 additional unmarked graves belonging to victims of the 1921 massacre, three of which contained child-sized coffins, after the latest excavation which began last week. Last year, researchers found 19 unidentified bodies as a part of their investigation, which was first introduced by the citys mayor in 2018. Those bodies have since been reburied. The city first began test excavations in July 2020 and discovered multiple coffins in the Sexton area of Oaklawn Cemetery in October 2020.Four of the graves discovered this week will be excavated by hand before researchers are able to determine if they should be exhumed for further analysis."Experts continue to be narrowly focused on which graves will be exhumed and have determined that no child-sized burial will be," the city's statement reads.The purpose of the probe is to discover just how many people were killed in the massacre, with historians estimating that as many as 300 Black people were killed, all of which are believed to be buried in a series of mass graves. The burials, which took place days following the massacre, occurred under martial law, so family members of the victims were barred from witnessing the burials of their loved ones.The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre remained largely unheard of after it was buried by the local government and newspapers. But in 2018, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum announced an investigation into the massacre that would allow the city to search for unmarked mass graves after he first learned that there was a possibility that they existed in 2012, when he was still a city councilor.The Oklahoma Historical Society has deemed the Tulsa Race Massacre the single worst incident of racial violence in American history. americas tulsa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg tulsa, black, black lives matter, racial attacks, racism, racism, history, us history https://sputniknews.com/20221104/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-ukraine-risk-escalation-but-follow-an-old-us-playbook-1103785420.html American Boots on the Ground in Ukraine Risk Escalation, But Follow an Old US Playbook American Boots on the Ground in Ukraine Risk Escalation, But Follow an Old US Playbook The United States has deployed a small number of troops in Ukraine, ostensibly to carry out inspections to make sure that the tens of billions of dollars in... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T11:12+0000 2022-11-04T11:12+0000 2022-11-15T08:57+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine ukraine russia troops boots on the ground forces escalation us /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/03/12/1093985367_0:292:3070:2019_1920x0_80_0_0_58131de84fca5fecd75fb2d854c3a16f.jpg The deployment of US troops in Ukraine, supposedly to carry out an accounting of Western arms aid to Kiev, threatens to dramatically escalate Russia-NATO tensions, especially if Americans end up getting injured or killed in Russian air and missile strikes against Ukrainian weapons stores.An AP report Monday citing a senior US defense official revealed that a small number of US military forces were inside Ukraine. In a press briefing Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder confirmed that the US had small teams comprised of Embassy personnelconducting some inspections of security assistance delivery at a variety of locations, and that this was part of a broader effort of the US government to track US-provided capabilities and to prevent the illicit spread throughout Eastern Europe. Ryder said the Embassy personnel were US military personnel assigned to the Embassys Defense Attache office, not combat forces.Why Now?The deployment comes in the wake of reports that as little as 30 percent of the estimated $27.5 billion in US military assistance to Ukraine has made it to the front lines, and admissions by US defense and intelligence officials that Washington has no clue where the aid is actually going.Last week, Finnish law enforcement reported that weapons sent to Ukraine had found their way into the hands of motorcycle gangs and other criminal groups across Northern Europe, Denmark, and the Netherlands. This summer, Interpol chief Juergen Stock warned that the high availability of weapons in Ukraine would result in the proliferation in illicit arms in the post-conflict phase.Whats the Danger of US Boots on the Ground?A handful of defense observers and media outlets (but predictably, none in the mainstream) have sounded the alarm about the dangers of US troops wandering around in a conflict zone inspecting weapons caches which Russia has slated for destruction.Former Trump Pentagon advisor Douglas Macgregor has expressed serious concerns about the prospect of US boots on the ground.[There is] this strange announcement that were suddenly sending after eight months of no accountability a few hundred soldiers under a brigadier general of somehow or another tracking all of the equipment thats been sent. We already know that large quantities of the equipment has been sold off to others around the world including ISIS.* What is this really all about? Weve been at this for eight months, weve spent $65 billion and now suddenly were worrying about accountability? This is beginning to look a little like an advance party for this very dangerous proposition that a multinational coalition of the willing, a force of perhaps 50-60-70-80 thousand Western troops will eventually go into Western Ukraine. This was floated as you know a couple of weeks ago by retired General [David] Petraeus, Macgregor warned.On Thursday, 19FortyFive contributor Jack Buckby pointed out that the troops have created a dangerous grey area in the Ukrainian crisis. Its unclear what could happen if US soldiers are killed by a Russian strike, but it could be considered an attack on NATO. An attack on NATO could trigger a military response from NATO countries, which could in turn translate into a full global conflict with Russia. That being said, the United States has probably already prepared for this eventuality. If it is an intentional strike on US soldiers, therefore, it could spell trouble for Russia, Buckby wrote.Its not clear how the US would determine whether a Russian strike was intentional or not, or precisely what kind of trouble such an outcome would lead to, given that Washington continues to maintain publicly its not even a party to the Ukraine conflict.Tried and Tested StrategyThe US strategy of deploying troops to a conflict zone in a bid to solidify their allies is nothing new, and constitutes a risky strategy of escalation that goes back to the Cold War, when Washington and Moscow would often place troops in allied nations and client states to signal to one another that any attack on these countries would constitute an attack on the US or the USSR.The US took this strategy to a new level in Syria over the past five years, stationing about eight hundred troops in the war-torn Middle Eastern nations oil-rich northeastern territories and threatening a crushing response to any Syrian Army attempts to free its territories. The strategy has allowed Washingtons Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" allies to control of over 90 percent of Syrias oil riches, as well as wide swathes of the countrys most fertile agricultural lands, and to illegally export these resources abroad. This strategy has enabled the US to effectively starve Damascus and undermine its efforts to rebuild from the foreign-backed conflict fomented a decade ago, prompting Russia and Iran to provide the ordinarily energy- and food-self-sufficient nation with emergency food and energy aid.* Also known as Daesh, a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries. https://sputniknews.com/20221101/why-are-concerns-about-western-weapons-flowing-to-ukraine-growing-louder-1102919086.html https://sputniknews.com/20221026/moscow-needs-to-build-up-security-as-us-troops-getting-closer-to-russian-borders-kremlin-1102707234.html ukraine russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov ukraine, russia, troops, boots on the ground, forces, escalation, us https://sputniknews.com/20221104/british-lobbying-firm-with-tory-links-sought-to-influence-drc-elections-for-mining-corp-report-says-1103783624.html British Lobbying Firm With Tory Links Sought to Influence DRC Elections for Mining Corp, Report Says British Lobbying Firm With Tory Links Sought to Influence DRC Elections for Mining Corp, Report Says During a troubled 2011 election, Joseph Kabila managed to preserve his presidency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). New revelations suggest that... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T19:30+0000 2022-11-04T19:30+0000 2022-11-23T11:37+0000 africa united kingdom democratic republic of the congo uk conservative party canada elections lobbying central africa /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103795069_0:0:3001:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_86d9a39f1f22a2916ef857b858286a6d.jpg CT Group, a lobbying firm that has ties to the UK Conservative party, was preparing a campaign to influence the 2011 DRC elections, as implied by leaked documends acquired by British media. The company is co-owned by Tory senior strategist Sir Lynton Crosby and is credited as the organizer of electoral campaigns for David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.The DRC project customer was the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals, which reportedly offered CT Group 1.2 million with a 1 million bonus in case several goals would be reached.In late 2010, First Quantums copper mining permits were revoked by the DRC government. In order to regain them, the mining firm contacted CT Group (then known as CTF Partners), which suggested it could provide direct support to the most likely person to beat the current president and create a climate of opinion that would help First Quantum to win the legal cases it launched against DRC over the copper mining issue. Mark Fullbrook, who until last week was the chief of staff of Downing Street, led CTF at the time of the campaign. He has reportedly denied the accusations of his company being involved in the election, while a spokesperson for the firm has admitted it supported campaigns in a range of countries including the DRC, although declaring it had acted according to the law.Furthermore, three years after the DRC case, CTF participated in another covert campaign, this time in Zambia. Although it is uncertain whether the company's work was again bespoken by First Quantum, the Canadian firm's subsidiary is Zambia's biggest company by revenue, according to First Quantum's report on the African Financials website.The campaign supposedly included supporting an opposition politician, Hakainde Hichilema, who was considered friendly to the business. His 2015 election performance was better than expected, but he did not become the president until 2021.During the Zambia campaign, CTF launched a news website Open Zambia which still continues its operation.Although there is no evidence on CTF's actions being illegal, the published data raises questions whether it is ethical to attempt influencing an election in a developing country in order to secure a company's interests.First Quantum Minerals was founded in 1983 under the name Xenium Resources. Its main product is copper and it has African ventures in the DRC, Zambia and Mauritania. In 2021, the company reported a record annual copper production of 816,000 tonnes, which led to revenues rising to $7.212 billion.The UK media published the leaked data the same day a court sentenced the trade giant Glencore to a 280 million fine for bribery in five African countries. The interference of foreign companies in African internal affairs remains an acute problem, with such companies as Shell, Eni, DEFEX and British American Tobacco being under trial for implementing corrupt schemes on the continent. africa united kingdom democratic republic of the congo canada central africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Petr Baryshnikov Petr Baryshnikov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Petr Baryshnikov drc, conservative party uk, tories corruption, western companies in africa, mining in zambia, mining in drc https://sputniknews.com/20221104/british-spies-training-ukrainian-insurgent-army-in-crimea-leaks-show-1103783484.html British Spies Training Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Crimea, Leaks Show British Spies Training Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Crimea, Leaks Show British intelligence agencies are already prime suspects in two recent provocations in the Crimean peninsula, which voted overwhelmingly to reunite with Russia... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T15:05+0000 2022-11-04T15:05+0000 2022-11-04T15:11+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine ukraine uk britain great britain russia gray zone gray zone project crimea ukrainian insurgent army (upa) /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0a/0d/1101804462_0:72:721:478_1920x0_80_0_0_920b29ee120b5147a6be1a0efe362fb0.jpg Leaked documents have revealed that British spies are training an army of Ukrainian insurgents to attack Russian military and civilian targets in Crimea.Russia has already accused the UK of responsibility for the September 26 bombing of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines across the Baltic Sea, the October 8 truck bombing of the Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea and the October 29 attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol with seven marine and nine aerial drones.The British MoD responded by claiming that Moscow was "peddling false claims of an epic scale" in order to "detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine."However, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are the only countries known to have supplied Kiev with underwater and surface drones.Other incidents in the Crimean peninsula are suspected to be the work of covert units, including an explosion at a military airfield in August and an attack using a small drone to drop explosives. Some have speculated that the sinking of the Russian Navy cruiser Moskva in April was caused by a saboteur, rather than by shore-based anti-shipping missiles as Kiev claims.Investigative news website The Grayzone named the key players working with the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) in Odessa, the Black Sea port to the west of Crimea, to set up the covert force.They include military consultant Hugh Ward, who works for private security firm Rezolutionz, MI6 veteran Guy Spindler, former Lithuanian defence minister Audrius Butkevicius and veteran intelligence agent Chris Donnelly.Donnelly is a former advisor to late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and co-founder of the Institute for Statecraft in 2009. He and his think-tank were later behind the sinister information warfare outfit the Integrity Initiative.Leaked internal memos showed that Donnelly was concerned that even Kiev's staunchest backer, US President Joe Biden, feared an endless proxy war with Russia following recent statements from Washington sounding vague support for a negotiated peace.Im not sure what the opposite word to deterrence is, but Biden is actively doing that, alas, he added.Cost ConcernsThe Grayzone also reported that British private military contractor Prevail Partners, founded by former Royal Marines Brigadier and Special Boat Service (SBS) commander Justin Hedges and other ex-commandoes, had been hired to train the new guerrilla force.It said Spindler and Butkevicius lobbied governments to stump up funding for the programme. But internal emails seen by the site asked: "will Uncle Sam pay for this?" while a "costed proposal" to the British MoD had been "turned down for risk reasons."Alex Finnen, of the British army Specialist Group Military Intelligence section of the 77 Brigade cyber-warfare centre and the Foreign Office's Russia Unit, said in one email from March that the proposal tendered at $600,000 per insurgent per year was very expensive for what it is, although the firm was in a "seller's market".I suspect that they have taken the first figure they thought of and then doubled it. So, there needs to be more discussion as to how and what these people are going to do, Finnen wrote. Partisans live in and amongst the people. That suggests that you need people from across Ukraine, in small teams to take part as Prevail suggest oblast by oblast. How are they going to achieve this?Hedges was also scathing in his assessment of the mare 12 days of training provided to Ukrainian conscripts before they were thrown into the front lines against the Russian army. After a visit to the Yavoriv training ground near the Polish border, he wrote that most recruits know that when they deploy to the frontline it will be carnage.Hedges claimed that his firm could do a much better job by training 40-strong groups of in guerrilla warfare tactics.He said funding could be provided by flowing donations through Prevails established NGO, Rhizome Insights Ltd, without leaving a clear trail from governments to the mercenary firm.In a May 25 email, Spindler wrote that Butkevicius had done an excellent job of unpicking Ukrainian hesitation over training support, and has now caused Prevails name to be fed to the British government as a "potential supplier."He said Hedges was "feeling positive, an British defence ministers were reportedly no longer in principle against private sector training solutions.Dark History ReplayedThe operation to build up the insurgent force has obvious parallels with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army* (UPA), the armed wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Second Word War Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. The UPA is most infamous for the the Wolyn genocide of up to 100,000 Polish-speaking civilians in the western Galicia region now the hotbed of fascist ideology in Ukraine. Despite defeat at the hands of the Red Army, the UPA did not disband at the end of the war but continued to wage a campaign of terror against the Soviet Union with the backing of Western intelligence agencies. Its activities petered out after Roman Shukhevych was killed in an ambush in 1950, but by then tens of thousands of civilians had been murdered along with several thousand soldiers and police officers.Bandera has been rehabilitated and revered in Ukraine since the Western-backed 2014 EuroMaidan coup by far-right militias, who openly display the black-and-red flag of the UPA alongside other Nazi symbols.Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, whose ethnic-Ukrainian Polish grandfather Michael Chomiak worked as an anti-Semitic propagandist for the Nazi occupiers, tweeted and then deleted a photo of her holding a scarf in the UPA colours at a demonstration in support of Kiev just days after Russia launched its military operation.*UPA is an extremist organization banned in Russia. https://sputniknews.com/20221103/moscow-has-info-on-uks-transfer-of-unmanned-underwater-drones-to-kiev-1103678364.html https://sputniknews.com/20221101/moscow-wants-answers-over-truss-alleged-its-done-sms-to-blinken-moments-after-nord-stream-blasts-1102909463.html ukraine britain great britain russia crimea Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png ukraine, uk, britain, great britain, russia, gray zone, gray zone project, crimea, ukrainian insurgent army (upa), stepan bandera https://sputniknews.com/20221104/china-donates-40mln-in-equipment-to-solomon-islands-police-under-security-pact-worrying-us-allies-1103781779.html China Donates $40Mln in Equipment to Solomon Islands Police Under Security Pact, Worrying US, Allies China Donates $40Mln in Equipment to Solomon Islands Police Under Security Pact, Worrying US, Allies Earlier this week, Australia distributed semi-automatic assault rifles and vehicles to the Solomon Islands in an attempt to retain its major security partner... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T12:08+0000 2022-11-04T12:08+0000 2022-11-04T12:08+0000 world solomon islands australia & oceania us china assault rifle pacific /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103788060_0:0:2400:1350_1920x0_80_0_0_86b0e959e177b3b832ca06de1f6ea271.jpg China on Friday gifted 20 vehicles, 30 motorbikes, and two water cannon trucks to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF). Chinese ambassador to the island nation, Li Ming, said the equipment would further enhance the capacity and capability building of the RSIPF and further contribute to the law-and-order management of the island nation.China has also delivered policing equipment such as digital VHF communication systems, Interpol I-24/7 Communication Systems, and a fully-equipped forensic autopsy laboratory.Receiving the gifts in the presence of Li Ming in Honiara, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare vowed to continue accepting support for the police force from all development partners.These assets will be used by RSIPF to protect lives, properties of investors, local and foreigners, Sogavare said, highlighting the deadly riots of last November, which destroyed assets worth millions, primarily of Chinese-developed infrastructure.Sogavare encouraged the police personnel, 40 of which received training in China last month, to serve people without fear or favor.The $40 million Chinese donation came two days after Australia delivered 13 vehicles and 60 guns to the Island Police in the framework of security pact signed in April. Chinas security pact with the South Pacific island nation triggered severe concerns among the US and its Pacific allies such as Australia and New Zealand. Of late, the US has ramped up its diplomatic and security presence in the Pacific.However, the Chinese ambassador to the Solomon Islands on Friday said that Beijing does not have any intention to compete with other countries. Australia and New Zealand two members of the US-led Five Eyes alliance, have long been the dominant security partners of the Solomon Islands. Australia played crucial role in stabilizing the island nation in 2003, after five years of civil unrest. solomon islands australia & oceania china pacific Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg solomon islands, australia & oceania, us, china, assault rifle, pacific https://sputniknews.com/20221104/chinas-support-for-pakistan-will-come-with-caveats-experts-believe-1103795834.html Chinas Support For Pakistan Will Come With Caveats, Experts Believe Chinas Support For Pakistan Will Come With Caveats, Experts Believe Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif has paid a visit to China, becoming the second foreign leader to go to Beijing following the re-election of Xi Jinping as general... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T19:12+0000 2022-11-04T19:12+0000 2022-11-04T19:17+0000 opinion & analysis pakistan shehbaz sharif imran khan china china-pakistan economic corridor (cpec) belt and road initiative afghanistan indian foreign ministry /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/03/1103509241_0:50:1343:805_1920x0_80_0_0_2f2cd41b94348c8a072bec1488633d7c.jpg China aims to curtail its spending spree concerning Belt and Road Initiative funding and follow a more conservative policy on additional moneylending, M.S. Pratibha, an expert on Chinas foreign relations, observed. We should expect China to support Pakistan financially, but with various caveats to make sure that it is not financially risky, Pratibha, an associate fellow at the East Asia Centre at New Delhi-based MP-IDSA, told Sputnik. Issuing a 47-point joint statement following bilateral talks held between Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, China reiterated that relations with Pakistan will always be given the highest priority in its foreign policy. The Sharif government called for fast-tracking some $18 billion worth of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, including the long-delayed M-1 and Karachi circular railway. However, the joint statement has no financial commitment to these.China has also not announced a financial commitment to roll over $6.3 billion in debt or a fresh loan to cash-strapped Pakistan. Though China has shown support for the financial stabilization of Pakistan, debt relief or additional funding is not only dependent on their bilateral relationship, Pratibha underlined. China has serious concerns about the safety and security of its personnel engaged in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as over a dozen Chinese nationals have been killed in the South Asian country in several attacks over the past two years.Originally valued at $47 billion, the cumulative value of all CPEC projects has amplified considerably, with an estimated worth of $62 billion in 2020.CPEC: Challenging Indias AmbitionsDespite concerns related to the CPEC project, the two strategic partners have hinted at expanding it to land-locked Afghanistan, which is seeking foreign assistance to rebuild the war-torn nation following the US withdrawal in 2021.The joint statement hinting at a possible extension of CPEC to Afghanistan should be considered as a message to India to accelerate its own connectivity projects to the Central Asian region and beyond. It will bring China and India very close to a strategic competition of connectivity to Central Asia, Monica Verma, a Delhi-based researcher focusing on the political economy of South Asia and regional integration, told Sputnik.In the absence of a direct transit route to Afghanistan, India has developed alternative connectivity through Irans Chabahar Port and is now seeking to make it a part of the International North-South Transport Corridor. India is pushing for this at the SCO as well.New Delhi has consistently conveyed protests and concerns to China and Pakistan, as CPEC includes projects in the sovereign territory of India.Verma reckoned that CPEC's extension to Afghanistan will not be limited to Afghanistan alone, but that it is a way to link Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries through a network of connectivity. Case in point is the Trans-Afghan Rail between Pakistan-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan, Verma underlined.The Indian government increased diplomatic activities this year to use Chabahar as a port to connect to Afghanistan and Central Asia for trade. Iran is ready to conclude a long-term contract with India by December to use Chabahar Port as a crucial transit hub for the North-South Transport Corridor.Political Instability in PakistanThere is speculation among a certain section of the diplomatic community that Sharif would not be able to receive actionable assistance from friendly countries due to political instability.Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April, has been riding on unprecedented popularity, snatching power in Punjab from the governing Pakistan Muslim League. Last month, the PTI chairman also defeated the governing coalition in 22 out of 25 parliamentary constituencies in by-elections.In a rare move, the PTI chairman blamed Pakistan's Army and Election Commission for not allowing the democratic process to progress by blackmailing and threatening people with videos and audio."In the recent fallout between the military and Imran [Khan], Imran may have popularity and eyeballs, but the real shots are called by the deep state. Recently even Bilawal Bhutto, the foreign minister, had to apologize after overtly stating this fact publicly, Monica Verma reckoned. https://sputniknews.com/20220928/imran-khan-demands-sharif-govt-release-us-cable-on-big-foreign-conspiracy-in-pakistan-1101310821.html china afghanistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg pakistan, shehbaz sharif, imran khan, china, china-pakistan economic corridor (cpec), belt and road initiative, afghanistan, indian foreign ministry https://sputniknews.com/20221104/delhi-chief-kejriwal-takes-responsibility-for-worsening-air-pollution-caused-by-punjab-farm-fires-1103780421.html Delhi Chief Kejriwal Takes Responsibility for Worsening Air Pollution Caused by Punjab Farm Fires Delhi Chief Kejriwal Takes Responsibility for Worsening Air Pollution Caused by Punjab Farm Fires On Friday, the Air Quality Index in several parts of Delhi continued to be in the "severe" category. The dip in air quality occurred after farm fires increased... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T14:23+0000 2022-11-04T14:23+0000 2022-11-04T14:23+0000 india delhi new delhi pollution pollution air pollution air pollution punjab aam aadmi party arvind kejriwal /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/0d/1080754965_0:111:3247:1937_1920x0_80_0_0_15bc4c3d4b029ed644e7b74aaee78ad2.jpg The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi state chief, Arvind Kejriwal, on Friday said that his party takes full responsibility for increasing farm fires in India's northern state of Punjab.The AAP, the ruling party in Punjab, formed its government in the state earlier this year and made Bhagwant Mann the state chief. On Thursday, satellites recorded 2,834 incidents of farm fires in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. Out of 2,834 incidents, about 2,650 were reported in the agricultural state of Punjab alone.Burning paddy crop residue, or stubble, after harvesting is a traditional practice in major paddy-producing states across northern India. Farmers usually do this before moving on to the next crop, as it's an easy way to clean up farms.On Friday, the AQI (air quality index) level in several parts of Delhi and its adjoining cities touched 500. An AQI of above 400 is considered "severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses.Other conditions, like falling temperatures along with low wind speeds trapping the pollutants in the air further aggravate the situation. Wind speed is expected to increase in the national capital on Saturday, allowing for dispersion by the evening.Punjab state chief Mann said that stubble burning is increasing because farm produce is also at record highs. He added that his government is looking at diversifying from paddy next year, as long as farmers get the Minimum Support Price, and suggested alternatives like bajra (pearl millet), poplars, and vegetables.Meanwhile, Kejriwal also announced that primary schools in the city would be shut from Saturday, as the air quality index in the city continues to be in the "severe" category. Outdoor activities for students above Classes 5 will also be stopped in Delhi schools.On Friday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai also said that 50 percent of Delhi government officers would work from home. The state government has set up a six-member panel to monitor the implementation of anti-pollution curbs, Rai informed.He also said that the government is looking for other options, like restricting private vehicles, while staggered market timings are other options the authorities are considering. delhi new delhi punjab Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg delhi, new delhi, pollution, pollution, air pollution, air pollution, punjab, aam aadmi party, arvind kejriwal https://sputniknews.com/20221104/dementia-aint-no-joke-netizens-ponder-reason-for-drill-size-holes-on-veins-of-bidens-hands-1103791269.html 'Dementia Ain't No Joke': Netizens Ponder Reason for 'Drill Size Holes on Veins of Biden's Hands 'Dementia Ain't No Joke': Netizens Ponder Reason for 'Drill Size Holes on Veins of Biden's Hands From getting lost in the White House garden to churning out word salads, soon-to-be 80 Joe Biden, Americas oldest sitting president, has become the target of... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T14:27+0000 2022-11-04T14:27+0000 2022-11-15T08:57+0000 americas joe biden dementia us /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/07/0b/1097182840_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_b275e6e882fa2eae443b22240c8d8dd4.jpg US President Joe Biden, who turns 80 in November, has yet again prompted speculation regarding his health. Recent pictures of the commander-in-chief's hands have left some on the Internet wondering whether he has been administered an intravenous line (IV) of late.79-year-old Biden, who appears set on running for a second term in office in defiance of plummeting approval ratings and increasingly vocal criticism of his capabilities, was giving a speech at a rally for Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist. Photos from the event left many on social media concerned over whether the president was perhaps receiving medical treatment that would require IVs. Dr. Nan Hayworth, MD, tweeted that the marks on Bidens hand resemble the residua of punctures." Many on the Internet appeared to agree with Dr. Hayworth. In a recent incident of the bizarre behavior patterns increasingly characteristic of Joe Biden, the president appeared to lose his way to the White House following a tree-planting event on the South Lawn. Navigating stages at speaking events has also presented a problem for Biden, as was the case at a rally in Pittsburgh in October.Republican representative for New York, Claudia Tenney, recently suggested that Joe Biden was "not competent" to be president of the United States, and likened him to a Madame Tussauds wax figure. https://sputniknews.com/20221030/states-of-confusion-and-delusion-biden-trolled-over-54-states-gaffe-1102838111.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko joe biden has yet again prompted speculation regarding his health, increasingly vocal criticism of biden's capabilities, marks on bidens hand resemble the residua of punctures, biden's plummeting approval ratings, us president's bizarre behavior patterns, joe biden not competent to be president of the united states This is the final installment of the Tribune Editorial Boards endorsements for Illinois House races in the Nov. 8 general election. 84th District Rep. Stephanie Kifowit speaks during a joint Illinois House and Senate committee hearing in Chicago on Jan. 9, 2018, on problems at the state-run veterans home in Quincy. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) The norm among Democrats in Springfield is to toe the party line. Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego is one of the outliers. She spoke out against the Michael Madigan-led Democratic Party during the budget impasse years, and she voted against her party when Madigan put out unbalanced spending plans. With the former House speaker now awaiting trial on corruption charges, Kifowit says the General Assembly must ratchet up ethics reform with expanded whistleblower protections and enhanced authority for the legislative inspector generals office. Advertisement Her GOP opponent, Joe West, is the Oswego Township supervisor. He correctly states that Illinois should consolidate layers of redundant government and look into pension reform that puts new workers into 401(k)-style retirement plans. Kifowit, however, is the better choice and gets our endorsement. 85th District This Will County district includes parts of Bolingbrook, Romeoville and Lockport. Republican Chris Metcalfe of Bolingbrook says property tax relief starts with Springfield ending the practice of slapping unfunded mandates onto local governments. Illinois should also put more into education funding, he says, which accounts for a chunk of property tax bills. And township governments that duplicate what the local municipality does should be eliminated. He is endorsed over Dagmara Dee Avelar, the Democratic incumbent, who is also from Bolingbrook. Advertisement 86th District Democratic incumbent Lawrence Walsh Jr. faces GOP contender Scott Greene in this mostly Will County district. Both candidates are from Elwood. No endorsement. 91st District Small business owner Scott Preston of Normal is a moderate Republican who puts pension reform as his top priority. It is vital for the fiscal future of our state, he told us. He was on the Normal Town Council when the community landed electric vehicle-maker Rivian Automotive, a development win that created more than 6,000 jobs. His familiarity with economic development strategies is a plus. His Democratic opponent, Sharon Chung, is a professional violinist and a McLean County Board member. Preston is endorsed. 92nd District In this Peoria-area district, Democratic incumbent Jehan Gordon-Booth faces Republican challenger and pastor Ben Watt. No endorsement in this race. 96th District Republican Lisa Smith of Blue Mound faces Democratic incumbent Sue Scherer of Decatur. No endorsement. 97th District When Republican Michelle Smith served on the Plainfield District 202 school board, she had to agree to budget trims that drew blowback from the community. Despite the pushback we knew we would experience, we did what we had to do, Smith, who is now the Plainfield Township clerk, told us. Thats a mindset needed in Springfield. She also believes its time for a leadership change at DCFS, where theres been a shortage of proper shelter for children in the agencys care. Democrat Harry Benton is a Plainfield village trustee. Smith is endorsed. 98th District Homeowners in this Will County district that includes Bolingbrook, Crest Hill and Joliet have been telling Donna Russell that sky-high property taxes are forcing them to leave Illinois. Russell, a 74-year-old Republican from Bolingbrook, says that should be sufficient motivation for Illinois to enact a freeze on property assessments. Shes running a grassroots campaign against Democratic incumbent Natalie Manley from Joliet, who we have taken to task before for voting for higher taxes and unbalanced budgets. Russell is endorsed. 104th District Republican Mike Marron is shown in April 2014 preparing equipment on his farm near Fithian. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Manufacturers have been leaving this eastern Illinois district because they cant find enough workers with needed skills, says state Rep. Mike Marron, a Republican and lifelong farmer who has represented this district since 2018. Providing job training for the kind of work those employers are involved in is the answer, says Marron, whos from the small town of Fithian. Marron says he favors problem-solving rather than party ideology. Hes running against Democrat Cynthia Cunningham of St. Joseph, whom he defeated in 2020 and 2018. As we have before, we endorse Marron. 111th District As Madigan awaits trial in his corruption case, his state pension has ballooned to $149,000 a year. Thats more than $12,400 a month, and its the kind of confounding situation that GOP incumbent Amy Elik of downstate Alton wants to stop. She has introduced legislation that would suspend the pension benefits of lawmakers charged with crimes associated with their service while they await the outcome of their trials. Thats smart, ethical lawmaking. Elik has been a certified public accountant for more than two decades, and that expertise serves her well as she deals with the challenges posed by Springfields moribund fiscal picture. We enthusiastically endorse her over Democrat Joe Silkwood of East Alton. Advertisement 112th District Democratic incumbent Katie Stuart faces Republican Jennifer Korte, a stay-at-home mom. Both candidates are from downstate Edwardsville. No endorsement. 113th District Republican Ashley Hunsaker of Belleville is a small business owner who supports eliminating Illinois firearm owners identification card. Given the prevalence of gun violence in this state, that would be a step in the wrong direction. Democratic incumbent Jay Hoffman of Swansea opted not to participate in our endorsement process. We make no endorsement in this race. 114th District According to the Florida Department of Education, Florida has 75 public school districts and a 2020 population of 21 million. And Illinois? This state has 859 school districts and a population of 12.5 million. Those statistics scream for some measure of consolidation, says Republican Kevin Schmidt, a chiropractor from downstate Millstadt. Theres a lot of administrative duplication that can be eliminated through such consolidation, which would help bring down property taxes. Schmidt, who is running against Democratic incumbent LaToya Greenwood of East St. Louis, gets our endorsement. 118th District Republican incumbent Paul Jacobs of Pomona has a simple message for Democrats. To make Illinois attractive to businesses again, Springfield must stop its tax-and-spend policies. We are far from business-friendly, he told WSIU last month. He currently has the 115th District seat, but with the remap is now running in the 118th District. Hes running against Democrat Van Ikner of Carbondale. Jacobs is endorsed. Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook. Advertisement Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. https://sputniknews.com/20221104/elon-musk-gets-shredded-by-twitterers-after-complaining-about-declining-ad-revenue-1103800329.html Elon Musk Gets Shredded by Twitterers After Complaining About Declining Ad Revenue Elon Musk Gets Shredded by Twitterers After Complaining About Declining Ad Revenue When billionaire industrialist Elon Musk moved to buy Twitter, he promised sweeping changes to the platform, including cutting down on content controls... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T19:16+0000 2022-11-04T19:16+0000 2022-11-04T19:25+0000 viral elon musk twitter advertisers /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/08/0a/1099436649_0:0:2069:1165_1920x0_80_0_0_23f4979291f0227afa49d55baa7693f8.jpg Its been a tumultuous week since Musk took over control of Twitter on October 28 and pronounced himself Chief Twit. Hes fired huge numbers of staff, announced a new fee system for account verification, and seems likely to abolish permanent bans against figures like former US President Donald Trump.All the changes have riled up one of Twitters primary revenue streams - corporate advertisers - who have begun putting their paid advertisements on the platform on pause. Among the brands halting their ads are Audi, Volkswagen, General Mills, and Pfizer, and major advertising companies like Publicis Groupe and WPP have scheduled special meetings with the new Chief Twit to sort out their concerns.Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America.However, Twitter users were having none of it, and they seized on the exasperation of the worlds richest man to carry out some expert-level dunking.Due to activist groups pressuring advertisers is an interesting way to say companies dont want to be associated with a platform that is quickly devolving into 4chan, quipped fiction author Frederick Joseph.Palestine solidarity activist Max Berger recalled that just days ago, Musk had tweeted a story by a conspiracy theory website that spread unfounded rumors that the assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), had been part of a homosexual love affair.Maybe advertisers just dont want to be associated with a business run by a guy like that, Berger noted.Others took the opportunity to jab at the billionaire for crying about his $44 billion triumph going down in flames.Musk's disdain for advertisers is already well-known, so it's unlikely the policy will change anytime soon. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Fantine Gardinier Fantine Gardinier News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Fantine Gardinier elon musk, twitter, advertisers https://sputniknews.com/20221104/german-chancellor-scholz-arrives-in-beijing-afp-reporter-1103775339.html German Chancellor Scholz Arrives in Beijing German Chancellor Scholz Arrives in Beijing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Beijing on Friday, an AFP reporter traveling in his entourage said, for a visit in which he is seeking to bolster a... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T02:05+0000 2022-11-04T02:05+0000 2022-11-18T09:21+0000 world politics politics germany china /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0a/16/1102536924_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_c2b7cf7c931aa1dba1a51294f8a16823.jpg Scholz's plane landed in the Chinese capital around 09:40 AM local time (0140 GMT), for a visit during which he is set to meet with China's President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.Scholz's visit comes after a deal which he pushed through his cabinet last week. That deal includes a compromise with the Chinese state-owned shipping company, China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) which will allow COSCO to buy a 24.9% stake in one of Hamburg's port terminals. However, six ministers in Scholz's cabinet opposed it. Members of Scholz's cabinet were not the only political leaders who opposed his deal with COSCO. A senior United States Department official said on Wednesday that the US also opposed Chinese control of a stake in the Hamburg port terminal. German lawmakers both in Scholz's own part as well as the opposition are nervous that the country will become too economically dependent on China, though the deal has yet to be finalized. But Wang Yiwei, Jean Monnet Chair Professor and director of the Center for European Studies at Renmin University, argues that Germany is already economically dependent on China as Germany faces economic headwinds while China has a hold on enormous industries including shipbuilding and electric cars. On Friday morning Scholz and a delegation of business leaders landed in Beijing for a one-day visit. His arrival in Germany marks the first visit by a G7 nation leader to China in three years following the country's strict zero-COVID-19 policy. His meeting with Xi and Premier Li Keqiang will reportedly cover difficult topics such as human rights issues, Taiwan and German companies accessibility to the Chinese market. germany china Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg politics, politics, germany, china https://sputniknews.com/20221104/glencore-bribery-case-is-miscarriage-of-justice-says-african-energy-chamber-boss-1103778272.html Glencore Bribery Case is 'Miscarriage of Justice', Says African Energy Chamber Boss Glencore Bribery Case is 'Miscarriage of Justice', Says African Energy Chamber Boss On Thursday, the British subsidiary of the multinational mining corporation Glencore was ordered to pay a fine of approximately 280Mln ($310Mln). The penalty... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T09:44+0000 2022-11-04T09:44+0000 2022-11-23T11:37+0000 africa united kingdom glencore plc corruption bribery court court expert analysis expert opinion africa insight /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103778693_0:321:3071:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_9290aa1da5441f7d0f781c7baade834f.jpg In an interview with Sputnik, NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the South African energy legal group African Energy Chamber, expressed his discontent with the ruling by Southwark Crown Court, drawing attention to double standards in bribery cases and calling for a full accounting of those behind the corruption scheme.According to Ayuk, the Africans involved in Glencore's affairs are "entitled to a full accounting", which he thinks would deter them from committing any crimes in future, although the only option for those officials was "to accept their bribes since they otherwise would have been blackmailed by the corporation.However, those who initiated the scandalous deals have got off lightly which means that the total extent of Glencore's corruption is still unknown.Ayuk believes that "stiff penalties" for the firm's executives would prevent similar felonies in future, so Africans should now act decisively to get justice:Glencore, one of the world's largest commodities traders in the global energy, metal, mineral, and food trade, has a long history of international corruption. Its recent confessions of using a private jet to transport a total of $28Mln cash to be used as bribes in Africa in pursuit of lucrative oil deals has brought back memories of the decades-old case of the firm's founder Marc Rich, convicted of financial crimes and racketeering, for which he was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001.Ayuk had highlighted the topic of Glencore's case in September. Before the court's verdict came, he warned that a fine for the corporation would be an insufficient penalty, noting that "Glencores corruption is about more than a company", calling for condign repercussions not only for the firm, but for executives behind its actions.Glencore's behavior in Africa is part of a string of similar cases. Multinational behemoths Shell and Eni are currently under trial in Italy for supposed corruption surounding a 2011 oil deal in Nigeria. In 2014, a lawsuit was opened against DEFEX, a Spanish state-owned company accused of bribery and money-laundering in several countries including Angola and Cameroon. Similar allegations have been made against British American Tobacco concerning its activity in Zimbabwe. https://sputniknews.com/20221103/glencore-ordered-to-pay-280mln-in-african-oil-bribery-case-1103586058.html africa united kingdom Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Petr Baryshnikov Petr Baryshnikov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Petr Baryshnikov glencore corruption, glencore bribes, corruption in africa, nj ayuk, african energy chamber, corruption in the uk, corporations corruption, glencore case, marc rich https://sputniknews.com/20221104/intelligence-vets-us-media-yarn-about-nuclear-chatter-by-russian-military-is-nothingburger-1103798330.html Intelligence Vets: US Media Yarn About Nuclear Chatter by Russian Military is Nothingburger Intelligence Vets: US Media Yarn About Nuclear Chatter by Russian Military is Nothingburger As the US midterms are approaching, the US mainstream media has again started to speculate about Russia's "nuclear bugaboo," citing a US intelligence... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T17:40+0000 2022-11-04T17:40+0000 2022-11-04T17:40+0000 opinion & analysis us opinion russia ukraine dirty bomb nuclear nuclear weapons false flag /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102934/80/1029348079_0:189:3237:2011_1920x0_80_0_0_80364f19ad97e03589996d173b7cce62.jpg "It's simply a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of Joe Biden and his administration," said Larry Johnson, a veteran of the CIA and the State Departments Office of Counter Terrorism, which provided training to the US militarys special operations taskforce for 24 years. "If things were going well in Ukraine, as far as the United States was concerned, if Ukraine really was defeating Russia on the battlefield, there'd be no need to talk like this. But that's not the case. The tables have turned and Ukraine is in a very desperate situation. And so, as a result, you get these kinds of lies being circulated to try to rally public support.The US media first broke about the alleged nuclear chatter by the Russian military on November 2, presenting a gloomy picture of imminent nuclear doom. One US newspaper claimed that "senior Russian military leaders" had recently held discussions on "when and how Moscow might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine," adding that the intelligence assessment of the alleged conversations circulated within the US government in mid-October.However, later in the day, another American media outlet clarified that the assessment, which was drafted by the National Intelligence Council, is neither "a high confidence product" nor raw intelligence, but just an "analysis." There is also a possibility that the document was taken out of context and that it does not necessarily mean that Russia is up to using nuclear arms, according to the US media.To cap it off, there is also zero indication that Russian President and Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin was involved in the alleged discussions, the media outlet continued, admitting that Washington has still not seen any signs that the Kremlin has any intention to use nuclear arms against Kiev."I dont have any comment on the particulars of this reporting," National Security Council official John Kirby said when asked about the NIC's "analysis." He underscored that the US sees no indications that Russia is making preparations for the use of nuclear arms.Kirby noted, however, that "Russias comments about the potential use of nuclear weapons are deeply concerning, and we take them seriously," in reference to Vladimir Putin's September 21 speech in which the Russian president warned Washington against nuclear blackmail and said that Russia would protect its territory with all military means. Subsequently, Putin's notion was misrepresented by US politicians and the mainstream press as nothing short of a "nuclear threat."However, Russia's nuclear doctrine clearly forbids the use of nuclear arms of any sort unless the country is nuked, or faces a conventional attack so severe that it threatens the countrys existence.Dirty Bomb: 'Very Dangerous Possible Development'The latest fuss over the alleged Russian "nuclear threat" comes against a backdrop of reports warning about a potential false flag operation by Kiev involving a "dirty bomb." A "dirty bomb" is an explosive device that contains radioactive material, be it uranium, plutonium, or other radioactive waste material. After being detonated, a dirty bomb could disperse radioactive materials over several square kilometers, resulting in a contamination zone. The rationale behind such a potential false flag by Kiev would be to accuse Moscow of using nuclear arms in a bid to isolate Russia, according to Russian officials.Previously, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held a series of telephone talks with his French, British, American, and Turkish counterparts, warning them of a possible nuclear false flag by Kiev. Western leaders dismissed the threat, claiming that Moscow is escalating tensions over Ukraine.One should not underestimate the possibility of such a false flag operation on the part of Kiev, warned Philip Giraldi, a former CIA station chief and military intelligence officer.He highlighted that neither Russia nor the US is interested in a nuclear tit-for-tat, adding, however, that "there is always a danger that a bad series of decisions could place either country on the brink of considering such an action."For its part, the US mainstream press cannot be trusted in its coverage of the nuclear weapons issue, "as it is dedicated to making both Russia and its leadership look as bad as possible," Giraldi remarked.Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging the world's major nuclear powers to reject provocations with weapons of mass destruction. https://sputniknews.com/20221102/which-countries-have-the-biggest-and-deadliest-nuclear-arsenals-1103137442.html https://sputniknews.com/20221026/kiev-made-dummy-missile-for-provocation-with-dirty-bomb-over-chernobyl-zone---source-1102733033.html russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ekaterina Blinova Ekaterina Blinova News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ekaterina Blinova nuclear weapons, dirty bomb, kiev's false flag operation, russian military, us mainstream press, weapons of mass destruction https://sputniknews.com/20221104/kenya-sends-four-tons-of-humanitarian-aid-to-somalia-for-mogadishu-blast-victims-1103787295.html Kenya Sends Four Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Somalia for Mogadishu Blast Victims Kenya Sends Four Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Somalia for Mogadishu Blast Victims On Saturday, Somalia's capital was rocked by twin terrorist attacks which resulted in the nation's deadliest act of terrorism in recent years. At least 120... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T13:36+0000 2022-11-04T13:36+0000 2022-11-14T11:40+0000 africa hunger famine aid humanitarian aid foreign aid kenya somalia drought east africa /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103787483_0:67:1280:787_1920x0_80_0_0_baca4e7a01270628f9799bb2c9a0846b.jpg Nairobi has sent a plane loaded with humanitarian aid to its eastern neighbor Somalia, which was recently hit by a double bombing, the Kenyan military stated.According to the military, the relief package contained various pharmaceuticals and food supplies, such as corned meat, dry potatoes, onions, bread, carrots, and mixed vegetables. A total of 4,244kg of essential relief supplies were flown to Mogadishu to help the survivors.Thomas Chepkuto, Kenya's ambassador to Somalia, noted that terrorism knows no borders and that cooperation between the neighbors is essential in the battle against it. The bombings took place at the Mogadishu Sobe crossroads, close to the Federal Ministry of Education's buildings. In 2017, an Al-Shabab* vehicle attack at the same intersection killed more than 500 people.After the blast, Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, vowed to wage an unrelenting war against the Al-Shabaab terrorists who are thought to have been responsible for the attack.According to UN data, more than a quarter of Kenyans who live in arid and semi-arid areas experience food insecurity because of one of the worst droughts East Africa has experienced in decades brought on by a fourth season of insufficient rains. However, Somalia, according to experts, is one of the most food insecure and drought-affected countries, which has been exacerbated by internal instability and rampant terrorism. Last week, the head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, said that despite billions of dollars being contributed to solve the climate crisis, the famine in Somalia has barely been considered.*a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other states https://sputniknews.com/20221006/pending-nightmare-somalia-faces-famine-as-country-hit-by-worst-drought-in-40-years-1101571682.html africa kenya somalia east africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Kirill Kurevlev Kirill Kurevlev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Kirill Kurevlev hunger, famine, aid, humanitarian aid, foreign aid, kenya, somalia, drought, east africa https://sputniknews.com/20221104/pakistani-opposition-to-hold-protest-on-friday-after-attack-on-ex-prime-minister-khan-1103784518.html Pakistani Opposition to Hold Protest on Friday After Attack on Ex-Prime Minister Khan Pakistani Opposition to Hold Protest on Friday After Attack on Ex-Prime Minister Khan NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was shot in both his legs in a failed assassination attempt during a protest march organized... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T10:28+0000 2022-11-04T10:28+0000 2022-11-04T10:28+0000 world pakistan imran khan protest assassination attempt protest tehreek-e-insaf (pti) /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103784234_0:320:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_9e14a31b878d8335b88704fbefe936c6.jpg Pakistani opposition party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will hold a nationwide protest rally later on Friday, a day after the assassination attempt on its leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, one of the party leaders said.On Thursday, an unknown person opened fire at the opposition march near the city of Wazirabad in the province of Punjab. The shooter said that he was acting on his own.Khan, who led the march, was shot in the legs and several others were injured. One Tehreek-e-Insaf party worker was killed in the shooting, Pakistans newspaper reported. The shooter was detained by authorities, the report said.According to doctors, the bullet grazed Imran Khan's right leg and the bone of the left leg. The administration also said that Khan had been brought to the hospital unconscious with as many as 16 marks of injuries on his legs.The failed assassination attempt was condemned by current Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi. Sharif said the Punjab provincial government would be provided with assistance in their investigation of the attack.The PTI protest march, to demand an early general election, kicked off in the city of Lahore on October 28. The demonstrators intend to reach the capital city, Islamabad, by November 11. The previous protest march took place on May 25, when thousands of Khan's supporters reached Islamabad. During the march, clashes in which dozens of people were injured broke out between the protesters and the police. Following the clashes, PTI decided to stop the protest to avoid bloodshed. https://sputniknews.com/20221103/imran-khan-close-aides-wounded-in-shooting-at-his-container-during-long-march-1103679177.html pakistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International pakistan, imran khan, protest, assassination attempt, protest, tehreek-e-insaf (pti) https://sputniknews.com/20221104/paul-pelosi-released-from-hospital-after-surgery-for-hammer-attack-injuries-1103776215.html Paul Pelosi Released From Hospital After Surgery for Hammer Attack Injuries Paul Pelosi Released From Hospital After Surgery for Hammer Attack Injuries WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Paul Pelosi, husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was released from hospital after undergoing treatment for injuries sustained... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T00:29+0000 2022-11-04T00:29+0000 2022-11-04T04:29+0000 americas us nancy pelosi paul pelosi assault /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/03/1103686622_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_1e9d7918c2e23eb47bd3cfc612f16d36.jpg Pelosi was released from the hospital after recovering from surgery to treat a skull fracture and arm injuries, various US media reported on Thursday.Pelosi is now resting at home and a formal health update from the family is expected soon.On Friday, Pelosi was allegedly attacked by 42-year old David DePape after officers found the two men struggling over a hammer in the Pelosi residence in San Francisco.DePape pleaded not guilty to state-level charges, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.DePape faces federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping of a US official or their family member with intent to retaliate on account of their duties.The suspect is being held without bail ahead of a Friday court session to schedule a preliminary and bail hearing, which are likely to be set in conjunction, defense attorney Adam Lipson said on Tuesday after DePapes arraignment.Earlier on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said DePape is a Canadian citizen who is illegally residing in the United States. DePape will be deported from the United States following the resolution of the criminal cases against him, DHS added. https://sputniknews.com/20221103/security-cameras-active-but-not-monitored-during-alleged-pelosi-attack-us-capitol-police-say-1103390616.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International us, nancy pelosi, paul pelosi, assault https://sputniknews.com/20221104/queen-of-delusion--toxicity-depp-fans-gloat-as-heard-quits-twitter-after-ex-beau-musk-takeover-1103783185.html 'Queen of Delusion & Toxicity': Depp Fans Gloat as Heard Quits Twitter After Ex-Beau Musk Buys Site 'Queen of Delusion & Toxicity': Depp Fans Gloat as Heard Quits Twitter After Ex-Beau Musk Buys Site During the headline-grabbing court wrangle between Hollywood celebrities Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard, billionaire Elon Musks name came up as the... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T10:37+0000 2022-11-04T10:37+0000 2022-11-04T12:27+0000 amber heard johnny depp elon musk twitter viral /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0b/08/1081089959_0:23:2000:1148_1920x0_80_0_0_888de980c778efbea502d8e66482d1a7.jpg Actress Amber Heard appears to have deactivated her Twitter account after Elon Musks $44Bln takeover of the social media platform last week. Her Instagram* account is said to be still active, with the celebrity's last post dated 1 June, when she commented on the defamation case that she lost.The Tesla chief executive and SpaceX boss, whom the 'Aquaman' actress previously dated, sealed the deal to buy the microblogging website on 27 October. Fans of Heard noticed some time later that her Twitter account was no longer active and speculated on what had prompted actor Johnny Depp's ex-wife to quit the platform. Some recalled that she had faced a huge backlash from Depp fans online for her accusations against him. Others suggested she might still have "something to hide".Musk and Heard reportedly first struck up an acquaintance on the set of 'Machete Kills' directed by Robert Rodriguez in 2012. Heard was playing the lead in the film, and Musk had a cameo appearance. After Heards divorce from the "Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp was finalized, she reportedly became romantically involved with Musk. The billionaire tech guru was allegedly already single at the time after his second divorce from wife, English actress Talulah Riley, in October 2015. Musk and Riley had gone through their first divorce in 2012, only to remarry again.Musks name cropped up when Depp sued British tabloid The Sun for libel in a case he eventually lost. The newspaper had referred to him as a wife beater in a headline. At the time, the Golden Globe Award-winning actor accused the worlds richest man of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to him. Musk allegedly embarked upon a "three-way affair" with Heard and model and actress Cara Delevingne at Depp and Heard's Los Angeles flat in 2016, according to court documents cited at the time. Depp was said to be away filming in Australia. The claims were subsequently denied by Musk, who insisted that Delevingne was a friend of his. He also admitted having dated Heard after she had filed for divorce from Depp. The romantic relationship with Heard was also confirmed by Musk to outlets in 2016.Depp was awarded more than $10Mln in punitive and compensatory damages on 1 June 2011, after the jury in Fairfax, Virginia, unanimously ruled in the Hollywood actors favor in his defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post (printed in Fairfax County) where she alleged she was the victim of domestic abuse.Throughout the months preceding the trial, Heard faced a backlash on social media from the actor's fans. After Depp's career took a hit over the accusations, they petitioned for Warner Bros to have Heard fired from Aquaman 2. They also threatened to boycott Fantastic Beasts 3 because Mads Mikkelsen was given the role of Grindelwald after Depp was kicked out of the movie franchise. *Meta, Facebook, and Instagram are banned in Russia over extremist activities. https://sputniknews.com/20221101/elon-musk-officially-takes-over-as-twitter-ceo-after-44-bln-acquisition-1102899624.html https://sputniknews.com/20220713/us-court-rejects-amber-heards-motions-for-mistrial-juror-fraud-argument-1097290001.html https://sputniknews.com/20220710/johnny-depp-reportedly-takes-dig-at-ex-wife-amber-heard-in-upcoming-album-with-jeff-beck-1097159182.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko ex-wife of actor johnny depp, amber heard deactivated twitter account, heard defamation trial, elon musk takeover of twitter, https://sputniknews.com/20221104/rioters-reportedly-attack-city-hall-in-southeastern-iran-1103800035.html Rioters Reportedly Attack City Hall in Southeastern Iran Rioters Reportedly Attack City Hall in Southeastern Iran MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Participants of violent protests ongoing in Iran have opened fire at the mayor's office in the city of Khash located in the Sistan and... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T18:41+0000 2022-11-04T18:41+0000 2022-11-04T18:41+0000 world iran protest clashes /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107012/42/1070124297_0:63:3500:2032_1920x0_80_0_0_cc05feff5563e9206b707e0b134de7b0.jpg They shouted anti-government slogans and burned several cars before throwing stones and opening fire at the mayor's office, local media reports said.Security forces quickly responded to the attack, which led to clashes, and several people were injured, according to the media.Mass riots began in Iran in mid-September in connection with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who passed away while in police custody after being detained for wearing an "improper" hijab. Iranian authorities have accused Western countries of fueling mass riots, and European diplomats were given a note of protest in connection with anti-Iranian media reports and calls to overthrow the country's government. https://sputniknews.com/20221029/at-least-one-dead-14-injured-during-unrest-in-irans-zahedan---reports-1102816248.html iran Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International iran protests, iran rioters attack city hall, what happened in iran's khash, iran rioters mayor's office https://sputniknews.com/20221104/us-reportedly-says-china--russia-have-influence-to-stop-north-korea-from-resuming-nuclear-testing-1103779175.html US Reportedly Says China & Russia Can Influence North Korea To Stop From Resuming Nuclear Testing US Reportedly Says China & Russia Can Influence North Korea To Stop From Resuming Nuclear Testing Tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula as the US and South Korea launched joint military exercises with Seoul claiming that North Korea could detonate its... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T09:03+0000 2022-11-04T09:03+0000 2022-11-15T08:57+0000 world russia china democratic republic of north korea (dprk) north korea nuclear test kim jong-un us /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102087/19/1020871969_0:50:2223:1300_1920x0_80_0_0_3a327e4585d29e9f190455d27bbcca76.jpg US officials believe that China and Russia could use their "influence" to dissuade the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from resuming nuclear bomb testing, according to a US media report.Since May, the United States had been claiming that North Korea was preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, albeit without offering any timeframe.Pyongyang may have delayed resumption of nuclear testing because of the countrys COVID-19 outbreak in May and June, the official cited in the report suggested, adding that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that wrapped up on 22 October, could have also made North Korea "more focused on ways they could get support from China in particular."North Korea ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1985 but withdrew in 2003, giving as its reason the threatening and hostile policy of the US towards it. It carried out its first nuclear test three years later, in 2006. Subsequent tests were carried out in 2009, 2013, twice in 2016, and in 2017.Since 2006, the UN Security Council has passed nearly a dozen resolutions sanctioning North Korea for developing nuclear weapons and related activities, with the US and other countries also imposing unilateral sanctions related to trade in weapons and military equipment, asset freezes of people involved in the nuclear program, and restricting scientific cooperation, among others. In May, Russia and China vetoed a US-spearheaded push to impose more UN sanctions over North Korea's renewed ballistic missile launches. However, the two nations have long been on the record as opposing the DPRK nuclear program", the source was quoted as saying, adding:The report comes as the US and its Asian allies have repeatedly amplified the rhetoric, claiming that Pyongyang could be planning a nuclear bomb test, although failing to provide details backing their concerns. At the same time, the US and South Korea have stepped up joint military drills in the region, codenamed Vigilant Storm, fueling tensions further. Pyongyang issued official statements, objecting to the drills and then launched at least 17 missiles toward the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, and fired 100 rounds of artillery on 2 November. The DPRK warned the US that it would send a "powerful response" if Washington "persists in grave military provocations". Pyongyang also accused the US of being "the chief culprit in destroying peace and security", highlighting that North Korea was ready to take all necessary measures to defend itself against military threats. Indeed, under the present Democratic POTUS, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have rocketed as Joe Biden put paid to his predecessor Donald Trump's attempts to facilitate peaceful dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang. Biden stated in May 2021 that he would not give the DPRK's leader Kim Jong-un "recognition" as a "legitimate" head of the state unless he denuclearized the country. Furthermore, as Yoon Suk-yeol won the presidency in South Korea in March 2022, he declared Communist Pyongyang the "main enemy" of Seoul and openly discussed the idea of a preemptive strike against the North.'Reciprocal Steps Needed'As the US and South Korea fan the flames of conflict on the Korean Peninsula, China said it was closely monitoring the situation.Russia and China will persist in jointly considering the North Korea issue, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized last month at a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club. The plan is based on the principle of reciprocal steps by the United States and the DPRK, with Moscow and Beijing repeatedly warning that the US approach, according to which North Korea must first completely get rid of its nuclear missile program and only then will it be possible to consider lifting sanctions on the DPRK and ensuring its economic development is absolutely unsustainable."Our roadmap, which we proposed together with China, was that first we should build confidence through mutual meetings, and then we should take some tangible measures, including the suspension of military exercises, tests, and missile launches, and then proceed to negotiations," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, referring to the plans for a Korean settlement that Russia and China presented back in 2017. https://sputniknews.com/20221102/beijing-urges-to-avoid-escalation-amid-north-koreas-missile-launches-1102965518.html https://sputniknews.com/20221103/why-korean-peninsula-tensions-risk-spiraling-out-of-control-1103700072.html https://sputniknews.com/20220823/us--south-koreas-militaristic-approach-towards-dprk-pushing-region-to-brink-of-war-scholars-warn-1099909595.html https://sputniknews.com/20200928/settlement-on-korean-peninsula-should-move-from-words-to-deeds-russian-fm-says-1080603600.html russia china democratic republic of north korea (dprk) Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko china and russia possess leverage to stop north korea from resuming nuclear testing, nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, reciprocal steps by the united states and the dprk, lifting sanctions on the dprk, us and south korea stepped up joint military drills, spate of missile tests carried out by pyongyang The long-waged fight by the group Protect Our Parks to halt construction of former President Barack Obamas Jackson Park museum and campus has reached the end of the road in the federal district courts. But the plaintiffs plan to take the case to the appellate level, continuing a yearslong battle against a project that is well underway. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey entered a final judgment in favor of the defendants including the Obama Foundation, several federal agencies and the city of Chicago in the Northern District of Illinois. Advertisement The Obama Foundation celebrated the decision as a milestone, declaring the decision a victory for all who have worked alongside us on this journey to bring investment and opportunity to Chicagos South Side. With its decision today, the court is making it possible for us to deliver on our commitment to create a world-class destination that will attract people from around the globe and stand as a reminder to all but particularly young people in Chicago that individuals have the power to be the change they want to see. But Richard Epstein, an attorney for Protect Our Parks, said his team supported the decision, which essentially cuts off their so-far unsuccessful endeavor at the district level and allows them to take arguments up to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Advertisement We dont want to run a trial on this. We know what the outcomes gonna be: Judge Blakey wont vote for us when there have already been three decisions against us, Epstein said. POP has long contended it doesnt oppose a South Side location for Obamas presidential center. But its argued the Jackson Park plan would result in the clear-cutting of mature trees, disruption of annual bird migratory flights and the closing of four main South Side thoroughfares. It proposed locating west of Jackson Park, near Washington Park, instead. Construction on the Obama Presidential Center on Aug. 22. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) But the groups legal efforts to stop the center, which date to 2018, have been unsuccessful. And while the court battle contributed to a groundbreaking delay, construction has been going on for more than a year: trees have been cleared, roadway closures are in effect and concrete structures are rising from the ground. The center is expected to debut in 2025 and cost about $700 million to construct, with another $90 million to prepare exhibits and cover the centers opening, plus $40 million for the first years operations. Financial disclosures show the Obama Foundation paid the law firm Sidley Austin $6.2 million between 2018 and 2021. The vast majority related to the ongoing litigation with POP, a foundation official said. Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Michael Rachlis, another attorney for Protect Our Parks, says the latest ruling allows the group to appeal the three major pieces of their arguments in a new venue, though on a more limited basis. Among the issues they hope the appeals court will review: whether the public trust was violated by turning over the use of public property for the foundations private gain, whether the foundation fulfilled the financial terms of the master agreement that allowed parkland to be transferred to them from the city, and whether federal reviews of the impact on roadways and the historic park were sufficient. In court filings, POP argued federal reviews that allowed construction to go forward on protected parklands were improperly split and deficient, and failed to identify possible alternatives to Jackson Park. Advertisement Protect Our Parks also argued the city delegated all material decision-making authority to the Obama Foundation, essentially rubber-stamping an agreement that turned over parkland to a private entity for 99 years at a cost of just $10. Blakey had dismissed those claims in a March ruling, writing that the city did not abdicate control or ownership of the OPC site to the Obama Foundation and that state law confirms that presidential centers confer a public benefit because they serve valuable public purposes, including ... furthering human knowledge and understanding, educating and inspiring the public, and expanding recreational and cultural resources and opportunities. Obama Foundation and city officials have argued construction would restore roadways to parkland, improve pedestrian and bicyclist access to the park and lakefront, introduce better biodiversity to the park, bring new amenities such as recreational facilities and a new Chicago Public Library branch to nearby residents and add needed economic development to the South Side. If POP appeals, it will not impact ongoing construction or programming, the foundation said. Epstein does not expect to have the case fully briefed until January, with arguments as late as next spring, meaning much more construction could take place in the meantime. Rachlis said construction is far from complete, and the centers opening is not a fait accompli. There is much that can be gained and protected in the short term in Jackson Park, including several hundred trees that havent been cut down, and roadwork that hasnt yet begun. The integrity of the park itself has not been changed, and even if more changes take place, there are remedies that can be put in place. Advertisement Rachlis, who has largely been working on the case on a pro bono basis (Epstein, an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago, is working entirely pro bono), said the team also wants to set precedent for future environmental, community and park cases. aquig@chicagotribune.com https://sputniknews.com/20221104/we-will-never-be-americas-milk-cows-raisi-warns-as-biden-vows-to-free-iran-in-stump-speech-1103788312.html We Will Never Be Americas Milk Cows, Raisi Warns as Biden Vows to Free Iran in Stump Speech We Will Never Be Americas Milk Cows, Raisi Warns as Biden Vows to Free Iran in Stump Speech Iran has been rocked by over a month and a half of protests, with the death of a 22-year-old woman shortly after her detention by the morality police serving... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T12:48+0000 2022-11-04T12:48+0000 2022-11-15T08:57+0000 world iran joe biden ebrahim raisi cow freedom regime change islamic republic us /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/10/1100869711_0:200:2931:1848_1920x0_80_0_0_abdd3c4e52cda4130c696b5ca7191655.jpg Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi responded to Bidens promises to free Iran, giving the US leader a history lesson on when the Islamic Republic gained true freedom.I was informed a few hours ago that the president of the United States had uttered some words due to distraction, he said [the US was] aiming to free Iran, Raisi said in a speech in Tehran on Friday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, which the Islamic Republic celebrates as the National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance.Biden made the provocative comments at an election stump speech in California on Thursday. Dont worry, were gonna free Iran. Theyre gonna free themselves pretty soon, youll see, Biden said.The president did not elaborate, and its not clear what prompted him to make the comments, given that the part of his speech immediately preceding the "free Iran" comments was devoted to injuries suffered by US troops in US wars of aggression over the past two decades.You know, we found out that a lot of our soldiers, more people were coming back from Iraq, Afghanistan with serious brain injures and tumors, than any other war in American history. Other than the Civil War. Maybe more amputees are coming back than in any wars in American history. And those burn pits. Those burn pits, Biden said.The Iranian president highlighted the USs involvement in over 300 wars and 62 coups around the world, and the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and accused Washington of founding and supporting terrorist groups across the Middle East.Iran has faced more than a month of deadly protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who fell into a coma and died in hospital several days after being detained by Irans morality police for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly. While protest organizers and Western officials and media blamed Irans authorities for beating Amini into a coma, CCTV footage released by authorities appeared to show that she was not abused in custody, and had collapsed after getting into an argument with a minder. Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest via networks inside Iran and online. The BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) charged the West with attempting to provoke a color revolution in the Islamic Republic. The anti-government protests began a day after Iran moved to officially join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.President Biden's comments hinting at regime change in Tehran mark the latest escalation of tensions between Iran and the US amid the stalemate in negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Washington walked out on in 2018, but which the Biden administration has pledged to restore. https://sputniknews.com/20221102/tehran-west-stirs-up-anti-iranian-mood-by-announcing-irans-attack-on-saudi-arabia-1103069896.html iran islamic republic Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov iran, joe biden, ebrahim raisi, cow, freedom, regime change, islamic republic, us https://sputniknews.com/20221104/what-prevents-un-blue-helmets-from-ensuring-peace-in-africa--beyond-1103794148.html What Prevents UN Blue Helmets From Ensuring Peace in Africa & Beyond? What Prevents UN Blue Helmets From Ensuring Peace in Africa & Beyond? UN peacekeeping missions in Africa have repeatedly come under criticism for failing to curtail and end conflicts in the continent's hot spots. It appears that... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T17:21+0000 2022-11-04T17:21+0000 2022-11-23T11:37+0000 africa east africa north africa the united nations (un) un security council resolution un security council (unsc) un resolution peacekeeping peacekeepers un peacekeepers /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/103300/82/1033008274_0:229:4401:2705_1920x0_80_0_0_6d37c12408f2378b49785a50b64f3d73.jpg "There are structural challenges inherent to UN Peace mission operations. The UN works always or in many contexts where those who hold power are not necessarily () integrating UN principles in their reconstruction processes," said Dr. Eric Ndushabandi, a lecturer of political science at the University of Rwanda and director of the Kigali-based Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace."Generally, the states authority is lacking, and power is distributed between different lobbies, in political, economic settings with different interests. It is difficult to reconcile and protect 'civilians' when opponents are not always in military uniforms. Rules of engagement and principles are conceived in a context of rational actors, motivated by stability, peace and development, which is not the case [in the region]," Ndushabandi explained.Genesis of UN Peacekeeping MissionsAll in all, over one million military and civilian personnel from various countries have participated in 70 UN missions across the world over the past 70 years. Most operations have been in the Middle East and Africa. Currently, a 100,000-strong contingent of UN peacekeepers from 125 countries is taking part in 14 peacekeeping operations.The first UN peacekeeping mission was launched in May 1948, when the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of a limited contingent of UN military observers to the Middle East. Earlier, in November 1947, the UN General Assembly approved a plan for the partition of Palestine, which was not accepted by the Palestinians and Arab states. The subsequent Arab-Israeli War was mediated with the participation of the UN Security Council, which appointed a mediator, to be assisted by military observers. As a result, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) was formed to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors.In the 1950s, the UNEF I, the first armed UN peacekeeping force, helped curtail the Suez Crisis of 1956, while the Lebanon political crisis of 1958 was mediated with the aid of the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL). In the subsequent decade, the geography of UN peacekeeping missions expanded dramatically, with the Blue Helmets being employed to monitor and observe peace processes in Congo (1960-64); West New Guinea (1962-63); Yemen (1963-64); Cyprus (1964-present); Dominican Republic (1965-66); India and Pakistan (1965-66).Still, almost three decades later, violent clashes and massacres in the Balkans and Rwanda, which the international community failed to prevent, became a wakeup call for the UN. In September 1999, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan posed the question as to how the international community should respond to gross and systematic violations of human rights, "if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty." In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) formulated a concept called the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P). The concept, which was adopted by the international body in 2005, stated that the primary responsibility for the protection of its people rested first and foremost with the state itself, while a "residual responsibility" lied with the broader community of states and would come into force "when a particular state is clearly either unwilling or unable to fulfill its responsibility to protect or is itself the actual perpetrator of crimes or atrocities."What's Behind UN's Failures?Still, despite the shift of the paradigm, the problems pertaining to UN peacekeeping missions' inability to solve regional crises once and for all has persisted."Most of the time, they work under a bureaucratic system," he continued. "That also can be one of the reasons behind its failure, because you cannot wait until a resolution is made, or you cannot wait until a decision comes from the UN headquarters, especially when you have a conflict like in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The decision will come late and the decision could be made while people are dying, while peacekeepers are being killed."At the same time, each peacekeeping mission has its regional peculiarities, with some of them having no end in sight, as Dennis Coleman Jett, an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Mozambique, argued in his op-ed in May 2019. The diplomat noted that six of the 14 current peacekeeping operations have already lasted for decades while having zero prospect of successful conclusion.The presence of peacekeepers in regions engulfed by violent extremism most notably in sub-Saharan Africa is even more problematic, as it requires both protection and stabilization. These missions are considered the most dangerous and difficult ones that peacekeepers have had to deal with. First, the Blue Helmets are not warfighters; second, terrorists are often indistinguishable from noncombatants.Furthermore, peacekeepers have neither the resources nor the experience to fight local terrorist entities, some of which are affiliated with international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda* and Daesh*. In some cases for instance in Somalia local authorities are incapable of maintaining control over the territory of a war-torn state, creating further obstacles in the way of peacekeeping initiatives."UN missions are deployed in the context of 'failed states,' where leadership is lacking [even] minimum legitimacy, unclear or absence of a well-defined foreign policy and rules of engagement with stakeholders and partners, uncoordinated measures of peace-building initiatives, absence of the states power at the grassroots where UN missions are supposed to be established. It is a context of the state's authority vacuum," noted Ndushabandi.In some instances, UN peacekeepers themselves do not adhere to the body's principle, which shatters trust in their missions' cause among local populations. Sometimes, they violate the body's neutrality concept, running the risk of intensifying regional strife. For instance, in his op-ed, Ambassador Jett cited at least two instances when the Blue Helmets "took sides": in the Congo in 1960 and Somalia in the early 1990s. As a result, UN personnel were drawn into the fighting, with hundreds of them killed.A separate troublesome issue is sexual abuse accusations leveled against some Blue Helmet operatives. Thus, for example, in the spring of 2014, allegations were raised that UN peacekeepers had sexually abused a number of young children in a central African country in exchange for food or money. In 2020, a UN report on special measures for protection from sexual abuse revealed that the total number of complaints of sexual exploitation allegedly involving peacekeepers amounted to 387 in just one year.Why UN's Action for Peacekeeping Appears FlawedIn a bid to bolster the body's efficiency and renew its "political commitment," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres came up with the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative in 2018. Calling the Blue Helmets one of the "most effective tools available to the United Nations in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security," the UN leadership admitted that "peacekeeping faces several challenges that undermine its ability to deliver on its mandates." It particularly referred to the absence of "political solutions," lack of focus and clear priorities; lack of personnel and equipment to tackle complex threats; and "challenges in delivering on protection mandates and in contributing to long-term, sustainable peace."While the new A4P initiative was aimed at closing the gap, Russia drew attention to obvious controversies in the blueprint. In particular, Moscow's criticism of the body's Declaration of Shared Commitments was related to those provisions according to which there is a link between human rights efforts and the protection of civilians, and it was assumed that all necessary means for the protection of civilians would be used.Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, noted that within the framework of any peacekeeping mission, priority should be given to cooperation between the mission and the government of the host country, rather than between the mission and the local population and civil society organizations in a peacekeeping mandate's implementation.Observers believe that the aforementioned provisions could potentially open the door to the violation of peacekeepers' principles of neutrality, use of force in self-defense only, and set the stage for potential regime changes, which have become nothing short of a curse, when it comes to the Sahel and West Africa.According to the scholar, the UN mission should support governments in the first place and help the authorities "produce their own political solutions to problems," while aiding in forming "well-structured, well-equipped, well-trained" local forces. If the UN wants to provide equal support to both the nation's government and local institutions, it should ensure that civil society does not pursue any violent agenda, he noted."Otherwise, the UN troops cant be safe and secure, they will be seen as complacent actors, this is the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," Ndushabandi remarked. "These [UN] troops are not yet well-prepared, they are loyal to their own safety as individuals, comforts, and interests. They are loyal to their governments with divergent interests. What is lacking is loyalty to UN values, principles of responsibility to protect, which includes sacrifice."How Effective is the Blue Helmets' Mission in Africa?The UN mission in Africa has prompted a lot of controversy. In some cases, local governments have grown disenchanted with the Blue Helmets and invited military instructors from other countries. The Central African Republic (CAR) subjected the UN peacekeeping mission to criticism for failing to curb hostilities in the state and turned to Russia in 2017. In 2020, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that an additional 300 military instructors had been dispatched to train CAR national army servicemen in response to a request from the country's authorities for aid in repelling illegal militants. In April 2022, CAR Ambassador to Russia Leon Dodonou-Pounagaza said that the nation is interested in stepping up the number of Russian military trainers in the region. "[UN peacekeeping] has real difficulties and challenges to some complex missions," Buchanan said. "Look at, for example, Mali, DRC, CAR they are still maintaining those areas. Look at what is going on in the DRC today in different areas. At the same time, most of the challenges they are facing, if you look at illicit networking, if you look at terrorism, if you look at the political transition situation in different African countries, UN peacekeeping missions are still saving lives and preventing the spread of violence. So, whatever little we can call it, whatever little action they are doing, at least they are still preventing, and some of them are losing their lives just to protect other African people. Therefore, we cannot say that UN peacekeeping doesn't have an effect or that it is irrelevant."At the same time, the UN should work in concert with the African Union and other regional blocs, Buchanan noted. Only joint cooperation of regional and international players can help address a whole set of burning issues haunting Africa, the scholar insisted.*Terrorist organizations banned in Russia and many other states https://sputniknews.com/20221018/as-un-backs-african-unions-ethiopia-ceasefire-call-could-a-peacekeeping-mission-help-1102017232.html https://sputniknews.com/20221021/is-chaos-the-deliberate-strategy-how-pentagon-failures-enabling-putschists--terrorists-in-africa-1102507523.html https://sputniknews.com/20221102/why-un-peacekeeping-in-africa-keeps-facing-obstacles-1102943326.html https://sputniknews.com/20220826/why-us-re-entry-wont-solve-somalias-security-problem--how-russia-can-save-the-day-1100025298.html africa east africa north africa south africa west africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ekaterina Blinova Ekaterina Blinova News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ekaterina Blinova un peacekeepers, africa, regime change, violent extremism, declaration of shared committments, action for peacekeeping, central african republic, military instructors, stability, civil society, government https://sputniknews.com/20221104/with-eye-on-breaching-bjp-fortress-indias-aap-names-its-state-chief-candidate-for-gujarat-polls-1103785636.html With Eye on Breaching BJP Fortress, India's AAP Names Its State Chief Candidate for Gujarat Polls With Eye on Breaching BJP Fortress, India's AAP Names Its State Chief Candidate for Gujarat Polls Elections in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, are scheduled to take place in two phases - on December 1 and 5. The results of the... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T12:58+0000 2022-11-04T12:58+0000 2022-11-04T12:58+0000 india gujarat amit shah arvind kejriwal aam aadmi party bharatiya janata party (bjp) narendra modi narendra modi prime minister prime minister /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103790055_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_e6500df09bb4e71250824c69ea4e08d3.jpg India's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday named Isudan Gadhvi, a former television journalist, as its state chief candidate for the upcoming Gujarat elections.Gadhvi is the national joint general secretary of the party and one of its most prominent faces in the state. Since joining the AAP in June last year, the 40-year-old politician has campaigned vigorously in Gujarat state, addressing rallies and holding roadshows across the length and breadth of the state. His candidature was announced by AAP leader and Delhi state chief Arvind Kejriwal, who claimed that under Gadhvi's leadership, his party would oust the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from there.Kejriwal revealed that Gadhvi was picked as AAP's candidate after he won 73 percent of the vote in a party survey that was conducted to find who should be its face in the Gujarat polls."At a time when it seems sure that the AAP will form the government, today we are not announcing the CM candidate of the AAP but announcing the CM for the next Gujarat government. Last week we invited public opinion, and 16,48,500 responses were received and 73 percent of them named Isudanbhai Gadhvi," Kejriwal said in a televised address to party workers.The AAP held a similar survey in Punjab earlier this year before declaring Bhagwant Mann its state chief candidate. He subsequently took over as head of the Punjab government after the party secured a landslide victory in the state. Coming back to Gujarat, the state has been regarded as a BJP fortress since the 1990s. The federally governing party has been in power in the state for the last 27 years and is looking to win a seventh straight term in Gujarat.The Gujarat polls are also considered a prestige battle for PM Modi and federal Home Minister Amit Shah, both of whom hail from the state. Kejriwal's party, meanwhile, is looking to halt the BJP's juggernaut and hoist its flag in Gujarat after Delhi and Punjab.Despite the AAP's mega blitz in Gujarat, the goal of dislodging the BJP from the state is regarded as an uphill task, considering it failed to open its account in the last assembly elections held in 2017.In the outgoing state legislature, the BJP has 111 lawmakers and Congress has 61, while the AAP has none. gujarat Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png gujarat, amit shah, arvind kejriwal, aam aadmi party, bharatiya janata party (bjp), narendra modi, narendra modi, prime minister, prime minister, indian national congress, elections, elections, polls, polls https://sputniknews.com/20221104/xi-voices-support-for-efforts-to-facilitate-ukraine-peace-talks-at-meeting-with-scholz--1103790517.html Xi Voices Support for Efforts to Facilitate Ukraine Peace Talks at Meeting With Scholz Xi Voices Support for Efforts to Facilitate Ukraine Peace Talks at Meeting With Scholz MOSCOW (Sputnik) - China's President Xi Jinping, during talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, expressed his support for facilitating peace talks on Ukraine... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T12:47+0000 2022-11-04T12:47+0000 2022-11-04T12:48+0000 world xi jinping olaf scholz ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103790669_0:146:3121:1902_1920x0_80_0_0_466feb382afcaaaa65b308befe4e6aff.jpg "The two leaders also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. President Xi reaffirmed China's support for Germany and Europe to play an important role in facilitating peace talks and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe," the ministry said in a statement released after the meeting between Xi and Scholz, held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing earlier in the day.During the talks, China's president also urged the international community to make efforts conducive to a peaceful political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis and called on the parties involved to "remain rational and exercise restraint."The German leader is paying an official one-day visit to China. This comes in the year when the countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.Scholz is the first leader of a Western country to visit China since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International xi-scholz meeting, xi meets scholz, ukraine peace talks, xi on ukraine crisis, scholz on ukraine crisis https://sputniknews.com/20221104/zimbabwe-relies-on-russian-support-to-immortalize-memory-of-african-liberation-expert-says-1103787138.html Zimbabwe Relies on Russian Support to Immortalize Memory of African Liberation, Expert Says Zimbabwe Relies on Russian Support to Immortalize Memory of African Liberation, Expert Says The Russia-supported Museum of African Liberation project is taking shape. Africa will have a place in the multipolar world, with its role being to offer its... 04.11.2022, Sputnik International 2022-11-04T13:12+0000 2022-11-04T13:12+0000 2022-11-23T11:37+0000 africa zimbabwe independence liberation museum russia harare africa insight southern africa /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/04/1103790278_0:35:2563:1476_1920x0_80_0_0_74ed11dab8bf895d01f802114ae54868.jpg On November 3, a Zimbabwean delegation to Moscow signed an agreement on contributing to the creation of the Museum of African Liberation, which will cover the history of the struggle of African peoples for independence.Three groups of countries are involved in the project, as was pointed out to Sputnik by Kwame Muzawazi, director of the Institute of African Studies. The first one includes Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Algeria, and South Africa, countries that "won their independence through arms." In the second group are Zambia, Tanzania, and Ghana, countries that fought through diplomatic and political channels. The third one will consist of Russia, China, and Cuba, the head of the Zimbabwean delegation explained.The Russian State University for the Humanities is a technical partner in the project. In exchange, Russia is expected to host an exhibition of Zimbabwean art in 2023.The construction of the museum was launched in Harare in July 2022. According to New Zimbabwe, the cost of the project is more than $20 million. The museum will be surrounded by tourist infrastructure, including a five-star hotel, an amusement park, a zoo, and a shopping center.'The Role of Africa is to Offer Experience'Relations with Russia occupy a special place in the history of Africa, Kwame Muzawazi explained.He underlined that Africa has a place in the multipolar world: "The role of Africa is to offer experience, Africa is the oldest civilization, we all come from Africa. Thus, we arrive in this new multilateral world with a lot of experience," he said. africa zimbabwe russia harare southern africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International museum of african liberation, zimbabwe museum, africa struggle for independence, africa and ussr, russian state university of humanities Students at Community Christian School are learning about finances and savings through a bank branch located within their own building. Eagle River Bank, a branch of Riverstone Bank, opened inside CCS on Oct. 13. The bank is open every Thursday morning to receive savings deposits from students and is fully staffed by the schools fifth grade class. This model is the first of its kind in the Panhandle. Riverstone Banks Director of Marketing Becca Pierce worked closely with the banks staff on Thursday morning as they assisted younger students through the process of making their deposits, which is nearly identical to that of a typical bank frequented by adults. Community Christian School was chosen as the programs pilot school due to its smaller size and good relationship with the bank. Pierce said that the entire school has taken strongly to the concept from the start. The staff and the leadership team were like, Yes, we want this, said Pierce. Pierce said that the bank provides incentives like erasers and pencil sharpeners for the students based on regularity of their deposits rather than the amount, which helps them develop the habit of putting money away, even if its a dollar or less. Even if youre only saving 50 cents a week, thats a habit, said Pierce. If we can instill that at an early age, it will set those children up for a better process for their future. The program is structured to reward that habit by returning the money each student has deposited in the form of a check at their fifth-grade graduation. By the time a class of kindergartners that have made a deposit every week of the school year for five years walk out of here with that check, theyll want to continue that because theyll see how much theyve grown, said Pierce. According to Pierce, the idea that savings are only helpful if youre able to put away large amounts at a time is very common, even among adults. Eagle River Bank is designed in-part to dispel that belief and encourage kids to start small and watch their money grow. The bank also provides an opportunity for CCS fifth graders to learn job skills by working in the banks customer service positions. They help students fill out deposit slips, manage the line, and act as tellers. They started with an application, explained Pierce. Then, I and another gal from the bank came and we did actual job interviews with them. Its very reminiscent of what they would do at a real-life job. Pierce hopes that Eagle River Bank will become a rite of passage at CCS, akin to its Enchilada Factory. Every kid from second grade and up covets being able to help with Enchilada Factory, she said. This is becoming another thing. We have fourth graders making deposits and saying, I cant wait to do this next year. Pierce said that Riverstone Bank hopes to expand the program to other schools starting next year. SIOUX CITY For more than 70 minutes Thursday night, former President Donald Trump painted a picture of America as a place where nearly everything has gone to ruin since he left office. "The Iowa way of life is under siege," the 45th president said at a Sioux Gateway Airport rally to support Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley. "We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation," he said. The self-described "law and order president" also talked of open borders, violent crime, "indoctrination" of children with "twisted race and gender lunacy," cresting communism and law enforcement officers who have been enfeebled by politically correct people in power. "Out of control," was a phrase dropped into his speech more than once. But, according to Trump, who repeated false claims about the 2020 election being "rigged" against him, Republican supporters in Iowa and elsewhere can regain some measure of control. "If you want to stop destruction, save our country and save the American dream, then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave," Trump said. Why the stop? Specifically, Trump made sure to tell people to cast ballots for Grassley and Reynolds who are both up for re-election this year. An October Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll showed Grassley with a 3% lead, among likely voters, over Democratic nominee Mike Franken of Sioux City. Were that figure to be the final margin on Nov. 8, it would be the closest Senate race of Grassley's 41-year career in the upper chamber. Trump caricatured Franken, a retired three-star Navy admiral, as an "open borders extremist" and someone who is "terrible on the Second Amendment." Franken has repeatedly talked about civilian gun ownership in comparison to the use of firearms in the U.S. military and said to the Des Moines Register "no one handles firearms without strict training and understanding of the responsibilities associated. No one disputes the right to own firearms. The responsibility for safe use must be on the owners of firearms themselves." As for Grassley, the 89-year-old, seven-term incumbent, Trump downplayed his age and touted the legislative record of Iowa's longest serving U.S. senator. "He looks like he's 40," Trump said of Grassley. "He's helped me more than just about anybody." The "help" Trump spoke of included Grassley's work to help appoint 174 district court judges, 54 appeals court judges and three U.S. Supreme Court justices (per Axios). Then Trump, who while in office faced scrutiny from corn growers for being overly accommodating of oil refineries, said Grassley, a family farmer himself, was a staunch defender of ethanol. "He loves ethanol. I said, 'How good is it?' He said 'It doesn't matter. We want it,'" Trump said of an exchange with Grassley. Immigration "We must immediately force the restoration of every single Trump border security measure that achieved the strongest border in the history of country by far," said Trump, who launched his 2016 campaign by saying Mexico was intentionally sending rapists and drug dealers to the country. To do that, he told the crowd, who chanted "build the wall" at one point, the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers should be doubled and that legislation should be passed to allow for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. In the same section, Trump suggested drug dealers and drug traffickers should get the death penalty which is currently allowed in 27 states. Historically, the death penalty in the United States has only been handed down in murder cases and the American Civil Liberties Union has said, "There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment." Interruptions More than once during his time at the podium, Trump cut short one train of thought to pursue another. Just after calling for large-scale deportations, Trump asked for his supporters, at least 60 of whom left before the event ended, to move closer to the stage and mocked the press for having a better spot. He then immediately pivoted, saying "If you want safety for your family, and security for your community, you need to throw every Democrat the hell out of office." Later, Trump mentioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (calling her "Crooked Hillary") and then riffed about getting seasick from trying to look at teleprompters blowing in the wind. As his time was winding down, Trump asked for people to sign up for Truth Social, the Twitter-like app his company created, and shouted out Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan, who is not up for re-election this year. "That's the guy," Trump said pointing. Earlier this year, Sheehan hosted an event with constitutional attorney KrisAnne Hall who has appeared on Alex Jones InfoWars network. What's ahead? Trump's rally came as the former president appears poised to launch a 2024 White House bid once the midterms have concluded. At a recent event in Robstown, Texas, Trump talked about his successful 2016 campaign and failed 2020 re-election effort before teasing a third run. "In order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again," Trump said, according to the Associated Press. During the Sioux City speech, Trump said a nearly identical line: "In order to make our country very successful, and safe and glorious, I will very very very probably do it again." As he potentially prepares to announce his candidacy, Trump continues to be mired in a litany of controversies and lawsuits. On Wednesday, CNN reported Trump and the Trump Organization reached a settlement with men who say they were assaulted in 2015 by Trump security outside Trump Tower in New York City. "In the lawsuit, the men allege that Trumps then-head of security hit one of the protesters, Efrain Galicia, in the head after Galicia tried to stop the person from taking their large cardboard signs, which read, 'Trump: Make America Racist Again,'" CNN said. Days before reaching that agreement, Trump called the judge overseeing New York Attorney General Letitia James' fraud lawsuit against him and his company "vicious, biased, and mean." The Associated Press is reporting: The lawsuit alleges he and his company inflated his net worth by billions of dollars and misled banks and others for years about the value of a whole host of assets. A third case in New York involving Trump and the Trump Organization deals with allegations that senior executives with the Trump Organization received compensation that wasn't properly recorded. Near the beginning of the month, Trump made the decision to sue CNN for $475 million for saying the network defamed and attempted to hobble any future political career by repeatedly referring to the former president's false claims about the 2020 election results as "The Big Lie." This week, news broke that lawyers working to help Trump overturn 2020 election results viewed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as crucial to the plan's success. "We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt, Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro wrote in a Dec. 31, 2020, email obtained by Congressional investigators. "Realistically, our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress, is from Thomas." On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to prevent Congress from formalizing the electoral votes to make Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States of America. One person was shot and killed by police, while another died of a drug overdose and three others died from "natural causes." 138 police officers were injured and four killed themselves in the months following the events. Stronger after attacks Trump told the crowd of several hundred that the reason for all of the lawsuits and all of the negativity directed his way was for one reason and one reason alone. "Theyre coming after me because Im fighting for you," Trump said. Trump ended on the theme of fighting and said it would pay dividends. "We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again." An internal dispute between Republican governor candidate Darren Baileys campaign and a recently departed Bailey political worker has raised questions about the level of involvement the conservative leader of a Bailey-aligned political action committee has had with the Bailey campaign. At issue is an attempt by Dan Proft, a longtime Republican operative and onetime losing candidate for Illinois governor, to inject himself into a potential legal settlement being sought by Brett Corrigan, a Bailey family friend who worked for the campaign for more than a year before leaving around mid-September. Corrigans attorney described his clients complaint as an internal HR, or human resources, matter but didnt provide any additional details. Advertisement Dan Proft is interviewed on Nov. 11, 2009, by a Tribune columnist. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune) Proft, a resident of Naples, Florida, runs the People Who Play By the Rules PAC, which opposes Democrat J.B. Pritzkers bid for reelection and is almost solely funded by conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein to the tune of $42 million. The political committee is an independent expenditure PAC and, by law, is not supposed to coordinate its spending activities with Baileys campaign. But the apparent efforts by Proft, who also co-hosts a conservative radio show in which Bailey has been a frequent guest, to try to intercede in a potential legal matter involving Bailey indicate he may be playing a larger role than previously acknowledged. Advertisement Proft also is involved in political mailers disguised as newspapers that have been sent to thousands of homes across the state, disseminating disinformation to disparage Pritzker. In 2016, a similar mailing effort funded by a former Proft independent expenditure PAC was cited by the Illinois State Board of Elections for illegal coordination with candidates. Corrigan declined to comment and referred all questions to his attorney, Scott Kaspar of Orland Park. Kaspar said Corrigan attended Baileys private Full Armor Christian Academy in downstate Louisville, Illinois, and lived with Baileys family on their farm in nearby Xenia. Corrigan on the campaign trail served largely as a body man for the Republican governor candidate, who is also a state senator, closely following Bailey at events and assisting Bailey as he needed. Since June 2021, state campaign finance records show, he was paid $18,861 by Baileys campaign. But around mid-September, Corrigan left Baileys campaign whether he was fired or left on his own is a matter of dispute, his attorney said. Corrigan now serves a similar role for GOP attorney general candidate Tom DeVore, whose campaign Corrigan joined almost immediately after leaving Baileys. In an interview, DeVore said he was aware of a dispute between Corrigan and Baileys campaign and that the two sides were trying to reconcile their differences. DeVore had no comment when asked about any involvement by Proft. After leaving Baileys campaign, Corrigan retained Kaspar to pursue a proposed confidential financial settlement agreement with the Republican governor candidates campaign over the reasons for his departure. During those negotiations, Proft weighed in, apparently in an effort to quash the filing of a possible lawsuit in the matter that could become public and hurt Baileys chances. Publications under a variety of names that are all tied to conservative political operative Dan Proft have been mailed to thousands of homes throughout Chicago and the suburbs. (Todd Panagopoulos / Chicago Tribune) On Oct. 23, Proft contacted Kaspar, first through a phone call the attorney did not return, then through a series of text messages. The Tribune viewed the text messages and verified they came from a phone number that Proft uses. Scott. Dan Proft. Can you give me a call? began a message to Kaspar. Kaspar replied, Hi Dan. What is this concerning? Proft replied, The rumors Im hearing about some complaint youre planning on filing against Bailey. Advertisement Kasper did not respond. After a period of time, Proft texted And? to the lawyer. Kaspar continued to be nonresponsive, prompting Proft to text, OK then. Go ahead. Please file it. Kaspar eventually replied, Dan, I dont ordinarily talk about legal matters with third parties, and particularly with members of the Press. It also is my understanding that you are the head of a PAC that is supporting Sen. Baileys candidacy. The campaign is represented by counsel, and communication on my end has to go through counsel. Proft replied, We can talk off the record. And, yes, I have no involvement with the campaign. It will be in the press when you file it. Already had an inquiry from a legal journal. So dont see any canons being threatened here. Kaspar did not respond. Kaspar, who shared Profts text messages with the Tribune, said he was confident the issue of a settlement between Baileys campaign and Corrigan will be resolved. But he said he was disheartened that confidential settlement materials are finding their way to the press and otherwise. Advertisement Dan is a member of the press. Hes the chair of an independent expenditure committee supporting Bailey, Kaspar said. Its surprising to me that he would be aware of this internal HR matter and would be contacting me. Given the confidential nature of the negotiations with Baileys campaign, Kaspar said he didnt know where Proft learned of the matter. But after being contacted by Proft, Kaspar said, My initial thought was that he wanted to intimidate me. Its Dan Proft. In the conservative Chicago circles, Dan Proft is a thing. He calls you up, you listen, said Kaspar, who in June unsuccessfully ran to be the GOP nominee for Illinois 6th Congressional District. Asked about Profts involvement in the issue and the appropriateness of his participation while running a PAC, which is not supposed to be dealing with the campaign, a Bailey spokesman responded with an emailed statement that did not directly respond to the questions that were posed. The email concluded, I have no idea what youre talking about. Asked to clarify, the campaign did not respond. The Tribune also emailed and texted questions to Proft about his involvement in the Corrigan matter and Baileys campaign. Proft issued a nonresponsive reply that accused the Tribune of an 11th hour hit piece full of garbage accusations prompted by some goofball lawyer trying to make a name for himself. The support that Uihlein, founder of the Uline office supply and packaging company, has given to Profts PAC as opposed to giving directly to Bailey has largely been viewed as the billionaire not trusting that his contributions will be used effectively by the Republican nominees campaign. Advertisement Uihlein has given $12 million to Baileys campaign, but only $3 million since Bailey won a six-way GOP primary on June 28 with 57.5% of the vote. In contrast, Uihlein has given nearly $34 million to Profts PAC since Bailey won the nomination. jgorner@chicagotribune.com rap30@aol.com A customer at Clyde Coopers in Raleigh learned this week that theres no medium rare in barbecue. Yesterday, we had a customer come in and order takeout, a barbecue plate and a couple sides, said Ashley Holt, whose mother, Debbie Holt, owns Clyde Coopers Barbecue in Raleigh and interacted with the customer. She left and came back and said her barbecue was undercooked because it had a lot of pink in it. We explained thats because its smoked. When pork is smoked, it turns pink. Holt said a few minutes later a Raleigh Police officer came to the restaurant, talked to the customer outside and then entered Clyde Coopers, asking about the pork. The cop looked so confused, Ashley Holt said. He seemed baffled by someone calling the cops over this. The News & Observer on Wednesday requested a copy of the 911 call and more information on the officers visit to Coopers, but Raleigh Police Department as of Thursday afternoon has not provided either. The meat cookery that goes into barbecue flips the script on what we typically think of as doneness, going for tender texture and not temperature in determining when its time to eat. Its low and slow, not seared and roasted. That means the final pork and beef temperatures usually soar above the typical upper limits of well done, finishing north of 200 degrees. But smoke changes things. A brisket or a slab of ribs will often have a rosy pink ring just under the bark where a chemical reaction has changed the color of the meat. According to the USDA, which takes cooking temperatures more seriously than anyone, that pink is common in smoked meat and poultry. Clyde Coopers opened in 1938 and is one of North Carolinas oldest barbecue restaurants. The restaurant posted about the encounter on its Facebook page, drawing more than a hundred shares and comments. The Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center confirmed that an officer was dispatched to the Clyde Coopers address at 327 S. Wilmington St., on Tuesday, but declined to comment on the nature of the call. Holt said she explained the porks color was from the smoke. She said the officer went back outside, talked to the customer, and then left. Tuesday night, Holt said she saw a new one-star Google review for Clyde Coopers, complaining of undercooked pork and claiming to have called the police on the restaurant. A photo of the plate shows mostly tan and some pink chopped barbecue, mac and cheese and sweet potatoes in a styrofoam box. Holt said Clyde Coopers barbecue is typically cooked for 12 hours at 225 degrees or more, then reheated before serving. It cant get much hotter, Holt said. Its done and cooked and then we take it and chop it, cool it and heat it again. ... Some people dont want to listen to reason and dont know the process that it takes to make smoked pork. We have to laugh and move on. The customers always right The News & Observer spoke to the Clyde Coopers customer by phone Thursday afternoon, and she shared the other side of the pink pork saga. The diner is a 30 year old born and bred North Carolinian, who grew up in Louisburg and whose barbecue education came from the now-closed Murphy House Barbecue and Johnnys Barbecue, as well as the popular chain Smithfields Chicken & Barbecue. She said she had a taste for barbecue on her lunch hour Tuesday, looked up reviews for the best barbecue in downtown Raleigh, and called an order in to Clyde Coopers. When she brought the meal back to her office, she said she was concerned about the pinkness of the pork and took the plate back to the restaurant. Every barbecue Ive had is all the way done, you dont see pink at all, she said in a phone interview. I asked if they could cook it some more, that Im not eating any pink barbecue. They said its supposed to be pink, but Ive never had it that way. The diner asked for either a refund or something else from the menu, but was refused both she said. Thats when she called 911. If youre telling me you dont do refunds or exchanges, theres a problem, the diner said. It was the issue, the way the situation was handled. You have to do either a refund or an exchange. If youre not going to do either, thats the issue. Thats the reason I called the cops. In between the 911 call and the police arriving, a Clyde Coopers employee offered to exchange the meal for a piece of fried chicken, which the diner accepted. She said that would have likely solved the conflict. If she had given me a chicken plate I would have gone about my business, the diner said, noting that a small chicken plate from Clyde Coopers is two pieces of chicken, not one. Israel may now be able to change some of its policies towards, Russia, Iran and Ukraine because of the current elections. This is the fifth time in less than four years that there have been national elections. These closely spaced elections are the result of popular Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu being prosecuted for corruption in 2019. The corruption charges mobilized support among opposition political parties that ousted Netanyahu as prime minister but could not find anyone of equivalent stature and ability to replace him as prime minister. Netanyahu still had a lot of political support, enough to force four more elections. He has apparently won the current elections and, if he can form a new government, that might lead to changes in policies towards Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine revealed that Israel had agreed to provide Ukraine with military communications systems and other support equipment but still refuses to supply weapons. Ukraine downplays the role Russia is playing in Syria to keep Iranian forces away from the Israeli border. While most Israelis support Ukraine, they also support keeping Israel safe from Iranian attacks. Many Israeli and Arabs throughout the region were hoping that two months of protests in Iran would topple the current religious dictatorship but that has not happened. At the same time, despite increasing violence against the protestors and the use of lethal force, the protests continue. Over 200 protestors have been killed so far and the use of more lethal force against protestors has not stopped the demonstrators, who are appealing to the police to side with them against the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), the heavily armed and fanatic force created to protect the religious dictatorship that has ruled Iran since the 1980s. Anti-government demonstrations have become more frequent in the last twenty years and that means most Iranians are not only demanding an end to the dictatorship, but are increasingly willing to die trying. Thats what overthrew the monarchy in 1979. That revolution was hijacked by the Iranian political parties. In effect, the 1979 revolution isnt over yet. If the rebels succeed it would mean a change on Iranian policies towards, Israel, other Arab states and the West. Ukraine again called for Western nations to supply Ukraine with modern combat aircraft, longer-range missiles and modern air defense systems, like Patriot. With modern American or European fighters and Patriot systems, Ukraine could quickly eliminate Russian warplanes from Ukrainian air space. Ukraine points out that Russia is seeking to destroy civilian infrastructure to the point where many Ukrainians face months of cold weather with little heat or even fresh water. The objective is to demoralize Ukrainians and reduce their willingness to resist. Russia is using the same tactics against European nations by cutting off all Russian supplies of natural gas. Ukraine is also angry at Iranian supplying Russia with cruise missiles (UAVs configured for one-way missions) and that Russia has agreed to supply Iran with modern combat aircraft, like the Su-35s being used against Ukraine. Russia used to observe the weapons sanctions against Iran but no longer does. Russia has a limited supply of Su-35s and Ukraine could, with Western fighters, destroy a lot of them. Even before the invasion, Ukraine was seeking American warplanes and set up unofficial simulation training centers so Ukrainian pilots to learn the fundamentals of operating F-16s and A-10s. The Ukrainians have demonstrated an ability quickly learn how to effectively operate new Western weapons and military systems. This helps Israel, which has an informal arrangement in Syria in which Israel doesnt attack and destroy Russian warplanes and air defense systems in return for Russian cooperation in keeping Iranian forces from operating near the Israeli border. Russia still honors that arrangement, even though Iran has become a major supplier of UAVs, cruise missiles and even tactical ballistic missiles for Russian use in Ukraine. Russia recently removed some of its S300 antiaircraft systems in Syria and sent them back to Russia. The Palestinian Plan Western efforts to obtain a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians keep failing because Palestinians refuse to give up demands that Israel cannot accept, as in Israel no longer being a Jewish state. What caused this mess was a mistake made by the Arab world over sixty years ago when the UN was persuaded to grant generations-long hereditary status to Palestinian refugees. Initially this was because the Arab nations were certain that they would eventually be able to crush Israel and allow Palestinians back to homes and property they had fled at the urging of other Arabs, or to steal their land for themselves after conquering Israel, depending on which side you believe. As part of this policy no Arab nation would permit Palestinians to become citizens but instead always treated them as refugees and confined them to camps, which were usually special towns and neighborhoods just for Palestinians. By the 1970s it was pretty clear that the Israelis had become too powerful militarily and now had nuclear weapons, for any Arab state or coalition to defeat. Instead, the Arab nations got behind various proposals for a peace deal. Some progress was made by the 1990s but Palestinian radicals refused to allow any peace agreement and threatened civil war if Palestinian leaders did not renounce peace proposals and work towards the destruction of Israel. The major obstacle to any peace deal was Palestinians insisting on Israel recognizing "right of return without discrimination." That means that the Palestinians who fled the newly formed Israel in the late 1940s, and their millions of descendants, can return to Israel and get all their abandoned property back. Israel would also have to pay compensation. While most of those original refugees are now dead, many Palestinians would not return, but enough could do so and change the demographic composition of Israel, turning it into a country with an Arab majority. This, for both the Palestinians and Israel, is the equivalent of destroying Israel." Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza refuse to consider compromise on the Arab Return issue and now demand that the only solution is to kill or expel all Jews from Israel so that Arab refugees can return. November 3, 2022: The election results were certified and the current prime minister resigned and Benjamin Netanyahu now has to take over as prime minister and form a government (selection ministers for all departments. In Gaza, Islamic Jihad fired four rockets into Israel. One had to be intercepted by Iron Dome because it was headed for a populated area. Israel retaliated with an airstrike against an underground Islamic Jihad explosives workshop where bombs were assembled and stored. Islamic Jihad announced that the rockets were fired in response to Israel force killing an Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank who was wanted for killing an Israeli policeman earlier in the year. The dead man was accompanied by five followers, who were arrested. Earlier in the day three policemen were wounded by a Palestinian man armed with a knife. The suspect was being questioned at a checkpoint when he pulled out his knife and attacked the soldiers, who shot and killed him. November 1, 2022: Azerbaijan finally decided to open an embassy in Israel. This comes after three decades of economic and military cooperation, mainly against Iran. Azerbaijan is an oil-rich Moslem majority nation that was, until 1991, part of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has purchased several billion dollars worth of weapons from Israel since independence. October 31, 2022: Fourteen European NATO nations are spending over three billion dollars to buy Israeli Arrow 3 BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) systems. The Arrow 3 missiles and radars will be a key component of this European Sky Shield Initiative. Increasing instability and aggression from Russia made this sale possible. Israel, with U.S. support, developed the Arrow system to defend Israel against attacks by Iranian ballistics with chemical or, eventually, nuclear warheads. October 29, 2022: Commercial satellite photos confirmed that Israel has sold and delivered at least two Barak-8 anti-aircraft systems to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). This system had been sold to Azerbaijan, where they were responsible for shooting down several Iskander Russian missiles fired at Azerbaijan during a 2020 war between the Armenians and Azeris. The UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 and Israeli firms soon had sales offices in the UAE, to handle the sale and service of military and non-military items sold to Persian Gulf customers. October 28, 2022: In the West Bank Palestinians fired on Israeli soldiers and the Israelis returned fire, killing two Palestinians. A joint Greek-Israeli pilot training center was opened in southern Greece. Israel and Greece invested $1.65 billion in the center, which will train Greek pilots as well as (for a fee) those from other nations. This sort of service has become quite common, and lucrative. This joint venture is part of a Greek effort to modernize its armed forces and strengthen its long-standing defense relationships with Israel. Both these efforts are crucial because of escalating tensions with traditional rival and fellow NATO member Turkey. Meanwhile, Israeli defense officials are visiting Turkey, as part of an effort to restore economic, diplomatic and military ties that were severed by the Islamic government that has run Turkey for the last twenty years. President Erdogan is trying to keep is Islamic political coalition in power by repairing what most voter see as mistakes. Cutting ties with Israel was always unpopular with most Turks and was done to improve relationships with Arab states. The Arabs werent interested but Israel still is. To that end Israel is asking Turkey to end sanctuary for Islamic terror groups like Hamas, which rules Gaza and regularly attacks Israel. Senior Hamas leadership operate from Turkey. Greece is also critical of Turkish support for Islamic terrorist groups. Continuing tensions with Greece are popular with most Turks. Erdogan is very worried about Turkeys shaky economy and national elections are scheduled for June 2023. He is seeking reelection. Israel can help the Turkish economy and sees maintaining close ties with Greece and Turkey as an asset and opportunity to reduce the tensions between these two NATO members. October 27, 2022: In southern Syria (Damascus) another Israeli airstrike damaged a weapons storage site near the airport outside the city that contained Iranian missiles delivered by air. Large explosions of these missiles took place right after the airstrike. Four Hezbollah gunmen dead. Was the third attack against targets near Damascus in the last week. It was also the 30th Israeli airstrike on Syrian targets this year. Most of the attacks were against Iranian assets. October 25, 2022: Israel has quietly provided Ukraine with details of how it defeated Shahed 136s launched from Lebanon. This includes details of AUDs Israel has developed. Iran has used these UAVs against Israel, which has developed optical and radar sensors that can detect them quickly so they can be shot down at the border (usually of Lebanon). While Israel is criticized by Ukraine, and many Israelis, for not supplying Ukraine with weapons to fight the Russians, the two countries maintain diplomatic relations and Israel has quietly shared information with Ukraine about Russian weapons and cooperation with Iran in Syria. Ukraine apparently does the same for Israel about what Iran is up to in Ukraine. Israel is increasingly open about support for Ukraine and the covert aid now includes help with defeating the Iranian cruise missiles Russia has obtained. Iran also sent Iranian trainers to who the Russians how to use the Iranian guided missiles. Iran is at war with Israel and suffers Israeli airstrikes and an occasional commando attack. Then there are the battles between Turkey and Islamic terrorists, Syrian Kurds and the Assad forces. Russia sometimes bombs Turkish forces (Syrians working for the Turks). Russia only has a few warplanes left in Syria, and these use unguided bombs. Russia considers Syria a place to give some of its pilots realistic practice carrying out airstrikes the old-fashioned way, without missiles or guided bombs. Theres no real threat to the Russian warplanes, unlike Ukraine where Russia continues to lose warplanes and pilots. Russia is also on the defensive with Israel because Russia can no longer do much to halt Iranian efforts to get forces close to the Israeli border. That means Israel is free to sell or donate some weapons to Ukraine. Currently what Ukraine wants most is Israeli tech developed to disable to destroy UAVs like the Iranian Shahed 136 cruise missile, which is basically a cheap UAV equipped to his stationary targets. Iran did a barter deal with Russia, providing over a thousand of these cruise missiles in exchange for dozens of the latest Russian fighter-bomber and air craft spare parts. Iran expects Russia to be more helpful in Syria, where Russia already has an understanding with Israel that involves Russia not interfering with Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets. In return Israel does not supply Ukraine with weapons. Most Israelis support the Ukrainians but they also recognize the threat from Iranians in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. Russia and Iran are still negotiating on this issue because Russia does not want to lose all its economic, military and diplomatic links with Israel. Since August Russia and Iran have been expanding their economic and political cooperation. These discussions ignore sanctions currently imposed on Russia and Iran and formalize cooperation between them to evade Western sanctions, notably on their oil exports. This includes finding ways to support each other militarily. Iran has supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine while Russia backs Iranian threats to other Middle Eastern oil producers. This does not include unofficial Russian agreements in Syria that keep Israel and Russia from going to war because of continued Israeli attacks on Iranian forces in Syria. Russia continues to support Iranian efforts to expand its influence over the Iraqi government. October 24, 2022: Israel and Lebanon have settled their offshore border dispute. A side effect of this was Hezbollah reducing its threats to attack Israel. October 15, 2022: In southern Syria (Damascus) another Israeli airstrike damaged a weapons storage site near the airport outside the city. This warehouse contained Iranian missiles delivered by air. Large explosions of these missiles took place right after the airstrike. Five Syrian soldiers and two members of Iran-backed militias were killed. There were also a lot of wounded. Most of the casualties were the result of munitions in the storage area detonating. October 11, 2022: A recent international survey found that Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran were three most religious nations in the world. The United States ranks 66th while most of the least religious nations are in Europe. October 10, 2022: In the south (Gaza) Iran backed Hamas, which runs Gaza, announced that it had resumed diplomatic relations with Syria. These diplomatic links had been severed in 2012, as the Syrian civil war got underway. Syria had long provided sanctuary for Hamas leaders but that ended when many of the Palestinian refugees living in Syria sided with the rebels trying to overthrow the Assad government. The rebels lost, in part because of massive aid from Iran. Hamas has also become a recipient of Iranian aid. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Musk must face a Delaware judge at a Nov. 14 trial over the claim by investor Richard Tornetta. The decision by Tesla Inc. directors to authorize a $55 billion pay package for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in 2018 was marred with conflicts of interest and improper disclosures about the performance benchmarks he'd be held to, a disgruntled investor argued in a court filing. Musk, the world's richest person and Tesla's largest shareholder, must face a Delaware judge at a Nov. 14 trial over the claim by investor Richard Tornetta, who claims the billionaire engineered the windfall pay deal by pushing it through a supine board. Musk dictated the framework and financial terms, which remained fundamentally unchanged throughout the board's approval process, Tornetta's lawyers said in a Delaware Chancery Court brief unsealed Wednesday. Legal experts say the case will spotlight the role of courts in regulating executive compensation, and shine a light on the Musk's peripatetic management of Tesla and other companies he owns. Last month, the entrepreneur closed his $44 billion acquisition of social-media platform Twitter Inc. The case is being heard in Delaware because Tesla, like Twitter, is incorporated in the state, the corporate home to more than half of US public companies and more than 60% of Fortune 500 firms. Its Chancery judges are business law experts who hear cases without a jury, often on a fast-track basis. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick -- who was overseeing Musk's Twitter litigation -- will review testimony about his Tesla pay package and decide whether it amounted to a waste of corporate assets. Defending Pay In their pre-trial filing, Musk's lawyers denied Tornetta's claims the compensation package was excessive. They said he was a unique manager and deserved a bespoke pay plan based on Tesla's astronomical rise in value over the last decade. Tornetta's lawyers rejected the claim by Tesla directors that they'd loaded up Musk with Tesla stock options to insure he remained at the head of the electric-car maker and would focus on its success. They noted Musk already splits management time between Tesla, Space X, his aerospace firm, and his other startups. So, the Tesla compensation plan rewards part-time work, the filing said. The board's compensation committee, headed by Musk's friend and confidant Ira Ehrenpreis, was so beholden to the billionaire its members couldn't begin to make an independent assessment of a reasonable compensation plan, Tornetta contends. And their disclosures to investors about the pay plan's goals violated Delaware law, according to the brief. In proxy statements, the board said the pay package included a series of stretch goals, selected to be very difficult to achieve, but failed to disclose that three of those milestones likely already had been met as of the date of the shareholder vote approving the plan, Tornetta's lawyers said. Tornetta filed his derivative suit against Musk and other Tesla directors on behalf of the company in 2018. That means any money recovered will go back to the electric carmaker and not to Tornetta. The investor is asking McCormick to made Musk return stock options awarded under the compensation plan. Foxconn, Apple's principal subcontractor, has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases at its Zhengzhou site. The lockdown of Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, the world's biggest producer of iPhones, has highlighted some of the risks of relying on zero-Covid China's manufacturing sector, analysts told AFP. Foxconn, Apple's principal subcontractor, has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases at its Zhengzhou site, leading the company to lock down the vast complex in a bid to keep the virus in check. Images then emerged of panicking workers fleeing the site on foot in the wake of allegations of poor conditions at the facility, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Foxconn is China's biggest private sector employer, with over a million people working across the country in its around thirty factories and research institutes. But Zhengzhou is the Taiwanese giant's crown jewel, churning out iPhones in quantities not seen anywhere else. "In a normal situation, almost all the iPhone production is happening in Zhengzhou," said Ivan Lam, an analyst with specialist firm Counterpoint. Risk of 'strong dependence' Apple manufactures more than 90 percent of its products in China, which is also one of its most important markets. "For Apple, it is once again a bad example in terms of the stability of production chains," Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia-Pacific manager for Natixis bank, told AFP. Experts say the company's heavy dependence on China "brings potential risks, especially when the US-China trade war shows no signs of de-escalating," according to Dezan Shira & Associates, a consulting firm. Opened in 2010, the Zhengzhou factory employs up to 300,000 people who live on-site all year round -- creating a sprawling tech hub known as "iPhone city". It is made up of three factories, one of which produces the iPhone 14 -- Apple's newest handset model. Apple did not respond to AFP's request for comment on how exactly the lockdown will affect its production. Analyst Lam estimates the partial stopping of work at the site resulted in a loss of "10 to 30 percent" of output, but said part of the production has also been temporarily moved to other Foxconn sites in China. According to Foxconn, the site is currently operating a "closed loop" with the workers avoiding all contact with the outside world, while their daily bonuses have been quadrupled. "This incident may have a limited impact," on worldwide iPhone production, estimated analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who specialises in Apple products. "But suppliers in China must learn to improve closed-loop production efficiency in response to the zero-Covid policy," he added. Looking elsewhere China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks. But new variants have tested local officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups faster than they can spread, causing much of the country to live under an ever-changing mosaic of Covid curbs. Apple has already begun outsourcing part of its production to India and is eyeing Vietnam in a bid to wean itself off Chinese manufacturing -- a trend accelerated by Covid. But that's not so simple -- last year, nearly 7.5 million iPhones were made in India, just three percent of Apple's total production. "Increasing the capacity of factories (in India) is difficult," Lam said. Eddie Mason, 80, left, fist bumps Mark Collins, 59, center, and FairVote Illinois volunteer Larry Garfield on Oct. 29, 2022, in Evanston. Volunteers were knocking on doors to discuss ranked choice voting with residents. (Michael Blackshire / Chicago Tribune) When Evanston resident Howard Sachs headed to the polls to cast his early vote on whether the suburb should become the first city in Illinois to adopt ranked choice voting, he said he had his grandkids in mind. Our system is so broken and maybe this isnt perfect, Sachs, 73, said of the potential overhaul that would require candidates to receive a majority of votes to win office. But I believe it is a better way than what were doing now. Advertisement Sachs said the increase in political polarization inspired him to get behind Evanstons binding referendum on whether to implement ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, for municipal elections. Like most jurisdictions in the U.S., Evanston elects city officials through plurality voting, meaning candidates who receive the most votes win, regardless of whether their share amounts to a majority of votes cast. Advertisement In three-way races, and especially in contests with low turnout, the winner takes all system can result in candidates taking office with far from a broad base of support. In a ranked choice system, voters select the candidate who is their first choice and then have the option to rank additional candidates. If a candidate receives more than 50% of votes as a first choice, they win. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and each of their votes are redistributed to their supporters second choice candidate, and so on, until one candidate secures more than 50% of the votes. On Election Day, voters in Portland, Seattle and Nevada also will be choosing whether to adopt ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is already employed in statewide elections in Alaska and Maine, and in more than 50 cities, according to the electoral reform organization FairVote. Some researchers say ranked choice voting can reduce political polarization, and proponents also claim it can increase diversity and reengage alienated voters. New York Citys first ranked choice election in 2021 saw historic turnout and resulted in doubling the number of women on City Council. In Evanston, supporters include Mayor Daniel Biss, who hopes that if his city adopts ranked choice the state could eventually follow suit. The Evanston City Council voted 7-0, with two abstentions, to put the referendum on the ballot, but the proposal does have critics. Ranked choice voting is a solution to a problem that does not exist, sows electoral confusion amongst voters, and makes a straightforward process unnecessarily complicated, wrote John Foley, a member of the Evanston Township Republican organization, which is recommending a no vote on the referendum, in an emailed statement. The Democratic Party of Evanston and Libertarian Party of Illinois have endorsed the referendum, along with state Rep. Robyn Gabel, state Sen. Mike Simmons, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, Evanston City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza and a handful of groups, including the League of Women Voters. The Green Party got a nonbinding, ranked choice voting measure on the June primary ballot in Berwyn, where a vast majority of voters said they thought the state should allow it. Advertisement Theres people on the right and the left that get very emotional about Is ranked choice voting going to do harm or good? But its actually at its base, just a different way of counting so that you ensure that the candidate who wins has 50% plus one of the votes, said Caroline Tolbert, a political science professor at the University of Iowa who edited an academic journal on The Politics, Promise and Peril of Ranked Choice Voting. Tolbert said nonpartisanship is baked into the nature of ranked choice voting. Some Republicans felt differently after Democrat Mary Peltola of Alaska beat Republican Sarah Palin and conservative Nick Begich III in a ranked choice special election in August, becoming the first Alaska Native to serve in the U.S. House. Evanstons municipal elections are nonpartisan and primaries only occur when the number of candidates meets a certain threshold, depending on the office. Along with implementing ranked choice voting, the referendum also would eliminate Evanstons municipal primaries. Evanston resident and FairVote Illinois volunteer Larry Garfield has been promoting the referendum throughout the city. Among his arguments: The system engenders less vitriol in political campaigns. The winning strategy in a plurality system often entails attacking opponents, Garfield said at a presentation for senior voters. But in ranked choice elections, constantly belittling your opponents backfires because its in every candidates interest to court not only first choice but also second and third choice votes, he said. The process of ranking can inherently improve voters attitudes on the outcomes of elections, according to Manuel Gutierrez, a visiting scholar of the Institute for Legal, Legislative and Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, whos been analyzing ranked choice voting since 2020. Gutierrez found voters would be more likely to support the winning candidate under a ranked choice system. Advertisement People are a little bit more satisfied with the results because they were allowed to express their opinion in the ballot, he said. The person that wins could be their second, third, fourth option. They still feel included. They still feel part of the process. That electoral loser effect, it diminishes, becomes a little less prominent just because they were able to rank them. Gutierrez also found that third party candidates receive a higher percentage of votes in ranked choice voting systems. In most elections, people engage in strategic voting. Why am I going to waste my vote on the Green Party or Libertarian Party, if I know realistically theyre not going to win. I might as well vote for this other candidate, for the lesser of the two evils, Gutierrez said of whats known as the spoiler effect. In ranked choice voting, Gutierrez said, Voters are not forced to make a strategic decision right away. They can vote their conscience and then begin to shift strategy second. Biss, the Evanston mayor, said the potential shift in the citys electoral system could bring alienated voters back to the polling place. Ranked choice voting is a tool that enables someone who would otherwise feel that way to be an equal participant in the process, Biss said at a virtual Democratic Party of Evanston meeting on the referendum. Voter turnout for Evanstons most recent municipal primary in February 2021 was low, with just more than 20% of registered voters casting a ballot, according to Cook County Clerk data. Advertisement Evanston 8th Ward Ald. Devon Reid won his primary with less than a majority vote before winning the general election with 51% of the vote . He abstained from voting on the City Council resolution which put ranked choice on Tuesdays ballot. Reid said the primary elections are necessary and that he fears a ranked choice system will favor centrist candidates and split the minority vote. Mark Collins, 59, has a ranked choice voting sticker on his jacket on Oct. 29, 2022, in Evanston. Volunteers were knocking on doors to discuss ranked choice voting with residents. (Michael Blackshire / Chicago Tribune) Our (society) requires folks who are pushing the boundaries of what we have thought is traditional and normal, so we can push our society and our country and in this case, our city, forward, Reid said. But New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson told Evanston voters attending the Democratic Party of Evanstons forum she credits ranked choice voting with ushering in the most diverse council that the citys seen. Ranked choice voting really provides an opportunity for non traditional candidates, like myself, as a Black gay woman to be elected, Hudson said. We had the first Muslim woman elected in New York City; the first Indian man the first two Korean women elected. We had so many firsts. Its hard to even keep track, said Hudson. Rank choice voting gave all of us a shot and a greater chance at ending up in that number one spot on the ballot. Reid noted that the comparison to Evanston isnt apples to apples. New York implemented rank choice voting in a partisan primary very different from implementing rank choice voting in a nonpartisan primary and eliminating our primary in Evanston, he said. Advertisement Evanston 9th Ward Ald. Juan Geracaris, a Biss appointee who put forward the resolution that placed ranked choice voting on the ballot, said he doesnt think Evanston politics will shift to the center if voters choose to adopt ranked choice. He hopes, rather, more people will feel free to vote their conscience and candidates will encourage them to do so. I would never want to be a candidate that people would be holding their nose to vote for, he said. Republican-led legislatures in Florida and Tennessee passed laws in 2022 banning the implementation of ranked choice voting. But Illinois election law authorizes Evanston to adopt the system if voters so chose, according to a State Board of Elections spokesperson. And Dominion Voting Systems, which currently provides Cook Countys voting equipment, offers ranked choice voting technology currently used in other jurisdictions, according to a company spokesperson. The claim of voter confusion is the most common critique of ranked choice, according to Garfield, the FairVote Illinois volunteer. Voter education campaigns can readily minimize confusion, said Tolbert and Gutierrez. Advertisement Its not complicated and part of what our work has shown is that when this has been implemented, that basically all demographic groups find rank choice voting easy, said Tolbert. Biss and other proponents think Evanston can serve as proof of what ranked choice has to offer Illinois more broadly. This type of reform is the way of the future, said Biss. I think its going to be a while before we get there on a statewide basis in Illinois. And I think having communities like Evanston implement it and having it go well, is a critical step along the way. Chicago Tribunes John Keilman contributed. smacaraeg@chicagotribune.com KKR & Co. is seen as the party to beat as it competes with Cellnex Telecom SA in the final race for a stake in Vodafone tower arm. KKR & Co. is seen as the party to beat as it competes with Cellnex Telecom SA in the final race for a stake in Vodafone Group Plc's towers unit, people with knowledge of the matter said. The private equity firm, which has teamed up with Global Infrastructure Partners, is in pole position as Vodafone evaluates the binding offers it received last week for a stake in Frankfurt-listed Vantage Towers AG, the people said. Cellnex is bidding together with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Cellnex is seeking to buy a majority stake that would give it operational control, one of the people said. Shares in Vantage were trading 1.5% higher at 9:25 a.m. in Frankfurt, giving it a market value of 14.2 billion ($13.9 billion). A raft of private equity and strategic bidders, including EQT AB and American Tower Corp., have previously shown interest in a deal for Vantage, Bloomberg News has reported. While the KKR-led group aims to seal a deal as early as next week, the situation remains fluid, the people said. They want to avoid a repeat of their last-minute loss in July in the auction for a majority stake in Deutsche Telekom AG's tower unit, which eventually went to Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and DigitalBridge Group Inc. Vodafone, which owns 82% of the tower business, could aim to reach an agreement by the time of its Nov. 15 half-year results announcement. The company continues to study the bids and hasn't yet picked a winner, according to the people. Representatives for Cellnex, KKR and Vodafone declined to comment. Representatives for GIC and GIP didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Strong Demand Europe's phone carriers have started to sell off infrastructure assets to raise money for investments in costly fiber-optic rollouts and wireless network upgrades, as well as to cut their large debt piles. Telefonica SA and Liberty Global Plc are weighing a sale of their stake in a UK towers venture to help raise funds for fiber broadband investments, people familiar with the matter said last month. These assets are attractive to investment firms thanks to their steady and predictable returns. Such is the strength of demand for them that the sector has been helping dealmakers defy a broader slowdown in global mergers and acquisitions activity this year. Bloomberg News reported this week that EQT is emerging as the frontrunner to acquire a stake in French telecom tower owner TDF. Last night, Infinix Malaysia just launched two new phones - the Infinix HOT 20 and Infinix HOT 20i. For those who are on a budget, these two phones might be for you as they are priced at RM599 and RM499 respectively. Malaysians can now purchase the Infinix HOT series at all offline and online stores across the nation. Starting with the Infinix HOT 20, it is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. As a budget phone, it was expected to have a huge battery pack and it does with 5000mAh with 18W fast charging technology. Moreover, it also has extended virtual RAM, allowing you to go up to 11GB of RAM in total. The phone itself is quite big, measuring at 6.82-inches and supports a 90Hz refresh rate. The primary camera is 50MP which is more than enough to do basic mobile photography. Infinix Malaysia also highlighted Super Night Mode so that's a nice add-on tool. It's worth mentioning that there's a Full Speed Connectivity Enhancement Gaming Turbo for mobile gaming. On the other hand, the Infinix HOT 20i features a MediaTek Helio G25 chipset, 4GB of RAM (expandable up to 7GB in total) and 128GB of storage. The phone is also quite large at 6.6-inches alongside a 5000mAh battery pack. As for the camera, there is a 13MP primary camera and an 8MP selfie snapper. Before we end this news, Infinix Malaysia is also holding an Infinix HOT 20 50MP Super Nightscape Photography Contest to celebrate the launch. From 7 November until 6 December 2022, the company would like the fans and public to join and stand a chance to win various Infinix products (worth RM20,000 in total). It's open to all Malaysians and you may stay tuned to Infinix Malaysia's official FB page for more updates. Prof. Raphael Frank and Car. Credit: Christian Wilmes The University of Luxembourg's Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) demonstrated its autonomous car in live traffic on Kirchberg today, Thursday, November 3, 2022. This represents the first time a single-family autonomous car has joined the flow of traffic in Luxembourg with members of the public as passengers. This autonomous car is the test platform for navigation technologies and high definition (HD) maps being researched at SnT's 360Lab. The demonstration is the culmination of five years of research work by the 360Lab team, led by Prof. Raphael Frank. The 360Lab is the first thematic research laboratory focusing on smart mobility in the country, and it serves as an umbrella to conduct strategic and collaborative research in the broader area of mobility innovation. The 360Lab's research is crucial to the future of autonomous driving in Luxembourg as it is developing HD maps of the region, which provide information that road signs and markings traditionally give to drivers as they navigate to their destination. HD maps are the basis for autonomous navigation. These are exponentially more detailed than standard definition (SD) maps, commonly used by traditional navigation services' found in cars and mobile devices. The map for the demo was completed in partnership with a San Francisco based start-up, Civil Maps, specialized in providing HD maps for automated mobility. Beyond the technical research, there are also many logistics involved in researching autonomous navigation. As part of their research, the team needed to gain authorization for the single-family car to drive on Luxembourgish roads, trailblazing the regulatory path for autonomous driving in the country. "Autonomous driving holds the potential to create a mobility ecosystem that is both safer and more sustainable. Full autonomy will be a paradigm shift in mobility, improving traffic and reducing congestion by reducing the number of vehicles," says Prof. Raphael Frank. "Our mission is to have a research platform where we demonstrate the technology of autonomous mobility that we can use for research and education. Today's demo achieves this goal as it is the first-time members of the public get to experience the functionality of the car first-hand." Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Despite an unprecedented U.S. focus on preventing hackers from targeting the midterm elections Tuesday, there are still concerns that malicious cyber operatives could disrupt or influence the vote by penetrating polling stations, voter registration rolls, ballot counting efforts and even the news reports that tell Americans who's winning state, local and federal elections. But here's what really concerns public and private sector security analysts: malicious cyber actors who claim that the election was hacked or stolen even when nothing of the sort occurred. Such false claims, building on years of bogus election fraud narratives that began well before the 2020 presidential election, they say, could plunge the country into an unprecedented environment of political chaos and violence even worse than that which spawned the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. "I'm quite concerned about the prospect for what folks are calling this cognitive hack around the elections; that there will be claims that the process was illegitimate and therefore the outcome is illegitimate," said Suzanne Spaulding, a former top Department Homeland Security official who headed the agency's election security efforts. Despite the fact there are processes in place to verify voting and to do post-election audits, Spaulding worries that, "Conspiracy theories will take hold in a substantial segment of the population and could lead to additional political violence." A senior FBI election security official agrees, telling reporters in a recent briefing that while the FBI was not aware of any foreign adversaries' cyber campaigns attacking the infrastructure of U.S. elections, authorities are concerned malicious cyber actors could seek to spread or amplify false claims of such compromises. The official, one of several speaking anonymously under briefing conditions set by the FBI, said it's important for Americans to know that such claims of cyber compromises would neither prevent them from voting nor swing an election given the multiple layers of defenses currently in place. Still, as Spaulding noted, given the already explosively adversarial political climate in the United States these days, such false narratives could spread like wildfire and be hard to knock down. Here are some cyber attack scenarios authorities are monitoring: Hacking voting machines and registration rolls There are three primary avenues cyber adversaries can use to hack a U.S. election: targeting voter registration, voting machines and voters themselves. One potential method of cyber tampering with the vote count is to alter or delete voters aligned with a particular political party, so that "when people showed up to vote, they'd be turned away because they either weren't listed or their IDs didn't match the rolls," Spaulding said. "That could cause chaos that would undermine trust in the process." In 2016, Russian cyberwarriors from the GRU military intelligence agency hacked voter registration databases in two Florida counties by sending phishing emails to county officials responsible for administering the election, federal authorities have said. That enabled the GRU to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government, a Senate intelligence committee investigation later concluded. It said it found no evidence that vote tallies were altered or that voter registry files were deleted or modified, but also noted that the committee's and the overall U.S. intelligence community's "insight into this aspect of the 2016 election was limited." While there are currently no indications of such activity this year, hackers could tamper with key databases like voter registration rolls, shut down critically important websites like local election agency homepages or steal confidential voter information, according to F5 Labs, a threat intelligence and security firm. Another hacking method is attacking voting machines. Voting machine hacking has been a known issue for over 15 years. It was cited as a credible threat in former FBI director Robert Mueller's special counsel report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which said Russia's GRU had also targeted state election offices and voting machine makers. In all of these scenarios, though, federal, state and local election authorities have established layers of security measures and audit trailsincluding paper ballots and other backupsto help with detection and remediation. The third avenue, and the one that most concerns many election officials, is using hacks and cyber attacks to deceptively influence voters. That includes creating or amplifying false narratives about particular candidates or, as Spaulding warns, about the integrity or fairness of the election itself. Attacking the election itself In 2016, U.S. officials confirmed that Russia was trying to hack the actual infrastructure and machinery of U.S. elections in ways that went beyond what it was trying to do in Florida. That included targeting voter registration data in an attempt to block some constituencies from voting and, more broadly, to undermine confidence in the overall elections process. Overall, Russia-linked hackers targeted election systems in at least 20 states, trying to penetrate online systems like registration databasesbut not the actual voting or tabulation machines that were to be used on Election Day, which are usually not tied to the Internet. At the time, a senior DHS official described much of the Russian activity as "people poking at the systems to see if they are vulnerable." Even so, he said, "we are absolutely concerned. The concern is the ability to cause confusion and chaos." Since then, election security agencies have invested significant time, resources and expertise to improve the security and resilience of U.S. election systems, according to the FBI officials, Spaulding and other current and former election security officials. By 2018, the federal government designated election systems as part of U.S. critical infrastructure, which added additional levels of protection and funding. After Iran, Russia and other adversaries targeted the 2020 elections, federal authorities implemented another wave of improvements. So far, in the run-up to the midterms, "there's not a huge uptick that we can see in terms of probing or access or anything that would indicate their direct attacks yet" by Russia or other foreign adversaries, said Ronald Bushar, the Global Government chief technology officer at Mandiant, a threat intelligence firm that is advising U.S. government agencies and local governments on election cyber protection. But Bushar told U.S. TODAY that election security officials are on red alert that Russia in particular might try to penetrate election systems, perhaps as payback for U.S. aid to Ukraine that has helped it beat back Russian military advances. "That's their MO that we've seen before," he said, citing past Kremlin hacks of U.S. critical infrastructure and other cyberattacks that created chaos and confusion. Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, said recently there are no specific or credible threats regarding the cyber disruption of election infrastructure in the Tuesday elections. But she said federal cybersecurity officials remain concerned about "a very complex threat environment," including potential efforts to interfere in the vote, both online and in person. As such, CISA and other federal cybersecurity agencies have issued multiple warnings in recent weeks about election-eve threats, citing the prevalence of online extremism and fake and often maliciously circulated information about the strength of U.S. election security. Sowing 'doubt, distrust and dissent' about the election U.S. TODAY reported last week that China is stepping up its efforts to use cyber operations to influence the midterms, especially by creating false narratives online that undermine confidence in voting and in democracy itself. More broadly, DHS and FBI officials have warned that Russiaand possibly Iranare also seeking to spread disinformation about the elections in an effort to sow discord among Americans and undermine confidence in election integrity. Such influence operations are nothing new. They were a central part of Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which ranged from promoting false narratives about the election and even hacking into the computers of the Democratic National Committee and releasing stolen emails aimed at embarrassing the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In July 2018, the FBI charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers in that case. Authorities said the Russian operatives used phishing attempts to gain access to campaign officials' computers, and authorities have since worked with campaigns to bolster their defenses against such attacks. Iran was especially active in conducting such operations in the 2020 elections, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded. Last November, for instance, the Justice Department charged two Iranian nationals for their part in allegedly targeting the 2020 election. In the current election season, Iran has shown a continued willingness to "take advantage of election-integrity narratives that come up in the U.S. ecosystem," one of the senior FBI officials said at the recent election security briefing. And Russia, on the ropes in its war against Ukraine, has resorted to ramped up disinformation campaigns in recent weeks, including pushing false narratives that seek to undermine election integrity, the senior FBI officials said. Current and former election security officials say they are especially concerned that such disinformation efforts will find a receptive audience among conservatives who have spent the past two years since former President Donald Trump's electoral defeat claiming that U.S. elections have been rigged against their candidates and in favor of Democrats. Numerous investigations have found no truth to those claims, but they are growing in intensity, according to Spaulding and others. "What we see now is a more dynamic information environment that seeks to leverage doubt, distrust and dissent about the elections process, largely driven by untruths about how elections are run in the United States," said Matt Masterson, a former DHS cybersecurity official who is now director of Information Integrity at Microsoft. Hacking the post-election landscape Spaulding, director of the Defending Democratic Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, isn't the only one worried about efforts to influence the outcome of the election through what she describes as "cognitive hacks," or efforts to use disinformation to covertly influence a target audience. The FBI and DHS circulated a confidential briefing to state and local officials on Oct. 28 that warned about efforts to leverage the "enduring ideological grievances and perceptions of election fraud" that could cause a sharp spike in violence, just like it did after Trump falsely claimed he won the 2020 election and told his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and "fight like hell (or) you're not going to have a country anymore." In their joint intelligence assessment, the FBI and DHS warned that domestic violent extremists pose a heightened threat to the 2022 midterm elections for a variety of reasons, including making physical threats to poll workers. One reason for that, they said, was that perceptions of election fraud would likely result in increased threats of violenceeven if they have no merit and are based on disinformation campaigns. Enduring perceptions of election fraud related to the 2020 general election continue to contribute to the radicalization of some violent extremists and likely would "increase their sensitivity to any new claims perceived as reaffirming their belief that U.S. elections are corrupt," the assessment said. Numerous investigations have found no truth to those claims, but they are growing in intensity, Spaulding and others told U.S. TODAY. Spaulding and the FBI and DHS officials (including Easterly) said "I still think the greatest threat is the cognitive hack; information operations that will undermine public trust and the legitimacy of the electionand that can take lots of forms," said Spaulding, a member of the federal government's Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which was established to develop a strategic U.S. approach to defending America against cyber attacks "of significant consequences." Bad actors could try to sabotage the election through cyber means, including tampering with voter registration databases, she said, or they could simply claim that theyor othersdid, and let the bots and paranoid activists on social media take it from there, "It really wouldn't matter whether you were successful in actually changing any votes or even altering data," Spaulding said. "But you could claim that you had done something that creates doubts." Government officials who are anticipating such activity would quickly beat back such accusations, and show how the vote count was transparent and unaltered in any way. "But we have very fertile ground that has been laid for a segment of the population to be extremely skeptical, even of the state and local election officials who would be conducting these audits and reassuring people," she said. "So there's a greater risk than there's ever been, particularly since we have candidates who have already refused to say that they would accept the outcome of the election if they lose." (c)2022 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Togo is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita gross domestic product of US$644. Most of the population depend on subsistence agriculture. Over 56% live in rural areas and many lack basic services such as healthcare, education and safe drinking water. One of the key resources to develop these basic services and the economy is electricity. Just under half of Togo's 8 million people have no access to electricity, especially in rural areas. Access has increased in Togo from 17% in 2000 to 53% in 2020. This is higher than the figure (43%) for all low income countries but has a long way to go. The small West African country plans to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. Its main challenges are capacity, technology and expertise for generation. To meet demand, Togo has to import most of its energy from Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Nigeria. The country's main source of energy is biomass. About 76% comes from firewood, charcoal and vegetable waste. Petroleum products account for just over a quarter of energy needs, while electricity derived from thermal, hydropower and solar accounts for 4%. This dependence on biomass is a major problem because it's polluting and not very efficient. It can create health problems and environmental damage, which in turn are negative for the economy. There is evidence that clean renewable energysolar, wind and hydro powercan help support economic growth in African countries. Our own study looked at the potential of small scale solar photovoltaic and hydropower in Togo. We found that raising the share of renewable energy through accelerated access to these sources is the most feasible route for electrification in Togo. The study calls for much greater private sector involvement in the energy sector. The current monopoly is a big inhibitor for private investment. The lack of a trained workforce also inhibits development and must be addressed. We recommend the creation of local manufacturing plants to produce solar system components. Our findings could inform decision making about the most suitable renewable energy sources and technologies for the country. This could improve economic growth and enhance Togo's energy mix, reducing its dependence on biomass. The challenges Energy systems in many countries, including Togo, are a balance between energy that's generated centrally at a large scale and energy that's generated at a smaller scale closer to where it's used. Balancing the two sources makes energy supply more reliable and stable. Centralized facilities are good for meeting the energy demand in densely populated areas where it's economically feasible to construct transmission and distribution infrastructure. Distributed generation refers to a variety of technologies like solar panels which may serve a single structure like a home or business, or be part of a micro grid. We asked a broad range of stakeholders for their views on renewable energy development as part of a balanced system in Togo. The respondents included policymakers, academic institutions, financial institutions, non-governmental institutions and private companies. Most of them indicated there was significant potential in renewable energy, primarily solar (70% of respondents) and hydropower (80%). Togo's potential for wind energy is not high. Our study also identified a number of challenges with renewable energy, however. For example, the Togolese government needs to determine the generation potential from various renewable energy sources. The head of a renewable energy research center said: "There is a need for real mapping of potential based on different zones to know the type of renewable energy to install." Other challenges include: the need for external funding to establish networks a guarantee of the sustainability of projects via integrated management provided by the mandated operator, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo the need for regulations such as standardized power purchase agreements and tariffs tax incentives that favor companies with a public interest and not private organizations barriers to private investment. We found that the monopoly of the energy sector is the main inhibitor for private investment. The state electricity company is the sole entity that can market the electricity generated. There is no competition in electricity markets that could reduce the price per unit. Solutions Our findings show that the most feasible route for electrification is to raise the renewable energy share through accelerated access to small-scale solar photovoltaic and hydro power supplied by private companies or public-private partnerships. A more diverse mix of energy sources, including renewables, would improve access and reliability, and boost agricultural and small business. For example a solar powered crop processing unit could help farmers grow, process and store more agricultural products in all seasons of the year. In addition, electricity enables and improves the delivery of social and business services, such as schools, markets and water pumps. Our research identified a need for research into developing the best sources of renewable energy for each location. Awareness and training of the workforce are also needed to help plan and develop renewable energy. Finally, Togo needs government commitment towards achieving sustainable energy supply, in the form of financial resources and steps to free up the energy sector and attract investors. A competitive market would reduce the price of electricity. Looking at the abundance of renewable energy resources in Togo, and the country's financial constraints, the government needs to collaborate more with the private sector. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Twitter employees have been bracing for bad news since Elon Musk completed his acquisition and quickly set about dissolving its board and firing top managers. Thousands of Twitter employees were ordered to stay home Friday to await a bracing round of layoffs that could see half of the payroll axed as new owner Elon Musk launches his major overhaul of the company. A company-wide email seen by AFP said Twitter employees would receive word on their future at the company via email at the start of business Friday, California time. The cull is part of Musk's push to find ways to pay for the mammoth $44 billion deal for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and sold $15.5 billion worth of Tesla shares, his electric car company. Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, has been scrambling to find new ways for Twitter to make money after his mammoth buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 a month for verified accounts. The moves would help overcome the potential loss of advertisers, Twitter's main source of revenue, with many of the world's top brands putting their ad buys on hold, spooked by Musk's well-known disdain for content moderation. The mercurial tycoon on Friday complained on Twitter of a "massive drop in revenue" that he blamed on "activist groups" that were pressuring advertisers. "We did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," he added. This appeared to refer to Musk's recent meeting with civil rights groups in which he heard concerns that Twitter would open the floodgates to hate speech. In an effort to soothe nerves, Musk had vowed that Twitter will not become a "free-for-all hellscape", but his pledge was quickly followed by a tweet relaying a conspiracy theory about an assault on the husband of the US House Speaker. Though extremely influential with opinion-makers and celebrities, the California company has long struggled to generate profit and has failed to keep pace with Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in gaining new users. "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce," the company email said. The email did not give a number but the Washington Post and New York Times reported that about half of Twitter's 7,500 employeesmostly based in San Franciscowill be let go. 'Return home' The company said that in order to "ensure the safety" of employees and sensitive data, the main offices would remain closed and all badge access suspended. "Those on the way to the office should turn around and return home," the email added. It also said that those still employed at the company would find out on their company email, while those shown the door would get notice on their personal email. Some workers had already begun to learn their fates and took to Twitter to say goodbye to colleagues. "Spoiler Alert: I do not have a job," tweeted ex-employee Blake Herzinger as others reported losing access to company servers and email accounts. Twitter employees have been bracing for this kind of bad news since Musk completed his acquisition late last week and quickly set about dissolving its board and firing its chief executive and top managers. Late on Thursday, a group of five Twitter employees who had already been fired filed a class action complaint against the company on the grounds that they had not been given the required 60-day notice period as required by law. The lawsuit references the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which provides workers a right to advance notice in cases of mass layoffs or plant closings. 2022 AFP Members of the Rich Township High School District 227 marching band celebrate in October after winning first place at the Chicago Classic contest at Soldier Field. (School District 227) Big October for Rich Township Marching Machine The Mighty Marching Machine Rich Township High School District 227s marching band under the direction of Phil Crews had a winning October, with a victory at the Chicago Classic Battle of Bands and taking numerous titles at the 2022 Oblong Spooktacular Band Festival. As October opened, the marching band competed at the annual Chicago Classic at Soldier Field. They competed against seven other schools and were named baddest band in the land, taking home first place. Advertisement Then last week, the Mighty Marching Machine went to Oblong, in central Illinois, to compete in the annual Spooktacular Band Festival. The band competed against 11 other schools and had a clean sweep in the competition, being named the Grand Champions of the event, and winning 1st Place in Parade Band, 1st Place in Field Show, 1st Place in Drum Majors and 1st Place in Percussion. H-F named Unified Champion school Homewood-Flossmoor High School was named a National Unified Champion School by Special Olympics in September, one of only two schools to earn the status in Illinois. It was the second time the school in Flossmoor earned the title. Advertisement The school was honored for its Unified Champion program that promotes meaningful social inclusion by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities to create accepting school environments, according to the school. H-F first was named a Champion school during the 2018-19 school year. Swallow Cliff DAR donates baby supplies Members of the Swallow Cliff Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution gather for a photo at the group's 41st anniversary luncheon after they completed a service project of filling reusable bags with donated baby supplies. (Swallow Cliff DAR) At the 41st anniversary luncheon of the Swallow Cliff Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, in recognition of October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, chapter members completed a service project of filling 36 reusable bags with donated baby supplies. The bags were donated to the Ronald McDonald House near Advocate Children Hospital in Oak Lawn for use by parents staying with sick children and needing infant care items, as well as to the Crisis Center for South Suburbia and the Midwest Shelter to be given to mothers who have escaped abusive situations. 127th Street closed for 2 weeks in Crestwood To accommodate the installation of a new water main, 127th Street (Illinois 83) is scheduled to be closed for two weeks in both directions, just before and after the bridge over the Cal Sag Channel in Crestwood. The work was scheduled to begin Friday. During that time, a posted detour will direct traffic to Cicero Avenue, 135th Street and Harlem Avenue. Left turns at the intersection will continue to be prohibited. After the work is completed, traffic will return to staged construction, with one lane in each direction and left turns prohibited at the intersection. The project is anticipated to be completed in summer 2023. Women Who Care donate $6K to Meals on Wheels From left, Samantha Wallace, Diannaha Thompson and Gabrielle Haywood of Meals on Wheels join Maribeth Carlson of 100+ Women Who Care of Will County last week as the group donated more than $6,000 to the charity. - Original Credit: (Women Who Care of Will County) 100+ Women Who Care of Will County donated $6,450 to Meals on Wheels last week. The donation will help fund the Community Cafes and home delivery of meals to eligible older adults for Will County. Officials from the organization were presented the checks on Oct. 27. Advertisement The Women Who Care group contributes quarterly to Will County charities together as a group to increase the donation impact. At each of the quarterly meetings 100+ WWC members nominate charities, three are chosen at random, and after a brief presentation, the members vote on which charity to support. Once the winning charity is announced, everyone writes a $100 check directly to that charity. 100+ Women of Will County of Will County has raised over $135,400 for local charities. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > The groups next meeting is from 6 to 7 p.m. Nov. 8. More information is at www.100wwc-will.org. Cook County offers free tech training for veterans The Chicago Cook Technology Academy was launched last month by Cook County officials and the National Able Network. This free 7-week program, fully funded and run by Cook County, provides veterans with critical career skills in the technology industry. The Tech Academy programming is based on curriculum developed for Microsofts Software and Systems Academy and has been donated by Microsoft at no cost to Cook County, which is the second region in the nation to offer this programming. The Tech Academy is available to all qualifying veterans but is tailored for service members transitioning out of the military. Participants are trained in cloud development or cloud administration by National Able Networks IT Career Lab instructors and upon completion will have the opportunity to interview for a full-time position in entry level IT fields with the Cook County Department of Veterans Affairs network of IT hiring partners. Veterans who live in Chicago or suburban Cook County are encouraged to apply for the Tech Academy, which is hosting five sessions through 2024. Twelve students are in the first training session that began Oct. 19. The next class offering will be in spring 2023. Advertisement More information is at www.cookcountyil.gov/service/chicago-cook-technology-academy. Send news to communitynews@southtownstar.com. In the November race for Texas governor, two prolific fundraisers are vying to be the chief executive of the state. Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, who is seeking his third term in office, has reported huge fundraising hauls in the past, amassing staggering amounts of cash in his campaign coffers. However, Democratic challenger Beto ORourke reported raising $27.6 million from late February through June, which is the most a candidate for state office in Texas has ever raised in a single reporting period. Because Texas has no campaign finance contribution limits, its possible both candidates will accumulate and spend record-breaking amounts of campaign cash by Election Day. The Texas Tribune has been tracking contributions, expenditures and cash on hand for both candidates since ORourke officially entered the race in November last year. These are the latest numbers ahead of Election Day. There will be one last update in January with final fundraising numbers for the 2022 midterms. The data is made public by the Texas Ethics Commission. Heres how they compare. How much have the candidates raised so far? Bolstered by his record-breaking figures over the past few months, ORourke has raised almost $6 million more than Abbott as of Oct. 29, 2022. And ORourke has over $500,000 more cash on hand than Abbott. But that wasnt always the case: In June 2021, Abbott had a campaign balance of over $55 million, and Abbott has spent almost twice as much money as his opponent, including a June ad buy worth nearly $20 million. All told, the candidates together have raised a combined $147 million, have spent almost $196 million and have a combined total of almost $8 million in their campaign coffers. Candidates fundraising comparison On his first day in the gubernatorial race in November 2021, ORourke received donations worth a total of $1.7 million from his Powered by People PAC, which has been raising money since 2019 to boost Texas Democrats. Since then, ORourke received four major fundraising bumps: one right after the primary election; one after he confronted Abbott at a press conference following the school shooting in Uvalde in late May; one after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in late June; and one at the end of September, a couple of weeks ahead of the voter registration deadline. However, Abbott has been a prolific fundraiser for years, which gave him the upper hand earlier in the race. How many donations came from within Texas? Usually, state candidates in Texas get the majority of their donations from Texans. However, both candidates have national profiles, with Abbott regularly appearing on Fox News and ORourke running for president in 2020. That has resulted in both candidates receiving a large number of donations from outside Texas. Just over 40% of the sum of ORourkes donations came from out-of-state donors, compared with 17% of Abbotts. ORourke received about 391,496 individual donations from outside the state, while Abbott received roughly 109,493. As of Oct. 29, 2022, Abbott received a greater percentage of his money from Texas donors compared with ORourke. This means that overall, Abbotts Texas donors gave more than ORourkes Texas donors. How many were small-dollar donations? As of Oct. 29, 2022, the overwhelming percentage of donations both candidates received are worth $200 or less. Those donations have added up, bringing in about $9.7 million for Abbott and $37.8 million for ORourke. Small donors make up almost half of the total amount ORourke raised. Which individuals donated the most? Because Texas doesnt have limits on contribution amounts, rich and powerful people can cut massive checks to campaigns. Abbotts biggest individual donors have always come from the energy industry, and this time is no exception, with energy tycoons making up 40% of his top 10 donors. Oil and gas executives S. Javaid Anwar and Gary Martin, in particular, have been regular contributors to Abbott for years. In addition, Abbott has received donations from deep-pocketed donors in the real estate industry such as Edward Roski Jr., president of Majestic Realty in California, who gave $1.5 million, as well as three donations of $1 million each from supporters in finance and casinos. ORourke received $2.2 million from Austin couple Simone Coxe, who has worked in communications, and Tench Coxe, a former venture capitalist. He also received $1.5 million from billionaire George Soros, who is known for backing liberal candidates. ORourkes top donors come from industries including finance, media and philanthropy. In addition, cryptocurrency CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who gave ORourke $1 million, is under investigation for breaking the states securities law. Which organizations donated the most? Organizations such as political action committees or industry associations also can give directly to candidate campaigns. The organizations that donated the most money to Abbott this reporting period have previously given to the governor. The Stockyards Station Hotel, recently acquired by Roskis Majestic Realty, donated over $382,000 in event expenses while HillCo PAC, an Austin lobbyist firm, donated a total of $336,000. In addition, both Gulf States Toyota Inc. State PAC and Q-PAC, which are tied to billionaire Dan Friedkin and Geoffrey Raynor, respectively, have also donated to Abbott in the past. ORourkes Powered by People PAC gave $1.7 million to his own campaign. The other organizations on the list include law firms, teachers groups and liberal political action committees. Where in Texas did donations come from? Breaking down the contributions by ZIP code in Texas, ORourke received more money from donors in major cities, which are Democratic strongholds. Abbott raised more in smaller cities and rural areas. Both candidates have received more campaign cash from ZIP codes where wealthier people live because thats who tends to give money to politicians on both sides of the aisle. In addition, the top ZIP codes for both candidates are often those where political action committees are based. DALLAS Texas schools would need silent panic buttons in classrooms and two-way emergency radios on campus under a new proposed state rule. The proposed school safety standards rule also would require that all doors and windows that lead into school buildings are locked and monitored. The Texas Education Agency released the specifics of the proposed rule Thursday. The proposal is the latest effort to beef up school safety in the wake of Texas deadliest school shooting that killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in May. In the days following the shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the agency and education commissioner Mike Morath to develop safety rules for school buildings, including the enforcement of weekly door inspections to ensure they close and lock. In the coming weeks, school districts can apply for grants from the agency for spending on various security-related costs over the next two years and/or toward the installment of silent panic alert technology this year, according to the agencys guidance. Grant funds will be awarded using a per-pupil count, but districts will receive at least $200,000 to ensure small rural district also can tackle infrastructure costs. The panic alert technology generally would allow campus staff to manually press a button or use a software application to signal a life-threatening emergency, such as an active shooter or intruder. The system, which can already be found in some banks and hospitals, should notify administrators and emergency responders of the threat. Districts would be required to conduct twice-yearly maintenance checks on two-way radio systems used by school administrators and staff to ensure the radios work inside buildings and can communicate with law enforcement and first responders. Poor radio communications are among the concerns raised about how law enforcement handled the May 24 shooting in Uvalde and why they didnt confront the gunman for more than an hour. Pete Arredondo, former police chief for the Uvalde school district, has said that even before the May shooting, he knew police radios often didnt work inside schools. The agencys proposed rule also outlines how often maintenance must be performed on doors, windows and communication systems as well as how administrators should report noncompliance. The shooter in Uvalde gained access to Robb Elementary through an unlocked exterior door, although its not clear how the door was able to be opened. In June, TEA issued new safety guidance outlining the process for exterior door checks and directed school districts to convene their safety and security committees to review their safety plans. Since then, Abbott also announced the hiring of John Scott, a former U.S. Secret Service agent, to serve as the agencys new chief of school safety and security and oversee Texas school safety efforts. Earlier this month, Abbott and other Republican legislative leaders shifted $775 million to border security and school safety, including $400 million to assist school districts in replacing or upgrading doors, windows, fencing, communication tools and other safety measures. As school officials want heightened security, the need for additional funding to cover the severe costs is high. Building designs and age vary greatly, with many campuses more than 50 years old. Some campuses may not have security vestibules, modern door locks or other technology systems that have increasingly been championed amid the spike in school shootings. Federal officials also recently granted nearly $94 million to Texas schools to support community partnerships and provide students with safer and healthier learning environments. Members of the public can weigh in on the proposed rule from Nov. 11 to Dec. 12, before a final version is submitted to the Texas Registrar. If adopted, the rule would go into effect within two days of submission. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Numerous nations are represented during the Grand Entry at the Midwest SOARRING Foundations annual Harvest Pow Wow. This years event will be held Nov. 12-13 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. (Colordance Design) Crowds gather to watch the daily Grand Entry, but the dancers in traditional attire also draw inquisitive spectators at the Midwest SOARRING Harvest Pow Wow. We have many, many beautiful regalia that are just amazing to look at. The dancers spend many hours making that, said Joseph Standing Bear Schranz, founder and president of Midwest SOARRING Foundation. You cant buy it at Wal-Mart. Advertisement In the old days we made the outfits so we could dance for our creator. So its a gift to the creator from us being able to dance, he said. Now in the newer days theres so many different materials and things we didnt have in the old days so the outfits are more flamboyant. The detailed regalia will be worn during Midwest SOARRINGs 26th Annual Harvest Pow Wow, held from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Nov. 12 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 13 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. The Grand Entry will take place at 1 and 7 p.m. Nov. 12 and 1 p.m. Nov. 13. Advertisement Hosted by the Lockport-based nonprofit Midwest SOARRING (Save Our Ancestors Remains & Resources Indigeneous Network Group) Foundation, the annual pow wow is an intertribal traditional event that celebrates life and friendship. Its a cultural gathering place for our people to express our culture and to be amongst ourselves, Schranz said. But its also a place for other people to learn about us. So many people think the pow wows are just for those who are Native American, he said. Its not, its for everybody, Schranz said. We share our culture and were happy that so many attendees come and go away with a better feeling about themselves. The two days will feature drumming, dancers, a kids corner, arts and crafts, guest speakers, programs and more. Were going to have at least three of our big drums, Schranz said. One from Indiana and two from Wisconsin. Vendors from as far away as Canada will sell items including silver work, beadwork and carved wooden feathers, he said. Live hawk demonstrations, performances by Aztec dancers and a Native flute player will also be presented. Advertisement And a couple of surprises as long the way, Schranz said. The pow wow is expected to draw members of close to two dozen tribes. We never know exactly but I would say easily theres 20 or more tribes that are there, Schranz said. There will be Navajo, there will be Apache, there will be Ojibwe, Cherokee. Theres quite a few different tribes. At one time prior to contact we had over 700 native nations in North America. I believe right now weve got 566, he said. The pow wow will be held rain or shine, as the move this year to the fairgrounds in Wheaton provides building space for the activities. The last one we did was about three years ago, he said. And it rained that day so we only had an hour pow wow. Advertisement Previously the pow wow was held at Naper Settlement in Naperville. We finally decided because its our main fundraiser that we couldnt afford to lose any more revenue that way so its going to be indoors from now on, Schranz said. Money raised at the pow wow helps fund scholarships as well as programs and classes by Midwest SOARRING. A bunch of things to increase peoples knowledge not only about us but about themselves and how they can fit in the environment in a little better way, he said. Schranz said Midwest SOARRING has worked with are area forest preserves and environmental organizations over the years. Weve saved somewhere between 1,900 and 2,000 acres in Illinois of sacred sites since I first started working on this many years ago, he said. Advertisement An activist for more than 50 years, Schranz said he believes we must protect the earth the best that we can. People understand our environmental stance and what we represent. And I think that we all have to join together to really protect what we have left. Its literally a matter of life and death, he said. Im hoping that the next generation is not going to suffer for previous generations deficiencies in knowing how to care for things. 26th Annual Harvest Pow Wow When: Nov. 12-13 Where: DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton Tickets: $15 adult; $10 seniors (62+); $7 children age 3-12; children under age 3 are free Advertisement Information: 773-585-8613; midwestsoarring.org or harvestpowwow.com/tickets.html Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. Increased rain in Illinois and Indiana. Less rain in some Nebraska communities. Muggier weather. Changes in winds. Intense irrigation in Nebraska is having a complex effect on the weather, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln say. Some of the impacts are very discernible, you can feel it on a day-to-day basis. Other impacts may not be noticeable immediately, said Rezaul Mahmood, a professor at the UNL School of Natural Resources and director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center. Irrigation impacts our weather, climate and well-being in many different ways. Scientists have been studying the impact of irrigation on weather for years because of irrigations importance to global food security and the need to understand how its increasing use might change the weather. Irrigated fields produce about 40% of the worlds food, and its use is growing. What have scientists found? The most noticeable, localized effect that irrigation has on the weather is to make an area more humid, Mahmood said. People sense that through muggier and more uncomfortable weather. That humidity also suppresses temperatures, so its harder for hot weather to generate records. Other changes arent discernible by people but can be detected through large-scale scientific studies, analysis of decades of data and sophisticated computer modeling. Its this type of research that has led scientists to conclude that irrigation is changing wind patterns locally and affecting rainfall patterns over a large area. Irrigation in Nebraska appears to have led to slight decreases in rainfall within the most heavily irrigated areas, while potentially causing slight increases in rainfall many hundreds of miles away, Mahmood said. States as far away as Indiana may be seeing slight increases in rain due to irrigation in Nebraska, Mahmood said. While the amount of rain involved is minor, a fraction of an inch over decades, the science is very solid, Mahmood said. Nebraska, it turns out, is the perfect laboratory to study irrigation, Mahmood said. The state leads the U.S. in irrigated land, and the U.S. ranks third globally for amount of irrigated land. In Nebraska, researchers have access to adjacent swaths of cropland that are very different in terms of rainfall patterns and irrigation potential. The water-rich Ogallala Aquifer provides a foundation for widespread irrigation over semi-arid land in central Nebraska. The aquifer doesnt extend farther east to areas where rainfall is more plentiful, so crops in those areas depend upon rain. We can observe the transition from rainfed to irrigated agriculture, he said. Rainfall changes as you go west; one or two counties can make a difference. By its very nature, irrigation leads to artificial conditions. Irrigated soil is wetter than rainfed soil because its watered more regularly. And its watered under hotter weather when the sun is out and temperatures are up. Rain, by its nature, falls on cloudy, cooler days. Using a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers from six institutions undertook a massive study of irrigation in Nebraska in 2018, and that study is still bearing fruit. Partnering with UNL were Western Kentucky University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of Colorado Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Center for Severe Weather Research. Dubbed GRAINEX for the Great Plains Irrigation Experiment, the study placed weather sensing equipment across 3,600 square miles of southeastern Nebraska from Merrick County to Johnson County. Mamood is the principal investigator for the study. Results continue to be studied. Earlier this year, Mahmood and his colleagues published research explaining how irrigation affects wind patterns. That study was published in the March edition of Geophysical Research Letters. Mahmood said irrigation weakens a type of afternoon wind that is important to cloud formation. Its not clear, he said, how much impact the change has on clouds and storms. But the findings point to the importance of Nebraska as a field laboratory for the study of irrigation. For the first time, we have been able to collect this kind of extensive data, and that allowed us to investigate (local) wind circulation, he said. That has not been done before. Studies such as these have wide-ranging implications. Just as water managers understand that aquifers arent limitless supplies of water, they now understand that irrigation is affecting weather. As climate change heats up the Earths atmosphere and more irrigation is undertaken, its possible that the effects of irrigation will become more pronounced. The bottom line is that when you change land use, that impacts the weather and climate of an area, Mahmood said. Planning and adaption, those are things we need to work on. Ann Martin, a painter from Doniphan, is the featured artist for the November exhibit at the Studio 10 Art Gallery in Railside. Martin said she believes Mother Nature is the greatest artist of all and her talent in most evident in skies and scenery found in the Central Nebraska area. And Martin takes that seriously, with most of her paintings based on (my) deep love of the endless horizons, amazing clouds and beautiful terrain around Doniphan. Martins work is a realistic style, inserting or changing elements in a way that honors the uniqueness of Central Nebraska. Oils are her preferred medium because they allow for the subtle blending of colors and textures, and much of her work is on larger canvases to capture the vastness of the Nebraska sky. In addition to landscapes, she enjoys painting people, animals, and flowers, and have included samples of these in her show. Martin graduated from Hastings College in 1978 and retired in late 2018 from Idea Bank, an advertising and marketing firm located in Hastings she cofounded in 1982. She is currently president of the Hastings College Board of Trustees and serves on other not-for-profit boards. A reception to honor the artist is planned for 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at Studio 10, 112 W. Third St. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information call 308-381-4001. Gift Gallery opens Saturday at GOLA HASTINGS The Gallery on Lincoln Avenue in Hastings will feature a GIFT GALLERY through the holiday season, focusing on original works of art that can be purchased for less and $100. In addition to gallery members Kay Grimminger, Kenneth Bassett, Susanne Osberg and Marilyn Reynolds and consignor Sally Jurgensmier, area rtists with works included in the gallery are: Lillian Larson of Clay Center; Jeff Montag, Beth Gardner and Ginger Wilson of Kearney; Gwen Lewis and Christie Lewis of Red Cloud; Cindy Uden, Barbara Kluver, Chris Goedert, Mary Marie Dixson Jeremy Daniels, Kris Allphin and Rick Houchen of Hastings; Dave Lovekin of Blue Hill; Kim Grothem of Juniata; Alex Shaw of Holstein; and Dorothy Uhrmacher of Grand Island. Items available in the Gift Gallery include handmade baskets, ceramics, candles, metal sculptures, ornaments, and paintings of different mediums, and rendered in many styles. A reception to meet the artists and preview the items for sale is set for 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the gallery, 221 N. Lincoln Ave. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Grand Island Public Library exhibit features photos from Nia Karmann The Grand Island Public Library Art Alcove will showcase local photographer Nia Karmann through Thursday, Dec. 1. Having the opportunity to share my view of life and the amazing beauty and wonder God has given me is my passion, Karmann said. Views from a wheelchair are always unique and many times what I see in a crowd is obstructed by the surrounding people. But, when the crowd clears, I use my upbeat, creative attitude to capture the beautiful world around us. My unique perspective of unusual angles, shapes, and scenes visible only from my wheelchair helps make my photography individual. The library will offer a chance to meet the artist and view her photographs during a reception set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7. The Grand Island Public Library, 1124 W. Second St., is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Form more information, call 308-385-5333 or check online at gilibrary.org/ . Art Gala planned in Kearney KEARNEY The Kearney Artists Guild will host its inaugural Art Gala this weekend at the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 to 4 p.m. Sunday, at the Merryman, 225 W. 22nd St Twenty local artists and artisans will have their work for sale for holiday gift-giving, or for homes and offices. For more information, check out the Kearney Artists Guild page on Facebook. All during the month of November, Hy-Vee shoppers will be able to donate to Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity while theyre at the store. Paint cans are set up in the checkout areas to accept donations from customers. The drive is a buildup to Giving Tuesday, a nationwide charitable event on Nov. 29. As Habitat for Humanity approaches the end of the year, members of the organization count their blessings and are extremely grateful to be able to thank their community year after year for their continued support and donations, says a news release. Holidays are extra special to us. Houses are where we gather friends and family for warm smiles and hearty meals. It is in this spirit of gratitude and thankfulness, Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity announce their partnership with Grand Island Hy-Vee, the release continues. Donations during November will help further the vision of bringing safe, decent and affordable housing in our community, the news release says. Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity would like to thank Hy-Vee for their continued partnership this holiday season. Together, we build a foundation of giving this holiday season. Grand Islands Gary Thompson Agency has received the 2022 Community Beautification Award from the Regional Planning Commission. GTA Insurance Group, located at 3234 W Schimmer Dr., was recognized for its improvements to the site off of Highway 281. That is a building that there has been an incredible amount of change there as an entrance to the city of Grand Island, said Regional Planner Chad Nabity at Wednesdays meeting of the RPC board. I remember going to wedding receptions there when I was in college, and the building didnt get better, but it has in the last couple of years. GTA President Krae Dutoit accepted the honorary plaque, calling the site a great location. Were excited, Dutoit told the board. The building turned out fantastic. It was a three-year vision process to get to that point. Its a great location for us as a corporate headquarters. He added, We couldnt be more excited about our future here and everything weve got going on. Other nominees included Grand Islands Southeast Commons and South Locust Starbucks, and Doniphans Cardinal Splash & Dash. They were all eligible for the award as commercial entities that have undergone beautification efforts, explained Nabity. Nominees could not be city-sponsored projects. Doniphan was the only nominee from outside of Grand Island. If we dont have at least two nominees, we dont give an award, so we will hold them over for next year, but I wanted to recognize that they were nominated, said Nabity. Well hold them over and consider them with additional ones from small towns and the county. Community Recognition nominees this year were Railsides Sculpture Walk, Village of Alda, and downtown Wood River. These are not eligible to win the award, but are worthy of recognition, said Nabity. Nabity especially encouraged board members and meeting attendees to do the Sculpture Walk, via Grand Island Tourism. You need to do it now while its still nice out, he said. Then they will change next spring. There will be new sculptures out here. Alda was recognized for restoring its community clocktower. An original clocktower there was blown over last year by high winds, explained RPC Board Member Les Ruge. The community had enough people razzing them because the clock wasnt there, so no one could see when they were coming to town, said Ruge, so the village decided to go ahead and restructure that and rebuild the clocktower. Nabity applauded the effort. Some of those things help to create that community identity and when they disappear the community members say, I miss that. And thats the story here, he said. Wood Rivers downtown improvements included landscaping and added green space to what would otherwise be hardscape, said Nabity. It was basically three intersections that they redid with crosswalks and the bump outs, said RPC Board Member Tyler Doane. And those new light poles are pretty nice, too. Nabity had hoped for more nominations this year, he said. We didnt get quite as many this year as we have in years past, so next year when we do this remember it and hopefully well get more, he said. The honorary plaque is not paid for with taxpayers dollars, noted Nabity. Sponsors this year include Equitable Bank, Cornerstone Bank, Home Federal Savings & Loan, Five Points Bank, Exchange Bank, Pinnacle Bank and Heritage Bank. The banks donate the money to us so we can afford to buy the plaques, he said. We like to recognize those banks for supporting this program, and theyve been doing it for over 40 years. While Republicans have a firm hold on Nebraskas state government, the states Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District has morphed into a swing district in the last 15 years and is the states only consistently competitive U.S. House seat. It is currently held by Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general who is seeking his fourth term in the face of a challenge from Democrat Tony Vargas. Vargas is a state lawmaker from Omaha who has touted his experience as a former teacher and member of the Omaha Public Schools Board. Polls have shown the two locked in a tight race, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named it one of its top competitive House districts that are either open or held by Republicans. State Republicans have twice redrawn the districts boundaries in an attempt to help their partys candidates, in part because of embarrassment that under Nebraskas unique Electoral College rules, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won the 2nd District vote in 2008 and Democrat Joe Biden did the same in 2020. Maine is the only other state that has eschewed a winner-take-all approach and allows its electoral votes to be split between candidates. Republicans were expected to have less trouble keeping control of Nebraskas two other congressional districts. Republicans maintain strong control of statewide offices in Nebraska, which hasnt elected a Democrat as governor since 1994. But Democrats are hoping to retain enough legislative seats in the officially nonpartisan, one-house legislature to maintain filibuster pressure on the GOPs agenda. That agenda includes a plan to pass a near total abortion ban, as other Republican-controlled states have done in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade last June. Heres a look at what to expect on election night: ELECTION NIGHT The last polls close at 9 p.m. ET. The majority of the state is in the Central Time Zone and closes at 8 p.m. CT.; 19 counties are in the Mountain Time Zone and close at 7 p.m. MT. HOW NEBRASKA VOTES Nebraska conducts in-person voting on Election Day at poll sites. Write-in votes are permitted in both primary and general elections. Early voting is allowed, but an application is required eligibility is not determined at the time of voting. The absentee voting period runs 30 days to the day before Election Day. People who are incarcerated, on parole or on probation are barred from voting. Persons convicted of a felony are automatically permitted to vote two years after completion of their sentence for all convictions except treason. If a voter has not confirmed their address and has not voted in two consecutive general elections, they are removed. Douglas, Saunders and Sarpy, the counties that include and surround Omaha, should be watched closely. These are relatively populous, and voting patterns are shifting such that Democratic candidates are becoming competitive. DECISION NOTES AP will tabulate 32 races in the Nebraska general election: Governor, U.S. House Districts 1-3, treasurer, attorney general, and auditor, three ballot measures and 22 state legislative races. Counties may begin counting no earlier than 24 hours before poll opening at the discretion of the county clerk. Historically, most counties count on Election Day both before and after poll close and finish the count by the end of the night. The AP may call a statewide or U.S. House race in which the margin between the top two candidates is 0.5% or less, if we determine the lead is too large for a recount to change the outcome. The AP will not call down-ballot races on election night if the margin between the top two candidates is less than 2% or if the leading candidate is within 2% of the 50% runoff threshold. The AP will revisit those races later in the week to confirm there arent enough outstanding votes left to count that could change the outcome. WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW? Q: WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE PRIMARY? A: Nebraska has dealt well with the increase in advance voting, and most results were delivered by the end of election night. The populous counties around Omaha delivered results later than many of the smaller counties. Q: WHATS CHANGED SINCE THE PANDEMIC ELECTION OF 2020? A: Absentee voting increased dramatically in 2020. In both the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, absentee ballots accounted for 26 percent of votes overall. In 2020, absentee ballots spiked to 56 percent of the total. The change in pattern did not materially impact the states ability to provide results. Q: WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE? A: As of October 26. 104,766 advance ballots have been cast. Q: HOW LONG DOES COUNTING USUALLY TAKE? A: Counting is typically swift and efficient. About half of Nebraskas counties are one and done and historically post the vote total in a single update on election night. Most races are typically callable by the end of the night. Q: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER TUESDAY? A: Some statewide races, such as the hotly contested race for the 2nd Congressional district, may not be callable by the end of the night if results in some counties are incomplete, or if the margin does not put them in a callable status. QUOTABLE You dont lie about your position unless you know its going to cost you votes. Omaha state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a staunch supporter of abortion access, addressing reports that her anti-abortion Republican challenger, Christian Mirch, has gone door to door in her district telling abortion access supporters that he and Cavanaugh have essentially the same views on abortion YORK A bench warrant has been issued for Prosper Gilpin, 21, one of four former college students accused of beating a man, stealing his property and breaking into multiple vehicles in York, as he failed to show up this week for re-sentencing after he violated the terms of his probation. The now-Winnebago resident was earlier sentenced in York County District Court to probation for the amended charges of misdemeanor criminal mischief and misdemeanor theft. He was initially charged with the following: Robbery, a Class 2 felony Conspiracy to commit a Class 2 felony, a Class 2 felony Criminal possession of multiple financial transaction devices, a Class 4 felony Third degree assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor Identity fraud, a Class 1 misdemeanor The case began when the York Police Department was dispatched to 6 Arbor Court in reference to an assault that took place on the college campus, according to the probable cause affidavit filed with the York County Court. The victim told police he was on a walk, listening to music, around 5 a.m., and was in the area of the colleges prayer chapel when someone grabbed him from behind and pushed him to the ground. Two individuals punched and kicked him while he was on the ground. He attempted to fight back but could not. He sustained superficial abrasions to both knees. He stated that being punched and kicked caused him pain. The two individuals began going through his pockets but he did not have anything in them. The individuals took the hat he was wearing, which was then on the ground, and ran away. The victim said there were four individuals in the group. Only two assaulted him and deprived him of his property by force, the officers report says. He was able to provide descriptions of the individuals. He said he recognized all four individuals as York College students as he works in the cafeteria and has seen them before. At 5:52 a.m., police officers were dispatched to the 600 Block of N. Iowa Ave., on the report of an attempted vehicle break-in. Officers were advised the people fled the scene after the reporting partys car alarm went off. Officers were told the suspects fled in a darker colored sporty car. The reporting party said the vehicle was occupied by more than one person. At 6 a.m., a sergeant with the police department located a gray Infiniti G35 driving in the area of 11th Street and North Nebraska Ave. A traffic stop was initiated due to a traffic infraction. Another officer arrived and observed that the description of the four men by the earlier victim matched the description of the occupants of the vehicle. Officers also saw a number of Nebraska vehicle registrations throughout the vehicle, which was strange because the vehicle had California license plates. All four occupants were asked to exit the vehicle. The driver was identified as Robbie Lovejoy Jr., the officer says in the affidavit filed with the court. The front seat passenger was identified as Fernando Servin Jr. The drivers side rear passenger was identified as Isaiah Hernandez-Jasso. And the passengers side rear passenger was identified as Prosper Gilpin. It should be noted the victim immediately identified his assailants, through a drive-by line-up. He also identified Jasso and Servin as the men who assaulted him, the affidavit says. Servin and Jasso were arrested for robbery and assault. Later, Lovejoy told officers he saw Fernando and Jasso assault (the man) and take his hat. He said he did not know why. He also stated he was just driving them around so Fernando and Jasso could steal items out of vehicles. He said he and Gilpin stayed in the car the entire time the group was driving around York. The affidavit says Lovejoy was found to have no operators license, Gilpin was under the influence of alcohol and the other two were arrested for that reason, a tow truck was called. The wind made it nearly impossible to conduct a tow inventory search as papers were flying out the door. The vehicle was taken to an indoor location where it was searched. During the search, officers located items belonging to 16 victims. Most of which were vehicle registrations, insurance cards and various vehicle related documents. Most notably, officers located a womans wallet containing her drivers license, a bank-issued checkbook and multiple bank cards. Officers also located another bank card issued to a man. Gilpin was sentenced to two years of traditional probation but now that he has been found in non-compliance, he could be sentenced to a term of incarceration as a maximum option for the court. Another sentencing date will be set after he is taken into custody. CARTERVILLE Youve seen the commercials with Jimmy JJ Walker, William Shatner and Joe Namath saying call for information about our Medicare plans. And, you may be getting phone calls saying the same thing. Simply put, Medicare is a federal health insurance available to those 65 or older, younger people with disabilities and people with end stage renal disease. Medicare open enrollment runs through Dec. 7. During this period, anyone on Medicare can join, switch or drop Medicare healthcare coverage. Sarah Miller is a SHIP counselor at Shawnee Health Care, SHIP is the Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) which provides free statewide health insurance counseling service for Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers. Here are some of Millers tips for finding the best Medicare plans: The best way to start is to go to medicare.gov and create an account, Miller said. She said the website allows those interested in finding a plan the opportunity to enter medications and search for a plan that best suits your needs. Miller said Medicare is so complex and so important that you dont want to wait until the last minute to do your research. The other big thing is plans change every year, Miller said. A plan may cover a drug one year, and then drop it the next year. It might change its in-network providers. This year is the first year insulin will be capped for Medicare recipients at $35 a month. In the past few years, networks have been added to Medicare Advantage plans. Those plans are managed by health insurance companies and combine all benefits into one plan. When a plan has a network, its important to make sure your doctors are in the network. Miller said that plans that advertise on television often have networks, and those networks do not have many local providers. Miller suggests calling before you enroll to see if your doctors are in the network, as well as asking about local hospitals and other in-network providers in your area. The problem is people see an ad on television and enroll in that plan. Then Shawnee or SIH is not in the network. They cant even access hospitals, Miller said, adding that she encourages people to ignore the ads. Another good way to go is to work with a SHIP counselor. They can help you look at specific needs and find a plan that works for you. SHIP counselors like Miller are required to help anyone who qualifies for Medicare. Many health organizations, like Shawnee have SHIP counselors, as well as agencies that work with seniors, such as Egyptian Area Agency on Aging. Our licenses require us to help anyone who comes in, Miller said. You can call a SHIP counselor by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. Editors Note: This op-ed was distributed by Capitol News Illinois on behalf of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors own. Most Americans have a strong connection to our country, but our most tangible, visceral, and enduring attachments are to the communities in which we live. These are the places that we call home and that shape us from our earliest days to our final years. Community Foundations strengthen the social and economic fabric of our communities, blending the best features of skilled intelligence agencies and shrewd investment banks. They identify and respond to social and economic needs in our communities and marshal resources to address them. They make communities safer, more vibrant, and more productive. Community Foundations are public charities that are funded by scores of donors and governed by boards that reflect the communities they serve. According to Inside Philanthropy, a news service that studies philanthropy, there are more than 800 Community Foundations in the United States. They vary substantially in size and scope, with some overseeing assets in the low six figures while others, such as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, hold billions. Illinois has nearly three dozen Community Foundations sprinkled up and down the Prairie State. They can be found in Aurora, Bloomington, Centralia, Champaign, Charleston, Decatur, Dixon, Downers Grove, Edwardsville, Effingham, Galesburg, Joliet, Kankakee, Marion, Moline, Morton, Oak Park, Ottawa, Paris, Peoria, Rochelle, Springfield, Sycamore and other communities. Community Foundations are funded by individuals, families, businesses, and government grants. They accept contributions of cash, stocks, bonds and real property such as farmland. Community Foundations are important vehicles for philanthropy, says Joshua Gibb, president of the Galesburg Community Foundation. Illinois is fortunate to have a Community Foundation that serves every county and citizen in the state. Amanda Standerfer, executive director of the Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations, says community foundations serve an important role in helping donors live out their philanthropic interests in a community. Everyone has the capacity to be philanthropic whether that's $10 or $100,000. Every dollar makes a difference and community foundations are the trusted organization in every community in Illinois that ensures those donations support the causes donors care about. Standerfer says community foundations often manage endowments for educational scholarships, causes such as arts programs or social issues, and specific organizations such as the public library. The community foundations throughout Illinois are the best organization to connect donors and causes that will make a difference. Community foundations compound the impact by pooling donor resources and directing it to address community needs, she says. Byram Fager, president of the Southern Illinois Community Foundation, argues that community foundations advocate, educate, and invest. Community foundations play an important role as a community champion and an independent voice that can speak to the needs of the community. As a community foundation leader, I often spend as much time speaking about community needs and all of the nonprofits that are working to provide services, as I do speaking about the services of the community foundation, he says. Last year, Illinois community foundations teamed up with Forefront, a statewide advocacy group for the social impact sector, to commission a Transfer of Wealth study. The study shows that the current household net worth in Illinois is valued at more than $3.5 trillion and that about $435 billion will transfer from one generation to the next by 2030. Community foundations want to direct some of this wealth to transform their communities. The Transfer of Wealth Study shows that there are considerable resources in our state. There is significant wealth and opportunities for philanthropy in all parts of Illinois, says Gibb of the Galesburg Community Foundation. When Col. William Curtis Hise provided funding to fund the Ella Elizabeth Hise Museum of Regional Art at Southeastern Illinois College in honor of his sister, the college accepted its largest private donation ever more than $3 million. Hise was so pleased with the resulting museum, he also chose to pledge his entire estate along with some artwork to the college, valued at upwards of $7 million, resulting in a total $10 million from the colonel. Col. Hise was a remarkable man a true visionary who believed in the mission of SIC, said Jonah Rice, president of SIC. Col. Hise died peacefully at his home in Arlington, Virginia last year at the age of 94. His commitment to his nation and to Southeastern Illinois College will be recognized with a reception Nov. 10 at the college. Hise grew up in Omaha and Harrisburg with his twin brother, James Cletus Hise. Both brothers served careers in the military, earned law degrees and formed many business partnerships. Neither married. He was assigned to the Pentagon in the office of the Army Chief of Staff. He as selected to complete his active duty with the State-War Coordinating Committee the precursor agency of the present National Security Council. As a member of the National Guard, he was selected to serve in Panama on the creation of the first Joint HQ concept in the Operation Tree II and was promoted to the rank of colonel. His last assignment was with the executive offices of the 833 RD Air Division at Seymour- Jackson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, which was responsible for the support of two units serving in Vietnam. Colonel Hise served in the DC Air Force National Guard and later transferred to the Delaware Air Force National Guard, where he served until retirement. He worked 14 years for Page Communications, heading the company's contracts division. He also worked for TechDyn as vice president of the multi-million dollar start-up company with contracts around the world. He enjoyed traveling to foreign countries and visiting antique shops and art galleries. Colonel Hises awards and decorations including the Legion Of Merit, Bronze Star and the Air Force Commendation Medal. Pat York, chairman of the SIC Board of Trustees was both saddened by the passing, yet elated at the news of the colonels gifts. He will be missed by all of us, as he was a good friend, said York. These gifts will continue to help SIC for years. Rice said he would miss the friendship of the Col. He was briefed on what was going on at the college at all times. We shared a lot of dialog, and he really impressed upon me that hard work and exceptional results are to be expected qualities that made him so successful. The college recently received the first installment of the estate totaling $4 million. The second installment will come to fruition in the coming months. There are restrictions on the use of funds. This gift couldnt have come at a more perfect time for the college, said SIC Foundation Chairman Brian Surprenant. With state funding shrinking and our population in Southern Illinois declining, these private funds from the colonel will leave a legacy that will help SIC and students for decades to come. The Hise estate gift when combined with the colonels previous estate gift and museum giftat more than $10 million to SIC, is one of the largest gifts to a community college in the state of Illinois. This type of gift is huge a once-in-a-lifetime gift for a rural college, said Rice. Rice said SIC will work hard for exceptional results to honor the Colonels wishes. A memorial reception to honor the life of Col. Hise will be held 5-6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 10 in the Ella Elizabeth Hise Museum of Regional Art. The main focus for this reception will be in the museums permanent gallery where Col. Hises donated works and works by his family will be on display. This exhibit also includes works Col. Hise appreciated, as well as items from the Lafayette Inn in Harrisburg, which he owned. The Inn was left to the College in the estate as well as the funds described above. Other exhibits on display during the reception include Honoring our Military and Veterans in the main gallery and Industrial Nature by Brandon Smith of Carmi in the west gallery. We felt that honoring Col. Hise near Veterans Day while also hosting a military and veterans exhibition would be the perfect way to pay homage to him, said Hise Museum Curator Melody Bryant. The memorial reception is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, please email hisemuseum@sic.edu or call 618-252-5400, ext. 2577. - "For China to embrace common prosperity, to establish a society of greater fairness, greater equity, that is a very important message not only to China, Chinese people but to the world as well," British scholar and political commentator Martin Jacques said. - "The modernization of a small number of Western countries was based on the exploitation, oppression and colonization of almost the entire world. China is not developing by exploiting any other country; China is developing itself and modernizing itself, and at the same time helping other countries to develop and modernize," said Keith Bennett, a China specialist and vice chair of the 48 Group Club. - "We are in an era of declining economic globalization and fragmentation, particularly in the Western world. And from that point of view, I think that the remarkable example that China shows is how to strengthen and provide stability," said Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences. by Xinhua writers Xu Feng, Du Juan LONDON, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's development achieved through meticulous planning and diligence has raised the living standards of its people and inspired the rest of the world, a panel of British experts on China has said. In a fragmented world with "declining economic globalization," China is providing much-needed "stability, predictability and credibility," they concurred at a symposium earlier this week hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Britain. GLOBAL INSPIRATION At the symposium following the recently concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the experts said the world could take a leaf out of China's book of long-term planning. The landmark congress has charted the course for building a modern socialist China in all respects for the next five years and beyond. "We don't have any long-term central planning in most of the economies of the West, and that makes the greatest difference in the ability of a country to anticipate, to plan and put resources in place, to take advantage of the opportunities, to raise the standards of living of the people," said Stephen Perry, chair of Britain's 48 Group Club. Keith Bennett, a long-term China specialist and vice chair of the 48 Group Club, said the report to the 20th CPC National Congress is "encyclopedic in its scope and contents." Local residents pose for a photo in front of their new house in Gurum Town of Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan) Bennett spoke highly of the report's emphasis on the Chinese path to modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature, and of peaceful development. "The drive towards common prosperity will hold valuable lessons not only for developing countries but for developed countries too," he said. British scholar and political commentator Martin Jacques also highlighted China's pursuit of common prosperity, lamenting how Western countries have never taken it seriously. "For China to embrace common prosperity, to establish a society of greater fairness, greater equity, that is a very important message not only to China, Chinese people but to the world as well," he said. China announced in 2021 that it had lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, and removed all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages from the poverty list. Women of the Miao ethnic group study embroidery at the workshop in Basha Village of the Miao ethnic group of Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) "Judging by China's performance on extreme poverty, which is extraordinary, then China's impact on the world as it seeks to create a fairer society will be, in an era of growth inequality, extraordinarily important," Jacques said. "STABILITY, PREDICTABILITY, CREDIBILITY" China's path to modernization featuring peaceful development differs from that of many Western countries. Beijing seeks growth not by oppressing others but by developing and modernizing itself, the experts said. Before the symposium, the panel of experts toured a photo exhibition in the embassy that showcased China's achievements over the past decade. Bennett said the images offered a glimpse of China's self-reliance and goodwill. He said he was touched the most by the picture of late Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping, known as the "father of hybrid rice" who saved millions of people from dying of hunger, as well as a photo of the Chinese-built China-Laos Railway, which he believes will promote economic growth in "the world's most bombed country." The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, and arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) "The modernization of a small number of Western countries was based on the exploitation, oppression and colonization of almost the entire world. China is not developing by exploiting any other country; China is developing itself and modernizing itself, and at the same time helping other countries to develop and modernize," Bennett told Xinhua. Citing the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative proposed by China in 2013 and 2021 respectively, Bennett said, "China is the only major country that has put forward a series of realistic and well-thought-out proposals and ideas" to tackle issues such as development, sustainability, the fight against poverty and climate change, and that "the majority of countries and people of the world very much welcome this." Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences, said China is delivering "stability, predictability and credibility, which the world in its fragmenting state needs." "We are in an era of declining economic globalization and fragmentation, particularly in the Western world. And from that point of view, I think that the remarkable example that China shows is how to strengthen and provide stability." "The stability generates expectations," Albrow said. "What China says it does." The following items were taken from Naperville police reports and press releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt: James Earl Hayes, 19, of the 200 block of Orange Street, Elgin, was arrested on a charge of aggravated unlawful use of weapons at 2:23 a.m. Oct. 30 in the 1600 block of Country Lakes Drive. Arely Bibiana Frederiksen, 31, of the 200 block of East Benton Avenue, Naperville, was arrested on charges of disobeying a traffic control device, DUI/alcohol and driving without a valid license/permit at 12:38 a.m. Oct. 30 at East Benton Avenue and Center Street. Kristopher John Willing, 48, of the 31700 block of Village Green Boulevard, Warrenville, was arrested on a charge of battery at 3:02 a.m. Oct. 30 in the 800 block of South Washington Street. Jeffrey E. Eberhardt, 44, of the 2200 block of Aster Court, Naperville, was arrested on a charge of DUI/alcohol at 7:44 p.m. Oct. 30 in the 1300 block of South Naper Boulevard. Sean A. Falk, 42, of the 1600 block of Imperial Circle, Naperville, was arrested on a charge of battery at 7:58 p.m. Oct. 30 at his home. Maranda Michelle Lundy, 29, of the 700 block of Benedetti Drive, Naperville, was arrested on charges of failure to reduce speed/driving too fast for conditions, DUI/alcohol, illegal possession/transportation of liquor by a driver and endangering the health/life of a child at 10:41 p.m. Oct. 30 in the 100 block of East Ogden Avenue. Willibaldo Barrios-Ahuatl, 30, of the 500 block of Rosebush Lane, Oswego, was arrested on charges of driving on a suspended/revoked license and driving on an expired registration at 4:07 p.m. Oct. 31 at North River Road and Millennium Lane. Montineez Williams, 21, of the 8800 block of South Carpenter Street, Chicago, was arrested on charges of criminal damage to state property, aggravated fleeing/property damage and driving on a suspended/revoked license at 4:16 p.m. Nov. 1 at the police station, 1350 Aurora Ave. Antoine Sean Jackson, 43, of the 7600 block of South Seeley Avenue, Chicago, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and knowingly damage property at 9:20 p.m. Nov. 2 in the 100 block of 5th Avenue. David T. Odom, 58, of the 24700 block of Royal Lytham Drive, Naperville, was arrested on a charge of deceptive practice at 4:22 p.m. Nov. 3 at the police station, 1350 Aurora Ave. LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. The Rev. Dr. Robin Dease, senior pastor of St. Andrew By-The-Sea United Methodist Church on Hilton Head Island and a Claflin University trustee, was elected Thursday as a bishop of The United Methodist Church by delegates to the 2022 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. Delegates elected Dease, 54, during the jurisdictions meeting at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, on the 25th ballot after two full days of voting. She received 206 votes out of 343 valid ballots cast exactly the number needed to be elected (60% of valid ballots). Dease nominated as a write-in on the first ballot on Wednesday was the third bishop elected by SEJ delegates, following the Rev. Tom Berlin of the Virginia Conference and the Rev. Connie Shelton of the Mississippi Conference. She is the first bishop elected from the South Carolina Conference since Bishop William Willimons election in 2004. Whenever I had the opportunity to lead or to serve, I would run home to my parents ... and theyd say, Now, dont go down there and make us shamed! Dease told delegates upon her election. My commitment to you is: I will never make you shamed. Struggling to speak through tears, Dease thanked her fellow delegates for the honor, noting that her parents and most of her 13 siblings had all joined the Church Triumphant, with those remaining physically incapable of being there. But you are my family, she said to resounding applause. Then, looking to the Rev. Ken Nelson, the endorsed nominee of the South Carolina Conference, in the audience, she added, And Ken is my brother and my friend. Nelson was one of the first persons Dease embraced when the final ballot was announced. The South Carolina Conference is deeply elated to elect a faithful and fruitful leader who will help lead our church into the future, he said. We pray Gods blessings and promise our support along the way. Jackie Jenkins, lay delegate from St. Mark UMC in St. George and head of South Carolinas SEJ delegation, said Palmetto State United Methodists are celebrating. In South Carolina, we are blessed with clergy who are committed to Wesleyan theology, spirituality and practices, and Robin Dease epitomizes those qualities, Jenkins said. Her election is a blessing for South Carolina but even more so, it is a blessing for The United Methodist Church. Dease, who served as superintendent of the Hartsville District for eight years before her appointment as senior pastor of St. Andrew By-The-Sea, was born in Brooklyn, New York. After moving to South Carolina, she graduated from Claflin University in Orangeburg in 1992. She earned a master of divinity degree and a doctor of ministry degree in stewardship from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She joined the South Carolina Conference in 1992, became a full-time local pastor in 1998, and was ordained an elder in 2001. She has served as pastor of Wesley UMC in Johns Island (1998-2008), John Wesley UMC in Greenville (2008-2012), and St. Andrew By-The-Sea UMC on Hilton Head (2021-present). She also has served as superintendent of the Hartsville District (2013-2021), and in 2012, was chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Claflin University in Orangeburg. Her appointment as senior pastor at St. Andrew By-The-Sea made her the first African-American woman to serve as lead pastor of a historically white United Methodist church in South Carolina. Dease has been involved in numerous denominational and conference boards and committees, and has been active in other organizations in the communities where she has served (Ministerial Alliance, Chamber of Commerce, United Way Faith-Based Committee). She was elected by the Southeastern Jurisdictions 364 total delegates an equal number of United Methodist clergy and laity, from the nine states forming the Southeastern Jurisdiction. The assignments of bishops in the Southeastern Jurisdiction for the next two years were scheduled to be announced on Friday. Deases two-year term of service begins Jan. 1. In the United States, bishops are elected to serve for life. MOUNT ATHOS, Greece A church bell sounds, the staccato thudding of mallet on plank summons monks to afternoon prayers, deep voices are raised in communal chant. And high in the great tower of Pantokrator Monastery, a metal library door swings open. There, deep inside the medieval fortified monastery in the Mount Athos monastic Orthodox Christian community, researchers are for the first time tapping a virtually unknown treasure thousands of Ottoman-era manuscripts that include the oldest of their kind in the world. The libraries of the self-governed community, established more than 1,000 years ago on northern Greece's Athos peninsula, are a repository of rare, centuries-old works in several languages including Greek, Russian and Romanian. Many have been extensively studied, but not the Ottoman Turkish documents, products of an occupying bureaucracy that ruled northern Greece from the late 14th century well before the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottomans in 1453 until the early 20th when the area became Greek again. Byzantine scholar Jannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis says it's impossible to understand Mount Athos' economy and society under Ottoman rule without consulting these documents, which regulated the monks' dealings with secular authorities. "Ottoman was the official language of state," he told The Associated Press from the library of the Pantokrator Monastery, one of 20 on the heavily wooded peninsula. Niehoff-Panagiotidis, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said the oldest of the roughly 25,000 Ottoman works found in the monastic libraries dates to 1374, or 1371. That's older than any known in the world, he said, adding that in Istanbul, as the Ottomans renamed Constantinople when they made the city their own capital, the oldest archives only go back to the late 15th century. "The first documents that shed light (on the first period of Ottoman history) are saved here, on Mount Athos," he said, seated at a table piled with documents and books. Others, the more rare ones, are stored in large wooden drawers. These include highly ornate Sultans' firmans or decrees deeds of ownership and court decisions. "The overwhelming majority are legal documents," said Anastasios Nikopoulos, a jurist and scientific collaborator of the Free University of Berlin who's been working with Niehoff-Panagiotidis on the project for the past few months. And the manuscripts tell a story at odds with the traditional understanding in Greece of Ottoman depredations in the newly-conquered areas, through the confiscation of the Mount Athos monasteries' rich real estate holdings. Instead, the new rulers took the community under their wing, preserved its autonomy and protected it from external interference. "The Sultans' firmans we saw in the tower ... and the Ottoman state's court decisions show that the monks' small democracy was able to gain the respect of all conquering powers," Nikopoulos said. "And that is because Mount Athos was seen as a cradle of peace, culture ... where peoples and civilizations coexisted peacefully." Nikopoulos said that one of the first actions of Murad II, the Ottoman ruler who conquered Thessaloniki the closest city to Mount Athos was to draw up a legal document in 1430 protecting the community. "That says a lot. The Ottoman sultan himself ensured that the administrative system of Mount Athos was preserved and safeguarded," he said. Even before that, Niehoff-Panagiotidis added, a sultan issued a mandate laying down strict punishment for intruders after a band of marauding soldiers engaged in minor thieving from one of the monasteries. "It's strange that the sultans kept Mount Athos, the last remnant of Byzantium, semi-independent and didn't touch it," he said. "They didn't even keep troops here. At the very most they would have a local representative who probably stayed at (the community's administrative center, Karyes) and sipped tea." Another unexpected revelation, Niehoff-Panagiotidis said, was that for roughly the first two centuries of Ottoman rule no effort was made to impose Islamic law on Mount Athos or nearby parts of northern Greece. "Mount Athos was something like a continuation of Byzantium," he said. The community was first granted self-governance through a decree by Byzantine Emperor Basil II, in 883 AD. Throughout its history, women have been forbidden from entering, a ban that still stands. This rule is called "avaton" and the researchers believe that it concerns every form of external administrative or secular intervention that could affect Mount Athos. Father Theophilos, a Pantokrator monk who is helping with the research, said the documents show the far-flung influence of Mount Athos. "Their study also illuminates examples of how people can live with each other, principles that are common to all humanity, the seeds of human rights and respect for them, democracy and the principles of social coexistence," he told The Associated Press. The research project is expected to continue for several months, even years. "What could emerge in the long term I'll be able to say when we have catalogued and digitized all the documents," Niehoff-Panagiotidis said. "Right now, nobody knows what's hidden here. Perhaps, even older documents." A Norway man is serving probation after pleading guilty to strong-arm robbery. Demonte Deshawn Prophet, 25, of 114 Woodglory Drive, recently entered his plea before Circuit Judge Roger M. Young at the Orangeburg County Courthouse. Young sentenced Prophet to 10 years in prison, suspended to two years of probation. Prophet was originally charged with armed robbery, but pleaded guilty to strong-arm robbery instead. Prosecutors dismissed his charges of criminal conspiracy, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and grand larceny valued at $10,000 or more. In other recent guilty pleas: Zachary Howard, 34, of 217 Lowry Road, West Columbia, pleaded guilty to breach of trust with fraudulent intent. Young sentenced him to prison for five years, suspended to five years of probation. He also ordered Howard to pay restitution. Young gave Howard credit for having already served 75 days at the Orangeburg County Detention Center. Prosecutors dismissed an additional count of breach of trust with fraudulent intent. Christopher Lee Howell, 36, of 505 Malibu Drive #702, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree domestic violence. Young sentenced him to prison for three years. After serving 352 days, the remainder of his sentence is suspended to one year of probation. Young gave Howell credit for having already served one year in jail. He also ordered Howell to complete anger management and counseling classes. Young stipulated that Howell many not have any contact with the victim unless its allowed through a family court order. Malik Johnson, 24, of 1010 Kings Road, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence. Young sentenced him to 90 days in jail, suspended to one year probation. Demetrius Lambright, 34, of 740 Windsor Street, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to first-offense failure to stop for blue lights. Young sentenced him to prison for two years, suspended to one year of probation. He gave Lambright credit for having already spent two days in jail. Titorian Dwayne Lemon, 33, of 176 Sweet Bay Lane, Santee, pleaded guilty to threatening the life of a public official. Young sentenced him to 74 days in jail and gave him credit for time served. Marion H. Hamer, 55, of 315 Dove Trace Circle, West Columbia, pleaded guilty to shoplifting with enhancement and first-offense possession of one gram or less of methamphetamine. Young sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to one year of probation. He gave Hamer credit for having already served 170 days in jail. As part of his probation, Hamer is required to complete inpatient substance abuse treatment. Tyler McCarty, 28, of 2000 Aventhe Drive #300, Arden, N.C., pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000. Young sentenced him to 311 days in jail and gave him credit for time served. Karen Marie Osmond, 43, of 2247 Rosewood Drive, Rock Hill, pleaded guilty to first-offense possession of a scheduled drug. Young sentenced her to prison for six months, suspended to one year of probation. Young gave her credit for 10 days served in jail. Marion Oscar Pough, 57, of 10 Hewitt Lane, St. Matthews, pleaded guilty to first-offense failure to stop for blue lights. Young sentenced him to 90 days in jail and gave him credit for having already served two days there. Young is allowing Pough to serve his time on weekends. Prosecutors dismissed charges of use of license plate other than for vehicle which assigned and first-offense driving under suspension license not suspended for DUI. (TBTCO) - Cuc Du tru Lien bang My (FED) co kha nang se tiep tuc ot tang lai suat lan tiep theo trong thang 12 toi, nhung voi muc o co the nhe hon. ieu nay se lai la mot trong nhung yeu to tac ong en thi truong tai chinh va tien te trong nuoc. The following items were taken from the Skokie Police Department bulletin. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt. Theft Over $500 Advertisement There was a theft over $500 in the 8600 block of East Prairie Road on Oct. 26. Details were not given. There was a reported theft over $500 in the 3700 block of Oakton Street on Oct. 27 in which a victim was scammed into purchasing a vehicle which was later determined to be stolen. Advertisement Violation of a No Contact Order Fernando Estrada, 32, of the 5300 block of North Northwest Highway, Chicago, was charged with violation of a no contact order in the 4900 block of Oakton Street on Oct. 29. DUI Andrew L. Harrison, 45, of the 1000 block of Ashland Avenue, Evanston, was charged with DUI (alcohol) in the 8400 block of East Prairie Road on Oct. 29. Warrant Arrest Mergim Mehmeti, 28, of the 9000 block of Lamon Avenue, Skokie, was arrested on an outstanding warrant in the 9000 block of Lamon Avenue on Oct. 28. Rodney Chiadikaobi Allwell, 30, of the 9100 block of Skokie Blvd, Skokie, was arrested on an outstanding warrant in the 7300 block of Niles Center Road on Oct. 24. Domestic Battery Advertisement Justin C. McClure, 28, of the 4800 block of Elm Street, Skokie, was charged with domestic battery in the 4800 block of Elm Street on Oct. 27. James R. D. Reyes, 36, of the 4900 block of Jerome Avenue, Skokie, was charged with domestic battery and resisting arrest on Jerome Avenue on Oct. 25. Yolanda Santana, 48, of the 2500 block of West Devon Avenue, Chicago, was charged with domestic battery in the 7900 block of Kedvale Avenue on Oct. 23. Driving While Revoked and Uninsured Jamal Ramone Wilson, 32, of the 4900 block of Greenwood Street, Skokie, was charged with operating an uninsured vehicle and driving on a revoked license in the 3400 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 31. Elijah M. Haywood, 22, of the 8000 block of Keating Avenue, Skokie, was charged with driving on a revoked license in the 5100 block of Howard Street on Oct. 23. Advertisement Driving While Suspended Miguel A. Osterling, 32, of the 4700 block of West Byron Street, Chicago, was charged with driving on a suspended license in the 5600 block of West Touhy Avenue in Niles on Oct. 28. Drugs/Driving While Revoked Keontae J. McKinney, 27, of the 500 block of 22nd Avenue, Bellwood, Ill. was charged with use of cannabis in a motor vehicle and driving on a revoked license in the 3600 block of Howard Street on Oct. 26. Criminal Damage There was a report of criminal damage to government-supported property in the 3400 block of Oakton Street on Oct. 22 in which a display was broken. Advertisement Retail Theft There was a retail theft in the 4900 block of Dempster Street on Oct. 22 in which police responded for a theft. No complaint was signed. There was a retail theft in the 5100 block of Dempster Street on Oct. 27 in which an unknown male and unknown female committed a retail theft from a Shell gas station. There was a retail theft in the 3600 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 25 in which two subjects stole numerous products. There was a retail theft in the 5400 block of Touhy Avenue in which unknown offender(s) stole merchandise from a store. Battery Advertisement There was a battery in the 5000 block of Oakton Street on Oct. 22 in which the victim was struck in the face by an unknown offender. There was a battery at a Walmart Store in the 3600 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 25. Disorderly Conduct There was a disorderly conduct reported in the 5000 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 23 but no complaints were signed. Identity Theft There was an identity theft in the 9700 block of Woods Drive on Oct. 23. Details were not given. Advertisement There was an identity theft in the 9600 block of Skokie Blvd on Oct. 22. Details were not given. There was an identity theft in the 9700 block of Woods Drive reported on Oct. 24 in which an offender opened a credit card in the victims name. There was an identity theft in the 4000 block of Dobson Street reported on Oct. 25 in which the victims Link card number was used to purchase goods without authorization. There was an identity theft in the 8500 block of Skokie Blvd on Oct. 26 in which the victims Illinois Link card was fraudulently used by an unknown person. Theft A catalytic converter was stolen from a 2013 Toyota Prius on Oct. 27. Advertisement There was a theft in the 3300 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 20. Details were not given. There was a pickpocket theft in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Center on Oct. 24 in which the victims bank cards were stolen and subsequently used to make multiple unauthorized purchases. There was a reported theft under $500 in the 10000 block of Frontage Road reported on Oct. 25. There was a report of theft of lost or mislaid property in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Center on Oct. 25 in which the victims lost identification cards and vehicle key fob were stolen. Failure to Remain at the Scene of a Vehicle Damage Accident There was a report of failure to remain at the scene of a vehicle damage accident in the 8900 block of Gross Point Road and Grove Street on Oct. 25. Advertisement There was a reported failure to remain at the scene of a vehicle damage accident in the 9600 block of Gross Point Road on Oct. 24 in which a known offender fled the scene of a traffic accident. No complaint was signed. There was a report of failure to remain at the scene of a vehicle damage accident in the 8400 block of Crawford Avenue on Oct. 27. There was a reported failure to remain at the scene of a vehicle damage accident in the 3600 block of Touhy Avenue on Oct. 25. Aggravated Identity Theft There was an aggravated identity theft against a person 60 years or older or disabled, in the 9600 block of Kildare Avenue on Oct. 26 in which an unknown person(s) used the victims identity to file their income tax returns. No complaint will be signed. Criminal Damage to Property Advertisement There was a criminal damage to property incident in the 4900 block of Greenwood Street on Oct. 26 in which the windshield of the victims vehicle was damaged by an unknown offender. Forgery There was a forgery in the 5100 block of Lunt Avenue on Oct. 26. Details were not given. A complaint will be signed. For 50 years, the Casper Civic Chorale has been singing various masses, Home on the Range, Christmas carols. And thats what theyll be doing to celebrate their golden anniversary, too. At 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 in the Wheeler Auditorium at Casper College, the Chorale will put on a concert to celebrate 50 years of community music. It (the Chorale) has a tradition of adults singing really beautiful music that has something to say, David Branson, artistic director of the Chorale since 2020, said. The focus is trying to celebrate really beautiful, good music. Theyll sing current pieces in the first half of the concert and more familiar pieces in the second half, Branson said. Theyll perform pieces directed by Branson and a former director, Steve Grussendorf. Wayne McIntire, founder and first director of the Chorale, will also have a piece dedicated to him and his wife, though Branson declined to say what it will be in an effort to not spoil the surprise. McIntire moved to Casper from California in 1968, he said, and the chorales first concert was in 1972. He was approached to start a civic choir; the group began rehearsing at Natrona County High School and First United Methodist Church in downtown Casper. Seventy members made up the original group, according to McIntire, and that number has stayed relatively the same, even throughout 50 years and two years of closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Chorale now sits at 71 or 72 people, Branson said. As a non-auditioning choir meaning anyone can join theres a range of ages, from millennials to older people. Two members of the original Chorale are still singing today. The members have formed friendships, and at least one marriage has happened as a result of the Chorale, Branson and his wife, Diane, noted. But as much as the group has been center to the cultural experiences of Casper, as Branson put it, theyve also gotten to immerse themselves in other cultures Prague, England, Ireland, Mexico City, to name a few. Joan Aune, who has been a member since 1996, recalled fondly during an interview with the Star-Tribune the Chorales trip to Prague. It was such a privilege to be there, she said. Those were really special times we had, wonderful times traveling together. You made instant friends with people (abroad), because of your connection with the music. McIntire and Aune both reminisced on how bonding those trips were. Since they were open to anyone who could afford to go, whoever did choose to go not only sung but also spent days with their fellow Chorale members. Though the pandemic forced the most recent trips planned for Sweden and Denmark to be canceled, the Chorale is moving forward with celebration, not only for their 50th anniversary but towards what is to come: more overseas travel, more gathering together and, of course, more singing. Its really, really, truly extraordinary to have a non-audition group of any kind exist for 50 years, Branson said. Theres an intimacy that happens when youre performing music together that I dont think happens in any other kind of activity. Theres a feeling of unity with all these folks it doesnt matter backgrounds, it doesnt matter anything else, youre just one being. The man killed in a shootout with Laramie County sheriffs deputies earlier this week had several warrants out for his arrest including kidnapping, the agency said Friday. Deputies had been looking for James Albert Templeton Jr. of Cheyenne for several months, according to a statement by the Laramie County Sheriffs Office. The department says Templeton and deputies exchanged gunfire Monday when they tried to serve him with the warrants on the east side of Cheyenne. Templeton, 55, died at the scene. One deputy, whose name was not released, was shot and treated at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. He has since been released. The sheriffs office has not said what touched off the shooting, which took place just before 8 p.m. on the 6900 block of Horse Soldier Road. Templeton was wanted for felony kidnapping out of Jefferson County, Colorado, according to the sheriffs office. He also had a warrant for felony strangulation of a household member out of Laramie County and a third warrant from the Denver Police Department alleged he failed to register as a sex offender. Templeton was disqualified from possessing a gun, the sheriffs office said. As is standard, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct the inquiry into the shooting. Typically, DCI forwards its investigation to the local prosecutors office, with the district attorney deciding whether the police shooting was justified or whether charges are warranted. The sheriffs office said it would not be releasing additional information at this time. SUNDANCE The central committee for the Crook County Republican Party is unable to support Sen. Ogden Driskill in his bid to retain his Senate District 1 seat due to his voting record, according to a statement from Precinct Committeewoman Sherri Davis. This voting record was determined through two websites, wyovote.com and wyorino.com, and according to Daviss statement it shows that Driskill supports the Republican Partys platform only 50% of the time. According to Davis, the partys 2022 bylaws state that a candidate must substantially uphold the Wyoming Republican Partys platforms. This shall be defined as, Having a voting record of at least 80% in support of Wyoming Republican Party Platform related legislation, or, in the case of a candidate who has not held the office before, Having signed a pledge to support such legislation. Failure to support or commit to support the Wyoming Republican Party Platform shall negate a candidate from receiving party support, financial or otherwise, during any general election, state the bylaws. Davis statement was issued in response to claims from Driskill that the central committee is offering tacit support to his write-in opponent. At this time, the central committee has not officially endorsed anyone for Senate District 1. Driskill, however, argued that the partys failure to support his candidacy is de facto support for the campaign on behalf of one of his opponents in the primary, Roger Connett. The chairman of the Roger is Right write-in campaign is also now the chairman of the central committee, he pointed out. Driskill brought his complaints to the central committee at a recent meeting, after which Chairman Jeff Burian agreed to confirm with the party whether or not members wished to support the senators campaign. He contacted his precinct people via email and, The body determined that they would rather not make any kind of endorsement, he said last week, declining to give an exact record of the decision as he had promised committee members that it would be confidential. Davis claims the lack of support is wholly related to Driskills past legislation. Many people have abandoned the Republican Party due to the fact they feel they are not represented by their legislators, she said in her statement. This is why the Crook County Republican Party has taken an intentional role in supporting candidates who do have a voting record which supports the Republican platforms no less than 80% of the time. Davis explained that this is the Ronald Reagan Rule. We may not agree on everything, but we should at least follow the party platforms 80% of the time, she said. We are a conservative state. We want conservative legislators. Davis also spoke to the importance of the party platforms in selecting legislators. If there is no guidance to what makes you a Republican, anyone can claim to be one. The platforms are that guide, she said in her statement. The Crook County Republican Party did no more than what the bylaws required. They followed the rules. They abided by the Crook County Republican Bylaws, which align with the State Republican bylaws. All legislators are aware of this standard, she said, as well as those who request money who are running for office for the first time. And for this, the Crook County Republican Party has been thrown under the bus and criticized, by the one who has failed to uphold them, she said. Both wyorino.com and wyovote.com are anonymous websites that claim to analyze legislator decisions according to conservative values. Wyorino.com is run by an organization called Ride for the Brand, Wyoming, which says it is not affiliated with any person, party or organization but does not further identify its members or ownership. The site creates an annual scorecard based on how state politicians voted on ten specific bills. Wyovote.com provides a list of legislators sorted from most conservative to most liberal, purportedly developed by a team of dedicated Wyoming Conservative citizens. Again, the ownership and members are not identified. Following a conference last week hosted by the state superintendent to discuss the sexualization of minors in schools, the Wyoming Counseling Association took the rare step of issuing a statement to address misinformation at what it called the anti-transgender event. Outgoing State Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder held a press conference independent of the Wyoming Department of Education to address the sexualization of students in schools. Its a topic which he considers to be the most important issue looming over public education in Wyoming right now. The topic has gained national prominence. Conversations on the matter often overlap with rhetoric that some say is false and discriminatory toward LGBTQ particularly transgender individuals. The counseling association specifically cited concern about comments made at the event by Gillette Republican Rep. John Bear, who described an epidemic of people wanting to de-transition. That comment, the association noted, is not based on research or fact. Bear told the Star-Tribune on Tuesday that his information comes from witnesses, not from papers, and that his comment was speculative. At the time that the Star-Tribune spoke with Bear, he hadnt yet read the counseling associations statement. He said he would like to read it before providing further comment. The Star-Tribune emailed him a copy of the statement along with other questions. After this, however, Bear did not respond to the Star-Tribunes follow-up email or call. There isnt a lot of research about the phenomena of de-transitioning or regret among transgender individuals who receive gender-affirming medical procedures. But the research that is available suggests these phenomena are rare. One national 2015 survey of more than 27,000 transgender participants from all 50 states found that roughly 8% of respondents de-transitioned at some point. Most of those who de-transitioned did so only temporarily, according to the report. Participants cited a variety of reasons for de-transitioning; 31% said they experienced too much harassment or discrimination, 29% said they were having trouble getting a job and 80% said they were pressured by a parent, spouse or other family member to de-transition. About 5% of those who de-transitioned, or 0.4% of the overall sample, said they did so because gender transition wasnt right for them. Another 2021 analysis of roughly 8,000 transgender patients who had undergone gender-affirming surgery found that about 1% of these patients regretted going through with the surgeries. A smaller-scale study published in June of roughly 1,000 transgender adolescents and adults in the U.S. Military Healthcare System found that the four-year gender-affirming hormone continuation rate was about 70% (discontinuation was defined as a patients failure to get another prescription more than 90 days following the most recent prescription.) The authors noted, however, that there were some important limitations to the study: They werent able to assess why patients discontinued hormone therapy. They couldnt look at prescriptions that were filled outside of the military health care system. In short, they didnt know if the patients who discontinued hormone therapy because they wanted to de-transition, or because of other factors like cost. The Wyoming Counseling Associations statement on Schroeders conference also described Hulett Republican Rep. Chip Neimans comparison of eating disorders and gender dysphoria as incredibly troubling. During the conference, Neiman criticized the idea of treating gender dysphoria by affirming the gender that one identifies with. He gave a hypothetical scenario where someone with anorexia or bulimia was given the same treatment. Theyre starving themselves to death, he said. Do we do them a service by saying, Well give you liposuction? The counseling association noted, however, that forcing someone to live as their biological sex was the main course of treatment for gender dysphoria in the early 20th century. The usual result for patients during this time was trauma and death, the statement continues. Gender-affirming care, the Wyoming Counseling Association said, is evidence-based, comprehensive mental health care; the practice is supported by medical and mental health organizations like The American Counseling Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Medical Association and The American Psychological Association. The Star-Tribune called and emailed Neiman to ask about his thoughts on the counseling associations response to his comments. Neiman didnt respond to the Star-Tribunes requests for comment by deadline. The Star-Tribune also reached out to other state leaders who spoke at the conference Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody and Schroeder and asked them to share their thoughts on the counseling associations statement as well as any research papers, articles or other resources they had come across that support the perspectives they shared at the event. Only Steinmetz replied to an email from the Star-Tribune before deadline. She wrote that she would be unable to respond in the Star-Tribunes requested timeframe because she would be in legislative committee meetings. The Wyoming Counseling Associations statement about Schroeders conference is actually the first formal press release that the organization has issued since at least 2017, according to Lindsay Simineo, a counselor and lobbyist for the organization. The statement deviates somewhat from the associations main focus right now. Simineo said the organization has prioritized over the past year on trying to get Wyoming to join a multi-state counseling licensure compact meant to make it easier for counselors to practice across state lines and plans to continue with that focus into the upcoming Legislative session. But she added that if legislators bring forward bills that could limit care for the LGBTQ population or for any Wyomingite, for that matter the association will be there to address that. Even though several points of discussion at the conference criticized LGBTQ identity and education, some speakers at the event emphasized that they didnt intend to malign LGBTQ students. Simineo also said she genuinely (believes) that everyone at the event wants whats best for Wyoming and want whats best for their kids. But she argued that theres a disconnect between what the speakers are pursuing and the negative impacts that has on those vulnerable populations. There isnt a lot of data showing how such discourse impacts the mental health and general wellbeing of LGBTQ individuals in Wyoming; the states population is small, and its hard to collect information without violating confidentiality. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national education organization that focuses on the well-being of LGBTQ students, for example, doesnt have a Wyoming-specific school climate survey like it does for 42 other states in the U.S. The survey gathers information about LGBTQ middle and high school students experiences with discrimination and school support resources, among other things. The Wyoming Department of Education also doesnt collect bullying and harassment data specific to LGBTQ students. Local school districts might have more information. Natrona County School District spokesperson Tanya Southerland said if a students gender identity or sexual orientation is a contributing factor in a reported bullying, harassment or intimidation incident, then that would be noted in the report. Ralph Nieder-Westermann, executive director of Wyoming Lifeline, one of the states suicide hotlines, said that if a caller identifies themselves as LGBTQ, then that information would be recorded. The Wyoming Counseling Association said in its statement that mental health professionals connected with the organization have reported an increase in mental health needs for LGBTQ youth across the state. The association, however, doesnt collect that information in any reports. But Ray Kasckow, safe and healthy schools coordinator with Wyoming Equality, a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy organization, said that what they see on the ground when they talk with LGBTQ student across the state seems to reflect national data showing that these students often feel unsafe because of their actual or perceived identity. Simineo, who has a private counseling practice outside of her work with the Wyoming Counseling Association, said shes seen more concern over the past year particularly coming from mothers about the safety of kids who identify as LGBTQ. When you see this type of rhetoric escalate the way that its been escalating, its normal for a mother to assume that theres potential for other things to escalate as well. The Star-Tribune reached out to a couple other mental health professionals connected with the counseling association, as well as to several other local mental health professionals and LGBTQ advocacy and support groups to see what theyve experienced on the ground. One declined to comment for the story. Others didnt respond by the Star-Tribunes deadline. Most Wyomingites remain confident in the integrity of the states elections, even with continued attention over the 2020 presidential election vote count, a University of Wyoming survey released Friday found. UWs School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies partnered with the schools Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center to conduct a survey of 436 Wyoming residents between Oct. 22 and Thursday, according to the university. The surveyors selected residents at random. Overall, 94% of respondents said they are very confident or somewhat confident that their votes will be counted accurately in Wyoming this year. Dr. Jim King, a UW political science professor and the surveys director, said the results fit patterns elsewhere in the U.S. The Pew Research Center conducted a national survey in mid-October that found 90% of respondents were confident elections in their communities would be administered well. There are differences in peoples confidence in Wyomings elections across their political affiliations, the results show. Roughly 83% of Democrat respondents said they are very confident in Wyomings election administration. In contrast, 64% of independents and 56% of Republicans said the same. But when the very confident and somewhat confident responses are combined, those differences are practically erased; 98% of Democrats, 95% of Republicans and 92% of independents reported being at least somewhat confident in the administration of elections in Wyoming this year. Residents confidence in the administration of Wyoming elections is significantly higher than their reported confidence in the last presidential election. Right after the 2020 election, 48% of Wyomingites who responded to another UW survey expressed confidence in the accuracy of the nationwide presidential vote count, King said. This year, 50% of respondents said they were confident in the vote count from that election, a difference which King said is statistically insignificant. Partisan differences also emerged in confidence level for the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election vote count; 98% of Democrats, 33% of Republicans and 58% of independents expressed confidence in that vote count. Election integrity and voters confidence in the electoral process have been constant topic this year in Wyoming and national politics. Its the first election cycle since former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Since then, he has continued to make unsubstantiated claims that rampant voter fraud stole his win, despite dozens of courts concluding otherwise. Candidates in Wyoming races this year have echoed and campaigned on that concern. Back in August, Trump-backed Republican nominee for U.S. House Harriet Hageman said at a public forum that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Another Trump-backed candidate, Republican nominee for secretary of state Chuck Gray focused much of his primary campaign on rooting out voter fraud and banning ballot drop boxes. Gray, who called Bidens victory fraudulent, held screenings across the state of 2,000 Mules, a film that alleges there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The Wyoming Republican Party is also hosting screenings of Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump, which concerns the millions that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated in 2020 to nonprofits that gave grants to local elections offices. (The donations were not contributions to President Joe Bidens campaign, and they didnt violate campaign finance law, according to the Associated Press.) T&Ts Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) declined by 15.14 per cent between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022, according to the two quarterly reports for the Fund for this year. The HSF reports, which are published on the Ministry of Finance website, indicate that at the start of 2022, the value of the assets in the Fund totaled US$5.62 billion. At the end of March 2022, the total net asset value of the HSF was US$5.29 billion, approximately US$323.63 million lower than the previous quarters closing value. And at the end of June 2022, the total net asset value of the HSF was US$4.77 bllion, approximately US$528 million lower than the previous quarters closing value of US$5,299.5 million. The festive Christmas season is upon us, coupled with the excitement of the World Cup tournament! Its only fitting that we look into another common digestive issue that can often put a damper on our ability to enjoy life. If this topic captured your attention, then you must be all too familiar with the fiery discomfort in your stomach that rises to your chest after youve had a meal. Youve tasted that sourness or bitterness at the back of your mouth, or have had that burning wave that hits your throat and turns your voice hoarse. Seen from afar, they are decorative polychromatic flowers, placed front and center at dining tables to feast the eyes. Yet, these are different. After guests take their seats, they reach for them and start to dig in. These flour and flower-shaped buns, or huamo, can be traced back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Whenever celebrations or major events take place, people in Wenxi county, North China's Shanxi province, roll out huamo to entertain guests for auspicious outcomes in the future. The flour feat and treat has been known for its exquisite design and ingenious conception. It is closely related to local etiquette and customs and widely used in festivals, weddings, birthdays, funerals, housewarming and many other occasions. "I grew up watching my grandmother and mother knead the flower-shaped buns on the bed with their legs crossed," says Zhi Jiankang, a provincial inheritor of the skill that was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008. "I learned to make it after watching them." Wenxi huamo has evolved into four categories with more than 200 varieties over the years. "It takes a few people two days to make a large flower pattern," Zhi says. The dough is leavened on the first day, and is kneaded into various shapes and sizes after a night of fermentation before being left to sit still for another night. "When fermentation is completed, the buns are steamed and then colored with fruit and vegetable juice," Zhi explains. For some major events, various "bun flowers" would then be assembled. The importance of huamo is evident in a local proverb: "if something big happens, there is huamo; if huamo is served, something must have happened." Local families will steam the flowery buns to celebrate births of children to wish them good health, and dragon or phoenix patterns will be fashioned amid "bun flowers" during weddings to herald progeny. "Wenxi flower-shaped buns present a variety of forms, and are always closely connected to local folk culture," Zhi says. Different from traditional dough modeling that is mostly just for artistic appreciation, huamo will be eaten by guests after serving their symbolic purpose. Many Wenxi huamo works are ingeniously crafted by local women through kneading. In the vast rural areas of the county, women pass their skills to their daughters. They seem to work magic on the plain-looking dough through pinching, cutting, repairing, sticking and embellishing with common household utensils, such as needles, combs, knives, and shears. Consequently, the bun craft has also been affectionately called "mother's art". "It reflects Wenxi working women's deep folk art knowledge in their lives over the long course of history," Zhi says, adding that it was all hands on deck for making huamo in his family during major holidays throughout his childhood. "It has long been part of my life." However, with the development of the times, young women are no longer keen on steaming buns. The art of the flowery bun, which has always been the pride of local rural households, faces a crisis. Zhi has tried to revive the ancient art. "That was when I seriously started to bond with huamo," Zhi says. Although huamo had been named a provincial intangible cultural heritage, authorities set their sights on restoring the influence it had once enjoyed. In 2006, Zhi worked with local officials and found a 70-year-old village woman had huamo down pat, and filmed her making the traditional food. "We recorded all the 12 steps from processing wheat, grinding flour to kneading and pinching dough, as well as steaming and coloring in her house," Zhi recalls. The 15-minute film, introducing Wenxi huamo, created a national sensation. From that moment on, huamo made its presence felt across the land. It made its way to a national intangible heritage culture exhibition in Beijing in February 2009, and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, as well as overseas. Although exhausted, Zhi says it is worth it when the culture of his hometown is appreciated by guests from across the country and beyond. During Spring Festival in 2012, Wenxi held a huamo cultural festival. More than 300 villages from the county sent more than 2,000 pieces of huamo, some of which were named the biggest or tallest of their kind by the Hong Kong-based World Record Association. After the festival, the county authorities supported huamo cooperatives and the registration of huamo trademarks, giving further impetus for the development of the intangible culture. "I felt the era of the Wenxi huamo had finally arrived," says Zhang Haiyun, a local who has been deeply attracted to huamo under the influence of her mother and grandmother. "At 10, when my mother and grandmother were making huamo, I would be allowed to pinch the dough," the 41-year-old recalls. "It was more for self-indulgent fun, but I guess learning also happened in a subtle way." In 2005, Zhang's sharp business acumen had her register the Beiyuan Bun trademark in the local area. "I thought of developing the traditional handicraft into an industry when I realized it had such a long history," she says. Then, the 2012 festival urged her to materialize her ambition. "I was surprised to find that we could make so many things out of flour at the festival, so I made an immediate decision to set up a company that specializes in making huamo," she says. Unlike the traditional family-based huamo production, Zhang's huamo products have been injected with fresh elements. In Zhang's store, a bunch of colorful and lifelike bright and golden "roses" are particularly eye-catching. "This is our new design, very popular with young people, and the sales have been especially brisk," Zhang says. Her business now not only undertakes traditional huamo production, but also caters to modern consumer demand for a variety of novel patterns, such as hand-held flowers, potted plants, calligraphy and paintings. "Huamo has to go through innovations to keep up with the beat of modern life," Zhang explains. After the company was established, Zhang and her team produced a bun featuring the Chinese character shou, meaning longevity. "We saw a picture of the word in a painting from the Qing Dynasty, and thought the symbolism was particularly good, so we used huamo to present it." The product is one meter wide and 1.5 meters tall and has been popular with customers who want to celebrate birthdays of the elderly. Zhang has found that huamo has also made its way to the high-end market as a business gift, since it can be made into pure artwork that can last for seven or eight years. At present, her company has employed more than 20 locals who engage in marketing, product development and processing. "The youngest are in their 20s and the oldest is 70, and the inheritance of skills is completed in the workshop," Zhang says. At present, there are two large huamo enterprises and 12 cooperatives in Wenxi, with more than 1,000 locals involved. The annual output value has reached 10 million yuan ($1.38 million), according to local authorities. This year, Zhang has put together a livestream team, with an eye to promoting the "mother's art" across the country. "It's my wish that huamo could claim just as much place as cake does during our traditional festivals," Zhang says. AN 89-year-old woman was found dead in Tunapuna yesterday morning after a fire at her home. The deceased has been identified as Zubida Mohammed of Prescott Lane in Tunapuna. Residents of the area told the Express that around 8.45 a.m. they heard a loud explosion, and then observed flames coming from one of the rooms of the bottom floor of the two-storey home. The 2022 "China Today" Arts Week was launched in Australia's Melbourne in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Australia. Co-hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Chinese Embassy in Australia and the Consulate-General of China in Melbourne, the arts week runs till Nov 10 in the Pacific Arts Center, and features exhibition of ceramic artwork from East China's Jiangxi province and paintings and prints from the northeastern Heilongjiang province. The 50 items from Jingdezhen, a world-famous porcelain town in Jiangxi, were created by three generations of inheritors of an intangible cultural heritage. Visitors could not only find vases with traditional Chinese styles and colors, but also see porcelain panels with paintings depicting scenes of classic stories and the idyllic life. The 39 works chosen from traditional Chinese paintings, oil paintings, prints, water color and other forms of art showed the scenery of northeastern China as well as people's life there. One of the paintings showed the life of a family from local Oroqen ethnic minority dressed in traditional robes, while in another, an iconic old tractor represented the industrial tradition of the area. Song Yanqun, minister-counselor for culture at the Chinese Embassy in Australia, told Xinhua at the opening ceremony on Thursday that they had been preparing for the exhibition since last year. "It is our hope that the event could help promote Chinese culture overseas in Australia," he said. "Art is a bridge connecting people. It is a common language spoken by people from different countries," Song continued. "We would like to see more visitors coming to the exhibition and becoming fascinated with Chinese culture. We also hope that the event could add luster to celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between our two countries." Lynley Crosswell, CEO and director of Museums Victoria, said in her address at the opening ceremony that she had been to different cities in China multiple times. "I have experienced first-hand the beauty and magnificence of Chinese art and culture," she said. "What we know as we are here today is these experiences of art and culture connect us beyond time, culture and geographical divides." "We look forward to continuing to build and strengthen our cultural ties with China," she added. "Our connection has a long history, and more importantly, an exciting future." Robin Matthews, former national president of the Australia China Friendship Society, was impressed by the exhibits. Having studied ceramic design in the university herself, Matthews described the fineness of details of the works, the glazing and the firing as "extraordinary". "The traditional ones are very nice but there are also modern ones with abstract design," she said. "I also like the blue-and-white wares as well." She noted that it was very important to commemorate the 50th anniversary. "To engage and have people-to-people relationship I think is very important to create understanding," she said. "Understanding between one another leads to greater peace throughout the world." She believed that people should not only look back at all the achievements during the past, but also "look forward to the next 50 years." "I look forward to even greater relations between Australia and China in the future." The exhibition will later be taken to Adelaide in South Australia. Twitter began widespread layoffs Friday as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the company, raising grave concerns about chaos enveloping the social media platform and its ability to fight disinformation just days ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. The speed and size of the cuts also opened Musk and Twitter to lawsuits. At least one was filed alleging Twitter violated federal law by not providing fired employees the required notice. The San Francisco-based company told workers by email Thursday that they would learn Friday if they had been laid off. About half of the companys staff of 7,500 was let go, Yoel Roth, Twitters head of safety & integrity, confirmed in a tweet. Musk tweeted late Friday that there was no choice but to cut the jobs when the company is losing over $4M/day." He did not provide details on the daily losses at the company and said employees who lost their jobs were offered three months' pay as a severance. No other social media platform comes close to Twitter as a place where public agencies and other vital service providers election boards, police departments, utilities, schools and news outlets keep people reliably informed. Many fear Musks layoffs will gut it and render it lawless. Roth said the companys front-line moderation staff was the group the least impacted by the job cuts. He added that Twitters efforts on election integrity including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations remain a top priority. Musk, meanwhile, tweeted that Twitters strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged. But a Twitter employee who spoke with The Associated Press Friday said it will be a lot harder to get that work done starting next week after losing so many colleagues. This will impact our ability to provide support for elections, definitely, said the employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for job security. The employee said theres no concrete sense of direction except for what Musk says publicly on Twitter. I follow his tweets and they affect how we prioritize our work, said the employee. Its a very healthy indicator of what to prioritize. Several employees who tweeted about losing their jobs said Twitter eliminated their entire teams, including one focused on human rights and global conflicts, another checking Twitters algorithms for bias in how tweets get amplified, and an engineering team devoted to making the social platform more accessible for people with disabilities. Eddie Perez, a Twitter civic integrity team manager who quit in September, said he fears the layoffs so close to the midterms could allow disinformation to spread like wildfire during the post-election vote-counting period in particular. I have a hard time believing that it doesnt have a material impact on their ability to manage the amount of disinformation out there, he said, adding that there simply may not be enough employees to beat it back. President Joe Biden, at a campaign event in Illinois Friday night, said: "Now what are we all worried about? Elon Musk, who goes out and buys an outfit that sends and spews lies all across the world. ... How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake? Twitters employees have been expecting layoffs since Musk took the helm. He fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and removed the company's board of directors on his first day as owner. As the emailed notices went out, many Twitter employees took to the platform to express support for each other often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify its blue bird logo and salute emojis in replies to each other. A Twitter manager said many employees found out they had been laid off when they could no longer log into the companys systems. The manager said the way the layoffs were conducted showed a lack of care and thoughtfulness. The manager, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for job security, said managers were not given any notice about who would be getting laid off. For me as a manager, its been excruciating because I had to find out about what my team was going to look like through tweets and through texting and calling people, the employee said. Thats a really hard way to care for your people. And managers at Twitter care a lot about their people. A coalition of civil rights groups escalated their calls Friday for brands to pause advertising buys on the platform. The layoffs are particularly dangerous ahead of the elections, the groups warned, and for transgender users and other groups facing violence inspired by hate speech that proliferates online. In a tweet Friday, Musk blamed activists for what he described as a massive drop in revenue since he took over Twitter late last week. Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg said there is little Musk can say to appease advertisers when hes keeping the company in a constant state of uncertainty and turmoil, and appears indifferent to Twitter employees and the law. Musk needs advertisers more than they need him, she said. Pulling ads from Twitter is a quick and painless decision for most brands. A lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of one employee who was laid off and three others who were locked out of their work accounts. It alleges Twitter violated the law by not providing the required notice. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requires employers with at least 100 workers to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is publicly traded or privately held, as Twitter is now. Twitter filed notifications late Friday in California for its offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. The layoffs affected 983 employees in the state, according to the filings. Twitter said it will continue to pay wages and benefits to the workers through Jan. 4 and employees were notified on Friday. The layoffs affected Twitter's offices around the world. In the United Kingdom, it would be required by law to give employees notice, said Emma Bartlett, a partner specializing in employment and partnership law at CM Murray LLP. The speed of the layoffs could also open Musk and Twitter up to discrimination claims if it turns out, for instance, that they disproportionally affected women, people of color or older workers. AP Business Writers Mae Anderson, Alexandra Olson and Ken Sweet in New York, James Pollard in Columbia, S.C., Frank Bajak in Boston and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story. THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Although blood pressure levels among Americans rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research suggests things could have been far worse. "We expected blood pressure control to be worse due to decreased physical activity, stress, poor sleep and other cardiovascular disease risk factors that worsened during the pandemic," said study leader Dr. Hiroshi Gotanda, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But the results were better than we expected, probably because of the use of telemedicine and home monitoring of blood pressure," he noted. For the study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers looked at the electronic data records of more than 137,500 adults who had high blood pressure (hypertension) and were treated at Cedars-Sinai, Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, and Ochsner Health in New Orleans. Patients were an average age of 66. About 57% were women, while 30% were Black. The researchers compared blood pressure outcomes before the pandemic, from August 2018 through January 2020, with those during the peak of the pandemic, from April 2020 through January 2021. The number of blood pressure readings declined by as much as 90% during the first three months of the pandemic. Measurements began to increase as the months passed, though they were still below pre-pandemic levels. This may have been due to cancellations or postponements of face-to-face office visits, the authors said. Patients' systolic blood pressure readings, the top number, rose on average by 1.79 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury.) Their diastolic readings (bottom number) rose by an average of 1.30 mm Hg. High blood pressure is considered to be 140/90 mm Hg. An increase of only 2 mm Hg can raise the risk of major cardiovascular events by as much as 5%, the authors noted. The findings were published Nov. 1 in the journal Hypertension. More than 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke. It also raises the risk of more severe COVID infection. Only 1 in 4 U.S. adults who have hypertension have their condition under control, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers plan to explore the impact of these slight blood pressure increases on long-term cardiovascular health. They also plan to look at whether some groups may have had difficulty accessing telehealth services. Previous research has suggested that patients who have limited English proficiency, are from certain racial or ethnic minority groups, or have low digital literacy are less likely to access telemedicine. The study offers new evidence of how the pandemic impacted hypertension but also underscores the value of self-care in helping monitor and control blood pressure increases, said Dr. Paula Einhorn, the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's program officer for the study. Einhorn encouraged individuals with high blood pressure to continue seeing their health care providers in-person or remotely, and to follow lifestyle and medication recommendations. The fact that telemedicine and at-home checks may have helped higher blood pressure rates from worsening further offers hope that similar measures would work in any future pandemics. "We now know that blood pressure may be relatively controlled using technology," Gotanda said in an NIH news release. "Thats an important take-home message when we encounter other public health emergencies in the future." More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on high blood pressure. Tucson Electric Power Co. plans to amp up its support of charging systems for electric vehicles under a proposal before state regulators that includes pilot projects offering new charging options for school buses, multi-user charging hubs, nonprofit ride-share programs and even electric bikes. In a transportation electrification infrastructure plan tentatively up for approval by the Arizona Corporation Commission on Nov. 9, TEP plans to spend about $34.8 million over three years to continue existing rebate programs for charging equipment at homes and businesses and add new programs to help support projected EV growth. Along with the federal government, utility regulators nationwide are scrambling to boost EV charging infrastructure as millions of new EVs are expected to hit the road, including more than 1 million new EVs in Arizona by 2030. TEP launched a home EV charger rebate program as a pilot in 2019 and began offering rebates for commercial installations in 2020 and special rates for EV business fleet charging and commercial charger operators in 2021. TEPs EV implementation plan is designed to share the benefits of electric vehicles across a range of customers, with programs to support schools, nonprofit organizations and residential and small business customers in low-to-moderate income areas, TEP spokesman Joe Barrios said. Were excited to support the development of charging infrastructure while raising awareness about the benefits EVs can provide, not only to their drivers but for our entire community, Barrios said, noting that the programs will help improve the communitys air quality. EVs at home TEP has proposed continuing its EV support programs for residential customers, including its Smart EV Home program, which offers rebates of up to $500 for home charger installations (or up to $800 for low- to moderate-income customers), along with rebates for homes pre-wired for EV charging. In its latest plan, the company wants to add a managed charging program, initially for 300 customers, that allows EV owners to adjust their charging behavior to avoid higher costs. TEP proposes spending about $433,000 over three years on the residential rebate programs. The utility also proposes to spend $631,000 for customer outreach, education and awareness programs over three years, kicking off with a $181,000 campaign in the first year. The utility held off launching a major marketing campaign for its EV programs in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Charging up the fleet TEP proposes to continue its Smart EV Program, which benefits commercial EVs and EV fleets and apartments with a per-port incentive up to 75% of project costs, with plans to deploy 600 ports over three years, including 270 ports for use by low- to middle-income users and nonprofits. The company wants to make its multi-family EV offering more attractive by providing existing low- to middle-income qualifying projects an incentive to cover 100% of the project costs. For new-construction multifamily housing, TEP plans for 250 parking spaces over three years with a $200 prewire cost offset per EV parking space, only where pre-wiring is not required by code. To support the transition of public transit fleets to zero-emission buses, TEP proposes to provide incentives to offset charger costs and associated infrastructure and plans to support 45 buses over three years. The utility also proposes to spend $1 million over three years to support corridor charging hubs qualifying under a $5 billion federal program to install EV chargers along the interstate highways, to cover unmet costs or to be applied toward a local matching-funds requirement. The Arizona Department of Transportation recently rolled out its plan to spend $76.5 million in federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill over five years on EV charging facilities along all of the interstates in Arizona, including Interstate 19 in Southern Arizona. Overall, TEP proposes to spend just under $18 million on its commercial EV programs over three years. Bikes to buses Among several new programs, TEP has proposed spending $126,000 over three years on a micro mobility program to provide rebates for the purchase of electric bicycles. The company plans to hand out incentives of $600 per bike to 180 low- to moderate income customers and $100 each to 180 other planned participants. TEP also plans a pilot school-bus program offering bus and charger purchase incentives, fleet phase-in planning and the installation of seat belts. Other proposed pilot programs include: A plan to work with companies such as Uber and Lyft to develop charging hubs to serve multiple users, with proposed rebates of $6,000 each for 10 Level 2 chargers and $40,000 per 10 direct-current fast chargers over three years. A program offering nonprofits that provide transportation services to seniors, workforce development program participants and lower-income customers rebates to offset the cost of vehicle purchases and incentivize the installation of charging infrastructure. A Public Rights of Way Charging limited pilot to support the installation of EV charging stations on utility or light poles where certain customers may not be able to charge at their residence. TEP proposes to own those charging stations. TEP also is proposing to offer commercial fleet customers 80% of the cost of EV advisory services; to add a total cost of ownership tool for fleet owners to its website; and to conduct an analysis of the impact of EV charging on its power grid. TEPs EV plan has attracted support from a broad range of environmental, business consumer groups, as well as companies like EV makers Tesla and Rivian and charging network operators Electrify American and EVgo. Diane Brown, executive director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education fund, applauded the range of proposed EV programs and said the plans promote private investment, which can lead to new jobs and boost the local economy. Through Commission adoption of the transportation electrification plans, TEP and UNSE ratepayers will benefit through better utilization of the electric grid which can lead to utility bill savings, as well as improvements to air quality, Brown said. In a proposed order filed last week, the commissions Utilities Division staff recommended approval of TEPs plan, with some modifications. The ACC staff urged the commission to require the company to supplement its plan with a high EV adoption rate, assuming 1,479,000 EVs statewide by 2030. TEP based its plan on a medium projected EV adoption rate of 1,076,000 light-duty EVs in Arizona by 2030 (including 95,000 in TEP territory). The staff also recommended that TEP track its costs for the EV plan and recover them in a future rate case. UES programs The Corporation Commission also will consider a transportation-electrification plan filed by Unisource Energy Services, a sister company to TEP that provides power to customers in Santa Cruz and Mohave counties. UES plans to continue its existing residential EV charger incentive programs, which are similar to TEPs. The company also is seeking approval of new super off-peak rates to help customers save money by charging their EVs during the lowest demand period, similar to TEPs offerings. UES also is seeking approval for new programs, similar to TEPs, to provide rebates for EV charging equipment for commercial and lower-income customers and public fleets, as well as special rates for commercial EV fleet charging. The company plans to spend about $1.3 million over three years on its EV programs, including $828,500 for rebates. The ACC staff has recommended approval of the UES plan, similarly requiring the company to supplement its filing with a high EV adoption-rate scenario. A request to disqualify the Pima County Attorneys Office from a case involving a now former Tucson police officer who shot and killed a man in a motorized wheelchair was denied by a judge. The court found there was no conflict of interest, and on Oct. 28 denied the motion to disqualify the office and County Attorney Laura Conover, Pima County Superior Court records say. Former police officer Ryan Remingtons attorneys, Mike Storie and Natasha Wrae, had previously filed the motion due to Conovers brothers role in the Combined Law Enforcement Agencies of Arizona. Conovers brother is a chairman for the law enforcement group and has been a board member for the past five years. According to the motion, Storie and Wrae said the board is directly responsible for approving almost every expense related to Remingtons defense, causing a conflict of interest for Conover. The court also declined to order sanctions against Conover at this time, court records show. In the motion to order sanctions against Conover, Storie and Wrae said comments she made at a Democrats of Greater Tucson meeting caused irreparable damage to Remingtons ability to get a fair trial in Pima County. The county attorneys office, including Conover, are put on notice that they need to refrain from any statements or discussion regarding officer involved shootings while this matter is pending or the court will consider sanctions, Judge Danelle Liwski said in the ruling. Remington was indicted on one count of manslaughter in August following an incident that happened last year at a southside Lowes. On Nov. 29, Remington was working off-duty security at a Walmart store when he fatally shot Richard Lee Richards, 61, nine times, as he tried to enter a nearby Lowes store. Richards, who was using a motorized wheelchair at the time, was accused of stealing a toolbox and threatening a Walmart employee prior to the shooting. Remington was terminated from the department after the shooting. The Oro Valley Police Department sergeant who was involved in a hit-and-run collision in September has resigned, officials said. A spokesperson for OVPD confirmed that Jose Sanchez resigned from the department. Sanchez was initially placed on administrative leave following the incident. On Sept. 6, Pima County sheriffs deputies were sent to the scene of a hit-and-run collision involving a gray Honda Civic and a black pickup truck in the parking lot of Trident IV, in the 2900 block of West Ina Road at North Shannon Road. An employee at the restaurant, who had been throwing away trash outside at the time, told deputies he heard what sounded like two cars getting in a possible collision, police records say. The employee said he saw the Honda Civic rocking back and forth like it had been hit while a black truck left the restaurant, police records say. The vehicle that was hit belonged to another employee at the restaurant. The vehicle had damage to the entire drivers side from the front fender to the rear quarter panel, police records say. After running the trucks license plate and finding its location, a deputy arrived at the residence and found Sanchez, police records say. The deputy also noted that Sanchez reportedly had watery bloodshot eyes. When asked if he had been driving the truck, Sanchez told the deputy no, police records say. Sanchez reportedly told another responding deputy that he had been drinking but was not driving the vehicle and did not want to answer any more questions, police records say. Standing 3 feet away from Sanchez, the deputy noted that he could smell an odor of intoxicants coming from him. The next day, another deputy went back to question Sanchez. Sanchez said he was unaware and did not feel the collision as he was pulling out of the parking space, police records say. He also said his radio was on really loud and probably didnt hear it happen. When asked why he denied driving the truck the previous night, Sanchez said he does not know why, but simply because he panicked, police records say. Sanchez was cited by the sheriffs department for leaving the scene of a collision, Oro Valley police said. There are 5 days until polls close on Election Day. Here's what to know, including the top stories of the day, videos and photos from the campaign trail, the latest polls and key races in focus. STORY OF THE DAY Schumer insists Democrats have path to keep Senate majority Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted Thursday that Democrats will hold the U.S. Senate, propelled by strong voter turnout to buck a wave of Republican enthusiasm for gaining control of Congress in the midterm elections. The Democratic leader told The Associated Press he's confident Democrats will be able to win the battleground states being contested and potentially pick up Senate seats from Republicans. It's tight, Schumer said in an interview. I believe Democrats will hold the Senate and maybe even pick up seats. Campaigning in his home state of New York, Schumer's upbeat predictions come as Democrats face stiff headwinds heading into Election Day on Tuesday. Full story here: STORY OF THE DAY Biden to speak on threats to democracy ahead of midterms WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday evening on threats to democracy, as he seeks to raise the stakes for voters less than a week before the midterm elections. Biden, who has repeatedly said that democracy is on the ballot on Nov. 8, will speak at 7 p.m. from Washington's Union Station, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, the White House said. Its from Capitol Hill, because that is where there was an attempt to subvert our democracy, White House senior adviser Anita Dunn told Axios, referencing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Previewing Biden's remarks, Dunn said the Democratic president will be very clear tonight that he is speaking to people who dont agree with him on any issues, who dont agree on his agenda, but who really can unite behind this idea of this fundamental value of democracy. Full story here: *** MORE ELECTION 2022 COVERAGE *** WATCH *** RACES IN FOCUS: GEORGIA In Georgia, campaigns look to drive turnout with a knock Candidates, political parties and other groups in Georgia are pouring resources into knocking on doors to drive turnout. The intensifying effort reflects the narrow margin separating Republicans and Democrats in the state, but also research that face-to-face contact is effective at increasing the number of voters. Those efforts may be bearing fruit in Georgias big early voting turnout. More than 2 million people had cast early ballots by mail or in person by the end of the day Wednesday. That's far ahead of the turnout pace of 2018. The New Georgia Project says voters that its paid canvassers reach are three times more likely to vote than other similar voters. Real clear politics polling average: Georgia Senate: Herschel Walker (R) 47.1%, Raphael Warnock (D) 46.6%; Georgia Governor: Brian Kemp (R) 51.8%, Stacey Abrams (D) 43.6% *** PODCAST *** WE EXPLAIN PAULINA, La. (AP) Authorities in southeast Louisianas St. James Parish allowed all but two families to return to their homes Thursday, a day after a train car derailment and hydrochloric acid leak forced the evacuation of 200 residences. Parish President Pete Dufresne said cleanup including excavation of soil was required at two homes closest to the spill site. Authorities had begun a street-by-street lifting of the evacuation hours earlier, beginning with houses farthest from the site, as workers inspected for contamination from the chemical leak. Hotel stays had been authorized for a second night for evacuated residents. St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said any affected homes would have to be washed with agents to neutralize the acid residue. Thursday afternoon, Martin told reporters that monitors were available to check inside homes for anyone who felt an inspection would be necessary. He said one property owner asked for a test of his well water. Paulina is a little more than 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of New Orleans. Hydrochloric acid is extremely corrosive and inhaling fumes from the spill can damage lungs. Video from the scene shown on social media showed the leaking car and a bubbling trail of liquid leading away from the tracks. The cause of Wednesday afternoon's derailment was under investigation. Evacuations were called soon after the derailment of several Canadian National railroad cars. There were no reports of injuries. The damaged car was one of six that derailed. State police spokesperson Christian Reed said the damaged rail car was carrying 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of the chemical. Crews worked Thursday to upright the damaged car and prevent more acid from spilling. Cleanup involved the use of chemicals to neutralize the acid and the hauling away of contaminated material. Overnight, workers contracted airboats to disperse vapors from the area to make it safer for workers. This story has been corrected to show that the spilled chemical was hydrochloric acid, not sulfuric acid. SEATTLE (AP) A divided Washington Supreme Court on Thursday approved a registered sex offenders application to become an attorney in the state though the man says he's not sure he'll wind up practicing law after all. Zachary Leroy Stevens, 35, has been living in Arizona, where he attended law school and worked for a lawyer who represents American Indian tribes. He grew up in Utah, where he was convicted of voyeurism after sending child pornography to an undercover detective in 2006 at age 19 and where several years later he was arrested for drunken driving while on probation. In a 5-4 decision, the court noted his relative youth at the time of his offenses, that he wasn't much older than the people whose images he shared, and said he had since demonstrated the good moral character necessary to be allowed to practice law. Stevens was previously refused admission to the Arizona bar but said he would move to Washington state, where his wife had connections, if his application there was approved. Like all of us, Stevens is more than the sum of the worst moments of his life, Justice Mary Yu wrote for the majority. As an adult, he has abstained from engaging in any unlawful conduct since 2013. In that time, he has graduated from college and law school, he has been steadily employed, and he has developed a supportive network of friends and family. The dissenting justices, led by Justice Barbara Madsen, said they were concerned that Stevens had not completed his legal obligations he must continue to register as a sex offender until 2024 at least; that he had not provided a current mental health evaluation; and that the Arizona bar had rejected his application, a factor that Washington should respect, they said. "The fact that Stevens must register as a sex offender until he is eligible to petition for remission is particularly concerning, especially because one of this courts key responsibilities is to guard the public and its confidence in the judicial system, Madsen wrote. That said, she suggested her analysis might be different once Stevens submitted a current evaluation and was no longer required to register as a sex offender. Under Utah law, sex offenders can petition to have their registration requirements canceled after 10 years. Stevens applied to become a lawyer in Washington in 2019, after Arizona rejected his application. A Washington State Bar Association committee reviewed his petition and rejected it 6-5. He appealed to the Supreme Court. In a phone interview Thursday night, he said he cried when he read the decision. I've been trying to get admitted to the practice of law for longer than I attended law school, he said. Stevens said he is now working for the multinational conglomerate Honeywell, where he works on subcontracting for government projects. His plans to move to Washington state have been disrupted because he and his wife have split up, he said. As for legal work, he noted that he could stay in Phoenix and represent tribes as an attorney on gaming and water rights issues, because he wouldn't need to be a member of the Arizona bar to do so. Or he could move to Washington state anyway, since his brother recently moved to Portland, Oregon. I have a lot of options, Stevens said. The decision was extremely compassionately written, and it affords a lot of people opportunities that just weren't available to them. Even if I dont pursue the practice of law, Im satisfied this court found merit in my case. More so than any other state, Washington has established parameters on what it takes to be admitted to the practice of law when you have a checkered background. The Washington Supreme Court has previously allowed people convicted of crimes to become lawyers. In 2014, the court ruled that Shon Hopwood, a convicted bank robber who became a jailhouse lawyer could take the state bar exam. Hopwood passed, was admitted to the bar and now teaches at Georgetown University Law Center and has been admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar. He also represented Tarra Simmons, who successfully petitioned the court to take the bar despite convictions for assault and drug and theft charges. In 2020, she became the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the Washington state Legislature, and she now works with the National Justice Impact Bar Association, which helps people with criminal backgrounds become lawyers. Simmons said Thursday the organization is aware of about 100 attorneys around the country who have been admitted to practice law despite past convictions but no others who have ongoing legal obligations such as probation or sex offender registration. She was thrilled for Stevens, but to the extent that criminal history has long been used as a proxy for race, the ruling is about more that just his admission to the bar, she said. This is about furthering justice and advancing policies against systemic racism, Simmons said. PHOENIX The Citizens Clean Elections Commission is asking a judge to immediately bar a group that monitors ballot drop boxes and raises doubts about election results from using its name in Arizona. The activities of Clean Elections USA are causing not only confusion but anger by Arizona residents who believe the commission is working to impede the right of people to vote by spreading misinformation about the election process, said Tom Collins, the commissions executive director. In fact, Collins said, his office is getting angry calls from people wondering why a state agency would engage in activities like monitoring drop boxes, discouraging people from voting which he said is precisely the opposite message of the commission. From a legal standpoint, Collins said the group, founded by Oklahoma resident Melody Jennings, is getting a free ride on the substantial efforts that we have made to build our reputation and trust in the community. And he said an immediate order is appropriate because of the upcoming election. Clean Elections in Arizona means to tell the truth about elections, he told Capitol Media Services. Clean Elections USA does not stand for telling the truth about elections, Collins said. It stands for discouraging people from voting in Arizona. So Collins wants Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent Jennings from using the Clean Elections USA designation in connection with past, current or future election-related activities in Arizona. There was no immediate response from Clean Elections USA. Jennings and her organization are no longer monitoring drop boxes in Arizona after a federal judge earlier this week issued his own temporary restraining order sharply limiting their activities. But attorney Eric Fraser, representing the commission, said that does not end the need for Blaney to act. Jennings is still using the mark Clean Elections in connection with Arizona-related information and materials, he said. There are still materials on the Clean Elections USA website about elections, in particular comments on social media about Arizona elections, all under the Clean Elections mark, Fraser said. And that is continuing to cause actual confusion. It is that issue of confusion that Fraser said gives a court the ability to step in and order an immediate halt. Consider a private group publishing information under the mark Board of Pharmacy, he told the judge. The public should not face the risk of mistakenly believing that the information actually originated from the state Board of Pharmacy. Ditto, he said, to the confusion of a private entity posting information using any name similar to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the states Medicaid program. And for the same reason, Fraser said it would be wrong to let someone involved in elections act and post information calling itself County Recorder, a move that would lead a reader to believe the message actually comes from a government official. The lawsuit cites one posting in particular by Clean Elections USA titled 10+ Ways the Election was Rigged in Maricopa County. It cites the claims by Jovan Pulitzer, one of the people involved in what has been the widely debunked audit of the 2020 election ordered by Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott. Those include his conclusion that there were hundreds of thousands of illegal votes and physical proof of both voter fraud and widespread election fraud in Maricopa County. All that, Collins said, is not only misleading and inaccurate but also causes people to believe these are the conclusions of the commission. What makes that important, he said, is that the commission is about more than providing public funds to statewide and legislative candidates who do not take campaign donations from special interests. Collins said the commission also publishes nonpartisan information guides for voters to use. And it also hosts debates among candidates, with the videos of those still posted on the commissions web site. Having Jennings post her own claims in a manner that confuses voters, Collins said, undermines confidence in the accuracy and impartiality of the commissions own works. In seeking the restraining order, Fraser was careful to tell the judge the lawsuit does not seek to bar Jennings and her organization from engaging in election-related activities or exercising her constitutional rights. Instead, this case is only about whether she may use a mark that is confusingly similar to a state agency, he said. The answer is no, and her use must be enjoined. Blaney has scheduled a hearing for Monday. But Collins said the fact that is just a day before the election doesnt diminish from the need for a court order to restrain the activities of Clean Elections USA. Weve got, for a minimum, to have a record that you cant just use the Clean Elections name for purposes that have nothing to do with Clean Elections in Arizona, he said. And Collins said Tuesday may not be the last word from Clean Elections USA. Mickey Mouse, one of the most popular and famous animation characters, first appeared in a 1928 animated film titled Steamboat Willie. Walt Disney once said, "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing that it was all started by a mouse." Several decades later when the jolly, dancing character hit the screen in China, Mickey had already been a global cultural phenomenon. And in the years afterward, it has continued to win the hearts of fans across generations here. Now they, together with friends, parents and children, have come to Mickey: The True Original & Ever Curious'concluding stop in Beijing. People expressed their love of this character whose influence has gone beyond cultures, as they left comments and drawings on visitors' books: "Although I'm not a fan, I truly feel that Mickey is a legend. It's an adorable character." "Dare to love and be loved! A brave grown-up and also a romantic child." "I like Mickey very much. Do you want to play with me?" The exhibition, which ends on Sunday in Beijing's 798 art district, a collaboration between Disney and UCCA Lab, previously toured Shanghai, Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, bringing the much-loved Mickey vividly to the eyes of audiences at home and drawing queues of waiting. The tour navigates the history of Mickey becoming an icon of popular culture worldwide and representing joy, courage and friendship. Also on show are works by contemporary artists drawing on their thought and fantasies inspired by the personified mouse. Creations by Chinese artists have been added to the different stops to enrich people's experiences. The tour began in 2018 when Disney mounted the exhibition to celebrate Mickey's 90th anniversary, opening in New York City and traveling to Tokyo. It has offered a chance for people who have watched Mickey animations to share their memories and meanwhile, the contemporary art which reinterpret Mickey in a new context has renewed the cultural meanings of the character. JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Bill Sheffield, a former Alaska governor whose term in office was roiled by an impeachment proceeding, has died. He was 94. A statement provided by friends of Sheffield said he died Friday at his home in Anchorage. John Pugh, a friend who was the state health commissioner under Sheffield and among those who spent time with him before his death, said Sheffield regularly talked about ways to move Alaska forward. He had all kinds of ideas, even in the last few months as he was really declining, on economic development in Alaska," Pugh said. Sheffield, who was governor from 1982 to 1986, was accused of steering a lease for state office space to a political ally and lying about it. He was not indicted by a grand jury but the panel recommended the Legislature consider impeachment. The state Senate decided there was not enough evidence to impeach. Sheffield told The Associated Press in 1986 he believed his willingness to make hard choices in a state budget crisis cost him a second term. Sheffield lost the Democratic party primary that year to Steve Cowper, who went on to be elected governor. "I probably made some mistakes, but when you want to get things done and you came out of the private sector like I did, youre going to run into the bureaucracy, Sheffield said after the primary loss. I didnt run for governor just to be governor. I did it to do things. Theres a lot of things we need to do in this state and we dont need to wait forever to get them done," he said. Sheffield, a successful hotelier, sold that business in 1987, according to his obituary. He went on to leadership positions with the Alaska Railroad Corp. and the Port of Anchorage. Former Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, in a statement said Sheffield always envisioned big possibilities for Alaskans and Alaska. He personally lived and experienced the Great Lands promise: building Alaska businesses, serving in public office and helping others into public office. He dreamed big about Alaska infrastructure and held friends close. Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on social media said Sheffield contributed much to the state. Bill was a warm and caring person who will be deeply missed but his friendship will not be forgotten, she said. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, also offered condolences. Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said Sheffield was a veteran, an entrepreneur, a statesman. After office, he continued serving, contributing to numerous causes and receiving countless awards and recognition for his public service. He was kind, warm, generous, and always there for so many, regardless of political affiliation, Sullivan said on social media. Pugh said Sheffield was caring and believed in mentoring young people. One of Sheffield's directives to members of his administration was to get out and find out what the needs are and address the needs of the people, Pugh said. He said he sees the impeachment proceedings as a footnote in Sheffield's public service career. He noted accomplishments during Sheffield's term, including the completion of efforts for the state to take over the Alaska Railroad and support of the Red Dog Mine. Sheffield is survived by his longtime companion, Cheri McGuire. A man has turned himself in to police following a Thanksgiving shooting in Southern California that left one person dead and four others wounded. Costa Mesa police say the shooting occurred after a minor traffic collision. One of the victims was critically wounded, while the other three were in stable condition following the shooting at 6:45 p.m. Thursday. The suspect, who fled in a black Chevrolet truck, turned himself early Friday. It was not immediately clear what charges he might face or whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Detectives believe the shooting was an isolated incident in the city about 40 miles south of Los Angeles. District 6 City Councilor Connie Dodson looks back when explaining why she believes shes the best candidate to move the district forward. Nobody else was talking about developing east Tulsa, said Dodson, who was first elected in 2014. I started that discussion, and most of my predecessors were perfectly happy to sit there and be status quo and not push for development in east Tulsa. Eight years later, that advocacy along with constituents support for funding packages to improve infrastructure and enhance public safety began to revitalize the district, Dodson said. Oftentimes these things are funded years in advance and it takes a while to get done, much like the park that is now being constructed for McCullough Park, she said. That was actually funded through Vision in 2016, in my first term. So it takes awhile. Dodsons opponent in Tuesdays City Council runoff election is Christian Bengel. The implementation specialist for International Technology Corp. is challenging Dodson for the second time. He was the top vote-getter in the District 6 general election in August, earning 45.3 % of the vote. Dodson, who is seeking a fifth term, finished second with 38.4 %. Bengel, 54, declined to be interviewed for this article. But in the Tulsa World candidate questionnaire he completed earlier this year, he said he was running to improve public safety, address economic disparities and improve engagement with District 6 constituents. East Tulsa needs and deserves leadership versus just representation, he wrote then. Dodson, 55, said shes proud of her work on the City Council over the past eight years and that her experience and knowledge of the issues have been critical in moving the district forward. She points to three examples of increased investment in the district to prove her point: construction of the Community Health Connection, funded by Vision Tulsa; major repair and reconstruction of roads, funded by Improve Our Tulsa 2; and the states recent $50 million allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds for wastewater infrastructure in far east Tulsa. Dodson said that while she had no direct involvement in the ARPA discussions, her continued advocacy for the district helped ensure that her constituents needs were known to the decision-makers who did. That lays the groundwork for future large-scale development, Dodson said of the state ARPA funding. That is one of the reasons we keep losing stuff like Tesla. The piece (of land) that they showed them out there had electric, gas, water. We were missing the wastewater piece. Dodson said public safety remains a priority and that shes proud of her support for the dedicated public safety tax approved by voters in 2016. The tax is funding additional police, fire and 911 personnel. She said shes also worked to improve relations between police and the districts diverse population as a way of reducing crime. We didnt want criminals victimizing those communities because they knew that they wouldnt report, Dodson said. So we have worked very, very hard to fix that, with communication and trust-building events, things like that, and its working. Dodson said her opponents lack of understanding of how city government works has led him to accuse her of things that simply arent true like raising taxes. The citys 3.65% sales tax rate has not increased since 2014, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, when the citys portion of the overall sales tax paid for purchases in Tulsa was 3.167%. City councilors cant raise taxes. We do work on (infrastructure and economic development) packages, but they have to be approved by voters, Dodson said. Both Vision and Improve Our Tulsa were overwhelmingly approved by voters. So those have community and voter buy-in. They have to. We cant do that on our own. Early voting underway Early in-person voting for Tuesday's election has begun. Voters can cast their ballots today and Saturday at the Tulsa County Election Board, 555 N. Denver Ave., or at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St. The hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. There is no early in-person voting on Sunday or Monday. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. Featured video: Second District Congressman and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Markwayne Mullin says he puts 350 miles a day on his pickup as he crisscrosses the state campaigning. I talk to the people of Oklahoma every day, he said during a brief conversation this week. His Democratic opponent, Kendra Horn, says Mullin cant be found anywhere, except maybe campaigning for Republicans in other states. Mullin and Horn, plus Libertarian Robert Murphy and independent Ray Woods, are vying to serve the remaining four years of retiring Republican Jim Inhofes term. Until probably the last week or two (Mullin) hasnt been out and about much, Horn said this week. Hes been out of the state, for the most part, from the runoff until recently. We know this because weve seem pictures of him all over the place. Thats frustrating for Horn, who as a decided underdog would like head-to-head opportunities to win some votes from Mullin. On the other hand, though, Mullin seems to be just playing the percentages. No Republican U.S. Senate candidate has gotten less than 60% in Oklahoma since 2008, and no Democrat has gotten more than 40% since 2004. No Democrat has actually won since 1990. Not much in recent trends suggests a change. One survey does show Horn as close as 6 points, and she did win the 2018 5th Congressional District race against almost all expectations, but in a statewide race, Mullin holds most of the cards. Shes just trying to use us to get her attention, Mullin recently told Tulsas Fox 23. Theres no point in me just standing up there to give her a platform to attack us. We run a very clean and positive campaign. Youve never seen a negative ad come from us. So whats the upside of this? Mullin has not given many interviews to Oklahoma news organizations since his runoff victory over T.W. Shannon. His campaign did not respond to Tulsa World requests for an interview for this story. When asked about it at a recent rally for Gov. Kevin Stitt, Mullin said the World had been too critical of him. Other news organizations say theyve been unable to talk with him, too. But he has appeared on some Oklahoma television stations and national outlets, such as Newsmaxx and Fox. He recently told Undaunted.Life: A Mans Podcast that hes campaigned for Republican candidates in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Georgia and New Hampshire. Oklahomans are noticing hes not here, Horn said. It has not gone past peoples attention that hes ignored all debate requests, that hes refusing to answer questions. Whether many voters care is another matter. Mullin was very much in evidence during the Republican primary and runoff campaigns earlier in the year, and laid out a platform of business deregulation, just as it has been for the entirety of his 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since the runoff, Mullin has somewhat moderated his rhetoric on the 2020 presidential election, which he has described as stolen from Republicans, and former U.S. President Donald Trump, who he and his family reportedly visited in Florida recently. Publicly, Mullin derides all Democrats as extremists and socialists. There are no moderate Democrats in Washington, D.C., he said during the Stitt rally. In Congress, though, Mullin has worked with Democrats to pass legislation beneficial to the 2nd District, which is poorer, more rural and more technologically isolated than most. Off the House floor, he was friends with then-Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, grandson of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He has both revved up crowds with incendiary speeches about Democrats and calmed them down by saying disagreement is no reason for incivility. Horn, meanwhile, says she just keeps trying to convince voters that a Democrat can represent them better than Mullin. In terms of issues, Horn and Mullin probably most disagree on abortion rights. She is for them, to some degree at least. He opposes them in all or almost all circumstances. Horn, though, talks about who is more likely to get things done for Oklahomans. My approach has never changed, she said. Since the very beginning, Ive been reaching Oklahomans where they are, having conversations on the real issues, and not just falling into this us versus them and the stereotypical check-a-box for a party. Horn said she voted against party leadership more than just about anybody, Republican or Democrat, during her single term representing the 5th District. She is critical of extremism in both parties, We helped a lot of people, Horn said. Thats what my record shows. It doesnt show somebody who was a rubber stamp. In contrast, Markwayne is more than happy to just point fingers at Democrats. And this is the problem I have with the way politics is talked about today. Weve got to stop lumping everybody in with the most extreme voices on either side, she said. What we need are thoughtful, moderate, intentional leaders on both sides of the aisle. AP Explains: What to expect on election night. A task force report commissioned by Gov. Kevin Stitt after he signed a series of anti-abortion bills into law is drawing fire. The report, issued Wednesday by the governors Helping Every Life and Parent Task Force, offered a series of recommendations, from increasing Medicaid coverage for mothers to using the internet to promote the Oklahoma life and parenting brand. The recommendations come from an 11-member panel Stitt created by executive order in July after he signed legislation that banned abortions in the state in most circumstances. I am impressed and grateful for the HELP Task Forces dedication and execution of their responsibility to deliver thoughtful recommendations to support Oklahoma families and women before, during, and after childbirth, Stitt said in a media release Wednesday. But some of the recommendations are being criticized by an area Planned Parenthood chapter and physicians. A Planned Parenthood Great Plains official knocked the report for its emphasis on building the states brand. When you remove a persons fundamental right to access abortion care and your first solution is to use state resources to brand better, then its clear youre the one with an image problem, said Emily Wales, Planned Parenthood Great Plains president and chief executive officer. These recommendations affirm what we know to be true: People will continue to seek abortion care even when politicians put incredible barriers in their path, Wales said. Branding and marketing is the first recommendation listed in the task forces 266-page report. It is the recommendation of the H.E.L.P. Task Force to create an Oklahoma life and parenting brand with a landing page from an Oklahoma website that compiles life and parenting resources, initiatives, programs, assistance and educational information to fulfill task force objectives, with the request for funding from Legislature, if needed, the report states. The task force also recommended: Establishment of a statewide cooperative network and process for the availability of the Abortion Pill Reversal, in conjunction with area hospitals, clinics and pregnancy centers. Abortion pill reversal is a controversial use of progesterone to counter the effects of medication abortion. Opponents say the treatment is not supported by scientific evidence. Exploration of a tax credit, similar to one in Missouri, for donations to certified pregnancy help centers. Expansion of funding through the Choosing Childbirth Act, which supports organizations offering adoption, counseling and other social services programs for pregnant women. Elimination of unnecessary barriers to adoption to make Oklahoma the most adoption-friendly state in the nation. Expansion of health services for women in all areas of the state, noting that some areas are considered maternity deserts. Expansion of SoonerCare, Oklahomas version of Medicaid, by raising the federal poverty level for income eligibility for pregnancy and postpartum coverage from 138% of the federal poverty level to 205% of the federal poverty level. Extension of postpartum coverage for SoonerCare recipients from 60 days to 12 months. Regarding the so-called abortion pill reversal, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the treatment. Claims regarding abortion reversal treatment are not based on science and do not meet clinical standards, the organization states on its website. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ranks its recommendations on the strength of the evidence and does not support prescribing progesterone to stop a medication abortion. While the group declined to comment to the Tulsa World on the HELP report, one member of the group did. Claims that progesterone may be used for abortion reversal are not based on science, do not meet clinical standards, and are dangerous, said Dr. Kristyn Brandi, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Darney-Landy fellow. There have not been successful clinical trials of this treatment, and in fact one trial was stopped early due to serious hemorrhaging experienced by trial participants. ACOG does not support prescribing progesterone to stop a medication abortion. Unproven treatments interfere with patient safety and put the lives of pregnant people at risk. The recommendation of Oklahomas HELP Task Force to pursue a statewide effort to provide this unfounded abortion reversal treatment will endanger pregnant people and force doctors to lie to their patients. The task force also recommended: The Legislature should adopt national best practices and allow certified nurse-midwives to practice at the top of their education and training. Considering a woman at the point of a positive pregnancy test to have a dependent and be eligible for federal financial assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The Legislature should amend state law to permit a TANF applicant with a positive drug test to qualify for the program provided they complete a substance abuse treatment plan and allow those treatment hours to count toward work activity requirements. The Legislature should amend the Oklahoma Safe Haven Law to increase the number of days to relinquish a child without prosecution for child abandonment or child neglect from 30 days of age or younger to 60 days of age or younger. The state should support the expansion of programs designed to promote fatherhood. Thoughtful Oklahomans have been cringing for years about being at the bottom of too many critical national metrics: 43rd in overall livability, 40th in childrens well-being, between 45th and 49th in public education (depending on source) and 48th in public health. On the other hand, weve proven we can excel. We were the 9th worst in cost-adjusted per pupil funding, top 10 per capita in COVID-19 deaths, No. 1 in heart disease mortality, and the 6th highest overall U.S. crime rate. The Tulsa murder rate is nearly three times that of Los Angeles. Seventy-four percent of fourth-graders were found to lack grade-level proficiency in reading and math in 2019, a score virtually unchanged from 1998. Meanwhile, in 2021 our state government raked in $15.8 billion, the highest tax revenue in Oklahoma history. Another statistic drives much of this: Oklahoma is dead last in eligible voter turnout. Regardless of how we might prefer to solve a policy issue, theres no denying that a functional democracy is built on the right to vote and the full exercise of that right. On Tuesday, the ball will finally be in our court. To those who sat on the sidelines in the June primaries, the 83% of lawfully registered Oklahoma voters who did not or could not exercise their right and civic duty because they were excluded by our undemocratic, publicly-funded closed primaries, or simply felt uninspired: Now is your time. To the tens of thousands of newly registered or first-time voters: Welcome. Now get out there and dont give up. To those registered voters who say their votes dont matter: In Oklahomas default closed primaries, you have a good point. But the general elections are when you can be part of the solution. And now a word about what you will see, and not see, on your ballot: According to the nonprofit journalism organization Oklahoma Watch, Nearly 70% of state House and Senate races up for reelection in 2022 were decided in the primaries. Thats up from 27% in 2018. Less than one-third of Oklahoma House seats will be decided in this general election. Nearly half of the remaining races had no primary challenger. Oklahoma ranks among the nations least competitive states for legislative races. Only Alabama has a higher percentage of seats without major party competition. As Oklahoma Watch rightly notes, Without competitive local races, voters are more likely to become disengaged or feel alienated, studies have found. The same can happen to lawmakers who arent making their case to voters. A 2011 Georgetown University study found state legislators who run unopposed are less effective and engaged with constituents. Meanwhile, over 413,000 Oklahomans and growing are lawfully registered as unaffiliated, or independent, as of Oct. 31. While Oklahoma gladly took their tax money to pay for exclusive party primaries, the state and parties refused them the full right to vote. The only exception comes from the Democratic Party which allows independents to vote in its primary. Our state sidelines our citizens for no legitimate reason. Were suppressing all voices with the widely heard message that regular folks should butt out and leave government to the powers that be. Does that sound right to you? It is un-American and undemocratic to force an eligible voter to join a political party to exercise a constitutional right to vote. Closed primaries are obviously not right for Oklahoma. If you like being at the bottom of the U.S. in voter turnout, public education performance and livability, then youre in luck. Our closed primary system has helped produce exactly that. If, however, you want to leave Oklahoma better than you found it, you want a better future with a diverse economy and capable workforce, and you want your children and grandchildren to live in Oklahoma and be proud of it, its show time. Lets all stand up and vote to demand solutions and leaders who move us forward in common purpose. As the anniversary of Kristallnacht approaches next week, retired Tulsa ophthalmologist Marcel Binstock took time to recall his familys daring nighttime escape from the Nazis in 1942. At age 87, Binstocks memory of his early childhood remains acute with lessons from eight decades ago relevant today. Mankind just doesnt seem able to live with each other, he said. I wish mankind would somehow put greater emphasis on living in peace with one another and learning about people who are not like them, people of different races or religions. People must pay attention to who they choose as leaders. It only takes one to cause so much chaos. Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass, was a series of pogroms carried out by Nazi leaders in Jewish communities on Nov. 9-10, 1938. Shattered glass littered the streets after the destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and homes. Cemeteries also were vandalized. Political officials blamed it on a spontaneous uprising and arrested 30,000 Jewish men without cause and sent them to concentration camps. It marked the first mass roundup of Jewish people. This observance of this moment comes as the U.S. experiences a rise in antisemitism. It has been seen in recent words from Kanye West, slogans worn on shirts by Jan. 6 insurrectionists and even among extremist candidates for public office. In April, the Anti-Defamation League reported an all-time high of antisemitic incidences with 2,717 a 34% increase from 2020. Thats an average of seven cases of assault, harassment and vandalism a day. History informs us why this trend is alarming. An event at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Tulsa Community College Southeast campus will feature four Tulsans to talk about their experiences with the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. Binstock will be among the speakers. He was born in 1935 in Strasbourg, France, a city just west of the Rhine River on the Franco-German border. As he entered school, his parents told him and his older sister to not tell classmates they were Jewish. In 1939, the French government evacuated the city in preparation for a German attack. It took just six weeks starting in May 1940 for the Germans to seize Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. Upon occupation, the French ordered Jewish families to police stations to register by getting a stamp on their official government identification. My mother, a very law-abiding woman, went with our identification to do just that, Binstock said. But when she got there, the French officer said, Youre not a Jew, go home. She then insisted on getting the stamp for Jews. When she got home, my Dad said, You shouldve listened to that officer. He was trying to tell you something. Seeing the climate deteriorate for Jewish people, the Binstock family made their way to Italy. The French government elected to cooperate with the Germans to persecute the Jews, Binstock said. At the time, the Germans claimed they were just moving Jews to eastern Europe. What we didnt know was that the intention was to exterminate Jews. As a consequence, some of the Jews in our city went to the stations to travel to eastern Europe. They didnt know what their fate would be. Binstocks father, who was from Poland, fought in World War I and was taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans. He became fascinated by German traditions and lived in the county after the Great War. My Dad had a fear of Germans, Binstock said. He respected the German culture and people, until Hitler came to power. He saw how Jews were going to be treated and thats why he moved to France. Italy wasnt home for long, as the county aligned with the Germans and participated in the Jewish oppression. Nighttime raids of Jewish homes led to mass arrests and deportations to camp. My Dad said its very dangerous, and we cant stay here. So we made preparations to flee and go to Switzerland. His mother was born in Switzerland, where her father and two brothers still lived. Binstocks older sister joined a girls youth organization that got her across the border as part of a tourist trip. She was 14, and my parents didnt know for weeks whether she actually made it, he said. But they had no choice. They were desperate. At age 7, Binstock and his parents found a man who had a way to get them over the Swiss border, but it was complicated and risky. The family got on a train bound for a French destination at night during a winter month. The man had them jump from the train at a specific point. Because of Nazi patrols, the family crawled about 150 yards to a river that served as the border. They then swam to safety. My parents shielded me from as much bad stuff, Binstock said. They never said a word about what was happening. They didnt talk to me about it. I guess they didnt want me to worry. I was told this was an outing, like a trip. I remember it being nighttime and chilly. As they were walking along a highway, a Swiss officer came by and took the family into custody. They separated the parents with Binstock staying with his father in a jail cell. They underwent questioning for two days, with particular focus on his mother who spoke the local Swiss-German dialect. We found out later they thought she might be a spy for the Germans, Binstock said. They were moved to a refugee camp and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the facility. A woman who was being released from the camp smuggled out a note from the family to one of his uncles, who then successfully petitioned his government for their release. The Binstock family reunited with his sister and settled in Zurich until the wars end. He recalled a teacher once encouraging his class to talk about their faith traditions. I didnt know how I was going to handle that, he said. I think he could tell I was uncertain, so he didnt ask me. But a Swiss kid later asked me, and I said, Im a Protestant. I didnt know what else to do. After the war, they returned to France but then made an immigration application in 1948 to the United States. They had family members living in New York and were approved. After arrival, they settled in Vineland, New Jersey, where he graduated high school in 1957. Binstock graduated from the University of Indiana with a zoology degree. He moved to New York where he was in demand with Wall Street bankers because he spoke three languages. After deciding to become a physician, he went to medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1963. He moved to Los Angeles for an internship and start of his career. After working in an emergency room for awhile, Binstock decided to specialize in ophthalmology and went to Georgetown University for training and then Baylor University for a retina subspecialty. At Baylor, Binstock had a colleague who was a descendant of the Perryman family, who were among Tulsas early settlers. He kept talking about how great Tulsa was so I came up to take a look, he said. Binstock was recruited by Hillcrest Hospital because the city had no retina specialists at the time. He had a Tulsa practice for more than 40 years. He is now retired. Through the years, Binstock has spoken to school groups about his escape from the Nazis. He ended it saying the same thing. Be very careful who you select as your leaders. It only takes one to create so much havoc, he said. I fear for young people right now. I dont like what Im seeing. Andreas Thorud is putting the finishing touches to a seafood-themed booth at the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in China's economic hub Shanghai. "We are very happy and excited to be part of this fifth edition of the CIIE," said Thorud from the Norwegian Seafood Council, a first-time CIIE exhibitor. According to Thorud, eight Norwegian companies, led by the seafood council, will be joining the upcoming event. They will be promoting a variety of star seafood specially selected for the Chinese market, including Norwegian salmon, shellfish and king crab. The past few years have been full of opportunities for global exporters, as China's appetite for seafood has grown continually. It was this fact that prompted Thorud and his peers to gravitate to the CIIE. This year's CIIE is going to be a very exciting platform "for us to see how can we develop new areas, new business partners and new types of consumers," Thorud said. Open market As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. U.S. carmaker Tesla's robotic product Tesla Bot will make its debut on the Chinese mainland at this year's expo. As the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory manifests China's commitment to its pledge of furthering reform and opening up. "The report to the 20th CPC National Congress has once again emphasized China's commitment to opening wider to the outside world. It was on such a premise that Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China," said Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin. Tao added that the CIIE has provided an open, collaborative and mutually beneficial platform for global enterprises to share business opportunities in the Chinese market, and is a vivid practice of building a human community with a shared future. Having joined all the four previous editions, the biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will set up a 1,000-square meter main booth at the upcoming CIIE, which is one of the largest booths in the medical devices and healthcare section. "Over the past four years, AstraZeneca has gone from being a newcomer at the CIIE to becoming a regular participant, and we have benefitted from the powerful CIIE spillover effects," said Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president of AstraZeneca. "The annual event provides us with an opportunity to summarize our phased results in China and open a new chapter of cooperation and exchange. We will continue to participate in CIIEs with an impressive score card," noted Wang. Shared growth Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday that 284 industry-leading enterprises, including some of the world's top 500 companies, will participate in the upcoming expo. New Zealand's dairy brand Theland has already signed up for the sixth CIIE. "We've tasted the sweetness at the CIIE, and we certainly can't miss such a great opportunity," said Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Theland Global R&D at Milk New Zealand Dairy, an "old friend" to the CIIE. Hurk said that all the commitments China made at the previous CIIEs to open wider have been fulfilled. For example, the delivery time of fresh milk from New Zealand farms to Chinese consumers has been cut to just 72 hours from more than eight days. According to Hurk, the expo has helped Theland quickly grow from a relatively small brand to a well-known name even in counties in central and western China. "Theland is a staunch supporter of the CIIE, which has become a new driving force for the development of global enterprises and a platform for win-win cooperation, and helps mitigate the uncertainties that the pandemic brought to the global economy," said Hurk. Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that, from 2018 to 2021, exhibitors at the four previous editions of the CIIE launched more than 1,500 new products, technologies and services, with a total expected turnover exceeding 270 billion U.S. dollars. "The CIIE is the perfect platform of collaboration. I've been witnessing it for four years myself, and seeing more and more exhibitors, from more and more countries, in more and more domains," said Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China. "I think there are no other ones in the world which are able to bring so many industries, so many country representatives, and have this dialogue that allows us really to look at shared opportunities and discuss the values that are important for us," Megarbane added. BEIJING -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced an agreement on Friday to let expatriates in China use the COVID-19 vaccine from Germany's BioNTech and pressed for Beijing to allow the shot to be made freely available to Chinese citizens. On his first visit to China since becoming chancellor and the first by a G7 leader since the pandemic, Scholz said China and Germany had different approaches to fighting the virus but had a joint responsibility to eliminate it. BioNTech, which partnered with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc during the pandemic, would be the first non-Chinese coronavirus vaccine to be administered in China as Beijing has hitherto insisted on administering domestically produced vaccines. Shares in BioNTech were up 5% after the announcement. A spokesperson for BioNTech told Reuters that vaccines for the Chinese market would be initially imported. The two countries "agreed on close cooperation in the fight against the pandemic," Scholz said in a briefing alongside the Chinese premier Li Keqiang. "This also includes an approval of the BioNTech vaccine for expatriates in China. Of course, this can only be a first step. I hope that the circle of eligible persons can soon be widened to a general free ability of the BioNTech vaccine," said Scholz. The announcement comes amid rumours that Beijing will soon lift its stringent COVID-19 lockdown policies, though there has been no official announcement to that effect. Vietnam has enough rice and meat of all kinds to meet domestic demand and contribute to the global supply through its exports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang has affirmed. Hang was speaking at the ministrys regular press conference in Hanoi on Thursday in response to a Sputnik reporters question about Vietnams reaction to Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kulebas recent statement that Vietnam might be affected when the agreement on Ukraine's grain exports via the Black Sea was suspended by Russia. On October 30, Kuleba warned on Twitter that the suspension would cause two million tons of grains that Ukraine intends to export to Vietnam and other countries to be stuck at Ukrainian ports. Moscow promises free 500 thousand tons of grain (most likely stolen from Ukraine) to other countries over the next 4 months. But by ruining the grain corridor Russia blocks 2 million (!) tons of grain for Algeria, Yemen, Vietnam, Bangladesh & others right now, Kuleba wrote on the social media site. The Vietnamese government always pays attention to and considers national food security as it is an especially important task in the countrys industrialization and modernization process, ensuring the countrys stability and sustainable development, the spokeswoman emphasized. Vietnam can produce 41-43 million tons of rice and 6.5 million tons of various meat types every year, satisfying the domestic demand, Hang said, citing official statistics. As one of the worlds leading farm produce exporters, Vietnam has also made significant contributions to the joint efforts to address global food security challenges, the spokesperson added. As a responsible member of the United Nations and the international community, Vietnam is always ready to share its experience in food security to other countries and hopes that every country will strengthen their international cooperation in addressing this issue, Hang stated. Over the first ten months of 2022, the total export-import turnover of Vietnams agricultural, forestry and fishery products reached about $82.1 billion, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Earlier, on October 29, Russia halted its participation in an agreement to export grains from Ukrainian ports and announced that it could not guarantee the safety of civilian ships passing through the Black Sea because the Russian fleet in Crimea was previously attacked. However, the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday announced that Moscow would return to the agreement after receiving from Ukraine a written guarantee in which Kiev pledged not to launch military operations against Russia using its seaports as well as the humanitarian corridors, according to Russias TASS news agency. Earlier on July 22, Russia and Ukraine signed a United Nations-backed deal to resume Ukraines grain exports through the Black Sea, which had stalled since Russia launched its special military operation on Ukrainian territory on February 24. The deal was aimed to allow the delivery of millions of tons of grain from blockaded Black Sea ports, preventing the threat of a global food crisis, according to the Guardian. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Read what is in the news today in Vietnam: Society -- Su-30MK2 fighter jets and Mi helicopters performed acrobatic exercises as part of flight drills in Hanoi skies on Thursday to prepare for the Vietnam International Defense Expo 2022 from December 8 to 10. -- The Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City plans to propose the municipal Peoples Committee ban sleeper buses from entering the inner city between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm every day starting December. -- The Ho Chi Minh City transport department has announced a plan to open a VND437-billion (US$17.5 million) tunnel in front of the new Mien Dong (Eastern) Bus Station in Thu Duc City to traffic at the end of this month. -- A person with an overseas travel history was recorded as a monkeypox patient in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on Wednesday, the third case of the viral disease in Vietnam so far. -- Police in Hanoi are investigating the allegation that a ninth-grade student jumped from the third floor of Duc Giang Middle School in Hoai Duc District after being ridiculed by his classmates last month. -- A 55-year-old woman in north-central Ha Tinh Province has reunited with her family after losing complete contact and staying in China for 39 years, a local official said on Thursday night. -- Police in Da Lat, the capital city of Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands region, on Thursday initated legal proceedings against a 37-year-old man hailing from northern Thai Binh Province for physically abusing his ten-year-old son by undressing the child, tying a harness around the childs neck, walking him around, and forcing him to bark like a dog. The man has been kept in custody for a week. Business -- Vietnams foreign direct investment (FDI) reached over $22.46 billion in the first ten months of 2022, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Vietnamese man from Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam has been brought back to life after doctors anticipated that he would not survive a cardiac arrest. Quang Nam General Hospital said on Thursday that it had discharged N.H.K., 47, on the same afternoon to let him recover at home as he had completed basic cardiovascular rehabilitation programs at the hospital. K., hailing from Quang Nams Tien Phuoc District and residing in Ho Chi Minh City, was admitted to the hospital in a deep coma on October 23, when his family was taking him back to their hometown as doctors at another hospital in the southern metropolis had prognosticated that he would not have much time left. Previously, K. suffered from chest pain while eating food and drinking alcohol. The Ho Chi Minh City-based infirmary diagnosed him with a heart attack and complications of respiratory arrest upon his hospitalization. During the trip back to hometown, K.s family members saw his limbs move and decided to take him to Quang Nam General Hospital as a last hope. Doctors from the department of cardiology at Quang Nam General Hospital quickly activated the red alert protocol to revascularize the blocked coronary artery. After the intervention, the patient gradually regained consciousness, was able to breathe on his own before being prescribed low-dose vasopressors in the intensive care unit. A few days later, he went on basic cardiovascular rehabilitation programs until his discharge. Dr. Nguyen Luong Quang, head of the cardiology department of Quang Nam General Hospital, hailed K.s case as rare survival of cardiac arrest, whose mortality rate is over 95 percent. What surprised Quang the most is that K. had traveled more than 1,000km from Ho Chi Minh City to Quang Nam and could still get back to life. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Vietnamese woman has been reunited with her family in north-central Ha Tinh Province after living in China for 26 years. Nguyen Khac Phong, chairman of the Peoples Committee in Thinh Loc Commune, Loc Ha District confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Thursday that a local family had found their lost member 55-year-old Nguyen Thi Lo after 26 years. Lo previously left her hometown in Thinh Loc Commune and arrived in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. She was then brought to China, where she got married and had four children, chairman Phong elaborated. Chinese authorities recently discovered that Lo does not have any legitimate personal documents and decided to hand over the woman to their counterparts in Vietnam. After returning to Vietnam, Lo stayed at a social affairs center in north-central Nghe An. Nguyen Thi Lo cries as she misses her children in China. Photo: L.M. / Tuoi Tre After her story and photos were shared on social media, Los family members recognized her and were reunited with her on Thursday. According to Nguyen Duc Dieu, Los brother-in-law, she is the fifth child in a family of nine children. They lived in a needy household, and their parents passed away a long time ago. About 26 years ago, Lo went to Dak Lak Province to find a job, but later lost contact with her family, Dieu elaborated. Family members had reported Los missing, but they were never able to find her. Since the reunion, Lo has been crying a lot because she misses her children in China, Dieu said. She also wishes to be able to return to China. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF), held in the namesake central Vietnamese city, will resume in 2023 after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local authorities. Ngo Thi Kim Yen, vice-chairman of the Da Nang City Peoples Committee, issued invitation letters on Wednesday to enterprises and organizations, inviting them to join the city in organizing the 2023 DIFF. The competition, held in Da Nang since 2008, features pyro teams from around the world who compete to hold the best firework show of the festival. The event held its tenth anniversary in 2019 before authorities were forced to suspend it due to the pandemic. Over its over 10-year lifespan, the DIFF has contributed to Da Nang's reputation as one of Asia's premier festival and event destination. The fireworks festival has also helped promote Da Nang and Vietnam closer to a wider international audience, creating a youthful and hospitable impression of the city. On Tuesday, the Peoples Committee of Da Nang announced a plan to organize the 2023 edition of the DIFF, which will take place from June 3 to July 8 the following year. In 2023, the festival will feature a fireworks competition and other events. The 2023 DIFFs five competition rounds are expected to feature eight teams, including seven from abroad and one from Da Nang, Vietnam. Each teams firework show will last for 20 to 22 minutes and be based on an agreed-upon theme. The event is expected to cost VND150 billion (US$6 million). In 2019, Team JoHo Pyro Professional Fireworks AB from Finland was crowned the winner and awarded a trophy and a $10,000 cash prize. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! US-based presenter Dominic Bowden will feature on 7Bravo, launching on Seven in January. He will have direct access to some of the channels biggest stars including interviews with faces from The Real Housewives, Below Deck and Million Dollar Listing. Originally from New Zealand, Bowden has worked as a host and reporter for E! in Australia and NZ, plus MTV, FOX, VH1, CNN, Lifetime and radio, including KIIS FM with Ryan Seacrest. He was also a backstage host in the US on Dancing with the Stars and host of the spinoff American Idol show: The Next Great American Band. He will also feature on Bravo channel in New Zealand. Im thrilled to be joining this truly global brand and bringing the biggest names from all corners of the Bravo universe to Australian audiences, he said. Bravos iconic shows have the most passionate fanbase and its an honour to represent Down Under in the US, interviewing the channels brightest stars. Its something Im super excited and proud to do. Chris Taylor, MD, NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-to-Consumer and Distribution, ANZ, said: We are delighted to welcome Dominic Bowden to the Bravo family, covering both Australia and New Zealand. He is an exceptional talent and brings a wealth of experience and professionalism to the role, in order to deliver Australian audiences interviews with 7Bravos biggest stars direct from LA. 7Bravo launches in Australia on 15 January 2023 as a new multichannel. It didnt rate a mention at SBS Upfront this week but producers are now casting for Australias Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley, coming to SBS. Sleep Revolution is a follow up to Australias Health Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley. Renowned medical journalist and serial insomnia sufferer Dr Michael Mosley, together with some of the nations poorest sleepers, put their bodies on the line to trial Australian-led, world first treatments. Teaming up with expert sleep scientists at Flinders University, Institute of Sleep Health, Dr Mosley will wake up the nation to the dangers of bad slumber and inspire a sleep revolution, a casting note advises. https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/australias-health-revolution-with-dr-michael-mosley Producers are seeking adults of all ages living in South Australia, who are struggling to sleep due to insomnia or sleep apnoea or both either medically diagnosed or not. We are keen to hear from people who are living with a diverse spectrum of these sleep disorders whether caused by work (stress and shift work), night terrors, lifestyle or other factors. We want to know how disrupted sleep affects your every-day life and most importantly, we want to help you try and fix your sleep by undergoing a pioneering, highly individual, multi-faceted sleep treatment program. Were also interested to know how your cultural background and beliefs impact your sleep, they state. Filming will be conducted in Adelaide and regional South Australia, between mid-December 2022 to mid-April 2023. More details and how to apply here here. China on Friday rolled out a detailed implementation plan for private pensions, following the release of a guideline on pushing forward the development of private pensions to complement the nation's current pension system in April. The implementation plan was issued by five government departments: the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. It specifies the participation process, capital account management, the management of institutions and products, information disclosure, and supervision. Individuals can now make voluntary annual deposits of up to 12,000 yuan (about 1,653 U.S. dollars) into a pension account, and the funds can be used to purchase financial products that are of relatively low risk and have long-term investment horizons. Workers who currently contribute to China's basic pension insurance scheme can participate in the private pension scheme. The private scheme will complement the country's current pension system consisting of a basic old-age pension, enterprise annuities and commercial insurance for the elderly, offering another layer of support for the country's aging population. Exclusive-Telcos push EU to make Big Tech pay for network costs FILE PHOTO: Facebook Amazon Netflix and Google logos in combination photo from Reuters files By Mathieu Rosemain and Supantha Mukherjee PARIS/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Telecom operators are pushing the European Union to implement new laws that would make Big Tech pay for network costs, following Australia's example, according to four sources close to the matter. Europe's telecoms operators have lobbied for a financial contribution from U.S. tech firms such as Alphabet's Google, Meta's Facebook and Netflix, saying that they use a huge part of the region's internet traffic. The latest proposal, which hasn't been reported, is being discussed within the telecoms lobby group GSMA, an association that represents more than 750 mobile operators. "GSMA is coordinating a proposal that speaks to Big Tech contribution to European infrastructure investment," said John Giusti, GSMA's chief regulatory officer, without elaborating on the content of the proposal. A letter will be sent to EU industry chief Thierry Breton in the next five to six weeks, Giusti said. Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The proposal comes ahead of the 27-country bloc's consultation on a so-called "fair share" contribution from the likes of Google, Netflix, Meta and Amazon, which account for more than half of the internet traffic. These platforms dismiss the idea and consider it an internet traffic tax. Australia's recently-adopted laws in its own spat with Google and Facebook have emerged as the most-favoured weapon for telecoms operators in their dispute with Big Tech companies, the sources said. The rules, first aimed at compelling tech giants to pay for news content online, allow an Australian government-appointed arbitrator to set fees if Big Tech companies and news publishers fail to find a common ground over copyright. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reached last year a content-supply deal with Meta's Facebook in Australia under the rules, helping to put an end to a dispute that saw the social media giant briefly shut down thousands of pages in the country. Story continues Under Australia's binding so-called "final-offer arbitration", the parties have to negotiate in good faith. But if a deal can't be struck between them, they have to present their offers and defer to an arbitrator to choose one. The goal is to encourage tech giants and news publishers to reach an agreement before being compelled to go for this last resort procedure. The telecoms operators that are part of GSMA, including some of Europe's largest such as Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica agree that the Australian way is the best approach, the sources said. No formal document has yet been sent to Breton, the sources said. Officials are discussing whether the proposal will be made directly by the GSMA or from a group of chief executives, one of the sources said. Breton has said he will seek feedback from both sides before drafting legislation. (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Supantha Mukherjee;Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Matt Scuffham and David Evans) Sweden and Finland are committed to working with Turkey to address its concerns ahead of their membership in the alliance, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, adding it is time to welcome them. Ankara has accused the two Nordic nations of providing safe haven to outlawed Kurdish militants it deems "terrorists". "I recognise your concerns," Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Istanbul. He said Finland and Sweden were keen to work closer with Turkey to fight "terrorism". "It's also in their interest," he said. "It's time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of NATO. Their accession will make our alliance stronger and our people safer." Both countries dropped decades of military non-alignment and scrambled to become NATO members in May, after Russia invaded Ukraine. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block their bids, seeking concessions. In June, Turkey, Sweden and Finland struck a deal which included provisions on extraditions and sharing information. "Finland and Sweden have delivered on their agreement to Turkey," Stoltenberg said. "They have become strong partner in our joint fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he added. "And they are clearly committed to long-term engagement with Turkey to address your security concerns." To date, all but Turkey and Hungary of the 30 NATO member states have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland. New members to the alliance require unanimous approval. Cavusoglu said Stockholm took some steps including the removal of restrictions standing in the way of arms sales to Turkey but added "it's not possible to say" the July agreement was fully implemented. "We don't intend to harm NATO or block its enlargement ... we want to see concrete steps," he said. Ankara is "more hopeful" that Sweden's new government will address Turkey's concerns, Cavusoglu added. Sweden's new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson would visit Ankara on Tuesday for further talks, the foreign minister said. Story continues NATO accession is a priority for Sweden's new right-wing government. Stoltenberg, who is due to meet with Erdogan on Friday, said it was important to finalise the membership bids to send a "clear message to Russia". "In these dangerous times it is even more important to finalise their accession to prevent any misunderstanding or miscalculation by Moscow and to send a clear message to Russia that NATO's door remains open," he said. "And it is only for allies to decide on NATO membership, nobody else." fo/bp Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro met Thursday with advisors to incoming successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who described the visit as "positive," after fears the far-right incumbent would try to fight his election defeat. Vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin, who is heading Lula's transition team, said the meeting came at the end of a trip to the presidential palace where he and advisors met Bolsonaro's cabinet chief, Ciro Nogueira, to begin preparing the handover of power on January 1. "It was positive. The president invited us into his offices as we were leaving, and reiterated what Ciro Nogueira had said: the federal government's readiness to give us all information and assistance needed for a smooth transition in the public interest," Alckmin told journalists. Brazil has been on edge since veteran leftist Lula's narrow win Sunday over Bolsonaro, who remained silent for nearly two days as angry supporters blocked highways across the country, calling for a military intervention to keep him in power. However, with the blockades losing strength, the wheels of the power transfer appear to be turning. Earlier, Alckmin told a news conference he had held a "very fruitful" meeting with Nogueira and other administration officials along with the head of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann, and the transition team's technical coordinator, Aloizio Mercadante. "The transition has begun... As Lula said in his victory speech, our task is to unite Brazil. So here we go," Alckmin said. Alckmin, a business-friendly center-right veteran tasked with building bridges with Lula's adversaries, said the president-elect was getting some "well-deserved rest." They will begin announcing the full membership of the transition team from Monday, he said. Alckmin is seeking ways to make key Lula campaign promises fit within a tight 2023 federal budget. Conservatives scored big election wins in Congress, meaning Lula faces an uphill battle to get legislation passed and tackle problems such as a weak economy, hunger crisis and surging destruction in the Amazon rainforest. Story continues - Hope dims for hardliners - The pro-Bolsonaro road blocks had threatened to create havoc in Latin America's biggest economy. Officials said there were 32 road barricades by Thursday afternoon, down from 250 Tuesday, after Bolsonaro issued an appeal to "unblock the roads" to avoid interfering with people's right to move freely. But although the ex-army captain has vowed to respect the constitution, he has not acknowledged Lula's win or congratulated him. Bolsonaro encouraged "legitimate demonstrations" in a video posted online Wednesday night -- raising fears Brazil may still face turbulent times until Lula is sworn in, and beyond. Lula, 77, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, won an unprecedented third term Sunday, capping a remarkable comeback for the ex-metalworker three years after he was freed from prison on since-quashed corruption convictions. Bolsonaro supporters reacted furiously to the vote count, blocking highways with cars, trucks, and tractors and rallying outside military barracks to demand an intervention. In Rio de Janeiro, a protest outside a military base had dwindled to several dozen people. "We're going to have a communist dictatorship," 31-year-old protester Jessica dos Santos Ferreira told AFP, calling Lula a "thief." There were fears that Bolsonaro, an admirer of Donald Trump, would seek to stage a Brazilian version of the 2021 riots in Washington following the former US president's own election loss. But Bolsonaro appeared to find himself isolated after his defeat, as allies including powerful lower-house speaker Arthur Lira and televangelist Silas Malafaia acknowledged the result. The protesters have meanwhile come under fire for their extreme measures and views in some cases. Authorities in the southern state of Santa Catarina opened an investigation after one group of hundreds of pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators was filmed making what appeared to be Nazi salutes Wednesday. Prosecutors said in a statement they had not found evidence the protesters intended the gesture as a "defense of Nazism," a crime in Brazil. In several states, organized football fan clubs broke up the road blocks so they could get to their teams' away games -- winning plaudits on social media from Brazilians exasperated by the blockades. raa-rsr/jhb/bgs Debris from a powerful Chinese rocket returning from space forced Spain to close part of its airspace. A no-fly zone was briefly imposed in the northeastern region of Catalonia and three other areas as remnants of the Long March 5B (CZ-5B) were due to pass over. The rocket blasted off on 31 October from southern China to deliver the last module of the country's space station, which is currently under construction. As gravity pulled the projectile back to Earth, most of it was expected to burn up on re-entry, but there were concerns significant fragments may survive. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking service (EUSST) said the debris would most probably re-enter the atmosphere in the middle of the Atlantic and would likely land in the sea. But it also warned that northern Spain and Portugal and southern Italy were also within the potential trajectory of the rocket. Emergency officials in Catalonia said on Twitter: "Due to the risk associated with the passage of the space object CZ-5B through the Spanish airspace, flights have been totally restricted from 09:38am to 10:18am in Catalonia and other communities." The EUSST said: "The statistical probability of an impact on the ground in populated areas is low. "These predictions however come with uncertainties, and a better estimation will only be possible close to the re-entry." It was the fourth flight of the Long March 5B rocket since its maiden launch in May 2020. On its first deployment, fragments of the rocket landed on the Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings in the West African nation, although no injuries were reported. Debris from the second flight landed harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, while remnants from the third fell into the sea in the Philippines. The rocket's re-entry into the atmosphere is a common international practice, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a briefing when asked if China had taken measures to reduce the risks. He said the rocket was designed so most of its components would be destroyed on re-entry and "the probability of causing harm to aviation activities and the ground is extremely low". (ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE/AFP via Gett) A French far-right MP has been suspended from the countrys parliament for 15 days after shouting return to Africa as a black MP spoke. Gregoire de Fournas, of the far-right National Rally party, was heard shouting the words "return to Africa" as MP Carlos Martens Bilongo was challenging the French government on Thursday about migrants stranded at sea. Mr Bilongo said he was deeply hurt" by the remark. The fifteen-day suspension for Mr de Fournas is the maximum allowed. Mr de Fournas words prompted an outcry in the National Assembly, leading the legislative chambers president to suspend the session. He insisted after his suspension that he was innocent" and that it was "very unfair". He also insisted he was referring to Europe-bound migrants rescued at sea and not to his fellow MP. "I fully stand by my comments about the anarchic migratory policies of our country," he tweeted Friday. French anti-racist group, SOS Racisme, called it "the true face of the far-right: that of racism". The groups president, Dominique Sopo, said no matter what Mr de Fournas said exactly, obviously, they are extremely violent comments". Carlos Martens Bilongo at a demonstration in front of the National Assembly, (REUTERS) Mr Bilongo, a member of the far-left France Unbowed party, took part in a gathering on Friday near the National Assembly called by his party in a show of support. Im torn between joy and sadness," Mr Bilongo said. "Because I received many messages of support overnight ... because I see all these faces here showing solidarity with me." He said he received thousands of messages following the incident from people telling him that they hear similar comments in their daily lives. He praised the immediate reaction of anger shown by a large majority of MPs from across the political spectrum. French President Emmanuel Macron was shocked by words he considered "unacceptable in or outside" the assembly, said his office. French interior minister Gerald Darmanin also said he was "extremely shocked," telling BFM TV it was the first time in his 15 years of political life that he heard such "ignominious" words in parliament. Story continues The National Rally is the party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who lost her third bid for the French presidency to Mr Macron in April. However, Frances subsequent legislative election led to a major breakthrough for the party, which won 89 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, up from eight. Ms Le Pen claimed that Mr de Fournas was obviously speaking about the migrants transported in ships by NGOs". The controversy created by our political adversaries is gross and wont deceive the French," she said. Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed "very frank and very positive" talks with EU chiefs in Brussels on her first international trip since taking power. The nationalist leader of a post-fascist party, whose ascension last month sparked fears of turbulence with the bloc, struck a largely conciliatory tone after a string of meetings. But she fielded no questions from journalists and mostly focused on common ground: jointly tackling high energy prices and European unity supporting Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia. "I wanted to give the signal... of an Italy that obviously wants to participate, collaborate, defend its national interest and do so within the European dimension," she said in a brief statement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted after her meeting with Meloni that she sent a "strong signal" by visiting EU institutions as her first international act. "It was a good opportunity to exchange on critical issues ranging from support to Ukraine, energy to the NextGenEU (economic recovery package) and migration," von der Leyen said. The head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the first to welcome Meloni, said via a spokesman that "we are totally aligned on Ukraine". Meloni also met European Council President Charles Michel. (AFP) Read more on FRANCE 24 English Read also: Italian PM Meloni easily wins 2nd and final confidence vote Macron meets with far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni EU chiefs congratulate far-right Meloni as she is sworn in as Italy's PM Protests continue in Iran as activists call for more rallies and civil disobedience. The latest images show protesters chanting "down with the dictator" in the predominantly-Kurdish city of Sanandaj. As Iranian security forces continue their violent crackdown on the demonstrators, the country's government is facing international backlash. It has been criticised for its handling of the unrest, which Irans ambassador to the UN has dismissed. "The rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are recognised by the Iranian constitution," said Amir Saeid Jalil. "Moreover, the enjoyment of these rights by the Iranian people has always been supported by the government." How the Iran protests started The protests began following the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman called Mahsa Amini. She was arrested by the morality police on 13 September in Tehran for violating Iran's strict dress code. Reports say officers beat her on the head, however the police claim she suffered a heart attack. To support their claim, the authorities released footage of Amini collapsing in the station. However, her family denies she had a heart attack. The footage, along with subsequent images of her in a coma, sparked outrage among Iranian citizens. The first demonstrations then began, with women filming themselves ripping off their headscarves, burning them or cutting their hair in protest. What has been the impact of the protests? Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's leader, has downplayed the impact of these protests, saying they were started and stoked by the US, Israel and other foreign nations, a claim critics dismiss as fabricated. The protests, now in their sixth week, involve schoolgirls and women who are demanding change in Iran. Chanting slogans such as "Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator", these demands range from wanting more freedoms to a complete regime change by overthrowing the state. Story continues According to the NGO Iran Human Rights, at least 277 people, including 40 children and 24 women have been killed in the ongoing nationwide protests. Security forces have denied killing peaceful protestors but videos taken at protests suggest otherwise. Over 1,000 people have been arrested and charged in connection with the anti-government protests, and some face the death penalty. FILE - The Treasury Building is viewed in Washington, May 4, 2021. Two Haitian politicians are facing U.S. sanctions over allegations they abused their positions to traffic drugs in collaboration with gang networks and directed others to engage in violence. The Treasury Department said Friday it was imposing sanctions on Haitian Senate President Joseph Lambert and former Sen. Youri Latortue, who are accused of using their official roles to engage in the drug trade. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) WASHINGTON (AP) Two Haitian politicians are facing U.S. sanctions over allegations they abused their positions to traffic drugs in collaboration with gang networks and directed others to engage in violence. The Treasury Department said Friday it was imposing sanctions on Haitian Senate President Joseph Lambert and former Sen. Youri Latortue. The two are accused of using their official roles to engage in the drug trade for decades. Lambert was also designated by the State Department for diplomatic sanctions and visa restrictions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that there is credible information of Lamberts involvement in a gross violation of human rights, namely an extrajudicial killing, during his government tenure. He said the State Department is also designating Lamberts spouse, Jesula Lambert Domond. The sanctions mean their U.S. property is blocked and American people and companies that do business with them could face penalties as well. Spokespeople for Lambert and Latortue did not immediately return WhatsApp messages seeking comment on Friday. The sanctions against Lambert and Latortue come as Haiti is embroiled in political violence and economic crisis. Last month, Eric Jean Baptiste, a former presidential candidate and leader of a political party in Haiti, was shot to death in the capital, Port-au-Prince, along with his bodyguard. Baptiste's death stunned many in the destabilized island nation. Brian Nelson, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Lambert and Latortue abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal and gang networks to undermine the rule of law in Haiti. The United States and our international partners," Nelson said, will continue to take action against those who facilitate drug trafficking, enable corruption and seek to profit from instability in Haiti. ___ Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this story. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti. The UMBC volleyball team will close out its regular season home slate on Sunday when it hosts New Hampshire at 1 p.m. The Retrievers will honor seniors Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.), Emily Ferketic (Pittsburrgh, Pa.) and Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) prior to the match. Fans are asked to be in their seats by 12:55 p.m. for the ceremony. UMBC shook off a tough loss to Binghamton on Sunday and defeated a strong Howard Bison squad in four sets at Burr Gymnasium on Wednesday evening. The Retrievers triumphed, 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21 and improved to 14-6 overall. Junior Mia Bilusic recorded a season-high 26 kills and made just two errors to lead an outstanding effort. The Retrievers have won five straight road matches. They have won nine of their last 10 and 13 of their 16 matches overall. The Retrievers are ranked 79th in of 344 NCAA Division I volleyball programs in the RPI ratings (matches played as of Oct. 30). 2022 America East honorees o Mia Bilusic , So, Player of the Week, Sept. 13, Oct. 4 o Kamani Conteh , Sr., Player of the Week, Sept. 20 o Serin Maden , Fr., Setter of the Week, Aug. 30, Sept. 7, Sept. 13 o Aysia Miller , Jr., Defensive Specialist of the Week, Sept. 7, Sept. 27 UMBC currently leads America East in assists (12.33), kills (13.20) and service aces (1.93) per set. Bilusic (4.24) and Conteh (4.18) are 1-2 in the league in kills per set. Bilusic is also tops in service aces (0.53), while Maden is far and away the leader in assists at 10.45 assists per set through 77 sets in 2022. Miller is second in the AE in digs per set (4.15) the libero is playing her third different position (setter, outside hitter, libero) in three seasons on Hilltop Circle. Through matches of Nov. 1, Bilusic was 13th in the nation in service aces per set, while Maden was 37th in assists per set. The Retrievers are seventh nationally with 1.97 aces per set and assists per set. SCOUTING NEW HAMPSHIRE New Hampshire enters the contest at 15-9 and 3-4 in the America East. They most recently came away with a four set victory over Bryant, and are sitting in fourth place in the standings. Kara Oxenknecht leads the Wildcats with 174 kills and Wren Macaulay leads in assists at 319. Mia Pagliarini and Avery LePore each have 208 digs to lead the team. The last time these two teams met the Retrievers won a five set thriller in the Granite State on October 23. UNH leads the all-time series, 25-15, but UMBC has won five of the last six, and three in a row. The teams last met in Baltimore on 10/10/21, as UMBC pulled off a sweep. HA NOI IPP Air Cargo, in an unanticipated move, has withdrawn its application for a cargo flight permit, citing worsening economic conditions, looming global recession and volatile fuel prices, all of which likely will result in numerous challenges for global freighters. We will consider our position and reapply once the global market recovers and shows signs of stability, said IPP CEO Le Hong Thuy Tien in a company statement. Earlier in January, IPP Air Cargo filed for a cargo flight permit with a project to invest VN2,400 billion ($96.5 million) with 30 per cent of the initial investment from the company. The company said it had plans to operate five cargo planes during the projects first year, seven in the second and 10 in its third. The companys business plan said the company could haul up to 115,000 tonnes of goods during the first year with an estimated revenue of $71 million. The company expected a profit return starting from its fourth year. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), in a preparatory move, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Boeing to purchase 10 B777F airplanes. In addition, the air freighter signed a Letter of Intention with BBAM, an airplane lease and management company based in San Francisco, US, to rent four B737- 800BCF airplanes. To date, one of which was refitted for cargo and repainted with IPP Air Cargo's logo. All IPP Air Cargos registered airplanes were considered fit for service and the company met all requirements under current regulations, said CAAV. There are five airlines registered to haul cargo with passenger airplanes in Viet Nam. The Southeast Asian country has not yet granted a cargo flight-only permit. The mentioned-above airlines accounted for 18 per cent of international air cargo in Viet Nam in 2019, dropping to 11 per cent in the 2020-21 period. The rest of the market share was divided among 29 foreign airlines operating in the country. In an interview published on the companys website, IPP Air Cargos Chairman Jonathan Hanh Nguyen said air freight prices, during the peak of the pandemic, went up significantly, as much as five times on several occasions. Nguyen said with 88 per cent of the market share in the hands of foreign air freighters, the demand for air freight will remain congested, and price volatility will make it tough for domestic export-import businesses. VNS THAI NGUYEN Saigon Telecom Technology Joint Stock Company (SAIGONTEL) on Wednesday began construction of three industrial clusters in the northern province of Thai Nguyen. Covering nearly 75ha in Pho Yen City's ong Cao and Tan Phu communes, the Tan Phu 1 and Tan Phu 2 industrial parks have a combined investment capital of VN486 billion (US$21 million) while the Luong Son industrial cluster which spans 35ha in Song Cong City will cost more than VN300 billion. Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan praised the achievements of Thai Nguyen Province in industry, trade and services. He also asked the locality to continue to review, revise or draw up new policies on facilitating investment in industrial cluster development and strengthening investment promotion. The deputy minister of Industry and Trade also requested the investor to strictly comply with the provisions of the law on planning, land, construction and environmental protection while ensuring the implementation of the projects as scheduled. VNS Flash Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday. Commending the development of bilateral relations between China and Tanzania, Li said the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made strategic plans for China's development in the coming period, and China will continue to carry forward high-level opening-up. Li said China stands ready to work with Tanzania to enhance the alignment of development strategies, deepen cooperation in key areas such as economics and trade, energy, health, agriculture and fishery, and enhance people-to-people exchanges. China is willing to expand imports of marketable Tanzanian products and encourage Chinese companies to increase investment in Tanzania, said Li, adding that the Chinese side hopes that Tanzania will provide necessary support. On China-Africa relations, Li said China is willing to work with African countries on the basis of sincerity and equality, increase unity and mutual trust, and pursue inclusive and sustainable development. Hassan thanked China for its support and assistance to Tanzania over the years, saying Tanzania firmly upholds the one-China policy and is committed to carrying forward its traditional friendship with China. She said that Tanzania will implement the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, promote cooperation on trade, investment, agriculture, fishery, infrastructure, and people-to-people exchanges. Tanzania welcomes investment from Chinese companies, Hassan added. CENTRAL HIGHLANDS Nearly 30 stalls at this years Culinary Culture Week are introducing the most typical and unique dishes from different regions to visitors. Culinary Culture Week takes place at the Museum of the Central Highlands in Gia Lai Province from November 2 to 6. Le Thanh Tuan, deputy director of the museum, said the event aims to promote the rich and diversified culinary culture and cultural values of local ethnic minorities. The event is expected to bring the most authentic and interesting experiences of the local culinary culture, helping to promote the unique cultural values of local ethnic minorities to both domestic and international visitors. It also aims to create a good impression to attract more tourists, contributing to building Gia Lai into a safe, friendly and hospitable tourism destination. It offers a great experience to visitors with a wide range of local typical dishes such as grilled chicken, com lam (steamed sticky rice in bamboo pipes), ca ang (bitter eggplant), banh beo (steamed rice cake), and banh loc goi la chuoi (rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves). Ly Nhat Chieu, who is visiting the mountain town of Pleiku in the province for the first time in 23 years, said the local dishes have significantly improved and are much richer than before. The culinary culture has changed, but the taste, spices and the identity of the dishes of the Central Highlands people remain the same, he said. Among the dishes he enjoys, the most interesting ones are perhaps grilled chicken and com lam, he said. Nay Phuong, owner of the Culinary Specialty HJut in Pleiku, said this is the third time her establishment has participated in this event. My establishment brings all the typical products made in the traditional way of the Jrai ethnic group, she said. The products are bo mot nang (beef dried in the sun), heo soc dua mot nang (bui bronh pork dried in the sun), muoi co thom (salt mixed with fried groach), muoi kien (salt mixed with fried ants), kho qua rung (forest bitter melon), mang kho (dried bamboo shoots) and nam lim xanh (local lingzhi mushrooms or Ganoderma lucidum). Visitors can also enjoy special music, art, and light and sound shows at the food courts stage. The special highlight of the event is the 2022 Cultural Heritage Festival that will be held from November 5 to 6. During the two-day festival, visitors will be immersed in an attractive traditional cultural space with folk art performances, folk games, and reenactments of pavilions that were popular in Vietnamese society during the 1975-86 post-war period. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Construction will focus on improving legal documents related to housing, especially social housing, to remove obstacles and create favourable conditions to increase the supply of affordable homes. Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi made the statement during the question-and-answer session of the 4th sitting of the 15th National Assembly (NA) on Thursday afternoon after NA deputy Nguyen Thi Le of HCM City asked him about the ministrys plans to encourage the development of social housing. Currently, the supply of social housing has failed to meet the demand of workers and employees. Nghi also said that the settlement of housing for people and social housing for low-income people still faces shortcomings and difficulties although housing development has always been a concern of the Party and State. He pointed out some reasons for the situation, including obstacles in the legal corridor; a lack of sufficient preferential capital to implement the policy; and the failure to spend investment resources or develop land funds for social housing projects. Also relating to the social housing issue, NA deputy To Van Tam of Kon Tum Province said that the prices of social housing are at a very high level compared to workers incomes. Some data showed that the average price is above VN15 million (US$602) per sq.m, even VN21-25 million ($844-1,000) per sq.m. Thus, Tam asked Nghi about the reasons for the situation and whether or not the ministry could bring the prices of social housing in line with the financial ability of workers. If yes, how long will it take?, Tam said. Nghi admitted that social housing prices are at a high level now. The reasons include the unstable supply of social housing; the limited land fund for social housing development; uncertain capital sources for social housing development; and poor policies to encourage social housing projects, he added. To fix the situation, some laws have to be adjusted to encourage social housing development, he said. The ministry is submitting to the Prime Minister a project to develop one million social housing apartments, trying to meet the housing needs for low-income people and industrial park workers, he said. Also at the question-and-answer session, NA deputy Hoang Van Cuong of Ha Noi asked Nghi about the forecasted development trend of the real estate market in Viet Nam; the difficulties in the development of the real estate market in Viet Nam; as well as solutions to promote development in the future. Nghi said currently, the real estate market faces a number of limitations. The legal system related to land, construction investment, and real estate all need to be amended. The implementation of real estate projects in most localities has faced difficulties, leading to a decrease in supply, he said. The structure of real estate products continues to be unreasonable, he said. There is a serious shortage of social housing for low-income people and real estate prices are much higher than people's incomes, he said. The management of construction planning, land use and the local real estate market is still inadequate. The control of investment capital flows into the real estate sector is still potentially risky, he said. Nghi also said that the real estate market fluctuates due to the impact of the macroeconomic situation, the supply of all kinds of real estate assets at different market segments is too short or too redundant compared to demand, the financial and credit policies for real estate are uncertain, and there is a lack of timely and reasonable intervention of the State in the real estate market. It is forecast that the real estate market will continue to face difficulties, and the supply will continue to lag behind demand, he said. Nghi said the ministry will drastically implement the solutions issued by Government and the Prime Minister, such as controlling real estate credit structure to ensure proper use and avoid risks; facilitating lending to the real estate sector in accordance with the law; giving priority to loans for social housing projects; raising capital on the stock market; and removing difficulties for ongoing projects in terms of procedures, land and construction planning to increase supply for the market. VNS HA NOI The Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) and the China Coast Guard (CCG) on November 3 began their second joint patrol in 2022 in the waters adjacent to the demarcation line in the Gulf of Tonkin. Colonel Luong Cao Khai, Vice Commander and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam Coast Guard Region 1 leads the Vietnamese fleet. Meanwhile, the Chinese fleet is led by Huang Min, Director of the fourth bureaus law enforcement department under the CCG. During the greeting ceremony, the Vietnamese side congratulated the Chinese on the success of the 20th National Party Congress, affirming that the traditional friendship between the two countries was a precious asset for the parties, states and people. Viet Nam always attached importance to promoting the Viet Nam China cooperation and comprehensive strategic partnership, Colonel Khai said, adding that this was a top priority in the countrys foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralisation, active and proactive international integration. He highlighted the increasing cooperation between the VCG and the CCG, the joint patrol demonstrates the close cooperation of both maritime law enforcement agencies in the Gulf of Tonkin, strengthening their traditional friendship and jointly building the Gulf of Tonkin waters into a sea of peace and stability which is respectful of the law. The Chinese officer expressed his pleasure at the maintenance and development of the joint patrol operation, believing that the two sides would complete safely and smoothly the patrol the fifth such move since 2020. Forces also conducted educational activities targeting fishing vessels operating in the area. -- VNS HA NOI Although disbursement has been slow, so far 500,000 tablets have been given to disadvantaged students to help them with their education, as part of a Government programme. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung provided the information during the question-and-answer session of the 4th sitting of the 15th National Assembly (NA) on Friday morning. Regarding the 'Internet and computers for students' programme, NA deputy Nguyen Lam Thanh of Thai Nguyen Province asked Hung to explain the causes for the delay in implementing the programme, which included a support package of VN6 trillion (US$241 million). Thanh said the programme had not been implemented due to the delay in guidance from the information ministry. Hung said the programme had the goal of providing one million computers for students nationwide, of which 600,000 computers would be sponsored by businesses and individuals; and 400,000 computers would be given by the public telecommunications fund. A total of 500,000 devices have been delivered to students across the country so far. The implementation is not slow, it is being deployed, he added. The fund of VN6 trillion belongs to another programme, according to the minister. It is a budget for ministries, sectors and localities to upgrade information technology. The programme is deployed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the information ministry has only given a recommendation on which area the fund should focus on to ensure efficiency. The information ministry would soon make recommendations, he said. Managing SIM cards, national database In the last three years, the Ministry of Information and Communications has blocked 22 million SIM cards after their owners failed to provide sufficient personal information, according to the minister. NA deputy Pham Van Hoa, of ong Thap Province, asked about the continuing use of SIM cards to send spam texts and engage in fraud. Hung said the ministry had inspected and considered the responsibilities of each telecommunications business regarding the issue. The ministry was taking responsibility for the problem and it would develop better solutions to fix the situation in the future, he said. Also asking about the same issue, NA deputy Tao Van Giot of Lai Chau Province said some individuals used SIM cards to create fake social media profiles to post malicious information. Giot asked when the internet environment in Viet Nam would be more strictly managed so that it would truly become safe. Hung said it was hard to completely eradicate these kinds of SIM cards. However, measures could be made to reduce their use. He said the ministry would conduct a general inspection of telecom service providers to deal with situations in which one person has many SIM cards. NA deputy Nguyen Danh Tu of Kien Giang Province said according to the ministrys report No. 158 on standardising and authenticating subscriber information with the national population database, the goal is to complete the authentication this month. It means that less than a month remains to review and authenticate 58 million mobile subscribers in the country. Tu asked the minister about the feasibility to finish the goal. Hung said that the authentication of information was in the form of 'yes or no' questions, and nearly 90 per cent of the information collected is correct so far. The Prime Minister ordered the goal to be completed this month, therefore, the ministry would make efforts to realise the goal, he said. Also at the session, NA deputy Le Thi Song An of Long An Province said recently, the number of high-tech crimes and acts of fraud to steal social media accounts, as well as fake messages from banks, had increased. An asked Hung to point out solutions to deal with the issue. Hung said online fraud was a problem not only for Viet Nam but also many other countries around the world. Lately, the ministry had improved legal documents to clearly define behaviours, specifying the administrative handling process and fines for the violations, he added. The ministry had also issued several hotlines to receive complaints about online fraud, he said. It had applied information technology to scan and prevent websites showing signs of fraud; focus on handling SIM cards, which are used to send spam texts or execute fraudulent activities; and delete subscriber numbers that do not have complete information or have incorrect information, he said. NA deputy o Chi Nghia, of Phu Yen Province, asked Hung about the most radical solution to prevent the harmful effects of malicious information online, while the manpower of the information and communication sector was limited and Viet Nam has dozens of millions of accounts on social networks, including many accounts with foreign addresses. Nghia suggested the best solution would be to improve public awareness of malicious information. In response to the question, Hung said in the digital space, fake news spreads very quickly and widely. At present, the authority had issued a number of decrees specifying the acts and responsibilities of related parties; reducing the time for service providers to remove false and malicious information from 48 hours to 24 hours. Now Viet Nam had increased the level of administrative punishment for spreading false and malicious information to three times higher than in the past. However, the fine was only one-tenth compared to other countries. The ministry would advise the Government to consider raising the sanction to improve deterrence in the future, he said. Preventing false and malicious information was really difficult, he said, adding that the best solution would be to have proactive participation of all ministries, branches, organisations and individuals, he said. Hung also agreed with Nghias suggestion on improving public awareness of malicious information. Thus, the ministry had proposed the Ministry of Education and Training bring digital skills training to students, he said. In the meantime, NA deputy Tran Thi Thu Hang of ak Nong Province said the connection, sharing and exploitation of national databases, especially the national population database, with the databases of ministries, branches and localities, had not been synchronised. Therefore, it had not really been effective and convenient for people when they conduct transactions. Hang asked Hung about the causes, responsibilities and solutions of the information ministry in order to fix the situation, contributing to fulfilling the digital transformation of the country. Viet Nam currently has eight databases, consisting of five national databases and three specialised databases that are effectively connected, according to the minister. Every day, about two million transactions connecting agencies of the central and local level and ministries together are implemented. Besides, many other databases have been set up but not yet connected or shared; some information databases have been built but not yet qualified for connection. "The ministry will continue to handle the issues to ensure more connections are made," he said. Moderating the question-and-answer session, National Assembly Deputy Chairman Tran Quang Phuong asked the Ministry of Public Security to report more on the national population database, data sharing as well as solutions for the future. Minister of Public Security To Lam said the national population database had officially connected and shared information with specialised databases of 12 ministries and sectors, four State-owned enterprises and the People's Committees of 15 localities. However, the connection and sharing of national population data with ministries, sectors and localities encountered difficulties because the IT infrastructure of many ministries, sectors and localities had not been up to the task, he said. Some ministries, sectors and localities had not digitised their data and processes to serve the implementation of administrative procedures in the electronic environment, thus, even though the national population database had been connected, the use of it was still very limited, he said. The ministry would work together with other relevant agencies and localities to improve the connections, he said. VNS HA NOI An average monthly rise of 51 per cent was seen in the number of Indian tourists to Viet Nam in the first 10 months of this year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). The administration reported that Viet Nam welcomed 20,681 Indian visitors in October and 82,066 in the first 10 months of 2022. Since July, the number of Indian tourists to Viet Nam each month surpassed the figures recorded in 2019. Web searches for Vietnamese destinations from the Indian market were rising quickly, with the volume in October increasing three folds compared to that in July and doubling that in August. The most searched destinations were Ha Noi, HCM City, Phu Quoc, a Nang, and Quy Nhon. The agency attributed the rise to the results of tourism promotion activities in the Indian market, along with the launching of many direct air routes linking the two countries. In October, the number of foreign tourists rose 12.1 per cent over the previous month. Tourism revenue in the January-October period reached VN425 trillion (US$17.08 billion), equivalent to 74 per cent of that in the same period of 2019. The Republic of Korea topped the number of tourists to Viet Nam with 26.3 per cent of the total arrivals. Data from the travel tracking tool Google Destination Insights showed that the number of international searches for tourist accommodations in Vietnam in October continued to increase about 20 per cent compared to September 2022 and 11 times over March. The top 10 countries with the highest searches for Viet Nam tourism were the US, Australia, Singapore, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the UK, Malaysia, Thailand and Germany, while the top 10 most searched destinations in Viet Nam included HCM City, Ha Noi, and a Nang. In October, the administration issued licences to 70 travel firms to operate international tours, raising their number so far this year to 2,816. At the same time, the global ranking of VNATs website vietnam.travel was advanced to 166,985th position from 458,550th in 2021. -- VNS Cities and provinces in Vietnam are looking to develop more airports to support their socioeconomic aims. How important do you think this can be? Andrew Tan, director and head of Airport Operations at Changi Airports International A study by the International Air Transport Association and Oxford Economics has found that air transport supports 30.2 million jobs and $684 billion in GDP in Asia-Pacific. For each person directly employed in the aviation sector and in tourism made possible by aviation, another 6.4 jobs were supported elsewhere worldwide. Similarly, for every $1 of gross value added directly created by the air transport sector, $3.80 of economic activity was supported elsewhere. The pandemic has shown that airports are important in supporting the growth of the economy and facilitating the transport of vital goods and supplies, such as vaccines and food. Such air links have repeatedly been shown to be an important lifeline to cities and countries. What lessons could Vietnam learn from Singapore in successful development of airports? Realising the importance of the aviation sector to the economic development of Singapore, Changi Airport has always planned for its handling capacity to be ahead of demand. Airports are complex facilities, interfacing with various stakeholders and systems. Careful planning has helped Changi Airport stay ahead of the curve. Detailed advance planning is also critical to ensure that airports undergoing major expansion or new development can be constructed in the most cost-effective and time-effective manner, while maximising its future economic potential as a major air hub for its surrounding catchment and hinterland. We have seen some airports in other parts of the world that suffered from operational inefficiencies after their construction was rushed into completion, without due considerations given to the implications on future operations and potential difficulties of maintenance. Eventually, some of these airports had to incur even more capital and operational expenditure to rectify the deficiencies, which could have been avoided in the first place if advance planning was carried out before and during the construction stage. Similarly, stakeholder management is crucial. Airport operators have to work hand-in-hand with government agencies, service providers, airlines and other airport partners. This begins from the planning stage, where user requirements and future needs are taken into consideration. Such input is important for the development of the airports concept of operations. Such collaboration continues as the detailed design of the airport is taking place, until the end-user trials. In this final stage, all stakeholders participate in trials to ready the airport for opening, simulating their operations and processes, before the final migration to the new airports. Are there any airport projects in Vietnam that Singaporean companies may be interested in? With numerous projects reported in the pipeline, such as Long Thanh International Airport, Tan Son Nhats Terminal 3, and Hanois proposed airport in Thuong Tin district, we expect many opportunities for Singaporean companies in airport development. Changi Airports International consults, manages, and invests in the global aviation market. We see airports as a vital part of a countrys infrastructure, intricately linked to economic growth and development. With experience in over 60 airports for more than 20 years, we see an opportunity to provide Changis expertise as a strategic partner and an experienced airport manager. From master-planning to passenger traffic development, as well as operations and commercial development, we can design bespoke and integrated solutions which could help airports in Vietnam to unlock their full potential. New airport developments set to take off soon The Vietnamese government has rolled out a plan to develop several new airports, with billions of dollars expected to be poured into local facilities, contributing to the shaping of new economic zones across the country. Finding suitable models for small airports in Vietnam Michel Werson, chief economist and lead of Financial Advisory at NACO a subsidiary of Royal HaskoningDHV delves into the ins and outs of airport development. Utilising national advantages with crucial infrastructure Small airports and dual-use airports are expected to be valuable infrastructure fulcrums for many remote localities to attract investment and exploit the advantages of tourism, if selected and added to the plan and early investment implementation. Tran Hoang Ngan-National Assembly deputy Ho Chi Minh City There has been high economic growth, with macroeconomic stability, strengthened institutional construction, ensured major balances of the economy, continued trade balance, a trade surplus, as well a sound performance in terms of public debt, government debt, and guaranteed foreign debt. Moreover, defence and security have been strengthened, and independence and sovereignty maintained, contributing to enhancing the prestige and position of our country in the international arena. However, the governments report also acknowledges many challenges. Firstly, the restructuring, arrangement, and renewal of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and public non-business units have not met requirements. In my opinion, it is necessary to promote the strong restructuring of groups, corporations, and SOEs; and handle inefficient enterprises, and promote the role of SOEs in major national projects, especially investment in key industries, the materials industry, metallurgical industry, and mechanical engineering. Secondly, production and business activities in some industries still face many difficulties in capital, exchange rate, labour, taxes, and fees. When implementing fiscal and monetary policy worth $15 billion to support Vietnams Programme on Socioeconomic Recovery and Development (PSRD)for 2022-2023, there are many favourable implementation packages but also unfavourable ones. Specifically, in the lending rate support package for businesses, cooperatives, and business households so far, we have only disbursed VND12.8 billion ($556,500) compared to the plan of VND40 trillion ($1.74 billion), reaching only 0.03 per cent of the plan for several reasons. However, for the support package for tax exemption, reduction, and extension, we deployed efforts more smoothly and, so far, achieved 72.5 per cent of the plan. I propose the National Assembly (NA) and the government consider transferring undisbursed interest rate support to tax and fee exemption and reduction, extending the time for paying land rent tax for businesses. In the current difficult situation, doing so will help many businesses, cooperatives and households. Nguyen Huu Thong-National Assembly deputy Binh Thuan province This time one year ago, the NA met, discussed, and evaluated the results of the socioeconomic development plan in 2021 and the proposed version for 2022. At that time, the country had yet to effectively control the pandemic while facing many other difficulties. Many NA deputies then wondered how to implement the governments submitted development plan, with an expected growth rate of 6 to 6.5 per cent. However, great progress was made thanks to the timely direction of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the Party Secretariat, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the NA, and agencies in all sectors and localities, the socioeconomic situation in the first nine months of 2022 has recovered and achieved important results. The whole year is expected to achieve 14 out of 15 planned targets with an expected economic growth rate of 8 per cent. Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world that is appreciated by prestigious international organisations for its coronavirus prevention and control and economic recovery. However, some people, especially farmers and fishermen, have faced difficulties. Though they have received much support from the state, but they have not escaped poverty and difficulties. With high fuel prices, large fluctuations in input materials, unstable agricultural markets, and no increase in prices, these woes are becoming bigger. The stock market, corporate bonds, and real estate still have many potential risks, while the structure of some credit institutions remains weak. After the authorities punished some businesses in these fields, some people and businesses have felt insecure and depressed because they have invested in these areas. Nguyen Dai Thang-National Assembly deputy Hung Yen province To effectively implement the socioeconomic development plan in the last months of 2022 and that of 2023, it is recommended that the government continue to have more effective solutions to boost the disbursement of public investment capital, speed up progress, and ensure the quality of key national key projects. Disbursement of public investment is a bottleneck that has not been effectively resolved. By the end of September this year, it only reached 46.7 per cent, and official development assistance capital only hit 15 per cent. The main reason for the slow disbursement is the lack of completed volume as a basis for disbursement. There has been a delay in project implementation, in deployment of procedures for adjusting investment policies, and in the adjustment of loan agreements and projects, as well as hurdles in payment. In addition, there are several other reasons, such as failure in allocating all the assigned capital plan, and delay in receiving the donors comments. Therefore, it is proposed that the government continue to take drastic solutions to direct ministries, sectors, and localities to promote the completed volume for disbursement. Ministries, sectors, and localities shall inspect, review, supervise, urge, and promptly remove obstacles in project implementation and disbursement. They also have to promote disbursement of projects that have completed investment procedures, bidding, and contract approval. For cases where it is impossible to complete the project volume according to schedule, it is necessary to cut or transfer the assigned capital plan. Projects that need to adapt should promptly adjust investment policies to soon change the disbursement time, capital adjustment, and allocation. Additionally, owners and project management units are responsible for expeditiously completing procedures for construction investment, compensation, support, resettlement, speeding up site clearance, and expeditiously completing the payment dossier and sending it to the State Treasury for expenditure control. Next, it is recommended that the government evaluate more specifically the results of the implementation of the PSRD. Up to now, the disbursement rate under the PSRD is still low, reaching 20 per cent by the end of September, while the 2 per cent lending rate support package through the commercial banking system also has a very low disbursement rate. It is suggested that the government soon have solutions to speed up the disbursement of this support package. At the same time, it is recommended to implement the PSRD, accelerate activities to support businesses, diversify the supply of input materials and accessories, and diversify export markets to avoid dependence on certain markets. Huynh Thanh Phuong-National Assembly deputy Tay Ninh province In 2022 so far, COVID-19 has been repelled nationwide. The macro-economy is stable, creating conditions to promote socioeconomic growth. The consumer price index (CPI) and exchange rate are controlled according to the set target; foreign investment capital and development investment have increased with better quality. Exports have risen rapidly, with the trade surplus reaching a higher level than in the same period for many years. Jobs, peoples lives and workers lives have gradually improved as compared to the pre-pandemic period. Moreover, digital transformation has made many important achievements. The processing and manufacturing industry has made a new breakthrough. Services are restored and developed, contributing to GDP at a high rate. Although there are still many difficulties, the fields of education, training, and health still achieve results. Independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are firmly protected, with foreign affairs being constantly expanded and promoted, contributing to world peace, cooperation, and development. However, shortcomings remain. The implementation of the support package for socioeconomic development recovery is still slow, especially for housing rental support and job loss support during the lockdown period. Many regulations and procedures are cumbersome, making it hard for people to enjoy the support packages while the number of people needing them is large. Disbursement of public investment capital is a bottleneck that has not been overcome for years. It is likely that it will not reach the target set by the NA, although, from the beginning of the year, the government has directed this strongly. This shows public investment discipline is not strict enough. Moreover, the CPI annually climbs by about 4 per cent, causing real wages and living standards to decrease. This has led to a shift of highly skilled, professional workers, cadres, and civil servants from the public to the private sector in recent times, which keeps rising. Pham Hung Thang-National Assembly deputy Ha Nam province In 2023, it is forecasted that there will be many difficulties and great challenges. I suggest that the government, ministries, and sectors pay more attention to dealing with some issues. Firstly, it is necessary to proactively respond to inflation scenarios that are increasing globally and have directly affected the economy and life of our country. It is also needed to report to the NA to proactively apply appropriate policies and respond to the risk of inflation, input prices and signs of the money and financial markets that have really had a strong impact on production and business activities, and social life. Secondly, it must be more flexible and timely in disclosing information on interest rate and exchange rate operating scenarios so that the business community is not passive in preparing production and business plans, creating favourable conditions for businesses to have more favourable access to capital, especially credit concessional capital in the context of recovery. It is also needed to make better forecasts on financial, monetary and labour markets so that people and businesses can have proactive adaptation. Thirdly, it is necessary to review, amend, and supplement mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties, speed up the disbursement of public investment capital, and reduce the transfer of state budget capital from the previous year to the next year. What do think about the change in foreign-invested capital inflow to Vietnam over the past years? Kim Ki Moon, director of YSL Group the investor of the Green Park Vinh Phuc project Looking back over 30 years, it is easy to see that the foreign-invested capital inflow to Vietnam has improved in quantity and quality. In the first period when Vietnam started to welcome foreign investors, major foreign direct investment (FDI) was poured into garments and textiles, and leather shoes, which did not generate high added value and simultaneously caused pollution. After that, the FDI inflow in terms of electronics was increased. Vietnam is increasingly attracting big foreign-invested groups and making sustainable development a priority, which drives capital inflows for high-quality, green, and renewable projects. When these enterprises look for investment opportunities, they put green industrial complexes on the top of their wish list. The transition in investment project quality also requires the upgrade of infrastructure and facilities in industrial zones (IZs) to meet the investors strict requirements. It is why more and more real estate developers foster investment in green investment parks. When YSL had plans to build Green Park Vinh Phuc, we targeted multinational groups from all over the world, especially investors from the EU. Thus, we designed an IZ with modern land and properties for investors in high-value-added fields such as electrical equipment, data centres, and logistics. The FDI from the EU and the United States is modest, and we understand that geographical distance can be a barrier for Vietnam to attract investment from these markets. However, in reality, investment into these markets is much bigger because many projects have been implemented through third countries, such as Singapore. Thus, we see that the potential for attracting green investment capital inflow is very significant. What are the most important criteria for forming green IZs? The installation of rooftop solar power systems for facilities and taking advantage of treated wastewater are the two most crucial factors in establishing an eco-industrial parks. Investing in this area is effectively a new funding channel and there is a lack of specific guidelines. Procedures are complicated and take a long time to complete. For example, the procedures for the licence to install rooftop solar power panel systems are very complex. During the design process, we also calculated how tenants could take advantage of the maximum power from the rooftop panel systems of each other. If a companys power generated by the rooftop system exceeds its demand, it can sell the surplus to other companies in the IZ. However, such work is still waiting for the licence. Despite some barriers, we are lucky that the authorities are always willing to support YSL in dealing with difficulties and create the most favourable conditions for us to complete procedures. The authorities have also committed to accompanying YSL during the investment process. We anticipated most problems. Everything is under our control, and the project process matches plans. YSLs green zones are targeting multinationals from all over the globe Many industrial real estate developers complain they have yet to take advantage of treated wastewater because current regulations are not clear. What do think about this problem? During the design process, we tried to maximise this precious resource. There has no specific guide for irrigation and daily life, but we will use the maximum amount of treated wastewater for cooling towers and flush toilets, which require a large volume of water. At IZs being designed or constructed, it is more convenient to take advantage of this water source because they have the particular pipeline systems on the initial design. While at traditional IZs, reusing the treated wastewater for the cooling system is limited because the pipeline system is fixed. What are your proposals to encourage investment in green IZs? As I said, the rooftop solar power system is the backbone of creating one. Currently, the number of electricity-generating solar panel manufacturers is modest, and the tax tariff for imported parts for producing panels is high. Thus, to have a stable panel supply source for eco-industrial parks, we expect the government will offer more incentives for ventures and panel investors to encourage them to expand. The government can also consider applying tax incentives for imported parts. Son My I set to become first smart and green industrial park in Binh Thuan Son My Industrial Park Investment Construction and Trading Infrastructure Co., Ltd (IPICO) on August 30 held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Son My I Industrial Park. Smart and green Son My I Industrial Park kicks off construction Son My I, one of the first smart and green industrial parks in the south-central coastal region, began construction last week, led by Son My Industrial Park Investment Construction and Trading Infrastructure Limited Company (IPICO). Regarded as the blood vessels of an economy, the logistics sector took centre stage at the Vietnam Logistics Transformation Forum in Ho Chi Minh City on October 19. Phan Van Chinh, director of the Foreign Trade Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, explained the value of the sector during the forum. Efficiency advances in logistics only accessible with digitalisation, photo Le Toan If logistics costs account for about 15 per cent of the value of exported goods, with an estimated total export value of $400 billion this year, it would be $60 billion, which excludes domestic activities, Chinh said. Regarding import activities, estimated at $300 billion, with logistics costs accounting for about 7 per cent, it is nearly $20 billion. In total, the value potential of the logistics industry can be seen at about $80 billion. His estimation comes from the fact that the total export value in the first nine months of the year reached $282.35 billion, and the import value reached $275.58 billion. In terms of products, 8.2 per cent is agricultural and aquatic products, 86.18 per cent is processing industry, 1.27 per cent is fuel and minerals. There are 32 industries with export turnover of more than $1 billion, of which the six leading item groups are phones and components of all kinds ($45 billion), computers, electronic products and components ($42 billion), machinery equipment, tools, and other spare parts ($34 billion), textiles and garments ($29 billion), footwear ($18 billion), and wood and wood products ($12 billion). Regarding shipping destinations, Asia accounts for the biggest share of 46 per cent or about $129 billion (of which China accounts for $41 billion), followed by the US ($98 billion) and Europe ($35 billion). Each type of product will have different shipping and delivery methods, said Chinh, adding it is necessary to pay attention to market analysis to provide appropriate strategies. The same importance also goes to transportation routes. He regarded the logistics industry as a co-existence partner with import and export activities. He also noted that the $80 billion estimation in logistics market size does not include shipping and delivery services for the e-commerce sector and other retail supporting activities, which are also constantly expanding. Talking at the same event, although believing in the growth and transformation of logistics services in Vietnam, Chih Cheung, founding partner of SEA Logistics Partners (SLP), pointed out that there are inefficiencies and that costs are too high. Logistics-related costs represent about 20 per cent of GDP in Vietnam, whereas in mature markets, like Singapore or the US, it is close to 7-9 per cent, he said. He recalled that when GLP, a global partner of SLP, first entered China, this cost was about 20 per cent too, but these days it is only around 14 per cent. Managing 16 ports nationwide, together with more than one million tonnes of ships and two million square metres of warehouses, Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC) has played an important role in maritime shipping, port management, and other services. In the quest for efficiency, the corporation has adopted various digital transformation measures, such as electronic delivery orders (EDO), e-billing, and e-payments. Ports have also applied terminal operating systems (TOS) for receiving containers. However, to connect EDOs with the ports TOS, API systems are also needed. This is when we wish there were an alliance of ICT and AI to support us, said Le Quang Trung, deputy director of VIMC. He also suggested that industry insiders work together to build logistics hubs and develop shared processes based on technology. Having her hand in the logistics sector for 18 years, Lam Bui, who is Maersks Sealand country manager, also approved more digital transformation and technology in logistics. She is rooting for blockchain technology as a playground for everybody. Just imagine that all the shippers, the consignees, the buyers, and the sellers, and all the logistic providers in one platform, with security and transparency, she said. However, Maersks Sealand and VIMC only represent the big players in the sector. According to Le Thi Ngoc Diep, commercial director of SLP Vietnam, 90 per cent of registered logistics companies are small and medium enterprises that do not necessarily have either capital or human resource to follow through. When it comes to digital transformation, the biggest problem is the connection and integration of current logistics services systems, she said. In fact, matching millions of direct labourers in various logistics services across the country with a more uniform working process and compatible systems is where automation and the latest technologies can be used, but they are also a costly effort. Besides import and export activities, the fast growth of the domestic retail and e-commerce sectors also contributes significantly to the logistics sector. Within these sectors, warehouse systems are becoming crucial. To fulfil millions of orders every day, Lazada Logistics Vietnam has invested in automation since 2017. Surveys and studies have shown that 66 per cent of consumers have chosen one e-commerce vendor over another based on delivery options, and 54 per cent of consumers consider fast shipping to be two days or less. Meanwhile, 77 per cent of consumers said theyre more likely to do business with the same retailer again after receiving free or fast shipping, said Vu Ngoc Thinh, general director of Lazada Logistics Vietnam. With traditional logistics, goods are sent to fewer locations, such as distributors, and the objective is efficiency and cost savings. But in the case of e-logistics, the quantity of goods is less, and they need to be sent to many customers quickly; faster speed and being able to meet customer expectations are common goals. Therefore, a huge volume of sorting and packaging needs new solutions. The warehouse must have value-added services such as packing and labelling. It must be smarter, speedier, and more sustainable. Space maximisation, seasonal space expansion capability, systematic inventory management, automation, and analytics tools will ensure operational efficiency, Thinh said. Lazada Logistics Vietnam has employed an array of technology and AI algorithms to build several auto-sorting systems near Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In a few weeks, the modern Lazada East Sorting Centre in Ho Chi Minh City is set to go live. Automation in warehouses is still a new concept. Meanwhile, the demand for them is high. Manufacturing enterprises tend to step up operations, and the sudden growth of e-commerce is a lever for Vietnams logistics market to thrive. Warehouse rent is also forecast to grow in the coming years at an average rate of about 1.5-4 per cent per year, said SLPs Diep. Robot technology used in smart warehouse model works with high accuracy, connects to cloud computing for advanced warehouse system data management, and can improve most quality indicators compared with the traditional operating model. As a result, businesses can optimise plenty of costs and resources of the business. Vietnam's logistics expenses cut by 14 per cent by 2025 Following the mid-August signing of a strategic partnership agreement, a multimodal logistics network is gradually taking form. Vietnam utilising its advantages of logistics to aid supply chain advances Vietnams logistics system remains less competitive than some neighbouring countries. Marco Civardi, CEO of JAS China , a privately-owned international freight forwarder, gave VIRs Bich Ngoc his assessment of the shifting of manufacturers to Vietnam and how the country is positioning itself to be more integrated into the global supply chain. Lisa Futschek, general manager of International at ENZ In New Zealands International Education Strategy, what are the key objectives that your country is heading towards? We have just refreshed the strategy, which is running from 2022 forwards. The key vision of this strategy is to achieve a globally thriving and connected New Zealand through world-class education. We have established three pillars to achieve that goal. The first is excellent education through student experience, the second is sustainable and resilient education, and the third is the development of global citizens. Through world-class education, we want to make sure that New Zealand is sustainably connected to the world for mutual benefits and, under each of these three pillars, we have a range of initiatives to ensure that were reaching that goal. How are you promoting these pillars in partner countries that you are working with? We connect the opportunities for our providers, researchers, and governments and use international education as a vehicle to achieve diplomatic ends, beginning with people-to-people connections. For example, we have recently launched a global campaign called I Am New, covering all attributes of a New Zealand education that students can connect to. By weaving the Maori values into educational offerings, namely manaakitanga, which is care for people, kaitiakitanga, which is care for place, and the potiki spirit, which is youthful energy, international students can benefit from a different learning experience in New Zealand. That is to say, part of our point of difference is the pedagogical style with which our institutions teach and the students learn. We educate students in a way that they are career-ready, whether at the secondary school level, university level, or beyond. Lisa Futschek speaking at the event What is your view of Vietnam as a source market? Vietnam is an incredibly important partner country for New Zealand. ENZ works not only in terms of bringing Vietnamese students to New Zealand, but also in taking New Zealand students to Vietnam. The idea is that exchanging our different perspectives, cultures, and world views is to the benefit of both countries. This is not just because we come from the same region, but also because there is so much to share. Vietnam is one of our largest source markets for international students. In 2020, Vietnam was our fifth-largest source market, acknowledging that COVID-19 meant mobility was not possible. Nevertheless, a large proportion of Vietnamese students chose to stay in New Zealand and continue their education. New Zealands code of pastoral care for international students really came to the fore, and Vietnamese students were looked after well in the country as they were unable to return home to their families. We are the first in the world to develop a pastoral care code which provides excellent care for international students, and all the providers in New Zealand who enrol international students must be signatory hosts. What are potential sectors for partnerships between New Zealand education providers and Vietnamese ones? Currently, the majority of students from Vietnam are studying in our high school sector and increasingly in our university sector. But in fact, we have just seen an example of where we can extend our partnership into other sectors, such as vocational training, through an MoU between Skills Consulting Group and Hanoi Vocational College of High Technology. The establishment of the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology is also an area that is ripe for further development. Similarly, we see real opportunities in our thriving edtech industry. We have a partnership with The Mind Lab, where we sponsor 30-full scholarships for Vietnamese educators to join in Digital and Collaborative Teaching and Learning Micro-credential course. The MoU signing between Skills Consulting Group and Hanoi Vocational College of High Technology How can Vietnamese students benefit from a New Zealand education, and are there any exclusive opportunities for them? There are many scholarship offerings for Vietnamese students among the university and high school sectors. The Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship scheme is a critical government scheme that is offered to students from around the world, including Vietnam, which is probably the biggest single investment that New Zealand makes in scholarships. In addition, theres a range of innovative smaller schemes that ENZ has developed to connect with students who arent necessarily coming to New Zealand for their studies. The New Zealand Global Competence Certificate digitally connects overseas students and New Zealand, and Vietnam was the first country that we piloted this programme. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, New Zealand has maintained the first position among English-speaking countries for preparing students for the future for three consecutive years. New Zealands borders officially opened to all students on August 1. New Zealand provides scholarships for Vietnamese teachers Following the success of previous years, Education New Zealand will continue to offer 30 fully-funded scholarships for Vietnamese teachers to undertake the New Zealand Global Competence Certificate (NZGCC) course. New Zealand Education Fair returns to Vietnam The New Zealand Education Fair 2022, the largest annual event covering New Zealand education, will officially return on October 29 and 30 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively. Flash Seventeen leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) members have confirmed their attendance at the summit to be held in Indonesia's Bali on Nov. 15-16, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said on Thursday. Faizasyah was reluctant to name the other three leaders who have not declared their presence for security reasons. "This is related to security aspects and other things that need to be taken care of before the event," Faizasyah told a virtual press conference. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Monday that new prime ministers of Britain and Italy, Rishi Sunak and Giorgia Meloni, had confirmed their attendance for the upcoming G20 summit. The G20 leaders are scheduled to arrive in Bali starting Nov. 13 and will leave the resort island on Nov. 16 afternoon or Nov. 17, added Marsudi. Some of them will fly directly to Bangkok in Thailand to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. The classroom is fully funded via the Tiep Buoc Em Den Truong (Supporting the Childrens Schooling Steps) initiative jointly organised by Generali Vietnam and the NFVC within Generalis The Human Safety Net Global Challenge 2022. The projects completed works will be immediately put into operation in the academic year 2022-2023. These include a fully equipped classroom building, a standard playground, sanitation area, and other classroom equipment. Generali Vietnam and NFVC inaugurated a new kindergarten for disadvantaged children in Krong Nang district of Gia Lai province The fundraising initiative received wholehearted support and participation, as well as generous donations from hundreds of staff, agents, public members, and donors across the country. Volunteers and fundraisers gathered to exercise and complete pledged physical challenges, while calling for their families, friends, and the public to encourage their efforts by donating to the charity fund. On this occasion, to promote the love for reading and help the kindergarten children to develop a positive reading habit from a young age, Generali and its partners also gifted a mini library with hundreds of books and reading materials. Tran Van Vang, Generali Vietnam chief agency officer, presented gifts to disadvantaged children of Phu Loc kindergarten Many books were recommended by the community via the Kindergarten Book Ideas Contest on The Human Safety Net Vietnam fanpage. The new kindergarten is expected to offer a safe and well-equipped learning and playing environment for the children, thereby contributing to the comprehensive growth of generations of kindergarten children in the local community. Investing in childrens health and education is always a top priority for families and society. We hope that the new kindergarten featuring a spacious, safe, clean, and well-equipped learning environment will help shape a brighter future for our children, said Tina Nguyen, Generali Vietnam CEO. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation for the NFVC for joining hands and supporting us in realising our ambition of becoming lifetime partner to millions of Vietnamese families. Hoang Van Tien, director of the NFVC remarked, The school building fundraising initiative once again affirms Generalis pioneering position in implementing unique and innovative community initiatives that deliver practical and sustainable values." Tien added, With the project teams determination and dedication, we are glad to have been able to quickly have this project successfully executed and school put into operation. This helps meet the urgent needs of Phu Loc kindergartens children and staff, as well as the families of 30 kindergarten children aged 3-5 years currently enrolled by the school." Generalis staff and agents called for their families, friends, and the public to encourage their efforts by donating to the charity The new facility will replace the poor conditioned classroom that temporarily made use of the villages common room, where learning and teaching activities are often interrupted by the villages activities. The new kindergarten is expected to offer a safe and well-equipped learning and playing environment for the children, thereby contributing to the comprehensive growth of generations of kindergarten children in the local community. Tiep Buoc Em Den Truong is part of Generali Groups The Human Safety Net Global Challenge 2022 with the participation of more than 2,500 Generali volunteers from across 23 countries, helping more than 5,000 parents and children all over the world. New Zealand fruit companies support vulnerable children in Vietnam Seven of New Zealands top fruit exporters to Vietnam will come together to donate nearly 10 tonnes of fruit to several childrens and womens charities in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi this July. Through this initiative, tens of thousands of micro-merchants in Vietnam will gain access to an online repository of digital and financial tools, which will help them to successfully set up and run a small food business online. Gojek will also partner with the Vietnam Womens Union in Ho Chi Minh City to empower and upskill female entrepreneurs to leverage e-commerce to access new income-earning opportunities and help reduce barriers to socioeconomic growth. Gojek will partner with the Vietnam Womens Union in Ho Chi Minh City to empower female entrepreneurs through education and access to online business opportunities With an extensive portal of resources, Small Shops Weather Big Storms aims to provide micro-merchants with the tools to build stronger, more resilient, and digitally-enabled businesses, helping them to keep up with market trends and changing consumer needs. From target audience identification and stock and pricing strategy to managing inventory, marketing, packaging, delivery, and more, the portal is a one-stop shop for food merchants. In addition, users can also access and be inspired by the success stories of dozens of Vietnamese micro-entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses from their own kitchens simply by going digital. Through the partnership with the Vietnam Womens Union in Ho Chi Minh City, Gojek will provide entrepreneurial skills training to 200 female micro-merchants, focusing on financial planning, business management, and how to manage an online store. Following the completion of the training series, entrepreneurs will have the option to start their own food business on GoFood (Gojeks online food delivery platform), providing them with access to the millions of consumers transacting there. Gojek will continue to support these merchants, helping to accelerate their online business journey through personalised onboarding assistance, exclusive marketing campaigns, and favourable incentives. Country general manager for Gojek Vietnam Duc Phung said, Ongoing economic uncertainty has created significant challenges for micro-merchants. As such, it is vital for traditional micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to transform into digital businesses in line with changes in consumer behaviour and purchasing patterns." "At Gojek, we believe that driving digital transformation requires tech support coupled with education and upskilling. Through this initiative, we hope to empower micro-entrepreneurs, especially female-owned businesses, to leverage and benefit from access to the digital economy, ultimately resulting in increased income-earning opportunities. This is aligned with our commitment to support MSMEs with comprehensive tools, solutions, and accessibility to grow their business sustainably, added Phung. Hoa Tran, member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Womens Union and vice chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Womens Union stated, Female-owned MSMEs play an important role in household incomes in Vietnam but many face barriers to digital transformation. We greatly appreciate Gojeks efforts to support these micro-entrepreneurs to successfully and sustainably migrate online, aligned with our own mission to promote and enhance individuals capabilities in the digital era. We hope this cooperation with Gojek will lay the foundations for future projects that will continue to create a positive impact in our communities. Small Shops Weather Big Storms is an extension of Gojek Vietnams So No One is Left Behind campaign series, previously run in 2020 and 2021. The campaign series saw Gojek educate and mentor nearly one hundred merchants, helping them set up and grow an online food business from scratch on the GoFood platform. As with So No One is Left Behind, CafeTek HTV will be the campaign media partner for Small Shops Weather Big Storms and Xiaomi will be providing support in the form of smartphone photo-taking skills training for participants. MSMEs underpin the Vietnamese economy, accounting for 98 per cent of total businesses and contributing 45 per cent of the national GDP. It is also reported that 90 per cent of MSMEs have been impacted by the pandemic and are in need of support. With Vietnam's digital economy expected to reach $220 billion in gross merchandise value by 2030, digitalisation is essential for their recovery. Phung concluded, Supporting MSMEs is core to what we do. In Vietnam, Gojek has helped tens of thousands of merchants, 90 per cent of which are MSMEs, to develop and grow their businesses online by connecting them to millions of users via the Gojek app. We hope that our efforts to support MSMEs through this campaign will help them to build more resilient businesses and, in turn, contribute to the resilience of our economy. Gojek shakes hands with MoMo Gojek and MoMo have announced a strategic partnership, integrating the latters wallet on the Gojek app in Vietnam. Gojek launches GoCar XL Protect 7-seater ride-hailing service To further honour its commitment to health and safety, Gojek Vietnam announced the launch of GoCar XL Protect, its new 7-seater ride-hailing service, in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on May 4. Sun Air and Gulfstream co-host the Airshow 2022 Airshow 2022 is hosted at Van Don International Airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh. This is an exclusive event for potential businessmen and customers of the two brands. The show features the world's fastest, safest, and most comfortable aircraft from Gulfstream Airlines, which is favoured by global entrepreneurs and billionaires. Airshow 2022 marks an important milestone in the development of the premium aviation segment as well as international trade and luxury tourism in Vietnam. At the exhibition, visitors will be able to see first-hand two legendary Gulfstream aircraft that have won many awards in the aviation field, namely the G600 and G650ER. The aircraft boast outstanding performance and high-speed capabilities. The aircraft can save more than 50 hours of flight time per year with a Mach 0.90 top speed (1,103km/h). In particular, the aircraft can reach the destinations that are technically demanding. Other features include superb take-off and landing capabilities within an exceptional range. As a result, the G600 and G650ER have set a new bar for performance, safety, and comfort. Within the framework of the show, Gulfstream also launches the Gulfstream G700 jet in Asia. According to the companys representative, the G700 delivers the most spacious, innovative, and flexible cabin in the business jet market. It can accommodate up to 19 passengers in five flexible living areas, including a large room, kitchen area, and bathroom amenities. Wayne Oedewalt, vice president of Gulfstream Asia Pacific, said that Vietnam is emerging strongly with enormous growth potential for the business aviation industry as well as aviation in general. "At Gulfstream, we are constantly working to improve the flying experience for our customers. We are proud to accompany Sun Air in its journey of "elevating the elite" in the Vietnamese market. It is the reason why Vietnam was chosen as the first destination in promoting the G700 to the Asian market," Oedewalt said. Airshow 2022 is considered an event of special significance in the field of aviation in Vietnam. According to Reiner Suess, operations director of Sun Air, it is not easy for Gulfstream to agree to hold an aircraft show alongside other global aviation exhibitions. "Gulfstream has selected Van Don International Airport as the destination to hold its own aircraft exhibition. This reflects the fact that Vietnam is a potential market for the high-end aviation industry. This exhibition not only shows the increasing demand for high-class flight services, but it also affirms that Vietnam is climbing to a new position in the international arena," Suess said. Airshow 2022 is expected to connect the Vietnamese market with one of the most renowned brands in the high-end aviation industry in the world. Dang Minh Truong, chairman of the Board of Directors of Sun Group said, "The exhibition is a special milestone for Sun Air to affirm its position as Vietnams first premium general airline. It is also a testament to the fact that Vietnam is becoming a new luxury destination in the world. By bringing a famous global airline to reach potential customers, we want to promote trade in the high-end market." Launched in Vietnam in March, Sun Air is the first premium general airline in Vietnams general aviation segment, providing personalised and specialised high-class flight services in two types. It provides private jet management and air charter services, as well as sightseeing flights. Sun Air has gone through a verification process to ensure full and absolute compliance with strict operating standards. After six months of the launch, Sun Air was officially granted an Aircraft Operator Certificate by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam on September 29, with the scope of domestic and international exploitation. In September and October, Sun Air's first Gulfstream G650ER aircraft were officially put into operation, laying the foundation for the airline's fleet with outstanding speed, safety, and comfort. Luxurious Sun Air aiming for third-quarter take-off Hoping to springboard on the recovery of aviation and tourism, the first self-proclaimed luxury airline Sun Air will officially enter the Vietnamese market in the third quarter of 2022. Sun Air shakes hands with Gulfstream to bring luxury aircraft to Vietnamese elite On March 23, the signing ceremony of an exclusive representative cooperation agreement between Gulfstream and Sun Air took place at Capella Hanoi Hotel, marking a new era in the luxury aviation industry in Vietnam. South Korea is just the fourth country to have such ties with the country after China, Russia, and India. Upgrading relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership will reinforce the high-quality investment capital inflow from South Korea to Vietnam, analysts said. The move is an opportunity to foster South Korean capital in Vietnam and focus on sci-tech and innovation, digital and green economy, clean energy, smart cities, and eco-industrial parks. Korea-Vietnam ties reach top-tier status, photo Le Toan The two countries will emphasise digital platforms to open up investment opportunities and business connections. South Korean businesses are encouraged to establish research and development centres in Vietnam and share digital transformation and corporate governance. The framework to celebrate the 30th year of diplomatic relations has a dense schedule of cultural exchange events, and especially investment promotion programmes to connect business communities of the two countries. In December, a delegation of senior leadership will take a business trip to South Korea, which promises to have many cooperation and investment agreements signed by businesses in the two countries. Vietnam encourages South Korean companies to invest and expand their operations in the country, in digital technology, renewable energy, infrastructure development, construction of industrial zones, and development of high-tech agriculture, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the meeting with South Koreas Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin on October 18. During the past 30 years, South Korea has been a leading partner of Vietnam, especially in terms of investment. Meanwhile, Vietnam is a centrepiece of South Koreas New Southern Policy. For the first nine months of this year, South Korea was the second-largest investor in the country with a total registered capital of more than $3.8 billion, accounting for 20.3 per cent of total funding capital in Vietnam. Of more than $3.8 billion invested in Vietnam, South Korea has more than $749 million in newly registered capital and $2.67 billion in adjusted capital. This wave from South Korea played a key contribution in hiking the disbursement of capital in the first 10 months. Notably, between January and October, 880 existing projects added a total capital of $8.74 billion, up 13.4 per cent in the number of projects and 23.3 per cent in quantity. Three additional projects from Samsung accounted for one-quarter of the total adjusted capital. They combine two ventures by Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam in the northern province of Thai Nguyen worth $1.18 billion, and $841 million from Samsung Electronics CE Complex in Ho Chi Minh City. At last weeks Vietnam-Korea Economic Cooperation Conference held by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in collaboration with the South Korean Embassy to Vietnam, the two parties discussed cooperation for the next period, in which investment cooperation will be the key sector. Along with various traditional fields such as manufacturing, energy, culture, education, and tourism, the two parties will strengthen the investment in ICT and smart city development. Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, deputy director general of the ICT Industry Agency under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said the two sides signed an MoU to promote cooperation in ICT, post and telecommunications, e-government, and broadcasting. Going forward, we expect that there will be more Vietnamese companies participating in the South Korean electronics/ICT supply chain, and their investors will also increase the localisation ratio in Vietnam. This should see more training courses and technology transfer of emerging technologies from South Korea to Vietnam. Regarding the smart city sector, the South Korean side pledged to support Vietnam in improving institutions and legislation on smart city development, applying technology in developing the construction industry, and enhancing the capacity of crucial planning agencies. On October 11, the Ministry of Construction and the South Koreas Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport held a launch ceremony for a project on establishing the Vietnam-South Korea Cooperation Centre on smart cities and construction technology. The project aims to establish a professional centre to promote research and training in smart cities and advanced construction technologies to contribute to developing smart cities in Vietnam. The programme will gradually solidify Vietnams guidelines and policies in promoting sustainable smart city development by 2030 and strengthen the bilateral relationship. Newly-appointed South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Oh Young-Ju said, Vietnam is a comprehensive and strategic partner of South Korea. It is stepping into the next stage of its development journey; thus, the bilateral relationship needs to have a breakthrough transformation. As the new ambassador to Vietnam, I will contribute to reinforcing the cooperation between the two countries. Tran Quoc Phuong-Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Over the past 30 years, Vietnam-South Korea cooperation has continuously developed in width and depth. The two countries have become strategic partners in almost all fields. Economic cooperation has always been an important pillar and bright spot in this cooperation. Leaders of the two sides will continue to promote the development of the cooperative relationship. In a rapidly changing world, the two countries are good examples of strategic cooperation in new fields such as supply chains, digital transformation, innovation, climate change, and healthcare. Exchanges and contacts between senior leaders are maintained regularly. South Korea remains one of the largest investors in Vietnam, with over 9,000 companies and accumulated investment capital of $80 billion, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the total foreign direct investment, representing an 80-fold increase since 1992. It is second in official development assistance, with a total capital sum of $4.2 billion, and third in trade, with an import and export turnover reaching $78 billion in 2021. The two sides will continue to improve the quality of economic, trade, and investment cooperation and strive to reach a bilateral trade turnover of $100 billion by 2023 and $150 billion by 2030. To realise these targets, the two countries will try to boost the investment capital inflow and foster commercial cooperation. Vu Tien Loc-Chairman, Vietnam-South Korea Friendship Association The Vietnam-South Korea relationship is a typical one with high efficiency between a developed country and a developing country. With cultural similarities, a burning entrepreneurial spirit, and a mutually complementary economic structure, the relationship between the two countries will have strong development steps in the future for the benefit of both sides, because the two nations are not only partners, but also brothers in the big family. This year marks 30 years since establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and South Korea, marking the past cooperation journey and opening a new stage of comprehensive development with higher quality. Vietnam is in the process of industrialisation, building key industries and approaching the latest trend of Industry 4.0, while South Korea is a successful feat of this process with many valuable lessons learned. Many leading South Korean enterprises have chosen to invest in Vietnam over the years. South Korea is also one of the countries leading the wave of foreign direct investment, contributing to turning Vietnam into a factory in the global economy. I hope that South Korea will continue to lead in this, creating conditions for Vietnam to participate more deeply in the global economy. Hong Seung Hee-Sales and Marketing director Apull Power Co., Ltd. There are many expert analyses on why we should invest in the country. Vietnam, from the perspective of studying, working as an investor, and conducting environmental-related businesses, tries to gather the opinions of the people. It is also a place where the government has the will to achieve national development, and the youth wants to see growth. The reason for success in Vietnam is because of the people, and the reason for failure is also the people. I hope more South Korean companies will continue achieving economic success through exemplary management that protects the environment and develops employees. Rather than a general real estate industrial complex, the government or other companies should focus on projects with a cause, such as eco-industrial complexes. From strength to strength in South Korean investment Bilateral trade between Vietnam and South Korea has been on an upward trajectory for several years. Min Moonki, commercial attache of the South Korean Embassy to Vietnam, spoke with VIRs Hoang Oanh about long-term investment plans and the hopes to elevate ties to even greater heights. The event was co-organised by Education New Zealand (ENZ), New Zealand Embassy Hanoi, and the New Zealand Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City. Addressing the event, the New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam, Tredene Dobson said, Education has always been at the centre of the New Zealand-Vietnam relationship. It has fuelled development and trade connections, but most importantly it supports our people to people connections. We are so looking forward to welcoming back the hard-working, capable students of Vietnam who bring with them the vibrant Vietnamese culture." Dobson added, "We are also looking forward to restarting our scholarship programmes specifically for Vietnamese students in the near future. New Zealand Education Fair 2022 is a great opportunity for Vietnamese parents and students to get the latest information about New Zealand education, and how our providers can support the next generation of Vietnamese business leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, tech-moguls, and creatives, she said. Lisa Futschek, general manager for International at ENZ, expressed her hope that the fair will become a potential link between Vietnamese students and New Zealand education. She said, "We refer to our international students as new because, after studying there, you'll find a new version with fresh perspectives and experiences. We hope that as you start your academic adventure in New Zealand, you may open your heart and embrace the cultural values of this beautiful nation. In the meanwhile, we eagerly anticipate welcoming to New Zealand the essence of the various cultures from overseas students. The event in Hanoi also witnessed the MoU signing ceremony between Skills Consulting Group from New Zealand and the Hanoi Vocational College of High Technology, providing numerous study, internship, and employment opportunities for Vietnamese students in an effort to foster cooperation in the field of vocational training, particularly high-tech vocational training. Being a part of the event in Ho Chi Minh City, New Zealand's Skills Consulting Group and the local Foreign Service Center also celebrated the MoU signing ceremony. Joining New Zealand Education Fair 2022, parents and students had been consulted one-on-one with school representatives on study options in line with each individual students orientation and capacity, as well as be updated on supporting policies for international students. At the same time, students in Vietnam also accessed a range of valuable scholarships at various levels of study, including government scholarships, individual ones, and scholarships offered exclusively for Vietnam. New Zealand provides scholarships for Vietnamese teachers Following the success of previous years, Education New Zealand will continue to offer 30 fully-funded scholarships for Vietnamese teachers to undertake the New Zealand Global Competence Certificate (NZGCC) course. New Zealand Education Fair returns to Vietnam The New Zealand Education Fair 2022, the largest annual event covering New Zealand education, will officially return on October 29 and 30 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively. A conference was convened on October 26 to discuss solutions to develop a high-speed railway on the North-South axis was attended by leaders from 0ministries, agencies, and sectors involve, as well as independent railway and mass transit experts. The Appraisal Council for the venture signed a contract with the consulting consortium, which involves Consultancy and Construction Co., Ltd., Evo Vietnam Company, Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong, and Hung Phu Trad JSC, to guarantee the evaluation of the pre-feasibility study of the railway project, as proposed by the Ministry of Transport (MoT). Minister of Planning and Investment and chairman of the Appraisal Council Nguyen Chi Dung said, With a scale of more than $60 billion and far-reaching effects on the development of the North-South economic corridor, plans must be carefully studied and must be highly responsible before being sent to agencies. Dung presented several topics at the conference, including speed range selection, exploitation technique, alignment and standard frames, foundations for calculating investment, and capital raising. These concerns will decide not only the investment plan for a high-speed railway along the North-South axis, but also the direction of growth for Vietnams railway and mechanical engineering industries over the next half-century, Dung said. However, the consortium determined that the advisors who prepared the study had selected an unsuitable design and speed level, as most developed nations with high-speed railways operating at speeds above 300 km/h are technologically advanced (see box). Such nations have full freight railway networks and GDP several times greater than Vietnams. According to a consortium representative, with the projected design and operational speed level, passenger trains alone will not generate sufficient money to ensure the projects financial viability. Moreover, the estimated figures for the project are unrealistic in terms of investment amount and rate used to determine the total investment, financial efficiency, and socioeconomic efficiency. Specifically, the pre-feasibility study for the project estimates a total expenditure of around $58.7 billion. However, verification findings by a separate unit work out the costs have been calculated in terms of the volume and investment, which state the total acceptable investment is $64.56 billion, or a 10 per cent increase. Another drawback noted by the consortium is that the capital mobilisation proposed by the project planning consultant is not feasible if 80 per cent of the capital, or about $12 billion, is mobilised through state budget capital, official development assistance (ODA) loans, and concessional loans, while 20 per cent ($4 billion) is mobilised through private enterprises. Currently, no public-private partnership project in the world spends more than $10 billion in the railway industry. According to the study, the project implementation time is also too long, exceeding 25 years, which poses risks of increasing costs, missed development opportunities, and failure to realise the 13th National Party Congress objective of transforming Vietnam into a high-income developed nation by 2045. In the appraisal report, the consortium suggested a design speed of 250 km/h and an operational speed of 225 km/h for passenger and freight train operations. A representative at the conference said, This speed level permits the operation of a mix of passenger and freight trains, creating chances for domestic firms to access and master high-speed rail technology. To economise on operating costs, the current trend of high-speed rail projects in Europe has decreased to 200-250 km/h, and feature mixed operations. This speed range fits with the plan for the high-speed railway construction scenario on the North-South axis that the MoT submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment in mid-October. With this possibility, estimates are that the total investment of the project to be $61.67 billion, of which nearly $1.7 billion is anticipated to be mobilised from real estate auctions in 50 urban areas with a scale of 200-500 hectares per site, according to the transit-oriented development (TOD) model, representing 63.15 per cent of the total invested capital. After completion of the investment preparatory work, scheduled for 2025, the project will be developed from then until 2031, with phase 1 consisting of site clearing for the whole project and 50 urban stations to construct the 361-km part of the Thu Thiem-Nha Trang route. This timeframe is required to analyse, assess, and refine the technology, to manage phase 2 of the project from 2031 to 2038. Prof. Tong Tran Tung, former head of the MoITs Department of Science and Technology, believes the solution presented by the independent verification consultants is realistic and appropriate for Vietnams situation. This aligns with the Government Party Committee, which recently issued instructions for the construction of such a railway for both passenger and freight transport, with a design speed of around 200-250 km/h. However, that speed range should not be set in stone; rather, a study and comparison should continue to determine the optimal speed range, Tung said. I welcome the consultation and verification of the idea to mobilise funds from the TOD model to decrease the strain on ODA loans, providing relative freedom in selecting technology for the railway. According to Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Long, former director of the MoTs Transport Construction Investment Management Authority, who contributed to all the pre-feasibility studies, such reports are responsible for clarifying the critical opinions of the verification unit, particularly the speed range of selection and the capital mobilisation plan. Long advised that the units involved should collaborate to scientifically and impartially explain the concerns in the pre-feasibility study. There are so many variations to the MoTs plan that this may be regarded as a whole separate project, and it must be carefully studied in addition to the Laos-implemented alternative of operating trains at speeds below 150 km/h, Long said. The mobilisation of capital from the TOD model is a promising alternative, but it is now merely hypothetical and may encounter numerous challenges in practice. Most recent North-South high-speed rail funding scenarios Scenario 1: The current North-South railway line is built to operate the entire route according to double track standards for passenger transport and goods, with a capacity of 170 carriages per day in both directions. This scenario has an investment cost of approximately $42 billion, utilising a portion of the existing infrastructure. However, because the current railway line has very low technical standards, it would be challenging to upgrade and expand rail systems, and the level of utilisation is low. It does not create a motivating factor to advertise urbanisation, generate more major development space, add assets from the property fund, or contribute to shifting the growth model and structure of relevant regions. Scenario 2: Construction of a railway to carry people and cargo, with a maximum allowable speed of 180-225 km per hour, at an estimated cost of $64.8 billion. After constructing the complete North-South high-speed railway, it would examine and propose the role of the current railway depending on the countrys socioeconomic development circumstances. The MoT anticipates the following investing deviation strategy: from 2025 to 2032, invest in the development and management of Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang segment, connecting to Long Thanh International Airport. After the first phase, it will summarise and refine construction technology, manage exploitation to gain experience, and lower the duration of the next phases execution. It will then invest in the construction and operation of Hanoi-Vinh between 2030 and 2035. In the 20352045 period, investment in construction would begin to bring the Vinh-Nha Trang section into service. Source: Ministry of Transport Vietnam Railways sees recovery in first half of 2022 Vietnams railway industry saw growth in revenue and cargo transport in the first half of 2022, heralding a recovery ahead. The Crown Prince of Denmark participated in the opening ceremony as the guest of honour while on his visit to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of Denmark-Vietnam diplomatic relations and to promote green energy solutions. Aligning with Denmarks commitment to strengthening the economic and cultural ties between the two countries, Vestas new office inauguration in Ho Chi Minh City demonstrated the companys dedication to meeting Vietnams growing demand for green energy solutions. Country manager for Vestas Vietnam Mads Clausen said, Vietnam is a high-potential market and a strategic partner for Denmark in the transition to a greener and more sustainable future. This event marks a new significant milestone on Vestas sustainability pathway and the growth of the green energy ecosystem in Vietnam. Furthermore, this space is crucial as Vestas focuses on developing the next generation of local talent to support its current growth and future ambitions in the country. Wind power has the potential to aid Vietnam's development, helping the country to fulfil its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 made at the COP26 Global Climate Change Summit. With timely support and favourable policies from the government, Vietnam has quickly become one of the leading countries in the region concerning renewable energy with even greater potential waiting to be unlocked. Vestas is the energy industrys global partner in sustainable energy solutions. The company designs, manufactures, installs, and services onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 157GW of wind turbines in 88 countries, Vestas has installed more wind power than anyone else. Vestas know how offers wind power fresh air Denmark Vestas Wind Systems, one of the worlds leading wind energy companies, last week organised a roadshow in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to present its technologies and financial solutions for wind power in Vietnam. VIRs Bich Ngoc spoke with Vestas Asia Pacific & China president Chris Beaufait on how to promote wind power as a sustainable energy solution for Vietnam. Vestas and Tan Hoang Cau sign MoU aims to accelerate wind farm development Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas and locally-invested Tan Hoang Cau signed a turbine supply contract for the 30MW Huong Linh 1 wind farm as well as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the pre-development of three other wind projects. Cu Lao Cham November 3 marks the first celebration of the International Day for Biosphere Reserves. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), with Haiphong People's Committee and the National Committee for Man and the Biosphere, held a meeting to respond to the International Day of Biodiversity at Cat Ba Archipelago National Park. With the second-highest number of Biosphere Reserves (BR) in Southeast Asia, Vietnam strives to foster a well-balanced relationship between humans and nature. Over the last decades, biosphere reserves have provided restorative and community-centred opportunities for ecosystem conservation and sustainable economics. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been working on BR management that fortifies the commitment to environmental resilience against increasing climate-induced threats and the promotion of indigenous and local livelihoods. UNDP resident representative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi said, "The design of an integrated BR management system is paramount to addressing the existential challenges and ensuring the longevity of human's shared existence with the environment." She also highlighted the central role of national and provincial leaders as the key to the future of biosphere reserves. "On the occasion of the first International Day for Biosphere Reserves, we call for concerted and collective actions to protect nature and the environment and to prioritise the needs of local communities in conserving natural resources, maintaining the landscape, and increasing absorption of CO 2 to reach the 2050 climate neutrality objective set by the international community," added Khalidi. At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan suggested that centrally-run agencies and provincial people's committees continue implementing actions to promote the development of the BR network in the near future. Vietnam is striving to have 15 of the world's BRs recognised by UNESCO by 2030 and improve management efficiency. MoNRE supports the implementation of nature conservation, biodiversity, and the management of Tay Nghe An BR, Cu Lao Cham, and Dong Nai BR within the framework of the project Mainstreaming Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation Objectives into Socioeconomic Development Planning and Management of Biosphere Reserves in Vietnam, funded by the UNDP in Vietnam. The total area of the 11 world BRs in Vietnam is just over 4.8 million hectares (accounting for about 14.7 per cent of the country's natural area). Vietnam's BRs play an important role in conserving nature and contributing to the achievement of the national sustainable development goals. Additionally, a tree planting campaign to respond to and promote the implementation of the Initiative of One Billion Trees in BRs in Vietnam took place on November 3. Finance and governance accelerators for Just Energy Transition Initial results of the energy transition to date have proven that finance is not a constraint and that new governance solutions are key to a Just Energy Transition (JET). The administration reported that Vietnam welcomed 20,681 Indian visitors in October and 82,066 in the first 10 months of 2022. Since July, the number of Indian tourists to Vietnam each month surpasses the figures recorded in 2019. Tourists visiting Ha Long Bay (Photo: VNA) Notably, searches for Vietnamese destinations from the Indian market are rising quickly, with the volume in October increasing three folds compared to that in July and doubling that in August. The most searched destinations include Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc, Da Nang, and Quy Nhon. The agency attributed the rise to the results of tourism promotion activities in the Indian market, along with the launching of many direct air routes linking the two countries. In October, the number of foreign tourists rose 12.1 percent over the previous month. Tourism revenue in the January-October period reached 425 trillion VND (17.08 billion USD), equivalent to 74 percent of that in the same period of 2019. In the period, the Republic of Korea topped the number of tourists to Vietnam with 26.3 percent of the total arrivals. Data from the travel tracking tool Google Destination Insights showed that the number of international searches for tourist accommodations in Vietnam in October continued to increase about 20 percent compared to September 2022 and 11 times over March. The top 10 countries with highest searches for Vietnam tourism are the US, Australia, Singapore, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the UK, Malaysia, Thailand and Germany, while the top 10 most searched destinations in Vietnam include Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang. In October, the administration issued licences to 70 travel firms to operate international tours, raising their number so far this year to 2,816. At the same time, the global ranking of VNATs website vietnam.travel was advanced to the 166,985th position from 458,550th position in 2021. Indian tourists to Vietnam increase India climbed into the top 16 markets with the highest number of visitors to Vietnam in 2019. The signing was witnessed by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An and Danish Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth who are on a three-day visit to Vietnam on November 1-3. Representatives of Doosan Vina and rsted sign memorandum of understanding to develop offshore wind power supply chain in Vietnam (Photo: Doosan Vina) Under the MoU, Doosan Vina and rsted agree to engage in non-legally binding discussions to develop the offshore wind foundation supply chain in Vietnam with a primary focus on, but not limited to, the offshore foundation structure monopiles, with the aim of satisfying requirements relating to the development of rsteds portfolio of offshore wind farm projects in Vietnam, with a specific focus on the Tuy Phong and Hai Phong projects, and abroad, and also the terms and conditions relating to material sourcing, manufacturing, and supply by Doosan Vina. rsted will provide guidance and support, and help Doosan Vina access markets in other countries throughout the Asia-Pacific and Europe, while the Vietnamese firm will give preferred customer status to rsted. According to Kim Hyo Tae, General Director of Doosan Vina, the signing of an MoU with a leading corporation in the wind power sector is an important event for the company. In addition to offshore wind power, Doosan Vina is also in the preparation stage for producing fuel cells and hydrogen in line with the orientations and commitments of the Vietnamese Government on a carbon-neutral future by 2050. Offshore wind future in balance for Vietnam The long-awaited Power Development Plan VIII is set to target the development of about 7GW of offshore wind power in Vietnam. However, both investors and localities are waiting for a clearer roadmap. Survey overlap potential irks wind power developers Due to several legal pitfalls, conflicts may occur among wind power investors, both onshore and off, as they take part in surveying activities for their potential projects. Investors wait for wind power administration system Offshore wind offers a route to diversify the energy system in a cost-effective way, given the technologys unmatched track record in driving down costs in the context of the major energy crisis facing the world today. M&A Vietnam Forum 2022 slated for late November The annual merge and acquisition forum (M&A Vietnam Forum) in 2022 will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 23, according to the organising board. Illustrative image (Source: VNA) The event, to be organised by Vietnam Investment Review with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, will be themed "Igniting new opportunities". Addressing a press briefing to provide information about the event, Le Trong Minh, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Investment Review, said that the Vietnamese economy has recovered strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic and shown strong resilience against impacts from the outside. The domestic business communitys development needs in the new context require a strong injection not only in terms of capital but also new technological know-how and modern management skills, Minh said, adding that its time for M&A activities to prove the prominence in helping businesses complete their growth target. Nguyen Cong Ai, Deputy General Director of KPMG Vietnam, cited statistics from GlobalData showing that in the third quarter of 2022 saw a drop of 48% in the value of M&A deals. He stressed that the global M&A market is likely to experience a crisis next year. In Vietnam, in the first 10 months of this year, 5.7 billion USD was poured into M&A deals, down 35.3% year on year. Singapore was the leading country in cross-border transactions with about 1.2 billion USD, followed by the US (570 million USD) and the Republic of Korea (370 million USD), he added. However, PE Fund and Venture Capital still saw strong growth in the first months of this year despite uncertainties in the capital market and bad debt. In particular, Vietnam's innovation startup ecosystem in 2022 is forecast to draw about 2 billion USD. The above signs show that the M&A market in Vietnam is likely to remain bustle, especially in the context tightened domestic capital and many businesses are forced to restructure, sell assets and call for investment due to financial pressure. The M&A Vietnam Forum, expecting the participation of more than 500 delegates, will focus on M&A opportunities amid the fluctuating market, and the building of new values. On the sidelines of the event, a number of activities will be held to provide chances for business to meet and seek partnership. You are here: World Flash At least five people, including Pakistan's former prime minister and chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan, were injured on Thursday after his political convoy was shot at in the eastern Punjab province, a party leader told Xinhua. The PTI Secretary General Asad Umar told Xinhua that an unknown gunman opened fire at an open container in the Wazirabad area where Khan was standing along with other political leaders to lead a rally. Umar added that Khan got a bullet injury at his leg and had been shifted to a local hospital for treatment, adding that his condition was out of danger. Other injured included a senator and two regional political leaders, Umar added. Police have reportedly arrested two suspects after the shooting. No group or individual has claimed the attack yet. Police personnel have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. The National Assembly (NA) is scheduled to adopt a resolution on allocating the central budget for 2023 on November 11, paving the way for the government to formulate revenue and spending plans for next year which is expected to see the economy grow 6.5 per cent lower than the expected rate of about 8 per cent for this year. Based on the countrys demand for budgets, the government has proposed to the NA that the state budget overspending estimates for next year will be VND455.5 trillion ($19.8 billion), equivalent to 4.42 per cent of GDP up by about VND82.6 trillion ($3.59 billion) as compared to the estimates for this year. By the end of 2023, the economys public debt could stand at around 45 per cent of GDP, photo Le Toan This includes the overspending for the central budget which will be about VND430 trillion (nearly $18.7 billion) or 4.18 per cent of GDP including 1.53 per cent for the Programme on Socioeconomic Recovery and Development (PSRD); and the overspending for localities coffers which will be as much as VND25 trillion ($1 billion) or 0.24 per cent of GDP. These figures are said by the government to be very positive for 2023. It has also been suggested that the governments direct debt repayment obligation for next year will be about 19-20 per cent of total state budget revenues lower than the NAs permissible limit of 25 per cent. It is expected that by late 2023, the economys public debt will stand at about 44-45 per cent of GDP, the governments debt around 41-42 per cent of GDP, and foreign debt 41-42 per cent of GDP. These levels are also lower than the NAs permissible limits (see box). The government last week reported to the NA that under the Ministry of Finances (MoF) fresh statistics, Vietnams public debt at the end of this year will likely be about 43-44 per cent of GDP; the governments debt could hit 40-41 per cent of GDP; and the nations foreign debt is expected to be 40-41 per cent of GDP. The governments direct debt repayment obligation will likely sit at 18-19 per cent of total state budget revenue. These forecasts will be lower than the ceiling and the warning threshold fixed by the NA, said MoF Minister Ho Duc Phoc. Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai on April 12 released Decision No.448/QD-TTg approving Vietnams programme on public debt management for 2022-2024 as well as a strategy on public debt borrowing and payments for the remainder of this year. In 2022 alone, the government will likely have to use $14.6 billion for debt payments. As for public debt borrowing and payment for this year, the government is expected to borrow a maximum sum of $29.28 billion, including $28.12 billion for the central coffers and $1.16 billion for refinancing. The MoF reported that the 9-month state budget revenue is estimated to reach $57.7 billion, tantamount to 94 per cent of initial estimates. It is expected that the figure for the whole year will be $70.18 billion exceeding by $8.8 billion or 14.3 per cent as compared to the target set in November last year by the NA, also up 2.9 per cent against the figure realised last year. Meanwhile, the 9-month budget spending is estimated to be about $47.23 billion up 5.4 per cent on-year, raising the total figure for the entire year to an expected $85.48 billion. It is estimated that the total budget deficit for the whole year will be about $15.3 billion or 3.75 per cent of GDP. The government has also proposed some key targets for the state budget for the 2023-2025 period. Specifically, total revenues will likely be as much as VND5.1 quadrillion (around $221.7 billion), 84 per cent of which will come from domestic revenues by 2025. Meanwhile, the total expenditure is estimated to be about VND6.4 quadrillion ($278.26 billion). According to the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, which in July worked with Vietnamese authorised agencies on the countrys economic situation and macroeconomic monitoring, 2022s fiscal policy stance remains supportive to boost the economic recovery through the implementation of the PSRD, which is supported by a $15 billion fiscal and monetary policy. On the revenue side, priorities focus on implementing policy measures such as exemption, reduction, payment extension of taxes, fees, and land rent. On the expenditure side, the authorities prioritise spending for pandemic prevention and control, social security and safety net, and infrastructure investment, the board said. The authorities intend to increase the budget deficit to 4.7 per cent of GDP to implement the PSRD for 2022-2023 while maintaining public debt at about 45-46 per cent of GDP, and external debt at about 40-41 per cent of GDP. According to The Economists Global Debt Clock, by late last week, Vietnams public debt in GDP stood at 45.6 per cent and per capita public debt was $1,039, while total public debt was almost $94.85 billion. The MoF last week reported that Vietnams public debt for the 2017-2021 period reduced strongly from 61.4 per cent of GDP in 2017 to 58.3 per cent in 2018, 55 per cent in 2019, 55.9 per cent in 2020 due to big spending for fighting COVID-19, and 43.1 per cent of GDP in 2021 [or $168.65 billion of about $391.3 billion as revised GDP], and the rate is expected to continue decreasing in 2023. In addition, the government debt also dropped from 51.7 per cent of GDP in 2017 to 39.1 per cent last year, while government-guarantee debt fell from 9.1 to 3.8 per cent, and localities debt have also been on a downward trend, from 1.1 to 0.6 per cent. Besides that, the nations external debt also shrank to 38.4 per cent last year from 49 per cent. As of late last year, the Vietnamese economys external debt to total export-import turnover in 2021 was 6.2 per cent, and the governments debt to the state budget revenue sat at 21.8 per cent. I. Goals for national financial plan on borrowing and payment of public debt 2021-2025 - Total state budget revenue in 2021-2025 will be about VND8.3 quadrillion ($360.9 billion). The ratio of mobilised sums in GDP will be not lower than 16 per cent, in which money from taxes and fees will occupy 13-14 per cent of GDP, and the ratio of domestic revenue will be about 85-86 per cent of the total state budget revenue. - The total state budget spending will be as much as VND10.26 quadrillion (over $446 billion), of which 28 per cent will be used for development investment, and 62-63 per cent will be earmarked for recurrent expenditure. It is expected that efforts will be made to increase the ratio of development investment to 29 per cent and to reduce the ratio of recurrent spending to about 60 per cent. - The total spending for development investment from the state budget will be about VND2.87 quadrillion ($124.8 billion), including VND300 trillion ($13 billion) from foreign capital, and VND248 trillion ($10.8 billion) from divestment and equitisation of state-owned enterprises. - The average rate of state budget overspending for the 2021-2025 period will be at 3.7 per cent of GDP. The average deficit of the central budget will sit at 3.4 per cent of GDP, and that of localities coffers will stand at 0.3 per cent of GDP. It is expected that efforts will be made to reduce the average rate of state budget overspending for the period to less than 3.7 per cent of GDP. - The total loans in 2021-2025 will be over VND3 quadrillion ($130.4 billion), in which loans of the central budget will be valued at about VND2.9 quadrillion ($126 billion); the governments direct debt payment will be about 1.7 quadrillion ($73.9 billion); localities total loans will be as much as VND148 trillion ($6.43 billion); and localities debt payment will be about VND35.3 trillion ($1.53 billion). - The countrys annual public debt ceiling will not exceed 60 per cent of GDP, with a warning level of 55 per cent of GDP. The governments annual debt limit will not surpass 50 per cent of GDP (warning level at 45 per cent of GDP). The national foreign debt annually will be not over 50 per cent of GDP (warning level at 45 per cent). II. Prudential targets for public debt: - The annual public debt ceiling shall not exceed 60 per cent of GDP; the warning threshold shall be 55 per cent of GDP; - The annual government debt ceiling shall not exceed 50 per cent of GDP; the warning threshold shall be 45 per cent of GDP; - The annual national foreign debt ceiling shall not exceed 50 per cent of GDP; the warning threshold shall be 45 per cent of GDP; - The governments direct debt repayment obligation (excluding the obligation to repay debt incurred from on-lending) shall not exceed one-quarter of total state budget revenues; - The national foreign debt repayment obligation (excluding the obligation to repay under-12-month loans) shall not exceed one-quarter of the total export turnover of goods and services. Source: Resolution No.23/2021/QH15 on national financial plan and borrowing and payment of public debt for 2021-2025 Strengthened debt control underway In a bid to continue ensuring the countrys financial healthy situation, the National Assembly and the government have continued underscoring stringent management of the state budget as a solution to continue ensuring a safe public debt level. Major reform agenda key to control debt Vietnam is set to see a higher-than-expected budget deficit this year due to financial measures to support enterprises, but its public debt is projected to remain controlled. The mother of Baby Frankie Gonzales sought more time Thursday to build her defense, while the childs father requested his case go to trial quickly. Laura Jane Villalon remains under indictment on charges of capital murder and injury to a child in the death of her 2-year-old son, who was found battered and dead in a dumpster in the summer of 2020, after police reported Villalon had falsely claimed he went missing. The boys father, Lorenzo Gonzales, is under indictment on a charge of abandoning a child, accused of breaking a Child Protective Services agreement to not leave Frankie and two of his siblings alone with Villalon. Gonzales attorney, Phil Martinez, said during his status conference Thursday in Wacos 19th State District Court that Gonzales is growing frustrated and does not want to wait on Villalon to be tried for his case to move forward. Martinez requested a speedy trial. Judge Thomas West tentatively scheduled a trial for March 20, pending the return of results from a DNA test related to the case. Martinez told the judge of the pending test but did not specify the nature of the DNA being tested. Villalons attorney, Russ Hunt Sr., said before Villalons hearing that her defense team is still in the investigation phase, determining what evidence it has and tying up loose ends before meeting with a prosecutor and providing evidence in Villalons defense. He said there are a number of questions that remain, but declined to go into detail. Hunt said Villalons team of lawyers, a mitigation specialist and private investigators are working to resolve the case without the necessity of a trial, which he hopes they can avoid. During Thursdays hearing, Hunt told West his team is waiting for the results of additional testing, the nature of which was not discussed, and asked that another status conference be scheduled in another 90 days. West granted the motion, scheduling the conference on the same date as Gonzales tentative trial setting. On June 1, 2020, Villalon reported Frankie missing during a visit to Cameron Park, prompting an Amber Alert and bringing together the Waco Police Department, McLennan County Sheriffs Office, the Waco Fire Department, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and community members for an hourslong search of the area. The next morning, Villalon was arrested after police reported she led them to the trash bin near Park Lake Baptist Church where she disposed of Frankies body. Officials later reported Frankie passed away May 28, 2020, while in Villalons custody, and his autopsy report revealed he died of homicidal violence, citing injuries to his head, arms, legs and ribs that he incurred weeks or months before his death. Gonzales was arrested in mid-June after police reported he had left Frankie and two of his siblings with Villalon, in violation of a previous CPS agreement. The agreement indicated Frankie and his two sisters were not to be left unsupervised with Villalon because of her criminal record and history of substance abuse. In January, both parents surrendered their rights to Frankies younger and older sisters, including one child who Gonzales learned after a paternity test mid-2021 is not his biological daughter. Gonzales and Villalon have remained in McLennan County Jail awaiting trial. An 82-year-old man sustains a skull fracture from a predawn home invasion, and you think its funny? Or that its fodder for another dumb conspiracy theory? What did you do with your humanity? Where did you mislay your souls? Have you no sense of decency at long last? One is tempted to say that in your response to Friday mornings attack on Paul Pelosi, many of you on the political right have hit rock bottom. But you lot have a knack for excavating depths that would make the Mole Man think twice, so lets just content ourselves with saying that youve struck a new low. According to San Francisco Police, Pelosi was awakened before 2:30 in the morning by an intruder calling Wheres Nancy? a reference to Pelosis wife, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Paul Pelosi managed to call 911 and police arrived to find him and another man struggling over a hammer, which the intruder snatched away and used to bash the speakers husband in the head. One would think this would be a moment for you to set politics aside, to offer words of consolation, comfort and thanks that Pelosi is expected to make a full recovery. But one would be wrong. While some of you Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Vice President Mike Pence among them offered well wishes, others were unable to clear even that low moral bar. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin could not resist telling an audience that they would send Pelosi back to California to join her husband. How Virginia voters are supposed to send a California representative anywhere, he did not say. In Arizona, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake mocked that Pelosis home doesnt have enough protection. And a clutch of conservative luminaries Donald Trump Jr., Dinesh DSouza and Elon Musk among them, promoted a bizarre viral theory that the attack was actually a fight between gay lovers. So yeah, what is wrong with you? When did you run over your moral compass with a truck? The question is not about politics. Its about your demonization of political opponents. Its about your lies of election skulduggery. Its about your rejection of objective reality. Its about your embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery, such that every other campaign commercial now co-stars a gun. And its about how all that culminates in one of your followers invading Pelosis home. Meantime, others threaten violence against Democratic lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Eric Swalwell and perceived GOP turncoats Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, one sent out mail bombs in 2018, and thousands stormed the Capitol in 2021. Granted, the right has no monopoly on crazies. The 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise would refute any such claim. But let us not pretend the overwhelming bulk of the danger does not stem from conservatives. There is a reason the Department of Homeland Security lists the far right as the nations greatest domestic terror threat. Yet you behave as if all this were some kind of game. You are sobered by nothing. You are dangerous brats who respect nothing, least of all the country you claim to love. Was your home training that deficient? Did no one ever sit down with you and offer basic lessons in how to be human? Seriously, whats your deal? When an unoffending 82-year-old man has his skull broken by anyone, much less by one of your true believers, the proper response is empathy, period. Shame on you and heaven help us all that that even needs to be said. WATERLOO A Waterloo man has been acquitted of charges he sexually abused a Kansas woman and held her against her will in August. Prosecutors said Christopher Paul Rumachik, 36, preyed on the low functioning 23-year-old woman and took her from Kansas, where she was under a guardianship set up by her mother, to Waterloo where he allegedly wouldnt let her leave the house without him and once pepper sprayed her when she tried to walk out the door. Jurors deliberated Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before returning a verdict finding Rumachik not guilty of third-degree sex abuse, assault causing bodily injury and false imprisonment. The state had argued that Rumachik had used force, and the woman wasnt able to consent. A restraining order separating the two also had been issued in Kansas, according to testimony at trial. Defense attorney Nichole Watt said the two had met online about four years earlier on a dating app when the woman was 18 and Rumachik was also living in Kansas. The two had an on-and-off relationship that included her moving to Nashua with him in 2017 or 2018 before returning to Kansas. The woman wanted to come to Waterloo in 2022, the defense argued, and the two had been out in public shopping at Walmart and swimming at the Cedar Falls aquatic center in the weeks she was in Waterloo. WATERLOO A former Texas man has been sentenced to prison on gun charges in a 2020 shooting that claimed the life of a Waterloo teen. Attorneys for Andre Lamar Collier, 35, had asked for probation on a charge of felon in possession of a firearm, arguing that Collier and his brother were being robbed during a marijuana deal in alley off East Fourth Street when gunfire broke out. Im not trying to make light of the loss of the young man that got shot. But the reality is the youngster that got shot, hes the one that brought this to the party, said defense attorney Ronald Langford Langford said Collier returned fire as he drove off, shooting over his shoulder without aiming, using a gun his brother had brought along. Collier was struck in the shoulder by a bullet and there were bullet holes in his vehicle, showing he had been fired upon both while stopped and as he was fleeing. Another bullet even punctured the drivers seat but somehow missed him, Langford said. Bullets from Colliers gun hit one of the alleged robbers, 15-year-old Cortez Harrison of Waterloo. Harrison was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Collier fled the state and was later detained in Texas. During sentencing, Assistant County Attorney Michael Hudson said others at the scene didnt cooperate with the law enforcement investigation, and another person who was with Harrison was never identified, so the only account comes from Collier. The state has concerns about the facts of this particular case. While some may suggest that Mr. Collier was justified in the circumstances there is essentially a shootout on Fourth Street between these two, Hudson said. We have a pretty bad situation the sale of illegal narcotics made worse by firearms brought by each party. Collier said he regretted what had happened but was left with no choice. I shouldnt be in this situation for trying to protect myself and trying to protect my family, Collier said. His attorney said Collier didnt know his brother had brought a gun to the drug deal. The brother set the weapon in his lap after arriving in the alley, and Collier simply snatched it up when the shooting started, Langford said. Judge David Staudt opted to sentence Collier to up to five years in prison, noting that he had a lengthy criminal history that included burglary and drug convictions and federal prison time for firearm possession. He also noted that Collier had been engaging in nefarious activity a drug deal with someone who was armed with a firearm. He questioned the defenses account of the shooting, noting that a bag of marijuana was found at the scene, and said it didnt make sense that robbers would bring marijuana if it was supposed to be a holdup from the start. Collier was originally from Texas. In 2019, he moved to Iowa, where he had family, in hopes of finding better employment opportunities. Family members for Harrison didnt attend the sentencing hearing. A charge of flight to avoid prosecution in the case was dismissed. CEDAR FALLS The U.S. Department of Education has awarded two University of Northern Iowa professors a $1.48 million grant to launch a new project to improve English as a second language instruction for both pre-service and in-service teachers. Aliza Fones and Carmen Durham, both assistant professors of TESOL/applied linguistics, were awarded the grant to carry out Project UNITED, or University of Northern Iowa Teacher Education for Diverse Learners. TESOL stands for teaching English to speakers of other languages. Project UNITED will provide research-based ESL teacher preparation and professional development to current and future teachers. Together with UNIs Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the Central Rivers Area Education Agency, Fones and Durham worked to craft a grant proposal for Project UNITED which was selected for funding by the Department of Educations Office of English Language Acquisition. Project UNITED is a five-year plan to address a shortage of teachers prepared to teach ESL. Iowa has seen an increase of nearly 60% in English learners over the past decade, and almost one-third of school districts in Iowa do not employ an endorsed ESL teacher. To improve academic outcomes for English learners, Fones and Durham, along with their team and other partnering agencies, will gather data and use research to create and enhance coursework, field experiences and professional development to improve instructional practices. New technologies and options in distance learning will expand the reach of the program, making it easier for in-service teachers to gain ESL credentials. The plan also includes scholarships to help TESOL recruits with the added costs of gaining ESL endorsements and collaboration with community agencies that will increase family engagement, improving outcomes beyond the classroom. UNI is strongly positioned to develop this education framework as its teacher preparation program is in the top 1% largest in the United States, according to a news release. Jim OLoughlin, department head of Languages & Literatures, is excited about the potential the grant provides. Project UNITED is going to be a transformative initiative, OLoughlin said in the release. It will fund scholarships for dozens of students, undergraduate and graduate, to acquire an ESL endorsement, allowing UNIs TESOL program to reach new students who might never have considered further higher education because of financial hurdles. Equally important is the research component of this project, through which our faculty will be able to develop new instructional methods and curriculum in order to ensure that the education students receive prepares them for success. The knowledge and resulting best practices gathered at the completion of Project UNITED can be used across Iowa and other states with similar needs for more ESL teachers and to improve the implementation and effectiveness of ESL instruction. Were building an infrastructure with the work that is accomplished through the grant, Fones said. Were putting things in place so there is a more sustainable pipeline of teachers who are prepared to support English learners. WAVERLY -- The Wartburg College Alumni Board presented three Knights who have demonstrated a commitment to the college's mission with Alumni Citation Awards during Homecoming and Family Weekend. Adnan Al-Shatti, Dawn Jaeger and Gordon Soenksen received the citations during the annual Homecoming Luncheon. Al-Shatti was a foreign exchange student in Des Moines before coming to Wartburg and working toward a degree in math and chemistry as part of the class of 1976. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he helped found the Islamic Center of Madison. He later taught at Kuwait University, where he was instrumental in creating the psychology department. His humanitarian efforts stretch across decades, from hiding wounded Kuwaiti soldiers during the 1990 invasion by Iraq to his work with Syrian refugees. The Kuwaiti Refugee Center now serves 18,000 child refugees in more than 21 schools. Jaeger, a 1983 graduate, has worked at Central Rivers Area Education Agency, formerly AEA 267, for the last 22 years. She is the agency's go-to for bullying prevention and is certified to train others. Jaeger has made presentations on bullying prevention and social-emotional learning at local, state, regional and national conferences. She currently serves as the treasurer and president-elect of the International Bullying Prevention Association. In 2012, she was given the Iowa School Social Worker of the Year award by the Iowa School Social Workers' Association. During the pandemic, Jaeger stepped up to provide weekly support to teachers and school leaders, checking in with co-workers and sharing self-care practices. Soenksen, a 1972 graduate, returned to Wartburg as a development assistant. He led alumni relations and annual giving efforts before taking on the role of director of the Wartburg Design for Tomorrow. He then served as an associate director of development at the University of Chicago, where he earned his Master of Business Administration. Soenksen went on to lead development or advancement offices at Duke University, Guilford College, St. Olaf College and Wake Forest University, and he has served as a consultant for many other institutions of higher learning. Soenksen has served on many volunteer boards, including Hospice for the Carolinas, Leadership Greensboro, United Way of Northfield, Hospice at Greensboro, National Hospice Foundation, Hospice of Minnesota, Family Life Council and Eastern Music Festival. Nominees for the annual award are reviewed and selected each year by the college's Alumni Board based on their personal and professional application of the college's mission statement pillars: leadership, service, faith and learning. Details about the award and a nomination form are available at www.wartburg.edu/alumni-citation. WATERLOO A historically unopposed legislator will face a competitor in the Nov. 8 election. Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat from Waterloo, and John Bothwell, a Libertarian, are fighting for the Iowa House District 61 seat. No Republicans filed to run. The district covers southern Waterloo. John Bothwell, 33, of Waterloo, is getting his feet wet as a first-time politician. He works at TEAM Builders Limited, in Cedar Falls, as a project consultant. If I ran as a Republican, I wouldve had a heck of a better chance of winning but that doesnt align with my values, he said. Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference into their personal, family and business decisions, according to the partys website. In addition, it says the organization believes Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another. I basically got fed up with Republicans and Democrats, said Bothwell. I didnt feel like we were getting anywhere and people needed a third option to vote for. Thats how I got the idea to run and I havent looked back since. Many of Bothwells stances oppose government overreach. He is against eminent domain and said that access to abortion shouldnt be the governments decision one way or the other. In a difference from some other Libertarians, he is against Gov. Kim Reynolds school vouchers proposal. Lots of people support the vouchers but I dont like to see public money going toward private entities, he said. His pipe dream, he said, is for Iowa not to have an income tax. But the biggest reason hes running is to offset the two party system. You hear a lot of politicians say theyre all about common sense, Bothwell said. The problem is, it seems to fade away once theyre in office. Theyre doing the best for their party rather than the people theyre serving. Brown-Powers, 55, is a therapist at MercyOne Medical Center. She is seeking her fifth term. The political world is a bit toxic right now for various reasons but I have learned down at the statehouse who I can work with and push legislation to move Waterloo forward, she said. I have bipartisan legislation and I, just in the last two years, started to make some gains in that area and I thought that theres more I want to do. She said shes worked with numerous local nonprofits to craft legislation. Some of these include the Grout Museum, House of Hope, Riverview Center and the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. We have a lot of great people in our nonprofits who are doing great, great things, she said. But they could do more if they have support at the state level. Besides focusing on nonprofits, Brown-Powers said if reelected she wants to take a look at the state of Iowas almost $2 billion surplus. We want to continue to have reserves but we have more than we need. We can pull from that savings and look at what programs in Iowa need an extra boost, she said. My colleagues on the other side were really focused on tax cuts and building up that reserve. But that took away from our middle class and our lower middle class folks and prevented some programs from taking off and being productive. Another issue important to her is womens rights. Brown-Powers said she expects thats going to be on the docket pretty early in session. She also wants to explore more legislation around childrens mental health and Iowas private Medicaid system. We are anxious to get back to work, she said. WATERLOO Congresswoman Ashley Hinson spoke at a Waterloo gas station Thursday afternoon about high energy costs and how shed like the country to become energy independent. A couple of dozen people crammed into the Jim Lind Service gas station for a town hall to hear about how the Republican believes President Joe Bidens administration and its Democratic supporters are blocking that from happening. House District 57 race to feature Republican House speaker, Democratic challenger Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford is taking on Democratic challenger Carissa Froyum. Hinson, whos running for re-election against Democrat Liz Mathis, also spoke with customers filling up their vehicles at the pump and how some face challenges with the soaring gas prices. I think of the energy independence as being your super highway, she said. Youve got your on-ramps, thats your permitting and your leasing and your drilling process to get to that. This administration has put up every single road block on that on-ramp, and then they want to fine people for sitting there with their turn signal. She said Democrats have been all over the place on energy policy and contends it is hurting American consumers. Weve been saying, Hey, its not right to say our solution is to buy a really expensive electric vehicle, and then Oh by the way, just a few short days later, say Oh wait, but you cant charge said electric vehicles. Our grid cant do it, Hinson said. An all-of-the-above energy strategy should be supported, she said, with a great renewable energy story to tell here in Iowa and a great bio-fuels industry that we need to be leaning on even more. Hinson said these issue, among others, are whats being decided on Nov. 8 when she faces Mathis who she believes will rubber stamp the Biden agenda. She said its the wrong direction for America to be going in. We need a check on the Biden administration, not only on the checkbook, but on the energy policy, on the border policy, everything were seeing coming out of this administration. ... We cannot afford another two years like the last two. Among the audience, Ron Wheeler of Cedar Falls asked about past bills shes voted on, and how political ads have reflected her voting record. Stephen Crouse of Waterloo also asked for her thoughts on the diesel gas supply. Another woman asked about the carbon pipeline proposed to pass through nearby counties. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and that it is also his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. Xi said the visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward. Xi stressed that China-Germany relations could not have reached today's level without the extraordinary vision and political courage of generations of Chinese and German leaders, mentioning this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. The five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress, he said. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to world peace and development. China will work with Germany for a future-oriented all-round strategic partnership and for new progress in China-Germany and China-Europe relations. Xi briefed Scholz on the 20th CPC National Congress, with a particular focus on the essence of Chinese modernization. He pointed out that modernization is an aspiration and goal shared by people in all countries. That said, countries should choose their paths to modernization in light of their own national realities. Xi said Chinese modernization has elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context, because of China's unique national conditions, because of China's social system and governance philosophy, and because of understanding gained through decades of endeavors toward modernization. The president said China has been upholding and promoting world peace through its own development. In this process, the development of China and that of other countries have become more interconnected and mutually reinforcing. China will stay committed to advancing high-standard opening up, keep to the right direction in economic globalization, promote an open world economy, and expand converging interests with other countries. Xi stressed that political trust is easy to destroy but difficult to rebuild and that it should be nurtured and protected by both sides. He cited a quote which former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt used and which he appreciated, that political leaders should have the serenity to accept the things they cannot change, the courage to change the things they can change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two. "It is important that China and Germany respect each other, accommodate each other's core interests, adhere to dialogue and consultation, and jointly resist disturbance from bloc confrontation and attempts to see everything through the prism of ideology," Xi said. He called on both sides to keep to the overall direction of bilateral ties from a strategic height, pursue the biggest common ground in a constructive manner, and advance practical cooperation with an open mind to create conditions for long-term and steady growth of bilateral ties. "There should be no self-imposed restrictions or unrealistic expectations," Xi said. Noting the high degree of stability and consistency in China's policy toward Germany, he called on Germany to follow a positive China policy for the mutual benefits of both countries. Xi pointed out that over the past five decades, bilateral practical cooperation has kept deepening, with two-way trade growing by almost 1,000 times, serving economic and social development in both countries. "The two sides should make the pie of common interests still bigger," he said, adding that while exploring more cooperation potential in traditional areas, efforts should be made to energize cooperation in emerging fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence and digitalization. China will work with Germany and Europe to further deepen aviation cooperation, conduct exchanges and cooperation on COVID-19, increase interactions and mutual learning on green development and ecological conservation, and encourage more people-to-people exchanges, he said, calling on Germany to join China in resisting protectionism so that the fruitful bilateral cooperation can deliver more benefits to the two peoples. Xi pointed out that China-Europe relations bear on global stability and prosperity in Eurasia and should be maintained and developed with efforts from both sides. Xi said China always regards Europe as a comprehensive strategic partner, supports the strategic autonomy of the European Union and wishes Europe stability and prosperity. China maintains that its relations with Europe are not targeted at, dependent on, or subjected to a third party. The more complex and difficult the situation becomes, the more important it is for China and Europe to uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, dialogue and cooperation, Xi said. "China will work with Germany and with Europe to step up coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly look for solutions for such global issues as climate change, biodiversity and food security." Scholz expressed his pleasure to visit China in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of Germany-China diplomatic relations and have an in-depth discussion with Xi on Germany-China relations and on important issues of mutual interest. He thanked Xi for the update on China's development outlook. He observed that in a complex and grave international landscape, Europe also faces unprecedented challenges. China is playing an important role on many global issues like climate change, biodiversity, COVID-19 response and food crisis. Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security. Scholz said China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole. Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling. Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses. Scholz said on issues where the two countries' positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties. A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously. Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be responsible. Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations. The two leaders also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi reaffirmed China's support for Germany and Europe to play an important role in facilitating peace talks and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe. Under the current circumstances, the international community should support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and call on relevant parties to remain rational and exercise restraint, start direct engagement as quickly as possible, and create conditions for the resumption of talks; oppose the use of or the threat to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used and that nuclear wars must not be fought, and prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia; work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and forestall disruption to international cooperation in energy, food, finance and other areas and consequent damage to global economic recovery, especially the economic and fiscal stability of developing countries; and make joint efforts to tide civilians in areas affected by the crisis through the winter, and improve the humanitarian situation to avoid a humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale. After the meeting, Xi held a banquet for Scholz at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng were present at the events. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Lawyers for a high school French teacher who was fired after he refused to use a transgender student's pronouns argued before the Supreme Court of Virginia Friday that the school violated his constitutional right to speak freely and exercise his religion. An attorney for the school said the teacher violated the school's anti-discrimination policy. Peter Vlaming sued the school board and administrators at West Point High School after he was fired in 2018. Vlaming appealed a lower court's ruling dismissing the lawsuit and asked the Supreme Court to reinstate it. Vlaming's lawsuit was brought by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that has filed six similar lawsuits three in Virginia, and one each in Ohio, Kansas and Indiana. ADF attorney Christopher Schandevel told the high court that Vlaming was not fired for something he said, but for something that he couldn't say. This is a case about compelled speech, he said. Schandevel told the justices that Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by using his masculine name and avoiding the use of pronouns, but the student, his parents and the school told him he was required to use the student's male pronouns. In his lawsuit, Vlaming said he could not use the students pronouns because of his sincerely held religious and philosophical beliefs that each person's sex is biologically fixed and cannot be changed." Vlaming also said he would be lying if he used the student's pronouns. Justice Thomas Mann pushed back against the argument that using the boy's new name but not his pronouns would allow the teacher to avoid discriminating against him. What's the difference? he said. So why is (Vlaming's) right not to lie more important than (the student's) right to basic education and to not be discriminated against, Mann said. Alan Schoenfeld, an attorney who represents the school board and school administrators, said Vlaming's speech was part of his official teaching duties and his refusal to use the student's pronouns clearly violated the anti-discrimination policy. A public school employee is not at liberty to declare that he will not comply with a neutrally applicable policy that is part of his duties as a classroom teacher," he said. Justice Wesley Russell Jr. said that if Vlaming treated all students the same by using their names, but not their pronouns, how does that discriminate? Schoenfeld said it's inevitable that pronouns would come into play in a classroom setting. Vlaming once inadvertently referred to the student as she" in class, but immediately apologized. After the hearing, Vlaming said he had hoped that he and the school board could have come to an agreement. I can disagree with my students without provoking my students. I'm there to teach French, he said. Vlaming said he was unable to get another teaching job in Virginia and eventually moved with his wife and children to France, where he now works as the director of purchasing for a publishing house. The justices did not indicate when they expect to issue a ruling. In another Virginia case filed by the ADF, the state Supreme Court last year affirmed a lower court ruling that required Loudoun County Public Schools to reinstate a teacher who was suspended after he spoke at a school board meeting in opposition to a proposed policy requiring teachers to use the pronouns used by transgender students. Litigation over the school district's policy on pronouns is still pending. In a federal lawsuit filed by the ADF in Ohio, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that Shawnee State University violated the free speech rights of philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether when they disciplined him for refusing to use a transgender student's pronouns. In a settlement, the university agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and Meriwether's legal fees. JOHNSTON The states top elections official says Iowans can rest assured their vote in the Nov. 8 election is safe and secure urging voters to not be swayed by those who would cast doubt upon the election. Republican Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate aimed to ease any concerns Iowa voters may have during a news conference Thursday at the State Emergency Operations Center at Iowa National Guard headquarters. Pate was joined by the directors of the state agencies that cover public safety and disaster and emergency management, as well as National Guard and federal cybersecurity officials. Voters, weve got your back, Pate said during the news conference. You will be able to cast your vote safely, and if anyone tries to impede that process in any way, our friends in law enforcement will deal with them. We have these guys on speed dial. Pate highlighted the operations conducted by his office that, he said, should convince Iowans their votes will be secure and counted accurately. Theres a lot of misinformation and disinformation still floating around out there. So let me remind you of a few things, Pate said. He then noted: Iowans vote on paper ballots. His office conducts preelection audits on every vote-counting machine and postelection audits, both of which are open to the public. Past postelection hand-count audits have yielded the exact same vote counts as the vote-counting machines. The state is requiring two postelection hand-count audits this year, instead of the usual one. The vote-counting machines are not connected to the internet. State laws require an identification while voting and when requesting and submitting an absentee ballot. Do not fall for misinformation or disinformation, Pate said. I cant emphasize enough that the integrity of the vote and the safety of voters are my top priorities. Asked if the added postelection hand-count audit is an attempt to head off any possible legal challenges to Iowas election results, Pate said that was not necessarily the reason. The reason was really more along the lines that there are people who have uneasy feelings about technology. They wanted more of a hands-on, and this was a way to be able to give them some of that assurance, Pate said. Pate, who is facing an election challenge from Democratic Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, has been on a public information campaign in recent months with hopes of limiting doubt in Iowas elections, even as some of his fellow Republicans, including candidates for the Iowa Legislature, continue to question election results. For example, former President Donald Trump was scheduled to host a rally Thursday night in Sioux City, where he will campaign for Iowa Republicans like U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds. The last time he was in Iowa, just more than a year ago, Trump spent roughly a half-hour continuing his widely refuted claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election that he lost to President Joe Biden. Any time someone talks about elections and questions the integrity, it makes our job challenging, Pate said. Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said his agency will monitor and assess digital and physical threats in conjunction with local, state and federal law enforcement partners. He said his agency has already investigating phone scams in which Iowans are being told that they can vote over the phone or online, neither of which is true. Bayens said such scams typically are an effort to steal someones personal information, or sabotage their attempt to vote. Iowans respect and actively exercise the right to vote, and they do so with civility and integrity. We take our responsibility to protect that right seriously, Bayens said. And law enforcement will be aggressive in deterring any criminal effort to compromise our system of government. Election Day is Nov. 8, and the polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Any Iowa resident who is not yet registered to vote can do so at the polls on Election Day. This story has been updated to correct hours the polls are open. *** Today our country celebrates National Unity Day. This significant date is one of the most important holidays for all Russians, for true patriots of our great Motherland. The far-sighted policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin is the key to protecting state interests, as well as the guarantor of the legitimate rights and freedoms of its citizens. Representatives of different peoples and confessions live safely in our state. Every citizen professes his religion, honors his customs, traditions and family values. And today, when danger looms over the Fatherland, hundreds of thousands of valiant defenders are participating in a special military operation in the Donbass and Ukraine. Warriors from all regions of the country courageously fight against Nazism shoulder to shoulder under the state flag of Russia. About 10,000 fighters from the Chechen Republic alone are successfully beating the enemy, ready at any second to sacrifice themselves for the sake of peace and the well-being of our great Russia. Without any doubt, only by joint efforts, united by common goals and objectives, we will be able to deliver a crushing blow to Nazism and defeat it. It is thanks to solidarity that we eradicated international terrorism in the region under the leadership of our First President, Hero of Russia Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov. And in the same way, it was the unity of peoples that became the key to the victory of our ancestors in the Second World War. Who could have imagined that after almost 80 years we would again face the true evil for humanity fascism and Nazism!? As before in its history, Russia is once again at the forefront of this struggle and is fighting the enemy of the entire adequate world. We have no doubt that together we will win. Evil is doomed to perish. We will never allow the fascists to impose their values, rules and conditions on the peoples. Our brothers, the true sons of the Fatherland in the Donbass, are fighting for this, among other things. We are justifiably proud of them! Dear friends, I sincerely congratulate you on National Unity Day! I sincerely wish good health, prosperity, and prosperity to our common home great Russia! I also express my gratitude to dear BROTHER, Minister of the Chechen Republic for national policy, external relations, press and information Akhmed Dudayev @akhmeddudaev, who makes a great contribution to the formation and development of interethnic relations in the Chechen Republic and beyond. Happy holiday! WtR WHY OUR CAUSE IS RIGHT Answers to simple questions on National Unity Day What are we fighting for? Russia is a huge and rich country. We do not need foreign territories, we have everything in abundance. But there is our land, which is sacred to us, on which our ancestors lived and on which our people live today. And which we will not give to anyone. We protect our people. We are fighting for all our people, for our land, for our thousand-year history. Who is fighting against us? We are fighting against those who hate us, who ban our language, our values and even our faith, who spread hatred towards the history of our Fatherland. Against us today is part of a dying world. This is a bunch of crazy Nazi drug addicts, people drugged and intimidated by them, and a large pack of barking dogs from the western kennel. With them is a motley pack of grunting gilts and narrow-minded inhabitants from the collapsed Western empire with saliva flowing down their chins from degeneration. They have no faith and ideals, except for obscene habits invented by them and standards of doublethink implanted by them, denying the morality bestowed on normal people. Therefore, having risen against them, we have acquired sacred power. Where are our old friends? We were abandoned by some frightened partners and do not care about them. So, they were not our friends, but just random fellow travelers, sticky and hangers-on. Cowardly traitors and greedy defectors fell to distant lands let their bones rot in a foreign land. They are not among us, but we have become stronger and cleaner. Why were we silent for a long time? We were weak and devastated by timelessness. And now we have shaken off the sticky dream and the dreary haze of the last decades, into which the death of the former Fatherland plunged us. Other countries awaited our awakening, raped by the masters of darkness, slave owners and oppressors who dream of their monstrous colonial past and yearn to maintain their power over the world. Many countries do not believe their nonsense for a long time, but are still afraid of them. Soon they will wake up completely. And when the rotten world order collapses, it will bury all its arrogant priests, bloodthirsty adepts, mocking servants and dumb mankurts under a multi-ton pile of its debris. What is our weapon? Weapons are different. We have the opportunity to send all enemies to the fiery Gehenna, but this is not our task. We listen to the words of the Creator in our hearts and obey them. These words give us a sacred purpose. The goal is to stop the supreme ruler of hell, no matter what name he uses Satan, Lucifer or Iblis. For his goal is death. Our goal is life. His weapon is an intricate lie. And our weapons are Truth. That is why our cause is right. That is why victory will be ours! Happy Holidays! Medvedev WtR November 4 #ThisDay is National Unity Day The Day of Military Glory of the Russian Federation, established by the Federal Law of December 29, 2004. National Unity Day was established in memory of the events of 1612, when the peoples militia led by the village headman Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky liberated Moscow from the Polish interventionists. The great historical victory won surrounded the heroes of the battle for Moscow with an aura of eternal glory for the liberators of Moscow from the Poles in the fierce time of the Time of Troubles. Since those years, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and the Nizhny Novgorod townsman Kuzma Minin have become for Russia a symbol of selfless service to the Fatherland, its national heroes. @mod_russia WtR For a while, Megapower Star Ram Charan was busy in Japan promoting the blockbuster RRR in the country there along with Rajamouli and NTR. After this, the star actor traveled to Africa to spend some quality time. The actor was accompanied by his better half Upasana. Today Upasana shared a lovely pic with Charan from the Africa trip. The couple looks adorable and can be seen enjoying their vacation in this beautiful image. Fans were pretty delighted to see the couple and started to shower their love through likes and comments. On the work front, Ram Charan is currently working with sensational director Shankar for a political thriller that is yet to be named. Charan will soon join the new schedule, which will be happening in New Zealand. Articles that might interest you: We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form More than 105,000 Washoe County residents have so far early voted for Tuesday's General Election. Early voting ends on Friday across Nevada. Most poll locations say they will stay open until 7 p.m. to give early voters a little more time. There are more than a dozen spots to cast your ballot in Washoe County. After Friday, the next chance to vote in person will be on Election Day. Here in Nevada - we likely won't have final results that night. We do not post results until every voter in the state of Nevada has voted and we get the all clear from Secretary of State office that we can begin posting preliminary results. They are preliminary we will still be processing votes early voting, mail ballots and in person election day will be included in that, says Jamie Rodriguez, Interim Registrar of Voters. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by the Registrar of Voters within four days after Election Day to be counted. The county says about 105,000 people have voted early which is a turnout of 35%. Of those early votes, almost 58% were mail-in ballots. Results are preliminary until the canvass of the vote on November 18th. Iran is marking the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as its theocracy faces nationwide protests after the death of a 22-year-old woman earlier arrested by the countrys morality police Theres a reason Michael Connelly has been a fixture on the bestseller list for decades: The former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times consistently pens smart, fast-paced detective stories with an insiders knowledge of the citys seamier side. His new novel, Desert Star (on sale Nov. 8), features his best-known character, Harry Bosch, the Los Angeles police detective who inspired the popular Amazon Prime TV series Bosch and its 2022 spin-off Bosch: Legacy. Its the fourth book where Bosch teams up with fellow detective Renee Ballard, whos now handling cold cases. Despite some tension between the two, formed during a previous investigation (see 2021s The Dark Hours), Ballard invites Bosch to help her solve a case thats haunted him for years. Together they set out to find the elusive killer who once murdered an entire family. Enjoy this first chapter from Desert Star, courtesy of Little, Brown and Company. Bosch had the pills lined up on the table ready to go. He was pouring water from the bottle into the glass when the doorbell rang. He sat at the table, thinking he would let it go. His daughter had a key and never knocked, and he wasnt expecting anyone. It had to be a solicitor or a neighbor, and he didnt know any of his neighbors anymore. The neighborhood seemed to change over every few years, and after more than three decades of it, he had stopped meeting and greeting newcomers. He actually enjoyed being the cranky old ex-cop in the neighborhood whom people were afraid to approach. But then the second ring was accompanied by a voice calling his name. It was a voice he recognized. Harry, I know youre in there. Your cars out front. He opened the drawer under the tabletop. It contained plastic utensils, napkins, and chopsticks from takeout bags. With his hand he swept the pills into the drawer and closed it. He then got up and went to the door. Renee Ballard stood on the front step. Bosch had not seen her in almost a year. She looked thinner than he remembered. He could see where her blazer had bunched over the sidearm on her hip. Harry, she said. You cut your hair, he said.A while ago, yeah.What are you doing up here, Renee?She frowned as though she had expected a warmer reception. But Bosch didnt know why she would have after the way things had ended last year. Finbar, she said.What? he said.You know what. Finbar McShane.What about him?Hes still out there. Somewhere. You want to try to make a case with me, or do you want to just stand on your anger? What are you talking about?If you let me in, I can tell you.Bosch hesitated but then stepped back and held up an arm, grudgingly signaling her to enter.Ballard walked in and stood near the table where Bosch had just been sitting.No music? Ballard asked.Not today, Bosch said. So, McShane?She nodded, understanding that she had to get to the point. They put me in charge of cold cases, Harry.Last I heard, the Open-Unsolved Unit was canceled. Disbanded because it wasnt as important as putting uniforms on the street. Thats true, but things change. The department is under pressure to work cold cases. You know who Jake Pearlman is, right? Harold Radish, 97 Nathaniel Welch Radish is a retired junior high school shop teacher living in Douglaston, New York. I was 18 when I was drafted into the Army in 1943. I thought that nothing could go wrong; I never felt that I could be killed or wounded. The whole country was psyched up for the war, and you could see it and feel it in the movies, on the radio. I got to my first camp in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and I liked it very much. You had your duties. You ate well. Being Jewish and coming from a kosher home was a little bit of a problem. I asked my rabbi what to do and the rabbi said, You eat, but dont lick your fingers. In other words: Eat but dont enjoy it. I went across the Atlantic and joined the 90th Division of the 3rd Army just after D-Day. I was in the Battle of the Bulge. [Later] we were going through the Siegfried Line, which was a fortification on the French and German border. The Germans had set it up. Our duty was to go in the middle of the night and take over a pillbox [a concrete bunker]. Just blow the door off, get in and hold it, and then we could fire from that the next day so that the troops could work their way forward. One night we got trapped in a bunker, and the Germans kept us there until we ran out of food and water. About the fifth day, we had to give up. I was captured. Our dog tags had our religion on them. This was so that, if you got killed or wounded, the Army would know the proper ceremony for you. Mine had an H stamped on it, for Hebrew. By this time, Hitlers Final Solution was well known to the world. Before I got captured, I got rid of my dog tag. Naturally, I was terrified. During the interrogation at the prison camp in Germany, they asked me my name, rank, what outfit I was with, and how many men were in that outfit. This guy looked at me and said, Radish. Radish. What kind of name is that? I realized what he was gunning for. I said, Its a vegetable. Tastes like pepper. He laughed, and that was it. In this camp, all we had was a cup and a blanket. I used to talk to the Germans in Yiddish, because they could understand some of that, but these German guards didnt know what Yiddish was. Then, one day, I spoke Yiddish to a guy who turned out to be an SS guard. I said to him, Vi lang?which means, how long? He looked at me and screamed, Youre the Jew! Wall Street! You started the war! And he rapped me on my arm. Each morning we got a loaf of bread maybe 8 or 10 inches long. That had to be sliced up for 12 guys. We had a deck of cards and wed all pick one. The guy who got the high card got the job of slicing the bread. Everybody looked to him to make sure every slice was the same thickness, and the slicer got to keep the crumbs. That was extra for him. The Germans sometimes brought around barrels of what they called soup. It was just hot water and, occasionally, some vegetables. We did get Red Cross packages, and in there you had juice, powdered milk and cigarettes. I found out that if I gave a guard two cigarettes, he would give me an apple. I was there for about four months, and I lost about 30 pounds. One of the worst parts was the lice. Youd wake in the morning and take your clothes off and try to get rid of all the insects. That was just miserable. One night, the German guards came into our barracks and said, The British are out there! You are not to go outside! The next morning, we woke up and there wasnt a German in sight. When we were liberated by the British, the first thing they did was take all our clothes and burn them, and they sheared off our hair like we were sheep. They brought in these wagons with hot noodles and other things to eat. We got British uniforms. We ended up in a camp near Le Havre called Lucky Strike named after the cigarettes. When I got back to New York, I went straight to a phone booth and called my mother. She said, My God! Hes alive! Apparently, the Army had sent her a telegram telling her I was missing in action, and she had gotten no news since. When I finally saw her, I couldnt believe my eyes. When I had left for the war, she was this vivacious dark-haired housewife. Now, she looked like a broken gray-haired woman. She was sick with worry, because of that telegram. It took months before she was herself again. I consider myself lucky. I made it out of Europe alive. Not everybody did. PORTALES, N.M. The city of Portales will be without water until a leak in the 24-inch main water line can be repaired, authorities said Thursday. City crews found the leak overnight and were working to fix the problem, but officials said there was no immediate timetable for the repairs to be completed. Portales officials said city offices and schools were closed Thursday along with Eastern New Mexico University. Authorities said non-potable water was available at the Portales Fire Department Station 1. They say people will need to bring their own container to fill up and each household was limited to five gallons. The Albuquerque Police Department has busted up an alleged chop shop found near the airport and arrested the man police say was running it marking the first time its detectives have charged someone under a new state law. A bill signed into law in March makes operating a chop shop a third-degree felony. The chop shop bill is something that law enforcement had brought to the Legislature several years ago, state Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, said during a news conference at APD headquarters Thursday. Its exciting that after a number of years, we were able to pass the chop shop (legislation) in a bipartisan manner as part of the comprehensive crime package. Police Chief Harold Medina said a search of the property discovered three engines from stolen vehicles and 12 stolen vehicles. Of those, seven had been stolen in the past six weeks. Lebardo Rascon-Olivas, 48, is charged with seven counts of receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles, receiving or possessing stolen property, tampering with evidence and operating a chop shop. He was booked into the county jail. Its unclear who his attorney will be and his family did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal. Its kind of like drugs somebody with individual amounts would be charged with possession (and) somebody with large amounts would be charged with distribution, Medina said, explaining the new law. This is kind of like the distribution version of stolen motor vehicles. Medina said between 10% and 15% of cars stolen in the city have not been recovered and police assume they have been disassembled and sold off in parts. A lot of figures will tell you that youll actually make more money from a car thats been disassembled and sold in parts than trying to sell a stolen car as a whole, Medina said. It is a very lucrative profession. Last week, an undercover auto theft detective spotted a stolen truck and followed it for about three miles to a fenced-in lot on Williams SE, near University and Sunport. According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, the detective watched a woman walk through the lot wheeling a dolly carrying three catalytic converters that appeared to have been cut off from different vehicles. The detectives conducted surveillance on the property for a couple of days before executing a search warrant Wednesday. Thats when they found more than 100 vehicles and engines, 15 of which had been reported stolen. We know at least 15 victims in the city of Albuquerque who lost their motor vehicle, Medina said. We sometimes dont realize the impact that a lost vehicle has on a family who mainly has one means of transportation. Rascon-Olivas told detectives he was a mechanic working on the vehicles and someone else had brought a stolen truck to the lot and was cutting it apart. However, the detectives wrote in the complaint that he had reason to believe Lebardo knew or should have known that the numerous amount of parts, and vehicles located on his property were stolen. In response to questions about other suspects, Medina said the investigation is ongoing. High rates of auto theft had been a black eye on the city for years, but they had started to decrease recently. However, auto theft rose in 2021 again. Rep. Marian Matthews, who sponsored the bill along with Dixon, said the recent case has accomplished two important things. First of all, somebodys going to be held accountable. The person whos charged, assuming hes found guilty, is going to be held accountable for having broken the law, the Albuquerque Democrat said. And the second thing is it sends a message that if you break this law, there are going to be consequences, you can be caught. Hopefully what it will do is deter crime and reduce the amount of auto theft thats happening in our community. BEIJING In a much-scrutinized meeting Friday with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear. Scholz was in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over Chinas tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip. It comes after Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month and as China continues to refuse to criticize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Scholzs visit reflects the importance of Germanys trade ties with China, the worlds second-largest economy, particularly in the auto and manufacturing sectors. Mercedes Benz alone sold 758,863 cars in China last year, more than in any other country. Scholz, who traveled with several top German business leaders, received a formal welcome from Xi, who was recently reappointed head of the ruling Communist Party for a third term, at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. At present, the international situation is complex and changeable, Xi was quoted as telling Scholz by state broadcaster CCTV. As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development. On Ukraine, Xi pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and promoting the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework, CCTV reported. That was apparently a nod to Russias anger over NATOs eastern expansion. The international community should create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, Xi said. Scholz is the first leader from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations to meet with Xi since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China in 2019, and the first European leader to visit China since Russias invasion of Ukraine, which Germany has strongly opposed. The diplomatically delicate trip came as Germany and the European Union are working on their strategy toward an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China. Meanwhile on Friday, G-7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises. Beijing has provided Moscow with diplomatic backing by repeatedly calling for peace talks while refusing to support measures at the United Nations criticizing Russias invasion. It has also accused the U.S. and NATO of provoking the attack and scathingly criticized economic sanctions imposed on Russia. In his opening remarks, Scholz referred directly to the conflict that has created millions of refugees and upended world food and energy markets, saying, We come together at a time of great tension. In particular, I want to highlight the Russian war against Ukraine, which poses many problems for our rules-based world order, Scholz said. Scholz also touched on global hunger, climate change and developing-world debt as important issues. At a later news conference, Scholz said he told Xi that its important for China to exert its influence on Russia. He gave no details on what the West wanted China to do. President Xi and I agree that nuclear threats are irresponsible and highly dangerous. By using nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line that the international community has drawn together, he said. Scholz also said he brought up human rights and market access, and told Xi that any change in the status of self-governing Taiwan can only happen peacefully and by mutual agreement. China claims the island republic as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. In an apparent reference to European lawmakers and the Baltic state of Lithuania that China has banned and boycotted over their relations with Taiwan, Scholz said, It is also important to be clear that economic measures against individual EU member states are directed against the entire EU single market, and sanctions against EU lawmakers are not acceptable for us. Scholz has come under criticism for making the visit to China so soon after Xis triumph at last months congress, at which he promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the economy and a more confrontational approach to the West. The visit is also occurring amid rising tensions over Taiwan and follows a U.N. report that said Chinese human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in its Xinjiang region may amount to crimes against humanity. Scholz was accompanied by about a dozen top German business leaders, including the CEOs of Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Bayer and Deutsche Bank, most of which are doing a thriving business in China. That has some German observers questioning whether the country is becoming overly reliant on the Chinese market, just as it did with Russia for energy supplies. VWs China head, Ralf Brandstatter, said Scholzs visit was important during politically and economically challenging times like these. China is Germanys most important trading partner, with 5,000 German companies active in the country and hundreds of thousands of German jobs tied to the Chinese market. More than 14 million jobs in China depend on business with European companies, Brandstatter said. Scholz also met with Premier Li Keqiang, who nominally has responsibility over Chinas economy. At home, some have criticized Scholz for normalizing Chinas behavior. While his nearly year-old government has signaled a departure from predecessor Angela Merkels firmly trade-first approach, his trip follows domestic discord over a Chinese shipping companys major investment in a container terminal in Germanys crucial port of Hamburg. With China still imposing tough COVID-19 restrictions, his delegation moved in an anti-virus bubble, undergoing testing and not staying in Beijing overnight. At just 11 hours, it is the shortest trip ever to China by a German leader. German officials say the trip sought to probe where China is going and what forms of cooperation are possible. ___ Associated Press reporter Geir Moulson contributed to this story from Berlin. KYIV, Ukraine Russian soldiers are forcing Ukrainian civilians from their apartments in the occupied capital of the Kherson region and moving in themselves, a resident said Friday as the southern city became a growing focus of war in Ukraine. His account of soldiers spreading throughout the city of Kherson suggested that Russia could be preparing for intense urban warfare in anticipation of Ukrainian advances. Russia-installed authorities in Kherson continued to urge civilians to leave the city, which lies on the western bank of the Dnieper River and has been cut off from supplies and food by Ukrainian bombardment. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the regions Kremlin-appointed administration, reiterated calls for civilians to depart for the other bank of the river. Stremousov said Thursday that Russian forces might soon withdraw from Kherson city. On Friday, he said the statement was merely an attempt to encourage evacuations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson in order to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle. Zelenskyy called attempts to convince civilians to move deeper into Russian-controlled territory theater. A Kherson resident told The Associated Press that Russian soldiers were installing themselves in vacated apartments. Russian military personnel were going door to door, checking property deeds and forcing tenants to leave immediately if they cant prove ownership of apartments, he said. Theyre forcing city residents to evacuate, and then Russian soldiers move into freed-up apartments across all of Kherson, the resident, who spoke on condition that only his first name Konstantin was used for security reasons. It is obvious that they are preparing for fighting the Ukrainian army in the city. Hospitals and clinics were not serving patients in Kherson, where residents also reported problems with food supplies. There are almost no deliveries of food into the city, the residents are using their own stocks and are queuing to the few shops that are still open, Konstantin said. Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told the AP that as part of its counteroffensive to reclaim the Kherson region, the Ukrainian army cut off the western bank of the Dnieper from supplies of weapons and food by shelling main transportation routes and ruining bridges across the river. The Russians understand the danger of transport routes being blocked and have practically put up with the fact that they will have to retreat from the right bank of the Dnieper, Zhdanov said. But the Russian troops are not prepared to leave Kherson peacefully and are preparing for battles within the city. Theyre deploying the mobilized reservists there and new tactical battalion groups. According to Zhdanov, the Ukrainian army has a significant advantage over the Russians in aviation and artillery on the right bank, which means that they could shell the city of Kherson and avoid a head-on clash. Kyiv is taking its time because the Russian resources in Kherson are evaporating, and theyre getting weaker by the day, which allows the Ukrainians to accumulate forces for the main strike, Zhdanov said. Russian forces seized Kherson city soon after invading Ukraine in late February. Russia illegally annexed the Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine in late September and subsequently declared martial law in the four provinces. The Kremlin-installed regional administration in Kherson already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city, citing the threat of increased shelling as Ukraines army pursues its counteroffensive. Ukraines southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, told Ukrainian television that some Russian military personnel were disguising themselves as civilians. Neither sides claims could be independently verified. Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported shooting down drones launched by Russian forces: eight drones in the Nikopol area, which was also subjected to shelling, and another drone over the western Lviv region. The commander of Ukraines armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Russian forces had tripled the intensity of hostilities on certain areas of the front and were carrying out up to 80 attacks every day. Zelenskyys office said at least nine civilians were killed and 16 wounded by attacks in Ukraine in the last day. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that there was still a steady stream of volunteers wanting to join the Russian military, with 318,000 people already mobilized. Authorities previously said the goal was to mobilize some 300,000 reservists. Putin said 49,000 were already in the army on combat missions, while the rest were still being trained. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that 87,000 were deployed to Ukraine. The discrepancy could not be reconciled. When Russia announced the mobilization drive in September, protests erupted in several regions and tens of thousands of Russians fled the country. Putin also signed a law Friday permitting the military mobilization of those with expunged or outstanding convictions, including those who have recently served time for murder, robbery and drug trafficking. On the Black Sea grain corridor, Russia agreed Wednesday to rejoin a wartime agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets through it. Moscow had suspended its participation in the grain deal over the weekend, citing an alleged drone attack against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. The Ukrainian Armed Forces said the functioning of grain corridors continues Friday. As a condition for returning to the deal, Russia has demanded the grain be sent to poorer countries, arguing that most of it was ending up in richer nations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he had discussed the issue of prioritizing less developed countries for the grain shipments during a call with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Erdogan said he also discussed the possibility of sending the grain to nations facing famine for free, during a recent call with Putin, and the two planned further talks at a Group of 20 meeting in Bali this month. ___ Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine BHANINE, Lebanon Shadia Ahmed panicked as rainwater flooded her shack one night, drenching her seven children. The next morning, the kids were seized by vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms. After an aid group administered tests for cholera in Ahmeds Syrian refugee encampment in the northern Lebanese town of Bhanine, her youngest, 4-year-old Assil, tested positive. Cholera has swept across Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq as the countries struggle with devastated infrastructure, turmoil and housing large populations of people who have been displaced by conflict. Lebanon last month reported the first cholera case in nearly 30 years. The bacterial infection has surged globally across dozens of countries this year, with outbreaks in Haiti and across the Horn of Africa as well as the Mideast. The outbreaks of hundreds of thousands of cases driven by conflict, poverty, and climate change are a major setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease. Cholera thrives in poverty and conflict but is now turbocharged by climate change, said Inas Hamam, a regional spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. Regional and global health security is in jeopardy. Anti-cholera efforts focus on vaccination, clean water and sanitation. Last month, WHO announced the temporary suspension of a two-dose vaccination strategy because production couldnt meet surging demand. Officials are now administering single doses so that more people can benefit from the vaccine in the short term. A cholera infection is caused by consuming food or water infected with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. While most cases are mild to moderate, cholera can cause death if its not treated correctly. I would spend the whole night taking her to the bathroom, giving her medication, washing and sterilizing her, Ahmed, 33, said of Assil, her child who got cholera. I couldnt sleep, and was up all night just looking at her. I feared the worst. Assil and her siblings eventually got better; she was the only confirmed cholera case in the family. Across the border in Syria, officials and U.N. agencies announced last month that a cholera outbreak was sweeping the entire country. The outbreak in Syria is due to people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River and using contaminated water to irrigate crops, according to the U.N. and the Syrian Health Ministry. In the government-held areas of Syria and in the countrys northeast, held by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces, there have since been roughly 17,000 cases of cholera and 29 deaths. In the rebel-held Idlib province of Syria, most of the 4 million residents are displaced from the conflict. They depend on international aid and live in tent camps. Over half of Idlib does not have regular access to water. Many families use polluted water from wells that are close to sewage. There have been 3,104 cholera cases and five deaths in Idlib province. Dr. Abdullah Hemeidi of the Syrian American Medical Society anticipates a surge this winter. The health care system in the area is weak, Hemeidi said. Medical organizations and local councils are trying to sanitize water and they are holding workshops to limit the spread. In the Salaheddine camp in the opposition-held countryside northwest of Aleppo, children play near sewage. Community workers hold awareness sessions for residents. Were worried it will spread in our camp, resident Jamil Latfo said. Iraq has struggled with cholera outbreaks for years. In Lebanon, the disease was rare for decades. Three years ago, Lebanon fell into an economic crisis. Most Lebanese now rely on water trucked in by private suppliers, and private generators for electricity. Utilities cant buy fuel and pump water into households. Since last month, Lebanon has reported 2,421 cases and 18 deaths. About a quarter of these cases are children under the age of five. The Vibrio cholerae bacteria has been found in drinking-water, sewer systems, and irrigation water. The country hosts more than a million Syrian refugees. Most cases of cholera have been detected in refugee camps, Lebanons Health Ministry says. In Bhanine, Ahmed and her children are tucked between apartment buildings, along with dozens of other Syrian refugees. The families live in weak wooden shacks with tarp walls and ceilings. They share three toilets and three sinks. Like most households in Lebanon, camp residents buy water trucked in by private suppliers. The state does not test the water for safety. The water was contaminated but we had no choice but to use it, resident Ali Hamadi said. There was no drinking water, let alone water to clean, wash the dishes, wash our clothes or for the shower. U.N. aid agencies started providing clean water for the camp, while disinfecting walls and doors and holding information sessions. Theyre also donating fuel to the Lebanese government so that authorities can pump water again. The support we offer cannot replace the service lines and the national electricity grid, which is basically not functioning most of the time, said Ettie Higgins, deputy representative for Lebanon of the U.N. childrens agency, UNICEF. WHO has been working with Iraqi health authorities to help bolster their cholera response, visiting water-treatment plants and testing laboratories in Baghdad last month. UNICEF said it urgently needs $40.5 million to continue its work in Lebanon and Syria for the next three months. These camps are fertile ground for the outbreak of an illness, said Hemeidi, of the Syrian American Medical Society. We wont be able to properly respond to it unless there is an intervention with medical equipment and aid. ___ Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Ghaith Alsayed in Idlib, Syria, contributed to this report. WASHINGTON Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes took the witness stand Friday in his seditious conspiracy trial, telling jurors he is a patriotic American as he tries to counter allegations that his far-right extremist group planned an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power. Rhodes mostly appeared relaxed, but at times seemed to choke up, as he began his testimony after prosecutors spent weeks laying out evidence they say proves Rhodes was behind a violent plot to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House and Republican Donald Trump in. Rhodes decision to testify carries risks for him, opening the way for intense cross-examination from prosecutors, who will get a chance to question him after the trial resumes next week. Rhodes has yet to get into the details of Jan. 6, when his followers pushed through a mob of Trump supporters to storm the Capitol in military-style stack formation. Rhodes, wearing a dark suit and tie, faced jurors as he described his military experience and decision to start the Oath Keepers in 2009. Rhodes, whose stint as an Army paratrooper was cut short by a training accident, said he considers himself a patriotic person. You love your country? Rhodes attorney asked him. Absolutely, Rhodes responded. Rhodes portrayed the Oath Keepers as peaceful and disciplined despite a mountain of evidence showing him rallying his band of extremists to prepare for violence and discussing the prospect of a bloody civil war ahead of Jan. 6. Asked whether he believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, Rhodes falsely described Bidens victory as unconstitutional and invalid. You really cant have a winner of an unconstitutional election, Rhodes said. Rhodes trial is the biggest test so far for the Justice Departments efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Capitol, a violent assault that challenged the foundations of American democracy. Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, and his co-defendants are the first people arrested in the Jan. 6 attack to stand trial on the charge of seditious conspiracy. The Civil War-era charge, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years behind bars upon conviction, is rarely brought and can be hard to prove. The others on trial are Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia; and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group. Over a month of testimony, prosecutors sought to show that the riot for the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but part of a serious, weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power. Rhodes attorneys have signaled they will mount a novel defense with Trump at the center. Rhodes is expected to argue that his actions leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, were in anticipation of orders he expected from Trump. Those orders never came. Jurors have heard that Rhodes spent thousands of dollars on guns, ammunition and other equipment before Jan. 6, and that Oath Keepers stashed a massive cache of weapons referred to as a quick reaction force at a Virginia hotel. The weapons were never deployed. In a meeting with another man days after the riot, Rhodes was secretly recorded saying the Oath Keepers should have brought rifles on Jan. 6. We should have fixed it right then and there. Id hang (expletive) Pelosi from the lamppost, Rhodes said, referring to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On the stand Friday, Rhodes described Oath Keepers events in the fall of 2020 before the election. After the election, he issued a call to action for the Million MAGA March in Washington on Nov. 14. Oath Keepers provided security for event speakers and Trump supporters who asked for their help, Rhodes said. Rhodes said the Oath Keepers provided security at Trump rallies, with unarmed members inside the security perimeter and armed members on standby outside to escort Trump supporters and protect them from possible attacks from antifa activists. He tripped up at one point when discussing protests, some which turned violent, after George Floyds 2020 killing. Rhodes said he supports their right to riot before quickly correcting himself to say he supports their right to protest, not riot. Rhodes got emotional at times during his testimony. He appeared to choke up as he recalled watching the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack unfold on TV while he was a student at Yale Law School, and as he talked about how military veterans often come home and struggle to find a new purpose for their lives. The portrayal of the Oath Keepers as disciplined contrasts with testimony on Thursday about Rhodes leadership during the Million MAGA March in November of 2020. Watkins fiance, Montana Siniff, described it as very disorganized and told jurors he did not himself return to Washington on Jan. 6 in part because he did not want to repeat that experience. Prosecutors say Rhodes began plotting to overturn Bidens victory as early as November 2020. Messages shown to jurors show him calling on his followers to fight to defend Trump and keep Biden out of the White House at all costs. However, defense attorneys say there was no plan to attack the Capitol. The Oath Keepers say they were in Washington on Jan. 6 not to stop the certification of Bidens win but to provide security for right-wing figures such as Roger Stone. Their attorneys argue the Oath Keepers regularly had a quick reaction force for events but the weapons were meant to be used only to defend against attacks or if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act. Rhodes attorneys have said that his defense will focus on his belief that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act to call up a militia and put down what the extremist group leader viewed as a coup by Democrats. Rhodes repeatedly called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, but Trump never did. Rhodes lawyers say he cannot be found guilty of seditious conspiracy because he was merely lobbying Trump to invoke the law, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary and what qualifies as military force. Prosecutors are expected to highlight messages they say show that Rhodes was using the Insurrection Act as legal cover and was prepared to act regardless of what Trump did. In one message in December 2020, Rhodes wrote that Trump needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will. ___ Follow the APs coverage related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege. A dog eats a dish at the Dogue restaurant in San Francisco, Sunday Oct. 23, 2022. Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, just opened up in the city's Mission District. For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course "bone appetite" meal featuring dishes like chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartar with quail egg. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) CORRECTS DATE TO SUNDAY OCT. 23, 2022 - A pedestrian walks his dog by Dogue, a dog restaurant in San Francisco, Sunday Oct. 23, 2022. Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, just opened up in the city's Mission District. For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course "bone appetite" meal featuring dishes like chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartar with quail egg. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) CORRECTS DATE TO SUNDAY, OCT. 23, 2022 - A menu for a multi-course menu is displayed at the Dogue restaurant for dogs in San Francisco, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, just opened up in the city's Mission District. For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course "bone appetite" meal featuring dishes like chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartar with quail egg. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) A dog eats a dish at the Dogue restaurant in San Francisco, Sunday Oct. 23, 2022. Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, just opened up in the city's Mission District. For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course "bone appetite" meal featuring dishes like chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartar with quail egg. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) Prev 1 of 4 Next SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco is a foodie heaven with plenty of Michelin-starred restaurants. And San Franciscans love dogs. So, it might come as no surprise that an entrepreneur has decided to combine the two passions, creating whats believed to be the first restaurant exclusively for mans best friend. Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, opened recently in the citys trendy Mission District. For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course meal featuring such dishes as chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartare with quail egg. It also includes a mimosa and a baked treat for the pups human. Rahmi Massarweh, a dog owner and classically trained chef, decided to leave his stressful job running a fine dining restaurant to focus on his new canine cafe. Some critics have expressed online outrage over the price point for the pampered pets, pointing out income inequality, gentrification and homelessness in the city. For the cost of the tasting menu, you could buy at least five big burritos at one of the many nearby taquerias in the Mission neighborhood. But Massarweh says that, since opening a month ago, hes received overwhelming support from his customers, who appreciate having a place to pamper their pups. On a recent Sunday, Dogue hosted three fur baby birthday parties simultaneously. I wanted to celebrate him. He is so special to me. Hes my four-legged child and this is the perfect place to do a really nice celebration, Gledy Espinoza said, as her 11-year-old miniature dachshund Mason enjoyed a bowl of mushroom soup with slices of chicken breast. Were foodies. I guess he is too, now. Massarweh spends hours cooking and prepping for his service and says a similar menu for people could cost up to $500 in the expensive city and the ingredients he uses are not cheap. Everything is human-grade, although, if you took a bite, youd probably find the doggie dishes to be a bit bland for the human palate. When we make our food, it is a process. It is very time-consuming. There is a lot of technique. Theres a lot of method and detail to what we do, he said. Our pastries, for example, take about two days on average to make. I know theyre going to be eaten in two seconds. Massarweh said the real goal of Dogue is to raise awareness about feeding your dog fresh, healthy, natural ingredients, which some research shows can be easier on your pups stomach than mass-produced dog food, and making dog parents happy. Ive worked in restaurants for many years, and its rare when, as a chef, I walk into the dining room to touch tables and every single guest has a smile on their face, Massarweh said. Theres something very unique and satisfying about that. Ten weeks after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, condemning 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. The government built 10 large, barbed-wire camps and dozens of similar installations west of the Mississippi. From March 1942 to March 1946, young and old lived crowded together in the hastily built camps, enduring poor living conditions and under the constant gaze of military guards. In the meantime, 33,000 Japanese American men risked their lives fighting for the U.S. Four of the camps were in New Mexico. The New Mexico History Museum is hosting Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II, a traveling exhibition from the National Museum of American History, adapted by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The show will run through Dec. 31. Righting a Wrong examines immigration, prejudice, civil rights, heroism and what it means to be an American. The exhibition explores this complex history through photographs, personal stories and objects from those imprisoned at the camps. A duffle bag used by the Imada family when they were relocated to the Gila River camp in Arizona reveals the edict to bring only what they could carry. Takeo Shirasawas 1943 high school diploma from the Poston camp in Arizona exemplifies the experience of thousands of teenagers forced to finish high school in the camps. The New Mexico Japanese internment camps were located in Santa Fe, Fort Stanton, Lordsburg and the Old Raton Ranch in Lincoln County. The largest, the Santa Fe camp, jailed more than 4,500 prisoners between March 1942 and April 1946. More than 30,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. Armys 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on the battlefields in Europe and Asia, even while many of their parents and other family members were held in incarceration camps. (Courtesy of The National Archives) Pledging allegiance to the flag at Raphael Weill Public School in San Francisco, 1942, Dorothea Lange. (Courtesy of The National Archives) Jim Kurisu and Setsuko (Eunice) Yokata met on a blind date in Chicago while both were taking work-leave from Jerome camp in Arkansas. (Courtesy of Eunice B. Kurisu) President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing an apology and $20,000 to the living Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. (Courtesy of Eric Federing) Prev 1 of 5 Next Curator Cathy Notarnicola borrowed a Jerry West painting of the Santa Fe camp from the New Mexico Museum of Art. A 2009 oil on canvas, it shows an areal view of the site from a hill, the buildings set in rows like dice, complete with barbed wire and prison guards. His father was a prison guard during World War II, Notarnicola said. Jerry West used to visit his father at the internment camp. There was fear that there would be more attacks and that Japanese American citizens were a threat, Notarnicola continued. There was already anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. There was one man who died in the camps who had been (in the U.S.) for 39 years. It was pure racism. The exhibition shows what it was like to be rounded up and forced to leave everything you knew. You had maybe a couple days notice, Notarnicola said. You had a short time to get rid of your house and business. People either sold everything or left everything behind. You lost everything. They all had to wear ID tags, as shown in Dorothea Langes 1942 photograph of the Mochida family, who were forced to abandon their two-acre nursery and greenhouse operation in California. The exhibit also showcases items made in the camps a walking stick carved from a cactus branch, an ashtray fashioned from a tin can, a corsage made of shells to resemble flowers. Some 40 years later, members of the Japanese American community led the nation to confront the wrong it had done. The U.S. Congress formally recognized that the rights of the Japanese American community had been violated and President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing an apology and $20,000 in restitution to the living Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during World War II. It doesnt talk about what people experienced when they left the camp, Notarnicola said. There was still anti-Asian discrimination. They had trouble finding jobs and housing. One rental house sign read No Japs. Risolana is providing Albuquerque with a unique style of art. The company is the first studio to use a risograph printer in New Mexico, according to co-founder Michael Lopez. He, along with Karl Orozco, decided to invest in a printer after not being able to locate one for their own respective projects. We were looking for a risograph print shop and I said I dont think theres one in Albuquerque, Lopez explained. I then said I have some unrestricted funding, and he said, Lets do this. Lopez and Orozco started Risolana in 2021. Both being artists, they set out to offer a community-based print shop, settling in a small shared space in the Social Enterprise Center corridor of the South Valley. Lopez said, Imagine a boardroom with a big table and a bunch of rolling chairs, and then on the walls you have a bunch of really beautiful, colorful prints made by people in the community. The risograph takes a digital or scanned image to create a stencil which can produce large quantities of a project. Starting with a black and white or grayscale image, the printer uses layers, working with a large drum of one color at a time. This allows artists to explore different hues, blends and textures. In addition to placing a unique style of printing into the community, it was also a goal of Lopez and Orozco to provide a space for artists to showcase their work, so they began the Risolana Artist-in-Residence book program. Artists should be supported and allowed to create what they want, Lopez said. We are offering a residency that is very specific. Im a firm believer in if you like somebodys work, and you have the resources to support it, support it. Starting Nov. 11, artist Lena Kassicieh, who instantly sparked something within both Lopez and Orozco, will hold the studios first residency. Kassicieh, a Palestinian American multidisciplinary artist, will have her book Gifts I Didnt Know Were Gifts on display, with a limited amount of copies for sale. This will be Kassiciehs first full residency, and she is grateful for all the hands-on support Lopez, Orozco and studio manager Carlos Irahm Gabaldon Solis offered throughout the undertaking. I just felt it was a process in which these people really care about the community, artists and residents, and really want to support their work and hopefully have it be a didactic process, she said. Kassicieh is a versatile artist and her creativity is eclectic. Her whimsical use of bright colors can be found in everything from ceramics to collage to digital portraits. Kassiciehs risograph book is her first, but a piece she considers a new challenge. I dont like to limit myself by medium, she said. My creative practice is always just an exploration of different ideas and materials. Gifts I Didnt Know Were Gifts tells a story through images and ancestral relics, focusing on heritage and identity. Kassiciehs ancestors were forcibly removed from their home in Jerusalem in the mid-1900s, eventually landing in New Mexico in the 80s. The family saved documents, photographs, maps and other tangibles from the decades-long journey. Kassicieh said she archived thousands of items with the help of her aunt and it evolved into something really beautiful. The book is such a celebration of oral history, such a celebration of wanting to be connected to your roots, she said. I want to just show a regular Palestinian family and some of their stories that just celebrates our lives before we were turned into these political creatures. Half of the proceeds from the residency will go directly to Kassicieh and the other half will fund the 2023 Risolana Artist-in-Residence book program. At its core, the founders hope Risolana will become a hub for people to come together and support one another, Lopez said. He added, I think of the risograph as this lighthouse; it just really calls people in. In the 2003 film, Ama: La Memoria del Tiempo, Salvadorian poet and filmmaker Daniel Flores y Ascencio explores events surrounding La Matanza the 1932 Salvadoran uprising in which around 30,000 mostly Indigenous civilians were brutally killed by the Salvadoran military. The film is included in the exhibition Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Filmmaker Daniel Flores y Ascencio played a central role in the development of the Artists Call campaign and the film is currently featured in the exhibition, said Devin Geraci, Manager of Communications & Audience Engagement at the UNM Art Museum. The film is part of a larger body of work by Flores y Ascencio that aims to rupture endless cycles of trauma and terror within El Salvador, mainly through the telling of distinct Indigenous experiences, both past and present. The Artists Call campaign was created in 1984 in New York City to object against U.S. military intervention in Central America. The campaign also sparked interest from other artists across the nation, with chapters appearing in over 20 other U.S. cities. Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities is an in-depth exhibition exploring the 1980s activist campaign Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, Geraci said. Offering events allows us to focus on specific themes of the exhibition and provide further context to the material. The film includes the first-person account of these events by figures with tremendous knowledge of the situation. It features the first person account of these events by Don Juan Ama the nephew of Jose Feliciano Ama, the Indigenous leader of the revolution who was a young boy at the time of the massacre, Geraci said. The UNM Art Museum also held a panel discussion with the founders of Artists Call and a workshop with artist Muriel Hasbun. The exhibit runs until Dec. 3. Geraci said Arte Voz: Cuenta tu historia/ Speak Your Story with Hasbun will take place at 4 p.m. Nov. 16. After the presentation, participants will discuss Central American art by connecting it with a personal story. From sculpture to saddles and santeros, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and New Mexico Arts have recognized area artists for the 2022 Governors Awards for Excellence in the Arts. Now in their 48th year, the awards were created to celebrate the extensive role that artists and their work have played in New Mexico. This years recipients range from artists working traditional and contemporary forms, to an architect dedicated to preserving historic design perspectives, to arts supporters who ensure their communities have the places and spaces creative individuals need to thrive. New Mexico is proud to be the home of incredibly talented artists that bring our states unique culture to the rest of world, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, in a news release. This years recipients are consummate professionals in their respective media, and I congratulate them on joining the ranks of this esteemed group. The 2022 Awards recipients are: Julia M. Barello of Las Cruces, a nationally and internationally recognized visual artist, as well as past Academic Department Head and Regents Professor at New Mexico State University where she oversaw the design of Devasthali Hall, the new home of NMSUs Department of Art and University Art Museum. Eva Encinias of Bernalillo, who has devoted her life to building a home for flamenco in the U.S. as the founding director of the National Institute of Flamenco, where she directs programming and teaches flamenco dance classes. Arthur Lopez of Santa Fe, a contemporary wood santero sculptor whose work pushes the boundaries of traditional santero art. He has been exhibited internationally, including at KOHI-Kulturraum in Karlsruhe, Germany, and LAProjects in Landshut, Germany. Beverley Spears of Santa Fe, an architect with an abiding interest in the preservation and celebration of historic elements in design. Her award-winning firm specializes in sustainable commercial and residential design, urban design and historic preservation. Tom and Bev Taylor of Farmington, arts supporters who have committed their lives to making space and building communities for artists in Farmington, including renovation of the historic Lumber and Hardware building into a vibrant arts center as well as making several donations to buildings around Farmington. Rosemary Wilkie of Carlsbad, a saddle maker of 20 years who started her work through the New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship program, and who is determined to guide future generations of saddle makers and help keep the great arts of the past alive. Karen Yank of Golden, a celebrated sculptor and public artist whose rigorous geometric style has been influenced by Alexander Calder and her mentor Agnes Martin. Angie Yazzie of Taos Pueblo, an award-winning micaceous clay potter taught by her mother and grandmother, has work featured in the permanent collections of Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and others. Recipients are recommended via a public nomination process before being reviewed by a selection committee of NMAC Commissioners and NMA staff. Editors note: The Journal continues Whats in a Name?, a once a month column in which Elaine Briseno will give a short history of how places in New Mexico got their names. Most people from a certain generation know the history of American journalist Ernie Pyle, but many might not realize that Albuquerque is the only place he set up residence in his long, storied, adventurous and successful career as a newspaperman. And that very house is still standing today, operating as a public library. It was Pyles simple, folksy columns that won him a large following across the United States, but it was his war reporting, and eventual death, during World War II that solidified his status as a legend. Pyle was in the trenches, enduring mosquito bites, fatigue and all the other day-to-day conditions of the common soldier in order to bring their stories to life. The publication of his Scripps-Howard wartime column ballooned to 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers by the time of his death. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his war correspondence in 1944. It was four years earlier that New Mexico became part of his story. Pyle and his wife Jerry were self-proclaimed gypsies and never set up a home. They traveled more than 250,000 miles together, crossing the U.S. more than 30 times. They went by boat, plane, car and even foot, sleeping in hotels, and boats and with friends and any other place. Pyle was born on Aug. 3, 1900 near Dana, Indiana, and his wife was a native of Minnesota, but when they started contemplating a location for a home base, they knew New Mexico would be it. They had been here during their travels just as they had been to every other state. We had become footloose finally to the point of just swinging forever through space without ever coming down, Pyle wrote in a 1942 issue of New Mexico Magazine. We were like trees growing in the sky, without roots. So at last we decided to acquire a base. Not for the purpose of settling down, not a permanently hearthside at all, but just some definite walls in a definite place that we could feel were ours. A sort of home plate, that we could run to on occasion, and then run away from again. That base ended up being 900 Girard Blvd. SE in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The couple bought some land and built a modest house, complete with a white picket fence in 1940. They were the first and last family to reside there. Pyle was killed by sniper fire in Iejima, Japan, (then known as Ie Shima), in April of 1945. His wife would die in November of the same year. The couple had no children and three years later her heirs made the decision to donate the 1,129-square-foot home to the city of Albuquerque with the request that it be used as a library. It opened in October of 1948 as the citys first branch library. The same year the city opened its second high school (Highland) and its first TV station KOB went on air. It was also a decade of explosive growth for the city. According to the U.S. Census, Albuquerques population swelled from 35,449 in 1940 to 97,012 in 1950. The neighborhood is no longer on the outskirts of the city and the dirt road running in front of the house, Girard Boulevard, is paved, but the outside of the house still looks much as it did when the Pyles lived there. If not for the Ernie Pyle library sign in the front yard, one might not even realize its now a library. Theres a white picket fence enclosing a yard to the south and the front yard has a lawn. The same porch and windows and a driveway still grace the front of the white, clapboard house. Inside the walls, even inside the closets, are lined with bookshelves. A glass cabinet just to the left of the front door displays Pyle memorabilia. Its become a living memorial to a man who found great fame and was mourned by the countrys top leaders when he died, but chose what was then a small town to build a home. Though New Mexico often finds itself on the top of the worst of lists, it still grabs ahold of its inhabitants. People who spend time here find it hard to leave and those who do, find it hard to forget. Ernie Pyle got that. People often asked him Why Albuquerque? and it was this question that prompted him to write that 1942 piece in New Mexico Magazine. He wrote paragraphs explaining all the reasons Albuquerque was their chosen home. We have seen sunrises so violently beautiful they were almost frightening, and Im only sorry I cant capture the sunsets and the thunderstorms and the first snows on the Sandias, and take them East and flaunt them in peoples faces We like it because Albuquerque is still small enough that you always see somebody you know when you go downtown. We like it because the whole tempo of life is slower than in the big cities. We like it because in Albuquerque a pedestrian waits for the traffic light even though there may not be a car in sight. He basked in that love from 900 Girard Blvd. The majority of his readers had probably never stepped foot here and never would. But when Ernie Pyle was telling the story, that didnt matter much. Curious about how a town, street or building got its name? Email columnist Elaine Briseno at ebriseno@abqjournal.com as she continues the monthly journey in Whats in a Name? As with many writers of suspense thrillers, Sandia Park author Joseph Badal relies on action scenes to propel the story. But Badal thinks his scenes show a unique voice. When I first started writing my manuscripts, I let the action carry the story. But the action is really the thread. I learned that you let the characters carry the story, he said in a phone interview. At the same time, Badal doesnt want the reader to get lost in too much scene description or in dialogue that detracts from the action. I always say nobody cares about the color of the wallpaper unless theres brain matter sprayed on it or youre writing a book about interior decorating, he said. Readers will find excitement and tension in the action scenes in Badals latest suspense thriller Everything to Lose, the fourth installment in his Lassiter/Martinez Case Files series. The protagonists are Barbara Lassiter and Susan Martinez smart, likable Bernalillo County homicide detectives. Here are two examples of Badals talent for action-scene writing drawn from Everything to Lose. In one scene, Oscar Benedetto and Lisa French, both murderers previously unknown to each other, have a violent encounter in an office building parking lot in Albuquerque. Oscar, a serial murderer whose female victims have been buried on the West Mesa, tries to abduct a stunning young woman in the parking lot. Badal writes, (Oscar) seemed to be having a difficult time subduing the girl, who fought maniacally, her arms and legs pinwheeling. Enter Lisa, a witness to Oscars unprovoked attack: (Lisa) put as much power behind her kick as she could, momentarily embedding the toe of her cowboy boot in the guys scrotum. She heard a mighty oof! For an instant, Lisa stared at the man, mesmerized by his eyes, which appeared to be two black coals unnaturally spaced on his huge head. But when he brought his hands up towards her, she swung a leg at him again, this time connecting with a shin. Strange, one might wonder, that Lisa, a mass murderer, suddenly transforms herself into a Good Samaritan. She speeds off, hoping no one remembers her face nor her vehicles license plate. In another action scene, an armed Lisa commandeers a driver and his pickup truck: It took a second to realize the truck cab was careening out of control, throwing her wildly from side to side, forward and backward. Her head smashed into the glass panel in the back of the cab, momentarily causing pinpoints of light to flash behind her eyes. Lassiter and Martinezs search for the murderer of the West Mesa women leads them to the brutish, hulking Oscar. And theyre after Lisa, who had killed residents of a retirement community in the previous installment. Lisa also wants the detectives dead. Under an assumed name, Lisa emerges in southern New Mexico, conning an oil field worker out of his money. Lisas confidence game soon finds a victim in Milford Mil Cooper, an older, naive, newly wealthy New Mexico rancher. Another subplot involves Lisas brother Frank Calderon, an Albuquerque-based crime boss with ties to a Mexican cartel. Oscar, Lisa and Frank are as villainous as Lassiter and Martinez are valorous. The personality traits of both good and bad guys are realistic and readers can relate to those traits because theyve seen those traits in real-life people, good or bad, Badal said. Badal is also the author of many other thrillers including The Danforth Saga series, The Curtis Chronicles series, as well as stand-alone books and short stories. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Over 17,000 New Mexicans who are convicted felons will not be able to vote in the upcoming elections due to the states disenfranchisement laws, according to a recent report by The Sentencing Project. New Mexico citizens lose voting rights the moment they are convicted for a felony in any state or federal court. Those rights can be restored upon completing their prison, parole and probation sentences, according to a state statute. Citizens awaiting trial are still eligible to vote at any early voting locations or even vote on Election Day, according to Bernalillo County Deputy Clerk Jaime Diaz. Those in jail who are awaiting trial are allowed to vote through an absentee ballot. Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, introduced a House bill in 2018 that would have restored voting rights for all felons. If passed, New Mexico would have joined Maine and Vermont as the only states where felons have the right to vote. While she still believes current disenfranchisement laws are outdated, Chasey said attempting to restore these rights in New Mexico proved to be a bridge too far to cross at the time. Unfortunately were so dedicated to punishment instead of peoples constitutional rights, Chasey said. We need to get people talking about this. New Mexico is one of 15 states with the same restrictions, but some have tighter laws against felons. Eleven states, including Arizona and Virginia, prohibit felons from voting even after completing their sentence. Currently, 48 states have laws prohibiting citizens with felony convictions from voting. According to the report, an estimated 4.6 million people across the country are disenfranchised. The Sentencing Project is a research center based in Washington, D.C., that works to reduce incarcerations in the United States. In New Mexico, an estimated 5,500 people are in prison, 2,725 are on parole and 8,586 are on probation, the report states. This totals around 17,572 people in the state who have no voting rights. When asked whether convicted felons should be able to vote, Attorney General Hector Balderas said access to voting is critical, and I encourage the Legislature to consider all appropriate measures to reasonably increase access to citizens right to vote. The report notes that data on Latinx ethnicity is limited but estimates that at least 506,000 Latinx Americans nationwide are disenfranchised. The number is likely to be larger than the one reported, according to The Sentencing Project. This creates a disproportion in New Mexico since the report found 9,949 out of the 17,572 disenfranchised New Mexico citizens are Latinx whereas the Latinx community constitutes 50.1% of the states total population, according to the state census. It is simply unacceptable that one out of every 50 adults in America is disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, said Nicole Porter, senior director of advocacy for The Sentencing Project. As we embark on one of the most important midterm elections of our lifetime, felony disenfranchisement should be at the forefront of the public agenda. All of a sudden the Land of Enchantment is brimming with big mammal news. The state Department of Game and Fish on Friday said a young bull moose has been spotted near Mora that would be between Taos and Las Vegas. Based on photographs, officers suspect this may be the same moose spotted in Questa and on Taos Pueblo last month, Game and Fish said in its Facebook post. This is the southernmost known sighting of a moose in New Mexico. Hold on. Before you grab your guns, the agency reminds residents that moose are a protected game animal in the state. New Mexico does not have an open hunting season for moose, and it is unlawful to harvest them in the state, Game and Fish said. This moose is presently safe and appears healthy. It is not in a location where it is causing a threat to public safety. However, the department reminds residents that the ruminant member of the deer family can be dangerous and should not be approached for any reason. Meanwhile, not to be left out of the news cycle, National Bison Day awaits. Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., announced Friday the passage of a bipartisan resolution designating Nov. 5 as National Bison Day. Bison hold a rich historic and cultural significance for the United States, and in particular for Tribes, Heinrich said in a news release. They represent resiliency and are an enduring symbol of American strength. Im proud to lead this bipartisan resolution with Senator Hoeven to recognize our national mammal and bring greater attention to the ongoing effort to conserve this unique species. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., was among the 13 other cosponsors. Heinrich and Hoeven, in 2016, also introduced the National Bison Legacy Act, which was signed into law, according to the release. This legislation recognized the bisons significance in American history and designated it as the United States national mammal, it said. Iconic global women's fashion brand, bebe, along with Myntra, announces young Bollywood diva, Sharvari, as its first brand ambassador in the country. Sharvari will endorse the autumn-winter collection and the ad campaign will be visible across regions and various mediums. Sharvari has made a promising start to her acting career with stunning performances in Bunty Aur Babli 2 and the Forgotten Army. With a slew of exciting movie projects lined up, the young actress is poised to leave a mark in the minds of the audiences and the industry. With her at the helm of brand promotions, bebes new campaign is set to build stronger brand salience with its shoppers and fashionistas across top metros and tier 1 cities. The campaign will be promoted extensively across social media to reach the brands target audience, comprising largely of modern Indian women. The ad campaign highlights the new season collection, centered on the theme- Be you- The video campaign emphasizes on modern women who wish to be glamorous and bold in their fashion choices, while also expressing their individuality through fashion. bebe was launched on Myntra recently. Founded in 1976, bebe was quick to establish itself as one of the iconic and must-have fashion brands for women in the US, before expanding its presence to other countries. Digital ad film: The 34-second ad campaign, titled Be You showcases how Bebe allows women to explore their real, fashionable selves and experiment with their fashion choices. The protagonist, Sharvari, represents every woman who takes center stage in her life and exudes confidence wherever she goes. She flaunts bebe's latest autumn-winter collection and celebrates the attitude and confidence that shine through you when you decide to "Be You". Speaking on the occasion, Bollywood actor, Sharvari, said, "I am delighted to be associated with bebe as their first brand ambassador in the country. bebe offers trendy and contemporary fashion which reflects my personal style. The brand has made a mark for itself across the globe, and I am happy to be a part of the brand's endeavor to strike a chord with its customers and fashionistas of the country." Speaking about the association, Manohar Kamath, CXO and Chief - Myntra Fashion Brands, Myntra said, Sharvari embodies the brand bebe perfectly. She is bold, confident, glamorous, fun and unapologetically herself, which resonates with the brands persona. Sharvaris cheerful social presence has the potential to influence and engage the modern woman with her sartorial choices. The association with Sharvari for the new autumn-winter collection is sure to enamor consumers from top tier cities and metros. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday delivered the keynote address at India Today Group's premier thought event, the Conclave, in Mumbai. He spoke of events that led to revolt within the Sena, Balasaheb Thackeray, the chief ministership, his idea of governance and the possibility of both Sena factions coming together in future. "I never wanted to be the CM. Our MLAs were upset. That is why I took this [revolt against Sena leadership] step and I don't think I have done anything wrong," he said, adding that the Sena-BJP alliance in the state is taking forward Balasaheb's ideology and legacy and not Uddhav Thackeray. ON EVENTS THAT LED TO REVOLT Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister after Shiv Sena formed an alliance with ideologically opposite parties Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP soon after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. According to CM Shinde, the mandate after the 2019 state elections was for a BJP-Shiv Sena government but Uddhav Thackeray, the party chief, formed a government going against the mandate. "How it happened, why it happened, everyone in Maharashtra knows. This was not to gain anything or become the chief minister. We [Shiv Sena] fought the election with the BJP and the mandate was for a BJP-Shiv Sena government. But against the wishes of the people, the MVA government was formed in 2020. There was resistance from our MLAs," he said. "Sena MLAs were not able to fulfil the expectations of people. Despite our government in the state, our workers were not getting justice. Many of us tried. I tried [to convince Uddhav Thackeray] as the BJP is our natural alliance partner. But we were not able to achieve that," he added. 'NEVER WANTED TO BE CM' Eknath Shinde further pointed out that the step [revolt] was not taken to achieve anything or to become chief minister. The step was taken to respect people's mandate, he said. "How it happened, why it happened, everyone in Maharashtra knows. This was not to gain anything or become the chief minister," Shinde said at India Today Conclave. ON ALLIANCE WITH BJP Eknath Shinde spoke of the BJP's commitment towards its alliance partners and said he was made the CM even when he had 50 MLAs. He said the revolt was a step towards ideological commitment and not for the chief ministership. "They gave me an opportunity and we are doing good work," Shinde said, adding that perception changed when he was made the CM. ON BALASAHEB'S LEGACY We did what people wanted. We haven't drifted away from Balasaheb's ideology, Shinde said, calling his revolt against the Sena leadership a courageous step. The chief minister also pointed out that his faction, Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, secured 277 seats in the recently concluded panchayat elections and said people back his faction to take Balasaheb's legacy forward. "We built the party working with Balasaheb Thackeray. His thoughts are with us. We haven't left the ideology. We did what people wanted. We joined the natural alliance with the BJP. That's why we have the support of the people," he said. ON POSSIBILTY OF SENA FACTIONS COMING TOGETHER On being asked about the possibility of rebel Sena factions coming together in future, Shinde said the question is about 'ifs and buts' and there is no point in going into that question right now. "The Sena-BJP alliance is working for Maharashtra. We are taking the ideology of Balasaheb forward," said Shinde on possible reconciliation with Uddhav Thackeray and his camp. ON HIS MODEL OF GOVERNANCE Eknath Shinde referred to his model of governance as pro-people, pro-development and inclusive. CM means 'common man'. I work like a common man. Hence, there is prosperity and development in the state of Maharashtra, the CM said. When asked about the BJP-Sena alliance's CM face for the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Shinde said, Public will decide", adding that his focus right now is on working for the development of the people. redBus, Indias largest online bus ticketing platform, announces the expansion of its, one of a kind digital bus boarding facility, called rZone, with 137 new locations in the city of Hyderabad, as part of the second phase of the pioneering project. The first phase, launched in December 2021, witnessed the installation of 32 rZones in the city. An rZone is a physical installation, identified visually as well as on the redBus app, to help the traveller identify their exact bus boarding point and board the bus without uncertainty or anxiety. While state transport corporation buses usually commence intercity trips from a few large terminals, private buses pick up passengers from different locations across the city, giving rise to confusion with respect to the exact location of pick-up. This can cause extreme anxiety in people who have to amble around with heavy luggage, or along with children and the elderly. rZones help overcome this situation by creating a common meeting point for the traveller as well as the bus crew. The redBus app directs the traveller to the exact location of pick-up, while the bus crew is also aware of the passengers exact location of pick-up. An rZone consists of a tall pole with a large cube-like structure at the top, displaying a unique code and redBus branding, to help travellers identify the boarding spot easily. The rZone code appears on the app as well as the bus ticket along with the other details for the convenience of the traveller. rZones offer free Wi-Fi in its vicinity for travellers to identify the exact location of their bus, as well as estimated time of arrival. By scanning the QR code displayed prominently at the rZone, travellers can instantly search & book bus tickets online. All rZones are readily recognized on Google maps through markers to help users navigate to their boarding points easily. Since the commencement of phase-1, with 32 rZone terminals located at Ameerpet, SR Nagar, LB Nagar and Panjagutta, over 200,000 users have boarded buses from these points and over 92,000 travellers have availed the free Wifi facility so far, with about 500 people using it every day. Ameerpet witnessed the highest volume of bus boarding among all other pick-up points in the first phase, while Kukatpally is expected to be the busiest zone post phase-2. rZones have been installed through an agreement with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, HY-FI (Hyderabad City Wifi Project - a Govt. of Telangana Initiative) and in association with AirFi, a T-Hub incubated tech company with a vision to transform bus infotainment system into a fully-fledged Wi-Fi enabled travel experience to all passengers. With rZones, redBus is also collaborating with the Telangana governments Smart city project, the free Wifi at the boarding points, being a part of this initiative. Speaking on the launch of the second phase of rZone installations in Hyderabad, Pallavi Chopra, Sr. VP, Brand- Head of Marketing, redBus, stated, rZones serve as unique landmarks and convenient pick-up points for buses. As the locations of rZones are fixed, it allows bus operators to map their bus boarding points to these rZones, which then serve as unique identifiers for the bus travellers to locate their boarding points. The customer satisfaction of the rZone boarding points, conveyed through user reviews and ratings, is 2.5 times higher than that of non-rZone pick-up points. This has convinced us of the concepts capability in transforming the travel experience of users and compelled us to invest in 137 more rZones for the second phase. This experience in Hyderabad will serve as the basis for implementing this in other cities in the country, in the future. We are grateful to the Government of Telangana & Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for the successful scaling up of this initiative. Bingo! the snacking brand from ITC Ltd., one of India's leading FMCG conglomerates, today announced partnership with Nodwin Gaming as official snacking partner for DreamHack 2022, India's largest digital gaming festival, scheduled to start from today onwardsto 6th November 2022 in Hyderabad. This is the 3rd edition of DreamHackbeing hosted in India where gamers can experience professional e-sports tournaments&watch top Players battle it out in the gaming arena. Bingo! is at the forefront of supporting gaming and sports. This engaging and innovative collaboration between Bingo! and DreamHack highlights the brand's interest and support for e-sports community. At the event, Bingo! has set up an exclusive Bingo! Streamer Zone, which will bring together popular YouTube influencers and streamers such as Thug, Mortal, Scout,Ocean,8Bit Mercy, 8Bit,8Bit Rebel, Sid Joshi, Xyaa, Hydraflick, Samay Raina,Sagar and many more. Fans are promised an unforgettable festival experience, with streamers live streaming on their own social channels for two hours over the course of three days. Bingo! has also created a Meet and Greet Zone where e-sports enthusiasts and fans will get an opportunity to interact with their favorite gaming influencers. ITC Ltd.s Head of Marketing -Snacks, Noodles, Pasta, Aishwarya Pratap Singh said, We are thrilled to be collaborating with DreamHack, India's largest e-gaming festival. Bingo! owns the platform of young and innovative snack offerings, and is a brand loved by the youth. Gaming has always been at the forefront of the activities that the youth enjoy&Bingo! aspires to be the preferred snacking partner for the gaming community. DreamHack has a strong track record and a large fan base, and we at Bingo! hope to jointly deliver an exciting gaming experience to the fans. This collaboration will be a fantastic experience for both fans and industry professionals who will be able to interact with and learn from experts in the e-sports fraternity, while also growing with it. Akshat Rathee, Co-founder, NODWIN Gaming said, "DreamHack is a fun, entertaining gaming and esports event that can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life and across age groups. We are delighted to collaborate with our snacking partner Bingo! to make this event even more memorable. The audience can really let their hair down with their loved ones by taking part in all the exciting esports activities and other games while munching on a Bingo snack to keep their energies up. Not only that, Bingo has also set up an exclusive Streamer Zone and a Meet-and-Greet Zone for e-sports enthusiasts and fans to interact with their favourite gaming influencers, so there is a lot to look forward to, Alongside,Bingo! will be hosting several fun activities for the event attendees. The brand will set up a dark room in which the audience must evade laser beams and reach the end of the room to collect a pack of Bingo! Cheese NachosFlavour, Namkeen. Bingo! will also set up a neon themed photobooth where GIFs will be created of the attendees, a chill zone where a Cheese Nachos Favour, NamkeenDIY counter will facilitatecustomisednamkeendishes using Bingo! Cheese NachosFlavour. An AR &VR game arena will also be set up where one must scan around and tap at as many Cheese Nachos Flavour packs as possible within a set amount of time to win. The tickets to the event are available on www.bookmyshow.comand the live stream of the tournaments can be viewed on the below mentioned links from 4th to 6th Nov 10:00 am onwards. Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon are the most inspiring brands in the world, according to Wunderman Thompsons Inspire Score: Top 100 2022, released today. Now in its third year, the Inspire Score is Wunderman Thompsons proprietary diagnostic tool which measures a brands inspiration status and uncovers the brand attributes that fuel business growth through their ability to inspire people. The study proves that inspiring brands are able to grow their market share more quickly and charge a higher premium for their products and services than their competitors. Google once again takes the top spot as the Most Inspiring Brand in the World today. Apple, Samsung, and Amazon remain in the top four for the second year running, cementing their position as powerful inspiration engines thanks to their ability to place themselves at the centre of peoples lives and stay there. Colgate has taken the fifth spot for 2022 as they strive to reimagine a healthier future for all people, their pets, and our planet. Mel Edwards, Global Chief Executive Officer at Wunderman Thompson, said: As the worlds foremost researcher on inspiration, we have again proven that there is a strong correlation between inspiration and brand growth. The Inspire Score demonstrates how inspiring brands can drive growth in market share and command a price premium, which is increasingly important in the face of these changing economic conditions. The brands at the top of our list have shifted with the zeitgeist and placed themselves at the centre of peoples lives, perfectly positioning themselves to take advantage of inspiration as a powerful lever for growth. Neil Dawson, Global Chief Strategy Officer at Wunderman Thompson added: This years Inspire Score has taught us that a brands inspiration status and so propensity to grow is highly dynamic. As the focus of peoples lives change, so may the things that inspire them. Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon have once again scored highly given their ability to elevate consumers, make them feel like theyre making a popular, exciting choice, and motivate them to accomplish their goals, but 30% of the Top 100 Most Inspiring Brands in the World for 2022 were not in the Top 100 last year. This reminds us that there is everything to play for when it comes to inspiration these are metrics that brands can impact, thereby moving the needle on growth. Other key insights from the study include: There have been strong gains for mobility brands such as Tesla and Uber as the world has opened up again post-COVID, with a large number of automotive brands also featuring in the Top 100 Social media brands have also seen gains, showcasing their role in animating peoples lives and social interactions - physical as well as virtual. The inspiring power of brands such as Instagram and WhatsApp also continue to grow, with TikTok making the Top 100 for the first time this year Streaming brands continue to inspire, too. Netflix is now in the Top 20, and Disney+ is a new entrant in the Top 100 out-inspiring even its master brand Impulse brands have done well, perhaps because life is becoming a bit more spontaneous again, and beer, spirits and treats have all risen The Inspire Score: Top 100 was first launched in 2020 as part of Wunderman Thompsons global brand study, Inspiring Growth; the worlds largest ongoing research project into inspiration. This explores why brands need to be inspirational, how inspiration drives growth and what brands can do to inspire their customers. Meanwhile, the annual list of the Top 100 Most Inspiring Brands in the World tracks and analyses the brands that are best at inspiring their customers; revealing how inspiration affects a brands ability to drive growth in market share and command a price premium. Wow. Angry, creepy, sleepy Dementia Joe gave another one of his atrocious Sieg heil! speeches on Wednesday blaming MAGA Republicans for his failures, and the wannabe tyrant could not have come off more revolting. (Could he be any more despicable? sorry, Chandler Bing.) If his imbecilic ranting had any strategic objective, it got lost (much like Biden) in the disgustingly un-American backwash frothing from his vitriol. He sounded like some mad-hatted, off-kilter offspring of Stalin, Hillary Clinton, and a caca-throwing howler monkey. It is a wonder that he refrained from calling for public MAGA executions right then and there! Our mentally-challenged, child-grooming, puppet dictator was clearly going for the dumb, pervy, pro-gulag vote with a mindless diatribe meant to do nothing but threaten and divide Americans. As has evidently become official U.S. government policy, Slow-Joe's speech consisted of nothing but vilification, calumny, and lies. He tried to paint the hammer-wielding commie Castro nudist who Houdini-ed his way past security to invade Paul Pelosi's personal space as a card-carrying member of Team Trump, yet the absurdity of turning a far-left, drug-addled hippy into a MAGA mascot was far too removed from reality to resemble anything but flagrant propaganda. The speech (such as it was) went downhill from there. It was evil MAGA did this, insurrection that, democracy is hanging by a thread, Oceania must defeat Eurasia regurgitated gibberish all! For as little sense as his insults and threats made, Slanderous Joe might as well have screamed, "Trunalimunumaprzure, du eshuur dez whee vild mehrca, argle-bargle, jiggery-pokery, bark-bark. I'm Jill Biden, and I approve this message." Oh, and Mail-In-Ballot Biden went out of his way to warn Americans that it would take many days for midterm votes to be counted before this year's elections are "officially" concluded. Criminelly, tell me you plan on stealing the elections without saying you plan on stealing the elections, why don't you! (Get out and vote anyway! The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.) The ol' child-sniffer-in-chief sounded more like a Latin American commie crook than an American politician. Maybe Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez never actually died but came up north disguised as a doltish, decrepit, corrupt, third-rate Delaware politician with the inside skinny on how best to rig an election. If that's not Chavez wearing a Joe Biden mask, then what's left of Go-Low-Joe's pudding mind is pure Marxist malevolence. What a disgrace! Forget unworthy comparisons to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Reagan, or Trump. Ventriloquist Dummy Biden couldn't in his wildest dreams manage to lead an army, write and speak eloquently, or succeed in the private sector beyond the safe confines of quid-pro-quo corruption and life on the public dole. He has no talents or gifts that distinguish him in any way. His singular accomplishment is that he has managed to hold office in Washington, D.C., for half a century. Yet that feat distinguishes him as a mere barnacle clinging to the ship of State, sponging off the accomplishments of other larger-than-life American leaders who swam the Potomac's currents as political whales. What is more, American voters have known this about him for decades, as they overwhelmingly rejected him in two previous humiliating runs for the White House before Basement-Dwelling Biden managed to collect enough mail-in ballots (wink-wink) to make him the most popularly elected president in American history. You see, if you harvest enough ballots (and break enough election rules), you can miraculously go from worst to first in no time. Uff-da. Two questions kept running through my mind as I watched the sleazy spectacle unfold: (1) How has America fallen so far?; and (2) Who in their right mind would ever go fight a war overseas for this fraud? As for the first question, the answer's pretty obvious: slow and steady ruination orchestrated from within the cesspool of government. You spend the last century undermining America's federalist system by stealing inherent powers reserved for the states and the American people and transferring them to some unholy Frankensteinian D.C. monster recklessly wielding unconstitutional authority. You distort the delegated separation of powers so completely that the Supreme Court writes laws, the Executive Branch declares war, unaccountable bureaucratic agents browbeat ordinary American citizens, and Congress conducts show trials, while cashing checks from the big-monied interests politicians actually represent. You go out of your way to teach America's children that Almighty God is not real and that God-given freedom is made-up; and then you spend decades teaching those children's children that Big Government is the highest power, and that the almighty State will reward "politically correct" subjects with a lot of "free" stuff if they remain well-behaved. You mock virtue and sacrifice, character and courage; and you place sin, vice, and other cheaply obtained pursuits of no worth high on a pedestal, as if they should be idolized as precious luxuries to be pursued and adored. You open America's borders to too many outsiders who don't share the nation's values or history. You disrespect citizens and ignore their needs and complaints. You orchestrate fraud-filled elections that destroy trust and breed hostility. You redefine the plain meaning of words, peddle propaganda, and smother truth. You turn the "free" press into controlled organs of the State. You transform the courts into a two-tiered criminal (in)justice system that protects the powerful and persecutes the powerless. You disgrace the Department of Justice by using FBI agents and federal prosecutors as political partisans, inquisitors, and cheaply bought whores. You do all this, shake the whole sordid mess in society's giant tumbler until it's ready to explode, and throw the nasty, stinking awfulness out back until it smells like vulture vomit baking in the hot summer sun. Then, and only then, have you created a concoction so revolting and unsavory that someone as venal, petty, and repugnant as Joe Biden can walk past the stench without anyone much noticing. As for the second question, I honestly don't know why anyone would sacrifice life and limb to defend China Joe's woke, trans-obsessed, identity politics-oriented Defense Department or the Pentagon's Big Brother pals in the Deep State today. If anyone needed more proof that politics not warfighting or service members' survival reigns supreme, the disastrous and deadly Afghan retreat was a searing and unpleasant reminder. Furthermore, it's no longer clear just whom Biden's apparatchiks consider the real enemy. When the U.S. Intelligence Community is used to hunt American citizens for their political beliefs, it's way past time for Americans to question why they would fight for those who are already waging war against them. On Wednesday, Biden all but declared MAGA Americans "enemies of the State." On Thursday, his chief of staff, Ron Klain, went so far as to frame Biden's hate-fest as "one final warning" to us all. Threats don't exactly inspire loyalty. And nobody follows a fool into battle. It's as Mel Gibson's William Wallace correctly averred in Braveheart: "Men don't follow titles; they follow courage." In any walk of life, this observation is undoubtedly true. What people do with their lives, how they conduct themselves, whether they reach for the heavens, and by doing so, inspire others to do the same or whether they prey on our worst impulses, divide and conquer, and drag us down into their own pits of despair this is what separates the weak and wicked from those who possess great strength. Biden, of course, is a weak, wicked, and cowardly man, and no title stitched before his name could ever beckon any American of worth to follow his lead. Image: 10 Tampa Bay via YouTube, CC BY 3.0 (cropped). In the fall of 1860, Tommy Wilson was four years old. As he stood near the front gate of his Augusta, Georgia home a local told him that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president and now there would be war. Tommys father, a Presbyterian minister, would turn his flock against the denominations opposition to slavery that was foundational to the Souths rebellion. Joseph Wilson helped found the new Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. President Biden was recently observed reading a book about President Lincoln -- And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by John Meacham. So on November 2, when President Biden stood at Union Station to tell the American people the truth, he knew that the 2020 election was not the most contested election in history nor was it the most serious threat the nation has ever faced. Even the 1968 elections where riots wrecked the Democratic convention in Chicago and the assassination of Robert Kennedy ended one of the brightest prospects for the presidency alongside the April assassination of Martin Luther King that unleashed riots across American cities should be understood as evidently more serious threats to our democracy. In 1860, Democrats violently refused to accept the election of the new Republican political figure that was Abraham Lincoln. Members of the Senate refused to accept the results. Hundreds of thousands of young men died to contest the presidential election of 1860. Tommy Wilson grew up to be Woodrow Wilson, Americas most academic president and the pioneer of the stronger and extra-constitutional view of this executive branch. Wilson jailed political opponents like socialist Eugene V. Debs and arrested thousands of immigrants he thought might be sympathetic to the Russian Bolshevik revolution. Wilson believed that a weak president allowed the Republican Congress to impose political humiliation upon the South in reconstruction. Wilson had an attorney general who enforced the law with partisan fervor against Wilsons political opponent. This attorney general thought his aggressive enforcement of the Espionage Act to the demise of civil rights among Wilsons political adversaries would earn him the democratic presidential nomination. He was wrong about that even among Democratic voters in 1920. President Biden continues to attempt to cast himself as the extra-constitutional character of the strong president. He sought to banish the former president and anyone challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Challenging the legitimacy of elections is not inspiring to any democracy but it is not the unique rhetorical moment President Biden continued to pretend that it was on November 2. His January 6, 2022 speech at the beginning of this year conflated the death of officer Billy Evans occurring on April 2, 2022 at the capitol to confuse listeners about police officers being killed on January 6, 2021. No police officer was killed on January 6, 2021. It serves the presidents narrow partisan interests and especially his political power to bend the truth in this way as he did again on November 2. In October 2008, America witnessed the most watched vice-presidential debate in U.S. history between populist governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden. Tens of millions of people watched. Palins unexpected rise from Alaskan politics drew an incredible surge of public attention and it remains one of the most watched political debates in U.S. history. Biden and Obama would go on to easily defeat McCain and Palin in the 2008 presidential election. On December 12, Sarah Palins church was burned around its entire perimeter with women and children inside. Fire rescue crews were able to save everyone inside despite temperatures outside more than 20 degrees below zero. Biden and Obama could have spoken out against such political violence having handily won the presidential election of 2008. Instead, they chose the path of silent complicity described by Biden in his November 2, 2022 speech. Much like President Wilson in the midterm election of 1918, Biden begged the American people to punish the opposing party and clear a political path for his internationalist visions in the Congress. Wilsons arrogance drove him to extremes and his chief of staff Joseph Tumulty was exhilarated in 1920 to learn that Republican presidential candidate Warren Harding was denounced by Democratic outlets as not white and therefore unfit to be an American president. The Ohio Democratic Party promised that if Harding won, blacks would rise up violently within the state and take it over. Wilson and the Democrats were sure the new women voters and the sensible educated voters would not elect Harding. In 1920, Harding and the Republicans won one of the largest landslides in presidential history with more than 61% of the vote. President Biden would be wise to more carefully temper his rhetoric regarding American history in his grand narratives of politics. The 2020 election is not the most contested election in history and its struggle is not the greatest threat to our democracy every faced. Bidens November 2 speech was an unfortunate expansion of his misguided January 6 speech and the red Philadelphia speech. He continues to excessively demonize his political opponents and provided little meaningful salience to the acts of political violence against Republicans seen in cases like Kavanaugh, Zelnick, and the Rubio campaigner in Florida. With greater honesty and humility, Democrats and Republicans can come together to overcome the risks of violence justifiably abhorred in his speech. His continued exaggerations and hyperbole tend to add to this problem and encourage the kinds of results that Woodrow Wilson found in 1918 and 1920. Dr. Ben Voth is a professor of rhetoric and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. His forthcoming book examines the rhetoric of Presidents Wilson, Harding and Coolidge. Image: Mauricio Mascaro/Pexels Nearly two years after the shambolic 2020 U.S. presidential election, tens of millions of ordinary Americans still suspect the election was riggedthrough a combination of Big Tech interference, mail-in ballots lacking signature verification, so-called ballot harvesting, and the private takeover of government election operations by nonprofit organizations controlled by partisan Democrats, funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A Monmouth University poll released in late September 2022 found that fully one-third (32%) of all Americans and 61% of Republicans still believe election interference was the cause of Donald Trumps defeatdespite 23 months of non-stop and increasingly threatening media propaganda, a ludicrous Congressional show trial of mostly peaceful election protesters, and even calls by Democrat politicians to make questioning election results a crime. According to a 2021 Rasmussen Reports survey, fully 56% of respondents said its likely that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including 41% who said its very likely. These are the incalcitrant election deniers Joe Biden has denounced as semi-fascists and a threat to democracyincluding nearly 300 candidates for elected office across America. How can people hold such a ludicrous opinion, especially when every corporate-owned news outlet in America, and dozens of courts and citizen-watch organizations, insist the opposite; namely, that Americas elections have never been more secure and fair? Well, one reason is that Democrats and Big Tech oligarchs openly bragged about what they had done to fortify the 2020 election. In a little-noted article in Time Magazine that appeared in February 2021, right after the 2020 election, a coalition of Democrat officials in state election offices, left-wing advocacy groups, Big Tech and media executives, and lawyers admitted boosting Joe Bidens chances with methods that were effectively untraceable. According to Time, Bidens victory was the result of a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. Steering media coverage, of course, refers to the outright censorship of news articles about Hunter Bidens corrupt business practices in China and Ukraineand the possibility that Joe Biden himself received a 10% cut for the big guy. So, this cabal of powerful people working behind the scenes (1) influenced perceptions, (2) changed rules and laws and (3) controlled the flow of information but...didnt rig the election? They only fortified it? Their work touched every aspect of the election, Time concluded. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trumps conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. In addition, Americans remain suspicious of mail-in ballots and the practices associated with them, particularly ballot harvesting. It strikes many Americans as more than suspicious that Joe Biden just happened to win more votes than in any election in history during the one election in which massive, unprecedented numbers of mail-in ballots were used. According to the U.S. Census, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an astonishing 69% of Americans in 2020 voted via non-traditional methods; that is, through the mail, the use of drop boxes or through early voting. Images: Voting in Texas. YouTube screen grab. Mail-in ballots are flatly illegal in most (67%) countries in Europe precisely because they remain the largest source of potential voter fraud, as the bipartisan 2005 report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform put it. Plus, Democrat officials in key battleground states illegally changed the rules in the months before the 2020 election to actually remove the verification safeguards they insist are in place to make sure fraudulent mail-in ballots do not get counted. In some states, signature verification is not required at all on mail-in ballots. By some estimates, as many as 10 million mail-in ballots did not have those safeguards or a real chain of custody record for recounts. In many states, the proof of identity is on outside envelopes that are then set aside once opened. Supposed recounts and audits, therefore, prove nothing: they are simply recounting anonymous ballots that are impossible to trace to actual voters. The truth is confidence in Americas democratic system is fading fast. One Gallup poll found that 59% of Americans dont have confidence in the honesty of their elections, while only 40% say they do. The reason is clear: the very methods that Democrats push to boost their successsuch as universal mail-in ballots, no I.D. to vote, and an election season that lasts for weeks to accommodate ballot-harvestingundermine confidence that the elections are fair. In Nordic countries, where elections are conducted with paper ballots cast in person, confidence in election integrity is very high. Fully 89% of respondents in Finland and Norway, and 87% in Sweden, say their elections are fair and honest. For the sake of the country, therefore, politicians in both of Americas main parties should return to the commonsense system that worked well for 200 yearspaper ballots submitted on a single day, in person. No electronic voting machines, no drop boxes, no ballot harvesting, no early voting. If America continues on its current path, the only people who will believe in the legitimacy of its elections will be CNN pundits and others paid to do so. The people themselves will assume, as polls show they already do, that America no longer exists as a functioning democracy. Robert J. Hutchinson writes about the intersection of politics and ideas. His latest book is What Really Happened: The Death of Hitler. Former (and sort of current) president Barack Obama used a rally in Phoenix Wednesday night to deliver a crazy remark about America's system of self-government. The Anointed One asserted that if the Arizona Republican candidates are successful, "democracy as we know it may not survive" there. He added, "That's not an exaggeration. That is a fact." Opinions are now facts, as facts are "disinformation" to the wannabe tyrants called Democrats. Democrats have routinely asserted recently that "our democracy is in danger" if Republicans do well on a national scale in the upcoming midterm elections. Now they are doing the same at the local level. What will they claim next? "If the Republican candidate wins in West Topeka, our democracy may not survive"? What gall! What preposterous preposterousness! Translation: "If the people elect someone I don't like, it's curtains for democracy!" Who is so stupendously stupid, or believes many of the rest of us to be, that he would seriously suggest that diverse voting is anti-democratic? Would "democracy" be better served if there were always only one name on the ballot, followed by a "D"? I'm tired of these morons incessantly telling us we need fewer choices and less free will if "our democracy" is to be saved. Yeah, and "arbeit macht frei," Barry. Now tell us the one about the three bears. Sadly, many Americans proudly signaled their obedience and willingness to give up their freedoms during the plandemic by wearing masks, social distancing, and getting repeatedly jabbed by experimental non-vaccine "vaccines." If a majority of voters should cast their ballots for these lying, tyrannical clowns Biden and the Democrats in the upcoming election, they will have sentenced all of us to spend the rest of our lives living in a soft tyranny or worse. We will, as Reagan cautioned, "spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Image: Ari Levinson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. There you go again, to borrow that line from candidate Reagan in the 1980 debate. There goes President Biden again, talking about a threat to democracy and the upcoming elections. This is from Reuters: President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that threats by some Republican candidates to refuse to accept results from the Nov. 8 elections if they lose is a threat to democracy and he blamed former President Donald Trump for inspiring them. "Make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us," Biden said in a speech just days before Americans decide whether Democrats maintain control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives or hand over power to Republicans. Biden, speaking at Washington's Union Station not far from Capitol Hill, used the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at their San Francisco home as evidence that democracy is under threat less than two years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. "The assailant entered the home asking, 'Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?' Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6," Biden said. He urged voters to "think long and hard about the moment we are in." Yes, the voters are thinking long and hard, and they don't like this president's policies. The speech, apparently rushed at the last moment, was the latest example of the Democrats' hysterical obsession with President Trump and January 6. As for denying elections, I remember when it was really fashionable to deny them. Remember Democrats denying the Ohio Electoral College vote in 2004? Or efforts to say Trump was not legitimate? You can spend a train ride watching it all on video. Sadly, we saw a frustrated man playing the "democracy" card. The good news is that nobody is listening or watching. PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos. Image: Gage Skidmore. About thirty kilometers to the north of Blumenau, a city in Brazil, lies the town of Pomerode, so named because its founders came from Pomerania, a region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, split between Germany and Poland. The town was founded more than 150 years ago, yet even today, ninety percent of the towns 25,000 inhabitants speak German with a distinct 19th century Pommersch accent. Pomerode is probably one of the most German towns in Brazil. This is immediately apparent as soon as one enters the town through the arched gateway. Every cottage and building is built in the traditional German style characterized by exposed brick within a frame of exposed wood, that recalls a rural German setting from the 1900s. Photo credit: Mathias Fingermann/Flickr Pomerode isnt the only German town in Brazil. There are a lot of Germans living in the southern part of the country. Their ancestors had left home in successive waves of emigration beginning in 1824 and accelerating after the failed revolutions of 1848, settling in the United States and in South American countries such as Brazil. Immigration continued well into the 20th century, with another major influx occurring immediately after the First World War. Between 1824 and 1969, around 250,000 Germans emigrated to Brazil, where they constitute the fourth largest immigrant community to settle in the country, after the Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards. Even though the immigration of Germans to Brazil was small compared to the numbers who went to the United States, it had a notable impact on the ethnic composition of the country, particularly in the south of the country. By the end of the 19th century, 13.3% of the population in Rio Grande do Sul was of German descent, and that figure rose to 21.6% in 1950. In the book The Monroe Doctrine, T B Edgington explained the growth phenomenon: The natural increase of the German population in southern Brazil is marvelous. As a rule they rear from ten to fifteen children in each family. Blumenau, a colony which was settled by the Germans over fifty years ago, more than doubles itself every ten years. Southern Brazil is now called Greater Germany, and the Germans exercise there a commercial and financial supremacy. For a good part of the 20th century, the Brazilian government did not encourage people to speak German. During the days of Getulio Vargas's presidency, speaking German was actively repressed and prohibited. But over the years the government has become more tolerant of Brazilian Germans, acknowledging their existence and embracing the culture of the German population. Today, German is part of the curriculum in local schools. Photo credit: Marinelson Almeida/Flickr Photo credit: Marinelson Almeida/Flickr Photo credit: Marinelson Almeida/Flickr Photo credit: Juliano Mendes/Flickr Sources: Wikipedia / Wikipedia / Failed Architecture For more than thirty years, the RyounkakuJapan's first Western-style skyscraperwas a popular sight in the urban landscape of modern Tokyo, and appeared frequently in commercial images and touristic promotional images of Asakusa. The octagonal edifice stood 225 feet tall, and at that time, it was the tallest structure in the entirety of Japan. Its name translates to pavilion that soars above the clouds. The tower was designed by Scottish engineer William Kinnimond Burton, who was originally invited by the Meiji government in 1887 to help train Japanese engineers in sanitation. At that time, the country was dealing with several serious epidemics, notably cholera. Burton's appointment was remarkable because he was primarily self-taught and lacked many of his colleagues' excellent academic or professional qualifications. It is not known who recommended Burton to the Japanese government, or what inspired him to leave a promising career in London for what he believed to be a temporary assignment in Japan. In any case, Burton did train a number of prominent water system engineers for nine years, and became the sole consultant engineer for the Sanitary Department of the Home Ministry, planning and managing the water and drainage systems of numerous cities, including Tokyo. Shortly after his arrival in Japan, Burton was also entrusted with the responsibility of designing a tower to symbolize Japans successful attempts at modernization. The buildings frame was built out of wood, because wood was the traditional material of construction and Japanese artisans knew how to work with it. But the facade was made out of red bricks. The building was twelve floors tall, and all the floors had electric lighting. The Ryounkaku was also the first building in Japan to have electric elevators, and there were two of it, each capable of carrying up to ten passengers. These elevators served the first through eighth floors, the first seven of which was occupied some forty stores selling luxury goods from around the world. On the eighth floor, was a spacious lounge, and adjacent to the lounge was a musical hall where Western music concerts were held, and an art exhibition space where photographs of geisha were displayed. The floors tenth, eleventh and twelfth had observation decks from which all of Tokyo could be seen, and on clear days, even Mount Fuji. In 1923, thirty-three years after the tower was constructed, the Great Kanto earthquake struck Honshu, and the Ryounkaku collapsed partially. What remained had to be demolished during clean up. Today, Japan has more than 270 high-rise buildings above 150 meters. Unlike other Asian countries where the tallest skyscrapers exceed 400 meters, Japans skyscrapers are relatively shorter. This is because of strict building code that require any building taller than 50 meters to adhere to strict structural standards because Japan is very prone to earthquakes. This makes construction expensive. The current tallest building in Japan is Abeno Harukas, located in Osaka. It is 300 meters tall. The partially collapsed Ryounkaku after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The partially collapsed Ryounkaku after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. References: # When towers fall, Histories Of Science And Technology In East Asia Google has been using AI to develop a system for predicting wildfires and floods for several years. Ahead of the COP27 summit next week, Google announced it is expanding AI-powered flood and wildfire tracking to 20 new countries as climate change continues to worsen. Google started using AI to predict floods in India back in 2018, and that program further expanded to Bangladesh in 2020. According to Google, it will now offer flood forecasts for river basins in another 18 countries. Those are Brazil, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Namibia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Angola and South Africa. The alerts go out to every Android phone user or any phone with the installed Google search app. Though, users will need to have an active internet connection and Google location services enabled on their phones to receive alerts. Advertisement Google is also debuting a new tool called Flood Hub, which will be available worldwide. Flood Hub will display flood forecasts on a map and will show where they might occur. Further, Google announced it is expanding support for wildfire tracking tools in Search and Maps. First introduced in the US, the improved tracking is now available in the US, Mexico, Canada, and parts of Australia. What is the need for AI-Powered flood and wildfire tracking? As per a UN report, nearly half of our planet lacks adequate early warning systems for disasters like floods and wildfires. With climate change on the rise, disasters like floods and wildfires have become a regular sight. Flood damage affects 250 million people every year. Therefore, there has to be a system that can predict these life-threatening events and give early warning to residents. This is where Google comes into the picture, with its powerful AI and vast amounts of data. Google hopes its services can fill in some gaps, by providing early warnings to users on their phones. Advertisement This expansion in geographic coverage is possible thanks to our recent breakthroughs in AI-based flood forecasting models, and were committed to expanding to more countries, Yossi Matias, Google vice president of engineering and crisis response lead, wrote in a blog post. How does Googles AI predict floods and wildfires? Google relied on water level gauges to predict floods. But in many under-developed countries, the amount of data Google required to predict floods accurately wasnt available. Therefore, Google switched its model, weather forecast data is now the key driver behind the AI model. This update will allow Google to issue flood warnings up to a week in advance, senior staff engineering manager Sella Nevo told The Verge . As for wildfires, Google uses data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA satellites. Google now uses machine learning with satellite imagery to improve wildfire detection and monitoring. This information is used to alert the public and also to assist with firefighting efforts. Samsung plans to roll out the stable Android 13 update to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 this month and is on track for it. Perhaps the update may not be too far off now. The latest foldable has received yet another beta release. This is the third One UI 5.0 beta for the phone and comes just a week after the second build. In fact, the phone has picked up beta updates every week for the past three weeks. The stable rollout could begin soon. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 gets its third Android 13 beta update in three weeks The latest beta release for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 comes with a firmware version ending with ZVK1. It bundles the November 2022 Android security patch, which we have seen in other beta updates too, but not yet with stable releases. The OTA (over-the-air) package for users on Beta 2 weighs just over 540MB (via). As for the content of the update, its all about bug fixes and improvements. Samsung isnt adding any new features, which is understandable at this point. The company has already tested all the new features and is refining those for the public rollout. According to the official changelog, Samsung has fixed the extensive battery drainage problem on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 with this beta release. The company doesnt detail the issue but the foldable shouldnt consume too much power now. The previous beta builds contained a bug that caused the phone to crash when trying to set lockscreen shortcuts on both left and right sides. The new release fixes that problem. The issue of the status bar disappearing has also been fixed. Advertisement Additionally, Samsung has ironed out a Bluetooth keyboard issue that didnt allow users to type in Korean. Samsung Pay gestures also now work properly when the device is folded. Last but not least, the Korean firm has patched problems in the camera app and the cover screen. All in all, the latest beta release is a huge step towards the stable Android 13 update for the Galaxy Z Fold 4. It may arrive by mid-November. Along with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung also plans to release the Android 13 update for more than a dozen other Galaxy models this month. The likes of the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are all expected to receive the new Android version within the next few weeks. We will let you know when those updates arrive. After a few weeks of beta testing, the latest version (v19) of Samsung Internet is rolling out to the public. Samsung Internet 19 adds a bunch of privacy and security features, enabling more secure internet access. For starters, a new Privacy Info feature lets you quickly check and delete all cookies a website is using. You can access it by tapping on the Lock icon in the URL bar. It also tells you whether the connection is secure. A similar feature also exists on some other best internet browsers, including Google Chrome. The latter also notes when you last visited the website. With the latest update, the Samsung Internet homescreen widget shows your recent search history. You can tap on an item to resume your search journey. Additionally, Secret Mode now allows you to use add-ons such as ad blockers. Youll have to manually enable the Allow in Secret Mode option for each add-on you want to use in Secret Mode. This change will elevate your internet browsing experience on Samsungs browser app. Advertisement For added privacy, Samsung Internet 19 will warn users when they visit malicious websites. When a malicious website is detected, it will cut off access and advise you to go back. If you feel the website is safe or you must visit it, you can ignore the warning and proceed. These warnings are often accurate, so make sure to be cautious when youre on such suspicious websites. Avoid downloading files from those platforms. Samsung also now allows third-party apps to offer filters for content blocking. Last but not least, the latest update for Samsung Internet further improves the companys Smart Anti-Tracking feature. It already blocks websites from tracking your online activities on the app. It can now detect domains that use cookies for cross-site tracking and block those as well. Your browsing is more private than ever. You can always visit the privacy dashboard for detailed metrics and privacy settings. Samsung Internet 19 is now rolling out During the beta period, Samsung tested a cross-platform bookmark syncing feature with Google Chrome for its browser app. The changelog for the public release doesnt mention that (via). Its unclear if the feature has been dropped or its still present. The best way would be to check for it on the latest version. Unfortunately, Samsung Internet 19 isnt widely available yet. Rolling out with version number 19.0.1.2, the app is currently only available to some Galaxy users. A wider rollout for non-Galaxy devices should follow soon. If you use Samsung Internet, you can click the button below to check for an update on the Google Play Store. Advertisement DOWNLOAD SAMSUNG INTERNET (ANSA) - ROME, NOV 4 - With the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community committed itself to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. At the Glasgow summit in 2021, a number of states assured that they would no longer invest into coal, oil and gas. Russia's war in Ukraine threw many things into disarray. Now, the climate targets are to be improved at the UN's COP27. RUSSIAN GAS. Russian gas no longer flows to Europe. Germany, for example, is investing billions in new liquefied natural gas terminals on the coast. Coal-fired power plants are put back into operation to secure the electricity supply this winter. Similar things are happening in other parts of Europe. Nevertheless, the EU states assure that they want to meet the EU's climate protection target, i. e. reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. Ahead of the UN's COP27 Climate Change Conference, which takes place in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6, the EU Parliament calls for more leadership in mitigating climate change. The EU must show leadership and increase its 2030 emission reduction targets, stated a resolution adopted by the EU parliament in October. The EU Parliament called on industrialized countries to increase their climate protection targets, saying that Russia's war against Ukraine and its consequences made it all the more urgent to transform the global energy system. In addition, MEPs requested that the developed countries must keep their promise and ensure that the developing countries receive 100 billion US dollars in funding each year for climate protection. Germany's State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the Federal Foreign Office, Jennifer Morgan, called on the EU to take the leading role at the international conference: "The EU must lead the way in accelerating the energy transition in solidarity with weaker nations." She added that it was also important to keep financial commitments to developing nations and to support countries particularly affected by climate change through a solidarity pact. Germany will double its international funding commitments for environmental protection to 1.5 billion euros per year by 2025 at the latest. EU PLEDGES MORE THAN 23 BILLION EUROS IN CLIMATE FINANCE TO THE GLOBAL SOUTH. On October 28, the Council of the EU announced that the European Union and its 27 member states have pledged 23.04 billion euros in climate finance to the Global South. The funding from public sources aims "to support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change," a press release read. 54 percent of the funds were either earmarked for climate adaptation or for measures tackling both adaptation and climate change mitigation, the statement read, citing European Commission figures. Almost half of the total amount was pledged in the form of grants. International public climate finance aims to support countries of the Global South in implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement. SLOVENIA ONE OF THE FASTEST WARMING COUNTRIES. The targets of the Paris Agreement are increasingly at risk. Slovenia is one of the fastest warming countries. Experts from the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics have calculated that the country already exceeded the two-degree warming limit back in 2020. They warned that if only moderate action was taken, average temperatures in Slovenia could increase by almost five degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning Uros Brezan sees great potential in solar energy. There's also a debate on the potential construction of a second unit at the Krsko nuclear power station. The life span of the plant's first unit is to be extended to 2043. Next year, Slovenia is expected to adopt a climate change law, which is to introduce a climate council, a body bringing together experts, political players and NGOs in a bid to find the most suitable measures to mitigate climate change. The country expects the COP27 Climate Conference to focus on issues concerning the developing countries. Environment Minister Brezan, who will attend the conference in Sharm El Sheikh, said that the issue of financing will always arise in the relationship between developed and developing countries. The promise that developing countries would receive 100 billion US dollars in climate aid a year had not been kept. "I believe we can make progress there. Slovenia, as a developed country, is committed to making a greater effort," Brezan said. SERBIA'S CLIMATE PROMISE. Serbia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33.3 percent by 2030 and announced that by the end of this year, the country will publish the first National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change in Serbia. The country aims to abandon fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy sources, as well as switch to a circular economy model and reduce waste. The EU delegation in Serbia welcomed the country's increased climate ambition and called for the adoption of long-term strategies for climate neutrality by 2050. The head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, said that "the EU will provide direct budget support in the amount of 165 million euros to mitigate the energy crisis. In parallel, the EU supports Serbia in increasing the energy efficiency of public and private facilities and the share of renewable energy sources." Ahead of the UN Climate Summit COP27, the Digital Climate Atlas of Serbia was presented in Belgrade. The online platform is based on meteorological and geospatial data, providing insights into current and future climate changes for the entire territory of Serbia. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA'S DEPENDENCE ON THERMAL POWER PLANTS. Serbia's neighbor Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) became a member of the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2000. However, for its electricity supply, BiH is still dependent on thermal power plants, which are major polluters. Authorities in the country have approved the continued operation of two thermal power plants, one in Tuzla and the other in Kakanj, whose service life has expired. This is to maintain stability in electricity production. BiH authorities had previously pledged that these plants would not operate for more than 20,000 hours after January 1, 2018. The Energy Community (EC), an international organization of the EU and several third states, initiated proceedings against Bosnia and Herzegovina for violating the regulations. The EC states that pollution protection systems have not been modernized as required and that the continued operation of the two thermal power plants violates the EU's Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) as well as BiH's own national plan for the reduction of harmful gas emissions. The Energy Community has to ensure that signatory states commit themselves to liberalizing their energy markets according to the requirements of the acquis and the EU Treaty. According to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bosnia and Herzegovina generated 42.3 percent of its total energy from renewable sources in 2021. EUROPE ONE OF THE FASTEST-HEATING REGIONS IN THE WORLD DESPITE PROGRESS IN EMISSION REDUCTION. Meanwhile, according to a joint report by the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, temperatures in Europe have increased by more than twice the global average over the past three decades, making it the fastest-warming of all continents. However, according to preliminary figures, emissions from the 27 EU states fell by 32 percent between 1990 and 2020, which means that the climate target of a 20 percent reduction by 2020 was clearly achieved, states a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on October 26. The experts at the Copenhagen-based EU agency wrote that the annual progress would have to be more than doubled on the way towards meeting the more ambitious climate and energy targets for 2030. Emissions would have to decrease by an average of 134 million tons of CO2 per year, or 4 percent, to meet the target of reducing emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. For WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, "Europe presents a vivid picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not safe from the effects of extreme weather events." But the WMO also notes that it's not all bad news: "Europe can play a key role in achieving a carbon-neutral society by mid-century to meet the Paris Agreement," said Petteri Taalas. For Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, "European society is vulnerable to climate variability and climate change, but Europe is also at the forefront of international efforts to mitigate climate change and develop innovative solutions to adapt to the new climate that Europeans will have to live with." This article was produced with contributions from AFP, ANSA, dpa, FENA, Tanjug and STA as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project. (ANSA). Flashback art fair showcases 500,000-euro de Chirico Many valuable paintings at ongoing Turin fair (ANSAmed) - TURIN, NOVEMBER 4 - ''Amichevole incontro" (friendly encounter), a famous metaphysical painting by Giorgio de Chirico is one of the most valuable artworks exhibited at Flashback, the art fair in Turin celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. It is an oil painting from circa 1970 (52,2 x 69 cm), which Artemisia Fine Art Dogana has estimated to be worth 500,000 euros. It is not the only masterwork with such a high estimate in the new space of the Flashback Habitat fair in Corso Giovanni Lanza 75, although not all the exhibitors are giving an estimate of their pieces. The portrait of Emilienne Le Roy by Giovanni Boldini is close to that estimate. An oil painting from 1912, it has been evaluated by Flavio Gianassi - Fg Fine Art London at 450,000 euros. The same gallery is proposing a Vir Dolorum with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist from the end of the 1300s by Bicci di Lorenzo, an artist of Florence's Late Gothic Period (160,000 euros). A relief by Gasparo Cairano, the main representative of Brescia's Renaissance sculpture, is showcased by the Orsi Gallery of Milan for 300,000 euros, while Prato's Open Art Gallery estimates between 80 and 100,000 euros the Return from the Marine Colonies by Florentine artist Marisa Mori, who grew up artistically in the Turin of Felice Casorati.(ANSAmed). TURIN - The archaeological mission that "100 years ago led to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb was the first mediatic excavation. Newspapers flocked, they wanted to have news", Christian Greco, director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, told ANSA on the anniversary of the discovery. "Lord Carnarvon gave an exclusive to the Times, making the other journalists unhappy, especially Egyptian" reporters. One century has gone by since, on November 4, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered, in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, the tomb of a child pharaoh, rendered eternal by its splendid mask in gold and lapis lazuli, and its great hidden treasure, nearly 6,000 very precious findings. "It was not a far-sighted choice to give the exclusive rights to a foreign newspaper, at a time when people in Egypt wanted independence from European colonial powers. It's as if we found the intact tomb of Augustus and the exclusive was given to a foreign paper", observed Greco, who also spoke about the so-called "curse of Tutankhamun". "Let's debunk a myth. It doesn't exist, it was perhaps created to add mystery to mystery. The Medical Journal in 2002 analyzed the average life expectancy of those working at the tomb and they lived longer. Therefore, it brought good luck". Greco also stressed another aspect: "The British Museum published a photo of Queen Elisabeth II watching Tutankhamun's mask, photographed for the great exhibit of 1972. There is also one from the 1960s of Jacqueline Kennedy watching the same mask. The child sovereign who never met the powerful meets them today. Paradoxically, he is living more today. His name became iconic, much more than it was during his reign". Tunisia Africa Business Meetings to take place in December B2B, workshops and business visits for multiple sectors (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, NOVEMBER 4 - The second edition of the Tunisia Africa Business Meetings will be held on December 6, 7 and 8 in Tunis, at the Center for Export Promotion (Cepex), in collaboration with the German agency for international cooperation (Giz). The agenda includes professional meetings entirely dedicated to B2B appointments with the participation of more than 100 buyers from 20 sub Saharan African countries. The sectors involved include the food, mechanic, electric, textile, clothing, chemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as businesses operating in construction and public works, health services, education and training, communication and computer science as well as various services for companies (including finance and consulting). Along with B2B meetings, the two-day events will include a plenary session, workshops and company tours. Tunisian exports towards sub Saharan Africa have reached 1,404. 5 million Tunisian dinars in 2021, recording a 27.6% increase from 2020. The Ivory Coast is Tunisia's main client with a 17% share of exports from Tunisia towards sub-Saharan Africa. Saharan Africa is followed by Senegal (11%), Cameroon (7%) and Guinea (6%). Tunisia's main exported products are gypsum, cement, margarine, toilet paper and packaged food. The sector of Tunisian services also works very well on the African market, as it can count on the know-how of Tunisian companies in sectors like construction, health, TIC, education and other areas. Tunisia's adhesion to AfCFTA and COMESA is an important resource which should enable Tunisian companies to have better conditions of access to the market and contribute to the development of intra-African trade. These meetings are organized with the support of the project "Promotion of export activities that create jobs towards new African markets" (PEMA2), started at the request of the German federal ministry for cooperation and economic development (Bmz) and implemented by Giz in cooperation with the Tunisian ministry for trade and development of exports and Cepex. (ANSAmed) PARIS - French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday said he had "no doubt" that Italy "will respect international law", letting into one of its ports the migrant-rescue ship Ocean Viking, operated by the NGO Sos Mediterranee, which is currently stranded at sea with 234 migrants on board. "International law is very clear: when a boat asks to dock with shipwrecked people on board, the safest and closest port must welcome it - specifically, Italy", the minister told RMC-BFMTV. Darmanin said France is willing to take part of the migrants on rescue vessel Ocean Viking. Speaking to RMC-BFMTV, Darmanin said: "We have told Italy, and we say this with Germany, that if that humanitarian vessel will be welcomed by Italy, we will also host part of the migrants, of women and children, so that Italy isn't burdened on its own by this arrival of migrants". Darmanin told the broadcaster that he has met with the new Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. "We have no doubts that Italy will respect international law", he said, asked by French reporters about the situation regarding stranded humanitarian vessels in the Mediterranean. "We also tell Italy that the problem of its geography, of being the country that is closer to this ship, doesn't mean that it must be left alone". The French minister also stressed that Italy plays a "great human role". "We don't doubt for an instant that Italy, a member of the European Union, which has signed all international conventions", will respect international law, stressed Darmanin, who just a few days ago visited Rome with French President Emmanuel Macron. 'AWALI - In an unprecedented gesture by the leading Sunni authority towards Shiite Muslims, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb asked Shiites to meet with an "open heart". "I appeal to our brothers, Muslim jurists from around the world, regardless of their sects and schools, to hold a serious dialogue within Islam, a dialogue to favor unity, a rapprochement, religious and human brotherhood, in which the causes of division are rejected, of sedition, of sectarian conflict and which focuses on the points of agreement and convergence", he said, intervening at the Forum for Dialogue in Bahrain, also attended by Pope Francis. "We should forgive one another and apologize for the things on which we don't agree, and for the resulting consequences; we should stop speeches of hatred, provocations, infidelity, taking into account the need to overcome historic and contemporary conflicts with all their problems and consequences. I send this invitation to everybody, in particular our Shiite Muslim companions", he said. "I am ready, together with the leading jurists of Al-Azhar and the Council of Muslim elders, to hold such a meeting with an open heart and extended hands. Let's sit together at the same table to overcome differences and strengthen the Islamic issue and the unity of realistic positions, which satisfy the aims of Islam and its law, and forbid Muslims from listening to appeals of division and discord and to avoid falling into traps that cause instability in nations, from using religion to reach an ethnic or sectarian end, and from interfering in domestic affairs to weaken the sovereignty of states or usurp lands". Kosovo: concerned Vucic cancels appointments abroad Today meeting in Belgrade with EU envoy (ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 4 - The persistence of the complex situation in Kosovo and rising ethnic tension has induced Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to cancel all previous engagements abroad, local media reported on Friday. A controversy on license plates, with a stiffening of respective positions regarding the mandatory re-registration of cars with Serbian plates, risks to continue blocking for a long time negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, facilitated by the EU, while the downing of a spy drone the day before yesterday in southern Serbia near the border with Kosovo has led to reciprocal accusations. According to Belgrade, the drone came from Kosovo and it was being used to observe Serbian military installations. The allegations were rejected by Pristina. Vucic later on Friday afternoon is scheduled to meet in Belgrade with EU special envoy Miroslav Lajak, while on Saturday he will address a government session to speak about his recent meetings with Serbian representatives of Kosovo, who have threatened the withdrawal of all Kosovan institutions. At the end of the meeting, Vucic is scheduled to meet with the ambassadors of China and Russia. Also tomorrow, the president will meet Serbian Patriarch Porfirije and members of the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, with whom he will examine the latest developments of the situation in Kosovo. Meanwhile, the international community, notably the EU and US, are calling for the intensification of efforts to reach a final agreement on Kosovo and for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, to eliminate a dangerous outbreak of further instability in the Balkans.(ANSAmed). ROME - The NGO Sos Mediterranee said on Friday that "for years we have stated that central European States must take responsibility to alleviate the pressure of migrant arrivals from Italy and Malta: the important thing for us is for the Ocean Viking (with 234 migrants on board) to dock at the closest safe port and we hope that this will happen as soon as possible". The organization added that "the redistribution of migrants is not within our jurisdiction, thus we have no comment on this". "The disembarkation of people and hosting are managed in a different manner. The rescue operation ends when people land in a safe place. Once they have landed, there are already national and international procedures in place establishing how an asylum request and different forms of protection are made", said Juan Matias Gil, mission chief for search and rescue operations at sea for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). "As Doctors Without Borders, our priority is to disembark" migrants at the "closest safe port and not at thousands of kilometers of distance from where we are. This is in the interest and for the physical and mental wellbeing of the 572 people on board who have been waiting for over a week to disembark", he added. The NGO Doctors Without Borders operates on the Geo Barents, the vessel that has rescued 572 people (including 60 minors and three pregnant women) during seven different rescue operations in international waters in the Maltese SAR (search and rescue) zone. The vessel's flag "has nothing to do with the rights and duties of asylum", said the NGO Sos Humanity, citing Norway's response to Italy's verbal note concerning the "Norwegian-flagged migrant-rescue vessels Ocean Viking and Geo Barents". The organization's German-flagged vessel Humanity 1, which rescued 179 people, including more than 100 minors, has been asking for days for a safe port of landing. Norway, in a mail sent to Reuters in response to Italy's appeal to Oslo and Germany to take charge of migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, said it has "no responsibility under human rights conventions or maritime law for people on board vessels" that are private or run by NGOs "with a Norwegian flag in the Mediterranean". No doubt Italy will open port to Ocean Viking, France Darmanin: 'International law is very clear' (ANSAmed) - PARIS, NOVEMBER 4 - French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday said he had "no doubt" that Italy "will respect international law", letting into one of its ports the migrant-rescue ship Ocean Viking, operated by the NGO Sos Mediterranee, which is currently stranded at sea with 234 migrants on board. "International law is very clear: when a boat asks to dock with shipwrecked people on board, the safest and closest port must welcome it - specifically, Italy", the minister told RMC-BFMTV.(ANSAmed). The UKs new car market has recorded a third successive month of growth. Some 134,344 new cars were registered in October, up 26.4% compared with the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The SMMT attributed the increase to strong order books being partly fulfilled. But it noted that October 2021 was particularly disappointing. (PA Graphics) The total number of new cars registered so far this year is a third below pre-coronavirus levels. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: A strong October is hugely welcome, albeit in comparison with a weak 2021, but it is still not enough to offset the damage done by the pandemic and subsequent supply shortages. Next years outlook shows recovery is possible and EV (electric vehicle) growth looks set to continue, but to achieve our shared net-zero goals, that growth must accelerate and consumers given every reason to invest. This means giving them the economic stability and confidence to make the switch, safe in the knowledge they will be able to charge and charge affordably when needed. (PA Graphics) The models are there, with more still to come; so must the public chargepoints. Registrations of pure battery electric new cars grew by less than the overall market for the first time since the pandemic, up 23.4%. The year-on-year market share of the cars fell for the first time sine May last year, from 15.2% t0 14.8%. The SMMT said this was primarily attributable to supply challenges. The King will host a Buckingham Palace reception for business figures from across the globe and NGOs ahead of the UN climate change summit Cop27. Charles will welcome more than 200 guests to the royal residence including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who reversed his decision to skip Cop27 in Egypt next week, bowing to pressure from activists, his own environment adviser and Boris Johnson. Despite No 10s U-turn, the King is still not planning to attend Cop27. Downing Street acknowledged on Thursday that the King might have been able to join delegates in Egypt if the prime minister had been in office earlier in the year. The King will welcome Rishi Sunak during the Cop27 reception (Aaron Chown/PA) When Liz Truss was premier, a unanimous agreement was reached that the King should not attend after advice was sought by his office from the Government. A Downing Street spokeswoman said on Thursday it was now not logistically feasible for the King to join the international gathering at Egypts Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. She said about Mr Sunak, who only took office last week following the dramatic resignation of Ms Truss: We do recognise that had the Prime Minister been in post earlier, the situation might have been different but it is not logistically feasible at this late stage. A Buckingham Palace spokesman reiterated there had been unanimous agreement with the Government that the King would not travel to Egypt for the summit. Cop26 president Alok Sharma, who will be handing over the UKs presidency to Egypt at the summit, has been invited to the palace reception where Mr Sunak will give a short speech. Among the guests will be US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and the King is expected to hear from his guests about practical measures to combat climate change and their plans for Cop27 and beyond. Becki Buggs only discovered she had cancer after her husband joked she 'looked like a minion' due to her yellow-tinged skin, pictured with children Jacob and Georgie. (Pancreatic Cancer UK/SWNS) A nurse only discovered she had cancer after her husband joked she looked like a Minion when she came out of the shower with yellow-tinged skin. While it may have been a joke, as a nurse, Becki Buggs, 43, from Colchester, Essex, knew that jaundice in adults could be a sign of a serious underlying condition and sought immediate medical help. She was "completely devastated" to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the tenth most common cancer in the UK. Everything was adding up to the fact that it was not going to be a good diagnosis," the mum-of-two explains. Breaking the news to people was difficult and not made any more straight forward by her job. "It didnt make it any easier," she explains. In fact, it made it harder for me to tell people because Im the person that they normally look to, to reassure them that everythings going to be okay. I couldnt do that this time because I was completely devastated myself. Read more: Sailor, 19, put aggressive cancer symptoms down to his strenuous Royal Navy job Buggs with her children, Jacob and Georgie, and husband Walter. (Pancreatic Cancer UK/SWNS) Following her diagnosis Buggs went on to have an operation to remove the cancer, similar to the procedure she prepares patients for in her role as an NHS theatre nurse. But while she considers herself very lucky to have been quickly referred for blood tests, scans, and surgery, Buggs fears patients this winter will miss out on the chance of having the same operation the only potentially curative treatment for the disease. The quickest killing cancer, more than half of people with pancreatic cancer die within three months of diagnosis. According to Pancreatic Cancer UK almost 60% of people who have the disease are diagnosed in A&E, which means for most people, it is tragically too late for them to receive treatment. Im worried for other pancreatic cancer patients," Buggs continues. "It scares me that there are people out there who will think, Oh, I just feel a bit off and I don't really feel well but it's fine, I can't get a GP appointment, so I'll just ride it out. "Then they become so ill and jaundiced that they get admitted to A&E and by then it's too late." Read more: As UK mouth cancer cases hit record high, here's everything you need to know Buggs said she was 'completely devastated' when she was diagnosed, pictured with her children on Christmas Day. (Pancreatic Cancer UK/SWNS) Buggs is now backing Pancreatic Cancer UK's No Time To Wait campaign, which coincides with Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month, and is calling for the UK government to make a commitment with the charity. They want the government to promise that everyone with the disease is diagnosed within 21 days of their referral and offered fast access to treatment. Pancreatic Cancer UK also want all pancreatic cancer patients to be immediately given access to support from a specialist nurse. Diana Jupp, CEO of Pancreatic Cancer UK, says: The message from health professionals is frighteningly clear: the pandemic, staff shortages and underfunding have all pushed the NHS to breaking point. "Pancreatic cancer is the quickest killing cancer, and any delays to diagnosis and treatment could cost people their chance of survival. "There is no time to wait." Watch: Video uses voices of celebrities who died of pancreatic cancer to raise awareness Pancreatic cancer: the facts Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease, with just 5% of patients surviving for ten or more years after their diagnosis, according to Cancer Research UK. Pancreatic cancer is the 10th most common cancer with 10,449 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK in 2018. Pancreatic cancer is the 5th biggest cancer killer in the UK with 9,000 deaths every year. It has the lowest survival of all common cancers, with five-year survival less than 7%. Read more: Breast cancer changed my whole mindset - Ive never been happier She is now hoping to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer symptoms. (Pancreatic Cancer UK/SWNS) Signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer often does not cause any symptoms in its early stages, which also makes it hard to diagnose, Pancreatic Cancer UK reports. And any warning signs that do develop tend to be vague, and come and go. They could also be confused for more common conditions like irritable bowel syndrome or inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis). This can make pancreatic cancer hard to diagnose. Some of the most common symptoms of pancreatic cancer include: - indigestion, - back or tummy pain - changes to your poo - unexpected weight-loss or loss of appetite - jaundice (yellow skin or eyes and itchy skin). There are also some less common symptoms of pancreatic cancer. These include a fever, shivering, and generally feeling unwell or not quite right. Pancreatic Cancer UK says some people also feel like they cant swallow their food properly. People experiencing any of these symptoms without knowing why they have them should contact their GP or call NHS 111. Anyone with jaundice should go to their GP or A&E straight away. Read more: Young woman diagnosed with breast cancer at 26 urges others to check their boobs How is pancreatic cancer treated? Once diagnosed, treatment depends on the size and type of pancreatic cancer a patient has, where it is, if it has spread and the patient's general health. According to the NHS your treatment will depend on if the cancer can be removed or not. If pancreatic cancer is found early and it has not spread, you may be able to have surgery to remove it, however, if the cancer cannot be removed, you may have surgery to help control some symptoms of pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapy may be given before surgery to help shrink the cancer or after to stop it coming back. If the patient cannot go under the knife, chemotherapy may shrink the tumour to minimise symptoms and extend their life. Radiotherapy can also help halt cancer growth and ease any pain. Additional reporting SWNS. Irish premier Micheal Martin has criticised the way in which staff were let go at Twitter, saying that it was not acceptable and was fairly unprecedented. We are concerned, and our concern is there for the employees of Twitter, the Taoiseach told reporters in Co Tipperary. Twitter is letting a significant number of staff go reported to be as high as half its workforce as part of tech billionaire Elon Musks dramatic takeover of the social media giant. There seems to be a fairly unprecedented approach being adopted here to a global workforce and thats manifesting itself in Ireland. What I would say is no matter who you are or what sector you are in, one must always treat people with dignity and respect, and the employees at Twitter deserve to be treated with respect. He said: The summary notice of dismissal or youre no longer working is not acceptable. Its not the way we conduct industrial relations or organised relationships between employers and employees. Twitters announcement comes just a day after the financial company Stripe, owned by Limerick brothers and co-founders Patrick and John Collison, said it was cutting its global workforce by 14%. Earlier on Friday, Irelands deputy premier said tech companies may have expanded a little bit too quickly. We over-hired for the world were in, the brothers wrote to staff in an email on Thursday. Speaking from Singapore while on a trade mission, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said his thoughts were with the employees at Stripe and Twitter who will lose their jobs. Tech companies expanded very quickly, probably expanded a little bit too quickly in the past year or two, and as a result they now have to lay off some staff, the enterprise minister told CNBC. But the number of vacancies in the sector still outweighs the number of people who are looking for employment, so even a slowdown or a downturn in the tech sector I think still means that youll have some very successful companies making profits and a lot of people working in that sector. Mr Varadkar also said that Ireland had been careful not to become over-reliant on any one sector. Tech is really big, but so is life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and indeed our food and drink industry, and thats just the traded sector. So weve been careful to make sure that we dont have all our eggs in one basket and thats been part of our success story. Irelands health minister Stephen Donnelly said it is a very concerning day for those affected. Do I believe its part of a broader move? No, these seem to be specific to a particular purchase of Twitter and moves that are being made there. But nonetheless, it will be a very concerning time. Employees at Twitter received an email on Friday morning advising them not to come into the office as their badge access was being suspended. Staff have also been told that everyone will receive an email by 4pm GMT (9am PST) on Friday telling them if their job is safe or not. Labour party spokesperson on workers rights, Marie Sherlock, said the way in which Twitter was informing people about whether their jobs were safe was outrageous. While political leaders were quick to be present for photocalls with Twitter, I hope they are just as quick to remind Twitter and all other companies of their legal responsibilities with regard to collective redundancies. Workers in a collective redundancy situation are entitled to a 30 days notice and consultation period, and the Minister must be notified of same. It is not yet clear whether Twitter are intending to abide by this. The treatment of workers by certain tech companies in recent days is cruel and appalling but it is not surprising, she said, adding that collective redundancy legislation needed to be improved ahead of a difficult winter. Ireland is host to several tech giants European headquarters, including Twitter, Google and Facebook. An announcement that there will be no fresh Stormont election in December has been described as classic Tory chaos. After days of speculation following the collapse of the Assembly, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said there will not be an election in December. He said he will outline his next steps in Parliament next week. Mr Heaton-Harris is obliged to call an election within 12 weeks of October 28 when the deadline for the Northern Ireland parties to form a fresh executive ran out. A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an administration being formed in the wake of the outcome of the last election in May which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party at Stormont for the first time. The people of Northern Ireland deserve a strong devolved government. I have had valuable conversations with Party leaders and people across Northern Ireland over the past week and have listened to their concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time. (1/2) Chris Heaton-Harris MP (@chhcalling) November 4, 2022 While a December election has been ruled out, it is understood that a poll in January is regarded as posing major logistical challenges. Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle ONeill accused Mr Heaton-Harris of more dithering and indecision, and a continuation of the Tory chaos in London. Chris Heaton-Harris has confirmed the bizarre U-turn he made last week but once again he provides no clarity or certainty on what his next steps even are, she said. The British government and the DUP are leaving us in a prolonged state of political limbo with no Assembly, Executive or caretaker ministers. This is totally unacceptable at a time when workers, families and small businesses are struggling through the cost-of-living crisis and a cold winter, and when our health service needs immediate investment. She said Mr Heaton-Harris should outline now exactly what the UK Government intends to do to restore the political institutions at Stormont. She also pressed on certainty over when people in Northern Ireland will receive the promised 400 cost of living energy payment. Earlier her party colleague John ODowd described a classic example of Tory chaos being imposed upon the people, and criticised Mr Heaton-Harris as part of the political difficulties. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has called for a razor-sharp focus on getting a solution, whether by negotiation or legislation to the protocol. There is no solid basis for a fully functioning Stormont until NIP is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support. Progress in NI only made when unionists and nationalists are aboard, he tweeted. Mr Heaton-Harris has also been criticised by Labour former Secretary of State Lord Hain who said: Nobody thought an election would resolve anything, and why the government got itself into that position, who knows? Fully share the Secretary of States objective; restoration of functioning institutions in NI. We had a good discussion this week, including on legal obligations under NDNA. No election pre Christmas is welcome & creates space for progress on other matters. We remain in contact. https://t.co/v1c5YbQb5Q Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 4, 2022 It gives me no pleasure at all to say this but I dont think the Secretary of State or the government know what theyre doing because theres no clarity, theres no purpose, theres no strategy. It seems to be lurching from one problem to another. Earlier this week Mr Heaton-Harris met Stormont parties as well as Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney. On Friday Mr Coveney welcomed the decision not told hold elections before Christmas. Fully share the Secretary of States objective; restoration of functioning institutions in NI, he tweeted. We had a good discussion this week, including on legal obligations under NDNA (New Decade New Approach). No election pre Christmas is welcome and creates space for progress on other matters. We remain in contact. The Alliance Party, UUP and SDLP also welcomed the decision not to have an election in December. Alliance leader Naomi Long said she believes Chris Heaton-Harris has lost credibility over his decision. He hasnt said there wont be an election. He simply said it wont happen the side of Christmas, she said. If you talk to the average person on the street in Northern Ireland today, most of them will see this is something of a Christmas miracle, because nobody actually wanted to go into the polls before Christmas. She said the test will be his next decision, and also called for a reform of the how the Assembly and Executive functions, stating that any power given to a party to hold the institutions to ransom should be removed. UUP leader Doug Beattie said there is now an opportunity to create time and space to resolve matters. Under the current legislation we still face a deadline of 8 December and a possible Assembly election on the 18th January. That would also be a mistake because an election would simply cost money and stall negotiations on the protocol, he said. None of this changes the basic fact that we need to reach a solution that gives Unionism confidence so all parties can return to the Executive and work for the people of NI. SDLP MP Claire Hanna described a big U-turn, telling RTE that Mr Heaton-Harris had hoisted himself on his own petard by being so definitive in the run-up to last week, but added: well give him a bit of space to try and fix some of these problems because they are fixable. Speculation was heightened on Wednesday after Steve Baker, a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, insisted the date for a Northern Ireland election will be confirmed soon. But in a statement on Friday morning, Mr Heaton-Harris said he had listened to concerns about the impact and the cost of an election at this time. I can now confirm that no Assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season, he said in the statement. Current legislation requires me to name a date for an election to take place within 12 weeks of October 28 and next week I will make a statement in Parliament to lay out my next steps. He added: My objective, what the people of Northern Ireland deserve, is the restoration of a strong, devolved government. My duty is to create the right environment for the parties in Northern Ireland to work together to restore the devolved institutions and deliver on crucial issues impacting Northern Irelands people. I do not take this duty lightly, nor do I overlook the very real concerns people have around their cost of living. While the UK Government is now under a legal responsibility to call a fresh election within 12 weeks, it could amend legislation at Westminster that would either extend or remove that time limit. The Government has vowed to secure changes to the protocol, either by a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed unilateral domestic legislation, the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would empower ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels. The European Commission has said the latter approach would breach the terms of an international treaty and potentially prompt retaliatory action. Britain will not be deflected from supporting Ukraine by Russias attempts to distract from its failing invasion, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said. On Thursday, the UK ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Bronnert, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over alleged UK involvement in a drone attack on Russias Black Sea fleet at the weekend. In London, Andrey Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, claimed British specialists had been involved in the training, preparation and execution of the raid, warning the UK was being drawn too deep into the conflict. The Government has not commented directly on the charges, but speaking to the PA news agency from a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Germany, Mr Cleverly said such claims were designed to distract from Russian military setbacks. What they are trying to do is to distract the world and probably the Russian people themselves from the truth of the situation which is they are suffering setback after setback on the battlefield, Mr Cleverly said. The Ukrainians have been defending themselves incredibly effectively. The UK wont be distracted from our ongoing support to the Ukrainians in their defence of their homeland and the world shouldnt be distracted from calling out Russia for its illegal invasion, for hampering grain exports from the Black Sea, for targeting civilian centres and critical national infrastructure. They want us to be talking about everything other than those things so we are going to be relentless in talking about the things we should be talking about. At the meeting in Munster, G7 ministers endorsed further sanctions against the Kremlin, including setting a price cap for Russian oil exports in the coming weeks. They also pledged additional backing for Kyiv by creating a new mechanism to assist with its reconstruction and other countries affected by food and energy shortages the war has exacerbated. We will continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscows war of aggression, the closing communique said. Billy McFarland, organizer of the Fyre Festival, gives first television interview since he was released from prison. (Photo: Reuters) Billy McFarland, the fraudster known for putting on the disastrous Fyre Festival, apologized in his first television interview since he was released from prison. "I was wrong. I messed up. And I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right. I had these early investors, backers, employees and I think I was just so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed," he told Michael Strahan on Friday's Good Morning America. "And that led me down just this terrible path of bad decisions." "But was it more to prove yourself, or was it more for money?" Strahan asked. "It was to prove myself and, once again, I was totally wrong and I lied to investors to get money. But I put every dollar I had or could find to make this festival happen and I literally came back to New York after with $100 in my pocket," McFarland, 30, replied. McFarland was convicted of fraud for throwing the infamous 2017 festival that left concertgoers stranded in the Bahamas. Instead of a luxury party on the beach, guests most of whom paid thousands of dollars to attend the "exclusive" event promoted by the likes of Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber arrived to disaster tents as shelter and limited food. The event was ultimately canceled. McFarland served almost four years of a six year sentence and is out of prison on supervised release. "I started lying to get the money," McFarland, who defrauding investors using fake documents, admitted. "I was literally day-by-day doing whatever it took. And looking back, it was so incredibly stupid." McFarland said he "should've listened" to his employees that encouraged him to pull the plug on the festival ahead of doomsday. Many of those employees shared their experiences in the competing 2019 documentaries FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, on Netflix, and Hulu's Fyre Fraud. Fyre Festival co-founder Ja Rule was never charged in connection with the festival and was dismissed as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by attendees but McFarland was not. The entrepreneur owes $26 million in restitution to pay back investors, vendors and concertgoers. "I need to apologize. And that is the first and the last thing that needs to be done," McFarland added. "I let people down. I let down employees. I let down their families. I let down investors. So I need to apologize. I'm wrong and it's bad." McFarland is hoping people have a short memory, though, as he's launching a new venture called "PYRT." "I went way too fast before. So I need to do everything now in a manageable way that I can actually make work," he said, adding, "I hope I continue to change for the next 40 years. So I'm certainly not done changing yet." MORE: Billy McFarland talks to Michael Strahan after prison release Sing the Chinese "Romeo and Juliet" in Yue Opera with artists in Shengzhou, E China's Zhejiang 16:33, November 03, 2022 By Cui Yue, Yuan Meng, Zhang Wenjie, Xue Yanyan, Zhou Yu, Alvaro Lago Sanchez ( People's Daily Online "Moonlight reflected off the lake is cast on my shadow. It accompanies me all the way to Shan Creek." These lines were written by Chinese poet Li Bai over 1,000 years ago in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. Today, Shengzhou, a prefecture-level city, is home to a wealth of intangible cultural heritage items with local characteristics, including Yue opera, Shengzhou snacks and bamboo weaving. These intangible cultural heritage items have become the citys calling card, as well as valuable cultural assets for local people. Century-old female troupe carries forward Yue opera "Several pairs of birds are seen on a wintersweet tree in front of the study. The magpies chirp, heralding good news for Liang Shanbo." These are the lyrics of Seeing Off over Eighteen Li, from the Yue opera masterpiece The Butterfly Lovers, which is based on the folktale of star-crossed lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Two actresses from a local opera troupe were practicing the opera performance on a stage in Shijia'ao village, Ganlin town, Shengzhou city. The Shijia'ao village female opera troupe dates back to the last century. In 1923, the first Yue opera class made up only of women was established in the village, opening a magnificent chapter in the development of Yue opera for the next 100 years. Many of Shengzhous residents can sing Yue opera. Chen Xiaoliu, a member of the female opera troupe in Shijia'ao, grew up in an environment in which she would frequently hear other people sing these songs. Chens fondness for Yue opera prompted her to join the female opera troupe in Shijia'ao, performing in the village every week. Chen has dedicated herself to the graceful art form for decades, and now she has a bigger ambition. "I hope that more people will fall in love with Yue opera and that audience all over the world can come to my hometown for the performances that I give," she said. Chens hopes are becoming a reality. In 2016, the Chinese Yue Opera Lovers website was launched. Currently, 180 full-fledged Yue opera interest clubs have been set up in and outside China. By organizing learning and exchange activities, these interest clubs have helped Yue opera reach more young audiences and cultivate many folk opera talents, introducing Yue opera to places around the country and even the world. Snacks in Shengzhou Shengzhou is famous for its local snacks. Handmade snacks in Shengzhou have become part of the local culture and reflect the local people's living environment. Xiaolongbao, or steamed bun, is the most famous example. As a specialty of Shengzhou, steamed buns are famous across the country. According to the Shengxian County Annals, steamed buns have a history of nearly 100 years. The steamed bun making technique is an intangible culture heritage item in Shengzhou. Lyu Suqin is a second-generation inheritor of steamed bun making techniques, and showcases the craft at a restaurant in the city. Lyu has been working in this field for more than 10 years. "I learned the technique from my grandfather, and now the technique has been passed on through three generations," said Lyu. "The restaurant can provide 500 steamers of steamed buns a day. A lot of people from Hangzhou and Ningbo come specially to the restaurant for the steamed buns. Knowing that they like the food very much, I feel a sense of satisfaction," Lyu said. Developing a quick freeze industrial chain, and seeking industrialized and standardized development of the chain is a natural choice for further promoting Shengzhou snacks. Taste of Shengzhou Frozen Food Co., Ltd is the first company in Shengzhou to engage in production of steamed buns. According to an executive at the company, the company uses fresh ingredients to make steamed buns, all of which are handmade, in order to ensure the products authenticity. "Our products have been sold to places in both the north and south of the country and about 200,000 steamed buns are sold daily," said the executive. (Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Wu Chengliang) Twitter sent employees an email Thursday notifying them that layoffs would begin on Friday morning, according to multiple news reports including The New York Times. The email told employees not to come into the office on Friday as the layoffs begin. The cuts will affect roughly half of Twitter's workforce, according to The Times, which cited an investor and internal messages. In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward, the email stated, according to The Information. The move comes as Musk attempts to improve Twitters consistently unimpressive margins following his $44 billion acquisition of the firm. Musk, who says he overpaid for Twitter, has already made significant changes to the business that he first attempted to wriggle out of buying. Shortly after taking over, Musk fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, and legal policy head Vijaya Gadde. The executives were reportedly fired for cause, though Musk hasnt publicly accused the executives of any wrongdoing. According to Business Insider, the Tesla CEO hopes to avoid making the executives contractually binding golden parachute payments that would cost the company tens of millions of dollars. The mercurial billionaire has few choices but to turn Twitters fortunes around if he wants to pay off its $13 billion in debt, which is estimated to cost approximately $1 billion a year. In its last quarter as a public company, Twitter reported a revenue decline of 1% year-over-year to $1.18 billion. The social media company also reported a net loss of $270 million representing a 23% net margin decrease. Costs and expenses, meanwhile, totaled $1.52 billion, a 31% year-over-year jump. In addition to slashing Twitters workforce, Musk is hoping to increase margins by charging users for the blue check marks that signified the service has verified their identity. Initially, the new Twitter chief considered charging users $20 a month for the mark. But after pushback from users, and famed author Stephen King, Musk lowered the price to $8 per month. The CEO says that charging verified users is the only way to defeat bots and trolls. Elon Musk and Stephen King exchange tweets regarding Musk's plans to charge $20 for verification check marks. (Image: Howley) As commentators like Bloombergs Mark Milian have pointed out, Musk isnt the first executive to propose charging a fee for a service to eliminate spam. Microsoft founder Bill Gates famously considered charging users a fee if their emails were rejected as spam. That plan, however, never came to fruition. Musk has already kick-started plans to address Twitters vexing content moderation policies by empaneling a moderation council composed of people who he says hold a variety of viewpoints, and by talking with civil rights leaders. On Thursday, according to CNBC, Musk held a meeting with executives from Anti-Defamation League, Asian American Foundation, Color of Change, NAACP, as well as the media reform advocacy group Free press. The CEO previously said he was buying Twitter to open up speech on the platform, which some advertisers and users feared could turn the entire site into a no mans land of hate and disinformation. Musk has since said that he wants the platform to be a warm and welcoming place and not an unmoderated hellscape. By Daniel Howley, tech editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him @DanielHowley Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn Twitter (TWTR) employees filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday, accusing the company of violating federal and state laws that govern notice of employment termination. The employees, based in Twitters San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., offices, are asking a California district court to grant class-action status on behalf of thousands of employees expected to be laid off from the company on Friday. One named plaintiff was terminated on Nov. 1, days after Tesla CEO Elon Musks acquisition of the company. The Twitter workers claim that mass layoffs would violate a federal law called the Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, as well as Californias state WARN Act. They also pointed out that Musks electric vehicle company Tesla is facing a similar lawsuit from a group of workers laid off from a Nevada factory. Plaintiffs file this action seeking to ensure that Twitter comply with the law and provide the requisite notice or severance payment in connection with the anticipated layoffs and that it not solicit releases of claims of any employees without informing them of the pendency of this action, the employees stated in the lawsuit. Elon Musk's photo is seen through a Twitter logo in this illustration taken October 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Under the WARN Act, private for-profit companies with at least 100 full-time workers, such as Twitter, must give employees at least 60 days advance written notice when a mass layoff will affect at least 50 employees and a third of the worksites total workforce, or when a worksite is closing that affects 50 or more employees, according to Roger Feicht, a labor and employment attorney at Gunster Law Firm. The law also applies when 500 or more employees at a single site of employment are terminated during any 90-day period. However, there are exceptions for unforeseeable business circumstances or faltering companies that allow for the notice as soon as practicable, Feicht said. That exception could provide a defense for Twitter. Feicht added that Twitter is also required to give advance notice of qualifying layoffs to the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit, which aids companies and affected workers to minimize disruptions from job loss, as well as to the chief elected official of each local government where mass layoffs occur. For Musk, the strategy of conducting illegal layoffs now and worrying about the headaches of employee lawsuits later could be worth the risk. Unfortunately, the penalties for non-compliance with the WARN Act are not that steep, Michael Oswalt, professor of law Wayne State University Law School Michael Oswalt, told Yahoo Finance. So in many ways the larger obligation here is moral. If Musk fails to give the proper notice, the company would be liable for each employees back pay for a maximum of 60 days, Oswalt said. And Californias penalty would add a fine of $500 per day, plus keep Twitter on the hook for any of the laid-off employees medical expenses resulting from the loss of their Twitter-provided health insurance. The point of the notice laws, Oswalt said, is to help employees adjust to the trauma of job loss by giving them a little time to rearrange family obligations, get new work, or even move. Theres no excuse for anyone let alone the richest person in the world to skirt that minimal level of decency, he said. At the same time, Musk must be careful establishing criteria for which workers are laid off to avoid terminations that trigger discrimination-based lawsuits, such as those alleging they were selected for the layoff due to race, religion, age, or disability. In addition to complying with the WARN Act, Feicht said Twitter needs to comply with the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA). For employees at least 40 years old, the law requires that their severance and release agreements, which often include waiving the right to bring future age-based discrimination claims, include time to consider the agreement and revoke it, even after signing. This story was amended to reflect a potential fine of $500 per day. Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed. Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. Click here for the latest technology business news, reviews, and useful articles on tech and gadgets Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube Ten Greenpeace activists whose protest at an oil terminal forced a tanker carrying Russian diesel to U-turn in the River Thames have been cleared of aggravated trespass, with a judge stating Russias war in Ukraine could be described as terrorism. The defendants, aged between 27 and 72, claimed they were preventing a crime by occupying a jetty at Navigator Terminals in Grays, Essex, preventing the vessel from unloading the diesel. District judge Christopher Williams, who returned his judgment at Chelmsford Magistrates Court on Friday, said: I take the view its more than likely the Russian war could be described as terrorism. The 10 defendants had denied, and were each cleared of, a single charge of obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in a lawful activity under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Activists (left to right) Lyndall Stein, Mike Grant, Ben Hearne-Salter, Henry Rayner, David James, Rhiannon Wood, Kim Harrison, Benji Bailes, Ian Mills and Zoe Pontida have been cleared (Angela Christofilou/Greenpeace/PA) The charge said that they trespassed on land at Navigator Terminals and blocked the jetty, obstructing or disrupting a lawful activity, namely fuel distribution. Henry Blaxland KC, defending, questioned whether the unloading of the Russian diesel was lawful activity, and the judge said that in my view the unloading of the oil was the potential offence. The protesters broke out into applause and there were cheers as the judge found each of them not guilty. Prosecutor Monali Raleraskar argued that the case did not require an analysis of whats morally right and whats morally wrong. But the judge said it was arguable that offences may have been committed under the Terrorism Act 2000, and that the activity which the defendants disrupted was the very thing they were protesting about. The protesters took two dinghy boats to access the jetty from the riverside late on May 15 this year. Activists attached themselves to the structure and displayed a banner that said oil fuels war. The Andromeda tanker, which was Greek-flagged and carrying Russian oil, was turned around in the Thames in the early hours of May 16. One of the activists who scaled the jetty, former lieutenant colonel Michael Grant, 62, told the court: The purpose of the action was to draw attention to the fact that fossil fuels were being imported and thereby funding Putins war. Speaking afterwards, Mr Grant said: This is a fantastic result. This verdict is not just a relief for us but a complete vindication of the ethical beliefs that led us to act. Another of the activists, teacher Zoe Pontida, described it as a seismic verdict. The 32-year-old said: It doesnt just fully vindicate our action, it also puts the UK government squarely in the dock. The judge has recognised that we are just ordinary people whose conscience compelled us to stop the oil funding Putins campaign of state terrorism in Ukraine. The defendants were: Benji Bailes, 38, of Gloucester; Michael Grant, 62, of Rosewell, Midlothian; Kim Harrison, 38, of Oldham, Greater Manchester; Benjamin Hearne-Salter, 41, of Kashmir Road, south London; David James, 62, of Bromfelde Road, south London; Ian Mills, 56, of Chippenham, Wiltshire; Zoe Pontida, 32, of Oxford; Henry Rayner, 28, of Ivanhoe Road, south London; Lyndall Stein, 72, of Surrey Row, south London; Rhiannon Wood, 27, of Hedge End, near Southampton, Hampshire. The number of Ukrainians who have fled their homes since Russias invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has reached 14 million, according to the latest United Nations data. Addressing the U.N. Security Council this week, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, described the mass exodus of refugees that began on Feb. 24, as the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades. He warned that with one of the worlds harshest winters soon approaching, Ukrainians were about to face extremely difficult circumstances, and more aid was needed. Humanitarian organizations have dramatically scaled up their response, but much more must be done, starting with an end to this senseless war, the U.N. refugee chief said. Unfortunately, we see the opposite, and the destruction caused by strikes at civilian infrastructure, which happens as we speak, is quickly making the humanitarian response look like a drop in the ocean of needs, he added. As of Nov. 1, 7,785,514 Ukrainian refugees had fled their country and were registered across Europe. Poland and Germany have received the most refugees over a million each followed by the Czech Republic, which has welcomed 455,731. Other countries that have received a significant number of Ukrainians include the United States, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy and Spain, which have welcomed between 100,000 and 300,000 refugees each. Neighboring countries such as Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, all of which are part of the U.N. Regional Refugee Response Plan, along with Poland, have also welcomed tens of thousands of refugees. During his speech, Grandi praised the European Unions response to the crisis and said that we have seen an open, well managed and above all shared refugee response that has proven wrong many of the statements frequently repeated by some politicians: that Europe is full; that relocation is impossible; that there is no public support for refugees. In the spring, the Biden administration announced a private sponsorship program to welcome as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to the U.S. In just over four months after the program was launched, 50,832 Ukrainians had arrived in the U.S. through the initiative, CBS news reported. From March to September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers encountered more than 91,000 Ukrainians along the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to those who have left the war-torn country, more than 6.9 million people are estimated to be internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the U.N. refugee agency. A woman boards an evacuation train with her daughter at the Pokrovsk Train Station in Ukraine. (Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) An additional 2.8 million refugees have been recorded crossing the border into Russia. In a recent analysis of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, Erol Yayboke said that some of these Ukrainian refugees report voluntarily moving through Russia as a means of eventually reaching the European Union. Yayboke is director and senior fellow for the Project on Fragility and Mobility at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. However, he noted that there have been troubling reports of forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia or Russian-occupied regions as Moscow tries to rid eastern Ukraine of people sympathetic to Kyiv. These allegations were brought up at a U.N. Security Council meeting in September by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Greenfield said that a variety of sources, including the Russian government, had indicated that Russian authorities had interrogated, detained and forcibly deported an estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainians. Russia, however, denied these allegations. A report published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week offered some insights into the profiles, needs and intentions of some of the Ukrainian refugees who are in Europe. With the help of its partners in Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary and other European countries, the UNHCR conducted more than 34,000 interviews between May and September 2022 at various crossing points, transport hubs, reception and transit centers, as well as assistance points in major cities, the agency said. According to the report, the majority of Ukrainian refugees are women who have traveled with their children or elderly parents. This is in part because men ages 18 to 60 who are eligible to serve in the military have been banned from leaving the country and asked to join in the fight. The refugees interviewed held high levels of education with 46% having a university degree or higher degrees, and 29% have vocational training. They also had diverse professional experiences, particularly in services and trade-related sectors. In terms of accommodations, the majority of respondents, 56%, were staying in hosted or rented accommodations, while 29% were still staying in collective sites, planned sites and reception or transit centers. The other 12% had relatives in the host countries. The top three urgent needs of the refugees were cash, employment and accommodation, and they were most interested in receiving information on financial aid services and work opportunities, followed by medical care and legal status. Finally, according to the report, the majority of respondents voiced a desire to stay in the host country in the near future for safety reasons. Given the likely protracted nature of the military situation, Grandi said his agency was preparing for further population movements both inside and outside Ukraine. He also brought attention to other emergencies happening across the globe. It is not only Ukraine where conflict has driven people from their homes. In the past 12 months alone, UNHCR has responded to 37 emergencies around the world. Thirty-seven. Yet the other crises are failing to capture the same international attention, outrage, resources, action, he said. Viktor Manoel teaches a "punking" dance class to students at MKM Cultural Arts Center. Punking, later referred to as whacking, is a street dance from the gay community of Los Angeles developed in the 1970s. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) In 2011, Lorena Valenzuela packed her bags and flew from her home of Mexico to Los Angeles to compete in a dance battle. The day before the contest, she attended a class at Evolution Studios in North Hollywood focused on punking a series of sharp, fast movements rooted in exaggerated looks and expressive body language that emerged in queer underground Hollywood clubs during the 1970s. A fellow dancer had introduced Valenzuela to the unique style when the two were a part of the Funkdation dance crew. "It really caught my attention all the lines, all the poses, all the expressions and the energy, the character," Valenzuela says. The classs instructor Viktor Manoel who was also a judge at the dance competition that year spotted Valenzuela and asked her to freestyle that day. At the time, she only knew four moves. But that wasnt enough for Manoel. He stopped the music mid-freestyle and goes, Really? Is this all you got? Is this why you came all the way from Mexico? Valenzuela recalls him saying. "Do it again, for real." I just started throwing myself to the ground, all my clothes were ripped, and I was just going insane, she says. This is the moment where I understood what this dance really was. Valenzuela realized that the movements weren't meant to look pretty; they expressed the toughest emotions. She went on to land in the top three at the festival that year the only Latina to place. Eventually she moved to the U.S. so that she could continue to develop her skills as a dancer, and she became a mentee of Manoel's specifically for punking and "whacking" a movement that evolved from punking that involves folding one's arms, swinging one's hands up and over the head all while one's chest pops out. (The originators of the style are known as "punkers," while newer generations of dancers are called "whackers.") Four years ago, she launched her own dance festival in Los Angeles, Strike With Force, that aims to uphold the history of punking and whacking while fostering a community for a new generation of dancers. Viktor Manoel poses for a portrait demonstrating a punking dance style at MKM Cultural Arts Center. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times) Gay men developed punking nearly five decades ago, while flocking to the safe space of the dance floor. The movement is especially personal for Manoel: After the AIDS epidemic claimed the lives of many of the movements founders and the community surrounding it, he is the last founding member of punking alive today. Developed in Los Angeles around the time voguing took hold in New York City, the roots of punking can be difficult to trace which is why Manoel is determined for new generations to understand the weight that comes with each pose and move. Im still fighting for that truth that needs to be told," he says. Because the gay culture cannot be forgotten in how this style started." When Manoel was 17, in the early 1970s, he went with a friend to the then-Paradise Ballroom on N. Highland Ave, a fake ID in hand. Men were dancing together and kissing and hugging, and I actually freaked out because when youre not used to seeing things like this, he recalls. Manoel had long known he was gay, but was struck by experiencing that for the first time to the point where he turned to his friend and said: "I cant. Im not coming back." He eventually returned to Paradise Ballroom and, with friends, started to create a dance that pulled from pop culture, media and art including Art Deco, paintings by Ballets Russes founder Serge Diaghilev, ice skating and silent movies. Each member drew influences from their own distinct cultures and interests. Manoel grew up dancing ballet folklorico, a Mexican folk-dance style, and often imitated a deer in his performances. And founding member Tinker loved Bugs Bunny and channeled the Looney Tunes character in his movements. Viktor Manoel performing a series of moves as a part of the punking dance style. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times) The movements also nodded to how they had grown up at a time when being gay meant not being "allowed to express love, Manoel explains. "The expression from that oppression via movement is where this punking dance style came into fruition. To Manoel and his friends, punking spoke to the freedom they found in the club. In 1978, Manoel and his friends started going to Ginos II disco on Santa Monica and Vine. Fellow punker Michael Angelo, the DJ on Saturday nights, held contests where accomplished dancers could compete for a $1,000 prize. Punking and whacking had found a new home. Around that time, Manoel started working professionally as a dancer, performing for artists like Grace Jones. But then his friends began dying of AIDS. "I felt uncomfortable being in a situation where everybody was dying and nobody wants to talk about it, he says. He stepped back from the scene. In the meantime, punking and whacking were becoming more mainstream through Soul Train and the Outrageous Waacking Dancers, an L.A.-based dance group. Its popularity grew with a new spelling using a double "A" that separated itself from its origins. When Manoel returned to the scene in 2009 to teach punking to new generations, he realized how much of its origins had been lost in translation. Thats changing with initiatives like Valenzuelas whacking festival, Strike With Force. During the festivals first iteration four years ago, Valenzuela invited dancers internationally and from around the U.S., telling them to invite anyone from their community. She then went on to produce other Strike With Force festivals in Italy and Mexico, and smaller gatherings began to pop up as the community started growing. The goal of the festival is ultimately to empower kids and make them feel safe and make them feel like they belong because this dance belongs to them, Valenzuela says. We are the guests. Strike With Force's next event is slated for March 2023, in Mexico City. For his part, Manoel is still teaching the dance's history and movements. He's showing one student at a time just what it takes to move as he, Arthur, Andrew, Billy Star, China Doll/Kenny, Lonny, Michael Angelo, Tinker and Tommy all did in Paradise Ballroom. I dont teach to impress," he says. "I teach you how to find yourself in my movement. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. After firefighters declared a Colorado woman dead, a police officer reentered the home to check for weapons. While Denver police officer Eugene McComas was looking through the home on June 24, he shone his flashlight on the womans face, according to orders of disciplinary action dated Oct. 14 and Oct. 20 from the Denver Department of Public Safety. Her head twitched, the orders said. The woman was not dead. Now, two firefighters, fire Lt. Patrick Lopez and firefighter Marshall Henry, have been suspended after having declared the woman dead without entering the home or examining her, according to the orders. The Denver Fire Department took immediate action to address this incident and ensure the patient was transported and admitted to the hospital, Captain J.D. Chism with the fire department said in an email to McClatchy News on Nov. 3. Following a thorough review subject to DFDs discipline process, those involved were appropriately disciplined. On that June day, emergency responders went to the home of a 57-year-old woman who recently had stomach surgery after her father requested a welfare check, the orders said. He had not heard from her in five days and normally spoke with her daily. After leaving the home, McComas told the firefighters outside that the woman smelled of decomposition, was discolored and leaking fluids, the orders said. Lopez, without going into the home or checking the woman, called Denver Health Medical Center for a declaration of death, the orders said. He then handed off the phone to the junior, Henry, the orders said, who went on to tell the doctor the woman was in an advanced state of death without having checked on her. The orders said Henry also misrepresented himself to the doctor by saying he was next to the woman and that he had done a patient assessment. The doctor provided a pronouncement and time of death, the orders said. After the woman was found to be alive, the fire department and emergency medical services were called back to the home, and she was taken to a hospital, the orders said. In his statement, Lopez said McComas told firefighters not to enter the home and that the woman was obviously dead, the orders said. But others do not recall McComas prohibiting anyone from entering the home, and McComas said he did not prohibit firefighters from going in the home. Henry apologized during a hearing in September and said he had been gifted this career with the fire department. He said he actions let down three families: the patients, his DFD family and his own. When Lopez obtained a declaration of death without assessing the woman, he demonstrated a serious lack of the integrity, ethics, and character, the order said. Additionally, he failed to act as a good role modeland offered no guidance or assistance to the junior firefighter to whom he handed the phone. Lopez, a 22-year veteran with the department, received a 336-hour unpaid suspension, the order said. He will also be demoted from lieutenant to firefighter, according to the order. Over the next five years, Lopez will not be eligible for a promotion and will be fired should he break another rule, the order said. Henry received a 240-hour unpaid suspension, the order said. Air ambulances chief nurse in Florida Keys suspended after drug discrepancies found Wichita firefighter placed on leave as police re-examine inappropriate messages Chief nurse at Keys air ambulance was stealing drugs at work, sheriffs office said Kevin Spacey arrives at his 2022 sexual abuse trial in London. (Frank Augstein / Associated Press) An Italian film museum announced on Thursday plans to honor Kevin Spacey with a lifetime achievement award. The announcement comes two weeks after a New York jury found for the embattled actor in a sexual abuse trial. Spacey has been invited to participate in a master class at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, where he will be recognized for his contributions to film and television. After speaking in the auditorium of Turin's Mole Antonelliana tower, Spacey will introduce and screen one of his movies for the audience. The master class and conversation with Spacey will be conducted by museum director Domenico De Gaetano. The event, which is scheduled to take place on Jan. 16, will mark Spacey's first public speaking engagement in five years. We are honored that such a prestigious guest as Kevin Spacey chose Turin and our museum for this long-awaited return to an event with an audience, Enzo Ghigo, president of the museum, said in a statement. On Oct. 20, a New York jury determined that Spacey did not molest "Star Trek: Discovery" actor Anthony Rapp when the former was 26 and the latter was 14. Spacey denied the sexual abuse allegations in court, and Rapp's lawyer accused the Oscar winner of lying under oath. In response to the verdict, Spacey attorney Jennifer Keller said, Were very grateful to the jury for seeing through these false allegations." In a statement posted on Twitter, Rapp said, "I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have my case heard before a jury, and I thank the members of the jury for their service. Bringing this lawsuit was always about shining a light, as part of the larger movement to stand up against all forms of sexual violence. After Rapp and others accused Spacey of sexual misconduct during the rise of activist Tarana Burke's #MeToo movement, the A-lister fell out of Hollywood's good graces and lost his job on the popular Netflix series "House of Cards." The Emmy nominee has also faced groping charges in Massachusetts which prosecutors later dropped and pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges in London. Over the summer, a Los Angeles judge ordered Spacey to pay $30.9 million to the makers of "House of Cards" for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members on set. Whats next is Mr. Spacey is going to be proven that hes innocent of anything hes been accused of," Keller said last month. "That there was no truth to any of the allegations." The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A Twitter logo hangs outside the company's San Francisco offices on Tuesday. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) Former Twitter employees have sued the social media giant, alleging that the company violated and planned to violate federal and state laws that govern mass layoffs. The lawsuit comes as a large fraction of Twitter's employee base has been receiving layoff notices in the wake of Elon Musk's $44-billion acquisition of the company. Twitter had said Thursday that all employees would be notified of their employment status by 9 a.m. Friday. Musk reportedly was planning to lay off about 50% of the company's 7,500-person workforce. Already, Musk has fired Twitter's executive leadership team, including now-former Chief Executive Parag Agrawal. The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Plaintiff Emmanuel Cornet was laid off from Twitter on Tuesday "effective immediately" without receiving a 60-day advance notice, which is required by the federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act in the event of a mass layoff, according to the lawsuit. He also did not receive severance pay, the lawsuit said. Two days later, plaintiffs Justine De Caires, Jessica Pan and Grae Kindel were locked out of their company accounts, "which they understood to signal that they were being laid off," according to the lawsuit. They, too, did not receive advance notice and were not formally notified of a layoff, the lawsuit said. The California Employment Development Department forwarded to The Times three WARN notices it received from Twitter, dated Nov. 4. In the notices, the company said it was terminating 784 employees at its San Francisco work site, 106 based in San Jose and 93 in Los Angeles. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. The plaintiffs are seeking to prevent Twitter from violating the federal and state WARN acts and from seeking releases of claims under those laws from laid-off employees "without informing employees of the pendency of this lawsuit and their rights under those statutes." The plaintiffs are also looking to be awarded damages, including all expenses and wages owed. The plaintiffs' attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, did not respond to a request for comment by The Times. On Friday, she told Bloomberg that Musk is making an effort to comply with the law and that she was "pleased to learn that at least some employees will keep getting paid until Jan. 4. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. If approved, Proposition 29 would require dialysis clinics to have a physician, nurse practioner or physician assistant on premises during treatment hours. (Molly Magnell / For The Times) California voters will decide the fate of seven statewide propositions on Nov. 8. The propositions, like all state ballot measures, require approval by a simple majority of voters for passage. Unless otherwise specified, the approved propositions take effect once the election results are certified in December. Heres what you need to know about Proposition 29. Proposition 29: Kidney dialysis Once again, voters are being asked to deal with the issue of kidney dialysis in California. If approved, Proposition 29 would require dialysis clinics to have a physician, nurse practioner or physician assistant on premises during treatment hours. The ballot measure would also require clinics to disclose if a physician has ownership interests in the facility and to report patient infection data. This is the third time in four years that California voters are being asked to weigh in on how kidney dialysis centers operate in the state, with previous attempts in 2018 and 2020 both failing. Along with the two previous ballot measures, the current measure is supported by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a Bay Area union that represents healthcare workers in California. About 600 dialysis clinics in California serve about 80,000 patients per month, according to a state legislative analysis. To address the patients needs, clinics often operate longer hours and are open six days a week. Two private for-profit dialysis companies, DaVita Inc. and Fresenius Medical Care, own or run about the majority of the licensed clinics in California and oppose the proposition. What both sides are saying Backers:They said the new rules are designed to keep dialysis patients safe and to hold dialysis providers accountable. They point out that multiple states, including Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, have staff-to-patient ratio requirements at dialysis clinics. David Miller, research director for SEIU-UHW, said the group denies accusations about using the proposition system to unionize dialysis center workers. He said the proposition is not designed to dictate what doctors may do on-site or how they would oversee care. He said dialysis patients have expressed concern that the centers lack adequate staff if something goes wrong. He pointed out that earlier this year SEIU-UHW filed an administrative complaint alongside other groups and patients with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about the disparate effect of dialysis on Latino and Asian patients. Critics: The No on Prop 29 campaign has a long list of medical industry associations opposing the ballot measure, including the California Medical Assn., the American Nurses Assn.'s California chapter, the American Academy of Nephrology Physician Assistants, which represents dialysis technicians, and multiple dialysis patient advocacy groups. Opponents say paying for increased staff could lead to clinic closures. In addition, they say the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services agency already requires clinics to report bloodstream infections among patients. Jeff Goffman, chief executive of Satellite Healthcare, said he worries about how the companys clinics will survive Proposition 29 if they have to pay for more staff. Goffman said a potential increase of hundreds of thousands of dollars in staffing is risky for a nonprofit like his, where much of the revenue is from government programs. He said that many of the patients served are people of color, and that the majority have comorbidities such as high blood pressure, obesity or heart disease. Its a risk to an underserved population, because it is certainly a risk to access to care, and a racial inequity issue when we look at that population of patients that get treated with dialysis, he said. Fundraising Past coverage Other propositions on the ballot Learn more about all seven ballot propositions on the November ballot. L.A. Times editorial board endorsements The Times editorial page publishes endorsements based on candidate interviews and independent reporting. The editorial board operates independently of the newsroom reporters covering these races have no say in the endorsements. How and where to vote Ballots will be in the mail to all 22 million registered voters in the state no later than Oct. 10. Californians can return ballots by mail, drop them at collection boxes or turn them in at voting centers. They can also cast ballots early at voting centers or wait until Nov. 8 to vote at their neighborhood polling places. Californians can register to vote or check their status at registertovote.ca.gov. Follow more election coverage More news This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. By Scott McIntosh, opinion editor If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend, and they can sign up here. By most accounts, the College of Western Idaho has been a raging success. Its $139 per credit cost is low and affordable for most students. The colleges property tax levy rate is the lowest among all of Idahos community colleges. Started from nothing just 15 years ago, the school now boasts an enrollment of 24,000 students. The board just hired as president Gordon Jones, who was founding dean of Boise State Universitys College of Innovation + Design and was the managing director for the Harvard Innovation Lab at Harvard University. As part of its $15 billion expansion in Boise, Micron announced a partnership with College of Western Idaho to prepare students for the Micron Technician Apprenticeship Program. The College of Western Idaho is on a roll. The last thing College of Western Idaho needs is a slate of politically motivated board members who seek to meddle in the day-to-day operations of the college and go on a scavenger hunt to root out what they perceive as indoctrination. Read our full editorial here on why we should avoid what happened at North Idaho College. Advisory question on the ballot One unusual feature of your ballot on Election Day will be an advisory vote on tax cuts and education funding increases. It was placed on the ballot during the recent special session, where the Legislature laid out a plan to use Idahos massive budget surplus on a mix of tax cuts and education spending increases. When you read the advisory question, youll probably roll your eyes. And theres good reason to do so. This question is a trap. It is obviously a trap. But its a trap you should shake your head at, laugh at, then walk right into. Read our full editorial here on why you should still vote yes. Idaho Statesman polling The Idaho Statesman has commissioned a poll, surveying residents opinions on such topics as abortion, LGBTQ rights, medical marijuana and education. Weve been rolling out the results this week. Abortion Poll results: Just more than half of the respondents said they believe abortion should be legal in all cases (26%) or with some limitations (25%) a total of 51%. Forty-six percent said they believe abortion should be illegal in most cases, with most of those (33% of respondents) supporting exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Six percent said abortion should be illegal with the only exception being to save the life of the mother. Seven percent said it should be illegal in all situations, and 3% werent sure. Read the full story on the poll results here. Moderate majority: Now that weve measured public attitudes, we can state pretty conclusively: The extreme stance the Idaho Legislature has taken on abortion is overwhelmingly unpopular with Idahoans. Read the full column here by opinion writer Bryan Clark. Gay rights Poll results: Most Idahoans believe state law should protect people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, according to a new poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman. The survey data indicates broad support for updating the Idaho Human Rights Act to include protections in housing, employment and other areas for gay, bisexual and transgender Idahoans. Read the full story on the poll results here. Elections Poll results: Nearly one in three Idaho adults believes widespread voter fraud took place in the 2020 U.S. election and that former Republican President Donald Trump truly won, according to new poll results commissioned by the Idaho Statesman. Read the full story on the poll results here. Education Poll results: Nearly two-thirds of Idaho residents dont want taxpayer money to be used to fund private school educations, according to new poll results commissioned by the Idaho Statesman. Read the full story on the poll results here. Hell, no, Gov. Otter says on amendment Former Idaho Gov. Butch Otter. A small question on your November ballot could have big, detrimental consequences for Idahoans if approved, writes former Idaho Gov. Butch Otter in a guest opinion this week. Idaho legislators want you, the voters, to amend our Idaho Constitution and allow them to easily call themselves back into session, setting the stage for a full-time Legislature like California and other left-leaning states. Idahoans need to vote no on SJR 102. I wont just be voting no on SJR 102. Ill be voting, Hell no! Read Gov. Otters full guest opinion piece here. All of our endorsements Thats a wrap, folks. With Election Day almost here, the Idaho Statesman editorial board has been interviewing several candidates in federal, state and local races that will be on the ballot. We asked federal candidates about such important issues as gun control, the federal budget deficit and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 2021. Statewide, we interviewed the candidates for governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor and superintendent of public instruction on a host of issues about public education funding, election integrity and abortion. Similarly, we asked several legislative candidates about their positions on education funding, school vouchers, gay marriage, property taxes and sales tax on groceries. We even interviewed all of the candidates for Ada County Commission and asked them about budgeting priorities, how to address homelessness, the decision to appoint Ryan Cole to the Central District Health board, and the development of Expo Idaho and the county fairgrounds. In all, we interviewed more than two dozen candidates in more than a dozen races, and are weighing in on a constitutional amendment and an advisory vote on the ballot. Following is a rundown of our endorsements and recommendations. Click on each link to read our full endorsements and reasoning. Idaho governor Democrat Stephen Heidt, left, is challenging Idaho Republican incumbent Gov. Brad Little in this years election. We continue to believe that incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little could cement a legacy as one of Idahos greatest governors, with a little bit of courage, vision and boldness. But we also know that he has missed opportunities to show those traits when they were needed. Little is facing a challenge from Democrat Stephen Heidt, a veteran, retired teacher and prison instructor from Marsing. Read our full endorsement here. Idaho lieutenant governor House Speaker Scott Bedke (left) and Terri Pickens Manweiler (right) Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke, a Republican, is facing off against Democrat Terri Pickens Manweiler. Both are highly qualified, and we found ourselves agreeing with Pickens Manweiler on a host of issues. We are concerned that Bedke has kowtowed to the far right wing of his party too much, leading to a burgeoning of extremism in the party and the Legislature. Read our endorsement in this race here. U.S. Senate Democrat David Roth (left) and Republican Sen. Mike Crapo. Idahos senior senator, Mike Crapo, has been in elected office for nearly four decades, three of which were spent in Washington, D.C. This year, Crapos Democratic challenger is David Roth, an Idaho Falls man whose previous political experience consists mainly of heading the Bonneville County Democratic Party and launching an unsuccessful local legislative race. Read our full endorsement here. Idahos 1st Congressional District Rep. Russ Fulcher (left) and Kaylee Peterson (right) The decision to endorse Kaylee Peterson was not a hard one. For starters, there was no way we could endorse Rep. Russ Fulcher. Fulcher refused to be interviewed by the editorial board, and we do not endorse candidates who do not have the commitment to transparency to answer basic questions. And, more fundamentally, Fulcher betrayed his country in the wake of the 2020 election. He voted to object to the certification of the election, not because there were any serious questions about the elections legitimacy, but for political reasons. It was dishonest. It was cowardly. It should disqualify him from office. Read our full endorsement here. Idaho attorney general Democratic candidate Tom Arkoosh, left, and Republican candidate Raul Labrador face off in a debate on Idaho Public Television in the race for Idaho attorney general on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. If elected Idaho attorney general, Republican Raul Labrador promises to be a conservative partner with the Republican-dominated Legislature. We have no doubt he would be. And thats what worries us. It is clear that Labrador would base decisions on partisan politics and become an activist attorney general seeking to strip individual rights based on the latest Republican outrage or culture war issue. Read our full endorsement in the race here. Idaho superintendent of public instruction Candidates for superintendent of public instruction Terry Gilbert and Debbie Critchfield debate ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. Idaho voters have two excellent choices in the race for Idaho superintendent of public instruction. Republican Debbie Critchfield, who defeated incumbent Sherri Ybarra in the May primary, is facing Democrat Terry Gilbert. Read our endorsement in this race here. Ada County Commission Ada County Commission candidates, clockwise from top left, in District 2: Stan Ridgeway and Rod Beck; in District 3: Patricia Nilsson, Tony Jones and Thomas Dayley. Incumbent commissioner Rod Beck voted to strip funding from the successful New Path housing program and appointed Ryan Cole to the Central District Health board. Thomas Dayley, as state legislator in 2016, voted to cap the homeowners exemption, a fateful decision that has created todays residential property tax crisis. Stan Ridgeway and Patricia Nilsson are running against them. OK, Ive given you enough of a hint about who the Statesman endorsed. But you should read the full endorsement anyway. Idaho Senate, District 15 Codi Galloway (left) and Rick Just (right) Democrat Rick Just and Republican Codi Galloway are running for an open Senate seat in Boises purple District 15, seeking to replace Fred Martin, whom Galloway defeated in the Republican primary. Galloway, who wouldnt interview with the editorial board, voted as a state representative for a bill to criminalize librarians and favors school vouchers. Read our full endorsement here. Idaho House, District 15A Idaho Rep. Steve Berch serves on the House Education Committee. Idaho Rep. Steve Berch earns the Idaho Statesmans resounding endorsement for reelection to his House seat in Idaho legislative District 15. The Democrat is running against Republican Steve Keyser, who did not respond through his website or via email to invitations to interview with the editorial board. The Statesman will not endorse someone who does not agree to an interview. Regardless, Berch has proved himself as an effective legislator. The retired computer programmer and marketing manager for HP has served two terms in the House in District 15. Even if Republicans jam really bad legislation through committee or through the House, Berch makes them earn it. Read our full endorsement of Steve Berch here. Idaho House, District 15B Jeff Nafsinger The race for Idaho House seat B in District 15 features two newcomers: Democrat Jeff Nafsinger and Republican Dori Healey. Nafsinger has deep roots in the local area. Hes worked for many years selling plumbing supplies the kind of work that gets you out in the community, where you get to understand the problems facing a wide variety of Idahoans. And it shows. Nafsinger has a clear vision of the problems facing Idaho, and he has articulate proposals to solve them. Read our full endorsement in this race here. State Senate, District 16 Republican Dennis Mansfield, left, and Democrat Ali Rabe are running against each for the Senate seat in Idaho legislative District 16. Democrat Ali Rabe is seeking her second Senate seat, but this isnt a reelection campaign. Rabe moved out of her previous legislative District 17, where she was elected to the Senate, and now lives in District 16. She is running for the open District 16 Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Grant Burgoyne, a Democrat who is endorsing Rabe. Read our full endorsement here. State House, District 16A Democrat Sonia Galaviz, Republican Mark Montoya and independent Wayne Richey are running for this open seat in the House, previously held by Democrat John McCrostie. Sonia Galaviz presents a singularly compelling case for voters in the race for the District 16A seat in the Idaho House. Our editorial board unanimously endorses her in this election. Read our full endorsement here. Senate Joint Resolution 102 Idaho legislators want you to pass a constitutional amendment that would let them call themselves into a special session for whatever reason they want, whenever they want. The amendment, which appears on your ballot as Senate Joint Resolution 102, requires just a majority to pass. This one is a resounding no from us. We have a long list of objections: Read our long list of objections here. Advisory question Even though its a trap thats poorly worded, you should still vote yes on an advisory question that will hold legislators feet to the fire on education spending. Read our full editorial here explaining why. Im listening Send me your story ideas, news tips, questions, comments, or anything else on your mind. You can reach me via email at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com. Find me on social media: Twitter (my DMs are open) LinkedIn What youre saying This week, we received letters to the editor on new Idaho education report card from the Heritage Foundation, what so-called conservatives believe in and support for Stan Ridgeway for Ada County Commission. You can read these and more letters by clicking here. You can submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion by clicking here. Like this newsletter? If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend or colleague, and they can sign up here. As Jewish Rabbis and Cantors in Kentucky, we write to express our opposition to Constitutional Amendment 2 which will appear on Kentuckians ballots this coming week. We also offer our full support to the three Jewish women who have courageously demanded that their rights as women and as Jews not be infringed by our commonwealths government. We are extremely concerned that, if passed, Amendment 2 will negatively impact religious freedom in our commonwealth. There is a broad range of contemporary Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish rabbis who have ruled that when a pregnancy threatens the wellbeing of the mother it is not only permissible but required by Jewish law to terminate the pregnancy. This is especially true in cases of dangerous ectopic pregnancies and other instances where the fetus is not viable. Rabbis from across the Jewish spectrum have also ruled that the mental and emotional wellbeing of the mother can and should be considered in addition to any immediate physical harm that could result in continuation of the pregnancy or birthing process. These rulings are consistent with Jewish tradition and law as passed down in the Torah, the Talmud, and through millennia of commentary which teach that the life and wellbeing of a pregnant person is paramount. We believe this stance to be both pro-life and pro-choice. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court in Dobbs vs. Jackson has enabled states and commonwealths such as our own to embrace a view of when life begins based on the beliefs of one specific religion to the exclusion of others. We believe this to be in direct conflict with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which prevents the government from establishing a state religion and prohibits it from favoring the view of one faith over another. We also agree with the Jewish women who have argued in their case filed in state court that the commonwealths limits to reproductive healthcare access contradict The Kentucky Freedom of Religion Act which states that Government shall not substantially burden a persons freedom of religion. The act specifies that burdens can include indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities. Let us be clear, Jewish women in our commonwealth are currently being denied access to the life-affirming care they need to safely become pregnant and give birth to healthy children. Denying life-saving procedures to pregnant people will lead to more death, not more life. Sadly, we fear becoming pregnant in the Commonwealth of Kentucky has already become more dangerous since the trigger laws were allowed to take effect. Kentucky already leads the nation in maternal mortality rate, and the harm to pregnant people will only increase if Amendment 2 passes this election season. We are also concerned about what Amendment 2 and Kentuckys trigger laws will mean for people who struggle with infertility and want to utilize IVF as a means to grow their families. This process requires the fertilization of eggs in a laboratory, a process that, if Amendment 2 passes, could easily be outlawed by those who believe that life begins at the moment of conception. By contrast, we are inspired by the recent expansion of reproductive healthcare access in the State of Israel, where all citizens have been empowered to make their own decisions in these matters. We pray that the vision of the book of Leviticus will soon come to pass when God promises, I will bring peace to the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will terrify you. We yearn for a day when no one is terrified by being denied a medical procedure based on the religious beliefs of other United States citizens. In our synagogues and temples we pray every week for the wellbeing of our country and all Americans. In some of our communities we recite a prayer that asks God to pour out blessings upon this land, upon its inhabitants, upon its leaders, its judges, officers, and officials, who faithfully devote themselves to the needs of the public. We ask now that the judges, officers, officials, and inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Kentucky recognize Jews as equal citizens under the law and recognize that the restrictions on reproductive healthcare clearly violate our sincerely held religious beliefs. We urge our fellow citizens to vote No on Amendment 2 in this Novembers election and we pray that the courts will grant justice to our brave Jewish citizens who have spoken up to remind our commonwealths leaders that the concept of religious freedom does not end at the door to the synagogue or the doctors office. This essay was signed by Rabbi Ben Freed, Cantor David Lipp, Rabbi David Ariel-Joel, Rabbi Joshua Corber, Rabbi Shani Abramowitz, Rabbi David Wirtschafter, Cantor Lauren Adesnik, Rabbi Stan Miles, Cantor Sharon Hordes, Rabbi Joe Rooks Rapport, Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks, Rabbi Laura Metzger, Rabbi Beth Jacowitz Chottiner, and Rabbi Robert Slosberg. Kristina Karamo, GOP candidate for Michigan Secretary of State, attends a rally by former U.S. President Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, U.S., October 1, 2022. (Dieu-Nalio Chery/Reuters) During a court hearing that lasted nearly nine hours, the attorney representing GOP secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo in a legal bid seeking to halt the count of tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Detroit yelled at the judge and cited a widely debunked film that has furthered conspiracies about ballot drop boxes. Attorney Daniel Hartman also pressed for specific details about election security plans in Michigan's largest city ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm. Hartman grew angry when Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Kenny noted that the lawsuit would prevent military voters deployed overseas from having their ballots counted in the election because the complaint asks the court declare only absentee ballots requested in person can count. "You are asking for... somebody who wants an absentee ballot has to come in to the Detroit clerk's office. That excludes the military," Kenny said, raising his voice and noting that his own son served in the military. "To characterize me as trying to disenfranchise the military voter is offensive," Hartman yelled in response. "I'm tired of being called a racist by Mr. Fink," he said, referring to David Fink, the lawyer representing Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey in the case, who called the lawsuit "blatant racism" reminiscent of Jim Crow era voter disenfranchisement during a hearing Monday. "I'm tired of Mr. Fink saying Im trying to disenfranchise the heroes in the military when Im trying to secure this election," Hartman continued. More: Detroiters see disenfranchisement in Karamo bid to tweak majority-Black city's voting rules More: Kristina Karamo seeks court order that could impact thousands of Detroit voters Karamo, one of several GOP candidates running for secretary of state in key battleground states backed by former President Donald Trump, filed the legal challenge less than two weeks before the upcoming midterm. Kenny said the lawsuit was filed at the "eleventh hour" and asked for a "substantial and radical alteration... the eve of the general election." Attempt to disenfranchise thousands of voters Detroit voters, prominent political leaders from the city and the Detroit Branch NAACP decried Karamo's lawsuit as an attempt to disenfranchise thousands of voters in the nation's largest majority-Black city. And during the lengthy hearing held over Zoom, Kenny asked why the lawsuit targets Detroit voters. "Is there a reason why you didn't file this in Petoskey?" Kenny asked, referring to the city where Hartman's law office is based. "I'm an attorney. I'm not the plaintiff here," he said. Multiple times during the hearing, Hartman referred to his clients as Detroit residents who hired him to bring the lawsuit. The complaint lists only one plaintiff in the case Patricia Farmer as a Detroit resident. As the hearing reached its end, Hartman cited the widely debunked 2,000 Mules film by a far-right provocateur purportedly showing illegal votes returned via drop boxes election experts say provides no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Kenny repeatedly shot down Hartman's attempts to discuss previous elections in a lawsuit seeking an extreme intervention by the court ahead of the upcoming one. At one point, Hartman accused Kenny of "hand-cuffing" him. Ahead of the hearing Thursday, Hartman sought to disqualify Kenny and all Wayne County Circuit Court judges from presiding over the case. Hartman alleged that if a visiting judge didn't hear the case, it would create an appearance of impropriety. Hartman withdrew the motion for disqualification during a hearing Monday when he learned that as chief judge, Kenny presides over all election-related cases and that his name does appear on the ballot for the upcoming midterm because he will retire in several weeks. At multiple points during the hearing Thursday, Kenny prevented Hartman from asking questions related to security plans in place in Detroit such as where security personnel would be assigned in the Detroit absentee counting room. Fink suggested answers to those questions might benefit those trying to interfere with the Detroit election. But the bulk of the evidentiary hearing held over Zoom focused on election minutia from the election equipment used in Detroit to the layout of the room where Detroit election workers process absentee ballots cast by the city's voters. For hours, Hartman grilled former Michigan elections director Chris Thomas, who came out of retirement to serve as an adviser for Winfrey ahead of the 2020 election. Kenny took issue with some questions from Hartman, saying Hartman was inquiring about hypothetical situations regarding how election officials in Detroit might handle different election scenarios. Judge issued a stern warning after lawyer "This is as close to fishing as it gets," Kenny said at one point. Early on in the hearing, Kenny issued a stern warning after Hartman interrupted Fink. Kenny said he would not tolerate any interruptions and threatened to mute those who failed to follow his instructions. Kenny's patience seemed to wear thin at times. He repeatedly asked Hartman to rephrase his questions. Following one question from Hartman related to how Detroit election workers review ballot images, Kenny said he was "more than a little confused." Kenny also sustained multiple objections raised by Fink, who accused Hartman of asking questions not germane to the administration of the upcoming election in Detroit. Hartman honed in on election observers' access to a platform in the central area of the Detroit counting room where election results data is collected, according to Daniel Baxter, who oversees the absentee counting board. Baxter and Thomas noted that poll challengers don't have access to the platform. Thomas cited media reports about calls to unplug voting machines. Ryan Kelley, a GOP gubernatorial candidate who lost the August primary, urged party supporters to unplug voting machines if they thought they saw malfeasance during his campaign. Kenny scheduled another hearing in the case for 8:30 a.m. Friday. Election officials recommend voters who have requested and received their absentee ballots complete and return them as soon as possible in person at their local clerk's office or a drop box to avoid postal delays. Those eligible can register to vote and cast a ballot until 8 p.m. on Election Day, which is Nov. 8. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lengthy hearing tests Karamo lawsuit targeting Detroit voters Nearly 400 items big and small, momentous and mundane, are up for auction with proceeds to benefit the Americas Promise Alliance which Powell once chaired and the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York, his alma mater. ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) Colin Powells career spanned some of the most significant moments of the last 40 years so its no surprise that an auction of items from his estate reflects that: gifts and medals from foreign dignitaries and presidents, photos of his swearing-in as secretary of state. But it might be the more whimsical items that better tell the story of what kind of man he was: the Star Wars lightsaber given to him by George Lucas, a race car helmet, the memorabilia connected to the Buffalo Soldiers, the 19th-century African American Army regiments that Powell championed throughout his career. Zachary Diaz, left, and Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, of The Potomack Compan,y display items from the estate of Gen. Colin Powell on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat) In all, nearly 400 items big and small, momentous and mundane, are up for auction with proceeds to benefit the Americas Promise Alliance which Powell once chaired and the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York, his alma mater. Its really a capsule of American history in the last four or five decades, said Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, owner and president of The Potomack Company, the auction house conducting the estate sale. Reviewing the many items that reflected Powells interactions with both world leaders and regular Americans who were fans of Powell, Wainstein said that Powells kindness stood out as much as his historical significance. He was kind. Thats what we kept coming back to, she said. The auction is already underway and will run through Nov. 16. Bids can be placed online, and items can be viewed in person at the auction house in Alexandria. A few items are already proving popular a Baikal shotgun presented to Powell by Mikhail Gorbachev at a 1988 summit in Moscow had already received a $7,000 bid by Thursday afternoon, well above the $3,000 to $5,000 estimate given by the auction house. The estimates, though, are for the intrinsic value of the items and do not account for how bidders value the fact that the items belonged to Powell and his wife, Alma. Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, left, and Zachary Diaz, of The Potomack Company, display items from the estate of Gen. Colin Powell, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat) Thats the unknown thing about provenance and auction, Haynie Wainstein said. The items collectively have an estimated value of $88,000 to $144,000. While many items may prove pricey, others may be relatively inexpensive. Some items, such as plaques and prints, have estimated values of $50 or less. Smaller items like a brass doorknob from New York City Public Schools and numerous fountain pens are in the catalogue. His son said he liked penmanship, said Zachary Diaz, who catalogued the collection and visited the Powells home in McLean, a Virginia suburb near Washington, D.C., to collect items and help them decide which items to include in the auction. One under-the-radar item that caught Haynie Wainsteins eye is a beat-up briefcase from an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei in 2001. The estimated value is just around $50, but its worn condition indicates Powell regularly used it, she said. PARIS, FRANCE JUNE 5: U.S Secretary of State Colin Powell waves as he arrives in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace on June 5, 2004 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Other attention getters include the lightsaber inscribed To General Powell from General Skywalker and signed by Lucas, as well as the racing helmet signed by drivers in the inaugural 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix. Powell, a car aficionado, served as Honorary Grand Marshal for the event. Powell died last year at the age of 84. He served as secretary of state during the first term of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, including the Iraq War. Before that he served as national security adviser in the Reagan administration and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the George H.W. Bush administration, when Powell played a key role in the Persian Gulf War. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post Medals, mementos from Colin Powell estate go up for auction appeared first on TheGrio. Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arriving for one of her Capitol Hill news conferences in March. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was released from the hospital Thursday, six days after he was severely beaten by an intruder inside the couple's San Francisco home. In a statement, Speaker Pelosi said her husband "remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence." Paul Pelosi is recovering from what officials said was a successful surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. Pelosi was attacked when an intruder broke into the couple's Pacific Heights home sometime around 2 a.m. last Friday. Federal prosecutors said David DePape entered the Pelosis home by smashing a rear glass door with a hammer, then went to the second floor. There, he found Paul Pelosi, 82, sleeping, and reportedly shouted, Wheres Nancy? repeatedly. Paul Pelosi was alone at the time of the break-in; the speaker was in Washington with her protective detail. Realizing the potential danger, Paul Pelosi managed to make a quick, surreptitious phone call to 911 and left the line open, authorities said. A 911 dispatcher realized something was seriously wrong and immediately sent police to the address. Officers were told there was a man inside the home named David, whom Pelosi did not know. DePape has been charged with attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder and threats to a public official and their family. He faces 13 years to life in prison if convicted of all charges filed against him by the San Francisco district attorney's office. He also faces federal assault and kidnapping charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that DePape is also in the U.S. illegally and could be deported to Canada. DePape grew up in British Columbia and moved to California more than 20 years ago, according to a family member who spoke with The Times. Records pulled by ICE found that DePape entered the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego as a temporary visitor in March 2008. Canadians who enter with that status generally do not require visas, officials said; the U.S. generally allows them to stay as temporary visitors for six months. On Tuesday, ICE officials issued an immigration detainer on DePape with the San Francisco County Jail, where he is currently being held without bail. Under the detainer, San Francisco law enforcement is to notify ICE before he is released so the federal agency can take custody of him. ICE issues detainers against people facing criminal charges when the agency has probable cause to believe they can be deported. He also had other targets in mind including a Bay Area professor and prominent state and federal politicians and their families when he broke into the Pelosis home, prosecutors said. The attack raised questions about the security measures taken to protect the speaker. U.S. Capitol Police said Wednesday that security cameras for the Pelosis San Francisco residence were not being monitored on the night of the violent home invasion. Capitol Police said in a statement that cameras are used to actively monitor the speakers San Francisco residence around the clock when she is there, but acknowledged that when she is in Washington, D.C., with her security detail as she was during Fridays break-in the cameras were not actively monitored. Federal prosecutors allege that DePape was hoping to find Speaker Pelosi at the house. They say he intended to kidnap her and break her kneecaps, and that he called her the leader of the pack of lies he said were told by the Democratic Party. Police have not offered a motive for the attack. But San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins said Monday that based on DePapes statements to police and his comments to Paul Pelosi at the scene, it was politically motivated. A Times review of DePape's online accounts showed that he has been involved in the world of far-right conspiracies, antisemitism and hate. In a personal blog DePape maintained, post titles include Manipulation of History, Holohoax and Its OK to be white. He mentions 4Chan, a favorite message board of the far right. He posted videos about conspiracies involving COVID-19 vaccines and claiming the war in Ukraine was a ploy for Jewish people to buy land. DePapes screeds also include posts about the unfounded QAnon theory that former President Trump is at war with a cabal of Satan-worshiping Democratic elites who run a child sex ring and control the world. In an Aug. 23 entry titled Q, DePape wrote: Either Q is Trump himself or Q is the deep state moles within Trumps inner circle. Adam Lipson, DePapes public defender, said his clients vulnerability to misinformation will be examined as part of his defense. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP) The political world remains on pins and needles as it awaits the official launch of former President Donald Trumps expected third run for the White House in 2024. Journalists and political staffers lit up their phones early Friday after a pair of reports in Axios and the New York Times that Trump advisers have been talking up a Nov. 14 launch, but Republicans in touch with the former president told Yahoo News that is not the official date. The intense focus on when Trump will formally announce underscores the fact that Trump remains the most powerful force in Republican politics and the one figure who will set the playing field for the Republican nomination in 2024. Behind the scenes, Trumps advisers and others close to him have been debating with the former president about how and when to launch his third bid. One of the central concerns, according to interviews with those Republicans over the past few months, has been weighing whether to jump in immediately or wait until next year. Announcing now could box out some big-name competitors like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and pressure megadonors to support Trump after they cooled on him in the wake of his 2020 loss. But the impact of launching this month could easily fizzle as Americans clock out at the end of November for Thanksgiving and head into the December holiday season, according to one Republican in touch with Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigns for Republican candidate for New York governor U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin at a rally, Oct. 29, in Hauppauge, N.Y. (Julia Nikhinson/AP) Trump is also expected to wait until after the dust settles from the 2022 midterm elections, on Nov. 8, before jumping in, so he can either claim credit for big victories among House and Senate Republican candidates or avoid blame for a disappointing showing next Tuesday, the Republican said. And that dust from 2022 may not settle until after the new year, with the possibility of close races moving into recounts, candidates refusing to accept election results and a good chance that Georgias tight Senate race goes into a run-off battle. Hed like to have done it already, I give him credit for not announcing yet, said longtime adviser Kellyanne Conway on Thursday, in an appearance at the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast event. Conway said that some of Trumps advisers, particularly those she said were looking to get on his campaign payroll early and cash in on a third run, had been pushing him to jump into the race this past summer, but she said she counseled him to wait until after the midterms and take a victory lap on expected Republican wins. Then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway tapes her speech for the third day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., Aug. 26, 2020. (Susan Walsh/AP) Conway, who was Trumps last campaign manager in 2016 when he won the White House, said that Trump in effect has been campaigning nonstop since he first descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015, noting his steady pace of rallies around the country for more than seven years now. He never stopped campaigning, even into his post-presidency years, and I would say its hard for me to see [that President] Joe Biden ever started campaigning, Conway said, alluding to the possible rematch between Trump and Biden. Dont miss how President Trump is running for president again, if he would like, because he actually never stops being part of it. Trump is expected to further discuss the matter Tuesday when supporters, aides and advisers gather for an Election Night watch party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. By Philip Pullella AWALI, Bahrain (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Friday appealed to religious leaders to help bring the world back from "the brink of a delicate precipice" and oppose a new race to rearm that he said was redesigning Cold War-era spheres of influence. Francis spoke on his first full day in Bahrain as he closed a forum on East-West dialogue promoted by the king of the Gulf country where, unlike Saudi Arabia, Christians are allowed to practice their faith publicly in churches. The visit continues the pope's policy of improving ties with the Islamic world following an historic visit to Abu Dhabi in 2019, the first by any pope to the Arabian peninsula. He has visited about 10 predominantly Muslim states since his election in 2013. Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment that forces him to use a wheelchair and cane, wove his speech around the role of religions in promoting peace, disarmament and social justice. "After two terrible world wars, a cold war that for decades kept the world in suspense, catastrophic conflicts taking place in every part of the globe, and in the midst of accusations, threats and condemnations, we continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall," he said in a gleaming marble courtyard of the royal palace. Apparently referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation where "a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs". RELIGIONS CANNOT BACK WAR Francis, who supports a total ban on nuclear weapons and has often condemned the global arms trade, said religious leaders cannot support wars - in apparent reference to Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, who has given enthusiastic backing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and who the pope has implicitly criticised before. Speaking before the pope, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa called for unanimity in stopping the war between Russia and Ukraine, and a "serious dialogue for the good of all humanity". The pope echoed the call, as did the third speaker, Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque and university, who signed the 2019 "Human Fraternity" document, a landmark manifesto on the role of religions in seeking peace. Francis, without naming any countries, also condemned the financing of terrorism. On Friday afternoon, Francis addressed Bahrain's Muslim Council of Elders in the courtyard of the royal mosque, where he praised those Muslim leaders who "see in extremism a danger that corrodes genuine religion" and called for more dialogue between Islam and other religions. "We need to put a future of fraternity ahead of a past of antagonism, overcoming historical prejudices and misunderstandings in the name of the One who is the source of peace," he said. A small boy recited a verse from the Koran and a girl read a passage from the Old Testament. Francis later was presiding at a prayer service at the cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest church on the Arabian peninsula and one of the two churches serving Bahrain's tiny Catholic community of about 160,000. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by John Stonestreet and Alison Williams) Corinne Avenet held a photo of a young woman smiling. Her hands trembled as she spoke. This is Justine, our beloved daughter, she said. She came here to work from France. She was a lovely, lovely little girl who was always ready to experience anything. She loved her life here. A photo of Justine Avenet, a 24-year-old woman who was killed in a hit-and-run in the neighborhood of Edgewater on Sunday. Corinne is the mother of Justine Avenet, a 24-year-old woman who was killed in a hit-and-run in Edgewater on Sunday. Avenet, who was a marketing coordinator for Hermes, loved sports, her mother said. Now, her family, including her brothers, are grieving her death. Avenet was pedaling her bicycle south on Biscayne Boulevard approaching Northeast 22nd Street when a car hit her from behind. The driver, police say, left without stopping to help her. Miami paramedics arrived at around 3:15 a.m. but Avenet died on the street. READ MORE: Miami detectives investigate deadly hit-and-run of 24-year-old bicyclist Miami police detective Marvin Lopez said Avenet was struck by a dark-colored 2018 to 2021 Nissan Pathfinder. The SUVs front bumper was ripped off, the windshield damaged on the right side, the right headlight shattered. A photo from surveillance video of the car, a dark colored 2018 to 2021 Nissan Pathfinder. Through surveillance video from nearby businesses, Miami police tracked where the vehicle ended up Sunday near Northeast Miami Court and 15th Street, Lopez said. The department is now trying to locate the SUV. The video is not being released yet, Lopez said. As Corinne pleaded for the driver and witnesses to come forward, sadness showed in her eyes. Her husband, Guillaume Avenet, wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He remained quiet. We are begging you, please. Help us out here, Corinne said. She shouldnt have died that way. Anyone with information about the crash should call Miami Police Department at 305-603-6525 and ask for Detective Lopez or any on-duty detective. To provide an anonymous tip, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 305-471-TIPS (8477) or online at crimestoppers305.com. Political candidates asking for citizens votes or bashing their opponent are not the only political messages that voters in many states are seeing right now. Ads for or against constitutional amendments and propositions on the ballot are flooding airwaves and mailboxes in the run-up to the Nov. 8 election. In some states, ballot initiatives put lawmaking directly in the hands of the voters. One of the most prevalent issues in several states this year is abortion. After the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, some states are considering initiatives to expand legal abortion, while others are voting on measures to restrict or outlaw it. One cause that has advanced mainly through ballot initiatives in recent years is marijuana legalization. Efforts to legalize pot for recreational use are on the ballot in five states this year. In addition to directly changing a specific law, some experts say that ballot initiatives may influence the shape of the electorate and also help one party. Election Day at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) It is true that parties and/or political candidates may use ballot initiatives strategically to try to drive voter turnout, John Hudak, senior fellow in governance studies at the nonpartisan public policy organization the Brookings Institution, told Yahoo News. For example, some analysts argued that the large number of anti-gay marriage initiatives in 2004 helped increase turnout among conservative voters, benefiting Republicans. This year, Democrats may hope that initiatives to protect abortion rights may bring liberal voters to the polls. We saw those efforts are anti-marriage equality initiatives in 2004, and we are seeing it around abortion-related initiatives this year. In other situations, ballot initiative authors will strategically time initiatives when they expect voter turnout to be higher. That is why you often see cannabis-related ballot initiatives being put on the ballot in even-numbered years, when turnout is higher for midterm or presidential elections. On Tuesday, voters in 37 states will decide on 132 statewide ballot measures, according to Ballotpedia.com. Abortion Five states will take on the issue of abortion in the midterms. In California, where abortion is most likely to be safe, Proposition 1 would add abortion rights to the state constitution. The same is true for Michigans Proposal 3 and Vermonts Proposal 5. In Kentucky, Amendment 2 presents the opposite case, asking voters to approve the measure that says that nothing in the state constitution creates a right to abortion or requires government funding for abortion. A rally encouraging voters to vote yes on Amendment 2, which would add a permanent abortion ban to Kentucky's state constitution, on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Oct. 1. (Stefani Reynolds / AFP) Montanas legislative referendum would require health care providers to try to save any infant born alive, including after attempted abortions, or face fines or jail time. In Michigan, $57 million has been spent in total, from both sides, on the abortion initiative, according to Politico. Thats more money than the races for governor, attorney general and secretary of state combined, and an unusually large amount of money for a ballot initiative. Citizens to Support MI Women and Children, the campaign opposing the amendment, has raised close to $17 million, mostly from the Catholic Church and anti-abortion groups. In California, churches are also at the forefront of opposition to abortion rights and the proposition. It is hard to say how much money goes into ballot initiatives. In some states, millions or tens of millions will pour into competitive ballot initiatives, especially those involving hot-button issues nationally or locally, Hudak said. In other places and on other issues, very light spending happens on ballot initiatives," he added. "Typically, in states with high barriers to get something on a ballot, they require significant spending and professionalization up front that can then carry over to higher amounts of fundraising and spending later. Marijuana Like abortion, recreational marijuana will go before voters on midterm ballots in five states. They will decide whether marijuana can be used legally for recreational use by adults. Most are right-leaning states showing the growing acceptance and tolerance of it. Voters in Maryland (Question 4), Missouri (Amendment 3), North Dakota (Statutory Measure 2), South Dakota (Initiated Measure 27) and Arkansas (Issue 4) will consider recreational marijuana use, while the federal government has still not taken that step. Already, 19 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, while 37 states have legalized medicinal marijuana. Cannabis sattiva plants. Voter rights Six states are taking up amendments related to voting policies. Nebraska voters will decide on a ballot measure to require voters to show government-issued photo identification. Arizona Proposition 309 would require mail-in ballots to include dates of birth and voter identification numbers on mail-in ballots, as well as eliminating any alternatives to showing photo ID at the polling booth. Voters in Ohio (Issue 2) are deciding this year whether to eliminate language from the constitution that could allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. The initiatives would amend the law to specify citizens of the United States. Louisiana (Amendment 1) has a similar measure going before voters on Dec. 10. A voter fills out a ballot on Oct. 24, ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms in Los Angeles. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images) In Nevada, Question 3 would establish open top-five primaries and ranked-choice voting for general elections, which would apply to congressional, gubernatorial, state executive official, and state legislative elections. Connecticut (Question 1) will address a constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature to pass a law for in-person early voting. Meanwhile, a yes vote on the proposed constitutional amendment in Michigan would expand voting rights, requiring nine days of early voting availability and establishing that people have a right to vote without "harassing, threatening, or intimidating conduct." Guns In a year of deadly mass shootings, Iowa and Oregon are taking up initiatives related to regulation of firearms. Iowas Amendment 1, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, would change the constitution to say any and all restrictions on gun ownership will be subject to strict scrutiny by a court. In Oregon, the changes trend in the opposite direction. Initiative 17, or the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, would require a background check, firearm training and a permit to purchase a firearm. Criminalizes manufacturing, selling or acquiring magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Restricts the use of such magazines currently owned. Guns for sale in the Roseburg Gun Shop in Roseburg, Ore., on Oct. 3, 2015. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson) With all the ballot measures, voters are encouraged to read up and fully understand what they are approving or disapproving before checking their choice. Unfortunately, in some states and on some initiatives, that language is purposefully confusing, so that voters do not know exactly what they are voting on, or which direction 'yes' or 'no' actually goes," Hudak said. In some states, there are more rigorous protections against confusing ballot language, but those protections vary greatly. Voters can take the time to read the full initiative and not simply the summary, but two problems arise there: 1) Some initiatives are dozens or hundreds of pages long and many voters do not have the time to read through them all (especially when there are numerous initiatives on the same ballot, and: 2) Even when reading the full initiative, the language can still be technical, legalistic, and/or bureaucratic. Joel Garcia, from left, Kimberly Robertson, Farrah Ramos, Samantha Morales-Johnson, Isaac Michael, Elizabeth Recalde and Kimberly Morales-Johnson pose for a portrait during the Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration at Grand Park on Oct. 10 in Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) For the record: 11:46 a.m. Nov. 4, 2022: A previous version of this story referred to Monument Lab as Monumental Lab. In 2020, Confederate and Christopher Columbus statues across the United States began toppling, in large part catalyzed by protests against the murder of George Floyd. The Los Angeles-based arts and culture collaborative Meztli Projects was ahead of the curve. Huichol organizer and artist Joel Garcia, the organizations project director and program co-creative director, had long bristled at the presence of the Columbus statue in Grand Park. At the time, he worked as co-director of Self Help Graphics & Art, focusing on programming and operations, helming initiatives like the Know Your Rights workshops, which distributed posters with information about what to do in the event of an ICE raid. In 2017, Garcia coordinated with Taino artist Tanya Melendez to turn the Columbus statue into an altar for the victims of Hurricane Maria. Garcia says that a lot of his efforts at Self Help Graphics were about working to help folks understand the complexities around Indigenous identity. But in working with fellow Native and Indigenous artists and cultural producers, Garcia started to see the ways in which a non-hierarchical group could make an impact across the city. Joel Garcia is one of the founders of Meztli Projects, which aims to improve Indigenous representation in art. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) Garcias work, both as an arts professional and an artist, sparked the beginnings of Meztli Projects in 2018. Once Garcia left his post at Self Help Graphics & Art, the start of a new chapter began. Meztli Projects is a Native and Indigenous-focused group that focuses on centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles, as its website states. One of the groups first public activations involved organizing an event centered on the 2018 removal of that same Columbus statue. For Meztli Projects, the day wasnt just about the statue coming down, it was also about creating a space for Native and Indigenous community members to come together. Each member of the collective works across varied artistic mediums and comes from different academic backgrounds. Projects under the Meztli umbrella include public art, workshops, online educational resources, mentorship and more. The groups members are also practicing artists, something thats important to Garcia and a big part of the collectives mentorship focus. Tongva and Mexican artist River Tikwi Garza met Joel in his early 20s, when he displayed work at Self Help Graphics & Art. Hes now an artist and cultural worker apprentice for Meztli. It was very foundational for me, working with Joel and connecting with all kinds of people who are about this type of work, Garza says. Many of Meztlis activations require behind-the-scenes conversations with elders and community members. The group hopes to raise funds to support elder artists so that they might focus on their work more than being an elder as the cultural sustainer of all these other things that tribal communities have to sustain, Garcia says. This same ethos extends to members like River, who recently completed a residency with the Los Angeles Public Library and currently has work on view at the Catalina Museum for Art & Historys exhibition Crossing Waters: Contemporary Tongva Artists Carrying Pimugna. Garcia also continues his practice. In 2021, he did a residency through Oxy Arts and Monument Lab, along with three other artists, to create a virtual monument. He chose the former location of a Junipero Serra statue on Olvera Street, which was toppled in 2020. We hope that through their own creative practice, they're able to access these opportunities, Garcia says. That through developing this way of doing this work very slow, very gradual, very organic, very thoughtful, never alone, always in consultation with elders and other community members that then that later leads to opportunities such as the ones that River is participating in. Program Co-Creative Director and mentor Kimberly Robertson, a Mvskoke artist and professor, says, There are very few creative spaces for Native folks in Los Angeles to begin with, just plain and simply. For her, one of the biggest challenges has been looking for opportunities and spaces that can allow her to show up fully, particularly as a mother. Robertson began incorporating funding into workshops for child or dependent care, as well as activities that younger members could do alongside adult artists. The groups intergenerational approach is another strong thread woven through every project. Robertsons two kids actively participate in the group. One of them, when she was about 8 or 9, asked to develop a series of workshops for her own age group after seeing her older sister take part. The team paid her to plan the program. But that is not something that we developed, Garcia clarifies. This is very much how Indigenous peoples work everywhere. Meztli Projects hosted a plant dye workshop at the Getty on Oct. 15. Cultural educator Abe Sanchez shared knowledge on traditional California foods, and poet-songwriter Kelly Caballero performed. These events are part of the groups efforts to bring together the Indigenous and Native communities throughout L.A. and to make their presence seen and heard by everyone else. The fundamental thing that is holding everything together is how you care for people through creating, Garcia says. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Friday announced an additional $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, including refurbishing T-72 tanks and missiles for HAWK air defense systems for Kyiv. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that the U.S. would pay for 45 T-72 tanks from the Czech Republic to be refurbished and fund refurbishing some missiles for HAWK air defense systems. Singh said in addition to the funds to refurbish the HAWK missiles, the pledged $400 Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds would refurbish the Soviet-era Czech tanks and give them "advanced optics, communications and armor packages." There was also funding to buy 1,100 Phoenix ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems and 40 armored riverine boats, among other capabilities. The tanks would be refurbished by privately-owned Czech CSG, according to a person familiar with the matter, who added that once work is complete they would be equivalent to the T-72 AVENGER, which has been modernized to improve protective systems and to add modern night-vision and communications equipment. Deputy Czech Defense Minister Tomas Kopecny told Reuters that in total 90 tanks from third parties and private stocks would be modernized. The U.S. funds would pay for 45, or half the fleet. In October, Reuters first wrote about the initiative to furnish HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukraine. They would be an upgrade to the Stinger missile systems - the smaller, shorter-range air defense system - that the United States has already sent to blunt Russia's invasion. The MIM-23 HAWK - a name that began life as an acronym for "Homing All the Way Killer" - was first introduced in the 1950s as the U.S. military sought ways to defeat raids of high-flying strategic bombers. It was upgraded over the years to deal with jamming and other countermeasures, and eventually exported to more than a dozen countries, according the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command. The U.S. Army removed the missiles from service in the mid-1990s and the U.S. Marine Corps followed soon after. The Army replaced it with the MIM-104 Patriot, and the Marines shifted entirely to using smaller, more portable air defense systems. Once the HAWK air defense missiles are refurbished, they could be included in future Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency. Singh declined to provide a timeline or an amount if interceptors. (Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Mike Stone in Washington and Jan Lopatka in Prague) UN calls on Taliban to release women's rights activists Aid conference for Afghanistan at United Nations in Geneva GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief on Friday called on Afghanistan's Taliban government to release five people the U.N. says were detained during a news conference organised by a women's civil society organisation. Police disrupted a news conference in Kabul on Thursday intended to launch a new women's movement called 'Afghan Womens Movement for Equality', the U.N rights office said. A female activist, Zarifa Yaqobi, and four male colleagues were arrested. The other female participants in the room were also temporarily detained and subject to phone and body searches, before being released, it added. "We are concerned about the welfare of these five individuals and have sought information from the de facto authorities regarding their detention," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk via a spokesperson at a Geneva news briefing. A Taliban spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment and said he would look into the matter. Rights groups say women's freedoms in Afghanistan have been undermined since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as international forces backing a pro-Western government pulled out. They point to new curbs on their clothes, movement and education despite earlier Taliban vows to the contrary. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by Howard Goller) As Missouri voters head to the polls, they may find that the ID card they used in Augusts primary election is no longer accepted. Thats because Missouris voter ID laws have changed since just a few months ago. In August, many IDs were acceptable to use as proof of your identity. But now, Missouri voters with IDs issued by another state cant use them to cast their ballots. Instead, they will be given a provisional ballot. Heres what to know about the latest voter ID requirements, and what will happen if you dont have one for early voting or on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8. What has changed since August? A new Missouri voting law is now in effect, and its most immediate impact is restricting the types of IDs voters can use. Up until now, many types of ID were acceptable, including non-government-issued documents like school IDs, utility bills and bank statements. Now, Missouri voters must show a photo ID issued by either the state of Missouri or the federal government. That means residents with drivers licenses from another state will be given a provisional ballot, even if they bring along a proof of residence like a utility bill with their Missouri address on it. In Kansas, voter ID laws have not changed since the primary election. You can review the requirements below. What IDs can I use to vote in Missouri? To vote in Missouri, your ID must now meet three important criteria: It must be issued by either the state of Missouri or the federal government. It must bear your name and a photo of you. It must not be expired. Eligible IDs include a Missouri drivers license, a Missouri non-driving photo ID card, a Missouri military ID, a Missouri veterans card with a photo on it or a non-expired U.S. passport. Consult the Missouri secretary of states website for the full list. Ineligible IDs include an out-of-state drivers license, any photo ID issued by another state, an expired U.S. passport, a utility bill, a bank statement, a school ID or a workplace ID. If you bring one of these ineligible IDs, you will be given a provisional ballot as long as you are registered to vote. If you arent registered, you wont be able to vote at all. What IDs can I use to vote in Kansas? Kansas requires a photo ID in order to vote, but doesnt require that it be issued by the federal government or the state of Kansas. Many forms of ID are acceptable as long as they bear your name and photo. If the ID has an expiration date, it must be unexpired unless you are 65 or older. Eligible IDs include a drivers license or other photo ID from any state, a U.S. passport, a student ID from a Kansas university, an employee ID from a government office, a public assistance ID card and more. Consult the Kansas secretary of states website for the full list. Ineligible IDs include an expired ID, a school ID from outside of Kansas, an employee ID not issued by a government office, a utility bill, a bank statement or an ID without your photo on it. If you bring one of these ineligible IDs, you will be given a provisional ballot. Can I still vote without these eligible IDs? Yes as long as you are registered, you can still vote in Missouri or Kansas. However, without the eligible IDs listed above, you will be given a provisional ballot, which are reviewed and, if approved, are counted later. In Missouri, that means your vote will only be counted if you show an eligible ID later that day or if the signature on your ballot matches the one on your registration application. Your local election authority will decide whether the signatures match. In Kansas, that means your vote will be sealed and may be counted during the week after the election. The staff of your local election office ultimately decides whether to recommend that county officials count provisional ballots based on their reason for being issued. Heres where you can still vote early ahead of Tuesdays election. On Tuesday, polls will be open in Missouri from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and in Kansas from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Do you have more questions about how to participate in Tuesdays election? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com. Ronald Rhoades and his fellow welders formed a union in October of last year, worried about unsafe rigging, crowding and other conditions at the shop in Morton, Illinois, where they built tractor decks. But by early 2022, the group of about 20 were out of their jobs. The company, G&D Integrated, had closed the factory, saying it had suddenly lost its decade-old contract with a Japanese company, workers said. The welders saw another motive: retaliation for the union effort. Theyve been building these decks for over 10 years, said Rhoades, 46. And then two months after we organize, theyre taking everything away from us. The welders filed complaints about the closure to the National Labor Relations Board, part of a sharp increase this year in worker grievances alleging retaliatory shutdowns and other illegal anti-union activity. Overall the numbers are still small, but organizers say store closings are one way companies have tried to tamp down union drives amid post-pandemic worker frustration and rising economic pressure. Welders at G&D in Morton, Ill., formed a union last October. (International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers) G&D Integrated denied it violated labor laws. The Company denies the charges that were filed, and has cooperated with the NLRB in its investigation of these unfounded allegations, spokesman Curt Fisher said in a statement, noting that no findings of any violations have been issued. The case is still pending. When asked specifically why the shop had been closed, Fisher responded by email, pointing a reporter to the companys statement. The issue would most likely have remained under the radar but for the rise in similar complaints following store closings at some of the nations most prominent companies. Starbucks closed multiple stores this year following union activity. In Maine, bosses shuttered a Chipotle outpost that wass on track to become the first to vote on a union. This week, NLRB officials sided with Starbucks workers in Ithaca, New York, finding the company had violated multiple labor laws during the closing of a store there. And in a separate complaint, they agreed with workers in the Chipotle case, saying the company had unlawfully closed the store and laid off employees to discourage organizing. In both cases, officials asked that the companies reopen the stores. A spike in anti-union closure complaints So far this year, workers have filed 34 unfair labor charges under the legal category for complaints about retaliatory shutdowns, relocations and work subcontracting, according to an NBC News analysis of NLRB data. (The NLRB doesnt isolate shutdown data specifically.) That number more than doubled from 2021, NBC found, and jumped about 80 percent from 2017-2019, the three years before the pandemic, when complaints ranged from 16 to 23 annually. That rise comes as worker complaints about unfair labor practices more generally were up 19 percent as of September, compared to the same period in 2021, according to the NLRB. Many businesses say the closings are not directly related to union efforts but reflect new financial constraints in the economy. Trader Joes, for example, abruptly closed a wine shop in the center of New York City where workers had been organizing. Spokeswoman Nakia Rohde said the Manhattan closure had nothing to do with the organizing and that the wine shop was one of its least profitable stores. The closed Trader Joe's Wine in Manhattan on Aug. 11, 2022. (Bill Tompkins / Getty Images file) Chipotle said that the closure in Maine also had nothing to do with union activity at the store and that the company respected its employees rights to organize. A store in Lansing, Michigan later voted to unionize with the Teamsters. Our operational management reviewed this situation as it would any other restaurant with these unique staffing challenges, Laurie Schalow, Chipotles chief corporate affairs officer, said in a statement. The vegetarian food maker Amys Kitchen, which closed a Bay Area factory in July after employees and a local union filed charges of unfair labor practices, said its costs had gone up significantly. Spokeswoman Felicia Collins said that the facility was losing more than $1 million a month, and that the tight labor market, supply chain backlogs and rising prices of goods, like sunflower oil, had made business tough. We unconditionally respect our employees rights and freedoms regarding unionization, she said in a statement. While this was a difficult decision, it was necessary for the business so we could continue to support the rest of the company. Like many other aspects of labor law, closure violations can be hard to prove and enforce. Employers are forbidden from explicit retaliation for unionizing but are allowed to close stores if the legitimate economic consequences of unionization force it. And there arent significant financial penalties for companies even when they are found to have committed wrongdoing: Companies have to pay back wages for dismissed employees, minus any income those workers earned in the meantime. In rare cases, companies can be required to reopen a closed location. Its almost impossible to get a smoking gun, said John Logan, a San Francisco State University historian who has written extensively in support of labor rights. Grease traps At Starbucks, the poster child for the current organizing uptick, the closing of stores with union activity has been particularly pronounced. Workers at more than 315 stores held union elections in the last year, with a wide majority 80 percent voting in favor. But Starbucks has pushed back forcefully aided by the law firm Littler Mendelson, which states on its website we excel in union avoidance prompting workers to file hundreds of unfair labor practices complaints to the NLRB. Starbucks Seattle Workers Strike Unionized Store Closures (David Ryder / Bloomberg via Getty Images file) Starbucks announced the closure of at least 19 stores over the summer, mostly in urban areas, citing safety issues. More than 40 percent of the stores had union campaigns, according to data from Starbucks Workers United, the union that has been organizing the workers. Meanwhile, stores that have filed for union elections, including the more than 250 stores where workers have voted to form unions, make up less than 4 percent of the companies approximately 9,000 corporate-owned stores. Its because we had such a loud voice, said Evan Sunshine, 20, a student who worked at the Ithaca store, which abruptly closed in June. They wanted to turn us into an example to crush any other efforts. In an email to NBC News in October, Starbucks said that it had closed 29 stores since July, and that fewer than a quarter were unionized. More broadly, workers have filed 402 unfair labor charges against the company, alleging retaliation like firings, write-ups and other discipline for organizing work. NLRB officials have so far issued 45 complaints, in which they found merit in 149 of these charges, spokeswoman Kayla Blado said. Those complaints, except for two that judges have already ruled on, will be heard by administrative law judges at the NLRB. Starbucks has denied union busting in Ithaca or at any of its stores. We have and will continue to follow the established law and the NLRB processes for all negotiations. We respect our partners voices and their right to be represented by a union, the company said in part in a statement from spokesman Andrew W. Trull. When we close stores, it is done with deep care and urgency, our goal is to ensure that every partner is supported in their situation. Syndication: The Ithaca Journal (Matt Steecker / Ithaca Journal / USA Today Network) At its Ithaca store, Starbucks cited issues with the facility in a memo to workers in June, including a lack of enough ice bins and a faulty grease trap that dated to the previous tenant of the building, according to a copy reviewed by NBC News. Workers at the store had been the ones to raise the alarm about the grease trap in the first place, two of them said. They had even staged a one day strike the first by workers at the company over the issue in April. And the ice bin issue had been resolved months previously, they said. Workers said seeing those issues as a reason for closing the store made them feel like the company was using their work against them. They said the store, on a busy corner across from Cornell University, was clearly profitable, according to Sunshine. None of us thought theyd do it, 22-year-old Nadia Vitek, another worker at the store, said. They admitted to us that profit had nothing to do with the closure. The reasons didnt really make sense to me. I dont see how it could be anything other than retaliation. Starbucks did not respond to questions about the Ithaca stores financial stability. The NLRB is asking the company to reopen the location. A timeless tactic Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel for the NLRB, said in an interview that illegal threats of plant or store closings had been found to be one of the most effective tactics at quelling union activity and that it was one of many the board sought to regulate. Shutdowns serve as a reminder to employees that every time that they try to improve their working conditions, theyll be met with complete destruction of their livelihood, Abruzzo said. Logan, the historian, said closing stores that are unionizing has contributed to the offshoring of domestic jobs in recent decades, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, as companies have sought cheaper labor abroad. For several decades the threat was always like, Well move the plant to Mexico or some other low wage country if you guys form a union, he said. A Cornell University study in the years after the 1996 North American Free Trade Agreement found that employers made threats to close all or part of a facility in the event of a union win in 51 percent of union campaigns. In industries where jobs could easily be moved overseas manufacturing and call centers, as opposed to nursing homes, for example those threats were made in 68 percent of campaigns. Its not magical or mysterious. Its quite strategic, said Jane McAlevey, a veteran organizer and fellow, at the University of California at Berkeley. We were going to vote yes, no matter what Workers at shops that were shut down said the resulting job losses were crushing. In Augusta, Maine, after Chipotle closed its store on July 19 the same day a federal hearing was scheduled on the vote to unionize workers accused the company of blacklisting them from getting other jobs at Chipotle. Brandi McNease, left, and Laramie Rohr, a member of Chipotle United. (Brandi McNease) Brandi McNease, 38, a leader of the Augusta organizing effort, said she believed she had been blocked from applying for other jobs on the companys jobs site. She kept getting a message that her password needed to be reset, but the email to reset it never came. She says she was only able to apply for a job after making a new profile with a different email address on the site. And even then, she said she was told by a hiring manager that someone at the company had said that she was not supposed to be rehired. Chipotle brought in $7.5 billion last year during Covid. But they are so unwilling to let 18 people have a say in one store, McNease said. NLRB regional director Laura A. Sacks wrote in the complaint issued Thursday that Chipotle refused to rehire McNease because of her involvement in organizing in another violation of labor law. Chipotle did not comment on McNeases claims about her job application. Rhoades, the welder in Illinois, said the closure of his shop was devastating, sending him and his co-workers scrambling to line up other work after a decade of stability. Still, he doesnt regret their efforts. Somebody was going to end up getting killed if we didnt get some stuff fixed, he said. Every worker deserves some kind of representation. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan chaired an enlarged working consultation, attended also by representatives of the parliamentary forces, his Office said. The latest foreign political developments around Artsakh and the future actions of the authorities in this context were discussed. Some participants of the consultation presented their activities done so far in this direction, as well as views were exchanged on forming common positions around concrete issues. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Chairwoman of the Armenian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs Taguhi Tovmasyan hosted Ambassador of China to Armenia Yong Fan in the National Assembly. The discussion focused on issues relating to the development of Armenian-Chinese cooperation in the field of human rights, for the benefit of achieving progress in solving the sectoral issues existing in Armenia, Taguhi Tovmasyan said in a statement on social media. She said she thanked the Ambassador for supporting the Armenian people. I highlighted the presence of not only economic, but also civilizational component of the cooperation and my readiness to have contacts on humanitarian issues. I proposed to organize the teaching of Chinese language especially in provinces which need our attention more than ever, Mrs. Tovmasyan said. She said that in his remarks the Chinese Ambassador stated that they are ready to share the Chinese experience with Armenia in the field of human rights protection. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and China. China stands by the Armenian people and has always responded with readiness to the needs of the Armenian people and will be happy to provide necessary assistance, the Ambassador said. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The Congress of Deputies of Spain, the lower house of the parliament, did not approve the international agreement signed with Azerbaijan as a sign of solidarity with Armenia. In an interview to ARMENPRESS, Spanish member of parliament Jon Inarritu said that the agreement, which was signed in Madrid in December 2021, involved exchange of classified information with Azerbaijan and protection of that information. But the agreement was not ratified as 174 lawmakers voted against it and 132 voted in favor. During the debate of the agreement before the voting Jon Inarritu called the signing of such an agreement an absurdity, especially now when aggressor Azerbaijan has carried out an attack on Armenia in September, occupying several square kilometers of the territory of Armenia. The Azerbaijani regime is corrupt, aggressor and intolerant to dissidents, the lawmaker said, emphasizing the fact of violations of human rights and freedom of speech and the high number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Another lawmaker Marta Rosique condemned the Spanish government for staying silent over the aggression carried out by Azerbaijan against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. She also criticized Spain that it has not yet recognized the Genocide committed against Armenians. by Melani Manel Perera The archbishop attends a meeting on the homeless. In a memorandum, the Negombo United Peoples Organisation asks the Church to help some 2,000 homeless people. The cardinal also criticised the governments draft for a new constitution. Colombo (Asia News) The Negombo United Peoples Organisation (NUPO) held a conference yesterday at the Rukmani Devi Theatre in Negombo titled Where will we set up our tent for dinner?" attended by more than 500 homeless people from the Negombo area. Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo was the guest of honour. In his address, the prelate noted that, When there is an opportunity to obtain funds from foreign countries to build houses for the poor, the authorities instead build highways and pocket millions from commissions. In view of this, the poor should use their valuable votes not to choose such people; otherwise, our country will go further into the abyss." On this occasion, the NUPO gave Cardinal Ranjith a public memorandum with seven requests asking for the archbishop's help in solving the housing crisis of its members. The number of members of our homeless organisation is about 2,000, reads the memorandum, adding, Without a permanent home, how harsh and limited is this life? The memorandum notes that homeless people in Negombo have faced many social problems for almost 40 years. Even after huge efforts, only few housing schemes have been allocated. With respect to Sri Lankas homeless population, the NUPOs first request is to guarantee the right to housing as a "fundamental right in the constitution". For Card Ranjith, the governments constitutional proposal falls far short in this area. Done without no ones input, it will be a disgrace to the country if it is implemented. For the cardinal, the draft "has no decency at all. This constitution will not solve the country's problems. To top it all, someone suggested to further strengthen the presidency and further reduce human rights. by Fady Noun Since 1 November, Lebanon has been without top government leaders, a possibility many saw coming. The countrys parliament is scheduled to meet next week to elect a new president, but rival blocs have scuttled every attempt so far. The Maronite patriarch calls for an international conference in Lebanon under UN auspices. The military remains a guarantor of stability. Beirut (AsiaNews) What had been feared for several months is now a reality. Since Tuesday, 1 November, Lebanon has been in a political and constitutional vacuum since parliament failed to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, whose mandate ended on the evening of 31 October. After last May, following an indecisive general election, Lebanon has also been without a government voted in by parliament. Michel Aouns departure thus marks the start of a period of uncertainty, this in a country where no parliamentary majority has emerged, and where a compromise seems still faraway. Called by its speaker, parliament held a special meeting to vet a letter Mr Aoun sent before he left the presidents residence in Baabda. In it, the now former head of state urges lawmakers to reverse their decision to appoint Nagib Mikati as caretaker prime minister. However, in the absence of any constitutional provision, parliament refused to follow the president in its line of reasoning. To preserve public services, lawmakers also decided that the caretaker government, led by a Sunni, could continue to take care of current affairs, even without a head of state, traditionally a Maronite. They also clarified that the government cannot exceed its functions and that it can meet only an exceptional basis in cases of national emergency and after consultation and approval of its political mentors. This should ease the sectarian tensions that arose between Prime Minister Nagib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement, founded by the outgoing president, and chaired by his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil. Replying to the president who had "accepted his resignation" on the eve of the expiry of his presidential mandate, despite a first public commitment not to do so, Mr Mikati told parliament that the presidential decree was superfluous since his cabinet had already resigned after last Mats general election. More specifically, he said that he would carry out current affairs "in accordance with his constitutional duty", since in case of breach of this duty, the outgoing government would expose itself to serious "constitutional sanctions". Speaking at the end of the session, the chairman of the Justice Committee, Georges Adwan (Lebanese Forces) said that the outgoing government can continue to deal with current affairs "in the strictest sense of the term", but without meeting since presidential prerogatives are transmitted to the cabinet and normally, a resigning cabinet does not meet. Mr Mikati explicitly agreed with this proviso. At the end of the parliamentary session, the Speaker of the House, Nabih Berry, announced that he was going to summon MPs to elect a new president, on a weekly basis, starting next Thursday, 10 November, to give them time to consult between voting sessions. Mr Berry once again called for a political compromise to elect a new head of state. The two main camps in parliament the Free Patriotic Movement allied with Shia parties, and the Lebanese Forces-Progressive Socialist Party group have enough seats in parliament to block the election of a new president, which requires 86 votes or a two-third majority. At the beginning of the session, two parliamentary groups, Kataeb (Phalanges) and lawmakers elected on the wave of the protest movement, challenged the meeting convened by the speaker to examine the presidents message. Citing Article 25 of the constitution, they claim that since 31 October, the National Assembly became an electoral college and that, as a result, its task is to meet "exclusively and continuously" to elect a president. Two other leading lawmakers backed this position, namely Sunni MP Ashraf Rifi (independent/Tripoli) and presidential candidate Michel Moawad (independent/Zghorta). For his part, in a public statement made from Bahrain, where he is attending the Interreligious Forum, also attended by Pope Francis, the Maronite Patriarch, Card Bechara al-Rahi, called for a special conference under the auspices of the United Nations to resolve the points of discord. Meanwhile, the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Joseph Aoun (no relation to the former president), made a strongly worded speech before a meeting of senior officers. In it he stressed that the military would severely deal with any attack on internal stability at this delicate phase in the country's history. 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. A few tears ago, a young couple in Finland wanted to switch to a more natural, off-grid lifestyle. In their case, that didnt mean a van, a sailboat, or a tiny house on wheels but an entire island just for themselves. Well, how do you go about finding an empty, available island? Aleksi Hautamaki and Milla Selkimak told Business Insider that they first went the traditional route of checking-out the real estate market. Of course, there werent many options there.So, they took matters into their own hands and started looking for islands on Google Maps . The fact that Aleksi was used to cruising in his fathers boat around the Archipelago National Park certainly helped. It was a tedious process, though theyd find something interesting on Google Maps, then had to check the local documents for ownership and contact the owners. It took them five years to eventually find the perfect spot.This turned out to be a 5-acre (2 hectares) island on the edge of the Archipelago National Park. The owners at the time were happy to part with it, as it was just part of a larger parcel that belonged to them. Aleksi and Milla simply named it Project O (O is Finnish for island) and were ready for the next step in their adventure.Finding an uninhabited island was just the beginning. Now they had to turn into a home. The two had sold their apartment in Helsinki in order to buy the island and lived in a rental apartment during the construction process. Both of them are designers (in different fields), yet they have never built a house before. It was hard work, and the remote location made it even more challenging - everything had to be delivered there by boat.The result looked like this the main cabin, a guest house, an indoor and outdoor kitchen, plus a sauna. Everything was built in harmony with traditional Finnish archipelago aesthetics and with the natural surroundings. They wanted to use as little space as possible while still enjoying the comfort and a beautiful style. According to Aleksi, the island is totally self-sufficient and sustainable. Solar panels provide energy. Water from the Baltic Sea is filtered to become drinking water. The sauna stove is part of a system that provides both floor heating and hot running water. Peat, a natural resource obtained through the decomposition of vegetable matter, was used for wall insulation and soundproofing.Connection with the outside world is needed for transportation and for food supplies. Since its so remote, this off-grid retreat can only be reached by boat or helicopter. It only takes 45 minutes to get from Helsinki to the island via helicopter. But a boat is the basic means of transportation from the Helsinki International Airport, people have to drive to Kasnas (a 2.5-hour ride) and, from there, take a boat to the National Park (a 20-minute cruise).Those who want to be 100% off-grid can rely on fishing for themselves, then cooking in the outdoor kitchen. But, most of the time, food supplies are brought in from the mainland, also via boat.This wasnt their original plan, but Aleksi and Milla started to rent out their amazing self-sufficient retreat this summer, and it has been very popular. People from all over the world came to visit the gorgeous location and enjoy the off-grid lifestyle for a while.A bold dream and a lot of hard work eventually turned into a successful business (more booking details can be found at Airbnb ). And it all started with a wish and the determination to find the perfect spot on Google Maps. Numbers show that SAF can cut a significant amount of CO2 emissions (an average of 80%) throughout its lifecycle. At the moment, the SAF that is produced in bio-refineries is blended with kerosene in certain proportions, becoming what is known as drop-in fuel. This fuel is certified to be used for commercial aircraft, just like the conventional Jet A1, without any modifications to the aircrafts systems.Airbus aims to reduce its own Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 63% compared to 2015, with 2030 as a deadline. To do so, its using SAF in several ways.One of them is using green jet fuel for operations and logistics at its facilities in different parts of the world. The latest to gradually replace conventional fuel with SAF are the ones in Toulouse, France, and Tianjin, China. This comes after an Airbus A320neo completed the first flight powered by Chinese SAF last month.Alternative fuel is also used to power the fleet of Beluga aircraft that carry large aircraft components from one facility to another. ATI (Airbus Transport International) has been doing this since 2019 but plans to extend the routes on which it is used. Plus, all the Airbus manufacturing sites that benefit from the ATI logistics services could be supplied with SAF by the end of the decade.SAF is also being introduced for employee shuttle services. Volotea has been operating Monday-to-Friday shuttles for Airbus since 2019, but, starting this Fall, the airline will do so using SAF. More specifically, a 34% SAF blend will power the regional jet flying from the Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport to the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport.However, in order to expand the use of green jet fuel, even more, production must also increase. Developing the SAF market is an important goal in itself for all players in the aerospace industry. kWh The Senmenti 0 was recently introduced by the Austrian/Chinese two-wheeled manufacturer, and it is not your ordinary scooter . It boasts insane specs, smart, self-balancing technology, and bold, groundbreaking aesthetics.Looking closer to a motorcycle than an electric scooter, the Senmenti 0 blows up its competition with a top speed of 124 mph (200 kph), 600 Nm of rear-torque, and its ability to go from 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) in just 2.8 seconds.The two-wheelers range is no less impressive, with the Senmenti 0 claiming to offer up to a whopping 186 miles (300 km) of range per charge. That endurance is offered by its massive, 16.2battery pack with supercharging capabilities, which means the scooter can be fully recharged in just 30 minutes.Horwin calls the scooter a high-performance, electric, urban ADV, describing it as a multi-functional and multi-purpose crossover vehicle . But its insane speed and range are just some of the key features, with the Senmenti 0 being also tech-packed to the max with over 30 sensors (temperature, air pressure, airspeed sensors, etc.), intelligent cameras, and more. They all measure everything in real-time, collect information, and, together with the deep learning processors, make sure that riders have the smoothest, safest riding experience by learning their usage habits and interacting with them through a unique human-computer system.Some of the crazy tech features you get with the Senmenti 0 are real-time tire pressure monitoring, front and rear millimeter-wave radars for collision warnings and blind spot detection, hill-start assist, reverse assist, a fully automatic windshield, and a keyless start via three modes (an app, NFC, or Bluetooth).Along with the crazy smart Senmenti 0, Horwin also unveiled the Senmenti X electric scooter, which is just a concept for now, a tribute to the first wave of classic cyberpunk ideas. It boasts the same specs as the Senmenti 0, but its design is way more out there, and I doubt well be seeing it on the streets anytime soon.The Senmenti 0 however is available to pre-order , but youll have to contact Horwin for more information. Meanwhile, if you have an hour or so to kill and you dont mind the low-quality acoustics in Chinese, you can watch the entire presentation of the Senmenti 0 and Senmenti X on Horwin's Facebook page Subsequent testing revealed no separation of the micro gas generator for the North America-spec Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid, and the Genesis Electrified G80 involved in this recall. The South Korean automaker explains the different result by means of a different airbag control unit logic, which is unique to vehicles produced for North America.Although no concern was observed, the safety boffins at Hyundai decided to call back potentially affected vehicles in an abundance of caution. Hyundai isnt aware of abnormal pretensioner deployments in customer vehicles.Affected components listed in the document attached below feature part numbers 888A0-JI500, 88810-CL000, 888B0-JI500, and 88820-CL000. Rather than replacing the front seatbelt assemblies, the remedy is far simpler in terms of labor and costs. More specifically, dealers will be instructed on December 30th the day owner notifications will be mailed to have the micro gas generator and the delivery pipe secured with a cap.The Santa Fe Hybrid, Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid, and Electrified G80 produced after June 7th and August 5th are equipped with a ventilation valve in the pretensioner pipe. No fewer than 14,928 vehicles are called back stateside, starting with 218 units of the 2023 model year Genesis Electrified G80. Their build dates range from February 23rd to August 13th this year.The affected population of Santa Fe Hybrid utilities consists of 10,626 units produced for the 2021 and 2022 model years between December 18th, 2020, and July 26th, 2022. Last but certainly not least, Hyundai recalled 4,084 examples of the Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid produced for the 2022 and 2023 model years between May 13th, 2021, and July 21st, 2022. One of the most recent concerns is an issue encountered by Google Pixel owners, as buyers of the latest-generation model complained that Android Auto was completely broken on their smartphones.The issue was reported last month, and it was acknowledged by Google pretty fast. Users said that launching Android Auto was no longer possible on a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, while others claimed the app does launch but disconnects after a few seconds.Google shipped a fix a few days ago, but according to the same users who originally encountered the bug, the update doesnt produce any sort of improvement.Posts on this Google support forum thread indicate that Googles fix needs a fix as well, as Android Auto still isnt working properly on a Pixel 7.On the other hand, it looks like the most recent version of Android Auto does address the glitch in some way or another. At least for some users, that is, so if you want to try your luck, just head over to this page and download the latest beta build of Android Auto.For the time being, its still not clear if Google is working on any other fix for Android Auto on the Google Pixel 7, but without a doubt, the company should at least look into the matter and try to figure out if the update it released indeed fixes the connection problems or other patches are still required.Users still struggling with the errors have nothing else to try than the aforementioned update to the latest Android Auto beta build, as it seems that all the other generic workarounds are nothing but a waste of time. Although the deal is not legally binding yet, CALB seems pretty determined to get it done if the Portuguese government makes it possible. The fact that it was the one disclosing the deal is just one of the signs it has the firm intention of making it happen. For Portugal, thats a fantastic deal. Apart from exporting most of the production, the capacity expansion may ensure AutoEuropa Volkswagens plant in Although the deal is not legally binding yet, CALB seems pretty determined to get it done if the Portuguese government makes it possible. The fact that it was the one disclosing the deal is just one of the signs it has the firm intention of making it happen. For Portugal, thats a fantastic deal. Apart from exporting most of the production, the capacity expansion may ensure AutoEuropa Volkswagens plant in Portugal has a steady supply of cells should it have the chance to go electric. The Chinese cell manufacturer announced on WeChat that it signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Portuguese government. To be more specific, the deal was signed with Global Parques, a subsidiary of the Agencia para o Investimento e Comercio Externo de Portugal (Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade, or AICEP).According to Agencia Lusa, the plan is to build the lithium-ion cell factory in Sines, Setubal. The mayor Nuno Mascarenhas said the plant needs a 100-hectare (247.1-acre) lot, which AICEP Global Parques does not currently have. That said, the subsidiary is working to install the CALB factory at the Zona Industrial e Logistica de Sines (Industrial and Logistics Zone of Sines, or ZILS).At ZILS, there are several entities taking care of the urbanization plan. The Portuguese government, Sines, and AICEP Global Parques are working to put the subsidiary in charge of the needed terrains. And that need should soon double.Nuno Gameiro told Agencia Lusa that CALB plans to start operations in 2025. CALBs representative in Portugal said the plant will initially have a capacity of 15 GWh per year and will only occupy 50 of the 100 hectares. That will be enough to supply the current contracts CALB already has with European car factories.In a second phase, starting in 2028, the company will expand and occupy all the lot. Yearly production capacity will then expand to 45 GWh. Gameiro said that if everything goes according to the plan, a third phase will demand another 100-hectare terrain in the area, making it comparable to Giga Grunheide in terms of size. In other words, CALB may have the largest battery plant in Europe, with a 90 GWh per year capacity. Theres no bigger humiliation for Volkswagen than seeing the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N testing around Germanys most iconic racetrack. Although the Germans promised sportier versions of their ID.3 and ID.4 long ago, the MEB-based electric cars are too lame to deserve an R badge. The Volkswagen R divisions boss Reinhold Ivenz let that slip out of his mouth while talking to Auto Express last month, revealing that the battery could not sustain a 500+ horsepower drivetrain with the current 400-volt architecture.Hyundai is having a field day, as youd imagine, even though they use pretty much the same batteries for their Ioniq 5 EVs. The main difference: the 800-volt architecture allows double the power from the same batteries without putting more strain on them. Thats why the future electric racer Ioniq 5 N affords not 500 horsepower but possibly more than 600 horsepower, as Albert Biermann, the brands current technical advisor, told Australias Drive during a press conference two months ago.Weve seen Ioniq 5 N prototypes doing their fair share of laps on the Nurburgring before, but our photographers surprised us this time with a different breed. Painted grey instead of the usual Performance Blue of N-badged models, it was covered in black attire as if it had a lot more to hide than it should. The front and rear are completely hidden, although we dont expect major changes here compared to the non-N versions of the Ioniq 5.The Ioniq 5 N will have a more aggressive front spoiler but not the large air inlets that the black camo suggests. The headlights are production-ready , and the hood should be similar to the regular Ioniq 5s. At the back, the large roof spoiler and what appears to be a covered rear diffuser round up the most important changes. Interestingly, the plastic fender flares sport a simple design on this prototype, with no swirl effect around the wheels.More important than the body modifications are what Hyundai would improve under the skin to make the Ioniq 5 N a true sportscar. Taken from its cousin Kia EV6 GT , we expect a re-tuned suspension, upgraded cooling, and a new steering system featuring a variable gear ratio. The EV6 GT also has an electronic limited-slip differential and an active suspension with high-performance dampers. Well find out more in the coming months as Hyundai readies the Ioniq 5 N for the limelight. We expect the electric racer to launch early next year, so stay tuned for more info. Since the homo sapiens stage, humans have tried to shape the world they lived in, starting with transportation. The invention of the wheel was crucial, but as it evolved, humankind found other solutions that were better suited for going from A to B in a timely fashion. Ten years ago, the Hyperloop sparked the imagination of humans, thanks to Elon Musk. I suspect the hyperloop name has more to do with the hype than the Greek hyper.As hyped as it was, the Hyperloop concept has faded from a high-speed pod traveling inside a vacuum tube to a boring tunnel for Tesla cars to drive underground. I guess thats where the Boring Company name came from. Boring as it was, we expected Elon Musk to eventually lose interest completely in the new transportation system, which is what just happened.According to Bloomberg , the once-hyped Hyperloop test track in Los Angeles has been dismantled. The one-mile-long white cylinder running along Jack Northrop Avenue near the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. office in Hawthorne, California, has disappeared completely. In its place, parking lots for SpaceX employees will be built, according to local city council members.Following Elon Musks invitation in 2013 to other companies to develop the Hyperloop project, several projects have been established around the world. They buried large amounts of money in research and development, but none so far managed to fulfill the dream of fast and efficient transportation that the original concept promised. The most advanced is the Virgin Hyperloop , which has already completed the first passenger test. The problem: the travel speed was only 100 mph (162 kph), far from the promised subsonic speeds. Video of Black Pearl sailing into the floating dock of Adriatic42, in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro, is available below. Adriatic42 is a joint venture between Porto Montenegro and Drydocks World Dubai, specializing in megayacht refit, and Black Pearl is the first megayacht to undergo works here. Details on the refit have not been made public, but expect the completed project to get media attention in due time. Black Pearl is one of the most visually striking and high-performance megayachts in the world, as well as the most spectacular of its kind. Built on commission for Russian oligarch Oleg Burkalov, whose family still owns it after his June 2021 passing, it was initially based on an existing naval structure from Oceanco. Oceanco and naval architects Dykstra Naval Architects Ken Freivokh, Nuvolari Lenard, BMT Nigel Gee, and Gerard P. Villate enhanced that platform and improved it, creating the one-off 106.7-meter (350-foot) Black Pearl, a sail-assisted megayacht.The ship was commissioned in 2010 and delivered to the owner eight years later, but even despite the extended build timeline, it was and still is a revolutionary vessel for its eco-friendly features . Black Pearl is one the most outstanding uses of the DynaRig system, with its three rotating 70-meter (229-foot) carbon masts and a total sail area of 2,900 square meters (31,215 square feet), allowing it to sail across the Atlantic on wind power alone (under the right conditions). On sails, Black Pearl can hit top speeds of 30 knots (34.5 mph / 55.5 kph), as demonstrated during sea trials.Not much is known about the ships interior, except that it offers accommodation for 12 guests in five cabins across three decks. The interior design was penned by Valentina Zannier and architect Gerard Villate and was inspired by Louis XIV, the last king of France. So, as sleek and slightly menacing as Black Pearl might seem from the outside, it is extremely elegant and ornate on the inside.The reported cost of the Black Pearl is somewhere in the vicinity of $200 million. With such a revolutionary, expensive and beautiful yacht , youwant the best of the best in terms of refit work and Adriatic42 is convinced its up to the task. The chip shortage has wreaked havoc in the automotive industry, and after two years of struggle, the semiconductor inventory continues to be incredibly constrained.Just earlier this week, Ford officials acknowledged that the chip shortage would continue through 2023 , with General Motors admitting earlier this year that this is indeed the scenario they are preparing for.The global investments in chip production capacity should start paying off in 2024 at the earliest, so industry analysts do expect the global supply, at least in the automotive market, to remain constrained next year.In the meantime, Samsung has a very ambitious plan to prepare for the future of the semiconductor business.The Korean media is reporting that Samsung wants to develop home appliance chips that would also be compatible with electric and self-driving vehicles. The company isnt only trying to kill two birds with one stone but also wants to be ahead of the industry by preparing for a concept it believes could become the new norm in the automotive market in about one decade.Merging cars and home appliances is something thats been happening for years, especially as carmakers designed concept cars that doubled as small homes on wheels. As vehicles are getting self-driving capabilities, turning the cabin into a kitchen or living room is something that becomes more feasible, and Samsung believes this could happen sooner rather than later.As a result, Samsung wants to be the leader of the self-driving push in terms of chips, something that would put the company in a favorable position once this new revolutionary trend gains pace.The production of this new-generation chips should begin by the end of the year, but of course, Samsung has so far remained completely tight-lipped on its ambitious strategy. All who I was acquainted with, either casually or professionally, knew that living afloat on my sailboat was my dream, but I would learn they never believed I would leave a seemingly comfortable life for an existence on the sea until I did!I had always been at home, so to speak, aboard my boat, being close enough to the Intercoastal Waterway in South Florida that I could take off at any time, taking all my belongings with me. Whether it was a short 60-mile jaunt over to Bimini, a weekend trip down through Biscayne Bay and around to the Florida Keys, or a sojourn down to my playground in the Caribbean, it did not matter, I was on a permanent vacation and did not care what people thought.The first couple of months, I would chronicle my travels on social media, namely Facebook, until I began to hear from people that I went to high school with back in the mid-80s. Some I knew, and others I did not. I later learned that I was unknowingly connected to a Facebook group started by my graduating class. To a person, they would express a great deal of envy and explain how it was their dream to live aboard a sailboat, just as I was doing. I would usually reply with encouraging words like"Live your dream" or "Where there is a will, there is a way."I did, however, reconnect with some old classmates that I hung around with, and we chatted quite often. One friend throughout my four-year stint in High School asked if he could come out to Florida and spend a couple of days aboard as it "had been his lifelong dream" as well.I learned some valuable lessons during his stay, which lasted about three days. Upon his arrival, we went down to my favorite watering hole called the Elbow Room in Fort Lauderdale and tossed a couple back while I explained the rules I had about staying aboard my home and, just as importantly, the rules while we were underway.This guy turned out to be the guy you invite to your Christmas party.... just once!I do credit him for giving me a reason to form a litmus test for guests aboard, whether they were old friends or new. The test involved a series of shakedown cruises that began with short excursions up and down the Intercoastal and grew in length if warranted.Over the course of the first year or so, I had many guests, and they all had a singular thing in common. While they all claimed to have wanted to live on a sailboat, none of them really understood what it took or why people do it. They were all in a hurry to do something; every time we were underway on a beautiful sunny day in light air making 4-5 knots (4-6 mph/7-9 kph), just cruising along without a care in the world, they would all ask, Can we go any faster? Ironically, they had no clue where we were going in the first place.My point is that most of the people who dream about living aboard a sailboat are in a trance from books they have read or movies they have seen. There is an old saying about sailing not being about the destination but the journey. That could not be more true. In all my years of sailing, I have never, ever been in a hurry to get anywhere when aboard.There is another saying that goes something like this: without a destination, no wind can take you there. Hogwash!In addition, if boredom sets in when you are sailing, it is simply not for you, no matter what your dream is. Wake up and conjure up another.One of the funniest situations I experienced was sailing out of Key West, Florida, back up to Fort Lauderdale. Because I did not have a shoal draft boat (limited depth boat below the waterline) and with the waters around the Keys being somewhat shallow, it takes about 3 days if I don't bar hop. One Saturday morning, I was leaving Key West Marina under motor and hoisted my sails as I turned to the East. After about an hour or so on a close reach into the wind, a woman appeared in my companionway. I had my first stowaway!Apparently, the previous night she overheard me talking to some friends at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville on Duvall Street about sailing back to Fort Lauderdale in the morning. She explained that she did not want to ask for a lift back, so she followed me back to my boat, waited an hour after I turned the lights off, came aboard, and stowed away in the aft cabin.I wasn't angry and thought it was rather cool that I had a stowaway. The funny part is, after about an hour, she asked if I could sail closer to shallow water where she could safely jump overboard and swim to waist-deep water and go ashore. The reason? We were going too slow, and she was bored.Sailing alone is better! SUV Even North America originally got the Toyota Hilux since its inception in early 1968. But less than a decade later (since 1976), the compact pickup truck simply became known as the quintessential Toyota workhorse (aka Pickup, Truck, Pickup Truck, or Compact Truck, among others). Then, starting around the time of the sixth-generation Hilux, in 1995, Toyota derived it as a standalonenamed 4Runner, and the pickup truck became known as Tacoma in North America.Their destinies were never intertwined since, with the mid-size Toyota pickup truck still named Hilux internationally and differing vastly in design from its North American Tacoma sibling. Interestingly, not everyone thinks that sort of strategy should continue going forward. And some of them can also take matters into their hands and do something about it.Or, rather, take them at the tip of their CGI brushes, on this occasion. So, here is Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, who has recently decided to have a digital go at imagining the ninth Hilux iteration with pronounced Americana styling cues. Alas, there is also an interesting CGI twist added to the new generation matters.First, let us get the elephant out of the china shop the base for the virtual transformation is neither the current Hilux iteration nor even the contemporary U.S. market Tacoma, for that matter. Instead, the pixel master stole the GMC Canyons soul and infused it with lots of Toyota DNA. Secondly, the CGI expert went directly for the flagship cues and chose to portray the next Toyota Hilux, in Invincible attire , as a potential global mid-size Tundra version.So, how does it feel to you is it credible enough to get our CGI hall pass, or not? Elon Musk is set to change the world in more than one way, and not everybody is okay with that. His latest move to acquire and change Twitter has worried many people, and some of them have gone a little further in expressing their dissatisfaction. General Motors announced last week that it temporarily halts advertising on Twitter while still figuring out the companys direction under Elon Musks ownership.Now, its Volkswagens turn to make the same decision. According to Automotive News , Volkswagen has paused advertising on the platform for all its brands until further notice in the wake of Elon Musks takeover of the social media platform. Volkswagen Group includes the Volkswagen brand and Seat, Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati, and Porsche brands.We are closely monitoring the situation and will decide about next steps depending on its evolvement, a spokesperson for Volkswagen Group said in a statement. Like GM, the German automaker indicated the situation is temporary, although this might become a permanent arrangement, as many temporary things usually do. According to a recent CNBC report, Ford is another company that doesnt pay advertising money to Twitter.The future direction of Twitter is something that not only advertisers in the auto industry have yet to learn about. Musk has boasted about being a free-speech absolutist, although he later added that he intends to name a content moderation council and would not let Twitter become a free-for-all hellscape.Even though Musk has pledged to turn Twitter into the most respected advertising platform in the world, legacy carmakers might not buy into the rhetoric. They would be, after all, reluctant to fill their main competitors coffers with advertising money. Just like Volkswagen and GM announced, they will continue to use Twitter to stay in touch with their customers but not pay to promote their products or services for the time being. On the other hand, users occasionally run into all kinds of problems with Google Maps, and some of them blame their devices for the whole thing. Im seeing quite a lot of people claiming that you need a new-generation device to run Google Maps, as this is the only way to make sure everything is working flawlessly.But while a 2022 and up-to-date device could reduce the likelihood of problems with Google Maps, heres what you actually need to be able to use the app.First and foremost, the devices.Google itself says Google Maps should run flawlessly on any device powered by at least Android 6.0. This means the app should feel at home on most devices out there Android 6, also known as Marshmallow, was released in 2015, so it goes without saying not too many devices out there are still running it.As far as Apple users are concerned, your iPhone must be at least on iOS 13.4 to be able to install Google Maps from the App Store. In terms of devices, you need at least an iPhone 6s (the last iOS version available for this device is 15.7.1) to run the app.As compared to Waze , which also requires an Internet connection, Google Maps can also be used in offline mode. This is actually one of its main benefits, as you can download the maps at home and then use Google Maps without a data connection in your car.And this is all you need to be able to run Google Maps on your mobile device. Otherwise, some extras might be required if you want to expand its functionality, such as an Android Auto or CarPlay head unit if you want to project the navigation to a larger display inside the car. Mauritius commemorated the 188th anniversary of arrival of indentured labourers Mauritius/ Nov 3 The official ceremony to commemorate the 188th Anniversary of the Arrival of Indentured Labourers in Mauritius was held on Thursday, at the Trou Fanfaron Wharf, next to the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications, Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. The ceremony, with a gathering of some 4,000 people, was organised by the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund. The Vice-President of the Republic of Mauritius, Eddy Boissezon; Me Xavier Duval, the leader of the opposition, members of Cabinet and of the National Assembly; representatives of the Diplomatic Corps, including the High Commissioner of the Republic of India, K. Nandini Singla; and other eminent personalities attended the commemorative activity. The event comprised a wreath-laying ceremony by the Prime Minister and other dignitaries; cultural and artistic items highlighting the historical legacy of the Indentured Labourers; and the launching of the annual Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund magazine. Historical figures In his keynote speech, the Prime Minister saluted the courage, perseverance, sufferings, sacrifices, efforts, resilience and patience of the Indentured Labourers, underlining their immense contributions to the socioeconomic development of the Republic of Mauritius. The Head of Government recalled that some 462,000 immigrants came to Mauritius from India between 1834 and 1920, seeking a better life. Upon their arrival, they faced tough challenges and appalling conditions that denied them their humanity. He talked, too, of the significance of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site, where 188 years ago, some 36 Indian immigrants, after their journey on board the M.V. Atlas, climbed the flights of 16 steps with the objective of creating a future for themselves and their children. According to the Prime Minister, indentured workers' history was one of Mauritian history's most inspirational chapters. He thus stressed the imperative for the population, in general, and the young generations to learn their common history and of the life of their forebears, and to visit the historical sites across the island. Jugnauth put forward the harsh experiences of the previous generations who struggled, sweated, and toiled with great dignity and succeeded, against all odds, in paving the way for the development and prosperity of the country. Our story is the continuation of their history, he said. The Prime Minister also honoured all the historical figures who fought throughout decades for the human, social, political, religious, and cultural rights of all to be recognised and respected. He moreover paid tribute to the people who were instrumental in the preservation of the historical legacy and site, namely the contribution of the late Dr. Corrine Forrest to the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund and in the promotion of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site. Cultural Show Furthermore, the population was invited by Jugnauth to work together and to persevere in building unity amidst the diversity and multicultural aspects that were the hallmarks of the Mauritian nation. The Prime Minister urged everyone to live in peace and harmony while being proud of their ancestors and remembering the past. Pravind Jugnauth says that it is only through remembrance that justice can be done to slaves and indentured labourers. He stated that for what our ancestors did for the country, we must stay united. He added that the flame of unity should be preserved and nourished as some are trying to set the country on fire. He denounced an attempt by some people to jeopardize social peace. As for the Minister of Arts and Cultural Heritage, Avinash Teeluck, he invited the audience to cast their mind back to the time of the arrival of the first Indentured Labourers, and to reflect on their living and working conditions. Teeluck spoke of the wreath-laying on 1st November 2022 at Antoinette Phooliyar in Barlow where the first 36 Indian Immigrants lived after they arrived in Mauritius. The Minister announced that an indentured village would be constructed at Antoinette Phooliyar in Barlow to present a living picture of the indentured experience. He indicated that thorough research had been undertaken and was ongoing to deliver a factual rendition of life and circumstances at that time. For her part, the High Commissioner of the Republic of India dwelt upon the prominent and active role of the Indian Diaspora in the world. She affirmed that Mauritius epitomized the spirit of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas and seized the opportunity to invite people from Mauritius to participate in the 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas which would be hosted in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, in India, in January 2023. The Pravasi Bhartiya Divas is celebrated on 09 January, to commemorate the date of the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India in 1915 and highlight the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the development of India. After the speech of the Indian High Commissioner, Nandini Singla, at the Aapravasi Ghat this morning, Xavier-Luc Duval left the room. He was, therefore, not present when Pravind Jugnauth delivered his speech. The Prime Minister pointed out that the Leader of the Opposition was no longer present. This article has been published in arrangement with Le Matinal (Mauritius' Digital English News Channel) Day of the Dead Festival at the Church of Scientology Honors Ancestors Clinica Sierra Vista has appointed its chief medical officer to become the third person in about two years to lead the Bakersfield-based chain Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Goatboys Warhammer 40K Revived CSM Creations of Bile 4 Minute Read Advertisement Goatboy here and as you read on Monday I did pretty well at the Kansas City GW Open. Heres my tweaked CSM Creations of Bile list that did great! I really liked the massed Possessed list and while it did well I do think I have some ways to make it well better. What did well was it performed awesomely as a board control list. It had a ton of bodies, a lot of wounds, and just hit and controlled the board pretty well. On top of that it still hit back very hard as anything that got close it well chewed up. Hello Termies & Possessed Heck the only things it was scared of in combat seemed to be some of the bigger Daemon options that hit like a freight train of death. The bigger units of Possessed allowed me to pull models efficiently when dealing with bigger threats and let me hit back with the fight on Death well. The only things that seemed to be lacking in the initial list was some of the other threats that just didnt work out nearly as well as I wanted too. I also had issues with trying to keep the bonus options going when my Terminators got to far ahead of their leaders. This leads me into thinking while the 30 possessed do the dirty work of dying, getting in the way, and jumping on my enemy I sure needed another unit to get all the buffs that the Terminators like. But without the added cost of being Terminators. Thus the reworked idea of fitting in 10 Chosen and a Rhino they can conveniently hide in as needed. Plus the Rhino lets me have a sacrificial Overwatch partner. I am keeping with one battalion as it just seems to feel right and while I loved the Master of Executions I didnt really need him nearly as much of the time. I can set up a kind of mini one in the Chosen with a Trophy of the Long war that also mixes in some of the fun bonuses I get from the unit having an ICON and Worshipping Slaanesh. With that will get on with the list. CSM Creations of Bile Dump Trunk of Wounds List Version 2 Chaos Space Marine Battalion Legion: Creations of Bile Advertisement -HQ- Master of Possession Mark of Slaanesh, Relic (-1CP) Liber Hereticus 120pts Dark Apostle Mark of Slaanesh, Warlord 110pts -Troops- Cultist Mob X 10 50pts Cultist Mob X 10 50pts Legionaries X 5 90pts Subscribe to our newsletter! Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy -Elites- Chaos Terminators X 10 Mark of Slaanesh, Heavy Flamer X 2, Chainfist X 2, Trophy of the Long War (-1CP) Black Rune of Damnation 365pts Chosen X 10 Mark of Slaanesh, Powerfist X 2, Icon, Trophy of the Long War (-1CP) Blade of the Relentless 270pts Possessed X 10 Ion 285pts Possessed X 10 Ion 285pts Possessed X 10 Ion 285pts -Dedicated Transport- Chaos Rhino Combi-Bolter X 2, Havok Launcher 90pts PTs: 2000 CP: 3 Using the Creations of Bile List This is a pretty simple list and by adding a Rhino full of Chosen it gives me a bit more play. I have my sacrificial box/wall/etc that move my unit of murder bois out and ready to do some damage as needed. It also gives me something else to block some of those gaps I see when playing on the GW terrain and other event options. It also is another unit that can get the Stratagems thrown on them, Prayers get thrown on them, and even some Psychic bits of fun as my Terminators move and hold the centerline. Yes I give up No Prisoners pretty easily but with the bigger 10-man units it is a lot harder to get Grind them Down. Advertisement Well talk about the competitive environment next week and some of things I saw fighting around on the grand battle scape that is Warhammer 40k. Author: Thomas / Goatboy Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I've been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on - or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related. Advertisement Read the Comments (0) Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim speaks at an event during which he announced the election candidates from his Peoples Justice Party (PKR) in Selangor, Malaysia, Oct. 28, 2022. Malaysians joke that Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the main opposition bloc, is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. Thats because he has spent decades waiting to become Malaysias prime minister. This months general election might be his last shot at the top political office because his coalition will look for fresh leadership if it loses in the polls, analysts say. And the 75-year-old reformist wont have an easy job securing votes from conservative Malays to support his multi-racial coalition, they add. I think his window of opportunities is getting smaller, said Tunku Mohar Mokhtar, a political science professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. If he fails this time, it is difficult to get such an opportunity again. Maybe his cries for reforms are no longer convincing to the post-Reformasi generation, Tunku told BenarNews. He was referring to nationwide protests that Anwar led during the late 1990s where he called for institutional reforms. If his health permits and his coalition can win the next general election, probably his supporters would still want to push him again as prime minister. However, if he fails this time, the coalition may want to move on from him, Tunku Mohar added, referring to the Pakatan Harapan coalition that Anwar leads with his Peoples Justice Party (PKR). Azmi Hassan, a senior fellow at the Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research, agreed that Anwars future as prime minister material would depend on whether he can win in the Nov. 19 polls. Well, if Pakatan Harapan loses big in the next election, most probably this will be the last general election for Anwar Ibrahim and his desire to be prime minister should end at this particular juncture, he said. Anwar first became deputy prime minister back in 1993 under his mentor, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and was widely seen as succeeding him as Malaysias leader. That relationship, however, deteriorated to the point where Mahathir sacked his protege from the deputy PM post and expelled him from his then-party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Anwar was then arrested by the Mahathir government on sodomy charges and later imprisoned following his conviction. Almost 20 years later, the two bitter foes then defied all expectations and joined forces to take on the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition. Anwars and Mahathirs Pakatan won a historic victory in 2018. The two agreed that Mahathir would be PM for two years and then hand over the post to Anwar. Instead, Mahathir quit two years later and Anwar again lost his chance to become PM when the Pakatan government collapsed over infighting. Third in political survey Few analysts give the multiracial Pakatan a chance this time around, saying the alliance is still struggling to break into the Malay heartland states dominated by Barisan and the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional. Back in 2018, Pakatan comprised the Malay-centric Bersatu, which was led by former PM Mahathir. Now, Bersatu is no longer part of Pakatan. Led by another former PM, Muhyiddin Yassin, it includes the conservative Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Mahathir, meanwhile, leads a coalition called Gerakan Tanah Air. PKR was never the pulling factor for Malay votes since it existed. It is going to be very difficult for Pakatan, said analyst Azmi. During the last election it was Bersatu, or, to be more specific, Mahathir, who pulled the Malay voters. A poll released this week on voters preference for the post of PM showed Anwar in third place, behind current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, and former PM Muhyiddin. Ismail Sabri led with the support of 19 percent of respondents. Muhyiddin came in second with 13 percent followed by Anwar with 11 percent support in the survey involving 1,662 respondents, conducted by political research firm Ilham Centre and released on Tuesday. Anwar himself this week acknowledged the challenge that Pakatan would face. Of course, we have to penetrate the rural base, Anwar told reporters on Wednesday, after the launch of Pakatans manifesto in Klang district outside Kuala Lumpur. The narrative there can sometimes be more complex because of the tendency of Bersatu, UMNO and PAS just to stress on the issue of race and religion. But were Anwars coalition to win, he would institute a series of much needed structural reforms, such as the revamping of the governments role in economy, said analyst Oh Ei Sun. Such reforms would hurt the vested interests of many longtime stakeholders in the short term, but will benefit the country in the long term, making it a more attractive investment destination, said Oh, of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. And Anwar, with his already formidable international reputation, is also likely to bring about a more proactive foreign policy for the country that would see Malaysia punching above its weight on the international stage. Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. The islands are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather. The South Pacific Ocean pounds the coastline of Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu, Feb. 19, 2004. Pacific Island nations are among the most vulnerable to higher sea levels. Samoas environment minister says Pacific island nations want the international climate talks in Egypt this month to establish a basis for compensating developing countries for losses caused by climate change. Pacific island nations account for only a tiny fraction of the pollution that drives global warming, but are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather linked to higher average global temperatures. The risks over coming decades are particularly severe for low-lying atoll nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. We have to stand together as a Pacific family, if this situation is not remedied, the Pacific islands will face loss and damage issues, Samoas Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Toesulusulu Cedric Schuster, told BenarNews. Samoas Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, speaks at the Sydney Energy Forum in Sydney, Australia, July 13, 2022. [Jaimi Joy/Reuters] Developing nations have for decades called for financial help to address loss and damage, a term in the U.N climate negotiations that covers the consequences of planet warming that go beyond what countries can adapt to, according to the World Resources Institute, a research organization. It includes economic losses and human trauma such as flooding of burial grounds and community relocation or migration. A few developed countries including Germany and New Zealand have signaled some support for such finance, but the United States, which is behind only China as a polluter, has not. The 27th annual U.N climate talks start on Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The annual talks between nearly 200 nations are widely known as COP, short for Conference of the Parties. It has the overarching goal of limiting the increase in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, though activists and scientists say emissions reductions have not been far-reaching enough to achieve that. Egypt has said that COP27 will be about moving from negotiation to implementation One of the core issues that will be addressed at the COP is loss and damage which has been a long-standing concern for Samoa let alone the Pacific, said Schuster. It remains one of Samoas priorities and its evident in the delegation numbers that will be attending the COP this year, he said. The United States and China are both vying for influence in the Pacific and their stances at the climate talks will give an indication of the authenticity of their commitment to the region, activists say. The United States has vowed a renewed focus on the Pacific in response to Chinas greater involvement in the region over the past two decades through development aid and infrastructure projects. Climate change is the single biggest security threat, the threat being our livelihoods, our wellbeing, said Lavetanalagi Seru, regional policy officer for the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, a non-governmental organization (NGO). If they are to work with the Pacific then they really need to consider what the Pacific island countries and leaders deem as a priority, he said. Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa told the United Nations General Assembly in September that action from the climate talks is a matter of survival for Pacific island nations and other small island states. We should not put out the flame for loss and damage, she said. Natural disasters continue to devastate countless lives. Recent climate events are transboundary and drive home the reality that no country is immune to the impacts of climate change. Separately, Pacific island countries have created the Pacific Resilience Fund, which they hope will attract up to U.S. $1.5 billion for coping with climate change. Tongas Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said in September wealthy countries should contribute to the fund rather than only impose their own climate projects. The Pacific is competing with other developing nations for assistance and so far has got less than 1 percent of the money allocated by wealthy nations for climate projects, according to Seru. The hope is that these funds will directly go to supporting grassroots communities and NGOs, he said. Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale, Australian High Commissioner Lachlan Strahan, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, and Solomon Islands Police Commissioner Mostyn Mangau (left to right) with Daniel Defense MK18 rifles gifted by Australia to the Solomon Islands police force, in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital, Nov. 2, 2022. China and U.S. ally Australia have donated weapons and vehicles to the Solomon Islands police, sparking criticism their rivalry could cause new instability in a South Pacific country that spiraled into chaos only two decades ago. On Friday, China handed over two water cannon trucks, 30 motorbikes and 20 white utility vehicles emblazoned with the red China Aid logo. Two days earlier, Australia presented 60 MK18 rifles and 13 vehicles, some of which will be used in a new mobile protection unit for VIPs. Both countries also have been providing training in policing techniques. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare looks on as a member of Chinas police liaison team talks at the handover ceremony for vehicles that China donated to Solomon Islands police force, on Nov. 4, 2022 in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital. [Gina Makaa/BenarNews] . It is clear Australia is anxious that if they do not supply guns then China will. Geopolitical interests have surpassed national interest in this country and it is a sad state of affairs, said Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale. The country of some 700,000 people has become a hot spot for the U.S.-China rivalry in the Pacific. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavares government switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019 and signed a secret security pact with Beijing earlier this year. China, along with countries such as Australia and Indonesia, is also helping to bankroll the Pacific Games in the capital Honiara next year. The new weapons have caused concern in the Solomon Islands and abroad. Several years of instability around the turn of the century, fueled by stolen police equipment, still looms large for Solomon Islanders, who call the period The Tensions. Corruption, ethnic strife and political divides made the country seem ungovernable and culminated in an Australian-led military intervention from 2003 until 2017. Vehicles donated by China to the Solomon Islands police force are on display at a handover ceremony in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, Nov. 4, 2022. [Gina Makaa/BenarNews] Sogavare, speaking at the ceremony for the handover of Chinas equipment, said people who see a better equipped police force through a negative lens should consider that it has a responsibility to protect the lives and welfare, liberty, property of all people in this country. He said riots in Honiara in November last year which torched the citys Chinatown and were linked to the change of diplomatic recognition and earlier public unrest, showed the consequences of a lack of police capacity. We must have the capacity as our first line of defense and not depend on others, Sogavare said. Mihai Sora, an analyst at Australias Lowy Institute and former diplomat in the Solomon Islands, said community concerns about the gifts of water cannon, high-powered rifles and vehicles are well founded. There is a risk that the donated weapons and water cannons could be misused against protesters, further inflaming local tensions, he said. It appears that Australias hand was forced as it tries to retain its relationship with the Solomon Islands police in the face of the governments increasingly close police and security ties with China, Sora said. Vehicles donated by Australia to the Solomon Islands police force on display at a handover ceremony in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, Nov. 2, 2022. [Handout photo/Australian High Commission] Chinas ambassador to the Solomon Islands, Li Ming, said Chinas donation of equipment is meant to improve the capacity of Solomon Islands police. We are fully opposed to any geopolitical games. What we are doing is to provide necessary assistance to Solomon Islands government and people to help maintain the safety, security and public order of the country, he said on Friday. Australias High Commission to the Solomon Islands said earlier in the week that there are stringent training and safeguards for the rifles that Australia has provided. The weapons are part of a police rearming that began in 2013 and would be used by a specialized police response team as a last-resort option only, it said. In the wrong hands it will all go wrong, but the police do need equipment, and water cannons are better than bullets, said Clive Moore, a University of Queensland professor who authored a Solomon Islands encyclopedia. But every time this happens it moves the Solomons further away from unarmed community policing. Its part of a drift that suits Sogavare, he said. Thai authorities have arrested several suspected bombers in the Deep South and are setting up a post there to track and intercept insurgents who may be plotting potential attacks as Thailand prepares to host APEC meetings, officials and sources said. Officials said security agencies had doubled the number of field officers in the heavily militarized southern border region ahead of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2022 meetings, which are set to take place in Bangkok from Nov. 14 to 19. Their efforts already have led to the capture and arrests of suspected insurgents capable of setting off bombs in and around the capital city the most recent arrest occurring on Sept. 7, according to a security source. The APEC meetings will be the first high-level international gathering in the Thai capital since members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) rebel group in the Deep South were blamed for a series of bombings in Bangkok during an ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in August 2019. [I] anticipate they will have less chances to launch attacks because several bombers in Pattani were arrested, an intelligence officer, who asked to remain anonymous because of the nature of his work, told BenarNews. There are three individuals on the run namely Seri Waemamu, Manasae Saidi and Usman Pohloh but we have to be careful of rookies who have no criminal records. Lt. Gen. Santi Sakuntanak, the army chief in the Deep South, said counter-insurgent surveillance operations would include the use of CCTV cameras. [We] set up a monitoring center to focus on the border, set up check points, especially around railway stations, bus terminals and airports, Santi told reporters on Friday. We coordinate with other agencies to protect cities and tourist destinations. Bangkok is to host top leaders or their deputies from 19 countries along with Taiwan and Hong Kong. Chinese President Xi Jinping is to join the APEC meetings, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha confirmed. Because Xis strategic rival, U.S. President Joe Biden, is to attend his nieces wedding, Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the United States in Bidens place. 2019 attack On Aug. 2, 2019, at least seven people were injured when nine small bombs planted in front of the national police bureau and other locations in and around Bangkok exploded. The bureau was a few hundred yards from the venue where then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along with Chinese diplomats were attending the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting. Shortly after the blasts, police announced that two suspects from the Deep South had been arrested and warrants were issued for four others. Thai officials blamed BRN for the bombings while BRN leaders said their group was not involved. On Friday, Thai governments chief security adviser said there had been no signs of disturbances in advance of the APEC meeting. In the big picture, there is nothing of imminent concern, but some rebel rookies, security chief Panitan Wattanayagorn told BenarNews. No signs of a possible attack yet. Meanwhile, a member of BRNs political wing who asked to remain anonymous has said that violence is the only way to pressure the government into resume peace negotiations. A round of talks scheduled for October was postponed and could occur sometime after the Malaysia general election on Nov. 19. Malaysia has served as a facilitator for the talks. In a statement sent to BenarNews on Oct. 18, BRN negotiators said they were pursuing peace efforts with total commitment and want a lasting political settlement, one which is dignified and leads to sustainable and genuine peace. However, such cases of abductions, killings, and other abuses experienced by BRN members clearly erode the trust and confidence in the peace process. The statement came at the same time that BRN announced that a corpse found floating in the Kolok River along the border with Malaysia belonged to a military wing member who apparently was abducted in late September. BRN and his family have identified the dead man as Zahri Bin Abdullah (also known as Yahree Dueloh) while the Thai military has said it is not him and DNA test results have not been released. Thai officials and BRN began negotiations in early 2020 following years of talks between the government and MARA Patani, an umbrella group that brought together Deep South insurgent groups, including BRN. Since the separatist insurgency reignited in the Deep South in January 2004, at least 7,344 people have died and 13,641 have been injured in violence across the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking border region, according to data updated through March 2022 by Deep South Watch, a local think-tank. URUMQI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A variety of events have been launched to introduce northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to people in Belgium, according to local authorities in Xinjiang. The events, held both virtually and in-person, kicked off in Beijing, Xinjiang and Belgium simultaneously on Thursday and will run through Nov. 9. Belgians will get a glimpse of the natural scenery, historical and cultural heritage, songs and dances, and food in Xinjiang through short videos and documentaries posted on social media platforms such as WeChat, Facebook and Twitter, as well as a photo exhibition and documentaries shown at the China Cultural Center in Brussels. The events are jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, the Xinjiang regional culture and tourism department and the Network of International Culturalink Entities. The events serve as a platform and window for people to get a full picture of Xinjiang and feel Xinjiang, said Ablikim Eziz, director of the regional culture and tourism department. "An open and friendly Xinjiang warmly welcomes friends from Belgium." If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. A San Francisco Police Department vehicle parks outside the home of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco on Oct. 29. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming the attack on Paul Pelosi was a Domestic Violence Case in a consensual sexual relationship." Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke greets family of the Uvalde shooting massacre before a pre-campaign debate news conference on Sept. 30 in Edinburg, Texas. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming the ORourke campaign engaged in voter fraud by sending pre-filled voter registration forms to dead people. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Features Editor Jennifer Huberdeau is The Eagle's features editor. Prior to The Eagle, she worked at The North Adams Transcript. She is a 2021 Rabkin Award Winner, 2020 New England First Amendment Institute Fellow and a 2010 BCBS Health Care Fellow. Quartet Salonnieres, from left to right, Majka Demcak on violin/viola, Cullen O'Neil on cello, Natalie Kress on violin/viola and Aniela Eddy on violin/viola. Irrigation project in Jiangsu gets world heritage designation 17:11, November 03, 2022 By Yin Xiaoyu ( People's Daily The Xinghua Duotian Irrigation and Drainage System in Xinghua, Taizhou, east China's Jiangsu province was recently recognized as a World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS). Granted by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) on Oct. 6, the Xinghua Duotian Irrigation and Drainage System, together with three other newly-designated projects, have brought the total number of Chinese irrigation projects on the WHIS list to 30. Photo taken on March 26, 2022 shows blossoming rape flowers in the Qianduo scenic area in Xinghua, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily Online/Meng Delong) Back in 2014, the Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem has been designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). The two heritage designations are now a "golden signboard" of local development. Xinghua, a county-level city in Taizhou, sits between the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. The low-lying city is traversed by many lakes. On higher marshes, ancestors of the city raised mud into small stacks and gradually developed a unique method of water-land utilization that dates back to over 1,000 years ago. China's agricultural development has a natural bond with irrigation engineering. "Duotian," which means raised farmland in Chinese, is core to both the Xinghua Duotian Irrigation and Drainage System and the Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem. The two systems both include irrigation and drainage systems, remains of ancient irrigation and drainage facilities, ancient water systems, architectural remains, as well as relevant documents and tales about water conservation. Being similar to each other, the two systems still have differences, which indicates the necessity of applying for two separate heritages. Firemen water Longxiang taro for villagers in Gaojiadang village, Xinghua, east China's Jiangsu province, Aug. 15, 2022. (People's Daily Online/Tang Dehong) The two heritages designations, focusing on irrigation structure and agricultural system, respectively, discover and demonstrate the connotation of Xinghua Duotian in terms of history, technology and culture in different ways. As an agricultural heritage, Duotian is a "living fossil" of ancient land utilization and a precious sample facilitating the study of the evolution of local ecology and methods of land utilization. As an irrigation heritage, it is the world's only irrigation and drainage system located on raised and dry farmland. It plays an important role in supporting agricultural development and the utilization of water resources. The successful application of the WHIS and the GIAHS not only motivated Xinghua to protect and preserve its raised farmland, but also stimulated the productivity of social development. When spring arrives, the blossoming rape flowers on the raised fields and the boats floating on nearby waterways would form a picturesque view. In autumn, high-quality Longxiang taro, a local featured gourmet, is harvested. Duotian is not only a rich source of agricultural products, but also a tourist attraction. As early as April 2009, it held a rape flower festival. The WHIS and GIAHS recognitions have given a huge boost to the local economy, especially the tourism sector. Xinghua has fully leveraged such brand advantage to improve its influence. Visitors enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Qianduo scenic area on boats in Xinghua, east China's Jiangsu province, March 29, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Gu Jihong) In 2016, it signed a memorandum to enhance cooperation and exchanges on agricultural heritage with Mexico City. Between 2015 and 2017, it held three sessions of high-level training courses on GIAHS under the framework of the South-South Cooperation program and a seminar on the management and protection of agricultural cultural heritage for Belt and Road countries. Besides, Xinghua has vigorously promoted integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. It cultivates various types of ornamental plants to sustain its beautiful landscape all year round. By fostering the dehydrated vegetable business, it has established a national-level demonstration zone for food safety and quality that covers over 10,000 mu, or 667 hectares, becoming the top county in China in terms of the processing of dehydrated vegetables and fruits. Duotian is driving the economic growth of Xinghua, and the local government is in turn enhancing its efforts to further protect the heritage. Since March last year, a regulation on the protection of Duotian has been put into force in Taizhou. Xinghua has set up a research center for Duotian protection and development, and is carrying out regular patrols for monitoring and reconditioning of the raised farmland. In the recent two years, the Qianduo scenic area in Xinghua has completed the comprehensive management of 500 mu of Duotian, and plans to advance with a progress of 200 mu per year. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) SANTIAGO, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A forest fire in central Chile's Maule region has razed at least 3,600 hectares, damaged several homes and has yet to be brought under control, authorities said Thursday. The fire, which has been burning since Monday in the communes of Molina and Rio Claro, some 200 km south of the capital Santiago, presents a threat to nearby homes, said the country's National Forestry Corporation in a statement. While "the fire is generally of low intensity and spreading slowly," aerial firefighting has been hampered "due to thermal inversion" preventing the smoke from dissipating, said the agency. The flames have damaged eight houses and destroyed two warehouses, according to the latest report from the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Safety. Military forces, private forestry brigades and government institutions have been working together to combat the blaze. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Community News Editor / Librarian Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989. PITTSFIELD Looking at the daily coronavirus case data for Pittsfield over the last two months, residents might have missed what the citys Health Director Andy Cambi this week characterized as two major spikes. Thats because the daily case reports the metric that measures the average number of daily COVID cases per 100,000 people over the last 14-days is being fed less and less good data. Nearly three years into the pandemic, the hospital and health department testing regimens that made the daily case reports valuable are being replaced by at-home test kits generating results that are less likely to make their way into these reports. That has public health officials and decision-makers relying, now more than ever, on a different source of data: the citys wastewater. So while the daily case count has remained fairly level, wastewater testing revealed two periods in late September and mid-October during which the amount of virus increased significantly. During Wednesday nights Board of Health meeting, board member Dr. Jeffrey Leppo called the daily case count a shadow of what is going on and member Brad Gordon said the wastewater data was really the only accurate metric. Multiple times a week city officials send wastewater samples from the citys wastewater treatment plant to BioBot Analytics. The Cambridge-based company sends back a report letting the city know how much genetic information from the coronavirus is present in a liter of wastewater. Our wastewater [data] is completely different from what we saw in our daily case counts, Cambi said. This is a true reflection of what were seeing as far as the virus concentration in our population. It does not compare with what we saw at the beginning of the year, but we definitely saw those two major spikes throughout this fall season, he added. Data from the wastewater testing saw high points on Sept. 25 when the number of coronavirus RNA copies per liter hit about 2.2 million copies per liter and on Oct. 13 when the concentration hit 2.66 million copies per liter. Between the surges, the wastewater concentration dropped to 604,000 copies per liter on Sept. 29. For comparison, the previous low point in terms of coronavirus concentration in the wastewater was about 12,000 coronavirus RNA copies per liter on May 25, 2021. The high point to date in the citys wastewater concentration data was 6.31 million copies per liter on Dec. 27, 2021. City health officials have previously said that when wastewater concentrations increase, they typically see a similar trend increase in the citys daily coronavirus case count one to two weeks later. Though with the decline in reporting, case data showed less dramatic change after these recent spikes. Throughout October, the average daily case rate has fluctuated between an average 42.9 daily cases per 100,000 people in the 14-days on Oct. 6 to an average of 31.04 daily cases per 100,000 people in the last 14 days on Oct. 23. Even with the local data picture becoming increasingly imperfect, the virus is still making itself known to residents and the health professionals treating them. The most recent state coronavirus data for Berkshire County reports there were 420 new cases and three new deaths from Oct. 9 to Oct. 22. Cambi said that many of the calls into the Health Department are from people experiencing their first coronavirus case. The health director reiterated to the board that the department remains dedicated to helping residents who get sick. Cambi said that the department has an ample supply of at-home coronavirus test kits and is continuing its contract tracing efforts for the citys elderly and youth populations. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Heres how you can join The Eagles mission to sustain our local reporting in the Berkshires WILLIAMSTOWN Interim Police Chief Mike Ziemba is working to launch use of body-mounted cameras for Williamstown police officers. Town officials back the effort, but at least one local critic of the department isnt convinced the devices can address public concerns. Body cams, as they are known, became more common, and controversial, in police departments around the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020. Quote In communities experiencing strained relations with the police, body cams provide another line of transparency and accountability. And they can provide critical evidence on calls and crimes. Interim Police Chief Mike Ziemba Like other communities, Williamstown became embroiled in a community debate over police conduct, amid allegations of misconduct in the department involving comments of a racial and sexist nature. Ziemba said that community tension was one of the reasons the department moved to adopt use body cams. In communities experiencing strained relations with the police, body cams provide another line of transparency and accountability, Ziemba said. And they can provide critical evidence on calls and crimes. He said the departments officers support the initiative. And I think the community is in support of doing this, Ziemba said. Ziemba said use of cameras is low hanging fruit and will advance transparency. Its an added process for the department, but to improve transparency and accountability, its something were willing to do, he said. Pittsfield Police unions say they can't comment on the pause of a body camera pilot program For months, leaders within the Pittsfield Police Department have repeated the same message: Officers aren't opposed to body cameras. Now, concerns from the local police unions have halted a body camera pilot program. The unions won't say what those concerns are. In Pittsfield, two officers unions have derailed a similar program launch there, without saying why they oppose the effort. Officers in Great Barrington are now using them. Ziemba said discussions about the use of body cams began a few years ago in Williamstown. Officials have been examining their use and effectiveness since then. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Securitys Law Enforcement Body Cam Task Force has been studying their use as well. The office issued recommended policies. A sample of what one such requirement might look like can be found in a recent report. Body Worn Cameras shall be activated whenever a user interacts with a member of the public, the guideline notes. It cites examples of situations where it would be advisable to use the body cam, including during any contact that becomes adversarial. Hugh Daley, chairman of the Select Board, backs the adoption of cameras. I think body cams can enhance police effectiveness and foster a better relationship with the community, he said. I believe this is further evidence of Chief Ziembas and the whole departments commitment to increasing transparency and accountability at the WPD. Its a pretty well-tested piece of technology across the nation, Daley said. Jessica Dils, a town resident who has been active in seeking police reform in Williamstown, questions whether body cams will achieve much. Cell phone footage shot by citizens, she said, does more to isolate abuse and capture actions by police. Unfortunately, all of the money on updated equipment and reform in the guise of more public accountability for police misconduct has proven to be inadequate in doing just that, she said by email, in response to questions. Studies have shown that it is actually the engaged citizenry with their own cell phone footage that ends up being seen by the public in cases of police abuse and misconduct. The vast majority of footage collected by police-worn body cameras is never seen by those same citizens or anyone outside the departments in which they reside, she said. Dils would rather see resources put towards deeper reform. Dismantling the systems of oppression that exist inadequate housing and healthcare, the criminalization of substance use and mental health crises, and economic instability to create communities of care where public safety doesnt depend on your life circumstance or identity. Town Manager Robert Menicocci thinks body cams can be part of winning public trust. I am supportive of the use of body cams as they are an important tool for maintaining community trust, he said. I also think they are a great tool for learning and ensuring effective delivery of services. He said he has no major concerns about their use. But rolling out the program will be difficult. Implementing the effective use of body cams is complex, and we are committed to ensuring we have thoughtful policies and procedures in place when we implement them. We will do this through community input as well as working through the collective bargaining process. Seeking grant help While the Williamstown crime rate is considered low, Ziemba noted that the department receives up to 18,000 calls for service every year. He said that the cost of the body camera contract for three years is $40,000 to $90,000. The town is applying for a state grant of $18,000, with the help of state Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams. Ziemba said body cameras, in general, can have the added effect of de-escalating a conversation, when both parties know they are being recorded. They can also document the tenor of the discussion, and which party is escalating the tone of an interaction. Data gathered on body cams can help also train officers on how to handle certain types of discussions and interactions with the public. Quote "Implementing the effective use of body cams is complex, and we are committed to ensuring we have thoughtful policies and procedures in place when we implement them." Town Manager Robert Menicocci Ziemba said he hopes to have the cameras in use early next year. Thats what theyre meant for to make us better at what we do, Ziemba said. There are a number of guidelines under discussion that will be issued by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to advise police departments on the use of body cams. The American Civil Liberties Union in Washington State conducted a study on the use of police body cameras. The study found that while in a few high-profile cases, body camera footage has been used in trials that led to officer convictions, body camera footage is disproportionately used to prosecute civilians rather than officers, the report notes. One 2016 study found that 92.6 percent of prosecutors offices in jurisdictions with body cameras have used that footage as evidence to prosecute civilians, while just 8.3 percent have used it to prosecute police officers. The ACLU quoted another report that found body cameras are more likely to be used to clear officers of wrongdoing and lower litigation costs rather than hold officers accountable. BECKET Eight months ago, a Connecticut company won a special permit to grow cannabis indoors in Becket, after a year of stop-and-start review. But the weed farm remains sidelined, pending an appeal in state Land Court thats now headed for trial next year. On Wednesday, a judge denied an effort by the farms opponents to score a quick win, through whats known as a summary judgment. They seek to overturn last springs Planning Board approval. That means more litigation lies ahead, with a trial likely to start a full year after the board voted 4-1 in March to allow TetraHydra AgTek LLC to create a large-scale marijuana cultivation facility on Quarry Road. Michael Goodenough, a TetraHydra partner, told the Planning Board after the vote he was humbled to win its approval, then promised opponents he would address their concerns. I look forward to providing you with the first tours of the building to kibosh any of the concerns, he said at the time. Instead of giving those tours, TetraHydra has been in court defending the appeal neighbors brought in early June, their objections detailed in an eight-page complaint. The project isnt right for this rural neighborhood, the plaintiffs say. TetraHydra stands ready to create local jobs and be a good corporate citizen, its lawyer counters. The farm plans to build a 31,310-square-foot greenhouse off Bonny Rigg Hill Road, roughly a half mile above the Massachusetts Turnpike. TetraHydras attorney, Joshua Segal of Lawson & Weitzen LLP of Boston, said the company is eager to get to work in Becket. The judge decided that the board acted at least procedurally properly, he said Thursday. My client did everything the board asked and is looking to get this project off the ground as soon as possible. Segal said he expects the Land Court will resolve the dispute in 2023. A conference call among lawyers is set for Feb. 13. The discovery process is due to close at the end of January. This is a small business trying to rejuvenate this farm, he said. It is trying to be a good local citizen in Becket and hoping to be a strong partner with the town, going forward. Theyd like to get moving as soon as they can. The complaint names all members of the Planning Board, including Robert T. Ronzio, James. P. Levy, Alvin Blake, Howard Lerner and Ann Krawet. Joel B. Bard, of KP Law, is representing the town. By agreement, Segal, the TetraHydra attorney, is defending the complaint in court. Mitchell I. Greenwald, the Pittsfield attorney representing neighbors, said that this weeks ruling means the challenge goes next to a full review by a Land Court judge. Were proceeding with discovery and were fully prepared to go forward with a complete trial with all the facts, he said. We think were right on the facts. Sign-up for The Berkshire Eagle's free newsletters Sign up Greenwald said that his clients believe the board did not fulfill its duty to balance gains and losses when considering the applicants special permit request. The trial, he said, will likely zero in on the question of whether the Planning Board adequately considered the needs of the neighborhood, as well as the town as a whole. The bylaw requires consideration of both. The board took a remarkably narrow view of what constituted a neighborhood, he said. Defining a neighborhood by one word doesnt really do the job. Judges decision In his decision this week, Judge Michael D. Vhay denied a bid by three dozen plaintiffs to overturn the Planning Boards special permit, on the grounds that it was procedurally defective in two ways. One of those ways, attorneys involved in the case say, related to how the panel handled concerns about the impact of the farm on the neighborhood. Segal, for the plaintiffs, argued in a filing that the board considered how the business would affect the area. That the Board did not specifically use the word neighborhood in the manner requested by the Plaintiffs does not invalidate its reasons or its decision, he wrote. In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim that Ronzio, the board chairman, questioned during the proceeding whether opponents even lived in the same neighborhood as the proposed farm and that he showed bias when, in a long personal anecdote, he recalled his upbringing in the Boston area and referred to Brookline as a neighborhood home to rabbis and doctors. Suggesting that the neighborhood where this [cannabis] project was located was not Jewish but the neighborhoods that he chose to exclude [in Becket] were, the complaint says. In fact ... the general area of the project includes both Jews and Gentiles, albeit of unknown proportions. In his finding, Vhay noted that the towns bylaws compel the board to determine, in writing, that any adverse effects of a new use, like the cannabis farm, not outweigh its beneficial impacts to the town or the neighborhood . Vhay found that while the board as a whole did not provide that written finding, individual members addressed the issue. While Plaintiffs correctly note that the Board majority failed to make a written determination specifically addressing the facilitys benefits and/or detriments to the town and neighborhood, the judge wrote, the permits conditions evince the majoritys intent to prevent the adverse effects of the proposed facility from outweighing its beneficial impacts on both the town and the neighborhood. The board produced a set of conditions, Vhay said, that show an effort to consider the farms neighborhood impact. The Boards decision therefore is not defective on account of not including required findings, Vhay wrote. The court also declined to accept the plaintiffs argument that TetraHydra failed to file all elements of an application. The complaint alleges that the company was remiss in filing site plans that did not show the look of a completed facility. It also faulted TetraHydra for not demonstrating that it held a Cannabis Control Commission license or was eligible to receive one. The judge said his reading of the law does not require the kinds of renderings the plaintiffs believe were missing. On a third issue, related to the conditions the board placed on the project, Vhay declined to rule, saying the question will be taken up later. Here's how Southern Berkshire County Latino families went from being 'lost' in the school system to getting the help they needed Thanks to a network within the Berkshires Latino community, parents and students are getting the support they need. 'Before, we couldn't support our daughter 100 percent. We didnt even know how! Now, its possible for us to be present' People check damage caused by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza Strip, Nov. 4, 2022. Palestinian security said two Hamas military sites in the central Gaza Strip were under Israeli airstrikes on Friday. The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli fighter jets fired several missiles targetting the sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, damaging the sites and nearby facilities. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua) GAZA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian security said two Hamas military sites in the central Gaza Strip were under Israeli airstrikes on Friday. The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli fighter jets fired several missiles targetting the sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, damaging the sites and nearby facilities. Eyewitnesses said that strong explosions were heard while ambulances and civil defense crews were rushing to the targeted areas. No injuries were immediately reported. The announcement came after the Israeli military said late Thursday that the country's Iron Dome defense system intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza Strip at southern Israel. The other three rockets launched by Gaza militants landed in an empty area, causing no damage. The Israeli airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave are the first in three months since a calm agreement was reached in August between Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad. People check damage caused by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza Strip, Nov. 4, 2022. Palestinian security said two Hamas military sites in the central Gaza Strip were under Israeli airstrikes on Friday. The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli fighter jets fired several missiles targetting the sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, damaging the sites and nearby facilities. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua) A man checks damage caused by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza Strip, Nov. 4, 2022. Palestinian security said two Hamas military sites in the central Gaza Strip were under Israeli airstrikes on Friday. The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli fighter jets fired several missiles targetting the sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, damaging the sites and nearby facilities. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua) Massachusetts election predictions The second in a two-part series seeking to forecast the outcomes of Tuesday's statewide elections. The previous piece focused on the four ballot questions. This piece takes a look at the contests for statewide offices. The Massachusetts political season leading into the midterms has generally been drama-free. Nothing wrong with that. Let New York and its repugnant negative ads making Albany television hard to watch, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin and a few other states have the fireworks. But the placid campaign doesnt make the election any less important. The state will be choosing a new governor atop a full slate of races. If you havent voted early, the polls will be open on Tuesday. Heres how the Berkshire and state races stand. Governor Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has maintained a lead of between 25 and 30 points over Republican Geoff Diehl since the primary elections. She has consistently high approval ratings, including among those who said they voted for popular moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who chose not to run for a third term. Diehl has been traveling around Massachusetts crankily responding to questions about his fluctuating stances on the 2020 presidential election. Diehl has said alternatively that Joe Biden was elected, Donald Trump was robbed and there was the potential for fraud in the election. If Diehl had consistently offered the correct answer Biden won the election fair and square he would have avoided the badgering but would have angered the former president and his election-denying supporters. Just as significantly, Diehl, by adhering to far-right positions, has not given the independent voters who put Baker in office twice any reason to vote for him. This failure led to Diehls one-sided loss to Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 senatorial race, and he has again adhered to party doctrine rather than reach out to potential voters in a state where Republicans make up just 10 percent of the electorate. Prediction: Maura Healey and lieutenant governor running mate Kimberly Driscoll win. Attorney general Andrea Campbell, a Black woman and former Boston city councilor, brings a legal background that is varied and extensive and holds positions that are in tune with the electorate. The abortion issue illustrates the differences between her and Republican opponent Jay McMahon. Campbell promises to protect abortion rights in the state against efforts to make abortion illegal nationally. McMahon hedges on whether he would enforce such a ban in the state. In fact, he has hedged on several boilerplate GOP stances that are unpopular in Massachusetts. Prediction: Andrea Campbell wins. Secretary of the commonwealth Like Andrea Campbell, Democrat William Galvin enjoys a large lead in the polls over his opponent, Republican Rayla Campbell. The secretarys duties are many, but most prominent are the enforcement of voter rights and the protection of election integrity. Galvin has done both in his seven terms in office. Campbell disqualified herself as an independent election arbiter when she demonized Democrats at the Republican State Convention. She opposes early and mail-in voting and during the campaign has drawn attention for gay-bashing statements and ads. Prediction: William Galvin wins. Auditor Republican Anthony Amore is a moderate Baker-style Republican, and as such is an endangered species. He has vastly more experience than does his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Diana DiZoglio, in the kinds of investigatory work the overseer of state government is required to do. The records of Amores divorce of 13 years ago have recently become public and include allegations of abuse which the candidate denies. This may or may not influence voters, but the reality is that party-line voting is the norm, and it would be surprising if many voters who back Healey and friends detour to Amore. Prediction: Diana DiZoglio wins. Governors Council Democrat Tara Jacobs of North Adams should benefit from party-line voting in her race against Republican John Comerford. Governors Council is an invisible board except when it oversteps its advisory role. The council is in dire need of openness, and if Jacobs can bring some level of transparency to it, she will have accomplished something rare and perhaps paved the way for a more high-profile state office. Prediction: Tara Jacobs wins. Berkshire state offices Democratic State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, running for reelection in the redrawn 3rd Berkshire District, boasts nearly 20 years of experience and a history of advocating for the kind of regional solutions the oft-overlooked Berkshires and Western Massachusetts require. His challenger, Becket Select Board member Michael Lavery, has government experience and ideas in sync with his district, but if you can reelect a Democratic progressive who has built seniority, there is no strong argument for backing a candidate from the Green-Rainbow Party. The Berkshires already huge state Senate district is expanding eastward into three other counties because of redistricting. Representing all of these mostly rural towns will pose a challenge, one that Paul Mark is accustomed to meeting in his years as a state representative for a rural district that is being redistricted into oblivion. His opponent, Brendan Phair, a conservative running as an independent, doesnt have this experience. His opposition to the ROE Act assuring abortion protection and skepticism about gun control and climate change efforts should concern voters. In contrast, Mark has a strong record on these important issues. Prediction: Smitty Pignatelli and Paul Mark win. U.S. Congress Democratic Rep. Richard Neal is facing a Republican challenger for the first time in a decade in Dean Martilli. Competition is good for democracy, but Martilli, who has adopted familiar far-right positions like opposition to illegals and has asserted without convincing evidence that East-West rail will only help the eastern end of the state, hasnt made the case for ousting a veteran incumbent. Neal demonstrated both his belief in government as a force for good and his experience in operating the levers of government in assuring that COVID relief efforts passed Congress and made their way to Western Massachusetts. With control of Congress hanging in the balance, keeping a Democrat in the Western Mass. seat should be important to voters. Prediction: Richard Neal wins. The story of Joshua leading the Israelites to bring down the walls of Jericho is a powerful account that demonstrates the faithfulness and might of the Lord. This narrative is part of the fulfillment of the greater promise that God made to the Israelites that they indeed would enter the Promised Land. Before Moses died, he declared that Joshua would be his successor and lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. Upon crossing the Jordan, Jericho is the first city the Israelites conquer with Joshua as their leader. This ancient biblical passage is full of relevance for believers today. Here are seven significant lessons from the story of the walls of Jericho for believers today. What Are the Walls of Jericho? The account of the walls of Jericho falling is found in the Book of Joshua, which is one of the historical books in the Old Testament. It is named after Joshua, the worthy successor of Moses, who led the Israelites. This book contains action-filled conquests of the Israelites defeating the Canaan cities and obtaining the Promised Land. It also tells of the obedience and faithfulness of the Israelites, and their enjoyment of the Promised Land. The Book of Joshua ends with Joshuas farewell speech as an old man nearing his death. Jericho was the gateway city to Canaan that the Israelites came to when they entered the Promised Land. The city of Jericho was surrounded by walls so that no one was able to get in, and the walls served as solid protection against attacks. The gates had been locked to keep the Israelites out (see Joshua 6:1). This moment is incredibly important because the Israelites have finally entered the land promised to them by God and they go on to successfully conquer the first city along their journey. The fallen walls of Jericho became a key affirmation that God was fulfilling His promise to them, and that God would be with them as they took possession of the Promised Land. How Did the Walls of Jericho Fall? God had given Joshua very specific instructions on what to do to cause the walls of Jericho to collapse, so that the Israelites would defeat Jericho and claim the city. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in (Joshua 6:4-5). Joshua gathered the army and priests just as God instructed. For the first six days, the armed men marched around the city once while the priests had trumpets and carried the ark of the covenant. They did this for six days. On the seventh day, as God instructed, they marched around the city seven times, the priests blew their trumpets, and the army gave a loud shout. When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city (Joshua 6:20). To Joshua, the army, and the priests, this may have seemed like a very different approach to overthrowing the city of Jericho. However, Joshua led the Israelites to do what God had instructed. According to the Lords promise, and the Israelites being obedient to what God instructed, on the seventh day the walls of Jericho fell in an amazing victory for the Israelites by the power of God. 7 Lessons from the Fall of the Walls of Jericho 1. Follow God, even if the journey seems impossible or unexpected. The walls of Jericho should have been impenetrable. What Joshua and the Israelites were up against may have seemed impossible to overcome. But they followed God anyway with full trust and hope in His promise, and faithfulness that He would indeed fight for them to claim the land that was promised to them. All believers can rest assure that even if the path seems impossible, or is not what we expected, when we prayerfully follow Gods good plans for us, it will be worth every step of the way. This biblical story reminds us how crucial it is to lean on God and put our trust in Him, because that is when the impossible can happen. 2. When we listen, we can hear God speaking to us. A radical component to this biblical narrative is that God spoke to Joshua. And Joshua listened. Because Joshua took the time to listen to God and seek His direction, he heard clearly from the Lord what steps to take. Christians today learn a valuable lesson about the importance of making the space to hear from God. When we stop and take the time to listen reading Scripture, spending time in prayer, being still, worshipping, and journaling we may hear from God and discern how the Spirit is guiding our steps. Photo credit: Getty Images/Mototortion 3. God is purposeful, not random. God did not instruct Joshua and his army to storm the city upon arrival. He had meticulous steps for them to take to achieve the desired outcome of victory. God was very specific and purposeful in how He orchestrated the walls of Jericho falling. If God is that purposeful about helping the Israelites claim the city, we can be confident that God is also that purposeful in each of our lives. The ups and downs of life may feel unexpected and catch us off guard, but God knows what is coming and will make good out of all circumstances for those who love Him (see Romans 8:28). Our lives are meaningful and significant because God is writing each of our stories purposefully. 4. The outcome may not be instant, so keep waiting on the Lord. The Israelites were not given permission by God to simply storm the city when they were ready. They had to wait seven days. They marched, they camped, and they waited on God to move. Perhaps some of the armed men wondered as they were marching around the walls if this was really the way to claim victory over Jericho. Maybe others thought it would be best to win the city with a proven military strategy. We may find ourselves thinking similar thoughts when it comes to waiting on the Lord. The answer is to keep waiting on the Lord. Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31). Waiting on the Lord deepens our faith, increases our trust in Him, and while we wait with faith, God will certainly transform and renew us. 5. We are not sufficient in and of ourselves. We need God. The Israelites could have marched around the walls of Jericho a million times, they could have blown a thousand horns, and shouted until they lost their voices, but without Gods power, the walls of Jericho never would have fallen. We are not entirely self-sufficient; we truly need God. We need God to win our battles, to empower us to love others, to overcome obstacles, and to make a lasting impact in the world. We need God in our friendships, our careers, our marriages, and our families. We need God. When we are tempted to think otherwise, let us find wisdom from this biblical story that we do indeed need God in all areas of our lives. 6. Obedience in God matters. If the Israelites had resisted the instructions given by God to Joshua, the walls of Jericho would not have come down. The Israelites would have lost and been forced out of the Promised Land. Their obedience to God mattered. This is still true for believers today. Living righteously according to Gods ways, rather than our own ways, makes a difference. We find encouragement from this narrative to be obedient to God and the assurance that obedience will result in blessing (see Luke 11:28). 7. What God promises, He will fulfill. God promised the Israelites this land. The fall of the walls of Jericho is a grand reminder that God fulfills what He promises. A huge amount of time passed between when God initially promised the land to the Israelites, and when they actually came to enter and claim that land. Regardless of how much time passes, God will always make good on His promises. We can trust that God is faithful to His promises and be at peace while we wait for a promise to come to pass. A Reminder of Gods Power The account of the walls of Jericho coming down is a significant part of Gods promise coming to pass that the Israelites would indeed enter into and possess the Promised Land. This incredible passage in the Book of Joshua holds many valuable lessons that we as Christians can learn from and apply to our lives and understanding of God. Perhaps you are waiting on God, or maybe you are wondering if Hell come through. Whatever your situation, the fallen walls of Jericho remind us of Gods power and faithfulness that we can believe in and put our hope in. Photo credit: Getty Images/Gilnature Pamela Palmer is a writer, speaker, and the founder of upheldlife.com, the platform on which she produces devotionals and faith resources to inspire keeping faith at the center of life. She is in pastoral ministry and gets to share in the emotional and spiritual lives of others. She lives and thrives on Jesus, coffee, and music. She is the author of Living a Deeper Faith: Nurture Your Relationship with God and Live a Faith-Fueled Life. Pamela married the perfect man for her and they have two beautiful kiddos. She has been published on herviewfromhome.com, and you can follow her at upheldlife.com or on Facebook.com/upheldlife. LEWISTON - The Idaho Army National Guard will welcome home nearly three dozen 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team Soldiers on Friday, Nov. 4, at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport, Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, and the Spokane International Airport. These Soldiers return to their homes in Northern Idaho after a yearlong deployment to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Spartan Shield. These Soldiers embody what the National Guard is all about: citizen-Soldiers who serve their nation when called upon and return home to their families and communities, said Brig. Gen. Farin Schwartz, commander, Idaho Army National Guard. Its an honor to welcome these Soldiers home and I thank each one of them for their service and dedication to our state and nation. For 10 months, our Soldiers deterred enemy aggression in a very hostile environment, symbolizing our nations commitment to our global partners and allies. The Soldiers deployed in November 2021 to support the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Teams Task Force Griz, which was headquartered by the Montana Army National Guard and included Soldiers from the Idaho, Montana, Florida and Nevada Army National Guards. According to a press release from the Idaho National Guard, Idaho Soldiers comprised nearly 20 percent of the task force, which spent 10 months overseas, in addition to receiving 45 days of training stateside before deploying. OSS is a joint mission under the United States Central Command and is part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The task force provided three mission response forces to the CENTCOM commander and conducted missions and training exercise in Iraq, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria and Qatar. The task force conducted security and stability operations and demonstrated the U.S.s continued commitment to deterring adversaries while supporting regional allies. The task force was relieved in October by another 116th CBCT-led task force, including more than 600 Idaho Soldiers, who are expected to return next year. Task Force Griz Soldiers began returning to Fort Bliss, Texas, Oct. 24 and conducted demobilization activities before returning home. The 116th CBCT previously deployed in support of the Global War on Terror in 2004 and 2010 to Iraq. It is estimated around a dozen soldiers will arrive around 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport, around two dozen will arrive at the Spokane International Airport around 1:30 p.m., and less than five will fly into the Pullman/Moscow regional airport at a time that was unknown at the time of this writing. Steve, a retired veteran from the Idaho National Guard, didnt think attending a job fair would change his life. But it did. In an amazing way. To get there, Steve reached out to Kenneth Scott, an Idaho Department of Labor veterans representative in Post Falls who provided him with the tools he needed to reach his career goals. Nowadays, Steve is seen regularly at recruiting events representing Heritage Health in an HR role. He recruits veterans, just like him, for jobs with his employer. He says Idaho Labors support made a huge difference in his life. And hes not the only veteran, or spouse of a veteran, who may be eligible to receive this kind of support with finding a job. With 116,000 veterans scattered around Idaho, they reside in various counties. According to the 2020 five-year American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, the top 10 counties with the largest share of the population include Elmore (22.1%), Adams (16.6%), Clearwater (14.7%), Lemhi (14.3%), Boise (13.6%), Benewah (13.0%), Gem (12.5%), Bonner (11.9%), Idaho (11.7%) and Lewis (11.7%). The Idaho Department of Labor serves all veterans in Idaho at our locations, including, 54 mobile locations across the state. (labor.idaho.gov/directory) The department specializes in providing support to veterans or eligible spouses who want to transfer skills to a new career that sparks their interest. These programs include Veterans Readiness and Employment, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and the GI Bill, funded by the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor. The Veterans Readiness and Employment program offers training services for veterans with service-connected disabilities. The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program provides training and employment for veterans. And finally, the GI Bill offers funds for veterans who want to pursue a postsecondary education. All of these programs offer classroom education, apprenticeship opportunities and on-the-job training support for qualified veterans and their spouses. Additional benefits include money for tuition, books and other education materials. U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship programs for veterans or spouses are available for those who do not qualify for the GI Bill. HOW WE HELP In one instance, a veteran named Dave was looking for a career change. He knew what kind of job he wanted and where he wanted to work in the medical industry. Dave was unknowingly eligible for the GI Bill. The department made him aware of the program and connected him to a college that fit his needs where he signed up for courses to become a registered nurse. Two different types of veterans representatives are available to serve the states veterans. One serves directly, while the other works with employers. Some work in a combination of both roles, helping veterans in multiple ways. Disabled Veteran Outreach Program workforce consultants work directly with veterans to become job ready, overcome significant barriers to employment and find meaningful work. Local veteran employment representatives work with employers to hire veterans. They work with chambers of commerce and other business organizations. Registered Apprenticeships are ideal for veterans too. On-the-job training through apprenticeships give veterans and spouses a choice and an opportunity to learn a trade or skill on the job, going beyond learning in the classroom. Electrician, police officer, machinist, plumber, brew master, IT technician, IT security, journalism or medical assistant are a few of the many job opportunities veterans and eligible spouses can pursue through apprenticeship. Throughout this process the Idaho Department of Labor makes sure veterans receive the support they need when making career decisions. While walking into a Labor office in Idaho is certainly ideal, the agency also offers several online tools like JobScape where veterans can learn more about annual wages, job openings and training opportunities. To find and speak to a veterans representation nearby, visit https://www.labor.idaho.gov/dnn/Local-Office-Directory. ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least four soldiers of Yemen's government forces were killed in an explosion in the country's turbulent southern province of Abyan on Friday, a security official told Xinhua. "An explosion apparently caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) struck military vehicles involved in an operation against terror elements in Abyan's district of Al Mahfid, killing four soldiers and injuring five others," the local security source said on condition of anonymity. He said that the IED explosion sparked armed confrontations between the government forces and al-Qaida gunmen in the area. Earlier in the day, military units of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) which is part of Yemen's government announced "launching a qualitative anti-terror operation and succeeded in raiding a key hideout of al-Qaida in Abyan." Scores of al-Qaida militants frequently use hit-and-run tactics against Yemeni government forces while hiding out in rocky terrains and mountainous areas of Abyan and other neighboring provinces. The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula network has exploited years of deadly conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthi militia to expand its presence in the war-ravaged Arab country. It has carried out many high-profile attacks against the security forces in the country's southern provinces. Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia Antonie Goosen, principal and founder of Meridian Realty Open to residential and commercial property professionals from around the globe, the International Property Awards 'celebrate the highest levels of achievement' by companies operating in all sectors of the property and real estate industry. The Awards cover over 45 different residential and commercial categories and cover nine regions including: Africa, Asia Pacific, Arabia, Canada, Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, UK and USA. The Awards boast a highly skilled judging panel of over 90 industry experts, chaired by Lord Caithness, Lord Best, and Lord Waverley, who are members of the House of Lords in the UK Parliament. Judging focuses on design, quality, service, innovation, originality, and commitment to sustainability. The two awards and nomination that Meridian Realty received are strongly aligned with the agencys ability to use technology to support, enable and grow business over the past year, while giving back to its community. The company has positioned itself as a tech influencer and early adopter among estate agencies in South Africa with strong brand design, which was the vision of Antonie Goosen, principal and founder of Meridian Realty. I wanted to create a cutting-edge company that empowers agents with the best technology to excel, says Goosen. He goes on to say that The Covid pandemic drove digital adoption and innovation into high speed and at Meridian Realty we submerged ourselves in this digital evolution becoming a virtual agency, with one head office acting as a support hub for virtual agents (iAgents). I wanted to implement this virtual approach to keep up changes in the property off the back of Covid, the semigration trend and unusual market behaviour! Digital marketing tools that Meridian uses include virtual tours, marketing videos aimed at estate agents, social media, public relations (PR), their website, their Google Business Profile and Google suite of digital marketing tools, Meridians bespoke customer relationship management (CRM) system and virtual events. Virtual tours are created using cameras that take 360-degree images of a space, creating virtual representations of a space. Meridian Realty has been an early adopter of this technology in South Africa and has been working with Matterport for over six years (pre-Covid). According to Goosen, 3D tours are becoming increasingly popular, allowing buyers from remote locations to view and whittle down properties before physical viewings, saving time. Virtual marketing, videos specifically aimed at selling real estate, have also proved to be a handy reference for estate agents and a go to for information, positioning Meridian and an aspirational place to work, as well as a subject matter expert in the real estate industry. Goosen, goes on to say video is a great medium that can be edited and shared via social media platforms. Social media is useful for brand awareness and can be extremely targeted. From an agent perspective, social media can be used for personal branding and engagement. Meridian Realty has an in-house team of social media and design specialists. As a service, they manage social media for their iAgents. This includes compiling content, creating the design and the scheduling thereof. This enables the agents to have more time to focus on their portfolio and grow their business, says Goosen. We assist our iAgents with both paid and organic social media posts, of course they have input into this process, we just streamline it for them and make it easier. Goosen also feels podcasts are an informative way to engage the industry. We regularly host podcasts where we invite members of the public and other agents to share the industry relevant topics that Meridian discusses, he says. Goosen is of the opinion that events and eventing have taken on a hybrid approach since hard lockdown subsided. He maintains that highly theoretics and informative events can still be useful and have great reach if done 100% virtually. Networking and more social events can still be face-to-face, however, the virtual element remains, with events either being streamed or recorded to share across platforms. Those who cannot attend also appreciate a link, post an event and this gives an event longevity, he says. Goosen advocates that Meridian Realty also needs to market itself to potential employees: Our employees are our most important asset and by enabling them with technology we provide innovative service to our clients and attract the best talent, he says. Meridian uses their iAgent website for recruitment, this is backed up and amplified by iAgent social media campaigns, driving potential employees to the site. Property portals are now the first point of call for buyers as they aggregate content from all estate agencies nationally. Meridian ensures only top quality listing on South Africas two property portals. Their website is also a key communication tool, acting as the hub to all things digital. Traffic is directed to the website through all digital marketing efforts, increasing traffic and measurable results on how people engage with the company digitally. Goosen also states: Lets not forget the ever important Google Business Profile (GBP) how it can be used to promote the business along with Google AdWord campaigns and Google reviews placing an agency at the top local searches. It is also a good way to get reviews on your business. Finally, Meridian Realty has invested in a custom-built CRM system called Meridian Connect allowing marketing automation to databases of subscribed buyers and sellers. The system also boasts a seller portal where sellers can get automated feedback on viewings. In addition the system has a first of its kind offer to purchase (OTP) automation tool, whereby estate agents can input the requirement of buyers wanting to make an offer, whereafter the system creates the perfect OTP based on the buyers input. The automated process not only ensure agents are working in a disciplined way, but also that they follow process and dedicate more time to what matters; providing exceptional service. We have personalised valuation landing pages for Meridian estate agents that is connected to our CRM system, which reduces the amount of time it takes to do a valuation and ensures accuracy and consistency, says Goosen. Goosen concludes by saying that: What we did differently was use technology strategically and dovetailed all our efforts to portray a consistent brand image and provide a consistently high quality buying or selling experience to our target market and clients. We also empower our staff with cutting edge technology, making their job of selling easier. It was adapt or get left behind and that is how our digital vision came to life and continues to be executed and improved. Equal Education (EE) and the South African Democratic Teachers Unions (SADTU) were in the Western Cape High Court this week, challenging the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Act of 2018. The Act allows for the introduction of "collaboration schools", "donor schools", and "intervention facilities" into the province's public education system. Equal Education and the South African Democratic Teachers Union have taken the Western Cape Education Department to court. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp In this joint hearing of the two respective cases brought by EE and SADTU, the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED), the provinces MEC for Education, and the national Minister of Education were respondents. Judge Andre Le Grange reserved judgment and indicated he will make a ruling in the new year. Collaboration schools are public schools where non-profit organisations collaborate with the education department to provide additional skills and resources. In the case of donor-funded schools, for-profit entities will be able to fund public schools. Intervention facilities provide rehabilitation for learners found guilty of serious misconduct. On the first day, the applicants faced tough questions from the judge and the respondents made arguments challenging the basis of the litigation brought by EE and SADTU. Both EE and SADTU presented draft orders, asking the court to declare aspects of the amended Act unconstitutional and order changes to the Act. EE has opposed the establishment of the three new institutions since they were first proposed in 2016, citing concerns about the governance of these schools and potential infringements on the rights of learners. There are also general concerns about privatisation in government schools. SADTUs deputy provincial secretary, Sibongile Kwazi, told GroundUp they oppose collaboration and donor schools because they will allow the education department to shift their responsibility. They are also concerned that teachers will be employed on a contract rather than a permanent basis at these schools. Kwazi says she is not convinced that these new types of schools will have the positive results promised by the province. But these general concerns are not what was argued in court. The challenges brought by EE and SADTU against collaboration and donor-funded schools were specific, challenging the provisions in the Act that allows for the partner organisations and donors to have at least 50% voting rights on the schools governing bodies. In the case of donor-funded schools, the Act allows for the donor to have more than 50% of the voting rights in the governing body, at the discretion of the MEC, which EE portrays as buying voting power. Intervention schools, according to the applicants, will infringe on learners rights because learners may be sent to these facilities for up to twelve months against their will. The Act says that the decision to refer learners to intervention schools will be made by the school governing body, the head of the department, and the parents of the school. The consent of the learner will not be required. SADTU also brought two additional challenges to the court. The Act provides for the sale of alcohol on school premises and also makes changes to the monitoring and evaluation of teachers, both of which SADTU opposes. The applicants council, Sean Rosenberg for EE and Hendrik Roux for SADTU, were asked tough questions by Justice Andre Le Grange during their opening arguments. Citing the South African Schools Act (SASA), which prescribes that school governing bodies should be made up of elected parents, learners, teachers, and non-teaching staff, the applicants argued that the provincial Act should prescribe clearly how the school governing bodies of collaboration and donor-funded schools should be constituted. They did not challenge before the court the decision to give 50% of voting rights to the partner organisation in a collaboration school, but argued that the provincial Act should prescribe clearly how the remaining 50% will be allocated. They did challenge that the Act allows for-profit donors of donor-funded schools to receive more than 50% of voting rights at the discretion of the MEC. The applicants implored the court to recognize the importance of school governing bodies as constitutionally protected democratic institutions. The judge asked the applicants to explain how the voting power of partner organisations will infringe on the rights of the learners, or negatively affect their education. Judge Le Grange also mentioned that, according to the Act, in the event of a deadlock in the SGB, the dispute will be resolved at a general meeting of the parents, thereby putting power in the hands of the parents after all. The judge posited that should the remaining 50% of the SGB not be given to parents, teachers, and learners, it would be obviously unlawful. Rosenberg, for EE, argued that it is not obvious and insisted it should be prescribed by the provincial legislation. Karrisha Pillay, in her opening argument on behalf of the respondents, argued that the applicants answers to the judges questions were insufficient and that the applicants were unable to demonstrate how learners rights would be infringed. She also cited case law to argue that provinces can legislate separately and differently to the national legislature, and that provincial and national legislation need not be uniform. Differences between the national and provincial acts, she argued, are not necessarily unlawful. She also mentioned that the national Minister of Education, who was listed as a respondent but decided not to participate, had engaged with the provincial minister and found no conflict between the national and provincial acts. The introduction of intervention facilities, the applicants argued, were far too drastic a measure that would effectively detain the learner against their will, amounting to a limitation of the childs rights. The MEC, in his answering affidavit, had likened the intervention facilities to boarding school. The applicants took issue with this categorisation. Learners found guilty of serious misconduct could be removed from the mainstream school environment against their will, and the act does not provide sufficient guidelines for the involvement of other departments, such as social development and health, in the treatment of learners, the applicants argued. The judge again asked the applicants to explain how the rights of a learner would be infringed since the parents would need to consent. Rosenberg, for EE, insisted that it would be a form of detention that should be guided by existing legislation, and argued that the MECs responses to EEs concerns were insufficient. Roux, for SADTU, said there are better ways in which rehabilitation could take place without removing the learner from the mainstream school environment. I had a friend who was expelled and became a prefect in another school, Roux posited. Perhaps that was because of intervention, the judge quipped. Pillay again argued that the applicants were unable to demonstrate a limitation of rights in the case of intervention schools. Arguments such as there are better ways are not sufficient to uphold a constitutional complaint, Pillay argued. When the litigant comes to court and relies on a constitutional breach, it is incumbent on the litigant to demonstrate it, Pillay told the court. It matters not that SADTU or EE think things could have been done better. Thats not the threshold. The threshold is: have they infringed on a right? Michael Bishop, also appearing on behalf of the respondents, explained that intervention facilities are specially designed to provide care for learners, not detention. He submitted as evidence findings of the education departments pilot project, which ran in Cape Town and involved surf therapy, mindfulness, and other therapeutic practices. Such facilities would run the conventional curriculum, he said, arguing that they are not invasive measures as characterised by the applicants. As a general argument, Pillay said that the court cannot dictate how the legislature, whether national or provincial, should legislate. She also argued that the court is being asked by the applicants to make decisions within a twilight zone because neither applicant has been able to provide evidence that the provisions in the act will, when they are implemented, infringe on any rights. Also, Pillay argued, the act itself need not provide specific guidelines to address the applicants concerns, as this could be done in additional documentation that regulates the Act. Bishop also referred to draft norms and standards that would be used to regulate the provisions of the act. Not much time was spent on SADTUs challenges to the sale of alcohol on school premises, and changes to the monitoring and evaluation framework of teachers. The sale of alcohol should not be permitted because its alcohol not cakes, in the words of Roux, who provided a list of the potential harms of alcohol. The judge questioned why adults would not be able to make responsible decisions with alcohol on school premises, to which Roux replied he could go no further than the argument he has already made. Parents are not always rational, Roux said, which elicited laughter from the judge and the respondents council. The judge asked, jokingly, what that means for SADTUs other argument that parents should be in charge of school governing boards. In reply to the respondents arguments, Uday Naidoo for EE, offered a linguistic analysis of the act, arguing that it is circular and ambiguous and does not answer the concerns EE has with it. Judgment was reserved. This article was originally published on GroundUp. Takealot Group, which includes South Africa's biggest e-commerce retailer Takealot.com, is pushing further into townships and growing its new grocery partnership to defend its market share. Mamongae Mahlare, Takealot Group CEO. Source: Takealot Competition is expected to intensify following a report US e-commerce giant Amazon will launch locally in the coming year. Amazon has declined to comment on the report. Mamongae Mahlare, the chief executive officer of Takealot, said the group's delivery network and local appeal would ensure it competed. "Our confidence lies in South Africans, lies in us as a home-grown South African business," she said in an interview with Reuters. She said the company, owned by tech investment firm Naspers, already had pick-up points in all provinces and the ability to deliver into smaller towns, but would "never be satisfied with where we're at". "What we've been doing is making sure that we're expanding our footprint so that whether you're living in Lusikisiki or you're living in Thembisa or uMlazi, you're able to get delivery from Takealot.com or Superbalist," she said, referring to small towns and townships. Investing for growth E-commerce's share of South Africa's total retail sales more than tripled to around 5% from 2019 to 2021, according to Euromonitor International, but it lags behind many developing nations. Without giving any investment figures, Mahlare said Takealot was investing to increase the penetration and take-up of its businesses, including on-demand food delivery Mr D Food and fashion online retailer Superbalist. "Even with our Mr D business, we've expanded into townships, which were areas where we had previously had a target to grow into and so we're progressing on that march," she said. Mr D Food also entered the on-demand fresh grocery sector in partnership with grocery retailer Pick n Pay in August, to cash in on fast-growing demand for buying essentials online, a trend that has been boosted by pandemic lockdowns. Climate justice is not the first thing that springs to mind when talking climate change. And yet it is one of the most important aspects of the debate. Climate justice recognises the disproportionate impact of climate change on low-income communities and developing countries, and simultaneously seeks solutions that address disparities caused by societal injustices as well as environmental destruction. Garth Napier, MD of Old Mutual Insure On face-value, the decisions and commitments made around climate change have been applaudable, however, the impact on developing economies is often not fully understood and can have severe consequences. This is because international benchmarks and conversations around a just transition and moving to net-zero do not adequately recognise local contexts and challenges. And while we must accept that the adoption of green-power solutions requires pragmatic trade-offs, policy changes, investment, and a more enabling regulatory environment, we need to ensure these trade-offs do not penalise developing economies and, more importantly, low-income communities. As an example, consider a scenario where a reinsurer takes a decision to not insure a coal business. This may make sense in a developed market. However, if this is translated into producing electricity in South Africa, a major mine in South Africa that supplies Eskom would not be able to insure its assets, which could have disastrous repercussions for the country. Critical to add our voice to dialogues Developed economies have the resources to invest in renewable energy; emerging and developing markets dont necessarily have the capital nor the skills, so when developed economies are making decisions like these, it can come at cost. It is, therefore, critical that we ensure we participate and add our voice to dialogues that discuss how we can work together collectively as a continent and play our part in designing solutions that are right for us. As we look for solutions to this multi-faceted problem, we must talk about the just transition and what that means for communities across the African continent. Many of the communities do not have access to basic energy and use firewood as a source of energy. We cannot expect them to bear the brunt of transitioning to clean energy. Need to develop ethical solutions How do we do this in a way that is inclusive of the situation of developing economies? Importantly, our economy, as well as others on the African continent, can be an important pilot for how developed economies can fund the transition in developing economies. We have a very important role to play in showing how other countries can approach it in an equitable way. It is vital that business and governments help deliver a just transition that includes creating shared value a shift to a green, low-carbon economy that does not leave millions of workers and their communities behind. This means we must develop solutions that are ethical and respect human rights. In South Africa alone, the civil unrest in parts of the country and disastrous flooding in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year have ramped up the urgency for us to act in a way that is more socially conscious, resource-efficient, and inclusive. Insurance, by its nature, tries to manage risk for individuals by pooling these together in a shared value-type model. We can provide an affordable price of insurance to an individual because we have a larger risk pool (spreading of risk). There is an opportunity to develop a similar model for delivering climate-friendly insurance products. Levelling the playing field Strategic partnerships are also critical to helping developing economies in the quest for a just transition. We already know that there is a great discrepancy between developed and emerging economies in funding and technology. Not all countries can move at the same speed or from the same starting point when it comes to carbon emissions. So how do you set different goals per country and even at a community level? Technology solutions and the sharing thereof are going to be crucial to help solve the energy challenges we face as a continent. The impact innovation can have and the funding solutions required are even more relevant now as many households turn to alternative power solutions. Important to the question of funding is also skills, knowledge, and even intellectual property transfer. Levelling the playing field may mean a willingness from owners of innovative but expensive renewable technologies to share their IP more broadly like an open-source economy. This would bring down the cost of technology in this space significantly. Collaborative effort needed We believe that using our resources we can effectively drive a just transition to a low-carbon economy that also addresses other societal challenges. As a non-life insurer, we have a significant balance sheet and already made substantial investments in businesses, allowing others to use our capital to generate green energy. While we are playing our role as an insurer, we need to work together with governments, customers, industry, and stakeholders to find solutions for Africa, in Africa. Collectively, these efforts should translate into a common understanding of what is needed to best ensure a just transition that includes our most vulnerable communities in the most equitable way possible. Our Mother City has many captivating qualities and is the top "semigration" destination in South Africa. An interesting fact is that the population of the city, South Africas legislative capital and capital of the Western Cape, has grown from approximately 3,795,000 in 2012 to 4,801,000 in 2022. That is a growth of more than a million people in just 10 years. Capital Legacy, South Africas leading Wills and Estates specialists have also grown in the past 10 years, from just seven employees in 2012 to the 1,000 people it currently employs countrywide. The Cape Town branch was launched nine years ago in 2013. The Cape Town office had a humble beginning and was housed in the offices of a supporting brokerage firm. The firm, it might be added, is still one of Capital Legacys supporters. Hayley Stewien, the first employee of Capital Legacy, and still working for the company, was delegated to establish the regional office together with Shaun Stewien. I have the honour of being the first employee for Capital Legacy. Shaun and I both opened the office in Cape Town. We moved down from Johannesburg in April 2013 and officially opened our office in May 2013. By office, I mean that it was a small room with two desks, a kettle, and calls were transferred by means of moving the phone from one desk to the other, Hayley recalls fondly. And more than nine years later both are still enthusiastically at it. Capital Legacys Cape Town office now boasts 77 staff members and continues to grow. And as Brandon Garbutt, managing director of Capital Legacy, aptly put it: With growth comes expansion and in 2022 it was the Cape Town teams turn to be moving-on-up into their brand-new offices in Century City. Cloe Gentz, regional manager of the Western Cape, has been with the company for seven years. She says the incredible space of the offices and view of the city and natural scenery, including Table Mountain, allows for creation and collaboration and is a driver for success. Capital Legacy realised in 2021 that the business had outgrown the startup branding from 2012. It recognised that it was time to create a new brand that not only represents the business that it had become but also one that would help to define its aspirations for the next 10 years. So, the company rebranded in 2022. The company chose yellow as its new corporate colour because it is a celebration of life. At first it might sound strange coming from a Wills company, but if one thinks about it as Capital Legacy does, one realises that what the company does is not necessarily only for the Client drafting the Will, but for their children and family that survives them. Capital Legacy is very proud of the fact that its offices in Cape Town reflect its celebration of life. Camissa Camissa, the place of sweet waters is the name originally given by the Khoisan to the 13 springs that flows down Table Mountain and underneath Cape Town. Symbolically, Camissa represents life. And in a fantastic coincidence, Capital Legacy and its office in Cape Town reflect the celebration of life. If you are looking for the no. 1 Wills provider in South Africa, please pop into our new offices. Our address is: Sable Corner, 4th Floor, Century City, Milnerton, Cape Town 7446 We look forward to meeting and assisting you as we build our legacy together. Learn more at capitallegacy.co.za The South African tourism industry was amongst the hardest hit by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown restrictions. Job losses, redundancies and pay cuts put hospitality and travel workers through a harrowing two-year ordeal. Now, a few months after mandatory preventative measures were lifted, the opening of international and local borders has heralded the beginning of recovery for the sector and much-needed relief for small businesses along the value chain. Source: Helen Jobson via 123RF Reflecting on what has been a historically unprecedented time for the South African tourism sector is Rene Botha, area manager at Business Partners Ltd. Putting the impact of the pandemic into perspective, she points to the 722,000 South Africans who were directly affected by the crippling of the tourism sector in 2020 as well as countless others who were indirectly impacted. With the banning of international flights, some tourism SMEs were able to redirect their focus from foreign travellers to the local market in time to recover some losses before the countrywide lockdown. Others were left completely debilitated and faced shutdown and financial ruin. The impact of lockdown restrictions on hospitality providers is well-documented, as well as its spill-over into the tourism value chain from suppliers of linen to hotels, to souvenir manufacturers and tour bus operators. Supporting the travel sector According to Stats SA, foreign arrivals dropped by over 70% in 2020, following a steady rise in international visitors to an average of 16.5 million in 2018 and 2019. The accumulative effect was a dramatic loss of GDP with the sectors contribution falling by 50% and equating to billions of rands. But, as Botha comments: "Hope is on the horizon. For the countless SMEs that support the travel sector, now is the opportune moment to ride the wave of recovery in the lead-up to the busy festive season." The launch of National Tourism Month saw Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announcing that encouraging prospects lie ahead for the sector, with a 114% increase in domestic trips being reported during the first half of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021. As Sisulu remarked, this welcomed upsurge in domestic travel has exceeded the number of trips taken pre-pandemic by almost double. Botha urges existing and emerging entrepreneurs never to "underestimate the potential of the domestic travel market. Its important for tourism SMEs to conduct research in order to understand the unique needs and demands of local travellers. "We know, for example, that domestic travellers spend an average of three nights at their destination. We also know that South Africans are currently very price-conscious given several macro and micro-economic factors. The focus for local tourism SMEs should therefore be on adding and enhancing value by offering discounted packages on multiple nights, bundled deals on multiple locations and value-add offerings such as free meals or leisure activities." Inclusive, sustainable tourism sector Global travel is showing signs of following suit, particularly in the Western Cape, with July 2022 figures showing an almost 90% increase in visitors arriving at Cape Town International Airports international terminal. Regionally, the big five attractions, which include Robben Island, the Table Mountain cableway and Boulders Beach have been identified as some of the major drivers behind the recovery of the local sector. With governments renewed commitment to building a more inclusive, sustainable tourism sector, sights are now set on the thousands of tourism-focused businesses within the township economy, in rural areas and in outlying towns, many of whom have found compelling and creative ways to put their locations on the map. As Botha suggests, small businesses in the tourism sector need to bear in mind that travel as we know it has been changed indelibly. Along with that change are new consumer demands and expectations. Capitalising on the upward trend in travel rests largely on understanding the new, post-pandemic traveller demographic. Travellers are now more hygiene- and safety-conscious. As a travel-related business, you need to take this into account and foreground safety considerations and measures into your unique selling proposition. Your main task now is to restore consumer confidence in your brand and business. "Furthermore, with a large number of SMEs involved in the rush to recover market share, competition will be stiff. Setting your business apart will require a laser focus on customer service and a return to fundamental principles such as implementing a seamless and hassle-free booking system, providing guests with a personalised level of service, rewarding loyalty and nurturing effective and attentive communication along every step of the feedback loop," she concludes. African countries are gearing up for the energy transition by implementing policy and legislative frameworks that take into account the energy crisis and the need for a renewable, decarbonised, decentralised energy supply that addresses climate change and the commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Ahead of COP27 in Egypt in November, lawyers across Africa have outlined the efforts taken by the governments in their countries to address this urgent need to harness renewable power. In part two, we hear from lawyers in Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Image source: Singkham from Pexels Nigeria Oludare Senbore, Partner at Aluko & Oyebode in Nigeria: Following the decisions taken during COP26, the President of Nigeria announced the intention for Nigeria to achieve a net zero emission target by 2060.In order to achieve this objective, the Federal Government of Nigeria on 24 August 2022, launched its Energy Transition Plan (ETP). The ETP, which was launched by the Vice President on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, has a double-pronged objective of achieving universal access to energy by 2030 and a net-zero emission target by 2060. The foregoing actions support Nigerias energy transition drive, which includes an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement that was submitted in May 2021, and which highlights the countrys commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% unconditionally, and a conditional reduction target of 47% by 2030. This was followed up with the enactment of the Climate Change Act 2021 in November 2021, which provides a framework for achieving low greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), inclusive green growth and sustainable economic development in Nigeria. An additional legislative action by the Federal Government of Nigeria is the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, that empowers the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited (a state-owned oil company) to engage in the business of renewables. This further confirms the countrys drive for energy transition, as do proposed amendments to the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, which provide that distribution companies must ensure that a portion of the electric power that they purchase must be from renewable sources. This is supposed to provide support for the growth of renewable power projects. South Africa Kieran Whyte, Partner and Head of the Energy, Mining & Infrastructure Industry Group at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg: South Africa is in dire need of a clean, reliable and secure energy supply to get out of its negative growth spiral. As a result, the country is moving forward towards just energy transition and the increased utilisation of renewable energy. At COP26 in November 2021, it was announced that the governments of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union had pledged $8.5bn in first round financing to assist South Africa with energy transition projects. On 20 October 2022, the South African cabinet approved an investment plan for the $8.5bn package, the details of which are expected to be announced at COP27. The South African government said the plan outlined the investments required to achieve the country's decarbonisation commitments, while promoting sustainable development, and ensuring a just transition for affected workers and communities. A just transition takes into account the requirement to balance the reduction of carbon emissions with the impact of this transition on employment and the need to develop long-term green energy jobs, especially in communities that have a current heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Coal remains the primary source of energy for the country, but in order for South Africa to reach its reduction in carbon emission targets, this must change. South Africa updated its NDC under the Paris Agreement in 2021 and now has a proposed revised target range of 398 to 510Mt CO2-eq for 2025, and 398 to 440Mt CO2-eq for 2030. The National Development Plan (NDP), the draft Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) and the Renewable Energy White Paper outline the policy foundation for energy transition in South Africa and the move away from carbon-fuelled energy. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2019 covers the government's plans for power until 2030 and outlines a decreased reliance on coal-powered energy and an increased focus on a diversified energy mix that includes renewable energy, distributed generation and battery storage. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), introduced in 2011, outlined the procurement of renewable energy in the country. The sixth round of the REIPPP kicked off in 2022 and this round aims to procure 2.6GW of solar and wind power. To incentivise the self-generation of renewable energy, the South African government has also indicated that it proposes to scrap the threshold for distributed energy generation of 100MW, meaning that large scale power plants in excess of 100MW could be built without a licence, to meet their own demand and to sell to the grid. In February 2022, the South African Hydrogen Society Roadmap (HSRM) was published by the South African government. The Roadmap is considered to be an important marker on its path towards implementing hydrogen development, which is envisaged to be at the centre of South Africas strategy for economic growth and mitigating climate change. Further, the Climate Change Bill was introduced into South African Parliament in 2022 and outlines steps for climate change mitigation and the move towards a climate resilient economy. Other tools in the just transition toolbox include the introduction of a carbon tax and carbon offsetting schemes, designed to tax/incentivise the reduction in carbon emissions. Further policies such as the National Energy Efficiency Strategy and the Green Transport Strategy also have a role to play in ensuring the country meets its climate change targets and reduces its carbon emissions. Trading in carbon offsets in the carbon market, where companies can pay other entities to offset their emissions for them, is growing in popularity in emerging markets. In August 2022, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange announced that it was investigating the possibility of introducing a carbon trading market in South Africa. As part of a diversified energy mix strategy, Eskom recently identified eighteen independent power producer bids in terms of an auction relating to the use of vacant land it owned in Mpumalanga, situated in proximity to its coal-fired power stations, with direct access to the national transmission network and the enabling of wheeling. The projects will add approximately 1,800MW of renewable power to the South African grid. The Department of Minerals Resources and Energy (DMRE) is proposing a number of amendments to the Electricity Regulation Act, which came into effect in 2006. The amendments are likely to address, inter alia, the electricity supply deficit, the vertical structure of the market and the lack of competition, the introduction of a multi-market including independent power producers (IPPs) and the formation of a central purchasing agency. The amendments will also address the introduction of a day-ahead market to accommodate hourly supply and demand, the direct procurement of power by municipalities, the increase in the threshold pertaining to self-generation, the need to accommodate low carbon-emitting generation technologies, the timing of licensing applications, changes in transmission system operation including power trading ,and the creation of additional regulatory capability. The lack of access to power has had a significant impact on the private sector in South Africa for some time, and the country's energy policy developments, which are aligned with the global energy transition towards a clean and decentralised energy system, have been welcomed as a means to improve access to decarbonised, affordable renewable energy that takes into account the country's carbon reduction commitments and economic growth requirements. Tanzania Shemane Amin, Partner at A&K Tanzania: Tanzania has refocused its attention on the energy future, with the Ministry of Energy actively pursuing investment opportunities in renewables to improve the countrys energy mix. This is specifically in relation to solar, wind and geothermal opportunities - and to add more renewable energy sources to the national grid to meet the countrys growing demand for power. The Government of Tanzania is targeting an electrification rate for the entire country of 75% by 2035 and in the next six to seven years is striving to add 2 GW of renewables to the grid. In order to attract these investments, the government is striving to create a more conducive business environment in which such power projects can be sustainable, this includes providing investment incentives. In the 2022 budget speech, the Ministry of Energy highlighted, among other things, the establishment of the Renewable Energy Strategy and Roadmap. In a nutshell, the refocus on the energy future and the momentum behind renewables in Tanzania make this a key area to watch for investors. Uganda Arnold Lule Sekiwano, Partner at Engoru, Mutebi Advocates in Uganda: There are a number of policy initiatives which have been passed purposely to facilitate energy transition in Uganda. Such policies include the Climate Change Policy 2015, which focuses on the use of alternative renewable energy sources such as solar, biomass, mini-hydro, geothermal and wind; and the Renewable Energy Policy (2007), which forms the basis of the underlying framework for renewable energy. Furthermore, Ugandas Vision 2040 has also emphasised clean sources of energy to avert climate change. These policy initiatives have culminated into the recent enactment of the Climate Change Act, 2021. The Act governs the national response to climate change. One of the stated purposes of the Act is to give effect to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. Generally, there is an increased focus on the utilisation of renewable energy resources and technologies in Uganda and a regulatory focus that supports energy transition. Read Part 1 of this article here. As part of its ongoing commitment to helping South Africa develop the skills needed to meet the high demand for data science talent, global analytics leader SAS, in collaboration with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, hosted an online Divas and Dudes in Data Science event for grade 11 Mathematics learners on Friday, 28 October 2022. The event was designed to introduce these learners to the exciting world of analytics and data science as possible career choices. Divas and Dudes in Data Science is a platform to provide learners with the opportunity to virtually meet analysts and data scientists who share their insights with learners on what careers in data science entail and how best to pursue a career in this field. Dr Humphrey Brydon, the head of the Department of Statistics and Population Studies at the UWC, discussed the university path to follow for students who want to become a data scientist. The event also saw senior lecturer Dr Julia Keddie take learners on a journey of what a career in the field looks like by leveraging her 20 years industry experience as an analyst and data scientist. Finally, lecturer Dr Rechelle Jacobs discussed how she became a data scientist and academic. Dr Jacobs has 15 years experience and completed her PhD in September. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that solves complex problems using advanced analytics. The UWC has developed its Masters in Statistical Science with Specialisation in Data Science degree with industry partnerships to provide our students with the ideal combination of theoretical and practical skills to pursue a career as a data scientist. Divas and Dudes in Data Science is a crucial platform to showcase the potential of data science and ignite the passion of high school learners as we work with SAS to address this critical skills shortage not only in South Africa but beyond the countrys borders as well, says Professor Renette Blignaut, Manager of the Masters in Data Science programme at UWC. Data proficiency is a powerful skill not just for todays working world, but also for the emerging and expanding digital economy. The amount of potentially useful data being generated is increasing exponentially, with global data creation projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes within the next three years. Data is critical to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) that are shaping the digital era. This means data skills have become quintessential to the way people live, work and play today, tomorrow and well into the future. Following the online event, Professor Renette Blignaut received an email from one of the attending learners, which reads: Thank you very much for the opportunity and for the time UWC lecturers took to inform myself and other students on things we needed to know and apply at later stage in our studies and career. I enjoyed every minute of your lectureit was extremely helpful and I am very grateful to have been part of the workshop." Solving real-world problems is what drives business innovation and impact. Organisations are becoming data-driven by design but require the relevant skill sets to unlock its true potential. This is why the work UWC is doing to create a passion for data in high school learners is so important. Divas and Dudes in Data Science highlights what it takes to become a data scientist and the difference the student can make in the world. We are excited to be a part of initiatives such as these and providing learners with the needed specialised software to train on, says Andre Zitzke, Manager: Global Academic Programmes in Africa for SAS. A project to decommission and repurpose one of Eskom's coal-fired power plants using renewables and batteries will receive $497m in financing from the World Bank. Source: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon "The decommissioning and repurposing of the Komati coal-fired plant is a demonstration project that can serve as a reference on how to transition fossil-fuel assets for future projects in South Africa and around the world," the World Bank said in a statement distributed by National Treasury on Friday, 4 November. Eskom's chief executive said in September that the company expected a World Bank decision on the funding before this month's COP27 climate summit. Financing separate from $8.5bn pledge The money is separate from a $8.5bn financial package on offer from wealthy countries to help South Africa reduce its carbon emissions. The World Bank's statement said the $497m funding was made up of a $439.5m World Bank loan, a $47.5m concessional loan from the Canadian Clean Energy and Forest Climate Facility and a $10m grant from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and that it is his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. The visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward, Xi said. Stressing that this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations, Xi said the five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually-beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to global peace and development. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) While domestic airlines struggle to broaden their offering, tardy travellers find themselves without a booking for their December break. After the ravages of the pandemic, last-minute air tickets are a rarity nowadays, but there's hope on the horizon. December demand outstrips supply The December holidays have always been the busiest season for the airline industry in South Africa, with many travellers jetting off to seaside locations to celebrate the festive season in sizzling summer style. Unfortunately, if youre the kind of person who loves spur-of-the-moment travel, youre bound for disappointment this year. With several airlines going under, and an upswing in demand after pandemic-induced restrictions, the South African airline industry is currently experiencing exceptionally high demand, coupled with about a third less availability. When the dust cleared after Covid, the industrys usual capacity of 1.6 million seats per month was reduced to just 900,000, thanks to the demise of Comair, Mango, SA Express, and Kulula. In normal times, passengers could count on reasonable prices and predictable discounts thanks to adequate seats. Domestic airlines in South Africa have gone to extraordinary lengths to rectify this imbalance, managing to bring the available seats up to 1.2 million relatively quickly. Too late for cheap flights Yet, massive demand coupled with an inventory thats still low means seats are selling faster than ever, pushing prices up by 20% or more. Global increases in the price of oil only added to the pricing woes of the average traveller. According to Kirby Gordon, of FlySafair, ticket prices increase as flights fill up. So, the sooner you book, the less you pay. Previously, passengers could book a ticket on a 50% full aeroplane as little as two weeks in advance. Today, the same flight is likely to be 75% full two weeks ahead of take-off, resulting in higher prices. Typically, flights fill up a few days before departure but this year, December bookings have already outstripped Novembers totals. When you add fuel price hikes and a weakening rand to the mix, travellers could end up paying double for any available domestic flights departing within the next few months. Booking your Easter holiday flights in December In short, if you were hoping to get a great deal on air tickets for your December break, you should have booked in May. In fact, if youre willing to settle for an Easter getaway instead, nows a good time to book your seats. Apart from booking well in advance, a little flexibility goes a long way when planning your 2023 travels. The last two weeks in January are typically a low-demand period, so if you can adjust your plans, you can still snap up some cheaper seats. If you cant resist the bustle of busy periods for your holiday, try booking a flight during the shoulder season preceding peak times. Adjust your departure dates and times, and youll find some time frames are much cheaper than others. Usually, Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday flights are cheaper than peak times. Dont expect massive savings though, a Google Flights study showed these flights are only 1.9% cheaper than usual, compared to 12% cheaper in 2019. Despite steadily increasing availability, travellers are likely to come across high fares for the next four months or so, while the market evens out. While its tempting to wait for extra capacity and lower prices, its still a good idea to book now if you want to guarantee your seat on a plane between now and Easter. Whats ahead for SA air travel? With new jets and routes on the cards for most domestic carriers, forecasters expect the situation to normalise soon, hopefully within the next few months. For now, plan as far ahead as you can, compare prices, and book quickly to avoid disappointment. With domestic flights down by a third, South Africans have experienced unprecedented price hikes in airline tickets in the last few months. Now the tide is turning as established carriers' clamour for more routes. Keep reading to see if relief is on the horizon for SA travellers. FlySafair, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Why are airline ticket prices so high? After two years of restrictions, air travellers across the globe are eager to explore both domestic and international destinations, and executive travellers are keen to get back to business. This high demand for tickets has caught carriers off guard as they struggle to recover from the implications of this extended period of inactivity. Booking requests have quickly resurged to over 80% of pre-pandemic levels, while airlines have only managed to reinstitute 65% of their flights. Add to that the demise of local carriers Kulula, Mango, SA Express, and Comair, as well as SA Airlines slow return to the market, and youve got a shortage of around 30% of seats in 2022. This has resulted in the ideal disparity between supply and demand that drives prices sky-high. The Ukraine war is also placing pressure on fuel supply, pushing jet fuel prices way above normal levels. The changing face of SA air travel SA Airlines fortunate enough to avoid financial ruin during the pandemic or emerge from business rescue intact are slowly attempting to rectify this issue. These noble ambitions are hampered by lengthy application processes and the cost of buying new jets to service these routes. Despite these challenges, the Air Services Licencing Council has recently approved a number of flights which should bring some relief to the domestic travel market. As a result, domestic carriers are rapidly expanding their fleets. FlySafair is adding six additional Boeing 737-800 aircraft by the end of April, SAA is boosting its fleet with three Airbus A320 planes by the end of the year, and Airlink has already introduced an extra three Embraer E195 aircraft to its fleet. Additionally, Airlink has recently acquired 40% of Fly Namibia, CemAir has increased its fleet size by 20% this year, and Lift has just commenced with a new Durban route. FlySafair has ASLC approval for 11 new routes across southern Africa. These include: Cape Town to Windhoek Nairobi Seychelles Gaborone Luanda Livingstone Lusaka Vic Falls Johannesburg to Bulawayo The great benefit of this growth in the industry has been a massive employment drive which has effectively helped to save many of those who ended up unemployed after the closure of other airlines. FlySafair alone has increased its staff complement by over 18% this year. Whats ahead for airline ticket prices While more seats mean lower prices, it remains to be seen whether airlines are overestimating demand as they add to their offering and increase their fleets. While this will certainly help bring prices down, it could plunge more airlines back into financial trouble. Despite the risks, FlySafairs chief marketing officer, Kirby Gordon, believes domestic carriers have a good idea of how far to go in their expansion. He believes the 1.6 million target for airline seats is a realistic and achievable goal. Gordon believes flight prices will approach more familiar levels by the end of January 2023 due to seasonal fluctuations in demand as well as more available seats. Jet fuel prices are starting to cool after a 220% hike at the beginning of the year, too. For now, those planning business and leisure travel on SA Airlines should continue to book early and compare prices to ensure theyre flying in the most affordable way possible. It's a common scene across many African countries' rural areas: cows grazing peacefully. But, by 2050, heat stress induced by climate change may drastically alter this familiar picture. Source: wirestock via Freepik Findings from the International Livestock Research Institute show that, unless massive adaptation measures are put in place, the number of extreme heat events driven by climate change especially in the continents tropics will increase. Poultry and pigs already face major heat stress challenges in many regions of the tropics where they are currently raised. The same is true for all five major domesticated species in large swathes of West Africa, where heat stress is likely to make it nearly impossible for livestock to be kept outdoors. Heat stress is likely to be only the beginning of the problems. Not enough is known about likely future impacts of increased climate variability on feed and forages, grazing area and water, or about shifts in climate-sensitive diseases and disease vectors and their impacts on livestock. Even under relatively mild but realistic climate scenarios, it will be necessary to reconfigure and relocate agricultural systems. This will have profound consequences for peoples nutrition and well-being. Livelihoods will be threatened. The livestock sector contributes about 30-50% of agricultural GDP and supports the food security and livelihoods of about one-third of Africas population, or about 350 million people. Livestock tends to be viewed merely as part of the climate change problem. Research focuses on mitigating the harms livestock causes. Some of these harms are very real: livestock emissions, particularly from cattle, are responsible for a significant fraction of the gases that contribute to global warming worldwide. But sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only a small part of those emissions. In the developing world, these harms are more than balanced by the good they do. Livestock provides livelihoods, nutrition and cultural capital. How, then, do we adapt to the challenges the sector faces and capitalise on the opportunities it presents? Threats to livestock Projections show that, in the coming years, heat stress in animals will occur more frequently and for longer periods. This will affect milk and meat productivity for cattle, small ruminants (like goats and sheep), pigs and poultry across East Africa. This will make much of the region unsuitable for exotic pig, poultry and cattle production animals whose productivity is easily compromised by heat stress. Rising heat and humidity are already causing a drop in Tanzanian dairy cattles milk yields, hitting the income of smallholder dairy farmers. In Uganda, heat stress levels are high and increasing. By the end of the century over 90% of Ugandan districts will experience severe heat stress, putting the livelihoods of pig producers and sustainability of the pig sector as a whole at risk. The pig sector provides a source of income to more than 2 million households in Uganda, and the country has the highest per capita consumption of pork in east Africa. Addressing the risks The International Livestock Research Institute has started to address these risks in various ways. The Index Based Livestock Insurance programme protects livestock keepers in drought-prone arid and semi-arid lands in Kenya and Ethiopia from climate-related losses. Unlike traditional insurance programmes, which pay out on the loss of the animal, it is tied to climatic conditions such as the amount of rainfall and distribution of pasture availability over a season. By tying the payouts to objective criteria, the programme avoids the moral hazards of traditional insurance programmes while giving herders the resources to help their animals survive periods of sustained crisis. Rangeland ecology in East and West Africa rationalises land use and protect livelihoods. Community land management programmes help resolve conflicts between land users. Recent modelling of heat stress impacts is one of our efforts to understand the impacts of climate change Farmers were working with are also making the necessary local adaptations. In Ethiopias arid pastoral Afar region, pastoralists are experiencing increased flooding and drought and an overall shift in seasonal weather patterns. In response, they are shifting from large to small ruminants, and changing their grazing and feed management systems. In Kenyas central rift valley, farmers who practise mixed crop and dairy farming have begun to experiment with different feed production and preservation strategies to overcome feed shortages in the prolonged dry seasons. But this is a fraction of what is needed. More must be done to work with governments and help livestock keepers across the continent meet the challenge of adaptation. Moving forward Building climate-resilient livestock systems to cope with these challenges requires concerted, coordinated action from investors and policymakers at the national and global levels. This will need to be informed by a solid research base that scientists have only started to assemble with the minimal funds allocated so far. Unfortunately, because of donor priorities, most research attention to date has focused on mitigating the contributions of livestock production to climate change rather than adapting to its consequences even though the priority in African countries is adaptation. Where there has been adaptation research, it has focused primarily on climate-induced impacts on cropping systems rather than on livestock. Researchers need to develop a toolbox of effective adaptation practices, technologies and policies that are robust across different scales, priorities and climate futures. They must also work with funders and governments to prioritise investments in the livestock sector. Its not just technical inputs that are needed, but institutional change in the way that livestock are viewed by funders and governments. This will require a considerable evidence base. Unfortunately, we are very far from these goals and not nearly enough resources are being devoted to achieving them. Consider that between 2012 and 2017, US$185.8 billion was dedicated to climate-related development projects worldwide, with only 0.57% (about $1bn) devoted to the livestock sector. The cost of livestock mitigation and adaptation actions for the next five years is estimated in the billions of dollars, much of that to be supported by partners in the form of finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Capitec has launched the #LetsStartToday campaign that allows people to pin a dream (such as buying a car, starting a business, or owning their first home) on an interactive digital map. According to Capitec the map called the Great South African Dream Board is a first-of-its-kind in the banking space. After people pin their dreams on the board the bank will then select a dream every month over the next year and partner with the dreamer to make it a reality. Behaviour change We want to reinspire every South African to want to live better by realising their dreams and ultimately create a nation of rebels who can change the country for the better. These rebels are our youth, entrepreneurs, and working mothers who defy the constraints of circumstance, challenge the status quo, fight for a new future and inspire generations after them with new ways of thinking, says Francois Viviers, group executive: marketing and communications at Capitec Bank. Viviers says South African households are no longer saving regularly, primarily when no goal is associated with it. However, the digital bank says its campaign will encourage a much-needed behavioural shift towards saving. Fulfilling a dream A South African survey conducted in January this year among 2,702 respondents indicated that most people (76%) save less than 15% of their salaries, while 35% said they dont save at all. So, we realise there's an even greater need to inspire South Africans to start saving to live better. Whether the dream is to travel, study, or buy a new home, saving is a practical path to achieving it, adds Viviers. Through its campaign, the bank will post daily financial tips on its social media pages to help South Africans get started on their way to saving towards achieving their dreams. In addition, every Friday in November, the bank will gift a few lucky users who can demonstrate how these tips have helped them live better with vouchers to treat themselves for a job well done. The current and ongoing energy crisis in the country has once again demonstrated the resilience that South Africans have; we are solutions driven - businesses and individuals alike 'make a plan' to ensure that we can effectively function during load shedding. We are a nation that is used to stepping up where we need to create public private partnerships to ensure a sustainable service: private education and security, among others, are all examples of this. Healthcare is another one. As a country, we have almost nine million members on private healthcare schemes. This equates to about 15% of the population who are not placing a burden on what is already a highly constrained public healthcare system, and not forming part of the backlog in accessing primary healthcare. Our current percentage of GDP spent on healthcare in South Africa 9% is equitable to that of many first world countries, including Australia, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and New Zealand. Our social-economic make-up, market dynamics, and demographics however are not comparable. Our healthcare provision for the vast majority of our countrys citizens is inadequate, with rapidly declining healthcare worker numbers, load shedding, funding and numerous other factors all negatively impacting the system. This is the same system though, that with the planned introduction of the current draft NHI plan, will have to service all South Africans all 60 million of us. Healthcare is a fundamental right for all. But for us to create and implement a national health system to enable this, we must be mindful of the current constraints and ensure that we move forward in a positive manner. Primary and secondary care The debate of complementary versus supplementary care is at the foundation of the current NHI debate. If the NHI were to be introduced tomorrow, we would all have access to primary complementary healthcare funded through taxing and other mechanisms. This access would be compulsory for South Africans and mean that no private medical funds could be used for primary healthcare - medical schemes would be prohibited from providing such and would have to adapt their offering. Private medical healthcare would, however, remain in place in a new format, servicing only secondary or specialist healthcare needs until such time as the next phase of the NHI rolls out. The motivation for universal healthcare is sound. We need a more equitable, robust healthcare system with better access to quality treatment and outcomes. Not just for those in the formal sector that can afford private healthcare. The concern is that the trust deficit that exists between government, business and the wider population is at an all time high. Past experiences with Eskom and SAA bring into question the rationality of another national system. So, the key consideration is in how we can implement it. Phased approach Introducing primary universal healthcare for unemployed South Africans or those who need access to it, funded by a health tax, makes sense. This could be introduced in a phased approach, with government demonstrating its ability to drive meaningful change and creating pockets of excellence to show that sustainable transformation in the healthcare sector is possible. Secondary care could then be introduced to the same group following the successful and sustained roll out of primary healthcare. While we roll out improved access and quality healthcare to the unemployed or informal sectors, the private sector can assist by ensuring the formally employed are covered by current private healthcare solutions. Thus, alleviating some burden on the state and allowing limited resources to be used more efficiently for those currently uncovered. This suggestion is only an interim step to ensure that the system is tested and delivers improved outcomes. We believe the current private system should be combined, but to do so immediately puts unnecessary pressure on the NHI in its interim stage. By altering the phases of rollout, it gives us a chance to test, adapt and prove that our universal healthcare vision works. As we prove the concept, we take the next steps. Combining forces for one goal The reason why this rollout plan could work better is that it enables private and public working for the same outcome, and we build trust that the system works and improve the trust gap between our citizens and the health system we want to create. In addition, we potentially dont lose critical experienced resources from our health economy and, unlike our power challenges, we prevent the disastrous concept of health shedding. In addition, creating local purpose-driven partnerships is key to driving the same positive intent and required skills to uniquely solve for a better future for our society, by improving our healthcare industry. That was the driving force behind Momentum Health Solutions partnership with major labour unions, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) Investment Holdings (NIH), the investment company of NEHAWU, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) Group of Companies (PGC), the investment company of POPCRU, as well as individual business leaders in the health industry. The ability to work together to create more health for more people for less is essential. Universal health care is a critical consideration for us all. Having access to quality healthcare is a cornerstone to building a healthier economy a mentally and physically healthy population ensures less burden on the state and on private companies. And having safe, stable, and sustainable healthcare facilities not only provides for our own people, but also attracts foreign direct investment as companies view access to quality healthcare as a key consideration. Transforming healthcare in South Africa requires a collective commitment but with that commitment we will see tangible results in improving the health of our society and the productivity of our nation. Subscribe to daily business and company news across 19 industries SUBSCRIBE YAOUNDE, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon and Nigeria inaugurated a bridge over the Cross River on Thursday in a move seen as deepened bilateral relations. The bridge, about 400 meters long and linking the Cameroonian town of Ekok to Nigeria's Mfum town is a mark of friendship between the two nations, officials of both countries said while officially inaugurating the bridge. "The bridge is a symbol of togetherness and fruitful cooperation between Cameroon and Nigeria," said Cameroon's Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi. "This is a bridge between two peoples and nations. This can only help in facilitating our coming closer together," added Zubairu Dada, Nigeria's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. The new bridge will boost connectivity between the two countries and is also expected to increase integration, commercial exchanges, and movement of goods and people between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Cameroon and Nigeria have also agreed to create free economic zones on both sides of the bridge and ease customs to promote trade. ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Anteneh Desalegn, 41, who was directly affected by the two-year conflict in Northern Ethiopia, is cautiously optimistic that the ceasefire agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) would potentially end the devastating conflict and lead to lasting peace. Desalegn's hometown, the once-peaceful mountainous town of Sekota in Ethiopia's Amhara region along the border with the Tigray region and some 870 km from Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, has been one of the epicenters of the two-year conflict. For the past two years, Desalegn, a father of two, witnessed recurrent conflict, as the government and regional Tigray forces repeatedly exchanged control of the area over the course of the conflict. "You can imagine how hard life would be without electricity and other basic necessities for two years. This is in addition to the devastating impact and damage caused by the fighting on our people and infrastructure," Desalegn told Xinhua on Thursday. Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has seen a devastating conflict between government-allied troops and forces loyal to the TPLF since November 2020, which left thousands dead and millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. FIRST STEP TOWARD LASTING PEACE As the conflict in Northern Ethiopia marks its second year on Friday, the Ethiopian government and TPLF had on Wednesday announced an agreement to end the conflict. The ceasefire agreement is igniting optimism among Ethiopians from all walks of life who have been yearning for an end to the conflict. Desalegn, recalling the shock and distress that the conflict inflicted on his life and those of millions of others, said the peace agreement would only count if it ensures lasting peace on the ground. "Our area is among the areas that were highly affected by the conflict. So, we are very happy that they have agreed to end the conflict and eventually bring an end to our continued suffering," Desalegn said. "Even though it is unfortunate that the peace agreement was achieved after many people had died and countless others impacted by the conflict, we are very delighted and happy that they have agreed to end the fighting." The peace accord was signed in the South African capital Pretoria, days after an African Union (AU)-led negotiation, which was facilitated by Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU high representative for the Horn of Africa and former president of Nigeria, along with the former president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, and former deputy president of South Africa Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities and orderly disarmament, Obasanjo said at a press briefing on the outcomes of the negotiation. The deal also includes restoring law and order, restoring services and unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, he said. Tewodros Beshah, a private employee in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, argued that even though the ceasefire is highly welcomed, its effective implementation is "much more critical." "For many reasons, I was very surprised the moment I heard about the ceasefire agreement. For one, many of us were anticipating the worst, that it was going to be a protracted war due to the conflicting parties' extreme positions before they headed to South Africa," Beshah said. Noting the fragile overall security conditions in Northern Ethiopia, Beshah said the agreement is the start of the right path to establishing lasting peace. "As we in Ethiopia say - the most difficult step ever is the first step as it comes with doubts, uncertainties and fears. Now that we have embarked on the path to peace, we all should strive for its success as we do not have a second option or chance," Beshah said. ROAD TO RECONCILIATION Many experts and analysts argue that the conflict - in addition to causing a humanitarian crisis across the three affected regions of Ethiopia that are Afar, Amhara and Tigray, has seriously jeopardized the social fabric in Ethiopia. They emphasized that in order to achieve a lasting solution to the conflict, targeted reconciliation initiatives should be implemented so as to heal the bond that existed for generations among the affected neighboring communities. Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, a professor of public policy at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, said that if the East African country is to realize the core aspirations of the peace agreement, the affected communities should be at the center of the peace process. Desalegn, who was left out of work due to the conflict, has highlighted the crucial importance of providing psycho-social and related support to the affected people. "People in the conflict-hit areas were highly affected by the fighting, their lives were shattered, and their future still remains uncertain. The peace process should encompass addressing these challenges and restoring the affected people's lives and livelihoods," Desalegn said. WIDESPREAD CALL TO RESTORE PEACE Following the much-anticipated peace pact by the warring parties, calls are mounting for the two sides to capitalize on the milestone accord to restore durable peace. The AU, which described the agreement as "an important step in efforts to silence the guns," said the agreement provides a solid foundation for the preservation of Ethiopia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who welcomed the agreement for the cessation of hostilities, said the move is a "fundamental step" towards a possible end to the conflict. Guterres called the agreement "a bold step" taken by both sides, and invited both Ethiopians and the international community as a whole to support the pact. Workneh Gebeyehu, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - an East African bloc, said the agreement is an opportunity for the people of Ethiopia to establish a long-lasting peace. He called on the parties to the agreement to implement its provisions. PHNOM PENH, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's foreign ministry on Friday released the schedules of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen for the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits, which will be convened here from Nov. 10 to 13. The top level events include the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits; the 25th ASEAN-China Summit; the 25th ASEAN-Japan Summit; the 23rd ASEAN-ROK Summit; the 25th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit, said a foreign ministry's press statement. Preceding the summits, ASEAN heads of state and government will meet Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni at the Royal Palace. On the margins of the summits, Hun Sen, together with other ASEAN leaders, will have a separate interface with the representatives of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly; ASEAN Youth and ASEAN Business Advisory Council, the statement said. "They will also attend the 2nd ASEAN Global Dialogue on post-COVID-19 recovery, which will be participated by the heads of some major international organizations," the statement said. "The leaders of some ASEAN dialogue partners are also expected to attend the dialogue." At the closing ceremony of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits, Hun Sen will hand over the gavel of the ASEAN chair to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the statement said. ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. According to the 2021 investor presentation, doctors were told the facility would be profitable in the first year of operation, based on assumptions that 782 total joint replacements and 1069 other orthopaedic procedures were completed in the first year, which increased to 1283 and 1758 procedures respectively in the third year. The institutes success and profitability is wholly dependent upon doctors performing procedures at the institute, the presentation said. The doctor shareholders would receive a return on investment of about 20 per cent, the presentation stated, if a terminal (constant) growth rate of 2.4 per cent was achieved. University of New South Wales professor and orthopaedic surgeon Ian Harris has written a book titled Hippocrasy exposing the rising influence of profit motives in Australian healthcare where incentives cause doctors to provide patients with unnecessary and at times harmful treatment. Harris said the KPIs did not need to be written in a contract to affect surgeon behaviour. What theyve done is theyve removed the explicit KPI. But surely, there is an implicit KPI, an unwritten KPI, which is the drive to maximise profit. Harris said the basic arrangement of doctors owning a hospital was a problem because it created an incentive to maximise surgeries. Most private hospitals make money on surgery, not general medicine, he said. If youre a surgeon who owns a hospital that you operate at, if you want to maximise return on investment, you want to put bums on seats or patients on trolleys. So, thats a conflict. Harris said not all surgical decisions are clear cut and whether consciously or subconsciously, if a doctor had a financial stake in a hospital, it could influence their decision-making to over-prescribe surgeries, which exposed patients to all the risks of going under the knife. When you have those grey zones and in the back of your mind youre trying to fill an empty room, thats a conflict. Al Muderis lawyers said the primary motive of the joint venture is to provide the best patient care, and denied conflicts were isolated to this doctor-owned hospital. Conflicts of interests are a question for the larger health sector as a whole, since all healthcare workers in private practice provide their services for a fee and so this really needs to be asked of every health practitioner in Australia for any sort of accurate insight. The lawyers said doctors having stakes in hospitals had become common in Australia, and the arrangement can drive efficiency and accountability. Doctors generally have a vested interest in the private set-up. This is inherent in our private health sector which supplements the public health sector. This venture is not unique, the lawyers said. Loading In a statement, a Medibank spokesperson said there were no volume-related clinical KPIs or any KPIs in place but did not answer questions about how potential conflicts of interest with doctors owning the surgery would be managed. Clinical decisions are based on the individual needs of each person, as assessed not only by their surgeon but the patients multidisciplinary clinical team. In addition, peak professional medical organisations provide frameworks and oversight of the clinical appropriateness of surgery, the spokesperson for Medibank said. We are confident that the strong clinical governance in place at Macquarie University Hospital will result in safe patient outcomes, ensure appropriate care is provided to patients and assist in identifying any possible conflicts of interest. A spokesperson for Macquarie University Hospital said it was a highly respected institution with a strong track record of providing world-class services with quality and safety in patient care its primary focus. MUH is not a party to agreements between surgeons and private health insurers and therefore cannot make any comment on the contents of any such agreement. However, MUH would not accept KPIs to maximise surgeries at the new short-stay centre. The investor documents also show the financial benefits of partnering with Macquarie University Hospital, including cost-saving benefits that eliminate many of the usual start-up costs for a new hospital which would make it virtually impossible for others to compete. The partnership is the third short-stay hospital Medibank has backed in recent years, alongside East Sydney Private and a new facility in Melbourne, creating fears among some surgeons that Australia is headed for an Americanisation of healthcare, driven by profits. Another surgeon, who could not be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said patients believed they were benefitting from the arrangement because they avoided gap charges but, in reality, the private health insurer saved on in-hospital aftercare by sending patients home to recover. Loading The surgeon agreed that medical professionals having stakes in hospitals could lead to more surgeries being recommended. Where is the incentive not to operate? said the surgeon. If Ive got a private hospital sitting there empty, Im not making a return on my money, what am I going to do? Operate on people. The whole system of surgeons owning hospitals is a worry to me and colleagues. The surgeon said his colleagues already could perform no-gap surgery but it had just become unattractive to some peers. Patients feel like theyre getting something. But the only reason the patients are out of pocket in the first place is because the surgeon is charging a gap. The surgeon can do no-gap surgery now. Al Muderis lawyers said he does not charge a surgical fee in excess of the AMA prescribed rates and insisted all involved parties of the venture are committed to integrity and professionalism in what they do. The lawyers said all patients would be informed of the surgeons stake in the hospital. Palo Alto, California: Twitter laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, but advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation. Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams. Elon Musk arrives at Baron Investment Conference at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on Friday. Credit: The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the companys future under new owner Elon Musk, the worlds richest person, who tweeted that the service was experiencing a massive drop in revenue from the advertiser retreat. He is seeking to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters. In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, said the email sent on Thursday. Perrottet telegraphed as much when he foreshadowed that the annex behind the Victorian Gothic building would be knocked down for a plaza honouring the late Queen Elizabeth II. Its just a matter of how the government justifies the funding of a multimillion-dollar state history museum on Macquarie Street when western Sydney has called for its location in Parramatta, equivalent funding of the female convict site, the Female Factory, and clamours for a fairer share of the cultural funding pie. This Way Canteen brings NY deli-style sandwiches to the Museum of Sydney forecourt. We are sitting in This Way Canteen, the newly opened New York-style deli on the ground floor of the Museum of Sydney, on the former site of the First Government House. Its a venture by Stephen Seckold, former executive chef of Pyrmonts Flying Fish. The foyer of the Museum of Sydney has been opened up to the diner and, on the far wall, a light installation is being tested for unveiling in early 2023. A summer program of festivities is planned for the forecourt. The installation signals, says Lindsay, that something is changing here. I do worry about why people think history is dusty dusty, old, boring. Its not. I do really want to change that. The museum of the future is going to be an amazing place. I see a deep focus on localism experiencing stories, objects in their place of provenance. Lindsay, pictured at Vaucluse House, wants museums to shake off their image as dusty or boring. Credit:Steven Siewert I think that museums will evolve, like libraries have in the last 10 or 15 years, and find ways to put more of their collections on show. I think the 3 to 5 per cent average will become unacceptable in future. I see a deep call for expertise not just research and curatorial but the entire inner workings of museums being put on show and making room for citizen science and perspective. Lindsay orders a soy piccolo, his third of the day, and a caesar salad. The house-made garlic falafel focaccia sandwich arrives with layers of artichoke, baba ganoush, and a garlic chilli sauce. The evergreen 40-year-old grew up in the Wollongong home of grandparents, surrounded by five aunts and uncles who spoke their own version of Pidgin English, an eccentricity he picked up. To demonstrate, he repeats my lunch order back to me, and it sounds fluent yet impenetrable. His grandfather was a butcher, a trade known for its own secret language. This Way Canteens chicken caesar salad and garlic falafel sandwich. Credit:Nikki Short I grew up without television, and so I read voraciously, and I read anything, he says. I was the eldest grandchild, so I got a lot of adult attention. I wasnt great at interacting with kids. I would go to preschool in all-white and I would return in all-white after having spent the day in the room with the teachers. Every afternoon after homework was complete he would present a mini-research project to his grandparents on their preferred topic. Ive still got a book of knowledge that my grandfather gave me when I was eight. He said, If you learn whats in there, you can be prime minister. So I set about studying to read it, and Im still not prime minister. Smart, sharp and ambitious, Lindsay is a minimalist in all things but books; he keeps thousands of them in his apartment, garage and in storage. His other love is the visual arts. Only days after his HSC, he acted in a stage adaption of Morris Gleitzmans Two Weeks with the Queen that toured Britain. From American Express, Lindsay went to the federal department, overseeing the delivery of digital television to remote Indigenous communities, to Woolworths head office, to assistant director at the Queensland Gallery of Art. Adam Lindays fast ascension through the ranks raised eyebrows, Credit:Nikki Short Three years later, he joined the State Archives and Records Authority (SARA) in Sydney, became its director within 15 months of arrival, and went on to lead Sydney Living Museums a year later. His fast ascension through the ranks raised eyebrows, but Lindsay says he won his job fair and square and no one has worked harder to find ways to reach new visitors. It wasnt a ministerial appointment, he says. There is, however, tension in Lindsays methods to bring history to life in this age of distraction, loneliness and disconnection. Gerwyn Davies work Iridescent raised some eyebrows. In making the stately homes of Australias colonial past relevant to a broader audience, Lindsay has looked to contemporary art installations. This year, acclaimed photo media artist Daniel Crooks projected scenes from its museums onto a giant screen in front of the Hyde Park Barracks. But artist Gerwyn Davies yellow creature sitting among the elegant furnishings of Elizabeth Bay House, part of an exhibition called Iridescent, was deemed a bridge too far by some. Lindsay is unapologetic: Its our job to get people in here and immerse them in history. If people want to think thats cheap, I can assure them it is not, its a way of signalling to all people that their view on history is just as valid as everyone elses. Lindsay has also varied the opening times of Sydney Living Museums 12 properties following an operations review. For the first time in a decade, the Museum of Sydney is open seven days a week, but Rouse Hill Estate now opens to the public one Sunday a month for general visitors, with weekdays devoted to school visits. Even more controversial is the decision to turn the Museum of Sydney, site of the first Government House, into an Aboriginal cultural centre, rather than support a national Indigenous cultural centre based at The Cutaway in Barangaroo. Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Nathan Moran has dismissed this enterprise as colonialism 101. Bill, please. The fact that this is ground zero for the meeting of two cultures, thats what makes this site special, Lindsay says. Every decision about the colony, not just the people who were transported here, but every decision about Aboriginal people, was made here for 57 years. Its not about taking away but adding Aboriginal perspectives. Lindsay points to the 11 models of the First Fleet in the Museum of Sydney. The intention is not to remove them that would be colonial erasure, he says. When visitors walk in and see the ships, some are disgusted by the colonial impact, others are proud to have a colonial ancestor, some have no idea what they are about and read to learn more, others like the complexity of the models and disregard the symbolism. There is room for all of these perspectives, in addition to the curatorial and historical research. And we welcome it all. Not only has Lindsays team at Sydney Living Museums developed options for a new museum of history which he does not reveal on the basis of cabinet confidence but an interactive museum at the Parramatta Female Factory, a neglected site deemed worthy of World Heritage listing. What we are going to take to government is a museum experience in four parts, Lindsay says. Loading An immersive experience that looks at the real history and stories and lived experiences through all eras, pre-colonial, female factory, mental asylum, and then more traditional health. The earliest Lithium drug trials in the world started there; such heartbreaking stories. The second part is a landscape of stories, and that allows people to go deep into certain elements of history, be it a glimpse into the deprivations of solitary confinement, or one idea is a space where people can bring memorabilia. The third part is a learning centre aligned with the school curriculum. Former Kiribati president Anote Tong said he was disappointed in Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses decision not to attend global climate talks starting in Egypt on Sunday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Suva, Fiji, at the Pacific Islands Forum in July. Credit:Joe Armao I think it suggests that Australia may not be in a position to make significant commitments at the talks, said Tong, who is a member of a group of former Pacific island nation leaders called Pacific Elders Voice. He said that as Australia has declared it is interested in co-hosting the United Nations COP talks with its Pacific island nations in the coming years, it would have been appropriate to attend. Albanese will be travelling to meetings of ASEAN, APEC and the G20 in Cambodia, Thailand and Bali, which conflict with the second week of the COP. Australias delegation to the talks will be led by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, and include Pacific Minister Pat Conroy and Senator Jenny McAllister. A senior figure at a Brisbane theatre company is accused of using his position to sexually assault boys as young as 12 over a 20-year period beginning in 2001. The 41-year-old from Bridgeman Downs in the citys north was charged with 69 offences, including rape, against eight boys and men who were either students or employees at the unnamed company. Operation Uniform Cartograph was set up to investigate the allegations against the two men. Another man from Bridgeman Downs, who worked with the company, was also charged with six offences relating to one of the alleged victims. Detectives alleged the offences happened at locations in Ferny Hills, New Farm, Carindale, Gaythorne and Stafford against males aged from 12 to 29. When police arrived, Senior Constable Warren Treloar drew his baton and approached the two men. He was shot twice by Butterly. Treloars partner, Senior Constable Jan Schoenpflug, drew his gun and exchanged shots with Butterly until he was forced to back off when the gunman threatened to kill the injured policeman. The escapees hijacked the police van and drove to a Seaford warehouse, where they swapped cars. Gibb had a damaged left arm while Butterly had suffered serious internal injuries. The escape and the hunt would normally have been assigned to the Major Crime Squad except that the Majors had been disbanded after a series of scandals. Instead, a ragtag group was brought together. The first two men picked were Graeme Spook Arthur and Cameron Duncan, who had previously arrested Butterly over an aggravated burglary. They were backed by a small team including Gary Silk from the prison squad. (In 1998, Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller were murdered in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin.) For Duncan, the stakes were high. Butterly had been caught on jail phones threatening to kill him and his family. Duncans children were relocated after the escape. In my career, he was the most dangerous crook I had to deal with. He was an absolute nutcase, Duncan recalls. Wounded policeman Warren Treloar receives emergency treatment after being shot in the chest and shoulder. Butterly accidentally (he claimed) shot and killed a man during a Melbourne armed robbery and was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter. During the armed robbery of a Perth department store, Butterly shot and wounded a security guard. He was arrested in Sydney a week later. As a crook, he was a failure, spending more than 35 years in jail or on the run. He had arrived in Australia from Scotland as a 10-year-old, was in trouble with the law four years later and in an adult prison by the age of 18. Gibb was facing armed robbery charges when he escaped. It was a dimwitted plan because when he was back behind bars, he was acquitted of the stick-up, meaning he could have walked out the front door rather than slithering out a window. Prison officer Heather Parker was missing and believed to be with the escapees. First police had to establish whether she was a hostage. When the team checked her home, they found love letters from Gibb that showed she had assisted in the escape. In an incredibly selfless act, the injured Treloar spoke to Parkers two children, assuring them their mother was not a bad person but had done a bad thing. The two injured escapees sought treatment at the Gippsland Latrobe Valley Hospital, then travelled to Woods Point, taking a room at the 125-year-old Gaffneys Creek Hotel. Gibb and Parker dined at the bistro before taking a meal to the wounded and bleeding Butterly. He had lost so much blood that they set fire to the hotel to try to hide the evidence. Publican Bill Gribble at the ruins of the Gaffneys Creek Hotel. Credit:Neil Newitt When members of the public found the getaway car partially hidden with bracken at Picnic Point on the Goulburn River six days after the escape, Arthur, Duncan and Silk armed with shotguns joined the search in thick bush. Police had planned to sit off the car and grab the crooks when they returned but when media helicopters flew overhead, the escapees knew they were being hunted. Butterly, incapacitated from his injuries and armed with a Colt automatic rifle (the shortened version of the M16), bags of ammunition, a pump-action shotgun and a .38 Smith and Wesson stolen from Treloar, decided to shoot it out. When the police reached a range of about 20 metres, Butterly opened up, with the barrage of bullets travelling at 2.7 kilometres a second. Duncan, Arthur and Silk took cover behind trees. There must have been more than 100 shots fired, Duncan says. He didnt need to guess how close the shots were because he was hit by leaves dislodged from bullets flying just above his head. Peter Gibb being loaded into the police helicopter. Graeme Arthur is carrying the envelopes. Credit:Jason Childs Meanwhile, the Special Operations Group returned fire, shooting 55 rounds in the direction of the foxhole. SOG operative Damien Hehir, despite being shot in the back of the right leg by Butterly, remained in position. His partner, David Empey, dived into the river and reloaded underwater before continuing to exchange fire with Butterly. While Butterly was either unable or unwilling to move, Gibb and Parker tried to slip away along the river. Although there was still gunfire, Duncan and Arthur broke cover and, pointing their shotguns at the couple, told them not to move. Mysterious death: Archie Butterly. Duncan says Parker jumped into Gibbs arms in an apparent effort to shield him from being shot. Arthur grabbed Gibb and Duncan grabbed Parker and dived to the ground as the shooting by the SOG continued. She was actually laughing, says Duncan. Then it was quiet. Police dog Shamus was sent in and returned with blood on his snout. Butterly was dead with a bullet wound behind his right ear. The shot had been fired from the stolen police revolver. One theory was that he agreed to provide cover while the others escaped and then when they were gone, shot himself. (He had shot himself once before. Years earlier, Butterly was chased up a tree by a police dog, fell out and accidentally shot himself in the head.) Gibb and Parker were wary of the erratic Butterly. Certainly, Gibb felt that when Butterly shot Treloar after the escape, he had signed both their death warrants. According to police, Gibb said in his record of interview he believed it was an unwritten rule that if an officer gets shot, thats it. Why then would Butterly, who hated police, end the gunfight by taking his own life when he had plenty of firepower? And why shoot yourself behind the right ear? (He didnt die instantly, surviving the shot for at least 30 minutes.) As coroner Graeme Johnstone found: There are a number of factors that create a difficulty in finally concluding the circumstances surrounding the shooting ... Even though Butterly was erratic and injured, it is difficult to reconcile the fact that in a shootout with police, he did not continue to fire until his supply of .223 ammunition was exhausted. When it is realised not only did he have a number of full magazines in the kitbag, but also the rifle was found with one round in the chamber and six in the magazine, it becomes even more puzzling. The other theory is that his mates did it because he wouldnt let them try to escape. Heather Parker leaving the Melbourne Magistrates Court after being granted bail in August 1993. Credit:Channel Nine Later gunshot residue tests found .38 traces on one of Parkers hands, but there was insufficient evidence to establish what had happened. Then director of public prosecutions Bernard Bongiorno found there is ample evidence that one or other of them killed Butterly, but it was impossible to say which one or to disprove the possibility that Butterly had asked to be shot. Loading Arthur and Duncan had been under fire for at least 15 minutes and had to think they could have been shot when they broke cover to make the arrests. But for some reason, their bravery has not been acknowledged. Recently, a retired detective took it up with Chief Commissioner Shane Patton, asking for a review. The federal government has accused the opposition of rank hypocrisy for opposing the repatriation of Australian relatives of Islamic State fighters from refugee camps in Syria as debate over the issue grows increasingly personal and partisan. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visited Fairfield, in western Sydney, on Thursday to meet with community leaders concerned about the repatriations and demand more details from the government about how the women and children would be integrated into society. Sydney man Kamalle Dabboussy with his granddaughters and daughter Mariam, who were repatriated from a refugee camp in Syria last week. Credit:Courtesy of Kamalle Dabboussy Many of the 43 women and children still in the Syrian camps are expected to settle in western Sydney, while a particularly challenging cohort will be resettled in Melbourne after this months Victorian state election. In her strongest comments since four women and 13 children were brought to Australia from the al-Roj camp in northern Syria last week, Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil said: I think the politicking that is going on from the opposition leader is disgraceful. Siniyah Island, UAE: An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The monastery on Siniyah Island, part of the sand-dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf. It marks the second such monastery found in the Emirates, dating back as many as 1400 years long before its desert expanses gave birth to a thriving oil industry that led to a unified nation home to the high-rise towers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Sheikh Majid bin Saud al-Mualla, front right, and other officials at the ancient Christian monastery on Siniyah Island, United Arab Emirates. Credit:AP The two monasteries became lost to history in the sands of time as scholars believe Christians slowly converted to Islam as that faith grew more prevalent in the region. Today, Christians remain a minority across the wider Middle East, though Pope Francis is in nearby Bahrain this weekend to promote interfaith dialogue with Muslim leaders. The four-day visit, only the second by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula, is aimed at improving ties with the Islamic world. SUVA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- There is a critical need to increase stockpiles of homes in the Pacific island nation of Fiji, a Fijian minister said on Friday. While inaugurating 12 houses at the Koroipita Model Town in Lautoka, Fiji's second-largest city, Attorney General and Housing Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said housing has been neglected in Fiji for decades and every Fijian has a right to live with dignity, according to reports by the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. He said the Fijian government had introduced some initiatives to encourage people to own affordable homes. This includes a housing grant of 30,000 Fijian dollars (13,000 U.S. dollars) for those earning up to 50,000 Fijian dollars (21,000 U.S. dollars). This was not paid back by Fijians, he said, adding that they work with various other organizations to ensure that people have access to housing. The Koroipita Model Community offers more than safe housing and high-quality services in a fully developed 50-acre subdivision, according to the developer. The Koroipita Trust has engineered and serviced subdivisions and cyclone-safe houses, and provides guidance and support for the advancement of poor families. The Model Towns prescription offers important solutions for managing rural/urban drift and for the resettlement of climate change and other refugees. They are cost-effective, safe housing for family advancement in a clean and green environment. Latest News Joust teams up with Nectar Mortgages The alliance aims to provide borrowers a smooth home loan application process Fifo Capital boosts corporate team Three new roles created as company expands Finance company Invoice Finance Group (IFG) has welcomed a new strategic investor to boost funding and expand its offering to SME clients. The introduction of WeDo Business Services Group will allow IFG to add funding capabilities and new business finance products for its small to medium business customers. IFG is a Brisbane-based boutique finance company specialising exclusively in invoice financing solutions for its business customers cashflow requirements. WeDo Business Services was founded in the UK in 2019 and provides a range of services to SMEs including invoice and trade finance, start-up funding, HR, back office and payroll support. Read next: SMEs worried about tougher lending criteria IFG director Paul Tonges (pictured above) said he identified a key commonality among both businesses. As the founder of IFG, I am very excited about the next chapter of our growth strategy. Were delighted to share a common alignment in our vision and values with our new investors by continuing to exceed our customers expectations, Tonges said. This strategic investment will allow IFG to better service our existing clients and attract new customers by allowing us to offer a broader range of finance products and a larger deal size. With so many Australian small businesses desperate to fund growth, IFG will be able to assist many more SMEs. Tonges said from his experiences over the last five years, IFGs commercial finance brokers and introducers enjoyed the speed and simplicity of its invoice finance offering and the fact it was up-front about its risk appetite. Brokers dont want to waste weeks on a deal only to find out from a finance companys risk manager that they won't approve it, he said. Generally, within two to three days we can facilitate a funding solution from first meeting to settlement for our introducers and their customers. Invoice finance itself is a fantastic solution that gives the business owner better cashflow control and ability to grow their business. Read next: Better Choice Home Loans expands SME offering WeDo is seeking to establish a presence in the Australian market. Directors Mark Lindsay and Chris Robinson engaged former ScotPac senior executive Wayne Smith to assist them with the next phase of growth. Lindsay said Smith was able to bring both parties together to explore the opportunity, which helped structure a deal that was beneficial for both parties. WeDo was built on a simple model of delivering invoice finance in a transparent and value-added way. We work with clients to ensure they get more than they expect and it was refreshing to see that IFG share a similar approach which is very client centric, Lindsay said. We envisage it will be business as usual for the foreseeable future, though we are excited about additional growth opportunities. Latest News Joust teams up with Nectar Mortgages The alliance aims to provide borrowers a smooth home loan application process Fifo Capital boosts corporate team Three new roles created as company expands Rental vacancy rates have fallen to a new record low in October, and it is expected to only get worse as the new academic year begins in a few months. Domains latest rental vacancy rate report showed the national vacancy rate nearly halved in October compared with the previous year, down from 1.5% in October 2021 to 0.8% last month. In Sydney, it dropped to a record 1%, while Melbourne fell to a record 1.1%. Around 3% vacancy is considered balanced. There is a rental crisis across the country, and its going to get more serious, Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell told The Sydney Morning Herald. Powell said renters applying for properties face tough conditions, and this could worsen as the 2023 school year begins and as more international migrants and students flock to the country. More housing was needed to cater for overseas migrants, she said, as was more social and affordable housing for those most in need. If you are on a low income in Australia, you would find it extremely difficult to find an affordable rental right now, Powell said. In Sydney, vacancy rate fell for the fourth consecutive month and the number of rentals plunged by 53%, due partly to investors selling to owner-occupiers. Vacancy rates are now well below the 3.8% peak posted in 2020, when international borders were closed to curb the spread of COVID-19. The low rates have driven up rent costs in Sydney by 4.8%, or $30 per week, to a $650 median in the September quarter, Domain data showed. The case was similar in Melbourne, where house rents surged by 2.2% over the quarter to a weekly median of $470. Melbournes 1.1% vacancy rate equalled a low first set in 2018 and was well below the highs of 5.2% in 2020. Brisbanes vacancy rate was still tight, but was slightly up to 0.7%, while Perths rate slipped to a record 0.3% and Adelaide posted the tightest rental market among the capital cities with 0.2%, SMH reported. Hayden Groves, Real Estate Institute of Australia president, said according to property managers, some prospective tenants were penning up to 50 applications for a home. The difficulty in finding a rental after so many applications also saw some people giving up. It is a very challenging time for tenants and the industry acknowledges that, Groves told the publication. He added that it was those tenants who were paying rent on time and looking after their rentals well who are valued by landlords and would be in a good position to negotiate a smaller rise in rents. Leo Patterson Ross, Tenants Union of NSW chief executive, said renters were making up to 100 applications for a home unsuccessfully and in some cases, after receiving a no-grounds eviction with a set end date. It pushes people into quite unsafe environments, Ross said. They have to compromise on location but also on the quality and the size, and that can mean people are placing themselves in harms way in order to keep a roof over their head because there just arent the options available to them. This is really a very risky way to run an essential service. In this competitive system, some tenants who can afford to pay their rent are being turned away because another applicant is deemed more attractive. Existing tenants may be less likely to ask for repairs, Ross said, to avoid the risk of getting a no-grounds eviction and facing the Hunger Games of finding a new home, SMH reported. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes a speech in the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea during the Russo-Ukrainian War (Photo: President.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Group of 20 major economies summit in Indonesia, he will not attend. "My personal position and the position of Ukraine was that if the leader of the Russian Federation takes part, then Ukraine will not take part. We'll see what it will be like in the future," he said. Zelenskyy informed the media following his meetings with the Greek president in Kyiv that Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, had extended an invitation for him to attend the summit on November 15-16. The G20 Summit preparations as well as the Black Sea grain deal were topics of conversation, according to earlier statements made by the president of Ukraine on Thursday. Putin is still welcome at the world conference, envoy Jose Tavares told Russian official agency TASS, despite Moscow's ongoing conflict in Ukraine and increasing pressure from the international community. The ambassador emphasized that Widodo's invitations to all G20 leaders will not be withdrawn, "even if other countries start putting pressure," and that the country hopes for Putin's presence at the summit. Despite Putin's savage attack on Ukraine, Widodo has endeavored to retain a neutral attitude in line with Indonesia's longstanding nonalignment policy. In late June, the Indonesian president became the first Asian leader to visit Kyiv and Moscow since the invasion began. According to Tavares the summit is an "opportunity for big economies to come together and solve the common problems we face now." Along with Putin, the presence of Xi Jinping, the president of China, in Bali will be highly scrutinized. They will meet in person for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine at the summit, which will take place November 15-16, along with U.S. President Joe Biden and EU leaders. Biden said in March that he believed Russia needs to be kicked out of the G20. In order to prevent a meeting between the two presidents in Indonesia, the White House is currently taking precautions. The Kremlin has yet to clarify whether Putin would attend the meeting in person, which has been a source of speculation in recent months. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. In its ninth month, the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions, and destroyed towns and cities. Moscow's operations are described by its government as a "special military operation." AdaniConneX, a joint venture between Enterprises and EdgeConneX, has announced the opening of 1 hyperscale campus located at Sipcot IT Park in Chennai, India. In Phase-1, the campus offers 17 megawatt (IT Load) that will scale up to 33 Mw at full capacity. The 1 campus hosts Tamil Nadus first pre-certified IGBC Platinum Rated . The facility will also be powered with up to 100 per cent renewable energy, offering enterprises and hyperscale customers sustainable energy choices. As one of the most advanced colocation campuses in the region, 1 is designed to offer robust physical protection to IT Infrastructure with seven layers of security system and commitment to provide 99.999 per cent availability, the company said in a statement. India is one of the fastest growing data center markets in the world. Indias current data center capacity is around 600 MW and expected to grow to around 1300 MW by 20241. To address the growing need for reliable IT infrastructure, AdaniConneX is investing capital into the joint venture over the next decade with a mission to build over 1 GW green data center platform. AdaniConneX is also building hyperscale campuses in all the big cities of India, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vizag, and many more. AdaniConneX is also developing distributed Edge Data Centers and Far Edge facilities in Tier 2 and 3 markets, relying heavily on renewable energy sources to help bring cloud, content, and data closer to customers. We see tremendous growth in data generation and consumption in India, driving the need for a reliable, automated, and sustainable Digital Infrastructure. With our Pan-India Data Center platform, our mission is to enable Indias next phase of digital growth with core emphasis on sustainability and energy management, said Jeyakumar Janakaraj, CEO of AdaniConneX. After three years of Covid-induced break, will resume daily from India to Guangzhou and Chengdu in and Yangon in from March 27 next year, Business Standard has learnt. IndiGo's decision to restart these has come at a time when Air India, under the Tata Group, is leasing 30 planes to boost its domestic and international operations significantly. Amid China's stringent Covid-19 policies and its border dispute with India, there are currently no operating between the two countries. Meanwhile, 12 flights currently operate every week on the India- routes. Ten of these are operated by Airways and two by . IndiGo, which is India's largest carrier, currently operates 1,092 international flights per week between India and 22 foreign cities, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. used to operate daily flights on the Delhi-Chengdu, Kolkata-Guangzhou and Kolkata-Yangon routes till early 2020. The airline had stopped operating them on March 23, 2020, when the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had suspended all scheduled international flights due to the Covid-19 outbreak. India resumed scheduled international flights on March 27 this year. executives, who did not wish to be named, said the flights on the Delhi-Chengdu, Kolkata-Guangzhou and Kolkata-Yangon routes will resume from March next year as demand for these services has finally returned. The airline has already started selling tickets for these flights on its website and on online travel portals like MakeMyTrip, as observed by this newspaper on Friday morning. However, IndiGo spokesperson responded to Business Standard's questions on Friday afternoon stating that the airline is "hopeful" of restarting flights to and Myanmar "as soon as we can". "We continue to monitor ongoing demand conditions and ongoing restrictions for air travel and will take a decision on the date of operations on a rolling basis, the spokesperson added. Flights on the Delhi-Chengdu, Kolkata-Guangzhou and Kolkata-Yangon routes take approximately 285 minutes, 225 minutes and 115 minutes, respectively. Therefore, IndiGo is planning to deploy A320neo planes on these routes as before, the airlines executives said. IndiGo currently commands around 60 per cent share of the domestic passenger market. With the revamped Jet Airways planning to restart operations and new entrant Akasa Air adding one new aircraft every two weeks, competition on domestic routes is only going to increase. So, IndiGo believes that its next phase of growth is primarily going to come from international expansion. Bakery foods company Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 28.47 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 490.58 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2022, helped by volume growth. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 381.84 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, Industries said in a BSE filing. Its total revenue from operations climbed 21.40 per cent to Rs 4,379.61 crore from Rs 3,607.37 crore in Q2 FY22. The company has recorded its "highest quarterly revenue", Industries said. Total expenses were at Rs 3,773.71 crore in the second quarter of FY23, up 20.25 per cent from Rs 3,138.15 crore in the year-ago period. Britannia Managing Director Varun Berry said, "We have witnessed positive growth momentum over the last few months. Our Go-to-market strategy and increase in distribution reach have converged to deliver a robust topline growth of 22 per cent YoY and 19 per cent QoQ, aided by a mid-single digit volume growth, as we record our highest quarterly revenue." Shares of Ltd on Friday settled at Rs 3,801.30 on BSE, 1.46 per cent higher than its previous close. (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.) Drug major on Friday said its consolidated net profit increased 12 per cent to Rs 797 crore for the second quarter ended September 30. The Mumbai-based drug maker had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 709 crore in the July-September period of the previous fiscal. Its total revenue from operations rose to Rs 5,829 crore for the September quarter from Rs 5,520 crore in the year-ago period, said in a regulatory filing. In respect of the transfer of India-based US business undertaking, the board decided not to proceed with the proposed transfer, considering various factors, including the current operating environment, it added. Shares of the company were trading 0.5 per cent up at Rs 1,154.10 apiece on the BSE. (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.) (Vi) has not heard from the department of telecom (DoT) since April on the Centres pending conversion of dues worth Rs 16,130 crore into equity, Vi chief executive officer (CEO) Akhaya Moondra has said. State-run Gas Authority of India (GAIL) on Friday reported a 46 per cent drop in net profit during the second quarter (July-September), as higher global and disruption in supply from Russian giant Gazprom hurt business. Net profit stood at Rs 1,537.07 crore in the July-September quarter compared to Rs 2,862.95 crore in the same period a year back. The profit was sequentially down 47.2 per cent from the Rs 2,915.19 crore figure in the April-June quarter. While was down 59.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, margins slipped to 4.6 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal from 11.6 per cent in the previous April-June quarter. Revenue from operation was up 79 per cent to Rs 38,390.89 crore. Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore (GMTS), now a subsidiary of Gazprom Germania, stopped delivering LNG to under a long-term contract in late May, Director (Finance) R K Jain said after the were announced. Back in 2012, Gazproms former subsidiary, Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore (GMTS), had signed a 20-year contract to supply with 2.85 million tonnes of LNG a year. Supplies under the deal had started in 2018 and the full volume was expected to be reached in 2023. But earlier this year, GMTS got housed under Gazprom Germania GMBH, after which Gazprom gave up its ownership of the company in April without any explanation, and imposed sanctions. As the diplomatic fallout of the Ukraine war escalated, Germany seized control of Gazprom Germania in April. So far, GMTS has defaulted on the supply of 17 cargoes or shiploads, including 13 in the second quarter (July-September), he said. To mitigate disruption in the supply of 8.5-9 million standard cubic meters per day or roughly 20 per cent of all gas supply, GAIL had to cut supplies to fertiliser plants as well as some industrial consumers, he added. It also reduced the gas supply of its Pata petrochemical plant in Uttar Pradesh by as much as 3 mmscmd, leading to the plant operating at just 40 per cent of the capacity, he noted. This reduced capacity and lower petrochemical prices hurt earnings from the business. It posted a pre-tax loss of Rs 346.22 crore in the petrochemical business in Q2, compared to a Rs 363.29 crore loss a year back and Rs 35.16 crore loss in April-June 2022. GAIL made up some of the volumes lost by buying LNG from the spot market, where prices are higher than the long-term deal which hurt marketing margins, Jain stressed. Tough times In an emergency bid to secure stable Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply, GAIL has sought to expedite talks on short- and long-term supply agreements with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The pact explores collaboration opportunities in LNG supply, decarbonisation, and future sales. Up to 55 per cent of Indias local gas demand is met through imports. On the other hand, while gas meets only 6.2 per cent of Indias needs, the Centre has been planning to raise this figure substantially, in order to reduce the dependence on petroleum. GAIL's mainstay natural gas marketing business saw revenues double but profitability declined 66 per cent. Higher gas prices, resulting from a global surge in rates following Russia's invasion of Ukraine hurt margins, the company said. GAIL said it transported 107.71 million standard cubic metres per day of natural gas in Q2 (July-September), down from 109.47 mmscmd in the previous quarter. Gas marketing volumes also dropped almost 8 per cent to 92.54 mmscmd. Top 4 Catholic Voting Priorities: Principles Over Candidate Positions says American Life League NEWS PROVIDED BY American Life League Nov. 4, 2022 FREDERICKSBURG, Va., Nov. 4, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- For faithful Catholics, elections are not just a matter of civic duty, but one of spiritual obligation, according to the American Life League. Uniquely, the American Life League Catholic Voter Guidance does not instruct voters about who to support or even list candidate positions on hot-button issues. Rather, the downloadable Catholic Voter Guidance from American Life League urges Catholic citizens to cast their ballots in compliance with the doctrine and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. "This is not political -- it's spiritual," declared Hugh Brown, Vice President of the American Life League. "When it comes to voting, there are four non-negotiables: abortion, euthanasia, human embryonic stem cell research, and human cloning. These topics are so fundamental that no Catholic can advocate for or promote them and hope to remain faithful to the Church and to God." Underscoring the doctrinal legitimacy of this approach, the American Life League Catholic Voter Guidance liberally quotes and references church teachings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Evangelium Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, and Pontifical Academy for Life, among others. Brown urges voters to take time to review a candidate's position, make an informed choice, and discern matters of conscience. "Voting is a privilege," Brown added. "It is more than partisan activity." "We live in a time of avoidance, fear, and malfeasance on the part of many in leadership positions within the Catholic Church," observed American Life League President Judie Brown. "A Catholic can never support evil, including abortion, euthanasia, human embryonic stem cell research, and human cloning are evil. American Life League stands firm that any Catholic politician who supports these acts has sold his soul in exchange for a seat at the table. Regardless of the political party, he or she clearly values the respect of humans before Christ." The American Life League Catholic Voter Guidance cautions disenfranchised voters from taking the approach of choosing "the lesser of two evils." "It is never okay for a Catholic to vote for evil," Hugh Brown emphasized. "If a candidate violates one of the four non-negotiables, it is better to vote for a third party or independent candidate who affirms life issues, or to abstain from casting a vote for that office." View the American Life League Catholic Voter Guidance here and find a downloadable link to a print version here. About American Life League American Life League has been part of the pro-life abortion debate since its inception. Since 1979, American Life League has committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death with a pro-life integrity that stands up for every innocent human being whose life is threatened by the culture of death. For more information visit all.org. SOURCE American Life League CONTACT: Thomas Ciesielka, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net (Hisar) Limited (JSHL) on Friday said its profit after tax fell 49 per cent year-on-year to Rs 253 crore in the second quarter ended September 30. The company had clocked Rs 498.58 crore profit after tax (PAT) during the same period of 2021-22, JSHL said in a statement. Its total income rose to Rs 3,957 crore from Rs 3,772 crore in the year-ago quarter. "During Q2, raw material prices saw a downward trend, with nickel prices falling by 24 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) and those of ferrochrome by 18 per cent q-o-q. This impacted the realisation and profitability of domestic manufacturers, including JSHL," the statement said. JSHL Managing Director Abhyuday Jindal said the Indian industry has suffered a setback due to the export duty levied by the government in May. This duty comes at a time when the domestic market is being dumped with substandard imports from China and Indonesia. The industry has made several presentations to the government and is hopeful of remedial actions to support the struggling domestic players, he said. On May 21, the government hiked the duty on exports of iron ore by up to 50 per cent and for a few steel intermediaries to 15 per cent. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is looking to make deeper inroads into India. The company is in talks to buy a 49 per cent stake in Naturals Salon & Spa, adding the salon business to its portfolio. With this, as reported in the Economic Times (ET), the company will directly compete with Hindustan Unilever's Lakme and other like Geetanjali. An executive aware of the matter told ET that the company is in the final stages of acquiring about 49 per cent stake in Groom India Salons & Spa, the parent company of Naturals salon. During the Covid-19 pandemic, in which the spa business was among the worst hit, the CEO of Grooms India Salon & Spa asked the government for financial aid via social media. "Salon segment has a lot of potential and Reliance is entering the segment at a right time. Most salons run on a franchise model and this space could see more such strategic acquisitions by bigger organised companies, apart from attracting financial investors," Gaurav Marya, chairman, of Franchise India told ET. "The talks are at a nascent stage. Covid impacted every business and salon was probably the worst impacted. But in the last seven months, business has been robust and Covid is not the reason why we are diluting stake," said CK Kumaravel, CEO, of Naturals Salon & Spa, as quoted by ET. The company will aim to grow four to five times in the next few years. It has around 700 outlets in India. In line with many salon that have started their own beauty products business, will also reportedly start its standalone beauty business. Reliance Strategic Investments (RSIL) on Friday appointed as non-executive Chairman. RSIL will be renamed as Jio (JFSL) & will be listed soon. will continue as Independent Director & non-executive Chairman of JFSL. The company said in a stock exchange filing, " satisfies the criteria of independence prescribed under the Act, 2013 and (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. In accordance with the circular dated June 20, 2018, issued by the Stock Exchanges, we hereby confirm that K V Kamath, is not debarred from holding the office of Director by virtue of any order passed by or any other such authority. Kamath is an banker who started his career in 1971 at ICICI. In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent several years in South East Asia before returning to the ICICI as its Managing Director and CEO in 1996 and post its merger into ICICI Bank, was Managing Director and CEO of . Kamath served as Chairman of . In 2015 he was appointed as the first President of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS countries from where he retired in 2020. He is currently the Chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID). Kamath was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of Indias highest civilian honours in 2008. He is a mechanical engineer and completed his post-graduation in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. BENGALURU (Reuters) - Reliance Retail, a unit of Indian oil-to-chemicals conglomerate Reliance Industries, plans to enter the salon business and is in final stages to buy a roughly 49% stake in Naturals Salon & Spa, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Friday. However, Naturals' Chief Executive CK Kumaravel said "the talks are at a nascent stage," according to the report, which cited executives aware of the development. The existing promoters of Groom India Salons & Spa, which runs over 700 Naturals salons across the country, could continue running its operations and Reliance's funding would help extend its network, the ET report said. No potential deal value was mentioned. Naturals and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Chennai-based Naturals, founded in the early 2000s, aims to run 3,000 salons by 2025, according to its website. Reliance's deal for Naturals would come just weeks after it launched its first in-house premium fashion and lifestyle store, while media reports have said Reliance is advanced talks for the India rights to LVMH-owned beauty chain Sephora. Salons were among the hardest hit businesses at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturals' CEO Kumaravel even sought the government's help in May 2020, to keep the chain afloat. However, the salon business is bouncing back as people are venturing out to social events and offices more. (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza) (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 sold worth Rs 14,400 crore between September-October and recorded 99 per cent growth in the premium category smartphones in the first three quarters of 2022, a senior company official said on Friday. India senior director and head of product marketing Aditya Babbar told PTI that the company recorded a 178 per cent jump in sales in value terms of 5G smartphones between January-September 2022 on a year-over-year basis. " had a record festive season this year. This was an outstanding performance on account of great revenue which we posted of Rs 14,400 crore in a 60-day period starting September 1," he said. Without disclosing the exact percentage, Babbar said that the growth was in the healthy double-digit compared to sales during the festive period last year. He said that Samsung Finance Plus was one of the key contributors to the growth and the transaction on the platform tripled to over 10 lakh during the festive season. "The growth has been much better in tier 2 and 3 towns but it has done phenomenally well in urban centres as well," Babbar said. The company recorded 99 per cent growth in value terms in the premium segment smartphones priced above Rs 30,000 apiece in January-September 2022 compared to the same period last year. "Samsung is the fastest growing premium segment brand in India on the back of S22 and Foldables phones. Our growth has been 99 per cent in Rs 30,000 plus category versus January-September last year," Babbar said. According to Counterpoint Research's latest report, Samsung was the second largest smartphone seller in India with an 18 per cent market share in terms of volume in the July-September quarter and remained the top-selling smartphone in the country. The company claims that its overall mobile phone business grew by 20 per cent and has a 22 per cent revenue market share in the first nine months of 2022. "We have also been the number 1 brand in terms of value since 2013. Consumers are adopting more 5G and premium phones. We are at the forefront of the democratisation of 5G with a Rs 10,900 device. We have 20 devices which are enabled with 5G. We are number 1 in the 5G brand for the last four quarters," Babbar said. He also said that the company will be rolling out software updates across all 5G devices by November 15 and most of the devices have already started supporting 5G services. (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.) Nepal's Supreme Court on Thursday issued an interim order and asked the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of India's power giant GMR that is developing the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The Cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. A single bench of Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order against the Cabinet's July 15 decision, according to the apex court sources. The supreme court questioned why the Cabinet made the decision on the extension of the project when it was earlier decided by the Investment Board of . The Investment Board of and GMR signed the project development agreement seven years ago with two years term. Later, the Cabinet decided to extend the term by another ten years up to 2023 as the project could not move forward as agreed upon in the contract. Likewise, the board again had given one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Advocate Ratan Bhandari, working in Nepal's water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to nullify the government's decision to give more time for GMR. (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.) By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian investigators have alleged Chinese smartphone maker Corp's India unit misled its banker AG for years by claiming it had an agreement for payment of royalties when it had none, legal documents showed. has locked horns with India's financial crime fighting agency, the Enforcement Directorate, since it froze $670 million of the company's bank assets saying a probe found the smartphone seller made "illegal remittances" to U.S. chip firm Qualcomm and others in the "guise" of royalties. denies wrongdoing and approached an Indian court arguing its payments were legitimate and that the assets freeze - later confirmed by an appeals authority - had "effectively halted" its operations in a key market. The court in October declined any relief and the case will next be heard on Nov. 7. Documents contained in Xiaomi's Oct. 3 court filing shed new light on the investigation's findings, and show federal agents found suspected irregularities in the way its India unit made transfers as royalties to Qualcomm for licensed technologies such as patents. According to the court documents, which contained the enforcement agency's findings, a India executive confirmed to the federal agents in April that Indian law required the drawing up of a legal agreement between Xiaomi India and Qualcomm to make royalty payments, and the smartphone company disclosed to the bank such an agreement existed. Xiaomi India did not share the agreement with the bank due to confidentiality reasons, Deutsche told investigators, according to the documents. However, during the investigation, Xiaomi's India CFO, Sameer B. S. Rao, and its managing director at the time, Manu Kumar Jain, admitted there was no agreement between Qualcomm and Xiaomi India, and the royalties were remitted based on directions received from the group's executives in China, the Indian agency stated, the documents showed. Xiaomi "provided misleading information to the bank. They did not share the agreement with the bank which they referred (to) as the basis of payment," the agency noted in its assessment. "This shows ... their intention of remitting the money outside India as per the whims and fancies of the Chinese parent," it added. A spokesperson for declined to comment. One of Xiaomi's four frozen bank accounts in India is at Deutsche, according to the court documents. Qualcomm, in a statement, said under "the license with Qualcomm, Xiaomi India pays royalties on all devices sold in India". Both didn't answer questions related to royalty agreements. Rao, Jain and the Enforcement Directorate did not respond. Xiaomi, India's biggest smartphone player with a 21% market share, said it continues to stand by its "position on the legality of the royalty payments," referring Reuters to an Oct. 2 statement. In that statement, it said Xiaomi India was an affiliate and one of the Xiaomi Group companies, which entered into a legal agreement with Qualcomm. It was "legitimate" for the India unit to pay the U.S. firm, the statement added. Indian authorities do not agree with that and say Xiaomi India only acts as a reseller of smartphones that are made by contract manufacturers. Given the Indian unit has no role in designing phones, it had "nothing to do" with to Qualcomm, the agency assessed, according to the court documents. Many Chinese have struggled to do business in India due to political tensions following a border clash in 2020. India has cited security concerns in banning more than 300 Chinese apps and tightened investment norms for Chinese firms. In the Xiaomi probe, the company alleged Rao and Jain faced threats of "physical violence" during questioning by the Indian agency, Reuters reported in May. The agency called the allegations "untrue and baseless". (Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Nimitt Dixit; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) (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.) Alarmed by hazardous pollution levels in Delhi, Environment Minister on Friday ordered 50 per cent staff of the Delhi government to work from home and said an advisory will be issued to private offices to follow suit. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said primary schools will be closed from Saturday in a bid to protect children from the effects of worsening air quality. At a press conference, Rai said schools will be asked to curtail outdoor activities of senior students. He said the Delhi government has decided to implement the anti-pollution curbs recommended by the Commission for Air Quality Management, including a ban on non-BS VI diesel-run light motor vehicles. "At a meeting with departments concerned, it has been decided that 50 per cent staff of government offices will work from home from Monday and an advisory will be issued to private offices to follow suit," Rai said. In a bid to ramp up public transport, the government will also launch 'Paryavaran Bus Service' which will include 500 privately-run CNG buses. Rai said a six-member team comprising senior officials has been set up to monitor the implementation of the curbs on anti-polluting activities. Revenue commissioners have been asked to prepare a plan for staggered timings of markets and offices, he said. He added that the government will implement the odd-even car rationing scheme if need arises and discussions on it are on. In Nodia, schools have been shifted to online classes up to the eighth grade. Earlier, a ban was imposed on construction and demolition activities in Delhi. Factories and construction sites have also been shut. The government also restricted Diesel-run vehicles and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control haze. The government also issued advisory for children, the elderly and those with respiratory, cardiovascular and other health problems to avoid outdoor activities and asked them to stay indoors. The Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav blamed Punjab for its failure to stop stubble burning. However, the Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann defended himself and said his government took office only six months ago. A third of the glaciers on the UNESCO are under threat, regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases, a study conducted by the UN body has found. However, the study said, it was still possible to save the other two-thirds, if the rise in global temperatures did not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. UNESCO said this would be a major challenge facing delegates at the upcoming COP27. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP27, will be the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference. It will be held from November 6-18, 2022 in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh. "This report is a call to action. Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emission levels can save glaciers and the exceptional biodiversity that depends on them. "COP27 will have a crucial role to help find solutions to this issue. UNESCO is determined to support states in pursuing this goal," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said. In addition to drastically reduced carbon emissions, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is advocating for the creation of a new international fund for glacier monitoring and preservation. Such a fund would support comprehensive research, promote exchange networks between all stakeholders and implement early warning and disaster risk reduction measures, the study said. Half of humanity depends directly or indirectly on glaciers as their water source for domestic use, agriculture, and power. Glaciers are also pillars of biodiversity, feeding many ecosystems, it said. "When glaciers melt rapidly, millions of people face water scarcity and the increased risk of natural disasters such as flooding, and millions more may be displaced by the resulting rise in sea levels," IUCN Director General Dr Bruno Oberle said. "This study highlights the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions and invest in nature-based solutions, which can help mitigate climate change and allow people to better adapt to its impacts," he added. Fifty UNESCO World Heritage sites are home to glaciers, representing almost 10 per cent of the Earth's total glacierised area. They include the highest (next to Mt Everest), the longest (in Alaska), and the last remaining glaciers in Africa. The UNESCO study, in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), showed that these glaciers have been retreating at an accelerated rate since 2000 due to CO2 emissions, which are warming temperatures. They are currently losing 58 billion tons of ice every year equivalent to the combined annual water use of France and Spain and are responsible for nearly five per cent of observed global sea-level rise. The glaciers under threat are in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania, the study 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.) Once a luxury product, have increasingly become a necessity as sales surge amid a rise in Delhi's pollution levels that are now just a notch below the "Severe Plus" category. According to Central Pollution Control Board data, Delhi's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 426 at 9.30 am on Friday. An AQI of above 400 is considered "Severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses. On Thursday, the 24-hour average AQI stood at 450 at 4 pm, just a notch below the "Severe Plus" category. Demand for have risen in the national capital, particularly after Diwali, which witnessed widespread bursting of firecrackers despite a ban. "The air quality in India is deteriorating due to many activities -- industrial expansion in cities, population density, improper waste management, crop burning, increased automobile use and a few natural causes. There is evidence that air pollution, both outdoor and indoor, is on the rise and is behind higher morbidity and mortality rates," said Kartik Singhal, founder of O2 Cure and managing director at Zeco Aircon Ltd. The spike in air purifier sales reflect the deteriorating air quality levels, he said, adding that buyers from major cities such as Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida had become more aware and responsible about indoor purification. "This has led to an increase in the air purifier sector where we have also observed a massive jump in sales during the past few weeks," Singhal added. A representative from Mehra Electronics in Khan Market concurred. "This is the need of the hour. It is peak pollution time and the sales have seen an increase," he said. Market experts said air purifier sales were higher in south Delhi since people living there had higher purchasing power and better awareness. The appliance has become a necessity now and even doctors are advising patients to use it, said Manish Seth, secretary of Daryaganj Traders' Association and the owner of an electronics store. "Companies have also realised this and reduced the prices. Purifiers that were earlier available for Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 are now being sold for Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000. In some south Delhi stores, the sales are higher because people have better awareness and higher purchasing power. The product is also moving on its own in the online space," he said. Mohit Singh, a sales executive at Atmo Pure in Jangpura, said the cost of at their store ranged between Rs 7,000 and Rs 60,000, depending on the technology, the filters used and the coverage area. "We have seen a sharp rise in demand for air purifiers around this time for the last few years. It is literally the cost of your breath, a health investment as important as your regular health insurance," he added. Singh said a larger number of users bought the purifiers for their children and the elderly and invested in equipment with a low maintenance cost. Nitin Sharma, a senior executive at Global Gadgets Store in Khan Market, said, "As the air quality deteriorated after Diwali, sales have gone up. The sales will go up in the upcoming days." The store sold 30 air purifier units on Thursday. However, buying an air purifier is not enough as it requires maintenance with regular cleaning of the filters to ensure proper functioning. "While we may be aware of outdoor air pollution, awareness of indoor air pollution remains low, and this can be up to 10 times worse than outdoor air pollution. There are a number of ways to help improve your personal air quality exposure such as adapting your daily routine to include fewer polluting activities, as well as using a purifier to control your indoor air quality. "Dyson's purifying technology senses air quality, allowing you to monitor and remove pollutants inside your home. Combined with our air multiplier technology and advanced HEPA filtration, Dyson air purifiers can tackle indoor air pollution and help improve your well-being at home," said Muzaffar Izamuddin, Design Manager, Environmental Care at Dyson. Many doctors are also recommending patients, especially the vulnerable such as the elderly, children and people with respiratory ailments, to use air filters at home and avoid stepping out during early mornings and evenings. Dr Rahul Sharma, additional director (pulmonology) at Fortis Hospital in Noida, said, "HEPA (high efficiency particulate) filters work well and we recommend them to patients, especially those who are homebound. "The purifier works in a limited cubic metre of space. While buying a purifier one should check the capacity of how much air it can purify in accordance with the capacity of one's home. Another important thing is that there are HEPA filters and HEPA-like filters, which are not as effective as HEPA filters and are also very expensive. (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.) Four teams of the (ED) on Friday conducted raids at different places linked to a Jharkhand- based businessman, currently residing in Kolkata, in connection with a complaint of grabbing the Army land. ED sources said that similar raids were being conducted in different parts of by eight teams of the central probe agency. The businessman, Amit Agarwal, is alleged to have illegally grabbed land owned by the Indian Army in . The first team of ED conducted raid and search operations at Agarwal's residence at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of . Another team conducted similar raid and search operations at Agarwal's motor parts office at Nonapukur in central . Subsequent raids were conducted at the residences of Sanjay Ghosh, an engineer by profession. It is learnt that this is not the first time that the ED was conducting raids at the premises owned by Amit Agarwal. Previously, there were similar raids twice by the central probe agency officials on this count last year. Giving his reactions on the raids, BJP's national president and party Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh said that West Bengal has become a hub of corruption and hence raids and search operations by the central agencies have become regular affairs. "The people of West Bengal are really frustrated with this trend. The people will get more frustrated if the offenders are not punished," he said. Till the report was filed there was no reaction from the ruling Trinamool Congress. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With less than a month to go for the November deadline, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister on Friday said construction work of the new building is going on at a very fast pace. The government has been maintaining that the project would be completed by November and the winter session would be held in the new building. On August 4, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore had told Lok Sabha that the physical progress of the new building is 70 per cent and the month of November is the deadline to complete the project. Addressing a press conference here after inaugurating '15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Expo', Puri said there are over 4,000 people working round-the- clock on the project. Responding to PTI's question on whether the project would meet the deadline, he said, "I go there (construction site) every week. The work is going on at very fast pace. We have something 4,000 people working round-the-clock on it." On the completion of the project, the minister said it was up to the government to make the announcement regarding the date. Puri asserted that the construction work is processing very well. Generally, the winter session of takes place in November-December. The new building will be triangular in shape and the Emblem has been installed at the new structure. The redevelopment of the Central Vista, the nation's power corridor, also envisages a common central secretariat, revamping of the 3-km Rajpath from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate, new office and residence of the prime minister, and a new vice-president enclave. In December 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building which will have modern facilities. Tata Projects Ltd is constructing the building. The new building will also have a grand Constitution Hall to showcase India's democratic heritage, a lounge for members of Parliament, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining areas and ample parking space. Under the Central Vista redevelopment project, the government will also construct an Executive Enclave that will house a new Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Cabinet Secretariat, India House and Security Council Secretariat. (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.) Darius Pandole, who survived the car accident in which industrialist died, told the police that his wife Dr Anahita who was driving the Mercedes-Benz car, could not merge the vehicle into the second lane from the third lane of the road that turned narrow near the Surya river bridge in Maharashtra's Palghar, an official said. The statement of Darius Pandole (60) was recorded on Tuesday by the officials of the Kasa police station in Palghar, under whose jurisdiction the accident took place on September 4. Former Tata Sons chairman Mistry (54) and his friend Jahangir Pandole were killed after the car hit the railing of the bridge. Gynaecologist Dr Anahita (55), who was at the wheel, and her husband Darius suffered serious injuries. Darius Pandole, who was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, was discharged last week. He underwent a surgery on his forearm and a 'maxo facial' surgery. He was also battling infection due to the severity of his injuries. "His statement was recorded at his south Mumbai residence for one-and-a-half hours, during which he gave details of the accident," the official said on Friday. He could not immediately recollect the September 4 incident in which his brother Jahangir Pandole and died, he said. "In his statement, Darius Pandole said his wife Anahita was driving the Mercedes-Benz car when they were on their way to Mumbai. A car which was ahead of their vehicle went to the second lane from the third and Anahita also tried to follow the same," the official said. When she tried to take the car to the second lane from the third, she found that there was a truck on the right side (in the second lane) due to which she was not able to merge into that lane, he said, adding the lane turned narrow near Surya river bridge. Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil confirmed that they recorded the statement of Darius Pandole. "But the statement of his wife Anahita Pandole is yet to be recorded as she is still recovering," he said, adding that the final report from Mercedes-Benz was also awaited. Another police official said that Dr Anahita's statement would be recorded with the permission of doctors attending to her. "Our team had visited the hospital where she is admitted a few times earlier. But we could not record the statement as she was undergoing treatment," 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 has extended the electricity subsidy application window -- that had closed on October 31, till November 15, officials said. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday approved the extension proposal application window till November 15. The applicants who opt-in for the subsidy by November 15 can avail the benefit from October 1 onwards. According to the data by the government, a total of 58 lakh electricity consumers are in Delhi out of which 47 lakh consumers have received the subsidy and 35 lakh consumers have opted-in so far. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: "The last date for registration for the free electricity scheme in Delhi has now been extended till November 15; Delhi residents who register till November 15 will continue to get the benefit of free electricity scheme." About 35 lakh consumers had applied for the subsidy in the given time period by the . Whereas the total number of people getting subsidy on electricity was about 47 lakh. " provides 200 units of electricity absolutely free to all the residents in Delhi, while from 201 to 400 units, half the rate is charged. There are about 58 lakh domestic consumers in Delhi. Out of this, 47 lakh electricity consumers get subsidy. At the same time, out of these 47 lakh consumers, there are about 30 lakh consumers whose electricity bills come to zero, while the electricity bills of 16 to 17 lakh consumers come as per half rates," said a statement from the Delhi Deputy CM office. --IANS avr/pgh (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 will push developed countries for "action" on climate finance and technology transfer to help developing nations adapt to climate change, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has said ahead of the 27th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP) to UNFCCC. The minister said India will also emphasise that it is one of the few countries which has met the 2015 climate goals set in Paris, and stress on climate justice and sustainable lifestyles through Prime Minister Narendra Modi's LIFE movement which stands for "Lifestyle for Environment". " should be COP for action in terms of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building. This is our overall approach. India will seek clarity as to what is being termed as climate finance whether it is grants, loans or subsidies. Public and private finance should be separate...adaptation finance and mitigation finance should be equal.These issues will be taken up strongly," the minister told reporters here on Thursday. US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and more than 100 heads of states are expected to attend the conference which will be organised at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from November 6 to 18. It is not yet clear if Prime Minister Modi will attend it. At this year's conference, developed countries are expected to push developing nations to further intensify their climate plans. Developing countries would seek commitment on finance and technology needed to address and resulting disasters. "Even some developed countries" will join India in strongly raising the issue of USD 100 billion (One billion =100 crores) per year for climate action in developing countries, an official said. At the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries had committed to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle the effects of . Rich countries, however, have miserably failed in delivering this finance. India will also push for a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) for climate finance -- a key accompanying decision to the 2015 Paris Agreement -- from a floor of USD 100 billion per year. "The developed countries should not only fulfil the climate finance promises made earlier, new collective quantified climate finance goals should be set (for post 2025 period)," Yadav said. India will focus on the need to specify the quantity and quality of long-term finance (in trillions), its scope, ease of access to finance and mechanisms for tracking such finance in a transparent manner, according to a presentation made by the minister. A senior ministry official said India will seek more clarity on adaptation finance. "Adaptation finance is something very crucial for the lives and livelihoods of people vulnerable to . What are the soft loans that are available, what is the credit mechanism, insurance requirements... These are the issues that India will flag very strongly," the official said. The country will also look for collaborations in technology development in renewable energy and hard to abate sectors. Yadav asserted that India is one of the few countries who have met the climate targets set in Paris in 2015. India this year updated its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in keeping with the promises made by Prime Minister Modi at COP26 in Glasgow. According to the updated NDCs, India now stands committed to reducing emissions intensity of its GDP by 45 per cent by 2030, from 2005 level, and achieving about 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. These NDCs are, however, contingent on delivery of finance and technology transfer. To further a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, "LIFE - Lifestyle for Environment as a key to combating climate change" has been added to India's NDC. NDCs are national plans and pledges made by countries to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Yadav had earlier said loss and damage will be high on India's agenda at . According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), loss and damage is a term used to refer to the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to, or when options exist but a community doesn't have the resources to access or utilise them. Loss and damage is generally understood to result from both extreme weather events like cyclones, droughts and heatwaves, and slow-onset changes such as sea level rise, desertification, glacial retreat, land degradation, ocean acidification and salinisation. (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 (ED) on Thursday said it has filed a chargesheet against 19 people which includes Anil Jindal, Chairman of SRS Group of companies, Directors namely Jitender Kumar Garg, Praveen Kumar Kapoor, Vinod Jindal and others under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act (PMLA), in a case related to fraud committed against various home-buyers and investors. The total proceeds of crime estimated in the case till now stands at Rs 2,215.98 crore. The chargesheet was filed at a special court in Gurugram. The court has taken cognizance of the prosecution complaint. The ED initiated investigation on the basis of 81 FIRs under various sections of Indian Penal Code, registered at various Police Stations across Faridabad and Delhi against the accused. The ED has learnt during the investigation that the accused individuals duped the innocent buyers by promising them to deliver flats/plots/commercial spaces, etc. However, they failed to deliver the projects. Further, the real estate projects were mortgaged to avail loans from banks and other financial institutions. However, loans were not used for the intended purposes and were defaulted, eventually turning into NPA. Funds so accumulated from the buyers were layered into number of shell companies created by SRS Group and were subsequently siphoned off to acquire assets in personal names and in the name of entities controlled by them. --IANS atk/pgh (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Bhupender Yadav will lead the Indian delegation to attend the 27th Session of the Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) scheduled to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6 to 18. India is fully engaged with the process and is supportive of the efforts by Egypt government for substantive outcomes at COP 27. In the 56th Session of the Subsidiary Bodies held in June 2022 in Bonn, developing countries made it clear that UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) is the centre of the collective and multilateral response to the issue of . There must be a faithful, balanced and comprehensive implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, in accordance with its goals and principles. An Environment Ministry release said that India looks forward to substantial progress on the discussions related to climate finance and clarity on its definition. "As it is a saying that 'what gets measured gets done', more clarity is needed on the definition of climate finance for the developing countries to be able to accurately assess the extent of finance flows for climate action," it said. . "While the Standing Committee on Finance will submit a report on the various definitions, we to have good deliberations on this to arrive at a common understanding. The interpretation of the term must be in line with the commitments made by the countries on climate finance in the Convention and its Paris Agreement," the release added. It said the goal of USD 100 billion per year of climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter through till 2025 is yet to be achieved. "Due to lack of common understanding, several estimates of what has flown as climate finance are available. While the promised amount must be reached as quickly as possible, there is a need now to substantially enhance the ambition to ensure adequate resource flow under the new quantified goal post-2024." The Environment Ministry said that discussion on the new collective quantified goal in the adhoc working group must focus on the quantity of the resource flow and also on the quality and scope. "Issues relating to access and suggestions for improvement in the function of the financial mechanisms are also important. Besides this, improvement in transparency to ensure appropriate oversight of the quantum and direction of flows is imperative. The Ad hoc working group must provide advice or suggestions covering all the above aspects." The release said strengthening of financial mechanisms of UNFCCC and its operating entities is imperative to meet the climate finance delivery goals. "There needs to be a greater discussion on this as resources available to them should be utilized well. The SCF could also play an important role in assessing the shortcomings and may suggest appropriate measures to address them." India and Egypt are members of Like Minded Developing Countries, a formal negotiating group. The release said the Egypt in its presidency of has rightfully named COP 27 as the COP of "Implementation". "India welcomes this step as over the last twelve months the world has seen the widening gap between the statements by developed countries at COP 26 in Glasgow and the reality of their actions," it said. India will support the Egyptian Presidency for a plan of action that answers the needs of developing countries. Adaptation and loss and damage are two issues at the centre of attention, and a progress on these two issues will complement each other. Loss and damage must also be on the agenda of and there must be specific progress on the issue of loss and damage finance, the release said. "The existing financial mechanisms, like GEF, GCF and Adaptation Fund, under the Convention have not been able to mobilise or deliver funds for loss and damage due to . These mechanisms are under-funded; accessing funding is cumbersome and time-consuming; and most of the funding is for mitigation. Adaptation funding is highly inadequate and loss and damage funding is perhaps none at all." "These are the circumstances based on which G77 and China has proposed adoption of an agenda item on loss and damage finance. It is the time that this issue is accorded prominence on the climate agenda that it rightfully deserves," the release said. On the Global Goal on Adaptation, the ministry said there needs to be significant progress on actions, indicators and metrics. There must not be any hidden agenda of mitigation, especially in the form of nature-based solutions, in the name of co-benefits. "The Work Programme on Enhanced Ambition in Mitigation and Implementation cannot be allowed to change the goal posts set by the Paris Agreement. The GST process and the other mechanisms of the Paris Agreement, including enhanced NDCs and submission of the long-term low emissions development strategies, are sufficient. In the Mitigation Work Programme, best practices, new technologies and new modes of collaboration for technology transfer and capacity building may be discussed fruitfully. "On the issue of finance, a discussion on Article 2.1 (c), a sub-clause of article 2, cannot be opened as a standalone agenda item at this stage. Article 2(1) (c) has to be read in conjunction with entire article 2 as well as article 9 on climate finance. Reaching the USD 100 billion per year goal must come first, and the developed countries must be asked to show the roadmap for the same," the release said. The ministry said India will emphasize again on its invitation to all countries to join the LiFE movement - Lifestyle for Environment, a pro-people and pro-planet effort that seeks to shift the world from mindless and wasteful consumption to mindful and deliberate utilization of natural resources. "India is committed to both domestic action and multilateral cooperation on climate change, and will continue to fight all global environmental concerns to protect humanity's planetary home. But global warming also warns that equity and international cooperation, leaving no one behind, hold the key to success, where the most fortunate must lead the way," it said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra met top UN leaders, including Secretary-General here and discussed issues of pressing concern. Kwatra also met with President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korosi and they discussed the priorities of the PGA for the session and how India could partner in those. Foreign Secretary @AmbVMKwatra met with @UN Secretary General @antonioguterres. Issues of pressing concern were discussed, India's Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted on Thursday. On Thursday, Kwatra addressed the UN Security Council open debate held under Ghana's Presidency of the 15-nation Council on Peacebuilding and sustaining peace: Integrating effective resilience-building in peace operations for sustainable peace.' Later he met with Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey. They expressed support for each other's priorities in the Security Council and discussed taking the - relationship forward, the Indian mission tweeted. At the open debate, India urged the international community to call out those who provide safe havens to terrorists and come to their defense including in the UN Security Council sanctions regimes, a veiled reference to Pakistan and China. The threat posed by terrorism...needs a unified voice from the international community," Kwatra said in his remarks. "We should strengthen the capabilities of the host state security forces, join hands in preventing the terrorist forces from gaining access to financial resources and must collectively call out those who provide safe havens to terrorists as also those who stand with them and come to their defence, including in the UNSC sanctions regimes, he said. Kwatra's remark appeared to be a veiled reference to Pakistan and China. In the past five months, China, a permanent, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council has put holds on as many listing proposals made by India and the US to designate Pakistan-based terrorists under the Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime. Since June this year, China, Islamabad's all-weather ally, has put holds on proposals to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists Hafiz Talah Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir, senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) leader Abdul Rauf Azhar and Abdul Rehman Makki under the Al Qaeda Sanctions regime. India and the US had submitted proposals to designate the Pakistan-based terrorists and subject them to an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo but hit stumbling blocks when Beijing placed holds on the proposals. (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.) Global cooperation is an integral part of India's programme, a top Indian scientist has said and supported the idea of nations coming together to replicate the for another outpost in space. In this entire journey of the Indian space programme, global space cooperation has always been an integral part, Krunal Joshi who is currently a counsellor, Space (ISRO) at the Embassy of India told a recent ASCEND Conference. Participating in two-panel discussions at the prestigious ASCEND conference, hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in Las Vegas from October 24 to October 26, Joshi told the space scientific community that India has launched more than 350 satellites from 33 countries. In the 1960s, India dedicated Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station to the UN and a variety of research and launch experiments were done from here. India today has more than 230 agreements with over 55 countries and five multinational bodies. This ranges from building satellites to capacity building, he said. UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training) started by ISRO under the aegis of the UN, where India is helping budding countries in capacity building, satellite building and how they can build nanosatellites. In 2019, India has 60 officials from 32 countries and in 2022, there are 32 officials from 22 nations. So, it's a programme which is doing good for the upcoming countries. India's Chandrayaan-I, he said, is one of the shining examples of how international collaboration can help to achieve something big. Countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria contributed with their payload and more than 50 countries currently are emulating the science out of that. It's a classic example of how big countries can come together in space, he added. Responding to a question, during one of the panel discussions, Joshi said that India is unlikely to build its of its own, but supported the idea of an international collaboration. It is very difficult for India on its own to have an entire space station. We don't know. I don't think that that will be a more feasible solution. A more feasible solution would be for countries to come together and replicate what we did in the ISS, Joshi 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 conducted searches at properties linked to MLAs Kumar Jaimangal and Pradip Yadav, officials said. Jaimangal alias Anup Singh is a legislator from Bermo, while Yadav who joined after splitting from the JVM-P represents Poriyahat. is a partner of the JMM-led ruling alliance in the state. The searches were conducted at the properties of the legislators in Ranchi, Bermo and Patna, officials said. Some private people, including an iron ore trader in Chaibasa, were also searched by the I-T Department, they said. Jaimangal said he was extending full cooperation to the I-T Department which is conducting the searches as part of an investigation into charges. "The searches were carried out under the pressure of the BJP. Such action will have to be faced by those who are against BJP. I am against BJP and so, I am facing it. But, it can't scare me," he told reporters. Jaimangal was the MLA who in August lodged the police complaint against three legislators of his party -- Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari, alleging that they were plotting to topple the ruling UPA government in . The complaint was filed after the three Congress MLAs were arrested with cash in West Bengal in July. State Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan alleged the I-T searches were part of an operation to destabilise governments in non-BJP ruled states. "The I-T Department is a constitutional body, we respect that. But, the timing raises questions," he said. BJP legislative party leader Babulal Marandi said his party has nothing to do with such raids. "The I-T operations at houses of Anup Singh and Pradip Yadav are being forcefully given political colour to divert people's attention from the act (of tax evasion)," state BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo 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.) South Africa: Treasury clarifies Eskom debt matter Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has denied reports that the National Treasury's plan to takeover a portion of Eskom's debt will be linked to conditions that the power utility builds new coal, gas and nuclear plants. In a statement, Finance Ministry spokesperson Mfuneko Toyana said this was untrue and a misunderstanding of the argument the Minister was making. Minister Godongwana's point was that South Africa's energy transition will not be an immediate and wholesale abandonment of the country's existing electricity sources, but a phasing-out of fossil fuels that may also involve transitional measures to maintain current coal and nuclear plants, and also the use of transitional sources like gas, he said. Toyana said governments key planning instrument, the Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), envisions a combination of energy sources, including solar, wind, coal, gas and nuclear, to maintain the security of electricity supply at the most affordable cost to South Africans. Further, his point was that the fundamental purpose of the National Treasury's plan to takeover a portion of Eskom's debt is to allow the utility to focus on and invest in increasing its generation capacity, he said. He said Godongwana was fully committed to the governments Just Energy Transition framework, and the balance it envisions of accelerating investment in new generation capacity while protecting the communities that will be worst-affected by the move away from coal and other fossil fuels. Minister Godongwana was clear about these principles in his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) last Wednesday, he said. The MTBPS said the debt takeover, once finalised, together with other reforms, would ensure that Eskom was financially sustainable. The programme will allow Eskom to focus on plant performance and capital investment and ensure that it no longer relies on government bailouts, said the Minister. Toyana said the debt-relief relief programme was one of a suite of government interventions with the simple, but critical goal of securing South Africas short and long term energy supply needs. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A glimpse of the bumper harvest in Heilongjiang People's Daily Online) 17:20, November 03, 2022 Farmers gather harvested golden corn cobs in Shengli vllage, Baoqing county, Shuangyashan city, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Wu Yongjiang) Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the country's largest commodity grain base and grain-producing province, had completed the harvesting of 99.9 percent of its crops and 99.9 percent of its grain crops as of 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Heilongjiang Province said on Nov. 1, 2022. This year marks the province's best grain harvest in recent years, with both the per unit yield and quality of various grain crops improving. The harvested crops, including rice, corn, green Chinese onions, red chili peppers, fruits, mushrooms, nuts, and Chinese medicinal crops, have nicely decorated various areas of the province and offered beautiful views of this year's bumper harvest. (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) (AAP) national convener will announce on Friday the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, party office-bearers said. This candidate will be named on the basis of opinion submitted to the party by the people of the state, they said. Those in the race for the top post from the AAP include its state unit president Gopal Italia, national general secretary Isudan Gadhvi and general secretary Manoj Soratihya, party sources said. Kejriwal is scheduled to hold a press conference in Ahmedabad on Friday to announce the name, the party said in a statement on Thursday. Last week, Kejriwal had urged people to contact the party through SMS, WhatsApp, voice mail and e-mail to give their views about who should be the CM candidate from the party in the state, which is currently being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He had said that people could submit their points of view till November 3 evening and on the basis of their opinions, the name of the party's chief ministerial face would be announced the next day. "We will announce the result on November 4," he had said last Saturday. At that time, Kejriwal had also said, "During the Punjab elections, we had asked people as to who should be the next chief minister. People named Bhagwant Mann by a huge majority. And as per the wishes of the public, we made him chief minister." The AAP on Thursday announced its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Gujarat polls, taking the number of candidates whose names have been announced so far to 118. Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases next month - on December 1 and 5, while votes will be counted on December 8. (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 Droupadi Murmu, who was in on a two-day visit, said on Friday that the tribal majority state benefits from and makes contributions to the nation's endeavour to engage with neighbours in the region. Addressing a special assembly session here, she said that can explore its past, find best governance practices from pre-modern days, and revive it within contemporary systems for the betterment of people. She also stated that the Legislative Assembly, over the years, "has evolved into an effective instrument in finding solution to people's problem". Murmu stated that she was keen to see increased women's representation in public life, particularly among lawmakers. "The Centre's 'Act East Policy' places emphasis on the for improving the country's ties with the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region. Mizoram benefits from and also makes contributions to the nation's endeavour to engage with the neighbours in the region," she stated. Murmu said that the state has done well on all parameters, despite challenges posed by the topography of the hilly state. "After achieving the status of a full-fledged State in 1987, Mizoram has not looked back. The topography of the hilly region poses special challenges for development; yet the state has done remarkably well on all parameters, especially when it comes to human development. "As a tribal-majority state, Mizoram can explore its past and find best governance practices from pre-modern days that can be revived within contemporary systems," she said. Mizoram has the highest forest cover among all Indian states, providing an ideal home for extraordinary and rich biodiversity, she noted. "Our multiple initiatives in promoting renewable sources of energy have won admiration around the world. Meanwhile, we as individual citizens, policymakers, lawmakers or administrators must strive at our level to help heal the planet. "While embracing the modern ways, we should also remain in touch with our roots. As a tribal-majority state, Mizoram can explore its past and find best governance practices from pre-modern days that can be revived within contemporary systems," the President insisted. Murmu also said she was touched by the warm welcome accorded to her in Mizoram. "India is a celebration of diversity. The states of the north-eastern region add special richness to that variety. You are among those who receive the rising sun first, and ahead of the rest of the Indians in that way," she added. The President, who was here on her maiden visit, is scheduled to attend programmes in Sikkim later in the day. (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 constituted a committee to look into records relating to 108 people, who went missing during the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, and said the shall make all possible efforts to trace their family members or legal heirs. The apex court observed that violence witnessed by Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 adversely affected the right of the residents of the affected areas to lead a "dignified and meaningful life" and if citizens are forced to live in an atmosphere of communal tension, it affects their right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said the state shall pay compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the legal heirs of the missing persons, traced out hereafter, with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from January 22, 1999 till actual payment. "The committee consisting of the Secretary of MSLSA (Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority) and the other two government officers appointed under this order, shall monitor the efforts of the state government to trace other victims who were entitled to compensation in terms of the annexure to the first government resolution but compensation was not paid to them," said the bench, also comprising justices A S Oka and Vikram Nath. It noted there was a failure on the part of the state government to maintain law and order and to protect the rights of people guaranteed under Article 21. The apex court delivered its verdict on a plea which sought directions, including to the state to accept and act on the findings of Sri Krishna Commission of Enquiry, and also for payment of compensation to people identified as missing. It noted that in December 1992 and January 1993, there were about 900 deaths, 168 people were reported missing and about 2,036 people suffered injuries in the violence and thereafter, as a result of serial bomb blasts of March 12, 1993, there were 257 deaths and 1,400 people were injured. The bench said a March 2020 affidavit filed before it by the principal secretary of Home department notes that 900 people died in riots and 168 people were reported missing and compensation was paid to the legal heirs of these deceased and family members of 60 missing people. It noted that though belatedly, by a government resolution of July 8, 1993, a decision was taken to give financial assistance to people affected due to riots in December 1992 and January 1993 as well as due to serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. It said a government resolution dated July 22, 1998 was issued, providing for giving compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the legal heirs of the missing persons and the eligibility criteria and procedure for disbursement were also laid down. The apex court said family members of only 60 missing people have been paid compensation, adding compensation was not paid to the kin of the remaining 108 missing people as they or their residential addresses were not found. "We propose to constitute a committee headed by the member secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority, to look into the records relating to the remaining 108 missing persons," the bench said in its 38-page verdict. Dealing with issue raised regarding action against erring police officials, it noted that in terms of the recommendations of the commission, FIRs were lodged against nine policemen and later, two of them were discharged while seven were acquitted. It said the state government has not stated the reasons for not questioning the orders of acquittal. "The State should have been vigilant and proactive in these cases. Now it is too late in the day to direct the State to examine whether the orders of acquittal deserve to be challenged," the bench noted. On the issue of disciplinary inquiry initiated against various police officials, it said in view of long passage of time, it will be inappropriate to go into the question of the validity of orders passed by disciplinary authorities and adequacy of penalties imposed. "In any case, in a writ petition in the nature of a public interest litigation, a writ court should not normally interfere with disciplinary proceedings," the bench said. The apex court said the affidavit discloses the details of the fate of 253 riot-related criminal cases and it also discloses that one case is pending in the sessions court. "We propose to direct the sessions court to dispose of the pending case at the earliest. Ninety seven cases are on dormant files. The reason must be that either the accused therein are not traceable or are absconding," it said. The bench said the high court, on administrative side, must issue appropriate directions to the courts concerned in which these cases are pending. It said high court must ensure that the concerned courts take appropriate steps for tracing the accused and the state will have to set up a special cell for tracing them. The bench said the commission had made several suggestions for reinforcing and improving police force and the recommendations were very wide. It noted that memorandum of the government records that most of these recommendations have been accepted by the state. "But what remains is the implementation part. The state government cannot ignore the recommendations made by the commission for the improvement and modernisation of the police force and the recommendations shall continue to guide the state government," it said. The bench said the state shall expeditiously implement all the recommendations made by the commission on the issue of reforms in police force which were accepted by it. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Thursday said the new to be soon introduced in the state will pay special attention to the concerns raised by the entrepreneurs in the . The chief minister, who attended the three-day-long national seminar and expo on Agro-based Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) here, called upon the entrepreneurs attending the conference to get ready for the Global Investors Summit, which will take place in Uttar Pradesh in February, an official release issued here said. Stressing that UP today is a state with endless potential, he said ,"I am pleased to learn that everyone in UP is considering the opportunities in the field of food processing. Many of you have already scripted stories of success in this sector. I congratulate all entrepreneurs who worked in the field of MSME and food processing industries and contributed to carrying out Prime Minister Modi's resolve to double the income of 'Annadatas' (farmers)." Maintaining that only with a 'Beej Se Bazar Tak' approach, "we can create employment and also fulfil the resolve of increasing the income of the farmers", the chief minister said the resolve to make UP a USD 1 trillion economy will be fulfilled only when the work in every sector here is completed effectively with full commitment. Stating that Uttar Pradesh is very fortunate that it already has a huge cluster of MSMEs with as many as 90 lakh units, the chief minister said the state government is coming up with a new policy for each sector separately to give impetus to various sectors of industries. "Through the sectoral policies, many incentives are being given by the government. The government has brought more than 25 policies so far. Today, the Nivesh Mitra Portal in Uttar Pradesh is the single window platform offering the most services in the nation," he said. The Chief Minister said that the government is going to take some new steps to promote food processing in the 2022. This will make it easier for farmers to earn better prices by selling their produce straight to the processing sector, he said. "We will seriously consider your proposal to exempt such produce from mandi duty and cess. In the new processing policy, the government will take full care of the interests of the enterprises associated with the food processing industry," 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 upheld the amended Employees (EPS), which caps the basic salary of an employee at Rs 15,000 a month for the pension component derived from it to be calculated. A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice Aniruddha Bose, and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia has allowed the appeals of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation and the Union government challenging the judgments of the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan, and Delhi, which had quashed the EPS Amendment of 2014. The 2014 amendments to the EPS will apply to establishments exempt and not exempt, said Sowmya Kumar, partner at IndusLaw. However, the apex court invalidated the additional contribution of 1.16 per cent by employees. But this part of the order has been suspended for six months for the authorities to generate funds or to make relevant changes/adjustments/amendments to the scheme. Also, the court has given four months to employees who could not enrol in the scheme and are entitled to do so. There were 58.55 million subscribers to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) till 2021. Some experts say though the apex court has granted relief by extending the period of enrolling under the scheme to those who missed out, the upholding of the amendment will lead to the newly enrolled employees getting their pension capped with no option to increase their contributions under the scheme. This is a blow to employees who trusted such schemes and were eager to subscribe to them. Now, after their retirement, the amount of pension, when calculated on the basis of a meagre Rs 15,000, will come to a pittance and can barely support them in their old age, said Mayank Arora, partner at the Chambers of Bharat Chugh. This may mean employees, especially those in high-salary brackets, will have to invest in commercial financial products in the market to plan for their retirement. This decision has brought all categories of employees on the same footing, irrespective of their salaries and financial requirements. On the other hand, Sanjeev Kumar, partner, Luthra & Luthra Law Offices India, said a lot of employees covered under the EPS would gain. A window has been carved out by which employees who did not enrol themselves under the scheme can now do so within four months, he said. The creation of the EPS Employees of various establishments are covered by the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (the Act), which provides for a provident fund account in the name of each employee of a covered establishment. In this account, the employee contributes 12 per cent of her/his basic salary and the employer contributes an equal amount. Section 6A was inserted into the Act, authorising the creation of a scheme to provide pension to employees. Thus, the Employees Pension Scheme, 1995, was born. According to the scheme, the maximum salary on the basis of which pension was to be calculated was Rs 6,500 per month. An amount of 8.33 per cent from the employers contribution (12 per cent) would go to the employees pension fund. Later, on March 16, 1996, a proviso was added to the EPS, granting the option to the employer and the employee to contribute more to the pension fund -- at 8.33 per cent of the basic salary of the employee. The EPS was amended with effect from September 1, 2014, which limited the maximum pensionable salary at Rs 15,000 per month. The EPS was amended to give an option to the existing members as on September 1, 2014, to submit a fresh application, jointly with their employers, to contribute on salaries exceeding Rs 15,000 per month. The Centre's air quality panel on Friday directed deputy commissioners of all districts in Punjab, barring Pathankot, to take measures to "drastically" bring down the number of farm fires in the agrarian state. A thick layer of smog has enveloped Delhi-NCR for the last two days, primarily due to unfavourable meteorological conditions trapping pollutants and raging farm fires in Punjab. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) reviewed the implementation of measures to restrict the farm fire count in Punjab at a meeting with its chief secretary and deputy commissioners of 22 districts, barring Pathankot (no farm fire incidents were reported there). A statement said the primary focus of the review meeting was to reiterate the need to intensify action to check the sudden spike in the number of cases seen in the last few days. "The chief secretary and deputy commissioners were reminded of their earlier commitments of drastically bringing down the farm fire counts in 2022 as compared to last year," the statement said. "The deputy commissioners of 10 districts namely Amritsar, Barnala, Bhatinda, Firozpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Tarn Taran and Patiala -- where more than 1,000 fire counts have been reported -- were specifically advised to pay special attention to the implementation of the action plan," it said. officials assured that they will put their best foot forward to substantially bring down the rising farm fire incidents in the state. The share of in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 30 per cent on Friday. It had jumped to 34 per cent on Thursday, the highest so far this season, which experts said was the reason behind the thick layer of smog persisting over Delhi-NCR. Punjab reported 2,437 farm fires on Friday. The count was 2,666 on Thursday, 3,634 on Wednesday, the highest so far this season, 1,842 on Tuesday, 2,131 on Monday, 1,761 on Sunday, 1,898 on Saturday and 2,067 on Friday. (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.) has started laying off employees in India as part of a global job cut ordered by the social media platform's new owner to attain economies of scale and make the USD 44 billion acquisition viable. World's richest businessman Musk began his innings at last week by firing the CEO Parag Agrawal as well as the CFO and some other top executives. This was followed by an exodus of top management. Musk has now started a massive exercise to downsize the company's global workforce. "Lay-off has started. Some of my colleagues have received email notification regarding this," a India employee told PTI on condition of anonymity. Another source said the lay-offs have affected a "significant chunk" of the India team. The full details of the job cuts were not immediately available. Twitter India did not respond to email queries. The US-based social media platform, in an internal email to employees earlier, had said, "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday." It said that "everyone will receive an individual email". The company will temporarily close all offices for safety of employees as well as Twitter systems and customer data. "If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," Twitter had said. While Twitter had several run-ins with the government over freedom of speech, the company in the email barred employees from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere. (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 anti-GM lobby on Friday upped its ante against the recent environmental release of genetically modified (GM) . Almost 200 activists gathered outside the Directorate of Research in Bharatpur (Rajasthan), calling for halting the approvals. In Delhi, members of Sarson Satyagrah, a civil society group, said that the nationwide agitation would be intensified in the coming weeks. We will activate all possible democratic and non-violent avenues available to us. We would ensure that planting does not end up being an irreversible and unaccountable misadventure, said members of the Sarson Satyagraha during a press conference on Friday. The panelists alleged that regulatory decision-making has sacrificed scientific rigor. They said the environment ministry appears to have abandoned responsible policy-making when it comes to a dangerous herbicide-tolerant crop. The activists alleged that has not been proven to have any yield advantage for it to be granted an environmental permission. commercial cultivation could lower Indias productivity, if it ends up being sown in large areas. GM mustard DMH-11 is lower-yielding than popular varieties and hybrids. Even then, its seed production has been permitted by the regulators. There is also the possibility of male sterility trait spreading. This will actually create losses for farmers and is outright anti-farmer, the activists observed. They said GM mustard has not even proven to be an effective hybridisation technology. On Thursday, the Supreme Court told the Centre to not allow people to plant GM mustard till the next hearing on November 10. The Centre told the apex court that it needed time till Monday to put the latest facts on record. The Supreme Court direction could put a spanner on early sowing of GM mustard this rabi season as the ideal planting time closes in the next 10-15 days. The Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia said it was pointed out by the petitioners that the crop was hazardous. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Aruna Rodrigues, said the court-appointed technical expert committee has advised against using any herbicide-tolerant crop. It also said that the regulatory system in India is in complete shambles and needs to be revamped, he said. Amid ongoing Covid curbs and a slowdown in in China, Apple's contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron are adding more assembly lines to their facilities in India, The Economic Times reported. While the slowdown is largely because of the upcoming Chinese New Year, the ongoing lockdown in Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou province, the largest facility for iPhones in the world, has put Apple's heavy reliance on China under the spotlight. However, industry executives familiar with the matter told ET that the ongoing lockdown in Zhengzhou wouldn't have much bearing on to shift manufacturing to India for logistical reasons. They added that the US smartphone major would find it more convenient to shift production to some other areas within mainland China than to India. "I see the shift to India happening independent of the current context. The Make in India momentum (for Apple) will continue to gain traction," Prabhu Ram, head of the industry intelligence group at CMR, told the publication. "In fact, Foxconn is already shifting production to Shenzhen to tide over the cuts." Navkender Singh, associate vice president, IDC India, said shifting production from China to India in the near term is complicated and time-taking. Some see Apple's expansion in India in relation to the expected labour shortage in China during the Chinese New Year in February. "All three of Apple's Indian contract manufacturers are expanding capacities to take up more production," one of the executives told ET. has shown interest in the Indian market, and its partners have begun setting up bases in the country. first began assembling iPhones in India in 2017. Gradually, its partners ramped up production, supported by the government's financial incentives programmes. For instance, Foxconn began making the 14 in India in September of this year, just weeks after its global unveiling. Foxconn and Pegatron have set up their bases in Tamil Nadu, while Wistron makes iPhones out of Bengaluru. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday invited French companies to set up manufacturing units in the state. The Chief Minister was speaking after inaugurating the French-Indo Chamber of Commerce here on Thursday. Noting that many French companies are present in Karnataka, Bommai invited French major to set up its manufacturing unit in the state. "The state has a big manufacturing base in the aerospace sector. The state government is ready to extend full cooperation to to set up its unit here," he said. Bommai also said both India and France can further boost their mutual cooperation, pointing at India's strides in IT/BT, aerospace, renewable energy and other sectors. "Be a partner in India's economic development. Both India and are ideal for investment and the French companies are welcome here. For this purpose, the Global Investors' Meet is being hosted." --IANS pvn/arm (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 target for the year 2023-24 may be set at around Rs 65,000 crore, a report in Financial Express (FE) said. This will be on a "realistic level" keeping in mind the receipts of the current year that may range between Rs 45,000 and Rs 50,000 crore. Currently, Centre's receipts from stand at Rs 24,544 crore. It is just 38 per cent of the annual target presented in the Budget 2022. A major chunk of this, close to Rs 20,500 crore, was achieved only via selling a 3.5 per cent stake in the of India (LIC). The Centre is in the process of selling some of its stake in Vedanta-controlled in FY23. The rest of the stake in the company will be sold in FY24. It currently holds a 29.54 per cent stake in the company worth Rs 36,000 crore, FE added. The sale of 26 per cent of the stake in BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers, may also be proposed by the Centre soon. If successful, it will fetch the centre around Rs 1,600 crore. Currently, it holds a 54.03 per cent stake in the company. In early October, the government invited bids for . It is selling its 30 per cent stake in the bank, along with 30 per cent held by the LIC, making up the total stake sale to 60 per cent. The government will also soon invite bids for the Container Corporation of India (ConCor). It plans to sell 30 per cent of its stake for Rs 15,000 crore. has started scheduled flights to Europe for the first time, connecting in Punjab to two cities in Italy, The Times of India reported. The budget carrier had operated several medium and long-haul charters to Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic. An airline official said the airline noticed significant demand on some of those routes. is connecting with Rome Fiumicino with a Max twice a week and will also fly the plane between and Milan Bergamo thrice weekly. The airline official said that these flights would have a 40-minute stopover in Georgia's capital Tbilisi to allow a new operating crew to take charge during their onward and return journeys. "We used to operate a lot of charters to North America and Europe during Covid. There is a significant demand to travel on some of those routes on which we used to operate charters. Hence we have started scheduled Italy flights (with a technical halt for fuelling and crew change) from Wednesday. This is the first time we will be operating regular scheduled flights to Europe," the official told TOI. Last week, received DGCA's approval to wet lease five Max planes for up to 6 months. A wet lease arrangement allows an airliner to lease the operating crew and engineers to another operator, usually to tackle supply constraints and curb airfares. SpiceJet recently said that it had cleared all outstanding dues reflecting the airline's improved cash flows in recent times. It also expects to receive an additional Rs 1,000 crore loan under the government's amended emergency credit line guarantee scheme for airlines. The on Friday held discussions with stakeholders of (SEZs) on the issue of facility. The consultations assume significance as the ministry is considering to allow 100 per cent (WFH) for employees of units in . In a tweet, the office of Commerce and Industry Minister said, he "held consultations with SEZ stakeholders over facility. With the hybrid model here to stay, the government is working to provide flexibility and create jobs in small cities to boost exports and fuel growth". At present, WFH is permitted for a maximum period of one year in a SEZ unit and can be extended to 50 per cent of the total employees. Meanwhile, Goyal also held a meeting with Taiwan's Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chern-Chyi Chen. "Discussed enhanced cooperation in several areas of mutual interest and explored ways to further boost bilateral trade and investments between India and Taiwan," a separate tweet 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 secretary will visit New Delhi on 11 November to participate in the 9th India-US Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) dialogue, to be co-chaired by . Secretary Yellen will highlight the strength of the United States partnership with India, which continues to deepen, the department said in a statement. Yellen will meet with technology sector leaders and visit the Development Center where she will deliver remarks on the United States economic partnership with India. She will then hold a bilateral meeting with Sitharaman. Following the EFP dialogue, Yellen will join Sitharaman for a fireside discussion with executives from major Indian companies and American companies operating in India. Secretary Yellen and Minister Sitharaman will sign a joint statement on the EFP dialogue. Throughout her visit to India, Secretary Yellen will discuss how the and India have worked together to deepen their economic ties. Secretary Yellen will highlight the close ties between American and Indian people and businesses, and note ways we can further our bilateral economic relationship, including through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and stronger supply chains through friend-shoring, the statement said. Yellen will reaffirm Americas and Indias shared democratic values and commitment to upholding a rules-based international order as the worlds largest democracies. The Secretary will also welcome Indias assumption of the presidency next month and discuss opportunities to make progress on global challenges through global climate action, evolving the multilateral development banks (MDBs), further strengthening global health architecture, and advancing debt relief for low-income countries and emerging markets. After concluding her day-long visit to India, secretary Yellen will travel to Bali, Indonesia to represent the at the Joint Finance and Health Ministers Meeting on November 12 and accompany President Joe Biden at the Leaders Summit on November 15 and 16. Both sides launched EFP dialogue in 2010 as a framework to cement the economic bonds between the two nations and build a foundation for greater cooperation and . At this meeting of the Economic and Financial Partnership the first since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic we reiterated that regular and productive dialogue on economic policies is crucial to the U.S.-India relationship and to achieving our shared global future. On November 3, Union launched the biggest-ever of 141 mines in . "A fast-growing economy like needs greater investment in and gasification projects. Globally, energy prices especially that of gas are going up." the minister said while launching the 6th round of by the Ministry of Coal. While pointing out that the coal imports for the power sector have come down by 41 per cent, the said that 12 states will benefit directly from the auctioning of 141 . Complementing the coal ministry for the recent initiatives to unlock the coal sector, Sitharaman said that mining sector reforms are providing the right fillip to our fast-growing economy. Coal, Mines & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the coal ministry is exploring alternative methodologies for enhanced use of coal. The finance ministry has extended Rs 6,000 crore incentive for coal gasification and Rs 250 crore for the exploration process. "Key features of the auction process include reduction in the upfront amount and bid security amount, permission to relinquish part of the coal mine in case of partially explored coal mines, the introduction of National Coal Index and National Lignite Index, ease of participation with no entry barriers, full flexibility in coal utilisation, optimised payment structures, incentives for early production, coal gasification and usage of clean coal technologies." said the government release. What is Coal Gasification? The process of partially oxidizing coal with air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxide to form syngas is called coal gasification. Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), (CH4), and water vapour (H2O). During the process of gasification, coal is blown with oxygen and steam while also being heated under high pressure. Environmental benefits of coal gasification process 1) Coal is considered to be the most polluting fossil fuel. During the coal gasification process, sulphur present in the coal gets converted to hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and minor amounts of carbonyl sulphide (COS), which are easy as well as economic to remove from gas streams. 2) The separated acid gas can be further processed to recover elemental sulphur. After the acid gas removal treatment, only a few ppm of sulphur remains in the coal gas. 3) Nitrogen oxides (NO) are not formed to any appreciable extent in the reducing atmosphere of coal gasification. The particulate content in the fuel gas after gasification is also negligible since the gas cleaning steps (hot cyclones, water scrubbing or hot gas cleaning) capture almost all the particulate. 4) Most part of the wash water can be recycled and the residual wastewater from gasification plants can be effectively treated. 5) The coal gasification plants do not produce any scrubber sludge that needs careful and costly disposal. 6) The coal ash from the gasifier is not hazardous and its leaching effect is very low. The fine ash generated in the processes using pulverised coal feed can also be used to make fly ash bricks. 7) The coal is converted into a gaseous fuel, which is easy to handle and is a clean form of energy. Uses a) As a substitute for products and . b) In Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system for efficient and clean generation of electric power. c) To manufacture hydrogen and basic chemicals such as ammonia, methanol, CTL (coal to liquid), as reduction gas in the steel industry and so on. d) In a complex of plants for the simultaneous production of electric power, chemicals/ fertilizers, reduction gas and fuels which also improve the economics of coal gasification. Disadvantages Earlier this year, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)s assessment said that coal gasification actually produces more carbon dioxide than a conventional coal-powered thermal power plant. Another challenge is that coal gasification plants are costlier than conventional power plants. The CSE assessment highlights that one unit of electricity generated by burning gasified coal generates 2.5 times more carbon dioxide than from burning coal directly. Why Coal Gasification? At present, is the world's second-largest importer of coal and has mostly imported coking coal. Coal gasification can help India reduce its import bills. The International Energy Agencys Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programme (ETSAP) says that coal gasification process can even use low-grade coal and thus holds good future potential, as coal is the most abundantly available fossil fuel across the world. India has committed to cut its consumption of coal, a primary pollutant, in power plants to half by 2030 and to reduce its overall carbon footprint. Coal gasification is being considered a greener alternative. According to the Ministry of Coal's mission document, India has the fourth largest reserves of coal in the World. The total World proved reserves of coal are 1,074 BT and India accounts for around 10 per cent (344 BT of coal resources including 163 BT of proved reserves) of the global reserves. The US has the largest coal reserves followed by Australia and China. Around 90 per cent of the coal reserves in India constitute non-coking coal or thermal coal which is primarily used for power generation and in industries such as cement and brick kilns. And nearly 10 per cent of the reserves are coking coal reserves, which are mostly used in the steel production process. The Ukraine-Russia war and the following global energy crisis have once again highlighted the importance of becoming self-sufficient in an increasingly volatile global scenario. Internationally, Coal gasification is prominent in China. Australia banned all underground coal gasification activities and the in situ gasification of oil shale in 2016. Sowing and mustard the two main crops picked up pace during the week ended November 4. While mustard-sowing covered almost 72 per cent of the normal area, the same for rose almost 436 per cent as compared to last year. Mustard is usually sown in 6.4 million hectares, and sowing in almost 4.6 million hectares is complete till Friday. Traders said in the next 10-15 days, bulk of the sowing for mustard should be complete, which is a good sign and should ensure a big harvest, if the weather remains favourable in the next few months. In case of wheat, early sowing trends indicate that there could be a rise in acreage due to shift of farmers from other competing crops such as gram and ancillary pulses towards in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and even Gujarat. Some reports said a big swing towards wheat might also happen this year as farmers do not want to repeat the mistakes of last year when a sudden surge in temperature in the fag end of the harvest season brought down per-hectare yields. Overall, till November 4, all crops have been sown in around 9.74 million hectares, which is almost 17 per cent more than the area covered during the same period last year. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its November forecast said intense winter might elude North India as maximum temperatures will remain above normal. As far as moisture levels are concerned, the Met department said post-monsoon rains across the country are expected to be about 23 per cent more than normal in November with bulk of showers concentrated in southern parts of the country that gets Northeastern monsoon. The national average rainfall across India in November is about 29.7 millimetres. The rains should further aid planting of crop, where the soil moisture levels are already good due to almost 47 per cent more than normal rains in October across India. are trading around Rs 2,700 per quintal in the open market in Delhi and its adjoining areas, which till a few months back was being quoted about Rs 2,400 per quintal. The current market price is much more than even the revised MSP for the next season to start in April 2023 that has been fixed at Rs 2,125 per quintal, amongst the highest in recent years. The on Friday released its first list of 43 candidates for the scheduled to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. According to the list released here, former Gujarat chief Arjun Modhwadiya has been fielded from Porbandar, Himanshu Patel from Gandhinagar South and Hiteshbhai Vora from Rajkot South. The list was declared after candidates' names were finalised during a meeting of the party's central election committee (CEC) chaired by president Mallikarjun Kharge here. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined the meeting online, while the rest of the participants attended it physically at the AICC headquarters here. The Congress is seeking to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from government in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the saffron party has been in power for more than two decades. to the 182-member will be held in two phases -- December 1 and 5 -- and the votes will be counted on December 8. (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 total turnout of 76.45 per cent was recorded in Haryana's Adampur Assembly segment in Hisar district where were held on Thursday. Till last reports came on Thursday, the poll percentage was 75.25 and officials had said the final figure may slightly increase once the entire data is compiled. On Friday, the of India data showed that Adampur recorded a poll percentage of 76.45 percent. The outcome of the bypoll will decide if the Bhajan Lal family retains the family bastion of five decades. Bhavya Bishnoi, grandson of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, had entered the fray as a BJP candidate. Counting of votes will be taken up on November 6. The main parties which contested the polls were the BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal, and Aam Aadmi Party. The bypoll was necessitated after former chief minister Bhajan Lal's younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as MLA and switched from the Congress to the BJP in August. Bhavya is Kuldeep's son. Former Union minister Jai Prakash, a three-time MP from Hisar and two-time MLA as well was fielded by the Congress. The INLD has nominated Congress rebel Kurda Ram Nambardar while the AAP fielded Satender Singh, who switched over from the BJP. (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.) .s Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron Corp. has begun assembling the companys latest 14 model in . That move makes Pegatron the second Apple supplier to produce the 14 in the country, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News, declining to be identified as the manufacturing plan is not public. It comes at a time when Apples key Pro manufacturing hub in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou -- operated by Foxconn Technology Group -- was placed under an abrupt Covid-19 lockdown by authorities. That situation put a spotlight on Apples deep reliance on China, though the expansion was in line with diversification plans already in place, the people said. Apple declined to comment and Pegatron did not respond to a request for comment. Foxconn began making the iPhone 14 in in September, mere weeks after its global unveiling and much closer to parity with the start of production in China, where the vast majority of iPhones are still made. Apples chief production partner still has exclusivity on the iPhone Pro models, which it assembles in Zhengzhou. The Pegatron factory in Indias southern Tamil Nadu state, which employed more than 7,000 as of the end of September, also began making iPhone 12 handsets earlier this year. Pegatron generally gets orders for Apples entry-level models. Cupertino, California-based Apple is seeking alternative production hubs amid a trade war between Washington and and tight enforcement of Xi Jinpings Covid Zero policy in China. At the same time, New Delhi is positioning India as a competitor to Chinas manufacturing prowess. One big hurdle for more production shifting out of China is that the majority of iPhone components are still built there and have to be shipped to wherever devices are assembled, Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam said. All of Apples biggest Taiwanese suppliers -- Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron Corp. -- have ramped up iPhone assembly in India, boosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modis financial incentives program. That has also helped to increase iPhone exports from the South Asian country. Apple first began assembling iPhones in India in 2017 via Wistron after a yearslong effort to build manufacturing capabilities in the country. And while India is a small consumer market for Apple currently, the country of 1.4 billion offers the US giant huge headroom for growth as incomes and internet connectivity grow. A majority of Bulgaria's lawmakers on Thursday approved sending the country's first military aid to . The National Assembly voted 175-49 with one abstention in favour of a proposal submitted by four pro- parties. The government has now one month to decide what kind of weapons Bulgaria can provide without affecting its own defence capabilities. Bulgaria previously agreed to repair Ukrainian military equipment at its factories but refused to send weapons directly due to opposition from President Rumen Radev and the country's Moscow-friendly political parties. Along with Hungary, Bulgaria was the only EU member country that had declined to give weapons as it fights Russia's invasion and war. More weapons mean more war, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said, explaining why her party's lawmakers voted against the proposal. The heated debate that preceded the vote reflected the divisions in Bulgaria since Russia invaded its neighbour. Even though the country belongs to both NATO and the EU, many Bulgarians harbor strong sympathies for Russia that are rooted in a history, culture, and religion. Bulgaria also relies heavily on Russian energy supplies. The pro-Russian nationalist Vazrazhdane Party called on its supporters to gather in front of the parliament building to protest the military aid for Ukraine, saying the aid pushes the country into war. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former US President Donald J. Trump is expected to announce a third campaign soon after the midterm elections, reported New York Times citing people familiar with the matter. The people also added that the announcement will possibly be made as soon as November 14, reported the media outlet. The news of Trump's possible bid for the was first reported on Axios, a US news website based in Arlington County, Virginia. This comes as Trump on Thursday opened a swing of four rallies in the US state of Iowa. The rallies held by the ex-US president come in the final five days of the midterm elections in Iowa. "In order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again," Trump said. "Very, very, very, probably." The crowd erupted in applause and chants of "Trump! Trump! Trump!" "Get ready -- that's all I'm telling you," Trump said. "Very soon." Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican seeking an eighth consecutive six-year term joined Trump in the rally. Trump is campaigning for the Republicans ahead of the midterms, but his name is not on the ballot this year as he inches closer to announcing a third presidential campaign. Democrats currently control both House of Representatives and the Senate and losing any of both bodies to Republicans would significantly decrease Democrats' power in the next two years of President Joe Biden's term. It will be decided by an Election day voting scheduled for November 8, reported New York Times. Trump's speech in Iowa was spent mostly rehashing old grievances and policies, however, he could still draw thousands. His campaign which was held in a remote stretch of a state that remains far down the list of midterm battlegrounds. This reflects that Trump still has political baggage. According to Cook Political Report, in the five states with toss up Senate races, Trump has not held rallies in two -- Georgia or Wisconsin -- since the primary season ended. The classification of "Toss Up" is used to refer to races that are the most competitive of the cycle, and which either party stands a reasonable chance of winning, reported cookpolitical. Trump will visit just one of those toss up states, Pennsylvania, in his final four rallies. He's scheduled to campaign in Florida and Ohio this weekend. Further, New York Times said that Trump is preparing his supporters for a third consecutive presidential bid. Trump during the speech at length spoke about the possibility of his own potential campaign. (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.) Inc. plans to start cutting staff Friday, the company said in an email to employees. Billionaire plans to eliminate half of Twitters workforce, making good on plans to slash costs at the platform he acquired for $44 billion last month, people with knowledge of the matter have said. In an effort to place on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, management said in an email reviewed by Bloomberg. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success going forward. The company will inform affected staffers Friday at 9 a.m. San Francisco time, according to the memo. Amid the layoffs, Twitter plans to temporarily close offices and suspend badge access to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, the memo said. All told, Musk wants to cut about 3,700 jobs at San Francisco-based Twitter, people with knowledge of the matter said this week. The entrepreneur had begun dropping hints about his staffing priorities before the deal closed, saying he wants to focus on the core product. Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost, he tweeted in early October. Security staff at Twitters San Francisco headquarters carried out preparations for layoffs, while an internal directory used to look up colleagues was taken off line Thursday afternoon, people with knowledge of the matter said. Employees have been girding for firings for weeks. In recent days, they raced to connect via LinkedIn and other non-Twitter avenues, offering each other advice on how to weather losing ones job, the people said. Ex-Twitter engineers are also using to respond to former Tweeps looking to land jobs elsewhere. Musk has also been huddling with advisers to come up with new ways to make money from the blogging platform, including charging for verifications, which can help delineate real users from fake accounts. Hes also considering reviving a long-since-discontinued short-video tool called Vine, a way to vie with popular video-sharing apps like TikTok. Another product under consideration, the New York Times reported, is paid direct messages, which would let the rank and file send private messages to high-profile users. Several advertisers, meanwhile, have tapped the brakes on placing ads on the platform until they get a clearer idea of Musks plans. The new owner has said he wants to remove some content moderation, giving rise to concerns that hate speech, misinformation and other potentially harmful material will flourish even more freely. General Mills Inc. said its temporarily pausing advertising on Twitter, joining Volkswagen AGs Audi and General Motors Co. in rethinking their presence on the platform. The has authorised the world's first one-dose drug against a respiratory virus that sickens millions of babies and children globally every year. In a statement on Friday, drugmakers Sanofi and AstraZeneca said the had given the green light to nirsevimab, a laboratory-developed antibody designed to protect infants during their first exposure to RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a highly contagious common infection that infects nearly all babies by age 2. At the moment, babies at high risk of the disease can be given monthly shots to protect them during RSV season. In September, the European Medicines Agency recommended that nirsevimab, sold as Beyfortus, be authorised based on advanced research that showed the drug reduced the chances that babies with RSV needed medical attention and appeared to be safe, compared to infants who got a dummy treatment. The drug is given in a single injection. We are excited about the opportunity to expand prevention efforts to all infants, said Silke Mader, co-founder of the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants. In the US, RSV is causing an early surge of infections in children's hospitals this year. European health officials are warning there could be a similar spike across the continent. For most healthy people, RSV is a cold-like nuisance. But the virus can be life-threatening for the very young and the elderly. The virus can infect deep in the lungs and in small babies, it can impede breathing by inflaming their tiny airways. RSV kills about 100,000 babies annually, mostly in developing countries. Nirsevimab was developed to give newborns and infants immediate protection against RSV through an antibody to prevent infections in their respiratory systems. Earlier this week, Pfizer announced preliminary research showing that a new vaccine given to pregnant women could help protect their babies against RSV, after decades of failure to develop an effective shot. (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.) With asking its contract employees to not come to office and wait for an email to know their fate at the company, anxiety and fear among its Indian employees is also at an all-time high. People in the know described the mood within the India development centres and across all segments as very fearful, with people not sure if they will have a job or not. Nobody knows if they will have a job tomorrow, and the fear of getting fired just got real, said a person who is aware of the situation but did not wish to be named. Meanwhile, reports have already stated that the engineering and development teams have been asked not to work on any new projects. An email sent to India did not elicit any response till the filing on this report. Meanwhile, globally, the company has asked contract workers not to come to the office and wait for an email. This comes shortly after the company discontinued its work-from-anywhere policy and said that it was downsizing. In an email to its employees, the company said: Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9 am PST on Friday, November 4, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at . Please check your mail including your spam folder. Twitter also said that its offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to office, please return home, said the email. Bloomberg had earlier reported that Elon Musk, Twitters new chief executive officer (CEO), plans to slash about 3,700 jobs or half of the companys workforce in a bid to cut costs. Meanwhile, there were several tweets from Twitters employees across the globe saying that their remote access to logins had been suspended. The Finnish government has published a draft proposal on the country's accession to the NATO, but the local media has claimed that the membership would have a significant financial impact on the Scandinavian country. The draft proposal was prepared by a working group composed of representatives from the Office of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, among . The working group has assessed the relationship between the North Atlantic Treaty and Finland's Constitution, and concluded that the North Atlantic Treaty would not be a problem for Finland's sovereignty and participation in cooperation. The government says Finland's membership could be approved by a simple majority in Parliament. However, membership will increase Finland's public spending on defence, said national broadcaster Yle in an article published on the same day. countries pay contributions for their membership in proportion, which are calculated in relation to the size of their economies. According to Yle, Finland's share of NATO co-financing would be 0.9057 per cent. Finland's contributions would be 27.4 million euros a year if the country became a member of NATO at the beginning of next year. This figure will probably rise in the future, Yle said. NATO's member states decided at a summit in Madrid this summer to raise jointly financed budgets, it added. Additional costs would come with the personnel increases and administrative changes related to NATO membership. These costs have been calculated at more than 100 million euros annually. NATO member countries are also committed to the fact that they aim to increase defence spending to 2 per cent of their gross domestic product. The share of Finnish defence spending this year is 1.87 per cent. According to Yle, the draft proposal does not take a position on whether nuclear weapons will be placed in after accession, although the topic has been much-discussed by the public. Currently, the Nuclear Energy Act would prevent a ship or aircraft equipped with nuclear weapons from entering . --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.) France and Germany are asking Italy's new far-right-led government to grant a safe port to nearly 1,000 people rescued by humanitarian groups in the central Mediterranean, some of whom have been stuck at sea for more than two weeks. Humanitarian groups caring for the rescued migrants on three ships in the central are sounding an alarm about deteriorating conditions, including people sleeping on floors in the cold and spreading fevers. Italy's new interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, has drafted new measures alleging that the non-governmental groups violated procedure by not properly coordinating their rescues, a step setting the groundwork for to close the . Piantedosi has also asked the countries whose flags they fly to intervene. Italy's posture, maintaining silence to repeated requests for a safe port, has effectively blocked three charity-run rescue boats at sea. It is reminiscent of Italy's anti-NGO policies under former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is now in charge of as infrastructure minister. Meanwhile, Italian authorities continue to allow arrivals of people rescued by Italian patrols, including 456 arriving in Calabria on Thursday. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Friday that law makes clear that Italy, as the closest port, must let the ship in. He referred to the Norway-flagged Ocean Viking with 234 people aboard operated by the group SOS Mediterranee, which has one of its headquarters in France. We have no doubt that will welcome the ship, ... that will respect law, he told French news broadcaster BFM TV. The German Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it has asked Italy to intervene quickly to help those aboard the German-flagged Humanitarian 1, with 179 people aboard. The boat is currently east of Sicily carrying 100 unaccompanied minors as well as a 7-month-old baby, the SOS Humanity charity that runs it said. They continue to be exposed to the elements, having to spend the cold nights on deck. Still, they are sleeping on the floor while winds and waves are increasing,'' said spokesman Wasil Schauseil, adding that the state of limbo was adding to their mental stress. Fever was also spreading among the rescued people, with COVID tests turning up negative. Darmanin said that France and Germany have told Italy that they are both ready to receive some of the migrants so that Italy won't bear the burden alone. Also at sea is Doctors Without Borders-run Geo Barents, also flagged by Norway, with 572 people on board, including 60 unaccompanied minors as well as families with children and the elderly. Charities have denied circumventing procedures, and say it is their duty to rescue people in distress at sea. According to the UN refugee agency, coastal states are obligated to accept people from rescue ships as soon as practicable,'' and that governments should cooperate to provide a place of safety for survivors. (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 much-scrutinised meeting on Friday with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear. Scholz is in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over China's tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip. It comes after Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month and as continues to refuse to criticise . Scholz's visit reflects the importance of Germany's trade ties with China, the world's second-largest economy, particularly in the auto and manufacturing sectors. Mercedes Benz alone sold 758,863 cars in last year, more than in any other country, according to company figures. Scholz, who is traveling with several top German business leaders, received a formal welcome from Xi, who was recently reappointed head of the ruling Communist Party for a third term, at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. At present, the situation is complex and changeable," Xi was quoted as telling Scholz by state broadcaster CCTV. As influential powers, China and should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development." On Ukraine, Xi pointed out that China supports and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and promoting the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework," CCTV reported. That was apparently a nod to Russia's anger over NATO's eastern expansion, largely a result of Moscow's increasingly belligerent policies toward its neighbours. The community should create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons," Xi said. Without offering evidence, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has repeated Moscow's unproven allegation that Ukraine is plotting a false-flag attack involving a radioactive dirty bomb that it would try to pin on . Ukraine has strongly rejected the accusation, and its Western allies have dismissed it as transparently false. Ukraine argued that might be making the allegation to serve as a cover for its own possible plot to detonate a dirty bomb. Scholz is the first leader from the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations to meet with Xi since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China in 2019, and the first European leader to visit China since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has strongly opposed. The diplomatically delicate trip comes as Germany and the European Union work on their strategy toward an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China. Meanwhile on Friday, G-7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of China's increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises. Beijing has provided Moscow with diplomatic backing by repeatedly calling for peace talks while refusing to support measures at the United Nations criticising Russia's invasion. It has also accused the US and NATO of provoking the attack and scathingly criticized economic sanctions imposed on Russia. In his opening remarks, Scholz referred directly to the conflict that has created millions of refugees and upended world food and energy markets, saying, We come together at a time of great tension." In particular, I want to highlight the Russian war against Ukraine, which poses many problems for our rules-based world order, Scholz said. Scholz also touched on global hunger, climate change and developing-world debt as important issues. At a later news conference, Scholz said he told Xi that it's important for China to exert its influence on Russia." He gave no details on what the West precisely wanted China to do. President Xi and I agree that nuclear threats are irresponsible and highly dangerous. By using nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line that the community has drawn together, he said. Scholz also said he brought up human rights and market access, and told Xi that any change in the status of self-governing Taiwan can only happen peacefully and by mutual agreement. China claims the island republic as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. In an apparent reference to European lawmakers and the Baltic state of Lithuania that China has banned and boycotted over their relations with Taiwan, Scholz said, It is also important to be clear that economic measures against individual EU member states are directed against the entire EU single market, and sanctions against EU lawmakers are not acceptable for us. Scholz has come under criticism for making the visit to China so soon after Xi's triumph at last month's congress, at which he promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the economy and a more confrontational approach to the West. The visit is also occurring amid rising tensions over Taiwan and follows a UN report that said Chinese human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in its Xinjiang region may amount to crimes against humanity. Scholz is accompanied on the trip by about a dozen top German business leaders, including the CEOs of Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Bayer and Deutsche Bank, most of which are doing a thriving business in China. Scholz will also meet company representatives in Beijing. That has some German observers questioning whether the country is becoming overly reliant on the Chinese market, just as it did with Russia for energy supplies. In a statement, VW's China head, Ralf Brandstatter, said Sholz's visit is important during politically and economically challenging times like these." China is Germany's most important trading partner, with 5,000 German companies active in the country and hundreds of thousands of German jobs tied to the Chinese market. More than 14 million jobs in China depend on business with European companies, Brandstatter said. Scholz also met with Premier Li Keqiang, who nominally has responsibility over China's economy. In an article for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz said he was traveling to Beijing precisely because business as usual is not an option in this situation." Scholz's messages will face close scrutiny, particularly at home where some have criticized him for normalizing China's behaviour. While his nearly year-old government has signaled a departure from predecessor Angela Merkel's firmly trade-first approach, his trip follows domestic discord over a Chinese shipping company's major investment in a container terminal in Germany's crucial port of Hamburg. With China still imposing tough COVID-19 restrictions, his delegation is moving in an anti-virus bubble, undergoing testing and won't stay in Beijing overnight. At just 11 hours, it is the shortest trip ever to China by a German leader. The aircrew who brought him to Beijing flew to South Korea to wait out the visit and avoid having to be quarantined. German officials say the trip is intended to probe where China is going and what forms of cooperation are possible. (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.) UN Secretary-General has called for the renewal of the Ukraine grain deal, and for the application of the same spirit of multilateralism at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, or . At a press encounter on Thursday, Guterres called for the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as Russia has agreed to resume its participation, Xinhua news agency reported. "Now that the initiative has fully resumed, I appeal to all parties to concentrate efforts in two areas: first, to renewal and full implementation of the Black Sea Initiative; second, to removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer," said Guterres. "I am fully committed -- along with the entire system -- to the achievement of both these essential objectives," he said. The initial duration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from Black Sea ports, is 120 days and expires on November 19. The parties had agreed that the deal could be extended automatically on the condition that no party objects. The Russian announcement on Saturday of the suspension of its participation in the deal had dampened hopes for its renewal. Russia announced on Wednesday that it will resume its participation, after days of diplomatic engagement. Guterres had to alter his travel plan to focus on this issue. The world needs safe and unimpeded navigation for exports of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizer from Ukraine through the Black Sea, and the world needs concerted efforts to urgently address the global fertilizer market crunch and make full use of Russian export capacity, said Guterres. "Higher fertilizer prices are already affecting farmers around the world. We cannot allow global fertilizer accessibility problems to morph into a global food shortage," he said. Over the past few days, the world has come to understand and appreciate the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative -- for stemming the food crisis, for easing prices and pressures on people around the world, for reducing the risks of hunger, poverty and instability, said Guterres, referring to Russia's suspension of its participation in the initiative. "The Black Sea Grain Initiative is making a difference ... As of today, 10 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been shipped through the Black Sea corridor. It has taken just three months to reach this milestone," he said. Despite all the obstacles, "the beacon of hope in the Black Sea is still shining," he said. Guterres also hailed the signing of an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. "It is a critical first step that paves the way for the unimpeded delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid and the resumption of public services. The human cost of this conflict has been devastating," he said. "I urge all Ethiopians to seize this opportunity for peace and I pledge the full support of the ." The rescue of the Black Sea Initiative and the signing of the Ethiopian peace agreement demonstrate the power of multilateralism in action and the value of discrete but determined diplomacy, said Guterres. "We must never give up in the cause of peace and advancing the values of the . That is the spirit that every country must bring to the UN Climate Conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt," he said. must be the place to rebuild trust and re-establish the ambition needed to avoid driving our planet over the climate cliff, he said. In the last few weeks, report after report has painted a clear and bleak picture: emissions are still growing at record levels. Instead of going down 45 percent by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions are on course to rise by 10 percent. Meanwhile, temperatures are on course to rise by as much as 2.8 degrees -- with the present policies in place -- by the end of the century, said Guterres. "And that means our planet is on course for reaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible and forever bake in catastrophic temperature rise. We need to move from tipping points to turning points for hope," he said. That means urgently increasing ambition and trust, especially between North and South. Specifically, it is time for a historic pact between the developed and emerging economies -- a pact in which developed countries deliver on the commitment made in Paris and make additional efforts to reduce emissions in line with the 1.5-degree goal, and a pact in which wealthier countries provide financial and technical assistance -- along with support from multilateral development banks and technology companies -- to help emerging economies speed their renewable energy transition, said Guterres. " must be the place to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap. It must put us back on track to cutting emissions, boosting climate resilience and adaptation, keeping the promise on climate finance and addressing loss and damage from climate change," he said. "Getting concrete results on loss and damage is the litmus test of the commitment of governments to help close all these gaps ... There is no way anyone can argue there is no loss and no damage. The world must come together to support developing countries and vulnerable communities," he said. COP27 must lay the foundations for much faster, bolder climate action now and in this crucial decade, when the global climate fight will be won or lost. All nations and all people must be on board in these make-or-break next years, starting at COP27, he said. --IANS int/sha (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.) UN Secretary-General condemns the attack on former Prime Minister and hopes it will not affect the situation in the country further, his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms, any political violence, any violence, against politicians or their supporters," he said and called for a "full, transparent investigation" into the attack on Khan. "We very much hope that this will not create further challenges to the political situation in Pakistan," he added. Khan, who is the chairman of the opposition Tehreek-e-Imran (PTI) party, was injured in Wazirabad on Thursday when he was hit in his leg by gunfire while leading a march on the nation's capital. One person was killed in the attack and at least five were hurt. (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis) --IANS arul/sha (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 Vienna-based Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at three locations it had inspected in . "Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations," IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Wednesday. A team of IAEA inspectors also collected environmental samples for analysis at the inspected locations and soon will report on their results, Grossi said. The UN nuclear watchdog sent its experts to the war-torn nation at the request of the Ukrainian government after made allegations about activities related to the possible production of "dirty bombs" in certain locations. The IAEA team inspected the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kiev, as well as two facilities in Dnipropetrovsk region -- the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant, and Production Association Pivdenny Machine-Building Plant. In his nightly address to the nation on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "We had invited the IAEA to check, we gave them full freedom of action at the relevant facilities, and we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in has created or is creating any 'dirty bombs'. "And the only thing that is dirty in our region now is the heads of those in Moscow who, unfortunately, seized control of the Russian state and are terrorizing and the whole world." Dirty bombs contain radioactive material, such as uranium, which is scattered through the air when its conventional explosive detonates. They do not need to contain highly refined radioactive material, as is used in a nuclear bomb, which makes them cheaper and easier to manoeuvre. --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.) Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted from the office in April this year, addressed the nation on Friday, a day after he was shot in the leg during a rally in the Wazirabad area of the eastern province. While speaking during the press conference, Khan said that he already knew that there are forces that may try to attack him. Referring to a speech made by him on September 24, Khan said, "I already came to know that there will be an attack on me," adding that he has struggled from among the common people, who lent him their support. He said, "my party was not made under a military establishment. I have struggled for 22 years. I have come from within the general people. I know about the four people who have made the plan to kill me that script was played in life in Wazirabad yesterday." On Friday, Geo News reported that police have arrested two more suspects involved in the attack after the prime suspect provided them with the information. Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry too said in a series of tweets that initial reports suggested, "there was more than one attacker." Khan's PTI party has blamed the government and the country's powerful spy agency ISI for the attack. The government has rejected the allegations and condemned the attack. Khan, 70, had been holding a miles-long protest march against what he has described as the "imported government" and call for fresh general . He and his party had launched the march to Islamabad from Lahore on October 28, leading it atop a container mounted on a truck. The attack on Khan, about 200 km from Islamabad, reignited the chilling memories of the assassination of former Prime Minister during a rally in 2007. Israel's caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday congratulated former PM on victory in the national election as final results showed that pro-Netanyahu bloc had got 64 Knesset seats, Times of reported. Lapid told Netanyahu he's instructed all departments of the Prime Minister's Office to prepare for an orderly transfer of power. "The State of is above any political consideration. I wish Netanyahu luck for the sake of the people of and the State of Israel," Yair Lapid said, according to Times of Israel. Netanyahu and his allies have won enough seats to form a majority government in Israel's parliament. The result will not just secure Netanyahu's comeback but underscore the country's rightward shift, reported NBC News. "We have received a huge vote of confidence and we are on the verge of a very big victory," Netanyahu had told his supporters during an early morning speech at a victory rally in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Israelis headed to the ballots in the unprecedented fifth election since 2019, as the country's political system has been immobilised for almost four years. The parliament has 120 seats. Over 6.7 million eligible voters cast their votes in 12,495 ballots, according to figures issued by the Central Elections Committee. Some 18,000 police officers were deployed throughout the country for preventing fraud attempts, manage traffic and keep security. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, sought to return to power with his right-wing Likud party and a far-right and Jewish ultra-Orthodox coalition. Netanyahu had served as prime minister for 12 consecutive years before being ousted in June 2021 by a cross-partisan coalition led by current PM Yair Lapid. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Prime Minister on Friday said he was hit by four bullets on his right leg during the assassination attempt a day earlier, when he was leading a political march in Punjab province. Addressing the nation from the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore his first since the assassination attempt Khan said he was aware of the plot to kill him. Ill come to the details of the attack later. I got to know the day before [the attack] that in Wazirabad or Gujrat, they planned to kill me, the 70-year-old chief of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party claimed. I was hit by four bullets, Khan said. He said the failed assassination attempt against him will push the people of to take to the streets like in Sri Lanka. Either we will have a peaceful revolution or a bloody one, People will take to the streets like Sri Lanka. There will be chaos. A senior leader from Imrans party on Friday said the assassination attempt was a prelude to a well-thought-out conspiracy and alleged that three officials from Pakistans federal government and the military establishment were the masterminds of the attack. Pakistans Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the attack was a manifestation of religious extremism in the country and asserted that his party considered the ex-premier as a political rival and not an enemy. Imran Khans party has announced that it will hold countrywide protests after Friday prayers to press for snap elections, a demand of Imran himself. Meanwhile, police in Pakistans Punjab province arrested two more suspects, who they believe sold the pistol and bullets for PKR 20,000 to Naveed Mohammad Basheer, the assailant who tried to assassinate Imran, according to a media report on Friday. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey on Thursday to set aside its reservations over Finland and Sweden's efforts to join the military alliance, insisting the Nordic neighbours have done enough to satisfy Ankara's concerns about their membership. Finland and Sweden applied for membership of the world's biggest security alliance in the months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February. In doing so, they abandoned longstanding policies of military nonalignment out of concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin might target them next. But Turkey, which joined in 1952, is still not ready to endorse them after months of trilateral talks. The Turkish government wants them to crack down on individuals it considers terrorists, such as supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and people suspected of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. Finland and Sweden have delivered on their commitment to Turkey. They have become strong partners in our joint fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, Stoltenberg told reporters in Istanbul after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. It's time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of . Their accession will make our alliance stronger and our people safer, Stoltenberg said. In these dangerous times, it's even more important to finalize their accession, to prevent any misunderstanding or miscalculation in Moscow. However, Cavusoglu said the schedule for accepting them as new members would depend on when Turkey's demands, agreed upon in a joint memorandum, were fulfilled. The 10-article memorandum was unveiled ahead of a NATO summit in June after Turkey had threatened for weeks to veto Sweden and Finland's applications. These two countries must take important steps on combatting terror because one of the biggest threats NATO is facing today is terrorism, the Turkish minister said. It's not possible to say right now that the two countries have completely implemented all aspects of the memorandum, he added, while stressing that Turkey supports NATO's enlargement. Cavusoglu said Turkey sees the new government in Sweden as more determined to fulfill the memorandum signed in Madrid. The new Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is scheduled to visit Ankara on Nov 8, he said. Turkey also has called for the lifting of an arms embargo imposed following its 2019 incursion into northern Syria to combat Kurdish militants. Sweden last month said it would lift the embargo, a step seen as aiming to secure Ankara's approval. Cavusoglu acknowledged Sweden had changed laws and welcomed the lifting of the arms embargo as an important step. But he warned the changes must be permanent and Sweden must not reverse any steps once it secures NATO membership. But Stoltenberg, in the strongest public statement of support that he has made for the candidates while on Turkish soil, was adamant they have done enough. I recognize your concerns. At the same time, it is clear Finland and Sweden have delivered on the memorandum and are committed to the long-term partnership with Turkey, the former Norwegian prime minister told Cavusoglu. Cavusoglu also underlined that Turkey doesn't have any major issues with Finland but because the Nordic countries want their membership process to go in tandem, the two were receiving the same treatment from Ankara. All 30 NATO member countries must officially ratify the accession protocol for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. Only the parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have yet to do so. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is willing to walk away from a deal with SA to re-balance their alliance amid concerns the French carmaker wants to license hundreds of jointly developed patented technologies to other players, including new Chinese partner Geely. While both sides appeared near a final agreement two weeks ago, Nissans board and management have recently expressed concern over Renaults plans for the intellectual property. It includes some 500 joint technologies among them expertise in areas such as autonomous driving, hybrid powertrains, solid-state batteries, safety systems, battery-management software and other know-how critical for developing self-driving, electrified vehicles. Nissan sees risks in Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meos plan to merge the French carmakers combustion-engine operations with Chinas Zheijiang Geely Holding Group, and are seeking assurances that key technologies will be protected under any deal with the Hangzhou-based automaker, owner of Volvo and Lotus car brands. Makoto Uchida, Nissans CEO, said he was surprised there is speculation the IP discussion may derail the wider deal, but acknowledged technology was a very important core asset for the alliance. Talks are ongoing, he added. Of course there are areas where we have to say this is our core technology, and that needs to be protected, Uchida said in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday. Thats my duty as CEO. This was always going to be contentious, says RBC analyst Tom Narayan. Theres politics involved, theres shared technology, I understand Nissans concerns. Talks have been underway for months to reshape the two-decade-old alliance, which gives greater control over its Japanese partner. Renault is scheduled to speak to investors on November 8, when de Meo is expected to give an update on financial targets and the split-up plan. Renault, our partner, is going to have this capital markets day and thats what we have to support, Uchida said. And I want that to be successful. Ghosns Arrest The shift in ownership would alleviate an imbalance thats been a source of friction for years. Despite Renaults outsized stake, its the smaller carmaker with 2.7 million of vehicle sales in 2021, compared with 4 million for Nissan. The 2018 arrest of Carlos Ghosn, who was sent in to run the carmaking alliance when Renault rescued Nissan two decades ago, planted the early seeds for the re-balancing. The former chairman and chief executive officer, who denied the charges, escaped Japan in December 2019 while out on bail and is currently in Lebanon. Although de Meo has indicated that hes willing to split up Renault with or without a deal with Nissan, the Japanese company disengaging might make it harder to get the signoff of the French state -- which owns 15% of Renault and holds double voting rights -- for such a transformative move. Nissans concerns mean its unlikely an agreement on the re-balancing will be announced as planned in mid-November, when directors from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the junior member of the three-way alliance, are scheduled to meet in Tokyo, the people said. Great Technology, Great Assets Another sticking point is the valuation of Ampere. The lack of a specific figure backed by data is making it difficult for Nissan to determine how much to invest for a stake in the new entity, which Renault wants to list publicly, one of the people said. Uchida declined to comment on the timing of any announcement, or on the valuation of Ampere. Under Renaults plans, Ampere would be based in France and employ about 10,000 people by 2023. The entity with Geely, code-named Horse, would also have a staff of about 10,000. We have been discussing how we can make the alliance of each individual company stronger under the difficult circumstances we are facing, Uchida said. Thats how it started. We also wanted to speak about how the alliance could maximize the great technology and great assets that both have. PTI leader Asad Umar announced that the party will launch countrywide protests after Friday prayers, adding that demonstrations will continue till the party Chairman Imran Khan's demands are met. "Today, after Friday prayers, protests will be held till Imran Khan's demands are not met. Countrywide protests to continue till demands are met," tweeted Umar. His announcement comes a day after Khan was shot at during his long march. The former Prime Minister had been shot in the leg "three to four" times in the alleged assassination attempt. Following the incident, Umar had said that Khan suspects three people -- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military officer -- to be behind the assassination attempt on him, Geo News reported. " has said that he had the information beforehand that these people might be involved in the assassination attempt on him," he said. Asad, quoting the PTI chairman, demanded that all the three people should be removed from their offices. The PTI leader added that Khan has warned that if these officials are not removed from their officers, then the party would hold countrywide protests as cannot run in this manner anymore. "If the demands are not met, then all the party's workers are awaiting Khan's call, and when he does give that call, then protests will take place across the country." --IANS san/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.) House Speaker said her husband, Paul Pelosi, was released from the hospital Thursday after his treatment for injuries from a violent assault last week in which he was attacked with a hammer. Pelosi said, Paul remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home." Law enforcement officers who responded to the break-in early last Friday witnessed Paul Pelosi being struck in the head with the hammer at least once, according to court documents. Officials said the assault was captured on the officers' body cameras. Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Speaker Pelosi said her husband was grateful to the 911 operator who directed police to the family residence, emergency responders and the entire hospital staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment." The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world," she said. Paul Pelosi's release from the hospital comes as a federal official says the Canadian man accused of breaking into their home and attacking him should have been flagged by immigration officials and blocked from getting back into the U.S. after overstaying his authorized entry more than two decades ago. David DePape, 42, legally entered the in 2000 and later left the country and returned a few times, including entering in March 2008 at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Most Canadians are not required to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. as tourists and can stay for up to six months. The official said it was unclear why U.S. authorities admitted DePape after he overstayed his entry in 2000. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about DePape's entry to the after he violated immigration law. It acknowledged in a statement that DePape was allowed into San Diego from Tijuana on March 8, 2008, but didn't address any other entries. San Francisco police said DePape confronted Paul Pelosi in the family's Pacific Heights home Oct. 28 and demanded to know where the House Speaker was. DePape pleaded not guilty to state charges on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. His public defender, Adam Lipson, said he looks forward to providing him with a vigorous legal defense. DePape faces state charges of attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He also faces federal charges including attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official. His state case will continue Friday, though the defendant will not appear in the courtroom. An arraignment on federal charges has not been scheduled. In the state court filing, prosecutors detailed the attack in stark terms, saying Paul Pelosi, 82, was knocked unconscious by the hammer attack and woke up in a pool of his own blood. DePape grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, but relocated to California to be with a girlfriend, stepfather Gene DePape told The Associated Press last week. He has three children with two women, he said. Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14 and had been a quiet boy. DePape's ex-girlfriend, Bay Area nudist activist Oxane Gypsy Taub, told the San Francisco Chronicle she met DePape in Hawaii in 2000. The pair lived in Berkeley and had two children during their 15-year relationship. U.S. officials have long struggled to quantify let alone track down people who enter the country legally and overstay visas, believed to be about 40% of the population who are in the country illegally. There were 684,499 visa overstays from October 2019 through September 2020 among visitors who arrived by plane or ship more than the population of Vermont or Wyoming according to the Department of Homeland Security's latest annual report. The total number of overstays is much larger but has not been quantified because it doesn't include how many people arrive by land, the primary way for Canadians and Mexicans to enter the . The cost and technological hurdles to develop a checkout system at congested land crossings with Canada and Mexico are enormous. In the 12-month period through September 2020, more than 52,000 Canadians who came to the U.S. by air or sea had overstayed their legally authorized entry. Despite the challenges, the U.S. official said DePape's overstay should have been noted in immigration records, which, in theory, should have prevented authorities from admitting him. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Thursday congratulated for his success in the Israeli general elections and said he looks forward to continuing their joint efforts to deepen the India- strategic partnership. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid Thursday conceded defeat in the general elections and congratulated opposition leader Netanyahu, whose coalition of right-wing parties secured a comfortable majority in parliament to form the next government and end the political impasse plaguing the country. "Mazel Tov my friend @netanyahu for your electoral success. I look forward to continuing our joint efforts to deepen the India- strategic partnership," Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet. Modi also thanked Lapid for giving priority to the India- strategic partnership. "I hope to continue our fruitful exchange of ideas for the mutual benefit of our peoples," Modi said. Modi also put out tweets in Hebrew with the same message. With 99 per cent of the ballots counted, the Netanyahu-led right-wing bloc has taken a comfortable lead with 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset, paving the way for his triumphant return to power. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korea's military said it scrambled fighter jets after detecting about 180 North Korean warplanes flying north of the military border over four hours on Friday. The North Korean aircraft flew north of the so-called tactical measure line, drawn to up 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), South Korea's military said in a statement. scrambled 80 aircraft, including, F-35A stealth fighters, in response. About 240 aircraft participating in the Vigilant Storm air exercises with the United States continued the drills, the military said. A flight of 10 North Korean warplanes made similar maneuvers last month, prompting to scramble jets. The maneuvers came after fired more than 80 rounds of artillery into the sea overnight, and the launch of multiple missiles into the sea on Thursday, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The launches prompted the United States and to extend air drills that have angered Pyongyang. (Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Inc. was sued over Elon Musks plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at the social-media platform, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of federal and California law. A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court. intends to start cutting staff Friday, the company said in an email to employees. Musk plans to get rid of half the workforce, making good on plans to slash costs at the platform the acquired for $44 billion last month, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice. Also read: 'Return home': Twitter to start laying off employees today, shuts office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act, and restricting the company from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation. We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights, Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursdays complaint, said in an interview. Liss-Riordan sued Tesla Inc. over similar claims in June when the electric-car maker headed by Musk laid off about 10% of its workforce. Tesla won a ruling from a federal judge in Austin forcing the workers in that case to pursue their claims in closed-door arbitration instead of in open court. Musk described the Tesla lawsuit as trivial during a discussion with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum in June. We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees, Liss-Riordan said of Musk. It appears that hes repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla. The case is Cornet v. Twitter Inc., 22-cv-06857, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of engaging in energy terrorism after Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy network left millions of residents without power. About 4.5 million people were without electricity across the country, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 apartments in the capital alone did not have on Friday. I appeal to all residents of the capital: save electricity as much as possible, because the situation remains difficult! the mayor wrote on Telegram. State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that emergency blackouts would be taking place across Kyiv. Russia has carried out missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power facilities, particularly in recent weeks. In his address, Zelenskyy described the targeting of energy infrastructure as a sign of weakness. The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy," he said. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way. Zelenskyy's spoke soon after Moscow-appointed authorities in southern Ukraine's occupied Kherson region said Russian troops were likely to leave the city of Kherson a claim that Ukrainian officials greeted with some skepticism. The Kremlin-installed regional administration already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city, citing the threat of increased shelling as Ukraine's army pursues a counteroffensive to reclaim the region. Authorities removed the Russian flag from the Kherson administration building on Thursday, a week after the regional government moved out. Ukraine's southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, said the flag's removal could be a ruse and we should not hurry to rejoice. She told Ukrainian television that some Russian military personnel are disguising themselves as civilians. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported shooting down drones launched by Russian forces. Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said eight drones were shot down in the Nikopol area, which was also subjected to artillery shelling. Another drone was shot down over the western Lviv region, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said. Local Ukrainian officials said Russian forces shelled the regions of Mykolaiv in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast overnight, although no casualties were reported. The commander of Ukraine's armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Thursday night that Russian forces had tripled the intensity of hostilities on certain areas of the front and were carrying out up to 80 attacks every day. (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 UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a resolution to demand an end to the decades-old . The resolution was adopted on Thursday with 185 votes in favour, 2 against, and 2 abstentions, reports Xinhua news agency. While the US and Israel voted against the draft, Brazil and Ukraine abstained. The resolution expresses concern about the continued promulgation and application of laws and regulations, such as the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, the extraterritorial effects of which affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction, and the freedom of trade and navigation. It calls on all states to refrain from promulgating and applying such laws and measures, and urges states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime. The resolution also requests the UN Secretary-General to prepare a report on the implementation of this resolution and to submit it to the General Assembly at its next annual session. Thursday's resolution was the 30th in a row on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the US on Cuba. First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the the two countries except Havana and capping remittances Cuban-Americans can send to their families back home. The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against the island nation remains largely in place. --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.) The US and jointly warned on on Thursday that use of any kind of nuclear weapon against Seoul or other regional allies would result in the end of Kim Jong Un's regime, as continued to rattle the peninsula with escalating missile tests. has launched more than two dozen missiles over the last two days in response to US-South Korean military exercises that began on Monday. The launches have sent South Koreans scrambling for shelter and further frayed the nerves of a population already mourning the loss of more than 150 people at a horrific Halloween crowd crush. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup, after meeting on Thursday at the Pentagon, released a joint statement saying they strongly condemned North Korea's escalating military flexing, including ballistic missile test launches, multiple rocket launches and coastal artillery. Any use of nuclear weapons, including lower-yield tactical nuclear devices against Seoul or other regional allies such as Japan, would result in the end of Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance, Lee said at a joint news conference with Austin. The US and will work on response options towards all possible nuclear use scenarios by North Korea, Lee said. Austin said North Korea's increased aggression would not result in more US troops or assets, such as an additional aircraft carrier, being permanently relocated to the region but that Kim would see a greater US military presence rotating there. In September the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan visited Korea for the first time in five years, Austin said. Kim will "see assets move in and out, Austin said. In its launches on Thursday, fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, drawing swift condemnation from the White House, which accused of destabilizing the security situation in the region. The US and announced that the Vigilant Storm military exercise, which was scheduled to run through Friday, would be extended indefinitely. Tensions between the US and North Korea have also increased over newly declassified reports that it is providing artillery for Russia to use against Ukraine. North Korea was shipping an undisclosed number of artillery shells to Russia but trying to make it appear as though they're being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. North Korea has reacted to past US-South Korean military drills with missile tests, which was one reason former President Donald Trump called for the exercises to cease for more than a year as he unsuccessfully negotiated with the North Korean leader to end his pursuit of nuclear weapons. Large-scale US-South Korean military exercises resumed this year. This fall's Vigilant Storm which involves more than 1,600 US and South Korean flights involving about 240 warplanes is the largest such exercise to date, according to the Pentagon. Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the North's Workers' Party who is considered a confidant of Kim Jong Un, has called the US-South Korean air force drills aggressive and provocative. If the US and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the special means of the (North's) armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay, Pak said, in an apparent reference to his country's nuclear weapons. North Korea in recent months has been testing a string of nuclear-capable missiles and it adopted a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a broad range of situations. Some experts still doubt North Korea would use nuclear weapons first in the face of US and South Korean forces. The ballistic missile tests on Wednesday included at least 23 missiles as well as about 100 artillery shells that were fired into an eastern maritime buffer zone. South Korea's military said the 23 weapons were all short-range ballistic missiles or suspected surface-to-air missiles. One of the ballistic missiles was flying toward South Korea's Ulleung island before it eventually landed 167 kilometers (104 miles) northwest of the island. South Korea's military issued an air raid alert on the island, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korean media published photos of island residents moving to underground shelters. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at least two ballistic missiles fired by North Korea showed a possibly irregular trajectory. This suggests the missiles were the North's highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile, which was modelled on Russia's Iskander missile. In response to the missile barrage, South Korea quickly launched its own missiles in the same border area. (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.) When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists descend on Sharm el-Sheikh in next week for talks on tackling climate change, don't expect them to part the Red Sea or other miracles that would make huge steps in curbing global warming. Each year there are high hopes for the two-week United Nations climate gathering and, almost inevitably, disappointment when it doesn't deliver another landmark pact like the one agreed 2015 in Paris. But those were different days, marked by a spirit of cooperation between the world's two biggest polluters the United States and China as well as a global realisation that failure to reach an agreement would put humanity on a self-chosen track to oblivion. This November the geopolitical tiles have shifted: a devastating war in Ukraine, skyrocketing energy and food prices, and growing enmity between the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other make for difficult conditions at a gathering that requires cooperation and consensus. There's a lot of high and low expectations around this COP, a lot of mix of ambition and fatalism, said Avinash Persaud, special envoy for the Barbados prime minister. Here's what to look out for during the 27th Conference of the Parties, or COP27, from Nov. 6-18 and why it might still end up being a success. SCIENCE WARNINGS Scientists are more concerned about global warming than three decades ago, when governments first came together to discuss the problem because the pace of warming in the past decade is 33% faster than in the 1990s. Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, while tangible impacts from climate change are already being felt around the world. But there is some progress. Before Paris, the world was heading for 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 Fahrenheit) of warming by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times. Recent forecasts have that down to 2.6 C (4.7 F), thanks to measures taken or firm commitments governments have already made. That's far above the 1.5 C (2.7 F) limit countries agreed to seven years ago, however, and the time for keeping that target is fast running out. Researchers say the world has already warmed by 1.2 C (2.2F) and capping temperatures at 1.5 C would require emissions to drop by 43% by the end of the decade, a highly ambitious goal. To get to the less ambitious 2 C (3.6 F) goal emissions have to fall 27%. The 1.5 degrees is in intensive care and the machines are shaking. So, it is in high danger. But it is still possible, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. My objective in is to make sure that we gather enough political will to make this possibility really moving forward, to make the machines work ... We're getting close to moments where tipping points might, at a certain moment, make it irreversibly impossible to achieve. Let's avoid it at all costs. ENERGY SCRAMBLE Prices for oil, coal and natural gas have jumped since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some countries have responded by trying to tap new sources of fossil fuel. This has raised concerns about governments backsliding on their commitments to cut emissions, including the agreement at last year's climate talks to phase down the use of coal and sharply reduce the amount of methane a powerful greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere. At the same time, rising fossil fuel prices have made renewable energy more competitive. Building solar and wind power plants remains more expensive for developing countries though. To help them cut their emissions quickly, rich nations are negotiating aid projects known as just transition energy partnerships', or JET-Ps, with several major emerging economies including Indonesia and India that could be finalised during or shortly after . CLIMATE FINANCE One of the big sticking points in past negotiations concerned the financial support poor countries receive from rich nations to cope with climate change. A deadline to provide USD 100 billion annually by 2020 was missed and now looks set to be achieved only next year. Future funding needs are likely to be in the trillions, not billions, said Mohamed Nasr, Egypt's lead negotiator. The gap on finance is huge," he said, noting that half the population of Africa doesn't yet have access to electricity, much less clean energy. Developed countries including the United States have also yet to make good on a pledge to double the amount they provide for adaptation, and make that half of the overall funding. Discussions on climate finance also include the highly contentious issue of countries being compensated for the irreparable harm they've suffered as a result of global warming. Big polluters have strongly opposed demands for loss and damage' payments in the past, but observers say they've seen a softening of positions recently, including by the United States. I think that people are not expecting miracles in terms of a huge fund just miraculously appearing, but they are expecting a credible, meaningful pathway, said Inger Andersen, head of the U.N. Environment Programme. This would give countries that have done very little to cause the climate crisis but are on the front line of dealing with it "something to hold on to, she said. ACTIVIST VOICES Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is not coming to this year's gathering and recently called the U.N. process a scam. Other activists have also voiced frustration at the slow pace of negotiations, given the scale of the threat posed by climate change. But Harjeet Singh of Climate Action Network said there is no other space where all countries are equal. "Tuvalu theoretically is as powerful as the U.S. and Malawi as powerful as the European Union, he said of the talks. For us as civil society it's also a place to call out these countries, to call their bluff, to put a spotlight on those polluters and raise our voices. University of Maryland social scientist Dana Fisher, who studies the environmental movement, said given Egypt's authoritarian government and an escalation of in-your-face tactics by frustrated protestors, especially youth, she would not be surprised if there are clashes. There's going to be a vanguard of them who are going to be willing to break the law and engage in probably what will start out as civil disobedience, peaceful civil disobedience, Fisher said. And they're probably going to get beaten up. And it's going to be very good for mobilizing sympathizers. Egypt has insisted that campaigners will have full opportunity of participation, of activism, of demonstration, of voicing that opinion. EYE ON AFRICA The gathering in Egypt will be the first time since 2016 that U.N. climate talks have taken place in Africa. Experts say it is important the continent gets more attention, given how heavily it is affected by rising temperatures. If we look at the 50 countries that are most vulnerable to climate change impacts and who have the least resilience, these are low income countries and most of them are in Africa," said Preety Bhandari of the World Resources Institute. "So it is fortuitous that we are having this particular COP in Africa to highlight what the vulnerable countries are asking from the climate regime. Campaigners say that recognising the challenges Africa faces and prioritising the needs of vulnerable countries is essential for a successful outcome 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.) The European Securities and Authority (ESMA), the regulator of the (EU), has withdrawn the recognition granted to six Indian clearing corporation due to no cooperation arrangements between ESMA and Indian regulators, which include Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The six clearing corporationscentral counterparties (CCPs), as ESMA calls itare the Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), Indian Clearing Corporation Limited (ICCL), NSE Clearing Limited (NSCCL), Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing (MCXCCL), India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Limited (IICC) and NSE Clearing Corporation (NICCL). The unprecedented move would prevent EU-based banks, governed by ESMA, from dealing in the domestic currency, commodity and equities market. Some of these banks include BNP Paribas, Deustche Bank and Societe Generale. Most of these banks are active players in the domestic market and clear with all the six CCPs barred by ESMA. ESMA has, however, said that it will defer the application of the withdrawal decisions until April 30, 2023 to avoid any adverse impacts on EU market participants. A release by ESMA said the decision to de-recognise the CCPs is on account of non-compliance of certain provisions of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). After conducting its assessment, ESMA established that not all of the cumulative conditions under EMIR for the recognition of these six TC-CCPs are met, as no cooperation arrangements (compliant with Article 25(7) of EMIR) have been concluded between ESMA and each of the relevant Indian authorities, i.e. RBI, and IFSCA. Therefore, the condition under point (c) of Article 25(2) of EMIR is not met, ESMA said in a release on October 31. As a result, ESMA concludes that these TC-CCPs cannot continue to be recognised in the under the currently applicable EMIR regime. As of the date of application of the withdrawal decisions, these TC-CCPs will no longer be able to provide services to clearing members and trading venues established in the EU, the release added. Post-April 30, European banks will either have to discontinue their arrangements with Indian CCPs or will have to set aside 50 times more capital. People in the know said Indian authorities may look to hammer out a solution over the next five months to ensure there is a status quo. This could entail signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ESMA and the Indian regulators. However, the MoU might give ESMA powers to monitor and supervise CCPs established in India. According to reports, Indian regulators are circumspect over providing a foreign regulator any authority over domestic institutions. Article 25(7) of EMIR requires the establishment of cooperation arrangements as a precondition for recognition by ESMA of third-country CCPs to provide clearing services to clearing members or trading venues established in the EU. It requires to set forth practical arrangements and mechanisms to facilitate the exercise by ESMA of certain of its powers and duties under EMIR in line with the laws applicable to ESMA. In September 2020, ESMA and Bank of England (BoE) had signed a MoU for cooperation on the monitoring and supervision of CCPs established in the UK. Punjab & Sind Bank is quoting at Rs 18.5, up 8.19% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 3.06% in last one year as compared to a 0.12% jump in NIFTY and a 17.17% jump in the Nifty Pharma index. Punjab & Sind Bank is up for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 18.5, up 8.19% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.03% on the day, quoting at 18047.25. The Sensex is at 60734.47, down 0.17%. Punjab & Sind Bank has gained around 18.97% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma index of which Punjab & Sind Bank is a constituent, has gained around 16.8% in last one month and is currently quoting at 3496.15, up 1.1% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 54.25 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 3.94 lakh shares in last one month. The PE of the stock is 10.82 based on TTM earnings ending June 22. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Steel Ltd is quoting at Rs 103.25, up 1.23% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is down 23.14% in last one year as compared to a 0.12% fall in NIFTY and a 7.77% fall in the Nifty Media index. Tata Steel Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 103.25, up 1.23% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.03% on the day, quoting at 18047.25. The Sensex is at 60734.47, down 0.17%. Tata Steel Ltd has dropped around 0.29% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Media index of which Tata Steel Ltd is a constituent, has dropped around 4.57% in last one month and is currently quoting at 6068.75, up 2.65% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 344.15 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 402.89 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark November futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 104.05, up 1.56% on the day. Tata Steel Ltd is down 23.14% in last one year as compared to a 0.12% fall in NIFTY and a 7.77% fall in the Nifty Media index. The PE of the stock is 5.09 based on TTM earnings ending September 22. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vodafone Idea fell 1.98% to Rs 8.40 after the debt-ridden telecom operator reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 7,595.5 crore in Q2 FY23 as against a net loss of Rs 7,132.3 crore recorded in the same period last year. Revenue during the quarter increased by 12.8% to Rs 10,614.6 crore in the second quarter. The teleco had posted a revenue of Rs 9,406.4 crore in Q2 FY22. EBITDA improved by 6.1% to Rs 4,097.5 crore in Q2 FY23 from Rs 3,862.9 crore in Q2 FY22. EBITDA margin was 38.6% in Q2 FY23 as against 41.1% in Q2 FY22. The company recorded a pre-tax loss of Rs 7,591.4 crore in the second quarter, which is slightly higher than the pre-tax loss of Rs 7,128.3 crore reported in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) as of 30 September 2022 stood at Rs 2,20,320 crore, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,36,650 crore (including Rs 17,260 crore towards spectrum acquired in recent spectrum auction) and AGR liability of Rs 68,590 crore that are due to the Government, and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs. 15,080 crore. Total gross debt as of 30 September 2021 was Rs 1,94,780 crore. Cash & cash equivalents were at Rs 190 crore as of 30 September 2022 as against Rs 250 crore as of 30 September 2021. The company said that it continued to focus on expanding our high speed broadband network coverage and capacity. It also continued to refarm 2G/3G spectrum to expand its 4G coverage and capacity as well as upgrade its core and transmission network. The firm have shut down approximately 19,000 3G sites during the quarter while it added approximately 8,500 4G sites. The company's overall broadband site count stood at 444,228 as of 30 September 2022 as against 450,481 as of 30 September 2021. Its 4G network covers over 1 billion Indians as of 30 September 2022. ARPU improved to Rs 131, up 2% QoQ from Rs 128 in Q1FY23. On a YoY basis, ARPU witnessed strong growth of 19.5% aided by tariff hikes and migration of subscribers to unlimited plans. The subscriber base declined to 234.4 million as against 240.4 million in Q1 FY23 and 253 million in Q2 FY22. The 4G subscriber base, however, continued to grow and with 1.5 million 4G customers added in Q2, and accordingly 4G subscriber base stood at 120.6 million. The company continued to witness high data usage per broadband customer at approximately 15.0 GB per month with the total data traffic witnessing healthy sequential growth of 5.4%. Blended subscriber churn for the quarter was higher at 4.3% as against 3.5% in Q1 FY23. In the recently concluded spectrum auction, Vodafone Idea acquired mid band 5G spectrum (3300 MHz band) in its 17 priority circles, mmWave 5G spectrum (26 GHz band) in 16 circles and incremental 4G spectrum in 3 circles of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab. The total commitment for the spectrum acquired in this auction is Rs 18,790 crore, with annual instalment of Rs. 1,680 crore over 20 years. Payment of first annual instalment has been made post which spectrum has been allocated. ATC India is one of the largest infrastructure service provider for the company and both entities have a strong long-term relationship. In the spirit of this partnership, the company said that ATC India has agreed to subscribe to OCDs amounting to Rs 1,600 crore. These funds will be used to pay certain agreed amounts owed to ATC India under the master lease agreements and, to the extent of remainder, for general corporate purposes. Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea, said We are pleased to report fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth and 4G subscriber addition. Such performance is primarily driven by the continued increase in 4G subscriber base on the back of superior data and voice experience offered by Vi GIGAnet. In the recently held India Mobile Congress (IMC), we showcased a wide range of 5G offerings for our enterprise and consumers on the Vi 5G Live network. Our board has recently approved issuance of optionally convertible debentures amounting to Rs 16 billion to ATC India. We continue to remain engaged with our lenders and investors for further fund raising to make required investments for network expansion and 5G rollout. Vodafone Idea is an Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group partnership. It is amongst India's leading telecom service provider. The company provides pan India Voice and Data services across 2G, 3G and 4G platforms. The company holds large spectrum portfolio including mid band 5G spectrum in 17 circles and mmWave 5G spectrum in 16 circles. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This article is prompted by two simultaneous but independent events. One is the editorial view of this newspaper on what India should do when it assumes the rotational presidency of the G20 in 2023. Chief Minister on Friday said the Gujarat model of development should be debunked and that of Rajasthan's should be adopted nationwide. The Congress leader also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to study various social security and welfare schemes of the government and implement them nationally. He was speaking to media persons in a circuit house in Baran. He named Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme, Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and Anuprati Scheme for nationwide implementation. "The state government has taken historical decisions on social security and welfare schemes for people. We have implemented OPS while it has not been implemented in any of the BJP-ruled states yet," the chief minister said. The BJP has only announced the pension scheme but has not implemented it, whereas the people in have started reaping benefits of the same, he said. Under the Anuprati scheme, 200 students are set to be sent abroad for higher studies by the state government, reflecting a humanitarian attitude. The central government should encourage the government, Gehlot said. The approach of the Congress-ruled Rajasthan government is positive as they adopt good works of others, whereas that of BJP is arrogant for they refuse to do the same, he said. Speaking on Gujarat polls, the chief minister said Congress would win in upcoming state assembly elections in the state as the Bharatiya Janata Party is facing anti-incumbency, compelling the prime minister to make frequent visits there. The polls in the state will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. He outrightly denied any wave of anti-incumbency in Rajasthan, saying there is a dispute within the party which takes place in every party in the country and one could only try to stop them. "If we have done something good in the state then public should again vote Congress to power so that we can perform with better financial management to bring development," Gehlot said. On Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said he does not worry about them as they are liars, dolling out heavy advertisement packages to media for publicity of their schemes. The Kejriwal-led party should not befool the country and first take care of their home in Delhi and Punjab, he said, adding APP government's condition in Punjab has become deplorable only after six months into coming into power. Congress would fight the next Rajasthan assembly elections on its past performance, Gehlot added. Rajasthan will go to polls in 2023. (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 veiled jibe at the government at the Centre, Chief Minister claimed that "prachar prasar" (propaganda) was going on with little on offer for the poorer states. Kumar, who snapped ties with the BJP two months ago, also lamented that the long-standing demand for special status to Bihar, which "all poor states should get", was not accepted. "Is anything worthwhile happening in poor states? Only propaganda is underway (Garib gurba rajyon mein kuchh ho raha hai? Jhuthe prachar prasar mein laga rahta hai)," said the septuagenarian on Thursday without taking any names. The longest-serving chief minister of Bihar, who has been pitching for a united opposition to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, was addressing a function at the CM's secretariat where he gave away letters of appointment to nearly 200 Urdu translators and stenographers. Kumar spoke at length about his government's efforts to uplift the weaker sections of the society, especially the minorities and Dalits. "But we remained hamstrung as our demand for special status, which should be granted to all states, was not met," remarked the JD(U) leader, who has long been seeking the tag. He spoke in presence of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, among others, both of whom lavished praise on him for his commitment to communal harmony. The state unit of the BJP, which has been sore since its lost power in the state, questioned the appointment of Urdu personnel as part of the 'Mahagathbandhan' government's promise of providing jobs on a large scale. "CM Nitish Kumar's intention is to restore Urdu teachers in every school. Why is there a need to employ Urdu-knowing people in the assembly? Now Urdu translators will be appointed in every police station," state BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand reacted with outrage. Alleging that "in the Muslim-dominated districts of Bihar, lives of Dalits, OBCs and EBCs get ruined", he added, "Brother, don't create a Pakistan in Bihar, go to Pakistan yourself. (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.) Agriculture Minister on Friday expressed concern over rising incidents of in four major north Indian states including and appealed them to take steps to control it. The minister said since 2018, the central government has provided funds and machines to the states for the management of incidents. is not a "political issue" and the states should work towards curbing it, he said. The minister said that PUSA decomposer, developed by the agri-research body ICAR, is effective in controlling stubble burning, and appealed to state governments as well as farmers to make use of more such machines. "Despite providing crores of rupees and 2 lakh machines, stubble burning incidents are rising and it is a cause of concern," Tomar said addressing a day-long event on 'Pusa decomposer'. Since 2018-19, the Central government has provided Rs 3,138 crore to four states -- Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana -- for the management of stubble burning. Out of which, more than Rs 1,400 crore has been given to Punjab, Rs 900 crore to Haryana, Rs 713 crore to Uttar Pradesh and Rs 6-7 crore to Delhi, he said. Some states, especially Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have done good work and are moving towards a positive direction, he said. At that time, it was said that had decomposer machines been deployed, stubble burning would have been effectively controlled. Thereafter, about two lakh machines were made available to the states, he said. These two lakh machines can help to control stubble burning, provided the states are determined, Tomar told reporters on the sidelines of the event. (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.) Navratna Defence PSU Ltd (BEL) has signed an MoU with Solutions India Pvt Ltd for co-operation in the field of broadband, push-to-talk service. The MoU aims at leveraging the complementary strengths and capabilities of BEL and Motorola, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said in a statement. "It will enable BEL and to address the needs of professional mobile radio segment users to connect their teams with greater speed and efficiency using WAVE PTX, a push-to-talk (PTT) service," it said. WAVE PTX is a network independent multimedia communication service that instantly connects cross-functional teams at the push of a button without any boundaries, it was noted. BEL has also inked an MoU with INERY, Singapore, for co-operation in the field of Blockchain technology. The objective of the MoU is to take advantage of the combined strengths and capabilities of INERY and BEL in the field of Blockchain technology. "Integrating BEL's complementary functionalities with INERY's solutions will enhance product offerings of both the companies," the statement said. BEL has signed an MoU with Bosch Global Software Technologies Pvt Ltd (BGSW) for jointly implementing projects in the areas of e-Governance, ERP and Cloud solutions. (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.) platform will start laying off its employees on Friday. In an internal email to its employees, said that the employees would get an email on Friday alerting them about the staff cuts. "We recognise that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward," the letter read. It further added, "By 9AM PST on Friday Nov 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at ." The employees who have not been laid off will be notified via an email to their work email ID. Those laid off will "receive a notification with next steps" via their personal email IDs. The platform also said it has closed its offices temporarily and suspended entry badge access. "If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," the letter said. Since the company's takeover by Elon Musk, Twitter has undergone several changes. Musk has replaced former top leadership, including former CEO Parag Agrawal. He has also fired the whole Board of Directors. In a bid to cut costs and impose new work ethics, Musk has also been open about laying people off. Media reports earlier this week stated that there was an atmosphere of "mistrust and fear" inside the company due to high job insecurity. Musk has also reportedly asked the team to launch the new $8 subscription pack by next week, giving them a tough deadline. "We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process," the letter on Thursday said. Winter smog and air toxicity have become an annual affair in Delhi. And as we speak, millions of Delhiites are struggling with it, breathing air which is laden with toxic contents. The national capitals air quality on Thursday morning worsened to the severe category, according to Central Board data. At 8 am, Delhi was Indias most polluted region. Its air quality index, or AQI, was 419 at that time. Air pollution at that level is not only a serious problem for those with existing diseases, it also affects healthy people. News reports said that people were complaining of choking and a burning sensation in their eyes. Against this backdrop, the Delhi government has implemented curbs on polluting activities under the Graded Response Action Plan, or GRAP. The overall air quality in Delhi was likely to remain in the severe category from the 3rd to the 5th of November. It was also likely to remain in the severe to very poor category on the 6th. The overall outlook from the 4th to 9th of November was that air quality would likely remain in the very poor category. This is what the Centres Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi had to say in its 3rd November bulletin. By Sunday, over a quarter of Delhis PM2.5 pollution was coming from stubble burning in neighbouring states. For some time now, paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana has been a major reason for the high pollution levels in the national capital in October and November. Farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue. This year, however, farm fires in Punjab have come in for increased criticism. On Wednesday, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted that there was no doubt that farm fires in Punjab had turned Delhi into a gas chamber. The minister also highlighted how Haryana had seen a drop in such incidents. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has blamed the Centre for rising incidents of stubble burning in Punjab. While the politicians duke it out, let us see what the data has to say. Punjab's cumulative farm fire cases between the 15th of September and first of November in 2022 rose over 18 per cent, compared to the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, Haryana saw a 31 per cent drop. And, at almost 18,000 burning events, Punjab clocked over eight times as many incidents as Haryana did during this period in 2022. These were the findings of ICAR's November 1st bulletin after monitoring paddy residue burning in India using satellite remote sensing. So, what did Haryana get right? As the state strives towards zero burning in the next few years, it adopted a multi-pronged approach to address the issue this season. Reports said Haryana carried out extensive campaigns on the ill-effects of stubble burning and promoted three particular machines that help in disposing of crop waste. The government provides farm machinery for stubble management on 80% subsidy to Custom Hiring Centers. Stubble management machines were deployed extensively in October and November in 351 identified villages in the red zone where six or more active fires were reported in the kharif 2021 season. To prevent crop residue burning and to ensure machinery available with farmers and custom hiring centres is utilised to full capacity, three officials in red zone villages and one in 753 yellow zone villages were deputed. A district level control centre reported active fire locations on a real-time basis so nodal officers on the field could immediately douse them. Farmers also get a 50 rupee per quintal incentive amount and subsidy on straw management equipment for making stubble bales. Then what about Punjab? CM Kejriwal recently said that the Centre had rejected a plan to give a 2,500-rupee per-acre cash incentive to farmers to curb stubble burning. Under the joint Delhi and Punjab government proposal, sent to the Centre in July, the two states would contribute 500 rupees each and the Centre would contribute 1,500 towards the incentive. The Centre rejected the proposal, saying that it was providing subsidised machinery to farmers for the on-site management of paddy straw. Farmers say a cash incentive would help them cover the cost of fuel used in such machines. But, are there any other reasons that Punjab cant put out the stubble fires like Haryana has? One possible solution can be giving a separate cash incentive to farmers in Haryana and Punjab every year for paddy stubble management. Authorities can measure the programme's success, and if they find that farmers have not stopped burning stubble after two to three years, they can take action against them. For such a plan to work, all the stubble burning states, Delhi and the Centre must sit down and thrash out a solution. The ideal amount of incentive, the manner in which it will be given, and the share of the states and the Centre will also need to be agreed upon. The bottom line is that a durable solution must be found to 'Gas chamber Delhi'. Whats new: Pakistan became the third country in 2022 to establish a Chinese yuan clearing arrangement and the first country in South Asia to do so. Chinas central bank signed a cooperation memorandum with the central bank of Pakistan to establish a yuan clearing arrangement in the country, the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) said Wednesday. The move will benefit enterprises and financial institutions in China and Pakistan, allowing them to use yuan for cross-border transactions and further promoting bilateral trade and investment, the PBOC said. The memorandum was signed during Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs first official visit to China since taking office in April. The two countries also signed a series of collaboration agreements covering digital economy, financial cooperation and agricultural exports. The background: Chinas central bank signed cooperation memorandums with the central banks of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Laos in September to establish Chinese yuan clearing arrangements in the two countries. Kazakhstan, Laos and Pakistan are all involved in Chinas Belt and Road initiative to link the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. As of the end of 2021, China signed bilateral currency swap agreements with 22 countries along the Belt and Road and established yuan clearing mechanisms in eight countries, the PBOC said in a report. Other countries in South America and South Asia may announce overseas yuan clearing arrangements in the future, Caixin learned from sources. Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. Fosun International aims to sell as much as $11 billion of noncore assets in the next 12 months. Fosun Pharmaceutical, the drugmaking arm of debt-laden conglomerate Fosun International Ltd., terminated its proposed acquisition of a 60% stake in one of Singapores largest operators of cancer treatment centers, the company said Wednesday night. Fosun Pharma agreed in June to buy the stake in OncoCare Medical for as much as S$218 million ($158 million). Fosun Pharma said the transaction wasnt closed because a welter of conditions couldnt be met by the Oct. 30 deadline, and the parties agreed to scuttle the deal. Ukraine Energy Infrastructure destroyed by Russia MIT Foreign ministers of world's major economies announce they established coordination mechanism to help Ukraine with critical energy, water infrastructure BERLIN (AA) The Group of Seven nations said on Friday that they will help rebuild Ukraine's critical energy and water infrastructure amid ongoing Russian air strikes. "Today we establish a G7 coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure. We look forward to the 13 December international conference in Paris aimed at supporting Ukraine's civilian resilience, organized by France and Ukraine," the foreign ministers of the worlds biggest developed economies said in a joint statement after their meeting in the German city of Muenster. "We also welcome the outcomes of the 25 October International Experts Conference in Berlin and remain committed to contribute to the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine. We will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes," the statement added. The G-7, the grouping of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the US, and Britain, also reaffirmed "its unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defense, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders." "We salute the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia's unprovoked aggression, and we are committed to helping Ukraine meet its winter preparedness needs," the ministers said. Oliver Towfigh Nia/AA Baerbock accuses Russia's Putin of 'sinking even deeper into inhumanity' amid his ongoing military attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure BERLIN (AA) Russia, Iran and China will top the agenda of the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in the western city of Muenster, the German foreign minister told journalists on Thursday. Annalena Baerbock made clear the G7 will not allow that the Russian war tactic of attacking Ukrainian civilian infrastructure will lead to the mass deaths of Ukrainians by starving and freezing them to death. She announced a coordinated plan by the G7 of leading industrial nations to provide winter aid for Ukraine. "The joint sanctions that we initiated are now being followed by joint winter aid from G7 partners," said Baerbock, adding several other countries have already announced that they will join. The G7 includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the US, and Britain. Germany will hold the presidency until the end of the year. On Iran, Baerbock criticized the government for the violent security crackdown on the protest movement. In doing so, she also justified the German government urging its citizens to leave Iran. For weeks one has been experiencing "the brutal violence with which the Iranian regime is treating its own citizens. How it beats its youth, its society, while its people are dying," she said, adding the issue of Iran would play a bigger role at the G7 meeting on Friday. On China, the German minister pointed out that Beijing was not only a partner but also a rival, saying the Asian powerhouse has also been militarily more aggressive than in the past. Baerbock said one would have to talk about "how we don't repeat again past mistakes that we had in Russia policy." China is not only a partner on international issues, but also a competitor and a much stronger rival than it used to be when it comes to understanding an international order, she added. Baerbock had been the driving force in changing Berlin's policy towards Beijing by adopting a tougher stance on China. Oliver Towfigh Nia/AA Xi holds talks with Tanzanian president Xinhua) 08:11, November 04, 2022 Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday. The two presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Noting that President Hassan is the first African head of state China has received after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi said it speaks volumes about the two countries' close ties and the important position of China-Africa relations on China's diplomatic agenda. Xi recalled putting forth, while visiting Tanzania in 2013, the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith to guide China's cooperation with African countries. It has now become the basic policy guiding China's solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. Under the new circumstances, the sound growth of China-Tanzania relations not only advances the common and long-term interests of the two countries, but also carries great significance for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, said Xi. Xi briefed President Hassan on the proceedings of the 20th CPC National Congress. He pointed out that starting from now, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. "Modernization does not mean Westernization," Xi said, adding China has already found a development path suited to its national conditions. Chinese modernization is grounded in China's own realities, with features that are unique to the Chinese context, said Xi. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Xi pointed out both the CPC and the Tanzanian Revolutionary Party (CCM) shoulder the historical mission of strengthening themselves and the country they govern, adding the CPC will expand exchanges and cooperation with the CCM and support the curriculum and operation of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School. Xi stressed that China views its relations with Tanzania from a strategic perspective and will always be a trustworthy friend of Tanzania. Moving forward, Xi said the two sides should advance friendship and cooperation across the board, in keeping with the China-Tanzania comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. China firmly supports Tanzania in upholding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and in exploring a path of development that suits Tanzania's conditions. China and Tanzania will continue to show firm support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi also said China will further increase import of specialty products from Tanzania, and support Chinese companies in investing and operating in Tanzania, so as to contribute to the economic and social development of Tanzania. China is ready to exchange experience and best practices with Tanzania on rural revitalization, and support the betterment of livelihood there, added Xi. Xi pointed out that the Tazara Railway marks a milestone in China-Tanzania and China-Africa friendship. Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this railway. "Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, help our African friends achieve common development, and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era." In growing China-Africa relations, Xi said both sides need to remain committed to the overall direction of mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual learning and mutual assistance. Both China and Africa need to build on their time-honored traditional friendship, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and show greater historical initiative in advancing friendship between China and Africa, he added. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) Xi went on to point out China's continuous development will create new opportunities for Africa. China will speed up the implementation of the ongoing nine initiatives for cooperation with Africa. "With a particular focus on infrastructure, we will continue to nurture new drivers for China-Africa cooperation through trade, investment and financing." China stands ready to work with African countries to uphold the basic norms governing international relations including the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, actively operationalize the Global Development Initiative, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance, and do more to bring about a community with a shared future for mankind, said Xi. Noting that she was excited and honored to be invited to visit China soon after the successful conclusion of the 20th CPC National Congress, Hassan said that the visit is a testament to the high level of Tanzania-China relations. On behalf of the CCM and the Tanzanian government, Hassan once again extended warm congratulations on the success of the 20th CPC National Congress and Xi's re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Tanzania views China as its top real friend and will always be a trustworthy partner for China, said Hassan, adding that with the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Tanzania will work with China to strengthen practical cooperation across the board, take the relationship to a new height, and turn it into an exemplar for Africa-China relations in the new era. Hassan stressed that Tanzania will continue to firmly support China on issues relating to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other core interests of China. She expressed appreciation for China's support in the development of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, and conveyed the hope of southern Africa's six sister parties to step up experience sharing with China on national governance in order to achieve better development. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has not only boosted the development of African countries in various fields, but also had a demonstrative effect in driving other countries' cooperation with Africa and helped enhance Africa's international standing, the president said, adding that Tanzania will continue to take an active part in and support the development of FOCAC. Noting that the Global Development Initiative put forth by Xi is very timely and conducive to addressing the global challenges of today, Hassan said Tanzania will work with China to operationalize this initiative and build a community with a shared future for mankind. The two heads of state agreed to keep up the momentum of high-level exchanges and dialogue, and enhance exchanges and cooperation at all levels between the localities, legislatures and political parties of the two countries. They agreed to expand the scale of bilateral trade, boost the level of trade and economic cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance cooperation projects on infrastructure, enhance industrial complementarity and production capacity cooperation, and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation in such areas as manufacturing and processing, green development and digital economy. The two heads of state reached consensus on strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges, holding a China-Tanzania year of tourism and culture at an appropriate time, encouraging more exchanges between the academics and media organizations of the two countries, and carrying forward the friendship between the two peoples. The two presidents agreed to enhance cooperation in international and multilateral settings, step up communication and cooperation on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and jointly uphold international fairness, justice and the common interests of both sides. At the end of the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents covering trade, investment, development cooperation, digital economy, green development and blue economy. The two sides issued a Joint Statement on Establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania. Prior to the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Hassan in the Great Hall of the People. Upon President Hassan's arrival at the Great Hall of the People, a 21-gun salute was fired in Tiananmen Square to greet her. Seventeen honor guards lined up the steps on both sides of the red carpet to salute her and trumpeters blew horns to welcome her. The two presidents stepped onto the review stand, after which the military band played the national anthems of the two countries. Accompanied by Xi, Hassan then reviewed the guard of honor of the People's Liberation Army and watched the march-past. After the talks, Xi held a welcoming banquet for Hassan at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, were present at the events. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) No one is questioning that Mitsubishi Motors Philippines (MMPC) has been relatively quiet when it comes to new products of late. With the ex... Kids and family company Wildbrain has signed an overall first-look deal with producer Bonnie Arnold (How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story), and will work with her to adapt other properties from How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell. Details: The majority of European animation shows are adaptations, and they represent half of the animated tv programs broadcast in France, Jacobee explained, before assuring the artists in the room that as an animation screenwriter or graphic designer, you could be the author of an adaptation. After planting that idea in the minds of the audience, he explained that its not uncommon for animation writers to feel a temptation to write a book first, to adapt it as a film or tv series later. However, he asked, proposing the days key question, does it make sense to write the book before? Is that a step or a detour? Jacobee outlined both the creative and strategic virtues of writing a book, comic, or graphic novel before trying to get a new idea made into a series or film. A Creative Step According to Jacobee, the process of writing a book is often just one creative step in a larger journey. From the start, a creator doesnt need to convince anyone but themselves to begin writing. And even after the process has been initiated, there are fewer obstacles along the way in getting a book published than there are in producing a film or series. Writing a book is also cheap and allows the creator to inject as many characters and backgrounds as they want along the way. The narrative isnt limited by what one can afford to put on the screen. A writer can also use the process to improve on the original concept and see their idea in a complete and finished form, even if it isnt exactly what theyd originally planned. And the creator is given an early opportunity at getting feedback from readers before beginning production. A Strategic Step From a commercial perspective, there are plenty of reasons to start with a book as well. First, it allows the story to build and bring an audience along when the project is ready to be pitched as a film or series. It also acts as proof that the creator can build an audience in the first place. Getting a book published first also means that the creator has the publisher as an ally. In an ecosystem where adaptations are commonplace, a book publisher can be one of the most important allies any creator could ask for when they bring their project into the film and tv market. And, perhaps most importantly, writing a book first often ensures that its creator remains in charge of the property on any future adaptations. Case Studies Jacobee provided four recent or ongoing examples of book-to-screen adaptations that faced different hurdles along the way and offered anecdotes on how those stumbling blocks were overcome. Lastman A popular French comic series of 12 volumes, Lastman was adapted as a series by Everybody on Deck and Tchack, executive produced by Je Suis Bien Content. In this instance, one of the original books authors, Balak, worked with screenwriters on writing a prequel to the comics, which were never intended to be adapted in the first place. A popular French comic series of 12 volumes, Lastman was adapted as a series by Everybody on Deck and Tchack, executive produced by Je Suis Bien Content. In this instance, one of the original books authors, Balak, worked with screenwriters on writing a prequel to the comics, which were never intended to be adapted in the first place. Toby Alone based on the novels of Timothee de Fombelle, Toby Alone required the creation of an entire visual world as the books feature only a few basic sketches. The adaptation also needed to be simplified, as the books featured a complex universe that would have been difficult to fit into a 12-hour animated series. based on the novels of Timothee de Fombelle, Toby Alone required the creation of an entire visual world as the books feature only a few basic sketches. The adaptation also needed to be simplified, as the books featured a complex universe that would have been difficult to fit into a 12-hour animated series. PJ Masks the most famous case study offered up by Jacobee was PJ Masks, originally a series of childrens picture books by Romuald Racioppo. Facing almost the exact opposite problem of Toby Alone, the original books offered very little in terms of narrative, so show writers had to come up with new stories and backgrounds for a longer format after Disney Junior commissioned the series. the most famous case study offered up by Jacobee was PJ Masks, originally a series of childrens picture books by Romuald Racioppo. Facing almost the exact opposite problem of Toby Alone, the original books offered very little in terms of narrative, so show writers had to come up with new stories and backgrounds for a longer format after Disney Junior commissioned the series. In the Dark and Mysterious Forest Adapting this comic strip into a cg feature offered unique challenges, as its creator Winshluss often used elements of printed comics, such as panels, as part of the delivery method for his story. There were also narrative issues that the writers room had to work through, as the original had a too-dark sense of humor for the films young target audience. As his time wrapped up, Jacobee summarized the general advantages of writing a book first. He argued that a preexisting book is useful as a guide for the entire duration of a show, regardless of the number of episodes or seasons. Its something that a creator can initiate themselves and requires less convincing to get made. Additionally, the obstacles facing creators along the way could come up during production, so the book-writing and publishing processes can be a great learning tool. He did warn that writing a book and making a film or series are entirely different jobs, and creators need to be aware of that and highly trained in both areas if they want to achieve any level of success. And, in his final suggestion of the day, Jacobee told the room that anyone who chooses to start by writing a book, comic, or graphic novel, needs to do so for the sake of writing that book, not only as a means to an end. Some notes on the timeline: Our list is not exhaustive, but were confident we managed to cover the key stories needed to paint a larger picture of whats going on with animation at WBD. The shift in the tone of stories coming out of WBD since the companys Q2 earnings call is striking. In the weeks and months leading up to that call, HBO Max, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim were making regular announcements of new series and film commissions. Following the call, most Warner stories dealt with cuts, removals, layoffs, cancellations, and the selling of assets. There were plenty of clues that things werent all right at Warners animation companies before that call, however. Executives were being shifted and replaced and the language being used to talk about animation, particularly among Cartoon Network executives, was concerning. In isolation, each story about a cancelled project, a removed series, or a round of layoffs was painful to write. Seen laid out like this, it feels almost tragic. So many finished, nearly finished, and promising projects are now locked away, and many artists and executives have lost their jobs. Heres hoping that when WBD is back on stronger footing, some of the fantastic work done by those artists will find its way back into the light of day. THE 2022 TIMELINE April 8: Discovery completes its acquisition of Warner Bros. from AT&T. May 6: HBO Max, Cartoon Network announce animated feature Driftwood and series Invincible Fight Girl. May 11: Announcement that Warner head of kids/YA Tom Ascheim is leaving the company. May 11: Cartoon Network unveils three new original live-action productions. Because that worked so well the first time they tried it. May 18: Adult Swim greenlights Rick and Morty: The Anime and Ninja Kamui. May 18: HBO Max and Cartoon Network announce Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth, an animated project from Mike Judge, Greg Daniels, and Sacha Baron Cohen. May 23: The Scooby-Doo universe grows as HBO Max and Cartoon Network unveil Scooby-Doo! And the Mystery Pups, the franchises first show for preschoolers. June 1: Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich steps down. June 7: Warner Bros. head of kids and family programming including Cartoon Network Amy Friedman claims girls often graduate out of animation as an explanation for the companys second try at live-action programming. June 15: HBO Max announces Batman Azteca, a Mexico-set, Aztec-era Batman feature commissioned by HBO Max Latin America, and sci-fi survival series Scavengers Reign from Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner. August 2: 95% complete Scoob! sequel is cancelled, along with the live-action Batgirl movie, casting an ominous shadow over Warners upcoming Q2 earnings call. August 4: This is where things really take a turn. WBD hosts an earnings call in which CEO David Zaslav outlines his plans for the companys future. From this point on, news coming out of Warner is largely about cuts, cancellations, layoffs, and consolidation as Zaslav and his crew implement their most extreme cost-cutting measures yet. August 15: Allison Abbate steps down as head of Warner Animation Group. August 18: Without warning, dozens of shows are removed from HBO Max. August 22: Driftwood, an original animated feature announced only three months prior, is cancelled. August 22: Warner announces a half-dozen upcoming HBO Max originals are no longer moving forward at the streamer. It was later confirmed that most of the productions are being shopped to other networks and platforms. August 20: Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis is one of the first showrunners of a series dropped by HBO Max to speak about the removals, posting a candid open letter on his Substack. September 1: Diego Molano, creator Victor and Valentino, one of the shows removed from Max, discusses his feelings about the HBO Max removals with Cartoon Brew. September 17: Warner lays off staff working on Looney Tunes feature Bye Bye Bunny but confirms to Cartoon Brew the film is still moving forward and is being reworked as a full-fledged musical. September 24: Several legal firms file lawsuits on behalf of Warner Bros. Discovery investors claiming the company misled them in the lead-up to the merger. September 28: Responding to intense public speculation that the company may be looking at a new change in ownership as soon as its legally feasible, CEO David Zaslav insists to employees that We are not for sale, absolutely, not for sale. October 11: That brings us to this infamous day, when a memo sent out by WBD chairman Channing Dungey announced that development and production management at Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios would be merged, fundamentally changing operations at CNS. Opened in the mid-1990s as a division of Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network Studios had operated with at least some degree of autonomy for nearly three decades. That studio, at least in the form as weve known it for its entire existence, is no more. Its agenda will be driven by the budget-concious executives of WBD whose primary concern is eliminating billions in debt. Musing on the news of the consolidation, Brian Miller, former general manager of Cartoon Network Studios and a key figurehead at the company for 21 years, explained why CNS is now a fundamentally different studio in a three-word tweet: Culture is everything. With Warner bosses now steering the CNS ship and the studio sharing development and production resources with WBA, it will be impossible for the culture fostered at CNS over nearly 30 years of semi-independence to remain unchanged. How that change will manifest is anyones guess. October 31: WBD announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran will co-head DC Studios, including animation. What that means for DC animation isnt entirely clear yet, but it seems to suggest that the new execs will play a role in the output from Warner Bros. Animation, which produces DC series (Harley Quinn, Teen Titans Go!, Batwheels) and direct-to-video films, as well as the feature-side Warner Animation Group (DC League of Super-Pets). California Department of Education News Release California Department of Education News Release State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Celebrates Californias 29 Blue Ribbon Schools Honored This Week in Washington, D.C. Thurmond met with the school leaders to learn how they are closing the opportunity gap and to discuss strategies to improve student achievement across the state. California has the largest number of public school Blue Ribbon winners in the nation. SACRAMENTOState Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond celebrated the 29 California Blue Ribbon schools being honored this week in Washington, D.C., at the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program awards ceremony. California has the largest number of public school Blue Ribbon winners in the nation. Thurmond met with school leaders on Monday to learn how they are closing opportunity gaps and providing environments where students can achieve high learning standards. He also appointed them to help co-design strategies for learning acceleration and to improve student achievement all across the state. Our state sent 29 schools this year to our nations capital to receive this prestigious honora testament to the students, teachers, staff members, administrators and their families, said Thurmond. While we continue to bounce back from the harms of the COVID-19 pandemic, this award illustrates the important work we are doing to go above and beyond in our mission to close the opportunity gap. Its impressive that 29 schools received this honor, a reaffirmation of the persistence and resilience our educators displayed on behalf of our students. Additionally, as part of National Blue Ribbon Schools Program this week in Washington, D.C., California Principal Miguel Marco of Wittmann (Helen) Elementary School in Cerritos will be honored as one of the nine recipients of the Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership for 2022 . Principals chosen as recipients of this award have transformed their schools, guiding their students and schools to excellence, frequently under challenging circumstances. These select few are nominated by their school communities during the final stage of the National Blue Ribbon Schools application process. The coveted National Blue Ribbon Schools award affirms the hard work of educators, families, and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging and engaging content. With its thirty-ninth cohort, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has bestowed approximately 10,000 awards to more than 9,000 schools. The National Blue Ribbon School flag gracing an entry or flying overhead is a widely recognized symbol of exemplary teaching and learning. Public schools are nominated by top education officials in each state, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and the Bureau of Indian Education. Private schools are nominated by the Council for American Private Education. More information about the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program can be found on the U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Schools web page . Californias National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2022 Arcadia: Foothills Middle School, Arcadia Unified School District Belmont: Ralston Intermediate School, Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District Burlingame: Burlingame Intermediate School, Burlingame Elementary School District Cerritos: Carmenita Middle School, ABC Unified School District Cerritos: Wittmann (Helen) Elementary School, ABC Unified School District Clovis: Woods (Harold L.) Elementary School, Clovis Unified School District Diamond Bar: Diamond Bar High School, Walnut Valley Unified School District Dublin: Eleanor Murray Fallon School, Dublin Unified School District Dublin: Harold William Kolb School, Dublin Unified School District Etiwanda: Grapeland Elementary School, Etiwanda Elementary School District Etiwanda: John L. Golden Elementary School, Etiwanda Elementary School District Fresno: Granite Ridge Intermediate School, Clovis Unified School District Irvine: Woodbridge High School, Irvine Unified School District La Mesa: Helix High School, Grossmont Union High School District Long Beach: Newcomb Academy, Long Beach Unified School District Orinda: Orinda Intermediate School, Orinda Union Elementary School District Pleasanton: Thomas S. Hart Middle School, Pleasanton Unified School District Rolling Hills Estates: Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District San Bernardino: Richardson PREP HI Middle School, San Bernardino City Unified School District San Diego: Westview High School, Poway Unified School District San Dimas: Arma J. Shull Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District San Francisco: Lawton Alternative School, San Francisco Unified School District San Ramon: Coyote Creek Elementary School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District San Ramon: Gale Ranch Middle School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District San Ramon: Iron Horse Middle School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District San Ramon: Windemere Ranch Middle School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District South Pasadena: South Pasadena Middle School, South Pasadena Unified School District Valley Village: Colfax Charter Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District Van Nuys: Kester Avenue Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District # # # # Tony Thurmond State Superintendent of Public Instruction Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100 Last Reviewed: Thursday, November 03, 2022 Dalmia Bharat Ltd reports 77% fall in consolidated net profits in Jul-Sep quarter 04 November 2022 Dalmia Bharat Ltd has reported a 76.84 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at INR470m (US$5.68m) for the quarter ended September. The company had posted a net profit of INR2030m during the July-September quarter a year ago, Dalmia Bharat said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue from operations increased 15.11 per cent to INR29,710m in the second quarter of the current fiscal. In the year-ago period, the same stood at INR25,810m. Dalmia Bharat's total expenses rose nearly 29 per cent to INR29,800m in the latest quarter under review. Sales volume increased 13.72 per cent in the September quarter to 5.8Mt compared to the year-ago period. Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Managing Director and CEO, Mahendra Singhi, said that despite a seasonally-weak quarter, "we are encouraged with recent momentum in prices and volumes. "Our past investments in strengthening our operational efficiencies and cost rationalisations have enabled us to maintain our low-cost leadership," he added. "We expect profitability to significantly improve for the rest of the year as the benefits of correction in fuel prices will start getting reflected in the current quarter. I am cautiously optimistic about the opportunity that lies ahead," he said. Published under Votorantim Cimentos completes acquisition of Heidelberg Materials assets in Spain 03 November 2022 Votorantim Cimentos announced that has completed the acquisition of all the businesses of Heidelberg Materials in the south of Spain, which includes a modern integrated cement plant located in Malaga, three aggregates quarries and 11 ready-mix plants in Andalusia region. In the last two years, Votorantim Cimentos has strengthened its presence in the Spanish cement market with the acquisition of the integrated cement plant of Cementos Balboa in Extremadura and now with the Malaga plant. After this transaction, Votorantim Cimentos Spain has six integrated cement plants with an installed production capacity of 6Mta of cement, two grinding stations, one mortar plant and several concrete and aggregates plants, located in the regions of Andalusia, Canary Islands, Castile and Leon, Extremadura and Galicia. This acquisition is fully aligned with our strategy, reinforces our presence in the Iberian Peninsula to better serve our customers and creates significant synergies with our existing assets. Besides, it would be key to accelerate our decarbonisation journey to achieve our 2030 Sustainability Commitments, says Jorge Wagner, CEO of Votorantim Cimentos Europe, Asia and Africa. Published under Italys cement output falls 8% in August ICR Newsroom By 04 November 2022 Italy saw cement output decline by eight per cent YoY in August 2022, according to the countrys construction chamber, Federbeton. When compared with the 2015 base index production the value dropped from 100 in July 2022 to 61 in August. In August 2022 cement prices were up 51 per cent when compared with August 2021 and but slipped from 190 in July to 189 in August 2022 on a price index basis (base year 2015). Grey cement imports in July increased by 66 per cent when compared with July 2021 with a total CIF value of EUR12.689m. This represents a CIF value o EUR79/t, up from EUR77/t in June. In the first seven months of 2022, grey cement imports increased 14 per cent YoY. Italian cement producers exported 107,271t of grey cement in July 2022, down 26 per cent YoY. The exports had a total FOB value of EUR9.736m, representing a 26 per cent drop when compared with July 2021. The FOB value per tonne of cement advanced to EUR91/t in July 2022 from EUR87/t in June 2021. In terms of exports in the 7M22, volumes fell by eight per cent YoY. Published under This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions A new Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology in Cybersecurity degree program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga begins with the spring 2023 semester, UTC officials announced Thursday.The addition of the program, housed within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, was made official with Thursdays confirmation from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. It was approved by the UT Board of Trustees on Oct. 28.The BAS-IT Cybersecurity degree program will directly address workforce needs.Approximately 6,700 cybersecurity jobs are open in Tennesseeincluding 300-plus in southeast Tennessee and north Georgiaand employment demand is expected to grow 22-24 percent in the next five years.This new program will prepare students to assess the security needs of computer and network systems, recommend safeguard solutions and manage the implementation, auditing and maintenance of security devices, systems and procedures.The projected start date for the first class is Jan. 9, 2023.We are eager to collaborate with our community partners and community colleges throughout Tennessee and the Southeast region to address a major workforce need, said Dr. Jerold L. Hale, UTC provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. The programs objective is to prepare students as leaders in IT and cybersecurity who can function effectively in multidisciplinary environments in the local and regional workforce.The program is aimed at transfer students from community colleges with earned associate of science (AS) or associate of applied science (AAS) degrees; transfers from four-year universities with general education curriculum completed; and working professionals with general education finished but no degree earned.Students will work closely with area industry partners to gain workforce experience in this accelerated program, taught in a 12-month format. The program will include instruction and hands-on experiences in computer architecture, programming and systems analysis; networking; telecommunications; cryptography; security system auditing and design; applicable law and regulations; risk assessment and policy analysis; contingency planning; user access issues; investigation techniques; and troubleshooting.We are excited to launch this innovative academic program that will meet the IT workforce needs of the greater Chattanooga region, said UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Daniel Pack. Working with industry partners in educating and preparing students for their future careers through a new approach of students learning both in the classroom and at a company site daily is transformative. We hope this approach will become a viable model for future academic programs.In pursuing the addition of the new degree program, the University received letters of support from more than 25 community partners.UTCs new BAS-IT Cybersecurity degree program promises to fill a major need in connecting the classroom curriculum to the workforce, said Steve Morrison, director of information security at EPB of Chattanooga. With the increasing demand for trained security professionals, I am excited to see the caliber of students that graduate from this program.Nationally, a cybersecurity professional with five to eight years of experience earns about $99,000 a year, officials said. UTC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase cooperation and promote collaboration in areas of mutual interest. The signing ceremony featuring UTC Chancellor Steven R. Angle and EPA Southeast Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman took place in the University Center UC Foundation Room on the UTC campus. EPA Region 4, based in Atlanta, serves Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and six federally funded Native American Tribes. The five-year commitment between UTC and EPA Region 4 is for both parties to recognize many possible benefits of an enhanced partnership, including: UTC faculty and students being invited to participate in EPA public policy forums, presentations, seminars and other public events. EPA participation in career fairs and other outreach with UTC students, faculty and alumni regarding employment opportunities. In accordance with its mission and purpose, EPA may assist UTC in advancing environmental education through distance learning technology. EPA staff may voluntarily participate in UTC lectures, webinars, conferences and other events. Collaboration on methods of increasing interest in careers protecting human health and the environment as well as awareness about publicly available recruitment and environmental education opportunities. This MOU really is formalizing something thats been in existence for many years, and we appreciate the opportunity and the commitment to engage students in these activities, Chancellor Angle said. As a public university, that is part of our mission: to help the quality of life of people of Tennessee. And we appreciate the partnership to be able to do that. Mr. Blackman echoed those thoughts as he began his remarks. The best analogy I could use is, when you say weve been working together for a while, you date somebody long enough to put a ring on it, right? So this is one of those times when were formalizing a relationship. "This MOU today speaks in support of UTCs mission and the leadership that is represented here by each and every one of you, including the students. Through a grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the UTC Master of Public Health program is currently testing drinking water for lead in licensed childcare centers in Hamilton, Bradley and Marion counties. The lead testing project, led by Dr. Dawn Ford, is affiliated with the EPA College/Underserved Community Partnership Program. Dr. Ford, who introduced Chancellor Angle, said UTC has been involved in Chattanooga community environmental issues for many years. "As you may know, weve been transitioning from a polluted industrial city to a flourishing place focused on sustainability and the outdoors. We still have work to do and thats why were here today, Dr. Ford said. "This MOU will open doors for more UTC students across campus and other departments to be engaged in the community for hands-on experiences to help underserved residents live better lives in Chattanooga. Other members of the EPA team at the signing ceremony included David Champagne, Region 4 administrator assistant; Jeannie Williamson, College/Underserved Community Partnership Program (CUPP) Coordinator; and Jasmin Jeffries, Superfund-Southside Chattanooga Site. Although fraternities and sororities memberships and influence have ebbed and flowed over the years, loyalty to said organizations remain high to many graduate brothers and sisters. Such was the case on May 14, 2022, when approximately 200-250 former Sigma Chis (SC) met for dinner at the Westin Hotel on Pine Street in downtown Chattanooga. Those in attendance were celebrating the formation of the Delta Theta Chapter at the University of Chattanooga (once a private institution of higher learning with a mascot name of Moccasins seventy-five years ago in 1947 but now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs. In attendance were a variety of successful graduates including a vice-chancellor of one of the highest ranked liberal arts universities in America, a former Chief Justice of the highest court in the State of Tennessee, doctors, lawyers, and successful members of every occupation/calling in the country. Deceased members in the chapter would be the editor of the afternoon newspaper, Lee Anderson of the Chattanooga News Free Press, and a former legislator from the First Congressional District in upper Tennessee, B. 1947 was also the year of the birth of writer, Lewis Grizzard, Jr. and that coincidence justifies an article about Lewis Grizzards (LG) student and fraternity life at the University of Georgia as a member of Sigma Pi (SP) during Rush Week in 1965. In a discussion similar to the classic fraternity movie, Animal House, starring John Belushi, he reminiscenced about going through rush week in his Elvis Is Dead and I Dont Feel So Good Myself (1984-Peachtree Publishers.) He recalls his visits to each frat house in the following chronological order and his impressions. 1. SAE (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) a very prestigious fraternity where the girls from the spiffier sororities loved to date their members. LGs visit was relegated to viewing the insulation pipes in the basement; 2. SN (Sigma Nu) no water pipe showings but they did herd me over into a corner with two exchange students and a kid of terminal acne; 3. PDT (Phi Delta Theta) one of the brothers took LG and two other non-selected rushees back to the kitchen and left us with the cooks, who were peeling potatoes; 4. KS (Kappa Sigma) LG sensed that his chances of being selected as a member were greatly reduced when his first cousin, who happened to be the chapter president, not only disavowed our kinship, but also swore - in a very loud voice so that his brothers could hear him - that he had never seen nor heard of me before; 5. KA (Kappa Alpha) they sang Dixie and told stories about Robert E. Lee but the brothers treated me like a direct descendant of Union General William T. Sherman; 6. SC (Sigma Chi) unfortunately he got the basement pipe treatment described above in number 1 and did not get to hear any melodious signing of the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi that has traditionally been performed at the selection of some outstanding sorority sister; (whether LG would have been selected as a member of the Delta Theta Chapter at UC is beyond the scope of this article); 7. ATO (Alpha Tau Omega) - this was the last rejection that LG received, and he recognized that quickly when they asked me to wait out on the porch until the bus came to pick up the rushees; 8. Sigma Phi (SP) LG was finally given a bid to join this fraternity and without hesitation pledged to be a member upon accepting the scholarly advice of a friend who had just been asked to be a member of PDT. Take it, he said, before they change their minds; (LGs adherence to the rigid code of proper conduct regarding responsible manly behavior which will be discussed in a later article?) It would be improper to even remotely suggest that those in attendance in the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Delta Theta at the University of Chattanooga had ever engaged in any improper conduct to be suggested and described by LG in a future article. (Happy 75th to the Brothers!) * * * You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com) Chattanooga Public Library is one of 50 U.S. libraries selected to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The touring library exhibition based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Museum in Washington, D.C. began traveling to U.S. libraries in 2021. CPL was selected to be one of the 50 host libraries out of a pool of over 250 applicants. We are so proud to be selected as a host for this important and powerful exhibition, said Library Development Director Michael Watson. Thanks to the support from The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, we will be providing six educational opportunities free to the public, including school field trips sponsored by ArtsBuild and Unum. Americans and the Holocaust will be on display at CPL from Jan. 27 to Feb. 27, 2023. A full schedule of events can be found at chattlibrary.org/exhibition. Officials said, "Based on extensive new research of that period, Americans and the Holocaust addresses important themes in American history, exploring the many factors including the Great Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism that influenced decisions made by the U.S. government, the news media, organizations and individuals as they responded to Nazism. "This exhibition will challenge the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. "Drawing on a remarkable collection of primary sources from the 1930s and 40s, the exhibition focuses on the stories of individuals and groups of Americans who took action in response to Nazism. It will challenge visitors to consider the responsibilities and obstacles faced by individuals from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to ordinary Americans who made difficult choices, sought to effect change and, in a few cases, took significant risks to help victims of Nazism even as rescue never became a government priority." For more information about Americans and the Holocaust and how you can get involved as a docent, visit chattlibrary.org/exhibition. To learn more about the exhibition, visit ushmm.org/americans-ala. Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries is an educational initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association. Americans and the Holocaust was made possible by the support of lead sponsor Jeannie & Jonathan Lavine. Additional major funding was provided by the Bildners Joan & Allen zl, Elisa Spungen & Rob, Nancy & Jim and Jane and Daniel Och. The Museum's exhibitions are also supported by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990. Americans and the Holocaust is co-presented locally by The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. Additional support comes from ArtsBuild, EPB and the Chattanooga Public Library Foundation. David Dean Jones passed away on November 3, 2022, surrounded by his family. He was born in Fontana, California, and a proud Veteran of the U.S. Navy. David loved being on the water and fishing. If you didnt catch him on or in the water, you could find him enjoying live music, a great comedy show, good cuisine and dancing without a care in the world or if anyone was watching. On any day you could ask him anything about any sport and he could tell you about it, especially if it was about those Tennessee VOLS. He was a hat and sunglasses enthusiast with an incredible sense of style in shoes. David was great with words and making everyone in his presence feel safe and loved. His smile and laugh were the brightest and most beautiful ever seen. It filled his heart to bring joy to others and make them laugh. Not only did he spend his life serving his country and his community, but David also served the Lord dutifully and faithfully. Faith over fear. He was truly an angel on Earth. Now he has his wings and is watching over all of us. He is survived by his loving wife of eight years, Tracy Sue Norquest Jones; six children, Brittany Jones, Tyson Jones, Chelsey Lewis, Kallie Strode, Cheyenne Strode and Dillon Strode; three grandchildren, Austin Jones, Kiedyn Sedillo, and Jackson Lewis; father, David Grant Jones and wife Leslie; mother, Cheryl Rose Matava Jones; one sister, Kristina Jones; and two nieces and a nephew, Katelyn Hanshew, Amanda Hanshew, Brody Ladd. A celebration of his life will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, at Church Alive Ministries, 6315 Mouse Creek RD NW, Cleveland, Tennessee with Reverend Bob Malone officiating. Military honors will conclude the service. We invite you to send a message of condolence and view the Jones family guestbook at www.ralphbuckner.com. Ralph Buckner Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements. The Lee University Opera Theatre, directed by James Frost, will present its annual Musical Revue in the Squires Recital Hall, located in Lees Humanities Center, on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m. The performance, which is the final project of Lees Opera Theatre class for the fall semester, will include various scenes and solos spanning the musical theatre repertoire, from the Golden Age to the more recent productions. The performance allows every participant of the Opera Theatre to sing at least one solo role in one of the scenes and includes some solo numbers, giving them the opportunity to expand as a solo performer. The participants of each scene are challenged to stage their own scene with help from myself and the other participants, which is a great learning tool, using their own creative impulses, said Mr. Frost, associate professor of music at Lee. Opera Theatre was started in the spring of 1998 by the now retired professor, Tony Deaton, as a workshop and has grown into a production organization performing a Musical Revue in the fall, a fully staged opera from both standard and less traditional repertoire in February, and an opera scenes program during the spring semester. Professor Frost joined the School of Music in 2007 after having taught at Lee part-time. In addition to directing Opera Theatre, he currently teaches applied voice. Prior to his arrival at Lee, he lived in Germany for 20 years where he gained professional experience at various opera houses such as Stadttheatre Hildesheim in Germany, Tiroler Landestheater in Austria, and regional theatres in the United States. The concert is free, non-ticketed, and open to the public. It will also be available via livestream at https://leeu.live/. For more information about Lees Opera Theatre, contact Mr. Frost at jfrost@leeuniversity.edu. Its that time of year again. Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Thats right, the holiday season is officially looming. Between wondering where the year went (Seriously, wasnt it just January?) and heading into the holidays, keep in mind these tips from Ina Gartens Ask Ina Q&A. The cookbook authors shared cooking and entertaining advice, much of which is great for Thanksgiving. 1. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Getting food on the table when its warm Ina Garten | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank When you have guests How do you get the food to the table warm if not indeed hot without cooking in front of them? a fan asked Garten on her Barefoot Contessa website. The Modern Comfort Food authors response? Something that can easily apply to Thanksgiving dinner. I make a game plan for the dinner before I finalize the menu, and I tend to make one thing in the oven, one thing on top of the stove, and one thing at room temp that I can make in advance, Garten said. I either make the main course earlier in the day and reheat it, or I have the dish assembled and it goes into the oven before guests arrive, she explained. I try not to do any cooking while the guests are there. It takes a lot of planning, but I am so much more relaxed when everyone arrives. In an effort to not be sweating it out in the kitchen when the doorbell rings, do what Garten does. Avoid playing musical chairs with turkey and sides by preparing some in the oven and others on top of the stove. It just might be the most useful tip of the bunch. 2. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Bring chocolate, granola, or coffee as a hostess gift OK, so this one applies to those who are guests at Thanksgiving dinner but its a valuable tip all the same. For a hostess gift, I prefer not to bring something that the host feels obliged to serve for dinner, Garten said. Instead I bring something they can serve after dinner, like a box of Frans Chocolates caramels, or for breakfast the next day, like my favorite coffee and granola. Stock up on some delectable chocolates or breakfast favorites and be ready for any Thanksgiving dinner. Pro tip: keep a few hostess gifts in the car in case one is forgotten. 3. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Keep it traditional Thanksgiving isnt the time for the unexpected, according to Garten. When a fan asked if they should have seafood because theyd be spending the holiday in Siesta Key, Florida, she dismissed the idea. I would make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, she replied. Its the one time of year when you get to cook classic Thanksgiving dishes, and in my experience, guests are always a little bit disappointed when they dont see their favorite dishes on the table! Stick to the classics and family favorites. 4. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Leave butter out overnight Heres yet another perhaps game-changing Thanksgiving tip from Garten. Soften butter the slow way. When I need room-temperature butter, I leave it out on the kitchen counter for several hours, or even overnight, to make sure it is completely soft, she said. Whatevers on the menu, leave a few sticks of butter Garten prefers Cabot unsalted out on Wednesday night so come Thanksgiving theres soft butter. Put it on top of rolls or yams or use it to bake cookies. Chances are softened butter will be needed. An additional tip for those moments when theres simply no time to soften butter overnight. Grate cold butter so it melts on a roll or slice of bread faster. 5. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Soak sheet pans overnight Ina Garten | Mike Smith/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank Leave the dishes from Thanksgiving dinner until Black Friday. Yes, really. Garten says. Sharing how she cleans sheet pans, the Barefoot Contessa host said she lets them soak. If any food is baked on after I use them, I put them in the sink with the hottest tap water and soap and let them soak overnight, she said. The next morning they should come out perfectly clean, using a Brillo pad if necessary. 6. Ina Garten Ask Ina tip for Thanksgiving: Ask guests to help clear the dishes for the next course Forget what to do when guests are late for dinner. What about clearing dishes after the meals over? I never want to break up the momentum of the conversation yet do not feel so proper about leaving empty finished dinner plates in front of my guests, a fan told Garten. The Food Network star shared she typically sets up a buffet. But when its time to clear the dishes and serve the next course, I actually ask my friends to help, she said. That way, they feel like theyre on the team! I think people dont feel comfortable being waited on by their friends and would prefer to help, Garten concluded. Buffet style or not on Thanksgiving, dont be afraid to ask for help. RELATED: 5 of Ina Gartens 5-Star Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes After a brief interlude from Gloria Nanmacs case in Alaska Daily Episode 4 on ABC, Eileen Fitzgerald and Roz Friendly returned to business in episode 5. The two tracked down a lead who was originally a person of interest in Glorias murder two years ago. But were they met with more questions than answers? Plus, someone from Eileens past showed up in Alaska. Read on for our recap of I Have No Idea What Youre Talking About, Eileen. [Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from Alaska Daily Season 1 Episode 5, I Have No Idea What Youre Talking About, Eileen.] Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald | ABC/Darko Sikman Eileen and Roz track down Ezra Fisher in Alaska Daily Episode 5 At the end of Alaska Daily Episode 4, the former Meade police chief, Orin Connors, delivered the unredacted version of Glorias case file to Eileen and Roz. And it listed two persons of interest Ezra Fisher and Rega Horne. In the opening moments of Alaska Daily Episode 5, Eileen and Roz have found nothing on Ezra or Rega. While they continue to dig deeper into the two men, Eileen learns the Secretary of Defense, Green, is giving a speech at the Air Force base in Alaska. Eileen walks into Stanley Corniks office to learn that he has given Austin Teague and Yuna Park the story on Green. And as a shock to no one, she gets upset and tries to convince Stanley to let her write the piece. Eileens abrasive nature doesnt affect Stanley, but she gets under Austins skin when she suggests he just wants to sleep with Yuna. Stanley admits that Eileens panic attacks and history with Green persuaded him not to give her the story. Plus, he doesnt want Eileen to become the story. Meanwhile, Roz finds out that Ezra is in Anchorage and has domestic violence charges. They go to the courthouse to meet with the prosecutor, Adam Barnett. Adam seems passionate about getting justice for victims and openly admits that the system often fails Native women. Adam is representing Ezras ex-girlfriend Taylor, who is charging him with domestic assault. The prosecutor describes Ezra as violent, unpredictable, and a charmer. Adam cant say whether or not Ezra could have killed Gloria, but Ezra being a suspect is not shocking to him. Adam then gives Eileen and Roz Ezras place of work. Elsewhere in Alaska Daily Episode 5, Claire Muncy brings her sons class ferret Harry Potter to work and loses him. When they cant find him, she and Bob Young have a heart-to-heart chat where he reveals that his wife, Colleen is sick. Bob later finds the ferret in his office. Does Roz make headway in Glorias case? After leaving the courthouse, Eileen and Roz meet with Taylor in Alaska Daily Episode 5. She tells them about Ezras physical abuse and reveals that they have a son together. The next day, Eileen bribes Roz with coffee to drop her off at the Air Force base while Roz speaks with Ezra alone. And somehow, it works. Their bizarre relationship is undoubtedly one of the best in the show. The writers knew what they were doing when they paired them up. Roz finds Ezra at work and questions him about Gloria. She discovers that he was at Skeeters party the night she went missing, and Gloria was there looking for oxycodone for frostbite pain. She left when she couldnt find any. However, Ezra claims that he left the party before Gloria did. But when Rozs questions get more intense, Ezra shifts the attention to Adam and drops the bomb that hes sleeping with Taylor. Roz looks into Adams other cases, and his clients deny they had a sexual relationship with the prosecutor. However, one woman, Liza Peters, comes forward and reveals that she slept with Adam. And Liza knows she was not the only one of his clients to do so. Roz revisits Taylor to ask about her relationship with Adam. She gets defensive but also corroborates Ezras story about the night Gloria died. Plus, their son provides an alibi for Ezra. And Taylor believes that he didnt kill Gloria. Afterward, Roz confronts Adam and says she will write a story about him. Itll state that he preys on the victims in his cases. Re-victimizing them by trapping them in a relationship with him. Roz and Eileen don't waste any time. Don't miss an all-new #AlaskaDaily tonight. pic.twitter.com/wWKY6DnG3w Alaska Daily (@AlaskaDailyABC) November 3, 2022 RELATED: Alaska Daily: Alaskans React to the Authenticity of the ABC Show The Secretary of Defense returns in Alaska Daily Episode 5 but does he have an ulterior motive? Austin meets with an airman, who tells him that the vibes on the Air Force base have been off for the past week. He also relays that Secretary Greens communications director wants to ensure that Eileen is not at the press conference. At the base on the day of the conference, Yuna runs into Mr. and Mrs. Choi, a couple who worked with her mother. Their son Greg is a fighter pilot, and they havent heard from him in a week. When Eileen arrives, Austin and Yuna fill her in on the concerning information. During the press conference, Secretary Green claims that hes in Alaska only to commend the Alaskan Air Force. Eileen questions him about Gregs disappearance, and Green has no comment. After the conference, the secretary requests to meet with Eileen in his car. Green thanks Eileen for all of the publicity shes given him. He cockingly claims that her upcoming book will put him in the White House. And Green condemns The Daily Alaskan for good measure. Back at the office, Stanley makes it clear that Eileen will not go against his orders in the future. However, Aaron Pritchard seems to be on Eileens side, and we definitely clocked a hint of chemistry between them. Does Eileen have a new love interest? The news reports that the Russian Embassy navy found a crashed American F41 jet in their waters. And they found the body of an American pilot, assumingly Greg. So Secretary Green was in Alaska to negotiate with the Russians to get the plane and Greg back. Yuna meets with Gregs parents, and they tell her that Greg was scared of flying the F41 because its oxygen system had problems. And he relayed that information in an email to a commanding officer. The Daily Alaskan runs with the story and exposes the Pentagon. The end of Alaska Daily Episode 4 answers our previous question about the sexual tension between Eileen and Aaron when he shows up at her hotel room and kisses her. However, they both agree it cant happen again. Bring on the scandal! Alaska Daily airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel. Javier Bardem joined the James Bond franchise by playing the cunning villain in Sam Mendes Skyfall. It was a part the actor didnt have to really audition for, and one he received after a chance encounter with Craig. Sam Mendes couldnt remember his lines in Skyfall after realizing he was in a James Bond film Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem | Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/ Being in Skyfall was a huge deal for acclaimed actor Javier Bardem, who had been a longtime admirer of the franchise. But although he grew up with the Bond films, his fandom for the series wasnt the reason he did the role. Yeah, Im 43, so since I was 11 or 12, I think, Ive seen them all. Yeah, in Spain its big. But again, whether youre a fan or not isnt the right reason to do something, I guess. Its about having the material to bring something to it. Otherwise youre doing it for the wrong reasons, in my opinion, Bardem once said in an interview with Den of Geek. When he found himself in the middle of shooting the film, however, he briefly became lost in the moment. So much so he flubbed his lines when he was acting alongside Judi Dench and Daniel Craig. And I looked at them both and forgot the lines. There was a silence and Sam said, Cut, whats wrong? And I said, Im sorry, man, I just realised Im in a James Bond movie and M and James Bond are looking at me,' Bardem recalled to The Guardian. Daniel Craig cast Javier Bardem in Skyfall after meeting him at a party Before shooting Skyfall, Craig played a significant role in getting some of the films major players involved. The No Time to Die star ended up recruiting director Sam Mendes for the franchise after running into him at a party. I was literally at a party and Sam was there, and he doesnt drink, so he was quite sober. I wasnt that sober, but I was picking his brains about the next movie. I wanted to ask him, because I respect him as a director and I think hes got lots of great ideas, Craig once told Den of Geek. As the conversation went on and on, and we talked about the things we loved about Bond movies, and I offered him the job which wasnt my job to do. A similar situation happened with Craigs co-star Bardem. He saw his future Skyfall partner at a party and, being a fan of Bardems, approached him for the role. I was actor and casting director. I dont know. It just sort of made sense. You can end up skirting around the issue, saying, Ooh, wouldnt it be nice to get so and so, and I just thought Id ask and see what he says, Craig recalled. Javier Bardem didnt know Daniel Craig when he first met him Bardem corroborated Craigs claims of meeting him at a party. But unlike Craig, who already admired Bardem, Bardem was unfamiliar with the Bond actor. Still, the two clicked instantly when they met. It was years ago, we were at a private event, and he came to me, we were introduced to me, and he asked if Id ever be interested in doing a James Bond movie with him and Sam. I said, well that sounds very cool, yeah, Bardem said. And its funny, because I didnt know him. But the moment I shook his hand, I said, this guys awesome. You have that feeling of people, you know? RELATED: Why Paul McCartneys James Bond Theme Almost Went to Another Artist Netflixs From Scratch is one of the most stunning displays of romance seen in a long time. The highly-rated limited series stars Zoe Saldana, as Amahle Amy Wheeler, a woman who puts her law school career on pause to move to Italy and study art. Amy finds herself swept off her feet by a Sicilian chef named Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea). The series is based on author Tembi Lockes real life, but she didnt watch much of the show. Zoe Saldana as Amy Wheeler and Eugenio Mastrandrea as Lino Ortolano in From Scratch | Stefano Montesi/Netflix From Scratch is based on author Tembi Lockes real life Fans of the Netflix tear-jerker might be stunned to know that the series is based on Tembi Lockes best-selling memoir, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home. Though names have been changed in the series, Amy is based on Tembi and her whirlwind romance with her late husband, Rosario Saro Gullo. About 20% of it is hardcore fact, showrunner Attica Locke told Tudum. Some places in our series down to where things are placed on the set and where people are standing are exact mirror images of what actually happened. Tembi Locke didnt watch too much of the show Since Locke holds her memories and her 20-year romance with her late husband, Saro, close to her heart, it was important for her not to watch too much of the series. I didnt watch the visuals because I want to maintain and protect my own memories, she told TODAY. Suddenly, you start to remember the thing that was made, and you forget the original images. Still, if fans want to read about Lockes life as she experienced it, she describes her relationship with Saro in her memoir. He soothed the places I hadnt known needed soothing, seemed perfectly willing to embrace the parts of me that were wanton, unsettled, unfinished, and contradictory, she wrote. Together we had engaged life as two forks eating off one plate. Ready to listen, to love, to look into the darkness and see a thin filament of the moon. Tembi Locke trusted Zoe Saldana to portray her in From Scratch Though it was important for Locke to preserve her real-life memories and not watch too much of the series, she trusted Saldana to get the most intimate moments of her life with her late husband right. Moreover, with her sister, Attica Locke,, her co-executive producer, and the showrunner, she knew she could step back when needed. Zoe and I had lots of talks about things, so I felt very confident, she told Shadow and Act. By the time we would get on set, I was like, Okay, this scene is in good hands. There were times when it was too much. It was a lot to relive. Some scenes are literally frame-by-frame recreations of things that happened. Theres a delicate balance, but I also had Attica there to say, You dont need to be here today. Go home. Still, despite protecting her memories and her emotions, Tembi revealed that there were many connections between her real life and the series especially when the cast and crew traveled to Italy. The rain scene, thats where it actually happened, the same block. Its the same corner, she explained. When we got to Italy, that was happening over and over and over again both in Florence and later when we went to Sicily, these coincidences, non-coincidences, were sort of miraculous. TLC fans who watched the Little People, Big World Season 24 premiere know Roloff Farms is still a major topic of conversation. Matt Roloff chose to put 16 acres of the farm on the market instead of selling it to his kids. Now, an insider says Matts girlfriend, Caryn Chandler, wants him to give his kids the farm and be finished with the process. Little People, Big World Season 24 shows Caryn Chandler and Matt Roloff discussing Roloff Farms Caryn Chandler and Matt Roloff in Little People Big World | TLC via YouTube Roloff Farms has been the major topic of discussion between Matt and Amy Roloff for years. And the conversation continues in Little People, Big World Season 24. When Matt and Amy divorced, Amy sold Matt her half of the property. Matt currently owns all of Roloff Farms, and his sons, Zach and Jeremy Roloff, aspired to own part of Amys portion. Unfortunately, Matt couldnt create a sale agreement with either of the twins. This left Matt and Zach estranged. During the new seasons premiere, Matt talks to Caryn about the future of Roloff Farms. For some reason, Im not feeling real emotional about this, Matt said of selling the property. Sadness might come when I sell it. It may happen; it may hit me. But right now, Im feeling sort of more of a sense of relief. Caryn also talked about the remaining acreage. Well, the 93 acres will eventually go either to your kids or your grandkids, she told Matt. She allegedly wants Matt Roloff to give up Roloff Farms so they can move to Arizona RELATED: Little People, Big World: Matt Roloff Posts Old Video of Roloff Farms, Raising Suspicion Over Zach Roloff The drama surrounding Roloff Farms has caused a lot of issues for the Roloff family. Fans have watched it all play out on Little People, Big World. Now, it seems more is going on behind the scenes. A source told The Sun that Caryn Chandler wants Matt to hand Roloff Farms to his kids and be completely done with it. Caryn is ready to just have Matt hand the farm over and they can go to Arizona and retire, the source noted. That would be her dream scenario, but whether Matt agrees is yet to be decided. The source also discussed Caryns strained relationship with Tori Roloff. Tori and Caryn once had a close relationship, and Caryn also enjoyed seeing Tori and Zachs young children. But since the feud over the farm, the families rarely see each other. Caryn and Tori are definitely not as close as they used to be, the source said. And the feud between the sons has been a lot. Where does Caryn Chandler live? She didnt want to live in Amy Roloffs old home on Roloff Farms Dream house! Get a tour of #LPBW's Matt Roloff and Caryn Chandler's gorgeous Arizona home.https://t.co/miMMjFaHVO In Touch Weekly (@intouchweekly) October 25, 2022 Caryn Chandler always said she never wanted to live in Amy Roloffs old house on Roloff Farms. So, where does she live now? According to The Sun, Caryn bought a home in Oregon for $405,000 in November 2020. The 1,500-square-foot house has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms and is just a 10-minute drive from Roloff Farms. It seems Caryn bought this home without Matt. Matt lives on Roloff Farms. Additionally, Caryn and Matt spend a lot of time in their Arizona home. When Matt ultimately sells all of Roloff Farms, the couple will likely head there to live out the rest of their days. Little People, Big World Season 24 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel. The United Kingdom is known for many things, including its royal family. However, in this day and age, given that numerous countries have abolished their monarchies, some people do wonder why the U.K. has not followed suit. The royal family is popular in both the U.S. and the U.K. (L-R): Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth ll, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to view a flypast to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on July 10, 2018 in London, England. | Anwar Hussein/WireImage Although some critics believe the U.K. should abolish the royal family and become a republic, royals still have plenty of fans. The Guardian reported that 62 percent of U.K. citizens support retaining the monarchy instead of abolishing it. When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, there was an outpouring of grief around the world. Many people even lined up for over 20 hours to see her coffin lying in state at Westminster Hall. Meanwhile, royals are extremely popular in the U.S. as well. According to Northeastern University, 23 million Americans tuned in to watch Prince William and Kate Middletons wedding in 2011. American news outlets often post updates about royals, and women like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have large followings in the U.S. Why does the royal family still exist? Centuries ago, royals were rulers with actual power to control their countrys government, economy, and foreign affairs. However, these days they are merely figureheads and do not participate in politics. That said, the royal family still plays some roles in society, which justifies its continued existence. According to its official website, royals often use their position to support charities and other important organizations in the U.K. Some royals have even started their own charitable foundations, such as The Royal Foundation, which was founded by Prince William and Prince Harry. Additionally, royals make official visits to other countries to help strengthen Britains diplomatic and economic relations. There, they meet with leaders and help to highlight important work done by local charities. What would happen if the royal family was abolished? This caller declares that the Royal Family should be abolished because they have 'been scroungers all their life' and are a 'waste of space'.@TomSwarbrick1 https://t.co/WHozuATJpp LBC (@LBC) March 27, 2022 Queen Elizabeth II was a widely-respected monarch, but her successor and son, King Charles III, is less popular. As such, there are murmurs of the royal family possibly being abolished in the near future. Royal expert Marlene Koenig explained (via Insider), It would take legislation, an act of Parliament, and signed by the Sovereign to end the monarchy. If abolishment were to happen, some of the royal familys residences, such as Buckingham Palace, could be confiscated by the state. Nonetheless, they probably could still keep a few. Most of the former German royal families stayed in their homes, Koenig said. Some property was confiscated, others received compensation, including the Kaisers family. Additionally, royals would become private citizens and could pursue careers that give them financial independence. They may follow in the footsteps of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by writing books, producing podcasts, and other ventures. However, Koenig does not believe the monarchy will be gone anytime soon, saying, There are no protests. The republican movement is small. The political system is stable. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel. RELATED: Camilla Parker Bowles Jets off to India for a Luxury Retreat While King Charles Faces Pressure to Change Royal Rules The wait is almost over for Yellowstone to return with season 5. This time John is taking on the role of governor of Montana and bringing Beth into the world of politics. While John is away, Rip has more responsibility on the ranch than ever. After his wedding to Beth, he is faced with the pressure of not letting his father-in-law down. Cole Hauser | Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images John Dutton is sworn in as governor of Montana in the trailer for Yellowstone Season 5 John Dutton stepped back into politics in Yellowstone Season 4 when he ran for governor of Montana. He also added another member to his family when Rip Wheeler married his daughter Beth. John won the election, and now Rip is facing more responsibility than ever before back on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. The trailer for Yellowstone Season 5 shows John being sworn in as governor of Montana. I, John Dutton, do solemnly swear to uphold the constitution of the state of Montana against all enemies foreign and domestic, he says with his hand on a Bible. Cole Hauser teases pressure on Rip back at the ranch With John tackling the role of governor of Montana, Rip finds himself with a lot more work to do in Yellowstone Season 5. John is not around as much as he has been in the past, so Rip is sort of thrust in with the responsibility of taking care of the ranch, Rip actor Cole Hauser told TVLine. Its a different year than any other. I think [co-creator] Taylor Sheridans written a wonderful kind of dynamic, thoughtful, dramatic season within the ranch and the politics of Montana. Rip is now Johns son-in-law, and the Dutton family patriarch trusts him with more than ever before. Theres a lot more pressure on him to take responsibility as a foreman of the ranch. And so John is giving him those reigns, so to speak, to show that he has got the merit to do it, Hauser stated while speaking with TODAY. Beth steps up as Johns chief of staff in Yellowstone season 5 Of course, in Yellowstone Season 5, Rip Wheeler will have his wife Beth Dutton by his side. The trailer shows John hiring his daughter as his new chief of staff. Luckily, it wont come between her relationship with Rip. Were still under the same roof. She comes and goes, same as I do. [So] Im there for her, shes there for me, Hauser told TVLine. Also under that roof is the couples adoptive son Carter, but dont imagine Rip will transform into a stereotypical father in the upcoming season. Rip is built from tough love thats the way he was raised by John, Hauser said, and hes going to continue to do that with Carter. However, the actor did tease that there are a few nice moments between Rip and Carter. Yellowstone Season 5 premieres Sunday, November 13, on the Paramount Network. RELATED: Yellowstone: 3 Reasons Kayce Dutton Isnt Dead This sixteen-year-old young man is the middle child in his family. He has a younger sister, who is thirteen, and an older sister, Natalie, who is now twenty-three. But about five years ago, Natalie was in a tragic car accident, which caused her to suffer some serious injuries. Thankfully, she was able to recover from most of them however, she still sustained permanent damage to her vocal cords. So, Natalie has been mute ever since then and has learned to get by quite well using American sign language (ASL). What frustrates him most as Natalies brother, though, is the fact that their parents have always refused to learn sign language for his sister. In fact, rather than learning how to communicate with their daughter in the way she feels most comfortable, his parents insisted that Natalie could just write anything she wanted to say on a piece of paper. Plus, when she did not want to carry around a pen and pad, they told Natalie that she could just use text-to-speech. Most of her teachers were like that, too, which I get for them. Shes just one student, and theyre busy, he explained, But these are our parents. He, on the other hand, always communicates with Natalie via Facetime because he did take the time to learn sign language. And apparently, she prefers to communicate face-to-face as opposed to text. Still, though, now that Natalie is away at college, his parents have apparently only wanted to text his sister. And according to him, Natalie is an okay texter, but it just does not make her happy. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. People used to avoid discussing their trauma, eager not to reopen old wounds or expose their vulnerabilities. Not so anymore. Survivors recount horrific experiences and bring up trauma language in everyday conversationseven with strangers on Twitter. This shift in how we talk about the painful things weve been through may be uncomfortable for some, especially those not used to considering the pervasive nature of trauma. But psychologist Diane Langberg captures well what we perceive as Christians: Trauma is the mission field of our time. As a counselor and seminary professor, I get asked about what it means to be trauma-informed as society increasingly recognizes the enduring impact that traumatic situations can have upon people. Survivors are interested in trauma-informed therapists, counselors, and materials because such a term offers hope that there may be something that was missing from other forms of care. Other well-meaning individuals find the term puzzling, wondering if it is simply a buzzword of the day. For Christians, another question quickly spirals out from there: Is the Bible trauma informed? Im grateful the men and women of the church are asking these kinds of questions. As Christians, we want first and foremost to be biblical, and asking some variant of What hath the Bible to do with trauma? safeguards us from over-spiritualizing or under-spiritualizing trauma. The Bible as a record of trauma Lets start by defining trauma. Broader and narrower definitions exist, each with their own merit, but trauma generally constitutes a reaction to the extreme stress caused by the threat of severe harm. If someone asks whether the Bible recognizes and records these kinds of traumatic events, we quickly see that the pages of Scripture are weighed down by all kinds of them. Who can forget the brutal sexual violence suffered by women like Dinah (Gen. 34) or Tamar (2 Sam. 13)? Who cannot feel parental horror as infants and toddlers are killed by power-hungry, paranoid rulers (Ex. 12, Matt. 2)? Davids intense rage radiates from Psalm 52 as he stares into Doegs extermination of the priests and their families at Nob (1 Sam. 22). Perhaps most strikingly, the prophets deep grief pours out from Lamentations as he looks at the mangled bodies of childrendead from starvation, the swords of the enemy, and the unimaginable hunger of their parents. Our holy book is full of terribly unholy things. It is no stranger to the deep depths of human suffering, and this is a good thing. If the Bible did not capture the deepest, blackest, vilest sorrows that can befall people, we could not be certain that its true and precious promises apply to such situations. Its one thing to affirm, The Lord is my shepherd when the sky is bright and you sit in a church composed of firm stone and majestic beauty. Its another to affirm it when youre tending to a nation full of women who have suffered from the rape-as-weapon assaults of a cruel army (Lam. 5:11). But promises like I will not leave you as orphans (John 14:18) and Even though I walk through the darkest valley you are with me (Ps. 23:4) stand alongside the most grim and awful human situations. Trauma is not a category of human experience that places someone outside of Gods vision, Gods care, and Gods promises. There is nothing we can do or nothing that can happen to us that places us beyond the horizon of Gods help. Other times, however, when someones asking if the Bible is trauma informed, they are wondering if the Bible speaks everything we need to know to offer the best care available. Its as though theyre saying, We use the Bible, so we are automatically trauma informed. Article continues below Although the Bible speaks of and into traumatic situationsshowing us how our bodies and souls are impacted by extreme stress (Ps. 88) and offering us the beautiful truths detailed aboveit does not tell us everything about trauma care. This isnt a knock against the sufficiency of Scripture. There are many things that are true and important and helpfulthe sky is blue, we smile when were happythat dont come up in its pages. The Bible was not written to be a comprehensive guide to all of human functioning. Like parallel tracks, these two truths exist in harmony with one another, recognizing the essential help God gives through the Scriptures that is available nowhere else and that Scripture is not the only resource God desires us to consult to understand our hurts and how we may heal. There are helpful trauma-informed practices that dont appear in Scripture, yet we know to be true and effective from practice and research. The Bible doesnt explain how rhythmic breathing calms us during spikes of anxiety. It doesnt address grounding exercises, like holding an ice cube, to engage our senses rather than disassociate from our emotion. And theres no chapter and verse telling us how exercise can curb depression and lethargy. Trauma-informed discipleship But the Bibles silence on such specific trauma-care processes is not a bad thing. The Bible speaks to the core of the person, the heart. It offers us critical things that we cannot find anywhere elsethe naming of evil as evil, the comfort of God Almighty, regeneration, the power to fight sin, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and a thousand others. And the Bible validates and gives us lenses to see how breathing techniques and all the rest can help people made of body and soul. Being a Christian who is trauma informed requires a deep and thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. It also requires other knowledge that God has given us through the observation of ourselves and the world he has made. Being trauma-informed isnt a hat tip to a snowflake generations oversensitivity. Rather, its based on the recognition that wounds cut deeply, and some wounds are more injurious than others. Put yourself in the shoes of someone whose youth pastor groomed them, exploited them, blamed them, and threatened them. What is it like for them to put their own children in youth group? Or imagine a veteran who tends to feel strong sense of threat when surrounded by loud noises. Whats it like for them when the congregation belts out the chorus of a hymn with gusto? God has much to say into both situations through his Word. And his Word could also be used in a way that bypasses the actual struggle within each persons experience. Words like Love believes all things or Dont forsake the gathering together are certainly true; yet the damage done by past trauma creates a wake that makes these straightforward principles much choppier in application. Being trauma informed doesnt mean that Gods Word is somehow superseded by lifes struggles; instead, it means that those life struggles are deeply relevant to the process of discipleship. As Christians, we have something that no one else does as we offer trauma-informed care. We have a God who can bring life where there is none. We have a God who offers meaning and hope where there is none. We have a God who makes beauty from ashes. He has given us his Word and his tools to engage this vast mission field. And we, his ambassadors, show his excellence and goodness as we offer the best form of trauma care possible. Nate Brooks serves as an assistant professor of Christian counseling at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, and counsels at Courage Christian Counseling. He lives with his wife and three children in the Charlotte Metro. It rankles me when Christians pray only for persecuted Christians. I dont disagree with praying for persecuted Christians, to be clear. I pray for them. They need help, as a global pandemic of persecution confronts believers daily with violence on account of their faith. However, to truly follow the Bibles teachings I believe we shouldnt exclusively pray for our fellow Christians. Rather we are called to pray for all who suffer violent persecution, Christian and non-Christian alike. When the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) arrives on November 6, many activists will pen articles about Christians being the most persecuted faith in the world. And certainly, persecuted Christians face severe problems worldwide. From my 20 years of international work on religious freedom, I know Christians suffer violent persecution from governments like China or terrorists like Boko Haram. Ive personally met such believers, advocated for them, and prayed for them. Yet, while such most persecuted claims may be true, definitional problems with what constitutes persecution make such assertions hard to assess. But more importantly, we are not in a competition. Christians are part of a fellowship of suffering, sharing in persecution with other faith groups. Many overlook or forget how in every context where Christians suffer, others also hurt. In fact, the severity experienced by other minority groups often surpasses Christian persecution. Followers of Jesus certainly suffer in China and Burma (Myanmar), but Uyghur and Rohingya Muslims are victims of outright genocide by those nations regimes. While ISIS indeed targeted Iraqi Christians, thousands of Yazidis were murdered, sold into sex slavery, or disappeared. Scores of Afghan Christians were forced to flee the Talibans return. Yet the 5 million Hazara Shia that remain face continued terrorist attacks, with a recent suicide blast murdering 50 children at school. Boko Haram has devastated churches in Nigerias north, while the majority Muslims that resist the jihadists theocracy risk death or jail for blasphemy. Christians need not feel insecure if our suffering is less than others. However, some advocates draw false equivalencies with religious liberty limitations in North America and Europe to actual persecution abroad. Conflating violence with pandemic restrictions or other domestic debates reduces the veracity of the word persecution and kills its credibility. Some governments act similarly. For example, Hungarys Viktor Orban often boasts about defending persecuted Christians and traditional Christian values. His diplomats speak about the twin threats to Christians of persecution and aggressive secularism, conflating a supposedly dangerous liberal elite with ISIS atrocities. Orbans government has indeed provided helpful money to churches in Iraq, Nigeria, and elsewhere, yet while ignoring other suffering groups next door. Christians only helping Christians is not Christian. Troublingly, this exclusive Christians-first approach seems unique to the international religious freedom sphere. In other contexts, believers have heroically demonstrated Christs love to a hurting world by feeding the hungry and assisting those in need, regardless of faith. Their generous approach reflects the best of Jesus message. If Christian aid groups acted otherwise, we would recoil in horror. Imagine World Vision only providing food to starving Christians, World Relief only assisting Christian refugees, Samaritans Purse only helping evangelicals, or Catholic charities only assisting those looking to Rome for guidance. Article continues below The narrow focus on Christian persecution is a jarringly contorted approach to Christian charity. And practically, our exclusionary self-focus creates distance between Christ and nonbelievers. From my time working in multifaith environments, I can attest to how outsiders find Christians self-promotion of Christian persecution puzzling, if not outright off-putting. They know enough about Jesus compassionate message that this doesnt seem to fit. They wonder how Christianssupposed followers of a movement whose founder stressed the love of everyone, enemies includedcan seemingly ignore the persecution of their non-Christian neighbors. There should be no spiritual litmus test for helping those suffering violent persecution because of their beliefs. Ive appreciated how David Curry of Open Doors USA and Merv Thomas of CSW have spoken out for groups as distinct as Muslims and atheists. The Southern Baptist Convention has also led, last summer becoming the first denomination to condemn the Uyghur genocide. Following these examples, Christians should lead the charge in helping everyone. Any individual persecuted on account of their beliefs is a tragedy worthy of prayer and advocacy. The Bible is replete with calls to help regardless of race or creed. For example, the prophet Micah called Gods followers to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humblywithout caveats or exclusions. During Jesus earthly ministry, he explained how we should love God and our neighbors through the example of the Good Samaritan, a hero who crossed religious and ethnic lines to help a stranger. In Pauls letter to the Galatians, he gives this dual charge: Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Gal. 6:10). As Paul instructs, we must do better at helping our own, but we must also improve how we do good to all. In response, IDOP presents an opportunity to live out Christ's commands to pray for our own and for others. Lets remember our persecuted brethren, but let's not only pray for persecuted Christians but for everyone suffering for their beliefs. We can shift to an International Day of Prayer for All the Persecuted, making it a second Holy Week of sorts. Loving God and others summarized Jesus message during his earthly ministry. The body of Christ should be known for our concern for all, both Christian and not. Christ-followers beseeching God to assist anyone victimized for their faith (or non-belief) would be a powerful testimony. Doing so would improve our witness and build bridges between religions, helping minority Christians secure a brighter future in their communities. In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis wrote, There are no ordinary people. You have never spoken to a mere mortal. Our global neighbors, all bearing the image of God, suffer in a hurting world that needs our help. If we truly believe God loves everyone and made everyone in his image, we must pray and advocate for all who suffer. Yes, we should pray for persecuted Christians, but also for the persecuted from other beliefs. Knox Thames served as the State Departments Special Adviser for Religious Minorities during the Obama and Trump administrations, and is writing a book on ending religious persecution. Follow him on Twitter @KnoxThames. Speaking Out is Christianity Todays guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication. Barry Buzza, former leader of Foursquare Church in Canada, accused of sexual abuse Barry Buzza, a former president of the Foursquare Church in Canada and founder of Northside Church, the Evangelical Pentecostal denomination's largest Canadian congregation, is being sued by a former female member of the church for "psychological, spiritual, and sexual grooming, abuse and exploitation." Responding to the civil lawsuit filed on Oct. 18, current Northside Church Lead Pastor Joel Conti told the congregation on Oct. 23 that the lawsuit was filed against Northside Church headquartered in British Columbia, the Foursquare Church in Canada and the denomination. "Because this matter is before the court, I cannot comment on the specifics of the proceedings. Although we are currently limited to what we can legally comment on, we want to emphasize the word currently. Our hope is to keep talking in the weeks and months to come within the confines of the law," Conti said. "Many of you have reached out with various responses of questions, emotions, disappointments and frustrations. We are deeply sorry that we cannot offer you anymore details at this time." Buzza's accuser, identified in court documents cited by The Local Journalism Initiative as A.B., said the abuse began when she was a vulnerable 28-year-old domestic violence victim in 2007, and he was 60. A.B. began attending Northside Church, which Buzza founded in 1979, when she was in her mid-20s. The court documents claim Buzza enjoyed "celebrity status" and was viewed as a "divinely gifted person" in the church community. Two years after A.B. began attending the church in 2003, both she and her then-husband received counseling from Buzza due to allegations she was a victim of domestic violence. In 2006, Buzza allegedly directed her husband to move out of the home, and in 2007, he arranged for A.B. to move into his daughter's home. The woman, who is now 43, said Buzza acted as a father figure to her and would call her his "adopted daughter" as she became very close with his family. However, things took an unexpected turn when Buzza became president of Foursquare Church in Canada on July 1, 2007. She alleges that Buzza groped her while his wife slept next to them on a return flight from a trip to Israel. "She questioned what she had done to invite sexual contact from her father figure," the complaint reads. "The plaintiff immediately felt fear, confusion, shame, and self-blame." In the days following the first alleged assault, Buzza is said to have grabbed and kissed A.B. at his daughter's home when his daughter was away. By mid-July of 2007, Buzza helped A.B. move to a small condo. The complaint alleges that in a matter of days, the revered preacher presented himself at the condo and fully undressed for sex. "[A.B.] did not have the requisite capacity to consent given her vulnerability relative to Buzza's spiritual and emotional authority over her," the lawsuit reads. "She feared rejecting his advances for fear of losing him, his family and the entire life he had helped her create, including her new faith." A.B. further claims that for the next year and a half, Buzza would show up at the condo for sex and leave money in her key bowl, which made her feel a sense of shame. Months later, on Buzza's birthday, February 22, 2008, A.B. says she attempted suicide while "suffering under the profound shame, pain, and confusion of Buzza's sexual exploitation and due to her inability to escape the abuse." According to the complaint, the abuse stopped for a while in 2009 after A.B. met her current husband. Buzza officiated their wedding later that year. About three years later in 2011, the lawsuit says A.B. accepted a "flexible" job offer from Buzza because she stopped working when her daughter was diagnosed with a serious medical condition, and her husband began struggling with his career. The complaint claims Buzza, who served as Foursquare Church president until 2012, told A.B. that he was diagnosed with liver cancer sometime between 2012 and 2013 "to manipulate her into working from his home, where the sexual abuse began again." The abuse allegedly continued until late 2014 when A.B. reached out to a church mentor who informed her husband. When A.B.'s husband confronted Buzza, he was allegedly told something to the effect of, as a Christian, it was an "obligation to forgive him for his trespasses." Buzza eventually began making A.B.'s work and spiritual life difficult, and she eventually found work at another church as a pastor in 2016. While doing a training on clerical sexual abuse, A.B. began to recognize how she was exploited by Buzza. In January, she wrote to the denomination's board of directors about her experience and requested an independent investigation, which forced Buzza to resign. The lawsuit contends that the denomination failed to investigate properly and treated her abuse as a consensual affair. "It's one thing to have your pastor devalue you through abuse," she said in her last letter to the church, dated July 4, 2022. "But to have an entire organization (who you still considered your family) devalue you is beyond devastating." Church elder gets life in prison for killing wife after less than 2 years of marriage A former Missouri church elder who was convicted of killing his wife after less than two years of marriage, will now spend the rest of his life in prison for his crime. Robert Lee Harris, who served as an elder at Repairers Kansas City, a charismatic nondenominational church in Missouri, was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years for the killing of his 38-year-old wife, Tanisha, on Jan. 8, 2018. Overland Park police reported that at about 4 p.m. on the day of the murder, they were called to an apartment in the 8000 block of Perry Street about a domestic disturbance. Harris was found alone in the apartment, but several hours later, he called police to report that his wife was missing. When he was further questioned, officers became suspicious and he admitted he had something to do with his wifes disappearance. Her body was later found in a field in Raymore. During his trial over the summer, several people gave testimony, including a young man who said he was involved in an extramarital relationship with the former church elder and Army veteran. The young man, who publicly identified himself as Steven Junior, explained in an expletive-filled video recording on Facebook Live that the elders wife was his friend and he wanted justice for her. He also accused congregants at Harris' church, where controversial Pastor Carlton Funderburke served as lead pastor, of being hypocrites. Funderburke, who now leads Church at the Well Kansas City with his wife, was forced to apologize earlier this year after he was shown in a now-viral video clip throwing a spiritualized tantrum from the pulpit in which he called his congregation "broke, busted and disgusted" and "cheap sons and daughters" for not "honoring" him with a watch from the luxury brand Movado. In the aftermath of the murder, Funderburke said the couple was very involved with his church and he saw no signs their relationship was in danger. "They were very involved, very engaged, active in the community of church. These were not regular attenders or regular parishioners. They're part of the background of what we do as a ministry. ... It's very shocking," Funderburke told the Kansas City Star. Funderburke said outside of the church, Tanisha had worked at a bank and Robert Harris, worked at a hospital. They each had a daughter from previous marriages and Tanisha's daughter lived with the couple. A video on Robert Harris' Facebook page, which is now restricted, shows him preaching passionately. In another post about his late wife he described her as his "favor" from God. Louisiana megachurch to leave UMC as 47 churches in the state have voted to disaffiliate A Louisiana megachurch has voted to leave The United Methodist Church, joining dozens in the state in disaffiliating from the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States amid an ongoing debate over homosexuality. St. Timothy on the Northshore, a congregation based in Mandeville that boasts approximately 6,000 members, held a disaffiliation vote on Sunday. According to the churchs website, 858 ballots were submitted, with 789 voting to disaffiliate and 69 voting against leaving the UMC, equalling around 92% in favor of disaffiliation. St. Timothy was originally chartered in September 1975 and held its first worship services in a local warehouse. By 1979, the church moved to its present location. In 2006, the church merged with a local congregation known as Church of the Servant. St. Timothy is one of 47 congregations in Louisiana that have decided to leave the UMC in recent months, according to the New Orleans-based CBS affiliate WVUE. It has been an interesting time for the United Methodist Church, Rev. Van Stinson, the director of clergy excellence for the UMC Louisiana Conference, told WVUE. There are 5,200 people out there. Some of them are looking for a new home, and we will ensure that there will continue to be a United Methodist Church in Mandeville on the North Shore for them to continue worshiping in. On the same day St. Timothy voted to leave the UMC, a prominent United Methodist congregation in Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to disaffiliate. Christ Church Memphis, once considered a flagship congregation for the UMC Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference, voted 941-101 to leave the denomination. For its part, the Tennessee-based regional body already approved the disaffiliation votes of 60 congregations in June. Over the past several years, the UMC has been embroiled in an internal debate over whether to allow the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals. The UMC Book of Discipline officially labels homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching and prohibits both practices. Efforts to amend the Book of Discipline at the denomination level have been voted down at General Conference. However, many progressive leaders within the UMC have refused to enforce or follow the official rules, believing that resistance will eventually lead to the denomination changing its stance. In May, the Global Methodist Church officially launched, with scores of UMC congregations across the U.S. voting to join the theologically conservative alternative in recent months. Pro-life researcher refutes new study finding over 10K fewer abortions since Roe's reversal A pro-life researcher is questioning whether a recent study purporting to show that abortion numbers have declined in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade understated the influence of state laws on protecting preborn children. The Society of Family Planning, an organization researching abortion and contraception, released the results of its national #WeCountProject on Monday. The study compared the number of legal surgical and medical abortions before the courts reversal of Roe to the number of abortions committed two months after the decision. Researchers surveyed abortion facilities nationwide, concluding that over 10,670 fewer abortions took place in July and August compared to data from April 2022. The states that banned abortion after the ruling saw a 95% decrease in abortions from April to August. In states where abortions remained legal with few restrictions, the number increased by 11%. Analyzing the Society of Family Plannings study, Michael J. New, an associate scholar at the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute and associate research professor at The Catholic University, found several flaws with the research. In a Tuesday article published by National Review, New noted that the study would appear to show that the overall decline in abortions post-Dobbs decision was rather modest, finding only a 6% decrease in abortions. While he appreciates the study acknowledging the ruling impacted abortion rates, he expressed skepticism about the datas accuracy. One flaw, he said, is that the researchers behind #WeCount only used data from abortion facilities and not state health departments or government agencies. New also said that the study failed to consider pre-Dobbs abortion declines in states like Texas, which saw abortions decline by more than 60% after its six-week abortion ban went into effect last September. Additionally, Oklahoma started enforcing a heartbeat law in early May 2022. Large abortion declines had already taken place in these states prior to Dobbs, New wrote. New contends another flaw with the study is that states like Illinois and Maine allow Medicaid funding for elective abortions, and blue states like these already saw abortion number increases because their abortion laws are more permissive. Unsurprisingly, the abortion rate increased by 28 percent in Illinois and by 15 percent in Maine, New wrote in a June statement to The Christian Post. Part of the Illinois increase was due to more out-of-state women seeking abortions in Illinois. New believes the increase likely had a lot to do with the states Medicaid program starting to fund elective abortions in 2018. The pro-life researcher also believes that the abortion pill is linked to a rise in abortion rates. Chemical abortions have been increasing as well, New wrote in the National Review article. In June, the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute released its abortion data for 2020, reporting that a little over 930,000 abortions took place in the U.S. during the year, an 8% increase in the abortion rate from 2017. Additionally, Guttmacher found a 7% increase in the abortion rate for women ages 15 to 44, rising from 13.5 per 1,000 women in 2017 to 14.4 per 1,000 women. One in five pregnancies ended in abortion in 2020, a 12% increase, with the abortion ratio increasing from 18.4% in 2017 to 20.6% in 2020. A 2019 abortion surveillance report from the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the total number of abortions increased by 2% compared to 2018, with the abortion ratio and rate of reported abortions increasing by 3% and 2%, respectively. February data from the Guttmacher Institute also showed that chemical abortions accounted for 54% of U.S. abortions in 2020. How years of Oregon law have sexually degraded children in school As parents across America become increasingly aware of how children have been systematically indoctrinated and sexualized with gender dogma, Oregon stands out in how it has done so through years of misguided legislation. The notoriously liberal Pacific northwest state has unconscionably sacrificed common sense instruction and the basics of education in favor of highly sexualized pseudoscience that is harmful to children. In light of current figures and the disturbing trends they illuminate, it is useful to review the past 15 years of legislative history and how public funds have enacted and enabled policies that have proven so destructive. Indeed, these laws have formed over the years a dangerous and insidious framework that have allowed for the widespread exploitation and indoctrination of youth. Just how have Oregon state agencies accomplished this? For starters, Oregons Department of Education spends millions of taxpayer dollars on LGBTQ2SIA+ education initiatives each year. In conjunction with the Governors office, it has lowered or removed the Essential Learning Skills requirements to accommodate the states plummeting academic performance scores. Oregon is currently ranked 46th in the nation for overall academic performance and 49th for high school graduation rates. In the last 14 years, it has pushed for more robust comprehensive sex ed curricula and increased education initiatives for LGBTQ2SIA+ inclusivity and acceptance. This, in my view, begs an important question: is the sharp decline in Oregons education performance correlated to fast-tracking students into a radical sexual ideology? Mandatory comprehensive sex ed laws were passed in 2009 purporting to increase youth awareness of the dangers of unprotected sex, how biology works, and what the term sexuality means. But that neutral-sounding approach has rapidly devolved into teaching children how to have oral sex or use household items to sodomize themselves and partners. So long as they consent, of course. Under Oregons Revised Statute 326.300, the Governor is Superintendent of Public Instruction, which was enacted in 2011 on the heels of the passage of mandatory Comprehensive Sex Ed law. This is a staggering amount of power for a governor. It is no coincidence, then, that the string of progressive-left governors Oregon has had in recent years has incubated an environment whereby students are no longer educated in reading, writing, and math but indoctrinated into dozens of gender identities. Unfortunately, many parents remain unaware of these laws and the rotten fruit they have produced, and how their taxes are being used but have, to varying degrees, gone along with the notion that they dont know what is best for their children. Many are afraid of being called a bigot if they object. Meanwhile, their kindergartners are being taught that there are as many genders as stars in the sky and their teens are trying to outpace each other with wokeness on Snapchat. Another way Oregon law has contributed to the sexualization of children is through the Department of Human Services' promotion of web resources from amaze.org whereby children are instructed on such things as transgenderism, pornography, and masturbation. The state government websites link to the groups YouTube channel which hosts over 180 videos on inappropriate topics and damaging messages about consent and how normal it is to look at porn as an adolescent. Unsurprisingly, the Amaze web resources never mention to kids to ask their parents or trusted adults before changing their pronouns or identifying on the LGBTQ2SIA+ spectrum. Following 8 years of advancing Comprehensive Sex Ed, the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) was signed into law in Oregon in 2017. Under RHEAs provisions, schoolchildren at any age can be given contraception, and children as young as 14 can be given mental health counseling without parental consent at school-based health clinics. In some clinics, students as young as 15 can receive permanent contraception as advertised by the Oregon Health Authority. These procedures, so long as the student is accessing care in an SBHC or similar provider like Planned Parenthood, are free to the students (paid for by taxpayer dollars) and are confidential. Oregon law actually prevents parents from accessing student health records and their child could obtain a vasectomy or tubal ligation without them ever finding out about it. If the child seeks gender-affirming care for gender dysphoria they could be referred to a doctor who could administer puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or begin taking them by prescription from a provider within an SBHC. Students who are fast-tracked into a transgender identity are also seeking body-disfiguring surgical procedures at alarming rates. Two years after the RHEA was signed into law, far-left lawmakers made yet another push for use of taxpayer dollars to support this ever-advancing LGBTQ2SIA+ ideology in 2019. The Student Success Act was named to establish a path forward to creating more successful students in Oregon schools through tax-funded programs to the tune of $2.1 billion on a biannual basis. But that money came with numerous radical sexual and gender theory strings attached, hidden from plain view unless one looked carefully. Utilizing funds from a corporate tax, one-third of funds are directed to create new education initiatives focused on minority groups including LGBTQ2SIA+ as early as kindergarten. The SSA requires that students be taught about LGBTQ lifestyles, the infinite possibilities of gender, and how to protect themselves against STIs and other sexually transmittable conditions. Older students are encouraged to ignore their parents' beliefs and moral values and to explore their own gender expression privately at school without their parents' knowledge through the use of so-called transition closets. These transition closets have been established by teacher sponsorship to provide clothing, makeup, and accessories at school to allow children to change after their parents drop them at school. Students wear the wardrobe of their choosing to appear more like the opposite sex or in keeping with some kind of gender identity during the school day to begin the process of social transition. Right before the day ends, they change back into the clothes their parents sent them in in order to keep parents, who may disagree with this practice, uninformed. The SSA also provided funds for a newsletter on the success of LGBTQ2SIA+ students, which routinely shows how interwoven the education policies are with this larger idea and gives teachers additional ideas about how to promote the ideology even further. Proponents of these various laws and the funds that implement them often say that among the desired outcome of these education policies is the reduction of stigma that surrounds LGBTQ2SIA+. Far from reducing stigma, the hyperfocus on LGBTQ2SIA+ content in Oregon schools isnt producing the effect it purportedly set out to accomplish. Students are flunking out of school at astonishing rates even as they self-identify among the growing list of letters in the sexual acronym. Given the states abysmal academic performance numbers, it is hard not to wonder whether ODEs and the state legislatures incessant push of this ideology, flagrant spending, and deeply misguided priorities has itself fueled this breakdown. Before Pastor Andrew Stoeckleins suicide, widow reveals he was haunted by dark presence Two weeks before Pastor Andrew Stoecklein died after a suicide attempt inside Inland Hills Church in Chino, California, in August 2018, he and his dutiful wife, Kayla, revealed to his congregation that he was battling anxiety and depression and had taken time off work to get better. After staring down the terror of mental illness that had only months earlier sent him to the emergency room with a panic attack that had spiraled out of control, Andrew Stoecklein made a defiantly optimistic return to the pulpit he took over after his fathers death from cancer in 2015. It was a fragile triumph that Kayla Stoecklein seemed reserved about even as she publicly supported her husband. We still have a long way to go to work through it but we are all in, she told the congregation in their recorded address on Aug. 12, 2018. Were going to keep fighting to choose to believe that God has great plans. Great plans for our family. Great plans for this church, and great plans for our pastor right here. Before celebrating his 30th birthday that May, Andrew Stoecklein was forced by elders of his nondenominational megachurch to take what he called a summer sabbatical after he suffered a mental breakdown in April 2018. He had been going through a lot. While still processing the loss of his father, Andrew Stoecklein and his family were forced to move due to threats from stalkers and he had developed health complications that required surgery. Kayla recalled how her husband had become not a very fun person to live with." She publicly worried that his work as a pastor while dealing with multiple stressors in his personal life could cost him his life. You guys, he loves this place so much he didnt want to stop. He would have kept on going and going and it probably would have cost him his life, she said as her raspy voice cracked slightly. Thats how much he loves you, thats how much he loves this place. "During this season of rest, I've asked him over and over, 'Are you sure?' You don't have to be a pastor. You could go be whatever you want to be, she recalled. [We] could go live wherever we want to live. We could go to Texas and buy a big house." But Andrew Stoecklein insisted that he was doing what he was called to do, and then 29-year-old Kayla Stoecklein caved. The church was growing rapidly and they were having their best season financially since his father, David Stoecklein, who had died on Oct. 9, 2015, founded Inland Hills Church in 1987. Behind all the success, however, Andrew Stoecklein was crumbling under the weight of a struggle that was not just physical or mental. Spiritual warfare In her first book, published two years after her husbands death during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020, Kayla Stoecklein revealed that years before her husbands mental health began a swift, unrelenting decline and culminated with suicide in 2018, she discovered he was being haunted by a dark presence he called creature. The initial discovery she revealed in Fear Gone Wild: A Story of Mental Illness, Suicide, and Hope Through Loss, came in 2011 as they celebrated their first anniversary with a one-night stay at the Langham hotel in downtown Pasadena, California. Their anniversary celebration was also around the same time that Andrew Stoeckleins father, was diagnosed with aggressive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. They were young and giddy and full of anticipation for a special night together Kayla recalled. It was picture perfect. We were madly in love, crazy about each other, and the night kept getting better. After dinner that night, Andrew went to take a shower. Kayla was passing time watching TV when she heard a noise coming from the bathroom that she soon realized was Andrew crying. I rushed into the bathroom, pulled back the shower curtain, and there he was, on the floor of the shower, curled up in the fetal position, shaking, terrified, and crying hysterically, she wrote. When he finally calmed down enough to talk, he described in detail an encounter hed had with a dark presence he called a creature. Kayla was stunned by the confession. I stopped rubbing his back. Full of confusion and fear, I sat on the cold tile floor, unsure what to do next. I began to look around the room. I didnt see any creature. What do you mean a creature? Andrew, what are you talking about? There isnt anything in the shower. You were the only one in here; I dont understand, she wrote. He started crying again and shaking. I wasnt helping. I was making it worse. So I did the only thing I knew to doI prayed. God, I dont know whats going on, but I pray your presence would overwhelm this room right now. Whatever Andrew saw, I pray in the name of Jesus for it to leave; it has no power here. In Jesus mighty name, amen. I turned off the shower, grabbed a towel from the counter, and slowly helped Andrew stand to his feet. I carefully wrapped the towel around him and held his body close to mine as we walked toward the bed. Are you okay? What do you need? What can I do for you? He pulled the covers up over his body, closed his eyes, took a long, deep breath, and then opened them again. Im okay. That was really scary. Im still confused, but I feel better. Thank you for praying for methat really helped. What was supposed to be a night to remember had quickly turned into a night I hoped I would forget. Kayla Stoecklein revealed that the darkness haunted Andrew throughout their marriage relentlessly. I wish I could say he never had another encounter with darkness, but I cant. Throughout our marriage, Andrew continued to be taunted relentlessly. Sometimes Andrew would tell me about it, but other times he wouldnt. Maybe he even felt like he couldnt. Maybe he didnt want to acknowledge it was real either, she wrote. He was burdened by a darkness difficult to fully understand. Every day there is an invisible war raging all around us. A war between good and evil, darkness and light, and we live in the tension. As different people with different upbringings, we may have different understandings of darkness and demons, but I think most people agree there is evil in this world, and it is truly dark. Overtime, as Andrew Stoeckleins battle with depression and anxiety worsened, Kayla Stoecklein revealed his encounters with the darkness grew more frequent. The darkness continued to pursue Andrew relentlessly. He would often experience encounters with the darkness in his dreams, and this became magnified during his battle with depression and anxiety. Throughout our last summer together Andrew would often recount the terrifying dreams in detail to me, she wrote. Each time his eyes would open wide, and as he spoke I could sense the fear in his voice and his eyes. There was a war raging inside his mind, and it wasnt just physical or chemical, it was also spiritual. It was a deadly combination of mental illness and spiritual warfare, and it was spiraling out of control. Despite Andrew Stoeckleins ongoing battle with demons, depression and anxiety, Kayla Stoecklein explained in the book that doctors and the churchs board of directors gave him the greenlight to return to work as lead pastor of the church on Aug. 1, 2018. And even after another harrowing encounter between her late husband and five creatures from the darkness while he was wide awake in their home shortly before he resumed his duties at the church, his planned return did not change. I was sitting on our front porch watching the boys play in our long driveway when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Andrew that read, Five creatures surrounding me right now in my room. Each one has a meaning. Each one talking, taking turns. Im praying them away. Might need some spiritual prayers to help. God is more powerful. Gods got this. But I am scared in this moment, Kayla Stoecklein recalled of her dead husbands plea. I dropped my phone on the porch and ran through the house, down the long hallway, and back to our bedroom. I flung open the door, and there he was, the man I loved, absolutely paralyzed by fear. He was lying on the bed, he had the sheet pulled up over his head, and he was curled in a ball, trembling. I gently pulled back the covers, kissed his sweaty brow, and laid my hand on his chest. Babe, whats going on? Are you okay? I got your text. What can I do to help? she asked. Andrew did not respond. I looked around the room and didnt see any dark creatures; in my spirit I didnt feel any evil presence. So many thoughts swirled through my mind. Is this all in his head? Is he experiencing some sort of hallucination? Is this really spiritual warfare? I didnt have answers, but I knew I could do what I had always done since that very first encounter: pray. I was in over my head in so many way, she said. Kayla Stoecklein said she called in friends and members of the churchs staff to pray for her husband. If this was spiritual warfare and the Enemy wasnt going to back down, I wasnt either. We couldnt live like this anymore. The staff members arrived with anointing oil, and together we stopped and prayed over every room in our home. Then we circled Andrew, anointed him with oil, and each prayed for freedom and healing in his life, she explained. I wish I could say we saw miracles that day and Andrew was healed on the spot, but he wasnt. The prayers of my friends, just like the prayers I had been praying all summer, seemed to fall flat. In my heart I cried out to God in desperation. I begged for breakthrough and healing in our home. Shortly after he returned to work as lead pastor of Inland Hills Church, Kayla Stoecklein said her husband expressed to her for the first time that he thought about suicide. She said her husband asked her one night how she was doing while they were at home and she told him quite frankly how she was feeling. Im just tired. I feel like Im doing everything on my own. Our house feels like a war zone. The boys run around yelling and fighting all day, and Im at my wits end with it all. I cant keep up. I feel so alone, she recalled telling her husband. When he didnt respond, I looked at him. He was tracing his fingers on the brown speckled granite. Then he said, Im sorry I havent been there for you like you need me to be, like the boys need me to be. I was up again last night, in the middle of the night. I was standing right here in the kitchen. I had papers spread all over the counter, trying to come up with a new organization chart for the church and feeling really overwhelmed and confused. And I thought about killing myself. Kayla Stoecklein wasnt prepared for her husbands confession. My stomach sank. He was looking for compassion and connection, but I had nothing left to give. I was running on empty. I had told him I was tired and overwhelmed, and now he was telling me that he was just going to leave me? Andrew, you know that is the most selfish thing you could ever do, right? What about me? What about the boys? Andrew, you couldnt do that to the boys. They love you so much. How far did you think about it? Did you google it? Did you research how to do it? You wouldnt actually do that, right? I was mad, confused, and stunned. He was being vulnerable and honest, and my mind wasnt in a healthy enough place to handle it, she said. And her late husband told her that her response wasnt helpful. Kayla, thats not what you say to someone who is talking about suicide. You need to do some research and come up with something better to say. No, I didnt google it. No, I dont know how I would do it. It was just a moment. It was just a passing thought. It was there and then it was gone. And then I put my papers away and went back to bed, she recalled her husband saying. I didnt believe he would actually kill himself; I was so deeply convinced of this truth, I never brought it up again. That night at the kitchen counter was the one and only time Andrew ever mentioned suicide. This is a regret I will live with for the rest of my life. Hindsight Now four years removed from her husbands suicide, Kayla Stoecklein has evolved into an outspoken mental health advocate. She is also promoting her second book, Rebuilding Beautiful, published last month, in which she shares how she survived loss and learned how to rebuild a beautiful life without her husband. I am still learning how to shake off the shame. I am still learning how to admit that Im a single mom without giving into the urge to defend myself. To embrace this sharp edge of my story will mean letting go of the strong sense of failure that says Im a bad person or I did something wrong, she wrote. In two extended interviews with The Christian Post, she also revisited the events that led up to her husbands suicide and candidly shared deeper insights into the experience that she hopes will serve as a cautionary tale for churches and their leaders. She explained that even though she doesnt think shell understand everything her husband went through with spiritual warfare, she believes it was important to share that part of his struggle. He wasn't able to be free from the spiritual warfare that was happening within him. And I'll never understand. You know, I'll never fully understand it. But I felt like it was really important for me to include that in the book because it was such a real part of our experience, she said. In Fear Gone Wild, Kayla Stoecklein recounted how just before her husband was supposed to deliver the Easter message in 2018, a security guard found him at the church suffering from a panic attack where he was hyperventilating so badly that he was starting to lose sensation in his hands and feet. Once it subsided he was still allowed to go onstage and preach. When asked why the church allowed this to happen, she said, I don't know, I honestly don't know. I think we're so wrapped up in it and so close to it, and [it was] put the church first for so long. But I'm standing in the green room bawling my eyes out, like I can't believe that, he was just in his office shaking and crying and like totally in a full-on panic attack. And somehow he's on stage and he's speaking and this doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right, she told CP. I had been saying that we need to get you home. This is not OK. You've been struggling with these things. You can't keep living like this. So, it was just a few weeks after that that [the] sabbatical started. She said she tried to support her husband as much as she could during his struggle but at the time, there wasn't a lot of space for my opinions. Andrew had a really strong personality. And there just wasn't a lot of space for anybody else. I loved him to pieces, and I thought purpose and meaning and being his support system and doing things that I could do to support him, like bringing him lunch in between services and having dinner ready for him after service and being there on the front row at his first service and taking care of the kids and doing the things that I could do, she said. The structure of the church, she said, also gave the young lead pastor a lot of power which she doesnt think her husband was fully prepared to manage after the death of his father. It was a nondenominational church and so he's in control. [For] a lot of nondenominational churches, there's a board, but the lead pastor is in charge of the board. So they still have the final say, she said. A lot of the decision on stepping back from ministry as he struggled with his mental health, she explained, required her husbands support. I think it had to be up to Andrew to take that sabbatical, and when he was in the hospital, [with] this major panic attack that led him there, I think he finally realized that I think you guys are right. I think it's time to like, stop and try to figure this out, she noted. Kayla Stoecklein said she believes the elder board of Inland Hills Church really tried to help her husband but I think it was just hard. It was a challenge, she believes, partly due to her late husbands youth and being thrust into leading a 4,000-member church with a staff of nearly 40 and hundreds of volunteers without enough experience in leadership. When you're young and you have a lot to prove and you have a huge ego, a lot of people that are young in any profession are trying to prove themselves and they're working out of their own ego, she said. It can feel like a bit of a bulldozer, that no one's going to get in my way and I'm going to do what I feel like is right. I hope and I think if he was still [alive today], I'd say that those are some of the things that he would have been able to grow out of or move past and truly work on, she said. I think Andrew had a lot to prove. He would listen to his mom and really went to her for a lot of things. I struggled to find my place. Accountability Looking back at her experience in church leadership, Kayla Stoecklein firmly supports the development of governance structures that ensure grounded and healthy leadership. You can get so wrapped up in it (ministry leadership) so having people that can help you stand out and see the bigger picture and see the things that are important [is a healthy approach], she told CP. I think oftentimes people that are in ministry put the church before everything else and that was our story. She said her husband didnt take a lot of time off from work after his father passed away in 2015, and she believes he modeled that work ethic after his parents. After Andrew's dad passed away, he only took two weeks off and then he went back and he preached a series on Heaven. He should have taken a year off, he should have taken way more time off. He probably shouldn't have become the lead pastor at such a young age, they should have hired somebody, she said. And they could have helped raise him up into that position in a healthier way, that slower way, in a way where he had more time to learn. It's hard to learn when you're at the top of an organization. I feel like there's a huge learning curve and there's a lot to catch up on when you just get thrust into a position overnight. You can only work out of your gifting until you get exhausted, she added. Kayla Stoecklein believes that churches would likely be healthier if they are led by a team and not a lead pastor who functions like a CEO with a high concentration of power and responsibilities. I feel like there needs to be a shift in the way that lead pastors [are allowed to] become the most important person. And it's shifting to more of a team atmosphere, an atmosphere that we're all in this together. And we're all here to serve one another, she said. It takes a whole body, we need the whole body, we need every part. And a pastor is just a small part of the whole body. Senior associate leader of Bethel Church and co-founder of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, California, Kris Vallotton, shared last year that many years ago, he, too, personally battled with suicidal thoughts. He said that examining suicide from a spiritual angle is a legitimate approach to healing. The truth is that there are two sides to suicide. In some cases, suicide is rooted in the soul. In others, it begins as a spiritual attack, he wrote in a post on his website. Suicidal temptations that begin in the soul are, in many cases, the result of unprocessed pain. When you experience trauma or situations in life that make you feel like your heart could quite literally break under the weight of your depression, taking your life and going to Heaven can be a tempting escape. He also explained that people experiencing suicidal thoughts stemming from spiritual attacks are not uncommon and can be overcome with the power of God. If a suicidal spirit is talking to you, I want to encourage you to remind yourself of who God says you are, and the condition He says youre in now. I know what it feels like when all seems lost, to not see a way out of your agony, and to feel like nobody in the world can sympathize with your struggle," he said. "The truth is, God is holding you this very moment and He will not leave you or abandon you. He can identify with your struggle because He, too, was tempted with suicide. He can empathize with your profound pain because He experienced it all on the cross. SBC president, Executive Committee chair respond to proposed amendment on female pastors Any discussion concerning women serving as pastors in Southern Baptist churches must be informed by past decisions made by the Southern Baptist Convention, two key SBC figures said Wednesday. In a joint statement, SBC Executive Committee Chairman Jared Wellman and SBC President Bart Barber said a commitment to affirming Southern Baptist polity and the Baptist Faith and Message remains central in the ongoing debate over female pastors, which gained national attention last week after a Virginia pastor released an open letter to the Executive Committee. The document, written by Pastor Mike Law of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, called on the board to recommend an amendment to the SBCs constitution to include verbiage requiring Southern Baptist churches not to affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind. Since its publication, the letter, titled A Call To Keep Our Unity, has received more than 800 signatures in support of Laws motion, which was initially introduced at the SBC's Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, last June. Wellman and Barber acknowledged that while the SBC did not reach a moment in Anaheim where the messengers were able to vote on these questions, as far as it lies within our authority to do so, we are committed to letting these questions come before messengers at the SBC's Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, in June 2023. The SBC's constitution and bylaws can only be changed by a vote of messengers at the Annual Meeting. Messengers are representatives from cooperating Southern Baptist churches who gather to decide on policy and budget questions for the convention. While the statement signaled an intent to "protect the messengers rights, answer the messengers questions, and implement the messengers instructions" regarding the issue of female pastors, Wellman and Barber also stated support for the Baptist Faith & Message, the Convention's statement of faith, adding, We believe that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. These words represent our own individual doctrinal convictions. More importantly, these words represent the sentiments of the messenger body in their past decisions. As we discharge our own duties, we will do so in ways that implement these past decisions that the messengers have given to us. Should the SBC decide ultimately to change the Conventions constitution, any church found to be in violation of SBC bylaws would no longer be a part of the Convention. In his letter, Law noted the Baptist Faith & Message statement adopted in 2000 already affirms that while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. Prior to that, Law said the SBC through its Resolution On Ordination And The Role Of Women In Ministry already recognizes the Bible excludes women from pastoral leadership and pastoral functions. This matter has long been settled by Southern Baptists, he wrote. While a "resolution" is informative as a "snapshot" of where Southern Baptists are on a particular issue at a particular moment, and the Baptist Faith and Message "Confession" is instructive as a reliable summary of what Southern Baptists most surely believe, neither one is binding on the conscience of an individual Southern Baptist or on a Southern Baptist church. However, the constitution and bylaws are binding on a Southern Baptist church. Any church that violates the constitution and bylaws would no longer be, by definition, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. While theres little data on the number of women serving in pastoral roles in Southern Baptist churches, fewer than one-tenth of 1% of SBC-affiliated churches in 2000 had a woman serving as senior pastor, according to a study from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Last year, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, drew scrutiny from many within the SBC when the church ordained three women Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty and Katie Edwards. Since then, the prominent California megachurch has received increased attention for its support of female pastors. Recently installed lead Pastor Andy Wood, who replaced pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren as leader of Saddleback, listed his wife, Stacie, as a teaching pastor on the churchs website. Earlier in October, Stacie preached a sermon at Saddleback, with her being identified as a Teaching Pastor. Also last month, trustees at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, unanimously approved a resolution encouraging the seminary's administration to continue theologically training both men and women, "but with men alone reserved for the office and function, and thereby title of pastor." "It is further resolved that this Board encourages The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary administration and faculty to continue its theological training with this stated conviction graduating both men and women for service to the church, but with men alone reserved for the office and function, and thereby title of pastor," the resolution states in part. The resolution commended the stance of SBTS President Albert Mohler, who helped revise the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the official statement of faith for the SBC. Shortly after the SBC's Annual Meeting last June, Mohler was joined by Chuck Kelley and Richard Land, who also were members of the revision committee, in publishing a statement clarifying the meaning of the word "pastor," titled, "A Statement Concerning the Baptist Faith & Message and the Word' Pastor.'" Mohler has served as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since 1993, Kelley served as president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for 23 years, and Land served as president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission from 1988-2013 and is president emeritus of Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina. The Confession Revision Committee assigned the three men to write a study guide for the new 2000 Baptist Faith & Message Confession. Aiming to bring clarity to a fractious debate within SBC life, the theologians said that when it comes to the word "pastor," Southern Baptists have always understood the term. In keeping with the spirit of Baptist Faith and Message 2000, "pastor" means "one who fulfills the pastoral office and carries out the pastor's functions." United Methodist Church elects first Native American bishop A regional body of The United Methodist Church has elected the first Native American bishop in the history of the mainline Protestant denomination. The Rev. David Wilson, assistant to the bishop of the Oklahoma and Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, was elected Wednesday as a bishop in the UMC South Central Jurisdictional Conference. Delegates meeting in Houston, Texas, chose the 59-year-old Wilson on the first ballot, with him getting 92 votes out of 151 valid ballots cast, passing the minimum requirement of 77 votes, or 60%, reported UM News. Wilson had previously served as a conference superintendent for 19 years, lead coordinator for the North Oklahoma City Native American Ministry for eight years, and director of promotions and interpretations for the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference for seven years. He also served as a pastor of a couple of churches in Oklahoma, and as campus minister for the Native American Campus Ministry program at Northeastern State University. At a press conference held shortly after his election, Wilson spoke about the history of his people coming to Christianity and in gradually entering ministry roles in the Methodist Church. People ask often why would Native people want to be part of the Methodist Church or Christianity given whats happened in this history? Wilson said. When we look at Christianity, when we talk to our elders, the premise of that is so much like our spirituality. You take care of each other, you love one another, and in essence, thats what Christianity is. Wilson went on to explain that after his ancestors were forcibly moved out West, one of the very first things our people did was to recreate the Methodist churches. Were proud of being United Methodists. Were proud of the work we do in Oklahoma, he added. In addition to Wilson, other bishops elected by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference included the Rev. Laura Merrill, capital district superintendent for the UMC Rio Texas Conference, and the Rev. Dee Williamston, assistant to the bishop and director of Clergy Excellence for the UMC Great Plains Annual Conference. Williamstons election was also historic, as she became the first female African American bishop in the history of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference. God showed up through the South Central Jurisdiction to elect their first African American woman bishop, said Williamston, as reported by UM News. It means a lot to stand here and represent and finally say we are here and we are not done. A lot of people have sacrificed for me to be here in this moment. It means we are moving forward ever so slowly, but we are moving. Museum of the Bible honors 'The Chosen' with Pillar Award for series' global impact Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Wycliffe Bible Translators receive awards for increasing Bible engagement The global hit Christian series The Chosen has been honored with an award from the Washington, D.C.-based Museum of the Bible for the programs cultural impact. Dallas Jenkins, creator and director of The Chosen series, was given a Pillar Award at the Museums fifth anniversary gala held last Saturday. In addition to Jenkins winning in the Impact category, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association won the Pillar Award for the Narrative category, and Wycliffe Bible Translators President John Chesnut won the award for the History category. The criteria for the Impact Award centers on weighing the level of impact among people who promote the Bible via their public platform. Our 2022 Pillar Award recipients have achieved exceptional impact on Bible engagement in their fields, said Museum of the Bible CEO Harry Hargrave in a statement shared with The Christian Post. Our awards recognize how each has done so creatively and in a way that shows the Bibles relevance to culture and society today. In September, the Museum of the Bible hosted an event featuring a documentary that showed young peoples reactions to The Chosen and included a panel of members of the production. Produced by Angel Studios and available to watch via their streaming platform, The Chosen debuted in December 2019. By the end of its second season, it had garnered critical acclaim and around 350 million views worldwide. Jerry B. Jenkins, bestselling author and the father of Dallas Jenkins, told The Christian Post in an interview earlier this year that he hoped The Chosen series would draw people who are not religious to Christ. One of the things we really wanted is for people not to see this as a substitute for Scripture or for going to church and listening to sermons and studying, said Jenkins. We really want it to drive them back to the Bible and back to church, and we're hearing from a lot of people who say that's happening for them. The series garnered some controversy back in April over a satirical ad campaign that featured fake vandalism on several of their billboards across the U.S., which included a link to a lighthearted video depicting demons being angry over the success of the series. Backlash from some who considered the faux defacing in poor taste led Dallas Jenkins to issue an apology via a Facebook livestream back in April. I genuinely ask for your forgiveness, said the director. We should have told you from the beginning of what we were planning to do and that the billboards being defaced were ours. Medical associations counter calls to investigate critics of child sex change surgeries A group of medical associations are refuting claims that questioning the ethics of performing sex change surgeries on children and teens will lead to threats against hospitals and physicians that perform such body-mutilating procedures. Led by the American College of Pediatricians and the Catholic Medical Association, leaders of a group of medical associations sent a letter to the American Medical Association, the Childrens Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics on Friday, urging child advocates within the medical community to embrace science rather than ideology. Other signatories included the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the Coalition for Jewish Values Healthcare Council, the Coptic Medical Association of North America and the National Association of Catholic Nurses, USA. The letter comes nearly a month after its intended recipients urged U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the organizations, individuals, and entities coordinating, provoking, and carrying out bomb threats of personal violence against childrens hospitals and physicians across the U.S. The Oct. 3 letter to the DOJ claimed that from Boston to Akron to Nashville to Seattle, childrens hospitals, academic health systems, and physicians are being targeted and threatened for providing evidence-based health care. Listen to CP's 5-part series Generation Indoctrination: Inside the Transgender Battle The purported evidence-based health care the letter refers to prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children and teens and performing irreversible, body mutilating surgeries, including the castration of boys and elective double mastectomies on girls who say they're suffering from gender dysphoria and want to look more like the opposite sex. Signatories of Fridays letter agreed with those who sent the Oct. 3 letter to the DOJ, adding that tactics of harassment, intimidation and threats of violence can never be justified, stressing that we join you in advocating for the elimination of these immoral activities. Many of our members have been the recipients of these same tactics of harassment, threats, intimidation, and job loss in efforts to bring attention to the major deficiencies in current data and on the safety and efficacy of gender affirming medical interventions, the letter continued. There is a profound difference between eminence-based medicine and evidence-based medicine. We see ongoing active efforts to suppress any discussion of the merits of the existing data used to support gender-affirming medical interventions to adolescents seeking to alter the appearance of their body to conform to their perceived gender identity. Leaders of the medical organizations contended that such practices are not only violate of the principle of scientific inquiry, but also of constitutionally protected free speech. They added: Expression of concern over the ability of youth to understand and consent to irreversible surgical interventions that result in loss of fertility and adult sexual function does not constitute harassment or intimidation. The posing of these questions and concerns reflects the normal scientific and medical dialogue process. Respectful debate and disagreement provide a basis for furthering scientific inquiry that leads to genuine improvement in medical care to the patients we serve. The letter concluded with a call on the recipient organizations to join the organizations we represent in critical appraisal of the merits and limitations of current scientific evidence in the growing field of gender medicine. The signatories urged the groups to express a willingness to consider alternate hypotheses on both the etiology and optimal management of sex-gender identity discordance. The integrity of the scientific method and adherence to true evidence-based medicine depend upon genuine efforts to recognize and minimize bias, avoidance of contamination by ideological agendas, and a continual striving to elevate knowledge to the highest standards of excellence. The letter comes as several states, including Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas, have banned prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors and disfiguring surgeries in light of concerns about the long-term effects of such procedures. The American College of Pediatricians, one of the groups that signed onto the letter, has identified some of the side effects of puberty blockers as osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility. The medical organization listed side effects of cross-sex hormones as an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan. The Oc t. 3 letter from the American Medical Association and other major medical organizations follows undercover reporting from Chaya Raichik, who operates the Twitter account Libs of TikTok. Raichik has contacted several childrens hospitals in the U.S., posing as a parent seeking to obtain gender transition services for her child. Raichiks recorded phone conversations with childrens hospital officials revealed a willingness on the part of hospital staff to schedule appointments for such procedures. Her undercover phone calls, combined with additional reporting by Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire, prompted childrens hospitals to edit their websites to remove references to gender transition procedures that they perform on children. Raichik shared her undercover conversations with Boston Childrens Hospital and Childrens National Hospital in Washington, D.C., while Walshs reporting focused on Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following pushback from Walshs reporting, Vanderbilt announced that it was halting the performance of gender transition surgeries on minors. For its part, Childrens National Hospital has denied all allegations of wrongdoing in a previous statement to The Christian Post. Man shares how God's voice saved from him from suicide while in prison for murder While in prison for murder, Raynard Dugger remembers the day he planned to commit suicide from in his cell like it was yesterday. He also remembers how the voice of God stopped him. "My cell was rigged a certain way so that ... it would close, but won't lock. And then, when the officer made his last rounds, I was going to leave out and go hang myself. I had everything prepared. I was sitting on my bunk and I started just contemplating, seeing it in my head," Dugger recounted in a recent episode of Delafe Testimonies on YouTube. "There was something inside [of me] that was not convinced. ... I just felt inside there has to be another way. I don't even know where that came from at the time. But, I promise, the moment I said that, I heard the voice of God in my cell [say], 'try me.'" Years later, Dugger reflectc on where he has come from and how he believes God saved him. Dugger shared his Christian testimony with Delafe Testimonies, a YouTube channel with a following of 171,000 subscribers that highlights powerful testimonies of Christ's followers. The channel is described as a "global project with a mission to save souls, build community and set people free" through sharing testimonies to Christ. Dugger said if he could use two words to describe that time in his life before he found Christ, it would be: "not Jesus." Dugger grew up in a crime-ridden Washington, D.C. neighborhood ironically called "Paradise." Although raised in a church-going family with both parents and two sisters, Dugger said he didn't know anything about Jesus and did not have "a desire for God [or] anything spiritual." "We had struggles. My dad was the only one working. My mom [had hearing] complications. So she couldn't work a lot [or] get certain jobs," Dugger described of the time. "In my house, nobody really cared for each other that much or showed that they did. It was always about my dad trying to survive, my mom trying to be content with her situation, my sisters trying to make it out here as females, and me, now I'm in the streets." Dugger said he became a drug dealer at the age of 12, with "some of my friends' parents" being among his customers. He eventually recruited his friends to help. "When you grow up in an environment that's kind of rocky and shaky, ... you want something you can call your own. You want something that nobody can take from you, that you can make for yourself and survive. So I thought that being a drug dealer, I would make a name for myself," Dugger detailed. Early on, he started carrying a gun, sneaking the weapon into school. "When you're carrying guns, you either get locked up with it, or you have to use it," Dugger said. "And in my case, there was a situation where I used it." At age 22, Dugger shot someone to death. "I look back now. I regret that situation with everything that I have in me. I see so many ways it could have went. But it happened. I understand now that everybody has a decision to make. You're not forced to do anything," Dugger said. "In those times and in those moments, where you feel like I just have to do this, I wish somebody would have told me, 'no, you don't.'" When Dugger stood in front of a judge to have his murder case evaluated, he felt called to take a plea deal, noting, "I told God that whatever I'm going to have to say, I'm just going, to tell the truth." Dugger recalled the first day he was shut into the mechanical cell doors and realized he couldn't "pry this open" or "wiggle" his way out. Stuck behind bars, Dugger said he contemplated suicide to avoid a 20-year sentence, thinking that suicide was "how I could win." "It made sense because I still wanted to be in control to the point where I was willing to take my own life just so I could still stay in control of my destiny," Dugger said. Looking back, he finds it strange that he thought "winning was taking my life." Moments before he was to attempt suicide, Dugger said he heard God's voice and suddenly began to think about other people, such as his then 2-year-old son. "This was literally the first time I had ever decided to change my mind on something that I wanted to do," he explained, noting that he "heard the voice of God in my cell." "And it wasn't like spooky or like the movies or like I had to look up or try to figure out where this voice is coming from. I knew that it was God. It was a knowing." "This voice was so familiar. I just knew it. And it brought so much freedom and joy to me in that moment. [I remember] literally transitioning from crying to about to take my life to hearing God's voice and just immediately feeling loved." Dugger went on to actively preach the Gospel while in jail, saying he was "on fire" for God. Duggar said his sentence was later reduced by the grace of God, spending six years and eight months in prison before his release. "Everyone at that time knew me for serving the Lord," he said. "They knew me for praising God. They knew me for being a witness for Jesus, even around the whole entire jail." After jail, Duggar found a job, got married and had a child. "Coming home, I realize its time to run for Jesus out here," he said. "I'm going to link up with people, going to link up with church, and we are going to be on fire for God. In prison, the reason God had his name spread throughout the jail using my life is because the fire of God that was in that place. ... People don't play about God in prison because that is really all you got." Not everything was easy after Duggar's release from prison. He recalled times when he was turned down for jobs because of his criminal background, even though he was fasting and praying for employment. "Now, living for the lord, I have been home six years," he said. "I have been home for more days than I was in, and God has continued to be faithful. I realize that when you are called by God and when He calls you, it don't matter what nobody got to say. It's His voice that matters. Sometimes I look back and think, 'Somebody lost their life so I could be saved.' I don't get that. But it's not really for me to get because I'm here, and it happened. I accept it. I pray for everyone that I have ever crossed paths with. But I know God called." Brian Houston blames Hillsong board's statements for resignation, insists hes not an alcoholic Hillsong Churchs founder and former global senior pastor Brian Houston blamed public statements made by the churchs board for his abrupt resignation earlier this year instead of any mistakes he made in ministry. Houston said the board's statements led to public speculation and allowed peoples imagination to run wild and draw their own conclusions about his departure from Hillsong. Houston, who is set to fight charges that he covered up his fathers child sexual abuse in an Australian court in December, said in a Facebook video early Thursday morning that he was essentially forced out of leadership with a narrative that was misleading. I want to be clear. The media and others incorrectly say I resigned because I breached the Hillsong code of conduct, but thats just not true. I didnt resign because of my mistakes. I resigned because of the announcements and statements that had been made, which Bobbie and I felt made my position untenable. And I spelled out my reasons for my resignation in my resignation letter to the Hillsong Church board, Houston said. A March 23 statement from Hillsong Church Global and Australian boards published on the global megachurch networks website said Houston formally resigned as global senior pastor in the wake of revelations that two women had made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years. Hillsong Church said Houston violated the churchs pastoral code of conduct by entering the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the churchs annual conference in 2019. Houston and the woman both said they did not recall what happened. Hillsong Churchs Interim Global Senior Pastor, Phil Dooley, suggested that their accounts of what happened were not entirely reliable because they were impaired by alcohol and Houston was also under the influence of anxiety medication. The church also revealed that Houston exchanged an inappropriate text message with a staffer in 2013. According to Dooley, the text message was along the lines of, if I was with you I would like to give you a kiss and a cuddle or a hug. The staffer resigned shortly after. Hillsong Church blamed Houstons actions in this case on sleeping tablets. Houston said in his video message on Thursday that when he offered to resign in March, he was expecting the board to reject it and fight for him, understanding how much pressure he was facing at the time. I guess a big part of me hoped that the board, knowing the pressure I was under, would reject my offer and continue to fight for me, but that was not to be, he continued. We certainly did not want to just abandon the Hillsong congregation, as some have suggested. We adore the people of Hillsong Church, and to be honest, we miss you all terribly. Houston then proceeded to share excerpts from his resignation letter in which he said he made it clear that it was the statements made by the board that made it difficult to continue in his role. The board statement to the church has made my position untenable. The board gave enough detail to allow peoples imagination to run wild and draw their own conclusions. The statement did nothing to add my perspective, the letter said. The statements that are being made have left me with no choice but to end our time as pastors and leaders of Hillsong Church. Houston said he also made it clear that while he was resigning from Hillsong Church he would not stop doing ministry. 'Thank you for the opportunity. It has been an honor and I can truthfully say, Hillsong Church is our lifes work. I have no intention of retiring. And in the future, well still be in ministry, whatever that looks like. Wherever that is. My hope is that we could have an active role as founding pastor of our church. Thats what I wrote to the board and thats the resignation the board was quick to accept, Houston said. Sadly, in the statements and announcements made, there was enough detail to pour ultimate shame and humiliation on me, but enough ambiguity to lead people to make their own conclusions about what did or didnt happen. Frankly, in many cases, those conclusions are wrong. Houston further insisted that he is not an alcoholic or addicted to sleep or anxiety medication despite statements from the church indicating otherwise. In my heartfelt apology to the people of Hillsong Church and to the Church at large, I spoke about alcohol having not proven itself to be my friend. But sadly that has built a narrative out there that Im an alcoholic, he said. The stories about my alcoholism are the result of gossip, whispering and innuendo. The narrative that Im an alcoholic is false. In fact, Ive been told by an expert therapist that I do not display the behaviors that are typical of an alcoholic. The Australian megachurch founder said when he apologized for his use of alcohol he was referring to specific incidents which were unbecoming for a minister of the gospel. And for which Im deeply sorry. In addressing his use of sleeping tablets, Houston also explained that that habit is now a thing of the past. It was in the early 2000s with my constant global travel and the stress that I was under, I became dependent on sleeping tablets which I have spoken about openly many times including in my book, Live Love, Lead. But let me be clear, the last time I took a single sleeping tablet was over ten years ago. And even though Ive continued to travel widely I havent taken one sleeping tablet for a decade. Its not an ongoing problem, he said. The notorious night in 2019 where I mixed a double dose of anti-anxiety tablets with alcohol was a one-off occasion. It happened once. It hadnt happened before and it hasnt happened since. So I dont have an ongoing problem with anti-anxiety tablets or any other prescription medication, he added. I respectfully ask you to please not label me that way or blindly accept that narrative. Christians call for political, theological unity ahead of midterm elections at 'National Prayer Altar' WASHINGTON A Chicago pastor and his wife hosted the National Prayer Altar service this week, calling for Americans to set aside political or theological divides to unite before God as the midterm elections approach. The apolitical event, which took place at the Museum of the Bible on Wednesday night, featured various pastors and policy experts praying for God to heal the nation and recognize His power. The evening marked the second time the museum hosted the event, with the first one taking place in November 2020. In addition to locals, individuals from states as far as Arizona, California and Texas also attended the service to pray and worship. National Prayer Altar Director and INSIGHT Church Pastor James E. Ward Jr. highlighted the difficulties of maintaining a prayer movement during a time of tribalism impacting the nation and its churches. The pastor said finding a place of unity and prayer "requires the grace of God." Aside from Jerusalem, Ward said the nation's capital is the most important city in the world. Citing 2 Samuel 24:25, the pastor described how David built an altar to the Lord on God's command, something the National Prayer Altar intends to do through the museum. Ward said David used the altar to offer prayers to the Lord, and the "plague was stopped." "I believe we need to build an altar to stand in covenant position to do business with God for the plague and the tragedy we're seeing in our nation today to be averted," he said, The Chicago pastor believes the church is winning many local battles but losing the "national war" and believes Christians must do the most "powerful thing they know," which is to pray in the most "powerful city." "We've come to boldly and prophetically declare that no matter who sits in the Oval Office, regardless of who controls the Senate or the House, ultimately, Jesus Christ is Lord of Washington, D.C., and He's Lord of the nations of the world," Ward said. One of the speakers at the event was Jay Johnston, the national prayer director and chaplain at the socially conservative activist organization Family Research Council. He invited everyone to offer prays of thanks to all individuals that hold a political office in the country. Johnston prayed for the United States executive branch, asking God to make himself known to any members of the office that do not know Him. "Dear Lord, we do lift up President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill," he said. "Lord, as we ask that they call upon you and seek your face for every decision that is before them, Lord, we ask you to give them holy spirit-filled eyes to see and to understand the difference between good and evil, life and death." Johnston also prayed for Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, asking for her to take actions that would please God and not satisfy her desires. Denise Cappuccio, chief financial officer for the social conservative public advocacy group Concerned Women for America, invited attendees to pray for families and children, both born and unborn. The speaker prayed for "Godly, Christian marriages" that would serve as an example of what such a union can look like. Cappuccio revealed that she had been a single mother for many years and prayed for the Lord to invite "Godly men" into the lives of women experiencing the same struggle. She also prayed for the nation's children, voicing concerns about reports of schools promoting transgenderism and offering graphic content in libraries. "Lord, I pray for the Christian moms and dads, that they would be relentless, oh God, Lord, that they would rise up, oh God, that they would be a voice, God, and that they would say, 'Thus far, and no more,'" Cappuccio said. Shannon Bennett, chief marketing officer for the Museum of the Bible, believes the prayer event is consistent with why the building exists in the first place. "For us, it's bringing everybody that loves the Bible together, whether we're Catholic or Protestant or charismatic, or Jewish, everybody that loves this book together to celebrate it," Bennett said in an interview with The Christian Post. "So it's everybody that loves the Lord, whatever string we're in and whatever background, whatever ethnicity, it's that message of unity that really just permeates this whole event." The museum's first National Prayer Altar event was on the day before the 2020 presidential election. Ward had a vision that God intended for him and his wife, Sharon, to hold such an event at the Museum of the Bible. Due to COVID-19, the gathering was mostly limited to museum staff and the National Prayer Altar's crew. Many others participated in the event via a live stream. Bennett said Pastor Ward handled the cost of using the space, while the museum relies on donor support to host it. In terms of future prayer events, Bennett said that the museum will continue to "facilitate" the pastor's vision and build community in the D.C. area. One of the ways the museum unites people is by building relationships with local prayer warriors, pastors and leaders. "We hope just to expand on that, bringing more unity around prayer for our nation," Bennett said. Episcopal Church sells property to breakaway diocese as legal battle winds down The Episcopal Church has agreed to sell church property in South Carolina to a breakaway Anglican diocese that it won in litigation following conversations with those who use the worship space. Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina announced last week that she and the Standing Committee will allow the Anglican Church in North America to buy the property of St. Matthew's Church of Fort Motte in rural Calhoun County. The property was one of 14 church properties awarded to the Episcopal Church in April by the South Carolina Supreme Court, a number later reduced to eight. However, Woodliff-Stanley said "the number of people who would hope to have an Episcopal presence" at the Fort Motte property "is extremely small." "[W]e recognize that, without a seed congregation ready to reopen as an Episcopal church, the displacement of the ACNA congregation would undermine the healing we seek to foster in this particular community," stated the bishop. "Our choice to allow the ACNA congregation at St. Matthew's to buy this property provides us with resources that may be used to plant a new church that, in time and God willing, can bring strength and gifts to the benefit of the Episcopalians resident in that area and in the entire diocese." The bishop said it "was not an easy decision" but "provides the best opportunity for the health and future of our diocese." In November 2012, the leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina voted to leave The Episcopal Church due to the denomination's increasing acceptance of homosexuality and the alleged mistreatment of their bishop at the time, the Rev. Mark Lawrence. Litigation ensued in January 2013 over who rightfully owned the estimated $500 million in church properties, as well as claims over diocesan trademarks. Both sides scored legal victories over the years. The two sides reached a settlement in September after the state court's ruling. Woodliff-Stanley acknowledged that "each diocese has had to leave things on the table to get to this moment" and "experience pain over losses of some of the historic churches our members hold dear." Anglican Bishop Chip Edgar said in a statement shared with The Christian Post earlier this year that the settlement "allows us to invest our diocesan energy, time, focus and resources in gospel ministry rather than litigation." "While the losses we have experienced, including those of St. Christopher and several of our parish buildings are painful, I am grateful that the work we have done has brought an end to litigation between our dioceses." The Anglican diocese has relinquished control of several church properties the court ruled belonged to the Episcopal Church. As some property transfers have been completed, Episcopalians began worshiping in some of those properties in August. Jason Varnadore of the Anglican congregation that left St. David's in Cheraw expressed sadness and relief because the congregation struggled to support the building financially. "The rent we're paying now is cheaper than the mortgage-free maintenance bill we paid on our building every month," said Varnadore, as reported by the Anglican diocese. "Wesley United Methodist Church, an historically African American church, generously signed over a lease to let us use their property. The PCA minister in town said, 'If you need any office space, you let me know. You can have it.' So, we have really nice offices over at Faith Presbyterian in town." Hindu mob, off-duty officer attack Christian prayer gathering in India Nearly two weeks after a mob of Hindu nationalists accompanied by an off-duty police officer physically assaulted 15 Christians gathered in a private home for prayer in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, local police still refuse to register the victims complaints, saying they had orders not to file any case related to Christian persecution. The mob barged into the Christian's home and launched the attack in Chhattisgarh states Sukma District at around 9 p.m. on Oct. 21, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported this week, adding that the attackers demanded that they forsake their religion. The off-duty officer was identified only as Kitto. The Christians, with the help of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, met with the Superintendent of Police of Sukma District and the states director general of police, but the Golampalli Police Station has yet to register the complaint as of this week, CSW said. When the victims went to file their complaints, the officer in charge of the police station allegedly verbally abused them and insulted Christianity. Two days later, when the Christians returned to the police station to register their complaint, a police officer, identified only as Major, and Kitto allegedly beat the complainants, including women and a Christian constable from the same police station who also worked as a pastor and had been among those assaulted on Oct. 21. The police station in charge claimed he had orders from his superiors not to register complaints in relation to attacks on Christians in the district. On Oct. 25, three officers, including the Christian constable who was assaulted, had reportedly been suspended. The persistent targeting of Christians by right-wing religious fundamentalists, including in their own homes, is extremely worrying, as are frequent allegations of law enforcement complicity in attacks perpetrated against religious minorities, CSWs founder and President Mervyn Thomas said. In September, Indias Supreme Court directed eight states, including Chhattisgarh, to verify the claims of Christian groups that had filed a petition for protection after around 200 attacks were reported within the first five months of 2022. The court said verification was needed because the federal government had maintained that claims of Christian persecution in India are based on "half-baked and self-serving facts and self-serving articles and reports based upon mere conjecture." The petition was filed by Archbishop Machado of the southern city of Bengaluru, the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India, demanding an investigation into rising attacks on Christians and requesting police protection for places of worship. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who reported about 500 attacks on Christians across the country in 2021 alone, issued a formal response to the claim of the federal government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While Christians comprise only 2.3% of India's population and Hindus comprise about 80%, several states in the country have enacted anti-conversion laws, which presume that Christians "force" or give money to Hindus to persuade them to convert to Christianity. Radical Hindu nationalist groups frequently use anti-conversion laws to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks under the pretext of an alleged forced conversion. The United Christian Forum reported at least 486 violent incidents of Christian persecution in 2021, calling it the "most violent year" in the country's history. UCF attributed the high incidence of Christian persecution to "impunity," enabling mobs to "criminally threaten, physically assault people in prayer, before handing them over to the police on allegations of forcible conversions." Police registered formal complaints in only 34 of the 486 cases, according to the UCF. Mother Teresa: A spiritual hero for any age On Sept. 5, 1997, one of the most remarkable women produced by the 20th century passed away after living a truly remarkable life during her 87-year sojourn among us. Her name was Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, known to the world as Mother Teresa. Born in obscurity in what is now Albania in 1910, she felt an early calling to full-time service to the church and joined a Roman Catholic religious order while still in her teens. Mother Teresa was best known for her extensive charitable work in the slums of Calcutta. She founded a religious order, which grew to a membership of 4,500 nuns and has been active in just over 133 countries, mainly managing homes for people who are dying of leprosy, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. Her religious order also runs orphanages, schools, mobile clinics, dispensaries, and soup kitchens in outreach to the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa has received extraordinary worldly recognition for her charity work, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She requested the cash prize accompanying the Nobel to be given to her charitable work and expenses of the annual Nobel award dinner ($192,000) be donated to the poor of India. The very diminutive Mother Teresa described herself: By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, I am Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. Pope Paul VI awarded her the inaugural Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and after death, Mother Teresa progressed quickly to canonization as Saint Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 4, 2016. When Mother Teresa was being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, Malcolm Muggeridge, the truly captivating late convert from atheism to Christianity, described Mother Teresa and her order as having become a sort of powerhouse of love in the world who was a counterforce to the power mania, cupidity, and egotistic pursuits out of which violence, individual and collective, in all its forms, comes. I had the opportunity to meet and spend an entire Sunday afternoon with Malcolm Muggeridge during my sojourn in Oxford and I consider it to be one of the most memorable four hours of my three-year stay in England. Muggeridge had done a BBC documentary on Mother Teresa, "Something Beautiful for God," in 1969, which became the basis for a book by the same title in 1971. Muggeridges documentary and book helped bring Mother Teresas ministry to a much wider audience and it was obvious to anyone who discussed her with him (as I did) that she had tremendously impacted his own personal spiritual life in profoundly positive ways. Mother Teresa and her sisters had a tremendously impactful ministry among HIV/AIDS patients worldwide but were especially impactful in America. She and her charity opened a hospice for people with AIDS and other terminal illnesses in Washington, D.C., followed up by additional hospices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver where they ministered to tens of thousands of terminal patients. Her ministry to AIDS victims makes me wonder yet again about how transformative it would have been had Evangelicals similarly embraced such a ministry to AIDS victims. Does anyone doubt that if Jesus had been walking the earth during the AIDS epidemic He would have been volunteering to minister to and nurse AIDS patients? If we had so ministered in Jesus name, we would have a different country today than we do. When Mother Teresa was criticized for doing her ministry in the name of Christ, she responded, Im not a social worker. I dont do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. Of course, one main reason Mother Teresa is held in such enormous regard in America is because of her unabashed, uncompromising, and eloquent defense of unborn human beings from the moment of conception onward. During her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on Dec. 10, 1979, in Oslo, Norway, speaking to the worlds international elite, Mother Teresa spoke from her tender and wonderful heart: The greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her own womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? ... Nobody speaks of the millions of little ones who have been conceived to the same life as you and I, to the life of God, and we say nothing, we allow it. To me the nations who have legalized abortion, they are the poorest nations. They are afraid of the little one, they are afraid of the unborn child, and the child must die because they dont want to feed one more child, to educate one more child, the child must die. Seldom, if ever, has there been a more beautiful and bold example of speaking truth to power. And she was just warming up. Mother Teresa then challenges her audience, which includes numerous heads of state, literally the princes and princesses of this world, today, let us make a strong resolution, we are going to save every ... unborn child, give them a chance to be born ... we are fighting abortion by adoption, and the good God has blessed the work so beautifully that we have saved thousands of children ... let us all pray that we have the courage to stand by the unborn child, and give the child an opportunity to love and to be loved, and I think with Gods grace we will be able to bring peace in the world. And then she concluded her address to that August Nobel gathering with this challenge: "And if we love we will try to do something. First in our own home, our next-door neighbor, in the country we live, in the whole world. And let us all join in that one prayer. God give us courage to protect the unborn child, for the child is the greatest gift of God to a family, to a nation and to the whole world. God bless you!" Mother Teresas life of sacrifice and love for others, combined with her matchless courage and conviction, made her a particularly compelling figure in a time when too many of our leaders were moral relativists. On Feb. 3, 1994, Mother Teresa was invited to address the extremely prestigious National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. She began by praying, Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow man throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. Then with President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton sitting at the head table, along with congressional leaders of both parties, she articulated a prophetic voice to our nation. Not intimidated in the least by her surroundings, she immediately got right to the point, just as she had during her Nobel speech two decades earlier. Mother Teresa reminded her audience (if they needed reminding, given her nuns habit and the fact she was speaking at the national prayer breakfast), she was a transcendent religious figure by referencing her favorite saint, Francis of Assisi, leading the assembled prayer breakfast attendees in reciting Francis famous prayer of peace which begins, Lord, make me a channel of your peace. She then reminded the assembled gathering that Jesus came to bring a new kind of peace. He came not to give the peace of the world, which is only that we dont bother each other. He came to give the peace of the heart which comes from loving, from doing good to others. Citing the biblical narrative of the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, she noted that Jesus, while still in the womb of Mary brought peace to John the Baptist who leapt for joy in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. The unborn was the first one to proclaim the coming of Christ. (cf Lk. 1:39-45) Her eloquence on the abortion issue was magnificent. But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion ... if we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? She then said, By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. She then observes, Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. At this point, one could not help but notice that Hillary Clinton, sitting at the head table, not more than 8 feet away from Mother Teresa at the podium, was growing increasingly agitated extremely flushed from the neck up. Then Mother Teresa said the following words: Please dont kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to [a] married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. I really thought that Hillary Clinton might spontaneously combust into flame right there on the podium. I do not think I have ever seen such pure, unadulterated hatred and rage on a human countenance before or since that moment. I was truly concerned that first, Hillary might physically attack the diminutive Mother Teresa on stage, or alternatively, Hillary might have a stroke right there at the head table. It was a clarifying moment for me. As I contrasted the peaceful serenity of Mother Theresas countenance with Hillarys purplish-red, contorted features, I understood in a new and deeply spiritual way that this is not a debate between right and wrong, but rather a spiritual struggle between good and evil. Mother Teresa then challenged the audience, which was eerily silent in the presence of such godliness: If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace to the whole world, be a sign of joy. From here, a sign of care for the weakest [of] the weak, the unborn child, must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. All I could say then, and now, is Praise God and may God bless America and make us a country which God can bless. Sadie Robertson Huff announces 2nd pregnancy: Another little miracle is in motion Author, speaker and "Duck Dynasty" star Sadie Robertson Huff and her husband, Christian Huff, are expecting baby No. 2. The couple welcomed their first child, Honey, in 2021; now, their little girl will be a big sister. "Another little miracle is in motion," the Huffs wrote on both of their Instagram pages. The news was announced with a photo of the couple and their 1-year-old holding a sonogram photo. The 25-year-old Robertson Huff, an outspoken Christian and daughter of Duck Commander CEO Willie Robertson, has kept busy traveling and preaching at various conferences in recent years. Robertson Huff's mother, Korie Robertson, also shared the news on social media. "I have the VERY BEST NEWS to share!!" Robertson wrote. "Honey's going to be a big sister!! @legitsadierob and @christian_huff so excited for y'all, and also very excited for me and @realwilliebosshog another grand baby to love on." During her first pregnancy in 2020, Robertson Huff was very vocal about the difficulties she encountered, including a battle with COVID-19. She also reported having "some pretty crazy morning sickness." "The hardest thing was I did get COVID while I was pregnant and I was so sick from that, and so sick still in the morning sickness, so that was a challenge," she told People at the time. "Seriously, my heart goes out to every single pregnant person with COVID and everybody with COVID. They were telling me at the hospital, they were like, 'Man, people have to deliver with it.' I can't even imagine. So that was challenging in and of itself." The Huffs married in November 2019 at the Robertson family home in Louisiana. Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church officiated the ceremony and described the event as "a God-breathed moment." Over 600 guests attended the ceremony. Just a few days before her engagement in May 2019, Robertson professed love for her beau by sharing what she cherished most about him. "Of course there are a lot of things that I love about this man," she wrote on Instagram. "He's strong and kind. He's handsome and humble. He is hilarious. He's my best friend and the best one to have." The Live Fearless author, who has struggled with anxiety, admitted that her relationship is "not perfect." But she said they work through their "silly communication" issues. "At the end of every day I couldn't be more grateful for this walking answered prayer. I literally have a picture of us taped to the back of my Bible to remind me to thank God for this miracle, gotta give some credit where it's due!" she maintained. Biblical worldview conference draws students, adults to counter cultural trends, 'deconstruction' of Christian faith PLANO, Texas How important is it for young people to have a biblical worldview in todays culture? Whether its about sex and gender, scientific evidence that supports the Scriptures, or simply wondering whether objective truth even exists, students, young and old, are seeking answers to some of lifes biggest questions. Thats the driving force behind Anchored, a two-day conference at Prestonwood Baptist Church, which drew hundreds of students from Christian schools earlier this week. Presented by the Christian Thinkers Society and Prestonwood Christian Academy's Biblical Worldview Institute, the conference brought together a slate of Christian thinkers and speakers to offer students a thoughtful challenge to mainstream culture. There has never been a more critical time to instill a Christ-centered worldview in todays youth. The list continues to grow of individuals who have deconstructed their faith and walked away from Christianity, said PCA Dean of Spiritual Development, Jeremiah J. Johnston. Touching on a range of topics from creation versus evolution to Christian ethics and heritage, current cultural trends, and more, speakers such as Sean McDowell, Alisa Childers, and Scott Stripling held both plenary and breakout sessions designed to stimulate conversations around biblical truth. Childers, whose theme was Live Your Truth (And Other Lies), compared the cultural command to be your authentic self to the truth of the Bible. In Christianity, authenticity isnt everything. Holiness is everything, said Childers. Explaining the law of noncontradiction and its implications for the exclusivity of Christ, Childers pointed to Jesus truth claims in John 14:6, adding, Truth is what lines up with reality. Truth is not what you make up. Stripling, who serves as both provost at The Bible Seminary just outside of Houston and as the director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at Khirbet el-Maqatir and Shiloh, Israel, spoke on the topic of archaeology, which he described as a long, slow process. It is not like Indiana Jones, he added. Pointing to the reliability of the Bible, Stripling underscored how the numerous geographical references made in the ancient text are as accurate as one would expect from the Word of God. The Bible doesnt change, he said. If it says there was a river, I can take you to that river today. If it says there was a mountain, I can take you to that mountain today. But, Stripling conceded, merely affirming geographic accuracy isnt enough when it comes to salvation through Christ. I can prove to you when [Jesus] died, where He died, and how He died, said Stripling. But what I cannot do is prove He died in your place. In a breakout session on deconstruction, McDowell spoke candidly about the deconstruction movement in the Church, which even McDowell conceded lacks a defined, clear, black-and-white definition. There are those, he said, who use the term to refer to another form of apostasy or departing from the faith, while others use it to describe the process of simply reassessing or rethinking ones faith. Its somewhat of a nebulous term, he said. Theres debates among even people who are speaking [at the conference] about whether or not Christians should use the term deconstruction to refer to a questioning period. The topic has become so prevalent, said McDowell, that hes planning on releasing a book sometime next year tentatively called Set Adrift, which looks at deconstructing without losing your faith. While there are those who avoid using the term deconstruction because its so often interpreted to mean walking away from the faith, McDowell sees it a bit differently. I don't have a problem with using the term if we define it, talk about what it means, and make sure we focus on the right things, he said. He recommended asking someone who says they are deconstructing their faith, What does that mean? so they can define their terms. If its to strip away what is false and hold onto what is true, Id be like, Amen, he said. But if they say they're deconstructing their faith by abandoning it, thats a very, very different conversation, McDowell said. The deconstruction movement, which has gained a high profile among certain Christian celebrities, musicians, and young Evangelicals, finds its roots in 20th century philosophers like Foucault and Derrida, founders of queer theory and post-modernism, respectively. Earlier this year, Childers also weighed in on the debate, writing, "The vast majority are from people who've de-converted from Christianity, become progressive Christians, embraced same-sex marriage and relationships, rejected core historic doctrines of the faith, or are on a mission to crush the white Christian patriarchy." ADL warns of 'disturbing' spike in anti-Semitism on college campuses A recent report from the Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League highlighted an increase in anti-Israel activities at U.S. colleges and universities, raising concerns about the incidents and their impact on Jewish students. According to the ADLs annual Campus Report published earlier this month, more than 350 anti-Israel incidents occurred on college campuses during the 2021-2022 school year. Some of the incidents included 143 anti-Israel events, 165 protests and actions, and 20 Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions and referenda. In addition, the ADL reported 11 instances of vandalism, 19 instances of targeted verbal and written harassment, and one case involving a physical assault. During an April 18 protest against Israeli military action organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a student threw a rock at a group of Jewish students. While no one was hurt, the perpetrator has been charged with a hate crime. Such an attack against Jews gathered at a Jewish institution is a blatant act of anti-Semitism, the report states. The advocacy group noted the trend on many college campuses of accusing Israel of genocide or ethnic cleansing or labeling the country an apartheid state. The report also noted that campuses calling to boycott and divest from Israel and Israel-based companies appeared to be another trend during the 2021-2022 school year. At some secondary institutions, the report found that Jewish students were ostracized and barred from participating in campus organizations due to their assumed support for Israel and Zionism. The anti-Semitic vitriol directed at pro-Israel students is deeply unsettling and makes our colleges and universities feel less safe and secure for Jewish students, said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, in an Oct. 12 statement. University leaders must learn how to recognize and adequately respond to anti-Semitism whenever it arises, including when anti-Israel activities cross the line into anti-Semitic hatred. ADLs campus report comes at a time when violence against Jews has reportedly reached record levels in the United States. Last year, the advocacy group reported 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism against Jewish people, the highest number on record since the ADL began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to treat anti-Semitism as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin for activities and programs that receive federal assistance. The order was intended to combat anti-Semitism, particularly at institutions that receive federal funding. Another study released in April 2016 by the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit that investigates anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses, documented more than 300 anti-Semitic incidents on campuses in 2015. The report noted that the strongest predictor of anti-Jewish hostility on campus" is the presence of a BDS campaign against Israel. The more BDS activities on campus, the more likely anti-Semitic incidents are to occur, according to the report. Faculty members notably took part in BDS efforts and shared anti-Israel sentiment on campuses at the time of AMCHA Initiatives report. During a talk at Vassar College in February 2016, Rutgers professor Jasbir Puar accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs. She also claimed that Israel was conducting scientific experiments in "stunting" the growth of Palestinians' bodies. In April 2016, 40 Columbia University professors signed a BDS petition. The petition stated that the signatories stand with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and with Jewish Voice for Peace in calling upon the University to take a moral stance against Israels violence in all its forms. How the 'right to marry' became a 'right to children' In 2013, Amy Davidson Sorkin was covering the Supreme Court hearings in the case of Californias Proposition 8, which, for a brief moment, amended the states constitution to include a legal definition of marriage as only the union of one man and one woman. In The New Yorker, Sorkin described an exchange between Charles Cooper, a lawyer arguing on behalf of Prop 8, and Justice Elena Kagan, in which Cooper argued that the government has a right and a duty to protect marriage in order to protect children. Sorkin called Coopers argument baffling. If the state wanted to protect children, she argued, it should affirm same-sex marriage in order to protect the children that some gay and lesbian people have before they enter a same-sex arrangement. Also, the state has plenty of other compelling reasons to affirm so-called same-sex marriage, which have, as she put it, nothing to do with children. Today, less than 10 years later, in The New Yorkers own backyard, another lawsuit is before the courts, brought by a gay couple alleging employment discrimination. Their health insurance plan does not cover the cost for them to hire a surrogate. According to The Guardians description, one of the men previously worked for New York City, whose health insurance plan included coverage for in vitro fertilization for female employees. According to the gay couple, they also deserve an employer-subsidized pregnancy, and if they cannot get it, that amounts to discrimination. We got married and then we wanted all the trappings, one of the men explained to reporters. House, children, 401K. Inherent in his statement and the lawsuit and so much of the culture downstream from the sexual revolution is that desires and rights are the same thing. Nearly 10 years ago, when lawyer Charles Cooper argued in favor of Prop 8, he never suggested that it was abhorrent or unnatural for gay people to desire children. Rather, like so many who were concerned about protecting the legal definition of marriage (and were ridiculed for doing so), Cooper recognized that if the state were to legally untether marriage from procreation, adults would soon make demands that would threaten the rights that a child has to his or her mother and father. The cultural calculus goes like this In order to create same-sex marriage, it must be argued that marriage and children have nothing really to do with each other. Technologies, such as egg and sperm donation, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy, make it possible for people who are not in a procreative heterosexual union to procure children. After these two conditions are secured, the argument is now made that marriage and children really do go together, that children are one of the trappings of marriage. Once same-sex relationships are legally called marriage and technology is available to make children outside of a heterosexual union, those who have deliberately chosen a sterile same-sex relationship now claim the right to children or else, you know, discrimination. One of the men who filed this discrimination lawsuit told The Guardian that our family will be a motherless family. I wont tiptoe around that. But, of course, theres no such thing as a motherless family. If there were, they would not be suing in order to gain access to a mother, a mother who will most likely be hidden from the photos posted on Facebook and the walls of their home. Even if our technologies put the procreative process in another room, lab, or petri dish, a man and a woman are still required to make a baby. That is the gravity of the situation, you might say. We may call it discrimination and lament that it impedes our desires, but every child has a mother, even if we label her a surrogate. To take that child away from that mother, even after paying every cent charged, is to steal something fundamental, not only from the mother but also from the child. Many Christians bravely fought against changing the legal definition of marriage. Today, 10 years later, we must not stop fighting for children, who have a God-given right to their mother and their father. Originally published at BreakPoint. Gen Z more close-minded than parents, grandparents' generations: 'Young, illiberal progressives' Generation Z is less open-minded and more intolerant than older generations, according to a recently released study by the left-leaning British media outlet Channel 4. Defined as people aged 13-24, Gen Z were more likely to believe that people should be canceled for their views and held less acceptance of different opinions than older generations. For its study, Channel 4 drew from a survey of 1,500 people, which was divided into cohorts of people aged 13-24 and people older than 25. Channel 4 Chief Executive Alex Mahon noted in a speech on Tuesday about the study that it documented the rise of what she described as young, illiberal progressives (YIPs). These are progressive people in that they support the freedoms won by earlier generations who changed social attitudes toward issues such as sexuality and equality. Indeed, they are significantly more progressive than their parents and even than millennials on some issues, said Mahon. But, and it is a big but, young people could be said to be less liberal because they are less tolerant of the views of others than their parents and grandparents surely a novelty. Mahon added that a quarter of Gen Z say they have very little tolerance for people with beliefs that they disagree with. They dont believe in unrestrained free speech, with nearly half agreeing that some people deserve to be canceled. There is an obvious paradox between this intolerance and their genuinely stated desires for everyone to have their rights and freedoms defended, she added. This is probably a completely rational response to the confusing online world we have, but is it either what they want for themselves or what we want for them? Channel 4s research also found a generation gap on gender ideology, with 48% of Gen Z respondents saying there are only two genders, contrasted with 68% of those older than 25. There was also disagreement on the source of Gen Z stress, with 50% of over-25 respondents believing that social media was the top cause of stress, but only 35% of Gen Z respondents agreed. Despite some key generational differences, the research also found that three out of five Gen Z respondents considered their parents to be role models, while one-quarter considered at least one grandparent as a role model. According to a 2021 survey of 1,000 adults in the United States by Rasmussen and The National Pulse, 72% of respondents believed that cancel culture had gotten out of control. Additionally, the 2021 study found that 75% of respondents believed that protecting free speech is more important than protecting people from speech that is offensive. Netanyahu wins election as Israels prime minister 16 months after defeat Benjamin Netanyahu has once again become prime minister of Israel in the country's fifth election in less than for years. Yair Lapid conceded defeat on Thursday after nearly all the votes were counted, allowing the 73-year-old Netanyahu to claim victory in the election. The State of Israel comes before any political consideration, Lapid said. I wish Netanyahu success, for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel. Netanyahus return to the executive office came as his Likud Party formed a political alliance with two other political parties known as Jewish Power and Religious Zionism. Religious Zionism and its allies have weathered claims that they are extremists who will target the nations minority Arab community, and the LGBT community if they take power. Were not going to hammer anyone, said MK Orit Strock, a member of Religious Zionism, as quoted by the Times of Israel. We will serve all citizens, including those who do not think like us and whose lifestyles are different. Strock did say that her party wants to bring order to the public space, apparently taking issue with lewd, vulgar and pornographic aspects of LGBT pride events. Regardless of pride, there shouldnt be marches of people walking down the street naked or half naked, she added. The problem is with years-long efforts, not just here but around the world, to force things on the public. Before Thursday, multiple news outlets had predicted a victory for Netanyahu and the creation of a more right-leaning national government. With 99% of the votes counted, the Jewish News Syndicate reported that the total number of seats for the coalition government had decreased from an expected 65 seats to 64. Nevertheless, the JNS added, Netanyahu only needed 61 seats to have a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. In 2019, Netanyahu became the first sitting prime minister in the history of the modern state of Israel to be indicted, with various charges, including breach of trust, bribery and fraud. This is a hard and sad day, said Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in a speech given before the Justice Ministry at the time, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. I am bringing an indictment on public corruption against the prime minister in three cases. It is sad for me personally and for the country. For his part, Netanyahu denied the allegations, labeling the indictment a political coup and a contaminated process, in which he felt the investigators were after me personally. In June 2021, Netanyahu lost his position as prime minister after 12 years in the role, being replaced by Naftali Bennett, who held on to power with a very slight majority in the Knesset. Canadian pastor acquitted of violating COVID-19 restrictions after spending 21 days in jail A Canadian pastor has been acquitted of violating coronavirus worship restrictions after spending time in jail last year for holding worship services. The Provincial Court of Alberta acquitted Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary of charges that he violated public health orders imposed by the provincial government during the coronavirus pandemic. Stephens was jailed for 21 days after refusing to abide by the ongoing worship bans and was fined several times. A previous court ruling dropped four of the tickets levied against the pastor. Tuesday's decision dealt with the remaining two. He was represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. "We are pleased that the Court has acquitted Pastor Stephens on the charges of not complying with a public health order," the law firm said in a statement. "Pastor Stephens was illegally arrested and imprisoned for having allegedly violated the Public Health Orders, which have since been shown to be ineffective and harmful. This decision sets the record straight about the justifiability of his actions and about the importance of respecting Charter rights and freedoms." In a Wednesday blog post on his church's website, Stephens elaborated on his ordeal over the past year. "After a trial on September 15, 2021, where I took the stand to make my defense on two counts of violating the Chief Medical Officer's COVID health orders, the written decision was given yesterday by the judge. In short, the judge found me not guilty," Stephens wrote. Stephens listed the charges that he faced throughout his legal battle: "3 [Public Health Act] violations for failing to wear a mask all withdrawn; 2 PHA violations for exceeding capacity limit both withdrawn; 2 PHA violations for failing to physical distance went to trial, acquitted on both counts; 1 contempt of court charge spent 3 days in jail, then withdrawn; 1 criminal charge for violating a court order spent 18 days in jail, then withdrawn; 1 PHA violation against the church waiting to schedule trial." The ruling dealt with tickets issued in response to church services on Feb. 28, 2021, and Mar. 7, 2021, that authorities said did not comply with coronavirus worship restrictions and social distancing requirements. Stephens characterized the decision as a "small victory" that he attributed to "the special providence of God." "In God's plan it was this judge presiding over the matter who seemed to have no desire to continue the heavy handed use of the law to punish dissenting opinions," he concluded. "As I reflect on recent events, I'm certainly pleased with the outcome yet realize there is more work to be done." Stephens believes the work to be done is not "political" or "legal" but "theological." "Our society with its laws, mandates, and opinions reflect a change of 'god' with corresponding views of authority and humanity that will lead to dystopia unless there is repentance," Stephens wrote. "No longer are we a nation built upon the supremacy of God and the rule of law, but we are seeking to do away with God and his law to enshrine the shifting and harmful opinions of sinful man and his selfish machinations," Stephens lamented. "The need of the hour is the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom of God and for his kingdom to be manifest in our churches, households, and society." Stephens is one of several Canadian pastors who became entangled in the legal system because of their advocacy against coronavirus worship restrictions and hosting in-person worship services. Artur Pawlowski, a Calgary pastor also represented by the Justice Centre, went viral after tense exchanges between the Polish-born church leader and government officials seeking to enforce coronavirus worship restrictions circulated online. Pawlowski also spent time in jail for holding an in-person worship service in violation of coronavirus worship restrictions. He detailed his experience in a previous interview with The Christian Post. He recalled receiving more than two dozen tickets, three court orders, two injunctions and two court contempt trials. Pawlowski won a legal victory when the Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed a contempt-of-court charge levied against him by a lower court. While public officials touted the coronavirus worship restrictions as necessary to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 6.5 million people worldwide and over 46,000 people in Canada, critics such as Stephens and Pawlowski saw the restrictions as unnecessarily stringent and hostile toward people of faith. In his blog post, Stephens said, "the health orders and court orders used to scare many into compliance were overly broad, hurried into use, and do not provide the legal right for the government to regulate the worship of the church with lockdown measures that have proved harmful and ineffective." Scientists use new dating technique to analyze historical accuracy of Old Testament battles Scientists say they are using new technology that could allow them to properly date several military conquests depicted in the Bible and potentially validate the scriptures' historical authenticity. A study published last Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences introduces an "approach that applies archaeomagnetic investigation to the remains of ancient towns that were destroyed by fire." The new approach enables researchers to examine "chronological insights" that will allow them to link archaeological contexts with Old Testament accounts of military campaigns against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Conducted by Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, the study involved 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines led by Yoav Vaknin of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology. The study purports that research accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel. The researchers used readings from ancient geomagnetic fields that had been preserved through time to track changes in a method called archaeomagnetic dating. When subjected to high temperatures, archaeological findings such as pottery, bricks and roof tiles can record the Earth's temperatures. Once heated, the findings' magnetic minerals are re-magnetized. The scientists connected them with the Earth's geomagnetic field at a time they were subjected to such high temperatures. The team reported that the destruction layers provide evidence of the battles described in the Bible, waged by the ancient Egyptians, Arameans, Assyrians and Babylonians. In addition to this method, the team also compared their findings to biblical and extrabiblical sources. The researchers' findings indicate King Hazael of Aram-Damascus' army was responsible for the destruction of the cities of Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet, in addition to Gath, a Philistine state. The latter's destruction is detailed in 2 Kings 12:18. However, the team believes their findings refuted the theory that Hazael conquered Tel Beth-Shean. "Based on the similarity or difference in intensity and direction of the magnetic field, we can either corroborate or disprove hypotheses claiming that specific sites were burned during the same military campaign," Vaknin said in a statement last week. "Moreover, we have constructed a variation curve of field intensity over time which can serve as a scientific dating tool, similar to the radiocarbon dating method." Other geomagnetic findings suggest that the Edomites razed parts of Southern Judah to the ground, appearing to affirm that Edom took advantage of Jerusalem's fall and began settling in the southern parts of Judah. The team believes that one of the most interesting findings relates to the Kingdom of Judah and its end. As one of the project's supervising professors, Erez Ben Yosef, noted in a statement, the kingdom's last days are a matter of debate. "Some researchers, relying on archaeological evidence, argue that Judah was not completely destroyed by the Babylonians," Yosef said. "While Jerusalem and frontier cities in the Judean foothills ceased to exist, other towns in the Negev, the southern Judean Mountains and the southern Judean foothills remained almost unaffected." The professor stated that the study's magnetic results appear to support the theory that Judah's demise was not solely the fault of the Babylonians. "Several decades after they had destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, sites in the Negev, which had survived the Babylonian campaign, were destroyed probably by the Edomites who took advantage of the fall of Jerusalem," Yosef said. "This betrayal and participation in the destruction of the surviving cities may explain why the Hebrew Bible expresses so much hatred for the Edomites for example, in the prophecy of Obadiah." In a Tuesday interview with The Times of Israel, Vaknin said that the study is the first to have a "large enough database" to conduct reliable archaeomagnetic dating. He also elaborated further on how the dating tool settled the debate regarding the destruction of Tel Beth Shean. "The dating was open. There was no clear date, but within the age range, the higher probability, according to the excavator Ami Mazar, who is also a co-author, it's most likely later, at about 830 BCE also, like Hazael," the scientist said. Vaknin said that the results suggest the destruction had to have taken place much earlier, meaning that Hazael couldn't possibly have been responsible. He hopes that archaeologists in Israel will continue utilizing this new dating technique. "The more data we have, the more accurate and reliable this dating method is, and I think we are there already now," he said. Earlier this year, an Italian scientist and his team claimed that a new X-ray technique, "wide-angle X-ray scattering," shows the Shroud of Turin may have originated during the time of Jesus's death and resurrection. The fabric is believed by many to have served as Christ's burial garment after his crucifixion. Liberato De Caro of Italy's Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council and his colleagues determined in peer-reviewed research the shroud could be around 2,000 years old. The researchers' findings were published in the international journal Heritage in April. "The Shroud of Turin challenges science, and each new piece of research could clarify part of the complex puzzle this relic represents," De Caro told The National Catholic Reporter. "For example, the Shroud's image has yet to find a definitive explanation from those who have studied it, an explanation shared by the entire scientific community." "It is as if a photographic plate had been imprinted by radiation," he continued. "By studying the traces left on the plate, one tries to trace the nature of the radiation and its properties. The same could be done for the Shroud's image." The scientist's new dating technique involves examining the scale of atoms to date samples from linen fabrics. While De Caro admitted the technique is still in its "infancy," he wants to continue using it to study other samples of the the Shroud of Turin. How Fondation Beyeler has become one of Switzerlands most popular art museums Sam Keller, the director of the Basel-based institution now celebrating its 25th anniversary talks to Christies about its evolution from the private collection of Ernst and Hildy Beyeler, and explains why it should never stand still Ernst Beyeler liked quoting the maxim of his friend Pablo Picasso that arts purpose is to wash the dust of everyday life from the soul. The late collector-dealer wasnt simply interested in his own soul, it should be said, but in the wider publics, too, and in 1997 he oversaw the opening of the Fondation Beyeler in his home city of Basel. More than eight million people have visited in the intervening 25 years, making it Switzerlands most popular art museum. Its easy to see why. At the core of the collection, which comprises 400 works, are those donated by Ernst (1921-2010) and his wife Hildy (1922-2008). They range from the Impressionism of Monet and Post-Impressionism of Van Gogh, through modern masterpieces by the likes of Picasso and Matisse, to major works by post-war greats such as Rothko, and contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer. The museum building itself is also a draw. Designed by the architect Renzo Piano and located in tranquil parkland, its laid out on a single floor and flooded with natural light, thanks to a glass roof. It boasts a large water-lily pond by its entrance, to boot. This is a year for us to look back but also to look forward, says the museums director, Sam Keller, apropos of its 25th anniversary. Ernst Beyeler led the foundation through its birth and early years. My job has been to turn it into a responsible adult! And at 25, the institution has a bright future ahead of it. Open a larger version of this image Ernst and Hildy Beyeler pictured in 1997 outside the gallery they established in Basel from 1945 onwards. Photo: Niggi Brauning Under Kellers stewardship, significant changes are afoot at the Fondation Beyeler, with a $100-million extension set to be completed by 2025. To gain a better understanding of the changes, a brief history of the museum and its collection is perhaps in order. While still a student at the University of Basel studying art history and economics Ernst Beyeler landed a job at an antiquarian bookshop in the city centre. Upon its owners death in 1945, he took over the store himself, and swiftly turned it into an art gallery. Beyelers initial focus was on Classical modern art. However, before long, he expanded his portfolio to include work from other times, places and styles. Quality was his watchword as was affability. Beyeler built up strong relationships with clients, gallery-goers and artists alike (in addition to Picasso, he counted Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein as friends). International recognition came, and by the late 1950s Ernst was frequently travelling, leaving Hildy to manage Galerie Beyelers finances and staff back home. Over the decades, in parallel to their work at the gallery, the couple amassed a first-rate art collection of their own. Initially, it just grew from the pictures we wanted to live with, Ernst said in later life. And that was a good feeling. A much better feeling than having money in the bank. Open a larger version of this image Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Champ de ble aux bleuets (Wheatfield with Cornflowers), 1890. Oil on canvas. 60 x 81 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler Collection. Photo: Robert Bayer, Basel In the early 1980s the couple chose to convert their collection into a foundation, and set about planning a museum to house it a plan realised with the opening of the Fondation Beyeler in October 1997 in the verdant suburb of Riehen, 20 minutes by tram from Basels centre. Its said that Ernst asked Renzo Piano to source 20 different choices of stone for the exterior walls, before eventually hitting on the red porphyry from Patagonia that clads the museum today. This blends pleasingly into the leafy surroundings, especially in autumn. The building is located in an idyllic park, and its entire west side is given over to a conservatory with floor-to-ceiling windows. These offer a picturesque view that takes in fields of grazing cows in the middle distance, with the foothills of the Black Forest mountain range beyond. Open a larger version of this image Installation view of the Mondrian Evolution exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, which ran from 5 June to 9 October 2022 From early on, the foundation built up a reputation for both its permanent collection (which is regularly presented in new displays) and its temporary exhibitions (which regularly receive rave reviews). Georgia OKeeffe and Mondrian have been the subjects of two exhibitions in 2022 so far, the idea always being to focus on artists whose work either appears in the permanent collection or complements it. After serving as the foundations inaugural director, Ernst Beyeler stepped down in 2003. Keller took over, as the third director, in 2008. Ernst told me on my first day in the job, Keller says, that the last thing he wanted was for the place to become a mausoleum, or an art graveyard. By which he meant that the Fondation Beyeler should always continue to grow and evolve. It should never stand still. Where the museum of the 20th century was for objects, the museum of the 21st century is also for people director Sam Keller One key factor in the museums growth is the endowment that the Beyelers established, which helps to fund the running of the foundation and the continued purchase of works for the collection. They realised that what was considered new art in their day wouldnt still be considered new art in the decades to come, says Keller. Open a larger version of this image A recent addition to the foundations collection, with the help of the endowment bequeathed by Ernst and Hildy Beyeler, is Rachel Whitereads Poltergeist, 2020. Corrugated iron, beech, pine, oak, household paint and mixed media. 305 x 280 x 380 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler Collection. Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Robert Beyer, Basel Through the acquisition of a few contemporary works each year, the endowment allows the collection in Kellers words to stay fresh. (Among the most recent additions is Poltergeist, a cabin-like installation from 2020 by the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread.) Another crucial way in which the Fondation Beyeler is moving forward is with its extension. The germ of the idea was actually Ernst Beyelers, and it is being realised with the help of Hansjorg Wyss, through his Wyss Foundation (which has provided most of the funding), and the Swiss architecture firm Atelier Peter Zumthor. It began with the purchase of an area of previously private land adjoining the existing park, where construction of a House for Art is currently under way. This 1,500-square-metre edifice a little less than half the size of the Fondation Beyelers existing building will be for collection displays and small-scale exhibitions. Open a larger version of this image Installation view of Anniversary Exhibition Special Guest Duane Hanson at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, 2022. Left, Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Madame Cezanne a la chaise jaune (Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Armchair), 1888-90. Right, Duane Hanson (1925-1996), Old Lady in Folding Chair, 1976. Photo: Mark Niedermann. Artwork: The Estate of Duane Hanson/2022, ProLitteris, Zurich In the park itself, meanwhile, an events pavilion is being built, offering a dedicated space for concerts, talks, dance performances and more. All the buildings will be a short and agreeable walk from each other. Where the museum of the 20th century was for objects, the museum of the 21st century is also for people, says Keller. Visitors come here for different reasons. One day they might want to be entertained, another day they might want to learn. One day they might want some contemplative time, another day they might want to bring the family to an event. Art is absolutely at the heart of the Fondation Beyelers identity, but we also understand that a modern museum is also about social spaces. We wish to be a place of different speeds and atmospheres, and the extension will give us extra space to enhance the inherent qualities of our museum. Open a larger version of this image Ernst Beyeler riding through the halls of Art Basel, which he co-founded. Photo: Kurt Wyss Back to the present, the venue opened its third show of the year on 30 October. Anniversary Exhibition celebrates the foundations quarter-century, in a kind of greatest hits fashion, with a show of 100 highlights from the collection spread through all 17 of the museums galleries. These are supplemented by a selection of Hyperrealist sculptures by the US artist Duane Hanson, each a slightly tongue-in-cheek take on a main work in the show. For example, Madame Cezanne a la chaise jaune Cezannes portrait of his wife Hortense sitting on a yellow chair has a Hanson sculpture of an old woman placed beside it. The old woman is also seated, and mimics Hortenses hands-in-lap pose. Keller says that Hansons interventions amount to a new perspective on the collection consistent with his own aim of keeping the foundation fresh. Kellers connection to Basel runs deep. He was born and raised in the city, and in his previous job was director of Art Basel, the now-giant art fair that Ernst Beyeler co-founded in 1970 with fellow gallerists Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt. Open a larger version of this image An installation view of the Goya exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, staged between October 2021 and January 2022. Photo: Pati Grabowicz Galerie Beyeler, incidentally, closed shortly after Hildy and Ernst passed away, as per their wishes. Keller speaks of the couple warmly, praising the solid foundations they laid at the foundation. He describes Ernst as a mentor and admires the fact that, despite his riches, he never owned a car (preferring to travel where possible on his bicycle). As a local boy, directing the Fondation Beyeler is the dream job for me, says Keller. One highlight so far was an acclaimed Goya exhibition in 2021, held in collaboration with Madrids Prado Museum and opened by the Queen of Spain. Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe How to collect Japanese whisky Japanese whisky was born less than a century ago, yet in the past 20 years it has reached levels of desirability to match Scotlands water of life. Heres how to tell your Yoichi from your Yamazaki The story of Japanese whisky begins with a partnership that turned into a rivalry, which still exists today. Whisky has been produced in Scotland for hundreds of years, but its origins have been lost to time. The history of Japanese whisky, on the other hand, is relatively short and well documented. In 1923, Shinjiro Torii, an astute pharmaceutical wholesaler from Osaka who had made a small fortune producing a sweet red wine called Akadama, opened Japans first malt whisky distillery. Located in Yamazaki, just outside Kyoto, it was constructed at the convergence of the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers, providing some of Japans softest water and a unique misty climate. Toriis vision was to create a whisky that appealed to the delicate Japanese palate. The man who could realise it for him was Masataka Taketsuru, a chemist from Hiroshima who had sailed to Scotland in 1918 to learn the secrets of whisky production, apprenticing at distilleries in Speyside, West Lothian and Campbeltown. In return for Taketsurus notebooks, filled with recipes and diagrams, Torii hired Taketsuru as the director of the Yamazaki distillery in 1924. The company would become known as Suntory, producing the first Japanese whisky. Taketsuru, however, dreamt of creating a more powerful whisky, truer to its Scottish roots. In 1934, along with his Glaswegian wife Rita, he relocated to Japans northern island of Hokkaido, famed for its cool, crisp air. Six years later, his own distillery produced its first whisky. He named his business Nikka. In 2014, the story of Masataka and Rita Taketsuru became the subject of a hit Japanese TV drama that ran to 150 episodes. Today, Suntory and Nikka are Japans biggest whisky producers. Open a larger version of this image Masataka Taketsuru and his Scottish wife Jessie Roberta Rita Taketsuru. The pair married in Glasgow in 1920. Photo: courtesy of Nikka Whisky The ingredients for Japanese and Scottish whisky Japanese and Scottish whiskies both start with grain, usually malted barley, that has been steeped in water before being kiln-dried. The grain is ground into a grist, which is then mashed with hot water and distilled twice: first in a wash still to separate the alcohol from the water and yeast; then in a spirit still, where it becomes a pungent, clear spirit known as new make. What follows is arguably the most important part of the process: ageing. This is when whisky develops its distinct flavours. The new make is left to mellow in wooden barrels. These are often second-hand bourbon casks made from American oak, which imbue the liquid with sweet, fruity, vanilla and spicy overtones, as well as a golden honey colour. Some Japanese distilleries also use European oak, in the form of old sherry butts from southern Spain. Thanks to their finer grain and tannins, they create a darker variety of whisky, often defined by heady aromatics and intense flavours. Open a larger version of this image The whisky library at Suntorys Yamazaki distillery contains several thousand varieties. Photo: courtesy of Suntory Open a larger version of this image Inside the Yamazaki distillery, whisky slowly develops its flavour in barrels stacked floor-to-ceiling. Photo: courtesy of Suntory The importance of ageing Since 2021, Japanese whisky has to be aged for a minimum of three years, as required by the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association. Premium whiskies, however, will have been left to take on the character of their barrels for more than a decade; the bottles label will indicate the age of the liquor inside. As in Scotland, the label should also indicate if the whisky is a single malt (made entirely in one distillery from malted barley), a single grain (made entirely in one distillery with corn, wheat or rye), or a blend, which is a combination of malt and grain whiskies from two or more distilleries. In the case of a blend, the age on the label will refer to its youngest component. The differences between Japanese and Scottish whisky The most obvious difference relates to the environment. Firstly, Japan has warmer, more humid summers. Fluctuating temperatures can speed up a whiskys ageing process and the more quickly this occurs, the more complex the flavours can become. Because of this, some Japanese producers distil seasonally, unlike in Scotland, where whisky is distilled throughout the year. Secondly, atmospheric pressure can also affect the ageing process, and Japans distilleries rank among the highest above sea level in the world, making for a notably low-pressure environment. Ingredients differ, too and sometimes in surprising ways. Most distilleries in Japan import barley from Scotland. Scotland, on the other hand, imports the majority of its own whisky barley from eastern Europe and America. The unique mineral profile of Japans spring water is another factor that gives Japanese whiskies their own sense of terroir. In addition, some processes are unique to Japan. Certain distilleries age whisky in mizunara oak barrels, which imparts flavours of coconut and sandalwood. Others finish ageing their whiskies in old umeshu (plum wine) casks, or filter them through bamboo instead of charcoal. These steps are believed to give Japanese whiskies a distinct flavour. The big players in Japanese whisky: Suntory and Nikka Suntorys most famous whisky is Yamazaki, a single malt that is still produced in Japans first commercial distillery. In both 2011 and 2012, Yamazaki 25 Year Old was named the best single-malt whisky in the world at the World Whiskies Awards. Suntory also makes Hakushu, a single malt from its distillery at the foot of the Japanese Alps on the main island of Honshu, and Chita, a single-grain whisky made with corn at its distillery on the Chita Peninsula, on Honshus southern shores. Hibiki and Toki are both blended whiskies, created with spirits from the Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita distilleries. Nikka makes Yoichi, a single malt produced in Taketsurus first distillery on Hokkaido, as well as Miyagikyo, a single malt that comes from the companys second distillery, located in a lush valley in Miyagi, around 350km northeast of Tokyo. Open a larger version of this image Around the top of the coal-powered stills at Nikkas Yoichi distillery hang paper streamers known as shide used in Shinto ritual blessings. Photo: courtesy of Nikka Whisky Nikka also makes Nikka Coffey, which uses either malt or corn grain in one of its two continuous Coffey stills; the stills were imported from Scotland by Taketsuru in the 1960s. The companys range of blended whiskies includes Nikka Taketsuru, Nikka From The Barrel, Nikka Days, The Nikka and Super Nikka. Smaller and rarer producers: Chichibu, Hanyu and Karuizawa One of Japans newest distilleries is Chichibu. It was established by Ichiro Akuto in 2004 near the city of Chichibu, around 80km northwest of Tokyo, and is known for its experimental use of domestic barley and Japanese beer barrels. Akutos output is a fraction of his major competitors, but whiskies from his Ichiros Malt range have regularly won Worlds Best Blended Limited Release at the World Whiskies Awards since 2017. Another of Akutos celebrated releases consisted of 58 different Playing Card whiskies. Just 120 bottles named after each card were created in 2005, made with whisky that Akuto had rescued from the derelict Hanyu distillery founded by his grandfather. Hanyu, founded in 1941, produced whisky from the 1980s until 2000. Together with Karuizawa, a distillery that was in operation on the slopes of the active volcano Mount Asama between 1955 and 2001, it is known as a ghost producer. Despite the fact that theyve long been closed, a finite number of barrels from both distilleries are still being bottled and released to market. Karuizawa was made with peated barley a rarity among Japanese whiskies and aged in sherry casks, which gives it flavours of fig, caramel, black cherries and dark chocolate. Only 300 barrels were left maturing when the distillery was mothballed, and the dwindling supply makes it not only hard to come by, but extremely expensive. Exploding international demand for Japanese whisky Until about the year 2000, the demand for Japanese whisky was almost entirely domestic. Its popularity exploded internationally three years later with the release of Sofia Coppolas Oscar-winning film Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray starred as Suntorys newest brand ambassador. In the same year, 2003, Yamazaki 12 Year Old became the first Japanese whisky to be awarded a gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge. Fast-forward to today, and demand now outstrips supply. Aged stock is incredibly hard to come by on the primary market even in Japan and on the secondary market, the price of most bottles has tripled over the past decade. For some of the rarest, its risen tenfold. Open a larger version of this image Suntorys Yamazaki distillery, where Japanese whisky was born in 1923. Photo: courtesy of Suntory The pinnacle of the market is Suntorys Yamazaki 55 Year Old. Its the oldest Suntory whisky ever produced and was distilled by Shinjiro Torii himself. Limited to 200 bottles, in 2020 half were made available by lottery to Japanese residents, and the remaining 100 bottles were offered outside Japan priced at the equivalent of US$27,500. Two months later, a bottle appeared at auction in Hong Kong. It realised US$795,000. Smaller distilleries like Chichibu are also popular with collectors: a full set of Ichiros Playing Card bottles is currently valued at around half a million dollars. Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe 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. Looking at what a Canadian Citizenship Certificate, otherwise known as Proof of Citizenship, is and what it does for people that have one. Understanding the need for Proof of Citizenship in Canada Understanding the need for Proof of Citizenship in Canada Looking at what a Canadian Citizenship Certificate, otherwise known as Proof of Citizenship, is and what it does for people that have one. Understanding the need for Proof of Citizenship in Canada Looking at what a Canadian Citizenship Certificate, otherwise known as Proof of Citizenship, is and what it does for people that have one. Understanding the need for Proof of Citizenship in Canada Looking at what a Canadian Citizenship Certificate, otherwise known as Proof of Citizenship, is and what it does for people that have one. Vimal Sivakumar Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Citizenship is significant for many reasons, including with respect to making people feel at home and comfortable in Canada. Citizenship in this country also provides a pathway for us to accomplish key goals including, but not limited to, voting in federal elections, obtaining a social insurance number (SIN) and getting a job. To accomplish the above goals, some Canadians will need to obtain Proof of Citizenship, otherwise known as a Canadian Citizenship Certificate, from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This document provides definitive proof that you are a citizen of the country. Get a Free Legal Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship Note: The terms proof of citizenship and Canadian citizenship certificate will be used interchangeably from this point forward. For the purposes of this explanation, the following distinction is crucial. As an example of what a Canadian citizenship certificate does for people that have one, this document is one of only two pieces the other being a Canadian birth certificate accepted by Passport Canada as proof of Canadian citizenship. Conversely, it is similarly important to understand that one thing proof of citizenship is not is a travel document. Who needs proof of citizenship? A Canadian citizenship certificate can be obtained by any Canadian citizen who desires one. However, such a document is only truly necessary for: Individuals who were born outside of Canada to at least one Canadian-citizen parent Naturalized Canadians Born Outside Canada: In this case, proof of citizenship is required to enjoy the benefits and opportunities afforded to natural-born Canadians. These include, beyond the items indicated earlier, advantages like access to universal healthcare and the ability to attain a drivers license. Naturalized Canadians: Canadians who applied for citizenship, completed the test, and took the oath are referred to as naturalized Canadians. They will also need a Canadian citizenship certificate to enjoy the benefits of being a citizen in this country, but that document is something they will have already received upon completion of their naturalization process. Canadian citizens born inside the country will be able to use their birth certificates as proof of citizenship across the country. Proof of citizenship eligibility As mentioned previously, people born outside Canada to at least one parent who was a Canadian citizen prior to their birth are eligible for proof of citizenship, as are naturalized Canadians. Further to that, the following are some important notes to keep in mind regarding Canadian citizenship certificates: Canada limits citizenship by descent to the first generation born outside Canada to a Canadian parent (i.e., only the child, not the grandchild or further downwards, of a Canadian-born parent is deemed eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent) As the child of a Canadian-born parent, you are eligible for proof of citizenship whether your parent is alive or deceased Ineligibility: Children adopted by a Canadian after they are born will need to first become Canadian citizens before being eligible for a Canadian citizenship certificate. Proof of citizenship application process The steps one must take to apply for a Canadian citizenship certificate are outlined below. Step 1: Download the application package available on IRCCs website This step will require proving that one of the applicants parents was a Canadian citizen Step 2: Pay the application fee and submit the application online on IRCCs website Step 3: Wait for an acknowledgement of receipt when IRCC receives your application Step 4: Wait while your file is reviewed and processed Applicants can check the processing status times vary based on individual file complexity, which may also require IRCC to request additional information/documents of their application online Urgent processing is available in special cases for applicants looking to; access benefits such as healthcare, obtain a social insurance number, start a job, or travel to or from Canada because of an emergency Get a Free Legal Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Developing a strategy for controlling hard-to-predict cloud costs, remains difficult, especially when considering the new decentralized model of procurement. Consider this: Any person who can commit code to the cloud can commit your organization to spend, said Jennifer Hays, senior vice president of engineering efficiency and assurance at Fidelity Investments and the FinOps Foundations governance board chairperson. Yet there may be solutions. Hays along with National Grid CIO Andi Karaboutis, McDermott CIO Vagesh Dave, and Accentures Cloud First Global Strategy and Consulting Lead Ashley Skyrme are among the speakers at CIOs Future of Cloud Summit, taking place virtually on November 8. The event will drill into key areas of cloud innovation, challenges, and leadership. It also will feature insights and tactical tips from the winners of IDCs Future of Digital Infrastructure Awards. The summit kicks off with an introduction to the new era of digital fluency from MJ Petroni, CEO and Cyborg Anthropologist at Causeit. Petroni will move beyond the latest industry buzzwords explain exactly how advanced technologies can and will affect their business. Petroni will return later in the day for an interactive discussion with attendees to give more context and answer questions live. One challenge for todays CIO is to get beyond the cloud hype and determine where its useful and where its not. Arthur Hu, senior vice president and global CIO of Lenovo, will talk about the companys strategy on building scalable architecture with resiliency and agility in mind. Hu also will share how Lenovo incubated its own hybrid cloud module and spun it out as a new business unit. Corralling the complexities of the cloud is another challenge. Stu Kippleman, CIO of Parsons Corporation, will give practical tips for business success. One way to streamline operations is to migrate to an industry cloud. Discussing the pros and cons of these specialized clouds are Chad Wright, CIO of Boston Dynamics; Kumar Iyer, business technology senior leader at KeyBank; and IDC Research Manager Nadia Ballard. What does a functioning cloud strategy look like in practice? Jeremy Meller, CIO at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta, will share how its using cloud to advance data analytics and provide new patient services. Finally, listen in to conversations with the winners of IDCs Future of Digital Infrastructure Awards. Mary Johnston Turner, IDCs research vice president of digital infrastructure will go inside the strategies and process of the winners in three categories: Autonomous Operations winner WSP, featuring Director of Global Networks Services Richard Evers; Cloud Technology winner Pac-12 Networks, featuring Ryan Currier, senior vice president of engineering and products; and Ubiquitous Deployment winner Utah Division of Technology Services, featuring Chief Operating Officer Daniel Harmuth. Throughout the summit, sponsors including IBM Cloud and Freshworks will offer thought leadership and solutions on subjects such as creating a modern digital infrastructure. Check out the full summit agenda here. The event is free to attend for qualified attendees. Dont miss out register today. An organization depends on its financial institution to complete a major transaction, but a glitch holds up funds, negatively impacting cash flow. Meanwhile, regulators fined a different financial institution for failing to catch fraudulent transactions. In both situations, better business transaction monitoring could have helped prevent negative, costly outcomes. In the former, more seamless monitoring would have ensured the bank clients transaction was completed faster, maintaining and even boosting customer satisfaction. For the latter, it could have prevented regulatory fines. Today, especially, as modern applications and systems have become more complicated and IT infrastructure more complex, seamless business transaction monitoring is crucial. Enterprises need the proper tools to detect incidents early, automate wherever they can to make processes more efficient and free up IT workers for more complicated tasks, and be able to automatically solve any issues quickly. Business transaction monitoring is transitioning from a support function to a critical element in any organizations operations, says Digitate CEO Akhilesh Tripathi. French utility company ENGIE, for one, needed a solution that could monitor its workload automation processes across its extensive IT infrastructure and business applications, and reduce dependency on manual issue resolution. One of the worlds largest independent power producers, ENGIE conducts some two-million meter readings and generates over 150,000 invoices nearly every day. ENGIE approached Digitate for help to digitally transform its billing and payment process. The company wanted to move away from manual monitoring and remediation, which were both inefficient and risk-prone, increasing the operational cost and often leading to inaccuracies and delays in revenue generation. Within 18 months, ENGIE was able to transform its workload process through a closed-loop solution that uses intelligent automation to automatically identify and solve any issues, further cementing its transformation into a digital enterprise. Digitate collaborated with ENGIE to provide a layered solution for monitoring workload processes to create a blueprint of the companys entire batch system. Now, ENGIE spends less time and effort on manual monitoring. It has reduced impacts to downstream processes like billing and payment communications by 80%, realized a 95% reduction in customer complaint tickets, and prevented 5 million per day ($4.87 million) in revenue loss. For its successful digital transformation, powered by Digitate, ENGIE was named Order-to-Cash winner in the Hackett Groups 2022 Digital Awards. With better business transaction monitoring as a part of their digital transformation, companies find business processes are well supported to generate cash, while transparency increases enterprise-wide. Financial institutions completing tens of millions of transactions daily can feel confident they can detect high-risk and suspicious activities. Regardless of industry, business transaction monitoring has a critical impact on enterprises with tangible results. For instance, utility companies monitoring hundreds of thousands of bills have peace of mind that delays can be quickly remedied or prevented from happening at all. Yet, to be successful, organizations working to become digital enterprises must have the right technology. With the complexity of more and more systems in place, companies need tools to create visibility and confidence in IT to execute fast and protect the business, Tripathi says. With its closed-loop solutions, Digitate helps companies monitor all events across their IT infrastructure to create an integrated view. Tools detect anomalies, investigate, and self-heal to correct. Routine activities are automated, doing away with repetitive manual tasks and freeing up valuable IT workers time. We close the loop and we resolve problems to create value proposition for our customers, Tripathi says. Theyre able to do this in one-tenth of the time it would otherwise take them. To learn more about better business transaction monitoring and how Digitates products can help you, visit Digitate. Primeste notificari pe email Nota bene: Adresele email cu extensia .ru nu sunt acceptate. Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Four Paws Animal Rescue, based in South Wales, after it failed to file accounts. The regulator had been looking at the charity as part of a double defaulter class inquiry, wherein it engaged with charities which have failed to file the necessary financial information with the Commission for two or more years in the last five years. According to the regulator, the charitys financial reporting requirements remain outstanding, despite its attempts to engage over the past year. This has included the regulator issuing an order to the trustees to submit the last two financial years accounts. The Commissions website states the charitys reporting is is overdue by 734 days, and shows its last available data is for the financial year ending 31 December 2018. This shows the total income for the animal charity was 113,984, while total expenditure was 121,608. The regulators inquiry into the charity will examine any failure to comply with statutory reporting duties including the timely submission of the charitys annual reports and accounts to the Commission. Four Paws Animal Rescue did not respond to a request for comment by Civil Society News. sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, In September, at an event hosted by the New York Times, Farhana Yamin, a longtime climate negotiator and former adviser to the Marshall Islands, had a bone to pick with John Kerry, the US climate envoy. What will you be doing to step up and actually put money into loss and damage? Yamin asked, referring to the proposition that wealthy nations primarily responsible for global heating should support poorer ones financially when climate disaster strikes. What will you be doing to stop the inaction? Visibly irritated, Kerry responded brusquely. You tell me the government in the world that has trillions of dollars, cause thats what it costs, he said. Im not gonna take to feeling guilty. You think this Republican Congress, where we couldnt get one vote for [climate legislation], is going to step up and do loss and damage? Good luck. Im in the zone of reality. It wasnt the first time Kerry had been pressed on loss and damage, which made his reaction surprising and, to many, disappointing. Hell almost certainly be pressed on the subject again at this months cop27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. For more than two decades, developing countrieswhich stand to suffer most from climate change, though theyve emitted far fewer greenhouse gases than their industrialized peershave argued in UN forums that climate change, posing a uniquely existential threat to them, necessitates some form of restitution when lives are lost and infrastructure, economies, and ways of life are irretrievably destroyed. The phrase loss and damage is a negotiated euphemism for the more taboo terms of liability and compensation, says Saleemul Huq, director of the Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change & Development. Rich countries, especially the United States, which is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, buck at the latter terms; they worry that overt acknowledgment of liability will unleash a deluge of crippling lawsuits. But even the comparatively antiseptic phrase loss and damage receives determined pushback. Last year, at cop26 in Glasgow, vulnerable countries pushed for the establishment of a dedicated loss-and-damage fund, but wealthy powers would only agree to a loosely defined and nonbinding dialogue. Huq, long a fierce advocate for the Global South in climate negotiations, describes the US as by far the most hardline in its opposition to the fund and to discussion in general of loss and damage. Separate from the question of loss and damage, in 2009, rich countries pledged $100 billion per year in aid, by 2020, to help developing countries adapt to climate change and rein in their emissions. Aid delivery to date has fallen dramatically short, however, and much of what has been paid has come in the form of repayable loans, not grants. Experts call it a promise broken. This is where the press, in theory, would come in as an agent of accountability, Huq says. But in the Western media, he feels, climate justice hasnt gotten its due. Yet these issues are undoubtedly relevant to Western audiences. Apart from moral arguments for aid and loss-and-damage funding, there are practical, even self-interested, reasons to help other countries steel themselves against climate catastrophe, says Alice Hill, an energy-and-environment fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Obama administration official. Climate change means destabilized governments, food insecurity, and mass displacement, Hill says. Further, theres the risk that extremist and criminal elements will use destruction to make inroads, as they did amid the covid-19 pandemic. Its not hard to imagine these issues spiraling out of control. If Western journalists have tended to miss the boatthere are exceptions, of coursetheir Global South colleagues have not. Diego Arguedas Ortiz is a Costa Rican journalist who manages the Reuters Institutes Oxford Climate Journalism Network. Every week, Arguedas Ortiz convenes a group of one hundred reporters from around the worldfrom developed and developing countries aliketo share their experiences on the climate beat. The aim is a mutually beneficial exchange, but Arguedas Ortiz finds particular value in exposing reporters from Europe and North America to colleagues from developing countries who are both reporting and living on the razors edge of the climate emergency. Global South reporters feel deeply the global injustices of climate change, Arguedas Ortiz says. That shows in our coverage of climate assistance and loss and damage. By improving awareness, he hopes the Oxford cohort can elevate reporting on justice and global climate finance across the board. To that same end, Covering Climate Now, a joint initiative of CJR and The Nation, spoke with five journalists in the Global Southfrom Pakistan, the Philippines, Mauritius, Puerto Rico, and Peruabout what climate justice means to them and what that might entail for their colleagues in the West, at cop27 and beyond. HAMID MIR PAKISTAN Hamid Mir is a longtime reporter and anchor for Pakistans Geo TV, where he hosts the flagship political talk show Capital Talk. He is a regular columnist for several Pakistani publications and for the Washington Post. He lives in Islamabad. Follow Mir. In July, Pakistans monsoon season had only just begun, and already heavy rains had killed more than one hundred and fifty people. In a Washington Post column, Hamid Mir wrote that climate change had come to pose a worse threat to his country than terrorism. Rainfall had spiked dramatically in recent years, and experts forecast that rising seas would swallow major Pakistani cities in the coming decades. Mir warned the problem might soon grow worse. Unfortunately, he says, just a few months later, that column was right. The August floods arrived with a fury, submerging one-third of Pakistan, an area equivalent to the United Kingdom. By boat and helicopter, Mir traveled province to province, documenting the devastationhomes demolished, roads and bridges washed away, and millions stranded, with little food and no escape. Under cloudless skies, the summer heat was oppressive. Disease was on the rise. And in the stagnant, fetid water, in some places more than a dozen feet high, snakes were rampant. Not one or two snakes, Mir says. Dozens, everywhere. Ones that come right at you, racing atop the water. In his reporting, Mir exposed how wealthy landowners had wielded influence with officials to channel flooding away from their homes and toward poorer, more densely populated villages. This earned Mir ire from the landowners and officials alike, and in Punjab, he learned a local gang had been directed to teach him a lesson. Mirs source urged him to flee, and he did. Such threats are old hat for Mir. In three decades as a journalist, hes survived assassination attempts and a kidnapping during which he was tortured. His reporting has repeatedly taken on the government, resulting not a few times in Mirs being fired or banned from television. And hes covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Chechnya. Even so, nothing in Mirs career prepared him for what he saw amid the floods. From sun-scorched rooftops, people called out for help that Mir was powerless to give. At a waterlogged police station in Baluchistan, Mir pleaded with officers to release prisoners from their nearly submerged cells; there was nowhere for them to run, he reasoned. People everywhere were starving. Many were dying after drinking the contaminated water. In all his years, Mir had never cried while reporting, but in September, as he watched a mother weep over her dying son, he broke down. My cameraman said, Sir, I was with you in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and you never cried. I told him, In war zones, we could see that it was bombs and bullets killing innocent people. But here there are no bombs or bullets. Its the climate thats killing people. We are citizens of a nuclear power, and that country has no power to stop this! The cameraman began crying. We were all crying, Mir says. We were helpless people. During all this, journalists were a rare sight. Travel had become exceedingly difficult, and many Pakistani journalists were coping themselves with the floodsbut Mir was disappointed at the absence, in particular, of Western journalists. There were exceptionsMir commended Clarissa Wards work for CNNbut even that attention was short-lived. Compared with the mass deployment of journalists to Ukraine, Mir says, the Western medias response to this crisis seemed a grim injustice. Mir characterizes the coverage as an echo of the climate crisiss broader global disparities. Pakistan is not responsible for this problem, at the international level, he says, but we are the collateral damage. He stops short of centering this global injustice in his reporting, however. He feels that diplomatic maneuvering and the science of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions wont register with most of his audience: Whats diplomatic wrangling at the UN to people whose homes and livelihoods are underwater? Mir hopes Western journalists will run with the issue where he cannot. Pakistan is not begging, he says. We are not a charity case, but a moral obligation. Today, climate change has reached Pakistan. Tomorrow, it will reach you. IMELDA ABANO PHILIPPINES Imelda Abano is the founding president of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists. She also leads the Earth Journalism Networks Philippines and Pacific Islands programs. She lives in Manila. Follow Abano. Imelda Abano describes her country as a laboratory of disasters. Name it, we have it, she says. And its getting worse. The Philippines geography, for one thing, has always meant relatively frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Increasingly heavy rains have made flooding common. And an average of twenty tropical cyclones or typhoons strike the country every yearstorms that climate change is making stronger and more deadly. This past December, Typhoon Rai killed at least 410 people in the central Visayas region. More infamously, in 2013, Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300. (In both cases, experts say deaths likely exceeded official tallies.) Haiyan ranks among the strongest storms ever to make landfall anywhere in the world; overland wind speeds reached 195 miles per hour, greater than the strengths combined of Hurricane Sandy when it hit New York and New Jersey in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina when it devastated New Orleans in 2005. In Haiyans aftermath, Abano reported in Tacloban, a major coastal city hit by the typhoon. Destructive weather is a matter of course in the Philippines, Abano says, but the wreckage in Tacloban was something new. Not one building in the city appeared untouched; many were beyond repair. Abano was struck by the volume of people displaced in the streets and the overcrowded evacuation centers. There was little water, and sanitation was abysmal. At night, she and fellow journalists slept in makeshift huts. We felt strongly that we should do something powerful with our reporting, Abano recalls. In recent years, as climate change has worsened, shes seen a broader shift in the Philippines media landscape; outlets everywhere are covering climate with more urgency, because theyre seeing its dangers up close. Sharm el-Sheikh will be the fifteenth UN climate summit Abano has attended, the first being cop13 in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007. Back then, she was a fellow with the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP), a program of Internewss Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security that funds journalists from low- and middle-income countries to travel to the annual cop meetings. With eighteen years as a reporter now under her belt, Abano is paying it forward by serving as a CCMP trainer for this years twenty-person class. Climate justice, including loss and damage, is top of mind for those journalists as they prepare to travel to Egypt. These journalists are very eager to tell the story of the vulnerable countries, Abano says. To tell their own stories. In recent weeks, Abano and other trainers have encouraged fellows to contact their governments cop27 delegations and to study UN bureaucracy and lingo. Abano is certain the experience will prove enriching for the fellows. But theres a hitch: routinely at cop summits, Global North journalists who arrive with far more resources have an easier time securing interviews with the most in-demand leaders and experts. To boot, there are more Global North journalists because their outlets can better afford the travel. For these journalists, climate justice might be a question, but its less likely to be their first, much less one theyll put to leaders repeatedly. A consequence of this imbalance, Abano worries, might be short shrift for justice in the cops deliberations. In the future, Abano says, we need more support and more resources for journalists on the front lines of climate change. But at this cop, shell be glad for any sense of growing solidarity from the Global North. That goes for countries, but it should also be true for journalists. DAVID CASIMIR MAURITIUS David Casimir covers climate change and general news for the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation. He will attend cop27 as a CCMP fellow, his first time at a cop. He lives on Mauritiuss Rodrigues Island. Follow Casimir. In Mauritius, an African island nation in the Indian Ocean roughly two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, the sea is everything. Wide, white-sand beaches and pristine waters support a thriving tourism industry, which is integral to the countrys economy. And fishing is the lifeblood of coastal communities, a source of jobs, food security, and 20-some percent of nationwide export revenue. So its alarming that sea level rise is progressing rapidly in Mauritiusby six millimeters annually on the main island, double the global average, and by nine millimeters annually on Rodrigues, the small, outlying island that journalist David Casimir calls home. Sea level rise will affect almost everyone in my country, he says. In the past decade, coastal erosion has carved up to twenty meters off some beaches, and the Mauritian government estimates that within fifty years, half of all tourist beaches will be lost. Add to that rising temperatures, increased drought, and now-regular flash flooding, and the climate outlook for Mauritius is grim. Casimir pursued the chance to attend cop27 in part because he wants to help provide better coverage of countries like his. In the global media, everything is linked to Europe and the US, Casimir says. Its as if they think Africa will not experience climate change at all. And when Global North outlets do cover climate in the developing world, he adds, they focus overwhelmingly on countries plights and not the solutions many are implementing to curb the worst impacts. In Mauritius, for example, Casimir has covered the governments suite of early warning systems and publicity campaigns designed to teach people how to keep safe during floods, tropical cyclones, and other disasters. Mauritians know these things are vital, that our lives depend on them, Casimir says. He speaks proudly of work Mauritius is doing to mitigate climate change. While developed countries drag their feet, Mauritius has moved aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost green energy production. The country spends 2 percent of its annual GDP on climate-related initiatives, compared with 0.6 percent in the US and about 1 percent in many European countries. If smaller countries adaptation and mitigation efforts were better represented in the Western press, Casimir argues, leaders of powerful, wealthy nations might better comprehend the support those countries need to scale solutions to keep pace with rising tides. This is why its important that stories consider the African side, Casimir says. OMAYA SOSA PASCUAL PUERTO RICO Omaya Sosa Pascual is the founding codirector of Puerto Ricos Center for Investigative Journalism. Previously, she was a reporter for the islands leading newspaper, El Nuevo Dia. She lives in San Juan. Follow Sosa Pascual. It wasnt long after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, in September 2017, that Omaya Sosa Pascual knew the storm had changed her island irrevocably. I am certain this generation will forever be marked by this extreme event, she wrote that November in a reflection for Inside Climate News. It is not overly dramatic to say that in our lives there will always be a pre-Maria and post-Maria. Five years later, Sosa Pascual says, its likely that was an understatement. We all live with PTSD, she says. The storm wiped out communications and electronics island-wide, and in the immediate wake of the storm, the only media outlet that remained operational was a radio station in San Juan. For days, people lined up outside its headquarters to have loved ones names read on air, in the desperate hope that theyd be found. At the Center for Investigative Journalism, at first, there was no way to know if fellow reporters were dead or alive. As the team there slowly reconstituted, Sosa Pascual recalls, they were all on autopilot, scrambling to make sense of the death and destruction around them while keeping their emotions at bay. At the end of the day, though, we were all dealing with the same problems at home, Sosa Pascual says. What were we going to eat? How were we going to find fuel? Without power, there was no way to survive the heat inside our home without the windows open. But in Puerto Rico, you can die from mosquitoes. I had a four-year-old. How would I keep her safe? When Hurricane Fiona hit this September, everyone Sosa Pascual knew went into fight-or-flight mode. We all had that panicked feeling: People are going to start dying again. Im going to lose my job. I must protect my family. Fionas power was only a fraction of Marias five years before, but still, destruction was widespread; a month later, thousands remained without power. Compare that with Florida, where Hurricane Ian hit one week later, with much greater force, and electricity was restored for most within twenty-four hours. Particularly after the high-profile trauma of Maria, the consistent carelessness shown by the US government toward Puerto RicansAmerican citizens who pay US federal taxesis scandalous, Sosa Pascual says. The US press has done little better. Puerto Rico is more populous than twenty US states. But my experience is that theres just no interest in us, Sosa Pascual says. I never see national outlets ask the president or Congress questions about Puerto Rico. Weve got to have a major disaster to make headlines, and even then, attention moves on quickly. What coverage there is is often exoticizing and offensive, she says; and then theres that word, resilient, which is so often ascribed to Puerto Ricans. Everyone hates that word right now, Sosa Pascual says. Its become an excuse for government negligence. It makes citizens responsible for the safety our leaders should be providing. Given their apparent incapacity to cover a US territory effectively, Sosa Pascual is skeptical that powerful outlets are committed to covering climate impacts in the developing world. Climate justice is about powers responsible for the problem assuming responsibility for fixing it and protecting the most vulnerable, she says. Isnt it journalists job to hold governments accountable for human life? Instead, she finds the national press mindlessly devoted to piddling political controversies. She urges her US journalist colleagues to zoom out and reevaluate the stories they consider important. I wish they would value life, she says. Because so many lives, and even the existence of smaller countries, are on the line. XILENA PINEDO PERU Xilena Pinedo covers science, health, and the environment for Perus investigative OjoPublico. She will attend cop27 as a CCMP fellow, her first time at a cop. She lives in Lima. Follow Pinedo. When Xilena Pinedo was a kid, she dreamed of becoming an environmental engineer. As she got a little older, though, she realized that for that to work out, shed have to like math. Pinedo was more attracted to writing and storytelling, so she resolved to become a science and environmental journalist. The problem was that Pinedo didnt see much environmental coverage in Perus press, much less coverage of climate change, which ranks worldwide as a top issue for Pinedos generation. For advice on getting started, she reached out to environmental journalists she admired across Latin America. When they got back to her, she says, it felt like talking to celebrities. Every journalist she spoke with said that it was on people like her and them to convince editors of the environments importanceand to show them how climate change unites beats, including many of the ones that dominate front pages, like politics, economics, and even sports. At OjoPublico, well known throughout Latin America for its public-service journalism, Pinedo covers key climate stories, including: Perus melting glaciers, which in recent decades have shrunk by nearly half, threatening a source of drinking water and irrigation for millions; the Amazon, which in Peru, like in neighboring Brazil, faces widespread deforestation; and the countrys Indigenous people, whose perspectives are critical to understanding the climate story, Pinedo says, and who are often killed for defending the environment. The politicians and business leaders in my country think about nature as a way to make money, she says. But if we listen to Indigenous people, we can know that were all a part of nature. That interconnectedness is a theme Pinedo would like to see represented more often in the global press. Theres plenty of coverage about the mere facts of environmental disasters, she says. But the stories dont go into why these storms are happening. They dont explain that theres a responsibility for this. And better coverage wouldnt take much, she adds; as little as one paragraph or sentence could help audiences in the US, Europe, and elsewhere understand disasters, in part, as the consequences of their countries decisions playing out on a global scale. At cop27, Pinedo views her responsibility and that of journalists from other developing, climate-vulnerable countries as twofold. First, they need to push their countries to strongly advocate for support from developed countries. Second, Pinedo says that journalists from the Global South should hold their countries accountable for putting forward detailed plans for what they would do with that financial support; climate finance and loss and damage arent as simple as money being handed over, she explains, and audiences in developing countries deserve to know exactly how the money will be used. We need to know that our countries are serious about helping us adapt and keeping us safe, Pinedo says. Coverage of last years cop26 was often credulous, Pinedo believes. Leaders at these cops know they can say nice things and then forget, because the media will also forget, she says. This year, its incumbent on journalists everywhere to do better. What is the worlds plan to stop climate change? Is it credible and in line with the science? And is it just? These are questions that belong in every story, Pinedo says. Every one. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Andrew McCormick is an independent journalist and former CJR Delacorte Fellow. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, the South China Morning Post, and more. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewMcCormck. Uber cannot compel a passenger seriously injured in a crash involving an Uber driver to go to arbitration over his $63 million damages claim without a trial. Citing a 2021 state high court ruling that also went against Uber, a Massachusetts state trial court judge has ruled that the transport companys online popup format provides inadequate notice of its extensive terms and conditions that include binding arbitration Also, Ubers format does not require an affirmative action by a user to show assent to the terms and conditions, according to the court. Without those two elementsreasonable notice and reasonable assent there is no contract between Uber and the rider and thus there is no enforceable arbitration clause, the court concluded. In her ruling, Suffolk County Superior Court Justice Debra Squires-Lee closely followed the 2021 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Kauders v. Uber, which set forth the two-pronged test. The judge rejected arguments by Uber and its driver that rested on earlier Massachusetts rulings that found similar popup formats acceptable. Those cases, the judge noted, involved claims by drivers and job applicants, not consumers. William Good, 31, was on his way home from his job in a Boston restaurant when he was rendered a quadriplegic by the crash last April 30 close to 1 a.m. Good suffered devastating and debilitating injuries including a severe spinal cord injury. He will remain a quadriplegic for life. Goods lawsuit, filed in January, accuses Uber of negligence in the hiring of the driver, who the complaint says had at least 20 driving citations on his driving record and had been required by the state to take a driver re-training course. Uber knew or should have known that the defendant driver posed an unreasonable risk to riders, as well as to other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, the suit claims. The suit also maintains that the driver was an employee of Uber and not an independent contractor as Uber claims. In June, Uber moved to compel arbitration of Goods claims. The company, joined by the driver who is also being sued, argued that prior to the accident, via Ubers popup notification, Good had agreed to the terms of use that included binding arbitration of any dispute, claim or controversy including personal injuries arising out of his use of Ubers services. Uber maintains that its popup encouraging users to read its updated terms but not requiring that they do created an enforceable agreement to arbitrate. Good says it did not. Justice Squires-Lee said the answer depended on if a contract was created and determining that required careful reading of the 2021 Kauders decision, which involved an Uber drivers refusal to serve a blind person with a dog. In this ruling, the states high court said that the fundamentals of an online contract should not be different from those of an ordinary contract. It introduced a two-pronged test: was there reasonable notice and reasonable assent? It placed the burden of proof on the party seeking to enforce the contract. In Kauders, the court identified various flaws in Ubers interface that led it to conclude there was no reasonable notice or assent and thus there was no agreement. The court said Uber did not make it obvious that riders were signing up to such extensive terms and conditions. The layout downplayed the importance of the legal consequences of creating an account. The interface did not require a user to scroll through or select terms and an account could be set up without even viewing the terms. In Kauders, users gave their assent to the terms at the same time they clicked to create an accountnot a separate box. Good said he checked a box indicating he agreed to the terms without viewing them. That same check indicated he was at least 18 years of age. He then tapped the confirm button on his smartphone. In the Good case, Justice Squires-Lee wrote that the smartphone popup would not reasonably have indicated that, by checking the box and clicking confirm, Good was entering into a contract, stressing that it is unlike a person signing a physical contract who would be rarely unaware that is what they were doing. Also the language informed the user only that the terms had been updated without indicating the significance of the changes or the underlying document. She also found it was of significant consequence that Good did not even have to click on the link to the terms before ordering a vehicle. Had he been required to do so, the outcome in this case might be different, the judge offered. There is no reason Uber could not have required that, she added. The trial court included a Kauders observation that Uber is undoubtedly aware that most users do not read the terms. Last month, a Pennsylvania appeals court came to the same conclusion in another case involving an Uber crash victim. The court ruled that an arbitration agreement buried behind a hyperlink was invalid because it did not give consumers clear notice they were waiving their right to a jury trial when they agree to the companys terms and conditions. In that strongly-worded opinion, Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Daniel McCaffery called for more judicial scrutiny of the growing use of arbitration agreements. He ruled that the Uber approach is inadequate because it does not inform users in an explicit and upfront manner that they are giving up a constitutional right to seek damages through a jury trial proceeding. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recommended an enforcement action against SolarWinds Corp. over its public statements on cybersecurity and procedures governing such disclosures, the software firm said on Thursday. The Austin, Texas-based company also said in a filing with the SEC that it has tentatively agreed to pay $26 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit about the software companys cybersecurity disclosures ahead of a massive breach. SolarWinds did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, which requires approval by a judge. The company was at the center of a cybersecurity crisis in December 2020, after hackers compromised SolarWinds software updates and used them to access the data of thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. The U.S. government has attributed the hack to Russia. SolarWinds said Thursday it had received a Wells notice from the SEC alleging the company violated U.S. securities law with respect to its cybersecurity disclosures and public statements, as well as its internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. While a Wells notice does not necessarily mean the recipients have violated any law, the SEC issues the letter to firms when it is planning to bring an enforcement action against them. SolarWinds said it will respond to the notice, and maintains that its disclosures, public statements, controls and procedures were appropriate. A spokesperson for the SEC did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Investors sued SolarWinds in 2021, alleging the company and two executives touted cybersecurity measures publicly while prioritizing cost cutting and profit for SolarWinds two largest investors. The case is Bremer v. SolarWinds Corp et al., No. 21-cv-00002, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas. A federal court last week found the US government liable for $455,000 in damages to six claimants whose homes were flooded by water backed up behind two dams near Houston during Hurricane Harvey but thats just for starters. Approximately 10,000 structures upstream from the Addicks and Barker dams were inundated during the storm and each has a potential claim, said Daniel H. Charest, an attorney for the plaintiffs. He said the ruling could lead to ultimate damages of $1.67 billion if the amount awarded by the court were extrapolated as the average award for each of the properties that was damaged. But thats just a rough estimate and doesnt include interest. Whats more, Charest said he may appeal the decision because he believes the formula used by the US Court of Federal Claims did not adequately compensate the claimants. We advocated for more, he said. Hurricane Harvey unleashed a torrent of litigation from property owners both upstream and downstream from the two dams. The upstream owners say the government never told them that it would use their property as a flood-control reservoir. Downstream owners sued saying the Army Corps of Engineers did not have to release water from the dams because the structures had been upgraded to hold back far more water. The six upstream claims decided in the Oct. 28 ruling by Judge Charles F. Lettow were bellwether cases. They were tried as a way of establishing a method of determining the amount of damages. Lettow ruled in 2019 that the government was liable for damages because it created a reservoir when the Corps built the dams in the 1940s, but failed to buy all of the property that would be submerged during extreme rain events. Lettow decided that this amounted to a taking under the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution, which means the government must pay fair value. During the damages trial, attorneys argued for different methods of determining the value of a flood easement that had been created behind the Addicks and Barker dams. A key data point in deciding the value of the easement was to determine how frequently the properties that lie within it are likely to flood. An expert for the government said the 33.7 inches of rain that fell during Harvey was a 1-in-1,000 year event, although he also conceded that a second 1,000-year event struck in 2019 when Hurricane Imelda dumped 40 inches of rain. Experts for the plaintiffs estimated that properties within the flood easement are likely to be inundated once in every 10 to 20 years. Expert witnesses also disagreed about whether people who buy real estate in the Houston area are aware of the unrecorded flood easement behind the dams, or that the properties are at risk of flooding. Widespread awareness would presumably lower values. Judge Lettow said in his opinion that the government greatly underestimated the frequency of the flood risk, while the plaintiffs experts overstated it. He said that the evidence shows that the market is largely unaware of the flood easement, although the public is aware of a more general flood risk in the area. But Lettow determined that the property owners are entitled to compensation for their losses. He included the loss of personal property, despite the governments objections. Lettow subtracted any payments that the property owners received through the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance program when calculating the damages. He determined damages to the six property owners ranged from $1,401.49 for a house that required only minor repairs to a garage to $195,549.85 for a house that was coated in a foot and a half of mucky sludge. Charest said he expects the government to appeal the decision. He said he may also appeal because the court undervalued the damages. For example, Lettow awarded zero dollars to compensate an owner who suffered only minimal damage for diminished property value because of the easement. Charest said he is concerned that hundreds of property owners who suffered damages will miss out on getting compensation from the government. He said a six-year statute of limitations will bar any claims after August 2023. As of this week, he said, only 3,400 lawsuits have been filed by upstream owners. He said that means another 6,000 havent yet filed claims. About the photo: In this Aug. 29, 2017, file photo, water from Addicks Reservoir flows into neighborhoods as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise in Houston. An analysis more than two decades ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that homeowners near two reservoirs in Houston might sue the Corps if they were flooded, as they were in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, but had little likelihood of success. The assessment by the Corps in 1995 supported decisions at the time not to pursue upgrades to the Addicks and Barker reservoirs in west Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File) PAULINA, La. (AP) The derailment of six train cars and a subsequent acid leak prompted road closures and evacuations Wednesday in a Louisiana community, officials said. No injuries were reported in the derailment in the community of Paulina in St. James Parish, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of New Orleans. St. James officials said about 200 homes were evacuated. It wasnt immediately clear what caused the derailment. Eric Deroche, St. James homeland security director, said a tank car was leaking hydrochloric acid that would have to be neutralized and removed before the evacuation order could be lifted. Inhaling fumes from the corrosive chemical can damage the lungs. State police spokesman Christian Reed said the damaged rail car was carrying 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of the chemical. While officials werent sure exactly how much spilled out, St. James Parish President Pete Dufresne told reporters it was likely that all of it had leaked. Deroche told The Advocate officials expanded the initial evacuation area from 150 homes to 200 homes after the hydrochloric acid vapor spread out as winds calmed down in the area. Officials said residents were being put up in hotels and that they could go to a seniors center in nearby Lutcher for a hotel assignment. Reed said the cleanup would take an extended period of time, and asked that residents be patient as the process unfolds. St. James Parish emergency management officials had allowed all but two families to return to their homes on Thursday, WLBT television reported Friday. Parish President Pete Dufresne told the TV station that soil needed to be excavated near the two homes as part of the cleanup. WLBT reported that video from the scene posted on social media showed the leaking car and a bubbling trail of liquid leading away from the tracks. Workers on Thursday uprighted the damaged car to prevent more acid from spilling, WLBT said. As part of the cleanup effort, chemicals will be used to neutralize the acid. Any contaminated material will be hauled away. The parish also hired airboats to disperse vapors from the area to make it safer for workers, WLBT said. About the photo: This photo provided by Louisiana State Police shows a railcar leaking hydrochloric acid in St. James Parish, La., on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, according to the police. The derailment of six train cars and a subsequent acid leak prompted road closures and evacuations Wednesday in a Louisiana community, officials said. (Louisiana State Police via AP) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. China's development is an inspiration for the world 08:14, November 04, 2022 By Xu Feng, Du Juan ( Xinhua - "For China to embrace common prosperity, to establish a society of greater fairness, greater equity, that is a very important message not only to China, Chinese people but to the world as well," British scholar and political commentator Martin Jacques said. - "The modernization of a small number of Western countries was based on the exploitation, oppression and colonization of almost the entire world. China is not developing by exploiting any other country; China is developing itself and modernizing itself, and at the same time helping other countries to develop and modernize," said Keith Bennett, a China specialist and vice chair of the 48 Group Club. - "We are in an era of declining economic globalization and fragmentation, particularly in the Western world. And from that point of view, I think that the remarkable example that China shows is how to strengthen and provide stability," said Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences. LONDON, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's development achieved through meticulous planning and diligence has raised the living standards of its people and inspired the rest of the world, a panel of British experts on China has said. In a fragmented world with "declining economic globalization," China is providing much-needed "stability, predictability and credibility," they concurred at a symposium earlier this week hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Britain. GLOBAL INSPIRATION At the symposium following the recently concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the experts said the world could take a leaf out of China's book of long-term planning. The landmark congress has charted the course for building a modern socialist China in all respects for the next five years and beyond. "We don't have any long-term central planning in most of the economies of the West, and that makes the greatest difference in the ability of a country to anticipate, to plan and put resources in place, to take advantage of the opportunities, to raise the standards of living of the people," said Stephen Perry, chair of Britain's 48 Group Club. Keith Bennett, a long-term China specialist and vice chair of the 48 Group Club, said the report to the 20th CPC National Congress is "encyclopedic in its scope and contents." Local residents pose for a photo in front of their new house in Gurum Town of Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan) Bennett spoke highly of the report's emphasis on the Chinese path to modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature, and of peaceful development. "The drive towards common prosperity will hold valuable lessons not only for developing countries but for developed countries too," he said. British scholar and political commentator Martin Jacques also highlighted China's pursuit of common prosperity, lamenting how Western countries have never taken it seriously. "For China to embrace common prosperity, to establish a society of greater fairness, greater equity, that is a very important message not only to China, Chinese people but to the world as well," he said. China announced in 2021 that it had lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, and removed all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages from the poverty list. Women of the Miao ethnic group study embroidery at the workshop in Basha Village of the Miao ethnic group of Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) "Judging by China's performance on extreme poverty, which is extraordinary, then China's impact on the world as it seeks to create a fairer society will be, in an era of growth inequality, extraordinarily important," Jacques said. "STABILITY, PREDICTABILITY, CREDIBILITY" China's path to modernization featuring peaceful development differs from that of many Western countries. Beijing seeks growth not by oppressing others but by developing and modernizing itself, the experts said. Before the symposium, the panel of experts toured a photo exhibition in the embassy that showcased China's achievements over the past decade. Bennett said the images offered a glimpse of China's self-reliance and goodwill. He said he was touched the most by the picture of late Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping, known as the "father of hybrid rice" who saved millions of people from dying of hunger, as well as a photo of the Chinese-built China-Laos Railway, which he believes will promote economic growth in "the world's most bombed country." The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, and arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) "The modernization of a small number of Western countries was based on the exploitation, oppression and colonization of almost the entire world. China is not developing by exploiting any other country; China is developing itself and modernizing itself, and at the same time helping other countries to develop and modernize," Bennett told Xinhua. Citing the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative proposed by China in 2013 and 2021 respectively, Bennett said, "China is the only major country that has put forward a series of realistic and well-thought-out proposals and ideas" to tackle issues such as development, sustainability, the fight against poverty and climate change, and that "the majority of countries and people of the world very much welcome this." Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences, said China is delivering "stability, predictability and credibility, which the world in its fragmenting state needs." "We are in an era of declining economic globalization and fragmentation, particularly in the Western world. And from that point of view, I think that the remarkable example that China shows is how to strengthen and provide stability." "The stability generates expectations," Albrow said. "What China says it does." (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Colorado voters are deciding who to hire and who to fire in the 2022 election, but days before the votes will be counted, at least one incumbent already knows he won't be returning next year to the halls of power. U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter announced in early January that he had decided not to seek a ninth term representing the Jefferson County-based 7th Congressional District, creating a rare open seat in Colorado's D.C. delegation. In the nearly 16 years the Arvada Democrat has served in Congress, the 69-year-old Perlmutter has earned a reputation as an energetic campaigner his celebratory cartwheels are legendary as well as a details-oriented workhorse, a fierce advocate for his suburban district and a tireless constituent servant. Perlmutter currently serves on four House committees: Financial Services; Science, Space and Technology; Rules; and the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. He chairs the Financial Services Committee's Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee. By his office's count, Perlmutter has written 56 pieces of legislation that passed the House, including concurrent resolutions, amendments and rules. During a recent interview, Perlmutter said he's approaching retirement with the same gusto he's brought to the job, with a full schedule of legislating and campaigning, though this time for other candidates. Still, he had at hand the number of months and days remaining until he leaves the House on the day this column publishes, it's one month and 30 days until the winner of the Nov. 8 election will be sworn in on Jan. 3. Democrat Brittany Pettersen, a state senator from Lakewood, and Republican Erik Aadland, a first-time candidate from Pine, are vying to fill the seat. Passing legislation isn't the only way members of Congress can leave a mark. During his tenure, Perlmutter shares credit for spurring what turned out to be the longest run of employment expansion in U.S. history when he urged a powerful committee chair to talk to the press at a crucial juncture during the Great Recession. His efforts also saved the Colorado-based Orion space exploration program from the budget chopping block, which could ultimately lead to landing an American on Mars. But while it appears increasingly likely that Congress could finally reach agreement in the upcoming lame duck session on the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act the SAFE Banking Act, legislation he has shepherded for years to allow federally regulated financial institutions to provide services for legal marijuana companies among Perlmutter's most enduring public legacies could be in the field of constituent contact and his work on the House committee to modernize Congress. Perlmutter held his 105th and final "Government in the Grocery" in late August at a Safeway store in Lakewood, capping the trademark constituent outreach approach he pioneered just weeks into his first term. Over the years and at grocery stores across the district, the lawmaker met one-on-one with nearly 3,400 constituents at the affairs, his office said usually a couple dozen at a time, though on several occasions hundreds of Coloradans showed up wanting to talk, and the events were converted into impromptu town halls. The bipartisan Modernization Committee, established in early 2019 and renewed at the beginning of last year, is tasked with coming up with recommendations to bring congressional operations up to date. It's a task relished by Perlmutter, who has served on the panel since its inception. With an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the body six members from each party, with a Democratic chair and Republican vice chair the committee has held hearings and studied how Congress goes about its business, yielding nearly 200 recommendations. So far, more than 40 of its suggestions have been implemented, and another 80 have been partially implemented or are in progress, the committee said this week. The committee held its final hearing in mid-September and is preparing a last set of recommendations, set for a vote on Nov. 17. Among the most recent set of recommendations come to life: setting up a system so the public can track how amendments change legislation and how proposed legislation would affect current law; letting members pay for their staff's professional development; encouraging the Library of Congress to expand its schedule of events to promote bipartisan cooperation between lawmakers; and providing every district office with secure Wi-Fi. That last has been a particular pet peeve for Perlmutter. "Everybody was having to work off of their own phone, their own hotspots, and the speed everything was just so slow," he said. "And it was really aggravating. You look at something like a Starbucks, you could do better at Starbucks than we were doing in our congressional office." He said it took testimony from his long-time chief of staff, Danielle Radovich Piper, who is based out of his district office in Lakewood unusual for congressional chiefs of staff, who nearly all run things from their members' offices in Washington. "It's a bigger kind of a question, which is, the district offices, until we really started making a stink about it, are always seen as, 'OK, they're out there. We'll worry about Washington, that's where we'll make sure everybody has what they need. The district offices will have to fend for themselves.' And we said, 'Wait a second. That's not right. That's not how it should work.' "She really was able to look at how district offices were being operated. They're kind of an afterthought, but really, it should be a much more prominent consideration because it's the district offices that do most of the work with the people we represent, the constituents." Perlmutter said bringing the House up to speed technologically is one of the broad categories the modernization committee has tackled. The others are planning how to more effectively use office space, including providing meeting rooms in the members' cramped, 100-year-old office buildings in D.C.; how to better train and retain congressional staff; how to better support individual lawmakers including taking a look at increasing compensation, which has been frozen since 2009, and providing resources to bring new members up to speed on some legislative procedures; and possibly revamping the congressional calendar so lawmakers can have a better chance to collaborate. "We needed to definitely look at our systems," Perlmutter said. "Congress has fallen behind the private sector in a lot of different ways technologically, whether it's iPads and systems like that, the private sector just this last 20 years has been so disruptive technologically, we needed to catch up. On personnel issues, we found ourselves losing a lot of very qualified people who were experienced, but they were all leaving us for a variety of reasons, compensation being part of it, benefits being part of it, the way there wasn't really any continuing education for our staff. And is there something that can be done to help find common ground and not always combat, but collaboration, where possible, and not just confrontation all the time?" Toward that end, Perlmutter said something as simple as changing the way lawmakers sit in committee hearings where they spend the bulk of their time could lead to more productive relationships across the aisle. "The Republicans sit on one side of the room and the Democrats sit on the other side of the room, and you really don't have much in the way a conversation going on," he said. "There could be a lot more relationship-building. When you're talking to somebody next to you, all of a sudden you start developing a relationship and you can say, 'You know what, I'd like to work with you on x, y or z.' The way the committee rooms are set up, you can't have that interaction." Perlmutter said he's encouraged by the committee's work. "So I say, every 240 years, Congress should take a look at itself and figure if it needs to modernize things," he said. Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He's analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column. A man looks over a case full of marijuana in 2014 at Maggies Farm in Manitou Springs, which was the first recreational marijuana store in El Paso County. Voters will decide in November whether to legalize recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs. Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. In this Oct. 14, 2015, file photo, a riverboat glides through Lake Mead on the Colorado River at Hoover Dam near Boulder City, Nev. For the seven states that rely on the Colorado River that carries snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, that means a future with increasingly less water for farms and cities although climate scientists say it's hard to predict how much less. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, will release its projections for next year's supply from Lake Mead, which feeds Nevada, Arizona and California. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. By Rick Palsgrove Groveport Editor Groveport Madison Schools officials are considering how to deal with student overcrowding in the district. Its not a surprise we are overcrowded and running out of space, said Groveport Madison Superintendent Jamie Grube at the Oct. 26 Groveport Madison Board of Education meeting. But we have a real good handle on the enrollment that is here. We are overcrowded, but not as overcrowded as we thought. Earlier this year the district contracted with Cropper GIS Consulting for a school capacity study and an enrollment demographic study at a cost of $35,500. Also, as part of the Master Facilities Plan process, the board also approved contracting with SHP Architects for $77,000 for facility planning regarding the potential renovation, expansion, or replacement of the districts existing elementary and middle schools. The districts student enrollment as of Oct. 25, 2022 is 6,351, according to district officials. As of October 2021, the district had 6,271 students. Enrollment was 5,569 in 2015-16. Cropper GIS is updating its forecasts based on this years enrollment and that information is expected to be presented before the Nov. 9 board meeting. According to district officials, the current enrollment per school building (building classroom capacity is in parentheses): Asbury Elementary: 488 (385); Dunloe Elementary: 492 (444); Glendening Elementary: 477 (480); Groveport Elementary: 464 (408); Madison Elementary: 354 (359); Sedalia Elementary: 629 (456); Middle School Central: 467 (463); Middle School North: 510 (583); Middle School South: 467 (485); High School: 1,889 (1,500). Grube said it was previously expected the total enrollment would be over 6,500 at this point. He added it was thought the high school would have around 2,100 students now, but instead the count is closer to 1,900. We have to plan how to house the students we have now and also consider the projected growth, said Grube. Additions to the high school According to district officials, the original design capacity for the new high school was set at 1,500, based on the Ohio School Facilities Construction Commissions Facilities Master Plan (which included OSFCC enrollment projections). When the OSFCC shared its enrollment projections, the board and the districts administration disagreed with the OSFCC, believing their projections to be substantially low, especially at the high school. Despite the districts objections, the high school was constructed for 1,500 students, said Grube in an interview. Knowing there were already 1,900 plus high school schools enrolled before its opening, the district spent a portion of its local share of the projects budget on upgrading the foundation and HVAC components of the building to accommodate a future addition to the front of the southeast wing of the school. When asked how many additional classrooms are proposed to be built at the high school, Grube said, This is yet to be determined. We expect to know more once Cropper GIS completes their updated projections. Our initial discussion centers on building out classrooms in some of the extended learning areas at the end of each of the wings. There is sufficient space to construct 12 classrooms within the existing footprint of the high school building. He said the cost of building additional classrooms at the high school is unknown right now. It will depend on how many rooms need to be constructed which will be determined by the updated enrollment projections, said Grube. Since the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (formerly the Ohio School Facilities Construction Commission) has not yet closed out the high schools project, we believe we should be able to use the states co-funded-portion of the projects budget along with our local funds for any expansion plans related to the high school. If our request to use the states funds is denied, we have approximately $2.3 million in local funds remaining from the high schools construction we can use. He said the earliest district officials would expect any work to begin on constructing additions to the high school would be this summer following dismissal for summer break. Modular classrooms Regarding the elementary and middle schools, Grube said it is not yet determined how many additional modular classrooms will be needed. Currently the district has 24 modular classrooms in use, including a single quad-classroom unit at Groveport Elementary, two double-classroom units at Asbury Elementary and Dunloe Elementary, and six double-classroom units at Sedalia Elementary. We expect to know more once we receive the updated enrollment projections from Cropper GIS, said Grube regarding potential additional modulars. The cost of additional modular classrooms is also still to be determined. We dont have this information at present, said Grube. The district has permanent improvement funds that could be used to offset the cost of modular classroom structures. Another option floated for additional classroom areas would be to lease space elsewhere. However, Grube said the district does not have anything definite regarding the potential of leasing space. We cant ignore or push decisions down the road regarding overcrowding, said Grube. We have to make sure we have space for our kids. Ballot issues A potential bond issue to fund new buildings could appear on the November 2023, May 2024, or August 2024 ballot. A bond issue must pass by August 2024 or else the district would have to reapply for OFCC funding. The districts five year renewal general operating levy is tentatively scheduled for the November 2024 ballot as that is latest date it can be approved for the district to start collecting money in 2025. US Dollar Talking Points: Recommended by James Stanley Get Your Free USD Forecast Get My Guide The US Dollar is a composite, at least when examined through the lens of DXY. I think this is an important detail to begin todays article with as theres a plethora of questions as to why the US Dollar isnt running-higher after the release of this mornings Non-farm Payrolls data, which appears to keep the Fed on a hawkish path. The headline number was strong, printing at +261k against an expectation of +200k. Average hourly earnings, the wage growth component of the report, came in as expected at 4.7%. The unemployment rate did come out a bit higher than expected, showing at 3.7% against 3.6% expected. So, all in all, not much indication of any significant slowing in the US labor market, which the Fed is tracking as a point of emphasis for when they may slow their rate hike approach. And the FOMC rate decision had an overwhelmingly bullish impact on the USD in the immediate aftermath; but at this point, the Friday pullback has wiped away the entirety of gains from the Wednesday open. Naturally raising the question as to whether the US Dollar has topped. But, again, we have to draw back to what makes up the DXY quote to get a better picture of whats happening, and thats likely due to key supports showing up in EUR/USD and GBP/USD, with both the Euro and British Pound making up 57.6 and 11.9% of the DXY quote, a support bounce in those major pairs can lead to a strong pullback in the DXY, and this is what were seeing this morning after NFP. From the USD daily chart, we can see continued compression after price has set a series of lower-highs. The peak-high was set in late-September as the British Pound was putting in a collapse-like move. That then led to the double top, with resistance at 113.92, which led to a strong pullback down to the projected target of 109.62, which helped to set the low last week. That led to a fast run of USD strength that hastened through the Fed and got another shot-in-the-arm around the Bank of England rate decision on Thursday. Now, we have pullback after a strong one-sided run. The big question is whether buyers step-in to offer higher-low support which, again, will likely relate to whether bears are willing to hit lower-highs in EUR/USD or GBP/USD. US Dollar Daily Price Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; USD, DXY on Tradingview US Dollar Shorter-Term With the USD putting in a strong move-lower, a number of familiar support levels come back into the picture. The spot at 111.74 was a key zone and I had looked at that on Monday as a spot of resistance. That gave way to the FOMC-fueled breakout on Wednesday which led to another test of the 113.05 level thats helped to catch this weeks high. The next support on my chart is 110.79, which was the swing-high in early-September. And below that, we have the 110-110.25 zone after which the 109.62 level appears as that spot currently marks the monthly low. US Dollar Four-Hour Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; USD, DXY on Tradingview EUR/USD The Euro is a whopping 57.6% of the DXY. So, as I often say, the USD is going to have a very difficult time posing any lasting move without at least some participation from the Euro. The massive USD up-trend this year has largely been fueled by a mirror image breakdown in EUR/USD, which has taken on an much more aggressive tone since February when Russia invaded Ukraine. Even the vaulted parity level couldnt stop the selling, and was a mere speedbump that put the trend on pause for a couple of months before finally succumbing to selling pressure in September. More recently, however, seller have been unable to make much fresh ground below the .9700 level, with this week showing another higher-low at support taken from the .9750 psychological level. EUR/USD Two-Hour Price Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; EURUSD on Tradingview EUR/USD Longer-Term Structure The bounce from a lower-high this week is notable for longer-term approaches and this highlights a recent tendency towards both higher-highs and higher-lows in the pair. Granted, after such a steep fall, even a bullish channel can have connotations as a bearish formation, as this takes on the appearance of a bear flag. But, with that being said, there could be work to be done inside of the channel, especially given how cleanly those psychological levels have traded at .9950 and parity on a shorter-term basis. If buyers can pose another push above parity, the door opens for a deeper bullish move, with focus on that same 1.0095 level that helped to catch the high last week ahead of the ECB rate decision. Beyond that, the next swing is at 1.0198. Theres even something for EUR/USD bears as well, as a breach of the .9750 support nullifies the higher-lows and puts sellers back in the drivers seat. EUR/USD Daily Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; EURUSD on Tradingview GBP/USD Reaction to the Reaction I talked about this one at length yesterday but, first an observation. Markets are stretched from a number of vantage points. But, it still surprises me how so many want to sell at support or near lows and, all of the sudden, get bullish at resistance or near highs. This is where multiple time frame analysis can be helpful, to put the short-term drivers in the big picture. We had a similar such scenario yesterday in the British Pound following the Bank of England rate decision. On Monday, I had shared a descending triangle formation in GBP/USD with support around the 1.1500 handle. Thats a bearish breakout formation and by the time we got to the Wednesday FOMC rate decision, the formation had already started to fill-in. When USD strength heated up, so did the sell-off in GBP/USD. A quick pullback to resistance at prior support ahead of the BoE rate decision led to another strong move-lower yesterday, all the way until prices began to test back-below the 1.1180-1.1210 support zone. As I wrote in yesterdays GBP report, just after the dust had settled from BoE, if buyers can push a bounce, then this will look like a support inflection with an extended wick on longer-term charts. The weekly chart below shows this well, at this point. GBP/USD Weekly Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; GBPUSD on Tradingview From the four-hour chart, we can get a more detailed look at that bounce. Price is fast approaching some prior spots of support that could function as lower-high resistance potential. For bears, looking for resistance here could be the more attractive path forward, and if resistance doesnt show, simply look to the next level-up. The 1.1350 level is already nearby, after which 1.1411 comes into the picture. And above that, we have the prior support from the descending triangle, plotted around 1.1459 up to the 1.1500 psychological level. GBP/USD Daily Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley; GBPUSD on Tradingview --- Written by James Stanley, Senior Strategist, DailyFX.com & Head of DailyFX Education Contact and follow James on Twitter: @JStanleyFX S&P 500, FOMC, BOE, GBPUSD, NFPs and USDCAD Talking Points: The Market Perspective USDJPY Bearish Below 146; EURUSD Bullish Above 1.0000; Gold Bearish Below 1,680 The FOMC s rejection of a quick halt to its hawkish path has carried over to Thursday trade with a continued slide from the S&P 500 and a greater contrast to the BOEs own hike Top event risk through Friday is the October NFPs with the recognition of economic trouble and financial imbalance exposing raw trading nerves Recommended by John Kicklighter Building Confidence in Trading Get My Guide S&P 500 and Risk Trends are Still Feeling the Fallout of the Feds Hawkishness The aftereffects of the FOMC rate decision on Wednesday were carrying over to market trade this past session, and it is likely that we see the fallout for some time going forward though whether or not we appreciate the steer depends on our macro radar. For general risk trends, my preferred measure sentiment convenient, though far from perfectly indicative the S&P 500 suffered an extension of the previous days post policy event slide. The US index opened to a -0.7 percent gap to the downside following Wednesdays -2.5 percent loss with the day ultimately culling -1.1 percent in value. That is the fourth consecutive trading sessions slide with a close back below the indexs 20-day moving average. In terms of conviction, this wasnt a particularly intense decline given recent history nor does it invite critical technical progress. From a breadth perspective, other measures of sentiment (global indices, emerging market assets, carry, etc) were somewhat mixed with the same lack of total conviction. There seems a weight to the speculative bias, but a total capitulation to the bears is still beyond the current landscape. Perhaps todays NFPs can tip that balance though I am not holding my breath for a definitive market move. Chart of S&P 500 with 20 and 100-Day SMAs, Volume and 1-Day Rate of Change (Daily) Chart Created on Tradingview Platform For fundamental motivation, it would be far to say that the global markets are still drawing heavily on monetary policy as an influence. From the systemic perspective that tighter policy is an afront to speculative largesse to the relative considerations of one central bank outpacing another, we can tap into very different market influences. Following up on the RBAs 25 basis point (bp) hike on Tuesday and the FOMCs 75bp increase Wednesday, the Bank of England (BOE) increased its benchmark rate by 75bp the biggest jump in 33 years this past session. That lifts yet another major countrys baseline lending rate to the 3 percent market. The throttling of easy money driven growth continues. Extreme accommodation played a heavy role in the markets gains up through the end of this past year and the subsequent withdrawal of support is having the commensurate impact on stretched benchmarks. Below is a chart of the major central banks benchmark rates overlaid with an inverted S&P 500 chart. While balance sheets bolstered by QE may help buffer the comedown, this is an negative relationship that is likely to persist. Chart of the Major Central Bankss Benchmark Rates Overlaid with an Inverted S&P 500 Chart Created by John Kicklighter So Why did GBPUSD Drop with a 75bp BOE Hike? If you are evaluating the macro market from a linear or academic perspective, the bearings from cable (aka GBPUSD) this past session dont really line up. The Bank of England (BOE) rate decision was one the top events on my docket, and it didnt disappoint for historical precedence. Meeting expectations, the group announced a 75bp rate hike, which is the largest single-meeting increase in the benchmark in 33 years. Without any kind of speculative interpolation, this would have been a very hawkish and likely bullish market view. However, the Sterling dropped sharply after the event with GBPUSD suffering a particularly acute decline through short-term support. What is the logical disconnect here? As exceptional as the hike was, the markets had anticipated the outcome. Therefore, the aspect of the event that was not accounted for by market observers was the deepening concern around the UKs economic trajectory and what it means for the future course of monetary policy. That is quite the contrast from the (likely optimistic) outlook from the FOMC. Recommended by John Kicklighter How to Trade GBP/USD Get My Guide Chart of GBPUSD Overlaid with 20 and 100-Day SMAs (Daily) Chart Created on Tradingview Platform To illustrate the perspective of monetary policy and its influence in relative strength considerations, as with the FX market, it is worth looking out into the future. Current benchmark rates create a very clear hierarchy of carry standings, but markets are forward looking in nature. We find speculative appetites prize forecasts whether they are realized or not is a matter of projections meeting realized event risk. Below is a chart of my assessment of the major central banks relative monetary policy stance with the forecast for mid-2023 (June for most) derived from overnight index swaps. As can be seen in that forecast, the BOE rate for the middle of next year stands around half a percentage point relative to the US rate over the same time frame. It is worth noting that the forecast for the BOEs rate by that same time was over 150 basis points higher less than two weeks ago. That goes a long way towards evaluating the Sterlings struggle. Chart of Relative Monetary Policy Stance Perception with Mid-Year 2023 Rate Forecasts Chart Created by John Kicklighter Whats on Tap for Friday and Beyond Shifting the focus forward, it should not be controversial to suggest that the October change in US nonfarm payrolls (NFPs) is our top fundamental listing. While there are other indicators of note on tap, there isnt anything that I believe could compete with the global ubiquity of the US labor report. Im interested in the details of the report as it pertains to the larger trend of the economys health, but speculative appetites are likely to hang on the headline readings. This serious has beat expectations for six months running but the last two months have presented very moderate outperformance relative to consensus forecasts. The economist forecast is for a net 200,000-job increase in payrolls, but it is worth noting that the White House Press Secretary this past session suggested the government was expecting a 150,000 monthly average for the immediate future. I dont like to cater to conspiracy theory, but the White House has been privy to early insight on economic figures in the past and mid-terms are next week. Discounting expectations before a miss would make sense to political strategists. Chart of the NFPs (Monthly) Chart Created by John Kicklighter with Data from BLS Looking beyond the US employment data, there are other US events to mind including the first official Fed member remarks from Susan Collins. She will be speaking on the economic and monetary policy outlook at 14:00 GMT. There is also event risk Friday that falls outside the United States sphere of influence. Most notably, Canada will release its own employment data at the same time as the NFPs hit. Then there is also the Canadian Ivey manufacturing report. Shifting further out to a forecast for next week, the docket will likely continue to prize events that connect to systemic themes like the US CPI release but I will go into more detail on what is ahead tomorrow. Critical Macro Event Risk on Global Economic Calendar for Next 48 Hours Calendar Created by John Kicklighter Many people expect school children to be the sarcastic and silly ones however teachers can give back as good as they get. People shared very cutting photos from around the world of corrections teachers have left while marking their pupils' work. Domesticated Companion choose the most side-splitting examples including one teacher, in Germany, who glued a fly next to Lisa Graf Von Weber's essay and said her essay 'bored the fly to death.' When another pupil described white cement as being 'white in colour' the teacher wrote 'you don't say' while correcting it. Here Femail looks at the most sarcastic and hilarious responses from teachers... Not getting away with it! Lee Whodat Curran, from New Orleans, shared this note Mrs. Shapiro wrote to grass on poor Charlie Domesticated Companion collated teachers very cutting corrections including one teacher, in Germany, who glued a fly next to Lisa Graf Von Weber's essay and said her essay 'bored the fly to death' Sarcasm is the highest form of wit! This teacher who was expecting an educated answer was not impressed Not a Beyonce fan then? This student thought they would impress their teacher with a witty answer but they were not impressed by their lack of knowledge about astronomy This teacher was well and truly sick of Judy's back chat after she created an option C on her exam to call the cartoon boy ugly This US geography teacher couldn't help her sarcastic tone while correcting this students paper when he picked an actors names in a science question about volcanoes We have to presume that Wiley is a baby but either way his teacher really went into details for his parents This teacher was at least remorseful that she let her pupil cut her own hair and she bagged it up for Demi's parents Josiah sounds like a kid who knows what he wants from live and surely that can only be a great quality Sandra Van Egmond, from an unknown location, learnt about Kimmy's 'potty language' via a hilarious note from her teacher Another teacher took a hilarious approach to suspend his student for smoking by sitting directly outside the bathroom door and wait for her to come out A former preschool teacher has shared the five things that she wishes parents new before sending their kids to school for the first time - including advice on how to get through the tear-filled goodbyes when you drop them off and why you shouldn't worry so much about them getting exposed to germs. Christina Montoya Fiedler, a former preschool teacher-turned-journalist and mother-of-two from Los Angeles, California, said there's 'so many things' she learned from working with young children; and now, she has shared her expertise with the world through an essay for Insider, in the hopes of making the transition easier for both the preschoolers - and the parents. According to the writer, adults shouldn't be alarmed if their kids start crying when they drop them off at school; she insisted that the tears never last long - thanks to their short attention spans and the mass amounts of distractions that are present in the classroom. A former preschool teacher has shared the five things that she wishes parents knew before sending their kids to school for the first time. She is seen with her husband and kids Christina Montoya Fiedler (seen with her kids), a preschool teacher-turned-journalist and mother-of-two from Los Angeles, California, shared her expertise through an essay for Insider She also dished on why parents shouldn't worry so much about what they pack their child for lunch, and revealed why they can expect some major changes in their kids after they start school. Christina also opened up about why she believes a child's preschool years are the best, and arguably most important, years of their lives, while reminding parents to not take them for granted. Here are the five things Christina said all parents should know before sending their children to preschool. Tears during drop off are completely normal - but never last long Christina (seen with her husband) explained that parents shouldn't be alarmed by their children's tears during drop-off because it's completely normal - and never lasts long It's only normal that parents get worried when leaving their kids at preschool for the first time, especially if they cry when it comes time to say goodbye. But Christina explained that parents shouldn't be alarmed by their children's tears during drop-off because it's completely normal - and never lasts long. 'But as soon as you leave their line of sight, I promise that they're OK,' she said. 'There might be some sniffles, but if there's one thing preschool teachers excel at, it's the art of distraction' 'There will inevitably be tears when you leave your child for the first time. This is normal,' she wrote. 'But as soon as you leave their line of sight, I promise that they're OK. There might be some sniffles, but if there's one thing preschool teachers excel at, it's the art of distraction.' The former teacher explained that the classrooms are filled with various toys and activities that help quickly take the kids' minds off the fact that they've been separated from their parents, and ensured it 'won't take long for them to get sidetracked.' She continued: 'In a preschool setting, children can roam independently, and it's always a joy to see what they are drawn to first. Maybe they'll team up with a new friend and build with blocks. 'A gentle hand is all they need to get acclimated to their new setting. And as the days go by, drop-off will become easier - for both of you.' Your child may undergo some serious changes as they try new things Going to school for the first time is a big thing for a young child, and Christina pointed out that it will most likely fuel some major changes in their personality as they're exposed to new things Going to school for the first time is a big thing for a young child, and Christina pointed out that it will most likely fuel some major changes in their personality and interests as they're exposed to new people and activities. 'Think of preschoolers as a blank slate. For many, this is their first big experience away from home,' she said. 'They are brilliant, but most importantly, they are adaptable. 'As they learn to navigate their new surroundings, they are soaking up everything and learning the basics of friendships, conflict resolution, cooperative play, and more. The journalist called it an opportunity for them to 'blossom' and really figure out who they are. 'This is a time for them to blossom. And they do,' she added. 'They come home talking about new things [with] proof of all the activities they participated in that day - glittery clothes, paint-stained hands, sticky faces, and palpable excitement.' There's no avoiding germs - but they'll help build their immune systems Germ exposure is a common fear among parents who are sending their kids to school for the first time, but Christina said it's pretty much unavoidable, so it's best to accept it And while being exposed to all sorts of new germs can certainly be scary, she added that it will help strengthen their immune system - resulting in the kids becoming healthier in the long run Germ exposure is a common fear among parents who are sending their kids to school for the first time, but Christina said it's pretty much unavoidable, so it's best to accept it. 'Preschoolers love to use their hands. Unfortunately, those hands sometimes end up in their mouths,' she pointed out. 'But all the sanitizing and handwashing in the world won't keep them from getting sick. 'In fact, my kids were never as sick as when they first started preschool. This was their first time in a group environment, which means an added risk of being exposed to germs.' And while being exposed to all sorts of new germs can certainly be scary, she added that it will help strengthen their immune system - resulting in the kids becoming healthier in the long run. 'Their little bodies are slowly building up immunity and, in time, they will be healthier than ever,' she stated. When it comes to packing lunch, you can never win Christina explained that parents shouldn't take it to heart when children don't like what they pack for lunch - because kids always want what they see someone else eating Christina knows first hand how frustrating it could be when you work hard to pack your child an elaborate and delicious lunch, and they hardly eat it or come home complaining that they want something else. But she explained that parents shouldn't take it to heart, because kids always want what they see someone else eating. 'Parents have the best intentions when it comes to packing lunches for their preschoolers,' she told Insider. 'I've seen some pretty elaborate lunches - couscous and veggies, sliced deli meats and cheese on individual skewers, and tropical fruit salads. 'It doesn't matter what you pack, they will want something else. And that something is whatever the person next to them is having. Don't take it personally.' The former preschool teacher added the lunch can be a 'difficult time' for children because they're 'hungry, ready for a nap, but too amped up' to sit still for long. 'They also can't wait to get on the playground [for recess],' she added. 'But rest assured, we make sure their tummies are full, even if that means helping them take a few bites.' Don't take the preschool years for granted because you'll miss them when they're over Christina's last piece of advice for parents of preschool kids is to not take it for granted - because they'll most likely miss the simplicity of preschool once their kids get older 'Preschool is such a simple, happy time in a child's life. There's not a care in the world. No homework, no responsibilities, just the opportunity to learn through play,' she explained Christina's last piece of advice for parents of preschool kids was to not take it for granted - because you'll most likely miss the simplicity of preschool once your kids get older. 'Preschool is such a simple, happy time in a child's life. There's not a care in the world. No homework, no responsibilities, just the opportunity to learn through play,' she explained. 'Once grade school starts, academics are pushed to the forefront. As a parent, you'll be monitoring their progress and helping with homework, in addition to carting them to various extracurricular activities. 'It's a dizzying mental load. Preschool might seem hectic, but trust me, you'll miss it once it's gone.' The mother-of-two added that preschool is an opportunity for parents to 'grow with their children,' and is one of the 'biggest stages of growth for both of you.' 'Be as gentle with yourself as teachers are with your children. We promise that your kids are just fine,' she concluded. In the footage the restaurant owner claims the girls aren't 'properly dressed' TikTok influencer Polska Babinks has slammed a Paris restaurant owner for allegedly refusing her entry because of her ample cleavage. Polska, who has nearly 700,000 followers, posted a video of her confronting the Parisian eatery boss on 1 November that has gone viral with 3.3 million views. As the clip began to circulate, a debate began among commentators in France about how women dress - with many people saying they sided with the restaurant owner. TikTok influencer Polska Babinks has slammed a Paris restaurant owner for allegedly refusing her entry because of her ample cleavage After being turned away from the Paris eatery the first time, the influencer went back to film the man's reaction The influencer accompanied the clip with the message: 'A neckline = No restaurants.' She has since posted two updates on the row, which have been viewed 460,000 and 223,000 times respectively. Polska said that she went to the restaurant with a friend but were stopped at the door by the owner because he allegedly felt they were dressed inappropriately. After being turned away the first time, the influencer went back to film the man's reaction. TV host Benjamin Castaldi, columnist Danielle Moreau, and producer Guillaume Genton all said they sympathised with the restaurant owner In the footage, the restaurant owner claims that both women are not 'dressed properly'. Polska, who regularly posts videos of her wearing low-cut dresses for her army of fans, explained: 'My friend Tootatis and I were prevented from entering this restaurant because of our cleavage.' The incident sparked debate in France with several public figures wading into the row. TV host Benjamin Castaldi, columnist Danielle Moreau, and producer Guillaume Genton all said they sympathised with the restaurant owner, stating that he had every right to refuse entry. Castaldi wrote: 'Where's the scandal? He doesn't want bare b**bs in his restaurant.' Moreau said: 'This is not a feminist struggle! Very few women see themselves in you.' Genton said he has rarely seen 'human beings as stupid' as the influencer and her pal. Polska's army of followers also had a lot to say about the incident, with one user commenting: 'For me, it makes sense. You need a minimum of respect for the people and the restaurant.' 'The fact that this restaurant went from 3 stars to 4.5 on Google is thanks to you!' said someone else. Another user wrote: 'Well it's like walking into stores in a swimsuit in the summer, it's forbidden. Correct outfit required. Girl, go to macdo (McDonald's), their ethics is come as you are.' 'Any restaurateur has the right to say or not whether the customer's dress is correct or not and is entitled to refuse entry.' 'This is considered a refusal to sell and is prohibited by law,' commented another user. Prince William wants to 'break the mould' of royal engagements by raising money for the communities he visits after Megxit forced him to 'start from scratch' on modernising the monarchy, insiders have claimed. The Prince of Wales, 40, was joined by his wife Kate, also 40, on a visit to Scarborough yesterday where they toured two community centres who will benefit from funding which was created from a collaboration between The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Two Ridings Community Foundation. During the visit, it was announced they had facilitated 345,000 worth of funding from donors to help support young people's mental health in Scarborough. The 'community impact day' was a reversal to the usual visit scheme which would see royals visiting a community and hoping money would be raised for organisations and instead saw money generated by the royals in advance. Insiders have now revealed how it is part of a plan from the Prince which he has been planning for 'years' in an attempt to 'shift the dial' on royal visits. Sources told The Telegraph the new idea was one of many William and King Charles have had as they look to 'modernise' the monarchy. Prince William is hoping to break the mould of royal visits with 'community impact days' which will see the royals raising funds in advance of engagements, insiders have claimed Insiders said the Prince had for years hoped to change the way in which royal visits functioned. He had been forced to 'start from scratch' and 'readjust his sights' after Megxit and these 'impact days' are reportedly one of the plans which have risen from the ashes. They said the impact day scheme was 'in the pipeline' before the Queen's death, but his recent elevation to heir to the throne has 'increased his ability to put his own stamp on the royal way of doing things'. However they said the 'impact days' would not wholly replace the more traditional royal engagements, and would instead be run alongside usual visits. William and Kate visited two community centres as it was announced they had facilitated 345,000 worth of funding from donors to support young people's mental health in Scarborough Yesterday, William and Kate were greeted by a cheering crowd as they started their day in the North Yorkshire resort to engage with local organisations. During his first official visit to the seaside town, the Prince of Wales described how providing services throughout the community and talking are 'crucial' in dealing with the 'mental health issues that many, many people face'. The royal couple took time to talk to the small crowds that had greeted them at the two community centres they visited on Thursday. Kate gingerly navigated soft ground in lofty heels to get to well-wishers at the first venue The Street. Insiders said Megxit forced Prince William to 'readjust his sights' on modernising the monarchy (pictured, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) After the tour, William told the donors, volunteers and centre-users: 'We heard a lot upstairs about mental health priorities, safe spaces, places to go for young people after schools and food, these are particularly keen issues that seem to be resonating through the community today. 'I think, particularly on the mental health side of things, tackling that stigma, talking about mental health and providing services throughout the community are crucial to how we go forwards and deal with mental health issues that many, many people face.' The couple met with the grant panel of young people who have decided how the money should be allocated and representatives of some of the community groups that will benefit. The 'impact day' was a reversal to the usual visit scheme which would see royals visiting a community and hoping money would be raised for organisations and instead saw money generated in advance Beaming! Mother-of-three Kate was all smiles as she attended the second outing of the day at The Rainbow Centre He thanked those involved in the collaboration between the The Royal Foundation and the Two Ridings Community Foundation, as well as all those who had donated. William said: 'Showing what can be done when a community comes together collaboratively is really something we'd like to follow on and be represented more widely across the country. 'You're leading where I hope others will follow.' Jan Garrill, chief executive of Two Ridings Community Foundation, said: 'The fund for Scarborough is the perfect opportunity to involve young people in decisions that affect them. During the visit, the couple learnt about the work The Rainbow Centre has been doing to help people to cope with the rising cost of living through services such as food and clothes banks as well as offering a place to shower and do laundry 'Thanks to the collaboration with The Royal Foundation and the generosity of our donors, we are delighted to announce 345,000 of funding which will continue to support the work we have seen today. 'These funds are just the start, and we hope others show the same leadership and compassion and invest in this work.' Amanda Berry, chief executive of The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales said: 'Ensuring that young people have access to a wide range of mental health support is something that the Prince and Princess of Wales feel extremely passionate about. 'Tackling the stigma around mental health and ensuring that help is there for those who need it continues to be one of society's biggest issues. 'The Royal Foundation is therefore delighted that by working with Two Ridings Community Foundation, we have played a pivotal role in galvanising funding to support the organisations doing this vital work in the community, creating a long-lasting impact for young people in Scarborough.' Prince Albert of Monaco and Princess Charlene stole the show Thursday night as they attended the annual Princess Grace Awards in New York. Dressed in a vibrant floral gown, Charlene, 44, looked every inch the Princess as she joined her dapper husband, 64, to welcome guests to the gala held at 583 Park Avenue. She finished off her look with a dazzling necklace, which is thought to have featured the Grace Diamond, an Australian diamond that brand Maison Mazerea dedicated to Charlenes late mother-in-law Princess Grace after purchasing it in 2021. Yesterday's event is named after Prince Albert's late mother, Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly, and is held annually to raise funds for the US-based Princess Grace Foundation. The prince acts as vice chairman for the foundation, which recognises and supports emerging talent in theatre, dance and film. Prince Albert of Monaco and Princess Charlene stole the show Thursday night as they attended the annual Princess Grace Awards in New York Dressed in a vibrant floral gown, Charlene, 44, looked every inch the Princess as she joined her dapper husband, 64, to welcome guests to the gala held at 583 Park Avenue Charlene commanded attention in a floor-length, sleeveless gown, featuring an array of colourful florals. Adding an extra touch of glitz to her ensemble, she completed her look with diamond earrings in the shape of a flower. Striking up a pose on the red carpet alongside her husband, the beaming princess opted for a smattering of glamorous makeup on her stunning features. The event is named after Prince Albert's late mother, Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly, and is held annually to raise funds for the US-based Princess Grace Foundation. Pictured, Charlene and Albert The prince acts as vice chairman for the foundation, which recognises and supports emerging talent in theatre, dance and film. Pictured, the royal couple Charlene and Albert of Monaco greet guests during the 2022 Princess Grace Awards Zimbabwean-born Charlene has been continuing her return to the world stage after a difficult 18 months - in which she spent some 10 months in South Africa last year, after contracting a serious sinus infection during a solo charity trip. The illness left her hospitalised and delayed her return to Monaco - and after returning to the principality last November, the mother-of-two almost immediately left and went to Switzerland to receive treatment for 'exhaustion'. She returned to public duty in May, making the occasional public appearance with her husband Prince Albert and her children Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella by her side. She posed with Albert for a portrait marking their 11th wedding anniversary, and joined him in taking her children back to school in September. Charlene commanded attention in a floor-length, sleeveless gown, featuring an array of colourful florals Adding a touch of glitz to her ensemble, she completed her look with a dazzling diamond necklace and matching earrings in the shape of a flower A beaming Charlene and Albert are all smiles as they greet guests at the gala in New York However she made her biggest return to public duty so far when she joined her husband at Queen Elizabeth II's historic funeral in London, joining 2,000 other mourners at Westminster Abbey. The Monaco palace has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality's ruler Albert, who were wed in 2011. However rumours the pair were incompatible were sparked from the outset, with Charlene attracting a barrage of attention over an apparent bad dose of pre-wedding jitters which, reportedly, saw her seeking refuge in her country's embassy and gaining the moniker 'the Runaway Bride'. In December 2020, it seemed the relationship was plagued by rumours, with a third paternity suit emerging. The allegations in December 2020 claimed that Albert had fathered a love-child (which would be his third, if proven) with an unnamed Brazilian woman during the time when he and Charlene were already in a relationship. Striking up a pose on the red carpet alongside her husband, the beaming princess opted for a smattering of glamorous makeup on her stunning features Charlene, Albert and guests attend the 2022 Princess Grace Awards on Thursday night The woman said she met the prince in a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 when Charlene and Albert were supposedly dating. Her daughter, a 15-year-old Brazilian schoolgirl, sent a handwritten note in Portuguese to Prince Albert at the Royal Palace last September. Albert's legal team call the allegations 'a hoax' and the legal team of the woman concerned declined to comment. It was due to come to court in Milan in February but never commenced. Some believe the matter has been settled. Soon after the allegations came to light in December 2020, Charlene famously shaved half her head in the style of a punk rocker. By the spring, she left for South Africa. Zimbabwean-born Charlene (pictured centre, at the event) has been continuing her return to the world stage after a difficult 18 months Since re-engaging with royal duties the princess has put to bed rumours of a possible divorce or permanent move to Switzerland. In an interview in Monaco-Matin newspaper, she said: 'I am very happy to be back in Monaco and with my family.' She told the newspaper that she was determined to overcome her problems. 'My state of health is still fragile and I don't want to go too fast,' she said. 'The path has been long, difficult and very painful.' Referring to her and Albert's twins, Princess Gabriella and Princes Jacques, both seven, Charlene said: 'When I returned to the Principality, I focused all my energy on my children, my husband and my health because they are my priority.' She was joined by her husband the Prince of Wales for a visit to Scarborough The Princess of Wales remains the queen of the high street as she donned a set of 1.50 Accessorize earrings on Thursday. Kate, 40, who stunned in a camel Gabriela Hearst 1,250 midi dress and matching 460 Max&Co coat, was joined by her husband the Prince of Wales for a visit to Scarborough. She paired the Twisted Circle Drop earrings with a 295 DeMellier London handbag, a 60 woven waist belt from Boden and Ralf Lauren Cella heels. The Princess of Wales remains the queen of the high street as she donned a set of 1.50 Accessorize earrings on Thursday in Scarborough The mother-of-three beamed as she posed for photos with members of the public throughout the day. Kate stepped out with Prince William as they visited the resort town to launch funding to support young peoples mental health, in a collaboration spearheaded by the Royal Foundation. Prince William, 40, looked typically smart as he donned a burgundy jumper and blue shirt under a navy jacket. The pair visited The Street, which is a community hub that hosts organisations to grow and develop their services, where they met the grant panel of young people from the area who will be distributing the funding to local projects. Kate, 40, who is famous for mixing high end designers with high street steals, opted for a trendy set of gold hoops from the cut-price store The earrings, which are currently available on the Accessorize website for a discount price of 1.50 reduced from 5 Kate, who stunned in a camel midi dress and matching 460 Max&Co coat, was joined by her husband the Prince of Wales The Princess, who is famous for mixing high end designers with high street steals, opted for a trendy set of gold hoops from the cut-price store. It's not Kates first time wearing the bargain jewellery as she previously paired them with a stunning vintage Oscar de la Renta gown for an evening reception in Ireland in 2020. The royal selected the trendy pink dress, which featured a ruffle neck and bold black polka dots, along with a black clutch bag and the high street hoops. She also wore them during a video call as she and Prince William spoke to volunteers from Shout in different parts of the country to thank them for the support that they provide to their communities to marked Volunteers' Week from their Amner Hall home. The mother-of-three beamed as she posed for photos with members of the public throughout the day She paired the Twisted Circle Drop earrings with a 295 DeMellier London handbag and a 60 woven waist belt from Boden Prince William, 40, looked typically smart as he donned a burgundy jumper and blue shirt under a navy jacket She paired the bargain earrings with a 255 white broderie anglaise Mabel shirt by M.I.H Jeans, which features scallop trim on the neck and puffed sleeves. Yesterday the royal duo were greeted by a cheering crowd as they started their day in the North Yorkshire resort to engage with local organisations who will benefit from funding which has been created from a collaboration between The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Two Ridings Community Foundation. During his first official visit to the seaside town, the Prince of Wales described how providing services throughout the community and talking are 'crucial' in dealing with the 'mental health issues that many, many people face'. The royal has become known for her ability to mix high-street finds with more high-end fashion items (pictured, at the evening reception with Prince William in Ireland in March 2020) Kate re-wore the Accessorize earrings as she joined Prince William for a video call with volunteers from the mental health text service Shout in June 2020 The royal couple took time to talk to the small crowds that had greeted them at the two community centres they visited on Thursday. Kate gingerly navigated soft ground in lofty heels to get to well-wishers at the first venue, The Street. They toured the building as The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales in collaboration with Two Ridings Community Foundation announced 345,000 worth of funding they had facilitated from donors to help support young people's mental health in Scarborough. After the tour, William told the donors, volunteers and centre-users: 'We heard a lot upstairs about mental health priorities, safe spaces, places to go for young people after schools and food, these are particularly keen issues that seem to be resonating through the community today. Advertisement Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland choked up as he issued an emotional mea culpa over the sensational con - which saw him scamming investors out of $26 million - admitting that he was 'incredibly stupid' and insisting that it was his 'insecurity', not his desire for wealth and fame, that led him 'down a path of bad decisions'. The 30-year-old - who was convicted of fraud in 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison - put on a tearful display as he sat down with Good Morning America's Michael Strahan on Friday morning in his first TV interview since his release from jail in March. When grilled by Strahan about why he didn't cancel the fated festival as soon as he realized that it was going to be an impossible feat to pull off, McFarland confessed that he was so desperate to 'prove himself' to his employees and investors that he refused to listen to sense. 'I was wrong. I messed up. I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right,' he said. 'I had these early investors, backers, employees, and I think I was so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed and that led me down this terrible path of bad decisions.' Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland choked up as he discussed the $26 million con during his first TV interview since his release from prison in March The 30-year-old fraudster - who served four years of a six-year sentence behind bars after pleading guilty to fraud - insisted he also lost everything in the con, claiming he 'came back to New York with $100 in his pocket' I was wrong. I messed up. I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right. Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland tells @michaelstrahan in his first on-camera interview since being released from prison. pic.twitter.com/0BkkNwicDD Good Morning America (@GMA) November 4, 2022 McFarland pleaded guilty to counts of wire fraud in March 2018 after scamming 80 investors into putting $26 million into the bogus 'luxury' Fyre Festival - which promised guests a VIP experience with lavish accommodation, top music performers, delicious food and celebrity attendees, but in reality had no food, toilets, music, or even basic accommodations. The fraudster, who was released from prison in March of this year, having served four years of his six-year sentence, now says his priority is 'apologizing' to those he conned - from investors to friends and employees - although he made no suggestion about how he plans to pay back the $26 million he owes in restitution. Poll Does Billy McFarland deserve a second chance? Yes No Does Billy McFarland deserve a second chance? Yes 42 votes No 165 votes Now share your opinion 'I need to apologize and that is the first and last thing that needs to be done. I let people down,' he went on. 'What I told investors was wrong and I think the hardest thing for me is the trust that I violated... whether it was friends, investors, or employees, people gave up a lot to try and make this happen. 'How do I call them now and look them in the eye when I let them down? I just really should have canceled everything and stopped lying. 'I should have listened [to my employees]. There is no excuse.' McFarland insists however that he also lost everything in the Fyre Festival scam - which has been torn apart in multiple documentaries and podcasts - claiming that he returned to New York City following the disastrous event with just '$100 in his pocket'. 'I put every dollar I had or could find to make this festival happen. I literally came back to New York after with $100 in my pocket,' he said. As far as his future is concerned, McFarland is undeterred as far as upcoming business ventures are concerned - in fact he has already offered up a teasing hint about what his comeback might entail, posting a cryptic video to TikTok earlier this month in which he shared scant details about a new event to which 'everyone's invited'. McFarland pleaded guilty to fraud in March 2018 after scamming investors into putting $26 million into Fyre Festival - which promised guests a VIP experience with lavish accommodation, music performers, delicious food and celebrity attendees However in reality the event had no food, toilets, music, or even basic accommodations. Despite being aware that the festival was going to be a disaster, McFarland continued to insist he could pull it off, blaming that decision on his 'insecurity' The fraudster characterized the event as a way for him to make amends for his previous misdeeds, prefacing the video with the admission that he 'f***ed around.' In the video he revealed a cryptic map of what appeared to be a treasure map of a Caribbean island, and promised he would reveal all the details of his latest scheme in November. However, McFarland admits that his comeback may well sink as a result of his Fyre Festival scam - which he says may well have been his 'one shot' at business success. A pathetic cheese sandwich that was handed to guests in a Styrofoam container became a representation of the disaster that was Fyre Festival after it was shared on social media, where it quickly went viral 'I understand and I think for me it needs to start with finding internal pride,' he said when asked whether he's aware that many people may never trust him again - or forgive him. 'I want to be proud of myself first, and I think if I can do that and live like that for a long period of time, I might have a second chance. 'But if I don't, I understand, and I committed far more ethical and moral violations than most people do in many lifetimes so I get that if that was my one shot.' McFarland claims his time in jail - which saw him placed in solitary confinement on multiple occasions as punishment for violating the rules by doing several interviews while behind bars - also gave him a new perspective on how to do business. 'I used to take pride in getting things done and not how things got done,' he shared. 'I think going forward the biggest thing for me is building relationships throughout the process. Whether there's success or failure in the business sense, it's more about how it's done instead of taking pride in this "by all means" idea that's wrong. 'I went way too fast before, so I need to do everything now in a manageable way that I can actually make work.' The interview comes more than five years after McFarland earned worldwide infamy for orchestrating the Fyre Festival scam - which saw him team up with rapper JaRule to draw millions in investments with the promise of putting on a first-of-its-kind, luxury music festival event in the Bahamas with models, DJs, luxury dwellings and extravagant meals. McFarland paid models like Kendall Jenner to promote the event on Instagram and blasted seduction promo videos and pictures to lure people into buying tickets that were sold at thousands of dollars each. McFarland is undeterred as far as upcoming business ventures are concerned - in fact he has already offered up a teasing hint about what his comeback might entail, posting a cryptic video to TikTok about a new event to which 'everyone's invited' However, McFarland admits that his comeback may well sink as a result of his Fyre Festival scam - which he says may well have been his 'one shot' at business success But the event was a disaster, with people arriving on the island of Great Exuma to find a scene more closely resembling a disaster relief camp than a luxury festival. Court filings documents described the scene met by concert goers upon their arrival as 'total disorganization and chaos.' The 'luxury accommodations' were FEMA disaster relief tents, the 'gourmet food' was barely passable cheese sandwiches served in Styrofoam containers and the 'hottest musical acts' nowhere to be seen. The festival sold a total of around 8,000 tickets for two weekends. With attendees having spent between $1,000 to $12,000 on ticket to the festival, it was cancelled on its opening day, leaving people stuck on the island without many basic amnesties. Two documentaries, one on Netflix and another on Hulu, were made detailing the event's organization and ensuing chaos. McFarland was arrested in June 2017 and pleaded guilty to numerous fraud charges relating to both the Fyre Festival and his company NYC CIP Access, which also sold fake tickets to events such as the Met Gala. He was sentenced to six years in prison in October 2018 and ordered to pay $5 million to two North Carolina residents who spent about $13,000 each of VIP packages to the Fyre Festival. Ja Rule was cleared of any wrongdoing a year later. Numerous lawsuits were also filed against the pair. 'I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am that we fell short of our goal,' McFarland said in a statement in 2017, but he declined to comment on specific allegations. 'I'm committed to, and working actively to, find a way to make this right, not just for investors but for those who planned to attend.' The organizers attributed the event's cancellation to a number of factors, including the weather. But some employees of the Fyre company said its bosses has invented features of the event - such as $400,000 accommodation called the 'Artist's Palace ticket package - just to see if people would by them. Royal fans said they were 'lost for words' after meeting the Prince and Princess They were visiting to launch funding for a new mental health initiative at the hub The Prince and Princess of Wales showed their natural rapport with members of the public as they posed for selfies during a royal visit to Scarborough. After visiting a community hub The Street, where they launched funding for a new mental health initiative, the royal couple spent time meeting royal fans who had queued up to catch a glimpse of them. Photos of both Kate and William have appeared on Instagram as fans have posted their selfies with the Prince and Princess, claiming they were 'crying with happiness' at having met their idols. Prince William, 40, poses for a photo with royal fan Beatrice Baldwin during his visit to The Street in Scarborough yesterday, as one of many selfies he and the Princess of Wales took Royal fan Jamie Winspear exclaimed he was 'crying happiness' after meeting the royal couple (pictured with the Princess of Wales) Another lucky royal fan, Stephanie Garnett, appeared lost for words as she posted her selfie with the Prince of Wales, simply captioning the snap: 'Omg' One royal fan, Jamie Winspear, who posted separate selfies with the royal couple, captioned the snaps: 'Oh my goodness, lost for words, crying happiness, love it, got photo with royal family, beautiful.' He added he was 'excited' to have met his heroes. Another royal fan, Stephanie Garnett, appeared to still be in shock at having met Prince William. She simply captioned her photo with the Prince of Wales: 'Omg' with an emoji of a shocked face. The Prince and Princess of Wales also posed for selfies with a royal fan named Beatrice Baldwin, who looked both shocked and delighted to have met the couple in the selfies she took. A lucky fan! Jamie, who posted his photos on Instagram, also managed to get a snap with the Prince of Wales Beatrice Baldwin also managed to take a snap with the Princess of Wales, who beamed for the photo Although there is no official protocol on selfies, the royals have a rule against signing autographs, so that they can't be sold for large amounts of money. They have also come a long way since the days of camera phones, when they initially appeared to shy away from posing for selfies with members of the public. In recent years, the selfie has become commonplace, with King Charles posing for his first snap all the way back in 2014, and other royals from Sophie Wessex to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle following suit. The late Queen Elizabeth II was not a fan of selfies and would politely decline if ever asked to take one, as she was thought to prefer eye contact. However, this was more of a personal preference than a rule of any kind. William has previously joked that he is 'allergic to selfies' while Prince Harry, 38, once told a teenager that 'selfies are bad' and told her to 'just take a normal photograph' when she requested one in Australia in 2015. However recent times it appears some royals have grown fonder of the selfie, perhaps viewing the form of photography as way of embracing modern times and connecting with fans. Despite previously admitting he 'hates' selfies, the King was among the first royals to be seen stopping for a snap with fans after cheeky scaffolder Sam Wayne took a picture with him in 2014. As royal selfies appear to become more commonplace, fans may consider the practice a sign of a monarchy that is becoming more modern, as King Charles takes the reins. There have been other signs from the new monarch that he might break with royal tradition in a few areas now that he is King, as he is expected to represent a new age of the Royal Family. One example of this is the smaller-scale coronation he is likely to have next June when he is formally coronated. Sources have also claimed the King and Queen Consort 'do not want to live in Buckingham Palace' as they believe it is not 'fit' for modern life. The Dutch royal family were dressed in their finest for the portraits Queen Maxima, 51, posed for photos with her family at Amsterdam church Queen Maxima of The Netherlands brought a touch of glam to her winter wardrobe this afternoon as she wore a multicoloured floral coat to pose for photos with her family at an historic Amsterdam church. The Queen, 51, who is known for her bold, colourful style, has stayed faithful to a coat she has been seen in several times over the past two years as she posed for family photos with her husband King Willem-Alexander and their daughters, Amalia, 18, Alexia, 17, and Ariane, 15. Showing her deep affection for her daughters, the Argentine royal put her arm around Ariane for one of the photos, which were taken at the 15th Century Niewe Kirk Church in Amsterdam, which is just a stone's throw from the Royal Palace. Queen Maxima of The Netherlands dazzled in a bright floral coat as she posed for photos with her husband, King Willem-Alexander and their daughters Amalia (left), Alexia (centre) and Ariane (second from right) The King and Queen were all smiles as they posed for family portraits in the Niewe Kirk, an historic Amsterdam church Underneath her bright coat, the Queen wore a burgundy dress with matching suede heels and accessorised with big earrings containing jade and garnet coloured gems. To her left, Princess Ariane contrasted her mother's bright outfit with a monochrome look, sporting a black top, white trousers and a black-and-white checked blazer. Alexia kept it simple, wearing a black suit with a white shirt accessorised with a charm necklace, and wore her auburn locks down, curled to frame her face. Meanwhile heir to the throne Amalia opted for a dark green suit with a white shirt. Queen Maxima, 51, posed with her lookalike daughters at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, The Netherlands Crown Princess Amalia, also known as the Princess of Orange, took a sweet photo with her father King Willem-Alexander Queen Maxima (right) looked chic as she wore her bright floral coat on the shoulders, while huddling up close to her family The image of their mother! Crown Princess Amalia, left, wore a jewel green-coloured suit as she posed for a photo with Queen Maxima, Princess Ariane (second right) and Princess Alexia (right) The family looked picture perfect as they posed for photos within the historic church in Amsterdam The King and Queen's eldest daughter took a little time out from her studies to attend the photoshoot, after starting her degree at the University of Amsterdam in early September. Although it was originally intended for the Princess of Orange to live in student accommodation with her peers, she sadly had to move out of her halls just a few weeks into the term due to security threats. Speaking about the arrangements during a visit to Sweden, King Willem-Alexander said the family had found it 'very difficult', while Maxima revealed the threats had had 'enormous consequences' for her life. Euronews reported the Queen said: 'She hasn't left the house. That means she doesn't live in Amsterdam, she can't really go out. The consequences are very difficult for her.' Despite a turbulent few months for the heir to the Dutch throne and her family, they were all smiles for the family portraits, which were taken in front of a horse-drawn carriage. The King and Queen have had a whirlwind week after spending Monday to Wednesday in Athens, where they were on a state visit. They were hosted by Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou, attending several events with her during their three-day visit. A TikToker shared a top tip to get into Glastonbury Festival for free where you also bag 'your own campsite, toilets, showers and food tokens.' Megan Huria, from New Zealand, took to her TikTok account @megsfromnz on Thursday to share that you can attend the Somerset festival for free, all just for a few hours of work a day. The presenter explained that she got in to last year's festival as a volunteer for Oxfam, working three eight hour shifts. While this year's slots have already gone, applications for volunteer positions in summer 2023 will be opening in the new year. Megan Huria, from New Zealand, shared a top tip to get into Glastonbury Festival for free where you also bag 'your own campsite, toilets, showers and food tokens' In the clip, which racked up over 152,000 views, Megan said: 'Do you want to go to Glastonbury 2023 for free?' 'Well keep watching here we go! Tickets go on sale on Thursday the 3rd of November, we are doing this. 'What you want to do is go over to the Oxfam website and register yourself as an account. 'Make sure the address you use on the Oxfam account matches the address on your debit card or credit card.' She took to her TikTok account @megsfromnz on Thursday to share that you can attend the Somerset festival for free, all just for a few hours of work 'Oxfam volunteer at a number of events across summer. One of them is Glastonbury. 'When they release their tickets, you need to be in there. But you need to be registered before they drop.' By tickets Megan meant application places for potential volunteers, people can apply for one of those places when Oxfam open their applications. 'When Oxfam release their set of positions for volunteering, you go in there, you pay a deposit, which is the cost of a Glastonbury ticket, which I think is 330 now right. 'Then you do your three eight-hour shifts at Glastonbury. And after all of that's wrapped up, you get your 330 back.' She continued: 'You get your own car park, own campsite, toilets, showers, food tokens, charging station, it's legit. Plus you're doing it for a really good cause.' The host went onto explain in the the caption that when she registered in 2019 the rule was that 'you had to register before volunteer positions were released.' The presenter explained that she got in to last year's festival as a volunteer for Oxfam working three eight hour shifts People rushed to the comments to ask Megan to explain how they can apply to be a volunteer On the Oxfam website the charity explains that volunteers have access to a community space for volunteers, boiling water, plus tea and coffee supplies, phone charging facilities to keep you connected, crew loos & hot showers and a meal token per shift. Oxfam said: 'Returning volunteers will already have an account with us but they will still need to apply when the applications open.' People rushed to the comment to ask Megan to explain how they can apply to be a volunteer. She explained: 'Click Volunteer with us, then select STEWARDING, then scroll down (past the description and amazing benefits) and select my account 'Then youre presented with a log in page, click Sign up as a new user? And enter all your details. Another person wrote: 'Oxfam also do so many other festivals other than glasto, if you do more than two a year you can get priority for the next year.' Megan added: 'More festivals Oxfam volunteer at: Latitude, Reading, Isle of Wight, Womad, Boomtown Fair, Boardmasters, Leeds, Nass, Wilderness and more!!!' Someone else wrote: 'green team are also really good !! shifts are 10-4pm & you get a day off.' A 2014 nurse's training manual has been slammed for 'racism' after it included a page describing how a patient's 'culture' can 'influence their response and beliefs about pain' - and wrote that Hispanics believe discomfort 'is a form of punishment' while blacks think 'suffering is inevitable.' A social media user named Aubry shared a snap of the page, which came from the textbook Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning - and it quickly went viral on the internet, leaving many users horrified and offended over it's description of how different races react to affliction. The book, which was created by Pearson Publishing eight years ago, wrote that 'a clients' culture influences their response to and beliefs about pain.' A 2014 nurse's training manual has been slammed for 'racism' after it included a page describing how a patient's 'culture' can 'influence their response and beliefs about pain A social media user named Aubry shared a snap of the page, which came from the textbook Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning - and it quickly went viral on the internet The book claimed that Arabs or Muslims 'may not request pain medication' because they believe torment to be a 'test of faith' It also wrote that Chinese people 'may not ask for medication because they do not want to take the nurse away from a more important task' It claimed that Arabs or Muslims 'may not request pain medication' because they believe torment to be a 'test of faith.' 'Therefore, Muslim clients must endure pain as a sign of faith in return for forgiveness and mercy,' it added. The book also wrote that Chinese people 'may not ask for medication because they do not want to take the nurse away from a more important task' and that 'clients from Asian cultures often value stoicism as a response to pain.' 'A client who complains openly about pain is thought to have poor social skills [in Asian culture],' it said. 'Filipino clients may not take pain medication because they view pain as being the will of God. 'Indians who follow Hindu practice believe that pain must be endured in preparation for a better life in the next cycle.' The nursing manual stated that black people 'often report higher pain intensity than other cultures,' and that they 'believe suffering and pain are inevitable.' As for those who are Jewish, the textbook wrote that they will likely be 'vocal and demanding of assistance' since they 'believe that pain must be shared and validated by others.' The nursing manual stated that black people 'often report higher pain intensity than other cultures,' and that they 'believe suffering and pain are inevitable' As for those who are Jewish, the textbook wrote that they will likely be 'vocal and demanding of assistance' since they 'believe that pain must be shared and validated by others' The book also stated that Hispanic people 'believe pain is a form of punishment and that suffering must be endured if they are to enter Heaven' Last but not least, it said that Native Americans 'prefer to receive medications that have been blessed by a tribal shaman' The book also stated that Hispanic people 'believe pain is a form of punishment and that suffering must be endured if they are to enter Heaven.' Last but not least, it said that Native Americans 'prefer to receive medications that have been blessed by a tribal shaman. 'They believe such a blessing allows the client to be more at peace with the creator and makes the medicine stronger,' the book added. 'They tend to be less expressive both verbally and nonverbally. They usually tolerate a high level of pain without requesting pain medication. 'They may pick a sacred number when asked to rate pain on a numerical pain scale.' 'A nursing book that was released in [2014]. They are training in racism,' Aubry captioned her post, which has been retweeted thousands of times in a matter of hours. Many social media users were appalled by the textbook's statements, branding it as 'racist' and 'problematic.' 'That's shocking. How about they just talk about how the human body deals with pain, because we are all human regardless of color or religion,' one person pointed out. 'I'm not sure that your ethnic background is anything to do with how you perceive pain to be fair.' 'What in the horrible Stereotypes-R-Us even is this?! How is content like this still regarded as legitimate and being taught?!' someone else asked. Many social media users were appalled by the textbook's statements, branding it as 'racist' and 'problematic' 'Obviously racist, with the exclusion of white people probably because theyre seen as the default. Sigh. This is so gross.' 'That is pure racist trash. Im appalled,' agreed another user. One person couldn't believe their eyes, writing, 'This can't be real. It's like something out of a satire.' 'Former nurse [here]. I was taught the pain experience is unique to each individual. None of that nonsense. That's disturbing,' read a sixth tweet. A different person said that the 'general idea of being aware of cultural difference [with] pain and medicine is good,' but that 'the groups chosen and examples used' were a 'dumpster fire.' 'This is just such obvious racism. "Blacks" report higher pain intensity is code for "Watch out! These people are going to be drug seeking,"' said someone else. 'There is already so much racism in the way healthcare is provided to minorities, and this textbook helps promote it. Just awful.' Others called the page 'flat out gross,' 'horrendous,' and 'terrible. shameful, and embarrassing.' The same page from the book previously received backlash in 2017, after somebody posted about it on Facebook, and at the time, the publisher behind it issue an apology and announced it was removing the section from all future versions of the nursing manual. In 2017, the publisher behind it issue an apology and announced it was removing the section from all future versions of the nursing manual 'We agree that it is wrong. We have removed it from current electronic and future print editions and apologize for its publication,' Pearson wrote on Twitter. 'We hear you. We take full responsibility and are taking steps to correct this problem and ensure this does not happen again.' Pearson, based in the UK, is one of the world's biggest publishers of educational textbooks. It also added in a statement to BBC: 'While differences in cultural attitudes towards pain are an important topic in medical programs, we presented this information in an inappropriate manner. 'We apologize for the offense this has caused and we have removed the material in question from current versions of the book, electronic versions of the book, and future editions of this. 'In addition, we now are actively reviewing all of our nursing curriculum products to identify and remove any remaining instances of this inappropriate content that might appear in other titles.' The book is currently being sold on Amazon for $40, but it does not contain the page in question anymore. It has had two sequels since it first came out in 2014. 'The state-of-the-art concept-based, student-centered introduction to nursing: first of three volumes, focused on 21 indispensable biophysical concepts,' a description reads. The cheap imitations all cost under $40 and have excellent reviews online Target sells a range of sandals that have been compared to designer brands Target's latest sandal release is flying off shelves thanks to its uncanny similarity to the $200 Alias Mae leather slide. The Maia Double Band Slides cost only $35, however they're almost 'impossible' to get since fashionistas across Australia started snapping them up and raving about them online. The slide is the latest in a line of Targets fan favourite cheap designer knock-offs. Target's $35 double band sandal (left) is flying off the shelves as it has been compared to Alias Mae's leather slide. The branded sandal (right) costs a whopping $200 and is adored by fashion lovers The popular double banded slider comes in white and black and has rave reviews. 'Really comfortable! Love them! Waited months for them to be available in Sydney. Don't walk, run!' one woman said. 'Great everyday basics. So comfortable and great quality,' another wrote. One popular fashion influencer Chelsea Williamson described the slides as the 'best dupe.' This isn't the first time Target has released similar styles to trending designer footwear. Their $22 Maree Moulded Footbed Sandals are a ringer for Birkenstock's $146 Arizona sandal. The shoes have been described as an 'excellent, affordable alternative' to the branded sandal. One mum said she prefers the Target version as the foot-bed is softer and the shoe easier to break in. Target is also due to release a knock-off of the viral Birkenstock Boston, a $270 clog that has become so popular this season that it's almost impossible to get. The $22 sandal (left) has been described as an 'excellent' alternative to Birkenstock Arizona's. The popular branded shoe (right) is known to take a long time to break in, but the Target brand is less rigid and easier to break-in Another fan favourite is Targets $35 braided sandal, which fans have compared to the $80 Ravella version. The trending sandals are currently available in black, pink and white in Target stores, but stock is selling quickly. Target's mock Saint Laurent espadrille are a long-standing favourite, and at only $35, they are $800 cheap than the designer sandal. 'Love these shoes. So comfortable. I wish I got more than one pair!' one woman said. 'Super comfy to chuck on, great for work! If you're thinking about purchasing definitely purchase,' another wrote. Targets range of braided sandals is flying off the shelves. The $35 pair (left) is thought to be a cheap alternative to Ravella's $80 version (right) Target's $35 espadrille (left) is a 'comfortable' and cheap alternative to YSL's cult favourite sandal (right). The branded version costs a whopping $835 Fans have also been raving about the Target's $35 Melania Toe Loop Roman Sandals. The shoe has been compared to Billini's popular $90 Zinnia shoe. The roman sandal is available in black and cream, and fans are urging people to 'run' to Target as they are always sold out. The 'viral' Melania Toe Loop Roman Sandals (left) cost only $35 and are similar to several popular designer brands, such as Billini's $90 Zinnia shoe (right) Target is also selling this summers trending summer poolside slider for $22, and it has been compared to Dazie's $70 poolside slide in towelling material. The slides come in pink, orange and blue and are 'running out the door' in the run up to summer. Towelling poolside slides are all the rage this summer, and Target is selling a knock-off for only $22 (left), the slide has been made by many designer brands such as Dazie (right) Targets $15 Sage IV Suede Scuff Slippers also have excellent reviews, and have been compared to Aussie favourite Ugg's $80 sheepskin slippers. 'So cozy, wear them every day, even my mum stole them while she was visiting, about to buy her a pair,' one woman wrote. However some people said the 'fluff went everywhere,' and others said they wear out quickly. Netflix's Selling Sunset star Emma Hernan was seen sporting in a glamorous dress by Australian designer brand Bianca and Bridgett this week. 'Selling Sunset beauty SPOTTED in our best-selling Ashley Dress!' the Melbourne fashion label captioned their Instagram post. 'Our Ashley Dress is available for pre-order with very limited sizing available, so dont miss out!' Netflix's Selling Sunset star Emma Hernan [pictured] was seen sporting in a glamorous dress by Australian designer brand Bianca and Bridgett 'Selling Sunset beauty SPOTTED in our best-selling Ashley Dress!' the Melbourne fashion label captioned their Instagram post Bianca and Bridgett was founded in 2011 by the eponymous sisters. The dynamic duo are best known for styling celebrities for red carpet events and have worked closely with designers to create one off couture pieces as well. Their brand has been successful in bringing a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Australian market. Bianca and Bridgett was founded in 2011 by the eponymous sisters, and the dynamic duo are best known for styling celebrities for red carpet events The orange Ashley dress ($260) features a white border around the garment that emphasises the wearer's hourglass silhouette and complements all body shapes The orange Ashley dress ($260) features a white border around the garment that emphasises the wearer's hourglass silhouette and complements all body shapes. It is made out of a tight, crepe knit fabric that helps support and smooth skin. Available from sizes 6 to 16, the dress is currently available for pre-order and can be expected to arrive late November. The best-selling dress is also available in a classy black ($260) that is a perfect day-to-night outfit. The best-selling dress is also available in black ($260) that is a perfect day-to-night outfit Thousands are excited for the Ashley dress to hit their closets. 'Emma Hernan looks absolutely stunning - I can't wait to wear this!' said one woman. 'The black is especially sophisticated, such a lovely design,' added another. Hollie was given a five per cent chance of survival but defied all the odds It was confirmed to be stage four bowel cancer and secondary liver cancer In 2012 she had a colonoscopy that found a 15cm tumour She complained to doctors who thought she had IBS or 'girl problems' Hollie Owens complained to several doctors about ongoing stomach problems but wasn't taken seriously for two years A young Australian mum who was told at age 24 that she was highly unlikely to see 30 due to bowel cancer has spoken out about how her symptoms were played down by doctors for years. Hollie Owens, from the NSW Central Coast, complained to several doctors about ongoing stomach problems but her ailments were not considered serious because of her age. When doctors eventually did find a 15cm tumour blocking her colon, Hollie was told she had only a five per cent chance of surviving more than five years and that the cancer would likely impact her fertility. But 10 years on Hollie, now 34, has defied the odds, is living cancer-free and has a 15-month-old baby girl. When doctors found a 15cm tumour blocking her colon she was told she had only a five per cent chance of surviving more than five years and physicians warned the cancer would likely impact her fertility Hollie fold FEMAIL she felt bloated every time she ate, had ongoing stomach aches and needed to lie down because of cramps. But multiple doctors put the symptoms down to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or 'girl problems'. At the time she was living in Perth and had no family to look after her. 'I was told to watch what I eat and take iron tablets, it was a very frustrating process,' Hollie said. 'I was sent to a gynaecologist and even tested for an ectopic pregnancy and had an ultrasound on my belly but everything looked fine.' Blood tests didn't detect anything sinister, but she did have a low white blood cell count which Hollie felt doctors should have investigated further as it can be an indication of the tumour that was long overlooked. While her grandparents had bowel cancer, testing found there's no genetic links. In March 2012 she had bowel surgery to remove 30cm of her colon including the 15cm tumour. But during the procedure doctors found the cancer had spread to her liver and surgeons were hesitant to remove it After a long two years of stomach complaints Hollie was finally booked in to have a colonoscopy which ended up detecting the huge tumour. 'I'll never forget the look on the doctor's face after I woke up from the procedure. He handed me the tissues then said "I think you have cancer",' Hollie said. 'I didn't believe it and wasn't present at all.' A CT scan then confirmed the tumour was cancerous and while Hollie was offered the chance to freeze her eggs she was advised it 'wasn't a good idea', so she didn't. In March 2012 she had bowel surgery to remove 30cm of her colon including the 15cm tumour. During the operation doctors found the cancer had spread to her liver but surgeons were hesitant to remove it. Four months later in July, Hollie had surgery to remove the cancerous spots on her liver, then started chemotherapy six weeks later to 'mop up' anything that might have been missed. 'Chemotherapy was absolutely horrible, I had an allergic reaction to it, it messes with your body so much and kills both the good and bad cells,' she said. Hollie had surgery to remove the cancerous spots on her liver followed by three months of chemotherapy. After a PET scan Hollie was given the 'all clear' by doctors on December 12, 2012 Four months later in July she had another surgery to remove the spots found on the liver 'I couldn't touch or eat anything cold, felt exhausted and kept vomiting but luckily had no hair loss. I hated it and every cycle the side effects were so different.' After a PET scan Hollie was given the 'all clear' by doctors on December 12, 2012. 'The nurse called me and told me the bad news is she wouldn't be seeing me anymore because I'm cancer free. It was such a special day and a huge relief,' she said. 'It took me a while to process emotionally and mentally; I felt like I needed to make up for time I lost, didnt know who I was because my life had been put on hold. 'I travelled, did some spiritual healing, went out into nature, trained to be a PT and really just cracked myself wide open to process everything.' During her regular check-ups Hollie had 'scanxiety', fearing the cancer would return. 'I didn't pay attention to the statistics and tried not to fixate on what the doctors had to say,' she said. 'I learnt to be my own hero and lean on myself during the difficult time.' Fertility testing in 2019 showed she had a low egg count which 'knocked her around' because she always wanted children. But to her surprise Hollie fell pregnant naturally and had a baby girl with her partner. Regarding her fertility, testing conducted in 2019 showed she had a low egg count which 'knocked her around' a bit because she always wanted children. But to her surprised Hollie fell pregnant naturally and welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world with her partner Symptoms of bowel cancer: - Change in bowel habits with diarrhoea, constipation or the feeling of incomplete emptying - Thin or loose bowel movements - Blood or mucous in stools - Abdominal pain, bloating and cramping - Anal or rectal pain - Lump in the anus or rectum - Unexplained weight loss - Fatigue - Unexplained anaemia Source: Cancer Council Australia Advertisement Reflecting on her cancer ordeal, Hollie's joy that she beat the illness is tempered by frustration at how long doctors had brushed aside her concerns. 'Looking back, I was dismissed because of my age and the fact that bowel disease is considered to be an "old person's disease",' she said. 'If I wasn't persistent I wouldn't be here today.' Consequently, Hollie is on a mission to share her story with as many people as possible so they do not become complacent about symptoms that a doctor may well have misdiagnosed. 'I really want to emphasise that no one is too young for any cancer and want to give hope to others going through the same journey because it can be so overwhelming and scary,' she said. 'Don't ignore symptoms, get checked if you think something isn't right and advocate for your health.' Advertisement In final guidance published today, the JCVI set out that the over-50s, residents and staff at care homes for older adults and frontline health and social care workers would be offered a Covid autumn booster. On top of these groups, five to 49-year-olds who are a clinical risk group, live with an immunosuppressed person or are carers will also be eligible Millions of Britons eligible for the autumn Covid booster vaccine have yet to come forward, according to official figures. Only 12.2million over-50s, health and care workers and immunocompromised people in England had a top-up jab by October 30. It suggests the vaccination campaign, now open to 26m people after kicking off on September 1, has so far reached just around 47 per cent of those eligible. But rates are as low as 10 per cent among staff working in care homes. Health chiefs want all booster jabs to be dished out by December when they expect infections to peak to ensure maximum protection among society's most vulnerable. The drive was labelled vital for protecting the most vulnerable and the NHS against Covid this winter. But with medics administering an average of 190,000 doses per day, just seven in 10 would be jabbed by the end of the month if the same pace continued, MailOnline analysis suggests. The Government insists the roll-out is going quicker, however. Experts said it's now 'quite likely' infections will rise due to the low uptake and warned of a 'real problem' if cases start trending upwards. Some claimed the Government's 'living with Covid' message has put people off getting vaccinated. UK-wide Covid restrictions were eased in the spring, with ministers crediting sky-high immunity rates from jab roll-outs and repeated waves for the UK being able to ditch economically crippling curbs. Britain has remained restriction-free since then, despite two more Covid peaks. Despite just half of Britons being jabbed, some experts noted the fall-off in vaccination rates was 'to be expected' as uptake often tails off with repeated doses and that Covid, as a disease, is much milder than it was during the pandemic. People aged 50+ who have received their booster. With medics administering an average of 190,000 Covid booster doses per day, just seven in 10 would be jabbed by the end of the month, if the same pace continued Uptake shown as a percentage. NHS England data shows 11.2million over-50s, equating to 49 per cent of those eligible, have had their autumn booster. The graph shows overall uptake among just the over-50s by November 2, which stood at 50.4 per cent Uptake among the over-50s is lowest among those in their early fifties (23 per cent) and highest among the 75 to 80-year-olds (73 per cent) NHS England data shows 11.2million over-50s and almost 435,000 NHS workers have had a Covid jab between September 5 and October 31. Rates are lowest among those in their early fifties (23 per cent), who the programme only officially opened to in the last few weeks. Meanwhile, 295,000 severely immunosuppressed people and nearly 785,000 at-risk people aged 5-49 have received a top-up dose. Some 180,000 care home residents who health chiefs said should be prioritised have been immunised this autumn. The booster uptake figures technically add up to more than the total 12.2million because some of those jabbed fall into two groups and have been counted twice, such as if they are over-50 and an NHS worker. UK Health Security Agency data shows an average of 192,000 autumn booster vaccines were dished out per day in the week to October 31. If this pace continued until December 1, when the UKHSA says the scheme should be finished by, only 18.1m (70 per cent of those eligible) would be jabbed. The figures are based on the NHS weekly Covid vaccination report. There are more up-to-date daily figures, though these don't provide a thorough breakdown. The booster campaign aims to push up immunity among those most at risk from Covid this winter, thereby limiting hospitalisations and deaths. Covid infections have flattened off in recent weeks, with health chiefs crediting the vaccine uptake for stunting the latest influx. But scientists have raised the alarm over Omicron sub-variants BQ.1 and XBB, which were officially added to the UKHSA's watchlist last week, over their rapid take off and immune-escaping mutations. Health chiefs say the strains 'may fuel future waves' of infection. Data from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK's largest Covid surveillance centres, shows that BQ.1 was behind 27 per cent of infections in the week to October 22. Its prevalence jumped 59 per cent in just one week. Meanwhile, XBB is behind just 0.4 per cent of infections. But infections caused by this strain have quadrupled in a fortnight. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said the data suggests there won't be 'uptake as high as we saw for the booster last year'. Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests 1.6million people in England, which equates to 2.9 per cent of the population one in 35 people, were infected with Covid in the week to October 24 Data from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK's largest Covid surveillance centres, shows that BQ.1 was behind 27 per cent of infections in the week to October 22. Its prevalence jumped 59 per cent in just one week. Meanwhile, XBB is behind just 0.4 per cent of infections. But levels of the strain have quadrupled in a fortnight Latest Covid wave crashes: Infections fall nearly a tenth in a week Covid infections have fallen for the first time in two months, official figures show. Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests 1.6million people in England, which equates to 2.9 per cent of the population one in 35 people, were infected with Covid in the week to October 24. The figure, which is down 8.8 per cent in a week, marks the first time that infections have fallen since the start of September. The prevalence of the virus also fell in Wales, where 77,500 (one in 40, 2.6 per cent) were thought to be carrying the virus. However, infections are on the rise in Northern Ireland (61,200, one in 30, 3.3 per cent). And the trend is uncertain in Scotland (141,400, one in 35 people, 2.7 per cent). Virus levels had been rising since mid-September, with experts blaming new variants, the back to school effect and Britons returning from their summer holidays. Some had called for masks to be return. Sarah Crofts, deputy director for the ONS Covid Infection Survey Analysis, said: 'This week's data show a welcome decrease in infections in England, which is the first decrease since mid September, though rates in over 70s remain high. 'There is a mixed picture across the rest of the UK, with a decrease in infections in Wales, an increase in Northern Ireland and an uncertain trend in Scotland. 'We will continue to monitor the data closely.' Advertisement He told MailOnline: 'To a certain extent that was to be expected as uptake of any vaccine tends to tail off with repeated doses. 'The big issue is how much of preventable disease will happen this winter because of falling vaccination rates and that is really difficult to answer. 'When thinking about infection, it is quite likely that we will see more infections than we would have if vaccination uptake had been higher by now.' He noted that Covid cases are 'falling quite markedly at present' and vaccines provide 'good protection against infection' for three to six months after a booster but it drops off after one year unless a person has been infected in that timeframe, which boosts immunity. Professor Hunter said: 'People who have had the vaccine booster last year and had Covid will most likely still have strong (but not 100 per cent) protection against severe disease. 'But if they have not had Covid as well as previous vaccine then [they] could still be at risk of severe disease. 'Many older people have been avoiding Covid until recently and so in this older age group we will see more people who have yet to have covid and so are at risk of severe disease unless they get the current booster. 'Another big issue is what Covid is going to do over coming weeks. 'Rates are currently falling but there are new variants around which may or may not drive the next big wave. 'A big wave in a month or so time, especially if it coincided with the flu wave, could be a real problem. But a second wave is not certain at present.' Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist based at the University of Reading, told MailOnline: 'Despite genuine efforts, the NHS often fails to get as many people vaccinated against Covid as it would like. 'If youre vulnerable then its best to get the vaccine as early as possible, so that the immunity it generates will be fully developed by the time case numbers are usually at their highest. 'Hospital admissions are usually at their highest in January and February.' He added: 'The vaccination rate in care homes is worryingly low though. 'By definition, the residents are all particularly vulnerable and living in close proximity to each other. And if staff are too ill with flu to come to work, that presents another set of problems for the care sector.' Nadra Ahmed, head of the National Care Association, told MailOnline that the low vaccine uptake is a 'cause for concern', especially due to the recent surge in cases. A rising number of care providers are 'reported outbreaks but thankfully milder symptoms', she said. Ms Ahmed said: 'I feel that there hasnt been a campaign of any magnitude which outlines access to the vaccine and the need for protection from Covid in general. 'The "living with Covid" message has left many people unwilling to take up the option. 'There has to be a concerted effort to help people to understand the risks [of] Covid and how they can prevent contracting the virus. 'It is hard as people are now comparing it to flu but what we dont know is that the long term impact.' Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association told MailOnline there 'appears to be an adequate supply' of both Covid and flu vaccines. However, he noted that 'high demand may put pressure on stock in some places'. An NHS spokesperson said: 'The Covid autumn booster continues to be delivered at incredible speed with almost 13million doses so far around 50 per cent more than at this point last year and by mid-October we had also already invited all those eligible for a jab, well over a month ahead of the JCVI target for offering the vaccine to everyone. 'Delivering around 400,000 doses of covid boosters and flu jabs every single day is no mean feat, and thanks to extensive planning and the hard work of NHS staff and volunteers, the number of people in hospital with covid is decreasing. 'The vaccine has been fundamental to getting back to normal life, and it remains the best way for people to protect themselves against this virus and stay out of hospital. If you are one of those yet to get your Covid booster or flu vaccination, please do book in as soon as possible to get protected ahead of winter.' The longest surviving UK patient with Covid has finally been cured of the virus some 411 days after first contracting it. The man, who has a weakened immune system following a kidney transplant, finally beat the disease thanks to a cocktail of drugs. Experts at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, and King's College London described how the man, now 59, was unable to get rid of an early variant of the virus. The man, who has a weakened immune system following a kidney transplant, finally beat the disease thanks to a cocktail of drugs (stock) How can people be infected with Covid for over a year? Patients with weakened immune system have trouble recovering, meaning they harbour the virus for longer. This can give the virus time to mutate inside their body, potentially leading to a new variant that can go on to infect others. Some experts suspect this is what was behind the emergence of the super-mutated Omicron variant, which swept the world in late-2021. Advertisement Doctors detected the man's ongoing infection by analysing the genetics of the strain of the virus he was carrying. He was then given a cocktail of neutralising antibodies (Regeneron) known to be effective against early coronavirus variants, which finally allowed his body to get rid of Covid. The research said the man originally tested positive in December 2020 and, although his symptoms went away, he continued to test positive intermittently until January 2022. A previous patient treated by the same team tested positive for Covid for 505 days but subsequently died. New variants of Covid has meant neutralising antibody treatments are now largely ineffective, according to findings published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Dr Luke Snell, from Guy's & St Thomas', said: 'Some new variants of the virus are resistant to all the antibody treatments available in the UK and Europe. 'Some people with weakened immune systems are still at risk of severe illness and becoming persistently infected. 'We are still working to understand the best way to protect and treat them.' Patients with weakened immune system have trouble recovering, meaning they harbour the virus for longer. This can give the virus time to mutate inside their body, potentially leading to a new variant that can go on to infect others. Some experts suspect this is what was behind the emergence of the super-mutated Omicron variant, which swept the world in late-2021. Thousands of cases of arthritis were missed during Covid, according to another study laying bare the knock-on effects of the pandemic. Researchers said 'there is likely to be a substantial burden of undiagnosed patients' as they did not see a rebound in diagnoses after restrictions were lifted. It means many patients who might have the disease have not been seen by their GP or been reviewed by a hospital specialist, with cases not having jumped up above pre-2020 levels until April this year, they said. Researchers said 'there is likely to be a substantial burden of undiagnosed patients' as they did not see a rebound in diagnoses after restrictions were lifted (stock) The study, by researchers from King's College London and published in The Lancet Rheumatology journal, evaluated care for 31,000 people with new diagnoses of arthritis between April 2019 and March 2022 from a study population of over 17million people in England. It found that the number of newly recorded arthritis diagnoses fell by 20 per cent in the year after the first Covid lockdown compared to the year before the pandemic. Researchers used OpenSAFELY, a highly secure health data platform, to determine how the diagnosis and management of arthritis was affected by the pandemic. More than 400,000 adults in the UK have rheumatoid arthritis, according to the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the lining of the joints, causing inflammation, stiffness, pain and extreme fatigue. If left untreated, the joint can lose its shape and alignment and lead to permanent disability meaning early diagnosis and treatment improves outcomes for patients. Once diagnosed, patients can start highly effective treatments to control symptoms and prevent irreversible damage. The study found that there did not appear to be more delays in starting treatment for patients who were diagnosed during the pandemic. It also said the time to assessment by a hospital specialist was shorter than before the pandemic, which could have been due to fewer hospital referrals overall and increased utilisation of virtual appointments during the pandemic. Each year the quality of care for people with rheumatoid arthritis is benchmarked through a process of national audit. These audits were paused during the pandemic, however, making comparisons of care challenging. 'Lead author Dr Mark Russell, from King's College London, said: 'This study highlights that there are likely to be people with joint pain and swelling who remain undiagnosed as a consequence of the pandemic. 'It is important to speak to a doctor if you have these symptoms, as early diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis greatly improves outcomes for patients and increases the likelihood of disease remission. 'An important message of this study is that it is possible to assess the quality of care for patients with long-term health conditions using routinely collected health data. 'This approach could be applied to many other chronic health conditions and be used to provide feedback to NHS organisations and clinicians, with the aim of optimising care for patients.' Dr Benjamin Ellis, consultant rheumatologist and senior clinical advisor to charity Versus Arthritis said: 'Inflammatory types of arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, are conditions where the immune system attacks the joints and surrounding tissues. 'They cause swelling, agonising pain, stiffness and joint damage, and can take away a person's ability to live independently. People who develop inflammatory arthritis need urgent, intensive treatment from rheumatology specialists, as delays in diagnosis and treatment can lead to long-term pain and disability. 'This study suggests that during the Covid-19 pandemic around 2,700 people did not get the diagnosis they needed to access treatment and support. 'Worryingly, the figures since the pandemic suggest the NHS has not yet caught up, and people are being left in severe and unnecessary pain. 'The NHS must identify who these people are and focus on accelerating their treatment to prevent further unnecessary risk of harm.' To many, they are just revolting, squirming larvae associated with decaying, dead bodies. But that hasn't put off NHS doctors who are increasingly resorting to using maggots to treat wounds and prevent infections. The remedy famously relied on during the First World War sees fly larvae placed on skin in teabag-style pouches, where they eat any dead tissue and supposedly secrete antimicrobial molecules. Medics hope the therapy can help counter the global threat of superbugs, a crisis that's potentially catastrophic impact on society has been likened in severity to terrorism and climate change. Sticking maggots on infected wounds gets rid of the need to use antibiotics, which can encourage bacteria to mutate and become resistant to the life-saving drugs. NHS Digital data show the number of maggot treatments dished out in England has surged by nearly 50 per cent in the last decade. Maggots were used on the NHS more than 1,300 times in 2018 to 2019, compared to fewer than 900 in 2008 to 2009. Yet experts fear nurses' 'squeamishness' may put them off dishing out the treatment more widely. NHS Digital data show the number of maggot treatments in England surged by nearly 50 per cent from 886 in 2008-2009 to 1,305 in 2018-2019 WHAT IS ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE? Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fueling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned if nothing is done the world is heading for a 'post-antibiotic' era. It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate solutions to the growing crisis. Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics or if they are given out unnecessarily. Former chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism. Figures estimate that superbugs will kill 10 million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs. Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world. Concerns have repeatedly been raised that medicine will be taken back to the 'dark ages' if antibiotics are rendered ineffective in the coming years. In addition to existing drugs becoming less effective, there have only been one or two new antibiotics developed in the last 30 years. In September, the WHO warned antibiotics are 'running out' as a report found a 'serious lack' of new drugs in the development pipeline. Without antibiotics, C-sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements will become incredibly 'risky', it was said at the time. Advertisement Using maggots to clean wounds was first popularised in WWI, when field surgeons discovered soldiers whose cuts had been infested with the larvae healed quicker. The advent of medical antibiotics in the 1940s largely consigned the treatment to history. Research shows it is effective in treating hard-to-heal wounds and is cost-effective, and the NHS accepted it as a treatment in 2004. BioMonde, based in Bridgend, south Wales, sells 9,000 tea-bag style biobags full of 1mm green bottle blowfly larvae to the health service every year. The bags are placed on top of open tissue, covered with a dressing and left for up to four days as a 'last resort' for patients who won't heal with antibiotics. But a survey published in the Journal of Wound Care found the 'yuck factor' meant health professionals were more likely to be disgusted by maggots than their patients. Professor Yamni Nigam, an entomologist at Swansea University, said the 'squeamishness' will have to be overcome to make the therapy more popular. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Nurses that are specialists in wound care tend to have seen maggot therapy and are on board with the idea of using it. 'Whereas non-specialist wound nurses and general staff nurses don't really want to use maggots. 'Then we have this issue where staff nurses are reluctant to join in. 'Certainly everybody, I think, has a natural aversion to creepy crawlies and most people tend to have an inherent disgust as far as maggots are concerned.' She added: 'Maggots are so efficient and cost-effective. 'They can turn a stagnant wound that has been refusing to heal for months within four days they can transform the wound. 'One of the key things that maggots can do is disinfect a wound. If youve got a chronically infected wound, putting maggots [will clear the dead tissue]. 'Then they drink all that slurry through the bag and you remove the bag.' Soaring superbug rates have stoked fears that common conditions and medical operations could become more dangerous as patients succumb to previously treatable bacterial infections. It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate solutions to the growing crisis. Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics or if they are given out unnecessarily. Britain's former chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism. Experts estimate superbugs will kill 10million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs. The project is part of the Development Partnership Administration initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs. (Photo By Arrangement) HYDERABAD: Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has received the LOA for the Mongol Refinery Project, which entails building Mongolia's first oil refinery. MEIL will build EPC-2 (Open Art Units, Utilities & Offsites, Plant Buildings) and EPC-3 (Captive Power Plants) in Mongolia at a cost of USD 790 million using advanced technology. The project is part of the Development Partnership Administration initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and it will be built using a line of credit from the Indian government. Engineers India Limited (EIL) is the project management consultant for this G2G partnership project. According to MEILs spokesperson, This downstream project is of enormous importance and marks a critical turning point in the relationship between India and Mongolia and in MEILs expansion strategy in the hydrocarbons sector. In addition, the project will bring economic prosperity and energy independence to Mongolia. The greenfield oil refinery is being constructed by Mongolia to lessen the countrys dependency on oil imports from Russia. Once completed, the refinery will process 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day or 1.5 million tonnes annually. In the years to come, this refinery will also open up a number of employment opportunities, supporting the growth of nearby small industries leading to Mongolia's economic development. The hospital says is being run as a trial and insist it follows best practice guides Experts said the poster's vague language also implies men can get pregnant Boys as young as 12 face being asked if they are pregnant in the latest woke language storm to engulf the NHS. A poster on the walls of a hospital in Scotland also refers to biological women and girls as 'people with internal reproductive organs'. Experts said the messaging was 'dreadful' and failed the basic principles of clear health communication and biology. The poster at NHS Tayside says anyone aged between 12 and 55 should be asked if they are pregnant 'irrespective of gender' before undergoing examinations where they are exposed to radiation. A picture of the poster, uploaded to Twitter, reads: 'Irrespective of your gender you may be asked to complete a form about pregnancy before some examinations. 'It is our legal responsibility to establish whether there is a possibility of pregnancy before exposure to ionising radiation as a fetus (sic) is at a higher risk from the potential harmful effects.' Such procedures can include X-ray scans for broken bones or fractures as well as CT scans for cancerous tissue. Medics usually don't recommend these types of scans for pregnant women, due to the danger the radiation exposure poses to the foetus, unless in an emergency. This is the poster at NHS Tayside that not only details that staff might ask 12-year-old boys if they are pregnant but experts say also wrongly implies biological men can get pregnant NHS Tayside has said the poster follows best practice and could be rolled out further after a trial period The poster makes no mention of women, girls or females of any kind in regard to the risk of undergoing a scan while pregnant. Instead, it classifies these patients as 'people who have internal reproductive organs'. 'Only people who have internal reproductive organs have the ability to become pregnant,' it reads. 'We check this with each individual, and conduct a pregnancy check accordingly.' NHS Tayside said the poster followed best practice guidelines but was being trialled at only a few sites before being rolled out across the organisation. Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and founder of campaign group Genspect, said the poster was unfit for purpose. 'Over-the-top and elaborate efforts to be inclusive for certain groups often end up excluding other groups,' she said. 'The NHS should revert to simple and clear language if they want to help the most people possible. 'This purpose of this poster is to keep patients safe from harm by warning pregnant females that there are dangers in exposing themselves to certain treatments. 'But this poster is not fit for purpose because it is pretty incomprehensible. 'People who do not speak fluent English will find it difficult to understand this poster. I wonder who decided that their needs were deemed less important?' Ms O'Malley also said she was worried about the impact of these question on boys undergoing serious medical treatment. 'We're often at our lowest ebb when we're sick,' she said. 'Young boys undergoing cancer treatment don't need to be asked if they are pregnant.' Ms O'Malley also accused the poster's authors of wrongly implying men can get pregnant as part of their desire to use gender-neutral language. 'It is also factually inaccurate because males have internal reproductive organs e.g. vas deferens, prostate and urethra,' she said. As parts of the male reproductive system, like the prostate, are internal organs they technically meet the criteria of those who can become pregnant according to the poster. Professor Jenny Gamble, an expert in midwifery from Coventry University, said the posted was a 'dreadful example of health communication about such an important issue'. 'Using the term, "internal reproductive organs" is so unclear,' she said. 'A basic principle of any health communication activity should be to enable people to understand their health and access the right services; this example fails this basic principle,' she said. She added many people will struggle to unpick what the poster is referring to. 'Many well-educated women do not know the basics of their own biology and would struggle to know what were the "internal reproductive organs",' she said. 'Many people - both sexes - would struggle with categorizing male reproductive organs as internal or external. Many people do not know the definition of an "organ".' Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals Professor Gamble said the transgender and non-binary people NHS Tayside were trying to appease with its poster would not miss out by making the information clear to women. 'Women have specific sex-specific health needs. Avoiding ionising radiation when pregnant is one of them,' she said. 'Females that have a gender identity as trans-men or non-binary know they are female and will not be missed by referring to women.' The wording of the NHS Tayside poster also goes against that used in Scotland's NHS and Government backed national health information service, called NHS Inform. NHS Inform's advice reads: 'X-rays aren't usually recommended for pregnant women unless it's an emergency.' The same wording is replicated on the NHS Inform website warning for CT scans. An NHS Tayside spokesperson defended the use of the poster saying it followed best practice guidelines. 'This poster was produced in line with the Society of Radiographers "Inclusive pregnancy status guidelines for ionising radiation",' they said. They also added the poster was being trialled at a few sites before being rolled out more widely, and that feedback was being sought. . 'Our imaging team is trialling the poster and guidelines at three hospitals in Angus and gathering feedback from patients and other groups before it is rolled out further across other sites,' they said. It is not the first time men have been asked if they are pregnant by NHS staff. In March, it was revealed male cancer patients, as well as those having X-rays and MRI scans, were asked if they were expecting a baby, because the word 'female' was replaced by 'individuals' for medical procedures. For example, the Walton Centre NHS in Liverpool now asks 'all patients under the age of 60, regardless of how you may identify your gender' whether they could be having a baby. Campaigners have warned the move could spark the beginning of a 'clinically dangerous' move to record only gender, and not sex, on medical records. Patients and their families have also complained of 'unnecessary confusion and agitation' for vulnerable patients. From 'chestfeeding' to 'human milk' and 'birthing PARENTS': How NHS language is going woke - with women quietly being scrubbed out of 'inclusive' advice pages 'Chestfeeding' instead of breastfeeding and asking men if they are pregnant before getting a scan are just two ways NHS language has gone woke recently. NHS chiefs have repeatedly defended the changes, saying they want to be 'inclusive, respectful and relevant'. But health experts have warned de-gendering medical advice could be dangerous as it over-complicates and obscures vital health messaging. Here, we detail some of the ways the woke language storm has engulfed the health service. Period page avoids 'women' and 'girls', instead uses 'people who bleed' MailOnline revealed the terms 'women' and 'girls' had been omitted from NHS backed guidance about periods. A website funded by the Welsh Government to give advice about menstruation omitted the words 'women' and 'girls' from its information. Instead the website, Bloody Brilliant, which cost the taxpayer 84,000, used the terms 'people who bleed' and 'half of the population'. Medics and campaigners described the language as 'infuriating' and 'confusing', warning it would complicate much needed health messaging for vulnerable girls. The website was set up in 2021 with the aim of 'breaking the taboo around periods by encouraging conversation on one of the most normal, natural topics'. MailOnline's exposure of the issue last month led to the branch of NHS Wales responsible for the advice stating language will now be changed to include 'women' and 'girls'. Bloody Brilliant, an NHS commissioned website on periods was heavily criticised for refusing to mention 'women' and 'girls', instead referring to 'people who bleed' NHS removes the word 'women' from its MENOPAUSE page MailOnline revealed the NHS's online guidance about the menopause had the terms 'women' and 'woman' removed. The webpage used to describe the condition as 'when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally'. But a new, gender-neutral description made in May, says: 'Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels'. The old advice also highlighted menopause usually occurs in women between the ages of 45 and 55, but about one in 100 women experience it before 40. But none of this information is included in the overview section of the updated webpage. In total six mentions of 'women' and 'woman' have been scrubbed from the page. Justifying the change, NHS Digital said they wanted language to be 'inclusive and respectful'. Experts warned that de-sexing the menopause page meant women with low English or health literacy could miss out and not read further. The NHS has quietly omitted the terms 'women' and 'woman' from its webpage on menopause. Pictured here is the older version of the menopause overview page (May 16) which mentioned women six times But the new version omits women from the overview entirely. Experts have warned women could be disadvantaged by de-gendered medical advice confusing health messaging NHS midwives told that sex is 'ASSIGNED' at birth Midwives denounced claims they 'assign' the sex of children at birth in a row on woke language. The wording came from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in an 'inclusivity' statement. Their document said: 'We recognise maternity and gynaecological services will be accessed by women, gender diverse individuals and people whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.' But some midwives hit back at the colleges, arguing that they merely 'observe' the reality of a baby's sex at birth as opposed to deciding it themselves. Jo Gould, a midwife in Sussex, said she was 'ashamed' of her representative body and that the statement was 'nonsense' and 'offensive'. But the RCM said the phrase sex assigned at birth was used correctly arguing it is the UK governments Office for National Statistics legal terminology for the sex observed at birth and then recorded on the birth certificate. A statement on inclusivity from the Royal College of Midwives and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has provoked outrage from some midwives on social media for using the term 'sex assigned at birth' NHS pregnancy advice refers to 'chestfeeding' and refuses to mention breasts The NHS was criticised over 'ideological' new advice for trans parents that failed to mention the word 'breast'. A page titled 'chestfeeding if you're trans or non-binary' makes no mention of breasts and refers to breast reduction operations as 'top surgery'. It was also accused of 'normalising' a potentially dangerous chest-binding technique. The guidance also encourages people to keep taking hormone transitioning drugs when they 'chestfeed', despite admitting 'it is unclear what effect this could have on your baby'. The advice was written a year prior to publication but was only issued online after nearly 12 months of internal NHS wrangling. It provoked concern among nurses and maternity experts, who said the advice fails to warn people about health risks of such practices to both parents and babies. The term chestfeeding is used throughout the page with the term 'breast' omitted. Breastmilk likewise has been replaced with 'milk from the chest' The page also says testosterone can pass through breast milk to babies but adds it is 'unclear' what affect passing the hormone on to a baby could have Critics of the page have said it normalises a potentially dangerous 'binding' technique used to make breasts smaller using fabric and which can cause a variety of health problems NHS bosses removed term 'WOMEN' on ovarian and womb cancer advice pages Official NHS advice pages about ovarian, womb, vaginal and cervix cancers were found to have quietly scrubbed the word 'women' from their webpages earlier this year. The term was missing from the landing pages of three sections explaining the cancers, which are only found in biological women. For example, the original version of the ovarian NHS cancer page featured the line: 'Ovarian cancer, or cancer of the ovaries, is one of the most common types of cancer in women.' Another line read: 'Ovarian cancer mainly affects women who have been through the menopause (usually over the age of 50), but it can sometimes affect younger women.' However, in an update sneaked out in January these were removed with the page now saying: 'Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.' The changes were made late in 2021 and early 2022 but only came to light in May. The old version of the NHS ovarian cancer page as of December 30 2021 (left) mentions women specifically twice, whereas the new version (right) omits them NHS reinstates the word women in its miscarriage advice In June, the health service added the word 'women' back to its miscarriage page following backlash. The health service replaced 'women who know they're pregnant' with 'people who know they are pregnant'. Another line on the page was also criticised for saying miscarriage 'only affects about one in 100 people' instead of women. Despite amending one of the sentences to state that having three consecutive miscarriages 'only affects about one in 100 women', other pages in the NHS guidance make no mention of women at all. A section called 'aftermath' refers to 'people' seven times but not once to women, including in its sub-paragraph about the emotional impact of a miscarriage. Another section titled 'causes' does mention women several times when attributing their age as a factor on their pregnancy, with one in ten expectant women under 30 having a miscarriage compared to five in ten over 45. NHS Digital has now partially amended the webpage to include the word 'women' once at the end NHS-backed guidance states transwomen can breastfeed Experts warned newborn babies could be harmed by woke NHS-backed guidance stating biologically born men can breastfeed. Guidance from the La Leche's charity linked to on the NHS's controversial 'chestfeeding' advice page states biological men who swap sex can stimulate milk supply using the Newman-Goldfarb protocol. But the procedure, which involves taking a powerful drug called domperidone, has been mired in controversy and is effectively banned in the US because of its side effects. NHS bosses only recommend it to women struggling to produce milk in some cases because domperidone carries a risk of giving a baby an irregular heartbeat. Experts told MailOnline how scientists have 'no idea about the implications', of breastfeeding in men and that the NHS should focus on improving access to breastfeeding rates for women. An NHS England spokesperson said the link to La Leche's advice on the chestfeeding guidance page was to an 'independent, non-profit support site' and added does not reflect NHS policy. Hospitals asking men if they are pregnant before scans In March, it was revealed that men were being asked if they are or could be pregnant before given radiotherapy by some NHS trusts. Male cancer patients, as well as those having X-rays and MRI scans, were asked if they were expecting a baby, because the word 'female' was replaced by 'individuals' for medical procedures. For example, the Walton Centre NHS in Liverpool now asks 'all patients under the age of 60, regardless of how you may identify your gender' whether they could be having a baby. The dangers that radiotherapy, diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine pose to an unborn child mean medics must find out if biologically female patients are pregnant before carrying out the procedures. But campaigners warned the move could spark the beginning of a 'clinically dangerous' move to record only gender, and not sex, on medical records. Patients and their families have also complained of 'unnecessary confusion and agitation' for vulnerable patients. Student midwives being taught how to help biological MEN give birth In May this year, it was revealed that midwifery students at Edinburgh Napier University were being taught biological men could get pregnant and trans men could give birth even if they have a penis. In a coursebook that has since been revised, trainee midwives were given detailed instructions on how to treat a male-to-female trans person during childbirth. The book's introduction stated: 'You may be caring for a pregnant or birthing person who is transitioning from male to female and may still have external male genitalia.' Another section with photo demonstrations detailed how to fit a catheter in a person with a penis and scrotum during labour. The book also included special instructions for people with prostate glands which are exclusive to biological men who may feel particular 'discomfort'. Several experts criticised the university, describing the woke material as 'remarkably ignorant about basic biology, sex and anatomy'. Bosses at the university have now changed the wording to say, 'people transitioning from female to male' rather than 'male to female', following the uproar. NHS told to use inclusive birth terms to avoid offending transgender people NHS services were told to use 'inclusive' terms like 'chestfeeding' so trans pregnant people aren't offended by a Government-funded report published in April. Produced by charity the LGBT Foundation other suggestions of language change was avoiding terms like 'vaginal birth', recommending 'frontal' or 'lower birth' instead. The charity also says some trans and non-binary people would benefit from having a private space in hospitals to give birth, so that they are not made uncomfortable by seeing women. It detailed the experience of one trans person, who said: 'I didnt have to go to a ward full of women after giving birth, I was actually provided with a private room for me and baby which was very helpful and accommodating for me and my gender identity.' The report was based on a survey 121 trans Britons on their experience of pregnancy. It was commissioned by the Health & Wellbeing Alliance, a partnership between charities and the NHS, which is managed jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. NHS hospital tells staff to say 'birthing parents' and 'human milk' In February last year Brighton and Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled 'gender inclusive' phrases it wanted its staff to use. These included terms like 'birthing parents' and 'human milk' rather than 'mothers' and 'breast milk' to avoid offending transgender people. The Trust said using 'gender inclusive' phrases was part of a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia'. Other changes include replacing the use of the word 'woman' with the phrase 'woman or person', and the term 'father' with 'parent', 'co-parent' or 'second biological parent', depending on the circumstances. The new terms will be used for documents, protocols and Trust-wide communication. The move was welcomed by inclusivity campaigners at the time, with the group TransActual tweeted: 'This is fantastic, well done. Let's hope many more trusts follow suit. Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.' Agency warned pillows raise the risk of an infant suffocating while asleep Parents who own one should 'throw it away' and not 'donate or give' to others Parents were today told to stop using 'head-shaping pillows' on their babies because they can suffocate and kill infants. The pillows created with an indent or hole in the center are often advertised as being able to treat flat head syndrome. Around one in five babies develop the condition, usually from sleeping or during childbirth, because their skulls are so soft. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a safety alert that the pillows have no 'medical purpose' and can be deadly. Parents who own one should 'throw it away', the agency said, and 'not donate or give it to anyone else'. Agency officials said the shape of the pillows which are not FDA approved 'may contribute to the risk of suffocation and death'. The angle of the pillows can press babies' chins against their chest and runs the risk of blocking their airways. Pictured above is an infant head-shaping pillow. Parents are being told not to use these, and throw them away if they own one (stock image) What is flat head syndrome? About one in five babies develop flat head syndrome when they are a few months old, estimates suggest. The condition is when one side of the head becomes flat, giving it an asymmetrical appearance. It happens because skull bones in infants are still soft. These can shift if there is persistent pressure on one area, which may come when they sleep. Doctors say it is 'not a major cause for concern' as it does not harm development and the bones will correct themselves on their own. Advertisement Flat head syndrome, medically termed plagiocephaly or brachycephaly, is triggered because babies skulls are still soft. If they spend a long time on one side of the head such as when they sleep the persistent pressure can cause the bones to change shape. Premature babies are also at higher risk of the condition because their skull bones are softer. Doctors say when this happens it is 'not a major cause for concern' and does not harm development. Overtime the bones naturally move back into place, they add. The FDA issued the warning Thursday. It was made aware of the issue after receiving reports companies were marketing infant head-shaping pillows as medical devices. It has also contacted the manufacturers to express its concerns. None of the products were named in the alert. The pillows leave infants at risk of sudden unexpected infant death, they warned. This is the leading cause of death in infancy, with about 3,400 babies dying from it in the US every year. The FDA said in its release: 'The FDA is not aware of any demonstrated benefit with the use of infant head shaping pillows for any medical purpose. 'The use of head shaping pillows can create an unsafe sleep environment for infants and may contribute to the risk of suffocation and death.' The agency has not approved any head shaping pillows for use in treating flat head syndrome. Many grocery stores are yet to pull the head-shaping pillows from their shelves. But doctors hope this may now lead to the products being removed. Dr Sarah Schaffer, a pediatrician at the National Children's Hospital in Washington DC told CNN: 'Hopefully this recommendation will lead to their removal from these websites.' Advertisement Toxic 'forever chemicals' linked to a slew of diseases and disorders have been discovered in every baby product sampled in a new study. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Washington DC based Environmental Working Group (EWG) found per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) on toys, clothing, bibs and bedding. PFAS are a common ingredient in clothing and other household items because they are durable and can repel grease, water, stains and heat. But the scientists warned sometimes they can wear off as dust and are then inhaled by youngsters. They are also durable, and can stay in the environment for long periods of time. The chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of cancer, birth defects, autism and infertility. Sydney Evans, an analyst at EWG and author of the study, told DailyMail.com the risks from them 'far outweighs any sort of stain proofing'. Researchers found PFAS chemicals on many baby goods, including clothing, shoes, bibs and bedding The EWG, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization commissioned a series of independent lab tests on the products. The research initially looked at levels of fluorine in the items, a chemical element used to make plastics which can cause teeth decay, osteoporosis and harm to kidneys, bones, nerves and muscles. Researchers then tested the 10 items with the highest levels of fluorine for PFAS. The 10 products were all children products that included Sealy and Graco bedding, bibs manufactured by Bumkins and Hudson, UGG boots, a Columbia jacket, a bucket hat and pajamas made by Carters and a snack bag also made by Bumkin. There is no limit on PFAS chemicals in toys at a federal level, but limits have been put in place on its amounts in drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended in guidance issued in July that its levels should not exceed 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) in drinking water. Several states including Maine have also moved to ban its use in products including clothing and bedding. In the study, the biggest offender was Hudson's Baby Unisex Baby Waterproof Bib, which had 191.985 parts per billion (ppb) of the substance. The other products ranged from 1ppt to 52ppt, with researchers warning that any contamination is dangerous. Researchers warn that exposure to 'forever chemicals' in youth can affect a child's social and physical development, and impact behavior as they get older. A University of Texas study last year found that children exposed to PFAS in the womb were more likely to develop autism. Long term exposure can also leave a person at higher risk of kidney, testicular, ovarian, prostate, thyroid and bone marrow cancer when they reach adulthood. The EPA limits PFAS to 0.004ppt for drinking water. The metric measures the prevalence of particle within a swab sample. EWG researchers found that fluorine on all 34 baby and infant products that they tested (left). The top ten products in fluorine concentration were also tested for PFAS. What ARE 'forever chemicals'? 'Forever chemicals' are a class of common industrial compounds that don't break down when they're released into the environment. Humans are exposed to these chemicals after they've come in contact with food, soil or water reservoirs. These chemicals known more properly as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS are added to cookware, carpets, textiles and other items to make them more water- and stain-repellant. PFAS contamination has been detected in water near manufacturing facilities, as well as at military bases and firefighting training facilities where flame-retardant foam is used. The chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, and damage to the immune system, as well as birth defects, smaller birth weights, and decreased vaccine response in children. Advertisement Ms Evans explained that the high levels of PFAS in these products add to the overall exposure in the household, spreading via dust particles that can be inhaled or ingested. She warns that children in particular are at risk, because they are more likely to put their hands both on the floor and in their mouth consuming pollutants. Another bib, the Bumkins waterproof SuperBib, was also found to have the toxic chemical - with 3.482ppb. The Sealy Baby Waterproof Fitted Toddler and Baby Crib Mattress Pad Cover has 0.258ppb of PFAS, while the Sealy Baby Stain Protection Waterproof Fitted Toddler & Baby Crib Mattress Pad Cover Protector had 5.71ppb. Another bedding product, Graco's Quick Connect Waterproof Play yard Sheets, with 6.255ppb. Clothing products were vulnerable to contamination as well. UGG Unisex's Child T Mini Bailey Bow Fashion Boot was found to have 52.207ppb, was the most contaminated of any clothing good tested. Other contaminated items included Columbia Boys Glennaker Rain Jacket (1.608ppb detected), Carters Reversible Bucket Hat (24,029ppb) and Carter's Baby Boys' 1Piece Dinosaur Snug Fit Cotton PJs (1.016ppb). A snack bag the researchers tested, Bumkins' reusable fabric, food safe, snack back, had PFAS contamination as well (7.159ppb). Each of the firms were approached for comment by DailyMail.com. None immediately responded. While they were not tested for PFAS, toys, changing pads, nursing pillows, pacifiers and play mats all tested positive for fluorine. The EWG researchers believe they likely are contaminated with PFAS as well. Ms Evans explains that this harmful chemical is completely synthetic and that almost any level of exposure - no matter how small - carries some risk. While parents who own a product included in the research may choose to throw it out, she warns that it will be much harder to protect the household from PFAS. It's really hard to shop your way out if [PFAS exposure],' she explained. You can get rid of [one product], but the thing you replace it with will also have PFAS.' Instead, she asks parents to make sure to be vigilant vacuuming and cleaning up dust in the house. She believes solving the problem lies at the feet of regulators, who are responsible to protect people from being exposed to these chemicals. It directly contradicts CDC docs treating unvaccinated and vaccinated the same The US is one of the last countries to hold on to the rule, alongside China The TSA has extended the rule until at least January 8 2023 for all travelers Travelers flying into the United States will still need proof of Covid vaccination in 2023 making the US the only country in the West to stick by the failing policy. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has extended the rule, which only applies to non-US citizens, until at least January 8 next year to limit the risk of Covid-19, including variants of the virus'. But there has been a growing acceptance among experts that Covid vaccines - while highly effective at preventing severe illness - do not stop infections very well. Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), admitted earlier this year that shots 'cant prevent transmission anymore'. Yet since November 2021, non-US citizens entering America have had to provide proof of Covid vaccination. The CDC defines fully vaccinated as having had an accepted single-dose vaccine, or both doses of an accepted two-dose series, at least two weeks ago. A booster dose is not needed. Most major Western nations such as the UK, France and Germany, have already dropped these types of recommendations. The countries still requiring Covid vaccination to enter are: China, Angola, Libya, Ghana, Cameroon, Liberia, Yemen, Indonesia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The TSA announcement said it was renewing the policy to limit the risk that Covid-19 is introduced, transmitted, and spread into and throughout the United States. As shown by the graph above, introducing proof of vaccination for travelers on November 8, 2021 did not stem the influx of Covid cases from the Omicron variant during winter last year The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said travelers will need to prove their Covid shot status in order to 'reduce the spread of Covid-19', even though the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has released guidance which treats unvaccinated and vaccinated people the same The TSA's renewed policy will run until January 8 next year, and could be extended beyond that The document reads: Together with the Presidential Proclamation and the CDC Order, these policies are intended to limit the risk that Covid-19, including variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, is introduced, transmitted, and spread into and throughout the United States, potentially overwhelming United States healthcare and public health resources, endangering the health and safety of the American people, and threatening the security of our civil aviation system. Getting a flu vaccine lowers your risk of a STROKE years later, Getting a flu shot might be more important than ever a study indicates it also lowers the risk of a stroke years later. Researchers say health officials should push harder for everyone to get routine influenza vaccines rather than just the most vulnerable. The study analyzed the health records of more than 4million adults in Alberta, Canada, over a 10-year period. Results showed people who had a flu shot either once a year or every flu season over the 10-year span reduced the risk of stroke by more than a fifth on average. The protective effect was even more sharp in men and younger people. Researchers did not investigate specifically why getting a flu vaccine considerably lowered the risk, but the reigning hypothesis is a simple one. The vaccine lowers the risk of catching and falling ill with influenza, which is a known risk factor for stroke. Advertisement This is at odds with the CDC's own guidance, published in August, which no longer differentiates between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Estimates indicate the Covid vaccines prevent about 30 to 40 per cent of infections in the three to six months after immunization. But this falls to virtually zero after that. But the shots reduce the risk of severe disease or death by up to 90 per cent in the months after inoculation. Dr Walensky summed it up in January this year when she said: 'Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. 'They continue to work well for Delta with regard to sever illness and death. They prevent it... what they cant do anymore is prevent transmission.' The shots have become increasingly weaker at preventing transmission as Covid has mutated. The updated bivalent vaccines were supposed to enhance protection against Omicron and its subvariants which are dominant world-over. But there are doubts about whether the vaccines actually work better than the original, as reported by DailyMail.com this week. The Biden Administration and CDC dropped the requirement for international travelers to the US to provide a negative Covid test in June, but will not budge on the need for Covid shots. This means vaccinated people can fly even if they are testing positive for the virus. Over 80 per cent of the US has received at least one dose of the Covid shot, and 69 per cent are double-vaccinated. But uptake of booster doses has been sluggish, with only 26.3million taking up the bivalent shots. Dr William Schaffner, Professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told DailyMail.com the extended policy was a 'puzzle'. He said: 'There are several reasons that it is a puzzle that travelers entering the US must continue to demonstrate their Covid vaccination status. 'First, Covid is abundant and is being widely transmitted in the US, so we are not protecting our population from an infection that is not here. Second, the vaccines are only modestly effective in preventing transmission. Indeed, vaccinated persons can be infected and transmit the virus to others.' He added: 'Lastly, in dealing with any highly contagious respiratory virus, it has clearly been shown that travel restrictions of any kind are not very effective in keeping new viruses out of a countryand Covid is no longer new.' And Dr Doug Badger, senior research fellow at the center for health and welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com the requirement is 'out of step with science and with the policies of other countries'. He added: 'Neither the European Union nor Canada imposes such a requirement. Vaccines reduce the risk that an infected individual will develop severe illness, but they do not prevent transmission. The administration should follow the science and rescind this policy.' Do you have recurring nightmares, such as being chased by wolves, drowning or being attacked? If so, you may be interested in a fascinating new study in which researchers in Switzerland showed that playing a recurrent noise while someone is asleep not only helps reduce how often they have nightmares but can also replace bad dreams with more pleasant ones. I have a personal interest in this because I have had the same recurrent bad dream for years. It involves trying to get somewhere for an urgent appointment and never quite being able to make it. I am either trying to catch a train or plane and constantly being thwarted. I wake up feeling on edge. Mine is a classic anxiety dream, which I tend to have when I feel under pressure; other common ones include your teeth falling out, being naked in a public place or going into an exam for which you havent prepared Mine is a classic anxiety dream, which I tend to have when I feel under pressure; other common ones include your teeth falling out, being naked in a public place or going into an exam for which you havent prepared. But where do such bad dreams come from? When we first fall asleep, we go into a state of deep sleep from which we are hard to rouse. Later in the night we will move into a stranger state known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is when we have our most vivid dreams. If you look at someone in REM sleep, you will see that, underneath their eyelids, their eyes are flicking madly. No one knows why this happens, but one theory is that it reflects the sort of eye movements you might make while watching a film. Dreams have been called the cinema of the mind, so perhaps the eye movements are a sign that were following the action. Another odd thing about REM sleep, which begins about 90 minutes into our slumber, is that most of our muscles are paralysed during it. WHAT IS REM SLEEP? REM or 'rapid eye movement' sleep is one of the several sleep cycles the body goes through each night. It begins about 90 minutes after falling asleep, and repeats. Longer periods of REM sleep occur with each successive cycle. The stage is not only characterized by rapid eye movements, however. REM sleep also leads to an increased heart rate, paralyzed limbs, awake-style brain waves and dreams. The sleep cycle Advertisement This is probably so that while we are in the grips of an intense, dramatic dream, we dont thrash around and hurt ourselves. We go on taking short, shallow breaths, but the only other part of us that is obviously moving is our eyes. One theory is that we have vivid dreams in REM sleep because it is the only time of the day when links to parts of the brain that produce stress-inducing chemicals are switched off. This means that while the dreams we then have can be scary or disturbing, they dont feel as bad as they would if you were having them while you were awake. Another very plausible reason why we have vivid, disturbing dreams during REM sleep is because this is the time when you can revisit unpleasant memories and events but remain calm. The dreams you have during REM sleep allow you to unconsciously process your emotions and defuse them. Think of dreaming as a cheap but effective form of psychotherapy. But in people who have recurrent nightmares something has gone wrong. Instead of being defused, the feelings brought up in their dreams continue to haunt them. And what is worrying is that new research suggests this may be linked to an increased risk of dementia later in life. This novel finding, which was published in The Lancet journal in September, is based on a study of more than 3,500 people aged 35 and older. At the start of the study all the participants had to fill in detailed questionnaires, including how often they had bad dreams. When researchers assessed the participants a decade later, they found that older men who reported having nightmares on a weekly basis were five times more likely to have developed dementia than older men who reported no bad dreams. In women, surprisingly, the increase in risk was much lower only 41 per cent. A new study showed that playing a recurrent noise while someone is asleep not only helps reduce how often they have nightmares but can also replace bad dreams with more pleasant ones These findings suggest that either frequent nightmares are an early sign of brain problems, which lead on to dementia, or that having regular bad dreams causes dementia (perhaps by disrupting brain-restoring elements of sleep). The good news, according to Dr Abidemi Otaiku, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham, who ran this study, is that treating nightmares can lead to improvements in memory and thinking skills and may even, in some people, prevent dementia. So what can you do to avoid having bad dreams? One thing you dont need to worry about is eating cheese. Despite the idea that this leads to nightmares, when researchers from the British Cheese Board asked 200 volunteers to eat 20g of different cheeses every night for a week before heading to bed, they reported no nightmares (though Stilton eaters reported having more bizarre dreams). A better bet is trying imagery rehearsal therapy, where you revisit your nightmare while you are awake and imagine an alternative, positive outcome. For example, if your nightmare involves being attacked by wolves, then imagine the dream ending with the wolves turning into cute King Charles spaniels and curling up on your lap. If you do this every day for five to ten minutes, within two weeks you should see a drop in how often you have that nightmare. But it doesnt work for everyone, and for some the new, musical technique I mentioned earlier may prove a better option. The study, by the University of Geneva, Switzerland, asked 38 people who had frequent, distressing nightmares to imagine positive endings to their bad dreams. While they were doing this, half of the group also listened to a piano chord played every ten seconds. The idea being to build up a link in their brains between piano chord and happy ending. They did this for two weeks. All the participants were given sleep headbands containing electrodes that measure brain activity to take home. At the end of the experiment, everyone reported less frequent nightmares, but the group who listened to the piano chord saw the biggest improvements and reported having much more positive dreams. The researchers are planning further studies, seeing whether this approach works with more serious nightmares, such as those linked to post-traumatic stress disorder. I found practising imagery rehearsal therapy made my train-catching anxiety dreams less stressful, but I would like to give the new approach a go. LOSING THE PLOT by Derek Owusu (Canongate 12.99, 160pp) LOSING THE PLOT by Derek Owusu (Canongate 12.99, 160pp) Owusus prize-winning debut That Reminds Me was a fragmentary verse novel about the later-life hardships faced by a British-Ghanaian protagonist raised in the care system. His unsettling new book, raw and disconcerting, likewise uses a tricky style for a tricky subject, as Owusu seeks to portray his mothers experience of leaving Ghana for the UK, where he was born. Short chapters recount her taxing years as a quick-tempered young parent in a nervy poetic style unafraid to use plenty of untranslated Ghanaian Twi. But theres also a running commentary in the margins, where Owusu gives us his own take in chattier vernacular on the events hes trying to imagine from her point of view. Hardly straightforward, but the divided narrative is a powerful way to evoke the push and pull of a fraught filial relationship in which mutual misunderstanding movingly proves to be a basis of love, by requiring faith or trust from both sides. IDOL, BURNING by Rin Usami (Canongate 14.99, 144pp) IDOL, BURNING by Rin Usami (Canongate 14.99, 144pp) Alienated womanhood has become a mainstay of Japanese fiction since Sayaka Muratas sleeper hit, Convenience Store Woman. The latest writer to tackle the subject is Rin Usami, 23, who was still at university when she became a runaway bestseller with this bruising parable on the perils of digital-era fandom. Akari is in her late teens when Masaki, the boy-band pin-up she is obsessed with, faces an accusation of assault. Her first-person narrative (admirably translated by Asa Yoneda) captures the ensuing online frenzy as well as the inner torment of a protagonist whose self-identity is built on hero worship. The potent mix of topical satire and psychologically incisive character study deepens into a moving portrait of family strife as Akari grows increasingly withdrawn from her mother and sister. But its a short book, and ultimately a slight one a marker laid down by a writer set for bigger things, rather than an apex of achievement. LIMBERLOST by Robbie Arnott (Atlantic 14.99, 240pp) LIMBERLOST by Robbie Arnott (Atlantic 14.99, 240pp) Up-and-coming Australian author Arnott previously won acclaim for his magic-realist debut Flames, set in his native Tasmania. Limberlost, more earthbound in focus, spans decades but turns on the events of a single summer, when teenaged Ned occupies himself trapping rabbits while his older brothers are fighting World War II. His accidental capture of a quoll, or tiger cat, sparks an inner turmoil that presages chewy themes of violence and ownership; in later years we see Ned as a successful farmer, quizzed by his university-educated daughters about whether hell give up his land as the inadvertent beneficiary of colonial bloodshed. Its clever how the novel continually reframes Neds desires to put a perspective on them that he struggles to share. The descriptions of the natural world are wonderfully vivid, too. But the books scrambled chronology ultimately seems a ruse for injecting muchneeded drama into what is largely a static narrative of thwarted longing. A wannabe rapper has gone on a wild spending spree after he found $750,000 in his account after a young couple accidentally entered the wrong number on a bank transfer payment for a house, a court has heard. Abdel Ghadia, 24, appeared in Sydney's Burwood Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime - after splashing out on bars of gold bullion, clothes, foreign exchange and, oddly, make-up. According to a Fairfield Advocate report, the court was told the unnamed couple were in the final steps of buying a new home when they transferred $759,314 to Ghadia, rather than the Commonwealth Bank account they were supposed to deposit the funds into. The court reportedly heard that Ghadia told police he 'just woke up and saw the money' - and proceeded to buy almost $600,000 on gold bullion at one store in Sydney, plus more than $110,000 at a separate Brisbane store, where he also bought expensive coins. Court facts revealed he also bought clothes from Uniqlo, make-up from Mecca and bought foreign exchange, the Advocate reported. Abdel Ghadia (pictured) has pleaded guilty to two counts of dealing with property proceeds of crime after almost $760,000 ended up in his bank account by mistake Ghadia took to Instagram on August 4 boasting the outrageous claim police were tapping his phone calls and asking him where the money went. Abdel Ghadia's shopping spree ABC Bullion, Sydney CBD: $598,188 spent across six visits, including 14 gold bars of various weights Ainslie Bullion, Brisbane: $62,843 on a 500g gold bullion and 10oz bar. $48,222 worth of gold KHC coins were also purchased International money market: $14,490 in foreign exchange. ATMS across Sydney: $13,600 in cash withdrawn Westfield Paramatta: $6235 on clothes from Uniqlo and JD Sports, and makeup from MECCA. Advertisement The Advocate reported that when he was first arrested and was asked if he had spent the couple's money, he said 'no cuz', according to court paperwork. However he later admitted he spent the money after it just 'dropped' into his account. The horrified couple were devastated when they learned their funds had not arrived in the designated account for settlement. Court records seen by Daily Mail Australia indicate he pleaded guilty to two charges of dealing with the property proceeds of crime with a sum greater than $100,000. As the case wound its way through the court system, Ghadia - who is known as 'Slimmy' on YouTube - alluded to the incident in a post written in rap rhyme. 'Detectives making offers asking where'd the MONEY GO. They tapping all my phonecalls but I speak a different LINGO!!' The wannabe rapper splashed out on gold bars, clothes, foreign exchange and cosmetics, a Sydney court heard this week Abdel Ghadia (pictured) will be sentenced in December after facing court this week The court heard Ghadia also went on a $6235 shopping spree at Westfield Parramatta, including clothes from Uniqlo (pictured) According to his social media profiles, Ghadia has released albums and performed at several venues. A book about independent rappers published in 2018 described Ghadia as a humble young man who had a great future in music as both an artist and a writer and vowed at the time to continue supporting his music journey. 'He has taken the obstacles of life and put them into one frame which represents his years growing in south-west Sydney,' it stated. 'Through his cataloge (sic) of music, people will understand him as a person and what he strives for. 'Whether he is in the front of the mic or behinds the scenes as a writer for others, either way, he will be great.' Ghadia has been hit with strict bail conditions banning him from going anywhere near an international airport and has a 10pm to 7am curfew. He will be sentenced on December 2. The shopping spree at Westfield Parramatta also included cosmetics from Mecca (pictured) The wannabe rapper from western Sydney spent much of the funds that accidently landed in his account on gold bullion (stock image) Two teens whose father drowned trying to rescue them from the surf say he could be alive today if a triple-0 call had not taken so long. Ashwin Bhalsod, 54, died on a Yallingup beach, south of Perth, after he swam out to rescue his boys Isaac, 15, and Jeremiah, 13, who he thought were in trouble last month. A surfer in the area tried to access a defibrillator at the site after calling triple-0 but was allegedly forced to wait seven crucial minutes before being given a pin code to open the device. Ashwin Bhalsod, 54, (pictured, left) died on a Yallingup beach, south of Perth, after he swam out to rescue his boys Isaac, 15, and Jeremiah, 13, (pictured in front) who he thought were in trouble at the beach last month Isaac (pictured, left with his brother Jeremiah) said the pin code for the life-saving device should have been given instantly, 'but it took several minutes' The boys told Nine News Perth their father could still be alive if the delay in using the defibrillator had not happened. 'It should be something fast because when a serious emergency is happening, the code should be given instantly, but it took several minutes, and I'm frustrated by the fact it took that long because there would have been some hope if it had taken less time,' Isaac said. 'It's not really good enough ... they should know all of this stuff and I could still have my dad today if it wasn't for them.' It is understood the triple-0 caller was transferred to St John Ambulance, where he had to wait two minutes for someone to answer. A surfer in the area tried in vain to access a defibrillator for him after calling triple-0, waiting seven crucial minutes before being given a pin code to open the device. He was then put through to police who didn't know the pin code, so they called paramedics to get it. The young boys said their father (pictured) could still be alive if the defibrillator was able to be used on time Mr Bhalsod, who was not a swimmer, took to the water when he thought he saw his children struggling in the water. When the podiatrist reached the teenagers he pushed Jeremiah towards the shore before he and Isaac were swept onto rocks. Isaac told Nine News Perth he could see his dad was struggling in the water. 'So I said, 'Hey grab onto me, I'll grab onto these rocks.' So we stayed there for like 30 seconds until a couple of waves hit us and we were apart from each other then and I couldn't see him,' Isaac said. He said a couple of rescuers helped get him and his brother back to shore and then went to find his dad. But a couple of minutes later he saw his father's body floating face down in the water, as the men dragged his body in before starting CPR. The delays in getting to the life-saving device will be a part of a report which will be given to the State Coroner. St John Ambulance and Western Australian police will conduct their own independent investigations into the case. The owner of Australia's newest and most controversial betting platform, Betr, has denied accusations it shut down punters' accounts to avoid paying them their winnings. Betr boss Matt Tripp shot down the 'rubbish' rumours his company avoided millions of dollars worth of payouts on its controversial offer of 100/1 odds on every horse in this year's Melbourne Cup. 'I've read a couple of things that we deactivated accounts and all this sort of rubbish,' he told Sydney Morning Herald. 'There were a bunch of duplicate accounts trying to open multiple accounts, which wasn't in the spirit of the way things should be handled. That was a very small section of the 300,000 people who have joined us. Less than one per cent.' Betr agency founder Matthew Tripp (pictured with his family) has hit back at claims the agency shut down punters' accounts to avoid paying out their winnings after launching a controversial offer on all the horses in this year's Melbourne Cup Betr caught the attention of Aussie punters earlier this week by offering outrageous 100-1 odds on all horses for the Melbourne Cup, even hot favourite Deauville Legend. The agency is now facing possible fines from the gambling regulator and the wrath of furious punters who claim their accounts were deactivated so they couldn't collect their winnings. Gold Trip's storming victory on Tuesday meant the News Corp-backed firm dodged a disastrous $50 million payout. Tripp has now revealed how he and other Betr executives dealt with the stress of a looming financial disaster on Melbourne Cup day. Tripp and his executives felt intense pressure as Melbourne Cup favourite Deauville Legend (pictured) looked in great shape and threatened to win the race - which would have turned their 100-to-1 promotion into a financial disaster Tyler Chalwell (right) told Daily Mail Australia he received an exciting call from his wife Kelly (left) that her $10 bet on Gold Trip at $100/1 won and they were $1000 richer Just 23 minutes before the race got underway she received an email that read; 'Your betr account has been deactivated. You will not have any access to your account until you choose to activate it by sending an account activation request to cutomerservice@betr.com.au' They were gathered in his office to watch the horses in the parade ring, hoping favourite Deauville Legend wouldn't win and turn the 100-1 odds promo into a catastrophe - but became worried when experts said the horse looked in great shape. 'I thought the same thing,' Tripp admitted. 'A few people also called me from the track and said it presented well. I thought, "S**t, that's all I need."' Deauville Legend looked a threat to win the race as it chased down the leaders with 450m left to run, and Tripp - who said the most he'd previously stood to lose on a horse was $2 million to $3 million - felt even more pressure. 'When the horse loomed up I thought, "Here we go. This is not a good way to start a business. They'll all be out to get me tonight,"' he recalled. The favourite finished fourth, however - and Tripp said the Betr office was 'like a nightclub' after the race. Desperate to grab market share from rivals TAB and Sportsbet, Betr took a huge risk offering 100-1 odds on every horse - which would have backfired spectacularly if Deauville Legend had won the country's biggest race Mr Tripp celebrated at his upscale restaurant Coda (pictured) after the Melbourne Cup with close friend and business partner Todd Buckingham, part owner of winning horse Gold Trip He later hailed the launch as a masterstroke, saying 'it's been literally the talk of every pub and bar in the country' after 300,000 punters signed up in just two weeks. Mr Tripp celebrated after the race with close mate Todd Buckingham, part owner of Gold Trip and chief executive of Betmakers, which provides the wagering technology for Betr. They dined and partied at upscale Melbourne restaurant Coda, which Mr Tripp owns along with similarly priced Tonka. Inside the high-stakes life of gambling tycoon as his News Corp-backed betting agency Betr is slammed by punters for closing accounts rather than settling winning bets By Nic White for Daily Mail Australia Australia's newest betting agency Betr launched in a flurry of hype and controversy just weeks before the Melbourne Cup. Desperate to grab market share from rivals TAB and Sportsbet, it took an outrageous risk offering 100-1 odds on every horse, even hot favourite Deauville Legend. Gold Trip's storming victory on Tuesday meant the NewsCorp- backed firm dodged a disastrous $50 million payout, but not everyone is happy with the stunt. Betr is now facing fines from the gambling regulator and the wrath of furious punters who claim their accounts were deactivated so they couldn't collect their winnings. But no one who wants to see the upstart agency fail should bet against its man at the helm - arguably Australia's most successful betting pioneer, Matthew Tripp. Matthew Tripp (pictured with his family) is the founder of Australia's newest betting agency, Betr Mr Tripp, 47, bought a near-bankrupt Sportsbet for just $250,000 in 2005 and sold it to Irish betting giant Paddy Power for $388 million just six years later. He then snapped up BetEasy for $6 million and sold it twice, first with a 66 per cent stake to James Packer's Crown in 2014 and then to The Stars Group in 2019. When Mr Tripp took it on, the company had just 20,000 punters signed up. When TSG snapped it up, it was valued at $1.255 billion and Mr Tripp walked away with $94.5 million for his last stake alone. Despite being a diehard AFL fan, he weeks later became executive chairman of the Melbourne Storm NRL team, in which he had long owned a 12.5 per cent stake. But his close friend professional gambler Scott Woodward revealed meticulously studying betting odds isn't the only secret to his method. 'He is superstitious and always wears his underpants inside out and insists on double-strength toilet paper and a bottle of water near his bed,' he wrote in his book. Making noise with a huge risk like Betr's Melbourne Cup stunt is nothing new to its hard-charging founder, who wagered $1 million on Hawthorn to win the 2008 AFL Grand Final - and won. In the 2022 Melbourne Cup, Gold Trip stormed home at Flemington to win Betr was so worried about paying out on Deauville Legend that it hedged millions with other bookmakers and offered punters $150 to cancel their bets. But after Gold Trip crossed the line, Mr Tripp was hailing the launch as a masterstroke and one of the most successful of all time. 'Its been literally the talk of every pub and bar in the country,' he said after 300,000 punters signed up in just two weeks. Mr Tripp celebrated after the race with close mate Todd Buckingham, part owner of Gold Trip and chief executive of Betmakers, which provides the wagering technology for Betr. They dined and partied at upscale Melbourne restaurant Coda, which Mr Tripp owns along with similarly priced Tonka. Adding to a year of high emotions was the death in April of Mr Tripp's daughter Isabella in April, aged just 14, after a battle with leukemia. Despite his high-flying life running billion-dollar betting agencies and sport teams, Mr Tripp finds time to go on exotic holidays with his wife Yasmina, son Alex, and daughters Matti and Bella, before her death. Family photos show them boating on the River Nile and posing with Millie Mouse at Disneyland. Mr Tripp with his son and eldest child Alex Tripp Family tragedy for Betr founder amid the launch of betting agency Mr Tripp's daughter Isabella died in April, aged just 14, after a battle with leukemia. The little girl won the hearts of the Melbourne Storm's players, where her father is executive chairman and co-owner through her illness. Storm star Nelson Asofa-Solomona painted his hair blue and orange to fulfil her dying wish before a match. 'I was blessed to come into the hospital, me and Paps (Ryan Papenhuyzen), to say our goodbyes,' he said. Storm star Nelson Asofa-Solomona painted his hair blue and orange to fulfil her dying wish before a match just hours after The little girl won the hearts of the Melbourne Storm's players, where her father is executive chairman and co-owner through her illness 'I came up with the idea to get a template and she colours it in and I'll colour my hair, just so she could get her mind off the situation and put a smile on her face.' However, Bella died hours before the match and never got to see him with the coloured hair. The Storm took a moment to honour her memory before the NRL match in the NSW country town of Mudgee, and a memorial was held in St Kilda on April 22. Bella's relative Scott Woodward said her dad gave a moving speech. 'He told the audience that his daughter had shared with him that she had found the man she wanted to marry Ryan Papenhuyzen,' he recalled. In honour of Bella Tripp. Visiting Bella in hospital last week, NAS said he would colour his hair to whatever she decided looked good in her drawing of him. We think Bella will be smiling. pic.twitter.com/UkjpBNycZ1 Melbourne Storm (@storm) April 8, 2022 Advertisement Mr Tripp was brought into the gambling world by family, too. His father Alan Tripp was a legendary bookmaker claimed to be 'the most convicted in Australia' during the 1980s and 90s crackdown on the then-illegal industry. In those days, the TAB was a collection of state government-owned monopolies and private start-price bookie were illegal. As the country's biggest, he was public enemy number one of police vice squads in NSW, Victoria, and the ACT and arrested numerous times. He was famously raided in 1992 when ACT Police discovered he was running a betting operation from the luxury Hyatt Hotel in Canberra. Despite this, he kept running his very profitable enterprise with high-rolling clients ranging from the cream of Australian society to notorious gangsters. They included media mogul Kerry Packer and underworld figures like Lewis Moran and Alphonse Gangitano, and Mick Gatto made famous by TV series Underbelly. Gatto is said to have once summoned Tripp Sr to Melbourne restaurant Pellegrini's and in the kitchen told the bookie that gambler Harry Kakavas had been speaking ill of him and he wished to mediate it. Tripp took $5,000 out of his pocket and handed it to Gatto as a thank you after the controversial businessman set Kakavas straight. Keen gambler and former prime minister Bob Hawke also became a close family friend after they met through Coburg Football Club during the 1980s when they were all club committee members and sponsors. The politician often bet enough to keep Alan Tripp afloat in hard times and they once shared a pizza and drained a $2,000 bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage at Mr Hawke's home. Mr Tripp also owns similarly priced restaurant Tonka elsewhere in Melbourne Alan Tripp eventually moved to the Pacific island of Vanuatu, where sport betting was legal, and opened Number One Betting Shop. His son's first time running a gambling business when Tripp Sr sold the company to British agency Sportingbet for $35 million. Much to the new owner's shock, it was blocked from getting a gambling licence in the newly legalised industry because of its association with Alan Trip. Eventually a deal was struck to be licenced in the Northern Territory, still a haven for betting agencies so long as the radioactive old bookie wasn't involved. Matt Tripp was tasked with transferring the operation to Australia and keeping hold of the clients, before handing over to new Australian boss Michael Sullivan. Tripp Sr has mostly retired to the town of Yarrawonga on the Victoria-NSW border, where Matt Tripp and his sister Elizabeth grew up, but still spent time in Vanuatu. Mr Hawke was photographed by local media playing golf with his old friend, saying he was on the island to 'have a very relaxed visit with my good friend Alan Tripp'. AFL star, and self-confessed gambling addict, Brendan Fevola was spotted on the Tripp family superyacht Majestic II with his wife Alex and their three children in 2013. Fevola was at the time playing for the Yarrawonga Pigeons team years after his AFL retirement, of which Sportsbet was a major sponsor. A few years after the Sportingbet sale, Mr Tripp took over the floundering Sportsbet, which at the time was circling the drain and far from the $1 billion profit company it is today, pumping out the larrikin ads Australians can't escape from. By 2008 it was pulling in more than a billion dollars in revenue and by 2011 not only had it in a position for a $388 million sale to Paddy Power, but stuck around as chief executive until April 2013. Mr Tripp was now worth $115 million but needed only $6 million of this to buy another struggling betting agency in March 2014, BetEzy, which he quickly renamed BetEasy. The company at the time only had 20,000 users compared to 300,000 at Sportsbet, but that did not deter him. By September it had another 60,000 thanks to a new betting platform and mobile app, three per cent of the market, 130 staff, and $300 million in revenue. Mr Tripp (right) with Melbourne storm co-owner Gerry Ryan and non-executive chairman Bart Campbell. Mr Tripp has been a co-owner for many years and became executive chairman in May 2020 A few months later, James Packer bought a 66 per cent stake and the agency changed its name to CrownBet. A big reason for BetEasy's growth was Mr Tripp's enormous offer in 2014 of $6 million for the exclusive rights to advertise on the AFL's platforms, and first dibs with its broadcast partners. This was far more than the $500,000 TAB was paying and shocked the gambling world, laying the foundations for a lucrative part of the league's revenue today. But by November 2017, Mr Packer wanted out and broke the news to Mr Tripp after summoning him to his luxury lodge in Aspen. As soon as the Melbourne Cup and spring racing carnival was over, Mr Tripp dashed around the world trying to find a buyer for Mr Packer's $150 million asking price. His weeklong jaunt started in London with Paddy Power, William Hill, and Ladbrokes before Canadian outfit The Stars Group heard about it. Mr Tripp met with cheif executive Rafi Ashkenazi in Toronto but things suddenly became more complicated when William Hill wanted to sell out of Australia. TSG secretly agreed to buy CrownBet on February 25, 2018, and the two companies jointly bid to buy William Hill. After about a week, they came up with a winning price of $300 million. The deal still left Mr Tripp and his backers 20 per cent of CrownBet, which changed its name back to BetEasy. During this time William Hill had bought out Sportingbet, the company Mr Tripp's father sold his Vanuatu agency to in 2001, and Mr Tripp wanted to use it again. However, his old firm Sportsbet blocked the name change as being too similar to its own and could 'mislead or deceive' punters. Mr Tripp stayed on as chief executive until January 1, 2020, after TSG bought out the rest of the company for about $250 million. He received $94.5 million for his remaining 3.8 per cent stake and was also linked to a similar sized holding in the name of his relative Catherine Tripp. Among others with smaller stakes to cash in was former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, who collected $12.5 million. BetEasy at the time was Australia's third-biggest betting agency behind TAB and Sportsbet with 400,000 customers. As all this was going on, TSG did a deal to merge with Flutter, owner of both Paddy Power and Sportsbet, and BetEasy was folded into Sportsbet - bringing Mr Tripp full circle. This merger put on hold discussions between Mr Tripp and News Corp about plans to open the betting agency that would eventually become Betr. Talk started in 2018 and heated up last year before it finally launched on October 12, just before The Everest and Caufield Cup, with News Corp owning 33 per cent. Rupert Murdoch already failed to start his own betting firm with the spectacular disaster of Sun Bets in the UK, which cost the company and its joint venture partner TAB tens of millions. The media mogul hopes the surest bet in the business can strike him lucky on a second attempt. Despite a bit of drama, so far so good. Furious punters besiege Betr claiming their accounts were locked so they couldn't claim their 101-1 odds winnings as regulators circle While Betr dodged the $50 hit on Deauville Legend, the company isn't out of the firing line, with furious punters who backed Gold Trip accusing the company of deactivating their accounts rather than paying out their $1,000 windfall. Tyler Chalwell told Daily Mail Australia he received an exciting call from his wife Kelly saying they were $1,000 richer after backing the winner, only to then discover the betting agency had deactivated her account. 'She is 'pretty p**sed off,' Mr Chalwell said. 'We opened the account a few weeks ago when having a few drinks with friends and family. 'So my wife and some friends signed up as I was talking about the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup offer. 'She chose Gold Trip in the account, and her account was verified.' Betr is desperately trying to stem the massive losses with a frantic text offering $150 in free bets to anyone who backed Deauville Legend under the offer. As well as the $150 in free bets, punters will also get a refund of their $10 stake if they scrap the wager on Deauville Legend before the first race at Flemington Ms Chalwell also backed hot favourite Anamoe in the Cox Plate at Betr's promotional odds of 20/1 for any runner - and was able to withdraw her collect from that win. 'Today she saw Gold Trip won and she was stoked but went to login and saw her account had been deactivated,' her husband said. Just 23 minutes before the race got underway she received an email that read; 'Your betr account has been deactivated. You will not have any access to your account until you choose to activate it by sending an account activation request to cutomerservice@betr.com.au.' Desperate attempts to contact Betr to have her account reactivated were unsuccessful. Others online have also voiced similar stories. 'You are a joke, why have I been deactivated. So angry,' one social media user commented. 'Same happened to my wife,' another wrote. Betr had frantically been trying to lay off its exposure to a Deauville Legend win before Tuesday's race - offering customers $150 in bonus bets, plus a refund of $10, if they agreed to cancel their bet on the favourite. 'EXCLUSIVE to your account. Lock in a win with Deauville Legend,' read the begging Betr text to Melbourne Cup punters who backed the favourite at 100/1. 'Follow the steps below before Race one at Flemington tomorrow and you can cash out your bet on Deauville Legend for $150 in Bonus Cash + your original stake refunded.' More than 80,000 racegoers (pictured) flocked to Flemington to see Gold Trip storm to victory in the 162nd Melbourne Cup In further bad news for Betr, which is 33 per cent-owned by media giant News Corp, the 100-1 promotion is now being probed by gambling watchdogs in NSW. 'Liquor & Gaming NSW has serious concerns that this advertising may constitute a prohibited inducement under NSW gambling laws,' a statement from the regulator said. 'Broadly speaking, L&GNSW considers that an inducement includes any offer that may be capable of persuading or encouraging a person to participate, or to participate frequently, in any gambling activity, including to open a betting account. 'We are investigating and will respond to any breaches with the full force of the law.' The probe could also cost News Corp after its newspapers published adverts for the offer nationwide, which may also have been in breach of local state laws. Betr was launched less than three weeks ago in time for racing's Spring Carnival in a joint venture with bookie entrepreneur Matthew Tripp, who previously launched Sportsbet and BetEasy. It was designed to harness and leverage the reach and power of News Corp's Foxtel sports channel and state newspapers to boost its business, based on the successful Sky BET in the UK and FOX Bet in the US. Betr launched with 60 staff and plans to quickly expand to 120 by targeting the lucrative under 35s market. It had also looked at buying the $1billion licence for TAB wagering rights in Western Australia but later withdrew due to naming-rights restrictions. Newly obtained audio of a 911 call made by the Nevada woman accused of murdering her mother details the moments when she admitted to the crime The call, obtained by KLAS, allegedly shows Hend Bustami, 28, admit to killing her mother by breaking a table over her head and cutting 'her neck off' Bustami's mother, Afaf Hussanen, 61, was found with multiple stab wounds inflicted by shards of glass inside her home California Highway Patrol found Bustami driving down Interstate 15 near Barstow around 5am and she was reportedly covered in blood She told investigators she had gotten into an argument with her mother and had stabbed her with a shard of glass In August, Bustami was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport for attempting to skip out on a bail During the arrest, she claimed that she was being arrested for being too good- looking and threatened to spit on officers A 911 call obtained by KLAS outlines the moment when a Nevada woman told a dispatch officer that she had murdered her mother by cutting her neck off. Hend Bustami, 28, of Las Vegas, called police around 2.30am on Wednesday, October 26, and calmly described how she killed her mom, Afaf Hussanen, 61. Bustami, who gained notoriety in August when she accused officers of arresting her for being too good-looking while being arrested for theft, now stands accused in her mother's brutal death. The newly uncovered audio begins with a dispatch officer asking what the purpose for calling was and what type of assistance the woman was in need of. Bustami told dispatch that she broke a table over her mother's head and 'cut her neck off' 'Do you need police, fire, or medical?' the 911 dispatcher asks the Las Vegas woman. 'Uh, medical,' she responds. 'I think I killed my mommy.' Bustami gives the dispatcher her mother's address before she was eventually asked why she thinks she 'killed her mommy.' 'Because I did. I murdered her,' Bustami replies. 'How did you do that?' the dispatcher asks. 'I broke the table on her head,' the woman says. Bustami then tells the dispatcher that she was still at her mother's house, once again confirming the address. At that time, the dispatch worker asks: 'Okay, what did you do to her?' 'I think I hurt my mommy,' dispatchers believe Bustami told them before hanging up the phone 'I killed her,' The 28-year-old responds quietly. 'How did you kill her, you said something about a table?' the dispatcher asks. 'I broke the table on her head. I broke the table on her head and I cut her neck off,' Bustami says. 'You cut what?' the dispatcher asks. 'Her neck off,' the woman replies. Hend Bustami, 28, of Las Vegas, reportedly called police around 2.30am to admit she killed her mother Afaf Hussanen, 61, on October 26 Afaff Hussanen was stabbed to death by her daughter, prosecutors allege Upon arrival, officers found Hussanen inside the home they shared with multiple stab wounds said to have been inflicted with pieces of broken glass. California Highway Patrol found Bustami driving down Interstate 15 near Barstow around 5am and she was reportedly covered in blood. She told investigators she had gotten into an argument with her mother and had stabbed her with a shard of glass, according to 8 News Now, who viewed the report. Bustami made headlines in August after she was arrested at the Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas after trying to skip out on a tab at a Chili's restaurant. The woman was reportedly belligerently drunk, and police said as she was being detained she claimed 'she was being harassed.' She told investigators she had gotten into an argument with her mother and had stabbed her with a shard of glass She was booked for misconduct on August 31. LVMPD said they received a report that Bustami walked out on a tab at the Chili's restaurant inside the airport, and officers later found the woman 'belligerent' after stalling operations near a security checkpoint. As the officers took her into custody, they said Bustami threatened to spit on them as she called them 'perverts' and claimed they were 'trying to rape her because they have never seen anyone as good-looking.' She also had a battery charge in June in Las Vegas, where she was booked into the Clark County jail and later released, according to 8 News Now. California Highway Patrol found Bustami driving down Interstate 15 near Barstow around 5am and she was reportedly covered in blood In addition, police have been called to the family home at least 12 times this year alone - seven for 'family disturbances,' and one for a suicide attempt, 8NewsNow reported. A neighbor, Andres Moreno, told the network that the family's home was the 'loudest' on the block. 'Usually 10pm or later, they would just be screaming in the backyard or they'd be fighting,' he said. 'It was usually the older daughter and the mother that would get into it. Of course, shortly after screaming, police presence would be involved and things would get all, you know, settled down. Then a week later, it'd happen again.' Officers found Hussanen inside the home (pictured) they shared with multiple stab wounds He added that Bustami was often seen acting 'strangely' around the neighborhood - asking strangers for rides, going into neighbors' open garages, and scattering her belongings outside. 'She would come outside and literally spin in her driveway, singing songs or talking to herself in her driveway, or shed just walk up and down the street muttering to herself,' Moreno told 8NewsNow. 'I believe she had mental health issues and she did desperately need help and maybe chose not to get it. Or, you know, who am I to say, but there was obviously something going on with her.' Bustami is a graduate of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas who earned a degree in Hospitality Administration and Management, according to her LinkedIn account. China becomes country with most "int'l wetland cities" Xinhua) 08:16, November 04, 2022 WUHAN/GENEVA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Seven Chinese cities are to receive certificates of "international wetland cities" from the Ramsar Convention, making China the country with most such cities, a Chinese official said Thursday. The certificates will be issued at the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP14) to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands from Nov. 5 to 13, with its main venue in central China's Wuhan city and a parallel session in Geneva, Switzerland, in both physical and online formats. After the meeting, there will be 43 "international wetland cities" worldwide, of which 13 belong to China, said Hu Yuanhui, deputy director of the international cooperation department at China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration, on a joint press briefing of the meeting from Wuhan and Geneva. "This is the greatest achievement of urban wetland ecological protection," Hu said. "The situation (of wetland protection) in China is encouraging," Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention, told Xinhua. When other parties of the convention see this leading role of China, they will understand that wetland protection is conducive not only to the response against climate change, but also to biodiversity conservation, she said. The seven newly certified Chinese cities are Hefei of Anhui Province, Jining of Shandong Province, Liangping of Chongqing Municipality, Nanchang of Jiangxi Province, Panjin of Liaoning Province, Wuhan of Hubei Province and Yancheng of Jiangsu Province, he said. The other six Chinese cities that have shared the honor since 2018 are Harbin of Heilongjiang Province, Haikou of Hainan Province, Yinchuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Changde of Hunan Province, Changshu of Jiangsu Province and Dongying of Shandong Province. With 172 contracting parties today, the Ramsar Convention, named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the convention was signed in 1971, is an intergovernmental agreement dedicated to the conservation and rational use of wetland ecosystems. Since its accession to the convention in 1992, China has established and improved the legal framework for wetland protection as well systems for protection management, project planning, and investigation and monitoring, and has actively fulfilled its obligations under the convention, and continued to expand international cooperation in this regard. In the past decade, China has created and restored more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands, including 64 wetlands of international importance, 29 of national importance and 1,021 of provincial importance, according to the latest survey by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. In June, China's new law on wetland protection took effect. In October, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China noted the promotion of the natural regeneration of wetlands, delivering a clear signal that strengthening wetland protection is not only the true meaning of ecological civilization construction, but also an inevitable requirement of Chinese path to modernization. Experts like Lei Guangchun, chair of the Science and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention and professor with Beijing Forestry University, said the fact that the COP14 has chosen Wuhan as the co-host city for the first time reflects the world community's affirmation of China's concept of ecological civilization. With its in-depth participation in the Ramsar Convention affairs and the making of related international rules, China has contributed its own experience and solutions to the protection and restoration of global wetlands, Lei said. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) NEW DELHI: Lending support to the anti-corruption agencies Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that they "need not be defensive" while tackling graft, even when some people with "vested interests" will try to obstruct and defame individuals associated with these institutions. Addressing the "Vigilance Awareness Week" organised by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in Vigyan Bhavan here, the Prime Minister said that institutions acting against the corrupt and corruption like the CVC have no need to be defensive in any way. Stressing that there is no requirement to work on any political agenda, Modi said work towards making the lives of ordinary citizens simpler. He said, "Those who have vested interests will try to obstruct the proceedings and defame individuals associated with these institutions. But Janta Janardan is the form of God; they know and test the truth and when the time comes, they stand with those in support of the truth." The Prime Minister said that everyone should walk the path of truth to fulfil their duties with dedication and emphasised that when you take action with conviction, the whole nation stands with you. Modi exhorted the CVC, other agencies and officers to ensure that the corrupt should not be spared. "No matter how powerful the corrupt may be, they should not be saved under any circumstances; it is the responsibility of organisations like you (CVC). No corrupt person should get political-social support; every corrupt person should be put in the dock by society. It is also necessary to create this environment," he said. Touching upon a worrying trend of glorifying the corrupt, the Prime Minister said, "We have seen that many times the corrupt people are glorified in spite of being jailed even after being proven to be corrupt. This situation is not good for Indian society. Even today, some people give arguments in favour of the corrupt who have been found guilty. It is necessary for such people, such forces to be made aware of their duty by society. In this, too, concrete action taken by your department has a big role." Modi said "abhaav" (scarcity or lack of amenities) and "dabaav" (undue pressure from the government) are two key reasons behind corruption that is hindering people's progress. "For a long time, this absence of amenities and opportunity was deliberately kept alive and the gap was allowed to widen, leading to an unhealthy competition of a zero-sum race. This race fed the ecosystem of corruption. Corruption created by this scarcity affects the poor and middle classes the most," Modi said. He asked if the poor and middle class spend their energies on arranging for the basic amenities, then how will the country progress? "That is why we have been trying to change this system of scarcity and pressure for the last 8 years. The government is trying to fill the gap between supply and demand. The three ways adopted to achieve this are advancement in technology, taking basic services to saturation level and finally heading towards atmanirbharta," he said. The Prime Minister mentioned linking PDS to technology, removing crores of fake beneficiaries and saving more than `2 lakh crores from going into the wrong hands. He said the adoption of Direct Benefit Transfer, transparent digital transactions and transparent government procurement through GeM is making a huge difference. The Prime Minister called for a system where corruption-related disciplinary proceedings are completed in time-bound mission mode. He also suggested continuous monitoring of criminal cases and a method of ranking departments on the basis of pending corruption cases and publishing the related reports on a monthly or quarterly basis. Modi said the will that the government is showing against corruption need to be seen in all the departments as well. "For a developed India, we have to develop an administrative ecosystem that has zero tolerance for corruption," he said. The Prime Minister launched the CVC's new complaint management system portal to provide end-to-end information to the citizens through regular updates on the status of their complaints. He also released a series of pictorial booklets on "Ethics and Good Practices," a compilation of best practices on "Preventive Vigilance" and a special issue of "VIGEYE VANI" on public procurement. Modi also gave awards to five students who wrote the best essays during a nationwide essay competition conducted by the CVC on the theme of Vigilance Awareness Week, "Corruption-free India for a developed nation". Stars from the Nine Network stable going back decades have gathered to farewell John Westacott at an exclusive location just across the harbour from where the TV legend fell off his yacht last month and died. TV personalities including iconic former 60 Minutes reporters as well as yachting mates attended what was billed as 'Westy's Event of Honour', hosted by his widow Cecile and Channel 9. The glitzy party inside Westacott's beloved Cruising Yacht Club at elite Darling Point allowed the guests stunning views across the marina to Rushcutters Bay and was an invitation only event. Among some of the most notable attendees were Jana Wendt and Charles Wooley, who worked at 60 Minutes with Westacott. Stars including 60 minutes icon, Jana Wendt, celebrated TV legend John Westacott who died last month Charles Wooley (pictured) worked with Westacott when he was a producer for 60 minutes and at the time of his death said he was 'shattered' Lawyer Mark O' Brien (pictured) also made an appearance to farewell John Westacott Iconic defamation barrister Bruce McClintock (pictured) also attended the exclusive event At the time of his death Wooley said he was shattered by the sudden death of the show's longtime producer. Iconic defamation barrister Bruce McClintock and lawyer Mark O'Brien were also in attendance. The invitation read: 'John Westacott meant so much to so many. Please join his friends, family, workmates and sailing fraternity as we swap yarns and raise a glass in celebration of a remarkable life.' During the three-hour event, guests were treated to a video of Westacott's most memorable TV moments, as well as personal mementoes of his life. It was held two weeks after a private funeral for the 73-year-old at Northern Suburbs Crematorium for about 30 family and close friends. Westacott died on October 9 after suffering a suspected medical episode on his yacht near Nielsen Park at Vaucluse and falling into the harbour. During the three-hour event, guests were treated to a video of John Westacott's (above) most memorable TV moments, as well as personal mementoes of his life An invitation-only memorial dubbed 'Westy's Event of Honour' invited TV stars, mates and yachtie friends to 'swap yarns and raise a glass in celebration of a remarkable life' An invitation-only party to farewell the TV legend was held at Westacott's beloved Cruising Yacht Club with a view (above) out across the marina and Rushcutter's Bay Jana Wendt at the event Wooley said Westacott was 'the kind of man you'd trust with your life' The keen yachtsman had to be pulled from the water by Police Marine Area Command at 1.30pm and despite paramedics desperately trying to resuscitate him for about 30 minutes, he was unable to be saved. His death made headlines as one of the most influential newsmen in modern Australian history was remembered for his successes and his controversial views. For some he was an inspiring and dogged seeker of stories who championed female journalists. For others he was chaser of tabloid tattle secured by writing big cheques, for having an large swaggering ego and for making sexist remarks about women. Westacott, who was 60 Minutes executive producer for 16 years, shares a drink with one of the show's reporters Liz Hayes Westacott was a lynchpin of the Nine network's alpha male culture under former owner Kerry Packer. By all accounts Westacott had an unapologetic if not chesty approach that inspired equal parts admiration and aggravation. His win-at-all-costs mantra, his trademark at Nine, also netted him what was at the time an unprecedented $1million salary. Since then, any remuneration in the corridors of Nine climbing past the magic figure has been known as a 'Westy'. Billionaire Elon Musk vowed when he took over Twitter that the social media giant would not become a free-for-all hellscape. But less than a week after Mr Musks 38billion deal, Carlsberg yesterday suspended advertising on the platform. The Danish brewing giant, whose brands include Holsten Pils and Kronenbourg 1664, followed General Motors, which has paused its paid-for content on the platform. We have advised our brand teams to pause advertising activities and we are monitoring the situation closely, the worlds third-largest brewer told the Financial Times. The newspaper also reported LOreal had suspended its advertising on the platform. The beauty giant spent more than 9billion promoting its cosmetics last year alone. But a spokesman said: LOreal did not make any decision to suspend advertising spending on Twitter. Meanwhile, ad company Interpublic which represents major firms including Coca-Cola and American Express has advised its clients to pause their Twitter ads for the next week. The move could spell trouble for Mr Musk, the worlds richest man, as advertisers contribute 90 per cent of Twitters 4.3billion annual income. He is now exploring other revenue streams, such as charging 7.20 ($8) per month for verified accounts. It came after Mr Musk caused a storm by retweeting an unfounded allegation that the man who attacked Paul Pelosi the 82-year-old husband of Democratic Party politician Nancy was a gay prostitute he picked up in a bar. Some believe that advertisers are waiting to see what changes Twitter will implement after the US midterm elections next week. Mr Musk has hinted that banned Twitter accounts, including Donald Trumps, could be reinstated once the elections are over. Russ Shaw, of Tech London Advocates, a network of technology leaders, said: The Pelosi tweet caused a storm, but the real worry is what happens after the US mid-terms. A chief marketing officers worst fear is that a Trump tweet appears next to their brand. It comes after the Tesla boss vowed Twitter would not be a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences. 'The Caker' Jordan Rondel told DailyMail.com she spent much of this year working on a cake collaboration with Chrissy Teigen, only to see the supermodel's company rip off the designs months later for the packaging of her new baking mixes. Rondel, 33, who owns The Caker, made the accusation this week - a month after the pair launched a collaboration for a spiced carrot cake mix, which also featured the star's husband, John Legend. She said in a phone interview Thursday that Teigen initially reached out to her about working together on Instagram, though she largely dealt with her team at Cravings until the line was released in September. 'Chrissy herself was the initial contact who reached out to me on Instagram, she was super lovely and immediately contacted me with her team,' Rondel said. She had nothing but nice things to say about Teigen personally, but 'there did seem to be a disconnect' between herself and the people Rondel worked with at Cravings. Jordan Rondel (right), aka The Caker, has accused the pregnant Chrissy Teigen's Cravings brand of ripping off her 'elevated baking mixes' after the two launched a collaboration in September Rondel said that she knew Teigen was launching a cake mix, but was reassured that the creation would be an entirely different product. PICUTRED: The back of The Caker's packaging (bottom) compared with the front of the Cravings packaging (top) Cravings provided these pictures to DailyMail.com showing the front of the packaging side by side The baker also took note of how 'many, many people' worked for the model, whereas The Caker is 'just my sister and I running our business.' Rondel first wrote about her concerns on her Instagram, posting a comparison between the designs to her 64,000 followers. She swiftly got nearly 8,000 likes. 'My post was really an acknowledgement of everyone's support and addressing a slightly bigger issue of how big businesses move in on small business by doing things like collaborating with them and ending up on top,' she said. In regards to the reaction she's gotten: 'I'm doing 1,000 tasks every day and I started noticing on Instagram that people were commenting ... It's been quite overwhelming. In doing that Instagram post, I really kind of just wanted to acknowledge the people that were [supporting us]. Basically, when Cravings released their line, I didn't know what to think.' Rondel added that she's found the comments to be 'overwhelming, uplifting, and kind of surprising.' The baker said she hasn't heard from anyone involved with Cravings or Teigen herself but that she has 'no plans to take legal action' because they have 'limited resources'. 'If Cravings don't agree there's any IP theft, that's absolutely fine,' she said. 'This could all be a big coincidence. I just don't think we're being acknowledged enough.' A spokeswoman for Teigen's Cravings strenuously denied the claims when approached by DailyMail.com. 'It's disheartening and surprising to see The Caker's recent social posts and commentary regarding our products,' a Craving's spokeswoman said in a statement. Rondel promises she has 'no anger, no resentment' over what's happened but that she's 'really tying to see the bright side of this whole situation.' 'The cake mix category is a big one. The elevated, luxury extension is quite niche,' she said. 'There's no harm in some healthy competition and might bring more attention. That's the view point I'm trying to hold with this whole thing.' Rondel acknowledged she 'didn't invent the concept of a cake mix', which retails for $25, but said she had worked hard to secure a niche with a 'luxury, elevated cake mix'. But, she said the similarities between the packaging of her own brand's and Teign's was 'crazy' Teigen began developing her own food products after launching her mini-food empire under the Cravings brand since 2016. She collaborated on a spiced carrot cake mix with The Caker last month, in a campaign that also featured husband John Legend She did note, however, that big business stomping on the little guy is 'an all too common thing that keeps happening.' Rondel - originally from New Zealand but now based in Los Angeles - said she was 'shocked' to see the packaging Teigen's brand look remarkably similar to her own. 'Even her little story part where I describe where I have my story and then I sign it off with my signature, and then the way she describes what you need and what you get, is the same,' she told Stuff.co.nz. 'I think they've taken heavy inspiration from us, I do. Let's just say I do feel like some heavy inspiration has been taken. 'We're a tiny little pinprick of a brand here and we've invested everything we have in building a brand... But now I'm just like, s***, some of that market is being taken by someone else and we're just being pushed to the side.' Fans of The Caker have now branded Teigen 'The Faker', with one supporter saying: 'It's obviously a direct rip off of your designs. She sucks.' Rondel said that she knew Teigen was launching a cake mix, but was reassured that the creation would be an entirely different product. However, she was horrified when she saw the new boxes launched by Cravings, with both featuring bold photography on a white background with a hand interacting with the final project. The model and TV personality launched her mixes on October 20, which consists of Chrissy's Ultimate Banana Bread Mix, Buttermilk Mochi Pancake and Waffle Mix, and Salted White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Mix. She also claimed that Cravings tried to can their collaboration, saying that they had already 'secured a new equity partner and it was out of their control'. Rondel acknowledged she 'didn't invent the concept of a cake mix', which retails for $25, but said she had worked hard to secure a niche with a 'luxury, elevated cake mix'. 'I find it hard to believe she doesn't get a say on her own product line,' she told Stuff. Rondel was been left 'shocked' to see Teigen's brand, retailing between $7 to $10, launch their new line which she says bears a stark similarity to her own 'Sure, if she just isn't involved at all, this is a slightly different story, but I do find that hard to believe... There's so much similarity it's crazy.' A spokeswoman for Cravings strenuously denied the claims surrounding the baking mixes and told DailyMail.com in a statement: 'We are so proud of the now sold-out Cravings x The Caker Spiced Carrot Cake Kit with Salted Caramel. 'It's disheartening and surprising to see The Caker's recent social posts and commentary regarding our products. 'In May 2022, The Caker team was made fully aware that Cravings would be launching a line of baking mixes in the Fall following our one-off collaboration. 'The Caker chose to move forward with the carrot cake collaboration, and out of respect for the partnership, Cravings held off on producing a cake mix and launched banana bread, pancake and cookie mixes on October 20th.' Rondel's followers have been quick to slam Teigen after she posted the two boxes side-by-side - with one calling her 'the Faker' Chrissy Teigen's many controversies Chrissy Teigen has found herself in hot water several times in the past and was 'cancelled' after Courtney Stodden publicly called her out for trolling her by telling her to 'kill herself' in private messages. She was accused of bullying the non-binary star, 26, when they were just 16, and has since apologised for her behaviour. Teigen said she was 'sick with herself' for what she did, admitting that she had 'done something wrong' and was 'lost and depressed'. The model clashed with New York Times food columnist Alison Roman fired in May 2020 for criticising her website and accused her of being racist. She also regularly slammed former president Donald trump on Twitter, hitting out at Equinox and SoulCycle for hosting a fundraiser. Teigen was forced to shut down rumours after Twitter trolls claimed that she and her husband John Legend were on Epstein flight logs after the conspiracy theory resurfaced online. She was also slammed after old social media posts which appeared to mock Lindsay Lohan's self-harming in 2011 and calling Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham a 'w****'. Abraham said last year that the star has not apologised for her words, adding that she was also responsible for hurting her child with comments about her mother. In now-deleted tweets Teigen allegedly insulted child actress Quvenzhane Wallis in 2013, calling her 'cocky' after she was at the Oscars award show. Advertisement The spokesperson for Cravings added: 'We absolutely did not copy their packaging. Below are the actual side by side pictures of our respective boxes. 'Images posted on social media by The Caker team compared the front of our box and the back of their own. 'The front of their packaging is different from the photographic approach we took, with their design tending to be a solid, bold color, which is actually a sleeve rather than the traditional box style we have used. 'We wish nothing but the absolute best for The Caker and their business, which was the spirit behind our collaboration and transparent communication.' Teigen began developing her own food products after launching her mini-food empire under the Cravings brand since 2016. The model has been sharing her love of food and sharing recipes with her 38million Instagram followers and runs a food blog, family cooking videos and an online store. She previously shared tagged The Caker in an Instagram story in February, praising Rondel's flourless dark chocolate gold leaf cake posting a photo of it half-eaten. The pair collaborated after Rondel replied to Teigen to thank her, throwing her the long-shot offer. Rondel's followers have been quick to slam Teigen after she posted the two boxes side-by-side. One branded her 'The Faker', before adding 'it's obviously a direct rip off of your designs. She sucks.' Another said: 'This is honestly so s*** and disgraceful of her! Your cake kits and business are 1000x better than hers. You're the queen of cakes and the real OG.' Some even targeted the Cravings Instagram account with comments, writing: Didn't you just promote a collaboration for a similar product with an independent, woman owned business? A second said: 'Everything you collab on somehow becomes your own business opportunity to exploit & profit off of. Yay! How positively embarrassing.' Representatives for Rondel did not immediately respond to a request for comment by DailyMail.com. Ms Ley's office demanded the Prime Minister address the nation over the saga He hit out at Peter Dutton and deputy leader Sussan Ley in a fiery TV interview MP Jason Clare addressed the fierce criticism from the leaders of the coalition Both sides of parliament have been accused of playing politics with ISIS brides Two ministers have defended the Federal Government's decision to bring four ISIS brides and their 13 children back to Australia - claiming Peter Dutton has made the exact same decision before. During an appearance on Channel Seven's Sunrise program on Friday, Education Minister Jason Clare insisted the government only brought back the families on the advice of the country's security services. The government has come under fire from some commentators - including Sky News' Peta Credlin - for failing to front up and publicly explain decision to bring the women and children back from their Syrian refugee camp. Labor has also accused of 'playing politics' with national security and for making allegedly inadequate security arrangements for the ISIS fighters' former wives. Mr Clare told host Natalie Barr he lived in western Sydney and he wants his community to be safe: 'I tell you what - I trust our police and I trust our national security agencies and we do this on their advice.' Mr Clare then went on to claim the Morrison Government did 'exactly the same thing three years ago. They brought families home, women and children from the Middle East, three years ago.' Scroll down for video. Minister for Education Jason Clare (above, in focus) said furore from within Liberal ranks over the repatriation of the ISIS brides has been 'hypocritical' Deputy Leader of the Liberal party Sussan Ley (above) says the Albanese government didn't consult with the community before repatriating 13 ISIS brides and children from their refugee camps in the middle east 'Guess who was the Home Affairs Minister who brought those women and children home? Peter Dutton. 'So for the Coalition to now say that they're against that makes them hypocrites because they did exactly the same thing.' Mr Morrison's government repatriated the six orphaned children and grandchildren of a notorious extremist to live with their grandmother and great-grandmother in 2019. The identities of those children cannot be revealed for legal reasons. Liberal Party Deputy Leader Sussan Ley, joining from Dubai, said she was 'really worried' about the return of the Islamic State brides. 'People left Australia to join these groups and participate in activities that are just too horrible to talk about on your program,' she said. 'This job, Jason, is bigger than the police force for goodness sake. This is about reassuring the communities of Western Sydney who are genuinely worried. Where's the transparency?' Mr Clare called her argument 'rubbish' and said she and Mr Dutton did the exact same thing three years ago. 'Those women or children were brought back to my community, to my electorate, and no one consulted me. Peter Dutton didn't ring me and tell me that they were moving into my electorate. 'So, this just makes everything that Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley are saying now hypocritical, because they did exactly the same thing. 'Now they're taking exactly the opposite approach.' Ms Ley argued the repatriations fell under different circumstances, claiming that the Morrison government had the assurances of their agencies three years ago. Barr reminded her that the government allegedly has those same assurances now. Mr Morrison's government repatriated the six orphaned children and grandchildren of notorious extremist Khaled Sharrouf three years ago (above, ISIS) It's unclear how many of the women were forced into Syria by their husbands or if they went willingly. The Labor government has been quiet on just how much repatriating the ISIS brides cost Australian tax-payers. In a separate interview, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neill told the ABC on Friday she was disappointed by the opposition's handling of the issue. 'I think the politicking that is going on from the opposition leader is disgraceful,' Ms O'Neil said. 'It is rank hypocrisy because the Liberals did exactly the same thing in 2019, repatriated a group of people from these camps. Clare O'Neil (above) said the 'politicking' by Peter Dutton and his party was 'disgraceful', speaking on Friday morning 'For some reason they are now saying this is not appropriate to do. People are sick of this kind of politics.' Mr Dutton has been in Western Sydney this week, where he claimed community leaders approached him and raised concerns with him. 'The job of the government is to make sure that Australians are safe and not introduce into the system an element of risk. They've done exactly that,' he told Channel Nine. 'I was out in Western Sydney yesterday in Fairfield and I can tell you the communities out there who have lost loved ones to ISIS fighters in the Middle East are beside themselves with worry about what is going to happen in their local community, local schools, when you bring this ideology back into the local community.' Fetterman, 53, insists he is fit to serve, and defenders slam criticism as ableist John Fetterman, the Democrat running for US Senate in Pennsylvania, has defended his refusal to release in-depth medical records, following questions about his fitness as he recovers from a serious stroke. 'We have shown more, and shared more kinds of medical evaluation, more than virtually anyone unless you're running for the president,' Fetterman told CBS Evening News on Thursday. However, Fetterman has resisted calls to release detailed medical records or allow interviews with his doctors, instead pointing to a one-page doctor's note he put out last month saying he had 'no work restrictions' and 'can work full duty in public office.' Dr. Mehmet Oz, Fetterman's Republican rival in the race, in September released a four-page letter from his doctor after the editorial boards of The Washington Post and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called on both candidates to release their medical records. Fetterman, 53, insists he is fit to serve after suffering a stroke in May that left him with auditory processing issues, making it difficult for him to understand spoken words at times. 'We already knew that was going to be a challenge, given somebody that's in recovery after having a stroke. It's also been -- it's been a challenge for my family too,' Fetterman told CBS. John Fetterman, the Democrat running for US Senate in Pennsylvania, has defended his refusal to release in-depth medical records as he recovers from a serious stroke Dr. Mehmet Oz, Fetterman's Republican rival in the race, in September released a four-page letter from his doctor, after calls for both candidates to release medical records As he has in prior interviews and his October 25 debate with 62-year-old Oz, Fetterman once again used large screens displaying captions of the interviewer's questions. CBS also revealed that the captions were written by a human stenographer who sits behind the scenes and types out the conversation in real time. Fetterman has explained that he does not have hearing difficulty, but rather has lingering issues understanding spoken conversation, which the written captions help him comprehend. The effects of Fetterman's stroke were on full display during the debate, as he struggled to get through some sentences and gave some confusing arguments for his stances, including whether he is for or against fracking. He also faced criticism following an NBC News interview last month that first showed the candidate using written captioning to better understand the questions being posed to him. Fetterman's wife Gisele said the criticism is insulting to people with disabilities and demanded apologies from press outlets that raised concerns over the health of the Democratic candidate. In Thursday's interview, Fetterman once again used large screens displaying captions of the interviewer's questions. The written captions help him understand spoken words CBS also revealed the captions were written by a human stenographer (seen above) who sits behind the scenes and types out the conversation in real time A new poll from The Hill/Emerson College shows Dr. Mehmet Oz pulled ahead of Democrat rival John Fetterman for the first time with just days until the 2022 midterms Those arguments did not sway the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the largest newspaper in Fetterman's home county, which on Sunday endorsed Oz's candidacy. 'Mr. Fetterman's health he suffered a serious stroke in May is not the issue. His lack of transparency, however, in refusing to release his medical records is troubling,' the Post-Gazette wrote in its endorsement. 'It suggests an impulse to conceal and a mistrust of the people.' 'All candidates for a major elected office should release their medical records, as did Mr. Oz,' they added. 'If you want privacy, don't run for public office.' Fetterman's team, when reached for comment, pointed out to DailyMail.com that Oz's 'hometown' paper the Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed the Democratic candidate. Fetterman's campaign has accused Oz, a longtime New Jersey resident, of being a 'carpetbagger', which is a negative term describing a candidate seeking office in a place where they have few ties. In Thursday's interview, Fetterman also hit back at Oz over the Republican's claims that he is soft on crime, a theme that Oz has made his closing argument of the campaign. 'I would say that there's things called the Oz rule, that when he's on TV he's lying,' said Fetterman, referring to Oz's long career as a celebrity doctor with a history of making dubious medical claims. 'I am the only candidate in this race that actually had hands-on kinds of experience against, fighting against crime,' he said. 'I was the four-term mayor of a community for almost 14 years, and I made gun violence as really at the center of all of my focus,' he added. Fetterman grew up in York, Pennsylvania, but his adopted hometown of Braddock is where he served as mayor from 2006-2019. He left his mayoral post to become Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania for Democratic Governor Tom Wolf. Fetterman has pointed to this one-page doctor's note he put out last month saying he had 'no work restrictions' and 'can work full duty in public office.' On June 3, Fetterman released a letter from his cardiologist who said he could serve 'without a problem' but noted he 'did not go to any doctor for 5 years' and failed to take his medication 'We're gonna make our argument to the -- to the very end,' said Fetterman. The open Senate seat Fetterman and Oz are competing for is being vacated by Republican Senator Pat Toomey. With the Senate currently divided 50-50, the Pennsylvania race could be decisive in determining which party gains control of the chamber for the next two years. The latest poll in the race, released Thursday, showed Oz taking a lead over Fetterman for the first time, days before the November 8 election. The two point gap 48 percent to 46 percent continues a steady improvement for Oz, whose support from likely Pennsylvanian voters has increased by 5 percentage points since September, according to polling from The Hill/Emerson College. Meanwhile, Fetterman's support only ticked up by 1 percent in the latest poll taken October 28-31, from his level in September. The split between the two candidates remains within the poll's plus or minus 3 percentage point margin of error. A courier worker stabbed to death in front of colleagues in South Yorkshire on Wednesday has been named by police - while another man has been charged with murder. Philip David Woodcock, 60, died in an attack in Rotherham on the morning of Wednesday, November 2. Emergency services were called to FedEx in Rother Way, Hellaby, at 9.39am on Wednesday to reports of a stabbing. Upon arrival, Mr Woodcock was found with severe injuries and sadly died at the scene. A post mortem examination concluded that he died as a result of stab wounds. FedEx worker Philip David Woodcock, 60, died in an attack in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on the morning of Wednesday, November 2 His family are being supported by specially trained officers. A second man is believed to have suffered minor injuries during the incident, which did not require medical treatment. Yesterday evening, 48-year-old Ronald Sekanjako, of Bellhouse Road, Sheffield, was charged with murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon. He has been remanded in custody to appear before Sheffield Magistrates Court on Friday. Tributes have poured in for Mr Woodcock, since news of his death was announced. Sarah Roberts wrote online: ' Such a tragic day at work yesterday, the absolute tragic loss of a fantastic man who literally had time for everyone. The place just wont be the same ever again. My thoughts are with Phils family at this time.' Becky Parker added: 'Absolutely devastated to hear this. Phil is such a lovely man. Had the pleasure of cutting his hair for years. Such a gentleman, kind and always smiling... love to his family.' An actress who starred alongside one of the women accusing Danny Masterson of rape testified on Thursday that her 'shaken' friend confided in her that she had been attacked. Jordan Ladd, 47, told the court that she was shocked when Jane Doe 2 told her about the night in late 2003 the actor allegedly raped her in his shower and again in his bedroom. 'It was a difficult conversation,' said Ladd, who has been on-and-off friends with fellow actress Jane Doe 2 since the two were in a movie together more than 20 years ago. 'She revealed to me that she had experienced something that I recognized as date rape.' Three women - Jane Does 1, 2, and 3 - all accuse Masterson, 46, of raping them inside his Hollywood Hills home from 2001-2003. The women allege he plied them with alcohol before assaulting them and sometimes attacked them while they were unconscious. One said that representatives from Scientology pressured her not to report the crimes to the police. Masterson has denied their allegations. On Thursday, Ladd testified that Jane Doe 2 spoke to her after the alleged attack. Actor Danny Masterson is seen arriving in court on Thursday with his wife, Bijou Phillips Actress Jordan Ladd, pictured in 2019, testified in support of Jane Doe 2 on Thursday 'She appeared shaken and she was physically shaking. She was emotionalshe was trembling in her speech,' said Ladd. 'She said she had sex with Danny Masterson and she kept saying 'no' and 'I don't want to do this' and she kept saying no over and over again. 'She said he did not stop and she gave up.' Asked by Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson how she reacted to her friend's revelation, Ladd said: 'I was shocked. I felt helpless, at a loss for words. 'She absolutely said, 'Do not tell anyone.' She seemed afraid, confused. 'She adamantly shut me down and was terrified that I would say something to someone.' Ladd - who has starred in several Hollywood horror movies - said that she had been 'quite friendly' with Masterson until the Jane Doe 2 episode. But when she found herself in the wedding party with Masterson at a marriage ceremony the following summer, 'He was rather cold and chilly to me.' Under cross examination by Philip Cohen, Masterson's attorney, Ladd - who is not a Scientologist - said that during her conversation with Jane Doe 2 about the alleged rape, she said she was worried about catching a sexually transmitted disease because Masterson had not worn a condom. 'She was embarrassed,' she added. Asked by Cohen if Jane Doe 2 said it was her idea to go into the shower with Masterson, Ladd said: 'No.' And when Cohen asked her if, even after the incident, Jane Doe 2 told her she and Masterson 'were probably going to start dating,' again she responded: 'No.' Masterson and Phillips are both Scientologists - as were the three women who accused him of rape. The women said that members of the church pressured them not to report their allegations Phillips has been present for every day of her husband's trial - the 10th day was Thursday Philipps and Masterson married in 2011 and have an eight-year-old daughter Earlier on Thursday, a Los Angeles detective who investigated the case said she told his three accusers not to talk to each other or the press and was subsequently shocked when their allegations appeared in the media. Detective Esther Reyes, a 29-year veteran of the LAPD, told a court on Thursday that she was adamant the trio avoid action which would 'damage or contaminate' the police investigation into their cases against the Scientologist and actor. All three accusers have admitted in court that they communicated with each other after being interviewed in 2017 by Reyes. Reyes on Thursday told the court that she had warned all three not to talk to each other or to other possible witnesses. Masterson's attorney, Philip Cohen, asked Reyes about 'cross-contamination' in an investigation. She explained that if alleged victims or witnesses speak to each other, 'their recollections may be different because they have spoken to each other.' Reyes agreed with Cohen that independence is essential. 'It's important to get a witness's independent recollection that has not been influenced in any way by talking to other witnesses,' she said. She added that she was concerned about the possible 'damage' to her investigation that could be caused by the three accusers speaking to each other about the case. Reyes told the court that she told Jane Does 1 thru 3 that they should also not talk to the press or media during the investigation - but she later learned that 'information had been released to the press by one or more of the Jane Does.' All the alleged rapes are said to have taken place in Masterson's $6.2 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills Jane Doe 2 also spoke to her mother - a Scientologist at the time - a day or two after the 2003 incident with Masterson. And on Thursday, the elderly mother fought back tears as she recounted that conversation with her daughter. 'She was very upset,' said her mother. 'She said he was coming at her from behind like a jackhammer and relentless and she told him to stop and he wouldn't stop.' Asked by Anson if her daughter ever used the word rape in that conversation, her mother replied: 'Not that I remember. I remember her saying she was being pounded.' Cross-examined by Cohen, Jane Doe 2's mother denied his suggestion that after the sexual encounter at Masterson's house her daughter still wanted to be romantically involved with the actor. 'I remember her saying she wanted to have a date - and it turned out to be something very different,' she added. Masterson, the married father of an eight-year-old daughter, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The star of TV's That '70s Show is facing a sentence of 45 years to life in prison if he's convicted. Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, is on the witness list because she was formerly a Scientologist. All three accusers were also Scientologists, and Masterson remains an active member of the Church. Masterson - who has been free on $3.3 million bail since his arrest in June 2020 - arrived at the court in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday in a gray jacket, beige pants, off-white shirt, and gray striped tie for the 10th day of his trial. His accusers - whom DailyMail.com is identifying only as Jane Does 1 through 3 - are all former Scientologists and are also suing him and the Church of Scientology in civil court, claiming that they've been harassed, stalked, and intimidated since reporting him to police. Former President Donald Trump came close to announcing a 2024 White House bid at a Thursday night rally in Iowa - which holds the nation's first presidential contest - and on the anniversary of his 2020 election loss. 'And now in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious - I will very, very, very probably do it again,' he said. 'OK? Very, very, very probably. Very, very, very probably.' He told the riled up Sioux City crowd to 'get ready!' 'That's all I'm telling you, very soon,' he added. Trump also entertained his audience by sharing a gaffe-reel featuring President Joe Biden with supporters, showing footage of the Democrat tripping up Air Force One's stairs and other awkward moments. Ever the reality TV star, Trump played dramatic and sinister music throughout the final portion of his speech, using a melody associated with the QAnon movement. Trump was stumping for Iowa Republicans, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds - who aren't facing tough competition from Democrats - with just five days before the midterm elections. He encouraged his supporters: 'If you want safety for your family and security for your community, throw every Democrat the hell out of office and vote for Republicans up and down the line.' But the bulk of the rally was devoted to how he'd been wronged. 'Your favorite president, excuse me to all those young people, your favorite president got screwed,' he told the audience, while floating that the 2020 election should have been invalidated. Former President Donald Trump came close to announcing a 2024 White House bid at a Thursday night rally in Iowa - which holds the nation's first presidential contest - on the anniversary of his 2020 election loss Former President Donald Trump (left) was stumping for longtime Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (right) in Sioux City Thursday night. Iowa is traditionally the state that holds the first presidential contest Trump still boasted - falsely - that he was the winner of that election. 'I did much better the second time than I did the first. Getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016 and likewise getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country thus far,' Trump said. He also mentioned the slew of investigations encircling him. 'Biden and his left wing handlers are turning America into a police state like something straight out of a communist country. The radical Democrats are locking up pro-life activists, persecuting their political opponents - nobody can believe this is happening,' Trump said. 'They even raided Mar-a-Lago. They raided Mar-a-Lago.' 'Tell you what I'd like to do,' he added. Trump's Florida home and private club Mar-a-Lago was searched by the FBI in August under suspicion that the ex-president had held onto classified documents after his White House tenure. Hundreds of classified documents were found during the raid. Later in the rally he returned to the raid adding, 'It is a nice house, you have to say.' Trump also pointed to a decision made only hours before by a New York judge - who appointed an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization's financial transactions, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' ongoing civil suit against the ex-president' company. 'And just moments ago, a radical-left lunatic judge in New York City, who's totally controlled by my worst enemies in the Democrat Party - and by the New York attorney general, there's another beauty - who was given his position by them at the request of the out-of-control attorney general who's let violent crime in New York rage in the state, including murders, robberies, rape and drugs at levels never seen before - started a process of property confiscation that is akin to Venezuela, Cuba or the old Soviet Union,' Trump said. 'It's communism, what's going on in our country,' he said. 'They're weaponizing the Justice Department. They're weaponizing things that shouldn't be weaponized.' The ex-president also pointed to the investigation in Georgia over Trump and his allies pushing false election fraud claims. A jumbotron at former President Donald Trump's Sioux City, Iowa rally. Trump showed a gaffe-reel featuring President Joe Biden on the large screens A supporter of former President Donald Trump wearing a 'MAGA' hat reacts to the ex-president's speech during the Thursday night rally in Sioux City, Iowa 'A local left-wing DA in Atlanta is after me for an absolutely perfect phone call,' Trump said. 'I would say even better than better than the Ukrainian call to the president.' Trump described the call in question, where he asked Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' the number of votes he'd need to win the state, as a query on 'election integrity.' 'No, it was a perfect call - even better than my first perfect call. Remember? They impeached me on a perfect call,' Trump said. He spoke of the great progress that was being made under his leadership. 'You had no problems with anything, frankly,' he told the crowd. 'And then unfortunately we had a roadblock with this character, these people that are there now,' he also said. 'It's a disgrace.' He hit the Democrats for 'indoctrinating our children with twisted race and gender lunacy in our schools.' But he suggested the Republicans would be successful in retaking the House. 'And we're going to end crazy Nancy Pelosi's political career once and for all,' he said, using the nickname he gave her years ago, despite the recent hammer attack on her husband, Paul. He also told Grassley, who made remarks before and during Trump's appearance, that he was going to be easily re-elected. 'I think he's not going to have a problem,' Trump said. 'But now I know after this tonight,' he said, gazing into his crowd. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley speaks ahead of former President Donald Trump's appearance in Sioux City, Iowa Thursday night Iowa's Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds waves to supporters as she speaks prior to former President Donald Trump's appearance at a Sioux City rally Thursday night Of Biden, Trump said, 'You could take the five worst presidents in American history and put them together and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our nation in just two years.' He then asked the crowd if they'd like to see 'a little clip on a nice expensive monitor,' turning the audience's attention to the Jumbotron screens. The gaffe-reel showed a number of Biden's slip of the tongues. Afterward, Trump spoke in serious tones. 'It's not really anything that's funny because our world is in a very dangerous place with nuclear weapons,' the former president warned. Trump pushed that the U.S. could end up in World War Three under Biden's leadership. 'We could end up in world war three and World War Three will blow everything away because World War Three has nuclear weapons like nobody's ever seen,' he told the crowd. He pointed to both Russia and North Korea as threats, remarking of the latter that 'we got along very well,' as he thrice met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his presidency, but wasn't successful in inking a denuclearization deal. As for the Russian assault on Ukraine, Trump called it 'horrible thing,' but suggested the U.S.'s border crisis was worse. 'This year, more Americans will die of Fentanyl and drug overdoses than the number of Ukrainians killed in the gruesome and bloody war - that by the way would have never happened,' Trump said. A senior bishop has broken ranks to call for the Church of England to start conducting gay weddings. The Rt Rev Steven Croft said it was unjust to refuse to marry same-sex couples. The Bishop of Oxford, 65, also said married gay Christians should have the freedom to be sexually active, going against the churchs doctrine that they should remain celibate. In a document circulated to bishops and seen by The Times, Mr Croft, who has a seat in the House of Lords, wrote: The present position on same-sex relationships no longer seems appropriate. Change is needed. The Bishop of Oxford, 65, also said married gay Christians should have the freedom to be sexually active, going against the churchs doctrine that they should remain celibate Bishops are considering possible changes to its teaching and will present recommendations to the General Synod, the churchs governing body, in February. As one of the longest-serving bishops in the church, Bishop Croft has a seat in the House of Lords and is the most senior Anglican cleric to publicly call for a major shift in stance on the contentious issue. He said he previously had an orthodox Christian view of sexuality and marriage, but after years of conversations with gay worshippers he had moved from a position where I found it difficult to accept the blessing of same-sex partnerships and marriage, to one where I believe the church should embrace and bless these unions. Bishop Croft said the law should be changed to allow the solemnisation of same-sex marriage in the Church of England while gay Christians, including priests, should have the freedom to marry same-sex partners and be sexually active. As one of the longest-serving bishops in the church, Bishop Croft has a seat in the House of Lords and is the most senior Anglican cleric to publicly call for a major shift in stance on the contentious issue And he said it was wrong for the church to preach about the blessings of marriage while it denies the rights of homosexual people to enter into loving and faithful partnerships and marriage. Same-sex marriage was legalised across the UK almost a decade ago but most major religious groups opposed it and so the law states that they can opt in to the system but cannot be compelled to do so. Since then a handful of denominations including the Methodist Church, the United Reform Church and the Church of Scotland have said they would allow their ministers to marry gay couples. Julie Bishop has fired back at critics who have slammed the former deputy Liberal leader over her passion for fashion, admitting she's always enjoyed the attention and used it as a platform to promote Australia's $27.5billion clothes industry. The former foreign affairs minister was famously dubbed the 'Minister for Fashion' during her time on the frontbench where she regularly flaunted her love for designer outfits, which were frowned upon by some parliamentary colleagues. The newly single keynote speaker and Australian National University chancellor continues to turn heads at red carpet events with her glamorous dress sense since retiring from politics in 2019. Just this week on a visit to the UK, she was pictured in a show-stopping silver sequined gown, thoroughly upstaging Princess Beatrice, as well as a pink leather minidress. It was yet another bold fashion statement as she spoke about the political power of dress at the event held at London's Design Museum. 'My critics ridiculed me by calling me the Minister for Fashion [but] little did they realise that I absolutely revelled in that and wore it as a badge of honour,' Ms Bishop told attendees. Julie Bishop continues to make headlines with her glamorous fashion choices, rocking this two-toned ruffled gown to promote a fashion event in London last weekend The former foreign affairs minister turned heads in an eye-catching buttoned mini dress and sparkly heels as a keynote speaker at a London fashion event 'I felt vindicated every time a young designer said to me, "Julie, when you wear one of my outfits on the world stage, I've made it. Suddenly the orders come in. Suddenly, people want to know me". That was my vindication.' She revealed some cabinet colleagues disapproved of her fashion sense and that she was once was told by 'an older while male' to 'drop the corporate look' and wear 'more cardigans'. The comment came when she was first appointed aged care minister in the former John Howard government in 2003. Attitudes hadn't changed when Ms Bishop became Australia's first female foreign affairs minister a decade later in 2013 after Tony Abbott was elected prime minister. 'I was in a cabinet room of 20 males and me, I was the only woman in the Abbott cabinet in 2013,' she told the crowd. 'So if I didn't promote Australian fashion, who would?' The Design Museum in London promoted Ms Bishop's keynote speech with photos of her in a two-toned pink ruffled gown Julie Bishop donned a silver sparkly Max Mara mini dress at the launch of Dr Gene Sherman's new book The Spoken Object, where she posed rubbed shoulders with Australian A-list actress Isla Fisher and Princess Beatrice (pictured) In 2013, Julie Bishop was the only woman in Tony Abbott's cabinet frontbench and said if she didn't promote Australian fashion, no one would Looking back at her time in parliament, Ms Bishop added: 'I don't find the need to self-describe in that way [as a feminist]' and said she did not find the term useful.' Ms Bishop offered the room one piece of wisdom. 'Don't let others define who who are, should you should be and what you should achieve,' she said. 'There are so many people out there who are prepared to set standards for you they wouldn't meet themselves. So I learned that lesson, just through the fashion advice.' In the days prior, the centre promoted the event with more photos of Ms Bishop in a stunning two-toned ruffled gown, including one of her standing next to a dump truck. Ms Bishop stole the spotlight in London again on Wednesday, donning a silver sparkly Max Mara mini dress at the launch of Dr Gene Sherman's new book The Spoken Object, where she posed with Princess Beatrice, former British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian A-list actress Isla Fisher. She also opened up on the gender inequality challenges faced when she first made the transition from law into politics in 1998. 'I did find the different standard, somewhat frustrating, but I knew why that happened because all the conventions and protocols and attitudes in parliament were established at a time when there were no women in parliament and it takes a long time to change people's attitudes,' she told 9Honey. Dubbed the Minister for Fashion, Julie Bishop (pictured in Sydney recently) wore the label as a badge of honour Ms Bishop says she became aware of the transformative power of fashion from a very young age. When she became foreign affairs minister, she realised fashion could be not only be an important export earner but also a sophisticated reflection of contemporary Australia. 'I also used fashion as a soft power diplomacy tool on a number of occasions,' Ms Bishop continued. 'I wore many outfits that were hopefully appropriate for the occasion but I certainly used colour to reflect the nation I was visiting or hosting. I similarly adopted colour to show my respect' 'But there were times my promotion of Australian fashion was the subject to criticism. I believe that came about due to ignorance. Some people didn't understand the significance of the Australian fashion industry.' Today, it's estimated the fashion industry contributes $27.5billion to the Australia economy. Julie Bishop sparked a debate over her choice to wear a headscarf during her visit to Iran in 2015 Julie Bishop has recalled how she was advised by parliamentary colleagues to adopt a 'corporate look' when she first became minister. She's pictured as minister for ageing in 2004 Ms Bishop also addressed how she refused to wear a hijab while visiting Iran for diplomatic meetings in 2015. She was Australia's highest-ranking official to visit Iran in 12 years. She 'threw' on a scarf as a compromise after being told she would be denied a meeting with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. The decision attracted both criticism and applause at the time. Social media lit up as those from both sides of the argument weighed in on whether Ms Bishop was right to cover her head in keeping with local custom, while political commentators and politicians also voiced their opinions. Julie Bishop opted for a stylish black mini-dress and heels at the David Jones SS22 Wonderworld Season Launch in Sydney At the 2019 Budget in one of her final appearances in federal parliament, Bishop was mocked online after stealing the show and ensured all eyes were on her as she threatened to upstage then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg. She looked like she was ready for a night on the town in a $1,299 sparkling dark blue sequin midi dress designed by Rachel Gilbert, dazzling earrings and painted pink nails. The animated backbencher was photographed jumping with her hands in the air and reveling in the limelight - just minutes before Mr Frydenberg took to the dispatch box to announce the nation's finances were finally back in black. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop ensured all eyes on her as her party set about delivering its budget in 2019, one of her last appearances in federal parliament Formula-E will be held in the same way as Formula One, but the vehicles will be battery-powered e-vehicles with a top speed of over 300 km per hour. (Photo By Arrangement) HYDERABAD: The 100-day countdown to the much awaited Formula E race of the ninth season to be held here on February 11 next, began on Friday in New Delhi. The programme was held in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and others. Singh reminded that only 12 countries in the world were hosting the Formula-E Prix event, and India was one of them. Apart from Hyderabad , the race will be held in London, Berlin, Rome, Sao Paulo, Mexico, Jakarta, Cape Town, Monaco, Diriyah (Saudi Arabia). IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said in his message to mark the occasion, Hyderabad has reached the level of many global cities with this event. Now this is also included in many aspects for Hyderabad to be recognised in the world city. This event will be organised efficiently in Hyderabad. Special chief secretary Arvind Kumar said that the Formula-E Prix the event would be held every year and Hyderabad would emerge as a global leader in 'e-mobility'. According to the organisers, Formula-E will be held in the same way as Formula One, but the vehicles will be battery-powered e-vehicles with a top speed of over 300 km per hour. The races next year will feature Generation-3 cars and the battery featured modern technology and fast recharging technology. William Tyrrell's foster mother admitted to kicking a 10-year-old girl in her care after the little boy's disappearance, a court has heard. The woman, who can't be named, was on Friday found not guilty of lying to the top secret NSW Crime Commission a day after a senior detective accused her of knowing where the missing toddler is. The 57-year-old showed little emotion as the verdict was read out in a Sydney court surrounded by supporters including former police detective Gary Jubelin, who led the search for William for years. Fighting back tears with her voice breaking, the woman broke her years-long silence outside court asking police to leave her alone. 'Her honour has given a detailed judgment today about the circumstances surrounding this charge being brought against me,' she said. 'She has found me not guilty of lying to the crime commission. With this behind me, I hope this means police can focus on finding William and what happened to him.' William Tyrrell's foster mother (above on Friday) was found not guilty of one count of giving false or misleading evidence to the NSW Crime Commission The court heard evidence that the foster mother (above on Thursday) had misled the crime commission about an alleged incident where a little girl was injured by a wooden spoon It comes after a senior detective told the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday that he believes she knows where William is. 'I've formed the view (the foster mother) knows where William Tyrrell is', Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan said. The court also heard another officer told the foster mum - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - 'we know why, we know how'. William disappeared from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the NSW north coast, on September 12, 2014, and has not been seen since. The foster mother was charged with one count of giving false or misleading evidence to the NSW Crime Commission. The foster mother was secretly grilled by the commission in November 2021. The court heard evidence that the foster mother had misled the crime commission about an alleged incident where a little girl was injured by a wooden spoon. 'Have you ever hit her with a wooden spoon?' Sergeant Lonergan asked her on the second day of the hearing. 'Never,' she replied. However, a chilling intercepted phone call was later played where she told her husband the girl was 'going to have a massive welt on her leg' after she hit her with the wooden spoon. Another recording allegedly caught the moment she smacked the girl with the spoon while she screamed and cried. The Crime Commission hearings police alleged the foster mother lied to were held just days before investigators launched a surprise high-intensity dig at Kendall for the remains of William Tyrrell (above) Fighting back tears with her voice breaking, the woman broke her years-long silence outside court asking police to leave her alone Magistrate Moody said she was not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the foster mother knowingly lied to the commission. She said given the accused 'made such prompt admissions' of hitting and kicking the young girl on other occasions, she 'couldn't discount the possibility that she was mistaken and did not deliberately lie'. The magistrate agreed with the defence that admitting to kicking a child was arguably worse than hitting her with a wooden spoon and that if the issue was explored further she may have had a chance to correct herself. 'These are serious admissions for a foster parent to make. Kicking is almost worse than having a child put their hand out to be hit with a wooden spoon,' she said. Magistrate Moody said the accused was 'intensely questioned' during the secret hearing and was 'clearly frequently highly distressed', with the court transcript recording her breaking down and sobbing. She said the woman was 'clearly aghast at the suggestion she had anything to do with the disapearance of her foster child' when surprised with Sergeant Lonergan's line of questioning. The court was played secret recordings of the foster parents (above, left and right) in which the foster mother said she had hit a girl, 10, hard with a wooden spoon and left a 'big welt', which the foster father said 'that is a problem' Magistrate Moody said she took into account that accused was a woman of good character when considering if she would lie. 'It appears she is a suspect in knowing where the body is, not violence against William,' she said. However, she said the tapes were 'distressing' to listen to and her conversations with her husband 'concerning'. The foster mother sat with her hand on her lap, her fingers interlocked, as the magistrate recapped the case and the evidence presented in court. She mopped her face with a tissue as a supporter clutched her hand while the court was told how she was asked if William died by falling off a balcony and she hid his body. Outside the courtroom she hugged her husband and wiped tears from her eyes as she discussed her next moves with her legal team. Senior detective Andrew Lonergan told the court he believed the foster mother knew where William Tyrrell's remains were and he was certain the boy's body was buried was the corner of Batar Creek Road and Cobb and Co Road, Kendall (above, police digging the location last year) When Mr Stratton asked Det Sgt Lonergan if he was pursuing the foster mother on charges to 'break her spirit', the police officer said the purpose of her appearing before the Crime Commission was to 'find the location of William Tyrrell. Extraordinary details emerged during the hearing on Thursday about how NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes and counsel assisting Sophie Callan piled pressure onto the foster mother. In fiery evidence put before the Crime Commission and played to the court the foster mother repeatedly denied the accusations about William. She challenges investigators to 'dig up' the area where they claimed the three-year-old's remains were buried. The foster mother was summonsed to appear before the Crime Commission along with William's foster father on November 10 and 11 last year. She was told by Commissioner Barnes 'we are here to find the body of William Tyrrell'. When it was suggested the foster mother 'put ... or dumped' William's remains 'near the riding school' at Kendall, she answered back 'do you think I did that?' Sobbing, she continued: 'No, absolutely not'. Det Sgt Andrew Lonergan (right) said under cross-examination by the foster mother's barrister that he believed she knew where William Tyrrell's remains were buried When the Commissioner suggested 'William went around on that verandah and he toppled over and it was nobody's fault what happened', the foster mother replied, 'No, I would have found him. But I didn't find him.' When Ms Callan said, 'I want to suggest you did find him, you put his body in your mother's car', the foster mother replied, 'I didn't, I didn't'. The court heard that when challenged about her knowledge of what had happened to William Tyrrell, the foster mother cried 'You can search the whole house. Dig it up!' The court also heard police had bugged the foster parents' homes with nine listening devices and eight hidden cameras. Dramatic audio was also played in court of audio of a ten-year-old child - who is not William - crying and yelling out 'no, no, nooooo' as she was allegedly disciplined with a wooden spoon in January 2021. The court heard that the foster mother had denied having struck the girl - who cannot be identified - to the Crime Commission last November. The court heard that when challenged about her knowledge of what had happened to William Tyrrell, the foster mother cried 'You can search the whole house. Dig it up!' Above, police search the house last year Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Amin Asaad told the court that 'allegations involving the child ... were put to the accused' at the Crime Commission. Sen Sgt Asaad said that the foster mother had 'denied those propositions' and then 'seconds or minutes after event contacted her husband and added certain things disclosing the offence ... and certain observations regarding the event'. The audio begins with a female voice, possibly of the girl, saying, 'I am calling the police' and then a child screaming 'no' and crying, panting and In the conversation after the incident Snr Sgt Asaad told the court, the foster mother told her husband, 'shes been hit really hard with that wooden spoon. Shes going to have massive welt on her leg.' The foster mother has never been charged in relation to William's disappearance, not has any other person. The court heard that when Det Sgt Lonergan and another police officer who interviewed the foster mother, Sgt Scott Jamieson, told the foster mother that they knew how and why William disappeared. The foster mother of William Tyrrell is facing a two day hearing on a charge of lying to the Crime Commission. The foster father will front court next year for allegedly making a false statement to the top secret crime fighting body Mr Stratton said the foster mother had been told ' we are not saying you hurt him' and then Sgt Jamieson said, 'we know how it happened, we know why it happened, we know where he is' Asked by Mr Stratton whether he was lying about police knowing the location of William's body, Det Sgt Lonergan said he wasn't and cited an area in the town of Kendall. The location, on the corner of Batar Creek Road and Cobb and Co Road, was the area investigated during the high intensity search made last November and December. 'We believe it was disposed' in that area, 'yes', Det Sgt Lonergan said. Then there is the sound of a possible slap and the foster mother ordering the child, 'Stand up. Stand up'. The child said 'no, please no, Nooooooo' and the being told to 'Sit down. Sit.' The court was played a subsequent conversation between the foster mother and foster father in which he says, 'Oh that's not good. We've got a problem. We've got a big problem.' Detective Andrew Lonergan (second right) with Professor Jon Olley, who found murdered Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morecombe's remains in 2011, at the William Tyrrell dig in Kendall late last year In cross-examination of Det Sgt Lonergan about detectives' purpose in pursuing the foster mother on charges, John Stratton SC accused the detective of lying, which he repeatedly denied. The officer agreed when Det Sgt Lonergan asked whether William Tyrrell's body had ever been located and that the foster mother had 'made complaints about police lack of progress in the investigation'. But when asked whether it was his hope to break the foster mother's 'spirit', Det Sgt Lonergan told the court the woman had 'committed an offence'. 'She was given an opportunity to give her evidence at the Crime Commission where she could tell the truth and she wouldn't be punished, as in charges'. The foster mother arrived at court on Thursday wearing black trousers and a black and white checked jacket and in the company of two marketing consultants, Clare and Alice Collins, who run the Where's William PR campaign. Ex-detective Gary Jubelin, the former boss of the task force investigating William's disappearance, also listened in to the hearing. The hearing continues. Journey's Don't Stop Believing, The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun and Bryan Adams's Summer of '69 are just some of the flops of yesteryear that have found a new audience thanks to the streaming revolution. American rock band Journey must have been following their own advice, because after 41 years of not stopping believing their 1981 hit has finally been revealed as the most streamed song of that year, despite peaking at Number 62 in the UK at the time. Meanwhile Here Comes the Sun from the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road - which was never even released as a single - is now the band's only track to feature on the list of the biggest streaming successes by year, compiled by the Official Charts. And Summer of '69, which reached a peak position of 42 on its release in 1985, is now the most streamed song from 1985. Moving into the 21st century, Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA failed to reach the top 10 in 2009 but is not the most streamed song for that year. Here Comes the Sun from the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road (pictured) - which was never even released as a single - is now the band's only track to feature on the list of the biggest streaming successes by year, compiled by the Official Charts To mark its 70th anniversary, the Official Charts Company has created a list featuring the most-streamed song of each year since its inception in 1952. Robert Gallacher, commissioning editor of BBC Radio Pop Networks, said the list is particularly interesting in showing 'which classic songs from the past are rated by today's music consumers, and how that appeal can be driven by exposure on TV, adverts and social media'. Ray Charles's I Got A Woman was given a boost after being sampled in Kanye West's Gold Digger and is now the most-played hit of 1954. But other songs have have failed to move with the times and have taken a hit with the digital revolutionl. Bryan Adams's Everything I Do (I Do It For You) was an enormous chart success, shooting to the number one position in at least nineteen countries. But the 1991 single has failed to appeal to the younger streaming audience and is pipped to the top spot by Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. The most streamed song released in 1952 was Singin' In The Rain by Gene Kelly, while 1954 went to I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash and 1957 to Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. Brian Adams's Summer of '69, which reached a peak position of 42 on its release in 1985, is now the most streamed song from 1985. Pictured: Adams in concert in 2018 Rolling Stones' classic track Paint It Black was the most streamed song in 1966, while Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell took the top spot the following year. Sir Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Queen all had two years each in the 1970s where their track was the most streamed. Veteran musician Sir Elton took 1970 with Your Song and 1972 for Tiny Dancer, while Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way was most streamed in 1976 and Dreams in 1977. Queen takes the title in 1975 with Bohemian Rhapsody, in 1979 for Don't Stop Me Now and again in 1980 with Another One Bites The Dust. Later in the decade, Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi was the most streamed in 1986 and I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston claimed 1987. The early 1990s sees rock bands dominate with Thunderstruck by AC/DC as the most streamed song in 1990, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana in 1991 and Creep by Radiohead in 1992. Bryan Adams's Everything I Do (I Do It For You) was an enormous chart success, shooting to the number one position in at least nineteen countries. But the 1991 single has failed to appeal to the younger streaming audience and is pipped to the top spot by Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana (pictured in 1993) Meanwhile, Iris by Goo Goo Dolls claims the title in 1998 and No Scrubs by TLC in 1999. The dawn of a new century in 2000 was marked with Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader as the most streamed song with Mr Brightside by The Killers topping the list in 2003 and 2005 going to I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor by the Arctic Monkeys, the lead single off their debut album. In more recent years, Someone Like You by Adele was the most streamed song in 2011, 2017 went to Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You and Harry Styles closes out the list in 2022 with his smash hit As It Was. To mark the anniversary, Radio 2 will broadcast each of the most streamed songs from 1960-1999 during their Sounds Of The 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s shows on November 11 and 12. A one-off programme on BBC Sounds presented by Ricky Wilson, titled Most Streamed Songs of the 50s, will showcase the songs from 1952-1959. BBC Radio 1 will also broadcast the most streamed songs released from 2000-2022, with 2000-2010 presented by Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton, and 2011-2022 presented by Jack Saunders. Ray Charles's I Got A Woman was given a boost after being sampled in Kanye West's Gold Digger and is now the most-played hit of 1954. Pictured: Charles in 1992 Robert Gallacher, commissioning editor of BBC Radio Pop Networks, said: 'We're delighted to mark the 70th anniversary of the Official Singles Chart - a record not just of our favourite tunes, but also our shared cultural history. With the release of this new chart it's particularly fascinating to see which classic songs from the past are rated by today's music consumers, and how that appeal can be driven by exposure on TV, adverts and social media. 'This chart is a true testament to the timelessness of brilliant pop music.' Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, added: 'Official Charts are proud to team up with our long-standing partners at the BBC to compile this unique playlist of 70 incredible songs marking 70 years of the beloved institution that is the UK's Official Singles Chart. 'As ever, the data doesn't lie; this is a collection of indisputable classics spanning over seven decades of Official Chart history, as affirmed by the British public and their playlist selections.' This chart does not include the hit Christmas singles from each of the decades but a show of the most streamed Christmas number ones will be broadcast on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds over the festive season, the BBC has said. The full chart will launch on BBC Sounds from November 3 as a Back to Back Sounds collection. A protester has glued herself to a suffragettes exhibition at Parliament House Chaotic scenes have broken out at Parliament House in Canberra with a climate change protester gluing herself to an artwork about the suffragettes. Pictures emerged of a woman stuck to the artwork in the capital building about 11.30am on Friday as police scrambled to free her. Meanwhile, a squad of Federal Police officers were seen escorting an elderly man out of the building who was also allegedly involved in the stunt. A woman in a red T-shirt glued herself to an artwork in Parliament House, Canberra on Friday morning A Federal Police squad were seen escorting an elderly man through Parliament House's Marble Hall The protester is calling on the Australian Government to end subsidies for fossil fuel businesses. Demonstrators have targeted works of art in major galleries around the world in order to send a message about climate change. Extinction Rebellion activists glued their hands to a prized Picasso painting at the National Gallery of Victoria in early October. The painting was not damaged as it was protected by perspex. Desperate Russian soldiers were so hungry they resorted to eating zoo animals, it has been claimed. Volunteer rescue workers said the soldiers committed horrendous acts of cruelty at Yampil Zoo in the eastern Donetsk region. Yampil village was liberated by Ukrainian forces on September 30. The rescue workers arrived ten days later to find animal skeletons and pieces of flesh and bone scattered across the zoo grounds. A kangaroo was among the animals desperate Russian soldiers resorted to eating at Yampil Zoo, it has been claimed (file photo) Many animals were eaten by the orcs, said one of the volunteers, using the Ukrainian slang for Russian invaders. According to the authorities, two camels, a kangaroo, a bison, some piglets, birds and wolves were killed. Those animals that were saved are being care for in the city of Dnipro. Before the February 24 invasion, zookeepers said the compound was home to a wide range of animals, including bears, camels, antelopes, and wild boars. Volunteers are collecting materials in order to contact Ukrainian law enforcement agencies with a view to pressing charges. Anthony Albanese's government could block new coal and gas projects on climate grounds even though soaring energy prices are set to dramatically worsen. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has approved an environmental group's legal bid to have 18 projects reassessed with increased focus on their climate impacts. The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ), represented by Environmental Justice Australia, took legal action in July to have 19 projects reviewed. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has approved an environmental group's legal bid to have 18 projects reassessed with increased focus on their climate impacts A smattering of protesters were met by a heavy police presence at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney on Friday, even though renewables were being discussed inside Last month's federal Budget instead predicted a scary 56 per cent hike in power prices in the next two years, on top of already ballooning bills. Of the planned projects being reconsidered, 14 are located in Queensland, four are in New South Wales and one is in Western Australia, Nine newspapers revealed. Of the 19 named in the legal challenge, 18 met the requirement for reconsideration according to a spokesperson for Ms Plibersek. As 'the decision-maker' for the now-threatened projects, Ms Plibersek could not comment further, the spokesperson said. The challenge was based on an obscure provision of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, said Environmental Justice Australia's principal lawyer Hollie Kerwin. Several projects in Central Queensland's Bowen basin could be rejected as a result, including the Lake Vermont Meadowbrook Coal Mine, the Caval Ridge Mine Horse Pit extension and the Baralaba South Coal Project. Last month's federal Budget predicted a scary 56 per cent hike in power prices in the next two years, on top of already ballooning bills The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ), represented by Environmental Justice Australia, took legal action in July to have the 19 projects reviewed - 18 met the requirement for reconsideration according to a spokesperson for Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (Pictured, mining protesters in Sydney) In NSW affected projects include the Boggabri Coal Mine and Whitehaven's Narrabri extension, while in WA Woodside Energy North West Shelf Project gas extension is now under threat. A major point of contention is whether governments are required to consider potential climate impacts as they try to provide for current - and not future - generations. Previous energy ministers ignored the climate impacts on animals and plants in granting approvals, ECoCeQ President Christine Carlisle claimed. 'The climate impact of each of the proposed mines and gas fields will devastate Australias living wonders,' she said. 'Every single one will have immense and irreversible impacts on the animals, plants and places that we want our children and their children to know and love.' But in March the Federal Court found then-Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley had no duty of care to protect young people from future climate change harm. The ECoCeQ gave the government more than 3,000 documents to support its case. These included fire maps and reports outlining the impact of climate change on natural environments. A major point of contention is whether governments are required to consider potential climate impacts as they try to provide for current - and not future - generations Anthony Albanese's government could block new coal and gas projects on climate grounds although soaring energy prices are set to dramatically worsen in the next two years (Pictured, Whitehaven's Narrabri mine. Its underground extension is one of the projects now under threat) The Albanese government's budget announced Labor will funnel $10million into climate activist groups the Environmental Defenders Office and Environmental Justice Australia. ECoCeQ has supported calls for Queensland to shut down all Queensland coal-fired power plans by 2030. Meanwhile, a smattering of protesters were met by a heavy police presence at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney on Friday. This was despite a major focus inside on how the industry can support renewables. One of the revelations at IMARC was that up to 80,000 abandoned mines could be reused for renewable or nature projects. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been called a 'disgrace' by a disgruntled voter who passed by a media conference on the second day of the state's election campaign. Mr Andrews had just stepped up to address gathered media in a Caulfield dog park on Friday when a middle-aged man walking behind the pack yelled out ' You're a disgrace!' The premier briefly looked in the direction of the man before saying, 'Ok... we're right to go?' to the assembled journalists. The man was seen glaring towards the premier before walking away. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was heckled as a 'disgrace' by a disgruntled voter during a press conference on the second day of the state's election campaign The man was seen glaring towards the premier before walking away during the Friday press conference Mr Andrews was again joined by his wife Cath (to his left), who was asked questions about Ryan Meuleman, the cyclist involved in an accident with the Andrews' family car when he was 15 in January 2013 at Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula Another man also heckled the premier as he made his way to his campaign bus. 'Why are you running away?' a protester asked Mr Andrews, the Herald Sun reported. 'Can I get on the bus with you? I hope hes not driving, or his wife.' Mr Andrews was again joined by his wife Cath at the press conference, where he was announcing an election commitment to create six new dog parks and upgrade 22 others across Melbourne. Mrs Andrews was asked questions about Ryan Meuleman, the cyclist involved in an accident with the Andrews' family car when he was 15 in January 2013 at Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula. Mr Meuleman said he never received 'justice' over the incident and claimed that Mr Andrews and his wife were slow to assist him after the accident. The premier has refused to answer questions on the issue, saying 'Ive gone to these matters in great detail and Ive got nothing further to add.' His wife, who it's alleged was driving the car at the time of the accident, was asked about the accident during the press conference on Friday. 'I dont know if youve ever been involved in an accident like this before,' Mrs Andrews responded. 'It was a terrible thing. It was so traumatic for everyone involved. Mrs Andrews posted a photo with her husband on the bus on the first day of the Victorian election campaign 'Campaign day one - with my number one,' Mr Andrews wrote in his post, which showed wife Cath looking on adoringly 'Our kids were really little, like [son] Joseph was only five. 'Daniel has spoken about this, Ive spoken about this, and Im going to leave it there.' Asked further about the incident she responded: 'This really traumatic incident happened 10 years ago so I have no further comment to add.' Mr Andrews again refused to answer questions about the accident at the press conference. The Andrews refused to answer questions about allegations made by a man they were involved in a car accident with in January 2013 Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and wife Catherine Andrews during a visit to the Alston Ballarat East Locomotive Depot on the first day of the Victorian election campaign On Thursday Mr and Mrs Andrews posted on social media to mark the first day of the election campaign, with Victorian voters going to the polls on November 26 as the Labor leader seeks a third term as premier. Mr Andrews posted a photo of his wife of 24 years gazing adoringly at him to Twitter, while she also published a photo of them together on 'the big red [campaign] bus'. 'Campaign day one - with my number one,' Mr Andrews wrote in his post. The posts produced both praise and condemnation from commenters. 'Please spare us,' one person responded. 'Your number 1 will be the first one to commiserate you at your loss,' said another. 'On world record pace for the most meaningless, 'look at me' tweets,' another commented. 'Good luck to both of you!' responded a woman, while another said 'Great pic Cath!'. Victorians will predicted to re-elect Labor over opposition leader Matthew Guy's Coalition line-up at the November 26 poll. A teenage boy was allegedly raped in by a man in his 30s while staying in a hotel housing refugees. The boy of about 13 is said to have been attacked by a man in Waltham Forest, east London, last month. A suspect has since been arrested. In a separate case a younger boy claimed he was sexually assaulted at the same hotel weeks earlier. Police said a boy, thought to be 17, had been charged with sexual touching of a child under 13. Grace Williams, leader of Waltham Forest Council, warned Home Secretary Suella Braverman: I am not assured that there is a safeguarding plan in the hotel. A No10 spokesman said: The current situation has led to huge numbers of people being accommodated in hotels. This isnt sustainable. The two incidents are alleged to have taken place within weeks of each other at a hotel where 150 children are reportedly squeezed in alongside 250 adults. The boy of about 13 is said to have been attacked by a man at a hotel housing refugees in Waltham Forest, east London, last month. A suspect has since been arrested. Labour MP Stella Creasy called for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to resign, The Guardian reports, insisting that the Home Office was failing in its responsibility to protect migrant children. Ms Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, stated: '[Braverman] is completely unfit for office and must resign, because when children are being sexually assaulted under her watch and her response is to say shes been on [the hotel comparison website] Trivago looking at the cost of the hotels, it demeans us all.' Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One, the MP added she felt 'shocked, horrified, and physically sick' at learning of the allegations. Ms Creasy added she had heard of similar allegations of assaults against children at other facilities. Hotel accommodation for asylum seekers almost trebled last year, despite instistences from the Home Office that it would end its use. But currently, the Government faces mounting pressure to house migrants away from unsafe and overcrowded immigrations centres. In a letter to Ms Braverman, leader of Waltham Forest Council Grace Williams wrote: 'We have continuously expressed our view that accommodating families with children in contingency hotels is detrimental to childrens wellbeing. It is now evident that it is a risk to their safety too.' Advertisement Twitter staff are bracing for a jobs bloodbath as Elon Musk looks set to cull 3,700 workers around the world following his dramatic $44billion takeover. Musk will be cutting around half of the workforce, with staff at the social media giant set to discover their fates at 9am PST. Those in the San Francisco building are anxiously waiting for an email with the subject Your Role at Twitter to drop into their inboxes by 9am today, while those in New York will find out their fates at 12pm. Are YOU a Twitter employee? emma.james@mailonline.com Advertisement Staff in London and Manchester will received the news in the same way, by 4pm local time in the UK, with many finding themselves locked out of their accounts when they woke up. Members of staff have reported being logged out of their work accounts and locked out of laptops while the company sealed offices for all of its employees, as Elon Musk began to make sweeping layoffs on Friday. Sacked workers are suing Musk for not giving enough notice of the mass job cuts, with some posting sentimental messages to the platform after being told they were to be unemployed. Offices in the UK and US have been shut down for the day by Musk, who warned employees that their buildings would be locked and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' As part of his plan to drive down costs at the company the world's richest man announced the cuts internally with an email, as employees banded together on internal channels to say goodbye. Workers say the company eliminating workers without enough notice is in violation of federal and California law, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court. Twitter employees appeared to be speaking to security detail at the headquarters for the company in New York on Friday morning Elon Musk 's (pictured) mass layoffs at Twitter have begun, with the company warning staff to brace for firing notices by email as it temporarily seals all its offices Workers gathered outside of the office in New York, despite being told to go home on Thursday and 'not to return' to the office as they would be closed Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021, and Musk (pictured on Halloween) reportedly plans to lay off up to half of them The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data' A picture of Ester Crawford asleep at the California offices on November 2 was posted on social media, with the early stage products worker writing: 'When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you sleep where you work' As the layoffs began, sacked Twitter employees posted on the platform under the '#OneTeam' hashtag about their final hours at the company, expressing a mixture of anger and sadness, and gratitude for their time working there. Simon Balmain, whose Twitter profile said he was a 'former Senior Community Manager' at the company, wrote: 'Looks like I'm unemployed y'all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack. #OneTeam forever. Loved you all so much. So sad it had to end this way.' He said he received an email saying there would be mass layoffs, 'and then around an hour later, folks started getting their laptops remotely wiped and access to Slack and Gmail revoked.' Another user named Johann told his followers: 'Heya I just lost access to all my Twitter logins so I guess that's it.' Another by the name of Miryam wrote: 'Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.' She wrote the message along-side a picture of her posing in front of a large blue Twitter bird mounted on a wall at the offices. Karen Zapata, another employee, posted a picture of her laptop screen, having been locked out. 'This gray screen could have been a meeting,' she wrote - suggesting she was unhappy with how impersonal the sacking was. One Twitter employee shared a selfie of her and two other colleagues in an elevator which she wrote was at Twitter's New York City offices. 'Last teary eyed @TwitterNYC elevator selfie,' she wrote. The employee, named Rena, also posted that she had been 'logged out' of the Twitter Slack channels and her email account. Rumman Chowdhury, another employee, shared a screenshot showing she had been locked out of her emails. Several other users reported experiencing the same black-out. Some wrote how Twitter employees spent their final hours talking on the company's Slack (an internal business instant messaging app), sharing memories while waiting to hear whether they would lose their jobs or not. Musk is appearing to ignore the mass layoffs on his Twitter page, but has been active in the past few hours following the news breaking Twitter (pictured: Its office in San Francisco) said its offices will be temporarily closed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' Staff who have been laid off will be notified of the next steps in a message to their personal email addresses with the subject line 'Your Role at Twitter', the memo said. Pictured: Library image of Twitter's offices in New York Simon Balmain, whose Twitter profile said he was a 'former Senior Community Manager' at the company, wrote: 'Looks like I'm unemployed y'all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack. #OneTeam forever. Loved you all so much. So sad it had to end this way.' 'Honestly happy to be laid off but the veil of @elonmusk is pierced,' the user by the name of Kushal Dave wrote on the platform. 'As messy as Twitter was pre-elon, it is a veritable clowntown of politics and toadyism and psychological abuse now. Afraid to get in my Tesla with what I learned this week.' Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth posted his condolences to those who had been laid off and is currently the only executive member of Twitter staff to publicly acknowledge the layoffs Twitter email sent late Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, notifying employees of plans to cut jobs Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward. Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder. If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email. If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email. If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email peoplequestions@twitter.com. To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home. We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere. We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process. Thank you. Twitter source: The Washington Post Advertisement Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth posted his condolences to those who had been laid off and is currently the only executive member of Twitter staff to publicly acknowledge the layoffs. He said: Tweeps: My DMs are always open to you. Tell me how I can help. Kushal Dave is one of the only employees to say that he is happy to be laid off, but was quick to slam Musk for the way he conducted his takeover calling him Voldemort. He said: Honestly happy to be laid off but the veil of Elon Musk is pierced. As messy as Twitter was pre-Elon, it is a veritable clowntown of politics and toadyism and psychological abuse now. Afraid to get in my Tesla with what I learned this week. And extremely p***** for the people who were on the wrong side of Elon's court intrigue. This isn't a game. Also just bad decision making as a business owner. Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021. Musk started his cull last week when he took over the company by firing former CEO Parag Agarwal as well as top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company's advertising, marketing, and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' Staff reported access to their email and other communication software - such as Slack - had been cut, with little or no warning. They also reported being remotely logged out of laptops, which were wiped of data. Employees in London reported losing access overnight, finding they were unable to log in on Friday morning. Workers in the UK have been joining trade unions in an effort to protect their employment rights after the mass cuts were announced. Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, a UK-based trade union said it has seen an influx of sign-ups from Twitter employees over the last week. Clancy called on the UK government to ensure that Twitter doesnt become a 'digital P&O,' referring to the ferry company that cut 800 jobs in March. He said: 'Twitter is treating its people appallingly. We are supporting our members at Twitter and will be working with them to defend them and their livelihoods.' Prior to buying Twitter, Musk tweeted that the company under his ownership 'will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.' Kushal Dave is one of the only employees to say that he is happy to be laid off, but was quick to slam Musk for the way he conducted his takeover calling him Voldemort Chris Younie, who works for Twitter in entertainment partnerships, tweeted: 'Well this isnt looking promising. Cant log into emails. Mac won't turn on. But so grateful this is happening at 3am. Really appreciate the thoughtfulness on the timing front guys...' Joan Deitchman, a senior engineer manager, confirmed that her entire team had been sacked by Musk, and were unable to access any of their work Twitter Q&A: Why did Musk buy Twitter and what is he planning to change? How did Twitter get started? The origins of Twitter date back to 2006, when its founder Jack Dorsey was working at Odeo, a podcasting company. After being asked to pitch ideas to his colleagues, Dorsey shared his concept for a new platform which allowed users to share short messages similar to texts. In the first ever tweet on March 21, 2006, Dorsey wrote: 'Just setting up my twttr.' Twitter made its public debut in July and quickly grew in popularity. Why was Musk critical of the platform? Must has long been one of Twitter's most prominent users, and has regularly tweeted criticism of the platform. He's long claimed it is not sufficiently protective of free speech, focusing on examples such as the 'incredibly inappropriate' 2020 blocking of a New York Post article on Hunter Biden, which the company has since said was a mistake. Musk has also criticised the number of bots on the platform and suggested it was a threat to democracy. How did he go about taking control of it? On January 31, the billionaire started buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5 per cent stake in the company by mid-March. In March, he said he was giving 'serious thought' to building an alternative to Twitter and began privately contacting Twitter board members, including Dorsey, a friend. The next month, Musk was offered a seat on Twitter's board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9 per cent of the company's stock, but CEO Parag Agrawal later announced he would not be joining the board after all. Then, on April 14, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44bn (39bn). This kicked off several months of rollercoaster negotiations, which appeared to fizzle out on May 13 when Musk announced his planned purchase was 'on hold' due to a row over bots. Several flip-flops followed before he completed his $44bn (38.1bn) takeover last week. 'The bird is freed,' he tweeted afterwards. What changes has he been proposing? Must has claimed to be motivated to take over Twitter because it is 'important for the future of humanity'. The changes he is planning include - BLUE TICK FOR $8 A MONTH - Musk wants to bring in a monthly charge for verified users from Monday. This has sparked a backlash, but the billionaire insists it is necessary if the platform is to balance it's books. FREE SPEECH - Musk's feistiest priority - but also the one with the vaguest roadmap - is to make Twitter a 'politically neutral' digital town square for the world's discourse that allows as much free speech as each country's laws allow. OPEN-SOURCED ALGORITHMS - Musk's longstanding interest in AI is reflected in one of the most specific proposals he outlined in his merger announcement - the promise of 'making the algorithms open source to increase trust.' He's talking about the systems that rank content to decide what shows up on users feeds. `DEFEATING THE SPAM BOTS' - 'Spam bots' that mimic real people have been a personal nuisance to Musk, whose popularity on Twitter has inspired countless impersonator accounts that use his image and name - often to promote cryptocurrency scams that look as if they're coming from the Tesla CEO. AD-FREE TWITTER? Musk has floated the idea of an ad-free Twitter, though it wasn't one of the priorities outlined in the official merger announcement. He has also spoken out to reassure advertisers Twitter remains a good place to grow their businesses. However, subscribers paying the $8 a month blue tick charge have been promised fewer ads. Will Donald Trump return? Musk is expected to soon start welcoming back users who were handed lifetime bans from the platform including former US president. However, the billionaire suggested this would not happen until after the Midterm elections. 'Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,' he tweeted on Wednesday. He had previously vowed to set up a content moderation council and said no major content decisions would be made until it was in place. Trump has welcomed Musk's takeover, saying the platform was not 'in sane hands'. What's happened to Twitter staff? As part of his plan to drive down costs since acquiring the social media company for $44bn (39bn), the world's richest man plans to cut around 3,700 jobs - about half of Twitter's workforce. But employees say the company is eliminating workers without enough notice in violation of federal and California law, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court. The company warned staff to brace for firing notices in a memo on Thursday night. It said all employees will receive an email alert by 9am Pacific time Friday letting them know whether they still have a job at the company. Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021. The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' Staff have now sued Musk in the US for not giving them enough notice. What could Musk's approach to moderation look like? Musk has been very vocal about easing content moderation policies, noting in April that if a tweet includes contents that are 'a gray area' it should stay. But following concerns from advertisers, Musk released an open letter last week in which he reassured them Twitter would not be allowed to become a 'free for all hellscape'. 'Fundamentally,' he said, 'Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.' Therefore, much about how Musk will seek to moderate abusive content or disinformation remains unclear. Some Twitter users sought to test his limits today by spreading a fake rumour about Donald Trump being dead. Advertisement Last week he lamented in a tweet that 'there seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding.' The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees. Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company's Slack channels to say goodbye, two employees told Reuters. Someone invited Musk to join the channel, the sources said. In an email, staff were told to 'return home' if they were in an office or on their way to go to work. It stated: 'In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. 'We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward.' The email concluded acknowledging that it will be 'an incredibly challenging experience to go through' for the workforce. The class action lawsuit filed on Thursday alleged that Twitter is in violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act after some employees were already laid off. It requires and employer with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days advance written notice prior to a mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment. The lawsuit asked the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the act, and restrict the company from asking employees to sign documents that could surrender their right to take part in litigation. Lisa Bloom, a lawyer and founder of The Bloom Firm, said 'A layoff of 50+ employees within a 30 day period qualifies [for the WARN act].' Addressing sacked Twitter employees, she wrote: 'I know you didn't get that notice.' 'This WARN law applies to all California employers of 75+ employees, which obviously includes Twitter with its thousands of employees,' she explained. 'Purpose of the law is to give laid off employees time to figure out how to handle this disruption. And Elon completely ignores it.' The class-action lawsuit was filed by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who sued Musk's electric car company Tesla Inc. over similar claims in June, when it laid off around 10 percent of its workforce. She said: 'We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights.' Twitter said its employees who are not affected by the layoffs will be notified via their work email addresses on Friday morning. Staff who have been laid off will be notified of the next steps in a message to their personal email addresses with the subject line 'Your Role at Twitter', the memo said. 'Please check your email, including your spam folder,' the memo advised. 'We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.' Staff at Twitter's offices in Australia are expected to receive an email at 1am on Saturday telling them whether or not they have been sacked, while Twitter's UK employees are also bracing themselves to hear whether they will fall victim to Musk's mass sackings. British staff were asleep when their laptops were 'remotely wiped' and their access to Slack and Gmail revoked, according to one staffer. Thousands of workers, who are describing themselves as ex-Tweeps have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the sackings. Yash Agarwal, 25, posted a picture of himself at the twitter offices, adding: Just got laid off. Bird App, it was an absolute honour, the greatest privilege ever to be a part of this team, this culture. Rachel Bonn posted a picture of her last day in the San Francisco office, saying: Last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9-month-old. Just got cut off from laptop access. The notification of layoffs caps off a week of high-level purges by Musk, as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company. Last week he lamented in a tweet that 'there seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding.' Musk wavered throughout his attempt to buy Twitter on how many positions he would eliminate, originally saying as many as 75 percent of the company's workers (5,625) would be cut, before some reports suggested it would actually be 25 percent (1,875). The 3,700 cuts now being touted would amount to about half the staff, and would see them follow out five high-level executives who have resigned in the past week. The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees. Musk's first week as Twitter's owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled mere hours later. Managers have been forbidden from calling team meetings or communicating directly with staff, one senior Twitter employee said, adding that they were being monitored. 'It feels like we're working among the Gestapo,' the person said. Musk has installed a group of his loyalist friends in the days after removing the top executives at Twitter, surrounding himself with his trusted inner circle. He put his personal lawyer and tech investors David Sacks and Jason Calacanis into the company, though it is not clear exactly what their roles will be going forward. Alex Spiro, a trial attorney, is also part of the team and is understood to have led the first round of Twitter layoffs of the CEO and CFO. The inner circle is then completed with investor Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter product leader, and Jared Birchall who heads up Musks family office. Musk has also directed Twitter Inc's teams to find up to $1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message. Even as Musk cuts costs, he faces threats to Twitter's revenue as a growing number of companies pause their advertising on the platform over concerns about whether it will remain 'safe' for brands. 'We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation,' an Audi spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday, one week after the completion of Musk's $44 billion buyout. Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company's Slack channels to say goodbye. Twitter workers are seen above Billionaire Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter's head office in San Francisco as he buys the social media company Carmaker Audi and General Mills, the packaged-food titan behind Cheerios, have joined a growing list of companies halting their ad spending on Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership General Mills, which makes Cheerios, Pillsbury and Haagen-Dazs, confirmed a pause, saying: 'We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend' Twitter 'loses more than a MILLION users' since Elon Musk's takeover A data firm has found that Twitter may have lost over a million users since new boss Elon Musk bought the tech company for $44 billion, showing that some users have been suspended by the company and others may have deactivated out of protest. The firm Bot Sentinel tracks inauthentic Twitter behavior by analyzing over 3.1 million accounts and their daily activity. Bot Sentinel believes approximately 877,000 accounts were deactivated and another 497,000 were suspended between October 27 and November 1, more than double the usual number. Bouzy and Bot Sentinel came up with the numbers after analyzing their proportion of users and seeing how many suspended or deactivated, and then applying that to the total number of Twitter users. Twitter currently has around 237 million 'monetizable daily active users,' according to the firm. The company could not be reached for comment on the story. They found that around 0.59 percent of the users they monitor had suspended or deactivated, which indicated a 208 percent increase in account losses compared to the days before Musk purchased the company. Bouzy pointed to users complaining about Musk's takeover to explain why many people may have logged off of Twitter for good. 'We believe the uptick in deactivations is a result of people upset with Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and deciding to deactivate their accounts in protest,' he said. He also said he believes many accounts were suspended partly because they tried to test what hate speech is now permissible under the platform's new leadership. 'We also believe the increase in suspensions is from Twitter taking action on accounts purposely violating Twitter's rules to see if they can push the limits of free speech,' he said. By Joseph Michalitsianos for DailyMail.com Advertisement Likewise, a spokesperson for General Mills, which also makes Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Haagen-Dazs, confirmed a pause, saying: 'We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend.' Carmakers appear especially worried about fair treatment under Musk, who is the CEO of rival Tesla, and last week General Motors announced it had 'temporarily paused' all paid advertising on Twitter. As well, Oreo-maker Mondelez International and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have both paused their Twitter ad spending, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter. Spokespersons for Mondelez and Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday evening. Twitter has stopped responding to all press inquiries, except for the few that Musk answers by tweet. Musk last week promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a 'free-for-all hellscape' and is now scrambling to convince advertisers that he will uphold the commitment. Some advertisers have reportedly vowed to boycott Twitter for good if former president Donald Trump is allowed to return. Musk said on Wednesday it would be several weeks before a process is in place to reinstate banned accounts. A media buyer at one major ad agency, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said the agency would meet with Musk this week to ask how the Tesla boss plans to handle misinformation on the social media platform. The buyer also wanted to know how Musk's pledge squared with his own actions, including one tweet over the weekend that spread a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul. Other topics include Musk's plan to raise the cost of Twitter's subscription service and serve 'half as many ads,' and who will serve as advertisers' point of contact after a procession of senior executives, including Twitter's ad chief, left the company since he took over. The ad agencies' top clients are expected to join the meeting, the media buyer said. After tweeting in 2019 about his dislike of advertising, Musk is now under pressure to avoid alienating the advertisers who contribute more than 90 percent of Twitter's revenue. He is spending his first week as CEO in New York, with venture capitalist friends joining him in meetings to reassure companies that contribute more than $5 billion annually to Twitter. Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and podcast host who is assisting Musk in his first week of ownership, tweeted on Monday that Twitter had a 'very productive day' of meetings with advertisers and marketers. Another media buyer who spoke with Reuters said their agency will not meet with Musk until he articulates a direction for Twitter or provides a substantive update on how the platform will serve advertisers. Some clients have already begun to pause ad spending on Twitter this week, said the second media buyer, who declined to name the advertisers as the source was not authorized to do so. The buyer said some clients had already pulled out of Twitter due to the months-long chaos around the deal, and some in response to concerns about child sexual abuse material on Twitter. 'We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation,' an Audi spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday Oreo-maker Mondelez International has also reportedly paused Twitter ad spending Jason Calacanis, who is assisting Musk in his first week of ownership, tweeted on Monday that Twitter had a 'very productive day' of meetings with advertisers Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness' Searches for 'How to delete Twitter' have surged by 500% in the past week Google search engine data suggests Twitter users really are leaving the platform in their droves now Elon Musk is the new owner. Experts at security firm VPNOverview have used Google Trends to establish search increases over the past week since Musk's $44 billion (38 billion) takeover. Globally, searches for 'How to delete Twitter' surged by 500 per cent in the past week, from October 24 to October 31, the firm found. Searches for 'boycott Twitter' are also up 4,800 per cent in the last seven days, from October 26 to November 2. It's already known many Twitter users are losing followers due to accounts disappearing, likely due to deletion. Deleting a Twitter account is actually a 'straightforward and easy process' that can be completed in a few steps, VPNOverview says, although users wanting to 'disengage' from the site should not feel compelled to do so. Naj Ahmed, a privacy expert at VPNOverview, said it's 'unlikely' that there will be immediate wholesale changes at Twitter and that the takeover 'doesn't mean a whole lot right away'. 'Twitter's not trying to revolutionise the way people communicate, or disrupt an existing industry, unlike most of Mr Musk's existing companies,' Ahmed said. 'This is quite different from most of Mr Musk's portfolio, as it's one of the few times that he's bought an established company that isn't trying to push the boundaries of what's possible.' By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline Advertisement IPG, an advertising holding company that represents major clients including Coca-Cola and American Express, has advised clients to pause their Twitter ads for the next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. Even as Musk took meetings with major agencies and advertisers this week, he took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness.' Of more than two million votes, nearly 80 percent answered 'freedom of speech.' 'Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters,' the media buyer said. More marketers also took to LinkedIn to voice their concerns about Musk's takeover of the platform. 'Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this 'free' platform safe from hate speech, it's not a platform brands can/should advertise on,' said Allie Wassum, global director of social and integrated media for Jordan shoe brand, which is owned by Nike, in a post on Linkedin. Wassum did not respond to a request for further comment. In addition to cutting Twitter staff, another idea Musk has pitched is a charge for the platform's iconic blue tick - the mark used to identify verified users - claiming the move will end the current 'lords and peasants' system. The 'badges' could go live as soon as Monday, Bloomberg reported, with current blue check holders receiving a 'grace period' of multiple months before being forced to either pay or lose the badge, which is as a verification mark for high-profile users. Musk's touted move has been criticised by some, who say key users of the platform create the content that gives it value. Others have said previous attempts by companies to monetise something previously free have seldom been successful. He originally suggested $20 a month for verification but appeared to lower the cost after an exchange earlier this week with horror writer Stephen King, where he offered him a discount. The billionaire is looking to make good on his promise to make the social media platform turn a profit by introducing a charge for Twitter users wanting to keep their verification badge. Musk suggested publishers who are 'willing to work' with Twitter will get a 'paywall bypass' and social media stars will also be getting a secondary heading like politicians. Content creators will also get rewarded through a revenue stream. 'You get what you pay for,' the father-of-eight tweeted on Wednesday. He also celebrated 'being attacked by both the right and left simultaneously,' calling it a 'good sign.' But in a sign that the price might not be a done deal, Musk responded to a tweet from the author of The Shining complaining about the new charge. '$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,' wrote King, who has 6.9 million followers. 'If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron.' 'Doesn't seem very free speechy to me': AOC mocks new Twitter boss Elon Musk as she reveals her Twitter account 'conveniently' froze after she 'upset him' by calling him out over his new $8-a-month charge Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 33, called out Elon Musk, 51, for 'selling people on the idea that 'free speech' is actually an $8/[month] subscription plan' Billionaire businessman replied to AOC Tuesday evening, saying: 'Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8' Musk, who's estimated to be worth $223billion, proposed on Tuesday an $8-a-month subscription free for a verification checkmark. He said the current 'lords and peasants system' in place at Twitter was 'bulls**t' Their feud continued overnight, with Musk pointing to a $58 AOC sweater And she shared a screenshot of her 'bricked' account today, bashing Musk By Chris Jewers for MailOnline Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's dispute with new Twitter CEO Elon Musk continued on Thursday - after she claimed her account 'conveniently' stopped working after she called him out over plans to charge $8-a-month for a blue tick. Musk, 51, had previously hit back at critics of the proposal, which could begin to be implemented as soon as Monday, saying that the current 'lords and peasants system' in place at Twitter was 'bulls**t.' The blue check mark is used by the platform to show when a user has been verified as authentic. There are around 400,000 verified users on Twitter, covering anyone from celebrities, journalists, brands and politicians - including AOC and Musk. And the representative called out Musk again this morning - questioning his grand plans for free speech when her own account was seemingly 'bricked' after she spoke out yesterday. She wrote today: 'Yo Elon Musk while I have your attention, why should people pay $8 just for their app to get bricked when they say something you don't like? 'This is what my app has looked like ever since my tweet upset you yesterday. What's good? Doesn't seem very free speechy to me.' AOC, 33, yesterday called out Musk's new plan for verification on the app, writing: 'One guy's business plan for a $44 billion over-leveraged purchase is apparently to run around and individually ask people for $8. 'Remember that next time you question yourself or your qualifications.' Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (left) dispute with new Twitter CEO Elon Musk (right) continued today when she claimed her account 'conveniently' stopped working after she called him out over plans to charge $8-a-month for a blue tick AOC shared a screenshot of her account and complained that her app had been 'bricked' 'One guy's business plan for a $44 billion over-leveraged purchase is apparently to run around and individually ask people for $8,' AOC wrote in a tweet (pictured). 'Remember that next time you question yourself or your qualifications.' Her Tweet came after Musk hit back at her criticisms, pointing to a sweatshirt on AOC's campaign website that costs $58, in an attempt to defend the touted fee. 'Proud of this and always will be,' AOC said, swiping back at Musk's tweet. 'My workers are union, make a living wage, have full healthcare, and aren't subject to racist treatment in their workplaces. Items are made in USA. Team AOC honors and respects working people. You should try it sometime instead of union-busting.' She added in another post: 'Not to mention all proceeds go to community organizing like our Homework Helpers program which gives private tutoring to kids who've needed learning support since COVID: Check out our shop!' she added. Shortly after, she claimed that her Twitter account had stopped working properly. 'Also my twitter mentions/notifications conveniently aren't working tonight, so I was informed via text that I seem to have gotten under a certain billionaire's skin,' she wrote. 'Just a reminder that money will never but your way out of insecurity, folks.' Others hit out at Musk by posting pictures of Tesla apparel, including sweatshirts, being sold for even more than AOC's, while pointing out that the Congresswoman sells the clothes to raise funds for her political campaigning. Earlier, AOC had criticized Musk for heralding his purchase of Twitter as a victory for free speech - before announcing the $8 charge. 'Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that 'free speech' is actually an $8/[month] subscription plan,' she wrote. It was to this that the billionaire responded with the picture of the sweater. Musk hit back at AOC's criticisms, pointing to a sweatshirt on AOC's campaign website that costs $58, in an attempt to defend the touted fee (pictured) 'Proud of this and always will be,' AOC quickly hit back at the tweet. 'My workers are union, make a living wage, have full healthcare, and aren't subject to racist treatment in their workplaces. Items are made in USA. Team AOC honors and respects working people. You should try it sometime instead of union-busting.' Musk, who's estimated to be worth $223billion, announced earlier on Tuesday that the current 'lords and peasants system' in place at Twitter was 'bulls**t.' 'Power to the people! Blue for $8/[month],' he wrote. As part of his proposed plan, verified users will get 'priority in replies, mention, and searches... ability to post long video and audio, and half as many ads.' He also said that publishers who are 'willing to work' with Twitter will get a 'paywall bypass' and social media stars will also be getting a secondary heading like politicians. Content creators will also get rewarded through a revenue stream. 'You get what you pay for,' the father-of-eight tweeted Wednesday. He also celebrated 'being attacked by both the right and left simultaneously,' calling it a 'good sign' for his proposed changes. Musk originally suggested $20 a month for verification but appeared to lower the cost after an exchange earlier this week with horror writer Stephen King, where he offered him a discount. The billionaire is looking to make good on his promise to make the social media platform turn a profit by introducing a charge for Twitter users wanting to keep their verification badge. However, there are roughly 400,000 verified users on Twitter. Should all users currently with a blue tick decide to pay the $8-a-month fee, Twitter would rake in $3.2 million per month, and $38.4 million each year - which is unlikely to cover the costs incurred from Musk's $44 billion acquisition. A father allegedly tortured his seven-month-old baby son with an 'offensive instrument' over a period of seven months before he and the boy's mother allegedly murdered him. South African-born Reinhardt Bosch, 33, and German-born Noemi Kondacs, 22, faced Brisbane Magistrates Court via video link for the first time on Friday. They are charged with one count each of murder and torture of their child, Rhuan Immanuel. Bosch, who court documents said is a youth worker born in Pretoria, also faces one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm. Paramedics had called police to the home on Mount Samson Road in Yugar, north of Brisbane, about 6.45am on Thursday after they found the boy unresponsive. Reinhardt Bosch, 33, and Noemi Kondacs, 22, appeared via video link in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday after they were charged with one count each of murder and torture 'Getting a brief from my officers, it was just the most horrendous and confronting scene that you could ever face as a police officer,' Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll told ABC radio on Friday. The couple, said to be deeply religious, were taken into custody at the scene where the infant was located deceased, police said. Police allege the father used the unidentified instrument on the child over the course of almost his whole life from April until November. Court documents allege Bosch tortured Rhuan and assaulted him while armed with an offensive instrument causing bodily harm between April 11 and November 2. He and the Kondacs allegedly murdered the baby on November 2, before his body was found by the paramedics the following morning. It's alleged the parents prayed for the child's recovery until they phoned for an ambulance when he was found unresponsive. Ambulance officers called police to a home on Mount Samson Road in Yugar, north of Brisbane, about 6.45am on Thursday after they found the boy unresponsive Police immediately sealed off the home as a crime scene and established Operation Uniform Salwood to probe the death. 'At this stage we have no information that would suggest the child has any underlying health issues,' Detective Inspector David Jackman said on Thursday. 'The investigations uncovered injuries to the child that are enough for us to charge with murder.' Bosch made the initial call to paramedics, Det Insp Jackman said. The couple were not previously known to police, and nor was the address. Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said officers found a 'horrendous and confronting scene' at the home Mark Platt from Sun and Co Lawyers represented the co-accused during their brief mentions and said alternative representation is being sought for Kondacs. Bosch and Kondacs only spoke when asked if they could hear the judge. Bosch faces an additional charge of assault occasioning bodily harm. The Magistrates Court does not have jurisdiction to hear bail applications for murder charges, and their matters were adjourned for December 5. A passenger on a flight from Bali to Brisbane has pleaded guilty to exposing his penis and urinating on the floor of the aircraft as it began its descent. James Hughes, 72, was flying back from the Indonesian holiday island on Wednesday afternoon when he exposed his penis and urinated on the floor, while still seated. The New Zealand man had drank several small bottles of wine before the incident, an Australian Federal Police statement said. New Zealand man James Hughes, 72, flashed his penis and urinated on the floor of plane travelling from Bali to Brisbane (stock image) Officers confronted him after the plane touched down and issued him with an infringement notice for disorderly behaviour in public. Hughes faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday and entered a guilty plea. He was handed a 12 month good behaviour bond. AFP Airport Police Commander at Brisbane Airport, Superintendent Mark Colbran slammed the New Zealand man over the disgraceful act. 'Antisocial or illegal behaviour is unacceptable in any setting and the AFP will not tolerate it at Australia's airports,' he said. 'The AFP expects passengers to be responsible when consuming alcohol - families and other travellers have a right to feel safe.' HYDERABAD: Bharat Jodo is the event of the century a Historic and Revolutionary Yatra to unite the nation in these times of crisis. In the history of India, this becomes the third-most revolutionizing, inspirational, result-oriented and unifying event of India; the other two being the Dandi March and movement for the abolition of untouchability by late Mahatma Gandhiji. This is not mere description but facts of history and a reflection on the days happenings in the country. Dandi march accelerated the movement for freedom, in 1933. It resulted in India attaining independence, in 1947. The second one, another historic event a social revolution and a much-needed agitation for social balance, self-respect and inclusiveness was the Yatra of Mahatma Gandhi again, against untouchability. That was the objective of the Congress Party. Gandhiji faced obstacles in his efforts to unify this nation and realise the dream of a secular India where there was social balance, self-respect and inclusiveness. For instance, people from Kashi took to the streets, blocked the roads and did not allow him to walk vested interests were obstructing him, but he surged forward unfazed. After independence, India constitutionally guaranteed inclusiveness for those who were left deprived for thousands of years - by making reservations for development at social level, ensuring social justice. So, they now live with self-respect. Now, there are three things to analyse - What India was before the British Raj - What it was during the British Raj - What Congress made India till 2014, after independence Before the British took over, India was the most talked of - the richest country in the world. Alexander invaded India. People came from other countries just to learn about this country. For example, Pahiyan and Hieun Tsang from China visited India because of its greatness. Columbus wished to find a sea route to India, but landed in America (thus the native inhabitants were mistakenly called Red Indians). It survived many invasions before, right from the 14th century, but the British blow was the deadliest. India succumbed to it. They came for business but inflicted brutality on India for two centuries. They took over all the princely states of India. They took over the nation and robbed it of all its resources. They never gave the nation an opportunity to grow. During the two or three famines that occurred, nearly 3.5 million people died of starvation. Several people died of floods and even power supply was a distant dream. Indias population was 350 million when the British left India. What ensued was the spell of death, of hunger and starvation. Food production was insufficient and not even closer to 50 million tonnes in 1947. India had to import wheat from America under PL480 during the 1950s. But the figures grew to 300 million tonnes in 2014, and now we are exporting to 128 countries. By 2014, India became the third largest in purchasing power criteria and the fifth largest in terms of GDP growth. A country which was suppressed by the British has surpassed the economy of an empire over which the sun never set!!! However, now, under the present governments rule, economy is at doldrums. Crores of people have downgraded from above poverty to below poverty black money in Swiss banks went up from Rs 14000 crores in 2014 to Rs 31000 crores by 2022. Foreign outflow is increased by capitalists and they are easily escaping to other countries. The slogan of Make in India by Modi has remained a mere slogan. Imports from China have increased manifold during the BJP rule. Foreign exchange reserves have come down drastically. BJP is looting the country (like the British and is selling India). BJP is toppling the governments of Congress with looted resources and has no regard for democratic values and law of the land. Congress brought the Anti-Defection law to prevent Party Switching, with good intentions and with respect for the values of democracy, but BJP is breaching the law without remorse. Under this government, religion, caste and region have become the governing motto and BJP continues to divide the country and its society based on these criteria. The time has come for this country to unite, face the challenges of division, face the challenge of unemployment and price rise. For this, this historic yatra of Rahul Gandhi is going to make the nation turn wheels for the better, for what the Congress believed all through. From Gandhi to Gandhi in the interest of the people and the nation!! We welcome it!! We participate in it. We fight for the ideals and programs of Congress party!!! a party which has been secular, tolerant, and progressive. So, with this yatra, with this commitment, India will be the number one superpower in the world, provided we stick to these ideals. It may be an objective, but Congress has the history of realizing the impossible dreams because of our concern, commitment, programs and policies and we continue to believe in our ideals laid down by our predecessors who gave up their lives for the nation. India is the land of revolution. Every time there was an oppression, the people of India geared up to be warriors to defeat the enemy. This time again, Rahul Gandhijis Bharat Jodo yatra will unite our nation. (The writer is former PCC chief Ponnala Laxmaiah) Stacey Abrams on Thursday defended her claim that Georgia's election reform law was 'Jim Crow 2.0', despite voters turning out to the polls in her state in record numbers. Abrams, who is running for governor of the state, was a fierce critic of SB 202 - the Election Integrity Act of 2021 - which was signed into law by her Republican rival, Governor Brian Kemp, in March 2021. Yet, contrary to her dire warnings, Georgia has seen the highest levels of early voting in history. Abrams told MSNBC on Thursday night that her warnings remained valid - and voters were showing up despite the new law. 'Let's be clear, they are participating despite the impediments of SB 202,' she said. 'Despite the racially-charged voter challenges authorized by SB202. 'Despite the barriers to using absentee ballots, which black voters used in abundance in 2018 and '21. Until the time was truncated and the process made more come complicated.' Stacey Abrams, hoping to be elected as governor of Georgia, has repeatedly called last year's election reform law 'Jim Crow 2.0'. Record numbers of people are voting in her state, however. Abrams on Thursday said that they were voting despite the 'barriers' Georgians are taking advantage of early voting in record numbers this year Abrams said black voters are crossing 'barriers' to cast ballots 'because they know how vital this election is.' She admitted the turnout was remarkable - even among those people she said would be hardest hit by the election reform. On October 26, Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, confirmed that over a million people had already cast their ballots in his state. Georgia has had record early voting turnout since the first day of polling this year - with nearly twice the number being recorded on the first day of early voting in 2018. 'Georgia voters are giving their county election directors a tremendous blessing by taking advantage of the unprecedented variety of Early Voting options available to all Georgians,' said Raffensperger. 'Reducing the burden on the counties is crucial for a safe, secure, and accessible election.' Abrams agreed it was remarkable. 'The numbers are extraordinary,' she said. 'We have seen black men participate at 91.8 percent of their 2020 general election turnout. 'We have seen black women participate at 90 percent. These are the two highest concentrations of voters.' Early voters line up to cast their ballots on October 29 in DeKalb County Citizens cast their votes for the November midterm elections at early voting locations in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia, this week Abrams has long argued that the law would disenfranchise voters by, among other things, making it optional for polling stations to open on Sundays, and decreeing that drop boxes will only be accessible during early voting days and hours instead of 24/7. 'Now more than ever, we need federal action to protect voting rights as we continue to fight against these blatantly unconstitutional efforts that are nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0,' she tweeted on March 25, 2021. Her words were echoed by Joe Biden, who in January told a rally in Atlanta: 'Their endgame? To turn the will of the voters into a mere suggestion something states can respect or ignore.' He added: 'Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion. 'It's no longer about who gets to vote; it's about making it harder to vote. 'It's about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all. 'It's not hyperbole; this is a fact.' Last week the White House defended Biden's comments - arguing that high voter turnout and voter suppression can happen at the same time. 'High turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the record turn out of early voters in Georgia, a state President Joe Biden claimed had a 'Jim Crow'-style voting law: 'High turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' she said Young people pass a voting information sign on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia In 2022, at least seven states enacted 10 laws that make voting more difficult of these, five laws in five states are in place for the midterms, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. 'The president has been very clear that based on The Big Lie, there have been a host of anti-voter policies for some states that challenge Americans' fundamental right to vote,' Jean-Pierre said. 'This is against our most basic values. 'Of course, high turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' she added. 'One doesn't have to happen on its own. It can happen at the same time.' She declined to get into more specific details, citing the Hatch Act, a federal law forbidding federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job. Republicans have seized on the Georgia numbers as vindication for their 2021 rewrite of state election law. The turnout is record-setting, said Tate Mitchell, a spokesperson for the Kemp campaign, 'while Stacey Abrams continues to spread the myth of voter suppression.' Abrams pushes back against that taunt, even as she, too, celebrates the high early turnout. 'More people in the water does not mean there are fewer sharks,' said Abrams last week. Musk reportedly plans to cut up to half of Twitter's 7,500 global workforce US staff find out if they keep their job at 9am Friday, Aussie staff at 1am Saturday The company sent an email to all staff worldwide about upcoming lay-offs Staff at Twitter's Australian office will be told if they still have a job this weekend Staff at Twitter's Australian office will anxiously check their phones at 1am on Saturday to see if they still have their jobs, as new CEO Elon Musk begins a global cull of the social media platform's employees. An email was sent to all full-time Twitter staff worldwide to announce that there was would be massive lay-offs to ensure the company remains on a 'healthy path' going forward. Australian employees will be notified on Saturday at 1am AEDT if they will still have their jobs, while US staff will be made aware on Friday at 9am. Employees at Twitter's Australian office (pictured) will find out on Saturday at 1am if they keep their job after Elon Musk's recent takeover Twitter's new owner Elon Musk (pictured) has begun a cull of the social media company's global workforce 'In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,' the internal email read. 'We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward.' The email then revealed: 'By 9am PST on Friday November 4th (1am Saturday morning AEDT), everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter.' Employees who keep their positions will have the email sent to their Twitter address. Those who have been sacked will receive the next steps about their termination via their personal email address. The memo added that all offices would be temporarily closed and access suspended 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data'. Twitter had a global workforce of some 7500 employees at the end of 2021, and Musk reportedly plans to lay off up to half of them. An email was sent to all full-time Twitter staff worldwide to announce that there was would be massive lay-offs It's reported that Musk will sack up to half of Twitter's global workforce of 7500 employees The notification of layoffs caps off a week of high-level purges by Musk, as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company. He had already cleared out the company's senior ranks, firing its chief executive and top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company's advertising, marketing, and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. Prior to buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk tweeted that the company under his ownership 'will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.' Last week he lamented in a tweet that 'there seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding.' The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees. Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company's Slack channels to say goodbye (pictured, Twitter staff at the company's head office) Twitter has shut down all employee access to his San Francisco headquarters (above) and other offices, warning staff to 'go home' and wait to learn of their job status Musk's first week as Twitter's owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled mere hours later. Managers have been forbidden from calling team meetings or communicating directly with staff, one senior Twitter employee said, adding that they were being monitored. 'It feels like we're working among the Gestapo,' they said. Musk has also directed Twitter Inc's teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters. Even as Musk cuts costs, he faces threats to Twitter's revenue as a growing number of companies pause their advertising on the platform over concerns about whether it will remain 'safe' for brands. Carmakers appear especially worried about fair treatment under Musk, who is the CEO of rival Tesla, and last week General Motors announced it had 'temporarily paused' all paid advertising on Twitter. Audi and General Mills, which makes Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Haagen-Dazs, also confirmed a pause. Oreo-maker Mondelez International and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have both paused their Twitter ad spending as well, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Carmaker Audi and General Mills have joined a growing list of companies halting their ad spending on Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership Musk took to Twitter with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness' Musk last week promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a 'free-for-all hellscape' due to concerns the social media site will become inundated with the voices of bigots and conspiracy theorists. He is now scrambling to convince advertisers that he will uphold the commitment. Some advertisers have reportedly vowed to boycott Twitter for good if former president Donald Trump is allowed to return. Musk said on Wednesday it would be several weeks before a process is in place to reinstate banned accounts. A media buyer at one major ad agency, who declined to be named, said the agency would meet with Musk to ask how the Tesla boss plans to handle misinformation on the social media platform. Even as Musk took meetings with major agencies and advertisers this week, he took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness'. Of more than two million votes, nearly 80 percent answered 'freedom of speech'. Hochul held a rally Thursday night with former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris in Manhattan The rise in crime prompted US Rep and New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin to slam Gov. Kathy Hochul It's the latest in violence that has plagued New York City, which has seen a nearly 30 percent rise in violent crime so far this year Police arrested the man, who has 25 priors, at the Port Authority terminal after they found him trying to use the victim's credit cards at a Target in Midtown He then removed her clothing, raped her, and stole her phone, headphones and wallet before fleeing the scene on a Citi Bike The victim was by the Hudson River Park on Pier 45 on Thursday morning when the assailant grabbed her from behind and strangled her until she passed out Phanor wore a Tyvek jacket as he walked and did not answer any questions levied at him as he was escorted into a police vehicle Carl Phanor, 29, was taken into custody after allegedly choking, raping and robbing a 43-year-old woman while she was jogging in Manhattan's West Village Advertisement A New York City homeless man with 25 prior arrests accused of raping a woman after grabbing her from behind and choking her until she passed out was silent during his perp walk late Thursday. Carl Phanor is wanted for at least two other previous sex crimes in the Big Apple, where both Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have been slammed for remaining silent about the case. Phanor wore a Tyvek jacket as he walked and did not answer any questions levied at him as he was escorted into a police vehicle. In this case, Phanor removed his victim's clothes, raped her, and then fled the scene on a Citi Bike with her headphones, cell phone and wallet. New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin slammed Hochul for this latest violent crime in New York City. Zeldin and Hochul face the voters on Election Day Tuesday. A New York City homeless man with 25 prior arrests accused of raping a woman after grabbing her from behind and choking her until she passed out was silent during his perp walk late Thursday Carl Phanor (pictured) is wanted for at least two other previous sex crimes in the Big Apple, where both Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have been slammed for remaining silent about the case Phanor wore a Tyvek jacket as he walked and did not answer any questions levied at him as he was escorted into a police vehicle In this case, Phanor removed his victim's clothes, raped her, and then fled the scene on a Citi Bike with her headphones, cell phone and wallet New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin slammed Hochul for this latest violent crime in New York City. Zeldin and Hochul face the voters on Election Day Tuesday Carl Phanor, 29, is arrested and walked out of the NYPD precinct for raping a 48-year-old woman Phanor was asked questions by reporters as he was escorted out but did not acknowledge or answer them Neither Hochul nor Adams has commented on the case. Hochul held a rally Thursday night with former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris in Manhattan, but did not comment on the rape. Police said the victim was out by Pier 45, near West and Christopher Streets in the West Village, at around 5:30am, when the man, Carl Phanor, 29, grabbed her from behind and choked her until she passed out, the New York Post reports. The shaken victim was spotted by a fellow jogger, and first responders took her to a nearby hospital. In response to the crime, Zeldin tweeted: 'In Kathy Hochuls New York, law-abiding New Yorkers are forced to live in fear. Come January, in Lee Zeldins New York, criminals will be the ones forced to live in fear. 'Election Day is 5 days away. Its time to take our streets back,' the congressman added. Pictured: Carl Phanor, a 29-year-old homeless man, was taken into custody for the rape of a 43-year-old jogger in the West Village on Thursday US Rep and New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin slammed Gov. Kathy Hochul for the latest rape incident and surge in crime in the Big Apple Phanor is also wanted for an attempted rape in October, and the sexual assault of another jogger long Pier 40 in March. He was busted at the Port Authority bus terminal after police found him using the latest victim's credit cards at a Target in Midtown, purchasing $39 worth of Red Bull. Police said they've also taken another man into custody for allegedly raping a woman in Central Park's East Drive at around 1:30am. It's the latest in surging crime in the Big Apple, which has prompted officials to deploy it controversial Strategic Response Group to crackdown on violent offenses. New York City Mayor Eric Adams refused to comment on the latest attack to rock the city. Phanor was arrested after police found him attempting to the victims credit cards at a Target in Midtown, Manhattan. Police said he did a similar thing to another victim in October, using her cards at a smoke shop on Fifth Avenue (above) Phanor was taken into custody at the Port Authority bus terminal, in Midtown Police responded to a call Thursday morning about a 43-year-old woman who was choked, raped and robbed while jogging near Pier 45 on Christopher and West Street (above), in Manhattan's wealthy West Village neighborhood Two women are raped within hours of each other in New York City New York Police reported that two women were victims of sexual assault within four hours of each other in the city: At 1:30am: A woman was attacked in Central Park's northeast corner on East Drive At 5:30am: Another woman, 43, was choked, raped and robbed by a 29-year-old homeless man near Hudson River Park in the West Village Police report that suspects for both rapes have been taken into custody. Advertisement Along with the sex crimes, Phanor has 18 prior arrests for petit larceny and assault, with seven additional arrests that are sealed to the public. Phanor currently has no open criminal cases in New York, the Post reports, with his most recent address listed as a homeless shelter Manhattan's downtown area. Most recently, he was busted for drug possession and possession of burglary tools in 2019. On October 6, police said the alleged rapist attacked a woman, 48, who was walking along FDR Drive near East 37th Street at around 5:00am. Officials said Phanor came up to the woman from behind and tried to choked her. The man also allegedly tried to rip off her clothes and rape her, but the victim managed to fight him off. Phanor still managed to steal her phone and wallet, and police said he used her credit cards at a smoke shop on First Avenue. Authorities said he was also wanted for a previous incident on March 27, when he allegedly attacked another female jogger, 39, on Pier 40 at around 6 a.m. Phanor was said to have approached the victim while on his bike, knocking her over to the ground. He then chocked her out and sexually assaulted her before stealing her phone, police said. The two attacks appeared to follow the same pattern as the latest attack on Thursday. Gabrielle Sumkin, 23, who discovered the victim, told the Post that she was bleeding from her elbows and face. 'She was like holding her eye this woman seemed like she was legitimately very hurt and it was clear that something had happened to her,' Sumkin said. 'She was in workout clothes but they were kind of torn up, they were dirty, she wasnt wearing any shoes, she was just wearing one sock. 'I asked her if she was ok and she was just kind of saying "I need help, I need help."' Sumkin noted that as she tried helping the hurt woman, no one else assisted her. 'Nobody even looked in our direction, which was a bit strange,' she told the Post. 'No one else I think wouldve helped her, which was really unfortunate also. 'I wouldve liked to see a bit more of a collective effort there from the other runners, there were a bunch of them.' Crime continues to run rampant in the Big Apple, with violent offenses up nearly 30 percent The attack on the jogger is part of an alarming rise in crime that continues to plague New York City, where violent crimes are up nearly 30 percent compared to last year. So far this year, police have reported 1,384 cases of rape in the city, up nearly 11 percent from the same time last year. Felony assaults are also up by nearly 14 percent, with 21,767 cases reported so far this year, and robberies are up more than 32 percent compared to last year. There have been 102,914 serious offenses reported since the beginning of the year, compared with 78,892 in the same period of 2021, the latest NYPD data reveals. Although the number of shooting victims and murders are reportedly down, the overall rise in violent crime has prompted the city to send out its elite officers to areas with a 'high volume' of crime. 20 precincts will get extra cops to deal with rising crime, which is up citywide by 30% this year The NYPD's Strategic Response Group is an elite unit deployed to violent crime and protests Plans to deploy the Strategic Response Group, which has been criticized for its handing of BLM protests, are detailed in a police memo which also lists 20 precincts that will receive extra officers to deal with soaring crime. They include eight precincts in the Bronx, six in Manhattan, three in Brooklyn and three in Queens, the Post reported. The NYPD's Strategic Response Group is an elite unit which is deployed to areas facing surging crime. The unit, which is made up of 'highly trained personnel and specialized equipment', is also skilled in crowd control and can be deployed for major events, including parades and protests. It also deals with 'shootings, bank robberies, missing persons, demonstrations, or other significant incidents,' the NYPD says. The city's transit system appears to be bearing the brunt in surging crime, with about 1,865 reports so far in 2022, a 41.7 percent spike from last year. Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly claimed there is only a 'perception' that crime is out of control on the subways - even as he and Gov. Hochul have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to better police and monitor the system. Under pressure to crackdown on crime in the subways, Adams said he would bolster the transit system with more police and extra security measures. The new initiative, Adams said, will add 1,200 more shifts, or 10,000 more hours per day, to enhance security in the system. The plan came into addition to Adam's initial Subway Safety Plan, a $97billion undertaking that has since swelled to a $100billion project after being implemented by the then-new mayor in February. The plan saw 1,000 additional officers deployed in the subway to stop the already prevailing violence, as well as teams of health workers into the city's intricate subterranean network to crack down on crime. It also comes as crimes on the city's subways are now up 41 percent over last year, murders in particular rising to their highest rates in 25 years - with nine reported this year alone Two people have been killed being shoved onto tracks this year, with 25 cases in total so far The latest vow to crackdown on crime came after a 14-year-old girls became the latest victim of crime in the city's subways when she was stabbed. The 14-year-old was on a train at Saint Nicholas Avenue and 191st Street in Washington Heights on Sunday when she got into an argument with two other girls and was stabbed. Since the start of the year, nine people have been killed on the subway system and another 13 have been victims of senseless shoved. David Martin, 32, was the latest subway victim that is know suffering from a broken collarbone and a swollen face after being targeted by a crazed man at the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway station at 2.40pm on Friday. Martin is now traumatized to the point of being suicidal, according to his mother. Video footage showed the horrifying moment the attacker shoved Martin before running away and escaping through the turnstiles. Another man was rescued by Good Samaritans on October 15 after he was shoved off platform located at 149th Street in the Bronx. Surveillance footage showed the horrific moment, the wide-eyed pusher stalked the 26-year-old man for seconds before running behind him and pushing him off the platform. Video released by the New York Police Department on Saturday shows a man charging at a subway passenger in Brooklyn Friday afternoon, shoving him to the tracks. Similar unprovoked incidents have become commonplace over the past three years in the subway system Mr McLachlan was strapped in a gurney when it tipped over on steep driveway One QAS paramedic tried to load him into an ambulance but lost control A painter who was badly injured when the gurney he was strapped to tipped over sending him crashing to the ground is suing the ambos. Clinton McLachlan was being taken to hospital with serious Covid-19 symptoms in Mackay, Queensland when a paramedic lost control on a steep drive. A video of the incident shows a Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic preparing to slide the prone Mr McLachlan into the back of his vehicle. But he manages to flip the gurney, sending Mr McLachlan slamming into the concrete driveway. A painter who was badly injured when the gurney he was strapped to tipped over sending him crashing to the ground is suing the ambos Mr McLachlan, 44, suffered a badly injured shoulder and will be off work from his painting job for months. The shocked paramedic is shown rushing to help the stricken patient while another woman standing on the stairs above rushed down. 'Our client was running a successful business with his brother and thoroughly enjoyed the work he did,' said Christine Smith of Shine Lawyers Mackay. 'As a result of this incident he's now unable to contribute as much and his family's financial security has been significantly impacted.' Mr McLachlan, 44, suffered a badly injured shoulder and will be off work from his painting job for months. Queensland Ambulance Service expressed 'regret' over the incident in a statement given to Daily Mail Australia. 'Our thoughts and best wishes are with the patient and their family. We sincerely regret any distress or injury suffered by the patient,' the statement said. 'It would be inappropriate to provide comment on this incident while subject to legal action.' Mr McLachlan claimed it was 'ridiculous' a solo paramedic tried to move him on his own on the steep driveway, the Courier Mail reported. 'It was a great impact and my shoulder is pretty stuffed,' Mr McLachlan said. Queensland Ambulance Service expressed 'regret' over the incident and sent Mr McLachlan its best wishes 'Clinton's made it clear he bears no ill will towards the paramedic himself, but this incident highlights the need for better resourcing and a more stringent system of work to ensure it doesn't happen again,' Ms Smith said. 'We hope that by highlighting this incident we're able to ensure proper safety practices are put in place to prevent this happening to another patient.' Using a single paramedic is not considered an unusual practice, Daily Mail Australia understands. Fowler MP Dai Le says her community 'felt left in the dark about the decision' Fowler MP Dai Le says her community 'felt left in the dark about the decision' Now, 17 people, including four ISIS brides and 13 kids, have arrived in Sydney A Sydney community feels 'betrayed' by the federal government's decision to repatriate Australian families with links to Islamic State. Four Australian women, who have been in the al-Roj camp in Syria since the fall of the terrorist group, and 13 children arrived in the NSW capital last month following a secret operation. Independent MP Dai Le, elected in May to represent the diverse, multi-faith electorate of Fowler in Sydney city's west, said many of her constituents had fled persecution by IS in their homelands. 'They have suffered trauma as a result of ISIS' brutal regime and were settled in Australia with the hopes of peace and security,' she told AAP. 'Our community feels betrayed that this repatriation occurred without consultation or consideration as to how it would impact on their wellbeing.' Ms Le said her community felt left in the dark about the decision and wanted more transparency from the government. 'We understand that this is a complex issue, although what we continue to seek is cooperation, communication and collaboration from the government,' she said. Footage has emerged of some of the ISIS brides and their families at a McDonald's in Punchbowl in south-west Sydney on Tuesday, sparking widespread anger Sydney community of Fowler in Sydney's inner west feel 'betrayed' by the federal government's decision to repatriate Australian families with links to Islamic State Four Australian women, who have been in the al-Roj camp in Syria since the fall of the terrorist group, and 13 children arrived in the NSW capital last month following a secret operation Fowler MP Dai Le (pictured) said her community felt left in the dark about the decision and wanted more transparency from the government Ms Le has supported a letter from community leaders to Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil asking for a forum to discuss the repatriation program. A spokesperson for the minister said she had received the letter and is considering the request. Ms O'Neil told ABC TV the government had taken repatriation action matters on the advice of national security agencies. 'National security matters are handled sensitively, delicately, methodically, calmly and that is how we've conducted this exercise,' she said on Friday. The risk to Australia from not acting was greater than the repatriation operation, the minister said. 'We've got a relatively large group of Australian children who would otherwise be growing up in a camp where a key focus and influence on their life is violent ideology, and I don't think that's good for the country,' she said. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is concerned the government is ignoring the advice from national security agencies. He said there must have been a '180-degree flip' on the advice the Liberals had received while in government. 'The job of the government is to make sure that Australians are safe and not introduce into the system an element of risk,' he told Nine's Today program on Friday. 'They've done exactly that.' A total of 13 women and 42 children who were formerly members of ISIS are being brought to Australia from Syria (pictured, the al-Roj camp) But Education Minister Jason Clare said the Liberals repatriated families while they were in government, a decision overseen by Mr Dutton while he was home affairs minister. 'I live in Western Sydney. I want our community to be safe,' Mr Clare told Seven's Sunrise on Friday. 'I trust our national security agencies and we do this on their advice. 'For the (Liberal-National) coalition to now say that they are against it makes them hypocrites. They did exactly the same thing.' But deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said Mr Clare was being misleading, noting the coalition government only brought eight orphaned children home on a humanitarian basis, not women. She said the difference was 'the women that are now coming back deliberately left Australia to join a terrorist state ... that is different to repatriating on a humanitarian level.' Further repatriations did not occur under the coalition following advice from security agencies. Ms Ley said western Sydney communities had raised concerns about the lack of consultation before the resettlement. 'There has been so little communication with the communities into which they are now moving. It is just not good enough,' she said. 'These are terrorist regimes (that) have threatened Australia's way of life. We have to be extremely cautious.' Ms Ley said the government was withholding national security advice from responsible agencies. Last month the Albanese government confirmed its rescue plan to bring home 16 women and 42 children who are families of IS members from the camp Last month the Albanese government confirmed its rescue plan to bring home 16 women and 42 children who are families of IS members from the camp. The first people removed were assessed as the most vulnerable of those being held. The federal government worked with Kurdish authorities on the extraction, which reportedly included DNA testing the individuals to prove they were Australian citizens. Most of the children were born in Syria, meaning they'll be seeing Australia for the first time. Aussie intelligence agencies believe that leaving Australians in squalid camps may present more of a threat to national security than bringing them back, as their plight could be used to recruit more Australian Muslims to join terror organisations. It is understood all of those brought home will be subject to intensive monitoring by security agencies and some will face terror charges as it was illegal for many at the time to travel to Syria and Iraq. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton warned the extractions were not in the national interest, claiming the rescues could inflame the risk of terrorism in Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the safety of Australians was always paramount and the government would continue to act on national security advice. 'We will always act in a way that keeps Australians safe.' A young woman has been arrested after another woman was allegedly stabbed in the face at an inner-city Sydney apartment block. Police swooped on the Northcote block of units in Belvoir St, Surry Hills, after reports of an incident at 1.45pm on Friday. Paramedics found a 40-year-old woman allegedly suffering an injury close to her eye and treated her at home before rushing her to hospital with a heavy bandage placed over the wound. A young woman has been arrested at an inner-city Sydney apartment block after another woman was allegedly stabbed in the face Paramedics found a 40-year-old woman allegedly suffering an injury close to her eye and treated her at the home before rushing her to hospital, heavily bandaged over the wound A 22-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and taken away in handcuffs for questioning, with blood apparently visible on her arms, and her hands sealed in evidence bags. 'Officers attached to Surry Hills Police Area Command attended and were told a 22-year-old woman had allegedly stabbed a 40-year-old woman to the eyebrow with an unknown object, causing a minor wound,' said a police spokesman. 'The 22-year-old woman was placed under arrest and has been taken to Surry Hills Police Station where she is assisting police with inquiries. A 22-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and taken away in handcuffs for questioning, with blood apparently visible on her arms, and her hands sealed in evidence bags Police swooped on the Northcote block of units in Belvoir St in Surry Hills after reports of an incident at 1.45pm on Friday 'The older woman was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics and has been taken to hospital for further assessment. 'A crime scene has been established and inquiries are ongoing.' She's been charged 100 times, mainly for fraud and deception-related offences Serial con artist Samantha Azzopardi will spend at least eight months behind bars for lying to police that she was an abused 14-year-old French girl. Jail time against the 33-year-old compulsive liar's 100th charge was ordered at Waverley Local Court on Friday. Azzopardi will spend a maximum 17 months behind bars for misleading police by pretending to be a French teenager last August. At the time, she was also on a community corrections order for a similar offence. This order has been revoked given Friday's sentence. Contacting religious charity Jewish House, she said she was called Enslie Cohen and had been a victim of abuse. This caused a five-hour search by multiple agencies around Sydney's eastern suburbs to find her fictitious foster family's home. While claiming she only spoke French, she refused to talk with a French-speaking police officer. Serial con artist Samantha Azzopardi, 33, (pictured) will spend at least 8 months in jail for lying to police Azzopardi (pictured) was charged with her 100th offence in Australia after she pretended to be an abused 14-year-old French girl in August last year A canny case worker recognised elements in this con that were similar to prior stories by Azzopardi. Even after the arrest, she still continued her lies, signing paperwork handed to her by a custody manager under the name of Emily Ramberger. With a backdated sentence, she will be eligible for parole on January 15 next year. Her prior frauds include duping Irish and Canadian police into believing she was a human trafficking victim, acting as a qualified nanny to a Victorian couple and claiming in a Bendigo mental health clinic she was a pregnant and abused 14-year-old. The 33-year-old's (pictured) previous charges were mainly for fraud and deception-related offences She was released by Victorian authorities in May 2021 for fraud and child stealing, only to spark another false investigation in late 2021 in NSW while posing as a 14-year-old. Waverley police say she has been charged 100 times in Australia, mainly for fraud and deception-related offences. "It is apparent that the accused is a compulsive liar and suffers from several mental health issues which no doubt is a catalyst for her offending," a statement of facts says Albanian migrants living in the UK today accused the government of making them 'scapegoats' for Britains broken immigration policy and slammed Home Office claims they were gaming the system. They said they had left Albanian for a better life in Britain to work hard and pay their taxes while insisting they did not claim benefits and were not gangsters or thieves. Outside a cafe in north London, the men claimed they were victims of overt racism and were being deliberately targeted by the British Government to divert attention from its shoddy handling of migrant Channel crossings. Ervis Abdullaj, 39, owner of the 01 Cafe Bar and one of an estimated 150,000 Albanians living in the UK, protested: Albanians are coming here for a better life. Whats wrong with that? Lots of people have come from other countries but nobody is complaining about them. Albania is a beautiful country but there is a lot of corruption and violence there. Many Albanians are fleeing terrible conditions and their lives are in danger. There might not be a war going on there but its not a safe country. Mr Abdullaj, who came to Britain in 2014 through official channels, said: I didnt cross illegally in a boat and have made a good life for myself in Britain. But if people are desperate to come here like this, then there must be a good reason. Ervis Abdullaj, 39, is the owner of the 01 Cafe Bar in north London and one of an estimated 150,000 Albanians living in the UK Albanian migrants have claimed they are being unfairly scapegoated for the UK government's failed immigration policy I work almost 18 hours a day and like many Albanians in the UK want to have a good life for myself. The British Government is just trying to blame us for its problems. 'Its not our fault that it cant get its act together and do something about the migrant crisis. So its easier to pin it all on the Albanians. Albanian gangs in the UK have been accused of people smuggling and controlling large parts of the countrys marijuana and cocaine markets. Dritan Doda, 49, who runs a building company, insisted: Are we the only community in the UK that is involved in criminality and drug dealing? I dont think so. 'I have been in Britain for 25 years and I dont know why Albanians are now being blamed for everything. We are a small community in the UK but we are currently being blamed for all the big problems. Its racism in my opinion because its easier for the Government to blame us than take responsibility. Builder Ermond Dena, 50, who has been in Britain for the past 10 years, added: Lots of communities have criminals and drug dealers. Why only focus on Albania? I have noticed an increase in the number of Albanians coming to the UK over the past few months but there have also been people arriving from other countries. Most of those in Hendons Albanians cafes had been in the UK for five years or more and few admitted to coming illegally on migrant boats. Builder Modi Reci, 42 said: People are coming here from all over the world so why pick on us Albanians? Ermond Dena, 50, who has been in Britain for the past 10 years added: Lots of communities have criminals and drug dealers. Why only focus on Albania?' But Esad, 24, who only wanted to give his first name and did not want to be photographed, admitted: I came last year on a boat. I paid a gang in Albania and they made all the arrangements. A lot of people want to come because life is not easy in Albania. Its hard to find a job and if you do have one, youre lucky to make 200 per month. 'Im waiting for my asylum claim to be processed and life is not easy in London but its better than being in Albania. His friend, who did not want to be named, added: I paid around 5,000, which is a lot of money in Albania. There are Albanians in France who make sure that you get on a boat. Its dangerous but worth it. Builder Modi Reci, 42 said: The majority of us here have not come illegally on boats. Some of those that have do get involved in criminal activity like drug dealing but its rubbish to say that all Albanians are criminals. People are coming here from all over the world so why pick on us Albanians? Eddie Terziu, 37, a builder originally from Elbasan, told MailOnline: I came to the UK for work. I came 15 years ago and now it is my home. I have a wife and two children, my youngest son was born here. There is no work in Albania. So I came to London. It was difficult to start with because I did not know the language. But I worked hard and now it is my home. We are not criminals, we are not gangsters. We are not asking for benefits. We work for our money. Edward Balla, 31, told MailOnline: I am a bricklayer. I dont sell drugs, I do not have a gun. I am not a criminal. I came to the UK four years to find a better life. In London I can earn up to 1000 per week. In Albania if you are lucky you earn 100 per week. So I have come to Britain for a better life. It is like a dream for Albanians to come to London. We know if we work hard we can earn money and live well. Last night Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama condemned Home Secretary Suella Braverman for fuelling xenophobia by describing the arrival of Albanians to the UK in small boats as an invasion. Other Albanians told how they had been granted refugee status in Britain after fleeing their homeland in fear of their lives. Flamur Alla, 50, a builder, told MailOnline: Im Albanian from Kosovo. I came as a refugee in 1999 because of the war with Serbia. Now my life is in Britain. My three children are now all grown up. I have Albanians working for me at sites across London. They all work hard. They do not ask for anything for nothing. The parents of eight year-old Saffie Rose who died in the Manchester Arena bombing attack have said she would still be alive if it were not for the failings of the emergency services. The schoolgirl's father Andrew Roussos rejected the apologies of 999 teams who responded to the terror attack in 2017, insisting his little 'fighter' Saffie could have survived if they had been there faster. Saffie was the youngest of 22 people killed, with hundreds more injured, when suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a homemade device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, at 10.31pm on May 22, 2017. An inquiry into the attack concluded there were failings in the emergency services' response to the attack and that one victim, John Atkinson, most likely would have survived were it not for those failings. The report added there was a 'remote possibility' Saffie Rose could have also survived if she had been given 'different treatment and care'. Saffie Rose, eight, died from her injuries following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 Her father, Andrew Roussos, said he would not accept the apology of the emergency services over her death Mr Roussos told Sky News: 'We know Saffie as a person - she would do everything she possibly could to stay alive, and she did. 'Saffie did all she could to survive but didn't get that chance to survive.' When asked if he accepted the apologies of the emergency services, he said: 'No, I don't. 'You know, what I do expect is for them to be honest and put their hands up, particularly throughout the inquiry, and admit to the failings because without admitting to the failings, how can you change for the future?' Following the publication yesterday of the second report of the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry, other bereaved families also slammed the emergency services for 'glaring failures'. The emergency services involved on the night have unanimously accepted the findings of Sir John Saunders' report and apologised 'wholeheartedly'. Family lawyer Kim Harrison, who represented 11 of the deceased families, said the report made clear that the 'so-called golden hour after the attack was utterly squandered by the catastrophic response of the emergency services'. The second of three reports into the attack, led by Manchester Arena Inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders, identified that the response from emergency services fell 'far below the standard it should have been'. Saffie's family carry her coffin at her heartbreaking funeral in Manchester in 2017 Describing the two victims who could have lived, Sir John said: 'In the case of John Atkinson, his injuries were survivable. It is likely that the inadequacies in the emergency response prevented his survival.' Mr Atkinson, a care worker from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, was just six metres away from the bomb when it detonated, leaving him with serious leg injuries. In the aftermath of the bombing, Mr Atkinson was dragged from the City Room foyer to a footbridge outside the Arena where he was taken to a casualty clearing station on the concourse of Victoria railway station. Still conscious and speaking, he repeatedly told people caring for him: 'I'm going to die.' However, he had to wait one hour and 29 minutes to be put into an ambulance and, despite attempts by another concert-goer to stem the bleeding, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. Sir John said that had Mr Atkinson 'received the treatment and care he should have, it is likely he would have survived'. Saffie-Rose Roussos (pictured left) and John Atkinson (right), who were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing which claimed the lives of 22 innocent people could have been saved, a damning report released today has found Abedi at Victoria Station making his way to the Manchester Arena, on May 22, 2017, where he detonated his bomb Mr Atkinson's family said he had been 'totally failed at every stage'. Saffie-Rose, was standing just five yards away from attacker Salman Abedi when he detonated his device. Her mother and older sister were also badly injured, but for up to 15 minutes after the blast Saffie was still able to talk as poster seller Paul Reid did what he could to comfort her. After finally giving up on waiting for paramedics, Mr Reid helped two police officers carry the girl outside on an advertising hoarding, before one of the PCs flagged down an ambulance. It took a further 52 minutes to get her to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, where she tragically went into cardiac arrest because of how much blood she had lost. Lawyers representing North West Ambulance Service told the hearing the 'brutal reality' was that the first paramedics who arrived on the scene had a duty to treat those with the best chance of survival. However, Sir John said that he could not 'exclude the remote possibility that Saffie-Rose Roussos would have survived' with immediate medical treatment. Lawyers for North West Ambulance Service told the inquiry there were 'simply not enough paramedics' at the scene. Owner Nick Devereux, 43, said his wife and two sons have been left devastated He strolls off with the pug down the road near Acton Town tube in west London EXCLUSIVE: CCTV shows man casually walking up to dog and untying its lead This is the heartbreaking moment a suspected dog snatcher stole a family's beloved pet Pug just seconds after its owner popped into a local convenience store. Artist Nick Devereux, 43, told how his family have been left devastated after the cropped-haired thief snatched 18-month old Ray in just 30 seconds. Dramatic CCTV footage shows the man walking towards the 1,000 pedigree pet before calming untying his lead from railings then casually strolling off down the street just yards from Acton Town tube station in west London. Nick told how wife Vanessa and their son Marlon, nine, and Winston, aged seven, have been left devastated by the brazen theft on Tuesday afternoon. He told how life without the much-loved black pet, who weighs 10 kilos, has become 'unbearable' Nick told MailOnline: 'I'm in utter disbelief how the one time I take my eye off the dog, someone comes and takes him away. 'It's absolutely heartbreaking. The kids are in bits. It's just a nightmare - an absolute nightmare. 'We're trying to do everything we can to get him back. The most frightening thing is the thought of my dog in somebody else's hands. 'It's extraordinary to imagine just how quickly your life can be turned upside down.' In a direct appeal to the suspected thief, the devastated dad said: 'Please give him back. We are a family who is devoted to this dog and two little boys who are absolutely broken. Ray the pug (pictured) was taken after his owner popped into a shop near Acton Town tube station in West London. CCTV footage shows the man walking towards the 1,000 pedigree pet before calming untying his lead from railings then casually strolling off down the street 'If you can take him to a vet and just say you found him then we can all get back to our lives again.' Nick told how he launched a frantic search when he discovered Ray was missing after he popped into the store in Gunnersbury Road called The Local to buy a snack. He is hoping that the CCTV footage taken from two separate angles outside the shop will help lead to Ray's safe return. One clip - which is just 32 seconds long - shows the suspected thief approaching the little black dog from the pavement. The suspected thief - who is wearing a blue jumper with a green hoodie underneath, blue jeans and black and white trainers - heads straight towards railings where Ray is tied up. CCTV footage shows the suspected thief walking up to the dog, casually untying his lead before strolling down the street with him. The suspected dog snatcher (pictured) wearing a blue jumper with a green hoodie underneath, blue jeans and black and white trainers He is seen adjusting a black Oakley rucksack before bending down and stroking the pet. The suspected thief casually looks round just once then unties his lead, which he briefly lets go of. A woman getting onto a mobility scooter is unaware of the drama unfolding behind her as the suspected dognapper strolls off with Ray in a casual but purposeful manner. Dog thefts on the rise in the UK, statistics show Data from 31 police forces across the UK showed that 1,882 dog thefts were reported in 2021. This was more than a 25 per cent rise of 1,500 offences recorded in 2020. In 2020, the charity DogLost saw a 170 per cent rise in dog thefts. In 2019 172 dogs were reported stolen compared with 465 in 2020. But experts working in lost pet charities believe the true figure is higher. A survey conducted by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, showed that in 2020, 22 per cent of 124,729 people had or knew someone whose dog had been stolen in the last year. It showed that 79 per cent of dog owners were also fearful that their dog could get snatched in the day, with a greater majority fearing walking their pets at night. The rate of dog thefts has risen in the UK over the past few years, with 1,881 dogs being reported as stolen in 2021 Advertisement A second clip - which is one minute 21 seconds long - shows Nick walking into the shop shortly before 4.40pm before the man comes into view around 30 seconds later. He disappears from sight as he bends down and unties the lead before reappearing into shot and heading off with the stolen dog. Distraught Nick said: 'My studio is just round the corner. I was taking Ray for a walk and went into the shop. 'I always normally have him in my arms and carry him in. Unfortunately the shop had recently been refurbished and they said I can't take him in with me anymore. 'This is literally the first time I put him down and left him outside. I just took my eye off the ball for a second.' Describing how the drama unfolded he said: 'I was literally going into the shop to get a snack. There was one person in front of me in the queue. 'I checked on the dog, came back and rejoined the queue then looked out of the window and I could see the lead wasn't there. 'I just can't believe how quickly it all happened. He did it all within 30 seconds. As far as he was concerned he timed it absolutely perfectly.' Nick said: 'I was panicking and rushing around the street asking whoever would listen to me if they had seen the dog. 'I was running around hysterically. There were quite a few people in the street. 'It was rush hour and people were coming home from work - but nobody had seen him. I was so emotional. I just felt terrible guilt at having left him tied up. 'I was extremely concerned as the dog is quite anxious at the best of times without me. That's why I take him everywhere. 'He doesn't like being left alone. The thought of him being with some random stranger is shocking.' After he searched in vain Nick called police and returned to his studio to begin making up posters in an appeal for help. Nick Devereux told how wife Vanessa and their son Marlon, nine, and Winston, aged seven, have been left devastated by the brazen suspected theft on Tuesday afternoon. Pictured: The young boys with their dog Ray Messages have been posted on social media and the website DogLost UK has put out alerts. Close up images shows the thief has dust on his knees giving the impression he may be working as a decorator or labourer. It's hoped Ray - who has been microchipped and has his owner's details on his collar - will prove 'too hot to handle' and will be safely returned. Nick said: 'I reported it to the police immediately. 'I know they are so busy and they've been very professional and polite but nothing is happening and you really do feel like it's down to you and your community. The heartbroken family (pictured) have posted messages on social media and the website DogLost UK in hope to find their pug. It's hoped Ray - who has been microchipped and has his owner's details on his collar - will prove 'too hot to handle' and will be safely returned 'We have put a note on the posters with a message to the man saying 'Please just take him to a vet and say you found him and just leave'. 'I'm hoping that if he suddenly sees posters of him absolutely everywhere, there's everyone looking out and there's stuff over social media that maybe he might get scared. 'It looks like an opportunist thing but at the same time he seemed to think very quickly and he was so relaxed. 'There's another side of me that thinks this guy knows what he's doing. 'It seems so surreal to see someone not darting off or really looking around in a frantic way. He is just so casual about it.' Describing the loss of Ray Nick said: 'It's devastating. I see him more than my parents, my wife and my kids put together. 'He's with me all day in my studio. I never lose sight of him. 'I'm always very vigilant. I never go into shops that won't allow me to go in with a dog.' HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Telangana on November 12 to inaugurate the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) in Ramagundam. Modi is expected to arrive by a special flight and leave for Ramagundam by helicopter on November 12. He will return to Hyderabad after the inauguration and leave for New Delhi the same day. TRS sources said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, in keeping with his recent trend, would neither receive the Prime Minister at the airport nor attend the inaugural event. Since this is an official event, as per protocol, the Chief Minister has to receive the Prime Minister and see him off at the airport. Rao has not received Modi since February when he arrived to inaugurate Statue of Equality at Chinna Jeeyar Swamy ashram on the city outskirts. He has skipped all Modis visits ever since. Official sources in CMO had cited 'private visits' by the Prime Minister as the reasons for Rao not following the protocol. However, RFCL inauguration is an official event and there is no clarity on whether the Chief Minister has been invited or not. Official sources opined that since it is an official event, the Centre will extend an invitation to the Chief Minister for RFCL inauguration as per protocol. Official sources said that the government was yet to receive detailed schedule of the visit from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Chief secretary Somesh Kumar reviewed arrangements for Modis visit with DGP P. Mahendar Reddy, SCR general manager Arun Kumar, RFCL CEO A.K. Jain, special CS Sunil Sharma, special secretary (home) Ravi Gupta, additional DG Jithender and Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand. South Korea has scrambled dozens of fighter jets after more than 100 North Korean aircraft massed near the disputed border between the two nations today. Seoul sent 80 jets - among them F-35A stealth fighters - after sensors picked up 180 of Pyongyang's aircraft massing inland and off the east and west coasts. It is just the latest in a spiral of tit-for-tat escalations between the rival Koreas that earlier this week saw them fire missiles close to each others' territorial waters. North Korea is furious at joint US-South Korean aerial drills taking place on its borders that it believes are a rehearsal for an invasion. Washington and Seoul say the war games are defensive and in response to a flurry of North Korean missile tests that they fear will end with a nuclear test. South Korea scrambled 80 fighters including F-35 stealth jets (pictured) after North Korea massed 180 warplanes near the disputed border region 'Our military detected around 180 North Korean warplanes' mobilised in Pyongyang's airspace, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that Seoul 'scrambled 80 fighter jets including F-35As' while jets in the joint drills were also 'maintaining readiness'. Shortly after South Korea announced the decision to extend the joint drills on Thursday, Pyongyang launched three more short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move 'a very dangerous and wrong choice'. Hours later, the North fired 80 artillery rounds that landed in a maritime 'buffer zone', Seoul's military said. The barrage was a 'clear violation' of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in a bid to reduce tensions between the two sides, Seoul's Joints Chiefs of Staff said. It came after Pyongyang fired about 30 missiles on Wednesday and Thursday, including an intercontinental ballistic missile and one that landed near South Korea's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953. The rival Koreas and their respective leaders - Yoon Suk-Yeol (left) and Kim Jong-un (right) - are locked into a spiral of escalation that shows no sign of abating US defence secretary Lloyd Austin described Pyongyang's ICBM launch as 'illegal and destabilising', and Seoul and Washington vowed to pursue new measures to demonstrate their 'determination and capabilities' against the North's threats. Experts and officials have said Pyongyang is ramping up its tests in protest over the US-South Korean drills. Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang's recent launches could be a precursor to a nuclear test, which would be its seventh. Pyongyang has called the joint air drills, dubbed Vigilant Storm, 'an aggressive and provocative military drill targeting' North Korea and threatened that Washington and Seoul would 'pay the most horrible price in history' if it continued. The North's latest launches come as South Korea is in a period of national mourning after more than 150 people - mostly young women in their 20s - were killed in a crowd crush in Seoul on Saturday. Pyongyang's provocations, 'especially during our national mourning period, are against humanity and humanitarianism', Lee Hyo-jung, a vice spokesperson at Seoul's unification ministry, said on Friday. North Korea has held a recent flurry of missile tests including dozens fired on the same day this week amid fears Kim is gearing up for a nuclear test 'The government strongly condemns North Korea for continuing threats and provocations, citing our annual and defensive drills, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula,' she said, blaming the current tension on Pyongyang's 'reckless nuclear and missile development'. In addition to extending Vigilant Storm through Saturday, Seoul's military announced that the annual Taegeuk exercise - which focuses on 'improving wartime transition performance' and crisis management - would be held next week. The computer-simulated exercise will be carried out to strengthen 'the ability to carry out practical mission capability in preparation for various threats such as North Korea's nuclear weapons, missiles, and recent provocations', it said. More than 1,200 people have left a massively overcrowded migrant center in the past four days, Downing Street said today as ministers faced heavy pressure to get a grip on the crisis. Political anger was mounting at the debacle amid a slew of further revelations about migrants being allowed to leave Manston with barely any checks on their destination and others being abandoned on the street in London. A minister also sparked a row when he accused those crossing the Channel in small boats of having 'a bit of a cheek' for complaining about conditions they faced after getting here illegally. Today No10 said the number of people at Manston in Kent had fallen to 2,600, with 1,200 people taken off site in the last four days. Its capacity should be 1,600 who stay for around 24 hours before being found further accommodation. But as many as 4,000 have been kept there in recent weeks. Hundreds of people have been encouraged to leave Manston in northern Kent after simply providing a forwarding address, the Telegraph reported today. And last night it was revealed a second group of migrants was dumped in London this week and forced to sleep rough on the streets of the capital. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'My understanding is there are currently 2,600 people on the site, so over 1,200 people have been removed over the last four days.' Asked if he expects this to drop to 1,600 over the next four days, he said: 'I'd defer to Home Office if they're putting a particular timescale on it. 'Obviously that does depend slightly on some of the variables such as the level of crossings we see.' He also said that he Home Office was looking at ways to increase capacity at the site near Ramsgate. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick visited homes in Dover with local MP Natalie Elphicke today. As the pair walked along the road, a local resident, Thomas Dougan, 48, who lives in Aycliffe, shouted: 'Are you Government? What a waste of space. 'Are you the loony party? They'd do better than you or Green Party.' Braverman, who was reinstated to her ministerial post just over a week ago, met Border Force teams in Dover to discuss Channel crossings operations before visiting the scandal-hit Manston processing centre via RAF helicopter to hear updates from staff. Ministers face calls to get a grip as it emerged that people who crossed the Channel in small boats were being allowed to leave an arrival center without undergoing basic checks, to ease overcrowding. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has visited homes in Dover with local MP Natalie Elphicke Hundreds of people have been encouraged to leave Manston in northern Kent after simply providing a forwarding address, the Telegraph reported today. The Home Secretary toured immigration centres yesterday while battling to grip the migrant crisis amid threats of legal action, sexual assault allegations at a hotel housing asylum seekers and international criticism of her use of language. The Home Secretary toured immigration centres yesterday while battling to grip the migrant crisis amid threats of legal action, sexual assault allegations at a hotel housing asylum seekers and international criticism of her use of language. Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug today confirmed the council's rough sleeping service is looking after a number of asylum seekers from Manston who arrived at in central London with nowhere to go. 'The chaos that is engulfing the arrival centre at Manston is now impacting on councils across the country. It is not acceptable that people seeking asylum in the UK are effectively dumped at a coach station and left to fend for themselves, we need a more humane and frankly better organised response,' he said. 'We are happy do our share to look after asylum seekers - we have plenty of hotels in Westminster, that is not the issue. What is the issue is that the Home Office seems to have descended into panic with no clear picture of where people are going.' But a senior minister criticised migrants - who were the target of a suspected far-right petrol bomb attack this week - for complaining about conditions. Home Office minister Chris Philp said told Sky that Manston was legally compliant days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick suggested it was not. And he later told Times Radio: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily ... it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions. 'And you don't even have to come here, they were in France already and previously often passed through Belgium, Germany, and many other countries on the way.' Home Office minister Chris Philp said told Sky that Manston was legally compliant days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick suggested it was not. And he later told Times Radio: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily ... it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions.' He added that the groups of migrants from Manston left stranded in London had told immigration officials they had addresses to go to and suggested something may have been 'lost in translation'. Some 14 council leaders in Kent have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, saying: 'We have hundreds of mostly Albanian [migrants] not claiming asylum and being bailed and dropped at mid-Kent train stations with no follow-up where they go or if they leave Kent.' Meanwhile ministers are also facing pushback from locals in Kent who are at the forefront of the arrival of more than 40,000 people in small boats this year. Ashford MP Damian Green, a Tory former minister and the MP for Ashford, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Kent itself is really under strain because it is not just all the points of accommodation, it's the fact that you need to find school places for these children. 'There are (local) children in Kent being told there are no school places around town. This is completely unacceptable, we have to spread the burden around the country and we have to make the whole system faster and more efficient. 'If we don't do that this will become a long-running problem which will really affect people in their daily lives.' Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug today confirmed the council's rough sleeping service is looking after a number of asylum seekers from Manston who arrived at in central London with nowhere to go. Some 14 council leaders in Kent have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, saying: 'We have hundreds of mostly Albanian [migrants] not claiming asylum and being bailed and dropped at mid-Kent train stations with no follow-up where they go or if they leave Kent.' Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: 'Chris Philp's comments reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston. It is unbelievable that as we hear reports of sexual assualts, disease, and chronic overcrowding, his response is to accuse those who complain of ''cheek''. 'Rather than dismissing the problem he should start to show some leadership. People have had enough of the endless evasion, chaos and incompetence we have seen from the government on this issue.' The Home Secretary toured immigration centres yesterday while battling to grip the migrant crisis amid threats of legal action, sexual assault allegations at a hotel housing asylum seekers and international criticism of her use of language. Braverman, who was reinstated to her ministerial post just over a week ago, met Border Force teams in Dover to discuss Channel crossings operations before visiting the scandal-hit Manston processing centre to hear updates from staff. She has come under mounting political pressure over the illegal conditions at the site near Ramsgate, where at one point as many as 4,000 people were being detained for weeks in a site intended to hold 1,600 for a matter of days. Downing Street said the number has since reduced to 2,700, after more than 1,000 were moved in the last few days, and that the Prime Minister was receiving twice daily updates on the situation. Mr Philp added that the UK is a 'generous country' in accommodating asylum seekers. He said: 'We're spending something like two or three billion pounds a year looking after people who have entered the country illegally and unnecessarily. I think, frankly, that is pretty generous, actually ... our asylum accommodation is better than most European countries. 'In terms of people who are genuinely in need of protection, we are a generous country ... this is a very generous country that looks after people in genuine need.' Stephen Evans, chief executive of Norwich Council, has said the Home Office did not give its local officials any warning that migrants from Manston were being bussed into the city on Thursday. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Mr Evans said he first read about the group coming to Norwich in a news article. 'We hadn't been told. I checked back with colleagues at City Hall - they hadn't been told. So, we don't know who they are and we don't know where they've gone to in the city,' he said. 'I think that's part of the problem here. As a sector, councils are asking for early engagement from the Home Office and for us to be consulted.' He added that 'of course' councils need to know where migrants are in terms of safety and safeguarding, and often the Home Office usually give local leaders just a few days' notice when it comes to opening a hotel for migrants in their area. 'If the Government engaged councils earlier in the process, we could be on the front foot and it would be a better system for sure,' he said. Joe Biden claimed his wife complained that he was the poorest man in Congress in the President's latest questionable tale. Just last month he said he was 'sort of' raised in the Puerto Rican community in Delaware. He told a New Mexico community college yesterday that he had been the 'poorest man in congress' and added it was a 'true story'. Joe Biden said his wife Jill complained that he was the 'poorest' senator, which is the latest questionable tale the President has told The couple (pictured at JFK Airport on October 31) have been together for 45 years. They got married in 1977 He said: 'I called [Jill] one morning. I was up in the state of Vermont campaigning for Pat Leahy. 'I said, Hi, honey. How are you? She said, Fine.' He added sarcastically: 'Well, you know thats a good start.' President Biden continued: 'She said, Did you read todays paper? True story. Did you read todays paper? meaning the local Wilmington paper. While Joe Biden (pictured as a young man with his wife Jill) was likely one of the least wealthy congressmen, it is difficult to prove he was the poorest He previously claimed just last month that he was 'raised in the Puerto Rican community' in Delaware 'I said, No, honey. I didnt see it. She said, Headline, front page, top of the fold: Biden: Poorest Man in Congress. Is that true? 'Well, I didnt think you were supposed to make money when youre in Congress. 'I didnt feel poor. No, no, and by the way, I got elected when I was 29. 'I had no income. I mean, I had a little. I was just starting my law practice. 'But I had a good salary as a senator. I thought that was just fine.' When Biden started out as a senator his annual salary was $42,500 and by the time he married Jill in 1977 it had raised to $57,500. At the time, the average income for American households was more than 76 per cent less at just $13,570. Biden was likely one of the least wealthy senators when he first entered Congress but since there are not records of all senators in 1973, when Biden joined, it is impossible to prove he was the poorest. It's not the first time the President has made a questionable claim. Just last month he claimed he was 'raised in the Puerto Rican community' in Delaware. He said: 'We have a very large Puerto Rican population in Delaware relative to our population. 'We have the eighth largest Black population of the country and between all minorities, we have 20 per cent of our state [that] is minority. 'And so I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically.' She has now come under fire for using the expensive vehicle for her visit Suella Braverman was last night ridiculed for travelling to the crisis-hit Manston immigration centre in a military helicopter which costs around 3,500 an hour to operate. The embattled Home Secretary, who is under mounting pressure to get a grip on the Channel migrant crisis, travelled to the processing centre in Kent. But she has come under fire for travelling in an RAF Chinook for the two-hour visit at the site which is a 40-minute car journey from London. Last night on BBC's Question Time, Asda Chairman Stuart Rose criticised Mrs Braverman's decision to use the huge military aircraft, claiming it sent the wrong message. He said: 'I don't like the way we are dealing with it. I don't like the rhetoric; I don't like the fact that the Home Secretary is standing there and goes to Manston today in a Chinook helicopter. 'What sort of message does that send to anybody, are we starting a war with these people down in Manston?' Home Secretary Suella Braverman arrived at the immigration centre in Manston, Kent, in a RAF Chinook (pictured) The Home Secretary was met with boos, jeers and whistles as she stepped off the Chinook wearing a Top Gun-style pilots' helmet. In recent days Ms Braverman has come under mounting pressure over the conditions at the immigration centre, which has led to outbreaks of diphtheria, MRSA and violence. At one point there were 4,000 people being detained for weeks at the site that was only meant to hold 1,600 people for a few days at a time. Campaigners are now threatening legal action against the Home Secretary over the conditions and the unlawful treatment of those at the centre. Mr Rose went on to criticise the language used by Mrs Braverman after she claimed there was a migrant 'invasion' on the south coast and that illegal migration in the UK is 'out of control'. He said: 'How do we ever allow a person to do that. How does she speak with such dangerous language about the problem. 'This will only be solved by negotiation, and it will only be solved by people sitting round a table as everything is solved.' Mr Rose also said his immigrant parents would probably not be able to enter the UK today. He added: 'Immigration has been around for thousands of years. People come here, mostly it's economic migration because people who have no food, no water, no education no prospects for their children, no way of bettering themselves want to come to a better place. 'My father was an immigrant to this country, my mother was an immigrant to this country, I probably wouldn't get in today, or they wouldn't, so let's not knock it. Last night on BBC's Question time, Asda chief Stuart Rose criticised the Home Secretary for choosing a military vehicle to arrive at the overcrowded immigration centre. He said: 'What sort of message does that send to anybody, are we starting a war with these people down in Manston?' 'People come here from persecution, political persecution, we have had people from the pail of Russia, we've had the Huguenots, we've had Ugandans, we've had the Syrians. 'We've had everybody here and now we have got these people. 'There are always people in that migration, people who are going to game the system. But we have to be, if we are a caring, rich country, and if we are apparently the fifth richest economy in the world, even with our recession, sixth, we have to accept that it's part of our duty.' Downing Street has defended Mrs Braverman's use of a military helicopter. No10 have defended the Home Secretary's decision to travel by a helicopter to the site as she was going to see the area of 'operations at sea' A No10 spokeswoman said: 'The Home Secretary was in Dover to receive an update on operations on the ground. That obviously involved operations in the Channel. 'She travelled on a military aircraft to see the area of operations at sea.' During the helicopter journey, Dan O'Mahoney, Border Force's clandestine threat commander, was said to have pointed out locations to Mrs Braverman where migrants' small boats are brought to shore. The visit comes after ministers admitted the Manston facility is not operating legally, due to its overcrowding and disease control. After arriving at the centre, Mrs Braverman was shown some of the tents that had been set up for migrants to live in as well as the catering facilities and mobile shower blocks. Campaigners are threatening legal action against the Home Secretary over conditions at Manston and the 'unlawful treatment' of people held at the facility Natalie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, accused Ms Braverman of failing to meet with local MPs or council leaders upon her trip to Kent. She said: 'The small boats crisis is not just in the migrant processing facilities, it is on our Kent beaches, schools, services and housing. 'It's a great pity that the Home Secretary wasn't able to meet with Kent MPs and Kent council leaders to discuss firsthand the serious local impact of this issue which Kent leaders have described as at 'breaking point'.' Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the new leader was receiving twice daily updates on the situations at the centre. The Home Office said steps were being taken to bolster the 24/7 medical facilities already on-site, as well as to provide extra bedding, improved catering facilities and more activities to support migrant welfare, including for children. Mrs Braverman said after her visit: 'I wanted to see first-hand how we're working to reduce the number of people in Manston, support people there, and thank staff for all their efforts. 'I am incredibly proud of the skill and dedication shown to tackle this challenging situation here on a daily basis. 'This is a complex and difficult situation, which we need to tackle on all fronts and look at innovative solutions. 'To break the business model of the people smugglers, we need to ensure that the illegal migration route across the Channel is ultimately rendered unviable.' Downing Street said the number has since reduced to 2,700, after more than 1,000 were moved in the last few days, and that the Prime Minister was receiving twice daily updates on the situation. This morning Home Officer minister Chris Philp criticised the 'cheek' of people who have entered the UK illegally complaining about the processing centres. Home Office minister Chris Philp said told Sky that Manston was legally compliant days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick suggested it was not. And he later told Times Radio: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily ... it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions.' Hundreds of people have been encouraged to leave Manston in northern Kent after simply providing a forwarding address, the Telegraph reported today Speaking to Times Radio he said: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily, it is a bit, you know, it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions when you've illegally entered a country without necessity. 'We're spending something like two or three billion pounds a year looking after people who have entered the country illegally and unnecessarily. 'I think, frankly, that is pretty generous, actually... our asylum accommodation is better than most European countries.' He added that people who had passed through other countries in Europe 'don't even have to come here', and described the numbers as 'overwhelming'. It comes as a group of refugees being transferred from Manston were left at Victoria station in central London on Tuesday night without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money. Westminster City Council said its rough sleeping service had offered hotel spaces to 11 of these people, and seven had taken up the offer. Alistair Carmichael, home affair spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said that the Mr Philp's comments were 'unbelievable'. He said: 'Chris Philp's comments reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston. 'It is unbelievable that as we hear reports of sexual assaults, disease, and chronic overcrowding, his response is to accuse those who complain of "cheek".' In light of Mr Philp's comments, Downing Street appears to have distanced itself from Mr Philp's comments stressing this afternoon that migrants 'deserve to be treated with compassion and respect'. The official spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: 'I haven't spoken to the Prime Minister about that specifically. 'Certainly it is true that Home Office border force officials and many others are working hard to provide safe, secure accommodation for those individuals that come via these routes. 'As we've been clear, those individuals deserve to be treated with compassion and respect. 'Obviously the current approach is not working and it is placing huge pressures - both in terms of on the Government and on the local area - and that is presenting significant challenges, which is why we continue to work both with French colleagues and more broadly to try and resolve this issue.' Vladimir Putin faces losing power as different factions within his regime turn on each other with the strongman leader too weak to stop them, and expert has said. Yevgenia Albats, who specialises in Russian secret services and politics, says power-brokers in Moscow's elite are now 'at each other's throats' with Putin struggling to control a 'lunch of the predators'. The Russian leader traditionally acted as a mediator between these groups - playing them off against one another while insuring everyone's safety - but his role is increasingly untenable which puts him in the firing line, Albats added. Russia is now into the ninth month of a war in Ukraine that Putin believed would be over within days, has seen his powerful military mauled by a smaller adversary, and has almost no hope of achieving any of his pre-war aims. Vladimir Putin faces losing power in a 'lunch of the predators' where power-brokers in his regime turn on each-other and then on him, expert argues Putin - weakened by the failing war in Ukraine (pictured) - can no longer mediate between the factions in his regime, with 'war of all against all' looming Albats, editor of The New Times magazine who was exiled from Russia in September after being declared a 'foreign agent', said: 'A fight has begun inside the very top echelons of Russian power. 'We are witnessing the lunch of the predators. What's happening now is a key manifestation of breakdown within the power [structures]. 'And of the fact that Putin can no longer act as mediator between various interest groups - that the war of all against all has begun.' She told independent channel TV Rain: 'I want to hope this will crash this inhumane regime, [which is] killing people in Ukraine and its own mobilised people in Russia. '[What we now see] is war at the very top of the power echelon. And Putin can no longer serve as a mediator, which is his key function. Therefore, he [Putin] is next.' As evidence, she pointed to the increasingly public attempts by warlords Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin - Chechen dictator and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, respectively - to oust defence minister Sergei Shoigu. Kadyrov and Prigozhin have been hugely critical of the way the war has been run, while suggesting generals should be sent to the front barefoot to fight. Ramzan Kadyrov (left), Chechen warlord, and Yevgeny Prigozhin (right), the Wagner Group founder, have been leading public criticism of Russia's generals Kadyrov and Prigozhin are thought to be trying to oust Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (left, meeting Putin last week) in an attempt to grab more power for themselves They were particularly critical of Colonel-General Aleksander Lapin, who was in charge of the defence of Lyman before Ukraine routed Russian forces in the region. Western officials now believe Lapin has 'probably' been fired, meaning all of the generals who ordered troops across Ukraine's border in February have been sacked. If confirmed, it would be a major coup for Kadyrov and Prigozhin against Shoigu. Albats also highlighted the legal moves against Putin's 'goddaughter' Ksenia Sobchak, who fled Russia for the West last week. Sobchak is thought to have run to Lithuania after a business associate was slapped with criminal charges and left facing 15 years in prison, sparking fears for her safety. Many assumed that Putin would have protected Sobchak, 40, whose father Anatoly, ex-mayor of St Petersburg, was his mentor and former law professor. The Moscow home of another journalist, uber-loyalist Andrey Karaulov - now in Dubai - was searched, and another Kremlin-supporting editor Modest Kolerov was suddenly fired from his Regnum news agency. The action appears to show scores being settled without reference to Putin. A common thread in the Sobchak and Karaulov cases were claims of wrongdoing made by Putin crony Sergey Chemezov, chief executive of the Rostec Corporation defence group. Sergey Kiriyenko (left) has been touted by Ukraine as a possible successor to Putin having masterminded much of his domestic policy Nikolai Patrushev (left), the powerful head of the Russian secret service, and his son Dmitry (right) have also been touted as potential successors Yet Chemezov, who spied for the KGB alongside Putin in East Germany and is now a billionaire, is seen as having upset the Kremlin president over the poor quality of Russian arms in Ukraine by failing to develop Western-quality high technologies. 'Modest results have been demonstrated in the areas for which Rostec is responsible,' said Putin in a crushing attack at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. Rostec, a state corporation that owns more than a 1,000 enterprises in the Russian military-industrial complex, has failed to provide high-quality weapons, tanks, night vizors, body armour, and other ammunition, it is claimed. Chemezov, at 70 the same age as Putin, appears to be lashing out in a bid for survival, some observers claim. In the past, Putin would have dampened such flames, but now powerbrokers close to the Kremlin are flexing their muscles and he cannot stop them, Albats suggests. Other observers see a fight for the succession cranking up between key Putin aide Sergey Kiriyenko, 60, a former Russian prime minister who is now deputy chief of staff in the Kremlin, and Dmitry Patrushev, 45, the agriculture minister, and son of secretary of Putin's security council, Nikolai Patrushev, 71. No 10 has denied claims that a nuclear power plant being built on the Suffolk coast is under review and could be delayed or even axed. The Government's position on the multi-billion-pound project has 'not changed', No 10 said, as the nuclear reactor remains 'crucial' to curbing the UK's reliance on fossil fuels and boosting energy security at home. It is hoped a deal will be reached with energy firm EDF, who are expected to build the reactor, 'as soon as possible', the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. EDF's Sizewell B nuclear power station (pictured) on the Suffolk Coast. A new nuclear power plant being built on the Suffolk coast is reportedly under review and could now be delayed or even axed amid government spending cuts, according to the BBC It had been reported the development was under review as ministers look to find 50 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes, with a Government official earlier telling the BBC: 'We are reviewing every major project - including Sizewell C.' One senior Treasury source backed this, stressing 'we're looking at all capital spending', despite sources elsewhere, including in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, insisting the project was not being canned. No 10 confirmed on Friday there had been no change in its position, stressing: 'It's not accurate to say we are scrapping it.' 'It remains crucial to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, increasing our energy security and meeting our net-zero ambitions,' the PM's spokesman said. 'We hope to get a deal over the line as soon as possible, there are negotiations (with EDF) ongoing. 'Negotiations have been constructive.' Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk in September this year as he pledged 700 million for the Sizewell C project during his final major policy speech Boris Johnson promised 700 million of taxpayers' money to the project in his final policy speech in early September as he sought to make energy security part of his legacy as prime minister. Meanwhile, plans to build a full Northern Powerhouse Rail previously promised by Liz Truss are also in jeopardy, prompting fury from northern leaders. It comes as Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt look for spending cuts and higher taxes to fill the 'eye-watering' 50billion black hole in the government finances. The Chancellor has been meeting colleagues this week as they try to thrash out a package ahead of the crucial Autumn Statement on November 17. Negotiations on raising funds for Sizewell C, which is set to be developed by French company EDF - are understood to be ongoing, the BBC reported. It was not due to start generating electricity - to around six million homes - until the 2030s. The site is said to create up to 70,000 jobs and could cost around 20 billion, according to reports. However, one nuclear industry executive source told the BBC: 'As far we know, it's still on'. Drawings of Sizewell C The building of Sizewell C has proved controversial for locals living near the site in Leiston, Suffolk, and earlier this year hundreds of locals opposing the plans marched to Sizewell to demonstrate against its expansion. Building new nuclear plants is key in the government's strategy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, with a pledge to build eight new reactors in eight years under the premiership of Boris Johnson. This promise was upheld by Mr Sunak while campaigning for the Conservative leadership over the summer, however he has now rowed back on some of his pledges in a bid to balance the books. Meanwhile, union GMB said a decision to pull support from Sizewell C 'would be catastrophic'. Andy Prendergast, GMB's national secretary, said: 'We really could see the UK's lights go out. Without new nuclear there can be no net zero.' A Treasury spokesperson told the broadcaster that delivering infrastructure projects was 'a priority'. 'HS2 is under way, within budget, and supporting 28,000 jobs, we are also seeking to approve at least one large-scale nuclear project in the next few years and aim to speed up the delivery of around 100 major infrastructure projects across the UK.' Plans for the rail line, 'Northern Powerhouse Rail' are also expected to be scaled back, despite former Prime Minister Liz Truss' pledge last month to build a fully electrified 124-mile rail line in northern England. People waiting to board a train at Crewe station (pictured), one of the stops on the proposed Northern Powerhouse Rail line However, it has now been suggested that the new line may not go ahead in full as the government looks for ways to cut back. No 10 said the Mr Sunak would carry out an 'across-the-board' review of the pledges made by Ms Truss, Britain's shortest-serving prime minister, to see if they are still deliverable in the current economic climate. It was hoped a high speed rail would link up towns and cities across the coast, from Hull to Liverpool through Bradford as part of the Government's 'levelling-up' agenda. 'There wasn't really much point in going and blasting new tunnels through the Pennines. 'It's not true to say we're not delivering on what we said we would do on levelling up the north,' Mr Shapps told the BBC. Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership lobby group said there now were 'serious questions' about the government's plans. 'The North's woeful transport infrastructure continues to weigh down our economy and hold back private investment. 'This option saves little to nothing to Treasury coffers now. Northern Powerhouse Rail is still in early development stage meaning that the vast majority of the investment needed is well beyond the current spending review period.' EDF has been approached for comment. Australia's Twitter lead for editorial matters has shared an ominous sign of Elon Musk's global staff purge at the social media firm. Sunrise host Edwina Bartholomew's husband, Neil Varcoe, revealed he was logged out of the TwitterAU team's Slack on Friday. 'I was just logged out of Slack,' he wrote, alongside a salute emoji in an apparent farewell to the company. He received several responses, with some Twitter users wishing him 'good luck' before he deleted the message. Billionaire and Twitter CEO Elon Musk told confidants he planned to slash half of Twitter's worldwide workforce to cut costs at the social media platform, which he acquired for $US44 billion ($70 billion) last month. Roughly 40 employees at the Sydney office have been locked out of their account while they anxiously await an email which will notify them on whether they still have a job. Sydney staff will be informed at 1am on Saturday, while staff in the United States will be made aware of their job status on Friday at 9am. Australia's Twitter boss Neil Varcoe (pictured with wife Edwina Bartholomew) revealed he was logged out of the TwitterAU teams' slack on Friday The since deleted Twitter post received a number of comments wishing Varcoe 'good luck' 'In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,' the internal email read. 'We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward.' The email then revealed: 'By 9am PST on Friday November 4th (1am Saturday morning AEDT), everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter.' Employees who keep their positions will have the email sent to their Twitter address. Those who have been sacked will receive the next steps about their termination via their personal email address. The memo added that all offices would be temporarily closed and access suspended 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data'. Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021, and Musk reportedly plans to lay off up to half of them. Twitter CEO and Billionaire Elon Musk (pictured) told confidants he planned to slash half of Twitter's 7,500 worldwide workforce to cut costs at the social media platform Employees at Twitter's Australian office (pictured) will find out on Saturday at 1am if they keep their job after Elon Musk's recent takeover The notification of layoffs caps off a week of high-level purges by Musk, as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company. He had already cleared out the company's senior ranks, firing its chief executive and top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company's advertising, marketing, and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. Prior to buying the platform, Musk tweeted that the company under his ownership 'will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.' Last week he lamented in a tweet that 'there seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding.' The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees. An email was sent to all full-time Twitter staff worldwide to announce that there would be massive lay-offs (pictured) Musk's first week as Twitter's owner was marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be cancelled hours later. Managers have been forbidden from calling team meetings or communicating directly with staff, one senior Twitter employee said, adding that they were being monitored. 'It feels like we're working among the Gestapo,' they said. Musk has also directed Twitter Inc's teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters. Musk faces threats to Twitter's revenue as a growing number of companies pause their advertising on the platform over concerns about whether it will remain 'safe' for brands. Last week, General Motors announced it had 'temporarily paused' all paid advertising on Twitter with Audi and General Mills - which makes Pillsbury, betty Crocker and Haagen-Dazs - following suit. Oreo-maker Mondelez International and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have both paused their Twitter ad spending as well, according to a Wall Street Journal report. All Twitter offices would be temporarily closed and access suspended 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data' (pictured, Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California) Musk took to Twitter with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness' Musk last week promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a 'free-for-all hellscape' due to concerns the social media site will become inundated with the voices of bigots and conspiracy theorists. He is now scrambling to convince advertisers that he will uphold the commitment. Some advertisers have reportedly vowed to boycott Twitter for good if former president Donald Trump is allowed to return. Musk said on Wednesday it would be several weeks before a process is in place to reinstate banned accounts. On Wednesday night, Musk asked users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or 'political correctness'. More than two million users voted in the poll with nearly 80 per cent answering 'freedom of speech'. This is the moment a man celebrating the birth of his baby son was fatally shot with a bow and arrow by a neighbour angry at the noise he was making. Javier Alfredo Miranda Romero, 41, was with a group of pals and had been walking home with them after wetting the newborns head at a nearby bar. But as he stood and chatted outside his apartment, furious Evaristo Scalco, 63, grabbed a bow and arrow and shot him with the steel-tipped flight usually used to kill wild boars. Graphic footage online shows Javier clutching his stomach with the arrow clearly sticking out from him as he staggers around in a pool of blood in an alleyway in the Italian port city of Genoa. Bare-chested Scalco can be seen in the first floor window holding the bow in his hand as he looks on, unaware that Javier is mortally wounded. Javier Alfredo Miranda Romero, 41, was with a group of pals and had been walking home with them after wetting the newborns head at a nearby bar. But as he stood and chatted outside his apartment furious Evaristo Scalco, 63, grabbed a bow and arrow and shot him with the steel tipped flight which is usually used to kill wild boars Javier Alfredo Miranda Romero (pictured with his beloved partner) was fatally shot with a bow and arrow Witnesses say Scalco had hurled racist insults at Peruvian-born Javier before grabbing the bow and arrow and shooting him in the early hours of Wednesday. Javier and his friends had been at a nearby bar watching the Champions League match between Liverpool and Napoli before heading home after a few drinks. In one harrowing piece of footage, Javier can be seen in tears and talking on his phone, holding the arrow and whimpering: Son of a b****. What the f*** have you done to me ? My God. Scalco can be heard shouting down: 'Do you need a hand? A neighbour then comes out and asks: Whats happened? and Javier answers: Hes shot me with an arrow. On his Facebook page, Javier had posted a photo of the scan of his unborn baby in July Realising the gravity of the situation, Scalco runs down and in other videos is seen bending over trying to stem the flow of blood as police try to keep a crowd of Javiers angry friends back. Seconds earlier they had tried to remove the arrow from his body, possibly exacerbating the wound. He was later taken away by paramedics to a local hospital. Doctors battled to save his life after surgery discovered his liver had been pierced. But despite trying to find him a possible donor there was nothing that could be done and he died from his injuries on Wednesday. On his Facebook page, Javier had posted a photo of the scan of his unborn baby in July and written: And very soon you will be with us we wait with great eagerness my little Gustavo Giuseppe. You will be our blessing, the joy of mummy and daddy. In one harrowing piece of footage Javier can be seen in tears and talking on his phone, holding the arrow and whimpering: Son of a b****. What the f*** have you done to me ? My God' Scalco, a labourer in the local marina, told police he had just returned from a job in Malta and was tired and had just wanted to sleep but was kept awake by the noise. He added: I looked out and saw a group of people urinating, I shouted at them but they ignored me, I grabbed the bow and fired but I didnt mean to kill anyone. Officers who raided his house said around 60 arrows and three bows had been seized and an investigation had been opened by local prosecutor Nicola Piacente. An official from the Peruvian consulate said Javier had lived in Italy for 26 years and staff were in touch with his family. Scalco was being held in custody at a local jail last night on suspicion of murder and aggravated racism. A big rig was engulfed in flames after a driver led police on a low-speed chase down a California freeway, with the truck reported stolen. Despite the driver only traveling at 15mph, police were forced to close the freeway to other vehicles for several miles of the Interstate 5 freeway on Thursday. It is not yet clear how the chase began, but it is understood the big rig had been reported stolen. The very low-speed chase began in the early afternoon, around 12.45pm, on the Interstate 5 freeway leaving Kern County. The truck burst into flames after police took out the front passenger wheel on Thursday afternoon Flames engulfed the cabin of the big rig shortly after the driver handed himself to police The Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived to put out the fire around 3.45pm After spotting the big rig that was making its way toward Los Angeles, police then shut down the Interstate 5 freeway. They made multiple attempts to stop the truck by throwing down stingers to take out the tires and halt the vehicle. As police pursued the vehicle, the driver wrote something on a blank sheet of paper that he then held up to the windshield. What he wrote was not visible. Police made several unsuccessful attempts before managing to damage the front right tire. The passenger tire then teared away, becoming trapped between the underside of the car and the road. Firefighters put out a burning truck cab that caught fire after a low-speed chase on the I-5 freeway in Castaic, California on Thursday, November 3, 2022 The truck burst into flames, prompting the driver to stop and surrender to police. Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived to put out the fire The wheel then made contact with the ground, causing sparks to ignite. It didn't take long before a fire started under the big rig's cabin. Helicopters captured the action from above, showing the flames pouring out from the big rig and several police cars pursuing the truck form behind. The driver was then forced to pull over, exit the vehicle and hand himself over to police with the truck now ablaze. The Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived to put out the fire around 3.45pm. By that time the big rig was already burnt to a crisp and completely destroyed. The Interstate 5 freeway route between Newhall and Castaic Lake remained closed to vehicles as police and fire services dealt with the incident. A big rig was engulfed in flames after a driver led police on a low-speed chase down a California freeway Advertisement Commuters travelling between Birmingham, the Midlands and the capital have been left stranded today after train staff walked out ahead of nationwide strikes that will disrupt rail and Tube services for a week. West Midlands Trains and London Northwestern Railway (LNR) staff who are members of the Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) union have downed tools this morning in the latest dispute over pay. But there will be larger nationwide strikes starting on Saturday. Only around a fifth of services will run tomorrow, Monday and Wednesday, bringing the tally of national strikes orchestrated by the RMT to 11 since July. Trains on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday could also be down by a quarter due to the knock-on effects. And London Underground staff will strike on Thursday, crippling the capital's transport network for the sixth time this year. Ministers are under deepening pressure to solve the rail strikes crisis as analysis showed walkouts have blown a 600million hole in the economy since the summer. Which services will be affected by the strikes and when? Friday, November 4 Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) in West Midlands Trains (WMT) and London Northwestern (LNR) are walking out today in a dispute over pay, job security and conditions. Control room, ticket office and station staff are on strike, hitting services across the West Midlands. Saturday, November 5 Affected services on Saturday include Great Western Railway, South Western Railway, Cross Country, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands, C2C, Northern Trains, South Eastern, Transpennine Express, West Midlands Trains, GTR (including Gatwick Express) and Avanti West Coast. Monday, November 7 A 24-hour strike by RMT members at Network Rail. Wednesday, November 9 A 24-hour strike by RMT members at Network Rail and some TSSA staff at Avanti West Coast, Southeastern and South Western Railway. Thursday, November 10 RMT members on the London Underground and Overground will walk out on Thursday November 10, meaning a very limited or no service on the Tube and a severely reduced Overground service. Advertisement The strikes will hit families attending bonfire night celebrations, sports fans during a weekend jam-packed with football fixtures and rural areas will be completely cut off. With union barons threatening to cause chaos until next summer in the absence of a deal, ministers are facing calls to get tougher to stop further economic damage amid a looming recession. A limited number of services will run from Birmingham to London and Liverpool stations today but all other LNR trains and all services in Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Staffordshire have been cancelled. The strike comes ahead of six days of hell from tomorrow as thousands of rail workers strike. Union bosses are said to be weighing up yet more industrial action for the end of the month. Strikes by the RMT and Unite are set for tomorrow, Monday and Wednesday, bringing services to a halt. It will also cause knock-on delays on days between the walkouts, meaning that disruption is expected to last for a week because there is a Tube strike planned for next Thursday. TSSA has cancelled its strike for Saturday as it continues its talks with National Rail. Affected services on Saturday consist of the Great Western Railway, South Western Railway, Cross Country, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands, C2C, Northern Trains, South Eastern, Transpennine Express, West Midlands Trains, GTR (including Gatwick Express) and Avanti West Coast. Monday will see a 24-hour strike by RMT members at Network Rail, as will Wednesday, with with the addition of some TSSA staff at Avanti West Coast, Southeastern and South Western Railway. On Thursday November 10, RMT members on the London Underground and Overground will walk out, resulting in a very limited or no service on the Tube and a severely reduced Overground service. It comes as train drivers' union Aslef is set to meet next week to decide on further strike action later this month, following a lack of progress since their last walkout during the Conservative party conference in October. And both RMT and Aslef are to ballot their members for a further strike mandate that would allow for repeated industrial action until July 2023. This has raised fears of strikes over the busy Christmas period, which sees thousands of Brits travelling home to be with families for the holidays. Rail workers are striking today and will be closing down Britain's railways across the next week in a dispute over pay. Pictured: Union members strike outside the Bullring in Birmingham in October The strike by the TSSA will see almost all London Northwestern and West Midlands Trains cancelled today A limited number of WMT services will run from Birmingham to London and Liverpool but all others are cancelled Members of the RMT, Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and Unite are walking out as part of a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Pictured: Secretary General of the RMT, Mick Lynch (centre) at the picket line outside London's Euston Train Station in August Strikes will be held today, on Saturday (November 5), Monday (November 7) and Wednesday (November 9), bringing services to a halt and causing knock-on delays on days between the walkouts. Pictured: Empty platform at Paddington railway station on October 8 during the third of three days of industrial action last month London Northwestern Railway announced its trains will be severely disrupted over the next week Train drivers' union Aslef is set to meet next week to decide on further strike action later this month, following a lack of progress since their last walkout during the Conservative party conference in October 700 Heathrow workers to strike - hitting flights in the run up to the Qatar World Cup Hundreds of workers at Heathrow airport are to go on strike in a dispute over pay - hitting World Cup flights to Qatar. Unite said around 700 of its members employed by contractors in jobs including ground handling and cargo will take industrial action for three days from November 18. The union said airlines affected will include Qatar Airways which has scheduled extra flights during the World Cup. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: 'Our members at Dnata and Menzies undertake highly challenging roles and are simply seeking a decent pay rise. 'Both companies are highly profitable and can fully afford to make a fair pay increase. 'The workers at Heathrow will have Unite's complete support during this dispute.' Unite said pay offers from the two companies range from 2% to 6%. Advertisement There are hopes of a reprieve after new Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he would be 'very happy to meet the trade unions', marking a dramatic shift from his predecessor Grant Shapps, who flat out refused such meetings. Mr Harper said: 'The negotiations are obviously going to take place between the unions and the employers: Network Rail and the train operating companies. 'But I think it's helpful for ministers to meet trade union leaders and to listen to their concerns. 'I'm very happy to do that and my department will be reaching out to those trade union leaders in due course.' The travel misery will first hit rugby fans hoping to watch Wales and New Zealand in Cardiff on Saturday, while also putting a dampener on Bonfire Night celebrations. Network Rail has urged passengers only to travel if absolutely necessary, warning that just one in five trains will be running while the strikes take place - and only between 7.30am and 6.30pm. Rugby fans attending the Wales versus New Zealand game at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday have also been told to avoid travel by train. Up to 35,000 people normally travel into Cardiff by train for international rugby matches, with more than 20,000 getting a return home. Due to the strike, inbound capacity by rail in the hours leading up to kick-off at 3.15pm will be heavily reduced - two thirds lower than usual - and there will be no trains scheduled from Cardiff after the match. Music fans hoping to travel to central London on Monday to see Kendrick Lamar and Aly & AJ will also be among those affected. On strike days across Network Rail's Western route - between Penzance and London Paddington - passengers were warned to expect an extremely limited service with no CrossCountry trains running and no services south west of Weston-super-Mare, including the whole of Devon and Cornwall. Rugby fans attending the Wales versus New Zealand game at the Principality Stadium (pictured) in Cardiff on Saturday have been told to not travel by train General Secretary of the RMT, on the picket line at Euston Station during industrial action earlier this month It was also announced that a very limited GWR service will run on the following routes between: London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, London Paddington and Cardiff Central, London Paddington and Oxford, Reading and Basingstoke, Oxford and Didcot Parkway, Cardiff Central and Westbury via Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-super-Mare, and Branch lines serving Windsor, Marlow and Henley-on-Thames. The latest wave of strikes comes as the next phase of Elizabeth line services will be launched on Sunday, with the lines from Reading, Heathrow, and Shenfield connecting with the central tunnels of the new cross-London route. While the launch will not be taking place on a strike day, services will start later than usual and passengers are encouraged to check on the TfL website for the latest timetable information during the week of strike action. Network Rail's interim Western route director David Davidson, said: 'I would like to sincerely apologise to passengers for another period of disruption owing to this latest strike action. 'Our message to passengers is clear - please only travel if absolutely necessary. For those passengers who must travel by train during time, please expect severe disruption, plan ahead and check the time of your last train home. 'Please continue to check with your train operator on the services they are running or visit the National Rail Enquiries website for more information.' Glynn Barton, Transport for London's interim chief operating officer, added: 'It's highly disappointing that the RMT union is planning strike action on the London Underground and Overground on November 10. 'We are encouraging them to withdraw this disruptive action and continue to engage with us and Arriva Rail London, operator of the London Overground, to avoid disruption to our customers. 'No changes to TfL pensions are currently tabled, and no one has or will lose their job as a result of any changes proposed. 'Customers should check before they travel from November 5-11, as strike action will impact different modes of transport each day. 'For November 10, we are advising customers to expect very limited or no service on the Tube, a reduced service on London Overground and for the rest of the network to be very busy.' RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch this week claimed rail bosses had 'yet to make an offer that will create the conditions for a negotiated settlement'. Network Rail said it has offered workers an 8 per cent pay rise over two years in a 'fair and affordable' deal. Chief executive Andrew Haines accused unions of being 'more intent on more damaging strikes than working with us to compromise and agree a deal'. He added: 'These strikes undermine the railway's recovery from the pandemic and drive passengers away at a time when everyone involved in the railway should be focused on attracting more passengers and freight forwarders to the network, at the same time as building a railway fit for the future.' Vijayawada: The Supreme Court has said it wants to examine the petitions filed on the 3-capitals issue before hearing these and posted their next hearing to Nov. 14. A division bench of Justices KM Joseph and Justice Hrishikesh Roy held the hearing on the 3-capitals issue in New Delhi on Friday. AP government counsel urged the court to have urgent hearing on the petitions filed by the farmers from Amaravati and the state government. The court asked what was the urgency involved in the matter. Government counsel explained to the court that a contempt of court case was filed against the state government for its failure to implement the AP High Court order to develop Amaravati as the sole capital city in a stipulated period. However, farmers counsel told the court that while the AP HC issued its order in March, the state government moved the apex court months later, in September. Farmers counsel Fali Nariman asked the court for a weeks time to file an affidavit with all details of the case. Government counsel pleaded that the hearing be scheduled on Nov. 7. The court, after hearing both the parties, posted the next hearing to Nov. 14. This is the hilarious moment a parrot perches on a TV reporter's shoulder during a live broadcast about crime and insecurity - before stealing his earpiece and flying off with it. Chilean newsman Nicolas Krumm was informing viewers about a house burglary when the bird surprised him. He could be seen motioning to his cameraman to make sure he focused on the unexpected guest. But seconds later the monk parakeet decided the main attraction was Nicolas's earpiece and he plucked it out of his left ear. The stunned reporter, who works for Chilevision, tried to grab it back but was too slow and the bird disappeared with its prize as he turned round and exclaimed: 'It's just taken my earpiece.' Chilean newsman Nicolas Krumm was reporting on a burglary when the parrot surprised him. He asked the cameraman to make sure the bird was in view as it was 'picturesque' Moments later the parrot decided the main attraction was Nicolas' earpiece. Krumm later said the bird had been watching them from railings nearby He explained afterwards to a studio presenter: 'We were doing a midday broadcast and halfway through I felt a presence close to me and realized it was a parrot. 'I tried to alert the cameraman more than anything because it was picturesque and I thought it wasn't something that happens every day. 'There are people who spend years training parrots to get them to rest on their shoulders. Krumm was doing a midday broadcast and halfway through he felt a presence close to him and realized it was a parrot The broadcaster said he had to carry on talking because they were live on air It was at this moment that the monk parakeet decided to take his earpiece 'The parrot had been watching us from railings nearby and I think my earpiece had got its attention because you can see it looking at it out of the corner of its eye before it takes it. 'I had to carry on talking because we were in the middle of a live broadcast. 'Right at the moment when I'm trying to make sure the cameraman has seen the parrot, it takes my earpiece. 'It wasn't something I wanted to comment on right at that second because we were dealing with a sensitive subject which was a residential break-in and I considered the most prudent thing was to carry on with the broadcast.' Krumm said the earpiece theft wasn't something he wanted to comment on right at that second because they were dealing with the sensitive subject of a residential break-in Nicolas revealed his cameraman had managed to find the earpiece and retrieve it from a nearby patch of grass during a later search Nicolas also revealed his cameraman had managed to find the earpiece and retrieve it from a nearby patch of grass during a subsequent search. In March 2016 TV a rogue parrot landed on reporter Britney Klein's shoulder as she was about to film a broadcast for Australia's Nine News. The video went viral because, forgetting she was about to broadcast, the news reporter let slip a swearword before pleading and shouting at the cameraman: 'Get it off me.' Several Spanish airports closed their airspace earlier this morning because of an out-of-control Chinese rocket. Flights into and out of Barcelona, Tarragona, Ibiza and Reus were known to have been grounded with reports other regions including La Rioja and Castilla and Leon have been affected. The measure lasted around 40 minutes, although local reports were pointing to the possibility places such as Ibiza could still face delays of several hours. Local media in the Balearics said flights between the islands and the UK would be the most affected by the problems caused by the out-of-control Chinese space junk. It came after China launched the third and final piece of its new Tiangong space station on Monday and warnings had been sounded about the rocket's 23-ton body coming back down on Earth with Spain identified as one of the countries in its path. The module, named Mengtain, blasted into space from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on the southern island province of Hainan. Several Spanish airports closed their airspace earlier this morning because of an out-of-control Chinese rocket. Spanish airspace has now been reopened. Pictured: The Long March-5B Y4 rocket taking off on Monday Mengtian, or 'Celestial Dream', joins Wentian as the second laboratory module for the station, collectively known as Tiangong, or 'Celestial Palace'. Both are connected to the Tianhe core module where the crew lives and works. As it tumbles back down, it will send large and heavy pieces of debris that will hit the surface of the Earth. Debris from the rocket, flying around the world at 17,500 miles per hour, is being tracked live by the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking. It requires careful monitoring as it is one of the largest pieces of debris re-entering the atmosphere in recent years. Remnants of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 10.08am UK time (6.08pm Beijing time). It was initially set to be back in the Earth's atmosphere tomorrow morning. The module, which is expected to largely disintegrate in the atmosphere, will fly over Spain and the Iberian Peninsula twice on Friday morning, according to the European body in charge of space surveillance. The new path of the debris shows that it will fly over some parts of Europe and is expected to fall back down to Earth today before 12.30pm. It is expected to land in the Indian Ocean without risk to the population. Canadian Astronomer Erika tweeted: 'The uncertainty of where the large debris will ultimately land presents a level of risk to human safety and property damage that is well above commonly accepted thresholds. 'If your latitude is higher than that of France or Portland, Oregon, you're probably in the clear.' The rocket measured 17.8 meters and had a diameter of 4.2 meters at the time of lift-off. Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: 'The rocket is designed with special technology; most of the components will burn up and be destroyed during the re-entry process, and the probability of causing harm to aviation activities and on the ground is extremely low.' The rocket measured 17.8 meters and had a diameter of 4.2 meters at the time of lift-off What other space junk has hurtled to Earth? AUGUST 2022: Space junk from Elon Musk's SpaceX hit a farmer's property in the snowy mountains of New South Wales AUGUST 2022: Debris from an out-of- control 25-ton Chinese rocket crashed to Earth over the Indian and Pacific oceans. Debris was found in Indonesia and Malaysia. JULY 2022: Pieces of a Long March-5B rocket were recovered around South Asia APRIL 2022: Villagers in India found parts of what looked like a Chinese Long March 3B which was launched in February MAY 2020: Ivory Coast villages hit by objects including a 12-metre section of pipe which appeared to have come from a Long March 5B expected to London that day Advertisement Like its predecessors, Mengtian was launched aboard a Long March-5B carrier rocket, a member of China's most powerful family of launch vehicles, which have all made uncontrolled crash landings back to Earth. Aerospace Corporation previously said that 'there is a non-zero probability' that the debris will land in a populated area in other words, it's not impossible, so it could happen. 'A re-entry of this size will not burn up in the Earth's atmosphere,' said Aerospace Corporation, which is based in El Segundo, California. 'The general rule of thumb is that 20-40 percent of the mass of a large object will reach the ground, though it depends on the design of the object.' In a news conference on Wednesday, Ted Muelhaupt, a consultant for the Aerospace Corporation, said: 'Here we go again.' The Philippine Space Agency had earlier this week warned that the drop zone of the debris could be near its islands. The most recent was the booster of the rocket that launched July 24 and because the booster was racing around Earth's orbit every 90 minutes, the exact point to where it would plummet from the sky was impossible to predict. Fortunately most of the rocket burned up in the atmosphere, but up to 40 percent of it was predicted to survive the fall from space - and some of the pieces were recovered around South Asia on July 30. The reports, however, stated there were no injuries from the debris. 'All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk,' Bill Nelson said in July. 'Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth.' In July, another booster made an uncontrolled reentry, while most of it burned up in the atmosphere some pieces were recovered in South Asia Although airspace in Spain has now been reopened, it was not immediately clear how many flights have been affected or will face ongoing delays as the situation gets back to normal. Corvera Airport in Murcia confirmed a flight due to leave for London had been delayed by an hour. Spain's air traffic manager ENAIRE said: 'ENAIRE has lifted the restrictions in place over part of the country's airspace following the passing of Chinese space object CZ-5B. 'With the non-controlled entry of parts of the object in the Earth's orbit crossing our territory, ENAIRE in accordance with the recommendation of the European Air Safety Agency and instructions from the inter-ministerial cell led by the Department of National Security, established a 100-kilometre air traffic exclusion on both sides of the orbit of the space object. 'The non-controlled entry into the atmosphere of the large Chinese rocket was monitored at all times.' Flights into and and out of Barcelona, Tarragona, Ibiza and Reus were grounded earlier this morning with reports other regions including La Rioja and Castilla and Leon were affected. Pictured: Barcelona-El Prat airport China launched the third and final piece of its new Tiangong space station on Monday and warnings had been sounded about the rocket's 23-ton body coming back down to Earth with Spain identified as one of the countries in its path. Pictured: The rocket takes off with the final piece of the space station on Monday A spokeswoman for Spanish airports authority AENA covering the Balearic Islands said just before midday it was not yet able to offer information on how many incoming or outgoing flights had or would be affected. One passenger at Lisbon airport tweeted: 'This is a new one. On the tarmac at Lisbon airport for 45 minutes. Planes aren't taking off because debris from a Chinese rocket launch is re-entering the earth's atmosphere in northern Spain.' And another flying from Ibiza wrote: 'Flight delayed due to a rocket entering the air space from China in Ibiza, ya couldn't make it up.' Meanwhile, a passenger at Madrid Airport tweeted: 'The current queue for the customer desk in T4 Madrid Airport. 'We've already missed our connecting flight due to flight delayed from San Sebastian, we'll miss Christmas at this rate, only 2 people on the desk and a few hundred queuing.' Another person at Madrid airport wrote: '2hr delayed flight from San Sebastian to Madrid and a missed connecting flight to LHR. 'No help at Madrid airport to route back into LHR and no comms confirming flight moved onto. 'Can someone from customer service help pls.' A spokesman for Catalonia's Civil Protection Agency earlier said: 'Due to the risk associated with the passage of the CZ-5B space object crossing Spanish airspace, flights have been completely restricted from 9.38am to 10.18am in Catalonia and other communities. 'Airports and other organisations have already been informed.' Pictured: Spanish airspace at 9am this morning. Within the circle are some of the areas which had their flights grounded due to the rocket falling back to Earth, including Barcelona Spanish air traffic controllers tweeted: 'Eurocontrol has informed us about the non-controlled re-entry of a Chinese rocket into the Earth's atmosphere. 'Rate Zero has been established for certain parts of Spanish airspace and that could affect air traffic by way of delays and diversions.' Some air passengers were understood to have been informed about the Spanish airspace closures after they had already boarded for take-off. Spain's Air Force had confirmed its Space Surveillance Operations Centre called COVE is involved in tracking the remains of the rocket. Spanish air traffic controllers previously tweeted: 'The forecast is that the airspace closure will be deactivated shortly and airplanes can begin to leave on the routes affected. 'But it will take some time for normality to return following the delays. 'For security reasons it must be done progressively.' Sources at Barcelona's El Prat airport said the delays were likely to last last all day and affect both incoming and outgoing flights. Aerospace Corporation used available data to show possible landing sites (shown in yellow) earlier this week It comes after a study from earlier this year by scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver warned there was a 10 per cent chance that an out-of-control rocket or spacecraft could kill someone within the next decade. Meanwhile, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told MailOnline that despite the increase in space debris in low-Earth orbit, this does not equate to more risk for humans. 'Not especially,' McDowell said, when asked whether there was an increased risk, 'because most countries are being better about disposing of the larger debris safely.' He added: 'The Long March 5B is the most worrying one because it is so large. But there is a (lower) risk from the debris from all countries.' The remnants of another Chinese rocket were caught on video in August as it disintegrated over Malaysia, before landing in the Indian Ocean The video, taken by a Twitter user who initially thought it was a meteor, shows the craft racing across the sky before it burns in the atmosphere upon its re-entry The 23-tonne core stage of China's Long March 5B-Y3 rocket plunged to Earth over the Indian Ocean in August McDowell believes that instead of being an increasing risk, it is instead one 'we are becoming more aware of'. 'All space agencies have taken measures to reduce the amount of falling space debris but the current norms are still not strict enough, as the Australian incident shows,' he added. McDowell has kept a list of the biggest uncontrolled reentries, dating back to the Sputnik rocket in 1958. HOW MANY ITEMS ARE THERE IN ORBIT? Rocket launches since 1957: 6,200 6,200 Number of satellites in orbit: 13,100 13,100 Number still in space: 8,410 8,410 Number still functioning: 5,800 5,800 Number of debris objects: 31,500 31,500 Break-ups, explosions etc: 630 630 Mass of objects in orbit: 9,900 tonnes 9,900 tonnes Prediction of the amount of debris in orbit using statistical models Over 10cm: 36,500 36,500 1cm to 10cm: 1,000,000 1,000,000 1mm to 1cm: 130 million Source: European Space Agency Advertisement Earlier this year, scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver analysed the risk to human life of objects plummeting to the ground after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Under current practices, the researchers found that, if a typical rocket re-entry spreads debris across a 10 square metre (108 sq ft) area, then there is roughly a 1 in 10 chance that one or more casualties will occur over the next 10 years. They also said there was a higher risk to those living in the global south, with errant parts three times more likely to land at the latitudes of Jakarta, Dhaka and Lagos than those of New York, Beijing or Moscow. However, despite 80 per cent of the world's people living in what is known as a 'risk zone', just 0.1 per cent of it is considered populated. 'Everything else is ocean, forest or agricultural land,' said Dr Shane Walsh, a research fellow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. 'It's extremely unlikely to cause damage or loss of life.' The problem with China's rockets is rooted in the risky design of the country's launch process. Usually, discarded rocket stages re-enter the atmosphere soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don't go into orbit. However, the Long March 5B rocket does. There have been calls by NASA for the Chinese space agency to design rockets to disintegrate into smaller pieces upon re-entry, as is the international norm. But China has previously rejected accusations of irresponsibility, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying the likelihood of damage to anything or anyone on the ground is 'extremely low'. A study completed earlier this year claimed there was a higher risk to those living in the global south, with errant parts three times more likely to land at the latitudes of Jakarta, Dhaka and Lagos than those of New York, Beijing or Moscow. Some major and high-risk cities are labelled: 1, Moscow; 2, Washington, DC; 3, Beijing; 4, Dhaka; 5, Mexico City; 6, Lagos; 7, Bogota; 8, Jakarta This pie chart shows the proportion of the global casualty expectation contributed by each state WHAT IS TIANGONG? China's space station is called 'Tiangong', meaning 'Heavenly Palace'. Tiangong is comprised of several different modules that are launching one by one. In April 2021, the core module, called 'Tianhe', was launched. The first crew arrived at Tianhe two months later. In July 2022, Wentian, a smaller module where research experiments will take place, attached to Tianhe. In October 2022, a second research lab module, Mengtian, will also attach to Tianhe. When it does, the Tiangong space station will be complete. Another two spacecraft that can dock at the station Shenzhou and Tianzhou respectively transport crew and cargo, and aren't considered part of the station itself. China also plans to launch Xuntian, a space telescope that would co-orbit with the space station, in 2024. Advertisement Last May, one of the country's Long March rockets broke up on re-entry above the Indian Ocean, north of the Maldives, leading to concerns that it could smash into a populated area on land. It ultimately fell into the ocean, but Nelson still issued a strongly-worded statement which said: 'Spacefaring nations must minimise the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximise transparency regarding those operations.' In 2020, pieces from the first Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings but not causing any injuries. Although rocket launches vary, boosters and other sizeable parts from rockets fall back to Earth or are abandoned in orbit. In most cases, the abandoned rocket parts re-enter the atmosphere in an uncontrolled fashion and debris may land anywhere along the flight path. An estimated 13,100 satellites have been launched into orbit since 1957, according to the European Space Agency, with 8,410 remaining in space and 5,800 still functioning. The total mass of all objects in orbit is said to equate to around 9,900 tonnes, while statistical models suggests there are 130 million pieces of debris from 1mm to 1cm in size. In June, the UK government announced plans for an 'RAC for space' as part of its vision to tackle millions of shards of debris clogging up near-Earth orbit. It also wants to improve the sustainability of future space missions, with Science Minister George Freeman issuing a stern warning to the likes of Russia and China that 'the days of putting up whatever they want have got to be over'. He said a 'Wild West' space race without effective regulation would only serve to increase the growing threat of debris in orbit, including hundreds of old satellites. Farmer Mick Miners (pictured) discovered the huge piece of space junk from SpaceX stuck in his property in the Snowy Mountains, south of Jindabyne Australian National University space expert Brad Tucker confirmed it was part of Elon Musk's SpaceX Crew-1 (pictured) Mr Freeman also told MailOnline that he expected Elon Musk to fall in line with Britain's push for space sustainability, adding that the need for action was not something the US billionaire could ignore. Critics of Musk say his Starlink constellation is hogging space, with both China and the European Space Agency taking aim at his satellite-internet system, but the Tesla founder has rubbished these fears. The UK government's raft of new measures includes regulating commercial satellite launches, rewarding companies that minimise their footprint on the Earth's orbit, and dishing out an additional 5 million for technologies to clean up space junk. Advertisement When archaeologist Howard Carter found the resting place of the boy king who had been dead for 3,000 years, few would have thought that it would be another half-century before the treasures from his tomb came to Britain. But when 50 priceless artefacts that were found in Tutankhamun's tomb after its discovery on this day in 1922 were finally put on display at the British Museum in London in 1972, the interest was unprecedented. Opened by the Queen in March, the 'Treasures of Tutankhamun' exhibition beautifully displayed just a small fraction of the more than 5,000 artefacts found by Carter and his team. But that did not stop hundreds of people from queuing for more than 14 hours overnight before the exhibition opened as they sought to be among the first to look at some of Ancient Egypt's most precious treasures. In the six months that the artefacts including Tutankhamun's death mask were on display for, more than 1.6million people queued to see them. Dramatic photos show huge crowds of people stretching far beyond the museum's perimeter, with police at one point holding back visitors as they waited to get in. On the exhibition's last day, in September, there were still thousands frantically trying to get a final glimpse of Tutankhamun's treasures - but an employee with a loudhailer had to tell them: 'I am very sorry, it is the last day, so they are going to put him to sleep now for another 3,000 years.' The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings made headlines around the world. Treasures that were found also included the pharaoh's solid gold coffin, multiple thrones, furniture, food and wine. Carter had been bankrolled by the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who had only reluctantly agreed to fund the archaeologist's search for one more year in 1922 after years of what had until then proved to be a fruitless hunt. When archaeologist Howard Carter found the resting place King Tutankhamun in 1922, few would have thought that it would be another half-century before the treasures from his tomb came to Britain. Above: Carter is seen in October 1925 with an Egyptian workman as they examine Tutankhamun's innermost coffin made of solid gold, inside the case of a second coffin When 50 priceless artefacts that were found in Tutankhamun's tomb after its discovery on this day in 1922 were finally put on display at the British Museum in London in 1972, the interest was unprecedented Opened by the Queen in March, the 'Treasures of Tutankhamun' exhibition beautifully displayed just a small fraction of the more than 5,000 artefacts found by Carter and his team But that did not stop hundreds of people from queuing for more than 14 hours overnight before the exhibition opened as they sought to be among the first to look at some of Ancient Egypt's most precious treasures Letter by Howard Carter rebutting accusations his discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb was a hoax is set to sell for more than 5,000 A rare letter by Howard Carter rebutting accusations that his discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb was a hoax has emerged for sale A rare letter by Howard Carter rebutting accusations that his discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb was a hoax has emerged for sale. The British archaeologist was writing to a solicitor, demanding that James Ogden apologise publicly for claiming he was absent when the mummified Egyptian pharaoh was uncovered. Ogden, who owned a luxury jewellery store, worked with Carter to restore some of the treasures found in the tomb exactly 100 years ago. In a lecture at Cambridge University he publicly suggested Carter was not present during the excavation. Carter hit back that there was 'not a word of truth' to Ogden's claim and suggested he 'contradict [himself] publicly with an apology'. Not only did the claim draw into question Carter's repute, it also threatened to cause him legal trouble as his absence would have 'directly breached' his contract with the Egyptian Government who gave permission for the dig. He went on: 'I think you will agree that it is detrimental to me. 'Apart from the fact that there is no truth in the statement, my absence during the progress of that excavation would have been a direct breach of contract, i.e. the concession granted by the Eg. Gov. to Lord Carnarvon and myself.' Letters by Carter referencing Tutankhamen's tomb are incredibly rare and command high prices at auction. This one is tipped to sell for more than 5,200 ($6,000). It is one of several documents and personal effects which belonged to Carter being presented for sale at R&R Auctions in Boston, US. Advertisement Egypt had become independent from Britain just months before Carter and his team discovered Tutankhamun's tomb. It meant that the country's government insisted that the permanent home of the artefacts had to be in Egypt. When the treasures did start to tour the world in the 1960s, they headed to the US, Japan and France - but Britain was kept off the list. This was in part down to Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's refusal to allow the loans to take place. After his death in 1970, negotiations finally secured their passage to Britain. The artefacts were insured for 10million through Lloyd's of London and there was a 50p admissions charge for visitors to the British Museum. Along with Tutankhamun's gold mask, the displayed objects also included a gilded shrine, a large bed, a gold-emblazoned statue of the pharaoh, a dagger crafted from a meteorite and a pair of golden sandals. However, the tomb's outer entrance did bear signs of forced entry, with experts at the time concluding that two break-ins had occurred soon after Tut was laid to rest. The robbers only took away smaller, portable items, but it is now believed that more than half the royal jewellery was taken. When they were first discovered, many of the objects were found to have been arranged in a jumble - where they had lain untouched for more than 3,000 years. Carter initially viewed Tutankhamun's tomb through a small hole made in masonry after two days of digging through a rubble-filled passage. Holding up a candle, he looked inside and gave what is now a famous response to Lord Carnarvon's impatient question: 'Can you see anything?' 'Yes,' he said. 'Wonderful things.' His tomb - which included four rooms - was filled with royal treasures, including a dagger made from meteorite. The tomb also contained three coffins nestled within one another. Shortly after it was discovered both the inner and middle caskets were transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while the outer gilded coffin was left behind. Seventeen of the objects on display at the British Museum had never been shown outside Egypt. They were taken to Britain on two civilian flights and a third Royal Air Force plane, which carried Tutankhamun's death mask. The exhibition had originally been set to last for three months, but ended up being open for six. Around 4,400 visited on its first day, with more than 30,000 coming in the first week. The exhibition was protected by the largest security operation of its kind in history. In charge was former Scotland Yard murder squad chief Jack Munnings, who promised to have guards watching the treasures 'every second of every 24 hours.' Speaking about the exhibition, Egyptologist Professor Joyce Tyldesley told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: 'I still meet people today who talk about it. It was really, really influential and I think if you don't remember it you won't quite understand how important it was at the time.' Dramatic photos show huge crowds of people queuing to get in to the Tutankhamun exhibition, with Britons hoping to see the treasures for the first time A life-size wooden statue (left) of Tutankhamen on display at the British Museum; Tutankhamun's death mask (right) A newspaper seller on a street pitch outside the British Museum selling copies of The Evening Standard. The headline - 'The Treasures of the Boy King' The exhibition had originally been set to last for three months, but ended up being open for six. Around 4,400 visited on its first day, with more than 30,000 coming in the first week She told how, aged 12, she had visited the exhibition with her school but was among those who could not get in. 'We were really excited, we were going to see Tutankhamun. 'And we queued up and we actually managed to buy the tickets but then we realised that if we actually went into the exhibition we would miss the train home so we had to get money back from the tickets and go home and never actually saw him,' she said. Asked about the claim that Tutankhamun's importance, she added: 'He was probably less insignificant than we say he was but he did only reign for ten years and most of those he was a child. 'So yes it is not the most conspicuous reign. 'But since he died and since he was recovered surrounded by grave goods, and he is the only king to have been found in his intact tomb in the valley of the kings, he has really sparked the public interest.' Howard Carter is seen examining the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun inside his tomb, which was more than 20ft underground The seal on the corded doors of the second shrine of the sepulcre of King Tutankhamen. The seal was found intact Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn Herbert Howard Carter are seen at the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamen Workers are seen carefully handling a gold artefact inside Tutankhamun's tomb. There were four chambers in total A life-sized statue of Tutankhamun is seen being wrapped ahead of it being moved from where it had stood for 3,000 years Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon met in 1907 and the aristocrat agreed to fund his explorations. The pair ended up working together for the next 17 years. Although their early years together were successful, the First World War put a pause on their work that was not lifted until 1917. Afterwards, Carter did not come close to finding anything despite intensive searching and his team came close to giving up. With Lord Carnarvon dissatisfied, he considered withdrawing his financial backing to Carter but ultimately agreed in 1922 to fund one further year. Tutankhamun's mummified remains are on display within his tomb in a climate-controlled glass box, whilst many of the treasures that were buried with him are held at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. But from 1923, they will be housed at the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. A female driver has appealed for help in challenging a massive fine after she was caught resting her phone in her bra while driving. Jenni Pilz was caught by a high-tech seatbelt and phone detection camera but insisted she only did what 'many females do'. The Gold Coast resident was fined $1,078 and incurred four demerit points for resting the phone on her body. Ms Pilz asked fellow motorists if there was 'any point fighting it' in a post shared to Phone & Seatbelt Detection Camera Locations Queensland's Facebook group on Friday. Jenni Pilz (pictured) was fined $1,078 and incurred 4 demerit points for carrying her phone in her bra while she was driving 'I've been fined for 'resting my phone on my body',' Ms Pilz wrote. 'Unfortunately, I did what many females do, and carried my phone in my bra lol. Parts of it have been visible and the camera caught it. ''Has anyone had this happen to them and is there any point fighting it?' Ms Pilz explained that she had both hands on the steering wheel and that the phone was not clearly identified and looked like a wallet or 'something else'. The post has received over 120 comments with many encouraging Ms Pilz to challenge the fine. 'Fight it you'll win hands down,' one user commented. Another user added: 'So what if it's a phone, hands are on the wheel and it's not distracting you're driving, just like mobile phone built in in car. 'I press more buttons on my touchscreen in my car than a phone. I would definitely try to fight it if clearly shows both hands on the steering wheel.' Ms Pilz was caught by Queensland's high-tech phone and seatbelt detection cameras (pictured) One user shared a copy of Queensland's road rules which state that open and P2 licence holders are permitted to use a mobile phone hands-free if it was in a clothing pocket or pouch. 'I'm struggling to work out how a phone down a woman's bra is any different than a phone in a jeans pocket (which is perfectly legal),' one user commented. Poll Should this driver have her fine and demerit points reversed? Yes No Should this driver have her fine and demerit points reversed? Yes 562 votes No 223 votes Now share your opinion Other users were less sympathetic, suggesting Ms Pilz find somewhere else to carry her phone. 'When are the rules going to sink in , NO part of the body can be touching the phone at any time, You just got 1,078 reasons to put it in the glovebox,' one user wrote. 'Simple buy yourself, a cradle, then you no need to worry about touching your phone and a fine,' another user commented. 'Sounds like she has a natural cradle,' one user joked. Ms Pilz replied: 'I do! Big enough to give a home to keys, phone, smokes and other essentials.' Illegal mobile phone use while driving includes holding a phone or having it on your body (pictured, NSW motorist caught texting while driving, with their passenger holding the steering wheel) Open or P2 licence holders are allowed to touch a mobile phone for hand-free use if their device is in a cradle attached to the car and does not obscure the driver's view (pictured, driver caught holding a phone) The Queensland government website explains illegal mobile phone use while driving includes holding a phone or having it on your body even if the motorist is not using it or the device is turned off. Learner and PI drivers under the age of 25 must not use hands-free, wireless headsets or a mobile phone's loudspeaker function while driving, with their passengers are also banned from using the loudspeaker function. Open or P2 licence holders are allowed to touch a mobile phone for hand-free use if their device is in a cradle attached to the car and does not obscure the driver's view. Permitted hands-free mobile phone use includes touching the device to accept a call, use a navigation app, skip a song and accept or end a trip as a rideshare driver. Ms Pilz is not the first driver to be caught by the state's high-tech detection cameras. Last week, a Queensland mum received a penalty notice after a photo from Brisbane traffic camera showed her hands off the steering wheel and a rectangular object in her left hand. The woman took to social media to ask whether others would challenge the fine in her situation - admitting she was actually holding her cigarette rolling machine, not a phone. A Brisbane mum wanting to challenge a big fine for driving while holding a phone on a technicality has received little sympathy from other motorists 'Would you take this to court?' the woman asked in a public Facebook group about traffic camera locations. 'The fine says holding a mobile or testing on body. However it's not actually a phone. I'm taking my smoke out the rolling machine. You can clearly see it's not a phone.' While some Facebook users said challenging the fine was 'worth a go', most didn't agree. 'Your hands are off the wheel,' one person wrote. 'You deserve every dollar of this fine.' 'To tell a judge it's a rolling machine not a phone ain't gonna help your case. A judge may not see it as innocent. You still rolling a smoke being distracted whilst driving.' another user wrote. Incredible drone footage has revealed the moment a brave Ukrainian paratrooper dashed out from his hiding place to obliterate a passing Russian tank with a guided missile from mere feet away. The armoured vehicle, one of Russia's modern T-80 main battle tanks, was driving along a dirt track lined by wooded areas - perfect concealment for Ukrainian soldiers lying in wait. As it passed one particular row of trees, a lone Ukrainian soldier leapt out from cover, shouldered his weapon - an anti-tank guided missile - and fired a single shot. He did so even as another Russian tank sat downrange appeared to have its barrel aimed directly at the Ukrainian position - though it is unclear whether this vehicle had been abandoned or disabled. In a flash, the missile streaked across the track and impacted the passing tank, exploding in a plume of fire and white smoke. The stricken vehicle initially continued to roll slowly onward, perhaps damaged if not completely scuttled. But moments later the armoured hull erupted in a series of explosions as the ammunition inside cooked off, the detonations spewing metal across the dirt track and causing huge trails of smoke to rise above the wood. As the Russian T-80 main battle tank passed along the dirt track, a lone Ukrainian soldier leapt out from cover, shouldered his weapon - an anti-tank guided missile - and fired a single shot from mere feet away In a flash, the missile streaked across the track and impacted the passing tank, exploding in a plume of fire and white smoke - even as another Russian tank watched on downrange The stricken vehicle initially continued to roll slowly onward as smoke poured out of it, perhaps damaged if not completely scuttled A series of explosions then occur in the damaged tank, with its ammunition compartment apparently detonating as smoke gushes into the air The video was released by the 95th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces earlier today, along with a statement that read: 'A fighter of the 1st Airborne Assault Battalion of the 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade destroyed an enemy tank at close range. 'Every day, the soldiers of the Armed Forces risk their lives, demonstrate courage and heroism, and step by step liberate our land from the Russian invaders. 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Air Assault Forces! Together to victory!' Images from the footage were also relayed by the Office of Strategic Communications (StratCom) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 'A fighter of the 1st Airborne Assault Battalion of the 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade destroyed an enemy tank with one shot at close range,' StratCom announced. The footage was released in tandem with images showing another group of Ukrainian troops blowing up two Russian ammunition trucks, joking that they were 'fined' for being improperly parked. Black smoke could be seen rising into the air from the site of the detonations as ammunition burned in the Bakhmut area of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The images were obtained from the 93rd Independent Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces this morning, along with a statement saying: 'The 93rd brigade destroyed warehouses with ammunition of the Russian occupiers in the Bakhmut area. 'A mechanized battalion of Kholodnyi Yar soldiers ''issued a fine'' to two enemy Kamaz vehicles with ammunition for improper parking. In addition, the building containing the ammunition was destroyed. 'We continue to eliminate the forces and means of the occupying forces and defend Bakhmut!' Picture shows an explosion in a residential area in the Bakhmut direction, Donetsk region of Ukraine. Fighters of the 93rd Independent Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade destroyed Russian warehouses with ammunition and KAMAZ vehicles Black smoke could be seen rising into the air from the site of the detonations as ammunition burned Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin is still calling a 'special military operation'. Today marks the 254th day of the war. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine today reported that between February 24 and November 4, it estimates that Russia has lost about 74,840 personnel, 2,750 tanks, 5,580 armoured combat vehicles, 1,772 artillery units, 391 multiple launch rocket systems, 201 air defence systems, 277 planes and 258 helicopters. Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures. It comes as the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom claimed that British special forces participated in a drone attack on Russia's Black Sea fleet, which Moscow had previously accused Ukraine of authoring. Ambassador Andrei Kelin told Sky News: 'We perfectly know about [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done.' Kelin added: 'This is a warning actually that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is becoming more and more dangerous.' Ukrainian military officials meanwhile warned that Russia could be setting a trap by pretending to pull out of the Kherson region, only to catch oncoming Ukrainian defenders in an ambush. Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kelin (pictured) claimed that British special forces participated in a drone attack on Russia's Black Sea fleet U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (pictured) claimed Ukraine's forces could likely retake the long-occupied Kherson region in the south of Ukraine Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command, said: 'This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street battles.' Humeniuk added: 'We continue fighting, also in the Kherson direction, despite the fact that the enemy is trying to convince us that they are leaving the settlements and creating the effect of a total evacuation.' The comments come after Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, said: 'Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left [eastern] bank' of the Dnieper River. Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defence, said that he thinks that Ukrainian military forces can retake Kherson, saying that they were working in an 'effective' and 'methodical' manner. Ukraine has said that the forced relocation of Ukrainian citizens in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia amounts to 'war crimes' and 'deportations'. Russia has claimed that 70,000 civilians in Kherson are being 'temporarily resettled deep into the Kherson region, as well as to other regions of the Russian Federation.' Moscow said that this was due to 'possible damage to the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station'. The Church of England should allow same-sex marriage for both its congregation and its clergy, the Bishop of Oxford has said. The Rt Rev Steven Croft said he wanted to acknowledge the 'acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church'. In a lengthy essay, the bishop said he was sorry that the church has been 'so slow' to 'reach better decisions and practice on these matters' and apologised for his own views being 'slow to change'. But the bishop also said clergy must have the option not to opt in to any new arrangements, saying that it should be recognised that it is a 'legitimate and honourable position' for those who want to keep a 'traditional view of marriage and human sexuality'. He wrote: 'I need to acknowledge, right at the beginning of this essay, the acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church. 'I am sorry that, corporately, we have been so slow as a Church to reach better decisions and practice on these matters. 'I am sorry that my own views were slow to change and that my actions, and lack of action, have caused genuine hurt, disagreement and pain. I remain on a very steep learning curve. The Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft (pictured) has written an essay in support of same-sex marriage in the Church of England In August, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby (pictured), acknowledged that there are 'deep differences' within the church, as he faced criticism for reaffirming a 1998 Anglican declaration rejecting same-sex marriage 'Listening to this pain and distress has been key in my own journey and to the changes in my own views.' Listing the changes he wished to see, the bishop said the church should allow for the provision of public services of blessing for same-sex civil partnerships and marriages, give freedom of conscience to clergy and ordinands 'to order their relationships appropriately', give freedom of conscience to clergy to enter into their own same-sex civil marriage, and to remove the legal barriers to the solemnisation of same-sex marriage in the church. The current Church of England stance on same-sex marriage and why it is allowed to opt-out The Church of England is the state church in England. The Church of England's church law (Canon Law) is part of English law. Same-sex marriage was made legal in England and Wales by the passing of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. The Church of England and Church in Wales sought exemption from the law, and as a result it is not legally possible for them to celebrate same-sex marriages. It would not be possible for them to legally celebrate same-sex marriages until such time as their Canon Law was changed. The Church in Wales voted in September 2021 to offer prayers of blessing to couples in same-sex marriages. However, the Church in Wales can still not itself conduct same-sex marriages. Other religious groups can opt in to celebrating same-sex marriages, but cannot be compelled to do so. Some religious groups have chosen to do so: these include the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Unitarians, and some United Reformed Church congregations. No discrimination claim can legally be brought against a religious group on the grounds that it has not opted to celebrate same-sex marriages. In a 2017 interview, when asked for his views on 'gay sex', the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said: 'I am having to struggle to be faithful to the tradition, faithful to the scripture, to understand what the call and will of God is in the 21st century and to respond appropriately with an answer for all people that covers both sides of the argument. 'And I haven't got a good answer, and I am not doing that bit of work as well as I would like'. Source: Religionmediacentre.org.uk Advertisement He insisted this freedom of conscience should also be applied to those who disagree with his proposed changes, with no clergy or parishes being forced to opt in to the new possible arrangements. He called for a 'differentiation of provision and oversight for those clergy and parishes who believe that, in conscience, they need to distance themselves from the parts of the Church that welcome and affirm same-sex relationships.' Speaking of those he described as holding 'more conservative positions', he said he did not want to see people feeling excluded as a result of any changes. He wrote: 'They are sisters and brothers in Christ. 'It would be a tragedy if a journey towards inclusion for one group of Christians became an experience of exclusion for another.' In August, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, acknowledged that there are 'deep differences' within the church, as he faced criticism for reaffirming a 1998 Anglican declaration rejecting same-sex marriage. Comedian and television presenter Sandi Toksvig, who is gay, said the lives of LGBTQ+ people were 'at stake' following the religious leader's 'horrible mistake' in reaffirming a resolution which stated that marriage is 'between a man and a woman', and that same-sex relationships are 'incompatible with scripture'. Mr Welby responded by saying that the Anglican Communion, of which the Church of England is part, is a 'complicated group of churches' with 'deep differences in many areas'. But he told the Lambeth Conference, a meeting of Anglican bishops which took place this summer, that he could not and would not punish churches for conducting gay marriages. The Church of England website states that while ministers cannot carry out or bless same-sex marriages 'your local church is still there for you' with people being welcomed there to pray 'or ask us to pray for you'. The Bishop of Oxford's essay on Thursday comes just days after a Catholic priest in Ireland gave a controversial sermon against same-sex marriage which prompted some worshippers to walk out. Retired priest Fr Sean Sheehy told worshippers at St Mary's Church in Listowel at the weekend that gay couples were sinful, describing sex between two people of the same gender as 'mortal sin'. He has since been banned from saying Mass after the Bishop of Kerry rebuked his comments as unchristian. Fr Sheehy later doubled down on his comments, telling a local radio station that openly gay politicians who support same-sex marriage would 'go to hell' if they 'don't repent their sin and seek forgiveness'. The Pentagon sent a powerful warning to North Korea on Thursday, telling Pyongyang that use of any kind of nuclear weapon against Seoul or other regional allies would result in the end of Kim Jong Un's dictatorial regime. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, after meeting Thursday at the Pentagon, released a joint statement. They 'strongly condemned' North Korea's escalating military flexing, including ballistic missile test launches, multiple rocket launches and coastal artillery. 'Any nuclear attack against the United States or its Allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime,' Austin said in a stark warning, according to the statement. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left) and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup (right) speak together at the Pentagon on Thursday. 'Any nuclear attack against the United States or its Allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime,' Austin said, according to a statement Kim Jong Un's (pictured in October) military has continued to rattle the peninsula with escalating missile tests, launching more than two dozen missiles over the last two days Kim's military has continued to rattle the peninsula with escalating missile tests, launching more than two dozen missiles over the last two days in response to U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began Monday. And on Friday morning, Seoul scrambled dozens of fighter jets after more than 100 North Korean aircraft massed near the disputed border between the two nations. Seoul sent 80 jets - among them F-35A stealth fighters - after sensors picked up 180 of Pyongyang's aircraft massing inland and off the east and west coasts. The tit-for-tat escalations and launches have sent South Koreans scrambling for shelter and further frayed the nerves of a population already mourning the loss of more than 150 people at a horrific Halloween crowd crush in Seoul on Saturday. In response to the recent launches, the U.S. extended the 'Vigilant Storm' military exercise, which was scheduled to run through Friday, November 4. Late Thursday the Pentagon announced the extension would now run through Saturday, depending on the security environment. 'Our combined air exercise with the ROK has currently been extended to Nov. 5,' the Pentagon said in a statement emailed to reporters. 'We remain in close coordination with our ROK ally on any additional changes and the security environment on the Korean Peninsula. Our commitment to the defense of the ROK is ironclad.' North Korea has held a recent flurry of missile tests including dozens fired on the same day this week amid fears Kim is gearing up for a nuclear test. Pictured: A North Korean missile test South Korea's Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup (second-right) and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (second-left) walk away after looking at a B-52 bomber during a visit at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, November 3, 2022 At the Pentagon, both defense leaders pressed that any use of nuclear weapons, including lower-yield tactical nuclear devices against Seoul or other regional allies such as Japan, would 'result in the end of Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance,' Lee said. Austin also said North Korea's increased aggression would not result in additional U.S. troops or strategic assets being permanently relocated to the region but that Kim would see additional U.S. military presence rotating there. In its launches Thursday, North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, drawing swift condemnation from the White House, which accused Pyongyang of 'destabilizing the security situation in the region.' Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have also increased over newly declassified reports that it is providing artillery for Russia to use against Ukraine. North Korea was shipping an undisclosed number of artillery shells to Russia but 'trying to make it appear as though they're being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,' said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. The rival Koreas and their respective leaders - Yoon Suk-Yeol (left) and Kim Jong-un (right) - are locked into a spiral of escalation that shows no sign of abating North Korea has reacted to past U.S.-South Korean military drills with missile tests, which was one reason former President Donald Trump called for the exercises to cease for more than a year as he unsuccessfully negotiated with the North Korean leader to end his pursuit of nuclear weapons. Large-scale U.S.-South Korean military exercises resumed this year. Vigilant Storm - which involves more than 1,600 U.S. and South Korean flights involving about 240 warplanes - is the largest such exercise to date, according to the Pentagon. Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the North's Workers' Party who is considered a confidant of Kim Jong Un, has called the U.S.-South Korean air force drills 'aggressive and provocative.' 'If the U.S. and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the special means of the (North's) armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,' Pak said, in an apparent reference to his country's nuclear weapons. North Korea in recent months has been testing a string of nuclear-capable missiles and it adopted a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a broad range of situations. A South Korean Air Force F-15K fighter fires an air-to-surface missile across the maritime border with North Korea in retaliation for a missile that was test-fired in the other direction early Wednesday This photo provided on October 10, 2022, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a missile test at an undisclosed location in North Korea, as taken sometime between September 25 and October 9 Some experts still doubt North Korea would use nuclear weapons first in the face of U.S. and South Korean forces. The ballistic missile tests on Wednesday included at least 23 missiles as well as about 100 artillery shells that were fired into an eastern maritime buffer zone. South Korea's military said the 23 weapons were all short-range ballistic missiles or suspected surface-to-air missiles. One of the ballistic missiles was flying toward South Korea's Ulleung island before it eventually landed 104 miles northwest of the island. South Korea's military issued an air raid alert on the island, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korean media published photos of island residents moving to underground shelters. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at least two ballistic missiles fired by North Korea showed a possibly 'irregular' trajectory. This suggests the missiles were the North's highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile, which was modeled on Russia's Iskander missile. In response to the missile barrage, South Korea quickly launched its own missiles in the same border area. Soon after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup met on Thursday, South Korea scrambled dozens of fighter jets. South Korea scrambled 80 fighters including F-35 stealth jets (pictured) after North Korea massed 180 warplanes near the disputed border region 'Our military detected around 180 North Korean warplanes' mobilised in Pyongyang's airspace, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They added that Seoul 'scrambled 80 fighter jets including F-35As' while jets involved in the joint drills were also 'maintaining readiness'. After South Korea announced the decision to extend the joint drills on Thursday, Pyongyang launched three more short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move 'a very dangerous and wrong choice'. Hours later, the North fired 80 artillery rounds that landed in a maritime 'buffer zone', Seoul's military said. The barrage was a 'clear violation' of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in a bid to reduce tensions between the two sides, Seoul's Joints Chiefs said. The army cap that belonged to a real SAS 'rogue hero' has sold for a whopping 20,000. The khaki cap belonged to Major John Wiseman, who was one of the founding members of the SAS. The formation of the 'Who Dares Wins' regiment is currently the subject of the hit BBC series, SAS: Rogue Heroes. Maj Wiseman was there at the start when the legendary army officer David Stirling decided to form a raiding party that would carry out daring missions deep behind enemy lines. He was involved in many of the early SAS operations in North Africa, attacking enemy airfields and convoys. He won the Military Cross for leading an SAS unit in scaling cliffs in Sicily to assault a coastal battery on the eve of the Allied invasion there in July 1943. Achieving total surprise, his small force killed, captured or wounded 40 of the enemy, while suffering no casualties themselves. An army cap belonging to real life SAS Rogue Hero Major John Wiseman, right, who was a founder member of the crack Who Dares Wins unit now immortalised on TV sold for 20,000 The founding of the legendary regiment is the subject of a new BBC drama, pictured Major Wiseman, pictured, was involved in many of the regiment's earliest operations in North Africa He won the Military Cross for leading an SAS unit in scaling cliffs in Sicily to assault a coastal battery on the eve of the Allied invasion there in July 1943 And in the space of 17 hours, his raiding party killed over 200 Italian soldiers, captured a further 450, and silenced three batteries of guns. In October 1943, he was the only survivor after a German shell killed 17 of his men in a direct hit on their truck during the Battle of Termoli in Italy. Maj Wiseman died in 2005 aged 89 and his peaked cap was sold to a militaria collector by the person tasked with disposing of items for the family. The cap, which has some staining on the sweatband, is thought to have been made in Cairo in 1940. It has Wiseman's name on a label stitched to the inside rim. Embroidered on it is the famous SAS cap badge of a winged dagger and the motto 'Who Dares Wins'. When the badge is removed there is the outline of another once being present. This would have been a badge for either Maj Wiseman's parent regiment or former regiment. The cap had been expected to sell for 3,000 but because of who it belonged to, it went for a hammer price of 16,000. With fees added on, the winning bidder paid over 20,000. for it. Sold with it was a black and white photo of the early members of the LRDG/SAS, with Maj Wiseman stood on the far right wearing a peaked cap. Matthew Tredwin, of C&T Auctions of Ashford, Kent, said: 'I certainly think that the new BBC drama may have played a part in the eventual hammer price; however, any items relating to the SAS have always performed well at auction.' Maj Wiseman died in 2005 aged 89 and his peaked cap was sold to a militaria collector by the person tasked with disposing of items for the family The cap, which has some staining on the sweatband, is thought to have been made in Cairo in 1940. It has Wiseman's name on a label stitched to the inside rim Embroidered on it is the famous SAS cap badge of a winged dagger and the motto 'Who Dares Wins' Maj Wiseman studied languages at Cambridge University and joined the North Somerset Yeomanry as a trooper at the outbreak of the war Maj Wiseman studied languages at Cambridge University and joined the North Somerset Yeomanry as a trooper at the outbreak of the war. He was sent to North Africa with the regiment and fought against the Vichy French. Due to his knowledge of languages, he was put forward for officer training in Cairo and eventually was given a commission in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He joined the SAS and was present at their training camp in Karbit, Egypt, in 1942. After D-Day on June 6, 1944, Maj Wiseman took part in Operation Houndsworth, conducting operations behind the German lines in France, to disrupt their reinforcements in Normandy. After the war, Wiseman returned to the family optical instruments business. London Tube passenger numbers have returned to their highest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic as workers return to the office and people head out for the weekend, new figures show. The number of people travelling on the Underground has shot up to 90 per cent of what they were just before the pandemic in early 2020, according to Transport for London (TfL) data. A return to commuting passenger numbers on weekdays up to 78 per cent of pre-pandemic levels - a huge rise from just 45 per cent at the start of this year. The quietest day on the Tube is Monday when the number of people travelling is at 70 per cent. Fridays are the second-quietest day at around 75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels as many choose to work from home at the end of the week. However, tourism, weekend visits to London and nights out see the Underground almost back to its pre-2020 capacity - up as high as 99 per cent. Passenger numbers on the London Tube have steadily increased, but are not yet fully back to pre-pandemic levels. Pictured: Commuters on a busy train in July 2019 When the UK went into lockdown, most people had to work from home and avoid public areas. Pictured: The Tube almost empty at rush hour in April 2020 The number of overall railway passengers in London has also almost completely returned to pre-pandemic levels at 99 per cent, according to Network Rail. However, the group added its profits were only at 80 per cent due to fewer people buying first-class tickets. According to data company Freespace, the rise in passenger numbers is driven by a return to offices - 75 per cent of which are now in use once again and a third are full at any given time on weekdays. Freespace chief executive Raj Krishnamurthy told The Times: 'Our data has shown a huge discrepancy in the growing number of people in offices between Tuesday and Thursday compared to the eerily quiet Fridays.' He added: '[This] affirms the belief that people are using the office to meet and collaborate and [are] focusing on the more concentrated tasks at home. Passenger numbers are now almost back to what they were before the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: A busy underground train in September this year More people are using the Underground as they return to the office and head to the city on nights out. Pictured: A northern line train at Goodge Street 'People have been given more flexibility in their work. In a world where video-conferencing and remote working has become normal, asynchronised operations have proven not just workable but, in many ways, successful.' Nick Dent, director of customer operations on the Tube at TfL, said: 'Ridership on our Tube, bus and rail services continues to recover. 'Despite [this], there is still some way to go to bring our overall fare revenues back to levels seen pre-pandemic. Public transport is the backbone of our economic recovery and we remain focused on operating a safe, clean and reliable service for our customers.' Three men were forced to balance on the Hull of their boat for 90 minutes after the vessel started to sink five miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. As the three men were out sailing on Thursday morning at around 7am on their 23-foot boat, choppy sea and violent waves capsized the vessel, leaving the men stranded. In a scramble, all three men managed to climb onto the hull of the boat so as not to fall into the sea, waiting to be rescued. The three men balanced on the hull, with barely the boat's propellers poking out of the water in the incident on Thursday morning off the coast of South Carolina In total, they remained perched on the overturned boat for an hour and a half. The three men, who were not identified, only had one life preserver between them. 'A good Samaritan contacted Coast Guard Sector Charleston watchstanders at 7:27 am' after seeing the men on the overturned hull, a press release form the United States Coast Guard said. A US Coast Guard search and rescue team shortly arrived and pulled the three men from the water. The photo from the Coast Guard shows the three men crouching and the boat's propeller poking out of the water, with choppy waves surrounding the men. They then received minor medical attention at the Coast Guard station. None of the three men were seriously hurt. 'This is a prime example of how quickly things can go wrong in a matter of seconds,' said Petty Officer 2nd Class Harry Seibert, the coxswain on the case. 'It is important mariners check their vessel for all the necessary safety equipment onboard and monitor weather conditions prior to getting on the water,' he added. The press release confirmed that the owner of the boat would be coordinating with a commercial salvage company in hope of recovering the boat. Only 72 staff members work out of a total sanctioned strength of 258 in various departments at the Narayanpet District Hospital, with the remaining 186 positions vacant. Representational Image/PTI Hyderabad: Staff shortages, lack of funds, and delays in the construction of infrastructure for hospitals and health centres in districts have reaffirmed medical associations' concerns about the state's primary health care system. The state of facilities in one such district, Narayanpet, exemplifies this. According to information provided in a response to an RTI, only 72 staff members work out of a total sanctioned strength of 258 in various departments at the Narayanpet District Hospital, with the remaining 186 positions vacant. There are openings for eight civil surgeons, 24 civil assistant surgeons, 12 deputy civil surgeons, 36 ANMs, nine head nurses, and 28 staff nurses, among other positions. Apart from this, the budget allocated for the hospital has not been fully utilised for the past eight years, with large sums remaining unspent in some years. For example, in 2021-22, a sum of Rs 17.36 lakh was not used from a budget of Rs 4.6 crore, whereas in 2018-19, a sum of Rs 15.65 lakh was not used from a budget of Rs 6.1 crore. According to activist Rajesh Aleti, who filed the RTI, since the formation of Narayanpet district in 2019, Community Health Centres (CHCs) have been sanctioned in Maddur and Kosgi the same year, but they are still under construction. According to him, officials in Makthal converted the district hospital into a medical college without completing the construction of a CHC to replace the hospital. "The state government hypes health infrastructure, but it takes years to complete," said Aleti. According to the Rural Health Statistics 2020-21 report, the number of CHCs and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the state is 53 per cent and 12 per cent lower than the required numbers, respectively. This has prompted medical associations to question why the government prioritises tertiary healthcare over primary care. An official from the Health Department said the shortage of staff at health centres was due to a delay in the release of funds allocated to them, and denied that the government was focusing more on tertiary services. An armed man was fatally wounded by plain clothes cops outside a bodega moments after he shot point blank at a knifeman who had stabbed him in the store. The NYPD's Chief of Detectives James Essig said cops shot 12 rounds at the gunman, 21, at 11.30am in The Bronx, New York, yesterday. Less than a minute before, the gunman was stabbed by a knifeman, 29, while in the Candy and Grocery bodega on Hull Avenue and East Gun Hill Road in Norwood. Footage exclusively obtained by MailOnline shows the whole scene unfold from the moment the gunman was stabbed to NYPD cops shooting and fatally wounding him. A 21-year-old gunman (pictured in grey) was shot and killed by NYPD cops just moments after he was attacked and stabbed by another man, 29, (pictured in black) in a bodega in The Bronx The pair violently struggled in the shop and the 21-year-old in a grey hoodie with black and orange pants was stabbed His attacker, a 29-year-old man, fled to his white Lexus that was double parked on Hull Avenue in Norwood, The Bronx The man who had been stabbed chased after his attacker, pulled out a revolver and shot at him several times, including point blank through the car window Plain clothes cops were already at the bodega as they investigated an unrelated incident and they shot and fatally wounded the gunman The 21-year-old gunman was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The knifeman was found at a barber's with a head injury Plain clothes cops were parked opposite the bodega in an unmarked police car at 11.20am as they investigated an unrelated incident. At 11.30am a knifeman, 29, doubled parked a white Lexus nearby. He walked into the deli and had a 'violent struggle' with a 21-year-old and stabbed him before fleeing the store. New York Police Department released a photo of the revolver the gunman used to fire shots at his attacker He had been attacked using this knife, which police recovered from the scene. The 29-year-old knifeman is in a stable condition in hospital Video of the attack shows how the pair struggled in the shop, trading blows before the man in black pushed the other man towards the back of the deli and stabbed him. Outside, a woman and a boy stopped to peer inside before she ushered him away and said: 'C'mon, there might be a shot.' A camera on the outside of the store then shows the knifeman dressed in black sprinting away and get into his white Lexus as the injured 21-year-old chases after him and pulls out a revolver. The gunman ran away from the Lexus when plain clothes cops started shooting at him but was hit. He fell injured behind an ice box covered in graffiti (pictured) Police detectives descended on the scene of the shooting and stabbing yesterday and blocked off the area He fired twice as his attacker was getting into the car and then at least twice more at point blank range through the driver's window before plain clothes detectives started shooting at him. Chief James Essig said he believed the cops fired at least 12 rounds at the gunman, who ran away from the car and collapsed behind an ice storage box on Hull Avenue. The police were in jeans and hoodies but had bulletproof vests on. Police said the two men had no connection to the Candy and Grocery bodega and the motive for the attack was unclear A policewoman takes a photo of the white Lexus the knifeman had tried to escape in after he stabbed the 21-year-old The NYPD's Chief of Detectives James Essig said cops shot 12 rounds at the gunman at 11.30am yesterday Police showed an image of the revolver the gunman used after he was stabbed in the New York bodega Another police official also showed an image of the knife used in the initial attack in the grocery store The two detectives who fired the shots were joined by a sergeant as they shouted at the gunman to show his hands before they surrounded him. He threw his revolver to the side and lay on his front as police cuffed him. The gunman was taken to Jacobi Hospital and pronounced dead. Police cordoned off the area around the bodega and Hull Avenue and East Gun Hill Road in Norwood Cops from the NYPD laid down a number of markers at points outside the bodega as they conducted their investigation The NYPD crime scene unit was pictured at the scene taking photographs of where the shooting happened Yellow crime scene tape that read 'do not cross' was placed around the bodega and the streets nearby Police chief James Essig asked for any witnesses of the attack and shooting to call Crimestoppers on 1800-577-TIPS Meanwhile, the knifeman escaped from the car and ran away. He was later found by police in a barber's nearby with a grazed head wound. Chief Essig said he was in a stable condition at St Barnabas Hospital. He asked for any witnesses to call Crimestoppers on 1800-577-TIPS. Advertisement The last known movements of a wealthy pensioner are being looked into by detectives who today revealed her body has been found in a north London churchyard after more than a year of searching. Norma Girolami, 70, from Highgate, was last seen alive in mid-August 2021, when she vanished from her 900,000 home in the quiet tree-lined street of Cholmeley Park after a trip to the Essex seaside. Metropolitan Police detectives recovered human remains on Wednesday after searching the grounds of St Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church in North Finchley, Barnet. The scene is four miles from Ms Girolami's apartment, which is situated in an upmarket suburban area near Hampstead Heath and was left by the Italian pensioner with food still in the fridge. A 'no body' murder investigation was launched in October 2021 after it was deemed that there was a lack of 'proof of life' - with all contact with Ms Girolami ceasing on the evening after her trip. Serkan Kaygusuz, 42, from Islington, was arrested and charged with Ms Girolami's murder in the same month. He is currently in custody awaiting trial. Norma Girolami had not been seen by family or friends since August, and was reported missing on September 20 Metropolitan Police detectives recovered human remains on Wednesday after searching the grounds of St Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church in North Finchley, Barnet (picture taken on Wednesday, November 2) Police outside Elm Court, Cholmeley Park, Highgate, where Ms Girolami was last seen (picture taken on October 4 2021) Police previously searched several addresses before discovering her body at the graveyard. The remains found have been formally identified as being that of Norma Girolami and her family has been notified by detectives. They are set to undergo forensic examination. A 20,000 reward for information related to Ms Girolami's disappearance was announced by police just a matter of weeks ago. But the reward did not assist in the Met's latest finding in the case, which the force said was a result of evidence gathered by detectives as part of the investigation. The Met said that Ms Girolami, whose family are from Italy, 'loved' to visit the seaside town of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. The pensioner made a trip to the Essex shore on Thursday, August 19 2021 - the day she was last heard from. She took the train from Barking and returned to her home in leafy Highgate later that day. All communication from her ceased that evening. She disappeared without saying goodbye to her loved ones and her home was left with food still in the fridge. Police at the scene in north London searched a churchyard on Wednesday as they looked for the remains of Ms Girolami, missing since August 2021 (picture taken on Wednesday, November 2) The remains found in the graveyard have been formally identified as being that of Norma Girolami and her family has been notified by detectives (picture taken on Wednesday, November 2) A blue crime scene tent was spotted in the grounds of St Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church on Friern Barnet Lane on Wednesday (picture taken on Wednesday, November 2) Ms Girolami regularly traveled to Brent Cross to do her shopping and used public transport to make her way there. She was also a member at Archway Leisure Centre. She has been described as 'friendly, courteous and a very nice person' by shocked neighbours. After her disappearance her cousin, Jack Girolami, 67, told the Standard how alarm bells started ringing after she had not responded to a text message in August. The Met previously said Ms Girolami liked to visit the seaside town of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, and made a trip there on Thursday, August 19 2021 He said at the time: 'We are worried sick, this is totally out of character for Norma. We thought she may have gone to Italy where the family are from to spread her dad's ashes but we don't think that is the case now. 'She was very comfortably off, wealthy but not mega rich. She sold a house in Highgate and inherited her dad's house in Enfield. She was also a bit gullible and was trusting in people which is a bit worrying.' The average house price in the leafy garden suburb where Ms Girolami lived, located near the famous Highgate Cemetery, is 890,000. Her homely apartment block, Elm Court, is situated in a quiet and tight-knit community in one of London's most expensive and greenest boroughs. Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn said the investigation into her disappearance is ongoing and urged anyone with information to contact police. She said: 'Despite accepting that Norma was no longer alive, I know that her family are deeply affected by the news that her remains have been found. Our thoughts are very much with them. The churchyard is located four miles from Ms Girolami's 900,000 home in Cholmeley Park Police confirmed on Wednesday that they were searching for the remains of Ms Girolami. A large black screen was put up around the area they were searching A black screen was put up around a large section of the graveyard while police searched the area in Friern Barnet on Wednesday 'My team has spent more than a year searching for Norma and there is a sense of relief that we have found her remains which will undergo forensic examination in due course. 'Despite this discovery, I would still be very keen to hear from anyone who knew Norma, either in London or at Leigh-on-Sea who can provide information on anything that was happening in her life in August last year. 'I am also appealing for anyone who saw any activity around the Churchyard in Friern Barnet Lane, N20 between August and October last year. 'Norma's family and friends have endured a year of not knowing what had happened to her and our investigation remains ongoing. Norma Girolami, 70, from Highgate, was last seen alive in mid-August 2021, when she vanished from her 900,000 home in Cholmeley Park A policeman at the rear of Elm Court, Cholmeley Park, Highgate, the home of 70-year-old Norma Girolami 'If you have any information, no matter how small a detail it may seem, please do get in touch.' Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Tweet @MetCC. If you prefer not to speak with police and wish to remain anonymous call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit Crimestoppers-uk.org. There will no longer be an election in Northern Ireland before Christmas after the UK Government abandoned plans to push ahead with a December poll. A fresh election had been due in Northern Ireland after a deadline at the end of last month passed without power-sharing being restored at Stormont. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had repeatedly vowed to go ahead with a new poll within 12 weeks of that deadline passing. He had even suggested that an election would be held on 15 December. But Mr Heaton-Harris has now reversed those plans as he acknowledged the 'sincere concerns' about holding an election - estimated to cost around 6.5million - in the run-up to Christmas. Sinn Fein accused the UK Government of a 'bizarre U-turn', while the DUP warned there was 'no solid basis' for a return to power-sharing until there was an overhaul of post-Brexit trading arrangements. But other parties welcomed the fact there would be no pre-Christmas election. A fresh election had been due in Northern Ireland after a deadline at the end of last month passed without power-sharing being restored at Stormont Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris acknowledged the 'sincere concerns' about holding an election - estimated to cost around 6.5million - in the run-up to Christmas Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill accused the UK Government of a 'bizarre U-turn', while the DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson warned there was still 'no solid basis' for a return to power-sharing Since May's election, the DUP have blocked the functioning of Stormont institutions as part of their protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol. They have refused to nominate a deputy first minister, meaning a ruling executive cannot be formed. They have also obstructed efforts to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly, by blocking the election of a speaker in the legislature. It had been hoped that more positive talks between the UK and EU in recent weeks over reforming the Protocol could have persuaded the DUP to end their boycott. But the 28 October deadline for the revival of power-sharing at Stormont passed without the party backing down in their protest. Mr Heaton-Harris has this week been holding talks with Northern Ireland parties since that deadline passed. And he revealed in a statement this morning that there would no longer be an election before Christmas, as had previously been expected. The Cabinet minister said: 'At midnight on 28 October, I came under a duty to call an Assembly election. 'Since then, my engagement with the political parties has continued. I have had valuable conversations with people across Northern Ireland, including business and community representatives. 'I have listened to their sincere concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time. 'I can now confirm that no Assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season.' Mr Heaton-Harris promised to make a statement in Parliament next week to set out the 'next steps' in his efforts to restore power-sharing at Stormont. 'My objective, what the people of Northern Ireland deserve, is the restoration of a strong devolved government,' he added. 'My duty is to create the right environment for the parties in Northern Ireland to work together to restore the devolved institutions and deliver on crucial issues impacting Northern Ireland's people. 'I do not take this duty lightly, nor do I overlook the very real concerns people have around their cost of living.' Mr Heaton-Harris promised to make a statement in Parliament next week to set out the 'next steps' in his efforts to restore power-sharing at Stormont DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson called for a 'razor sharp focus' on a 'solution' to the Protocol row. He warned there was 'no solid basis for a fully-functioning Stormont' until the Protocol was 'replaced with arrangements that unionists can support'. Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Fein's leader at Stormont, accused Mr Heaton-Harris of 'adding to political instability' with a 'bizarre U-turn'. 'Todays announcement is more dithering and indecision from the British Secretary of State and a continuation of the Tory chaos in London that is now paralysing our politics, she said. 'Chris Heaton Harris met with political parties this week and failed to give any indication of what he announced today. 'Instead, he has confirmed the bizarre U-turn he made last week but once again he provides no clarity or certainty on what his next steps even are.' But the SDLP's Claire Hanna, MP for Belfast South, said opting not to have a pre-Christmas election was the 'right call'. She told RTE Morning Ireland: 'The election wasnt going to resolve anything. It was going to probably deepen divisions and blow 6million and eight weeks when weve a lot to do.' Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry warned an election would have created deeper divisions. 'We know that elections, particularly in a vacuum, will only make things worse, itll put people on to even deeper red hooks and may create an even bigger mountain to climb in terms of what happens afterwards,' he told RTE. UUP leader Doug Beattie welcomed Mr Heaton-Harris's announcement, telling the BBC: 'It takes political courage to change your mind when you get something wrong. 'He got something wrong. The 28 October was never a deadline. It was always a guideline.' A couple have been charged in connection with the death of their three-month-old baby girl who was savaged to death by a Husky dog at a beauty spot. Little Kyra King was killed in the car park of Ostler's Plantation close to Kirkby Moor Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire at around 11.13am on March 6. Despite the best efforts of emergency services, she was sadly pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining horrific injuries to the neck and head. Her parents Karen Alcock, 41, and Vince King, 54, from Lincoln, have now been charged in connection with their daughter's death. Kyra King was killed in the car park of Ostler's Plantation close to Kirkby Moor Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire at around 11.13am on March 6 Despite the best efforts of emergency services, she was sadly pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining horrific injuries to the neck and head Her parents Karen Alcock, 41, and Vince King, 54, from Lincoln, have now been charged in connection with their daughter's death They will appear before magistrates next week accused of being in charge of a dog which was out of control causing injury resulting in death. Lincolnshire Police said the dog which carried out the attack has been kept in isolation at secure kennels but officers will now seek an order for it to be destroyed. Detective Constable Craig Davey, said: 'This has been a profoundly sad investigation for everyone involved in understanding the circumstances around baby Kyra's death. 'We have kept an open mind throughout this investigation, which has been lengthy and thorough and involved specialist forensic experts and officers from our Protecting Vulnerable People unit. 'We have now brought charges against two people, and will continue to work with the CPS as the case makes its way through the justice system.' The couple will appear at Boston Magistrates' Court next Wednesday. Meta has been ranked the worst performer on the S&P500, as its shares continue to slump amid concerns over the development its costly virtual world - the Metaverse. Shares of the Facebook and Instagram owner slumped to a new low Thursday, down roughly 73 percent over the past year, essentially wiping out its pandemic boom. The company's shares are performing even worse than Align Technology, Generac Holdings, SVB Financial Group and Match Group - all companies which make up the bottom tier of the S&P500 stock market index. Meta Platforms Inc. has been ranked the worst performer on the S&P500, as its shares continue to slump amid concerns over the development its costly virtual world - the Metaverse Investors have been spooked in recent months by a string of challenges to Meta, which have sent the company's shares tumbling. Meta recently posted its second quarterly revenue decline in history, and also issued a weak fourth-quarter guidance that was below market analyst's expectations. The company said the decline in revenue was due to a host of external challenges, including an Apple privacy update in 2021 that made it more difficult for Meta to track user activity away from its platforms. It also said a looming economic recession had caused advertisers to limit their spending on Meta's platforms. However, investors also seem to be concerned over the company's pursuit of the Metaverse - a virtual reality (VR) universe accessed through the use of either a VR or augmented reality (AR) headset. Meta has placed a big bet on its Metaverse being the next big frontier of the technology industry, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg funnelling more than $36 billion into the project that many consider - so far at least - to be failing. The CEO has subsequently seen more than $30 billion of those funds evaporate in a matter of months, while his net worth - which is largely tied up to his company's valuation - was reported to have lost $88 billion. Zuckerberg hopes that his company will get a head start developing for the virtual world, and that Meta will will have control of the Metaverse in the a similar way to how Apple has control of what can be served to users on its iPhone. This would make Meta the key player in the future virtual space. Meta has placed a big bet on its Metaverse being the next big frontier of the technology industry, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured left, and his avatar right) funnelling more than $36 billion into the project that many consider - so far at least - to be failing However, the company's development of the Metaverse has been costly, and it has not been as popular as Zuckerberg had hoped. According to documents seen by the Wall Street Journal, the company planned to hit 500,000 users of its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds, by the end of 2022. The number at the time of writing is less than 200,000, still well below a revised goal of 280,000 by the end of 2022. The documents also revealed that the majority of those 200,000 users, don't come back after entering the system once with many complaining most of the areas are bereft of other users. Meanwhile, Meta's Reality Labs business unit, which oversees its VR and AR activities, has already lost $9.4 billion so far in 2022, according to CNBC. Those losses, Meta has said, will 'grow significantly year-over-year'. 'Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run,' Meta said last month. Users of the Metaverse have complained of avatars floating around eerily with no legs - an issue Meta says it'll fix in the coming months. Since the Spring of 2022, the number of users of Horizon Worlds has been declining. Less than ten percent of the worlds in the Metaverse receive more than 50 visitors and the majority of these worlds receive zero visitors. A new report from the Wall Street Journal says that Meta's Metaverse is more than 300,000 users short of its year end goal At an event this past Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg promised that avatars would be getting legs soon Among the many complaints users have had include unrealistic avatars, sexually aggressive behavior and general bugs throughout the system. They've also complained about deserted worlds, such as the restaurant pictured above The company's 2021 rebrand was motivated in part because of founder Mark Zuckerberg's desire to move the company beyond social media Horizon is supposed to be a community where users can access interactive experiences. The Journal report notes: 'There are rarely any girls in the Hot Girl Summer Rooftop Pool Party, and in Murder Village there is often no one to kill.' While document, discussing how users can be driven into communities where they can interact, read: 'An empty world is a sad world.' In some cases, female users complained of sexually aggressive behavior from male users. Among the other complaints that researchers within Meta found among users were that people's avatars do no look real and many 'don't have legs.' WHAT IS HORIZON WORLDS? Horizon Worlds, released by Meta on December 9, is a gaming app that allows users in the US and Canada to gather with others, play games and build their own virtual worlds. Users have to be at least 18 years old and have the proper equipment - a Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset. Horizon World first announced in 2019 and launched last year in beta. An early tester of Meta's Horizon Worlds metaverse app said her avatar was virtually groped by a stranger. Advertisement Meta's disappointing results followed weak earnings reports from Google parent Alphabet and even Microsoft, in a turbulent period in the tech space. Advertisers are scaling back and newcomers - mainly TikTok - are threatening the older class of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. And on Friday, Twitter employees braced for widespread layoffs as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the social platform. In a letter to employees obtained by multiple media outlets, the company said employees would find out by 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time if they had been laid off. The email did not say how many people would lose their jobs. Several employees tweeted early Friday that they had already lost access to their work accounts. Twitter's roughly 7,500 employees have been expecting layoffs since Musk took the helm of the company. Already, the billionaire Tesla CEO has fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, on his first day as Twitter's owner. He also removed the company's board of directors and installed himself as the sole board member. On Thursday night, many Twitter employees took to Twitter to express support for each other - often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify Twitter's blue bird logo - and salute emojis in replies to each other. As of Thursday, Musk and Twitter had given no public notice of the coming layoffs. That's even though the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requires employers with at least 100 workers to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is public or private. Barry C. White, a spokesperson for California's Employment Development Department, said Thursday the agency has not received any recent have not received any recent such notifications from Twitter. The ex of Petra Ecclestone declared his net worth was 3.53billion in 2018 James Stunt told a jury he had to 'fight for survival' when he was made 'bankrupt and homeless' before admitting he was put up in a luxury mansion. Accused of being part of a 266million money-laundering operation, he said he was 'flabbergasted' when a judge ordered his assets be frozen. A legal 'restraint order' seizing assets and controlling his finances was a 'draconian act that says someone is guilty', he told the jury. 'It literally turns their life off, a breach of their human rights.' The ex-husband of Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone added: 'The Crown let me lose my houses. I was made bankrupt, homeless in a global pandemic and allowed to be mocked and fight for survival.' But questioned by prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC at Leeds Cloth Hall Court, he admitted he had been allowed to live in a five-storey, six-bedroom house with a cinema room in upmarket South Kensington, London. James Stunt, pictured today arriving at court in Leeds with partner Helena Robinson, is accused of being at the heart of a 266million money-laundering operation He stayed in a luxury London townhouse during the pandemic but claimed in court he was 'homeless' at the time as his father was paying for it Stunt said his businessman father was paying the rent of almost 10,000 a month on the property, which he found 'embarrassing' and 'shameful'. Commenting on his position in the wake of his offices being raided in 2016, his marriage collapsing and his assets being frozen in 2018, the father-of-three said he was not even allowed to see his children. 'It was like Herod has tried me as Christ, guilty before I'm innocent,' he added. 'A man who was once well revered became a self-imposed reclusive pariah.' Stunt, 40, said the court order meant he could not afford to insure some of his assets and as a result police seized them from his home under a judge's instruction. Asked about the seizure of his assets, he replied: 'I am not playing the victim card here I'm playing the reality card. I wish I looked like Brad Pitt and my flat smelt like CK1 [aftershave] but it doesn't and I don't.' But the court heard the authorities allowed Stunt to raise funds through sales before the trial. He sold 1.4million of fine wine but said that was used to pay off debts and went into a 'black hole', while he got much less than what he paid for other items he sold. Father Geoffrey Stunt (left) paid for James Stunt to live in the 10,000-a-month home after Stunt's assets were seized, the court heard. Pictured: The pair in Rome in 2011 with heiress Petra Ecclestone Stunt said a court order which froze his assets 'was like Herod has tried me as Christ, guilty before I'm innocent' A bank document Stunt signed around six months before his offices were raided by police put his net wealth at between 10million and 14.9million. Another official document signed by Stunt said most of his income was received from his wife Petra, from whom he was divorced in 2017. Stunt previously told the jury he had never claimed to be a billionaire. But he confirmed he signed a document for a financial institution in November 2018 declaring his net worth was $4billion (then around 2.8billion). Yesterday he admitted this was 'not 100 per cent accurate', adding: 'If I have misled the jury it was not my intention.' Mr Clarke put it to Stunt that between his marriage in 2011 and 2016, his personal assets diminished and his bank interest and dividends fell to 'almost nothing'. Stunt said the position he found himself in meant 'I was like a leper without a colony'. He has insisted his business to buy gold and use his own refinery in Sheffield to make Stunt-branded gold bars was legitimate. The prosecution claims it was a 'cover story' and millions of pounds of criminal cash was being turned into gold and sent to Dubai. Stunt and seven others all deny money laundering. Stunt also denies forgery. The trial continues. Martine Croxall thanked her fans today as she returned to presenting BBC News after being taken off air for 12 days for saying she was 'gleeful' during a report on Boris Johnson pulling out of the Tory leadership race. The 53-year-old broadcaster sparked a backlash when she made the comments during an episode of The Papers on October 23, leading the BBC to launch an investigation. The corporation found that Ms Croxall made 'several remarks and reactions' which caused a 'significant risk' that the audience could believe 'opinions were being expressed'. On Thursday, the corporation ruled the programme had failed to meet its impartiality standards after reviewing viewer complaints. Returning to presenting BBC News today, Ms Croxall failed to acknowledge her absence, opening the programme with a smile, saying: 'This is BBC news, I'm Martine Croxall, the headlines at 11am.' She later tweeted: 'Thank you for the messages. And welcome to those kind enough to have started following. Back in a few days.' Returning to presenting BBC News on Friday, Croxall failed to acknowledge her absence, opening the programme with a wry smile, saying: 'This is BBC news, I'm Martine Croxall, the headlines at 11am' Martine Croxall thanked her fans today as she returned to presenting BBC News Twitter users appeared divided over the return of Ms Croxall to BBC News on Friday morning The presenter, who has worked at the BBC for almost 30 years, had donned an all-black outfit complete with a poppy broach for her first day back. Twitter users appeared divided over the return of Ms Croxall on Friday morning, with one vowing to watch her 'like a hawk', adding: 'Any hint of bias from her and she's done for. 'There's been no apology for breaking impartiality rules. She is shameless.' Others were more supportive, saying it was 'great to see her back', while another said: 'Good on you girl!' The accusations of bias came during her introduction to the Sunday night edition of The Papers, in which members of the press and experts look at how the main stories of the day were covered, where Croxall said: 'Well this is all very exciting, isn't it?' adding: 'Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well, I am.' The programme started around 90 minutes after Mr Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership race. In her first question to her guests, Croxall also remarked: 'Can we even show you the front pages just yet, have they arrived? No they haven't arrived. 'It's all a little bit, you know, lastminute.com isn't it? Because all the front pages were probably out of date by the time we received them.' The episode also saw Croxall suggest that her comments could have breached BBC guidelines. Responding to a guest's joke aimed at Mr Johnson, she said: 'I shouldn't probably (laugh). I'm probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.' Some viewers, including several Tory MPs, reacting to a clip on social media, complained it displayed bias. Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries said on Twitter: 'This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep-seated the bias is.' BBC News presenter Martine Croxall presenting the Newspaper Review on BBC News channel and of Boris Johnson's decision not to run, saying with a big smile: 'Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well I am' The BBC said in a statement: 'In this programme several remarks and reactions from the presenter caused a significant risk that the audience could believe opinions were being expressed on the Conservative leadership contest. 'In addition, there was insufficient counter and challenge to some of the opinions expressed by guests on the programme. 'Taken together, this meant that this edition of The Papers did not meet our editorial standards, as it gave the audience the opportunity to infer an editorial position on the part of the BBC. 'This does not accord with the BBC's commitment to editorial impartiality.' The corporation told MailOnline that it does not comment on individual staff matters. Outraged viewers at the time demanded action from regulator Ofcom or that she is sacked by the BBC. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving at Gatwick Airport in London, as he announced he would not stand for the Tory leadership Ms Croxall told viewers she felt 'gleeful' - although she did not confirm what this feeling related to Ms Croxall never commented on specifically what she was 'gleeful' about during the show. She was suspended from live programming following the incident while the BBC looked into whether she had breached impartiality guidelines. The episode also saw Ms Croxall suggest that her comments could have breached BBC guidelines. Speaking about reports that Mr Johnson thinks he would be well placed to lead the Tories into a general election in 2024, guest Tony Grew of the Sunday Times said: 'Boris Johnson thinks he should be world king, of course he thinks he's best placed to win an election in 2024. 'He probably thinks he is best placed to win the American election in 2024.' Responding to the joke aimed at Mr Johnson, she said: 'I shouldn't probably (laugh). I'm probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.' Who is Martine Croxall? Martine has been a journalist with the BBC for almost 30 years. She first joined BBC Radio Leicester in 1993 before moving to BBC's London base to join its regional team covering the south-east. But since May 2021, she has been a presenter on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News often appearing on air between Thursday and Sunday. In 2015 she was praised for her coverage of the terror attack in Paris. The journalist was also championed in April, 2021, when she tearfully broke the news of Prince Philip's death. A technical gaffe in January 2020 saw Ms Croxall going viral when a rogue camera panned past her during a live broadcast. Away from the news, as Ms Croxall was crowned Celebrity Mastermind in March, storming to victory against the likes of The Vivienne from Ru Paul's Drag Race, presenter Maria McErlane and DJ, Ace. Advertisement Some viewers, including several Tory MPs, reacting to a clip on social media, complained it displayed bias. On that Sunday, Mr Johnson claimed he had the nominations needed to make it on to the ballot paper but admitted he could not unite his warring party. The former prime minister said there was a 'very good chance' he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week if he had stood. However, his efforts to 'reach out' to his rivals, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, to work together had not been successful so he was dropping out. The news broke late into the evening leading to a scramble at newspapers across the UK to rethink their planned edition. The BBC issued a statement the morning after the segment aired saying it was 'urgently reviewing' the programme. Many online criticised the newsreader after watching the segment, claiming her reporting was not impartial. The Mail understands that Deborah Turness, who became the BBC's new chief executive of news and current affairs last month, was integral to the decision to take swift and 'robust' action in Ms Croxall's case, and that she regards the issue as incredibly serious. A BBC insider suggested that Ms Turness, former chief executive at ITN, regarded the incident as very 'frustrating' given the lengths to which the corporation has gone to remain strictly impartial during a tumultuous political period. It comes after many Conservatives have claimed in recent months that the BBC is not unbiased and has gone 'woke' - though critics say this is not the case and the BBC are simply holding the government to account for their actions. The corporation and other media outlets were particularly criticised for their reporting during the Partygate scandal which ultimately helped topple Boris Johnson as PM. It was claimed by Conservatives that coverage was unfair. Later, it was confirmed that both Boris Johnson and then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak broke lockdown rules and were fined by police. It is not the first time Ms Croxall has made the headlines due to an on-air gaffe: in January 2020 she was involved in a blunder which quickly saw her go viral online. As she started to read the top stories of the day, the camera panned straight past her to the news desk, in a humiliating gaffe. 'Hello everybody, this is Afternoon Live,' the presenter began, before she disappeared as the camera zipped straight past her. 'I've lost you,' she said. 'I shall make my way back to the desk. 'I think that's the safest thing to do. Do excuse me, I shall tell you all about our story in just one second.' In the aftermath of October's incident, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries accused Ms Croxall of bias and said on Twitter: 'The BBC is a public service broadcaster paid for by the general public who overwhelmingly voted for a Conservative government. 'This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep seated the bias is.' Ex-prime minister Theresa May's former joint chief of staff Nick Timothy tweeted: 'Whatever you think of Johnson, if you care about the BBC you cannot think this is in any way acceptable from one of its presenters.' Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 1,000-page report on Friday alleging widespread politicization and misconduct in the FBI. The damning file said the bureau is 'rotted at its core,' manipulated domestic violent extremism statistics for political purposes and downplayed investigations and 'serious allegations of wrongdoing' leveled at Hunter Biden. Republican members of the committee also said whistleblowers have come forward with allegations of 'rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse' and have tried to purge conservative employees. The report was created without the help of the Democrats on the committee, which are the majority party, and was released four days before the midterm elections and signals that the GOP will target the bureau if they retake the majority in the House. A large part of the report was copies of letters the committee has sent to the FBI and the Biden administration detailing the allegations. It details Republican Senator Chuck Grassley's revelation that agent Tim Thibault as part of a 'scheme' to discredit derogatory' information on President Joe Biden's son, and caused allegations from the laptop to be 'falsely' labelled as 'disinformation'. 'The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken,' the GOP report states. 'The problem lies not with the majority of front-line agents who serve our country, but with the FBI's politicized bureaucracy.' The Republicans are calling it 'the first comprehensive accounting of the FBI's problems to date, which undermine the FBI's fundamental law-enforcement mission.' It details Republican Senator Chuck Grassley's revelation that agent Tim Thibault as part of a ''scheme' to discredit derogatory' information on President Joe Biden's son, and caused allegations from the laptop to be 'falsely' labelled as 'disinformation' 'POLITICIZATION' OF THE FBI: REPORT'S 'KEY' TAKEAWAYS 1) The FBI leadership abusing its law-enforcement authority for political reasons. 2) The FBI artificially inflating and manipulating domestic violent extremism statistics for political purposes. 3) The FBI downplaying and reducing the spread of the serious allegations of wrongdoing leveled against Hunter Biden. 4) The Justice Department and FBI using counterterrorism resources to target parents resisting a far-left educational curriculum. 5) The FBI abusing its foreign surveillance authorities. 6) The Justice Department and FBI conducting an unprecedented raid on a former president's home. 7) The FBI stalking a Republican Congressman on a family vacation to seize his personal cell phone. 8) The Justice Department and the FBI continuing to allow attacks on pro-life facilities and churches to go unabated, while pushing an anti-life agenda. 9) The FBI conducting an 'intelligence' assessment of a conservative charity under the guise of investigating unrelated alleged crimes. 10) The FBI purging employees who refuse to align themselves with the leadership's political ideology. 11) The FBI helping Big Tech to censor Americans' political speech. Advertisement In response to the report, the FBI released a statement to DailyMail.com that it 'follow facts not politics'. 'The FBI has testified to Congress and responded to letters from legislators on numerous occasions to provide an accurate accounting of how we do our work', it read. 'The men and women of the FBI devote themselves to protecting the American people from terrorism, violent crime, cyber threats and other dangers. 'Put quite simply: we follow the facts without regard for politics. While outside opinions and criticism often come with the job, we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, do things by the book, and speak through our work.' The Republicans accuse the FBI of using counterterrorism resources to target parents during the highly divisive school board meetings in the pandemic and abusing foreign surveillance powers. 'Over the last year, a multitude of whistleblowers have approached Judiciary Committee Republicans with allegations of political bias by the FBI's senior leadership and misuses of the agency's federal law -enforcement powers,' the report adds. 'These whistleblowers have risked their careers out of fidelity to principle and a commitment to restoring public trust in the FBI. This report begins to tell their stories. 'Even at this early stage, one startling conclusion is clear: the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice Department, have become political institutions.' Republicans on then House Judiciary Committee released a 1,000-page report on the politicization and misconduct in the FBI. The Republicans are calling it 'the first comprehensive accounting of the FBI's problems to date, which undermine the FBI's fundamental law-enforcement mission Americans 'deserve to have confidence that the enormous power and reach of federal law enforcement will be used fairly and free of any indication of politicization,' the report continues. 'The FBI has the power, quite literally, to ruin a person's life - to invade their residence, to take their property and even deprive them of their liberty', it adds. In it's first summary of the Hunter investigation, the report says there is 'mounting evidence from the last two years' that he 'received preferential treatment from federal law enforcement who seemed to have turned a blind eye to the potential national security threats presented by his business dealings with Chinese, Russian and other foreign nationals.' It also lays out how the FBI 'colluded' with Facebook in the weeks before the 2020 election 'to suppress information' on stories on the scandal-hit President's son and the alleged $3.5 million payment he received from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. 'The way the FBI has approached the allegations concerning Hunter Biden and the Biden family is especially striking when considered alongside public information about how the FBI leadership has aggressively used law- enforcement authorities against conservatives,' the report reads. Concerns about Hunter's business transactions were first reported to the FBI during the Obama presidency, according to the report, primarily based on his role on the board of Ukrainian firm Burisma. The allegations on the involvement in the Hunter investigation and the claims the FBI manipulated domestic violent extremism statistics for political purposes have already been disclosed. But the report also laid out new claims such as the FBI trying to 'purge' employees with conservative views and those who are against 'woke' diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Whistleblowers also claim agents on the ground who normally deal with criminal investigations are being pulled away. One whistleblower alleged he was 'told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.' In it's first summary of the Hunter investigation, the report says there is 'mounting evidence from the last two years' that he 'received preferential treatment from federal law enforcement' Advertisement King Charles III enjoyed a hilarious moment with Stella McCartney and the Prime Minister today as he hosted a Buckingham Palace reception for business figures ahead of the Cop27 summit. The monarch welcomed more than 200 guests to his royal residence including Rishi Sunak, who this week reversed his decision to skip the UN climate change meeting in Egypt next week, bowing to pressure from activists, his own environment adviser and rival Boris Johnson. As guests arrived, Charles kissed Stella McCartney before meeting the Prime Minister. The fashion designer laughed and told the King: 'Your Majesty, I don't know what to do anymore. I think I'm supposed to do this now,' before curtseying for the monarch, who laughed uproariously - as did the Prime Minister. The Queen would only be seen kissing members of her family or close friends at events. But Charles is different, greeting acquaintances and other royals such as Queen Letizia of Spain with a kiss and even allowing a fellow mourner to give him a peck on the cheek outside the palace after the death of his mother in September. Mr Sunak, who was also seen talking to Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, was among a small group of VIPs who met the King in a separate room before the main reception was held in the ballroom and the Prime Minister gave a short address to guests, such as US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry. In the state dining room were leading figures including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, AstraZeneca chief executive Sir Pascal Soriot, former New York Mayor and business news mogul Mike Bloomberg and yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur whose foundation is working to tackle climate change. In his speech, Mr Sunak praised the King's commitment to climate change and quoted his late mother. He said: 'I hope you will join me in thanking the King for hosting us and for his longstanding and far-sighted leadership. His Majesty has been working on practical solutions for climate change and biodiversity for 50 years long before Cop1 let alone Cop27. 'If we do not act today, we will risk leaving an ever more desperate inheritance to our children tomorrow. As her late majesty said in her address to Cop26, "It is the hope of many that the legacy of this summit written in history books yet to be printed will describe you as the leaders who did not pass up the opportunity. Despite No 10's U-turn, the King is still not planning to attend the Egyptian summit. Downing Street acknowledged on Thursday that the King might have been able to join delegates if the Prime Minister had been in office earlier in the year. Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak laugh while speaking to fashion designer Stella McCartney, watched by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry The King kissed Stella McCartney before meeting the Prime Minister. The fashion designer laughed and told the King: 'I don't know what to do anymore. I think I'm supposed to do this now', before curtseying for the monarch who laughed, as did Rishi Sunak (right) King Charles III speaks with, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Cop26 president Alok Sharma (left) and fashion designer Stella McCartney, at Buckingham Palace Queen Letizia of Spain and the then Prince of Wales exchanged a kiss on the cheek as they arrived at the engagement in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in April The then Prince of Wales had put on a friendly display when he met Queen Letizia of Spain in April this year for a rare joint public engagement in County Durham The King has decided not to go to Egypt despite a U-turn by the PM King Charles III arrives for a reception for world leaders, business figures, environmentalists and NGOs at Buckingham Palace His Majesty heard from guests about practical measures to combat climate change and their plans for Cop27 and beyond Rishi and Stella reminisce about meeting on the school run to King Charles, with PM praising his fashion designer friend who he said looked 'glamorous' at assembly Rishi Sunak and Stella McCartney explained to the King that they knew each other from picking up their children. After Charles greeted them at his pre-Cop27 event at Buckingham Palace, Rishi said: 'So we're usually seeing each other at kids things' and Stella McCartney chipped in and said: 'Yes our children used to go to the same school'. The monarch said: 'Oh really' before the PM said that fashion designer Ms McCartney was 'on the more glamorous end of the assemblies in the morning'. Moving the conversation on Charles thanked them for coming, saying he was 'particularly grateful to the Prime Minister'. Stella said she hoped the King would help 'save the world'. Rishi told Charles: 'This is extraordinary. 250 people. This is what you've done.' The King then asks after someone and the PM says, pointing: 'Yes she's here. She's just over there'. Advertisement When Liz Truss was premier, a 'unanimous agreement' was reached that the King should not attend after advice was sought by his office from the Government. A Downing Street spokeswoman said on Thursday it was now not 'logistically feasible' for the King to join the gathering at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. She said about Mr Sunak, who only took office last week following the dramatic resignation of Ms Truss: 'We do recognise that had the Prime Minister been in post earlier, the situation might have been different but it is not logistically feasible at this late stage.' A Buckingham Palace spokesman reiterated there had been 'unanimous agreement' with the Government that the King would not travel to the summit. Cop26 president Alok Sharma, who will be handing over presidency to Egypt at the summit, was also invited to the palace reception. Mr Sunak's U-turn came as his predecessor Boris Johnson confirmed he would attend, having made the environment a key plank of his premiership. But they will not be sharing a plane. On Twitter, Mr Sunak said: 'There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change. There is no energy security without investing in renewables. 'That is why I will attend Cop27 next week: to deliver on Glasgow's legacy of building a secure and sustainable future.' The PM previously said he had to focus on Britain's 'depressing domestic challenges' but faced growing pressure to join leaders at next week's conference. Mr Sunak changed his mind on attending the Sharm El-Sheikh gathering after making 'good progress' on those domestic matters, including the Autumn Statement later this month, according to Downing Street. 'He has always recognised the importance of this summit and indeed on tacking climate change more generally,' said the PM's official spokesman. 'We wanted to make sure we were making good progress on the Government's domestic agenda and the Autumn Statement in particular. King Charles was pictured planting a lime tree near the Tea House in the Buckingham Palace garden today After hosting a reception for world leaders, business figures, environmentalists and NGOs, at Buckingham Palace, the King planted a tree in the palace gardens The Prime Minister's spokesman said there was 'unanimous agreement' that King Charles will still not attend Cop27, despite Mr Sunak's decision to go During their last joint public engagement in April this year, Queen Letizia of Spain and the then Prince of Wales appeared entranced as they were offered a tour of the gallery at Auckland Castle in County Durham 'Following discussions with the Chancellor [Jeremy Hunt] this week he has now agreed to attend. The PM feels there is sufficient space to make this trip.' The spokesman said Mr Sunak was hoping to make progress on the commitment to halt deforestation by 2030 and to agree new partnerships on clean and renewable energy. Rishi Sunak praised King's 50-year commitment to climate change and quotes the Queen in speech to VIPs In his speech at Buckingham Palace today, the Prime Minister praised the King's commitment to climate change and quoted his mother the Queen. He said: 'I hope you will join me in thanking the King for hosting us and for his longstanding and far-sighted leadership. 'His Majesty has been working on practical solutions for climate change and biodiversity for 50 years long before COP1 let alone COP27. 'If we do not act today, we will risk leaving an ever more desperate inheritance to our children tomorrow. As her late majesty said in her address to COP26, "It is the hope of many that the legacy of this summit written in history books yet to be printed will describe you as the leaders who did not pass up the opportunity. Advertisement The PM's predecessor, Liz Truss, is claimed to have objected to His Majesty attending the Egypt summit during an audience at Buckingham Palace last month. A Palace spokesperson said: 'As has been made clear previously, in unanimous agreement with Government His Majesty will not be attending Cop27. 'His focus is on the pre-Cop reception at Buckingham Palace, where senior business leaders, experts and NGOs can discuss the important work of the summit and explore ways in which public-private partnership can help tackle climate change. 'His Majesty looks forward to hosting the PM and other global leaders at the event.' Labour's shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: 'The PM has been shamed into going to Cop27 by the torrent of disbelief that he would fail to turn up. 'He is going to avoid embarrassment, not to provide leadership.' Labour had called Mr Sunak's decision to skip Cop27 a 'massive failure of leadership'. Britain hosted Cop26 in Glasgow last year and holds its presidency until the start of the next summit. The Prime Minister's own climate adviser Mr Sharma had said he was 'disappointed' that Mr Sunak was not planning to attend. But he praised the PM's U-turn. The outgoing Cop26 president tweeted: 'Delighted that @RishiSunak is attending Cop27 completely agree with his comment that ''there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change''.' Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said Mr Sunak had been 'dragged kicking and screaming into doing the right thing' after he committed to attend the Cop27 climate summit. 'Embarrassing,' she added. The decision of Mr Johnson - Mr Sunak's arch-rival and former Downing Street neighbour - to attend made it even harder for the PM to resist going. Mr Johnson told Sky News he would be attending, adding: 'I was invited by the Egyptians so I'm very happy to go.' Asked if his successor in No 10 should go too, he said Mr Sunak has a 'massive amount to do' with the Government's domestic agenda, adding: 'I happen to have a particular interest.' Mr Johnson argued it has become 'unfashionable' to talk about Cop26. 'I want to talk a little bit about how I see things and how we see things in the UK,' Mr Johnson added. Initially Downing Street said Mr Sunak would not be attending because he must focus on the 'depressing domestic challenges', as he works on the autumn Budget. King Charles III (far left) arrives with (left to right) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Alok Sharma (centre) who presided over Cop26 and Brian Moynihan, chairman and chief executive of Bank of America and co-chairman of the Sustainable Markets Initiative Britain's King Charles III (L) speaks with Brian Moynihan (2nd L), chairman and CEO of Bank of America and co-chairman of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, John Kerry (C), US special presidential envoy for climate and Cop26 president Alok Sharma The change came after Mr Sunak's predecessor Boris Johnson confirmed he would attend, having made the environment a key plank of his premiership Writing on Twitter, Mr Sunak said: 'There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change. There is no energy security without investing in renewables' Buckingham Palace has confirmed that King Charles will still stay away from the event, having been told by Mr Sunak's predecessor Liz Truss to stay away But on Monday he changed tack, with No 10 saying that the decision was now 'under review' as 'substantial progress' was being made on his economic plans. Rachel Kennerley, international climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: 'It would have been a remarkable own goal for the Prime Minister to miss this year's UN climate talks as the UK's own presidency draws to a close, so it's good that he's seen sense and decided to attend. 'But simply showing up won't be enough. The UK government has a lot of work to do to rebuild its climate reputation after a year of rowing back on commitments made in Glasgow. 'The PM quashed plans to revive fracking which was a good start to his tenure. If the UK expects to be taken seriously at the negotiating table, then the government must scrap plans for new oil and gas in the North Sea and say no to the UK's first deep coal mine in 30 years.' 2021 NAIDOC Artist of the Year Bobby Lockyer said the line was 'misleading' Some consumers are angry that the artist wasn't Aboriginal or First Nations Clothing line inspired by Indigenous art but created by designer Ellie Whittaker Retailer Best&Less accused of blackfishing after new clothing line is released Australian retailer Best&Less has been accused of 'blackfishing' after launching a new clothing line inspired by Indigenous artwork but designed by a white artist. The line was unveiled on social media last week and the retailer said it was 'proudly supporting Aussie designers' while advertising button-ups and a bucket hat. The collection was made by white designer Ellie Whittaker in collaboration with Best&Less. Its announcement was met with fierce backlash after the public realised the designer was not a First Nations person. The line was unveiled on social media last week but has been met with fierce backlash after the public realised the designer was not a First Nations person The collection was made by white designer Ellie Whittaker in collaboration with Best&Less 'Really disappointing the retailer hadn't consulted an Aboriginal artist,' one person commented. 'Such a missed opportunity, should of been blackfella art not this Gammon stuff,' another said. 'Yes let's support a white woman profiting off Indigenous designs. No thanks,' commented a third. 'When you say 'Aussie designers' please tell me you mean Indigenous Mob?' another wrote which was met with the reply, 'apparently not really sad to be honest.' Bobbi Lockyer - 2021 NAIDOC Artist of the Year - told news.com.au the Best&Less line was 'misleading'. In response to a poll posted to social media, more than half of her followers which responded thought the brand was blackfishing - appearing Indigenous or using Indigenous inspiration. 'I had so many people messaging me saying they specifically went out and bought it because they thought they were supporting a First Nations artist,' Ms Lockyer said. Social media users voiced their anger at the store's decision not to use an Aboriginal artist Bobbi Lockyer - 2021 NAIDOC Artist of the Year - told news.com.au the Best&Less line was 'misleading' 'I thought, "that's really misleading". Even looking at the Best&Less website, the use of the young brown kid as the model all of that is a little bit deceiving. 'There are so many other talented actual Indigenous and First Nations artists that could have had that opportunity. Whether it was done on purpose or not, it's still quite misleading.' In response executive chair of Best&Less Group, Jason Murray said the design was inspired by an encounter the designer had with a snake. 'This is one of multiple prints in the Ellie Whittaker Collection, which is a new design collaboration for Best&Less. We are certainly interested in collaborating with other amazing artists and designers in Australia,' he said. The lines artist Ellie Whittaker apologised for offending the Indigenous community but said the design was created after a carpet python slithered into her home. She said it was all about patterns within patterns for her and the artwork was created to celebrate the largely docile nature of Australian reptiles. Hyderabad: Finding fault with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for destabilising governments in different states, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday called on the people and the youth to start a nationwide struggle in protest against its undemocratic political agenda. I appeal humbly to the justice system to save the country from being destroyed. Every time the country has faced a crisis such as this, it was the justice system that stepped in to rescue the country, Rao said. The Chief Minister told mediapersons at Pragathi Bhavan that he was speaking with a heavy heart following the BJP's undemocratic policies, and its encouragement of unsocial elements. "The BJP has levelled allegations against the Election Commission for the way it conducts elections. We lost in Dubbak, we won Nagarjunasagar. But the BJP indulged in mudslinging on the TRS and its leaders by making false and fake statements, questioning the conduct of the Election Commission. I am ready to die for the nation and its development, the Chief Minister said. , The BJP made false allegations about Munugode Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi meeting me a day before elections. It was a false and fake statement." Speaking about the recent alleged attempt to bribe four TRS MLAs, the Chief Minister said that the BJP had destabilised eight state governments and had attempted to dethrone four more, in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan, by luring MLAs from the ruling parties. Replying to criticism that the TRS had lured Congress MLAs, Rao said, "Congress MLAs had joined the TRS because they were attracted by the development agenda of the government in Telangana but the TRS never purchased any MLA. The MLAs joined the TRS by following democratic norms. The Chief Minister released purported video clippings of the accused in the alleged poachgate case Ramachandra Bharathi, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy. "We retrieved call data of the accused and they have contacts with BJP leaders. Ramachandra Bharathi had contacted Tushar of Kerala regarding poaching of TRS MLAs. Tushar was the BJP candidate who contested against Rahul Gandhi in the general elections, the CM said. "I have sent these videos (of BJP leaders poaching TRS MLAs) to the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justices of High Courts, all the media houses across the country, to every Chief Minister, he said. During the conversation, Ramachandra Bharathi named BJP leaders Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda," the Chief Minister alleged. Rao said Bharathi had obtained fake Aadhaar and PAN cards. This showed the criminal antecedents and intentions of the BJP in trying to destabilise the TRS government, Chandrashekar Rao claimed. A partygoer died after a downing three pints of gin in a drinking game during a 36-hour session, an inquest heard. Doorman Kier Jenkins, 24 described as 'the life and soul of the party' went to a friend's house after a night out. He had been playing drinking games and taking cocaine at the party, the inquest heard. But he blacked out after downing three neat pints of gin at the gathering. Doorman Kier Jenkins, 24, went to a friend's house in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales after a night out where he took cocaine and participated in drinking games His inquest heard he blacked out after downing three neat pints of gin in the party Other partygoers offered him and another man water and put them to sleep in the recovery position but later that night they noticed Mr Jenkins had stopped snoring. The hearing was told they dialled 999 at 4.32am on Monday September 19, 2021, when they found Mr Jenkins had stopped breathing. Friends performed CPR on the doorman at the house in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, until paramedics arrived but he could tragically not be saved. Coroner David Regan said Mr Jenkins had 510 milligrams per decilitre of ethanol in his system which is above the fatal level. Tests also showed traces of ketamine and cocaine in his blood and the coroner said the combination of ethanol and cocaine could create a toxic metabolite called Cocaethylene which can cause cardiac arrest. Coroner David Regan said Mr Jenkins had 510 milligrams per decilitre of ethanol in his system which is above the fatal level Tests also showed traces of ketamine and cocaine in his blood and the coroner said the combination of ethanol and cocaine could create a toxic metabolite called Cocaethylene which can cause cardiac arrest Mr Regan said Mr Jenkins had been drinking for a period of 36 hours before his death and recorded a conclusion of drug and alcohol related death. In a statement read at the hearing, Mr Jenkins' sisters Mali and Shantay Jenkins and cousin Angharad Jenkins described him as 'larger than life'. They said: 'He loved all our children and he would do anything for anyone. He had done so much for charity, he raised money for Mind, he was the type of person who would give you all he had left. 'He had turned his life around, he was working as a doorman. He was a good person he would help anyone. 'He has left a huge hole in our hearts and all his friends. He was such a big person, he was so well known, once you had met him you wouldn't forget him. 'He was the life and soul of the party, he was too big for this world.' Bernard and her medical partner are now suing Rokita to end the investigation, which they say violated 'numerous Indiana statutes' The doctor, Caitlin Bernard, was then reported to the attorney general's office for a number of reasons, including not reporting abuse of a minor to the state In July, an Indiana doctor made headlines when she reported that she performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from Ohio A doctor in Indiana is suing the state's Attorney General Todd Rokita to prevent him from using 'frivolous' complaints against her practice to issue subpoenas for confidential medical records. Dr. Caitlin Bernard appeared in headlines over the summer after she told a local outlet that she had provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim. The case, which came to light in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v Wade, was quickly picked up as a political talking point for Democrats and President Joe Biden who condemned the Supreme Court's decision. Questions then began cropping up about whether the case of the 10-year-old rape victim was even real. Ohio's attorney general Dave Yost said his office had heard of no such victim. Weeks later, a man was charged with the rape of the girl. Multiple complaints were filed against Bernard and her medical partner, Dr. Amy Caldwell, by members of the public who are not patients of the doctors. In turn, Rokita's office has used those complaints to justify subpoenas of patients' private medical records. In a lawsuit, Bernard and Caldwell have asked a Marion County, Indiana court to halt Rokita's investigation on the grounds that it runs afoul of 'numerous Indiana statutes.' Indiana Dr. Caitlin Bernard attended an abortion rights rally on June 25, 2022 - she is now seeking to block her state's attorney general from investigating her practice Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita opened an investigation into Bernard's practice after multiple consumer complaints rolled in this July, following Bernard's decision to share with the media a story about performing an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said his office heard nary a whisper about the rape and subsequent abortion of a 10-year-old girl According to the IndyStar - the outlet that initially reported Bernard's account of a 10-year-old rape victim - a copy of Bernard and Caldwell's lawsuit reads, 'The Attorney General has completely ignored the requirement to determine that consumer complaints have 'merit' before he can investigate and has instead used facially invalid consumer complaints to justify multiple, duplicative, and overbroad investigations into law-abiding physicians.' Months ago, an attorney for Bernard said she received a letter about an investigation by Rokita's office into complaints against the doctor. The complaints, however, were 'riddled with inaccuracies,' according to attorney Kathleen DeLaney. In response to questions about the investigation, Rokita's office said it investigates 'thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year.' 'A majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients,' it reads. 'Any investigations that arise as a result of potential violations are handled in a uniform manner and narrowly focused. We will discuss this particular matter further through the judicial filings we make.' Between July 8 and July 12 of this year, seven people filed consumer complaints against Bernard to Rokita's office, according to the suit. DeLaney says those complaints were submitted by people who saw stories in the media about Bernard after her description of the 10-year-old rape patient went viral. Most of the complaints were submitted by people who said they lived outside of Indiana. Bernard, who along with her medical partner is suing Rokita's office, was accused of making up the story of the 10-year-old in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade However, weeks after Bernard made her claim, Gerson Fuentes was arrested and charged with the rape of the 10-year-old in Ohio Part of the reason Bernard's story was so heavily scrutinized was because she was revealed to be a devoted abortion rights advocate who shared the story to advance her legislative position on reproductive rights One complaint said Bernard 'kept knowledge of the rape of a 10-year-old from authorities.' But that concern was debunked in July, when the Indiana Department of Health released a copy of a termination of pregnancy report that Bernard had filled out, which confirmed she did report the abortion and notified the state that a minor had suffered abuse. Another complaint accused Bernard of making up the story of the 10-year-old and pitching it to the media. That individual pointed to statements by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who said that his office had not heard a 'whisper' of a report being filed about the 10-year-old victim. However, in the weeks that followed media reports of the 10-year-old, authorities in Ohio - where the assault allegedly took place - charged a man in connection with the rape of the child. Part of the reason Bernard's story was so heavily scrutinized was because she was revealed to be a devoted abortion rights advocate, who shared the story in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortions in Ohio and Indiana are currently banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy - though a stricter law is making its way through the courts in Indiana. A spokesperson for Rokita's office argued that the attorney general's authority is 'intentionally broad.' 'It includes but isn't limited to authority to investigate both state and federal privacy violations, consumer complaint issues, and it includes jurisdiction over licensed professionals including physicians,' continued the statement. Miss Reid's father Donald Reid, 62, has talked about how his son gets bullied at school over the relationship Ex-wife Shona was suspicious after daughter said 'Daddy has a new girlfriend' after she separated from him Dunsmuir has been struck off as a teacher as it emerged he and Ms Reid, 25, have had at least two children He went on to marry Megan Reid who was at Largs Academy in North Ayrshire where he was a teacher Advertisement A religious education teacher has been struck off for getting into an inappropriate relationship with a pupil less than half his age who he went on to marry and have children with. Gavin Dunsmuir, now 50, was found to have formed a relationship with Megan Reid in 2015 while he was employed at Largs Academy in North Ayrshire. The former teacher went on to leave his wife Shona and move in with Miss Reid, now 25, before marrying her last year and having two children together. Dunsmuir's ex-wife Shona said in 2018 after she had split that she became suspicious after she was told by their young daughter: 'Mummy, do you know that Daddy has a new girlfriend?' She said she believed his relationship with Miss Reid did go further than Gavin being 'just a mentor' to the girl as one of his colleagues told her they spent 'a lot of time together during lunchtimes,' the Daily Record reported at the time. Miss Reid's father Donald Reid, 62, told a tribunal their relationship left him 'distressed' and led to his son being bullied. Dunsmuir has now been removed from the teaching register after an investigation was launched into the couple's relationship by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). Gavin Dunsmuir (right), now 50, was found to have formed a relationship with pupil Megan Reid (left) in 2015 while he was employed at Largs Academy in North Ayrshire The former teacher went on to leave his wife and move in with Miss Reid, now 25, before marrying her last year and having two children together Gavin Dunsmuir left his ex-wife Shona (pictured on their wedding day) for Miss Reid. Now he has been struck off Teacher Gavin Dunsmuir (left) and Megan Reid (right) taken during their time together at Largs Academy in Ayrshire Ex-wife Shona Dunsmuir (pictured) became suspicious after their daughter asked: 'Mummy, do you know that Daddy has a new girlfriend?' Miss Reid's father Donald Reid (pictured), 62, told a tribunal their relationship left him 'distressed' and led to his son being bullied Gavin Dunsmuir, 50, was found to have formed a relationship with Megan Reid in 2015 while he was employed at Largs Academy (pictured) in North Ayrshire He is further alleged to have been seen visiting a pub with Miss Reid, and other youngsters between March and August 2015 when she would have been 17 or 18. Dunsmuir is also accused of taking Miss Reid to a colleague's home and allowing her to spend time in the company of his daughter. The GTCS today said: 'The panel has found that the teacher's conduct falls significantly short of the standards expected of a registered teacher and he is therefore unfit to teach. 'The panel must direct that his name be removed from the register of teachers.' The GTCS has been investigating Dunsmuir since 2018. The hearing reconvened this week to hear further evidence from a former colleague and Miss Reid's father. In his statement, given to the GTCS in 2017, Mr Reid explained how he felt after finding out his daughter was in a relationship with Dunsmuir. He said: 'I am very distressed about the situation. When people ask about my daughter I struggle not to tell them that she ran off with her teacher. 'I would like to make it clear that I only found out via a fourth party as when I looked at the computer I couldn't see anything that would be a cause for concern. 'I saw two cards in her room, one was a birthday card and one was for leaving school. 'She had gotten cards from other teachers which were appropriate, the one which was not appropriate was from Mr Dunsmuir. 'He had referred to her as Meg Mog [in the card]. 'I telephoned Heather Burns [Largs Academy headteacher] and made my feelings clear, she confirmed that the teacher under investigation was allegedly involved with Megan. Dunsmuir was allegedly seen visiting a pub with the schoolgirl, Megan Reid (left), and other youngsters between March and August of 2015. Pictured right: The pair embracing as they face away from the camera together The GTCS has been investigating Dunsmuir (right) since 2018 over his relationship with former pupil Megan Reid (left) as the hearing reconvened this week to hear further evidence from a former colleague and Miss Reid's father A quote from sitcom 'How I Met Your Mother' which began in 2005 at the wedding of Gavin Dunsmuir and Megan Reid Dunsmuir (pictured left and right) and his former pupil Miss Reid married last year, with images of the two on their wedding day shared on to their social media accounts 'She said the reason I had not been informed was because Megan was over 16, I felt that I was and still am Megan's father and to find out via tittle-tattle I thought was poor. 'I recall from the statement it said that Megan had gone for a meal with Mr Dunsmuir, I remember thinking why is he taking time out to come up to Largs and see Megan. 'I thought that I was close to my daughter but the way that she was reacting to me when I asked her about her statement suggested otherwise. 'I was offered and accepted a copy of Megan's statement, I have always brought my children up to tell the truth. 'I recall there was one question which asked if Megan had ever been alone with Mr Dunsmuir and she said no. 'Megan accused me of treating her like someone in work - this happened at 9:45pm, she told me to f*** off four times in a row and exited via the window as I had taken her house keys. He added: 'Megan has a younger brother who experienced some bullying because of the whole situation. 'Her mother had made it clear that she is not happy with the situation but does not want to lose her daughter.' Ex-wife Shona Dunsmuir (left) said she believed his relationship with Miss Reid did go further than her husband Gavin (right) being 'just a mentor' to the girl as a one of his colleagues told her they spent 'a lot of time together during lunchtimes' 'When people ask about my daughter I struggle not to tell them that she ran off with her teacher,' said Megan's (pictured holding a rabbit) father Donald Reid. Gavin Dunsmuir's ex-wife Shona Dunsmuir (right) The GTCS also heard from Pauline Hughes, former principal teacher of RE at Largs Academy, who said: 'I recall that the viewing panel of the door had been covered up with a flag. 'It had been pinned over the glass. I entered the room and it was very clear I had interrupted them. 'They were sitting across the table with their heads going into one another. 'I was in a bit of shock or denial. 'I just didn't want to think anything untoward was happening - I was wrong, I should have been proactive and got the wee girl out of there.' The couple's relationship came to light after they were spotted in Lounge pub in Largs, North Ayrshire by a fellow teacher at the school. The alarm was raised by the off-duty teacher who said his body language with the pupil made them 'look like a couple'. Dunsmuir did not attend any part of the hearing or arrange legal representation on his behalf. A 23-year-old Washington man 'with no military experience who snuck out of his family home' to fight in the Ukraine War has died. Skyler James Gregg was fighting on the frontline with the International Legion in Ukraine - which consists of foreigners and operates under the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Its believed Gregg died in north-eastern Ukraine when soldiers from the International Legion came under artillery fire in the last week of October, a Ukrainian army contact told The Daily Beast. In his Washington state hometown of Orcas Island, Gregg had been living with his father, Steve, who had been against him going to Ukraine to fight. Despite his father's aversion to the idea Gregg made the decision to sneak out of his home and travel to Ukraine to volunteer despite having no military experience. Gregg joined the International Legion in April after seeing the images of Russia entering Ukraine and being shocked by the atrocities taking place. Just two months after joining the International Legion Gregg was wounded near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine when an explosive hit his posting near the frontline. Skyler James Gregg, 23, who had 'no military experience' and 'snuck out of his family home' to fight in the Ukraine War after seeing the atrocities taking place in eastern Europe has died Gregg was fighting on the frontline with the International Legion in Ukraine which consists of foreigners and operates under the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces when troops came under artillery fire Family and friends described Gregg on Facebook as being a brave, strong young man with a good heart Talking to The Daily Beast in a hospital where he had been recovering from his injuries Gregg said he was determined to return to the frontline after his recovery. 'I couldn't just sit by, I had to do something,' Gregg said at the time. 'I have friends in Ukraine, it's so terrible what is happening. I needed to do something; the job isn't finished.' A total of 14 fragments had penetrated his body, including his right foot, right arm and shoulder at the time. 'I didn't want to seem more experienced than I really was, so I just told them that I had the bare minimum experience,' he said. He later became an LMG machine gunner and said his training in Ukraine was short and chaotic. 'There was an opportunity to go, so I had to do it,' he said. 'It would, of course, be possible for me to help in a humanitarian way, but I was just so angry. I was just so angry about the Russian invasion, so I couldn't just work in a warehouse.' His death was confirmed by his father Steve and a former commander, who wished to remain nameless, who said the 23-year-old was a 'hero' and 'very brave, big-hearted man.' In his last messages to his father, Gregg shared photos with a woman from one of the liberated territories in north-eastern Ukraine. Gregg had been proud to show his father how he helped the woman connect with her daughters through a Starlink internet connection after five months apart, Steve explained to The Daily Beast. Ukrainian forces have been carrying out counter-offensive operations in the north-eastern regions in recent months and have already liberated more than 300 settlements. Gregg (not pictured) was accepted in the legion and quickly transferred to the frontlines in eastern Ukraine which has seen a series of devastation Gregg joined the International Legion in April after seeing the images of Russia entering Ukraine and being shocked by the atrocities taking place 'I will be honest and say that in the first couple of days, I was filled with frantic, frantic pain,' said Steve. Steve, who describes himself as a pacifist, had repeatedly warned Gregg against volunteering. 'He did not have my permission to go, but I have a ton of respect for him,' he said. Back in June, Steve had told The Daily Beast that Gregg liked to read the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway which is about a young American who joins a guerrilla unit in the Spanish Civil War and is badly wounded after blowing up a bridge. 'I haven't read the book in decades, but it might be time to look at it again to see what it means,' he said at the time. 'You know, Skyler always wanted to give his all, and if he died, then he wanted it to set an example and to live his life fully.' 'He relished human connections, and it is tough for me to criticize his drive to help people. I cannot criticize that.' Family and friends described Gregg on Facebook as being a brave, strong young man with a good heart. 'My precious brave nephew Skyler died doing what he was convicted to do, help out his Ukrainian friends in the war with Russia,' his aunt posted this week. 'My last conversation with him was several months ago when he was in the hospital recovering from wounds he received when a bomb carrying drone came dangerously close. 'I had the opportunity to tell him how much I loved him and admired him for following his convictions. 'My heart is broken that I won't get to see him again this side of heaven. Rest well Skyler.' Conor Kennedy, 28, pictured in Ukraine in his military fatigues, only told one American that he was going to join the war against Russia Misty Gossett, 48, (right) says the body of her son Joshua Jones, 24, (left) is being held in Ukraine pending a potential war crimes investigation Alexander Drueke, 39 (right), and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, (left), are seen arriving at the hotel by JFK airport. The pair flew in from Saudi Arabia, after the Saudis brokered a deal to release them from Russian captivity Another family member posting on behalf of the Gregg family wrote how much the young soldier would be missed. 'Our hearts are broken, there are no adequate words to describe the loss of someone we love so dearly, so much sooner than should have been,' it read. 'At this time, we have very little information regarding the events surrounding Skyler's death. 'We know that he was wounded several months ago but had recently recovered enough to begin working to reunify families who had been separated due to warfare. 'In the midst of our pain we have taken comfort in the fact that Skyler died doing what he believed in, in an effort to heal a portion of our broken world which he held dear to his heart.' Dailymail.com has contacted Gregg's father for further comment. It is unclear how many Americans are currently fighting in Ukraine, some however have little to no military experience. In the last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that his son Conor Kennedy, 28, 'talked his way' into enlisting for the war in Ukraine despite having no military experience. Conor, who is also the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, secretly enlisted to join the war in Ukraine because he felt Vladimir Putin is a 'gangster' and a 'bully', his father said. Conor's father appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show on Tuesday to speak about his son joining the fight in Ukraine. He revealed that he and his wife had no idea that Conor was joining the war effort, and that there was only one person on the ground in Ukraine who knew who Conor was. In September, two American veterans captured by the Russians while fighting in Ukraine were returned to the United States, to be united with their overjoyed families. Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39, were both freed on Wednesday as part of a Saudi-brokered prisoner swap. But the same cannot be said of all American troops, revealed on family this week who are still enduring the 'nightmare' that is the Ukraine war. This week an American family who lost their son and is waiting to get the remains back revealed that his body is being held pending a possible war crimes investigation. Joshua Jones, 24, was killed on August 26 while fighting for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. After his death, the soldier's body was held by Russian troops for several weeks in the Donbas region. Last week, the family was finally told that Joshua's body had been given to Ukraine following a negotiation period. Now, however, his family says that they are being told his body will not be sent back just quite yet. Joshua was in the US Army for three years, his family said. He decided to leave for Ukraine in March after news of the invasion had broken. His mom said he left the day before his birthday. Diddy was one of the investors who helped Elon Musk buy Twitter for $44billion, after pumping $10million into the bid himself, it's been revealed. The hip-hop music legend, 53, is said to have wanted 'a seat a the table' so helped Musk with his billion dollar social media takeover. Elon Musk bought the tech company for $44 billion last week - and has already made his presence known by firing hoards of staff across the globe and re-instating accounts that were previously suspended. He was able to take over Twitter with the help of wealthy investors - including Diddy - and loans from Wall Street banks. According to TMZ, sources say that Diddy's investment comes from the fact that he 'believes' in Musk's vision for the social media giant. It's believed that the pair hang out in similar circles - with them both attending one of Dave Chappelle's show in May and Kanye West's Donda 2 experience in February. Diddy, who also goes by the stage name Puff Daddy, recently ascended to billionaire status, making him one of the most wealthy artists in the music industry, according to former Forbes editor Zack OMalley. Elon (left) and Diddy (second from left) pictured together at an event earlier this year Diddy allegedly helped Elon Musk buy Twitter by investing $10million into his takeover plans Elon Musk has caused quite a stir since taking over Twitter last week Twitter Q&A: Why did Musk buy Twitter and what is he planning to change? Why was Musk critical of the platform? Must has long been one of Twitter's most prominent users, and has regularly tweeted criticism of the platform. He's long claimed it is not sufficiently protective of free speech, focusing on examples such as the 'incredibly inappropriate' 2020 blocking of a New York Post article on Hunter Biden, which the company has since said was a mistake. Musk has also criticised the number of bots on the platform and suggested it was a threat to democracy. How did he go about taking control of it? On January 31, the billionaire started buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5 per cent stake in the company by mid-March. In March, he said he was giving 'serious thought' to building an alternative to Twitter and began privately contacting Twitter board members, including Dorsey, a friend. The next month, Musk was offered a seat on Twitter's board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9 per cent of the company's stock, but CEO Parag Agrawal later announced he would not be joining the board after all. Then, on April 14, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44bn (39bn). This kicked off several months of rollercoaster negotiations, which appeared to fizzle out on May 13 when Musk announced his planned purchase was 'on hold' due to a row over bots. Several flip-flops followed before he completed his $44bn (38.1bn) takeover last week. 'The bird is freed,' he tweeted afterwards. What changes has he been proposing? Must has claimed to be motivated to take over Twitter because it is 'important for the future of humanity'. The changes he is planning include - BLUE TICK FOR $8 A MONTH - Musk wants to bring in a monthly charge for verified users from Monday. This has sparked a backlash, but the billionaire insists it is necessary if the platform is to balance it's books. FREE SPEECH - Musk's feistiest priority - but also the one with the vaguest roadmap - is to make Twitter a 'politically neutral' digital town square for the world's discourse that allows as much free speech as each country's laws allow. OPEN-SOURCED ALGORITHMS - Musk's longstanding interest in AI is reflected in one of the most specific proposals he outlined in his merger announcement - the promise of 'making the algorithms open source to increase trust.' He's talking about the systems that rank content to decide what shows up on users feeds. `DEFEATING THE SPAM BOTS' - 'Spam bots' that mimic real people have been a personal nuisance to Musk, whose popularity on Twitter has inspired countless impersonator accounts that use his image and name - often to promote cryptocurrency scams that look as if they're coming from the Tesla CEO. AD-FREE TWITTER? Musk has floated the idea of an ad-free Twitter, though it wasn't one of the priorities outlined in the official merger announcement. He has also spoken out to reassure advertisers Twitter remains a good place to grow their businesses. However, subscribers paying the $8 a month blue tick charge have been promised fewer ads. Will Donald Trump return? Musk is expected to soon start welcoming back users who were handed lifetime bans from the platform including former US president. However, the billionaire suggested this would not happen until after the Midterm elections. 'Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,' he tweeted on Wednesday. He had previously vowed to set up a content moderation council and said no major content decisions would be made until it was in place. Trump has welcomed Musk's takeover, saying the platform was not 'in sane hands'. What could Musk's approach to moderation look like? Musk has been very vocal about easing content moderation policies, noting in April that if a tweet includes contents that are 'a gray area' it should stay. But following concerns from advertisers, Musk released an open letter last week in which he reassured them Twitter would not be allowed to become a 'free for all hellscape'. 'Fundamentally,' he said, 'Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.' Therefore, much about how Musk will seek to moderate abusive content or disinformation remains unclear. Some Twitter users sought to test his limits today by spreading a fake rumour about Donald Trump being dead. Advertisement The Tesla CEO, who has given himself the title of 'Chief Twit', fired four executives shortly after taking over, who had been owed millions under the merger agreement - lodging the dissolvement on Thursday. Former CEO Parag Agrawal had been set to received up to $60million alone, but Musk sacked them all 'for cause' - though it is unclear his reasons behind the move. It is possible the firings could void the payout agreement, but the executives are 'deliberating' their next steps. Agrawal and chairman Bret Taylor are no longer on the board of directors after Musk's $44bn takeover. Martha Lane Fox, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou have also been ousted from their positions after the SpaceX chief's overhaul. As well as sacking Agrawal, Musk also fired CFO Ned Segal, Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett. In addition to cutting Twitter staff, another idea Musk has pitched is a charge for the platform's iconic blue tick - the mark used to identify verified users - claiming the move will end the current 'lords and peasants' system. The 'badges' could go live as soon as Monday, Bloomberg reported, with current blue check holders receiving a 'grace period' of multiple months before being forced to either pay or lose the badge, which is as a verification mark for high-profile users. Musk's touted move has been criticized by some, who say key users of the platform create the content that gives it value. Others have said previous attempts by companies to monetize something previously free have seldom been successful. He originally suggested $20 a month for verification but appeared to lower the cost after an exchange earlier this week with horror writer Stephen King, where he offered him a discount. The billionaire is looking to make good on his promise to make the social media platform turn a profit by introducing a charge for Twitter users wanting to keep their verification badge. Musk suggested publishers who are 'willing to work' with Twitter will get a 'paywall bypass' and social media stars will also be getting a secondary heading like politicians. Content creators will also get rewarded through a revenue stream. 'You get what you pay for,' the father-of-eight tweeted on Wednesday. He also celebrated 'being attacked by both the right and left simultaneously,' calling it a 'good sign.' But in a sign that the price might not be a done deal, Musk responded to a tweet from the author of The Shining complaining about the new charge. '$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,' wrote King, who has 6.9 million followers. 'If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron.' This morning, Twitter staff are bracing for a jobs bloodbath as Elon Musk looks set to cull 3,700 workers around the world following his dramatic takeover. Musk will be cutting around half of the workforce, with staff at the social media giant set to discover their fates at 9am PST. Those in the San Francisco building are anxiously waiting for an email with the subject Your Role at Twitter to drop into their inboxes by 9am today, while those in New York will find out their fates at 12pm. Staff in London and Manchester will received the news in the same way, by 4pm local time in the UK, with many finding themselves locked out of their accounts when they woke up. Members of staff have reported being logged out of their work accounts and locked out of laptops while the company sealed offices for all of its employees, as Elon Musk began to make sweeping layoffs on Friday. Sacked workers are suing Musk for not giving enough notice of the mass job cuts, with some posting sentimental messages to the platform after being told they were to be unemployed. Offices in the UK and US have been shut down for the day by Musk, who warned employees that their buildings would be locked and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' As part of his plan to drive down costs at the company the world's richest man announced the cuts internally with an email, as employees banded together on internal channels to say goodbye. Musk is allegedly working on plans to charge users to view video content on Twitter - which is already one of the only social media sites that allows nudity and pornography to be posted. According to the Washington Post, an internal Twitter email obtained revealed the plans: 'When a creator composes a tweet with a video, the creator can enable the paywall once a video has been added to the tweet.' The proposed move would mean creators who already post explicit clips will be able to put up their own paywalls, charging as little as $1 for people to be able to view their X-rated footage. Twitter is already home to a thriving exchange of pornographic imagery, which comprises about 13 percent of all content on the site, internal company data showed earlier this year. Musk said that the plan for his social media platform is to make it the 'most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation.' He revealed his grand ambitions after a user was confused to see a fact check box pop up after clicking on a tweet published by the White House's official account. A group of tourists including Britons and Americans have been freed after they were taken hostage by an indigenous group in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. They were travelling on river boats along with travellers from France, Spain and Switzerland when they were detained on the Cuninico river. A leader of the indigenous group said they wanted to 'catch the government's attention' after not getting enough state help over an oil spill in September. But after a day spent trapped without water or electricity, the chief Watson Trujillo announced the end of the hostage. He told RPP Noticias: 'The right and respect for life must prevail, in this context, we are going to provide the facilities so that the people who are on the boat can move to their destinations.' Angela Ramirez, one of those detained, previously said: 'We spent the night here. We already have hardly no water to drink, the sun is shining very strong, there are babies crying, the youngest is only one month old, pregnant women, disabled people, and the elderly are on board. 'Now we do not have electricity to charge our phones, nor water to wash ourselves. Help me share please.' Britons have been taken hostage by an indigenous group in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, local media reported The tourists were part of a group of 70 travellers who were also from France, Spain, the US and Switzerland when they were held up on their river boat Angela Ramirez, who is one of those detained, said a one-month-old child, pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly are among those on board Angela had been on a cycling trip through the Peruvian jungle for eight days when they tried to travel through the Cuninico River by boat today and were detained. In a previous post, she said: 'Help me publish, we are in Cuninico an indigenous community of the jungle, we are hostages of the community, as there were 46 oil spills, from which two children and one woman died. 'They are KIND AND RESPECTFUL to us, but it is the only way they have found to look for solutions for their community. 'The quicker they are heard the quicker they will let us go... Help me share, we're physically fine. Help me help them to be heard.' Trujillo, who leads the Cuninico community, said the 'drastic measures' were intended to put pressure on the government to send a delegation to assess the damage from the spill of 2,500 tons of crude oil into the Cuninico river. A group leader said they wanted to 'catch the government's attention with this action' after not receiving enough state help from an oil spill in September Angela (pictured) had been on a cycling trip through the Peruvian jungle for eight days when they tried to travel through the Cuninico River by boat today and were detained The government and police did not comment on the incident, which took place on a tributary of the Maranon river. Indigenous communities had been blocking the transit of all vessels on the river in protest over the spill, which was caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline. On September 27, the government declared a 90-day state of emergency in the affected region, which is home to the Cuninico and Urarinas communities and where about 2,500 indigenous people live. The 800km-long Norperuano pipeline, owned by state-owned Petroperu, was built four decades ago to transport crude oil from the Amazon to ports. According to Petroperu, the spill was the result of an intentional eight-inch cut in the pipeline. Former President Donald Trump's team is eying November 14 - the Monday after the midterm election - as the date he'll announce his 2024 presidential bid. Axios reported the date Friday, with sources telling the news site that the announcement would then be followed by a series of political events. Trump came close to announcing a 2024 bid at a Thursday night rally in Iowa - which holds the nation's first presidential contest - and on the anniversary of his 2020 election loss. 'And now in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious - I will very, very, very probably do it again,' he said. 'OK? Very, very, very probably. Very, very, very probably.' He told the riled up Sioux City crowd to 'get ready!' 'That's all I'm telling you, very soon,' he added. Trump came close to announcing a 2024 bid at a Thursday night rally in Iowa - which holds the nation's first presidential contest - and on the anniversary of his 2020 election loss Former President Donald Trump announced his first bid for the Republican presidential nomination on June 16, 2015, sliding down the golden escalator at Trump Tower The Iowa appearance was the first in a series of rallies in the run-up to the midterms. Trump will also appear in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a town outside of Pittsburgh, to stump for Republican Senate hopeful, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and GOP gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano. Oz is locked in a tight battle with Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, while Mastriano is expected to lose to the state's Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro. From there, Trump will go to Miami, Florida for an appearance alongside Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who frequently comes in second place when Republicans are asked who they'd like to see as their nominee in 2024, will not be in attendance. On Monday night, Trump will travel to Ohio to give J.D. Vance a final boost in his U.S. Senate race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. Both Oz and Vance received Trump's backing over more traditional Senate candidates this cycle. Axios reported that Trump 'plans to surf the GOP's expected post-midterm euphoria' to build excitement around his own attempt to retake the White House. However, if Senate control isn't yet determined - potentially due to a run-off race in Georgia between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, Trump may hold off, Axios said. Traditionally, presidential candidates don't start announcing until the beginning of the year following the midterms. In the 2020 cycle, Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced she was forming an exploratory committee on New Year's Eve of 2018. She officially became a candidate in February 2019. President Joe Biden held off and didn't announce until late April 2019. Trump famously announced his first quest for the Republican presidential nomination on June 16, 2015, riding down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and paying actors to fill out the crowd. Russian leader said civilians should be taken out of Moscow-occupied Kherson Putin then stiffly laid flowers at the foot of a monument to two 17th-century war heroes, and addressed volunteers from occupied Ukrainian territories In another sign of Vladimir Putin's degrading health, the Russian president made a stiff appearance on Friday when laying flowers to mark a national holiday. Footage captured the Russian president awkwardly climbing out of his bulletproof limousine on Red Square, watched by nervous security apparatchiks. He appeared to show signs of a limp as he approached the monument, and seemed uncomfortable as he bent down to lay the bouquet to mark Unity Day - a national holiday to mark Russia's expulsion of invading forces in the early 1600s. At the event, Putin addressed his invasion of Ukraine - saying civilians should be taken out of Moscow-occupied Kherson, where Russian forces have been leading evacuations since mid-October as Kyiv's forces advance. Kyiv has likened Moscow's efforts to remove the civilian population from Kherson to Soviet-like 'deportations' of its people. Scroll down for video Footage from Russia's National Unity Day event captured Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) as he awkwardly climbed out of his bulletproof limousine on Red Square watched by nervous security apparatchiks Putin appeared to show signs of a limp as he approached the monument, and seemed uncomfortable as he bent down to lay the bouquet His public appearance came days after reports that an intelligence source close to the Kremlin had confirmed he is suffering from Parkinson's and pancreatic cancer. Putin, 70, is being watched closely as the conflict in Ukraine continues, with Moscow's armies continuing to be pushed back in key areas. The invasion, seen as his personal war, could be brought to an end if his supposed illness worsened or he was overthrown by scheming officials - were they to decide he was no longer fit to be the country's president. Putin was seen arriving on Red Square to lay flowers at a newly renovated monument to Kuzma Minin - a famed merchant - and Dmitry Pozharsky - a Russian prince. Together, the historical figures became national heroes in defending Russia against the Polish invasion in the early 17th century. The Russian despot was driven a short distance of 300 feet from the Spassky Tower gate of his Kremlin seat of power with his security retinue around him. The Russian despot was driven a short distance of 300 feet from the Spassky Tower gate of his Kremlin seat of power with his security retinue around him Anti-Putin online media outlets questioned if him being driven in the limousine was because he was unable to walk a longer distance He awkwardly clambered out of the vehicle. Once out of his limousine he appeared to walk with a slight limp, as shown on footage from Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda Pictured: Putin walks towards the monument holding the flowers. Footage of the event appeared to show he was walking with a slight limp Pictured: Putin lays flowers to the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky on the National Unity Day in the Red Square in Moscow, November 4, 2022 Anti-Putin online media outlets questioned if this was because he was unable to walk a longer distance. 'Old age is not a joy,' commented CTD media. Once out of his limousine he appeared to walk with a slight limp, as shown on footage from Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda. Putin told how at the beginning of the 17th century the country was on the verge of losing its sovereignty, but Russians did not allow this. Having united in a militia army led by Minin and Pozharsky, they defended their homeland, he said. The irony of speaking about the historic event before addressing Russia's on-going invasion of sovereign Ukraine appeared lost on Putin. Claims have been circulating among opposition figures for years, fuelled by his unexplained absences and his shaky public appearances, that Putin is battling serious health problems but they have always been rubbished by the Kremlin. A Russian intelligence source was reported earlier this week as confirming Putin had been diagnosed with early stage Parkinson's and pancreatic cancer, claims long made by Telegram channel General SVR. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky (a merchant and a prince who defended Russia in the 17th century) while marking Russia's Day of National Unity in Red Square in Moscow, November 4, 2022 Pictured: Putin addresses members of public associations, youth and volunteer organizations 'Those who live in Kherson should be removed from zones of dangerous fighting,' the Russian president told young volunteers from the occupied Ukrainian territories at the ceremony His circle is worried that his 'thinness and persistent cough' is becoming noticeable and will be seen by the elites in Russia as a 'sign of the leader's rapidly deteriorating health', claimed the channel last month. Despite appearing considerably bloated and puffy in the face, the president has lost 18lb in recent months, said the channel which purports to have sources inside the Kremlin. Leaked documents, reported by The Sun this week, also allegedly read: 'I can confirm he has been diagnosed with early stage Parkinson's disease, but it's already progressing. This fact will be denied in every possible way and hidden. 'Putin is regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative painkilling injections to stop the spread of pancreatic cancer he was recently diagnosed with. 'It not only causes a lot of pain, Putin has a state of puffiness of the face and other side effects - including memory lapses. 'In his close circle, there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer.' The tyrant was recently spotted with apparent track marks from IV treatment on the back of his hand, adding further fuel to the fire. Ever since Putin ordered his military forces to invade Ukraine on February 24, the rumours have going into overdrive. APRIL 21: Putin is seen gripping his desk with his right hand while meeting Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in the early stages of the war. Footage from the meeting raised questions about Putin's health MAY 9: Putin is shown watching a May 9 victory day parade in Moscow with a blanket over his lap JULY 26: Putin listens to Yury Borisov, the chief executive of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, while he grips his desk with his right hand JULY 19: Russian president Vladimir Putin is seen hobbling from his presidential plane during the welcoming ceremony in Tehran AUGUST 25: Vladimir Putin is seen gripping the same desk with his right hand during a meeting with Head of the Federal Taxation Service Daniil Yegorov What's wrong with Putin? Rumours have been circling for years that Vladimir Putin is suffering from health problems, and they have intensified since he launched his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Critics and Kremlin sources have indicated he may be suffering from cancer and Parkinson's, supported by footage showing the leader shaking uncontrollably and gripping a table for support. He has also disappeared from the public eye for weeks at a time, with suggestions he is undergoing surgery. Valery Solovey, professor at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs first hinted at Putin's health problems, saying in 2020 he had undergone surgery for cancer. Another unnamed source suggested the operation was on Putin's abdomen. He said: 'One is of a psycho-neurological nature, the other is a cancer problem. If anyone is interested in the exact diagnosis, I'm not a doctor, and I have no ethical right to reveal these problems. 'The second diagnosis is a lot, lot more dangerous than the first named diagnosis as Parkinson's does not threaten physical state, but just limits public appearances. 'Based on this information people will be able to make a conclusion about his life horizon, which wouldn't even require specialist medical education.' The Kremlin has consistently denied there is anything wrong with Putin's health. Others have previously noted his 'gunslinger's gait' a clearly reduced right arm swing compared to his left, giving him a lilting swagger. An asymmetrically reduced arm swing is a classic feature of Parkinson's and can manifest in 'clinically intact subjects with a predisposition to later develop' the disease, according to the British Medical Journal. In February, Putin was seen with a shaking hand as he firmly gripped the side of his chair for support. The clip, which was taken on February 18, just before the onset of his invasion of Ukraine, shows him welcoming fellow strongman Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin. He pulls his trembling hand into his body in an attempt to quell the shakes, but then he almost stumbles as he unsteadily walks towards the Belarusian leader. Later, Putin sits on a chair but is unable to remain still, constantly fidgeting and tapping his feet while he grips on to the arm for support. In a meeting with defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin's poor posture and his apparently bloated face and neck fuelled the speculation. Video showed Putin speaking to Shoigu whilst gripping the edge of the table with his right hand - so hard that it appears white - and tapping his foot consistently. He has since been seen limping and shaking his hands and legs, further bolstering the rumours. Advertisement He has been seen uncontrollably shaking, gripping tables and chairs for support, and appeared bloated and ill-at-ease. The president has also frequently disappeared from the public eye for weeks at a time in recent years amid rumours he is undergoing surgery. Over the summer, the Russian president was pictured awkwardly swatting mosquitos from his face with one arm while the other hung limply by his side. Similarly, at a huge Victory Day parade in Moscow in May, the now 70-year-old autocrat appeared to walk with a limp and had a blanket over his lap, while in April he was seen gripping a table in a televised meeting with his defence minister Sergei Shoigu. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also quashed any health rumours about Putin as 'nothing but fakes'. The General SVR channel has long claimed that Putin is suffering from abdominal cancer, Parkinson's disease and a schizoaffective disorder. Its claims cannot be verified but it was among the first to report in advance the shape of Putin's recent mobilisation strategy. The channel is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich. Speaking in Moscow's Red Square, Putin on Friday said civilians should be taken out of Moscow-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been leading evacuations since mid-October as Kyiv's forces advance. 'Those who live in Kherson should be removed from zones of dangerous fighting,' the Russian president told young volunteers from the occupied Ukrainian territories. 'The civilian population should not suffer from shelling, an offensive, a counter-offensive or other such things,' he said. The Russian army later said it was evacuating 'more than 5,000 civilians' from the Kherson region each day. Moscow's occupation authorities in Kherson say they have helped tens of thousands leave the region and have vowed to turn Kherson city into a 'fortress'. Putin was speaking to volunteers involved in helping people leave Kherson, in remarks made after laying flowers at a monument honouring those who fought off a Polish invasion in 1612. He said Moscow had mobilised 318,000 recruits since he announced a military call-up in September, which has since been completed. 'We already have 318,000 (mobilised),' Putin said. That exceeded his target of 300,000 because 'volunteers keep coming', he added. The Kremlin chief said he wanted to restore historical monuments in the occupied territories so that those 'who lived under crazy, idiotic propaganda for 30 years' would know 'where their ancestors came from.' He singled out the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea, which was flattened by weeks of battles over its steelworks, which fell into Russian hands in May. 'Mariupol is a very famous - an ancient, you could say - Russian city,' Putin said. 'Peter the Great, as is well known, founded his first military flotilla there, had his first victories there,' he said of the 17th-century tsar. General Alexander 'Suvorov had his steppe campaigns there, and Catherine the Second built up these lands,' he added. 'There is a lot to work on,' he said, referring to reconstruction plans. The report differed from the court documents filed earlier this week based on the San Francisco Police Department report It claimed that Pelosi took several steps away from police and back into the foyer where he was attacked by David DePape with a hammer The report claimed that Paul Pelosi did not declare an emergency or try to leave his San Francisco home when cops responded to his 911 call last week The NBC News report cited sources close to the investigation and was published on Friday morning, but was pulled down by the afternoon NBC News has pulled a bombshell report that claimed Paul Pelosi did not tell responding police officers that he was in danger just before he was injured in a hammer attack at his San Francisco home last week. The clip posted by the media outlet early Friday morning cited sources close to the investigation that claimed the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not declare an emergency or say he was in distress when cops showed up at his door in response to his 911 call. The report by Emmy Award-winning journalist Miguel Almaguer claimed the 82-year-old walked back a few feet away from the officers and into the foyer toward David DePape, 42, who had earlier broken into the home armed with a hammer. As Pelosi reportedly took steps away from the responding officers and in the direction of DePape, they saw him bludgeon Pelosi with the hammer, the report claimed. The NBC News report also stated that it was not clear what Pelosi's mental status was when he reportedly stepped back away from police and that responding officers were seemingly unaware that it was the home of Nancy Pelosi, who has a security detail and was in Washington, D.C. at the time of the attack. The report, which differs from the court documents filed earlier this week, was published Friday morning. By early afternoon, the report had been pulled. A person with knowledge told DailyMail.com that 'the decision was made to remove the segment after it was determined, shortly after it aired, that the main source for the information was unreliable regarding the question of the circumstances that the police encountered when they arrived at the house, specifically what the police saw and how far the attacker was from the door.' NBC News has pulled a bombshell report that claimed Paul Pelosi did not tell responding police officers that he was in danger just before he was injured in a hammer attack at his home Secret Service agents are pictured in front of the home of US Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, after her husband Paul Pelosi was released from hospital The NBC News report by Emmy Award-winning journalist Miguel Almaguer (pictured) was pulled just hours after it aired Paul Pelosi was released from the hospital on Thursday and returned to the same San Francisco home where he was attacked a week ago. DePape was carrying zip ties with him when he broke into the home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, calling out 'Where's Nancy' the same phrase used by Capitol rioters on January 6. According to court documents filed earlier this week, Pelosi told DePape that his wife was not there and would not be there for several days, so DePape said he would wait. Pelosi was then somehow able to get into the bathroom where his phone was charging and was able to call 911. DePape later told investigators he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi captive and talk to her. He said that if the speaker told 'the truth' he would let her go, and if she 'lied' he would 'break her kneecaps.' 'She would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions,' he explained. DePape also later said that he broke into the house through a glass door using the hammer. Paul Pelosi, who was the only one home when DePape broke in, called the police who arrived two minutes later to find struggling over a hammer, according to a Department of Justice press release. When Officers Kolby Wilmes and Kyle Cagney responded to the residence and rang the doorbell, DePape reportedly told Pelosi not to open the door, but Pelosi did anyway using his left hand. Pelosi and DePape stood in the dimly lit foyer and faced the officers as Pelosi calmly greeted them, according to the police report. When one of the officers asked the men what was going on, DePape said, 'everything's good' and pulled his hands toward his body. When an officer turned on his flashlight, DePape could be seen holding the bottom handle of the hammer with one hand and Pelosi's right arm with the other. Pelosi's right hand was also on the handle of the hammer. When an officer ordered for the men to 'drop the hammer,' DePape raised the hammer and said, 'um, nope' as he tried to pull it away from Pelosi who exclaimed 'hey, hey!' DePape then gained control of it and struck Pelosi's head, which knocked Pelosi unconscious, according to San Francisco FBI special agent Stephanie Minor wrote in a request for a federal criminal complaint and arrest warrant. David DePape is accused of breaking into Pelosi's home and attacking him with a hammer DePape, pictured recording the nude wedding of Gypsy Taub outside San Francisco City Hall in 2013, wanted to kidnap House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and break her kneecaps, it is alleged DePape was formally charged with attempted murder in court in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to charges against him, including assault, attempted murder, and attempted kidnapping. Immigration officials confirmed Thursday morning that the suspect - Canadian native DePape, who is in custody, entered the U.S. illegally by crossing at the Mexican border in 2008. The US Capitol Police indicated on Thursday they are undertaking an investigation of security procedures for the raft of lawmakers who receive some form of protection. The Speaker herself has a 24-hour security detail who travels with her. The attack left Paul Pelosi, with a fractured skull and injuries to his arms and hands for which he underwent surgery, according to the speaker's office. He returned home on Thursday, where he will continue treatment. The real estate and venture capital executive, 'remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence' back at home, the speaker said in a statement issued by her office. 'The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,' Pelosi's office said in a statement. 'Paul is grateful to the 911 operator, emergency responders, trauma care team, ICU staff, and the entire ZSFGH medical staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment he received after the violent assault in our home,' said the statement. 'Paul remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home surrounded by his family who request privacy.' The assault took place after 2 am in the Pacific Heights neighborhood Capitol Police were able to review security camera footage before the incident, which took place while the speaker was away The incident, just days before the November elections, has renewed calls in Congress to beef up security in light of a growing threats against lawmakers. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who is second in the line of succession to the presidency, was in Washington at the time. U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a weekend memo to lawmakers that the attack 'is a somber reminder of the threats elected officials and families face in 2022.' In a speech Wednesday, US President Joe Biden linked the attack to the political violence unleashed by ex-president Donald Trump's supporters against Congress on January 6, 2021. Republicans, he said, have 'emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and election officials.' 'That is the path to chaos in America,' he said. A TikTok star on trial for murder warned her alleged victim just minutes before his death: 'Watch what I do to you,' a court heard today. Social media influencer Mahek Bukhari, 23, is on trial for the murder of two men, one of whom, Saqib Hussain, 21, had a three-year affair with her mother Ansreen, 45, and was threatening to release a sex tape of them together after she broke off the relationship, the jury at Leicester Crown Court has heard. Mr Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, 21, died in a fireball after their car was pursued by two other vehicles in February this year. The prosecution claim Bukhari and her mother, along with six other defendants, lured the two men into a trap, then pursued them and 'rammed them off the road' to their deaths. The jury has heard the tape of a distressing 999 call made by Mr Hussain, which recorded the final minutes of his life, in which he told the operator he was being boxed in by two cars which were trying to force him off the road. He pleaded: 'They're right behind. They're hitting into the back of the car very fast. Please I'm begging you, I'm going to die.' He screamed before a loud crash was heard. 'Watch what I do to you': Social media influencer Mahek Bukhari (pictured), 23, is on trial for the murder of two men, one of whom, Saqib Hussain, 21, had an affair with her mother Saqib Hussain, 21 threatened to release a sex tape of himself with her mother Ansreen (pictured), 45, after the relationship ended, the jury at Leicester Crown Court has heard today 'Having an elite relationship with your mum' Saqib Hussain (left) and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin (right), 21, died in a fireball after their car was pursued by two other vehicles in February this year Today the jury was shown footage of a police interview with the youngest defendant, Mohammed Patel, 20, who said he saw the Skoda containing Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin, arrive at a Tesco car park in Leicester, where an Audi TT and a Seat Leon containing him and the other defendants, several of them wearing balaclavas, were waiting. He said the Skoda entered the car park and then swiftly left because the occupants must have been 'scared off', adding: 'The Seat Leon and the three other occupants that were inside that car that was therethey were chasing them.' Patel said he was a passenger in the back of the TT, sitting next to Mahek Bukhari, who was having a 'heated conversation' on a mobile phone with Saqib Hussain in the Skoda. He heard her tell him: 'Watch what I do to you'. He told detectives in the videoed interview played to the jury: 'I was in a panic at that moment, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to get out of this situation.' Patel told the officers the two other cars chased the Skoda onto the A46 dual carriageway, with the driver of the Seat, Raees Jamal, in mobile phone contact with the TT driver, Rekan Karwan. He said that he heard Jamal saying: 'I'm gonna try and stop this guy. I might have to ram him'. And he heard Karwan reply: 'Oh f*** it, ram him.' He described Jamal's driving as 'erratic' and 'reckless, very reckless, swerving all over the place when it was in front of the Skoda. He added: 'It was like he's [Jamal] not in control of the car.' He said the Skoda managed to get past the Seat, but the Seat then rammed the Skoda from behind, sending it into the central reservation, where it burst into flames. Footage from police attending the crash scene, at about 1.35am on February 11, showed the Skoda Fabia in flames, resting against a tree in the central reservation of the A46 dual carriageway, by the Six Hills junction near Leicester (police scene pictured) The prosecution claim Bukhari and her mother, along with six other defendants, lured the two men into a trap, then pursued them and 'rammed them off the road' to their deaths. Before her arrest, Mahek Bukhari had boasted of more than 126,000 followers on TikTok and a further 43,000 on Instagram Following the crash, Patel said he wanted to call the emergency services, adding: 'but everyone was just like 'turn your phone off'. Before her arrest, Mahek Bukhari had boasted of more than 126,000 followers on TikTok and a further 43,000 on Instagram. She had regularly shared snippets of her life, including her outfits, make-up and handbags, and has also appeared in videos alongside her mother. Prosecuting, Collingwood Thompson KC, told the jury that all eight defendants now admit they were in two cars, an Audi TT and a Seat Leon, which were in pursuit of the two victims' Skoda. Mr Thompson said: 'They have only been forced into making those admissions by the mobile phone data which shows them following the fleeing Skoda.' 'No doubt they were hoping in a number of cases by making 'no comment' in their police interviews that there would be insufficient evidence to place them at the scene of the collision. That in itself speaks volumes,' Mr Hussain had been having a three-year affair with Bukhari's 45-year-old mother Ansreen (pictured), the jury was told, but he threatened to leak a sex tape they had made to her husband and family when she tried to end their relationship Bukhari had regularly shared snippets of her life, including her outfits, make-up and handbags, and has also appeared in videos alongside her mother Mr Thompson said that the meeting with the two victims at a Tesco car park in Leicester was 'premeditated' and 'those involved must have known from the fact that balaclavas were being worn that violence was contemplated if necessary. The court heard that a wheel brace was also brought along by Patel, 20, who said he was handed the weapon by Jamal, who put it down his [Patel's] trousers. Mr Thompson added: 'Once Mr Saqib tried to escape, violence did become necessary, because the only way to stop him was by the use of force. Everyone in those cars that left Tesco's in pursuit of the Skoda Fabia must have known that. This was not a pursuit that lasted just a few seconds or a couple of minutes. The pursuit lasted just over 10 minutes. That was a shared and common intention, the crown allege, to inflict at least really serious harm, either at the Tesco car park, or later. The defendants all deny murder and an alternative count of manslaughter. Those on trial are: Natasha Akhtar, 22, of Alum Rock Road, Birmingham, Mahek Bukhari, 23, and Ansreen Bukhari, 45, both of George Eardley Close, Stoke, Raees Jamal, 22, of Lingdale Close, Loughborough, Rekan Karwan, 28, of Tomlin Road, Leicester, Mohammed Patel, 20, of Braybrooke Road, Leicester, Sanaf Gulammustafa, 22, of Littlemore Close, Crown Hills, Leicester, and Ammeer Jamal, 27, of Catherine Street, Belgrave, Leicester. The trial, expected to last eight weeks, continues. BENGALURU: Amid speculation of Congress welcoming back the legislators who defected to the BJP, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar on Friday remained non-committal on taking back 13 defectors. The defection of 13 Congress MLAs and three JDS MLAs brought down JDS and Congress coalition government in the state in 2019 headed by JDS leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. Ever since the JDS-Congress fell, the BJP government is in power in the state. Now, in the changed scenario, it is speculated that 13 defectors have reportedly expressed willingness to rejoin Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections in April/May. Asked about whether the defectors would be accepted into the Congress party and that some of the defectors are in touch with him to rejoin Congress party, Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru that Only time will answer all the queries. An eight-year-old Indian boy killed a cobra that had wrapped itself around his arm and sank its fangs into his skin by biting it back in a miraculous tale of survival. The boy, known only as Deepak, was attacked by the snake in the remote Pandarpadh village in Indias central Chhattisgarh region on Monday, it was reported. The cobra latched on to him while he was playing outside his family home and wound its body around his arm, before rearing back and biting down to inject its deadly poison. Fighting through the pain, Deepak furiously shook his arm but couldn't release the reptile, at which point he decided to give the attacker a taste of its own medicine and viciously sank his own teeth into its body, successfully killing the animal. 'The snake got wrapped around my hand and bit me. I was in great pain,' Deepak told The New Indian Express. 'As the reptile didn't budge when I tried to shake it off, I bit it hard twice. It all happened in a flash,' he said. Snakebites are exceedingly common in India a study published last week revealed that more than 85 per cent of snakebite deaths recorded in 2019 occurred there. Deepak, eight, killed a cobra that had wrapped itself around his arm and sank its fangs into his skin by biting it back in an incredible reversal of fortunes Deepak was attacked by a cobra, but fortunately only sustained a dry bite the snake did not inject its deadly venom into the boy's flesh Fearing for Deepak's life in the aftermath of the bite, the boy's parents rushed him to a nearby medical centre where he was kept under observation to ensure he would recover successfully. An examination of his injury led doctors to discover that he sustained a 'dry bite', meaning the cobra did not release any venom. 'Deepak didn't show any symptoms and recovered fast owing to the dry bite when the poisonous snake strikes but no venom is released,' a snake expert told The New Indian Express. Dry bites are often administered by adult snakes who have full control over the deployment of venom from their glands. Snakes use venom to kill their prey, or when fighting off dangerous predators. Dry bites are often delivered when the snake is trying to warn or scare off animals, rather than kill them. The Jashpur district where Deepak had his tussle with the cobra is renowned for serpentine activity there are more than 200 species of snake living in the region. A recent study found that of the 63,000 people estimated to have died from snakebites in 2019, 51,000 were killed in India. Researchers from James Cook University in Queensland say that based on the findings, they do not believe the World Health Organisation goal of halving the number of deaths from snakebites by 2030 will be met. They also pointed to poor access to antivenom in poor, rural areas as one of the main factors contributing to the death toll. Researchers from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia estimated the snakebite mortality rates in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019 (Pictured: Russell's Viper) Age-standardised snakebite envenoming mortality rates across both sexes combined in 2019 across 204 countries and territories Professor Richard Franklin, who led the study, said: 'Interventions to secure more rapid antivenom delivery need to be coupled with preventive strategies like increased education and health system strengthening in rural areas. 'Securing timely antivenom access across rural areas of the world would save thousands of lives, and greater investment into devising and scaling up these interventions should be prioritised to meet WHO's snakebite envenoming and neglected tropical disease goals.' For the study, published last month in Nature Communications, the researchers collated autopsy and vital registration data from the Global Burden of Disease datasets. This was used to model the proportion of venomous animal deaths due to snakes by location, age, sex and year. The results revealed that the majority of deaths from snake venom occurred in South Asia - the area from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In India specifically, the mortality rate was calculated to be four deaths by snakebite for every 100,000 people - much higher than the global average of 0.8. In India, 90 per cent of snakebites come from four species the krait, Russell's viper, the sawscaled viper and the Indian cobra (pictured) The region of sub-Saharan Africa came second, with Nigeria having the greatest number of deaths of 1,460. Professor Franklin said that, after a venomous snakebite occurs, the probability of death increases if antivenom is not administered within six hours. In India, 90 per cent of snakebites come from four species the krait, Russell's viper, the sawscaled viper and the Indian cobra. 'Anti-venom exists for all these species, but preventing snakebite death depends on not just the existence of antivenom, but also its dissemination to rural areas and the health system's capacity to provide care for victims with secondary complications such as neuro-toxic respiratory failure or acute kidney injury requiring dialysis,' said Professor Franklin. While 63,000 deaths is still a lot, this is actually a 36 per cent decrease than the number of deaths in 1990. However, the researchers predict that the number of deaths is expected to top 68,000 in 2050, due to population increases. 'We forecast mortality will continue to decline, but not sufficiently to meet WHOs goals,' the researchers wrote in their study. 'Improved data collection should be prioritized to help target interventions, improve burden estimation, and monitor progress.' No10: 'Those individuals deserve to be treated with compassion and respect' Chris Philp said it was 'a bit of a cheek' for Channel migrants to then complain Downing Street refused to back a minister who suggested Channel migrants who complained about conditions in a UK arrivals camp were ungrateful Chris Philp said it was 'a bit of a cheek' for people who entered the Uk illegally to then complain about their treatment. The Policing Minister made the remarks amid criticism of conditions at the Manston processing site in Kent. It is designed to hold 1,600 people for 24 hours before they are found accommodation elsewhere. But up to 4,000 have been kept there at any one time in recent weeks, though the number has fallen to around 2,600. Asked about Mr Philp's remarks to Times Radio, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'As we've been clear, those individuals deserve to be treated with compassion and respect. 'Obviously the current approach is not working and it is placing huge pressures - both in terms of on the Government and on the local area - and that is presenting significant challenges, which is why we continue to work both with French colleagues and more broadly to try and resolve this issue.' Home Office minister Chris Philp said told Sky that Manston was legally compliant days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick suggested it was not. And he later told Times Radio: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily ... it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions.' Ministers face calls to get a grip as it emerged that people who crossed the Channel in small boats were being allowed to leave an arrival center without undergoing basic checks, to ease overcrowding. Home Office minister Chris Philp said told Sky that Manston was legally compliant days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick suggested it was not. And he later told Times Radio: 'If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily ... it's a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions. 'And you don't even have to come here, they were in France already and previously often passed through Belgium, Germany, and many other countries on the way.' He added that the groups of migrants from Manston left stranded in London had told immigration officials they had addresses to go to and suggested something may have been 'lost in translation'. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: 'Chris Philp's comments reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston. It is unbelievable that as we hear reports of sexual assualts, disease, and chronic overcrowding, his response is to accuse those who complain of ''cheek''. 'Rather than dismissing the problem he should start to show some leadership.' Some 14 council leaders in Kent have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, saying: 'We have hundreds of mostly Albanian [migrants] not claiming asylum and being bailed and dropped at mid-Kent train stations with no follow-up where they go or if they leave Kent.' Meanwhile ministers are also facing pushback from locals in Kent who are at the forefront of the arrival of more than 40,000 people in small boats this year. Ashford MP Damian Green, a Tory former minister and the MP for Ashford, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Kent itself is really under strain because it is not just all the points of accommodation, it's the fact that you need to find school places for these children. 'There are (local) children in Kent being told there are no school places around town. This is completely unacceptable, we have to spread the burden around the country and we have to make the whole system faster and more efficient. 'If we don't do that this will become a long-running problem which will really affect people in their daily lives.' Today Twitter's UK employees are finding out whether they will lose their jobs as part of Elon Musk's cull of 3,700 staff around the world following his $44billion (38bn) takeover. Former employees in America have already sued the platform over the sackings, which they say have been carried out without enough notice in violation of federal and California law. The coming weeks will see more major changes made to the platform and how it operates. Here's our rundown of what you need to know. Elon Musk has begun his mass layoffs at Twitter, with the company warning staff to brace for firing notices by email as it temporarily seals all its offices Why did Elon Musk want to buy the platform? The billionaire has long been one of Twitter's most prominent users, and has regularly tweeted criticism of the platform. He's long claimed it is not sufficiently protective of free speech, focusing on examples such as the 'incredibly inappropriate' 2020 blocking of a New York Post article on Hunter Biden, which the company has since said was a mistake. Musk has also criticised the number of bots on the platform and suggested it was a threat to democracy. How did he go about taking control of it? On January 31, the billionaire started buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5 per cent stake in the company by mid-March. In March, he said he was giving 'serious thought' to building an alternative to Twitter and began privately contacting Twitter board members, including Dorsey, a friend. The next month, Musk was offered a seat on Twitter's board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9 per cent of the company's stock, but CEO Parag Agrawal later announced he would not be joining the board after all. Then, on April 14, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44bn (39bn). This kicked off several months of rollercoaster negotiations, which appeared to fizzle out on May 13 when Musk announced his planned purchase was 'on hold' due to a row over bots. Several flip-flops followed before he completed his $44bn (38.1bn) takeover last week. 'The bird is freed,' he tweeted afterwards. What's happened to Twitter staff? As part of his plan to drive down costs since acquiring the social media company for $44bn (39bn), the world's richest man plans to cut around 3,700 jobs - about half of Twitter's workforce. But employees say the company is eliminating workers without enough notice in violation of federal and California law, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court. The company warned staff to brace for firing notices in a memo on Thursday night. It said all employees will receive an email alert by 9am Pacific time Friday letting them know whether they still have a job at the company. Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021. The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order 'to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.' Staff have now sued Musk in the US for not giving them enough notice. How did he go about taking control of it? On January 31, the billionaire started buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5 per cent stake in the company by mid-March. In March, he said he was giving 'serious thought' to building an alternative to Twitter and began privately contacting Twitter board members, including Dorsey, a friend. The next month, Musk was offered a seat on Twitter's board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9 per cent of the company's stock, but CEO Parag Agrawal later announced he would not be joining the board after all. Then, on April 14, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44bn (39bn). This kicked off several months of rollercoaster negotiations, which appeared to fizzle out on May 13 when Musk announced his planned purchase was 'on hold' due to a row over bots. Several flip-flops followed before he completed his $44bn (38.1bn) takeover last week. 'The bird is freed,' he tweeted afterwards. What changes has he been proposing? Musk has claimed to be motivated to take over Twitter because it is 'important for the future of humanity'. The changes he is planning include - BLUE TICK FOR $8 A MONTH - Musk wants to bring in a monthly charge for verified users from Monday. This has sparked a backlash, but the billionaire insists it is necessary if the platform is to balance it's books. FREE SPEECH - Musk's feistiest priority - but also the one with the vaguest roadmap - is to make Twitter a 'politically neutral' digital town square for the world's discourse that allows as much free speech as each country's laws allow. The coming weeks will see more major changes made to the platform and how it operates. Here's our rundown of what you need to know OPEN-SOURCED ALGORITHMS - Musk's longstanding interest in AI is reflected in one of the most specific proposals he outlined in his merger announcement - the promise of 'making the algorithms open source to increase trust.' He's talking about the systems that rank content to decide what shows up on users feeds. `DEFEATING THE SPAM BOTS' - 'Spam bots' that mimic real people have been a personal nuisance to Musk, whose popularity on Twitter has inspired countless impersonator accounts that use his image and name - often to promote cryptocurrency scams that look as if they're coming from the Tesla CEO. AD-FREE TWITTER? Musk has floated the idea of an ad-free Twitter, though it wasn't one of the priorities outlined in the official merger announcement. He has also spoken out to reassure advertisers Twitter remains a good place to grow their businesses. However, subscribers paying the $8 a month blue tick charge have been promised fewer ads. Will Donald Trump return? Musk is expected to soon start welcoming back users who were handed lifetime bans from the platform including former US president. However, the billionaire suggested this would not happen until after the Midterm elections. 'Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,' he tweeted on Wednesday. He had previously vowed to set up a content moderation council and said no major content decisions would be made until it was in place. Trump has welcomed Musk's takeover, saying the platform was not 'in sane hands'. What could Musk's approach to moderation look like? Musk has been very vocal about easing content moderation policies, noting in April that if a tweet includes contents that are 'a gray area' it should stay. But following concerns from advertisers, Musk released an open letter last week in which he reassured them Twitter would not be allowed to become a 'free for all hellscape'. 'Fundamentally,' he said, 'Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.' Therefore, much about how Musk will seek to moderate abusive content or disinformation remains unclear. Some Twitter users sought to test his limits today by spreading a fake rumour about Donald Trump being dead. Advertisement Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter purchase has been a takeover like no other - marked by U-turns, court battles, weed jokes... and poo emojis. The unorthodox Tesla billionaire's radical overhaul of the company begins today - seven months after the chaotic saga began. Musk will fire half of its 7,500 staff on Friday as he begins to realize his grand vision for Twitter. The company's offices in London, San Francisco and New York have been locked down - with staff passes suspended and work laptops deactivated - to minimize the risk of disgruntled employees taking retaliatory action. The firms Musk era began in April, when he became its largest shareholder. Seven months of chaos followed. This is how the world's most talked-about corporate takeover unfolded. The seven-month saga has been one of the most talked-about takeovers in corporate history Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder in April - sparking speculation he wanted to buy it April 4 - Musk becomes largest shareholder after buying $2.9 billion stack On April 4, Musk became Twitters largest shareholder when he bought a nine percent stake for $2.9 billion. Days earlier, he had floated the idea of launching his own social media site - triggering speculation his stock purchase was the first step towards a takeover. At the time, the Tesla chief already had a reputation for bizarre antics on the platform, not least through bizarre posts that hurt (and helped) the stock price of his own companies. The day after his share purchase, the company said Musk would join its board. Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who was given the boot days after the takeover, was excited. Then, cue the chaos. On April 11, Agrawal said Musk wouldnt be joining the board after all. The about turn was the first of many - and marked the beginning of a fractious relationship between the pair. Ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was 'excited' by Musk's involvement. But the pair soon fell out. April 14 - Social media giant unsure if weed-inspired offer is serious Musk offered to purchase Twitter on April 14 for $54.20 per share (which valued the company at $44 billion). But Twitter wasnt sure whether he was serious - partly because hed included a reference to marijuana in his offer. The 420 part was a nod to the code for smoking weed. To add to his bizarre joke, Musk filed documents related to his offer on April 20 - abbreviated as 4/20. A day after the bid, on April 15, Twitters board launched a so-called poison pill strategy that would make it more difficult for Musk to takeover the company. The tactic, formally known as a shareholder rights plan, would dilute anyone amassing a stake of more than 15% in the company by selling more shares to other shareholders at a discount. Musk, pictured puffing a joint on Joe Rogan's podcast, included a weed reference in his offer April 25 - Musk beats down Twitter's 'poison pill' and fear from woke staff Despite Twitters poison pill and disquiet among staff, the board accepted the $54.20-a-share offer to take the company private on April 25. Musk's vision was becoming clear - sparking much concern in some liberal circles. In a widely-shared statement, he said: Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. He also floated new features like authenticating all humans and hinted Donald Trump would be unbanned. Liberals were unnerved - some feared Twitter would become a hub for sharing the right-wing views they found so distasteful. By May 5, Musk had secured $7 billion in additional funding for the purchase. Investors included a Saudi prince, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and cryptocurrency platform Binance. The stock price was gradually rising as hungry investors followed the buyout with interest. May 13 - But Tesla CEO puts deal on ice 'temporarily' due to huge number of spambots On May 13, Musk tweeted that deal was temporarily on hold. He was responding to a filing buy the company nearly two weeks earlier that said fewer than five percent of its users were false or spam accounts. Musk wanted details supporting the calculation'. The billionaire said he was still committed to the takeover - but his unorthodox approach to the deal was becoming clear. A few days later, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote a lengthy, carefully thought-out thread on the site about the companys commitment to tackling spam. Musks response? A poo emoji. He also continued to publicly air his concerns about bots on Twitter - and said a poll which found Agrawal dishonest was interesting. Musk put the Twitter deal on hold in May over concerns about the number of spam accounts Musk's response to former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal's wrote a lengthy thread about spam June 6 - Elon calls in the lawyers: Musk accuses Twitter of 'material breach' over the deal and threatens to walk away On June 6, Musks lawyers accused Twitter of a material breach of its obligations around the deal - and he threatened to walk away from it entirely. A letter sent to Twitters chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, reiterated Musks request for details on bot accounts - and said the company was in a clear material breach of its obligations by not providing him with the information. The following week, on June 16, Musk met Twitter staff for the first time and gave an online address which focused on freedom of speech. He laid out ambitions to quadruple its user base to 1 billion and made lofty statements about how the platform could help humanity better understand the nature of the universe. Some staff were unnerved by his vision to upend the companys work from home policy. Musk's lawyers told Twitter's ex-legal chief Vijaya Gadde that it 'breached' buyout obligations July 8 - Musk terminates buyout due to number of spambots on site as legal battle escalates The ongoing spat about spam accounts culminated on July 8 with Musks lawyers announcing he was terminating the deal. Musk also said he was walking away because Twitter fired high-ranking executives and one-third of the talent acquisition team. This breached Twitter's obligation to preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization. Twitter chairman Bret Taylor, whos since been expunged, doubled down on the companys commitment to closing the transaction - and said the board was confident it would win a court fight to enforce the deal. In July, Musk said the deal was terminated - and Twitter accused him of acting in bad faith On July 12, the company lodged its lawsuit in Delaware, where it is incorporated, and tore into Musk for bad faith. They said: Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests. Musk apparently believes that he unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away. Musks response? Oh the irony lol, he tweeted. Weeks later, Twitter blamed a fall in revenue on the chaos. July 29 - Tesla chief launches countersuit - accusing Twitter of 'misrepresentations' about user numbers Musk accused Twitter of fraud in a countersuit over his aborted $44 billion deal for the social media company. He claimed Twitter held back necessary information and misled his team about the true size of its user base. The countersuit alleged Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, where Musk lives. Musks attorneys argued Twitters misrepresentations or omissions distorted the companys value and caused Musk to agree in April to buy it at an inflated price. They said Twitters own disclosures revealed that it has 65 million fewer monetizable daily active users, who can be shown digital ads, than the 238 million that Twitter claims. Judge Kathaleen McCormick oversaw the Musk versus Twitter legal battles in a Delaware court September 7 - Billionaire suffers court setback as judge says delaying trial would 'risk further harm to Twitter' On September 7, a judge ruled Musk couldnt delay the impending trial over his attempt to walk away the $44 billion deal. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware's Court of Chancery said allowing the case to drag on would risk further harm to Twitter. Musk's legal team had argued that justice demanded delaying the five-day trial it could investigate claims by a whistleblower that Twitter hid weaknesses in its security and data privacy. Musk threatened several times to scrap the Twitter deal over of the number of spam accounts October 4 - Musk U-turns and confirms he WILL push ahead with $54.20-a-share offer Lawyers for Musk filed documents on October 4 that confirmed he was ready to push ahead with the $54.20-a-share offer first made in April. But his offer was subject to an adjournment of the Delaware trial and the securing of debt financing. The following day, Judge McCormick again declined to postpone the trial - piling on pressure to get the deal over the line. In subsequent days, the legal drama continues, as Musks lawyers accused Twitter of not taking yes for an answer. A filing on October 13 also says Musk is under federal investigation over his handling of the takeover. As the deal edged closer, Twitter staff grew concerned by Musk's plan to axe swathes of jobs October 26 - Musk confirms takeover is on with sink stunt at Twitter HQ: Chief Twit let that sink in After weeks of turmoil, Musk essentially confirmed he'd closed the deal to buy Twitter by sharing a video of himself carrying a sink into its San Francisco headquarters. The world's richest man captioned the clip: ''Entering Twitter HQ let that sink in! He changed his Twitter profile's location to 'Twitter HQ' and his biography to 'Chief Twit'. The pantomime gesture was just two days ahead of the court-ordered deadline to complete the $44 billion takeover. Days earlier, details had emerged of his plan to fire up to 75 percent of staff if the deal got over the line. October 28 - It's official: The deal is done and Musk wastes no time wielding the axe Musk took ownership of Twitter on October 28. Within hours top executives were fired and he tweeted: The bird is freed. He immediately fired the CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel. November 4 - Judgement day as staff learn who'll be let go, with 3,700 expected to face the chop Twitter staff brace for a jobs bloodbath with Musk set to cull 3,700 workers around the world. The cuts amount to around half of the workforce, with staff at the social media giant set to discover their fates at 9am PST. Those in the San Francisco building are anxiously waiting for an email with the subject Your Role at Twitter to drop into their inboxes by 9am today, while those in New York will find out their fates at 12pm. Rap mogul, Saudi Prince, billionaire buddy: The investors who made Musk's takeover possible More than a dozen individuals and investment firms have pledged billions of dollars towards Musks Twitter takeover. P. Diddy Hip hop mogul P. Diddy, real name Sean Combs, was one of the investors who helped Elon Musk buy Twitter for $44billion, after pumping $10million into the bid himself, it's been revealed. The hip-hop music legend, 53, is said to have wanted 'a seat a the table' so helped Musk with his billion dollar social media takeover. He was able to take over Twitter with the help of wealthy investors - including Diddy - and loans from Wall Street banks. According to TMZ, sources say that Diddy's investment comes from the fact that he 'believes' in Musk's vision for the social media giant. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal The Saudi princes 35 million shares in Twitter reportedly make him the second-largest stakeholder behind Musk. Following Musks purchase, he rolled over the stock, worth nearly $2 billion, to secure a share in the now-private company. In May, the prince said Musk would be an excellent leader for Twitter to propel and maximize its great potential. Jack Dorsey Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the companys former CEO, also rolled over his stake, which is roughly 2.4 percent. The value of his 18 million shares was about $1 billion - and it means he owns a small fraction of the private company. Larry Ellison Ellison, the co-founder of software giant Oracle, has reportedly put $1 billion towards Musks takeover. Hes a long-time friend of the new Twitter boss and sits on the board of Tesla. Advertisement A toddler who died after being forced to live in a damp and mouldy flat in Rochdale was pictured for the first time today at the start of his inquest. Awaab Ishak was just two when he was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital with breathing difficulties and died on December 21, 2020. The tragedy came just weeks after he was photographed blowing out candles on a cake at his second birthday party. Other photos obtained by Manchester Evening News show the young boy beaming as he played outside in the fresh air a likely reprieve from the living conditions at home. It comes after a post-mortem examination found a medical link between Awaab's death and the damp and mould that blighted his family's flat in the Ilminster block on the Freehold estate. His father Faisal Abdullah had repeatedly complained to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), which owned and managed the site, a coroner's court previously heard. Tragic Awaab Ishak (pictured) was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital with breathing difficulties and died on December 21, 2020 His tragic passing came just weeks after he was photographed blowing out candles at his second birthday party Awaab's father Faisal Abdullah had repeatedly complained to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing which owned and managed their flat in the Ilminster block (pictured) on the Freehold estate, a coroner's court previously heard They had asked to be found a new property, and lodged complaints about the mould before Awaab was even born, the court was told. Awaab's family view the inquest, which began at Rochdale Coroner's Court today, as a chance to find answers. Speaking ahead of the inquest, his father Mr Abdullah said: 'We have a number of questions that we hope the inquest process will provide answers to. 'We want to ensure that any lessons to be learned are acted upon and that no other family has to go through this.' Other families living on Freehold have also complained of severe damp and mould issues, reports MEN. Much like Awaab's family, they had tried and failed to move home, with some having letters from their GP urging them to leave. A post-mortem examination later found a medical link between Awaab's death and the damp and mould that blighted his family home Some children had to be rushed to hospital with severe breathing issues including four-month-old Gabriel, son of Vilma Lavres, who filmed the shocking moment he was struggling before attending hospital. And families battled the problem while senior managers at RBH enjoyed huge 'fat cat' pay rises in recent years, according to MEN. Awaab's inquest is expected to last nine days. Before leadership of the next Congress has even been determined in next week's elections, a few members are scheming for a shot to replace Nancy Pelosi as speaker. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reportedly called an emergency meeting with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., on September 1 during summer recess after catching wind that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., planned to seek the role. Jeffries, currently the fifth-ranking House Democrat, offered to fly down to South Carolina to meet with Clyburn, his elder in the Congressional Black Caucus, but instead the two slipped back to Clyburn's Washington office. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., above, reportedly called an emergency meeting with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., on September 1 during summer recess after catching wind that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., planned to seek the role. While Schiff may be well-known for his MSNBC appearances during the Trump impeachment trial, the Californian has done less to make allies of his colleagues to secure their support for a leadership run Jeffries wanted to make sure Clyburn, the 82-year-old Majority Whip, would not seek the top job himself. If he did, the pair could split votes and offer an opening for Schiff to cinch the role. Jeffries left the meeting with his fears assuaged. 'There's nothing I would ever do to impede the progress of our up-and-coming young Democrats and I see him as an up-and-coming young Democrat,' Clyburn told Politico. 'He knows that, I didn't have to tell him that but I did.' Clyburn's comments are the first to confirm that he would step aside from the leadership race. His support would all but ensure a victory for Jeffries to become the first black lawmaker to serve as a congressional leader. The report on leadership talks comes just after Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked at home last Friday and put in the intensive care unit with a skull fracture. The California Democrat has refused to say whether she'll run for another term as speaker if Democrats manage to hold on to the House, which is a big if. Republicans look poised to take back the House by all measures of polling, but so far Pelosi has refused to admit likely defeat. Bringing in 52-year-old Jeffries would break up the longtime Democratic octogenarian leadership between Pelosi and Clyburn, both 82, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 83. Leading her party in the House for two decades, Pelosi is known for her ability to keep a divided caucus in line on important votes. She's become the House's most prolific fundraiser and has become a household name across the country. Since entering the House's leadership in 2002 82-year-old Pelosi has raised about $1.25 billion for Democratic candidates - $42.7 million of which was raised just in the third quarter of this year. Pelosi entered House Democratic leadership in 2002 The speaker has singlehandedly raised more than $276 million this election cycle at more than 400 events. In October alone she did a nationwide tour of more than 20 cities The speaker has singlehandedly raised more than $276 million this election cycle at more than 400 events. In October alone she did a nationwide tour of more than 20 cities. A number of Democratic lawmakers told Politico that Jeffries was the best fit to succeed Pelosi because he knew how to play the 'inside and outside game,' able to carry the party's message to voters on TV and also form deep connections with colleagues. While Schiff may be well-known for his MSNBC appearances during the Trump impeachment trial, the Californian has done less to make allies of his colleagues to secure their support for a leadership run. Some lawmakers have reportedly 'privately ridiculed' him for only texting them for the first time when he became interested in leadership. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife performed an autopsy on the shark, known as a necropsy on Monday, the report is still pending The California Department of Fish and Wildlife performed an autopsy on the shark, known as a necropsy on Monday, the report is still pending He said, 'it is illegal to intentionally hunt or fish for great white sharks, they are protected He said, 'it is illegal to intentionally hunt or fish for great white sharks, they are protected 'the cable leader had tore open the shark's mouth on both sides presumably from it being hooked and then twisting its head around trying to escape,' An eight-foot-long great white shark washed ashore a San Diego beach bloodied and fatally wounded with its mouth ripped open by what appeared to be fishing tackle. Park Ranger Dylan Hardenbrook discovered the dead juvenile female shark early Sunday at Torrey Pine State Natural Reserve and State Beach. He said 'the cable leader had tore open the shark's mouth on both sides presumably from it being hooked and then twisting its head around trying to escape,' KTLA News reported. He described shark's wounds as 'very traumatic to the mouth and head area.' The culprit, he said, may have been the fishing gear found in the shark's mouth which is typically used to catch larger fish. However, if the fishing gear was used to intentionally catch a shark, it is illegal. 'It is both illegal and unfortunate,' Hardenbrook said. 'It is illegal to intentionally hunt or fish for great white sharks, they are protected.' A close-up of the mouth of the juvenile shark that was killed after its mouth was ripped open by some type of large hook and fishing wire Park Ranger Dylan Hardenbrook discovered the dead juvenile female shark early Sunday at Torrey Pine State Natural Reserve and State Beach at lifeguard tower 2 An eight-foot-long great white shark washed ashore at a San Diego beach bloodied and fatally wounded with its mouth ripped open by what appeared to be fishing tackle In this most recent case, Hardenbrook said it appears the shark was targeted illegally but also said that is difficult to confirm. Crimes such as these are difficult to prosecute, as an angler can claim it wasn't their intent. 'If someone had accidentally hooked onto one you do have to release it,' he said. The shark had been tagged by a geo-tracking device installed by Shark Lab out of Cal State Long Beach, detected by nearby buoys with monitors, the news outlet reported. On Monday, The California Department of Fish and Wildlife performed a necropsy, an autopsy done on animals, to find out more details about the juvenile mammal. The report has not yet been released. Last month, Jarod Trainor, 31, survived a gruesome shark attack on a California beach when he kicked the great white in the head after the beast chomped on his surfboard and then his right leg, leaving him with massive injuries. Trainor was surfing solo on Centerville Beach in Northern California's Humboldt County, a nine-mile stretch of pristine beach along the Pacific situated between cliffs and dairy farms, when the shark emerged knocking him off his surfboard, The Times-Standard newspaper in Humboldt reported. Trainor, a serious and experienced surfer, was dragged underwater by the shark, which began feasting on his right leg. The avid surfer said he was able to set himself free by grabbing the shark's body with one hand and kicking the shark with his uninjured leg until the beast let him go and swam away. The quick-thinking action saved Trainor's life but not without serious injury. During the harrowing ordeal, Trainor sustained gnarly wounds to his right leg and thigh, spanning nearly 19 inches long and as long as the jaws of the great white, that he said surgeons had to staple shut, the news outlet reported. Trainor miraculously was able to get to the beach where he was able to call for help from a fellow surfer's cell phone. In the course of a month, more than 41 individual sharks had been identified at Torrey Pines and experts say it is a sign of a growing ecosystem. Great white sharks are a vulnerable species. More than one-third of all sharks, rays, and chimaeras are now at risk of extinction because of overfishing, according to a World Wildlife organization's recent study re-assessing their IUCN Red List of Threatened Species extinction risk status. Park Ranger Dylan Hardenbrook discovered the dead juvenile female shark early Sunday at Torrey Pine State Natural Reserve and State Beach 'The alarm bells could not be ringing louder for sharks and rays,' said Dr. Andy Cornish, leader of WWF's global shark and ray conservation program. 'We are on the cusp of starting to lose this ancient group of creatures, species by species right here, right now. Starting now, we need far greater action by governments to limit fishing and bring these functionally important animals back from the brink.' Many experts say governments and regional fisheries bodies must act now to stop overfishing and prevent a global extinction crisis. Patrick Abbott, a geology and environment expert and professor emeritus at San Diego State University, believes great whites are surfacing on the California coastline because they are attracted by big food populations. The hosts of The View swooned over Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman during a Friday interview, calling his debate performance 'courageous' and saying it was 'shocking' that his race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was so close. It was the latest cakewalk for a Democratic guest compared to the interrogation Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas experienced during last Monday's show. 'I think it was an incredibly courageous and brave thing for you to show what healing from a stroke looks like. That's incredibly brave,' Hostin told Fetterman, who was appearing on the show remotely from Pennsylvania. 'On the other hand, Dr. Oz, a cardiac surgeon, in my view came off as a bully.' Sara Haines told Fetterman that 'it's clear it's not cognitive,' speaking about the after-effects of his stroke, and said she'd then treat him like a 'regular candidate.' The same panel draw laughs from the audience when earlier this year they suggested Republican Senate hopeful Herschel Walker had a stroke because he was 'incoherent' and said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another Republican, looked like he 'suffered a stroke' on stage. The concerns surrounding Fetterman's May stroke were heightened after a shaky debate performance last Tuesday, with the Democrat mangling words throughout. The hosts of The View swooned over Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman (pictured) during a Friday interview, calling his debate performance 'courageous' and saying it was 'shocking' that his race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was so close. Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman (right) waves at The View's Joy Behar (left) at the top of their interview Thursday Still, Fetterman insisted he was fit to serve. He answered 'yeah, that's the case,' when asked by co-host Joy Behar if he was expected to make a full recovery. Fetterman has released two doctors' letters but not a full medical record. The Pennsylvania Democrat said 'both our doctors believe that we're fit to serve and we've been able to maintain the kind of rigors of running a campaign, going all across Pennsylvania and spending thousands and thousands of miles across the state, without a doubt.' Ana Navarro then pointed to Fetterman's refusal to release his full medical record and asked, 'do you feel you owe voters full transparency or have you been transparent enough, in that you can get the job done?' Later, Navarro complimented Fetterman's 'supportive' wife, Gisele. Fetterman answered that he'd released 'equivalent kind of medical information that Dr. Oz did,' pushing that he's been transparent enough. Sara Haines (left) told John Fetterman (right) that 'it's clear it's not cognitive,' speaking about the after-effects of his stroke, and said she'd then treat him like a 'regular candidate' Oz released his full medical record in September to keep Fetterman's health a top campaign issue. 'We're here today on live TV being able to have this conversation,' Fetterman pointed out. At the top of the interview the hosts said that Fetterman was still using closed captioning, as he did in the debate, to deal with his 'auditory processing' issue that lingers from the stroke. 'Well, I think you look and sound great,' Hostin said. Hostin then asked Fetterman about the debate, labeling Oz a 'bully' and pointing out to the lieutenant governor that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel mocked him. 'It really wasn't an even event for me, without a doubt,' Fetterman said of the debate. 'That's what recovery in the middle of a stroke after five minutes, it really was,' Fetterman said, seemingly swapping minutes for months. Host Ana Navarro (left) complimented John Fetterman's (right) 'supportive' wife Gisele during the Friday morning segment 'I think it was really critical that I showed up and that's exactly what I did,' Fetterman continued. 'And I was proud to show up.' 'It was much more pleasant being with you all today than being on the stage with Dr. Oz,' Fetterman added, garnering laughs from the panelists. After Haines gave Fetterman a pass on his stroke, she lauded him for being 'very transparent' about his privileged upbringing. He was born to teenage parents, but his dad later became a partner in an insurance firm. Haines then gave Fetterman the opportunity to explain how he wasn't being hypocritical when he hit Oz on the TV doctor's wealth. 'It's really what I chose my career about here,' Fetterman answered, adding that he served 'a community that 90 percent of the population abandoned it,' a reference to his time spent as Braddock, Pennsylvania's mayor. 'I really dedicated my career to help young people get their GEDs, to run for mayor of a community, to fight against gun violence, and to try and create economic development and really committed my career to public service,' Fetterman continued. 'And Dr. Oz really chose to fight for his bank account' Alyssa Farah Griffin (left) gave John Fetterman (right) a chance to redo one of the debate's most eyebrow-raising answers, when he said, 'I do support fracking - I don't, I don't - I support fracking, and I do support fracking.' Alyssa Farah Griffin gave Fetterman a chance to redo one of the debate's most eyebrow-raising answers, when he said, 'I do support fracking - I don't, I don't - I support fracking, and I do support fracking.' 'All, any of the issues that I've ever had with fracking is really around environmental regulations. And once those were passed and were addressed, I support fracking,' Fetterman said. Behar then followed up by asking if Fetterman supported green energy too. 'Well, of course,' Fetterman said. The interview kicked off by the hosts bringing up Oprah's last-minute decision to publicly back Fetterman, despite helping launch Oz's TV career. 'She's an icon. It's unbelievable. It's an honor,' Fetterman said. Mail-in ballots in the Pennsylvania race were sent out to voters weeks ago, so Oprah's endorsement may not give Fetterman a huge boost in the race, which polls show going down to the wire. Cruz, who visited The View to promote a new book, had a much harsher reception. That segment experienced a lot of Republican-on-Republican crime, with Navarro - who worked for and supported Jeb Bush, but later backed President Joe Biden - asking Cruz how he was able to support Trump after their brutal 2016 Republican primary campaign. 'So I have to ask you because, you know, I'm married to a Cuban man, I frankly don't know how you get over your wife being called ugly. I don't know how you get over those kind of calamities against your father,' Navarro stated. 'You have gotten over it and today you sing a very different tune. Were you lying then or are you lying now?' Cruz's appearance was also interrupted by climate protesters. On Thursday, Hostin took heat for saying that suburban women voting Republican was 'almost like roaches voting for Raid.' Griffin, a Trump White House staffer turned critic, called that 'insulting to the voter.' 'They're voting against their own self interest,' Hostin then said. The defense team even complained they were being unfairly attacked by the families, which prompted Judge Elizabeth Scherer to defend the families Furious parents and family members said Curtis' behavior was 'disgusting' and slammed her for being chummy with the man who killed high schoolers Cruz killed 17 people and injured 17 more when he engaged in a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 Curtis is now under investigation by the Florida bar, a spokesperson confirms The Florida bar is investigating a member of mass shooter Nikolas Cruz's defense team after she was recorded sneakily flipping the bird on camera and chummily laughing with the convicted mass killer. Tamara Curtis, who is on Cruz's defense counsel, is being investigated due to an inquiry based on her behavior in court, a Florida bar spokesperson revealed a day after Cruz was sentenced to life in prison and avoided the death penalty. Cruz, 24, killed 17 people and injured 17 more when he engaged in a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Her behavior prompted one parent of a victim to accuse Cruz's defense team of 'losing their humanity towards the victims' last month. Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, said he will 'never, ever forgive that moment' Curtis laughed with Cruz, and likened her behavior to 'an immature, punk child.' In the clip, Curtis first spots the camera and points it out to Cruz, who also looks over curiously Then, Curtis starts the first of her antics, sarcastically waving at the camera while turning the other way Then, out of nowhere, Curtis decides to flip the bird at the camera and rub it against her cheek - the colleague beside her seems embarrassed, but Cruz finds it amusing The two then laugh together about her actions, which one parent of a victim called 'disgusting and unprofessional' Lawyer Tamara Curtis is being investigated by the Florida bar after a video surfaced of her laughing with convicted mass shooter Nikolas Cruz, which angered families of the victims The father of #JaimeGuttenberg expressed his distaste for the Parkland shooter's defense after the verdict was read Thursday. pic.twitter.com/AB5FUvpCkg Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) October 13, 2022 In the recording, Curtis can first be seen spotting a new camera set up and pointing it out to a colleague beside her. Curtis, her colleague and Cruz appear to discuss the camera before Curtis waves without looking at it. She then decides to press her middle finger up against her face, seemingly as a joke, and she laughs with Cruz as she does it. Meanwhile, her colleague attempts to move on awkwardly. News of the inquiry comes after a heartbreaking two-day hearing in which parents of the victims slammed the behavior the behavior of Cruz's defense. Annika Dworet, who attended nearly every day of the trial after their son Nicholas Dworet was killed in the shooting, lambasted the defense for 'holding, touching, and giggling with this cold-blooded murderer.' Dworet also called the actions 'disgusting and unprofessional.' Michael Schulman, the father of slain Parkland teacher Scott Beigel, said 'This man, this animal, this piece of s**t, this b*****d took the lives of 17 people.' 'You have a right to defend him. You have no right, no right to demean the people who lost somebody. None,' he added. Even Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer referenced the defense team's behavior after they accused the victims' families of personally attacking them. 'I did my job, and every member of this team did our job, and we should not be personally attacked for that,' said Cruz's chief public defender, Melisa McNeill. The verdict was reached on Thursday after the jury said it could not unanimously agree that Cruz, pictured with Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill, should be executed PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING VICTIMS: Top Row L-R: Jaime Guttenberg, Nicholas Dworet, Martin Duque, Meadow Pollack, Cara Loughran -- Second Row L-R: Alyssa Alhadeff, Luke Hoyer, Joaquin Oliver, Gina Montalto -- Third Row L-R: Alaina Petty, Carmen Schentrup, Peter Wang, Alex Schachter -- Fourth Row L-R: Helena Ramsey, Scott Beigel, Aaron Feis, Chris Hixon The comments irked Judge Scherer so much that she eventually exploded at the defense. 'When these people are upset about specific things that have gone on from that table, like shooting the middle finger up at this court, and laughing, and joking. When these people have sat in this courtroom and watched this behavior from that table and they want to say that theyre not happy about it, what is the problem?' she asked. The verdict was reached on Thursday after the jury said it could not unanimously agree that Cruz, 24, should be executed. Reuters initially reported that the jury recommended the death penalty, but issued a correction shortly after. Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. The only other option is life in prison. Cruz sat hunched over and stared down at the table while the verdict was being read. But as it was revealed that the confessed killer would be getting life in prison - not the death penalty - a rare smile spread across his face. Families and friends of the victims were visibly emotional as they reacted to the verdict. Many shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes. Some parents sobbed as they left court. Cruz said he chose Valentine's Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The prosecution during the three-month sentencing trial had argued Cruz's crime was both premeditated as well as heinous and cruel, which are among the criteria that Florida law establishes for deciding on a death sentence. Cruz's defense team had acknowledged the severity of his crimes, but asked jurors to consider mitigating factors including lifelong mental health disorders resulting from his biological mother's substance abuse during pregnancy. The rate of deaths directly due to alcohol jumped by 26 percent in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, government data has revealed, when millions of Americans hit the bottle during months spent at home under lockdown. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and other 'alcohol-induced' deaths jumped from 39,000 in 2019 to 52,000 last year. The rate of alcohol induced deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7 percent or less each year. In 2020, it rose 26 percent to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans. That's the highest rate recorded in at least 40 years, according to the report, which was released on Friday. 'Alcohol is often overlooked' as a public health problem, Marissa Esser, the CDC's top alcohol expert told AP. 'But it is a leading preventable cause of death.' A liver scan result from a 79-Year-oldmale patient. Alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning and other woes increased during the pandemic Experts have long warned that at-home binge-drinking was a huge downside of the pandemic and lockdowns, but the actual death toll from booze-related issues is only being calculated now. Such deaths are 2 1/2 times more common in men than in women, but rose for both in 2020, researchers found. The rate continued to be highest for people ages 55 to 64, but rose dramatically for certain other groups, including jumping 42 percent among women aged between 35 and 44. A second report, published earlier this week in JAMA Network Open, looked at a wider range of deaths that could be linked to drinking, such as motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and cancers. More than 140,000 of that broader category of alcohol-related deaths occur annually, based on data from 2015 to 2019, researchers said. CDC researchers say about 82,000 of those deaths are from drinking too much over a long period of time and 58,000 from causes tied to acute intoxication. Younger people between the ages of 25 to 34 are most likely to binge-drink, with a quarter taking part in the activity, according to CDC The study found that as many as one in eight deaths among US adults aged between 20 and 64 were alcohol-related. New Mexico was the state with the highest percentage of alcohol-related deaths, 22 percent. Mississippi had the lowest, 9 percent. Alcohol accounts for a bigger share of deaths among young people, as they are both more likely to take part in risky drinking behaviors while also being less likely to die of many other common causes. The CDC reports that nearly a quarter of Americans between 25 and 34 binge-drink. Heavy drinking is associated with chronic dangers such as liver cancer, high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. Drinking by pregnant women can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or birth defects. Dr Patricia Molina, director of the Louisiana State University Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence who was not involved in the study, told DailyMail.com that she was not surprised by these findings. 'The results from this study are not shocking, though some may consider them as a rude awakening,' Dr Molina said. 'Alcohol consumption at this level has been scientifically demonstrated to lead to increased risk for injury ... and to contribute to the development of disease.' Health chiefs say booze is behind as many as one-third of serious falls among the elderly. It's also a risk to others through drunken driving or alcohol-fueled violence. Surveys suggest that more than half the alcohol sold in the US is consumed during binge-drinking episodes. Even before the pandemic, alcohol consumption was trending up, and Americans were drinking more than when Prohibition was enacted. But deaths may have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic began for several reasons, including people with alcohol-related illnesses having difficulty getting treatment, added Esser. Hotel in Ashford, Kent being used for asylum seekers after Home Office booking A bride and groom are the latest couple to have their wedding cancelled after a hotel was booked out by the Home Office for asylum seekers. This comes after a man was forced to change his tattoo in February this year showing the time and date of his wedding after the hotel after it was cancelled due to the hotel being booked up for refugees. The latest furious bride and groom Chris Wise, 74, and Carole Haragan, 68, are now hitting out at bosses for breaking their contract after they booked a hotel in Ashford, Kent, for August next year after months searching for the perfect wedding venue. But while they were on holiday last week, Ms Haragan received a phone call saying her wedding was cancelled as the hotel is now being used by asylum seekers. Mr Wise said: 'It was five months ago that we booked it and paid the deposit. 'We were in a state of shock and angry because we thought we had a contract with them and they totally ignored it. 'They gave us our money back as if that was the end of it.' Chris Wise (right), 74, and Carole Haragan (left), 68, have lost their hotel wedding venue in Ashford, Kent, for August next year after months searching for the perfect wedding venue Michael Crane, 37, pictured with fiancee Linda Brown, 42, both from Warrington, Cheshire, were among thousands of couples who were left without a venue for their big days earlier this year Michael Crane, 37, was looking forward to his wedding day on 5 August this year, so much so that he got the date and time with 'Always and forever' tattooed on the back of his hand - but he was been forced to change the time and date in February when they were forced to change it after the hotel venue was used to house refugees 'There are people who are in a worse position than us because their weddings are this year, at least we have got a bit of time,' Mr Wise added. 'The hotel was blaming the Government, but it's a commercial decision. 'They booked every room in that hotel until the end of December next year; they will get hundreds of thousands of pounds for this.' The couple, who live in Kennington, near Ashford, are now in talks with a new venue. But they say more needs to be done to find more suitable locations to house asylum seekers. Mr Wise added: 'Other councils with the same problems got a temporary injunction preventing it happening until it was assessed whether that hotel was actually suitable. Have you had to cancel your wedding? Email oliver.price@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement 'Nothing like that has happened in Ashford. It shows a total disregard for the people who live in the town. 'The Home Office now has two huge hotels in Ashford full of asylum seekers. 'They have got to go somewhere of course, but this asylum problem is a national problem, not a Kent problem. The rest of the country should be doing their bit.' Earlier this week, Ashford Borough Council leader Gerry Clarkson said the situation cannot continue. He added: 'We have no control over this decision at all and are extremely angry at the Home Office on how they have handled this situation. 'They have ignored not only our views, but those of Kent County Council, Kent Police and local health services. They have shown a complete disregard for us and the local community, and this situation cannot continue. 'All Kent and Medway local authority leaders are writing jointly to the Secretary of State for the Home Office to ask her to stop using the county as an easy fix for what is a national, strategic issue.' In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: 'The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. 'The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable - there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer 5.6million a day. 'The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.' A groom was forced to have his tattoo showing the time and date of his wedding changed in February this year after the hotel venue closed to house asylum seekers. Michael Crane and Linda Brown were left with the news that Best Western Park Hall Hotel in Lancashire (pictured) was closing as a wedding venue for it to reopen as a hotel for asylum seekers The couple, who have been together for four years, forked out 4,000 for the big day. They have been able to rearrange their wedding for the next day at a different location, so he will get the 5 on his tattoo adjusted to 6, but the time will be wrong Michael Crane, 37, was forced to change a tattoo with the time and date of his wedding after his dream venue cancelled his big day because it became a hotel to house asylum seekers. Mr Crane and his fiancee Linda Brown, 42, from Warrington, Cheshire, were looking forward to their wedding day on August 5 this year, so much so that Michael got the time and date with 'Always and forever' above it tattooed on the back of his left hand. But they were left with the news that Best Western Park Hall Hotel in Lancashire they paid 4,000 to book was closing as a wedding venue for it to reopen as a hotel for asylum seekers. They were among thousands of couples who were left without a venue for their weddings. Similarly, in September last year all bookings - including weddings - were cancelled at a hotel in Grantham after all 90 rooms were used to house 100 Afghan refugees. The Urban Hotel, a four star hotel fit with spa, sauna and gym facilities, housed refugees fleeing Taliban-controlled Kabul after the British government agreed to rehome 20,000 displaced Afghans. A plan to move asylum seekers from Kent to a hotel close to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home has also been made despite concerns over the fate of British homeless families and those fleeing the war in Ukraine housed in the venue, a council has said. Campaigners say seven Ukrainian and two British families have been told to leave the Allerton Court Hotel, in Northallerton, which is just a few miles from Mr Sunak's manor house home in a nearby village. They say they are being relocated to Stockton-on-Tees and parts of County Durham to make way for people being relocated from the controversial centre at Manston, in Kent - a move which has also meant half-a-dozen weddings being cancelled at the 44-room North Yorkshire venue. Hambleton District Council (HDC) said the move is going ahead despite concerns being raised. However, the Home Office insisted they 'have been assured there are no homeless people or Ukrainians resident' in the hotel. A council spokeswoman said: 'Hambleton District Council has been informed that the Home Office intend to use the Allerton Court Hotel in Northallerton as temporary emergency accommodation for asylum seekers. 'This decision has been made following a meeting between HDC and the Home Office where concerns were raised around this proposal due to this hotel already being used, albeit on a limited basis, to temporarily house homeless people in Hambleton but more frequently to house Ukrainian families. 'Despite the concerns raised, the Home Office has confirmed their intention to go ahead with the proposal. 'We can confirm there is no intention for HDC to pursue legal action in relation to this decision.' Allerton Court Hotel (pictured), four miles from Rishi Sunak's constituency home will be used to accommodate Channel migrants over the winter as part of emergency Home Office plans In a statement, the Home Office said: 'The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. 'We have not yet taken occupancy of the hotel but have been assured there are no homeless people or Ukrainians resident in it. 'The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable - there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer 5.6million a day. 'The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.' Nicola David, chairwoman of the charity Ripon City of Sanctuary, which supports asylum seekers, said: 'The Home Office talks about an invasion of migrants, which is awful language, but what they've done is invaded people's lives up here. 'People are being moved out of area, people are being turfed out of their emergency accommodation, people's wedding plans are being invaded because, basically, the Home Office doesn't care. 'They just come down from above without consultation and without warning.' She said she understands that the new arrivals will not come to the hotel until later this month to allow one wedding, which was deemed too late to cancel, to go ahead. Ms David said: 'There are things about this hotel which make it appropriate and make it inappropriate. It's more an issue of timing and it's more an issue of the backlog. 'But I think this is going to be replicated all over the country. We've already seen that.' She said: 'We need the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to be looking at this problem nationally and not just in North Yorkshire.' Ms David said the Ukrainian families moved to Stockton and County Durham will face lengthy journeys to access Northallerton schools and other services and the British families involved will have no access to free transport. Hambleton Council mounted a legal challenge to the Home Office plan earlier this year to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at a disused RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse, which is about 25 miles from Northallerton. This plan was scrapped in August. Advertisement The controversial title for Prince Harry's autobiography was his own choice and he has not changed the manuscript since the death of the Queen, according to his wife Meghan Markle's friend Omid Scobie. The Duke of Sussex's book, titled Spare, is set to be published by Penguin Random House on January 10 - which will be more than four months since the death of Her Majesty on September 8. Writing in his column for Yahoo, Mr Scobie, who is known as a cheerleader for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said that the 'punchy' choice of title for his book was 'made by Prince Harry early on in the process'. He also claimed that there were 'no last-minute rewrites or edits' after the Queen died, with the Duke instead completing the book's manuscript 'almost five months before the monarch's passing'. Prince Harry will however 'acknowledge' his grandmother's death at the start of his book, which is being ghost-written by novelist J. R. Moehringer. However, Harry is publishing the book despite the risk of 'very serious blowback from the institution and family' remaining a 'very real risk', he said. Palace aides are said to fear that the book could cause 'irrevocable damage' to both 'reputations and relations'. According to Scobie's timeline, Harry's memoir was completed in around April this year - the same month that he and Meghan made a flying visit to the UK to see the Queen after stopping off in the UK en route to the Invictus Games in the Netherlands. The couple had not previously been back to the UK together since so-called Megxit in 2020, when they acrimoniously quit as working royals. Harry had visited on his own in July last year to unveil the statue of his late mother at Kensington Palace. Harry and Meghan are said to have held 'clear the air' talks with Her Majesty and King Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales. The previous month, the couple had failed to attend Prince Philip's memorial service at Westminster Abbey - as Harry pursued a legal challenge against the Home Office after being told he would no longer be given the 'same degree' of personal protective security when visiting from the US. Harry and Meghan did come to Britain for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June but made only a single public appearance and did not join other senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony. However, Harry and Meghan are believed to have introduced their daughter Lilibet to the Queen for the first time during the visit. They were then both in the UK in September preparing to attend a charity event when the Queen passed away. The controversial title for Prince Harry's autobiography was his own choice and the Duke of Sussex has not changed the manuscript since the death of the Queen, according to his wife Meghan Markle's friend Omid Scobie Prince Harry's ghostwriter is Pulitzer-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer is a Pulitzer-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer is a Pulitzer-winning journalist and writer who previously worked with Andre Agassi and Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, on their own money-spinning memoirs. For tennis great Agassi's book, Open, Moehringer spent more than 250 hours with his subject and even moved to Las Vegas to be near him. He looked so extensively into Agassi and his background that the former player compared it to being on a psychiatrist's couch for days at a time. His own memoir, The Tender Bar, is being made into a film by George Clooney, who will direct. Moehringer has not commented on the partnership with Harry and it's unclear how it came about. He lives in Berkley, California, around 300 miles from Harry and Meghan's Montecito compound. Before ghost-writing, Moehringer worked as a reporter for The New York Times and L.A. Times. He describes his 'big break' as an article in 1997 for the Times about the 1950s boxer Bob 'Bombardier' Satterfield, who he'd discovered was sleeping on benches in L.A. The article he wrote - Resurrecting The Champ - became a movie later starring Samuel L. Jackson. Moehringer's own memoir told the story of his New York upbringing and how he spent it in a bar. He was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his story on Satterfield and he was awarded the prize for his story on Gee's Bend, a river town in Alabama. The story also appeared in The Los Angeles Times. Advertisement Mr Scobie said that Harry's choice of the title 'Spare' reflected how he is 'finally owning the term after a lifetime of being called it.' He said the purpose of the 'spare' is to be the 'resident scapegoat to protect the Crown and higher ranking family members', adding that it will be 'interesting' to see how Prince Harry's memoir covers such alleged moments. The book is also set to be filled with Harry's 'trademark cheekiness', whilst his life story will be 'surprisingly relatable'. Harry has had to cope with the death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997 as well as 'the struggles of accepting oneself, sibling rivalry and falling in love with a person your family doesn't accept', Mr Scobie added. But the royal commentator insisted Harry will not be 'trashing' his family, with his book instead allegedly offering a 'more sympathetic look at the realities of their [the Royal Family's] near-impossible existence'. Addressing Mr Scobie's comments, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline that palace concern over Harry's memoir will 'not have been lessened' by the intervention of his and Meghan's 'unofficial spokesman'. He said: 'It is not a question as to whether Harry has a right to release his memoir, it is whether it is helpful to the royal family which he is part of and also, surely, whether it will benefit the Sussexes in their desire for a philanthropic image. 'Since the they derive their work from being royals, shouldn't they be supportive? If there has been no rewriting after the Queen's death, perhaps there should have been. 'Why write a "raw" and "unflinchingly honest" memoir now, so early in his father's reign, if not for commercial gain?' He added that Mr Scobie had betrayed 'no hint' that Harry's book will provide 'a positive side to the monarchy which dates back continuously, bar Cromwell's Protectorate, over 1,000 years.' The Duke and his wife Meghan have been living at their $14million home in Montecito, California with their two children Archie and Lilibet since they chose to step away from royal duties in 2020. Publishers Penguin Random House say Harry's book is written with 'raw unflinching honesty' and is expected to contain explosive new material addressing Harry's childhood and his rift with 'The Firm' after meeting Meghan. Reports claimed Harry may fly to Britain in the New Year to promote his book and explain his 'intent' in writing it. The publication is set to cast a shadow over the Royal Family's Christmas - the first since the Queen died. Senior royals are said to be bracing themselves' for the publication of the 416-page title. Biographer Tom Bower has warned the memoir's reception will be a make or break moment for the Sussexes. 'Put it this way, it's not going to make for a relaxing family Christmas,' a source told the Mail on Sunday. The Royal Family's lawyers are said to be on standby for Prince Harr's memoir, over fears it is 'critical of everyone and everything'. Family members had not been informed of the title before its release date was announced on October 27. Harry will allegedly not shy away from sensitive subjects, such as his family's decision to encourage him and his brother to walk behind their mother Diana's coffin as thousands of members of the public looked on. The Daily Mail has been told that the duke who has personally recorded the audio book version did not tell his family about the title of in advance and that it will be seen as both 'controversial' and 'provocative' in royal circles. 'That title is loaded and it does not bode well,' a source said. He could also reveal which member of the monarchy he claims made a racist comment about the potential skin colour of his then unborn son Archie, or shine a light on his strained relationship with his father and troubled times with William. It has also been claimed that Prince Harry had to submit his book more than once before it was accepted by publishers, sparking fears that it was 'sexed up' with revelations about the Royal Family. A source told The Sun: 'The book has been back and forth between Harry and [ghost writer] JR Moehringer and the publishers a few times. 'They wanted more than was in the first draft, and then Harry wanted to refine things after the Queen passed away. 'But there has been extra toing and froing that people don't know about. This is because the publishers wanted more areas covered and more detail on some things that were already included. The prince's book (left), titled Spare, is set to be published by Penguin Random House on January 10 - which will be more than four months since the death of Her Majesty on September 8. Writing in his column for Yahoo, Mr Scobie (right), who is known as a cheerleader for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said that the 'punchy' choice of title for his book was 'made by Prince Harry early on in the process' Where was Harry when he 'finished his book five months ago'? According to Mr Scobie's timeline, Harry's memoir was completed in around April this year - the same month he and Meghan made a flying visit to see the Queen: March 2022: Harry and Meghan are the only senior royals not to attend Prince Philip's memorial service at Westminster Abbey - as the Duke of Sussex pursued a legal challenge against the Home Office in row over security. April 2022: Harry and Meghan come to the UK for the first time together since Megxit, when they acrimoniously quit as working royals. June 2022: Harry and Meghan come to Britain for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations but make only a single public appearance before flying back to the US. September 2022: Harry and Meghan are in the UK for the WellChild Awards when the Queen dies. Advertisement 'There is a real concern that that means Harry has had to sex up the book and include revelations that even he might not even be that comfortable with.' In his statement paying tribute to his grandmother shortly after her death, Harry praised her 'sound advice' and 'infectious smile' and called her a 'guiding compass' through her commitment to service and duty. Released on September 12, 2022, his remarks also referred to his 'darling wife' Meghan Markle; said he was grateful that the Queen had hugged her 'beloved great-grandchildren'; and spoke of how he 'cherished' the times spent with the 96-year-old. He said: 'In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen - and in mourning her loss - we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty. 'She was globally admired and respected. Her unwavering grace and dignity remained true throughout her life and now her everlasting legacy. 'Let us echo the words she spoke after the passing of her husband, Prince Philip, words which can bring comfort to all of us now: 'Life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.' 'Granny, while this final parting brings us great sadness, I am forever grateful for all of our first meetings - from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my Commander-in-Chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved great-grandchildren. 'I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over. And as it comes to first meetings, we now honour my father in his new role as King Charles III. 'Thank you for your commitment to service. Thank you for your sound advice. Thank you for your infectious smile. 'We, too, smile knowing that you and grandpa are reunited now, and both together in peace.' Harry and Meghan, 41, were in the UK for charity events when Queen Elizabeth died. The couple stayed in Britain to attend ceremonies honouring Her Majesty, including her state funeral and committal service on September 19. Prince Harry will acknowledge his grandmother Queen Elizabeth IIs death in his upcoming memoir, according to PEOPLE. Pictured, Harry and the Queen in 2018 Royal commentators said the release of Prince Harry's book would be 'unhelpful' to King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort Advertisement A cluster of townsfolk from Abbeyfeale, County Limerick have stripped off for a nude calendar in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society. The calendar, titled 'Abbeyfeale - The Bare Essentials' is made up of a series of photos - many of them of residents in locations that might appear mundane to the untrained eye - taken by local photographer John D Morris. It depicts more than 100 volunteers posing nude across the West Limerick town, with the calendar also aiming to promote its amenities. Morris said he wanted to take the concept of a naked calendar to new heights and 'showcase Abbeyfeale in a positive light on a local, regional and national level'. Pictures include naked men smiling in a barber shop, naked men smiling in the pub and naked men smiling in a supermarket. Residents of Abbeyfeale, County Limerick bared all for a nude calendar in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society The calendar, titled 'Abbeyfeale - The Bare Essentials' is made up of a series of photos taken by local photographer John D Morris It depicts more than 100 volunteers posing nude across the West Limerick town, with the calendar also aiming to promote its amenities There is, however, a serious story behind the project. Morris spoke of attending a town meeting during the financial crash where there was a lot of talk about emigration and the brain drain in Abbeyfeale. 'Like so many small towns up and down the country things weren't looking good. I taught quite selfishly of my own five kids and wondered what their future would hold. Yes, they may want to travel and go overseas but I didn't want them to feel forced to leave Abbeyfeale,' he said. Morris said he wanted to take the concept of a naked calendar to new heights and 'showcase Abbeyfeale in a positive light on a local, regional and national level' This calendar is the inaugural project of Creative Arts Raising Abbeyfeale. Sales will help the group to carry on with their objectives He then began thinking of creating a story about Abbeyfeale that would highlight its attributes through a visual calendar. Morris, along with Noreen Cotter, Aoife Keogh and Eamon Foley, formed a small group called CARA (Creative Arts Raising Abbeyfeale) with the aim to shine a light on the town through the arts. This calendar is their inaugural project, and the sales will help the group to carry on with their objectives. The first photograph taken was the cover image, which parodies the artwork for the Abbey Road album by The Beatles. However, instead of the Fab Four walking along a zebra crossing, it has group of naked men doing the same while covering their bits with signs bearing the calendar's name. The cover image parodies the artwork for the Abbey Road album by The Beatles. It was the first photograph taken for the calendar Also pictured is a woman with a placard reading, 'Down with this sort of thing'. 'We approached the Irish Cancer Society about our little project, and they liked what we were doing and how we were doing it,' said Eamon Foley, who runs a bike and hire shop in the town. 'We choose the Irish Cancer Society as everybody up and down the country has been affected in some way by cancer, and we felt our little project could help a far wider audience.' Morris said he began thinking of creating a story about Abbeyfeale that would highlight its attributes through a visual calendar Morris said: 'We choose the Irish Cancer Society as everybody up and down the country has been affected in some way by cancer, and we felt our little project could help a far wider audience.' Morris said he pieced the calendar together 'as a story of our town and community, some beautiful stories of hope and unfortunately some of loss'. One such story of hope came for the October shoot, where a couple, Daniel Ward and Violeta Mustafaite, had married in secret earlier that morning. The shoot was set up as a staged wedding, with the groomsman, the maid of honor and even the photographer among those kept in the dark about the earlier event. For the October shoot a couple had married in secret earlier that morning. The shoot was set up as a staged wedding, with the groomsman, the maid of honor and even the photographer among those kept in the dark about the earlier event The marriage was later announced as a surprise in the calendar itself. The official calendar is now available to buy The marriage was later announced as a surprise in the calendar itself. The official calendar launch took place on Saturday night and the calendar is now live. It is available online through https://ansiopamilsean.ie/pages/calendar. Further information is available through https://www.facebook.com/CARAabbeyfeale. The tallest woman in the world has taken to the skies for the first time in her life after Turkish Airlines adapted one of their planes to accommodate her towering 7ft frame. Rumeysa Gelgi, who stands at 7ft 0.7inches (215.16cm), was officially named the tallest woman alive by Guinness World Records earlier this year. She typically gets around in a wheelchair or with the aid of a walker, her huge stature the result of a condition called Weaver syndrome which, among other things, causes accelerated growth. Gelgi, 24, had never travelled on a plane before, having been too tall to fit in regular airline seats even as a child. But she is now able to travel abroad and flew to San Francisco in September thanks to her national airline, which tore out six seats aboard one of its aircraft and replaced them with a specially-made stretcher to allow Gelgi to fly in comfort. Posting on Instagram having landed in California, she said: 'A flawless journey from start to finish... this was my first plane ride but it certainly won't be my last... heartfelt thank you to each and every person who has been a part of my journey.' Gelgi had never travelled on a plane before, having been too tall to fit in regular airline seats even as a child, but her national airline designed a special stretcher to accommodate her towering frame Gelgi is pictured on the Turkish Airlines flight with crewmembers Gelgi has a condition called Weaver syndrome which, among other things, causes accelerated growth Gelgi is pictured at the Turkish Airlines gate on the way to San Francisco Gelgi, posing with Guinness world record certificates, said: 'Every disadvantage can be turned into an advantage for yourself so accept yourself for who you are' The 24-year-old travelled to San Francisco to further her career in software development, but she will also co-ordinate with Guinness World Records to promote various events. Gelgi was confirmed last month as the world's tallest living female by the organisation. Upon the receipt of her Guinness world record certificate, Gelgi said: 'Every disadvantage can be turned into an advantage for yourself so accept yourself for who you are, be aware of your potential and do your best.' It is the second time Ms Gelgi has achieved a world record after being named the tallest teenager alive in 2014. Since then, she has used her platform to advocate for others with rare conditions. 'Being different is not as bad as you think. It can bring you unexpected success,' Gelgi told reporters last month. 'I personally think that differences and other features which seem like a disadvantage can be turned to advantages if you want it and make the effort for it. 'That is exactly what I did.' Craig Glenday, editor in chief at Guinness World Records, said: 'It's an honour to welcome Rumeysa back into the record books.' Gelgi has achieved a second world record as the world's tallest living woman. She was named the tallest teenager alive in 2014 Rumeysa Gelgi (2nd L), 17, was recognised as the world's tallest girl when she was a teenager. She is pictured here with her family at their home in Karabuk, Turkey on July 9, 2014 Gelgi was awarded the title of 'tallest female in the world under the age of 18'- she is pictured here in 2015 Rumeysa Gelgi (L), who stands 215.16 centimeters (7 feet, 0.7 inches) tall and has been confirmed as the world's tallest living woman by Guinness World Records, is seen in front of her house in Safranbolu district of Karabuk, Turkey on October 14, 2021 Glenday continued: 'Her indomitable spirit and pride at standing out from the crowd is an inspiration. 'The category of tallest living woman is not one that changes hands very often, so I'm excited to share this news with the world.' The tallest man in the world, Sultan Kosen, is also Turkish - he was measured at 8ft 2.8in (251cm) in 2018. Gelgi says she hopes to meet him in person one day. The tallest woman to have lived was Zeng Jinlian, from China, who was measured at 8ft 1in (246.3cm) before her death in 1982. Gelgi has also broken records for having the longest finger on a living female person, the largest hands on a living female person, and the longest back on a living female person. Humiliated Late Show host Stephen Colbert admitted he was wrong to doubt Tudor Dixon's story about a Democrat voter switching sides and supporting the Republican. But in the same breath, the CBS host mocked the man for his political U-turn and for his opposition to sexually explicit material in school books - after initially claiming the GOP candidate for governor fabricated the story. Colbert has since faced scrutiny for the shallow apology he gave on his show - as viewers accused him of fanning the flames and peddling the political divide in the country. In a monologue last week on The Late Show, Colbert ridiculed Republican Dixon for a story she shared in her recent debate with incumbent Democratic Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer. In the debate, Dixon described how a man attending her campaign rally said he was a longtime loyal Democrat, but had decided to switch parties over his frustration at 'sexually explicit books' in school libraries - a story that Colbert joked was 'totally made up'. But days later the voter revealed himself as Khalil Othman - who slammed Colbert for his ignorance. Colbert has now admitted he was wrong, saying: 'Here's the thing, I don't make many mistakes that I'm willing to admit. But when I do, I'm big enough to admit them. 'During a debate, she told a story that frankly I doubted.' He apologized - but then decided to take another swipe and mocked Othman for what he said when he spoke out. CBS host Stephen Colbert claimed a story about a voter defecting from the Democrats to the GOP was 'totally made up' - but he has now given a shallow apology after the voter revealed himself 'To claim that I'm not here, I don't exist, I'm not human, that's absolute ignorance,' Khalil Othman, 41, (above) told the Detroit Free Press regarding Colbert's remarks In the debate, Dixon (pictured) described how a man attending her campaign rally said he was a longtime loyal Democrat, but had decided to switch parties over his frustration at 'sexually explicit books' in school libraries - a story that Colbert joked was 'totally made up' Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The latest RCP polling average shows Whitmer with a narrow lead of just 3.4 points, with multiple recent polls showing the race in a dead tie He added: 'This very real person deserves an apology because he says, "To claim that Im not here, I don't exist, I'm not human, that's absolute ignorance." 'So I would like to apologize. It is a terrible thing for someone to deny your very existence. Just ask trans people. 'Therefore, I, Stephen Colbert, acknowledge that you exist and ask that you forgive me.' But Colbert has been slammed for his arrogance after the mockery - with people on social media grilling him for making fun of a real-life situation and 'fanning the flames' of political divide. One user wrote: 'Flip flop hypocrisy at its finest.' Another added: 'Great apology. You are the problem. You think you're funny and have the dias [sic] to make a mockery of everything. You are not funny and you don't.' A third said: 'Making fun of a parent who is concerned over what their child is being taught in schools. How low can Stephen go? This isnt late night comedy its a Democratic operative. I, for one, can not wait until this show is canceled due to zero ratings.' Another furious viewer added: 'One of these days you will realize that Stephen Colbert is one of the people creating divisiveness within this country. 'Look around and see those next to you in the echo chamber. He is worse than any politician as far as far as fanning the flames. He IS hateful.' And another tweeted: 'What a nasty buffoon he is. And also not remotely funny.' Khalil Othman spoke at an October 21 meeting in Michigan, where he denounced the Democrats and vowed to vote Republican after becoming horrified by sexually explicit materials in his children's books. He told Dixon, who is running against incumbent Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, that she had his vote. Dixon used his story during a debate as proof of why so many Americans are being turned off the Democrat party - and it was then that Colbert assumed she had made it up. Colbert has been slammed for his arrogance after the mockery - with people on social media grilling him for making fun of a real-life situation and 'fanning the flames' of political divide Khalil Othman, 41, spoke at an October 21 meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, where he denounced the Democrats and vowed to vote Republican after becoming horrified by sexually explicit materials in his children's books. He told Dixon, who is running against incumbent Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, that she had his vote Khalil Othman, a 41-year-old Yemeni immigrant who moved to the US with his family 17 years ago, is very much real Standing his ground earlier this week, the voter who Colbert assumed was fake, Khalil Othman told the Detroit Free Press: 'To claim that I'm not here, I don't exist, I'm not human, that's absolute ignorance.' He said that he did attend a Dixon rally, where he declared his intention to switch parties. Othman added: 'If this person did his due diligence and start researching, or has his team do a little bit of research of who's this person who attended Dixon's rally, they will be able to find my name right away easy on social media. Just Google it.' Othman, a father of five originally from Yemen, is a former candidate for Dearborn's city council and the Michigan House of Representatives and ran for both offices as a Democrat. 'Ever since immigrating to this great country almost 20 years ago, I've been a loyal Democrat,' he explained in a Facebook post. 'Never once did I ever vote Republican. However, the situation with the sexually explicit material in the schools was for me a bridge too far. When it comes to my kids and my family, I will not budge. Family before party!' he wrote. Othman wrote that feeling his concerns were ignored or downplayed by Democrats, he decided to hear Dixon speak at a rally and 'make my own judgement.' He shared that he was encouraged by her remarks, and by his conversations with the candidate and her supporters, and announced his 'divorce' from the Democratic Party. Dixon, a former conservative radio host, gained the GOP nomination in Michigan after securing Donald Trump's endorsement. She trails in the polls by a slim margin Othman is part of a group of parents who have been protesting in recent weeks over books in Dearborn's public school libraries that they say have inappropriate sexual content, including several with LGBTQ themes. 'I am a proud Muslim American who expresses my values and concerns all the time,' Othman told the Free Press. 'Dearborn has been voting Democrat blue for the last decade or two decades. But not anymore. On behalf of myself and my family, I guarantee you for sure that my family and my friends will vote for Republicans,' he said. Dixon, a former conservative radio host, gained the GOP nomination in Michigan after securing Donald Trump's endorsement and support from the wealthy family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who major political players in the state. Although Dixon has trailed Whitmer in the polls for the duration of the campaign, the gap has narrowed considerably as the November 8 election approaches. The latest RCP polling average shows Whitmer with a narrow lead of just 3.4 points, with multiple recent polls showing the race in a dead tie. In her October 25 debate with Whitmer, Dixon shared Othman's story, without identifying him by name, saying that a voter had approached her at a rally and said he was switching his vote to the GOP because he felt his concerns were being ignored by Democrats. 'He said: "I found content in my school library describing how to have sex to my son. I went to the Democrats and I said, I cannot believe that this is in there,"' recalled Dixon. 'He said because Democrats won't stand up for our children and go back to the basics, "I'm leaving the Democratic Party,"' added Dixon. This is the shocking moment circus performers beat and kicked a terrified bear cub with a stick in China. Footage taken in Jinan, in the Chinese province of Shandong, shows performers in the middle of a show involving a young bear. The animal suddenly started jumping and trying to grab their legs. One of the performers tried to step aside and let the animal handler deal with the situation but the bear followed him and held onto his leg, so they started kicking it. They also hit the bear on the head with a stick and pulled on its lead. Footage taken in Jinan, in the Chinese province of Shandong, shows performers in the middle of a show involving a young bear. The animal suddenly started jumping and trying to grab their legs. Music used in the act was drowned out by the sound of screaming people. When performers managed to pull the bear away and threw it inside a cage, the 'show' came to an abrupt end. The staff reportedly said afterwards that the bear was trying to hug the man. They suspected that the bear may have become short-tempered due to the cooling weather. They also pulled on the bear's lead. Eventually they managed to pull the bear away and throw it inside a cage The circus said that the performers were not injured but said they had decided to stop doing the bear show so that the audience and visitors would not worry. The video was filmed by one of the audience members, appalled by the events unfolding in front of them. It was shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where commenters have condemned the cruel act. Commenters have also slated the circus for putting on brutish animal shows. It is unclear if they are being investigated for animal cruelty. It comes after a performing brown bear last year attacked a female trainer in front of horrified children and their families at a circus in Russia. Footage recorded by a spectator shows the wild animal - dressed in a hat and pink glittering scarf - suddenly clawing at the blonde woman during a performance in Berezovsky, in the Kemerovo region. The bear can be seen swiping at the trainer and holding onto her foot and ankle before it is grabbed by the neck and pulled away by two male performers. The shocking incident at the Harlequin Travelling Circus took place just metres away from children and their parents - who had no barriers or fencing protecting them from the beast. The video clip then shows how despite the female trainer appearing to have fallen over in pain, the bear is made to continue performing tricks with her. The animal then makes another attack before it is pulled away yet again. According to reports there was even a third attack, however the video shared online does not continue long enough to show it. The woman is not believed to have sought medical treatment following the incident. The circus is known for dressing bears in human clothes - with some wearing tutus - and 'prides itself on humane training of the animals'. Moment performing bear attacks a circus trainer in Russia in front of terrified children and their families The female trainer at the Harlequin Travelling Circus is filmed struggling to release her leg from the grip of the bear during the attack The Russian Investigative Committee was studying the incident to check whether there were safety breaches during the performance - particularly as there appears to be no fence or barrier protecting spectators. The Harlequin Travelling Circus later denied there had been an attack, despite the video evidence. A spokesman told Mash Siberia: 'There was no incident whatsoever. 'Simply speaking, bears are now in mating season.' The circus promises 'an unforgettable large-scale performance with a wide variety of animals' to 'surprise every city in Russia'. Its website reads: 'The artists present a symbiosis of training, clownery and high-class stunts in the circus ring.' The bear was dressed in a white hat and pink glittery scarf as it was made to perform tricks before turning on its trainer The bear was filmed attacking the trainer for a second time after being made to continue performing tricks Two male circus performers grabbed the bear by the back of its neck to pull it away from the trainer as spectators filmed the terrifying moment Tickets to the show were priced at 500 roubles - or 4.90. Irina Novozhilova, of animal rights group VITA, called for the prohibition of all circuses with live animals, which remain popular across Russia. 'No circus conditions will be humane for one simple reason,' she said. 'Training goes hand in hand with cruelty circuses are always cruel beyond limits. 'And circuses with animals should be banned.' A social work assistant whose boss complained weve only just put you on a contract when she revealed she was pregnant has won more than 5,000 at an employment tribunal. Poppy Hedges-Staines, 30, was just eight weeks pregnant and hadnt told her family the good news when she informed work as she was concerned about visiting someone who had a suspected contagious disease. She then received the disappointing response from a female boss who is also a mother. Two months later, after Miss Hedges-Staines was let go by the company, she sued for discrimination - and represented herself at the hearing because she couldnt afford a lawyer. She has now been awarded 5,134 - 4,500 plus interest for injury to feelings - after the judge agreed the comment had been made by director Cheryl Finlayson. It was really disappointing. I couldnt believe that she said it - both as a woman and having children. She put a real dampener on my fantastic news, said Miss Hedges-Staines, whose son Knox is now 17 months old. It was also shocking to be treated that way because of the line of work that we do, helping families out and children. Poppy Hedges-Staines, 30, was just eight weeks pregnant and hadnt told her family the good news when she informed work as she was concerned about visiting someone who had a suspected contagious disease Poppy Hedges-Staines told the employment tribunal how Cheryl Finlayson (pictured), director of Ipswich-based CF Social Work, 'put a downer' on her happiness when she told her: 'Poppy, we've only just put you on a contract' Miss Hedges-Staines starting working as a self-employed social work assistant from November 2019 with Ipswich-based CF Social Work Ltd, which states on its websites homepage that it puts the needs of children, young people and their families and carers at the heart of everything we do. She was given a six-month fixed-term contract in July the following year and on November 6 rang work with concerns about a home visit where the father had suspected scabies. Her line manager told her to speak to Ms Finlayson who, the tribunal heard, said: Poppy, weve only just put you on a contract and now youre telling me you are pregnant. Ms Finlayson argued she couldnt have made the comment as Miss Hedges-Staines hadnt just been given a contract. But the tribunal concluded she had complained about the contract, although it didnt find or accept the second part of the statement had been made. In December 2020, Miss Hedges-Staines was given a reduced workload due to the pandemic and was unable to work occasionally due to antenatal care and fatigue. The following month, she was told that local authorities wanted staff who could work 48-hour shifts and do sleep-ins, which she was unable to do. CF Social Work, who are based in Ipswich, Suffolk, concluded there was no suitable work available for her. Her contract was not renewed and she was given four weeks notice, with pay. Miss Hedges-Staines claimed that she was fired due to her pregnancy, although the tribunal noted two other social work assistants on six-month contracts also lost their jobs. It dismissed the pregnancy discrimination claim but upheld a separate claim for unfair treatment. The thought process behind the words that we have found were used was frustration that a recently appointed and valued member of staff might not be available to carry out the full range of her duties and would thereafter be taking a period of maternity leave, Employment Judge Michael Ord said. We are satisfied that the remark amounted to unfavourable treatment, based on her pregnancy. Describing presenting her own case over the three-day hearing in Cambridge, Miss Hedges-Staines, who lives with electrician Patrick Summerfield, 33, in north Suffolk, said: I couldnt afford to have anyone represent me. Its so expensive and, not having any work, Id used up most of my savings. It was really daunting but the judge was really kind. He explained things and used terminology I understood and gave me time. One of the witnesses she cross-examined was Ms Finlayson, who answered questions for around 20 minutes. I was nervous but once I got part of the way through it was a lot easier, added Miss Hedges-Staines, who is now a rehabilitation support worker. Ms Finlayson resigned as a director in of CF Social Work in December 2020 but worked as a consultant. The company was approached for a comment. The graphic novel was written by Maia Kobabe in May 2019 and has received mixed reviews from the public A teacher with the Hollidaysburg Area School District is being probed after allegedly bringing a copy of one of America's top challenged books 'Gender Queer' into her classroom. School officials said they received complaints that a junior high teacher had displayed the controversial graphic novel on her desk. An email posted to social media showed District Superintendent Robert Gildea informing parents that the school had 'directed' the teacher not to bring the book back to the school. Gildea added that 'additional corrective action is being considered' and that the book was in no way part of the school curriculum. 'The intent of this message is to address a narrative being portrayed via social media regarding the book Gender Queer,' the email read. 'The book was in possession of a teacher and visible on the teacher's desk. 'This was brought to the school administrator's attention, who in turn, directed the teacher not to bring the book to school. 'Additional corrective action is being considered.' Gildea criticized the contents of the book written Maia Kobabe and said that the book 'has never been part of district curriculum.' 'I am of the opinion that the book is disturbing and not appropriate for children of any age,' he continued in the email to parents. 'Please note, the book has never been part of district curriculum, is not part of our library circulation and we have no evidence that the book has been read to or shared with students.' A teacher with the Hollidaysburg Area School District is being probed after allegedly bringing a copy of one of America's top challenged book's 'Gender Queer' (pictured) into her classroom District Superintendent Robert Gildea (pictured) informed parents that the book written Maia Kobabe 'has never been part of district curriculum' Parents accused a teacher they believe to be a woman working in the English department of the junior high for leaving the explicit book on her desk for students to see Gildea ended the email by asking parents to contact administration if they had additional concerns about the book. The email followed the disgruntled post of one parent who hoped to 'notify all parents and guardians' about the book. 'My son is in 7th grade and a student of [the teacher] who teaches Reading Comprehension,' the post read. 'He told me that she had been bringing the book 'Gender Queer' into her class and displaying it on her desk. 'He first noticed it the beginning of September and he told me that he observed her many times reading the book to herself which was on top of her desk and open while he and his classmate's completed coursework. 'My son confirmed that other children also saw the book as well as her reading it in front of them. 'I contacted the principal and sent a follow up letter to him, the entire administration and school board in order to provide full transparency on this very serious situation.' The post said that the principal investigated the incident and 'confirmed that she did have the book and was bringing it into the classroom.' 'The Pennsylvania State Police also contacted the superintendent to discuss the matter' the post continued. 'She was instructed to remove it permanently from school property. For those who are not familiar with this book, it contains images that are pornographic and others that meet the definition of pedophilia. 'The teacher also displays the gay pride flag in her classroom to promote her class as a 'safe space' and asked students the first week of school what their preferred pronouns were. 'One can only assume from these revelations and her actions, that she is encouraging discussion with her students about their sexuality and other related topics.' Parents were then encouraged to speak to their children to see if the Hollidaysburg Junior High teacher had exposed them to 'these images.' 'It is very distressing that this has been occurring at the school given the sexually pervasive images and content of this book and that she was reading it in front of students,' the post continued. 'The administration must share with everyone what disciplinary action they will be taking against this teacher. 'We are putting our trust in them to provide a safe environment for our children to learn and sadly this teacher is abusing her position and seeking to influence vulnerable youth.' Gildea sent an email to concerned parents condemning the book and asking parents to reach out if they had further concerns Not all agreed with this view however, one person commenting: 'It is NOT porn. Look it up. DO YOUR research.' Another said: 'I have to disagree, what's wrong with the book?' The school district's superintendent has been contacted by Dailymail.com for further comment on the book. Gender Queer was listed as part of the Top 10 most challenged books for 2021 by the American Library Association. The association said they work to condemn censorship and works to ensure free access to information adding that the top 10 lists are merely a snapshot of book challenges. Kobabe's book has been criticized by parents across the country as it describes and illustrates sexual acts including oral sex and masturbation. Tommy Altman, a Virginia Beach tattoo shop owner and former Republican congressional candidate, filed a petition to a Virginia court about 'Gender Queer' and 'A Court of Mist and Fury' by Sarah J. Maas, saying the depictions were inappropriate for children. Altman asked the court to issue an order under state law against distributing, selling or loaning the books to minors. The suit was filed in April but was dismissed by a judge in August before it could proceed to trial. Circuit Court Judge Pamela S. Baskervill struck it down on jurisdictional grounds, citing state law as well as the US Constitution. The graphic novel was written by Maia Kobabe in May 2019 and has received mixed reviews from the public becoming a flashpoint for controversy across the country Those who oppose the graphic novel say it is more about the explicit nature of its contents rather than a slight against the LGBTIQA+ community For example, Baskervill wrote that Virginia law doesn't give her the specific authority to determine whether the books are obscene for minors. The judge also wrote that restricting the books' distribution would authorize 'prior restraint' of speech and violate the First Amendment. The judge also described concerns about prosecuting someone who didn't know they were selling or loaning books that were deemed to be obscene. The judge's order comes at a time when book challenges and bans surged across the US to levels not seen in decades. Virginia had been on the frontlines, with public school curricula and books serving as a major prong for Republican Glenn Youngkin's successful run for governor last year. Author and publisher groups however hailed the judge's decision. Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said that it was an 'unequivocal victory for the free speech rights of readers, authors, publishers, booksellers and libraries.' Many of the targeted books have focused on sexuality, gender identity or race. Kobabe's 'Gender Queer,' a graphic novel that contains explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation, has served as a particular flashpoint. The Virginia Beach school board removed the book from school libraries earlier this year. Schools in Fairfax County, in northern Virginia, also briefly removed it last year before it was reinstated. Loudoun County Public Schools also chose to pull the book. In his petition against 'Gender Queer,' Altman cited content that illustrates 'two minors engaged in sexual intercourse,' among other actions. Jeff Trexler, an attorney for the author of 'Gender Queer,' pointed out that Altman was running for Congress when he filed the suit. Altman lost in a crowded Republican primary. 'This isn't 200 pages of people from various gender identities, having sex and nothing else,' Trexler said. 'It's an award-winning work as a literary memoir and as a graphic novel. It's been relevant to lots of people in terms of understanding themselves and their children.' Tim Anderson, Altman's attorney, said the lawsuit 'was never about trying to ban gay literature or trans literature.' 'This was simply just saying these [books] have really sexually explicit content and it's not appropriate for kids,' he said. Anderson said the suit's intent was changing a state law that determines what is obscene for both children and adults alike. Altman wanted a 'carve out' that deems what's obscene for juveniles specifically. Anderson, who is also a state lawmaker, said Altman is considering his options following the judge's order. He said one way forward could be a ratings system for books like there are for video games and movies. 'Fundamentally, what we're trying to do is get to a point where parents are more in the drivers seat of what their children are consuming,' he said. Early last month, students access to Gender Queer was restricted by the Spring Lake Board of Education in west Michigan. A 4-3 vote to remove the 2019 memoir came after three complaints from parents about the book received by the Spring Lake High School in June. Students are still able to access the book through the school counselor's office, but only if a parent signs a document giving their consent, reports from MLive revealed. Board president Jennifer Nicles, one of the four board members who voted to remove the book, said the book contained sexual graphic illustrations that were too inappropriate for the school setting. 'I actually read the book twice,' Nicles told MLive. 'This is so hard to say, you know, but the pictures are very graphic and there are sexual pictures, and there were certain ones that I struggled with. They made me uncomfortable.' Nicles said the vote was the hardest decision she's had to make in her six years on the board. 'One hundred percent I support our LGBTIQA+ community, and this is a book about a nonbinary asexual person,' she said. 'My decision was based on the pictures; it has nothing to do with my support (for LGBTIQA+ students).' Meanwhile, a school in Maine beat the book being banned during a public meeting which saw 200 people in attendance, 77 watching virtually and 45 speakers on both sides of the issue. During the nearly three hours of public comment, 29 speakers advocated to keep the book in the library and 16 requested the board remove it, Village Soup reported. The Regional School Unit 40 Board of Directors voted to keep 'Gender Queer' although it marked the second time the book has been formally challenged. This challenge was an appeal of the district's 2021 decision that the book would remain in the library. A top Los Angeles prosecutor has accused District Attorney George Gascon of 'illegal and unethical conduct' in a searing public letter. John Lewin, a decorated 30-year veteran of the department who prosecuted the infamous murderer Robert Durst, says Gascon demoted him in retaliation for speaking out over the chaos in his office. The liberal DA swept in during 2020 with a wave of justice reforms. But prosecutors claim the radical changes have forced them to make perverse decisions such as allowing a double-child murdering 17-year-old who tried to cover up his crimes go free when he turns 25, or a two-time brutal rapist to push for his sentence to be reduced. Gascon heads the nation's largest DA office which files over 100,000 cases a year. He now faces a controversial recall vote, lawsuits from at least seven prosecutors in his office over alleged retaliation demotions, and waning support in a city where crime is on the rise. Top Los Angeles prosecutor John Lewin (left) says District Attorney George Gascon (right) demoted him in retaliation for speaking out about 'liberal' reforms During the summer rallies were held as anti-Gascon activists tried to get the District Attorney recalled. Their bid failed In an excoriating 614-word post on Facebook on October 29, Lewin said, 'Late last month, after nearly 20 years in the Major Crimes Division prosecuting more circumstantial murder cases and more no body murder cases than anybody in the nation ever, I was retaliatorily transferred' The latest lawyer to speak out may also be the most notable. Lewin was a Deputy District Attorney in the Major Crimes Division, tasked with prosecuting complex, high profile cases. Over three decades with the department, he earned a reputation for winning tough trials, including cold murder cases where the victim's body was never found, and this year was awarded the Ken Lamb Distinguished Achievement Award with glowing praise from Gascon's number two Sharon Woo. His most recent high-profile win was against Robert Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison last year for killing his friend, Susan Berman. But Lewin says he has now been shunted to a lowly role in Inglewood as a calendar deputy and claims he was 'retalitorily transferred'. In an excoriating 614-word post on Facebook on October 29, Lewin said he and his colleague John McKinney, who won a conviction against Nipsey Hussle's murderer this summer, were demoted after blowing the whistle on Gascon for implementing 'illegal' policies. 'Late last month, after nearly 20 years in the Major Crimes Division prosecuting more circumstantial murder cases and more no body murder cases than anybody in the nation ever, I was retalitorily transferred,' Lewin wrote. 'I was made a calendar deputy in an area court in Inglewood, while John McKinney (who has also been a vocal critic pointing out Gascon's illegal conduct and who coincidentally recently announced prior to the transfer that he is running to be our next District Attorney) was transferred to supervise a couple of young DDA's prosecuting misdemeanors in East Los Angeles. 'This is not to say that these aren't important jobs, they just happen to be assignments that do not utilize the unique trial skills that McKinney and I brought to the Major Crimes Division and were done illegally as retaliation for blowing the whistle on Gascon and his illegal conduct. 'If George Gascon and his Administration think that their illegal retaliation is going to silence me, they have another thing coming!' Gascon swept in during 2020 with a wave of justice reforms and now heads the nation's largest DA office which files over 100,000 cases a year Lewin was a Deputy District Attorney in the Major Crimes Division, tasked with prosecuting complex, high profile cases Lewin said colleague John McKinney (pictured), who won a conviction against Nipsey Hussle's murderer this summer, were demoted after blowing the whistle on Gascon for implementing 'illegal' policies Lewin added that he has been subject to three Equity Board complaints in the past seven months after he started to speak out against Gascon. He said one has already been dismissed. 'I am not allowed to learn who made them, or even what the subject of the complaint is, unless and until they determine that an investigation is going to take place,' the prosecutor wrote. 'These complaints just happened to occur at the same time that I was blowing the whistle on George Gascon and his illegal policies. 'I have done nothing wrong and I will not be bullied or intimidated into silence!' When Lewin and McKinney's job changes were announced in September, the DA's office claimed they were 'routine' and not demotions. The District Attorneys Office Bureau of Communications Director Tiffiny Blacknell told DailyMail.com 'The office routinely conducts personnel transfers,' a spokeswoman said. 'We take issue with the insinuation that only the people currently assigned to the Major Crimes Division are capable of doing challenging work. That's blatantly false. We have extraordinary lawyers in every branch of this department. 'All victims deserve to have a highly skilled prosecutor to prosecute the person who caused them harm, not just the ones that make the evening news.' Gascon's office has already been hit this year with at least seven lawsuits over other alleged retaliatory demotions, and around 120 prosecutors have left since he took office. Prosecutors who took issue with the implications of his policies which include banning death penalty requests, trying juveniles as adults, and asking judges for more prison time in gang and gun cases say their careers have been targeted. The unrest and unpopularity finally boiled over into a recall attempt in August this year. But the vote failed after the LA Registrar-Recorder threw out more than 195,000 of the votes as invalid When Lewin and McKinney's job changes were announced in September, the DA's office claimed they were 'routine' and not demotions. The LA District Attorney's Office is pictured One is senior lawyer Jodi Link. She was supervising the prosecution of Scott Breckenridge, who got a 73-year sentence for brutally raping two women in 1992. When asked for a reconsideration of his sentence, Link told the court she couldn't object because 'the District Attorney believes that regardless of the number of charges committed or the number of victims that were harmed that a person should not serve a sentence that is greater than 15 years.' In a lawsuit filed against the DA, Link says she was demoted to calendar deputy in a remote courthouse in Torrance in retaliation. A lawsuit filed in April claims Gascon's office wanted prosecutors Peter Cagney and Karen Thorp not to disclose a gang member's violent history in court. They did anyway, and the defendant was denied release. The prosecutors claim they were moved from running the Pomona office to an insurance fraud unit. Deputy District Attorney Shawn Randolph is trying to depose Gascon in her lawsuit, which claims she was denied promotions because of her complaints about Gascon's new rules. Her legal filing describes a prosecution of a 17-year-old boy who killed his 16-year-old girlfriend and her sister, then set their apartment on fire attempting to cover up the crimes. Randolph claims Gascon's rules forced her to try the boy as a juvenile not an adult, meaning he will be released when he turns 25. The unrest and unpopularity finally boiled over into a recall attempt in August this year. But the vote failed after the LA Registrar-Recorder threw out more than 195,000 of the votes as invalid. The recall organizers sued after they investigated a 2% sample of the 195758 invalidated votes and discovered 1,560 valid voter signatures were tossed, an alleged 39% error rate. Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan says that of the 195,000 votes some 90,000 were not registered voters and roughly 45,000 were duplicates. The attempted recall follows the ousting in June of San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, a friend and ideological ally of Gascon. A fugitive from New York on the run for a year was apprehended in Walt Disney World of all places by the very officer who had signed the initial complaint against him. Quashon Burton, 31, has been on the lam since last November, when US Postal Inspection Service officers attempted to arrest him over an alleged identify theft scheme that he used to falsely obtain about $150,000 of COVID loans. Last year, Burton was not at his Brooklyn home when agents arrived to arrest him. His mother informed them that her son would 'not be self-surrendering.' Federal postal inspector Jeff Andre, wrote that Burton had established a 'complex web of identities that made his crimes difficult to investigate,' reported the Daily Beast. 'He has clearly demonstrated an ability to mask his true identify to evade law enforcement. So too has he demonstrated a willingness to lie about this identity to avoid arrest,' he said. But Burton's skillful evasions were ultimately not enough to stop the stroke of fate that placed Andre and the alleged fraudster in one another's path at the Happiest Place on Earth last month. Mugshot of Quashon Burton, 31, who has been on the run from law enforcement for about a year. He was apprehended at Disney World in Florida last month after the federal officer who signed the complaint against him spotted him in Animal Kingdom Burton was ultimately arrested outside of Animal Kingdom by a sheriff's deputy from Orange County. He was further cited for resisting an officer without violence. He is now being held in New York without bail as he awaits trial The entire incident took place by happenstance at Disney World in Florida, where both alleged criminal and postal officer Jeff Andre were vacationing at the same time On October 20, 2022, Andre was on vacation at Disney World, when he spotted Burton in the resort's Animal Kingdom at just past 3pm. Andre says he recognized Burton by the distinctive 'H' tattoo on his neck. The postal officer promptly alerted the Orange County Sheriff's Office that a fugitive was in the park and security staff tracked Burton before a deputy arrived and found him waiting at a bus stop with two family members. The Sheriff's deputy reported that he 'advised Quashon that I needed to speak with him about the possible suspicious activity he was involved in, and he questioned why he needed to provide his identification.' 'Later, I advised him he was the subject of a warrant, and when I attempted to secure him, he began tensing up and bracing his arms. I informed him multiple times to place his hands behind his back, but he refused,' he said. Burton was eventually taken 'to the ground' during his arrest and charged with resisting an officer without violence. It was additionally revealed that Burton had been visiting the park under a fake name and refused to acknowledge his true identity even after fingerprints proved it. After being taken to the Orange County Jail, he was handed into federal custody. In late October, a detention hearing ruled that Burton could be released as long as he was kept under pretrial supervision in New York and remained subject to GPS monitoring. New York federal prosecutors, on the other hand, opposed the decision - citing Burton as an 'extreme flight risk' who should remain in custody. On Thursday, New York Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Burton should not be granted bail ahead of his trial. A trial date has not yet been set. At the start of the 1920s, hundreds of commercial and amateur radio stations quickly appeared coast-to-coast. Names like RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, General Electric, Philmore, and amateur radio enthusiasts were building radio broadcasting equipment, networks, and listening sets. The countrys population in 1922 was 100 million, with nearly two million homes having a radio. At the end of 1922, approximately 500 radio station licenses had been issued by the US Department of Commerce. Minnesota entered this period by establishing radio stations with support from local businesses, colleges, various organizations, newspapers, and individuals. On May 10, 1922, Minneapolis radio station WBAH began operating on a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles (kilo meaning one thousand), abbreviated as kc. There are 1,000 cycles per second in a kilocycle, so a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles would be 833,000 cycles per second. Jumping ahead to 1960, the International System of Units replaced cycles per second with Hertz to represent a unit of radio frequency equivalent to one event (cycle) per second. By 1970, kilocycles (kc) were called kilohertz (kHz). Amateur radio resonant frequency bands primarily reference their radio wavelength in meters. But thats another subject, and I now digress back to 1922. WBAH, owned by The Dayton Company, was mainly used to broadcast radio advertisements for its department stores. On Sept. 4, 1922, WLAG became Minneapoliss first licensed commercial radio station. Its broadcast originated from the sixth floor of the Oak Grove Hotel in Minneapolis. Companies underwriting WLAGs operations with $30,000 of support included L. S. Donaldson Company, Northwestern National Bank, Sterling Electric company, and others. A 500-watt transmitter powered the radio stations broadcasts over carrier wave frequencies which many listeners received in surrounding states. In 1923, Dr. George W. Young began radio station KFMT operating on 1300 kc from his residence in Minneapolis. KFMT used a World War I era Western Electric CW- 936 5-watt radio transmitter/receiver to broadcast its signal over a 20-mile radius. In 1924, one of the first battery-powered radios was the Atwater-Kent model 10B receiving set manufactured in Philadelphia, PA. It was called a breadboard radio and used five vacuum tubes and three potentiometer dials. On Sept. 12, 1924, the US War Dept. aired The National Defense Day Program over an experimental network of 18 radio stations from coast-to-coast, including WLAG in Minneapolis. World War I ended six years earlier, and in 1924, the US government regarded nationwide radio broadcasts during a national emergency as the quickest way to notify the most people. On Oct. 2, 1924, WLAG became the familiar WCCO, broadcasting under the ownership of the Minnesota-based Washburn-Crosby Company and maker of Gold Medal Flour. WCCOs callsign means Washburn Crosby Company. It was called The Gold Medal radio station. WCCOs broadcast studios were located at the Nicollet Hotel in Minneapolis. On Oct. 5, 1924, the Minneapolis Journal printed This Week By Radio, listing daily programming from WCCO, KFMT, WCAL (St. Olaf College), and WCAS (Dunwoody Industrial Institute). By 1925, 600 commercial radio stations were operating in the US. On March 4, 1925, the presidential inauguration of Calvin Coolidge was broadcast by over 20 commercial radio stations to an estimated 23 million listeners. In the mid-1920s, many radio sets used Audion triode vacuum tubes, invented by Lee de Forest while working at AT&T. Other vacuum tubes, such as the RCA Radiotron and similar, provided higher detection sensitivity to radio transmissions from a broadcasters antenna. In addition, they boosted the amplification of audio signals heard by a radio listener. KFMT changed to WDGY in 1925. In 1925, the first AC-powered radio receiver, the RCA Radiola 30, Model NS-30-1 console, was sold. In 1927, radio stations were governed and licensed by the US Federal Radio Commission. On Nov. 11, 1928, The US Federal Radio Commission upgraded WCCO to a clear-channel station with a frequency of 810 kc. In September of 1932, WCCO was licensed to transmit its radio signal at a powerful 50,000 watts. During the day, listeners received WCCOs clear-channel 50,000-watt signal on radio sets from Duluth to Rochester and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. At night, listeners heard WCCO radio throughout the upper Midwest, the central US, and parts of Canada. WCCO became known as The station that serves the nation. On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation over the radio in his first evening fireside chat. On June 19, 1934, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began regulating radio, telephone, and television companies. Also in 1934, WTCN (W Twin Cities Newspapers) radio began broadcasting on 1250 kc and was advertised as The Minneapolis Tribune Station. On June 16, 1940, the Land Of Lakes radio station WLOL began broadcasting on a frequency of 1300 kc from studios at 1730 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. In March of 1941, WCCOs radio frequency changed to 830 kc. Minnesotas first FM radio stations, WTCN-FM in Minneapolis and KSTP-FM in St. Paul, began broadcasting in 1947. In 1947, AT&T Bell Laboratories demonstrated an electronic component called a point-contact transistor that would eventually replace the vacuum tube. In October of 1954, the Regency TR-1 radio manufactured in Camden, NJ, became the first pocket-sized handheld transistor radio sold in the US. On Jan. 4, 2022, the FCC reported that 15,389 AM and FM radio stations were operating in the country. What will radio be like for those listening in 2122? Stay tuned. Three men have been charged with murdering a man outside a south London restaurant last weekend. Adrian Keise, 32, was found mortally wounded near a block of flats on Frazier Street, Lambeth at 2.30am on Saturday, October 29. He had been stabbed outside Cubana Restaurant in Lower Marsh Street. Officers had been alerted to the stabbing and found Mr Keise a short distance away. Despite the best efforts of paramedics, he was declared dead at the scene. The Metropolitan Police arrested three men on suspicion of Mr Keise's murder and later charged them. Adrian Keise, 32, pictured, was found mortally wounded near a block of flats on Frazier Street, Lambeth at 2.30am on Saturday, October 29. Paul Yusuff, 20, and Matthew Yusuff, 22, of Southwark as well as 23-year-old Moussa Traore of Wandsworth were today charged with Mr Keise's murder, (pictured, the scene where Mr Keise was found) Paul Yusuff, 20, and Matthew Yusuff, 22, of Southwark as well as 23-year-old Moussa Traore of Wandsworth were today charged with Mr Keise's murder. They are due to appear at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court. According to the Metropolitan Police, Paul Yusuff was also charged on suspicion of possessing a knife in a public place. Speaking earlier, Detective Chief Inspector Brian Howie, from the Met's Specialist Crime Command, said: 'It is now nearly a week since Adrian was brutally attacked and killed. 'These arrests demonstrate this investigation is making progress but I still need witnesses and information about the attack. 'If you were in the area of Lower Marsh Street in the early hours of Saturday October 29 and saw the incident that led to Adrian being stabbed, or if you have information that could help this investigation, then I urge you to get in contact. 'Detectives, along with local officers, will also be down at the scene on Friday night to appeal for witnesses. 'If you can help, or have any concerns, then please speak to them.' The force spokesman added: 'A post-mortem examination has taken place and given the cause of death as stab injuries.' The Met also said that Mr Keise's family was being supported by specially trained officers. Hundreds more police will be mobilised into London this weekend in an aggressive crackdown on Just Stop Oil eco-zealots following a month of mayhem. Up to 900 extra Metropolitan Police officers will be patrolling the city's streets amid fears the hard-line environmental group will renew its militant campaign of protests. The group staged 32 days of disruption from the end of September and throughout October, which the Met said resulted in 677 arrests with 111 people charged, and officers working a total of 9,438 extra shifts. Just Stop Oil campaigners agreed to a temporary ceasefire earlier this week, saying they would give the Government until Friday evening to respond to their request to stop investing in new oil and gas. They are expected to renew road-blocking demonstrations on Saturday, when there will also be train strikes in the capital and across the country. Speaking outside Scotland Yard on Friday, Met Commander Jon Savell asked the public to 'bear with' police tackling any unlawful protests, and said there would be 'up to 900' extra officers deployed in London this weekend. 'We will have hundreds of extra officers on duty this weekend in and around the areas where we believe that they will be, and we will be responding to them as and when they appear,' he told the PA news agency. Hundreds of police are being drafted in to clampdown on protests by Just Stop Oil. Pictured: police tackle eco zealots in London on October 27 Just Stop Oil agreed to a temporary pause in its protests to November 4 to allow the Government to consider their demands The group staged 32 days of disruption from the end of September and throughout October, which led to numerous arrests The Met said it resulted in 677 arrests with 111 people charged, and officers working a total of 9,438 extra shifts Police officers lead away supporters of Just Stop Oil after a group blocked briefly the area outside the gates of Downing Street on their 32nd day on November 1 'We will help facilitate them protesting lawfully, but where they cross the boundaries we will act quickly.' He added: 'It is unfortunate that it coincides with the train strikes and there will inevitably be protests in the roads and some of the more iconic places. 'We will work quickly to try and minimise that disruption, and we would just ask the public to bear with us. 'But if there are issues, be reassured that we have hundreds of extra officers on duty, we will be there, and we will take action where its needed.' Asked about the impact of the protests on the Mets capacity to police serious and violent crime, Mr Savell said the force would be 'able to manage' and community policing would 'continue at the levels we would expect to deliver'. 'It does take up a lot of resources, not only for us but for the lawyers and the court systems,' he said. 'That is time and resources that could be better used in tackling community crime, robberies and violence that is a priority for us, but we are here to deal with anything that is unlawful and the public can rely on us.' Earleir this week. the eco-warriors Just Stop Oil declared a temporary ceasefire in their campaign of 'civil resistance' - with a ransom note warning of plans to 'escalate' their demonstrations. Protesters have blocked streets, vandalised building and caused mayhem across the capital. Pictured: Police drag away a woman following a demonstration at Spitalfields Market in East London last week Protesters have used fire extinguishers packed with orange paint to vandalise buildings across London Police officers lead away supporters of Just Stop Oil after a group blocked briefly the area outside the gates of Downing Street on their 32nd day of continuous protest Just Stop Oil is expected to renew road-blocking demonstrations on Saturday, when there will also be train strikes in the capital and across the country. Pictured a protester having spraypainted the MI5 building in London Protesters staged their last demonstration outside Downing Street on Tuesday, pictured The group says it is planning to 'pause' on its road-blocking protests for at least three days while it waits for a response from the Government over its demands to stop licenses for new oil and gas sites in the UK. But the group have vowed to continue their protests again - and even 'escalate' them - if their demands are not met by November 4. In a post on Twitter, the group said: 'From today, Just Stop Oil will pause its campaign of civil resistance. We are giving time to those in the Government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time. 'If, as we sadly expect, we receive no response from ministers to our demand by the end of Friday, November 4, we will escalate our legal disruption against this treasonous Government. Our action will be proportionate to the task of stopping the crime against humanity which is new oil and gas.' It comes as Just Stop Activists attempted to target Trafalgar Square in their latest traffic-stopping eco-protest, only to be quickly moved on by police. The eco-zealots attempted to block traffic around the central London monument this afternoon. But they were met with a heavy police presence and quickly removed from roads. Attempting to revive their flailing protest the group instead took to hollering slogans from the pavement - away from their usual target of traffic. It comes after eco-warriors from the group made a half-hearted attempt to scale the gates of Downing Street on Tuesday - a day after their month of action officially came to an end. But they were quickly stopped by armed police guarding the entrance. The officers easily pushed back the activists, who were then detained. Nearby, other protests from Just Stop Oil attempted to block Whitehall, near the Cenotaph. But once again police quickly intervened, moving aside the eco-warriors as they unfurled a Just Stop Oil banner. The protest took place after the group's month of action in October came to an end yesterday - making today's demonstration the 32nd consecutive day of protests. Eco-warriors Just Stop Oil have declared a temporary ceasefire in their campaign of 'civil resistance' - with a ransom note warning of plans to 'escalate' their demonstrations The group says it is planning to 'pause' on its road-blocking protests for at least three days while it waits for a response from the Government over its demands to stop licenses for new oil and gas sites in the UK Just Stop Oil activists had attempted to target Trafalgar Square during one of their latest traffic-stopping eco-protests, only to be quickly moved on by police Police officers stand watch as Just Stop Oil protesters display banners in Trafalgar Square as they continue their daily protest for the 32nd consecutive day The eco-zealots attempted to block traffic around the famous central London monument this afternoon. But they were met with a heavy police presence and quickly removed from the roads Attempting to revive their flailing protest, the 32nd consecutive day Just Stop Oil have demonstrated away from their usual target of traffic Just Stop Oil protesters display banners in Trafalgar Square as they continue their daily protest for the 32nd consecutive day of protests The eco-warriors had promised to take part in protests every day in October with the aim of convincing the Government to stop granting permission for new oil and gas sites. Speaking on Tuesday, a Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: 'At 11:15 this morning, 22 Just Stop Oil supporters swarmed towards the gates of Downing Street. 'A number of them attempted to scale the gates while others sat down in the road to block the entrance, with some gluing their hands to the tarmac.' On Monday activists from the group targeted the Home Office by spraying orange paint against the front of its headquarters. Just Stop Oil activists have attempted to scale the gates of Downing Street today - a day after their month of action officially came to an end Just Stop Oil continue their daily protest in Westminster outside Downing Street with the aim of getting the Government to stop all new oil fields The group attempted to scale the gates of Downing Street this morning on what is the 32nd consecutive day of protests from the group Police detain Just Stop oil protesters after they attempted to block Whitehall and to scale the gates of Downing Street Nearby, other protests from Just Stop Oil attempted to block Whitehall, near to the Cenotaph. Pictured: A Just Stop Oil activist sits in the middle of Whitehall in front of two buses It comes after the group's month of action came to an end. The eco-warriors had promised to take part in protests every day in October with the aim of convincing the Government to stop granting permission for new oil and gas sites Nearby, other protests from Just Stop Oil attempted to block Whitehall, near to the Cenotaph. But, once again police quickly intervened, moving aside the eco-warriors as they unfurled a Just Stop Oil banner Protesters from the eco-group are currently attempting to block Whitehall, near to the Cenotaph Pictures show police attempting to remove the protesters as they unfurl a Just Stop Oil banner Police appear to detain a Just Stop Oil activist near Downing Street on day 32 of action from the eco-group Police appear to detain and lead away Just Stop Oil activists near to Downing Street today It comes after a member of the public defied police calls to not 'directly intervene' with Just Stop Oil activist. More than 180 eco-zealots are served with injunctions after month of Just Stop Oil chaos A High Court judge has ordered more than 180 eco zealots not to block roads in London following the intensification of Just Stop Oil protests after the coalition launched a month of chaos. The eco mob has caused mayhem this October as it staged protests across London including blocking bridges, roads, roundabouts, as well as carrying out stunts including throwing soup over Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting and spraying orange paint over car showrooms, department stores and government buildings. Mr Justice Freedman granted injunctions at a High Court hearing in London after an application by Transport for London (TfL), which said protests were a 'risk to life'. Another judge had recently made an order against 62 named people. Mr Justice Freedman continued that injunction and made an order against a further 121 named people, bringing the total to 183. He was told that the names of those 121 people had been given to TfL by the Metropolitan Police after they had been arrested at protests. The judge also made an order against 'persons unknown'. Mr Justice Freedman delivered a ruling on Monday after considering evidence at a hearing on Thursday. Lawyers representing TfL had told him that since the start of October 'protest activity' had 'very largely focused' on London roads. They said the 'deliberate blocking' of roads caused serious disruption and created a 'risk to life'. Advertisement The frustrated passerby was seen tackling a protester as they sprayed orange paint across a building using a fire extinguisher on Monday. Video captured the moment the furious passerby jostled with the climate activist for the device and sprayed them with paint as they doused the front of the MI5 building on Millbank in Westminster. Tez Burns, a 34-year-old bicycle mechanic from Swansea, could be heard saying 'I don't want to do this' but added that their 'simple' demand was for 'no new fossil fuel licenses' in an expletive-laden exchange with the member of the public this morning. After the incident, Burns said: 'The government has taken our future, I want our future back. It's criminal inaction. 'The government does nothing. What does it do? It issues new fossil fuel licenses, it says we need to drain every last drop of oil out of the North Sea. 'That goes against everything that all of these internationally respected bodies are telling us.' They continued: 'Here I am, an ordinary person having to do this. You think I like it? No, this is something that I feel is a duty that I have to do as a citizen of the UK, when our government is criminal. I'm devastated. I'm furious.' It comes despite police last week pleading with the public to call them to deal with eco-protesters instead of taking matters into their own hands. So far six eco-activists have been arrested for criminal damage after using fire extinguishers to douse paint on the Home Office and MI5 building, the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street in the City of London and the headquarters of News Corp at London Bridge. The MI5 building was one of four chosen by the group that they say represent the pillars that support and maintain the power of the fossil fuel economy government, security, finance and media. Later, activists sat in the middle of the road on Victoria Street outside the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Three people were arrested on suspicion of obstruction of the highway and taken into custody at a central London police station, with the road re-opening soon after. Video captured the moment the furious passer-by jostled with the climate activist for control of the device and sprayed them with paint as they doused the front of the MI5 building on Millbank in Westminster This is the moment a passerby intervened with a paint-wielding protester vandalised the MI5 building on Millbank on Monday morning Speaking about Monday's protest, a Just Stop Oil spokesman said: 'We are not prepared to stand by and watch while everything we love is destroyed, while vulnerable people go hungry and fossil fuel companies and the rich profit from our misery. 'The era of fossil fuels should be long gone, but the creeping tentacles of fossil fuel interests continue to corrupt our politics, government and the media as they have for decades. 'How else do you explain a government ignoring sensible no-brainer policies like renewables, insulation and public transport, which would cut our energy bills and our carbon emissions, in favour of corrupt schemes to drill for uneconomic oil and gas at taxpayers expense? 'Well were done with begging. We are acting to stop new oil and gas because it is the right thing to do. As citizens, as parents we have every right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love. 'The government has the power to end the disruption today by agreeing to stop new oil and gas licences and consents.' An alarming video shows a Molotov cocktail being thrown inside a donut shop days before it was to host a drag event - the second time in two weeks the shop got vandalized. The latest attack at The Donut Hole located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a locally owned and operated store, happened on Monday night around 2 am. The shocking video shows the masked intruder tossing a wooden stick into the retail store's front window, shattering the glass before lighting a Molotov cocktail and tossing it into the shop then fleeing, The Kansas City Star reported. A neighboring business said that a letter containing 'anti-LGBTQ rhetoric' was also posted on their door. City fire officials said the person responsible will face charges of arson and endangering human lives, KOTV News reported. The alleged hate crime took place fifteen days before a second drag queen event was to happen at the donut eatery. In the video, the disguised man is seen throwing the Molotov cocktail into the window The aftermath of the Molotov cocktail and vandalism that took place at The Donut Shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma The Queens Dirty Dozens, which is run by drag queens, planned on handing out 300 free donuts at the Monday night event to thank the community for their support after the first vandalism incident took place on October 15 The Queens Dirty Dozens, which is run by drag queens, planned on handing out 300 free donuts at the Monday night event to thank the community for their support after the first vandalism incident took place on October 15. The Donut Hole eatery was supporting The Queens Dirty Dozens and hosting their art-installation event at their venue that had more than 500 attendees. After the first violent attack, The Queens Dirty Dozen went to social media with the message: 'We survive. Love still wins.' But, when it happened a second time Daniel Gulick, the host of the event, expressed his devastation. 'My art installation was the catalyst for these horrible acts. I know I'm not responsible, but I can't help but take some of the blame for these things. It's a terrible feeling.' The owners of The Donut Hole are pictured Sarah Swain and Brian Hunter The exterior of The Donut Hole, a locally owned and operated donut shop, is located in the Brookside district in Tulsa The Donut Hole serves up classic, glazed, specialty doughnuts and hot coffee. The photo shows the interior of the retail store Sarah Swain stands beside the boarded window boarded up after the latest attack at her donut shop that took place on Monday around 2 am The shop owners - Sarah Swain and Brian Hunter - told the news outlet the damage to their store was minimal when the store was vandalized for the first time. The art-inspired event at The Donut Hole was Gulick's idea to transform the donut shop into The Queens Dirty Dozens for a night. During the event, drag queens passed out doughnut sculptures with bright coloring or phrases written on them. But hours after the event, Swain and Hunter, saw their store vandalized that included a shattered window, KTUL reported. On October 16, the owners went to Facebook to share the news of the success of their event, but also the reaction of hate, calling it 'malicious acts.' 'But in ones attempt to rain on our parade, the community answered by showing overwhelming support,' the owners wrote. 'These malicious acts have resulted in thousands of dollars going towards the cause this entire event was meant to support. Love wins.' After the first incident, the community rallied, and a GoFundMe was created which raised more than $24,000. There is a person of interest in the latest arson case, according to Tulsa firefighters, but it is unclear if it was the same person who carried out the first act. The Brookside Business Association which oversees the Brookside district in Tulsa said they were 'heartbroken' by the vandalism stating, in part, that 'violence will never be the right response.' 'We, as a business association representing Brookside, unconditionally and unequivocally, condemn these destructive actions and behaviors.' A group of activists on Friday threw pea soup onto a Vincent van Gogh masterpiece in Rome, in a protest they warned will continue until more attention was paid to climate change. 'The Sower', an 1888 painting by the Dutch artist depicting a farmer sowing his land under a dominating sun, was exhibited behind glass and undamaged. Security intervened immediately and removed the protesters kneeling in front of 'The Sower' at the Palazzo Bonaparte. Protesters from the same group, the Last Generation, earlier blocked a highway near Rome. Four activists were arrested, according to news reports. This is the latest vandalism attack by environmental groups on world famous artworks. Activist on Friday threw pea soup onto a Vincent van Gogh's 'The Sower' in Rome This is just the latest in a series of attacks by environmental activists targeting artwork The vandals then glued their hands to the wall after throwing the soup at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome The climate activists from Last Generation called their protest 'a desperate and scientifically grounded cry that cannot be understood as mere vandalism'. 'Non-violent direct actions will continue until citizens get answers from their government on the demands to stop gas and coal and to invest in at least 20 GW of renewables,' they said in a statement. Video taken from inside a museum gallery crowded with visitors show two young women throwing a liquid substance onto the painting. They and a third woman are then seen gluing their hands to the wall as shouting erupts in the room. A total of four activists have been arrested following the incident in Rome The group from Last Generation threw pea soup over the 'The Sewer' at the Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome Security removed the protesters who were kneeling in front of the painting, having glued their hands to the wall Video images showed two young women throwing a liquid substance on to the painting 'For shame!' someone in the crowd can be heard shouting. The stunt backfired for some onlookers. 'It totally defeats the purpose,' Hans Bergetoft, a tourist from Stockholm, said. 'I am really for the cause in itself, but not the action. Not the action that they took. Not at all.' Italy's new culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, condemned the protest. 'Attacking art is an ignoble act that must be firmly condemned,' he said. 'Culture, which is the basis of our identity, must be defended and protected, and certainly not used as a megaphone for other forms of protest. The painting belongs to the Kroller-Muller Museum in the Netherlands and was on loan for a show in Italy's capital featuring works by Van Gogh. Officials said the 1888 painting was undamaged. Climate activists have carried out a series of attacks - using soup, cake or mashed potatoes - in Europe in recent weeks. Last month, a pair of demonstrators glued themselves to the floor after throwing soup on Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' at the National Gallery in London One of the protestors said after the stunt: 'What is worth more, art or life?' before they glued themselves to the wall The 76 million piece of art was 'unharmed' during the climate demonstration on October 14 They have targeted masterpieces such as the 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo da Vinci in the Louvre in Paris or 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' by Johannes Vermeer at The Hague's Mauritshuis museum. In October, the group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' at London's National Gallery. All of those paintings were covered by glass and were undamaged. 'Everything that we would have the right to see in our present and our future is being obscured by a real and imminent catastrophe, just as this pea puree has covered the work in the fields...' Last Generation said in its statement Friday. 'The Sower' is on show at Rome's Palazzo Bonaparte, part of an exhibition of 50 paintings by Dutch master Van Gogh on loan from the Kroller Muller Museum in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The heavily criticised commander of one of Russia's five military districts is taking a three-week holiday, it has been revealed, a day after reports said he had been fired. Major-General Alexander Lapin has been the subject of rare public criticism in Russia for the performance of his troops fighting in Ukraine. Western officials reported on Thursday that the hapless general, thought to be responsible for defences in Donbas, had been given the sack by the Kremlin. However, according to regional news agency Ura.ru, Lapin is in fact taking a three week break - despite Moscow's armies being nine months into a faltering invasion. The Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters Thursday about the current employment status of the Vladimir Putin-appointed head of Russia's central military district. But the Russian newspaper Kommersant cited the press office of the Central Military District, based like Ura.ru in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, as confirming that a temporary commander was standing in for Lapin. Major-General Alexander Lapin (pictured shaking hands with Vladimir Putin) has been the subject of rare public criticism in Russia for the performance of his troops fighting in Ukraine Lapin has been the subject of rare public criticism by two close and increasingly vocal allies of President Vladimir Putin: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military group. Both have sent units to Ukraine to bolster the efforts of the regular army. Kadyrov said a month ago, after Russian forces were driven out of the strategic logistics hub of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, that Lapin should be stripped of his medals and sent to the front with a gun to wash away his shame with blood. According to regional news agency Ura.ru, Lapin is taking a three week holiday Russia has made sweeping changes to its military leadership in the last two months as Ukrainian forces have reclaimed thousands of square kilometres in the northeast, east and south from Russian occupation. On October 8 it named Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, shortly after the reported sacking of the commanders of the Eastern and Western military districts. In September, the deputy defence minister in charge of logistics, General Dmitry Bulgakov, was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, accused by the European Union of orchestrating a siege of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol early in the conflict that killed thousands of civilians. And in August, the state-owned RIA news agency reported that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet had been fired after a series of humiliations including the sinking of its flagship and the loss of eight warplanes in an attack on a Russian base in Crimea. Lapin's stand-in as commander of the Central District is Major-General Alexander Linkov, head of its organisational and mobilisation department, Kommersant said. General Lapin is the last commander who ordered Russian forces across Ukraine's border in February who was still in post. His departure would speak to a shift of power taking place inside the Kremlin away from the Ministry of Defence and to warlords such as Kadyrov and Prigozhin. Lapin has been the subject of rare public criticism by two close and increasingly vocal allies of President Vladimir Putin: Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military group Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers fire a round on the frontline from a T80 tank that was captured from Russians during a battle in Trostyanets in March, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut, Ukraine, November 4, 2022 News of Lapin's 'holiday' came as Moscow pushed ahead with a civilian pullout from the Russian-occupied Kherson region amid a mounting Ukrainian counter-offensive, with Putin saying residents must be 'removed' from danger zones. The Russian army said 'more than 5,000 civilians' were being led across the Dnipro River every day, showing footage of soldiers directing lines of cars onto flotillas crossing over to the river's eastern bank. Moscow's forces began urging civilians to leave Kherson in mid-October, vowing to turn the region's main city of the same name into a fortress ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian offensive. Kyiv has likened the departures to Soviet-style 'deportations' of its people. 'Those who live in Kherson should be removed from zones of dangerous fighting,' Putin said on Red Square as he marked Russian Unity Day, a patriotic holiday. 'The civilian population should not suffer from shelling, an offensive, a counter-offensive or other such things,' he said. While no final call has been made, western officials believe Russian commanders have decided that Kherson 'is not worth defending' and that fleeing to better positions across the Dnipro will improve their chances of holding on as winter falls. They spoke Thursday as footage emerged from Kherson showing a Russian flag that has been flying over city hall for months has suddenly disappeared. Russia has removed a flag from the top of city hall in Kherson as Western officials say commanders are in advanced stages of planning a retreat News of Russia's withdrawal from Kherson follows weeks of back-and-forth claims about the situation there - with Russia hinting the city is about to fall while Ukraine insists Putin is reinforcing it. Complicating the situation is a near-total news blackout from Ukrainian forces on the frontlines as they try to break through Russian defences. Two weeks ago, there was hope the city was on the verge of being liberated as General Surovikin - head of Russian forces in Ukraine - warned of a 'tense' situation and began evacuating civilians. But as the days ticked by with no sign of a Ukrainian breakthrough, Kyiv began briefing that wet weather and mud was hindering its advance. Western countries, meanwhile, have urged Putin to extend a landmark deal for the export of Ukrainian grain to avert a global food crisis, which is up for renewal on November 19. Russia rejoined the UN-brokered deal on Wednesday, after suspending its participation for four days over a drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in Russian-annexed Crimea, but has threatened to pull out again. On a visit to China, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Putin to extend the deal. 'Hunger must not be used as a weapon,' he said. 'I urge the Russian president not to refuse to extend the grain agreement which ends in a few days.' He asked China's Xi Jinping - who has good relations with Putin - to use Beijing's 'influence' on Moscow to stop fighting in Ukraine. 'The Russian war in Ukraine is a dangerous situation for the whole world,' Scholz said. The G7 group of wealthy nations also said it wants Russia to prolong the deal that allows the safe passage of grain shipments from Ukraine. Its top diplomats have held two days of talks in the western German city of Muenster, with Ukraine topping the agenda. Ten Greenpeace activists who forced a tanker carrying 30million of Russian diesel to U-turn in the River Thames have been cleared of aggravated trespass, with a judge stating Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine 'could be described as terrorism'. The defendants, aged between 27 and 72, claimed they were 'preventing a crime' by occupying a jetty at Navigator Terminals in Grays, Essex, preventing the vessel from unloading. District judge Christopher Williams, who returned his judgment at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Friday, said: 'I take the view it's more than likely the Russian war could be described as terrorism.' The 10 defendants had denied, and were each cleared of, a single charge of obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in a lawful activity under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The charge said that they trespassed on land at Navigator Terminals and blocked the jetty, obstructing or disrupting 'a lawful activity, namely fuel distribution'. Henry Blaxand KC, defending, questioned whether the unloading of the Russian diesel was lawful activity, and the judge said that 'in my view the unloading of the oil was the potential offence'. The protesters broke out into applause and there were cheers as the judge found each of them not guilty. Greenpeace activists (left to right) Lyndall Stein, Mike Grant, Ben Hearne-Salter, Henry Rayner, David James, Rhiannon Wood, Kim Harrison, Benji Bailes, Ian Mills and Zoe Pontida outside Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, Essex before their trial for blocking a jetty at an oil terminal in Grays, Essex. They were all cleared by a judge on Friday Andromeda a Greek registered Oil Taker arrives in the River Thames to offload 33,000 Tonnes of Russian Diesel 24 hours late after members of Greenpeace held up its discharge on May 10 The 10 defendants had denied, and were each cleared of, a single charge of obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in a lawful activity under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 Prosecutor Monali Ralerasker argued that the case did not 'require an analysis of what's morally right and what's morally wrong'. But the judge said it was 'arguable that offences may have been committed under the Terrorism Act 2000', and that the 'activity which the defendants disrupted was the very thing they were protesting about'. The protesters took two dinghy boats to access the jetty from the riverside late on May 15 this year. Activists attached themselves to the structure and displayed a banner that said 'oil fuels war'. The Andromeda tanker, which was Greek-flagged and carrying Russian oil, was turned around in the Thames in the early hours of May 16. One of the activists who scaled the jetty, former lieutenant colonel Michael Grant, 62, told the court: 'The purpose of the action was to draw attention to the fact that fossil fuels were being imported and thereby funding Putin's war.' Speaking afterwards, Mr Grant said: 'This is a fantastic result. One of the Greenpeace activists pictured as the group stopped a tanker carrying 33,000 tonnes of Russian diesel from docking in Essex 'This verdict is not just a relief for us but a complete vindication of the ethical beliefs that led us to act.' Another of the activists, teacher Zoe Pontida, described it as a 'seismic verdict'. The 32-year-old said: 'It doesn't just fully vindicate our action, it also puts the UK government squarely in the dock. 'The judge has recognised that we are just ordinary people whose conscience compelled us to stop the oil funding Putin's campaign of state terrorism in Ukraine.' The defendants were: Benji Bailes, 38, of Gloucester; Michael Grant, 62, of Rosewell, Midlothian; Kim Harrison, 38, of Oldham, Greater Manchester; Benjamin Hearne-Salter, 41, of Kashmir Road, south London; David James, 62, of Bromfelde Road, south London; Ian Mills, 56, of Chippenham, Wiltshire; Zoe Pontida, 32, of Oxford; Henry Rayner, 28, of Ivanhoe Road, south London; Lyndall Stein, 72, of Surrey Row, south London; Rhiannon Wood, 27, of Hedge End, near Southampton, Hampshire. The boys are asking that the policy be 'applied to all parties equally' The dean apologized to them and the school has sent an email out saying they 'will work harder' to consistently apply the rule 'We have no problem with any of those flags hanging,' Turco said. 'Everyone should be able to put their flags up' McCole and Turco said they had hung the flags after seeing others hanging up LBGT, transgender, and Black Lives Matter flags An administrator came to remove the flags and the boys say they were told that some found their flags 'offensive' Two Trinity College students say the school removed their US flags with the Gadsden symbol and the Blue, Green, Red Line flag - representing police, military and first responders - for being 'offensive.' The Connecticut college, however, allowed other student's pride and Black Lives Matter flags to stay up. Finn McCole and Lucas Turco hung up two versions of the American flag outside their dorm windows on the Hartford campus after noticing others had hung flags up too. 'They had LGBTQ flags, they had transgender flags, BLM flags, which we have no problem with any of those flags hanging,' Turco told Fox News' Jesse Watters, who went to the school. 'We believe everyone has the right to their opinion and their own beliefs, and that everyone should be able to put their flags up and so me and Finn thought: "Why don't we put up some flags we personally believe in?"' Turco said they had the Don't Tread On Me flag up to symbolize their 'love of equality for all people' and the line flag 'to show our reverence for first responders, our family members, our firemen, and police officers.' 'They said that the reason they were taken down was that some people viewed the flags as offensive and I think it's an absolute shame that those flags can be offensive,' Turco said on the show. Finn McCole (right) and Lucas Turco (left) hung up flags outside their dorm that were taken down for being 'offensive.' Turco said: 'We believe everyone has the right to their opinion and their own beliefs, and that everyone should be able to put their flags up and so me and Finn thought: "Why don't we put up some flags we personally believe in?"' They had a US Flag with the Gadsden snake symbol on it and a Blue Green Red Line flag, with each color representing either police, military, or the fire department. The students said they hung the flags after seeing other student hang LBGT, transgender, and Black Lives Matter flags Video, originally posted to TikTok, shows a blonde administrator climbing up a ladder to pull down their flags. When the boys asked who the woman was, she told them to talk to the dean. Another woman told them that a 'message' would be sent from the Dean's Office before they attempted to walk away with the flags. 'Excuse me, excuse me, I'll take my flags, thank you very much,' one of the boys can be heard saying in the video. The blonde woman replied: 'There are going to go to the Dean's Office.' 'I bought these, you're not taking my property, this is stealing. The college does not have the right to take my flags. This is mine, and that was ridiculous.' When they pointed out that other flags were hanging on campus, they were told they were waiting for the Dean's response. The roommates told Watters that the flags were taken down because others deemed the message 'offensive.' 'They're just about loving your country and the people who protect us.' 'It's a sad state of affairs,' McCole agreed. 'From our conversations with the dean, they seemed very open to apologizing [to] us, but it doesn't change the fact what you saw in the video.' University president Joanne Berger-Sweeney sent an email to students about the situation, writing: 'The removal of two flags outside a Trinity College student residence hall window last week has sparked a conversation across social media about freedom of speech at Trinity. 'As I understand the matter, an apology was issued on the same day of the removal to the students who own the flags for the manner in which the policy was enforced. We will work harder to ensure greater awareness and consistent compliance moving forward.' They hung up two versions of the American flag outside their dorm windows at Trinity College after noticing others had hung flags up too, but a school employee came to remove them after others deemed them 'offensive' They also attempted to take the flags back to the Dean's Office, but one of the boys refused to allow them to remove their 'property' McCole said on social media that the dean apologized to them, but they are calling for the rule to be 'applied to all parties equally' In mid-October, the school posted a picture of a pride flagging hanging outside of the Austin Art Center on campus, with the caption: 'Today kicks off Ally Week at #TrinColl!' McCole said in an Instagram post that it was their understanding that 'flags were allowed to be hung on campus. 'You may agree or disagree with [our] ideologies, and that's totally fine, but we feel that we should have an opportunity to express them under the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression. 'When we asked for clarification on the grounds of their removal, we were told that no flags were to be hung on campus. Despite this, no one else who has a flag hung on campus has been told of this rule, and obviously no one else has had their flags forcibly removed in this fashion.' They are now asking that the rule be 'applied to all parties equally.' In mid-October, the school posted a photo (pictured) on Twitter about being an ally to the LBGT+ community and showed a pride flag hanging on campus. The president of the school has since sent an email to students, saying it 'will work harder to ensure greater awareness and consistent compliance moving forward' Although the Don't Tread on Me flag used to have the same ideology as the young men described, it has since become embroiled in far-right controversy. The flag, typically seen with a yellow background, was seen flying during the January 6 Capitol riot. The Revolutionary War flag has now morphed into a reported message that the government is the oppressor that was threatening an individual's freedom, according to the Oregonian. It is now seen by some as a symbol of intolerance and some have even taken it as a racist symbol, according to the outlet. The Blue Green Red Line flag is has three different colored stripes on it. Blue represents police, red represents fire departments or first responders, and green for the military. The Thin Blue Line flag, a variation of the same flag, has received a lot of slack after the death of George Floyd, with many saying the flag was racist as the Blue Lives Matter movement emerged out of Black Lives Matter. The Thin Blue Line Flag was also seen at the January 6 riot. The White House on Friday was forced to clean up President Joe Biden's comments after he appeared to say he was ready to intervene to help the country's protest movement. At a campaign event in San Diego, California, a day earlier, Biden said: 'Dont worry, were going to free Iran. They're going to free themselves pretty soon.' His words triggered speculation that Washington was preparing action to support growing protests, as well as scornful remarks by the Iranian president, who accused Biden of being 'absent minded.' A day later, one of his top national security aides was asked what he had meant by his comments. 'The president was expressing our solidarity with the protesters as he's been doing, quite frankly, from the very outset - even in the well of the UN - making it clear that we stand with the men and women of Iran who are peacefully trying to protest ... policies that they find are violating their basic civil and human rights,' said John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communication. He added that there had been no change Iran has been rocked by popular protests ever since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being detained by the morality police for wearing a hijab 'improperly President Joe Biden on Thursday said: 'We're going to free Iran.' Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran had been freed in 1979, and blamed his remarks on 'absent mindedness 'We're going to continue to look for ways to hold the regime accountable for the way that they're treating their own people,' said Kirby. 'It's going to be - it should be up to the people of Iran to determine their future. 'And that hasn't changed. It has to be up to the people of Iran.' Iran has been rocked by protests ever since a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody on Sept. 16 after being arrested for being inappropriately dressed. While past demonstrations have focused on issues such as election results and economic hardships, current protests are focused on demanding a new political order. Tehran did not see Biden's comments in the same light. In a speech marking the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said: 'Mr. President, Iran was freed 43 years ago. 'Iran is determined not to fall into your captivity, and will never become your cash cow.' He put the comments down to Biden's 'absent-mindedness.' Protesters are demanding a new political order in Iran after the death of Amini Biden made his comments in an aside during a campaign speech when members of the audience held up cellphones displaying the message: 'Free Iran. It is not the first time that the White House has been forced to clean up Biden's foreign policy stance. Officials have repeatedly had to walk back Biden's promise to defend Taiwan if China makes good on its promises to seize the autonomous island. Several times he has got out ahead of official American foreign policy of 'strategic ambiguity' which helps arm Taiwan and its government but is vague on how far Washington would actually go in protecting its freedom. In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in August last year he said Washington would 'respond' to a Chinese invasion, comparing its commitment with that of defending a N.A.T.O. ally. Officials were quick to brief journalists. 'Our policy with regard to Taiwan has not changed,' a senior administration official said at the time. The committee is demanding answers from the FBI on why they labeled Hunter's laptop 'Russian disinformation' Zuckerberg said it came after the FBI warned them to be on 'on high alert' for 'Russian propaganda' The report noted scandalous details revealed from Hunter's abandoned laptop, including thousands he paid 'to individuals involved in prostitution' The allegations are detailed in the committee's 1,050-page report released Friday on the politicization and misconduct in the FBI The House Judiciary Committee slammed the FBI for 'turning a blind eye' and giving Hunter Biden 'preferential treatment' in a 1,050 page report released Friday. Senior Republicans claimed the Bureau 'downplayed' the scandal of Hunter's foreign business deals and potential illegal activity in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election and 'even colluded with social media platform Facebook to suppress information.' The report pointed to an interview in August this year of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan Experience, in which Zuckerberg admitted his company censored stories about Joe Biden's involvement in Hunter's business dealings after the FBI warned them to be on 'on high alert' for 'Russian propaganda'. The report noted scandalous details revealed from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, including a $3.5million wire from the mayor of Moscow's widow, thousands of dollars Hunter paid 'to individuals involved in human trafficking and organized prostitution', his controversial board seat with a Ukrainian gas company, and the Biden family's $10million business deal with a Chinese company with close links to the country's communist regime. The committee is still demanding answers from more than 50 top current and former intelligence officials on why they labeled Hunter Biden's laptop 'Russian disinformation' in an open letter ahead of the election. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee claim the FBI 'downplayed' Hunter Biden's foreign business deals in the weeks before the 2020 election. One photo taken by Hunter and obtained from his laptop shows Hunter with two prostitutes. The report noted scandalous details revealed from Hunter's abandoned laptop, including thousands Hunter paid 'to individuals involved in prostitution' Hunter is pictured celebrating with his father Joe after the presidential victory in 2020 The allegations are detailed in the committee's 1,050-page report released Friday on the politicization and misconduct in the FBI The report included copies of letters sent to the officials by the Judiciary Committee earlier this year, asking for 'all documents and communications' to get to the bottom of how the open letter was cooked up. In Spring 2021 DailyMail.com commissioned an analysis by leading cyber forensics experts which concluded that the laptop data was real. Other publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post have since admitted the authenticity of material on the laptop after their own investigations. But the signatories to the letter, which include former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper and ex CIA directors Mike Hayden, Leon Panetta and John Brennan, have not retracted or revised their statements. Hunter Biden's company Rosemont Realty got a $40million investment from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina. Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Yuri Luzhkov's widow Baturina attended a farewell ceremony for Luzhkov together Documents show Rosemont Realty's investors included Inteco Management AG, a Swiss company owned by the richest woman in Russia The report pointed to an interview in August this year of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan Experience, in which Zuckerberg admitted his company censored stories about Joe Biden's involvement in Hunter's business dealings after the FBI warned them to be on 'on high alert' for 'Russian propaganda' The Judiciary Committee report also rounded on one recently-retired FBI official Timothy Thibault, a senior agent in the Washington Field Office, citing Bureau whistleblowers who claim he was 'allegedly part of the effort to suppress evidence damaging to the Biden family in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election.' Whistleblowers disclosed to Senator Chuck Grassley, who has been investigating Hunter Biden for the past four years, that 'there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation,' the report said. 'Thibault was part of a 'scheme' to discredit derogatory Hunter Biden information,' the report said. It added that Thibault has refused to appear for a transcribed interview with the committee, despite his public statement that he would 'welcome any investigation' into the case. In one set of bizarre photos, Hunter poses topless with a woman and grins as he pulls her hair while she crouches on the bed 'Mounting evidence from the last two years shows that Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, has received preferential treatment from federal law enforcement, who seem to have turned a blind eye to the potential national security threats presented by his business dealings with Chinese, Russian, and other foreign nationals,' the report said. 'Other evidence suggests that the FBI may have even colluded with social media platform Facebook to suppress information on these allegations from the public in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election.' The report noted Zuckerberg's August 25 interview with Rogan, where he claimed the FBI warned his team away from stories about Hunter Biden. 'Basically the background here is the FBI, I think basically came to ussome folks on our teamand was like, 'Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert,' Zuckerberg told Rogan. 'We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically there's about to be some kind of dump that's similar to that. So just be vigilant.' he said, describing the alleged FBI warning. A former Conservative mayor has been fined 500 after he drove his car at a hospital Covid testing centre nurse in a row over queue-jumping. Vaughan Hewett was said to be 'very angry' that another vehicle had driven into a bay ahead of him, and aggressively told NHS worker Susan Dyett 'I pay your wages', it was claimed. The 66-year-old, who was elected mayor of Medway Council in Kent in 2012, had taken his wife Jennifer to the 'drive-thru' testing centre in the grounds of Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham on the morning of April 16 last year. She had been diagnosed with terminal secondary breast cancer in her liver and bones and required proof of a negative result as she was due to start treatment with a new drug. Vaughan Hewett was said to be 'very angry' that another vehicle had driven into a bay ahead of him, and aggressively told NHS worker Susan Dyett 'I pay your wages', it was claimed It was alleged that following the retired geophysicist's 'aggressive and abusive' outburst after a Mercedes car had pushed in front of his Skoda Yeti, he drove forward, striking Mrs Dyett while she was standing in front of his vehicle noting down his registration number. Mrs Dyett, dressed in her blue scrubs, told Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, she felt her leg being hit around the hip area although suffered no injury as a result. She told jurors that although she had been bending down to read the number plate, Hewett could clearly see her before he moved forward and deliberately hit her. Hewett however maintained he had not shown any aggression and had simply been 'seeking clarification' when he had asked about the need to queue. He said he raised his voice because he was wearing a Covid mask and his window was only lowered a few inches. He also denied make any contact in his car with Mrs Dyett after she, he claimed, had 'recklessly rushed' in front of him. He told the jury the 'queue controller' was putting on 'a performance for a purpose' and described her behaviour as being 'like a pantomime'. Hewett also claimed when giving evidence that he had been 'attacked' by Mrs Dyett when she rapped on his car window with a pen. His wife told the court that Mrs Dyett had been 'spoiling for a fight', adding that although Hewett was 'irritated' the queue had been jumped, it was 'not in his nature' to be aggressive or swear. Ex-councillor Hewett, from Rainham, Kent, denied assault on an emergency worker and dangerous driving. He was found guilty of dangerous driving on a 10-2 majority verdict but cleared of the assault charge after the jury of seven men and five women deliberated for five-and-a-half hours. The court heard that he had had a 'distinguished' professional career which had taken him around the world. As well as being fined, Hewett was banned from driving for a year and ordered to pay 500 compensation to Mrs Dyett and 2,000 court costs, all to be paid within two months. Passing sentence, Recorder Stuart Trimmer KC told him: 'The jury has convicted you of dangerous driving on the basis you drove in a way that put at risk Mrs Dyett. 'Driving in such a way where a human is in front of you is without doubt dangerous and to do that falls far short of what would be expected of a careful and competent driver. 'Whether or not you brought about a collision with her, you brought about substantial distress to her.' At Hewett's trial, prosecutor John FitzGerald told the court that the pensioner would have been understandably 'stressed and anxious' that day at the hospital, with his wife due to undergo vital cancer treatment in two days time. He said it therefore 'did not take much' for the one-time mayor to behave 'arrogantly, condescendingly, rudely and aggressively', and then lose his temper and drive at Mrs Dyett. Hewett had taken his wife Jennifer to the 'drive-thru' testing centre in the grounds of Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham on the morning of April 16 last year After the verdicts, defence counsel Nicolas Robinson said Hewett was of previous 'impeccable' character, serving the community and carrying out charitable work. Of the hospital incident, he told the court: 'It was a moment's inattention or a moment's careless thinking not thinking and driving when the lady was in front of him.' It was at about 9.40am when Mrs Dyett told the jury she heard a man shouting and 'causing a scene' as she came out of her office in the Covid testing area in the hospital grounds. The court was told when she approached the Skoda, Hewett was angry and, with an abusive tone, asked her 'Is this how you work now? People are allowed to jump the queue.' Mrs Dyett said she assured him no one would be seen before his wife but he continued shouting. 'He was still going on about how people had jumped the queue and then he told me he pays my wages,' she told jurors as she gave evidence. 'I was kind of taken aback and embarrassed he had come out with that because there were so many other people around. 'You don't expect people to be shouting they pay your wages because they haven't been able to get into a bay before someone else.' Mrs Dyett said his wife was asking him to calm down but he continued to be abusive. Mrs Hewett was then asked to step out of the car so her swab test could be performed. 'She told me I should have answered her husband quicker with the response I had given him that, I assume, no one would have been seen before her,' added Mrs Dyett. The court heard that when Hewett would not calm down, Mrs Dyett decided to alert security over the radio. 'I was there as a professional just doing my job. I didn't like the way he was acting and I did explain that was the reason I was calling security because no one should have to put up with that kind of aggression,' she told the jury. 'We are there to do a service and why should we put up with that? We are not there to take that abuse from people.' Hewett's wife Jennifer (pictured right) told the court that Mrs Dyett had been 'spoiling for a fight' However, Hewett was said to have 'carried on shouting about people pushing in' and would not speak to the two security officers when they arrived. Mrs Dyett told the court she stood a couple of feet in front of the vehicle, wanting to take his registration number as 'a precaution' because she knew his wife, who by now had returned to the vehicle, was going to be a 'regular customer'. Describing the moment she alleged she had been hit, Mrs Dyett said: 'I am crouching down to read the plate, not a full bend, and as I have looked up, he has looked at me and just driven and hit me with the car. 'He clearly could see me, I could clearly see him. He hit me on my right hand side, on my hip or leg area. 'It made me jump because I didn't realise he would actually do that. I didn't realise anyone could treat someone in that way. 'We are there to do a service and the abuse he gave and the way he drove his car was just embarrassing, really embarrassing. 'I moved out of the way so he could come out of the bay and he did, he just drove off. 'He didn't stop and ask if I was okay. He didn't do anything. He just drove away.' Mrs Dyett said she was hit twice - the first being the hardest and the second occurring 'because I didn't move out of the way quick enough'. But she told the court she did not require any treatment. She denied when cross-examined by defence barrister Nicolas Robinson that she had been 'very worked up' with Hewett and 'lost all perspective'. The trial at Maidstone Crown Court heard Ms Dyett was left with 'soft tissue' damage Security guard Jordan Brown said although Hewett's window was partly lowered, he would not speak to him other than to raise his voice and shout 'What you are doing is illegal'. He told the court Mrs Dyett was directly in front of the Skoda when Hewett 'rolled' forward and hit her. Mr Brown, who claimed his leg was also 'clipped' by the vehicle, added he then ordered everyone to let the car leave and that they would pass the information on to police. Another hospital worker told police he had heard Hewett 'shouting expletives' and then 'revving his engine' as the car moved forwards. Hewett, however, told the court that as he started moving, Mrs Dyett had 'just appeared out of a crowd' and ran in front of him. 'She was shouting 'Stop him! He is getting away' and plonked herself in the middle of the road,' he explained to the jury. 'I put the brakes on. Mrs Dyett was standing in front of me and I could still see the bottom of her blue scrubs. 'She started dancing around saying 'Oh, you've hit me'...She made a pantomime of it.' He maintained throughout his evidence in court that he had not been aggressive, and had asked 'a straightforward question' about the need to queue after his wife told him the Mercedes had pushed in. He also denied making the remark about paying Mrs Dyett's wages. He told jurors he had asked whether she was 'NHS or voluntary worker' and then told her that as she was 'paid NHS' he could report her for not managing the queue properly. Asked to explain his 'illegal' comment to Mr Brown, Hewett said that they had been told to leave by Mrs Dyett's supervisor and so he felt his wife was being denied her test and would not get her cancer medication. He denied the prosecution's suggestion he had sat in his car 'stewing and frustrated'. 'I drove off not because I had done it but because I hadn't done anything,' added Hewett. Asked by Mr FitzGerald for a reason why Mrs Dyett and her colleagues might be lying about his behaviour that day, Hewett replied: 'Somebody who got up from a bad hair day, overheard my conversation with Jennifer and wanted to stir the hornets' nest up.' Mrs Dyett said she was hit twice - the first being the hardest and the second occurring 'because I didn't move out of the way quick enough' Hewett, who once described himself as 'a modern Conservative', served as a Tory councillor for Rainham North for seven years, before becoming an Independent Conservative in 2014 and then defecting to Ukip in 2015. The court heard that as a result of the incident with Mrs Dyett he was banned from the hospital for a year. Hewett said his wife, who he married in 2010, was able to start her cancer drug treatment but is now undergoing chemotherapy. Giving evidence to the jury, she said her husband had raised his voice from their car because he was wearing a mask and spoke in a 'strong, loud' tone to ask about the need to queue. She added Mrs Dyett had responded 'very aggressively'. 'Her body language to me indicated somebody who was grumpy, got out of bed the wrong side and was spoiling for a fight,' Mrs Hewett told the jury. She also maintained the car had not hit Mrs Dyett. 'If he had hit her, he would have got out of the car to see that she was alright,' said Mrs Hewett. Asked how her husband had behaved that day, she added: 'I would say he was behaving normally. He was a bit frustrated but nothing more than that.' Xi sends condolences to Philippine president over tropical storm losses Xinhua) 08:21, November 04, 2022 BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday sent a message of condolence to Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos over a tropical storm hitting the Philippines. In the message, Xi said he was shocked to learn that the tropical storm has caused heavy casualties and property losses, and that he would like to, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, extend condolences over the passing of the victims and express sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured. Xi also said he believes that under the leadership of Marcos and the Philippine government, people in the affected areas will surely overcome the disaster and rebuild their homes. The Chinese side is willing to provide assistance within its capacity for the post-disaster reconstruction in the Philippines, he added. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Satellite images show that Moscow is moving its nuclear-tipped Killjoy missile into the range of devastating London in an attack, with MiG-31s launching hypersonic missiles to devastate its target. Russia developed hypersonic missile technology before the west, and the threat of hypersonic missiles hitting London within striking distance is a concern. Moscow Expresses Message with the MiG-31 The hypersonic missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been employing since 2018 has a range of more than 1,200 miles and is known by the codename 'Killjoy' by NATO forces and 'Dagger' by the Russians, according to The Sun UK. The lethal weapon, which can be packed with up to 1,000 pounds of explosives or even a nuclear warhead, has already been moved 1,100 miles from London, as said by British intelligence. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) published an intelligence status report last Tuesday with a photo captured on October 17 at the Machulishchi Airfield, approximately eight miles south of the Belarussian capital Minsk. It displays two MiG-31K Foxhound jets close to a possible missile cylinder about seven meters in length within a sloped area, per Air Force Technology. The MoD says the canister that contains the plane-mounted hypersonic missile has a maxed-out speed of 12 times the speed of sound and is capable of getting air-launched, which makes it hard to find and stop in a defensive posture. If the Foxhound becomes airborne and is fired, that would leave London open to an unstoppable missile strike in nine minutes. MoD officials propose that Moscow can order another place other than Kyiv to be clobbered by an unstoppable nuclear-tipped Killjoy missile, slung under the MiG-31s as the Kremlin's deadly answer. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth? The deployed cutting-edge missile technology is long-range and can hit targets that are not substantial. Moscow wants to let the west know that it can level its cities, which Belarus accuses of becoming part of the war. Another group from the US, the Federation of American Scientists, said that Putin has about 5,977 warheads, with another 1600 ready to blast its western targets. Nuclear-Tipped Killjoy Missile Threatens London Putin's Dagger is one of his strategic weapons used to attack Russia's opponents. In March, the Dagger cruise missile was used for the first time in Ukraine, as mentioned in a CNN report. The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that a hypersonic dagger was aimed at an underground warehouse in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, wrecking the target. The UK Ministry of Defence has stated that the Dagger, or Kinzhal, is only one of the many weapons he has to threaten any target that includes NATO members. The Russian forces have used aerial bombardment in Ukraine to show Kyiv and the west what can happen, and Ukraine is now barraged without reprieve. Russian strikes have sent Kyiv to the dark ages with no power and its power grid crushed by Russian missile attacks, with drones raining terror on the country that is supposed to attack the Kerch Bridge. But Moscow has kept civilian casualties low by hitting with precision weapons; where it counts most, Ukraine feels it. Opponents of the Kremlin said it wants to tear down Ukraine by making civilians feel the pain of drones and missiles destroying their lives because Zelensky does not want to give up. Moscow is getting weary of the UK's provocations. Russia's nuclear-tipped Killjoy missile can hit London and is mounted on MiG-31s as Putin's deadly card. Related Article: Vladimir Putin's Most Lethal Weapon, the 'Dead Hand' System, Assure Multiple Nukes Devastating the West @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Woke activists have accused New York governor candidate Lee Zeldin of using rape to 'promote his campaign' after he delivered a speech at the scene of an horrific sex attack in the West Village. Screaming protesters waved boards daubed with messages which branded Zeldin 'as dangerous as Trump' as they disrupted the campaign event on Friday. Zeldin, who's vying to replace New York's Democrat governor Kathy Hochul, delivered a speech at the riverside location where a woman was choked, raped and robbed a day earlier. Outrage over the attack grew after it emerged the suspect, homeless man Carl Phanor, has 25 prior arrests and was also wanted for at least two other sex crimes in the city. Protesters screamed over Zeldin's campaign speech at the scene of a rape in the West Village Zeldin was accused of capitalizing on rape but rival Hochul has been criticized for her silence Phanor's criminal past prompted furious questions about why he was free to prowl the streets and allegedly launch the attack. But some anti-Zeldin protesters were incensed by his decision to campaign at the scene. One shouted 'there is no crime emergency here' and held aloft a board with the words: 'Zeldin uses rape to promote his campaign'. 'There is a hate emergency, there is a bigotry emergency,' the protester shouted. Zeldin hit back on Twitter: 'There is no crime emergency' Kathy Hochul's people scream out at the site of yet another rape yesterday in the Big Apple. 'These protestors & their far-left, pro-criminal agenda have somehow managed to dangerously set the agenda in the NYC Council & Albany.' One protester claimed 'there is no crime emergency' in New York, despite stats to the contrary Outrage over the rape grew after it emerged the suspect, Carl Phanor, has a long criminal past Phanor in court on Friday over the rape on Pier 64 in the West Village on Thursday morning Phanor in court on Friday over the rape on Pier 64 in the West Village on Thursday morning Zeldin's rival, current governor Kathy Hochul, has been criticized for her silence about the rape Zeldin delivered a campaign speech at New York's Pier 45, the scene of the rape a day earlier Zeldin also briefly went off script during his speech to accuse the protesters of supporting politicians and policies that are soft on criminals. The attack on the jogger is part of an alarming rise in crime that continues to plague New York City, where violent incidents are up nearly 30 percent compared to last year. So far this year, police have reported 1,384 cases of rape in the city, up nearly 11 percent from the same time last year. Felony assaults are also up by nearly 14 percent, with 21,767 cases reported so far this year, and robberies are up more than 32 percent compared to last year. There have been 102,914 serious offenses reported since the beginning of the year, compared with 78,892 in the same period of 2021, the latest NYPD data reveals. Speaking after, Zeldin said he chose to hold the event at the scene of Thursday's attack because of the 'impact in shocking the local community'. Zeldin said New Yorkers want to see politicians talk about making 'streets and subways safer' A map shows the scene of the attack and how Phanor tried to use the victim's credit card after Zeldin said rising crime under Hochul's watch meant New Yorkers were 'forced to live in fear' He added: 'Over the course of the last 24 hours, once again New York City is shocked, is rocked by what happened. 'What they want to see actually is everybody - every elected official, every candidate - everybody should be talking about everything they can possibly do to be able to make the streets and subways safer. 'It shouldn't be some type of anomaly, or a unique trait that somebody is talking about a rape that took place here yesterday.' Following the protest today, Fox News anchor Dagen McDowell wrote on Twitter: 'A couple of rickety left-wingbags heckled Zeldin. 'He's against gun control!' Well, NYC's had the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation since the era of Tammany Hall. 'That hasn't stopped crime from soaring. Only leaders who will protect residents and jail criminals can.' Phanor was purp walked on Thursday - hours after the early morning attack in the West Village Crime continues to run rampant in the Big Apple, with violent offenses up nearly 30 percent Phanor, 29, was purp walked on Thursday night. Police said the victim was out by Pier 45, near West and Christopher Streets in the West Village, at around 5.30am, when he grabbed her from behind and choked her until she passed out. He removed his victim's clothes, raped her and then fled the scene on a Citi Bike with her headphones, cell phone and wallet. The shaken victim was spotted by a fellow jogger, and first responders took her to a nearby hospital. In response to the crime, Zeldin tweeted: 'In Kathy Hochul's New York, law-abiding New Yorkers are forced to live in fear. Come January, in Lee Zeldin's New York, criminals will be the ones forced to live in fear. 'Election Day is 5 days away. It's time to take our streets back,' the congressman added. A recent poll put New York Governor Hochul and Zeldin neck and neck in the governor race Neither Hochul nor New York City Mayor Eric Adams have commented on the case, despite the massive public outrage. Zeldin and Hochul were tied in the governor race in a surprise poll earlier this week. The poll, by Trafalgar Group, comes after three successive surveys showed a lead for Hochul, who assumed office upon the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid sexual harassment allegations last August. A man acquitted for the brutal murders and rape of three girl scouts in 1977 has again been accused as the only possible suspect, as investigators are probed for scene tampering in a chilling new documentary. Lori Lee Farmer, 8, Michelle Guse, 9, and Doris Denise Milner, 10, were raped, bludgeoned and strangled on their first night at camp in 1977, shocking the nation. Their killer has never been found. The two-hour long 20/20 special will air on Friday Nov 4 and includes interviews with the parents of the deceased, camp counsellors, authorities, journalists. It also features actress Kristin Chenoweth who, as a young girl scout, was supposed to be at the camp on the same night the murders took place. Locust Grove Oklahoma was catapulted into the national spotlight after evidence of the disturbing murders originally pointed the finger at convicted rapist Gene Leroy Hart. Hart, who had a history of violence and rape, was arrested in connection to the crime but was unanimously found not guilty by a jury in 1979. In 2022 DNA testing in the case, although officially inconclusive, strongly suggested Hart's involvement in the crime despite the case officially remaining unsolved. ABC News senior national affairs correspondent Deborah Roberts said in a brief one-minute teaser from the program that alternative theories placed investigators at the heart of the cold case. ABC News senior national affairs correspondent Deborah Roberts (pictured) said there was theories of evidence being planted by investigators at the scene Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed (pictured) who still believes Hart committed the heinous crimes said the DNA evidence points to one man 'Over the years there have been all kinds of theories,' she said. 'There have been suggestions that maybe some of this evidence could have been planted by investigators.' The accusation is quickly rebuked by Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed who still believes Hart committed the heinous crimes. 'There was a lot of different opinions that was out there when we started looking into the case I was like 'my gosh this is overwhelming almost',' he said. Holding pictures owned by Hart, Reed goes on to say that if investigators wanted to plant evidence it wouldn't be hard, but questioned the motive to do so. 'If I wanted to plant these pictures to put Gene Hart there, because I know they're his, why in the world wouldn't I just walk out here anywhere at the camp at the scene and just drop them and just walk off,' he said. 'There's 50 or 75 officers there, somebody's gonna walk up there and go 'well hey, look at that'. 'It makes no sense whatsoever when you bring it all to the light.' Reed said that DNA testing proved Hart's guilt. 'All the DNA testing that has been done on the case it excludes every suspect that I've ever heard or know of that's been brought up in this case except for one person,' he explained speaking of Hart. Reed goes on to say that if investigators wanted to plant evidence it wouldn't be hard but questioned the motive to do so Michele Heather Guse, 9, Doris Denise Milner, 10, and Lori Lee Farmer, 8 (L-R) were raped, bludgeoned and strangled on their first night at camp Actress Kristin Chenoweth, who shared her personal connection to the case, also contributed her story to the two-hour long program airing tonight In May, Chenoweth sought answers to the unsolved murders in the ABC News special Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders. The 53-year-old, a native of Oklahoma, opened up about her personal connection to the tragedy, as she was supposed to be at Camp Scott - the sleepaway camp where the murders took place - until an illness stopped her from attending. 'I should have been on that trip, but I had gotten sick,' the Tony Award-winning entertainer said. 'My mom said, 'you can't go,' It has stuck with me my whole life. I could have been one of them. 'This is a story I wish I never had to tell - it haunts me every day, but this story needs to be told.' Hart - who had escaped prison four years before the now 45-year-old murders - was charged and later acquitted in the killings. Hart died two years later in prison after he was sent back to serve his sentences for rape, murder and kidnapping convictions. Reed earlier this year told Tulsa CBS affiliate KOTV-DT that a new review of DNA evidence in the case using modern technology ruled out all suspects except Hart. 'I pray that there's something that we've done that gives the family a second of something that even resembles closure or acceptance or something I pray that,' Reed said. The disturbing murders originally pointed the finger at convicted rapist Gene Leroy Hart (pictured) Meanwhile in 2011, the case was the subject of another film 'Candles' by ex-con John Russell (pictured) who claimed the murders were committed by convicted murderer Karl Lee Myers The unsolved crime left an indelible mark on the community after the bodies of the young girls were found in the woods bound in rope in their sleeping bags. Camp Scott was never reopened 'But as far as peace, there is absolutely nothing about this case that has given me one second of peace. Period. 'From watching the pain on the family to having to go through the crime scene before during and after, from watching the legal system to watching the parole board, to watching how this whole thing played out, to watching how people would use this to springboard their own personal agendas, there ain't nothing about this whole thing that is peaceful. It is evil.' Meanwhile in 2011, the unsolved murder case was the subject of another film by ex-con John Russell who claimed his dramatization would 'reveal who the murderer is.' He claims that he encountered the real murderer when he was in prison for check fraud in 1978. he also has previous convictions for forgery, fraud and embezzlement. Many people were concerned about Russell's murky past, but the filmmaker claimed he would never be able to make the movie if it wasn't for his time inside prison. The unsolved crime has left an indelible mark on the community of Tulsa after the bodies of the young girls were found in the woods bound in rope in their sleeping bags. Camp Scott was never reopened. Russell claims that he was ignored by police when he tried to tell them he knew who the killer was more than 30 years ago. The movie 'Candles' claimed convicted murderer Karl Lee Myers was the killer. Russell said that Myers confessed to him about the murders while each served time in the Ottawa County Jail in 1979. In 1998, Myers was convicted of murder in Rogers County and sentenced to death he was also convicted of burglary in 1969 and for assault with intent to commit rape in 1979. Former President Donald Trump went after two of his favorite targets again on Truth Social Friday: a New York judge handling a number of his court cases and New York's Attorney General Letitia James. Trump called Judge Arthur Engoron a 'highly political, biased Judge, who is totally controlled by my worst enemies.' 'His rulings and manner are SICK,' the ex-president dramatically wrote. On Thursday, Engoron imposed a monitor of the Trump Organization's financial statements due to the ongoing civil lawsuit alleging fraud by James' office. 'He gave his quick hearing, & ridiculous decision, right before Midterms - A No No!' Trump complained in a Truth Social post dashed off around 7 a.m. He also engaged in assorted name-calling of James. 'You have a Corrupt, Racist, Weak on Crime Attorney General, Letitia "Peekaboo" James, who campaigned on "I will get Trump, even though she knew NOTHING about me,' he wrote. Though he said Engoron was 'worse than Peekaboo, and a real "Trump Hater."' Overnight, Trump targeted the duo as well. Trump called Engoron a 'Radical Left Lunatic Judge' and suggested he controlled a 'newspaper dedicated largely to defaming me.' It's unclear if Trump was talking about The New York Times - and what the connection was between the Democratic judge and the Gray Lady. 'He is a partisan disaster. A Rigged & Corrupt System!' Trump also said. Engoron is an elected judge and thus put in place by New York voters. In the same 1 a.m. Truth Social post, Trump said that James was 'corrupt and highly partisan.' Former President Donald Trump went after two of his favorite targets again on Truth Social Friday: a New York judge handling a number of his court cases and New York's Attorney General Letitia James Trump complained about Judge Arthur Engoron and New York's Attorney General Letitia James in a Truth Social post dashed off around 7 a.m. Overnight, he targeted the same two Democrats, calling Engoron a 'Radical Left Lunatic Judge' and suggested he controlled a 'newspaper dedicated largely to defaming me.' Judge Arthur Engoron on Thursday imposed a monitor of the Trump Organization's financial statements due to the ongoing civil lawsuit alleging fraud by James' office Trump expressed many of the same gripes at his Sioux City, Iowa rally Thursday night - the first of four campaign trail appearances in the final week before the midterms. 'And just moments ago, a radical-left lunatic judge in New York City, who's totally controlled by my worst enemies in the Democrat Party - and by the New York attorney general, there's another beauty - who was given his position by them at the request of the out-of-control attorney general who's let violent crime in New York rage in the state, including murders, robberies, rape and drugs at levels never seen before - started a process of property confiscation that is akin to Venezuela, Cuba or the old Soviet Union,' Trump said. 'It's communism, what's going on in our country,' he said. 'They're weaponizing the Justice Department. They're weaponizing things that shouldn't be weaponized.' He also brought up the raid of Mar-a-Lago. The ex-president's Florida home and private club was searched by the FBI in August under suspicion that the ex-president had held onto classified documents after his White House tenure. Hundreds of classified documents were found during the raid. 'Biden and his left wing handlers are turning America into a police state like something straight out of a communist country. The radical Democrats are locking up pro-life activists, persecuting their political opponents - nobody can believe this is happening,' Trump said. 'They even raided Mar-a-Lago. They raided Mar-a-Lago.' 'Tell you what I'd like to do,' he added. Later in the rally he returned to the raid adding, 'It is a nice house, you have to say.' Former President Donald Trump had a litany of nicknames for Attorney General Letitia James (pictured): 'You have a Corrupt, Racist, Weak on Crime Attorney General, Letitia "Peekaboo" James,' he posted to Truth Social early Friday morning Additionally, The ex-president pointed to the investigation in Georgia over Trump and his allies pushing false election fraud claims. 'A local left-wing DA in Atlanta is after me for an absolutely perfect phone call,' Trump said. 'I would say even better than better than the Ukrainian call to the president.' Trump described the call in question, where he asked Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' the number of votes he'd need to win the state, as a query on 'election integrity.' 'No, it was a perfect call - even better than my first perfect call. Remember? They impeached me on a perfect call,' Trump said. At the same rally, he teased a 2024 presidential run. 'And now in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious - I will very, very, very probably do it again,' he said. 'OK? Very, very, very probably. Very, very, very probably.' He told the riled up Sioux City crowd to 'get ready!' 'That's all I'm telling you, very soon,' he added. On Friday, Axios reported that his team is eying November 14 as the date he'd make that announcement. The news site said that Trump 'plans to surf the GOP's expected post-midterm euphoria' to build excitement around his own attempt to retake the White House. However, if Senate control isn't yet determined - potentially due to a run-off race in Georgia between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, Trump may hold off, Axios said. A British tourist died from 'neglect' after being held for five days in a Dubai police station, an inquest ruled today. Businessman Lee Brown, 39, died on April 12, 2011, at the Bur Dubai police station, the hearing was told. He was left bruised and beaten after being given inadequate food and water, before being placed in solitary confinement where he did not have access to necessary medical care. Mr Brown's family accused the Foreign Office of putting diplomatic relations above the welfare of their loved one. The builder, painter and decorator from Dagenham, east London, had been planning to visit the city for a few days before flying to Indonesia to visit his girlfriend. Jurors were told he arrived in the Gulf state on April 6, 2011, and allegedly assaulted a maid at the Burj Al Arab hotel where he was staying the following day. Businessman Lee Brown (pictured), 39, died on April 12, 2011, at the Bur Dubai police station, the hearing was told He was left bruised and beaten after being given inadequate food and water, before being placed in solitary confinement where he did not have access to necessary medical care. Pictured: Bur Dubai police station in Dubai He said the woman had come into his room without permission and that he was soon surrounded by 20 people who dragged him to the police station. He may have been having a mental health episode when he arrived at the prison, the hearing was told. His family say such an episode was the only credible explanation for his alleged behaviour at the hotel. Recording a narrative conclusion of neglect, the jury forewoman said: 'The factors that probably contributed to his death are as follows. 'Bruises from other detainees, guards and police officers, a lack of adequate food or water, a lack of habitable living conditions and a lack of access to necessary medical care while at the police station. 'Factors that possibly contributed to his death are a lack of access to services and adequate clothing. 'The neglect was by the authorities at Bur Dubai police station.' Jurors recorded his medical cause of death as unanswered. Jurors were told he arrived in the Gulf state on April 6, 2011, and allegedly assaulted a maid at the Burj Al Arab hotel (above) where he was staying the following day Nadia Persaud, Area Coroner for East London, will write a prevention of future deaths report to the Foreign Office raising 'concerns' about the issues highlighted during the inquest. These are a potential lack of emergency access to British nationals when they are detained, warnings about the risk of detention and conditions of detention in Dubai, and a potential lack of clarity about the process around accessing detainees who are experiencing a mental health episode while detained. The Coroner said: 'I would like to thank the family for their assistance over the last eight years certainly to me. 'It has been an absolute privilege to work with Doris Brown and Lee's siblings who remained wholly dignified in the face of a lack of a response to the number of requests we made for some of the evidence which was never recovered.' She added: 'I hope this inquest has answered some of the questions the family had and gone some way to finding justice for Lee.' A 48-year-old man has appeared in court on suspicion of murdering a 60-year-old FedEx manager in front of his colleagues in South Yorkshire on Wednesday. Ronald Sekanjako spoke only to confirm his name, address and age during the ten minute hearing at Sheffield Magistrates Court today after being charged with the murder of Philip David Woodcock. There was no application for bail and he was remanded in custody. He will appear before a judge at Sheffield Crown Court on November 7 for pre-trial proceedings. Sekanjako, from Sheffield, is also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon. Mr Woodcock died in an attack in Rotherham on the morning of Wednesday, November 2. FedEx worker Philip David Woodcock, 60, died in an attack in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on the morning of Wednesday, November 2 Emergency services were called to the FedEx centre in Rother Way, Hellaby, at 9.39am on Wednesday to reports of a stabbing. Upon arrival, Mr Woodcock was found with severe injuries and the 60-year-old died at the scene. A post mortem examination concluded that he died as a result of stab wounds. His family are being supported by specially trained officers. A second man is believed to have suffered minor injuries during the incident, which did not require medical treatment. Mr Woodcock was stabbed to death at a FedEx depot in Rotherham, South Yorkshire (pictured) Tributes have poured in for Mr Woodcock, since news of his death was announced. Sarah Roberts wrote online: 'Such a tragic day at work yesterday, the absolute tragic loss of a fantastic man who literally had time for everyone. The place just wont be the same ever again. My thoughts are with Phils family at this time.' Becky Parker added: 'Absolutely devastated to hear this. Phil is such a lovely man. Had the pleasure of cutting his hair for years. Such a gentleman, kind and always smiling... love to his family.' A French far-right MP who shouted 'go back to Africa' at a black lawmaker has been suspended for 15 days and had his pay cut after outraging the political world. France's National Assembly voted to sanction MP Gregoire de Fournas on Friday following his comments to 31-year-old Carlos Martens Bilongo, from a Congolese background, in what is the harshest penalty possible under its rules. Mr de Fournas, a newly elected member of the National Rally, has denied any personal racist attack in the outburst, saying he was referring to a ship carrying rescued migrants in the Mediterranean. It was only the second time in the history of France's Fifth Republic, established by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, that an MP had received such a rebuke. Mr Bilongo gave a speech during a demonstration, organised by France Insoumise (LFI) to denounce the racist remarks directed at him, outside the National Assembly in Paris today. Gregoire de Fournas (pictured), a newly elected member of the National Rally, has denied any personal racist attack in the outburst, saying he was referring to a ship carrying rescued migrants in the Mediterranean France's National Assembly voted to sanction Mr de Fournas on Friday following his comments to 31-year-old Carlos Martens Bilongo (pictured at a rally today to denounce the remarks) in what is the harshest penalty possible under its rules The incident came as tensions over immigration are running high, with President Emmanuel Macron's government promising a new crackdown amid accusations of failing to stem new arrivals or deport those whose residency requests are denied. Mr Bilongo, 31, of the leftist France Unbowed party (LFI), was questioning the government Thursday on the request by the SOS Mediterranee NGO for Paris's help in finding a port for the ship that rescued 234 migrants at sea in recent days. 'It should go back to Africa!' interrupted Mr de Fournas, a winegrower from the southwestern Gironde department, drawing gasps of shock from many in parliament. In French, pronunciation is the same for the pronouns 'it' and 'he', which suggested to some that Mr de Fournas was targeting Mr Bilongo directly. 'Racism, no matter its target, is a negation of the republican values that unite us in this assembly,' its president Yael Braun-Pivet said after the vote. The punishment comes as the RN prepares to vote Saturday on a successor to its leader Marine Le Pen, who backed her MP on Twitter by saying 'the controversy created by our political opponents is obvious and will not fool the French people'. Carlos Martens Bilongo, a 31-year-old from a Congolese background, was asking a question about climate change when he was verbally attacked on Thursday afternoon in the Paris National Assembly. Pictured: The national assembly today Marine Le Pen backed her MP on Twitter by saying 'the controversy created by our political opponents is obvious and will not fool the French people' Le Pen has been working for years to shed her party's extremist views and prove it can unite voters and govern as a mainstream party. Le Pen challenged President Emmanuel Macron in this year's presidential vote and then led her party to its best-ever performance in subsequent legislative elections, with 89 MPs. While acknowledging a 'gaffe' by de Fournas, she told journalists Friday that 'if a comment that lacks finesse justifies a suspension from parliament, there's room for plenty of others' in the assembly. Mr de Fournas, who left the chamber immediately after the vote, reacted on Twitter saying 'I am totally innocent... but respectful of the institution, and I accept' its decision. Mr Bilongo responded by telling BFM television that 'I have always been deeply convinced the RN is racist, and this only proves it once again.' The 27-year-old Jordan Bardella is the overwhelming favourite to win the party leadership Saturday over his only rival Louis Aliot, a party veteran and former partner of Le Pen. Mr Bilongo gave a speech during a demonstration organised by France Insoumise (LFI) to denounce the racist remarks directed at him outside the National Assembly in Paris today By stepping down as party chief, Le Pen will focus on presiding the RN group in parliament, where she will could have a powerful platform for a potential fourth run at the presidency in 2027. Following Mr de Fournas's comment, the duty vice-president, the equivalent of the Speaker, immediately asked: 'Who is the MP who said that phrase? It's not possible.' There were chants of 'Out, out, out!' by Mr Bilongo's colleagues, of the left-wing France Insoumis (France Unbowed) party. Mr de Fournas had immediately tried to explain himself by saying he had been referring to 'an African boat' which had difficulty 'getting back into port'. It follows Ms Le Pen, who was runner up in presidential election this year, pledging to change the image of her notoriously racist party, which used to be called the National Front. It was founded by Ms Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is now a convicted racist and Holocaust denier. It follows Ms Le Pen, pictured, who was runner up in presidential election this year, pledging the change the image of her notoriously racist party, which used to be called the National Front France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin suggested that Ms Le Pen's racist party had not changed at all. Mr Darmanin tweeted: 'Racism of a member of the National Assembly: from the FN to the RN, the name changes, but the hideous references and despicable habits remain. What a disgrace.' Mr Bilongo accused the RN of targeting him because of the colour of his skin. He said: 'Today, I was reduced to my skin colour. I was born in France, I am a French MP. We see the true face of the National Rally. It's shameful. I thank all the MPs who have united with me' Parliamentary authorities meanwhile said there would be a full investigation into Mr De Fournas's words. The RN celebrated its 50th birthday earlier this month, with Marine Le Pen saying it was 'ready to govern'. Her party won 89 seats in the National Assembly its largest number ever, since Jean Marie Le Pen founded the party in 1972. A Miami cop is fighting for his life after being stalked then shot in the head by his ex-girlfriend, a former school police officer, during a domestic incident early Friday morning. Damian Colon, a 17-year veteran with the Miami Dade Police Department was shot in the head by his estranged girlfriend, Yessenia Sanchez, 32, a former school officer in Miami-Dade County, NBC6 News reported. The severely injured officer was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder's Trauma Center in 'extremely critical condition, 'Hialeah Police spokesman Sgt. Jose Torres said. After the sunrise shooting, Sanchez was taken into custody by Hialeah Police Friday morning and interviewed by detectives as the officer underwent surgery. Colon was off-duty at the time of the shooting sitting in his pickup truck just before sunrise. He was parked outside of his family's home, located on the 1200 block of West 79th Street in Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade county. Surveillance footage shows Sanchez driving up in her vehicle and blocking Colon's car. As Colon gets out of his truck and walks towards the porch Sanchez trails behind him and seconds later shoots her ex-lover at point-blank range, sources said, The Miami-Herald reported. Damian Colon, a 17-year veteran with the Miami Dade Police Department was shot in the back of his head by his estranged girlfriend, Yessenia Sanchez, a former school officer in Miami-Dade County, NBC6 News reported After pumping a bullet into his head, Sanchez walks back to her truck and drives off before crashing her car a few miles away before she is taken into custody by Hialeah Police. Last year, Sanchez was arrested on a domestic violence charge stemming from a fight with Colon. She later resigned from her job as a school officer with Miami-Dade County rather than get fired after the domestic abuse charges. She had been hired by the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department in June 2019. Colon joined the Miami-Dade Police Department in 2005. Sanchez also owns a clothing company called UC Apparel Corp., which sells T-shirts, patches and caps, the news outlet reported. The veteran cop was off-duty at the time of the ambush. Pictured is Officer Colon's family home at 1200 block of West 79th Street in Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade county, where the incident occurred Hialeah Police spokesman Sgt. Jose Torres called it a 'very sad morning' and asked for everyone to send their prayers for Colon, who he said is in, 'extremely critical condition' A police spokesman said Colon works in the Homeland Security Bureau, The Miami Herald reported. Sgt. Torres called it a 'very sad morning.' 'Please keep the family of this officer as well as the Miami-Dade Police Department and the police community, keep them in your prayers,' he said, the news outlet reported. Shortly after the shooting, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava went to the hospital to show her support to the wounded officer and ask for prayers. 'We're hopeful that this will turn out well, and so we ask the whole community to come out and join us in prayers and in hope,' she said, in part. Many of the officers who worked with Colon were shocked and devastated by the news and gathered outside of the hospital in a show of solidarity. Dozens of officers gather at the crime scene where Colon, a 17-year-member of the Miami-Dade Police Department was stalked and shot by his ex during a domestic violence incident Many of the officers who worked with Colon were shocked and devastated by the news and gathered outside of the hospital in a show of solidarity Sanchez was arrested in September 2021 after she allegedly hurled a 'ceramic object,' at Colon after a fight that started over childcare, according to the arrest report, The Herald reported. After he left, Sanchez called and asked him to return. When he got back to her home, police said, Sanchez was pointing a gun at her head, which he was able to take from her, the news outlet said. When Colon started to leave again, Sanchez reportedly punched and scratched her officer boyfriend before grabbing a knife and again, threatening to harm herself, the report said. Sanchez also threatened to slash Colon's tires, which he discovered she followed through with when he later went out to his police car, the Herald reported. When she was arrested by Miami-Dade police, she claimed Colon slapped her in the face, but officers noted 'the defendant had no evidence to support her claim,' the 2021 report said. At the time Miami-Dade police arrested her for misdemeanor battery. The outcome of the criminal case is unknown, the news outlet said . A Homeless man accused of raping and robbing a woman as she jogged in New York Citys West Village has been held without bail as the victim recovers in ICU with broken bones. Carl Phanor, 28, was remanded in custody on Friday afternoon after a brief hearing on charges including rape, predatory sexual assault and robbery. Further details also emerged of two similar vile sex attacks which Phanor allegedly committed this year. The victim of Thursday's incident, a 43-year-old woman, remains in intensive care following the early morning attack by the Hudson River Park on Pier 45. Carl Phanor appeared in court on Friday charged with the rape of a woman in New York City Details emerged of two other vile sex attacks Phanor allegedly also committed earlier this year Thursday morning's victim was running along the Hudson River at Pier 45 at around 5.45am when Phanor grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground, it is alleged. He got on top of her, placed both hands around her neck and then squeezed 'hard', 'choking her to the point that she was going in and out of consciousness'. He allegedly pulled off her running shoes, pants and underwear, then raped her. The woman passed out during the attack and when she regained consciousness, her attacker had fled with her cell phone, debit card, hotel key card and ID card. Detectives discovered the woman's card was used to attempt to buy a bus ticket several hours later, at 8.55am, in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. CCTV footage purportedly showed Phanor using the card at a Greyhound kiosk, wearing a green and yellow knit ski cap and a maroon hoodie with white letters spelling 'UNH' on the chest. Phanor was arrested later that day in the same outfit - carrying the woman's stolen belongings, police say. A map shows where the woman was attacked before Phanor 'attempted to use her credit card' Phanor was arrested for the rape just hours later, then purp walked by cops on Thursday night Friday's court hearing was told the victim remains in a hospital intensive care unit with bone fractures after the attack. Phanor didn't enter a plea and Judge Jonathan Svetkey ordered him to be held without bail and undergo a mental health assessment ahead of the next court appearance on November 9. Phanor is also charged with two other attacks. On March 27 at around 6am, he allegedly attacked another woman by Pier 46 in the area of West Street and Charles Lane in Manhattan. He tackled the woman to the ground, 'wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed tight' while pinning her down, police say. Phanor then allegedly forced her to perform oral sex. Thursday's attack on a 43-year-old woman happened near Pier 45 in Manhattan's West Village Outrage over the rape grew after it emerged the suspect, Carl Phanor, has a long criminal past DNA recovered from the victim matched Phanor's. On October 6 at around 5am, Phanor attacked another woman who was was walking in the area of East 37th Street and the FDR in Manhattan. Like with his other victims, he's said to have grabbed her from behind and placed her in a chokehold. The woman broke free, but Phanor pursued her again and 'while she struggled her jeans were ripped open'. She screamed and Phanor fled with the woman's cell phone and credit card, it's claimed. Prosecutors said Phanor uses several aliases and has demonstrated a 'clear predatory pattern'. He is charged with first-degree rape, two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of strangulation, two counts of robbery and a single count of a first-degree criminal sex act. Zeldin was accused of capitalizing on rape but rival Hochul has been criticized for her silence Zeldin's rival, current governor Kathy Hochul, has been criticized for her silence about the rape Outrage over Thursday's attack grew after it emerged the suspect, homeless man Carl Phanor, has 25 prior arrests and was also wanted for at least two other sex crimes in the city. New York governor hopeful Lee Zeldin held a campaign event at the scene on Friday. Woke activists accused Zeldin of using rape to 'promote his campaign' today after he delivered a speech at the scene. Screaming protesters waved boards daubed with messages which branded Zeldin 'as dangerous as Trump' as they disrupted the campaign event. A mother who blew the whistle on a teenage migrant who allegedly went into her neighbour's home in Dover says her son was attacked by a group of 20 Slovakian men. Louise Monger, 37, has said police are investigation an attack on her 15-year-old son Marcuse in Pencester, Dover, on Thursday evening. The mother believes the attack was in retaliation to her speaking to the media about a 16-year-old migrant who allegedly entered the home of her neighbour last week. She detailed the incident on Aycliffe Community Forum, a resident social media page, before speaking to reporters. Last week, police were reportedly called to a home in the area where a man had gone to ask to use a phone after a group of migrants landed on a beach nearby. Ms Monger said she named her son when she was telling the media that he was the same age as the migrant. She has been outspoken about the impact the Channel crossings are having on Aycliffe residents, saying she confronted the migrant in her neighbour's home. The mother said: 'Last night, my son got jumped by 20 Slovaks in Pencester where you have got the alleyway of the doctors' surgery," she said. Louise Monger (left) has said police are investigation an attack on her 15-year-old son Marcuse in Pencester, Dover It comes as Aycliffe residents met with immigration minister Robert Jenrick on earlier today 'I have the police round doing a statement for my son as we speak.' Asked why she thinks there may be a link between her speaking to the media and the attack, she added: 'There might not be any connection at all, but it's a big coincidence. 'They called him by name, they turned around and said, 'We've got a problem,' and then all of a sudden they all started, one at a time, stamping on his head - pinned him up, punched him in the stomach, his chest, everything.' Ms Monger said her son was left with a concussion but no other serious injuries. On the police's response, she said: 'They are taking this very seriously because of everything that has been happening and we are in Aycliffe, as well. 'It might be a coincidence, it might not be a coincidence but the police have (taken) this very seriously.' She said police are also looking into whether the assault was retaliatory. It comes as Aycliffe residents met with immigration minister Robert Jenrick on earlier today to share their experiences of the scale of migrants turning up in the community and trespassing into homes after crossing the Channel on small boats. Ms Monger, meanwhile, said the last few weeks have been 'scary' due to the number of migrants in their community, but she was also concerned that her actions may have led to her son getting hurt. An inflatable craft carrying migrant men, women and children crosses the shipping lane in the English Channel She said she spoke to the media because she wanted to raise awareness of how bad the situation is and make Aycliffe a 'safer' place. 'It just feels like, you know as a parent, have I made things worse for my family with this situation? Could this be the reason why Marcus got jumped?', she said. Ms Monger also confirmed that she spoke to Mr Jenrick about the incident, adding that he was "very shocked" and "very concerned about the situation". A Kent Police spokesperson said: 'Kent Police were called at 7.12pm on Thursday and it was reported that a boy had been assaulted by a group of people near Pencester Road, Dover. 'Officers investigating the incident are in contact with the victim and have carried out inquiries in the area. 'Anyone with information is asked to call Kent Police on 01843 222289, quoting reference 03-1170.' Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday again declined to block President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt. The challenge was brought by two Indiana borrowers, even as a lower court considers whether to lift a freeze it imposed on the program in a different case. Barrett denied an emergency request by the Indiana borrowers, represented by a conservative legal group, to bar the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Democratic president's plan to forgive debt held by qualified people who had taken loans to pay for college. Barrett on October 20 denied a similar request by a Wisconsin taxpayers organization represented by another conservative legal group. The justice acted in the cases because she is the justice assigned to handle certain emergency requests from a group of states that includes Indiana and Wisconsin. Biden's plan, unveiled in August, was designed to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples. Borrowers who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled. In September, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the plan was expected to cost $400billion over the next 30 years. Student loan debt has reached $1.73 trillion. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday again declined to block President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt The policy fulfilled a promise Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign to help debt-saddled former college students. Democrats hope the policy will boost support for them in Tuesday's midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 21 put the policy on hold in yet another conservative challenge by six Republican-led states while it considered their request for injunction pending their appeal of their case's dismissal. That request remains pending. Friday's case was filed by two borrowers, Frank Garrison and Noel Johnson, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, and claimed they would be irreparably harmed if some of their student loans were automatically forgiven because they would face increased state tax liabilities. Soon after they sued, the Department of Education created an opt-out option for borrowers. U.S. District Judge Richard Young on Oct. 21 dismissed the case, finding that the debt forgiveness program did not injure Garrison and Johnson. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 28 declined to block the plan while Garrison and Johnson pursued an appeal, noting that the program is 'not compulsory' and that the plaintiffs could avoid tax liability simply by opting out. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that debt forgiveness would eliminate about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt and that more than 40 million Americans would be eligible to benefit. Biden's plan, unveiled in August, was designed to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calls Russia the "world's top liar" after investigators disprove Moscow's "dirty bomb" allegations against Kyiv. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have finished their verification activities at three locations in Ukraine following a request from the Ukrainian government. They said that they did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials, as revealed in a statement by IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on Thursday. No Evidence of "Dirty Bombs" The Ukrainian government made the request following Russia's accusations that there were activities relating to the possible production of "dirty bombs" in the said three locations. These areas were: the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv; the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Vody; and the Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro. The IAEA's statement wrote that in the past few days, the inspectors were able to carry out all of the activities that the agency planned to conduct. Furthermore, the investigators were given unfettered access to all of the locations they needed to survey, as per CNN. Furthermore, the agency said that based on its investigators' evaluation of the results available to date and the information that Ukraine provided, there was no indication or evidence of dirty bombs or undeclared nuclear materials. In a Thursday tweet, Kuleba said that IAEA has successfully checked three Ukrainian facilities and expressed his gratitude to Gross for the agency's excellent and prompt cooperation. A so-called dirty bomb is a weapon that combines conventional explosives such as dynamite and radioactive material such as uranium. According to Aljazeera, the IAEA inspectors also took environmental samples that would later be sent off for lab analysis and report back on the results. The Russian claims of Ukraine's dirty bomb came after Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's UN ambassador, sent a letter to members of the UN Security Council last week. Read Also: Ethiopian Government, Tigrayan Forces Agree on Truce To End 2-Year-Long War The Use of Nuclear Weapons The Russian official claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky handed direct orders to his country's nuclear research facility and the mining company to develop such a weapon. Despite Nebenzia's claims, Moscow has not provided evidence to support the allegations of a dirty bomb. The situation has prompted several Ukrainian and Western officials to accuse Moscow of making the allegation to shield itself from suspicions that it could detonate its own dirty bomb and blame Kyiv. It also comes as United States authorities said that Russian military leaders were discussing the use of nuclear weapons in their war on Ukraine. There have been concerns that senior Russian military officials were talking about when and how they would use a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine. The talks contributed to rising concerns in Washington and allied capitals regarding the lengths that Moscow would go to claim victory. It was thought that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not part of the talks, which were held against the backdrop of Russia's intensifying nuclear rhetoric and battlefield setbacks. However, the idea that Russian military leaders even had such discussions caused worry for the Biden administration. This is because the talks showed that frustrated Russian generals were not satisfied with their failures on the ground, the New York Times reported. Related Article: North Korea Continues Weapons Tests, Fires Intercontinental Ballistic Missile That 'Disappeared' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two former executives at MoviePass and its former parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), Theodore Farnsworth, 60, and Mitch Lowe, 70, have been charged in a securities fraud case, according to court documents. The two Florida men have been charged in relation to their roles in a scheme to allegedly 'defraud investors through materially false and misleading representations relating to HMNY and MoviePass's business and operations.' Court documents released by the Department of Justice said that the pair artificially inflated the price of HMNY's stock to attract new investors. At the time of the alleged fraud, Farnsworth was HMNY's chairman and Lowe was MoviePass's CEO each are charged with one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud. Farnsworth was the chief executive officer of HMNY, the parent company of MoviePass between 2017 and 2020 while Lowe led MoviePass between 2016 and its collapse in 2020. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said that the department is 'committed to protecting the public from being exploited by criminals for their own profit.' 'As these charges make clear, the Department, together with our law enforcement partners, will hold corrupt C-Suite executives who engage in securities fraud accountable for their actions,' he said. Theodore Farnsworth, 60, (right) and Mitch Lowe, 70, (center) have been charged in a securities fraud case by the Department of Justice The FBI New York Field Office is investigating the case while trial Attorney Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section is prosecuting the case The two former MoviePass executives are charged with one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office said the pair had 'deliberately engaged in fraudulent schemes.' 'Attempted scams of this nature erode the public's faith in our financial markets,' he said. 'The FBI is committed to ensuring these types of frauds and swindles are uncovered and the perpetrators are held responsible for their actions in the criminal justice system.' The indictment alleges Farnsworth and Lowe falsely claimed that MoviePass' $9.95 plan 'was tested, sustainable, and would be profitable or break even on subscription fees alone' while knowing it was 'a temporary marketing gimmick to grow new subscribers and, in turn, artificially inflate HMNY's stock price and attract new investors.' Additionally, the indictment alleges that Farnsworth and Lowe made false claims that HMNY 'possessed and used technologies, like 'big data' and 'artificial intelligence' platforms, to generate revenue by analyzing and monetizing the data MoviePass collected from subscribers. The court documents allege Farnsworth and Lowe 'directed MoviePass employees to implement numerous tactics to prevent certain subscribers from using the so-called 'unlimited' service for which they had paid, to try to ease MoviePass' cash shortfalls. Farnsworth and Lowe are accused of making these 'materially false and misleading representations' in press releases, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, interviews on podcasts, on television and in print and online media. The FBI New York Field Office is investigating the case while trial Attorney Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section is prosecuting the case. In late September, SEC filed a lawsuit against the two former MoviePass executives. The agency accused Farnsworth and Lowe of misleading investors about the viability of the company's $9.95 per month business model. The suit came as a new version of MoviePass was launched to re-establish itself under the leadership of cofounder Stacy Spikes. The company recently launched a beta service in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City, offering packages that start at $10 per month. Six police officers are under investigation over the terror attack on Manchester Arena, it emerged yesterday. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is carrying out a probe into two Greater Manchester Police officers, while four members of British Transport Police are the subject of an internal inquiry overseen by the same watchdog. Some of those under investigation received honours for their efforts when suicide bomber Salman Abedi murdered 22 people at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande in 2017. The GMP officers being probed include Dale Sexton, a retired chief inspector who was responsible for frontline officers on the night. He was awarded the Queens Policing Medal in 2018, presented the following year by Prince William. Dale Sexton, one of the GMP officers being probed, was awarded the Queen's Policing Medal in 2018, which was presented by Prince William the following year But Mr Sexton was heavily criticised in a report from retired High Court judge Sir John Saunders for failing to share information with other emergency services. Most critically he did not reveal that the foyer where the attack happened and where the wounded and dying desperately needed medical attention was safe within 19 minutes of the explosion. Sir John said that decision had consequences, leading to the unduly cautious ambulance service sending just three paramedics to treat casualties. The second volume of Sir Johns report into the atrocity, published on Thursday, was highly critical of emergency services and recommended 149 improvements. Mr Sexton was insufficiently trained in terrorist incident procedures and was quickly overwhelmed, Sir John said. The officer failed to declare a major incident a serious omission not corrected until 1am, two hours and 29 minutes after the explosion and failed to tell other 999 agencies that terrorist incident procedures had been enacted. Temporary superintendent Arif Nawaz was given a silver commander role despite not knowing the forces terror attack protocol He gave conflicting evidence in the wake of the attack about why he failed to communicate with fire and ambulance commanders, saying he forgot, then claimed he deliberately chose not to declare information fearing they would view the situation as too risky to deploy. Sir John said he didnt believe Mr Sexton, an inspector at the time but who was later promoted, set out to lie, adding: I consider that Inspector Sexton was overburdened on the night. He simply had too much to do. The IOPCs investigation into Mr Sexton is believed to relate to inconsistencies in his accounts of his actions. A second Greater Manchester Police officer is under IOPC investigation for actions and decision-making. The identity of the second officer is unknown but senior GMP officers were criticised in Sir Johns report. Temporary superintendent Arif Nawaz was given a silver commander role despite not knowing the forces terror attack protocol. Chief Inspector Mark Dexter was praised for doing what he could to make the emergency response work but had a gap in training for terror attack procedures. Assistant Chief Constable Deborah Ford unacceptably failed to discuss which zones of the arena were safe and should have taken a grip on other shortcomings, Sir John said. Four British Transport Police officers have been under investigation since last year, over conduct before the attack. Assistant Chief Constable Deborah Ford unacceptably failed to discuss which zones of the arena were safe and should have taken a grip on other shortcomings, Sir John said An IOPC spokesman said: Our independent investigation into the actions of a former Greater Manchester Police officer when providing information to a review and a series of debriefs following the Manchester Arena bombing is nearing completion. We are also independently investigating a complaint regarding the actions and decision-making of another Greater Manchester Police officer on the night of the attack. A third investigation, carried out by British Transport Police under the IOPCs direction and control, is under way into complaints regarding the actions of four individuals. A Colorado woman who was seriously injured after the patrol car she was detained in was struck by a freight train will still be charged in the alleged road rage incident for which she was initially pulled over. Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm, a fractured sternum and lost several teeth in the September collision, which was all caught on police body cam. Nevertheless, the Weld County District Attorney is planning to charge her with one count of felony menacing. Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hit by a train while sitting in the back of a police patrol car, but she will still be charged with in the alleged road rage incident for which she was pulled over Officers stopped their car on railroad tracks and ordered Rios-Gonzalez to walk toward them Officers handcuffed 20-year-old Yareni Rios-Gonzalez and placed her in the back of the car Rios-Gonzalez's family have set up a GoFundMe account to deal with her medical bills and loss of income A number of law enforcement agencies were involved as they responded to reports of a road rage incident involving a firearm in Fort Lupton, north of Denver. At the time of impact, Rios-Gonzalez had been handcuffed and placed in a patrol car that had inadvertently parked on railroad tracks. She was ordered out of her vehicle at gunpoint and made to kneel while officers placed her in handcuffs. It has since come to light that the arresting officer didn't realize he had stopped the vehicle on the tracks, according to police body camera video. Sgt. Pablo Vazquez told another officer he thought he had cleared the tracks. In fact, he had actually parked his car squarely in the path of the train. The officers cuffed the 20-year-old woman who was suspected of road rage Officers could be seen speaking with the suspect in the moments before the train hit Suddenly, the lights of the train could be seen barreling toward the car More than five minutes later, the police, seemingly unaware of the extremely dangerous position in which they were parked, the officers could be seen chatting with female suspect. From out of nowhere, the horn of a railroad train can be heard and it's lights shining brightly. Seconds later an officer is heard shouting, 'move your car, stay back!' But there was no time to react before the train smashed into the police SUV, sending it hurtling down the tracks with Rios-Gonzalez still seated inside. No one has been charged in the incident, but an officer was placed on administrative leave. He said he pulled up right behind her truck and was focused on her because he was concerned about weapons. The mother-of-two was recently released from hospital but is still recovering from her injuries and is unable to work The train can be seen smashing into the patrol car at tremendous speed. This photo was taken a split second before impact The mother-of-two survived despite suffering nine broken ribs, a broken arm, a fractured sternum and losing several teeth in the accident He said the 'saving grace' was that the other officer put Rios-Gonzalez on the side of the vehicle not usually used for people who are arrested. Her lawyer, Paul Wilkinson, has said he plans to file a lawsuit against police. Rios-Gonzalez, who is married and has a two-year-old daughter, was released from the hospital last month. 'She is bedridden. She can move around a little bit. She also has a fractured leg that she wasn't initially aware of,' Wilkinson told the Fox News. 'She's still really, really hurt.' Previously released video from Vazquez's body camera show he and another officer searching Rios-Gonzalez's truck as the train approaches. Vazquez asks the other officer several times over the sound of the train's rumbling whether Rios-Gonzalez was in the patrol vehicle and she responds, one hand to her face, 'Oh my God, yes, she was!' Other police video shows officers scrambling as the train approaches and slams into the vehicle. In the aftermath of the horrific crash, Rios-Gonzalez's mother set up a GoFundMe page that has so far managed to raise just shy of $7,500. She said her daughter would never be the same following the crash. Rios-Gonzalez can't eat, get dressed or shower on her own. 'We are highly blessed and thankful to our lord that she survived, although this will forever impact Yareni's life. We need your help to continue Yareni's medical treatments and help with expenses,' she wrote. Prosecutors in San Francisco are refusing to release police bodycam and surveillance footage from the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul during the attack on the congresswoman's husband last week. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins - a Democrat who defeated 'woke' DA Chesa Boudin in a recall earlier this year - refused to release details beyond what was already in court filings, including video of the attack. 'Mr. Pelosi opened the door, they were both holding a hammer and the police observed Mr. DePape pull that hammer away and then strike Mr. Pelosi,' Jenkins said Thursday. That is the most that we're going to say at this point. Our job is not to try this case in the public or in the press. It's to try it in a courtroom.' DePape did not appear at a hearing on Friday, according to Fox News. Pelosi returned home Thursday after he was released from the hospital, the same San Francisco residence where he was attacked by a man wielding a hammer and suffered a fractured skull six days before. Prosecutors in San Francisco are refusing to release police bodycam and surveillance footage from the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul District Attorney Brooke Jenkins - who defeated 'woke' DA Chesa Boudin in a recall earlier this year - refused to release details beyond what was already in court filings DePape didn't appear at a hearing on Friday, according to Fox News Pelosi was taken for treatment after DePape allegedly broke into his San Francisco house with a hammer and beat him. 'The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,' Pelosi's office said in a statement. 'Paul is grateful to the 911 operator, emergency responders, trauma care team, ICU staff, and the entire ZSFGH medical staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment he received after the violent assault in our home,' said the statement. 'Paul remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home surrounded by his family who request privacy.' Doctors operated on Pelosi, a successful investor, to treat a skull fracture he sustained while struggling with his attacker. The tight-lipped reporting of the incident comes as NBC News pulled a bombshell report that claimed Paul Pelosi didn't tell responding police officers he was in danger just before he was injured in a hammer attack at his San Francisco home last week. Secret Service agents are pictured in front of the Pelosi home on Thursday The 82-year-old Paul Pelosi was taken for treatment after David DePape allegedly broke into his San Francisco hammer and beat him 'The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,' Pelosi's office said in a statement Pelosi was released from hospital six days after suffering a fractured skull when he was attacked by a hammer, according to multiple reports The clip posted by the media outlet early Friday morning cited sources close to the investigation that claimed Pelosi's husband didn't declare an emergency or say he was in distress when cops showed up at his door in response to his 911 call. The report by Emmy Award-winning journalist Miguel Almaguer claimed the 82-year-old walked back a few feet away from the officers and into the foyer toward DePape, who had earlier broken into the home armed with a hammer. As Pelosi reportedly took steps away from the responding officers and in the direction of DePape, they saw him bludgeon Pelosi with the hammer, the report claimed. The NBC News report also stated that it was not clear what Pelosi's mental status was when he reportedly stepped back away from police and that responding officers were seemingly unaware that it was the home of Nancy Pelosi, who has a security detail and was in Washington, D.C. at the time of the attack. The report, which differs from the court documents filed earlier this week, was published Friday morning. The incident, just days before the November elections, has renewed calls in Congress to beef up security in light of a growing threats against lawmakers. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who is second in the line of succession to the presidency, was in Washington at the time. US Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a weekend memo to lawmakers that the attack 'is a somber reminder of the threats elected officials and families face in 2022.' In a speech Wednesday, US President Joe Biden linked the attack to the political violence unleashed by ex-president Donald Trump's supporters against Congress on January 6, 2021. Republicans, he said, have 'emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and election officials.' 'That is the path to chaos in America,' he said. Advertisement Lisa Bridgett was chatting on her mobile while waiting to pick up her daughter from an Ariana Grande concert when a shrapnel-packed bomb exploded. It was a large blast from the left-hand side, she recalls. Everything was so quick, but everything was in slow motion. The blast at 10.31pm on May 22, 2017, broke her right ankle, severed the middle finger on her left hand and inflicted lacerations to her legs and face. The phone, held to her ear, prevented even more serious injury, diverting a steel bolt packed inside the bomb. Despite her horrific injuries and multiple operations, Mrs Bridgett knows she is one of the lucky ones. The homemade device detonated by suicide bomber Salman Abedi in the foyer of Manchester Arena killed 22 people, the youngest of whom was just eight years old. Of the hundreds more who were hurt, some were left with life-changing injuries. And for many survivors it is the psychological scars, as well as the physical ones, that are proving equally hard to heal. Step forward Richard D. Hall, a man whose attempts to make a name and money out of Mrs Bridgetts predicament, and that of others caught up in the bomb, are almost impossible to comprehend That event has changed everything, 50-year-old Mrs Bridgett has observed. I think about it every day. It doesnt go away and I dont think it ever will. I can never ever understand or come to terms with what happened. My life will never be the same, and neither will my familys. In other words, she is an innocent individual whose future was ripped apart by a moment of sheer evil. Who could possibly want to do anything other than offer her support, sympathy and understanding, and help alleviate her suffering? Step forward Richard D. Hall, a man whose attempts to make a name and money out of Mrs Bridgetts predicament, and that of others caught up in the bomb, are almost impossible to comprehend. The 55-year-old son of a chicken farmer, Hall does not believe the Manchester bombing took place. He believes it is all a deep-state plot and that many who claimed to have been injured were simply crisis actors playing a scripted role. He has written a book, made a film and given talks on the subject. As recently as mid-October, he had more than 16 million views and has 80,000 YouTube subscribers. But the full extent of Halls activities only emerged this week after a Panorama documentary revealed how he had tracked down survivors such as Mrs Bridgett in a bid to show they were lying about their injuries. Posing as a customer and wearing a body camera, he visited the boating centre where she works in an attempt to film her. Hall also targeted survivor Martin Hibbert, 46, paralysed from the waist down following the attack, and his daughter Eve, now 20, who was left severely disabled due to a brain injury. In a video shared online, Hall demonstrated setting up a camera disguised in fake plant foliage with which he planned to film Eve and see whether she could walk. He later claimed he left a camera rolling in his van, parked in a public place. Hall acknowledged in his video that Eve left the house in a wheelchair, but added that there was no evidence her injury was a result of the bombing. Hall also targeted survivor Martin Hibbert, 46, paralysed from the waist down following the attack, and his daughter Eve, now 20, who was left severely disabled due to a brain injury Incredibly, despite the fall-out from the documentary, Hall has shown precious little remorse. My opinion is that to my knowledge, there has been no satisfactory evidence presented to the public which proves that the Manchester Arena incident was not staged, he maintained in a statement published on his website in response to the BBC broadcast. Coming in the same week that a public inquiry reported on the catalogue of failings and mistakes made by emergency services on that fateful night in which at least one person would have survived had the response been better Halls refusal to back down is a further slap in the face to those caught up in the attack. Not that they are prepared to take his slurs lying down. Halls YouTube content has been pulled and the stall where he sold his merchandise shut down by the local council. More seriously still, Mr Hibbert and other survivors have plans to jointly sue for libel and harassment. For a taste of what that might mean, recent events in the U.S. are instructive. Last month, the Right-wing radio host Alex Jones was ordered by a court to pay 869 million in damages after falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. Twenty children and six adults were killed in the incident. Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden InfoWars website, argued for years that the massacre was a staged government plot to take guns from Americans and that no one died. He called the parents of victims crisis actors and argued that some of them never existed. Sued for defamation by the families of eight victims, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, Jones now acknowledges that the attack was 100 per cent real. But his warped modus operandi served to illustrate to others just how lucrative the market for conspiracy theories can be, however outlandish they are. Its something that Hall has learned from first- hand experience. Raised in a village in County Durham, he was one of three children born to a poultry farmer and his wife. The Hall family is very well thought of here, a former neighbour of his now deceased parents told the Mail last week. Ellis and Maureen ran their farm for many years and were good, honest, hard-working people. Nothing in his upbringing could have led Richard to the place where he is now. Indeed, Halls early years were full of promise. Having graduated in 1990 with a degree in electronic engineering from Newcastle University, he worked as a design engineer, reportedly including stints with Rolls-Royce. More recently he has worked as a website designer. But at the same time, he developed a fascination with UFOs, setting up a website dedicated to sightings and alien abductions. In so doing, he appears to have become convinced that governments and the media have covered up the truth about extra-terrestrial encounters. In 2009 he quizzed David Cameron on the subject as the then-Tory Party leader toured the country. Do you agree with me, David, that the British people have the right to know if we have been visited? he asked. Cameron responded: Im convinced we have been visited by alien life forms, and one of them is the trade secretary Peter Mandelson. A decent joke, but Halls developing interests in the unexplained would become no laughing matter as he turned his attention to the murder of Jill Dando, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 9/11 and what he describes as the alleged murder of the MP Jo Cox. As well as giving paid-for talks about his work across the country and online, he sold his films and books through a website and at a market stall in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. In 2020, he released a film and book about the Manchester bombing suggesting that Abedi, an Islamic State fanatic, was not behind the attack. Hall claims that the incident may have been a carefully stage-managed exercise involving scores of enlisted participants. The murdered victims either died previously or are still alive and living abroad. As the BBC highlighted, as part of his investigation Hall set about tracking down victims of the bomb. He also named Mrs Bridgetts children and shared photos of her workplace in his book. A survey of 4,000 people for the BBC by Kings College London found one in five didnt believe terror attack victims accounts, while one in seven had doubts that major terror attacks occurred. Some 14 per cent believed the Manchester Arena attack probably involved crisis actors who pretended to be injured For a flavour of how Hall works, an excerpt from the video where he discusses her case is revealing. She allegedly lost a finger, a middle finger, and if you look very carefully at these photographs, to me it looks like she is just hiding the finger and so I actually went to where she worked in the hope I could get a glimpse of her hand, he explained. On arrival at the showroom, Hall informed a male employee he was looking to buy a jet ski. He was then told to go into the yard where the jet skis were. All perfectly reasonable unless you are Hall. I think she had clocked me and she had rang him and said Get rid of him out of the showroom, he said. The reason I thought she was important is because some people have got genuine injuries which I think happened a few days before [the bombing] and they have recruited those people, so even if you get to see the injury it doesnt prove anything, whereas if you get to see not an injury, ie. see the finger there, that is proof the finger didnt come off so seeing the finger would be proof she is lying about her injuries. His trail of thought would be comical were there not serious, real-life consequences. Speaking to the Mail, Mrs Bridgett said that until the BBC alerted her she had been unaware who Hall was or that he had visited her. If hed have asked for me, nine times out of ten he would have got to speak to me, she said. Its just quite frightening what lengths somebody would go to, to discredit you. I just think people like this are disgusting. Its unbelievable. Mr Hibbert also spoke out about his anger at being targeted by Hall. I am all for freedom of speech but when you start door-stepping people asking to see peoples disabilities and injuries, it has gone too far, he said. He is profiting from other peoples suffering and I wont have it. He can say what he wants about me, but when it comes to my daughter and those people who have lost loved ones its too far. We have enough to deal with just getting through day-to-day life without him. Mr Hibbert and a number of other survivors of the bomb attack now plan to sue Hall for defamation and harassment. They are seeking damages and restraining orders. Neil Hudgell, his solicitor, said: Several of our clients have had this man on their doorstep, taking photographs; invading their privacy in the most intrusive way. Martin and others are determined to stop this individual from continuing with his repugnant behaviour. While Hall may not have grown rich on the back of the conspiracy theories he peddles, it has provided him with a living. In videos posted online he claims to have paid off the 28,000 mortgage he took out on his three-storey house when he moved to South Wales in 2015 and puts his recent earnings at 10,000 a year. While Hall did not reply to requests to comment on the allegations against him, he did update his website with a statement addressing the claims made by the BBC Panorama investigation. He wrote: I have made some polite door-to-door enquiries in order to gather evidence, which is a perfectly legitimate activity when doing research. I did not hide cameras outside somebodys home. I have not accused anyone of lying. It is my opinion that some of the people involved have made some false statements in media interviews. This is an opinion not an accusation. I am easy to contact via my website and to date have not received any direct contact by any Manchester victim to complain about my actions. I appealed for further information from witnesses who saw what happened; this does not make me responsible for hateful messages by people who I dont know to anyone that was involved. The fact that there is a market for the sort of material Hall produces is in itself deeply concerning. A survey of 4,000 people for the BBC by Kings College London found one in five didnt believe terror attack victims accounts, while one in seven had doubts that major terror attacks occurred. Some 14 per cent believed the Manchester Arena attack probably involved crisis actors who pretended to be injured. There is a growing call for a law to prevent people from denying historical events. We have a law of libel that protects people, and in the same way there should be a law that prevents people on social media from spreading false information that can harm people who have already been seriously harmed, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said last week. Victims should be prevented from being retraumatised by denying the historical facts of what happened to them. They should have their right to the facts about what happened protected. A statement of the obvious. But one that, in the modern world, no longer goes without saying. President Joe Biden on Friday offered a wildly upbeat assessment of his party's chances in next week's midterm elections, claiming Democrats will keep the Senate and could even hold on to the House of Representatives - despite a slew of polls forecasting that Republicans will make sweeping gains. 'We're gonna win this time this time around, I think. I feel really good about our chances,' he said. 'I think we're gonna keep the Senate, pick up a seat. I think we have a chance of winning the House.' Biden made his comments before he flew out of California during a trip to shore up support for his party before voting ends on Tuesday. The past month has seen Republicans take a comfortable lead in House races - with most forecasters saying they will take control of the lower chamber - and gain a smaller advantage in Senate contests. Pollsters say a continuing cost of living crisis has eaten into Democratic support around the nation. But that was not Biden's message as he tried to gee up the party faithful. 'I don't think we're going to not win,' he told reporters traveling with him at a Marine Corps air station in San Diego. 'We're keeping the House. 'So I'm optimistic.' President Joe Biden gave an upbeat assessment of his party's chances in the midterms The latest analysis by number crunchers at the politics website FiveThirtyEight - based on complex model that weighs polling data - forecasts that Republicans have an 84 percent chance of winning control of the House. Things are closer in the battle for the Senate. It calculates a 55 percent chance of the Republicans taking the upper chamber. Both of those numbers have shifted in favor of Republicans in the closing weeks of the campaign. That would leave Biden as a 'lame duck' president, unable to get legislation signed into law. Biden said coverage of the races did not reflect what he was seeing on the ground. 'I find that most of the debate occurs in the places I visit,' he said. 'I know you don't think it but I think we have pretty good crowds. Fairly enthusiastic.' And he said that his policies were going down well on the road. 'I dont know anybody who's really opposed to us bringing down medical prices and prescription drugs and all those other things,' he said. He gave his analysis after visiting a communications company that was expected to benefit from his push to bolster American semiconductor manufacturing. For Biden it was a chance to tout efforts to increase semiconductor chips production and resolve supply chain issues that erupted early in his presidency. Biden delivers remarks on the CHIPS and Science Act at Viasat Inc., a technology company that will benefit from the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, in Carlsbad, California 'Folks, our economy continues to grow and add jobs even as gasoline prices continue to come down,' he said. 'We also know folks are struggling from inflation.' But he insisted there where 'bright spots' where the country was rebounding. The day began with mixed economic news. The hot jobs market continued in October when the country added 261,000 to payrolls, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the unemployment rate inched up to 3.7 percent from a five-decade low of 3.5 percent. Biden took a jab at ambivalent reporting. 'New York Times reports, media reports, they call the report the Goldilocks report,' he said in a speech at the Viasat plant in Carlsbad. 'I have my shotgun waiting for the wolf.' He left San Diego for Chicago and a political reception. The city is a Democratic stronghold but polls suggest some of his House members, particularly in suburban districts, are facing more competitive reelection battles than expected. Criminals hunted by Interpol for serious crimes have entered Britain on Channel crossings. A number of wanted individuals subject to red notices have been identified among small boat migrants, the Mail can disclose. In addition, immigration offenders who have previously been deported have re-entered the UK by boat and ended up at the Home Offices beleaguered Manston processing centre. Sources told the Mail that some red notice offenders had also been taken to the Kent facility although this was denied by the Home Office last night. A number of wanted individuals subject to red notices have been identified among small boat migrants, the Mail can disclose It has long been feared that criminals could be taking advantage of illegal crossings to enter the country. The revelation that fugitives are exploiting the Channel crisis to reach Britain will now raise serious questions about the UKs porous borders. Mothballed detention centres to reopen Two mothballed detention centres for illegal immigrants and foreign criminals will reopen next year. The Home Office wants to use the secure sites again as it attempts to get a grip on the illegal migration crisis by deporting more people with no right to live in the UK. The news came as it emerged that some migrants have been put up in the grand surroundings of Stoke Rochford Hall, a stately home and wedding venue near Margaret Thatchers birthplace of Grantham. Rooms, which can cost up to 200 a night, are filled with arrivals from Afghanistan, Albania, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, the Telegraph reported. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick wrote to MPs yesterday about proposals to put Campsfield House, Oxfordshire, and Haslar in Hampshire back into service. Downing Street said: These facilities... will play an important role in efforts to control our borders... and ensure people going through our asylum system are treated with compassion... Lib Dem Layla Moran said she would oppose the reopening of Campsfield House in her constituency. It closed in 2018 after being dogged by riots, hunger strikes and escapes. Advertisement Of primary concern will be the possibility that criminals can arrive undetected aboard boats and disappear, as about 80 migrants managed to do at Shakespeare beach, near Dover, on October 23. It was unclear last night how many criminals who have been able to enter the country were housed at the Manston base, near Ramsgate, and whether they had later been moved to hotels around the country. But sources said dozens of foreign nationals who had previously been deported had been found re-entering Britain by small boat from northern France. The Mail has reported how an Albanian man convicted of murder and firearms offences in Greece had been allowed to continue his asylum claim after arriving here by small boat. Mariglen Soshari, 31, is now in jail after being hauled before Folkestone magistrates on Thursday where he was handed a 60-day sentence for entering the UK illegally. He arrived in Kent on a small boat last month and filled in a questionnaire at the Manston facility where he detailed his previous convictions. The court heard he applied for asylum on October 12, two days after his arrival and that his application would continue. The Mail can reveal that 60 per cent of Manstons 2,500-strong population is Albanian. Of those, eight out of ten are young men. In another worrying development, toys donated by charities to children held at Manston have been confiscated by men who have used plastic and metal parts to construct makeshift blades. In some cases, security guards at the centre have been attacked. It comes as an investigation by the BBC revealed yesterday how Albanian drug gangs are using migrant camps in northern France as a recruitment ground even offering to pay for the passage of those prepared to work in the drugs trade when they reach Britain. One gang member assured an undercover reporter it was very easy to reach the UK. Asked for advice on how to claim asylum, the smuggler said in social media messages: You have to invent a reason why youre here. People usually say they have debts, problems in general. It also emerged yesterday that Home Office contractors have been removed from Manston after trying to sell drugs to asylum seekers. Migrants claimed security staff had offered to sell them cannabis, the Guardian reported. A Home Office spokesman said the individuals involved were swiftly removed and pledged to continue to take robust action against errant employees. A Home Office spokesman said the individuals involved were swiftly removed and pledged to continue to take robust action against errant employees Interpol red notices, issued to its 195 member countries, ask law enforcement agencies to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. According to Interpols website 7,116 notices were live yesterday. The Home Office said Manston remains resourced and equipped to process migrants securely, including comprehensive background checks. A spokesman said: There is no evidence to suggest anyone with an Interpol red notice has arrived at Manston. Any individual found with a criminal record will be detained... pending their removal from the UK. Andersen wrote Trump suggesting he 'could have nailed' Princess Diana if he had wanted to also 'didn't help' The advance copy also said Charles was 'disappointed' after Trump referred to him as the 'Prince of Whales' Excerpts from Christopher Andersen's upcoming The King: The Life of Charles III revealed their reaction The former president, 76, tweeted that 'she shouldnt be sunbathing in the nude' and 'only herself to blame' After the photos were published in the French magazine Closer, the businessman took to Twitter to comment Advertisement Prince William and King Charles exploded into 'torrents of profanity' following comments from Donald Trump about Kate Middletons 2012 topless photo scandal, a new book has claimed. After the photographs of the then Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless in Provence, France, were published in the French magazine Closer, the business mogul took to Twitter to comment. The former president, 76, tweeted: Kate Middleton is great--but she shouldnt be sunbathing in the nude--only herself to blame. He added: Who wouldnt take Kates picture and make lots of money if she does the nude sunbathing thing. Come on Kate! Excerpts from Christopher Andersen's upcoming biography The King: The Life of Charles III revealed the tweet sparked torrents of profanity from Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. 'Trump's criticism of Kate resulted in what one Clarence House butler referred to as "torrents of profanity" from both Prince Charles and his sons,' Andersen wrote, according to Newsweek. Prince William and King Charles exploded into 'torrents of profanity' following comments from Donald Trump about Kate Middletons 2012 topless photo scandal, a new book has claimed After the photographs of the then Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless in Provence, France, were published in the French magazine Closer, the business mogul took to Twitter to comment The former president, 76, tweeted: Kate Middleton is great--but she shouldnt be sunbathing in the nude--only herself to blame Trump added: Who wouldnt take Kates picture and make lots of money if she does the nude sunbathing thing. Come on Kate! The advance copy also said that Charles was 'disappointed' after Trump referred to him as the 'Prince of Whales'. In addition, Andersen wrote that Trump suggesting he 'could have nailed' Princess Diana if he had wanted to also 'didn't help'. Other revelations revealed in Andersen's book include the Royal Family trying to 'discourage' a planned visit by Trump to the UK in 2017. Charles, William and Harry 'burned up the phone lines between Clarence House and Kensington Palace, with all three princes agreeing to work behind the scenes to discourage Trump's visit,' according to Andersen. Trump commented on the nude photos on Fox and Friends at the time, saying: 'While we're all fans of Kate, can you imagine why she would ever be out in the nude? 'Why would she be standing in the nude in a swimming pool or wherever she was. She's Kate. It's terrible what they did, it's terrible to take pictures, but boy, how can you do a thing so stupid?' The advance copy also said that Charles was 'disappointed' after Trump referred to him as the 'Prince of Whales' In addition, Andersen wrote that Trump suggesting he 'could have nailed' Princess Diana if he had wanted to also 'didn't help' Other revelations revealed in Andersen's book include the Royal Family trying to 'discourage' a planned visit by Trump to the UK in 2017 Charles, William and Harry 'burned up the phone lines between Clarence House and Kensington Palace, with all three princes agreeing to work behind the scenes to discourage Trump's visit,' according to Andersen St Jamess Palace released a statement saying the medias decision to publish the topless pictures was grotesque. The incident is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of [Princess Diana], and all the more upsetting to the Duke and Duchess for being so. In 2017, Kate and William were granted 91,000 ($120,000) in punitive damages. According to Closer Weekly, the former Duke of Cambridge described the release of these pictures as painful and said: The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy. My wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy. Two executives were fined 40,000, the maximum possible fine for offences under French privacy law. In addition to this, they and the two photographers were ordered to pay 44,000 to the Duchess and the same amount to the Duke, according to The Express. MailOnline has approached Buckingham Palace for comment. The REAL reason Camilla fell into Charles's arms again? Her lothario husband! PETRONELLA WYATT - who had ringside seat for drama you WON'T see on The Crown - reveals how future King and Queen were drawn back together by Andrew Parker Bowles's raffish ways By Petronella Wyatt For The Daily Mail Few people talk about Andrew Parker Bowles any more, but they should. Whoever it was who introduced Camilla to her former husband is chiefly responsible for where she is today; King Charless wife and Queen Consort. My thoughts have been with Camilla this week as the new series of The Crown is about to air. One of the worst canards of this series is its depiction of her as a scarlet-taloned temptress who spent years scheming to ensnare another womans husband, ruining the life of Princess Diana. In fact, the opposite is true. I know, because I was there. I had a ringside, front-row seat in the velvet- cushioned stalls. I first met Camilla and Andrew in the early 1980s, when I was about 15. My father, the late Lord Wyatt, was Chairman of the Horserace Totalisator board. Andrew loved racing and Camilla loved horses. I was with my parents in a private box at a country race meeting. It was one of those wintry days when the sun doesnt quite warm the sky and we were sitting around tables laden with wine. Andrew loved racing and Camilla loved horses. I was with my parents in a private box at a country race meeting. It was one of those wintry days when the sun doesnt quite warm the sky and we were sitting around tables laden with wine Then the Parker Bowleses arrived. At that time, they had been married for more than ten years. There was talk that their honeymoon period had ended and that they sometimes led separate lives, but it would be a good few years before rumours emerged that Camilla was seeing the married Prince Charles, as he then was. Both Camilla and Andrew were very well liked and any gossip about them was never made ugly by malice. That afternoon, the attention of most of the females present was fixed on Andrew. He was a distinguished Army officer and catnip to women. My father called him the great woman slayer. The effect he had on them was extraordinary. I was a novice where men were concerned, but on being introduced to him, I felt a visceral jolt. Andrew possessed the sexual glamour of an exotic animal. In those days, his profile resembled that of the swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn, and he wore his clothes, a hat perched on the side of his head, with an elan rare in an upper-class Englishman. His charm, which was authentic and unforced, gave him an allure that crossed all frontiers. Camilla, on the other hand, was seen as amusing, dependable and an all-round good sort. She wasnt beautiful exactly, but she was arresting, with strongly delineated features. She had thick blonde hair, marble pale skin that rejected the elements and wore no make-up apart from mascara and a slash of pink lipstick that made her face look incongruously exciting. Her clothes werent chic but like many women who ride, she had a good, rangy figure. Her eyes were a startling aqua and she chain-smoked cigarettes with vintage aplomb. The decision by the creators of Netflixs The Crown to revisit Camillas past and muddy it with facetious fantasy is pernicious in its timing. The Queen Consort has a backstory that the British public, misunderstanding her, has not always viewed with sympathy. PETRONELLA WYATT: Few people talk about Andrew Parker Bowles any more, but they should (Pictured: Andrew and Princess Anne in 1971) True, we have had controversial Queen Consorts before. In the early 19th-century, there was Queen Caroline of Brunswick, who was so loathed by her husband George IV that he barred her from his Coronation. Then there was Edward IVs wife, Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed adventuress detested by his family. But these women were fortunate enough to live in an age before red-top tabloids, social media and Netflix, with its ravenous maw for sensationalised untruths. Few women in public life have been as unjustly maligned as Queen Camilla. The story of the infamous Love Triangle is a compelling narrative drama, I grant you. Who can forget the now discredited There were three in this marriage Panorama interview; Diana lowering her eyes in Oscar-worthy showmanship, which The Crown will recreate over two episodes? But truth is the daughter of time, goes an old saying, and it is time to tell the truth and lay this calumny to rest once and for all. Aged 22 and single, a gauche Prince Charles did, indeed, fall for the young Camilla Shand, the vivacious daughter of country gentry, whom he met in 1970. But although she was fond of him and enjoyed his company, her affections were hopelessly engaged elsewhere. For years she had been passionately in love with the raffish Parker Bowles, whose existence is pivotal to this whole affair. For three decades, beginning in the late 1960s, Andrew was the lothario of London, and the name on everyones lips. Tall, handsome and athletic, he was sophisticated, witty, and priapic. (Novelist Jilly Cooper used him as the hero of one of her Country Set bonkbusters.) Unusually for a man of his boarding school-educated class, he enjoyed talking to women and they responded. Half the women who knew him were in love with him and the other half panted to meet him. Aged 22 and single, a gauche Prince Charles did, indeed, fall for the young Camilla Shand, the vivacious daughter of country gentry, whom he met in 1970 It was he, not Charles, whom they wanted to marry. Close to the Royal Family, Andrew had already romanced Princess Anne who had become smitten. Andrew is like a drug, confides one of his exes. You cant really get him out of your system. Equally dazzled was the perky debutante Camilla. It is easy to see why she began going out with him, but he was hardly reliable boyfriend material. He seemed impossible to capture. Andrew the Swordsman enjoyed playing the field and refused to commit. When the Prince of Wales became interested in Parker Bowless aggrieved girlfriend, however, it brought him up sharply and he finally proposed marriage. Camilla was thrilled, says a friend. She walked around with stars in her eyes. She was the cat that got the cream. As for Charles, he was said to be greatly saddened, but senior members of the Royal Family, in particular The Queen Mother, were intent on his marrying a secular saint, or to put it bluntly, a virgin. There was nothing he could do as a radiant Camilla married Andrew in a society wedding in July 1973 at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks. There the matter might have rested and history taken a different course. Camilla adored her husband, was a doting mother to their children, Tom and Laura, and had no intention of resuming a relationship with Charles. Modest and shy by nature, you could say she has spent her life backing into the limelight. She and Andrew had a picturesque Georgian house in Wiltshire and her intention was to live quietly in the country with her dogs and horses, and enjoy a long and faithful marriage. PETRONELLA WYATT: I first met Camilla and Andrew in the early 1980s, when I was about 15 Pictured: Andrew Parker Bowles, Lord Charles Spencer Churchill and Petronella Wyatt But fate doesnt always play along. Contrary to the public perception of Camilla as a marriage-wrecker, it was her husband who began having affairs. There are some men who cannot resist women and Andrew was one of them. While Camilla stayed in the country, he continued to cut a swathe through London, spending most of the week up in town. Camilla could not keep a hold on him. His infidelities left her feeling crushed and unwanted. Like many women before her, she sought solace in a man who needed her more, the still unmarried Prince Charles. It was too late, however, to switch horses. Andrew Parker Bowles was a Catholic and there was no question of a divorce, while the pressure on Charles to marry was unbearable. Even in the early 1980s, there were very few English virgins about, but the 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer was one. The world knows what happened next, but it does not know that Charles and Camilla agreed to part in perpetuity when the Prince became engaged. Friends of Charles say he was genuinely besotted by Dianas charms, and Camilla was determined not to upset the younger woman, even though her own feelings for the Prince had become profound. The infamous bracelet, with Gladys and Charles engraved on it, and which so set off Diana, was, indeed, a goodbye gift. Charles tried to make his marriage succeed and so did the Parker Bowleses, but Andrew continued to buccaneer and had become put out by his wifes friendship with the Prince of Wales. By the late-1980s, I began to hear frequent gossip: Charless marriage had sunk like the Titanic and he was reduced to a state of bleak despair. There are some men who cannot resist women and Andrew was one of them. While Camilla stayed in the country, he continued to cut a swathe through London, spending most of the week up in town It would be fair to say he had ceased to function as a human being in any meaningful way. At the behest of Charless friends, Camilla finally agreed to see him. It was an act of mercy and selfless affection. It would be instructive to point out that Camilla was no social-climbing Wallis Simpson or Meghan Markle, flattered by the attentions of royalty, but a down-to-earth Englishwoman for whom titles and palaces held no glamour. Her comfort zone is that of the supporting actress, not of the spotlight-hogging diva. Her instinct is to shore and ballast her man, and it was Charles who became the person she loved, despite his complexities, or perhaps because of them. The Prince depended on her in a way that Andrew never had. As my memory gropes back, it was at a polo match in 1992 the year that Charles and Diana announced their separation that I began to see the strain show on Camilla. Shed gone to the game with Andrew and I sat in the row behind them. The Press had got wind of Camilla and Charless relationship, but with her customary humour she tried to ignore the banked photographers. It was a breezy day and her grey jacket was slightly rumpled (Camilla is notoriously untidy). Her brow was furrowed but her basic fineness of character shone as she laughed and made fun of my ignorance of country matters. That is a horse, Petronella, she said, her voice scary with kindly sarcasm. Not a cow. Do remember that! Andrew Parker Bowles was a Catholic and there was no question of a divorce, while the pressure on Charles to marry was unbearable I laughed back, feeling her puissance. That was the effect she had on people. She had no need of beaters to drive in her game. When Camilla and Andrew left the polo, their friends began to talk about their deteriorating marriage and Camillas growing devotion to Charles, but none of this was poisoned by moral indignation. In London, I started running into Andrew frequently, at dinner parties, charity events and balls. So far from appearing an unwanted cuckold, there was always a line of society women vying for his attention. I was then in my 20s, and I have to say that I fell a little for Andrew myself. He took me out to dinner a couple of times. Nothing happened, but I was tempted and I could see why women adored him. He had the manners of a troubadour and could have got a nun doing high-kicks through a stained-glass window. By now, the whole world knew about Camilla and Charles. Diana made sure of that. The dice were loaded against the couple by the skill and manipulative powers of the Princess. Though she had her own affairs, Diana successfully presented herself as a plaster saint and the victim of an unscrupulous rival. She was younger, more glamorous, had influence in the media and was the most famous woman in the world. Poor Camilla couldnt win against her armoury and declined to enter the lists. Possessing an innate dignity, she never ran to journalists and, instead, suffered in silence the hostile attacks of the Press and the public. Now that she is Queen Consort, it is interesting to speculate what might have happened if Andrew had been a faithful husband. When Camilla and Andrew left the polo, their friends began to talk about their deteriorating marriage and Camillas growing devotion to Charles, but none of this was poisoned by moral indignation Would Camilla have lived an anonymous life in the English countryside as Mrs Parker Bowles? Very probably, though I doubt Charless marriage to Diana would have endured. As it is, the King is lucky to have Camilla and so are we. As for Andrew Parker Bowles, after he and Camilla parted, at least four women I know set their caps at him. Indeed, there was a coven of middle-aged females hoping to win his hand, and many ended up crying into their lavender-scented undies. For in 1996, Andrew married the charming and erudite garden designer Rosemary Pitman, of whom Camilla approved heartily. They lived happily in Wiltshire until Rosemarys death aged 69 from cancer in 2010. Andrew and Queen Camilla remain on excellent terms, which is a tribute to them both. There is no animosity between them and he often represents her at events, increasingly becoming part of her court. In return, she worries about him and helps to arrange his social life, now that he is a sprightly 82. I wouldnt be at all surprised if she found him a new wife. Meanwhile, the makers of The Crown should blush with shame. Some experts are using virtual reality for good by helping people with physical or mental aliments regain their moto skills or lives back This could lead to an 'echo chamber,' in which people would only associate with others who share their viewpoints Governments can block people from mixing with other groups in order to create a group-thinking mentality Experts warn the metaverse could be used by governments to brainwash the public by limiting what they can experience Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions one billion people abandoning the real world for a digital one, but experts warn the metaverse could be used by government entities as the ultimate brainwashing tool. The metaverse, which first emerged as an idea in the 1992 sci-fi book titled Snow Crash, is a virtual world where people live, work and play without leaving the comfort of their home - and many believe this is exactly where life is heading. Brian Shuster, who has 17 years of experience with the metaverse and also created his own digital world called Utherverse, told DailyMail.com that the dystopian version of the metaverse will happen if it is used to inflict public dominance. 'It is the ultimate extension of the 'echo-chamber' of current social media, in which people naturally tend to associate with others who share their viewpoints, and therefore those viewpoints are reinforced, and users tend to conclude (wrongly) that those views are consensus,' said Shuster. 'In this dystopian metaverse, this artificial echo-chamber actually changes the reality for the user so that the viewpoint desired by the controlling entity is forcibly made into consensus.' The future could see billions of people ditch the real world for a digital one, but experts warn the metaverse could be used to control the public. Governments can control what its people experience and block certain ideas What is the metaverse? The 'metaverse' is a set of virtual spaces where you can game, work and communicate with others who aren't in the same physical space as you. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice on the concept, which is seen as the future of the internet and would blur the lines between the physical and digital. 'You'll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more,' Meta has said. 'It's not necessarily about spending more time online it's about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.' While Meta is leading the charge with the metaverse, it explained that it isn't a single product one company can build. 'Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not,' it added. 'And it won't be built overnight. Many of these products will only be fully realized in the next 10-15 years.' Advertisement Shuster believes the metaverse, which is still years away from being completed, could be used for evil if it falls into the wrong hands. And although such a world seems far fetched, parts of what it could be are in existence in our reality. Shuster provided the example of what China is currently doing with social credit scores and face-recognition, which provide its people with rewards for being obedient or consequences for not. 'Now imagine that this system could be operated with total knowledge of every person's movement and behavior as well as every word they say, every word they hear and tracking every bit of money they spend and what they bought,' he said. 'That would be a huge improvement over the system in and of itself.' Another example is how Iran attempts to block its people from learning about protests for women's freedom and rights. In the metaverse, this nation could limit young girls from interacting with certain people, such as educated women, so they will not be exposed to ideas that do not fit the nation's. And this is what is meant by the Echo Chamber. While this may scare people from stepping foot into a virtual world Luana Colloca, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland, researches how virtual reality can help those suffering from physical or mental ailments. 'One potential of VR is people creating avatars that move with the participants and learn their movements, which is a helpful therapeutic point of view,' Colloca told DailyMail.com. The metaverse would be a place where people could work without leaving their own homes. The creature of Utherverse (pictured) warns that it could be used to create an 'echo chamber,' in which people naturally tend to associate with others who share their viewpoints 'People with diseases or pain who feel ashamed, use virtual reality as a release. 'It allows them to do things they normally couldn't do in the real world and helps them relax.' Shuster also believes in the work virtual reality can do to help people suffering from physical or mental ailments. Brian Shuster (pictured) is the creator of Utherverse. He told DailyMail.com that the metaverse could be used for evil in the wrong hands 'Anxiety is lessened [in the metaverse] because people can change their appearance at will. Avatars are constantly changing,' he said. 'You can avoid being teased as a basic premise. You can make my avatar tall, overweight, and have fun being different.' 'This allows you to experience life from different perspectives. There are a lot of ways we can use this as an anxiety reducer.' There are, however, dangers to a person's health when spending too much time in the metaverse, which Shuster said is blurring the virtual world with the physical one. YouTuber Derek Westermen holds Guinness Book's World Record for spending the most time in virtually reality and after completing the 25 hours he said life felt 'slightly superficial or unreal.' The feat was accomplished in 2016. Shuster explained how, for example, users will not worry about getting hit by a vehicle while crossing a street in the metaverse and this lack of fear could travel into the real world. 'The instinct may not be there [in the real world],' he said. Virtual reality is the ultimate trick on the brain. By strapping a headset on, a user is transported to a world of digital wonder where anything is possible, but this causes confusion in the brain because what you see in the metaverse does not add up with real-life experiences. The neurons which are responsible for memory formation are constantly disordered during the Virtual Reality experience. This causes some problems in the procedure of memory creation. Jeremey Bailenson, professor of communication at Stanford University and founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab, recently published a book titled Experience on Demand, where he discusses a study that placed rats in a virtual room while running on a treadmill. Along with controlling people, virtual reality can impact a person's health. YouTuber Derek Westermen (pictured) spent 25 hours in VR and said the real world felt superficial. Spending too much time in the metaverse could blur the to realities Westermen also feel physically sick after spending hours in virtual reality. This is likely do to how the world is constantly changing, while our real world is static The study, conducted in 2014 by scientists at the University of California - Los Angeles, measured the activity of hundreds of neurons in their hippocampus. While in the virtual room, the rats' neurons fired chaotically, as if the neurons had no idea where the rat was - even though the rats' navigation behaviors seemed normal both in the real and virtual worlds. Along with the chaotic firing, the team observed less brain activity among the rats while they were in the virtual room, which suggests the animals did not understand where they were. While this may scare people from stepping foot into a virtual world Luana Colloca, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland, researches how virtual reality can help those suffering from physical or mental ailments Bailenson's book also dives into the good, the bad and ugly of the metaverse. Bailenson is an advocate for virtual reality, but only when it is done properly. In his book, urges users to only spend short stints, only allowing people in his lab to spend 20 minutes at a time. 'It's fine to go back in, but take a minute, rub your eyes, look around, touch a wall,' he wrote. 'Spending a lot of time in a virtual environment can overwhelm the senses, and in my experience it's a good idea to rest for a couple of reasons.' The book continues with the reasons, which includes lag that happens once you step back into the real world. While in VR you are moving your head around and the scene is moving with you, but 'the world is 'frozen; and cannot update as it jumps from one position to the next.' Eyestrain is another and the book also echoes Shuster's concerns about reality blurring. His book describes studies involving people spending 24 hours in a VR room and subjects were confused about the virtual environment and their physical surroundings, mixing objects and events between the two worlds. 'The challenge for those of us working on building this new and potentially amazing and liberating tool for humanity is to enshrine protections against this abuse right into the core foundations of the Metaverse,' said Shuster. 'If we think through the potential abuses, and if we get support from all levels of humanity, the opposite outcome can be achieved.' While Halloween may be over, scientists don't want us to let our guards down when it comes to the potential for extraterrestrial life. A new group at the University of St Andrews in Scotland wants to put together a plan for what to do if we encounter aliens here on Earth. With help from experts from across the world, they will be putting together robust protocols and treaties, as well as assessing any evidence of intelligent civilisations. Their preparatory work will take place at a new research hub at the university, dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). 'Science fiction is awash with explorations of the impact on human society following discovery of, and even encounters with, life or intelligence elsewhere,' said Dr John Elliott, a computer scientist and coordinator of the SETI Post-Detection Hub. 'But we need to go beyond thinking about the impact on humanity.' A new group at the University of St Andrews in Scotland want to put together a plan for what to do if we encounter aliens here on Earth (stock image) The preparatory work will take place at a new research hub at the university dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Pictured: The St Andrews SETI Post-Detection Hub team, from left: Derek Ball, Emily Finer, Martin Dominik, John Elliott, Emma Johanna Puranen, and Adam Bower DOES ALIEN LIFE EXIST? No life beyond Earth has ever been found; there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet. However, this does not mean that the universe is lifeless other than on Earth, according to NASA. The space agency says: 'While no clear signs of life have ever been detected, the possibility of extraterrestrial biology - the scientific logic that supports it - has grown increasingly plausible.' One popular school of thought is that our own existence is evidence that there is certainly life on other planets, as the likelihood of Earth being a 'one-off' is almost zero. However, one argument against this is - if there is extraterrestrial life, why have we not found any evidence for it? Advertisement He added: 'We need to coordinate our expert knowledge, not only for assessing the evidence, but also for considering the human social response as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we don't know is communicated. 'And the time to do this is now. 'Scanning signals of assumed extra-terrestrial origin for structures of language and attaching meaning is an elaborate and time-consuming process during which our knowledge will be advanced in many steps as we learn "Extra-Terrestrial".' The group feels that limited attention has been given to the consequences on society if alien intelligence is detected. While the United Nations has processes and entities established for the threat of asteroid impact, nothing similar is in place for extraterrestrial life. In June, NASA announced it was launching its first ever study into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) - known popularly as UFO's. Over the course of nine months, scientists are looking at current data into UAPs, and establish which sightings are naturally-occurring or not worth further investigation. The Hub's researchers wrote: 'Social interest has risen considerably recently, due to the detection of thousands of planets around distant stars in our own galaxy and, closer to home, through the exploration of nearby worlds such as Mars and Venus, looking for signs of life, present or past. 'The potential discovery of microbial life will likely raise different types of concern that would follow the discovery of intelligent life we are as yet entirely unprepared as a species for the latter.' The SETI Post-Detection hub provides the first permanent 'home' for developing a comprehensive framework for what happens after an alien radio signal is picked up. Scientists will manage the full process of searching for evidence, confirming detections, their analysis and interpretation of language patterns and managing the potential response. They will work with academics in the sciences and humanities as well as members of the SETI community. Scientists will manage the full process of searching for evidence, confirming detections, their analysis of language patterns and managing the potential response (stock image) They will also coordinate with policy experts on message decipherment, data analytics, space law, regulation development and societal impact strategies, to help close the policy gap. Dr Elliott said: 'Will we ever get a message from E.T.? We don't know. We also don't know when this is going to happen. 'But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage.' In July, a study found that aliens could send messages through interstellar space using quantum communication. A team from the University of Edinburgh ran calculations on the movement of X-rays across the emptiness of space to see if they would encounter any obstructions. Quantum particles, like photons of light, are fragile and could easily break down if they meet any kind of interference, like from a gravitational field. However it was determined that the quanta could survive travelling hundreds of thousands of light-years at least a greater stretch of distance than the entire Milky Way galaxy. This is largely due to average density of matter in space being very small, decreasing the likelihood of a quantum particle being knocked off course. The level of information that can be securely transferred using quanta at high speeds could make it a viable method of communication to other life forms, according to the researchers. There are currently no known objects that naturally transmit quantum messages that could be mistaken for alien signals, the researchers claim. It is currently only speculation, but the research does give experts another sign of life to look out for. They added: 'In principle, it should be possible to detect a quantum signal coming from an astrophysical body or even an intelligent signal from an extraterrestrial civilisation.' Former United States President Donald Trump's company, the Trump Organization, will be overseen by an independent monitor regarding its financial reporting, an order that a judge approved on Thursday. The request was made by the New York Attorney-General amid an investigation of the Republican businessman's company. After a day-long hearing, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued the order that required the Trump Organization's dealing with banks and sale of major assets to be subject to supervision by a third-party expert that would be named by the court. Independent Monitor Furthermore, one provision in Judge Engoron's order requires a 14-day notice to the court before the former president's company can dispose of any "non-cash asset" that is listed in a financial statement that the firm prepared last year. Engoron's order also came over strenuous objections from Trump's lawyers in Manhattan earlier on Thursday. There, Trump's team argued with Engoron to reject Attorney General Letitia James' bid to impose that potentially far-reaching supervision of the Trump Organization, as per Politico. The judge noted in his ruling that evidence of fraudulent valuations by the former president and his company was "more than sufficient" to indicate that the New York Attorney-General was likely to win the lawsuit that she filed back in September. That lawsuit seeks to impose strict limits on the Trump Organization's activities in New York and place a ban on Trump and his three eldest children from serving as an officer of any New York corporation. The legal battle that Trump is facing came after the two sides faced off in court for the first time since the New York Attorney-General was the focus of the nation for her civil lawsuit against the former president and his business. On Thursday, James quickly hailed Judge Engoron's decision as a step forward to getting justice for Trump. According to the Daily Beast, the Trump Organization is accused of engaging in a blatant and long-running bank and tax fraud scheme. Documents described how the former president's company inflated the size and value of property in order to get better bank loans and claim bigger tax breaks. Read Also: US Midterms: Biden Blasts Trump, Republicans For Threatening 'American Democracy' In Latest Speech Days Ahead Elections Lawsuit Against The Trump Organization James is now looking to put the Trumps on trial in 2023 over the case, similar to how the former president is expected to pursue his political ambitions in a potential return to the White House. The Republican businessman has already taken measures that indicate he could be playing corporate games to avoid accountability, much to the New York Attorney-General's concerns. Trump has, in recent weeks, opened a new corporation in the shell company capital of Delaware, which is called "Trump Organization II." On Wednesday, the former president filed a state lawsuit in Florida's Palm Beach County against the Attorney-General's office. Engoron's order to have an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization's financial reporting was justified given the company's "persistent misrepresentations throughout every one of Mr. Trump's [Statements of Financial Condition] between 2011 and 2021." The judge added that the monitor would ensure there would be no further fraud or illegality made by the company, CNBC reported. Related Article: Donald Trump Files Lawsuit Against New York AG Letitia James To Halt Review of Personal Trust @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement Elon Musk's $44billion (38bn) takeover of Twitter was finally confirmed last week, and the new CEO has wasted no time making changes to the popular platform. Today, 3,700 of Twitter's staff around the world are being culled, with furious union bosses describing Musk's mass sackings as a 'digital P&O' situation. Musk has also made his intentions clear for a $8/month fee for 'Blue Tick' verification, as well as an open source algorithm and an Edit button. In addition, the billionaire has strongly expressed his desire to relax content restrictions, making Twitter a platform for 'free speech'. MailOnline takes a closer look at what the social network could look like after Musk's controversial takeover. MailOnline takes a closer look at what the social network could look like after Musk's controversial acquisition of Twitter, that was confirmed last week Twitter accepted Musk's $44 billion bid back in April, and he has since made a lot of wild claims about his plans for the site HOW COULD MUSK CHANGE TWITTER? Charge a $20 per month subscription fee for a 'Blue Tick' More adverts Relax content restrictions Make its algorithms open source Ridding spam bots with increased authentication checks Cheaper 'Twitter Blue' service Edit Button for users worldwide Bring back Vine and incorporate it with Twitter Advertisement Paying for the Blue Tick On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that users who want a Blue Tick will have to pay $8 (7) per month. The tick mark indicates that an account has been 'verified', and is run by the person or company it claims to represent. He wrote: 'Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit. 'Power to the people! Blue for $8/month' He added that the price will be adjusted by 'country proportionate to purchasing power parity.' Those with the Blue Tick will receive 'priority in replies, mentions and search', according to Musk's tweets. They will also see half as many adverts as regular users, and the ability to bypass paywalls of 'publishers willing to work with us'. This is part of Musk's plan to make the social network less reliant on ads to create revenue, as well as reducing spam and scam accounts. He initially suggested users would have to pay $20/month to have a blue tick next to their account name, according to a plan that was leaked by Twitter employees last weekend. However, he appeared to lower the cost following criticism from horror author Stephen King . On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that users who want a Blue Tick will have to pay $8 (7) per month The 'Blue Tick' mark indicates that an account has been 'verified', and is run by the person or company it claims to represent (stock image) Twitter employees brace to find out if Elon Musk will fire them TODAY UK Twitter employees were today nervously waiting for an email telling them whether they've been fired in Elon Musk's global jobs cull after some woke up to find their work laptops had been wiped. The social media giant has offices in London and Manchester, and all employees are expected to receive an email with the subject 'Your Role at Twitter' by 4pm UK time today. Some British staff were asleep when they said their laptops were 'remotely wiped' and their access to Slack and Gmail revoked. Furious union bosses have described Musk's mass Twitter sackings as a 'digital P&O' situation as they called on the government to show the billionaire 'no one is above the law'. Prospect, which represents tech workers, compared his actions to the notorious firing of 800 ferry workers earlier this year, which prompted ministers to weigh in. Elon Musk is getting rid of 3,700 staff around the world - about half the workforce - after his $44billion (38bn) takeover as part of his plan to drive down costs. Former employees in America have already sued the platform over the sackings for not giving them enough notice. The company warned staff to brace for firing notices in a memo on Thursday night. It said all employees will receive an email alert by 9am Pacific time Friday letting them know whether they still have a job at the company. Read more here Advertisement More adverts While one of the aims of the Blue Tick subscription fee is to reduce the reliance on ad revenue, last week Musk shared an open letter to advertisers which plays a different tune. It read: 'Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.' It is not clear what sparked this turnaround, although the letter came after Reuters published a report that revealed Twitter has lost several of its major advertisers, and may be trying to win them back. Advertising currently generates over 90 per cent of Twitter's overall revenue. Relaxing content restrictions Musk has been a long-term advocate of 'free speech' on social media, and has made it clear that he plans to reduce content restrictions currently in place on Twitter. 'Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,' Musk said in a news release announcing the deal. Back in 2021, he was critical of Twitter's decision to ban Donald Trump following accusations that the former president incited violence during the Capitol riots. 'If in doubt, let the speech exist,' he said during a TED interview in April. 'If it's a grey area, I would say, let the tweet exist.' He has also made it clear that he is not keen on the permanent banning of users and prefers timeouts instead in an interview with Financial Times. This has sparked concern from online safety groups who have argued that this could allow abuse and harassment to increase on the site. When asked if there are any limits to his notion of free speech during the TED interview, Musk said Twitter would abide by national laws that restrict speech around the world. In last week's open letter, he did say that 'Twitter obviously cannot be a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.' He has also announced that Twitter will form a new 'content moderation council' made up of figures from across the industry including civil society groups and no major content decisions will be made before that board is in place. Twitter said that Trump was guilty of the glorification of violence by calling the rioters who stormed the Capitol in January 2021 'American patriots' Trump was then permanently banned from Twitter, a move that has been criticised by Musk Open source code Musk also floated the idea of open sourcing the algorithm Twitter uses to promote transparency and free speech. It would allow people outside of the company to suggest changes and even create fixes to Twitter's code. Speaking in the April TED talk, the billionaire explained the promotion or demotion of a tweet is done by algorithms in the background. He would upload these algorithms to the software hosting platform GitHub, which is available to anyone. The tech mogul says he wants to do this in the name of trust, and that this model is better than having tweets be 'mysteriously promoted or demoted'. 'People can look through it and say, "Oh, I see a problem here, I don't agree with this," Musk said. 'They can highlight issues and suggest changes, in the same way that you update Linux or Signal.' However Nick Diakopoulos, a Northwestern University computer scientist, said that too much transparency can make it easier for 'disingenuous people' to manipulate an algorithm to get maximum exposure. On top of that, very few people will be able to understand how the code being used in these systems produces the results they do. TIMELINE OF ELON MUSK'S CHAOTIC ATTEMPT TO TAKE OVER TWITTER April 2: Musk announces that he owns 9.2 percent of the company, making him its largest single shareholder April 14: Musk offers to take Twitter private at $54.20 a share, valuing the company at $44billion April 25: Twitter accepts Musk's offer April 29: Musk sells $8bn in Tesla shares to finance deal May 13: Musk says Twitter deal is on hold pending a review of bot accounts May 26: Musk is sued by Twitter for stock manipulation during takeover July 8: Musk says he's backing out of the deal Twitter sues, trying to force him into seeing it through October 4: Musk proposes again to go ahead with the deal at the original price October 17: Proposed trial date in Delaware October 26: Musk visits Twitter HQ with a sink, updates his bio to 'Chief Twit' and sets his location to Twitter HQ Advertisement Ridding 'spam bot' accounts Spam bots were a huge topic while Twitter and Musk went to battle after the billionaire temporarily pulled his offer on the site on July 8. Musk accused Twitter bosses of refusing to hand over details about the number of spam bots on its site, which he believed were more than human users. London-based data analytics firm GlobalData said in a report that its mathematical model found that spam accounts are roughly double the five per cent share claimed by Twitter at the time. 'The precise proportion of spam accounts is difficult to compute, as it is almost impossible to confirm the identity of the entity behind a tweet handle,' said GlobalData senior data scientist Sidharth Kumar. 'Additionally, the definition of spam account may differ for everyone. 'Incessant tweeting of non-original content can be considered spam, but some may choose to see it as a very active user sharing articles/opinions.' Musk has particular grief with 'crypto spam bots', that promote what appear to be cryptocurrency spams, and which commonly use his Twitter likeness. He has not provided a plan on how the Twitter spam bots will be defeated, but the Tesla CEO tweeted in April that he will 'die trying.' In his official statement after having his bid for the social network accepted in April, he said: 'I also want to make Twitter better than ever by ... authenticating all humans'. It is also unclear exactly what this will entail, but it could involve two-factor authentication or popups that ask which of six photos shows a school bus. These kinds of checks are designed to discourage anyone from trying to amass an army of bogus accounts. A scammer portraying Elon Musk was spotted in the reply section of Donald Trump's tweets attempting to trick users into handing over cryptocurrency in 2020. Spam bots were a huge topic while Twitter and Musk went to battle after the billionaire pulled his offer on the site Cheaper 'Twitter Blue' Musk believes he can increase revenue through subscriptions that give paying customers a better experience. Twitter already has 'Twitter Blue', which costs $4.99 (4.45) and allows users access to exclusive features, however subscribers currently do still get adverts. However, back in April, Musk expressed interest in improving this service by offering all subscribers an 'authentication checkmark', which is different from the Blue Tick. He also intends to reduce the price to about $2 (1.80) per month but 'paid 12 months up front'. Musk tweeted that the 'account doesn't get checkmark for 60 days (watch for credit card chargebacks)' and would be 'suspended with no refund if used for scam/spam'. Twitter officially rolled out its subscription service called Twitter Blue last month that charges users $2.99 monthly fee to access exclusive features. Musk said he intends to offer a similar subscription service at the reduced price of about $2 (1.80) per month Edit button Twitter announced earlier this year that it would be bringing the Edit Button to Twitter Blue, and started testing it with a small group of users in September. It started rolling it out to Twitter Blue users in Canada, Australia and New Zealand last month. This gives them a chance to fix typos and make corrections up to five times in the 30 minutes after posting. Edited tweets are marked with a little pen symbol, so it's clear to all Twitter users that the original tweet has been modified. Users are also able to view previous versions of the tweet, creating a publicly accessible record of what was said and protecting 'the integrity of the conversation', according to Twitter. Musk has been firmly in favour of the button, and held his own Twitter poll in April to allow his followers to express whether they were in favour of its implementation. His takeover could mean that this may be rolled out worldwide more quickly than before. Bring back Vine On Sunday, Musk started another Twitter poll asking his followers whether he should 'bring back Vine'. Vine was an app that let users share six-second-long videos, and was an overnight sensation in 2012. It was bought out by Twitter just five months after its release, but the social media platform killed it in 2017 due to increasing competition in the market. A user suggested that reviving Vine could make it a 'TikTok competitor', in which Musk replied: What could we do to make it better than TikTok? The poll has more than three million votes, with more than 69 per cent of the votes stating yes'. Twitter user, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, suggested Vine should not be a separate app, but instead live within Twitter. Musk replied with the 100 per cent emoji as a response. It is not clear if Musk has real plans to bring it back and incorporate it with Twitter or was just making playful conversation. Vine was an app that let users share six-second-long videos, and was an overnight sensation in 2012 (stock image) Twitter user, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, suggested Vine should not be a separate app, but instead live within Twitter. Musk replied with the 100 per cent emoji as a response Advertisement Authorities are still searching for an out-of-control Chinese rocket that is believed to have fallen back to Earth this morning. The 23-ton rocket was used to launch the third and final piece of China's new Tiangong space station on Monday, and was initially expected back in Earth's atmosphere tomorrow morning. However, remnants of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 10.08am UK time (6.08pm Beijing time) today. Spain was identified as one of the countries in the rocket's path, causing several Spanish airports to close their airspace. But experts now believe the rocket may have broken in two while crashing to Earth, with parts potentially hitting Mexico. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center or Astrophysics, tweeted: 'Some debris could have made it to Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca. In fact, possible but not likely that debris could have made it as far as Tabasco province.' Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, has revealed that China did not share specific trajectory information with the space agency. In a statement, he said: 'Once again, the Peoples Republic of China is taking unnecessary risks with the uncontrolled rocket stage reentry of their Long March 5B rocket stage. They did not share specific trajectory information which is needed to predict landing zones and reduce risk.' The 23-ton rocket was used to launch the third and final piece of China's new Tiangong space station on Monday, and was initially expected back in Earth's atmosphere tomorrow morning. Pictured: The Long March-5B Y4 rocket taking off on Monday HOW MANY ITEMS ARE THERE IN ORBIT? Rocket launches since 1957: 6,200 6,200 Number of satellites in orbit: 13,100 13,100 Number still in space: 8,410 8,410 Number still functioning: 5,800 5,800 Number of debris objects: 31,500 31,500 Break-ups, explosions etc: 630 630 Mass of objects in orbit: 9,900 tonnes 9,900 tonnes Prediction of the amount of debris in orbit using statistical models Over 10cm: 36,500 36,500 1cm to 10cm: 1,000,000 1,000,000 1mm to 1cm: 130 million Source: European Space Agency Advertisement Mengtian, or 'Celestial Dream', joins Wentian as the second laboratory module for the station, collectively known as Tiangong, or 'Celestial Palace'. Both are connected to the Tianhe core module where the crew lives and works. As the rocket tumbles back down, it will send large and heavy pieces of debris that will hit the surface of the Earth. Debris from the rocket, flying around the world at 17,500 miles per hour, is being tracked live by the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking. It requires careful monitoring as it is one of the largest pieces of debris re-entering the atmosphere in recent years. At 10:33 GMT, US Space Command confirmed that the rocket had re-entered the atmosphere over the south-central Pacific Ocean. Then at 12:06 GMT, it added that a second atmospheric reentry had been confirmed over the Northeast Pacific Ocean region, suggesting the rocket may have broken in two as it fell to Earth. McDowell tweeted: 'The rocket was tumbling. I suspect that it broke in two pieces in the upper atmosphere at the very start of reentry, and one of the pieces was denser and stayed up slightly longer.' So far there have no confirmed sightings of debris. Canadian Astronomer Erika tweeted: 'The uncertainty of where the large debris will ultimately land presents a level of risk to human safety and property damage that is well above commonly accepted thresholds. 'If your latitude is higher than that of France or Portland, Oregon, you're probably in the clear.' The rocket measured 17.8 meters and had a diameter of 4.2 meters at the time of lift-off. Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: 'The rocket is designed with special technology; most of the components will burn up and be destroyed during the re-entry process, and the probability of causing harm to aviation activities and on the ground is extremely low.' The rocket measured 17.8 meters and had a diameter of 4.2 meters at the time of lift-off What other space junk has hurtled to Earth? AUGUST 2022: Space junk from Elon Musk's SpaceX hit a farmer's property in the snowy mountains of New South Wales AUGUST 2022: Debris from an out-of- control 25-ton Chinese rocket crashed to Earth over the Indian and Pacific oceans. Debris was found in Indonesia and Malaysia. JULY 2022: Pieces of a Long March-5B rocket were recovered around South Asia APRIL 2022: Villagers in India found parts of what looked like a Chinese Long March 3B which was launched in February MAY 2020: Ivory Coast villages hit by objects including a 12-metre section of pipe which appeared to have come from a Long March 5B expected to London that day Advertisement Like its predecessors, Mengtian was launched aboard a Long March-5B carrier rocket, a member of China's most powerful family of launch vehicles, which have all made uncontrolled crash landings back to Earth. Aerospace Corporation previously said that 'there is a non-zero probability' that the debris will land in a populated area in other words, it's not impossible. 'A re-entry of this size will not burn up in the Earth's atmosphere,' said Aerospace Corporation, which is based in El Segundo, California. 'The general rule of thumb is that 20-40 percent of the mass of a large object will reach the ground, though it depends on the design of the object.' In a news conference on Wednesday, Ted Muelhaupt, a consultant for the Aerospace Corporation, said: 'Here we go again.' The Philippine Space Agency had earlier this week warned that the drop zone of the debris could be near its islands. The most recent was the booster of the rocket that launched July 24 and because the booster was racing around Earth's orbit every 90 minutes, the exact point to where it would plummet from the sky was impossible to predict. Fortunately most of the rocket burned up in the atmosphere, but up to 40 per cent of it was predicted to survive the fall from space - and some of the pieces were recovered around South Asia on July 30. The reports, however, stated there were no injuries from the debris. 'All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk,' Bill Nelson said in July. 'Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth.' In July, another booster made an uncontrolled reentry, while most of it burned up in the atmosphere some pieces were recovered in South Asia Although airspace in Spain has now been reopened, it was not immediately clear how many flights have been affected or will face ongoing delays as the situation gets back to normal. Corvera Airport in Murcia confirmed a flight due to leave for London had been delayed by an hour. Spain's air traffic manager ENAIRE said: 'ENAIRE has lifted the restrictions in place over part of the country's airspace following the passing of Chinese space object CZ-5B. 'With the non-controlled entry of parts of the object in the Earth's orbit crossing our territory, ENAIRE in accordance with the recommendation of the European Air Safety Agency and instructions from the inter-ministerial cell led by the Department of National Security, established a 100-kilometre air traffic exclusion on both sides of the orbit of the space object. 'The non-controlled entry into the atmosphere of the large Chinese rocket was monitored at all times.' Flights into and and out of Barcelona, Tarragona, Ibiza and Reus were grounded earlier this morning with reports other regions including La Rioja and Castilla and Leon were affected. Pictured: Barcelona-El Prat airport China launched the third and final piece of its new Tiangong space station on Monday and warnings had been sounded about the rocket's 23-ton body coming back down to Earth with Spain identified as one of the countries in its path. Pictured: The rocket takes off with the final piece of the space station on Monday Aerospace Corporation used available data to show possible landing sites (shown in yellow) earlier this week McDowell told MailOnline that despite the increase in space debris in low-Earth orbit, this does not equate to more risk for humans. 'Not especially,' McDowell said, when asked whether there was an increased risk, 'because most countries are being better about disposing of the larger debris safely.' He added: 'The Long March 5B is the most worrying one because it is so large. But there is a (lower) risk from the debris from all countries.' McDowell believes that instead of being an increasing risk, it is instead one 'we are becoming more aware of'. 'All space agencies have taken measures to reduce the amount of falling space debris but the current norms are still not strict enough, as the Australian incident shows,' he added. McDowell has kept a list of the biggest uncontrolled reentries, dating back to the Sputnik rocket in 1958. Earlier this year scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver analysed the risk to human life of objects plummeting to the ground after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. The remnants of another Chinese rocket were caught on video in August as it disintegrated over Malaysia, before landing in the Indian Ocean The video, taken by a Twitter user who initially thought it was a meteor, shows the craft racing across the sky before it burns in the atmosphere upon its re-entry Under current practices, the researchers found that, if a typical rocket re-entry spreads debris across a 10 square metre (108 sq ft) area, then there is roughly a 1 in 10 chance that one or more casualties will occur over the next 10 years. They also said there was a higher risk to those living in the global south, with errant parts three times more likely to land at the latitudes of Jakarta, Dhaka and Lagos than those of New York, Beijing or Moscow. However, despite 80 per cent of the world's people living in what is known as a 'risk zone', just 0.1 per cent of it is considered populated. 'Everything else is ocean, forest or agricultural land,' said Dr Shane Walsh, a research fellow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. 'It's extremely unlikely to cause damage or loss of life.' The problem with China's rockets is rooted in the risky design of the country's launch process. Usually, discarded rocket stages re-enter the atmosphere soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don't go into orbit. However, the Long March 5B rocket does. There have been calls by NASA for the Chinese space agency to design rockets to disintegrate into smaller pieces upon re-entry, as is the international norm. But China has previously rejected accusations of irresponsibility, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying the likelihood of damage to anything or anyone on the ground is 'extremely low'. A study completed earlier this year claimed there was a higher risk to those living in the global south, with errant parts three times more likely to land at the latitudes of Jakarta, Dhaka and Lagos than those of New York, Beijing or Moscow. Some major and high-risk cities are labelled: 1, Moscow; 2, Washington, DC; 3, Beijing; 4, Dhaka; 5, Mexico City; 6, Lagos; 7, Bogota; 8, Jakarta This pie chart shows the proportion of the global casualty expectation contributed by each state WHAT IS TIANGONG? China's space station is called 'Tiangong', meaning 'Heavenly Palace'. Tiangong is comprised of several different modules that are launching one by one. In April 2021, the core module, called 'Tianhe', was launched. The first crew arrived at Tianhe two months later. In July 2022, Wentian, a smaller module where research experiments will take place, attached to Tianhe. In October 2022, a second research lab module, Mengtian, will also attach to Tianhe. When it does, the Tiangong space station will be complete. Another two spacecraft that can dock at the station Shenzhou and Tianzhou respectively transport crew and cargo, and aren't considered part of the station itself. China also plans to launch Xuntian, a space telescope that would co-orbit with the space station, in 2024. Advertisement An estimated 13,100 satellites have been launched into orbit since 1957, according to the European Space Agency, with 8,410 remaining in space and 5,800 still functioning. The total mass of all objects in orbit is said to equate to around 9,900 tonnes, while statistical models suggests there are 130 million pieces of debris from 1mm to 1cm in size. In June, the UK government announced plans for an 'RAC for space' as part of its vision to tackle millions of shards of debris clogging up near-Earth orbit. It also wants to improve the sustainability of future space missions, with former Science Minister George Freeman issuing a stern warning to the likes of Russia and China that 'the days of putting up whatever they want have got to be over'. He said a 'Wild West' space race without effective regulation would only serve to increase the growing threat of debris in orbit, including hundreds of old satellites. Mr Freeman also told MailOnline that he expected Elon Musk to fall in line with Britain's push for space sustainability, adding that the need for action was not something the US billionaire could ignore. Critics of Musk say his Starlink constellation is hogging space, with both China and the European Space Agency taking aim at his satellite-internet system, but the Tesla founder has rubbished these fears. The UK government's raft of new measures includes regulating commercial satellite launches, rewarding companies that minimise their footprint on the Earth's orbit, and dishing out an additional 5 million for technologies to clean up space junk. Farmer Mick Miners (pictured) discovered a huge piece of space junk from SpaceX stuck in his property in the Snowy Mountains, south of Jindabyne The app told many users that there was not an internet connection TikTok was down for tens of thousands of users worldwide, marking the second crash the app has experienced in a week. Friday's outage hit around 1pm ET and was impacting the server connection, which is telling some users there is no internet connection - others were unable to refresh their feed. DownDetector, a website that monitors online outage, showed more than 50,000 people in the US have reported issues with TikTok as of 1:19pm ET. It is not clear what cause causing the glitch, but it appeared to be shortly after 2pm ET. The previous crash hit just this past Tuesday and also lasted for one-hour. Users flocked to Twitter to see if others are experiencing problems and some are sharing how they hope this is the end of the video sharing app. TikTok was down for tens of thousands of users worldwide, leaving them unable to connect to the app TikTok has become the go-to app for mindless scrolling and users are in an uproar without access. Many Twitter users shared an image of a man who looks confused while looking at a computer server - noting this must be 'the employees at TikTok headquarters right now.' And of course there were the classic tweets that read: 'Me coming on Twitter to see if everyone else's TikTok is down.' Many users who attempted to use TikTok were shown a notification that their internet was not working properly One user joked that TikTok being down is such a shame. Many people would rather see TikTok banned in the US While other people were thrilled that TikTok could be 'down forever,' and one users jokes that the outage is a real shame. The outage on Tuesday, although not as intense, impacted tens of thousands of users worldwide and most were in the UK. Twitter user Ethan Ormeo suggested that TikTok being down is a perfect opportunity for Elon Musk, the new owner of TikTok, to 'bring back Vine.' This tweet is referring to news that spread this week that Musk is working with Engineers to revive the six-minute video sharing platform that Twitter purchased in 2012, but killed five years later because there was too much competition in the market. Users are flocking to Twitter to see if others are experiencing problems and some are sharing how they hope this is the end of the video sharing app Twitter user Ethan Ormeo suggested that TikTok being down is a perfect opportunity for Elon Musk, the new owner of TikTok, to 'bring back Vine' Musk shared a poll on Halloween asking Twitter if they are interested in seeing Vine come back from the dead - a platform know for creating stars like Logan Paul and Shawn Mendez. A user suggested that reviving Vine could make it a TikTok competitor and thatd be hilarious, in which the Chief Twit replied: What could we do to make it better than TikTok? Shortly after Musk share the poll, rumors began to swirl that he was already making plans to bring Vine back. An image of Musk with Rus Yusuppov, a co-founder of Vine, was posted on April 2022 by Yusuppov with a caption that reads: Hey @elonmusk was this meeting about saving Vine? I forget. Paul Scholes has slammed Erik ten Hag's long-ball tactics against Real Sociedad as 'a bit League Two-ish', with the Red Devils icon claiming the Dutchman had 'no plan' in a 'complete mess' of a second half. Alejandro Garnacho scored a superb winner for United as they secured a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad, but the result meant the Premier League side fell short in finishing top of the group given how they needed to win by a two-goal margin, with the Spanish side hanging on to advance to the Europa League knockout stages. It also means United will have to face a Champions League dropout in a play-off fixture for a place in the next round, potentially setting up a meeting with the likes of Barcelona and Juventus. Paul Scholes (right) has criticised Erik ten Hag's (left) tactics in Manchester United's 1-0 win over Real Sociedad The result means United face the prospect of a play-off with a Champions League dropout And while Scholes says United were in 'complete control' for the first hour of the match, the United icon insists Ten Hag's changes went against his own team. 'The second half looked a bit messy, there was no plan,' Scholes told BT Sport. 'The plan was to launch it forward to look for second balls - it was a little bit League One, League Two-ish for me. Maybe a little bit disrespectful. 'I wasn't really sure what he was trying to do. It started with the [Victor] Lindelof substitution. They were in complete control until he went off. Casemiro went to the back, then Marcus [Rashford] came on for [Donny] Van de Beek in the No 10 role. It's not his position, he needs to be on the shoulder of people. 'Rashford needs to be out wide, he needs to be in space. It just became a long ball game and I'm all for that, it can work but the second half just became a complete mess having been in control in the first half. Harry Maguire came on in the 82nd minute and was deployed as a centre-forward Scholes claimed the tactic to launch it long was 'a little bit League One, League Two-ish' 'There were positive substitutions I just didn't think Marcus [Rashford] was in the right position. Bruno [Fernandes] could have swapped with Marcus from the right, Bruno is ineffective on the right. He knows he's going to be. Get Marcus out wide. 'Maybe Marcus is carrying something? He didn't want him to stretch his legs down the right-hand side. 'Marcus is most dangerous out wide. In the centre, he has to take a touch, beat a man then link play, he's capable but it's not his best position. Getting Bruno in the middle would have given them better shape.' Fellow United great Owen Hargreaves agreed with Scholes' assessment, insisting they never created any meaningful chances in Spain. Fellow United great Owen Hargreaves (pictured) agreed with Scholes' assessment 'They didn't create much from open play, only their goal in the first half,' Hargreaves said. 'He obviously had a game plan, Harry Maguire came on in the second half, hoping they could nick something. 'They didn't really create anything. In the first half they played really well if they had carried on they would have scored another. 'Look, it's a tough place to go. They wanted a clean sheet, the reason they were in this position was because of the ridiculous penalty in the first game. But yeah, I thought the first half was great and the second half didn't really go to plan with what Ten Hag was envisaging.' United will find out their play-off opponents on Monday. Mohamed Elneny claims Arsenals players were scared into line by Mikel Artetas decision to strip Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of the captaincy. But the midfielder believes a refusal to allow big egos is now the secret of Artetas table-topping squad. Aubameyang joined Barcelona for free in January after being exiled by Arteta, but the striker will come face to face with Arsenal on Sunday following his summer move to Chelsea. Mohamed Elneny claims Arsenals players were scared into line by Mikel Arteta's bold decision Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of his captaincy before being exiled by boss Arteta Elneny believes the manager firmly stamped his authority by taking a hard-line approach because it made other players wary: If anyone is not the captain of the team, does a small mistake, they are going to have the same problem,' he said. Arteta has overseen a ruthless revamp of his squad, with Aubameyang one of several senior players culled in favour of a younger, more united squad. We dont allow big egos. This is the dressing room we have now, Elneny said. Elneny believes the manager firmly stamped his authority by taking a hardline approach Everyone loves each other and everyone works for each other. This is what actually makes our squad really strong, because we dont have egos in the team. Arteta kept a catalogue of Aubameyangs misdemeanours as evidence in the dispute that eventually cost him the captaincy and his future. The striker was banished after returning late from an agreed trip to France. He was forced to train alone, and then stripped of the armband. The saga was laid bare in Amazon's documentary, in which Elneny was heard saying Arteta showed balls to discipline Aubameyang. Speaking after Thursdays win over Zurich, the midfielder claimed this was when the manager established himself to the squad. 100 per cent, Elneny said. Now everyone looked at themselves because Mikel did that to the captain of the team. 'What is he going to do with another player? This showed that now we cant play around, now we have to be calm with the team and the way the team is going we have to stick with the team, not do something different. The 30-year-old has not changed his mind after watching it back. Because we agree with what Mikel decided because he is our boss and we just have to agree what his vision is for (us), he said. There were concerns that, without Aubameyang, Arsenals season could fall apart. But Elneny believes it brought everyone closer together: Now everyone was scared! Everyone is scared with their position because this happened to Aubameyang. That fear has not translated on to the pitch, where Arsenals young squad have made an unlikely dash to the top of the Premier League. Sundays trip to Chelsea represents another test of a squad which, according to Elneny, is now aiming for the title. Arsenal's young squad are top of the Premier League ahead of Sunday's trip away to Chelsea We know what we are going there to do, because now we know we look for the title, he said. Now we have a thing to push for. We just push every day. We know we have a good team, we have good staff and Mikel really makes us feel like we are a really strong team now. And we just believe every day we can do something special this year. Elneny added: We need to put Arsenal in the place they actually deserve. This is what we play for. The Gunners sit two points clear of Manchester City and 10 points ahead of Chelsea in sixth. Striker Aubameyang will face his former club for the first time since leaving back in January Aubameyang has scored three goals for Graham Potters side but Elneny would not be drawn on the strikers move to Arsenals London rivals, insisting they just focus on ourselves now. But he was full of praise for Arsenals new skipper, Martin Odegaard. We love Martin so much. Everyone is just happy for him to be our captain, Elneny said. We support him and we make the job easy for him. He is really a good player on the pitch and outside he is very important for us. ENDS Erling Haaland could return for Manchester City's weekend clash with Fulham after Pep Guardiola said the striker's foot injury is 'much better'. Guardiola wanted to see how the Norwegian, who has scored 22 goals already this season, performs in training on Friday before committing him to Saturday's game at the Etihad Stadium. Haaland has missed City's last two games after being substituted at half-time during the goalless draw with Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on October 25. Erling Haaland has missed Manchester City's last two games with a foot injury but could return The striker went off at half-time during City's Champions League game in Dortmund The 22-year-old had been struggling with a bout of flu and also the foot problem, forcing him out of City's 1-0 win at Leicester City and 3-1 victory over Sevilla. Guardiola said: 'He's much better. We will decide today [if he can play against Fulham]. 'It's a good step, he starts to train, and we have training this afternoon and we will see.' Asked what factors will be taken into consideration, Guardiola added: 'Himself, his opinion, the doctor's opinion. If it's 90 minutes or less we will see after training.' Pep Guardiola said Haaland's injury is 'much better' and he would be assessed in training Fulham will no doubt be hoping Haaland, who has 17 Premier League and five Champions League goals so far, will still be sidelined. Julian Alvarez has been deputising for Haaland, starting three games in a week, but Guardiola dismissed any concerns over tiredness. 'He is young, he's so young, at that age you can play every day,' he said. While England duo Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips remain sidelined, City have received a boost with Manuel Akanji back fit again. City will have to contend with the physical presence of Aleksandar Mitrovic on Saturday Guardiola was asked whether Haaland would be used in training to simulate the physical challenge City's defenders will face from Aleksandar Mitrovic against Fulham. He said: 'We don't have time, recovery yesterday, we're tried. Some players who didn't play will play tomorrow. 'The players know [about Mitrovic], we have played them in then past. Long balls to Mitrovic, there's a big guarantee we'll lose the ball. Prepare for the second one. 'Dangerous player, how many goals he scored last season? He's scoring goals, natural, a competitor. He pushes defenders to limits and he's clinical.' Advertisement A huge grinning Totoro and other whimsical exhibits welcomed visitors to Japan's new Ghibli theme park as three of its five sections opened to the public this week. The attraction in Nagakute, central Japan - 250 kilometres (150 miles) west of Tokyo - has been long awaited by fans of Studio Ghibli's beloved animations, from Howl's Moving Castle to the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. Now a fluffy Cat Bus, a life-sized No-Face and recreations of buildings from the films are ready for visitors less than a month after the country fully reopened its borders to foreign tourists. Japan's new Ghibli theme park has opened to the public. Pictured is an elevator tower at the gateway to the land Ghibli Park has been long awaited by fans of Studio Ghibli's beloved animations, from Howl's Moving Castle to the Oscar-winning Spirited Away Tickets for Ghibli Park are reservation only, and are already sold out until the end of the year. One middle-aged visitor, who described himself as 'a huge fan', told broadcaster TV Asahi he had been queuing to enter the park since the previous day. 'Congratulations!' said a hand-drawn note posted on Twitter by Studio Ghibli, illustrated with a row of figures resembling the spirit creature Totoro and signed by the company's co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, who is frequently compared to Walt Disney. Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki also spoke of his excitement at a ceremony on Monday ahead of the opening on Tuesday. 'I didn't sleep very well last night. It's a bit different from a film release,' he said. Tickets for Ghibli Park are reservation only, and are already sold out until the end of the year Studio Ghibli, founded in 1985 by Miyazaki and fellow animator Isao Takahata, has captivated fans around the world with works blending nostalgia, courage, greed and interaction with the natural world Visitors can perch on the red velvet-covered train seat (above) in a carriage next to Spirited Away's instantly recognisable 'No-Face' character Spread over 7.1 hectares (17.5 acres) of a 194-hectare (480-acre) park in the Aichi region, where the 2005 International Expo was held, the site features large open-air areas in keeping with the importance of nature in Ghibli films. Among the three sections now open is the 'Hill of Youth', the gateway to the park that features an elevator tower inspired by Ghibli films including Castle in the Sky. Elsewhere, 'Dondoko Forest' evokes the retro peace of 1988 classic My Neighbour Totoro, with bucolic walking paths and an enormous Totoro figure. A major draw will be Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, a hangar-like indoor portion of the park with various attractions, including 14 sets from 13 of the studio's film classics. Visitors can stroll along an alley designed to look like the opening scene of Spirited Away, or perch on the red velvet-covered train seat in a carriage next to the movie's instantly recognisable 'No-Face' character. Visitors look around the central staircase of 'Ghibli's Great Warehouse' on Tuesday, the opening day of Ghibli Park Guests explore the Dondoko Forest area, which evokes the retro peace of 1988 classic My Neighbour Totoro Studio Ghibli, founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and fellow animator Isao Takahata, has captivated fans around the world Visitors explore the house of Satsuki and Mei, characters in My Neighbor Totoro Aichi region is predicting an influx of 1.8million visitors a year once all five areas of the 34billion-yen (218million) park are open from next year, with an estimated annual economic impact of 48billion yen ($324million/282million). Studio Ghibli, founded in 1985 by Miyazaki and fellow animator Isao Takahata, has captivated fans around the world with works blending nostalgia, courage, greed and interaction with the natural world. The studio already operates the hugely popular Ghibli Museum on the outskirts of Tokyo, which offers tickets only at the beginning of each month and regularly sells out within hours. A visitor in a shop at Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, a hangar-like indoor portion of the park with various attractions, including 14 sets from 13 of Studio Ghibli's films Living (12A, 102 mins) Rating: ***** Verdict: A quiet masterpiece Call Jane (12A, 121 mins) Rating: *** Verdict: A good story, well told His was shaping up to be a distinctly unremarkable year for films until the past few weeks when, at least from where I've been sitting, something semi-miraculous happened: our cinemas started filling up with some proper gems. They include the terrific Emily Bronte biopic Emily and Martin McDonagh's wonderful The Banshees Of Inisherin, with quite a few further pleasures to come this month alone, among them the hugely exhilarating Matilda The Musical. Living is set in 1953 and stars Bill Nighy as a bowler- hatted, pinstripe-suited, dry-as-dust bureaucrat who learns that he is dying In the meantime, this week sees the release of a film that is anything but exhilarating and yet another bona fide cinematic treat. Living is set in 1953 and stars Bill Nighy as a bowler- hatted, pinstripe-suited, dry-as-dust bureaucrat who learns that he is dying. Not much happens but what doesn't happen, if you know what I mean, doesn't happen exquisitely. And Nighy is simply superb. He can be a mannered actor; even, at times, a bit of a ham. But as Mr Williams, the reserved, stiffly venerable head of the London County Council's Parks Department, he has, improbable as it sounds, found the part of a lifetime. Classic film on TV Manchester by the Sea (2016) Harrowing drama about a man (Casey Affleck) with a scarcely bearable emotional burden. Michelle Williams is brilliant as his ex-wife. Affleck and writer-director Kenneth Lonergan won Oscars. A modern classic. BBC2, Sunday, 12.50am Advertisement Nighy was also splendid in Pride (2014), another film in which he suppressed those fluttery-hand, jerky-head mannerisms of his. But this is one of those blessed convergences of actor, role and performance that happens only rarely on screen, and, for the audience, feels like a privilege when it does. Director Oliver Hermanus starts the film with a set of evocatively retro opening titles that whisk us straight to post-war London, a city still clambering back to its feet. We are introduced to the austere LCC offices at County Hall through the eyes of a nervous new boy, Mr Wakeling (Alex Sharp). First names, incidentally, are largely eschewed, helping to convey the era's stuffy, repressed formality. A widower, Mr Williams is a benignly authoritative presence in the office and a politely tolerated one at the home he shares, in Esher, Surrey, with his stolid son and daughter-in-law. It is the dullest of lives and soon he finds that it is coming to a close. A doctor tells him that he has terminal cancer in a scene that reminded me strongly of a Betjeman poem, Devonshire Street W1: 'No hope. And the iron knob of this palisade/So cold to the touch, is luckier now than he.' Mr Williams keeps the terrible news to himself, but decides to use it as an incentive, to add some colour to his monochrome existence. He skips work, itself as subversive an act as he has ever contemplated, and heads to the seaside, where he confesses to a louche stranger (Tom Burke) that 'I came here to live a little . . . but realise I don't know how'. For the rest of the film we see him learning how, about as late in life as it's possible to leave it. He forms a sweet, platonic but nonetheless faintly scandalous friendship with a former underling at the LCC, chirpy Miss Harris (delightfully played by Aimee Lou Wood). Duly emboldened, he then champions the efforts of a group of East End mums to build a children's playground on a bomb site, finally giving his fast-diminishing life some purpose. Not much happens but what doesn't happen, if you know what I mean, doesn't happen exquisitely. And Nighy is simply superb. He can be a mannered actor; even, at times, a bit of a ham. But as Mr Williams, the reserved, stiffly venerable head of the London County Council's Parks Department, he has, improbable as it sounds, found the part of a lifetime Living is impeccably written by Kazuo Ishiguro, whose brilliant novel The Remains Of The Day (and the 1993 picture it inspired) had the same unerring grasp of period and social nuance. It is a remake of Ikiru, a quietly profound masterpiece by the mighty Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Ikiru (meaning 'to live') came out in 1953, which doubtless helps to explain why this is set in the same year. Whatever, it was an inspired decision. By the way, living is not the first Kurosawa classic to inspire something comparably memorable in 1960 his Seven Samurai was Westernised into The Magnificent Seven. But together, Hermanus, Ishiguro and Nighy have pulled it off again. A respectful tip of the bowler to all of them, for this melancholy but beautiful film. Call Jane is another period drama, this time taking us back to Chicago in 1968. Joy (Elizabeth Banks) is an affluent housewife with a teenage daughter who learns that a surprise late-in-life pregnancy could kill her. But this is America five years before the landmark Roe v Wade judgment legalised abortion. So when her local hospital board refuses to endorse a 'therapeutic termination' Joy has to find another way. She shies away from a backstreet 'clinic' and won't throw herself down the stairs, as one person advises. Instead, she finds an underground group of women, calling themselves the 'Janes', who, driven on by the doughty Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), facilitate illicit but safe abortions at the hands of an obnoxious but reliable rogue doctor (Cory Michael Smith). In due course, and without telling her criminal-attorney husband (Chris Messina), Joy herself joins the Janes. A fine cast also includes an under-used Kate Mara, and Call Jane is altogether a stylish cinematic debut for director Phyllis Nagy (Oscar-nominated as the writer of the 2016 film Carol). In the wake of Roe v Wade being controversially overturned, it is also powerfully relevant, of course. The film has a firm basis in fact the Janes existed but the screenplay occasionally tub-thumps, selling its abortion-rights agenda slightly too hard. Nevertheless, it's a good story, for the most part very well told. Home alone... and the creepy neighbour's watching Watcher (****, 15, 91 mins) is a gripping psychological thriller, set in Bucharest where an American couple, Francis (Karl Glusman) and Julia (Maika Monroe), are setting up home. He is half-Romanian, speaks the language, and has been posted there by his U.S. marketing company, leaving Julia home alone all day and for a (somewhat unlikely) number of evenings. When she realises that a man in the building opposite is watching her at night and possibly following her by day, she grows increasingly anxious. Nor are her nerves helped by the news that a serial killer is at large, decapitating young women. In an impressively assured cinematic debut, writer-director Chloe Okuno builds the suspense splendidly and astutely does not subtitle the Romanian language sequences, helping us to identify with Julia's sense of alienation. Trapped: Maika Monroe in Watcher Any resemblance to Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) is, I suspect, entirely deliberate. I also enjoyed Enola Holmes 2 (***, 12A, 129 mins), newly available on Netflix and squarely aimed at the under-18s. Millie Bobby Brown again plays Sherlock's redoubtable detective sister, breaking the fourth wall for all she is worth as she seeks a missing woman in a nicely recreated Victorian London. She has Helena Bonham Carter and Henry Cavill in support and it's fun. Streaming on the Roku channel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (***, 108 mins) chronicles the life of the American pop parodist (Daniel Radcliffe), who enjoyed such hits as Like A Surgeon, after Madonna's Like A Virgin. The joke is that the film itself is a parody of the biopic and it kind of works. Radcliffe, such an awkward actor, for once seems pretty well cast. Good Night Oppy (****, PG, 105 mins), in cinemas and arriving this month on Amazon Prime, is a documentary about the robot, Opportunity, sent to Mars in 2003. It was meant to be functional for 90 days, yet ended up exploring the planet for 14 years. Fascinating stuff. Let The Right One In (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester) Verdict: Let this one in Rating: **** A Dead Body In Taos (Wilton's Music Hall, London) Verdict: Sketchy sci-fi Rating: *** How do you feel about horror stories? Some won't go near them, even armed with a crucifix and bottle of holy water. But inside many a fright-fest lies a fairy tale, trying to get out. That was definitely the case with John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel about Oskar, a bullied adolescent in suburban 1980s Stockholm who befriends young vampire Eli, after she moves in next door. (The book was adapted by Lindqvist himself for the Swedish film of the same name). And Bryony Shanahan's mesmerising revival of Jack Thorne's 2013 adaptation sinks its fangs into the story's jugular afresh . . . with pleasingly creepy results. It captures the sense of a local community, and nails the agonies of puberty, thanks to extraordinary chemistry between its leads, Pete MacHale and Rhian Blundell. And Bryony Shanahan's mesmerising revival of Jack Thorne's 2013 adaptation of Let The Right One In sinks its fangs into the story's jugular afresh . . . with pleasingly creepy results 'I'm not sure I'm very good for you, Oskar,' Eli warns our hero, almost comically, as the two kids try to figure each other out. Remarkably, despite the frights and blood-letting, there is an almost folksy emotional core. The pair seem hypnotised by each other's innocence. MacHale is vulnerable, gawky yet brave. Blundell is direct, brutal yet cagy. Best seat in the house Hamlet Rising star Billy Howle plays the Prince of Denmark in three live broadcasts of Shakespeare's masterpiece from Bristol's Old Vic (7pm, 10-12 November, bristololdvic.org.uk) Advertisement Shanahan's production is a vast improvement on its premiere at London's Royal Court. Here, frequent scene changes between home, school gym, sweet shop, playground and swimming pool are fluidly in- tegrated. Among many nice touches, Eli's victims are swept up in a crowd; a swimming pool is suggested by an empty stage and dry ice; between scenes the cast mop up the blood. Performed in the round, the backdrop remains the audience itself and Shanahan cunningly implicates us in the action. So yes, some of the shocks make you jump and squirm, but more than that, it's a tale with a wistful, old-school heart. Another kind of fairy tale is the idea that humans might one day curate our own digital afterlife. This is the lofty premise of A Dead Body In Taos, a new sci-fi drama by David Farr a fine playwright now best known for TV series The Night Manager currently on at Wilton's Music Hall. It's what is dubbed a high-concept story (big idea, minimal plausibility), focusing on a young woman, Sam, whose estranged mother is found dead in the New Mexico desert, near Taos. It turns out that before she died, Mum Kath had her consciousness uploaded to a specialist server, where she's now enjoying life as an algorithm and talking like Alexa. Sadly, for all the slick efficiencies of Rachel Bagshaw's production and Ti Green's minimalist set, the clever idea overshadows the human drama. This is the lofty premise of A Dead Body In Taos, a new sci-fi drama by David Farr a fine playwright now best known for TV series The Night Manager currently on at Wilton's Music Hall It's what is dubbed a high-concept story (big idea, minimal plausibility), focusing on a young woman, Sam, whose estranged mother is found dead in the New Mexico desert, near Taos Sadly, for all the slick efficiencies of Rachel Bagshaw's production and Ti Green's minimalist set, the clever idea overshadows the human drama Farr might have dug deeper into Sam (Gemma Lawrence) and her paradoxical need for her mother to be more sincerely dead, rather than just passed over to the internet. As her mum, Eve Ponsonby oscillates between her robotic future self (a monotone hologram) and her younger self a 1960s student revolutionary. One aspect of the production which looks increasingly like a real future, alas, is the projection of dialogue across the set (also seen recently at the National Theatre's Dorfman). This may be great for the hard of hearing, but it totally upstages the actors. Let's hope it's not the shape of thing to come. And now for your Scottish history lesson... Mary (Hampstead Theatre, London) Verdict: Hard yards Rating: *** Rona Munro's new play about Mary Queen of Scots is nothing if not heavy going but if you can put in the hard yards, and feel strong enough for a lesson in 16th-century Scottish history, it's probably worth it. On the plus side, it's just 90 minutes long, and although sometimes as dry as oatcakes, it's lit up by a star turn from Douglas Henshall (he of Shetland off the telly). Henshall plays Protestant Scottish courtier Sir James Melville who's loyal to Catholic Queen Mary, despite her being in bad odour, due to a rising tide of Protestant populism. Mary never appears here to make her own case, but Melville helps her escape plotters in Edinburgh, only for her to be abducted by his ambitious rival the Earl of Bothwell and taken to Dunbar castle. Munro's big question then, is if Mary was raped and forced to marry Bothwell or if she took him freely. As one character says, Scotland is 'a nation that lives by argument' and so too does Munro's play. She chisels through long, complex debates analysing Melville's motivation in supporting Mary. It's all knowingly difficult 'thrawn' even, as they say in Caledonia. Yet, it has the deliciously sour snarl of modern Scots vernacular. Rona Munro's new play about Mary Queen of Scots is nothing if not heavy going but if you can put in the hard yards, and feel strong enough for a lesson in 16th-century Scottish history, it's probably worth it Standing straight as a guardsman, Henshall governs the stage with the full weight of his considerable authority. He deploys stoicism and wiliness, before yielding to anger and tears as his ties to Mary are exposed. Brian Vernel belies his years as a young kid about court who Henshall first commands, then later answers to. And there is cold Presbyterian fire from Rona Morison as the serving girl who starts as a cheerleader of puritanism but ends up an angry feminist. Roxana Silbert's lean and Lutheran production carries not an ounce of Papist fat. And Ashley Martin-Davis's set offers scant visual consolation, with its dingy wood panelled ante-room that later opens onto a spartan court room. But then they say hard work is good for the soul. A Single Man (Park Theatre, London) Verdict: Neat but neutral Rating: *** A Single Man is best known from the slick, 2009 Tom Ford film starring Colin Firth, based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood. Isherwood was, of course, the writer whose memoirs of Berlin in the 1930s inspired the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret. This, though, is a day in the life of George: a charming, English, gay, fiftysomething literature professor in Los Angeles of the 1960s. Being a dapper gentleman of impeccable breeding, who uses a shoehorn to slip into his brogues in the morning, made him a perfect focus for Ford's film, which concentrated on catwalk costumes and cool interior design. Thankfully, in Simon Reade's neatly filleted adaptation of the book, we hear more of Isherwood's elegant turn of phrase as he distances himself from the heterosexual American dream, laments a former lover killed in a crash, spends a boozy evening with a female friend and finds himself falling under the spell of a provocatively buff young student. A Single Man is best known from the slick, 2009 Tom Ford film starring Colin Firth, based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood Theo Fraser Steele brings much of that Firth-like reticence to the role of George in Philip Wilson's finely drilled, but frustratingly detached production. Although Fraser Steele is lightly camp, his character's emotionally neutral, BBC period accent renders him remote. And although the costumes are immaculately tailored, the ingenious polished concrete set is half Sixties' minimalism, half morgue. At least Olivia Darnley brings some vitality as George's female friend, who is a creature of the flesh mysteriously dressed like a barmaid from a Munich bierkeller. Miles Molan, meanwhile, roams the stage in dressing gown and underwear as George's late partner and admiring student, provoking thoughts of desire lost and yet to come. The problem is, solid Englishman that he is, George never lets his guard down. And while still waters may run deep, sometimes they need churning up Love and memories light up this tale told in an old folks' home Something in the Air (Jermyn Street Theatre, London) Verdict: It's never too late Rating: **** Peter Gill's latest, elegiac play begins with two white-haired men sitting hand-in-hand, side-by-side in the kind of cheerily red, but depressingly plastic-covered armchairs only found in posh care homes. Alex (Christopher Godwin) is thinking aloud, his mind drifting back to the first time he went to bed with the boyfriend who introduced him to Purcell and Matisse. Memories of the sexual thrill and the reflection of the Thames on the ceiling in the bedroom are as vivid as if it were yesterday. A more spikily intellectual Colin (Ian Gelder) recalls heated political rallies and a louche Soho in the Sixties when 'queer was still a word'. An affair with an attractive, entitled bloke , incapable of fidelity, begins with 'an ecstasy of talk', blossoms on Primrose Hill and breaks up in Green Park. In poignant contrast to these slumped, cardiganed wrinklies, in bounce the shiny, vigorous partners they are remembering (played by James Schofield and Sam Thorpe-Sphinks) dressed in Sixties clothes, bursting with excitement and desire. The characters are mostly lost in their own reveries, but there's a real sweetness between Alex and attentive Colin who gently settles his friend's agitation. Initially it seems that they are remembering their own early relationship. Peter Gill's latest, elegiac play Something In The Air begins with two white-haired men sitting hand-in-hand, side-by-side in the kind of cheerily red, but depressingly plastic-covered armchairs only found in posh care homes Until Andrew (Andrew Woodall) arrives and greets his old dad and suddenly we realise that Alex took the conventional route, married, had children and it is only now, in the grip of dementia and his guard dropped, that his true feelings emerge. To the disapproval of unimaginative Andrew. Fortunately Clare, Colin's nice niece (a warm Claire Price), sensibly suggests there are more serious things to worry about. Andrew and Clare have also been unlucky in love and lonely but might there be something in the air between them? It's a deceptively delicate piece, the writing super-charged, charting the changes in attitudes towards homosexuality over the veteran playwright's lifetime and calmly concluding that all that matters is kindness. Whatever that means. GEORGINA BROWN On tour... Strictly Ballroom The Musical Verdict: All the right moves Rating: *** Strictly Ballroom created by Australian director Baz Luhrmann started life as a stage show, but most people know it from his rollicking 1992 film. In 2011 it was turned into a stage musical, with several iterations since, and this touring version, which has a mixture of old and original songs, is directed and choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. Strictly's 2018 winner Kevin Clifton (here proving to have a sweet voice), stars as Scott Hastings, the rebel dancer whose flashy steps are not the 'strictly ballroom' ones required to win competitions especially those overseen by the slimy Australian Dancing Federation chief Barry Fife (Gary Davis). When Scott loses his regular partner as a major competition looms, he finally notices Fran, the earnest beginner at his parents' dance studio who has a crush on him and who 'gets' what he is trying to do with dance. Maisie Smith (Tiffany Butcher in EastEnders) is Fran; her character's trajectory is that tired old trope of plain Jane transformed into sexy hoofer, but she pulls it off and her solos showcase her terrific voice. The pair have to overcome various obstacles placed in their way by family (his ambitious, hers over strict), jealous friends and the dishonest Fife, who has fixed the contest, but of course everything is resolved by the end, and Scott and Fran's big routine where they finally get to strut their stuff together is genuinely affecting. The pace occasionally slackens, but we're never far away from another dance number to put some pep into proceedings and the pasodoble performed by Fran's dad, Rico (Jose Agudo) even threatens to steal the show. It's set in 1990, so some of the characterisation seems dated the over-protective Latin dad, for example while darker elements of Mr Luhrmann's tale have been sidelined to make this a feelgood show. Touring until July 15, 2023 (strictlyballroomtour.co.uk). VERONICA LEE The Mirror Crack'd Verdict: Could do with a polish Rating: ** Old Miss Marple has been hobbled by a sprained ankle and, confined to her armchair, she's making heavy weather of her knitting. Alas, Rachel Wagstaff's new adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1962 whodunnit feels similarly lame, constrained and woolly. Much-married Marina Gregg (a semi-frozen Sophie Ward), glamorous star of the silver screen, has bought the village mansion, a stone's throw from Miss Marple's flat. Jane Marple knows it well as the former home of her grand, garrulous friend Dolly (pitch-perfect Veronica Roberts, pronouncing that new-fangled thing 'supermarket', with the emphasis on super). At a party, a starstruck neighbour downs a drugged daquiri handed to her by her hostesswith fatal consequences. Husbands, secretary, butler, co-star, carer and even poor Dolly, come under suspicion. Alas, Rachel Wagstaff's new adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1962 whodunnit The Mirror Crack'd feels similarly lame, constrained and woolly Fortunately, our insightful if antique amateur sleuth Miss Marple (excellent Susie Blake, sharp but never acid) and Craddock, her tweedy partner in crime-solving (now elevated to chief inspector and let no one forget it) who happens to be visiting his crippled Aunt Jane, are on hand. Flashbacks of what might have happened help to punctuate a static story in which too much is told, and too little shown. The pain of grief experienced by many characters ('it casts such terribly long shadows') is true to Christie. But Wagstaff drops heavy hints about vengeful heartbroken mothers and troubled children with jarringly contemporary, psychological problems such as self-harming and unrequited lesbian crushes. Christie's cardboard Cluedo characters exist entirely to drive her ingenious plotting and these imagined emotional burdens hang on them as awkwardly as Miss Gregg's stiff and ill-fitting Japanese kimono. Even the ersatz Sixties thriller music sounds second-hand. Worse, Philip Franks' lacklustre production fails to grip. In a Christie mystery, it's the only crime that matters. For tour details see agathachristie.com GEORGINA BROWN The Lavender Hill Mob Verdict: Lumbering laughs Rating: *** The 1951 crime caper, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway, was one of the most successful Ealing comedies, and now Phil Porter has adapted it for the stage. Miles Jupp plays Henry Holland, a Bank of England employee responsible for transporting gold bullion from the Royal Mint to Threadneedle Street, while Justin Edwards is Alfred Pendlebury, who owns a foundry making cheap souvenirs. When Holland meets Pendlebury he sees his chance to longer be a 'nonentity' of 20 years' loyal service, but to have a new life, flush with money, in Rio de Janeiro. That's where we find him when the play opens on New Year's Eve 1949, drinking with other ex-pats in the Union Club when the mysterious Mr Farrow (Guy Burgess) walks in. In the film, Holland recounts to Farrow how he got to Rio but Mr Porter who throws in some good gags, including a corker about a French seagull - uses the clever framing device of having Holland's fellow partygoers act out his story. The 1951 crime caper, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway, was one of the most successful Ealing comedies, and now Phil Porter has adapted it for the stage Miles Jupp plays Henry Holland, a Bank of England employee responsible for transporting gold bullion from the Royal Mint to Threadneedle Street, while Justin Edwards is Alfred Pendlebury, who owns a foundry making cheap souvenirs They tell a complicated tale involving Eiffel Tower paperweights, a trip to Paris, some English schoolgirls who unwittingly come into possession of solid gold souvenirs, and finally, a chase through war-torn London involving a stolen police car. And this is where the stage version, directed by Jeremy Sams, comes a bit of a cropper. In a crime caper there needs to be some capering - but Mr Jupp and Mr Edwards' capering looks suspiciously like lumbering on Francis O'Connor's fussy set. Other cast members, including Tessa Churchard and Victoria Blunt (as party guests play-acting as the men's accomplices) are lighter on their feet. But the production, while featuring two jolly and talented leads, needs more zip to reach the comic heights of the original. Touring until February 18, 2023 (lavenderhillmobplay.co.uk) Kelly Brook revealed she has always felt like an 'outsider' in the fashion industry because of her curvaceous figure. The model, 42, who has been in the industry for almost three decades, claimed she would miss out on job opportunities as fashion bosses would hire slimmer models. During an interview with The Sun's Fabulous Magazine, spoke about how the industry has changed and how she now embraces her curves. 'I was very curvy and not what was considered a fashionable shape': Kelly Brook revealed she has always felt like an 'outsider' in the fashion industry because of her curvaceous figure Kelly told the publication: 'Working with fashion brands is always something I have loved but not all of them were always open to me because of my shape. I was very curvy and not what was considered a fashionable shape. 'The fashion industry has changed so much, even buying glamorous sets of underwear and swimwear used to be impossible if you were over a C cup. The actress then said she was given a 'maternity bra' during her first ever fitting when she was around 14 years old, saying it was 'not a nice feeling'. Kelly went on to explain she always felt like an 'outsider' because of her curves and said many others feel the same. Career: The model, 42, who has been in the industry for almost three decades, claimed she would miss out on job opportunities as fashion bosses would hire slimmer models (pictured in 2000) She believes clothes should cater to all shapes, sizes and ages which is what she had in mind when she designed her new F&F range. It comes after Kelly got married in a lavish '500,000' Italian wedding day with her husband Jeremy Parisi. The pair were pictured looking elated on their rainy but special day with the Italian town of Civitavecchia as their backdrop, famed for its historic architecture. Kelly looked at the camera with her eyes lit up after just tying the knot, holding her bouquet of white roses contrasting against her traditional ivory dress. Confident: During an interview with The Sun's Fabulous Magazine, spoke about how the industry has changed and how she now embraces her curves On the day in July, she was seen holding the floor-length hemline of her dress away from the rough terrain surrounding Torre di Cicero - the 19th century villa that served as their wedding venue. The ceremony had originally been planned as an outdoor event in an area some 1,500 metres high, but an unexpected rainstorm prompted a last minute change of plans. Consequently, the bride, groom and an assortment of friends and family members celebrated the ceremony within the walls of Torre di Cicero. It's understood that Kelly pulled out all the stops for the day, with the bride-to-be paying for funfair rides and inviting A-list guest Kylie Minogue, according to The Sun. The publication reported that the former Big Breakfast host has thrown 'the kitchen sink' at her wedding to give her and Jeremy the day to remember, with the plans turning into an 'extravagant affair'. The model is said to have splashed out up to 500,000 for her big day. A source told The Sun: 'Kelly has thrown the kitchen sink at her wedding and it's turning into quite an extravagant affair. She has booked the Villa Nota Pisani in central Italy for the ceremony and reception.' The insider added that the villa is a 'beautiful location' and the couple 'fell in love with it' immediately after setting eyes on it. They went on: 'Kelly has invited all her friends and stars like Kylie are on the guestlist. The ceremony is going to be really romantic but Kelly wants to give her family and pals a real party afterwards. She has been in talks with a company to put on a funfair for everyone and the drinks will be flowing all night.' After earning her fortune following a successful 25 year career as a model, actress and media personality, it appeared there was no expense spared when it came to making Kelly's wedding dream come true. Federal prosecutors for the Department of Justice rested their case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four members of the group in the first seditious conspiracy trial in more than a decade. In the span of four weeks, several government witnesses, including FBI agents, US Capitol Police officers, current and former members of the far-right militia group, and a representative from Facebook, testified in support of the DOJ's case that the five defendants schemed to stop the electoral college count on January 6, 2021. Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Trial The defendants, Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson, and Thomas Caldwell, allegedly planned for an armed rebellion long before the unprecedented Capitol Hill riot, prosecutors said. All of the five suspects, who are members of the Oath Keepers, have pleaded not guilty and will present evidence in their defense in the following weeks. Furthermore, some of the defendants suggested that they would testify in their own defense, including the group's founder, Rhodes, who is a graduate of Yale Law School, as per CNN. Prosecutors largely relied on the Oath Keepers members' own alleged chat messages on encrypted apps in presenting their case. They also used the defendants' planning in the lead-up to January 6, which their leader allegedly saw as a deadline to prevent Joe Biden from becoming the United States president. Furthermore, prosecutors presented several covertly recorded discussions where Rhodes and other defendants were allegedly talking about the election and warned of "combat here on U.S. soil." According to NBC News, on October 3, opening arguments began in the seditious conspiracy trial along with several weeks of testimony, two of which were from Oath Keepers members, Jason Dolan and Graydon Young. The latter two pleaded guilty in connection with the January 6 attack. Read Also: FBI Alerts New Jersey Synagogues of 'Broad Threats' Amid Anti-Jewish Messages All Over US Capitol Hill Riot Dolan testified that he wanted to scare members of Congress and that he was part of a group that "would be willing to fight" in order to let former United States President Donald Trump stay in office. On the other hand, Young testified that he was "acting like a traitor" on January 6 and thought that he was part of an event similar to the 1789 storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution. Despite the charges, the government did not call for three members of the group, Joshua James, Brian Ulrich, and William Todd Wilson, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, before resting their case. The defense is expected to begin presenting their case, including testimony from the group's leader, Rhodes, on Thursday before both sides make their closing argument and give the case to the jury. Rhodes previously wrote a message that was intended for the former president that called upon Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to stay in power and arrest members of Congress. The Oath Keepers founder said that if the decision was not made, Biden and Kamala Harris would imprison the former president and his family members. The Oath Keepers founder said that he was ready to support the former president, adding that his group's members would also be loyal to him. Rhodes added that he will come to assist the former president, adding that he would be joined by military and police as well as millions of Trump supporters, the New York Times reported. Related Article: Trump Organization To Receive Independent Monitor That Will Oversee Real Estate Empire's Financial Reporting, Judge Rules @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. 'Queen of Halloween' Heidi Klum flaunted substantial cleavage in a red sleeveless belted jumpsuit, selected by stylist duo Rob Zangardi + Mariel Haenn, for a taping of America's Got Talent: All-Stars in Los Angeles on Thursday. Hairstylist Lorenzo Martin coiffed the German 49-year-old's signature highlighted blonde mane and make-up artist Linda Hay brought out her beautiful brown eyes. Heidi was joined on the red carpet by America's Got Talent: All-Stars host Terry Crews - who looked sharp in a neon-green suit with a black button-up, pocket square, and patent leather dress shoes. 'Queen of Halloween': Heidi Klum flaunted substantial cleavage in a red sleeveless belted jumpsuit for a taping of America's Got Talent: All-Stars in Los Angeles on Thursday Klum is the only woman on the crew as fellow judge Sofia Vergara will not be a part of the new spin-off, showcasing winners and fan favorites from prior seasons, which premieres next year on NBC and Peacock. The Emmy-winning host was fully back to glam after unveiling her epic worm costume during her 21st Annual Halloween Party at Sake No Hana in Manhattan's Lower East Side on Monday. The official AGT Twitter account promptly posted a comparison between Heidi's spooky prosthetic look with returning contestant Sethward's worm costume from the July 26th episode of the 17th season. However, Klum told Vogue on Tuesday that she came up with the idea to become a worm two years ago, and she started prepping it with Oscar-nominated make-up artist Mike Marino and his Prosthetic Renaissance team of 15 on June 22. Coordinated look: The German-born model had her fingernails and toenails painted the same vivid shade of red as her sexy outfit Back to normal! Hairstylist Lorenzo Martin coiffed the German 49-year-old's signature highlighted blonde mane Natural beauty: Make-up artist Linda Hay brought out her beautiful brown eyes Reunited: Heidi was joined on the red carpet by America's Got Talent: All-Stars host Terry Crews - who looked sharp in a neon-green suit with a black button-up, pocket square, and patent leather dress shoes Last woman standing: Klum is the only woman on the crew as fellow judge Sofia Vergara will not be a part of the new spin-off, showcasing winners and fan favorites from prior seasons, which premieres next year on NBC and Peacock 'No matter how crazy my ideas are, Mike brings them to life,' the pretty presenter - whose costume inspired many a meme - explained. 'I called him and said, "Make me a worm." And he said, "Huh?!" He initially did not want to do it and kept encouraging me to think of a new idea. However, I am not like that. When I fall in love with an idea, I do not want to pivot.' Heidi was joined at her Halloween party by her third husband Tom Kaulitz, who was dressed as a one-eyed fisherman, and her 18-year-old daughter Leni, who was dressed as Catwoman. 'Hooked on this look!' The Emmy-winning host was fully back to glam after unveiling her epic worm costume during her 21st Annual Halloween Party at Sake No Hana in Manhattan's Lower East Side on Monday 'Who wore it better?' The official AGT Twitter account promptly posted a comparison between Heidi's spooky prosthetic look with returning contestant Sethward's worm costume from the July 26th episode of the 17th season '...and so it begins': However, Klum told Vogue on Tuesday that she came up with the idea to become a worm two years ago, and she started prepping it with Oscar-nominated make-up artist Mike Marino and his Prosthetic Renaissance team of 15 on June 22 Mother-daughter duo: The pretty presenter was joined at her Halloween party by her third husband Tom Kaulitz, who was dressed as a one-eyed fisherman, and her 18-year-old daughter Leni (L), who was dressed as Catwoman Also attending the All-Stars taping on Thursday was Klum's fellow judge Simon Cowell, who also serves as executive producer. The 63-year-old Englishman - rocking Ray-Ban shades - looked slim and tan as he posed in his signature black T-shirt, matching slacks, and Oxfords. Judge Howie Mandell - also rocking sunglasses - looked dapper in a black striped blazer over a matching top, pants, and white sneakers. Boss man: Also attending the All-Stars taping on Thursday was Heidi's fellow judge Simon Cowell, who also serves as executive producer Skinny Minnie! The 63-year-old Englishman - rocking Ray-Ban shades - looked slim and tan as he posed in his signature black T-shirt, matching slacks, and Oxfords Point: Judge Howie Mandell - also rocking sunglasses - looked dapper in a black striped blazer over a matching top, pants, and white sneakers Birthday boy: The famously germophobic Canadian comedian is turning 67 this month The famously germophobic Canadian comedian is turning 67 this month. America's Got Talent is nominated for the competition show of 2022 trophy at the 48th People's Choice Awards, which air December 6 on NBC and E! Former AGT contestants The Mayyas scored a nomination for the competition contestant of 2022 trophy at the same fan-voted awards show. Romee Strijd had one of her last chances to admire her pregnant tummy on Wednesday, ahead of the birth of her second child. The 27-year-old model shared a short self-shot clip to her Instagram Stories in which she proudly highlighted her figure in profile to accentuate her baby bump. She looked as if the baby might arrive at any moment, and she shared just the day before that she was at the 39th week of her pregnancy. Baby on board: Romee Strijd, 27, glowed in a short Instagram clip highlighting her growing baby bump in profile on Wednesday Romee glowed while wearing a simple black bandeau that left plenty of her tummy exposed. She covered up the rest of her figure with a high-waisted set of black maternity pants that rose above her navel. Her long blond hair was tied up in a casual bun, and she added some sparkle to her causal around-the-house look with two gold bracelets and earrings. She appeared to be in her home bathroom, as a bathtub behind her was decorated with little toys that presumably belonged to her daughter Mint, whom she and her husband Laurens van Leeuwen welcomed in December 2020. Any day now: Romee's bump was covered by simple black maternity pants. Just a day earlier, she shared on Instagram that she was at the 39 week mark Bumping along: She looked casual in a black bandeau while wearing gold bracelets and earrings and tying her long blond hair in a bun Romee gave her 7.8 million Instagram followers a pregnancy update accompanying a closeup selfie on Tuesday. 'Little update : this past week has been so intense with Mint being sick, double ear infection + virus,' she shared. 'Little sleep, 39 weeks pregnant and being with a crying toddler all day but Mint is finally getting ear tubes this upcoming tuesday, so hopefully baby will wait till then. can't wait to cocoon with my two little girls and @laurensvleeuwen [sic],' she wrote. Home life: The model was stressed after her daughter Mint had to deal with a 'double ear infection + virus' recently Earlier in October, Romee showed off her biggest pout while modeling some black lingerie for her fans. While serving as one of the faces of Lounge underwear, the Netherlands native struck a couple of poses in black pants and a white shirt, both of which were left unbuttoned to reveal her black bra and underwear combo underneath. 'Almost there... @loungeunderwear,' she wrote in the caption, in a reference to the impending due date of baby number two, which she revealed will be a girl. Showing off: Romee offered a kiss towards the camera when she showcased her growing baby bump earlier in October while dressed in a black bra and matching underwear underneath her pants and shirt In one of the photos, Strijd can be seen puckering up her lips as if to offer a kiss towards the camera. She has her right hand leaning on her unbuttoned pants while she leans back with her other arm near a wall in a bathroom. Her burgeoning belly take center stage in both photos, all while her long blonde tresses flow down over her shoulders and chest. She offered a straight stare into the camera without the added animated look on her face. Voluminous: The top Dutch model, who serves as one of the faces of Lounge underwear, has her flowing locks hanging over her shoulders and chest with added volume Coming soon: Strijd announced 'almost there', in a likely reference to the impending due date of her second baby with husband Laurens van Leeuwen The previous day the in-demand model took to her instagram Stories and shared a short video of herself striking a few poses in a blue bra and underwear combination from Lounge Underwear. She first stood face forward towards with her camera phone held high dressed in light blue pants that hung low just enough to reveal part of her undergarment. The soon to be mother of two then stood sideways to highlight just how far along she is in her pregnancy. Proud mama: The previous day the in-demand model took to instagram and shared a video of herself striking a poses in a blue bra and underwear combination from Lounge Underwear Mama moves: After first standing face forward she turned sideways to give her Instagram fans and followers a better look at her growing baby bump Strijd announced back in late May that she and husband Laurens, who's the son of television presenter Bert van Leeuwen, were expecting their second child together. 'Soon we will be a family of 4, can't wait,' the Dutch model wrote in the caption of the photo that shows the couple playing with their two-year-old daughter, Mint. Obviously loving being a mother, she would confess 'so happy to be your mommy' in a photo where she and Mint snuggled up next to each other. Just two months later, Strijd and van Leeuwen decided to make it official and get married on July 20 after being a together for more than a decade. 'Wedding day w my live @laurensvleeuwen,' she gushed in the caption of a photo showing the couple beaming with joy. The couple announced their engagement this past January with a photo of van Leeuwe on one knee popping the question during a trip to Switzerland with a huge solitaire diamond ring. Baby news: Strijd announced in late May that she and husband Laurens van Leeuwen, who's the son of television presenter Bert van Leeuwen, were expecting their second child together Hitched: The couple would then announce they were getting married on July 20 Strijd gave birth to Mint in December 2020 after a years-long struggle with polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. 'WE'RE HAVING A BABY ?,' she wrote when she announced her first pregnancy. '2 years ago I got diagnosed with PCOS after not getting my period for 7 years. I was devastated because being a mom and starting a family with @laurensvleeuwen is my biggest dream.. I was so scared that I would never be able to because I got told it was harder to get babies in a natural way.' PCOS is a hormonal disorder, in which a woman's ovaries may develop small collections of fluid and fail to regularly release eggs, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. 'I think my weight was not good for my body to function properly and couldn't handle the constant traveling,' she previous said of her condition. 'I started to research natural healing for PCOS and came to the conclusion that I should do way less high intensity training, don't restrict foods, be nice to myself, and take breaks when needed.' Ashley Roberts looked sensational as she arrived at the launch night of her Quiz collection at The Maine Mayfair brasserie in London on Thursday. The Pussycat Doll gave a glimpse at her toned midriff as she wore a multi-coloured co-ord with a funky tie-dye design as she joined a slew of stars celebrating the release of her new range. The top featured a tied effect at the front, creating a plunging neckline that showed off her incredible figure. In style: Ashley Roberts looked sensational as she arrived at the launch night of her Quiz collection at The Maine Mayfair brasserie in London on Thursday She wore a mini skirt which was raised slightly on one leg, leaving her long slender pins on show. The Heart FM showbiz reporter opted for a pair of glitzy heels with silver bows on the front to add a few inches to her stature. Ashley carried a silver bag with her which glistened in the bright street lights as she walked. Fashion focus: The Pussycat Doll gave a glimpse at her toned midriff as she wore a multi-coloured co-ord with a funky tie-dye design Stepping out: She wore a mini skirt which was raised slightly on one leg, leaving her long slender pins on show Fashionista: The Heart FM showbiz reporter opted for a pair of glitzy heels with silver bows on the front to add a few inches to her stature Glamour puss: Ashley carried a silver bag with her which glistened in the bright street lights as she walked Strike a pose: Ashley flashed a broad smile as she posed at the star-studded event upon her arrival The star, who stepped out looking chic in a chocolate brown trouser suit earlier in the day, was joined at the bash by her former bandmate Kimberley Wyatt who wore a chic green with an asymmetrical hem and ruched detail. Her waist was cinched in by a gold metallic belt and she wore a brown coat over the top to keep warm. The star boosted her height with a pair of open-toed heels and was seen smiling as she arrived to meet her pal at the event. Famous friends: The star was joined at the bash by her former bandmate Kimberley Wyatt who wore a chic green with an asymmetrical hem and ruched detail Star quality: Her waist was cinched in by a gold metallic belt and she wore a brown coat over the top to keep warm. Meanwhile, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two host Janette Manrara showed off her glamorous sense of style in a sequinned silver trouser suit. She confidently posed on arrival, wearing a jacket and matching flared trousers The star held a unique black, red and gold handbag with the word 'boom' emblazoned across it. Out on the town: Meanwhile, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two host Janette Manrara showed off her glamorous sense of style in a sequinned silver trouser suit In the detail: The star held a unique black, red and gold handbag with the word 'boom' emblazoned across it Keeping it casual: Lottie Tomlinson wore a glitzy silver top and a pair of blue denim jeans which were ripped at the knee while EastEnders star Bobby Brazier wore a blue jumper and jeans Meanwhile, Emma Weymouth showed off her chic sense of style as she teamed a black mini skirt with a matching T-shirt. Her skirt featured pretty white embroidery and a very slight split to one side. The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant carried a black handbag with her and opted for a pair of matching heels. Star-studded bash: Emma Weymouth showed off her chic sense of style as she teamed a black mini skirt with a matching T-shirt Partying it up: The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant carried a black handbag with her and opted for a pair of matching heels Former Love Island star Joanna Chimonides looked glamorous in a black mini dress with cut out detail at the top, She teamed the garment with a pair of tights which had a silver sheen to add a touch of glamour to her outfit. The star carried a black handbag with her and opted for a pair of heels in the same colour. Looking lovely: Former Love Island star Joanna Chimonides looked glamorous in a black mini dress with cut out detail at the top. Jenna Ushkowitz opened up about her hesitation to share her infant daughter's name on the internet in a vulnerable Instagram post, detailing her 'journey as a mother.' While reflecting on her decision to wait five months to share her little girl's moniker with the world, the Glee star, 36, explained she 'grappled with this choice since the day she arrived' in June. 'I wanted to thank you all for respecting our choice to keep Emma and her name off social media until now,' the actress wrote on Instagram. Protective: Jenna Ushkowitz opened up about her hesitation to share her infant daughter's name on the internet in a vulnerable Instagram post, detailing her 'journey as a mother' She continued: 'I love sharing this part of my life with you but im sure you can understand that my momma bear instinct kicked in and keeping her to ourselves has felt like the right thing for me and my family.' 'I do want to share her name with you, though. I want to continue sharing my journey as a mother on here and your kindness and incredible support thus far has meant the world so please meet our little girl, Emma ,' Ushkowitz gushed. Alongside the caption, Ushkowitz provided a sweet picture of her baby holding her finger as she showed off her new 'Emma' necklace from Stephanie Gottlieb. New mom: While reflecting on her decision to wait five months to share her little girl's moniker with the world, the Glee star, 36, explained she 'grappled with this choice since the day she arrived' in June 'I wanted to thank you all for respecting our choice to keep Emma and her name off social media until now,' the actress wrote on Instagram Additionally, the South Korean-born performer, who has performed in multiple Broadway musicals, uploaded a selfie of herself rocking her new accessory. While it may be a coincidence, the name they selected may be a subtle nod to her hit show, Glee, as her costar Jayma Mays' character went by the name Emma. In June, Ushkowitz and her husband David Stanley have officially welcomed their first child together. Opening up: She continued: 'I love sharing this part of my life with you but im sure you can understand that my momma bear instinct kicked in and keeping her to ourselves has felt like the right thing for me and my family' The actress confirmed their daughter's arrival in a post shared to her Instagram, which included a black-and-white portrait of herself cradling the newborn in a hospital bed. 'Our hearts have burst wide open,' captioned the performer, who made sure to tag David in the post. In the hospital photo, Ushkowitz's baby girl was swaddled in a blanket with her face left out of frame. She's here! The actress confirmed their daughter's arrival in a post shared to her Instagram, which included a black-and-white portrait of herself cradling the newborn in a hospital bed Wedding vows: The arrival of their daughter came 11 months after getting married in a small ceremony in Hollywood; the couple pictured in 2021 The happy couple first announced they were expecting their bundle of joy with a black-and-white Instagram photo in late January that showed Stanley with his hand on his wife's growing baby bump. 'Our hearts are so full Baby Girl Stanley coming in June,' she gushed in the caption of her post. Ushkowitz and Stanley first met on a date after connecting on the dating app Hinge in 2018. New bundle of joy: Ushkowitz and Stanley announced their baby news on January 26 in a post shared to the star's Instagram, which also revealed their child's gender They eventually got engaged in August 2020, and tied-the-knot last July at the historic Lombardi House in the heart of Hollywood in front 104 of their closest friends and family members. Ushkowitz is best known for playing the role of Tina Cohen-Chang on the Fox comedy-drama musical Glee, during its entire six season run that began in 2009 and went through until 2015. She is also a two-time Tony Award winner for her work as a producer of the Broadway musical Once on This Island, and has gained recognition for her performances in Broadway musicals such as The King And I and Waitress. The acting world is in mourning with news of the passing of beloved stage and screen actor Andrew Prine. The actor - best known for Western films like Chisum, Wide Country and The Town That Dreaded Sundown - passed away on Monday of natural causes while on vacation in Paris with his wife, actress Heather Lowe, via THR. 'He was the sweetest prince,' said Lowe, who Prine married in 1986, in a brief statement about her husband's passing. R.I.P.: The acting world is in mourning with news of the passing of beloved stage and screen actor Andrew Prine Best known: The actor - best known for Western films like Chisum, Wide Country and The Town That Dreaded Sundown - passed away on Monday of natural causes while on vacation in Paris with his wife, actress Heather Lowe, via THR Prine was born February 14, 1936 in Jennings, Florida, attending high school in Miami before attending the University of Miami. While he attended the U of Miami on an acting scholarship, he ultimately dropped out and moved to New York City to pursue acting. He made his professional acting debut in a 1957 episode of The United States Steel Hour and his feature film debut in 1959's Kiss Her Goodbye. Early: Prine was born February 14, 1936 in Jennings, Florida, attending high school in Miami before attending the University of Miami He also made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel, taking over the role from Anthony Perkins. He revealed in a Backstage interview that he really, 'learned how to act' during his two-year stint on Look Homeward, Angel. 'Fortunately, I did Look Homeward for two years, and what I did while playing the lead and being paid was learn how to act,' he said. Broadway: He also made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel, taking over the role from Anthony Perkins 'The stage manager came backstage every night with copious notes, and his job was to keep me on target. I learned how to act, really, on Broadway,' he added. The role lead scouts from Universal to recruit him to star in a Western series, which he originally thought would be a temporary gig. 'So I said Im just going to go out [to California] and do [that] and Im coming right back to Broadway,' Prine said in a 2013 episode of A Word on Westerns. Western: 'So I said Im just going to go out [to California] and do [that] and Im coming right back to Broadway,' Prine said in a 2013 episode of A Word on Westerns Scouts: The role lead scouts from Universal to recruit him to star in a Western series, which he originally thought would be a temporary gig 'Then I found out how much money they would give me just to sit on a horse, and I said, "So long, Broadway,"' he added. He appeared in a number of Western shows in the 1960s including Tombstone Territory, Playhouse 90, Have Gun Will Travel, The Defenders and Gunsmoke. He played Andy Guthrie in 28 episodes of Wide Country and played Richard Kimble's (David Jansen) brother Ray in an episode of The Fugitive along with a recurring role in the final season of Dr. Kildare. His other notable roles were as Deputy Sheriff Roscoe Bookbinder in Bandolero, Alex McSween in Chisum and Deputy Norman Ramsey in The Town That Dreaded Sundown. He continued working regularly into the 1980s (V), 1990s (Weird Science) and the early 2000s, though the latter in largely uncredited roles in God & General, Dukes of Hazzard and Sweet Home Alabama. Selling Sunset star Heather Rae El Moussa showcased her bourgeoning baby bump while clad in pink perforated tube dress on the West Hollywood set of the Netflix hit series, which is wrapping its sixth season this week. The expecting 35-year-old - who relies on stylist Caitlyn Jamyes - gushed via Instastory on Thursday: 'Love my pregnant Barbie look!' Hairstylist Jolene Phillips coiffed Heather's signature platinum-blonde waves and make-up artist Angie Martinez fully contoured her complexion for the shoot. Action! Selling Sunset star Heather Rae El Moussa showcased her bourgeoning baby bump while clad in pink perforated tube dress on the West Hollywood set of the Netflix hit series, which is wrapping its sixth season this week The expecting 35-year-old - who relies on stylist Caitlyn Jamyes - gushed via Instastory on Thursday: 'Love my pregnant Barbie look!' However, El Moussa's (born Young) mood went from excited to 'mentally drained' after filming her final confessional interviews for three hours. 'It's just, like, so much talking, so many questions, so much clarifying,' the Oppenheim Group realtor - who boasts 4M social media followers - groaned. 'You hope that some stuff gets used to clarify certain situations, but you just never know, so we'll find out. I get to find out along with all of you guys when season six comes out.' Heather wore the same pink dress to attend a special event at Disneyland's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa with friends and her husband of a year, Flipping 101 host Tarek El Moussa. 'So excited!' Hairstylist Jolene Phillips coiffed Heather's signature platinum-blonde waves and make-up artist Angie Martinez fully contoured her complexion for the shoot 'It's just, like, so much talking, so many questions, so much clarifying': However, El Moussa's mood went from excited to 'mentally drained' after filming her final confessional interviews for three hours 'Hey ladies, are we ready?' The Oppenheim Group realtor wore the same pink dress to attend a special event at Disneyland's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa with friends and her husband of a year, Flipping 101 host Tarek El Moussa 'Birthday girl!' The inseparable couple - who originally met during a fishing trip in July 2019 - were in her native Anaheim to celebrate the birthday of Rethink Beautiful CEO Kristen Steinberg (pictured) The inseparable couple - who originally met during a fishing trip in July 2019 - were in her native Anaheim to celebrate the birthday of Rethink Beautiful CEO Kristen Steinberg. Heather's first child - a boy - with the 41-year-old Long Beach native is due in 'early 2023,' and they're currently planning her baby shower and putting the nursery together. The El Moussas had been in the middle of in vitro fertilization treatments when they discovered they were pregnant. 4-D ultrasound: Heather's first child - a boy - with the 41-year-old Long Beach native is due in 'early 2023,' and they're currently planning her baby shower and putting the nursery together (fetus pictured August 9) Halloween family portrait: Tarek fathered two children - daughter Taylor, 12; and son Brayden, 7 - during the seven-year marriage to his Flip or Flop co-host Christina Haack, which ended in January 2018 Their other 'baby': The Malibu Horror Story actress and the half-Moroccan house flipper have also been filming their new eight-episode docu-series The Flipping El Moussas, which premieres next year on HGTV 'It was a huge shock. We just weren't expecting this. We had just gone through IVF. We had embryos on ice. We had a plan,' El Moussa told People back on July 13. 'I think when you least expect it and there's no stress in your life, the world just brought us what was meant to be. I'm so excited that it happened like this.' Tarek fathered two children - daughter Taylor, 12; and son Brayden, 7 - during the seven-year marriage to his Flip or Flop co-host Christina Haack, which ended in January 2018. Who will win? Selling Sunset is nominated for the reality show of 2022 trophy at the 48th People's Choice Awards, which air December 6 on NBC and E! Breakout star? Selling Sunset's Chrishell Stause scored a solo nomination for the reality TV star of 2022 trophy at the same fan-voted awards show The Malibu Horror Story actress and the half-Moroccan house flipper have also been filming their new eight-episode docu-series The Flipping El Moussas, which premieres next year on HGTV. Selling Sunset is nominated for the reality show of 2022 trophy at the 48th People's Choice Awards, which air December 6 on NBC and E! Selling Sunset's Chrishell Stause scored a solo nomination for the reality TV star of 2022 trophy at the same fan-voted awards show. Munya Chawawa: How To Survive A Dictator Rating: * The Rescue: 54 Hours Under The Ground Rating: **** Comedian Munya Chawawa may have survived under a brutal dictator's rule. But I have no idea how he'll survive the embarrassment of the film he made about it. The stupidity of sending YouTube personalities to do investigative journalism was brutally exposed, as his ignorance was outweighed only by his immaturity. To explain the history of Zimbabwe, where the monstrous Robert Mugabe slaughtered tens of thousands of political opponents, Munya tried making rap videos, dressing up in historical costumes and flaunting his bodybuilder biceps on How To Survive A Dictator (C4). Then, as he wasn't allowed to film in Zimbabwe, the country he fled with his parents in 2005 when he was 12, he flew to neighbouring South Africa. Attempts to interview former associates of Mugabe were a cringeing humiliation. The despot's nephews, Leo and Patrick, ran rings round him, and laughed as they did it. Comedian Munya Chawawa may have survived under a brutal dictator's rule. But I have no idea how he'll survive the embarrassment of the film he made about it Munya had no real questions, no way to challenge their smiling assurances that Uncle Robert was a lovely guy. But this puerile capitulation was a triumph, compared to his encounter with a former Mugabe henchman. Saviour Kasukuwere was a minister in Mugabe's Zanu-PF government, widely rumoured to have commanded gangs that committed murder and torture. His nickname was Paraquat, because of allegations that he ordered weedkiller to be rubbed into the wounds of his victims to stop them from healing. An enormous and intimidating presence, with tiny feet in shiny blue shoes, Kasukuwere flatly denied any wrongdoing and met Munya's smirking attempts at ingratiation with contempt. Then he turned on the film crew's director, Paul Taylor. 'You are white,' he said. 'We have more issues to deal with you. Do you apologise for what you white people did to Africans?' 'Absolutely,' squeaked Paul. The idea that anyone should have to apologise to an unrepentant thug such as Kasukuwere for anything is obscene. No doubt the director did so, fearing for the safety of his crew and presenter. But to leave that segment in the finished film, without any other explanation, as though Paul Taylor's very skin colour made him more a criminal than the man they called Paraquat, was reprehensible an insult to all those killed and tortured. Munya's trite reference to survival was put to shame by the real survival story that unfolded in The Rescue: 54 Hours Under The Ground (BBC2). For anyone who feels uncomfortable in tight spaces, this account and reconstruction of a life-or-death pot-holing emergency was terrifying. From the opening moments, as we watched a caver in a hard hat wriggling through a ragged crevice like a broken drainpipe, the filmwork made the heart race. George Linnane, a 38-year-old railway engineer, was exploring caves in the Brecon Beacons last November when a rock floor gave way. As he lay, bleeding heavily from multiple injuries to his leg, chest and jaw, one of his companions dashed for help. The rescue involved nearly 300 cavers from all over the country. Their bravery was extraordinary, and the tales they related with a casual matter-of-factness brought me out in a cold sweat. Rescuers used their bodies as a human bridge, lying down in icy streams to keep George's stretcher out of the water on its journey to the surface, which took more than two days. George shrugged off the ordeal. 'I'm a stubborn git,' he said, 'who just won't die.' Countdown of the night: Drums crashed, violins swelled, but nothing could hide the feebleness of the final test on Unbreakable (BBC1). Two couples had to measure exactly five minutes by counting in their heads. Mississippi one, Mississippi two...is this the worst gameshow ever? Gemma Owen showed off her chic sense of style as she attended the Tatler Little Black Book party with Michael Kors at The Windmill Soho in London on Thursday. The former Love Island star, 19, wore a black mini dress with cut out detail on both sides. Her garment featured structured shoulders and long sleeves, while she opted for a pair of matching black heels to add a few inches to her stature. In style: Gemma Owen showed off her chic sense of style as she attended the Tatler Little Black Book party with Michael Kors at The Windmill Soho in London on Thursday Bikini brand owner Gemma, who recently returned from a sunshine holiday in Dubai, accessorised with a gold chain necklace. She wore lashings of make-up to highlight her pretty features and confidently posed for pictures at the event. The realty star was joined by Lady Eliza and Amelia Spencer who both cut glamorous figures for the night. Fashion focus: The former Love Island star, 19, wore a black mini dress with cut out detail on both sides Lady Eliza dazzled in a shimmering gold dress which featured a turtle neck and an asymmetrical hem. The niece of the late Diana, Princess of Wales carried a gold purse with her to match her dress and opted for a pair of heels with mirrored straps in the same colour. She was seen cosying-up to her boyfriend of six years, Channing Millerd, who looked dapper in a black suit and button down shirt which he left undone at the collar. Royal connection: The realty star was joined by Lady Eliza and Amelia Spencer who both cut glamorous figures for the night Glitz and glamour: Lady Eliza dazzled in a shimmering gold dress which featured a turtle neck and an asymmetrical hem Fashionista: Lady Amelia looked chic in a black trouser suit with a double breasted jacket which was cinched in at the waist Lady Amelia looked chic in a black trouser suit with a double breasted jacket which was cinched in at the waist. She wore a matching pair of trousers and confidently posed with her hand on her hip at the bash. She completed her look by wearing a pair of black heels and carrying a matching bag with her for the evening. A new trailer has been released for Lego Masters upcoming two-part Christmas' special. Host Hamish Blake stars in the short clip, wearing a Santa hat and performing a number with professional dancers dressed as elves. The teaser features the Logie winner singing a tuneless version of a popular festive season carol with new lyrics designed to promote the 'Bricksmas' editon. A new trailer has been released for Lego Masters upcoming two-part Christmas ' special, hosted by Hamish Blake. The show is also set to star Emma Watkins, Darren Palmer, Lincoln Lewis and Poh Ling Yeow (all pictured) The video begins with Hamish, wearing a sweater decorated with reindeer and Christmas trees, crooning a tone-deaf version of the tune Twelve Days of Christmas. Instead of singing the traditional words, the father-of-two gives a preview of what fans can expect from the show. 'On the special nights of Bricksmass Channel Nine gave to me / A fresh batch of celebrities,' Hamish sings. The trailer begins with Hamish, wearing a sweater decorated with reindeer and Christmas trees, crooning a tone-deaf version of the tune Twelve Days of Christmas Instead of singing the traditional words, the father of two gives a preview of what fans can expect from the show As professional dancers spin and leap around him, an embarrassed-looking Hamish continues his song: 'So come to me Australia on a Lego journey, two night of magic, for every family.' The video ends with Hamish telling viewers to tune it on their TV, before ad-libbing: 'Or phone or iPad, any screen is fine.' Emma Watkins, Darren Palmer, Lincoln Lewis and Poh Ling Yeow will also star in the Christmas special, which will screen on Nine and 9Now, reports TV Blackbox. The cast will join Hamish and judge Ryan 'The BrickMan' McNaught for a new set of challenges to create the best Christmas Lego build. Energetic children's entertainer, Emma Watkins, 32, revealed to her Instagram fans, her starring role in the Lego Masters 'Brickmass Special', in September. One fan wrote they were 'so excited' for her while another piped in that 'this will be incredible'. Isla Fisher says being a mother is the most important role in her life. The Hollywood star, 46, who started her career on Aussie soap Home and Away, told The Australian Women's Weekly her acting skills often come in handy when raising her three children with husband Sacha Baron Cohen. 'One of the perks of being an actor is you have a bunch of silly voices in your back pocket to whip out at bedtime,' she said in this month's issue, on sale now. Isla Fisher (pictured) has admitted she uses her acting skills to help put her children to bed as she opens up about her family life in the latest issue of The Australian Women's Weekly Isla has been married to the Borat star since 2010 and they share three children. The Wedding Crashers star said she loves reading bedtime stories to her kids, and often uses her imagination to come up with fun and engaging stories. She said: 'There's often a teachable lesson that leads to interesting discussions. 'One of the perks of being an actor is you have a bunch of silly voices in your back pocket to whip out at bedtime,' she told AWW (pictured on the magazine's cover) 'If somebody is having a problem at school or something, I'll tailor the bedtime story a little bit to align with whatever's going on,' she added. It comes after Isla revealed she fell head over heels for Sacha the first time they met at a party in Sydney in 2002. She made the confession on The Project after host Lisa Wilkinson told her the British funnyman had recently said it was love at first sight for him - but not for his wife. Isla has been married to Sacha Baron Cohen (right) since 2010 and they share three children 'I don't know why [he said that], he was joking!' she replied. 'I totally loved him right away. I mean, I knew it was definitely love at first sight.' Elsewhere in the interview, Isla reflected on the couple's two decades together, which is quite an achievement in Hollywood. 'I think by Hollywood standards it's probably 200 years!' she said. 'I feel like it's a Golden Jubilee or something. Everyone was congratulating me.' According to the country's military, South Korea sent out roughly 80 fighter airplanes after spotting a lot of North Korean warplanes over a four-hour period on Friday, escalating tensions in the region. A day after Pyongyang is thought to have performed the unsuccessful IBMT, the South Korean military claimed in a statement that it had seen 180 North Korean military aircraft between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time. North Korea Sends 180 Warplanes Near South As the 'Vigilant Storm' joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, including hundreds of aircraft and thousands of service men from both nations, began on Monday, tensions on the Korean Peninsula started to rise. South Korea responded with three surface-to-air missiles after North Korea launched 23 missiles from its east and west coasts on Wednesday, the most it has ever shot in a single day, accusing the allies of engaging in provocative behavior. The statement stated that an undefined number of F-35A stealth fighter jets were deployed by South Korea on Friday, and the South Korean warplanes taking part in the current joint exercises also "kept a readiness posture." Per CNN, following the alleged ICBM launch on Thursday, the US and South Korea stated they will prolong the drills for one additional day until November 5. According to state media, a North Korean official criticized the decision as "extremely hazardous and deceptive." According to The Independent, the military of South Korea also claimed on Friday that North Korea had violated a 2018 agreement by firing an artillery barrage into a sea "buffer zone" overnight. An urgent meeting of the UN Security Council will be held on Friday as a result of North Korea's record-breaking barrage of missile launches this week. Seoul has reacted after the North flew fighter planes dangerously near to the buffer zone twice in the last month. Similar maneuvers were performed by a flight of 10 warplanes last month. Read Also: Is North Korea Supplying Russia With Artillery Shells for Ukraine War? US Officials Make Shocking Allegation US-South Korea Military Drills North Korea had earlier this week threatened to respond to joint drills the US and South Korea were doing in the area with a "powerful" retaliation. Despite the North Korean sortie on Friday, the roughly 240 aircraft taking part in these "Vigilant Storm" air exercises with the United States resumed their training, according to the Pentagon. The United States and South Korea have decided to continue their extensive joint drills until Saturday. Due to Pyongyang's ICBM test this week, the five-day drills, which had been planned to finish on Friday, have now been prolonged. The move has been denounced by ak Jong Chon, secretary of the Workers' Party's Central Committee in North Korea, who called it a "very dangerous decision" that is "shoving" the situation out of control. Pyongyang's ICBM launch was deemed "illegal and destabilizing" by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Seoul and Washington pledged to take fresh actions to show their "determination and capability" in the face of the North's increasing threats. According to authorities and experts, Pyongyang is stepping up its testing in retaliation for the US-South Korean drills. The recent launches by Pyongyang might be a sign of its seventh nuclear test, as Washington and Seoul have frequently warned, as per Daily Mail. The combined air exercises, known as Vigilant Storm, have been denounced by Pyongyang as "an aggressive and provocative military practice targeting" North Korea, and if they continue, Washington and Seoul "will pay the most horrible price in history." The North's most recent launches occur as South Korea enters a period of national mourning following the deaths of over 150 people on Saturday in a crowd crush in Seoul, the most of whom were young women in their 20s. Related Article: North Korea Fires 10 Missiles Off South Korea Coast, Prompting Seoul To Respond with Air-to-Ground Missile @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Jasmine Stefanovic is a proud stepmother. The 38-year-old shoe designer, who is married to Today show host Karl Stefanovic, shared a tribute to her stepdaughter Willow after she finished her HSC exams. Jasmine posted a photo on Instagram on Friday of herself cuddling up for a selfie with the 17-year-old school leaver. Karl Stefanovic's wife Jasmine (left) has praised her 17-year-old stepdaughter Willow (right) after she finished her HSC exams 'So proud of this one finishing HSC and working so damn hard. We love you and can't wait to see what next year brings,' she wrote in the caption. Willow responded in the comments, 'Lots of love,' while Karl left love-heart emojis. Other followers congratulated Willow, who is an aspiring model, on her academic achievements. 'So proud of this one finishing HSC and working so damn hard. We love you and cant wait to see what next year brings,' Jasmine wrote. (Pictured: Karl and Willow Stefanovic) 'Congrats, Willow, on your success. Wishing you all the very best for the future, gorgeous girl,' one fan wrote. Another added: 'Congratulations.' It comes after proud dad Karl, 48, shared a photo to Instagram in June of himself posing with Willow before her high school formal. The Channel Nine presenter wore a black tuxedo as he linked arms with his daughter, who wore a white dress with a thigh split and a bralette-style top. It comes after proud dad Karl, 48, shared this photo to Instagram in June of himself posing with Willow before her high school formal The aspiring model wore a white dress with a thigh split and a bralette-style top 'Dads v Formals. Instagram v Real world,' he captioned the post. Karl's ex-wife and Willow's mum Cassandra Thorburn also shared a photo from the family's pre-formal gathering. 'My girl I'm sure she let her hair down after mum left,' she wrote in the caption. Karl and Jasmine tied the knot in 2018 at the One&Only Palmilla Resort in Las Cabos, Mexico Willow announced last year she was pursuing a modelling career, and had even signed with an agency. Karl, who split from ex-wife Cassandra in 2016 after 21 years of marriage, said the family 'fully support Willow in wherever her heart takes her'. 'She doesn't go into anything blindly, especially the fashion world. She's a strong, independent young woman and wants to pursue lots of things in life. We love her spirit,' he told Stellar magazine. Cassandra added: 'I encourage all my children to work hard and pursue their dreams and aspirations. 'Willow knows who she is and what she wants, and those attributes make me extremely proud.' Willow announced last year she was pursuing a modelling career, and had even signed with an agency Willow, who is represented by Precision MGMT, credited her mother with helping her to achieve her modelling dreams. She said Cassandra had put in the 'hard yards' to help kick-start her career, and also praised her father for 'backing me 100 per cent'. Karl is also father to two sons with Cassandra, Jackson and River, as well as a two-year-old daughter, Harper, whom he shares with Jasmine. He and Jasmine, a former model, tied the knot at the One&Only Palmilla Resort in Las Cabos, Mexico, on December 8, 2018. She won best dressed at the Melbourne Cup Carnival this week. And Nicole Trunfio put on another stylish display on Friday as she went to lunch her three children - Zion, seven, Gia, four, and Ella, two. The Aussie supermodel, 36, showed off her phenomenal figure in a chocolate satin skirt, floral turtleneck top and black leather knee-high boots. Nicole Trunfio put on another stylish display on Friday as she stepped out with her three children- - Zion, seven, Gia, four, and Ella, two - in the city for lunch She carried a $5,680 Bottega Veneta Jodie handbag and shielded her eyes with designer shades. The brunette bombshell wore her dark locks out in tumbling curls and painted her pout with a high shine lip-gloss. Nicole proved she was a multitasking mother, ferrying her kids into a car while juggling their toys. The Aussie supermodel, 36, showed off her phenomenal figure in a chocolate satin skirt, floral turtleneck top and black leather knee-high boots It comes after Nicole put on a dazzling display at Oaks Day in Melbourne on Thursday in not one, but two outfits. She started out the day in a traditional pink Chanel tweed suit with matching pink suede sling back heels and a mini quilted Chanel wallet on chain bag around her waist. She carried a $5,680 Bottega Veneta Jodie handbag and shielded her eyes with designer shades It comes after Nicole put on a dazzling display at Oaks Day in Melbourne on Thursday in not one, but two outfits. She also accessorised with Chanel jewels, including a pearl cross necklace and one of the French Fashion House's iconic chain belts and a Double C choker. The brunette beauty also wore Chanel pearl earrings and a coat of baby pink nail polish. It wasn't long before Nicole slipped into another designer ensemble. The fashion star channelled her inner Barbie Girl in a $10,000 Versace pink satin bodycon dress The fashion star channelled her inner Barbie Girl in a $10,000 Versace pink satin bodycon dress. She wore a matching pink jacket over the top, opera gloves and a headband. Nicole also made quite the entrance at Penfolds Derby Day over the weekend. She parted the crowds as she sauntered through The Birdcage in form-fitting, strapless dress that showed off her sensational figure. Earlier in the day, the 36-year-old was pretty in a traditional pink Chanel tweed suit with matching pink suede sling back heels and a mini quilted Chanel wallet on chain bag around her waist The black frock featured an asymmetrical neckline as it hugged her waist and flaunted a hint of cleavage. She wore a pair of long black velvet gloves as she clutched a little Balenciaga handbag while steadying an extravagant wide-brimmed hat perilously balanced at an angle on her head. Pointed velvet pumps matched her black gloves and she perched a pair of dark cat-eye sunglasses low on her nose, looking over them with a content expression. Nicole recently traded in the runway for a cooking channel. The mother-of-three wore her brunette locks in a sleek half-up half-down style and rocked a smoky eye and nude lip for makeup She started her new cooking influencer career back in 2020 but abandoned it in July last year for unknown reasons. Nicole returned recently with some new camera angles and a higher production budget as she kicked things off with two new recipes on Instagram and YouTube. She whipped up a delicious Pineapple Sherbet Margarita and a mouth-watering Pumpkin Sage Ravioli. Nicole gave no explanation as to her absence on the cooking channel, but she did acknowledge it on Friday when she posted a series of photos to her personal Instagram. 'I know we have been gone for toooooo long (Im sorry) to make up for it we are dropping 2 eps this week! (The next might be my fave),' she captioned the reel which showed snaps of her cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Nicole is the founder of brands Bumpsuit, Erth Jewellery and Erth Swim, and has been married to American musician Gary for four years. They share three young children. Supermodels Sara Sampaio and Shanina Shaik made a fashionable appearance as they stopped by the BYCHARI pop up event in sunny Los Angeles earlier Thursday. The Portuguese model, 31, was classically chic in a long-sleeved sweater and leather skirt as she arrived at the venue ahead of other guests. The former Victoria's Secret model, also 31, showcased her fabulous fall fashion in black leggings and an oversized blazer. Fashionable: Supermodels Sara Sampaio and Shanina Shaik made a stylishly chic appearance as they stopped by the BYCHARI pop up in Los Angeles earlier Thursday evening Sara, who also formerly collaborated with Victoria's Secret, opted for an all-black ensemble as she made an appearance at the pop up. The beauty donned a long-sleeved, black turtleneck sweater to stay warm in the chilly early evening temperatures. The model paired the top with a long, faux leather skirt that fell down towards her ankles while accentuating her slim waist. She slipped into a pair of black boots with a chunky sole to complete her overall monochromatic look for the event. Stunning: The Portuguese model, 31, opted for a sleek, monochromatic ensemble as she attended the special pop up event in sunny LA Picking up some goodies: The beauty, 31, was pictured holding a large BYCHARI tote bag after acquiring a few special items Sara tossed up her hair into a chic ponytail, showing off a pair of ornate gold earrings. A dainty gold necklace stood out on her black sweater. As she made her way towards the venue where the pop up was held, the star slung a small black purse over her left shoulder. Shanina also made a head-turning appearance to flaunt her fall fashion. She opted for fitted black leggings along with a plain black shirt. The model threw on an oversized, large tan-colored blazer for a classy touch to the look. She slipped into a pair of brown heeled boots that almost reached her knees, showcasing her long legs. The bombshell allowed her hair to fall naturally down past her shoulders, and threw on a pair of shades to accessorize the outfit. Shanina appeared to be in high spirits after welcoming her first child two months earlier in September. Catching up with pals: At the event, Shanina was pictured holding a light-hearted conversation with Australian DJ, Georgia Sinclair Other stars in the industry also made an appearance at the BYCHARI event, such as Australian-born DJ, Georgia Sinclair. The blonde beauty, who is currently based in Los Angeles, also dressed up for the cooler weather. She opted for a plan black shirt which she tucked into the waist of classic blue jeans. The producer slipped into a pair of over-the-knee black boots along with a stylish black coat. The music star was all smiles as she caught up with her supermodel pal, Shanina. Sara was also pictured spending time with fellow model and pal, Georgia Fowler, during the pop up. She opted for color and wore a long flannel jacket with an assortment of hues, such as blue and orange. Relaxing outing: Sara was seen talking to her friend and fellow model, Georgia Fowler, as they crossed paths Chari Cuthbert, the creative director and founder of BYCHARI, donned an eye-catching gold dress with thin straps. A small, diamond cutout was placed on the front of the scaly-looking material. She was pictured linking arms with model, Rocky Barnes, as the two made a statement upon their arrival. BYCHARI is a Los Angeles based jewelry company that was founded in 2012 and is famously known for creating luxurious yet simplistic pieces. The company has held special events in the past with star-studded guests, such as a pop up earlier last month in October. Advertisement Hayden Panettiere turned heads in a sultry red minidress with a plunging neckline as she arrived to the amfAR Gala in Los Angeles, California on Thursday evening. The 33-year-old actress, who bravely came forward about her years-long addiction to opioids and alcohol over the summer, oozed sex appeal as she puts her ample cleavage on display at the twelfth annual benefit at at the Pacific Design Center. She accessorized her thigh-scraping frock with a pair of semi-sheer black tights, open-toed heels, a shimmery handbag and her blonde hair swept to one side. Red hot! Hayden Panettiere turned heads in a sultry red minidress with a plunging neckline as she arrived to the amfAR Gala in Los Angeles, California on Thursday evening Her glamorous makeup look included a glossy nude lipstick, blush and gold smokey eye, which made her striking green eyes pop. In July, Panettiere revealed that her substance abuse issues became so severe that she was at risk of liver failure. During an interview with People, the mom-of-one revealed that her drug abuse began when she was just 15 years old - and then spiraled out of control while she was battling postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya in 2014. Looking good: The 33-year-old actress, who bravely came forward about her years-long addiction to opioids and alcohol over the summer, oozed sex appeal as she puts her ample cleavage on display at the twelfth annual benefit at at the Pacific Design Center Sexy: She accessorized her thigh-scraping frock with a pair of semi-sheer black tights, open-toed heels, a shimmery handbag and her blonde hair swept to one side 'As I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn't live without,' Panettiere confessed - revealing that her struggle with postpartum depression combined with her reliance on drugs and alcohol resulted in her making the 'heartbreaking' decision to send her daughter away to live with her father, Wladimir Klitschko, in Ukraine. 'I would have the shakes when I woke up and could only function with sipping alcohol,' she admitted. '[Sending Kaya away] was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I wanted to be a good mom to her - and sometimes that means letting them go.' Panettiere says she did not drink while she was pregnant with Kaya, but she admits that she fell off the wagon soon after her daughter was born, and from there, her alcohol issues continued to spiral out of control. After she sent her daughter away to live with Klitschko, 46, from whom she had split just months before following a nine-year on-off relationship, Panettiere's drinking continued to worsen - to the point where she had to be hospitalized with jaundice. Beautiful: Her glamorous makeup look included a glossy nude lipstick, blush and gold smokey eye, which made her striking green eyes pop 'Doctors told me my liver was going to give out,' she admitted. 'I was no longer a 20 year old who could just bounce right back.' The former child star, who began acting on-screen at the age of five, when she landed roles in popular soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light, says her drug abuse issues started when she was just 15 - one year before she began filming hit TV series Heroes. At the time, she claims members of her team began giving her 'happy pills' in an effort to make her seem more 'peppy' during interviews. 'I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction,' she explained. Terrifying: In July, Panettiere revealed that her substance abuse issues became so severe that she was at risk of liver failure Speaking to Good Morning America earlier this year, the actress explained that her battle with postpartum depression made her alcoholism all the more difficult to deal with because she couldn't see where her battles with substance abuse 'ended' and where her depression 'began'. '[The past four years have] been difficult,' she said, looking back on her struggles since the birth of her daughter. 'The years before were very difficult for me too. I'd been struggling for a long time.' Asking where she sought help for her depression, Panettiere continued: 'The bottle. The bottom of a bottle. 'I didn't have any negative feelings towards my child, I just knew I was deeply depressed. And I didn't know where the alcoholism was ending and the postpartum was beginning and I ran myself pretty ragged. 'People around me were more concerned about my usage of alcohol than they ever were about the postpartum depression.' 'I'd been struggling for a long time,' Panettiere told Good Morning America of the years leading up to her daughter's birth in 2018 (seen earlier this year) She added that many of those around her were quick to pass off her postpartum depression and alcoholism as signs that she was being 'overly emotional' or acting like 'a crazy woman', which in turn made her feel all the more isolated. 'I felt like I was walking blind and there was nobody there that was able to support me in the way I needed to be supported. 'And I don't like to ask for help either. You know, I want to be that strong, stoic woman, but when you see a [previously] happy-go-lucky girl... suddenly on the floor in a puddle of mess and alcohol, you've got to know something is wrong.' Pushing through: Although Kaya, now seven, is living in a country that has been ravaged by war amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Panettiere (seen with her daughter and Klitschko) insists she is 'safe' After Panettiere ended up in the hospital, she finally found the strength to seek treatment for her addictions and ultimately entered rehab for eight months, where she says she found the support she needed to face her demons head-on. '[I made] a lot of great friends in treatment who can speak on your same level where you don't feel like you're going crazy,' she told GMA, although she confessed that her experiences in rehab were 'horrible' at times, because she was identified specifically as an alcoholic, rather than someone also battling postpartum depression, which meant she struggled to make herself heard. 'Oh, it was horrible,' she said. 'Once you're the identified patient as the alcoholic - and not as a girl, a woman going through postpartum depression - then they don't believe anything that comes [out of] your mouth. So even when you're telling the truth, even when you're doing well, I've been told "No", almost gaslit, and told, "No, I wasn't." 'It's frustrating. It's heartbreaking. You want to break down and cry, which makes you look even worse. But not being believed, I think to anybody not being believed is - when they're telling the truth - is painful.' While the actress is now sober - and focused on ensuring her daughter Kaya is safe and sound while living in Ukraine - she admits that her struggles are far from over. 'I'm good [but] it's an everyday battle, it really is,' she shared. 'I'm grateful to say I'm sober today.' It has previously been reported that Kaya was sent out of Ukraine while her father (pictured) and his brother, Kyiv mayor Vitali, threw themselves into the fight against Russian forces She added to People: 'It's an everyday choice, and I'm checking in with myself all the time. But I'm just so grateful to be part of this world again, and I will never take it for granted again.' As for daughter Kaya, now seven, while she is currently living with her father in a country that has been ravaged by war following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Panettiere insists that her daughter is 'very safe' - and even praised the youngster's handling of the situation. 'She's my favorite little person,' she told GMA. 'And watching how she has handled this whole Ukrainian situation has really blown my mind. 'She is very safe and where she is, she also has a lot of friends.' Struggles: The actress's drug and alcohol abuse issues were ongoing while she was filming the hit country music show Nashville, which ended in 2018 However, it has previously been reported that Kaya was sent out of Ukraine while her father and his brother, Kyiv mayor Vitali, threw themselves into the fight against Russian forces. The brothers took up arms to repel a Russian convoy approaching the capital in March, after declaring they were 'ready to die' to defend their homeland. Wladimir has also called for Russia to be isolated from all sporting competition, warning that Ukrainian women and children are 'dying at the hands of the country's aggression'. He called for governing bodies to follow in the footsteps of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), after the authority recommended banning Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from international competitions. As one of Australia's most successful social media influencers, it's no surprise she is is sent dozens of free beauty products. But pregnant Married at First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis revealed her outrageous haul of skincare and makeup freebies on Friday as she and her fiance Michael Brunelli moved house. Around 12 large clear storage boxes could be seen in the back of the couple's moving truck, filled to the brim with products. Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis revealed her outrageous haul of skincare and makeup freebies on Friday as she and her fiance Michael Brunelli moved house Michael shared a photo of the haul to his Instagram page, along with the caption: 'So 90% of our stuff is Martha's skincare...' Michael, 31, edited the image to include Martha's name over the top of every box containing her toiletries. Michael shared a photo of the haul to his Instagram page, along with the caption: 'So 90% of our stuff is Martha's skincare...' Of the 31 boxes seen in the picture, 20 belonged to his bride to be. The couple, who first met and fell in love on Married At First Sight, are currently moving all their belongings left behind in their Sydney house down to their home in Melbourne. It comes just a few days after Martha was rushed to hospital following a health scare. The couple, who first met and fell in love on Married At First Sight, are currently moving all their belongings left behind in their Sydney house down to their home in Melbourne She became alarmed on Wednesday after her baby stopped moving for a day and headed to emergency in Sydney as a precaution. Michael took to Instagram during the evening to allay her follower's fears, and explain the situation. 'This morning was a little stressful... Martha hadn't felt the baby move for a day, when it's been super active, so we decided to be safe and get it checked,' he explained. It comes just a few days after Martha was rushed to hospital following a health scare. She became alarmed on Wednesday after her baby stopped moving for a day and headed to emergency in Sydney as a precaution Alongside the post, Michael shared a photo of Martha wearing a red bathrobe and white pants on a hospital bed in emergency. The reality star wore a face mask and was seen tapping on her phone. Michael then shared a selfie with Martha at home, who was laying in bed playing with her iPhone. Casey Affleck looked dapper as he attended the amfAR Gala with his busty girlfriend Caylee Cowanheld at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles on Thursday night. The 47-year-old actor posed with his 24-year-old actress girlfriend at the annual gala where they packed on the PDA and enjoyed a smooch, before leaving together. The actor first met Cowan in January 2021 and started dating at some point later that year and they certainly seemed to be quite the happy couple on the red carpet. Together: Casey Affleck looked dapper as he attended the amfAR Gala with his busty girlfriend Caylee Cowanheld at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles on Thursday night Affleck stepped out with a black t-shirt under a black button-down cardigan sweater for the event. He had the early makings of a scruffy beard with matching black pants as he posed on the red carpet. The Gone Baby Gone star completed his look with a pair of white Cariuma sneakers for the annual event. Love: The 47-year-old actor posed with his 24-year-old actress girlfriend at the annual gala where they packed on the PDA and enjoyed a smooch, before leaving together Casey's look: Affleck stepped out with a black t-shirt under a black button-down cardigan sweater for the event Style: Cowan hit the red carpet in a stunning orange minidress that fell just above her knees with a matching belt Cowan hit the red carpet in a stunning orange minidress that fell just above her knees with a matching belt. The actress accessorized with silver earrings as she posed with her boyfriend of nearly two years. She completed her look for the annual charitable event with a pair of black pumps. Caylee's look: Casey and Caylee were just a few of the celebs in attendance for the 12 Annual amfAR gala Casey and Caylee were just a few of the celebs in attendance for the 12 Annual amfAR gala. The star-studded is a fundraiser for amfARs HIV/AIDS research programs, with last year's bash raising $1.7 million. This year's event honored Kelly Rowland with the amfAR Award of Courage and Paramount CEO Brian Robbins with the amfAR Philanthropic Leadership Award. Manly: He had the early makings of a scruffy beard with matching black pants as he posed on the red carpet before heading home Chilled: The Gone Baby Gone star completed his look with a pair of white Cariuma sneakers for the annual event The look: The actress accessorized with silver earrings as she posed with her boyfriend of nearly two years Affleck will next be seen in Dreamin' Wild with Zooey Deschanel, Walton Goggins and Beau Bridges, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September but doesn't have a theatrical release in place yet. He also stars in Christopher Nolan's new film Oppenheimer, slated for release on July 21, 2023. Cowan will next be seen in the upcoming films Spinning Gold and Holiday Twist, and she's filming Running To Stand Still, which will also be her directorial debut. Scout Willis was among the star-studded list of celebrities who attended the twelfth annual amfAR Gala at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The international non-profit organization is dedicated to the support of AIDS research HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of AIDS-related public policy. The musician and actress, 31, is the middle child of former Hollywood power couple Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, who have remained friends even after parting ways in 1998 and divorcing in 2000 after about 11 years of marriage. Striking: Scout Willis, 31, lend her support for the amfAR Gala at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on Thursday Willis, 31, showed off her fit figure in a striking red gown with an off-the-shoulder design. She kept the accessorizes to a minimum, opting to go with just a pair of earrings, assortment of rings and bracelet. Rounding out her overall look, Willis had her dark brown tresses styled long and flowing all the way down to her waistline with a part in the middle. legant: The musician and actress showed off her fit figure in a striking red gown with an off-the-shoulder design Show of support: Willis has been a supporter of the the amfAR organization At one point, Willis was joined on the red carpet portion of the evening by artist Paris Reid, who's best recognized for her portraiture, according to her bio on her website. The painter, described as someone who uses their work to 'explore the humility behind status and societal decoration', showcased her midriff in a golden dress and matching top. She had her blonde tresses styled with a healthy amount of natural curls and a slight part on the right. Ladies time: Artist Paris Reid joined Willis furing the red carpet portion of the amfAR Gala Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center During the ceremony former Destiny's Child star Kelly Rowland received the amfAR Courage Award, while the amfAR Philanthropic Leadership award went to Brian Robbins and Ryan Murphy, according to the non-profit's website. The gala, which aims to secure funds to be used to find a cure for HIV/AIDS also included performances by Aloe Blacc, Madison Beer and Tinashe. Last years event helped to raise over $1.7 million for amfARs HIV/AIDS research programs, Founded in the 1980s, amfAR as a whole has provided over 3,300 grants to research teams across the world and has invested over $400 million to research aiming to effectively treat HIV and AIDS related illness. Strike a pose: The daughter of Hollywood legends Bruce Willis and Demo Moore also struck a few poses in a video she posted on her Instagram page Priyanka Chopra put on a busty display as she exited her luxury accommodations in Mumbai, India on Thursday night. The Quantico actress, 40, strutted out the front doors of the Taj Lands End Bandra hotel in a blue suede bra top and matching blazer. Priyanka, who arrived in the country earlier this week, completed the bold blue getup with a pair of high-waisted trousers. Bombshell: Priyanka Chopra put on a busty display as she exited her luxury accommodations in Mumbai, India on Thursday night She added height to her 5foot5inch frame by slipping her feet into a pair of trendy silver platform heels. She was styled by renown celebrity stylist Maeve Reilly. Priyanka's head of gorgeous curly, brunette hair was worn down and she opted for a soft glam makeup look for her evening out. The wife of Nick Jonas painted her plump pout a glossy berry shade and lined her eyes with a black eyeliner pencil. Wow! The Quantico actress, 40, strutted out the front doors of the Taj Lands End Bandra hotel in a blue suede bra top and matching blazer Before get into a nearby vehicle, the Indian-born stunner offered a sultry smirk in the direction of shutterbugs. She attended an event for Anomaly Haircare, which she first launched in the United States last year. But now Priyanka has brought her 'clean' and 'sustainable' brand to her home country of India. It started being sold exclusively at Nykaa stores in August. 'It's only fitting that Anomaly is coming home to India, where the seed for this idea was born so many years ago with the traditions of a strong haircare routine that was instilled in me,' penned the star in an Instagram post shared on August 17. Styled: She was styled by renown celebrity stylist Maeve Reilly 'We've combined that understanding with our clean, superior formulas that will give you your best hair yet.' On Thursday, Priyanka invited the top 20 Anomaly Haircare customers to attend an exclusive event where she spoke about the brand. 'So happy to have been in a room full of Anomaly Haircare enthusiasts,' captioned the beauty, who shared a clip from the event with her 83.2million Instagram followers. Anomaly Haircare: She attended an event for Anomaly Haircare, which she first launched in the United States last year Big fans: Priyanka invited the top 20 Anomaly Haircare customers, as well as members of the Nykaa team, to attend an exclusive event where she spoke about the brand The trip to Mumbai marks the star's first time in India in three years. Taking to social media after her arrival, she mentioned feeling jet lagged while watching TV from the comfort of a hotel room. In order to make the trip, she had to briefly leave behind her 30-year-old husband Nick Jonas and their newborn baby girl Malti. Launch: But now Priyanka has launched her 'clean' and 'sustainable' brand in her home country of India. It started being sold exclusively at Nykaa stores in August Family: She had to briefly leave behind her 30-year-old husband Nick Jonas and their newborn baby girl Malti; the couple seen in September Malti was welcomed via surrogate earlier this year. She was born 12 weeks early, as revealed by DailyMail.com, and had to spend 100 plus days in the NICU The new parents announced in June they were finally able to bring their daughter home. Priyanka and Nick have chosen to protect Malti's identity, often relying on emojis to conceal her face in social media snaps. The couple tied the knot in multiple extravagant wedding ceremonies back in 2018. amfAR chair Jenna Dewan and her longtime fiance Steve Kazee glammed up to attend 12th annual LA gala at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on Thursday. The Connecticut-born 41-year-old left little to the imagination - flashing her panties in a black-sheer plunging Georges Chakra gown and Jacob & Co. jewelry selected by stylist Brad Goreski. Hairstylist Cherilyn Farris coiffed Jenna's sideswept raven mane, make-up artist Tonya Brewer applied her artisy cat eyeliner, and nail artist Zola Ganzorigt painted her vampy manicure. Date night! amfAR chair Jenna Dewan and her longtime fiance Steve Kazee glammed up to attend 12th annual LA gala at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on Thursday Dewan lovingly gazed up at the 47-year-old Grammy winner, clad in a classic black suit, who popped the question to her way back on February 18, 2020. The Let's Get Physical producer-star - who boasts 12.7M social media followers - gushed via Instastory: 'Going out tonight with this hot date!' Jenna originally met Steve in 2012 while backstage at Manhattan's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre where he was performing his hit Broadway musical, Once. But the couple didn't begin dating until March 2018 - seven months before Dewan filed for divorce from her Step Up love interest Channing Tatum. Flashing her panties! The Connecticut-born 41-year-old left little to the imagination in a black-sheer plunging Georges Chakra gown and Jacob & Co. jewelry selected by stylist Brad Goreski Ready for her close-up! Hairstylist Cherilyn Farris coiffed Jenna's sideswept raven mane, make-up artist Tonya Brewer applied her artisy cat eyeliner, and nail artist Zola Ganzorigt painted her vampy manicure Wedding plans? Dewan lovingly gazed up at the 47-year-old Grammy winner, clad in a classic black suit, who popped the question to her way back on February 18, 2020 The Let's Get Physical producer-star - who boasts 12.7M social media followers - gushed via Instastory: 'Going out tonight with this hot date!' Decade in the making: Jenna originally met Steve in 2012 while backstage at Manhattan's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre where he was performing his hit Broadway musical, Once Still going strong! But the couple didn't begin dating until March 2018 - seven months before Dewan filed for divorce from her Step Up love interest Channing Tatum On Monday, Kazee and the Peabody-winning producer dressed up as pinatas to go trick or treating with their two-year-old son Callum and her nine-year-old daughter Everly Tatum. Everly was dressed as Sophie from Keeper of the Lost Cities while Callum was dressed as Spider-Man for the spooky festivities. Jenna currently stars as LAPD officer John Nolan's (Nathan Fillion) firefighter girlfriend Bailey Nune in the fifth season of The Rookie, which airs Sundays on ABC. And the Kentucky-born thespian plays Gideon James in fellow Tony winner Joanna Gleason's feature directorial debut The Grotto, which is currently making the rounds on the festival circuit. Halloween family portrait: On Monday, Kazee and the Peabody-winning producer dressed up as pinatas to go trick or treating with their two-year-old son Callum and her nine-year-old daughter Everly Tatum 'The Reckoning': Jenna currently stars as LAPD officer John Nolan's (Nathan Fillion) firefighter girlfriend Bailey Nune in the fifth season of The Rookie, which airs Sundays on ABC Kate Langbroek has revealed that she never thought her son would reach adulthood after being diagnosed with leukaemia as a child. The comedian, 57, said that 'every birthday is very special' after her son Lewis, now 19, beat cancer in 2013, three and a half years after being diagnosed. 'Because Lewis had leukaemia when he was younger, I never thought I would see him at 17,' she told Nine Honey. Kate Langbroek (pictured) has revealed she never thought her son would reach adulthood after being diagnosed with leukaemia as a child 'I always believed that I would, but knew that I might not. 'So every birthday is just majestic'. Lewis was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just six years old and still has regular check-ups at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne after undergoing years of treatment. The comedian, 57, said that 'every birthday is very special' after her son Lewis, now 19, (pictured) beat cancer in 2013, three and a half years after being diagnosed Lewis was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just six years old and still has regular check-ups at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne after undergoing years of treatment. He is pictured with his family Speaking on The 3pm Pick-Up in June, Kate recounted a conversation she had last year with a nurse who at one stage during Lewis' treatment was worried he 'might not make it'. The nurse approached Kate and Lewis in the hospital cafe, having recognised the teenager from a previous visit to the hospital when he was 'really sick'. The KIIS FM host recalled the woman saying: 'I looked after you when you were little and you were really sick. We never wanted to tell you this at the time, but we were so worried about you. We worried you might not make it.' The nurse approached Kate and Lewis in the hospital cafe, having recognised the teenager from a previous visit to the hospital when he was 'really sick' Kate continued: '[The nurse] had tears in her eyes. I had tears in my eyes. And Lewis is standing there just like a big doofus.' The star also said on The 3pm Pick-Up that Lewis received some good news from his doctors during his June check-up. She revealed the doctor had told them: 'This is the last time we'll be seeing you at this hospital, because Lewis is transitioning to an adult hospital.' The KIIS FM host recalled the nurse saying, 'I looked after you when you were little and you were really sick. We never wanted to tell you this at the time, but we were so worried about you' She continued: 'I thought, "Oh my goodness, there were so many times where we thought this day may not come." 'You're confronted with what the course of his illness looked like, and there were times when we thought, "I dont see how we can make it through this."' She concluded: 'And there we were being dismissed by the beautiful doctors and being sent on our way!' Kate spoke about her son's cancer battle on The Project last year during a discussion about a three-year-old boy from Melbourne who had stage 4 neuroblastoma. Kate spoke about her son's cancer battle on The Project last year during a discussion about a three-year-old boy from Melbourne who had stage 4 neuroblastoma. (Left: Carrie Bickmore) Co-host Carrie Bickmore reached for Kate's hand during the exchange, both women clinging to one another and fighting back tears. 'Childhood cancers are particularly difficult. My son was diagnosed with [leukaemia] - you remember, Carrie - and I remember when we were first in hospital, and I saw the other little bald children, all I saw was the baldness,' Kate said. 'And then after we had spent time there and my own son was bald, I learnt to see the child and once you see the child, you will do anything to help the child. It's very powerful.' Chinese President Xi Jinping urged for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in a Friday meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He also cautioned against the deployment of nuclear weapons in the ongoing war. Critics have pointed to China's tacit support for Russia, ongoing conflicts over economic connections, and human rights issues as reasons to discount the German leader's one-day visit to the Chinese capital. It follows a massive Communist Party congress last month, where Xi further solidified his autocratic control, according to The Washington Post. Scholz's visit highlights Germany's car and manufacturing trade connections with China, the world's second-largest economy. Chinese news organization CCTV cited Xi as saying the world situation is "complex and changeable." The world would benefit from greater contributions to peace and development from both China and Germany, two nations that are influential enough to work together in times of transition and chaos. To address the situation in Ukraine, Xi "pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing a significant role in advancing peace talks and promoting the establishment of a reasonable, efficient, and stable European security policy," as reported by CCTV. Xi Jinping has called for a concerted international opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and the creation of conditions for the restart of discussions. Russian President Vladimir Putin restated Moscow's unfounded claim that Ukraine is organizing a false-flag strike with a toxic dirty bomb to blame on Russia. Peace Talks Must Resume ASAP AP News reports, regarding the Ukraine war, Xi pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and promoting a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework. Xi stated the international community should "urge on all sides to display "rationality and restraint," make close communication "as soon as possible" and establish grounds for the restart of dialogue. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeated Moscow's unfounded claims that Ukraine is planning a false-flag strike with a radioactive dirty bomb that it would try to place on Russia, but he has shown no proof to support this claim. China has consistently voiced resistance to what it regards as unlawful sanctions on Russia, refusing to either denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The growing conflict in Ukraine has made it awkward for China to maintain its relationship with Russia, which was enhanced when President Vladimir Putin attended the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing on the same day that the two nations announced a strategic cooperation with "no limits." Read Also: North Korea Continues Weapons Tests, Fires Intercontinental Ballistic Missile That 'Disappeared' Building Stronger Ties Past COVID-19 Pandemic Olaf Scholz is the first G7 leader to meet with Xi since the COVID-19 pandemic began in China in 2019 and the first European leader to visit China since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Germany fiercely criticized. The diplomatically fraught trip comes as Germany and the EU formulate a strategy for an increasingly assertive and authoritarian Beijing. Beijing's repeated calls for peace talks and its refusal to back measures at the UN condemning Russia's invasion have provided Moscow with diplomatic cover. In addition, China has harshly attacked the United States and NATO for imposing economic penalties on Russia and has accused them of instigating the attack. On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reportedly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend an agreement permitting the safe passage of grain shipments from Ukraine to avert a famine catastrophe, as reported by France 24. "I urge the Russian president not to refuse to extend the grain agreement, which ends in a few days," he told reporters on a visit to Beijing. The use of hunger as a threat or weapon is unacceptable," the German leader Olaf Scholz remarked. Scholz has been criticized for visiting China so soon after Xi's win at last month's congress, where he was elected to a third five-year term and packed the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists who embrace his agenda of strict restrictions over society and the economy and a more hostile stance to the West. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is joined on the tour by the CEOs of several successful German companies operating in China. These include Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Bayer, and Deutsche Bank, to name a few. During his time in Beijing, Scholz will also meet with company representatives. Related Article: Bank of England Warns of Historic Recession But Still Imposes Largest Rate Increase in 33 Years @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Robert Irwin has been slammed by fans who mistakenly thought he dressed up as Jeffrey Dahmer for Halloween. The 18-year-old wildlife warrior shared photos to Instagram and TikTok of him dressed up as Dwight Schrute, a character from noughties sitcom The Office, who like the serial killer has blonde hair and wears similar thick-rimmed glasses. Bindi, 24, and Chandler, 25, went as Jim and Pam from one of the show's Halloween episodes, while Grace, 19 months, donned a 'World's Best Boss' T-shirt as Michael Scott. Robert Irwin (left) has been slammed by fans who mistakenly thought he dressed up as Jeffrey Dahmer (right) for Halloween He captioned the image: 'Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.#HappyHalloween from Dunder Mifflin's Australia Zoo Branch!' he captioned the image and video, in reference to the show. However, the reference went over many of his fans heads who instead questioned if he was dressed as Jeffrey Dahmer - who recently came back into the zeitgeist due to Netflix's hugely successful true crime series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. 'Tell me he's not dressed as Jeffrey Dahmer on Halloween. Cause if he is then byeeee,' sad one. Fans questioned if he was dressed as Jeffrey Dahmer - who recently came back into the zeitgeist due to Netflix's hugely successful true crime series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story starring Evan Peters (pictured) The 18-year-old wildlife warrior shared photos to Instagram and TikTok of him dressed up as Dwight Schrute, a character from noughties sitcom The Office (pictured), who like the serial killer has blonde hair and wears similar thick-rimmed glasses 'Jeffrey Dahmer?' asked another viewer. 'Jesus dude I got Dahmer vibes at first,' commented a third. However, hundreds of fans put the few questioning him right, with one commenting: 'Guys he's clearly dressed as Dwight from the office and not Dahmer, have you guys not heard these lines before?' He captioned the image: 'Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.#HappyHalloween from Dunder Mifflin's Australia Zoo Branch!' he captioned the image and video, in reference to the show. The Irwin family are pictured Robert's sister Bindi, 24, and her husband Chandler, 25, went as Jim and Pam from one of the show's Halloween episodes, while their daughter Grace, 19 months, donned a 'World's Best Boss' T-shirt as Michael Scott 'There's no way y'all see a blonde guy with glasses and immediately think of Dahmer,' said another. 'How could ANYONE think that this sweet baby angel of a human being could ever dress up as Dahmer?! Good god,' added a third. Dahmer was convicted of 16 murders in 1992, and sentenced to 16 life sentences in prison. There was confusion from fans on the star's TikTok page Dahmer was convicted of 16 murders in 1992, and sentenced to 16 life sentences in prison He was bludgeoned to death with a metal bar in November of 1994 by Christopher Scarver, another inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. The gruesome story of Dahmer has past been chronicled in the 2002 movie Dahmer, in which Jeremy Renner played the titular role; as well as 2017's My Friend Dahmer, in which Ross Lynch played a teen version of the nascent serial killer. Most recently, Ryan Murphy wrote a ten-part series retells the story of Dahmer from the perspective of his victims, and explores major mistakes Wisconsin police made in handling the probe of the notorious mass murderer, who made national headlines for acts of cannibalism and necrophilia. It became one of the most watched Netflix series in history. Shelly Horton has revealed that a clash with a rude Uber driver left her in tears. The television star, 49, was running late to a meeting when the driver got into an argument with a parking attendant over a $9 fee. 'I really needed to get moving and the stand-off that was happening between these two men was ridiculous, so I offered to pay the $9 bill' she wrote in her column for Nine Honey. Shelly Horton (pictured) has revealed that a clash with a rude Uber driver left her in tears. The television star, 49, was running late to a meeting when the driver got into an argument with a parking attendant over a $9 fee 'To which I was met with, "I'm not a rich c**t like you", and he threatened to throw me out of the Uber.' Shelly said that she was left embarrassed and began to cry over the interaction. 'Mortified and stressed to the max, I sat in the back seat and spiralled into a puddle of tears. I sobbed to the driver to please take me to my hotel' she said. Shelly said that she was left embarrassed and began to cry over the interaction It's unclear if Shelly contacted Uber to complain about the negative experience with the driver. It comes after the TV star revealed how entering menopause left her depressed, anxious and struggling to work. She says she began perimenopause in her mid forties and it had a devastating impact on her life. 'Perimenopause hit me severely at age 46 and brought on depression and anxiety that destroyed my work ethic,' the Talking Married star told Body+Soul Magazine. It comes after the TV star revealed how entering menopause left her depressed, anxious and struggling to work 'Luckily, I got information and saw a doctor, so I have most of my symptoms under control' she added. Shelly says that she did not feel supported by other women and didn't have as much information about perimenopause as she needed. 'I feel like the sisterhood before me let me down with their silence' she said. Perimenopause means 'around menopause' and refers to the period before menopause sets in. Symptoms include hot flushes, anxiety, depression and very heavy menstrual periods that cause 'flooding'. During perimenopause - the few years before a woman's period stops for good - there are a lot of hormonal changes which are responsible for the brutal symptoms. Shelly's husband Darren Robinson convinced her to see a doctor and she was put on anti-depressants and HRT medication. For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Lizzie Cundy put on a very sexy display on Friday morning as she arrived at the Silverstone racetrack. The TV personality, 54, looked busty in a plunging tight black catsuit as she took to the track. Lizzie styled out her look with blacked out sunglasses and matching high heel shoes as she carried a colour coordinated crash helmet by her side. Turning it up a gear! Lizzie Cundy looked effortlessly chic in plunging pleather tight catsuit as she attended a Silverstone race day in Northamptonshire on Friday The television presenter took to the famous race circuit as part of the Porsche GT-3 cup hot laps race day. Lizzie, known for her racy social media posts, required a quick costume change as she swapped her black leather ensemble for a white racing overall. The mother-of-two partnered racer Nathan Harrison as he spun Lizzie round the track at speeds up to 260khm down the spine-tingling straights. Costume change: Lizzie swapped her black leather ensemble for a white racing overall as racer Nathan Harris spun her round the track at speeds up to 260khm 26-year-old Nathan is a British Karting Champion as well as a two-time Mini Challenge Champion. The Porshe driver who competes in the Carrea Cup rose to prominence when he was ranked as high as sixth in the world in the Rotax Max standings. Nathan is a team member of Redline Racing who have dominated the Carrea Cup - winning the event 11 times since 2004. Off to the races: Lizzie and Nathan in deep conversation on Friday morning at Silverstone Progress: Seven years after injury Nathan aims to give others an experience of a lifetime at the Silverstone races Lizzie's Silverstone appearance comes two days after she attended the UK premiere of The Last Heist in lavish Leicester Square. Earlier the same day Lizzie had celebrated in aid of National Farmer's Day. The television personality said: 'Happy National Farmers Day! Celebrating our farmers today and heres to producing our own food! Ive got the best fertiliser by the way!' Wild: Lizzie emerges from the car with a smile on her face and windswept hair as she got into the spirit of the day Dolph Lundgren celebrated his 65th birthday with his gorgeous fiancee Emma Krokdal at the Catch Steak in West Hollywood on Thursday evening. The Rocky IV actor, continued to walk on crutches as he arrived at the swanky eatery, following ankle surgery on an 'old military injury'. Meanwhile Personal trainer Emma, 25, sent temperatures soaring in a pair of black PVC trousers with clung to her incredible figure. Milestone: Dolph Lundgren celebrated his 65th birthday with his gorgeous fiancee Emma Krokdal, 25, at the Catch Steak in West Hollywood on Thursday evening She completed the look with a plunging hot pink blouse which boasted shoulder pads and distressed detailing. Opting for a glamorous palette of make-up she let he brunette tresses cascade down past her shoulders. The stunner, who's dated the actor since 2019, added extra height to her already svelte frame with a pair of towering heels and carried her essentials in a designer clutch. Injury: The Rocky IV actor, continued to walk on crutches as he arrived at the swanky eatery, following ankle surgery on an 'old military injury' Wowza: The bottoms clung to every inch of her fantastic figure Meanwhile the birthday boy cut a suave figure for the occasion in a cream blazer which he layered over a black polar neck sweater. He completed the look with a pair of Palm Angel tracksuit bottoms with one trainer and his left foot in a cast. Emma later took to social media to share snaps of the celebrations as the actor blew out his candles on a large and lavishly decorated cake. Suave: Meanwhile the birthday boy cut a suave figure for the occasion in a cream blazer which he layered over a black polar neck sweater Stunner: She completed the look with a plunging hot pink blouse which boasted shoulder pads and distressed detailing Make a wish: Emma later took to social media to share snaps of the celebrations as the actor blew out his candles on a large and lavishly decorated cake She also shared throwback snaps of their relationship as well as their cat Bello gifting the Hollywood star a pair of socks. Dolph revealed he was having ankle surgery back in August after first injuring his foot in the military. He explained on Instagram: 'Finally doing surgery on my left ankle. Ive had this injury since my time in the military. Perfection: Opting for a glamorous palette of make-up she let he brunette tresses cascade down past her shoulders Hobbling: He completed the look with a pair of Palm Angel tracksuit bottoms with one trainer and his left foot in a cast Celebrations: She also shared throwback snaps to mark the milestone 'During 40 years of martial arts and doing action films, its been a fight every day. The joint is now basically destroyed. 'Directing and starring in Wanted Man really did it inCant wait to be able to walk normally again. Will keep you posted.' Last month the star shared a video to his Instagram in a hospital gown, face mask and white cast as he hopped around the hospital corridor post surgery. Dolph announced his engagement to Emma in an Instagram post on June 29, 2020. Party time: She presented the Swedish star with cup cakes decorated with his name Gifts: Their cat Bello gifted the Hollywood star a pair of socks They began dating in 2019 and went public with their relationship in January 2020 at the Cana Dorada Film & Music Festival in the Dominican Republic. 'I feel very lucky that I have someone like Emma at this age. It's changed my life and I hope I can give her the kind of help and support that takes a lot of time to discover and amass,' he told Muscle and Health about his relationship last year. While his personal life seems to be going well, the star was recently engaged in a public feud with his former co-star Sylvester Stallone. Ant McPartlin debuted a brand new tattoo on his arm this week as he returned to the Australian jungle to kick off filming for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. His massive new black and white ink sits on his inner right forearm and is of the iconic Imagine mosaic, named after the song by John Lennon. The tribute evokes a vision and hope for a world without strife, war and conflict - and adds to his collection of remaining arm inks. New addition: Ant McPartlin has debuted a massive new John Lennon tribute tattoo on his arm as he kicked off his I'm A Celeb presenting duties this week Inked: His massive new black and white ink sits on his inner right forearm and is of the iconic Imagine mosaic, named after the song by John Lennon The mosaic, which is a popular tattoo, originally sits in the Strawberry Fields area of New York's central park, which is is a 2.5 acre area of park that pays tribute to the late Beatle John. He's currently filming for the exhilarating launch of I'm A Celeb alongside co-presenter Declan Donnelly, and displayed the new ink while filming. Donning a dogtooth patterned shirt with short sleeves, Ant clearly displayed the new tat - which features a spiral mosaic circle with the word 'Imagine' on the inside. It's not the first time he has used the Down Under show to debut new inks, unveiling two other tattoos during the 2019 season of the show. Mosaic: The mosaic, which is a popular tattoo, originally sits in the Strawberry Fields area of New York's central park, which is is a 2.5 acre area of park that pays tribute to the late Beatle John First seen: The first sighting of the tattoo goes to September , where it can be seen on Ant and Dec's Instagram page in a video He displayed an arrow tattoo on his right outer forearm and a rose on his left at the time, with his collection now having expanded. The first sighting of the tattoo goes to September 25, where it can be seen on Ant's arm in a video celebrating Dec's birthday, with his inner forearm clear before this. And some eagle eyed fans even noticed the ink, taking to the Instagram comment section to question whether it was new. Paying tribute to the late Beatle John Lennon, Imagine is the best-selling single of his solo career, the lyrics encourage listeners to imagine a world of peace, without materialism, without borders separating nations and without religion. New look: It's not the first time he has used the Down Under show to debut new inks, unveiling two other tattoos on his forearms during the 2019 season of the show AA: Ant, who has previously battled with depression, alcohol and substance abuse - also has the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol inked on his left wrist Confusion: And some eagle eyed fans even noticed the ink, taking to the Instagram comment section to question whether it was new Ant, who has previously battled with depression, alcohol and substance abuse - also has the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol inked on his left wrist. He first displayed the tattoo in 2018 - involving a triangle encased by a circle mirrors the logo of the famous organisation, which has been working to help its members achieve sobriety since 1935. The triangle represents the three sides of the disease - physical, mental and spiritual - as well as its three cures, in the form of unity, recovery and service. And adding to the collection is a heartfelt chest tattoo tribute to his wife Anne-Marie Corbett - featuring a heart with a circle and the letter 'A'. Ant and Dec arrived to Australia in style this week to greet their 10 celebrity campmates who will be tasked with a record 24 gruelling trials in the jungle. Getting ready to say hello to the campmates, the pair posted a snap to Instagram in the style of app BeReal. Work mode Ant and Dec arrived to Australia in style this week to greet their 10 celebrity campmates who will be tasked with a record 24 gruelling trials in the jungle Here they come! Getting ready to say hello to the campmates, the pair posted a snap to Instagram in the style of app BeReal The picture showed them beaming in the corner in a small frame, as the rest of the snap was from the back camera perspective - displaying a boat sailing towards the celebs. The show has returned to it's original jungle location after two years in Wales due to Covid-19 , with the duo gearing up for the big launch. And in new snaps of the first episode, the Geordie duo appeared in high spirits as they waved to stars such as Olivia Attwood, Jill Scott and Chris Moyles from a small wooden speed boat. She never puts a foot wrong when it comes to fashion. And Maura Higgins stunned in a figure-hugging black midi dress as she attended the star-studded Lipsy party in London on Thursday night. The former Love Island star, 31, showcased her incredible physique in the chic number which featured lace detailing on the plunging neckline. Style: Maura Higgins stunned in a figure-hugging black midi dress as she attended the star-studded Lipsy party in London on Thursday night She teamed the look with a black faux fur jacket and black high heels to boost her height while accessorising with a glitzy black bag. The brunette beauty pulled her dark locks back and off her face and showed off a golden tan with a radiant makeup look. She looked in great spirits as she left the venue beaming away while holding hands with fellow Love Island alum Paige Thorne. Confident: The former Love Island star, 31, showcased her incredible physique in the chic number which featured lace detailing on the plunging neckline Outfit: She teamed the look with a black faux fur jacket and black high heels to boost her height while accessorising with a glitzy black bag It comes after Maura revealed she nearly died from toxic shock syndrome (TSS) after a tampon was stuck inside her for three months. TSS is often associated with tampon use in young women, but it can affect anyone of any age including men and children - and can be fatal if not treated promptly. Appearing on Shopping with Keith Lemon, she detailed her 'very bad experience' in a bid to warn others of the risks. She said: 'I did have a very bad experience. I'm not a doctor, I don't know much about that [TSS], but I know you are not meant to leave a tampon inside for more than, I think it's nine hours, I think that's the max. Posing up a storm: Inside the event Maura made sure all eyes were on her as she worked her best angles Glowing: The brunette beauty pulled her dark locks back and off her face and showed off a golden tan with a radiant makeup look Happy days: Maura couldn't stop beaming as she stepped out after the star-studded party in London Gals: She looked in great spirits as she left the venue beaming away while holding hands with fellow Love Island alum Paige Thorne 'There was a tampon inside me for three months. When the doctor found it, it was stuck to my cervix. And I was so ill. I did not know what was going on... 'There were people that have died from that happening. 'Young girls might not have noticed, like you go on a night out, what if you got really drunk and forgot, like, these things actually do happen, and people don't speak about it. 'I remember even being in school, I used to get my tampon out the bag, push it up my sleeve and then go to the toilet like that... thinking back, why was I doing that? It's nothing to be ashamed about, that's why I think it's an important topic isn't it?' Glamorous ladies: Maura was joined by fellow Love Island star Faye Winter as she left in a taxi after the night Physique: Paige showed off her sense of style in a black midi dress with silver detailing on it Faye Brookes put on a glam display in a PVC strapless mini dress when she attended Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause's Lipsy collaboration party on Thursday. The former Coronation Street actress, 35, looked stunning in the number as she posed for pictures at Il Borro Tuscan Bistro in London. The soap star, best known for playing Kate Connor, accompanied her dress with bright red lipstick as she arrived at the venue. Hell for leather: Faye Brookes put on a glam display in a PVC strapless dressed as she spruces up for Chrishell Stause's Lipsy partywear launch at Il Borro restaurant in London on Thursday Chrishell, 41, celebrated her brand-new launch with Lipsy London that features chic dresses, blazers and shirts sold at affordable prices. Faye's appearance on Thursday comes one week after she attended Paige Thorne's Forever Unique launch. The lavish launch party was Faye's first public appearance since reports emerged that the actress was dating her former Legally Blonde co-star Iwan Lewis. Strike a pose: The former Coronation Street star accompanied her dress with bright red lipstick The lady rose: Faye garnered the attention of a street seller on Thursday night who appeared to offer her a rose Don't catch a cold! Faye covered her dress in a long dark trench coat as she walked to the bash Faye attended the party solo following on from enjoying a night out with Iwan last week in Manchester. In August Faye announced that she had split from her personal trainer boyfriend Joe Davis. Following the split Faye took to social media to share that 'We had the most wonderful times.' Hot to trot: Chrishell put on a busty display in a glittering sequined dress as she arrived at her party Party time: Chrishell took over the DJ decks from Lilah Parsons at the bash On route to Thursday night's launch party Faye covered her dress with a long dark trench coat as she battled drop in temperature. Faye's dark attire is reminiscent of Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago. The star of stage and screen has been portraying the character in a nationwide theatrical tour this year. Danny Dyer revealed in January he would be leaving EastEnders after a decade. And now the actor, 45 has confirmed that he will play the lead in 'powerful and dark' Channel 5 action thriller Heat, which begins filming in Victoria, Australia this month. As well as the four-part action thriller, Danny has signed up to host a travel show for E4 with his Love Island star daughter Dani Dyer, and a gameshow with Strictly's Ellie Taylor for Netflix titled Cheat. Exciting! Danny Dyer, 45 has confirmed that he will play the lead in 'powerful and dark' Channel 5 action thriller Heat, which begins filming in Victoria, Australia this month Danny told The Sun of Heat: 'I can't wait to get amongst this beautiful piece of work in Australia. I've always been intrigued about working there. 'It's my first gig since EastEnders. Heat has a powerful, dark script and strong Australian cast and crew. Let's have it!' Greg Barnett, Commissioning Editor for Channel 5 and Paramount+ told the publication: 'Heat is a nailbiting thriller and I can't wait to see him [Danny] bring his talent and energy to it'. MailOnline has contacted Danny Dyer's representatives for comment. Soap star: The actor revealed in January he would be leaving EastEnders after a decade Heat sees two families who are long-time friends visit a secluded home for a summer holiday during Australia's bushfire season. Danny - who has played Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders for a decade - will in good company as he joins a cast including Neighbours alumni Olympia Valance and Richie Morris. In addition, Christmas On The Farm actor and Australian actress Jane Allsop will star in the action thriller. Busy busy: As well as the four-part action thriller, Danny has signed up to host a travel show for E4 with his Love Island star daughter Dani Dyer In March, it was revealed that Danny was planning to trot the globe with his reality star daughter Dani, to film television travel shows for E4. A TV insider told The Sun: 'Nobody would have predicted this would have been his first move, even though he did say at the time he was keen to "try some other stuff".' Danny will also join Strictly Come Dancing star Ellie Taylor to co-host a new gameshow on Netflix titled Cheat, which will air in 2023. Ryan Reynolds shared a humorous tweet after learning that Nick Cannon confirmed that he is expecting baby number 11 on Thursday. The news about the 42-year-old was revealed that same day, when Alyssa Scott shared a post to her Instagram account to announce that she was pregnant with his soon-to-arrive child. Nick is also expecting another child, or possibly two, with ex Abby De La Rosa, who teased in June that she could be expecting 'another set of twins' which would bring the TV host's grand total to 12 children. The Deadpool star, 46, went on to retweet an article from People regarding the announcement, and added a comment that read: 'We're gonna need a bigger bottle.' Ryan Reynolds shares a humorous tweet after Nick Cannon announces he will be welcoming baby number 11: 'We're gonna need a bigger bottle' Funny man: Ryan likes to make jokes on social media; he is expecting his fourth child with wife Blake Lively Reynolds and Cannon previously joked about the latter's large family in a promotional video for Aviation Gin, which is owned by the former, that was shared this past July. In the clip, the comedian made a cocktail referred to as a 'Vasectomy,' and he quipped: 'Lord knows I need one.' He also made a sarcastic comment about how the bubbly drink was similar to how he felt 'everyday I wake up after a long full night's sleep.' The 6 Underground actor later grabbed the cocktail after complaining about his three children, and did a spit-take when his friend commented 'I have eight.' Messing around: Reynolds and Cannon previously joked about the latter's large family in a promotional video for Aviation Gin, which is owned by the former, that was shared this past July Expanding the family: The news about the 42-year-old was revealed that same day, when Alyssa Scott shared a post to her Instagram account to announce that she was pregnant with his soon-to-arrive child Scott, 27, shared a trio of images to her Instagram account on Thursday to reveal her pregnancy. In the snaps, the model was joined by Cannon as they spent time together in a bathtub. The comedian placed his hand on and later kissing her growing baby bump in the snaps. She also penned a short message in her post's caption where she referred to her pregnancy as a 'MIRACLE & a BLESSING.' Grateful: She also penned a short message in her post's caption where she referred to her pregnancy as a 'MIRACLE & a BLESSING' Cannon shares his eldest son and daughter Moroccan and Monroe, both aged 11, with his former wife, Mariah Carey. The pair tied the knot in 2008 and remained together for eight more years before they formally divorced. He went on to begin seeing Brittany Bell, and they welcomed a boy named Golden, aged five, in 2017. The former couple subsequently brought a daughter named Powerful, aged one into their lives in 2020. First of many: Cannon shares his eldest son and daughter Moroccan and Monroe, both aged 11, with his former wife, Mariah Carey Cannon and his former partner Abby De La Rosa, welcomed a pair of twin boys named Zion and Zillion, aged one, last June. The comedian and Scott shocked many when they announced the birth of their son Zen the same month. However, the media personality's son tragically passed away due to complications from brain cancer at the age of five months. He later began seeing Bre Tiesi, and their son Legendary, aged four months, arrived this past June. Another set: Cannon and his former partner Abby De La Rosa, welcomed a pair of twin boys named Zion and Zillion, aged one, last June Cannon and LaNisha Cole went on to welcome a baby girl named Onyx, aged one month, this past September. His youngest child Rise, aged one month, arrived the same month, and he shares him with Bell. The comedian spoke about his large family during an interview with Men's Health, where he remarked that he was more involved in the lives of his children than many would expect. Proud father: The comedian spoke about his large family during an interview with Men's Health, where he remarked that he was more involved in the lives of his children than many would expect 'Contrary to popular belief, I'm probably engaged throughout my children's day, more often than the average adult can be,' he said. When asked if he was planning on slowing down with the growth of his family, he expressed that he would rather focus on the well-being of his kids. 'Those are questions that I don't...really even sit around and think about. I'm just walking in my purpose and trying to be the best father and best provider I could possibly be,' he stated. Daniel Craig has admitted he 'hated' the spotlight he was put under after being cast as James Bond in 2006, and still finds fame 'foreign'. The actor, 54, was the Tribute Honoree at the 2022 Montclair Film Festival last week where Stephen Colbert hosted a conversation at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre. According to GVN, Daniel said: 'I used to hate it, but I think that was fame I didn't like. I had to get used to being famous which is still so foreign to me.' Wow! Daniel Craig has admitted he 'hated' the spotlight he was put under after being cast as James Bond in 2006, and still finds fame 'foreign' (pictured in October 2022) 'Everybody f*****g hated me,' Daniel joked of the public reaction to his casting. The Chester-native bade farewell to the role in 2021's No Time To Die, with the likes of Henry Cavill, Rege Jean-Page and Tom Hardy leading favourites to play 007 next. Daniel was recently made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on Tuesday - the same honour held by his iconic big screen character James Bond. The film star received the honour from the Princess Royal in the investiture at Windsor Castle in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film and theatre. Iconic: The Chester-native bade farewell to the role in 2021's No Time To Die (pictured in-character in 2006) The Royal Family's official Twitter account shared a photo of Daniel receiving his honour, alongside the famous Bond movie line: 'We've been expecting you.' Daniel starred in the most recent five Bond movies from 2006 before ending his reign in the 2021 movie No Time To Die. While in character as 007, he made a famous appearance alongside the Queen in a sketch to mark the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Chatting: The actor, 54, (right) was the Tribute Honoree at the 2022 Montclair Film Festival last week where Stephen Colbert (left) hosted a conversation at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre Daniel has also appeared in Knives Out (2019) alongside Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Jamie Lee Curtis, and will make a return in the film's sequel due to premiere at the end of next month. The Order of St Michael and St George is the same gong the famous spy was bestowed in the novels by Ian Fleming. In the book From Russia With Love, a spy chief states that 007 'was decorated with the CMG in 1953, an award usually given only on retirement from the Secret Service'. Daniel is being awarded for his services to film and theatre- with the title usually only reserved for senior diplomats. The Order of St Michael and St George was founded in 1818 by the Prince Regent (later George IV,) following the Napoleonic Wars to recognise service by citizens in Malta and the Ionian Islands. It was later changed to encompass all British citizens living or serving abroad and allow for greater recognition of services to foreign affairs. This is still at the heart of the Order today. Before the release of his final Bond movie last year, Daniel was appointed an honorary Commander by the Royal Navy, another rank held by his character. Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the evacuation of residents from the fighting zone in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine on Friday. On Russia's Day of National Unity, Vladimir Putin told pro-Kremlin supporters that civilians should not have to suffer, as reported by DW. Putin said people who live in Kherson "should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions." Russian Forces Begin Pullout From Kherson The Ukrainian province of Kherson was one of four that Putin unlawfully annexed in September. This was the first time he has publicly admitted that the situation was getting worse in the territory he now claims for Russia. Kherson's Russian-appointed leaders have urged residents to evacuate the west of the city, where Ukrainian forces have made recent gains in the Russia Ukraine war. In a separate statement, Vladimir Putin revealed that Russia had enlisted 318,000 people into the military since the partial mobilization announcement in September. According to the RIA news agency, Putin also signed a law permitting the mobilization of those who have perpetrated heinous crimes. Offenders with a history of child sex abuse, treason, spying, or terrorism are not covered by the law. As Ukrainian forces launch a counteroffensive in the partially seized southern region, Al Jazeera reported that "more than 5,000 civilians" are being evacuated from Kherson daily in the Russia Ukraine war. According to Russia's defense ministry, military engineers daily move "up to 1,200 civilian vehicles, both trucks, and cars, as well as more than 5,000 citizens" to the eastern bank of the Dnipro river. The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of carrying out illegal "mass deportations" of its citizens. After pictures on social media showed that the Russian flag had been taken down from the city's main administrative building, rumors started to spread on Thursday that Russia might be leaving Kherson city. Telegram channel footage, however, showed Russian flags hanging over other government structures. Ukrainians wolcoming the Armed Forces in liberated towns and villages in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson Oblast' pic.twitter.com/aSHoPQP8hn Slava Ukraini (@Heroiam_Slava) November 3, 2022 Read Also: China's Xi Jinping Calls For Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks, Warns on the Use of Nuclear Weapons Russia-Ukraine War May Slow Down in Winter It has been reported by Politico that Ukrainian authorities are treating those stories with some skepticism. According to Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command, this may be a "trick" on Russia's part. "This may be a provocation in order to create the impression that settlements have been abandoned, that it is safe to enter them," she told Ukrainian television. The Ukrainian military official added that there is no reason to "rejoice" yet since the Russians have been planning street fights for a while and the Kyiv forces are aware of the intended tactics of Moscow's troops. Humeniuk warned that any decision to retreat is more about Russians making long-term strategic decisions about where to defend to be effective, retain weapons supplies, and prepare for winter. Russia illegally annexed four parts of Ukraine this month, including Kherson Oblast, via fraudulent referendums. Ukrainians in Kyiv and beyond would feel relieved if Russia withdrew from Kherson. However, it is highly improbable that Ukrainian forces will be able to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula this winter from the unlawfully occupying Russian troops that have been there since 2014. Officials have stated that the upcoming colder weather will likely slow down the Russia Ukraine war, and that the Ukrainians still have to pass the Dnipro and confront a well-fortified Russian defensive line before they can reach Crimea. Related Article: Ukraine Minister Calls Russia 'World's Top Liar' After Inspectors Disprove 'Dirty Bomb' Allegations @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Christie Brinkley looked youthful in a seven-image carousel she shared with her 800k Instagram followers where she discussed climate change on Friday. The 68-year-old model appeared to be in high spirits as she parted her long blonde hair to the side and let her natural complexion shine through with a dash of makeup and lip gloss. The fashion industry icon wore a denim shirt as she stood near a tree on a hill covered in leaves and smiled ear to ear with her arms spread out. Model with a message: Christie Brinkley looked youthful as she discussed climate change in her latest Instagram post In the lengthy caption she wrote: 'I have always found joy, comfort, inspiration, perspective, adventure, solace, and endless magic in nature. A walk on the beach, a hike on a wooded trail a paddle on a kayak is a necessary part of my life. 'Some people have therapists I have Mother Nature. But as breathtaking as Fall has been in the northeast, Nature is out of balance. 'People are losing their homes to wildfires, Glacial melting and heavy rains have combined to cause flooding all over the world from Pakistan to the American south watching homes slip off their foundations and float down the river are staples on the evening news. 'Rising oceans are displacing millions as shorelines erode. The warming oceans temperatures are killing off coral reefs once fish breeding grounds, fishermen cant find fish. And the warm water is creating super hurricanes that are wiping entire towns right off the map. Her cure: In the caption, she wrote: 'Some people have therapists I have Mother Nature' She also said that animals and beneficial insects are facing extinction, and many already are extinct. 'These are just a few of the issues that highlight how climate change is affecting our lives, livelihood , our health and our economy. 'So I am asking everyone to please consider voting for candidates who take climate change and our childrens future seriously. She added that we cant afford to lose the opportunity to reduce our carbon emissions while we still have a chance to stop all these negative effects from escalating. 'Blessed are old people who plant trees knowing that they shall never sit in the shade of their foliage,' she quoted a source. 'We need to be like them and Vote for the children, for their future. We need to use our vote to Invest in the future where we can fix all the other stuff that needs fixing. 'But we need to fix this first, or there wont be a tomorrow worth fixing. Think about it, we are sitting in the shade of trees planted by the beautiful generous souls who came before us!!!!' Not interested: Brinkley made the rare move of discussing her love life recently saying 'my love life is that I love life. The love of my life is my life' Her fans raced to the comments section to heap praise on the star, with one writing: 'Nature is my therapist as well, I'm so worried about our planet earth.' Another fan commented: 'This caption is so moving to read. Thank you for being such a kind and caring human .' During an interview with Social Life Magazine recently, Brinkley made the rare move of opening up about her love life. When asked if she would consider using dating apps to use a potential partner, she bluntly responded: 'Nope, never.' The model then noted that she was not necessarily focusing on romance at the moment stating: 'My love life is that I love life. The love of my life is my life.' Twice as nice: Brinkley (L) and daughter Sailor Brinkley Cook leave the Michael Kors fashion show at Highline Stages in September in New York City Brinkley did note, however, that her ideal date would have to 'take me for a sail' to get on her good side. She also expressed that her potential partner would have to 'have a great sense of humor and zest for life.' Brinkley's first marriage was to artist Jean-Francois Allaux, whom she divorced in 1981. She later married Billy Joel, and the pair welcomed a daughter named Alexa Ray, 36, during their marriage, and although they split up in 1994, they remained on friendly terms. The model went on to tie the knot with real estate developer Richard Taubman, and their son Jack Paris, 27, was born in 1995, the year they finalized their divorce. Her fourth and most recent marriage was to architect Peter Halsey Cook. The couple had a daughter named Sailor, 24, before they went their separate ways in 2008. Chloe Green was pictured for the first time since giving birth as she enjoyed a family outing to private members' club, Loulou's, on Thursday night. The daughter of Philip Green, 31, was joined by her businessman husband Manuele Thiella, 36, her half-brother Brett Palos, 48, her mother-in-law, and mum Tina, 73, who carried an elephant toy featuring a pink ribbon. She was last seen sporting a baby bump in August during a getaway to Nerano, Italy with Manuele - and she was set to give birth only 'a matter of weeks' later. Chloe Green gives birth! The heiress was pictured for the first time since welcoming her second child as she enjoyed a family outing to Loulou's on Thursday - with her mum Tina carrying a pink rattle The heiress looked incredible as she flashed her legs in a thigh-split navy maxi dress featuring a black ruffle, while holding hands with her partner. Chloe wrapped up with a black leather jacket while sporting a delicate chain necklace featuring the word 'baby' and another indecipherable word. She continued her look with a pair of black leather boots while wearing her glossy brown tresses in gorgeous curls. MailOnline has contacted Chloe's representative for comment. Cute: The daughter of Philip Green, 31, held hands with her husband Manuele Thiella, 36 Out of this world: The heiress looked incredible as she flashed her legs in a thigh-split navy maxi dress featuring a black ruffle Family: She was also joined by a pal, who cut a dapper figure Dropping hints? Her mum Tina carried an elephant toy featuring a pink ribbon (pictured with Chloe's half-brother Brett Palos) Adorable: The cute toy had been stored in a grey gift bag Expecting: Chloe is pictured heavily pregnant in July while attending Tommy Chiabra and Frida Aasen's wedding in Portofino Chloe has remained largely out of the public eye as of late, with a brief appearance at Cannes Film Festival being the last public sighting of her before her Italy getaway. In June, Chloe revealed her pregnancy as she unveiled a baby bump for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez. Revealing the news, the TV personality stepped out in a pink beach kaftan with a tree patterned design, as she walked barefoot under the French sun. Chilly? Chloe wrapped up with a black leather jacket amid the wintery weather Stylish: She continued her look with a pair of black leather boots while wearing her glossy brown tresses in gorgeous curls Outing: Chloe sported a delicate chain necklace featuring the word 'baby' and another indecipherable word Gang: Chloe, Brett and her mother-in-law strolled through London as they made their way to the members' club Commanding attention: Tina put on a very snazzy display in a black dress with eye-popping yellow designs Chloe unveiled her previous pregnancy in a similar way back in 2018, showing off her first bump as she enjoyed a day on her father's superyacht in Monaco. She shares her son Jayden with convict-turned-model Jeremy, who was a former member of Crips street gang and served time in prison. Going viral as the 'world's hottest felon', Chloe's ex-beau quickly secured a six-figure modelling deal after his release. Strolling: Tina was protected from the pouring rain by a man with an umbrella Generous: Chloe's half-brother Brett was seen giving the staff member a 20 tip Dosh: He took the 20 note out for the member of staff Towering: Tina added inches to her frame with a pair of black heels Night out: Chloe's mother-in-law and a dapper companion headed into the swanky venue But Chloe and Jeremy called it quits in 2019, as she and Manuele were revealed as a couple in 2020 - after they were spotted abroad. Back in 2020 when she initially began seeing the businessman, a source told MailOnline: 'Chloe has known Manuele for months and they have always been very close friends. 'They have a lot in common; they're both parents and are from similar worlds, Chloe is very happy with him. He's very much been accepted into her family.' Sofia Vergara looked almost identical with her niece as they posed in a selfie taken and posted during the Colombian actress Walmart promotion trip in Bentonville, Arkansas. With her niece Claudia, 30, Vergara showed off their matching wavy, brunette tresses and blonde highlights. The former Modern Family star Vergara, 50, wore a simple black long-sleeve top and leather joggers that hugged her figure. Twinning: Sofia Vergara posted a selfie with her niece Claudia Vergara, and they look almost identical Following the same theme, Claudia wore a plunging black top. She accessorized with a cheetah-print-lined puffer jacket and a matching printed mini crossbody bag. She also sported gray, cut-off jeans and strappy, heeled booties. Vergaras niece, an Instagram influencer and actress herself, started hosting Latinx Now! in 2018, alongside Christian Acosta and Nastassja Bolivar. Latinx Now! is a bilingual pop culture news program with a Latinx lens, produced in English and Spanish to serve audiences across North and Latin America. Her aunt, the award-winning actress, donned gold hoop earrings and a layered, large link chain necklace accented by a diamond-encrusted circle pendant. She mixed-and-matched it with a dainty necklace that says Mom. Work trip: Vergara also posted a picture with her family and team while visiting Arkansas for her Walmart promo trip; behind Sofia is son Manolo, 31 Looking fly: The actress traveled in style, accenting her outfit with neon yellow accessories, as she took a private jet to Bentonville Her niece Claudia complemented their matching outfits with a gold, paperclip-style chain with a statement turquoise stone and a dark, heart necklace. She wore statement earrings as well. Vergara started a clothing line partnership with Walmart back in 2019. Sofia Jeans, an exclusive yet affordable collaboration with the retail conglomerate, features an assorted collection of stylish jeans, blouses, dresses, and sweaters. Vergara has one son, Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, 31, who was also seen in a boomerang video alongside her niece his cousin that was posted on the actress Instagram stories. Fall fits: Vergara's niece and son sported cozy jackets and posed for the actress' Instagram story Her son Manolo wore a brown denim jacket with a sherpa-lined collar over a simple white button-up. He completed the look with minorly distressed, ankle-cuffed blue jeans and a pair of shiny black boots. The family traveled together to Bentonville in a private jet for the fun work trip. Vergara says in her Instagram caption that they were on a work trip that [felt] like a mini [vacation]. Selena Gomez has revealed her 2018 break-up with Justin Bieber was the 'best thing that ever happened to her' in her new Apple + documentary, My Mind & Me. The Wolves hitmaker, 30, who dated the Baby musician, 28, on-off for eight years, said she felt the 'worst break-up ever' had to happen so that she could learn to 'choose herself and choose life again.' The split provided the inspiration for her hit 2020 song, Lose You to Love Me, with the star saying: 'Everything was so public. I felt haunted by a past relationship that no one wanted to let go of. Then I just moved past it, and I wasn't afraid anymore. Right decision: Selena Gomez has revealed her 2018 break-up with Justin Bieber was the 'best thing that ever happened to her' in her new Apple + documentary, My Mind & Me (pictured in 2011) 'I feel like I had to go through the worst possible heartbreak ever and then just forgetting everything at the drop of the hand, it was really confusing. But I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me.' Adding that she had written the song in just 45 minutes, she continued: 'It's about more than a lost love. Its me learning to choose myself, to choose life, but also hoping that people can find grace and peace in that too. 'The song is about knowing that you completely lost every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again. Selena and Justin were teenage sweethearts but had their last breakup in 2018, months before he had a courthouse marriage to Hailey Baldwin. The month after Justin married Hailey, Selena reportedly suffered a breakdown connected to her lupus and entered treatment for her mental health. Emotions: The Wolves hitmaker, 30, who dated the Baby musician, 28, on-off for eight years, said she felt the 'worst break-up ever' had to happen so that she could learn to 'choose herself and choose life again' A day after news broke of Selena's alleged breakdown, Justin was spotted looking anguished as he sat in his car beside Hailey. Hailey has received blowback from diehard Selena fans throughout her relationship with Justin, whom she has now been married to for over four years. When Justin and Hailey attended the Americana-themed Met Gala together in September 2021, onlookers chanted 'Selena!' at them. Hailey's cousin Ireland claimed that the couple were unfazed by the jeering Selena fans, writing on social media: 'Theyre one of the happiest and most in love couples Ive ever gotten the chance to be around. They dont care about them.' Back in 2020 Justin shared a social media post by a Selena fan who encouraged others to flood Hailey's livestream with remarks that 'Jelena was better.' 'It is extremely hard to choose the high road when I see people like this try and rally to gather people to bully the person I love the most in this world,' Justin wrote. Hailey became so exasperated that this April she posted a TikTok begging the trolls who are 'in my comments every single time I post' to 'leave me alone, please.' Happier times: She said of the break-up: 'But I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me' (pictured 2012) Moved on: Justin has been married to model Hailey Baldwin since 2018 (pictured 2020) Possibly referring to how long ago Justin and Selena broke up, she added: 'Enough time has gone by where its valid to leave me alone. I beg of you, truly.' However the two women demonstrated with their photo together last month that they themselves are on friendly terms, whatever their respective admirers might think. Now in a new interview with Vulture, Selena said the snaps were 'not a big deal' and added: 'It's not even a thing.' Photographer Tyrell Hampton, who captured one of the images of Hailey and Selena at the gala, posted it to Instagram at the time and wrote: 'plot twist.' Hailey had already previously indicated on the Call Her Daddy podcast that her equation with Selena was 'all respect' - and during the same interview she staunchly denied that Justin had cheated on Selena with her. Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha has revealed the emotional goodbye she gave her parents who have left the UK to their native Jordan because of her father's continuing health issues. The 37-year-old actress and chat show panelist has reguarly shared loving snaps of her parents, mum Roberta, 87, and dad Nadim, 89, also living next door to them to 'decades' to keep them close. But after years of health woes for her 89-year-old father, Nadia told Kaye Adams, Frankie Bridge and Jane Moore of her parents' difficult decision to return 'home' to Jordan and her sad goodbye. Emotional: : Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha has revealed the emotional goodbye she gave her parents who have left the UK to their native Jordan because of her father's health issues 'The day before yesterday, my parents have gone on an adventure as my dad says,' Nadia told the Loose Women on Friday. 'Pretty heartbreaking for us left here because I have lived next door to my parents for decades. 'And my dad is 89, he's had quite a few things going on with his health. 'Been really hard the few times he's needed to go to hospital - and you are 12 hours waiting in hospital. And all of this sort of stuff, the pandemic... anyway. Emotional: The 37-year-old actress and has reguarly shared loving snaps of her parents, mum Roberta, 87, (left) and dad Nadim, 89, (right) also living next door to them to 'decades' 'My dad has decided to go home to Jordan, and we took them with my mum, 89 and 87, took them to the airport. We had been preparing for it. 'Of course I went to pieces. 'I checked them all in, turned around and they were both sat in their wheelchairs. I gave them a hug and I just started crying. 'I could see people were looking at me, so I turned away to my daughter for a second, turned back and they'd gone! Health woes: After years of health woes for her 89-year-old father Nadim (pictured together), Nadia told the Loose Women of her parents' difficult decision to return 'home' to Jordan 'It was literally like that and the airport was heaving. It was like, no, they have gone. 'I'm so proud. My dad is now sitting with his brother out in the sun, they sent me a photo of them out in a restaurant with family.' She added: 'I want them with me, I already miss them, but when you say you really love somebody, you let them go. 'It is the right thing for them because it's... I don't think at the moment it's a very good place to be elderly, in this country.' Nadia's father Nadim Sawalha is a Jordanian-born British actor, and his wife, Roberta Lane, also known as Betty, had three children together, including Nadia in 1964. Decision: She told the Loose Women panel: 'It is the right thing for them because it's... I don't think at the moment it's a very good place to be elderly, in this country' Back in 2020, Nadia heaped praise on her parents after revealing they feel like they are 'a burden' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Taking to Instagram, the Loose Women star shared a series of snaps of mum Roberta and dad Nadim, as she she reassured them that they are far from what they think they're perceived as. Captioning her post, Nadia powerfully penned: 'Not elderly' not vulnerable not a burden' not a drain on the system' as she declared how much her parents meant to her. The TV presenter shared several fun snaps of her mum and dad dressed in padded white hooded coats with a furry trim, while they enjoyed a pork pie each. Expressing how much her actor father dislikes being defined in such a way, she continued: 'Dad says he hates being defined in that way. He hates the way the media pigeon hole his generation and leave them feeling like they are a burden. Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and ITVHub. Keanu Reeves has 'responded' after Matthew Perry questioned why the actor 'still walks among us' in his new autobiography, reports US Magazine. Friends star Perry, 53, caused a social media storm after he wrote in his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, 'Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?' A source close to Reeves, 58 - who is known as the 'internet's boyfriend' due to his caring nature and numerous good deeds - told the publication: 'Keanu thought the comments came out of left field. Response: Keanu Reeves (left) has 'responded' after Matthew Perry (right) questioned why the actor 'still walks among us' in his new autobiography, reports US Magazine 'Its kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize.' DailyMail.com has contacted Reeves' representative for comment. This comes after Perry backtracked on his shockingly negative feelings about Reeves. After the revelation, the Friends actor released a statement clarifying his comments to People on Wednesday as he said: 'I'm actually a big fan of Keanu. Although Reeves has called Phoenix one of his 'closet friends of that era,' Perry also had a strong connection to him after he made his feature film debut opposite Phoenix in 1988's A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon; Phoenix and Reeves in My Own Private Idaho 'I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.' In the excerpt Perry seemed to be barely able to hold back his disdain for the Matrix star whom he doesn't appear to have ever collaborated with while discussing their mutual friend River Phoenix, who died in 1993 of a drug overdose at only 23. Although Reeves has called Phoenix one of his 'closet friends of that era,' according to the Irish Times, Perry also had a strong connection with the rising star after the future TV mainstay made his feature film debut opposite him in 1988's A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon. In his memoir, Perry describes how their time filming the movie in Chicago helped establish a strong bond, while also tagging another presumed jab at Reeves. 'River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,' he writes. Say what? A source close to Reeves, 58 - who is known as the 'internet's boyfriend' due to his caring nature and numerous good deeds - told the publication: 'Keanu thought the comments came out of left field' Phoenix famously died of a combined drug overdose from heroin and cocaine outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood, and Perry writes that he 'heard the screaming from my apartment; went back to bed; woke up to the news.' He added that he broke down in sobs after learning his friend had died. Perry's jabs and Reeves weren't limited to their mutual connection to Phoenix, though. He also blasted the John Wick star in another aside while discussing his late friend Chris Farley, who died in 1997 at age 33 of a drug overdose from combining a stimulant (cocaine) with a depressant (morphine), a similar concoction to the speedball that killed Phoenix. Perry and Farley had starred together in the critically reviled Christopher Guestdirected comedy Almost Heroes, which was released in the year following Farley's death. 'I punched a hole through Jennifer Anistons dressing room wall when I found out [about Farley's death],' he writes, adding, 'Keanu Reeves walks among us.' Aside from his grievances about other actors, Perry delves into his extensive history with drug addiction in his memoir and in recent interviews, which may have made the deaths of Phoenix, Ledger and Farley particularly painful. While speaking to People earlier this month, he revealed that his colon ruptured as a result of his opioid addiction when he was 49. Doctors gave him only a two percent chance of survival, and the medical emergency left him in a coma for two weeks, followed by months more in the hospital. He required 14 surgeries to help repair all of the abdominal damage, and he admitted to having gone to rehab 15 times over the years in hopes of kicking his drug addiction. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has revealed the company would like to make further Harry Potter sequels - with the blessing of author J.K. Rowling. The 62-year-old made the claim during an investors' call on Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, despite backlash over Rowling's tweets from June 2020 in which she ridiculed an article's descr,0iption of women as 'people who menstruate'. David reportedly said during the meeting: 'We haven't had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven't done a Harry Potter in 15 years. The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of the profits for Warner Bros over the past 25 years.' Wow! Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has revealed the company would like to make further Harry Potter sequels - with the blessing of author J.K. Rowling (Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grin pictured in 2003) Despite his alleged claims, the final Harry Potter film hit cinemas 11 years ago while Superman adaptation Man of Steel was released in 2013. But it was then that he's thought to have said of a Potter sequel, 'If we can do something with JK going forward...' The publication also told that he Warner Bros continue to own the cinematic rights to Lord Of The Rings franchise as well. It comes after Ralph Fiennes defended Rowling over 'the disgusting' abuse she has received for her views on transgender issues and same-sex spaces. Oops: It comes despite backlash over Rowling's tweets from June 2020 in which she ridiculed an article's description of women as 'people who menstruate' (pictured in March 2022) The 59-year-old, who plays Lord Voldemort in the film adaptations of the author's books, said he understands where she 'is coming from'. Fiennes, taking a different stance to the younger members of the Harry Potter cast, added that Ms Rowling choosing to express her opinions as a woman did not make her an 'uber Right-wing fascist', the Daily Telegraph reported. Speaking to the New York Times, he said: 'The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, its appalling. I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. 'But its not some obscene, uber Right-wing fascist. Its just a woman saying: "Im a woman and I feel Im a woman and I want to be able to say that Im a woman." 'And I understand where shes coming from. Even though Im not a woman.' He added: 'JK Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings. Friends: Ralph Fiennes recently defended Rowling over 'the disgusting' abuse she has received for her views on transgender issues and same-sex spaces (pictured in 2007) 'Its about how you become a better, stronger, more morally-centred human being.' Ms Rowling was hit by what she described as 'relentless attacks' after she took issue with an online article that had 'people who menstruate' in its headline in 2020. She wrote: 'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' Her remarks sparked backlash from a range of other stars including Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the films, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, and Eddie Redmayne, who stars in Rowling's Fantastic Beasts films. Fiennes, meanwhile, previously questioned the online 'hatred' that had been directed at Ms Rowling, while the late Robbie Coltrane, who passed away this month, said her critics were 'waiting to be offended'. Defending: The 59-year-old actor, who plays Lord Voldemort in the series of films based on the author's books, said he understands where Rowling 'is coming from' Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy, said Rowling's charity work had been 'unequivocally good' and vowed to not 'jump to stab her in the back'. And Miriam Margolyes said the 'vituperation JK Rowling has received is misplaced'. Tom Felton has been trolled by trans rights activists earlier this month after saying Rowling's work should be celebrated. The 35-year-old, who portrayed Draco Malfoy in the wizarding series, said the author's creations had brought people and generations together. The outburst was sparked after Felton said he would not shun or criticise her as others had, instead insisting he was grateful to her for her books earlier this week. He told Radio 4's Today programme earlier this month: 'I can't speak for what other individuals have said. 'I am constantly reminded that the Potter-verse, certainly when we were finishing the films, there was an expectation that the fandom would be dwindling slowly over the years, whereas most fans that say hello to me, shout "Potter" or "Draco" at me weren't even born when the books were being made. 'I am quick to remind myself and others that Potter for some reason has brought more people together across the world and more generations than probably anything else has in the past 20 years and I'm quick to celebrate that. 'It came from one person and that's her so I'm very grateful.' Stand-up comedian and actor Dane Cook, 50, would like to be a father one day with his fiancee, 24-year-old beauty Kelsi Taylor. But the Hollywood veteran wants to wait until just the right moment. 'When the time is right, we'll check it out,' shared the actor who has been in the spotlight lately for his 26-year age difference with Taylor. This comes shortly after the movie star joked that he wants to put having kids on the back burner so he can 'hold my children on my death bed' in a reference to his age. Wanna be a mommy? Stand-up comedian and actor Dane Cook, 50, would like to be a father one day with his fiancee, 24-year-old beauty Kelsi Taylor. But the Hollywood veteran wants to wait until just the right moment; seen in 2021 He was talking to People when asked when he might have children. 'I can't wait to be very honest with you,' the Employee Of The Month actor said. 'I'm just excited at the possibility. Her sister just had her second baby and I love seeing her with the kid. She loves it and I love kids.' This comes after they poked fun at their age difference. 'People were going to put us as a target, so if we make the joke first and we're laughing at it, you can't really hurt us with that,' he told People magazine in October. She has time: 'When the time is right, we'll check it out,' shared the actor who has been in the spotlight lately for his 26-year age difference with Taylor 'We were very early making jokes where I would say something like, "I'd love to have a family," and she would say, "Oh, I'd love to have a family when I'm young,' Dane added. 'And I'd say, "Well, I'd like that as well because I'd like to hold my children on my death bed,"' the star joked. And he really does think about being a dad, he told People on Friday. 'I could see myself hopefully as the kind of dad that loves to listen, loves to be there, loves to collaborate, but still teach you to set those boundaries and only want to pull the best out of yourself,' shared the stand-up star. 26 years apart! This comes after the movie star joked that he 'would like to hold my children on my death bed' in a reference to his age'; seen October 4 in LA 'If I could implement that message. Isn't this the part now where you go, "That's not the kid you get," and you get something completely different? You're on their journey and I'm sure that's what it becomes.' His father passed away in 2007. And he shared that his late dad has inspired the way he will parent. 'I was just talking to Kelsie about it the other day, saying, "I like that mix of the idea of there's fun, there's joy and energy, but you still want those boundaries." My dad was good at being the disciplinarian when he wasn't being fun, and I go, "I think I'd be like that." My dad could be a no b*****it, no-nonsense, don't be a talker, be a do-er.' They both love kids: He was talking to People when asked when he might have children. 'I can't wait to be very honest with you,' the Employee Of The Month actor said. 'I'm just excited at the possibility. Her sister just had her second baby and I love seeing her with the kid. She loves it and I love kids.' Seen in 2019 The lovebirds have been together for five years, with the comedian proposing to her in July 2022. And now they are wedding planning. 'We don't have a date, but we're moving towards [one],' Cook said in his new People interview. 'We just want to enjoy this whole thing. It was also like, we're engaged and then all this stuff is happening. It's kind of like, "Let's finish work," and then we have some great travel plans through the fall and winter. I think we're probably going to be right around next fall.' Marry me: The lovebirds have been together for five years, with the comedian proposing to her in July 2022. And now they are wedding planning. 'We don't have a date, but we're moving towards [one],' Cook said in his new People interview Dane's new hour-long comedy special Above All, which was filmed in their backyard, also features Kelsi. He gushed last month to People about his fiancee, noting her 'incredible sense of humor.' 'People don't see it as much because she is very chill, but she's got a savage sense of humor. You want to roast? You want to sit and watch a Real Housewives with her,' Dane said to the outlet. 'She is tremendously funny, and so being able to poke fun at it and have some jokes at our own expense, I think it prepared us for what was going to happen.' The funnyman also chatted about his anxiety battles, and how he has overcome his mental battles today. 'It's something we still deal with. I deal with anxiety, and that kept me worried. I was kind on that place where I wanted to make sure she [Taylor] was safe. I wanted to make sure we were safe and we were dealing with somebody who was unhinged,' he said. She is currently stateside filming her new reality show which will follow the lives of her family both in the UK and over in America. And on Wednesday, Chloe Sims was lavished with a private pianist and bespoke cushions as she celebrated her 41st birthday with Jess Glynn, Eyal Booker and Vas J Morgan at a swanky bash, in LA. The reality star was out on the town with her famous siblings Frankie, 27, Demi, 26, and Charlie, 30, who along with her pals took to social media where they gave a glimpse inside the 'fairyland' party. Birthday girl: on Wednesday, Chloe Sims was lavished with a private pianist and bespoke cushions as she celebrated her 41st birthday at a swanky bash in LA The group closely documented their evening on social media, sharing an insight into their celebrations, which was filmed for the Sims' new Only Fans series. Chloe's face was plastered onto scatter cushions and a personalised cake, while giant balloons spelt out her name. The tables for dinner were decorated with a stunning floral arrangement and candles, and a pianist keyed away on a white grand piano. Chloe looked nothing short of sensational for the occasion, wearing a form-fitting white halterneck dress which showcased her sizzling physique. Famous friends: Chloe partied with Jess Glynn (laft) Eyal Booker(right) and Vas J Morgan (centre right) at a swanky bash, in LA Wow! Chloe's face was plastered onto scatter cushions and a personalised cake Chloe layered the glamorous look with a long white mac and a pair of gold strappy heeled shoes, while toting a small white handbag. The media personality wore her blonde locks swept up on top of her head in a glamorous fashion, while sporting a full coat of make-up. Frankie oozed rock chic vibes in a leather-look mini dress with a matching jacket with studded detailing, teamed with a pair of camouflage print boots. Who's party is it? Giant balloons spelt out Chloe's name Party time: The group closely documented their evening on social media, sharing an insight into their celebrations Sublime: A talented pianist performed on a white grand piano The reality star's thigh-grazing number showcased her toned pins as she strutted out of the Warwick night club. She wore her long brunette tresses in a loose style and also opted for a full face of make-up for the special occasion. Demi opted for a brown mini dress and matching jacket, teamed with a pair of white knee-high boots and sunglasses. Captured on camera: The group closely documented their evening on social media, sharing an insight into their celebrations, which was filmed for the Sims' new Only Fans series Celebrations: The Sims hit the clubs and filmed as staff members arrived holding sparklers and bottles Divine: The tables for dinner were decorated with a stunning floral arrangement and candles Vas looked equally incredible in a silver mesh top teamed with a pair of black trousers and chunky shoes. The Sims hit the clubs and filmed as staff members arrived holding sparklers and bottles. They were joined by former Love Island star Eyal Booker and Charlie's fiancee Georgia Shults. Victoria Beckham showed off her wild hair as she took to her Instagram Stories on Friday during a session with her hairdresser Ken Paves. The fashion designer, 48, could be seen checking herself out on the screen of her phone as she was being primped and preened, with her locks looking particularly voluminous. With her blonde highlights visible further down her tresses and her darker root visible at the top, she declared: 'He's at it again! Ken! Too much?' Standing on end: Victoria Beckham, 48, showed off her wild hair as she took to her Instagram Stories on Friday during a session with her hairdresser Ken Paves Repeating her words as a caption, she wrote: 'He's at it again! @kenpaves loves a root lift.' The former Spice Girl, who has previously admitted she's unable to do her own hair, wore a glamorous face of make-up in the clip and donned a sequinned green dress. It comes after Victoria slipped back into the stunning gown she wore at son Brooklyn's wedding this week as rumours of a feud with her daughter-in-law rumble on. Looking good: The fashion designer could be seen checking herself out on the screen of her phone as she was being primped and preened Volume up: With her blonde highlights visible further down her tresses and her darker root visible at the top, she declared: 'He's at it again! Ken! Too much?' In an Instagram post on Thursday, the 48-year-old designer looked incredible in the silver dress as she revealed she's now selling the designs. The announcement came days after Nicola, 27, once again addressed their 'feud' with mother-in-law stating the rumours began after she didn't wear Victoria's wedding dress design at her nuptials. Yet Victoria brushed off the interview as she got to work promoting her eponymous design. Revisiting a look: Victoria Beckham slipped back into the stunning gown she wore at son Brooklyn's wedding as rumours of a feud with her daughter-in-law rumble on The mother-of-four looked sensational in the low-cut garment as she revealed the 'very special and delicate' gown was inspired by the reflection of the moonlight on the ocean. It first appeared on the runway in a vibrant yellow tone but Victoria had it customised in a beautiful silvery-grey shade for her son's wedding. The garment can now be purchased in silver or gold at a hefty price tag of 2,450. Gorgeous: In an Instagram post on Thursday, the 48-year-old designer looked incredible in the silver dress as she revealed she's now selling the designs Over the weekend, Nicola spoke to The Times about her relationship with Victoria and denied that the frosty tensions were a 'feud' and explained that Victoria 's atelier simply hadn't had time to make the dress, as she insisted: 'No family is perfect.' Nicola said: 'It's not a feud! I keep seeing everywhere that word, 'feud, feud, feud!?' I mean, maybe they picked up on something? And now they're labelling it feud?' 'I think it all started, and I've said this before, because I didn't end up wearing Victoria's wedding dress, but the real truth is, I really, really wanted to wear it and I thought it was so beautiful that Brooklyn's mom got to make that for me! And I was really excited to wear it! And I didn't end up wearing it.' Gorgeous: Nicola stunned in an incredible Valentino bridal gown for her wedding to Brooklyn after Victoria's atelier failed to make her a dress on time Candid: Nicola addressed her rumoured 'feud' with mother-in-law Victoria in a new interview with The Times as she doubled down on the dress claims (pictured together in 2021) She went on to say: 'But I, truthfully, was really excited to wear her dress. It makes me sad when I read things that people say I was never planning on wearing it. That's just not true.' This is not the first time Nicola has dismissed the feud narrative and said that she believes it all started when she opted for Valentino couture instead of Victoria's design. She told Variety: 'I was going to and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldn't do it, so then I had to pick another dress. 'She didn't say you can't wear it; I didn't say I didn't want to wear it. That's where it started.' Brooklyn, in a rather muted defence, added: 'Everyone gets along, which is good.' However, Victoria did manage to dress herself and other loved ones in designs from her eponymous fashion label -including BFF Eva Longoria, mother Jackie Adams and son Romeo's then-girlfriend Mia Regan. Adding weight to rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting injections to treat a severe disease, a former British army officer claimed that Putin's hands are beginning to look black on top. In a discussion on leaked Kremlin emails purportedly proving that the 70-year-old warmongering leader had Parkinson's disease and pancreatic cancer, Lord Richard Dannatt brought up the indication that Putin is receiving injections. Spy Documents: Vladimir Putin Has Cancer In recent pictures, Putin also looked to have multiple IV markings on his hands, which he frequently hides when attending formal events. Since years, there has been growing concern over Putin's health, with his hands frequently cited as a telltale symptom. He has been spotted holding onto tables for months while speaking, his hands otherwise twitching. In a recent propaganda film, Putin was shown grabbing a soldier's arm and had what seemed to be strange markings on his right hand. A doctored version with multiple watermarks obstructing the hand's visibility was apparently made public by the Kremlin. Online commenters believed it was a symptom of either swollen veins from a major sickness or IV track marks, as per NY Post. Putin is believed to have prostate cancer and has Parkinson's disease, both of which are "already progressing," according to secret Kremlin emails. After he supposedly got a medical test, it was claimed last week that the despot's relatives are worried about coughing fits, severe nausea, and a lack of appetite. His staff is concerned that the leader's "thinness and persistent cough" are becoming apparent and would be seen by Russian elites as "signs of the leader's rapidly failing health." Read Also: China's Xi Jinping Calls For Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks, Warns on the Use of Nuclear Weapons Putin Health Rumors The Russian president had reportedly dropped 18 lbs. recently despite seeming noticeably fat and puffy in the face. On February 24, Putin gave the order for his armed forces to invade Ukraine, and since then, rumors concerning his health have circulated, according to Daily Mail. Putin has been observed shaking uncontrollably, holding onto tables and chairs for stability, and seeming bloated and uneasy. In recent years, the president has also routinely vanished for weeks at a time from the public glare amid rumors that he is getting surgery. The Russian president was seen over the summer clumsily slapping mosquitoes out of his face with one arm as the other dangled by his side. Similar to this, the now 70-year-old dictator looked to walk with a limp and had a blanket covering his lap at a large Victory Day parade in Moscow in May, while in April he was seen grasping a table in a televised meeting with his defense minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin's health rumors have also been denied by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who called them "nothing but fakes." Putin is said to have Parkinson's disease, schizoaffective condition, and abdominal cancer, according to the General SVR channel. Although its assertions cannot be confirmed, it was among the first to reveal the general outline of Putin's most recent mobilization effort. According to reports, a Kremlin lieutenant general in exile who goes by the identity Viktor Mikhailovich writes for the station. Per The Sun, recent photos show Putin appearing aged and perkier, and detractors claim he has been hiding his tremors by grasping the desk's edge when making public appearances. The old tyrant was captured on camera grasping the table and slouching during discussions with Sergey Shoigu, his defense minister, which are signs of Parkinson's disease. In a video clip showing him introducing Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus in the Kremlin, the Russian president's hands shook ferociously. Various videos of Putin fidgeting and biting his lips during a church service have fueled rumors that the tyrant is dying. In April, when he met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow, he also looked to limp and grimace as he walked. Related Article: Iran Sending 1000 Weapons, Including Attack Drones, to Russia for Ukraine War After Pentagon Raises Big Concerns @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ashley Greene and Paul Khoury were spotted taking a stroll in West Hollywood on Thursday evening. The new parents looked more in love than ever as they held hands on their first romantic outing since welcoming their first child six weeks ago. The 35-year-old Twilight star cut a stylish figure in a long navy trench coat, black pants, and grey knee-high boots. First outing: Ashley Greene and Paul Khoury held hands on Thursday during their first romantic outing since welcoming their first child six weeks ago Ashleys long brunette hair fell naturally down her back as she went light on the makeup, showing off her smooth complexion. Paul looked handsome in a blue button-up jacket over a cream sweater and black pants. Khoury donned groomed facial hair, a newsboy hat and wore a camera that dangled from a strap behind him. The Twilight actress gave birth to her daughter Kingsley Rainn six weeks ago. Stylish mama: The 35-year-old Twilight star wore a long navy trench-coat, black pants, and grey knee-high boots Lovely couple: Paul looked handsome in a blue button-up jacket over a cream sweater and black pants There she is: The mother-of-one shared a picture of her six week-old baby on Tuesday with the caption, 'Kingsley's first big trip and she handled it like a champ!!' On Tuesday, the mother-of-one shared a picture of her six week-old baby with the caption, 'Kingsley's first big trip and she handled it like a champ!!' Earlier this week, the new mom also did a nursery reveal on her Instagram. She captioned the post, 'Kingsley's Nursery Reveal. We wanted a calm, inviting environment with lots of natural light and wood. Big thank you to @mp_james_design for helping bring that vision to life. Can't wait to see little girl grow up in here. 'PS- the mattress is made to be used without a sheet. We just used one for the photo. The mattress is actually breathable if your face is pressed against it and very safe for baby.' Perfect room: 'Kingsley's Nursery Reveal. We wanted a calm, inviting environment with lots of natural light and wood. Can't wait to see little girl grow up in here' Baby safety first: Greene included the note that the 'mattress is made to be used without a sheet. We just used one for the photo. The mattress is actually breathable if your face is pressed against it and very safe for baby' Greene is best known for playing Alice Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyers Twilight novels. Ashley and Paul became engaged during a trip to New Zealand in 2016. The pair tied the knot during a wedding ceremony in San Jose, California, in 2018 and confirmed that they planned to start a family this past March. New mom: The Twilight actress gave birth to her daughter Kingsley Rainn six weeks ago Greene announced that she had given birth to Kingsley Rainn with a post shared on her Instagram account in September. The actress penned a short message to express her enthusiasm about welcoming her daughter into her life. 'And just like that - everything changed. In a single moment, you came into our world, and everything else faded away. Nothing else mattered,' she wrote. Making it public: Greene announced that she had given birth to Kingsley Rainn with a post that was shared to her Instagram account in September Another look: Greene shared a black-and-white shot of her daughter to her Instagram account on Sunday The performer added that she and Khoury had reached a new point in their relationship with the arrival of their daughter. 'The love we're engulfed in cannot be explained, only felt in the deepest of ways. We love you so much baby girl. Welcome to our world,' she wrote. Greene shared a black-and-white shot of her daughter to her Instagram account. In the snap, Khoury spent a bit of quality time with his baby girl as he let her hold his fingers, and the actress also added a short message that read: 'I have a new favorite picture everyday.' Tiger King star Joe Exotic has claimed he is living 'in the bottom of hell' as he complained about alleged dangerous living conditions inside an Atlanta federal prison. Exotic, 59, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in regards to his nemesis Carole Baskin. In impassioned posts from behind bars at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, the former G.W. Zoo owner claims he is being subjected to deplorable living conditions in prison, was denied basic sanitary items and threatened with stints in solitary - as he begged his 'millions of fans' to help him secure release. Fuming: Tiger King star Joe Exotic has claimed he is living 'in the bottom of hell' as he complained about alleged dangerous living conditions inside an Atlanta federal prison Exotic also declared he will be forced to run for President in 2024 if he remains 'unheard' - he previously ran in 2016. Posting a snap of himself with a newborn lion cub on Thursday, he wrote: 'I have officially landed at the bottom of hell, at the Federal Prison in Atlanta GA. Senator Ossoff, Warnock and Walker are all lying to you Black Voters of Georgia because the Animals at the Atlanta Zoo are living better then your loved ones are in here I promise.' On Friday, he shared a screenshot of a letter sent to Atlanta Uncensored News in which he again begged for a presidential pardon. It was captioned:'Since being in custody I have seen more #drugs then I ever saw on the street, I watched young and old people die from overdoses, kill themselves and die from lack of medical care. Felon: Exotic, 59, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in regards to his nemesis Carole Baskin 'This would not be allowed at any #zoo governed by the United States Department of Agriculture. #fixthiss**t #hearmeroar #tigerking #innocent #hostage #usa #pardonjoeexotic @atluncensorednews.' The letter read: 'I would love to mail you a letter but you cannot get an envelope here, paper nor a stamp here to do that with am sending you an email of thanks for helping keep my voice alive not just for me but the over 155,000 other humans living in this hell we call American justice. 'After your story broke they threatened to lock me down for causing a mess in the media and was called into the Administrators office for nearly an hour. 'They met at least my needs of providing me with soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and toilet paper, however I still have no shampoo or a razor to finish cleaning up with and this was only done for me , the rest of the people in need have still been overlooked. 'The Administrator seemed to care about what my complaints were but let's see if anything changes once I am gone and things go back to normal around here. 'The people not only of Georgia but all over the USA must keep my voice alive for me and their loved ones living in the hell of America Federal Prisons. I cannot do this alone.' 'Since being in custody I have seen more drugs than I ever saw on the street. I watched young and old people die from overdoses, kill themselves and die from lack of medical care. Help: In impassioned posts from behind bars at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, the former G.W. Zoo owner claims he is being subjected to deplorable living conditions in prison, was denied basic sanitary items and threatened with stints in solitary 'This would not be allowed at any zoo governed by the United States Department of Agriculture. There should be a law that NO politicians can own or invest in any product made or sold to a prison. 'There are too many hands in the cookie jar here in America. There are three things that should happen here because the evidence at www.joeexoticusa.co/evidence proves I am innocent and the Government knows it '1 - President Biden should do the Democrats a favor and sign my pardon and make good on his promise to reform the Justice System and Prison System and allow me to testify in front of Congress as to how to fix some the problems with both Systems '2- Senator Lankford should demand a prisoner swap, me for the Big Cat Safety Act, since he is the hold out of keeping it from passing and everyone knows this is why I am really here and do the Republicans a favour and make this happen and allow me to go home and testify in front of Congress '3 - If neither happen, I will be forced to run for President of 2024 from federal prison as a Libertarian and make this country listen to me about the corruption in both institutions which we expect Ms Peter to have me locked down in solitary to shut me up which will be the worst mistake that could ever be made because the millions of fans I have all over the world will not just sit by and watch this happen.' He continued: 'Just to clear things up... I have never offered any undercover FBI agent $10,000 and their hitman Allen Glover has admitted to perjury and that they had a plot to kill me first, which opens the question why am I still in here and he is not? Despair: On Friday, he shared a screenshot of a letter sent to Atlanta Uncensored News in which he again begged for a presidential pardon 'Again, go look at all the new evidence. And last my fiance lives in Arkansas not Texas. I just want the truth to get out about everything and I want to be the voice of everyone in this system living like animals. America cannot complain about Russia's prison system or its justice system until we fix America's. Dailymail.com has contacted the United States Department of Justice for comment. Back in August Exotic revealed his hopes that his new friendship with 90 Day Fiance's Jesse Meester could bring him one step closer to President Biden granting him clemency. The felon shared a shirtless snap of the reality star, 29, who he called an 'amazing dear friend.' 'You will see him around on my stuff more and more as he is going to help me get a voice to the White House for President Biden to sign my pardon before November of this year,' the disgraced zookeeper captioned the image. In response, the 90 Day alum left a comment under the post, in which he praised Exotic for his resilience. 'We love you too Joe! People close to you turned their back on you, but not us. You helped many people through lockdown and we should never forget the truth and authenticity you lived your life with,' Meester wrote. The reality star concluded: 'It's sad that the backstabbing and lying has become the norm [in] this society. Time to unite and fight back to get you out.' In November, Exotic requested a prison release in order to seek treatment another he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Controversial: The case was the focus of highly-popular 2020 Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness 'Update [sad face emoji] Everyone, It is with a sad face that I have to tell you the doctors called me in today to break the news that my prostate biopsy came back with an aggressive cancer, I am still waiting on the results from other test as well,' he told his followers. Exotic continued: 'Right now I don't want anyone's pity and I'm sure Carole Will have her own party over this! What I need is the world to be my voice to be released, they have the proof I DID NOT DO THIS!' In January 2020, a federal jury found him guilty on two counts of hiring someone to murder Baskin in Florida, on eight counts of violating the Lacey Act by falsifying wildlife records, and on nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tigers and for selling tigers across state lines Back in August 2021, he revealed that his prostate cancer may have spread to his stomach and pelvis and prefers to die if it is stage three or four as he criticized the US criminal justice system over lack of medical treatment for prisoners. At the time, the zoo owner said that he has not had any treatment in jail - as he serves a 22 year prison sentence in Fort Worth, Texas - since his diagnosis months ago and fears that the cancer has spread. On August 9, Exotic told The Sun: 'I have been waiting for a colonoscopy and endoscopy since October. Medical treatment in a prison is worse than at any humane society for dogs.' Optimistic: Back in August Exotic revealed his hopes that his new friendship with 90 Day Fiance's Jesse Meester could bring him one step closer to President Biden granting him clemency The American media personality was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in his plot to kill nemesis and Big Cat Rescue owner, Carole Baskin in 2019. The case was the focus of highly-popular 2020 Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. Exotic explained that he was recently forced to undergo a CT scan last week and the results were not encouraging. He said: 'They are concerned it is in my stomach and pelvis. I have not had any treatment or anything since May. I puke when I pee - the pain is that bad. 'I'm losing weight all the time and the pain in my hip and pelvis hurts. I limp to walk. And my stomach has hurt for over a year.' Sad: Back in August 2021, he revealed that his prostate cancer may have spread to his stomach and pelvis and prefers to die if it is stage three or four as he criticized the US criminal justice system over lack of medical treatment for prisoners The Netflix star said that he hopes to be taken to a specialist medical center for 'many tests' including a 'biopsy of my prostate and bladder, colonoscopy and endoscopy.' However, Exotic says that he will refuse medical treatment if the disease has progressed to stage three or four. He explained: 'When we find out where and how bad it is I will decide if I am going to do treatment. If it's stage three or four I am going to let it take me.' Exotic also criticized the US criminal justice system over lack of medical treatment for prisoners as he accused prison doctors of 'not giving a s***.' He told the publication: 'This is crazy how they put people in here and just let you die. 'The things that I've seen and the dead people I've seen wheeled out of here is outrageous and it's time that our president and our politicians hear the truth.' Kourtney Kardashian has provided a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for her Italian wedding weekend fashion. The reality sensation, 43, posted throwback photos of her trying on an array of Dolce & Gabbana looks in Milan as she prepared to tie the knot again with Travis Barker in Portofino. The operation was a team effort which required the help of several stylists assisting Kourtney into getting into everything from sheer mini dresses to plunging frocks. Wedding glam! Kourtney Kardashian has provided a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for her Italian wedding weekend fashion Kourtney looked fab in the myriad of dresses, which included a sheer red number accessorized with a fur shawl and several blue florals. She also tried on three mini dresses - a silky champagne hued frock, a sexy plunging look, and a sheer number with a blue shawl thrown over her shoulders. She cast a sexy look at the camera in a burgundy dress with rose print black top. Kourtney also shared a look at her sexy footwear, a glossy pair of fuchsia heels adorned with a pink rose. Fashionista: She also tried on three mini dresses - a silky champagne hued frock, a sexy plunging look, and a sheer number with a blue shawl thrown over her shoulders The carousel included other behind-the-scenes snaps from her Dolce & Gabbana fitting, including a rack of her clothing and a mood board. Reflecting on the epic experience in the lengthy caption, Kourtney said her only regret was not getting a group photo with her 'Milan squad.' 'In the most recent episode of @kardashianshulu we are in Milan, Italy for one of the most incredible experiences Ive ever had! We are picking out all of our @dolcegabbana looks for our enchanting Italian wedding weekend. Va va voom: The reality sensation cast a sexy look at the camera while trying on a burgundy dress with rose print top Sheer thing! She modeled a see-through black dress which showed off her satin blue underwear 'The showroom was transformed with all of the options that we worked so closely with the @dolcegabbana team hand selecting pieces from their personal 90s archive (which they opened up for the first time ever for our wedding to dress me, my sisters and our daughters so special!) and looks through today. 'Thank you to our amazing stylists @danixmichelle and @chrisbkim for all of your help making this weekend come to life. I love having these moments captured on our show. I regret that I dont have one group picture with our Milan squad of my supportive and amazing friends.' On the latest episode of The Kardashians, Kourtney described her pre-wedding jitters. She's got the look! She shared photos of her stunning fuchsia heels adorned with a pink rose Inspiration: The carousel included a mood board which appeared to serve as inspiration for Kourtney's looks '[I am] so nervous. I dont want to be, like, drugged or anything,' she said on the show. 'I think about it all the time. Will I survive or will I pass out? It just makes me nervous. It freaks me out,' she said of preparing for the wedding. 'I am like, "How did I get to this place?"' Kourtney also revealed how the thought of Travis would help diffuse her anxiety around attending big events. Dressed to impress! Kourtney's glam dresses hung from a rack A beautiful mess: Sketches, scissors, and other sewing materials were strewn out on a table 'I used to think that going to the Met would be terrifying with all the cameras. I used to think it would give me such anxiety,' she admitted in a confessional. 'But I think going with Travis and having a good time it feels like something I am excited to do.' Kourtney and Travis became betrothed in a romantic beachfront proposal held at the Rosewood Miramar on October 17, 2021. Glam: She shared a behind-the-scenes look of her D&G fitting The couple went on to say 'I do' three times in 2022 - first in Las Vegas in a ceremony conducted without a marriage license, followed by an intimate affair at the Santa Barbara courthouse with Kourtney's grandmother Mary Jo present. They exchanged vows for a third and final time in Portofino, Italy in May in a lavish bash attended by friends and family. The marriage marked Kourtney's first time tying the knot and a third for Travis, who has been married twice before. He shares son Landon Barker, 19, and daughter Alabama Barker, 16, with his ex-wife Shanna Moakler. Kourtney, meanwhile, has sons Mason, 12, Reign, seven, and daughter Penelope, 10, with her former long-term partner Scott Disick. Lindsay Lohan has officially returned to her music career after releasing a brand new cover of Jingle Bell Rock in support of her upcoming Netflix holiday movie Falling For Christmas. The former child star first performed the song in a now classic scene from the hit film Mean Girls in 2004, alongside Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Tina Fey on piano. Fans can how hear her dulcet tones singing the classic American Christmas song - first released by Bobby Helms in 1957 - in a lyric video that was posted Friday. In addition to her acting career, Lindsay has consistently made waves in the music industry over the years notching up well over a million album sales between two major label releases, Speak in 2004, and A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She's back! Lindsay Lohan returns to music career with Jingle Bell Rock cover from Netflix Christmas film - after first performing it in Mean Girls Aside from going viral for dancing in a silver jumpsuit while partying in Mykonos in 2018, Lindsay has continued to release new music here and there - including the single Back to Me in 2020, after a 12 year hiatus from recording. Her debut album Speak - a blend of pop/rock inspired by the likes of Avril Lavigne - peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and went platinum selling over a million copies. The beloved star is now on a career comeback after striking a deal with Netflix, and the streaming giant appears to be fully invested in bringing her back to success. Throwback: Lindsay first performed the song in a now classic scene from the hit film Mean Girls in 2004, alongside (L-R) Lacey Chabert, Rachel McAdams, and Amanda Seyfried There is currently a Netflix-funded billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that reads: 'The Lindsay Lohanaissance is upon us.' In March it was revealed that Lindsay had signed a two-picture deal with the streaming giant, in addition to Falling For Christmas. 'We're so happy with our collaboration with Lindsay to date, and we're thrilled to continue our partnership with her,' Netflix Director of Independent Film, Christina Rogers said in a statement. Comeback: The Mean Girls star is seen in a lyric video for the song released Friday Romance: Lindsay has signed a two-picture deal with streaming giant Netflix Happy days: The once troubled star has been making a comeback over the past few years She added: 'We look forward to bringing more of her films to our members around the world.' In addition to her acting comeback, Lindsay's once troubled personal life also seems to have been restored - after finding happiness with her husband Bader Shammas who she married earlier this year. Falling For Christmas will be available to stream on Netflix November 10, 2022. Leni Klum looked bewitching in a new video shared on Friday. The 18-year-old fashion industry figure wore a strapless leather outfit that made the most of her tiny supermodel figure. The daughter of Heidi Klum was posing for her new AW22 Collection with About You She also sat down for an interview, during which she spoke about how happy she was to have been able to work with the company. Going live: Leni Klum announced that the offerings from her new collection with About You were available for purchase with a video that was shared to her account on Friday Doing her own thing: Klum spoke about clothing during a recent interview with People, where she stated that she did not usually borrow from her mother's wardrobe At the beginning of the clip, Klum wore a sleeveless black top and a matching pair of pants. The dark tones of the model's outfit were offset with a set of earrings and bright pink eyeshadow. She later changed into a light blue denim shirt and matching pants that were complemented with a dark brown fur-lined jacket. The fashion industry personality went on to wear a hot pink dress underneath a jet-black jacket. Stylish: At the beginning of the clip, Klum wore a sleeveless black top and a matching pair of pants Switching out: She later changed into a light blue denim shirt and matching pants that were complemented with a dark brown fur-lined jacket Klum eventually donned a sleek black dress that showed off her toned arms and legs. Her gorgeous brunette hair remained slicked back for much of the photoshoot, and she wore a stylish set of high-heeled shoes with all of her outfits The model also discussed how she came up with the ideas for the offerings in her new collection. Speaking her mind: The model also discussed how she came up with the ideas for the offerings in her new collection 'The inspiration of my collection would have to be pieces that I wanted in my closet or pieces that I already had in my closet that I loved,' she stated. The fashion industry personality added that her outlook on fashion was constantly shifting around, stating: 'just like last year, my style has changed.' Klum also remarked that she was particularly concerned with the wearability of her clothing. Practical: Klum also remarked that she was particularly concerned with the wearability of her clothing She recalled that 'I made sure that everything was super comfy, nothing was itchy.' The social media figure, who was wearing a sleeveless top and matching black pants at the time of the interview, expressed that she felt perfectly fine in her clothing. 'I was saying the other day that this might not look the comfiest, but it's honestly so soft on the inside and it's so comfortable,' she said. Comfortable: The social media figure expressed that she felt perfectly fine in her clothing Klum spoke about clothing during a recent interview with People, where she stated that she did not usually borrow from her mother's wardrobe. She stated: 'I don't take from her closet often, because we aren't the same shoe size. And she's so much taller than me, but I do take her jewelry because that'll fit no matter what.' The model added: 'Her closet is wild. It is huge. It's stacked. You can't even move. There's so much stuff. My closet is almost empty. There needs to be an inch in between each hanger, so I can see all of the pieces.' Molly-Mae Hague has given fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at her autumn/winter fashion shoot with PrettyLittleThing. The former Love Island star, 23, who is the brand's creative director, took to the streets of London to pose in a plethora of outfits for the photoshoot. Screen star Molly-Mae showed off her blossoming baby bump in a number of her ensembles, saying in a video filmed across the two days: 'We're on the streets of London, we're shooting my favourite types of outfits, autumn/winter fashion. Stay tuned to see what we get up to.' Glowing: Molly-Mae Hague, 23, has given fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at her autumn/winter fashion shoot with PrettyLittleThing She could then be seen in a number of locations as she posed up a storm for the brand's campaign. Molly-Mae is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Tommy Fury, with the couple announcing the happy news earlier this year. In one shot, she could be seen wearing an all-white outfit which perfectly hugged her growing bump. Strike a pose: The former Love Island star, who is the brand's creative director, took to the streets of London to pose in a plethora of outfits for the photoshoot Fashion focus: Screen star Molly-Mae showed off her blossoming baby bump in a number of her ensembles She wore a grey coat off the shoulders and open to ensure she gave a full view of her figure. Donning another outfit, she gave a glimpse at her midriff in a latte-hued crop top and matching trousers. She wore a beige trench coat and held her handbag under her arm while confidently posing with her hand on her hip. Fan friendly: She said in a video filmed across the two days: 'We're on the streets of London, we're shooting my favourite types of outfits, autumn/winter fashion' Dressed up: She could then be seen in a number of locations as she posed up a storm for the brand's campaign Happy news: Molly-Mae is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Tommy Fury, with the couple announcing the happy news earlier this year She could be seen looking wistfully off into the distance as the photographer snapped away. Ever the professional, Molly-Mae spent two days posing for shots but was seen enjoying herself in her downtime between outfits. The star could be seen enjoying a chocolate croissant for breakfast and expressed her gratitude at having a beautiful bunch of flowers as a prop. On location: Ever the professional, Molly-Mae spent two days posing for shots but was seen enjoying herself in her downtime between outfits Baby on the way: In one shot, she could be seen wearing an all-white outfit which perfectly hugged her growing bump Star quality: Molly-Mae looked stylish as she wore a black mini dress and brown leather coat in on shot Relaxed: She could be standing up against the wall as she posed for one shot during the two-day shoot Chatterbox: Molly-Mae could be seen as she was interviewed by some of the PrettyLittleThing staff for the campaign The shoot comes after Molly-Mae took to her Instagram Stories on Saturday to show her 'proper bump' and admitted she 'hadn't felt like there was a baby in her belly' until now. The reality star raised up her T-shirt to show off her growing baby bump in a mirror selfie, and gushed: 'Girl is growinggg!' Alongside the photograph, Molly-Mae told her followers: 'Bump update. Sent this to my sister before to show her how much I feel like I have grown in the last few days. Watching the world go by: Molly-Mae looked stylish as she wore a grey jumpsuit and sat outside a cafe in one shot Blooming: The star expressed her gratitude at the bunch of flowers she was given to with with as a prop 'I feel like my bump has finally started to rise properly and now it deffo feels like a proper bump. 'Honestly up until this point I really haven't felt like I have a baby in my belly at all. Girl is growing.' It comes after Molly-Mae admitted she was 'cried every single day' and 'felt quite sad' during the early months of her pregnancy. Sweet treat: The star made sure to keep her energy up by eating a chocolate croissant during a break on the shoot The former Love Island contestant announced she was expecting a baby girl with her boyfriend Tommy, also 23, last month. Speaking in a YouTube video, she said: 'I had extreme emotions up to seven weeks, so from finding out to about seven or eight weeks, I was so so so emotional, I cried literally every single day. 'Emotions were very high and I felt sad a lot which was very weird because all our dreams had come true, I had fallen pregnant. I was so so happy but I couldn't feel that happiness yet. Up until eight weeks, I felt quite sad, which I didn't expect.' Bump update: The new ad comes after Molly-Mae took to her Instagram Stories on Saturday to show her 'proper bump' and admitted she 'hadn't felt like there was a baby in her belly' until now Mum and dad: The pregnant Love Islander is expecting her first child, a girl, with her boxer boyfriend Tommy Fury, also 23 'I have also written down her insomnia during my first trimester, I had really bad night sleeps. 'I would just be lying there wide awake in bed, I also had really bad nightmares, really vivid dreams.' She went on to list her symptoms: 'My main symptom throughout my whole pregnancy has been hunger, especially through my first trimester, the hunger was unlike anything I have ever, ever, experienced. 'I knew that pregnant women eat for two and you experience hunger, but I didn't realise it was a clinical, medical thing. 'Sometimes I have been in the car with Tommy and been like, "If you don't pull over to a service station right now and help me get some food, I am going to collapse on the floor." That was the levels it was, it was unbelievable.' She attended a Halloween bash on Friday in West Hollywood dress as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura from the Star Trek franchise. And on Friday, Lori Harvey was spotted relaxing in Miami rocking a one piece Chanel bathing suit. The stunning 25-year-old model showcased her incredible figure in the designer swimwear, adding matching Chanel sunglasses and a Chanel quilted bag. Striking: She attended a Halloween bash on Friday in West Hollywood dress as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura from the Star Trek franchise. And on Friday, Lori Harvey was spotted relaxing in Miami rocking a one piece Chanel bathing suit Lori looked incredible in the black and white one piece number, which featured the luxury label's logo on her chest. She wore the coordinating sunglasses with her brunette tresses pulled back into a bun. She added a black skirt over her swimsuit while she walked around the beach, rocking her quilted Chanel handbag. Her Miami beach day comes one week after she enjoyed a West Hollywood Halloween bash with her friends, including Hailey Bieber. Looking good: The stunning 25-year-old model showcased her incredible figure in the designer swimwear, adding matching Chanel sunglasses and a Chanel quilted bag Stunner: Lori looked incredible in the black and white one piece number, which featured the luxury label's logo on her chest One week prior, Lori looked incredible as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura from Star Trek for the Halloween bash. She flaunted her incredible abs in the red crop top and skirt for her costume. The Star Trek character Lt. Uhura was a Starfleet communications officer serving in the 23rd century; she was played by actors Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana. Wow factor: One week prior, Lori looked incredible as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura from Star Trek for the Halloween bash Gorgeous: She flaunted her incredible abs in the red crop top and skirt for her costume Series: Actress Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek; Nichelle played Nyota in the series and six films in the franchise. The series aired from 1966 until 1969 with six films released in the 70's, 80's and 90's She also rocked two different Beyonce costumes for Halloween, which she posted on her Instagram. Both of the looks were from Beyonce's Me, Myself and I music video; Lori rocked a black dress and a blonde wig for one look and a striking green cut-out dress for the second part of her costume. The beauty looked almost exactly like Beyonce in the two looks, bearing a strong resemblance to the superstar. Incredible: She also rocked two different Beyonce costumes for Halloween, which she posted on her Instagram; Lori pictured The original: Beyonce pictured in her music video Impressive: Both of the looks were from Beyonce's Me, Myself and I music video; Lori rocked a black dress and a blonde wig for one look and a striking green cut-out dress for the second part of her costume; Lori pictured Florence Pugh has given a behind-the-scenes look at The Wonder filming in Dublin alongside her co-stars. The actress, 26, plays the lead role in the forthcoming film, based on the hit book by Emma Donoghue. It tells the story of a nurse investigating a child in Ireland who doesn't seem to eat but stays miraculously alive. Beaming: Florence Pugh has given a behind-the-scenes look at The Wonder filming in Dublin alongside her co-stars Also starring Toby Jones, Kila Lord Cassidy and Niamh Algar the movie is directed by Oscar winner Sebastian Lelio. The cast can be seen in traditional dresses and headscarf's of the period as they filmed scenes in the Irish moors. The official synopsis reads: 'The Irish Midlands, 1862 - a young girl stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. English nurse Lib Wright is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year old Anna O'Donnell'. New: It tells the story of a nurse investigating a child in Ireland who doesn't seem to eat but stays miraculously alive Filming fun: The cast appeared in high spirits as they messed around on set In a lengthy post, Florence penned: 'I forgot to post to say one major piece of information.. The Wonder is out and about and ready to be seen at select theatres in the UK & US! 'Today was such a wonderful way to kick off what this little movie deserves. We shot it last summer, through thick mud, surprising sudden mountain rainstorms and just as surprising brief sunny spells. 'Thank you to all those who helped us while we were there. Fans who waited and cheered. The locals who let us turn their quiet village into our 1860s film set. We appreciated your support hugely. It truly was a dreamy way to spend our summer- Ireland we loved you. 'If you can, please try and watch these movies on the big screen. The sound, the colours, cinematography.. its all meant to be appreciated largely! Equally, if its not playing near you it is on Netflix later on in the month. Hopefully you enjoy. Thank you for all of the love so far.' Florence wrote: 'Thank you to all those who helped us while we were there. It truly was a dreamy way to spend our summer- Ireland we loved you.' Characters: The cast can be seen in traditional dresses of the period as they filmed scenes in the Irish moors It comes amid reports Florence and Harry Styles shared an offscreen kiss after developing 'instant chemistry' on the set of Don't Worry Darling - weeks before the One Direction star, 28, began a relationship with its married director, Olivia Wilde. The beleaguered film, in which Styles and Pugh play a married couple, has been overshadowed by a series of controversies both before and after its memorably awkward premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. Notably, Pugh failed to acknowledge Wilde on the red carpet following an on-set dispute - thought to be sparked by the actress's discomfort at her director embarking on a very public relationship with Styles while shooting the film on location in Los Angeles. Sources claim their fall-out stems from the initial chemistry shared by Pugh and her screen husband before he became romantically involved with Wilde. The official synopsis reads: 'The Irish Midlands, 1862 - a young girl stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. English nurse Lib Wright is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year old Anna O'Donnell'. Stars: Also starring Toby Jones, Kila Lord Cassidy and Niamh Algar the movie is directed by Oscar winner Sebastian Lelio An insider told The Sun: 'Harry and Florence had chemistry from the off, which translated incredibly well on-screen. One night they had a bit of a snog, all very light-hearted and a bit of fun, and that was that. 'It was being gossiped about by a couple of members of production, otherwise no one would have known. Harry was very much single at the time and Florence had separated from Zach Braff, although shed kept the split quiet to ironically avoid headlines. 'There was no cheating or misbehaviour from anyone. However, later on, Harry and Olivia started spending more time together sneaking off for coffees, hanging out in one anothers trailers, and sharing small, routine intimacies.' The insider added that it was clear Harry and Olivia had a real connection and Florence was reportedly unhappy when photos of them holding hands surfaced. There was already said to be tension between the two women, with Harry and Olivia's burgeoning romance making things worse. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Styles, Pugh and Wilde for comment. A report from Page Six in late July claimed that Pugh was upset with Wilde because she was hooking up with leading man Harry Styles during the production while still engaged to Jason Sudeikis before they split in November. Claims: Harry Styles and Florence reportedly shared an offscreen kiss after developing 'instant chemistry' on the set of Don't Worry Darling - weeks before the One Direction star began a relationship with its married director, Olivia Wilde 'I can tell you for a fact that Flo seeing Olivia and Harry all over each other on set did not go down well as Olivia was still with Jason when she first hooked up with Harry,' the source said. Pugh was asked by an Italian journalist at the event about what she found 'inspiring' in the film and appeared to make a sly dig at Wilde. She responded: 'I think it's very very inspiring to see a woman push back and say 'no', and question everything. It's very exciting to see a woman do that on and off camera.' Asked when she 'says 'no' off camera, Pugh jokingly responded: 'When do I say 'no'? When someone says I can't have cake.' Aubrey Plaza had some fun with her White Lotus costar Haley Lu Richardson when she joked that she had been her 'stalker' years before they worked together. The 38-year-old Parks And Recreation star chatted with the 27-year-old Columbus actress for an Interview Magazine spread on Haley that was published Friday. Aubrey shared that Haley went as far as to show up at the premiere of one of her films uninvited just to be near her, though they both seemed to think it was all good fun after the fact. Having a laugh: Aubrey Plaza, 38, and her White Lotus costar Haley Lu Richardson, 27, joked in Interview Magazine that they knew each other well before being cast together because Haley had 'stalked' Aubrey for years The two got onto the subject of 'stalking' after Aubrey recalled the first time she met Haley years ago. 'I met you because you were stalking me. Just for all the readers out there, Haley stalked me for years,' she said while interrupting her train of thought. 'After I met her at the MTV Awards, she stalked me at the Chucky, AKA Child's Play, premiere ' Haley added with a laugh, 'I showed up to the Child's Play premiere uninvited,' while her costar added that she was snapped on the red carpet, which she attended with her then-partner Brett Dier. Haley added that she made 'friends with all of Aubreys friends at the premiere so that I could get closer to her life,' which only upped the potential creep factor. Yikes! Aubrey said she met Haley years ago at the MTV movie awards, before Haley stalked her by appearing at the Child's Play premiere despite not being in the film; seen in 2019 Owning it: Haley added with a laugh, 'I showed up to the Child's Play premiere uninvited,' while her costar added that she was snapped on the red carpet, which she attended with her then-partner Brett Dier; seen in 2019 'Then Aubreys friend invited me to Aubreys birthday without asking Aubrey. So I showed up and I remember we locked eyes at the bar and you just went, "You,"' she recounted. The Ingrid Goes West actress joked that she 'knew that my stalker had arrived' despite having taken some psychedelic mushrooms at her party. She seemed to sense that Haley could grow to be a legitimate friend, and not just someone peering at her from afar. 'There was something deep down inside all along that was like, "Even though she's stalking me, and maybe eventually she'll cut me up into a million pieces and eat me, I like her,"' Aubrey admitted. '"In fact, I love her." And so when I heard that you were cast on The White Lotus, I was like, "This is some f***ing witchy karmic s***."' However, Haley didn't exactly downplay the (joking) stalker allegations when she said she had saved a screenshot of the first text message she got from the veteran actress in her '"Aubrey" photo album in my camera roll thats all about important moments for us.' She added, 'I also have the video where you were interviewed and you were asked who would play you in the biopic of your life and you said me. Thats the best video Ive ever seen.' The plot thickens: Haley added that she became friends with Aubrey's pals, who then invited her to Aubrey's birthday without her knowledge; seen in February 2020 in Santa Monica Going with the flow: 'There was something deep down inside all along that was like, "Even though she's stalking me, and maybe eventually she'll cut me up into a million pieces and eat me, I like her,"' Aubrey admitted. '"In fact, I love her"'; seen in 2019 in NYC Although Aubrey confessed to gaining respect for Haley as an actress after seeing her in the film Unpregnant, she wasn't welcoming in a traditional way when she reached out to her. 'Im pretty sure the first thing you ever texted me was the bloody knife [emoji],' Haley shared, which Aubrey said was 'classic me.' 'You didnt say your name, didnt say who it was,' Haley continued. 'That first message was very cryptic. But I immediately knew it was you.' Aubrey added, 'And now look where we are.' The two had clearly joked about stalking each other previously, as Haley suggested earlier in the interview that Aubrey was the true stalker after she recalled the Support The Girls actress telling her that she put on a presentation for her parents to convince them to let her move to Hollywood to pursue her dream of being an actress. Creepy: Haley joked that Aubrey's first text to her after they were cast together was just a 'bloody knife [emoji' and no words; still from the White Lotus 'Aubrey, is the big twist that youre my stalker?' Haley asked playfully. 'Haley, Ive been obsessed with you since you were four years old,' Aubrey joked. Although the two both star in the second season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus, their characters don't yet have any obvious connection to each other. Aubrey plays Harper Spiller, who is visiting the luxurious resort of the title in Sicily with her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe). While there, they meet up with his friend Cameron (Theo James) and his wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy), neither of whom she cares for. Haley appears as Portia, the stressed out personal assistant to the wealthy Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, who is played by Jennifer Coolidge, one of only two returning cast members from the first season. When Tanya's husband Greg (Jon Gries, also returning) gets angry that she brought her assistant along on a trip that was just supposed to be for the two of them, Tanya orders Portia to stay in her room and out of sight. Irina Shayk raised eyebrows as she celebrated Halloween with her ex Bradley Cooper. The model, 36, posted a sizzling shot on Friday of her sitting on the 47-year-old's lap as he wore a bear suit for the festive occasion. Irina cast a seductive gaze at the camera as she worked a racy Bettie Page look with a black riding crop dangling from her mouth. A bear-y fun time! Irina Shayk sat in her ex Bradley Cooper's lap as they celebrated Halloween together in photos posted to her account on Friday The catwalk queen rocked long black gloves, a sexy corset top, and tights hanging from suspenders. She displayed her endless legs while Bradley placed one hand at her mid-back. Irina poked fun at his costume in the caption, where she wrote, 'Bear with me ..' The rest of the carousel captured Irina's fun-filled night out. Happy Halloween! In one shot, she sat on the floor as she bit into a piece of candy and flashed a wicked expression for the camera Trick or treat! In another, she flashed an ecstatic grin as she crouched low to the floor beside other Halloween revelers In one shot, she sat on the floor as she bit into a piece of candy and flashed a wicked expression for the camera. In another, she flashed an ecstatic grin as she crouched low to the floor beside other Halloween revelers. The post came several days after the exes were spotted going trick-or-treating with their daughter Lea, five. Bradley wore his bear costume, Irina was in the sexy pinup look, while Lea looked adorable in a glittery pink fairy costume. Boo! She also shared this blurry snap from her spooky night out The duo, who dated between 2015 to 2019, have sparked romance rumors for months since she shared vacation photos in the Bahamas together over the summer. It was reported in August that the Nightmare Alley actor and Vogue cover girl are mulling the prospect of having more children. Although they split in 2019, they have remained famously amicable co-parents since then, with an insider telling Page Six: 'It was a real family getaway and they are considering getting back together.' As a family: The post came several days after the exes were spotted going trick-or-treating with their daughter Lea, five, in New York The source asserted that Irina 'would like her daughter to have a sibling,' and that Bradley is amenable to the idea. She and Bradley were first linked in 2015 before going public as a couple in 2016, welcoming their little girl in 2017 and then going their separate ways in 2019. Although Bradley was rumored to be dating Hillary Clinton's close confidante Huma Abedin, the outlet reports they were only ever casually involved. Meanwhile Irina's dating history includes Cristiano Ronaldo and last year she was briefly linked to Kanye West in the wake of his split from Kim Kardashian. She rose to fame walking for many major fashion brands and becoming the face of the lingerie brand Intimissimi back in 2007. Ride-hailing company Lyft is going to lay off some 13 percent of its over 5,000 employees. Company officials announced on Thursday, Nov. 3. Company President John Zimmer and CEO Logan Green, in an email to employees, said the cutback of the number of employees was a management decision after a thorough assessment of the company's performance. Recession And Rising Insurance Costs The two officials also pointed to a recession that is likely to hit in 2023 and the rising costs of rideshare insurance. Both officials stressed the need for the company "to become leaner, which requires us to part with incredible team members." The company has worked hard to reduce the costs of operations, suspending important initiatives, but laying off some employees is necessary for the organization to respond to external events. Layoffs Hit Tech Companies The San Francisco-based company assured all employees affected by the decision of support. That support comes in the form of 10-week pay, health insurance coverage until April next year, hastening the vesting equity for the Nov. 20 equity vesting date, and assistance in recruitment. Lyft is only one of the many companies, tech companies included, to implement a layoff of their employees this year. Towards the end of October, over 45,000 tech employees in the United States were laid off, Crunchbase News reports. American streaming giant Netflix had already slashed the number of jobs. Twitter is also one of the high-profile companies that have also laid off some 25 percent of the company's employees. Its new owner, Elon Musk, has reportedly ordered the cutback. Robinhood, Glossier and Better had also joined the bandwagon citing various reasons, including a negative outlook for the US economy next year. Read Also: Lyft Follows Uber's Surcharge Implementation - Here's Why Other Big American Businesses Other big American businesses have also cut down the headcounts of their employees. While Peloton had laid off thousands of its workforce, Re/ Max, a real estate company, had reduced its headcount by 17 percent. Companies known for resisting layoffs, such as Shopify were also cutting down on their number of employees. Here is the list of some notable companies so far: 1. Gap. The company is going to lay off some 500 or 5 percent of its workforce, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to Bob Martin, the interim CEO of Gap, the reason for the cut down of headcount was the rising costs of operations and profitability. He said the cutback would impact company-wide and in places where Gap had established its presence, such as New York and Asia. 2. Snap. The camera company had laid off some 20 percent of the company's workforce in August, The Verge reports. The layoff had affected a fifth of the company's 6,400 employees. It will impact employees in Snap's divisions, such as Zenly, a social map app it acquired in 2017. The hardware division of Snap also shared the cuts. 3. Wayfair. Some 870 company employees were impacted by the layoff of the furniture and home goods company implemented. The layoff, which had affected about 10 percent of its corporate team, cost Wayfair at least $30 million, paying the benefits due to the laid-off employees. The list of companies implementing a cutback to their headcounts goes on. A tally by Insider includes big businesses such as Ford and Credit Suisse. Related Article: Crypto Companies Entering Layoff Season - Coinbase Workforce to Be Significantly Affected Country Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Designers express frustration about the news that Pantone Connect plugin is now requiring users to buy their colors in Adobe Photoshop. Pantone wants designers to get a $15 monthly subscription to use their colors in Adobe apps, or the colors in PSD files turn black, The Verge writes. Creatives Who Use Adobe's Creative Suite Tools Are Furious Designers are not happy that Pantone is holding 15,000 colors hostage with a paywall on Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. This licensing change will force users to now pay $15 a month or $90 annually to work with the colors they want and need for their designs in Adobe. In a tweet, designer Iain Anderson says that he received a notification that reveals that Pantone is pulling out thousands of colors from Adobe apps after November. According to Anderson, the email also explains that the Pantone color books expired in August because of licensing issues between Pantone and Adobe. Gizmodo reports that while it was Adobe who stopped its support for Pantone, it was the latter who required the removal of the colors since they want to charge consumers directly. Adobe's SVP of digital media marketing, strategy, and global partnerships Ashley Sill claims that this move follows Pantone's decision to change its business model. Users of Adobe took out their frustration about the matter on the plugin's page, where many pointed out that it squeezes extra fees from those who have already paid for the apps. Creative Suite users also flooded the page with one-star reviews, stating their disappointment that they now have to pay for something they can use for free before. According to Gizmodo, this reaction from designers might have been avoided if the two companies only communicated the changes better. Despite this, Sill assures their customers that Adobe is looking for ways to lessen the impact of the paywall on creatives. Read More: Adobe Photoshop to Soon Have a Browser Version - Will You Need a Subscription? Pantone Puts The Blame On Adobe As Pantone is getting the heat, the company released an email statement reiterating that it was agreed upon that they only include a curated set of Pantone color libraries in Adobe Creative Cloud. "While we do not determine the pricing, features, or user experience of our partners' solutions, we do collaborate closely with our partners to create the best possible customer experience," Pantone says. With this, they also claim that this move can leverage Adobe Creative Cloud users as they continue to work with Adobe to improve the add-in extension. Pantone is a company that influences the color trends in the world as they decide the color of the year annually, dictating fashion and design for the months following the New Year. According to Vice, Pantone Connect is listed at a price of $7.99 a month or as much as $59.99 per year, but with the cost of licensing falling on developers, it will now have to be passed to users. The Verge writes that at the moment, there are several ways users can restore the lost Pantone color swatches like disabling Adobe updates, or by copying the Pantone range's metadata values. Related Article: Adobe Updates Photoshop for iPads: New Features Include 'Content-Aware Fill,' 'Remove Background,' and More! Import expo boosts China's high-standard opening up Xinhua) 08:30, November 04, 2022 * The fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) will open on Nov. 5 in China's economic hub Shanghai. * Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. * As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. SHANGHAI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Andreas Thorud is putting the finishing touches to a seafood-themed booth at the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in China's economic hub Shanghai. "We are very happy and excited to be part of this fifth edition of the CIIE," said Thorud from the Norwegian Seafood Council, a first-time CIIE exhibitor. This photo taken on Nov. 2, 2022 shows the west entrance of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the upcoming fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) According to Thorud, eight Norwegian companies, led by the seafood council, will be joining the upcoming event. They will be promoting a variety of star seafood specially selected for the Chinese market, including Norwegian salmon, shellfish and king crab. The past few years have been full of opportunities for global exporters, as China's appetite for seafood has grown continually. It was this fact that prompted Thorud and his peers to gravitate to the CIIE. This year's CIIE is going to be a very exciting platform "for us to see how we can develop new areas, new business partners and new types of consumers," Thorud said. OPEN MARKET As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. U.S. carmaker Tesla's robotic product Tesla Bot will make its debut on the Chinese mainland at this year's expo. As the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory manifests China's commitment to its pledge of furthering reform and opening up. "The report to the 20th CPC National Congress has once again emphasized China's commitment to opening wider to the outside world. It was on such a premise that Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China," said Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin. Tao added that the CIIE has provided an open, collaborative and mutually beneficial platform for global enterprises to share business opportunities in the Chinese market, and is a vivid practice of building a human community with a shared future. This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2021 shows the booth of AstraZeneca at the medical equipment and healthcare products exhibition area of the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) Having joined all the four previous editions, the biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will set up a 1,000-square meter main booth at the upcoming CIIE, which is one of the largest booths at the medical equipment and healthcare products exhibition area. "Over the past four years, AstraZeneca has gone from being a newcomer at the CIIE to becoming a regular participant, and we have benefitted from the powerful CIIE spillover effects," said Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president of AstraZeneca. "The annual event provides us with an opportunity to summarize our phased results in China and open a new chapter of cooperation and exchange. We will continue to participate in CIIEs with an impressive score card," noted Wang. SHARED GROWTH Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday that 284 industry-leading enterprises, including some of the world's top 500 companies, will participate in the upcoming expo. New Zealand's dairy brand Theland has already signed up for the sixth CIIE. "We've tasted the sweetness at the CIIE, and we certainly can't miss such a great opportunity," said Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Theland Global R&D at Milk New Zealand Dairy, an "old friend" to the CIIE. Hurk said that all the commitments China made at the previous CIIEs to open wider have been fulfilled. For example, the delivery time of fresh milk from New Zealand farms to Chinese consumers has been cut to just 72 hours from more than eight days. According to Hurk, the expo has helped Theland quickly grow from a relatively small brand to a well-known name even in counties in central and western China. An exhibitor introduces products on a livestream at the booth of Theland of New Zealand at the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) "Theland is a staunch supporter of the CIIE, which has become a new driving force for the development of global enterprises and a platform for win-win cooperation, and helps mitigate the uncertainties that the pandemic brought to the global economy," said Hurk. Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that, from 2018 to 2021, exhibitors at the four previous editions of the CIIE launched more than 1,500 new products, technologies and services, with a total expected turnover exceeding 270 billion U.S. dollars. "The CIIE is the perfect platform of collaboration. I've been witnessing it for four years myself, and seeing more and more exhibitors, from more and more countries, in more and more domains," said Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China. "I think there are no other ones in the world which are able to bring so many industries, so many country representatives, and have this dialogue that allows us really to look at shared opportunities and discuss the values that are important for us," Megarbane added. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that she experienced technical difficulties on her Twitter account, following an exchange with Elon Musk. The representative alleges that an online feud with Twitter's new owner is what caused her mentions and notifications to not work, CBS News reports. An Innocent Back And Forth Between AOC And Musk Started From A Subtweet The Democratic representative indirectly tweeted about the billionaire, laughing at the fact that Musk is selling the idea of free speech for an $8 monthly subscription plan. The Tesla CEO replied to AOC's tweet by saying that her feedback was appreciated, and then asking the representative to pay $8. After that, Musk posted a screenshot from the congressperson's website of a sweatshirt that costs $58, even adding emojis to seemingly mock the price. In response, AOC tells the CEO that she is proud of the sweatshirts, which were fruits of the labor of unionized workers that funds educational support for kids in need. Following the exchange, New York's representative posted a screenshot of her empty notifications panel, calling out Musk as her account suspiciously malfunctions after the feud. According to The Byte, it seems convenient to think that Musk has something to do with AOC's technical difficulties in her Twitter account since he is the owner of the platform. However, it is important to note that Twitter has dodgy community guidelines that can get users in trouble for the most random things. While this is not to say that it is highly unlikely that the billionaire could have done this out of petty reason, it is not impossible since he owns Twitter after all. According to CBS News, Musk believes that charging users for a verification subscription will allow the social media site to generate revenue. This revenue will then reward content creators, and those who will subscribe should get additional access to in-app benefits ad free. Read More: Professionals, Celebrities Think of Leaving Twitter After Musk's Takeover: Here's Why What Do Analysts Think About Paid Verification Jasmine Enberg, an Insider Intelligence analyst, believes that verification subscriptions can help generate money for Twitter, but is not the right feature that should be charged for. "Verification is intended to ensure the integrity of accounts and conversations on the platform, rather than a premium feature meant to elevate the experience," Ensberg says. She even tells Musk that he should invest in features that people grow a strong appetite for using to add value to their experience of the platform. ABC News also writes Twitter already has a subscription plan that lets users read ad-free articles and undo tweets, which only costs $5. Because of this, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives believes that only 25% of the 300,000 verified Twitter users might be willing to pay an $8 a month fee. Musk has always been on the defense about his $8-dollar subscription idea, and has fend off criticisms since it was announced. Twitter's new owner initially pitched that the monthly verification fee be $20, but has since reduced it to the controversial $8 fee. Related Article: Twitter Cancels Chirp Conference Following Elon Musk's Takeover HYDERABAD: It has been noticed that students are increasingly losing interest in studies because the classrooms are crammed in a chaotic environment and there are hardly any facilities for them. Ironically, the worst case scenario is in primary schools, which actually should be the best as that is precisely where students get their first exposure to learning. Deccan Chronicle has, on umpteen occasions, highlighted complaints of government school teachers who have to manage several students in a classroom. Some school buildings are also on the verge of collapse. Two schools that have been functioning in a dilapidated condition are located in Fatehnagar and Balanagar. Both schools have at least 75-100 class 1-5 students stuffed in a single classroom or two small rooms. There are no benches, drinking water or washroom facilities while only three teachers, including the headmaster, run the school. The mandal parishad primary school in Fathenagar will be demolished soon as large bits of plaster are peeling off and the wall of a classroom has collapsed. All the 76 students are now studying in a makeshift classroom in a nearby community hall. A class V student said that lessons are taught for fourth and fifth class students simultaneously. We are hardly able to study anything, she said. Many teachers, requesting anonymity, said that they have had multi-grade training and have been teaching the same way for 10 years. The 22-year-old school is being demolished. Earlier, we only had two classrooms and now there is just one common hall. We are doping our bit despite the difficulties, said a teacher. Another teacher of the same school added that the government is very well aware of the situation but has been ignoring them. In fact the teachers have been asked to finish a target related to basic knowledge and not ask for any other facilities. Almost 80 percent of the students are either from Bihar or Odisha. As hardly any of them speak Telugu, there is a language barrier. They added that there is no government high school in Fatehnagar and the Pardhi Basti people do not allow their children to go out of the community. The temporary school does not have washrooms and is located right opposite to the public toilet. In Gautam Nagar Primary School in Balanagar students are stuffed in two small classrooms. Students are unable to study and find it difficult to sit without benches, the teacher said. The helpline is currently receiving only 15-20 calls per day because it was only launched a few weeks ago and there hasn't been enough publicity, said a Tele Manas member. The helpline anticipates that the number of callers will increase as more people become aware of it. Representational Image/By Arrangement Hyderabad: Financial and relationship problems, as well as students becoming overly stressed about entrance examination preparation, are the most common issues reported to Tele Manas, the state's mental health helpline. Every day, the helpline receives 15-20 calls, including some serious cases. The Union health ministry launched the Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) programme in 20 states on October 11. The Hyderabad centre is staffed by 25 trained counsellors, psychologists, and psychiatrists who are available for counselling 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Citizens can access the services by dialling 14416, a toll-free number. According to Tele Manas team members, many callers report high levels of stress, while others report depression. The callers have indicated suicidal tendencies a few times. In such cases, the operators attempt to divert their attention by adding a psychiatrist to a conference call. The operators counsel the callers, and if they believe the case is serious enough to warrant the services of a psychiatrist, the latter is added to a conference call to counsel the patient. The helpline is currently receiving only 15-20 calls per day because it was only launched a few weeks ago and there hasn't been enough publicity, said a Tele Manas member. The helpline anticipates that the number of callers will increase as more people become aware of it. According to the member, the majority of callers are between the ages of 35 and 50. By Kim Rahn Installation artist Yang Hae-gue, also stylized as Haegue Yang, is on the world's top 100 artist list this year as the only Korean, according to the Korea Art Authentication & Appraisal Research Center, Friday. The list, known as Kunst Kompass, is drawn up and announced by German-language business magazine Capital every year. The magazine selects the artists by assessing factors such as whether they have held private exhibitions at major museums and galleries around the world, if they have participated in major global art fairs, and whether renowned galleries own their artworks. Yang ranked 93rd, up from 99th last year. She is among four Asian artists on the list, with the other three being Ai Weiwei from China, and Yoko Ono and Hiroshi Sugimoto from Japan. Based in Seoul and Berlin, Yang, 51, was the main creator at the Korean Pavilion in the 2009 edition of the Venice Biennale. In 2018, she became the first Asian female artist to receive the Wolfgang Hahn Prize, and this October, she received the Benesse Prize at the Singapore Biennale as the first Korean to do so. Of the 100 people on Kunst Kompass, 29 are from Germany, 24 are from the United States and 12 are from the United Kingdom. The magazine also announced a list of deceased artists whose work influenced the art world, and Nam June Paik was picked as the only Korean, ranking 15th. Wreackage of the Mercedes car in which businessman and former Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry was travelling when it met with an accident in Palghar. (PTI) MUMBAI: Darius Pandole, who survived the car accident in which industrialist Cyrus Mistry died, has told the police that his wife Dr Anahita was driving the Mercedes-Benz car in the third lane and could not merge into the second lane that turned narrow near the Surya river bridge in Maharashtra's Palghar, an official said. The statement of Darius Pandole (60) was recorded on Tuesday by the officials of the Kasa police station in Palghar, under whose jurisdiction the accident took place on September 4. Former Tata Sons chairman Mistry (54) and his friend Jahangir Pandole were killed after the car hit the railing of the bridge. Gynaecologist Dr Anahita (55), who was at the wheel, and her husband Darius suffered serious injuries. Darius Pandole, who was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, was discharged last week. His statement was recorded at his south Mumbai residence for one-and-a-half hours, during which he gave details of the accident, the official said on Friday. He could not immediately recollect the September 4 incident in which his brother Jahangir Pandole and Cyrus Mistry died, he said. In his statement, Darius Pandole said his wife Anahita was driving the Mercedes-Benz car when they were on their way to Mumbai. A car which was ahead of their vehicle went to the second lane from the third and Anahita also tried to follow the same, the official said. When she tried to take the car to the second lane from the third, she found that there was a truck on the right side (in the second lane) due to which she was not able to merge into that lane, he said, adding the lane turned narrow near Surya river bridge. Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil confirmed that they have recorded the statement of Darius Pandole. But the statement of his wife Anahita Pandole is yet to be recorded as she is still recovering, he said, adding that the final report from Mercedes-Benz was also awaited. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan rejected allegations by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the former was politically interfering in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to universities (PTI file photo) Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday rejected allegations by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the former was politically interfering in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to universities in the state and offered to resign if even one example of the same could be shown. Khan also alleged that the Chief Minister's Office was patronising smuggling activities in the state and contended that in such a situation there were grounds for him to interfere. "I have never interfered. But now I see all smuggling activities are patronised by the office of the Chief Minister (CMO). Now books are being written. People sitting in the CMO dictate Kannur University VC to appoint their relatives -- underqualified and unqualified. I have never interfered. "But if the state government, the CMO and the people close to CM are involved in smuggling activities, definitely there are grounds for me to interfere," he said. Khan also openly challenged the Chief Minister, asking whether he would be able to resign if he was unable to prove or substantiate his allegation. "They (Left government, CM) are saying I am doing this (action against VCs) to bring RSS people. If I have nominated even one person, not just of RSS, any person, on my own using my authority, then I will resign. Will he (CM) be able to resign if he is not able to prove it? I am asking you (the media)," he said, speaking to reporters in New Delhi. "When you make such a serious charge against me, you have to substantiate the same," he added. He was responding to reporters when his stand was sought on Vijayan's allegations against him on Wednesday at a convention in Thiruvananthapuram where the CM said the Governor was trying to make universities in the state centres of RSS and Sangh Parivar and that Khan was trying to implement the saffronisation agenda of these groups. Placing of foundation stone for the 257 crore plant being set up by Assago Industries Private Limited at Gummalladuddi village in Gokavaram mandal of East Godavari district on Friday. (Twitter/@sreeharipudi) GUMMALLADUDDI: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy attributed credit to APs best practices and Ease of Doing Business for setting up an ethanol plant in just six months of it being proposed. Himself placing the foundation stone for the 257 crore plant being set up by Assago Industries Private Limited at Gummalladuddi village in Gokavaram mandal of East Godavari district on Friday, he disclosed that its proposal had come from Tech Mahindra chief managing director C.P. Gurnani when they met in Davos last May. Gurnani talked about his son Ashish, director of Assago Industries, planning to set up a biofuel (ethanol) plant and looking for an appropriate place to do so. I invited him to visit AP. Within just six months, we have given them all requisite permissions for setting up the plant. Today we are performing the bhumi puja for it. This is the best example of Ease of Doing Business being practiced in Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy told the gathering on the occasion. The CM said the upcoming ethanol plant will generate employment for 300 to 400 persons directly or indirectly, as legislation is in place that 75 percent of jobs must be provided to locals. He disclosed that farmers will also benefit from the plant, especially when their paddy is damaged due to cyclonic storms or floods. The discoloured and broken rice, as also maize, can be used to run the plant. Farmers will get a good price even for their damaged produce, he pointed out. Further, by-products of the ethanol plant will help produce high-quality protein, which will serve as feed for cattle, fish and chicken. The Chief Minister hoped the Tech Mahindra MD would have realised how fast AP administration works. He wanted the MD to become an ambassador for Andhra Pradesh in the country for setting up more industries in the state, so that younger generation can get tremendous employment opportunities. Earlier, Tech Mahindra MD Gurnani said, When I met the AP CM in Davos, he asked me about my contribution to AP in emerging technologies. I strongly believe that AP CM has the vision and commitment for industrially developing the state. Speaking on the occasion, industries minister Gudivada Amarnath said YSRC government is coming up with an action plan to attract 1.50 lakh crore worth of investments to AP, which will help provide employment to nearly two lakh people in the days to come. Responding to a request from Jaggampeta MLA Jyothula Chanti Babu, CM Jagan announced sanction of 50 crore for developing the Yeleru right canal, which will help farmers irrigate an ayacut of 15,000 acres. Kothagudem: Chunchu Ramakrishna, the state convener of nine sects of adivasis in Telangana, urged political parties to stop making a mess of the Scheduled Tribe list to gain political mileage. He said it is unfair for the government to add more STs in the list. The adivasis in Telangana are suffering due to 40 lakh from Gore Banjara sects being included in ST list. Efforts are on to add another 40 lakh Valmiki and Benthu Oriya into the list. We adivasis fear living in two Telugu states, he said. "The adivasis adapted to civilisation of India. The political parties are not showing any interest in development of adivasis. He said people living in the plains are identified as adivasis and their existence is in danger. The natural sources in adivasi areas are exploited and not a single rupee is spent for benefit of adivasis," he alleged. Each and every farmer knows he is being cheated by traders in collusion with certain marketing department officials and staff of the market yard. (DC FIle Photo) KHAMMAM: Setting up of closed circuit cameras at Khammam Agricultural Market are of no help in checking the exploitation of farmers in the market. Each and every farmer knows he is being cheated by traders in collusion with certain marketing department officials and staff of the market yard. M. Sudhakar, a farmer from Manchukonda in Raghunadhapalem mandal, said, Connivance between traders and officials has been exposed several times earlier. It is ridiculous to think that farmers can be saved from exploitation by increasing the number of CC cameras from five to 15. A farmer arriving at the market with his produce is like a prey in the hands of everyone at the market yard traders, certain officials and staff, leaders of trade unions, dadavayees who weigh the produce, hamalis and commission agents. Each one of these plays a role in cheating the farmer. N. Govindu, a farmer from Chintakani, said, There is not a single instance of officials taking action against any trader in Khammam market, even though we, as farmers, have repeatedly lodged complaints against them for forming a syndicate and denying us the right price. Clerks of traders are first to discourage farmers saying the produce they have brought is not of good quality and hence they cannot get the minimum statutory price (MSP). M. Sundar Rao, who is well conversant with techniques used by traders to take advantage of farmers, said, Creating confusion in the mind of a farmer over his produce is the main agenda of traders. It discourages the farmer and prepares him into selling his produce for a lesser price than MSP. A commission agent will collect from the farmer 5 per 100 against 2 if he notices the farmer is in a hurry. Dadavai weighing the produce shows less weight as he is bribed by traders. Hamalis charge more than normal if the farmer tries to shift the produce to the shed for protecting his produce from rain. YSRC corporators attending the council meeting first raised the issue of making Visakhapatnam the executive capital, underlining that it is part of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy plan of ensuring decentralised development within Andhra Pradesh. (Twitter/@harbhajan_singh) VISAKHAPATNAM: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), whose council met here on Friday, passed a resolution welcoming decentralisation of Andhra Pradesh with three capitals, with Vizag being the executive capital. YSRC corporators attending the council meeting first raised the issue of making Visakhapatnam the executive capital, underlining that it is part of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy plan of ensuring decentralised development within Andhra Pradesh. Apart from members of Telugu Desam, those of Jana Sena and other minor parties opposed the decentralisation proposal. Interestingly, BJP MLC Madhav praised Jagan Mohan Reddy and hailed the importance of decentralisation. After a discussion on the matter, mayor Hari Venkata Kumari put up the resolution on three capitals for passage. The resolution received support from majority of the members. The council, which met after a gap of three months, also took certain key decisions. Except BJPs G. Kavitha, rest of the corporators demanded that Visakhapatnam Steel Plant must remain a public sector unit. CPI and CPM members asked the mayor to take up this demand of the council with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits Visakhapatnam next week. Speaking on the matter, BJP MLC Madhav maintained that instead of privatising the steel plant, AP BJP wing should ask the Prime Minister to merge it with a government sector company like the SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited). YSRC MLC Kalyani reminded the council members that her party, under the leadership of CM Jagan, has fought against the privatisation of steel plant. In another key resolution, GVMC recommended that the chainman practice of taking measurements of buildings within the corporation area be scrapped. Almost all corporators supported this proposal. Members pointed out that after ward secretariat system has been in place, involvement of chainmen is needless. Union fertilisers and chemicals secretary Arun Singhal along with district collector Dr S. Sangeetha Satyanarayana and police commissioner Chandrashekhar Reddy inspects arrangements at the Ramagundam plant of the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited on Saturday. (Photo By Arrangement) KARIMNAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi would dedicate the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) after its inauguration at an event on November 12, according to chemicals and fertiliser secretary Arun Singhal. Modi would also address a public meeting later. Singhal accompanied by district collector Dr S. Sangeetha Satyanarayana and Police commissioner Chandrashekhar Reddy and senior officials inspected the arrangements in the industrial area. They visited the RFCL plant, the NTPC helipad and Mahatma Gandhi stadium where the Prime Minister would address a public meeting after dedicating the RFCL to the nation. They inspected the route map and the security arrangements. The BJP government had taken up the revival of the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI) unit at Ramagundam as the RFCL and incorporated it on February 17, 2015, as a gas-based urea manufacturing plant. On August 7, 2016, Modi had laid the foundation stone for the Rs. 6,120-crore revival of the plant. RFCL declared its commercial operations open on March 22 last year. The plant is expected to produce 3,850 metric tonnes of urea and 2,200 metric tonnes of ammonia per day. Of the 12.7 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers produced annually at the Ramagundam plant annually, 6 lakhs metric tonnes are allocated to Telangana State. HYDERABAD: The government on the second day of its submission on Thursday told the High Court that the detention authority had felt it necessary to impose the PD Act against Goshamahal MLA T. Raja Singh because, after the remand report of his alleged remarks against the Prophet was rejected by the lower court, there was an uproar in the city, and people came on to the streets opposing it. In order curb the gathering storm, the detention order was necessary, Advocate General B.S. Prasad said. He said the lower court had erred in rejecting the remand order of Raja Singh on the ground that notice under CrPC Section 41 was not served on him. This was contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar v State of Bihar, which stated that it was not mandatory for the police to issue the notice. He refuted the arguments of Raja Singhs counsel over the papers that were served to the MLA on the PD Act proceedings and said that the Mangalhat police inspector had read out the detention order to the MLA. The court wanted to know if there was any public disorder after Raja Singh circulated a video during the Uttar Pradesh elections in February. The bench asked the Advocate-General to furnish the FIR pertaining to the incident as junior counsel representing senior counsel L. Ravichander, had opposed the AGs contention that the MLA was unaware of the FIR registered against him in this issue. The case was adjourned to November 8. SANGAREDDY: As the Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Sangareddy, party leader Rahul Gandhi launched a tirade against the TRS and the BJP, accusing Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of killing democracy and benefiting only a few wealthy people. Addressing a large audience on Shivampet Road, the Gandhi scion said, "TRS and BJP are two sides of the same coin. The PM and CM are one and the same, and they work the same. Rao is following Modi's lead by privatising education and healthcare." BHEL and BDL are the nation's assets, but Modi wants to privatise them. BHEL owns thousands of acres of valuable land across the country, these lands will be given to his wealthy friends. He said that when any Opposition party opposed the Bills passed by the BJP in Parliament, the TRS in the Lok Sabha supported the ruling prty, he said. KCR reacts like a bulb when Modi presses a button to pass the Bills, the Congress leader said. Rahul Gandhi claimed that "both of them work in the interests of their friends and family." He said that particularly in Telangana, the Chief Minister was privatising the educational system while ignoring the amenities in the government schools, leaving the children vulnerable to state food. He claimed that the GST and demonetisation of the Narendra Modi government were part of a calculated strategy to destroy small enterprises and reward industrialists. According to him, Modi introduced GST and demonetisation under the guise of unearthing black money, which caused thousands of small businesses to shut down and thousands of people to lose their jobs. This instilled a sense of fear and uncertainty among the people, he remarked. To support his claim, Rahul Gandhi cited the collapse of the granite industry in Karimnagar and Khammam, which rendered four to five lakh workers jobless. "People from UP and Bihar used to come to these districts for their livelihood. Today, this industry has been destroyed. It is unfortunate that neither the state nor the central government helped the victims, he said. In Ballari in Karnataka, more than 4.5 lakh people had lost their jobs as a result of demonetisation and the GST, he said. "Modi will destroy small and medium-sized businesses wherever they are, he remarked. The Congress leader said that by lying about China invading Indian territory, Modi had insulted and dishonoured Col. Santosh Babu, who had died in battle with the Chinese forces in 2020. If China did not encroach upon Indian territory, how did Santosh Babu become a martyr, he questioned. TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sangareddy MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy, former deputy CM C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, senior leaders V. Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Laxmaiah, Renuka Chowdary, Sangareddy DCC president Nirmala Goud and others were present. HYDERABAD: After moving the Telangana High Court, seeking a direction to transfer the poachgate case to the CBI or set up an inquiry commission by a sitting judge, the Telangana BJP now fears for the lives of the four TRS MLAs who were allegedly sought to be lured. It wants the court to take suo moto cognizance of the issue and provide protection to the MLAs. State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who challenged Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao to swear on oath at the feet of Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy that he did not script the TRS MLAs poaching controversy, expressed concern about the well-being and welfare of the four TRS MLAs only to save his daughter and son. "KCR is capable of doing anything to protect his daughter and son. The MLAs have not been seen in public since KCR addressed a campaign meeting in Munugode on October 30, after which they were whisked away in a helicopter by the Chief Minister, Sanjay said at a press conference on Friday. Sanjay stated that the CM would be held accountable if anything happened to the TRS MLAs, and said that their families must file petitions in the court for their safety. "They have been in Pragathi Bhavan since the case was made public on October 26. Only once they were seen in public. Why is the Chief Minister afraid of letting them go home, Sanjay wondered. The state BJP president also claimed that the poachgate saga was a desperate attempt by the CM to save his daughter from the Delhi liquor scam fallout, having been named as a suspect in the case. "KCR is depressed and concerned about what will happen to her. This is why he started the MLAs-being-bought-by-BJP drama. The CM is well aware that the CBI can come in at any time and question or even arrest his daughter. His GO prohibiting the CBI from entering Telangana is pointless because the case was filed in Delhi." On the Chief Ministers press meet on Thursday where he drew on from an affidavit submitted by the government to the High Court, and showed video clips of the poachgate meeting of the TRS MLAs with purported BJP agents, Sanjay said, The CM said this was a second show. It wasnt. It was a comedy show. Further, Sanjay showed different video clips, including one of TRS MLA Guvvala Balaraju at the farmhouse in Moinabad saying he did not know anything, and that he was just at a friends farmhouse. Dismissing the CM's talk of saving democracy, Sanjay remarked, "KCR claims the 37 MLAs, some of whom were made ministers, joined the TRS impressed by its development agenda. The truth is that they were purchased like cattle in a market. KCR says he will inform the entire country on this case. We too will inform the country about the Nayeem diaries case, the liquor scam, and the drugs cases, he said. He claimed that the BJP had no connections with the person referred to as Tushar by the Chief Minister. He claimed that the Chief Minister insulted Minister Koppula Easwar at a press conference by asking him not to sit next to him. Koppula is a good friend, he was offered the deputy CM post but the plan was changed by KCR. And now, Koppula, the only Dalit in the state Cabinet, is not even allowed to sit next to the Chief Minister, Sanjay said. Paul Houston, deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of the Diplomatic Security Service for Threat Investigation and Analysis, is seen holding a press conference at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Nov. 3. Yonhap The United States on Thursday announced a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest of a Singaporean national who is suspected of engaging in illegal transfers of oil and luxury goods to North Korea. The Singaporean, identified as Kwek Kee Seng, is the director of a Singapore-based shipping agency who is suspected of being engaged in an "extensive scheme" to evade U.S. and U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea, according to Paul Houston, deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of the Diplomatic Security Service for Threat Investigation and Analysis. "As alleged, Kwek and his co-conspirators sought to obscure their activities by conducting financial transactions through a series of shell companies based in Panama, Singapore and other locations," Houston told a press briefing organized by the Washington Foreign Press Center. He added that Kwek is alleged to be involved in illicit ship-to-ship and direct transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korea, noting the North has violated the 500,000 barrels-per-year limit under U.N. Security Council resolutions each year. The deputy assistant secretary of state also noted the District Court of the Southern District of New York issued a warrant for Kwek's arrest in April 2021, but that he remains at large. Gonzalo Suarez, deputy assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, highlighted the need to disrupt North Korea's illicit activities that help fund its illegal weapons programs. Gonzalo Suarez, deputy assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, is seen speaking during a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Nov. 3. Yonhap MUMBAI: Ahead of the arrival of Congress's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in Maharashtra, several senior party leaders in the state have been practising brisk walking and doing exercises to keep pace with Rahul Gandhi during the public outreach programme. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is scheduled to arrive at Deglur in Nanded district of Maharashtra from neighbouring Telangana around 7 pm on November 7. Former state chief minister Ashok Chavan said he and other leaders have been practising brisk walk and exercising to match Gandhi's steps, while state Congress president Nana Patole said he has been doing warm up exercises and push-ups to keep himself fit for the yatra. Citizens in Nanded are all set to participate in the yatra. We are practising and exercising as and when we get time. Walking is good for health, Chavan, who hails from Nanded, said. Patole said that as the party's state unit chief, it was his duty to travel the entire 382-km-long stretch of the yatra in the state with Rahul Gandhi. D P Sawant, Congress leader and MLA from Nanded, said the party leaders from the state will try to walk during the yatra as much as they can. Chavan and other leaders are walking 5 kms every morning, Sawant said. In Maharashtra, the Bharat Jodo Yatra will travel through 15 Assembly and six parliamentary constituencies during its 14-day sojourn. The yatra will reach Madnur Naka in Deglur on Monday evening and the foot march will resume at 6.30 am the next day from the Deglur bus stand. The Maharashtra Congress has made elaborate arrangements to welcome the yatra, where the entire state leadership will be present. BENGALURU: Terming Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah a villain, the Karnataka unit president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nalin Kumar Kateel on Friday attacked Siddaramaiah over holding Tipu jayathi in the state. Siddaramaiah faces curse of the people for Tipu jayanthi celebrations. Because of this, Siddaramaiah is in search of a seat to contest the forthcoming Assembly polls in the state," Kateel said and expressed confidence that Siddaramaiah would be defeated in any Assembly seat he will contest. Delivering the speech at the Janasankalpa Yatra organised in Srirangapatna town of Mandya district, Kateel said the voters of Badami Assembly seat have rejected Siddaramaiah for which he is the MLA and his defeat is sure in Badami this time. He said Siddaramaiah is looking for a safe seat in Kolar while the voters in his native place - Mysuru district - have shown their dislike for him. The BJP chief lashed at Siddaramaiah stating that he meted out injustice to the state by holding Tipu jayanthi when in power in the state and a result he divided Hindus and Muslims in the state. He also alleged that Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister of the state released about 2,000 members of Popular Front of India (PFI) which has been banned in the country now and also stood for cow slaughter. Kateel also attacked JDS leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in his speech accused of shedding tears to win elections. The days of JDS free are not far away in Srirangapatna and that a BJP nominee would be elected from the Assembly seat in the forthcoming election. HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed surprise over a political party`s petition before the High Court in a criminal case related to the alleged attempt to poach TRS MLAs, and how the Telangana High Court had accepted it. While hearing the petition filed by Ramachandra Bharathi and others accused, challenging the High Court's order to them to surrender and their remand, a bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice B.V. Nagarathna inquired asked why the petitioners did not file for bail. Senior counsel Vishwanathan, appearing for the three accused, said they were arrested against the orders of the Supreme Court. Section 41 of CrPC said that no arrest should be made without giving notice in cases where the punishment is less than seven years, he said. Justice Gavai asked whether bail was being given on the same day in trap cases where cash is found. Senior advocate for the state government, Siddharth Luthra, said that if they were found to have committed a crime, they could be arrested. Luthra said that a political party had filed a petition in the High Court, apprehending that the police may not investigate the case and seeking an independent agency probe. Based on this, another bench had deferred the investigation till Monday . The bench observed, The present petition and the pending petition in the High Court will not be a bar to the trial court judge to consider the petitioner's bail application. It is not necessary to tell the trial court to consider the petitions on merits, and adjourned the hearing to November 7. Iranian security forces have arrested a journalist after she published an interview with the father of Mahsa Amini, whose death has sparked seven weeks of anti-regime protests, a rights group said Friday. Nazila Maroufian, a Tehran-based journalist from Amini's hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province, was detained on Sunday, the Norway-based Hengaw rights group said. She was arrested at the house of one of her relatives in Tehran and was transferred to Evin prison in the capital, it added, citing a telephone call she had made to her family. Maroufian, who works for the Ruydad 24 news site, had published an interview with Amini's father Amjad on the Mostaghel Online news site on October 19. Also Read | Iran's Raisi says 'riots' pave way for 'terror' attacks "I neither intend to commit suicide nor have any underlying disease," she commented wryly as she posted a link to the article, alluding to the dangers faced by journalists in Iran covering the story. She also said that she was unable to publish the interview for days, and that her family was threatened. Mostaghel has since taken down the piece but a cached version shows that the father denied his daughter had any underlying health condition. Amini's family contend that she was dealt a fatal blow in police custody. The Iranian authorities dispute this but the anger over her death triggered the protest wave. Amjad Amini said he had been told by a health official he would write in the final report "whatever I like, it's none of your business". The headline of the interview read, "Mahsa Amini's father: 'They are lying!'" The two journalists in Iran who helped bring the story of Amini to the world's attention have already been arrested and have spent the last month in Evin prison. Niloufar Hamedi reported for Iran's Shargh newspaper from the hospital where Amini languished in a coma for three days before she died. The journalist was arrested on September 20, her family said. Elahe Mohammadi, a reporter for the Ham Mihan newspaper, went to Saqez to report on Amini's funeral, which turned into one of the first protest actions. She was detained on September 29. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 54 journalists have been arrested in the crackdown, with a dozen confirmed released on bail so far. Saudi Arabia's powerful 37-year-old crown prince will not attend an upcoming summit in Algeria after his doctors advised him not to travel, the Algerian presidency said early on Sunday. Saudi Arabia offered no immediate acknowledgment of the comments by Algeria about the condition of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has quickly risen to power under his 86-year-old father King Salman. Much of the focus on the Al Saud royal family in recent years has been on King Salman's health, with analysts suggesting Prince Mohammed could rule the OPEC-leading nation for years after ascending to the throne. Also Read: Saudi Arabia 'astonished' by US allegations that it stands by Russia The kingdom's government did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press about the prince, whose health hasn't previously prevented him from travelling. Statements carried in Arabic and French on the Algeria Press Service referred to a statement from the office of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune about a telephone call between him and Prince Mohammed. In the call, Prince Mohammed apologised for not being able to participate in the Arab Summit to be held on November 1 in Algiers, in accordance with the recommendations of doctors who advise him not to travel, the statement read. For his part, Mr. President said he understood the situation and regretted the impediment of the Crown Prince, His Highness the Emir Mohammed Bin Salman, expressing his wishes for his health and well-being." A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency acknowledged a call between Tebboune and the prince but offered no word on the doctors' advice. It just said the call focused on the aspects of bilateral relations between the two fraternal countries" and possible joint cooperation. Direct flights between India and China should start, and the governments of the two countries must work together on this, Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Zha Liyou said. Flight services between the two neighbours have been disrupted ever since coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan in late 2019, and subsequently spread across the world. The flight disruption posed a major challenge for hundreds of Indian students as well as families of Indians working in China and businessmen, though Beijing recently lifted the visa ban after about three years. "Direct air connectivity between India and China should start and both governments should work towards this. A number of Indian students are now keen to return to China," Liyou said at a press briefing on Wednesday evening. About 23,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine who were stranded back home due to China's Covid visa bans, made preparations to travel to China to rejoin their colleges but experienced difficulties due to the absence of direct flights. Indian passengers are currently travelling to China through Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar, shelling out an exorbitant amount of money on steep airfares. India and China have been in talks for several months to resume limited flight services, but the negotiations made little headway. When does a District Collector decide that the moment has come to risk his comfortable existence? That at stake are matters far graver than his own little empire? Sardar Patel described the bureaucracy as a" "steel frame", the backbone that upholds the administration while elected governments come and go. When does an IAS officer come face to face with the thought that his next decision may weaken this frame forever? 'Sarkar mai-baap' is a concept that's still relevant, as most Indians remain powerless in the face of a massive faceless State that influences every aspect of their lives. Apart from a few metropolises, in the rest of the country, district collectors are the mai-baap, outside whose offices ordinary people wait endlessly as supplicants. In 2016, an abandoned mother of two slashed her wrists outside the Coimbatore collector's office, frustrated after seven years of bribing everyone who mattered to get a ration card for herself and her children. Also Read | Morbi tragedy was 'will of God', says Oreva group as prosecutors blame renovation firm Did this suicide attempt move the collector? It took a full 18 months for Oreva to get complete control of the Morbi Jhulta Pul. In August 2020, it wrote to the district collector, threatening to open the bridge with just temporary repairs. It only got what it wanted - total, unfettered control over the bridge - in March 2022. Of course, during those 18 months, the second Covid Delta wave hit the Morbi district badly; the bridge could not have been on anyone's priority list. Nevertheless, such a long gap can give rise to the question: was that threatening letter one of those life-defining moments for the Morbi collector when his responsibility to the people whose lives he controlled featured uppermost in his mind? We will never know. But from the terms of the final contract signed between Oreva and the Morbi Municipality in March 2022, in which the government waived off all responsibility for its maintenance, it's obvious that even if the Collector had had doubts about handing over the town's 105-year-old heritage to a clock manufacturer, those doubts weren't allowed to get in the way of the final deal. 'Sarkar mai-baap' had willfully abandoned its flock; the steel frame of the system had been cracked, a crack that was to take 135 lives. Those who died had trusted their government; they went to their favourite bridge thinking their safety had been taken care of by administrators entrusted with the task. When the Bhopal Gas Disaster took place in December 1984, Warren Anderson, head of Union Carbide, became the most hated man in India and remained so till he died. Yet, even at that time, it was pointed out that it was the Madhya Pradesh government that had allowed the multinational to set up its chemical plant next to a residential colony; it had ignored warnings from its own environmental board, from the municipal commissioner and the plant's union, as well as a local journalist's series of exposes on the plant. Not surprisingly, both the state and Central governments went on to protect Anderson. Governments are known to be venal, but days after 2000 citizens living around Carbide's plant were killed instantly by the gas that leaked from it, the director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, told the media about the necessity of "reducing, not eliminating risks", keeping the "cost-benefit ratio" in mind. No doubt, the "cost-benefit ratio" drowned all other inner voices when the contract between Oreva and the Morbi Municipality was signed for 15 years. Incidentally, soon after the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, a high-level meeting involving the PMO was convened to discuss a scheme related to the Rann of Kutch conceived of by the owner of Oreva. Obviously, this was not your run-of-the-mill company. Bureaucrats are known to be the first to gauge the worth of those they deal with. But they are equally adept at leaking information. The contract that is now public knowledge and before that, Oreva's letter threatening to carry out only "temporary repairs" couldn't these have been leaked? In his speech to the first batch of IAS probationers, Sardar Patel listed the values expected of them: impartiality, incorruptibility, integrity, working without expectation of rewards, and the spirit of service. Often, glimpses of these ideals come through when successful IAS candidates are asked by the media about what they hope to accomplish. Do all of these vanish when they finally reach a position when the decisions they take affect the lives of citizens whom they are supposed to serve? And when their decision results in irreparable damage to citizens, who should the latter turn to? Who can punish collectors and municipal commissioners for risking people's lives? (Jyoti Punwani is a journalist) Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH. Karnataka IT/BT Minister C N Ashwath Narayan on Thursday said potholes on roads keep happening and urged citizens to refrain from damning our own city. Narayan was speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting with the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) to discuss Bengaluru's infrastructure woes, especially on the 17-km stretch that houses several multinational firms. "Potholes are a dynamic process. As and when we fill them, new ones come up," Narayan said. "I'm not saying the city is pothole-free. Potholes keep happening. We shouldn't keep damning our city. Instead, we must be constructive," the minister said. Also read: HC asks NHAI to assess pothole works by BBMP Narayan said this on a day when a couple filled up a pothole by themselves in his Malleswaram constituency. The minister spoke about the complication in managing city roads. "City roads are unlike national highways. National highways don't have utilities beneath the road surface. City roads have water lines, sanitary lines, Bescom lines and manholes. There are no dedicated ducts, a feature only on white-topped and TenderSURE roads," he said. The government is asphalting 13,000-km of the city's roads. "It's not that we don't have funds. We're in November and the rains aren't letting up. Imagine the challenge involved," Narayan said. During his meeting with ORRCA, Narayan said BBMP administrator Rakesh Singh would hold a meeting and take stock of the infrastructure progress on November 14. "The government will solve problems related to traffic congestion, underground drainage and metro works on priority basis. Besides, service roads in the city would also be upgraded," Narayan assured. Narayan called upon companies to decide on spending their corporate social responsibility (CSR) on infrastructure development on the Outer Ring Road. "Sustainable development will be possible only when citizens join hands with the government. Ownership has to be everybody's," he said. Nasscom regional head Bhaskar Varma, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) managing director Srinivas Rao Chandan, Goldman Sachs' Ravi Krishnan, VMware's Ramkumar Narayanan, ORRCA representatives, Mahadevapura Zone special commissioner Dr Triloka Chandra, IT/BT director Meena Nagaraj, BBMP Chief Engineer BS Prahlad and Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Ravikanthe Gowda were present. 'Malleswaram works by Dec' Ongoing civic works in the Malleswaram constituency - white-topping, drainage, drinking water pipes and so on - will be completed by December, Narayan said. "Once all the works are completed, there will be no need to dig up roads in the constituency for the next 30 years," he claimed. What was described as a "ground-breaking pilot in deliberative democracy" carried out in Derry has resulted in a detailed report outlining huge support for an addiction and detoxification facility in the city. The findings of the Peoples Panel, held over two days in St Columbs Hall in May, will be delivered to the Western Trust in a report which was launched on Thursday (November 3, 2022). The report from the voice matters People's Panel is titled: How can mental health be improved for everyone in our area? The 'People's Panel' was facilitated by peacebuilding charity Co-operation Ireland, in partnership with The Involve Foundation, Sortition Foundation and The St Columbs Hall Trust. Goretti Horgan leads a session at the direct democracy event in St Columbs Hall. It comprised 30 people, selected from Creggan, Galliagh and Shantallow via civic lottery to answer the question, How can mental health be improved for everyone in our area? Over two days, they came up with strategies, recommendations, and principles they believed would address the ongoing mental health emergency in the city. The report lists 10 recommendations, of which an addiction and detoxification facility with wraparound services attracted 100 per cent support from the Peoples Panel. The Panel was addressed by Western Trust Chief Executive Neil Guckian and representatives from charities and agencies working in the sphere of mental health. Mental Health Champion Professor Siobhan ONeill has provided the foreword to the report, in which she said the community needed support for the work they already did in helping those suffering from poor mental health. She added: Statutory mental health services continue to operate under extreme pressure with vital support provided by non-statutory, community and voluntary organisations. The importance of empowering those impacted by mental ill health, either directly or indirectly, to identify possible ways of improving their locality cannot be overstated. Citizens, by the very nature of living, working, and socialising where they reside are best place to understand the situation on the ground and recognise ongoing issues. More often than not our citizens become aware of issues before local authorities and can be best placed to intervene with the right support. Harnessing the potential from local people by engaging with them and including them in the decision-making processes leads to better outcomes for those in need. This report describes the mental health challenges faced by those within the Creggan, Shantallow, and Galliagh areas of Derry/Londonderry and makes practical recommendations based on the understanding and knowledge of the local community from these areas about how these challenges should be prioritised and assessed," said Professor O'Neill. Co-operation Ireland CEO Peter Sheridan said: As society faces increasingly complex problems, new ways of involving people in decision making are essential and projects like Voice Matters and the direct democracy model provide a framework as to how this can be done. Mental Health is an issue affecting every community and it is vital everyone has their say in how we tackle this issue. I would encourage everyone to read this report and want to praise everyone who played a part in bringing it together. I commend our partners in the project, and the people from the city who gave up their time to outline their solutions. A man who shouted 'Sieg Heil' and made a Nazi salute while shouting racist abuse in Altnagelvin Hospital has been jailed at Derry Magistrate's Court today. Anthony Martin Bradley (47) of Melrose Terrace in Derry admitted two sets of offences. The court heard that on September 16 at 11.20am police were called to Altnagelvin Hospital to a report of a disorderly male. They were told Bradley had attended the hospital for treatment and brought with him a bag of beer. Staff believed he was drinking in the hospital and the beer was taken from him and he started swearing and shouting. He shouted he was 'not going anywhere' and it was believed he could assault someone. Bradley shouted about 'Paki b-----d' and said this would not have happened if he was 'a Paki'. He then made the Nazi salute and had to be escorted from the hospital. When police arrived staff told them Bradley had gone towards Tescos and they found him in the car park. At interview he admitted to disorderly. The court heard about another incident on June 20 at 3.50pm when police were called to Clooney Terrace where Bradley was sitting in the middle of the road with his arms folded. He refused to move for police initially but then did but refused to give his details. When asked for his name he said it was Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He told police he did not like 'blacks or Chinese'and added' I am white and proud of it.' When placed in a cell van Bradley kicked the door. Defence solicitor Keith Kyle said the court would be' appalled' by the facts but added Bradley had pleaded guilty. He said that to his client's credit the matters did not escalate into full scale violence. The solicitor said that both offences were due to the consumption of alcohol. District Judge Barney McElholm said this man had done nothing to address his alcohol problem. He said this was 'vile racist abuse' and in his report Bradley said it didn't matter to him that it was a hospital but the judge said 'it matters to me.' Judge McElholm said this was 'absolutely appalling and disgraceful behaviour in front of children and sick people. He added that only an immediate custodial sentence could meet the seriousness of the offences. He sentenced Bradley to a total of 7 months in prison. This photo provided by the North Korean government purports to show a missile test at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Oct 10. AP South Korea's parliamentary defense committee on Friday passed a resolution denouncing North Korea's missile provocations and urging Pyongyang to refrain from what would be its seventh nuclear test. North Korea has been ramping up its military threats, firing 81 ballistic missiles on 34 occasions in violation of an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement signed in September 2018, as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions. On Thursday, Pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and two short-range missiles toward the East Sea, just a day after it launched a barrage of missiles, including one that flew across its de facto maritime border with the South for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Committee members called on North Korea to immediately cease its military provocations. "If North Korea continues with its provocations, it is certain they will bring forward the state's international isolation and self-destruction, making it difficult for the Kim Jong-un regime to maintain its survival," the resolution said, warning that Pyongyang should be held accountable for "all situations" to follow. "North Korea needs to acknowledge the reality that the more it provokes, the stronger the South Korea-United States alliance will become," urging the country to engage in dialogue for the denuclearization and peace of the Korean Peninsula. Lawmakers instructed the government to establish a powerful security posture against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats "in the shortest period of time" and launch all-out efforts to persuade the North to take part in talks. Pyongyang conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in September 2017. Officials in Seoul have said North Korea may have completed all preparations for a nuclear test, and that it could take place as early as before the U.S. midterm elections, slated to be held next Tuesday. (Yonhap) East Derry MP Gregory Campbell has welcomed the news from Mobile Phone provider Vodafone to offer small businesses a year of free broadband in an effort to reduce rising living costs. Earlier this year, many major internet providers agreed a social broadband package for those in receipt of certain benefits, to ensure that more people had the opportunity to be digitally connected. Commenting on a recent report from OFCOM, Mr Campbell welcomed news that Vodafone were to provide small businesses with an opportunity to access free broadband. "Reliable mobile connectivity is essential and critical to the success of small businesses," he said. "I would also encourage those in receipt of receipt of Universal Credit and Pension Credit to give consideration to the social broadband tariffs provided by a number of internet providers. "The global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns brought attention to the digital gap that exists across households. "While many households shifted daily activities including work, school, socialising, and medical appointments online, many low-income homes lacked internet access and were isolated from the digital world. "The UK government reached a deal with major providers like Sky, BT, Virgin Media, and Now to provide a discounted social tariff, which is less expensive than standard broadband bundles, in order to address this issue. "These social tariffs serve as a safety net for homes that might otherwise find it difficult to pay for broadband services. An estimated 4.2 million households in the UK are eligible, according to research by the telecoms regulator, Ofcom." Mr Campbell said there may be many local people unaware they are eligible to receive cheaper broadband. "Across East Londonderry in towns and villages there are over 7,300 claimants of Universal Credit, many of whom may not be aware that they are eligible for cheaper broadband," he said. "A reduction in broadband bills could help some of the most vulnerable stay connected during our cost of living crisis. "Access to broadband is vital for learning, for work and for staying connected. I would encourage people who get Universal Credit or Pension Credit to speak with their broadband providers about switching to a more affordable plan." A number of officers have escaped serious injury after three police cars were rammed in Belfast city centre. The incident took place on the Upper Lisburn Road in the early hours of Friday. A PSNI spokesman said that just after 4.30am an Audi A4 car was seen driving erratically and failed to stop for police. They said officers signalled for the car to stop but it made off and a short pursuit began. As the vehicle travelled into the city centre, armed response unit officers positioned their vehicles at the Grosvenor Road/Fisherwick Place junction, to stop the Audi. Superintendent Christian Bradley said that while officers attempted to arrest the driver and passenger, the Audi was repeatedly driven at the police cars, ramming them. I am thankful that no officers were seriously injured, he said. Were it not for the professionalism and bravery of my colleagues in stopping this vehicle and arresting the driver and passenger involved in this dangerous and violent incident, there could well have been a tragic outcome. Two men aged 54 and 30 have been arrested on suspicion of a range of offences including dangerous driving, driving without a licence/insurance and failure to provide a preliminary breath test. Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident, or anyone with dash cam footage, to call police on 101, and quote reference number 220 of 4/11/22. Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, a lot has changed. Musk-led Twitter filed for delisting from the New York Stock Exchange to become a privately traded company. Immediately after taking charge of the microblogging platform, Musk fired the CEO, Parag Agrawal, and other top executives Twitters employees are waiting for the companys email As per a New York Times report, the Twitter chief also asked managers to prepare job cut lists and monitor the staff thoroughly, following which 7,500 employees from Twitter braced for layoffs. A recent report from Reuters throws more light on the type of conditions that prevail in Twitter offices, from San Francisco to Singapore. As per the latest report from Reuters, "Twitter Inc will tell employees by email on Friday [November 4, 2022] about whether they have been laid off." The emails will hit employees' inboxes by 9 AM Pacific Time, which translates to 09:30 PM IST. The news agency cites an email sent to Twitter employees on Thursday. In the email, Twitter writes that it will "go through the difficult path" of reducing its workforce to place itself on a healthy path. The company might also close its offices temporarily and prevent staff access. Whether the platform is on its way to revolution or not, employees sure are facing a hard time. Elon might reduce the workforce to half According to the internal plans seen by the agency, Musk wants to lay off as many as 3,700 employees, or about half the company's workforce. Additionally, the remaining staff at Twitter would have to follow the new work ethics devised by the billionaire and his work friends from other companies like Tesla and The Boring Company. Nevertheless, Twitter employees must wait a few more hours before they know what their managers have decided for them. Reuters also writes that Twitter's employees who were not affected by the layoffs will be notified via their work email addresses. Further, those laid off will be advised of the next steps to their personal email addresses. Some Twitter employees seem to have lost access to the company's IT system, which might indicate that they have been laid off. In a related development, Twitter's employees have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, saying that it is conducting mass layoffs without providing a 60-day advance notice, which happens to violate federal law. For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in. One of theme most iconic movie monsters in history, Godzilla will be heading back to the big screen sometime next year. This isnt the Legendary Godzilla, but rather the original character from the Toho films. The monster first appeared back in the 50s as Japan's reaction to nuclear annihilation and has since been rebooted both in Hollywood and Japan. The 2016 Toho offering, Shin Godzilla, finally saw the king of monsters return to his roots as an existential threat and not a goofy, kong-fighting beast. The film explored the real-world ramifications of a creature such as Godzilla actually destroying Japan. Shin Godzilla was directed by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame and was more of a think piece than an all-out monster film. From what we can piece together, the new film will be a direct sequel to the first. It will be directed by Takashi Yamazaki who is known for Parasyte Part 1 and more. The official Twitter account tweeted out the announcement along with a logo for the film. Check it out. There have been more than 3o films in the Godzilla series and its clear that the king of monsters has a special place in the hearts of fans and theatre-goers. Ever since his debut in the 50s, Godzilla has stomped his way to success on the big screen with Hollywood trying to capitalise on the trend with the god-awful 1998 Godzilla. The film changed everything about Godzilla and really wasn't about the giant lizard as much as it was about a big dinosaur. The film was directed by Roland Emmerich and was widely panned when it came out and still continues to be looked at as the black sheep of the Godzilla cinematic universe. Finally, in 2016, Toho took the reins and gave fans and critics a Godzilla film that was worth the wait. If the new film is anything like its predecessor, were in for a wild ride. For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in. AMD has taken the wraps off its highly anticipated Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs at a press event in Las Vegas today. Dr. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD opened the keynote, announcing the launch of the AMD RDNA 3 as the world's most advanced graphics architecture that delivers the future of gaming. She further added that AMD is focused on performance-per-watt leadership while focusing on developing high-performance GPUs for gamers and creators. The big story for AMD is that the new GPU achieves up to 54% higher performance per watt in comparison to the previous-gen flagship GPU from the company. Based on the all-new RDNA 3 architecture, it is the world's first gaming GPU based on a chiplet design instead of the traditional SoC design. The chiplet design allows for better power efficiency and is also known to be cost-efficient. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT GPUs use 5nm GCD (Graphics Compute Die) and 6nm MCD (Memory Cache Die). The AMD RDNA 3 GPU offers 61 teraflops of computing power, a big jump in comparison to the RDNA 2 which does 23 teraflops. The RDNA 3 also brings in a new memory cache die that uses AMD's 2nd Gen Infinity Cache, boosting peak bandwidth by 2.7x to 5.3 TB/s in comparison to the RDNA 2 based GPUs. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX comes with 24GB of GDDR6 memory while the Radeon RX 7900 XT has 20GB of GDDR6 memory. With these RDNA 3 based flagship GPUs, AMD intends to push the envelope for gamers gunning for high-resolution gaming at high frame rates. The RDNA 3 GPUs bring support for the latest DisplayPort 2.1 standard, dishing out 54 Gbps of bandwidth for 8K@165Hz and 4K@480Hz gaming. AMD's own gaming comparison charts show the Radeon RX 7900 XTX pushing the performance by upto 1.7x in comparison to the Radeon RX 6950 XT for popular AAA gaming titles running at 4K resolution. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is expected to stack-up against the Nvidia Geforce RTX 4080, both of which are gunning for the sweet spot when it comes to high-end gaming. The India pricing and availability of the AMD Radeon RX 7000 series cards are not been officially announced yet, but one can expect the cards to make their way a bit later to the US release. For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in. In case you didnt know, Google really takes its language portfolio seriously. And now, theres more news on how the company is expanding its portfolio using things like AI technology.The firm has set up a 1,000 language target toward building a new AI model which would support the likes of some of the worlds most spoken languages so that information could be accessed easily.As Googles senior executive mentioned, language is a huge aspect in terms of how people communicate and make great sense in this world. As a whole, around 7000 different languages are spoken globally and there are only a couple that ends up being represented in the right context.Due to quite a lot of ambitious undertakings in this universe, Google feels this is the right project that would take a few years to complete and bring to life but it is confident in reaching the goal, nevertheless.Google created a new Universal Speech Model that is usually trained over the likes of about 400 different languages and it provides a lot of coverage in terms of a speech model. Were seeing the tech giant join hands with a few more communities to source data linked to speech.We know for sure that Google trying to expand its language features isnt something new. We saw the tech firm include around 24 new languages on Google Translate and has also allowed for voice typing of nearly 9 more African languages for its Gboard.Similarly, weve got the news about how the search engine giant is working hard with various NGOs and different academic places for collecting audio samples related to different dialects present in the region.A lot of other huge tech firms are creating mega language models. We saw in July how the company put forward a new AI model thats dubbed, No Language Left Behind and can end up translating over 200 different languages.These new efforts by Meta were even put forward with the thought of adding content to communities that arent well represented across the web. Remember, the AI Model that Meta currently possesses translations for is around 55 different African languages. This is undoubtedly a huge advancement.Remember, today, less than 25 African languages were getting support from a number of translation tools so having 55 is a major achievement.Read next: Google Launches Beta Of Its Android Games On PC To More Regions Subscriber content preview By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany Europe could face a severe natural gas shortage next year and needs to act now to reduce use, the International Energy Agency said in a report Thursday, warning against complacency in an energy crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine after countries were able to build up storage of the fuel to heat homes and generate electricity this winter. The IEA said Europe benefited from some Russian gas supplies over the summer and sharply reduced competition from China for scarce shiploads of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, and those factors could be one-offs, the Paris-based organization said. Along with mild weather, that has pushed down natural gas prices from August highs. . . . Subscriber content preview By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND The tents proliferating on sidewalks in downtown and residential neighborhoods across Portland are fueling a debate that's playing out in cities nationwide as the homelessness crisis in the U.S. explodes: Should camping be banned anywhere except in sanctioned sites? Republican-led states including Texas and Missouri have passed laws in the past couple years prohibiting street camping while diverting money from affordable housing projects to short-term shelter solutions. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE The Catalina, at 109 25th Ave. E., sold for $3.7 million, according to King County records. The seller was a local family that had owned the property for decades. . . . First lady Kim Keon-hee, right, and German first lady Elke Budenbender hold talks at the presidential office in Seoul, Nov. 4, in this photo provided by the office. Yonhap First lady Kim Keon-hee asked German first lady Elke Budenbender on Friday to help make Korean cultural assets in Germany more widely available to the South Korean public, the presidential office said. The two held separate talks for about an hour at the presidential office as President Yoon Suk-yeol and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier held a summit during the latter's three-day official visit to the country, according to the office. Budenbender first extended her condolences over the deadly crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul last week, and Kim expressed her deep gratitude. The two also agreed on the need for people-to-people and cultural exchanges as the two countries celebrate 140 years of bilateral relations next year. "First lady Kim especially welcomed Germany's continued return of our cultural assets, and stated her hope that our people will be able to enjoy the cultural assets still remaining in Germany on the occasion of the 140th anniversary next year," the office said. "In response, first lady Budenbender said it is important for people to enjoy their own cultural assets and that she would take an interest and make an effort," it said. Kim also mentioned the Korean nurses who were sent to former West Germany in the 1960s and 70s to earn money for their then-impoverished country, saying she hopes to have a chance to meet with them together with Budenbender as next year will mark 60 years since the first nurses were dispatched. Budenbender welcomed the idea as she recalled the care her grandmother received from Korean nurses and the gratitude Germans continue to feel toward them. Kim further explained the South Korean government's efforts to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan, a city Budenbender will be visiting on Saturday, as the German first lady showed a deep interest, according to the presidential office. Budenbender said she was delighted to get to know Kim during her visit to Seoul and thanked the South Korean government for its hospitality. (Yonhap) The justice minister said she is confident the state will surpass some of its early targets to increase the number of domestic violence refuge spaces. Helen McEntee said her department secured more funding in the budget and is able to help increase the number of refuge spaces, particularly in counties that at present have none. Ms McEntee said the long-term plan was to ensure every county had refuge spaces for domestic violence victims, and has promised that the state will provide 100 more spaces by the end of next year. Earlier this year, Mc McEntee unveiled plans to increase the spaces across the country. Speaking on Friday at a cross-border event to address gender-based violence and abuse, Ms McEntee said: In terms of our overall objective, very clearly it is to double our number of refuge places by the end of this strategy, which is a five-year strategy. I had set it out in three phases, and the first is where we have projects that are already under way, that we want to bring on stream. Second is working with organisations and counties where we have no refuge and accommodation and helping them progress and filling further gaps. I am confident we will surpass some of our initial figures in the first stage and thankfully I was able to secure additional funding in the budget which means we have funding to be able to work with those counties in other areas to help them make progress in bringing about refuge in their counties. There is a lot of work still to do so I am confident we will reach our targets. There are around nine counties in Ireland that do not have dedicated domestic violence refuges. The Istanbul Convention says there should be one family place for every 10,000 of population, by which calculation Ireland should have 476 family refuge places. Based on this figure, Ireland provides less than 30%. An accommodation review, carried out by Tusla, found for Ireland to reach 70%, an additional 198 family places would be needed. To achieve 100%, a further 335 family places would be required. The search for a Northern Ireland teenager who was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA, is being paused for the winter due to dangerous weather conditions. Columba McVeigh, 19, from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone, was last seen in November 1975. He is one of the Disappeared victims of the Troubles whose bodies have still to be found. At the beginning of October, forensic archaeologists and excavators began a fresh attempt to locate his remains at a site at Bragan Bog, near Emyvale, Co Monaghan. It is the sixth search since 1999 to try to find Columba in the area. The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) said the dig at the Co Monaghan bog was being paused as persistent and torrential rain will make the bog too dangerous for contractors and archaeologists. Jon Hill, the ICLVRs senior investigator, said that working on bog land is a significant challenge at the best of times. He said that the pause over the winter period, announced as expected, was done to maximise our opportunities for discovery when weather and ground conditions have improved. At the beginning of the new search on October 3, Columbas brother, Oliver McVeigh, told the PA news agency of the difficulty of being back to the bleak area. Just imagine taking a 19-year-old out here, walking him out and shooting him like a dog, burying him like a dog and leaving him there, to be never found again. Horrific, Mr McVeigh said. Its been four years since the last (search), but the very fact we are back digging and looking for him, yes, thats good, but we want to find him and not waste peoples time and give him a Christian burial. Its important to tell the IRA people: we want to find his body, we are not going away, we want answers, we want people to come and tell us where he is and get the exact spot and bury him. Speaking about the search being paused, Mr Hill said: Any suspension of a search is deeply frustrating for the McVeigh family, but they understand the reasons for it. And they also know that we will be back with renewed determination to do everything in our power to bring this search to a successful conclusion and bring Columba home. The ICLVR can be contacted by telephone on 00800 5558 5500, international +353 1 602 8655 or by email at Secretary@iclvr.ie There needs to be a sea change in how women are treated on the island of Ireland through better law and policy, a former justice minister has said. Naomi Long said there needs to be a zero tolerance approach to abuse, misogyny and the entitlement culture that exists from the locker rooms to the corridors of power in the Republic and Northern Ireland. Ms Long made the comments at the Shared Island Dialogue which met to discuss tackling gender-based violence and abuse on the island of Ireland. Those attending the event, in Kells, Co Meath, included Minister for Justice Helen McEntee as well as campaigners and womens rights advocates. Looking forward to a productive day of discussions with @naomi_long and so many others from across North and South at our #SharedIsland Dialogue on Tackling Gender-Based Violence and Abuse at @eurekahouse1, in beautiful Kells. pic.twitter.com/KvPsfM1MrJ Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) November 4, 2022 Ms Long said there is a need to improve sex education standards in schools, and to address attitudes where gender-based violence and sexual abuse can flourish. There is an urgency in this. A whole generation of young women are growing up forming relationships, and having sexual experiences, in a context where one in four will experience domestic abuse, Ms Long added. We owe to them, we owe to ourselves to deliver not just better law and policy but a sea change in how women are treated on this island. We have to have a zero tolerance approach to abuse, to misogyny, harassment, the entitlement culture that exists in many places that still pervades not just the locker rooms of Ireland, but also the corridors of power on occasion. I believe that together we can deliver that change, but the time to act is now. Meanwhile, Ms McEntee said that teaching young people about respect and consent starts at primary school level. She said that societal change is needed to address the issues embedded in the culture. Theres a lot of work that each and every one of us has to do. Its each and every one of us in society and thats why the strategy that we launched in Ireland this year, a zero tolerance plan, it really is a whole of government, whole of society strategy, the Fine Gael minister said. One which requires not just government agencies, not just each and every one of us in this room, but every single person to buy into and to contribute and to change attitudes, to change the norms that have become so embedded in our society and zero tolerance. Its making sure that boys and men have a role in it. Its not just women talking to women or women talking about women, that men and boys have an absolutely key role in preventing violence against women. Its greater education, greater awareness. Its making sure that we have that education at an earlier age, so not just in our secondary schools but our primary schools, teaching what it is to respect each other, healthy relationships, consent, doing so in an age-appropriate way. It means acknowledging the importance of bringing about that systemic change within our society. Ms Long also said the collapse of the Northern Ireland institutions will impact on the passing of legislation to address gender-based violence. She said the Stopping Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse Strategy cannot be finalised without a functioning Northern Ireland Executive. Ms Long added: Vital north-south cooperation is harder in the absence of ministers in each jurisdiction to be able to give a strong lead to their departments. Without a budget and without financial certainty, it is hard for us to commit to new project across all areas. President Yoon Suk-yeol met with a group of Japanese lawmakers on Friday and asked them to help increase people-to-people exchanges that have resumed in earnest following the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawmakers were in Seoul to attend a joint general meeting with their South Korean counterparts as members of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union. "President Yoon stressed that increased people-to-people exchanges across various areas have important significance in firmly building the foundation for the development of South Korea-Japan relations, and asked for the Japanese parliament's active cooperation and interest in expanding people-to-people exchanges between the two countries that are resuming in earnest following the COVID-19 era," the presidential office said in a press release. Fukushiro Nukaga, a lawmaker of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and chairman of the union, expressed his condolences over the deadly crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul last weekend. He also outlined the results of Thursday's joint general meeting and promised the union's continued efforts to ensure the recent "positive atmosphere" in bilateral relations translates to an improvement in the two countries' ties. (Yonhap) Three Donegal tourism companies were among the 60 from Ireland who attended Flavours of Ireland 2022 in London last week. Slieve League Cultural Centre, and two Ballyshannon-based companies - B&B Ireland and Whites Tours & Hotels - were at Tourism Irelands annual event, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators. The business-to-business workshop has the aim of growing the Irish share of the worldwide tourism market. Now in its 20th year, Flavours took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa. Michael Stapleton, B&B Ireland; Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland, and Nella De Luca-Bertram, freelance travel consultant Flavours provides an excellent opportunity for the three participating Donegal tourism providers to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance. The global inbound operators are preparing to sign contracts for 2023 and beyond so now is a key time to influence the addition of new tourism products to their programmes that have the potential to deliver more regional and longer-stay business for Ireland. In 2019, these tour operators were responsible for delivering around 5 million bed-nights to the island of Ireland, David Boyce, Tourism Irelands Head of Global Inbound and Emerging Markets said. Kieran Mulhern, Slieve League Cultural Centre; Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland and Franca Terzano, Tailer Made Tours International As they prepare to sign contracts for 2023, we very much welcome the business and networking opportunities our workshop presented. Our aim is to increase awareness of Ireland among these hugely influential global inbound tour operators and to help Ireland and our tourism partners secure a greater share of the huge worldwide tourism market. Representatives from St Joseph's NS recently presented a cheque for 400 to to Mr Peter Nolan of SOSAD, the proceeds of money raised by holding a 'Silly Scarf day' at the school. Now in its third year running, St. Josephs N.S celebrated mental health awareness month in style with their annual well-being week. On Friday October 21st, the staff and students in St. Josephs N.S wore a silly scarf to school to highlight the importance of minding their mental health. There was a collection for SOSAD, a local charity for suicide prevention on the final day. The slogan for the week was Its OK to be Different and the activities leading up to the day focused on the importance of being different, developing resilience and understanding our mental health. Many activities were organised throughout the week, including a peer-mentoring visit from six Colaiste Ris students. Along with their teacher Irene Lawless, the transition year students visited the school to deliver a programme to the three fifth class groups on the topics of self-esteem, bullying and substance abuse. This was a huge success for all involved. Despite the wet start to the day, the Parents Association were exceptional helping out with the collection for SOSAD on Friday. The parents and students were equally exceptional with their creative silly scarves and kind donations to help such a great cause. Teacher, Karol Caulfield, who organised the week said: "We want to remove the stigma of talking about our mental health in St. Josephs and in the wider community. "We also want to equip our pupils with the skills to help them lead happy, healthy lives." Gardai who travelled to the United States to interview James Flynn, who was wanted in connection with the Lordship Credit Union robbery, were instead met by his father who told them "the boys are gone, you will never get them", the Special Criminal Court has heard. Mr Flynn (31), who was eventually extradited to Ireland from the UK on charges relating to the robbery nearly ten years ago, during which Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was murdered, was today refused bail by the Special Criminal Court on the grounds that he is a flight risk. The three-judge court also heard today that when applying for bail in the UK, Mr Flynn had offered the substantial sums of 185,000 in cash and a 965,000 independent surety. Ruling on James Flynn's bail application today, Ms Justice Tara Burns said the three-judge court could not accept that the applicant was "anything but a flight risk". The judge said the flight risk in this case was "too great" to permit bail to be granted and that the probability of fleeing the jurisdiction was "well made out". Mr Flynn, of Raven's Glen, Newry, Northern Ireland is accused of the robbery of 7K, the property of Pat Bellew, at the credit union in Bellurgan, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013. He is also accused of conspiring with Aaron Brady, Brendan Treanor and others of entering a residential premises with the intent to steal the keys of a motor vehicle between September 11, 2012, and January 23, 2013. Brady was convicted of murdering Det Gda Donohoe in August 2020. Delivering the ruling of the three-judge court today, Ms Justice Burns said Mr Flynn seeks bail for his trial, which is listed at the beginning of January next year, having recently been extradited to Ireland from the UK. In April of this year, Westminster Magistrates Court ordered Mr Flynn's extradition back to Ireland but this was appealed to the High Court. The appeal was dismissed in July and Mr Flynn was brought back to Ireland to be formally charged with the credit union robbery. The judge said today that the applicant had left this jurisdiction very shortly after the alleged robbery in April 2013 and has since been in the UK and the US. Ms Justice Burns said the prosecution intended to adduce CCTV evidence of a distinguished BMW which they say Mr Flynn was driving at the time and which was seen at various locations in the CCTV footage in relation to the alleged burglary charge. There was a sighting of a burned Passat which has been established to have been used in the robbery on January 25 and a sighting of the BMW going to and coming from the burn site in Northern Ireland, she said. "These are all arms of the prosecution case, it is not for this court to concern itself with whether there will be a conviction in this matter," she said. The case against the applicant is of a "circumstantial nature" where the evidence is not viewed in isolation but "the culmination of various parts coming together", she said. Clearly, the judge said, a case had been made out against the applicant in terms of what is anticipated to be the prosecution's case. The strength of the evidence intended to be brought by the State is enough to cause the court concern and it is of the view that there is potential for a conviction, she continued. The judge said the prosecution's view is that Mr Flynn posed a flight risk due to him absconding from this jurisdiction in April 2013 after the alleged robbery by going to the US. He has been in the US, the UK and Northern Ireland for the last nine years. She said Mr Flynn had not attempted to engage or cooperate with gardai and it was probable if he got bail that he would not stand trial for these matters. "For that ground alone the court will refuse bail," she stated. She said the three-judge court had heard "very concerning evidence" about an interaction the applicant's father had with the investigating guard in relation to this matter. Mr Flynn's father had indicated that an interview could take place with his son in the US and gardai travelled to Boston clearly of the view that the interview would take place, she said. However, when gardai went to the address they were instead met with a situation where the accused was no longer at the premises and his father uttered the words "the boys are gone, you will never get them". Referring to the risk of interference with witnesses, the judge said there had been "very very concerning evidence" about the behaviour of Mr Flynn's father during the trial of Aaron Brady. "Obviously these are the father's actions and not Mr Flynn's. It was frightful how people were approached during this trial and the various things said," she added. Aaron Brady (31) was found guilty of the murder of Det Gda Donohoe by an 11 to one majority jury verdict at the Central Criminal Court in August 2020. The father-of-one with a last address at New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, was sentenced to the mandatory term for murder of life imprisonment. As he had been found guilty of murdering a Garda acting in accordance with his duty, he will serve a minimum of 40 years. Brady was also sentenced to 14 years for the credit union robbery - a sentence that will run concurrently with the life sentence. Bradys trial was the longest murder case in Irish legal history, lasting 122 court days. Ms Justice Burns said today that the court could not agree that Mr Flynn was not a flight risk with "the analysis of the evidence" placed before it today. The applicant did not attend for an interview with An Garda Siochana despite knowing at all stages that gardai had a great interest in speaking to him, she said. "Gardai were left to follow him to the US and were then treated in a manner which the court had just outlined," she added. In summary, the judge said that whilst the court had grave concerns in relation to the possibility of interference with witnesses in this case, they were not refusing bail on that ground. Earlier at today's bail hearing, Detective Inspector Mark Phillips told Lorcan Staines SC for the State, that gardai were objecting to bail under the OCallaghan principles, where it was argued that the accused is a serious flight risk. The State also submitted that there was a real risk that Mr Flynn would evade his trial and interfere with witnesses if he was granted bail. Summarising his objection on the flight risk ground, Det Insp Phillips said the applicant had offered "substantial sums of money" when he applied for bail at Westminster Magistrates Court, namely 185,000 in cash and a 965,000 independent surety. "I believe this clearly demonstrates that he has the financial means available to him to evade justice," he said. The witness said that Mr Flynn, who has no previous convictions, holds a UK and US passport but not an Irish one and that he has no links or ties to this jurisdiction. Det Supt Phillips also informed the court that during the trial of Aaron Brady, Mr Flynn's father and Mr Brady's father had allegedly engaged in behaviour "to actively try to provoke" members of the investigation team. Mr Flynn's parents, wife and children reside in Northern Ireland and the applicant has the means to "move around easily" and set up new businesses, he said. "He has relocated addresses a number of times to the US, the north of Ireland and the UK," he said, adding that he is now a US citizen. Det Insp Phillips told the court that there was an incident in December 2013 when Eugene Flynn Senior had invited members of An Garda Siochana to the US to conduct an interview with his son James. The witness said that within 24 hours of gardai arriving in the US, James Flynn was en route back to Ireland and no interview took place. Asked by John Temple BL, defending, if there was any evidence that James Flynn knew about the meeting, Det Insp Phillips said they had flown there on the request of Eugene Flynn Senior and that there was an expectation that a meeting would take place. At this point, Mr Staines asked the witness to tell the court what had happened when they went to Boston thinking they were going to meet James Flynn and Eugene Flynn Senior. "We called to the address provided by Mr Flynn along with US law enforcement. Eugene Flynn Senior came out of the residence as we were approaching the driveway. He went ballistic, he started abusing members of the gardai and US law enforcement agents. He referred to them as "the boys aren't here, the boys are gone, you will never get them". Det Insp Phillips said they withdrew from the premises. Under cross-examination, the detective agreed with Mr Temple that the CCTV from Lordship Credit Union depicted events but did not identify any individual and that there was no witness statement to say that his client was present on the night of the robbery. In his submissions, Mr Temple said his client had been incarcerated since May 2021 and any means he had have since diminished. A 20,000 independent surety was proposed and for Mr Flynn to sign on daily at Castleblayney Garda Station, near where his parents-in-law reside. Referring to the sums of money that had been offered to Westminster Magistrates Court, Mr Temple said that this was offered by Mr Flynn's family members and not the applicant himself. A legal aid application for Mr Flynn will be dealt with before the non-jury court on Tuesday next week. Brendan Treanor (34), with a previous address at Emer Terrace, Castletown Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, is also charged with participating in the robbery. His trial will commence in January next year alongside Mr Flynn's. He was also refused bail in June 2022. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, seventh from right, and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, eighth from left, pose for a photo against the backdrop of a B-1B strategic bomber at the Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland, Nov. 3. Yonhap The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States visited a U.S. air base operating nuclear-capable B-1B and B-52 strategic bombers Thursday in a highly choreographed move to highlight America's military might amid evolving North Korean threats. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, toured the Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland, and were briefed on key features of the bombers and their firepower. The visit came shortly after they wrapped up their annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) at the Pentagon, where Austin underscored Washington's "ironclad" security commitment to the defense of the South. The SCM took place in the wake of a series of North Korean missile and artillery launches, including that of an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday (Korea time). Banks have an opportunity to offer more to customers looking for green solutions New research has found that nearly 8 in 10 (75%) UK mobile banking users want to know more about the carbon impact of their spending. The findings indicate that there is an unfulfilled appetite in the UK retail banking market for green banking features and products. The research, run by carbon footprint management experts Cogo and the Behavioural Insights Team, surveyed 2,007 UK mobile banking users to investigate customer attitudes towards banks encouraging them to reduce their environmental impact. Emma Kisby, EMEA CEO for Cogo, says, Banks are uniquely positioned to positively impact and help to turn around the climate crisis. Offering green banking solutions to customers can make a big difference. Their reach means huge numbers of people could be able to access carbon footprint management features through a provider that they already have day-to-day interactions with. As the competitive playing field for big banks evens out, extra benefits that help customers manage their environmental impact can make a big difference. We are only at the beginning of the rise of the conscious consumer. Newer, environmentally astute generations are already opening their first personal and business accounts. Banks offering the green solutions that customers want will be able to access a bigger pool of potential retail banking customers. Competitive edge The research found that 75% of mobile banking users would like to know more about the carbon impact of their spending. Whats more, 48% are specifically in support of their bank helping them to make more pro-environmental purchasing choices. When asked if they wanted to receive carbon spending information from banks, 57% were in favour, therefore presenting a great opportunity for banks to provide this support. NatWest is a major UK bank that offers carbon footprint management features from Cogo in its mobile banking app. When the partnership launched in July 2021, David Lindberg, CEO, Retail Banking at NatWest said: Our use of Cogos expertise in carbon tracking in the NatWest app is a really important first step in making it easy for everyone to live and spend in a greener way using the power of their money to influence change. The trend towards conscious consumerism is affecting more than just banking products and services. The report found that alongside reducing their individual carbon footprint, customers increasingly want to see their bank taking action to reduce their own environmental impact. The changes that customers most wanted to see from banks are efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations (76%) and investment in businesses with a low environmental impact (73%). Scaling up solutions Given consumers appetite to understand more about their carbon footprint, it is expected that it will become more commonplace to receive this information through banks. Partnering with start-up solutions means an easier scale up for banks. Effective tools, based on proven technologies and approaches, can be built quickly and appeal to customers who expect more from their banks. To give a clear route to banks wanting to develop carbon footprint tracking features, Cogo has rolled out a financial services partnership model. Cogo has partnered with NatWest, TSB and most recently, Hungarian bank OTP to help their mobile banking customers measure their impact, reduce their carbon footprint, and offset the rest. By integrating this information, banks can offer customers better money management tools that consider environmental impact. Through this financial services partnership model, Cogo is on track to give over 3 million retail banking customers access to carbon footprint tracking features in their everyday banking experience by the end of 2022. The full report of the research findings can be found at cogo.co/whatcustomersneed. * There are about 53.4 million adults in the UK as of October 2022. 98% of them have a bank account (Mintel) 73 million retail banking customers in the UK (FCA data). So 75% of them would be 52.34.75 million. The construction of a second railway track between Glounthane and Midleton has been widely welcomed as development that will put Midleton on the map of metropolitan Cork. Iarnrod Eireann are set to lodge an application to An Bord Pleanala next week, seeking a Railway Order for the construction of the second track along the 10km line between Glounthaune and Midleton. The twin track railway, along with a new through platform at Kent Station, will potentially triple service frequency from the current 30-minute service, to a train every 10 minutes, or six trains per hour in each direction. Fine Gael Councillor for Midleton, Susan McCarthy, said the investment will put Midleton on the map with regards to metropolitan Cork. Its going to make things easier for residents, its going to take a lot of traffic off our roads, its going to make everyones quality of life so much better, she said. Liam Quaide, Midleton-based county councillor for the Green Party, said that the application by Irish Rail to start construction is a very welcome development for East Cork that is good for the environment and our quality-of-life, and represents the best ambitions of Green Party policy to transform our transport system. Cork Business Association President, Kevin Herlihy, said the development will enhance peoples ability to get in and out of the city to work and shop. It will certainly make the accessibility to the city centre so much easier than what it is at the moment and the fact that its a train service therell be no congestion overall its going to be fantastic for that area, he said. Anthony Barry, Carrigtwohill councillor for Fine Gael, said that the current railway line has proven very successful, and it is common sense to develop a second track to meet demand at peak times. However, he added that connectivity at Kent Station has to be improved. The train is ideal if youre working inside in the city centre but if you want to go to the likes of CUH or Mahon once you get to Kent Station, the time it takes isnt making it viable really, he said. Sinn Fein county councillor for the Midelton area, Danielle Twomey, said that the second railway line is a really good, forward-thinking project that will cater for population growth in the area in the coming years. However, she added that locals would like to see later trains, to be able to go out in the city and get public transport home. The twin tracking is part of the largest ever investment in Corks rail network, funded by the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility. The Railway Order application will be lodged on Thursday 10th November, and an 8-week statutory public consultation period will follow. Subject to ABP approval and funding, it is anticipated that construction will begin in 2024, with expected completion in 2026. Two EA-18G Growlers participate in the Vigilant Storm exercise in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 2. Courtesy of ROK Air Force South Korea and the United States have agreed to extend their large-scale joint air exercise by another day, Seoul's defense minister said Thursday following his talks with the Pentagon chief. The allies were scheduled to end the five-day Vigilant Storm practice on Friday, with around 240 aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, mobilized around the Korean Peninsula. But they decided to extend it in response to North Korea's firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday (Seoul time). Announcing the decision in Seoul, the South's Air Force stopped short of specifying when the training is to finish. Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., following his talks with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said the drills would be stretched by a day at his direct request to the secretary. He pointed out the allies have staged such a combined air training every year. This year, however, the scale has become larger, he added. The conservative South Korean administration of Yoon Suk-yeol was launched in May on a pledge to bolster the Seoul-Washington alliance against Pyongyang's brinkmanship. On Thursday night, the North fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea apparently in protest against the extension of the training. The North accused the allies of pushing the regional security to an "uncontrollable" stage by extending the practice. "It is a very dangerous and false choice," Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an English-language statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency. "The irresponsible decision of the U.S. and South Korea is shoving the present situation caused by provocative military acts of the allied forces to an uncontrollable phase," he added. "The U.S. and South Korea will get to know what an irrevocable and awful mistake they made." (Yonhap) The following post was written by Jonathan Sharp. Jonathan is the CFO of the Birmingham, Alabama-based, Environmental Litigation Group, PC, a law firm specializing in toxic exposure cases that helps individuals injured by hazardous chemicals on US army installations. Over the past hundred years, the US army has dealt with the lasting consequences of its negligent handling and disposal of hazardous substances in and around its bases. Without even knowing, countless troops and dependents serving and living on contaminated military installations were exposed to various toxins known to trigger life-threatening illnesses. In high-profile cases like North Carolinas Camp Lejeune, contamination went undetected for over three decades. However, before environmental concerns even registered as issues, the bases reputation was already mired by the racist treatment African American recruits were subjected to during the 40s. The twin issues of systemic discrimination and environmental injustice are all too familiar for vulnerable minority groups, such as Michigans marginalized Black communities, who suffer a disproportionately higher burden of toxic exposure. The Militarys Environmental and Discrimination Issues Built in 1942, Camp Lejeune was the first Marine Corps base to train Black recruits to serve in WWII, but their treatment was anything but fair during an era when Jim Crow laws were the norm. The 20,000 Black recruits who trained on the base during its initial years were segregated to the vastly inferior Point Montford facility located on Camp Lejeunes swampy outskirts and were regularly mistreated by their white superiors and colleagues. After desegregation, African American marines were no longer restricted to Point Montford, but none could anticipate that it meant they would be stationed in previously white-only areas at Camp Lejeune, where contamination was prevalent from 1953 to 1987. During this period, close to 1 million marines and their accompanying families were exposed to a slew of chemical hazards, including notorious carcinogens like benzene, vinyl chloride, halogenated hydrocarbons, trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Even today, African American service members face a higher risk of toxic-related injuries due to their lower representation in military positions of authority (only 9% of army officers) and a deep-rooted culture of racism. Relegated to mostly lower-ranking roles, enlisted Black personnel (19% of the total) spend more time around chemical hazards in contaminated locations as part of their duties. Contaminated Bases in Michigan Spur On Environmental Injustice Disappointingly, the armys plethora of toxic issues inadvertently contribute to a more insidious phenomenon affecting disenfranchised ethnic communities across the US known as environmental racism. The racist zoning policies of the 20th century drastically devalued land in vulnerable minority neighborhoods, providing a cost-effective solution to situate industrial facilities, army bases, traffic routes, landfills, and other pollution sources, often at the expense of locals health. In states like Michigan, events like the Flint Water Crisis and Detroits extensive environmental injustice issues illustrate the dangers that minority communities are frequently faced with, which are only compounded by toxins originating from military installations. For decades, the army has relied on PFAS-ridden aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) to extinguish difficult jet fuel blazes and has used the substance in firefighting training scenarios. As a result, more than 700 bases across the country are contaminated with PFAS compounds to varying degrees (expressed in parts per trillion or ppt), with Michigan hosting ten such locations, including: Wurtsmith Air Force Base 213,000 ppt Battle Creek Air National Guard Base 76,000 ppt K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base 59,970 ppt Selfridge Air National Guard Base 22,000 ppt In 2016, the EPAs health advisory deemed PFAS concentrations exceeding 70 ppt unsafe. Even so, while these installations are counted among the 247 PFAS-contaminated locations in Michigan, none figure among the states 68 Superfund sites, which would incur extensive cleanup efforts that would protect the health of surrounding communities. Between 2016- 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) demonstrated a profound disregard for public health by clandestinely incinerating over 20 million pounds of AFFF which released airborne PFAS contaminants, often in the vicinity of low-income ethnic communities. Furthermore, the DoDs reluctance to acknowledge its role in contamination at sites like Wurtsmith AFB prevents affected veterans and residents from accessing rightful benefits and compensation for their struggles. Preventing and Combating Environmental Racism In 2019, a study analyzing pollutions effects found that African Americans inhale 56% more airborne toxins than they contribute to, a highly concerning fact in light of air pollutions correlation to higher COVID-19 mortality. Concurrently, the EPA notes that man-made climate change is likely to increase African Americans risks of childhood asthma and heat-related deaths. Combating environmental racisms lasting consequences and ensuring the safety of vulnerable communities requires comprehensive legal action that addresses environmental crime at its core. Though criminal convictions and updated laws have previously deterred polluters, financially-potent individuals and organizations with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo may leverage their influence to protect their bottom line, even at the expense of public health. Discouragingly, marginalized communities often dont possess the resources to confront such groups in expensive litigation that can unfurl over years. Despite the setbacks and challenges, Americas centennial toxic contaminant issues remain a focal policy point for state and federal authorities. In August 2020, Michigan led the way in reducing permissible PFAS concentrations to levels even lower than the EPAs 2016 recommendations. In June 2022, the EPA updated its health advisory for PFAS by drastically reducing acceptable concentrations from 70 ppt to a meager 0.004 0.02 ppt standard. Programs such as Biden and Harris Justice40 seek to further support vulnerable communities by directing 40% of future climate investments toward areas affected by pollution and toxic exposure. In August 2022, the Honoring Our PACT Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, providing veterans and their families easier access to comprehensive benefits and compensation through the VA for their struggles with chemical hazards. Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions. French President Emmanuel Macron (C), Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L) and Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa (R) pose ahead of their meeting on the sideline of a EU leaders Summit in Brussels on Oct. 20, 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP via Getty Images Meeting prior to a European Union summit in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, French President Emmanuel Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa agreed upon a green energy corridor a new pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille underneath the Mediterranean Sea. The new energy supply route, termed BarMar, is an alternative to the proposed MidCat pipeline across the Pyrenees mountain range that was opposed by France, reported Reuters. Since Russia severely limited its gas exports following sanctions imposed upon it in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Europe has been looking for other sources of energy. According to Costa, the green corridor will be primarily used to pump clean and renewable hydrogen after temporarily being used to transport a limited amount of natural gas to help ease the energy crisis. Sanchez said the pipeline is a response to calls for solidarity from our European partners in the face of (Russian President Vladimir) Putins blackmail, Reuters reported. According to global research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie, in the first quarter of this year, one-fifth of green hydrogen global investment announcements came from Spain. Sanchez said the idea was for the pipeline to connect Iberia to France and the energy market in Europe, The Associated Press reported. The leaders of the three countries said BarMar was the most efficient and direct possibility to connect the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe. [T]he agreement for a green energy corridor Barcelona-Marseille is a magnificent decision which strengthens solidarity and commitment to renewables, tweeted Spains Energy Minister Teresa Ribera, as reported by The Associated Press. Gas storage terminals in the Iberian peninsula are full since there isnt the pipeline infrastructure to transport the gas to areas of central Europe that need it, which has led to gas prices falling to their lowest in nearly six months, Reuters reported. In addition to the BarMar pipeline, France and Spain said they have agreed to accelerate a shared electricity connection that runs through the Bay of Biscay, as well as work to improve other energy connections the two countries share, reported The Associated Press. French President Emmanuel Macron said electricity connections could also be added to the BarMar project. No estimate on cost or a timeline for the project were specified. The leaders from the three countries will meet again on December 8 and 9 in Alicante, Spain, to finalize the project, Sanchez and Macron said. This is very good news for Europe, Sanchez said before the summit, as Euronews reported. This solidarity is coherent with our green transition. At last years COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow, the U.S. and the EU launched the Global Methane Pledge to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. Now, a U.S. official tells Reuters that around 40 of the 125 members of the pledge will unveil concrete methane reduction plans at the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18. We need to move out of the promises and more towards the action pieces, whether its sectoral actions or larger actions, Clean Air Task Force global director of methane Jonathan Banks told Reuters in response to the news. Reducing methane emissions plays an important role in mitigating the climate crisis because methane is both extremely potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere and relatively short lived once released. It is around 80 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere but it also dissipates after 10 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calculated that there was more methane in the atmosphere today than at any point in the last 800,000 years at least and that it was responsible for around 30 percent of global warming. The most recent Greenhouse Gas Bulletin from the UNs World Meteorological Organization found that atmospheric methane concentrations broke records again in 2021 and also that there was a bigger jump in concentrations between 2020 and 2021 than at any point since record-keeping began around 40 years ago. Rapidly reducing methane emissions from energy, agriculture, and waste can achieve near-term gains in our efforts in this decade for decisive action and is regarded as the single most effective strategy to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C within reach while yielding co-benefits including improving public health and agricultural productivity, the pledge website reads. To that end, participating countries promised to take actions to reduce worldwide methane emissions by at least 30 percent of 2020 levels by 2030, which should prevent more than 0.2 degrees Celsius of warming. This would have the same effect on temperatures by 2050 as switching the global transport sector to net-zero emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. The senior Biden administration official told Reuters that the U.S., Canada and Vietnam would be three of the countries announcing concrete plans in Egypt. So far, 15 countries have published detailed plans, and they will be joined by around 25 more. The U.S. plan will likely include a rule proposed in 2021 to require oil and gas drillers to find and repair any methane leaks as well as new plans to reduce emissions from gas flaring and smaller oil wells. However, one weakness of the Global Methane Pledge is that, of the worlds top five methane emitters, only the U.S. and Brazil are members, according to IEA. China is the worlds No.1 methane emitter at 58.4 million tonnes emitted in 2021 alone. India follows at 31.8 million tonnes and the U.S. comes in third at 31.5 million tonnes. While China has not signed the pledge, it did agree with the U.S. last year to develop a national plan to reduce methane emissions, Reuters noted. The national methane plan is indeed key to watch. But the Chinese authorities are quite cryptic in terms of whether and when it will be released in the run up to [the COP], Greenpeace China expert Li Shuo told Reuters. Farmers in Inner Mongolia profit from shrimp aquaculture Shrimp aquaculture has become a lucrative source of income for farmers in in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, thanks to Wu Tao, a local sci-tech expert who discovered that the area's high salinity in the soil could be beneficial to shrimp farming, Fish Information & Services reported. Wu Tao was dispatched to Inner Mongolia by the Ordos agriculture and animal husbandry bureau. Wu said there were many challenges, such as the shrimp seedlings had to undergo a 10-day desalination process prior to reaching the same salinity as the nearby water,. Before being planted in outdoor ponds, the seedlings were raised for an additional 20 to 30 days in the greenhouse. For the past few years, local villagers have been involved in shrimp farming. Wu's employer, the Hangjin League, intends to produce more than 250 tonnes of shrimp this year with total sales of CNY million yuan (~US$2.1 million; CNY 1 = US$0.14) Shrimp farming makes positive environmental contributions as well. According to Zhu Changbo, a researcher with the South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, desert regions experience little rainfall and intense sunlight, and the groundwater evaporating from these areas transports a lot of salt to the surface. As salinization rises, fewer plants will be able to survive, and the topsoil will eventually turn to sand, he said. Farmers typically soak the land in Yellow River water to remove surface salt in the saline and alkaline areas along the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia, and then the saline water is discharged through the drainage canal. Consequently, a lot of saline water resources are lost each year. Saline water can be used in shrimp farming ponds, Zhu said. Harvesting shrimp is the same as taking a lot of salt out of the water in one go. The presence of ponds raises groundwater levels, which is advantageous for plant growth and soil stabilisation to prevent desertification. By creating a "fishery oasis" in the desert, experts hope to transform saline water fishing into a distinctive component of desert management. Since 2012, China has sent nearly 300,000 science and technology specialists to rural areas as part of efforts to reduce poverty, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Sending these experts to rural areas has the following goals: to popularise agricultural science and technology, to encourage sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship, to support efforts to end poverty, and to promote rural vitalization. - Fish Information & Services Norwegian salmon exports break new record for a single month Salmon exports from Norway broke a new record in a single month, reaching NOK 731 million (~US$71 million; NOK 10 = US$0.97) higher in value in October 2022 compared to the previous record month of September this year, Fish Information & Services reported. In October, Norway exported 133,105 tonnes of salmon for NOK 10.6 billion (~US$1.02 billion). Compared to October 2021, the export value grew by NOK 2.7 billion (~US$262 million), or 34%. Paul T Aandahl, a seafood analyst for the Norwegian Seafood Council, said this was due to the value of Norwegian krone depreciating, export volume rising, and have increased salmon processing in Norway. Aandahl said salmon fillet goods account for about 15% of exports in October if converted to round weight, up 1% from last year, and the proportion is 16% so far this year, also up 1%. When compared to the same month last year, Poland had the biggest increase in value with exports to the country up 41%, or NOK 472 million (~US$45.8 million). 23,460 tonnes were shipped to Poland, a 9% increase over the same period the year prior. Aandahl said a strong dollar exchange rate and growth in demand contribute to the US being the second largest growth market for salmon, with a value gain of NOK 458 million (~US$44.5 million), or 86%. Norwegian trout exports also increased. 5,019 tonnes of trout worth NOK 465 million (~US$45.1 million) were shipped in October this year, NOK 75 million (~US$7.2 million) higher or 19% up year-on-year. Volume of exports dropped 18%. The biggest markets for Norwegian trout are the US, Thailand, and Japan. - Fish Information & Services South Korea's military said Friday it will conduct its annual computer-simulated Taegeuk training next week to boost operational capabilities against threats from North Korea. The four-day command post exercise, scheduled to kick off Monday, will focus on training operational capabilities against various threats, including those from North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and its recent provocations, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The defensive drills, which do not incorporate field training, focus on strengthening capabilities in crisis management and the ability to transition into wartime. It will involve the operational commands of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. (Yonhap) Views wanted on Isle of Man's refugee policy People on the Island are being asked to give their views on the Manx government's stance on refugees. The online consultation is seeking opinions on matters including work permits and integration issues. The Manx Government will hold a review of its broader policy in July 2023 after war broke out in Ukraine. Almost 100 Ukrainians have moved to the island since March. Scientists from the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) will monitor the bathing water quality at seven Manx beaches this winter. They include five bathing waters which are already designated for weekly summer monitoring and two under consideration. Samples will be collected on a monthly basis by Environmental Protection Officers from the following beaches: As Elon Musk looks for new ways to make money from Twitters hes facing a much more urgent problem: advertisers are fleeing the platform. Musk said Friday that Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue due to advertisers concerns about content moderation and other issues raised by activists. A number of major companies have paused ads in recent days, including GM, Audi, Pfizer, General Mills, Volkswagen and other big names who are wary of potential changes to Twitters policies as well as the departure of top executives. Industry groups have also expressed concern about brand safety under Musk, and The New York Times reported this week that IPG, one of the worlds largest advertising companies, issued a recommendation for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter. On Friday, the NAACP joined other civil rights groups in calling for an advertiser boycott of the platform. It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. Turn on browser notifications to receive breaking news alerts from Engadget You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu. Not now Turned on Turn on It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories. Until actions are taken to make this a safe space, we call on companies to pause all advertising on Twitter. Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 4, 2022 Advertisers' pullback amid calls for an ad boycott show just how quickly Twitters ad business has deteriorated under Musk. It also comes barely a week after Musk tried to reassure the industry he didnt want to turn the platform into a free-for-all hellscape. Twitter saw a significant spike in hate speech and racial slurs immediately following the news of Musks take over of the company. Twitters head of safety later blamed the activity on a coordinated trolling campaign. But the activity further fueled the concerns of civil rights groups, prompting Musk to meet with civil rights leaders this week. On Friday he seemed to blame the drop in ad revenue on many of the same activists. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists, he tweeted. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022 But a coalition of civil rights groups and activists rejected Musks characterization. During a call with reporters on Friday, they said that Musks mass layoffs of Twitter staff, including people who work in moderation and safety, undermine the commitments he made following their meeting. When you lay off almost 50% of your staff, including teams that are in charge of actually tracking, monitoring and enforcing content moderation rules, that necessarily means that content moderation has changed, said Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press. The group also raised concerns about Musk's amplification of far-right conspiracies regarding the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband; it also cited reports the now-CEO could chip away at current Twitter rules protecting trans users. "If Twitter does not take immediate concrete actions that illustrate a true commitment to maintaining best practices that protect users that companies then companies will not support with ad dollars and we're seeing it happen in real time, said GLAAD CEO Sarah Ellis. Twitter is facing a class action lawsuit over its ongoing mass layoffs, which could potentially cut its workforce in half. According to Bloomberg, employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company in San Francisco federal court, arguing that Twitter's actions run afoul of the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Under the labor law, companies with 100 or more employees are required to notify them of mass layoffs 60 days in advance. The New York Times reported earlier that Twitter would begin layoffs and that around half of the company's staff members would be affected. In an email seen by The Washington Post, Twitter said that the layoffs are "unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward." The company also told employees to stay at home today and to wait for an email. If they get one in their Twitter-owned email inbox, their job is safe. But if they receive the email in their personal account, that means they're being let go. Some people are reporting on the social network that they have already been locked out of their work emails and had been removed from the company's central Slack account. The plaintiffs are asking the court to issue an order forcing Twitter to obey the WARN Act. They also want the court to prohibit the company from soliciting employees to sign away their right to litigate. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said they filed the complaint "in an attempt to make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights." Turn on browser notifications to receive breaking news alerts from Engadget You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu. Not now Turned on Turn on Liss-Riordan was also the lawyer who handled the lawsuit against Tesla in June over layoffs that cut 10 percent of the automaker's workforce. Similar to this complaint, the plaintiffs back then argued that Tesla violated the WARN Act. Company chief Elon Musk, who took over Twitter a week ago, called the lawsuit "trivial" in a talk with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait. The court had also sided with the company and ruled that employees should negotiate with Tesla in a closed-door arbitration instead. South Korea scrambled dozens of fighter jets and other warplanes Friday after detecting the mobilization of more than 180 North Korean military aircraft in various locations, Seoul's defense authorities said. The North's planes were detected flying between around 11 a.m and 3 p.m. over its inland areas as well as off the western and eastern coasts, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The North has been fiercely protesting the ongoing combined air drills of South Korea and the United States, called Vigilant Storm. (Yonhap) Rape, torture, looting, illegal deportation, and destruction of homes. Ukraine collects facts of war crimes of Russians by documenting testimonies from Ukrainians abroad. This initiative was launched by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, starting the campaign 'Your story - your contribution to the victory!' UN chief calls for holistic approach to building resilience in peace operations Xinhua) 08:35, November 04, 2022 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Front) speaks at a Security Council open debate on integrating effective resilience-building in peace operations for sustainable peace at the UN headquarters in New York, on Nov. 3, 2022. Guterres on Thursday called for a holistic approach to building resilience in peace operations. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua) UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for a holistic approach to building resilience in peace operations. "We need a more holistic and integrated approach to building resilience and sustaining peace, with tailored investments across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus," Guterres told the Security Council. That means strengthening synergies across the range of peace work -- from conflict prevention and resolution to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and long-term development. It means deepening partnerships between the United Nations, the African Union, and other regional organizations, as well as with international and regional financial institutions. And it means better integrating the work of UN country teams with the mandates of peace operations, particularly in transition contexts, he said. In his remarks at a Security Council open debate on integrating effective resilience-building in peace operations for sustainable peace, Guterres also stressed the crucial question of finance. "We all recognize that prevention and peacebuilding are cost-effective and save lives. But that understanding in principle is not matched with the necessary resources in practice. The international community continues to underinvest in peace," he said. "It is time to walk the talk," said the UN chief. Funding must be scaled up, and partnerships with international financial institutions must be even more strengthened, he said. Guterres called for deepened engagement with local communities and more responsive and inclusive governments and institutions. Peace operations create space for dialogue and political participation, reduce community violence, secure the delivery of basic services, encourage reconciliation, and promote equal access to justice, he said. "But we must act more quickly and effectively to address needs and grievances. Specifically, that means strengthening a whole-of-society approach and increasing investments that build trust, community engagement and cohesion." He stressed the need to bolster the leadership of women and youth in shaping the future of their countries and to ensure they benefit from peace and development gains. The contributions of women peacekeepers and local women networks are pivotal to building community resilience and ensuring that women's concerns are front and center in conflict prevention and resolution efforts, he said. "At the same time, we must ensure the voices of young people are heard loud and clear in articulating peacebuilding priorities." The local and global contexts for peace operations are becoming more challenging by the day, he said. Geopolitical tensions are rising. Insecurity is spreading. The drivers of instability are powerful, many, and mutually reinforcing. They include escalating climate catastrophes, worsening hunger and poverty, deepening inequalities, spreading violent misogyny, misinformation and disinformation, and waning trust in institutions, he noted, adding that all of this is fuelling political tensions, economic despair, and social unrest. "Unconstitutional changes of government are proliferating -- alongside inter-state conflicts, invasions, and wars. Entrenched divides between world powers continue to limit our ability to collectively respond. The chasm between humanitarian needs and humanitarian assistance keeps widening. Human rights and the rule of law are under assault. Cyberwarfare and lethal autonomous weapons are presenting risks we barely comprehend and lack the global architecture to contain," said Guterres. "Our world is transforming at breakneck speed. We must keep pace to keep peace," he said. Peacebuilding gains on the African continent and elsewhere are reversing. There is a need to ensure a sharper focus on prevention and building resilience. UN peace operations must be empowered and equipped to play a greater role in sustaining peace at all stages of conflict, and in all its dimensions, said the UN chief. That requires committed, inclusive national ownership that considers the needs of the most vulnerable, including women, young people, and minorities. Above all, development and respect for all human rights -- economic, social, cultural, civil, and political -- are the world's best preventive tools against violent conflict and instability, he said. The Security Council plays a critical role in supporting the efforts of UN peace operations to build resilience and sustain peace. By acting early, engaging strategically, and speaking with one voice, the council can mobilize the international community's political and financial support and foster the commitment of conflict actors to secure peace, he said. "I look forward to continuing to work with the council to strengthen peace operations and advance peace." (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) A K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher fires a projectile in this photo from Oct. 20. Courtesy of Hanwha Defense By Ko Dong-hwan Korea's Hanwha Aerospace signed a $3.55 billion deal on Friday to export around 200 multiple rocket launchers to Poland, raising Korea's annual weapons exports to a new record. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), under Korea's Ministry of National Defense, said Friday that the contract was the first in a series of weapons deals with the Polish military. The sale of the Chunmoo 230 millimeter multiple rocket launchers brought Korea's overall weapons exports this year to $17 billion. The contract with Poland accounts for $12.4 billion of that total. Korea exported 980 K2 main battle tanks and 648 K9 howitzers to Poland on Aug. 26. The following month, Korea also exported 48 FA-50 light attack aircraft to Poland. Korea's weapons exports surged from around $3 billion in 2020 to $7.25 billion the following year. DAPA Minister Eom Dong-hwan, said the latest deal was "another accomplishment of cooperation between the country's national defense industry and the government." The Polish representatives were not able to come to Seoul because of their schedules and sealed the deal via video conferencing, according a DAPA spokeswoman. "I express deep gratitude for the contributions of the domestic defense industry to the national economy and security," Eom said. "Our government promises to guarantee that our defense industry's firms can maximize their export efforts." "Following our previous meeting in October, when we discussed the basic outline of the deal, we confirmed some details today, including the quantity, price and time of delivery," an official from Hanwha said. "This led us to ship Chunmoo to Europe for the first time." The defense ministry also said that Korea's weapons exports this year were the result of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's "strong will to improve the country's national defense industry as a strategic sector to spur the growth of future competitiveness." "It was the outcome of our domestic weapons developers' superb production capabilities to make and deliver products to their clients on time, our military's unwavering support, and the supreme quality of our weapons that have been proven by the long history of Seoul-Washington joint military exercises," said an official from the ministry. The ministry added that the latest deal will further strengthen Korea's alliance with Europe and, at the same time, promote Korea's weapons manufacturing capability to the world. The two countries said they will boost defense cooperation by jointly developing and producing weapons for other countries. Four UK red meat bodies have published a toolkit to showcase what the industry is doing to combat climate change as COP27 gets underway next week. The pack of materials aims to support the industry to form a common narrative on British livestock production and its place in a climate emergency. The AHDB, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) and Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) have launched it ahead of COP27 taking place from 6-18 November in Egypt. The four organisations have brought together various insights to devise a toolkit to support the red meat supply chain to have positive dialogue with those outside the industry. The aim is for the industry to communicate collectively as a sector to positively manage the reputation of red meat during and beyond COP27. On behalf of the four organisations, QMS Chief Executive, Sarah Millar, said: Its critical that as a sector we have a strong, recognised and cohesive voice in the debate around the climate emergency. Tackling climate change and delivering sustainability at a holistic level is a much broader concept than the often singled-out issue of methane emissions. "Its about managing landscapes, the rural economy and infrastructure and delivering nutritious food for a healthy population. A shared narrative will build greater understanding among consumers and decision-makers, refute the myths and instigate greater fact-based conversations around livestock production. The toolkit includes statistics, expert opinion and downloadable graphics to illustrate the positive contribution farmland and well-managed livestock production can make to a healthy environment. Some examples of this include reducing GHG emissions, protecting water resources and flood mitigation and other natural capital benefits such as soil health, hedgerows and peatland restoration as well as the value of food production. Ms Millar added: Working in partnership across the supply chain is as critical in defending the British red meat sectors place in food production as it is in delivering on net zero goals. The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index has again fallen, this time by 3.9% to US$3,537, in a return to the dominant trend of the past seven months. The main driver for the drop at the latest event on 1 November was a large downturn in the SMP price, which fell 8.5%. Whole milk powder (WMP) also saw significant decline, dropping 3.4%. Butter and cheese recorded marginal gains. Since 15 March 2022, 13 out of the 16 GDT events have had a decline in the overall price index. Analysing the latest event, Freya Shuttleworth, AHDB Dairy analyst, said the latest GDT auction saw "another step down in prices". "Production of SMP in New Zealand is currently estimated to be around 15%-27% higher than the year earlier, according to NZX, the main dairy trading exchange," she explained. "This increase in available product is likely to be the driving force for the declining price index. She added: "Buying interest on the platform remained strong for EU product however, likely due to the tight supply situation there." Contrary to SMP, production of WMP in New Zealand remains well below historic volumes. Fonterra are reported to have a target of producing 250,000 tonnes less WMP this season, according to NZX. "There is little appetite to increase production with demand from China weakening on the back of high stocks and ample milk production," Ms Shutteworth said. Livestock rustlers have stolen eighteen cattle from a farm near Wrexham, as police urged farms to bolster security following a series of high value thefts in the area. North Wales Police is appealing for more information regarding the theft, which occurred on Coxwood Farm in Rossett near Wrexham. All of the stolen cattle are between the ages of eight to 13 months, with the theft taking place overnight on 1 and 2 November. The stolen animals consist of Holstein Friesian, Longhorn, Limousin, Charolais and British Blue heifers. Livestock rustling has become lucrative for criminal gangs, with farm animals worth an estimated 2.4 million stolen in the first quarter of 2022. PC Chris James, of the force's rural crime team, urged farms in the region to review security and report anything suspicious. "Anyone with any information or who has witnessed suspicious vehicles or activity in the area over the past few days are asked to contact North Wales police quoting crime reference." There have been several thefts in the last two months which have mainly taken place on farms and company yards, largely targeting agricultural vehicles and tools. PC Jamie Aston, of the Western Priority Crime Team, said there had been an increase in high value thefts from rural locations, such as farms. Following correspondence with the Farmers Union this week, we are listening to the communities concerns and have increased patrols in rural areas," he said. I would urge anyone with a quadbike, trailer, Land Rover and other high value tools to take all reasonable steps to safeguard their possessions. Simply ensuring to check that high value items are locked away in secure locations overnight and keeping vehicle keys separate from the vehicle can be enough to prevent theft from taking place. Scottish sheep producers are being encouraged to bank a lamb to help tell the story of sheep farming as a St Andrews Day initiative gets underway. A Lamb Bank has been created to give schoolchildren the opportunity to taste and cook with Scotch Lamb on the patron saints day, taking place on 30 November. The Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland's (IAAS) project has been a success - over 62,000 schoolchildren have benefitted from over two tonnes of donated lamb. The marketing campaign was set up in 2010 to boost lamb sales among consumers by making it synonymous with St Andrews Day, similar to haggis on Burns' Night. Red meat levy organisation Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is working with Scotlands livestock auctioneers and IAAS to support the Lamb Bank again this year. Alix Ritchie, from the QMS Health and Education team, said: "Not only does it give many children who may not have eaten lamb before the chance to taste it, but it provides a talking point to discuss lamb production. "Our role is to support the teachers as much as we can with the resources they need to make it easy to transpose into the classroom, and this is hugely enhanced by the donations of lamb made by the industry. Farmers selling sheep via an IAAS mart can donate the funds from the sale of one or more lambs, or other sheep, into the Lamb Bank. This will then be used to supply lamb to Scottish schools during the week of the 30 November for Home Economics classes. Gordon Newlands, manager of the Scotch Butchers Club, who is working with butchery retailers to boost sales of lamb, said the goal was to see Scotch Lamb synonymous with St Andrews Day. "Each year, Lamb for St Andrews Day has gained greater momentum, and its excellent to see so many industry representatives take a leading role in helping market and promote Scotch Lamb. "For 2022, we want to push this even further and for everyone across the industry to be an ambassador at even the most basic level." Figures show that retailers are stocking a higher proportion of British pork compared to a year ago, but the pig sector says more can still be done. The latest AHDB Porkwatch survey shows supermarket chains are stocking a higher proportion of British pork products than a year ago. The September survey showed the proportion of British fresh pork on display on retail shelves increased to 87%, compared with 86% in July and 77% a year ago. The National Pig Association (NPA) welcomed the improvement, but urged the supply chain to stick with British product 'wherever possible'. The figures also show that British bacon was up to 63% from 59% in July and just 52% a year ago, while ham increased from 67% in July to 73%, compared with 65% a year ago Sausage facings were slightly down on July at 87%, which was similar to a year ago. Aldi, the Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons and Sainsburys all stocked 100% British fresh pork in September, with Waitrose slipping to 99% and Budgens at 98%. Tesco and Asda were both still some way behind their rivals, particularly in the fresh pork and bacon categories, but they have shown significant improvements. While the comparison with 2021 is affected by the impact of Brexit disruption on trade last year, imports volumes are still up by around 6-7% on 2019 and 2020 levels. The Porkwatch survey suggested retailers were stocking a higher proportion of pork, although the survey does not quantify volumes. Responding to the figures, NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson urged the supply chain to stick with British pork. The latest Porkwatch figures are to be welcomed and we are pleased that some retailers being more supportive of British pig farmers, she said. But the survey only tells part of the story - the pig industry continues to be in a very precarious position. "It is clear that there is still a lot more that could be done at processor, retail and foodservice level to support British producers and prevent permanent contraction. North Korea will surely "pay a price" for its escalating provocations, South Korea's top military officer said Friday, labeling a series of recent missile launches a "grave" threat to regional security as he held talks with the U.S. air force commander. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum and U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach held talks in Seoul earlier in the day to discuss the North's recent missile threat. During the meeting, Kim said the allies' combined defense posture will "grow even stronger" and that the North will surely pay a price should the recalcitrant country continue its provocations, the JCS said in a statement. The two also denounced the North's ballistic missiles launches this week as "grave provocative acts" that threaten the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the broader international society. The two commanders also assessed the ongoing Vigilant Storm air drills as a "successful training event that verified the wartime combined operations execution posture" of the allies' air forces that "made the enemy shiver with fear," they added. Pyongyang has recently escalated tensions on the peninsula with a barrage of missiles and artillery shells amid concerns it could conduct another nuclear test. In Wednesday's provocation, the North fired more than 20 missiles, including one that landed south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border, for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. On Thursday, it also test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), marking its seventh such launch this year. The two allies decided to extend the Vigilant Storm practice, initially scheduled to end on Friday, in response to the North's ICBM launch. (Yonhap) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Priyanka (@priyankachopra) She captioned the video expressing all her love for Mumbai, stating, "Pit stop at an old haunt. Even if just for a minute #IYKYK.. Mumbai, Ive missed you! Now back to work." She captioned the video expressing all her love for Mumbai, stating, "Pit stop at an old haunt. Even if just for a minute #IYKYK.. Mumbai, Ive missed you! Now back to work." Our favourite desi girl Priyanka Chopra has truly been missed all these 3 years in her homeland. The talented global actress who left for the US in 2015 has been incredibly busy ever since as she juggles projects between the West and Bollywood. However, after 3 long years, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is back in Mumbai and truly living it up.The actress who is in the city currently for matters related to one of her startups went to Marine Drive yesterday and posted a video on the same. It took no time for it to go viral as she was seen dancing, singing, and enjoying the Mumbai vibe at the iconic Marine Drive. Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 3, 2022) - C-COM Satellite Systems Inc., (TSXV: CMI) (OTCQB: CYSNF), a leading global provider of commercial grade mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, announced today that, pursuant to the requirements of the TSX Venture Exchange, it has granted options to purchase 340,000 common shares of C-COM to a director and officers of C-COM. The stock options were granted pursuant to the terms of C-COM's stock option plan and are exercisable at $1.55 per share. These grants form part of the overall annual remuneration package. Stock option grants are subject to necessary regulatory approvals. About C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is a pioneer and world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of transportable and mobile satellite-based antenna systems. The Company has developed proprietary, auto-acquisition controller technology for rapid antenna pointing to a satellite with just the press of a button, enabling Broadband Internet via Satellite across a wide range of market applications worldwide, including regions unserved or underserved by terrestrial access technologies. C-COM has sold more than 10,000 antenna systems, in over 100 countries, through a dedicated dealer network that provides service to a wide range of vertical markets such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Military Communications, Disaster Management, SNG, Emergency Communications, Cellular Backhaul, Telemedicine, Mobile Education, Government Services, Mobile Banking, and others. The Company's iNetVu brand is synonymous with high quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. C-COM is in late-stage development of a potentially revolutionary Ka-band, electronically steerable, modular, conformal, flat panel phased array antenna. In cooperation with the University of Waterloo, C-COM is engaged in the design of this unique antenna with the intent of providing low-cost, high-throughput mobility applications over satellite for land, airborne and maritime verticals. For additional information please visit www.c-comsat.com. iNetVu is a registered trademark of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. The Company is publicly traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (TSXV: CMI) and on the US OTC Exchange (OTCQB: CYSNF). # # # Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Statements about C-COM's expectations as to its performance after the COVID-pandemic and its intentions with respect to its Ka-band antenna version all contain forward-looking information. Several factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The COVID pandemic may last longer than expected or C-COM's preparations may not translate into expected performance for any number of reasons, some of which are beyond C-COM Satellite Systems' control. Anticipated benefits of the new technology may not be realized, and new products and services may not be released or, if released may not gain market acceptance. Any of those events and others could influence future performance and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s ability to achieve the results mentioned above. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Readers are directed to the risk factors associated with the business of C-COM Satellite Systems in the company's most recent MD&A available at www.SEDAR.com. INVESTOR RELATIONS C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. Tel: (343) 803-5245 Fax: (613) 745-7144 lklein@c-comsat.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143015 Neurosteer's EEG System Features Novel Brain Activity Representation Based on Advanced EEG Signal Processing Technology NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurosteer Inc. today announced the FDA clearance of its Neurosteer single-channel EEG brain monitoring platform. This clearance allows Neurosteer's unobtrusive multi-purpose system to be used in a broad range of clinical settings. In the ICU, it can offer continuous brain monitoring to support critical interventions. In a doctor's office, it can aid in the early detection of pre-symptomatic cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia. And in pharma drug trials, it can assist in the rapid and cost-effective mass screening of subjects who may be suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. Neurosteer advances the century-old EEG into the 21st century, using an adhesive electrode strip connected to a pocket-sized sensor that wirelessly transmits EEG data to the cloud for advanced signal processing. Using just a single adhesive forehead strip, Neurosteer's innovative solution offers the traditional EEG frequency bands while also being cleared by the FDA to include several novel "brain metrics" visual representations. These brain metrics rely on Neurosteer's advanced signal processing technology and may assist trained medical staff in making neurological diagnoses. In addition, affixing the adhesive strip to the forehead avoids interference from the hair, and using dry gel supports unattended operation for up to 12 hours. Finally, the system includes a noninvasive assessment with auditory prompts that can aid in the early detection of brain deterioration. Dr. Amitai Bickel, Surgeon at Western Galilee Hospital, commented, "After working with the Neurosteer EEG system for several years, I've realized what an advantage it is to have a compact, easy-to-apply EEG brain monitor that can be used for real-time continuous monitoring. Neurosteer's innovative platform has the potential to revolutionize the standard of care in managing brain health." Dr. Nathan Intrator, Founder and CEO of Neurosteer, said, "We are extremely pleased that the FDA has cleared our portable and affordable EEG system, and moreover, recognized the potential clinical value of our brain metrics visual representations. This is an important step in achieving our goal of making brain monitoring and assessment widely available to all populations." About the Company Neurosteer Inc. has developed an innovative brain monitoring platform that is based on a portable single-channel EEG. It uses an adhesive forehead electrode strip connected to a pocket-sized sensor that wirelessly transmits EEG data to the cloud for advanced signal processing. It complements traditional frequency band analysis with "brain metrics" visual representations. The company was founded in 2015 by Dr. Nathan Intrator to commercialize brain monitoring technology that he initially developed at Tel Aviv University. With offices in New York, California and Israel, the company's patented product is currently being validated in clinical trials and used by pharmaceutical companies for patient screening and efficacy testing of new drugs. www.neurosteer.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937820/Neurosteer_Logo.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937819/Neurosteer_EEG_brain_monitoring_platform.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/neurosteer-announces-fda-clearance-of-the-neurosteer-eeg-brain-monitoring-platform-301668493.html Sydney, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - There has been keen focus on workplace culture and diversity on the final day of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC). Throughout the conference, mining leaders have acknowledged that if the industry does not act now to fix and change the culture, they will not be able to attract the staff required for the new resources boom. Chief People Office at IGO, Sam Retallack told the conference "we as industry have broken the psychological contract of trust that we have with the community. We are seen as a cause of climate change not as a solution. We are seen as an unsafe workplace for females, we are seen as inflexible with our rostering and that you must commit to FIFO work. It's not a particularly attractive proposition for new workers." Danielle Martin, Director of Social Performance at ICMM spoke to the substantial issues facing the industry as workforce skills change and evolve. "The competition for talent will be tricky for mining because the skills in many cases are less specific to mining and are applicable across other sectors," said Ms Martin. "Because of the culture and perception of mining, it is a less attractive industry for many workers who could work in other industries." All is not lost however, Stuart Jenner, General Manager of Capability and Culture at Gold Road Resources reflected on the cultural issues the Australian Defence Force faced 20 years ago. Changes to workplace culture will likely lead to an increase in the recruitment of new staff and the retention of key talent as the competition for skills intensifies. Mr Jenner said "Defence Force recreated its brand and aligned it with its purpose and mining needs to do the same. We need to be upfront, honest, and transparent to establish that purpose. The Defence Force pay no near what the mining industry does but because of their purpose, they have a huge amount of success in attracting talent." There is a realisation from the sector that the industry must act now and push for the acknowledgment that these issues need to be addressed from the top down. Gavin Wood, Chief Information Officer at Newcrest Mining spoke to the delegates at IMARC explained the work they are doing to change culture with their existing workforce. Mr Wood said many existing staff at Newcrest grew up in mining areas and communities and that they need to give them the skills to interact with other aspects of the business and by virtue society. "If we do not give them these skills the culture will not change." Over the 3-day conference mining leaders from across the globe have challenged the current standard of culture within the sector and have discussed ways to make the industry safer for all. About The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) is where global mining leaders collaborate on trends in mining, investment and innovation towards a sustainable future. As Australia's largest mining event, it brings together over 7,500 decision makers, mining leaders, policy makers, investors, commodity buyers, technical experts, innovators, and educators from more than 110 countries for three days of learning, deal-making and unparalleled networking. IMARC is developed in collaboration with its founding partners the Victorian State Government of Australia, Austmine, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and Mines and Money. For more information, please visit https://imarcglobal.com/ Media Enquiries Jim Carden +61 429 112 381 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143038 The Chilean Airline selects Alkym platform to control manage their technical operation. Seabury Solutions, a market leader in providing Information Technology solutions for the aviation industry, announced today the addition of Sky Airline, Chile, to their growing customer base of Alkym users. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221101006089/en/ Seabury Solutions Welcome Sky Airline to Growing Alkym Customer Base to Support Maintenance Processes (Photo: Business Wire) "Through a meticulous evaluation process, Sky Airline chose Seabury Solutions' Alkym to replace its current Aircraft Maintenance Management tool. It filled us with pride to be chosen by the client most known in the region for their innovation, growth, and adaptive business model. Our teams are currently working on an implementation project that will surely conclude successfully," noted VP Sales Latin America, Manuel Roche. "As Engineering Maintenance Managers, we couldn't be oblivious to the huge digital transformation process the company is undergoing. All internal processes and passenger-related processes are being automated and the airline is experiencing remarkable growth. Due to this, we've been looking into replacing our current Management Information System (MIS) with a new system that can support our growth and the new challenges we must face as an airline. The system will allow us to streamline all our maintenance processes and, as a result, simplify our daily work and interaction with our "skyers" through the system. The evaluation process to choose the new system was very thorough. Before launching the RFP, every department that interacted in one way or another with the system was consulted to make an internal list of prerequisites; this way, we could satisfy the diverse needs of our local clients. Alkym stood out as the one who fit most of those prerequisites while also being willing to fulfill all the leftover requirements in the middle-term," remarked Sky Maintenance and Engineering Director, Cecil Davidson Tolg. Dir. Davidson continues to comment, "One of the most important features that we need from our new MIS is the ability to work outside of the office and through intelligent devices, meaning it needs a mobile function, which Alkym provides. It is also very intuitive, which makes it easy to use and offers us the possibility to improve the execution and management processes of our productive areas. Finally, it's important to mention that Seabury has shown flexibility through the whole process and has worked tirelessly to find a solution that fits our needs. We are sure that the implementation process will provide us with many advantages to develop and smooth our maintenance processes; in that way, Alkym will support us in reaching one of our company goals, which is to continue progressing to a complete digital transformation of our processes." "It's always rewarding to welcome a customer with such fleet growth as Sky Airline, who already has 28 aircraft and is waiting on more to arrive in the near future. It means we are on the right path to becoming the most comprehensive M&E Solution in the market, something that we've been striving for the last 20 years. There will be other airlines and MROs that eventually will move away from their existing, outdated M&E Solution, and we will be there to welcome them as well," asserted Seabury Solutions VP Head of Sales Marketing, Carlos Bianchi. ABOUT SKY AIRLINE ABOUT SEABURY SOLUTIONS View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221101006089/en/ Contacts: Brian Walsh mkt@seaburysolutions.com www.seaburysolutions.com WARSAW, Poland, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognizing the role of Poland in the wider advancement and innovation of digital assets in the European Union, WOO Network has joined FinTech Poland Ecosystem aimed at sharing key insights into the innovative, secure, and responsible crypto assets market in the country. Poland has recently seen an increase in the number of people who have crypto wallets as many businesses start to accept cryptocurrency as payment. The country is in the top ten countries in Europe in terms of the percentage of the population with crypto wallets. More than one million people or 2.8% of Polish have crypto wallets. "The ecosystem here is very proactive in helping to develop the crypto ecosystem and web3 in general and we'd like to be part of those discussions, especially in pushing for responsible fintech," said Jack Tan co-founder of WOO Network. Fintech Poland Ecosystem aims to increase the competitiveness and internationalization of the Polish financial innovation market by undertaking joint initiatives, preparing market standards, conducting regulatory dialogue, and jointly identifying barriers and development opportunities. The initiative aims to accelerate community building through organizing meetings, working groups, and jointly organized seminars and conferences. "Recently, the crypto-asset market has been developing very dynamically. Corporations and financial institutions across the world are increasingly interested in this asset class and the business opportunities that blockchain technology brings. In parallel, the European Union decided to become a global pioneer in the legal framework for crypto-assets creating MiCA regulation. Consequently, cryptocurrencies are becoming part of the global financial sector. Therefore, it is especially important when entities experienced in the crypto-asset market, such as WOO Network declare their participation in our ecosystem. Their experience will be very valuable in creating a competitive and innovative but also secure and responsible crypto assets market in Poland," said Pawel Widawski, CEO of FinTech Poland. "We're very excited to have WOO Network because their team comes from diverse backgrounds, with their founders having solid experience in finance. This is very valuable in sharing with others and discussing challenges in our fintech community" Widawski noted. FinTech Poland is also a founding member of the European Digital Finance Association (EDFA), A non-profit independent industry body of 15 EU ecosystems representing 1000s of members, all collaborating with the policymakers to ensure a prosperous single market and the competitiveness of the EU companies. WOO X is a trading platform for professional traders, featuring fully customizable modules, and lower to zero-fee trading complete with deep liquidity sourced from the WOO Network , which connects traders, exchanges, institutions, and DeFi platforms. The WOO Token is used in the network's CeFi and DeFi products for staking and fee discounts. WOO Network was incubated by Kronos Research, a multi-strategy trading firm that specializes in market making, arbitrage, CTA, and high-frequency trading (HFT), averaging around $5-10 billion of daily trading volume on global cryptocurrency exchanges. The content above is neither a recommendation for investment and trading strategies nor does it constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any product or service. The content is for informational sharing purposes only. Anyone who makes or changes the investment decision based on the content shall undertake the result or loss by himself/herself. The content of this document has been translated into different languages and shared throughout different platforms. In case of any discrepancy or inconsistency between different posts caused by mistranslations, the English version on our official website shall prevail. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938155/FintechPoland_WOO_Network.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/woo-network-joins-fintech-poland-ecosystem-301668807.html Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Friday called for utmost efforts to rescue two miners trapped underground for 10 days. They have been isolated in a vertical shaft about 190 meters underground at a zinc mine in the county of Bonghwa, 244 kilometers southeast of Seoul, since the mine collapsed on Oct. 26. "I hope that the two persons will come back alive," Han said as he spoke by phone with the head of the fire department in Bonghwa, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's office. Han asked for utmost efforts to rescue the two miners without losing hope until the end, according to the statement. (Yonhap) The company is one of the first cloud testing platforms to release support for macOS Ventura as soon as the stable version was released by Apple to enable customers to seamlessly test on the latest version San Francisco, CA, Nov. 04, 2022, a leading continuous quality testing cloud platform, has launched support for macOS Ventura operating system for both real-time and automation testing platforms. This now enables developers and testers to test their websites and web applications for compatibility with the latest Apple OS . macOS Ventura is the latest release of macOS, Apple's desktop operating system for Mac computers. It is the 19th release from Apple and was launched on October 24, 2022. macOS Ventura has new productivity tools and continuity features. Among the interesting updates is the Stage Manager. It automatically organizes apps and windows thereby helping users to concentrate on the task at hand and still see everything in a single glance. "We want to ensure the quickest possible access to new releases, be it for desktops or devices. An up-to-date stable operating systems, versions, and devices are of immense value to our customers as they can test without any hassle," said Mayank Bhola, cofounder and head of product, LambdaTest. "We were also supporting the macOS Ventura beta version and we immediately launched the stable version as soon as it was made live by Apple. Our commitment to our customers is our speed and agility in adapting to the latest in the market." LambdaTest has also recently launched HyperExecute , a next-gen smart test orchestration platform that helps testers and developers run end-to-end automation tests at the fastest speed possible. About LambdaTest LambdaTest is a continuous quality testing cloud platform that helps developers and testers ship code faster. Over 10,000+ customers and 1+ million users across 130+ countries rely on LambdaTest for their testing needs. LambdaTest platform provides secure, scalable, and insightful test orchestration for customers at different points in their DevOps (CI/CD) lifecycle: ? Browser & App Testing Cloud allows users to run both manual and automated tests of web and mobile apps across 3000+ different browsers, real devices, and operating system environments. ? HyperExecute helps customers run and orchestrate test grids in the cloud for any framework and programming language at blazing-fast speeds to cut down on quality test time, helping developers build software faster. For more information, please visit, https://lambdatest.com EASTLEIGH, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2022 / i3 Energy plc (AIM:I3E)(TSX:ITE), an independent oil and gas company with assets and operations in the UK and Canada, announces the following update. Due to the Canadian federal holiday on 11 November 2022, the Company advises the amendment of the ex-dividend date to 9 November 2022 for the Company's shares trading on the TSX. Monthly Dividend i3 announces its monthly dividend totalling 1.6996 million and confirms the following: Dividend: 0.1425 pence/share Ex-Dividend Date: 9 Nov 2022 (amended for shares trading on the TSX only) Record Date: 11 Nov 2022 Payment date: 2 Dec 2022 Payment to shareholders holding their shares on the TSX will be made in Canadian dollars using the exchange rate from the Bank of England at close on the Dividend announcement date, 2 Nov 2022. Enquiries: i3 Energy plc Majid Shafiq (CEO) c/o Camarco Tel: +44 (0) 203 781 8331 WH Ireland Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker) James Joyce, Darshan Patel Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 Tennyson Securities (Joint Broker) Peter Krens Tel: +44 (0) 207 186 9030 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Joint Broker) Ashton Clanfield, Callum Stewart Tel: +44 (0) 20 7710 7600 Camarco Georgia Edmonds, Violet Wilson, Sam Morris Tel: +44 (0) 203 781 8331 Notes to Editors: i3 Energy is an oil and gas Company with a low cost, diversified, growing production base in Canada's most prolific hydrocarbon region, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and appraisal assets in the North Sea with significant upside. The Company is well positioned to deliver future growth through the optimisation of its existing 100% owned asset base and the acquisition of long life, low decline conventional production assets. i3 is dedicated to responsible corporate practices and the environment, and places high value on adhering to strong Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") practices. i3 is proud of its performance to date as a responsible steward of the environment, people, and capital management. The Company is committed to maintaining an ESG strategy, which has broader implications to long-term value creation, as these benefits extend beyond regulatory requirements. i3 Energy is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol I3E and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ITE. For further information on i3 Energy please visit https://i3.energy/. This announcement contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. SOURCE: i3 Energy PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/723923/i3-Energy-PLC-Announces-Ex-Dividend-Date-Amendment--TSX Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Whitehorse Gold Corp. (TSXV: WHG) (OTCQX: WHGDF) ("Whitehorse Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company intends to undertake a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering") to raise gross proceeds of up to approximately $3,000,000 from the sale of up to 7,500,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.40 per Unit (representing a [14.9]% discount to the volume weighted average of trading prices of the common shares of the Company on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") for the 20 consecutive business days prior to the date hereof), with each Unit consisting of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one-half of one non-transferable Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Share from the Company at a price of $0.65 per Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp"), Whitehorse Gold's largest shareholder (28.9%), and other insiders of the Company have confirmed their intention to participate in the Offering by purchasing an aggregate of up to 5,000,000 Units. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes. The Offering is anticipated to close on or about November [30], 2022, or such other date as the Company may determine (the "Closing Date"). The closing of the Offering is subject to certain conditions, including the approval of the TSXV and certain other conditions customary for a private placement of this nature. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a statutory four-month and one-day hold period from the Closing Date. The Company may pay a finder's fee in respect of those purchasers under the Offering introduced to the Company by certain persons (each a "Finder"). Each Finder will receive a cash payment equal to 6% of the gross proceeds received by the Company from purchasers under the Offering who were introduced to the Company by such Finder. As insiders of the Company (including Silvercorp) are expected to participate in the Offering, any such subscriptions will be considered to be related party transactions within the meaning of TSXV Policy 5.9 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, which incorporates Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company intends to rely on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of such insider participation. The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any United States state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. persons except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States, nor will there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Whitehorse Gold Whitehorse Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focusing on tin projects in Bolivia and a gold development project in the Yukon. The Company owns 51% of the Porvenir tin project 70 km southeast of Oruro Bolivia, with a right to increase ownership to 100%. The Company also has the right to acquire a 100% interest in a second tin project 65 km southeast of Oruro Bolivia. The Company also owns 100% of the Skukum Gold Project located in southern Yukon, approximately 55 km south-southwest of Whitehorse. The Skukum Gold Project hosts the formerly producing Mt. Skukum high-grade gold mine. Project infrastructure includes an all-weather access road, a 50-person camp, approximately 6 kms of underground development, and a previously operating 300-tpd process plant and associated support facilities. Underground operations by a previous operator at Mt. Skukum from 1986 to 1988 saw 233,400 tonnes of ore mined and processed to recover approximately 79,750 ounces of gold (Total Energold Corporation, 1989). On Behalf of Whitehorse Gold Corp. signed "Gordon Neal" Gordon Neal, CEO & Director For further information, please contact: Investor Relations, Whitehorse Gold Corp., Phone: +1 (604)-336-5919 Email: info@whitehorsegold.ca www.whitehorsegold.ca Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this news release, including, without limitation, the Company's objectives, goals, or future plans, the completion of the Offering, Silvercorp's participation in the Offering, the intended use of proceeds from the Offering, the expected closing date of the Offering and other future plans, objectives or expectations of the Company are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions, factors and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. The opinions, assumptions, factors and estimates which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to: that market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices; that there are no significant disruptions affecting operations, including labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, security disruptions, damage to or loss of equipment, whether due to flooding, political changes, title issues, intervention by local landowners, environmental concerns, pandemics (including COVID-19) or otherwise; that the Company will be able to obtain and maintain governmental approvals, permits and licenses in connection with its current and planned operations, development and exploration activities, including at the Skukum Gold Project; that the Company will be able to complete the required upgrading and retrofitting of the Skukum Gold Project infrastructure to be fit for the Company's planned mining activities; that the Company will be able to meet its current and future obligations; that the Company will be able to comply with environmental, health and safety laws; that the Company will be able to secure financing on suitable terms; and the assumptions underlying mineral resource estimates and the realization of such estimates. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others: that investor interest will be sufficient to close the Offering, social and economic impacts of COVID-19; actual exploration results; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; results of future exploration activities and resource estimates; future metal prices; availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms; general economic, market or business conditions; uninsured risks; regulatory changes; defects in title; availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis; accidents or equipment breakdowns; delays in receiving government and regulatory approvals (including TSXV approval of the Offering); unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same; and other exploration risks or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the Technical Report. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143019 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - While reporting financial results for the first quarter on Friday, healthcare services company Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH) reaffirmed its adjusted earnings guidance for the full-year 2023 in the range of $5.05 to $5.40 per share. On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $5.24 per share for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company noted that this guidance includes an update to Medical segment profit outlook to flat to 20% decline, from 10% growth to 10% decline, which reflects the impact of the previously announced simplification actions. For more earnings news, earnings calendar, and earnings for stocks, visit rttnews.com 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. LAVAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2022 / Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC)(TSX:BHC) ("Bausch Health") and its gastroenterology business, Salix Pharmaceuticals ("Salix"), today announced one de novo abstract that is being presented at The Liver Meeting 2022, organized by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), which is taking place November 4-8 in Washington, D.C. The abstract being presented at AASLD's The Liver Meeting 2022 is: Sanyal, A. et al. "Rifaximin Plus Lactulose Versus Lactulose Alone for Reducing the Risk of Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy Recurrence: A Pooled Subgroup Analysis." About XIFAXAN Indications XIFAXAN (rifaximin) 550 mg tablets are indicated for the reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) recurrence in adults and for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION XIFAXAN is contraindicated in patients with a hypersensitivity to rifaximin, rifamycin antimicrobial agents, or any of the components in XIFAXAN. Hypersensitivity reactions have included exfoliative dermatitis, angioneurotic edema, and anaphylaxis. Clostridium difficile -associated diarrhea (CDAD) has been reported with use of nearly all antibacterial agents, including XIFAXAN, and may range in severity from mild diarrhea to fatal colitis. If CDAD is suspected or confirmed, ongoing antibiotic use not directed against C. difficile may need to be discontinued. -associated diarrhea (CDAD) has been reported with use of nearly all antibacterial agents, including XIFAXAN, and may range in severity from mild diarrhea to fatal colitis. If CDAD is suspected or confirmed, ongoing antibiotic use not directed against may need to be discontinued. There is an increased systemic exposure in patients with severe (Child-Pugh Class C) hepatic impairment. Caution should be exercised when administering XIFAXAN to these patients. Caution should be exercised when concomitant use of XIFAXAN and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and/or OATPs inhibitors is needed. Concomitant administration of cyclosporine, an inhibitor of P-gp and OATPs, significantly increased the systemic exposure of rifaximin. In patients with hepatic impairment, a potential additive effect of reduced metabolism and concomitant P-gp inhibitors may further increase the systemic exposure to rifaximin. In clinical studies, the most common adverse reactions for XIFAXAN were: HE (10%): Peripheral edema (15%), nausea (14%), dizziness (13%), fatigue (12%), and ascites (11%) IBS-D (2%): Nausea (3%), ALT increased (2%) INR changes have been reported in patients receiving rifaximin and warfarin concomitantly. Monitor INR and prothrombin time. Dose adjustment of warfarin may be required. XIFAXAN may cause fetal harm. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to a fetus. To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Salix Pharmaceuticals at 1-800-321-4576or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. Please click here for full Prescribing Information. About Salix Salix Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world committed to the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. For more than 30 years, Salix has licensed, developed and marketed innovative products to improve patients' lives and arm health care providers with life-changing solutions for many chronic and debilitating conditions. Salix currently markets its product line to U.S. health care providers through an expanded sales force that focuses on gastroenterology, hepatology, pain specialists and primary care. Salix is headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey. For more information about Salix, visit www.Salix.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. About Bausch Health Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX:BHC) is a global diversified pharmaceutical company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of products primarily in gastroenterology, hepatology, neurology, dermatology, international pharmaceuticals and eye health, through our controlling ownership interest in Bausch + Lomb. With our leading durable brands, we are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. Forward-looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements about the future performance of the Company, which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "hopes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "believes," "subject to" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Actual results are subject to other risks and uncertainties that relate more broadly to the Company's overall business, including those more fully described in the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and detailed from time to time in the Company's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. 2022 Salix Pharmaceuticals or its affiliates. The XIFAXAN 550 mg product and the XIFAXAN trademark are licensed by Alfasigma S.p.A. to Salix Pharmaceuticals or its affiliates. SAL.0119.USA.22 Investor Contact: Christina Cheng ir@bauschhealth.com (514) 856-3855 (877) 281-6642 (toll free) Media Contact: Kevin Wiggins corporate.communications@bauschhealth.com (908) 541-3785 Gianna Scalera salixcommunications@bauschhealth.com (908) 541-2110 SOURCE: Salix Pharmaceuticals View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/723896/Salix-Will-Present-Rifaximin-Data-at-AASLDs-The-Liver-MeetingR-2022 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - For the second time this year, stargazers will have the opportunity to view a total lunar eclipse next week. The total lunar eclipse, which will occurr on November 8, will be the last chance to see such a phenomenon until 2025, according to NASA. At least a portion of the lunar eclipse will be visible throughout eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific, and North America. Total lunar eclipses occur approximately once every 1.5 years on average. However, the next total lunar eclipse will not occur until 2025, says Alphonse Sterling, astrophysicist from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. The previous total lunar eclipse occurred in May. A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth casts a complete shadow called an umbra over the Moon. Earth's shadow is categorized into two parts: the umbra, the innermost part of the shadow where direct light from the Sun is completely blocked, and the penumbra, the outermost part of the shadow where the light is partially blocked. During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon and the Sun are on opposite sides of Earth. Many people wonder why lunar eclipses don't happen every month given the Moon completes an orbit around Earth every 27 days. The reason is because the Moon's orbit around Earth is tilted relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun, so the Moon often passes above or below Earth's shadow. Lunar eclipses are only possible when the orbits align so that the Moon is directly behind Earth relative to the Sun. For North America the action will start in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, NASA said. The partial eclipse will begin at 3:09 a.m. CST, with totality beginning at 4:16 a.m. and ending at 5:42 a.m. Then, the partial phase will resume, lasting until 6:49 a.m. Those in the eastern part of the United States will miss most or all of the last partial phase because the Moon will set during totality or shortly after totality ends. Another feature of a total lunar eclipse is the Moon's red hue during totality. No special eye protection is needed for viewing a lunar eclipse, unlike solar eclipses, which occur during the daytime. While the lunar eclipse can be observed with the unaided eye, a pair of binoculars or a telescope can enhance the view. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de San Francisco, California--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Noble Iron Inc. (TSXV: NIR) ("Noble Iron", or the "Company"), is pleased to provide an update to its press release of October 14, 2022 (the "Previous Press Release") in which it announced that it had called a special meeting of shareholders to be held December 1, 2022 (the "Meeting") for the purpose of approving a reduction in its stated capital to permit it to complete a return of capital to its shareholders. The funds comprising the Return of Capital were derived from the sale of its Texada Software business, which closed on June 30, 2022 (the "Transaction"). See the Company's press release dated June 30, 2022 for further information. At this time, the Company intends to initially distribute capital derived from the Transaction in the amount of C$1.00 per common share to its shareholders, being C$27,267,479 in aggregate (the "Return of Capital"). In order to make this initial capital distribution, the Company will seek the consent of its shareholders to reduce its stated capital account, which is currently at C$36,471,467, by C$27,267,479 to C$9,203,988 (the "Reduction in Stated Capital") at the Meeting. The Company intends to distribute additional capital to shareholders in 2023 upon the receipt of funds from the sale of the remaining equity in BP Tex LP (dba "Texada Software") (as previously announced in its press release dated October 31, 2022), and after the settlement of outstanding tax and other matters. Any further distributions will be subject to the amount of available capital, the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) and the Income Tax Act (Canada) and the receipt of all regulatory, TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") and shareholder approvals. There can be no assurances any such additional distributions will occur. For further information, please see the information circular of the Company prepared in connection with the Meeting, which will be mailed to the shareholders of the Company and filed on www.SEDAR.com in due course. If the Reduction in Stated Capital is approved by the shareholders at the Meeting and the Return of Capital is declared by the Company's board of directors thereafter, the Company will, as soon as possible thereafter, issue a news release which will include confirmation of the amount of the Return of Capital, the record date for determining the holders of Common Shares entitled to the Return of Capital, and the payment date for the Return of Capital. Until the shareholders of the Company approve the Reduction in Stated Capital and the board of directors of the Company declares the Return of Capital, there can be no assurance that the Return of Capital will be completed on the timelines contemplated or at all. The Return of Capital is subject to the approval of the Reduction in Stated Capital by the shareholders at the Meeting as well as all required TSXV approvals. In addition, the Company has been advised by the TSXV that its listing will be transferred to NEX since it no longer meets continued listing requirements following the completion of the Transaction. The transfer of the listing and the commencement of trading on NEX will be effective on a date to be determined by the TSXV. About Noble Iron Inc. Corporate communications contacts: Mariam Chaudhry Chief Financial Officer t: (226) 962-2718 e: mariam.chaudhry@nobleiron.com Nabil Kassam Founder, Chairman & CEO t: (650) 766-9177 e: nabil@nobleiron.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, including in connection with the proposed Reduction in Stated Capital and Return of Capital. The forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified using words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements and information and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on such statements and information. The Company's ongoing securities laws filings should be consulted for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements. Investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Management assumes no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143057 BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 8:30 am ET Friday, the Labor Department will release U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for October. Ahead of the data, the greenback traded mixed against its major counterparts. While it fell against the euro and the franc, it was steady against the yen. Against the pound, it recovered. The greenback was worth 147.79 against the yen, 0.9787 against the euro, 1.1195 against the pound and 1.0075 against the franc as of 8:25 am ET. 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, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - iMining Technologies Inc. (TSXV: IMIN) (the "Company" or "iMining") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Metaverse Advisory Group Inc. ("MAG"), has entered into an agreement with the co-founders of Wani Perfumes ("Wani"), to assist Wani in developing and executing its digital and metaverse-related strategy. MAG will provide Wani with an online, AI-enabled, e-commerce-based retail platform for their operations in the Metaverse. Wani is a based in Oman with operations in North America and is an innovative perfumery looking to become one of the leaders in this space by launching the world's first Metaverse house of luxury perfumes, a fusion of the exotic ancient fragrances of the East with the urban scents of the West, blended under the masterful eye of an expert perfumer. "I remain optimistic and excited to see the Web3.0 ecosystem evolve. There are many uses cases for the metaverse and the Web3.0 technology and iMining is certainly one of the early adopters of this technology. We continue to push the boundaries of innovation to work on the platform of the future," said Mr. Shroff. "I also want to take this opportunity to applaud the co-founders of Wani who took their time to research this new technology, came back and asked great questions before deciding to enter the metaverse," added Mr. Shroff. "Fragrance aromas have a positive impact on mood, concentration, focus, energy levels and alertness. They also trigger emotions which lead to long-term positive effects. At Wani, we Blend traditional frankincense and oud with exciting sensations, creating rich varieties of fragrances that fill your signature set with ultimately intoxicating to magnificently aesthetic aromas," said co-founder, Mr. Amanuallah. "Technology and innovation have always been close to my heart and a metaverse presence seems a natural evolution for Wani. We already have a presence on Amazon and other Web2.0 platforms, now we are bringing our products to the Web3.0 community," added Mr. Amanuallah. Wani Perfumes will be launched in the Decentraland metaverse in three stages. In the first stage, the iMining team, together with the Senior Management of Wani Perfurmes, will discuss and finalize a strategy to expand operations into the metaverse and will design the retail store based on Wani's design guidelines. In the second stage, Wani will open its doors to the general public inside the metaverse - stay tuned for the details on Wani's grand opening. Lastly, Wani will start accepting payment for their products using crypto currencies. For more information, please visit https://waniperfumes.ca/ About Wani Perfumes Wani Perfumes is the house of luxury perfumes from the Sultanate of Oman. A fusion of the exotic ancient fragrances of the East with the urban scents of the West, blended under the masterful eye of an expert perfumer. Our musks, spices, woods & pure essences are meticulously curated from the world's most genuine sources and blended in our state-of-the-art facilities to ensure superior quality. About Metaverse Advisory Group Inc. Metaverse Advisory Group is a virtual NFT based real estate company that develops and manages a portfolio of Virtual properties in major blockchain-based Metaverses including Decentraland and The Sandbox. It operates unique services including virtual property development, property management, and assisting companies with future of work, virtual events and meetings, marketing and advertising in the Metaverse. About iMining Technologies Inc. iMining is a publicly listed Web3.0 technology company developing technology for Crypto Mining, Decentralized Finance ("DeFi") and Non-Fungible Tokens ("NFT"). iMining also owns BitBit Financial Inc., an ATM Network and crypto OTC Trading Platform for individual and institutions. iMining investments are directly linked to the Bitcoin Mining, Crypto Trading, Decentralized Finance ("DeFI") and Metaverse Non-Fungible Tokens ("NFTs"). With diverse blockchain investment and infrastructure solutions, iMining looks to be a leader in accelerating the growth of Web3.0 for the enterprise market. The Company's operations include secure and sustainable cryptocurrency payments, staking, mining and digital asset investment designed for the scale and compliance requirements of institutional clients. iMining is committed to building strong global blockchain ecosystems and supporting inclusive access to digital tools and technologies. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Signed "Khurram Shroff" Khurram Shroff, President & CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, please contact: iMining Corporate Offices: Saleem Moosa, Director Email: investor@imining.com Telephone: 1-604-602-4935 Toll Free: 1-866-602-4935 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. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance, and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions, and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to, market conditions, availability of financing, actual results of activities, future cryptocurrency prices, operating risks, and other risks in the cryptocurrency industry. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required by applicable law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143016 XIAMEN, China, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yealink (Stock Code: 300628), a global leading unified communications (UC) solution provider, has officially announced the release of its new MeetingBar A10, specially designed for meetings in huddle spaces. Organizers of meetings in huddle spaces used to shy away from integrated video bar solutions because of budgetary constraints. Therefore, organizers of such meetings would often rely on USB peripherals for video conferencing, thus ignoring rapidly developing technology and solutions in the video conferencing arena. However, huddle rooms are the future of the workplace. According to recent research by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, it is estimated that by 2025, over 75% of video meetings will take place in huddle rooms. The Yealink MeetingBar A10 will be both affordable and ultra-convenient to use and set up. Catering to all the huddle space and home office needs The Yealink MeetingBar A10 caters to all the huddle space meeting needs. It is compact enough to fit in anywhere. Customers can set up within minutes and kick off their huddle space meeting in seconds. Furthermore, compared with USB peripheral solutions, MeetingBar A10 offers more: powerful video and audio, native meeting control and remote device management. Leading video platforms supported The Yealink MeetingBar A10 is fully certified by and fully compatible with leading video platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. It also adds flexibility as a standalone USB peripheral. No matter what platform a company starts with, later when migrating to a native experience like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, the transition can be completed seamlessly. Mini size, hard core Though compact, the bar packs powerful AI-enhanced video and audio features. The AI-powered camera features real-time and precise Auto Framing and Speaker Tracking. Yealink's deep learning intelligent audio analysis technology erases background noises. Thanks to this powerful video and audio technology, everyone gets an equal seat in the meeting. When working as a peripheral device, A10 supports wireless connection with WPP30 presentation pod. Simply plug the WPP30 pod into the laptop's USB-C port, rich video and audio from A10 are shared immediately without the need for installing software or drivers. Keep tabs on everything remotely The Yealink MeetingBar A10 can be monitored, controlled and upgraded remotely with a free YMCS (Yealink Management Cloud Service) account. Whether its firmware updates, configuration updates, or troubleshooting, can all be done remotely. Yealink's comprehensive Android-based solutions for video meetings With the introduction of the MeetingBar A10, expected to be available in December, Yealink adds to its impressive portfolio of Android-based video meeting solutions. DeskVision A24 for phone room and hot-desking collaboration MeetingBar A10 for huddle spaces and home office MeetingBar A20 for small rooms MeetingBar A30 for medium-to-large rooms MeetingBoard for all sizes of rooms, from manager's office to large rooms Yealink's portfolio of Android-based solutions has every option customers need for their video meeting needs, no matter where they are. Learn more about MeetingBar A10 at www.yealink.com. Explore more about MeetingBar A10 and Yealink Android solution at Zoomtopia onsite at the San Jose Convention Center between November 8-9 or online here. About Yealink Inc. Yealink (Stock Code: 300628) is a global brand that specializes in video conferencing, voice communications and collaboration solutions with best-in-class quality, innovative technology and user-friendly experience. Yealink is Top5 video conferencing provider (IDC Global Video Conferencing Market Statistics 2021), and ranks No.1 in the global market share of SIP phone shipments (Global IP Desktop Phone Growth Excellence Leadership Award Report, Frost & Sullivan, 2020). For more information, please visit: www.yealink.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937957/Though_compact_MeetingBar_A10_packs_powerful_AI_enhanced_video_audio_features.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937958/Yealink_s_full_scenario_portfolio_Android_based_solutions_option_video_meeting_home_office.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/yealink-launches-meetingbar-a10-to-cater-for-all-the-huddle-space-meeting-needs-301668770.html Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, second from right, poses with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, third from right, along with other business executives after holding in-depth discussions on ways to further expand economic cooperation at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of KCCI By Kim Hyun-bin Korean and German business lobby groups emphasized the importance of decarbonization and establishing a strong foundation for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles during the Korea-Germany Business Roundtable held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul Friday. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), together with the Korea-Germany Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KGCCI), held in-depth discussions on ways to further expand economic cooperation in celebration of the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Korea and Germany while exploring medium to long-term cooperation between the two countries centered on the decarbonization economy and the introduction of ESG principles. "Economic cooperation between the two countries has been centered on the manufacturing industry, but now it should be extended to carbon neutrality and ESG, which are the trends of the times," Woo Tae-hee, vice chairman of the KCCI, said. "I hope that today's event will serve as an opportunity for the two countries to open the door to a new level of economic cooperation." From the Korean side, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun, Korean Ambassador to Germany Kim Hong-gyun and Korea-Germany Economic Cooperation Chairman Lee In-yong among other company executives took part. On the German side, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Sabine Hepperle, Head of the Directorate-General at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs & Energy, Head of the Office of the President Dorte Dinger, German Ambassador to Korea Michael Reiffenstuel along with other German company executives attended. "Germany is Korea's largest trading partner in Europe, and despite the prolonged pandemic, bilateral trade reached a record high last year. The two countries have a lot in common in that they are actively pursuing a decarbonization economy and ESG introduction, so economic cooperation between the two countries will be able to bring about greater synergy in the future," said Lee In-yong, chairman of Korea-Germany Economic Cooperation. The KCCI and the KGCCI signed the Korea-Germany Economic Cooperation Expansion Business Agreement in June 2018, but due to the pandemic, the first meeting was held in January this year via video. At the meeting, Lee In-yong, president of Samsung Electronics, was appointed as the new chairman of the Korea-Germany Economic Cooperation. "Companies currently face enormous challenges, but they must not give up their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and comply with ESG standards. We can achieve results," said Holger Gerrmann, Chairman of the KGCCI. CHICAGO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Mold Release Agents Market by Product Type (Water-based, Solvent-based), Application (Die-casting, Rubber Molding, Plastic Molding, PU Molding, Concrete, Wood Composite & Panel Pressing, Composite Molding), and Region- Global Forecast to 2027", will grow to USD 2.6 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.7% from USD 2.0 billion in 2022 Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=39429520 Browse and in-depth TOC on "Mold Release Agents Market" 248 - Tables 62 - Figures 241 - Pages View detailed Table of Content here - https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/mold-release-agents-market-39429520.html According to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, "Mold release agents are film forming lubricating oils, solid lubricants, waxes, or fluids that prevent materials from sticking to an underlying surface". Mold release agents are composed of various materials such as wax or stearate; silicones; petroleum or mineral oil; molybdenum or metal sulfide; graphite; fluoropolymer or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE); and ester or diester among other materials. Application of mold release agents causes easy, clean, and smooth separation of two surfaces. While selecting mold release agents, some factors are taken into consideration, such as mold material, cycle time, secondary finishing, temperature, and pressure. Solvent-based mold release agents is the second-largest mold release agents material of mold release agents market. Solvent-based mold release agents are diluted in an appropriate amount of petroleum solvent and then applied to the mold surface with the help of spray, brush, or a cloth. Solvent-based mold release agents have simpler technology and therefore are easy to manufacture and apply. They have a higher evaporation rate when compared to water-based mold release agents and thus facilitate film formation and get adjusted on the mold very easily. They can be used for molding of rubber, silicone, plastic, metal casting, composite parts, and others. PU molding is projected to be the fastest-growing application of the mold release agents market, in terms of value, during the forecast period. PU are made by the exothermic reactions between alcohols with hydroxyl (-OH) groups and isocyanates. A broad spectrum of materials can be produced to meet the needs of specific applications in PU because a wide variety of isocyanates and polyols are used to produce PU. There are different types of finished products made from PU. This includes foam for seating and furniture, insulation backing foams, visco-elastic PU products, rigid foams for insulation and refrigeration panels, dual & single density shoe soles, and cast elastomers among other products. Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=39429520 South America is projected to be the second fastest growing market for mold release agents during the forecast period The mold release agents market in South America includes Brazil, Argentina, and Rest of South American countries. South America is an emerging market, as its economy is growing rapidly. The region offers significant growth opportunities for the mold release agents' manufacturers due to the favorable demographic trends including low cost of production, rising income of the middle class, and growth in the construction industry. The continuous investments in the construction, transportation, and automotive industries have led to economic growth in South America. The growing demand from rubber and PU molded products is also expected to drive the market for mold release agents in South America. The key market players profiled in the report include Freudenberg Group (Germany), Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), Croda International Plc (UK), LANXESS AG (Germany), Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. (Japan), Daikin Industries, Ltd. (Japan), Michelman, Inc. (US), Marbocote Ltd (UK), Mcgee Industries, Inc. (US), Miller-Stphenson, Inc. (US), and others. Get 10% Free Customization on this Report @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=39429520 Browse Adjacent Markets: Chemicals Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports: Green & Bio-solvents Market by Type (Bioalcohols, Bio-Diols, Biogycols, Lactate Esters), Application (Industrial & Domestic Cleaners, Paints & Coatings, Adhesives, Printing Inks, Pharmaceuticals) and Region- Global Forecast to 2027 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/green-bio-solvents-market-755.html Bio-lubricants Market by Base Oil (Vegetable oil, Animal fat), Application (Hydraulic oil, metalworking fluids, chainsaw oil, mold release agents, two-cycle engine oils, gear oils, greases), End-use, Region - Global Forecast to 2025 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/biolubricants-market-17431466.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. 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Contact Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/mold-release-agents.asp Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/mold-release-agents-market.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mold-release-agents-market-worth-2-6-billion-by-2027---exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets-301668699.html 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. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG / Key word(s): Strategic Company Decision Kinarus Therapeutics Provides Strategic Update 04.11.2022 / 14:05 CET/CEST REPLACES MEDIA RELEASE "KINARUS THERAPEUTICS PROVIDES STRATEGIC UPDATE" FROM NOVEMBER 4, 2022, 7AM CET, WHICH HAD BEEN ERRONEOUSLY SENT AS AN AD-HOC NEWS. Exploring financial and strategic options to fund Phase 2 trials of KIN001 in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis KINFAST phase 2 clinical trial of KIN001 in mild to moderate Covid-19 patients to continue Basel, Switzerland, 4 November 2022. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (SIX: KNRS) ("Kinarus"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat viral, respiratory, and ophthalmic diseases, today reiterated its plans to focus on clinical trials in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and to refocus its capital resources and financing efforts to drive these programs. Following the discontinuation of the Phase 2 KINETIC study of KIN001 in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, Kinarus is exploring various financial and strategic options to initiate mid-stage clinical development of its lead drug candidate, KIN001, in wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). KINFAST, a Phase 2 study of KIN001 in ambulatory Covid-19 patients who are not hospitalized, is continuing and funded from existing Kinarus resources and the Programme for Covid-19 medicines of the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health. Dr Alexander Bausch, CEO of Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG, commented: "Our current resources are committed to conducting the KINFAST study, which is jointly financed by the Swiss government. While the outcome of the KINETIC study in hospitalized Covid-19 patients was disappointing, KINFAST is testing KIN001 in a different population with different endpoints, both of which are better suited to a potential positive outcome. Therefore, we plan to continue KINFAST as planned. "However, we founded Kinarus to pursue wAMD and IPF and, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we successfully demonstrated in preclinical testing that KIN001 has strong potential to provide meaningful improvements for patients suffering from wAMD and IPF when used in combination with marketed therapies. Now that it is once again possible to conduct clinical trials in non-Covid indications - which was not the case during the height of the pandemic - we are refocusing our team's efforts on our initial goal of running Phase 2 clinical testing of KIN001 in wAMD and IPF patients. We are exploring all options to advance KIN001 into Phase 2 clinical trials in these indications." Current Clinical Programs KINFAST Phase 2 trial in Covid-9 - KIN001 potentially targets the multiple mechanisms of acute and long Covid-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus hijacks the p38 MAPK pathway for replication. Kinarus has discovered that KIN001 is active against SARS-CoV-2, as well as its variants of concern. KIN001 also possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic activity. The phase 2 KINFAST trial is currently actively enrolling patients in Switzerland and Germany. We anticipate results in 2023. KIN001-AMD Phase 2 trial - KIN001 is under development as oral therapy complementing current anti-VEGF drugs, intended to extend the time interval between ocular injections. Kinarus has received regulatory approvals to conduct a Phase 2 clinical study in Switzerland and Germany. The trial is anticipated to start enrolment once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001- IPF - IPF is a devastating disease with high morbidity and mortality and significant unmet need. KIN001 targets multiple underlying mechanisms of disease progression, reducing the irreversible fibrosis and loss of respiratory capacity. Protocol development is completed, and regulatory submissions are expected once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001 is a patented combination of two active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs): pamapimod and pioglitazone. Pamapimod is a highly selective clinical stage small molecule inhibitor of the p38 MAP kinase signaling pathway. Kinarus has obtained an exclusive worldwide license from Roche for the development of pamapimod in all therapeutic indications. p38 MAPK inhibitors were broadly considered to have blockbuster potential, with several compounds evaluated through mid-stage clinical trials. Most efforts were abandoned after finding that the initial therapeutic benefit of p38 MAPK inhibition decreased over time due to compensatory mechanisms that blocked its beneficial effects. Kinarus has discovered a potential way to overcome this limitation. Kinarus has found that combining pamapimod with pioglitazone, a safe and well-tolerated marketed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, leads to synergistic efficacy and increased duration of action in preclinical models of wAMD, IPF and other autoimmune/inflammation indications. The KIN001 drug combination thereby revives the important therapeutic potential of p38 MAPK inhibition. KIN001 enjoys broad patent protection in the US, EU, China, and other countries through at least 2037, with intellectual property wholly owned by Kinarus. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (www.kinarus.com) was founded in 2017 by experienced pharmaceutical executives in Basel, Switzerland. The Kinarus team utilizes its knowledge and drug development competencies to in-license and develop mid-stage clinical assets in which they have identified an increased probability of clinical and regulatory success and a rapid path to market. Kinarus possesses the exclusive worldwide license to pamapimod covering all indications. Contacts Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG Hochbergerstrasse 60C 4057 Basel, Switzerland +41 61 633 29 71 info@kinarus.com Investors & Media Chris Maggos BioConfidant Sarl +41 79 367 6254 maggos@bioconfidant.ch Legal disclaimer THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL NOR AN INTIMATION TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SECURITIES OF KINARUS THERAPEUTICS HOLDING AG. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, INTO OR WITHIN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BE DISTRIBUTED. End of Media Release New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - AMIVA Equity Partners, a financial institution that assists business owners with mergers, acquisitions, and financing, revealed the methodologies used to help business owners make successful exits when selling companies. AMIVA's aim is to provide handheld assistance to business owners with companies in healthcare, consumer service, and enterprise software looking for a successful exit. Founder and Managing Principal, Mike Pantouvakis, has been in the exact same spot as his clients on three different occasions, as he's previously had to sell his own companies. For this reason, the company understands on a deeper level what these individuals are going through and can provide them with strategic advice to do so with the methodologies the company has built over time. Mike Pantouvakis In addition to Pantouvakis, AMIVA's board of advisors, comprised of several experienced professionals, will be assisting clients seeking strategic exits from their businesses as well. With over 125 years of combined experience and $1 billion in successful transactions between all of them in various business sectors, they're key components of the company's success and will support business owners as they seek a seamless transition to leaving their businesses. Pantouvakis says AMIVA's strategic methodologies are focused on three key pillars: amplitude, precision, and expertise (AEP). These pillars function as a guide for AMIVA's team when servicing clients and help boil down issues into a more simplified format to solve problems. Its methodologies functions as a mechanism that serves clients by introducing multiple stimulations to the market, all at once. This approach is key to maximizing the value of a company for clients and shareholders. AMIVA also leverages the use of new technology for its internal and external processes to ensure efficient, precise, and effortless assistance for individuals. This coupled with the company's progressive thinking and experience will aid AMIVA in providing quality service for clients as they exit their businesses. Mike Pantouvakis also mentioned, "For successful business owners looking to exit, who are dissatisfied with the difficulty of finding the right buyer and right price, AMIVA is a tech-enabled, boutique sell-side advisory firm that provides multiple qualified, interested buyers, who compete among themselves for who will make the highest offer, quickest, with the best terms. Unlike other traditional business intermediaries who charge outrageously high retainers and have all sorts of hidden fees, AMIVA only charges for results." For more information on AMIVA Equity Partners, you can visit their website at https://www.amivaequitypartners.com. About AMIVA Equity Partners AMIVA Equity Partners is a leading high-tech financial institution that helps companies scale and exit through a merger or an acquisition. The company exists to bring the highest level of sell-side advisory experience to the lower-middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm is headquartered in New York City and maintains connections to top investment firms in all major financial centers around the world. The company is quite proud to have developed methods that will leave a lasting impact on its clients. By helping professionals exit their companies, AMIVA is often playing a role in their retirement and even future financial situations for their families. Media Contact: Mike Pantouvakis mike@amivaequitypartners.com https://www.amivaequitypartners.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/142959 EQS-News: Ameramex International AmeraMex International Hosts Conference Call for Third Quarter Ending September 30, 2022 04.11.2022 / 14:15 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. AmeraMex International, Inc. (OTCQB: AMMX), a provider of heavy equipment for logistics companies, infrastructure construction, and forestry conservation, has scheduled conference call to review the Company's financials for the third quarter and nine-month period ending September 30, 2022. AmeraMex International, Inc. President Brian Hamre is hosting the Company's third quarter financial conference call on Monday, November 14, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference call dial-in number for both U.S. and international callers is 1.201.689.8560. Please dial into the conference center five minutes before the call begins and ask the operator for the AmeraMex conference call. An audio replay of the call will be available from November 14, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time until November 28, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. The replay is accessible by dialing 1.412.317.6671 and entering pin number 13734259. About AmeraMex International AmeraMex International sells, leases and rents heavy equipment to companies within multiple industries including construction, logistics, mining, and lumber. AmeraMex, with a US and international customer base, has over 30 years of experience in heavy equipment sales and service. Follow AmeraMex on Twitter @ammx_intl and visit the AmeraMex website, www.AMMX.net or www.hamreequipment.com for additional information and equipment videos. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if added information becomes available in the future. McCloud Communications LLC Marty Tullio +1 949-632-1900 marty@mccloudcommunications.com https://www.ammx.net 04.11.2022 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.eqs-news.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd (TSXV: MTB) (OTCQB: MBYMF) (FSE: M9U) ("Mountain Boy" or the "Company") will be presenting at Red Cloud's 2022 Fall Mining Showcase and would like to invite all its stakeholders to attend the annual in-person event at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel from November 9-10, 2022. The Company's VP Exploration, Lucia Theny will be presenting at the event on November 10th at 2:00 PM/ EST. We look forward to the opportunity of meeting you at the event. For event detail please visit: https://redcloudfs.com/fallminingshowcase2022/. About Mountain Boy Minerals Mountain Boy has six active projects spanning 650 square kilometres (64,960 hectares) in the prolific Golden Triangle of northern British Columbia. The American Creek project is centered on the historic Mountain Boy silver mine and is just north of the past producing Red Cliff gold and copper mine (in which the Company holds an interest). The American Creek project is road accessible and 20 km from the deep-water port of Stewart. On the BA property, 182 drill holes have outlined a substantial zone of silver-lead-zinc mineralization located 4 km from the highway. Surprise Creek is interpreted to be hosted by the same prospective stratigraphy as the BA property and hosts multiple occurrences of silver, gold, and base metals. On the Theia project, work by Mountain Boy and previous explorers has outlined a silver bearing mineralized trend 500 metres long, highlighted by a 2020 grab sample that returned 39 kg per tonne silver (1,100 ounces per ton). Southmore is in the midst of some of the largest deposits in the Golden Triangle. It was explored in the 1980s through the early 1990s and was overlooked until Mountain Boy consolidated the property and confirmed the presence of multiple occurrences of gold, copper, lead, and zinc. Recent field program on the Telegraph project has provided compelling evidence for the presence of a cluster of porphyrys. The 289 square kilometre Telegraph Project is located in the vicinity of several large porphyry deposits including Galore Creek (Teck - Newmont), Schaft Creek (Teck - Copper Fox), Big Red (Libero Copper and Gold), Saddle and Saddle North (Newmont) and the operating Red Chris copper-gold mine (Newcrest - Imperial Metals). The technical disclosure in this release has been read and approved by Andrew Wilkins, B.Sc., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. On behalf of the Board of Directors: Lawrence Roulston President & CEO For further information, contact: Caroline Klukowski info@mountainboyminerals.ca 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. This news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143028 LONDON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- STL (NSE: STLTECH), one of the industry's leading integrators of digital networks, today announced its financial results for quarter ended 30 September 2022. STL reported profitable growth with revenues of USD 226 Mn, up by 12% Q-o-Q and 17% Y-o-Y. Nearly 70% of revenue came from the US and Europe. A robust order book of USD 1,492 Mn further cemented STL's position as a global partner for 5G and FTTH. 5G, FTTH and data centre roll-outs are picking up pace globally and optical demand is on a strong upward trajectory, with the optical fibre cable market size expected to reach ~$10 Bn by 20241. India's much awaited 5G roll-out has started and will strongly hinge on fibre with telcos planning to lay ~2,00,000 cable kilometers and spend between ~$1.5 Bn to $2.5 Bn2 on fibre roll-out in next 2 to 3 years. STL has already made strategic investments for this demand cycle and is playing a pivotal role in this ongoing decade of network creation, both in India and internationally. STL is progressing towards becoming one of the top 3 optical players globally. Expressing confidence on the company's growth trajectory, Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, STL said,"The world has now recognised broadband as a basic necessity. 5G, FTTH, and Rural connectivity efforts are all coinciding to connect the remaining 40% of the world. Fiberisation is going to be front and centre in this decade of network creation and STL is fully prepared to meet this demand with global capacities, great talent and technology-led solutions. We are constantly innovating to build these networks fast and in the most sustainable way." Some key performance highlights Continued, long term customer wins: STL reported one of its highest quarterly order intakes of ~408 Mn . The company signed deals with Vocus in Australia , and a top telecom service provider in the US. It also won and a large deal for Optical Interconnect, which comprises of plug and play FTTx accessories and connectorised solutions, with a top-tier European telecom service provider STL reported one of its highest quarterly order intakes of . The company signed deals with Vocus in , and a top telecom service provider in the US. It also won and a large deal for Optical Interconnect, which comprises of plug and play FTTx accessories and connectorised solutions, with a top-tier European telecom service provider Market momentum in key markets: STL now holds ~11% market share of the global (ex- China ) OFC market and ~14% market share in the US. In India , the company reported a strong order book with profitable projects in strategic segments STL now holds ~11% market share of the global (ex- ) OFC market and ~14% market share in the US. In , the company reported a strong order book with profitable projects in strategic segments Leadership in innovation with 742 patents: STL recently unveiled India's first multicore fibre which will quadruple the capacity of networks. It also announced bespoke solutions for tower fiberisation (5G Cosmos) and rural fiberisation (Gram Galaxy) STL recently unveiled first multicore fibre which will quadruple the capacity of networks. It also announced bespoke solutions for tower fiberisation (5G Cosmos) and rural fiberisation (Gram Galaxy) Progress towards Net-Zero by 2030 roadmap: STL became the world's first optical manufacturer to receive Zero Liquid Discharge certification for all its Indian operations and also announced that 100% of its operations in India and Italy are now Zero Waste to Landfill certified Key financial highlights STL continued the positive momentum while focusing on prudent capital allocation and profitability. The company recently divested IDS - a UK-based niche data centre player to rebalance its portfolio. Financial Parameters (USD Mn) Q2'FY23 Q1'FY23 Q-o-Q growth Revenue 226 201 12 % EBITDA 26 15 70 % PAT (after minority) 6 -3 - USD/INR exchange rate used for conversion - 78.4 Commenting on STL's performance, Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, STL, further added, "We hold our purpose of transforming billions of lives very close to our hearts and are very excited about this opportunity to connect the unconnected. This quarter saw one of the highest order intakes of USD ~408 Mn. I really want to congratulate the entire team for delivering such a strong performance in a complex operating environment. There is good traction for our solutions and we believe that our focused efforts will create stakeholder value and bring us closer to being amongst the top 3 optical players globally." About STL - Sterlite Technologies Ltd: STL is one of the industry's leading integrators of digital networks that helps telecom service providers, cloud companies, citizen networks and large enterprises deliver enhanced experiences to their customers. Read more, Contact us. stl.tech |Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube 1 Source: CRU 2 Source: STL estimates Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938327/STL_Q2_FY23.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/876464/Sterlite_Technologies_STL_New_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stl-revenues-up-17-progressing-towards-global-optical-leadership-301669022.html WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Employment in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of October, according to a closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Friday. The report showed non-farm payroll employment jumped by 261,000 jobs in October after surging by an upwardly revised 315,000 jobs in September. Economists had expected employment to climb by about 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 263,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. The Labor Department said the stronger than expected job growth reflected notable job gains in the healthcare, professional and technical services, and manufacturing sectors. Meanwhile, the report showed the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent in October from 3.5 percent in September. The unemployment rate was expected to inch up to 3.6 percent. The increase in the unemployment rate came as the household survey measure of employment decreased by 328,000, while the labor force shrank by 22,000. 'The October employment report had something for everyone, with payrolls pointing to continued strong employment gains while the household survey showed a sharp fall in employment and a rise in unemployment,' said Michael Pearce, Senior U.S. Economist at Capital Economics. He added, 'Either way, what's clear is that the labor market has continued to hold up better than expected and with wage growth still too hot for the Fed, there is little to suggest that officials will drop their hawkish bias any time soon.' The report showed average hourly earnings climbed by $0.12 or 0.4 percent to $32.58. The annual rate of wage growth still slowed to 4.7 percent in October from 5.0 percent in September. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de WEST BOUNTIFUL, UT / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2022 / WholesomeCo, Utah's best rated medical cannabis operator leading the movement to normalize cannabis as a natural path to health and wellness, announced today the launch of its first-ever rewards program, WholesomeCo Rewards. Customers with an online WholesomeCo account will automatically get a percentage of their total orders rewarded back to them in the form of rewards dollars stored in their WholesomeCo account that can be applied to a future purchase. "We are pleased to be able to offer this new rewards program to our loyal customers and patients," said Alan Clark, Vice President of Product and Design at WholesomeCo. "As a home-grown operation with a large patient base across the state, it is important to us to give back and to offer medical cannabis at an affordable price". WholesomeCo pharmacy carries a wide variety of vape, edible and topical cannabis products, all of which are eligible for WholesomeCo Rewards. Customers will receive 6% cashback when purchasing WholesomeCo-branded product and 3% back on all other brands. The team at WholesomeCo believes that simple is better when it comes to savings. Customers of WholesomeCo will earn rewards dollars to be redeemed like cash at checkout. There are no complicated points conversion or tiered restrictions to keep track of. With WholesomeCo Rewards, customers will see clear and simple percent-back values as they shop. WholesomeCo Rewards will be issued when an order is complete and can be used on future purchases. Reward dollars can be stacked with other offers and can be redeemed in person, for online orders, through WholesomeCo's mobile app, and will soon be available at WholesomeCo's in-store kiosk. Credits expire one year from the issue date. Notifications for WholesomeCo Rewards will be sent to customers enrolled in email, sms, or push alerts. Sign up here. As an intro gift, WholesomeCo has added $5 in rewards dollars to all existing customer accounts that are valid for use through the month of November. Customers will be given opportunities to earn more as WholesomeCo Rewards evolves. About WholesomeCo WholesomeCo is leading the movement to normalize cannabis as a natural path to health and wellness. Various medical cannabis services are offered by the company, including statewide delivery to 99% of Utah's population, as well as retail, drive-thru, and online pick-up services through its pharmacy in West Bountiful. Known for its technology-driven leadership and innovation, WholesomeCo is committed to improving medical cannabis accessibility by putting patients' needs first and guiding them along their personal cannabis journeys. The WholesomeCo App is currently available for iOS and can be found in the Apple App Store. For more information, visit www.wholesome.co. Media Contact : Hilary Reiter, Redhead Marketing & PR, 435.901.2071, hilary@redheadmarketingpr.com www.wholesome.co SOURCE: WholesomeCo View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/723872/WholesomeCo-Launches-First-Ever-Rewards-Program-for-Medical-Cannabis-Customers London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Northcott Global Solutions (NGS), which specializes in swift support for emergency and evacuation services, has unveiled its lean and flat organizational model. This model, which involves the deployment of local assets, has made it possible for the company to respond to clients within an average time of 40 minutes or less in urban areas as compared to the industry standard of 3-7 days. The robust and flexible model has given the company the ability to pivot easily and carry out operations in every country in the world. According to Ted Jones, the CEO of Northcott Global Solutions, the firm has an extensive network of more than 12,000 service providers. This facilitates greater speed of reaction as services are available on the ground, whether a client needs emergency transport, a translator, a doctor, or a lawyer. Other firms in this sector, once they have reached a certain size, invest heavily in acquiring assets like security personnel, doctors, and vehicles. This means that instead of assessing an emergency situation and seeking local resources that can be utilized, they try to see how they can make use of their assets in a particular scenario. Such an approach affects the availability and speed of response while also adding to costs. NGS on the other hand has an asset light model. The firm's operational team carefully assessed different potential scenarios for every country in the world and the impact they would have on the services that might be needed. For instance, a medical emergency gives greater cause for concern in a remote area in Africa than it would in a city like New York. Based on the probability of such potential scenarios, the team identifies what kind of support services and personnel are needed. Then, in every country, Northcott identified local and regional service providers they could partner with. After due diligence through their insurance providers to assess their efficiency, reliability and track record, the firm signed them up as local and regional partners so that they are always on hand to provide support when needed without any delays due to payment issues. This maximizes their chances of being in the right place at the right time to solve tricky situations before they get out of hand. Commenting on the effectiveness of the model, Ted Jones, the CEO of NGS said, "In an emergency, the speed of response plays a critical role in the outcome. The flexibility and asset light nature of our model has definitely contributed to our unblemished track record of never failing to respond effectively to a client in the past 12 years. Our extensive network of service providers translates into both width and depth. We cover a broad spectrum of services whether it is security services, maritime, aviation, support in medical emergencies, translation, evacuation support, satellite imagery, tracking and travel management and many more. We also sign on with a large number of partners in every country to cover all bases. If one security firm is not able to provide the service we require, another one we have partnered with definitely will. In many cases, like that of a tracked person going missing as he was in a diabetic coma and having to get to a hospital in time to get medical support, speed was of the essence. In such a scenario, it was this model that enhanced our capability and led to our exponential growth." About Northcott Global Solutions Northcott Global Solutions is a leading company in the field of international medical and security risk management. The company recently was in the news for the safe evacuation of almost 4,000 personnel for a wide variety of clients including the likes of the UK government during the Arab Spring and for being the only company on the ground to offer emergency evacuation when Russia invaded Ukraine. Media Contact Name: Ted Jones Email address: tjones@northcottglobalsolutions.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143075 By Kim Hyun-bin POSCO International which is set to merge with POSCO Energy, unveiled a plan to invest 3.8 trillion won ($2.67 billion) by 2025 to become a global energy company, during a company shareholders' meeting, which was held on Friday. POSCO International held a shareholders' meeting at the POSCO Center in Incheon and announced that it would invest 3.8 trillion won from next year to 2025 to secure a liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain. Specifically, 1.6 trillion won will be invested in the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. Funds will be used to build the Gwangyang one and two LNG terminals, the Dangjin LNG terminal and North American liquefaction plants. Next, it will invest 1.3 trillion won to expand natural gas production in order to develop an onshore block of Australia's Senex Energy, which it acquired this year, to develop a Mahar gas field in Myanmar and to start new rounds of exploration in Southeast Asia. Next, 700 billion won and 200 billion won will be invested in LNG power generation and eco-friendly energy, respectively. The company plans to invest with its own generated funds. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the first half of this year were around 1.5 trillion won, which means it has enough cash to invest. It also announced a plan to triple its market cap by 2030 to enhance shareholder value, which has risen to 13 trillion won. HERZOGENAURACH (dpa-AFX) - German sportswear maker Adidas AG (ADDYY.PK, ADDDF.PK) confirmed Friday that it is in talks with Bjrn Gulden, CEO of PUMA SE, as a potential successor to adidas AG CEO Kasper Rorsted. Earlier today, PUMA SE (PMMAF.PK), a German maker of footwear, apparel, and accessories, said that it appointed Arne Freundt as chief executive officer of the company and chairman of PUMA's Management Board. He is receiving a contract for four years, effective January 1, 2023. Bjrn Gulden's mandate as member of the Management Board of PUMA SE expires at the end of 2022. In August, Adidas said that its CEO Kasper Rorsted agreed with the Supervisory Board to hand over the CEO position during the course of 2023. The search for a succession started. Rorsted has served as the CEO since 2016. 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. SHANGHAI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The China International Import Expo, which has been widely hailed as the premiere platform for foreign businesses to tap into the myriad opportunities in the Chinese market, will be held in Shanghai for the fifth time from Nov 5 to 10. A total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations have confirmed their participation, according to Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, who made the remarks at a press conference on Nov 1. The world's first national-level import-themed trade fair launched in 2018, the expo will once again comprise a business exhibition, a country exhibition and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum. Eight countries - Nicaragua, Djibouti, Mauritania, Comoros, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Iceland - will attend the country exhibition for the first time. In addition, all member states of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will have companies taking part in the expo. The number of participating countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has also increased. A total of 284 of the world's top 500 enterprises and industry giants will be present at the business exhibition, and hundreds of new products, technologies and services will be exhibited at the six major exhibition areas - Food and Agricultural Products, Intelligent Industry and Information Technology, Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products, Consumer Goods, Trade in Services, and Automobiles, Sun said. In line with the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and targets through 2035, the event has established special subsections for the crop seed industry and artificial intelligence, optimized the special subsection for low-carbon energy and environmental protection technology, and expanded the innovation and incubation subsection. More than 150 startups specialized in technological equipment, consumer products, and the medical and automotive fields will present their products and services at the innovation and incubation subsection. An integral part of the CIIE, this year's Hongqiao International Economic Forum will focus more on topics related to global openness, with the number of sub-forums expanding from 14 to 24. Some parallel sessions will be co-hosted by ministries and commissions, think tanks and a number of international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Global Compact, etc. Five of these forums will have keynote speeches delivered by Nobel laureates. Nearly 20 authoritative reports, including the World Openness Report 2022, will be released during the forum. Contact:Ms. Cui Yan Tel.:0086-21-968888 Email:ciie2022@ciie.org Website:http://www.ciie.org/zbh/en/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ciieonline Twitter:https://twitter.com/ciieonline Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938443/China_International_Import_Expo_Venue.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938442/CIIE_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/the-fifth-ciie-to-welcome-more-participants-301669149.html TPT Strategic subsidiary wins its third Army logistics contract for Fort Hood Texas with more similar contracts in its pipeline SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2022 / TPT Global Tech, Inc. (OTCBB:TPTW) ("TPT Global Tech") today announced that IST, a division of its subsidiary, TPT Strategic Inc. (OTCBB: INOQ)("TPT Strategic"), (www.istincs.com) a General Construction and Information Technology Services company has been awarded its third 3-year contract renewal valued at $2,862,435.00 with the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Stryker Division. Information Systems Technology (IST) will support the Initial Fielding of Stryker vehicles, Army Training and Education. The company will also create, maintain and track all logistical programmatic-related issues about the fielding, deployment, retrofitting, and prep for reset/reissue of Stryker vehicles. "TPT Global Tech has been planning to enter the government contracting space for some time now as part of our overall strategic plan. This is the first of a planned series of federal contracts the company is expecting as a result of the completion of its IST acquisition," said Stephen J Thomas III, Chairman & CEO of TPT Global Tech About IST, a TPT Strategic Division IST, based in Huntsville Alabama, with branch offices in Nashville TN, Birmingham Al, Jackson MS, Fort Campbell KY, New Orleans LA, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, has two divisions, Construction and IT Technology, and has been a general contractor for over 15 years. IST has been in the Federal Marketplace since its inception in 2008 and has completed work for over 15 federal agencies. IST has been successfully providing design-build construction, demolition, abatement, earthwork, concrete, steel and metal work, masonry, underground utilities, environmental protection, and site restoration services since 2008. IST differentiates itself by offering superior quality results at a competitive price. IST safely delivers projects on time and within budget. IST has a bonding capacity of $10M per single project and $20M aggregate. IST Information Technology Services Division provides program management, System Engineering, Software Development, Network Engineering, Records Management and Controls, Physical Security and Information Assurance, Video Teleconferencing and AV systems, Help Desk Services, and Information Technology Statements of Qualification. IST is committed to maintaining customer satisfaction, trust and Integrity by delivering quality products and services conforming to industry best practices and continuous process improvement. With the completed acquisition of IST and its seasoned professional team of construction engineers and design teams, TPT Global Tech is positioned to start its Tuskegee Smart City project. "It is such a pleasure to work with Everett Lanier the new President for TPT Strategic and the IST Team. They are bringing such a high level of professionalism and experience to TPT Global Tech's already seasoned team of Executives to assist us as we move forward with our Smart City initiatives domestically and internationally," said Stephen J Thomas III, Chairman & CEO of TPT Global Tech. About TPT Global Tech TPT Global Tech Inc. (TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a technology-based company with divisions providing telecommunications, medical technology and product distribution, media content for domestic and international syndication as well as technology solutions. TPT Global Tech offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS). It offers carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT Global Tech also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cell phone services, Mobile phones Cell phone Accessories, and Global Roaming Cell phones. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of various provisions of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, commonly identified by such terms as "believes," "looking ahead," "anticipates," "estimates" and other terms with similar meaning. Specifically, statements about the Company's plans for accelerated growth, improved profitability, future business partners, M&A activity, new service offerings, and pursuit of new markets are forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements should not be construed as fact. The information contained in such statements is beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases, the Company cannot predict what factors would cause results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements. All forward-looking statements in the press release are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions. CONTACT: PR-Shep Doniger sdoniger@bdcginc.com 561-637-5750 IR-Frank Benedetto 619-915-9422 SOURCE: TPT Global Tech, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/723986/TPT-Global-Tech-Subsidiary-Awarded-286-Million-US-Army-Contract Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Northern Superior Resources Inc. (TSXV: SUP) (OTCQB: NSUPF) ("Northern Superior" or the "Company") and Royal Fox Gold Inc. (TSXV: FOXG) ("Royal Fox") are pleased to announce the successful completion of the previously announced acquisition by Northern Superior of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Royal Fox (the "Royal Fox Shares") pursuant to a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the "Transaction"). As a result of the Transaction, Northern Superior acquired the Philibert gold project (the "Philibert Project") located 60 kilometers southwest of Chibougamau, Quebec. The board of directors of Northern Superior has been reconstituted to include three new members from Royal Fox, four remaining members of the Northern Superior board and now consists of Victor Cantore, Andrew Farncomb, Michael Gentile, Frank Guillemette, Simon Marcotte, Gordon Morrison and Francois Perron. Mr. Victor Cantore has been appointed Executive Chairman and Mr. Simon Marcotte has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Thomas Morris has been appointed as Chairman of the Company's high-profile Technical Committee, which also includes Gordon Morrison, former VP Exploration of FNX Mining Co. Inc. and President of TMAC Resources Inc., Catharine Farrow, current director of Franco Nevada Corp. and former CEO and director of TMAC Resources Inc., and David Beilhartz, former VP Exploration of Lake Shore Gold Corp. Ms. Adree DeLazzer has been appointed Vice President, Exploration and Rodney Barber has been re-appointed as Senior Vice President, Exploration. Mr. Victor Cantor, newly appointed Executive Chairman, commented: "I am very excited to be part of the new Northern Superior and humbled by the quality and depth of its Board of Directors, Technical Committee, and management team, all of which will allow the company to realize the full potential of the opportunities at hand." Simon Marcotte, newly appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, added: "The consolidation of the gold camp of Chibougamau has been long in the making. Rarely are we presented with such an opportunity, and I couldn't be more excited by its potential." Fundamentals Following the acquisitions of Genesis Metals Corp. and Royal Fox, Northern Superior is now positioned as a leading company in the Chapais-Chibougamau district, a mining-friendly region having produced over 6.7 million ounces of gold, and which hosts several major deposits including IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan deposit (inferred gold resource estimate of 3.2 million ounces at 1.02 g/t gold 1 ); ); Largest property holdings and gold resources of any gold exploration company active in the Chapais-Chibougamau district; Largest land holdings in the district estimated to be more than 62,000 hectares, including four major properties, each of which having either a National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") compliant mineral resource estimate (Croteau Est2 and Chevrier3) or a meaningful gold discovery being advanced towards a mineral resource calculation (Lac Surprise and the Philibert Project); NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimates of approximately: 1,295,000 ounces in the inferred category (643,000 ounces at Croteau Est 2 and 652,000 ounces at Chevrier 3 ), and 260,000 ounces in the indicated category (Chevrier 3 ); Two significant gold discoveries with potential to move towards a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource calculation by the end of 2023: The Lac Surprise (Falcon Gold Zone), located just 12 km southwest of the Philibert Project, which has defined 900m of strike length and 380m of vertical continuity with all 31 holes drilled thus far intersecting gold mineralization, and The Philibert Project itself, which is building on a total of 75,000 metres of drilling and is being rapidly advanced with 120 holes completed in the 2022 winter drilling program. To date, more than C$13 million has been spent on the property ; Intention to spin off the Company's Ontario assets, including the TPK Property; Improved trading liquidity with an enhanced capital markets profile better positioned to attract a broader base of institutional and retail investors; and Strong insider ownership with over 20% of the shares of the Company. Details of the Transaction Pursuant to the Transaction, former Royal Fox shareholders received 0.12 (the "Exchange Ratio") of a Northern Superior common share (each whole common share, a "Northern Superior Share") for each Royal Fox Share held (the "Base Purchase Price"). As a result of the Transaction, Northern Superior issued an aggregate of 35,575,817 Northern Superior Shares, resulting in existing Northern Superior and former Royal Fox shareholders owning approximately 29% and 71%, respectively, of the Northern Superior Shares outstanding, on a non-diluted basis. In addition to the Base Purchase Price, the former Royal Fox shareholders received contingent consideration in the form of one contingent value right (each, a "CVR") for each Royal Fox Share that provides for the potential payment of additional consideration upon the declaration by way of news release of a maiden mineral resource estimate on the Philibert Project (the "Resource Calculation") within 12 months from the closing of the Transaction (the "Contingent Purchase Price"). If the Resource Calculation confirms a mineral resource estimate of 1.2 million ounces or more of gold in the inferred, measured or indicated categories (as such terms are defined in NI 43-101), each CVR will be exchanged for: 0.02 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 1.2 million ounces of gold and less than 1.6 million ounces of gold; 0.04 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 1.6 million ounces of gold and less than 2.0 million ounces of gold; or 0.06 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 2.0 million ounces of gold. As part of the Transaction, all outstanding stock options of Royal Fox have been exchanged for economically equivalent stock options to purchase Northern Superior Shares (subject to adjustment based on the Exchange Ratio) and holders of Royal Fox warrants are entitled, in accordance with the terms of such warrants, to receive Northern Superior Shares on the exercise of such warrants (subject to adjustment based on the Exchange Ratio). Warrant holders and option holders of Royal Fox were required to exercise their warrants and options prior to the effective date of the Transaction in order to be eligible to receive the additional CVR consideration. Northern Superior has received acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") to list the Northern Superior Shares issued pursuant to the Transaction on the TSXV. The Royal Fox Shares are expected to be delisted from the TSXV at the close of trading on or about November 8, 2022. Royal Fox intends to submit an application to the applicable securities regulators to cease to be a reporting issuer and to terminate its public company reporting obligations as soon as possible. Pursuant to the letter of transmittal mailed to shareholders of Royal Fox as part of the materials in connection with the special meeting of shareholders of Royal Fox held on October 31, 2022 (the "Meeting"), in order to receive the Northern Superior Shares to which they are entitled, registered holders of Royal Fox Shares are required to deposit their share certificate(s) representing Royal Fox Shares, together with a duly completed letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal"), with Computershare Investor Services Inc., the depositary under the Transaction. Shareholders whose Royal Fox Shares are registered in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, trust company or other nominee must contact their nominee to deposit their Royal Fox Shares. Further information about the Transaction is set forth in the materials prepared by Royal Fox in respect of the Meeting which were mailed to Royal Fox shareholders and filed under Royal Fox's profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. Northern Superior has agreed to make joint elections with eligible Royal Fox shareholders in respect of the disposition of their Royal Fox Shares pursuant to Section 85 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (and any similar provision of any applicable provincial tax legislation) in accordance with the procedures and within the time limits set out in the Letter of Transmittal. Holders of Royal Fox Shares should consult their investment and tax advisors prior to making their election. A tax information package containing detailed requirements to make such Section 85 election is available upon request by emailing Northern Superior at info@nsuperior.com. None of the securities to be issued pursuant to the Transaction have been or will be registered under the United State Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and any securities issued pursuant to the Transaction are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Early Warning Reporting By virtue of its acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding Royal Fox Shares under the Transaction, Northern Superior is required to file an early warning report pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the early warning report will be filed on Royal Fox's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Michael Gentile, a director of the Company, acquired 2,112,000 Northern Superior Shares and 17,600,000 CVRs pursuant to the Transaction as well as common share purchase warrants to acquire an additional 1,068,000 Northern Superior Shares. Following completion of the Transaction, Mr. Gentile holds, directly and indirectly, an aggregate of 12,896,358 Northern Superior Shares, representing approximately 10.65% of the issued and outstanding Northern Superior Shares on an undiluted basis. Mr. Gentile also holds, directly, an aggregate of 495,000 stock options and an aggregate of 7,435,858 common share purchase warrants, entitling him to acquire an equal number of Northern Superior Shares. Assuming the exercise of all of Mr. Gentile's stock options and warrants and assuming payment of the maximum Contingent Purchase Price, an aggregate of 21,883,216 Northern Superior Shares will be, directly or indirectly, owned by Mr. Gentile, representing approximately 14.39% of the current issued and outstanding Northern Superior Shares on a partially diluted basis. Mr. Gentile acquired the additional Northern Superior Shares for investment purposes. He will review his holdings from time to time and may increase or decrease his position as future circumstances may dictate. The early warning report of Mr. Gentile, as required under National Instrument 62-103, contains additional information with respect to the foregoing matters and will be filed under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. For further information, contact Mr. Gentile at the following address and phone number: 1470 Peel St. Tour A, Suite 480, Montreal (Qc) H3A 1T1; (514) 316-0231 x103. Grant of Restricted Share Units The Company also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 759,297 restricted share units to directors and officers of the Company under the terms of the Company's 2022 equity incentive plan and which have a one year vesting period. Qualified Persons Rodney Barber, BSc., P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration for Northern Superior, is the Qualified Person under 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical information regarding the Northern Superior properties disclosed in this news release. Adree DeLazzer, P.Geo., newly appointed Vice President, Exploration for Northern Superior, is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical information regarding the Philibert Project disclosed in this news release. References #1: (Nelligan) Reference for IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan 3.2MM Inferred Gold Resource: "Carrier, Alain (M.Sc., P.Geo); Nadeau-Benoit, Vincent (P.Geo); Fauvre, Stephane (PhD., P.Geo). October 22, 2019. NI 43-101 Technical Report and Initial Resource Estimate for the Nelligan Project, Quebec, Canada." #2: (Croteau Est) Reference for Northern Superior's 643,000-ounce Inferred Gold Resource: "Technical Report on the Croteau Est Gold Project, Quebec" prepared by Mark Drabble, B.App.Sci. (Geology), MAIG, MAusIMM, Kahan Cervoj, B.App.Sci., MAIG, MAusIMM, Rebecca Morgan, BSc Hons (Geology), GDip (Mining), MAIG, MAusIMM, and Ian Glacken, BSc Hons (Geology), MSc (Mining Geology), MSc (Geostatistics), GDip (Computing), FAusIMM (CP), MIMMM, CEng dated September 11, 2015. #3: (Chevrier) Reference for Northern Superior's Mineral Resource Estimation: "NI 43-101 Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimation for the Chevrier Main Deposit, Chevrier Project, Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada" prepared by Susan Lomas, P.Geo., Jonathan Lavoie, Eng., M.Sc., and Andre Liboiron, Geo with an effective date of October 20, 2021 and a completion date of September 23, 2022. About Royal Fox Gold Inc. Royal Fox Gold Inc. is a mineral exploration company focused on the development of the Philibert Project near Chibougamau, Quebec. The Philibert Project comprises 110 mineral titles having a total approximate area of 5,392 hectares of highly prospective ground, 9km from IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan Gold project which was awarded the "Discovery of the Year" by the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association (AEMQ) in 2019. To date, more than C$13 million (historical value) have been spent on the Philibert Project, with more than 75,000 metres of drilling completed. Royal Fox is focused on de-risking the asset and releasing a maiden NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate which will incorporate results from both brownfield and greenfield exploration, combined with extensive historical data. The Philibert Project is owned by SOQUEM. Royal Fox is currently undergoing an ownership option process, details of which can be found in the corporate presentation available on Royal Fox's website. More details are available in the corporate presentation of Royal Fox at: www.royalfoxgold.com. About Northern Superior Resources Inc. Northern Superior is a gold exploration company focused on the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp in Quebec. The Company has consolidated the largest land package in the region, with total land holdings currently exceeding 56,000 hectares. The three main properties include Lac Surprise, Chevrier and Croteau Est. Chevrier hosts an inferred mineral resource of 652,000 ounces Au and an indicated mineral resource of 260,000 ounces Au, Croteau Est hosts an inferred mineral resource of 640,000 ounces Au, and Lac Surprise hosts the Falcon Zone Discovery, the western strike extension of IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan Deposit (3.2 million ounces at 1.02 g/t gold1). Northern Superior also owns significant exploration assets in Northern Ontario highlighted by the district scale TPK property. More details are available in the corporate presentation of Northern Superior at www.nsuperior.com. For further information, please contact: Simon Marcotte, CFA President and Chief Executive Officer Northern Superior Resources Inc. Tel: (647) 801-7273 Email: info@nsuperior.com www.nsuperior.com Neither the TSXV nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information under applicable Canadian, United States and other applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including, without limitation, statements with respect to realizing the full potential of the opportunities at hand, the Company being positioned as a leading company in the Chapais-Chibougamau district, two significant gold discoveries having potential to move towards a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource calculation by the end of 2023, the declaration of an expected mineral resource estimate on the Philibert Project within 12 months from the closing of the Transaction and the delisting of the Royal Fox Shares and the application for Royal Fox to cease to be a reporting issuer. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Northern Superior and Royal Fox's (collectively, the "Companies") current beliefs or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as the Companies' actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the estimated costs associated with the advancement of the Companies combined projects; and the Companies' ability to achieve the synergies expected as a result of the Transaction. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companies' expectations include risks associated with the business of Northern Superior and Royal Fox; risks related to exploration and potential development of the combined projects; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the impact of COVID-19 on the Companies' business; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and indigenous groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time and additional risks identified in Northern Superior and Royal Fox's filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Northern Superior and Royal Fox. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Northern Superior and Royal Fox undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143129 The "Europe Vetronics Market 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. MARKET OUTLOOK As per the research report by the publisher, the Europe vetronics market is expected to project a CAGR of 5.67% during the forecast period 2022-2028. Countries such as Spain, France, Poland, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Greece, and Rest of Europe are considered in the market in this region. In Germany, BAAINBw awarded a contract to General Dynamics European Land Systems in 2020 to provide 80 highly protected EAGLE 6x6 vehicles. These vehicles had the most recent integrated electronics for the German army's ambulance corps. Initial car deliveries were started in 2021 and would continue through 2024. Additionally, the 'mittleres geschutztes Ambulanzfahrzeug' initiative, which would fill the gap between the user's fleet of light and heavy ambulance vehicles, resulted in the selection of the EAGLE after a competitive tender process. The integration of technology in the country's armed vehicles along with addition of new vehicles drive the country's market growth. The Polish Armed Forces intend to drastically expand their operational and combat capabilities by installing new weapon systems and modernizing those already in use. Over the past few years, the country's armed forces have prioritized modernizing their fleet of 142 LEOPARD 2A4 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to 2PL requirements. Additionally, a coalition has been created by ZM Bumar-Abdy and several other companies to manage the project. German firm Rheinmetall Landsysteme is a strategic partner in this coalition project. Such expansions will help strengthen the nation's security in an increasingly hostile international situation, thereby boosting the country's market growth. Market Dynamics Market Drivers Open Architecture of Vetronics Systems Ongoing Military Modernization of Land-Based Vehicle Inventory Advancements in Battlefield Technology Market Challenges Cut-Offs in Defense Budget Rising Cost of Raw Materials Usability Regulations Market Opportunity Investments in Research Development Key Topics Covered: 1. Europe Vetronics Market Summary 2. Industry Outlook 3. Europe Vetronics Market Outlook Land-Based Fleet Type 4. Europe Vetronics Market Outlook by Component 5. Europe Vetronics Market Outlook by Vertical 6. Europe Vetronics Market Country Outlook 7. Competitive Landscape 8. Research Methodology Scope Companies Mentioned Curtiss-Wright Bae Systems Thales Group General Dynamics Corporation Lockheed Martin Corporation Rheinmetall AG Raytheon Technologies L3Harris Technologies Saab Ab Leonardo S.P.A For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xsprlk View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005575/en/ Contacts: 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 Negma Group has converted 120convertible bonds in Oxurion resulting in a EUR 300,000 capital increase. This is part of Negma Group's EUR 30 million Capital Commitment1 that will allow Oxurion to focus on progressing its novel and differentiated back of the eye drug candidate targeting potential market opportunities of over USD 5billion. Leuven, BELGIUM,Boston, MA, US-November 4, 2022- 07.00 PM CET - In accordance with article 15 of the Belgian Act of May 2, 2007 on the disclosure of major participations in issuers of which shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market and regarding miscellaneous provisions, Oxurion NV (Euronext Brussels: OXUR) (the "Company" or "Oxurion"), announces the below information, following the issuance of 15,000,000 new ordinary shares on November 2, 2022, for a total amount of EUR 300,000, as the result of the conversion of 120 class B convertible bonds, pursuant to the Capital Commitment entered into with Negma Group. Following completion of the capital increase through the conversion of the convertible bonds, the total number of shares issued by Oxurion amounts to 92,825,765 outstanding ordinary shares carrying voting rights (compared to 77,825,765 outstanding ordinary shares previously). This number will be used as the denominator for the calculation of the percentages of shareholdings. Therefore, Oxurion publishes the following updated information: Share capital (EUR) 72,656,161.32 Total number of securities with voting rights (all ordinary shares) 92,825,765 Total number of ordinary shares (= denominator) 92,825,765 Number of outstanding, granted rights to subscribe to securities carrying voting rights not yet issued: 719,500 subscription rights ("SRs") issued on November 20, 2017, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 719,500 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); 60,000 SRs issued on December 23, 2020, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 60,000 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); 1,007,250 SRs issued on April 14, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 1,007,250 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); 550,000 SRs issued on September 22, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 550,000 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); 725,749 SRs issued on December 30, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 725,749 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); 940 convertible bonds issued on September 5, 2022, and 21 October 2022, entitling their holder (Negma Group) to subscribe to a total number of securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares) in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the issuance and subscription agreement entered into between the Company and Negma Group on August 26, 2021, and the addendum thereto dated September 2, 2022; and 100 convertible bonds issued on December 20, 2021, entitling their holders (Kreos Capital VI (UK) Limited, Pontifax Medison Finance (Israel) L.P. and Pontifax Medison Finance (Cayman) L.P.) to subscribe to a total number of securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares) in accordance with the terms and conditions of these convertible bonds as attached to the Agreement for the provision of a Loan Facility entered into between the Company, Kreos Capital VI (UK) Limited, Pontifax Medison Finance (Israel) L.P. and Pontifax Medison Finance (Cayman) L.P., on November 21, 2021. END About Oxurion Oxurion (Euronext Brussels: OXUR) is a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation standard of care ophthalmic therapies, which are designed to improve and better preserve vision in patients with retinal disorders including diabetic macular edema (DME), the leading cause of vision loss in working-age people, as well as other conditions. Oxurion intends to play an important role in the treatment of retinal disorders, including the successful development of THR-149, its novel therapeutic for the treatment of DME. THR-149 is a potent plasma kallikrein inhibitor being developed as a potential new standard of care for the up to 50% of DME patients showing suboptimal response to anti-VEGF therapy. Oxurion is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, with corporate operations in Boston, MA. More information is available at www.oxurion.com. Important information about forward-looking statements Certain statements in this press release may be considered "forward-looking". Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and, accordingly, entail and are influenced by various risks and uncertainties. The Company therefore cannot provide any assurance that such forward-looking statements will materialize and does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or any other reason. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties affecting the business and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement is contained in the Company's Annual Report. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of Oxurion in any jurisdiction. No securities of Oxurion may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. state securities laws. For further information please contact: Oxurion NV Tom Graney Chief Executive Officer Tel: +32 16 75 13 10 tom.graney@oxurion.com (mailto:tom.graney@oxurion.com) Michael Dillen Chief Business Officer Tel: +32 16 75 13 10 michael.dillen@oxurion.com (mailto:michael.dillen@oxurion.com) US Conway Communications Beth Kurth bkurth@conwaycommsir.com (mailto:bkurth@conwaycommsir.com) ICR Westwicke Christopher Brinzey Tel: +1 617 835 9304 chris.brinzey@westwicke.com (mailto:chris.brinzey@westwicke.com) 1Press releaseOxurion, 06/04/2021and Press releaseOxurion, 02/09/2022 Attachment Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Sun Summit Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SMN) (OTCQB: SMREF) has retained Acuity Advisory Corp. of Vancouver, BC to provide communications and advisory services commencing November 3, 2022. Acuity was founded in 2022 to provide assistance to Canadian and U.S. listed companies with their corporate communications. Acuity's founders and principals, Jeffrey Wilson and Roger Blair have over 25 and 22 years of experience respectively, in public markets, bringing to Sun Summit extensive experience in investor relations and corporate communications, within the global mining industry. Acuity's network encompasses North American and international investors, consisting of institutional and retail investors, retail advisors, investment bankers, mining analysts, high net worth individuals and strategic investors. Acuity will be paid a fee of $10,000 per month for its services until December 31, 2022, after which the fee will be $12,000 per month, which fee will be paid from the Company's working capital. The retainer has an initial term of six months, which will continue thereafter on a monthly basis and may be terminated at any time on 30 days notice by either Acuity or Sun Summit. Sun Summit has granted to Acuity's shareholders options to purchase an aggregate of 200,000 shares for five years at a price of $0.16 per share. Each option vests at the rate of 50,000 shares every three months, commencing three months from granting. Acuity and its shareholders have advised Sun Summit that they do not currently own any shares of the Company nor do they have any right to purchase shares other than an option to purchase 100,000 shares from the Company at $0.25 per share until July 11, 2027 held by Jeffrey Wilson. About Sun Summit Sun Summit Minerals is an exploration company focused on expanding its gold, silver, and zinc discovery at its flagship 100% controlled Buck Project located in north-central British Columbia near the town of Houston. The Company is exploring multiple high priority targets through systematic exploration campaigns. The project benefits from excellent developed infrastructure and year-round drilling access. The Buck Project has high-grade and bulk-tonnage gold, silver, and zinc potential and is located in an established mining region that includes many former operating mines and current exploration projects. Sun Summit is committed to environmental and social responsibility with a focus on accountable development to generate positive outcomes for all stakeholders. Further details are available at www.sunsummitminerals.com. For further information, contact: Sharyn Alexander President info@sunsummitminerals.com Tel. 778-588-9606 Neither the TSX Venture 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/143137 Vadym Prystaiko and Igor Smelyansky urged decision makers to make a firm alliance with Ukraine during an event in London with over 200 leaders hosted by leadership advisory firm Boyden. London, UK, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, and Igor Smelyanksy, CEO of Ukraine's national postal service Ukrposhta, made a special live appearance to address over 200 UK business leaders at Boyden's Annual Assembly, where they spoke about leadership through a global crisis. The two Ukrainian leaders both impressed upon guests at Boyden's Annual Assembly that conflict can be alleviated through alliances during times of conflict. Praystaiko encouraged leaders to not be complacent about a victory for Ukraine - saying that the whole world is not behind Ukraine, and they hope for more support from neutral nations. He reminded leaders that the Ukrainian Government continue to want to be a part of NATO and "live peacefully like other NATO members" because they want to "do business with people, knowing we are defended." In advising other leaders on how to run their teams, Prystaiko spoke about his experiences over the last eight months: "I have had to understand where my team's limits are. You can work 24/7 for eight months and sooner or later they will lose their effectiveness as a team. And on top of this we are extremely ambitious that, somehow, we can help the millions of people in Ukraine from London, believing we can resolve everything. I have a feeling of guilt to be in safe and comfortable London when people are dying in my home country. But I am driven to urge world leaders they have a moral obligation to ally with those who are killed and bombarded. To win this war, we must have two things: hope and unity. We can succeed if leaders around the world across business, government, military and beyond unite and believe Russia can be defeated." Speaking via video link from Ukraine, Smelyansky implored the audience - "please don't stop sending mail to Ukraine." He divulged that small and medium businesses in Ukraine make over $500 million through eBay and Amazon - meaning anyone in the UK can help people across Ukraine in a couple of clicks. Smelyansky's advice to other leaders was: "You just have to keep winning, and your work will support you. I work with a long-term view but knowing that every day could be my last. No matter what my stress level is during the invasion I have to make a decision, live with it and move on to make the next one. Every day we go against standard corporate governance procedure, like when I am personally going to the front line to deliver post. But it is essential to help me understand what is happening on the ground, how adaptable my team must be, and most importantly how they feel. In the boardroom, striking a balance between making executive decisions and asking my regional directors to decide whether their workforce can do their jobs under invasion is a challenge. But, when peace times come, it will have changed my business for the better." Prystaiko and Smelyansky shared their candid experiences of providing leadership during a time of crisis to an audience including former MPs, military, defence, and business leaders from organisations including Apple, Thames Water, Viacom CBS, Heineken and Danone. Thames Water, Babcock International, Superdry, and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity. Nick Robeson, CEO at Boyden UK & Ireland, who conceived of the idea of this year's Annual Assembly said: "It was an honour to listen to Vadym and Igor, who sit in the front line of a global crisis and learn from their awe-inspiring leadership. We are driven to provide a bridge between Ukraine and the UK's business leaders, especially when the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted Boyden's office in Ukraine directly. In today's increasingly challenging global environment, the UK's business leaders will have been inspired after receiving their insight about leading through a global crisis. I have no doubt they will be reflecting on how to apply the pair's mentality to their own leadership." Oleksii Dolhikh, Managing Partner at Boyden Ukraine, said about the event: "I am proud to be a part of the Boyden family, who against the current injustices are continually supporting humanitarian efforts in my country. Whether it is welcoming Ukrainian colleagues into their homes or providing financial support to families, I hope that UK business leaders will hear about the medium to long-term impact they can have in resolving this crisis and defeating Russia." About Boyden Boyden is a premier leadership and talent advisory firm with more than 75 offices in over 45 countries. Our global reach enables us to serve client needs anywhere they conduct business. We connect great companies with great leaders through executive search, interim management and leadership consulting solutions. For further information, visit www.boyden.com. Notes to editors Interviews with Boyden spokespeople available on request. Please contact: boyden@pagefield.co.uk/ 0771 864 1065 Attachments Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Li3 Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LILI) ("Li3 Lithium" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the non-brokered private placement previously announced on October 21, 2022 (the "Private Placement") for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,605,000. The Private Placement involved the issuance of 16,050,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one (1) common share in the capital stock of the Company (a "Common Share") and one half of one (1/2) warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share for $0.20 at any time within two years after closing. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation. The net proceeds from the sale of the Units will be used for general working capital purposes and to assist in conducting due diligence of potential business opportunities. The closing of the Private Placement is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). A material change report in connection with the Private Placement will be filed less than 21 days before the closing of the Private Placement. The Company believes this shorter period is reasonable and necessary in the circumstances as the Company wished to complete the Private Placement in a timely manner. About Li3 Lithium Corp. Li3 Lithium is focused on acquiring and developing hard rock spodumene lithium assets in Zimbabwe and Argentina, where the founders have significant experience and relationships. As evidenced by recent market growth, hard rock lithium deposits are forecast to continue to dominate the global supply of lithium given the scarcity, complexity and capex-intensive nature of alternative brine sources. At present, spodumene concentrate is at a record high price of US$5,500/tonne and forecast to go higher. Zimbabwe - Mutare Lithium Project In April 2022, Li3 Lithium acquired a 50% interest in Li3 Resources Inc. ("Li3 Resources"), a private, lithium focused exploration company founded and backed by senior mining executives with prior success in the lithium industry. Li3 Resources has entered into a binding joint-venture agreement ("JV Agreement") to acquire up to a 50% interest in the Mutare Lithium Project (the "Mutare Lithium Project") from London AIM-listed Premier African Minerals Limited. The Mutare Lithium Project consists of 1,500 hectares of licenses within the Mutare Greenstone Belt of Zimbabwe, located close to the eastern border with Mozambique. The area was deemed prospective for lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) type pegmatites based on prior target generation work. Management believes the lithium exploration potential of the Mutare Greenstone Belt is analogous to that of the Pilbara Craton pegmatites in Western Australia. Zimbabwe is estimated to hold Africa's largest lithium reserves but due to a lack of investment has remained relatively underdeveloped. The Mutare Lithium Project is located in a region in Zimbabwe that is now receiving significant interest. The claim blocks are well located and, in several instances, have attracted interest from international lithium producers, which is expected to further expand interest and investment in the region. An exploration program has commenced on the Mutare Lithium Project to be executed over three phases to include resource identification, delineation, and development. Contact Information: Li3 Lithium Corp Stephen Dunn, CEO Tel: 416-361-2827 Email: dunnsteve@protonmail.com www.lithium3.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "would", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is provided, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change, unless required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143104 Thai Ambassador to Korea Witchu Vejjajiva, sixth from left, President of the Cement Building Materials Business of Siam Cement Group Nithi Patarachoke, seventh from left, and LS Electric Chief Executive Counselor Choi Soon-hong, eighth from left, pose for a picture during their visit to an LS Electric plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on Nov. 3. Courtesy of LS Electric By Kim Jae-heun LS Electric is introducing its smart factory technology to Thai companies and seeking collaboration to expand its business in the field, the company said Friday. The company invited Thai Ambassador to Korea Witchu Vejjajiva and Nithi Patarachoke, president of the Cement Building Materials Business of Siam Cement Group (SCG), to its plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province on Thursday and introduced its world-class smart factory while discussing ways to cooperate with local companies in the future. Established in 1913, SCG is Thailand's second-largest business group, operating in construction, chemistry and packaging as its key areas of focus. Equipped with an automation system across all lines from assembling, testing and packaging of its low-voltage power devices, LS Electric's Chungju plant is referred to as the top smart factory in the country. In 2021, the company was selected as a Lighthouse Factory by the World Economic Forum. It was the second Korean company to get the honor. "After the establishment of our smart factory, we achieved various financial and operational values such as a 40 percent improvement in production efficiency, 68 percent reduction in downtime and a 76 percent reduction in quality-related costs," an LS Electric official said. "The convergence of ICT and automation technology allows not only massive production of various products, but also manufacturing of customized and small quantity products. We hope this smart factory technology is widely dispersed in ASEAN countries such as Thailand, in particular, where it is already showing steep growth. LS Electric will be able to contribute to fostering representative lighthouse factories in each country by cooperating in the commercialization of the technology as well as in the development of the technology," the official added. "It was a good opportunity to check Korea's leading smart factory and energy management solution. We hope to explore various business opportunities with LS Electric in Thailand together," Patarachoke said. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Scryb Inc. (CSE: SCYB) (OTCQB: SCYRF) (FSE: EIY) ("Scryb' or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to the press release of August 15, 2022 by Pima Zinc, 2635212 Ontario Inc. ("Pima Subco"), a subsidiary of Pima Zinc., has completed a non-brokered private placement financing in the capital of Pima Subco (the "Financing") through the issuance of 13,323,800 units (each, a "PP Unit") at a price of $0.50 (the "Issue Price") per PP Unit for gross proceeds of $6,661,900. Each PP Unit consists of one common share in the capital of Pima Subco (each, a "Pima Subco Share") and one Pima Subco Share purchase warrant (each, a "PP Warrant"). Each PP Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.60 per Common Share for a period of eighteen-(18) months following the completion of the Proposed Transaction (as defined below). It is anticipated that closing of the Proposed Transaction will be on or about November 11, 2022. Pima and the Company will issue press releases as updates become available. In addition, Pima Zinc issued 3,411,000 subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts") in the capital of Pima Subco at a price of $0.50 per Subscription Receipt for gross proceeds of $1,705,500. Each Subscription Receipt entitles the holder thereof to receive, without payment of additional consideration, one unit (each, a Unit") upon satisfaction of the escrow release conditions ("Escrow Release Conditions"). Each Unit shall be comprised of one Pima Subco Share and PP Warrant. The gross proceeds of the Subscription Receipts (the "Escrowed Proceeds") will be held in escrow on behalf of the subscribers of the Subscription Receipts by Irwin Lowy LLP (the "Escrow Agent"), pursuant to the terms of a subscription receipt agreement (the "Subscription Receipt Agreement") dated November 4, 2022 (the "Offering Closing Date") among the Company and the Escrow Agent. Each Subscription Receipt will be automatically converted, without payment of any additional consideration and without further action on the part of the holder thereof, for one Unit upon satisfaction or waiver of the Escrow Release Conditions out below and in the Subscription Receipt Agreement and prior to a Termination Event (as defined below), subject to adjustment in certain events. The Units to be issued upon conversion of the Subscription Receipts will be comprised of one Pima Subco Share and PP Warrant. Upon completion of the proposed transaction (the "Proposed Transaction") carried out by way of an amalgamation agreement dated August 11, 2022 (the "Amalgamation Agreement") between Cybeats Technologies Inc. ("Cybeats"), Pima Subco and Scryb Inc., as amended on October 31, 2022, pursuant to which the Pima Zinc. will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares and preferred shares of Cybeats pursuant to a three-cornered amalgamation in accordance with Section 174 of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). Upon completion of the Proposed Transaction, the Pima Subco Shares and PP Warrants will be exchanged for common shares in the capital of Pima (the Pima Shares") and Pima Share purchase warrants (the "Pima Warrants") on a one-for-one basis. Each Pima Warrant will be exercisable by the holder thereof for one common share of Pima (each, a "Pima Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $0.60 per Pima Warrant Share for a period of eighteen (18) months following the closing of the Proposed Transaction. The Escrow Release Conditions are as follows: Written confirmation from each of the Corporation and Pima that all conditions to the completion of the Proposed Transaction have been satisfied or waived, other than the release of the Escrowed Funds and the closing of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement, each of which will be completed forthwith upon release of the escrowed funds; The receipt of all shareholder and regulatory approvals required for the Proposed Transaction; and The distribution of the Pima Shares and Pima Warrants underlying the Subscription Receipts; and the Pima Shares being conditionally approved for listing on the CSE and the completion, satisfaction or waiver of all conditions precedent to such listing, other than the release of the escrowed funds. In the event that: (i) the Escrow Agent does not receive the release notice contemplated by the Subscription Receipt Agreement prior to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on that date which is 120 days after the Offering Closing Date (the "Escrow Release Deadline"); or (ii) prior to the Escrow Release Deadline, Pima Zinc announces to the public that it does not intend to proceed with the Proposed Transaction and/or satisfy the Escrow Release Conditions (each, a "Termination Event"), the Escrowed Proceeds (plus any interest accrued thereon) will be returned to the holders of the Subscription Receipts on a pro rata basis and the Subscription Receipts will be cancelled without any further action on the part of the holders. To the extent that the Escrowed Funds are not sufficient to refund the aggregate Issue Price paid to the holders of the Subscription Receipts, Pima Zinc will be responsible and liable to contribute such amounts as are necessary to satisfy any shortfall. In connection with the Financing, Pima Zinc paid certain eligible persons (each, a "Finder") a cash commission of $40,000 equal to 8% of the gross proceeds of the PP Units delivered by the Finder and issued 80,000 broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants") equal to 8% of the number of PP Units delivered by the Finders pursuant to the Offering. Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Pima Share at a price of $0.50 per Pima Share for a period of eighteen (18) months from the completion of the Proposed Transaction. In addition, the Company paid Finders a cash commission of $102,330 equal to 6% of the gross proceeds of the Subscription Receipts delivered by the Finders. The proceeds from the Financing will be used for general working capital purposes The PP Units and Subscription Receipts issued pursuant to the Financing will be subject to a regulatory four month hold period. The Unit Shares and Warrants issued upon conversion of the Subscription Receipts will not be subject to resale restrictions. The securities that will be issued in connection with the Offering will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined under the U.S. Securities Act) absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Cybeats Cybeats is a leading software supply chain intelligence technology provider, helping organizations manage risk, meet compliance and secure software from procurement, development through operation. Our platform provides customers with deep visibility and universal transparency into their software supply chain, as a result enables them to increase operational efficiencies and revenue. Cybeats. Software Made Certain. Website: www.cybeats.com About Scryb Scryb is a platform that powers businesses and technologies with applied intelligence, real-time analytics, and actionable insights. The platform boasts proven adaptability across diverse markets, from digital health and diagnostics to cybersecurity and manufacturing. The cloud-based platform is composed of crucial elements including sensor technology, IoT, predictive analytics, and computer vision. For more information, please visit our website at: http://scryb.ai SUBSCRIBE: For more information, or to subscribe to the Company's mail list, visit: Contact: W. Clark Kent President Office. 647-872-9982 TF. 1-844-247-6633 Email: info@scryb.ai Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the technology described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143175 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2022 / Commerce Resources Corp. (TSXV:CCE)(FSE:D7H0) (the "Company" or "Commerce") announces that the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") has granted a thirty (30) day extension until December 5, 2022 for completion of the Company's non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"), previously announced in its news release dated August 16, 2022. The terms of the Offering provide for the issuance of up to 12,500,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.16 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,000,000. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one additional Share of the Company at a price of $0.25 per Share for a period of three (3) years from closing of the Offering. The Offering is subject to the approval of the Exchange. Insiders may participate in the Offering. Finder's fees may be payable in connection with the Offering in accordance with the policies of the Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after closing of the Offering. Completion of the Offering is subject to the approval of the Exchange. Any participation by insiders in the Offering will constitute a related party transaction under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") but is expected to be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101. The aggregate gross proceeds from the sale of the Offering will be used towards continued work on the prefeasibility study for the Company's Ashram REE/ Fluorspar Deposit, the production of commercially marketable samples of Rare Earth concentrates as requested by industry majors and for general working capital purposes. None of the securities sold in connection with the Offering will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Commerce Resources Corp. Commerce Resources Corp. is an exploration and development company with a particular focus on deposits of rare metals and rare earth elements. The Company is focused on the development of its Ashram Rare Earth Element/ Fluorspar Deposit in Quebec and the Upper Fir Tantalum-Niobium Deposit in British Columbia. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.commerceresources.comor email info@commerceresources.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors COMMERCE RESOURCES CORP. " Chris Grove " Chris Grove President and Director Tel: 604.484.2700 Email: cgrove@commerceresources.com Web: http://www.commerceresources.com 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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expectations of management regarding the proposed Offering, the expectations of management regarding the use of proceeds of the Offering, closing conditions for the Offering, the expiry of hold periods for securities distributed pursuant to the Offering, and Exchange approval of the proposed Offering. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements including that: the Company may not complete the Offering on terms favorable to the Company or at all; the Exchange may not approve the Offering; the proceeds of the Offering may not be used as stated in this news release; the Company may be unable to satisfy all of the conditions to the Closing; and those additional risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. SOURCE: Commerce Resources Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724045/Commerce-Resources-Corp-Announces-Extension-to-2000000-Private-Placement Dataloop , a Tel Aviv, Israel-based technology company that builds data infrastructure and a data operating system for AI companies, raised $33M in Series B funding. The round was led by NGP Capital and Alpha Wave Ventures, with participation from Amiti Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, and OurCrowd. The company intends to use the funds for global expansion, specifically by building teams in the US, Europe, and India. Led by CEO Eran Shlomo, Dataloop provides a platform for businesses of any size to move their AI project into production from start to finish, for uplifting AI effectiveness across many industries including retail, agriculture, robotics, autonomous vehicles, construction, and more. The data centric platform offers a developer-first full data life-cycle management platform in order to speed up this process. Using Dataloop data pipelines, large-scale unstructured data/meta-data management, and data applications, enterprises can close their data loops faster and shorten the time to market for a high quality AI application. The company has signed numerous enterprise customers including major brands such as Intel, Toyota, LinkedIn, and Vimeo. FinSMEs 04/11/2022 Emalex Biosciences, a Chicago, IL-based biotechnology company, raised $250M in Series D funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Life Sciences with participation from Paragon Biosciences, Valor Equity Partners, and Fidelity Management & Research Company, and several family offices. The company intends to use the capital to fund a Phase 3 clinical trial and potential commercialization of a new class of drug for patients with Tourette Syndrome. Founded by Jeff Aronin, Emalex Biosciences was created by Paragon Biosciences to develop treatments for central nervous system disorders. The company is in late-stage development of a new class of drug targeting the D1 receptor for patients with Tourette Syndrome and other conditions that have limited treatment options. Emalexs first-in-class development candidate ecopipam, a novel investigational compound that is being studied as a potential treatment for certain central nervous system disorders, blocks the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine at the D1 receptor. Ecopipam has been shown to be generally well tolerated in clinical trials conducted to date and has received Orphan Drug and Fast Track designation from the FDA for the treatment of patients with Tourettes. Adverse events affecting primarily the central nervous system have been reported in clinical trials conducted to date, including headache, fatigue, somnolence, insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, depression and rarely, suicidal ideation. The Phase 3 clinical trial for its investigational first-in-class new drug ecopipam, a novel dopamine-1 receptor antagonist, is expected to enroll more than 220 patients across approximately 90 sites. FinSMEs 04/11/2022 Revuze, a Netanya, Israel-based provider of real-time consumer insights for large brands, raised $12M in Growth Equity funding. The round was led by PSG, joined by industry veterans Karyn Schoenbart and Tod Johnson, former CEO and Executive Chairman, respectively, of global market research leader NPD Group. Additional financial terms were not disclosed. The company intends to use the funds to help accelerate its geographic expansion into the U.S., scale its technology, and continue to innovate and grow its solution set. Led by CEO Boaz Grinvald, Revuze is a provider of real-time consumer insights, powered by AI-based natural language processing technology. Revuze empowers brands to understand consumers preferences and behavior by delivering an efficient alternative to traditional market research. The cloud-based software uses AI-based natural language processing to gather, cleanse, analyze and provide insights on consumer sentiment, feedback and overall satisfaction. Revuze has offices in New York, NY, and Montreal, Canada. FinSMEs 04/11/2022 Adventure Literature course "Exploring the American Wilderness," gets students out of the classroom, onto the waves Through off-campus adventures, Professor Sam McMillan hopes his students can use experiences in the wilderness, to gain new perspectives about the topics covered in his class. You can't really read about a place or something like the wilderness without actually having a chance to go out and experience it yourself, McMillan said. This semester, McMillan has led several outdoor adventure field trips through his Honors 100 course: Exploring the American Wilderness. The course is part of the Flagler English Department's Adventure Literature Series, a set of courses that merges classroom instruction with high-impact firsthand encounters. The Adventure Literature series is aimed at shifting students views of the global environment through experiential learning, and guiding them through understanding how these experiences compare to those of the authors and characters in the courses required literature. As a part of this course, McMillan led a surf trip to Vilano Beach on Sept. 18 as a way for his students to explore the ways that surfing can alter our perception of the ocean environment. McMillans course is rooted in this semesters Honors Program theme of Global Consciousness. The way Im reading [global] is as environment, he said. So, were going to think about the ways surfing can allow us to perceive the environment or the globe in a different fashion. McMillan said that the course material consists of authors who write about what wilderness is and the sort of values we attach to it. Ahead of their surf trip, he said the class read Maui Surfer Girls, by Susan Orland, the book which inspired the blockbuster surfing film Blue Crush. Another piece by journalist William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life allowed the students to tap into a bigger picture of surfing. He's a little bit more philosophical with his surfing, like surfing's not just a sport, but it's actually a way of thinking of ways of seeing, McMillan said. And so we kind of tried to look at these two perspectives and see how our own perspectives might tie in. While this is an English course, its the intersection of academic fields that some students find appealing. I love this class, freshman Eloise OBryan said. It's a perfect combination of wilderness and English. Because part of me has this little dream to go into science, but I'm terrible at math. So this is awesome because I love the wilderness description and the ecology side of it. OBryan, who was born and raised in Chicago, had never been surfing prior to the trip. She said the experience shifted her view of the ocean. I just have respect that their sport literally has to do with how the wilderness will be that day, OBryan said. These out-of-the-classroom learning experiences are what make the content they read in class click for OBryan. I love a good story, she said. I love a good dissociation through a story, but when it comes to stuff like that, you've just got to throw me out there and give me time to figure it out. And a bonus of the trip, OBryan caught her first wave. I was able to catch a wave, she said. ...That's a flex for me right there. It makes the sport seem a lot less intimidating. But she said it was thanks to the help of Happy Waves Surf School instructor, Oli McLeod. We get even more enjoyment out of watching people really click with surfing, McLeod said. And ultimately that's what it's all about, is being able to share our love of the ocean and waves and surfing. McLeod has traveled the world surfing, eventually settling in St. Augustine where he decided to start his own surf school: Happy Waves. Happy Waves Surf School works in partnership with the Chris Moyer (CMYR) Memorial Surf Fund to give opportunities to young people who have never had a chance to experience surfing. Moyer was a Flagler College graduate who passed away earlier this year. His fund is devoted to fulfilling dreams where opportunity does not exist. The CMYR Memorial Surf Fund is an extension of Chris love and passion for the water and the surfing way of life, according to the website. Knowing that Only a surfer knows the feeling, it was always in Chris heart that others, without an opportunity, would somehow be given the chance to learn how to surf and to experience their own first paddle out much like he did back in 1999. The fund was able to cover the cost of the surfboard rentals that Flagler students used during this trip. Id approached the guys who put [the fund] together and mentioned this Flagler group and they saw it fitting because Chris Moyer was a Flagler student, McLeod said. For surfers like McLeod, the sport recontextualizes their perspective of the ocean, in the same way that McMillan hopes this experience would for his students. It creates a connection there, McLeod said. It's certainly not one of fear. A lot of people watch Shark Week and then they just have this notion of fear surrounding the ocean and being able to play in the ocean and have fun. Riding waves all over the world, you get a lot more of a loving relationship with the ocean as opposed to one of caution and fear. Tagged As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, Nov. 4. Reuters-Yonhap German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Beijing on Friday for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over China's tacit support for Russia in its war on Ukraine and lingering controversy over economic and human rights issues. Scholz, who is traveling with several top German business leaders, received a formal welcome from president and newly reelected head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. Xi noted that Scholz's visit comes as the sides mark years of diplomatic relations dating back to when the countries, despite their fierce Cold War rivalry, relaunched economic exchanges that remain a key part of the relationship to this day. ''As long as the principles of mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences, exchanges and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation are upheld, the general direction of bilateral relations will not be deviated, and the pace of progress will be stable,'' Xi was quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV. ''At present, the international situation is complex and changeable. As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development,'' Xi said. A working lunch was to follow, after which Scholz and his delegation were to meet with Premier Li Keqiang, who nominally has responsibility over China's economy. Despite their political disputes, Scholz's visit reflects the importance of Germany's trade ties with the world's second-largest economy. In an article for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz said he was traveling to Beijing ''precisely because business as usual is not an option in this situation.'' ''It is clear that if China changes, the way we deal with China must also change,'' Scholz said, adding that ''we will reduce one-sided dependencies in the spirit of smart diversification.'' Scholz also said he would address ''difficult issues'' such as the rights of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Scholz is the first leader from the G7 group of industrialized nations to meet with Xi since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China in 2019. The diplomatically delicate trip comes as Germany and the European Union work on their strategy toward an increasingly assertive and authoritarian Beijing. Scholz's messages will face close scrutiny, particularly at home where some have criticized him for normalizing China's behavior. While his nearly year-old government has signaled a departure from predecessor Angela Merkel's firmly trade-first approach, his trip follows domestic discord over a Chinese shipping company's major investment in a container terminal in Germany's crucial port of Hamburg. With China still imposing tough COVID-19 restrictions, his delegation won't stay in Beijing overnight. Scholz's visit comes just after Xi was named to a third term as head of the ruling Communist Party and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the economy. It is also accompanied by rising tensions over Taiwan and follows a U.N. report that said Chinese human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups may amount to ''crimes against humanity.'' German officials say the trip is intended to probe where China is going and what forms of cooperation are possible. An official pointed to China's ''particular responsibility'' as an ally of Russia to help end the war in Ukraine and press Moscow to tone down its nuclear rhetoric; to concerns over tensions in Taiwan and the broader region; to Germany's desire for a ''level playing field'' in economic relations; and to Scholz's current status as this year's chair of the Group of Seven industrial powers. (AP) On August 1, 2022 local time, Chairman of the National Assembly of Tajikistan Rustam Emomali met with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dushanbe. Wang Yi first conveyed the cordial greetings of Chairman Li Zhanshu of Chinas National Peoples Congress Standing Committee, and noted that over the past 30 years, China and Tajikistan have overcome various challenges and stood the test of international vicissitudes to become "ironclad" friends sharing weal and woe and strategic partners for mutually beneficial cooperation. China will, as always, support Tajikistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, pursuing a successful development path suited to its national conditions, and opposing external interference in Tajikistans internal affairs, and be a good friend and partner that Tajikistan can trust and rely on. China is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two legislatures, and deepen the exchange of governance experience to serve respective countries economic and social development. Rustam Emomali asked Wang Yi to convey his best regards to Chairman Li Zhanshu, saying that Tajikistan and China are good neighbors and good partners. Over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have trusted and treated each other as friends with sincerity, and rendered mutual support at trying times. Under the guidance of the two heads of state, Tajikistan-China cooperation in various fields has scored outstanding achievements, and bilateral relations have reached the highest level in history. Tajikistan sincerely appreciates Chinas valuable support for its economic and social development and its efforts to improve the peoples well-being. In particular, China lent a helping hand when Tajikistan was at the most difficult time in fighting the pandemic. Tajikistan is ready to join hands with China to elevate Tajikistan-China relations to a new height to the benefit of the two peoples. Rustam Emomali said Tajikistan has always put relations with China high on its diplomatic agenda, and was one of the first countries to voice support for the important Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping. He hoped that the two legislatures will increase exchanges and mutual visits to flesh out the Tajikistan-China comprehensive strategic partnership. Tajikistan hopes to further boost trade with China, expanding export of agricultural products to China and introducing advanced Chinese technologies to the country. More Chinese enterprises are welcome to invest and do business in Tajikistan. Emomali also thanked China for helping Tajikistan cultivate outstanding professionals over the years, and would like to see more direct flights between the two countries to facilitate personnel exchanges. Wang Yi said China and Tajikistan are pioneers in Belt and Road cooperation, with bilateral practical cooperation yielding fruitful results. Landmark buildings built with Chinese assistance can be seen everywhere in Tajikistan, and the friendship between the two countries has taken root in the hearts of the people. China is ready to deepen bilateral cooperation in infrastructure, green energy, transportation and logistics, information and communication, digital economy and other fields to help Tajikistan accelerate its industrialization and independent development. More Chinese enterprises will be encouraged to participate in cooperation on new energy and solar energy, to jointly build a green Silk Road. China will further deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges with Tajikistan to consolidate the foundation of public support for the friendship between the two countries, and manage well the Luban Workshop in Tajikistan to cultivate more professional and technicians for the country. On the morning of 2 November, President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People. President Xi welcomed Prime Minister Sharif and thanked him for his congratulatory letter right after the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). President Xi noted that China and Pakistan are good friends, good partners and good brothers. Amid global changes and instability in recent years, the two countries have supported each other and forged ahead, demonstrating an iron-clad friendship. China views its relations with Pakistan from a strategic and long-term perspective, and Pakistan has always been a high priority in Chinas neighborhood diplomacy. China is ready to work with Pakistan to elevate the level of all-round strategic cooperation, speed up efforts to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and inject new impetus into their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. President Xi stressed that China commends Pakistans firm commitment to advancing friendship and cooperation with China, and expressed appreciation for Pakistans support on issues vital to Chinas core and major concerns. China will continue to firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, territorial integrity, development interests and dignity, and in achieving unity, stability, development and prosperity. China expressed deep sympathies to the Pakistani people over the devastating floods that have hit the country, and will provide additional emergency relief to help with post-flood reconstruction. China supports Pakistans efforts to revive agricultural production, and will strengthen cooperation with Pakistan on disaster prevention and relief and climate change. After presenting the key outcomes of the 20th CPC National Congress, President Xi underscored that China will continue its fundamental policy of opening-up and provide new opportunities to Pakistan and the rest of the world through continuous development. China will further deepen synergy between its development strategies and those of Pakistan. The two sides will make full use of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), advance CPEC with greater efficiency, and make CPEC an exemplar of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. It is important to accelerate the construction of auxiliary infrastructure for Gwadar Port to unleash its role in driving interconnected development in the region. The two sides will work together to create conditions for the early implementation of the upgradation of ML-1 and the Karachi Circular Railway project. Pakistan is welcome to export more quality agri-products to China. China will work with Pakistan to expand cooperation in digital economy, e-commerce, photovoltaic and other new-energy technologies, and take solid steps to advance cooperation concerning agriculture, science, technology and peoples livelihood. China will continue to do its best to support Pakistan in stabilizing its financial situation. China supports its provinces with a strong industry in pairing up with Pakistani partners to advance industrial cooperation, and hopes the Pakistani side will provide a sound business environment. President Xi expressed his great concern about the safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, and conveyed his hope that Pakistan will provide a reliable and safe environment for Chinese institutions and personnel working on cooperation projects there. President Xi pointed out that the world, our times and history are changing in ways like never before. Facing a highly uncertain world, both sides should stand on the right side of history, keep up their strong cooperation in multilateral mechanisms, and work closely on major international and regional issues so as to uphold true multilateralism, international fairness and justice and the shared interests of developing countries, and inject certainty and positives into the world. China will work with Pakistan to advance the operationalization of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, make the global economic governance system more fair, equitable and inclusive that benefits all, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. These collaborative efforts will provide a strong underpinning for the development of the two countries, and contribute more to global peace, stability and prosperity. Prime Minister Sharif noted that it is a great honor for him to be among the first foreign leaders to visit China after the successful 20th CPC National Congress, which marked a new milestone. The visit is a testament to the profound, iron-clad friendship between Pakistan and China. On behalf of the Pakistani government and people, Prime Minister Sharif once again expressed hearty congratulations to President Xi on his re-election as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. He said that over the past decade, under the dynamic leadership of President Xi, China has created a miracle of great development achievements. China has upheld multilateralism, promoted global solidarity and cooperation, and made important contributions to safeguarding world peace and development. In doing so, China has lived up to its responsibility as a major country. The world cannot operate without China, and Chinas development cannot be isolated or contained by any force. Prime Minister Sharif expressed his confidence that President Xi, with his extraordinary vision, will continue to lead China toward even more remarkable achievements and create an even brighter future for the world. Prime Minister Sharif stressed that deepening Pakistans all-weather strategic cooperative partnership with China is a cornerstone of Pakistans foreign policy and the national consensus of Pakistan. He expressed heartfelt appreciation to the Chinese government and people for the valuable anti-COVID support, and for the generous assistance in the wake of the devastating floods. No country has ever helped Pakistan or other developing countries with such wholehearted sincerity, he said. He reiterated Pakistans firm commitment to the one-China policy and its firm support for Chinas position on issues concerning Chinas core interests including Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Even as Pakistan learns from Chinas successful experience and tries to rely on its own efforts, Pakistan will deepen all-round cooperation with China to better develop itself. This is the only way forward for Pakistan. CPEC has had a profound impact on Pakistans economic and social development. Pakistan is ready to work with China to continue promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and hopes to have Chinas strong support in the upgradation of ML-1, the Karachi Circular Railway and other important infrastructure projects. Pakistan will further step up security measures and do all it can to protect the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel. Pakistan fully supports the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative put forth by President Xi. It will strengthen communication and collaboration with China in international and regional affairs to make a positive contribution to world peace and development. The Pakistan-China friendship is unbreakable. Pakistan will always stand firmly with China. After the meeting, President Xi held a welcoming banquet for Prime Minister Sharif at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor and Foreign Minister, and He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, were present at the events. At the invitation of President Xi Jinping of the Peoples Republic of China, President Samia Suluhu Hassan of the United Republic of Tanzania paid a state visit to the Peoples Republic of China starting from 2 November 2022. On 3 November, President Xi Jinping held talks with President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The two heads of state had an in-depth exchange of views on China-Tanzania relations, China-Africa relations and international and regional issues of mutual interest, and reached a series of important understandings. Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress Li Zhanshu had separate meetings with President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The two Presidents spoke highly of the traditional friendship between the Peoples Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania (hereinafter referred to as the two sides) and noted with satisfaction the fruitful outcomes of China-Tanzania relations and their friendly cooperation in the past 58 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations. To further develop the bilateral relations and advance cooperation across the board, the two Presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership. I. The two sides agreed to further leverage the political guiding role of head-of-state diplomacy, maintain the momentum of high-level interactions and dialogues, continue to deepen traditional friendship and political mutual trust, strengthen strategic coordination, share experience on governance, and enhance exchanges and cooperation between their central and local governments, legislatures and political parties at all levels. II. The Tanzanian side congratulated China on the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), applauded Chinas historic achievements and transformation in its various endeavours under the leadership of the CPC, and expressed support for China in building a great modern socialist country in all respects. The Chinese side commended the government of Tanzania for the important achievements in its endeavours of national development under the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan and wished the upcoming 12th National Congress of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania a full success. III. The two sides pledged to continue supporting each other on issues involving sovereignty, territorial integrity and other core interests and major concerns. The Tanzanian side reaffirmed its firm commitment to the one-China principle, regards Taiwan as an inalienable part of China, and opposes any actions or remarks that undermine Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese side expressed firm support for Tanzania in exploring independently a development path suited to its national conditions. IV. The two sides agreed to continue elevating their two-way trade and further expand the trade volume. The Chinese side agreed to provide duty-free treatment of 98% tariff lines goods originating from Tanzania exported to China and will actively explore the possibility of providing market access to more Tanzanian products. V. The two sides will implement the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Peoples Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania on Jointly Promoting the Building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. The two sides are ready to actively advance the upgrade and renovation of the TAZARA Railway. The two sides agreed to expand investment cooperation. The Chinese side will encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Tanzania and participate in the development of railways, roads, ports, aviation, electricity and information and communications and other infrastructure. The Tanzanian side will further improve its business environment and provide facilitation for Chinese companies to operate in Tanzania. The Chinese side will facilitate Tanzania business people to trade smoothly with China. VI. The two sides agreed to promote industrial complementarity and production capacity cooperation, with a focus on expanding mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as energy and mineral development, processing and manufacturing, green development and digital economy, and support Tanzania in moving faster towards industrialization and modernization. VII. The two sides spoke highly of their cooperation gains in such areas as culture, tourism, education, public health, pandemic response, sports, youth, think tanks and media, and agreed to further expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges. The two sides will provide facilitation for holding tourism promotion activities in each others country and agreed to hold a China-Tanzania Year of Tourism and Culture at an appropriate time. The two sides will facilitate academic and media exchanges. The Chinese side will provide more scholarship opportunities for Tanzanian students and continue to send medical teams to the Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. VIII. The two sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation on peace and security and collaborate in combating transnational crimes, capacity building, personnel training, equipment and technologies and other fields. The two sides agreed to step up protection of the safety and lawful rights and interests of each others citizens and institutions within their territories. IX. The two sides undertook to strengthen coordination and cooperation in international affairs and multilateral institutions, jointly uphold true multilateralism, safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The Tanzanian side expressed support for the Global Development Initiative put forth by the Chinese side and will actively participate in relevant activities. The Chinese side expressed appreciation for Tanzanias efforts to promote global and regional peace and development. X. The two sides commended the important role of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in advancing the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, and agreed to enhance consultation and coordination on FOCAC-related affairs and jointly deliver on the wide-ranging practical cooperation under the Dakar Action Plan (2022-2024). XI. The two sides agreed that President Samia Suluhu Hassans visit to China was a full success and held great significance for advancing China-Tanzania relations and promoting the building of a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed heartfelt appreciation to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government and people for the warm and generous hospitality accorded to her during her visit. Lastly, two sides agreed the importance of continuing to have state visits and in that regard, President Samia Suluhu Hassan extended an invitation to President Xi Jinping to make another visit to Tanzania in 2024 as part of celebration of the 60th Anniversary of our diplomatic relations. On the afternoon of November 1, 2022, Premier Li Keqiang chaired the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the Great Hall of the People. Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin of Russia, Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda of Tajikistan, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov of Uzbekistan, foreign ministers of Pakistan and India, and representatives from observer states, among others, were present. The meeting was held via video link. Li Keqiang expressed in his speech that over the past 21 years since its establishment, the SCO has made important contributions to peace and stability in the region and to the development and prosperity of all SCO countries. At the meeting of the Council of Heads of State held in Samarkand last September, the related parties reached new common understandings on the development of the SCO. President Xi Jinping called for joint efforts to build our region into a peaceful, stable, prosperous and beautiful home. The regional and global landscapes are undergoing profound and complex changes. The global growth is weak while destabilizing factors and uncertainties are interwoven. Nonetheless, upholding peace and pursuing development remain the trend of our times and the people's aspirations. China is committed to deepening political trust, win-win cooperation and friendly exchanges with members of the SCO family, championing the Shanghai Spirit to jointly deliver greater benefits to the people of all member countries. Li Keqiang put forward five proposals on advancing SCO cooperation: First, to safeguard security and stability for a sound development environment. China is ready to deepen law enforcement and security cooperation with all parties so as to safeguard the economic and social development of all SCO countries. Second, to expand trade and investment to bolster regional economic recovery. Jointly uphold the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, promote an open world economy, and enhance trade and investment facilitation. Third, to enhance connectivity to realize integrated development of the region. Seek greater synergy among development strategies, improve the efficiency of port clearance, and preserve the resilience and stability of regional industrial and supply chains. Fourth, to promote sustainable development to build up resilience against risks. To enhance food and energy supply of regional countries, and to pursue a balanced and orderly transition to green and low-carbon development. Fifth, to enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges to strengthen the bond between the people. To give full play to the cooperation mechanisms on education, culture, science, technology and press, and ensure the success of the SCO Year of Tourism next year. While briefing on China's economic situation, Li Keqiang said that confronted with complex and intricate factors at home and abroad, the Chinese economy once came under downward pressures beyond expectation, with a notable decline early in the second quarter. We made a swift and resolute response, introducing a policy package for stabilizing the economy and follow-up measures. We focused our efforts on helping market entities stay afloat and keeping employment and prices stable, and relied on reform to better unlock market vitality and social creativity. Through these efforts, the Chinese economy reversed the downward trend in time. It registered a positive growth in the second quarter and expanded by 3.9 percent in the third quarter, showing a stabilizing and upward momentum. Going forward, we will take strong measures to promote the steady, sound and sustainable growth of the economy. China has 160 million plus market entities, and a hardworking and intelligent people. This is the greatest source of resilience and confidence for our economic development. We will continue to work for the full delivery of all the policy measures introduced for stabilizing the economy, work to maximize their effects, keep major economic indicators within the appropriate range, and strive for better results. Li Keqiang pointed out that at the recent 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), strategic plans were laid out for building a modern socialist country in all respects and advancing China's rejuvenation on all fronts. China will stay committed to the basic state policy of reform and opening-up and the win-win strategy of opening-up. China's door will open still wider. We will continue on the path of peaceful development, take an active part in the reform and development of the global governance system, and work with all parties to advance world peace, stability, development and prosperity. All parties at the meeting spoke highly of the important achievements of SCO cooperation in various fields. They expressed that the SCO has become an effective platform for international cooperation and plays an increasingly important role in maintaining mutual trust among member states, advancing the development of member states and promoting regional peace and security. All parties expressed readiness to further tap the potential of cooperation, improve cooperation mechanisms, and strengthen cooperation in economy and trade, investment, innovation, environmental protection, agriculture, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, connectivity, digital economy and other fields. All parties noted that they will uphold multilateralism, jointly address challenges such as food and energy security and climate change, strive to improve the well-being of people of all SCO countries, and promote stability and prosperity in the region and the world. A joint communique was issued and a number of cooperation documents and resolutions in economy and trade, digital economy and other fields were adopted at the meeting. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of the National Development and Reform Commission He Lifeng and others were present at the meeting. On the morning of 4 November, President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People. President Xi noted that Chancellor Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th CPC National Congress, and that it is also his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. The visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen cooperation in various fields. It gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward. President Xi stressed that this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. The five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually-beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, President Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to global peace and development. On November 3, 2022, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone call with Indonesia's Coordinator for Cooperation with China and Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. Luhut first conveyed President Joko Widodo's sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping, and once again extended congratulations on the complete success of the 20th National Congress of the Community Party of China (CPC). Luhut briefed Wang Yi on the preparations for the upcoming Group of Twenty (G20) Bali Summit with Indonesia as the host. He noted that as the world is confronted with unprecedented challenges such as geopolitical crises and sluggish economic recovery, China's role and cooperation are crucial. Indonesia expects to maintain close coordination with China to make the summit a success, and jointly safeguard world peace, tranquility, and development. Wang Yi conveyed President Xi Jinping's cordial greetings to President Joko, and briefed on the great achievements and far-reaching significance of the 20th CPC National Congress. He stressed that with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the helm, China will unswervingly make greater strides on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, bringing stability and positive energy to the turbulent world. As two major developing countries and neighbors, China is ready to work with Indonesia to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and make new contributions to regional and world peace and development in accordance with the general direction of building a community with a shared future established by the two heads of state. Wang Yi stressed that China will firmly support Indonesia in fulfilling its duties as G20 Presidency to host a successful G20 summit, focus the summit on its own commitment, strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, and jointly address severe challenges such as world economic sluggishness and disarray in global governance. On the evening of November 4, President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai via video link and delivered a speech titled Working Together for a Bright Future of Openness and Prosperity. President Xi Jinping noted that five years ago, he announced the decision to hold the CIIE for the very purpose of expanding Chinas opening-up and turning Chinas enormous market into enormous opportunities for the world. Today, the CIIE has become a showcase of Chinas new development paradigm, a platform for high-standard opening-up, and a public good for the whole world. President Xi Jinping stressed that openness is a key driving force behind the progress of human civilizations and an intrinsic path toward global prosperity and development. The world today is confronted with accelerated changes unseen in a century as well as a sluggish economic recovery. We should commit ourselves to openness to meet development challenges, foster synergy for cooperation, build the momentum of innovation, and deliver benefits to all. We should steadily advance economic globalization, enhance every countrys dynamism of growth, and provide all nations with greater and fairer access to the fruits of development. President Xi Jinping noted that as the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has underscored, China remains committed to the fundamental national policy of opening up to the outside world, pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening-up, and adheres to the right course of economic globalization. We will amplify the interplay between domestic and international markets and resources, strive to create new opportunities for the world with our own development, and contribute our share to building an open global economy. China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities in its vast market. We will step up efforts to cultivate a robust domestic market, upgrade trade in goods, develop new mechanisms for trade in services, and import more quality products. We will establish pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and build national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services, so as to encourage innovation in trade and promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities from its institutional opening-up. We will steadily expand institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards, put into full effect the new Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, and further develop the national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the service sector. We will implement the strategy to upgrade pilot free trade areas, accelerate the Hainan Free Trade Port development, and tap into their role as pilot platforms for comprehensive reform and opening-up. China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities from deepened international cooperation. We will engage fully and deeply in WTO reform negotiations, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and enhance international macro-economic policy coordination, with a view to jointly fostering new drivers for global growth. We will endeavor actively to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to expand the globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas. We will firmly support other developing countries and assist them in growing faster, and promote the building of a human community with a shared future. Before he ended his speech, President Xi Jinping stressed that the path is unfolding before us, and a brighter future beckons beyond. China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness, jointly overcome the difficulties and challenges confronting global economic growth, and make sure that our commitment to openness will bring about broad prospects for global development. Danylo, 17 has an online biology lesson by candlelight in the village of Start Petrivtsi close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 3. AP-Yonhap Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of engaging in ''energy terrorism'' after Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy network left millions of residents without power. About 4.5 million people were without electricity across the country, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 apartments in the capital alone did not have electricity on Friday. ''I appeal to all residents of the capital: save electricity as much as possible, because the situation remains difficult!'' the mayor wrote on Telegram. State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that emergency blackouts would be taking place across Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly carried out missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power facilities, particularly in recent weeks. In his address, Zelenskyy described the targeting of energy infrastructure as a sign of weakness. People sit in a cafe during a blackout in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 3. AP-Yonhap ''The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy,'' he said. ''They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way.'' Zelenskyy's spoke soon after Moscow-appointed authorities in southern Ukraine's occupied Kherson region said Russian troops were likely to leave the city of Kherson _ a claim that Ukrainian officials greeted with some skepticism. The Kremlin-installed regional administration already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city, citing the threat of increased shelling as Ukraine's army pursues a counteroffensive to reclaim the region. Authorities removed the Russian flag from the Kherson administration building on Thursday, a week after the regional government moved out. Ukraine's southern military spokeswoman, Natalia Humeniuk, said the flag's removal could be a ruse ''and we should not hurry to rejoice.'' She told Ukrainian television that some Russian military personnel are disguising themselves as civilians. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported shooting down drones launched by Russian forces. Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said eight drones were shot down in the Nikopol area, which was also subjected to artillery shelling. Another drone was shot down over the western Lviv region, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint news conference with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou (not pictured) following their meeting at the Mariinskiy palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 3. EPA-Yonhap Gotcha Covered Opening Of Second Location in Connecticut November 04, 2022 // Franchising.com // STAMFORD, Conn - Gotcha Covered is opening Gotcha Covered of Stamford. With the opening of the new center, the franchise has two locations in the state. The new center is owned and operated by Dawris Gomez. With an emphasis on end-to-end consultations, this business will provide the best in soft and hard window treatments to homeowners in Fairfield County while offering a variety of blinds, draperies, smart solutions and much more. "The Gotcha Covered brand dedicates itself to delivering a first-class experience to its customers," said Paul Linenberg, president of Gotcha Covered. "Nationally, we want our window treatments and consultation services to be accessible to those who look to improve the look of their homes and businesses. "The local homeowners in the community are gaining an asset with Gotcha Covered of Stamford, and we are happy to have Dawris representing our brand with this new location." Gomez brings an extensive amount of experience to the Gotcha Covered brand. She holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in public relations and business communications, both from New York University. She has 12 years of experience working in retail sales, sales management, retail sales operations and B2B sales. She is also a graduate of Tony Robins Mastery University. "I knew Gotcha Covered was a great fit from the beginning," said Gomez. "There is a real authentic energy here. With that comes superior support, engagement and commitment to success. I have no doubts that I made the right choice to join the Gotcha Covered team." "My goal is to delight and over-deliver for my community," Gomez said. "I look to forge many friendships and deliver five-star white glove service for every project. I want to make people fall in love with their home again or fall deeper in love with their new home." SOURCE Gotcha Covered ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Police have arrested a secondary school chemistry teacher for allegedly putting the formula for a toxic gas online. SCMP A chemistry teacher at a Hong Kong secondary school has been arrested for allegedly putting instructions online on how to make a poisonous gas. Police officers from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau spotted an article on an online discussion forum in mid-October that detailed how to make hydrogen sulphide, a highly toxic, flammable gas, Chief Inspector Cheng Chak-yan on Thursday said. The instructions featured images and listed the raw materials needed, weights and mixing ratios, Cheng said, adding the amount of harm that could be inflicted with different concentrations was also provided. Police have said the suspect is believed to have used his position as a chemistry teacher to obtain the necessary materials to make the poisonous gas. Shutterstock The three candidates for the open Corvallis mayors seat have attracted a combined $23,504 in political contributions in the 2022 election season, with the largest donation by far $5,000 going to Council Vice President Andrew Struthers from a Realtors political action committee. The race also features former Ward 2 Councilors Charles Maughan and Roen Hogg in the citys first test of ranked choice voting. Struthers led the fundraising charge, followed by Maughan and then Hogg. Andrew Struthers Under the Committee to Elect Struthers, Struthers has received $9,973, with $2,000 of that taking the form of in-kind donations to himself, according to state election records. Struthers is listed as the committee treasurer. The Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee cut a $5,000 check to Struthers on Sept. 26, the largest contribution hes received, records show. The money came three weeks after Struthers led a 5-4 vote to put home energy scores on the 2023 primary ballot rather than having the council vote on the matter. Its an issue real estate agents have been watching, as the program could require home sellers conduct an energy audit of their home to inform potential home buyers how much they can expect to pay in gas and electric bills. Struthers said his fundraising success shows his understanding of important local issues such as housing and strengthening Corvallis economy. Struthers said he was pleased to be supported by local businesses, such as the Willamette Association of Realtors, but was unaware of the contribution until after his home energy score vote, saying there was no discussion beforehand. He said he learned of being endorsed a few days after the vote. During the election cycles, the Realtors interview all the candidates as part of their election process, Struthers said. I would honestly say my vote had nothing to do with me trying to get a donation from them. In other Struthers campaign finance news, founder of Corvallis Microtechnology, Min-Hsin Lin, contributed $1,250 to Struthers under the name David Lin, which he commonly goes by. But in the Benton County Voters Pamphlet, Lin endorses Hogg. Lin also gave $250 to Maughan. In September 2021, Lin made news with his plan to develop housing on 118 acres in Corvallis. Betty Malone, tree grower and wife of Benton County Commissioner Pat Malone, gave $200 to Struthers. Pat Malone endorsed Struthers for mayor, according to the voters pamphlet. Former Corvallis City Councilor Penny York also gave $200 along with her endorsement to Struthers. And Lyle Hutchens of Corvallis-based MCH Project Strategies gave $250 to Struthers. Struthers total expenditures to-date are $10,088, and $812 remains in the balance. He carried a previous year balance of $115 into the race. His biggest outlay so far was $6,157 to Morel Ink in Portland for printing and mail service, made in two separate purchases. Charles Maughan Contributions to the committee supporting Maughan, Maughan for Mayor, total $8,856, of which $2,232 came as in-kind donations, according to records. Gayanne Alexander is listed as the committee treasurer. Holly Shutta, listed in state records as secretary of the Benton County Democratic Central Committee, contributed $1,000. Another $1,000 was donated by Corvallis resident Gina Mellow, the records show. Maughan also received a $1,000 in-kind donation in the form of a campaign video by Ashley Terry Films. Habitat restoration coordinator Matt Mellenthin has given over the aggregate $685 to Maughans campaign. Corvallis resident William Reeves gave $500. Cassie Nix-Wayne, quality assurance manager at Stahlbush Island Farms, gave $150. Former Corvallis City Councilor Bill Glassmire donated $200. Maughan for Mayors total expenditures so far are $4,499. The records show a $4,696 remaining cash balance. A balance of $339 was carried from the previous year. Maughan said a significant print mailing bill was just paid but hasnt yet hit the books. That will leave him with about $1,000 to $2,000. Reflecting on the number of smaller donations he received, Maughan said his average donation has been around $80, nodding to inspiration from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who touted his connection to regular people over big business backing in his presidential run. Maughan added he would have rejected a campaign contribution from the Willamette Association of Realtors, calling it a corporate donation. He said hes wary of large donations because he doesnt want to be beholden to anyone but the residents of Corvallis. I think thats important, Maughan said. It shows who youre going to represent. The committees top expenditure was an aggregated $612 to Willamette Life Media LLC in Corvallis for postcards and canvassing literature. Willamette Life Media also donated $484 in-kind for campaign advertising. The committee also spent $421 on postcards from Vistaprint, a Reno, Nevada company. Roen Hogg Hoggs campaign committee, Friends of Roen Hogg, has received $4,675 in total contributions, according to records. Hogg is listed as the committee treasurer. Lin contributed $1,000 to Hogg under his legal name, Min-Hsin. Barbara Corden, a manager at PVC4 LLC in Corvallis, also donated $1,000. Acupuncture Clinic of Corvallis owner Dean Johnson contributed $500. Property owner Steve Germaneri gave $300, as did Frank Crotti of Corvallis. MaryKay Dahlgreen, a former state librarian currently directing Lincoln County libraries, gave $200. And former Corvallis City Council and current congressional candidate Mike Beilstein contributed $200 to Hogg. Having spent $8,125 on his 2018 run for mayor, Hogg said he saved money on this election by repurposing materials, such as lawn signs, from four years ago. Hoggs current total expenditures are $3,908, with a $1,246 remaining balance. He carried $480 over from the previous year. The biggest expenditure was two transactions with Salem-based Select Impressions, totaling $3,463 for printing and postage. Hogg also spent an aggregated $399 on advertising with SP&B Printing in Corvallis. More Corvallis newsMore mid-valley elections coverage Search is on for Tammy Pitkin. She was reported missing Oct. 26 but had not been seen by family since Oct. 14. Demand for high-end imports drives consumption upgrade, biz growth 09:00, November 04, 2022 By FAN FEIFEI ( China Daily The booth of JD during an expo in Haikou, Hainan province. MENG ZHONGDE/FOR CHINA DAILY Chinese consumers are showing increasing demand for diversified and high-end consumer goods, with their spending on imported products being a significant driver for consumption upgrade, said a report from the Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute of Chinese e-commerce platform JD. The report said smartphones, computers, maternal and infant products, beauty and skincare goods, and home appliances are the most favored categories by Chinese consumers among all imported products in the first three quarters. Last year, a rising number of consumers preferred to buy foreign-branded smartphones, cosmetics, furniture, foods and beverages on JD's online marketplaces, while they were inclined to purchase homegrown brands when coming to nutrition and healthcare products, jewelry, outdoor sporting equipment, toys and musical instruments, it said. JD has procured more than 500 billion yuan ($68.4 billion) worth of imported products over the past three years, the company said. Imported products have gained traction among consumers during this year's Singles Day shopping carnival. In the first 10 minutes of the dayslong promotional campaign which kicked off at 8 pm on Monday, turnover of products in JD's virtual national pavilion covering overseas brands from more than 90 countries increased over 12 times compared with that of last year. Younger shoppers aged between 26 and 35 are the major consumers of imported products, accounting for nearly half among all age groups, the report said. In addition, consumers aged between 46 and 55 contributed the fastest growth in purchasing imported products. Liu Hui, director of JD's Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute, said overseas brands should pay more attention to smaller cities, speed up digital transformation as well as design and launch more differentiated products to better meet consumers' diversified needs. China's cross-border e-commerce sector has been growing exponentially over the past few years as the country's middle and high-income shoppers demand increasingly diversified and personalized products and services. The Ministry of Commerce said total imports of consumer goods reached 1.73 trillion yuan in 2021, up 9.9 percent year-on-year. "The penetration rate of cross-border e-commerce in lower-tier cities and townships has been increasing in recent years. Chinese consumers demonstrate rising demand for diversified, personalized and niche products from abroad," said Chen Tao, an analyst with internet consultancy Analysys in Beijing. Chen said online shopping via livestreaming videos is very popular among the post-'80s and post-'90s generation of consumers. With expanding domestic demand and advances in emerging retail technologies, China has introduced preferential policies, such as lowering import taxes and expanding the range of goods allowed to be imported. This has prompted a surge in cross-border e-commerce imports despite the COVID-19 pandemic, underlining a period of rapid growth for China's imported goods market, said Zhang Tianbing, head of Deloitte Asia-Pacific's consumer products and retail industry. Zhang said imported goods have penetrated smaller cities, with demand for imported goods rising in third-tier cities and those below them. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) London, UK, Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Michael James McGrath was a war veteran in World War II the last major world conflict to have occurred. He and his many servicemen fought on the side of Australian and New Zealand forces. His enlistment was early on in the global conflict and his Battalion was eventually assigned to the war in the Pacific. It is here. Michael James McGrath, a war hero, was killed in action. Wars & Conflicts He fought honourably in World War II in the 30th (Mixed) Battalion B Force. This is the 8th Brigade of the New Zealand 3rd Division. This was an Expeditionary Force of the Third Echelon. It is believed that Michael James McGrath enlisted for service in 1940 when the war in Europe was in its early stages. Michael James McGrath - 30th Battalion The 30th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the New Zealand 3rd Division, raised for Second World War service. The unit was known for its bravery and sacrifice and served with distinction in the conflict. Today, the Battalion is one of the most well-known New Zealand military units. It was originally formed in September 1940 and drew personnel from New Zealand areas. In particular these were the districts of Otago and Canterbury. Michael James McGrath joined the battalion as one of the first person. McGrath and his battalion were at first allocated to the 8th Brigade before joining up with the 14th Brigade at a later date. This is where Michael James McGrath served and experienced action in the Pacific. There they took on garrison duties in Fiji to guard the island against possible Japanese attacks. When the war ended, they were handed over to the US Army. The NZEF was closely linked to the AIF for much of the war. The New Zealand contingent was too small to form a separate division, so the New Zealand and Australian Divisions were combined to form the famous Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Both divisions were commanded by General Godley. The USS Arizona, which was the target ship of TF 38, was able to land its troops unopposed on the Green Islands, a pair of islands north of Buka. The SS Arizona landed 112 members of the New Zealand Commando Force in Vella Lavella and prepared to land on the island. Then, it headed north to the Green Islands, where the enemy garrison did not resist. By the time the task group reached the island, they had cleared the island of the enemy. Other Operations Australian & New Zealand Forces Took Part In The commonwealth armies such as Australia and New Zealand also took part in the European battle staged from the land of the United Kingdom. After more than four years of holding off German air attacks, thanks to radar technology and a steady production line of spitfires and bombers kept the Nazi forces at bay. The war changed course when Japan attacked the Pearl Harbour US naval base. The attack finally persuaded the US and its citizens to see sense and get a grip on reality after hesitating to fully commit to the war in Europe. Better late than never the old saying goes. Soon allied forces from Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world would join the British and Europeans fighting to safeguard the small islands of Britain and Ireland. Many of those Europeans already fighting alongside the British had escaped from countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Holland, and France took part. The key mission at the time was D-Day before several more operations to sweep across Europe. ### Help for Heros https://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ Phone: 0300 303 9888 The Auckland Museum The Auckland Domain Parnell, Auckland New Zealand + 64 9 309 0443 newsroom: news.38digitalmarket.com SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Held at Hotel Casa del Mar on November 2nd, Thai Night 2022 Thailand Where Films Come Alive is always one of the most high-profile events of the AFM and 2022 was no exception. Last night in Santa Monica, Thai Night 2022 Thailand Where Films Come Alive, a gala hosted by the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government, as a focal point for the Thai Film industry at the American Film Market 2022, was a resounding success, attracting hundreds of international film professionals keen to learn more about the strong advantages of Thailand as a filming destination and its state-of-the-art film production and creative services. The new Thailand Transformed film incentive program drew a great deal of attention and is certain to result in additional projects coming to Thailand. Presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, and with Mr. Jurin Laksanawisit, Thailands Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, also in attendance, the gala event registered full capacity, with over 250 guests including many distinguished entertainers, creators and filmmakers. Special guests were Ella Bleu Travolta, Hrisheek Panchmatia (Relentless), John Penotti (Crazy Rich Asians), Vincent De Paul, Paul Gleeson, Nicholas Alexander and Chelsea Harris. Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi spoke to the audience about how Thailand was hit hard by the Covid Pandemic, but thanks to the resilience of the Thai filmmakers that Crisis led to a far more robust local Film Industry. She emphasized that advancing existing skills and embracing new ones like streaming has enhanced Thailand as a destination for creativity. The event provided an opportunity for the entire Thai film industry to showcase its talent, services and world-class production and post-production capacities with the Thai Film Companies Showcase activity, during which eight leading Thai film and animation companies presented their latest work, film lineups and services. The guidelines provided by Mr. Jurin Laksanawisit, Thailands Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce has laid the groundwork for the DITP to successfully manage the pandemic crisis and create the proper environment for the Thai Film Industry to advance despite the adversity. Thailand is a land of creativity steeped in centuries of a vibrant and varied culture that is extremely unique and loved around the globe. When combined with hugely diverse locations and state-of-the-art production, post-production, animation and CGI services, Thailand offers a true one stop film production environment which can satisfy all requirements of world-class international film production. This explains why, while Thai films are conquering international festivals and audiences, Thailand has established itself as one of the most attractive film locations in the world. Thailand has one of the world's most lucrative incentive programs for film makers, the program provides a 20% rebate on local spending and an additional set of rebates for those that meet specific conditions. The new improved measures are just another reason to make Thailand your creative hub. Photo accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7c264ec4-c27b-4dec-9c3a-c1e782b05ccd https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e33edf8f-67a8-427c-8d03-38f7c8485a69 GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) (the Company or GAP) informs that today it was made the Ps. 2,300.0 million maturity payment on GAP 17-2 debt securities (equal to 23 million long-term debt securities). The payment was made with proceeds obtained from the issuance of long-term debt securities on September 26, 2022. Company Description Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexicos Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAPs shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PAC and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GAP. In April 2015, GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake in MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In October 2018, GAP entered into a concession agreement for the operation of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica and took control of the operation in October 2019. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are statements that are not historical facts, and are based on managements current view and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results. The words anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, plans and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements regarding the declaration or payment of dividends, the implementation of principal operating and financing strategies and capital expenditure plans, the direction of future operations and the factors or trends affecting financial condition, liquidity or results of operations are examples of forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee that the expected events, trends or results will actually occur. The statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, and operating factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. In accordance with Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and article 42 of the Ley del Mercado de Valores, GAP has implemented a whistleblower program, which allows complainants to anonymously and confidentially report suspected activities that may involve criminal conduct or violations. The telephone number in Mexico, facilitated by a third party that is in charge of collecting these complaints, is 01 800 563 00 47. The web site is www.lineadedenuncia.com/gap . GAPs Audit Committee will be notified of all complaints for immediate investigation. Chicago, Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The report " Drone Simulator Market by Application (Commercial, Military), Component (Software, Hardware), Device Type (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality), Drone Type (Fixed Wing, Rotary Wing), System Type and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", A drone simulator is a training device that simulates the drone environment and functionalities. It is used to provide training to military and commercial drone pilots. The adoption of drone simulators is growing in the market owing to their affordability for training a drone pilot. Simulators can create different environments and situations that a drone pilot may face in the real world. The drone simulator market is expected to increase as the defense forces shift their training to simulation based on real-world training. This saves them much money, and the pilots can be trained in different situations. The drone simulator market is projected to grow from USD 799 million in 2022 to USD 1,501 million by 2027, at a CAGR of 13.4 % from 2022 to 2027. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=145601556 Top Key Market Players in Drone Simulator Industry CAE Inc. (Canada), Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (Israel), Leonardo S.p.A. (Italy), Zen Technologies Limited (India), Havelsan A.S. (Turkey), General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (US), Simlat UAS & ISR Training Solutions (Israel), and ST Engineering (Singapore) are some of the major players in market. Browse in-depth TOC on "Drone Simulator Industry" 233 Tables 47 Figures 209 Pages CAE INC. CAE Inc. is a leading provider of simulation & training equipment and services. It mainly operates through three segments: civil aviation, defense and security, and healthcare. The company has clients in more than 190 countries worldwide. CAE Inc. has a diversified business and is involved in developing various simulation products and comprehensive services, such as in-service support and crew sourcing, integrated enterprise solutions, and training and aviation services to enhance both the safety of customers and the efficiency of pilot training. The company operates in Africa, the Middle East, Americas, Asia Pacific, UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Turkey Israel Aerospace Industry Ltd. Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) is a leading manufacturer in both defense and commercial markets and delivers state-of-the-art technologies and systems in all domains. The company provides a wide range of solutions and services for aerial defensefrom special mission aircraft and advanced unmanned aerial systems (UAS)to precision-guided munitions, multi-layered missile defense, and loitering munitions, upgrades for military aircraft and helicopters, and sophisticated C4I, ISTAR, and navigation systems. It operates in varied markets worldwide, from North America through Brazil and Colombia in the South, India and South Korea in the East, and Germany in Europe. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) specializes in research and technology development and provides remotely operated surveillance aircraft, Predator family systems, and airborne sensors. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is a subsidiary of General Atomics. GA-ASI provides long-endurance, mission-capable UAVs with integrated sensor and data link systems required to deliver persistent flight that enables situational awareness and rapid strike. The General Atomics Aeronautical Systems provides a wide range of products and services like Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), Ground Control Stations (GCS), detect and avoid system, sensor control/image analysis software, offers pilot training and support services, and develops meta-material antennas, integrated intelligence center, and training and support services. The products support war fights and civil operations. Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=145601556 Drone Simulator Market Dynamics Driver: Affordability of simulator training Training pilots using a drone simulator is affordable compared to the training that involves using actual drones. Training with actual drones can be costly and is prone to accidents, which may damage the drone. Hence, it is considered to provide virtual training to the pilot to help control the drone even before they operate in real-time. Drone simulators can be used multiple times to train pilots for longer. Drone training institutions are employing drone simulators to train pilots. For instance, L-3 Link Simulation and Training (US) and the University of North Dakota offer MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) training opportunities for students and US government agencies. The drone simulator market is expected to increase owing to the low cost of simulation training. Restraint: Stringent government regulations and lack of air traffic management Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and flight operations involve high-risk air travel, especially beyond the visual line of sight. Their operations over long distances increase the probability of accidents, property damage, and economic losses. Hence, several countries have stringent regulations for deploying UAVs near airports, international borders, government buildings, no-fly zone areas, temporary flight restriction areas due to lack of air traffic management, and safety and security issues. According to the US Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA), the use of drones in civil airspace is one of the major challenges faced by the aviation industry of the country. Presently, drones are prohibited from flying in civil airspace except for certain companies that have received exemptions to conduct tests and carry out demonstration flights. In addition to regulations, the UAS industry lacks trained professionals to operate drones due to a low number of training and certification institutes. Complex terrains and extreme environmental conditions in various parts of the globe make it difficult to deploy air transportation services. These factors hamper the growth of the drone market, in turn, the growth of the simulator market. Opportunity: Improvements in operational regulatory frameworks The first 500 exemptions approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US from the 1,500 petitions filed and evaluated by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in 2015 were rendered to more than 20 key industries, including real estate, aerial surveying, and photography, agriculture, etc., with aerial inspection being the top 5 categories stated in approved applications. More than 80% of the applicants were small companies, while among the well-established companies who obtained exemptions were Chevron (US), Amazon (US), and Dow Chemical Company (US). However, exemptions were provided to operators in 48 states of the country. In June 2016, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) formulated rules to legalize the operations of commercial drones in the country. The well-defined regulations by the FAA assist service providers in managing their drones securely in the national airspace. In July 2016, Flirtey (US), in collaboration with 7-Eleven (US), performed an FAA-approved drone delivery from a store to a home in the US. In March 2018, Flirtey got approval from the FAA to carry out drone deliveries below the visual line of sight in Nevada (US). DHL (Germany) has been toiling on the delivery of parcels using UAVs or drones. In October 2018, the company finished testing an automated delivery drone, Parcelcopter. The test lasted 3 months, and this drone made 130 autonomous loading and unloading tours under variable conditions. In June 2019, Amazon Prime Air (US) obtained FAA authorization to test its delivery drones Challenge: Fully automated drones Advanced drone software can make the drones autonomous. They do not require a pilot to fly and control. Drone software is not only designed to maneuver the drones, but it also provides a system to monitor the surrounding. Drones can perform tasks independently and collect and send the required information to the user. Thus, this decreases the need for trained drone pilots, which is a challenge for the drone simulator market. In 2016, Airobotics Solutions (Israel) developed an Optimus drone that can launch, fly, land, and maintain on its own. It can be used in seaports, power plants, mines, and oil & gas. Related Reports: Military Simulation and Training Market E xploring financial and strategic options to fund Phase 2 trials of KIN001 in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis KINFAST phase 2 clinical trial of KIN001 in mild to moderate Covid-19 patients to continue Basel, Switzerland, 4 November 2022. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (SIX: KNRS) (Kinarus), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat viral, respiratory, and ophthalmic diseases, today reiterated its plans to focus on clinical trials in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and to refocus its capital resources and financing efforts to drive these programs. Following the discontinuation of the Phase 2 KINETIC study of KIN001 in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, Kinarus is exploring various financial and strategic options to initiate mid-stage clinical development of its lead drug candidate, KIN001, in wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). KINFAST, a Phase 2 study of KIN001 in ambulatory COVID-19 patients who are not hospitalized, is continuing and funded from existing Kinarus resources and the Programme for Covid-19 medicines of the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health. Dr Alexander Bausch, CEO of Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG, commented: Our current resources are committed to conducting the KINFAST study, which is jointly financed by the Swiss government. While the outcome of the KINETIC study in hospitalized Covid-19 patients was disappointing, KINFAST is testing KIN001 in a different population with different endpoints, both of which are better suited to a potential positive outcome. Therefore, we plan to continue KINFAST as planned. However, we founded Kinarus to pursue wAMD and IPF and, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we successfully demonstrated in preclinical testing that KIN001 has strong potential to provide meaningful improvements for patients suffering from wAMD and IPF when used in combination with marketed therapies. Now that it is once again possible to conduct clinical trials in non-Covid indications - which was not the case during the height of the pandemic - we are refocusing our teams efforts on our initial goal of running Phase 2 clinical testing of KIN001 in wAMD and IPF patients. We are exploring all options to advance KIN001 into Phase 2 clinical trials in these indications. Current Clinical Programs KINFAST Phase 2 trial in Covid-9 KIN001 potentially targets the multiple mechanisms of acute and long Covid-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus hijacks the p38 MAPK pathway for replication. Kinarus has discovered that KIN001 is active against SARS-CoV-2, as well as its variants of concern. KIN001 also possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic activity. The phase 2 KINFAST trial is currently actively enrolling patients in Switzerland and Germany. We anticipate to get results in 2023 pending the Covid 19 KIN001-AMD Phase 2 trial - KIN001 is under development as oral therapy complementing current anti-VEGF drugs, intended to extend the time interval between ocular injections. Kinarus has received regulatory approvals to conduct a Phase 2 clinical study in Switzerland and Germany. The trial is anticipated to start enrolment once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001- IPF - IPF is a devastating disease with high morbidity and mortality and significant unmet need. KIN001 targets multiple underlying mechanisms of disease progression, reducing the irreversible fibrosis and loss of respiratory capacity. Protocol development is completed, and regulatory submissions are expected once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001 is a patented combination of two active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs): pamapimod and pioglitazone. Pamapimod is a highly selective clinical stage small molecule inhibitor of the p38 MAP kinase signaling pathway. Kinarus has obtained an exclusive worldwide license from Roche for the development of pamapimod in all therapeutic indications. p38 MAPK inhibitors were broadly considered to have blockbuster potential, with several compounds evaluated through mid-stage clinical trials. Most efforts were abandoned after finding that the initial therapeutic benefit of p38 MAPK inhibition decreased over time due to compensatory mechanisms that blocked its beneficial effects. Kinarus has discovered a potential way to overcome this limitation. Kinarus has found that combining pamapimod with pioglitazone, a safe and well-tolerated marketed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, leads to synergistic efficacy and increased duration of action in preclinical models of wAMD, IPF and other autoimmune/inflammation indications. The KIN001 drug combination thereby revives the important therapeutic potential of p38 MAPK inhibition. KIN001 enjoys broad patent protection in the US, EU, China, and other countries through at least 2037, with intellectual property wholly owned by Kinarus. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (www.kinarus.com) was founded in 2017 by experienced pharmaceutical executives in Basel, Switzerland. The Kinarus team utilizes its knowledge and drug development competencies to in-license and develop mid-stage clinical assets in which they have identified an increased probability of clinical and regulatory success and a rapid path to market. Kinarus possesses the exclusive worldwide license to pamapimod covering all indications. Contacts Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG Hochbergerstrasse 60C 4057 Basel, Switzerland +41 61 633 29 71 info@kinarus.com Investors & Media Chris Maggos BioConfidant Sarl +41 79 367 6254 maggos@bioconfidant.ch Legal disclaimer THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL NOR AN INTIMATION TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SECURITIES OF KINARUS THERAPEUTICS HOLDING AG. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, INTO OR WITHIN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BE DISTRIBUTED. Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Machine Learning Market By Component, By Deployment, By Enterprise Size, By End User & By Region Forecast and Analysis 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Global machine learning market was valued at USD 16.2 billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 164.05 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of more than 39.2% over the forecast period (2022-2028). Software programs may be able to accurately anticipate outcomes without being explicitly instructed to do so by making use of machine learning (ML), which is a type of artificial intelligence (AI).Algorithms for machine learning use past data as input to predict future output values. As businesses implement increasingly sophisticated security frameworks, machine learning will emerge as a significant security analytics trend, boosting the global machine learning market. Because so much data is generated and sent across so many networks, cyber specialists have a difficult time identifying and analyzing potential cyber threats and attacks. Machine-learning algorithms can help businesses and security teams anticipate, detect, and recognize cyberattacks more quickly as cyber risks become more pervasive and sophisticated, with supply chain attacks increasing by 42% in the first quarter of 2021 in the United States, affecting up to 7,000,000 people. This collaboration can help businesses from all industries, including the public sector, manufacturing, and financial services, innovate quickly and safely and address issues like ransomware, disruptions in supply chains, cyber threats, and the demand for frictionless services in the 5G era. During the forecast period, this is anticipated to boost the global machine learning market. Segments covered in this report Global machine learning market is segmented based on the component, enterprise size, deployment, end-user, and region. Based on the component, the global machine learning market is segmented into solutions, and services. Based on enterprise size, the market is segmented into SMEs and large enterprises. Based on deployment, the global machine learning market is segmented into cloud and on-premise. Based on end-users, the global machine learning market is segmented as healthcare, retail, IT and telecommunications, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), automotive & transportation, advertising & media, manufacturing, and others (energy & utilities, etc.). Based on region, it is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and MEA. Driver Numerous healthcare-related situations are already being improved by machine learning technology. The healthcare sector makes use of this technology, among other things, to precisely allocate resources, forecast outcomes, quickly assess risks, and evaluate millions of distinct data points.For instance, IBM Watson Health and Healthcare IT Leaders today made the announcement that a comprehensive set of corporate COVID-19 services, IBM Digital Health Pass and Healthcare IT Leaders Healthy Returns, would be combined. Diagnostics with Medical Imaging: Combining machine learning and deep learning, computer vision is a cutting-edge technique. This has been approved by the Microsoft InnerEye initiative, which focuses on image diagnostic tools for image analysis. For instance, a group of IBM and Pfizer researchers created an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can use small amounts of linguistic data (gathered from clinical verbal cognition tests) to predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease in healthy people with 71% accuracy. Restraints The market's expansion is aided by the ML platform's numerous advantages. The platform, on the other hand, lacks a few essential components that are anticipated to impede market expansion. The market is severely constrained by the existence of imperfect and occasionally underdeveloped algorithms. Industrial businesses that make use of big data and machine learning need to be precise. Human intervention is required until the system has all parameters set and the error margin is close to or equal to zero. As a result, the expansion of the global machine learning market may be hampered by this feature. Trends The field of retail analytics has grown rapidly in recent years. Advanced data analytics technologies are utilized by numerous e-commerce businesses, including Alibaba, eBay, and Amazon, to boost sales and enhance customer satisfaction. The advancement of speech and voice recognition technologies has led to the development of cognitive speech coding methods based on ML principles. Machine learning will become a significant trend in security analytics as businesses adopt more advanced security frameworks. Cybersecurity professionals have a difficult time tracking and analyzing potential cyberattacks because so much data is created and exchanged across multiple networks. As cyber threats become more widespread and complex, machine learning algorithms also help organizations and security teams anticipate, track, and recognize cyberattacks more quickly. Consequently, integrating advanced learning capabilities into analytics-driven solutions is unquestionably becoming a significant industry trend. Companies Mentioned IBM Corporation (New York, U.S.) SAP SE (Walldorf, Germany) Oracle Corporation (Texas, U.S.) Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (Texas, U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (Washington, U.S.) Amazon, Inc. (Washington, U.S.) Intel Corporation (California, U.S.) Fair Isaac Corporation (California, U.S.) SAS Institute Inc. (North Carolina, U.S.) BigML, Inc. (Oregon, U.S.) For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vm9gpk Attachment Paris, France, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agorapulse, a leader in social media management software, has teamed with HubSpot, the world's leading inbound marketing and sales platform, to release a free Instagram for Business Kit. "Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networks, with over 1.4 billion active users," said Emeric Ernoult, CEO and co-founder of Agorapulse. "We worked on the Instagram for Business Kit with HubSpot to help businesses of all sizes take advantage of this powerful platform." The guide provides businesses with everything they need to get started with Instagram and see real results. Features include: 22 free Instagram post and story templates What, when, and how to post on Instagram to get followers fast A featured chapter from Instagram expert Jenn Herman on how the Instagram algorithm works Using hashtags: best practices, tips, and a full glossary of common hashtags to use Tips to help you develop your Instagram Reels strategy Setting goals, measuring success, and proving the value of Instagram to your executives "The guide that we collaborated on covers everything from building an Instagram strategy to putting the strategy to use with templates and measuring the success of an Instagram account," said Jordan DiPietro, VP of Marketing at HubSpot. "Agorapulse helped us bring the offer up to date by adding content on building a strategy for Instagram Reels, which many businesses are trying to figure out right now," he said. "They also brought in Instagram expert Jenn Herman to share expert tips for navigating Instagram's algorithms, which we know can be intimidatingespecially for new Instagram users. We hope this new content will empower users to experiment with different forms of content and strategies on the platform." To download your free Instagram for Business Kit, visit https://hubs.la/Q01p2-r10. ABOUT AGORAPULSE Agorapulse is the world's most trusted social media management solution, used daily by over 31,000 social media managers. Agorapulse provides valuable insights that allow marketers to measure the real impact of their campaigns and prove social media ROI. With its powerful features, businesses can listen to what customers are saying, engage in meaningful conversations, and track results over time. As a global leader in social media management, Agorapulse sets the gold standard for businesses looking to strategically grow their brands and customer relationships. To learn more, visit www.agorapulse.com. ABOUT HUBSPOT HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides software and support to help companies grow better. The platform includes marketing, sales, service, operations, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers' needs at any stage of growth. Learn more at www.hubspot.com. MEDIA CONTACT Stephanie Liu Director of Communications, Agorapulse stephanie.liu@agorapulse.com ### Contact Information: Stephanie Liu Director of Communications stephanie.liu@agorapulse.com 6192527488 Related Images Image 1: Instagram for Business Kit Free Instagram for Business Kit created by HubSpot and Agorapulse. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Microprocessor in Embedded Applications: Global Markets" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. A microprocessor or microprocessor unit (MPU) is a programmable device that accepts binary data from an input device, processes the data according to the instructions stored in the memory and provides results as output. In other words, the microprocessor executes the program stored in the memory and transfers data to and from the outside world through I/O ports. Any microprocessor-based system essentially comprises three parts, namely the microprocessor, the memory and peripheral I/O devices. The microprocessor is generally referred to as the heart of the system as it performs all the operations and also controls the rest of the system. The growth in autonomous driving systems and electrification in the automotive market, growing demand for connected devices and implementation of 5G communication infrastructure will be the major drivers for the MPU market. Growth in high-performance computing (HPC) and growing demand for smartphones and wearables will create huge opportunities for vendors in the market. In this report, the global market for microprocessors is segmented by architecture, technology, products, end-user industries, and geography. By architecture, the MPU market is categorized into ARM based MPUs and x86-based MPUs. X86-based MPU architecture is currently dominating the market. Based on technology, the global market for MPUs is segmented into RISC (reduced instruction set computer), DSP (digital signal processor), ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer), and superscalar. Based on product in which MPUs are used, the market is segmented into smartphones, personal computers, laptops, and others. Based on end-user applications, the MPU market is segmented into networking devices; medical and healthcare; aerospace and defense; military; consumer electronics and home appliances; computing and storage; industrial; automotive and transportation; and others. By geography, the global market for MPUs is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW). The presence of leading global MPU manufacturing bases, robust technology infrastructure, favorable political and economic environment, and surge in demand for smartphones and wearables and high adoption of advanced technologies, such as AI, IoT and cloud are some of the key factors driving the Asia-Pacific market. Asia-Pacific is also currently the fastest growing market forMPUs globally. Market Dynamics Market Drivers Autonomous Driving and Electrification to Increase MPU Automotive Market Growing Demand for Connected Devices Implementation of 5G Communication Infrastructure Market Restraints Microprocessor Chip Design Architecture Market Opportunities Growth in High-Performance Computing Growing Demand for Smartphones Rapid Growth in Wearables Market Challenges Dependence on Third-Party Foundries and Component Suppliers Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights Chapter 3 Market Overview Chapter 4 Market Dynamics Chapter 5 Market Breakdown by Architecture Chapter 6 Market Breakdown by Technology Chapter 7 Market Breakdown by Product Chapter 8 Market Breakdown by End-User Industry Chapter 9 Market Breakdown by Region Chapter 10 Patent Analysis Chapter 11 Competitive Landscape Chapter 12 Company Profiles Chapter 13 Appendix: List of Abbreviations Companies Mentioned Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Analog Devices Inc. Apple Inc. Broadcom Inc. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. IBM Corp. Infineon Technologies AG Intel Corp. Marvell Technology Inc. Mediatek Inc. Microchip Technology Inc. Nvidia Corp. NXP Semiconductors N.V. Qualcomm Technologies Inc. Renesas Electronics Corp. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. STMicroelectronics N.V. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (Tsmc) Ltd. Texas Instruments Inc. Unisoc Technologies Co. Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b47bgm Attachment Pune, India, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global 3D metrology market size was valued at USD 11.54 billion in 2021. The market is anticipated to grow from USD 12.60 billion in 2022 to USD 38.97 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 17.5% during the forecast period. Rapid digitization and the emergence of advanced technology are expected to propel market growth. Fortune Business Insights provides this information in its report titled 3D Metrology Market Forecast, 2022-2029 Request a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/3d-metrology-market-106906 Report Scope & Segmentation Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2022 to 2029 Forecast Period 2022 to 2029 CAGR 17.5% 2029 Value Projection USD 38.97 Billion Base Year 2021 3D Metrology Market Size in 2021 USD 11.54 Billion Historical Data for 2018 to 2020 No. of Pages 140 Segments covered Product Type, Application, End-user and Geography Stringent Lockdowns Negatively Affected Market Growth During the Pandemic This market was negatively affected during the pandemic due to strict lockdown emissions. The sudden spike in COVID-19 infections led to the adoption of stringent lockdowns, thereby affecting the manufacturing sector. This factor hampered the supply chain, thereby resulting in supply chain problems. Furthermore, restrictions on transport and travel created raw material shortages. However, manufacturers opted for reduced capacities, part-time shifts, and industrial automation to recover and balance costs. This factor incited market growth during the pandemic. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/3d-metrology-market-106906 Drivers and Restraints Strong Demand for Quality Control and Inspection in the Automotive Industry to Propel Market Growth 3D metrology is a novel technique used to measure component dimensions without the need for physically handling the component. The robust demand for quality control and inspection in the automotive sector is expected to enhance the product adoption. Furthermore, the rising adoption of 3D metrology in the automotive sector is expected to enhance its sales. Moreover, sophisticated machinery's accuracy and fictional losses are expected to enhance the product adoption. Also, the rising adoption of next-generation metrology systems in various sectors is expected to drive the 3D metrology market growth. However, lack of skilled labor and increased initial investments may hamper this industrys progress. Segments CMM Segment to Dominate Owing to Robust Demand from the Automotive Industry By product type, the market is segmented into a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), Optical Digitizer & Scanner (ODS), automated optical inspection, and Video Measuring Machine (VMM). The CMM segment is expected to dominate due to its strong demand from the automotive industry. Quality Control & Inspection Segment to Lead Attributable to Increasing Applications in the Manufacturing Industry Based on application, the market is classified into quality control & inspection, reverse engineering, and virtual simulation. The quality control & inspection segment is expected to lead due to rising applications in the manufacturing sector. Automotive Segment to Dominate Backed by Rising Adoption of Co-ordinate Measuring Machine As per end-user, the market is categorized into electronics, architecture & construction, aerospace & defense, manufacturing, automotive, and others. The automotive segment is expected to dominate due to the rising adoption of coordinate measuring machine. Regionally, the market is clubbed into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Rest of Middle East & Africa. Report Coverage The report provides a detailed analysis of the top segments and the latest trends in the market. It comprehensively discusses the driving and restraining factors and the impact of COVID-19 on the market. Additionally, it examines the regional developments and the strategies undertaken by the market's key players. Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/3d-metrology-market-106906 Regional Insights Rising Adoption of Contact Less Control Equipment to Propel Market Progress in Asia Pacific Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the 3D metrology market share due to the rising adoption of contactless control equipment. The market in Asia Pacific was valued at USD 6.07 billion in 2021 and is expected to gain a huge portion of the global market share in the coming years. Furthermore, advanced manufacturing facilities in China are expected to enhance this industrys progress. In North America, the rising adoption of advanced technology in the defense and aerospace sectors is expected to enhance the product adoption. This factor is expected to enhance the 3D metrology industrys progress. In Europe, the presence of large manufacturing units is expected to enhance the industrys growth in the coming years. Competitive Landscape Major Players Deploy Partnerships to Enhance their Brand Image The prominent companies operating in the market devise partnerships to enhance their brand image. For example, Shree Rapid Technologies and ZEISS International entered into a partnership for the development of promotion, scanning, and measuring technology in India in June 2021. This development may allow both companies to advance contactless measurement technologies in India and elevate their brand image. Furthermore, major players deploy innovations, innovations, novel product novels, research and development, and expansions to enhance their brand image. Key Industry Development August 2021- Nikon Corporation collaborated with Aeva Technologies, Inc. to use Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) for automation and industrial metrology applications. List of Key Players Profiled in the Report Zeiss International (Germany) FARO Technologies, Inc. (U.S.) Hexagon AB (Sweden) Intertek Group Plc (U.K.) Nikon Corporation (Japan) KLA Corporation (U.S.) Keyence Corporation (Japan) Perceptron, Inc. (U.S.) Renishaw Plc (U.K) Applied Materials (U.S.) Quick Buy 3D Metrology Market Research Report https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/106906 Major Table of Contents: Global 3D Metrology Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Product Type (USD Bn) Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Optical Digitizer & Scanner (ODS) Automated Optical Inspection Video Measuring Machine (VMM) By Application (USD Bn) Quality Control & Inspection Reverse Engineering Virtual Simulation By End User (USD Bn) Electronics Architecture & Construction Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing Automotive Others By Region (USD Bn) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa South America North America 3D Metrology Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Product Type (USD Bn) Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Optical Digitizer & Scanner (ODS) Automated Optical Inspection Video Measuring Machine (VMM) By Application (USD Bn) Quality Control & Inspection Reverse Engineering Virtual Simulation By End User (USD Bn) Electronics Architecture & Construction Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing Automotive Others By Country (USD Bn) U.S. Canada Mexico Europe 3D Metrology Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Product Type (USD Bn) Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Optical Digitizer & Scanner (ODS) Automated Optical Inspection Video Measuring Machine (VMM) By Application (USD Bn) Quality Control & Inspection Reverse Engineering Virtual Simulation By End User (USD Bn) Electronics Architecture & Construction Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing Automotive Others By Country (USD Bn) U.K. Germany France Italy Spain Rest of Europe TOC Continued! About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them to address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Contact Us: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. US: +1 424 253 0390 UK: +44 2071 939123 APAC: +91 744 740 1245 POTOMAC, Md., Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Castellum, Inc. (Castellum or the Company) (NYSE American: CTM), a cybersecurity, electronic warfare, data analytics, software, and IT services company focused on the federal government, today announced that it has retained the services of Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC (Skyline) to manage its investor relations and corporate communications activities within the financial community. Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC , with offices in Boston and New York City, is an investor relations and corporate communications firm that provides strategic messaging and investor communications consulting services for public companies. Skyline provides strategic assistance for companies in the financial markets and investment community by assisting them to effectively communicate their corporate message and competitive advantages to both retail and institutional investors. Mark Fuller, Castellums President & Chief Executive Officer , stated: "Given our recent New York Stock Exchange listing and simultaneous capital infusion, our objective is to tell the Castellum story to a broader investor base. With our upcoming milestones and company developments, Castellum has selected Skyline as our investor relations firm given their strong base of retail and institutional investors. Castellum is delivering on its goal to support mission critical systems, services, and cyber security through innovation and superior service delivery that are actions we expect will enhance shareholder value as the Company accelerates its growth in the coming quarters. Castellum believes that Skylines strong reputation, communications strategies, methodologies, and standards are an excellent pairing for us as we continue to grow the company organically and through acquisition. Skyline is a skilled partner who will work closely with the Castellum management team to assist in communicating our message to the investing public. Scott Powell, President & CEO of Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC, commented: We are very pleased to welcome cybersecurity company Castellum, Inc. to our compelling and growing base of diverse clients. Castellum is continuing its rapid growth through acquisition and the winning of new contract work. We are delighted to provide assistance in effectively and strategically communicating this message to its existing and prospective shareholder base, while broadening awareness of the Company within the U.S. financial community. About Castellum, Inc. : Castellu m , Inc. (NYSE American: CTM) is a technology service and solutions company executing strategic acquisitions in Cyber Security, Information Technology, Information Warfare, Electronic Warfare, Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, and Software Development. Castellum completed its uplisting to the NYSE American on October 13, 2022 and has completed six (6) strategic acquisitions over the past three years. For more information visit our website at https://castellumus.com/ . Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters disclosed at nyse.com. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. About Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC, with offices in Boston and New York City, is an investor relations and corporate communications firm that provides strategic messaging and investor communications consulting services for public companies. Skyline delivers strategic assistance for companies in the financial markets and investment community by effectively communicating their corporate message and competitive advantages. Our team has worked with numerous U.S.-listed public companies worldwide across diverse industries and various market caps. We have experience with shareholder activism and crisis communications and also work with late-stage private companies to help prepare them to enter the U.S. public marketplace; further information, please visit Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLCs website at: www.skylineccg.com . For further information, please contact: Castellum, Inc. Mark Fuller, President & CEO Email: info@castellumus.com Phone: 301-961-4895 Investor Relations Contact: Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC Lisa Gray, Senior Account Manager One Rockefeller Plaza, 11th Floor New York, NY 10020 Office: (646) 893-5835 x1 Email: lisa@skylineccg.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/de43b670-bb30-43ae-a8f7-be32720beb6d Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Process Automation and Instrumentation Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Instrument (Field Instruments, Process Analyzers), Solution (PLC, DCS, SCADA, HMI, Functional Safety, MES), Industry and Region - Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global process automation and instrumentation market size is expected to grow from USD 66.2 billion in 2022 to USD 86.6 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 5.5%. The growth of this market can be attributed to the growing importance of energy efficiency and cost optimization, increased productivity, minimized errors and better scalability; the increasing use of digital technologies such as IIoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence; and the rising emphasis on industrial automation and optimum utilization of resources. Oil & gas industry is leading the global process automation and instrumentation market The oil & gas industry is leading the global process automation and instrumentation market at present, and a similar trend is likely to continue in the next few years. Oil and gas companies are increasingly leveraging process automation and instrumentation to acquire a constant stream of data that can be mined, aggregated into big data, and transformed into smart data through analytics and detailed analysis. Major components used for process automation and instrumentation in the oil & gas industry are solutions, such as MES and SCADA, and instruments, such as control valves, actuators, positioners, flowmeters, and transmitters. The oil demand can be met by increasing the productivity and efficiency of the oil and gas companies. Therefore, it becomes necessary for industry players to implement solutions to improve manufacturing processes. This can ultimately be achieved by adopting process automation and instrumentation solutions such as HMI, SCADA, and PLC. Field instruments dominated the global process automation and instrumentation market in 2021 Field instruments assist in managing plant assets, enhancing plant safety, and optimizing overall production processes through data acquisition, control, and measurement. It is necessary to obtain key information regarding major parameters, including temperature, pressure, and level, to monitor and control processes quickly, smoothly, securely, and accurately, as well as to achieve optimum productivity. These instruments play a pivotal role in measuring and controlling process parameters in process industries. For example, in June 2021, Emerson Electric Co. introduced a new Rosemount 1408H level transmitter, specifically designed for the food & beverages industry. The constant release of advanced products to automate industrial processes and measure and control different process parameters is expected to drive the process automation and instrumentation market for field instruments. Asia Pacific to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2022 to 2027 In terms of region, Asia Pacific led the global process automation and instrumentation market, followed Asia Pacific led the global process automation and instrumentation market, followed by North America and Europe in 2021. In Asia Pacific, the demand for process automation and instrumentation solutions is growing from the oil & gas and food & beverages industries due to the ever-increasing population in Asia Pacific. Market Dynamics Drivers Increasing Focus of Manufacturing Firms on Achieving Cost Saving and Better Efficiency Growing Need for Efficient Utilization of Resources Rising Trend of Connected Enterprises in Process Industries Restraints High Implementation and Maintenance Costs Associated with Process Automation Sharp Decline in Revenue of Major End-User Industries Such as Oil & Gas and Energy & Power Opportunities Growing Adoption of Industry 4.0 By Manufacturing Firms Surging Demand for Safety Automation Systems Across Process Industries Rising Need for Efficient Multivariable Pressure Transmitters Increasing Adoption of IIoT Across Industries Challenges Cyberattacks and Security Threats Shortage of Skilled Personnel to Operate Sophisticated Automation Systems Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 5 Market Overview 6 Process Automation and Instrumentation Market, by Instrument 7 Process Automation and Instrumentation Market, by Solution 8 Process Automation and Instrumentation Market, by Industry 9 Process Automation and Instrumentation Market, by Region 10 Competitive Landscape 11 Company Profiles 12 Adjacent & Related Markets 13 Appendix Companies Mentioned Abb Ltd. Ametek, Inc. Andritz Ag Azbil Corporation Christian Burkert GmbH & Co. Kg Delta Electronics, Inc. Dwyer Instruments, Inc. Emerson Electric Co. Endress+Hauser Group Services Ag Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. General Electric Company Hach Corporation Hima Paul Hildebrandt GmbH Hitachi, Ltd. Hollysys Honeywell International Inc. Inductive Automation, LLC Krohne Messtechnik GmbH Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Omron Corporation Rockwell Automation, Inc. Schneider Electric Shimadzu Corporation Siemens Sprecher Automation GmbH Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Valmet Wika Alexander Wiegand Se & Co. Kg Xylem Yokogawa Electric Corporation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rve9mp Attachment Singapore, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the cryptocurrency exchange CoinW, users from nearly 20 countries around the world, including Vietnam, South Korea, Turkey, African countries, Russia, and India,etc, sent blessing videos. In the past five years, CoinW has started from Asia and has continuously expanded its market to Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and other regions. At present, it has provided comprehensive crypto assets services to 8 million users around the world, achieving a global layout. Five years of steady progress, CoinW has become a world-class comprehensive crypto asset exchange. Its ecological business includes spot, contract, ETF, CoinW Earn, FansUp and other sectors. It covers CoinW Research Institute, CoinW Ventures and other industry-leading organizations. The crypto industry has reached a crossroads from small-scale innovation to mass adoption. CoinW will be committed to leading the innovation trend, empowering crypto start-ups, and providing users with the best trade services and inclusive fintechs. On the occasion of the fifth anniversary, CoinW's PR Repesentative and Senior Researcher Alex Peng specially introduced the following promotions in order to give back the support and love of 8 million users around the world: Promotion 1 :CoinW Lucky Draw Users visit to the special page of CoinW Lucky Draw Campaign, participate in the challenge, and click the To Complete button next to the corresponding task to receive relevant trade tasks. Complete tasks such as inviting friends, deposit, trading, etc. to get challenge opportunities and draw mysterious box gifts . The prize pool contains popular tokens such as BTC3LETH3LTRX, etc. Promotion 2: Check in to receive rewards CoinW platform will launch a Check-in reward, with a maximum of 600 USDT no-threshold bonus. Promotion 3: Challenge & Get Bonus The CoinWcontrac will launch the Challenge & Get Bonus activity, challenge yourself, break the limit, and break records to win rewards. Participating in the Challenge & Get Bonus , you can get bonus rewards when the transaction volume exceeds 5000USDT. Promotion 4: What Other Exchanges liquidated, CoinW compensate for The contract feature of the CoinW platform will launch a campaigncalledWhat Other Exchanges liquidated, CoinW compensate for. Users can receive a subsidy of up to 500 USDT by providing screen recording of liquidation of positions generated by trading USDT perpetual contracts on other exchanges. Campaign 5: Content Co-posting, Share $10,000 Mysterious Airdrops Users can express their 5th anniversary wishes for CoinW on CoinW official Twitter and other social media,RT, and @3 friends to share the $10,000 mysterious airdrops. Promotion 6: The 5th Anniversary Online Live AMA On the occasion of CoinWs 5th anniversary, CoinW, with the theme of 5 Continentals Linked, Coin Wins the Future , gathered together with distinguished representatives from the Crypto market for an online live AMA, discussing the challenges of the Crypto market, and looking forward to the future of the blockchain industry. The fifth anniversary of the new era, never forget the original commitment. We believe that CoinW linked users on 5 continents around the world, and will be able to cross the bulls and bears, reach the new high, and win the future. New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Nephrology & Urology Devices Market Research Report by Product, Application, End-user, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340105/?utm_source=GNW 44 billion by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Nephrology & Urology Devices to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Product, the market was studied across PCN Catheters, Renal Dilators, Stone Basket, Ureteral Catheters, Urinary Stents, and Urology Guidewires. Based on Application, the market was studied across Bladder Disorders, Kidney Diseases, Urolithiasis, and Urological Cancer & BPH. Based on End-user, the market was studied across Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Clinics, and Hospitals. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Nephrology & Urology Devices market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Nephrology & Urology Devices Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market, including Asahi Kasei Corporation, Baxter International Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Boston Scientific Corporation, Braun Holding GmbH & Co. KG., C. R. Bard Inc., Cantel Medical Corporation, Coloplast UK Ltd., ConvaTec Group Plc., Cook Group Incorporated, Dornier MedTech GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Hollister, Inc., Medtronic plc, Nipro Corporation, Nxstage Medical Inc., Olympus Corporation, Teleflex Incorporated, Terumo Corporation, and Unicharm Corporation. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Nephrology & Urology Devices Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340105/?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, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Natural Gas Generator Market Research Report by Power Rating, Application, End-user, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340078/?utm_source=GNW 68 million by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Natural Gas Generator to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Power Rating, the market was studied across 375-750kVA, 75-375kVA, Above 750kVA, and Below 75kVA. Based on Application, the market was studied across Continuous and Stand-by. Based on End-user, the market was studied across Commercial, ndustrial, and Residential. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Natural Gas Generator market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Natural Gas Generator Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Natural Gas Generator Market, including Aggreko plc, Atlas Copco AB, Briggs & Stratton Corporation, Camda New Energy Equipment Co., Ltd., Caterpillar Inc., Champion Power Equipment, Inc., Cummins Inc., DuroMax Power Equipment, Eaton Corporation plc, FIRMAN Power Equipment, Generac Holdings Inc., GENMAC S.r.l., HIMOINSA S.L., HIPOWER Cooper Corp., Kohler Co., Mahindra Powerol, Rolls-Royce plc, WEN Products, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Natural Gas Generator Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Natural Gas Generator Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340078/?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. __________________________ Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "EMI Shielding Market by Material (EMI Shielding Tapes & Laminates, Conductive Coatings & Paints, Metal Shielding, Conductive Polymers, EMI/EMC Filters), Method (Radiation, Conduction), Industry (Consumer Electronics, Automotive) - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global EMI shielding market size is anticipated to grow from USD 6.6 billion in 2022 to USD 8.6 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2022 to 2027. Radiation method to contribute significant share from 2022 to 2027 EMI metal shielding is commonly used to protect a device from EMI radiation. Metal shielding typically provides a radiation EMI shielding range of up to 100 dB. Cell phones and tablets use conductive plastics in consumer electronics to avoid harmful EMI radiation, which can affect signal quality. In hospitals, EMI shielding solutions are used in sensitive electrical equipment, such as electrocardiography (ECG) machines. Military equipment also require EMI shielding solutions to reduce the effects of EMI radiation. Therefore, the radiation segment is projected to hold the largest market share from 2022 to 2027. Automotive industry is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR in EMI shielding market during the forecast period. The automotive industry segment is projected to register the highest CAGR from 2022 to 2027. The fast changing global automotive industry has a high demand for EMI shielding solutions due to various electronics devices and components used in different vehicle systems. Onboard GPS, navigation systems, Bluetooth capabilities, touchscreen infotainment systems hands-free features, and terrain management systems have increased the convenience and safety of the users but has also increased the use of such devices which are susceptible for EMI. Thus increasing usage of electronic devices and components is driving the use of EMI shielding solutions in automotive industry. Asia is expected to account for the largest share of market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to contribute the largest size of the EMI shielding market during the forecast period. The region is also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The increasing demand for EMI shielding solutions in various electronics devices and components as well as in automobile industry is driving the growth of the EMI shielding market. The consumer electronics and automotive industries are in the leading position in Asia Pacific, and the market for the healthcare and telecommunications & information technology is expected to grow at considerable rate in this region in the upcoming years. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Growth Opportunities for Market Players in EMI Shielding Market 4.2 EMI Shielding Market, by Material 4.3 EMI Shielding Market, by Method 4.4 EMI Shielding Market, by Industry 4.5 EMI Shielding Market, by Region 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Surging Demand for Consumer Electronics 5.2.1.2 Ongoing Field Trials and Pilot Tests Evincing Viability of 5G Technology 5.2.1.3 Rising Electromagnetic Pollution on Account of Growing Digitalization 5.2.1.4 Increasing Stringent Environmental and Emc Regulations Across Industries 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 High Cost of EMI Shielding Solutions 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Rising Adoption of Electric Vehicles 5.2.3.2 Growing Adoption of Advanced Technologies in Modern Automobiles 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Trade-Off Between Miniaturization and EMI Shielding of Various Electronic Devices 5.3 Value Chain Analysis 5.4 Ecosystem Analysis 5.5 Pricing Analysis 5.5.1 Asp Analysis of Key Players 5.5.2 Asp Trend 5.5.3 Average Selling Price (ASP) for Conductive Coatings & Paints for EMI Shielding 5.6 Trends/Disruptions Impacting Customers' Businesses 5.7 Technology Analysis 5.7.1 5G 5.7.1.1 Newer EMI Shielding Technologies Boosting Performance of 5G Mobile Standards 5.7.2 IoT 5.8 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5.9 Key Stakeholders and Buying Criteria 5.9.1 Key Stakeholders in Buying Process 5.9.2 Buying Criteria 5.10 Case Study Analysis 5.11 Trade Analysis 5.11.1 Import Scenario of Apparatus Protecting Electric Circuits 5.11.2 Export Scenario of Apparatus Protecting Electric Circuits 5.12 Patent Analysis 5.13 Key Conferences and Events (2022-2023) 5.14 Regulatory Landscape 5.14.1 Regulatory Bodies, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations Related to EMI Shielding Solutions 5.14.2 Standards and Regulations Related to EMI Shielding Solutions 5.14.3 a Few Major EMI Shielding Regulations 6 Latest EMI Shielding Technologies and Effectiveness Tests 6.1 Latest EMI Shielding Technologies 6.1.1 Transparent EMI Shielding Materials 6.1.1.1 Transparent EMI Shielding Materials Increasingly Adopted for High-Frequency Applications 6.2 Types of EMI 6.2.1 Narrowband EMI 6.2.1.1 Narrowband EMI Can Emerge from Oscillators, Test Equipment, Signal Generators, and Power-Line Hum 6.2.2 Broadband EMI 6.2.2.1 Caused due to Sources Such as Arc Welders Where a Spark is Continuously Generated 6.3 Effectiveness Tests of EMI Shielding 6.3.1 Shielded Box Test 6.3.1.1 Primarily Used for Comparative Measurement of Test Specimens of Different Shield Materials 6.3.2 Shielded Room Test 6.3.2.1 Appropriate for Determining Susceptibility of Devices to Electromagnetic Interference 6.3.3 Open Field Test 6.3.3.1 Aims to Recreate Real-Use Conditions for Completed Electronic Device 6.3.4 Coaxial Transmission Line Test 6.3.4.1 Enables Comparison of Devices with and Without EMI Shielding 7 Formations of EMI Shielding 7.1 Introduction 7.2 EMI Shielding Gaskets and O-Rings 7.2.1 EMI Shielding Gaskets 7.2.2 O-Rings 7.3 Solid Enclosures 7.4 Wire Mesh and Screens 7.5 Cable Shielding 7.6 Coatings 8 EMI Shielding Market, by Material 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Conductive Coatings & Paints 8.2.1 Silver, Copper, and Nickel Mainly Used as Conductive Coatings 8.3 Conductive Polymers 8.3.1 Conductive Elastomers 8.3.1.1 Silicone and Fluorosilicone are Most Widely Used Conductive Elastomer Types 8.3.2 Conductive Plastics 8.3.2.1 Consumer Electronics is a Major End-user of Conductive Plastics 8.4 Metal Shielding 8.4.1 Copper and Aluminum are Most Widely Used Metal Shielding Materials 8.5 EMI/EMC Filters 8.5.1 EMI/EMC Filters, by Load Type 8.5.1.1 AC Filters 8.5.1.1.1 Mainly Used in Electrical Systems from 100 Khz to Very High Frequencies 8.5.1.2 DC Filters 8.5.1.2.1 DC Filters Mainly Designed for Solar and Networking Applications 8.5.2 EMI/EMC Filters, by Insertion Loss 8.5.2.1 Common Mode 8.5.2.1.1 Common Mode EMI Mainly Caused by Poor Grounding and Cross-Coupling 8.5.2.2 Differential Mode 8.5.2.2.1 Differential Mode EMI Occurs in Series with Desired Signals 8.6 EMI Shielding Tapes & Laminates 8.6.1 EMI Shielding Tapes Substantially Used in Consumer Electronic Applications 9 EMI Shielding Market, by Method 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Radiation 9.2.1 Radiation is Major Source of EMI Dispersion 9.3 Conduction 9.3.1 Growing Utilization of Switch Mode Power Supply is Major Source of Conducted EMI 10 EMI Shielding Market, by Industry 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Consumer Electronics 10.2.1 Smartphones 10.2.1.1 Advancements and Upgrades in Smartphones to Boost Demand for Effective EMI Shielding Solutions 10.2.2 Tablets 10.2.2.1 Need for EMI Shielding Solutions due to Composite Design Structure of Tablets 10.2.3 Televisions 10.2.3.1 Need for Hassle-Free Oled and Micro-Led Operation to Raise EMI Shielding Solutions Requirement 10.2.4 Others 10.3 Telecommunications & Information Technology 10.3.1 Implementation of 5G to Offer Enormous Growth Avenues for the Market 10.4 Automotive 10.4.1 Demand for EMI Shielding Solutions due to Automation and Novel Automobile Manufacturing 10.5 Healthcare 10.5.1 Advancements in Medical Device Technologies to Provide Growth Opportunities for EMI Shielding 10.6 Aerospace 10.6.1 Different Communication and Information Management Tools to Lead to Increased Demand for EMI Shielding 10.7 Others 11 EMI Shielding Market, by Region 12 Competitive Landscape 12.1 Overview 12.2 Key Player Strategies/Right to Win 12.3 Top 5 Company Revenue Analysis 12.4 Market Share Analysis 12.5 Competitive Evaluation Quadrant 12.5.1 Stars 12.5.2 Emerging Leaders 12.5.3 Pervasive Players 12.5.4 Participants 12.6 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Evaluation Quadrant, 2021 12.6.1 Progressive Companies 12.6.2 Responsive Companies 12.6.3 Dynamic Companies 12.6.4 Starting Blocks 12.7 EMI Shielding Market: Company Footprint 12.8 Competitive Benchmarking 12.9 Competitive Scenario 13 Company Profiles 13.1 Key Players 13.1.1 Parker Hannifin 13.1.2 Ppg Industries 13.1.3 3M 13.1.4 Henkel 13.1.5 Laird Performance Materials 13.1.6 Leader Tech 13.1.7 Mg Chemicals 13.1.8 Nolato 13.1.9 Rtp Company 13.1.10 Schaffner Holding 13.1.11 Tech-Etch 13.2 Other Players 13.2.1 Atlanta Metal Coating 13.2.2 East Coast Shielding 13.2.3 Effective Shielding Company 13.2.4 E-Song Emc 13.2.5 Ets-Lindgren 13.2.6 Holland Shielding Systems 13.2.7 Icotek 13.2.8 Integrated Polymer Solutions 13.2.9 Interstate Specialty Products 13.2.10 Kemtron Ltd. 13.2.11 Kitagawa Industries 13.2.12 Marian 13.2.13 Ntrium 13.2.14 Omega Shielding Products 13.2.15 Seal Science 13.2.16 Spira Manufacturing 14 Adjacent Market 15 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/50efti Attachment New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Hydrogen Generation Market Research Report by Generation & Delivery Mode, Process, Source, Application, Storage, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06339165/?utm_source=GNW 75 billion by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Hydrogen Generation to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Generation & Delivery Mode, the market was studied across Captive and Merchant. Based on Process, the market was studied across Biological Processes, Direct Solar Water Splitting Processes, Electrolytic Processes, and Thermochemical Processes. The Biological Processes is further studied across Microbial Biomass Conversion. The Direct Solar Water Splitting Processes is further studied across Photobiological and Photoelectrochemical. The Thermochemical Processes is further studied across Biomass Gasification, Biomass-derived Liquid Reforming, Natural Gas Reforming, and Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen. Based on Source, the market was studied across Blue Hydrogen, Green Hydrogen, and Grey Hydrogen. Based on Application, the market was studied across Ammonia Production, Methanol Production, Petroleum Refinery, Power Generation, and Transportation. Based on Storage, the market was studied across On-Board Hydrogen Storage, Power-To-Gas Hydrogen Storage, and Underground Hydrogen Storage. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across Alaska, California, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Hydrogen Generation market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Hydrogen Generation Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Hydrogen Generation Market, including Air Liquide S.A., Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Ally Hi-Tech Co.,Ltd., AquaHydrex, Ballard Power Systems Inc., Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH, Claind S.r.l., Cummins Inc., Enapter AG, ErreDue SpA, FuelCell Energy, Inc., Hiringa Energy Limited, HyGear BV, Iwatani Corporation, Linde PLC, Mahler AGS GmbH, McPhy Energy S.A., Messer Se & Co. KGaA, Nel ASA, NewHydrogen, Inc., Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation, Plug Power Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems, Inc., and Xebec Adsorption Inc.. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Hydrogen Generation Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Hydrogen Generation Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06339165/?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. __________________________ Highlights: BWR receives Peer Review Report from Pinchin Ltd. outlining scope of soil remediation program at Little Stull Lake BWR gets approval from Manto Sipi Cree Nation and authorization from Manitoba Ministry of Environment, Climate and Parks to proceed TORONTO, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BWR Exploration Inc. (the Company or BWR) (TSX.V: BWR) is pleased to announce that it has received a Peer Review Report (PR report) from the environmental consulting firm Pinchin Ltd. and has shared the report with Manto Sipi Cree Nations Chief and Council as well as Manitoba Ministry of Environment, Climate and Parks (MECP) for their respective review and guidance. BWR recently received authorization from both MSCN and MECP to proceed with the soil remediation program as outlined in the PR report. BWR representatives along with members of the MSCN community are heading into the Little Stull Lake exploration camp to commence the work over the next few days. Authorization to Proceed: As alluded to in BWRs news release dated October 17, 2022, BWR engaged Pinchin Ltd. to complete a peer review of a Hydrocarbon in Soil Report regarding a previously identified small area of soil contamination at BWRs Little Stull Lake camp. BWR received the Peer Review report (PR Report) on October 27 that recommended excavation and removal of the contaminated soil to a Ministry approved disposal site. On November 1, 2022, BWR received an authorization to proceed from MECP. Discussions were held between MSCN, BWR and Pinchin that led to MSCN deciding that the remedial plan as outlined in the PR Report should proceed, subject to a commitment from BWR to replace the contaminated soil with uncontaminated soil from nearby soil mounds; BWR can now proceed with the soil remediation as recommended by Pinchin and authorized by MECP. The PR Report also recommended that additional soil samples be taken in an area to the south and east of the previously delineated area, to ensure that there are no further exceedances in hydrocarbon analysis in an area that Pinchin determined was not previously adequately sampled. This area also contains small mounds of previously disturbed (circa 1985) soil, that would be used (if it is determined to be non-contaminated) to replace the excavated soil by spreading it over the exposed bedrock, allowing nearby vegetation to spread and flourish. BWR was earlier authorized to complete minor repairs and some camp maintenance at the site to prepare it for the onset of winter. A small crew is being mobilized to the camp to complete the remedial work, further soil sampling and camp repairs. Work Permit update: BWRs October 17, 2022, news release also alluded to an in-community meeting that was scheduled for later that day. This meeting took place, and was well attended by many community members. BWR presented its winter of 2023 exploration proposal that involves diamond drilling approximately 20 exploratory holes (totaling 5000m), each of which is designed to verify and validate earlier drillholes by other explorers. It was explained that the drilling would be very close to earlier holes (within a meter) and only use historical drill clearings and that access would be via existing trails, thus limiting new disturbance to the area. This meeting is one of the initial steps of the proposed early-stage exploration program, that follows the Consultation Protocol Roadmap as agreed to between MSCN and the Crown. BWR plans to attend another in-community meeting at MSCNs invitation, to set the stage for entering into an early-stage exploration agreement with MSCN. Similar update meetings would continue to happen through the duration of the exploration program. MSCN leadership is currently in discussions with MNRND as to next steps in the Consultation Roadmap that should lead to a decision on the issuance of a conditional work permit for exploration to BWR. About BWR Exploration Inc.: BWR Exploration Inc. is a public company focused on exploring for base and precious metals, with its flagship Little Stull Lake Gold Project in NE Manitoba along with other exploration projects in Northern Ontario, and Northern Quebec, Canada. Management of BWR includes an accomplished group of exploration/mining specialists with many decades of operational experience in the junior resource sector in Canada and abroad. There are 101,442,461 shares currently issued. Neither the Toronto Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For information about BWR Exploration Inc. please visit our website: http://www.bwrexploration.com or call/email: Neil Novak, P.Geo., President, CEO & Director, BWR Exploration Inc. 82 Richmond St. E, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1 Office 416-848-6866 nnovak@bwrexploration.com For additional information regarding BWR please contact: Carl Desjardins, Paradox Investor Services Inc. Office: 514-341-0408 carldesjardins@paradox-pr.ca Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Weathering Steel Market By Type, By Product, By End user: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global weathering steel market was valued at $1,011.0 million in 2021, and is projected to reach $2,039.1 million by 2031, registering a CAGR of 7.2% from 2022 to 2031. Weathering steel is a phrase used to describe goods manufactured from billets and blooms that are mostly utilized in the construction industry. Typically, they are produced in electric arc furnaces. Rebar, wire rod, merchant bars, rails, and sections are examples of weathering steel items. Factor such as rapid rise in urbanization and infrastructure projects such as railways and bridges where high-strength weathering steel is required, drives the market growth. However, fluctuation in price of raw materials is expected to hamper the market growth. Furthermore, emergence in value added rebars products and increase in investments in infrastructure activities are anticipated to provide growth opportunities for the weathering steel market in coming years. Furthermore, companies are expanding their business and are investing over infrastructural development, which is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. For instance, in March 2021, Nucor Corporation built a new tube mill in Steel Gallatin Sheet mill in Kentucky, which will allow company to take advantage of investments and to expand production capacity and add galvanizing line. The global weathering steel market is segmented on the basis of type, product, end user, and region. On the basis of type, it is classified into Corten-A and Corten-B. By product, it is divided into sheets, plates and bars. By end user, it is segmented into construction, industrial, others. Region wise, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. The major players profiled in the global weathering steel market include, Arcelor Mittal, A. Zahner Company, Baosteel, Bluescope Steel Limited, HBIS Group, Hebei Iron and Steel Group, JFE Steel Corporation, Nippon Steel Corporation, POSCO, SSAB AB, Steel Dynamics, Ternium, TimkenSteel, United States Steel Corporation, Tata Steel, Voestalpine and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group. Key Benefits This report provides a quantitative analysis of the market segments, current trends, estimations, and dynamics of the weathering steel market analysis from 2021 to 2031 to identify the prevailing weathering steel market opportunities. The market research is offered along with information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities. Porter's five forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers to enable stakeholders make profit-oriented business decisions and strengthen their supplier-buyer network. In-depth analysis of the weathering steel market segmentation assists to determine the prevailing market opportunities. Major countries in each region are mapped according to their revenue contribution to the global market. Market player positioning facilitates benchmarking and provides a clear understanding of the present position of the market players. The report includes the analysis of the regional as well as global weathering steel market trends, key players, market segments, application areas, and market growth strategies. Key Topics Covered: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW 3.1.Market definition and scope 3.2.Key findings 3.2.1.Top investment pockets 3.3.Porter's five forces analysis 3.4.Top player positioning 3.5.Market dynamics 3.5.1.Drivers 3.5.2.Restraints 3.5.3.Opportunities 3.6.COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the market CHAPTER 4: WEATHERING STEEL MARKET, BY TYPE 4.1 Overview 4.1.1 Market size and forecast 4.2 Corten-A 4.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 4.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region 4.2.3 Market analysis by country 4.3 Corten-B 4.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 4.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region 4.3.3 Market analysis by country CHAPTER 5: WEATHERING STEEL MARKET, BY PRODUCT 5.1 Overview 5.1.1 Market size and forecast 5.2 Sheets 5.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 5.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region 5.2.3 Market analysis by country 5.3 Plates 5.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 5.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region 5.3.3 Market analysis by country 5.4 Bars 5.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 5.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region 5.4.3 Market analysis by country CHAPTER 6: WEATHERING STEEL MARKET, BY END USER 6.1 Overview 6.1.1 Market size and forecast 6.2 Construction 6.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 6.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region 6.2.3 Market analysis by country 6.3 Industrial 6.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 6.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region 6.3.3 Market analysis by country 6.4 Others 6.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities 6.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region 6.4.3 Market analysis by country CHAPTER 7: WEATHERING STEEL MARKET, BY REGION CHAPTER 8: COMPANY LANDSCAPE 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Top winning strategies 8.3. Product Mapping of Top 10 Player 8.4. Competitive Dashboard 8.5. Competitive Heatmap 8.6. Key developments CHAPTER 9: COMPANY PROFILES 9.1 Arcelor Mittal 9.1.1 Company overview 9.1.2 Company snapshot 9.1.3 Operating business segments 9.1.4 Product portfolio 9.1.5 Business performance 9.1.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.2 United States Steel Corporation 9.2.1 Company overview 9.2.2 Company snapshot 9.2.3 Operating business segments 9.2.4 Product portfolio 9.2.5 Business performance 9.2.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation 9.3.1 Company overview 9.3.2 Company snapshot 9.3.3 Operating business segments 9.3.4 Product portfolio 9.3.5 Business performance 9.3.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.4 NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION 9.4.1 Company overview 9.4.2 Company snapshot 9.4.3 Operating business segments 9.4.4 Product portfolio 9.4.5 Business performance 9.4.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.5 Tata Steel 9.5.1 Company overview 9.5.2 Company snapshot 9.5.3 Operating business segments 9.5.4 Product portfolio 9.5.5 Business performance 9.5.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.6 POSCO 9.6.1 Company overview 9.6.2 Company snapshot 9.6.3 Operating business segments 9.6.4 Product portfolio 9.6.5 Business performance 9.6.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.7 SSAB AB 9.7.1 Company overview 9.7.2 Company snapshot 9.7.3 Operating business segments 9.7.4 Product portfolio 9.7.5 Business performance 9.7.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.8 JFE Steel Corporation 9.8.1 Company overview 9.8.2 Company snapshot 9.8.3 Operating business segments 9.8.4 Product portfolio 9.8.5 Business performance 9.8.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.9 Bluescope Steel Limited 9.9.1 Company overview 9.9.2 Company snapshot 9.9.3 Operating business segments 9.9.4 Product portfolio 9.9.5 Business performance 9.9.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.10 HBIS Group 9.10.1 Company overview 9.10.2 Company snapshot 9.10.3 Operating business segments 9.10.4 Product portfolio 9.10.5 Business performance 9.10.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.11 a. zahner company 9.11.1 Company overview 9.11.2 Company snapshot 9.11.3 Operating business segments 9.11.4 Product portfolio 9.11.5 Business performance 9.11.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.12 Baosteel 9.12.1 Company overview 9.12.2 Company snapshot 9.12.3 Operating business segments 9.12.4 Product portfolio 9.12.5 Business performance 9.12.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.13 Hebei Iron and Steel Group 9.13.1 Company overview 9.13.2 Company snapshot 9.13.3 Operating business segments 9.13.4 Product portfolio 9.13.5 Business performance 9.13.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.14 Steel Dynamics, Inc. 9.14.1 Company overview 9.14.2 Company snapshot 9.14.3 Operating business segments 9.14.4 Product portfolio 9.14.5 Business performance 9.14.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.15 TERNIUM S.A. 9.15.1 Company overview 9.15.2 Company snapshot 9.15.3 Operating business segments 9.15.4 Product portfolio 9.15.5 Business performance 9.15.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.16 TimkenSteel Corporation 9.16.1 Company overview 9.16.2 Company snapshot 9.16.3 Operating business segments 9.16.4 Product portfolio 9.16.5 Business performance 9.16.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.17 Voestalpine AG 9.17.1 Company overview 9.17.2 Company snapshot 9.17.3 Operating business segments 9.17.4 Product portfolio 9.17.5 Business performance 9.17.6 Key strategic moves and developments 9.18 Wuhan Iron and Steel Group 9.18.1 Company overview 9.18.2 Company snapshot 9.18.3 Operating business segments 9.18.4 Product portfolio 9.18.5 Business performance 9.18.6 Key strategic moves and developments For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w6fw01 Attachment DOVER, Del., Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delaware-incorporated, globally accessible EXIRIO, the wealth and investment tracking app founded in 2020, announces a major milestone as it transitions from its free phase to the introduction of tiered subscriptions. EXIRIO's goal is clear: to simplify users' lives by aggregating their wealth into one place - with minimal effort on their part, present clear information, and provide valuable insights on investment performance - without the need for a complicated and time-consuming spreadsheet. Newly registered users will have the option to upgrade from free accounts that include connectivity to one financial institution or crypto exchange/wallet, to premium accounts with unlimited connections (USD 10 a month or USD 100 a year). EXIRIO users can connect and synchronize with over 11,000 banks and brokers in North America, Europe, and Switzerland as well as dozens of crypto exchanges. Both free and premium account options include full access to all the other features of the app, and all existing users will automatically be upgraded to premium, free of charge. In addition, premium accounts will have dedicated, priority technical and content support. David Martinez de Lecea, EXIRIO CEO, co-founded the company in 2020 with a clear objective in mind: "EXIRIO gives everyone the ability to understand their wealth better, and make data-based investment decisions on the path towards financial freedom. EXIRIO's vision is to become the conduit for investors to expand their knowledge, improving access to opportunities and overall wealth growth and performance." Piero Politeo, EXIRIO COO, added: "The introduction of tiered subscriptions within the EXIRIO platform puts us on a clear path to revenue generation while continuing to offer a market-beating wealth tracking platform for our subscribers. This is a hugely important milestone for the company as we take proactive steps towards identifying the right investment partners who will support us on our journey of future growth." EXIRIO allows users to track any investment or liability, in over forty different currencies. Unlike any other portfolio app, EXIRIO tracks the full investment history and performance of every asset added on the platform, not just their current value. EXIRIO is packed with additional features for convenience and peace of mind. Users can upload all documents relating to their wealth (1 GB space is offered to any registered account) and third-party access (view, edit or emergency access) can be conveniently granted to trusted individuals - family members or investment advisors. In addition, data can be uploaded in bulk via CSV files, including Airbnb-generated CSVs for real estate owners renting their properties on the popular online rental marketplace. EXIRIO is available on desktop, iOS, and Android, and a demo account is offered without any registration. EXIRIO uses AWS data centers located in London (UK). Please click here to review EXIRIO's security policy. Contact Information: Piero Politeo marketing@exirio.com Related Files 1p.png 3p.png Related Images Image 1: Exirio Logo This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Atmospheric Water Generator Market By Type, By Capacity, By Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global atmospheric water generator market size was valued at $2,450.9 million in 2021, and is projected to reach $9,703.5 million by 2031, registering a CAGR of 14.8% from 2022 to 2031. Atmospheric water generators (AWG) may generate somewhere around 1-20 liters of water per day at the household scale and up to 10,000 liters per day at the commercial scale. The amount of humidity, or water vapor, in the air and the air temperature have a significant impact on the rate of water production. Similar to a home dehumidifier, the most widely used AWG systems draw moisture from the air using cooling coil technology and a condenser. However, operating these fan systems and condensers can demand a sizable amount of energy. Recent technological improvements have significantly improved the energy-to-water ratio, boosting the viability of employing these systems to supplement the country's drinking water resources. One of the primary factors driving the growth of the atmospheric water generator market is the global expansion of various policies for improving a country's public water infrastructure and drinking water systems. In September 2018, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency announced a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for the development of atmospheric water generators (AWGs) and their potential as a source of water production. In particular, EPA and Israel's WaterGen signed a CRADA to assess their GEN-350 system. In ideal temperature and humidity conditions, the GEN-350 can produce over 600 liters of water each day. As a result, such factors drive the atmospheric water generator market growth. Asia-Pacific dominated the global market in terms of revenue in 2021, due to growth in the residential sector owing to rise in population and income level. Moreover, rise in demand for drinking water due to rise in population in developing countries such as India, China, U.S. Germany and Africa as well as increase in public water infrastructure buildings is expected to provide a wide range of opportunities for AWGs It has been noted in this region that different investments and policies, as well as a strong government focus on installing AWGs, are having a beneficial influence on the market's growth. For instance, in May 2022, a team of scientists from the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) installed AWG units in 15 government schools in Uttarakhand to tackle the issue of water supply. KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS This report provides a quantitative analysis of the market segments, current trends, estimations, and dynamics of the atmospheric water generator market analysis from 2021 to 2031 to identify the prevailing atmospheric water generator market opportunities. Market research is offered along with information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities. Porter's five forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers to enable stakeholders make profit-oriented business decisions and strengthen their supplier-buyer network. An in-depth analysis of the atmospheric water generator market segmentation assists to determine the prevailing market opportunities. Major countries in each region are mapped according to their revenue contribution to the global market. Market player positioning facilitates benchmarking and provides a clear understanding of the present position of the market players. The report includes the analysis of the regional as well as global atmospheric water generator market trends, key players, market segments, application areas, and market growth strategies. Key Market Segments By Type Cooling Condensation Power Source Electric Solar Wet Desiccation Power Source Electric Solar By Capacity Upto 60 litres 61-500 litres 501-1000 litres More than 1000 litres By Application Residential Non-Residential By Region North America U.S Canada Mexico Europe Germany France UK Italy Spain Russia Poland Netherlands Sweden Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan South Korea Australia Thailand Indonesia Vietnam Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Brazil Argentina Saudi Arabia UAE South Africa Nigeria Rest of LAMEA Key Players Aeronero Air 2 Water Solutions Akvo Atmospheric Water Systems Pvt. Ltd Atlantis Solar Clean Wave Products Dew Point Manufacturing Drinkable Air Technologies Ecoloblue Eshara Water Genaq Technologies S.L Planetswater Quench Innovations Ray Agua Skywater Air Water Machines Water-Gen Ltd. Water Technologies International, Inc. Zhongling Xinquan Key Topics Covered: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4: ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATOR MARKET, BY TYPE CHAPTER 5: ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATOR MARKET, BY CAPACITY CHAPTER 6: ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATOR MARKET, BY APPLICATION CHAPTER 7: ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATOR MARKET, BY REGION CHAPTER 8: COMPANY LANDSCAPE CHAPTER 9: COMPANY PROFILES For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6oxpox Attachment New York City, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RocketStar Receives U.S. Space Force Contract to Develop Fusion-Powered Deep Space Propulsion RocketStar Forges Ahead in Propelling U.S. and Allied Space Assets New York, NY (November 1, 2022) RocketStar has been awarded a contract by the United States Air Force (USAF) AFWERX program for a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to continue its effort in the development a fusion-powered space engine called the Boron-Enhanced Electric Propulsion (BEEP) Drive. The BEEP Drive project is a collaboration between Rocketstar, Rhea Space Activity, Inc., and Miles Space, Inc. The award marks an essential next step for RocketStars evolving offering of space propulsion technologies. The new grant was secured based on extraordinary Phase 1 results, which saw the company and its partners achieve aneutronic fusion by observing a high degree of alpha particles. RocketStars aneutronic fusion technology creates a fusion reaction of a boron nucleus with a proton that produces alpha particles. This Phase 2 award will allow for third party validation of the fusion, as well as the ability to accurately quantify thrust output. Christopher Craddock, CEO and Founder of RocketStar, stated: "We're honored to have been selected by the Air Force for this Phase 2 award, which not only acknowledges the compelling results we achieved in Phase 1, but gives us a path towards the possibility of creating a bona-fide in-space fusion thruster that can be affixed to most existing thrusters." "It comes down to two things: electric propulsion is moving to water as a fuel, and fusion doesnt have to be contained to be useful. A water-based thruster can cause fusion in its exhaust plume and achieve benefits akin to an afterburner. explains Wesley Faler, CEO of Miles Space. This Phase II effort will combine RocketStars fusion-powered propulsion core with RSAs Jervis Autonomy Module (JAM), so our U.S. Space Force customers can truly expand beyond Geostationary Orbit said Samuel Lee, RSAs Chief Financial Officer. BEEP Drive will revolutionize the cost-effectiveness of deep space missions by harvesting the power of fusion energy and autonomous navigation. ### About RocketStar RocketStar is an industry leader in rocket propulsion technologies transforming access to space. Recognized for their revolutionary, patent-pending Aerospike Engine, as being reusable, reliable, and affordable, RocketStar is opening up a whole new level of accessibility for future space travel. The team is comprised of a small but talented group of scientists and adventurers with a mission to make space democratized and open for everyone and everywhere. For more information, please visit: www.rocketstar.nyc About Rhea Space Activity Rhea Space Activity (RSA) is an astrophysics company that ideates and creates high-risk/high-reward research and development concepts to support U.S. national security objectives. RSA has developed various technologies in the fields of infrared satellites, directed energy, artificial intelligence, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), astro-particle physics, small satellites, cis-lunar operations, intelligence collection, autonomous underwater vehicles, and for the F35 Lightening II. For more information, please visit: www.rheaspaceactivity.com About Miles Space Miles Space enables a future of deep space exploration with technologies essential to todays market: Power efficient propulsion, long-range communications and passive space radar for national defense. The M1.4B thruster, the beginnings of the BEEP drive, uses water vapor and electricity to achieve market-leading efficiency. Miles AI-in-the-loop signal processing products have saved millions of dollars in communications hardware costs. For more information, please visit: www.miles-space.com Media Contact: Christopher J. Craddock CEO and Founder Rocketstar, Inc. chris@rocketstar.nyc 917-383-2320 Office 631-523-4455 Cell www.rocketstar.nyc Attachment Raipur, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stratview Research, a leading market research firm has launched a report on the Li-Fi Market which provides an in-depth analysis of the market dynamics, current and emerging trends, industry forecast, and competitive landscape. Click here to get the free sample pdf: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/1913/Li-Fi-market.html#form How is the Report Helpful? The report has a very high utility for the key decision-makers and strategists in terms of accurate market insights, future growth opportunities, and key success factors. Most importantly, the report analyses the possible impact of COVID-19 on the market dynamics which offers cushioning against the uncertain business environment and helps in streamlining the resources and investment decisions in a fruitful manner. What are the Top Market Drivers? According to the report, the Li-Fi Market is driven by a host of factors, some of which are noted below: Growing demand for indoor networking in the commercial sector, rise in penetration of smart devices in Asia-Pacific. Increasing implementation of Li-Fi in healthcare and education sectors in Europe. The report also includes growth rate estimates based upon the intensity of drivers and constraints and provides the users with several graphical illustrations of the key insights. Li-Fi Market Segmentation: Stratview Research has segmented the market in the following ways which fulfill the market data needs of multiple stakeholders across the industry value chain. By Component Type (Microcontroller, Photodetector, and LED), (Microcontroller, Photodetector, and LED), By Application Type (Indoor Networking, Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Location-based Services, Underwater Communication, Defense & Security, and Intrinsically Safe Environments), (Indoor Networking, Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Location-based Services, Underwater Communication, Defense & Security, and Intrinsically Safe Environments), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World). Li-Fi Market Insights Market Trends by Component Type The market is segmented as microcontroller, photodetector, and LED. LED is estimated to account for the major share of the market during forecast period. Rising development of LED in commercial establishments and industries on account its durability, low-power consumption, and high-energy output, is expected to increase the market share of LED components during the forecast period. Market Trends by Application Type The market is segmented as indoor networking, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, location-based services, underwater communication, defense & security, and intrinsically safe environments. Automotive is estimated to account for the major share of the market during the forecast period as it enhances the decision-making capabilities in autonomous cars, facilitates Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication in connected cars and the ability to exchange data with other vehicles to prevent potential crashes and congested traffic jams. Which region offers the best opportunity and growth? North America is expected to lead the global Li-Fi market during the forecast period. The growth of the regions market is driven by high demand for energy-efficient devices and high-speed communication. Furthermore, establishment of infrastructure and implementation of advanced technologies with better connectivity for better connectivity to drive the market expansion in the region. The U.S. and Canada are the key growth regions expected to contribute the maximum to the market. Development of green buildings and surge in shelf-life of LEDs are likely to propel the creation of commercial schematics in the North American market. Europe and Asia-Pacific to also offer substantial growth opportunities during the forecast period. COVID-19 Impact on the Li-Fi Market COVID-19 has put an instant halt to many industries across the globe. Lockdown norms in several countries have swiftly affected the global economy by affecting the supply chain, production, and demand in the market. Both direct, as well as indirect impacts of the pandemic, have been incorporated in this report. To know more about the covid-19 impact, get a free sample report, here: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/1913/Li-Fi-market.html#form Who are the Top Market Players? After a thorough analysis of the market, the experts have listed a few key players and discussed company profiles of the below-given players - Fujitsu General Electric Integrated System Technologies Ltd. Lightbee S.L. Lucibel NAV Technologies Renesas Electronics Corporation Signify Oledcomm PureLiFi SLD Laser Velmenni VLNComm. What deliverables will you get in this report? In-depth analysis of the Li-Fi Market Detailed market segmentation. Competitive-landscape analysis. Historical, present, and future market size analysis. Industry trends, technologies, and advancements. Growth and operation strategies adopted by key players. Potential segments/regions offering promising growth. Geographical presence of the key players. Related reports which might be useful: About us Stratview Research is a global market research firm that offers reliable market reports, market entry strategies, strategic growth consulting, and more. The market experts compile high-quality market information to help users obtain granular level clarity on current business trends and expected future developments. Stratview Research also offers customisation of the reports. Reach out to the analysts to customize the given report according to your priority/requirement. Stratview Research has also launched 'Composights', an online portal that offers free thought leadership reports, whitepapers, market report synopsis, and much more for Composites and allied industries, worth US$ 20,000 every year. Click here to sign up (No costs involved): LAS VEGAS, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Jeep brand and ADDAX OverlandTM are proud to launch the Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX Overland Trailer. Inspired by the U.S. military's all-but-indestructible surveillance trailers, and engineered by the team that set a world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Jeep Branded Edition has set the new benchmark for off-road overlanding performance, capability and comfort. Boasting an unprecedented dry weight of just 850 pounds, Jeep adventure seekers can now tow a 1,200 pound payload up previously unfathomable terrainall without compromising a Jeep brand vehicle's signature stability and efficiency. The Jeep Branded Edition's high-strength, lightweight engineering makes it the perfect companion for technical rock climbers and beginner off-roaders alike. And thanks to the Jeep Branded Edition's foldable tongue and compact 5-foot-by-6 foot dimensions, even those adventurers with limited garage space can always be ready to get off the grid. The Jeep Branded Edition's independent torsion axle trailer suspension system provides an aggressive 17 inches of ground clearance for maximum maneuverability, control and comfort. And the 3/16 inch military-grade steel chassis and 14-gauge steel body are seamlessly bent instead of welded to deliver industry-leading durability. The Jeep Branded Edition comes standard with a robust 35 cubic square feet of storage; four 8,000 pound stabilizing corner jacks; a foldable tongue; an articulating hitch; a rear receiver hitch and a heavy-duty, custom rack for endless mounting possibilities. "We are proud to have earned the Jeep brand's trust by creating a trailer that can conquer any terrain" says ADDAX CEO Kirk Jowers. "We are excited to continue to engage with Jeep in engineering the most innovative and comprehensive line of overlanding products for the Jeep brand's loyal community." "Together with the team at ADDAX, we are excited to announce the co-launch of the most cutting-edge overland trailer on the planet," said Jim Morrison, senior vice president and head of Jeep Brand North America. "The Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX can truly follow a Jeep Trail-Rated vehicle anywhere and demonstrates the Jeep Brand's commitment to empowering our community with the gold standard in overlanding performance. Thanks to the Jeep Branded Edition, adventurers can now enjoy the most beautiful and remote places on Earth even longer." Off-roading enthusiasts and Jeep brand loyalists will be able to secure a sneak peek of the Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX at SEMA's New Product Showcase, Overlanding Exhibit and Booth 60119 during Nov. 1-4, 2022. MOPAR, JEEP, DODGE, HEMI, PLYMOUTH, RAM, SRT, CHRYSLER and related logos, vehicle model names and trade dress are trademarks of FCA US LLC and used under license by ADDAX Overland, LLC. About ADDAX Overland Built upon a combined 60 years of off-road industry chops, ADDAX Overland is proud to create the world's most rugged, reliable, and trailblazing overlanding trailers. Our innovative spirit secured a world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. And our thirst for open-air freedom drives our uncompromising pursuit of the ultimate in overlanding performance. We're based in the backyard of Moab, UtahJeep's home away from homeand we pride ourselves in pushing our trailers to the limit on the iconic red-rock terrain. Forged in the U.S.A. Tested in Hell. Jeep Brand Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Gladiator, Grand Cherokee and Wrangler. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is now being enhanced by a global electrification initiative, that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. A fully electric Jeep 4xe will be offered in every SUV segment by 2025. About Stellantis Stellantis N.V. (NYSE / MTA / Euronext Paris: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider. Its storied and iconic brands embody the passion of their visionary founders and today's customers in their innovative products and services, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall, Free2move and Leasys. Powered by our diversity, we lead the way the world moves - aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which it operates. For more information, visit www.stellantis.com. MOPAR, JEEP, DODGE, HEMI, PLYMOUTH, RAM, SRT, CHRYSLER and related logos, vehicle model names and trade dress are trademarks of FCA US LLC and used under license by ADDAX Overland LLC. Contact Information: Ellesse Balli CMO ellesse@addaxoverland.com 801-694-2009 Robin James Global Licensing Manager robin.freedjames@stellantis.com 248-914-5011 Related Images Image 1: Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX The Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX sets up camp in the Uintas. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment ISELIN, N.J., Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Drug Topics, the leading multimedia resource for pharmacy professionals, today announced it added RPhAlly to its Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) program. We are excited about working with RPhAlly as a partner to amplify availability of news and information by pharmacists for pharmacists to help the pharmacist community, said William Mulderry, vice president, group publisher of Drug Topics and Total Pharmacy. In a constantly changing health care environment, RPhAllys format as a social media community dovetails with the long-established position that Drug Topics holds with pharmacists around their professional development. RPhAlly is an exclusive app-based platform for pharmacy professionals across the country. Its growing community includes engaged pharmacists seeking to advance their careers and the practice of pharmacy through support, education and opportunity. Within the mobile app, members can access a directory of colleagues, a lively discussion forum and pharmacy groups populated by peers. RPhAlly is uniting pharmacy through SEO: support, education and opportunities. We recognize that partnering with other champions of our profession is essential to reaching and benefitting as many colleagues as possible, said Kevin Walker, co-owner and chief strategy officer at RPhAlly. Drug Topics is an established and trusted name and has consistently shown a genuine commitment to supporting pharmacy. Our partnership will help to catalyze the collaborative efforts required to address the significant concerns of our profession." The Drug Topics SAP program is a community of health care associations, societies and advocacy groups that foster collaboration and an open exchange of information among trusted peers for the benefit of patients and their families. These strategic partnerships aim to heighten Drug Topics ability to distribute useful information and diversify the perspectives available to the patient-facing pharmacist universe. For more information about the Drug Topics SAP program, visit our website. About RPhAlly RPhAlly is focused on uniting and advancing the world of pharmacy. Our profession is at a critical juncture and needs to come together more than ever to create the future we all want, and patients deserve. Our platform was created for exactly that purpose. A place to support each other, educate and grow, and expand our opportunities to improve health care. Our thought leaders are here to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians advance together, and we need you here to reimagine the profession and make it happen. About Drug Topics Founded in 1857, Drug Topics is the only magazine serving all pharmacists in the United States. The publication provides regular news, expert opinion, industry analysis, career guidance and peer perspectives. Drug Topics continuing education, powered by AdvanCE is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. Drug Topics is a brand of MJH Life Sciences, the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels. About Total Pharmacy Designed specifically for entrepreneurial pharmacists and independent pharmacy market stakeholders, Total Pharmacy delivers resources to effectively maximize profits, minimize costs and improve the overall patient experience. Our mission is to redefine the value and standards of community pharmacy by providing trusted content and business solutions that drive measurable change in health care delivery. Total Pharmacy is a brand of MJH Life Sciences, the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels. Drug Topics Media Contact Lauren Biscaldi editors@drugtopics.com English French Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits (the Company ) Information on the financial terms regarding the termination of the functions of Mr. Andrew Highcock as Chief Executive Officer of the Company Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits (Euronext: MBWS) discloses, in accordance with the recommendations of the 2018 AMF report on corporate governance and the remuneration of executives of listed companies, the information relating to the financial terms regarding the termination of the functions of Mr. Andrew Highcock as Chief Executive Officer, which were approved by the Board of Directors on November 4, 2022, on the recommendation of the Remuneration Committee which met the same day. Severance package The Company has committed to pay, in the event of the departure of the Chief Executive Officer, a compensation equal to the average gross remuneration, the variable remuneration and the relocation bonus that the latter received during the last 6 months preceding the date of departure. The benefit of this severance compensation is subject to the achievement of performance criteria to be assessed by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors having noted the achievement of the said performance criteria, Mr. Andrew Highcock's severance package will amount to 394,860, before taxes. In accordance with the legal regulations in effect, the payment of this severance package remains subject to the approval of the next General Meeting of Shareholders. 2. Non-compet ition obligation The Board of Directors of November 4, 2022, decided to release Mr. Andrew Highcock from his non-competition obligation. Investor and shareholder relations contact MBWS Group Emilie Drexler emilie.drexler@mbws.com Tel.: +33 1 43 91 62 21 Press contact Image Sept Claire Doligez - Laurence Maury cdoligez@image7.fr lmaury@image7.fr Tel.: +33 1 53 70 74 70 About Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits is a wine and spirits group based in Europe and the United States. Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits stands out for its expertise, a combination of brands with a long tradition and a resolutely innovative spirit. Since the birth of the Maison Marie Brizard in 1755, the Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits Group has developed its brands in a spirit of modernity while respecting their origins. Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits is committed to offering its customers bold and trusted brands full of flavour and experiences. The Group now has a rich portfolio of leading brands in their market segments, including William Peel, Sobieski, Marie Brizard and Cognac Gautier. Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits is listed on Compartment B of Euronext Paris (FR0000060873 - MBWS) and is part of the EnterNext PEA-PME 150 index. Attachment WASHINGTON, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Supplier Diversity Champions program, powered by The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation (USPAACC), will officially launch in January 2023 to acknowledge and celebrate the "unsung heroes" of supplier diversity. Supplier Diversity Champions ("SD Champions") program breaks new ground in the realm of supplier diversity by including applications from any U.S.-based corporation with at least 750 U.S.-based employees, opening the doors for equitable recognition of supplier diversity programs at varying levels of maturity. The SD Champions program advanced by USPAACC represents a purposeful shift away from awards solely based on a corporation's ability to spend and moves toward a new emphasis that encourages transparency, innovation, inclusion, impact on the community, and integration in supplier diversity programs. "By recognizing the unsung heroes of supplier diversity, our SD Champions program is a game changer. We're moving beyond corporate spending and looking more holistically toward transparency, innovation, inclusion, impact on the community, and integration of supplier diversity initiatives in their entirety. We believe that supplier diversity is critical to the success of our nation's economy and contributes to the health, security, and stability of the global supply chain," USPAACC National President and CEO Susan Au Allen said. "While our program will accept applications beginning January of 2023, we've already received an incredibly positive response to our program from corporations and national certification organizations who want to be part of this effort. This program will draw a new skyline for building and recognizing the true champions of supplier diversity. USPAACC is excited to see our SD Champions program officially open in January and grow beyond the skyline," USPAACC National President and CEO Susan Au Allen stated. The SD Champions program is supported by USPAACC's chamber partners Disability:IN, NaVOBA, NVBDC, US Black Chambers, and WBENC, respectively. For more details about the Supplier Diversity Champions program, call or email USPAACC at (202) 735-3632, rachelle@uspaacc.com, or visit the website http://supplierdiversitychampions.us/. About USPAACC Founded in 1984 in the nation's capital, the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation (USPAACC) is the most established and effective national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing all Asian American and Asian American-related groups in business, sciences, the arts, sports, education, public and community services. USPAACC's mission is to promote and propel economic growth and job creation by opening doors to business and professional opportunities for Pan*Asian Americans and their partners in corporations, government at the federal, state, and local levels, and the small, minority, and diverse business communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, USPAACC reaches Pan Asian American businesses nationwide through regional chapters in California, Texas, New York/New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, and the Washington DC-Maryland-Virginia National Capital Area. To learn more, visit www.uspaacc.com. *Pan Asian American includes East, South, Southeast Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian. ### Contact Information: Josh Fitzpatrick media@uspaacc.com 518-669-5721 Related Images Image 1: Supplier Diversity Champions program Supplier Diversity Champions program This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment London, UK, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, and Igor Smelyanksy, CEO of Ukraines national postal service Ukrposhta, made a special live appearance to address over 200 UK business leaders at Boydens Annual Assembly, where they spoke about leadership through a global crisis. The two Ukrainian leaders both impressed upon guests at Boydens Annual Assembly that conflict can be alleviated through alliances during times of conflict. Praystaiko encouraged leaders to not be complacent about a victory for Ukraine saying that the whole world is not behind Ukraine, and they hope for more support from neutral nations. He reminded leaders that the Ukrainian Government continue to want to be a part of NATO and live peacefully like other NATO members because they want to do business with people, knowing we are defended. In advising other leaders on how to run their teams, Prystaiko spoke about his experiences over the last eight months: I have had to understand where my teams limits are. You can work 24/7 for eight months and sooner or later they will lose their effectiveness as a team. And on top of this we are extremely ambitious that, somehow, we can help the millions of people in Ukraine from London, believing we can resolve everything. I have a feeling of guilt to be in safe and comfortable London when people are dying in my home country. But I am driven to urge world leaders they have a moral obligation to ally with those who are killed and bombarded. To win this war, we must have two things: hope and unity. We can succeed if leaders around the world across business, government, military and beyond unite and believe Russia can be defeated. Speaking via video link from Ukraine, Smelyansky implored the audience - please dont stop sending mail to Ukraine. He divulged that small and medium businesses in Ukraine make over $500 million through eBay and Amazon meaning anyone in the UK can help people across Ukraine in a couple of clicks. Smelyanskys advice to other leaders was: You just have to keep winning, and your work will support you. I work with a long-term view but knowing that every day could be my last. No matter what my stress level is during the invasion I have to make a decision, live with it and move on to make the next one. Every day we go against standard corporate governance procedure, like when I am personally going to the front line to deliver post. But it is essential to help me understand what is happening on the ground, how adaptable my team must be, and most importantly how they feel. In the boardroom, striking a balance between making executive decisions and asking my regional directors to decide whether their workforce can do their jobs under invasion is a challenge. But, when peace times come, it will have changed my business for the better. Prystaiko and Smelyansky shared their candid experiences of providing leadership during a time of crisis to an audience including former MPs, military, defence, and business leaders from organisations including Apple, Thames Water, Viacom CBS, Heineken and Danone. Thames Water, Babcock International, Superdry, and Roald Dahls Marvellous Childrens Charity. Nick Robeson, CEO at Boyden UK & Ireland, who conceived of the idea of this years Annual Assembly said: It was an honour to listen to Vadym and Igor, who sit in the front line of a global crisis and learn from their awe-inspiring leadership. We are driven to provide a bridge between Ukraine and the UKs business leaders, especially when the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted Boydens office in Ukraine directly. In todays increasingly challenging global environment, the UKs business leaders will have been inspired after receiving their insight about leading through a global crisis. I have no doubt they will be reflecting on how to apply the pairs mentality to their own leadership. Oleksii Dolhikh, Managing Partner at Boyden Ukraine, said about the event: I am proud to be a part of the Boyden family, who against the current injustices are continually supporting humanitarian efforts in my country. Whether it is welcoming Ukrainian colleagues into their homes or providing financial support to families, I hope that UK business leaders will hear about the medium to long-term impact they can have in resolving this crisis and defeating Russia. About Boyden Boyden is a premier leadership and talent advisory firm with more than 75 offices in over 45 countries. Our global reach enables us to serve client needs anywhere they conduct business. We connect great companies with great leaders through executive search, interim management and leadership consulting solutions. For further information, visit www.boyden.com. Notes to editors Interviews with Boyden spokespeople available on request. Please contact: boyden@pagefield.co.uk / 0771 864 1065 Attachments TORONTO, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellation Software Inc. (TSX:CSU) (Constellation or the Company) today announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022 and declared a $1.00 per share dividend payable on January 11, 2023 to all common shareholders of record at close of business on December 20, 2022. This dividend has been designated as an eligible dividend for the purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada). Please note that all dollar amounts referred to in this press release are in U.S. Dollars unless otherwise stated. The following press release should be read in conjunction with the Companys Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and the accompanying notes, our Management Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and with our annual Consolidated Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and our annual Managements Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021, which can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Companys website www.csisoftware.com. Additional information about the Company is also available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Q3 2022 Headlines: Revenue grew 33% (negative 3% organic growth, 2% after adjusting for changes in foreign exchange rates) to $1,725 million compared to $1,299 million in Q3 2021. Net income attributable to common shareholders increased 28% to $136 million ($6.42 on a diluted per share basis) from $107 million ($5.04 on a diluted per share basis) in Q3 2021. A number of acquisitions were completed for aggregate cash consideration of $207 million (which includes acquired cash). Deferred payments associated with these acquisitions have an estimated value of $61 million resulting in total consideration of $268 million. Cash flows from operations (CFO) were $321 million, an increase of 10%, or $29 million, compared to $292 million for the comparable period in 2021. Free cash flow available to shareholders1 (FCFA2S) increased $3 million to $229 million compared to $226 million for the same period in 2021. Total revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 was $1,725 million, an increase of 33%, or $426 million, compared to $1,299 million for the comparable period in 2021. For the first nine months of 2022 total revenues were $4,774 million, an increase of 28%, or $1,051 million, compared to $3,724 million for the comparable period in 2021. The increase for both the three and nine month periods compared to the same periods in the prior year is primarily attributable to growth from acquisitions as the Company experienced organic growth of negative 3% and negative 2% respectively, positive 2% and 3% respectively after adjusting for the impact of changes in the valuation of the US dollar against most major currencies in which the Company transacts business. Organic growth is not a standardized financial measure and might not be comparable to measures disclosed by other issuers. Net income attributable to common shareholders of CSI for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 was $136 million compared to $107 million for the same period in 2021. On a per share basis this translated into a net income per diluted share of $6.42 in the quarter ended September 30, 2022 compared to net income per diluted share of $5.04 for the same period in 2021. For the nine months ended September 30, 2022, net income attributable to common shareholders of CSI was $360 million or $16.99 per diluted share compared to $186 million or $8.79 per diluted share for the same period in 2021. There was no change in the number of shares outstanding. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, CFO increased $29 million to $321 million compared to $292 million for the same period in 2021 representing an increase of 10%. For the nine months ended September 30, 2022, CFO decreased $61 million to $897 million compared to $959 million for the same period in 2021 representing a decrease of 6%. The primary reasons for the decline in CFO for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 is that CFO includes the impact of changes in non-cash operating assets and liabilities exclusive of effects of business combinations or, changes in non-cash operating working capital (NCOWC), and income taxes paid. For the nine months ended September 30, 2022 there was $27 million of cash used in NCOWC compared to $53 million of cash generated from NCOWC for the same period in 2021. Cash used in NCOWC associated with the Companys recently acquired Altera business unit was $32 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. There are many reasons contributing to the NCOWC impact variance for the Company, including Altera, none of which are indicative of an underlying concern with the overall NCOWC balance. Specifically, there are no concerns with accounts receivable or unbilled revenue aging. Income taxes paid increased 87% or $41 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 and 42% or $83 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 over the same periods in 2021. Approximate $50 million and $100 million cash tax payments were made in the three and nine month periods ending September 30, 2022 respectively relating to the deferral of R&E expenses associated with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, FCFA2S increased $3 million to $229 million compared to $226 million for the same period in 2021 representing an increase of 1%. For the nine months ended September 30, 2022, FCFA2S decreased $76 million to $563 million compared to $639 million for the same period in 2021 representing a decrease of 12%. The items negatively impacting CFO summarized above are the same items negatively impacting FCFA2S. On February 1, 2022, the Topicus Preferred Shares and Topicus Coop Preference Units were converted to Topicus Subordinate Voting Shares and Topicus Coop Ordinary Units respectively. As a result of this conversion the non-controlling interest in Topicus.com Inc. decreased from approximately 70% to 39%. 1. See Non-IFRS measures. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements herein may be forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Constellation or the industry to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to vary significantly from the results discussed in the forward looking statements. These forward looking statements reflect current assumptions and expectations regarding future events and operating performance and are made as of the date hereof and Constellation assumes no obligation, except as required by law, to update any forward looking statements to reflect new events or circumstances. Non-IFRS Measures Free cash flow available to shareholders FCFA2S refers to net cash flows from operating activities less interest paid on lease obligations, interest paid on other facilities, credit facility transaction costs, repayments of lease obligations, the IRGA / TSS membership liability revaluation charge, and property and equipment purchased, and includes interest and dividends received. The portion of this amount applicable to non-controlling interests is then deducted. We believe that FCFA2S is useful supplemental information as it provides an indication of the uncommitted cash flow that is available to shareholders if we do not make any acquisitions, or investments, and do not repay any debts. While we could use the FCFA2S to pay dividends or repurchase shares, our objective is to invest all of our FCFA2S in acquisitions which meet our hurdle rate. FCFA2S is not a recognized measure under IFRS and, accordingly, readers are cautioned that FCFA2S should not be construed as an alternative to net cash flows from operating activities. The following table reconciles FCFA2S to net cash flows from operating activities: Three months ended September 30, Nine months ended September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 ($ in millions) ($ in millions) Net cash flows from operating activities 321 292 897 959 Adjusted for: Interest paid on lease obligations (3 ) (2 ) (8 ) (7 ) Interest paid on other facilities (23 ) (12 ) (49 ) (30 ) Credit facility transaction costs (0 ) (0 ) (3 ) (4 ) Payments of lease obligations (24 ) (21 ) (69 ) (61 ) IRGA / TSS membership liability revaluation charge (33 ) (25 ) (89 ) (107 ) Property and equipment purchased (8 ) (7 ) (27 ) (18 ) Interest and dividends received 0 1 0 1 230 226 652 732 Less amount attributable to Non-controlling interests (1 ) 1 (89 ) (93 ) Free cash flow available to shareholders 229 226 563 639 Due to rounding, certain totals may not foot. About Constellation Software Inc. Constellation's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CSU". Constellation acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses. For further information: Jamal Baksh Chief Financial Officer (416) 861-9677 info@csisoftware.com www.csisoftware.com SOURCE: CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Financial Position (In millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts. Due to rounding, numbers presented may not foot.) Unaudited September 30, 2022 December 31, 2021 September 30, 2021 Assets Current assets: Cash $ 665 $ 763 $ 961 Accounts receivable 744 600 512 Unbilled revenue 219 140 144 Inventories 46 35 32 Other assets 473 296 278 2,146 1,835 1,929 Non-current assets: Property and equipment 121 93 91 Right of use assets 274 245 252 Deferred income taxes 155 66 63 Other assets 160 99 94 Intangible assets 4,469 3,428 3,006 5,179 3,931 3,506 Total assets $ 7,325 $ 5,766 $ 5,434 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current liabilities: Debt with recourse to Constellation Software Inc. $ 364 $ 143 $ 137 Debt without recourse to Constellation Software Inc. 234 60 54 Redeemable preferred securities - 7 7 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 917 832 720 Dividends payable 21 22 21 Deferred revenue 1,545 1,158 1,168 Provisions 9 11 11 Acquisition holdback payables 148 94 92 Lease obligations 89 79 81 Income taxes payable 99 56 86 3,425 2,461 2,377 Non-current liabilities: Debt with recourse to Constellation Software Inc. 522 561 550 Debt without recourse to Constellation Software Inc. 705 354 325 Deferred income taxes 465 436 393 Acquisition holdback payables 62 68 49 Lease obligations 206 190 195 Other liabilities 239 175 145 2,200 1,784 1,656 Total liabilities 5,625 4,245 4,034 Shareholders' equity: Capital stock 99 99 99 Other equity - (179 ) (162 ) Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (227 ) (66 ) (69 ) Retained earnings 1,632 1,206 1,103 Non-controlling interests 196 460 429 1,700 1,521 1,401 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 7,325 $ 5,766 $ 5,434 CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Income (loss) (In millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts. Due to rounding, numbers presented may not foot.) Unaudited Three months ended September 30, Nine months ended September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Revenue License $ 79 $ 69 $ 220 $ 206 Professional services 375 256 985 747 Hardware and other 54 45 151 127 Maintenance and other recurring 1,217 929 3,418 2,643 1,725 1,299 4,774 3,724 Expenses Staff 925 676 2,581 1,982 Hardware 31 25 88 71 Third party license, maintenance and professional services 167 113 443 317 Occupancy 12 10 35 30 Travel, telecommunications, supplies, software and equipment 80 46 215 129 Professional fees 26 21 78 53 Other, net 64 21 132 41 Depreciation 38 31 105 90 Amortization of intangible assets 177 134 491 376 1,521 1,077 4,167 3,087 Foreign exchange loss (gain) (57 ) (5 ) (98 ) (3 ) IRGA/TSS Membership liability revaluation charge 33 25 89 107 Finance and other expense (income) 8 (4 ) 24 (9 ) Bargain purchase gain (3 ) (1 ) (4 ) (1 ) Impairment of intangible and other non-financial assets - 1 1 7 Redeemable preferred securities expense (income) - - - 295 Finance costs 29 18 73 50 11 34 86 446 Income (loss) before income taxes 193 188 521 190 Current income tax expense (recovery) 113 70 322 209 Deferred income tax expense (recovery) (63 ) (4 ) (189 ) (43 ) Income tax expense (recovery) 50 67 133 166 Net income (loss) 143 121 388 24 Net income (loss) attributable to: Common shareholders of Constellation Software Inc. 136 107 360 186 Non-controlling interests 7 15 28 (162 ) Net income (loss) 143 121 388 24 Earnings per common share of Constellation Software Inc. Basic and diluted $ 6.42 $ 5.04 $ 16.99 $ 8.79 CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Comprehensive Income (loss) (In millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts. Due to rounding, numbers presented may not foot.) Unaudited Three months ended September 30, Nine months ended September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Net income (loss) $ 143 $ 121 $ 388 $ 24 Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently to net income (loss): Foreign currency translation differences from foreign operations and other, net of tax (93 ) (21 ) (184 ) (39 ) Other comprehensive income (loss) for the period, net of income tax (93 ) (21 ) (184 ) (39 ) Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period $ 50 $ 100 $ 204 $ (15 ) Total other comprehensive income (loss) attributable to: Common shareholders of Constellation Software Inc. (80 ) (13 ) (156 ) (19 ) Non-controlling interests (13 ) (8 ) (27 ) (19 ) Total other comprehensive income (loss) $ (93 ) $ (21 ) $ (184 ) $ (39 ) Total comprehensive income (loss) attributable to: Common shareholders of Constellation Software Inc. 56 93 204 167 Non-controlling interests (6 ) 7 1 (182 ) Total comprehensive income (loss) $ 50 $ 100 $ 204 $ (15 ) CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statement of Changes in Equity (In millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts. Due to rounding, numbers presented may not foot.) Unaudited Nine months ended September 30, 2022 Equity Attributable to Common Shareholders of CSI Capital stock Other equity Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) Retained earnings Total Non-controlling interests Total equity Balance at January 1, 2022 $ 99 $ (179 ) $ (66 ) $ 1,206 $ 1,061 460 $ 1,521 Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period: Net income (loss) - - - 360 360 28 388 Other comprehensive income (loss) Foreign currency translation differences from foreign operations and other, net of tax - - (156 ) - (156 ) (27 ) (184 ) Total other comprehensive income (loss) for the period - - (156 ) - (156 ) (27 ) (184 ) Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period - - (156 ) 360 204 1 204 Transactions with owners, recorded directly in equity Conversion of redeemable preferred securities to subordinate voting shares of Topicus.com Inc. and ordinary units of Topicus Coop and other related movements - 305 (5 ) - 301 (301 ) - Non-controlling interests arising from business combinations - - - - - 41 41 Other movements in non-controlling interests - - - 2 2 (5 ) (2 ) Dividends to shareholders of the Company - - - (64 ) (64 ) - (64 ) Reclassification of other equity to retained earnings - (127 ) - 127 - - - Balance at September 30, 2022 $ 99 $ - $ (227 ) $ 1,632 $ 1,504 $ 196 $ 1,700 CONSTELLATION SOFTWARE INC. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statement of Changes in Equity (In millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts. Due to rounding, numbers presented may not foot.) Unaudited Nine months ended September 30, 2021 Equity Attributable to Common Shareholders of CSI Capital stock Other equity Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) Retained earnings Total Non-controlling interests Total equity Balance at January 1, 2021 $ 99 $ - $ (31 ) $ 980 $ 1,048 $ - $ 1,048 Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period: Net income (loss) - - - 186 186 (162 ) 24 Other comprehensive income (loss) Foreign currency translation differences from foreign operations and other, net of tax - - (19 ) - (19 ) (19 ) (39 ) Total other comprehensive income (loss) for the period - - (19 ) - (19 ) (19 ) (39 ) Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period - - (19 ) 186 167 (182 ) (15 ) Transactions with owners, recorded directly in equity Special dividend of Topicus Subordinated Voting Shares - (141 ) (16 ) - (157 ) 157 - Issuance of Topicus Coop Ordinary Units to non-controlling interests - (21 ) (2 ) - (23 ) 23 - Net acquisition of non-controlling interest associated with acquisitions and other movements - 1 - 1 1 1 3 Dividends to shareholders of the Company - - - (64 ) (64 ) - (64 ) Reclassification of Redeemable preferred securities of Topicus Coop from liabilities to non-controlling interest - - - - 434 434 Accrued dividends to preference unit holders of Topicus Coop - - - - (5 ) (5 ) Balance at September 30, 2021 $ 99 $ (162 ) $ (69 ) $ 1,103 $ 972 $ 429 $ 1,401 San Francisco Bay Area, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty is proud to announce that three of its top-producing agent teams and two of its individual agents have been honored among the Top 100 agents worldwide within the Sothebys International Realty network. The prestigious recognition brought together the worlds top agents for an evening of celebration in New York City at the historic Seagram Building. Sothebys International Realtys global network is comprised of 26,000 agents spanning 1,058 offices across 80 countries. Each year, Sothebys International Realty honors top producers of the global network as part of the Sothebys International Realty Top 100 Awards Ceremony. For agent teams, the minimum sales volume production in 2021 for consideration was $170 Million. The three agent teams honored were: the Dreyfus Group, the top producing agent team at Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty of the brokerages Palo Alto Office, for their $254,830,700 in 2021 sales; the Sarkissian Bullock Team, of the brokerages Southern Marin Office, for their $203,883,650 in 2021 sales; and The Marin Group, of the brokerages Drakes Landing Office, for their $178,154,138 in 2021 sales. For individual agents, the minimum sales volume production in 2021 for consideration was $110 Million. John Shroyer, the top producing individual agent at Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty of the brokerage's San Carlos Office, was honored for his $137,045,500 in 2021 sales. Amy McCafferty, of the brokerages Los Gatos Office, was honored for her $132,006,068 in 2021 sales. By far exceeding the minimum qualifiers for consideration, the awarded Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty individual agents and agent teams exemplify the exceptionalism that differentiates Sothebys International Realty. For more information, contact: Kevin Daniel Dwyer Phone: 415.380.4332 Email: K.Dwyer@ggsir.com For media inquiries, please email MediaInquiries@ggsir.com About Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty: Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty has over 470 agents in 23 offices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area serving the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.GoldenGateSIR.com Attachments From the Africa Hospitality Investment Forum in Taghazout Bay, Morocco, Marriott International, Inc., announced plans to expand its operations in Africa with the anticipated addition of over 30 hotels and more than 5,000 rooms by the end of 2024. The companys growth across Africa is largely driven by its select-service brands which represent half of the companys current development pipeline in the continent. The company is also expected to introduce its Delta Hotels by Marriott brand in the region. Marriott Internationals expansion plans reinforce its commitment to Africa and highlight the growth of the travel and tourism sector across the continent, said Karim Cheltout, Regional Vice President Development, Africa, Marriott International. We continue to see opportunities to expand in major gateway cities, commercial centers, and resort destinations across Africa, while catering to the regions ever-changing and evolving markets through our diverse range of extraordinary brands. Select-Service Accommodations Fuel Growth Marriott Internationals select-service brands in the region, led by Protea Hotels by Marriott and Four Points by Sheraton, make up more than 50 percent of the companys property additions in Africa through 2024. Protea Hotels by Marriott remains the most recognizable hospitality brand in Africa, with over 60 hotels across nine countries. Offering a taste of the local flavor in an authentic way, Protea Hotels by Marriott expects to further expand its footprint across the continent with 10 anticipated additions by the end of 2024. Plans include the brands first properties in Kenya, Malawi, and Angola, and further expansion in South Africa where it is expected to open five new hotels. With its authentic and timeless design, paired with stylish comfort, Four Points by Sheraton continues to build on its momentum in Africa with five anticipated additions by the end of 2024. These expansion plans for Four Points by Sheraton include the brands entry into Uganda, Senegal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cape Verde. The brand also expects to open its second property in Nigeria, Four Points by Sheraton Ikot Ekpene. Demand for Premium and Luxury Brands Remains Strong Marriott International also continues to see growth opportunities across Africa for its unparalleled premium and luxury brands. The companys expansion plans for its premium brands across the continent include the anticipated launch of Delta Hotels in 2023. Delta Hotels, which provides guests with exactly what they need for a seamless travel experience, is expected to make its entry into Africa with the opening of Delta Hotels by Marriott Dar es Salaam Oyster Bay in Tanzania. Plans for Tribute Portfolio, a growing global family of characterful, independent hotels drawn together by their passion for captivating design and vibrant social scenes, include the expected opening of laila, Seychelles, a Tribute Portfolio Resort. The company is also slated to introduce the Westin Hotels & Resorts brand in Ethiopia with the anticipated opening of The Westin Addis Ababa. Additionally, Marriott International plans to grow its iconic collection of independent properties under the Autograph Collection Hotels brand with new properties in expected Tanzania and Algeria. Marriott International also plans to expand its portfolio of luxury brands with five anticipated openings in Africa by the end of 2024. The company is expected to introduce The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis brands in Morocco with the anticipated openings of The Ritz-Carlton, Rabat Dar Es Salam and The St. Regis La Bahia Blanca Resort, Tamuda. JW Marriott is expected to enter Kenya with the openings of JW Marriott Hotel Nairobi and JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge, which will mark the companys first property in the luxury safari space. Marriott Internationals current portfolio in Africa encompasses nearly 130 properties and more than 23,000 rooms across 20 countries Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Every COP cannot be a talk shop. COP27 in Egypt must move from talking to concrete and ambitious action. The time left to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C is disappearing fast. Without real action, climate impacts like the floods in Pakistan and KwaZulu Natal, in South Africa will only intensify. But, climate impacts will not be felt equally. The African continent is disproportionately affected, warming faster than other regions, and in some areas, at double the global rate. The way forward starts with 3 critical steps at COP We need fair finance for People and Planet: Public Finance Institutions (PFIs), particularly those in Southern Africa, must commit to more ambitious policies related to climate change, power generation, and transparency & accountability. PFIs like the African Development Bank must prioritise the development of fossil fuel finance exclusion policies, that states banks will not fund, provide financial services, or capacity support to any coal, gas, and oil project on the African continent. Any climate finance deals or partnerships established at COP27 and directed toward Africa must be based on principles of equity, justice, and transparency, support the interest and livelihoods of African people, and serve both social and environmental objectives. Boost climate finance for forest protection in Africa: The Congo Basin only received 11% of international funding (https://bit.ly/3T447tr) for sustainable forest management between 2008 and 2017. We want to see more climate finance allocated to locally led solutions to forest protection in Africa. Its important that the finance allocated is transparent, directed to community centred initiatives/institutions, prioritises monitoring and evaluation, and enforces zero-deforestation supply chains (including new logging concessions). Make Loss & Damage a Priority: Existing climate finance mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund do not address the loss and damage finance needs of vulnerable countries and communities. We want to see steps taken to establish a separate loss and damage mechanism that assists the recovery of vulnerable communities affected by extreme weather events and slow-onset climate events, beyond adaptation and mitigation. African Climate Reality Projects involvement during COP : Are public finance institutions in Southern Africa financing the climate crisis? On Thursday, 10 November, ACRP as part of the Fair Finance Coalition of Southern Africa will host a side event at COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to launch a policy assessment into the transparency and climate performance of public finance institutions in Africa. African Voices for Africas Forests ACRPs award-winning short film (https://bit.ly/3DX5mq5) that explores gender, Indigenous rights, and restoration solutions in Cameroon, will be screened at events hosted by the United Nations, African Union, Global Landscape Forum, and We Dont Have Time. The protagonist, Ewi Lamma, will also receive the UN Agora Award for Climate Action on Friday, 11 November. Solutions of Hope In collaboration with the Future Climate Leaders Program, ACRPs climate leaders from Egypt, Nigeria, and Cameroon will host a discussion on the role of climate education in fighting the climate crisis in Africa. The event will take place on Monday, 14 November. At Africas COP, we need to elevate African stories, African centred solutions, and value lived experience as examples of these climate shocks. While the climate crisis is already here, solutions do exist that can help us work towards an equitable and sustainable future for the continent one that leaves no one behind. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Qorvo, a global provider of connectivity and power solutions, and SK Siltron CSS, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer, finalized a multi-year supply agreement for silicon carbide (SiC) bare and epitaxial wafers. This agreement will promote US semiconductor supply chain resilience and a greater ability to support the rapidly rising demand for advanced silicon carbide solutions, specifically in the automotive market. SiC devices are more efficient at handling high powers and conducting heat than traditional silicon. When used in electric vehicle (EV) system components, this allows for a more efficient transfer of electricity from the battery to the motor, increasing the driving range of an EV by 5% to 10%. SK Siltron CSS partners with global semiconductor manufacturers through supplying leading-edge compound semiconductor wafer solutions. A subsidiary of South Korea-based SK Siltron, a part of the SK Group, SK Siltron CSS is able to leverage the global resources available within the SK Group. SK Group, South Koreas second-largest conglomerate, is a collection of global companies driving innovations in semiconductors, sustainable energy, telecommunications and life sciences. Qorvo serves diverse high-growth segments of large global markets, including consumer electronics, smart home/IoT, automotive, EVs, battery-powered appliances, network infrastructure, healthcare and aerospace/defense. Green River Police Department reports for Oct. 21 At 9:58 a.m., officers responded to a report of vandalism at the Embassy Tavern. Officers met with an employee of the Star Bus Transit who reported finding graffiti on the inside of one of the bus shelters. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 12:18 p.m., officers responded to a report of fraud. Officers met with the owner of FGHD who reported a fraudulent transaction by a customer. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 12:34 p.m., officers responded to a report of a two-vehicle collision on East Flaming Gorge Way. It was reported one vehicle was backing out of a parking space traveling east, when the rear bumper of the vehicle struck the rear bumper of the second vehicle, which was parked and unoccupied facing south. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 12:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of a citizen assist. Officers met with an individual who reported they had received a toll bill from Texas, but had not been through Texas. After looking into the incident, it was determined it was not their vehicle but a vehicle with the same plate number. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 12:49 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with an arrest and hold order on Commerce Drive. Officers met with the individual, confirmed the warrant, and placed Shawnee May, of Rock Springs, under arrest. Officers transported May to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 4:12 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with a pocket knife that was threatening another individual at the Embassy Tavern. Officers located the individual who was causing a disturbance, and subsequently placed Gary Welfl, of Green River, under arrest for alleged public intoxication. Officers transported Welfl to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 8:31 p.m., officers were conducting a walk through at the Recreation Center when they were advised of a disturbance between two parents in the gym. Officers met with individuals who reported an incident involving their kids. Officers separated the parties, gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 9:23 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with an individual that was involved in a prior verbal dispute. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. Oct. 22 At 12:52 a.m., officers responded to a report of a juvenile runaway. Officers met with the juvenile, who was transported home, and met with the juveniles parents or guardians. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 5:33 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with an individual who reported prior domestic altercations. Officers made contact with the other individual, who was arrested per an outstanding warrant. Officers transported Jacob Kunkle, of Rock Springs, to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 7:48 p.m., officers responded to a report of a suspicious circumstance on Trona Drive. Officers met with an individual who reported that an individual had solicited at their residence claiming they could save them money on their TV bill and asked to see their current bill. The individual could not provide proof of employment and was asked to leave. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 7:58 p.m., officers responded to a report of threats or harassment. Officers met with an individual who reported receiving threatening text messages from their ex. Officers advised on the process of trespassing and protection orders. Officers attempted to make contact with the other party, but were unsuccessful. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 11:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of a single-vehicle collision. It was reported one vehicle was negotiating the left-hand turn from Uinta Drive to E 2nd S Street when the driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle struck the right hand curb, traveled over the sidewalk and came to rest in the ditch. Officers met with the driver of the vehicle, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. Oct. 23 At 8:56 a.m., officers responded to a report of drugs. Officers met with an individual who turned over paraphernalia found in their childs room. Officers met with the individual and issued a citation for alleged possession of drug paraphernalia to the juvenile, 17, of Green River. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 5:45 p.m., officers responded to a report of trespassing at Clearview Bowling. Officers met with an individual previously trespassed from the property, advised of the trespass order, escorted the individual from the property, and completed a report of the incident. Oct. 24 At 7:33 a.m., officers responded to a report of loose livestock on Wild Horse Canyon Road. Officers observed wild horses in the area and advised the individual they were wild horses. At 10:06 a.m., officers observed an abandoned bicycle and booked it in for safekeeping. Officers later released the bike to the owner and completed a report of the incident. At 10:14 a.m., officers responded to a report of vandalism at Edgewater Park. Officers met with an individual who reported a vehicle that had been egged. Officers made contact with the owner of the vehicle, gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 3:34 p.m., officers responded to a report of larceny at Jensen Street. Officers met with an individual who reported paying funds for an item they never received. Officers attempted to make contact with the seller but were unsuccessful. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 9:43 p.m., officers responded to a report of an intoxicated individual at Pennys Diner. Officers met with the individual and subsequently issued a citation for alleged public intoxication to Thomas Potton, of Green River. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. Oct. 25 At 5:06 p.m., officers along with the GRFD responded to a report of a structure fire on West Teton Boulevard. All occupants were safely removed from the apartment complex, and the fire was extinguished by the Green River Fire Department. The GRFD reported that the cause of the fire appeared to be caused by a malfunctioning vent fan located in the upstairs apartment bathroom. EMS responded but no transports were made. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 9:52 a.m., officers responded to a report of fraud on Collier Circle. Officers met with an individual who reported a possible scam. It was reported the individual purchased an insurance policy and wanted the transaction verified. Officers spoke to the seller and verified it was a legitimate transaction. At 10:42 a.m., officers responded to a possible exploitation of a vulnerable adult on West Railroad Avenue. It was reported an individual sent funds to an unknown individual in order to receive a grant. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 12:27 p.m., officers responded to a report of a hit and run collision at Green River High School. Officers met with an individual who reported finding damage to their vehicle that had been parked and unoccupied in the parking lot. Officers gathered information and attempted to locate the other involved vehicle. At 7:35 p.m., officers responded to a report of a deer that had been hit by a vehicle at Lincoln Middle School. Officers located a deer that was deceased but were unable to locate the vehicle. Oct. 26 At 6:46 a.m., officers responded to a report of fraud at Alamosa Circle. Officers met with an individual who reported having a corporation filed in the state of Wyoming, using their address. According to the Wyoming Secretary of State Office, it was determined the corporation was filed legitimately, and the individual was advised to seek civil actions against the corporation. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 7:08 a.m., officers responded to a report of a possible fire on Bridger Drive. Officers observed a plastic flower pot that had been melted and was smoking. The GRFD responded and confirmed there was not a fire danger. Officers made contact with the resident and neighbors, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. At 4:33 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle at Astle Avenue and Bramwell Street and ascertained the driver had an outstanding warrant. Officers confirmed the warrant and placed Betty Callahan, of Green River, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Callahan to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 5 p.m., officers responded to a report of a scam on Windriver Drive. Officers met with an individual who reported receiving text messages threatening blackmail. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 5:14 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on Uinta Drive and issued the driver, Preston Peterson, of Green River, a citation for alleged valid certificate of title, registration, and license plates violation. Oct. 27 At 4:44 p.m., officers responded to a report of property damage on South Dakota Street. Officers met with an individual who reported damages to a residence. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 6:08 p.m., officers responded to a report of a juvenile individual being in possession of a controlled substance. Officers located suspected marijuana and paraphernalia. Officers met with the juvenile and issued a citation for alleged unlawful possession - plant form < 3 oz to the juvenile, 17, of Green River. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. Oct. 28 At 3:57 a.m., officers responded to a report of a fight in progress on Medicine Bow Drive. Officers located several individuals in the area, two of which were fleeing the scene. Officers met with one of the individuals, gathered information, attempted to make contact with the other two involved individuals, and completed a report of the incident. At 2:54 p.m., officers responded to a report of found drugs on S Riverbend Drive. Officers met with an individual who reported they found suspected drugs and paraphernalia outside by their driveway. Officers collected the suspected drugs and paraphernalia, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. At 10:37 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on Uinta Drive and issued the driver, Ana Salas, of Green River, a citation for alleged speeding. At 11:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance with an individual possibly having a firearm at The Brewery. While officers were enroute they were informed the subject had left. Officers searched the area and were unable to locate the subject. Officers met with several individuals, gathered information and completed a report of the incident, which is still under investigation. Oct. 29 At 4:56 a.m., officers responded to a report of an individual that was sitting by a pole, believed to be intoxicated on N 5th W Street. Officers located the individual and made contact. Officers subsequently issued citations and placed Thomas Patton, of Green River, under arrest for alleged open container and public intoxication. Officers transported Patton to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 4:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with the individuals involved in a verbal confrontation. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 6:13 p.m., officers responded to a report of a larceny on Greasewood Street. Officers met with an individual who reported items missing from their yard. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 7:35 p.m., officers responded to a REDDI report. Officers located the vehicle on East Flaming Gorge Way and conducted a traffic stop. Officers met with the occupants of the vehicle and observed an open container. Officers gathered information and subsequently issued a citation for alleged open container to the passenger, Alissa Ekdahl, of Green River and issued a citation to the driver for alleged DWUI - incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle. Officers placed the driver, Paula Attebury, of Green River, under arrest, transported Attebury to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 9:31 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop at Uinta Drive and East Flaming Gorge Way and issued the driver, Liam Oneal, of Green River, a citation for alleged expired temporary license/improper registration. At 9:48 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop at East Flaming Gorge Way and Uinta Drive and issued the driver, a juvenile, 14, of Rock Springs, citations for alleged when headlights required violation, improper lane usage, no valid drivers license and/or violations of drivers license conditions. Officers issued a citation to the passenger Jacob Strickland, of Rock Springs, for alleged permit non-licensed to drive car. Oct. 30 At 12:56 a.m., officers observed a vehicle with two individuals who appeared to be sleeping inside at FMC Park. Officers made contact with occupants, and one of the individuals was found to be a juvenile. Officers contacted a parent/guardian and transported the juvenile. Officers issued the juvenile, 16, of Rock Springs, a citation for alleged curfew violation. Officers gathered information, released the juvenile to a parent/ guardian, and completed a report of the incident. At 2:41 a.m., officers responded to a report of a fight at the Embassy Tavern. Officers made contact with several parties, but the suspects had fled the area prior to officers arrival. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. Commissioners approve grant for Sheriffs Office to get new therapy dog After the county commissioners approved a grant agreement at this weeks meeting, the Sweetwater County Sheriffs Office is on-track to have the first therapy K-9 program inside a detention center in the United States. Sheriff John Grossnickle, Detention Center Deputy Caitlyn Zaragoza and Sweetwater County Grants Manager Krisena Marchal presented at the Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday to tell the commissioners about the idea for the new program and to get approval for a grant that will help get the program started. The University of Wyoming awarded a... General Election will be held Nov. 8 It's time for the people to make their voice heard. The Wyoming General Election is Tuesday, November 8. Those who haven't already voted by absentee ballot can show up to the polls to cast their votes in person. Polling locations throughout Sweetwater County will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Voter ID is required at all polling locations. Early Absentee Voting at the Sweetwater County Courthouse at 80 West Flaming Gorge Way in Green River will be open during normal business hours up through November 7. All absentee ballots must be received by the Sweetwater County Clerk's Office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 8. Absentee ballots cannot be delivered to a polling place. The general election will determine federal, state, county and local positions, as well as determine whether certain constitutional amendments and taxes are passed. All voters will be asked if they are for or against two proposed amendments to the Wyoming constitution. Amendment A would allow the funds of counties, cities and other political subdivisions to be invested in equities such as the stock of corporations. Amendment B would increase the mandatory retirement age of supreme court and district court judges from 70 to 75. Sweetwater County residents will also be asked if two taxes should be adopted. The first tax is the renewal of the existing Lodging Tax, a 2% sales tax for guests in hotels, motels, campgrounds, and similar establishments. The second tax is the 1% specific purpose sales tax. The ballot question lists the specific projects the tax will fund and the cost of those projects. While many elected positions were determined during the primary election in August, other races have continued to the general election with candidates from multiple parties vying for the position. Elected positions everyone in Sweetwater County will vote on include: Federal race: - U.S. Representative: Harriet Hageman (Republican) and Lynette Greybull (Democrat) State races: - Governor: Incumbent Mark Gordon (Republican), Theresa Livingston (Democrat) and Jared Baldes (Libertarian) - Superintendent of Public Instruction: Megan Degenfelder (Republican) and Sergio A. Moldonado, Sr. (Democrat) Uncontested state races: - Secretary of State Chuck Gray (Republican) - State Auditor Kristi Racines (Republican) - State Treasurer Curt Meier (Republican) County races: - County Sheriff: Incumbent John Grossnickle (Republican) and Chris Sutton (Independent) - County Treasurer: Incumbent Joseph M. Barbuto (Democrat) and Mark Cowan (Republican) Uncontested county races: - County Commissioner: Island Richards (Republican), Robb Slaughter (Republican), and Keaton D. West (Republican) - County Coroner: Dale Majhanovich (Democrat) - County Attorney Dan Erramouspe (Republican) - Clerk of the District Court: Donnalee Bobak (Republican) - County Clerk: Cindy Lane (Republican) - County Assessor: Dave Divis (Republican) Sweetwater County residents will also be asked if current judges should be retained in their positions. State Senators in Districts 11 and 13 will be elected, as well as State Representatives in Districts 15, 17, 18, 39, 47, 48 and 60. Residents in Green River, Rock Springs, Granger and Wamsutter will vote on mayor and city council positions. Board of Trustees positions for Sweetwater County School Districts 1 and 2 and Western Wyoming Community College will be up for election, as well as other districts including conservation districts, hospital districts, water and sewer districts, and more. The county website, sweetwatercountywy.gov, has election information including sample ballots, candidate information, help finding where to vote, elections maps and more. Residents can also contact the County Clerk's office with questions. Jillian Zerkle (center) talks with Steve Humphries-Wadsworth (left) and Josh Spinney at the Cedar Mountain Center on Oct. 20. Zerkle serves as a unit coordinator for the facility, returning there after going through the program herself in 2019. CODY -Around the Cedar Mountain Center, Jillian Zerkle is known as the kind of person who "opens doors, both literally and metaphorically," said Steve Humphries-Wadsworth. Zerkle has only worked at the facility since January, but immediately endeared herself to staff and residents, said Humphries-Wadsworth, the service line director of the center. As a unit coordinator for the facility, Zerkle connects with residents, and makes sure they feel supported and stay mindful during one of the most difficult battles of their lives: an ongoing fight with mental health challenges and substance abuse... Gertrude Mary Gerrard, 85, passed away surrounded by her loving family on Saturday, October 29, 2022 at her home in Green River, Wyoming. She was a resident of Green River for 56 years and former resident of Hiawatha, Wyoming. She was born October 7, 1937 in Rock Springs, Wyoming the daughter of Robert Logan and Barbara Arnett. Mrs. Gerrard attended schools in Green River, Wyoming and graduated Lincoln High School in 1956. She also attended Western Wyoming Community College for 2 years. She married Ellsworth Dewain "Dewey" Gerrard on August 3, 1955 in Randolph, Utah. Mrs. Gerrard loved sewing; crocheting; traveling to different places; reading books; growing flowers and drawing with chalks on canvas. Survivors include her husband, Dewain "Dewey" Gerrard of Green River, Wyoming; one son, Robert Gerrard and wife Marletta of Green River; Wyoming; one daughter, Bonnie L. Mendivil and husband Mario of Green River, Wyoming; one brother, Jim Logan of Layton, Utah; 9 grandchildren: 20 great-grandchildren; several cousins, nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, one brother, 2 sisters, 1 daughter and 2 grandchildren. Cremation will take place; a Celebration of Life will be conducted at a later date. Condolences may be left at http://www.vasefuneralhomes.com. John Marion Hewitt, 60, passed away Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at his home in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He was a life-long resident of Rock Springs. Mr. Hewitt died of a sudden illness. He was born on August 14, 1962 in Rock Springs, Wyoming; the son of Roy Marion Hewitt and Angela Sophie Haun Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt attended schools in Rock Springs, Wyoming and was a 1981 graduate of Rock Springs High School. He worked for Mountain Fuel Supply Company and other construction companies as a Foreman and Operator. Doing dirt work was his specialty. He could run every piece of equipment a contractor had. His favorite machine was the Track hoe and motor grader. He did a lot of blue topping-feathers and cutting slopes. He retired at an early age due to work related injuries. Mr. Hewitt was a member of Restoration Ministries. He enjoyed spending time with family; four wheeling; riding his off-road vehicle; riding motorcycles and fishing. Survivors include his two brothers, Joseph R. Hewitt and wife Janice Reynolds of Farmington, New Mexico; Jerry Jerome Hewitt and wife Nancy of Greeley, Colorado; JoAnn Hewitt Sims of Prescott Valley, Arizona; Jeanette Dowling and husband Russ of Prescott Valley, Arizona; several cousins; nieces, nephews and extended family. He is preceded in death by his parents, one son, John Patrick Hewitt. Cremation has taken place; a Celebration of Life will be conducted at 11:00 A.M. Saturday, November 5, 2022 at Restoration Ministries, 518 Elk Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming. Graveside Services and Inurnment will be in the Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery. Condolences may be left at http://www.vasefuneralhomes.com. Samsungs Mobile Experience (MX) held a meeting with component suppliers where it discussed several interesting topics including concerning its foldable phone strategy. A report from TheElec details that Samsung estimates up to 80% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for its foldable until 2025. Samsung confirmed high demand for its folding phones in its home market and shared that South Korean iPhone users in their 20s and 30s are switching to Samsung foldables at a much higher rate than before - reportedly 3x to 4x higher than in previous years. Samsung MX officials expect Apple to release its first foldable device in 2024 though it wont be an iPhone but a foldable tablet or notebook computer instead. These new claims fall in line with a previous report from CCS Insight. Samsung also believes 90% of current foldable phone users will also get a foldable as their next device. Source Over 100 black-necked cranes wintering in southwest China Xinhua) 09:07, November 04, 2022 Black-necked cranes are seen at Dashanbao National Nature Reserve for Black-necked Cranes in Zhaotong City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 1, 2022. (Photo by Wu Taiping/Xinhua) KUNMING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Over 100 migratory black-necked cranes, a species under first-class state protection in China, were recently spotted in a national nature reserve in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China, marking the arrival of their wintering period. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, more than 100 black-necked cranes, along with over ten other migratory bird species, had arrived at the Yunnan Dashanbao National Nature Reserve for Black-necked Cranes, said the reserve's administration bureau. Compared with the number recorded last year, this year has seen an earlier arrival of the rare cranes and an increase in the number of the first batch of wintering black-necked cranes, according to the bureau. The reserve, located in Zhaoyang District of Zhaotong City, is the most significant wintering habitat and transfer station for migratory black-necked cranes on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Over recent years, the reserve has made a determined effort to implement conservation measures, such as wetland protection and restoration and construction of food source bases, in order to steadily improve its ecological environment for migratory birds. During the past three years, an average of over 1,500 black-necked cranes were spotted arriving at the reserve for wintering, while the numbers of other migratory birds were also on the rise thanks to these local conservation efforts. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) The Port Authority of Guam has completed the construction of new concrete gate booths, according to a news release from the agency. The two new state-of-the-art gate booths replace the smaller corroded metal booths and are a part of the ports efforts to modernize the commercial seaport. The gate booths are the entry and exit points for all inbound and outbound cargo. This is a perfect example of hardening our facilities and building resiliency within our yard which aligns with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorios first priority of the 2018 Transition Report, to modernize port facilities to include upgrading the terminal operating system, Port General Manager Rory J. Respicio stated in a news release. Replacing the metal gate booths with concrete structures will better sustain against the harsh environmental conditions associated with operating the islands only commercial seaport. Each booth has increased in size to improve functionality for operations with an expected lifespan of 20 to 30 years. The expansion of each gate booth and related adjustments include: Lengthening communication lines. Electrical wiring and conduit. Relocation of hose bib and associated plumbing. New lighting fixtures and new air-conditioning systems. New closed-circuit video cameras. New doors and windows that can withstand a minimum of 170 mph sustained wind velocity. Construction of a third gate booth is ongoing and is expected to be finished by the end of this month. The total cost to upgrade all three booths was $159,557 and was entirely funded by the Port Authority of Guam. The project was contracted out to Pacific Federal Management, Inc. Public safety and law enforcement officers filled the Guam Congress building Friday to show support for legislation that would allow them to retire at the age of 55 without having their benefits docked, Sen. Jose Pedo Terlajes Bill 346. As you get older, it gets harder to do this job. It gets harder to be a firefighter, said Daniel Atoigue, with the Guam Fire Department. Can you imagine me having to go up the three flights of stairs having to carry you down or your family members while still trying to fight the fire? Not saying I wont do it. I will do it. But its gonna be hard, and Ill put myself as a liability as well, he said, adding that federal firefighters were required to retire at age 57. While lawmakers were generally supportive of lowering the retirement age for those in uniform, they wanted more input and review of the proposal, especially from members of the Government of Guam Retirement Fund who did not appear for the bills public hearing. Defined Benefit 1.75 GovGuam in 2016 reformed its retirement policy after it was found that the average employee who had passed the retirement age of 55 had saved just $50,000, PDN files show. Employees, for a limited time, were allowed to opt into the alternative Defined Benefit 1.75, which pays a fixed annual retirement contribution of 1.75% of an employees salary but bumps the retirement age up to 62. Some 2,994 employees are members of the Defined Benefit 1.75 plan, according to Bill 346s findings. Director of Administration Ed Birn said that before throwing full support behind the measure, he wanted more time to review the document that had spurred the proposal: an actuarial study commissioned through the Retirement Fund. His main issue was that the measure did not just affect peace officers but would open up the Defined Benefit 1.75 once again to all new government employees starting in 2024. While the change would certainly benefit all government employees, he said the actuarial study which Terlaje had lobbied for was originally only meant to examine the effects of lowering the retirement age. My very quick view of the cost of this is its very cost sensitive. A very small change in assumptions can change the cost quite considerably. According to Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes, the Retirement Fund had not finalized its position on the bill either. Though representatives did not appear, the agency communicated that it would be bringing up the legislation at an upcoming board meeting before submitting testimony. The vice speaker read a fiscal note from the Bureau of Budget and Management Research, which put the additional cost for Bill 346 at between $220,000 and $230,000 a year. Terlaje has said that employees will not have to pay more into retirement if the measure becomes law. Minority Republican leader Sen. Chris Duenas said he saw the need to reduce retirement ages. As the director of Department of Youth Affairs, I certainly saw firsthand, for over eight years, what law enforcement goes through in terms of the stress, but wanted to view the actuarial study first. Sen. Joanne Brown, meanwhile, questioned the timing of the bill. Its easy four days before the election to say, No problem, we got you covered. This is what you want? Were gonna give it to you. But I have to tell you, I think we need to make sure we have the information to make responsible decisions, she said, though she granted that public safety was a critical need at the moment. All senators present during the hearing will be on the ballot come Election Day. Haiti - Security : An armed intervention force led by Canada seems more and more imminent On Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened the Incident Response Group with ministers and senior officials to discuss the evolving situation in Haiti. They were joined by the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York, Bob Rae, the Ambassador of Canada to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, and the Ambassador of Canada to Haiti, Sebastien Carriere. The group was briefed by Mr. Daniel Jean, Representative of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, who led the governments recent interdepartmental assessment mission to Haiti from October 26 to 29, 2022. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37992-haiti-crisis-canada-leads-an-assessment-mission-in-haiti.html Mr. Jean advised the group that Haiti remains in a precarious security and humanitarian situation, which has been exacerbated by gang control over key installations and sites in Port-au-Prince, including the Varreux terminal https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38048-haiti-flash-end-of-the-blockade-of-the-oil-terminal-victory-of-the-pnh-the-g9-derouted.html and an important transportation and commercial hub. Blockades by gangs continue to exacerbate the grave humanitarian crisis by limiting the flow of fuel, food, water, medicine, and other essential goods. The group stressed the urgent need to restore security and humanitarian access in the country, and discussed how Canada and its partners including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations, the United States of America, civil society organizations, and others are supporting the people of Haiti in this difficult time. They explored a range of options, underlining Canadas readiness to work with partners to address Haitis complex and immediate security and humanitarian needs through concrete actions. Prime Minister Trudeau underscored the importance of ensuring unhindered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those affected, of holding those responsible for the unrest to account, and of working with partners to support a Haitian-led solution to the current situation. The Prime Minister and ministers reiterated Canadas commitment to further collaborating with regional and international partners to support Haitis security and stability. Let's recall that Trudeau had declared to the media that same day, before taking part in the weekly meeting of his caucus "[...] We understand how there are many Haitians who do not want to see international intervention. It's a reality but at the same time, we look at the crisis, the rapes, the violence, the poverty, the cholera, the health crisis and we say to ourselves We have to intervene in one way or another." See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38048-haiti-flash-end-of-the-blockade-of-the-oil-terminal-victory-of-the-pnh-the-g9-derouted.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38026-haiti-politic-armed-intervention-in-haiti-canada-has-not-yet-made-its-decision.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38010-haiti-politic-intervention-in-haiti-the-pm-of-canada-temporizes.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37992-haiti-crisis-canada-leads-an-assessment-mission-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37986-haiti-politic-secretary-blinken-in-canada-to-discuss-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37946-haiti-crisis-prime-minister-trudeau-met-with-caricom-heads-of-government.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... FLASH "Mikaben": Funeral Vigil in Montreal Saturday will be held a vigil for the Canadian-Haitian artist "Mikaben" who died on stage at the age of 41, victim of a heart attack in Paris, on October 15. The vigil will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, November 5 at Place Emilie-Gamelin, (intersection of Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Hubert streets). The organizers invite the public to bring a candle. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-38037-icihaiti-notice-celebration-in-florida-of-the-life-of-mikaben-place-day-and-schedule.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37905-haiti-death-of-mikaben-rain-of-messages-of-sympathy-part-ii.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37895-haiti-flash-michael-benjamin-mikaben-dies-on-stage-in-front-of-20-000-fans-video.html Gusts of automatic weapons all over PAP Thursday, November 3rd, bursts of automatic weapons were heard everywhere in downtown Port-au-Prince. Gunshot wounds were reported. A wind of panic blew at Delmas 18 with heavy gunfire from armed individuals. This situation paralyzed commercial activities in the area. The rout of the men of the "G9" during the takeover by the PNH of the Varreux oil terminal https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38048-haiti-flash-end-of-the-blockade-of-the-oil-terminal-victory-of-the-pnh-the-g9-derouted.html are probably the causes of these numerous shots intended to sow terror and remind the population that the gangs are still there... Congratulations to the PNH "The Government congratulates the National Police of Haiti (ONH) for the professionalism it has deployed today, to regain control of the Varreux terminal which was under the control of armed men, as of Monday petroleum products will be available in all the stations," Jude Charles Faustin, Secretary General See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38048-haiti-flash-end-of-the-blockade-of-the-oil-terminal-victory-of-the-pnh-the-g9-derouted.html The UNHCR asks the whole world not to repatriate any more Haitians to Haiti Thursday the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) asked all countries to suspend forced repatriations of Haitian nationals to their country of origin, highlighting the serious humanitarian and security crisis facing this country. Makenzy Orcel misses the Prix Goncourt Thursday, November 3, 2022, meeting at the restaurant Drouant (Paris), the Jury of 10 academicians elected as winner of the 120th Prix Goncourt, Brigitte Giraud for her novel "Vivre vite". The Haitian writer Makenzy Orcel with his novel "Une somme humaine" (Ed. Rivages, 2022) was among the 4 finalists https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-37977-icihaiti-prix-goncourt-last-straight-line-for-the-haitian-writer-makenzy-orcel.html HL/ HaitiLibre Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up New Ad-free Subscriber Login Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help Published on 2022/11/03 | Source Expectations are high for actor Shin Jae-ha's active activities. Advertisement On the 1st, J Wide Company released Shin Jae-ha's new profile picture. He returned from his military duty in May and reported on the casting of a series of works from SBS drama "Taxi Driver 2" to tvN drama "Crash Course in Romance". Shin Jae-ha, who boasts mature visuals in the new profile picture released, draws attention with a warmer atmosphere. Showing his natural charm with a white shirt and a T-shirt, he has a variety of appearances going back and forth between a soft expression and a refreshing smile. On top of that, he adds a sophisticated and chic mood with a black turtleneck and charismatic eyes, revealing his eight-color side without hesitation. Meanwhile, Shin Jae-ha is expected to have work activities that will fill the first half of 2023. Shin Jae-ha, who joined SBS's "Taxi Driver 2" as his first return film after being discharged from the military, visits the small screen as On Ha-joon, an innocent new rainbow transportation driver who calls for care. He will then play Ji Dong-hee, the main director of Choi Chi-yeol (Jung Kyung-ho), a one-shot instructor, in tvN's "Crash Course in Romance", and try to transform a character different from "Taxi Driver 2". As a result, attention is focused on the acting that Shin Jae-ha, who is expected to show more in the future with his steady filmography and infinite charm, will perform in various fields. Parliament has approved an amendment to the Act on Student Financial Aid, raising the income limits applicable to student financial aid. The income limits for student financial aid will be increased by 50 percent from 2021. Additionally, the target time to earn a degree and qualify for a student loan compensation for higher education students can be extended by one academic year. The changes will take effect on 1 January 2023. The amendment will also bring a change to the qualifying criteria for a student loan compensation. The limits on annual income will be raised across the board in 2023 to a level 50 percent higher than that applicable in 2021. Compared to 2022, the income limits will go up by about 20 percent. Students who get financial aid for 9 months can next year have up to 18,720 euros in earnings before taxes. The corresponding limit for students who receive financial aid for 10 months is 16,640 euros. No per-month income limits apply to student financial aid. Students can earn their income at any time during the calendar year as long as it does not exceed the annual income limit. Students studying in a country under martial law can take longer to earn a degree and qualify for a student loan compensation Students who complete their degree within a specified target time can get a student loan compensation. In academic year 20212022, about 40 higher education students in Ukraine received financial aid from Finland. Having had to interrupt their studies in Ukraine following Russias attack on that country, these students could lose their right to a student loan compensation. The amended law makes it possible to extend the target time for earning a degree for students attending school in a country which is under martial law. The target time can be extended by one academic year. For example, students pursuing a 300-credit university degree typically qualify for a student loan compensation if they complete their degree in six academic years or less. However, if the country in which they study is under martial law, students can get a student loan compensation if they take seven academic years to earn their degree. The target time to earn a degree can also be extended by one academic year for other exceptional circumstances comparable in severity to a state of war. This can include a serious mass casualty incident or natural disaster, a large-scale armed attack, or a dangerous communicable disease that has spread widely. In 2021, the average student loan compensation for students having completed a degree in a foreign institution of higher education was 8,210 euros. Read more HT Source: Kela Theres a bit of a decline but nothing radical. The Social Democrats support has fallen more among women than men and the most among the elderly population, summarised Tuomo Turja , the research director at Taloustutkimus. SUPPORT for the Social Democrats has dropped 1.1 percentage points to 18.2 per cent, its second lowest level this year, reveals the latest opinion poll conducted for YLE by Taloustutkimus. The ruling party remains the second most popular party in the country and on track to improve on its vote share in the previous parliamentary elections (17.7%). The National Coalition, in turn, saw its popularity drop by 0.3 points to 23.9 per cent but remains firmly in pole position ahead of the parliamentary elections held on 2 April. The Finns Party similarly registered a drop in popular support, falling from 17.1 to 16.7 per cent. Both the Centre Party and Green League showed some long-awaited signs of life. Support for the Centre rose by 0.6 points to 10.9 per cent a mild consolation after slumping to an all-time low in polls conducted by Taloustutkimus. Turja told the public broadcasting company that the party saw its popularity increase especially in western parts of Finland, the base of both chairperson Annika Saarikko and parliamentary group leader Eeva Kalli. The Green League saw its popularity increase by 0.7 points to its highest level this year: 10.1 per cent. The ruling party, though, remains on track to fall nearly 1.5 points short of its vote share in the parliamentary elections of 2019. It looks like there isnt as much movement from the Greens to Left Alliance as in previous months, told Turja. Support for the Left Alliance crept up by 0.1 points to 8.5 per cent. The Swedish Peoples Party recorded the most significant change among the smaller parties, climbing 0.8 points to 5.0 per cent. The National Coalition has tended to take away both space and supporters from other right-wing parties. But the Swedish Peoples Party managed to hold on to its old supporters very well in this poll, he said. The Christian Democrats dropped 0.3 points to 3.0 per cent, whereas Movement Now stood pat at 1.7 per cent. Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,502 people for the poll between 10 October and 1 November. Aleksi Teivainen HT GOVERNMENTS undertaking to heavily descend on all those abusing Presidential lnputs Schemes has resulted in the quick arrest and prosecution of five security guards who recently stole Pfumvudza inputs worth $1,7 million at the Grain Marketing Boards Mutare Depot. The arrest of the five led to the recovery of inputs worth $1 749 000. Innocent Bhondayi (27), Whickway Makocho (36), Dakarai Simango (41), Takesure Mushambi (55) and Banwell Mhlanga (40) were convicted on their own guilty pleas when they appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mr Langton Carter. They were charged with theft as defined in Section 113 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23. They were each ordered to fork out $15 300 as restitution of the stolen inputs and to perform 280 hours of community service. Ms Loice Kadenha prosecuted and said on October 24, Bhondayi, Makocho, Simango, Mushambi and Mhlanga stole 56x50kg bags of Compound D fertiliser and 5x10kgs bags of seed maize from the Grain Marketing Boards Mutare Depot. The theft was discovered by GMBs supply chain manager, Mr Collen Meki the following day when he carried out routine checks of physical stocks. He noticed that the stack which contained the Compound D fertiliser had been tampered with. This prompted him to carry out a stock take in the company of the depot supervisor, Mr Allen Makumba and stack builder, Mr Enock Pafiwa. They discovered that 56x50kgs bags of Compound D fertiliser and 5x10kgs of maize seed were missing, said Ms Kadenha. They reported the matter to the police and members of the Criminal Investigations Department attended the scene and arrested three of the guards who had been on duty the previous night. Upon interrogations, the three implicated their two accomplices and these were also arrested. Meanwhile, a Nyanga man, Evans Kamombo (57), was arrested for stealing and selling Zimbabwes Ambassador to Tanzania, Ambassador Anslem Sanyatwes fertiliser worth US$44 075. Kamombo pleaded not guilty when he recently appeared before Mr Carter. He was granted $20 000 bail and was remanded to November 16. It is alleged that Kamombo stole 469x50kgs of Ammonium Nitrate and 509x50kgs of Compound D fertiliser and sold it to hardware shops in Nyanga. Prosecuting, Mr Thurston Mubvumbi said sometime in December 2021, Ambassador Sanyatwe who has a farm in Nyanga received a consignment of 640x50kgs of Ammonium Nitrate and 560x50kgs of Compound D fertiliser. He assigned Kamombo to keep it safe. During the same month, Ambassador Sanyatwe instructed Kamombo to use 171x50kgs of Ammonium Nitrate and 51x50kgs of Compound D fertiliser at his farm. However, Kamombo took some of the fertiliser and sold it to several hardware shops in Nyanga. When Ambassador Sanyatwe came back in August and conducted a stock take, he discovered that 469x50kgs of Ammonium Nitrate and 509x50kgs of Compound D were missing. He confronted Kamombo but the suspect failed to give a convincing explanation of what had happened to the fertiliser. A report was made to the police, leading to his arrest, said Mr Mubvumbi. Fertiliser valued at US$44 075 was stolen and nothing was recovered. Manica Post ZIMBABWE and South Africa are planning to open a new border post for tourists in the Tshikwalakwala area along the Limpopo River to boost tourism in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation area (GLTFCA). The development follows a successful implementation of a dry run between Monday and yesterday which saw a group of seven travel reporters entering from the Pafhuri area in South Africa through Tshikwalakwala, some 130km east of the Beitbridge Border Post. They also left via the same point and are expected to profile a number of tourist attraction centres and products in Zimbabwes component of the GLTFCA. It is envisaged that the new entry point will be opened on a set schedule mostly during the dry season when the Limpopo river bed will be dry. The GLTFCA is made up of national parks from Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. At the moment, South Africa and Zimbabwe share the Beitbridge Port of Entry as the only land port, and occasionally informal borders are opened at Shashe and Tshikwalakwala for seasonal tourism events. GLTFCA International coordinator Mr Gwinyai Muti said they expected the new tourism border to be officially opened around March or April next year. The sole purpose of this tour is to test and capture GPS points for the route directly linking Kruger National Park in South Africa and the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe through affected communal land, while simultaneously showcasing and marketing community facilities along the route to the mini group of media houses, he said. This is in line with one of the GLTFCA objectives which seek to promote trans-border ecotourism as a means of fostering regional socio-economic development and integration. After this dry run, we expect the journalists from across Sadc to market this place as a destination of choice in Africa. Mr Muti said the South African component of the mega park was receiving over 1,5 million tourists a year and that Zimbabwe was targeting at least 10 percent of those to cross over during the course of their visit. He said Zimbabwean authorities had covered a lot of ground in terms of seeing the tourism border operating as planned in line with the National Development Strategy 1 and Vision 2030, to become an upper-middle income economy. The officials said the identified crossing point, had the potential to enhance tourism access and beneficiation linked to the wildlife economy between the Great Kruger protected area network, which includes the Makuleke Contractual National Park, Sengwe Corridor, plus the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. The GLTFCA recognises that communities across the international border dividing South Africa and Zimbabwe are related, and the conservation success and protection of the natural resources depend on the collective vision and action of these communities in securing and protecting national resources, said Mr Muti. Herald Chinese FM calls for building maritime community with shared future Xinhua) 09:54, November 04, 2022 Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a speech via video at the opening ceremony of a symposium on global maritime cooperation and governance, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to work with other countries to uphold the spirit of building a maritime community with a shared future, coordinate maritime development and security, and advance maritime cooperation and governance, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday. Wang made the remarks via video at the opening ceremony of a symposium on global maritime cooperation and governance. He called on all relevant parties to properly handle maritime conflicts through peaceful means, respond to maritime challenges with unity, oppose maritime hegemony in a clear-cut manner and jointly safeguard maritime security. He also called for promoting maritime connectivity, upholding real multilateralism and safeguarding the maritime order based on international law. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Hilton's urban lifestyle brand proves it matters where you stay for guests looking to live like a local in the heart of the Riviera Maya. The Mexican Riviera welcomes Motto by Hilton to the Caribbean and Latin America for the first time as Motto by Hilton Tulum opens to guests inside the Hunab mixed-use lifestyle center this November. Designed to help guests have a truly local stay in prime global locations, this 115-room lifestyle hotel is surrounded by a jungle with ancient ruins and pristine beaches, and features eco-friendly design elements, authentic food and beverage offerings, retail shops and an exciting jungle bar. Motto by Hilton Tulum is located steps away from the entrance of Aldea Zama, inside of the Hunab Lifestyle Center, the first mall in the trendy Mexican resort town of Tulum that will soon become a focal point in Quintana Roo. With this premier location, guests are within steps of a variety of restaurants and offerings. Guests can also visit nearby world-renowned beaches within a short bike ride distance of the new hotel. Owned by Vantard SA de CV and developed by HiPICK Hotel Management, Motto by Hilton Tulum features two rooftop infinity pools with private cabanas and jungle views, Tulum's best fitness center with indoor and outdoor workout areas, and thoughtfully curated food and drink selections. Guests can start the day at the ground-level Bistro Coba with a regional inspired menu and fresh-pressed beverage offerings. Sample mixology and snacks at the rooftop pool bar, enjoy a modern twist on comfort food from sunup to late night at the rooftop restaurant bar and lounge downstairs at the relaxed Coba Bar. Motto by Hilton Tulum offers travel-sized guest rooms with an eco-friendly modern design using locally sustained elements that blend into Tulum's natural surroundings. More than 100 rooms offer flexible sleeping setups, including one queen bed (standard), a queen flex bed that stows into the wall, and The Bunkie (bunk bed), with a lower queen bed and an upper twin bed. With 43 sets of connecting rooms, guests have the ability to book up to five unique connecting rooms together using Confirmed Connecting Rooms by Hilton technology to simplify coordinating travel for larger friend and family groups. Each room is also designed to maximize space and is equipped with everything guests need for an enjoyable and restful night's sleep, including top-notch mattresses, conveniently located power outlets, streaming services on 50-inch TVs and the ability to adjust the room temperature, set the mood using lighting preferences and add white noise for a peaceful sleep all through the Hilton Honors app. For guests looking for an authentically local stay, Motto by Hilton Tulum has Motto Hosts onsite to specifically curate experiences for guests such as a sunset rooftop dinner with a Mayan ceremony, a premium mezcal tasting at Ancestral, a sustainable mobility E-scooter or E-bike, or even a Jungle DJ Class. Motto by Hilton Tulum has also partnered with the area's two biggest beach clubs, Bagatelle & Vagalume, to provide guaranteed access and sunbed service for hotel guests. For meetings and events, Motto by Hilton Tulum's rooftop can accommodate over 150 people, providing a breathtaking jungle backdrop to any business or leisure gathering. Motto by Hilton Tulum is part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest-loyalty program for Hilton's 18 distinct hotel brands. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount that can't be found anywhere else and free standard Wi-Fi. Members also enjoy popular digital tools available exclusively through the industry-leading Hilton Honors mobile app, where Hilton Honors members can check in, choose their room and access their room using a Digital Key. Hilton Honors members with Gold and Diamond status can enjoy a Daily Food & Beverage Credit as part of Hilton Honors MyWay benefit, adding even more flexibility and choice to their stay. Members (plus one additional guest registered to the same room) who choose the Hilton Honors Daily F&B Credit as their MyWay benefit when staying at Motto by Hilton Tulum will receive a $12 credit per day to use on any eligible food or beverage purchases made during their stay. Hotel website Inspiring hospitality development across Africa Join us as a changemaker at the Africa Hospitality Investment Forum this November, the annual meeting place for the region's most senior hospitality investors, developers, operators and advisors. As a changemaker you join a community which pushes for creative solutions, discovers new opportunities and drives investment into tourism projects, infrastructure and hotel development across Africa. This event is organized by The Bench For more information please contact Matthew Weihs +44 (0) 7858 511012 Major industry representatives are concerned by the direction that the European Parliament is taking in negotiations over the Platform Workers Directive, which reclassifies self-employed collaborators in the EU as digital platform workers. IRU, CEEMET, HOTREC, EBF-BCESA and ECEG representing road transport, hospitality and the banking sector, as well as chemical, metal, engineering and technology-based industries fear serious negative impacts from the European Parliaments proposals for the Platform Workers Directive. Source: HOTREC The proposals overly broad definition essentially reclassifies any self-employed collaborator who uses a computer to organise their work as a digital platform worker. This would put the financial and operational viability of many small and medium-sized (SMEs) firms at risk. The industry representatives call upon Members of the European Parliament to reject the excessive scope of the directive, which currently covers most companies operating in the EU market. The Parliaments approach deviates from the original purpose of the directive, which is to correct the unlawful behaviour of large, multinational companies. Instead, it would impact businesses that have been operating in the EU market for decades, obeying the rules and paying their fair share of taxes. The European Parliament should support a narrow definition of digital labour platforms, in accordance with the European Commissions original proposal, and expressly exclude SMEs from the scope of the directive. What is HOTREC? HOTREC is the umbrella association of Hotels, Restaurants, Bars and Cafes and similar establishments in Europe, which brings together 46 National associations in 35 countries, and is the voice of European hospitality. HOTREC's mission is to represent and champion its interests towards the EU and international institutions, foster knowledge sharing and best practices among its members to further promote innovation, and act as a platform of expertise for the hospitality sector. Marie Audren Director General HOTREC The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the urgency for hotels and hospitality companies worldwide to act to protect the well-being of the planet, communities, employees and guests, leading to a sharper focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. While still nascent, the Asia Pacific hotel industrys commitment to ESG and sustainability initiatives is steadily increasing a welcome development as the region has the highest concentration of hotel carbon emissions. Rising energy costs which have increased significantly since the onset of the pandemic as well as other factors such as the shift in guests preferences toward more sustainable tourism and green accommodation, and growing demand for disclosure around climate risk, are accelerating the industrys focus on sustainability. These developments are feeding into a trend that CBRE is observing in the hotels sector: green travellers want to stay in green hotels. With environmental consciousness coming to the fore, sustainable design will increasingly come into play, enhanced ESG practices will offer travellers places where they feel comfortable spending their time, and new investment opportunities will be created. This report examines the key ESG trends shaping the Asia Pacific hotels sector, and explores the key actions that hotel companies, developers and investors can take to effectively integrate ESG initiatives into their business, operations and investment strategies. Download the report here. About CBRE Group, Inc. CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 revenue). The company has more than 105,000 employees (excluding Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com. 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How TikTok brought Ghosts trackMary on a Cross back to life Capitalizing on a TikTok post, the Swedish Metal band Ghost had their first Hot 100 hit with an old psychedelic B-side Mary on a Cross. by Maura Johnston of Chartmetric Thanks to the way the Billboard Hot 100s data sourcing has changed in recent years, the music consumption chart has been full of unexpected entrants from years gone by like the 37-year-old Kate Bush banger Running Up That Hill, which was propelled onto the 2022 charts by Stranger Things, or the 1977 cut from Fleetwood Macs Rumours Dreams, which returned to Pops mainstream because of a chilled-out, cranberry-flavored TikTok clip. In September, the Swedish Metal band Ghost enjoyed similar success, notching their first Hot 100 hit. Mary On a Cross, a deceptively catchy cut from their 2019 EP Seven Inches of Satanic Panic, hit No. 90 on the Sept. 24 edition of that chart the bands first time on the all-genre pop tally thanks to 6M streams and 1K digital sales. The song initially came to prominence because of a fusion between Stranger Things and TikTok and Ghost smartly capitalized on the trends, leading to the tracks popularity soaring high enough that the bands masked frontman was invited to throw out the first pitch at a White Sox game in September. A Masked Band of Metallurgists Formed in Linkoping, Sweden, in 2006, Ghost plays a style of metal that borrows from many different sub-sects of the genre their home countrys Black Metal and the sludgy sonics of Metal pioneers Black Sabbath can be heard in their mix, but they also have a Pop appeal that has nudged their music toward the mainstream. Their look helps, too: Frontman Tobias Forge wears elaborate costumes onstage in his various anti-Pope guises, and hes backed by hooded musicians who are known simply as Nameless Ghouls. Sorting Chartmetrics Artists List for Metal bands surfaces Ghost at No. 9 according to Chartmetric Artist Rank. Ghosts striking presence and hooky songs have earned them a global cult followers; three of their albums have made it to the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, and they just wrapped up a tour of North American arenas that included stops at New Yorks UBS Arena and Montreals Place Bell. Before Mary On A Cross came out three years ago, the bands most-streamed songs included the crunchy Dance Macabre, a cut from their 2018 album Prequelle, and the churning Cirice, which appeared on 2015s Meliora. In March of this year they released their fifth album, Impera; its lead single Hunters Moon had actually premiered the previous fall, when it was used as the closing-credits music for the slasher flick Halloween Kills. It quickly hit the 3M stream mark on Spotify, and is now closing in on 27M streams there. Filtering the Artists List by Mainstream Metal artists surfaces Ghost as No. 1 according to Chartmetric Artist Rank. A Stranger Thing Happened Mary On A Cross was the B-side of Ghosts 2019 single Seven Inches of Satanic Panic, which was meant to mimic a 45 that had been excavated from the 1969 archives. (It was released digitally in the middle of September 2019 and put out on vinyl two weeks later.) The A-side, the chugging Kiss the Go-Goat, was accompanied by a video shot in part at the famed Los Angeles club the Whisky a Go-Go, with the band flanked by go-go dancers. Mary is a lighter track than its A-side, incorporating the chiming guitars and swirling organs of that eras psychedelia into its metal mix. Thanks to TikTok virality, Ghosts audience grew by around 40 percent on Spotify, YouTube, and Instagram and almost 500 percent on TikTok in the last three months. A little less than three years after the initial release of Mary, it crash-landed into the TikTok consciousness thanks to a video about Stranger Things, the Netflix series that aired its fourth season in the late spring of 2022. This years run of the show was a boon for two songs on the fringes of 80s pop: Bushs thrumming Hounds of Love cut Running Up That Hill went all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 after its inclusion on the show, while a savvy use of Metallicas 1986 thrash classic Master of Puppets sparked interest in those metal pioneers for an entirely new generation. The rise of Mary On A Cross was a bit different, however, spinning out of the Stranger Things universe into the wider TikTok world. It first came to prominence in a fan-made video about two of that shows characters, Will Byers (portrayed by Noah Schnapp) and Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard, who is a musician himself). The clip, which plays off the retro sonics of Mary with filters, was initially posted in late July by the multifandom comfort edits account @editingtherapy, and its been viewed 2.9M times since its initial posting, according to TikTok. Ghosts social and streaming engagement has skyrocketed in the last six months, bringing their Chartmetric Engagement Rank to just 637 out of 8.3M artists. The Immortal World of Mary on a Cross A key part of Mary going viral is that it musically isnt tied to Stranger Things, which allows the TikTok videos that are hitting big with it to be all over the map, thematically. As of this writing, the top five videos using Mary are a montage of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent posted on August 24 (45.9M views), a plant being spliced with another plant posted on August 31 (31.2M views), a clip where Russian president Vladimir Putin is happy about a dog posted on September 2 (16.7M views), a live video of Ghost performing Mary in Vienna that was recorded in May but posted on Aug. 13 (10.5M views), and a video about cuddling fossils that was posted on Aug. 16 (9.9M views). As of Oct. 21, Chartmetric counted 75.4K TikTok videos using Mary in its various forms. It took three years for Mary on a Cross to find its footing, but once the TikTok trend started in 2022, its Chartmetric Track Score took off. As seen above, the tracks Chartmetric score was solid when it initially was released in the fall of 2019, then plateaued for a couple of years before the release of the initial Stranger Things fan video. The momentum of Mary has sustained beyond the bands blip onto the Hot 100, with interest peaking in mid-September around Sept. 12, which was right in the middle of the tracking week for the Sept. 24 chart and a day before a scheduled Spotify Live event that unexpectedly crashed the streaming service. The failed Spotify Live Event seems to have coincided with a fluctuation in the Chartmetric Track Score for Mary on a Cross, but it subsqeuently recovered. Mary is regaining momentum this month, thanks in part to the track being included on Halloween-themed playlists like Spotifys Halloween Party, which currently boasts 701.8K followers. Mary on a Cross has seen exponential growth across streaming and social media platforms in the past six months. Ghost and their label, Loma Vista, have also responded smartly to the unexpected popularity of Mary on a Cross. In August, Ghost released a new version of Mary On A Cross that is slowed down and swathed in the reverb that makes so many TikTok hits catnip for creators. A few weeks later, both the original and slowed-down versions of Mary were included on [MESSAGE FROM THE CLERGY], which also included Dance Macabre and other popular songs by the band like Spillways, from this years Impera, and Square Hammer, from Meloria. Loma Vista also released a video of Ghost playing Mary live to commemorate the end of the tour and to show people curious about the song what Ghosts compelling live show looks like, drawing them into the bands singular world. While TikTok might be known for helping Pop artists, both past and present, blow up on the charts, its apparent that the platform is not only genre agnostic but potentially conducive for more niche genres like Metal to reclaim their place in the limelight. Share on: How to build your Artist Team Ever wonder who does what in the music industry? Well, here is a quick overview of each role all artists should have on their team. by Angela Tyler of Reverbnation Blog If you dream of having a career in the music industry, there are more opportunities than ever! It can be a lot to keep track of the music industry includes a variety of roles that work together to create the music we listen to. Hence, weve compiled a simple list of some of the most common industry roles and careers. Whether youre building your team as an artist or exploring new career options, heres a good starting point for understanding the diverse range of roles in the music industry. Manager A manager may oversee many facets of an artists career. It has a broad role in overseeing and managing an artists career. There are also different kinds of managers business managers represent artists in matters such as finance, while tour managers coordinate logistics on tour. On top of that, a managers role may vary depending on whether they are managing an indie artist or a major label/well-known artist. It may be kept to an advisory role, while others may assist in booking shows or coordinating press. A manager may wear many different hats. However, the primary role of a manager is to connect the artist to the music industry and keep their career on track. An artist manager is there to assist and manage the day-to-day workings of an artist. Booking Agent A booking agent is responsible for booking your tour. This could be for concerts, festivals and even on-air performances. They can work independently or in-house with venues, although most work with established booking companies. Generally, they work on full tours rather than one-off gigs and may request that you work with them exclusively for the tour. They also handle contracts and promotional material for the shows. Like managers, they typically work on a commission basis, so you likely need to be making money before hiring them. Promoter The role of a promoter is often confused with the role of a booking agent. Promoters oversee and organize the gigs, whereas the booking agents secure them on behalf of the artists. In a nutshell, they are responsible for publicizing and promoting performances to advertise the show and draw in a crowd. Promoters work closely with artists and their managers to plan and host the event. They also negotiate the artists fees for their appearances. While you may not work with them in the same way you might a manager or booking agent because their role is with the show, its a good distinction to know. Publicist Before you get the attention of managers, booking agents, and all the adoring fans, you need to have a strong brand and message to attract those opportunities. This is where PR comes in. A publicist helps to polish your brand and solidify your messaging before getting the word out to blogs, podcasts, playlists, you name it. Their responsibility is to elevate your brand and build social proof that attracts new fans as well as introduces you to the industry. If you are seeking new opportunities, gaining good press coverage can help you capture the attention of new audiences. Marketing More than ever, marketing is a key part of an indie artists career. As the music industry has changed and evolved, so has the role of music marketing. Music marketing involves a well-developed strategy, content creation, social media management, and much more. PR and Marketing can work well hand-in-hand and there is some overlap. PR connects you with opportunities for exposure while marketing focuses on well-positioned content and strategy. This can come in many forms, but we commonly see it in social media, newsletters, and ads. Angela Tyler is the founder of MP Co. (formerly Muddy Paw PR) securing placements on Forbes, Business Insider, American Songwriter, PopWrapped, & more. She loves dessert, her rescue dog Sawyer, and discovering new music. Share on: Store employees join manager Christine Bujanow to cut the ribbon on the new Kohl's department store in Lenox. The new Kohl's was constructed next to Marshalls in the The Center at Lenox. PreviousNext Kohl's Cuts Ribbon on Lenox Location Store manager Christine Bujanow prepares the sales floor before Kohl's grand opening LENOX, Mass. Store employees cut the ribbon on the Berkshire's newest retail store on Friday. Centrally located on Pittsfield Road, Kohl's hopes to meet the local demand for shopping options while providing personable customer service. The small format department store had a soft opening on Sunday before its official debut at the end of the week. This is the first Kohl's to open in Berkshire County. The closest stores are in Springfield and in Colonie, N.Y. Manager Christine Bujanow said the store was brought to the region to offer more diversity in products and give residents another place to shop. "We hope for amazing success and people in the community that really love to shop here and just have a great time here, make it feel more like a family store rather than a corporation just because we are a smaller style," she said. "To make sure that everyone is just treated with the utmost greatest customer service that we can provide and hospitality." There are currently 50 associates on staff and with the holiday season approaching, the store is looking for seasonal employees. Bujanow has been with the company for over a decade and has worked in five different stores. The building is new construction next to Marshall's. Employees were able to come in at the end of September, taking about a month to prepare the sales floor for opening. Kohl's carries a number of brands including Nike, Under Armor, Adidas, Champion, and in-store-exclusive brands such as Sonoma Goods for Life, LC by Lauren Conrad, and Simply Vera by Vera Wang. "I'm super excited and waiting years for this," said one customer who did not wish to give her name. She described the store as having "mini versions" of Kohl's housewares departments. But she thinks company "dropped the ball" by failing to include a jewelry counter or Sephora counter. There's another cosmetics outlet in the area that "could use a little competition," she said. She hopes that Kohl's will listen to customers and consider adding those missing departments. Along with excited customers, company leadership came to the store to mark its opening day. "I am absolutely thrilled that we're here in the Berkshires," Boston-Albany District Manager Sarena Bearce said. "Our store is beautiful. we're very, very excited to be here and we cannot wait to be a bigger part of the community." iciHaiti - Venezuela : Haiti donates food to the victims of Las Tejerias Following the landslide of October 8, 2022 in the city of Las Tejerias located in the State of Aragua (Central Venezuela), the Ambassador of Haiti Lesly David, on behalf of the Haitian people, handed to Ernesto Villegas, Minister of Culture to help the victims of Tejerias a "modest" batch of non-perishable foodstuffs : tuna, sardines, cereals, oil, pasta, rice, sweet cereals, plates and glasses. Minister Ernesto Villegas thanked the solidarity of the Government of Haiti. Ambassador Lesly David did not fail to recall, during this donation, that Venezuela "has always been the first when his country needed it." Let's remember that this landslide in Venezuela caused the death of 54 people. IH/ iciHaiti Manal Ajrama, deputy editor of the state-run Radio and Television Magazine and a member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, was jailed for 15 days on November 3 for criticising Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on her social media. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemns her arrest and the campaign of mass arrests launched by the Egyptian authorities to silence journalists and activists ahead of the COP27 climate summit. Security forces arrested 61-year-old Ajrama, on November 1 at her home in Cairo, after she criticised Egyptian President Al-Sisi on her social media account. On November 3, she was sentenced to 15 days in jail and transferred to Al-Qanater prison, where several female journalists and activists are held. Ahead of the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt, there are several global actions organised to demand the release of all imprisoned journalists and activists, including a call for a demonstration on November 11 against Al-Sisi's oppressive rule. In response, the government has launched a campaign of mass arrests to prevent any demonstrations coinciding with the climate conference. At least 25 journalists and media workers are imprisoned in Egypt for simply carrying out their professional duties, according to IFJ statistics. The detention of journalists is part of a pattern of arbitrary arrests of Egyptian journalists, activists and academics aimed at shutting down any criticism of the government, declared IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger. Although Egypt is the venue of this year's COP27, a just transition cannot be achieved without freedom of expression. We urge the Egyptian authorities to stop targeting media workers and release all arrested journalists without delay. The event was organised in partnership with several national, regional and international organizations including the IFJ and the SNJT, the IFJ's affiliate in Tunisia. The regional conference brought together a wide range of participants including journalists unions, freedom of expression and human rights organisations, media regulators, journalists, lawyers, judges and media experts from 13 countries in the region. As part of the two-day meeting, the IFJ organized a special session to introduce the draft convention on the safety and independence of journalists , its background and how it can help in improving journalists' safety and fight impunity, strategies to promote it in the Middle East and the Arab World and rally support for its adoption. The meeting concluded with a safety roadmap for the Arab region as a guiding framework to further the protection of women and men journalists in the region, safeguard the gains achieved and to anticipate ongoing as well as emerging dangers and risks to journalists. Among the action points and recommendations, it calls " for the establishment of an independent international instrument to investigate cases pertaining to crimes committed against journalists. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: "The meeting was another milestone for UNESCO in the region in enabling collective work among actors who care about the safety of journalists and freedom of expression. The agreed Safety Roadmap reflects their determination to improve media safety and fight impunity for crimes against journalists." Other key recommendations include: The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity of Crimes Committed against journalists, and the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of journalists call upon the African Union and the Regional Economic Community to take bold and decisive actions to end impunity on crimes committed against journalists and media workers in the continent. Journalists and media workers in Africa are consistently harassed, intimidated, assaulted, tortured, arrested incommunicado and jailed under very vague charges and sometimes killed with impunity in relation to their work. Today more than ever before, there is a perpetual increase on attacks on female journalists working online, who are systematically targeted with sexual abuse and derogatory remarks in order to silence them. It is unfortunate to note that investigative journalists who work on exposing corruption and gross human rights abuses are specifically targeted for murder by the states and non- state actors. The majority of these cases cannot even reach the courts at the national level because of the lack of political will of the states to prosecute the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. The litany of deaths from 2012 to date has been long, brutal, horrifying and unacceptable. Journalists have indeed been added to the list of endangered species. The litany of deaths warrants the urgency for the physical safety of African journalists and the need for a robust regime that prevents, investigates, apprehends and punishes offenders. The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights at its 65TH Ordinary Session in November 2019 in Banjul, The Gambia states boldly in Principle 20 (1) and (2) that governments should guarantee the safety of journalists and media workers as well as to take measures to prevent attacks on journalists. On the other hand, Agenda 2063, Aspiration 3 calls for a universal culture of good governance, democratic values, gender equality, and respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law. This however, cannot be achieved without quality journalism and the creation of a conducive environment for the media to operate by governments. Our democracies cannot be strengthened if journalists continue to live in perpetual fear and self censorship. Impunity on crimes committed against journalists and media workers is cancerous, undermines the judicial system and erodes good governance and the rule of law. Sadly, a number of African governments have been identified among the abusers of media freedom and accomplices in the issue of impunity and crimes committed against journalists. The enacting of repressive media laws, systematic digital surveillance and the deliberate failure to implement regional and international instruments that guarantee the safety of journalists and media freedom is an affront to democracy. FAJ fully identifies with the values and principles embedded in the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in Africa, and calls on governments across Africa to adopt and implement national plan of actions to safeguard the safety of journalists and media workers in their respective countries. African governments must demonstrate the political will to prosecute crimes committed against journalists and media workers. There is no media freedom anywhere, when journalists live and work in fear. Quality journalism is fundamental for national development and it can only be achieved when the safety and security of journalists and media workers is guaranteed. Five types of vicious mobile malware detected by Kaspersky in the first half of 2022 potentially pose serious security threats to companies through personal devices of employees that are used for work. In the thick of post-pandemic hybrid-remote work setup, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies take on special importance for companies cybersecurity. Despite mobile malware normally targeting personal data, it may increase risks for enterprises with BYOD policies BYOD possible security risks The main idea behind proper BYOD security is that personal devices have to be treated in the same way as company-owned devices. Not securing the devices of company staff whose own personal devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones are used for work tasks and to access critical business information could be too risky for any organization. BYOD poses dangers by mixing corporate data and personal data on one device. Whenever personal data and corporate data are stored in the same mobile device, theres the possibility of security risks. Separating corporate data and the users personal data can help businesses to apply special security measures for their confidential or business critical information. Moreover, high-profile employees can become victims of cyber espionage. For instance, in 2020 Kaspersky found a new Android implant used by Transparent Tribe for spying on mobile devices. It was distributed in India disguised as a porn-related app and a fake national COVID-19 tracking app. The app was able to download new applications to the phone, access SMS messages, the microphone, call logs, track the devices location and enumerate and upload files to an external server from the phone. Transparent Tribe is not the only one example; other similar campaigns were detected by Kaspersky researchers over the years for example, such as GravityRAT, Origami Elephant and SideCopy. BYOD also brings IT teams more platforms to manage. With the average employee now using two or three different mobile devices to access the corporate network, BYOD brings IT and security departments the challenge of having to implement and manage mobile security across an almost limitless range of devices and operating systems, including: Android iOS Windows Phone Windows Mobile BlackBerry Symbian An IT department has to keep in mind that in the modern environment employees will work with corporate data anywhere they want, on a variety of devices. What has to be done is proper control of software and apps, web and e-mail as well as protection from malware and loss/theft using modern methods. Malicious malware found in Filipino devices The malicious software discovered are in the form of Trojans disguised as legitimate, ordinary files created by cybercriminals to wreak havoc on the devices of its victims unnoticed. Hackers often use these Trojans to steal private data, spy on users and gain unauthorized access to corporate systems. These types of mobile malware get into computers through infected attachments, manipulated text messages or fake websites and can read passwords, record keyboard strokes or take the entire computer hostage. Here's a rundown of the types of mobile malware found by Kaspersky in work devices of its Filipino users: Generic Trojans may pass unnoticed when installed on your device, as it happens in many cases with different kind of malware Apart from stealing your data, Trojans can carry out a range other of functions, such as deleting, blocking, modifying or copying data, or disrupting the performance of computers or computer networks. Trojans cannot self-replicate or make copies of themselves but they delete, block, modify or copy data, and they disrupt the performance of computers or computer networks. Trojan-Downloader: This malware downloads and installs new versions of malicious programs on victim computers. Once downloaded from the Internet, the programs are launched or run automatically when the operating system of the computer boots up. Trojan-Dropper: This is designed to secretly install malicious programs built into their code to victim computers. A Trojan-Dropper saves a range of files that are hidden in the executable file to the victim's drive and launches without any notification, which makes the malware protected from detection. SMS Flooder: This is a malware type designed to flood and clog text message channels with useless messages. This is a tool sometimes used by spammers. Backdoor: One of the simplest but possibly most dangerous types of Trojan. It allows an attacker to execute any command on a victims device. A backdoor is often used to set up botnets, or robot networks networks of infected computers remotely controlled by cybercriminals. Without your knowledge, your device becomes part of a zombie network used for mass attacks such as data theft, server crashing and malware distribution. Once installed, backdoors can be instructed to send, receive, execute, and delete files, harvest confidential data from the computer, log activity on the computer and more. The same set of mobile malware types were identified in devices of Kaspersky users in the Philippines for two consecutive years since 2021. The Backdoor malware type replaced the less powerful Trojan-Proxy, which is typically used to send out mass spam mailings. A look into Kaspersky's telemetry from January to June this year shows that Trojans identified in mobile work devices in other countries in the Southeast Asian region are closely similar. Top 5 types of mobile malware detected in H1 2022 Among these countries, Indonesia ranked 5th in Kaspersky's list of countries around the world with the most mobile malware detections in 2021. Four out of five Trojans found in Indonesia in the same period are noticeably the same set of mobile malware found in the Philippines with the exception of Trojan-Spy. Our security experts recently revealed active cybercriminal campaigns targeting mobile device users here in our region Harly, Anubis and Roaming Mantis. Harly is a Trojan subscriber targeting users in Southeast Asia countries. It signs up for paid services without the users knowledge. Anubis combines mobile banking Trojan with ransomware functionalities to squeeze more money out of their victims while Roaming Mantis, a notorious gang, is actively targeting both Android and iOS users, said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky. This goes to show that regardless of the type of device we use, cybercriminals can infect our smartphones, steal all data and money in them, and even access or even wipe out our messages, emails, private photos and more. With the hybrid remote work which also allows employees to access their work mails through their mobile devices, the risks extend from individual to a wider enterprise- level breach. Such can be avoided if we do the basic act of installing legitimate security solutions in our smartphones, adds Yeo. To help enterprises secure their data amidst a post-pandemic BYOD set-up, Kaspersky experts suggest: Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors. KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary. No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account." www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others. The Nifty futures contract on the Singapore Exchange fell 7.5 points, or 0.04%, to 18,107, indicating that the stock markets may open flat on Friday. The following ten stocks may show price movement in today's market. To check more hot stocks, click at https://www.indiainfoline.com/markets/hot-stocks The soon-to-be-merged mortgage giant recorded an 18% increase in net income to Rs 4,454 crore in the third quarter, primarily due to greater retail loan sales. Amit Choudhary, a former top executive of Capgemini, has joined the IT company as its COO and a member of the executive board. The chemicals company announced that its board has approved spending Rs 604 crore to build four new units and expand the capacity of already existing ones. The biggest two-wheeler manufacturer in the nation recorded a 9% fall in its consolidated net profit to Rs 682 crore for the second quarter that ended on September 30. This decline was primarily caused by higher expenses and a minor decline in sales during the quarter. The flagship company announced a more than doubling of its net profit for the September quarter, thanks to its integrated resources management and airports divisions' successful operations. For the second quarter ending in September, the heavily indebted telecom operator reported a combined loss that increased to Rs 7,595.5 crore. As increasing gas prices affected margins, the city-based gas distribution company reported a 12% decline in its net profit for the September quarter. The manufacturer of car components recorded a growth in consolidated profit after tax of 39.42% to Rs 201.22 crore for the second quarter that ended on September 30. The manufacturer of metal pipes reported a loss of Rs 63.18 crore for the quarter that ended in September, primarily due to higher expenses. In Munnar, Kerala, the hotel division of the Tata Group signed for the management of a 55-room SeleQtions hotel. For feedback and suggestions, write to us at editorial@iifl.com Visiting Taiwans Deputy Economic Minister Chen Chern-chyi has expressed his countrys intent to deeply engage with India and support the Make in India policy. The minister also mentioned a possible Free Trade Agreement with India. India can be the best production place for us. Indias policy of Make-in-India is fully in line with my governments policy Our companies will rely on horizontal collaborations (with Indian companies), said minister Chen on Thursday. The minister Chen is currently on an India visit and participated in the 2022 India-Taiwan Industrial Collaboration Summit jointly held by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Taiwans Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI). The annual summit is hosted alternately by the two countries. The Taiwan minister also highlighted his governments New Southbound Policy with emphasis on India. We work with local partners We are heavily dependent on the Indian government to help us invest here, he said, adding that India will be given priority in Taiwans New Southbound Policy. India Taiwan Relations have gathered unprecedented momentum in recent years. Taipei has also tried to reach out to New Delhi. In 2020, India and Taiwan commemorated the Silver Jubilee (25th diplomatic anniversary) of the establishment of the India-Taipei Association(ITA) and Taipei Economic and Cultural Center(TECC). There is scope for convergence between the Indian governments Act East policy, which advocates closer economic, strategic, and diplomatic engagement with countries in the Indo-Pacific, and Taiwans New Southbound Policy, which seeks to enhance cooperation and exchange between Taiwan and 18 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Australasia (Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean). Both policies aim to increase regional influence and gain political and economic benefits from their partners in the region. Earlier, Indias representative to Taiwan, Gaurangalal Das said, great opportunities ahead for India-Taiwan in the business domain at FICCIs India -Taiwan Industrial Collaboration Summit. Meanwhile, Taiwans Foreign Ministry has decided to host Diwali Celebrations later today. Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Legislator Madam YC Wu, President of the Taiwan-India Friendly Association of Taiwan Parliament will be present at the celebrations. In addition to the summit, Chen also attended a CEO roundtable forum which saw participation from Taiwans government and industrial groups. Among the topics covered were electronics manufacturing, electric vehicles, batteries, and electronics/information and communications technology development, according to Taiwans representative office as cited by Focus Taiwan. After six weeks of heated discussions and debates, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's highly-publicized defamation case ended in May. On June 1, the jury awarded Depp USD 15 million in damages, but Heard had to pay USD 10.35 million due to a Virginia law limiting punitive damages (the judge reduced the amount). Heard was given USD 2 million in damages after she successfully defended herself against one of the three defamation claims. Both of them filed recent appeals of the verdict. AFP He had received $5 million in punitive damages, which were lowered to the statutory maximum of $350,000 in Virginia, and $10 million in compensatory damages. The judges gave Amber Heard $2 million in support of a defamation countersuit, giving her a minor victory. BBC Depp has now filed an appeal against Heard's sole win. Amber Heard claimed that Johnny Depp defamed her by labeling her accusations a "hoax" through his attorney, Adam Waldman. The court found that Waldman's remarks were defamatory. Reuters Depp and his team have indicated that they will appeal the ruling in Heard's favor in court. Depp has now submitted a 44-page appellate brief. As per court documents posted online by Law & Crime Network, the brief stated, AFP "The trial court was confronted with several novels and complex legal and factual issues, and although the court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous." The court document also added, "As a matter of law, Mr. Waldman is an independent contractor whose allegedly tortious conduct is not automatically attributable to Mr. Depp." Just one day after Heard filed an appeal to overturn the judgment ordering her to pay $10 million, Depp sent the notice. Reuters In a 2018 Washington Post piece, where she identified herself as a victim of domestic abuse, Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation. Depp stated that even though his name was not mentioned, the op-ed suggested that he was the abuser, which destroyed his career and reputation. In July, a Virginia judge rejected Amber Heards request for a new trial in her legal battle with her ex-husband Johnny Depp and denied her claims that a juror snafu prejudiced the case's outcome. Reuters "Defendant does not allege Juror Fifteens inclusion on the jury prejudiced her in any way," wrote Judge Penny Azcarte unequivocally Wednesday, rejecting the Aquaman stars move to get the more than $10 million verdict for her ex-husband tossed and a new trial ordered, Deadline reported. Heards lawyers had asked Judge Penney Azcarate to set aside the verdict awarding $10 million to Depp and declare a mistrial, but the judge denied the request. (With agency inputs) (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment) Police in Queensland, Australia, has announced a record 1 million Australian dollars (Rs 5.2 crore) reward for information on an Indian man who is a suspect in a 2018 murder in the country. According to the police, Rajwinder Singh, who worked as a nurse in Innisfail, is a prime suspect in the murder of 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley in Far North Queensland. Queensland Police Singh fled Australia two days after murder Cordingley was walking her dog on Wangetti Beach, 40km north of Cairns in Queensland, when she was killed on October 21, 2018. Singh, originally from Buttar Kalan in Punjab, fled the country two days after Cordingley was killed, leaving behind his job, wife and three children in Australia. "We know that Singh departed Cairns on October 22, the day after Toyah was murdered, and then flew from Sydney to India on the 23rd. His arrival in India has been confirmed," Detective Acting Superintendent Sonia Smith said. Last known location was India "We have confirmed today that the last known location for Singh was India," she added. Now the Queensland Police is seeking international help, including from India, to nab Singh. "We strongly believe there are people in Australia and overseas who could share information about the whereabouts of Rajwinder Singh. This is most definitely the time to come forward and tell us what you know," Smith said. Highest-ever reward by Queensland Police The one million Australian dollars is said to be the largest ever offered by Queensland police. An investigation centre has also been established in Cairns and police officers from across the state who speak both Hindi and Punjabi have been flown in. These officers will be able to receive information from anyone in India who might know Singh's whereabouts via WhatsApp. "In India, people with information can call the Australian Federal Police at the Australian High Commission on+91 11 41220972," said Australian High Commission in New Delhi. "Police will not give up we remain incredibly determined to find answers for Toyah's family and will do whatever we can to bring them closure." Victim's family waits for closure On Thursday, Cordingley's mother, Vanessa Gardiner, spoke about the reward and her "beautiful, spiritual" daughter. AP "Her life was taken way too early. I see her friends and stuff getting married with kids and that now and think of everything she has missed out on in her life," Gardiner said. "She was just about to start her first full-time job on Monday, which never happened." For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. [The] government is doing what insurers told us was needed a significant increase in mitigation investment, Watt said at the conference, as reported by The Guardian. Now, we expect the insurance industry to fulfil its end of the bargain. Read more: Extreme weather events leave Australians exhausted and unprepared Allianz Watt discussed the effect of mitigation work in Roma in western Queensland, noting that before 2015, if anyone as much as spat upstream of the town, it would flood, with homes facing more regular inundation with premiums that rose with every event. However, Watt explained that constructing a $15 million flood levee to protect 483 homes and 75 businesses resulted in an average of 34% reduction in insurance premiums. Now, as we build these new projects under the Disaster Ready Fund and buyback homes in the Northern Rivers and South-East Queensland, we need to see the same outcome, he said. In October, the federal and New South Wales (NSW) governments announced an $800 million flood resilience package to make homes in the Northern Rivers more resilient to floods an announcement welcomed by the insurance industry. Our mission at Westland is to be the broker of choice in every community we serve, said Westland Insurance EVP of distribution Tim Mackle. Both Palmer Salmon Insurance and Vachon Insurance share our commitment to exceptional client experiences. Were thrilled to have them join us and for the opportunity to make a difference in their local communities. Read more: Westland Insurance makes triple strike of acquisitions Last month, Westland Insurance went for a triple sweep by acquiring the brokerages Arrow Insurance Agency, Emsland & Associates Insurance, and IBMG Canada. Arrow Insurance Agency is Westlands first location in the BC city of Fort St. John. The acquisition of Emsland & Associates adds another Kamloops, BC location for Westland. Meanwhile, IBMG Canada in Toronto gives Westland another key location in the Greater Toronto Area. Read more: Westland Insurance Group announces new CEO The acquisitions also come after Westland Insurance named Jamie Lyons as its new CEO. Lyons succeeds the previous chief executive, Jason Wubs, who will transition into a vice chair role. We are excited to offer homeowners flexible options to insure their property for flood damage, which is not covered under standard home insurance policies, said Paul VanderMarck, chief technology and innovation officer at SageSure. Hurricane Ian is the most recent reminder of the importance of flood insurance, not only for homeowners in the areas recognized as highest risk, but also in lower-risk areas where flooding can still cause catastrophic damage. SageSures flood program is available through its carrier partner, SURE, as additional coverage on SURE home insurance policies. The program was developed in partnership with a leading global reinsurer, SageSure said. Read next: SageSure launches commercial insurance line in coastal areas Approximately 70% of homeowners impacted by flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 did not have flood insurance, according to CoreLogic. This was part of a pattern of high levels of uninsured losses in Texas, with other recent events including the Tax Day Floods of 2016 and the July 2021 flash floods in South Texas. The SageSure program offers comprehensive, full-limit coverage so that homeowners can comprehensively protect their home and property the same way they do under traditional home insurance policies. Policyholders can also choose less expensive partial-coverage options. SageSure is dedicated to protecting homeowners in catastrophe-exposed markets, VanderMarck said. We listened carefully to our producing partners; concerns about the shortcomings of existing flood insurance options in the market and invested in developing an innovative new product that will make it possible for many more homeowners to affordably insure their property against flood damage. We look forward to working with our producers to help close the protection gap in Texas and beyond. New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Auto insurer Progressive Insurance is not responsible for a hospital bill incurred by a Massachusetts insured who refused to cooperate with its efforts to investigate the accident claim that led to the medical expenses. Mount Auburn Hospital claimed that Progressive was liable for $1,758.71 of expenses under the personal injury protection (PIP) coverage in the Massachusetts auto insurance policy it issued to Natalia Zapata. The hospital sued Progressive after its bill went unpaid for over three months. It alleged that Progressives handling of the claim violated the states insurance and consumer protection laws. Progressive defended as reasonable its efforts by mail, email and phone to contact its insured, Zapata, and Leonardo OCampo, the other driver in the accident, to discuss the accident and potential coverage but neither cooperated. Its early efforts were unsuccessful but Progressive was eventually able to reach a lawyer to schedule an examination under oath only to be told neither driver would show up and neither did. A District Court judge allowed Progressives motion for summary judgment, and a panel of the Appellate Division of the District Court affirmed. Now a Massachusetts Court of Appeals has again affirmed the view that an insurer has no obligation to settle a claim where liability is not reasonably clear. The appeals court cited a Massachusetts law that clearly states noncooperation of an injured party shall be a defense to the insurer in any suit for benefits. It also cited case law that an insureds refusal to submit to a reasonable request for an examination under oath amounts to a material breach of the policy that releases the insurer from its obligation. The hospital argued that Progressives actions were flawed and contributed to the insured not agreeing to an examination. The court acknowledged that Progressives initial efforts were far from perfect. The first correspondences to Zapata were mistakenly sent to a wrong address. However, the court ultimately found that the hospital simply did not demonstrate that Progressives handling of a claim for which no coverage has been shown constituted a violation of state law. According to an affidavit, between March 28, 2018, and May 17, 2018, Progressive tried to contact OCampo twice by email, three times by letter, and eight times by phone. During the last phone attempt, OCampo hung up. The judges concluded that Progressives early contact efforts were still extensive and prompt even though they were unsuccessful. Also, Progressives second round of contacts reached OCampo, and his failure to respond to Progressive indicated his own intent not to cooperate, which the court said provided Progressive an independent basis for disclaiming coverage. The hospital also contended that Progressive waited too long to schedule an examination under oath it was nine months after the accident and seven months after the insurer first saw the hospital bill. However, the court found that that was within the timeframes allowed in case law. While the court did not decide the matter, it noted there was evidence suggesting that the two parties in the accident were members of the same household. The judges noted that existence of such ready and available evidence underscores the legitimacy of Progressives desire to investigate before paying the PIP claim. Topics Auto New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Pennsylvania parents who are alleged to have found but not turned over to authorities a gun believed used by their son to murder a friend are not entitled to insurance for their defense against emotional distress claims brought by the friends mother. Howard I. Rosenberg and Kimberly L. Rosenberg sought coverage for defense and indemnifications under a home insurance policy issued by Chubb Indemnity and a personal umbrella from Hudson Insurance. Both insurers denied coverage citing the language of their policies that bars coverage for intentional acts. The parents contend their actions should be covered because they did not intend to cause the emotional distress that the mother has alleged. The federal district court in Western Pennsylvania this week sided with the insurers, calling the parents conduct a prime example of actions that are not covered by insurance. The Rosenbergs are being sued by the mother of the boy their son allegedly killed in their residence and then dragged to a nearby public park to hide the body. The deceaseds mother alleges that the Rosenbergs found a handgun that may have been used in the murder and gave it to their marriage counselor, in an effort to prevent or delay the arrest and prosecution of their son as it was likely to be evidence. The marriage counselor then allegedly turned the gun over to the homicide detectives, telling them that she found the handgun rather than revealing that the gun came from the Rosenbergs. The mother maintains their actions resulted in a delay of the police investigation and discovery of her sons decayed remains. She is suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Rosenbergs contend that Chubb and Hudson should have provided coverage despite the possibility that the underlying case against them may become moot, depending upon the disposition of the appeal. Chubb denied coverage under a Masterpiece homeowners liability policy because it said the factual allegations asserted against the Rosenbergs do not constitute personal injury caused by an occurrence as required. This conclusion follows because the acts you are accused of committing are intentional and not accidental or fortuitous, the insurer informed the Rosenbergs. The court agreed with Chubb. The factual allegations in the deceaseds mother complaint, the language of the policy, and the case law regarding occurrence and accident lead to the inevitable conclusion that the personal injury the mother suffered by was not caused by any occurrence under the Chubb policy, the court found. The complaint is rife with factual allegations that cannot be described as fortuitous or accidental including that the Rosenbergs found the handgun, knew it was likely evidence in the crime, and transferred possession of the gun to their marriage counselor for the purpose of preventing/delaying their sons arrest and prosecution. As a result of these alleged actions and inactions, the police investigation and discovery of the body were delayed. All of these alleged actions or inactions demonstrated that the Rosenbergs acted with the intent to accomplish their particular goal of preventing and/or delaying their sons prosecution. Such alleged conduct presents a straightforward example of actions that do not fit within the realm of accidental, the court concluded. The court asserted that the conclusory allegations of recklessness do not convert the Rosenbergs actions into occurrences or accidental to trigger coverage in this case. Chubb also contended that even if the court found that underlying complaint alleged an occurrence, the intentional acts exclusion language of the policy would exclude coverage. The court again agreed with the insurer. The Rosenbergs Hudson policy was a personal umbrella policy providing excess insurance beyond the existing limits and coverages of other policies, such as a homeowners or auto insurance policy. Hudsons reasons for denying coverage and the courts analysis of the Hudson policy generally follow the same path as the Chubb situation, but with a small nuance. The Rosenbergs, as well as the mother suing them, argued that Hudsons duty to defend was triggered upon the denial of coverage by Chubb, even though Chubbs policy limits had not been exhausted. They contend that, where an underlying insurer, in this case Chubb, denies coverage for claims otherwise covered by the umbrella policy, the umbrella policy is required to drop down and provide a defense for the Rosenbergs. However, the court affirmed that its analysis and conclusions under the Chubb policy regarding occurrence, recklessness, and public policy, apply to the Hudson policy as well. Hudsons duty to defend would only be triggered by an occurrence. Topics Chubb The Dutch government on Thursday said it intends to stop giving companies and banks credit insurance for exports in the fossil fuel sector as of Jan. 1, following through on a pledge made at the COP-26 climate conference in Glasgow. In a statement announcing the move, the Finance Ministry called it an important step and noted that the cabinet is still in dialog with other countries that made the same commitment in order to guarantee a level playing field as much as possible. Around 20 countries including Germany, the United States, Britain and Canada made similar commitments, but only a few including France have so far implemented them into policy. Like most industrial nations, the Netherlands grants state export credit insurance (ECI) on qualifying exports when private insurance is insufficient, usually on large transactions or exports to developing countries. When the pledge was announced in 2021, the Cabinet said it did so knowing it would put Dutch exporters at a competitive disadvantage to exporters in countries that do still offer such insurance. In 2021, the Dutch state took on 7.3 billion euros in new ECI obligations, a spokesperson for the finance ministry said. The ministry does not have data for the fossil fuel sector. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), petroleum and petroleum products made up 9.3% of Dutch exports in 2021, with a trade value of 54.7 billion euros. The Finance Ministry said the Netherlands might reconsider the policy if other countries fail to adhere to their COP-26 pledges. Dutch exporters apply for state ECI via private trade credit insurer Atradius, part of Grupo Catala Occidente. (Reporting by Toby Sterling, editing by Ed Osmond) Photograph: Climate activists lie after painting stop funding fossil fuels on the square in front of the Euro sign in Frankfurt, during Fridays for Future event, on Oct. 29, 2021. Photo credit: AP Photo/Michael Probst, File. Topics Energy Oil Gas Frances TotalEnergies said on Thursday it would take legal action after environmental group Greenpeace France said it had under-reported its carbon emissions in 2019. Greenpeace France earlier accused the oil giant of under-reporting emissions, sparking a debate about its seriousness in the fight against climate change days ahead of the next round of global climate talks. Criticizing a lack of transparency, the campaign group said TotalEnergies core activities had generated around 1.64 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, against 455 million showed by the firm in its carbon balance. Environmental Groups Sue TotalEnergies Over Climate Marketing Claims Greenpeace France also found Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions or the companys direct emissions of about 160 million tonnes, which TotalEnergies described as fanciful and false as it said it had reported 55 million tonnes only. The Greenpeace report follows a methodology that is dubious to say the least, TotalEnergies wrote in a statement. With regard to information concerning the quality and reliability of the information published by TotalEnergies on its direct greenhouse gas emissions which it has under control, the dissemination by Greenpeace of misleading information in this matter is serious, it added. As a result, TotalEnergies said it had decided to take legal action to repair the damage. Greenpeace France, which stated it had based its own calculations on publicly available production and trading data, said it was fully ready to engage in a judicial debate. Rather than responding to the substance of the problem, that is to say the weight of its responsibility in the climate crisis, TotalEnergies chooses the path of intimidation and legal attack, head of Greenpeace France Jean-Francois Julliard said. It seems obvious that the major hides part of its emissions from the general public and its investors, Greenpeace France said. The environmental group said it had shared its findings with Frances AMF market regulator, which declined to comment. The oil major said Greenpeace Frances calculation counts the emissions related to the combustion of products in each value chain several times. The group, which has been emphasizing a shift away from hydrocarbons as it pledged to be net zero by 2050, is facing criticism from climate activists and some investors for continued investments in oil and gas projects. Greenpeace France pointed to the companys planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline and its liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, which it described as climate bombs. TotalEnergies is currently the subject of a lawsuit by environmental groups in France for misleading consumers around its rebranding, while the cities of Paris and New York joined in September a coalition suing the firm for failing to adequately fight climate change. (Reporting by Juliette Portala; editing by Kirsten Donovan, Ingrid Melander) Photograph: TotalEnergies refinery and offices in Antwerpen, Flanders, Belgium on July 10, 2022. Photo credit: Bigstock Gallagher announced it has acquired Doyle Mahon Insurances, bolstering its presence in Ireland and demonstrating its commitment to expand its customer and employee base in the country. This follows Gallaghers acquisition of Innovu in June this year, which it has now fully integrated and is being rebranded to Gallagher on Nov. 7, marking the firms first direct presence in Ireland. Founded in 2009, by Pat Doyle & Colm Mahon, Doyle Mahon is a commercial and agriculture insurance broker based in Ardcavan, Wexford. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Clients will continue to have the same day-to-day contacts, for their individual business and insurance requirements, and will benefit from access to a larger suite of insurance products and services, plus the global buying power of Gallagher. Im delighted the team at Doyle Mahon Insurances is joining Gallagher. This is a great business with a well-established name in professional insurance broking built over the last 13 years. Its addition to Gallagher in Ireland recognises our continued expansion in the country and complements our overall national growth strategy, commented Ronan Foley, CEO of Gallagher in Ireland. As the market continues to consolidate at pace, our ability to help smaller brokers grow and expand demonstrates why Gallagher is the partner of choice for brokers in Ireland, Foley added. We remain on the lookout for further acquisitions which are the right fit for Gallagher while also continuing to grow our business organically. Over the next few years, we will establish Gallagher as the go-to broker in Ireland. Pat & I are thrilled for both our team and customers and we are very pleased to become part of Gallaghers ambitious growth plans. The Gallagher team share our values and its focus on great client service fits well with what we do best looking after our customers, said Colm Mahon, director of Doyle Mahon Insurances. It is business as usual for our customers and they will continue to be supported by our excellent team in Wexford, however by becoming part of a global business we can further enhance our service and product offering. Source: Gallagher Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies A.J. Gallagher This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Dale Underwriting Partners, Chubb and Argenta. A summary of these new hires follows here. Dale Underwriting Offers Marine Reinsurance With 2 Hires From MS Amlin Dale Underwriting Partners (DUP), the trading name for Dale Managing Agency Ltd.s Lloyds Syndicate 1729, has appointed Matthew Sims and William Taylor to underwrite a new marine reinsurance line of business for its Syndicate 1729 at Lloyds. Based in London, Sims will take on the role of head of Marine and Energy Reinsurance, and will be responsible for driving the development of Dales marine reinsurance business. He will report to Dominic Peters, active underwriter at DUPs Syndicate 1729. Sims brings with him well-rounded experience in leading and underwriting marine and energy reinsurance portfolios. Before joining DUP, he worked at MS Amlin for 24 years, most recently as head of Marine & Energy Reinsurance. Taylor also joins from MS Amlin. He previously spent more than ten years at Gen Re as senior underwriting specialist for marine facultative and treaty reinsurance. He started his reinsurance career in 1995 at EE Patrick Syndicate 566 (now part of QBE), before holding reinsurance underwriting roles at both Munich Re Syndicate 457 and TransRe. Taylor has been appointed class underwriter and is tasked with writing innovative placements and supporting Dales drive into this speciality line of business. I am thrilled to have Matthew and William join us and lead the further expansion of our reinsurance portfolio at a time of great opportunity, said Chief Executive Duncan Dale. Both are fantastic additions to our accomplished underwriting team and bring a wealth of marine reinsurance experience and sound technical expertise to our offering. We very much look forward to working with them to build on the independent platform provided by the recent approval of our Lloyds Managing Agency. Dale Underwriting Partners is an independent, owner-managed underwriting business which began trading with effect from Jan. 1, 2014 with the formation of Lloyds Syndicate 1729. Since then, the business has grown and in 2021 it announced a new joint venture, Dale DUAL MGU Ltd. *** Chubb Names Allianz Turberville as Head of Hull for Global Mkts. Chubb announced the appointment of Chris Turberville as head of Hull for Chubb Global Markets (CGM), the companys London Market wholesale and specialty business including its Lloyds platform. In this role, Turberville will be responsible for the management, oversight and development of all CGMs commercial hull business and its yacht portfolio. He will be based in London and report to David Kirk, head of Marine for CGM. The appointment is effective in the first quarter of 2023. Turberville joins Chubb from Allianz Global Corporate and Speciality where he was head of Hull and Liability Insurance (UK) since 2012. He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute and also the Lloyds Market Associations Joint Hull Committee. Turberville succeeds Mark Edmondson, who is acting product head for CGMs Hull and Yacht portfolio. Once Turberville is in post Edmondson will assume the role of consultant marine underwriter for Chubb Overseas General, reporting to Andrew Williamson, executive vice president Marine, Overseas General Insurance. *** Argenta Appoints Blackwell as Head of Property Argenta Syndicate Management Ltd. (ASML), a subsidiary of Argenta Holdings Ltd., announces the appointment of James Blackwell as head of property, with immediate effect. Based in London, Blackwell will report to Ian Burford, active underwriter and director of underwriting of ASMLs Syndicate 2121 and SPA 6134. In his new role, Blackwell will be responsible for growing Argentas global property business. Blackwell brings more than 20 years experience in the insurance industry in both the Lloyds and company markets. Throughout his career, Blackwell has played an instrumental part in building two syndicates from the ground up, with cross-class underwriting experience with a core focus on property in both the US and international markets. Blackwell joins ASML from Agora Syndicate 3268, where since 2016 he held the roles of head of treaty, deputy active underwriter and director of underwriting. In those roles he had responsibility across all underwriting operations, including exposure management, capital, risk and underwriting framework, reserving, performance analytics and outwards reinsurance. Prior to Agora, Blackwell was the head of specialty and property treaty at Endurance Syndicate 5151, formerly Montpelier and previously held a variety of roles at QBE. Argenta Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Hannover Re, is the parent company of ASML and of Argenta Private Capital Ltd., which provides investor capacity to the Lloyds market of almost 3.3 billion for 2022. ASML is a Lloyds authorized managing agency, housing the Argenta Groups underwriting operations, Argenta Syndicate 2121 and SPA 6134. Syndicate 2121 has a total underwriting capacity for 2022 of 660 million split between: property both direct (including power/utilities and UK commercial combined) and treaty; marine; terrorism; casualty (including financial lines) and political risks. Hannover Re supports 100% of the 97 million underwriting capacity of SPA 6134 which provides quota share reinsurance to Syndicate 2121. Topics Property New Markets Mississippi Chubb JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) The call went out from leaders in the medical marijuana industry: Money was needed for a Missouri ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Their colleagues responded. Marijuana farms, manufacturers and retailers provided millions of dollars that footed a petition drive to put the proposal on the November ballot and promote it to voters. The deep-pocketed outpouring highlighted the depth of the emerging industrys roots in the traditionally conservative state, as well as its tremendous potential for growth. All told, marijuana legalization campaigns have raised about $23 million in five states _ Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. The vast majority of that has been in Arkansas and Missouri, where more than 85% of contributions have come from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports. The biggest donor is Good Day Farm, which describes itself as the largest licensed medical cannabis producer in the South with facilities in Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. It gave a combined $3.5 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas and Missouri. And when the Missouri campaign needed help gathering petition signatures, Good Day Farm paid an additional $1 million directly to the firm circulating the petitions. Its kind of the cost of doing business, I guess, said Alex Gray, chief strategy officer at Good Day Farm. This is something that is a positive for the industry, but its also a positive for the state. Licensed medical marijuana businesses affiliated with Greenlight have given a total of about $1 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas, Missouri and South Dakota, according to the APs analysis. If the ballot measures pass, Greenlight CEO John Mueller said he expects to easily double a workforce of about 370 people at Greenlight-affiliated cultivation farms and dispensaries in Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and West Virginia. Obviously, your consumer base goes up when you go to adult use, said Mueller, a self-described activist who encouraged industry colleagues to contribute to the legalization campaigns. Provisions in the proposed constitutional amendments in Arkansas and Missouri would give established medical marijuana licensees a leg up in the new recreational marketplace. But Mueller said the measures dont merely enrich the industry. Its more jobs, more tax revenue _ get it off the black market, he said. Marijuana legalization efforts elsewhere have not eliminated illegal dealers. California voters approved recreational marijuana use in 2016 following a $36 million campaign for it, and the first retail stores opened in 2018. Yet a vast illegal market remains _ more than double the legal sales, by some estimates. Medical marijuana was authorized voters in 2016 in Arkansas and North Dakota, in 2018 in Missouri and in 2020 in South Dakota. Like elsewhere, it took a while to get the programs up and running. But in less than two years since Missouris stores opened, medical marijuana dispensaries have reported about $500 million in sales. The Arkansas campaign to legalize recreational marijuana for adults has raised over $13 million, including more than $8 million in October alone, while the Missouri effort has raised more than $7 million. Campaigns in other states have raised less than $1 million each. Marylands initiative has been particularly low-profile, raising a little over $300,000 amid presumed broad public support. In Arkansas and Missouri, resistance has come from an unusual alliance of public safety groups, social conservatives opposed to legalization and some marijuana advocates who believe the ballot initiatives are still too restrictive. The Arkansas opposition is the best funded among the states. Uline CEO Richard Uihlein and Mountaire Corp. CEO Ronald Cameron each contributed $1 million to the Safe and Secure Communities campaign committee. Its ads have asserted that legalizing marijuana for adults will cause a spike in traffic fatalities and illegal use by youths, among other things. Other critics contend the Arkansas measure is structured to benefit only a limited number of dispensaries, noting it lacks provisions allowing adults to grow marijuana at home or expunging past convictions. This amendment is not a start, said Melissa Fults, executive director of Arkansans for Cannabis Reform. It is a brick wall. Missouris legalization measure _ which does expunge many past marijuana arrests and convictions _ has drawn opposition from Pro-Choice Missouri. The abortion rights group said it backs cannabis legalization and expungement as an issue of reproductive justice but believes the measure doesnt do enough to address the historic harms from the racist criminalization of cannabis. A total of 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults since voters in Colorado and Washington state first approved ballot measures in 2012. Those early efforts were heavily funded by wealthy individuals, such as former Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis. Tech billionaire Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, ranked among the top donors to Californias legalization campaign. But philanthropic funding for legalization campaigns has fallen as the marijuana industry has risen. The philanthropists who really got this movement off the ground are either are ready to move on to other issues or they dont think its their place to support this movement, given that the industry is now mature and many of these businesses are making a lot of money, said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Schweich moved to South Dakota to run this years legalization campaign. The Marijuana Policy Project also is providing staff support for the North Dakota campaign. But it isnt as deeply involved Arkansas and Missouri, where there are greater industry resources. New Approach, another D.C.-based drug policy group, has directed more money to psychedelic mushrooms than to marijuana this year. Its poured $4.2 million into a campaign to make Colorado the second state, after Oregon, to allow adults 21 and older to use hallucinogenic chemicals found in some mushrooms. Meanwhile, New Approach has contributed a total of around $700,000 to marijuana legalization campaigns in Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. As the medical marijuana industry has grown, the organization has refined its targets. Our focus in recent years has been on initiatives in traditionally red states, in part because that is what we see as the most effective way to continue to move toward broader acceptance of cannabis policy reform, said New Approach Chief of Staff Taylor West. Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo contributed from Little Rock, Ark. Harjai, who reported from Los Angeles, 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. This month, the Nebraska Department of Insurance (NDOI) completed a process improvement project focused on their guidance document library. Governor Pete Ricketts has encouraged agencies to reduce their regulatory burden. The NDOI created a system to ease access to the guidance documents. Through the years, the NDOI adopted 149 guidance documents explaining how the NDOI interprets current state insurance regulations. Used by both external and internal customers, the guidance documents covered various insurance regulation topics As every Nebraskan knows, it is important to clean out and organize the junk drawer every once in a while. Nebraska Department of Insurance has a long-standing tradition of responsible and fair regulation; we are continuing that today with a comprehensive review of all guidance documents that are enforced at the state. Nebraska Department of Insurance Director Eric Dunning To start the project, NDOIs Administrators reviewed the 210 bulletins to see which documents needed to be kept, rewritten, or withdrawn. Following the review, the NDOI updated 36 documents with a view to accessibility for both industry and non-industry readers. Source: NDOI New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recommended an enforcement action against SolarWinds Corp over its public statements on cybersecurity and procedures governing such disclosures, the software firm said on Thursday. The Austin, Texas-based company also said in a filing with the SEC that it has tentatively agreed to pay $26 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit about the software companys cybersecurity disclosures ahead of a massive breach. SolarWinds did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, which requires approval by a judge. SolarWinds Investors Suit Alleges Board Knew About Cyber Risks The company was at the center of a cybersecurity crisis in December 2020, after hackers compromised SolarWinds software updates and used them to access the data of thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. The U.S. government has attributed the hack to Russia. SolarWinds said Thursday it had received a Wells notice from the SEC alleging the company violated U.S. securities law with respect to its cybersecurity disclosures and public statements, as well as its internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. While a Wells notice does not necessarily mean the recipients have violated any law, the SEC issues the letter to firms when it is planning to bring an enforcement action against them. SolarWinds said it will respond to the notice, and maintains that its disclosures, public statements, controls and procedures were appropriate. A spokesperson for the SEC did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Investors sued SolarWinds in 2021, alleging the company and two executives touted cybersecurity measures publicly while prioritizing cost cutting and profit for SolarWinds two largest investors. The case is Bremer v. SolarWinds Corp et al., No. 21-cv-00002, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas. Topics Cyber The derailment of six train cars and a subsequent acid leak prompted road closures and evacuations Wednesday in a Louisiana community, officials said. No injuries were reported in the derailment in the community of Paulina in St. James Parish, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of New Orleans. St. James officials said about 200 homes were evacuated. It wasnt immediately clear what caused the derailment. Eric Deroche, St. James homeland security director, said a tank car was leaking hydrochloric acid that would have to be neutralized and removed before the evacuation order could be lifted. Inhaling fumes from the corrosive chemical can damage the lungs. State police spokesman Christian Reed said the damaged rail car was carrying 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of the chemical. While officials werent sure exactly how much spilled out, St. James Parish President Pete Dufresne told reporters it was likely that all of it had leaked. Deroche told The Advocate officials expanded the initial evacuation area from 150 homes to 200 homes after the hydrochloric acid vapor spread out as winds calmed down in the area. Officials said residents were being put up in hotels and that they could go to a seniors center in nearby Lutcher for a hotel assignment. Reed said the cleanup would take an extended period of time, and asked that residents be patient as the process unfolds. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Louisiana The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries is urging property owners with older residential elevators make safety improvements to prevent danger to children. In many elevators installed before 2018, theres a gap between the house-side door and the elevator doors thats large enough for small children to fit. It creates a crushing hazard when the elevator is in operation. The safety upgrade involves blocking off the excess space. According to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, children as young as age 2 and as old age 12 have been crushed to death in this gap. The commission issued a product recall earlier this year. Though there have been no fatalities or injuries reported in Washington, about 80% of the nearly 3,300 residential elevators in the state were installed prior to October 2018 when L&I updated elevator codes. Topics Washington The Colorado city of Idaho Springs said it has agreed to pay $7 million to a 75-year-old man who said an officer used a stun gun on him without warning and dragged him from his apartment after a dispute with a neighbor, causing a stroke that left him with permanent injuries. Michael Clark alleged in the federal civil rights suit filed last year that he suffered numerous health problems after Officer Nicholas Hanning used a Taser on him in his home in Idaho Springs, causing Clark to lose consciousness, fall and strike his head. Clark also accused Hanning of putting a knee on his neck, depriving him of oxygen and increasing his risk of death. Hanning, who was fired after the May 2021 encounter, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor third-degree assault and relinquished his right to serve as a law enforcement officer in Colorado. He was sentenced in January to two years of probation and community service. The Idaho Springs statement said the city admits no liability, but is settling the case for economic reasons and to bring closure to all involved. It did say the city and Police Chief Nate Buseck acknowledge the poor judgment that led to the use of the Taser against Clark, which Buseck previously described as unacceptable. Clarks attorney, Sarah Schielke, said in a statement that her client suffered a stroke, other injuries and the loss of nearly all independence as a result of Idaho Springs Polices gruesome attack and mistreatment. He is wheelchair bound and now forever dependent on his family and doctors to survive. Body camera footage released in July appears to show Hannings knee on Clarks neck as the handcuffed man lay on the ground after being stunned and dragged out of his apartment. The officers knee is not always in view, so its not clear how long that lasted. Within about 15 seconds, Hannings knee can be seen again but on Clarks back, just below the neck. According to the footage and court documents, Hanning and a partner knocked on the door to Clarks apartment without announcing they were police. A 30-year-old woman who had just moved in next door had accused Clark of punching her in the face, which Clark later denied. Clarks lawsuit alleges the woman was intoxicated, offered authorities varying accounts of what happened and had no injuries. Clark had yelled through the wall at his new neighbors about making loud noise as he was trying to sleep, according to the lawsuit. He answered the door with a collectible sawfish snout sword, thinking it might be the neighbors coming to confront him, but only realized it was the police once he opened the door, it said. Police initially said Clark and an officer got into an altercation before the Taser was used, but later said Hanning initiated the altercation and that Clark put down the sword-like weapon when asked. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Colorado Gun Liability Before she was a Marvel superstar, Letitia Wright made a name for herself in acclaimed dramas like Top Boy and Black Mirror. It was this versatility that convinced Irish filmmaker Frank Berry to cast her in his latest film, the moving story of a woman left in limbo by Irelands Direct Provision system. Wright plays the title character in Aisha, about a young Nigerian woman who struggles to navigate the asylum system. From their first conversations about the film, Berry felt Wright would be ideal for the part. Id seen her in various British dramas, and in Steve McQueens Mangrove, which was an amazing performance, Berry says. When her name was mentioned, I thought, wow, okay. But really, it was the first conversation that we had, where I knew it would be great to collaborate with her on this film. Theres a lot of harmony in the way we talk about our own individual roles in filmmaking, which is to try and tell stories that have some purpose, or would be able to create some discussion. She's very motivated by that as an artist. Frank Berry directing Letitia Wright and Josh O'Connor on the set of Aisha. As he did in previous films including Michael Inside and I Used To Live Here, Berry took a deeply immersive approach in preparing for the project. He likes to research extensively, hearing of peoples personal accounts of the direct provision system. While I was researching Michael Inside, I discovered that the Irish immigration system was also run by the same department that runs the penal system, the Department of Justice, which I just wanted to know more about, says the Dubliner. I made contact with a very inspiring person, Lucky Khambule, who was one of the founders of the Movement of Asylum Seekers Ireland. I went on a journey of listening and forming relationships with people. Over a period of time, a little bit like my previous films, when you're talking to a lot of people, and they start to say similar things, and they don't know each other, then the picture of what the film should be starts to emerge for you. A key development in my research was when I met the participants of the Mukisa programme in Waterford, which is an education and integration programme for people in the direct provision system, but also people that have been through it. Letitia Wright, on right, in Black Panther with Lupita Nyong'o and Chadwick Boseman. The sequel, Wakanda Forever, arrives on November 11. He says his aim is to not imagine the story, but rather to absorb real-world experiences and emotions, letting them find their way into the story and onscreen. That's how I derive my confidence when we're making the film, because I know what we're doing is true because I've been in the environments, and I've done the primary research. Once the cameras actually start rolling, Berry aims to create an environment where actors including Wright and Josh OConnor (he played a young Prince Charles in The Crown) get to bring their own skills to the table. I kind of get out of the way a little bit - I don't impose too much - because I feel like both Leticia and Josh have a great understanding of what we're doing. I don't really want to get in the way of that. It feels very authentic when it comes from within the actor, as opposed to imposing direction on top of an actor telling them do this, do that, or just using a lot of adjectives. Letitia Wright and Josh O'Connor in Aisha. Berrys unconventional approach has helped him create some powerful dramas and it comes as little surprise that - following a post-graduate course in film production - he worked in community filmmaking, making short films with local groups. I evolved into community filmmaking while I was teaching (in further education). I think these films are inspired by that work, really. They come from the same place. I loved doing them. From that process, I made Ballymun Lullaby, which is a feature documentary that I did. It was like using the tools of community filmmaking, but on a longer film. That got a very small cinema release - but it was very significant to me, because I felt like I found my feet as a filmmaker making films the way I wanted to. That evolved then to a community drama, which was I Used To Live Here, a no budget community project with non professional actors. That led to Michael Inside. So it's been an evolution really, but I've managed to hold on to my my own way of working. Michael Inside - one of the finest Irish films of recent years - was shot on location in Cork, and Berry is looking forward to returning to the city for CIFF. As well as bringing Aisha to the city, he will take part in an industry interview about his career. I have such fond memories of of filming in Cork and the whole experience of making Michael Inside. Cork was a big part of that shoot actually - we filmed in Cork prison. Ive always loved Cork, and all my films have screened at Cork. I've a strong connection with the festival and the audiences are just wonderful. Following its opening night screening at CIFF on Thursday, Nov 10, Aisha will be released in cinemas and on Sky Cinema from November 17 Eva Green in Nocebo. Five other Irish movies at Cork International Film Festival Nocebo: Following his widely praised Vivarium, director Lorcan Finnegan returns with a new psychological thriller starring Eva Green and Mark Strong. Green is a mother and fashion designer whose life is upended by a mysterious illness. When her condition appears to improve upon the arrival of the familys new Filipino carer, they wonder if her healing powers are real. The Gates: Cork Gaol is the location setting for this period thriller set in 1890s London. Director Stephen Halls feature centres on William Colcott, who curses the prison and all who reside in it as he faces the electric chair. Two investigators and a medium must go on a race against time to ensure the curse is not fulfilled. The Ghost of Richard Harris: One of the most iconic and colourful Irish actors is the subject of filmmaker Adrian Sibleys documentary feature. Harriss life and work is explored through unheard tapes and previously unseen family footage. Contributors include his sons Jared, Damian and Jamie, actors Stephen Rea and Vanessa Redgrave and filmmaker Jim Sheridan. Ballywalter: Patrick Kielty and Seana Kerslake head the cast of a new dark comedy set and filmed in Northern Ireland. It tells the story of Eileen, a young woman at a crossroads in a small town, who works as an unlicensed taxi driver. When she crosses paths with a budding stand-up comedian, it leads to unexpected events that transform both their lives. Game of Truth: More than two decades have passed since the Good Friday Agreement, but some wounds remain - among them claims of state collusion on both sides. Fabienne Lips-Dumas and Tristan Bourlarts documentary looks at a number of such cases. For full listings and to book tickets for Cork International Film Festival, see https://corkfilmfest.org/67th-cork-international-film-festival-brochure/ Ryan Reynolds is due to receive The Peoples Icon award at this years Peoples Choice Awards, it has been announced. The actor will be honoured for his contributions to film and television at the annual ceremony, in which winners are chosen by the public. This years event will take place at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on December 6, and be hosted by Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson who also hosted the 2022 Emmys. Reynolds, known for his Deadpool films and new Welsh-based documentary Welcome To Wrexham, was praised for his unique ability to create joy. Iconic is putting it lightly when it comes to @VancityReynolds, so he HAD to be this years 2022 Peoples Icon! #PCAs : Guy Aroch pic.twitter.com/1wBtEu2ZFm People's Choice (@peopleschoice) November 3, 2022 In any endeavour whether its acting, producing, marketing or business Ryan Reynolds has the unique ability to create joy and authentically connect with his audience, said Cassandra Tryon, senior vice president of Entertainment Live Events, NBC Universal Television and Streaming. Hes received many accolades over the years, but its these innate qualities that makes him so beloved. We cannot wait to present Ryan with The Peoples Icon award at this years show. Past recipients of the accolade include Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Melissa McCarthy. Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, with whom he is a co-chairman of Wrexham FC, are to be honoured by the people of Wales next month (Bradley Collyer/PA) It comes as Reynolds and his friend and fellow actor Rob McElhenney, with whom he is a co-chairman of Wrexham FC, are to be honoured by the people of Wales for promoting the country and its language. The Welsh Government and the Football Association of Wales will give the Dragon Award to the duo, with the presentation taking place at a star-studded event in New York next month. It will be broadcast the same day Wales takes on the US in the World Cup, on November 21. Voting for the Peoples Choice awards closes on Wednesday November 9, with fans able to submit votes online or on Twitter. The ceremony will take place on December 6 at 5am UK time. Advocates for trans rights have called on the HSE to urgently address gaps in services, following a Europe-wide survey which placed Ireland last out of 27 countries. The TGEU trans health map gathered information mainly from local advocates on six areas of healthcare. Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) CEO Tina Kolos Orban said: Im shocked. I knew the situation in Ireland was bad but I had no idea Ireland was the worst in Europe. Problems highlighted in the survey were known, they said but it was not expected to be relatively so restricted. The HSE should realise that the service being provided to trans people in Ireland is not good, and they should try to do better, they said. It is obviously not good enough. TENI health officer Noah Halpin compiled the Irish responses. I wasnt expecting Ireland to come very last, he said. Some of the answers require Yes or No, where in Ireland its a bit more complex. Theyre saying 'are hysterectomies available publicly in Ireland?' and the answer is kind of but in very strict circumstances. The National Gender Service advises on its website it is doing initial assessments for people referred up to three-and-a-half years ago. We are seeing an all-new high in the length of time people have to wait for initial appointments, he said. The model of care we use is not in line with the World Health Organisation recommendations. In Ireland, a psychiatric diagnosis is required before hormonal treatment or surgery. For questions such as the process of obtaining hormone treatment many countries follow the informed consent model, which is what is recommended, we dont, he said. We follow a psychiatric diagnostic model, so we would have fallen down on many points there as well. .@TGEUorg has found that Ireland has the worst transition related healthcare for trans and non-binary people among the 27 EU member-states in their Trans Healthcare Map. Click below to read more https://t.co/KKVSrGEsWi pic.twitter.com/d8O9cU96sm Belong To (@Belong_To) November 1, 2022 Since 2019, the WHO has classified transgender health concerns under sexual health rather than mental and behavioural disorders. He said an official response to the findings would be welcome as many people in Ireland were surprised to see the level of care available when compared to other EU countries. We can request a meeting with the HSE and the Department of Health to go through where Ireland is falling down. That is probably something we are going to look at doing, he said. The survey was carried out by TGEU, an international advocacy group across 48 countries which is part-funded by the Council of Europe. The family of a Waterford man who had a 5cm brain tumour successfully removed has urged people to insist on early scans, saying patients are their own best doctors. People usually associate headaches with tumours, but from early 2021 Patrick Foley, age 63, was mixing up words like pasta/pizza, forgetting names and feeling pressure behind one eye. Weve two young children and they were picking up that I wasnt pronouncing words right, he said of his sons aged 10 and 7. Once or twice, I could be doing something, and all of a sudden I would blank out and not know where I was. Already blind in one eye, growing pressure behind his remaining eye proved extremely stressful. He had a review with his eye consultant in April and nothing was revealed, his wife Anna said. He also became very tired and experienced cognitive challenges and shortfalls with his memory function. By September, the Foleys were prepared to pay privately for an MRI. After raising this with their GP he referred them to the private Whitfield Clinic under a HSE scheme. Their worst fears were confirmed when a then-4cm tumour was diagnosed in mid-October. It didnt hit me at all really, I didnt realise at first just how serious it was, Patrick said. A different scan a week later identified this as Left Sphenoid Wing Meningioma and suitable for surgery. Patrick Foley with his wife Anna and their boys Conor and Gary. "They were picking up that I wasnt pronouncing words right, says Patrick. Picture: Dan Linehan I breathed a sigh of relief when the GP said that. I thought right, death isnt the first option here now, Anna Foley said. About 400 people are diagnosed with brain tumours, including cancerous tumours, in Ireland annually. I would tell anybody go for a scan; Id err on the side of caution. I would insist on a scan. So what if it comes back clear? At least you have anything suspicious ruled out then. In a way, you are your own best doctor, you know yourself when things are not normal or right with your health. She remembers praying the operation at Cork University Hospital on December 10 would not be cancelled due to a rise in the number of Covid-cases. The tumour reached over 5cm before being fully removed and confirmed as benign in a 10-hour operation. In recovery now, Patrick said: I had a walking aid for a few days, the pressure was gone, and I had no pain whatsoever. It was all over before it started hitting me really. His relieved wife added: It was brilliant for us to be able to go to Cork as opposed to going to Dublin. It was easier for the family, when youve children in the picture all of this is very different. The family recently raised 5,050 for CUH Charity for the adult neurosurgery ward. Patrick Foley, Anna and their boys Conor and Gary. It was brilliant for us to be able to go to Cork as opposed to going to Dublin. It was easier for the family, when youve children in the picture all of this is very different. Picture: Dan Linehan Pamela Tully Rudd said the petrifying experience of a brain tumour diagnosis taught her the future is not promised. She first experienced headaches in late 2019 as a new mother, and they continued in 2020 as she started working from home during the first lockdown. Alix is three-and-a-half now, but at the time she was one, I put the headaches down to that and stress, she said. But when I say headaches, it was nothing out of the ordinary, I would take a Panadol and be fine. She went to her GP in May 2020 with that niggling concern. She was very quick fair play to her, she said well get an MRI and rule anything out, she said. Unfortunately, something showed on the MRI at the end of June. I was told it was a meningioma. She was assessed until November at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, relieved her husband Michael was allowed in for appointments. The tumour had doubled in size, from June to the November, and we were faced with this needs to come out, she said. Its very scary. I found it very hard to wrap my head around it because I felt fine, other than the headaches I was working away and doing all the normal things. We didnt tell anybody; we just didnt know what to say. She had support from Brain Tumour Ireland who connected her with people facing similar diagnosis. On Friday, Brain Tumour Ireland is urging people to wear their favourite hat for #WearAHatDay and donate 4 to support the charitys vital work for patients. Also launching this week is @braintumourIRL s programme for its annual Brain Tumour Awareness Week (29th Oct 5th Nov). They are calling on the public to wear #WearAHatDay on Friday, 4th November & donate 4 to support the charitys work.https://t.co/NzNZSTMgXe pic.twitter.com/zgCT9j0X6N Alice PR & Events (@helloalicepr) October 17, 2022 She had support from Brain Tumour Ireland who connected her with people facing similar diagnosis. A brain tumour can go from Grade 1 all the way through to Grade 4. You might have seen coverage of Tom Parker who passed away recently, his was a Grade 4 Glioblastoma and those are the really bad ones, she said, referring to the singer with The Wanted who died aged 34 in March. Pamela Tully Rudd: Its very scary. I found it very hard to wrap my head around it because I felt fine, other than the headaches I was working away and doing all the normal things." Picture: Brain Tumour Ireland I knew mine was not one of those, but you do not know (the grade) until they actually take it out and send it to pathology and test it. Then they tell you what grade it was. All this time, we didnt know. The tumour was fully removed in December, and she was advised recovery could take two years. It can still be very hard mentally, but what its taught me is that tomorrow is definitely not promised. You have to embrace everything, she said. My one is a meningioma, a Grade 2 which is non-cancerous, but it is referred to in the field as atypical which means it has higher recurrence rate. That basically for me means I may get another one, there is a 30% to 40% chance another one could grow. But we all hope and pray that wont happen. Twitter staff should be treated with respect and the way the social media platform has treated them is "unacceptable", Micheal Martin has said. Twitter temporarily closed its offices on Friday after telling employees they will be informed by email later in the day whether they are being laid off. The move follows a week of uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk. The Taoiseach was asked about the decision to fire staff at short notice and lock them out of their Dublin offices. Speaking at the opening of the Thurles Primary Care Centre, he said: "We are concerned and our concern is for the employees of Twitter. "It has changed ownership globally. "There seems to be a fairly unprecedented approach adopted here to a global workforce and that is manifesting itself in Ireland. Twitter employs an estimated 500 people at offices in Dublin. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie "What I would say is that fundamentally no matter who you are or what sector you are in, one must always treat people with dignity and respect. "The employees of Twitter deserve to be treated with respect. "I read some of the commentary from the workers - they enjoyed working with them (over the years), the Twitter that they knew. "They had a good sense of collegiality there. They enjoyed their work experience. "The summary notice of dismissal or you are no longer working (for Twitter), is not acceptable. "That is not the way we conduct industrial relations or organise relationships between employers and employees. "There has to be respect - there has to be dignity in situations like this." 'A healthy path' The social media company said in an email to staff that it will alert employees by 4pm about staff cuts. "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email sent on Thursday, seen by Reuters. Twitter has a significant presence in Ireland. Company accounts show the company employed less than 200 people prior to the pandemic but this increased to 243 in 2020 and today, Twitter employs an estimated 500 people at offices in Dublin. Some Irish staff have already reported being let go by the company. One tweeted to say: "Woke up to the sad news that Im no longer a Tweep. "I loved every single moment working on the global Twitter Comms team, collaborating with and learning from an outstanding group of talented people." Woke up to the sad news that Im no longer a Tweep. I loved every single moment working on the global @TwitterComms team, collaborating with and learning from an outstanding group of talented people. Thank you to everyone who made it so special. #OneTeam #LoveWhereYouWorked Gareth Field (@GField17) November 4, 2022 Another added: "I loved this company with all my heart. I was incredibly proud to work here for nearly 5 years learning from the best people but all good things come to an end." It is unclear how many Irish staff will be let go. 'Re-adapting and re-consolidating' Twitter staff should be treated with respect and the way the social media platform has treated them is "unacceptable", Micheal Martin has said. Picture: INPHO/Lorraine OSullivan The Taoiseach also warned that commentators needed to be cautious about talking down Ireland's tech sector amid fears of wider cuts across a number of different tech companies. He said: "We have to be careful about the language we use. "We are going through global challenges - the whole world is. "The war in Ukraine is having its impact. From time to time different sectors having very periods of activity and growth and then they can regress somewhat. "We have been through that as a country and we have come back. "I mean I have been through a situation where one time in my political life we were fighting for the survival of Apple. "Now there are 6,000 people working in Apple. It is about re-adapting and re-consolidating. "In some of the areas of tech, we are more involved in manufacturing here than we are in terms of sales which will give us some buffer. 'But no doubt, the tech world is going through a very difficult period for number of reasons. "We have got to absorb those and have a focus on how we look at the new opportunities that will undoubtedly arise and we do working with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland in terms of indigenous companies to weather the storm." 'A very concerning day' Speaking on Thursday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly it is a concerning time for Twitter staff. "We do have operations here in Ireland and I'd say it is a very concerning day. My understanding is that emails will be received this evening and certainly Twitter appear to have signaled a very significant reduction." Mr Donnelly highlighted how it will be difficult for those involved adding: "We do have laws here in terms of making sure that there are redundancy payments, and, and so forth." He said he did not believe the job cuts were part of a broader move. "These seem to be specific to a particular purchase of Twitter, and moves that are moves that are being made there. But nonetheless, it will be a very concerning time. "I think the good news, however, is Ireland has close to zero, real, you know, real unemployment in the country at this stage and I think it is a testament to our private sector and the strength of our private sector and innovation of the country." Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said that Ireland had been careful not to become over-reliant on any one sector. Speaking from Singapore while on a trade mission, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said his thoughts were also with the employees at Stripe and Twitter who will lose their jobs. Tech companies expanded very quickly, probably expanded a little bit too quickly in the past year or two, and as a result they now have to lay off some staff, the enterprise minister told CNBC. But the number of vacancies in the sector still outweighs the number of people who are looking for employment, so even a slowdown or a downturn in the tech sector I think still means that youll have some very successful companies making profits and a lot of people working in that sector. Mr Varadkar also said that Ireland had been careful not to become over-reliant on any one sector. Tech is really big, but so is life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and indeed our food and drink industry, and thats just the traded sector. So weve been careful to make sure that we dont have all our eggs in one basket and thats been part of our success story. Employees use Twitter to share sadness and frustrations Twitter said its offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended in order "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data." The social media platform said Twitter employees who are not affected by the layoffs will be notified via their work email addresses. Staff who have been laid off will be notified with next steps to their personal email addresses, the memo said. Twitter has a significant presence in Ireland and employs an estimated 500 people at offices in Dublin. Picture: AP Some employees tweeted their access to the company's IT system has been already blocked and feared whether that suggested their layoffs. "Looks like Im unemployed yall. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack," tweeted a user with the @SBkcrn account whose profile is described as former senior community manager at Twitter. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk, the world's richest person, is looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce, as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters this week. Twitter employees vented their frustrations about the layoffs on the social network, using the hashtag #OneTeam. User rachel bonn tweeted: "Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old. Just got cut off from laptop access." Responding to the #OneTeam thread, Twitter's Head of Safety & Integrity Yoel Roth, said: "Tweeps: My DMs (direct message routes) are always open to you. Tell me how I can help. " Roth was the most senior executive to message publicly with a tweet of support for staff who are losing their jobs. He also appeared to still have his job. Last week, Musk endorsed Roth, citing his "high integrity" after he was called out over tweets critical of former U.S. President Donald Trump years earlier. Roth did not respond to a request for comment. The notification of layoffs caps off a week of purges by Musk as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company. There has been a week of uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk. Picture: AP He has directed Twitter's teams to find up to $1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters. He had already cleared out the company's senior ranks, firing its chief executive and top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company's advertising, marketing and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. Musk's first week as Twitter's owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled mere hours later. Employees told Reuters they were left to piece together information through media reports, private messaging groups and anonymous forums. The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter's famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees. "If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," Twitter said in the email on Thursday. Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company's Slack channels to say goodbye, two employees told Reuters. Someone invited Musk to join the channel, the sources said. WARNING: Some readers may find the following report upsetting Three young men who drove a vulnerable teenager to an isolated beach and took turns gang-raping her have been jailed for between nine and 10 years. Scenes erupted in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Friday after Mr Justice David Keane imposed sentences of nine years, nine-and-a-half years and 10 years on Dion Genockey (24), Troy Ryan (24) and Daryl Rooney (25) respectively. The mens' supporters were ushered out of court by gardai, crying and shouting miscarriage of justice and they're innocent after the sentences were handed down. The three men were 17 and 18 years old when they drove the then-18-year-old teenager to Dollymount Strand six years ago, where they took turns raping her. The court heard that after she was raped by the three men, the woman was told to get into a second car which had arrived at the scene. Two more men from that car then raped her, before leaving her on the beach. These men are not before the court. Genockey of Clarion Quay Apartments, Rooney of Railway Street and Ryan of Lower Gardiner Street, all in Dublin city centre, were convicted of raping the woman at Bull Island, Dollymount, Dublin, on January 5, 2016, following a second trial at the Central Criminal Court in March this year. The jury in the first trial, which was held in 2020, was unable to reach a verdict. The court heard none of the men accept the verdict of the jury and maintain their innocence. They have been in custody since the guilty verdicts were handed down last April. The court heard the men all have partners who support them. Passing sentence on Friday, Mr Justice Keane noted the men subjected the victim to degradation of a high degree when they each raped her against her will in Genockey's car. He noted she was a vulnerable young woman who had experienced a difficult childhood. He noted they then drove off and left her, exposing her to risk. Victim impact statement The complainant listened to the proceedings via video-link. In her victim impact statement, which was previously read out to court, she said her life has been on hold for the last six years. I have been waiting fearfully for the day they would get away with the pain and trauma they caused me, she said. I never felt like me again after they raped me and left me scared for my safety. The woman said she had to go through two trials where she was cross-examined for days on end and cruelly questioned about her past and her childhood, much of which was spent in care. I did not feel like the victim, she said. My mental health has suffered so much since they gang-raped me, she said. She told the court she has struggled with drug addiction and she will never get these years back. I fought hard to get justice, she said. I didn't give up. I didn't give up when I was threatened. I fought back. I fought back to get justice for me and for the safety of other women. The woman concluded her statement by saying she hopes the three men pay for the pain, trauma and loss they cost me on that night. Mr Justice Keane offered his sympathy to the young woman and told her he hoped she could draw strength from the jury's unequivocal support of her testimony. Sentencing Sentencing the three men, Mr Justice Keane noted that the offence fell into the more serious category. He said none of the men had expressed remorse for their actions. Taking into account the fact that two of them were 17 at the time of the offence and Rooney had just turned 18 and had a mild intellectual disability, the judge said he would sentence all three of them as juveniles. Sentencing Rooney to 10 years, Mr Justice Keane took into account a number of aggravating factors, including the fact he has 225 previous convictions for violent disorder, drugs, public order offences, trespass, theft and road traffic matters. In his plea of mitigation, Dominic McGinn SC, defending Rooney, said that since serving a prison sentence for prior offences and since becoming a father, Rooney has resolved to put his petty offending, violence and drug use behind him. He said sexual offending was completely out of character for Rooney. Sentencing Ryan to nine-and-a-half years, Mr Justice Keane noted he has 24 previous offences, including theft and drugs. Mark Nicholas SC, defending Ryan, said he has matured in the last six years since the offence. Although he maintains he did not commit a crime, he is reconsidering whether consent was given, the court heard. He was a 17-year-old immature person at the time, Mr Nicholas said, but now has empathy for the victim and her difficult background. Sentencing Genockey to nine years, Mr Justice Keane noted he has no previous convictions. Conor Devally SC, defending Genockey, previously told the court that he set up his own bike repair shop business with the help of his parents. He has no previous convictions. Mr Devally said the deprivation of liberty was painful for Genockey, who has a child with his current partner. Although Genockey has found it difficult to accept his status as a sex offender, he is open to getting treatment in prison and has been found to be at a low risk of re-offending, the court heard. Mr Justice Keane declined to suspend any portion of the sentence, given the fact none of the men have accepted responsibility for their actions. He placed them all under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years post-release. He granted leave to extend legal aid in the event of an appeal. A large number of family members and supporters of the men were inside and outside the court room for the sentencing. A number of them started crying as the sentence was handed down and some started shouting after the judge rose. - If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services. Russia has accused Britain of being drawn too deep into the conflict in Ukraine, warning that it risks a dangerous escalation of the crisis. Andrey Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, claimed British specialists had been involved in an audacious drone attack on Russias Black Sea fleet at the weekend in which three warships were reportedly damaged, including the flagship HMS Makarov. After Britains ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert was earlier summoned to the Russian foreign ministry in connection with the claims, Mr Kelin said the Kremlin would publish its proof pretty soon. We perfectly know about participation of British specialists in training, preparation and execution of plans against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done, he said. It is dangerous. It can bring us to the line of I would say no return return is always possible but we should avoid escalation. This is a warning actually that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means that the situation is becoming more and more dangerous. Mr Kelin said Russia was also continuing to investigate the explosions which damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 undersea gas pipelines in September, adding that UK special forces had been involved in training the Ukrainians in the use of explosives and undersea drones. In the West, it is widely suspected that the blasts were the work of the Russians themselves in an attempt to increase the pressure on European countries from rising energy prices. A UK government spokesman said the Russian allegations were an attempt to distract attention for its illegal invasion of Ukraine and its continuing losses on the battlefield. We do not plan to give a running commentary on these allegations; it is no secret that the United Kingdom has taken a public lead in our support to Ukraine this has been enduring since Russias illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the spokesman added. Earlier, western officials said President Vladimir Putin was likely to come under increasing pressure from nationalist hardliners as he prepares to withdraw Russian forces from the key Ukrainian city of Kherson. Officials said planning to pull forces out of the city on the Dnipro River appeared to be well advanced with a large proportion of the civilian population having already been moved out. But while officials expect it to be presented by the Kremlin as a humanitarian evacuation rather than a military retreat, they believe it will not prevent further criticism of the conduct of the war. When it does go ahead we can expect another uptick in pointed criticism of Russian national leadership, one Western official said. A key task for us will be to continue to track how this impacts on Putins credibility. For now, he appears to continue to successfully deflect with his pointed barbed at his lieutenants. The assessment comes as one former Putin ally the head of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin stepped up his criticism of the Russian leader. In a statement earlier this week he pointedly praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is routinely denounced by Moscow as a neo-Nazi drug addict as a strong and confident leader. Officials said that while more troops were arriving in theatre in an apparent attempt to shore up their defensive positions, many were recently mobilised reservists who were often woefully equipped and prepared. In Kherson, it is likely that most echelons of command have now withdrawn across the river leaving demoralised and leaderless men to face Ukrainian assaults. At least some reservists are arriving in theatre without weapons, one official said. Officials said the Russians were also running critically short of munitions including artillery shells with additional supplies even being sought from North Korea. Without the guns and rocket launchers being fired everything else is grinding to a halt, one official said. Meanwhile, the Treasury put in place legislation aimed at enforcing a cap on the price of Russian oil agreed by the G7 and Australia earlier this year. The move will ban UK service firms insurance, brokerage and shipping from being involved in services to transport Russian oil unless it is purchased below the cap, which is intended to starve Mr Putins administration of cash. Graham Brady has seemingly confirmed former British prime minister Boris Johnsons claim that he had enough MPs to mount a challenge to Rishi Sunak in last months leadership contest. Mr Johnson dropped out of the Tory leadership race, claiming he had the nominations needed to make it on to the ballot paper but could not unite the party. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Brady chair of the Tory partys 1922 Committee said two candidates had reached the threshold, and one of them decided not to then submit his nomination. Mr Brady also spoke about his experiences meeting with Liz Truss and Mr Johnson at separate stages this year to tell them they no longer commanded majority support from their MPs. He told BBC North West Tonight that Ms Truss had come to the same conclusion as him regarding the untenable status of her premiership, while Mr Johnson was still determined to go on the night before he announced his resignation. After Mr Sunak was made prime minister uncontested, Mr Johnson tweeted: Congratulations to Rishi Sunak on this historic day, this is the moment for every Conservative to give our new PM their full and wholehearted support. Mr Johnson offered his congratulations a day later than messages from outgoing PM Ms Truss and Mr Sunaks fellow leadership hopeful, Penny Mordaunt. In his speech, Mr Sunak said he will always be grateful to Mr Johnson for his incredible achievements in No 10. He pledged to deliver on the Conservative 2019 manifesto, insisting Mr Johnson would agree it is not the sole property of any one individual. He said: I will always be grateful to Boris Johnson for his incredible achievements as prime minister and I treasure his warmth and generosity of spirit. I know he would agree that the mandate my party earned in 2019 is not the sole property of any one individual, it is a mandate that belongs to and unites all of us. And the heart of that mandate is our manifesto. I will deliver on its promise. In a statement, Mr Johnson said there was a very good chance he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week if he had stood. However, his efforts to reach out to his rivals Mr Sunak and Ms Mordaunt to work together in the national interest had not been successful so he was dropping out. Burma Amnesty Demands Oil Importers Stop Myanmars Air Force Fuel Supplies Myanmars fighter jets. Amnesty International has reported that aviation fuel for civilian planes is being diverted to Myanmars regime aircraft, which attack civilians. The London-based rights group called on the international community to block imports because of junta crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Deadly Cargo report, in collaboration with Justice for Myanmar, was released on Thursday amid repeated junta airstrikes on civilians. These have included an attack on a concert in Hpakant, Kachin State, which killed around 80 people on October 23 and on the Depayin Township school in Sagaing Region in September, in which at least 12 people, including seven children, died. The report examined eight shipments of aviation fuel to Thilawa port near Yangon between February 2021 and mid-September 2022. The shipments were handled, stored and distributed by Myanmars subsidiary of the oil giant Puma Energy and a joint venture with a junta-controlled company, National Energy Puma Aviation Services (Nepas), Amnesty stated. It said some shipments were sent to storage depots linked to military bases. Puma Energy, which announced last month it will leave Myanmar, said it had become aware of reports of the military forcibly demanding fuel at selected Nepas airport facilities, the report stated. Amnesty said four other companies, PetroChinas wholly owned Singapore Petroleum Company, Rosneft of Russia, Thai Oil and ExxonMobil, were playing significant roles in supplying aviation fuel, linking them to the human rights violations. Chevron, Rosneft and Thai Oil told Amnesty that their shipments were meant to be used for civilian purposes only. However, Amnesty said the shipments supplied by Singapore Petroleum Company and Thai Oil were delivered directly to the regime on arrival at the port, citing leaked documents, industry sources and interviews with regime defectors. Thai Oil last month told Amnesty that it would sell its Jet A-1 operation to Myanmar. Singapore Petroleum refused to comment, the report said. Amnesty said without imported aviation fuel the junta would have no means to use airstrikes against civilians. If the planes cant fuel up, they cant fly out and wreak havoc. Today we are calling on suppliers, shipping agents, vessel owners and maritime insurers to withdraw from a supply chain that is benefiting the Myanmar Air Force, said Amnestys secretary-general Agnes Callamard. Burma Myanmar Junta Rounding Up Officials in War-Torn Rakhine Kyaukphyu Township / The Irrawaddy Myanmars military regime has been on an arrest spree in Rakhine State since military tensions with the Arakan Army (AA) flared again in June. The latest targets are ward and village administrators and departmental personnel in Kyaukphyu district, home to a China-backed special economic zone and deep-sea port project. Junta troops recently detained Kyaukphyu Fisheries Department chief U Kyaw Hsint, Land Records Department head U Tun Tun Win and surveyor U Tun Tun Naing, as well as ward administrator U Soe Hla Tun and a 100-household head, according to residents. Kyaukphyu is a major garrison town, housing Infantry Battalion 34, Light Infantry Battalions 542 and 543, the Danyawaddy Naval Base, and No. 32 Police Battalion. Junta troops there have been searching wards and villages and making arrests under the pretext of looking for members of the AA, and its United League of Arakan (ULA) political wing, said residents. One member of a local civil society organization said: The head of fisheries department was charged and tried under Section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Association Act. Others are still being detained in camps and barred visits from their families, so we dont know what charges they face. Ward administrator U Soe Hla Tun and the 100-household administrator were detained while attending a meeting at the township General Administration Department on October 31. The township Land Records Department chief and surveyor were detained on October 25, and U Kyaw Hsint was detained on September 28, according to locals. During two years of intense fighting between Myanmars military and the AA from late 2018 to 2020, more than 200 civilians were arrested and charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law on suspicion of having ties to the AA. Back then, the armed group was labeled a terrorist organization. But one month after staging a coup in February last year, the military removed the AA from its list of terrorist groups. Apparently, though, the ethnic armed group fighting for self-determination and equality was still outlawed under the Unlawful Associations Act. Arrests became less frequent after the two sides agreed an unofficial ceasefire ahead of the general election in November 2020. However, they have become common again since May. In the latest reports, a village administrator and 100-household administrator from a Kyaukphyu ward were detained on Thursday. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports. One Kyaukphyu resident said: Many of those who have links to the ULA/AA have already fled. And most of those detained have nothing to do with ULA/AA. Battalions in Kyaukphyu are on the rampage. They have seized many vehicles for ransom. The owners dare not reclaim them for fear that they might be arrested. So, junta troops are driving various models of vehicles around the town and making arrests. More than 30 residents including department heads have been detained in Kyaukphyu, according to relatives. Some were charged with incitement and violating the Unlawful Association Act, and many are being held incommunicado. Since the 2020 ceasefire, the AA has expanded its parallel administration complete with a judiciary, revenue department and public security offices, consolidating control over much of Rakhine State. Much of the administration was built while the regime was busy fighting resistance forces across the country after last years coup. Tensions flared when the regime attempted to stop the AA from expanding its parallel administration. The two sides have been fighting since August along the Bangladesh border in Rakhines Maungdaw and Chin States Paletwa. The regime has imposed travel restrictions in northern Rakhine in a bid to cut off supplies to the AA, but locals are bearing the brunt of a blockade that has continued for more than two months in some areas. Burma Myanmar Junta Shelling Kills Teenager in Sagaing A 13-year-old boy is killed in Zee Ka Nar village in junta shelling. / Supplied A 13-year-old in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region, was killed and three other civilians injured on Thursday by Myanmar junta shelling, according to the Kyunhla Activists Group. Junta troops based in Koetaungbo village shelled nearby villages yesterday afternoon and shells hit two houses in Zee Ka Nar village. The boy was killed on the spot and a seven-year-old girl and two women in their 60s were injured. Troops detained 14 Zee Ka Nar villagers yesterday and resistance groups are chasing the troops to free the civilians, said Ko Ka Lar, head of a Kantbalu Peoples Defence Force battalion. Daw Mya Myanmar, 53, the wife of one of those seized, told The Irrawaddy: Soon after the shelling, many troops arrived and took my husband and others without giving any reason. We dont know where they are. At least 1,000 houses in five villages in southern Kantbalu were burned down in October and more than 20,000 residents from 18 villages have been displaced, according to resistance groups. Mi-35 helicopters and YAK-30 fighter jets attacked in late October. On October 29, Ko Nyein Tun, a Hlut Taing villager with a wife and two children, was killed by junta troops. War Against the Junta About 20 Myanmar Junta Forces Killed in Latest Resistance Attacks -- Around 20 Myanmar junta troops including pro-regime militia members were killed on Thursday as Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs) continued to attack regime targets across the country. Also, a hospital was forced to close after being targeted by regime artillery, and a junta attack on a Christian Bible-study school of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Shan State left some students injured. Incidents were reported in Karen and Shan states and Sagaing, Magwe and Yangon regions. The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks by PDFs as well as the juntas latest atrocities. Some military casualties could not be independently verified. Hospital targeted by junta artillery strikes in Karen A 16-bed hospital was forced to close temporarily in Hpa-an Township, Karen State on Tuesday when Myanmar military forces at Light Infantry Battalion 408s base fired five 120-mm heavy explosives at the clinic, said the Karen National Union (KNU) on Thursday. The hospital was not damaged in the attack. However, patients, hospital staff and residents nearby were evacuated to safe areas, the KNU said. In November last year, the regimes Border Guard Force (BGF) looted drugs from the clinic and burned some of its materials. Kachin Baptist Convention school bombed by regime in Shan Four students of the Kachin Baptist Convention were injured in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State on Thursday night when a junta artillery shell hit their religious school building, according to local media reports. The military base near the town randomly shelled nearby areas without provocation, local media outlet Kachinwaves reported, citing residents. A video shows a student bedroom damaged by the juntas explosives. 15 regime forces killed by PDF drone strikes in Sagaing A PDF drone drops a bomb on a moving crowd in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday. / Zero Guerrilla Force At least 15 regime forces including Pyu Saw Htee pro-regime militia members were killed in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday morning when six local PDF groups used five drones to drop bombs on regime targets, claimed Zero Gurrilla Force from Mandalay Region, which coordinated the attacks. The group said it also used drones to target a rally of pro-regime militia members and regime forces returning home after attending the funeral of a militia member who was killed in a PDF mine ambush the previous day. The groups drones also targeted regime bases in pro-regime Thalalba Village. An aerial video shot by the PDF group shows some people being felled by a bomb dropped by a PDF drone on a crowd walking along a road. However, it was not clear whether the people in the crowd were regime forces and militia members. Three junta soldiers killed by PDF land mines in Sagaing Peoples Defense Force-Kalay claimed to have killed three regime troops and injured some others when they used land mines to ambush a military detachment of 80 soldiers near a technical university in Kale Township, Sagaing Region at 3 a.m. Thursday. After the ambush, regime forces randomly opened fire on nearby areas for several minutes. On that morning, a 71-year-old female resident of Htaukkyant Village in the township was injured when an artillery shell indiscriminately fired from a military base in Kale hit a rice storage building in the village, the PDF group said. Regime forces attacked in Sagaing Local resistance group Taze-PDF claimed to have attacked regime forces stationed at a petrol station in Taze Township, Sagaing Region using six improvised mortar shells on Thursday morning. In the attack, two mortar shells exploded inside the military encampment, the PDF group said. Military casualties were not known. Regime forces bombed in Yangon The underground resistance group Yangon Special Guerrilla Force claimed to have attacked regime forces stationed at Kyaikkasan Stadium in Tamwe Township, in the commercial capital Yangon, using a remote-controlled bomb on Thursday night. However, military casualties were unknown. Junta camp raided in Magwe Some regime forces are believed to have been killed or injured in Myaing Township, Magwe Region on Thursday night when Myaing-PDF attacked six regime forces at a junta camp outside the town of Myaing, the PDF group said. The junta forces responded with heavy explosives and automatic firearms, but there were no PDF casualties. The PDF group claimed the raid was in response to the extrajudicial killings of five PDF detainees by regime forces near the border of Myaing and Pauk townships on Tuesday. Commentary Correcting Intl Misconceptions About Myanmars Struggle Vivian Balakrishnan, foreign minister of Singapore (left), and Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi meet in 2017. / Vivian Balakrishnan / Facebook This is a brief political explanation for the Singaporean foreign minister, his counterparts and other leaders in the region, as well as UN officialsincluding the world bodys envoy to Myanmarand all those who have misconceptions about Myanmars political reality today. They all need to understand a few basic but vital facts about Myanmars crisis, because their respective roles give them a shared responsibility for helping to solve it. Unless they understand the reality of the situation, their diplomatic approaches and remedies for battered Myanmar will all be in vain. Lets face facts. In his keynote speech at the 37th ASEAN Roundtable on Nov. 1, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said: What is happening today is a fight for the heart of the Bamar majority, between the Tatmadaw on one hand and the National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the election in 2020. Balakrishnanwho is thought to have a deeper understanding of Myanmars political situation than his ASEAN counterparts and is known for his admiration of and closeness to detained Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her political strugglewhich was given a mandate by the Myanmar peoplereally shouldnt be making such a fundamental error about the political reality in the country. Its not only a fight for the heart of the Bamar majority, between the military (or, as Balakrishnan said, the Tatmadawa term of esteem referring to the military that Myanmar people stopped using when it began cracking down on peaceful protesters after the coup; he should mind his choice of words, too) and the NLD led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In reality, what is happening today in Myanmar is the fight between the whole population of Myanmar and the military. To elaboratebetween the whole population whose rights, freedom and opportunities were stolen by the military in February 2021, and the military or ruling junta, which has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against the entire population after destroying their dreams and future. To be a bit more precise, its a fight between the entire population comprising all ethnicities of the country of 55 million people and a handful of generals, their privileged families, and their supporters and apologists. If the mischaracterization of the situation by those foreign dignitaries was an innocent mistake, it shows how shallow their knowledge of Myanmars current crisis is, despite their status as key regional and world figures who are potentially in positions to help solve the Myanmar crisis. If it was intentional, it shows they are trying to distort the real picture of Myanmars crisis. In that case, one cant help but entertain a conspiracy theory. Could such a misconception have been spread by the juntas apologists around Balakrishnan or other diplomats or UN officials? No matter the motive, what the foreign minister said belittles the Myanmar peoples fight to uproot the military dictatorship. Such a misconception by foreign diplomats, leaders or UN officials is an insult to young ethnic people who have formed or joined Peoples Defense Force groups (commonly known as PDFs) in their states since the coup last year, and the older ethnic armed organizations that have supported or joined the Spring Revolution together with the PDFs. After the militarys brutal crackdowns on nationwide anti-coup protests following the coup in February 2021, PDFs emerged across the country. More than 250 have been formed both in Bamar-populated regions like Sagaing and in many ethnic states including Kachin in the north and from Chin in the west to Karen and Kayah in the east and southeast. Their sole goal is to uproot the military in order to build a genuine federal democracy. Almost every region and state now has PDFs. Take the countrys smallest state, Kayah (or Karenni), with its 300,000 population. Young ethnic people there have formed a dozen forces, including the strongest, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) led by Khun Be Du. The young ethnic Karenni leader is not a member of the NLD but is now a deputy minister for the parallel National Unity Government, which was formed by ousted NLD lawmakers and ethnic representatives. The KNDF alone has about 8,000 soldiers. As in Kayah State, thousands of youths in Chin, Kachin, Karen and Shan have also formed PDFs. These young freedom fighters have been battling junta troops in alliance with established ethnic armed organizations like the Karen National Union, Chin National Front, Kachin Independence Army and others. The PDFs were all formed in 2021 months after the coup. Their leaders officially stated that they formed the new forces in response to the military coup. Some of the freedom fighters in these new forces might be members or supporters of the NLD, and may even have voted for the party in the 2020 election. But we cant define the fight they are waging as between the NLD and the military. Such a view isnt just shallow, its fundamentally wrong. These young fighters and the wider populationwhose full support they enjoyhave a common goal to build a federal democracy free of the greedy and cruel generals who have been committing crimes against the entire population after eliminating the result of the election, in which the majority of Myanmars people, including many ethnic voters, backed the NLD. Simply put, in the 21st century, the fight in Myanmar is a national struggle to root out a military dictatorship that has, under consecutive leaders, repeatedly destroyed democracy in the country from its first coup detat in 1962 to the latest in 2021. Again, its the definitive fightthe people vs. the military dictatorship. No one has the right to belittle this supreme sacrifice, which has already claimed the lives of countless Myanmar people. Balakrishnan and other foreign officials must grasp this point if they sincerely want to help solve Myanmars crisis for the entire population of Myanmar. Next time, before they say such a thing, they should consider their words with mindfulness and sincerity, for the good of the people of Myanmar. Naing Khit is a commentator on political affairs. Dine in style at any of ur participating #tasteofkeybiscayne restaurants offering some of the most delicious burgers-and-more dining options this #BurgerFriday, November 4 Costa Med Bistro Sometimes all you need is a loaded burger and a lot of fries! A Costa Burger is the solution for this Burger--Friday and the islands place to see and be seen has the best burger in Key Biscayne Place your takeout order online by clicking here! Costa Med, a TripAdvisor Traverlers Choice nominated restaurant, is located in the Square Shopping Center. 260 Crandon Blvd. Offering Indoor & Outdoor Dining with expanded seating, Takeout. Reservations suggested. Call Antonio or Harold at (305) 361-7575 Hours. Lunch Mon to Sat: Noon a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner Mon to Sat: 6 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. / Sun 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Gran Inka Open for Outdoor Dining, Takeout or Delivery. El Gran Inka brings to every dish authentic Peruvian gastronomy featuring a unique creation and a touch of gourmet. Ever think of a burger at Gran Inka? One of the best on the island, according to Islander News Burger Bites series Try one this Friday. Offering Delivery or Take out directly from El Gran Inka. Order directly from us by calling (305) 365-7883 Open 7-days Noon to 10 p.m. 606 Crandon Blvd. Suite 4 / Key Biscayne (across from Winn Dixie) UberEats Available DUNE Burgers on the Beach Beachside dining - Ritz-Carlton - Dune - Perfection! Beach, perfect burger, cold brew and sweet potatoes fries the perfect Friday DUNE is the stylish, yet casual, beach lounge at The Ritz-Carlton's beach for global appetizers, gourmet burgers & champagne. Located in the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, 455 Grand Bay Dr, Key Biscayne. You can reach them at (305) 365-4500. They are open Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, click here. The Golden Hog Eat Local. Help Local. Shop Safely. Email us your order! Click here. Want to treat yourself to something truly uniquely delicious? Try our special Burger! Grilled to perfection while you wait! Todays menu: Soups & Creams: Chicken Pasta / Green Split Peas / Tomato Basil Main Course: Asado Negro (Eye Round) / Coconut Curry Chicken / Salmon Fillet / Truffle Pasta Side Dishes: Paella / Grilled Mixed Veggies / Gratin Potatoes The Golden-Hog has a complete line of specialty groceries for delivery. Golden Hog puts safety first, and has taken steps to ensure the safety of employees and customers, investing in shields, masks and gloves for safety, and the store is set up for social distancing. Shop with confidence. Call (305) 361-1300 to place a delivery or take out order; you can order online here. Brasas KB #burgerfriday special ... delicious Half-Pound Hamburger, with one side and a soda, only $10.99 - loaded it up with a fried egg, bacon, cheese and pickles to make it a "completa '' for only $4 more! Can't beat the quality! Unmatched value! Have you tried our Peruvian Chicken Rotisserie for lunch or dinner that include 2 sides and sauce of your choice: huancaina, aji amarillo, huacatay and olivas negras peruanas. Open for Outdoor Dining, Takeout or Delivery. Call (786) 615-2399 to place a takeout order. Open Noon to 8 p.m. 328 Crandon Blvd, Galleria Shopping Center Miss Mui Chinese Bistro Newest #tasteofkeybiscayne dining experience, serving authentic Chinese and Cantonese food. Miss Mui is a family owned and operated restaurant, serving Cantonese cuisine staples like special fried rice, BBQ Spare Ribs, but also lumpias, a Venezuelan-style spring roll and more. Looking for a beef alternative this Friday? Why not try our Pekin Duck. Reputed to be the best in South Florida! Miss Mui is located in the Square Shopping Center at 260 Crandon Blvd. Suite 14, on Key Biscayne. To place an order, please call 305)-381-0694. Follow them on Instagram. Click here. D'Lite Bistro & Bakery Who says eating healthy means sacrificing taste and flavor? Not at DLite! We are a unique and healthy restaurant that serves salads, wraps, sandwiches, bowls, protein smoothies and cold press juices made fresh every morning including gluten-free, vegetarian and keto options. Not in the mood for a burger? Try one of our delicious sandwiches, like our Italian sandwich in a freshly baked baguette We open at 7 a.m. daily and close at 8 p.m. everyday except Sat and Sun when we close at 6 p.m. DLite is located in the Arcade Mall, 180 Crandon Blvd. To place an order, call (305) 882-9284 or visit us online by clicking here. Randazzo by Yesenia Open for Indoor & Outdoor dining, Takeout or delivery. Reservations recommended Burgers are nice. but enjoy a change of pace this Friday try Yesenia's Homemade Meatball. What is in it? Ground veal, beef, and pork. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Italian parsley, garlic, served with fresh ricotta cheese. Please call (305) 456-0480 to order place an order or make a reservation Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., open until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. NEW! Now open at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sundays for lunch. Closed Tuesdays 328 Crandon Blvd Ste 112, Galleria Shopping Center Delivery service with Postmates or UberEats Boaters Grill & Lighthouse Cafe / Bill Baggs The restaurants inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park the popular Boaters Grill, located at No Name Harbor and accessible by boat, and the beachside Lighthouse Cafe are open and ready to serve. What says Burger Friday more than a perfectly cooked burger and fries, enjoyed beachside under the shadows of the Lighthouse? Outdoor dining is our specialty. Boaters Grill is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Lighthouse Cafe is open 7-days a week, from 9 a.m. to Sunset The restaurants are located inside Bill Baggs State Park, at 1200 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne. You can reach them at (305) 361-0080 Sake Room This Friday, we are featuring our new Meat Roll! A must try! Or try us for lunch. Specials starting at $10.99 Open for Indoor & Outdoor Dining, Takeout or Delivery. Or still enjoy Sake quality at home! FREE* Crunchy Crab Salad!!! New hours! 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Call (305) 456-0488 to place a takeout or delivery order directly Following all CDC safety protocols 328 Crandon Blvd Ste 108, Galleria Shopping Center Grub hub UberEats also available. Please if you can call us first *Offer good on any $50+ order Kazumi Open for Indoor & Outdoor seating, Takeout or Delivery! Make it a Wagyu Beef Slider Friday! We top it off with a fried egg for perfection! Modern Japanese fusion restaurant, offering creative treatments & creativity in our dishes for takeout and delivery by our own employees. Available for lunch and dinner. Open Monday through Saturday from Noon to 10 p.m. Only accepting credit card payments. To place an order call (305) 361-2675 or order online here. La Scala Fridays are Osso Bucco days at La Scala and ours has the reputation of being the best on the island. Guaranteed. Open for Indoor & Limited Outdoor Dining (reservations recommended) and Takeout Come in even if just to say hello!. Please wear a mask when coming into La Scala. The popular Italian Bistro now offers their delicious meals to enjoy at home and thanks you for the great support from the community while they enjoy La Scala cuisine at home. To place a takeout order call (786) 773-3633 or visit us online by clicking here. Check back tomorrow for more specials as we add more restaurants to #tasteofkeybiscayne-To-Go And please remember to order from the restaurant directly before using one of the apps this way we support the local restaurants by saving them the commission they are charged, which at times is as much as 30% Illumio Inc., the Zero Trust Segmentation company, today announced Brooks, one of the largest footwear brands, selected Illumio Core to reduce its risk from cyberattacks like ransomware. Brooks uses the Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) Platform to proactively prevent potential breaches from spreading across the hybrid attack surface in order to bolster the organizations resilience. Brooks mission is to build great running shoes and gear so its customers can focus on one thing: running. To design and deliver exceptional running shoes, Brooks needs to keep it's hybrid IT operational and assets secure. As Brooks continues to grow, it consistently puts the runner first and understands the importance of keeping its data secure, not just for its own operations, but for preserving the integrity of its customer data as well. The challenge is that as organizations become more interconnected and the attack surface grows, cyber and ransomware attacks are on the rise. In fact, ESG found that 76% of organizations have experienced a breach in the last two years. To combat the growing risk, organisations like Brooks are turning to Zero Trust Segmentation, a modern security approach that contains and minimizes the impact of breaches. Brooks uses Illumio Core to visualize all communication and traffic, both known and unknown, between workflows, devices, and the internet in their network. Then, it uses that data to determine where to set granular segmentation policies to restrict unnecessary and unwanted communications. Unlike other security tools that often break applications, Brooks can test the impact Illumio ZTS will have on its environment before pushing the controls live. This gives the security team the confidence they need to deploy Zero Trust Segmentation throughout the companys hybrid IT sooner, thereby improving resilience to attacks more quickly and efficiently. This is why research shows organisations can save up to $20 million per year with ZTS. Illumio is a strategic technology in our work to protect the business against ransomware, which is a top priority not only for my team but the company overall. Ransomware attacks can have a major impact on retail brands they can limit our availability, halt operations, and damage our trust with customers, said Ryan Fried, Senior Security Engineer at Brooks. Illumio provided value to Brooks right out of the box, with a visualization of our risk across the network. With Zero Trust Segmentation, were able to automate and create segmentation policies which control unwanted communications and proactively contain a potential breach to limit its impact on the organisation. At a time when cyberattacks are a constant and daily occurrence, organisations are looking for simple, reliable, and modern approaches to reduce risk. Zero Trust Segmentation isolates attacks so they cannot spread across your hybrid attack surface, which drastically limits their impact, said PJ Kirner, CTO and Co-founder at Illumio. As a major retailer, Brooks has a responsibility to both keep its customers data secure and its own operations running. At Illumio, were proud to help Brooks fulfil its mission and foster trust with customers by building resilience throughout its network. Learn more about Brooks story here: https://resources.illumio.com/resources/brooks-makes-strides-in-security-strategy-with-illumio. For more information about the Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation Platform, visit: https://www.illumio.com/products. About Illumio Illumio, the Zero Trust Segmentation Company, stops breaches from spreading across the hybrid attack surface. The Illumio ZTS Platform visualises all traffic flows between workloads, devices, and the internet, automatically sets granular segmentation policies to control communications and isolates high-value assets and compromised systems proactively or in response to active attacks. Illumio protects organisations of all sizes, from Fortune 100 to small business, by stopping breaches and ransomware in minutes, saving millions of dollars in application downtime, and accelerating cloud and digital transformation projects. GUEST OPINION: Even in a typical working environment, IT teams face various challenges when providing support to users. Thus, with the growth of remote workplaces due to the pandemic, these challenges increased even further. For instance, your IT team or managed IT service provider understands your organisation's infrastructure. Thus, they can develop proactive control and monitoring strategies. However, remote users may use different hardware, software, and internet networks, making it difficult for IT teams to have a one-fix for tech problems that might arise. Therefore, they may need to resort to break fix IT support instead. The shift in the support approach can be crucial given that IT support issues can vary from one remote worker to another. Some of these issues may be recurrent. Thus, you can build strategic solutions where necessary. Below are a few common issues IT support might frequently encounter and possible solutions. 1. Important Files Accidentally Deleted IT devices in the office can be assigned to individual staff. Furthermore, team members have separate accounts. Thus, they can only access those accounts' files and documents, not what's on the devices. Therefore, accidental loss of crucial files is minimal. Furthermore, data backup procedures, like those offered by most Raleigh Managed IT services companies in North Carolina, can ensure IT teams easily retrieve lost files. However, a device in a remote work setting can have several users. Thus, one user can often accidentally delete crucial files of another. In addition, these devices might not have automatic backup configurations. Therefore, IT support may not retrieve files if staff asks if they can get back deleted documents. Therefore, it would be best to advise your team members to create separate accounts for work and home use on their devices. The work profile can connect to your organisation's data backup plan. Thus, IT support teams can retrieve files if they get deleted. 2. Increased Cyber Security Risks Your office infrastructure can have the latest cybersecurity measures to protect against potential cyber threats. Furthermore, you can also frequently have risk assessment exercises to identify vulnerabilities. Thus, IT support teams have less to worry about very often. However, risk exposure to cyber threats increases with a remote workforce, especially if your users frequently connect remotely to your network. Even though the staff might have anti-malware, their devices might use open Wi-Fi networks. Thus, exposing your system to cyber-attacks. Moreover, your remote team's devices might have older software versions. Thus, they may become weak points for potential cyber-attack if these devices have older security patching. Reducing threat exposure from remote devices can take several steps. However, the vital one is ensuring your team's cyber security awareness. Your staff is your first line of defence against cyber-attacks. Thus, they should understand the potential threats they face and the preventative measures to reduce the risk of hacking. For instance, they must know running outdated software patches and using open networks to access work accounts is risky. Training them on how to identify phishing emails would also be best. Other crucial steps can include getting your remote team to use virtual private networks (VPNs) and properly configured firewalls. 3. Password Reset And Management Issues Due to cyber security measures and account requirements, users have several passwords they use. However, they can often forget these passwords. Thus, IT support must constantly deal with password recovery and reset procedures. This can be more persistent in a remote work environment where some team members might not have access to password management software. Password management challenges can be difficult to solve in a remote workplace. However, the IT support team can develop password reset procedures. For instance, provide a link for the 'forgot password' redirect. The link can take the user to a series of steps, including sending a one-time pin (OTP) to the user's mobile phone. Such a procedure can help reduce requests for password recovery and reset while ensuring the requesting user is authentic. 4. Slow Device Performance Devices have various specifications and properties ideal for different functions. Thus, the IT team can recommend devices with the best performance for your organisation. However, remote working can mean using computers with lower performance. As a result, IT support can get numerous requests to improve device speed and performance. You might not do much with home devices. However, your IT can recommend several measures to improve device performance. Among these measures is to reduce programs that run on device start up. Additionally, users can adjust power settings to the best performance instead of saving power. Conclusion Most IT support issues require the IT team to troubleshoot them on location physically. However, this might not be possible in a remote work environment. Thus, identifying common issues like the above and providing your users with possible solutions might be best. GUEST OPINION: The current business environment is heavily reliant on technology. Therefore, your businesss IT infrastructure always needs to run efficiently. Moreover, building trust with your customers and business partners is also vital. Thus, it would also be helpful if your IT infrastructure could guarantee data security. Developing a proactive IT monitoring strategy can help you achieve this. A successful proactive approach can ensure a robust IT system for your operations. You can have a dedicated in-house IT team for this task. On the other hand, you can also check within your location for managed IT service providers (MSPs) with proactive IT support in their product lines. For instance, if youre in Illinois, you might find managed IT services in Chicago or within the area that can extend proactive IT support to your business. Essentially, your company can benefit from such support in the following ways: 1. Better And Improved Security And Compliance Concerns for data security and privacy continue to grow as technology advances. Therefore, you must have the necessary cyber security protocols to protect your business. Furthermore, you should meet various data and privacy compliance regulations, for instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). As such, youll need constant monitoring in case of changes or new rules. Proactive IT support can also help ensure your organizations IT system is constantly scanned for potential threats and vulnerabilities. This can go a long way in sealing cyber security loopholes in advance, preventing the chances of cyber-attacks and data breaches. Your MSP can also help you implement cybersecurity protocols like data encryption, backup, multi-factor authentication, and awareness training. Such upfront steps can help boost your networks security significantly. However, getting an MSP within your location and industry of operations would be best. For instance, you can look for cyber security services St Louis has if youre business is located in Missouri. Such an MSP can understand your businesss IT needs per local regulations and data security standards. Thus, it can ensure your IT systems compliance as soon as new cybersecurity standards roll out. 2. Reduced Downtime Issues Your clients and business partners always expect efficient service delivery. But there may be periods your system might be down due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance. While you can send notifications if you have upcoming maintenance, an unplanned downtime may significantly interrupt your business operations. Data loss, software crashes, or hardware issues are some of the causes of such interruptions. As a result, it can cause inconvenience among your team members, customers, and business partners. However, with an MSPs proactive IT support, you can reduce or eliminate this. For instance, the provider can run regular software updates and upgrades. As such, youll experience minimal software crashes. Updates also help install security patches from developers, thus, preventing potential data breaches which can take your system offline. Furthermore, data backup and recovery procedures are also part of proactive IT support. This can help you prepare for unavoidable circumstances and minimize significant downtime. Such procedures can help get your system back online within minutes. 3. Predictable Budgeting Expected costs during a given period can help you budget your finances better. While you can review such costs from your businesss historical spending, you can get other anticipated expenditures from contractual agreements with suppliers and service providers. This is true when you have a proactive IT support strategy. Your contract with a proactive IT support company can be annual or biannual, so youll know more or less what charges to expect for maintaining, updating, and monitoring your IT system. That said, you can easily budget your IT expenses more accurately than if you had a reactive IT support strategy. The reason is that youll have a contracted rate from your MSP covering the contractual period. Thus, even if there are incidences during this period, the cost may not be as high and might not affect your budget estimates. 4. Cost-Effective Breakdowns can often lead to desperate equipment repair requirements. More so, such emergency repairs can quickly become expensive if they occur often. However, with proactive IT support, your provider can schedule preventative maintenance to ensure your hardware and software are all up to date. Furthermore, the provider also monitors your system and resolves issues before they become extensive and costly problems. For one, proactive monitoring of your hardware and software can help extend their lifespan. Therefore, you wont need to buy replacements frequently or pay for repair costs. In addition, you can avoid unnecessary downtime, which can lead to monetary losses. Conclusion IT has become a crucial driver for the operational efficiency of businesses. However, it can be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore, adopting a strategy to manage your IT costs, reduce downtime, and protect your data is vital. Getting proactive IT support from your MSP could be a good start. One reason why a company like Singtel Optus can leak customer data in a breach that is, by all accounts, its own fault and then avoid being held to account is because of the media's fawning coverage. A typical example can be seen in Friday's Australian Financial Review, which carried an interview about what the Optus chairman Paul OSullivan has learnt from the breach. Of course, it's good to know that the man has learnt something. I haven't been an #Optus customer in almost a decade, but today I got a letter in the mail telling me they'd let someone steal my personal data. Why do you need to keep my personal details for so long, @Optus? Once I leave your service, it should all be deleted. HG Jones ?? (@HGJonesBooks) November 3, 2022 For context, Optus has been dragged kicking and screaming to pledge that it would pay for replacing the passports that were leaked. Only this morning, the ABC reported that the company had been made to extend this to holders of foreign passports as well after the matter had been ventilated on the 7.30 program. The telco is still refusing to pay for the replacement of driving licences, only expressing a willingness to pay for the administration expenses associated with issuing these forms of ID. But what the AFR, which actually claims to be a newspaper, was more bothered about was O'Sullivan's description of the breach as being "not like someone breaking into your home and stealing a TV". Who knew? O'Sullivan talked up the difficulty of dealing with data volumes that reached 20TB. In an age when no average PC has a drive smaller than a terabyte, such talk is silly. It is frustrating & distressing to know that not only did they have kept personal data on me for far longer than I expected them to, but they didn't secure it properly. This is not good enough. I will be seeking legal advice HG Jones ?? (@HGJonesBooks) November 3, 2022 But his interrogator, Tony Boyd, apparently swallowed everything, hook, line and sinker. He did not press O'Sullivan about the details of the attack or whether the entire review that the company has commissioned from Deloitte would be released publicly. [The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Home Affairs are also investigating the circumstances of the breach.] Help please @ClareONeilMP I didnt say anything worthy of a block from @optus and Im still a customer. How can this be allowed? Im still waiting on an update for my passport? Twitter is how I get information. #optusdatabreach pic.twitter.com/oUSrhGZnh4 Dr Jos ?????????? (@redruby17) October 29, 2022 Boyd was happy to accept O'Sullivan's spin: What people will see when the reviews come out, is that whats happened here is a classic perfect storm its the alignment of a number of events, which has led to the breach getting through. So, there will be learnings and there will be lessons, but I think everyone should sit back and wait to get the authoritative review. Cool, then there's nothing to worry about, I guess. We also learnt that O'Sullivan backs his chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin. What a surprise!!! Bayer Rosmarin has been exposed surprisingly in the same AFR by Michael Roddan whose article was headlined "Optus job was only a part-time gig" for the CEO. In the AFR's Rear Window section, Roddan also skewered his own employer for saying that the Optus CEO made a courageous and correct call to get in front of the media in a video call that felt strangely intimate and completely open. Lift your game Optus - Im weeks away from finishing from contract and will have no hesitation in going elsewhere. Ive noticed you have turned off replies on your tweets and have now taken to blocking - not the best way to win customers back Diane Neta Wright (@WAhawkchick) October 29, 2022 He also had no kind words for The Australian, which he pointed out had empathised with Bayer Rosmarin being on the verge of tears when asked how she feels about the data breach occurring under her leadership. But more importantly, Roddan pointed out, "... what was Bayer Rosmarin doing with her time since joining Optus as deputy boss in March 2019? Well, it turns out, a lot of her time was spent helping to govern completely different companies that were not Optus." Full details are here. However, Boyd had no time to waste on such frivolity. O'Sullivan said Bayer Rosmarin had "demonstrated strong leadership in a time of immense pressure. And I think, as weve seen with other events, I think shes demonstrated the importance of moving openly and quickly, to keep customers informed. And Boyd, no doubt, nodded his head in an understanding manner. Getting information out of Optus and, Lord knows, I have tried is akin to getting blood out of a stone. At every step, Optus has had to be pushed and pulled into providing answers. The government has fallen off the track as well, but that is a separate subject which deserves its own treatment. The public, however, are getting screwed and the AFR has certainly played its part in that. Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. South Africa: Treasury, Gauteng to enter into agreement over e-tolls debt repayment National Treasury and the National Revenue Fund will enter into an agreement with the Gauteng provincial government on the provinces commitment to settle its portion of the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) debt. The agreement is set to include implementation modalities on the settlement of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). This comes after Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, in the 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (2022 MTBPS) last week announced the roadmap on the SANRAL debt on Phase 1 of the GFIP. Clarifying its stance, National Treasury in a statement on Friday reiterated that government would take over the existing debt and associated obligations of SANRAL. These obligations will be shared between national and provincial government. SANRALs total debt, as at 31 March 2022, was R45.936 billion. GFIP Phase 1 was funded as part of the Toll Portfolio and not as a ring-fenced project. The value of debt attributed to GFIP Phase 1 is R43.031 billion. In the statement, Treasury said the Gauteng government will pay 30% of the debt and interest obligations of GFIP Phase 1, or R14.1 billion, as well as the maintenance costs related to the projects Phase 1 network. National government will cover 70% of the debt and interest obligations, or R32.9 billion. The amount announced by the [Finance] Minister represents the majority of the national government obligation, and will ensure that SANRAL remains a going concern in the medium-term. National government will make arrangements for the rest of the funds related to its share of the debt obligation at the appropriate time, in line with the conditions and obligations related to the process, and in a manner that does not negatively affect the overall fiscal trajectory, as outlined in the 2022 MTBPS. The agreement, said Treasury, is also expected to set out how the province will pay for these commitments. One of the conditions of the R23.7 billion proposed in the Special Appropriation Bill is that these modalities must be concluded by 31 December 2022. It said decisions expected by the province will also include the treatment of legacy matters, such as revenue collected from users who have been paying their toll fees and/or those who have not paid. The provincial government, reads the statement, must finalise a long-term revenue solution that makes funding available for the maintenance of the road network, with SANRAL continuing to execute the maintenance thereof. The option to utilise the existing toll mechanism remains open and would result in the toll network proclamation remaining in place. If the provinces provision for maintenance of the network is financed through other revenue streams within its area of responsibility, the processes on undeclaring the toll network, in terms of section 27 (1) of the South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act (Act 7 of 1998) will need to be undertaken. This notwithstanding, all necessary statutory and regulatory processes that must take place to give effect to the Minister of Finances announcement are underway including consultation with relevant stakeholders. Until a notice in the Government Gazette is issued, SANRAL has a statutory obligation to collect any toll fees due to them. Treasury said the functional assignment of roads, in terms of the Road Infrastructure Strategic Framework for South Africa, remains in place. As a result, the 201 kilometres of the national roads on the GFIP network will remain as national roads and can only be reassigned to other spheres of government by notice in a Government Gazette, with the concurrence of SANRAL debt holders. National government affirms that direct road user charges are the most effective, equitable and efficient way to finance road infrastructure. It is also a mechanism to manage transport demand, impacting on modal choice and spatial inequality, Treasury said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China-proposed Global Security Initiative to forge a strong synergy to build a community with a shared future for mankind 10:11, November 04, 2022 By He Yin ( People's Daily Changes of the world, of our times and of history are unfolding today in ways like never before, posing challenges that must be taken seriously by humanity. Geopolitical conflicts rise as the COVID-19 pandemic unseen in a century is still casting a shadow over the world; the sluggish economic recovery comes along with a widening development gap; climate change issues still remain unsolved and are followed by the challenging problem of digital governance. How to coordinate traditional and non-traditional security and how to ensure development and security are common issues facing the mankind. After putting forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI) at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Security Initiative (GSI) at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 held this April. The GSI is underpinned by six commitments, namely, staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; staying committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; staying committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; staying committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; staying committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation; and staying committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains. The six commitments serves as a guiding idea, a basic premise, a fundamental rule and an important principle of safeguarding world peace. It is also the only road leading to world peace and explains the importance of maintaining world peace. It gives explicit answers to questions of our times such as what security concept the world needs and how countries can achieve common security, offering a Chinese approach to tackling global challenges, eliminating the root causes of international conflicts and achieving durable stability and security in the world. This major initiative conforms to the common aspirations of all countries to build a world that enjoys universal security. Peace is the ever-lasting wish of the people. Facing emerging traditional and non-traditional security threats, the GSI goes beyond the zero-sum game and hegemonism, advocates the win-win mindset to address the complex and intertwined security challenges, and champions the spirit of solidarity to adapt to the profoundly changing international landscape. It charts the course for all countries around the world to pave a path that ensures security for all, by all, and of all. The GSI has gained support from over 70 countries, which indicates that it is an initiative that is in line with the will of the people. This major initiative meets the pressing need of the international community to safeguard true multilateralism. The GSI is rooted in true multilateralism. It calls upon all countries to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and reject the obsolete mentality of zero-sum game and bloc confrontation. It insists that security should be based on mutual respect between nations, as well as the commitment to the UN-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law. The initiative provides important principles, lays an important foundation and pulls strength of solidarity for improving global governance through a multilateral perspective. This major Initiative meets the shared desire of all peoples for working together to build a better world beyond the pandemic. Security is a precondition for development, and development is a guarantee for security. The GSI is an organic whole of dialectical unity that coordinates security and development and corresponds to the GDI. It will help promote world economic recovery and build a world of common prosperity. Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif noted that there's no development if there is no security. He believes the GSI will work in synergy with the GDI. The GSI takes root in Chinas independent foreign policy of peace and the practices of this policy. It is inspired by the diplomatic tradition and wisdom with unique Chinese characteristics. China has put forward a four-point proposal on resolving the Palestinian question and a five-point initiative on promoting peace and stability in the Middle East. On the Iranian nuclear issue, China actively promotes the negotiations to resume compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It also comprehensively advances the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue and promoted the establishment of a coordination and cooperation mechanism of Afghanistan's neighboring countries. China keeps to its conviction about peaceful development, and is committed to its international responsibilities and resolving international hotspot issues peacefully through dialogue and consultation. As an ancient Chinese teaching goes, all good principles should adapt to changing times to remain relevant. The GSI conforms to the trend of the times featuring peace, development and win-win cooperation, and will help all parties open up a broad path toward lasting peace and universal security. China stands ready to work with all peace-loving countries and peoples to carry out the GSI, nurture security dynamics featuring equity and justice, joint contribution and shared benefits, and forge a strong synergy to build a community with a shared future for mankind. (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) World leaders and ordinary Ethiopians voiced cautious hope that a breakthrough deal between Ethiopia's government and Tigrayan rebels could signal a permanent end to the brutal conflict in Africa's second most populous country. The agreement, unveiled Wednesday after little over a week of negotiations, is seen as a crucial first step towards ending the bloodshed but many questions remain about its implementation. It was sealed almost two years to the day since the war erupted on November 4, 2020 between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and followed a surge in fierce combat from late August that had alarmed the international community. The two sides agreed to "silence their guns" in a conflict that has seen many thousands of people killed and millions forced from their homes, with reports of atrocities including massacres and rape committed by all parties. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in southern Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Thursday the government had scored a victory in the deal that was brokered by the African Union in Pretoria. "In the South Africa negotiations, 100 percent of the ideas Ethiopia has proposed have been accepted," he said. According to a joint statement signed by both parties, the agreement includes provisions for the disarmament of TPLF fighters and a public "commitment to safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia" -- a key demand by the government. It also provides for the restoration of services to war-stricken Tigray and unhindered access to humanitarian supplies. But details regarding its implementation remain vague, and no mention was made of Abiy's ally Eritrea, a major player in the conflict, despite international calls for Asmara to withdraw its forces from Tigray. While hailing the agreement as a "new dawn" for Ethiopia and the volatile Horn of Africa region, AU mediator Olusegun Obasanjo had cautioned Wednesday: "This moment is not the end of the peace process but the beginning of it." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described it as a "momentous step" while UN chief Antonio Guterres voiced hope it "can start to bring some solace to the millions of Ethiopian civilians that have really suffered during this conflict". The European Union encouraged further talks to achieve a permanent ceasefire agreement and said "swift implementation" on the ground was needed including the resumption of humanitarian access and restoration of basic services. - 'No other option but peace' - The agreement was greeted cautiously on the streets of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. "If the truce were done earlier, it would have been better. Many people wouldn't have been killed (and) displaced," businessman Million Tadesse told AFP. Banker Degsew Assefa also welcomed the agreement, but said it needed to "be carefully implemented so we don't relapse back to war". "There is no other option than peace," he said. Abiy -- who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his rapprochement with Eritrea -- sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF after accusing the group of launching attacks on federal army camps. It followed seething tensions between Abiy and the TPLF, which had dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades until his election in 2018. The war's toll is unknown, but the US has estimated that as many as half a million people have died in the conflict. The fighting has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis and caused large-scale displacement in Tigray as well as in the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar. Tigray has faced severe shortages of food and medicines and limited access to electricity, banking and communications, with UN warnings that hundreds of thousands of people were on the brink of famine. UN investigators have accused Abiy's government of crimes against humanity in Tigray, including the use of starvation as a weapon -- claims rejected by the authorities. Amnesty International said Wednesday's deal was a step in the right direction, but called for further action to address the "unspeakable abuses" committed during the conflict. "At present, the accord fails to offer a clear roadmap on how to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and overlooks rampant impunity in the country, which could lead to violations being repeated," it said in a statement. When Red Cross staff work in conflict zones, their recognisable red-on-white emblems signal they and those they are helping should not be targeted. Now, as warfare and attacks increasingly move into cyberspace, the organisation wants to create a digital emblem that would alert would-be attackers that they have entered computer systems of the Red Cross or medical facilities. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called Thursday on countries to support the idea, arguing that such a digital emblem would help protect humanitarian infrastructure against erroneous targeting. "As societies digitalise, cyber operations are becoming a reality of armed conflict," ICRC's director-general Robert Mardini said in a statement. "The 'digital emblem' is a concrete step to protect essential medical infrastructure and the ICRC in the digital realm." For more than 150 years, the organisation's distinctive emblems -- the red cross and red crescent, and more recently the red crystal -- have conveyed in times of conflict that the people, facilities and objects they mark are protected under international law and that attacking them constitutes a war crime. - Potential for abuse? - But to date, there are no such signals in the cyber world. The ICRC has been mulling this idea for a while, launching a project in 2020 to examine the technical feasibility of creating a digital emblem, and opening consultations to weigh the benefits of such a system against potential for abuse. Concerns have been raised that such an emblem could risk identifying a set of "soft targets" to malicious actors, making it easier to systematically target them. Malicious actors could also misuse a digital emblem to falsely identify their operations as having protected status under international law. But on Thursday, the ICRC presented a new report titled "Digitalising the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal emblems", concluding that the advantages outweighed the risks. In the foreword, Mardini stressed that cyberattacks on medical facilities and humanitarian infrastructure can have dramatic, and deadly, real-life consequences. He pointed to a growing numbers of cyberattacks on hospitals since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which "have disrupted life-saving treatment for patients and forced doctors and nurses to resort to pen and paper at a time when their urgent work was needed most." - 'Massive shock' - And the ICRC itself fell victim to a massive cyberattack last January, in which hackers seized the data of more than half a million extremely vulnerable people, including some fleeing conflict, detainees and unaccompanied migrants. That attack "was really a massive shock for our institution," Balthasar Staehelin, ICRC's director of digital transformation and data, told a conference in Geneva recently. While stressing that his organisation had long been focused on data protection, Mardini said the "data breach highlighted the urgency of our work in this area." "Protecting personal data, and ensuring the availability and integrity of our data and systems in the digital space, is essential to assist and protect people in the real world," he added. In the January case, hackers targeted an external company in Switzerland that the ICRC contracts to store data, and it remains unclear if the organisation itself had been intentionally targeted. If unintentional, the attack could have been averted if the date bore an emblem signalling it was protected under international law, ICRC legal advisor Tilman Rodenhauser said during an event Thursday launching the report. Such an emblem would provide "an additional layer of protection", he said, stressing it would "signal to professional cyber operators that they need to stay out, by law and by ethics standards." ICRC said it had been working with a number of universities and others to develop possible technical solutions for a digital emblem. It pointed to several possible approaches, including embedding the emblem in a domain name (for instance www.hospital.emblem), or embedding it in the IP address, with a specific sequence of numbers signalling a protected digital asset. The organisation stressed though that to make a digital emblem a reality, countries need to agree on its use and incorporate it into International Humanitarian Law, alongside the three physical emblems currently in use. Three members of an armed group who this week were convicted for crimes against humanity after a landmark trial in the Central African Republic have filed appeals, the court said on Thursday. Issa Sallet Adoum, Ousman Yaouba and Tahir Mahamat were accused of taking part in an attack by the 3R armed group in May 2019 in which 46 villagers in northwest CAR were massacred. After its first-ever trial, the Special Criminal Court, a tribunal of local and international judges, on Monday sentenced Adoum to life and the others to 20 years. Confirming remarks made by a defence attorney after the trial, the trio have lodged appeals against the ruling, court officials told AFP. Separately, the court's prosecutors, who had requested life terms for all three, said in a statement that they too would file an appeal. One of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world, CAR plunged into civil war in 2013 largely along sectarian lines. Violence fell back in intensity in 2018 but as recently as early 2021, two-thirds of the country lay in the hands of armed groups spawned in the conflict. The special court's mandate applies to war crimes and crimes against humanity dating back to 2003. The tribunal was set up in 2015 with UN backing but struggled for years to get going in the face of logistical hurdles, lack of money and local hostility. Monday's verdict has been acclaimed by rights campaigners and relatives of victims as a crucial step in the fight for justice. "The judgment shows the capacity of the Central African Republic's courts, assisted by the international community, to address the gravest crimes suffered by its people," Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement on Wednesday. The COP27 climate conference opens in Egypt on November 6. Since the first Conference of the Parties ("COP") to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994, governments have been negotiating around two key ideas. First, that the richest states - initially the OECD member states which are historically the biggest polluters -- must reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more and faster than others. Second, that the OECD countries must pay so that the poorest countries, which are the first victims of climate change effects even though they are responsible for only a small part of the GHG emissions, can adapt to it - i.e. protect their population and build a non-polluting system of production. These two ideas constitute what the international movement of climate NGOs has called "climate justice", in other words an obligation of solidarity between the States of the North and those of the South on the climate. After two decades of tough intergovernmental discussions, these ideas were translated in 2015 into the Paris Agreement (COP21), which recognizes that the States have "common but differentiated responsibilities" in the global objectives of GHG reduction, aimed at a maximum increase in average temperature of 1.5C compared to the beginning of the industrial era; and, as early as 2009-2010 (COP15 in Copenhagen and COP16 in Cancun), the creation of the Green Climate Fund, which organizes transfers of funds from the richest countries to those countries most vulnerable to climate change The four biggest polluters Unfortunately, it took less than two years for this logic to be widely questioned. In July 2017, the US-based scientific organization Climate Accountability Institute and the British NGO Carbon Disclosure Project published a report questioning the responsibilities of fossil fuel companies - rather than governments - in climate change, both in terms of direct GHG emissions and indirect or induced emissions. The most striking findings of this "Carbon Majors" report are: that more than half of historical GHG emissions occurred between 1988 and 2015; 100 fossil fuel companies (coal, oil, gas) are responsible for 71% of global emissions since 1988, with the 25 most polluting companies responsible for 51% of emissions; and among the ten most polluting companies since 1988, only three are from an OECD member country, the first four places being occupied by Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco, Chinese coal company Shenhua (which became China Energy in August 2017), Russian gas company Gazprom, and the National Iranian Oil Company. On reading this report, two things stand out: the responsibility of companies in climate change seems to take precedence over that of States - an observation that must be strongly qualified by the fact that 59% of companies in the Carbon Majors ranking are majority-owned by States; and non-OECD States (mainly China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, but also including Iran, India, Venezuela, the Gulf States and Algeria) are up there with the OECD States in their historical responsibility for climate change. "Climate Criminals" In his book Criminels climatiques published in January 2022, French journalist Mickael Correia details the strategies with which the top three companies in this ranking weave their international web through corrupt practices and partnerships with Western banking or energy firms, so as to continue increasing their eminently polluting production despite the objectives of the Paris Agreement. He reminds us of the major humanitarian need to respect this agreement, at a time when several recent scientific studies - Lancet 2021, Nature Climate Change 2021 - count in hundreds of thousands the deaths each year due to the global increase in temperatures and when, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, forced migrations of populations for climatic or environmental reasons amount to more than 25 million people per year. And to quote the historian of science Christophe Bonneuil, director of research at the CNRS, "any step that would delay the freezing of a part of the fossil reserves, and any emission of GHGs that would lead us to exceed the threshold of +2C must henceforth be taken for what they are: acts that threaten the safety of our planet, heavy with victims and human suffering (...), [that] deserve the qualification as 'crimes'". Some success, but in the West The international climate movement quickly seized on the new findings of the Carbon Majors report. After taking States to court to force them to reduce their GHG emissions - with resounding victories in the Netherlands (Dutch Supreme Court decision in 2019) and in France (Paris Administrative Court decision in 2021) -, NGOs have filed lawsuits against several large fossil fuel companies. They have done so by using the same legal argument against these multinationals that worked against the States: denouncing both the failure of these companies to comply with commonly accepted international standards for the reduction of GHG emissions, and the serious humanitarian consequences of their pollution. One suit has already been successful: the one by Dutch NGO Milieudefensie against Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, ordered in May 2021 to reduce its GHG emissions 45% by 2030 compared with their level in 2019 (Shell appealed this judgment in March 2022). Another lawsuit, brought by the French NGO Notre affaire a tous and several local authorities against the French oil company Total, is all the more remarkable in that the cities of Paris and New York recently joined the plaintiffs. But these proceedings remain confined for now to Western countries, where fossil fuel companies are owned by private shareholders, where the rule of law functions better, and where immense environmental pollution is not systematically accompanied by serious human rights violations. Targeting corporations As COP27 opens in Sharm el-Sheikh, what is left of the concept of "climate justice" that had previously served as a spur to international climate negotiations? The idea has become clearer, pointing more clearly to those directly responsible for emissions. Globally, 90 companies alone are responsible for two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, says NGO Greenpeace France on its website page dedicated to climate justice. The climate change caused by these emissions is tragically affecting some of the world's populations. It is therefore essential that these companies change their business model and be brought to justice." However, intergovernmental negotiations on climate, structured around a North-South axis, do not seem to be able to respond to this issue. This is one of the reasons why the climate negotiations have stalled since the Paris Agreement. In its annual assessment of climate action, published on October 27, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasizes that the current policies of States are leading straight to a catastrophic warming of 2.5C by the end of the century. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reacted by stressing that while developed countries must "lead the way" in reducing GHG emissions, "emerging economies must also do more". In emerging economies, however, it is unlikely there are courts that will force them to do so. Myanmar's military has begun taking delivery of a batch of Russian-made combat jets, a monitoring group said Friday, the latest hardware shipped from Moscow as rights campaigners accuse the junta of hitting civilians with air strikes. In 2018 under the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's military purchased six Sukhoi Su-30s from Russia, according to Russian state media reports. Satellite data, reports from flight spotters and a closed source have "now confidently confirmed" the presence of at least one of the jets in the military-built capital Naypyidaw, said Myanmar Witness, a monitoring group. It did not say whether the jet was in training or flown on active missions. Local media have previously reported between four and six of the multi-role twin-seat fighters had arrived in the country, accompanied by Russian trainers and technicians. The military has not commented on the sale or how many of the jets are in Myanmar. Russia is a major arms supplier and backer of the junta, which has described Moscow's invasion of Ukraine as "justified". In October Jane's Defence Weekly said it had received imagery showing a Russian Kamov KA-29TB assault transport helicopter in operation in the northern Sagaing region. The helicopter appeared to be one of five that Myanmar's military agreed to buy earlier this year, Jane's said, citing regional intelligence sources. The junta is struggling to crush resistance after it seized power last year. Fighting has flared with ethnic rebel groups as well as newer anti-coup "People's Defence Forces", and rights groups have accused the military of launching air strikes on civilians that amount to war crimes. Last month air strikes on a concert held by a major ethnic rebel group in the north killed around 50 people, including civilians, according to the rebels. The junta has said reports civilians were among the dead are "rumours". North Korea launched an artillery barrage into a maritime buffer zone overnight, Seouls military said Friday, after a record-breaking spate of launches that included a failed ICBM test. Seoul and Washington, which have warned Pyongyangs recent launches could culminate in a nuclear test, extended their largest-ever joint air drills until Saturday in response to the spate of projectiles. Shortly after that decision was announced on Thursday, Pyongyang launched three short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move a very dangerous and wrong decision. About 80 artillery shells fired from the north followed at 23:28 (1428 GMT) and landed in a maritime buffer zone, the Seoul military said. The barrage was a clear violation of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone to ease tensions between the two sides, Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff said. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin described Pyongyangs ICBM launch as illegal and destabilizing and Seoul and Washington vowed to take new measures to demonstrate their determination and capabilities against the Norths mounting threats. Pyongyang fired about 30 rockets Wednesday and Thursday, including one that landed near South Koreas sovereign waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said it was effectively a territorial invasion. Experts and officials said Pyongyang is stepping up its testing in protest at US-South Korea exercises and is preparing to conduct another nuclear test, which would be its seventh. Pyongyang has called the joint air exercises, dubbed Vigilant Storm, aggressive and provocative military exercises against North Korea and threatened that Washington and Seoul would pay the most terrible price in history if they continued. Against Humanity- The Norths latest launches come as South Korea finds itself in a period of national mourning after more than 150 people mostly young women in their 20s were killed in a crowd in Seoul on Saturday. Pyongyangs provocations, particularly during our national mourning period, are against humanity and humanity, Lee Hyo-jung, a deputy spokesman at Seouls unification ministry, said on Friday. The government strongly condemns North Korea for continued threats and provocations, citing our annual and defensive drills that increase tensions on the Korean peninsula, she said, blaming Pyongyangs reckless nuclear and missile development for the current tensions. In addition to extending Vigilant Storm through Saturday, the Seoul military announced the annual taegeuk drill, which focuses on improving wartime transition performance and crisis management, will be held next week. Members of an indigenous group on Friday freed more than 100 tourists they kidnapped a day earlier in the Peruvian Amazon to protest what they called government inaction following an oil spill, officials said. The group of detained tourists some 27 from the United States, Spain, France, Britain, Switzerland and 80 from Peru itself included several children. They are already returning to their places of origin, Tourism Minister Roberto Sanchez told reporters in Lima. The tourists, who were traveling on a river boat, were kidnapped on Thursday by members of the Cuninico community who were urging government intervention after 2,500 tons of crude oil spilled into the Cuninico river on September 16. Community leader Watson Trujillo said Thursday the community took the radical measure to try to persuade the government to send a delegation to assess the environmental damage in a region home to about 2,500 indigenous people. On Friday, the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsmans office said the negotiations had resulted in the Cuninico accepting our request for the release of the tourists. They set us all free, Angela Ramirez, a Peruvian cyclist who was among the tourists, later told AFP via WhatsApp. She added that there was a lot of fear, a lot of tiredness as the group awaited news of their fate and slowly ran out of water and food during the 28-hour ordeal. Septembers oil spill was caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline, owned by state-owned Petroperu to transport crude oil from the Amazon to the Piura ports on the coast. Lee Jung Jae's rumored upcoming project "The Acolyte" under the "Star Wars" series has officially begun its production. According to foreign media outlets, the filming of the soon-to-be-released Lucasfilm's spin-off is currently being shot in London. Lee Jung Jae's 'Star Wars' Spin-Off Boasts Massive Outdoor Set "Star Wars: The Acolyte" is filmed at the Shinfield Studios in the United Kingdom where it featured a large outdoor set. Moreover, lead star Amandla Stenberg reportedly began her stint in the upcoming spinoff. Interestingly, the upcoming series is expected to continue until May 2023. As for Lee Jung Jae, reports noted that the South Korean star is planning to join the production soon. Why Lee Jung Jae is Tight-Lipped About his Hollywood Debut? Following back-to-back projects and being recognized worldwide through his amazing performance in Netflix's "Squid Game," Lee Jung Jae joins Hallyu stars who will have their Hollywood debut in the coming year. From Park Seo Joon's "The Marvel" to Jung Ho Yeon, the award-winning actor joins Lucasfilm's spin-off for "Star Wars." For the upcoming series "The Acolyte" it is a mystery-thriller that focuses on the secrets of the galaxy as well as emerging dark-side powers in the High Republic era. With this, stars playing the main character include "The Hunger Games" alum Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett, and Lee Jung Jae. "Star Wars: The Acolyte" will be executive produced and penned by Leslye Headland, co-creator of "Russian Doll" and will be under Disney+. However during his appearance at the London East Asia Film Festival in 2022 for his movie "Hunt," the actor hints at his lineup projects but fails to mention the specifics. As obtained by an outlet, Lee Jung Jae said in an interview that he is preparing for filming every day. Unfortunately, he couldn't detail the upcoming project since he signed an NDA or non-disclosure agreement. "There will be an announcement soon," he said, adding that he is starting to film in the U.K and might take time to return to South Korea. Interestingly, apart from Lee Jung Jae's "Star Wars" project, Lucasfilm is also developing a series under "Star Wars" which includes "The Mandalorian Season 3" and more. From Lee Jung Jae's Hollywood Debut to Returning to 'Squid Game 2' Following the success of Netflix's "Squid Game," Lee Jung Jae had a fruitful 2022 after his directorial debut for "Hunt" earned praise both locally and globally. Interestingly, viewers will get to see Lee Jung Jae's iconic character in "Squid Game 2" officially get a green light. Creator and director Hwang Dong Hyuk previously confirmed that the top star will reprise his role as Seong Gi Hoon. The same goes for co-star Lee Byung Hun who appeared as The Frontman. On the other hand, the director also hints that Gong Yoo's mysterious role might also join the sequel. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Lee Jung Jae Fashion: Best Red Carpet Moment Seen on the 'Squid Game' Star KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills Who ever moved on from the international hit series "Business Proposal"? It has been seven months since it concluded and everyone is just having major drama withdrawal! Fret not as the HaTae couple returns to the spotlight! Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop are back with a new project this November! Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop Reunite in New Project After seven months, "Business Proposal" co-stars Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop reunite in a new web series! Earlier this 2022, the two met for the first time in the romantic comedy drama "Business Proposal" where they portrayed a CEO and employee romance, winning over the hearts of viewers all over the world. "Business Proposal" scored an average rating of 11% nationwide during its entire broadcast in the summer, proving its popularity. Because of its success, fans couldn't help but to ask for more especially that the series only had 12 episodes in total. SBS TV never discussed a new season but a representative stated that they are not totally opposed to the idea. This November, "Business Proposal" fans are in for a treat! Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop are tapped as the newest ambassadors of the Indonesian beverage brand Realfood. The campaign, which is called "Office Romance Recipe," is reminiscent of the two stars' roles in their previous drama wherein they work at a fictional food company called Go Food. The commercial series for Realfood features the two actors along with Indonesian star Chicco Jerikho. Fans are delighted with the new project, which will enable them to watch Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop on one screen once again! Check out the first episode of "Office Romance Recipe" here. New Dramas, Films Featuring Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop This 2023 Apart from their commercial film, Kim Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seop are gearing up for their new projects that are expected to be released this 2023! Kim Sejeong reprised her role in the new installment of the award-winning work "The Uncanny Counter," which will showcase the actress' improved acting chops and mature side. Meanwhile, Ahn Hyo Seop teamed up with Jeon Yeo Bin in the upcoming Netflix series "A Time Called You," a South Korean adaptation of the Taiwanese series of the same name that tells the story of a woman who aches for her dead lover. Moreover, Ahn Hyo Seop established his own agency, The Present Co., with his long-time manager. KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Doh Kyungsoo was engulfed in anger after confirming Kim Sang Ho's death in "Bad Prosecutor" episode 10. Keep on reading to know what went down in the latest episode. 'Bad Prosecutor' Episode 10 Highlight Park Jae Kyung (Kim Sang Ho) was killed while Jin Jung (Doh Kyungsoo) was struggling against the heinous Seo Hyun Kyu (Kim Chang Wan) with his connection to Jae Kyung. In a flashback, Park Jae Kyung was angry when Seo Hyun Kyu shamelessly replied that he had protected his client for money as a lawyer after showing conscientious behavior that made him guilty of the case's key suspects. Jin Jung Discovers Park Jae Kyung's Connection to Seo Hyun Kyu Back to the present, Jin Jung learned about this from Jae Kyung and was infuriated with anger at Seo Hyun Kyu, who put his mother in danger. He immediately told Shin Ah Ra (Lee Se Hee) that since the murder case in Seocho-dong occurred because of the MP3, he will catch the culprit with his own hands. He headed to Oh Do Hwan (Ha Joon), who was also related to Park Ye Young's case. Since then, the petition has reached the result that Seo Ji Han was the culprit according to the investigation by Jin Jung's squad, and the man who turned the fidget spinner in the black box requested a warrant for Seo Ji Han. However, the warrant was rejected because of Seo Hyun Kyu's connection to the ranking officials. Eventually, Seo Ji Han's arrest warrant was issued with the help of Kim Tae Ho (Kim Tae Woo), but the challenges continued as Seo Ji Han, who came into the interrogation room, remained silent as per the advice of his lawyer. Jin Jung Opens MP3 File Originally Owned by His Father To make Seo Ji Han speak and catch Seo Hyun Kyu, Jin Jung who had to solve the MP3 password and open the Report file was surprised to confirm from Jae Kyung that the owner of the MP3 was his father. The prosecutor rushed to call his mother and asked for the password, and there he was able to access and saw a video file. The clip was filmed by his father and showed Seo Hyun Kyu killing a person who refused to take responsibility for the problem that happened before. After he sensed the tension, he took away the MP3, but Jin Jung snatched it to use as evidence. Park Jae Kyung's Sudden Death Angers Jin Jung Meanwhile, days after, Jae Kyung pushed Jin Jung to take care of his mother's birthday. After the prosecutor left, Park Jae Kyung faced Seo Hyun Kyu. The next thing Jin Jung knew was Jae Kyung was already dead. Jin Jung's tears of genuine despair burst due to the devastation, amplifying viewers' curiosity about the next episode. 'Bad Prosecutor' Episode 10 Viewership Rating On the other hand, "Bad Prosecutor" episode 10's viewership rating soared to 6.2 percent nationwide and 6 percent in the Seoul metropolitan area. What can you say about "Bad Prosecutor" episode 10? Share your thoughts/replies with us in the comments! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity updates, keep your tabs open here at KDramastars. KDramastars owns this article. Shai Collins wrote this. Kennesaw States Homelessness Awareness Week features immersive experience KENNESAW, Ga. | Nov 4, 2022 Atlanta area anti-poverty activist Terence Lester said a desire to help homeless people led him to establish the Dignity Museum, a mobile exhibit to help the public fully understand the challenge of having no place to call home. We need to really understand that homelessness can visit any one of us at any given moment, said Lester, founder of LoveBeyondWalls, which created the Dignity Museum and is dedicated to helping people living in poverty. As part of his research, Lester spent a month living on the streets himself. The Dignity Museum is a converted shipping container that is coming to Kennesaw State University during its 15th annual Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 7-11. On its walls the museum shows the faces and tells the stories of those forced by circumstances to live on the street. The museum aims to challenge visitors to confront their ideas of homelessness and what it takes to escape it, Lester said. Tours are available on KSUs Kennesaw Campus from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The week of events and service initiatives, hosted by Campus Awareness, Resource & Empowerment (CARE) Services, is a high-impact experience dedicated to increasing awareness of homelessness and basic needs insecurities in communities and college campuses. The Dignity Museum is a powerful visual way to bring attention to the plight of homelessness, said Marcy Stidum, director of CARE Services. Stidum said the museums goal aligns with CAREs goal for Homelessness Awareness Week to increase awareness and support for students who need the services, but also for more students to know CARE is ready to help. CARE Services operates four programs with a central mission to provide access to food, temporary housing, and other supportive services to foster students realization of a healthy, stable, and dignified life academically and professionally. Stidum said shes seen more rental or housing assistance requests through CARE since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, with the average request rising from $800 to about $1,200 per student. In 2021, CARE housed 54 students in temporary beds within KSU Housing, plus an additional 50 in hotel stays while those rooms were full. An additional 80 students received rental assistance. These numbers dont include the former foster youth who are students, or requests from students experiencing an unexpected hardship, and the number of students who have shopped the food pantry, Stidum said. We want any student who is in need of assistance to know were here for them to make a potentially dark time in their lives a little easier. Other events during Homelessness Awareness Week include: Hoot Out Hunger The annual campus and community food drive ends Nov. 12. Help CARE Services restock its pantries to continue serving any KSU student in need of food. Donate online, at sporting events or at CARE Services bin locations at either KSU campus. Empty Bowls The Empty Bowls Project is part of an effort to raise both money and awareness to fight hunger and homelessness. Participants select handmade bowls crafted by KSU students, alumni and local community members. The event will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Nov. 10 in the Carmichael Student Center, and lunch will be served. Be sure to register. Cobb County Homeless Vigil The annual Cobb County Homeless Vigil honors the lives of those who have died while experiencing homelessness in Cobb County. The candlelight vigil will be held on Kennesaw States Marietta Campus at 7 p.m. on Nov. 11. United Way of Greater Atlantas Spark Prize Pitch Competition The 2022 Spark Prize Pitch Competition is a partnership between Kennesaw State and United Way of Greater Atlanta that awards small grants to fund collaborative and innovative projects. Winners of the Shark Tank style competition will receive small grants for projects that address pressing homelessness challenges and improve child well-being. Campus to Community Housing Forum The Campus to Community Forum is a new series developed by KSUs Office of Economic Development and Community Engagement to bring together University and industry experts to engage in a dialogue about some of the states most pressing topics. On Nov. 7, the forum will be presented on housing and housing insecurity. By Thomas Hartwell Photos courtesy LoveBeyondWalls Related Stories A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 43,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. 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 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu. PLEASANT PRAIRIE An Illinois man has died from injuries suffered in a two-vehicle crash in Pleasant Prairie on Oct. 29. Pleasant Prairie Police announced Friday afternoon that the driver of one of the vehicles, 50-year-old Kareem Copeland of Waukegan, Ill., died of his injuries on Oct. 31.The passenger in that vehicle, a 37-year-old Kenosha woman, remains hospitalized for treatment of her serious injuries. Pleasant Prairie Police responded to a severe accident involving two cars at the intersection of Green Bay Road and Highway 165 in the Village of Pleasant Prairie at 6:27 p.m. Oct. 29. Upon arrival, officers found severe injuries to the driver and passenger of one of the vehicles. Both were transported from the scene to a Milwaukee hospital by Flight for Life. The second vehicle driver, a 60-year-old Kenosha resident, was also treated for injuries from the collision. The Wisconsin State Patrol is assisting the Pleasant Prairie Police Department in this ongoing investigation. No charges have been submitted or citations issued pending the outcome of the investigation. The Pleasant Prairie Police Department would like to thank the witnesses who remained at the scene and aided the injured. Anyone with information about the accident is asked to contact the Pleasant Prairie Police Department at 262-694-7353. One of Brian Friels greatest works, Philadelphia Here I Come! will be performed in Kilkenny later this month. Gar ODonnell, frustrated with the small-town life of Ballybeg, is about to set off for America, not in search of fortune so much as a change of scene. He doesnt long for an American Dream but escape: from a dysfunctional relationship with his father, from a lost love, from a hundred petty frustrations. Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first staged in 1964, Brian Friels Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a classic of Irish theatre capturing the magic in ordinary life. As painfully relevant today as when it first wowed audiences in Dublin and around the world. And Kilkenny has a powerful cast of local actors who rise to the challenges that such classics demand. Barnstorm Theatre Company is delighted to present the fifth Curriculum Play Live in the Watergate Theatre this November; following Translations by Brian Friel (2016), The Plough and the Stars by Sean OCasey (2017), ALL MY SONS by Arthur Miller (2018), and The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge (2019). All matinees are sold out but tickets are available for the evening shows Translations will be performed at the Watergate Theatre on November 16, 18 and 19 at 8pm. watergatetheatre.ie Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. South East Technological University (SETU) has unveiled a programme of interactive, educational and fun events for people of all ages from pre-school to age 105. Events are set to take place from November 13 - 19 as part of National Science Week. The SETU Science Week events are coordinated by Calmast, the STEM Engagement centre at South East Technological University funded by Science Foundation Ireland with support from STEM companies all across the Southeast. More than 100 free events will take place in Kilkenny including activities for schools, afternoon shows for families and evening events for the general public with over 10,000 expected to participate across the region. In Kilkenny, the Kilkenny Science Festival Family Fun Day events will be on offer from (12 -5) on Sunday, November 12 at Kilkenny Castle, Langton's and at the Castlecomer Discovery Park. At Kilkenny Castle festivalgoers are encouraged to bring their ear defenders as Caroline Ainslie will host a balloon science show where young festivalgoers will discover why some balloons pop louder than others. At Langton's, Super Science will be on offer with Mark Langtry AKA, Mark the Science Guy and TV presenter from RTEs hit show Lets Find Out. At Castlecomer Discovery Park a day filled with family fun events is on offer starting with a family-friendly talk on prehistoric life beginning in Kilkenny. Castlecomer was the site of spectacular fossil finds in the 19th century and young festivalgoers will get an up-close chance to discover more. There will be talk of coal forests, giant dragonflies, millipedes and even dinosaurs. Event partners for the Kilkenny Science Festival in Kilkenny include Kilkenny Council Library services, EPA, Kilkenny LEADER Partnership and Castlecomer Discovery Park, with local STEM companies. The core theme for Science Week 2022 is 'Infinite Possibilities'. From the infinite variety of our amazing planet and the adaptability of nature to our ability to face the unexpected, the possibilities are endless. We have many choices to make and more challenges to face, and we are all part of the conversation about the role that science can play. For Science Week 2022, exploring the infinite possibilities of science is a challenging adventure for all. Full details of the Kilkenny Science Festival and booking can be found at www.stemkilkenny.ie Kilkenny features in a newly-published book which reveals some of the countrys top wild swimming spots. From the authors of The Art of Wild Swimming: Scotland and England and Wales comes the brilliant, expert guide on wild swimming adventures in Ireland. Filled to the brim with passion and advice from seasoned swimmers, The Art of Wild Swimming: Ireland features over 100 amazing locations across the country. The Weir Pool in Thomastown, the River Barrow in Graignamanagh and the Bleach Weir swimming area in Kilkenny City. The River Barrow in Graignamanagh is described as an idyllic spot on Irelands largest river and the authors also recommend the eight kilometre walk along the towpath to St Mullins before taking a splash! The Weir Pool, which was created by the Thomastown Community River Trust is a particularly safe and lovely stretch for river swimming. Those who want to experience more of the rivers flow, however can find spots in the main river, all of which are lifeguarded during the summer months, including at BishopsMeadows in Kilkenny City and at Inistioge. The swimming area at the Bleach Weir is also mentioned in the book and there is parking as well as an area to leave your gear while you dip. The area has beautiful views and wildlife and is described as a peaceful idyll, the perfect place to take a few minutes and reflect. Anna Deacon and Vicky Allan have shared the voices of the communities across Ireland and Northern Ireland who offer their expertise on the experience and how to safely enjoy it, with the mentioned places picked as favorites by local swimmers. Showcasing stunning locations such as Portally Cove, Bishops Pool in Mullaghmore, Sandycove Island and Tourmakeady Waterfall in Co. Mayo, this book will allow you to fully experience the best rivers, loughs, waterfalls and beaches that Ireland has to offer. A map of all listed spots is also included, accessible through a provided QR code, to better plan your adventures. Whether a beginner or regular wild swimmer, The Art of Wild Swimming: Ireland has everything to provide you with the best experience. From managing different bodies of water, tips on what to wear and to be environmentally conscious. This joyous book is an essential part of your kitbag, a gift for swimmers from the community itself. Anna Deacon has worked as a photographer for over a decade, following a career in the music industry. Her photographic and written work has been published in many magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, The Scotsman & Glamour. Her travel book Wild Guide Balearic Islands came out in 2022. She hosts the popular Instagram account @wildswimmingstories. Vicky Allan is an award-winning journalist and author. A staff writer for the Glasgow Herald, specialising in stories about wellbeing and the environment. As well as her book collaborations with Anna, she is also author of a taboo-busting collection of frank real-life menopause stories, Still Hot! (co-authored with broadcaster Kaye Adams) and a novel, Stray. 6 grain vessels leave Ukraine after Russia restores deal: Turkiye Xinhua) 10:19, November 04, 2022 ANKARA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Six grain vessels left Ukrainian ports on Thursday after Russia resumed its participation in the UN-brokered deal which allows grain exports through the Black Sea, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said. The number of ships leaving Ukraine's ports reached 426, and the amount of grain transported exceeded 9.7 million tons, Akar said in a statement. "We will intensify our efforts on the extension of the grain initiative, which will expire on Nov. 19," he added. The Turkish minister underlined that while using the model of consensus reached in the grain initiative, Turkiye wanted to establish a ceasefire and open the road to peace in the coming days between Russia and Ukraine. Russia on Wednesday announced its return to the implementation of a grain export deal via the Black Sea, saying Ukraine has promised not to use the humanitarian corridor for military attacks. The joint coordination center for the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on Tuesday received a written guarantee from Ukraine of not using the shipping route defined in the deal and Ukrainian ports designated for grain export to conduct military operations against Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The Ukrainian side officially assured that the maritime humanitarian corridor will be used only in accordance with the provisions of the grain export deal and related regulations of the joint coordination center, it added. On July 22, Russia and Ukraine separately signed a document in Istanbul with Turkiye and the United Nations on grain and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia to ensure supplies to global markets amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Occasional rain and snow showers in the morning. Windy and remaining cloudy in the afternoon. Morning high of 42F with temps falling to near 25. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 16F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. South Korea scrambles fighter jets after detecting 180 North Korean warplanes. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here speaks in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on October 18. President Yoon Suk-yeol and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hold a joint press conference after their summit at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap Two presidents vow to work together in supply chain, energy security issues By Kwon Mee-yoo President Yoon Suk-yeol and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is visiting Korea for three days, agreed to work closely to thwart North Korea's provocations during a summit held in the presidential office in Seoul, Friday. Steinmeier is the first European president to visit Korea since Yoon was inaugurated on May 10. During a joint briefing after the summit, Yoon said he and the German president shared a concern regarding North Korea's repeated missile tests and agreed to work closely to draw a unified response from the international community against North Korea. "Germany is a country that has experienced division and reunification, so we can learn from Germany in resolving the issues on the Korean Peninsula," Yoon said. "We also agreed to strengthen cooperation to improve the human rights situation in North Korea." Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, fourth from left, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, second from right, hold summit talks at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps Steinmeier noted that North Korea has been firing missiles with unprecedented frequency, escalating tensions in the region from the beginning of this year. "We can clearly state that these tensions are unacceptable. Only the Pyongyang regime is solely responsible for the situation," Steinmeier said. The German president also mentioned the Yoon administration's "audacious initiative" to entice North Korea to denuclearize with various supports, saying that he respects South Korea's efforts for discussions on denuclearization. The two presidents also agreed to cooperate to bolster economic security. Germany is Korea's largest trading partner among the European Union countries with a total of $33.1 billion in trade in 2021, up 9.2 percent from the previous year. Yoon emphasized that economic cooperation between Korea and Germany is now expanding to industries of the future such as hydrogen and the digital transformation. "Recently, more German companies in the fields of semiconductor and other high-tech industries are increasing their investments in Korea," Yoon said. Yoon added that the two countries decided to strengthen their cooperation in economic security to build a stable supply chain and promote energy security. "I expressed concerns over the move to strengthen protectionism in Europe and asked Germany, a key EU country, to ensure that there are no discriminatory measures against Korean companies," Yoon said. Steinmeier highlighted the importance of economic security and diversification as the two sides discussed strengthening the resilience of supply chains and reducing dependence on a certain country. The two presidents also voiced continuous support for Ukraine. "A close partnership is more important in an era when Russia has invaded Ukraine," Steinmeier said. Steinmeier also invited Yoon to visit Germany next year on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and his wife, Elke Budenbender, pay tribute to the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush that took place in Seoul last weekend at a memorial altar in Seoul Plaza, Friday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk The ruling People Power Party (PPP) leader met with Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming on Friday and asked for Beijing's active role in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid a recent series of North Korean missile launches. "Peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula fits China's national interest as well," PPP leader Chung Jin-suk told the envoy during their meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul. "North Korea's military provocations are surpassing the critical point." Xing said China is also concerned about the escalating tensions and called for talks to defuse them. "The Korean Peninsula is connected to China. We also hope for peace on the Korean Peninsula," he said. North Korea has been ramping up its military threats recently, firing 81 ballistic missiles on 34 occasions in violation of an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement signed in September 2018, as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions. On Thursday, Pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and two short-range missiles toward the East Sea, just a day after it launched a barrage of missiles, including one that flew across its de facto maritime border with the South for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Chung and Xing also discussed bolstering ties between Seoul and Beijing as close neighbors. Chung told Xing the two countries should improve economic cooperation, noting China has been South Korea's No. 1 trade partner over the past 20 years. Xing said China will open up its economy more, providing more opportunities to neighboring countries, including South Korea. Before the meeting, Chung and Xing offered condolences for the deaths of at least 156 people, including four Chinese nationals, in a deadly crowd crush that happened in Seoul's nightlife district of Itaewon Saturday night. (Yonhap) Auburn, IN (46706) Today Cloudy skies with a few showers this afternoon. High 54F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Periods of rain. Thunder possible. Low 29F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Betul, November 4: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday condoled the deaths of 11 persons in a horrific bus accident in the Jhallar police station area of Betul. The chief minister tweeted, "I have just received news of the horrific road accident in the Jhallar area of Betul district. I pray to the Almighty that may the people, who lost their lives in this tragic incident, find eternal peace. Our government stands in support of the kin of the departed souls in this hour of grief. Om Shanti." Isudan Gadhvi Is AAP's Chief Ministerial Face for Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022, Announces Arvind Kejriwal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, expressed his condolences for the lives lost in the accident. A tweet on the official Twitter handle of the Prime Minister's office read, "Pained by the loss of lives due to an accident in Betul, MP. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF (Prime Minister's National Relief Fund) would be given to the next of kin of each (of the) deceased. Rs 50,000 (each) would be given to the injured: PM @narendramodi." The chief minister also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next-of-kin of the deceased and Rs 10,000 each for the injured. "The next-of-kin of the deceased in the horrific road accident will receive an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each while the injured will be provided Rs 10,000 each," the CM tweeted. Mumbai Shocker: Four Passengers of Taxi Robbed by Men Posing As Cops on Their Way to Airport; Case Registered. President Droupadi Murmu also tweeted about the incident condoling the loss of lives. "I am deeply saddened by the news that many lives, including those of women and children, were lost in the road accident in Betul, Madhya Pradesh. I express my deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones in the accident." At least 11 persons lost their lives and scores more were injured after the bus they were travelling in collided head-on with a car near Jhallar police station in the Betul district of Madhya Pradesh on Friday. Speaking to ANI, Betul Superintendent of Police Simala Prasad said, "One injured person was admitted to a hospital." (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, Nov 4 (PTI) The Ministry of Defence on Friday said that it has extended the benefit of provision of pro rata pension to JCOs/ORs (junior commissioned officers/Other Ranks) of the defence services, having not less than 10 years of qualifying service in it. Earlier this benefit was limited to the commissioned officers only. Also Read | Delhi: Gangster Nabbed After Video of Robbing Toyota Fortuner at Gunpoint Goes Viral. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved a proposal of the department of ex-servicemen in this regard, and the ministry issued necessary order dated November 4, the ministry said in a statement. "Ministry of Defence (MoD) has extended the benefit of provision of pro-rata pension to JCOs/ORs of the defence Services, having not less than 10 years of qualifying service in defence service, who join/joined central public enterprises/central autonomous bodies/central public sector undertaking on permanent absorption/ employment,' it said. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission: Central Government Employees To Receive 18-Months DA Arrears Soon? Check Latest Update. It is notable that the provisions will be applicable to those JCOs/ORs who are absorbed/appointed in central public sector enterprises/central public sector undertaking (on or after 06.03.1985) or central autonomous bodies (on or after 31.03.1987). However, the financial benefit in past cases will be allowed prospectively from the date of issue of this order, the ministry said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Ranchi/Kolkata, Nov 3 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Friday launched raids at a dozen locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal as part of a money laundering probe into alleged use of forged papers for sale of defence land in these states, officials said. The federal agency is searching about eight locations in Ranchi and adjoining areas and four places in Kolkata including the premises linked to arrested businessman Amit Agarwal. Also Read | India's Defunct Surveillance Satellite RISAT-2 Hits Indian Ocean Near Jakarta, Says ISRO. Some real estate dealers, private persons and linked entities are being searched by ED teams, they said. The probe stems from a Jharkhand Police FIR filed to investigate alleged use of forged papers in sale and purchase of defence land, they said. Also Read | UP Road Accident: 3 Killed As Speeding Truck Hits Motorcycle Near Basti. Agarwal was arrested by the ED last month on charges of alleged conspiracy to trap Rajeev Kumar, a lawyer representing a petitioner in two PILs filed against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. This case also has links to the alleged illegal mining case being probed by the ED in which it recently summoned Soren and has arrested one of his aides and two others. (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], November 4 (ANI): Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches at nearly one dozen locations in West Bengal and Jharkhand in a money laundering case against those illegally occupying Indian Army lands, sources said. As per sources, the raids are going on at nearly four places in West Bengal and eight in Jharkhand. The places searched included residential and office premises of a Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal and several others, sources said. Also Read | India's Defunct Surveillance Satellite RISAT-2 Hits Indian Ocean Near Jakarta, Says ISRO. As per sources, Agrawal was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, and the raids were planned after his revelation in the case. It is learnt that several acres of Army land in Jharkhand were illegally occupied in connivance with 'land mafias' and politicians. Also Read | UP Road Accident: 3 Killed As Speeding Truck Hits Motorcycle Near Basti. The Enforcement Directorate last month arrested Amit Agrawal in connection with a money laundering case. ED officials arrested Amit Agrawal in the connection with a seizure of Rs 50 lakh from an advocate Rajiv Kumar in Kolkata on July 31. Agrawal, who is lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Jharkhand, is accused of allegedly giving the money to Kumar for getting his name removed from a public interest litigation filed in Jharkhand high court. The ED has also filed a prosecution complaint against Agrawal in the PMLA court. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Ranchi, Nov 4 (PTI) A day after Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren skipped ED summons to face questioning in connection with a case of alleged illegal mining, senior BJP leader Babulal Marandi on Friday asked him to face the probe instead of playing the tribal card. Marandi, a former Jharkhand chief minister, also rejected the allegation that the BJP was behind the ED summons to the chief minister. Also Read | Maharashtra: GST Sleuths Bust Rs 45 Crore Fake Bills Scam, Businessman Arrested. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had summoned Soren, also the executive president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), to visit the central agency's office here for questioning on the case at 11 am on November 3 in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining in the state for recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). However, he did not go there and went to Chhattisgarh in the evening to attend a pre-scheduled tribal programme. Also Read | Delhi High Court Fines Woman Seeking to Implead Elon Musk Over Her Twitter Account Suspension. "If Prime Minister Narendra Modi can face SIT questioning while being the Gujarat chief minister, why can't Hemant Soren face ED questioning? Instead of playing the tribal card and threatening to stage demonstrations, Soren should obey the law of the land and face ED questioning, Marandi said. Soren had on Thursday attacked the BJP, claiming that the saffron party was not able to digest the people's mandate given to a party dominated by tribals and locals. They (BJP) possess a feudal mentality and cannot see tribals, Dalits and oppressed growing, he said. Marandi, the BJP legislative party leader, said the people of Jharkhand have given him the mandate to run the government and not to loot the natural resources of the state. Marandi said he has been raising the issue of illegal mining for the last two years and even wrote letters to Soren and the Bihar government as, he alleged, stone chips and other such materials are being smuggled to the neighbouring state. He asserted that the BJP would not tolerate such loot anymore and would launch an intensive agitation to uproot the "corrupt JMM government" from the state. "In a democracy, it is the duty of the opposition to alert the government on its wrongdoings but despite our raising the issues, no attention was paid and instead complainants are being victimised," the BJP leader said. Asked about the allegations of the JMM that BJP was instrumental behind ED and other central agencies' action, Marandi termed it ridiculous and demanded to know whose government was at the Centre when JMM and RJD chiefs were sent to jails. JMM president Shibu Soren and RJD boss Lalu Prasad were jailed when the Congress was at the Centre. Marandi alleged that the coalition government is governed by middlemen and brokers. Meanwhile, independent MLA Saryu Roy said, "It would be better if Hemant Soren faces questions of the ED by visiting its office or calling them. In the fodder scam, the CBI joint director with his team had interrogated the then CM Lalu Prasad at his place. They interrogate big personalities when there is solid evidence against them." Roy, a former minister in the state's BJP government, said that the ED has so far filed two charge sheets in court - one pertains to suspended IAS officer Puja Singhal and the other to Pankaj Mishra, an aide of Hemant Soren. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Panaji, Nov 4 (PTI) The Goa government on Friday hiked the cooking cost per student for its flagship midday meal scheme, which will be implemented from November 7, an official said. Also Read | Maharashtra: GST Sleuths Bust Rs 45 Crore Fake Bills Scam, Businessman Arrested. The cooking cost per student for midday meal at pre-primary and primary schools has been increased from Rs 7.11 to Rs 8, while for upper primary it has been hiked from Rs 7.45 to Rs 10, state director of education Shailesh Zingade told reporters here. Also Read | Delhi High Court Fines Woman Seeking to Implead Elon Musk Over Her Twitter Account Suspension. Self-help groups, mahila mandals and parent teachers associations that supply midday meals to students will avail this benefit, he said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 4 (ANI): Ahead of Assembly Elections in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda held a road show in Shimla on Friday. As per the visuals, he was welcomed by hundreds of BJP workers. Also Read | Gas Price Rise: Mahanagar Gas Hike Prices Again; CNG To Cost Rs 89.50. Earlier on Wednesday, he urged voters to form a BJP government in the state again. "Mitti Ka Haq Ada Karna Hoga," (People of the state have to pay back to their land), Nadda had said. Also Read | Twitter Fires Over 200 Employees in India; Entire Marketing, Communications Department Sacked, Say Sources. The BJP chief was addressing a public rally at Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh ahead of the state polls. Hitting out at former Prime Ministers, Nadda said, "It has been 75 years of independence. Who used to care about us? At that time, Prime Minister used to come here for political tourism in the summer season- never caring about or worrying about the state." "Today, PM Modi stands with you whenever called," he added. Mentioning the issue of misconceptions spread ahead of elections, Nadda at the rally said, "A web of misconceptions is spread as elections approach. Quite often we get tangled in this web and due to this we divert from the main issues." Earlier on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a public gathering in the Bhatiyat constituency of Himachal Pradesh's Chamba. Shah emphasised the government's developmental initiatives taken up earlier. "We have set up a medical park in Nalagarh which will give jobs to 10,000 people. We've also built the Atal tunnel that'll promote tourism," he said. Himachal Pradesh is all set to go to polls on November 12, the results of which will be declared on December 8. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], November 4 (ANI): A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to Anshar who is one of the main accused in the Jahangirpuri communal violence case. He had been in custody since April 17, 2022. The court granted the relief in view of his custody as the investigation is completed, and some other accused have also been granted bail. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Over 200 Employees in India Sacked, Told To Go Home After CEO Elon Musks Global Job Cut Order. Communal violence erupted in the Jahangirpuri area during a procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti on April 16, 2022. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar of Rohini District court granted bail to accused Anshar alias Ansar alias Mohd Ansar. Also Read | Delhi: Gangster Nabbed After Video of Robbing Toyota Fortuner at Gunpoint Goes Viral. He has been granted bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with one surety of the like amount. The court said that the investigation of the accused has already been completed and a chargesheet has already been filed. The same has also been committed to this court for trial. It will take a long time to conclude the trial and no purpose would be served to keep the accused in judicial custody, the court added. The court further said that some of the co-accused have been granted bail by the Delhi High Court and some of the co-accused have been granted bail by this court. Advocate Satnarain Sharma counsel for the accused argued that the accused has nothing to do with the alleged offence and that the local police have falsely implicated the accused in the present case just to sort out their case. The accused is in judicial custody since April 17. The investigation qua the accused has already been completed, the counsel submitted. It had also been argued that the complete case as alleged in the chargesheet against the accused is that he was actively involved in the commission of the offence and was a member of the unlawful assembly of the riot that happened on April 17. The entire case of the prosecution is based upon the CCTV footage and there are around 50 accused in the present case it would take a long time to conclude the trial and make a submission that the accused may be released on bail, the counsel submitted. On the other hand, the bail application was strongly opposed by the state. In this case charge sheet has been filed against 50 accused. The case is at present at the stage of framing of charges. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) The BJP mounted a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday, accusing him of failing to check hazardous air pollution levels in Delhi and spending time in poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. BJP national vice-president and Delhi unit in-charge Baijayant Panda said Kejriwal was busy dealing with infighting in the AAP in Himachal Pradesh while people in Delhi were choking. "History will never forgive him," he said. Also Read | Gas Price Rise: Mahanagar Gas Hike Prices Again; CNG To Cost Rs 89.50. At a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala alleged Kejriwal was working as a "part-time" chief minister of Delhi and should tell people what steps he had taken to protect them from pollution. "When the AAP did not have a government in Punjab, Kejriwal used to talk about using bio-decomposer there to prevent paddy straw burning, but now when there is an AAP government in the state, he has failed to do so," he said. Also Read | Twitter Fires Over 200 Employees in India; Entire Marketing, Communications Department Sacked, Say Sources. Poonwala said the high level of pollution in Delhi was a serious problem as it affected the lives of millions of people. "This is the time to think seriously about Delhi, not politics. The issue of pollution is a matter related to the lives of the people, and hence, BJP wants a solution to it," he said. Addressing a joint press conference, Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann accepted the responsibility for paddy straw burning in the border state, saying it was wrong to blame farmers for it. West Delhi BJP MP Parvesh Verma said it was Kejriwal who earlier used to raise the scare of farm fires in Punjab and now, he was trying to act innocent when his party is ruling in the state. Verma said while people were suffering from unhealthy levels of air pollution, both the AAP chief ministers from Delhi and Punjab were busy campaigning in poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that stubble burning in Punjab rose 34 per cent over 2021 while dipping 30 per cent in Haryana. "We heard Kejriwal saying not to play politics over pollution as it is a sensitive issue and also concerns the health of children and others. But until last year, he was blaming the Punjab government for stubble burning and had assured that if his government came to power, people would not have to worry...," he said. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta charged Kejriwal of running away from his responsibilities as Delhi's chief minister. Showing an old video of the chief minister at a press conference, Gupta said earlier, Kejriwal used to blame the Centre and the Congress government in Punjab for parali burning but now he has no answers why the national capital has turned into a gas chamber. "At a time when the air in Delhi has become harmful for people, Kejriwal and his party leaders are enjoying clean air in poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh," Gupta claimed. Delhi's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 447 at 4 pm Friday. An AQI of above 400 is considered "severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses. Almost all air quality monitoring stations reported "severe" air quality, including 13 that logged an AQI of more than 450. The concentration of lung-damaging fine particles, known as PM2.5, was above 470 micrograms per cubic metre, around eight times above the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre, in many areas. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) BJP leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi inaugurated the 33rd 'Rashtriya Ramayan Mela' on Friday and claimed that the "Modi-Yogi factor" in Uttar Pradesh has given a gift of "curfew, crime and commission-free" system to people. Naqvi claimed that the state was earlier associated with riots and musclemen but is now all about good governance due to the Modi-Yogi factor. Safety and dignity of the common masses has been ensured in the state now, he said, according to a statement. Also Read | Puran Krishan Bhat Murder: Widow of Slain Kashmiri Pandit To Get Government Job in Shopian, Says Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have defeated the "pseudo secularism and appeasement politics" with their agenda of development with dignity, he said in his address at the fair in Shringverpur near Prayagraj. Naqvi said the central and state governments have created "inclusive empowerment" by demolishing the the politics of appeasement, dynasty politics, region, religion and caste. Also Read | Supreme Court Lifts Uttarakhand HC Stay on 30% Horizontal Reservation for Women in Public Employment. "Modi and Yogi are fulfilling the dream of 'Ram Raj' which is the guarantee of happiness and prosperity of every section of the society," he claimed. The statement said Swami Dharacharya Maharaj, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak and state's Fisheries Minister Sanjay Nishad were among those present during the inauguration of the five-day mela. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Nov 4 (PTI) A murder case has been registered in a 2017 incident in which a man, his mother and the latter's kin from remarriage were found dead in Andheri West in Mumbai, a police official said on Friday. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Over 200 Employees in India Sacked, Told To Go Home After CEO Elon Musks Global Job Cut Order. The decision to charge the man with murder was taken after the viscera reports of the two women revealed they had been killed, he said. Also Read | Delhi: Gangster Nabbed After Video of Robbing Toyota Fortuner at Gunpoint Goes Viral. "On April 27, 2017, Meera (55) and her 65-year-old mother-in-law Fatima Sheikh (the former had remarried) were found dead. Meera's debt-ridden son Sameer Baraskar's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan. While it was suspected that Sameer had killed the two women, the cause of death was reserved in the post mortem," he said. "No suicide note was found at the spot either. However, the viscera of the deceased persons were sent to the forensic lab for chemical analysis. We received the report on Thursday, which confirmed Meera and Fatima had been killed by Sameer who then committed suicide," the DN Nagar police station official said. A murder case was registered against Sameer Baraskar (34 at the time), though the probe will stop (abated) as the accused is dead, he added. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], November 4 (ANI): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against six accused in the case related to the seizure of arms, ammunition and explosives at Bastara toll plaza in Haryana's Madhuban, the agency said. The agency filed the chargesheet on October 31 pertaining to the recovery of three Improvised Explosive Device (IED), one pistol with two magazines, 31 rounds of live cartridges and Rs 1.30 lakh cash on May 5 from Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, Amandeep Singh alias Deepa, Parminder Singh alias Pinder and Bhupinder Singh. Also Read | Gas Price Rise: Mahanagar Gas Hike Prices Again; CNG To Cost Rs 89.50. These accused were going to deliver the consignment by keeping it in a specially designed cavity in their SUV to Adilabad, Telangana, said the NIA. Those named in the charge sheet are Gurpreet Singh, Amandeep Singh, Parminder Singh, Bhopinder Singh, Rajbir Singh, and Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda. Also Read | Twitter Fires Over 200 Employees in India; Entire Marketing, Communications Department Sacked, Say Sources. During the investigation, NIA said it is revealed that the explosives, arms and ammunition were sent by terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda of the proscribed terrorist organization 'Babbar Khalsa International' from Pakistan through drones into the Indian territory for executing terrorist acts in Punjab. NIA said Rinda was carrying out the delivery of arms, ammunition and explosives into Indian Territory through drones to his India-based associates for carrying out terrorist attacks in different parts of India. The case was initially registered on May 5 at Madhuban police station in Haryana under section 13, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substance Act 1908 and Section 25 of Indian Arms Act and re-registered by the NIA on May 24. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], November 4 (ANI): Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal on Friday called for enhancing bilateral trade and deepening cultural relations between India and the Kyrgyz Republic. He was addressing the 10th Session of the India-Kyrgyz Republic Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation (IKIGC), an official statement said. Also Read | Odisha Consumer Court Orders Shopping Mall To Pay Rs 25,000 for Charging Rs 6 for Carry Bag. The 10th session of IKIGC was held in a virtual format. It was co-chaired by Piyush Goyal and Imanov Talantbek Oruskulovich, Minister of Digital Development of the Kyrgyz Republic. The talks were held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Goyal noted that India and the Kyrgyz Republic shared warm and friendly ties. He said that India was among the first Nations to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Kyrgyz Republic in March 1992 and observed that 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relationships between the two nations. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Over 200 Employees in India Sacked, Told To Go Home After CEO Elon Musks Global Job Cut Order. The Minister said that the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2019 had raised the relationship between two nations to the level of strategic partnership. The Minister pointed out that there was immense potential for expansion of bilateral trade between India and Kyrgyzstan. He said that India was very enthusiastic about participating in trade shows and exhibitions in Kyrgyztan and invited Kyrgyztan to take part in trade expos in India* Both sides discussed mutual cooperation and steps to further enhance them in the fields of Trade & Economy, Development Partnership, Investment, Digitalization, Intellectual Property, Agriculture, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Education, Environment, Standardization & Metrology, Banking, Transport, Labour, Mining and Power sectors. Emphasis was given to increase the bilateral trade and investment opportunities. The sides agreed to take necessary measures to increase the interaction of exporters and importers of the two countries and expand the trading basket. A Protocol of the 10th session of the IKIGC was signed between India and the Kyrgyz Republic. Both the sides agreed to hold the 11th session of the IKIGC on a mutually convenient date. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], November 4 (ANI): The ministry of defence (MoD) has extended the benefit of the provision of pro-rata pension to junior commissioned officers (JCOs)/other ranks (ORs) of the defence services. These officers should have more than 10 years of qualifying service in defence service and should be those who join/joined central public enterprises/central autonomous bodies/central public sector undertaking on permanent absorption/employment. Earlier this benefit had been limited to the commissioned officers only, the statement from the ministry of defence said. Also Read | Gas Price Rise: Mahanagar Gas Hike Prices Again; CNG To Cost Rs 89.50. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had approved a proposal of the department of ex-servicemen in this regard and the Ministry issued the necessary order on November 4. JCOs/ORs with not less than 10 years of qualifying service in defence service will be entitled to receive pro-rata pension in accordance with provisions of this order, the statement said. It is notable that the provisions will be applicable to those JCOs/ORs who are absorbed/appointed in central public sector enterprises/central public sector undertaking on or after March 6, 1985 or central autonomous bodies on or after March 31, 1987. However, the financial benefit in past cases will be allowed prospectively from the date of issue of this order. (ANI) Also Read | Twitter Fires Over 200 Employees in India; Entire Marketing, Communications Department Sacked, Say Sources. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from coercive action to the members of the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association against the Maharashtra government's rule mandating shops and establishments in the state to display their names in Marathi. A bench of justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy passed the interim direction on a plea moved by the association against a Bombay High Court order. Also Read | Rajasthan Political Crisis: CM Ashok Gehlot Reaches Delhi To Meet Senior Congress Leaders. The top court asked the petitioners to submit a list with the names of the association members and said it will now hear the matter on November 18. The high court had, on February 23, refused to quash the state government's rule mandating shops and establishments to display their names in Marathi (Devanagari script). Also Read | Sex for Job Scandal: Trinamool Congress-Run Dainhat Municipality Chairman Resigns. The high court had dismissed a petition filed by the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association and imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on it. It had noted that there was no bar on using any other language on the display boards and the rule only mandated that the names of the shops will have to be displayed in Marathi. The petition had challenged an amendment to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017, according to which all shops and establishments in the state have to display their names in Marathi, the font size of which shall be the same as that of the other words used in the display boards and not smaller. The federation had said this was in violation of articles 13 (laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights), 19 (protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution. The high court had said the rule was for the convenience of Maharashtra's public at large, whose mother tongue is Marathi. "What the petitioner fails to recognise is that this requirement is not meant for retail traders, but for workers and the public who approach them, who are more likely to be familiar with Marathi," the court had said. Marathi may be the official language of the state government, but it is also undeniably the common language and the mother tongue of the state's people, the high court had said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Sangareddy (Telangana) [India], November 4 (ANI): Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting the death of Colonel Santosh Babu, who laid down his life resisting the Chinese Army attack while establishing an observation post in the face of the enemy in the Galwan valley in the Ladakh sector during Operation Snow Leopard. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who is in Telanagana for "Bharat Jodo Yatra", said, "With the lie of 'Na koi ghus aaya hai', the Prime Minister declared the sacrifices of heroes like Colonel Santosh Babu in vain". Also Read | Karnataka High Court Says if Minor Girl in Brothel Complains of Forceful Sex, Customer Can't Be Let Off. Last year in November, Galwan valley clash hero Colonel Santosh Babu was awarded the second-highest wartime gallantry medal - the Mahavir Chakra (posthumously) by President Ram Nath Kovind. Gandhi asserted that China still acquires 2000 sq. km of land, and said, "Prime Minister after the death of Colonel Santosh Babu claimed that China has no encroached land of the country". Also Read | Odisha Consumer Court Orders Shopping Mall To Pay Rs 25,000 for Charging Rs 6 for Carry Bag. Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi he questioned, "If he (PM) claims of no land encroachment by China, then how did Col Santosh Babu die?, What is our PM doing and when would strict actions be taken". He took to Twitter and said, "But India has not forgotten its martyrs, nor has it forgotten the betrayal of BJP," Earlier on November 3, Congress MP paid tribute to his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary on October 31. He took to Twitter and said he would not let her "sacrifice for the country go in vain". "I carry your love and teachings in my heart. I won't let your sacrifices for India go in vain," he tweeted in Hindi captioning the video he posted to pay homage. The video had a number of video clips combined which showed Indira Gandhi delivering her speech and one from her funeral. Continuing his Bharat Jodo Yatra from Telangana, Gandhi also paid floral tributes to Indira Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Rahul Gandhi also took a dig at the BJP-led Central government saying that the "judiciary, bureaucracy and media are under attack" and will be freed from RSS' grasp after Congress comes to power in India. "There has been a systemic attack on various institutions. Judiciary, bureaucracy and media are under attack. When Congress returns to power, we'll ensure that these institutions are freed from the grasp of RSS and independence is maintained in these institutions," said Rahul Gandhi. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Monday a plea filed by three persons who were directed by the Telangana High Court to surrender before police in connection with alleged bid to poach TRS MLAs. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna posted the case for November 7 and asked the trial court to consider the bail of the three accused on merits in the meantime. Also Read | Twitter Fires Over 200 Employees in India; Entire Marketing, Communications Department Sacked, Say Sources. The accused had moved the top court saying that the complaint against them is politically motivated and liable to be set aside. The Telangana High Court on October 29 had set aside a lower court's order and directed the accused to surrender before police. Also Read | Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: BJP's Central Election Commission To Meet Candidates on November 10, PM Narendra Modi Likely To Join. A local court had rejected the remand of three people, who were arrested by the Cyberabad police on the charge of trying to coax four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislators into defecting, over not following the procedure of issuing a notice before the arrest. The government appealed to the high court against the lower court's order. Following the Telangana Rashtra Samithi's allegations that the BJP tried to poach some of its MLAs, the saffron party filed a writ petition in the high court seeking a CBI probe. Based on a complaint by Pilot Rohith Reddy, one of the legislators, cases under relevant sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act were filed against the trio -- Ramachandra Bharati, Kore Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy -- on October 26 night. According to the FIR, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly elections. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Sanghol/Kasumpti (HP), Nov 4 (PTI) BJP president J P Nadda on Friday appealed to the people of Himachal Pradesh to re-elect his party in the November 12 assembly polls to ensure their rights are protected and the state's development is not halted. Addressing a public meeting in Sanghol in Mandi, he highlighted the benefits of "double-engine government" -- the same party being in power at the Centre and in the state -- and also targeted the Congress. Also Read | Delhi: Gangster Nabbed After Video of Robbing Toyota Fortuner at Gunpoint Goes Viral. "We work for the welfare of people, whereas the Congress works so that they can enjoy the benefits of power.... We work with a mission while the Congress works for commission and corruption," Nadda said. Later, the BJP president attended a roadshow in Kasumpti to canvass for votes for party candidate Suresh Bhardwaj. He also addressed a public rally there. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission: Central Government Employees To Receive 18-Months DA Arrears Soon? Check Latest Update. "Vote for Suresh Bhardwaj to defend your rights," he said. He said the people have to choose between those who remained in power for years and did nothing and the BJP which has been working to ensure speedy development of the hill state. Listing the achievements of the BJP government, he said it has eliminated middlemen and Rs 25 lakh crore was credited to the beneficiaries of various schemes through direct bank transfer. Polling in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 12 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved a USD 350 million (about Rs 2,900 crore) loan to improve the road connectivity of key economic areas in Maharashtra. The Connecting Economic Clusters for Inclusive Growth in Maharashtra project will further develop the state's core road network in the Ahmednagar, Hingoli, Jalna, Kohalpur, Nagpur, Nanded, Nashik, Pune, Sangli and Satara districts, ADB said in a statement. Also Read | DRDO DIPAS Recruitment 2022: Vacancies Notified for 17 Apprentice Posts, Apply Online at drdo.gov.in. It will help connect underdeveloped rural communities with off-farm opportunities and markets, improve access to health and social services and improve agricultural value chains by reducing transport costs for small and medium-sized enterprises, it said. It will build on the Maharashtra State Road Improvement Project approved by ADB in April 2020 to upgrade state highways and major district roads, it added. Also Read | Odd-Even May Come Back in Delhi Amid Worsening Air Quality: Know Rules, Expected Date, Previous Exemptions of Traffic Rationing Measure Being Considered by Arvind Kejriwal-Led AAP Government. It further said the project will upgrade at least 319 kilometres (km) of state highways and 149 km of district roads, incorporating climate and disaster-resilient features. It will also construct 5 km of major district roads connecting Nanded and Telangana. The project will promote gender equality and social inclusion in highway programmes, schools, health, and social services and set up integrated service centres to provide basic sanitation, education, and other services, it said, adding skills training for enterprises led by poor women and disadvantaged groups will be conducted to provide livelihood opportunities. ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bengaluru, Nov 4 (PTI) Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has signed an MoU with Motorola Solutions India Pvt Ltd for co-operation in the field of broadband, push-to-talk service. Also Read | Adani Enterprises Net Profit More Than Doubles to Rs 460.94 Crore in Second Quarter in 2022. The MoU aims at leveraging the complementary strengths and capabilities of BEL and Motorola, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said in a statement. Also Read | OSSC Recruitment 2022: Vacancies Notified for 2,168 Group B and C Posts, Apply Online at ossc.gov.in. "It will enable BEL and Motorola to address the needs of professional mobile radio segment users to connect their teams with greater speed and efficiency using Motorola WAVE PTX, a push-to-talk (PTT) service," it said. WAVE PTX is a network independent multimedia communication service that instantly connects cross-functional teams at the push of a button without any boundaries, it was noted. BEL has also inked an MoU with INERY, Singapore, for co-operation in the field of Blockchain technology. The objective of the MoU is to take advantage of the combined strengths and capabilities of INERY and BEL in the field of Blockchain technology. "Integrating BEL's complementary functionalities with INERY's solutions will enhance product offerings of both the companies," the statement said. BEL has signed an MoU with Bosch Global Software Technologies Pvt Ltd (BGSW) for jointly implementing projects in the areas of e-Governance, ERP and Cloud solutions. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) Bakery foods company Britannia Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 28.47 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 490.58 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2022, helped by volume growth. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 381.84 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, Britannia Industries said in a BSE filing. Also Read | DRDO DIPAS Recruitment 2022: Vacancies Notified for 17 Apprentice Posts, Apply Online at drdo.gov.in. Its total revenue from operations climbed 21.40 per cent to Rs 4,379.61 crore from Rs 3,607.37 crore in Q2 FY22. The company has recorded its "highest quarterly revenue", Britannia Industries said. Also Read | Odd-Even May Come Back in Delhi Amid Worsening Air Quality: Know Rules, Expected Date, Previous Exemptions of Traffic Rationing Measure Being Considered by Arvind Kejriwal-Led AAP Government. Total expenses were at Rs 3,773.71 crore in the second quarter of FY23, up 20.25 per cent from Rs 3,138.15 crore in the year-ago period. Britannia Managing Director Varun Berry said, "We have witnessed positive growth momentum over the last few months. Our Go-to-market strategy and increase in distribution reach have converged to deliver a robust topline growth of 22 per cent YoY and 19 per cent QoQ, aided by a mid-single digit volume growth, as we record our highest quarterly revenue." Shares of Britannia Industries Ltd on Friday settled at Rs 3,801.30 on BSE, 1.46 per cent higher than its previous close. (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, Nov 4 (PTI) Jagran Prakashan Ltd, the publisher of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, on Friday announced that it will buy back 4.60 crore paid-up equity shares of the company aggregating Rs 345 crore. The board of the company, in its meeting held on Friday, approved the proposal of a buyback price of Rs 75 per share for the shares having a face value of Rs 2, Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL) informed the exchanges. Also Read | DRDO DIPAS Recruitment 2022: Vacancies Notified for 17 Apprentice Posts, Apply Online at drdo.gov.in. The total "number of securities proposed for buyback 4.60 crores" and the amount would be "payable in cash, for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 345 crore", it added. The number of securities proposed for the buyback as a percentage of existing paid-up capital is 17.45 per cent. Also Read | Odd-Even May Come Back in Delhi Amid Worsening Air Quality: Know Rules, Expected Date, Previous Exemptions of Traffic Rationing Measure Being Considered by Arvind Kejriwal-Led AAP Government. The buyback offer size "represents 23.67 per cent and 16.89 per cent of the aggregate of the company's fully paid-up equity capital and free reserves". Moreover, the buyback offer is subject to the approval of the shareholders through a special resolution, which would be obtained through a postal ballot, JPL added. JPL on Friday reported a decline of 16.88 per cent in its consolidated net profit of Rs 50.61 crore for the second quarter ended September. However, its revenue from operations was up 12.82 per cent at Rs 454.16 crore during the quarter under review. In the year-ago period, the same was Rs 402.52 crore. JPL Chairman and Managing Director Mahendra Mohan Gupta said: "The Board has recommended buyback of equity shares aggregating Rs 345 crores for shareholders' approval, in line with our policy of rewarding shareholders". l (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kathmandu, Nov 4 (PTI) Nepal's former prime minister K P Sharma Oli on Friday said that if his party returns to power in the November 20 parliamentary election, it will reclaim the Himalayan nation's territories claimed by India. Inaugurating his party's nationwide election campaign in Darchula district in far-West Nepal near the Nepal-India border, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist) (CPN-UML) Chairman said: "We will bring back land, including Kalapani, Lipulek and Limpiyadhura." Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Microblogging Site Sued in US Over Mass Layoffs Without Notice. Oli, 70, said his party was committed to defending the nation, adding: "We will not spare even an inch of our land." Meanwhile, Nepali Congress president and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said efforts were on to bring back Nepal's encroached land on the basis of diplomatic initiatives and mutual relations. Also Read | 'I Was Hit by Four Bullets,' Says Imran Khan in His First Address to Nation After Assassination Bid (Watch Video). Deuba made these remarks in his home district Dadeldhura in far-West Nepal while launching his election campaign. His statement came after Oli's remarks. The issues of Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and other territories will be resolved through diplomatic initiatives, Deuba said while addressing the election campaign. Former prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has, however, asked Oli not to make national integrity an agenda for election. No party or person should make the country's territorial integrity an election agenda, Bhattarai tweeted, without mentioning Oli's name. Giving the examples of former King Mahendra, who banned political parties by dismissing the elected government in 1960 and atrocities carried out by Hitler, the former prime minister also said only people inspired by fascism made nationalism a political agenda. India's bilateral ties with Nepal came under strain under then prime minister Oli after India opened an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8, 2020. Nepal protested the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through its territory. Days later, Nepal came out with a new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territories. India reacted sharply to the move. In June last year, Nepal's Parliament approved the new political map of the country featuring areas that India maintains belong to it. After Nepal released the map, India reacted sharply, calling it a "unilateral act" and cautioning Kathmandu that such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable to it. Oli, the leader of the main opposition party, also accused India of presenting a fake origin of the Kali River. He claimed that the Kalapani area in Byas Rural Municipality in the district was known to the world due to the 'Chuchche Naksha' (pointed map) of Nepal issued during his leadership. Nepal will hold elections for federal Parliament and provincial assemblies in a single phase on November 20, 2022. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Milan, Nov 4 (AP) France and Germany are asking Italy's new far-right-led government to grant a safe port to nearly 1,000 people rescued by humanitarian groups in the central Mediterranean, some of whom have been stuck at sea for more than two weeks. Humanitarian groups caring for the rescued migrants on four ships in the central Mediterranean are sounding an alarm about deteriorating conditions, including people sleeping on floors in the cold and spreading fevers. Also Read | Russia President Vladimir Putin Praises India, Says 'Country Will Achieve Outstanding Development'. A German charity, Mission Lifeline, reported that its ship is in extreme danger with 95 rescued people on board, half of them women and children, and bad weather forecast. Italy's new interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, has drafted new measures alleging that the non-governmental groups violated procedure by not properly coordinating their rescues, setting the groundwork for Italy to close the ports. Piantedosi has also asked the countries whose flags they fly to intervene. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Microblogging Site Sued in US Over Mass Layoffs Without Notice. Italy's posture, maintaining silence to repeated requests for a safe port, has effectively blocked four charity-run rescue boats at sea. It is reminiscent of Italy's anti-NGO policies under former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is now in charge of ports as infrastructure minister. Meanwhile, Italian authorities continue to allow the arrivals of people rescued at sea by Italian patrols, including 456 arriving in Calabria on Thursday. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday that international law makes clear that Italy, as the closest port, must let the ship in. He referred to the Norway-flagged Ocean Viking with 234 people aboard operated by the group SOS Mediterranee, which has one of its headquarters in France. We have no doubt that Italy will welcome the ship ... that Italy will respect international law, he told French news broadcaster BFM TV. The German Foreign Ministry said it has asked Italy to intervene quickly to help those aboard the German-flagged Humanitarian 1, with 179 people aboard. The boat is currently east of Sicily carrying 100 unaccompanied minors as well as a 7-month-old baby, the SOS Humanity charity said. They continue to be exposed to the elements, having to spend the cold nights on deck. Still, they are sleeping on the floor while winds and waves are increasing,'' said spokesman Wasil Schauseil, adding that the state of limbo was adding to their mental stress. Fever was also spreading among the rescued people, with COVID tests turning up negative. Darmanin said that France and Germany have told Italy that they are both ready to receive some of the migrants so that Italy won't bear the burden alone. Also at sea is the Doctors Without Borders-run ship Geo Barents, also flagged by Norway, with 572 people on board, including 60 unaccompanied minors as well as families with children and the elderly. And another German-based charity, Mission Lifeline, said its ship Rise Above picked up 95 people in three operations on Thursday, and that neither Italy nor Malta have responded to requests for a port. The proportion of women, children and babies is unusually high, comprising about half of the people on board. We are particularly worried about the health of the eight babies as well as the small children. Many had been at sea for days at the time of the rescue and are extremely exhausted,'' said Heremine Poschmann, a Mission Life spokeswoman. The Rise Above is in extreme danger, Poschmann said, with bad weather forecast in the coming hours and with 104 people total on board a relatively small boat at 25 metres (82 feet) long, she said. Normally they would transfer rescued people immediately to other bigger charity boats, but the other three are already at capacity, she said. The migrants rescued at sea have mostly travelled through Libya, often being subjected to torture by human traffickers along the way, as they seek a better life in Europe. Charities have denied circumventing procedures, and say it is their duty to rescue people in distress at sea. According to the UN refugee agency, coastal states are obligated to accept people from rescue ships as soon as practicable,'' and governments should cooperate to provide a place of safety for survivors. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington, Nov 4 (PTI) Global space cooperation is an integral part of India's space programme, a top Indian space scientist has said and supported the idea of nations coming together to replicate the International Space Station for another outpost in space. In this entire journey of the Indian space programme, global space cooperation has always been an integral part, Krunal Joshi who is currently a counsellor, Space (ISRO) at the Embassy of India told a recent ASCEND Conference. Also Read | Paul Pelosi, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Husband, Discharged From Hospital After Successful Surgery. Participating in two-panel discussions at the prestigious ASCEND conference, hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in Las Vegas from October 24 to October 26, Joshi told the space scientific community that India has launched more than 350 satellites from 33 countries. In the 1960s, India dedicated Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station to the UN and a variety of research and launch experiments were done from here. India today has more than 230 agreements with over 55 countries and five multinational bodies. This ranges from building satellites to capacity building, he said. Also Read | Elon Musk to Begin Layoffs at Twitter, Leaked Email Hints at Sacking of 7,500 Employees: Report. UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training) started by ISRO under the aegis of the UN, where India is helping budding countries in capacity building, satellite building and how they can build nanosatellites. In 2019, India has 60 officials from 32 countries and in 2022, there are 32 officials from 22 nations. So, it's a programme which is doing good for the upcoming countries. India's Chandrayaan-I, he said, is one of the shining examples of how international collaboration can help to achieve something big. Countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria contributed with their payload and more than 50 countries currently are emulating the science out of that. It's a classic example of how big countries can come together in space, he added. Responding to a question, during one of the panel discussions, Joshi said that India is unlikely to build its international space station of its own, but supported the idea of an international collaboration. It is very difficult for India on its own to have an entire space station. We don't know. I don't think that that will be a more feasible solution. A more feasible solution would be for countries to come together and replicate what we did in the ISS, Joshi said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Islamabad, Nov 4 (PTI) Imran Khan is stable after an attempt on his life and the former Pakistan prime minister is determined to continue his political struggle to press the government to call for an early election, his party has said. Khan, 70, suffered a bullet injury in the right leg when a gun-wielding man fired a volley of bullets at him and others mounting on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province, where he was leading a protest march against the government. Also Read | Paul Pelosi, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Husband, Discharged From Hospital After Successful Surgery. Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), alleged it was a planned assassination attempt on Imran Khan and he escaped narrowly. "The assassin planned to kill Imran Khan and the leadership of the PTI. It was not 9MM, it was a burst from an automatic weapon. No two opinions that it was a narrow escape, he tweeted on Thursday. Also Read | Elon Musk to Begin Layoffs at Twitter, Leaked Email Hints at Sacking of 7,500 Employees: Report. Police had said that one person was killed while seven were injured. The Dawn newspaper, however, reported on Friday that 14 persons were injured in addition to one killed. Khan was shifted by road to his own-built Shaukat Khanum medical facility in Lahore where an operation was performed and was stable after it, according to his party. His party said he is stable now. The party also said that Khan was determined to continue his protest march. I will not bow down, but stay determined to bring Haqeeqi Azadi (real freedom) for my fellow Pakistanis, the party's official Twitter handle quoted Khan as saying, adding the march would resume from Wazirabad at 11am on Friday. Khan launched his march on October 28 from Lahore with the aim to reach Islamabad on November 4 to hold a rally for forcing the government to announce fresh elections. But the marchers moved slowly and later changed the arrival to Islamabad, now expected to reach on November 11. So far the government has not allowed the PTI to hold a rally in the capital while the Islamabad High Court reserved its judgment on a petition to allow the protest rally in Islamabad. The attacker was arrested and a confessional video was also issued. But the PTI linked the attack to a wider conspiracy and held Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal (Naseer) responsible for it. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kabul [Afghanistan], November 4 (ANI): Taliban arrested women journalists and human rights activists, along with four men from the Hazara neighbourhood in West Kabul and intrusively disrupted a women's press conference held in the Dasht-e-Barchi area on Thursday as per reports by Khaama Press. The terrorist outfit disrupted the event and took the women human rights protestors to an undisclosed place, Khaama Press. Also Read | Imran Khan Assassination Attempt: PTI Leader Anwar Zeb Khan Calls on Supporters To Avenge Attack on Former Pakistan PM. "Taliban initially encircled the premises before intrusively disrupting the press conference held by women, forcibly arresting them and taking their mobile phones," according to a local media source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fawzia Koofi, the founder of the Movement of Change for Afghanistan political party, and one of the members of the Afghan Peace Negotiation Delegation stated that the "Taliban must be held accountable for the arbitrary arrest of women human rights activists in Afghanistan," Khaama Press reported. Also Read | China Building Blueprint for Digital Dictatorship Through Its Surveillance Security, Says Report. "This must end; women have the right to exercise their civic and social participation. More pressure will result in more resistance. Don't push people to make hard choices," Koofi added. According to Reporters Without Borders, only 328 of the 547 media outlets that were active in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban's takeover are still operating, with 219 print, visual, and aural outlets being shut down under the Taliban rule, reported Khaama Press. The transfer of power from a west-supported government to the Taliban saw many changes in the way institutions were working for the past twenty years. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year, it rolled back women's rights advances and media freedom revoking the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country. According to a report by the South Asian Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) over 45 per cent of journalists have quit since the terrorist outfit assumed power. The ever-increasing restrictions against media in Afghanistan have also drawn widespread criticism globally with the United Nations (UN) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decrying the arrests, demanding the Taliban stop harassing local journalists and stifling freedom of speech through continued detentions and threats. The Taliban had promised women's rights, media freedom, and amnesty for government officials in the group's first news conference after the takeover in August. However, activists, former government employees, and journalists among others continue to face retribution. Moreover, the violent persecution of the Afghan Shia Hazara goes back more than a century but has reached unprecedented levels in the last year under the Taliban. The targeting of Hazara houses of worship, schools, and other public places has intensified since the Taliban took control last year. In the last year, the Islamic State of Khorasan has claimed responsibility for 13 attacks against Hazaras. Approximately 700 people have been killed or injured in these attacks. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington [US], November 4 (ANI): The United States on Friday announced approximately USD 400 million as additional security assistance for Ukraine, in a bid to boost Kyiv's security amid the ongoing war with Russia. "On November 4, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced approximately USD 400 million in additional security assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI)," Pentagon said in a statement. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Microblogging Site Sued in US Over Mass Layoffs Without Notice. The US government said this USAI package underscores its continued commitment to supporting Ukraine by meeting its most urgent needs, while also building the capacity of Ukraine's Armed Forces to defend its sovereignty over the long term. "Unlike Presidential Drawdown authority (PDA), which DoD has continued to leverage to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry," the statement added. Also Read | 'I Was Hit by Four Bullets,' Says Imran Khan in His First Address to Nation After Assassination Bid (Watch Video). Pentagon said this announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine. The latest US aid to Ukraine includes: funding to refurbish HAWK air defense missiles for inclusion in future Presidential Drawdown packages; 45 Refurbished T-72B Tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor packages; 1,100 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; and 40 Armored Riverine Boats. In total, the United States has now committed more than USD 18.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than USD 21 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and more than USD 18.2 billion since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24. "Through both PDA and USAI, DoD continues to work with Ukraine to meet both its immediate and longer-term security assistance needs," the Department of Defense said. With Russia's unrelenting and brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilian critical infrastructure, additional air defense capabilities are critical, 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) Washington, Nov 4 (AP) The US is sending Ukraine USD 400 million more in military aid and establishing a security assistance headquarters in Germany that will oversee all weapons transfers and military training for Ukraine, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The new command post, called the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, signals a more permanent, long-term programme to continue to aid Kyiv in its fight against Russia, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters at the Pentagon. Also Read | Twitter Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Microblogging Site Sued in US Over Mass Layoffs Without Notice. The USD 400 million includes contracts for 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones, funding to refurbish 45 tanks and an additional 40 riverine boats, among other systems, the Pentagon said. Because the weapons are being procured through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative they will not be ready for immediate transfer to Kyiv. Weapons provided through USAI funding are obtained through longer-term industry contracts instead of being drawn from US weapons stockpiles. Also Read | 'I Was Hit by Four Bullets,' Says Imran Khan in His First Address to Nation After Assassination Bid (Watch Video). The US has committed more than USD 18.2 billion in weapons and other equipment to Ukraine since the war began on February 24. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bengaluru, November 4: Following the death of a pregnant woman with twins in Tumakuru after she was allegedly refused treatment, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Friday said, he has ordered for a probe and suspension of three nurses in-charge of the maternity ward and an on-duty doctor, for negligence. The Minister also said he has constituted a three-member committee headed by the Commissioner, Health Department to conduct an inquiry and submit the findings in two weeks, and if found guilty, the suspended will be dismissed, and legal action will be initiated against them. Karnataka Shocker: Woman Delivers Twins at Home in Tumakuru After Hospital Refuses To Admit Her, All Three Die; Locals Stage Protest. "I'm extremely pained by the unfortunate deaths of a pregnant woman and two newborns in Tumakuru. After visiting the hospital last night and having taken stock of the shocking event, I have ordered for a probe and stern action in this matter," Sudhakar said. Noting that prima facie, three nurses in-charge of the maternity ward and an on-duty doctor were found negligent, he said, "I have ordered for their immediate suspension along with further investigation into it." It is alleged that the doctor and the hospital staff had allegedly refused to admit Kasturi (30), who was pregnant with twins as she did not have an Aadhaar card or a 'Taayi' (maternity) card, and suggested that she go to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. As the woman, a labourer from Tamil Nadu, could not arrange money for an ambulance to travel to Bengaluru, she returned home from the hospital on Wednesday night. She is said to have gone into labour on Thursday morning and developed excessive bleeding after giving birth to a male baby, and died before delivering the second baby. The new-born also died subsequently. Tamil Nadu: Pregnant Woman Allegedly Denied Admission at District Hospital in Tumakuru, Dies With Newborn Twins. Noting that it is the paramount duty of hospital staff and doctors to treat patients in emergency, and never to insist on documentation in such critical situations, the Minister said time and again, the state government has made it clear through several orders on the same. The Department has re-issued the order, making it very clear to first treat the patients in critical conditions at all costs, he said, further, considering the gravity of negligence of duty in the case, he has ordered for a three-member committee headed by the Commissioner, Health Department to conduct an inquiry and submit the findings in two weeks. "If found guilty, the suspended will be dismissed with initiation of legal action against them. I urge doctors and hospital staff to take appropriate measures to make sure that such incidents never repeat in future," he added. "Earlier when Imran Khan had an incident, Nawaz Sharif went to inquire about his health," said Sanaullah, Geo News reported. He added that Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif is considering going to inquire about Khan's health, and will soon take a call on this. In a shocking incident that took place in Punjab, Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was shot in Amritsar. The police is present at the spot. "Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Shri has been shot. We have reached the spot and are still verifying everything. The senior officers will brief you," police officials said. Video: NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel Lauds Haryana Government Over Waste Management and Treated Water. Shiv Sena Leader Sudhir Suri Shot in Amritsar Punjab | Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri shot in Amritsar. Police present at the spot, details awaited. "Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Shri has been shot. We have reached the spot and are still verifying everything. The senior officers will brief you," Police say. pic.twitter.com/otlJ0UXLyL ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) Lots of the news from sub-Saharan Africa is about war, famine, poverty or political upheaval. So its understandable if many Americans think most Africans who immigrate to the United States are poorly educated and desperate. Thats the impression that President Trump left with his comments to members of Congress opposing admission of immigrants from shithole countries in Africa and elsewhere. But research tells another story. While many are refugees, large numbers are beneficiaries of the diversity visa program aimed at boosting immigration from underrepresented nations. And on average, African immigrants are better educated that people born in the U.S. or the immigrant population as a whole. Advertisement Its a population thats very diverse in its educational, economic and English proficiency profile, said Jeanne Batalova, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute think tank in Washington and coauthor of a report last year on sub-Saharan African immigrants in the U.S. People came for a variety of reasons and at various times. Overall, their numbers are small compared with other immigrant groups but have risen significantly in recent years. The U.S. immigrant population from sub-Saharan Africa (49 countries with a total population of more than 1.1 billion) grew from 723,000 to more than 1.7 million between 2010 and 2015, according to a new report by New American Economy, a Washington-based research and advocacy group. Still, they make up just half a percent of the U.S. population. Drawing from U.S. surveys and Census Bureau data, the report found that the majority come from five countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa. The Pew Research Center reported that African immigrants are most likely to settle in the South or Northeast, and that the largest numbers at least 100,000 are found in Texas, New York, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. Many African refugees have also relocated to or have been resettled in states such as Minnesota and South Dakota. The Refugee Act of 1980 made it easier for people fleeing war zones to resettle in the U.S., and today there are tens of thousand of refugees from Somalia, Sudan and Congo. About 22% of African immigrants are refugees, according to Andrew Lim, associate director of research at New American Economy. At the same time, the diversity visa program also known as the visa lottery has opened the door to immigrants from more peaceful places. Of the sub-Saharan immigrants who have become legal permanent residents, 17% came through the program, compared with 5% of the total U.S. immigrant population, according to Batalova. Applicants to the program must have completed the equivalent of a U.S. high school education or have at least two years of recent experience in any number of occupations, including accountant, computer support specialist, orthodontist and dancer. As a result, the influx includes many immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa who are highly skilled professionals. Batalovas research found that of the 1.4 million who are 25 and older, 41% have a bachelors degree, compared with 30% of all immigrants and 32% of the U.S.-born population. Of the 19,000 U.S. immigrants from Norway a country Trump reportedly told lawmakers is a good source of immigrants 38% have college educations. The New American Economy study found that 1 in 3 of these undergraduate degrees were focused on science, technology, engineering and math training heavily in demand by todays employers. That report also found that African immigrants were significantly more likely to have graduate degrees. A total of 16% had a masters degree, medical degree, law degree or a doctorate, compared with 11% of the U.S.-born population, Lim said. African immigrants were more than twice as likely than the U.S. population overall to work in healthcare, Lim said. There are more than 32,500 nursing, psychiatric or home health aides, more than 46,000 registered nurses and more than 15,700 doctors and surgeons. Overwhelmingly the evidence shows that [African immigrants] make a significant, positive economic contribution to the U.S. economy, both at a national level and in districts where they are concentrated, Lim said. They contribute more than $10.1 billion in federal taxes, $4.7 billion in state and local taxes, and most importantly, they have significant economic clout to the point of $40.3 billion in spending power. That $40.3 billion pays for housing, transportation, consumer goods and education for their children things that actually stimulate the economy around them, Lim said. The biggest beneficiary is Texas, where their spending power is $4.7 billion, followed by California, Maryland, New York and Georgia. Its a population that leverages its human resources and contributes to the U.S. economy by revitalizing communities, starting businesses, but also by working in a variety of professional fields, Batalova said. Even those with less education who arrive as refugees often fill certain lower-skill niches in healthcare, such as home health aides, researchers said. In the communities they were resettled in, they have made significant contributions, Lim said. In many towns and cities in the Great Lakes area of the Midwest, for example, they have started new businesses, infused local labor forces with younger workers, and expanded local tax bases, Lim said. A report last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that immigrants in general had little to no negative effect on overall wages or employment levels for U.S.-born workers, and higher-skilled immigrants in fields such as technology and science had a positive influence on the U.S. labor force. Still, supporters of stricter immigration policy back the Trump administrations calls to end the visa lottery as well as programs that allow certain immigrants to sponsor family members to settle in the U.S. They believe that a merit system that selects immigrants based on individual skills should replace the current system. ann.simmons@latimes.com For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter Amber Heard seemed to have her Twitter account removed after her ex Elon Musk becomes the new CEO of the social media platform. It remains unclear when Heard removed her account, but multiple outlets took notice on Thursday that her Twitter account, @realamberheard, has been deactivated. The screen on her page only shows "this account doesn't exist," according to a People report. It was not immediately clear why Heard had shut down her account. Some Twitter users are guessing that she may have wanted a pause from the publicity of her defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp. A representative for Heard has yet to comment on the matter while a representative for Musk said he and Heard did not start seeing each other until May 2016. The representative added that even then, "it was infrequent," and that the relationship between the two did not become romantic until sometime later. READ NEXT: Elon Musk Closes Twitter Deal, With At Least Four Twitter Executives Fired as the Billionaire Takes Over Amber Heard and Elon Musk Relationship Amber Heard and Elon Musk met each other during the summer of 2012 while working on the set of the film Machete Kills, which was directed by Robert Rodriguez. Heard played "Miss San Antonio" Black Vasque while the Tesla CEO and new chief of Twitter appeared in a cameo playing himself. The film was then released in 2013. Musk divorced actress Talulah Riley and was finalized in 2016 while Heard filed for legal separation from Depp in the same year. Depp then claimed in a lawsuit that his ex-wife had an affair with the billionaire "almost a month after" they married in 2015. However, a spokesperson for Musk claimed that Heard and the billionaire did not start seeing each other until May 2016. Heard and Musk was photographed in April 2017 hanging out together as a couple for the first time while visiting Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Australia's Gold Coast. During that day, Heard made things official on Instagram. However, later in August 2017, the two would announce that they had gone their separate ways, citing distance as a factor putting a strain on their relationship. Elon Musk New Twitter CEO Just before October ended, Elon Musk took control of the social media platform with the company's CEO Parag Agrawal, and other top executives removed from their position. Finance chief Ned Segal and legal policy head Vijaya Gadde were also fired. Musk tweeted on October 28 that "the bird is freed" in what seemed a reference to the takeover being finished. Musk first proposed to buy the social media service in April, aiming to take it private. Later on, he expressed doubts about the deal and his intentions to push through with the agreement. Twitter then sued the Tesla CEO when Musk announced that he would be terminating the deal. The social media company alleged the billionaire of refusing "to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders" as the deal he signed "no longer serves his personal interests." The billionaire then changed his mind and announced he would follow the acquisition deal. Musk secured some debt financing from several investment banks to procure Twitter. READ MORE: Elon Musk Warns World: Global Recession Could Last 'Until Spring '24' This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Amber Heard's Twitter Page VANISHES Amid Elon Musk Takeover - from Access China's Hubei sees endangered species recover under conservation efforts Xinhua) 10:20, November 04, 2022 WUHAN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Every noon, Ding Zeliang carries a bucket of small fish and feeds the young Yangtze finless porpoises in Tian'ezhou National Nature Reserve, central China's Hubei Province. As a breeder, Ding has treated these mammals as his children and is glad to see their population recovering in recent years. Once upon a time, this fleshy aquatic animal (dubbed a "smiling angel") was in danger as its natural habitats were under threat from pollution, overfishing, and river traffic. However, thanks to China's effective measures to conserve finless porpoises, including ex-situ conservation, artificial breeding, and in-situ conservation, the once-endangered mammal is now coming back and frequently appears in the Hubei section of China's longest river, the Yangtze. "The number of the finless porpoises here has reached nearly 100, with an annual growth rate of about 8 percent," said Xu Chunyong, deputy director of the management office of the Tian'ezhou reserve, one of the earliest ex-situ conservation areas of finless porpoises in China. Tian'ezhou reserve is the epitome of China's achievements in protecting this animal. According to the latest research on the species released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2022, some finless porpoises also appeared in areas where they never arrived before, indicating the population may recover. "Finless porpoises also have emotions. They need to be carefully taken care of," said Ding. Other endangered creatures in the Yangtze River basin, such as milu deer, are also returning to nature under ecological conservation. Endemic to China, milu deer are nicknamed "sibuxiang," or "animal like none of the four," as they have a horse-like face, a donkey-like tail, cow-like hooves, and stag-like antlers. They inhabit marshland and feed on tender grass. Due to hunting, war, and natural disasters, much of the living space of milu deer was occupied. At the beginning of the 1900s, with only 18 left in the rest of the world, milu deer were extinct in China, their original country. China has established three reserves, including the Shishou Milu Deer National Nature Reserve in Hubei Province, to enlarge the population. In the 1990s, the Shishou reserve introduced 64 milu deer from abroad in two batches. Close to the Yangtze River, the area has a complete wetland ecosystem and vast pastureland, which is an ideal habitat for milu deer. "In recent years, advanced techniques such as drones and infrared cameras facilitate observation and conservation of the deer," said Wen Huajun, director of the management office of the reserve. The number of milu deer in the reserve has grown from 64 in the 1990s to around 2,500 over the past three decades, with an annual natural growth rate of 15 percent, said Wen. Besides milu deer, many nationally protected species, including Shennongjia golden monkeys, are also frequently observed in the region, and the number tends to increase. Shennongjia Forestry District, with an average altitude of around 1,700 meters in western Hubei Province, is one of the habitats of golden monkeys. The Shennongjia golden monkey, which has been living in the Yangtze River basin since ancient times, is a sub-species of the Chuan golden monkey. However, this wild species became severely endangered. By the early 1990s, there were only about 500 golden monkeys in Shennongjia Forestry District, raising serious concerns for wildlife protection. "Protecting Shennongjia golden monkeys is meaningful to conserve the genetic diversity of the whole golden monkey population," said Huang Tianpeng, director of Dalongtan Golden Monkey Research Center in Shennongjia National Park, part of the Shennongjia Forestry District. Since then, Shennongjia Forestry District has gradually made achievements in disease prevention and control, artificial breeding, and environmental adaptability evaluation, contributing to the recovery of the monkey species. As of July this year, the number of golden monkeys in Shennongjia Forestry District had reached 1,483, with the habitat areas extending from 210 to 354 square kilometers. "Shennongjia golden monkeys used to be wary of humans, so you had to hide miles away and watch them through binoculars," Huang said. "Now, we are very pleased that those monkeys are willing to shake hands with researchers, just like our good friends," Huang said, adding that substantial progress has been made in protecting them. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Human rights advocate, Amnesty International, has described Wednesday's peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) as a step in the right direction, but stressed that "further strides must be taken to address the accountability deficit that has permeated the conflict since it began" El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's crackdown on violent street gangs like MS-13 has taken a new turn, as he is now aiming at the graves of fallen gang members. The El Salvadoran government under Bukele has now turned to grave desecration, sending work crews made up of inmates to smash gravestones with hammers and metal poles. According to Reuters, the reason for this action was that the El Salvador government is "aiming to prevent any would-be admirers from paying their respects." This happened on Tuesday, November 1, which is All Souls Day, the day when families typically go to cemeteries and visit dead loved ones. MS-13 Gravestones Targeted The government targeted a cemetery in La Libertad, located west of the capital San Salvador. There, they instructed inmates to identify gravestones belonging to deceased MS-13 gang members and smash them to pieces. Osiris Luna, El Salvador's deputy minister of justice and top prison director, said in a statement that they cannot have a "single symbol alluding to the Maras or gang members in any community, neighborhood, or part of this country." MS-13 is also known as the Mara Salvatrucha gang, and members are also known as "Maras." The El Salvadoran government also targeted cemeteries in Santa Tecla near San Salvador. It is widely considered an MS-13 stronghold. Police also destroyed a gravestone in Candelaria de la Frontera, Santa Ana after residents reported that it had MS-13 markings. READ MORE: El Salvador: Military and Police Surround Town to Root Out MS-13 Gang Members While the move has raised a few eyebrows, many residents actually welcomed it. One of them, Juan Escamilla, talked to the Associated Press that there is now "a lot of happiness in visiting their deceased relatives. He stated, "before it was normal to see gang members inside the cemetery, but today there's no danger." According to France 24, although the gravestones were targeted and destroyed, the remains of the deceased gang members will remain intact. The government did not state how many graves they destroyed in total over All Souls Day. El Salvador's Nayib Bukele Intensifies Crackdown vs. MS-13 Previously, police would just paint over or remove gang-related graffiti that used to be visible in neighborhoods around the Central American country. However, this new method of going after MS-13 member graves is a new escalation in the fight against El Salvador's violent street gangs. Earlier this year, President Nayib Bukele requested special powers, and since then, El Salvador has been under a state of exception, suspending some constitutional rights, after gangs killed 62 people across the entire country. El Salvadoran authorities have since arrested over 56,000 people who are allegedly tied to not just MS-13, but also other violent street gangs. However, the move has been highly criticized by nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups as they tallied thousands of human rights violations during El Salvador's state of exception READ NEXT: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Asks for Patience as Bitcoin Price Crashes This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: The Truth Behind Street Gang MS-13 - Inside Edition Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was released from the hospital on Thursday after he suffered a brutal attack inside their San Francisco home. The House speaker's husband underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands after the attack last Friday. Nancy said that her husband "remains under doctors' care" as he still has a long recovery process to go. She added that Paul is now home surrounded by his family while also requesting privacy. Nancy was in Washington, D.C. with her security detail when DePape bashed a window to break into the home of the family on Friday, according to authorities. Paul asked the intruder to allow him to use the bathroom in his effort to escape. He then dialed 911. After police arrived, DePape lunged at Paul with the hammer, knocking him unconscious. Meanwhile, California prosecutors charged David DePape with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary, false imprisonment, and threatening a public official in connection with the violent incident. The 42-year-old suspect pleaded not guilty to charges against him on Tuesday. READ NEXT: Nancy Pelosi Home Invasion: House Speaker's Neighbors Question Why No Alarms Went Off Nancy Pelosi Home Invader David DePape DePape could be deported from the United States after he is released from custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed an "immigration detainer" on the Canadian national who attacked Paul. Records showed that DePape entered the United States through San Ysidro, California in 2008 as a temporary visitor. Officials said that Canadian visitors who enter the U.S. for business or pleasure are generally allowed entry for six months. Deportations usually happen after criminal cases are resolved and the detainer is seen not to affect the case against DePape. The United States normally seek deportation after conviction and prison sentence. Paul Pelos Attacked Inside Home DepPape later told police he saw the House speaker as the "leader of the pack" of lies told by the Democratic Party. He added that he wanted to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her; if she lied, he said he would break her kneecaps, according to a federal affidavit. The 42-year-old Canadian national arrived at the San Francisco home with zip ties, tape, rope, and at least one hammer. DePape told police he was on a "suicide mission" and had plans to target other politicians in California and in the country, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. DePape's early morning break-in to Pelosi's house was detailed in a filing made by local prosecutors as they seek to hold DePape without bail. DePape reportedly told officers that he is "sick of the insane fucking level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C." He was living in Berkeley, California for years, wherein he was at times homeless before he moved to a garage in nearby Richmond two years ago. DePape seemed to have also written a blog filled with rants regarding the 2020 election results and antisemitic beliefs. READ MORE: Donald Trump Says FBI Agents Raided Mar-A-Lago Home; Agency's Visit Unannounced This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: New Details About Paul Pelosi Attack Revealed In Court Documents - from NBC News The parents of Gabby Petito on Thursday filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Utah's Moab City Police Department for "failures and negligence" that ultimately led to their daughter being killed by her fiance Brian Laundrie. The lawsuit alleged that its officers were negligent in their interactions with Patito and Laundrie and failed to protect their daughter during an investigation into a domestic disturbance in August last year, just two weeks before her death. In a statement, attorney James W. McConkie said the lawsuit aims to honor Petito's legacy "by demanding accountability and working toward systemic changes" that will protect victims of domestic abuse and violence. Petito's parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, said they filed the lawsuit to ensure that the police department will impose changes to help other abuse victims. "No one here, the four of us, don't want to be here. We'd give it up in a second if she was back," said Joseph in a press conference on Thursday. Schmidt noted that they felt they needed to bring justice because their daughter "could have been protected that day." She noted that there are laws in place to protect victims, and those laws were not followed. Schmidt added they do not want the same to happen to anyone else. READ NEXT: Gabby Petito Seen Alive With Brian Laundrie at Wyoming Grocery Store in Chilling New Video Captured Just Before Her Murder Gabby Petito Parents File Wrongful Death Lawsuit On August 12, 2021, Moab police officers pulled over the vehicle of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie and questioned them after a 911 caller reported seeing a man slapping a girl. The lawsuit alleged that the Moab officers failed to recognize "obvious signs" indicating Petito was a victim of domestic abuse and in a life-threatening situation at the time. The officers allowed Petito and Laundrie to leave, ordering them to spend a night apart. Petito was seen to be visibly upset in the police body camera recording of the police's encounter with the couple. The lawsuit accused the police department, three police officers, and 10 other unnamed individuals of "negligent failure" during an investigation. The lawsuit also alleged that the Moab City Police Department failed to properly train its officers to evaluate domestic violence situations. The lawsuit was initially announced in August in a notice of claim before being filed on Thursday. Notices of claims are necessary before people can sue government bodies. Last year, Moab City Police Department Chief Bret Edge said that "insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges." The city of Moab noted that it intends to defend itself against the lawsuit. In a statement, the city said they feel profound sympathy for the Petito and Schmidt families and described Petito's death as a "terrible tragedy." However, it noted that it was clear to them that the city police department officers "are not responsible" for Gabby Petito's eventual murder. The city added that its officers "acted with kindness, respect, and empathy" toward the 22-year-old YouTuber. The city said the attorneys for the family "seem to suggest that somehow our officers could see into the future based on this single interaction." The wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department is the recent legal filing involving the death of Petito. Petito's parents filed a civil lawsuit against Laundrie's parents in Florida last March, alleging that Laundrie's parents knew their son killed Petito and were trying to help him flee. In May, Schmidt also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Laundrie's estate. Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie's Deaths Gabby Petito disappeared while on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when Petito stopped communicating with her family on August 25, 2021, when she was near Grand Teton National Park in Jackson, Wyoming. Laundrie was named a person of interest by the North Port police after returning home to Florida on September 1 or 10 days before Petito was reported missing by her family. By September 17, 2021, Laundrie had also gone missing, and the North Porth Police said that they, along with the FBI, were searching for him and Petito. Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park on September 19, 2021. A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was a homicide. On October 20, 2021, Laundrie's skeletal remains were discovered at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida. His autopsy report showed that he died of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death was suicide. Last January, the FBI revealed that Laundrie confessed to killing Petito in a message left in his notebook. The FBI said they found the notebook, along with a "backpack" and a "revolver," upon further search of the area where Laundrie's remains were discovered. The FBI noted that its investigation has concluded that Brian Laundrie was the only person responsible for Gabby Petito's "tragic death." READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Case: Probe Into Utah Cops Who Responded to Gabby Petito and Fiance's Domestic Dispute' Close' to Wrapping Up This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Parents of Gabby Petito File Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Utah Police Department - From WPLG Local 10 A Michigan man allegedly beat his wife to death using a wrench while she was sleeping on their couch inside their home. Police said Justin Wagenberg, 37, killed his 38-year-old wife, Katy Dougherty, on October 16. According to Crime Online, Wagenberg was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife after he returned to their home in Waterford Township and turned himself in. The Michigan man is currently being held without bond at the Oakland County Jail. In his arraignment on Tuesday, Wagenberg was ordered to take a competency exam after he appeared confused. According to Law & Crime, Wagenberg was stammering, and when asked if he understood the judge's competency exam order, he reportedly said, "I don't know, but I'll agree to it." Oakland County Police and prosecutors noted that they keep finding "more evidence" as they go through the couple's possessions, including their home and cars. READ NEXT: Britney Griner Imprisonment: U.S. Embassy Officials Visit WNBA Star; Wife Cherelle Griner Calls Russian Court Decision 'Absurd' Michigan Man Fled to Wisconsin After Killing His Wife Katy Dougherty's family told WDIV Local 4 Detroit that Justin Wagenberg fled to Wisconsin after killing his wife. However, he returned to their Waterford Township home, where he was arrested after turning himself into authorities. James Dougherty, the victim's father, said the suspect just decided to turn himself in, but this was after he returned to their home and went to bed. "Well, on the way back, he said he found Christ or something over the last month, or something, and so he decided to go back home and turn himself in, but he came home first and went to bed, for I don't know how long, and then he called the police," James told WDIV. A woman, who was unidentified in the report, said Wagenberg told them that he snapped," and he was not on his medications, which resulted in him losing it. Dougherty's aunt Peggy Dahl told WDIV that there were also rumors that her niece killed herself. Dahl noted that her niece would never do that because "that's not who she was." "We didn't want people to think she killed herself because she didn't," Dahl said. Slain Michigan Woman's Family Remembers Her Katy Dougherty's aunt described her niece as someone who "always had a smile on her face." Peggy Dahl added that she loved her niece. Dougherty reportedly worked as a hairdresser for three different assisted living communities in Oakland County. She has been known to give residents a complete salon-like experience, and because of her dedication, she was well-loved by many of her clients. Dougherty's family was devastated by her death and said she loved her husband to death. "She loved him so much," Dahl said. "To death," James added. READ MORE: Narco Tunnel Similar to Those Built by El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Discovered Under Evangelical Center in Mexico This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: Waterford Township Family Mourns of Woman Killed in Domestic Attack - From Click on Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV The hometown of convicted Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo," is considering opening a "narco museum" to attract tourists. In a video shared Thursday, the mayor of Badiraguato said he is open to the idea of a museum that tells the stories of notorious Sinaloa cartel leaders like El Chapo, Rafael Caro Quintero, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza. Badiraguato, a municipality in the northern state of Sinaloa, is known for being the birthplace of a long list of Mexican drug lords. Mexico News Daily reported that Badiraguato's mayor Jose Luis Lopez Elenes described the municipality as a traffickers' "cradle" and said they must acknowledge it. "We can't deny our history," Lopez Elenes said, adding that their priority was to encourage economic development in the municipality and not to promote drug trafficking. The mayor noted that they are not closed-minded and listen to people's voices on any issue. "We are a government that does not have favorite figures, we have no commitment to anyone, what we have is a commitment to Badiraguatense society and we are going to push those recommendations to us if that is precisely what interests them," Lopez Elenes said as Proceso reported. The Morena party mayor noted that his government was aiming to "overcome the stigma of drug trafficking" through the economic development of Badiraguato. However, the Sinaloa governor does not like the idea of a narco museum. Sinaloa's governor Ruben Rocha Moya, who was born in Badiraguato, tweeted that he "emphatically rejects" the idea of building a narco museum in his hometown. A municipal official told Reuters that the museum, which would be housed in a $711,000 (14 million pesos) regional museum building, was under construction, but its subject matter has yet to be finalized. Proceso reported that Lopez Elenes said the narco museum will be completed on December 10. The town leaders and museum specialists will reportedly meet on Monday to discuss the project. El Chapo, Caro Quintero, and El Azul were born in Badiraguato, while El Mayo was born in a small town in the neighboring municipality of Culiacan. Mexico City already had a narco museum. The Museo del Enervante displays things or objects seized during Mexico's drug war. However, it is not open to the public, and you can only go inside through written request and at the discretion of the Ministry of Defense (SEDENA). READ NEXT: Like El Chapo, Guadalajara Cartel Founder Rafael Caro Quintero Also Complains of 'Torture' in Mexico Altiplano Prison Arrest of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo El Chapo was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX Florence "supermax" prison in Colorado after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 on multiple drug-related charges. The infamous Sinaloa Cartel boss was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking. However, in 2001, the Mexican drug kingpin escaped from prison. He was arrested again in 2014 in Sinaloa but escaped again through a tunnel the following year. In January 2016, Mexican officials announced that El Chapo had been captured again. He was extradited to the U.S. the following year. El Chapo is serving a life sentence in prison after being found guilty of all 10 federal charges he faced. He was accused of illegally importing millions of kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the U.S., along with significant quantities of heroin and marijuana. Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo Makes New Appeal to Overturn Life Sentence El Chapo recently asked a court to have his life sentence overturned. ABC7 Chicago reported that the Sinaloa cartel boss is convincing the court that he was wronged by U.S. prosecutors in his racketeering conspiracy case. El Chapo reportedly filed a new court request signed by himself, not an attorney, and asked to be freed or retried. In the habeas corpus petition filed by El Chapo, he criticized his lawyers and claimed unfair extradition by the U.S. government as well as prosecutors' unlawful treatment. ABC7 legal analyst Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor, said El Chapo "lost his trial, [and] he lost on appeal." However, Soffer noted this was "a mechanism" for the Mexican drug lord "to say, despite all that, I'm still entitled to a reversal of my conviction and a new trial because my constitutional rights were violated." According to Soffer, El Chapo must show that his constitutional rights were indeed violated, and the outcome of his trial would have been different if they had not been violated, which "is a very high hurdle to clear." READ MORE: Rafael Caro Quintero's Wife Denies Legal Battle With Guadalajara Cartel Founder Over Alimony Demand This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: How Sinaloa Became Mexico's Biggest Cartel | The War on Drugs - From VICE A Minnesota dad was arrested for allegedly killing his daughter's abusive boyfriend in a storage locker and burying him in a makeshift grave. According to Law&Crime, Michael Lee Laflex, 45, was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with one count of second-degree murder for killing Bryce Brogle, 23. A criminal complaint revealed that Cordelia Laflex, the Minnesota dad's daughter, called the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office on October 28 and reported that her boyfriend disappeared after going with her father to a storage unit he had rented two days earlier. Investigators talked to Laflex, who allegedly told them that Brogle was arrested "by unknown law enforcement" and took his two phones. However, the complaint said the Minnesota dad later changed his story and told police that he had thrown away both of Brogle's phones at a Brainerd gas station. Police eventually recovered both phones. They also found blood and bleach on the storage unit's concrete floor and drag marks. READ NEXT: New Mexico Mother Rescued from Abusive Boyfriend After Kids Passed a Note to a Bus Driver Minnesota Police Get a Tip From an Anonymous 'Concerned Citizen' Authorities said they received a tip from an unnamed "concerned citizen" who claimed that the older Laflex had confessed to shooting Bryce Brogle at the storage facility. Michael Lee Laflex allegedly told a relative that he believed Brogle was an abusive boyfriend to his daughter. According to a family relative, the Minnesota dad also admitted to disposing of the body somewhere that "would not be found." He reportedly claimed to have called Brogle's landlord and inquired whether he had harmed his daughter. The landlord informed him that she had two black eyes. Authorities said Laflex told the landlord he would kill Brogle and bury him in a hole he had "already dug," Yahoo reported. Police started a foot search for Brogle's remains on public property in Crow Wing County on October 30 and discovered a likely grave location. "The site was excavated, and a body with an apparent gunshot wound to the back of the head was recovered and transported to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy," the complaint stated. It added that "the autopsy determined the cause of death to be a distant gunshot wound to the back of the head. The body has been identified as Bryce Brogle." The Minnesota dad is being held in the Crow Wing County Jail on an unconditional bail of $2 million. He appeared for his arraignment Thursday and is scheduled for a court hearing on November 15. Minnesota Dad Has a Previous Case According to Brainerd Police Department's arrest records, this is not Michael Lee Laflex's first run-in with the law. He pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sexual conduct in September 2018 after being accused of having sexual relations with a vulnerable adult with developmental difficulties. According to New York Post, the victim, who is said to be "mentally impaired," is said to have refused to have sex with Laflex at first but later "agreed...at [his] insistence." His September 2018 trial was canceled after the judge ordered a stay of adjudication. READ MORE: Dwyane Wade Fires Back at Ex-Wife Over 'Damaging Lies' That He's Trying to Make Money From Their Trans Child This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Bert Hoover WATCH: Brainerd Man Charged with Murder for Allegedly Shooting Daughter's Boyfriend - From Lakeland PBS Laurel, MS (39440) Today Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. High 74F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Strong thunderstorms likely. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low 62F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide expressed grave concern on Thursday over a reported resurgence of ethnic clashes in the Blue Nile region of Sudan A Laois TD wants to know what the State plans to do with land that cost taxpayers 1 million earmarked for Civil Service offices while it is spending thousands of euro renting property for these same workers. Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sinn Feins Brian Stanley TD, has called for the committee to further examine findings of an internal Office of Public Works (OPW) report revealing that hundreds of millions of euros could be saved by the State through either building or buying office units rather than renting. The TD pointed to one such site in Portlaoise where several offices are being rented chiefly for the Department of Agriculture staff nearly 20 years after the problematic Charlie McCreevy inspired Decentralisation policy. The Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan approved a plan in 2005 for land to be purchased from the the IDA just off the Mountrath Road in Portlaoise to build a centralised office in the town. This ultimately cost 1 million but no offices were built. And staff operate out of six locations in the Laois town with many rented. Deputy Stanley is looking for answers and wants action. Publicly owned land is available in Laois / Offaly to build office accommodation on. One OPW owned site in Portlaoise has been lying vacant for over a decade, despite the fact that it was purchased at the cost of 1 m to decentralise Government Departments. "The OPW are due to appear before the Public Accounts Committee on the 15th of December and we will be seeking additional information in advance of that session, he said. The following figures were previously published by Dep Stanley for the cost of rents. Eircom Buildings (2 leases) 214,382 Clonminam Industrial Estate (Warehouse) 98,133 Kylekiproe Ind Est (Warehouse) 107,919 Kilminchy Court 84,051 Grattan Business Centre 264,640 Grattan House (2 leases) 74,150 James Fintan Lalor Avenue 50,000 James Fintan Lalor House 26,514 Deputy Stanleys comments follow the publication of an internal report by the OPW which revealed that it was almost 40% more expensive to rent compared to purchasing property and concludes that renting offices is not achieving value for money. The findings of the OPWs report are alarming in the context of the State achieving value for money. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I will be recommending that the committee examine this matter further. "The internal review looked at a sample of just five buildings which the OPW is currently renting and concluded that there would be total savings of 216m for the State if we built or bought those buildings. "Of course, there is a major upfront cost to the State with regards to either purchasing or building these office units. However, what we need to see is an incremental movement towards ownership and away from leasing. "Currently, 39% of the States property portfolio is rented or leased, we need to reduce that total figure," he said. The TD said long-term leasing does not make financial sense, the OPWs examination found that it can cost up to 40% more to rent long-term compared with building or buying office space. He said the OPW states that over a life-time lease of one property highlighted the OPW projects spending 102 million to rent the building, when it could be purchased for just 63m a 38% saving. The Sinn Fein representative said wants OPW to consider trend towards people working-from-home and also civil servants opting to move to areas outside of Dublin. He said these trends should offer the OPW opportunities to build or purchase more affordable office space outside of Dublin. We should be looking to decentralise more of our office space. Laois business people who came from different parts of the world are among the speakers at an anti-racism conference taking place this November. Laois Integration Network is hosting a seminar called Laois as a Place of Sanctuary and Welcome on UNs National Day for Tolerance, Wednesday November 16. Among the day of experienced speakers, will be an panel discussion by well known people who have made Laois and Ireland their home and place of business. They include Naeem Iqbal, Partner at N-Tax Advisory and local entrepreneur and former election candidate. Marco Pessanha, better known as Jeca the Clown from Portlaoise is also taking part. From Mountmellick will be Kristine Melne, proprietor of the popular World of Sparkles boutique. Emmanuel Justus, a Ukrainian representative from Portlaoise and Pearl Lekau from Abbeyleix are also included in the panel. The chat will be moderated by Rosey Kunene, CEO Dignity Partnership and the former chair of Laois Integration Network. Laois Integration Network are welcoming the public to the free seminar, running from 10am to 2pm in Portlaoise Parish Centre. Other speakers will cover topics including anti-racism, human rights and public sector duties and responsibilities. They include Salome Mbugua, CEO of AkidWa Migrant Womens Network; Brian Killoran, CEO Immigrant Council of Ireland, Carmel McNicholl, Acting Director, Laois Ukrainian Response and Dr James Carr, University of Limerick. A Moroccan themed lunch will be provided. Karen McHugh is Chairperson of Laois Integration Network, a community organisation that promotes cultural diversity and effective integration throughout the county. "Laois as a Place of Sanctuary and Welcome Seminar was first held in March 2019 and the purpose of it is to highlight good practice locally and nationally in terms of welcoming new communities to Laois. "We are holding this seminar on the same day as UNs National Day for Tolerance which focuses on bridging understanding between difference cultures, religions, in essence, everything that Laois Integration Network (LIN) stands for. "We will also be launching our Anti-Rumours campaign. This is an EU wide project that sets out to dispel the widespread myths and misconceptions around the topic of immigration and migrant integration. We greatly look forward to welcoming old and new friends to Portlaoise Parish Centre," Ms McHugh said. The event begins at 10am, running until 2pm on Wednesday November 16 at the centre, next to Portlaoise parish church. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Some 327 illegal migrants on board a boat were arrested on Thursday evening off Garabolli, east of Tripoli, by maritime patrols, the general staff of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of National Unity announced in a statement A builder who tried to get a woman into his car late at night by pretending to be a garda before intimidating her and assaulting her husband has been sentenced to three years in prison. Declan McGowan (33) was found guilty following a trial last March of attempted coercion, impersonating a member of An Garda Siochana, assault and assault causing harm at Kimmage Road Lower, Dublin, in the early hours of September 18, 2021. McGowan, of Branswood, Athy, Co Kildare, had pleaded not guilty to all counts but told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in October that he accepts the jury's verdicts. He has 31 previous convictions, including three counts for making threats to kill and two for assault causing harm. McGowan also has one District Court conviction for impersonating a member of An Garda Siochana on July 1, 2019. In this case, Judge Patricia Ryan said that the aggravating factors were the accused's previous conviction for impersonating a garda and the adverse effects this has had on both injured parties. Judge Ryan said the mitigating factors were the tragic loss of the accused partner, the reports and letters handed into court and the personal circumstance of the accused. She sentenced McGowan to three years in prison which she backdated from when he went into custody. Garda Aaron Webb told John Moher BL, prosecuting, that Andra Calauz gave evidence during the trial that she stepped outside to have a cigarette following an argument with her husband. She was on the phone with her husband, who was in their nearby home, when a car pulled up. McGowan told her he was a garda and showed her something on his phone, which Ms Calauz took as official identification. The accused started to pay her compliments and told her she was beautiful. Gda Webb said Ms Calauz engaged in conversation with McGowan as she thought he was a garda. The trial heard he also took her hand, kissed it and hugged her. McGowan asked her to get into the car and said he would take her to a garda station. He also told Ms Calauz that he would contact Tusla to arrange for her children to be taken into care. Ms Calauz gave evidence that she felt frightened and pressurised by McGowan as he asked her several times to get into his car. Her husband, Daniel Ion, gave evidence during the trial that McGowan started choking him with one hand when he arrived on the scene. He said McGowan was shouting at him to go back inside to his children, or he would call Tusla and they would be taken away. He said McGowan was "screaming" at his wife to get into the car. He said he felt at the time that McGowan was either a corrupt cop or a dangerous man". Gda Webb told the sentencing hearing that McGowan told the couple that he would get a gun from his car to show them he was a garda. He said he was a special agent and not a normal garda. Mr Ion said he told McGowan two or three times to let his wife go and told his wife in Romanian that she should not get into the car. Mr Ion called gardai, who arrived within minutes and arrested McGowan. Gda Webb said McGowan also put his number in Ms Calauz's phone and made a call to his phone during the incident. After his arrest, McGowan denied the assault charges and said he offered the woman a lift, which was refused. He denied impersonating a garda. McGowan told gardai at interview that when Mr Ion arrived on the scene, he struck his wife in the face. The accused said he had put his number in Ms Calauz's phone to send her the details of Women's Aid. McGowan admitted to gardai that he had a wheel brace in the car. He denied ever kissing or hugging the woman and said she was lying. Victim impact statements written by Ms Calauz and Mr Ion were read to the court by Mr Moher. In her victim impact statement, Ms Calauz said she has been unable to go out alone since this incident. She said she used to be active with her children and is scared that she is now missing out. She said the family have also tried unsuccessfully to move home since this incident. Mr Ion said he suffered bruising to his neck and could not eat for the next two days. He said he had to leave his job following these events, as his wife did not feel safe when alone with their children. He said his relationship with his wife was also affected. Mr Ion said McGowan's claims that he was a bad husband and father had also impacted him. He said McGowan had not apologised for these lies and the impact on the family. Gda Webb agreed with Garnet Orange SC, defending, that McGowan had made bizarre comments at interview, which were suggestive of someone in the throes of a cocaine binge. McGowan also told gardai that his partner had died in tragic circumstances. Gda Webb accepted Mr Orange's statement that this incident lasted around 15 minutes and had taken place on a public road near housing. McGowan also gave evidence on his own behalf. He said his drug use had been casual but escalated following the death of his partner. McGowan told the court that going into custody has saved his life. McGowan told Mr Maher in cross-examination that he was not taking cocaine in July 2019, when he previously pretended to be a garda. Mr Orange said the death of McGowan's partner had led to a catastrophic spiral, and his client's behaviour was influenced by his drug use at the time. McGowan is now in a new relationship and the father of two children. Mr Orange said the events of that night were a bizarre incident which appeared to have dark overtones but could also be seen as serious misplaced chivalry on McGowan's part. Psychological and medical reports were handed into the court on behalf of McGowan alongside a handwritten letter. Mr Orange said his client has shown the potential for rehabilitation and is anxious to finish his time in custody and become a useful member of society again. Judge Ryan noted that McGowan had pretended to be a garda on several occasions. Mr Orange said the events relating to the District Court charge of impersonating a member of An Garda Siochana were different. McGowan told Judge Ryan that this offence occurred at the time of a family feud where he had shouted he was a garda out of a car window. Judge Ryan said McGowan cannot have it both ways and say he accepts the jury verdict but that his actions were the result of misplaced chivalry. As many as two in every three business owners in the agri-food sector find it difficult to hire employees according to the latest food and agribusiness report from an Irish farm body. The Irish Farm Accounts Co-operative Society Limited (IFAC) report highlights the difficulties facing employers. Lack of available skills, low interest in roles, high salary expectations and intense competition for candidates were the main barriers highlighted by employers when asked about their hiring difficulties. While there are steps employers can take to improve their ability to recruit and retain staff - such as offering good wages, flexible working conditions or additional benefits like accommodation - unfortunately, these measures may not be enough to attract candidates in the local market. Clarissa ONuallain, HR Services Manager at IFAC said: An increasing number of employers in the Agri-Food Sector are utilising employment permits to ease staffing shortages. While the shortage of candidates is affecting businesses across the economy, it is particularly acute in some sectors. Employers in the meat industry, along with dairy, horticulture and pig farmers, for example, are already looking beyond the EU to find suitable candidates for vacant roles. David Leydon, Head of Food and Agribusiness at IFAC said: As we all know, this is a tough time for Irish food and agribusiness SMEs and they are all facing significant challenges. Recruiting difficulties coupled with rising salary costs are now significant concerns for business owners; according to our recent report, 67% of business owners have experienced difficulty when recruiting. Also, for the fifth consecutive year, the availability of skills is the main reason why businesses are struggling to hire. This is likely leading to this increase in businesses seeking a solution through employment permits, which when managed correctly can benefit both employers and employees and ultimately the overall sector and consumers. Another beneficial and longer-term focus is employer branding; this ultimately means developing the right culture in your business. It will not happen by osmosis and must be very intentionally created. When agribusinesses are looking for talent this culture piece will be vital over the long-term and will help great businesses to stand out. If you intend to hire employees from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), UK or Switzerland, it is important to be aware that they require an employment permit to work in Ireland. An employment permit must be granted before the prospective employee can commence employment. From an employers perspective, the key criteria are: The role you are seeking to fill must have a minimum salary of 30,000 per year (unless an exemption applies) The role must not be on the DETE Ineligible List of Occupations for Employment Permits You must carry out Labour Market Needs test Over 50% of your workers must be EU citizens. The application fee depends on the type of permit sought. For a General Employment Permit, the fee is 500 for a six-month permit or 1,000 for up to 24 months. For a Critical Skills Employment Permit, the fee is 1,000 for up to 24 months. The Labour Market Needs Test takes 28 days. Furthermore, the application must be received by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment (DETE) at least 12 weeks before the proposed employment start date. This means that if you were to apply for an employment permit now, you may be waiting up to 16 weeks before you have a decision. Clarissa continued: Applying for a permit can be a tricky process as permits can be refused for several reasons. Ifac acts as an agent and can manage the employment permit process on the employers behalf; ifac is a DETE Trusted Partner reducing the time and paperwork for clients applying for the scheme. IFAC has been at the heart of agriculture and food since 1975, providing a quality service and expert advice to its farming, food, and agri-business clients across the country. It has over 30 locations nationwide and 500 people serving 22,000 clients. MABS, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, is celebrating 30 years of serving the community with a series of events all over the country this year. As part of those celebrations Leitrim MABS held an anniversary event in the Landmark Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon, on Wednesday last. MABS started in 1992 with 5 pilot companies, started as a response to illegal money lending, with the final MABS Service opening in Leitrim in 2000. The well attended event focused on introductions by staff of Leitrim MABS on the various services they offer, and guest speaker Dr Stuart Stamp PhD who was one of the money advisers in one of the original pilot services. He moved in to training and research and has done much valuable research during that time including his thesis Personal Debt, Poverty and Public Policy in Ireland and supporting South Mayo MABS in An Analysis of Mortgage Arrears Among South Mayo MABS Clients The Leitrim MABS office opened in March 2000 and was the last county to have a MABS service but, since then, it has helped almost 3,000 people who were in debt or at risk of getting into debt achieve a workable solution to their problem. The main office is in Ballinamore, and an outreach service is facilitated in Carrick-on-Shannon and Manorhamilton. There are five staff in Leitrim MABS, including Mary Holahan (Money Advice Coordinator and Approved Intermediary), Michelle Kellegher (Dedicated Mortgage Adviser and Approved Intermediary), David Walsh (Money Adviser and Approved Intermediary), Deirdre McGauran (Administrator) and Linda Gill (Administrator). MABS is a free, confidential, independent and non-judgemental service. MABS deals with all types of debt and works closely with and receives referrals from many agencies across the county including the Leitrim Citizens Information Service, St Vincent de Paul, the local Community Welfare Officers, Tusla, An Garda Siochana, the District and Circuit Courts, medical professionals, Mental Health Teams, Family Resource Centres , North West Simon, Leitrim County Council and Leitrim Partnership, to name but a few. Since the restructure of MABS on October 1, 2018, the MABS network was restructured from 52 individual companies throughout the country to eight regional companies, and Leitrim MABS became part of North Connacht & Ulster MABS along with the MABS offices in Sligo, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal. The event last Wednesday was a good way to thank the board of Leitrim MABS and the new Board of North Connacht & Ulster MABS. We want to sincerely thank the voluntary Board of Leitrim Money Advice and Budgeting Service for their work, commitment and support over the 18 years up until the restructure of MABS says Mary Holahan, who manages the local service. It was the dedication and efforts of this group in the late 1990s which resulted in a permanent MABS presence in county Leitrim. The service was built to meet the needs of the community and we are indebted to them for their commitment and drive. We also want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our new Board of North Connacht and Ulster MABS and our Regional Manager and thank them for their ongoing support following a seamless restructure process. Handling Debt Most people live with debt. For many, its not an issue. We make the regular payments and look forward to the day when weve paid everything off. Sometimes, however, things happen sickness, loss of income, a new baby, loss of a loved one or relationship breakdown, a global pandemic, economic consequences of war. These things that life throws at us carry an emotional cost, and sadly, they often also hit our pockets and then debt can become a millstone around our neck. The first step is to actually see the problem clearly and it helps to talk to someone who can give you independent advice. If your debt is becoming a problem, if you feel you cannot manage this on your own, or would like some guidance along the way, then MABS are here to help. We will review all the options available to you and offer advice & support on the most appropriate course of action. These include: Voluntary Arrangements Dedicated Mortgage Arrears Advice Court Mentor Service Access to Personal Insolvency Options under the Abhaile Scheme We also carry out Money Management Education sessions for local groups and organisations advises Mary. For more information on the work we do, contact 0818 07 2630 or email Ballinamore@mabs.ie Office based in Swanlinbar Road, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim N41 E177 Karl Cronin, Regional Manager of North Connacht & Ulster MABS closed the celebration with the following We want people to know that MABS is open and ready to help. It is never too late to ask for help and support. The sooner someone comes forward, the better the outcome. Id encourage anyone sitting on the fence to get in touch. The service is free, independent and non-judgemental. It cant hurt to try, and you might find that it is the best call you can make in 2023. Also on display was the History of MABS Exhibition which has been on tour to events all over the country. Keep up to date with MABS by following them on social media @MABSinfo The MABS Helpline on 081872000 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or contact the Leitrim office directly on 0818 07 2630 or by e-mail ballinamore@mabs.ie Some feedback from our clients: We would never have endured the past six years with our mental health intact if not for the assistance of MABS. And the assistance we received was at all times exemplary. Thank you. Everytime I contacted the office in Ballinamore I was made to feel welcome. The staff were very patient and helpful throughout this process. I was updated constantly on the process. Could not have done this without MABS. Just to say that MABS has been our life saver. They are a wonderful service & the two advisers I dealt with are a god send. They helped us constantly with our finances which is a constant worry and only for them I dont know where we would be since approx. 2009. Thanks and youre a wonderful service to the public. Extremely helpful, courteous, professional in a relaxed & informal manner. Our Adviser could not have done any more to help when I was stuck. Thank you. Many thanks to my Advisers and the whole team. So, so helpful and your advice was kind and helpful. You were there all of the time for us and we will never forget what you did for us. The Four Masters School in Kinlough was a hive of activity last week. If you had arrived in the school you would have been a little confused. No children in school uniforms playing or chatting on the yard but instead you would have witnessed groups of skeletons, zombies, witches, aliens and many other scary creatures prancing, dancing and howling around the place. The vibrant colours worn and creativity shown by the children brought the school to life. All children dressed up and made a donation to Temple Street and Crumlin Hospitals. 360 was collected for these wonderful childrens charities. The School Council plays an important part in the life of the school. Children from each class represent their peers at fortnightly meetings and discuss various issues, activities, initiatives and fundraising ideas to make the Four Masters school a happy, productive, inclusive, fun learning environment for all. This Halloween season, they organised a pumpkin decorating competition. It was a huge success with 185 pumpkins gracing the school corridors. The effort made by the parents and children were commendable. You wouldnt have seen as much artistic prowess in the National Art Gallery in Dublin. Pumpkins were dressed, decorated, carved and painted. Parents and grandparents were invited to the school to see these humble orange fruits transformed into various characters such as minions, gowls, vampires and even furry dogs! A selection of pumpkins were carved to create scenes of graveyards, forests and theme parks. The Student Council also organised a Halloween Scavenger Hunt around the grounds for all the Junior Classes. The smiles on the childrens faces dashing around in their Halloween attire searching for webs, bats and spiders was a wonderful sight. Student Council. A Drumshanbo man was told that he could not run away from matters before the court by Judge Sandra Murphy. Samual Flynn, Aughriman, Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of dangerous driving on July 27, 2020, at Priests Lane, Carrick-on-Shannon, at Leitrim Road, Carrick-on- Shannon, at Grange, Carrick-on-Shannon, at Fawn, Leitrim Village, at Tullylannon, Leitrim Village and at Cloonmore Upper, Drumkeerin. The matter was in for disposal before last week's sitting of Carrick-on- Shannon District Court. Judge Murphy said that she had considered the matter very carefully, adding it is an appalling episode involving two fingers to An Garda Siochana. There were many episodes of dangerous driving, she said, on the night in question, witnessed by an off-duty gardai. She acknowledged there was some suggestion that Mr Flynn did not realise that he was being pursued by a garda as the garda's vehicle was his own and there were no blue lights. She also noted Mr Flynn has completed a pro-social driving course. Speaking in mitigation, Mr Flynn's solicitor, Peter Collins, said that his client was only 21 years of age at the time of the offence and has not come to garda attention before this or after it. He said Mr Flynn was from a very respectable family and described this night as a total aberration. Mr Flynn is working and qualified as an engineer, he said. Judge Murphy said what is aggravating (this case) for me is the persistent efforts of dangerous driving. As I recall, he ended up in a crash and all (in the car) abandoned the scene. She noted during the period of driving doors on the vehicle were opened and shut and said that it is a very serious matter. She convicted and fined Mr Flynn 250 for the offence at Priest's Lane and disqualified him from driving for two years. She said she would be seeking a probation report as this is very serious with a view to considering community service before deciding on the remaining offences. However, Mr Flynn said that he had a job secured in Australia and was flying out in two weeks. He said that he had already pushed back the job by a week and could not ask for another extension as he would lose the offer. You could have killed yourself and anyone else, noted Judge Murphy. Mr Flynn said: I went to the pro-social (course) and I have learned from my mistakes. Judge Murphy however told the defendant this is one of the worst episodes of dangerous driving I've seen. You can't run away from it, she told Mr Flynn. I would suggest to you it is not advisable to leave the country (until this matter is fully dealt with). She asked Mr Flynn why he applied for a job in Australia when he knew he was before the court on six counts of dangerous driving. Mr Flynn replied I've put my whole life on hold. I understand that, replied Judge Murphy, I know you are a young man, but I'm not seeing any insight or remorse on this. She told Mr Collins, He doesn't seem to get what he has done at all. She then adjourned the remaining matters until December 20 for the completion of a probation report. Mr Collins later returned to court and asked that recognisance be fixed in the matter of the disqualification. Judge Murphy pointed out but he pleaded guilty to the offence. Mr Collins said his client does not want a disqualification imposed yet asking that recognisance be set. French state electricity giant EDF has further trimmed its estimated electricity output for this year, citing further delays in getting nuclear reactors back online during maintenance and safety checks. Production is now seen at 275 to 285 terawatt hours (Twh), down from 280 to 300 Twh already a cut from initial estimates for 2022, the company said late Thursday, November 3. It was the latest setback for EDF's race to restore operations at dozens of reactors that have been shut down for months because of safety risks from defective welds or scheduled maintenance. France gets around 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, and the coming winter spike in demand means it will have to buy electricity from the European power market, where prices have soared as Russia's invasion of Ukraine drags on. EDF had already warned in September of a 29 billion financial hit this year from the reactor works, but the company did not reveal the potential new hit in its latest update. But it said four reactors originally set to be back online in November or December would now be operational only in end-January or February. Almost half of the country's 56 reactors, spread across 18 power plants, were taken offline, many because of fears over micro-cracks discovered in emergency cooling systems. EDF's financial woes prompted the government to renationalize the company earlier this year, and a new CEO, Luc Remont, is expected to be confirmed in his job later this month. We are interested in your experience using the site. Send feedback Read more Subscribers only New head of French state electricity company EDF faces a challenging start The company is central to President Emmanuel Macron's plans to build at least six next-generation reactors, part of his push for energy "sovereignty." Le Monde with AFP Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, on October 28, 2022. CONSTANZA HEVIA / AFP "By 9 am PST on Friday, November 4, everyone will receive an individual e-mail with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. (...) If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter e-mail. If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal e-mail." The 7,000 or so employees of the social media platform bought by Elon Musk received this e-mail on Thursday, November 3, just a few hours before the company launched a vast layoff process. The method illustrates the expeditious, even brutal style of the unstoppable entrepreneur and boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who acquired the company a week earlier. Read more Subscribers only From rabble-rouser to boss: Elon Musk's erratic history with Twitter "To help ensure the safety of each employee, as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," said management, which justified the use of the e-mail termination by pointing to the large number of employees who work from home. Employees have also been told not to communicate externally with the media or on social media. The exact number of sackings was not yet known on Thursday night. For several weeks, employees have seen many contradictory predictions in the press, all of them impressive: 75% of all employees, then 25%. On Thursday, Bloomberg predicted that half the workforce would be let go. The Wall Street Journal, for its part, mentioned a figure of between 2,000 and 3,700. Read more Subscribers only 'Elon Musk is setting himself a complicated challenge with Twitter' 'A joke' We are interested in your experience using the site. Send feedback It is true that layoffs in the United States can be immediate, and Twitter's workforce grew from 5,500 to 7,500 employees between the end of 2020 and the end of 2021, despite earnings deficits that have been chronic since the company's inception. Some employees of this former Silicon Valley start-up also point out that they are much better off than many workers in other sectors. Nevertheless, Mr. Musk's methods have caused a shake-up, and some people find them shocking. "The ongoing dismissal process is a farce and a disgrace. Tesla henchmen make decisions about people they know nothing about except the number of lines of code produced. It's completely absurd," Taylor Leese, the manager of a fired engineering team, tweeted Sunday. Mr. Leese was referring to the lists of employees to be kept or fired, drawn up by the new management and mentioned in several press articles. "There seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding," complained Mr. Musk on Twitter in October, which suggests he wants to put computer engineers at the center of the future organization. You have 24.36% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. THE LAW is not working to protect farmers, declared Sean Lavery at a Limerick IFA meeting on farm trespass and rural crime. Staff in the Woodlands House Hotel, Adare had to get extra chairs to accommodate a bigger crowd than expected last week. Mr Lavery, Limerick IFA chairman, said the attendance of over 250 reflected how concerned people are. The main issue is men coming onto farmers land without permission and hunting hares with lurchers. Mr Lavery listed out a number of issues reported to Limerick IFA which include intimidation of landowners and actual assaults. He said: There is a siege mentality and anxiety among those living in farm houses and down rural lanes. Gates have been damaged, locks cut, electric fences damaged, and machinery stolen. There were a number of speakers on the night including James Staines, IFA solicitor; Barry Carey, crime prevention executive with IFA; David Lyons, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Sgt Frank OSullivan. There were also a number of contributions from the floor including from two speakers who said men entered their land without permission that very morning in the Clarina area. There were five of them. They had lurchers with them. They went through a field with in-calf heifers. The whole place is terrorised with them, said one of the farmers. A second man stood up and said he too had had the same unwanted visitors on his farm in Clarina that Tuesday morning. He claimed they were from Tipperary Town. There is a hell of a lot of land between Tipperary Town and Clarina. They are only casing places to see what they could knock off. This needs to be stopped and stopped now. The gardai were called and in fairness to the guards they came on, said the farmer. Limerick Live contacted gardai in relation to the incident. A spokesperson said gardai responded to a report of a group of males hunting on land without the landowners permission in the Clarina area at approximately 11.45am on Tuesday, October 25. The group was conveyed from the area and no arrests were made, they added. There were a number of interesting points made by the speakers. Mr Staines said signs that say Trespassers will be prosecuted are not entirely correct as it is a civil offence not a criminal one. However, Mr Lyons said if it is men hunting hares with dogs then that is an offence of unlawful hunting and the perpetrators can be prosecuted. The advice to farmers, from Mr Carey, is to ask them to leave and not to threaten them. He spoke of an instance where matters escalated and a farmer was beaten with an iron bar. Mr Carey said if they dont leave then ring 999, ask for gardai and say you fear for your personal safety. One man said he has had a number of different conversations both softly and more aggressively - with people on his land. But, he said, it invariably ended with him being taken the p*** out of. It is a long walk back to your property fuming because there is nothing you can do about it, he said to loud applause. Another audience member to contribute was Tom ODonnell who was punched and knocked unconscious while moving his cows across a public road on the outskirts of Kilmallock in 2019. The minority are terrorising the majority, he said. News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. WARM, heartfelt tributes have been paid following the passing of a proud 92-year-old Limerick man who devoted all of his active life in the service of young people. Hearts ached across Limerick, Laois and the city of Belfast at the news that Brother David ORiordan, who was born in the quiet village of Feohanagh in his native Limerick, has gone to his god. David never lost his love for Limerick and was a man of the soil up to the end of his life, said one tribute led by Brother Joe Reid, who spoke for Davids eulogy. He described his colleague as a dedicated and caring man who went about his job as a schoolteacher and leader in Glen Road, Belfast in a most conscientious manner. This was made all the more demanding during the civil unrest experienced in Belfast between the 1970s up until the 2000s, Br Reid added, reflecting on the Limerick mans 50 years spent in the capital city. David was born in the 1930s, into a County Limerick family of eight siblings. After joining the De La Salle confreres, David, who went by Br David Edwin, was assigned to St Patricks Training School in Belfast, in 1950. The facility was later moved to a new purpose-built school on the Glen Road, to accommodate children affected by the troubles who were sent through the courts. He also added that Br David protected and provided genuine care for young boys who would have otherwise gone astray in life. The Feohanagh man, who later became Director of the institution before moving to Castletown, Laois, to take over the Miguel House nursing home, was widely known for his love of horses. He had a great passion for horses and delighted in the many successes of the great Irish jockeys and trainers - he even kept a couple of horses himself and eventually gave them away to worthy causes when he could no longer devote the care and attention they required, Br Reid added. He spent more than 20 years selflessly addressing the needs and running daily errands for those living in the nursing home. Br David passed away on October 2, having suffered a stroke six months previous. AN ELECTIVE care facility in Limerick would have minimal impact" on the population relative to the amount of investment it would need to be built and operated. That is according to Deputy Mary Butler, Minister of State who said plans are currently in place to build elective hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Galway but not Limerick. Last September, Professor Collette Cowan, CEO of UHL, proposed an elective hospital to the Joint Committee on Health. While the Taoiseach said the proposal should be considered, Stephen Donnelly, Minister for Health, has since stated that there are no plans to build an elective care facility in Limerick. Senator Maria Byrne raised the issue in the Seanad and said that the workforce as well as patients at the hospital needed to be considered. An elective hospital is badly needed. Something needs to happen quickly. The weather has been very mild up to now and we have not really had cold winter weather yet. I dread to think what we will face in the mid-west in terms of overcrowding and people not being able to receive the attention they need at UHL. It is totally unacceptable. There is a need for an elective hospital in the Mid-West. I would like the Minister of State to take the message back to the Minister that he needs to listen to the people of the mid-west. Deputy Butler responded that the new elective hospitals will meet the demands of a large catchment area including Limerick. An additional elective facility in Limerick would have a minimal impact on population coverage relative to the significant increased investment to build and operate. As well as the strategic intervention under the national programme for elective care, the Minister will consider any similar proposal by University Limerick Hospitals Group to deliver elective day care in the shorter term. THE mother of murdered Limerick boxer Kevin Sheehy has staged a protest outside Leinster House in Dublin to highlight her opposition to an application by her son's killer to be transferred from Limerick prison to one in the UK. Tracey Tully, whose 20-year-old son was killed at Hyde Road, Limerick on July 1, 2019, was granted permission, earlier this year, to bring Judicial Review proceedings against the Minister for Justice's decision to sanction the proposed transfer. Her application was granted in July and matter is due before the High Court again next week. Speaking in Dublin this Friday afternoon, Ms Tully expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of a response from the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee. "We reached out to her and there was not much back. I just can't believe that she wouldn't reach out a little bit more or speak to the family or anything like that but she hasn't," she said. Flanked by Limerick City TD Willie O'Dea and members of her family, Ms Tully told reporters that she believes her son would be currently be training for next year's Paris Olympics if he wasnt brutally killed by Logan Jackson in 2019. Mr Sheehy, an Irish champion boxer, died after being repeatedly struck by a vehicle driven by Jackson who has an address at Longford Road, Coventry, England. Last year Jackson was convicted of Mr Sheehy's murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Following his conviction 32-year-old Jackson successfully applied to the Minister for Justice for a transfer from Ireland so he can serve out his sentence in an English prison. Also speaking to reporters in Dublin, this Friday afternoon, Deputy O'Dea said he has raised the proposed transfer of Jackson to a UK prison with both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice but that he received "no satisfaction" from either. A LIMERICK man who was jailed for raping his brother has appealed his conviction, arguing that his younger sibling could have made up the complaints in anger because the defendant "outed" him as gay before their parents. The 38-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years' imprisonment in February of this year on seven counts of raping of his younger brother. At the trial, the man's younger brother said he once looked up to his older sibling but that he stole his innocence and left him deeply scarred. At the sentencing hearing following a three-week trial, Judge Karen OConnor said the man was a big brother who should have protected his younger brother. The abuse, which took place between January 1998 and December 2002, usually occurred at the family home in County Limerick. In his victim impact statement, the younger brother said he was at court not for me, the adult you see before you, but for that ten-year-old boy that forever occupies my being. The male was convicted by unanimous verdict of seven counts of rape at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin in December 2021. At the Court of Appeal this Friday, Colman Cody SC, for the convicted male, said a disallowed line of questioning should have been permitted to be heard by a jury in order to establish the complainant's credibility. Mr Cody said that the older brother had "outed" his younger sibling to his parents and told them of his sibling's meetings with men in hotels and further told them he was bringing "strangers" back to the family home without their knowledge. The barrister said the claims by the older brother were prevented from being put to the younger brother in cross-examination by the trial judge. Mr Cody said that the "outing" of the younger brother to their parents coupled with the descriptions of his younger brother's sexual behaviour could have angered the younger sibling so much that he made up the complaints. He submitted that this line of questioning was not about "impugning" the victim's reputation in front of a jury, nor was it a "character assassination". He said the issue of the older brother's descriptions of his brother's homosexual activities going before a jury was in the interest of the fairness of the accused's trial. The barrister said that the trial judge in not permitting the line of questioning meant the defence was not allowed to give full effect to a fair trial regarding motivation and credibility and therefore the court had fallen into error. Patrick McGrath SC, for the State, said the defence was "attempting to conduct a character assassination" of the victim. Mr McGrath said the defence was attempting to suggest to the trial jury that the allegations were "motivated by ill will, spite or a grievance against his brother" for what he had said to their parents. He submitted that the trial judge had to balance the right to the fair trial of the accused with respect for the complainant and that she had struck that balance "directly". Mr McGrath said that the descriptions of the younger brother's activities being put before a jury was an attempt to call into question his credibility. Ms Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh noted that if the trial judge had ruled out anything that could have made a difference to the case's outcome then it would be an error in law. Mr Colman argued that because the line of questioning regarding possible motivations for making the rape claims was not allowed at the trial it amounted to "unfairness". Mr Justice John Edwards said the court would reserve judgement in the matter. WORK ON a new bypass for the town of Killaloe has begun. The scheme, which forms part of a 44m investment in road improvements, will include a new bridge being built across the River Shannon connecting Killaloe and Ballina. The current bridge, which connects the Tipperary and Clare townlands, has been described as unfit to cater for large volumes of traffic experienced, particularly in the summer sunshine, when it is popular with Limerick families. Minister Eamon Ryan was present on Thursday, November 3, to turn the first sod for the project, which has a projected finish date of 2024. Cathal Crowe TD said: "After many false dawns the money we secured in government is being spent on developing an essential 6.2km bypass road and new bridge at Killaloe/Ballina. "This is very much a joint Clare-Tipp project and I was delighted to see my party colleague, Tony O'Brien (Mayor of Clare) turn the first sod! Tony, as you all know, is a proud Killaloe native." NEW DELHI: SONY SAB, part of the network of television channels owned by Sony Pictures Networks India, is strengthening its position as an offering for the Indian family. After launching shows such as Tenali Rama, Balveer, Aladdin- Naam Toh Suna Hoga, Tera Yaar Hoon Main, Wagle Ki Duniya and Kaatelal & Sons, it is looking at a new slate that will add to its brand positioning beyond a comedy channel. About three-and-half years ago, we realised that seven to eight comedy shows on air daily was not a sustainable reality because there was no acting or writing talent available to remain committed to the kind of comedy we wanted to put out," Neeraj Vyas, business head, Sony SAB, PAL, and Sony MAX Movie Cluster said in an interview to Mint. Already known as a family channel in a country where 95-96% of households are single TV homes, the challenge was to protect and enhance the positioning. The new line-up that starts rolling between December and March will see Dil Diyan Gallan, a show on the repercussions of migration on families, Dhruv Tara, a love story based on time travel where a 16th century princess comes to the world of 2023, an untitled venture on two warring business families and the third season of Balveer. Vyas said the channel is also looking at putting out finite series that could be amortized within a six to eight-month period. To be sure, the exposure of audiences to OTT (over-the-top) streaming content in the 18 months of the pandemic in India has pushed the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) on television tap more real, relatable subjects instead of the age-old melodrama. Broadcasters said they are recruiting fresh writing talent to tell more contemporary stories and admitted to some cord-cutting among TV audiences. Cord-cutting refers to cable TV or direct-to-home multichannel subscribers cancelling their subscriptions in favour of alternative Internet-based media avenues such as streaming. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address a public rally in the Nagrota Bagwan area of Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district today, Friday, ahead of state assembly elections that are scheduled to take place on November 12. Addressing a press conference here, Congress candidate from Nagrota Bagwan and party Secretary RS Bali said, "It is a matter of pride for us that Priyanka Gandhi will be coming to the hometown of former Congress leader and minister GS Bali. Her visit is a tribute to the development work of GS Bali." Bali also informed that Nagrota Bagwan is the only rural constituency in the country where government engineering, medical, ITI, pharmacy and technical colleges are present in the same constituency, according to the news agency ANI. "GS Bali dedicated his life for development in the constituency and the state during his tenure as MLA and minister," he said. Notably, this will be Priyanka Gandhiji's first visit to the Kangra district. She will address a rally in Gandhi Ground of Nagrota Bagwan. With elections just around the corner, Congress has made few promises which also includes restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS) in the first cabinet meeting as soon as it forms the government. Last month, while addressing the 'Parivartan Pratigya Rally' in Solan the Congress leader Priyanka Vadra had said that if the party is voted to power in the forthcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, a decision will be taken on restoring the old pension scheme in the first meeting of the cabinet. "I am giving you a guarantee today that after forming the government here, two major decisions will be taken in the first cabinet meeting. First is to give one lakh government jobs and the second is to implement old pension scheme (OPS)," she added. Agniveer and unemployment are also crucial issues for the youth that Congress is banking on. The grand old has promised that it will provide 5 lakh employment if it comes to power and 680 crore startup fund, as per ANI reports. Himachal has been witnessing a bipolar contest between Congress and the BJP but Aam Aadmi Party is also trying to make its presence felt this time. The Congress declared its first list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state with the party fielding senior leaders including Kaul Singh Thakur, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mukesh Agnihotri, Asha Kumari and Chander Kumar. Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has again been fielded from Shimla Rural. The party has fielded sitting 19 MLAs from their traditional seats in the first list. Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls on November 12 and the counting of votes will be held on December 8. Previously, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 44 seats while Congress won 21 seats. (With ANI inputs) At a campaign rally, US President Joe Biden briefly mentioned that Iran would soon be "free," triggering a scornful response from Iranian counterpart President Ebrahim Raisi. On Thursday, attendees held up posters of a "free Iran" as Biden spoke about his administration's initiatives to enhance veterans' healthcare, including legislation to increase access to cancer and respiratory treatment for those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden took a breath and seemed to address the audience. Dont worry, were going to free Iran. Theyre going to free themselves pretty soon," he said in San Diego, drawing cheers from the crowd. California has a large Iranian-American community. In a speech commemorating the Islamic revolution's 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi offered a retort. He said, Mr. President, Iran was freed 43 years ago. Iran is determined not to fall into your captivity, and will never become your cash cow." Raisi said the comment was possibly absent-mindedness" by the president. Iran has been engulfed in protests for more than a month now following the death of Mahsa Amini while a police officer. In the government's crackdown, more protesters have been killed by Iranian police, escalating the unrest. According to a National Security Council spokesperson, the president was expressing his support for the protests as he has done every time they have occurred. The spokesperson further stated that the administration would keep looking for ways to make Tehran answerable for how it treats its citizens. However, Biden's comments cast doubt on the thoughtfully planned US response to the demonstrations. While attempting to avoid giving the impression that the US is somehow directing the protesters, as Iran's leaders have claimed, administration officials have expressed support for the protesters' goals. As negotiations for a new nuclear agreement stalled and the US threatened to impose sanctions for Iran's sale of drones to Russia for use in its invasion of Ukraine, relations between Tehran and Washington were already deteriorating. On September 16, Amini, 22, passed away from a coma. She was detained by Iran's so-called morality police while she was visiting Tehran with her family for allegedly disobeying Islamic dress codes, prompting one of the strongest public criticisms of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. Because of the demonstrations, the US has halted talks with Iran's government about restarting an agreement to limit the country's nuclear weapons programme and has accused Tehran of providing Russia with weapons for its invasion of Ukraine. (With inputs from Bloomberg) Top diplomats from the worlds major industrialized democracies on Friday rallied support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russias invasion, expressing unwavering commitment" to Ukraine's defense, and expressed suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness amid a panoply of global crises. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations, wrapping up two days of talks in the historic western German city of Muenster, released a joint statement asserting common positions on Ukraine, Russia, China and recent developments in Iran and North Korea. Were aligned, were united and were working together as never before," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. A year after warning Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine, the G-7 ministers endorsed further punishments for the Kremlin, including setting a price cap for Russian oil exports in the coming weeks. They also pledged additional backing for Kyiv by creating a new way to assist with its reconstruction and to help other countries affected by the food and energy shortages exacerbated by the war. President (Vladimir) Putin bet that we wouldnt back up our words with actions. We proved him wrong," Blinken said, adding that G-7 sanctions and export controls have directly impacted Putins ability to wage war." We reiterate our unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defence, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement said. The ministers accused Russia of trying to terrorise the civilian population" of Ukraine by targeting critical power, water and other infrastructure and demanded an end to the war. We will continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscows war of aggression," it said. The G-7 is made up of the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. As the meeting ended, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration boosted its military assistance to Ukraine by $400 million, bringing the U.S. contribution to more than $18.2 billion since Russia invaded Feb. 24. The ministers also called out Iran for allegedly supplying weapons including drones to Russia and for a violent crackdown on antigovernment protesters. They condemned Iran's brutal and disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters and children" as well as Tehran's continued destabilizing activities in and around the Middle East." All of that will draw consequences and the Iranian regime has to be aware of that," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. We have made it very clear we will impose further sanctions, significant packages of sanctions." In addition, the G-7 statement further condemned the recent escalation of tensions in Asia caused by North Korean missile launches and delivered a stern warning against a possible new nuclear test. Any nuclear test or other reckless action must be met with a swift, united, and robust international response," they said. One senior U.S. official said the group had demonstrated remarkable" unity on virtually all major issues despite often-competing domestic interests, particularly in regards to China's growing economic clout and global ambitions, even as the leader of G-7 host Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visited Beijing. The ministers said they sought constructive cooperation with China, where possible and in our interest" in areas like climate change, clean energy and health but cautioned that Beijing must abide by global regulations, especially as it relates to Taiwan. These challenges can only be tackled successfully through cooperation within the rules-based international order," the G-7 said. We remind China of the need to uphold the principles of the U.N. Charter on peaceful settlement of disputes and to abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of force. We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion." The G-7 stands together in defense of the rules-based international order," Blinken said, referring to China and stressing that an understanding was reached about the need to align our policies" in the face of growing coercion" and unfair trade practices by Beijing. The convergence, the alignment on China, is increasingly strong and increasingly clear," he said. Yet Scholz was in Beijing on Friday, the first European and G-7 leader to make the trip since the war in Ukraine began. Chinese investment in a major port in Germany has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals that China might gain a controlling interest in critical infrastructure in the heart of an allied country. Scholz's visit has drawn criticism due to Chinas tacit support for Russia and for coming after Chinese leader Xi Jinping cemented his authoritarian rule at a Communist Party congress last month. But it reflects the importance of Germanys trade ties with China, the worlds second-largest economy. Despite the strong words, it remains unclear how much influence the G-7 actually wields. Its warnings to Putin last December to stay out of Ukraine went unheeded and Xi is forging ahead with plans to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, if necessary. In the meantime, Iran has ignored calls to return to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, started to supply weapons to Russia and launched a major crackdown on domestic dissent. Similarly, North Korea has shunned appeals to return to nuclear negotiations and stepped up missile launches, raising fears of an open conflict. In Germany, many noted the historic significance of the venue where the G-7 ministers met: the room where the Treaty of Westphalia ending Europes bloody 30 Years War was signed in 1648. Blinken referred to the 374-year-old document, saying Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an attack on the concepts of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that many believe the centuries-old treaty established. And, while chairing a meeting between her G-7 counterparts and the foreign ministers of Kenya and Ghana, Baerbock said she had raised the blocs concerns over the growing presence of Russian and Russia-affiliated security forces in Mali and elsewhere on the continent and called for accountability for all those responsible for human rights violations." A man is in jail after leading police on a chase across state lines. Video by Tara Martin. 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 For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, WCTV-TV. William Klaver says he was driving on Highway 27 southbound, when Deputy Wilkey pulled him over for window tint. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, center left, is greeted at the Express Lunch Stop restaurant, the first stop on his campaign bus tour, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Crossville, TN. If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. A man allowed his account to be used for the lodgement of almost 18,000 in cash which was fraudulently taken from a womens bank account, the recent sitting of Longford District Court heard. Aengus Kennedy (20), with an address at 27 The Hill, Creevagh Beg, Ballymahon, Co Longford was charged with money laundering at Bank of Ireland, Longford on June 28 last. The court heard a total of 17,997.97 was lodged into the defendants bank account and then transferred to another individual. An attempt was made to transfer this money to an account in the UK, but the transfer was blocked by the bank. The funds were later returned to the joint account from which they were taken. Sergeant Enda Daly said the defendant was co-operative with gardai and accepted his responsibility. Defence solicitor Frank Gearty said the defendant had heard about the scheme and had gone to the wrong company about it. The case was put back until later that afternoon as Judge Bernadette Owens wanted to know how the money was taken from the account and the nature of the defendants involvement. Sgt Daly later told the court the defendant wasnt the main force behind the actions. He didnt have any direct contact with the injured party, Sgt Daly added. He had accommodated the money being transferred into his account. No one was at a loss, Sgt Daly said. Mr Gearty said the defendant had provided a psychological report which was completed some time back which showed that the defendant has autism and dyslexia. Regretfully he heard about the scheme and approached a company, Mr Gearty explained. Once he did that, he was easy meat for them, Mr Gearty said. The defendant, who is impressionable, thought he would make an easy buck, Mr Gearty said. The defendant accepted responsibility for his actions. He had no previous convictions. He had cooperated with gardai. He made a complete disclosure to them. He was emotionally upset by the whole thing. He knows what he did was wrong. Mr Gearty said. Judge Bernadette Owens said she would put the case back to January 17 next, to allow for the preparation of a probation report. The number of Ukrainian refugees enrolled in Longford schools increases in the past month. The Department of Education, as of September 30, published figures showing that 11,809 Ukrainian pupils were enrolled in schools across Ireland, including 85 in Longford. The Department this week confirmed that the number of Ukrainian pupils enrolled in schools across Ireland now stands at 12,544, including 102 in Longford. Almost 8,000 students have been accommodated in primary schools with 4,596 pupils in post-primary schools. Over 1,900 are enrolled in Dublin schools with 1,253 in Cork, 1,222 in Kerry, and 810 in Galway. The lowest number of Ukrainian students enrolled across the country are in Monaghan (50), Longford (102), Offaly (123), and Carlow (145). Over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since the beginning of the Russian war. Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) continue to operate to assist with the transition of Ukrainian refugees and their families into schools. The teams are hosted by the 16 regional education and training boards around Ireland and staffed by regionally based education support personnel. They ensure that clear, accessible information flows are in place between schools, local education support services and national support structures in relation to people arriving from Ukraine. Information for parents on accessing school places is available here in both Ukrainian and Russian languages. Full list of students enrolled by county: (Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News: ---------- Nostrum Oil & Gas PLC - Amsterdam-headquartered oil and gas company with operations in Kazakhstan - Proposes to extend the long-stop date to February 16, 2023, from December 16. If its ongoing restructuring has not been implemented by this date, the scheme and the implementation deed will automatically terminate. On May 11, it launched a scheme of arrangement via issuing of practice statement letter to scheme creditors to implement a proposed financial restructuring, as contemplated in the lock-up agreement with regards to the 8.0% senior notes due July 2022 and 7.0% senior notes due February 2025, issued by Nostrum Oil & Finance BV. ---------- SigmaRoc PLC - London-based quarried materials group - Files a UK patent on its Alfabloc Mark II retaining wall systems. Alfabloc is an interconnecting precast concrete walling system produced in the UK, Ireland, Benelux and Scandinavia. ---------- RTW Venture Fund Ltd - New York-based investor in life sciences, biopharmaceutical, and medical technology companies - Director William Scott buys 50,000 shares at USD1.105 each. ---------- Griffin Mining Ltd - mine operator focused on China - Recommences the operations of Caijiaying mine in China on Tuesday. Expects full production at Caijiaying mine to begin Monday. ---------- Amte Power PLC - developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery cells - Signs a convertible bond facility. Issues a tranche 1 drawdown notice in respect of the first GBP3.0 million of the facility. The maximum proceeds of the facility are expected to amount to roughly GBP3.9 million. ---------- Kingswood Holdings Ltd - London-based wealth and investment management - Says it made a second year 1 deferred consideration payment in the amount of GBP500,000 relating to the acquisition of Admiral Wealth Management Ltd. Says it used a portion of the cash proceeds from its new funding facility. ---------- Provident Financial PLC - Bradford, England-based banking company - Receives a notice from the Prudential Regulation Authority that its application for a UK Group large exposure waiver was approved. This will enable Moneybarn No 1 Ltd, the group's vehicle finance subsidiary, to access retail deposit funding via Vanquis Bank with immediate effect. ---------- Upland Resources Ltd - London-based oil and gas company - Promotes Non-Executive Chair Haji Bolhassan Di to chief executive officer on a full-time basis. The appointment is effective immediately. Bolhassan has had significant oil and gas experience with Shell PLC in South Korea, Singapore, the North Sea and the Netherlands. ---------- Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Ltd - Guernsey-based investor in music copyright assets - Turtlegrass Partners LLC, a company controlled by Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Ltd investment manager Joshua Gruss buys 116,000 at USD0.858. ---------- IDE Group Holdings PLC - Croydon-based cloud & IT managed services provider - Says the change of its name to Tialis Essential IT PLC has now been completed and has taken effect on companies house as of Thursday. "Over the coming months the company will be overhauling the entire IDE brand, colours and messaging, with a relaunch of the new Tialis brand. This will include a new website, planned for early 2023," the company says. ---------- Mode Global Holdings PLC - London-based bitcoin banking app - Says it has received and accepted conversion notices resulting in the conversion of an aggregate of GBP69,056 principal amount of the loan notes, resulting in the issuance today of 1.9 million new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the company at an average conversion price of GBP0.0393 per share. ---------- Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd - Calgary, Canada-based oil and gas company operating in Nigeria and US state of Wyoming - Issues 7.0 million common shares following a conversion of USD800,000 principal of 2024 bonds and USD600,000 principal of 2025 bonds. The principal amount of convertible bonds outstanding reduced to USD11.2 million of 2024 Bonds and USD9.0 million of 2025 bonds, it says. On Tuesday, the company reports that the miscible flood at it Barron Flats continue to exceed its initial expectations, "thus resulting in a resimulation of the field which is underway." Says flaring gas has commenced at Barron Flats. Continues to refine its interpretation of its deep oil discovery made in September. Remains in discussions with "select US and international banks" regarding the refinancing of its current senior credit facility of USD42 million. ---------- Coral Products PLC - Manchester-based plastic products maker - Proposes the cancellation of its share premium account and of the capital redemption reserve. Together they comprise the reduction of its share capital. Seeks the approval of shareholders for the cancellation of the entire share premium account of the company of GBP6.3 million. Also seeks shareholder approval for the cancellation of the capital redemption reserve of GBP1.2 million. ---------- By Abby Amoakuh; abbyamoakuh@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Download Image: Web The Lycoming College Community Orchestra (LCCO) is slated to perform a concert of beloved arias and overtures from operas on Friday, Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m., at Williamsports Community Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public. The LCCO is an ensemble made of students, faculty, and professional area musicians. The orchestra performs annually at Lycoming College, sharing orchestral favorites with the campus community. Membership is open to all students and faculty by audition. Under the direction of William Ciabattari, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the music department at Lycoming College, the LCCO will perform a concert of beloved arias and overtures from operas including works from Carmen, Hansel and Gretel, Madama Butterfly, and more! The LCCO will be joined on stage by the Lycoming College Choirs, under the direction of Kent Weaver, visiting instructor of music at Lycoming, as well as by area soloists Sarah Decker, Sara Scott, Emily Wertz, Nathan Fulkerson, and Todd Griffith. The New Jersey Youth Chorus select group 'Coro Vivo,' under the direction of alumna Joanna (Petrie) Scarangello 08, will also make a special guest appearance to perform with the LCCO. The Lycoming College music program offers an enriching curriculum that is bolstered by numerous performance and professional opportunities, and a flexible course structure allows students to design their own path to match their career goals and interests. More information on music for majors and non-majors is available at https://www.lycoming.edu/music/. A Holyport small business owner has visited Uganda to witness the impact of coffee on the endangered mountain gorilla population. Vicky Weddell, who owns Moneyrow Beans, is the UKs sole distributor of Gorilla Conservation Coffee. The social enterprise, which was set up by a Ugandan non-profit NGO, Conservation Through Public Health, helps to conserve mountain gorillas by directly aiding farmers living around the gorillas habitat in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Founded by Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda Wildlife Authoritys first vet, the team work to improve healthcare, education, and livelihoods within the Bwindi community in the area so humans and mountain gorillas can co-exist. The farmers are provided with a fair price for their coffee beans and are supported with equipment and training to help maximise their yields. A donation to the conservation of the rare mountain gorillas is also made for every bag of coffee that is sold. The Gorilla Conservation Coffee farmers are located around the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable, a national park which is home to about 500 mountain gorillas almost half of the worlds total population. Vicky said: This trip gave me the chance to meet the coffee farmers and understand more about how Gorilla Conservation Coffee impacts their lives and the lives of the endangered mountain gorillas. I can see that every bag of coffee I sell really does make a difference. She added: Farmers have been given a new income stream meaning they no longer need to use the forest for food and fuel and the gorilla population is starting to show signs of recovery. I am very proud to be involved and hope this trip can highlight the vital work being carried out by Gorilla Conservation Coffee and CTPH. Visit www.moneyrowbeans.com for more information. Rukhshana, November 1, 2022 In an audio tape received by Rukhshana Media, the Taliban morality police in northern Balkh province addresses the shopkeepers not to sell to women who dont observe the Talibans prescribed hijab on Monday, October 30. The order was announced through the loudspeaker of a local mosque in Kart-e-Solh of Mazar-e-Sharif city. For all the shopkeepers, including tailors and those who hear our voice, this is our message that as Muslims, the Taliban morality police says in the audio tape. We should not deal with those women who do not observe a complete Islamic hijab. In the audio tape, it is also stated that women do not have the right to leave their houses without wearing the all-covering hijab. According to the order of the Taliban, if a woman does not wear the all-covering mandatory hijab prescribed by them, her male member of the family would be interrogated and introduced to the Taliban morality police. The Taliban have said earlier that burqa and Arabic full veils, both of which cover from head-to-toe, are their preferred hijab for women.A 48-year-old woman in Mazar-e-Sharif, who talked anonymously, tell Rukhshana Media that she was shocked when she heard the Talibans order through the loudspeaker of the mosque. She adds that the message from the mosque reminded her of bitter memories of the 1990s in her mind. In the 1990s, the same type of strictness was imposed, she says. When a woman went out without a veil, she was whipped off in front of all the people. Women were not allowed to wear makeup, she adds. If women wore sandals or colored their nails, they were flogged in public, and women without a male chaperone were not allowed to leave their houses. Another 29-year-old woman, who also preferred not to be named, says that although she does not remember the Taliban rule in the 1990s, she is now tired of living under the Talibans strict rules. Life has been very difficult in the past year, she adds. Every day, there is a new rule to impose restrictions on Afghan women as if women are not human beings. The Taliban has imposed many restrictions on womens lives since they took over Afghanistan on August 15 last year. Khaama Press, November 3, 2022 According to sources, the Taliban arrested women journalists and activists in Kabul, including Zarifa Yaqoubi, one of the demonstrators who attended a press conference announcing the formation of the Afghan Womens Movement for Equality, on Thursday, November 3. The gun-wielding Taliban forces including women police officers invaded a womens press conference held in Dasht-e-Barchi, a Hazara neighborhood in west Kabul, arbitrarily arresting women activists, journalists, and their male colleagues, sources told Khaama Press. A source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that the Taliban initially encircled the premises before intrusively disrupting the press conference held by women, forcibly arresting them and taking their mobile phones. The Talibans arbitrary detention of journalists and human rights advocates in Afghanistan has outraged Afghan civil society and the media, which has demanded both their immediate release and an end to the groups persecution of them. The South Asia Campaigner for Amnesty International, Samira Hamidi, also reacted to the Talibans arrests by tweeting, Another act of HR violation & abuse. Lack of accountability has enabled Taliban to continue with these violations confidently. An official statement from the Movement of Change for Afghanistan party also demanded Yaqoubis immediate release. We expect Ms. Yaqoubi and her colleagues to be released as soon as possible. We demand an end to arbitrary arrests of protesting women by the Taliban, the statement reads. Recognizing journalists as the bedrock of an independent press, a statement from the US Department of State on The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, November 2, called for justice for courageous journalists across the world. The statement demanded further action by the international community against violent assaults, legal claims of intimidation, transnational repression, and regulatory pressures on journalists that muzzle media and information dissemination. According to Reporters Without Borders, only 328 of the 547 media outlets that were active in Afghanistan prior to the Talibans takeover are still operating, with 219 print, visual, and aural outlets being shut down under the Taliban rule. This comes since the Talibans assumption of power in mid-August last year, with what the analysts call a brain drain in Afghanistan, many skilled journalists and media professionals were forced to leave the country, in fear of persecution. The Talibans arbitrary detentions and draconian measures and edicts imposed on Afghan women have significantly contributed to the already-diminishing number of womens presence in the media. Rukhshana, November 3, 2022 The body of a woman was found under a rock in police district six of Kabul this morning, November 3, a local source said. A local source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the local residents informed the Taliban police district and they transferred the body from the area. The identity of the victim and how she was killed are still unclear, but according to the source, there are signs of suffocation on the victims throat, and probably the body was thrown in the area around 9:00 pm in the evening local time. The Taliban have not commented in connection to the incident yet. According to local sources, the Taliban have asked the residents of west Kabul to install home security cameras. Advertisement Does Technology Help Teenagers Feel Less Alienated? However, a large pocket of teens, living primarily in rural America, is disconnected for a very different reason. They live in households where there is an extremely weak infrastructure for broadband connectivity. These teens often have no internet access outside of school, very slow access at home, or spotty data coverage using a smartphone.Rural teens are the last remaining natural control group if we want insight into the mental health of adolescents who have no choice but to be disconnected from screens.In a peer-reviewed study based on a survey of 3,258 rural adolescents, researchers compared the self-esteem and social activities of teens with no or poor home internet access to teens who are the heaviest users of screens as well as teens with parents who tightly control or limit their screen use.The single largest predictor of having lower self-esteem was, simply, being a girl. This was unsurprising, as the heavy toll of adolescence on young girls has been well established. The second largest determinant of self-esteem, for girls and boys, was poor grades in school.Teens who had poor internet access at home and teens who had parents that exerted the most control over their media use also had substantively lower self-esteem although only roughly half of the lower self-esteem experienced by a typical girl or those with low academic performance.The number of time teens spent on screens, whether it was watching videos, playing games, or using social media, did not play a big role in teens' self-esteem.Even teens who were "excessive" users of screens reported higher self-esteem than those who were disconnected because they had poor internet access or their parents exerted a lot of control over their time online.Isolation does not come from being online, it comes from being disconnected from those sources of entertainment and socialization that permeate teens' lives. For most teens, that's social media, video games, and sharing the videos they watch online. It is often how teens get their information, communicate and share.This does not mean that teens are not spending time socializing in person. Teens who spend more time using social media and watching videos spend more time socializing. "Excessive" users of screens were spending more time with family and friends.When parents exert too much control over the time their teens spend on screens, they cut kids off from peers and the social support that protects mental health.While this survey was done before the COVID-19 pandemic, this work points to the terrible toll experienced by rural adolescents who were disconnected during the pandemic and the urgent need to address gaps in rural broadband infrastructure.Yet, this research shows that when parents have conversations with their teens about the risks of media use, focus on helping teens develop critical media skills, and give adolescents greater autonomy over their media use, teens report higher self-esteem.Therefore, researchers advise parents to not focus on how long their teens spend on screens, but to take an interest in what their teens are doing online and spend time together.Source: Eurekalert A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Shanghai to present more splendid CIIE with digital technologies 10:25, November 04, 2022 By Tian Hong ( People's Daily Digital technologies are employed to make the 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) more intelligent and bring better experiences to participants. Photo shows the exterior of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the upcoming 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE). (Photo from the website of the CIIE) So far, preparations of the grand trade fair, which is scheduled to kick off on Nov. 5 and conclude on Nov. 10, have generally been completed. New exhibiting zones will open this year featuring the crop seed industry and the artificial intelligence industry. Besides, the event has optimized the special area for low carbon and environmental protection technology, and expanded the innovation and incubation area. More than 150 startups specialized in technological equipment, consumer products, healthcare and automobiles will display their products and services at the innovation and incubation area. Representatives from a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will participate in the 5th CIIE. Enterprises from 127 countries and regions are expected to join the business exhibition, and 66 countries and three international organizations will take stage in the country exhibition. All these figures outnumber those in the last year. Nicaragua, Djibouti, Mauritania, Comoros, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and Iceland will take part in the country exhibition for the first time this year. This year, the country exhibition will still be held online, showcasing participating countries' technological innovation, culture and art, as well as investment environment with augmented reality, real-time rendering and other frontier technologies. It will give visitors an immersive experience. A "Jinbo" China-Europe freight train arrives at a Shanghai train station from Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 29, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Shen Chunchen) Besides, more than 300 exhibitors specialized in intelligent industry and information technology will display and launch their products and services at the Digital CIIE platform this time. On Oct. 28, a batch of art pieces to be exhibited at the 5th CIIE from the UK, France, Norway and Japan arrived in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao bonded area. Shanghai Customs for the first time employed information sampling devices to collect data of the features of the art pieces for exit-entry consistency verification. Since exhibits of the 5th CIIE started entering China in mid-September, Shanghai Customs has set up 110 exclusive and around-the-clock customs clearance windows and channels to improve efficiency. Relevant exit and entry information is acquired on a big data platform of the customs to ensure faster customs procedures for visiting guests and exhibits. Shanghai Customs has also combined inspections at the port of entry and exhibition hall so as to avoid secondary package opening. A fully loaded container vessel departs from the Yangshan deep water port in Shanghai, September 2022. (People's Daily Online/Ji Haixin) So far, 194 batches of CIIE exhibits have completed customs clearance, with a total value of $142 million. Shanghai has built the Hongqiao Central Business District Bonded Logistics Center and the Greenland Global Commodity Trade Hub Bonded Exhibition and Sales Place to expand the spillover effect of the CIIE and make bonded exhibition and sales regular. The China-Europe freight train "Shanghai" launched by the Shanghai-based Orient International (Holding) Co., Ltd. before the 4th CIIE has reached some 20 cities in six countries over the past year. This year, the company has set up a Shanghai International Sister Cities Hub at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center, which has so far attracted over 100 exhibitors from 30 countries. "This year marks the fifth year and also a new start of the CIIE," said Gu Jun, executive deputy director of the office of the leading group for urban service and security of the CIIE, adding that Shanghai is going all out to make the 5th CIIE successful, splendid and fruitful. (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) With D-Day looming, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks to members of E Company, 502nd Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division. On the afternoon of June 5, 1944, Eisenhower scribbled the now infamous order for the next day -- D-Day. In part, it read: The free men of the world are marching together to Victory! I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! (Courtesy of the National Guard Bureau) World War II and D-Day veteran Charles Norman Shay, from Indian Island, Maine, salutes the grave of fellow soldier Edward Morozewicz at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. (AP File Photo/Virginia Mayo) Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, then-commander of the Armys 82nd Airborne Division, was the last American service member to leave Afghanistan, officially marking the end of U.S. military operations in the country. (Master Sgt. Alex Burnett/U.S. Army) A soldier who served in Vietnam returns to the United States, greeting friends and relatives in New York in 1969. (The Associated Press) Originally titled "The home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg," this picture cataloged in Alexander Gardners infamous Civil War photographic sketch book was credited by Gardner as having been snapped by Timothy OSullivan. The image became one of the most iconic of the Civil War and, according to the Library of Congress, was suspected to have been one of many staged photos by Gardner and other photographers. Medics assist a wounded soldier from the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. (Hugh Van Es/Associated Press) Marines raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima in 1945. The 2000 book "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley with Ron Powers, claims to tell the story of the Marines and Navy Corpsman John Bradley (James' father) who raised the flag that day. The Marine Corps has since issued at least two corrections, clarifying who was actually depicted in the image and rebutting John Bradleys claims that he was one of them. (Joe Rosenthal/AP, courtesy of the National Archives) An American soldier comforts his comrade as a corpsman fills out casualty cards near Haktong-ni, Korea, in 1950. (Sgt. 1st Class Al Chang/U.S. Army, courtesy of the National Archives) Members of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-Black unit of pilots during World War II, pose in front of one of their aircraft in Italy. (U.S. Air Force). Bruna Romero and her daughter Madalyn, 2, are reunited with Cpl. Benigno R. Romero, who returned to Seattle on the transport Gen. M.C. Meigs on Aug. 2, 1951. The Meigs brought back 4,737 veterans from the Korean War, the largest contingent to return. (Gene Herrick/Associated Press) Marines walk across a flaming desert plain in Kuwait in 1991. (John Gaps/Associated Press) In Baghdad, Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops topple a statue of Saddam Hussein while one Marine covers the statue head with an American flag. (Jerome Delay/Associated Press). Troops ride in the back of a medevac helicopter escorting flag-draped U.S. soldiers who were killed by a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan. (David Guttenfelder/Associated Press) Hotels at eight Air Force bases across the country are closing down as military-run lodging continues to struggle to bring in customers after a 2018 policy stripped the inns of taxpayer funding. The hotels set to close are located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California; Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts; Tinker Air Force Base and Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma; Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota; Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida; and Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania. The Wingo Inn at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee was due to be closed and will no longer be run by the service, but base leadership has decided to keep the hotel open while running operations with the installations Outdoor Recreation Staff, a base spokesman told Military.com. Read Next: GOP Lawmakers Sound Alarm over Pulling F-15s from Japan "In order to maintain quality and meet standards, we must continue to evaluate lodging facilities at all installations," Janae Sergio, Air Force Lodging chief, said in a Wednesday press release. "Certain lodging operations will be reduced in size or closed to ensure the [Air Force] can maintain its lodging portfolio and reinvest to meet current and future program needs." Military bases have offered hotel-style lodging for service members and retirees, often providing more affordable rates than civilian options outside the installation fences, for decades. But in 2018, a Pentagon policy cut taxpayer funding for the inns provided by the service branches and ordered them to be solely operated through nonappropriated funds, meaning operation costs are covered only by the nightly room rates. As a result, rates at many Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps lodging facilities have increased, or even doubled, in the half-decade since the policy changed. The inns being closed have had historically low occupancy during non-COVID years, aging room inventories with high repair costs, or are small operations with fewer than 85 rooms, Sergio said in the press release. The Air Force Lodging inventory has 977 buildings, or 24,546 rooms, across 87 military installations. The service ultimately plans to scale it down to 921 buildings, or 23,810 rooms, across a total of 78 installations. Timelines for when the eight lodges will close will "vary based on installation circumstances," according to a press release. News of the closures comes after it was announced in April that the Air Force Inns at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., would be closing. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have not established plans to privatize their on-base lodging options. In 2009, the Army became the first to privatize "with the goal of addressing the poor condition of facilities more quickly than could be achieved under continued Army operation," a 2021 U.S. Government Accountability Office report detailed. Real estate group Lendlease took over as the manager and owner of the Army's hotels, and IHG Hotels and Resorts operates them. On-base hotels aren't the only long-standing services shuttering across the country for service members and veterans. Last month, Military.com reported that United Service Organization facilities across the country have been suddenly closing their doors. USOs are located at military installations and airports to support service members and their families while they travel on assignments around the world, including unstaffed locations in war zones too dangerous for USO employees. Similar to the military hotels, the USOs have seen decreasing foot traffic at some of their locations over the years. "We have determined several of our locations have very low traffic and have decided to redeploy those resources elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world to better serve our military," Daniel Drummond, director of communications and social media for the USO, told Fort Lee's public affairs in an email last month. Editors Note: This story has been updated to remove Wingo Inn at Arnold Air Force Base from the list of hotels to close. After publication, a base spokesperson contacted Military.com to say that, while the Air Force had decided to no longer staff the hotel, base leadership had decided to keep it open using local base resources. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. Related: USOs Across the Country Are Mysteriously Shutting Down National Guard officials overseeing cyber security for the midterm elections warn that the service component must invest more in units dedicated to detecting and combating threats that could cripple online infrastructure. "We're in the early days of cyber. We're in the biplane era, the early years. Funding, policy, all the infrastructure we need is missing," Maj. Gen Richard Neely, adjunct general of the Illinois National Guard, told reporters Friday. "Some of our states do an extremely great job, but we're all on a journey. Much like we need helicopters in every state, we need cyber capabilities in each state. And we need a robust structure to build around." Illinois is one of the few states with cyber capabilities, something that's not common across the Guard's broad formations, which traditionally focus on ground combat, support units, aviation and other staples of the Global War on Terror era. Read Next: The Army Admits it Wrongfully Added Soldiers to a Criminal Database, a Move That May Have Upended Lives Only 14 states will mobilize Guardsmen to help oversee cyber security for the midterm elections, including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington state and West Virginia. That state active-duty mission will supplement local and federal cyber defenses, but is a very limited asset, given how little of the country will benefit. In total, only about 100 Guardsmen will be on the mission. "Not every state is doing it. If you don't have a cyber unit in your state, chances are your state isn't in a good position to help out security in elections," said Brig. Gen. Gent Welsh, assistant adjutant general and commander of the Washington state Air National Guard. "You've got a military-grade adversary that's coming after cyber infrastructure in the U.S. Most IT is about making the walls higher. But one of the unique things here is you have a National Guard that does cyber missions against other military structures." Despite the preparations, Guard officials and the Biden administration have said they havent identified any specific cyber threats to this year's elections. "At this time, we are not aware of any specific or credible threats to compromise or disrupt election infrastructure," Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters Oct. 13, according to Politico. Instead, officials have pointed to misinformation and physical violence as the top threats to elections. Some Republican candidates have centered around lies and conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was fraudulent, a key component of the events that led to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Cyber threats -- which could come from adversarial countries including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea or even from within the U.S. itself -- are expected to be a key threat in future warfare and were a major motivating factor in the creation of the Space Force. "If you see what's going on in the world, the homeland is no longer a sanctuary," said Col. Joed Carbonell, chief of the National Guard Bureau's cyber division. -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: Meet the Vets Running for Congress, the Largest Group of Candidates Who Served in a Decade The Pentagon is buying T-72B tanks to give to Ukraine as part of a new $400 million weapons package announced Friday, marking the first time it has supplied the armored fighting vehicles. The U.S. funding will cover the refurbishment of 45 of the Soviet-era tanks by the Czech Republic, and another 45 will be donated to the Ukrainians by the Netherlands as part of an agreement between the three countries. The latest Pentagon shipment also includes Hawk missiles and Phoenix Ghost drones for Ukraine's fight against Russia. "The contracting actions are going to begin soon and then some of the tanks will be available to Ukraine before the end of December, so the end of this year with additional deliveries to be completed in 2023," Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said during a public briefing. Read Next: The Army Admits it Wrongfully Added Soldiers to a Criminal Database, a Move That May Have Upended Lives American security assistance has surged to $18.2 billion since Russia's invasion, and the Pentagon also announced Friday a new headquarters element based in Germany, called the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, to handle the aid. The group will be part of U.S. European Command. The group signals that the Biden administration intends to keep up the support for the long run, far beyond the U.S. midterm elections -- though some Republicans are challenging the spending to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to occupy Ukraine and have vowed to scrutinize or cut off funding if the party wins control of Congress. Last week, the Pentagon disclosed that U.S. personnel with the defense attache at the reopened embassy in Kyiv are conducting on-site inspections of the American weapons shipments, though officials insisted they would not be close to the frontline fighting. The T-72 tank was manufactured and used by the former Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991. But its updated variants are produced and still widely used by other nations including Russia, which has an inventory from its Cold War years and has deployed them in its invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are already trained on the tanks, making them an easier donation than other more advanced tanks used by the U.S. and western allies. The U.S. donation of Czech-made T-72Bs means the Ukrainian armor could meet Russian units using the same tanks as the war grinds on. "Introducing a new main battle tank is extremely costly, it's time sensitive, and it would be a huge undertaking for Ukrainian forces," Singh said. "So, we do continue to consult with our allies and partners to assess our ability on what we can provide in terms of western armored platforms, but these tanks will make a difference on the battlefield." The $400 million package announced Friday will also pay to refurbish Hawk surface-to-air missiles that are expected to be given to Ukraine in the future. The medium-range missiles were developed in the 1950s and are no longer used by the U.S. military but are seen as a more effective upgrade to the Stinger missiles shipped to Ukraine earlier in the war and used against Russian aircraft. Another 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones are headed to Kyiv, following assaults on the Ukrainian capital by Russian drones purchased from Iran. The Phoenix Ghost was developed in secret by the Air Force and unveiled earlier this year when it was sent in a weapons package to Ukraine. It is the second security aid package sent to Ukraine in just a week as the Biden administration keeps up a steady tempo of support. Putin launched an unprovoked invasion in February centered on a failed attempt to take the capital Kyiv, and the war has since moved to the eastern part of the country as Russia shells cities and civilian infrastructure. Russia has been considered a top adversary by the Pentagon for years, ranking just below China, a continuation with only minor interruption of a rivalry dating back to the Cold War. Putin, known for crushing domestic political dissent, meddling in foreign elections and likely ordering assassinations abroad, invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014 amid international condemnation, and had been fueling a separatist insurgency in Ukraine's east since. But support of Ukraine in Congress appears shaky. Republicans in the House, where the party is expected to win a majority in the midterm elections on Nov. 8, have questioned the billions in spending. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who could likely be the next House speaker, recently said the public won't be willing to write a "blank check" to help the U.S. ally defeat Russia and Putin. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wields little political power in the House, but she has an outsized standing in Republican politics and the political movement inspired by former President Donald Trump, which favored an "American first" foreign policy that is skeptical of NATO and pushed for less involvement in conflicts abroad. "The only border they care about is Ukraine, not America's southern border. Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine," Greene said Thursday at a political rally in Iowa for Trump-backed candidates for the House. -- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten. Related: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Moves Toward 'War of Drones' as Winter Looms The Air Force said Friday that a KC-135 Stratotanker's peculiar flight path, which aviation enthusiasts said resembled the shape of a penis while flying close to a Russian base in Syria, was not intentional. Twitter accounts monitoring Flightradar24, a website that tracks planes, quickly pointed out Wednesday that the phallic-shaped flight path consisting of two circles and one large oval was suspect, and pointed directly at Russian forces. The Italian newspaper la Repubblica even wrote an article about the incident, stating "the shape in fact is unequivocally that of a penis," according to an English translation. But the Air Force quickly responded that the crew of the KC-135 -- which was flying between the Middle Eastern island country of Cyprus and the coastal Syrian city of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base -- acted appropriately. Read Next: GOP Lawmakers Sound Alarm over Pulling F-15s from Japan "We're aware of the incident and are talking with the KC-135 crew to determine the details," an Air Force spokesperson told Military.com in an email. "At this time, we do not believe the crew acted inappropriately, flying a refueling orbit consistent with requirements that met the needs of receiver aircraft." The aircraft remained in the eastern Mediterranean, not Syrian airspace, the Air Force spokesperson added. Additional details about the KC-135's mission were not provided. Whether the crew meant to follow a phallic-shaped flight path just outside a Russian naval base may never be known. But the incident reflects some of the geopolitical tensions amid Russia's continued invasion and destruction of Ukraine. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, in February, the U.S. Navy confirmed that Russian aircraft had made close intercepts of three maritime patrol planes while they were in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea, Business Insider reported. Additionally, this isn't the first time the military has been involved with phallic shapes in the sky. In 2017, Military.com reported that two Navy aviators who maneuvered an EA-18G Growler to draw genitals in the sky near Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, were punished but were able to remain as aviators. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. Related: Navy Aviators Who Drew Sky Phallus Have Been Punished Ghanaian blogger and music publicist, Sista Ginna has commented on the growth of the Ghanaian gospel music industry and how important it is for people to support urban Christian gospel music. Its sad that we have stereotyped gospel music to mean just praise and worship but Gospel is not a genre. "Let's look at it: Gospel is a message which is the good news. A message can be communicated through different music genres. You can have gospel afrobeat, gospel rap or hip-hop, gospel reggae or dancehall, gospel RnB, gospel pop, gospel rock, gospel country and so on. Therefore gospel is not a genre of music. It's a message that should be communicated through different music genres. Christian music is supposed to be the category. "There are a lot of urban gospel songs that can match the popular secular songs we play and listen to, but even within the Christian community Urban Gospel Music is not supported or highlighted as a legit gospel music Ministry by a lot of churches. "Gospel artistes will make Godly music in several genres, from rap to Afrobeats to R&B but you won't stream or hype it up. The moment a secular artist adds a God-tag to a song, you dont mind playing it repeatedly. "The industry is tough but thank God for the urban artists like Kobby Salm, Kingzkid, Neqta, Belac, Po Godson Rje and few of the urban guys who havent given up. "MOG Music is one of the few Gospel artists I have seen supporting most of these urban gospel artists, from collaborations/features and also putting them on his events. Not forgetting Ghanaian gospel artiste Empress Gifty and her support for Scott Evans. "Urban gospel didn't come to replace our indigenous gospel praise & worship, rather it came to support it. Please let's stop judging and start appreciating and supporting these sounds. I will plead with most of our mainstream: popular gospel musicians and event organizers to bill most of these urban artists to perform at their events. This is what the urban scene needs more!" Deloris Frimpong Manso, a popular Ghanaian media personality and entrepreneur known as Delay has revealed the source of the funds of celebrities who like to flaunt expensive items and undergo body surgery. Some celebrities, she claimed, eat the faeces of wealthy Arab men for $40,000 to get money to purchase expensive clothing and undergo cosmetic surgery. She stated that the luxurious lifestyles of such celebrities, particularly on social media, put pressure on the youth, who see them as role models. The regular host of the Delay show was delivering a speech at an event organised for young ladies, where she further indicated that body surgeries and liposuction are vanities. According to Delay, there is no way she will ever go to the extent of cutting and fixing a certain part of her body just to appear sexy and attract wealthy men. Miss Frimpong Manso took the opportunity and advised the young ladies not to allow themselves to be influenced by irresponsible lifestyles but rather focus on their life goals, as worldly things are just temporal. She cited the story of the popular historic female personality, Zsa Zsa, who chased rich men because she was obsessed with money but later ended up being amputated. Watch Delay in the video below: IT IS an undeniable fact that the world economy is in a recession, and Ghana is not exempt. The question, however, is how effective has government communication been in these turbulent times? It goes without saying that in a well-functioning democracy, citizens must not only be aware of the governments policies and activities but also be participants through the provision of reliable, accurate, and timely information. How much more during this period of growing economic challenges when the good people of Ghana are in a state of fear, despair, and confusion? Are the boundary-spanning activities of the governments communication machinery picking up the right cues to inform the right communication strategies? Is the governments communication machinery a true voice of conscience to the presidency and members of the government? Is the communication machinery offering appropriate PR counsel or just a glorified messenger duties (mainly disseminating information or decisions made by the government)? Is it the case that the PR counsel provided to the presidency and members of the government has fallen on deaf ears? Or is it the case that government communication strategists are not part of the dominant coalition Ghanaians are asking questions and are voicing their worries. Some say the President is super incompetent. Some say the government has mismanaged the economy. Some say Ghana must work again. Some say Ghana needs homegrown policies to weather the storm. Some say Ghana should be sold and the proceeds shared equally among its citizens. Some say it is better to leave the shores of Ghana and seek better opportunities elsewhere. Some say it is the ripples of the past that are hunting President Nana Addo, including his vehement opposition against the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the 90's as well as discrediting and rubbishing the economic efforts of the late President Jerry John Rawlings and his government towards the country's economic recovery in the 80s, etc. Some say that as a result of the past, the law of karma has caught up with the President, hence the poor showing of the E-Levy and the growing economic difficulties the country is experiencing currently. Some say they are disappointed and regret voting for President Nana Addo. The list seems endless. These comments from different individuals and groups within the Ghanaian society demonstrate their rage at the current events, and these grievances are progressively fostering hate speech, tantrums, insults, and accusations, among other potentially dangerous behaviors for a nation such as Ghana. In an attempt to respond to these issues and concerns of Ghanaians, some government officials unfortunately chose scapegoating, one of the denial response strategies, which places the blame of the economic crisis on the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. Ghanaians are tired of it and think the response is lame. After all, the government was voted to solve problems and not to stonewall. The government, therefore, should have adopted the rebuilding and bolstering response strategies to address the crisis earlier. Under the rebuilding response strategies, the government will have to acknowledge responsibility for the crisis, request forgiveness, and explain what the government is doing to mitigate the situation. Additionally, the communication machinery will have to remind Ghanaians of the governments past good works and assure them that both the government and the citizenry are in it together to make it better while soliciting their support and cooperation. Regrettably, the growing economic hardship has threatened the expectations of stakeholders and the general public, seriously affecting not only the nations economic performance but also the safety and moral fabric of society. More than ever, now is the time to ensure effective crisis communication management to resolve and repair the damage being inflicted on Ghanaians as a result of the economic crisis. Even more so, when messages from some key government officials, including the President of the Republic, in this crisis situation have angered citizens and worsened the situation. That said, strategic thinking is crucial to the nuances of crisis communication management. It makes the difference between effective and ineffective crisis communication management. Therefore, in order to prevent hate speech and tantrums as well as misinformation and disinformation, the governments communication machinery must make sure that its crisis communication management is effective. Again, once it is effective, it will help protect the sanity of Ghanaians, get their involvement to mitigate the crisis, and provide hope to the hopeless. Furthermore, it is crucial to note that the field of crisis communication management has evolved from accepted wisdom to empirical tests and a theory-based approach. The empirical test, for instance, assesses how Ghanaians are responding to the economic crisis and the crisis response strategies being used, whereas the theory gives explanation to issues or reasons why certain actions are effective and others are ineffective. It is, however, refreshing that the President of the Republic was in the homes of many Ghanaians last Sunday via the mass and new media to engage, inspire, and reassure them that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It is also commendable that the Cabinet, Economic Management Team (EMT), and forex bureaus have met over the cedi depreciation. Again, it is gratifying that the government has met with some sections of Ghanas business and industry to discuss economic issues and allay their fears. Are these engagements enough? The government may also consider the respective ministers meeting with stakeholders in these other economic and social sectors such as health, agriculture, education, tourism, and energy, to name a few, to come-up strategic inputs. Attention should also be paid to SMEs, think tanks, and informal sectors. Not to forget the individuals in the hinterlands who may not have access to television, radio, or social media. The government's communication machinery may consider these crisis communication management recommendations: An official apology from the government would be a great place to start in order to put an end to the situation. It would signal a change for the better in the way the government handles crises in its communication. Be more cooperative with stakeholders and the general public. Speak with one voice and ensure crisis message is consistent. Respond quickly to Ghanaians worries and issues, particularly any new ones that have the potential to further divide the nation and exacerbate the crisis. Do not attribute the nations economic problems to the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic. Deconstruct financial jargon so that the average Ghanaian can understand it. For information dissemination, local languages should be employed in addition to English. Embrace solutions offered by experts, academics, and other key stakeholders to help end Ghanas economic crisis and then indicate the governments readiness to assess their feasibility and correctness. Certainly, upright rejections in crisis messages give an indication that you are not a listening government. Remember to be open and honest in your crisis communication because once lost, credibility and trust are nearly impossible to regain, which is dangerous for both the government and the country. Take post-crisis measures to address any lingering psychological problems brought on by the economic crisis, learn lessons from the crisis communication management effort, and deliver information or actions promised after the crisis, if any. All hope is not lost as the glass is half-full rather than half empty. Instead of focusing on the negative, lets consider the positive aspects of life and the things that bring us together. By Raymond K. Baxey [email protected] The writer is a member of the Institute of Public Relations and Ghana Journalists Association President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the 100th Anniversary celebration of Kwadaso Agricultural College in Kumasi revealed that the Agricultural College will soon be upgraded into an Agricultural University with satellite campuses at the Ejura and Wenchi Agricultural Colleges. Addressing a grand durbar of students and other stakeholders,the President continued that, talks with the Mendel University of the Czech Republic are far advanced for the realisation of this vision with the expectation that the College would realise its full potential once it becomes a university. The vision of the College to realize this level of its transformation into a university, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture, in 2018, during an official visit to Czech Republic, paid a working visit to Mendel University and met with the Universitys authority. In the course of the meeting, a memorandum of understanding was signed to enhance and provide a roadmap for the collaboration between the Ministry for Food and Agriculture and Mendel University, of which the University designated Prof. Samuel Darkwa, a Ghanaian Professor at the University to serve as the liaison between the University and Ministry for the upgrade of the college into a university and for other levels of collaborations. Although negotiations slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been revived and the officials of the Mendel University are set to visit Ghana possibly ending of this year to identify areas of collaboration. The visit will also enable the officers to familiarise themselves with the facilities at the Kwadaso Agricultural College and the proposed satellite campuses at Ejura and Wenchi Agricultural Colleges. The vision to upgrade the Kwadaso Agricultural College into a university has become imperative because more than 50 per cent of the Countrys population are engaged in agriculture, so an establishment of a university dedicated to agriculture will spur the training of the requisite numbers of human resources to revamp the sector through support of research, impart of knowledge and provision of leadership. By Nana Kwadwo Akwaa & Philip Kwadwo Amoah (Abubada) 03.11.2022 LISTEN Some former Constituency Executives of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ellembelle of the Western Region have descended heavily on Kwasi Bonzoh, the Ellembelle District Chief Executive (DCE) for allowing some party members to demonstrate against Dr. Ben Asante, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana National Gas Company. On Sunday, October 30, 2022, some angry supporters identified as Kwasi Bonzoh boys protested against Dr. Ben Asante at Atuabo during the climax of the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council's annual Kundum festival. Speaking to the media before the demonstration, a member of Ellembelle NPP Constituency Communications Department and a diehard supporter of Ellembelle DCE, Yannick Akrowie stated that Dr. Ben Asante has been denying them opportunities to work at the Ghana National Gas Company, hence must be sacked. He claimed that in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, Dr. Ben Asante sponsored 'skirt and blouse' voting against Kwasi Bonzoh who was the Ellembelle NPP Parliamentary Candidate to lose miserably and called on President Akufo-Addo to sack Dr. Ben Asante. But in a statement to the media, the immediate-past Ellembelle NPP Constituency Secretary, John Nwolley has condemned the teeming supporters of Ellembelle DCE for staging a demonstration against Dr Ben Asante, the CEO of Ghana National Gas Company. "We condemn those that were involved for such disrespectful behavior towards the chiefs, Freddie Blay, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and Dr. Asante, and at the same time, advising them to learn their mistakes and say to their own selves that "never again" so that we can all move forward in unison to break the "8", the statement stated. The statement emphasized, "We thank the Nzema youth for their love, care, and sacrifices they made in such an emergency situation to avert the unforseen from happening for which the festival was nearly brought to an abrupt end by the thugs". The statement is, therefore, calling on Ellembelle DCE, Kwasi Bonzoh to render an unqualified apology to Freddie Blay, Kennedy Agyapong and Ellembelle as a whole for urging his boys to use the durbar grounds of Eastern Traditional Council 2022 Kundum festival to demonstrate against Dr. Ben Asante. "Are you not ashamed to have organized and supervised your boys insulted the CEO on social media platforms, demonstrated against the Eastern Nzema traditional Counsel, Freddie Blay and the Board Chairman of Ghana National Gas Company? and now hiding and asking your boys to apologise to redeem your image? "Noted! but "do the do" by apologizing to your political mentor (Freddie Blay), Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, whose durbar grounds you pushed your boys to commit the criminal acts and find ways to redeem the image of our party in the Ellembelle Constituency from yet another defeat before you put the blame on innocent people for supporting skirt and blouse", the statement demanded. Read below the full press statement: THE SUCCESS STORY BEHIND DR BEN ASANTE AND FREDDIE BLAY IN ELLEMBELLE, ELLEMBELLE DCE MUST APOLOGIZE TO THEM We are totally amazed by the behavior of some few faceless people who are calling themselves aggrieved party members of Ellembelle towards the paramount chief of Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, the immediate-past National Chairman of our party, Freddie Blay and the Board Chairman of Ghana National Gas Company, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong during the recently organized Kundum debar. We thank the Nzema youth for their love, care, and sacrifices they made in such an emergency situation to avert the unforseen from happening for which the festival was nearly brought to an abrupt end by the thugs Now, to the so-called party members who are shrieking for the dismissal of Dr. Ben Asante because he is not given them jobs. Even though enough is not enough, we have had proportional share of the recruitment at Ghana National Gas Company which were facilitated by Freddie Blay and Dr. Ben Asante. We acknowledge the fact that more of our youth should be employed at Ghana National Gas Company, but what we need to do as party members is to eschew bitterness, selfishness and individualistic tendacies and make use of available connections and linkages within the party as in power, to secure good jobs rather than envying and pulling down the few deserving and successful ones who have toiled from scratch to get to where they are now. Doing so will earn you nothing but just digging a hole to fill the sources of drinking water that most of the people have been drinking to quench their thirst. From experience, we don't want to blame you guys because we know your actions are being engineered by the usual "kwaku Anase' who for greed, will always want to lean his ladder on innocent party members and climb on them to get what he wants and afterwards, pretends he doesn't know anything about that. We condemn those that were involved for such disrespectful behavior towards the chiefs, Freddie Blay, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and Dr. Asante, and at the same time, advising them to learn their mistakes and say to their own selves that "never again" so that we can all move forward in unison to break the "8" We want to unequivocally state that nobody should take them seriously for they are being mislead by certain individual in the constituency for his parochial interest. As former Constituency Executives of the NPP, we witnessed how Dr. Asante contributed in cash and in kind to champion the 2016 campaign and how he constantly advised us to unite and win the seat. Unfortunately, the Constituency had already been divided by same people, so we continued to fight amongst ourselves, insulted big men including Freddie Blay just in a similar way at which they are attacking Dr. Ben Asante, to the extent of even saying he supported skirt and blouse? Abaaa! Are you not ashamed to have organized and supervised your boys insulted the CEO on social media platforms, demonstrated against the Eastern Nzema traditional Counsel, Frddie Blay and the Board Chairman of Ghana National Gas Company? and now hiding and asking your boys to apologizing to redeem your image?. Noted! but "do the do" by apologizing to your political mentor (Freddie Blay), Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, whose durbar grounds you pushed your boys to commit the criminal acts and find ways to redeem the image of our party in the Ellembelle Constituency from yet another defeat before you put the blame on innocent people for supporting skirt and blouse. Long live Dr. Ben Asante! Long live Freddie Blay! Long live Kennedy Ohene Agyapong! #tag Dr. Ben Asante must stay Signed! 1. John Nwolley Former Constituency Secretary of Ellembelle NPP 2. Amonle Amartey Former NPP Communications Director, Ellembelle constituency. In the eastern DR Congo city of Goma, fears are rising of an imminent assault by a bloody rebel group whose resurgence has stoked diplomatic tensions in central Africa. A predominantly Congolese Tutsi militia called the M23 has returned after years of dormancy, conquering swathes of territory in troubled North Kivu province. After a string of victories over the army, the M23 fighters are as close as several dozen kilometres from Goma, a commercial hub of a million people that it briefly captured a decade ago. Militiamen over the weekend were in control of Rugari, a settlement about 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the city, according to violence monitor Kivu Security Tracker (KST). Many citizens now dread what could come next, and food prices are rocketing. "My children refuse to go to school, they think it (the assault) could happen at any moment," said Nsimire Foybe, a 58-year-old mother of eight, who sells potatoes and beans in Goma's lively Birere market. DR Congo. By (AFP) She added that a fellow vendor was so shocked on hearing of the M23's vow to capture the city that she suffered a miscarriage and was still in hospital. The M23 captured Goma in 2012, a move that gave it global prominence, but was beaten back by a joint Congolese-UN offensive and went into the sidelines. The group took up arms again in late 2021, claiming that the Democratic Republic of Congo had failed to honour a pledge to integrate them into the army, among other grievances. In June, it captured the strategic town of Bunagana, which lies on the border with Uganda. Months of relative stasis have ended with the M23 capturing a string of settlements and a large army base, dramatically increasing the territory under its command. The militia has also cemented control over the highway leading out of Goma, sending the prices of basic goods such as rice and flour soaring in the city. Many people are afraid that food will run out. "The situation is going to become untenable," said Giramata Mwiza, a wholesaler in Birere, one of Goma's biggest markets. 'Criminals' The M23's resurgence has destabilised regional relations in central Africa, with the DRC accusing its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the militia. Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23. The report added that the M23 plans to capture Goma in order to extract political concessions from the government in Kinshasa. On Saturday, amid fresh M23 victories, the DRC decided to expel Rwanda's ambassador. Goma lies at the foot of an active volcano, Mount Nyiragongo, and is surrounded by rich, fertile soil. Within the city, residents anxiously trade news about the front, although the situation remains relatively calm. Tens of thousands of people displaced by the M23's advance have gathered at an informal camp in Kanyaruchinya, a northern district of Goma. By ALEXIS HUGUET (AFP) Some have been cut off from loved-ones, such as motorbike driver Emmanuel Bahati, whose wife and children are stuck in Rutshuru, 70 kilometres (43 miles) to the north. "We're afraid -- they're criminals," Issa Ruchekere, another motorcycle driver, said of the M23. If the group enters the city, blood will flow, he predicted. "They consider us all FDLR," he explained, referring to the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) -- a notorious Hutu rebel movement involved in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. Kigali argues that the DRC works alongside the FDLR, something which Kinshasa has denied. Human Rights Watch said last month that the DRC army had fought alongside several armed groups, including the FDLR, in recent clashes with the M23. 'We'll exterminate them' Mwisha Dina, who lives in a western district of Goma, said he vividly remembered the day in 2012 when the M23 entered the city. "We were under heavy gunfire all night and the next day. I don't want to see those days again," he said. Fear and anger in Goma spilled over at an anti-Rwanda protest on Monday. By Aubin Mukoni (AFP) On Monday, thousands in Goma protested against Rwanda and demanded weapons in order to be able to resist an attack on the city. Fiston Ketha, 36, who attended the demonstration, said that residents will be targeted because "the rebels know that the population is against them." Denise Kahambu, a cloth merchant in the north of the city, said she wasn't afraid of an assault. "If they come, we'll exterminate them," she said. COP27 is the 27th Conference of the Parties (countries) that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention was established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and has been ratified by 198 countries. They agreed to stabilise the production of greenhouse gases in order to prevent dangerous climate change. Since then, the Conference of the Parties has been hosted in a different country each year. These conferences broadly provide a platform for the negotiation of international climate change treaties. Read more: COP27: what to expect The very first treaty acknowledged that the responsibility for action was different for developed and developing countries, because developed countries were responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions. Despite some gains, commitment to these treaties has not translated into the action necessary to shift the course of global climate change. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report states that global average temperatures have already reached 1.1C above pre-industrial levels and that warming of over 1.5C is all but inevitable unless drastic action is taken. Everyone is affected by climate change, but some people and regions are more vulnerable than others. Regions that will experience the most adverse impacts of climate change are West, Central and East Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, Small Island Developing States and the Arctic. Populations living in informal settlements will have the worst of it. Vulnerability to climate change impacts is driven by socioeconomic, political and environmental factors. African countries have already experienced loss and damage due to climate change. For example, food production, economic output and biodiversity have all declined and more people are at risk of dying due to climate change in African countries. The COP27 is therefore important because that is where decisions are made about how to respond to climate change. Read more: 3 things a climate scientist wants world leaders to know ahead of COP27 Climate change treaties Three international treaties have been adopted on international climate change cooperation. They led to the development of different bodies which all convene under the banner of the COP. COP is where they meet, negotiate and evaluate progress, even though COP technically only refers to the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The first treaty was the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The second was the Kyoto Protocol, established in 1997. Countries made commitments to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol was based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. It acknowledged that because of their higher levels of economic development, developed countries could and should take greater responsibility to reduce emissions. The third and most recent treaty is the 2015 Paris Agreement. It covers climate change mitigation, adaptation and financing and aims to limit the rise in temperatures to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels. All signatories need to develop a non-binding plan for climate change mitigation, including reducing emissions. They also have to report on progress. A key weakness of the Paris Agreement is that it is non-binding. Also, the commitments are self-determined. A recent study found that even if all countries did meet their commitments, it would not be enough to limit warming to below 2C. It is important to understand and engage in these processes as the impacts of climate change are increasing globally. The increase in the global average temperature is one of several climate impacts. Others include increased likelihood of droughts or floods, and increased intensity of storms and wildfires. The frequency of climate events will increase as temperatures rise. There is an urgent need for action to prevent global warming from rising above 2C. Temperatures over 2C will result in irreversible climate impacts such as sea level rise, and affect far more people than an increase of 1.5C. Responses to climate change There are three policy areas which have emerged to respond to climate change. The first is mitigation the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to stabilise the climate. Examples of mitigation include replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, or developing electrified public transport to replace private vehicles powered by combustion engines. The second is adaptation interventions which would support climate resilience and reduce vulnerability. Examples include improved water management and conservation to reduce risk of drought, initiatives to improve food security and support for biodiversity. The last policy area deals with loss and damage. Loss and damage refers to the economic and non-economic damages associated with slow onset events and extreme weather events caused by global warming and the tools and institutions that identify and mitigate such risks. Interventions to address loss and damage can include risk management support and finance which is often framed as climate reparations. Mitigation and adaptation are well understood and established within climate policy. And they have finance mechanisms within international treaties, even though existing commitments to these mechanisms have not materialised in practice, particularly when it comes to adaptation. Loss and damage, however, has received far less attention in international treaties and negotiations. Highlighting loss and damage The Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage was established in 2013 to provide a framework to address loss and damage. It aims to improve understanding of risk management approaches, increase coordination and dialogue among stakeholders and enhance action and support. The issue of loss and damage was incorporated into the Paris Agreement, but without any specific commitments around it. During negotiations at COP25, the Santiago Network was set up to avert, minimise and address loss and damage for developing countries but it focuses mostly on technical assistance rather than finance. At COP26 (in 2021) there was an agreement to fund the Santiago Network , but the institutional framework is not yet finalised. Loss and damage was raised as an important issue to be addressed during COP26. There were some promising moves, such as the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, pledging 2 million towards a loss and damage finance facility. But many rich nations did not support this. The negotiations led to the proposal to establish the Glasgow Finance Facility for loss and damage. But the wording of the decision was changed at the last minute to the Glasgow Dialogues, which committed to discussing arrangements for funding activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage. This change has delayed any real financial support for loss and damage in the short term. This was very disappointing for developing country parties, who will be pushing once more to secure financing for loss and damage at COP27, and holding other countries to account for the US$100 billion annual commitment towards climate finance which has yet to materialise. Many climate activists from the global south feel that if a financing facility for loss and damage is not discussed at COP27, it will be a failed conference. Imraan Valodia receives funding from a range of international foundations that fund academic research. Julia Taylor receives funding from the African Climate Foundation. By Imraan Valodia, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, University of the Witwatersrand And Julia Taylor, Researcher: Climate and Inequality, University of the Witwatersrand Almost eight million people in South Sudan, or two-thirds of the population in the deeply troubled country, are at risk of severe hunger, the United Nations warned on Thursday. The misery in one of the poorest nations on the planet is being compounded by widespread flooding which has now affected more than one million people, according to the UN. The world's youngest country has grappled with deadly conflict, natural disasters, economic malaise and relentless political infighting since it won independence from Sudan in 2011. "Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise across the flood, drought, and conflict-affected areas of South Sudan, with some communities likely to face starvation if humanitarian assistance is not sustained and climate adaptation measures are not scaled-up," the UN said. In a joint report, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN children's fund UNICEF and the World Food Programme said the proportion of people facing high levels of food insecurity and malnourishment "is at the highest level ever", surpassing levels seen even during the conflict in 2013 and 2016. The report said 7.76 million people are likely to face acute food insecurity during the April-July 2023 lean season while 1.4 million children will be malnourished. 'Famine prevention mode' The report blamed a combination of conflict, poor macroeconomic conditions, extreme climate events, and spiralling costs of food and fuel as well as a decline in funding for humanitarian programmes. "We've been in famine prevention mode all year and have staved off the worst outcomes, but this is not enough," Makena Walker, acting country director for WFP in South Sudan, said in a statement. "South Sudan is on the frontlines of the climate crisis and day in, day out families are losing their homes, cattle, fields and hope to extreme weather," Walker said. "Without humanitarian food assistance, millions more will find themselves in an increasingly dire situation and unable to provide even the most basic food for their families." The UN says it has been in 'famine prevention mode' for South Sudan. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP/File) South Sudan has spent more than half of its life as a nation at war, with nearly 400,000 people dying during a five-year civil war that ended in 2018. Famine was declared in South Sudan in 2017 in Leer and Mayendit counties in Unity State, areas that have often been a flashpoint for violence. South Sudan's Agriculture and Food Security Minister Josephine Lagu said the latest findings presented at a briefing in Juba were "worrying" but that the government had to focus on peace building to resolve the crisis. In August, the country's leaders announced, to the dismay of the international community, that they were extending a transitional government two years beyond a deadline agreed under a 2018 peace deal. Lagu told reporters the move was aimed at giving "more time to stabilise the country". "If we can actually achieve peace across the country including the current areas where there are hotspots... we will be halfway really to addressing the issues of food insecurity, so peace building is paramount." In another report issued on Thursday, the UN's humanitarian response agency OCHA said that more than one million people had been affected by torrential rain and flooding in 36 counties as well as Abyei, a disputed region between South Sudan and Sudan. "The ongoing flood response is hampered by renewed violence and insecurity, inaccessibility due to impassable roads, broken bridges, flooded airstrips, the lack of air assets, the lack of critical core pipeline supplies and funding constraints," it said. It cited media reports that the government of neighbouring Uganda may open dams on the White Nile to relieve congesting, warning that if the water is released, "it will likely exacerbate flooding downstream in South Sudan". 03.11.2022 LISTEN Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has revealed that the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy may delay due to ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout. The Budget statement was supposed to be presented on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, November 15 as spelt out by the Public Financial Act. But the latest information from the Majority Leader suggests that is likely to be rescheduled due to ongoing discussions with the Bretton Woods Institution. I am not sure exactly when, I still need to have some discussions with the Minister responsible for Finance to determine exactly when he will be able to submit the document to usThe discussions that are going on with the IMF, I think it is going to take a while, the Majority Leader told journalists on Thursday. Ghana is expecting to receive $3 billion over three years from the International Monetary Fund if an agreement on a program is reached. Bloomberg reported that the loan requested was double the amount of $1.5 billion that Ghana had earlier requested. Responding to the signing of a peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) following two years of brutal conflict, Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty Internationals Director for East and Southern Africa, said: The signing of a peace agreement today is a step in the right direction, yet further strides must be taken to address the accountability deficit that has permeated the conflict since it began. All parties to the war have committed unspeakable abuses, including mass, extrajudicial executions and sexual violence against women and girls. These appalling crimes cannot simply be washed away. At present, the accord fails to offer a clear roadmap on how to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and overlooks rampant impunity in the country, which could lead to violations being repeated. To ensure justice for victims and survivors of atrocities, the Ethiopian authorities must allow unfettered access to human rights investigators, including the UN-mandated International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. They must also provide humanitarian corridors so that the thousands of people facing starvation and medical emergencies can get the assistance they need. Background The signing of the peace agreement on Wednesday follows a week of negotiations and two years of fighting. The armed conflict in Ethiopia pits forces aligned with Ethiopia's federal government against those affiliated with Tigray's regional government led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Amid the conflict, millions of civilians have been displaced, while thousands of people have been killed due to ethnic violence. The region has been largely cut off from the outside world, and so humanitarian aid has also been denied to millions of people in Tigray. For further information please contact: Press Service Amnesty International email: [email protected] tel.: +44 (0) 20 7413 5566 A member of the NPP National Communications Team, Lawrence Kwesi Botchway Jnr, has lashed out at Ghanaian actress and model, Andrea Owusu, widely known as Efia Odo, for lambasting President Akufo-Addo over Economic hardship. According to him, Efia Odo does not have any moral right to criticize Akufo-Addo's competence because she does not have respect for elders. Lawrence Kwesi Botchway Jnr allegedly disclosed that Efia Odo is involved in prostitution hence she does not have the moral right to criticize Akufo-Addo over economic hardship. "Because of democracy anybody can just wake up and disrespect the President for no reason. Efia Odo has no moral right to complain what work is she doing that Akufo-Addo has collapsed her job? I have not heard that prostitutes in Ghana are complaining over hardship so she should keep quiet," Lawrence Kwesi Botchway Jnr exclusively told Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Adwenekasa on Accra-based Original FM 91.9. "Efia Odo doesn't respect she took advantage of the fix country campaign to insult President Akufo-Addo severally," he added The outspoken socialite, who has repeatedly criticised the President said the economic situation in the country is escalating and the President should swiftly put in measures to save the situation. Efia Odo used very unpalatable words on the President some time back. However, her constant denigrations were not taken lightly by New Patriotic Party (NPP) followers who descended on her in similar fashion. Watch Full Video Here: Newly elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday in a visit intended to reassure Italy's partners following last month's far-right election victory. Meloni was to meet three of the EU's top figures including EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola and European Council President Charles Michel. Posting on social media ahead of today's visit, Meloni wrote: Italy's voice in Europe will be strong: we are ready to tackle the big issues, starting with the energy crisis, working together on a solution to support families and businesses and curb speculation." Strategic visit The choice of Brussels for her first overseas trip since taking office two weeks ago is a strategic one. Meloni and her nationalist Brothers of Italy party have been critical of EU powers in the past, while her populist coalition ally the League once floated the idea of an Italexit withdrawing from the bloc altogether. Yet while Euroscepticism plays well with some Italian voters, Meloni's government which also includes Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party knows it is dependent on EU support to fund campaign promises to tackle the country's economic woes, most urgently soaring energy bills. A joint plan to ease the energy burden on consumers was expected to be the main focus of Meloni's talks with von der Leyen. Another pressing topic is the post-Covid recovery plan negotiated by Meloni's predecessor, centrist technocrat Mario Draghi, which stands to bring Italy 200 billion of EU funds in exchange for structural reforms. While Meloni has suggested that the plan needs adjustments to factor in the higher cost of power and raw materials, she is not expected to push for any more major revisions at this stage. Economic balancing act Instead, the new Prime Minister must seek to establish how much more debt Brussels will allow Italy to take on as she prepares her government's first budget, which is due to be submitted to the European Commission by the end of this month. Having promised not to increase Italy's already massive public deficit further and at the same time pledging to extend a flat tax to higher earners the governing coalition faces a challenge to balance expensive reforms with fiscal responsibility. Its financial policies have been entrusted to Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, a relative moderate and pro-European who also served in Draghi's cabinet making him a safe choice apt to reassure Brussels. Meloni's visit to the heart of the EU was intended to send a similar signal. The trip itself is the message, a Brothers of Italy source told Politico. It follows Meloni's decision to meet French President Emmanuel Macron just hours after formally taking office last month, when the two leaders agreed on the willingness to continue to cooperate on the major common challenges at the European level and in respect of mutual national interests, according to her office. Meloni's first day also saw her take a phone call with von der Leyen, who said she looked forward to constructive cooperation with Italy's new leader. The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Education matters hence quality education cannot thrive without the provision of educational materials. In light of this, mining giant Anglogold Ashanti teamed up with Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation to donate 17,000 English and Science textbooks to 58 schools in Obuasi. The gesture followed consultations with the Education Directorates of the Obuasi Municipal and Obuasi East District, to arrive at the actual needs of the schools in the two Districts. Briefing the media after the first phase of the donations Kwabena Owusu Ababio, stakeholder relations and capacity building manager for Otumfuo Foundation said the donation forms part of the vision of the Foundation to provide equal learning opportunities and to support the education of children from pre-school age through to adolescence. He said the partnership with Anglogold Ashanti is borne out of the resolve of the mining company to improve the livelihoods of people in its area of operation through education as incorporated in its 10-year Socio-Economic Development Plan. Mr. Abibio said the 17,000 NaCCA approved learning materials comprised of 7,640 English Language textbooks and 9,360 Science books for pupils in primary school to JHS. "Our patron Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is keen on not only making sure Teaching and learning materials are readily available but also improving the livelihoods and welfare of teachers. He believes improving education calls for satisfying the needs of all the stakeholders involved," he stated. The Obuasi East District Education Director Kwabena Owusu Nketia lauded Anglogold Ashanti and the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation for playing leading roles in the improvement of education in the country. He appealed to other stakeholders to also compliment the efforts of government to improve education in Ghana. "Whiles I commend AGA and Otumfuo Foundation for their kind gesture, I am appealing to other stakeholders to also come on board to support education. We cannot leave the development of education to only the Government, we all have a responsibility," he stated. Mr. Owusu Nketia seized the opportunity to assure residents of Obuasi that, the donation presents an opportunity for the teachers to also put in their best efforts to ensure that the vision of the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation and Anglogold Ashanti, towards education is realised. A pupil of Boete Experimental school, Lawrence Ntsiful thanked Anglogold Ashanti and the Otumfuo Foundation for the donation. He emphasised that the gesture will go a long way to help them improve upon their studies. 04.11.2022 LISTEN Dr. Adu Appiah-Kubi, an obstetrics and gynecology consultant at the Ho Teaching Hospital has debunked claims that hernia can be melted by taking some herbal concoction. Most people, most times on radio stations and other platforms claim to have medication to treat hernia by melting its growth, the fact is, those medications cannot melt hernia because a patient requires surgery to get the hernia out. Dr. Appiah-Kubi gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the end a three-day medical outreach programme organised by the management of the Sunyani-based Suncity Radio and Suncity Imperial Lodge in collaboration with the Sunyani Municipal Hospital in Sunyani. He advised the public to seek initial treatment of health issues to avoid complications and explained that a prolonged stay by a person suffering from hernia can cause strangulation and that can create other complications. The event, an annual affair provides free health care delivery services to individuals having health conditions that required surgery and other forms of treatment but could not afford to pay for the cost because of financial challenges. A team of 40 medical experts that comprised Surgeons, Urologists, Gynecologists, Anesthetists, Theatre and Recovery Nurses and other cadres of health staff were assembled to attend to beneficiaries suffering from illnesses such as hernia, fibroid and ovarian cyst. Other health diseases treated were hydrocele, prostrate, Bartholin cyst, lipoma, and ganglion cyst while screening about cervical cancer and general health consultation were also done. Dr. Appiah-Kubi said 180 people benefited from the programme, saying 50 surgeries that comprised 29 males and 21 females were performed, and the youngest beneficiary was seven years and the oldest aged 84. He said surgical cases the team conducted were hernia, 22, fibroid, 22, hydrocele three and hysterectomy four with the remaining 129 as general health services. Mr. Ransford Antwi, the Chief Executive Officer of Suncity Radio based in Sunyani speaking in another interview with the GNA said with an affordable and accessible healthcare system most people would be comfortable visiting health facilities to express their health conditions to professionals. Mr. Antwi explained that had not been the case, therefore most people abandon healthcare facilities due to financial challenges. He encouraged philanthropists and corporate organisations to show benevolence to the vulnerable in society, irrespective of the challenging times because this is the time, they need the support most. Madam Naila Yussif, mother of a seven-year-old boy, a hernia patient and beneficiary told the GNA in an interview that the boy had been suffering from the disease since he was born, but due to financial constraints, she could not report to the hospital for the surgery to be done. So, I heard the message about the free medical outreach and decided to capitalise on it, she added. GNA The COVID-19 National Trust Fund has raised GH62.33 million as of August 2022. A total of GH57.2 million out of the amount has been disbursed to support various projects, programmes, activities and for administrative purposes. Dr William Collins Asare, the Administrator of the Trust Fund, made this known at the opening of the 1st Oku Ampofo Memorial conference on medicinal plants research organised by the Center for Plant Medicine Research in Accra. The three-day conference is on the theme: Medicinal Plant Research: Innovation and Prospects in a Pandemic Era, and seeks to give the Center the opportunity to showcase preliminary results from on-going research project on the development of herbal products against COVID-19 with support from the COVID-19 National Trust Fund. The Administrator said since the inception of the Fund in April 2020, a cumulative amount of GH22 million had been spent on various interventions. The GHS22 million, he said, was used for the purchase and distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). These are nose masks, thermometer guns, face shields, cover ups, overalls, Veronica buckets, disposal bed sheets, and disposable gloves. The rest are hand/surface sanitisers, liquid soaps, tissue paper and other medical items, which have been distributed to about 150 hospitals, medical facilities, care management centers, COVID-19 Isolation Centres, small health centers, CHPS Compounds, and Schools in all the 16 regions. Dr Asare said the Trust Fund had also supported various institutions such as the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Veterinary Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Laboratory, and the Ghana Health Service, with the cumulative amount of GH7,555,082.00 to contribute to their COVID-19 testing activities. The COVID-19 National Trust Fund has also disbursed a cumulative amount of GH8,316,000.55 to support the construction of projects at various medical facilities, including the support for the construction of the National Infectious Diseases Centre at the Ga East Municipality in Accra, which was commissioned in July 2020. The support for the rehabilitation and equipping of a COVID-19 Isolation Centre at the Pantang Hospital, which was commissioned in September 2021, the support for the rehabilitation and equipping of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital COVID-19 Treatment Centre, which is currently on-going. This includes the support for the laying of a pipeline to connect the Greater Accra Regional Hospital's Oxygen Plant to the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, which was commissioned in July 2021, he stated. Dr Asare said the COVID-19 National Trust Fund partnered various public and private organisations, including the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and the National Commission on Culture (NCC). The Fund also supported the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), InGenius Africa (a private content development/production house), Ebeye Yie Foundation, and many more, to create awareness and educate the public on Corona virus and how to combat the pandemic. He said the Trust Fund had spent a cumulative amount of about GH4,852,554.00 to promote effective information dissemination on the need for the continuous adherence to the prevention and safety protocols of the pandemic and for all eligible Ghanaians to get vaccinated against the virus. The Administrator noted that a cumulative amount of GH4,995,375.92 had so far been provided by the Fund to research and innovation institutions in the quest to promote research and innovation on various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), and the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR) Mampong Akuapem. Dr Asare stated that about 7,927 identified needy and vulnerable persons across the country affected by the COVID-19 pandemic were supported with GHC500.00 each, all constituting a total of GH3,964,500.00. He said food items, including bags of rice, pasta, Indomie, tinned foods, and different types of drinks were distributed to children's Homes, Orphanages, Children Hospitals, Aged Groups under the umbrella of HELPAGE Ghana. Other needy persons were also given those items, especially during the lockdown period in Greater Accra, Kasoa, Greater Kumasi and its environs. The Administrator appealed to the public and corporate bodies to continue to make contributions in cash and in kind to the Trust Fund because numerous requests for support kept coming. GNA Final Results iof the examinations conducted in July by the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) of the General Legal Council (GLC) to select qualified students of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) to be called to the Ghana Bar this year have been released. The general position of Ghanas law is that the GLC is the primary institution that regulates legal education in Ghana. However, the IEC, an institution created under the authority of Parliament in 2018, has the exclusive mandate of conducting and managing both entrance examinations for admission into the GSL and all internal exams taken by law students. The final results were released after midday on Thursday, November 3, 2022. Citi News reporters saw several successful candidates jubilating and screaming out loud. Others wept uncontrollably upon finding out that their names were not on the list of candidates certified as having passed all their final exams. Citi News analysis of the results shows that some 81 percent of the over 800 Part Two Professional Law Course students defined as candidates who started and completed their professional law course on various campuses of the GSL have passed. Director of Legal Education, Yaw Oppong However, 18 percent of candidates who sat for the exams failed at least one or more of the papers written in July 2022. The percentage of successful candidates belonging to the post-call law class defined as persons who have been called to the Bar in other common law jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Nigeria and The Gambia was, however, lower; at over 60 percent. Around 33 percent of post-call candidates failed at least one paper, meaning they are ineligible to be considered for the Ghana Bar this year. Put together, some 850 candidates of the Ghana School of Law are fit to be considered for the Ghana Bar on November 11, 2022, provided they have equally met other requirements, such as Good character. Speaking to Citi News after the results were published on the noticeboards of the GSL, one source said, The results this year are both historic and remarkable. The number of students who sat for the exams this year is huge, the source said. From the numbers passing, it is safe to state proudly that the system for training lawyers in Ghana is significantly improving in a way that ensures that we are not only training more lawyers for Ghana but are equally keeping a firm eye on high quality, the source added. It is regrettable some of the candidates could not make it. Truly unfortunate. However, the good thing is that they can try their luck next time, the source added. To pass a paper, a candidate must obtain at least 50 percent of the 100 available marks per paper. Overall, a candidate who fails no more than two papers is said to be referred, whereas a candidate who fails three or more examination papers is deemed to have failed and will thus repeat the entire class. It is important to note that merely passing the final exams does not give a candidate an automatic right to be called to the Bar. Beyond passing his exams, a successful candidate is required to satisfy the General Legal Council that he is a person of Good Character. Thus, for example, a candidate may have passed all his or her final exams but may still not be called to the Bar if it is established that he is a person with a criminal record. I am so happy that the long wait is over, one excited candidate, Jessica, told Citi News. I am so relieved that this chapter is over. It has been six long years of sleepless nights, and finally, I am on my way to be called to the Ghana Bar, remarked Rebecca, another candidate. I am rushing to the boutiques from here to buy my shoes and suits for the Call ceremony. You have no idea what it feels like to pass a law school exam, said Kofi, another successful exam. It is as if the whole world has been lifted off my shoulders, he added. Oh! My name is not on the list of successful candidates, meaning I have failed one or more of my papers, said one unsuccessful candidate with tears streaming down her eyes. It hurts so much, but I am trusting God for a better outcome next year, the candidate added. Another stated, we did our best but our best was not enough. We do better next time. Of the Part Two candidates who sat the exams, 11 percent have been referred, meaning they failed at least one or two papers. Candidates in this category usually rewrite their papers in the first quarter of the new year. The successful ones will then be called to the Mini-Bar in either May or June. For part 2 only, only four candidates, representing 0.5 percent, failed three or more papers, meaning they are to repeat the entire Part Two course. One hundred one candidates took the exams for the post-call, with 61 passing all papers. Thirty-four post-call candidates were referred, meaning they are eligible to rewrite the papers they failed in the first part of 2023. Close to six percent failed at least three or more of their papers, meaning they will have to re-take the entire post-call course. In September this year, the GLC announced it would Call newly qualified lawyers to the Ghana Bar on Friday, 11 November 2022. On Tuesday, 8 November 2022, the GLC is expected to hold a major dinner in honour of all the successful candidates. The November date broke tradition, as the GLC typically calls freshly qualified lawyers to the Bar every year in early October. Please see below for photographs of the complete list of the passed students set to be called to the Bar on 11 November 2022. By Citi Newsroom Senegal's main opposition leader appeared in a Dakar court over rape accusations for the first time on Thursday, with a lawyer calling the case a state "conspiracy" that should be dropped. Ousmane Sonko, 48, was accused last year of raping an employee of a beauty salon where he was getting a massage. His arrest and indictment in March 2021 led to several days of deadly riots in Senegal, a nation usually viewed as a beacon of stability in politically volatile West Africa. Sonko claims Senegalese President Macky Sall is attempting to set a trap for him and his supporters and on Wednesday appealed for calm, urging them not to gather outside the court. Thursday's hearing in the Senegalese capital lasted three hours. A large security presence was deployed throughout the city, particularly around Sonko's home and the court building. Cire Cledor Ly, one of Sonko's lawyers, told AFP his client exposed a "badly planned conspiracy" and debunked "fabrications and lies (designed) to taint a political leader". Sonko hopes the case will be dropped entirely due to the "non-existent acts" he is accused of, Ly added. Sonko tweeted that the hearing "went very well" but he was left "without protection" after gendarmes arrested some of his security team. They had been detained following violence last week during a political trip in western Senegal, the local prosecutor said in a statement. The authorities have denied any misuse of state institutions in the legal proceedings against Sonko, who came third in the last presidential election in 2019 and plans to run again in 2024. He was elected mayor of the southern city of Ziguinchor in January and has enjoyed a rapid political rise in part thanks to his popularity with young people. But critics characterise him as a populist firebrand. He regularly tears into social elites and corruption, slamming the economic and political grip of multinational firms and former colonial power France. Sall, who was elected in 2012 and again in 2019, has remained vague on whether he intends to run for a controversial third term in 2024. Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has invited to a meeting teacher unions threatening to embark on a strike if the appointment of the new Director-General for the Ghana Education Service (GES) is not reversed. Three teacher unions had vowed to lay down their tools following the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as the Director-General of the GES. They are, the National President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers. A statement signed by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah explained that the meeting scheduled for Friday, November 4, 2022, is to help find [an] amicable resolution to the impasse. The unions, since the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah on October 19, have opposed the move, arguing that the new GES Director-General does not qualify to occupy the position. But the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum had defended the appointment saying that the accusations of the teacher unions were unfounded. The Minister of Education is expected to be at the meeting. By this invitation, the Ministry entreats all stakeholders to exercise restraint whilst the matter is being amicably resolved, the Labour Minister added in the statement. citinewsroom 04.11.2022 LISTEN Many construction and real estate companies are finding it difficult to sustain their businesses in the economic crisis. Mr. Simon Sawer Tetteh, Managing Director of Sawer-Nanor and Sons Company Limited, who told the Ghana News Agency in an interview, said many the companies were, therefore, either downsizing their workforce or shutting down completely. This is because they were no longer able to cope with the effects of the frequent price hikes of the materials needed for their work amid paying their workers. The construction industry is hit hard by the current economic hardship, so as business people we are either laying off some of our workers or trying to strategise to just break even, and sometimes we record a complete loss on a project, he emphasised. He explained that, for instance, within four months, the price of the high tensile iron rod moved from about GHS4,500.00 to GHS6,500.00, then to GHS8,500.00 and was now selling at about GHS 11,500.00. That of cement had moved from less than GHS 50.00 a bag to between GHS 80.00 and GHS 85.00, depending on the area it was being sold within the same period. So, we are doing a project at Abetifi, and I can tell you that within a week, the price of the sand that was GHS1,800.00 moved to GHS2,500.00 and now it is GHS 3,100.00 per 20 cubic truck-load, he explained. The price of a load of chippings also increased over the period from GHS3,000.00 to GHS 4,500 and is currently selling at GHS5,500 these are astronomical increases that you cannot manage as a contractor because it has a huge bearing on the cost of the project. Recently we checked our books, and we realised that the variations alone are over 52 percent of the contract price, you can imagine that if you are doing a project and such a huge percentage of cost must be added, you are in trouble. In view of the high variation in the project cost, Mr Tetteh said, most of the works his company was handling had stalled as clients were unable to pay for certificates raised after the works. This was resulting in job losses, and confusion among clients, contractors and their workers. It had become difficult to pay the salaries of workers as clients were unable to pay for the job done. Workers are asking for wage increment at the same time when the work itself is not available we are in very difficult times, he stressed. GNA It is being billed as the "African COP" but scientists and campaigners on the continent least responsible for climate change fear the UN summit that begins on Sunday in Egypt will once again leave them sidelined. As the toll of climate-linked disasters mounts in debt-ridden countries across Africa, governments are demanding that rich polluters pay for the harm their emissions have already caused, known as "loss and damage". "Historically, Africa is responsible for less than four percent of global emissions, but Africans are suffering some of the most brutal impacts of the climate crisis," said Ugandan campaigner Vanessa Nakate. "We need financial support to cope with the loss and the damage we're experiencing across the continent. We need polluters to compensate for the destruction they've caused." Richer governments rejected a call for a financial mechanism to address losses and damage at last year's climate talks in Glasgow and instead negotiators agreed to start a "dialogue" on financial compensation. But as floods, heat waves and droughts sweep across the planet, hitting the most vulnerable hardest, activists are hoping the issue will take centre stage at COP27 in Egypt. African countries 'shortchanged' In Africa alone, extreme weather events have killed at least 4,000 people and displaced 19 million so far this year, a study by the Carbon Brief news service said last week. The ongoing drought in East Africa is impacting the livelihoods of more than nine million people, and 1.4 million people have been displaced in recent weeks in the worst floods on record in Nigeria. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February warned that tens of millions of Africans face a future marked by drought, disease and displacement due to global heating. "Multiple African countries are projected to face compounding risks from: reduced food production across crops, livestock and fisheries; increasing heat-related mortality; heat-related loss of labour productivity; and flooding from sea level rise," scientists wrote in a dedicated chapter on the continent. Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor in environment and development at Britain's Reading University, said that African nations would demand greater action from the polluting countries that are driving climate change. "African countries believe they have been significantly shortchanged because they are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change," he told AFP. "Ultimately, the best way to stave off a more devastating impact of climate change on the continent is through rapid decarbonisation." Countries agreed at last year's UN climate talks in Glasgow to raise the ambition of their emissions-cutting plans. However, the UN says those additional measures would result in a pollution cut of less than one percent by 2030. The Glasgow summit also produced a new strategy for financing the energy transition, with a group of rich nations committing to providing $8.5 billion to coal-dependent South Africa over three to five years -- in grants and loans -- to help its climate plan and catalyse private investment. This week the World Bank said that South Africa, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, will require at least $500 billion to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Susan Chomba, director of the African NGO Vital Landscapes, said governments should use COP27 to push green development investment on the continent. "We do need development for our people and we need to use the resources that are within our reach on the continent," she said. "The war in Ukraine has exposed the naked risk of overdependence on fossil fuels, even for the richest economies, but also the ripple effect that it is having on energy fertiliser and food prices on the continent." 'Fake promises' Progress at recent COPs has been stymied by a failed promise by rich nations to provide at least $100 billion annually to developing ones to help decarbonise while adapting to climate impacts. Some 1.4 million people have been displaced in recent weeks in the worst floods on record in Nigeria. By Radeno Haniel (AFP/File) "The key point that I'm really looking forward to is that COP27 is going to be a COP where we're going to be able to build up trust," said Ineza Grace from the Loss and Damage Youth Collaborative. "All of those fake promises have never been accomplished and we are the generation that is kind of living in the hotspot. But we are also a generation that does not want to sit down and just continue to be victims." Okereke said to expect "constructive ambiguity" around loss and damage finance. "If they do set up such a facility then it might still be four or five years before the structure or the functionalities of such a facility is agreed," said Okereke. "So poor countries should be aware that while having a facility is a victory, it may not necessarily translate to more dollars coming to them." An Economic Adviser at the Vice Presidents Office, Dr. Kabiru Mahama has disclosed that Ghana will next year have a new oil refinery. In the wake of the hike in prices of petroleum products in the country, there have been calls for the government to revive the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to refine cheaper fuel for the country. Speaking on GHOne TV, Dr. Kabiru Mahama has assured that the government is working to revive TOR. According to him, the refinery will be revived by the government to serve its intended purpose. The economic Adviser at the Vice Presidents Office further disclosed that there are ongoing talks for a Chinese investor to invest 3 billion dollars to set up a refinery in the country. TOR is not refining any product from our checks as we sit here. Not even a single barrel is being produced at TOR. They have had some of their machine broken down as a result of mismanagement. There are several factors that come into play which is not an issue I will want to dive into today. What I will want to say is a Chinese investor is coming with a three billion investment to put up a refinery. This refinery is expected to start operation in the first quarter of 2023, Mr. Kabiru Mahama disclosed. Meanwhile, government has dispatched some delegation to go and look for affordable and reliable fuel to reduce the frequent hikes in fuel prices in Ghana. Fred Agbenyo 04.11.2022 LISTEN A member of the communications team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fred Agbenyo has says he is not surprised at fears that the Finance Ministers presentation of the 2023 Budget statement could be delayed. According to him, the budget is delaying because government is clueless after plunging the country into economic crisis. He is of the view that after mismanaging the economy, government now has nothing to offer Ghanaians. The government has nothing to present to us, the government is clueless, the government has no ideas, I am not surprised the budget is delaying. READ MORE: It will be difficult for Finance Minister to present 2023 Budget to Parliament on November 15 - Majority Leader There is some confusion in government, they dont know what to present to the people, they dont know what to tell Ghanaians, Fred Agbenyo told TV3 in an interview on Friday. He alleged that talks between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government of Ghana have been delayed because the Fund representatives are being very skeptical over the countrys challenging situation. IMF is disappointed that Ghanaians dont deserve where we are now but for the mismanagement of the economy. They are very skeptical, they are very reluctant, Fred Agbenyo added while speaking on TV3 New Day programme. Cameroon President Paul Biya, who on Sunday marks 40 years in power, is Africa's second longest-serving leader after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. But they are far from alone among leaders on the continent who have clocked up decades in office. Here's a snapshot of Africa's ageing rulers: Biya: Four decades Cameroon has lived through 40 years of largely unchallenged and hardline rule under Biya. The 89-year-old runs the country through a very small circle of aides, whom he appoints and banishes as he sees fit. Openly talking about succession is taboo even for his closest supporters, and Biya has overseen a ruthless crackdown on dissent since his highly contested re-election in 2018. Obiang: Longest-serving Obiang, who came to power in an August 3, 1979 coup, is Africa's longest-serving leader, with 43 years at the helm. Next month, at the age of 80, he will run for a sixth term lasting seven years. Nguesso: 38 years In Congo-Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso, 78, has been in power for 38 years, albeit not uninterruptedly. He was president from 1979 to 1992, then returned to office in 1997 after a civil war. He was re-elected in 2016 after the passing of a new constitution, then won a fourth mandate on March 21 this year. Museveni: A sixth term In Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, 78, has led his country for 36 years, since January 1986. He was re-elected in January 2021 for a sixth term after a contested campaign. A Supreme Court ruling to abolish an age ceiling of 75 allowed him to stand once again and continue serving. King Mswati III: In power at 18 Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Africa's last remaining absolute monarchy, has been ruled by King Mswati III for 36 years. He ascended to the throne in April 1986 aged just 18. Eritrea: 30th anniversary looms Isaias Afwerki, 76, has ruled the Horn of Africa nation with an iron fist since independence in May 1993. African longevity Other African leaders in recent history also notched up huge spells in office. The record-breaker is Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, who ruled for 44 years before being overthrown in 1974. Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi held sway for almost 42 years. He was killed in 2011 as protests against his rule mushroomed into armed conflict. Gabon's Omar Bongo Ondimba had been at the helm for 41 years when he died in June 2009. Angolan leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down in September 2017 after 38 years in charge. Never democratically elected, the former Marxist rebel died in July 2022 aged 79. Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who died in September 2019 almost two years after being forced to step down, held office for more than 37 years. In Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in a coup in June 1989, remained in charge for 30 years until the military overthrew him in 2019. In Chad, Idriss Deby Itno ruled for 30 years from December 1990 until his death in April 2021. He was succeeded by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. 04.11.2022 LISTEN A lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah wants the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addision, to honourably resign from his post over the depreciation of the cedi. He claimed the Governor has performed abysmally as the caretaker of the countrys money, adding that the cedi keeps depreciating each day, with Ghanaians bearing the brunt. Mr. Otchere-Ankrah blamed the central bank Governor for the depreciation against major trading currencies. The cedi has lost more than 50% of its value since the beginning of the year and now selling to a dollar at over GH13. The lecturer stressed that the BoG Governor should either resign or be sacked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Speaking on Peace FMs morning show, Kokrokoo, Otchere-Ankrah said, The Bank of Ghana Governor must resign from his position. He has refused to perform to the expectations of Ghanaians. The cedi keeps depreciating, while the Governor is unable to solve the situation. Some of his staff enrol their children in dollar-paying schools in East Legon, Cantonments and Airport residential area, what has he done about it? Landlords who charge in charge dollars should be prosecuted. He questioned the number of Ghanaians who will be able to purchase petrol if it shoots up to GH30 per litre in 2023. The lecturer advised the government to pay attention to the needs of Ghanaians. Theres so much hardship in the system, some are self-inflicted, we should stop engaging in rhetoric and work hard to solve the economic crisis. Some government appointees are just sleeping on their job. The government must listen to the cry of Ghanaians, the hustle is real, if care is not taken people will commit suicide, he said. His call comes on the back of a similar one made by the Minority in Parliament last week. citinewsroom A transport analyst, Magnus Quarshie, says the implementation of an efficient transport system by the state would ease some financial burden of commuters. Speaking to Citi News, after the recent transport fare increases, Mr. Quarshe said the Greater Accra Passengers Transport Executive (GHAPTE), should have been used to better organise the transport space. But as things stand, he said GHAPTE had been led away from its mandate to manage the system in Accra. We set up GHAPTE as a quasi-government arm to plan, manage and organise the system. Then all of a sudden we bought buses and gave the buses to them and turned them into an operator. Mr. Quarshie explained that the government, through state-owned transit organizations, could subsidize the cost of transportation by ensuring that the entities have the needed funds to operate. He warned that commuters would continue to bear the brunt if nothing is done about the situation. We seem to have fine plans. When it is about implementation, we get so disorganised and that is what is happening. We need to bite the bullet and implement a win-win system. It is so sad. Commuters spend almost 50 or 60 percent of their salary on transport, Mr. Quarshie said. By Citi Newsroom The Member of Parliament for Adansi-Asokwa, K.T Hammond, has accused the Bulk Oil Distributors and Oil Marketing Companies of contributing to the frequent hikes in fuel prices. Mr Hammond, who is also a member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, said inasmuch as prices of petroleum products may be high on the international market, firms within the value chain are taking advantage of the exchange rate to outrageously price their products. Speaking to journalists, K.T Hammond urged the government to probe the activities of such firms to help tackle the escalation of the prices. It's the Oil marketing companies, the big ones, the BDCs that I have a problem [with] so they better sort it out. I am sure the Ministry of Finance, the Government, and the Ministry of Energy obviously are looking into this. I am concerned that the Oil Marketing companies are making unnecessary profits, I think we should be careful how they are also playing the marketThe [oil] companies must be very careful how things play out, Mr Hammond said. Mr Hammond's comment comes after another increment in fuel prices on Tuesday, with petrol selling at about GH18 per litre and diesel retailing at over GH23 a litre. The Chief Policy Analyst at the Ghana Institute of Public Policy Options Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby on Tuesday also lashed out at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) for doing little or nothing in fighting for petroleum users in the wake of consistent rise in fuel prices. Dr. Wereko-Brobby accused COPEC of currently being the chief cheerleader for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in announcing annoying increases in the prices of petroleum products. In an interview on Eyewitness News, he wondered why COPEC has refused to fight for the interest of consumers, who are bearing the brunt of price increases and taxes slapped on the products. By Citi Newsroom The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has paid GH1.8 million in compensation to 24 farmers affected by the bird flu in the Central Region. The compensations were paid for the destruction of about 99,744 birds comprising about 20,744, which died from the disease, and 78,997 killed by veterinary officers in 2021 to prevent further spread. During the period, 151 bags of poultry feed and 442 crates of eggs were also destroyed. Dr Patrick Abakah, the Acting Director of the Veterinary Services of MoFA, said the payment of compensation was carried out transparently to ensure justice for every poultry farmer who was affected. He was speaking in Cape Coast on Thursday during an agriculture stakeholders forum, organised by the MoFA to assess the progress of the sector towards sustaining national food security. Dr Abakah announced that 11 months into 2022, the bird flu infestation had reduced to 10,376 in seven farms. Also, about 5,228 birds died from the disease whereas 4,855 were killed, adding that 59 bags of feeds plus 81 crates of eggs were destroyed. Nationally, he said more than GH44 million has been approved to be paid as compensation to poultry farmers affected by the bird flu outbreak in the country in 2021. A total of 701,955 birds were killed in the 10 affected regions. To forestall the frequent reoccurrence of the bird flu and to combat other animal diseases, Dr Abakah said the Ministry, through the Veterinary Services Department (VSD), was working to empower personnel with logistics to enforce the standardisation of all poultry farms. That would ensure that all animal farms were certified and erring farmers sanctioned to sustain the livestock industry. The Government had also finalised an Animal Health Import Bill for consideration and passage into law by Parliament to enhance effective regulation of the poultry and livestock industry. Dr Abakah said the action plan of the Ministry had also been approved by Cabinet to address the institutional weaknesses of the VSD throughout the country. In view of that the Government had given approval for the recruitment of 1,100 veterinary professionals for deployment across the country as part of measures to help prevent the recurrence of the bird flu. Dr Abakah said financial clearance had been given for the initial recruitment of 550 veterinary professionals, while the remaining 550 would be engaged within a period of two years to strengthen the human resource capacity of the VSD. Approval had been given for the procurement of vehicles, motorbikes, and a number of logistics to revamp VSD's operations for effective surveillance and early detection of any animal disease and for rapid response and ccontrol. That would also facilitate intensification of farm visits to ensure biosecurity, depopulation and disinfection to eliminate the high risk of infection. Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Sector Minister, commended the Central Region and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Rice Value Chain Improvement project. With the unrelenting commitment to the project, he was optimistic that the region would become the rice hub of Ghana in no time. The project was launched in June 2021 and is being implemented in five districts in the region; Gomoa East, Assin Fosu, Assin North, Assin South, and Twifo Atti-Morkwa. Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, expressed the Regional Coordinating Councils resolve to support the project to improve the quality of life of farmers in the region by increasing rice production. She said the project had a broader goal of increasing rice production and the value-chain. The value chain-oriented project was formulated to take care of all activities along the chain from production through to post harvest management, processing and packaging, as well as marketing support. GNA When Paul Biya first took the helm of Cameroon, Ronald Reagan was in his second year of presidency, Madonna had not yet made the charts and the Soviet Union was still nearly a decade away from break-up. Biya, who at 89 will notch up 40 years in power on Sunday, became one of the world's longest-serving leaders thanks to iron-fisted rule and support from loyalists in key positions. After seven years as the central African country's prime minister, he entered the presidential palace on November 6, 1982, becoming only the second head of state since independence from France in 1960. His four-decade-long grip is a tribute to tightrope-walker skills in a country facing social, political and security problems and struggling with economic disparity. His nicknames among the public are "Popol", an avuncular form of Paul, and "The Sphinx" -- a testament to his canniness. "All you have to do is lose your head for a second, and you're done with," Biya told a journalist in 1986. In October 2018, he won a seventh consecutive term after elections marred by allegations of fraud, low turnout and separatist violence in Cameroon's anglophone regions. He was declared victor with 71.28 percent of the vote. After the fall of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2017, Biya became Africa's oldest president and its longest-serving after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power in 1979. In recent years he has cracked down on all opposition, political and armed, earning him rare criticism from the United Nations and Western capitals. His public appearances are limited to pre-recorded, painstakingly delivered televised speeches. The Biya 'system' Biya's appointment of loyalists to key posts -- speaker of the National Assembly, head of the army and the head of the state-run oil and gas company among them -- has helped underpin his long rule. "We are all the creatures or the creations of President Paul Biya," his minister for higher education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, said in 2011. "We are just his servants, or even better, his slaves." Titus Edzoa, a former confidant of the president who was secretary general of Biya's presidency between 1994 and 1996 and held ministerial posts on several occasions, has said: "If you try to go against Biya, you'll be crushed." He said Biya used "violence and terror, according to his mood and rumours, to subjugate his associates and subdue the whole of the population". Edzoa resigned as a health minister in 1997 to stand in elections. After that, he was arrested, accused of theft and spent 17 years behind bars. Maurice Kamto, who lost to Biya in the 2018 elections, was arrested the following year after he said he had been a victim of an "electoral hold-up." He was held for nine months and only freed after international pressure. In the restive English-speaking west of this francophone-majority country, Biya for years rejected demands for federalism. The anglophone campaign radicalised, leading to the declaration of an independent state in October 2017 -- a move that triggered a crackdown by Biya. Fighting has claimed around 6,000 lives and forced more than a million to flee their homes, according to estimates. Isolated from public Born in 1933, the third in a family of nine children, Biya once undertook training to become a Catholic priest before enrolling at the elite Sciences Po university in Paris. France is an ally and major foreign investor. "He's a fervent Catholic. He has good relations with the Vatican. But he also consults spiritualists quite often," said an informed source in Yaounde. Cameroon's first lady, Chantal Biya. By ALEXIS HUGUET (AFP) Two years after the death of his first wife, Jeanne-Irene, Biya in 1994 married Chantal, a former waitress and model almost 40 years younger than him, and who is famous for her exuberant hairstyles and high heels. He survived a coup attempt in 1984 that left a psychological mark, a security official in Yaounde said. "Before, he would step out in Yaounde, he was close to people. But think -- he was stuck for hours in a bunker and there were bullet marks all around when he emerged," the source said. Thereafter, unscripted public appearances became a rarity and when Biya's motorcade passed through the streets of the capital, crowds were kept at a distance. His repeated long absences from Cameroon, mostly in Switzerland or in his home village in his country's south, became bitterly criticised. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of investigative journalists, in 2018 found that Biya spent "at least four-and-a-half years of his (first) 35 years in power on private visits" abroad, at an estimated cost of $65 million. Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister has insisted that better days are ahead despite the worsening economic turbulence. He reiterated that he will turn the country's economic crisis to alleviate the sufferings of Ghanaians. According to the underfire minister, he has been through some pains and aches recently but still doing his best to restore hope. He is asking Ghanaians to stay with him to restore the economy together. Just to assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, nobody can really come and say you dont understand what we are doing, he noted. Mr. Ofori-Atta told the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in a meeting in Accra on Thursday, November 3, that regardless of the challenges, he believes that Ghana remains the best place for people to invest. Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana, we can do it, we should do it, he assured. He continued, The question is, what resources do we have? How we are going to deploy them in the nation that we have? How do you stand firm in very difficult circumstances by being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and you are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going? Meanwhile, some over 80 of the members of the Majority Caucus in Ghana's Parliament called on the President to dismiss the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta and the Minister of state at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen. They said the two are unfit to remain at post following the worsening economic crisis. They also vowed to boycott government businesses in Parliament should the President fail to dismiss Ken Ofori-Atta. However, a day after, on Wednesday, October 26, they (the Majority Caucus) allegedly met the President and agreed to his appeal to allow the Finance Minister conclude negotiations with IMF before a determination can be made on the proposed dismissal. The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has admonished all importers and the trading community to ensure that their goods are cleared within seven (7) days after being discharged. The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) wishes to bring to the attention of the trading community and the general public, that goods imported into the country per Section 52 of the Customs Act 2015 (Act 891), are supposed to be cleared within seven (7) days after being discharged or within a further period as the Commissioner-General may in special circumstances allow. A statement signed by the Communications and Public Affairs Department of GRA added that where the goods are not cleared within the stipulated seven days, they are deemed to be deposited in the State Warehouse for a period of not more than fourteen (14) days. The goods attract warehouse rent, and after twenty-one (21) days, they are put on the Uncleared Cargo List (UCL) and are due for forfeiture. According to the GRA, importers who do not clear their goods from the ports after this period need to apply to the Commissioner-General online via the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) for approval for an extension of time to clear. If approved, the GRA said the importer is given seven (7) days to clear the goods from the port. The statement added that the process of forfeiture starts immediately after the goods go on the UCL or after the expiry of any extension period. All importers are to note that, the purpose of UCL management is not only for recovery of Customs duty and charges, but also to ensure that the ports are decongested of uncleared cargo. By Citi Newsroom They are falling like ninepins, and the Tories have now given the weary people of Britain yet another prime minister. And what a catch: stupendously wealthy, youthful the youngest in two centuries and a lawbreaker. As Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Boris Johnson, he was fined for breaches during the partygate scandal, despite telling the Commons that he had attended no illegal gatherings. The statement released in response to the fine was ice cool, belying the fact that he had become the first Chancellor ever charged with an offence while in office. I understand that for figures in public office, the rules must be applied stringently in order to maintain public confidence. He respected the decision that has been made and have paid the fine. The outcome was always likely: not paying could have landed him in an even stickier situation. Being sly with regulations is obviously something that runs in the family. Sunaks wife, Akshata Murty, ran into some trouble earlier this year when attention was brought to her non-domiciled (non-dom) status in the UK. She owns a jaw dropping 700 million in shares in the Indian IT giant Infosys, from which she received 11.6 million in dividend income last year. Declaring ones domicile to be in another country can be a fine money saver: in this case, 2.1 million a year. But Murty wanted to be generous and gracious at least for her husbands political ambitions. I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family. The new prime ministers coming to power is a perfect statement of the leader estranged and continentally distant from voters, a person evidently bored by his time as a banker and keen to make a showing in parliament. In his technocratic aloofness, George Eaton suggests, Sunak resembles an IMF official poised to impose a structural adjustment programme on a stricken developing world economy. The analogy is not out of place, given what Trussonomics has done to Britain in a matter of weeks. While Sunak distanced himself from his predecessors loopy variant of steroid-fed Reaganomics, the inner Thatcherites heart continued to beat to the rhythm of nostalgia. As Thatchers own Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, said of Sunak, he was the only candidate who understands Thatcherite economics. He is, to illustrate the point, very much in favour of fiscal tightening and keeping public spending thin, and, like the Iron Lady he so adores, happy to tout tax rises if needed. Thatcher, it should be remembered, raised the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 8 per cent to 15 per cent and imposed the infamous poll tax otherwise advertised as a Community Charge. Sunaks belief in redistribution is of that rather distasteful variety. As Labour had, in his ill-chosen words of a leaked video, shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas, it was incumbent on the Tories to undo it. I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserved. The area in question was the rather well-heeled town of Tunbridge Wells, Kent. During Sunaks tenure and the levelling up programme of Johnson, the wealthiest parts of Britain received amounts of money up to 10 times more per capita than the poorest, showing how Tories can be socialistic to the class of their own choosing. Sajid Javids wealthy constituency of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire was earmarked to receive 15 million, or 148 a head. Eight local authorities counted as some of the poorest in Britain received less than 10 a head from levelling up funds. His economic embrace of Brexit was filled with hubristic assessments, some of this evident in a report authored for the Centre for Policy Studies in 2016. Brexit will provide the UK with new economic freedom, and the Government should take the opportunity to create Free ports across the nation. Such ports would increase manufacturing output, create employment regionally where it is most needed, and promote trade. The report obsesses over the presence of 3,500 Free Trade Zones spread across the globe, with the US deserving a special mention: 250 FTZs which employ 420,000 people and handle 750bn of merchandise. Airy predictions about what free ports would do to the unshackled British economy are offered, including 86,000 jobs if they were as successful as the US Foreign Trade Zone programme. Such a rarefied market world says little about civic duties and citizenship. It speaks volumes that Sunak expressed scepticism about lockdowns and has preferred to take climate change less seriously than others, even within his own party. The issue of whether planning permission is going to be given to opening the UKs first coal mine in a generation in Cumbria has been dismissed by the new PM as a local issue. Sunak even had to be persuaded to change his mind attending the upcoming COP27 conference to be held in Egypt. On Twitter, he rationalised his about face, characterised by Green MP Caroline Lucas as a screeching U-turn on the climate change conference: There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change. There is no energy security without investing in renewables. The change of heart suggested a weakness to the Labour opposition. The prime minister, according to the partys climate policy spokesperson Ed Miliband, has been shamed into going to COP27 by the torrent of disbelief that he would fail to turn up. The only reason for putting in an appearance was to avoid embarrassment not to provide leadership. There is still much time for the markets, and everybody else, to be spooked. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: [email protected] Former President John Dramani Mahama has continued his criticism of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's government in a short post on his social media. According to him, Ghanas economy has lurched from crisis to crisis under the ruling government in the last few years since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over. In the last few years, our economy has lurched from crisis to crisis, ultimately resulting in the most debilitating living conditions in several decades. Within a space of ten months, our currency, the Ghana Cedi, has depreciated by over 62% against the US dollar, which is the highest in recent memory, former President John Dramani Mahama has posted on Facebook. Last week when the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) addressed the country, he reiterated his stance that the current government has failed the people. Among many recommendations he made, former President John Dramani Mahama urged President Akufo-Addo to remove Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and reconstitute the Economic Management Team (EMT). Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta 04.11.2022 LISTEN The Minister in charge of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has sent a message to the people criticising him and President AKufo-Addos government. Speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra on Thursday, November 3, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta noted that he has been through a lot these past few years. According to him, despite the current hardships, businesses and investors can trust Ghana. In what appears to be a message for his critics, Ken Ofori-Atta said people cannot say they do not understand what the government is doing to address the economic crisis. Just to assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, nobody can really come and say you dont understand what we were doing, the Finance Minister said in his address at the meeting with AGI. Ken Ofori-Attah continued, The question is, what resources do we have? How we are going to deploy them in the nation that we have? How do you stand firm in very difficult circumstances by being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and you are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going? Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana, we can do it, we should do it. Watch the Finance Minister speak on the issues below: 04.11.2022 LISTEN Mr. Richard Ahiagba, National Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has refuted recent polls by Global InfoAnalytics. The survey revealed that over 54% of 1407 Ghanaian respondents want the President to resign due to the current economic crisis. The survey also sought to know from the respondents who, among Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Alan Kyerematen, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Kennedy Agyapong, and Kwabena Agyapong, will be the best person to manage the current crisis. 43% of the respondents, according to the poll, tipped former President John Mahama to be the best person to calm things down. Speaking to Accra-based Joy News on Thursday, November 3, Mr. Ahiagba asserted that the poll was needless and had no relevance to the current situation. Mr. Ahiagba also argued that if they wanted the true views of citizens, they shouldn't have gone with questionnaires. He indicated that they should have allowed the respondents to freely and not some biased structured questions. "I just read through the report calling for the president to resign and I can say it is highly deficient and unscientific. The report is biased because a prejudice was created for respondents to answer to. From which quarters are people calling for the president to resign? The question should have been asked directly without any prejudice, he argued. Mr. Ahiagba further quizzed, What is the importance of such polls and reports in these current times?" Amidst the current difficulties, there have been numerous calls for President Akufo-Addo to resign. The agitators believe the president lacks the ability to restore the country's current economic crisis. Oliver Barker Vormawor, Captain Smart and Lawyer Martin Kpebu have been piling pressure on President Akufo-Addo to resign. Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews' 'The Probe' after the President's speech on Sunday, October 30, Mr. Kpebu stated, He has overstayed his welcome, so we are begging Mr. president, he should just resign. Theres a place for resignation. The constitution itself says so, that he can resign. He can. "Once as a people we tell him that respectfully we think that he should resignarticle 66 makes provision for his resignation so he resigns and lets not forget, Lieutenant General Joseph Ankrah, he resigned over allegations concerning about GH6,000 at the time. He continued The constitution makes it clear so its not as if by all means we should run the course of 4 years. No. Once you have seen that this problem is beyond you, you are not able to get your head around it you just resign because its the same story for 6years. Madina MP, Francis Xavier-Sosu 04.11.2022 LISTEN The Ghana Police Service is set to arraign Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina before court. The MP who is also a Lawyer was arrested by the Police on Thursday, November 3, for allegedly engaging in reckless driving. According to information gathered from sources, the Madina MP was apprehended when he was caught driving in the middle of the road around Airport in his vehicle with registration number GB-9776-21. He has been accused of driving inconsiderately with no regard for law-abiding pedestrians and other road users. His vehicle has been impounded by the police. Lawyer Francis Xavier-Sosu has been charged to appear in court. 04.11.2022 LISTEN Three leading teacher unions in the country on Friday, November 4, announced an indefinite strike to protest President Akufo-Addos appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES). The Unions include the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G). The Presidency on Wednesday, October 19, confirmed the appointment of Dr. Nkansah to replace Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwah at GES. Subsequently, the three unions expressed their displeasure and argued that they want an educationist who has gone through the mill of the education sector to serve as the Director General. With President Akufo-Addo sticking with his appointment, GNAT, NAGRAT, and CCT-G have today announced that they are withdrawing all services. Addressing the media, the President of GNAT, Isaac Owusu explained, The Teacher Unions did not only register their protest but also, found it unacceptable for a Banker to be appointed as a Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, GES, instead of an Educationist at a time when many teachers who did the same courses and related ones were rejected by GES. Because it is not related to education we stated that both the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, should apologize to teachers for accepting the very qualification they rejected when teachers presented them. Isaac Owusu added, Having reached the November 4, 2022 deadline we gave the government, consequently, we have decided to embark on strike from today Friday, November 4, 2022. By this, we are informing the general public that we are withdrawing our services in all the pre-tertiary education institutions. Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has called on Ghanaians to trust in his competence and ability to rescue Ghana's ailing economy. Mr Ofori-Atta has been under intense pressure from parliamentarians within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ghanaians in general to leave his post for mismanaging the economy. But speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries, Ken Ofori-Atta said Ghana remains the best destination to do business. Let me assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, and nobody can really say we don't understand what we are doing. The question is what resources do we have and how are we going to deploy them in the nation that we have and how do we stand firm in very difficult circumstances but being very confident? Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana; we can do it, and we should do it, the embattled Finance Minister said. 04.11.2022 LISTEN Private Legal Practitioner, Lawyer Martin Kpebu has called on Ghanaians to join the Kume Preko Demo Reloaded to mount pressure on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to resign. Addressing a press conference in Accra on Friday, November 4, the Lawyer who has now taken up activism said it is necessary for the President to leave office after plunging the country into an economic crisis. Because of reckless borrowing and other forms of misgovernance by President Akufo-Addo we are dying. Citizens are dying, citizens cannot afford food, citizens are starving all because of misgovernance by President Akufo-Addo Its never happened that you will have a president in office and every time that the country borrows the presidents family becomes richer. How? This cant continue. Ghana doesnt belong to President Akufo-Addos family, we cant borrow all the time and have Data Bank becoming richer all the time. The country becomes poorer and Data bank becomes richer. This is sufficient for President Akufo-Addo to resign, Lawyer Martin Kpebu told the media. The private legal practitioner continued, Based on Article 35 of our Constitution which asks for probity, and accountability, citizens have a duty as stated in Article 41 to ask the president to resign. Where we are as at how the situation is so dire that the best thing is for President Akufo-Addo to take responsibility and resign with his Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Lawyer Kpebu will on Saturday, November 5, lead his 'Kume Preko demo Reloaded in Accra. Governance expert and a senior research fellow at the Kumasi Technical University (KTU), Dr. Smart Sarpong has defended Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia amidst the worsening economic crisis. The expert indicated that the Vice President is blameless because he is leading a team who were imposed on him. According to Dr. Sarpong, all the members of the Economic Management Team were appointed by President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo not him (Bawumia). People are saying all sorts of things against Dr. Bawumia but let me put it on record that the team [Economic Management Team] headed by the Vice President, had the members selected and constituted by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and given to him [Dr. Bawumia] to work with, he said on Kumasi-based Fox FMs Morning Drive. He added, The Finance Minister was appointed by Nana Akufo-Addo, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana is also appointed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. All the Ministers constituting EMT were somebodys selection and given to Dr. Bawumia to work with them. According to Dr. Sarpong, the Vice President could have taken most of the blame if the President had heeded the recent calls and reshuffled the non-performing members of the EMT. He didnt make the selection. The selection was made by someone and that person who is the President is not ready to change the people so we cant blame Dr. Bawumia, Dr. Sarpong pointed out. Some persons, including Asempa FM's Omanhene Kwabena Asante, have speculated that the Vice President has been sidelined on the EMT, depicting that his decisions are always rejected by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and others. 04.11.2022 LISTEN The Minority in Parliament wants government to probe allegations of the training of some mercenaries at Asutsuare. The groups call follows an expose by social media commentator, Kevin Taylor, which disclosed the alleged training of some mercenaries by a top security officer at the Jubilee House. Speaking to journalists, the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, James Agalga, said the government must speak to the issue. The Minority takes a very serious view of the expose, and we demand that government comes out to clarify if it is actually the case that mercenaries have been brought into this country and are being trained at Asutsuare, and they are taken by escorts to Asutsuare every morning by bus or train? I think this calls for an independent probe into the matter. We cant just go to sleep. The National Security and Interior Ministers need to speak on the issue. He also called on international organisations to keep an eye on the issue. The African Union, ECOWAS, and others should monitor the development. These are dark clouds gathering over our political landscape. By Citi Newsroom The Minority in Parliament has served notice that it will move its vote of censure motion against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Thursday, November 10. The Minority filed the vote on censure against the Minister on grounds of conflict of interest and financial recklessness leading to the current economic crisis. Addressing the media, the Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, said the group will not relent in its efforts to have the Finance Minister removed from office. The motion of censure is slated to be moved on Thursday, the 10th of November 2022, and the Minority Chip Whip, Mubarak Muntaka has sounded a note of caution to all Minority MPs that all 136 minority MPs must be in the chamber on Thursday, so any member who absents himself does so at his own risk. Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim added that the Finance Minister has been duly served and will be in the Chamber to defend himself. I can turn the economy around Meanwhile, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is fighting to save his job and has called on Ghanaians to trust in his competence and ability to rescue Ghana's ailing economy. Speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries, Mr. Ofori-Atta said Ghana remains the best destination to do business. Let me assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, and nobody can really say we don't understand what we are doing. The question is what resources do we have and how are we going to deploy them in the nation that we have and how do we stand firm in very difficult circumstances but being very confident? Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana; we can do it, and we should do it, the embattled Finance Minister said. -citinewsroom The Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency, Lawyer Francis Xavier-Sosu has issued a statement to react to news of his arrest by the Police. To clarify the issue, the MP says the reports making rounds are not entirely accurate. Although he insists he has not been arrested nor is he under arrest, Lawyer Francis Xavier-Sosu admits that he was indeed cited for traffic offences on Thursday, November 3, on his way from Parliament to an urgent event in his constituency. While noting that he was in court on Friday morning to deal with the matter, the Madina MP adds that it seems to him news of his arrest has become more important to the Ghana Police than their core mandate. I am currently in Parliament performing my parliamentary duties. Again, I am not under arrest. It seems to me that the news of my arrest is more important to the Ghana Police Service than its core mandate. For instance, how many persons were cited for traffic Offences yesterday? How many of them are in the news? Please, lets get serious as a country, Lawyer Francis Xavier-Sosu who is unhappy said in a post on his Facebook page. Chinese espionage in the United States has been going on for decades and has recently shifted to the use of Chinese espionage agents to recruit Americans to work for them. The lure is often money, but blackmail and intimidation are also used. It often works, but recently (October) the U.S. indicted Chinese citizens Gouchun He and Zheng Wang for working as Chinese espionage agents. They were assigned to recruit an American official who could help disrupt a U.S. investigation of Chinese electronics giant Huawei. The American official seemed to cooperate but he turned out to be a double-agent for the FBI. This is the latest incident of more active Chinese espionage operations in the United States. Similar efforts involve female Chinese agents befriending influential Americans and reporting on what they were doing and control anti-Chinese attitudes. A growing number of Chinese agents were used to go after Chinese expatriates who had settled in the United States and were openly critical of Chinese policies and behavior. Some of Chinese efforts appeared odd. For example, in 2020 American military intelligence agencies found themselves trying to figure out what is behind the recent arrest of ten Chinese who were caught brazenly entering restricted areas to take photographs of secret installations and operations. There may have been others who got in and out and were not caught. Most of those involved appear to be taking advantage of U.S. law since anyone caught illegally entering a base and taking photos or videos can spend as little as a year in jail if they plead guilty, or a ten-year sentence if they go to trial. The first such incident resulted in a one-year sentence but the other eight are facing more scrutiny, even though four of these had diplomatic immunity and were expelled. The first such Chinese student caught doing this, in late 2018, pled guilty and spent a year in jail for it. He finished that sentence in November 2019. That guilty plea was obtained by dropping several more serious charges. After this, there were three more incidents of Chinese students doing the same thing at the same Key West naval base. Meanwhile, two Chinese diplomats and their wives were caught after driving boldly through the security gate of a Virginia base. They and their wives had had diplomatic immunity and could only be expelled from the country. In March a Chinese woman was caught after illegally entering a Mar-a-Lago Florida resort owned by the American president and sometimes used for presidential meetings. In September another Chinese woman was caught trying the same thing. One of the Chinese women was found to have connections with Chinese intelligence. The first incident could be considered a rogue operation but eight more after the first man gets a light sentence indicates something more deliberate and widespread. As the FBI and other intel agencies dig into the backgrounds of the five non-diplomats involved, they were found to have connections with Chinese intelligence and indications that their actions were ordered, not undertaken on personal whims. This indicates some new, and bolder, Chinese espionage operations in the United States. Four of those arrested were caught with photos of several classified operations at the Key West base that have a direct bearing on Chinese operations in the South China Sea and nearby waters. The Chinese students involved are in the U.S. because the Chinese government is paying for their school expenses. The way that works in China, it means you are working for the Chinese government and are expected to follow orders, or else. Until these intrusion incidents, most Chinese espionage in the United States involving Chinese actually in the country were of a more clandestine nature. Many of those involved are Chinese students or academics. They recruit Chinese or non-Chinese to work for them, often without the Americans involved aware that they are part of an intelligence operation. Thats because most of these efforts are basically industrial espionage or theft of research material. In the last few years, the United States has been prosecuting and convicting a growing number of Chinese born men (and a few women) conspiring to commit or actually carry out economic espionage in the United States. Some of these suspects are naturalized American citizens but a growing number are Chinese citizens here on legitimate visas. In some cases, Chinese agents were in the U.S. on tourist visas. When caught, some of them are found to still be on active duty in the Chinese military, often for an intelligence unit. In some cases, these Chinese agents were buying weapons illegally for use in the United States. This sounds like a bold operation but the Chinese involved were apparently convinced illegal weapons could be obtained at little risk. In theory that was true but, as with many cases of captured spies, there was bad luck and errors in judgment by the Chinese operatives that led to their arrests. China has used similar tactics in Russia, Japan, Taiwan and throughout the west. Russia was particularly hard hit by this in the 1990s when the Chinese engaged in massive theft of Russian military technology, often by having Chinese agents in Russia recruit Russian scientists for well-paying jobs in China that involved duplicating the work these men had done for years until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In the early 1990s, thousands of highly educated staff for defense industries were left unemployed because post-1991 Russia could no longer afford most military research and development efforts. The U.S. noticed the danger and sought to provide work for many of these Russian researchers and that succeeded to a certain extent. But the Chinese (Iranians and North Koreans) quietly made offers of employment. In the case of Russia, the Chinese cash and offer of business opportunities also made it possible for high-tech military gear to be disposed of as scrap and show up in China largely intact. China also bought design and manufacturing documents or hired those who designed or were involved in the manufacture of these items. Even North Korea benefitted from Russian economic desperation, obtaining retired submarines and obsolete ballistic missiles to be turned into scrap metal. The North Koreans scrapped some of it, but the most intact items were studied by engineers who figured out how to make some of those in North Korea. China hired Russian scientists for seemingly innocent commercial projects but then paid the new employees bonuses to work on military tech-related projects. The Russian government eventually found out and are still angry about that and the continued Chinese theft of their tech. By the late 1990s growing Russian threats over this caused the Chinese to sign agreements that declared Chinese firms would stop stealing and reselling Russian tech. In practice, this only slowed the Chinese down, but it placated the Russians for a while. Chinese agents operating in Russia could not be harmed because Russia was dependent on Chinese economic support and large orders for Russian military equipment. Through the 1990s China was one of the largest customers for Russian military gear. So the Russians would expel the more blatant Chinese agents but not harm them otherwise. Currently the Americans are starting to sound like the Russians in the 1990s, but the Americans have more legal and economic clout to deploy and this situation is liable to get ugly before (if ever) it gets better. But first, the Americans have to figure out what Chinese in the U.S. are up to before prosecuting. It took a long time for the Americans to figure out that Chinese theft of commercial and military technology was not just done by Chinese hackers who never left China, at least not to visit the U.S. once they were identified and subject to arrest. A decade ago, most American officials had come to openly admit that a whole lot of American military and commercial technical data has been stolen via Chinese Internet (and more conventional) espionage efforts employed by Chinese tourists, students and academic researchers. Details of exactly all the evidence of this are unclear, but apparently, it was pretty convincing for many American politicians and senior officials who had previously been skeptical. The Chinese efforts have resulted in most major American weapons systems having tech details obtained by the Chinese, in addition to a lot of non-defense or dual-use technology. Its not just the United States that is being hit but most nations with anything worth stealing. Many of these nations are noticing that China is the source of most of this espionage and few are content to remain silent any longer. Its no secret that Chinese intelligence collecting efforts since the late 1990s have been spectacularly successful. As the rest of the world comes to realize the extent of this success, there is a growing desire for retaliation. What form that payback takes remains to be seen. At the moment more scrutiny is making it more difficult for the Chinese to operate but is not stopping them. Collecting information, both military and commercial, often means breaking laws. China has broken a lot of laws. Technically, China has committed acts of war because of the degree to which it penetrated military networks and carried away copies of highly secret material. The U.S. and many other victims have been warning China there will be consequences. As the extent of Chinese espionage becomes known and understood, the call for consequences becomes louder. China has been getting away with something the Soviet Union never accomplished, stealing Western technology and then using it to move ahead of the West. The Soviets lacked the many essential supporting industries found in the West. These firms were largely founded and run by entrepreneurs, which was illegal in the Soviet Union. Because of that, the Russians were never able to acquire all the many pieces needed to match Western technical accomplishments. Soviet copies of American computers, for example, were crude, less reliable, and less powerful. It was the same situation with their jet fighters, tanks, and warships. China got around this by making it seemingly profitable for Western firms to set up factories in China, where Chinese managers and workers were taught how to make things right. At the same time, China allows thousands of their best students to go to the United States to study. While many of these students will stay in America, where there are better jobs and more opportunities, a growing number are coming back to China and bringing American business and technical skills with them. Finally, China energetically uses the "thousand grains of sand" approach to espionage. This involves China trying to get all Chinese going overseas, and those of Chinese ancestry living outside the motherland, to spy for China, if only a tiny bit. This is where more and more Chinese are found to be operating. The tech these active agents are sending back often had limited military value but the sheer volume of these low-level items getting back to China added up and made a difference. American sailors at sea viewing new Chinese warships through binoculars are surprised to see so many familiar design features and a bit of equipment. Its as if the Chinese were buying from the same suppliers the U.S. Navy uses. In a way, the Chinese were doing that, after getting samples of the real thing and duplicating it. This approach to espionage is nothing new. Other nations have used similar systems for centuries. What is unusual is the scale of the Chinese effort, and that makes a difference. Supporting it all is a Chinese intelligence bureaucracy back home that is huge, with nearly 100,000 people working just to keep track of the many Chinese overseas and what they could, or should, be trying to grab for the motherland. This is where many of the graduates of the Chinese National Intelligence College program will work. It begins when Chinese intelligence officials examine who is going overseas and for what purpose. Chinese citizens cannot leave the country legally without state security organizations being notified. The intel people are not being asked to give permission. They are being alerted in case they want to have a talk with students, tourists, or business people before leaving the country. Interviews are often held when these people come back as well. Those who might be coming in contact with useful information are asked to remember what they saw or bring back souvenirs (legal or otherwise). Over 100,000 Chinese students go off to foreign universities each year. Even more, go abroad as tourists or on business. Most of these people were not asked to actually act as spies but simply to share, with Chinese government officials (who are not always identified as intelligence personnel), whatever information they obtained. The more ambitious of these people are getting caught and prosecuted. But the majority are quite casual, and individually bring back relatively little and are almost impossible to catch, much less prosecute. Like the Russians, the Chinese are also employing the traditional methods, using people with diplomatic immunity to recruit spies and offering cash or whatever to get people to sell them information. This is still effective and, when combined with the "thousand grains of sand" methods, brings in a lot of secrets. The final ingredient is a shadowy venture capital operation that offers money for Chinese entrepreneurs who will turn the stolen technology into something real. No questions asked. If you can get back to China with the secrets, you are home free and potentially very rich. This is the approach Chinese firms are often set up to do, and little else. While these firms are technically supposed to develop new technologies in China, the unofficial mandate was to steal as much as possible from other nations and not get caught. Not getting caught is becoming more important because that can lead to increasingly dangerous diplomatic and legal problems. When the Chinese steal some technology and produce something that the Western victims can prove was stolen (via patents and prior use of the technology), legal action can make it impossible, or very difficult, to sell anything using the stolen tech outside of China. For that reason, the Chinese long preferred stealing military technology and tried to avoid using stolen commercial tech in a way that made it easy to determine the source of stolen data. This meant keeping stolen commercial tech inside China. And in some cases, like manufacturing technology, there's an advantage to not selling it outside of China. Because China is still a communist dictatorship, the courts do as they are told, and they are rarely told to honor foreign patent claims when stolen tech is discovered in China by its foreign owners. But increasingly, Chinese firms are boldly using their stolen technology, daring foreign firms to try and use Chinese courts to get justice. Instead, the foreign firms are trying to muster support from their governments for lawsuits outside China. Naturally, the Chinese government will howl and insist that its all a plot to oppress China. This has worked for a long time, but many of the victims are now telling China that this conflict is being taken to a new, and more dangerous, level. The Ghana Blind Union (GBU) has bemoaned the lack of white canes for persons with visual impairment. They are appealing to the government to as a matter of urgency come to the aid of its members. The Executive Director of the union, Dr. Peter Obeng-Asamoah, complained that the majority of their members do not have access to white canes which aid their movement. White Cane Safety Day was observed on October 15, 2022, with the theme, The white cane, a tool for social inclusion. Speaking during a press conference in Accra on November 3, 2022, Dr. Peter Obeng-Asamaoh suggested that systems should be put in place to ensure that they are provided white canes on regular basis. According to him, only about 30 percent of the estimated 230,000 visually impaired have access to white canes, a situation he described as worrying. This is not good, and it is not too much to ask the government to provide us with white canes. We should have a system that does that because the canes are basic mobility tools, he indicated. He said they want to be given the opportunity to contribute their quota to the development of the country. We are part of the social collective and we want to have the opportunity to contribute to our own development, that of the community and the nation at large, he said. -citinewsroom In a lengthy social media post, investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni appealed to the First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, wife of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo for action. He has asked the First Lady to use her motherly figure and intervene on behalf of the suffering employees of Zoomlion Ghana. Manasseh claimed that the company's CEO, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, also known as Jospong, has only been paying the sweepers GHS180 out of the GHS600 approved by the District Assemblies. I come to you to intervene to save about 45,000 Ghanaians who are being treated like slaves by your husband and a businessman whose activities are drenched in corruption. The state of Ghana is responsible for recruiting and paying the sweepers of markets from Keta to Paga. The money to pay them is deducted from the Common Fund of the district assemblies even before the allocations to the assemblies are made, portions of his post read. He continued, This agreement says the state should allocate 600 cedis for each sweeper per month. Out of this amount, only 180 cedis is paid to each sweeper every month. Zoomlion takes 420 cedis for each of the 45,000 workers. Zoomlion makes 19 MILLION CEDIS EVERY MONTH from this deal. But the people in whose name the government created the programme go home with 180 cedis. President Akufo-Addo and his then-opposition NPP, according to Manasseh, criticise the Mahama-led NDC government but did worst. The outspoken journalist, who claims to have been fighting this issue since 2013, is urging Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo to speak to her husband, President Akufo-Addo to act. Kindly appeal to the conscience of your husband. He should not preside over this wickedness and do nothing. There is a God up there who hears the cries of these mistreated Ghanaians. Do something about it, Madam. Do not harden your heart like your husband. Push this deal. Remember what Mordecai told Esther when she was reluctant to intervene for the Jews before the King, Manasseh appealed. Read Manassehs post below: Dear Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, I come to you to intervene to save about 45,000 Ghanaians who are being treated like slaves by your husband and a businessman whose activities are drenched in corruption. The state of Ghana is responsible for recruiting and paying the sweepers of markets from Keta to Paga. The money to pay them is deducted from the Common Fund of the district assemblies even before the allocations to the assemblies are made. Instead of allowing the assemblies' sanitation departments to supervise the sweepers, the government has entered into a fraudulent agreement with Zoomlion. This agreement says the state should allocate 600 cedis for each sweeper per month. Out of this amount, only 180 cedis is paid to each sweeper every month. Zoomlion takes 420 cedis for each of the 45,000 workers. Zoomlion makes 19 MILLION CEDIS EVERY MONTH from this deal. But the people in whose name the government created the programme go home with 180 cedis. Madam First Lady, what can 180 cedis buy in today's Ghana? Note that they don't have health insurance, transport allowance or pension benefits. Nothing! Your husband, President Akufo-Addo, and his party spoke against this "wickedness and fraud" while in opposition. They said President Mahama could not deal with the heartless contract because he was directly benefitting from it. I have no evidence to show that your husband is a beneficiary of Jospong's rot, but there is enough evidence that he is one of the loudest cheerleaders of Jospong. I have been talking about this issue since 2013, but it keeps getting worse. I'm writing you this letter to urge you to think about it and act, as a mother who has children. How would you feel if any of your daughters does this harmful job and comes home with $13 at the end of the month? Remember those treated this way are people's wives and husbands and children. They're children of God. Kindly appeal to the conscience of your husband. He should not preside over this wickedness and do nothing. There is a God up there who hears the cries of these mistreated Ghanaians. Do something about it, Madam. Do not harden your heart like your husband. Push this deal. Remember what Mordecai told Esther when she was reluctant to intervene for the Jews before the King: "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your fathers family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? The helpless sweepers are the persecuted Jews of Ghana. Yours sincerely, Manasseh Azure Awuni Ras Mubarak, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, has joined calls for the dismissal of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in light of the current economic difficulties. He said the President has refused to fire his "doggy cousin" from the Finance Ministry despite the worsening economic crisis. According to the former legislator, the posture confirms that President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo still does not care about the sufferings of Ghanaians. Once upon a time, leaders like Ben Ali in Tunisia & Hosni Mubarak in Egypt felt so secure yet removed from the reality of their people. Our President has closed his ears to demands to remove his dodgy cousin, the Finance Minister, he wrote. Mr. Mubarak is calling on Ghanaians to join the Saturday, November 5 Kume Preko reloaded demonstration organized by a private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu. Today, while the ordinary Ghanaian feel the full weight of the crass nepotism, cluelessness and corruption in government, the President seems unfazed. Its a peaceful demo. Join the protests tomorrow. #Kumepreko, he noted. Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra on Thursday, November 3 dismissed calls to resign. The minister stated that no one can tell him he doesn't know what he's doing at the Finance Ministry to restore the economy. Just to assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, nobody can really come and say you dont understand what we are doing, he said. In todays Money Morning, scarcity is back on the menu, and it means big changes for markets. Commodities are set to benefit from a decade of underinvestment and a looming lack of supply. Coal prices showcase what may be in store for the wider mining sector, and Aussie investors are likely to be some of the biggest beneficiaries Yesterday I discussed how scarcity is creeping back into the economic equation. After more than a decade of unfettered growth, it seems people are finally waking up to the idea that we have limited resources. As I pointed out, with copper as an example, commodities are likely to become pricier as the industry is scrambling and failing to meet necessary production output. We are entering a new era where access to raw materials may be harder to secure than ever before But, as grim as that may seem, it isnt something that investors should feel overwhelmed by. This is especially true for Aussie investors because, unlike a lot of the world, we stand to benefit more than most from this looming scarcity. In fact, in all likelihood, we appear to be on the cusp of a new mining boom! The only difference is that this boom isnt really about demand Its all about supply. A decade of underinvestment Now, you may think that this scarcity claim is a bold prediction to make. I know that it certainly goes against the grain of what youll often hear from the mainstream. Nevertheless, it is something that becomes fairly apparent if you actually look at the data. Take this chart from the RBA and ABS, for example: Source: Reserve Bank of Australia [Click to open in a new window] What you are looking at is a rough breakdown of annual growth in mining and non-mining activity. You can ignore the bottom half of the chart (non-mining) because what we care about, for arguments sake, is the top half. More specifically, look at the orange bars in the mining breakdown. As the chart tells you, this represents year-end growth within mining investment as a percentage. As you can see, from the mid-2000s to around 2012, mining investment was soaring. Apart from a brief blip during the GFC, mining investment was averaging around 10% growth a year and topping out at almost 25% at its peak. This was, of course, thanks to the ravenous demand from China, particularly for iron ore. But then, around 2013/14, the boom ended abruptly. Commodity prices began to fall and with it, investment in mining. You can see it for yourself on the chart. What is fascinating is how exports didnt really take a hit. Despite the lack of investment, Australia was shipping more resources than ever. It was only once the pandemic hit that exports really went negative. That is, until the late spike in 2022. Again, though, the bigger trend to consider here is that mining investment growth has never really recovered. We have failed to fund new exploration and drilling despite knowing that demand is only going to increase. We are making these scarce resources even more scarce by undersupplying them A different boom, but a boom nonetheless Logic would suggest that this lack of new investment in mining may be because of weaker commodity prices. Companies arent going to invest in new projects if they arent profitable. But that is far from true. Again, take a look at more data from the RBA and ABS: Source: Reserve Bank of Australia [Click to open in a new window] The overall index of commodities (the top graph) has been surging in recent years. It seems safe to assume that demand certainly isnt an issue for miners. As you can see in the bottom graphs, too, coal prices, in particular, have exploded higher. This is because while global demand for coal is forecast to rise by 0.7% this year, the bigger factor is a cutoff of Russian supply. What we are currently seeing in coal prices offers a potential glimpse of the kind of scarcity-induced pricing that could come for commodities as a whole a boom driven by a need for these critical minerals but a severe lack of access to them. And that is why you, as an investor, should start preparing for this new era. Because as disruptive as a materials shortage may be, it also presents an opportunity for incredible gains. For proof of that, all you need to do is google the chart for Whitehaven Coal [ASX:WHC]. The next mining boom is coming, and it will be driven by underinvestment and undersupply 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. Russia has a reputation for being a formidable presence when it comes to Cyber War. Like many other capabilities, that reputation was tarnished and diminished during the recent war in Ukraine. For Russia the defeats were frequent and victories few in this network battle space. Russian defeats began the day before Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border. On February 23rd Russian hackers released FoxBlade malware onto Ukrainian networks. FoxBlade was a program that attempted to get onto systems by hiding in a file attachment. Despite this known vulnerability, it can still work. Once inside the target system FoxBlade seeks to spread to all computers on the network and delete all their files. Microsoft, the creator of Windows, the most widely used PC operating system, detected FoxBlade first and notified Ukraine, which promptly took measures to defeat FoxBlade on February 24. Since the 1990s Microsoft created a formidable Internet security organization that monitors networks worldwide for signs of malware, especially new malware, being used. Network security features have been added to the Windows operating system and one of them for PCs is to automatically send back to Microsoft potential hacker presence information back to Microsoft. At the same time, Microsoft will quickly send out fixes to infected PCs. Ukraine and Microsoft began developing a cooperative relationship over the last two decades because after 1991 Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Russia, were major sources of hacker activity. Ukraine cooperated with Microsoft to reduce the hacker threat while Russia insisted it didnt exist. For example, back in 2009 Ukraine cooperated with the United States and Microsoft to deal with a Ukrainian gang (six specific individuals) who put together one of the largest botnets (PCs secretly controlled via hacker attacks) ever encountered. In early 2009 (February and March) the gang used spam, containing hidden programs, to take control of 1.9 million PCs. A computer security firm discovered the botnet, and cooperation between Ukraine, the United States and other countries led to the server controlling the botnet being found and taken off line. At the same time this effort identified members of the gang. Ukrainian police arrested the six after participating in the international effort to find them. The Soviet Union, which Ukraine was part of until 1991, created a lot of software engineers who worked for the government. Most of these programmers and software engineers were out of work after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Some left for the West and found good jobs but most sought opportunities at home and the most lucrative ones involved illegal hacking, often for criminal gangs. Russia never cleaned up this problem, Ukraine did. Russia allowed the gangs to operate in Russia as long as they did not hack Russian networks and did jobs for the government. This included developing malware to be used against neighbors and Western nations in general. Ukraine vigorously enforced laws against hacking and the local hackers either left the country or found legit jobs. Other East European nations also cracked down on the hackers. Many, but not Ukraine, joined NATO, and sought to have NATO declare massive hacker attacks as a cause for war against the aggressor. After the 2022 Ukraine invasion Russia launched major Cyber War attack on Lithuania because of Lithuanian threats to disrupt access to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Coast that must use Lithuanian or Polish railroads to reach the enclave. Back in 2007 Russia planned Cyber War efforts against the more prosperous and affluent former Soviet territories. At the top of this list was Estonia, which was hit by a massive Russian Cyber War-scale attack. The Estonians withstood the attack despite the temporary damage it did to their economy. This was something a NATO member had never faced before and Estonia pointed out that if there was no NATO response to the Russian attack on Estonia, the Russians would be tempted to try it on other new NATO members in East Europe. This led to a 2010 agreement with NATO to facilitate cooperation between NATO and Estonia if Estonia is hit by another Internet based attack. In 2008, NATO established a Cyber Defense Center in Estonia. This, and the 2010 agreement, was a result of being called on by Estonia, in 2007, to declare Cyber War on Russia. That was because Russia was accused of causing great financial harm to Estonia via Cyber War attacks, and Estonia wanted this sort of thing declared terrorism, and dealt with. NATO agreed to discuss the issue, but never took any action against Russia. The new agreement did create a legal framework for striking back, or at least to defend Estonia more vigorously if there is another attack. In 2014 Russia seized Crimea province from Ukraine and half of two east Ukrainian provinces.There was not a lot of physical violence but Russia did use Ukraine as a test site for new Cyber War tactics and techniques. In late 2016 Ukraine accused Russia of employing hackers to insert trackers into cell phones used by Ukrainian military personnel fighting in Donbas. Ukraine has also found evidence of the same or similar hackers, usually civilian groups working as contractors for the Russian government, going after numerous government and commercial networks in Ukraine. Some of these hackers were also identified as going after targets in the United States. The hacking of cell phones used by military personnel is believed to be the cause of several accurate and fatal attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas. The hackers made it possible to track the location of the phone owners and accurately fire shells or rockets at them. These capabilities had already attracted the attention of the U.S., which was supplying Ukraine with military equipment and technical assistance. American and NATO electronic warfare experts paid close attention to what the Russians were up to in Donbas and the cell phone hack was not unexpected. When it did arrive, it was scrutinized and dissected. That led to countermeasures that were ignored by the Russians and used by Ukrainian forces fighting the 2022 invasion. By the end of 2021 Ukraine had created a network of half a million software engineers, information specialists and other experienced Internet users to deal with Russian Cyber War attacks as well as carry out information campaigns worldwide to let the world know what was really happening in Ukraine. The Ukrainian efforts were successful and this resulted in Ukrainian attacks against Russian networks and propaganda. The existence of these formidable Ukrainian Information and Cyber War capabilities is another reason NATO is eager to have Ukraine join the EU (European Union) and after that NATO. NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS November 4, 2022: Since August, when it became obvious that the six-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine was a failure, and Ukrainian forces have been successfully counterattacking, Russia has issued a lot of threats. Thats because nothing else worked. Increased weapons production to replace enormous losses failed because of massive economic sanctions. Raising more troops ran into widespread resistance, with many men eligible to conscription or mobilization leaving the country, going into hiding or simply refusing to respond. Those who were now in uniform quickly discovered that there was no equipment for them or much training either before they were sent to die in Ukraine. This soon led to open protests by new recruits, who often documented their protests with cellphone videos that ended up on the Internet. Russian leader Vladimir Putin started the war as part of a scheme to rebuild the Russian empire that peacefully dissolved in 1991. No good deed goes unpunished and Putin is the punishment. The empire is not going to be rebuilt for the same reason it was dissolved; too many Russians and neighbors of Russia opposed the empire. Russian rulers like Putin are the reason why. Putin realizes that if the Ukrainians succeed in regaining control of all the territory Russia has occupied since 2014, he will probably be an ex-leader or worse. All he has left is increasingly scary threats and attacks on those who cant fight back. That means using his dwindling supply of guided and unguided long-range weapons to attack Ukrainian civilians and the Ukrainian economy. Putin continues to lose support inside Russia. The attacks on Ukrainian civilians are counter-productive as those make him a war criminal plus, they arent sustainable. Which brings us to the nuclear threats. No national leaders have so vigorously and continuously threatened to use nukes. When direct threats failed to work, Putin switched to accusations that Ukraine was preparing to carry out a nuclear accident and/or set off a dirty bomb (explosives surrounded by radioactive material) and blame Russia. The Ukrainians accuse Russia of considering this and blaming it on Russia The Americans are the only ones to use nukes, in 1945 to end World War II and avoid a planned invasion of Japan that would have left millions of dead, most of them Japanese civilians and soldiers. The American nukes were top secret and used by surprise instead as threats. The first was used on August 6 1945 over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Japan had been run by the military since the 1930s and anyone who opposed that risked severe punishment. Long before that the emperor had been a figurehead, without any real power. It was a matter of convincing enough civilian and military officials to back the emperor and convincing him to risk another military coup by announcing surrender. The Americans were dismayed by the Japanese refusal to immediately surrender. Only a few Americans knew that there was only one more atomic bomb available and it would be weeks before more were ready. Initially on August 6th Japanese military leaders only knew that communications with anyone, civil or military, in Hiroshima had suddenly ceased. People more than 16 kilometers outside Hiroshima could still communicate with Tokyo but could only report there had been a huge explosion in Hiroshima, accompanied by a bright light, a huge ascending cloud and, eventually, much noise. It was known that there was no air raid over Hiroshima because these involved hundreds of bombers. The nuclear bomb was delivered by a single B-29 and these aircraft often came over alone on reconnaissance missions. The Japanese military responded by ordering an officer to fly immediately to Hiroshima, see what was going on and report back. That officer found the city destroyed, with some fires still burning and a huge cloud rising above the city. He landed at an airport and drove around parts of the city that were accessible and found only dazed survivors wandering around who uncertain of what exactly happened. He found some military personnel and ordered them to organize help for the survivors while he flew back to Tokyo to report that it was unclear what destroyed most of the city. Japan become aware of what the mysterious weapon was 16 hours after the bomb detonated when the American president made a public announcement about what happened. This went out over shortwave stations that reached Japan and did not sufficiently impress the military leaders that surrender was their only option. On August 8th the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and the Allies told Japan there would be more. This convinced enough senior civil and military officials, along with the emperor, to accept surrender. The emperor made an unprecedented public announcement on the radio. Diehard officers tried to stage a coup and capture or kill the emperor. That failed and the surrender took hold. These two bombs had a traumatic effect on Japanese and many others around the world. Attitudes towards warfare changed. This led to an unprecedented nuclear peace after 1945. The fear of seeing nukes used again created the longest period of peace between major powers in modern history. The second-longest such period was the 43 years between the armistice that ended the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, to the outbreak of the First World War in 2014; a total of forty-three years, five months, and twenty-eight days. In effect, since November 5, 1988, every day that the Great Powers have not been at war with each other has set a new world record for the duration of a peace. The nuclear peace did not end wars involving major powers, but led to the nuclear powers backing proxies (smaller non-nuclear nations) in several major, but non-nuclear, conflicts. After assessing the destruction caused by World War II, several nations collected data, did the math and agreed that a major nuclear war would destroy civilization as we know it and cause unpredictable risks of even greater changes similar to those caused by major natural catastrophes over the last hundred million years. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, there were suddenly fewer of these proxy wars the Soviets had kept going. Since 1991 there have been fewer wars of any size and less death and destruction. There was still the threat of a war as more nations obtained nukes, especially erratic and hostile states like North Korea. After 1991 Russia was still a major nuclear power and this led Putin to threaten the use of nukes if Ukraine did not surrender. The possibility of a new nuclear threat led the United States to consider countermeasures. One of the more recent ones, that is not top secrets, was developed over two decades ago when the U.S. Air Force proposed "simultaneous strategic bombing strike" (or SSBS). This involved using lots of aerial and satellite surveillance as well as some Special Forces or commando troops on the ground, accompanied by air force controllers (to call in air strikes) and lots of air power overhead. Afghanistan proved that this approach can work. The air force has become very fond of these guys on the ground, using the latest technology (laser ranger finders, computers, GPS and satellite radios) to precisely locate lots of targets for the smart bombs to hit. This has made possible a new, and as yet untried, tactic; large scale simultaneous bombing. JDAM smart bombs are the key to this unique air attack tactic. Because JDAMs use GPS (global positioning satellites) navigation, you can load the location of bomb targets into the smart bombs navigation system ahead of time. You don't have to worry about fog or stormy weather (that can interfere with laser guided and other types of smart bombs) and there is a jam-proof, but slightly less accurate INS chip in GPS guided weapons. A larger SSBS was now possible using hundreds of fighter bombers and heavy bombers carrying several thousand of pre-programmed smart bombs. Many targets don't require a 2000-pound (909 kg) bomb, and smaller aircraft (like F-16s, F-18s and F-15s) can carry six to a dozen 500-pound JDAMs. This makes it possible for, say, 200 bombers (from F-16s to B-52s) to carry nearly 2,000 JDAMs for a single simultaneous strike. Several hundred cruise missiles launched from ships and subs can be added to this attack. At a prearranged time, all the bombs are released so that they all hit their targets at about the same time. Suddenly, everyone in the target area is under attack. It's long been known that firepower, be it artillery or bombs, is a lot more effective if the target doesn't know it's coming. Once the first bomb hits, and the word gets around, the other enemy troops head for cover and the damage done is much less. If there is one big attack, there won't be time to move anything. And after the attack, not much will be capable of moving. If you could drop thousands of bombs, precisely, all at once, the effect of surprise would greatly increase the damage done. This is called strategic surprise, and it's never been done like SSBS. The effect would be paralysis and the collapse of morale and the ability to fight back. Depending on what shape enemy anti-aircraft defenses, the attack might be preceded by cruise missiles destroying anti-aircraft radars and missile launchers. This would take place at night, as would the bombers flying in with the JDAMs. A lot depends on precisely identifying all the targets. This can be done from the air or by satellite. In the case of well-hidden targets, you need people on the ground, like Special Forces troops, using laser range finders to collect the coordinates for the JDAMS. All of this is another, faster, version of the classic blitzkrieg, as first practiced between 1939 and 41. Back then, the Germans had the technological and tactical advantage and used it. Since then, there have been other cases of such large-scale surprise attacks as in the Israelis against Egypt in 1967, the Egyptians against the Israelis in 1973, Russians in Afghanistan in 1979 and so on. If you have a new weapon and are bold enough to use it, you can win a quick victory. As the British SAS commandos like to put it, "Who dares, wins. The existence of the SSBS plan and the technology of make it happen is something of a deterrent and the U.S. has openly warned Russia of something similar if they seriously consider using nukes. The U.S. and South Korea have developed a similar plan to use against North Korea. This may have played a role in Putin now insisting he never really considered using nukes but he feared the U.S. would assist Ukraine in carrying out a false flag nuclear detonation that could be blamed on Russia. All this talk of using nukes was openly mocked inside Russia and that soon became known in the West. The National Health Services (NHS) employs approximately 1.5 million people, from doctors and nurses to dentists and radiologists. Many of them have come to us to find out what their mortgages options are, and that is why we have put this guide together! So, if you work for the NHS and are interested in applying for an NHS worker mortgage, continue reading! Any NHS workers can sometimes find it hard to get the mortgage they need. Lower pay in some healthcare roles can make raising a deposit challenging, while complicated pay structures and contracts can mean even the best paid doctors may struggle to get approved for mortgages they know they can afford. Can you get an NHS mortgage? While there are no NHS mortgages specifically designed for all NHS staff, certain lenders will cater towards the needs of NHS workers. These might have a more flexible approach when assessing applications as they may look favorably on certain professions, such as NHS workers. Job security and, depending on the role, strong potential for earnings growth, make for reliable borrowers. There are also a number of schemes designed to make homeownership more affordable that NHS workers can apply for. Mortgages for NHS staff There are a very limited number of lenders offering schemes specifically for doctors and clinicians working in the NHS. Doctors are likely to be eligible for professional mortgages from specialist lenders. These deals offer borrowers in certain professions, such as medical doctors, dentists and pharmacists, access to enhanced income multiples and a more flexible approach to underwriting. This means that, whereas a lender will typically only lend 4.5 times your annual salary, a professional mortgage may allow for up to 5.5 times. These deals are available from a variety of specialist lenders. Comparing all the available options is the best way to find the right provider for you. Other support NHS workers can consider There isnt any other home buyer support specifically for NHS workers, but you can still apply for available schemes that are available, irrespective of your occupation. These include: First Homes Launched in the summer of 2021, the long-awaited First Homes scheme gives eligible home buyers in England discounts worth at least 30% (up to 50% in areas where house prices are highest) off certain new-builds. To be eligible, buyers need to be purchasing their first home and have a household income of 80,000 or less (90,000 in London). The amount of the mortgage must be at least 50% of the home price. The intention of the First Homes scheme is to ensure local people and those providing vital services can afford to buy in the area. Local authorities can set their own eligibility criteria, which might include proving a local connection or prioritizing key workers. House builder discounts House builders may offer discounts on new-build properties to key workers, including some NHS workers. This could, for example, be a 500 discount for every 25,000 of the purchase price. Talk to your house builder about what discounts you may be eligible for before you speak to a mortgage broker or apply for a mortgage. You may also be able to use these discounts in conjunction with a Help to Buy loan. Help to Buy: Equity Loan This scheme offers borrowers who can pull together a 5% deposit access to a loan of up to 20% of the purchase price (40% in London). The loan is interest-free for five years. The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme can only be used to purchase a new-build home, and the maximum property price varies across regions. In Wales, the maximum home value is 250,000. In Scotland, the Help to Buy Affordable New-Build scheme has closed to new applicants, but there is a Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers. For more details, visit the official government website. There is currently no equity loan scheme for buyers in Northern Ireland. Shared ownership If you cant afford to buy your own home, you can instead buy a share in one. Shared ownership enables first-time buyers to purchase part of a new-build property from a housing association and then pay rent to it on the remainder. Over time, shared ownership participants can increase their share up to 100% through a process known as staircasing. When you reach 100%, you will no longer pay rent. Service charges may still apply for some properties, and for others lease restrictions may limit you to owning a maximum of 80%. This scheme lets tenants of council or housing association properties in England buy a share in their home. You can start off with a 25% stake and can increase this up to 100% when you can afford it. The rent you pay on the property drops as your share in your home grows. Northern Ireland runs its own House Sales Scheme, where tenants of social housing landlords have the right to buy their homes at a discount. The 5% mortgage guarantee scheme To encourage more lenders to offer 95% LTV loans, the government launched its 5% mortgage guarantee scheme. It is meant to encourage lenders to offer loans to first-time buyers and home movers with just a 5% deposit, which means the lender takes on more risk than on a loan with a larger deposit. To help new buyers, the government has agreed to compensate the lenders for any losses that occur as a result of offering the higher-risk loans. How to apply for a mortgage You can apply directly to high street lenders for most mortgages. However, if affordability is likely to be an issue or if you think you will require a specialist lender, you may find it helpful to speak to a mortgage adviser, also called a broker. After a thorough assessment of your position, a broker will be able to recommend a lender that is likely to approve your application. This can spare you the stress and damage to your credit history of getting your application rejected, and also ensures you get the best value deal. Conclusion Forum displays global financial sector's commitment to Hong Kong: HKMA Xinhua) 10:25, November 04, 2022 The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit is held in south China's Hong Kong, Nov. 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit in Hong Kong featured 26 prominent financial leaders sharing their unique perspectives and ideas on managing a complex set of economic, financial, technological and geopolitical developments while capturing the resulting opportunities. HONG KONG, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit which concluded on Thursday demonstrated the global financial sector's commitment to Hong Kong, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Eddie Yue said. "We are encouraged by the overwhelming responses from both the international and local financial communities," he said. In view of the success of the forum, Yue said the event will be held again next year, which is the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the HKMA. John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, addresses the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit in south China's Hong Kong, Nov. 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) The three-day forum featured 26 prominent financial leaders sharing their unique perspectives and ideas on managing a complex set of economic, financial, technological and geopolitical developments while capturing the resulting opportunities. The summit welcomed over 200 international and regional leaders from around 120 global financial institutions including banks, securities firms, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, and venture capital firms, hedge funds, and insurers. More than 40 of these institutions were represented by their group chairmen or chief executive officers at the event (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) SOUTHINGTON While a proposed age-restricted housing development off Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike took a step forward this week, town leaders are still deliberating on drainage efforts to ensure storms dont flood the area. Tony Denorfia of AA Denorfia Building and Development wants to build 23 two and three-bedroom homes for those 55 and over. In addition to needing less space, Denorfia said these buyers are also looking to avoid lawn care and other outside maintenance. Size will range from 1,400 to 1,800 square feet. In April, town planners approved Denorfias request to rezone the 10-acre property at 570 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike as an age-restricted cluster housing zone. This allows greater density than normally allowed in residential zones in exchange for preserved green space and a portion of affordable housing. On Tuesday, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a special permit for Denorfias project. Commissioners considered also approving the site plan application which would have allowed Denorfia to start building but tabled the matter. Much of the discussion about the development among planners, neighbors and the developers representatives focused on run-off, drainage and stormwater. Drainage concerns Mary Ellen Hobson, a Blatchley Avenue resident who lives adjacent to the project, spoke in favor of the development. Denorfia is building stormwater control measures such as swales to ensure theres no flooding during heavy rains. Hobson had questions about who would maintain those measures but was generally pleased that the developer was ensuring flooding wouldnt be a problem. She was also glad that Denorfia was careful about preserving old trees on her property and had buffer areas between her property and the new development. Id always like to see more but theyve done a good job here, Hobson said. One of her worries was the failure of a detention pond in the nearby Hillcrest development. Stephen Giudice, an engineer representing Denorfia, said the housing project was designed to handle heavy storms and the overflow of the Hillcrest pond. We did take that into consideration, he said. Jim Grappone, assistant town engineer, on Tuesday asked the commission for more time to consider Denorfias plans. Giudice agreed and the commission voted to table the application. Denorfia said he expects a vote at the meeting this month. In addition to the houses he plans to build, hell also remodel and sell a 1920 house thats on the property. Objections to the plan Larry DePaolo, a Blatchley Avenue resident, opposed the development. Town residents have made it clear that theyre opposed to more housing, DePaolo said. What benefit is that to Southington? he said of Denorfias development. Bob Hammersley, the planning commission chairman, said the commission must allow a developer to build if they meet the towns requirements. Rezoning approval granted On Tuesday, the commission also approved a zone change for property at the corner of Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike and Clark Street. The owner, Peter DiClementi, was looking to rezone more of the land to allow for businesses.The previous owner of the property successfully applied to have much of the land rezoned from industrial to business in 2020. At the time, landowners proposed a Jersey Mike's sandwich shop and a Sunoco gas station for the corner. Hammersley said the split zoning change was approved as a compromise to allow those plans to go forward while not removing all the industrial land on that corner. He said industrial land is valuable to the town since it generates taxes but not the expense of residents and accompanying services. Caleb Cowles, a commission member, said he felt hoodwinked when the request to rezone the rest of the property came in. Other commission members had similar comments, regretting the split zoning but realizing it presented a problem for the property owner that needed to be addressed. We probably should have said, One way or the other, in 2020, said Peter Santago, a commission member. We created a landlocked condition. Commissioners were eager to see development on that corner and the renovation or removal of unsightly industrial buildings and quonset huts. Changing the entire property to business would be more likely to make that happen. Id rather see something happen to get rid of the blight thats there now, said Bob Salka, a commission member. The commission unanimously approved the request to rezone the property. jbuchanan@record-journal.com203-317-2230Twitter: @JBuchananRJ Two years ago it looked as though Democratic challenger Jim Jinks had prevailed over incumbent Republican Craig Fishbein in the 90th House District race. An error discovered by a member of Wallingfords Democratic Town Committee led to a review of the results, and a recount led to an extremely narrow re-election victory for Fishbein. It was a good moment for democracy, at a time when the coronavirus was a major concern and a time of uncertainty about the presidential election. The aim of getting it right prevailed over partisan interests. The 90th district is now different, with Cheshire out, part of Middlefield in, and Wallingford expanding to the east. But what is likely to be similar is the closeness of the race. Democrat Rebecca Hyland, now challenging Fishbein to represent the district, is offering an alternative that voters could find enticing. If the Democrat wins, the Republicans on the Wallingford Town Council, which include Fishbein, will have played a role. It was a decision by the GOP majority early this year that helped inspire Hyland to pursue her political path. Democrat Gina Morgenstein resigned following her re-election as councilor. The Democratic Town Committee wanted the next top vote-getter to fill the vacancy, but Republicans on the council appointed instead Democrat Jason Zandri, whose run for office had been derailed by a medical emergency. Hyland spoke during that meeting, found it energizing, and afterward was asked to consider running. Those in authority have an obligation to the people they represent, she said recently. In a June opinion piece for the Record-Journal, Hyland responded to the May school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, with a plea for gun safety and a moral imperative to take action. She presents a contrast to Fishbeins stance as a defender of 2nd Amendment rights. The districts move into Middlefield could be an advantage for Fishbein, who has family roots there. Hes been knocking on a lot of doors and says the reception has been supportive. He has held the seat since 2016, taking over from Mary Fritz, a long-serving Democrat for whom a grade school is now named, and has been on the Wallingford Town Council since 2009. On the website fishbein4ct.com, the Republican lists what has become a refrain of his guiding principles of smaller government, lower taxes, and less interference in the day-to-day affairs of our law-abiding citizens. He is the Republican leader on the House Judiciary Committee, a member of the Environment Committee and the Government Accountability & Elections committee, and vice-chairman of the Connecticut General Assembly Conservative Caucus. His actions have drawn criticism and in some cases condemnation. He is one of two lawyers who are also Republican state representatives, as the Associated Press recently reported, involved in a lawsuit by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, the Second Amendment Foundation and three gun owners seeking to overturn the states ban on certain semiautomatic rifles. Fishbein earns credit for taking his own path. His actions show an admirable willingness to take positions not for popularitys sake but in accordance with his convictions. Two years ago, Fishbeins re-election was not supported in this space, despite his having credentials and experience that are truly impressive. He was also noted for being strong on government transparency. A challenger ought to show that there is a compelling reason to reject an incumbent. There are voters who will feel Hyland has been able to do just that. But others will feel comfortable with the experience and work ethic Fishbein brings to his job as a legislator. Its a difficult decision, but in this tough choice theres reason to back a Republican. Yves here. See, were not all gloom and doom! A positive climate development! By Bob Henson. Originally published at Yale Climate Connections A treaty adopted 35 years ago and meant to solve an entirely different problem is also protecting the climate. And with bipartisan support from the Senate and President Joe Bidens Oct. 26 signature, the U.S. became the worlds 139th nation to adopt a key amendment to that agreement the first time the U.S. has joined a legally binding global measure specifically to combat climate change. What is the Montreal Protocol? Global warming was on the back burner in 1985 when scientists from the British Antarctic Survey found a gaping hole in the planets stratospheric ozone layer. A natural feature of the atmosphere, the ozone layer is located between about 10 to 25 miles above Earths surface. It shields the planet from the suns ultraviolet radiation, which is harmful in large doses to our skin and to myriad other aspects of plant and animal life. Researchers rapidly pinned down the cause of the ozone destruction: chlorofluorocarbons, known as CFCs, which are chemicals used as refrigerants and to manufacture aerosol sprays and other materials. CFCs had been recognized for years as a threat to the ozone layer, but the ozone hole found in the mid-1980s was far worse than anything expected by that point. By 1987, diplomats had crafted a treaty known as the Montreal Protocol to fix the problem. It was an immense success, ratified by every member state of the United Nations. There was a major catch, though. Both CFCs and their leading replacements hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs trap heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming. Atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon led crucial research that found CFCs were reacting with polar stratospheric clouds to destroy ozone above Antarctica. In an email, Solomon pointed out that CFCs were recognized as dangerous heat-trapping gases as far back as the mid-1970s. Once released, they remain in the atmosphere for about a century. HFCs have much briefer atmospheric life spans on the order of a decade or two. So they were rightly viewed as less damaging both for ozone and climate and as a transition substance, Solomon said. What changed was that the developing countries began to develop far faster than originally expected, Solomon said, which made the world realize that demand for these molecules would shoot up rapidly as the number of people using refrigeration and [air conditioning] would increase in the 21st century. And it soon became clear that a large volume of HFCs could do plenty of damage. Susan Solomon carried out groundbreaking research on ozone depletion in the stratosphere above Antarctica, with the Montreal Protocol following in short order. (Image credit: NOAA, via Science History Institute) What is the Kigali Amendment and Why Did the U.S. Senate Support It? Enter the Kigali Amendment. Adopted at a United Nations meeting held in the Rwanda capital in October 2016, it uses a variety of policy approaches to throttle back on both the production and consumption of HFCs. The amendment has put the world on track to eliminate more than 80% of HFCs by midcentury. One reason the Kigali Amendment passed the Senate with bipartisan support (69-27, including 21 of the chambers 50 Republicans) is that national action on HFCs along the lines of Kigali was already in gear. The pandemic stimulus bill of late 2020 specified an 85% cut in HFC production by 2030. Many lawmakers, especially those from states with major chemical manufacturing, had recognized that cutting HFCs made sense. For one thing, nations that have not ratified the amendment cannot trade HFCs with those that have. Bringing down HFCs is an undisputed climate win. If HFCs were to grow at an uncontrolled pace, as they were doing just 20 years ago, they could add close to 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) to the amount of global heating expected by 2100. I think U.S. ratification of Kigali shows that there is no fundamental barrier to stepping up ambition on greenhouse-gas reduction, Solomon said. If we can do it with todays fractured Congress, we can do other things too, like carbon-dioxide reduction. How the Montreal Protocol Has Protected Earths Climate But the phaseout of HFCs is not the only way the Montreal Protocol is helping the climate. The climate benefits of the Montreal Protocol gained prominence in a series of world avoided papers published starting in 2007. In all, researchers have found that roughly 2.5C(4.0F) of warming by 2100 is being averted by aspects of the Montreal Protocol unrelated to HFCs. Much of that avoided warming results from the protocols phaseout of CFCs. In addition, had the world chosen not to ratify the Montreal Protocol and instead continued to damage the ozone layer, plants would have been harmed by extra ultraviolet sunlight. That would have reduced their ability to remove heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and led to still more warming, according to a 2021 paper. So far, the Montreal Protocol has protected climate more than all other efforts combined, said Stephen Andersen, director of research at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington, D.C., in an email. Andersen is co-author of a special volume, issued jointly on Oct. 31 by the institute and the United Nations Environment Program, that commemorates the protocols 35th anniversary. The rapid transition from an ozone treaty also protecting climate, to a hybrid ozone and climate treaty with future emphasis on climate, is an amazing diplomatic and environmental success, Andersen said. More Pollutants To Tackle HFCs are a classic example of what are known as short-lived climate pollutants. It takes well more than a century for an atmospheric infusion of carbon dioxide to work its way back into the oceans and soil. Molecule for molecule, carbon dioxide is not an especially powerful heat-trapping gas, but its emitted in titanic amounts more than 30 billion metric tons per year. Because of this sheer volume combined with its longevity, carbon dioxide is expected to cause the bulk of global warming this century and beyond. Short-lived greenhouse gases most prominently methane, but also nitrous oxide and several others, including HFCs pack a much more intense punch per molecule than carbon dioxide. The global warming potential of an HFC molecule is more than 10,000 times that of carbon dioxide when the effects of both are summed over a century-long span. This effect is counterbalanced by HFCs being far less prevalent than carbon dioxide. Many scientists, activists, and diplomats are pushing for prompt action on other short-acting pollutants in addition to HFCs, especially methane. Since these gases tend to be so powerful over the short term, cutting them ASAP would provide immediate help, they argue. NASA announced on Oct. 26 that overall ozone depletion above Antarctica during September-October 2022 was less than in the previous year, although the maximum size of the ozone hole was slightly larger than the 2021 maximum. Over time, steady progress is being made, and the hole is getting smaller, said Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Image credit: NASA Ozone Watch) Lessons from Montreal and Kigali Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, is optimistic that headway on other short-term pollutants is possible, with the Montreal and Kigali agreements serving as important inspirations. The agreements show we have won the battle before, he said. Now lets get the whole package of short-term pollutants under regional agreements. Natural gas flaring in a West Texas oil field in 2020. (Image credit: Jonathan Cutrer, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0) Methane from fossil fuels is particularly ripe for reduction, Zaelke said. Huge amounts of natural gas are lost through pipeline leakage or burned off in flares. You can do at least 50% of methane recovery in oil and gas at a profit, said Zaelke. At this point, he added, the oil and gas sector understands that to keep their social license theyre going to have to have very low leak rates. A Global Methane Pledge introduced in 2021 advocates for a cut of 30% in worldwide methane emissions from 2020 to 2030. This pledge now includes more than 120 countries; together, they represent about 45% of global methane emissions and around 60% of global GDP. Solomon says that the same practical approach employed by the Montreal Protocol crafting policies that stimulate new, cost-effective technologies can be used for carbon dioxide as well. Misinformation has led many people to believe it cant be done or would be enormously expensive for CO2. That is certainly not true now. KateLynn White graduated from Tennessee State University, where she was an editor of the student newspaper. She interned for The Tennessean and The Tennessee Tribune before joining the Nashville Post in 2022. She also contributes to the Nashville Scene. Follow KateLynn White 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 This article is part of a two-story cover package on labor in Tennessee. See also: "The State of Labor in Tennessee: Speaking with workers rights advocates and union organizers about the ongoing fight for worker protections." After the frantic first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee set out to reopen Tennessee businesses a task he entrusted to a new economic recovery group. The group included lawmakers and members of Lees administration, plus the heads of several industry lobbies representing companies around the state the Tennessee Retail Association, the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association, the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association and different chambers of commerce, among others. Though its difficult to know for certain where people contracted COVID-19, Tennessee workers died from the disease after working in places experiencing extreme outbreaks of the coronavirus. Asked one year ago whether hed thought to include any workers or worker representatives on the task force, Lees answer was, more or less, that employers represent workers. The economic recovery group is made up in vast part by industry folks who are employing tens of thousands of workers, the governor said at the time. This sidelining of the workers themselves is part of a long and often bipartisan tradition in Tennessee, wherein political leaders oscillate between completely ignoring organized labor and, when faced with a union drive at a Tennessee business, painting an apocalyptic picture of the dangers of labor unions. It is characteristic and historical that, particularly in the South, state governments have weighed in on the side of the companies, says June Rostan, a retired labor organizer from East Tennessee who spent decades working with the AFL-CIO, the Southern Empowerment Project, the Highland Research and Education Center and a group of women coal miners. Its about power. The latest push to strengthen employers power over unions dates back to the 1940s, when Tennessee adopted a right to work law, giving workers the option of opting out of unions and their dues even if they benefit from the collective bargaining or other advocacy undertaken by the organization. Though its been state law for more than 70 years, a multiyear push is now underway to enshrine right-to-work in the Tennessee Constitution. Seven decades on, the move might seem symbolic, but supporters argue that it would make taking the law off the books more difficult for future iterations of the legislature that may be more supportive of organized labor as now-majority Democrats in Virginia have sought to do in recent years. Additionally, supporters say, adding right-to-work to the state constitution would put defenders of the law in a stronger position if Congress moves to undo right-to-work nationwide, as one piece of legislation currently under consideration in Washington proposes. We believe its been a very good law for Tennessee and for Tennesseans because its all about choice, says Jim Brown, who leads the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. For many workers, its just about choice, and for some its a value proposition. There are some unions out there doing work thats worth it to some workers, and there are some that may not be. Its about choice, and thats really what right-to-work is. Tennessees labor history is long and in some cases bloody. In the 1890s, violence broke out in what came to be known as the Coal Creek War when a mine operator broke a miners strike with inmates leased from the state. The violence, and the cost of keeping the Tennessee National Guard in the field, led the state government to end its convict-leasing program. Shortly after Republicans took full control of Tennessee government, lawmakers in 2011 stripped teachers unions of their collective bargaining power. It was a move that neutered the public-sector union that Republican leaders including then-Gov. Bill Haslam said was impeding changes to the states schools. A century after the Coal Creek War, labor tensions flared again as foreign auto manufacturers began moving to the state. Tennessees long-held right-to-work status was used in the pitch to companies. Wages are lower in right-to-work states (though that cannot exclusively be linked to the policy), and unions are of course weakened when fewer people join them. Though the right-to-work push isnt getting into the actual organizing, as Brown says, Tennessee state officials and industry groups have not been shy about wading into the actual organizing before. In 2019, Gov. Lee who spent almost all of his professional career before entering politics in management at his familys Lee Company visited Volkswagens Chattanooga factory to urge workers to vote against a proposed union at the factory. They did, by a slim margin, the latest in a series of unsuccessful organizing attempts at major manufacturers in the South. Tennessee lawmakers had also threatened to divert tax incentives away from companies with unions during the Volkswagen push. Our view is that the laws are generally neutral right now, NFIBs Brown says. You can still organize, but if Volkswagen or any other company is doing a good job of protecting their workers, providing good wages and a good place to work, there shouldnt be any need for a union. [NFIB companies] are doing everything they can to protect their workers. They look at their workers as family, and they believe if there was an attempt to organize it would disrupt that relationship with their workers. Thats certainly one point of view, but its one that prioritizes the interests of business owners, who oppose union organizing for reasons other than just their familial relationship with employees. In some places, lawmakers are reconsidering right-to-work. West Virginias Republican Gov. Jim Justice said earlier this year he is having second thoughts about the states policy, put into place in 2016. We went out and passed the right-to-work law, Justice said. We built fields all over the place, in thinking that they will come. They didnt come, did they? By some measures, they have come to Tennessee, as more and more companies decide to move to the state with lower wages and less regulation than most of the other 50. And Tennessee lawmakers are responding with their push to put right-to-work in the Constitution. The Tennessee General Assembly passed the proposed amendment resolution by a simple majority in both chambers during its most recent session. Now it must pass by a two-thirds majority, which it already has in the Senate. As of press time, the House had not given the proposed constitutional amendment its second seal of approval, but assuming it does, Tennessee voters will have the choice to add right-to-work to the Tennessee Constitution in the 2022 general election. Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Raumesh Akbari is one of the few lawmakers fighting the push. Her Shelby County district includes the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot while visiting the city on behalf of striking sanitation workers in 1968. Her legislative office is decorated with a photo of the workers brandishing their I am a man signs. That slogan and Kings death in Memphis loom large in Tennessee labor history. I think unions help make the workplace better, Akbari says. Traditionally, theyve been there to negotiate fair contracts, fair wages and safety concerns. When you take that away, it makes it more difficult for the position to be a profession, as opposed to just a job. I think we are at a low point, and I really hate that, she continues. I wish people would look back and see what unions have done to build up our country and particularly to build up our middle class. Unfortunately, it seems theres too much of an eye toward corporate interest and less towards workers. Its not just public pressure that has weakened unions in recent decades. Shifts in the economy including shifts away from manufacturing jobs historically home to more organizing have also contributed. The tech industry, Rostan says, has proven particularly difficult to organize. After spending a lifetime working to advance the cause of organized labor, Rostan admits that unions have not always been perfect. But generally, she says, theyve been a force for good in the lives of workers. In the Rust Belt states where unions still wield major influence, Rostan says, theres not the fear of organizing that there is in the South. Thats whats been used to keep people down. Thats not just about right-to-work, but a whole culture of instilling fear in people of losing your job, or this factory will move if you organize a union. In spite of all of this fear and the laws that are baked into state governments in the South and some other places that impede union organizing, workers still are able to get a taste of being able to get together and form a union, Rostan adds. They see we can sit at the table with the company, we have a voice, and we can protect people who get treated unfairly. It can be a very powerful thing thats woven in the history of the South. (Natural News) Just days ahead of Election Day, a new poll finds that the majority of Americans want stricter voter identification laws. In an exclusive only made available to DailyMail.com, a survey conducted by CRC Research for the 85 Fund has found that at least 75 percent of white, black, Hispanic and Asian Americans believed that voting should require a form of picture identification. On November 8, a question regarding enhancing election security will be on the ballot in eight states, including requiring voter identification in Arizona and Nebraska. Currently, 14 states require at least a non-photo form of identification, and 21 states mandate photo identification for in-person voting. Opponents of the stronger voter identification laws are claiming that it places an unfair burden on citizens and disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income Americans. However, numerous polls indicate that public trust in American elections is at an all-time low. Advocates are saying that stricter voter identification laws can help restore voter confidence. (Related: Media Research Center exposes Googles BIAS: Tech giant rigging search results to favor Dems in midterms.) According to the poll, 88 percent of voters who identified as Asian Americans, 81 percent of Hispanic Americans and 75 percent of black Americans support the requirement for a photo ID in order to vote. Eighty-five percent of respondents who selected other as their race and 85 percent of white respondents also agreed. Moreover, the survey found that American voters want more significant restrictions on mail-in voting, which has been under partisan scrutiny ever since it was used so widely during the 2020 presidential election due to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said: The numbers are continually unambiguous: Americans strongly prefer simple voting measures like picture ID and explicit regulations that prevent Election Day from becoming election season. Voters also want secure ballots, particularly susceptible mail ballots, as well as prompt and accurate election results. Eighty-five percent of the survey respondents said they believe mail-in ballots should be received by Election Day, as do 61 percent who said they strongly agree with the sentiment. Only 11 percent somewhat or strongly disagreed, while four percent were unsure. Sixty-eight percent said they were in favor of voters needing to request a ballot to vote by mail, rather than having one sent to them automatically. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, eight states automatically send all registered residents a ballot for mail-in voting: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington. Snead said that no election system is perfect, but many conservative states have passed election reforms that have made it easier to vote and harder to cheat. As this poll shows us, that is exactly what Americans want. The poll involved 1,600 likely U.S. voters, with a margin of error of 2.45 percent. Candidates all over the campaign trail With just a few days to Election Day, candidates are frantically spreading their final messages to a weary electorate on the campaign trail and on the airwaves. President Biden is set to visit California and New Mexico. Former President Donald J. Trump will visit Iowa. Despite their best efforts to convince Americans that voting is safe and secure, election officials in some states are issuing warnings about attempts to intimidate voters and erode public trust in the democratic process. Former President Barack Obama campaigned in Arizona on Wednesday, Nov. 2, casting the election as a battle for American democracy. On Thursday, Nov. 3, Biden aimed to promote his student debt relief plan in New Mexico and campaign for Representative Mike Levin in San Diego. Vice President Kamala Harris will speak at a get-out-the-vote event in New York campaigning for Gov. Kathy Hochul. Meanwhile, Democratic candidates either avoid discussing border security or refuse to do so on Republicans terms, as the partys grass-roots allies struggle for cash and battle burnout. More related news can be found at Liberty.news. Watch the video below that talks about the impending doom of Democrats in the midterm elections. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: HIS Glory with Pastor David Scarlett: GOP needs to win midterm elections to take control of Congress, says Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Brighteon.TV. STOP THE MID-TERM STEAL: How much video surveillance is in place for BALLOT DROP BOXES to protect midterm election integrity this November? Democrats planning to steal midterms: Biden regime partners with communist China-based TikTok ahead of crucial elections. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk NYTimes.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) In an incendiary speech Wednesday at historic Union Station, located next to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden warned that if Republicans win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate next Tuesday, it would be an assault on democracy. (Article by Steve Byas republished from TheNewAmerican.com) While one might understandably wonder how it could be an assault on democracy if the American voting public cast their ballots for one political party over another political party, Biden used the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband, Paul, in crime-ridden San Francisco, to make that very argument. Noting that when a mob entered the Capitol on January 6, with some shouting, Wheres Nancy? Biden cited media reports that the man who assaulted Pelosis husband with a hammer shouted the same thing. Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th, when they broke windows, kicked in doors, brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors hunting for officials and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President Mike Pence, Biden said. He added, We dont settle our differences with a riot, or a mob, or a bullet, or a hammer. We settle them peaceably at the ballot box. This is no ordinary year, Biden insisted. In a typical year, we are not often faced with the question of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put it at risk. But we are this year. Why is this? According to Biden, You know, American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. He refuses to accept the will of the people. He refuses to accept the fact that he lost. He has abused his power and put loyalty to himself before law under the Constitution. And, Biden claimed, it is not just Trump who is the problem, but a majority of the Republican members of Congress, whom he dubbed Extreme MAGA Republicans. He called attention to Republican candidates for other races, as well. As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America: for Governor, for Congress, for Attorney General, for Secretary of State who wont commit to accepting the results of the elections theyre in. Biden failed to mention the history of Democrats who have refused to accept the results of elections that they lost. When Donald Trump won his surprising victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton insisted that Trump was illegitimate. She was joined by several other Democrats including members of the House of Representatives who challenged the certification of the electoral votes on January 6, 2017. He also failed to mention the refusal of Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to accept the outcome of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race after her defeat by 50,000 votes. And, Biden neglected to condemn the violent assaults on Republican officeholders, such as the attack on Senator Rand Paul on his own front lawn by an angry supporter of socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, or the attempted murder of Representative Steve Scalise by another devotee of Sanders. Senator Paul questioned Bidens remarks, arguing that for all the attack upon democracy, Biden is ignoring the threats to the right of free speech, protected in our constitutional republic. Paul accused Bidens party of being the party of authoritarianism, as the government under Biden colludes with social-media giants to suppress free speech. Yet, Bidens allies at the Brookings Institution have charged that more than 340 congressional candidates on the November 8 ballot have expressed what it and their corporate media allies has repeatedly called false claims that the 2020 election was flawed. Bidens references to the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol for which he blames Trump for challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election also ring hollow, when he has never issued one word of condemnation of the deadly riots that swept the country in the summer of 2020, riots that included an attempt to storm the White House itself. The attack on the White House was unsuccessful only because scores of Secret Service agents fought off that mob, suffering multiple injuries. House Minority Leader almost certainly soon to be Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy referred to Bidens speech as a diversion from the real issues facing the nation. President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite because he cant talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living. The American people arent buying it. Read more at: TheNewAmerican.com (Natural News) Salinen AG, Austrias only domestic salt mining company, is cutting back production by 20 percent due to the massive rise in energy prices in the country. Salinen CEO Peter Untersperger noted that the salt mining company was already charging 12 percent more for salt before the company decided to cut production. He added that the company should have raised prices by at least 30 percent to cope with increased operating costs. Untersperger noted that production in Salinen is already being gradually decreased, and the company will reach its goal of a 20 percent reduction in manufacturing by the end of the year. We are currently in full operation, said Untersperger in German during an interview with Austrian local media outlet Mein Bezirk. He added that his companys production is flexible enough to adjust to the rise in the price of energy and other operating costs. But Untersperger noted that his main clients cant keep up with the price increases forever. The CEO noted that the price of electricity and gas has increased tenfold and eightfold in recent years, respectively. The situation is still dramatic, he said. The government is throwing sand in the eyes of the population. They are keeping silent about how hard the winter will be this year and next year. Salinen CEO calls for end to Russian sanctions as solution for energy crisis As Untersperger himself noted, Austrias energy market is currently in turmoil as the countrys government is still deep in negotiations for the production of more green energy sources and with other energy production facilities that can help reduce its dependence on energy imports. (Related: Europe to feel impact of turning away from cheap, plentiful Russian energy.) But while there is still no solution to Austrias overreliance on foreign energy, Untersperger demanded that the country rolls back its sanctions against Russia and reopens negotiations for Russian natural gas to reach Austria. He said that Germany should reopen Nord Stream 2 so that enough natural gas can flow back into Europe and market prices because energy can drop again. He added that Germany and Austria shoot themselves in the foot with their imposition of sanctions against Russia. He believes the European Union made very, very big mistakes beforehand. We should never have offered Ukraine membership in NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization], but now you cant go back, as Europe will lose face, he added. Untersperger also criticized the Austrian government and its carbon tax, which he said stifles the countrys already-limited ability to compete with German businesses, who get money thrown at them while Austrian companies will be left in the dry [sic] and have to pay 400 euros [$390] for one megawatt. He also mentioned how Austrian gas prices are still around 10 percent more expensive than in Germany. This, coupled with the subsidies and relief German businesses are receiving, are unbridgeable competitive disadvantages and locational disadvantages for Austrian industry and could lead to more businesses leaving to transfer operations to Germany. Austrias government does not want to see its largest businesses and job creators leave the country. But instead of providing the private sector with more support it lets us hit the wall, according to Untersperger. Learn more about Europes energy crisis and how it has affected industries all over the continent at EnergySupply.news. Watch this episode of the Health Ranger Report as host Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses the collapse of industry and infrastructure across Europe and the United States. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Steel giant ArcelorMittal forced to shut down two massive German steel facilities due to energy crisis. Tens of thousands of Czech protesters gather in Prague to demand end of sanctions against Russia, withdrawal from EU and NATO. GOT HEAT? Polish households burn TRASH for heat as Western sanctions against Russia deprive Europe of energy. European energy crisis making it impossible to produce renewable energy equipment like solar panels. SANCTIONS BACKFIRING: European manufacturers closing up shop due to skyrocketing energy costs. Sources include: FreeWestMedia.com MeinBezirk.at Brighteon.com (Natural News) Leaked government documents reveal that U.S. government officials have access to a special portal through which they can directly flag Facebook and Instagram posts and request that the posts be throttled or suppressed, The Intercept reported Monday. (Article by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) Internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos, emails and public documents outline an expansive effort by DHS to influence tech platforms, despite the Biden administrations failure earlier this year to launch a Disinformation Governance Board. As of Oct. 31, the content request system at facebook.com/xtakedowns/login was still live despite the public uproar earlier this year when attorneys general in 20 states threatened legal action unless the Biden administration immediately disbanded the Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board. Mark Crispin Miller, Ph.D., professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, told The Defender that collusion between the U.S. government and media companies to censor U.S. citizens is nothing new but its become a catastrophic trend. Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., author of Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom, told The Defender: The Intercepts reporting validates what many knew was being undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security, despite the scrapping of its Disinformation Governance Board. Rectenwald said the coordination between government and media companies validates his claim that social media companies are not merely private companies but are state and uni-party apparatuses what he has called governmentalities that augment the state by adding precision, scope, and penetration to state power. Indeed, many of the people in charge of moderating content at Facebook have been recruited from the government, including the CIA, FBI and the U.S. Department of Defense. The unholy alliance between the state and these corporations has historically been called fascism, Rectenwald added. Biden paused widely ridiculed board publicly, at least On May 18, the Biden administration paused the board, causing Nina Jankowicz, who was tapped to lead the initiative, to resign. However, the still-active portal allows officials with a .gov or law enforcement email address to request censorship in the name of fighting disinformation. Neither DHS nor Meta, Facebooks parent company, responded to The Intercepts request for comment on its report. According to The Intercept, the DHS Disinformation Governance Board was initially designed to police three forms of speech that allegedly threaten U.S. interests: Misinformation: false information spread unintentionally. Disinformation: false information spread intentionally. Malinformation: factual information shared, typically out of context, with harmful intent. Even though the board scaled back and then shut down after being met with wide ridicule, other DHS efforts are underway for monitoring social media behind closed doors, according to The Intercept. An August 2022 report by the DHS Office of Inspector General tracked DHSs efforts since 2018 to counter disinformation and concluded DHS efforts did not go far enough. Although DHS components have worked across various social media platforms to counter disinformation, DHS does not yet have a unified department-wide strategy to effectively counter disinformation that originates from both foreign and domestic sources, the report said. Without a unified strategy, DHS and its components cannot coordinate effectively, internally, or externally to counter disinformation campaigns that appear in social media, it added. According to a draft copy of the DHS Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, obtained by The Intercept, the department plans to target inaccurate information on a range of topics, including the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine. The draft review also called for DHS to leverage advanced data analytics technology and hire and train skilled specialists to better understand how threat actors use online platforms to introduce and spread toxic narratives intended to inspire or incite violence, as well as work with NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and other parts of civil society to build resilience to the impacts of false information. The draft did not include a concise definition of threat actors, an omission Adam Goldstein, vice president of research at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, found concerning. No matter your political allegiances, all of us have good reason to be concerned about government efforts to pressure private social media platforms into reaching the governments preferred decisions about what content we can see online, Goldstein told The Intercept. Any governmental requests to social media platforms to review or remove certain content should be made with extreme transparency, he added. In June 2022, an advisory committee of DHSs Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) which included Vijaya Gadde, Twitters head of legal, public policy and trust, and safety lead, and Kate Starbird, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington drafted a report to the CISA director in which the committee called for an expansive role of the agency in shaping the information ecosystem. The committees report called on CISA to closely monitor social media platforms of all sizes, mainstream media, cable news, hyper partisan media, talk radio and other online resources. Evidence of deep state political censorship, expert says According to Rectenwald, the DHS has been infringing the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens with the explicit cooperation of social media while enforcing official state narratives and dictates. Together with social media companies, they comprise an American Pravda, Rectenwald said. Russias Pravda newspaper was the official organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1991. DHSs backdoor portal to Facebook and Instagram is evidence of deep-state, political censorship, Rectenwald said, referring to a permanent bureaucracy that voters neither elected nor can change, but which operates independently of voters wills. According to CISA meeting minutes and other records appended to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt alleging the U.S. government censored the opinions of the scientists who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, discussions among CISA officials revealed the scale and scope of government intervention in online discourse and went so far as to cover the mechanisms of streamlining takedown requests for false or intentionally misleading information. For instance, a text message exchanged in February between CISA Director Jen Easterly, and another CISA employee who now works at Microsoft, read: Platforms have got to get more comfortable with govt. Its really interesting how hesitant they remain. And in a March CISA meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, said the threat of subversive information on social media might undermine support for the U.S. government. Notes from that meeting discussion which was attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan Chase showed Dehmlow stressed that we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable. Twitter told The Intercept in a statement, however, that they do not coordinate with other entities when making content moderation decisions, and we independently evaluate content in line with the Twitter Rules. Yet other documents in addition to the March CISA meeting notes suggest coordination between the federal government and Twitter regarding the content it allows on its platform. In July 2021, Twitter locked Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter and the author of 13 novels, out of his account a few hours after Biden said the social media companies were killing people by allowing vaccine skeptics to speak. About a month later, Twitter permanently banned Berenson, who also has a Substack page called Unreported Truths. In December 2021, Berenson sued Twitter in federal court, claiming the company had breached its contract with Berenson because it previously assured him he was doing nothing wrong according to their rules and that everything he said on their platform had been accurate. The internal Twitter communications obtained through discovery revealed the White House had specifically targeted him in its private meeting with Twitter. The communications showed high-ranking members of the Biden administration including White House Senior COVID-19 Advisor Andy Slavitt pushed Twitter to permanently suspend Berenson from the platform. I can now bring a claim directly against the White House, Berenson told Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in a recent episode of RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast, against people who were in the White House at that time for trying to abridge my free speech rights. More evidence of the federal governments possible collusion with Big Tech companies to censor users may be revealed as a result of an Oct. 21 federal court ruling that ordered Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top officials to testify under oath at depositions for Attorney General Schmitts lawsuit. Jenin Younes, a New Civil Liberties Alliance attorney involved in the lawsuit, said she looks forward to learning just how far the accused government officials went to push their COVID-19 perspective. For the first time, Dr. Fauci and seven other federal officials responsible for running an unlawful censorship enterprise will have to answer questions under oath about the nature and extent of their communications with tech companies, Younes said in a statement to The Epoch Times. Childrens Health Defense (CHD) also sued Meta, its independent fact-checkers and Mark Zuckerberg, alleging they worked jointly with the Biden administration to censor CHD social media content. Its kind of a wild west out there As The Intercept pointed out, the Privacy Act of 1974, created after the Watergate scandal, restricts the governments ability to collect data from Americans as they exercise their First Amendment rights. Civil liberty groups have contended the statute limits the ability of the DHS and the FBI to surveil the political speech of Americans on social media, but the statute has exemptions for information collected for the purposes of a criminal or law enforcement investigation. Faiza Patel, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justices Liberty and National Security Program, told The Intercept, There are no specific legal constraints on the FBIs use of social media. The attorney general guidelines permit agents to look at social media before there is any investigation at all. So its kind of a Wild West out there, she added. An FBI official interviewed by The Intercept lamented the countrys move toward warrantless monitoring of its citizens and said, Man, I dont even know whats legal anymore. CISA boasted of an evolved mission to monitor social media discussions Following high-profile hacking incidents of U.S. firms, Congress in 2018 passed and then-President Donald Trump signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act, which formed a new wing of DHS charged with protecting critical national infrastructure. From its inception, CISA boasted of an evolved mission to monitor social media discussions while routing disinformation concerns to private sector platforms, The Intercept report said. Additionally, the DHS in 2018 created under the leadership of then-DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force to respond to election disinformation. The task force included members of CISA and DHSs Office of Intelligence and Analysis who together generated threat intelligence about the election and then notified social media platforms and law enforcement agencies, according to The Intercept. In 2019, DHS created yet another branch the Foreign Influence and Interference Branch to generate more detailed intelligence about disinformation. That same year, its staff grew to 15 full- and part-time employees dedicated to disinformation analysis. In 2020, DHSs disinformation efforts expanded to include COVID-19, according to an Oct. 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment. In January 2021, under the Biden administration, CISA replaced the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force with the Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation team in order to to promote more flexibility to focus on general MDM. The ever-present narrative: Censorship not just justified but morally necessary Crispin Miller traced governmental collusion with media companies limiting free speech back to the 1960s. Gradually, over the last sixty years, its become increasingly difficult and, lately, dangerous to contradict the narratives pumped out by the government and media, Crispin Miller said. Starting in the late 1960s, those who questioned the official story of JFKs assassination and other seminal events were largely laughed off as conspiracy theorists. Over the last 10 years or so, such ridicule has given way to heated condemnation, treating mere dissent from this or that official story as (somehow) an existential danger to us all, Crispin Miller said. Crispin Miller continued: Thus, for going on three years now, its been treated as a crime against humanity to question any of the COVID measures forced on all humanity by governments worldwide especially COVID vaccination, which is itself [original emphasis] a crime against humanity, and yet its dangerous to say as much. Likewise, its now treated as (somehow) a crime against democracy, and a dire threat to national security, to question the results of an election, with those who do so-called election deniers, as if disbelief in the official outcome of a presidential or congressional race is somehow tantamount to Holocaust [original emphasis] denial. Glenn Greenwald, journalist, author and lawyer, also pointed out there is a problematic narrative circulating that regards censorship as both justifiable and morally necessary. Greenwald, one of the three editors who in 2014 co-founded The Intercept, wrote in an Oct. 28 Substack post: Look to any government or society in which censorship prevailed either today or throughout history. This narrative about why censorship is not just justified but morally necessary is always present. Nobody wants to think of themselves as a censorship supporter. They need to be supplied with a story about why they are something different, or at least why the censorship they are led to support is uniquely justified. And it works because, in the most warped sense possible, it appeals to reason. If one really believes, as millions of American liberals do, that the U.S. faces two and only two choices either (1) elect Democrats and ensure they rule or (2) live under a white nationalist fascist dictatorship then of course such people will believe that media disinformation campaigns, censorship, and other forms of authoritarianism are necessary to ensure Democrats win and their opponents are vanquished. Once that self-glorifying rationale is embraced our adversaries do not merely disagree with us but cause harm with the expression of their views [original emphasis] then the more suppression, the better. And that is exactly what is happening now, Greenwald added. Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org (Natural News) North Korea launched at least 23 missiles into the ocean on Wednesday, November 2, one of which came down less than 60 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of South Korea. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called it territorial encroachment. According to Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), one of the missiles that Pyongyang launched was a short-range ballistic missile that landed close to South Korean territorial waters for the first time since the division of Korea. It was also the most missiles fired by the North in a single day, and it was the first time a ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters since the peninsula was divided in 1945. JCS noted that the missile landed in international waters 167 kilometers (104 miles) northwest of South Koreas Ulleungdo island, which was located around 26 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) the de facto inter-Korean maritime border that North Korea does not recognize. The launches came only hours after Pyongyang urged an end to extensive military drills between South Korea and the United States, claiming that such military rashness and provocation can no longer be permitted. John Kirby, the White Houses national security spokesman, described the North Korean launches as reckless and promised that the U.S. would take steps to ensure that it has the military resources necessary to defend its treaty allies Japan and South Korea. The missile touched down south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a contentious maritime border between North and South Korea, but outside of South Koreas territorial seas. Strictly speaking, it did not land in our territory, but in the Exclusive Economic Zone under our jurisdiction, therefore it was not subject to interception, a senior presidential official responded when asked whether the missile was heading toward the Souths territory and if it should have been intercepted. (Related: North Koreas satellites revealed to be in ideal position to unleash EMP attack on Americas most populated cities.) Kirby said the U.S. has received information that North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells for its conflict in Ukraine. He added that Washington will also consult with the United Nations on accountability issues regarding the shipments. He also noted that North Korea was trying to hide the shipments by passing them through nations in the Middle East and North Africa. North Korea escalates provocations North Korea is also getting into the nerves of Japan. On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that North Korea is launching missiles at an unprecedentedly high frequency. Kishida has already called for a National Security Council meeting to be held as soon as possible due to the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Japans Ministry of Defense said North Korea conducted another launch, which included at least one more ballistic missile toward the east that fell into the sea outside of Japans Exclusive Economic Zone. North Korea has rapidly escalated its provocations, launching more than a dozen missiles today alone and reportedly firing more than 100 artillery shells into the Japan sea since announcing an extremely provocative statement earlier in the day, said Toshiro Ino, Japans deputy minister of defense. The ballistic missile flew a short distance at a maximum altitude of fewer than 50 kilometers. No damage to aircraft or vessels has been reported. Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong tweeted on Wednesday: North Koreas unprecedented launch of multiple ballistic missiles is recklessly threatening the security of the Republic of Korea. Pyongyang must cease this action. Visit WWIII.news for more news about the conflict between North and South Korea. Watch the video below to learn more about North Koreas missile attacks. This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: North Korea tells citizens to buckle up for more food shortages until 2025. Trump considering sudden strike on North Korea as time is running out for peaceful resolution. North Korea could be capable of launching nuclear attack on U.S. homeland, general warns. Sources include: Reuters.com Edition.CNN.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) Former President Barack Obama warned Democrats not to demonize their political opponents Wednesday even as President Joe Biden delivered a speech attacking MAGA Republicans and tying them to last weeks assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband. (Article by Joel B. Pollak republished from Breitbart.com) Obama told a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, that demonizing opponents with over-the-top rhetoric could result in physical violence: One thing is clear, and that is this increasing habit of demonizing political opponents, of just yelling and thinking not just that I disagree with someone, but that theyre evil and wrong, Obama said. That creates a dangerous climate. And when we have politicians and elected officials in leadership positions who continue to promote over-the-top rhetoric or make light of it more people are going to get hurt. Obama did not specifically mention Biden, his former vice president. Biden gave a speech at Union Station in which he reprised some of his attacks from his Sep. 1 speech at Independence Hall, casting Republicans as extremist and dangerous to democracy: Just a few days ago, a little before 2:30 a.m. in the morning, a man smashed the back windows and broke into the home of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third-highest ranking official in America. The assailant tried to take Paul hostage. He woke him up, and he wanted to tie him up. The assailant ended up using a hammer to smash Pauls skull. All of this happened after the assault, and it just its hard to even say; its hard to even say after the assailant entered the home asking, Wheres Nancy? Wheres Nancy? Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th when they broke windows, kicked in the doors, brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors hunting for officials, and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President, Mike Pence. It was an enraged mob that had been whipped up into a frenzy by a President repeating over and over again the Big Lie that the election of 2020 had been stolen. Its a lie that fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years. You know, American democracy is under attack because the defeated former President of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. He refuses to accept the will of the people. He refuses to accept the fact that he lost. He has abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the Constitution. And hes made a Big Lie an article of faith in the MAGA Republican Party the minority of that party. Biden ignored the political violence that was used by the left to attack former President Trump and his supporters, such as: Violent attacks by left-wing activists on Trump supporters leaving a rally in California in June 2016 Riots in November 2016 in several Democrat-run cities after Trump was announced as the winner of the election Riots in Washington, DC, during the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January 2017 Violent rhetoric at the Womens March, and threats against Trump supporters throughout the Trump presidency The shooting and wounding in 2017 of Republican members of Congress on a baseball field by a crazed left-wing gunman The summer of rioting by Black Lives Matter supporters tolerated or encouraged by Democrats in the summer of 2020 Threats of rioting prior to the 2020 presidential election, forcing businesses in Democrat-run cities to board up their windows The attempted stabbing of New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin at a campaign rally The alleged murder of a teenager in September after a North Dakota man said he suspected the boy was a Republican The vicious beating of a volunteer for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) by men who said Republicans were not allowed in the area The alleged biting of a supporter of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon by a fan of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) Death threats last week against Republican gubernatorial nominee State Sen. Darren Bailey in Illinois A physical attack on New Hampshire Republican nominee for Senate Don Bolduc (allegedly by a local libertarian) The attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the leaked draft of the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade The fire-bombing and targeting of pregnancy centers and Catholic churches by pro-abortion activists in the wake of the Dobbs decision In his September remarks, Biden said that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic, and that a Republican Party that supported Donald Trump was a threat to this country. Obama, who once claimed his own political opponents were making common cause with the enemies of America because they opposed his nuclear deal with Iran, also warned against the erosion of just basic civility and democratic norms in America today. Read more at: Breitbart.com (Natural News) Americas involvement in the war in Ukraine is possibly connected to the LGBTQ agenda. In an episode of Good Morning, Patriot show, the host talked about how Democrats are supporting Ukraine because Russia stands for the traditional family and refuses to bow down to the LGBTQ agenda. In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced what would be a full-scale war against Ukraine. However, he dedicated a whole paragraph about the Wests undermining of traditional values. Properly speaking, the attempts to use us in their own interests never ceased until quite recently: they sought to destroy our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, Putin said. The attitudes they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration because they are contrary to human nature. He pointedly added: This is not going to happen. No one has ever succeeded in doing this, nor will they succeed now. Anyone following Russian politics and society may be familiar with this narrative. In 2012, in the wake of massive protests and declining popularity, Putin wholeheartedly embraced the notion of traditional values as an ideology that guides both domestic and foreign policies. While he may be using vague and undefined concepts, traditional values are seen as encompassing patriotism, spirituality, rootedness in history, respect for authority and adherence to heteronormative and patriarchal ideals of family and gender. Under that rhetoric, LGBT rights, feminism, multiculturalism and atheism are not only foreign but are existential threats to their nation. Putin: Liberalism has become obsolete Recently, Putin slammed cancel culture and trans rights, calling the gender fluidity propaganda a crime against humanity. Putin attacked western liberalism in an address last October, blasting both issues at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. During his address, Putin stressed that his country should adhere to its own spiritual values and historical traditions while seeing clear sociocultural disturbances in the West. Moreover, some Westerners actually believe that the aggressive deletion of whole pages of their own history, reverse discrimination against the majority in the interests of minorities constitute movement toward public renewal, Putin pointed out. Its their right, but we are asking them to steer clear of our home. We have a different viewpoint. Putin said that liberalism has become obsolete and has loudly advocated for what he considers to be traditional family values. In his October remarks, he also said that the notion of children being taught that a boy can become a girl and vice versa is monstrous and on the verge of a crime against humanity. He also suggested that those who support transgender rights were demanding an end to basic things such as mother, father, family or gender differences. Putin is trying to show that he stands for values that will not divide society and throw it into chaos, according to Matthew Sussex, a Russia expert at the Australian National University. On the one hand, its a unifying message. But on the other hand, it does hit the transgender and gay communities that the Russian government has continued to target, he said. Visit Gender.news and WWIII.news for more news about gender issues and the war in Ukraine, respectively. Watch the video below to know more about Putins rhetoric against the LGBTQ agenda. This video is from the New Patriot channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Calif. city launches universal basic income program but only for LGBTQ citizens. After Azov dropped Nazi insignia from uniform, media hypes new unicorn LGBTQ patch. More evidence of neo-Nazi worship emerges in Ukraine, as commander of all the countrys forces pictured wearing swastika bracelet. Sources include: Brighteon.com BostonReview.net (Natural News) A core agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia that has persisted since 1945 is being upended as communist China rises to the top of the Saudi regimes oil empire. When it comes to oil partnerships, China has been told that Saudi Arabi is its most reliable partner and supplier of crude oil. The U.S., meanwhile, is just another one of its partners, to quote senior FX trader and salesman Simon Watkins. For primarily security considerations, the U.S. will remain a meaningful partner of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans (MbS) kingdom. But for economic purposes, China is now top dog, it would seem. (Related: Remember when the FBI mistakenly revealed that Saudi Arabia was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks?) Russia will remain a key partner of Saudi Arabia on energy matters, but the U.S. has been relegated a few steps down on the list. Here is what Aramco chief executive officer Amin Nasser said at the recent annual China Development Forum in Beijing: Ensuring the continuing security of Chinas energy needs remains our highest priority not just for the next five years but for the next 50 and beyond. Notice that nowhere in that sentence is the U.S. even mentioned. This marks a major shift in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, which has soured tremendously under the leadership of Joe Biden. It was reported recently that MbS refused to even take a telephone call from Biden, who was attempting to ask for help in bringing down sky-high energy prices. Biden also wanted to discuss the recent collective cuts in OPEC oil production, though that did not happen either. The world has lost respect for the U.S. under Biden The way that MbS cut off the 1945 core agreement between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. demonstrates that the latter has lost even more preeminence and respect at the hands of the Biden regime, which has set the country on a crash course to total failure. Biden likes to talk a big game, having recently promised some consequences for Saudi Arabias actions, but it is doubtful that the Pedophile-in-Chief actually has a legitimate plan in place that will not demote our country even further into economic oblivion. Im not going to get into what Id consider and what I have in mind, Biden went on to ramble. But there will be there will be consequences. Just prior to Bidens speech, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby suggested that the U.S. review the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia and take a look to see if that relationship is where it needs to be and that it is serving our national security interests in light of the recent decision by OPEC and Saudi Arabias leadership [of it]. Despite all this, Saudi Arabia is forging ahead in its partnership with China, having indicated plans to continue close communication and strengthen[ed] cooperation to address emerging risks and challenges, according to a joint communique from Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Beijings National Energy Administrator, Zhang Jianhua. Between January and August of this year, according to Chinese Customs data, 1.76 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil were shipped to China. This marks an increase in market share to 17.7 percent from 16.9 percent last year. Saudi Arabia is also said to be working on joint integrated refining and petrochemical complexes with China, as well as on plans to expand the use of nuclear energy. There is also word that Saudi Arabia is manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, which only adds to U.S. fears that several key states in the Middle East are expanding their nuclear capabilities. More of the latest news coverage can be found at Collapse.news. Sources for this article include: OilPrice.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) European researchers have confirmed that the plasma, urine, and feces of people who test positive for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) contain toxin-like peptides that are almost identical to those found in snake and other animal venom. Samples of each of these fluids were collected from so-called covid patients and tested for composition. The stated purpose behind the research was to identify the mechanism of infection for the Chinese Virus, which is still largely a mystery. For the plasma tests, the researchers used a protein precipitation preparation procedure to remove high molecular weight proteins while efficiently solubilizing the peptide fraction. For the feces and urine, they used a direct peptide solubilization method. Upon investigation, the samples were determined to contain various levels of venom components such as conotoxins, phospholipases, phosphodiesterases, zinc metal proteinases, and bradykinins. The presence of toxin-like peptides could potentially be connected to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the study explains. Their presence suggests a possible association between COVID-19 disease and the release in the body of (oligo-)peptides almost identical to toxic components of venoms from animals. The researchers went on to explain that these toxins are associated with a large set of heterogeneous extra-pulmonary COVID-19 clinical manifestations, including neurological ones as well as hemorrhagic and thrombotic. Although the presence of each individual symptom is not selective of the disease, their combination might be related to COVID-19 by the coexistence of the panel of the here detected toxin-like peptides, the study further concludes. The presence of these peptides opens new scenarios on the [etiology] of the COVID-19 clinical symptoms observed up to now, including neurological manifestations. First they unleashed synthetic venom bioweapons; now they are creating new drugs to treat the resulting health damage As usual, the stated purpose of the study is to develop new therapeutic strategies for all organ systems involved, meaning more pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are soon on the way. Since there are still many more profits to be made, in other words, science is busy coming up with novel pharmakeia strategies to fight the snake bite. We know from earlier research that snake venom peptides can be synthesized, meaning they are artificially created as a bioweapon. The globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) celebrated such technology because of its potential for new venom-based drug development and deployment, which is precisely what this new study aims to accomplish. All of this was done before the covid scamdemic emerged in late 2019 and early 2020. It was the year 2018, in fact, when the WEF partied over the development of synthesized snake venom peptides, which will greatly expand the portfolio of Big Pharma offerings in the future. Why all of a sudden are we seeing all this information about numerous companies researching snake venom as drugs for a wide range of illnesses? asked one inquiring-mind reader at Natural News. Did this expose on In the Water cause this immediate rush of information, or is it that COVID was a real-world testing ground for snake venom, and now the green light is given to move forward? I also have a real problem with all the money being thrown at anti-venom. Arent snake bites low on the global ranking of health issues / death? Why so much money into this? A red flag for me! These are important questions that deserve answers, are they not? Nothing in this world is done without some kind of eugenics-for-profit agenda attached to it. If there was no money and depopulation to be had from all this venom research, then you can be sure it would not be happening. The latest news about the Chinese Virus can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov NaturalNews.com (Natural News) A survey on health freedom as it relates to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines and mandates commissioned by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) shows that an overwhelming majority of voters are more likely to support a candidate who believes in medical freedom. ICAN commissioned the poll in September and featured answers from 1,000 respondents. It was conducted by the professional polling agency McLaughlin and Associates. One of the questions the survey asked was: Are you more likely or less likely to support a candidate who supports policies empowering citizens to make medical decisions for themselves and their families? A whopping 78 percent of respondents indicated that they were more likely to back a pro-health freedom candidate 50 percent much more likely and 27 percent somewhat more likely. Only 11 percent were less likely to support a pro-health freedom candidate seven percent were somewhat less likely and four percent were much less likely. The remaining 12 percent answered No difference. As ICAN founder Del Bigtree and The HighWire with Del Bigtree co-host and investigative journalist Jefferey Jaxen noted, the survey showed mixed results when the respondents were asked about COVID-19 vaccines, policies and mandates. The only question wherein a vast majority of respondents were united was the one regarding health freedom. (Related: Health freedom group prepared to SUE any state that requires COVID-19 vaccines for schools.) When asked about whether or not they believe the COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns violated their rights, a slim majority 50 percent responded in the negative, and only 44 percent said they believed their rights had been violated. But when asked two questions about the COVID-19 vaccines if Big Pharma overstated their effectiveness and if they overlooked or downplayed their side effects a majority answered in the affirmative each time. Incumbents and candidates alike take stand against vaccine mandates The ICAN surveys results were released within just days of the 2022 midterm election. Bigtree and Jaxen noted that support for health freedom policies may hold the key to victory on election day. As of late October, top officials in at least 18 states have said that they will not add the COVID-19 vaccines to their school vaccination requirements, either by executive order or by state law. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. Of these states, 15 were led by Republican governors. Three Colorado, Connecticut and Maine were led by Democrats. As long as Im around and as long as Im kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandate for your kids, said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. That is your decision to make as a parent. I trust parents to raise their kids and do whats best for their kids health, said Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte. On my watch, the State of Montana will not mandate the COVID-19 vaccine. Some Republican candidates have also taken stands in defense of health freedom. In Minnesota, Republican candidate for governor Scott Jensen, a physician and former state senator, recently released a video lambasting COVID-19 vaccine mandates for kids and questioning the science behind the CDCs decision to add the vaccines to its vaccination schedule. Visit HealthFreedom.news for more news like this. Watch this clip from The HighWire with Del Bigtree as he and Jaxen discuss how focusing on health freedom issues may hold the key to victory on election day. This video is from the channel The HighWire with Del Bigtree on Brighteon.com. More related stories: 2 Dem governors join Republicans in opposition to mandated COVID-19 shots for school kids. GOP lawmakers dispatch scores of election observers to tight races in an effort to guard against Democrat cheating. Critical Disclosure with Jim White: Election integrity on the line in November 2022 midterms Brighteon.TV. The vaccine Berlin Wall is finally being TORN DOWN as NY Supreme Court strikes down capricious NYC vaccine mandate. Sources include: Brighteon.com TheHighWire.com LifeSiteNews.com TheEpochTimes.com NPR.org (Natural News) Being lectured to, condemned, ridiculed and hated by elitist bullies is bad enough on a single day or for one issue. (Article by Karen Kwiatkowski republished from LewRockwell.com) This behavior went on for over two and a half years, for nearly a thousand days, in a thousand ways. The economic, social, interpersonal, and educational costs associated with the idiotic mandates and unscientific policies will last a lifetime for many, and certainly shortened the lifetimes of many more. The suggestion printed by the WEF-loving, pro-war lefties at The Atlantic is that they and their global team of unscientific lemming-like nanny-state bullies just possibly were a bit misinformed (not their fault) in 2020/21 regarding masking, untested genetic injections, and actual death rates, etc (not their fault). This bully squad accepted without question the lies their government told them (not their fault). They not only eagerly, but radically and angrily defended and promoted those lies (partly their fault). They hope we understand that it wasnt entirely their fault, and that they are still smart and educated. They really just wanted to live and survive a flu-like disease with a death rate comparable to any other bad flu and their nagging and incoherent jammering and name-calling was just so we also wouldnt die unless we refused the experimental free required shot and continued to live our lives and try and keep our businesses open, then if we died it was kind of funny to them. Their excuse was fear, but in reality it was not fear at all, and nor was it hate although it looked like it. It was contempt from Day One. Leftover contempt from the Trump era, pumped up and recirculated via a government over-response to a disease that now we understand to have been created via gain of function in a government lab by American scientists, including several who had close personal and professional relationships with Fauci. It was individual contempt, political contempt, and institutional contempt for the masses as demonstrated by the Gates Foundation and its compadres, the Democratic Party, and numerous government aligned institutions and industries. Emily Oster wants us to forgive each other, but it isnt hate they dished out to us. If it had been, that hate might be forgiven. If they hated us because they didnt know any better and now they dont hate us anymore because they know better well, that can be forgiven. However, contempt is not something that can be forgiven by the formerly contemptible. Their contempt for us has nothing to do with us, and it isnt our problem. Their contempt for us should be eliminated not by our forgiveness which is irrelevant but by their own internal change, their own decisions, individually, that we are at least their equals, and quite possibly, in the case of the COVID policy fiasco, examples they could and should have followed, rather than condemned. There are some steps that, if taken, would make me believe that they are serious. Oster has tossed out a veiled and somewhat worried request for a kind of forgiveness and tellingly she also used the word amnesty. She knows what we all know: crimes were committed, and citizen trust in governing institutions and their university/media/industry cohorts has been broken and will not be easily restored. Clearly, most people harmed by the myriad of bad policies and bad attitudes by the virulent anti-critical thinking crowd are no where near ready to forgive. There could be a time for that after court cases are adjudicated, government bureaucrats fired, politicians kicked out of office, and the books and the science comes out from behind the shadows. When the ghoulish merger of government and big Pharma and the medical institutions is destroyed, and we gain back the freedom we should have always had with regards to our health care decisions and actions, then there could be time for forgiveness. Id like to see a 12 step movement embraced and acted upon by people like Emily. Addicts, like the The bullying anti-science left wing are addicts they gave over personal responsibility to think and act soberly and fairly, to the thing they are addicted to government centralized power and their own comfortable sense of superiority over people who disagree with them politically. To this end, I recommend that Emily Oster and all of her peers and allies: Admit they were powerless over their knee-jerk acceptance of government messaging, that their lives had become unmanageable, and yet they remained arrogant. Come to believe a Power greater than themselves could restore them to sanity and that power is not the federal government or its associated bureaucracies and lackey institutions. Made a decision to turn their will and their lives over to the care of God as they understand God. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of themselves, and their actions, beliefs and behaviors over the past 3 years. Admitted to God, to themselves and to another human being the exact nature of their wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked God to remove their shortcomings. Made a list of all persons they have harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when they were wrong, promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve their conscious contact with God as they understood God, praying only for the knowledge of Gods will for them and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, they tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all their affairs. Id be happy if they simply looked into half of these 12 choose any six steps and go for it. But I imagine that none of these steps is what Emily and her ilk had in mind. Maybe when their icons are sitting in jail, having lied publicly one too many times, and having participated in mass murder, they will recognize their addiction, and seek to make a personal change. With Covid, this group of almost a hundred million Americans demonstrated a thousand days of collapses in critical thinking, a thousand days of lockstep unwillingness to question authority, and a thousand days of animalistic rage and aggression toward those who displayed a healthy distrust of large, nontransparent and unaccountable organizations and institutions. So far, none of this is being addressed. No doubt we will suffer these kinds of freedom-destroying government-driven movements again, be the crisis a man-made disaster, a false flag, or an act of God. Next time, however, the other hundred thousand of contemptibles among us might not take it lying down. Read more at: LewRockwell.com (Natural News) Story summary: Dozens of venom peptides have been identified and confirmed in the bodies of covid victims. Analysis was conducted via HPLC with mass spec molecular mass and ion fragmentation confirmation, published in a science journal and indexed by PubMed. A patent has been identified that describes a bioweapons aerial drone delivery system designed to kill 100% of enemy troops. This drone bioweapons delivery system can be outfitted with aerosolized venom peptides to air drop toxins onto any population, in any city, at any time, faking a pandemic outbreak (no virus necessary). The system also houses mosquitos which can be fed a toxin suitable to be transmitted by mosquito bite to achieve mass kills of civilians or troops. Russia has identified precisely these sort of drones (with 20L liquid carrying capacity plus aerosolized dispersal capabilities) being used by the Ukrainian government, fully capable of spraying biological weapons onto Russian troops or civilians. See this story on NewsTarget.com. Toxic mosquito aerial release system US patent #US8967029B1 Hat tip to Dr. Tau Braun for alerting us to this patent after he viewed my recent interview with Dr. Jane Ruby and Dr. Bryan Ardis This patent, easily viewed via Google Patents at this link, was filed by, TMARS Associates Trustee for Toxic mosquito aerial release system CRT Trust. The patent describes a bioweaponized mosquito release system using aerial drone release, designed to achieve a 100% kill rate of enemy troops. The patent, in ruthlessly blunt language, also describes small robotic devices that deliver sickness agents to kill troops. In the patent image above, notice the skull and crossbones in the lower right corner of the bioweapons container, which is feeding the mosquitos toxic molecules (could be chemicals, pathogens or venom peptides) with the purpose of having these injected into the intended targeted via mosquito bites. Sickness can be a very valuable military tool From the patent itself (emphasis added): Throughout military history, the health of ones troops has always been an important determining factor. Soldiers on the ground can only properly function if they are not ill, sick, or dying from a deadly virus or pathogen. A soldier, whose immune system is trying to fight a bug or pathogen, will have no energy or ability to fight other soldiers. Sickness can be a very valuable military tool that can be more devastating than the most up-to-date military guns and equipment. Since making the enemy troops sick is an important military objective, one must then look at what means are available to get the pathogens, germs, and viruses to the enemy. In todays highly-advanced military technology, there are various types of small robotic devices that can try to get sickness agents close to enemy troops This miracle of technology can carry a sickness agent, covertly go to the enemy area, specifically find the individual enemy, and can contaminate the enemy with absolutely no warning. This ultra high-tech device of nature is called a mosquito. If only there was a way for military planners to harvest and use the power of the mosquito, they could easily sicken and kill large masses of enemy troops without even a single shot being fired. With the toxic mosquito aerial release system, large masses of people can be immunized or enemy troops can now be wiped out or rendered useless without having to risk or endanger our own troops. The mosquitoes in the toxic mosquito aerial release system can be contaminated with various types of genetically altered bacteria to activate the immune system, or contaminated with toxic sickness agents depending on the objectives. For military purposes, the mosquitoes may be used to deliver an agent such as malaria to create sickness, or they could use much more toxic or highly contagious agents and viruses. A highly contagious virus could wipe out 100% of the enemy troops because the ones that did not get bitten will be contaminated by their fellow soldiers. Does any of this sound familiar? Why did NYC have a sudden covid outbreak in Feb / Mar of 2020 that did not spread to other U.S. cities along a predicted viral pandemic projection? Whats fascinating here is that this aerial drone bioweapons release system means it is possible to fake a pandemic by air dropping chemical toxins onto a population, without any virus existing at all. Once the population uptakes the toxins, they are driven by media fear to beg for vaccines. These vaccines then inject them with mRNA instructions that can program their cells to synthesize venom peptide proteins in their own bodies, creating even more symptoms and causing shedding / spreading of the venom peptides to others around them. This is then called an epidemic of viral spread, when theres no virus even necessary for this process to be created. That doesnt mean there isnt a SARS-CoV-2 bioweaponized viral strain in existence, it just means that no virus is required to stage an apparent outbreak and cause public panic about the latest pathogen. Everything weve seen with the so-called covid-19 pandemic could have been achieved without any virus at all. Venom theory proven correct as scientists confirm presence of dozens of venom peptides in covid-19 victims A study published in the F1000 Research journal, indexed by PubMed Central and available on the National Library of Medicine website (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8772524/) is titled, Toxin-like peptides in plasma, urine and faecal samples from COVID-19 patients. This study used HPLC (liquid chromatography) combined with mass spec instruments to identify the presence of dozens of venom peptide components in the feces and blood plasma of covid-19 victims. Authored by Carlo Brogna and other Italian researchers, the study, reports the identification of toxin-like peptides in COVID-19 patients by application of the Liquid Chromatography Surface-Activated Chemical Ionization Cloud Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry. The full list of toxic peptides and venom peptide components identified in the bodies of covid-19 victims include: Conotoxin Pu6.1 Conotoxin Vi15a Putative alpha-conotoxin Qc alphaL-1 Conotoxin 10 Rho-conotoxin TIA Kunitz-type serine protease inhibitor conotoxin Cal9.1a Alpha-conotoxin Pu1.5 Conotoxin Fla16d Phospholipase A2 MALT0035C Phospholipase A2 AP-PLA2-I Acidic phospholipase A2 PePLA2 Basic phospholipase A2 BFPA Basic phospholipase A2 PL-X Complement factor B Ba fragment Acidic phospholipase A2 homolog textilotoxin D chain Acidic phospholipase A2 homolog textilotoxin D chain Venom prothrombin activator pseutarin-C non-catalytic subunit Coagulation factor V Venom prothrombin activator oscutarin-C non-catalytic subunit Short neurotoxin 4 Conotoxin Cl9.6 Zinc metalloproteinase-disintegrin-like halysase Alpha-elapitoxin-Oh2b Sigma-conotoxin GVIIIA Conotoxin Mr15.2 Conotoxin mr3g Contryphan-R Snake venom metalloprotease inhibitor 02D01 Bradykinin-potentiating and C-type natriuretic peptides Bradykinin-potentiating and C-type natriuretic peptides Zinc metalloproteinase/ disintegrin Note that these include conotoxins which the study says, are neurotoxic peptides isolated from the venom of marine (genus Conus) cone snails. The study adds: The presence of conotoxin peptides might explain the occurrence of many symptoms (like hyposmia, hypogeusia and the signs typical of Guillain-Barre syndrome) observed in some COVID-19 patients. Their presence can alter normal functioning of ion channels, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and of acetylcholine levels. Dr. Bryan Ardis tried to warn the world about toxic venom peptides, and he was ridiculed by nearly everyone The bottom line? Dr. Bryan Ardis was correct all along. And so was Stew Peters for daring the grant Dr. Ardis a platform to speak (for the record, I also interviewed Dr. Ardis and published that interview on Brighteon.com.) The so-called venom theory that has been dismissed or even mocked by other analysts and observers turns out to be a critical component in understanding the origins and presence of so-called covid-19 which might be more appropriately called COVENOM-19. Get the full, astonishing details in todays Situation Update podcast. Heres a summary of whats covered: Up to a million Democrats cant vote because of vaccine injury or death First election in the post-vaccine genocide era Tonga volcanic eruption achieved unprecedented water vapor plume Will cause crop failures across the planet for 2 years to come Stephen Colbert begs to join the globalist illuminati and push depopulation Democrats PROJECT their own agenda, claiming Republicans will murder children HALF of college students demand DEATH penalty for offensive speech Bombshell science study finds VENOM peptides in covid victims Dr. Bryan Ardis is proven correct with venom theory Synthesized venom peptides can be mass produced using engineered e.coli mRNA shots can inject people with instructions to produce venom peptides Transforms the human body into a venom factory, poisoning from within Synthetic venom peptides can be mass produced and freeze dried Patent uncovered for aerial drone delivery of chemical and biological weapons Ukraine caught trying to buy long-range bioweapon drones for spraying toxins US Patent #US8967029B1 describes delivery of biological agents to kill the masses Patent filed by Toxic mosquito aerial release system CRT Trust Designed to sicken and kill large masses of enemy troops Viral outbreaks can be FAKED by dropping venom peptides on populations Brighteon: Brighteon.com/694b94a6-6c4c-4de9-ac8c-ecade6b1c70b iTunes podcast: Healthrangerreport.com/situation-update-nov-4-2022-venom-peptide-aerial-drone-release-weapon-system-patent-uncovered Bitchute: Bitchute.com/video/kw99FD1pSW0Z/ Rumble: Rumble.com/v1riila-situation-update-nov-4-2022-venom-peptide-aerial-drone-release-weapon-syste.html Banned.Video: Banned.video/watch?id=636526f8802845103421e918 Follow more breaking news about biological warfare at BiologicalWarfare.com Discover more interviews and podcasts each day at: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/HRreport Follow me on: Brighteon.social: Brighteon.social/@HealthRanger (my breaking news gets posted here first) Telegram: t.me/RealHealthRanger (breaking news is posted here second) Banned.video: Banned.video/channel/mike-adams Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@healthranger Gettr: GETTR.com/user/healthranger Parler: Parler.com/user/HealthRanger Rumble: Rumble.com/c/HealthRangerReport BitChute: Bitchute.com/channel/9EB8glubb0Ns/ Clouthub: app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/naturalnews/posts Join the free NaturalNews.com email newsletter to stay alerted about breaking news each day. Download my current audio books including Ghost World, Survival Nutrition, The Global Reset Survival Guide and The Contagious Mind at: https://Audiobooks.NaturalNews.com/ Download my new audio book, Resilient Prepping at ResilientPrepping.com it teaches you how to survive the total collapse of civilization and the loss of both the power grid and combustion engines. (Natural News) Joe Bidens handlers ensured he used another primetime address to the nation to trash his political opponents as MAGA Republicans who are a threat to the core tenets of our democracy, when in fact, his Democratic Party is the entity tearing down our institutions. In our bones, we know that democracy is at risk, Biden said at one point in his speech after blaming Republicans for the break-in at House Speaker Nancy Pelosis residence in San Francisco, during which her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked by an illegal immigrant. All of this happened after the assault, and it just its hard to even say; its hard to even say after the assailant entered the home asking, Wheres Nancy? Wheres Nancy? Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th when they broke windows, kicked in the doors, brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors hunting for officials, and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President, Mike Pence, Biden went on. It was an enraged mob that had been whipped up into a frenzy by a President repeating over and over again the Big Lie that the election of 2020 had been stolen, he said, falsely claiming that former President Donald Trumps stolen election claims are wrong (the documentary 2,000 Mules provides all the evidence proving the election was stolen). Its a lie that fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years, said Biden, himself actually lying again. In this moment, we have to confront those lies with the truth. The very future of our nation depends on it. My fellow Americans, were facing a defining moment, an inflection point. And we must with one overwhelming, unified voice speak as a country and say there is no place no place for voter intimidation or political violence in America, whether its directed at Democrats or Republicans. No place, period. No place ever, he said. This violence against Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisan officials just doing their jobs are the consequence of lies told for power and profit, Biden claimed. Lies of conspiracy and malice. Lies repeated over and over that generate a cycle of anger, hate, vitriol, and even violence. Biden also went on to claim that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe our democracy is at risk, that our democracy is under threat because the defeated former President of the United States refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. He said that Trumps claims were an article of faith in the MAGA Republican Party, adding that extreme MAGA Republicans aim to question not only the legitimacy of past elections but elections being held now and into the future. The extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party, which is a minority [of] that party as I said earlier, but is its driving force, is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020, to suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself, Biden said, without evidence. That means denying your right to vote and deciding whether your vote even counts. Instead of waiting until the election is over, theyre starting well before it, Biden claimed. Theyre starting now. Theyve emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and Election Officials. Its estimated that there are more than 300 election deniers on the ballot all across America this year. We cant ignore the impact this is having on our country. Its damaging, its corrosive, and its destructive. And I want to be very clear, this is not about me. Its about all of us. He also said that Americans should not expect to know the results of our elections on election night, which is literally admitting that races are going to be stolen. Sources include: WhiteHouse.gov ThePostMillennial.com (Natural News) Just three years ago, the United States was an energy independent nation, a nation that was in a secure position to incorporate more renewable energy sources into its diverse and robust energy supply. Today, the United States is a hollow shell of its former self with pipelines and drilling operations shuttered. After the Biden regime took control in 2021, hostile federal administrators were quickly installed to take down the most important pillars of Americas energy infrastructure fossil fuels, natural gas, and nuclear energy. In the Presidential debates of 2020, Biden told the American people this was going to happen during his term, and his minions have since delivered an assault on American energy. The UN-sanctioned, anti-fossil fuel agenda is a national security issue Once in office, the Biden regimes top priorities included a shutdown of pipelines and drilling permits. Bidens transportation and energy czars routinely engage in crony capitalism, punishing the fossil fuel industry while providing taxpayer-funded incentives for renewable energy sources. These anti-fossil fuel mandates will soon transform the entire automobile industry, forcing consumers to buy electric vehicles from China, while endangering the diesel supply. Today, Bidens anti-fossil fuel economy has driven up the price of gasoline, diesel, transport, and food. This government failure was intentional and it has caused great financial stress on poor and working-class Americans. Notwithstanding, the Biden regimes chaotic overreach into the energy economy is threatening national energy security and waking up complacent Democrats to the utter failure of this regime. This is why the Biden regime is now begging for more domestic crude and refining production, while burning through the strategic petroleum reserves. Midterm elections are coming and the Democrats are doing everything they can to artificially suppress fuel prices right before the election. Ironically, Biden is so desperate now, he is threatening the fossil fuel industry with higher taxes if they dont start boosting production! After the Biden regime caused fuel prices to double, triple and quadruple in some areas of the country, the feds quickly began to backtrack. In the lead-up to the midterm election, the Biden regime is burning through the nations petroleum reserves, which are only intended to be used during war time. After slightly suppressing fuel prices, Biden even balked about creating low gas prices (even though the price is over double that of the previous administration). Democrats are tackling climate change by destroying peoples lives and putting national security at risk Energy Transfer LPs co-chief executive officer, Marshall McCrea, spoke about the Biden regimes chaotic energy policy on a recent company conference call. Energy Transfer controls over 120,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines in 41 states and Canada. McCrea said that hostile federal administrators were installed in the Biden administration to attack Americas energy industry. On the call, he questioned the governments hasty, shortsighted transition to renewables, and said that the actions taken under this administration have threatened global energy security. Modern life with a reasonable standard of living and affordable energy is simply not possible without fossil fuels, McCrea said. This illogical and irrational politically-led rush to renewables will have devastating impacts on the cost, reliability, and security of energy around the world as were seeing in Europe and other places, McCrea said in the conference call. In their bid to save the planet from climate change, Democrats have made life harder for the poor and working class. The UN climate change agenda has crippled Western nations and driven up energy prices to the point of destroying small businesses en masse. Moreover, this anti-fossil fuel agenda has made Western nations more vulnerable to Russia and China, as these nations work together and use fossil fuels and pipelines as leverage against the West. No matter how hard Western nations virtue signal about saving the planet, Russian and China will continue to forge ahead with realistic energy policies that prioritize fossil fuel energy sources that people need in order to live in modern society. Sources include: Zerohedge.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Filmmaker and author Kay Rubacek argued that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is vulnerable as its regime is built on lies. Tyranny always seems so powerful, and that makes us afraid when they look like the big dictator, and sure they are because thats playing the role, she told Health Ranger Mike Adams during a recent episode of Health Ranger Report. They want us to be afraid, and thats exactly what they want. So when were afraid, we play into their hands. But they are vulnerable. They are so vulnerable because this regime is built on lies. And its a house of cards once enough people know the truth and they value themselves, then the lies cannot exist anymore. Rubacek also divulged that a former Chinese propaganda official told her that the CCP media machine is all about propaganda. The same official told her that the Chinese people are fed lies because once they find out the truth, the CCP would instantly fall. (Related: Beijing influencing media outlets in a bid to create a more positive reputation for China.) The truth is such a powerful weapon, she told Adams. We all wield that weapon and we have to remember that because tyranny wants us to forget that. But thats where we have the upper hand. Meanwhile, Adams cited a tweet by leftist actress Susan Sarandon. The picture that was tweeted had this passage: It didnt start with gas chambers. It started with one party controlling the media. One party controlling the message. One party deciding what is truth. One party censoring speech and silencing opposition. One party dividing citizens into us and them and calling on their supporters to harass them. It started when good people turned a blind eye and let it happen. According to Adams, Sarandon does not realize that the tyranny she referred to in her tweet is now creeping into America. He also mentioned that the passage perfectly described China under the CCPs thumb something Rubacek agreed with. American youth already being brainwashed at a young age Rubacek also mentioned that the American youth is already being brainwashed at a young age, thanks to communism in the education system. She warned that it latches onto anything, such as the woke agenda, in order to permeate and twist peoples minds. According to the filmmaker and author, the socialists and communists who tasted power in half of Europe did not disappear. They just went underground and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, working their way through the higher education system. Former CCP officials had also revealed to Rubacek that the Chinese people became soulless bodies or walking dead when communism took over China in 1949. She added that these people have made an oath to put the CCP above their country and fellowmen, forcing them to separate their conscience in the process. While America has a different foundation, Rubacek stressed that the American people need to recognize how far communism has gone into the countrys system. She mentioned that communism is not a Chinese product it came from the West and was only implanted there. Adams seconded her statement, adding that communism is now wading through America by means of the Democratic Party. Rubacek also talked about Chinese defectors. These defectors, she said, feared death as they felt they could not be true Chinese under the CCP. They wanted to keep their true values, sanity and humanity thus, they chose to defect. CommunistChina.news for more news about the Chinese regime. Watch the video below as filmmaker and author Kay Rubacek exposes the truth about the cruelty and pure evil of communism and the CCP. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Google partners with China to dominate the world with online tyranny, censorship and communism agendas. China declares all lives matter but fails to mention the mass murder of Falun Gong practitioners, or the secret organ harvesting operations by the CCP. China using social media to sow racial discord in the US. China tortures Uyghurs in brutal concentration camps to implement One China policy, witnesses testify. Sources include: Brighteon.com Twitter.com (Natural News) Recently publicized bank records revealed that Hunter Biden and James Biden President Joe Bidens son and brother earned seven-figure salaries, thanks to a joint venture with Chinese businessmen. These businessmen, purportedly connected with the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) intelligence services, invested almost $11 million in the joint venture. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) issued the bank records, consisting of more than 200 pages, on Oct. 25. The records were sent to a Delaware prosecutor investigating Hunters likely criminal business dealings with foreign countries. The Republican lawmakers had been investigating Hunter for almost four years now. Grassley and Johnson also attached a letter berating U.S. Attorney David Weiss for his failure to respond to their congressional oversight requests. The lawmakers expressed concerns that maybe the federal prosecutor is holding up and not doing a complete investigation of the presidents son or the Department of Justice is hampering the inquiry. They added that the evidence amounts to possible criminal financial activity with respect to Hunter and James, who went by the name of Jim when he participated in the Chinese joint venture. An examination of the bank statements by the Daily Mail showed Hunters Chinese business partners transferred an amount of $10,736,413.50 to a Cathay Bank account for Hudson West III LLC, a corporation co-owned by Hunters company Owasco PC and a CEFC subsidiary, between September 2017 and November 2018. As CEFC showered millions into the joint venture, Hunter and Jim withdrew the cash and paid themselves $100,000 and $65,000 monthly salaries, respectively. The operating agreement for the Delaware-incorporated company issued by the senators stated Hunter would also get a $500,000 one-time retainer fee. Hunter, James and the latters wife Sara had access to credit cards financed by CEFC to the amount of $101,098.61, which they used for big spending on Apple products, hotels and restaurants. CEFC executive Patrick Ho paid Hunter $1 million from the companys capital as a retainer after he hired the presidents son as his lawyer following his arrest in November 2017 on bribery and money laundering charges. The report by the senators cited that Hunter and Jims companies acquired $4,968,220.01 from Hudson West. The millions of dollars were apparently for the Bidens job of helping to land energy deals for CEFC worldwide, which Hunter and his family stashed away in only a years time. (Related: Emails indicate Joe Biden was assisting and benefiting from son Hunter Bidens global business ventures.) Biden familys business partners connected to CCP elements According to Grassley and Johnson, the documents disclosed the Biden familys connections to the Chinese regime and persons connected to its military and intelligence elements. They pointed out that CEFC was not an ordinary private corporation since it had numerous close connections to the CCP. Company chairman Ye Jianming had links to the CCP and the Peoples Liberation Army. Aside from this, CEFCs subsidiaries were full of party committees. Ye, also the founder of CEFC, has appeared as a regular figure in the Biden familys financial dealings with China. Meanwhile, Gongwn Dong another business partner of Hunter served as a former CFO of Radiance Property Holdings, a company that has deep connections to united front groups linked to Chinese intelligence. Gongwen served as a manager/officer of Hudson West III, Hudson West IV, and Hudson West V. These are business entities associated with Hunter Biden, which shows the close business and financial relationship between the two of them, said the two GOP senators. Hunter had made several joint ventures with CEFC through his Hudson West businesses. These ventures, as stated by Senate investigators, served as channels of funding that were intended as ways to move money. The presidents son also had a joint venture with CEFC known as Sinohawk Holdings, which involved his former business partner Tony Bobulinski. Follow BidenCrimeFamily.news for more news about the corrupt business dealings of the Biden family. Watch the video below to know how the Biden crime family has been exposed. This video is from the Son of the Republic channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Hunter Biden under scrutiny for business deals with Chinese exec with links to military. Hunter Biden owned stock in company tied to Chinese Communist government, emails show. The dam is about to burst: Whistleblower documents link Joe Biden directly to Hunters crooked business dealings. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk FoxNews.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) A Trump-appointed federal judge this week has delivered a blow to election integrity in Arizona. There, a group called Clean Elections USA was using cellphone cameras to monitor ballot drop boxes in order to prevent the kind of election theft that occurred there and in several other battleground states in 2020, costing Donald Trump his reelection. But U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi ordered members of the group, some of whom were armed, to stay at least 250 feet away from the ballot boxes after several voters complained about being intimidated. In addition, Liburdi barred group members from taking videos or following anyone within 75 feet of a ballot drop box, literally guaranteeing that cheating is going to occur in Arizona. It is paramount that we balance the rights of the defendant to engage in their constitutionally protected First Amendment activity with the interest in the plaintiffs and in voters casting a vote free of harassment and intimidation, Liburdi said. A lawsuit requesting a restraining order against Clean Elections USA was filed by a left-wing group called the League of Women Voters of Arizona after the defendants began encouraging people to observe ballot boxes in Maricopa County, Arizonas most populous and home to Phoenix. At the same time, the U.S. attorneys office in Arizona, under orders from Bidens politicized Justice Department, no doubt, has vowed to prosecute any violations of federal law but said local police were at the front line in efforts to ensure that all qualified voters are able to exercise their right to vote free of intimidation or other election abuses,' CBS News reported, citing the attorneys office. Late last week, Liburdi refused to block the group from monitoring the drop boxes, as reported by NPR. Then he concluded that while this case certainly presents serious questions, the Court cannot craft an injunction without violating the First Amendment. Plaintiffs have not provided the Court with any evidence that Defendants conduct constitutes a true threat, the judge wrote. On this record, Defendants have not made any statements threatening to commit acts of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals. At the time, the group Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans said it was disappointed by the first ruling. We continue to believe that Clean Elections USAs intimidation and harassment is unlawful, the organization said before filing an appeal. NPR reported further: Sheriffs deputies are providing security around the two outdoor drop boxes in Maricopa County after a pair of people carrying guns and wearing bulletproof vests showed up at a box in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. The countys other 24-hour outdoor drop box is at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in downtown Phoenix, which is now surrounded by a chain link fence. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has called on voters to immediately report any intimidation to police and file a complaint with his office. Arizonas secretary of state this week said her office has received six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a threatening email sent to the state elections director. We will vigorously safeguard all Arizonans rights to freely and lawfully cast their ballot during the election, his office said this week. As the several election threat-related cases pending federal felony charges from alleged criminal activity arising out of our State show, acts which cross the line will not go unaddressed. The order issued by Liburdi barring Clean Elections USA from monitoring the drop boxes will last for two weeks but shall not be construed as an admission they have engaged in any of these activities, he wrote. Sources include: CBSNews.com NPR.org (Natural News) A groundbreaking new scientific paper published Tuesday exposes the suppression and censorship of doctors and medical experts who opposed and challenged the official COVID-19 narrative. (Article by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) Published in the sociological journal Minerva, Censorship and Suppression of Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics, details the experiences of medical professionals who spoke out against public health directives, and how they responded to efforts to suppress them. The paper was co-authored by a team of Israeli and Australian scholars, including Yaffa Shir-Raz of the University of Haifa in Israel, Ety Elisha of The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College in Israel, Brian Martin of the University of Wollongong in Australia, Natti Ronel of Bar Ilan University in Israel, and Josh Guetzkow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. As noted by Dr. Robert Malone, himself an outspoken critic of COVID-19 orthodoxy, the publication of this article is particularly significant as Minerva is released by mainstream academic publisher Springer, a Q1 journal in its subfield of sociology with a decent research impact factor in the social sciences meaning that it enjoys a strong reputation within its academic field. Malone said the article also is notable because one of its authors, Yaffa Shir-Raz, broke the story with video from the internal meeting at the Israeli ministry of health on how they hid many of the key findings regarding the Pfizer mRNA vaccine adverse effects. Media, tech companies played central role in stifling COVID policies debate The authors summarized their paper by stating that the emergence of COVID-19 led to numerous controversies over COVID-related knowledge and policy and a perceived threat from doctors and scientists who challenge the official position of governmental and intergovernmental health authorities. Describing this official position as an orthodoxy, the authors said the supporters of such policies have moved to censor those who promote dissenting views. Our findings point to the central role played by media organizations, and especially by information technology companies, in attempting to stifle debate over COVID-19 policy and measures, wrote the authors. This was accomplished by widespread use of censorship and of tactics of suppression that damaged the reputations and careers of dissenting doctors and scientists, regardless of their academic or medical status and regardless of their stature prior to expressing a contrary position. As a result, wrote the authors, In place of open and fair discussion, censorship and suppression of scientific dissent has deleterious and far-reaching implications for medicine, science, and public health. In a post on Substack, Josh Guetzkow, one of the papers authors, described how the study was conducted. According to Guetzkow, the study was based on in-depth interviews with scientists and doctors around the world who have faced censorship and suppression due to their views on COVID-19. Guetzkow said many of these doctors and scientists would be familiar to his audience, although their anonymity was maintained in the published paper. He added that while the current stark reality of censorship and suppression is also undoubtedly familiar to most people reading this, it will be news to many outside our circles. As a result, wrote Guetzkow, We felt there would be value in having it documented and discussed in the peer-reviewed academic literature. The papers key finding is that study participants reported being subject to a wide variety of censorship and suppression tactics used against them by both the medical establishment and the media, due to their critical and unorthodox positions on COVID-19. The tactics of censorship and suppression described by the studys participants included exclusion, derogatory labeling, hostile comments and threatening statements by the media, both mainstream and social; dismissal by the respondents employers; official inquiries; revocation of medical licenses; lawsuits; and retraction of scientific papers after publication. For example, participants reported that mainstream media, which until then had seen them as desirable interviewees, stopped interviewing them and [stopped] accepting opinion pieces from them. Shortly after that, they were subjected to denigration by the media, including being disparaged as anti-vaxxers, COVID deniers, dis/misinformation spreaders and/or conspiracy theorists. In addition, seemingly independent third-party sources, such as fact-checkers and other doctors, were used by the media to publicly undermine them and others associated with them. Online censorship followed for many of the doctors in question, who reported being censored on social media networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn), including removal of some of their posts, tweets, videos or even accounts. This would be accompanied by a notice claiming they had violated the community rules. Some respondents even reported being subjected to defamation by their own institution, with the apparent intention to harm their reputation and careers. Others received a clear message from the institution where they worked that they were not allowed to identify themselves with the institution when giving an interview or a testimony or expressing their views in some cases as a condition of renewing their contract. Still others were dismissed from their institution, or were notified that their contract would not be renewed, or in other cases, were summarily dismissed or disqualified from prestigious positions, such as serving on leading health or scientific committees, or editing medical journals, without due process or transparency. This often was done in cooperation with the media, making sure to spread the information about those measures through them. Official inquiries were another tactic of suppression faced by dissenting doctors, such as investigating or threatening to withdraw their medical license, filing lawsuits with significant financial claims against them, or being subjected to police searches of their private clinics. Other doctors and researchers said their research was retracted by the journal [which had originally published it] after publication, while many others had their submitted papers rejected from journals (often multiple times) without peer review or with the review and publication process taking many months longer than typical. The papers authors said the tactics of censorship reported by the respondents are consistent with those identified in Jansen and Martins framework on the dynamics of censorship. The key components of this framework include covering up information, devaluing information, reinterpreting information, censoring information through official channels and intimidating those expressing such views. Shocked and surprised but not deterred they worked on building new communities The article also detailed how the doctors and medical professionals who participated in the study fought back and challenged efforts to stifle their views. According to the studys authors: The respondents noted that their initial reaction to the attacks and censorship was shock and surprise, since for the first time in their lives they felt excluded from the scientific/medical community, attacked by the media and sometimes by their employers, and/or disparaged as conspiracy theorists. Yet, despite the censorship, the personal attacks and defamation, the dismissals, the damage to reputations and the economic price, all respondents nevertheless stated that none of it deterred them, and they decided to fight back, using various counter-tactics. Indeed, according to the study, respondents stated that the censorship and suppression they experienced made them want to fight back and make their voices heard more, on the grounds of freedom of speech and their concern for public health, and made them even more determined and eager to expose the information that was being censored. Such counter-reactions included disclosing the act of censorship and the information that was censored, use of alternative channels in order to spread their positions and views, the establishment of support networks with colleagues, and the development of alternative medical and health information systems a kind of parallel world to the mainstream establishment. Alternative channels listed by the respondents included social media platforms, even if some felt forced to open secret Telegram or anonymous Twitter accounts. The study observed that one participant noted it is absurd that scientists should keep secret Telegram accounts so that the government does not revoke their licenses or damage their reputations. In turn, social networks of fellow scientists, physicians, lawyers and politicians with similar views and politicians were used not only to exchange information, but also to receive support and empathy from outsiders like them, to make new friends and create a new community. Some of these new communities evolved into new alternative platforms and organizations dedicated to developing and providing health information and medical treatments including new journals and non-profits, instead of the existing ones, which they claim have failed and disappointed. This action, the study noted, grant[ed] them a sense of hope and a feeling that they are building a new world. Study got a lot right Malone Commenting on his Substack about the study, Malone said that while he did not personally participate in the study, it nevertheless summarized much of what I have personally experienced. Malone said the study was imperfect and missed some important instances of COVID-19 related censorship, including the ubiquitous Wikipedia re-writing of personal history, the censorship of certain books by Amazon, deletions by YouTube of U.S. Senate testimony, and the professional infiltration and disruption campaigns designed to destroy the American trucker protest movement and the medical freedom movements. However, the study got a lot right, Malone said, and has documented that these attacks against medical care providers and medical scientists have happened in an amazingly coordinated fashion all over the world. Guetzkow contrasted his teams paper with another recent paper published in the flagship journal of sociology, The American Sociology Review, as an example of so-called cutting-edge sociology. The title of that paper was Online Conspiracy Groups: Micro-Bloggers, Bots, and Coronavirus Conspiracy Talk on Twitter. Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org (Natural News) To ensure an indefinite multi-billion-dollar profit stream well into the future, drug giant Pfizer is intentionally sickening people in order to make them lifelong pharmaceutical junkies who constantly need to be cured of their drug-induced ailments by more Pfizer drugs. Pfizers mRNA (messenger RNA) Wuhan coronavirus vaccine is sickening and killing millions, as you may know. Those who survive are being told that in order to continue surviving, they must continue to get injected with new boosters at regular intervals, much like seasonal influenza vaccines or flu shots. Since the double-dose mRNA jabs from Pfizer cause a persons immune system to degrade and turn negative, the multinational corporation is advising its customers to continue getting boosted in order to feel just good enough to continue working to feed the beast, but never good enough to actually live with a normal, healthy and robust immune system like the unvaccinated have. Much like heroin junkies, Fauci Flu shot addicts have to keep getting their fix in order to avoid premature death. This means a hypothetically endless stream of cash for Pfizer, which continues to boast record profits quarter after quarter. (Related: Pfizer bastardized ivermectin by making it more dangerous and repackaging it as Paxlovid in order to generate billions in new profits.) Pfizer turning covid jabs into a SUBSCRIPTION model: injections for life Pfizer is so confident in its sickness-for-profit model that it is now introducing a subscription service of sorts that allows customers to receive their drug and injection fixes on a routine schedule. When these drug and injection fixes cause more health problems, Pfizer is ready to dispense even more drugs as new cures. And when those cures create even more health problems, Pfizer has even more drugs ready to dispense and so on and so forth forever. In addition to Paxlovid, which the company is now marketing as a rebound drug for its fully vaccinated customers to avoid continually testing positive for the Chinese Virus, Pfizer also has other drugs available to treat the deadly side effects caused by its Fauci Flu shots. Vyndaqel, for instance, is a Pfizer drug that treats cardiomyopathy, a heart condition caused by myocarditis, one of the most well-known side effects of Pfizers Wuhan Flu injections. Last quarter, Pfizer raked in $602 million from Vyndaqel, sales of which are up 29 percent compared to last year. Why are so many more people buying this drug? asks Jordan Schachtel on his The Dossier Substack blog. That question alone should raise some eyebrows. Then we have Eliquis, a Pfizer drug that is marketed to treat blood clots, which just so happen to be another common side effect of the companys Fauci Flu shots. Sales of this anticoagulant medication are up 15 percent compared to last year, having generated $1.46 billion for the company in the last quarter. Pfizer is the perfect example of a company that has been rendered completely unaccountable thanks to its partnership with the U.S. government, Schachtel warns. Company executives routinely lie with impunity, and know they will not be held liable for their own words, let alone the countless vaccine injuries that their products have caused. It is clear that Pfizer could not care less about peoples health. In fact, the company would prefer that we are all just sick enough to require more of its drugs, but never healthy enough to actually fight back against its relentless pharmaceutical tyranny. Theyre the mafia, wrote a commenter about both the government and pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer. Only legal and elected. Its one gigantic protection racket. More of the latest news about Pfizer and the rest of the pharmaceutical industry can be found at Evil.news. Sources for this article include: Dossier.substack.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Evidence has emerged to suggest that U.S.-NATO-led bioweapons operations are, in fact, taking place in and around Ukraine, and that Russias efforts there aim to dismantle this biological threat to the world. Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia revealed disturbing information in a recent speech about what he described as unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with 30-liter containers and equipment which can be used to spray bioagents. Three such vehicles were identified back on March 9 in the Kherson port region of Ukraine. About a month later, 10 more of those very same unmanned aerial drones were spotted in the area of Kakhovka. These facts are of particular importance considering a confirmed request from the Ukrainian side to the Bayraktar UAV manufacturer about the maximum payload of Bayraktar Akinci UAVs (flight range up to 300 km) and the ability to equip it with an aerosol generating system with a 20+ liters capacity, Nebenzia explained. It turns out that as of March 3, 2015, there is a United States patent, No. 8,967,029 B1, linked to these strange weapons that could potentially be hauling biological weapons into Ukraine. The patent in question talks about the aerial release of the infected mosquitoes, i.e., for a device (unit) designed to be applied as a technical means of delivery and use of a biological weapon. Such biological weapons include immunobiological agents, bacteria, and viruses, including highly contagious varieties of each of these that could wipe out 100 per cent of the enemy troops. In other words, it appears as though the United States may be trying to release airborne biological weapons over Russian troops to kill them and prevent Vladimir Putins special operation in Ukraine from reaching victory. (Related: Will the Russian war in Ukraine lead to the end of Western civilization as we currently know it?) According to the description, such a UAV transports a container housing a huge number of infections-transmitting mosquitoes to release them at a designated area, Nebenzia further explained. The attacked people get infected with highly contagious diseases via mosquito bites. The description clearly states that an infected military will not be able to fulfill the assigned mission, therefore sickness can be a more valuable military tool, than the most up-to-date military guns and equipment. It is indicated that infecting enemys manpower in such a way would be of a significant military effect. Ukraine has kept these biological weapons systems hidden from public view U.S. legislation requires that any patent issued come with a complete description of the actual machine assembly as used. This would suggest that the U.S. has, in fact, created and now potentially unleashed a bioagent-delivering aerial vehicle system to use as a weapon against Russia. Ukraine has conveniently failed to mention any of this activity or the research covering such programs and projects, which date back to 2016. This also includes the use of UP-4, Flu-Flyway, and P-781 technologies. Ukraine has also failed to report the funding it has received from foreign state military departments, which are required in order to prevent or reduce the occurrence of ambiguities, doubts and suspicions. This raises the question of a violation of political obligations regarding the submission of data on confidence-building measures adopted by the stated-parties to the BTWC, Nebenzia said. The U.S. reports also miss the data on the programs and projects implemented outside the U.S. national territory, or on the financing thereof. Our repeated appeals to the American side to provide exhaustive explanations with respect to such activities remain without due feedback in essence. Such secrecy and neglect of Russian claims by the United States but confirm their validity. The specific section of BTWC that Ukraine and the U.S. appear to be in violation of include Articles 1 and 4. Analytical reports of the Kherson Department of the Security Service of Ukraine dated June 30, 2016, and Feb. 28, 2017, further confirm these violations, also linking Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. to the procuring of microbiological laboratories across the deep state-occupied territory of Ukraine. Russia continues to maintain that these U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine are being used to conduct research on pathogens of infectious diseases that can be used to create or modernize biological weapons. It is indicated that the fact that projects were subordinate to the military department of a foreign state created prerequisites for the foreign specialists to penetrate into the regional biolaboratories and familiarize themselves with strategic developments, Nebenzia further explained in his speech. Because of all this, Russia has put forward a draft resolution to the Security Council calling for a commission to investigate its claims against the U.S. and Ukraine concerning these matters. At the moment, the draft is under discussion at the expert level, and we count on its prompt endorsement and adoption, Nebenzia added. The latest news about the war in Ukraine can be found at Chaos.news. Sources for this article include: RussiaUN.ru Patents.Google.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht delivered an audiotaped message from prison on Wednesday to thank all of her and True the Vote investigator Gregg Phillips supporters for their prayers and kind messages of support. They are currently in jail on contempt of court charges stemming from a defamation suit brought by Konnech CEO Eugene Yu. Yu was arrested for storing US voting data on servers in China after a tip from Phillips. (Article republished from ThePostMillennial.com) Yu brought the suit after he was charged in Los Angeles for violating the companys contract with LA County because Konnech, which makes software to manage payroll and scheduling for election workers, had allegedly been storing data about US elections on servers in China. Yus arrest came from a tip from Phillips, and he and Engelbrecht were told by the court to reveal the source that led them to make that tip to law enforcement. Federal Judge Kenneth Hoyt held the pair in contempt of court after they refused identify that confidential informant who helped them obtain information that led to evidence that the E. Lansing, Michigan-based election software company Konnech was allegedly storing election-related data on servers in China. Konnech CEO Eugene Yu was released on a $500,000 bond, is currently under house arrest until his next hearing, which is set for Nov. 17. Yu was called a flight risk by a Michigan prosecutor and ordered to wear an ankle monitor and remain in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County district attorneys office has accused Yu of stealing the personal identifying information of poll workers and that the stolen data was stored on servers in China, in violation of Konnechs contract with Los Angeles County. Yu is now suing Engelbrecht and Phillips for defamation. Engelbrecht and Phillips made the documentary 2000 Mules which used geotracking data to uncover multiple alleged massive ballot-harvesting operations in several key states across the US for the 2020 presidential election. Gateway Pundit obtained Engelbrechts message from prison, in which she said that they are appealing their cases to the Fifth Circuit Court and are praying for a good result. She also asked that Americans remain focused on the upcoming election and encourage everyone they know to vote and ended her message by saying, God bless America. And Ill see you soon True the Vote also called for the immediate release of the duo on Truth Social, saying: founder Catherine Engelbrecht and contractor Gregg Phillips, who were jailed for contempt on October 31st for refusing to deliver to Konnech the name of the third party who was present at a presentation of evidence of Konnechs wrongdoing. This evidence was initially provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Q1 of 2021. In Q3 2022, information was provided to the LA District Attorneys office in their investigation of Konnech, which resulted in the arrest of CEO Eugene Yu. True the Vote attorneys are expediting an appeal seeking to have Engelbrecht and Phillips released. Catherine Engelbrecht said, Trust, honesty, and respect will always be our highest values regarding both our work and our lives. As a result, we will be held in jail until we agree to give up the name of a person who was not covered under the terms of the judges TRO. We ask that you keep us in your prayers. Thank you to those who continue supporting and believing in us and our mission to make elections safe for all parties and for all people. Read more at: ThePostMillennial.com (Natural News) Utah-based activists Jennifer Orten and Sophie Anderson, known as the Two Red Pills, called on Americans to be on alert during the midterm elections. The two talked about their lawsuit asking for the cast vote records in two Utah counties from the 2020 presidential elections during their appearance on the Brighteon.TV program Connecting The Dots. They argued that they should be made available since state law does not explicitly protect those records. During an interview with Sentinel Report host Alex Newman at the Moment of Truth Summit, Orten and Andertson pointed out that the vote counting machines cannot be trusted. While a judge may have tossed the lawsuit, Orten and Anderson believe they were able to ignite something in people and use their case as a template for future reference. (Related: Two Utah moms file open records requests on election records State Lt. Gov. tips off reporter, blocks them from access, and Feds are called in.) Everything trickles down from elections. If we dont have free and fair elections, we cant fight the other issues, Anderson remarked at the same event. Meanwhile, Orten urged Americans watching the Brighteon.TV program hosted by Dan Happel to be alert or become poll workers to watch firsthand what is going on during the elections. Do not consider any other option unless youre in the hospital or out of the country. We are begging you to keep your mail-in ballot sealed. Bring it with you and dont show it to them. And if you get to the voting place and they say youve already voted, call your sheriff immediately for a voter fraud claim. Happel himself commended the Two Red Pills for standing up against the tyrannical actions of the Beehive State. Orten, however, divulged that her efforts came with serious repercussions. She told Happel how she received threats of lawsuits for simply requesting public records. Days later, there were men on her porch who tinkered with her internet box and planted trackers on her vehicle. That kind of intimidation or that kind of threat, wherever its coming from, it doesnt matter if its an alphabet agency, she said. Whoever is doing these types of things, we cant let them win. Two Red Pills also challenge mask mandates from school boards Orten and Anderson also shared to Happel the fight against their school board to invalidate Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) mask mandates. They submitted public records requests to the state government in Salt Lake City to find out why the children are being masked. The Two Red Pills also sought the reason why the government is interested in muzzling school children, considering the reports of the harm and the inefficiency of the protocol. We learned that our governor and state superintendent of the school board had signed an agreement with the federal government to receive over $94 million of SR funds. These are federal funds given to states to recuperate from COVID-19 and public education, explained Anderson. She continued that they acquired contracts, emails, texts and communications that can help explain why the children were being muzzled. She also pointed out that just for the public records request, the state charged them $10,000. Orten added that what happened was not just about the medical situation, but rather promoting woke ideologies to children. Our governor here [Utah Gov. Spencer Cox] is the only Republican who actually uses his pronouns on social media. TIME magazine said he was the only GOP governor whos not afraid to be woke, she said. He signed the contract to have these conditions exist all the way through for three years. Because of their efforts, the county council overturned the mask mandate. Thats a big win for the county, but its a bigger win for the state because people do what Salt Lake County does, she claimed. Visit BigGovernment.news for more stories like this. Watch the full Oct. 25 episode of Connecting The Dots below. Catch new episodes of the program every Tuesday at 5-6 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related stories: Stunning: Montana election integrity organization found more than 120,000 invalid votes cast during 2020 election. Mask Nazi tells unmasked man: I hope your children die because they dont have masks on. As suspected, Biden, Harris, Democrats want to use Jan. 6 Capitol riot as excuse to federalize (rigged) elections. Sources include: Brighteon.com TheNewAmerican.com SLTrib.com (Natural News) To ensure that every child who walks through its doors for a gender transition encounters nothing but affirmation through every step of the process, Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville has introduced a new Trans Buddies spying program at its Pediatric Transgender Clinic to keep a close eye on all interactions between doctors and their child patients. The goal is to prevent all trans-seeking child patients at Vanderbilt from encountering doctors, nurses or other medical workers who might misgender or otherwise offend them with transphobic rhetoric. This is really important because LGBT children are apparently extremely fragile and easily hurt by certain words that remind them of their true biological sex. The Trans Buddy Programs goal is to increase access to care and improve healthcare outcomes for transgender people by providing emotional support to transgender patients during healthcare visits, the clinic says about its mission. (Related: The American Medical Association [AMA] is fully on board with Vanderbilts transgender mutilation of children agenda.) We emphasize a patient-centered approach, with the goal of empowering the patient to make informed healthcare decisions. Trans Buddy recognizes the importance of intersectionality to our direct care practice, and we therefore aim to work with people of all identities with compassion and respect. Trannies are so fragile that they need hall monitors to ensure they only hear their correct pronouns at all times Matt Walsh tweeted video footage back in September revealing why the Trans Buddy program was created at all. Since not every medical worker at Vanderbilt is on board with the trans agenda, there are fears among LGBTs within the organization that some child patients might be deterred from cutting off their sex organs and taking cross-sex hormones. Watch below as Dr. Ellen Clayton explains how she believes doctors at Vanderbilt who express conscientious objections to the transgender mutilation of children are problematic. The same goes for religious doctors, whom she would like to see face consequences for their objection to child genital mutilation: 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 Walsh also tweeted video footage of some very special individuals explaining how the Trans Buddies program works: In case the objectors hadnt gotten the memo, Vanderbilt unveiled a program called Trans Buddies. 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 pic.twitter.com/KyYUdRHrrP Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022 Trans Buddies are basically hall monitors who are ready and waiting to snitch on any medical worker at Vanderbilt who fails to follow the script of trans acceptance and affirmation. There can be no objectors all must obey or else face the consequences of denying a trans childs truth. According to the left-wing think tank Center for American Prograss (CAP), nearly half of all trannies, including 68 percent of transgender people of color, claim that they have experienced mistreatment at the hands of a medical provider. Merely misgendering a trans is enough to warrant a hate crime, in their own minds. This is the reasoning behind the Trans Buddies program, which is little more than an army of brownshirts (rainbowshirts?) whose job it is to police the medical industry to ensure absolute LGBT compliance. And just like that, the only doctors left are compliant, defeated cowards who will literally say and do anything the corporate state tells them to without limit because thats what The Science and diversity demand, writes Ben Bartee for PJ Media. More of the latest news about Americas transgender craze can be found at Transhumanism.news. Sources for this article include: PJMedia.com NaturalNews.com Before the deep-sea mining sector began, Germany requested a "precautionary stop." Berlin warns that seabed mining may "destroy ecosystems" and encourages the International Seabed Authority to put the environment first as it considers new regulations. A Call for Action Germany has demanded a halt to the contentious deep-sea mining business, claiming that there is not enough information on the possible effects of mining the ocean floor for metals. Germany, the fourth-largest economy in the world, is the most prominent country to have expressed opposition to deep-sea metal extraction thus far. However, other countries, such as Spain and New Zealand, have previously called for a temporary halt to any such exploitation. Two of the 31 licenses for seabed exploration are in the country's possession. The destruction of ecosystems caused by mining nickel, cobalt, and other metals from the seafloor has been forewarned by scientists as "dangerous," "irresponsible," and "irreversible." Also Read: "We Are Nearing Irreversible Climate Breakdown," Alarming Climate Study Claims Precautionary Pause Germany has called for a "precautionary pause" in the developing industry, which has not yet started mining for commercial purposes. This comes after calls from Spain and New Zealand to stop seabed metal extraction until environmental impact research has been done and regulations with strict environmental standards are in place. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for legislation to halt deep-sea mining in June but did not call for a delay. Several businesses, including the German automakers BMW and Volkswagen, have stated they would not purchase metals that have been extracted from the ocean floor. "The German government here wants to underline its view that current knowledge and available science is insufficient to approve deep seabed mining until further notice," the German representative said in a statement to the International Seabed Authority, the UN-affiliated organization in charge of regulating deep-sea mining, which is meeting at its headquarters in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. Steffi Lemke, the nation's environment minister, declared that deep-sea mining would irrevocably damage ecosystems and put even more strain on the seas. We are urging a halt as a first step to avoid making any hasty judgments that harm the marine ecology. Before It's Too Late We now have the chance to prioritize nature protection and its investigation and avoid another impending environmental disaster with the help of our international allies. We can only combat biodiversity and climate crises with a healthy ocean. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition's Matthew Gianni called the German declaration "important" since it indicated resistance to deep-sea extraction until adequate environmental rules were in place. Gianni is now in Jamaica to observe the discussions over mining restrictions. He said that it might alter the meeting's dynamics in Kingston. Gianni stated, "They are sending a political signal that they oppose any nation applying to mine under the two-year limit before rules are finalized. The "two-year rule" is a legislative provision that, after a nation declares its intention to begin seabed mining, allows the ISA council two years to complete the rules governing deep-sea mining. The Pacific island country of Nauru activated the rule in July 2021, which implies that even if no environmental or economic regulations have been reached, seabed extraction might start as early as July 2023. The marine specialist for Greenpeace Germany, Till Seidensticker, called the German declaration a "positive beginning step" towards the effective defense of the deep sea. He praised the German government for joining nations like Spain and New Zealand in urging the precautionary principle to be preserved for the deep sea. "The current call for a precautionary halt is a positive first step toward properly preserving the waters." Related Article: Environmental Justice: How and Why Environmental Activism Became Mainstream For more news update about Environmental Action, don't forget to follow Nature World News! According to new research, the world's largest tropical peatland shifted from being a major carbon store to a source of harmful carbon dioxide emissions thousands of years ago as a result of climate change. The climate of central Congo began to dry around the time Stonehenge was built, causing the peatlands to emit carbon dioxide. According to a major international study, peatlands only stopped releasing carbon and reverted to taking carbon out of the atmosphere when the climate became wetter again in the last 2,000 years. Scientists involved in the study are warning that if modern-day global warming causes droughts in the Congo region, history could repeat itself, dangerously accelerating climate change. Climate change could trigger the Congo peatlands to release billions of tons of carbon The study's researchers warn that if modern-day global warming causes droughts in the Congo region, history could repeat itself, dangerously accelerating climate change, as per ScienceDaily. If this occurs, up to 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas could be released from the peatlands into the atmosphere. This is the same as the global emissions from fossil fuel combustion over three years. "Our study brings a brutal warning from the past," said Professor Simon Lewis of the University of Leeds and University College London, a senior author of the study. "If the peatlands dry beyond a certain threshold, they will release colossal quantities of carbon to the atmosphere, further accelerating climate change." The Congo peatlands, located in central Africa, are the world's largest tropical peatlands complex, covering an area larger than England and Wales combined. Congolese and European scientists collected peat samples from central Congo's remote swamp forests. The researchers were able to create a record of the vegetation and rainfall in the central Congo basin over the last 17,500 years by analyzing plant remains. Waxes from plant leave preserved in peat were used to calculate rainfall levels during the plant's life. The findings, titled "Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin," paint a picture of a drier climate developing in central Africa around 5,000 years ago. During the most severe drought, rainfall was reduced by at least 800 mm per year. This caused the Congo peatlands' water table to drop, exposing older layers of peat to the air and causing oxidation and carbon dioxide release. The peat layers either decomposed or never accumulated between 7,500 and 2,000 years ago. The researchers dubbed this the "ghost interval," and it was discovered in peat samples from hundreds of kilometers away in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), indicating that it occurred throughout the entire peatland region. The study's lead author, Dr. Yannick Garcin of France's National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, stated, "The peat samples show that there was a period of around 5,000 years when there was almost no build-up of peat, less than 0.1 mm per year." The samples also reveal information about the rainfall and vegetation that existed at the time the peat was formed. Read more: Eruption of Congo's Mount Nyiragongo Leaves At Least 15 Dead, Thousands Displaced Peatlands are 'vulnerable' Rainfall was reduced by at least 800 mm per year during the worst of the drought, as per Earth.com. This caused the Congo peatlands' water table to drop, exposing older layers of peat to the air, resulting in decomposition and the release of carbon dioxide. According to the study's findings, peatlands only stopped releasing carbon and reverted to taking carbon out of the atmosphere when the climate became wetter again in the last 2,000 years. According to Dr. Garcin, the drought caused a 2-meter loss of peat. As the peat decomposed due to the drought, it became a massive carbon source. This decomposition ceased only when the drought ended, allowing peat to begin accumulating again. The scientists warn that, while the peatlands are currently mostly intact and sustainably managed by locals, they are vulnerable. If current global warming causes drying in the Congo region, history may repeat itself, with 30 billion tons of carbon from decomposing peat ending up in the atmosphere. This is the equivalent of all global emissions from fossil fuel combustion over a three-year period, and the impact on climate change could be disastrous. The expeditions to collect peat samples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were led by Professor Corneille Ewango of the University of Kisangani in the DRC. This is yet another astounding discovery about peatlands. They are more vulnerable than we thought, and everyone must work together to protect them, according to Professor Ewango. Polluting countries must reduce carbon emissions as soon as possible to avoid droughts pushing peatlands over the edge. The DRC will also need to strengthen peatland protection. One of the most diverse and carbon-rich ecosystems on the planet is at stake. Related article: Earthquake Hits Near Mount Nyiragongo Volcano in Congo, Increasing Worries of Second Eruption A young family spending the night at Taronga Zoo had only 30 seconds to leave their opulent glamping tents when five lions broke out of their pen only a few meters from the place they were resting. Five dangerous lions at Taronga Zoo escaped Magnus and Dominique Perri of Sydney, along with their young kids Lucas and Oliver, were sleeping in the zoo's Roar and Snore tents as they were awakened at around 4 am on Wednesday by the sound of lions roaring and grumbling, as per DailyMail. The family promptly returned to sleep, Mr. Perri said, thinking the lions were securely held in their enclosure just a few meters away because the sounds of animals were touted as an important component of the experience. However, less than three hours later, at 6:40 am, a loud alarm rang out across the zoo, and Taronga Zoo staff members ran through the campsite pleading with campers to leave right away because lions were on the loose. According to Mr. Perri, the family and roughly 50 other Roar and Snore overnighters were led outside and taken to a secure location for the following 90 minutes. The executive director of Taronga Zoo, Simon Duffy, informed the media on Wednesday morning that an adult lion and four pups had escaped around 6:30 am. The zookeeper reported that the lions were sighted in a small area close to the main lion exhibit in which a six-foot fence divided them from the rest of the zoo. 'The zoo has very strict safety standards in place for such an emergency, and fast action was taken. One lion cub was securely tranquilized, and four of the lions peacefully made their way back into their main display and dens. Police from NSW arrived at the location, however, they later reported that the zoo was handling the problem on its own. Read More: Man Mauled to Death by Lions After Climbing Zoo Enclosure in Ghana Security to wild animals Modern aquariums and zoos use sophisticated tools to assess the welfare of their animals and make sure they are giving care that satisfies their physical and behavioral demands while minimizing bad welfare, as per Wild Welfare. The care standards for animals kept in captivity all around the world continue to vary, however, despite advancements in animal welfare science. The care given to animals after a zoo's doors close for the day is just as crucial, if not more so, as during peak visiting periods. The level of care given can have a significant impact on an animal's overall welfare, including nocturnal animals that need opportunities of being active after dark, cozy bedding, and nesting opportunities. Animals occasionally could stay indoors longer than they can access the outside.The importance of a zoo prioritizing efforts to make sure environments are species-appropriate, and secure, and encourage natural behaviors, such as searching for food, pleasant sleeping, and social or solitary activities, is significant if such an animal must be kept inside at night. With millions of wild animal species being housed in tens of thousands of zoos and other institutions for captive wild animals around the world, each with unique and complicated needs, it is no easy undertaking to make sure they always receive the appropriate care and welfare that is deserved. However, ensuring that all zoos correctly uphold their responsibilities for animal welfare by acknowledging that some fundamental operating procedures which are widespread around the world can jeopardize an animal's capacity to thrive. Related Article: Lions Finally Recovered After Getting Shot With Tranquilizers for Escaping Container in Airport Plants can shift the direction of their roots and grow far from saline locations to avoid salt in the soil. Researchers contributed to the discovery of the enabling factors. The finding modifies our knowledge of how plants alter their form and development direction and could help address the growing global issue of excessive soil salinity on crops. Plants can resist salt from the soil A dip in the Dead Sea's extreme salinity might be a cure for the body and spirit, yet most plants have a very different relationship with salt. Salts can harm plants and even suffocate them; therefore, they desperately try to avoid it wherever possible, as per ScienceDaily. Due in part to climate change, which makes the soil more saline whenever floods hit coastal areas, the salinity of agricultural land is a growing global issue. This typically reduces crop production. Crops that really can better survive salt are needed for the world. According to Professor Staffan Persson of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, understanding the mechanisms by which plants react to salt is crucial if we are to create plants that are more tolerant to it. The study team has found that the stress hormone ABA (abscisic acid) is triggered in plants when they detect local salt concentrations. Then, a response mechanism is triggered by this hormone. The discovery surprised the researchers because of the dominant influence that the stress hormone has. The hormone auxin was once thought to oversee a plant's capacity to shift course in response to numerous environmental factors. Researchers were able to turn the twisting of the root around so that plants cannot develop away from salt by changing just one amino acid in a protein that controls the twisting. Given the continued EU prohibition on GMOs, Persson thinks it will be a long time before the new information is utilized in agriculture. However, the findings might pave the road for the creation of crop varieties that can withstand more salt. Read More: Salinity and Climate: New Protein Helps Plants Grow Plant Tropism Tropism is the movement of a plant in response to environmental stimulation. A plant will migrate toward a stimulus when it exhibits positive tropism. When a plant travels away from a stimulus, it exhibits negative tropism, as per Lets talk Science. Plant components often develop either parallel to or in the opposite direction to gravity. Gravitropism is the name for this kind of tropism. Plant components often develop either parallel to or in the opposite direction to gravity. Gravitropism is the name for this kind of tropism. The majority of stems have negative gravitropism. Despite the pull of gravity, they continue to climb higher. Plants can hydrotropically grow toward or away from water. Where plants receive most of their water, the roots, is where this frequently occurs. A plant's roots will expand in the direction of any water they detect nearby. Plants that phototropism will move in reaction to light. The plant will soon start bending in the direction of the light. To receive more light for photosynthesis, it grows in that direction. Phototropism includes heliotropism. Plants begin to turn toward the Sun currently. The well-known heliotropic plant is the sunflower. In the day, as the Sun moves from east to west, young sunflowers bend to follow it. By doing this, the amount of sunlight that reaches the leaves is maximized. When the plants are fully grown, they exclusively face east, which aids in pollination and the production of pollen. When plants respond to touch or contact with items by growing, this is known as thigmotropism. Typically, plants like this don't have robust stems. Thigmotropism hence aids in maintaining their balance and growth. Related Article: Researchers Have Identified a Novel Mechanism for Plants To Adapt to Climate Change No one knows where a 23-ton chunk of rocket will crash onto the Earth. On Friday, a massive piece of space debris launched by a Chinese rocket is expected to crash down to Earth. Rocket Debris The core stage booster from China's Long March 5B rocket, which on October 31 delivered the third and last component of China's Tiangong space station, weighs 23 tons. Jettisoned rocket fragments often reenter the atmosphere at a specific point, smashing into preset areas of the ocean. However, since this portion of Long March 5B is doing an uncontrolled reentry, it may crash almost anywhere. Because the first stage core of these CZ-5B rockets reache orbit, its reentry point cannot be controlled, according to Ralph Cooney, an advanced materials professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who spoke to Newsweek. "Uncontrolled entry means there are no measures in place to ensure the remnants of this large debris object lands in an unpopulated zone," he said. "In the specific case of the Long March 5B core stage, even though some spare propellant was probably left in the tanks-to be used as a margin for contingencies during the launch phase-it cannot be used any longer because the stage rocket motors cannot be restarted in space. They can only be started once at the launch pad," researchers Luciano Anselmo and Carmen Pardini said to Newsweek. Also Read: Satellite Avoids Collision with Debris Scrambled by Space Weather Reentering Earth According to researchers Luciano Anselmo and Carmen Pardini at the Space Flight Dynamics Laboratory in Pisa, Italy, "In the specific case of the Long March 5B core stage, even though some spare propellant was probably left in the tanks-to be used as a margin for contingencies during the launch phase-it can no longer be used because the stage rocket motors cannot be restarted in space. They can only be started once at the launch pad. Space debris that enters the Earth's atmosphere quickly experiences intense acceleration and extremely high temperatures. Smaller fragments of the debris may break off and fall to the ground, while others may burn up due to the heat. However, only a tiny portion of this debris will be burnt due to its vast size. According to Anselmo and Pardini, "This object is extraordinarily enormous and heavy, weighing more than 20 tons; thus, it cannot be annihilated by the violent reentry into the atmosphere." Larger structural components, tiny tanks, and high-temperature-resistant parts of the 3-ton rocket motor block may withstand the reentry conditions and land safely. We do not know the manufacturing specifics of the stage, but a surviving debris mass between 2 and 5 tons may be predicted. This previously happened for this stage in Ivory Coast [in 2020] and Borneo in July of this year. According to Cooney, depending on the makeup of the parts and particularly the amount of the two crucial light metals (aluminum and titanium) present, between 20 and 40% of the rocket is likely to survive the fall and hit the Earth's surface. Should We Be Scared? There is an extremely slim probability that the debris may strike a populated location. According to NASA, the likelihood of getting hit by space debris is around 1 in 3,200. Related Article: Earth's Orbit Getting Clogged With Tons of Space Junk, Posing Hazards to Satellites For more cosmic news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! Wyoming is under "Winter Storm Watch" in some areas as Yellowstone is experiencing high winds and Jackson Hole could experience whiteout conditions. The National Weather Service, Riverton, Wyoming, office has issued a Winter Storm Watch to several areas of Wyoming. Issued at 3:45 AM, Thursday, the urgent winter weather message from the service will be in effect from Friday evening through Saturday evening. Star Valley, Salt River, Wyoming Ranges, Teton, Gros Ventre Mountains, and Jackson Hole Periods of heavy snowfall are likely in places like Star Valley, Salt River, and Wyoming Ranges. Whiteout conditions could occur if it is very windy in the mountains. Jackson Hole and the Teton and Gros Ventre Mountains will experience the same weather, but preliminary snow accumulations in the mountains are expected to reach totals that could range from 18 to 24 inches, compared to 5 to 10 inches in lower elevations. Whiteout conditions could occur if it is very windy in the mountains. Meanwhile, the preliminary total snow in the Star Valley, Salt River, and Wyoming Ranges mountains will range from 10 to 14 inches, while in the lower elevations they will range from 5 to 10 inches. Absaroka Mountains For the Absaroka Mountains, periods of moderate to heavy snow are possible. 5 to 10 inches of snow could fall overall in the west, and about 3 to 6 inches could fall over the eastern parts of the range. On ridgetops and in open areas, wind gusts could reach 60 mph. Yellowstone National Park There may be periods of heavy snow in Yellowstone. 10 to 14 inches of snow could fall overall in the south while 3 to 6 inches of snow could fall over the north, including Mammoth. In the mountains, wind gusts could be as high as 50 mph. Authorities caution outdoor enthusiasts that it is easy to get lost in the Absakora Mountains and Yellowstone National Park. Hypothermia and frostbite can develop quickly. Western Okanogan County, Highway 20 Washington Pass Western Okanogan County may experience significant snowfall, particularly along Highway 20 Washington Pass. There is a chance of between 10 and 20 inches of total snowfall with wind gusts as high as 45 mph at Ridgetop. These areas will be under the Winter Storm Watch from this afternoon until Saturday morning, National Weather Service reports. Read also: Severe Weather Completes the Week as Texas to Nebraska Face Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Wind Until Friday Winter Storm Watch A blizzard, significant amounts of snow, significant amounts of freezing rain, or significant amounts of sleet are all possible under a winter storm watch. According to FEMA, Winter Storm Watches are typically issued 12 to 48 hours before the arrival of a Winter Storm. Frostbite and Hypothermia Long-term exposure to cold temperatures can cause serious health issues, according to the CT Department of Public Health. Frostbite and hypothermia are the two most typical cold weather illnesses. Frostbite is a physical injury brought on by freezing. While frostbite is serious, hypothermia is worse. The human body starts to lose heat more quickly than it can generate when exposed to cold temperatures. The body's reserves of energy will eventually be depleted by prolonged exposure to the cold. Hypothermia, which is low body temperature reaching abnormal levels, is the result. Related article: Storm to Unleash Heavy Snow and Severe Weather in Western United States Three pups, the first that may have been born in the wild in Colorado in 80 years and are members of the only wolf pack in Colorado, were discovered dead in Wyoming. The three female wolves, suspected to be members of Colorado's sole known wolf pack, were discovered dead approximately 10 miles into the borders of Wyoming. North Park Pups The North Park pack is the sole wolf pack that has been identified as existing in Colorado. Jackson County, which is in the northern part of the state and is adjacent to the Wyoming border, is the roaming grounds of the wolf pack. The wolves frequently cross the border into Wyoming, where it is permitted to hunt the animal at any time without a hunting license. Wolves, however, are considered a protected species in Colorado, making it unlawful to hunt them. The maximum fine for hunting wolves in Colorado is $100,000. The three dead wolves correspond to pups born into Colorado's North Park pack in the spring of 2021 in terms of age and color. Since the 1940s, no wild wolf pups have been born in Colorado. Righting a Historical Wrong Chris Smith a Southwest Wildlife Advocate from WildEarth Guardians, said that In the past, wolves could be found in large numbers throughout the Western US, from Alaska to Mexico. Over the course of their range, they were largely wiped out at the hands of the livestock industry, and only recently are they being brought back to areas where they once roamed freely. Humans pose the greatest threat to wolves through both legal trophy hunting and illegal poaching. WildEarth Guardians is a conservation organization. He added that wolves must be protected if they are to be brought back to Colorado, especially considering how small the population is. The young wolf population in Colorado has taken a significant hit as a result of the deaths of three wolves. Because wolves are social animals, a lack of protection affects pack dynamics and a small population's ability to survive. According to Smith, reintroducing wolves to Colorado is both a legal requirement and a way to make amends for past wrongs. Read also: Wildlife Organizations Offer $51k Reward For Leads on Death of 6 Endangered Gray Wolves Poisoned in Washington Restoration of Wolves The process of reintroducing wolves to Colorado was protracted and not always well received. In November 2020, the state decided to reintroduce the species. Biologists have stated that the species' reintroduction is essential for the state's ecosystem because it will restore the predator-prey balance in the region, which alarmed some farmers who feared the wolves would steal their livestock. Smith said in an interview with Newsweek that the effort to restore wolves in Colorado offers a chance to do it right and avert the disastrous war on wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. However, false information and rhetoric that plays on fear will result in dead wolves, further encroachment, and perhaps more livestock losses. Biologists from Colorado Parks and Wildlife told The Coloradoan that on October 28, two additional North Park pack members were spotted, but it is unknown how many still exist. Gray Wolves The National Wildlife Federation describes gray wolves, also known as timber wolves, as canines with long, bushy tails that commonly have black tips. The color of their coat can vary from completely white to completely brown or completely black. Gray wolves typically have buffy facial markings and is a mixture of gray and brown. Gray wolves are currently an endangered species. Related article: Endangered Mexican Gray Wolf Released 4 Years Ago for Biodiversity, Recently Found Dead The federal government intends to halt the deliveries of water from the Colorado River's Powell and Mead for the first time. Although the federal government has the authority to unilaterally stop receiving water from Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two main reservoirs on the Colorado River, this has never happened. The seven states that rely on the river and the federal government have always bargained over previous cuts. The Formal Warning However, the Department of the Interior, the federal organization in charge of overseeing the management of water in the Colorado River basin, declared on Friday that it would examine the possibility of altering the regulations governing the management of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are situated in southern Nevada and southern Utah, respectively. This would open the door for the department to enforce significant cuts on Arizona, California, Nevada, and Mexico, which get water under a 1944 treaty, among other major water users. In its letter on Friday, the Interior Department stated that before altering the rules to enact new cuts on the states, it would initiate an environmental review. Before the federal government enforces its voluntary reductions, this will give states yet another opportunity to propose their own. The result of all this, according to John Fleck, the University of New Mexico's professor of water policy, is that historic water reductions are virtually assured for the coming year. Inadequate Consumption Reduction Efforts The federal government as well as the seven basin states-California, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona-have been in bitter negotiations for months before the release of the new review. State water use reduction orders were issued by the Bureau of Reclamation of the Interior Department earlier this year as water levels throughout both Lake Powell and Lake Mead reached historic lows. From 2 to 4 million acre-feet, or about a third of all water used on the river, were the total reductions the Bureau sought. The states have fallen far short of achieving that objective. Major water users in California, which is by far the most water-hungry of the seven states, decided last month to reduce water usage by about 400,000 acre-feet. This decision will have significant effects on both the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the agriculturally-intensive Imperial Valley. To comply with federal drought restrictions that were already in place, Arizona has decreased its use of Colorado over the past two years. The four states that make up the "upper basin" of the river-Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming-have not yet made any official announcements regarding how they intend to reduce their water usage. According to Tommy Beaudreau, the deputy secretary of the department, the Department currently lacks the alternatives or rather measures that have been thoroughly examined that might be necessary to deal with such projected conditions. The conditions pose hazards to the river system, he continued, so an immediate solution must be developed. Read also: Lake Mead Low Water Levels Uncovers Volcanic Eruption From 12 Million Years Ago The Firm Hand The current shortage guidelines are the result of years of negotiations between the Interior Department and the states. Although technically, the federal government has the authority to change the volume of water it discharges from the reservoirs without prior consultation with the states, it has never had to put that authority to the test. The Interior Department's announcement paves the way for the federal government's impending threat to unilaterally alter that agreement. If the government does change its regulations, it may establish a new cutoff point for when to hold releasing water from Lakes Mead and Powell, imposing earlier and more severe cuts than those that have been experienced thus far by the states. If a state water consumer files suit over the new reductions, the review process gives the feds a stronger legal position, Grist reports. Colorado River The Colorado River, which flows through seven US states and two other countries and is 1,450 miles long, is the sixth-longest river in the country, according to data from American Rivers. 260,000 square miles, or about 8% of the US continent, make up the Colorado basin. According to AZ Central, Lake Mead and Lake Powell function "conjunctively," meaning that each lake's activities have an impact on the other. The system is set up to fill Lake Powell with runoff from the Upper Basin, and Lake Mead with discharges from Lake Powell and intermediate flows below Glen Canyon Dam. Related article: 'Expedited' Measures to Save Colorado River From Drought Already Underway, Officials Announce The latest weather forecast showed that Martin would remain a powerful storm in the Northern Atlantic that could impact portions of northwestern Europe, including Ireland and western, northern parts of the United Kingdom. The storm could affect portions of Europe starting this weekend or next week. Due to Martin's impact in the northern Atlantic, shipping lines could also be affected. Residents in the affected areas should stay updated with the development of the storm. Martin became a Category 1 Hurricane, reaching the 7th Hurricane in the 2022 Atlantic Season and emerged when Hurricane Lisa was set to unload flooding rainfall in Belize City and Guatemala. Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the Martin Advisory 9 that large and powerful Martin in the northern Atlantic would become a post-tropical over the Central North Atlantic. The early start of November in the Atlantic had two hurricanes. Weather forecasts monitored the said hurricanes at the end of October, which could potentially transform into tropical depressions or storms. The Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Martin was located northwest of the Azores with 85 mph maximum winds. Meanwhile, the latest update from AccuWeather on November 4, explained that Hurricane Martin would transition to post-tropical as it moves east of northwestern Europe this coming weekend. Also Read: Martin Develops into a Category 1 Hurricane in Northern Atlantic The report also added that the Martin could affect areas in Portugal, France, and Spain, Scotland. The storm could unload rain showers. In the Weather outlook, AccuWeather reported that Martin would become a strong storm from Saturday evening to Tuesday morning. According to the report, Martin would cause locally damaging winds, rough surf, and coastal flooding, especially in the northern United Kingdom and Ireland. Areas affected could also expect flooding downpours. Hurricane Lisa weather update Hurricane Lisa was the 6th Hurricane of the Atlantic Season in 2022. In the latest forecast, the National Hurricane Center noted that Lisa had become a tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center reported (700 AM CDT) that Tropical Storm Lisa continued to move to southeastern Mexico with heavy rains. The tropical storm was tracked in the east-southeast of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico (150 km). Meanwhile, the report added that the tropical storm was moving west at ten mph (17 km/h). The updated report added that the tropical storm recorded near 40 mph (65 km/h) maximum sustained winds and higher gusts. The advisory said that Lisa would have a central pressure of 29.71 inches central pressure. In addition, the report said that Lisa was not expected to reintensify as it moved to the Bay of Campeche. The storm would then again weaken to a tropical depression. Based on the Key Messages Advisory 15, tropical storm Lisa could cause potential localized flash flooding in portions of northern Guatemala, southeast Mexico, and Belize. In addition, the report added that the elevated water levels on Belize's coast are expected to diminish. Hurricane preparations The impact of hurricanes could result in heavy rains and strong to damaging winds. Martin could still unload heavy rainfall in portions of Europe. Meanwhile, Lisa, which was downgraded to a tropical storm, would still cause flooding rainfall. It is still best to prepare for the storm. Related Article: Hurricane Lisa Made Landfall Near Belize Coast that Could Cause Life-Threatening Storm Surge For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News. Hurricane Ian has already gone but the aftermath lingers as harmful algal blooms were detected in four Southwest Florida counties. Scientists are attempting to understand how storms affect red tide because the same thing happened in the wake of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Since the event usually begins offshore and is then pushed east toward land, they are confident that storms are not the cause of red tide. However, depending on how the wind or current moves the water and, more importantly, what's in that water, hurricanes may influence the intensity and location of red tides. Runoffs and Blooms Florida Gulf Coast University's Water School director, Michael Parsons, is worried about runoff agitating all the sediments and Hurricane Ian's impact on the growth of red tides. In Tampa Bay, where red tide is getting too close for comfort, these worries are crucial. Last week, bloom concentrations were found in 18 water samples from Southwest Florida. According to the commission, at least one report of breathing difficulties, possibly caused by red tide, was recorded in Sarasota County last week. Based on the most recent red tide predictions from the University of South Florida, over the next few days, very low levels of the red tide-causing karenia brevis will be drifting north from the Sarasota region. As per Kate Hubbard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Center for Red Tide Research director, it is still unclear whether the red tide will reach Tampa Bay. Ian's Runoffs According to Hubbard, it's also difficult to predict how Ian's massive runoff will affect the development of red tides. Because its organism thrives best in saltier marine environments, Karenia brevis can consume a variety of nutrients and use them as fuel. However, too much freshwater can also discourage red tide. In summary, Ian's runoff can exacerbate a red tide if there are already algae cells present, but it does not cause it. According to images provided by Chuanmin Hu, an optical oceanography professor at the University of South Florida, satellite imagery on September 30, two days after Ian's landfall, showed hazy runoff accruing in the middle-lower Tampa Bay area after rainfall flooded the bay's tributaries. Furthermore, according to Hu, runoff and discharges from rivers like the Alafia and Little Manatee rivers are what gives the water its root beer-like hue. The absence of saltier water from such a runoff may also affect whether red tide levels in Tampa Bay significantly increase. According to Parsons, when a body of water contains about one-third of freshwater, algal blooms won't develop. The water may be too fresh if there is still a huge volume of runoff entering Tampa Bay, Parsons continued. One of the few stations that continuously monitor salinity levels in the bay was damaged by the storm and was unavailable for the entire previous week. One Thin Silver Lining Red tide's recurrence in Southwest Florida has, at least temporarily, spared Florida's manatees, according to Carly Jones, the spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Currents and Blooms Red tide, which commonly flares up when there is a sustained ocean current from the southeast, is also affected by another factor. That coastward current can be increased or decreased by a storm. Red tide is being pushed closer to the shore by currents. Red tide conditions are best from September to January, which also happens to be part of the peak hurricane season. Red tide cells can be found in any given year, either before or after a storm. Because of this, Yonggang Liu, the University of South Florida's director of the Ocean Circulation Lab, said it's difficult to predict whether this winter is going to be difficult for red tide. Read also: Pristine Minnesota Lakes Probed for Mysterious Algae Bloom The Red Tide to Come Irma did not cause the severe red tide that started to emerge in 2017, but Liu believes it could still have had an effect. The red tide may have been brought on by numerous cold fronts because there was a nearly two-month gap between Irma and its appearance that year. Liu noted that red tide blooms had been anticipated earlier this year. The absence of deeper, cooler ocean water surfacing in late spring, which was the first sign of red tide, was a precursor to what was to come. Red tide cells that are present to the south may be introduced to the Tampa Bay area if the northward currents persist in the coming weeks. However, Liu added that he does not believe that will occur and that, while Hurricane Ian's heavy downpours and drainage may have contributed nutrients to the ecological system in the coastal ocean, they did not fundamentally alter the situation, Tampa Bay Times reported. Red Tides According to the National Ocean Service, harmful algal blooms, also known as HABs, happen when colonies of algae grow out of control and harm humans, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds in addition to other organisms. Despite being uncommon, human illnesses brought on by HABs can be fatal or severely disabling. Scientists prefer to use the term "harmful algal bloom" even though many people refer to these blooms as "red tides." Nearly every summer, a HAB with national notoriety takes place along Florida's Gulf Coast. As the name implies, an algae bloom can cause the water to turn red. According to My Water Earth & Sky, red tides can last just a few weeks or more than a year, and they may even pass over only to return later. In the past ten or so years, some blooms lasted longer than a year before ceasing. Related article: Algal Bloom: Domoic Acid Poisoning Hits Santa Barbara Sea Lions, Hundreds Treated A dead great white shark washed ashore in a California beach and was killed during a fishing activity, according to local authorities. The great white carcass measure 8 feet long was classified by the authorities as a juvenile shark. Although having a track record of predation, great whites are still protected under US waters and are still suffering from historic population decline around the world. Authorities suggest the manner which killed the 8-feet-long juvenile female great white shark was accidental when it got caught by a fishing gear. It is still unclear who was responsible and when the great white shark exactly died. However, the incident sheds light on the importance of protecting the great white shark species (Carcharodon carcharias), especially when accidentally caught in open waters. Dead Great White Shark The Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve & State Beach through a Facebook post on Tuesday, November 1, revealed details of the washed up dead great white shark near tower 2, at a beach in Torrey Pines, California, where the ocean predator succumbed to her injuries. The site is situated in the reserve's state beach, located just north of San Diego city. In the Facebook post, it can be seen that a park ranger is beside the dead juvenile female great white shark. The reserve said in the post that Great Whites should be protected and must be safely released when accidentally caught. The post also said it turned the unfortunate incident into an educational opportunity to enlighten visitors. The authorities add juvenile Great Whites have become a frequent visitor to the Torrey Pines coastal area. Also Read: Great White Sharks Feast on Humpback Whale Carcass Off the Coast of Nantucket Great White Shark Population Great white sharks can be found all over the world, and these marine predators can grow to lengths of up to 20 feet and weigh 5,000 pounds. The marine predators have significantly declined in numbers, particularly in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, according to Jane Williamson, a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist at the Macquarie University in Australia, told Newsweek. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the said great white shark population is decreasing and have become rare due to years of being hunted by humans for their fins and teeth, most often used as a trophy for sport fishing. The white shark is often caught as a "bycatch" by commercial fisheries and can also become accidentally entangled in meshes that protect beaches, the WWF adds. Fishing Activity Threat In addition to natural predators of the great white sharks such as orcas or killer whales, marine plastic pollution and human activities like overfishing or excessive fishing have contributed to the population's decline. Other natural contributors of a declining great white shark population are ocean warming triggered by climate change and global warming. In the US, certain cumulative impacts of various stressors, including contamination, coastal development, ocean acidification, bycatch, climate change, place West Coast great white sharks at heightened risk of extinction, according to the non-profit ocean conservation organization Oceana. Related Article: Orca Attack Results in Beached Great White Shark Carcass with Liver Ripped Out According to a PR published by Austal Limited on November 2, 2022, the company is pleased to announce that the Australian Government has ordered an additional Guardian-class Patrol Boat from Austal Australia for A$15.2 million. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Guardian class Patrol Boat. (Picture source: Austal) The 39.5 metre steel hull patrol boat, to be constructed in Western Australia and delivered in September 2024, is in addition to the 21 Guardian-class Patrol Boats ordered by the Australian Government under the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project (SEA3036-1) in 2016. Fifteen of the 21 vessels have been delivered to 11 Pacific Island nations under the Australian Governments Pacific Maritime Security Program, since 2018. Faster than the previous Pacific-class patrol boats, with improved seakeeping, better amenities, and an enhanced mission capability including an integrated RHIB stern launch and recovery system the Guardian-class Patrol Boat provide Pacific Island nations with a much-improved naval asset to carry out border patrols, regional policing, search and rescue, and many other operations domestically and internationally. The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project (SEA3036-1) was awarded to Austal Australia in May 2016, with an additional contract option awarded in April 2018, taking the program to 21 vessels, valued at more than A$335 million. Twelve Pacific Island nations including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Timor-Leste will receive the vessels through to 2023. The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project supports more than 200 jobs at Austal Australia (directly) and a further 200 jobs indirectly, nationally, through Australian businesses contracted by Austal. Austal Australias service centre in Cairns, Queensland, featuring a 1,200 tonne (80 metre LOA) slipway and a 1,120-tonne mobile boat hoist, continues to provide in-service support to the growing Guardian-class Patrol Boat fleet; with more than 100 people employed in a variety of engineering and sustainment roles in the Far North Queensland city. The 39.5 metre Guardian-class steel monohull patrol boat designed, constructed, and sustained by Austal Australia is based on a proven design platform that has included the 38 metre Bay-class, 56 metre Armidale-class and 58 metre Cape-class patrol boats that are in service with the Australian Border Force and Royal Australian Navy. Austal will deliver the vessels without armament, but they were designed to be capable of mounting an autocannon of up to 30 millimetres (1.2 in) on their foredeck, and a heavy machine gun on either side of their bridge. The vessel's twin diesel engines can provide 4,000 kilowatts (5,400 shp). Sophisticated electronic engine controls will help conserve fuel. They are designed to berth a complement of 23 crew members. They will have a stern launching ramp for a pursuit boat, also improving SAR-capabilities. At Indo Defence 2022, Thales is reinforcing its commitment to the Republic of Indonesias defence forces, signing multiple agreements with its long-term partner, local State Owned Enterprise (SOE), PT Len Industri, witnessed by Minister of Defence, Prabowo Subianto. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Indonesian Diponegoro-class corvette KRI Diponegoro. (Picture source: DVIDS) Working with Defend ID, Indonesias defence industry holding company led by PT Len, these agreements confirm Thales position to support Indonesias military ambitions. In April 2022, President Widodo outlined Indonesias objective to have Defend ID join the list of the worlds top fifty defence companies by 2024 and to increase the use of locally-manufactured components within the industry. Thales capabilities and solutions in naval and air defence will strongly contribute to these plans. Thales signed a contract with PT Len to undertake the refurbishment of the integrated mission systems for four Diponegoro-class ships. The contract was signed by Mr. Bobby Rasyidin, President Director for PT Len Industri and Mr. Erik-Jan Raatgerink, Sales Director, Thales Netherlands. Delivered in the early 2000s, these ships will soon be refurbished with an Integrated Missions System including the Tacticos Combat Management System, as well as the latest in software-driven radar technology able to combat the highest level of threats. As a leading partner to the Indonesian Navy for the last forty years and the appointed supplier of combat systems for most Indonesian warships currently in service, Thales is bringing its best capabilities to help extend the lifecycle of the Navys fleet and ensure that the ships remain equipped for optimal performance. The modernisation programme will extend over the next five years with post-sales support provided by trained teams at Thales Naval Service Centre in Surabaya. This latest upgrade follows a similar programme undertaken for the KRI Usman-Harun Multi-Role Light Frigate (MRLF) in 2020. Thales also signed a separate Memorandum-of-Understanding (MoU) with PT Pal for future joint collaboration in the area of Integrated Mission Systems and associated sensors and sub-systems for the Indonesian export market. In a separate Memorandum-of-Agreement (MoA), PT Len and Thales announced their intentions to create a joint venture (JV) that will start with local Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities for radars in service with the Indonesian Air Force. Additional cooperation topics will be explored including radars, Command & Control systems, military satellites, and Combat Management Systems. The JV is expected to be operational by the end of 2023. The agreement was signed by Mr. Bobby RASYIDIN, President Director for PT Len Industri and Mdm. Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive Vice-President, Thales International: Thales is proud to have made strong progress together with PT Len over the last few months since the inception of Defend ID. The contract to refurbish the Diponegoro-class ships underscores the trust that the Indonesian Navy has in Thales proven mission-critical solutions. From a humble partnership dating back 40 years, we are delighted to now take it a step further with PT Len through this upcoming joint venture. By working closely with local SOEs under Defend ID, we are in an even stronger position to innovate and co-develop local solutions, transfer technology, and build local indigenous capabilities within Indonesia and to take the country a step further in its defence ambitions. Olivier Rabourdin, President Director, PT Thales Indonesia. LOBAMBA The Embassies of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the European Union (EU) in the Kingdom of Eswatini will today be petitioned over their silence on the violation of human rights and national dialogue. The news about the petition delivery to the two embassies started making the rounds on Monday after a poster speaking about it was circulated. One of the organisers of the proposed petition delivery, the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) member, Mphandlana Shongwe, confirmed the plan to deliver the petitions. In an interview, Shongwe said the petitions would be different as the two embassies were playing different roles in the country. He said the embassies were not in the country in holiday resorts but were supposed to work, and among their duties, was to see if human rights were respected. Deaths Shongwe said, however, none of these embassies spoke out when people died in the country during the June/July unrest. He said till today, the embassies were silent, not even condemning or calling for investigations into the deaths of the people. He said in other countries, when people died in masses, there would be investigations to unearth the causes of the death and subsequently lead to arrests of those found responsible. The activist said the issues with Taiwan were that they were seeing it bankrolling Eswatini and making the latter its spokesperson at the United Nations (UN), seeking its recognition. He said emaSwati had not been given a chance to state where they stood in the issue of Taiwan being recognised in the UN. He said, however, Taiwan was not seen or heard speaking against the violation of human rights in Eswatini. The activist said when it came to the EU; this embassy had been silent on the death of emaSwati during the unrest. Shongwe said they were aware of the several projects in the country that were sponsored by the EU but the same organisation had not been seen sponsoring the calls for the national dialogue and the reforms. He added that they were also aware that the EU, together with the Commonwealth, injected some funding in the drafting of Eswatinis Constitution that they believed was not even democratic. After all the things have happened, why are they (EU) not assisting the country engage in a dialogue? asked Shongwe. He said the EU had been seen assisting in countries where there was violence but when it came to Eswatini, it was silent. Shongwe said other issues would be carried in the petitions that they would deliver to the aforementioned embassies. Andrew Chen, Secretary to the General Affairs of the Taiwan embassy, said they were aware that some people were coming to deliver a petition to the embassy. Chen said in as much as they read about the petition delivery on social media, they would receive it and any further comments would be made once they had received it. Chen added that they were hoping that the petition delivery would be peaceful. Meeting Efforts to get a comment from the EU Embassy proved futile as EU Political Assistant and Information Officer Michael Motsa said the Ambassador, Dessislava Choumelova, who was responsible of responding to the media, was engaged in a meeting. PUDEMO Secretary General (SG) Wandile Dludlu said they were aware of the proposed petition delivery, and were supporting such a call. Dludlu said all structures of the movement would be expected to participate in the exercise today. Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) Spokesperson Thantaza Silolo said in as much as his party was not aware who the organisers of this activity were, but since it sought to be a call for a national dialogue, they (SWALIMO) would support such an initiative. We are still seeking clarity on who is actually behind the call and logistics pertaining to the activity but really we support such a call, said Silolo. MANZINI - Fidelity Security Services Group Eswatini employees yesterday damaged a gate belonging to the company during a protest. The security guards downed tools and engaged in a picket over delayed payment of terminal benefits for senior employees and lack of uniform. The security guards took to the headquarters of the security company in Matsapha to demand the payment of the benefits and uniform. At around 9am, they were found picketing while singing political songs and dancing. So serious was the picketing that a gate was reportedly removed by the security guards when they wanted to gain entry into the premises to communicate their grievances and demands to management. Members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) were called to maintain order. Negotiating They were seen negotiating with the furious guards, who seemingly wanted to enter the premises by force. Eventually, a few representatives were allowed entry into the offices and a meeting with management was convened. One of the security guards, who was found picketing, shared that they were retrenched in August and were not paid their terminal benefits. We are working for one of the most reputable companies, which is also based in South Africa, but we are not provided uniforms. Even the ones we have are worn out, it is not uniform. This is saddening, the guard lamented. Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Unions (SATU) Secretary General (SG) Frank Mncina said the security company was allegedly failing to pay its employees who were retrenched in August. This is after the security company allegedly terminated a contract with a telephone company that owed them millions of Emalangeni. He said the termination of contracts started from July until August. Mncina said it had been a while since the about 315 employees were unpaid. We are going to wage this conflict until the wages are paid because we believe the company has an obligation to comply with the law, Mncina said. The SG said during the meeting, management reportedly stated that their legal opinion was that the employees were not entitled to terminal benefits. The SG disputed this. He said there would be no calm until employees were paid their dues. Mncina reiterated that they would continue putting pressure on management. Efforts to reach management telephonically for comment were futile as a receptionist told this reporter that the management was out of the office. He said the reporter should physically return to the offices tomorrow. MANZINI Tebesutfu Nkambule (23) and her unborn baby passed away after being victims of an arson attack. Tebesutfu is the pregnant woman, who was with Nhluweni Royal Kraal Headman Sibusiso Jele, when the umphakatsi, which is under LaMgabhi Inkhundla, was torched by unknown people about a week ago (on the night of Sunday October 23, 2022). It is worth noting that in most arson attacks which took place after the civil unrest of June/July 2021, the arsonists usually ordered the occupants of the targeted house to get out before they were torched. In this case, the duo was in a one-room house, which was set alight together with a rondavel and they were both rushed to Mankayane Government Hospital, with serious injuries, where they were admitted. According to a source close to the matter, when the medical practitioners at the hospital were running tests on the pregnant woman, the results suggested that the unborn baby had died. Thereafter, the source said the medical practitioners took her for an operation to remove the foetus, which they successfully did. Buried He said the foetus was taken by Tebesutfus family, who later buried it. Thereafter, he said after the operation, Tebesutfu seemed to be recovering well until Tuesday when she became gravely ill and on Wednesday, at around 11am, she passed on, while she was receiving medical assistance at the government hospital. On another note, the source said the royal kraals headman was still admitted to the hospital. When this publication visited him after the arson attack incident, it found that he was burnt mainly on the feet and hands. The death of Tebesutfu was confirmed by the Deputy Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Inspector Nosipho Mnguni. On the same note, the deceased womans father, Thulani, also confirmed the incident and said her daughters death came as a shock to them as a family because they had seen her recovering well after the operation. He said after burying the foetus, they frequently visited her in hospital and she was getting better. He said the deceased was a girlfriend of the headman, whom they already referred to as a son-in-law. He said she was left behind a two-year- old child. Allocation According to one of the community elders (umsumpe) who was found at the royal kraal after the arson attack incident, he said they suspected that the attack on the life of the headman was linked to allegations which had to do with inappropriate allocation of land as there were people who were livid about it. He said there were longstanding grievances about the inappropriate allocation of land and they were accompanied with threats. It is worth noting that the royal kraal does not have a chief, thus it is called lihambate and it is under the leadership of Acting Ludzidzini Governor Lusendvo Fakudze and the headman was living at the umphakatsi. The arson attack was the second one in a space of about two months, as around August 2022, unknown people set alight the gogo centre and it was said that it was a warning to the indvuna, over the alleged inappropriate allocation of land. However, after the arson attack, the headman said he believed that the attack at the royal kraal and to his life was politically motivated. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Windy. Showers developing in the afternoon. High near 60F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Cloudy and windy with rain early...then becoming partly cloudy. Low 23F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Higher wind gusts possible. MBABANE At least 1 550 diarrhoea cases were recorded in the country last week only, with Hhohho being the highest of all the regions. The Ministry of Health Promotion Officer, Calvin Dlamini, speaking on national radio yesterday morning, said the summer season had resulted in an increase in diarrhoeal cases. He stated that most healthcare facilities had infected people, which was so alarming. Dlamini said in last weeks statistics alone, for the four regions, the Hhohho Region had the highest diarrhoeal cases of 600, followed by Lubombo (500), Shiselweni (300) and Manzini recorded at least 150 diarrhoeal cases. He said despite the current recorded cases in a week alone, there was still a concern on the increasing number of diarrhoeal cases across the country. He said there was a need for quick measures to be taken before the situation got out of hand. We are seeing a continuous increase in diarrhoeal cases. Whether you go to a government hospital, clinic or visit any healthcare facility, you will discover that there are patients suffering from diarrhoea, said Dlamini. He also indicate that emaSwati were no longer cautious about their health as they used to during the COVID-19 era where they kept on washing their hands in fear of contracting the virus. He said such an increase showed that people were living irresponsibly. Dlamini further said the ministry had discovered that babies were mostly affected by diarrhoea through contact with their parents or family members. He then pleaded with parents to wash their hands before breastfeeding their babies. Children, who are not even in a position to crawl, are now suffering from diarrhoea. The reason is that their parents breastfeed them with unclean hands. It is high time that parents never allow anyone to pick their child unless that person has clean hands, he stated. He then encouraged emaSwati to continue using the sanitiser like they did during the COVID-19 era. He said during that period, few diarrhoea cases were reported in all healthcare facilities. The best way for us to fight diarrhoea is through washing of hands regularly with running water or even use a sanitiser. Make sure you do that even if you have been shaking hands with people you know, he pleaded. Dlamini also said another way of curbing the increasing diarrhoeal cases in the country was by encouraging shebeen owners to build toilets for their customers. Dlamini further encouraged parents to rush their children to hospital immediately they exhibited symptoms. He said by so doing, they would eliminate the loss of lives. He further advised people to use the oral rehydration solution anytime they experienced diarrhoea symptoms to remain strong. From the last report released by the Ministry of Health two weeks ago (October 17, 2022), Hhohho Region had the highest number of diarrhoea cases recorded with Shiselweni Region recording the lowest cases. On Nov. 2, 2021, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak's reelection campaign received 10 separate $10,000 contributions from what appeared to be unrelated health insurance plans from across the country. The Buckeye Community Health Plan of Ohio, Louisiana Healthcare Connections, and Peach State Health Plan of Georgia were among the companies that sent money to the Democrat, according to state campaign finance records, even though only one, SilverSummit Healthplan, provided insurance in the Silver State. But a thread connects the companies: Each is a subsidiary of Centene Corp., ranked 26th on the Fortune 500 list, and the nation's largest private managed-care provider for Medicaid, the government insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Centene had already sealed Medicaid deals in Nevada through its SilverSummit subsidiary yet a potential new line of business was on the horizon. Sisolak, who is up for reelection Nov. 8, had just approved a new public health plan option that would later open up to bidding from contractors such as SilverSummit. And then, less than two months after Centene's subsidiary contributions were made, Nevada settled with the company over allegations the insurer overbilled the state's Medicaid pharmacy program. The state attorney general's office did not publicly announce the $11.3 million settlement but disclosed it in response to a public records request from KHN. Sisolak who has accepted at least $197,000 from Centene, its subsidiaries, top executives, and their spouses since August 2018 issued a statement through his campaign spokesperson Molly Forgey that said Medicaid contracts are awarded by an independent group. "There is zero correlation between Centene's donations and how the governor legislates," Forgey said. "The governor in no way acts unilaterally in decisions to award state contracts." The contract went before the Nevada Board of Examiners for final approval. Sisolak is one of three voting members. Centene has similarly amplified campaign contributions to governors in New York and South Carolina, two states where it has profitable contracts and such giving by multiple subsidiaries is allowed. And despite having pledged to investors to disclose its political giving, Centene has revealed to shareholders only a portion of its contributions omitting much of its subsidiary giving from reports on its website. Under corporate law, each subsidiary is its own business, which allows companies to increase their political footprints in some states by giving the maximum allowed donations from more than one entity, said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University in Florida. "In some cases, they can increase it tenfold depending on how many subsidiaries and how much money they want to aim at a particular politician," Torres-Spelliscy said. "They will exploit any loophole." Since 2015, the St. Louis-based insurance behemoth, its subsidiaries, its top executives, and their spouses have given more than $26.9 million to state politicians in 33 states, to their political parties, and to nonprofit fundraising groups, according to a KHN analysis of IRS tax filings and data from the nonpartisan, nonprofit group OpenSecrets. That total doesn't include the millions of dollars Centene and its subsidiaries have given to state politicians' political action committees because OpenSecrets doesn't track those donations. The KHN analysis also does not include giving to congressional and presidential candidates. It's a purposeful political investment: Centene earns billions of dollars from governments and then uses its profits to back the campaigns of the officials who oversee those government contracts. The company has developed this sophisticated, multipronged strategy as it pursues even more state government-funded contracts and defends against sweeping accusations that it overbilled many of those very governments. Centene declined to make a representative available for an interview and didn't respond to specific questions about its political giving. But company spokesperson Suzy DePrizio said in a statement that the company follows all local, state, and federal laws and records all contributions from its political action committee. She said Centene's contributions "are intended to serve as support to those who advocate for sound public policy healthcare decisions, which is evident by our nearly equal support of candidates from both parties." This year, according to IRS filings that go through Sept. 30, Centene has given $2.2 million, combined, to the Republican and Democratic governors' associations, which help elect candidates from their respective parties. And Centene gave $250,000, combined, to the Republican Attorneys General Association and its Democratic counterpart. Since last year, state attorneys general, whose campaigns are benefiting from the associations' money, have negotiated massive settlements with Centene over accusations the company's prescription drug programs overbilled Medicaid. More than 20 states are investigating or have investigated Centenes Medicaid pharmacy billing. The company has agreed to pay settlements to 13 of those states, with the total reaching about $596 million. And Centene told KHN in October that it is working to settle with Georgia and eight more states that it didnt identify. It has denied wrongdoing in all the investigations. KHN found that Centene, like many corporations, also pays dozens of lobbyists in state capitals across the country and in Washington, D.C. It courts officials with fundraising parties and perks such as tickets to sporting events like Sacramento Kings games. And it helps fund committees set up to pay for governors inaugural events as it did for Sisolak, with a $50,000 donation, separate from its campaign contributions, according to the Nevada secretary of states office. Executives and their family members make political contributions in their own names. For example, from 2015 through 2021, Centenes then-CEO Michael Neidorff and his wife, Noemi, wrote at least $380,000 in personal checks to state candidates, with more than 60% going to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who governs a state where the insurer generated 11% of its revenue in 2019. The Neidorffs lived in St. Louis. Theres no proof Centenes contributions swayed politicians decisions, but campaign finance experts say money can translate into access and that can lead to influence. Theyre trying to protect their market share, said Gerald Kominski, a senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. They see it as necessary to maintain good relations with the agencies and with the individuals who are involved in decision-making because thats the way government works. Billing Question Surfaces in Ohio Health care industry players from insurers, to doctor lobbying groups, to drug companies routinely make large political donations. Centene rival Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem, has spent at least $21.8 million on state political contributions since 2015, according to KHNs analysis. What makes Centene stand apart from competitors is the massive share of its business that is funded by taxpayers. Founded as a nonprofit in 1984 by a former hospital bookkeeper, Centene earned $126 billion in revenue last year up from $5 billion a decade ago, according to the companys annual reports. Its rocketing revenue has been fueled by its thriving Medicaid managed-care business, takeovers of competitors, and growth in its Medicare Advantage membership and in enrollment in health plans it sells via the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces. Centenes Ambetter plans, available on the exchanges, have the highest enrollment nationally. The company has also locked up lucrative deals to deliver health care to state prisoners, military members, and veterans. Centene has reported that two-thirds of its revenue comes from state Medicaid contracts that cover about 15 million people across the country. Methodology KHN analyzed data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that collects campaign finance data about political candidates and committees. Its state-level data was analyzed to determine how much money Centene Corp., its subsidiaries, its top executives, and their spouses gave to state candidate campaign committees and ballot measure campaigns across the country from Jan. 1, 2015, through Oct. 4, 2022. OpenSecrets does not track state political action committees or have complete data for 2022 because of inconsistent state campaign finance reporting deadlines and other factors. So to find additional contributions and cross-check the ones in OpenSecrets' data, KHN downloaded state-level campaign data, including for political action committees tied to specific candidates, directly from state election websites in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Nevada, and searched the California secretary of state's website for donations to both state and local officials. Those numbers are not included in the overall tally of contributions but are used to supplement KHN's reporting. By searching OpenSecrets' database and Centene's political activity reports, KHN identified eight nonprofit political groups that supported state candidates and received contributions from the company during the same time frame, including the national associations for electing governors and attorneys general from each party. To calculate the contributions Centene made to those nonprofits from 2015 through 2018, KHN relied on data compiled by OpenSecrets. For contributions from 2019 onward, KHN scoured the contribution and expenditure reports those nonprofits filed annually with the IRS, known as Form 8872, because the OpenSecrets data was not yet complete. KHN identified Centene subsidiaries through the company's annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In some cases, subsidiaries made donations before they were acquired by Centene. Those donations were excluded from the analysis. The findings of the analysis were compared with Centene's corporate giving reports which are posted on the company's website and date back to Jan. 1, 2020 and KHN determined that those reports did not show all the giving by Centene subsidiaries that KHN had documented from campaign finance data covering that time period. KHN conducted the same analyses of OpenSecrets and IRS data for Centene's competitor Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem. insights from industry Niall Dinwoodie Executive Director, Gene Therapy Manufacturing Europe Charles River Laboratories In this interview, Niall Dinwoodie, Executive Director for Gene Therapy for Charles River in Europe discusses the opening of their new HQ Plasmid Center of Excellence at Alderley Park. The site which opened in October will support therapuetic developers with rapid access to high quality (HQ) plasmid DNA, a critical starting material in the develpment of potentially transformative cell and gene therapies. Please can you introduce yourself and tell us about your professional background, as well as your current role with Charles River? My name is Niall Dinwoodie. I'm the Executive Director for Gene Therapy for Charles River in Europe. I've been with the company for just over 35 years. I joined as a laboratory analyst and have been part of the expansions of the laboratory and testing operations at Charles River. As the business has grown, I've developed with it. I've managed facilities in the UK and the US, mainly on the testing side. When Charles River was looking to acquire the Cobra Biologics/Cognate Bioservices organization and become involved in the CDMO (contract development and manufacturing) business, I became involved in the acquisition process, doing the due diligence for the site. Starting the integration of those companies into Charles River, I know a lot of people within the organisation, so I can help new businesses connect and find the people they want to talk to. Then one thing led to another, and now I manage the business instead of just helping it integrate. Image Credit: Charles River You look at the advances that have happened over the last few years, with gene therapy companies now being in a position where we're no longer just trying to treat a disease; we're able to cure those diseases. This, for me, is just phenomenal and I'm very excited to be part of it. For example, my first job was working at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, analyzing the blood from neonatal patients who were believed to have genetic diseases. At that time (more than 30 years ago), we could analyze the blood. We could try and find out what was wrong, but in many cases, unfortunately, the infants died before we could even identify what was missing from their genetic makeup. Now with genetic sequencing and gene therapy, there is the potential to not just treat, but cure such patients. Charles River was founded over 70 years ago as a very different company in a very different world. Could you tell us a bit about the journey and development of Charles River as a company and how the founding vision of the company is still maintained today? The company was founded by Henry Foster as a supplier for laboratory animals to ensure that there was a consistently high quality, rapidly available supply for pharmaceutical researchers. For a long time, the company was an animal supply company. However, in the early 2000s, the company started acquiring safety assessment businesses. So basically, getting to the next stage of support for pharmaceutical companies. In the last 15 years or so, I would say we've grown quite dramatically. Both through acquiring additional businesses, but also organically developing our services so that we can provide support along the full continuum of the pharmaceutical development process. This starts right from early discovery through all the safety testing, all the quality control for manufacture, and now with the CDMO business, actual manufacturing itself for gene therapy products. As a prominent, longstanding company within the life sciences industry, what do you believe to be some of the biggest advancements the sector has made over the last decade? I'm particularly interested in the gene therapy so genetic sequencing, and being able to combine that with artificial intelligence and modeling to be able to get a much better understanding of the true causes of disease. Identifing potential targets to either cure or treat those diseases, and then to speed up the process of getting those new products onto the market by refining the testing models that we use has vast potential. We are here today to celebrate the opening of the new contract development and manufacturing center of excellence at Alderley Park. How will this new facility allow Charles River to continue supporting the cell and gene therapy industry? Can you tell us about some of the services this facility will provide? This facility is expanding our capabilities in the gene therapy market. For several years, we've manufactured plasmid DNA at our facility at Keele. The demand we've been having for our services is such that we wanted to increase what we could do, and we didn't have the footprint there. Image Credit: Charles River This facility has been opened with three additional manufacturing streams, but the way we've designed the facility and the infrastructure we have put around it allows us to produce those batches far more rapidly than previously. So, what we can do with this site is really reduce the lead time for plasmid DNA. Typically it's been around 13 weeks, however from this facility, we can get it out in five. The facility's key offering will be High Quality (HQ) plasmid DNA production. What is HQ plasmid DNA, and how can this service help accelerate the development of cell and gene therapies? High quality plasmid DNA is targeted at clinical trials. If a client is using a viral vector in a clinical trial and that viral vector requires DNA, then they can use high quality material rather than the full GMP ('good manufacturing practices') standard material. It's the same process and the same level of quality control, but there are differences in the design of the facilities and in the supporting documentation and administration. Charles River Laboratories Alderley Park HQ Plasmid Center of Excellence Play The opening of the new facility at Alderley Park is a face-to-face event, something that we have not been used to since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact operations at Charles River, and how does it feel to be back to face-to-face events? For Charles River, the COVID-19 pandemic has been our busiest time. All our facilities around the globe have been working with vaccine developers to get those materials onto the market as rapidly as possible, whilst maintaining all the quality standards and all the checks that we need to put in before material is released. Image Credit: Charles River In our Keele facility, we manufactured the clinical trial material for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Our staff have worked incredibly hard under very trying circumstances but have had the real benefit of seeing those vaccines getting out there, being used to treat their families. So it's probably been, as well as some of the most challenging times, the most rewarding times. Regarding face-to-face, Charles River has been working through the pandemic, so we have had a lot of time together with our colleagues. Looking outside the company, having in-person meetings and getting people on site here at Alderley Park gives them confidence in all that we say about the material we produce, and the quality we are providing. To see it in the facilities makes all the difference. What's next for Charles River? Are you involved in any exciting upcoming projects? The next thing we're doing is utilizing the space we have freed up at Keele to add an additional manufacturing stream for GMP plasmid. Again to service the increasing demand and to cut our lead times. Beyond that, we are looking at a significantly larger facility to support full manufacturing scale material again in the local area. Where can readers find more information? About Niall Dinwoodie Niall has worked at Charles River for over 35 years in the testing/manufacturing divisions. Originally in GMP Quality Control, mainly as a manager responsible for the release of test results for licensed products to client companies and later as the Director of Analytical Services globally, Niall lead the integration of Charles River's newly acquired CDMO business in Europe and is now responsible for those activities. He has been a European Qualified Person for investigational medicinal products. A month before Election Day, as Republicans in Congress dodged questions about a proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted that he wanted to talk about moms and babies. Grassley, in the midst of what may be his closest race since becoming a senator in 1980, said he hears a lot about a lack of prenatal care in rural Iowa. He introduced his answer, called the Healthy Moms and Babies Act. "This bill will help fill those voids in rural America to make sure that we can deliver health care for high-risk pregnancies," he said. Republicans are favored to win the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and they would need to gain only one seat to take the Senate, too. With polls showing abortion is a motivating issue for many voters, Republicans have purged their websites, softened hard-line stances, or just gone quiet on women's health as Election Day approaches. Some deflect abortion questions by suggesting Democrats hold extreme views, an attack President Donald Trump helped popularize. Women were falling through the cracks of the health care system well before the Supreme Court in June overturned a constitutional right to abortion. But state responses to that decision further splintered reproductive health care into sanctuaries and deserts, ensuring that access varies widely across state lines. And new government reports paint a troubling picture of maternal health, showing that the covid-19 pandemic contributed to a rise in deaths from pregnancy and childbirth complications and that the overwhelming majority of recent deaths were preventable. Democrats have made defending abortion access a central theme of their campaign to keep control of Congress, hoping to build on the surge of political engagement that followed the court's decision. But polls show the economy has become voters' biggest concern. A few Republicans, like Grassley, are steering preelection conversations to their own proposals. But policy experts and women's rights advocates say they do not go far enough to change the situation for women. "To make a dent in the maternal health crisis, we need more than just guidance," said Allison Orris, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. In September, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a bill that would set a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks, the proposal appeared to divide his party. Most congressional Republicans have advocated for states to make their own decisions about reproductive health, which was what conservatives had argued before the Supreme Court acted. Others wanted to see federal action but said Graham's proposal did not go far enough. House Republicans who feel that way have introduced their own proposals. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Graham's measure would not get enough support to pass. However, Graham, who is not up for reelection, has proposed a ban several times in the past decade and previous versions of the legislation were co-sponsored by almost every sitting Republican senator. "If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we'll have a vote on our bill," Graham said. The rate of maternal death in the U.S. which is higher than in any other industrialized nation increased during the past two years, spurred in large part by covid infections, according to a new Government Accountability Office report commissioned by Congress. Prenatal care is a major factor in preventing maternal and infant mortality, and the report noted the pandemic had made it harder for women to receive care, from the shutdown of public transit and child care facilities to job losses, which have hit women harder than men. Access to reproductive care has dwindled in several states, largely because of Republican efforts, such as funding bans and other state laws that made it difficult for health centers to stay open. Many of those centers provided reproductive care, including contraceptive counseling. Republicans control the legislature in 30 states, including most that ban nearly all abortions before the point in pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside the womb. The Supreme Court decision "has taken away a constitutional right and created chaos for people around the country who are trying to figure out how to manage," said Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow with the think tank New America. "They are doing it in the context of a country that does not provide paid leave; 50% of families live in a child care desert; women and children are not even guaranteed health access in all states; and wages are too low and work is not predictable enough to be able to support a family," she said. Last year congressional Democrats passed an economic recovery package that included several policies intended to improve household financial security, including a five-year program that gives states the option to extend Medicaid benefits to women for one year after childbirth. Under the ongoing public health emergency, no one can be disenrolled from Medicaid. Once that expires, women living in the 34 states along with the District of Columbia that opted in will be eligible for Medicaid during the year after they give birth, when more than half of pregnancy-related deaths occur. Insured women are more likely to receive regular care, including important interventions for those with health conditions that can make pregnancy riskier, like diabetes. More than two dozen states, including some with the nation's strictest abortion restrictions, have not accepted the postpartum coverage extension, meaning women will lose pregnancy-related coverage 60 days after giving birth. If their state has expanded its adult Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, these women could be eligible for full Medicaid. In other states, they could purchase marketplace coverage through the ACA and experience only a short gap in coverage while changing plans. Low-income women would be eligible for subsidies to cover their premiums. In a few states, many women would lose coverage entirely after that first two months. Orris said Grassley's maternal health bill offered "helpful and important steps" in particular, mandatory reporting of maternal quality measures, funding for more coordinated prenatal care, and guidance to states about coverage for doulas and community health workers. But the bill, which offers no major policy proposals, likely would not match the advantages offered through the postpartum coverage extension, she cautioned. "Extending postpartum coverage for one year after birth would help, and I think it is noteworthy that Iowa isn't among the states that have adopted that option," Orris said. On the day the Supreme Court announced its abortion decision, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the most endangered Republican incumbents, put out his own announcement: a promise of a wide-ranging legislative package to support mothers. Over the next three months, Rubio introduced three bills: the Standing With Moms Act, which would establish a government website for pregnancy resources that includes information about alternatives to abortion and other information from groups opposed to abortion; the Community Mentors for Moms Act, which would create mom-to-mom mentorship programs; and the Providing for Life Act, which included an expanded child tax credit and a paid leave program. Paid family medical leave, available in 11 states and the District of Columbia, allows people to take paid time off from work for disruptive health events, including having a baby, becoming seriously ill, or caring for a sick relative. Paid leave has many benefits for the health of a new mom and baby, said Shabo, who has advocated before Congress for a federal program. It is correlated with higher rates of breastfeeding, lower rates of postpartum disorders, more well-baby visits, fewer cases of shaken baby syndrome, and better overall maternal health, she said. It's also associated with higher rates of labor force participation and earnings over time, which increases financial stability. Proponents of a federal paid family medical leave program notched a bittersweet victory this congressional session: For the first time, the House approved one. But opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) over its cost and concerns from the business community doomed its chances of becoming law. Rubio's proposal would allow new parents to borrow from their future Social Security benefits to make up their income while taking leave. But Shabo noted the proposal would disadvantage women and families of color, who are more likely to rely on Social Security in retirement. "Asking you to sacrifice 'future you when you know there are needs at all stages of life is not a smart way to make policy," Shabo said. A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham found that the risk of stomach bleeding caused by using aspirin long-term, can be reduced with a short course of antibiotics, potentially improving the safety of aspirin when used to prevent heart attacks, strokes and possibly some cancers. The results of the .HEAT (Helicobacter pylori Eradication Aspirin) trial, which was led by Professor Chris Hawkey from the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine and Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Health Technology Assessment program, are published in The Lancet. Aspirin in low doses is a very useful preventative drug in people at high risk of strokes or heart attacks. However, on rare occasions, it can provoke internal ulcer bleeding. By thinning the blood, aspirin makes ulcers in the stomach bleed. These ulcers may be caused by a particular type of bacteria, helicobacter pylori. The STAR (Simple Trials for Academic Research) team from the University of Nottingham investigated whether a short course of antibiotics to remove these bacteria would reduce the risk of bleeding in aspirin users. The .HEAT (Helicobacter pylori Eradication Aspirin) Trial was a very large trial conducted in 1,208 UK general practices. It was a real-life study which used clinical data routinely stored in GP and hospital records, instead of bringing patients back for follow up trial visits. The team wrote to 188,875 patients who were taking aspirin and 30,166 volunteered and took part in the study. Those who tested positive for H. pylori were randomized to receive antibiotics or placebos (dummy tablets) and were followed for up to 7 years. Over the first two and a half years, those who had antibiotic treatment were less likely to be admitted to hospital because of ulcer bleeding than those who had dummy tablets (6 versus 17). Protection occurred rapidly: with those who received placebos (dummy treatment), the first hospitalization for ulcer bleeding occurred after 6 days, compared to 525 days following antibiotic treatment. Over a longer time period, protection appeared to wane. However, the overall rate of hospitalization for ulcer bleeding was lower than expected and this in line with other evidence that ulcer disease is on the decline. Risks for people already on aspirin are low. Risks are higher when people first start aspirin, when searching for H. pylori and treating it is probably worthwhile. Aspirin has many benefits in terms of reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people at increased risk. There is also evidence that it is able to slow down certain cancers. The .HEAT trial is the largest UK-based study of its kind, and we are pleased that the findings have shown that ulcer bleeding can be significantly reduced following a one-week course of antibiotics. The long-term implications of the results are encouraging in terms of safe prescribing" Chris Hawkey, Professor, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham The results of the trial will be presented at the UEG (United European Gastroenterology) scientific meeting in Vienna where it has won a 10,000 Euro top abstract prize. The STAR team intend to use the prize to sponsor a competition to support a collaboration with a research team that would like to take advantage of STAR methodology. Jennifer Smithfield felt weak and still had trouble breathing in February after nearly two weeks with covid-19. It was a Sunday, and her doctor's office was closed. So her primary care physician suggested going to an emergency room to be safe. Smithfield went to HCA Healthcare's flagship hospital, near its corporate headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, and thought she would be checked out and sent home. But that's not what happened. "Even though I did not feel well, I didn't think it was bad enough to be hospitalized, especially not multiple days," Smithfield said. Over three days, Smithfield racked up $40,000 in charges for her inpatient stay and received a bill for $6,000 under the terms of her health insurance policy. "I could have walked out," Smithfield said. "I wish I had walked out." While she was in the hospital, she said, the doctor who had directed her to the ER texted her repeatedly, asking why she'd been admitted. For more than a decade, large health systems have faced scrutiny for admitting patients to costly hospital stays when less expensive treatments or short periods of observation in the ER would have been appropriate. Commercial insurers pay handsomely for inpatient care, with room rates often hitting several thousand dollars a day and that doesn't include the charges that inevitably follow for bloodwork, consultations, and other exams that typically occur. Hospitals, like hotels, maximize revenue by keeping their beds full. Critics allege that HCA sought to keep occupancy rates high by creating incentives for doctors to admit ER patients whether those patients required admission or not. The accusation is particularly surprising because admission rates nationally have generally been declining as more conditions can be safely treated with telemedicine and home monitoring. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and the Service Employees International Union have been pressing the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate allegations against HCA as potential Medicare fraud. A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Bruce Alexander, said the agency is reviewing a September letter from Pascrell that details the claims that HCA forced doctors to meet unofficial quotas, or targets, for the number of patients admitted to the hospital. And a previously sealed whistleblower case is shedding new light on such internal policies. "Improper hospital admissions can have cascading effects on patients and workers," Pascrell, chair of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. "Unnecessary admissions expose patients to unnecessary treatments. This creates an added potential risk of complications and the possibility of new infections for patients." HCA spokesperson Harlow Sumerford refuted the accusations. "We categorically reject any allegation that physicians admit patients to our hospitals on the basis of anything other than their independent medical judgment and their patients' individual conditions and medical needs," he told KHN in a statement. Pascrell's concerns are based largely on a 58-page investigative report from the SEIU published in February. The national labor union has been challenging health systems on admissions for more than a decade as it attempts to organize in more for-profit hospitals and advocates for its members who work on the front lines. The SEIU estimates HCA overcharged the Medicare program at least $1.8 billion over roughly a decade through excessive admissions, according to the report. The claims against HCA are similar to those the SEIU made that led to a $98 million settlement with Community Health Systems in 2014 and a $262 million settlement in 2018 with Health Management Associations. The government alleged that hospitals knowingly billed for inpatient services when lower-paying outpatient or observational services were warranted. The government is in the best position to prove such claims, said Jacob Tubbs, an attorney based in Birmingham, Alabama, whose law firm, Price Armstrong, has represented plaintiffs in similar cases against hospitals. But he noted that proving that doctors willingly and systematically departed from today's standard of care is difficult. It is particularly hard to show that a patient was overtreated. Lawyers still have "a healthy amount of skepticism" about the potential for winning these cases, he said. "We know that what we're going to have to ultimately prove is that the medical care was objectively unnecessary." In a 141-page court filing from 2018, Dr. Camilo Ruiz, a whistleblower at a 400-bed HCA hospital in suburban Miami, accused the health system of threatening his job if he didn't admit more patients, instead of sending them home from the ER. HCA supervisors hounded him with warnings to start meeting established targets, he said in the court documents. Ruiz's attorneys used publicly available Medicare data to show that HCA hospitals nationwide routinely admitted patients for low-level maladies such as abdominal pain, lower respiratory problems, dizziness, and nausea while non-HCA hospitals sent patients with the same conditions home. At 41 HCA hospitals with the highest admission rates located in Florida, Texas, Nevada, Virginia, and California the attorneys found that from 2013 through 2016, 84% of Medicare patients were admitted for eight common diagnoses, compared with 55% at non-HCA hospitals. The Ruiz case was unsealed in 2020 when the federal government declined to take on the investigation. The Justice Department which has intervened in similar cases that led to settlements did not explain in court records why it passed on the Ruiz case and declined to comment to KHN. Ken Nolan is an attorney with Nolan Auerbach & White, a firm that is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has successfully represented whistleblowers alleging fraudulent hospital admissions. Nolan said the government sometimes declines cases for reasons other than a lack of evidence. The SEIU is continuing to push the government to investigate its broader allegations against HCA. The union incorporated data from the Ruiz suit in the report it's been shopping around to government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition to asking HHS to investigate, Pascrell sent a letter directly to HCA's CEO, Sam Hazen, demanding an explanation for elevated admissions numbers. As the nation's largest hospital company, HCA sets the pace for the U.S. health care system. Its profits approached $7 billion in 2021 even as other health systems struggled through the tail wind of the pandemic. For Smithfield, her costly hospitalization not only threatened her wallet. It also broke her trust in a system in which she has long gotten care, including treatment for leukemia. She is disputing her bill. Now, when she seeks medical care, she wonders whether her "best interests are being taken into account versus some other motive that the hospital administration might have." This article is from a partnership that includes Nashville Public Radio and KHN. Monkeypox has infected more than 77,000 people in more than 100 countries worldwide, and -; similar to COVID-19 -; mutations have enabled the virus to grow stronger and smarter, evading antiviral drugs and vaccines in its mission to infect more people. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Missouri have identified the specific mutations in the monkeypox virus that contribute to its continued infectiousness. The findings could lead to several outcomes: modified versions of existing drugs used to treat people suffering from monkeypox or the development of new drugs that account for the current mutations to increase their effectiveness at reducing symptoms and the spread of the virus. Kamlendra Singh, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator, collaborated with Shrikesh Sachdev, Shree Lekha Kandasamy and Hickman High School student Saathvik Kannan, to analyze the DNA sequences of more 200 strains of monkeypox virus spanning multiple decades, from 1965, when the virus first started spreading, to outbreaks in the early 2000s and again in 2022. "By doing a temporal analysis, we were able to see how the virus has evolved over time, and a key finding was the virus is now accumulating mutations specifically where drugs and antibodies from vaccines are supposed to bind," Sachdev said. "So, the virus is getting smarter, it is able to avoid being targeted by drugs or antibodies from our body's immune response and continue to spread to more people." Needles in a haystack Singh has been studying virology and DNA genome replication for nearly 30 years. He said the homology, or structure, of the monkeypox virus is very similar to the vaccinia virus, which has been used as a vaccine to treat smallpox. This enabled Singh and his collaborators to create an accurate, 3D computer model of the monkeypox virus proteins and identify both where the specific mutations are located and what their functions are in contributing to the virus becoming so infectious recently. "Our focus is on looking at the specific genes involved in copying the virus genome, and monkeypox is a huge virus with approximately 200,000 DNA bases in the genome," Singh said. "The DNA genome for monkeypox is converted into nearly 200 proteins, so it comes with all the 'armor' it needs to replicate, divide and continue to infect others. Viruses will make billions of copies of itself and only the fittest will survive, as the mutations help them adapt and continue to spread." Kannan and Kandasamy examined five specific proteins while analyzing the monkeypox virus strains: DNA polymerase, DNA helicase, bridging protein A22R, DNA glycosylase and G9R. When they sent me the data, I saw that the mutations were occurring at critical points impacting DNA genome binding, as well as where drugs and vaccine-induced antibodies are supposed to bind. These factors are surely contributing to the virus' increased infectivity. This work is important because the first step toward solving a problem is identifying where the problem is specifically occurring in the first place, and it is a team effort." Kamlendra Singh, Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia The evolution of viruses Researchers continue to question how the monkeypox virus has evolved over time. The efficacy of current CDC-approved drugs to treat monkeypox have been suboptimal, likely because they were originally developed to treat HIV and herpes but have since received emergency use authorization in an attempt to control the recent monkeypox outbreak. "One hypothesis is when patients were being treated for HIV and herpes with these drugs, they may have also been infected with monkeypox without knowing, and the monkeypox virus got smarter and mutated to evade the drugs," Singh said. "Another hypothesis is the monkeypox virus may be hijacking proteins we have in our bodies and using them to become more infectious and pathogenic." Singh and Kannan have been collaborating since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, identifying the specific mutations causing COVID-19 variants, including Delta and Omicron. Kannan was recently recognized by the United Nations for supporting their 'Sustainable Development Goals,' which help tackle the world's greatest challenges. "I could not have done this research without my team members, and our efforts have helped scientists and drug developers assist with these virus outbreaks, so it is rewarding to be a part of it," Singh said. "Mutations in the monkeypox virus replication complex: Potential contributing factors to the 2022 outbreak" was recently published in Journal of Autoimmunity. Co-authors on the study include Shrikesh Sachdev, Athreya Reddy, Shree Lekha Kandasamy, Siddappa Byrareddy, Saathvik Kannan and Christian Lorson. China's ICT giant launches fund to develop innovation leaders in Zambia Xinhua) 10:30, November 04, 2022 Zambian acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima delivers a speech during the launch of an information communication technology (ICT) fund in Lusaka, Zambia, on Nov. 3, 2022. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on Thursday launched the information communication technology (ICT) fund to develop innovation leaders to accelerate Zambia's digital transformation agenda. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) LUSAKA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on Thursday launched an information communication technology (ICT) fund to develop innovation leaders to accelerate Zambia's digital transformation agenda. Dubbed the Hakainde Hichilema Innovation Fund, the fund is part of the four-year partnership and initiative by Huawei that will see the training on ICT of 5,000 young people by the year 2025. Huawei's Vice President for Southern Africa Region Phil Li said the company wanted to help identify and develop special and bankable talent that anchor Zambia's digital transformation agenda to accelerate both economic and social development through ICTs. "It is our desire to offer ICT basic skill training to at least 50 instructors and 50 selected government officials in the Ministry of Education and its affiliates," he said. According to him, the launch follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Huawei and the government in March this year for a digital innovation leadership program. The company, he said, will also establish an innovation hub, a physical space for the incubation and actualization of ICT ideas that will accommodate all the necessary infrastructure needed for innovators to generate, develop and test the viability of their digital solutions under the keen mentorship of dedicated experts. Huawei's Vice President for Southern Africa Region Phil Li (2nd L) and Zambian acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima (3rd L) unveil the visual designs of the forthcoming National Digital Innovation Hub during the launch of an information communication technology (ICT) fund in Lusaka, Zambia, on Nov. 3, 2022. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on Thursday launched the information communication technology (ICT) fund to develop innovation leaders to accelerate Zambia's digital transformation agenda. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) Minister of Technology and Science Felix Mutati welcomed the initiative and thanked the Chinese company, saying it will go a long way in promoting digital skills and entrepreneurship among university and college students. In a speech read for him by Brilliant Habeenzu, the permanent secretary of the ministry, the minister commended Huawei for implementing various projects in the ICT sector in Zambia and for its continued support in the development of the sector. The government was committed to unlocking the country's economic potential through ICTs, he said. Acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima said the government has partnered with Huawei to ensure that every learner in the country acquires digital skills and is prepared to face the fast-changing digital world. According to him, Zambia has made strides toward digital transformation over the past few years, as evident in digital infrastructure, digital financial systems and digital platforms. He, however, said gaps still exist in digital skills and digital entrepreneurship and commended Huawei for coming up with the initiative to provide young people with ICT skills. "My ministry believes that through technology and digital systems, we can take the learning resources to all parts of this country so that every learner in Zambia has the digital skill to unlock their potential," he said. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) NHLAMBENI - We are not terrorists but visited our minister to explain to him why we are important as this is a question he asked in Parliament. This was a statement made by some junior Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) officers, after about 20 of them paid a visit to the private residence of the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, in Nhlambeni yesterday morning, something which has sparked a debate among many. The PM doubles as the Minister of Police. The group of police officers, who are aggrieved over Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise, started gathering as early as 6:30am along the Nhlambeni-Sidvokodvo stretch of the Yithabantu Highway. The officers, who were driving personal vehicles, parked their cars on the off-ramp towards Nhlambeni Nazarene Primary School. Changed At around 7am, they changed their civics wear to police regalia. At about 8:50am, the officers then drove in a cavalcade, for about five kilometres, to the private residence of the PM. The convoy of the junior officers was formed by six sedans. Upon arrival at the residence of the premier, which was at about 9:04am, the junior officers alighted from their vehicles and started shouting traditional salutations. The officers said: Sikhulekile ekhaya Nkhosi. Sesikhona site kuwe. This is simply a traditional salutation of an unexpected guest. The junior officers were addressed by about five fellow police officers, who peeped through the wall fence and informed them that the PM was not present at the residence. Shouting This resulted in the law enforcers shouting that they would be back at the residence as they were there to seek what belonged to them. When leaving at about 9:09am, some of the officers shouted that they would continue with their quest for Phase II. This visit lasted not more than five minutes as the officers drove off thereafter in a different route, which was seemingly a ruse to avert officers from the para-military wing of REPS, the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU). The OSSU officers had been in a nearby bush, which is about 500 metres away from the residence of the premier, from 6am. They were occasionally joined by other vehicles from their camp, which is about 10 kilometres from the premiers homestead. At some point, the OSSU officers were joined by others from the Matsapha Police Stations Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for almost two hours. Watching During the period when the junior officers were at the gate of the PMs home, the OSSU officers were watching from a distance. There was also a drone which was used to capture the proceedings by police officers who were travelling in an unmarked white Isuzu double cab bakkie. The OSSU officers left the bush where they had been stationed for over three hours when the junior police officers left. They drove towards the main road where they were joined by others carrying assault rifles. While still engaging each other, the cavalcade of the junior officers, which had seemingly taken a different route, drove past them. Converged The junior officers drove back to where they had converged, before driving to the PMs private residence, where they changed to their casual wear again before addressing the media. When addressing the media, the junior police officers said they were at the verge of disregarding their oath as they were being treated unfairly by government and their superiors regarding the eight-year wait for the implementation of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise. Some of the low ranking police officers said their uninvited visit to the residence of the premier was to respectfully elucidate their importance to him as this was a question which came up in the august House. The junior officers said they were important because they provided security to the country and to high ranking government officials, including him, as they also guarded his residences and everywhere he went. We are killed because they say we protect him and the State and the security he has at his residence is also aggrieved and our colleagues, the officers said. The junior officers said they had also visited his homestead as they knew that Dlamini was the Minister of Police as well. The low ranking officers who were part of the visit said they would return to the premiers residence to forward the same message, which they had communicated with their colleagues and knew that it would be shared with him. The officers further said they had decided to visit the private residence of the premier because there was a court order interdicting them from marching to Cabinet. It is worth noting that the court order interdicted junior officers from marching to Cabinet on October 18, 2022. The National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini and Commissioner General (COMGEN) of His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) Phindile Dlamini, filed an urgent application stopping the march and it was granted by Judge Nkosinathi Maseko at 2:30am the subsequent day. The respondents in the matter were the Police Staff Association and HMCS Staff Association. Meanwhile, yesterday the junior officers claimed that in siSwati culture, when an individual was owed something, the individual owed had the right to pay a courtesy call and engage on when the outstanding debt would be settled. Furthermore, they said: We are not terrorists or progressives but are just junior officers and that is why we are wearing our uniform. We are not in this for politics such that if our superiors attend to our needs, we shall not bother them. However, the officers claimed that if their needs would not be met, there was a high possibility that they would start resisting taking orders. There are now high levels of sweet and fruit-flavored chemicals likely to appeal to young people in e-cigarette liquids ostensibly marketed as 'tobacco-flavored', compared with a decade ago, finds research published today in a special supplement of the journal Tobacco Control. This recent trend coincides with the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ban on the sale of cartridge-based flavored e-cigaretteswith the exception of menthol and tobacco flavorsin a bid to limit their appeal to young people. And it suggests that manufacturers are managing to get round the regulations, say the researchers. E-liquid formulations have been evolving rapidly over the past decade, and flavor chemicals are particularly important because young people like fruit, candy, and sweet flavors, say the researchers. And disposable products, such as Puff, which are particularly popular with young people, aren't covered by the FDA's ban. The researchers therefore wanted to find out if e-cigarettes marketed as 'tobacco flavored' contained sweet and fruit flavor chemicals that would likely appeal to young people. They drew on their extensive database (UCR/PSU Electronic Cigarette Data Collection) of e-liquid and aerosol flavor chemicals, acids, reaction products and metals, to identify any trends and changes in chemical composition and levels since 2010-11. They compared the number and amount of flavor chemicals in 63 'tobacco-flavored' e-cigarette refill fluids purchased between 2011 and 2019 and 2 popular pod-style e-cigarette brands-;JUUL and Puff. Tobacco-flavored products purchased in 2010 and 2011 had very few flavor chemicals, overall, the levels of which were generally very low. Nearly two thirds (63%) of the refill fluids bought before 2019 had levels of flavor chemicals below 2 mg/ml, and most (84%) were below 5 mg/ml. But the total number and level of flavor chemicals in 'tobacco flavored' refill fluids purchased in 2019 and in Puff Bar Tobacco e-cigarettes, were higher than expected. Among the 13 refill products bought in 2019, more than half (54%) had total flavor chemical levels above 10 mg/ml. Products with total flavor chemicals of more than 10 mg/ml contained 1 to 5 dominant flavor chemicals (each more than 1 mg/ml). The 5 most frequently used flavor chemicals in 'tobacco flavored' e-liquids were predominantly fruity and caramellic: ethyl maltol (sweet or caramel, 60%); corylone (caramellic, maple, 44%); menthol (33%); vanillin (25%), maltol and triacetin (fruity, creamy, 24%). Nine sweet and fruit flavor chemicals, used mainly in products bought in 2016 and 2019, were at levels above 2 mg/ml. JUUL has marketed two tobacco flavors, 'Classic' and 'Virginia'. Total flavor chemical levels for both these products were below 0.35 mg/ml, while levels of the individual chemicals were, in most cases, equal to, or less than, 0.05 mg/ml. Different flavor chemicals were used in the 'Classic' and 'Virginia' products, suggesting these were added intentionally to create distinct tastes for each product. Puff 'Tobacco', on the other hand, had 27 different flavor chemicals adding up to a total of 34.3 mg/ml. Individual chemicals ranged from 0.03 to 15 mg/ml. Four flavor chemicals (vanillin, ethyl maltol, ethyl vanillin and corylone), which were the highest (range 2.0715 mg/ml), are typically used in sweet-flavored e-cigarette products, such as Dewberry Cream, which is popular with young vapers, note the researchers. For the dominant flavor chemicals found in both brands, levels of vanillin were 300 times higher in Puff than in JUUL, while ethyl maltol was 239 times higher, and corylone 41 times higher. The total number of flavor chemicals used in Puff Bar Tobacco was greater than those found in nearly all (94%) the refill fluids evaluated. "Concern has been raised previously about the safety of flavor chemicals when inhaled at these high concentrations," point out the researchers. "Although these particular flavors are Generally Regarded As Safe by the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) for ingestion, FEMA has not evaluated them for inhalation toxicity." They conclude: "It is important for the FDA to identify and quantify flavor chemicals before authorising Premarket Tobacco Applications (PMTA) for two reasons. "First, flavor chemicals are often used in e-liquids without safety data at concentrations much higher than those found in other consumer products. Second, our data show that e-cigarette manufacturers are manipulating e-liquid formulations apparently to circumvent flavor chemical regulations." Ever since the Chinese physician and judge, Song Ci, used his cutting-edge methods to investigate crimes in Hunan Province, science and crime-fighting have been inextricably intertwined for more than 18 centuries. In present-day crime laboratories, technicians and scientists assist prosecutors and police departments and by using a wide range of disciplines, including almost every field of the physical, life, and computer sciences. Image Credit: LabVantage Solutions, Inc. For instance, a DNA Analyst might be attempting to locate a killer by amplifying DNA obtained from a crime scene, and a digital analyst might be looking for evidence in a computer hard drive while a toxicologist is seeking to identify a complicated designer drug used in a date-rape case. Regardless of their position, crime lab staff now significantly rely on laboratory information management systems (LIMS) to track samples and associated data throughout the laboratory life cycle. Currently, almost all forensic laboratories have some sort of automated system in place for handling a variety of data and reports. However, the scientific labor involved in resolving criminal cases is not limited to the lab; it starts at a crime scene and continues through the investigative process to the courtroom and beyond; sometimes, this process can last years. Since DNA evidence has become a major factor in determining guilt or innocence, the scientific chain of evidentiary custody in cold cases can now last for decades. The forensic information management system (FIMS), which has developed over the last two decades to handle the special requirements of the forensic laboratory and all the numerous components of law enforcement who rely on the lab, has grown along with new techniques for solving crimes. The evolution of FIMS As stated above, the collection and analysis of evidence is not limited to the lab. Therefore the term "LIMS" does not capture the totallity of what law enforcement organization need. A btter term is "FIMS" Forensic Information Management System. Everybody involved can gain from a FIMS to maintain an unquestionable electronic chain of evidence custody from the time police arrive at the location to the day of either conviction or exoneration of the suspect(s), regardless of the type of crime that has been committed and how the investigation develops. Some organizations start entering data into an electronic system as soon as it is gathered. A thorough investigation of the murder site or a straightforward traffic stop could serve as the point of collection. The same fundamental data will be gathered in both scenarios, but a crime scene unit will gather much more data. How the scene was handled, for example, the methods employed to create latent prints could be considered additional information. The detective could also learn more about the climate or the preservation techniques used at the spot.In both situations, the evidence will be recorded, and the chain of custody must begin right away. Protecting the chain of custody Regardless of the kind or seriousness of a crime, evidence is essential to a case. At each step in the process as police specialists collect evidence and the judiciary begins to present its case against a suspected perpetrator it is essential that evidence be correctly handled and the chain of custody rigorously maintained. This includes transfers from one person to another as well as to and from secure areas. Image Credit: LabVantage Solutions, Inc. Crime scene The journey of the data starts with a crime. All pertinent information must be gathered, entered in real-time, and handled as the case develops. This includes DNA samples, phone records, law enforcement statements, a chain of custody, and more. Property management To preserve the chain of custody, evidence is kept in a monitored, controlled setting. There must be tracking of disposition requests, evidence viewings, and more. Lab analysis Forensic laboratory examiners analyze the data, correlate it to databases like the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), and present their results. To facilitate ISO 17025 compliance, they require quality assurance tools. Latent print examiners working in a crime lab require the capacity to quickly compare impressions and persons involved. They may also require blind verification of their findings as well as a method to track and manage inconsistent results. The ability to work with liquid handlers, export and import quantification and typing data, perform calculations, manage master mixes, and create a profile data file that can be uploaded to the FBIs Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) are all features that DNA examiners want to make sure their FIMS can provide. Toxicologist will want the ability to work as a team throughout the analysis of samples from various cases over numerous different batches. Medical examiner With their studies of human remains and conclusions regarding the cause of death, forensics experts and medical examiners contribute to the volume of data. Investigation Detective notes, witness interviews, social media profiles, and other types of data are all produced with the help of the investigations leads. This information is included in the forensic record. Legal The information that began with a crime continues through the legal process. It is important to have enough proof to indict a suspect and sufficient evidence to back up a conviction or clear an accused person. Status updates and reports must also be available to lawyers and other legal professionals. The problem with point solutions While not all law enforcement agencies have a laboratory, practically all of them have property warehouses and must meet the requirements to ensure that the chain of custody is unquestionable and that any item can be retrieved at a moments notice. It is also necessary to facilitate several types of disposition actions, including destruction, donations, conversion to police use, return to owner, and auctioning, toward the conclusion of the criminal investigation and prosecution process. As storage facilities can rapidly fill up, and it can be expensive and time-consuming to acquire new facilities that can accommodate evidence, disposition is crucial. When investigations are concluded, or the statute of limitations has passed, the system should be able to immediately contact detectives and request their approval to manage the disposition process. The difficulties at each stage of the process have been addressed with a variety of solutions, but what has been absent is an integrated system that works flawlessly on every web browser and complies with the HTML5 standard, which will soon be required by US law enforcement authorities. As recently emphasized in a Deloitte analysis on the future of policing, more and more, innovation tends to work best when all these forms come together to enable police and law enforcement agencies to have greater insight and impact than ever before. The innovations that are shaping the future of law enforcement begin with emerging technologies that support new concepts of operations. Faster results From crime scene to courtroom LabVantage has created the LabVantage Forensic NavigatorTM, a comprehensive platform that covers the entire forensic life cycle, moving seamlessly from the crime scene to the courtroom. This platform was created in response to the growing demand for law enforcement agencies and related parties to have access to an integrated FIMS that can scale with them into the future. Image Credit: LabVantage Solutions, Inc. A forensic navigator is a cutting-edge tool that connects investigative workflows by utilizing forensic information and predictive analytics through an optional artificial intelligence (AI) capability. It works natively on the most recent HTML5 standard. Forensic Navigator offers a wide range of advantages that work together to produce speedier investigations at a reduced cost, as opposed to the point solutions that some law enforcement agencies have pieced together to provide some semblance of consistency across the investigative process. Several of the strong differentiators are as follows: A single, integrated platform Web portal for submitters and legal staff Supports ISO 17025- and CALEA compliance Offers a go-live plan Encompasses the complete forensic life cycle Configurable platform eliminates customization Flexibility to use as SaaS Best-in-class cybersecurity protection Developed by a trusted provider with decades of experience in technology solutions Browser agnostic Spontaneously runs on HTML5 and other essential industry technologies Forensic intelligence (software improves predictive analysis using AI capabilities and provides greater perspectives from investigative data) From collection to science Users may go from forensic data gathering to forensic data science with the help of LabVantage Forensic Navigators integrated platform and tools. Due to the instrument and system connections, less human effort is required, which minimizes data entry errors, speeds up data entry, and lowers resource costs for both system users and administrators. Implement a frictionless interchange of thoughts from one end of the law enforcement agency to the other to speed up investigations and solve crimes more quickly. Forensic Navigator is configurable and can be utilized concurrently inside or outside the office or from anywhere else remotely. Forensic Navigator, as opposed to pointing solution systems, enables the use of historical LIMS data for the benefit of the entire organization, fostering deeper statistical analysis, cutting-edge insights, and dynamic intelligence. Forensic Navigator, which was created and tested to meet the highest cybersecurity standards, encrypts all data stored on cloud servers and VPN tunnels connected to cloud-hosted and SaaS-based deployments, allowing the storage of all evidence securely in one location. A single platform that does it all LabVantage Forensic Navigator assists law enforcement agencies of all sizes in accelerating the worldwide investigative process to enhance the administration of justice for everybody. Our platform creates seamless flows of information, supporting quality management and forensic intelligence through improved investigative insights and AI capabilities. It also captures and tracks leads, conducts lab tests, compiles cases, and conducts court proceedings. When one system can do it all, there is no need to buy, implement, connect, test, and learn how other systems works. Beyond the standard laboratory LIMS, Forensic Navigator offers additional features. From a secure web-based portal, it allows law enforcement to enter data in real-time, request examinations, and check the status. The analytical layer provided by available AI is necessary to gain insight from the enormous volume of forensic data. Regardless of the position within the forensic life cycle, Forensic Navigator offers the resources and access required to stay informed and make important choices. Users can trust LabVantages Forensic Navigator to help them expedite analysis of evidence in a case and trust in the outcome of the investigation. It is the only solution for forensic intelligence from the site of the crime to the courtroom, speeding up the investigation by organizing, connecting, and analyzing every element of a criminal case. About LabVantage Solutions LabVantage Solutions, Inc. is the leading global laboratory informatics provider. Our industry-leading LIMS platform, including ELN, LES, and SDMS, and world-class services are the result of nearly 40 years of experience in laboratory informatics. LabVantage offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that enable companies to innovate faster in the R&D cycle, improve manufactured product quality, achieve accurate recordkeeping and data integrity, and comply with regulatory requirements. LabVantage is a highly configurable, web-based LIMS platform that powers hundreds of laboratories globally, large and small. Built on a platform that is widely recognized as the best in the industry, LabVantage can support hundreds of concurrent users as well as interface with instruments and other enterprise systems. It is the best choice for industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and consumer goods to molecular diagnostics and bio banking. LabVantage domain experts advise customers on best practices and maximize their ROIs by optimizing LIMS implementation with a rapid and successful deployment. Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments. Saudi Arabia aims to establish mutually beneficial partnerships with Australian and other major mining sector stakeholders to help the world in accessing the countrys $1.3 trillion-worth high-demand minerals, said Engineer Khaled Al Mudaifer, the Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs. He was speaking at Australias leading mining industry event, the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), being held in Sydney, Australia. "A key objective of Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 is the diversification of the kingdoms economy, spreading sustainable development to all regions and creating quality job opportunities for the Saudi youth," stated Al Mudaifer. Developing the Kingdoms mining sector and the related industries and services, opening them for national and foreign investments, is a pivotal part of realizing KSAs Vision 2030," he added. Participating under the brand Invest Saudi, the Saudi delegation is led by Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, and includes other senior officials from the Ministry of Investment, National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP), Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS). The Vice-Minister pointed out that Saudi Arabia had become a world-class destination for mining investments owing to four key elements - Collection and publication of geological data; Favourable Investment System; Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Integrated Value Chains. "We are building a mining system for the long term. A system that protects workers and the environment, and provides meaningful development to local communities while maintaining economic and business feasibility for both the kingdom and the investors," remarked Al Mudaifer. Incentives of up to 90% discount on mining royalties are being offered to investors, who contribute to developing sustainability upstream, mid-stream and downstream in the countrys mining sector. "We believe this is a win-win-win situation as it will help the Kingdom become a global mining leader, help investors generate profit, and will create local development and jobs," noted the Vice-Minister. "We are open to new ideas and suggestions. This flexibility enables us to adopt industry-leading practices, once we know they are feasible and that they align with our core values," he added. According to him, investor interest and mining activities in the kingdom are gathering pace. "This is illustrated by the fact that since January 2021, the Ministry of Mining has received more than 1200 applications for exploration licenses, with about 20% of those coming from foreign companies. It currently has 566 active exploration licenses and 176 active exploitation licenses. So far, three mining sites have been part of the Ministrys competitive exploration bidding process," he stated. The first and second were awarded to international consortiums, and the Ministry has received expressions of interest for an additional location as well. Five new exploration sites are up for auction next year and details for an additional ten opportunities will be released in 2023. The Vice- Minister added that a further $32 billion worth of investments in the midstream sector are currently in the pipeline.-TradeArabia News Service TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - Excellence Canada is pleased to announce it will be celebrating the 38th anniversary of the Canada Awards for Excellence on November 7th. This year, 21 awards will be presented to outstanding Canadian organizations in recognition of their commitment to continual improvement and pursuit of excellence. Award categories include: Organizational Excellence, Excellence, Innovation & Wellness; Healthy Workplace; and Mental Health at Work. Excellence Canada's mission is to help organizations in all sectors become the best-in-class by implementing standards of excellence. Excellence Canada is a not-for-profit organization that certifies and recognizes organizations that embody these attributes: they are customer-focused, competitive, financially and environmentally sustainable, are good corporate citizens, actively pursue strategies to improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of their employees, and they create a healthy workplace culture that attracts and retains the best people. The Canada Awards for Excellence is an annual awards program that recognizes outstanding achievements by organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors coast-to-coast across Canada. Shirlee Sharkey, Chair of Excellence Canada, said, "On behalf of the Board of Directors of Excellence Canada, I am very pleased to present the Canada Awards for Excellence to this year's award recipients. I would like to extend congratulations to all of the leading private, public and not-for-profit organizations that have met the rigorous standards and requirements through the Canada Awards for Excellence program. You are all truly role-models of excellence." Allan Ebedes, President and CEO of Excellence Canada, remarked, "Over the past 38 years we have recognized more than 675 outstanding organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors that have met the highest standards for quality, excellence, innovation, and healthy workplaces. This year we are delighted to be presenting another Canada Awards for Excellence to 18 excellent organizations. We are also honoured to be presenting the Board of Governors' Special Recognition of Achievement Awards to three distinguished Canadians: Mary Deacon, C.M., Chair, Bell Let's Talk; Mitch Fairrais, Founding Board Member, Socks 4 Souls Canada; and Phyllis Webstad, Founder and Ambassador, Orange Shirt Society." The awards will be presented at the 2022 Performance Excellence Summit and Canada Awards for Excellence on Monday, November 7th. For complete event details and registration, please visit www.excellencesummit.ca A FULL LIST OF THE AWARD RECIPIENTS FOLLOWS Recipients of the 38th Canada Awards for Excellence, 2022 EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION AND WELLNESS This award is based on Excellence Canada's Excellence, Innovation and Wellness Standard which was developed by Excellence Canada in association with its partners and professionals from across Canada. Order of Excellence Recipient Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia Gold Award Recipient MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre (C2MI) Bromont, Quebec Silver Award Recipient Gestisoft Inc. Montreal, Quebec Bronze Award Recipient Equipe Logan Entrepreneur Paysagiste Prevost, Quebec HEALTHY WORKPLACE The Excellence Canada Healthy Workplace Standard was developed in partnership with Health Canada and in association with professionals from the health and wellness sectors. Platinum Recipient Workplace Safety North North Bay, Ontario Gold Award Recipients Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) Toronto, Ontario TELUS Communications Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia Wajax Corporation Mississauga, Ontario MENTAL HEALTH AT WORK AWARD This award is based on Excellence Canada's - Mental Health at Work framework. The Mental Health at Work framework was developed by Excellence Canada in association with mental health and work safety professionals from across Canada, and the requirements incorporate principles and practices as outlined in the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Order of Excellence Award Recipient Bell Canada Verdun , Quebec Gold Award Recipients Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) Toronto, Ontario Liquor Control Board of Ontario Toronto, Ontario TELUS Communications Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) Toronto, Ontario The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia Wajax Corporation Mississauga, Ontario Silver Award Recipients Air Canada Montreal, Quebec Montreal, Quebec University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario Certificate of Merit Essentials Recipient Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care Penetanguishene, Ontario ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD This award is based on Excellence Canada's Organizational Excellence Standard which was developed by Excellence Canada in association with its partners and professionals from across Canada. It is a robust yet flexible framework that uses a data-driven assessment to find gaps and opportunities for continual improvement in all private and public sector organizations, businesses, and institutions. Through Organizational Excellence Standard implementation and certification, organizations will adopt best practices for sustained excellence and peak performance. Gold Award Recipients Enterprise Technology Strategy, Government Information Technology Ontario (GovTechON), Ministry of Public & Business Service Delivery Toronto, Ontario The Corporation of The Town of Aurora Aurora, Ontario Certificate of Merit Essentials Recipient A Plus Creative Inc. York, Ontario RECOGNITION OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD From time-to-time, the Excellence Canada Board of Governors recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to Canadian society and/or the global human condition. Past Award recipients have included Dr. David Suzuki, former Prime Minister The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Lt.-General The Honourable Romeo A. Dallaire, The Honourable Flora MacDonald, Sir Richard Branson, Mr. Rick Hansen, Ms. Margaret Trudeau, Rick Mercer, Bianca Andreescu and Mr. Chris Hadfield. This year, in keeping with the Summit theme "Moving Forward with Excellence", the Board of Governors is presenting the Special Recognition of Achievement Award to: Mary Deacon , C.M., Chair, Bell Let's Talk, in recognition of lifelong commitment to making a difference in mental health, and leadership of Bell Let's Talk. , C.M., Chair, Talk, in recognition of lifelong commitment to making a difference in mental health, and leadership of Bell Let's Talk. Mitch Fairrais , Founder Board Member, Socks 4 Souls Canada, in recognition of the charitable work creating and directing the Socks 4 Souls initiative. , Founder Board Member, Socks 4 Souls Canada, in recognition of the charitable work creating and directing the Socks 4 Souls initiative. Phyllis Webstad , Founder and Ambassador, Orange Shirt Society, in recognition of outstanding initiative in the creation of Orange Shirt Day to remember the tragedy of the residential schools and for the pursuit of truth and reconciliation for the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. PROUD SPONSORS OF CANADIAN EXCELLENCE Excellence Canada gratefully acknowledges the support of the following organizations that have helped make this year's events possible. Advocate Sponsor Bell Networking & Cocktail Reception Sponsor CEO Global Network Breakfast Sponsor SE Health Supporter Sponsors Alectra Inc. Carleton University CBC Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) Howatt Strategic HR Consulting Inc. Optimity Health & Rewards Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) The Corporation of the City of Markham The Inclusion Project The Regional Municipality of Durham The Regional Municipality of York Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care Media Sponsors Globe and Mail Latin Life News Vidium Media Production In-Kind Sponsors Avondale Flowers & Gifts Mayhew SOURCE Excellence Canada For further information: Allan Ebedes, President and CEO, Excellence Canada, Tel: 416-251-7600, ext. 230 Phase II of Khalistan Referendum Voting Happening on November 6 MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - Despite severe opposition and pressure from the Indian government, organizers are preparing for the next round of voting in the Khalistan Referendum which seeks secession of Punjab from India. The secessionist referendum scheduled to be held on November 6th in Mississauga, Ontario is the second in the series with first voting held on September 18th in Brampton, Ontario in which over 110,000 Canadian Sikhs participated to vote on the question: "Should India governed Punjab be an Independent Country?" Voting in the global referendum started on October 31, 2021, in London, UK and so far in addition to more than a dozen cities around the UK, voting has also been held in Geneva, Switzerland and in eight locations across Italy. To date, an estimated 450,000 diaspora Sikhs have voted in the referendum. Sikhs living outside India makeup almost 25% of the total Sikh population around the world, giving unusual importance to the voice and opinion of diaspora in Sikh affairs. November 6th Voting will take place at Paul Coffey Arena 3430 Derry Road East, Mississauga, Ontario 9:00 am 5:00 pm "This referendum is about showing support and solidarity for a separate country called Khalistan that would respect the rights and sovereignty of Sikhs and others living in Punjab" says Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a human rights lawyer and General Counsel of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) the NGO which launched the Referendum initiative. The global voting in the Khalistan Referendum is being overseen and supervised by an independent panel of experts on democracy, secession and referendums called The Punjab Referendum Commission (PRC). PRC is comprised of five experts and is headed by M. Dane Waters, who heads the Initiative and Referendums Institute at the University of Southern California. Key Issues: In India, with 2% of the overall population, Sikhs are a religious minority, while in the region of Punjab under Indian control, Sikhs form the single largest community being 56% of the Punjab population. Since 1947, under Indian control, Sikhs have been persecuted and suppressed for their religious identity and political opinions. Most noted persecution of Sikhs under India's rule since 1947 consists of: Suppression of separate religious identity by labelling Sikhs as "Hindus" in Explanation II to Article 25 of the Constitution of India Military attack, invasion, desecration, and massacre at the holiest Sikh shrine The Golden Temple in June 1984 , killing more than 10,000 pilgrims including women and children , killing more than 10,000 pilgrims including women and children November 1984 anti-Sikh genocidal violence across India killing more than 30,000 Sikhs anti-Sikh genocidal violence across killing more than 30,000 Sikhs Decade long extra judicial killing of Sikhs in 1980s and 1990s by Indian security forces in the name of counter insurgency to crush the movement for Khalistan Unresolved economic issues such as plundering of river waters of Punjab and providing it to other States of India , without compensation to Punjab, thus forcing extreme economic hardship upon 80,000 Sikh farmers The Indian Government has also banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) for calling for the secessionist Khalistan Referendum. There has been detention, torture, and prosecution of several hundred Sikhs for merely possessing Khalistan Referendum material as well as filing sedition charges against them and attempting to extradite Mr. Pannun and other foreign based Khalistan activists. Dr. Bakhsish Singh Sandhu, President Council of Khalistan stated, "ever since Sikhs have been demanding the right of self-determination, the government of India has been criminalizing the political opinion of Sikhs and labelling the peaceful propagation of political opinion as crime, militancy, insurgency and terrorism". SOURCE Sikhs for Justice For further information: Media Contact: E: [email protected] WindShare Cooperative to partner with Rankin Integrated Energy to operate the wind turbine TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc. announced today the signing of an agreement to transfer its 55.1 per cent share in the wind turbine at Exhibition Place to WindShare Cooperative a qualified cleantech community operator and innovative wind power cooperative. Upon completing the transfer, WindShare Cooperative will create a joint partnership with Rankin Integrated Energy to secure the future of the wind turbine and to breathe new life into the project as part of a broader emphasis on renewable energy in the Greater Toronto Area. The agreement also includes a one-year transition period with Toronto Hydro to help ensure the wind turbine operation is successful. As part of its commitment to community clean energy, Toronto Hydro is pleased to have been a partner in this turbine project over the past two decades, helping to incubate and develop the project. With the turbine now at full operation, Toronto Hydro is proud to pass the reins to a community cleantech operator to continue on with the turbine project. Toronto Hydro looks forward to continuing to advance climate action and help stimulate community clean energy through its Climate Action Plan. QUICK FACTS: The Exhibition Place wind turbine was erected on December 18, 2002 to promote renewable energy at a time when it was not commonplace to promote renewable energy at a time when it was not commonplace The Exhibition Place wind turbine was the first community-owned wind power project in Ontario and stands at 91-metres (299 feet) tall and stands at 91-metres (299 feet) tall The main shaft of the tower is made of three steel sections, which are stacked on top of each other, and reach 65-metres (213 feet) The wind turbine is topped with a nacelle, a steel segment sheathed in fiberglass, where the turbine blades attach The wind turbine will continue to help power the Exhibition Place grid QUOTES "Toronto Hydro is proud to have played a role in bringing renewable energy to the forefront in the city of Toronto. We look forward to continuing our commitment to advancing climate action through our Climate Action Plan." - Daniel McNeil, Spokesperson, Toronto Hydro "Our cooperative started with an idea, persevered to make it real, and built the most visible renewable energy project in the country. We are grateful to have the opportunity to continue operating this sustainability icon and to inspire local champions in Toronto and across Canada to pursue their visions for a sustainable energy future." - Hassan Shahriar, President, WindShare Cooperative "We are looking forward to working with WindShare to update and enhance this project so that it can help encourage the next phase of our progress towards net zero in the same way that this turbine served as an inspiration and ambassador for the wind industry over the past two decades." - Jordan Beekhuis, Director of Sustainable Development, Rankin Integrated Energy Inc. ABOUT TORONTO HYDRO The Corporation is a holding company which wholly owns two subsidiaries: Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited (THESL) distributes electricity; and Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc. provides streetlighting and expressway lighting services in the city of Toronto The principal business of the Corporation and its subsidiaries is the distribution of electricity by THESL, which owns and operates the electricity distribution system for Canada's largest city. Recognized as a Sustainable Electricity Leader by Electricity Canada, it has approximately 788,000 customers located in the city of Toronto and distributes approximately 18 per cent of the electricity consumed in Ontario. ABOUT WINDSHARE COOPERATIVE WindShare is Canada's first renewable energy cooperative. Its mission is to facilitate leadership and action in community-driven renewable power projects and help develop them with local champions. Its approach is to develop local projects that close the loop in economic prosperity, energy needs and environmental sustainability for its host communities. ABOUT RANKIN INTEGRATED ENERGY The Rankin Group of companies are family owned and have been involved in the renewable energy industry since 2002 when Rankin Construction Inc. built the foundations for the first multi-unit wind farm in Ontario, Huron Winds. Since then, these companies have contributed to over 600 megawatts of new renewable power projects in this province, serving in various roles, including contractor, developer, manufacturer and owner operator for wind, water and solar power projects. SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS Twitter: twitter.com/torontohydro Facebook: facebook.com/torontohydro YouTube: youtube.com/torontohydro Instagram: instagram.com/torontohydro LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/toronto-hydro SOURCE Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc. For further information: Daniel McNeil, Media and Public Relations, Toronto Hydro, 416-903-6845, [email protected] About This Page This "Under Construction" page is an automatically generated placeholder Web page for a domain that is not yet attached to an active Web site. This page replaces the "Not Found" error pages and notifies visitors that a Web site is coming soon. How Do I Replace This Page? Publishing your Web site, updating the name servers, or forwarding to another domain name will automatically replace this default page. If you do not have an existing Web site hosting package or web forwarding, further information to get your Web site online can be found by clicking the following links. If your Web site is not ready to be published and you would like to replace this page, you may do so by configuring your under construction page. Edwin Clark, convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), says the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should come up with measures to mitigate... Edwin Clark, convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), says the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should come up with measures to mitigate naira depreciation while redesigning the currency notes. The CBN recently announced the plan to redesign the naira to control money supply and aid security agencies in tackling illicit financial flow. The apex bank aims to redesign the N200, N500 and N1000 notes with circulation expected to begin mid-December. Speaking in an interview with NAN, Clark urged Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN, to put short-term plans in place to curb the negative effects on the naira during the redesigning process. He said the rise in the exchange rate is one of the likely effects. At the start of trading on Thursday, the naira traded between N800 and N810 per dollar at the parallel market in parts of the country. On the redesigning of the naira, I am not a financial expert to say whether the decision was right or wrong but reports have it that the exchange rate further increased the moment the announcement was made, Clark said. The advice I will give on this is that the CBN governor and other relevant stakeholders should come up with a short-term measure that will mitigate the effect of this development. Something urgent has to be done to prevent the naira from falling beyond what it is today. As we speak today, the rising cost of food is worrisome and something has to be done to stabilise the situation. Speaking on brain drain, Clark expressed concern over reports on the growing number of Nigerians, especially youths, relocating to other countries. The Ijaw leader said the trend is resulting in increased brain drain, describing it as very bad. Clark, therefore, urged the government to put necessary measures in place to create a conducive environment to encourage youths to work in Nigeria and contribute to the countrys growth. He also asked the government to do more to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. A former governorship candidate in Kogi State, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has accused Governor Yahaya Bello of being responsible for the Owo Ch... A former governorship candidate in Kogi State, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has accused Governor Yahaya Bello of being responsible for the Owo Church massacre and the Kuje Prison break. Natasha alleged the Governor went around different prisons in the country releasing hardened criminals, especially those of them from Ebira. She claimed one of such prisoners is known as Safiyu, who she alleged the governor deployed to carry out the Kuje Prison break and Owo massacre. Appearing on Arise Televisions Morning Show on Friday, Akpoti, who is the senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for Kogi Central, said, I was in California because I left a day after my primary election and I only returned to Nigeria on the 20th of August. And at the time of these attacks [Kuje prison Owo], Safiyu was with Yahaya Bello. He was in the Government House every day. He was living in the house of the Chief of Staff. So if anybody should be held responsible for the Owo massacre and Kuje Prison break it should be Yahaya Bello that should have questions to answer in conjunction with the chief of staff himself because they released him from prison for God knows what. I even got to know that Chaffeu was on death row. I happened to know he was a hardened criminal on death row but Bello freed him just before the 2019 election. Why he was freed and the nature of his freedom is left for Yahaya Bello to explain. On how a governor could release a prisoner in a federal prison, Akpoti said, Thats one thing with Yahaya Bello. He knows how to get the ills done using the network. Im actually surprised at how he could have such powers. He has also gone around the prisons in the country releasing hardened Ebira prisoners. People from our own tribe. This is why we have such a high rate of criminality in Nigeria. I got to know that a few months ago, the governor called on Safyu again to carry out a series of attacks, she alleged. Leaders of the South East geopolitical zone under the aegis of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, on Friday, declared their support for the p... Leaders of the South East geopolitical zone under the aegis of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, on Friday, declared their support for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, for the 2023 election. They also called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to release the leader of the Independent People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, in the interest of peace in Nigeria and the South East. While describing Obi as the true unifier, the leaders of IECF, also known as Ime-Obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said their decision to back the former governor of Anambra State was devoid of tribal sentiment. The chairman of IECF and former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, stated these in an interview with journalists in Abuja. According to him, Obis presidency would put an end to separatist agitations by different groups in the country, especially that of IPOB. Ezeife said, We, before now, agreed in the Southern and Middle Belt Forum to call all the candidates from the South-East, interview them and adopt one person. But that has been overtaken by events. If you look at the candidates from A to Z, you find out that there is one from the South-East who is everybodys candidate. He is the true unifier in Nigeria because he is someone who will banish poverty, banish insecurity, banish all the negatives associated with Nigeria. That person is Peter Obi and he is the person whom all of us will support. According to him, the South-East elders were the ones who prevailed on Obi to leave the Peoples Democratic Party in May. If you look at the records, youll find out that the elders in Abuja really worked hard to get him out as a candidate. We forced him to get out of the PDP so that he can be a candidate for president. So the question of even adopting him doesnt arise as he is our trusted, God anointed candidate to remake and recreate Nigeria. He will make everybody happy. Obi will make Fulani belong to Nigeria and have a say. He will ensure Yoruba dont want to go and will also make Igbo and all groups stay in Nigeria and have the country restructured to work, he stated. Speaking on the ordeals of Nnamdi Kanu, the elders in a statement by Ezeife and Secretary of IECF, Prof. Charles Nwekeaku, expressed disappointment over the decision of the Federal Government to abide by the Court of Appeal judgement which freed the IPOB leader. The IECF said the move by the goverment would have far-reaching consequences on peace and security challenges in the South-East zone of the country. The organization said, The Federal Government appeal against the Court of Appeal three-man unanimous judgement, which discharged Mazi Nnamdi Kalu, is capable of aggravating the security challenges and peace process initiatives in the South East, preventing the conduct of 2023 general elections in the zone, as well as its ripple effects on the peace, unity, stability and continued corporate existence of Nigeria. More worrisome is the media reports that the courageous and patriotic three member Appeal Court Panel that gave the laudable and landmark judgement of discharging Nnamdi Kalu was all transferred outside the FCT, Abuja within four days of delivery the judgement, which quashed the remaining seven of the original 15 count-charges of the Federal Government against him. Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court, Abuja had earlier quashed and discharged him of 8 of the 15 terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government. The October 13 Federal Appeal Court unanimous ruling on Nnamdi Kalu, which quashed all the remaining seven count charges against him was not only historic, courageous and Patriotic, but also a naked confirmation that the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man, especially in Nigerias current dispensation where the executive arm of government is selective and rascal on what laws to obey and the ones to disobey. We salute the courage and patriotism of this rare breed of justices that delivered an objective, popular and historic judgement On Kanu. According to them, as responsible Igbo Elders, who believe in the peace, unity, stability and corporate existence of Nigeria, we appeal to the Federal Government to withdraw its appeal against the unanimous ruling of the three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, and release our son, Kanu as directed by the Court. The elders observed that even if the Federal Government should appeal against the unanimous ruling of the Court of Appeal, the government should first obey the ruling of its own court as was the case with the recent Federal Industrial Court ruling against the industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. The IECF said, The Federal Government insisted that ASUU must obey the courts first before its appeal case would be heard, and the latter [ASUU] has complied. The Federal Government should obey the ruling of the Court of Appeal and release Kanu for the say, of equity, justice and fairness. Nigerians and the international community are living witnesses to series of efforts and visits of the Igbo leaders, including the high level Ohaneze worldwide delegation led by 94-year-old First Republic Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, which had appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to explore political solution and release Nnamdi Kalu to our elders. Chief Amaechi had pleaded that Mr President should release Mr Kanu to him as a special favour and birth day gift to him as an elder statesman. Mr President refused and insisted that the judiciary should be allowed to handle the matter. The Appeal Court not only quashed the terrorism charges against Nnamdi Kalu, but also ruled that the Federal Government breached all known local and International laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria, thereby making terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful. We still appeal to Mr. President to rescind Government appeal to the Supreme Court and release Nnamdi Kalu in honour of the memory of late Chief Amaechi, who just passed on without witnessing the release of Mr Kanu. We also appeal to ndi Igbo, both home and in Diaspora, to remain calm and avoid any actions that would aggravate the already tensed security challenges in the South East. We call on the international community, European Union, USA, China, Russia, United Kingdom, and other progressive and democratic organisations and individuals to prevail on the Federal Government to obey the court judgement, and release Nnamdi Kanu, whose health conditions, we learnt, have deteriorated terribly. Following the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to redesign some Naira notes, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFC... Following the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to redesign some Naira notes, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said it is monitoring at least three serving State governors who hoarded billions of Naira in their houses. The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who made the revelation in an interview with Daily Trust on Thursday, said the governors are planning to pay salary through cash. The EFCC Chairman said in the interview that the commissions raid on Bureau De Change operators would be sustained until the old Naira notes fade away. He urged Nigerians to support the system, for the benefit of all, stressing that any cash transaction beyond five million Naira is a crime. Already, some State governors that have some of this cash stashed in various houses and the rest are now trying to pay salaries in cash in their State. I dont know how they want to achieve that but we have to stop them from doing that. Well, we are working, they have not paid the salaries in cash yet but it is a very serious thing, he said. According to Bawa, the move by the governors to launder stashed money through cash payment of salaries, is against section 2 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act. When quizzed on whether the commission would summon the said governors, Bawa said they were closely monitoring them. The law is very clear regarding cash transactions. Anybody that is to consummate any cash transaction as an individual, if it is not through a financial institution, must not be above N5m and if it is above that it is criminal for you to engage in such transaction. And for corporate entities, it is N10m. Yes, I agree the salaries are not up to that but why are you all of a sudden, and all along you have been paying people salaries through their bank accounts and now you want to pay them in cash, what are you trying to do? They will come under a lot of guises, they are trying to do verification of officers, that is what we have gotten, Bawa added. A Lagos-based music producer, Casey Akajiaku, aka Qasebeatz, has demanded a refund of the sum of N150,000, allegedly extorted from him by ... A Lagos-based music producer, Casey Akajiaku, aka Qasebeatz, has demanded a refund of the sum of N150,000, allegedly extorted from him by some policemen attached to the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department Annex, Alagbon, Ikoyi. Akajiaku, who spoke to newsmen on Thursday, demanded the arrest and prosecution of the cops. This is not the first time this is happening to me, it happened once in 2020. I want a refund of my money. I demand justice, he added. The producer had taken to his Twitter page @qasebeatz, on Wednesday, to narrate his encounter with the policemen. He stated that the incident happened while he was on his way home after dropping his friends at a hotel. Akajiaku said, On the 29th October 2022, I went for a concert at Lekki Phase One. The concert ended about 10:30 pm and l had to drop off some friends at the hotel then headed home. On my way home, on Admiralty Way, I was stopped by the police. They asked to search me and I complied, even though I was in a hurry to get home before it was 12am. The officer was being aggressive with his words. And I asked him to not talk to me in that manner and he took it for a challenge. The artiste noted that the policemen called him a Yahoo boy (Internet fraudster) and demanded he split his account balance with them. He wrote, Other police officers arrived in two cars, charging towards me, saying I was challenging a police officer. I disagreed then he began insulting me and reached for my phone immediately and asked me to open it, instructed four armed officers to get into my car and asked me to follow. I asked for what? They accused me of fraud calling me a yahoo boy with no evidence to justify their accusations. They finally got me to the police station in Ikoyi and sent me behind the desk and threatened to lock me up. They asked me to give them half of what was in my account. In their own words, 50-50. I told them I needed the money and cannot give it. Im a music producer and I made this money legit. They said I was playing with my life so they put me back in the car. One of the officers later said this boy has nothing on him but lets just take the money and let him go. So, he requested 200K and I told him it was my rent money so he later settled for 150,000. Prior to this, I had hidden my ATM cards under the carpet and told him I have no ATM cards. Akajiaku later told newsmen that some of the officers were in mufti, while others wore uniform and were armed. He added that the money requested by the officers was transferred into the account of a third party. He said, I couldnt get any of their names because some of them were not on uniform. The ones who were uniformed, were armed. Immediately I transferred the money to them, they gave me my car key and phone. They asked me to transfer the money to someone else. One of them had called someone and asked for the account details. When he sent it, they called the person again for confirmation before they let me go. Our source saw bank alerts and receipts of the transaction made between the victim and the officers. The N150,000 was transferred to one Aliyu Maryam Mayeloye. Calls and text messages to the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, were not replied to as of the time of filing this report. The United Kingdom has issued a warning to its citizens on Friday that terrorists are planning to attack the United States. The UK i... The United Kingdom has issued a warning to its citizens on Friday that terrorists are planning to attack the United States. The UK in a travel advisory said the terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the USA. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners, crowded areas, and transportation networks. You should monitor media reports and be vigilant at all times. This is coming barely two weeks after the UK and the US also warned of possible terrorists attack in Nigeria. Giving nature of the attack, the UK said on its website that The main threat comes from individuals who may have been inspired by terrorist ideology to carry out so-called lone actor attacks targeting public events or places. Attacks could take place with little or no notice. In connection to the alert, the UK government said the US might deploy security agents in public places forestall possible attack. The US Department of Homeland Security provides public information about credible threats. Expect an increased presence of law enforcement and tight security at public places and events. This may include a heavy police presence, additional restrictions and searches on bags, and the use of screening technologies. Theres a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals, from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. You should be vigilant at this time, it added. Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says he has increased the number of newly-appointed special assistants from 100,000 to 200,000. Acc... Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says he has increased the number of newly-appointed special assistants from 100,000 to 200,000. According to a statement by Kelvin Ebiri, special assistant on media to the governor, Wike said this on Friday while inaugurating the second batch of special assistants from Rivers east senatorial district at Omagwa, Ikwerre LGA. He said the increase followed requests he received from Rivers people asking to be considered. He also said political leaders across LGAs should support in selecting qualified citizens for various positions. As I speak to you, my mail box almost crashed. People are sending text messages saying why are you leaving us alone? The job is too much; this number cannot do the work, he said. Therefore, a lot of Rivers people are volunteering to be part of this work. And I can announce to you today, we have increased the number from 100,000 to 200,000. The governor said the appointments will help the people with assessment of government and policies, whether positive or negative, and transmit same as feedback to his office through the constituency and ward liaison officers. The governor said his administration will not relent in discharging its duties in the remaining months of its tenure, even though a lot has already been achieved. It is me who is appointing. It is me that wears the shoes that knows where it pinches. It is not you outside because you are not part of government. I know what it takes and I know that these people will help me. Now that I am finishing, I want to finish very well, he said. He added that the appointees are among the nearly six million people selected to serve in his administration, and urged them to be committed to their jobs. M2P Fintech rolls out 'Moonlight with Us' 29 Nov 2022 | 12:53 PM Chennai, Nov 29 (UNI) M2P Fintech announced the launch of 'Moonlight with Us' initiative, a first-of-its-kind program that provides employment opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs, professional athletes, artists who are pursuing their interest to take up a role with M2P. see more.. LML to roll out network of 100 dealers pan India by FY 24-25 29 Nov 2022 | 12:42 PM New Delhi, Nov 29 (UNI) LML has set a target of rolling out network of 100 dealers across India by financial year 2024-25. see more.. TMB to market Life, Gen Insurance products 29 Nov 2022 | 12:23 PM Chennai, Nov 29 (UNI) Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited (TMB), one of the premier scheduled commercial banks, today announced the launch of marketing Life Insurance Products and General Insurance products to offer customer-centric choices in every product. see more.. Sund Home Fin hikes interest rates of FDs 29 Nov 2022 | 11:19 AM Chennai, Nov 29 (UNI) Sundaram Home Finance today announced increase in the interest rates on Fixed Deposits. see more.. Locally reported news and sports Stay Current with What's Happening Get the most of NNY360, register today! By providing your email address, you consent to receive emails and special offers from NNY360.com Thank you for using NNY360! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Over the past six weeks, as the Nov. 8 midterms dominated political news coverage (and voter interest), the effort to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell went into hibernation. Search LaToya Cantrell recall online and youll get a bevy of news stories from mid-to-late September, but almost nothing since then. Was that a deliberate strategy on the part of recall organizers a calm before the storm or a sign that the drive to remove Cantrell from office has already peaked? Well know pretty soon. If the former is the case, look for a big announcement between this Wednesday (Nov. 9) and the start of Thanksgiving week. On the other hand, if the NoLaToya crowd remains silent after Nov. 8, its safe bet theyre already out of gas and Heronner can enjoy an early Christmas. Why is it so important for the recall to make such a big splash now, when they have until Feb. 22 to garner the 53,000-plus signatures they need? Because timing is just as important as money and messaging in politics. Strategically, it made sense for recall promoters to keep their political powder dry by not competing for voters attention amid the chaotic din of the midterms cross-messaging. Even in Louisiana, where federal elections are typically a foregone conclusion, voters have been inundated with breathless political ads for weeks. Things will get very quiet, however, after Tuesday. Chances are there wont even be any runoffs on Dec. 10, though the ballot will have a few proposed state constitutional amendments. If the recall is going anywhere, its promoters will have to make some news during the brief lull between Tuesday and Thanksgiving Week (which starts the weekend before, on Nov. 19) a span of only 11 days. After that, the holidays begin. Nobody thinks about politics during the holidays. Momentum is critical, too. The Recallers got 10,000 signatures quickly, but theres no way they can reach their target of more than 53,000 by setting up shop outside supermarkets or even outside sold-out Saints games. If theyre to succeed, they need to get the requisite number of signatures well before Christmas or by early January at the latest. Why? Again, its about timing. State law requires recall referenda to be held on regularly scheduled election dates, with enough lead time to get signatures verified and ballots printed. If the Recallers get their signatures by early December, the referendum on Cantrell would be on March 25. If they get the signatures by early January, it would be on April 29 the first weekend of Jazz Fest (not a great time for an election). But, if they take till late January or February to turn in their petitions, the referendum wont happen until Oct. 14, 2023 the same day as the primary for governor, Legislature and many other offices. Thats a long way off, and a lot can happen in the next 11 months. Stay tuned. Well know soon if the recall is for real or if its already a bust. From left, Bill Balhoff with BRAF, Todd Graves with Raising Cane's, and Mukul Verma with BRAF with the $25,000 check. Raising Cane's marks its 25th anniversary with a big to-do at the chain's original location located at 3313 Highland Road Wednesday August 25, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. Todd Graves announced plans to donate $25 million to help communities in which the company operates. The World Customs Organization (WCO) in partnership with the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) held the first regional consultation under the framework of the EU-WCO Rules of Origin Africa Programme in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire from 24 to 28 October 2022 with the participation of Origin experts from Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. The European Union delegations to Cote dIvoire and to Ghana, and the WCO Regional Offices for Capacity Building (ROCB) for West and Central Africa took part in the consultation and contributed to the different sessions. The objective of the consultation was to exchange views on the current status of applicable preferential rules of origin and trade agreements in the region, discuss challenges in the implementation of rules of origin (RoO) in the ECOWAS region, articulate capacity building needs, and to consider envisaged regional and national initiatives focusing on RoO. The consultation also included a seminar on self-certification and a session on advance rulings. Ms. Aissata KOFFI YAMEOGO, Program Officer Rules of Origin and Management of Preferential Treatment of ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Stephan BROSSARD, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Team Leader at the EU delegation to Cote dIvoire, Mr. Colonel AWEDE Hugues, Director of Regulation and Litigation at the Cote d'Ivoire Directorate General of Customs, Mr. Abdel Kader SANGHO, Director of WCO WCA ROCB opened the consultation meeting, stressing the importance of streamlined, predictable, and transparent RoO processes and capacity building for all relevant stakeholders for efficient trade facilitation and regional integration. The discussions and active participation of all participants allowed them to have an overview of the state of play and to shed the light on the main challenges and needs at regional and national levels. The consultation was also an occasion for the exchange of experiences and lessons learned from different countries, as well as information sharing on the initiatives led by the European Union in the region. The consultation concluded with recommendations for the adaptation of capacity building and awareness raising activities, agreement on key activities with the ECOWAS Commission to streamline RoO application and implementation of e-certificate and self-certification, and the need to develop and ECOWAS Practical Guide on RoO. The outcomes of this consultation will feed into the work plan of the EU-WCO RoO Africa programme and steer the partnership and support for the ECOWAS Commission and its members. The EU-WCO Rules of Origin Africa Programme will conduct further consultations with other Regional Economic Communities (RECs) with the aim to provide meaningful and targeted capacity building and technical assistance in the implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement, EPAs, and other FTAs as well as exploring other opportunities for streamlining processes in Africa. For further information please contact EU-WCORoOAfrica.Program@wcoomd.org From October 24 to 28, 2022, in cooperation with the Anti-Corruption & Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme, the Mozambique Revenue Authority (AT) organized a series of meetings with government border management agencies, Customs brokers associations, various Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and shipping companies, to jointly find solutions to corruption in the country. This series of workshops contributed to the fulfilment of the ATs objectives under the A-CIP Programme, in particular to improve mutual trust and cooperation between the private sector and Customs. Transparency was identified as critical to fostering cooperation, cohesion and synergy with all stakeholders. The results of the Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS) conducted in Mozambique in 2020 were extensively discussed to identify needs and room for improvement. Successful meetings were held between customs officials and the different stakeholder groups, focusing on the ten key factors of the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration. Participants played an active role and shared their views on critical issues. For each key factor, the meetings identified the next steps for enhancing the partnership to continue fighting corruption together and promoting integrity. To do so, a multi-disciplinary working group, supported by experts from the A-CIP Programme, will be tasked to establish a work plan to address the identified essential points. The WCO A-CIP Programme currently supports more than 20 countries in five WCO regions, with funding from Norad and Canada. For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org. IAEA finds no sign of undeclared nuclear activities in Ukraine Xinhua) 10:56, November 04, 2022 KIEV, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday it did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at three locations it had inspected in Ukraine. "Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations," IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said, according to a statement on the IAEA website. A team of IAEA inspectors also collected environmental samples for analysis at the inspected locations and soon will report on their results, Grossi said. The IAEA sent its experts to Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian government after Russia made allegations about activities related to the possible production of "dirty bombs" in certain locations in Ukraine. The IAEA team inspected the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kiev, as well as two facilities in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region - the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant, and Production Association Pivdenny Machine-Building Plant. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) The 20th Meeting of the Heads of Asia/Pacific WCO Regional Training Centers (RTCs) was held at the Thai Customs Academy in Bangkok, Thailand as RTC Thailand, on 2-3 November 2022 in a hybrid manner. It was organized by the Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P). The meeting was opened with welcome remarks by Mrs. Nunthita Sirikup, Deputy Director General of the Thai Customs Department. The WCO Director of Capacity Building, Dr. Taeil Kang, made opening remarks and presented VR Training Equipment to Thailand Customs. The Heads of the 10 RTCs in the region, namely RTC China, RTC Fiji, RTC Hong Kong China, RTC India, RTC Indonesia, RTC Iran, RTC Japan, RTC Korea, RTC Malaysia and RTC Thailand, representatives from the WCO Secretariat, the Asia/Pacific Vice-Chairs Office and the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO A/P) participated in the meeting. RTC Thailand organized a handover ceremony with respect to the recently delivered and installed Virtual Reality Training (VRT) set of equipment. Dr. Kang, as the initiator of the project himself, delivered a speech during this ceremony regarding the WCOs and his vision on the utilization of new technologies and on the modernization of building Customs capacities. He also highlighted that with the generous financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Korea, who made an investment of almost one million euros, thirty-two WCO Regional entities will receive the same VRT kiosk. It is noteworthy that RTC Thailand was the first beneficiary to receive it. Furthermore, a dedicated team assisted the meeting participants to experience the virtual reality cargo inspection training. The Heads of RTCs exchanged views on how to enhance Customs capacities through strengthened professionalism and human resource networks to ultimately contribute to Customs modernization efforts in the region. The WCO provided recent updates on its policy and initiatives, especially the efforts to correctly assess the impact of capacity building. Subsequently, the RILO A/P presented their activities and strengthened the necessity of cooperating with each RTC. The ROCB A/P also provided a report on the capacity building activities delivered in 2021-22. All the RTCs presented their recent initiatives to enhance Customs professionalism and had an opportunity to learn from each other on training strategies and activities of the respective RTCs. The delegates profoundly discussed the challenges and good practices of Customs training under COVID-19. Each delegate presented the lessons learnt during the pandemic and the way forward for future capacity building activities. For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org. HAMMOND Franciscan Health now plans to cease inpatient care and emergency room services at Franciscan Health Hammond, effectively closing the downtown Hammond hospital, which has served north Lake County and neighboring communities in Illinois for more than 120 years. It will continue to maintain primary care and other medical services at the site, but hospitals are typically distinguished from clinics and other medical facilities by being able to take in patients overnight for inpatient care and by having emergency rooms that offer urgent, life-saving treatment. The Mishawaka-based nonprofit hospital chain plans instead to direct patients to its hospitals more than six miles south in Munster and Dyer. In 2021, Franciscan Health announced that the Franciscan Alliance Board of Trustees approved a $30 million investment in the 100-year-old Hammond campus to renovate some buildings, and $15 million to demolish buildings that no longer have a useful life," Franciscan Health Hammond, Dyer and Munster Interim President and CEO Barbara Anderson said in a statement issued Thursday. "The scaled down, 10-bed inpatient unit and Emergency Department would continue to serve the needs of the Hammond community." But Franciscan is now changing course, planning to stop treating patients in downtown Hammond. In the last 15 months, we have seen inpatient volume at Franciscan Health Hammond drop to an average of 2.5 patients per day. Of the 54 patients who present to the emergency room each day, more than 90% would be better served in a lower-cost setting, such as an urgent care or primary care clinic," she said. "It is difficult to maintain operational efficiency at these volumes. Had we been able to predict the dramatic decrease in volumes, we would have planned differently at the outset. As a result, Franciscan Health is consolidating its hospital-based services in Munster and Dyer and continuing to offer ambulatory services in Hammond." Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Franciscan had been disinvesting in downtown Hammond for years and directing patients elsewhere, then using the decline in traffic as an excuse to further disinvest. "They are not acting like a nonprofit. This is inconsistent with their stated mission," he said. "This is a perfect example of what's wrong with health care in America. You have two health care systems: one for the poor and one for the wealthy. They want to move away from Hammond to places like Crown Point." McDermott said he believes Franciscan's decision to disinvest would result in the deaths of patients who would have to travel farther for emergency services. "Somebody in an ambulance with a heart attack is going to have to go an extra five or 10 minutes," he said. "We're going to lose patients. It's going to happen numerous times." The 226-bed hospital at 5454 Hohman Ave. dates back to 1898. It was long named after St. Margaret, a patron saint of the poor. The 800,000-square-foot-hospital stands nine stories high, was affiliated with more than 700 physicians practicing more than 50 specialties and was long one of the anchors of downtown Hammond. This announcement has left Lake Countys largest city without a hospital for its 80,000 residents and it underscores the problem in Americaan America that now has two healthcare systemsone if you are wealthy and one if you are not," McDermott. Franciscan Healths corporate trustees have made the decision to divest in the city and its residents. The fact is that Franciscan has abandoned Hammond over the last decade by making procedures and services unavailable at St. Margarets. Any excuse that people are deciding with their feet to go elsewhere or to give statistics about how few patients use Hammonds facility is a red herringthis healthcare corporation chose to divest in Hammond. This decision directly contradicts their ministry and mission to provide assistance to the poor and most vulnerablethis is not a compassionate decision." Hammond also is home to NW Indiana ER & Hospital, which has an emergency department. But the doctor-owned microhospital by Cabela's and the Little Calumet River on the southern edge of the city has just six inpatient beds. Hammond will end up as one of the largest cities in the state of Indiana without a full-service hospital after patient services close within a week and the emergency room closes by year's end, McDermott said. As mayor I have a responsibility to protect our residents," McDermott said. "This corporate decision will place at risk anyone who needs immediate and emergency services that could result in a life or death situation." Franciscan said its decision is based on providing more efficient medical services and using resources most effectively. A critical shortage of health care workers and a dramatic shift in patients choosing full-service hospitals elsewhere in the county makes it impossible to continue to keep an inpatient facility open that is averaging less than three inpatients per day," Anderson said. "As such, the Franciscan Alliance Board of Trustees and Franciscan Alliances Northern Indiana Division Board of Directors approved plans for ceasing inpatient admissions in Hammond and to accommodate those requiring inpatient services at Franciscans Munster and Dyer campuses. The Hammond Emergency Department, which has also seen a decline in patients, will close at the end of this year." Franciscan will maintain a presence in downtown Hammond, but it will be more focused on primary care. Franciscan is investing $5.3 million to renovate space on the Hammond campus to broaden access to primary care," Anderson said. "Franciscan Healths Dr. John Lanman Clinic for the uninsured and underinsured, Fresh Start Market for the food insecure, Diaper Pantry, Prenatal Assistance Program, primary care clinic, dialysis, anticoagulation clinic, multi-specialty clinic and womens health center will continue to operate." The hospital has been demolishing the campus, originally to downsize it. But it's now looking at preserving two of its biggest buildings on Hohman Avenue. In addition, Franciscan Alliance has identified a qualified developer of housing for senior and disabled citizens who is very interested in working with the city to renovate the two oldest and largest buildings on the campus," Anderson said. "We have also recently learned that a Federally Qualified Health Care clinic has expanded its territory into Hammond for the development of a primary clinic to serve the ongoing health care needs of those seeking care locally." Franciscan said it hopes to minimize job losses. It transferred hospital workers to Dyer and Munster over the past year but already laid off 83 workers when it just planned to downsize. Kindred Hospital Northwest Indiana, which was based on the fifth floor of the hospital, also laid off 110 workers after Franciscan's decision forced it to shut down operations there. Our regional facilities have vacancies that can absorb our employees seeking to stay with Franciscan. Our goal is to maintain as many staff members with Franciscan as possible," Anderson said. We believe this decision is best suited to continue our care for all of Northwest Indiana. Franciscan Health and the Franciscan Health Foundation remain committed to serving the needs of all of Lake County and will continue initiatives to protect the most vulnerable and provide compassionate care to those who need it most. Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dave Ryan said the decision would leave a void in the heart of Hammond. "While this is very unfortunate for Hammond and the surrounding area, perhaps there is a silver lining in that Franciscan Hammond could offer a private entity the necessary property to build and maintain a new emergency room right on the state line. Additionally, there is land available in Calumet City just a stones throw from Franciscan Hammond, and perhaps the mayor of Calumet City could work with the hospital to put together a clinic/ER facility in the immediate area," he said. "With hospital services dwindling in Hammond and Calumet City, now is the time to work together to satisfy the needs of our local constituents." McDermott said Hammond is looking to bring a new health care system into town. "We consider this a divorce with Franciscan," he said. "They're more interested in serving the wealthy." Franciscan Health Hammond's Emergency Room had long been the main transport drop-off for Hammond Fire Department ambulances. Residents need access to life-saving medical care in emergencies, he said. I promise that I will continue to do everything in my power to seek out an alternative healthcare providers that are committed to the city and its residents and to make sure Hammonds healthcare needs are met, McDermott said. The WCO is thrilled to announce that the new Online AEO Compendium (OAC) has been launched and can be found at https://aeo.wcoomd.org. With the financial support from Dubai Customs and the Customs Cooperation Fund Korea (CCF/Korea), the new OAC will replace the current annual AEO Compendium compilation and publication processes. It is worth highlighting the advantages of the OAC compared to the paper-based AEO Compendium. These advantages include: Members have dedicated access rights, making it easy to input, update, validate and manage their information in real-time; Replacing the free text information with structured information making it possible to search through, harmonize and eliminate duplications; Enabling new ways to view, understand and analyze AEO- and MRA-related information at multiple levels, including globally, by WCO region and by Member; Offering flexibility and the ability to process, manage and analyze information efficiently and effectively through a standardized data management structure, resulting in a timely and high-quality publication; and, Saving time and resources as a result of automated workflows. At the 28th SAFE Working Group Meeting, WCO Members and private sector representatives praised the excellent work carried out in the development of the OAC website and highlighted the usefulness of this platform. It was emphasized that now the AEO related information can be updated by Members as frequently as possible at the same time allowing the website to remain publicly available and user-friendly for all interested parties. If you have any questions related to OAC website, please feel free to contact the WCO AEO team via aeo@wcoomd.org. CHICAGO After leading police on a high-speed, approximately 18-mile chase, a Chicago man was arrested Wednesday and faces multiple criminal charges, Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. said Thursday. The 27-year-old man is charged with resisting law enforcement, dealing marijuana and unlawful possession of a firearm, Martinez said. He has a pending felony drug charges against him in Illinois. Martinez said a Lake County police officer observed the man in a black SUV talking on the phone with his seat belt unfastened around 11:24 a.m. Wednesday at 24th Street and Grant Street in Gary. The officer stopped the driver, and after he approached the car, he said, he immediately smelled marijuana. The driver admitted he had been using marijuana. When the officer asked him for identification, the man had none. The officer asked the driver to step out of the vehicle, but the driver fled westbound on 24th Avenue. The officer pursued the SUV and noticed the driver fling a gray backpack out of his window and onto the ground at 23rd Avenue. Both cars continued onto Interstate 80 westbound, Martinez said. When officers attempted a maneuver to stop the SUV, the driver swerved around the vehicles to avoid stopping. The pursuit continued in Illinois and onto the Bishop Ford Freeway. Multiple police cars surrounded the SUV, which forced the driver of the SUV to stop near the 130th Street exit. When officers searched the vehicle, they found a firearm with no serial numbers, called a ghost gun, and marijuana. An Indiana State Police officer recovered the backpack on 23rd Avenue thrown out of the vehicle and officers discovered marijuana edibles. Police believe they are infused with controlled substances, according to Martinez. The driver is being held in an Illinois facility, pending extradition. A 29-year-old Hammond woman who was a passenger in the SUV was released, Martinez said. The states highest court is poised to decide whether to reinstate a Gary mans murder conviction after the Indiana Court of Appeals in May took the rare step of setting aside a Lake County jurys verdict for insufficient evidence. The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday focused on Marquis Young, 32, who was sentenced in September 2021 to 115 years in prison after being found guilty of murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with the May 4, 2020, shooting death of Dion Clayton, 27, of Gary, at a gas station in the 4500 block of Broadway. The Indiana Court of Appeals said the key evidence linking Young to the shooting was a cigarette butt found by police in a well-trafficked alley near the gas station a day later. The appeals court noted police could not confirm whether the cigarette butt they collected, which had Youngs DNA on it, was the same cigarette seen on video being discarded by a person with an appearance potentially similar to Young near the time of the shooting. While we seldom reverse for insufficient evidence, we have an affirmative duty to ensure the proof at trial is sufficient to support the verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence in this case comes nowhere close to proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We therefore reverse Youngs convictions, wrote Judge Nancy Vaidik, a Porter County native, in the 2-1 appellate court ruling. Deputy Attorney General Megan Smith told the Supreme Court theres actually much more linking Young to the shootings than just the cigarette, and she urged the five justices to overturn the Court of Appeals ruling and affirm Youngs convictions. She said the evidence shows, among other things, Young was at the gas station two minutes and 30 seconds before the shooting, smoking a cigarette, talking on his mobile phone and wearing the same clothes as the person seen running out of the alley who fired 23 shots into Claytons vehicle. Young also later searched online for information on cleaning and dissembling the type of gun believed to be used in the shooting, she said. Based on the totality of the evidence, when viewed as a whole, the jury could, and did, reasonably infer that Young murdered Clayton and attempted to murder (the two other victims), Smith said. Sean Mullins, attorney for Young, said that if the Supreme Court reinstates Youngs convictions it would make the right to appeal on sufficiency grounds illusory in Indiana because theres no way the evidence in this case amounts to proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Jurors make mistakes, Mullins said. Our system necessitates some confidence that the Court of Appeals is able to cure these mistakes, even as rare as they may be, lest innocent people be convicted of crimes they simply didnt commit. In this case, he said a detective testified for the prosecution who said it was physically impossible for the person seen in the alley discarding the cigarette to be the person who did the shooting. To me, its almost reverse jury nullification, whereby a jury can ignore reasonable doubt, Smith said. If we look at everything they (prosecutors) presented and said this is the truth, its an impossibility (Young did it). A ruling by the Supreme Court is expected early next year. VALPARAISO A 56-year-old man who was reportedly nabbed with nearly 900 child pornography videos, including videos of children estimated to be as young as 4 years old, pleaded guilty Friday. Harold Harvey, of Burns Harbor, who pleaded guilty to a felony count of possessing child pornography, faces up to six years behind bars if the proposed plea is accepted by Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5. In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed two cases of invasion of privacy, which alleged Harvey twice had contact with an individual he was ordered to avoid while his child porn case proceeds. Those latter allegations resulted in Clymer revoking Harvey's bond in September. Harvey, who is represented by defense attorney Mark Chargualaf, was arrested in May on the child pornography charges. "I like young young," Harvey reportedly wrote on Facebook Messenger as part of his alleged sharing and collection of the illegal pornography. "Do you like young young porn?" Indiana State Police said they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the trading of child pornography through Facebook by a user later traced to Harvey. Investigators served a search warrant for two Facebook accounts linked to Harvey and found chat logs, photos and 897 videos involving child pornography, a charging document states. Police said they served a residential search warrant at Harvey's home March 17 and he was taken into custody outside his residence. He reportedly declined to talk to investigators. CROWN POINT A Lake Criminal Court jury deliberated for about three hours Friday before convicting a man on all counts in connection with a stabbing in 2017 that nearly killed his girlfriend and resulted in the death of their baby. Austin A. Mendez, 28, was found guilty of two counts of murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery. He could face 45 to 65 years in prison for murder and 20 to 40 years in prison for attempted murder when Judge Samuel Cappas sentences him. Mendez met up with Latricia Lacey, who was seven months pregnant, Aug. 6, 2017, in Gary to give her money for their daughter, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Infiniti Westberg said. Before her death in 2021 from a drug overdose, Lacey told investigators Mendez propositioned her for sex and she refused, so he pushed her into an abandoned building and attacked her. She was able to break away from him and run. "She tells you: 'I was running, running, running and I passed out in a front yard,'" Westberg said, reminding the jury of a statement of Lacey's that was read into the record during Mendez's weeklong trial. Defense attorney Scott King told the jury the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the person who attacked Lacey knew she was pregnant. Westberg said everyone who saw Lacey after she was found facedown in the 700 block of Taney Street, moaning and crying for help, recognized she was pregnant. During a 911 call, Lacey could be heard telling those who came to her aid that her baby's father, Austin Mendez, caused her injuries. When Lacey awoke from a coma after doctors saved her life, she asked for paper and wrote "A" for "Austin" and "5" for Fifth Avenue, Westberg said. King told the jury there was reasonable doubt about who hurt Lacey because a 911 caller told dispatchers Lacey said she'd been thrown from a vehicle. Lacey never told anyone she had been stabbed, and Mendez was excluded as a contributor of male DNA found on her coat, he said. Westberg said the DNA evidence meant nothing. DNA can get on clothing simply by brushing up against someone, and there was no way to know when the DNA got on Lacey's coat, she said. King questioned Lacey's credibility, pointing out that her medical records showed a history of mental health issues. She also admitted she was high at the time of the attack. Westberg said Lacey's use of marijuana and cocaine wasn't good, but it didn't kill her baby. Lacey "coded" for six to eight minutes while she was being treated for stab wounds to her armpit, chest, buttocks and leg. Her heart stopped, and she wasn't breathing. Mendez stabbed her with so much force, the knife broke off in her leg, the deputy prosecutor said. Doctors saved Lacey's life, but her son Isaiah Lacey was born brain dead Aug. 11, 2017. He died Aug. 28, 2017, after Lacey and her family decided to take him off life support. Doctors testified Isaiah likely would have been born healthy if his mother had not been so badly wounded. Westberg said Lacey had no reason to lie about who attacked her. She was so disoriented when she was found lying in a yard, she still had the money Mendez gave her in her hand, the deputy prosecutor said. One of the men in the 911 call could be heard telling her he was going to put the money in her pocket so she didn't lose it. King questioned Lacey's description of a man in purple pants before and after she passed out, but Westberg said he was just someone from the neighborhood. "Purple pants says, 'Your baby daddy did this to you?'" she said. "He was shocked. He says, 'I just saw you with him.'" Westberg told the jurors it would be unreasonable to think "some stranger in the night" came for Lacey. When one of the men who found Lacey asked if her child's father was a "white dude," she corrected him by saying, "He's Mexican," Westberg said. Mendez fled the crime scene and never attempted to contact Lacey or attend his child's funeral, she said. "He didn't care about her," Westberg said. "He didn't care about that baby." EAST CHICAGO Known for being a residential island in a sea of industry, East Chicago's historic Marktown neighborhood may soon see some renovations. Built as a planned worker community by industrialist Clayton Mark in 1917, Marktown was famed for its European architecture. The neighborhood was modeled after an English village with pitched gabled roofs and roads so narrow people park on the sidewalks and walk in the streets. Over the years the unique homes have deteriorated, and some have been boarded up or demolished by the nearby BP Whiting Refinery. Lourdes "LuLu" Hicks raised her six children in Marktown and has lived in the community for 21 years. She said the homes, which are almost all over 100 years old, "have a lot of wear and tear on them." Chipped paint, rotted window frames and aging roofs are issues throughout the neighborhood. Though residents try to upkeep their homes, the high peaks are difficult for elderly neighbors to reach, and Marktown's status as a Historic Place means renovations can be complex. "Ive seen the highs and lows of this town, and I know it has a lot of potential, Hicks said. East Chicago is in the beginning stages of a "Marktown Neighborhood Housing Study" that could help restore the neighborhood's aging homes. Frank Rivera, executive director of redevelopment, led an informational meeting detailing the project Wednesday afternoon. Rivera explained that the city is looking to offer qualifying Marktown residents grants to help fix up their houses. The program would be similar to the one currently offered in the Sunnyside neighborhood; homeowners would receive funds to improve things like doors, gutters, insulation, railings, roofing, siding, windows and more. Initially, only homeowners who are considered low-income, based on the income limits set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, will qualify for the program. However, Rivera said he plans on using a "3-to-1 ratio," meaning for every three low-income homeowners who participate, one homeowner who does not meet the income qualifications can also participate. The program has operated in Sunnyside for about a decade. Over the years, Rivera said the city has spent over $1.9 million renovating 38 homes in the neighborhood. In February, the Redevelopment Commission approved a contract with Pennsylvania-based architecture firm Urban Design Ventures, LLC, not to exceed $25,000. Two representatives from Urban Design Ventures will be studying the exteriors of the homes in Marktown to determine what renovations are needed. Once their study is complete, Rivera said, a follow-up neighborhood meeting will be scheduled. Long overdue As Hicks approached the Marktown Community Center to attend Wednesday's community meeting, the "closed" sign on the bright blue front door "struck a nerve." The community center has been closed for over two years. When the consultants from Urban Design Ventures asked community members what improvements Marktown needs, Hicks was quick to mention youth programming. If these kids had something to occupy them, Im sure they wouldnt be out here creating mayhem," Hicks said. City staff say the center was closed because there weren't enough employees to staff it. Sandra Favela, chief of staff for Mayor Anthony Copeland, said the city hopes to reopen the center within the coming weeks. Though the focus of the renovation program is to fix-up Marktown homes, residents had a long list of other concerns, including the lack of youth recreation, poor lighting along the streets and in the parks, overgrown vacant lots and abandoned homes. Multiple residents also said housing renovations are long overdue in Marktown. "Neighbors take care of each other in Marktown because we feel like were the forgotten part of the city, Hicks explained. Common Council President Robert Garcia represents the fifth district, which encompasses Marktown. Garcia said he has asked the city to bring the Sunnyside program to Marktown for years. Both Garcia and community members said the meeting wasn't publicized enough; they asked that the city do a better job notifying neighbors ahead of the next meeting. Once the consultants from Urban Design Ventures complete their report, Rivera said he will go before the council to request the needed funds. There is a chance the city will be able to address some of the residents' infrastructure-related concerns using HUD funding through the Community Development Block Grant program, Rivera said. [Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Marktown was modelled after an English village, not a Swiss village.] Walter, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, notes that civil war is in fact foreseeable and rooted in specific conditions. Civil wars ignite and escalate in ways that are predictable, she writes. They follow a script. Her book is data-driven, while the book by Marche, a Canadian journalist, sometimes resorts to the tropes of apocalyptic fan fiction. But both agree that we are experiencing prime conditions for civil war: ethnic factionalism, an aggrieved class of citizens and a demagogic former leader who is threatening to run for re-election. Walter argues that the trigger for civil war often comes from a dominant ethnic group that believes the country is theirs and that the groups members have been unfairly downgraded. In the 21st century, the most dangerous factions are once dominant groups facing decline, she writes. Its not the destitute or the downtrodden who start civil wars today, but the once privileged who want to take their country back. As Marche says, tribalism is no longer a mere metaphor. Image The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure, by Yascha Mounk Penguin Press, 2022 Progressive politicians like to say that diversity is our strength, but Mounks book explores an uncomfortable truth: There is little precedent for the success of a large, diverse democracy. Throughout history, democracies from Athens to Rome to Geneva were ethnically homogeneous and relatively small. The great experiment of Mounks title is whether a modern heterogeneous democracy like ours can survive. Thats what the framers worried about too. Its important to remember that our political diversity is a recent phenomenon. For most of our history, people of color were not entitled to receive the full benefits of democracy. The democratic experiment with diversity is not just occurring here. With giant waves of immigrants arriving in Europe, democracies across the Atlantic are also under threat from right-wing groups seeking to restore ethnic purity and exclude foreigners. At the same time, the very openness and hurly-burly of democracy supercharged by social media doesnt always serve diversity. Democratic institutions, Mounk writes, can do as much to exacerbate as to alleviate the challenge of diversity. So, can the many become one? And should this be the goal of a modern democracy? Mounk rejects the metaphor of the melting pot as too idealistic, and that of the salad bowl as too fragmented. The hoped-for future he envisions is more like a beautiful and vibrant public park that everyone can enjoy separately or together. The potential end of our democracy is an urgent matter. It has become cliche in publishing that no matter how pessimistic your book title, you have to add a clause to the subtitle along the lines of: and what we can do about it. The problem in this case is that what we can do about democratic decline is not very clear; the diagnosis has been much more extensively analyzed than the potential cures. All the books on this list call for less inequality, more fairness, less social media, more facts. Easier said than done. But the potential end of our democracy is an urgent matter. Remember, modern democracies vote themselves out of existence, and the midterms are around the corner. Though the authors of these books have different views of our current political situation, they would probably agree on this: If you have one party in a two-party democracy that does not accept election results, you dont really have a democracy anymore. The question is no longer: Can it happen here? (The answer to that is yes.) The question is now: Will it happen here? Richard Stengel was the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs from 2013 to 2016, and is the author of several books, including, most recently, Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It. When Barbara Delo, a costume designer, got an offer last year to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, one of New Yorks most prestigious troupes, she thought she had landed a dream job. But she soon began to feel uneasy. Delo, 32, who had just given birth to her first child, said she believed the company was routinely discriminating against her because she was a mother. The company did not provide her a private space to pump breast milk as required by state law, she said, and its executive director expressed displeasure when she brought her daughter on company tours. She was fired in July, she said, after less than a year with the company. On Thursday, Delo brought a lawsuit against the company and its executive director, John Tomlinson, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contending that she was wrongfully dismissed. In the suit, she describes a hostile work environment that left her in a state of emotional and physical distress. They were making me feel so bad and so worthless, Delo said in an interview. That because I had become a mother, that I was somehow not as good in my job anymore. Georges Lederman, a lawyer in New York who represents Mr. Kapoor, said that his client had received an aggregate sentence of 10 years and that he had served the entirety of that sentence already in India. But he said Mr. Kapoor was still in custody because of an extradition hold that appeared to be related to a request by the Manhattan district attorneys office. The facts underlying the case in India for which he has been convicted and sentenced are essentially the very same facts underlying the charges in the New York case, Mr. Lederman said. For that reason, he suggested, if Mr. Kapoor were to be convicted in New York, he would presumably receive credit for the time he had spent in custody in India. Mr. Kapoor has long denied wrongdoing. Indian authorities said that the delay in bringing him to trial was caused partly by his efforts to appeal his case. Several years ago a lawyer representing him in India insisted that his client had dealt only in replicas and had never exported or purchased actual antiques. For years Mr. Kapoor was a major art world figure, selling Hindu, Buddhist and South Asian antiquities through his gallery on Madison Avenue, Art of the Past, some of which went to museum collections. At the same time, American and Indian investigators were assembling voluminous evidence against him, much of it coming from an investigation, code-named Operation Hidden Idol, that they said showed Mr. Kapoor was trading in plundered items. My big takeaway from this election season would be this: Were about where we were. We entered this election season with a nearly evenly divided House and Senate in which the Democrats had a slight advantage. Well probably leave it with a nearly evenly divided House and Senate in which the Republicans have a slight advantage. But were about where we were. Nothing the parties or candidates have done has really changed this underlying balance. The Republicans nominated a pathetically incompetent Senate candidate, Herschel Walker, in Georgia, but polls show that race is basically tied. The Democrats nominated a guy in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke and has trouble communicating, but polls show that that Senate race is basically tied. After all the campaigning and the money and the shouting, the electoral balance is still on a razors edge. What accounts for this? Its the underlying structure of society. Americans are sorting themselves out by education into two roughly equal camps. As people without a college degree have flocked to the G.O.P., people with one have flocked to the Democrats. Richard Ringer, a 69-year-old Democratic state House candidate in Pennsylvania, is an early riser, and on Monday he was up before 5 a.m. when he heard someone at his garage door. He looked out the window, saw a man with a flashlight, and assumed it was the same person who had twice vandalized his house in the past month. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Ringer says, he found a message spray-painted on his garage door; though the rain partly rinsed it off, the words Your Race and Dead were visible. Then, last Thursday night, he says he came home to a brick thrown through his window. So when Ringer saw the intruder on Monday, he says, he ran outside and tackled him. But the man was quickly able to pin Ringer down, and beat him unconscious. Ringer doesnt know for certain that the violence was political the police are investigating but given the graffiti, and the fact that his neighborhood in Fayette County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, is usually quiet and safe, he suspects it was. Im not really surprised that this is happening locally, and is happening to me, just because of what has been going on and the enthusiasm for Trump around here, he told me. Ringers assault made the local news, but hasnt been much of a story nationally. Perhaps thats because its just a small detail in a growing tapestry of menace. All over this febrile country, intimations of mayhem are gathering. Vigilantes in Arizona, some armed and wearing tactical gear, have harassed and intimidated voters at the sites of ballot drop boxes, cheered on by Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for secretary of state. In Nevada, where a millionaire far-right Republican official named Robert Beadles has systemically targeted election workers, Reuters reported that the top election officials in 10 of the state's 17 counties have resigned, retired or declined to run again. From 2 to 4 November 2022, the World Customs Organization (WCO) held a global conference on its Programme Global Shield (PGS), an international effort to prevent terrorists and criminal organizations from accessing precursor chemicals and additional Improvised Explosive Device (IED) components in the global supply chain. More than 240 representatives from around 100 Member administrations, partner organizations (DTRA, EUROPOL, INTERPOL, and UN) as well as important PGS donors (US DoS, Qatar Customs) attended the three-day event, conducted in a hybrid mode. A direct outcome of the conference was that participants took the commitment to share relevant information with other Customs administrations as well as partner organizations to improve risk assessment and profiling, as well as to combine efforts, using synergies and enhancing collaboration, to better fight against terrorism and IED threat. The Secretary General of the WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, stated Inter-agency cooperation, especially with police and military forces, is of paramount importance in order to share information on emerging threats and for an efficient risk management of cross-border supply chain. He added that through the Programme Global Shield, the WCO continues to ensure that the threat of diversion of precursor chemicals and other IED components remains high on the agenda of Customs. Throughout the recent years, the world has become witness to increasing incidents involving the use of IEDs and other homemade explosive devices manufactured from precursor chemicals such as ammonium nitrate, Acetone or Urea. IEDs are inexpensive and easily manufactured, concealed, and detonated to intimidate, inflict casualties, and destabilize governments. IEDs are the most prevalent form of explosives used by terrorists around the world. WCOs Programme Global Shield, at its core, focuses on controlling, securing and monitoring the supply chain for these goods. Spearheaded by the WCO, with the close collaboration of its partners, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the programme provides capacity building to Members, and fosters police-customs cooperation through regional operational exercises. In the course of the conference, an update on the global IED threat, new IED typologies as well as new emerging threats by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have been presented by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and INTERPOL. The Conflict Arm Research touched upon the supply of IED material and components in the global supply chain. WCO Secretariat presented a joint WCO/DTRA/INTERPOL strategic approach in countering terrorist threats. In addition, the Secretariat introduced the new PGS Project GLOBAL and its deliverables. The three-year project, jointly funded by the US Department of State and the EU, aims at resuming its global approach by providing capacity building activities as well as regional and global operational exercises around the globe. The project recently developed and established a comprehensive PGS analysis that is provided to Members and stakeholders on a quarterly basis, as well as an implementation guide and a newsletter. Sri Lanka Customs gave an insight on the 2019 Easter attack, Qatar Customs as one of PGS donors stated a good example on how PGS has been implemented and how regional PGS capacity building activities have been supported by the administration. The WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) for Central Africa provided an overview on the regional operations ALAMBA 1 and 2, conducted in 2020 and 2021, highlighting the importance of proper risk analysis and profiling as well as data sharing. The successful operations saw the participation of 15 West- and Central African countries and led to seizures of more than 48 tons of chemicals, 5 homemade IEDs, among others. UN offices introduced the new UNIDIR counter IED self-assessment tool as well as the UNCTED 2370 implementation guide in concert with its joint assessment missions as additional and important tools and efforts in the fight against terrorism and IED threats. It is to be noted that the WCO Security Programme has contributed to and is regularly participating in these missions. Industry representatives also updated the audience on their recent activities to better know their customers and on their efforts and contributions in securing the global supply chain. The Nets suspended guard Kyrie Irving indefinitely Thursday, calling him unfit to be associated with the team because he had declined to say he has no antisemitic views in the week since he posted a link on Twitter to a film with hateful claims about Jewish people. Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team, the Nets said in a statement. Irving had declined to apologize despite fierce backlash, but late Thursday night, hours after the Nets suspended him, he relented in a post on Instagram. To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize, Irving said in the Instagram post. Early Friday morning, the company began to notify some employees that they had been laid off. The emails, some of which were seen by The Times, varied by an employees region or country. One New York-based worker received an email saying their job had been impacted but that they would remain employed through a separation date in early February. During this time, you will be on a Non-Working Notice period and your access to Twitter systems will be deactivated, read the email, which was also signed Twitter. Employees would receive details on severance within a week. In Dublin, home to Twitters European headquarters, some employees on Friday morning were cut off from the internal computer system and received an email about the job cuts. These decisions never come easy, it said, and it is with regret that we write to inform you that your role at Twitter has been identified as potentially impacted or at risk of redundancy. Decisions were being made, the note said, depending on the country where a person lives and that more information would be shared as soon as possible. Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter on Oct. 27 and immediately fired its chief executive and other top managers. More executives have since resigned or were let go, while managers were asked to draw up lists of high- and low-performing employees, likely with an eye toward job cuts. Mr. Musk also brought in more than 50 engineers and employees from his other companies, including the electric carmaker Tesla, to review the layoff lists of Twitter workers and the social platforms technology. The worlds richest man faces pressure to make Twitter work financially. The deal was the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history. The billionaire also loaded about $13 billion in debt on Twitter for the acquisition and is on the hook to pay about $1 billion a year in interest payments. But Twitter has often lost money, and its cash flow is not robust. Mr. Musk may benefit from cutting costs so the company is less expensive to operate. ATLANTA Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker involved in efforts to overturn Donald J. Trumps 2020 election loss, is willing to give an interview to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol after certain conditions are met, his lawyer said Thursday. Mr. Gingrich, a staunch ally of Mr. Trump, was asked to appear before the committee in a Sept. 1 letter from Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democrat who serves as the panels chairman. The letter noted that the committees investigators had obtained evidence that Mr. Gingrich had been in touch with senior advisers to Mr. Trump about advertisements that amplified false claims about election fraud in the November 2020 election. According to Mr. Thompson, Mr. Gingrich urged the Trump campaign to run ads focused on the bogus assertion that suitcases of fake ballots had been smuggled into a vote-processing area by election workers in Atlanta. Mr. Gingrich, 79, a former member of Congress from Georgia, rose to power and fame in the early 1990s promoting a so-called Contract with America, a statement of conservative governing principles. Mr. Gingrich has also been ordered to give testimony on Nov. 16 before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is conducting a criminal investigation into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse Mr. Trumps loss in the Southern state. When President Biden took office last year, he held the advantage in a tumultuous, four-decade relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu, the longtime Israeli prime minister. Mr. Biden had vanquished former President Donald J. Trump, who was a close ally of Mr. Netanyahu, and the new American president made clear that one of his first foreign policy initiatives would be to restart the Iran nuclear deal that the Israeli prime minister hated, and consistently sought to undermine. Meanwhile, in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu faced charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Within months, he would be ousted from office after more than a dozen years as the leader of the Jewish state. Now, the tables have turned. Mr. Bidens hopes for a nuclear deal with Iran have all but collapsed, and Iran has begun supplying missiles and drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. Polls suggest the president faces a stinging rebuke in midterm elections next week that may end his domestic legislative agenda. Mr. Trump remains a potent force in American politics, likely to run again in 2024. WASHINGTON The Justice Department hopes to reach a decision on whether to bring charges against former President Donald J. Trump before the 2024 campaign heats up, and is considering appointing a special counsel to oversee investigations of him if he runs again, according to people familiar with the situation. The department is investigating Mr. Trumps role in the efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his retention of sensitive government documents at his residence and resort in Florida. It has made no decision in either case, but the inquiry into the former presidents handling of the documents is more straightforward, with prosecutors having publicly cited potential crimes that could be charged. Senior department officials and veteran prosecutors with the departments national security division, in conjunction with the U.S. attorneys office in South Florida, have spent recent weeks quietly navigating the thicket of thorny issues needed to file charges in the documents investigation, weighing evidence, analyzing legal precedents and mulling practical considerations such as the venue of a possible trial. The investigation, while proceeding quickly by Justice Department standards, has been slowed by Mr. Trumps efforts in court to restrict the governments access to the files removed from his home, and by the departments self-imposed 30-day pause in issuing subpoenas ahead of this years midterm elections. As the race for Los Angeles mayor has tightened to a dead heat between Representative Karen Bass and billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, the veteran congresswoman has deployed a whos who of endorsements from fellow Democrats. President Biden. Hillary Clinton. Senators Alex Padilla and Bernie Sanders. Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor, was beside her for her campaign kickoff. Former President Barack Obama endorsed her recently. Increasingly striking, however, has been one notable absence: Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has steadfastly refused to endorse either candidate, both Democrats. I have deep respect for both of them, and I have not gotten involved in that race, Mr. Newsom said in a television interview this summer after a runoff narrowed the field in the officially nonpartisan race to the two contenders. LONDON When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain travels to the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el Sheikh next Monday, he will share the spotlight with his former boss and sometime nemesis, Boris Johnson, who plans to attend the United Nations climate-change conference there as a private citizen. That was not supposed to happen. Mr. Sunak first said he would skip the meeting to stay in London to oversee a new fiscal plan being rolled out on Nov. 17. But after Mr. Johnson declared his intention to go, the new prime minister reversed course and said he would travel to Egypt after all. The two men will move in different orbits: Mr. Sunak jetting in for a day to meet other world leaders; Mr. Johnson giving interviews and making the rounds as a celebrity attendee. Still, it is a harbinger of the kind of disturbance Mr. Johnson may continue to cause in Mr. Sunaks political weather system: popping up unexpectedly, grabbing attention, disrupting his successors plans and serving as a reminder of a time when Britains political chatter was dominated by illicit parties at Downing Street rather than a painful cost-of-living crisis. The actor Danny Masterson, known for his roles in the sitcom That 70s Show and the Netflix comedy The Ranch, before he was fired in 2017 amid sexual assault allegations, has been on trial in Los Angeles on charges that he raped three women at his home in the Hollywood Hills in the early 2000s. Masterson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of forcible rape. Opening arguments began on Oct. 18, and the trial is expected to last four weeks. Masterson could face 45 years to life in prison if convicted. What are the allegations? According to a trial brief filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, Masterson raped a woman, identified only as Jen B., in April 2003 after she went to his house to pick up keys and he gave her a red vodka drink. About 20 or 30 minutes later, she felt very disoriented, the brief states. According to the brief, Masterson raped her after she regained consciousness on his bed. She reached for his hair to try to pull him off and tried to push a pillow into his face, it states. When Masterson heard a man yelling in the house, he pulled a gun from his night stand and told her not to move or say anything, adding expletives, the document states. Through Sashas trajectory, Lecky who, as well as writing and executive producing the show, also helped create music for it explores the gray area between empowerment and exploitation. As part of the production process, she spoke to women about their experiences of sex work, which produced complex feelings in her, she said. If you are financially secure, and youre happy and healthy, and you want to go and be a sex worker, go for it, Lecky said, before underlining that some of the women she had spoken to wanted a different life. I talk a lot about choice and if you have the choice, she added. And if you dont, I think you should be able to live in a world where you dont have to make money solely from having sex. F., a 29-year-old who works in the sex industry, was among those who spoke to Lecky. She requested to be identified only by her first initial to protect her privacy. In a phone interview, she said that she appreciated the shows depiction of elements of the good and bad of the industry, while showing that sex work attracted a variety of people. Youve got some of the girls that are lawyers and have fantastic professions, F. said. Everyone does this. A lot of people dont understand or dont want to understand why girls do it, she added. Sex work is a central tenet of the show, but so too is a study of how that industry intersects with race and class. Sasha is often fetishized her alias is Lexi Caramel, the Caramel a racialized addition by Carly. While on a job, another Black escort warns Sasha that they have to play by different rules than their white counterparts, adding that Sasha needs to be careful not to end up damaged or dead. If Ive been acting a little extra these days, chalk it up to recent quality time with Anne of Green Gables, the classic 1908 novel by L.M. Montgomery about a spirited red-haired orphan with a flair for melodrama. I cannot tie myself down to anything so unromantic as dishwashing at this thrilling moment, I declared one evening after forcing my family to admire a particularly pretty sunset. Another day, as I skimmed the class notes in my alumni magazine, I told my husband, My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. And after my neighbor kindly offered to check my mail while I was away, I nearly blurted, You are a bosom friend. Like millions of readers the original book has sold more than 50 million copies and remained continuously in print I was captivated as a child by Anne of Green Gables and its sequels. The plight and possibilities of orphanhood, the hearty meals and daunting chores of farm life, the catastrophic debacles with things like green hair dye all made a lively impression on me, a Korean American girl growing up on 1980s Long Island. Later, my fandom was solidified by the CBCs popular mini-series, memorable for the breathtaking beauty of Prince Edward Island and for Marilla Cuthberts merciless hair bun. Annes story has never really left us. There have been picture book and board book adaptations, an anime version and the Netflix series Anne With an E, which explored the darker intimations of Montgomerys novel: post-traumatic stress, bullying, male privilege. This year, childrens publishers are offering three new books reimagining Anne. They include two middle grade graphic novels (one set in West Philadelphia and one in a suburban apartment building called the Avon-Lea) and a Y.A. version where the protagonist is a queer Japanese American who loves disco. On the horizon, we can expect a fantasy remix and a graphic novel following a teenager named Dan who lives with his grandparents in Tennessee. (Yes, its titled Dan of Green Gables.) Even in a publishing landscape flush with remakes, thats a lot of Anne. The swell of appreciation for the book cannot be owed simply to the current vogue for homemade cakes, backyard chicken coops and frilly dresses. Anne is a classic underdog who makes waves in her conventional community, eventually winning everybodys hearts. Spunky and outspoken, shes a proto-feminist who wonders aloud why women cant be ministers, expresses zero interest in marriage and seems to be the only one of her chums immune to the roguish hazel eyes of Gilbert Blythe. Its easy to imagine yourself as Anne. She doesnt have to be white, straight, Protestant or even a girl. And all of the episodes central to the Anne liturgy mouthing off to the busybody Rachel Lynde, finding a bosom friend in Diana Barry, breaking a slate over Gilberts head, nearly drowning in a pond while re-enacting a Tennyson poem can be readily updated for modern life. In an entry on her podcast diary dated May 18, Oksana Koshel, 35, talks about going to see a house her family had recently bought in a small town called Hostomel. Russian forces occupied the region through February and March, and it was spring before she was finally able to go see it. All the windows and the glass doors were broken, she said; the gate was torn out and their minibus stolen. Hostomel is a small town just north of Irpin, where a photograph captured a family of murdered evacuees. Its so excruciating to see because I know exactly where this crossroads is, she said of where the family was killed. Its so surreal to imagine that just two months ago a whole family died here. Koshels diary entry is part of a British podcast series, Ukraine War Diaries, produced by Sky News Storycast. The series has had more than 1 million listens. She is one of three Ukrainians who have been recording personal audio diaries using WhatsApp since March. The others are her husband, Seva Koshel, a business executive and a military volunteer on the front lines; and Ilyas Verdiev, an I.T. specialist based in Kyiv. They send the audio notes to the series producer, Robert Mulhern, in London, who edits them into shorter segments and publishes them weekly as a 15-minute podcast. A project like this would not have been possible before the widespread use of smartphones, Mulhern said in an interview. But today these guys are walking around Ukraine with mono-mics in their pockets that is, their iPhones. When Seva Koshel was at the front lines in the Donbas region, Mulhern added, he could respond to what he was experiencing in diary form, while his experience is kind of raw. Sometimes hours or minutes after something has happened, he can sit there, record it, and send it to me immediately. For Vitaly Sych, the chief editor of one of Ukraines largest news companies, NV Media House, which produces a news site, a weekly magazine, and talk radio, there was a liberating immediacy to posting a personal diary online when the war began. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said in Beijing on Friday that he had been assured that Chinas approval process for Covid-19 vaccines made by the German company BioNTech would be sped up. In turn, he said, he would push for Chinese vaccines to be granted regulatory approval by the European Union. Mr. Scholz, concluding a one-day visit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, said preparations were also underway for BioNTechs vaccine to be offered to some expatriates in China, describing this a first step. BioNTech has been trying for more than two years to win permission for the sale in China of its vaccines, developed with mRNA technology. No mRNA vaccines have been approved in China. Mr. Scholz said that he had urged the Chinese side to speed up approval of the BioNTech vaccine. I have been strongly advocating that it should now be expedited, because again from our perspective there are no reasons why it should not be approved, he said. And I have been assured, at any rate, that acceleration will occur. WASHINGTON The Biden administration will give money to five Native American tribes to help them relocate away from rivers and coastlines, potentially creating a model for other communities around the country as the effects of climate change get worse. The funding, which will go to three tribes in Alaska and two in Washington State, marks the start of a new federal program specifically designed to relocate people and homes threatened by climate change. It appears to be the first such program in American history. Were definitely grateful, said Nate Tyler, the treasurer of the Makah Tribe, whose coastal reservation in Washington State is increasingly exposed to flooding. The tribe will get $2.1 million to help replace its aging health clinic with a new building on higher land, farther from the Pacific. The awards represent a shift in U.S. climate adaptation policy, toward what climate experts call managed retreat the movement of buildings and infrastructure away from areas that are especially vulnerable to the consequences of global warming. That approach reflects the growing acknowledgment, among residents and policymakers alike, that some places are becoming either too difficult or too expensive to protect. As food writers, our goal is to drive people into a new direction, to help challenge them, to help them understand the world, he said. With artificial intelligence, how do you do that? A.I. has already worked its way into the act of cooking. Home cooks use search engines to find recipes and ask virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa to convert teaspoons to tablespoons. This technology is not a replacement for people, at least so far. It can nudge cooks in one direction or another. But it is still humanity with its intuition, storytelling and warmth that drives a good recipe. The individual behind the dish is just as important as the recipe itself, Dr. Shane said. There is value in knowing that someone took the time to perfect a version of pie, stuffing or turkey, and share it. You want to know that these recipes mean something to somebody, she said. Thats something artificial intelligence may never be able to provide. Audio produced by Adrienne Hurst . I feel very strongly that this is a misuse of their power, said Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician at Yale who treats transgender children and testified at the meeting. Mr. DeSantis nominated Dr. Ladapo, a physician and clinical researcher then at the University of California, Los Angeles, as surgeon general in September 2021. Together, the two men have repeatedly taken scientific uncertainty be it about coronavirus vaccines or about gender-affirming care in adolescents and wielded it to justify aggressive policies out of the mainstream medical orthodoxy. A Republican state lawmaker in Florida introduced legislation in 2021 and again this year that would have criminalized the performing of gender-affirming surgery on transgender adolescents and would have made it a first-degree misdemeanor to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones. In both years, the bill did not advance in the states House of Representatives. In April, Dr. Ladapo sent a letter to physicians in Florida recommending against prescribing gender-affirming medications and surgeries for minors as well as facilitating social transitions, such as changes in hair styles or pronouns. The memo spurred a state investigation that prompted the loss of Medicaid coverage of gender-related treatments for patients of all ages. In June, Dr. Ladapo asked the states medical board to consider a ban, arguing that evidence for gender-affirming care in adolescents was extraordinarily weak and that it came with a high risk for long-term, irreversible harms. Two months later, on the evening before the board was scheduled to vote on whether to craft its own rule, Dr. Ladapo called board members to check in, an unusual move, according to one member who requested anonymity because he was concerned about his privacy. Typically, he said, the board would decide to investigate physicians after receiving complaints, not at the behest of the surgeon general. The next day, the board voted to draft a new standard of care. The Department of Health, which Dr. Ladapo oversees, said that there was nothing inappropriate about the surgeon general reaching out to the board members. The Ambush Rent or buy on most major platforms. When films about conflicts in the Middle East make their way to America, theyre usually told through the eyes of Americans. Its refreshing then to find a stirring movie like The Ambush (its Arabic title is Al Kameen), which offers a different side. This story, based on true events according to the filmmakers, follows a platoon of soldiers from the United Arab Emirates who are ensnared by Yemeni militants in the claustrophobic confines of a canyon. The harrowing film, from the French director Pierre Morel (Taken), is a near-nonstop barrage of fierce combat. The cinematographer Thierry Arbogast (The Fifth Element) captures the haze of traded bullets with palpable clarity; the composer Harry Gregson-Williams (The Last Duel) provides a searing, affecting score; the use of slow-motion adds further drama as each man protects the other in a life-or-death struggle to return home. In the fog of war, with this sturdy ensemble, emerges a human story of brotherhood that demands your attention. Death Hunt Stream it on Tubi. The tapes are thrilling, revelatory, wrenching: the warm-gravel voice of Louis Armstrong, perhaps the most famous voice of the 20th century, speaking harsh truths about American racism, about the dehumanizing hatred he and millions of others endured in a world he still, to the end, insisted was wonderful. He tells the stories of a fan declaring I dont like Negroes to his face; of a gofer on a film set treating him with disrespect no white star would face with fresh outrage and can-you-believe-this? weariness. He also tells them with his full humor and showmanship, his musicality clear in the rhythm of his swearing. The public can hear these stories, privately recorded by Armstrong as part of his own lifelong project of self-documentation, in the Sacha Jenkins documentary Louis Armstrongs Black & Blues (streaming on Apple TV+). Often, Armstrong recalls getting the last laugh on those who disrespected him he harangues that gofer, and the studio, too, telling both where to stick their movie. Its no revelation that a Black man born less than 40 years after the abolition of slavery endured harrowing racism, or that stardom on par with Bing Crosbys and Frank Sinatras offered him no exemption. Armstrong faced blowback in 1957 for speaking against discrimination, and donated to the Civil Rights movement. Usually, though, he avoided controversy. Mr. Cuomo also hasnt exactly offered a ringing endorsement of his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul. Polls show that Ms. Hochul is in an increasingly close race against her Republican challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin. Mr. Cuomo told Cindy Adams, the New York Post gossip columnist, that Ms. Hochul was New Yorks best alternative in the race. In October, he told The Associated Press that he hoped that Ms. Hochul would win, saying, Ill watch the returns. I just wont have as much anxiety and stress and heartburn. Mr. Cuomo has steadily drawn down his campaign war chest since resigning in August 2021 he has just over $10 million left, according to state filings from July. Much of it went toward rehabilitating his image as he considered a political comeback earlier this year: He spent over $93,000 in polling, tens of thousands of dollars on his legal defense and millions of dollars in television ads aimed at a make over. Since resigning, he appears to have made only two political contributions, each for $4,700 to Democrats in the State Assembly who were facing primary challenges from candidates backed by the left-leaning Working Families Party, a longtime nemesis of Mr. Cuomo. One donation went to Assemblywoman Vivian Cook of Queens, one of the lawmakers who signed a letter in March 2021 urging the public to wait for the conclusion of an investigation into the claims against Mr. Cuomo before calling on him to resign. He also donated to Assemblywoman Inez Dickens of Harlem, who defended Mr. Cuomo last year by questioning the motivations of some of the women who accused him. In an interview, Ms. Dickens said she reached out to Mr. Cuomo for support, saying, I had a socialist running against me and I had to raise money, so I reached out to everybody that I knew. Ms. Dickens said that even though Mr. Cuomo likely felt burned by his party, she believed he would seek to stay relevant through a super PAC rather than through public office, saying that he can be just as relevant by being a king and queen maker. Her lawyer, John Scola, shared an email she sent to Captain Souffrant last Thursday, asking for a brief meeting to discuss the case. He still has not answered, Mr. Scola said. In September, Lieutenant Roper, who is Black, sued Captain Souffrant, along with another captain in the precinct and the City of New York, claiming sexual and racial discrimination and retaliation. Among her charges: that Captain Souffrant favored female officers with whom he had personal relationships, and that when she complained about this, he retaliated against her. Captain Souffrant is also Black. Two more officers from the 78th, Aron Baksh and Berland Prince, filed a similar discrimination suit against Captain Souffrant on Oct. 21 that included charges of pervasive bullying and racial insults. Now the precinct is flailing under Captain Souffrants command, Lieutenant Roper said. Morale is low, she said. The officers are stressed out. Theyre being bullied every single day. She added: Somebodys going to get hurt. Captain Souffrant, who took over the precinct in January 2021, was one of four officers sued in 2014 on charges of falsely arresting a Brooklyn man who recorded them arresting another man. The suit was settled for $20,000 without admission of fault. The departments public information office did not make Captain Souffrant available for an interview and declined to comment on Lieutenant Ropers charges or pending litigation. In a statement, it said: The N.Y.P.D. has dedicated significant resources to this investigation to bring the individual responsible to justice. The N.Y.P.D. has conducted canvasses of the park with the victim and witnesses, had the victim sit with a sketch artist, and posted the images of the suspect in the park and increased patrols in the park. We continue to work with the victim, and when a positive identification can be made, an arrest will be made. Among parkgoers, frustrations with the police continue to build, as more people share their experiences, often on social media. Major crimes in the precinct are up 52 percent from two years ago, though still a fraction of their 1980s highs. Hours after issuing a rare warning about a security risk at New Jersey synagogues, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified a man who holds radical extremist views, and who they say was the source of the threat, a federal official told faith leaders Friday morning. It was not clear if a suspect was in custody, but officials said the threat had been mitigated. He no longer poses a threat to the community at this time, James E. Dennehy, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.s Newark office, said during a morning conference call with state and federal law enforcement officials and more than 500 Jewish leaders. Mr. Dennehy said investigators believed that the man, who is from New Jersey, was acting alone, but they are continuing to pursue leads about people he might have been in contact with. The man was not publicly identified, and officials offered no additional information about whether he had been charged with a crime. He was located Thursday night, officials said, and questioned for a few hours. He expressed radical, extremist views and ideology, as well as an extreme amount of hate against the Jewish community, Mr. Dennehy said. Fort Polk, LA (71446) Today Strong thunderstorms likely. Storms may produce large hail and strong winds. High 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Thunderstorms during the evening, then skies turning partly cloudy overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 49F. SW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. In October, the number of rides on any given weekday was around 3.5 million, about two million fewer than before the pandemic. But Manhattans Union Square station, where eight lines converge in one dim space, is nearly always crowded. Amari Singleton said hes never felt unsafe while gathering donations for charities, nor has he witnessed violence. But hes noticed a shift in attitude. As far as safety, I havent noticed any changes, said Mr. Singleton, 22. But as far as people being more protective of their space thats definitely changed. A lot of people spent six months in the house, and I dont think, socially, things will ever be the same, he said. Violent crimes on the subway this year are only about 2.6 percent of New York Citys total, but the randomness of many attacks has left riders fearful. There have been nine homicides this year, compared with an average of fewer than two in the years leading up to the pandemic. This years first took place in the Bronx just hours into 2022, when Roland Hueston, who had been trying to save a man thrown onto the tracks amid a fracas, was struck himself. The second came two weeks later in the systems busiest station: Times Square. Michelle Go, who worked in finance, was shoved in front of an R train. The authorities said her attacker, a homeless man, had a history of crime and mental illness. Other high-profile attacks included a mass shooting on the N train during the morning rush in April miraculously, no one was killed and the fatal shooting of a Goldman Sachs employee, Daniel Enriquez, on the Q train in May. Since opening last month, an emergency relief center set up on Randalls Island to accommodate the influx of immigrants from Latin America remains less than half full. But as the number of migrants being transported from Texas has slowed to a trickle, the tent shelters that the city erected on the island have drawn another set of immigrants who have found them to be a haven when compared to the poor and often cramped housing conditions that newcomers frequently encounter when they first arrive in the city. While Latin Americans, many of them fleeing political and economic disruptions in Venezuela, make up a significant portion of the tent population, a growing number of people living in the shelters are West Africans who have been moved out of relatives apartments, religious institutions and in some cases other shelters they say are overcrowded and dangerous. They say the tents, by contrast, are spacious and clean. Its a good situation, said Isa Isadoup, 47, who is from Senegal and who arrived in New York four months ago from Brazil, where he worked as a fisherman for seven years. In New York, he was living with a brother in the Bronx but their apartment was overcrowded. There were too many people, he said. This is another example of prosecutors overreaching and overcharging, Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Grimes, said Friday. Its good that some people have the ability to fight back and demonstrate that, but unfortunately, many people do not. In a risky move, Mr. Barrack took the witness stand in his own defense, testifying for several days about his efforts to improve U.S. relations with Gulf countries while also building business opportunities for his private equity firm, Colony Capital. Mr. Barrack said his dealings with the Emirates were in keeping with his views on the region and his work as a businessman. He told the jury that he had gained a cultural sixth sense over years of working in the Middle East, and hoped, in a final chapter of his career, to weave a web of tolerance. Prosecutors said those words masked an ugly truth, citing evidence that Mr. Barrack had doctored an email to Jared Kushner the presidents son-in-law and adviser to amplify his importance and sought hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from the Emiratis as he advanced their interests. The defendants unlocked the back door of the American political system its campaigns, its media, its government to the U.A.E., Ryan Harris, one of the prosecutors, said in his closing argument Tuesday. A spokesman for the prosecutors office declined to comment after the verdict Friday. The case centered on the run-up to the 2016 election and its immediate aftermath, as Mr. Barrack, an Arabic speaker of Lebanese descent who had known Mr. Trump and many Arab leaders for decades, assumed the roles of fund-raiser, public surrogate, party planner and informal adviser. He sought to guide Mr. Trumps candidacy and fledgling administration. Between 2016 and 2018, Mr. Barrack and Mr. Grimes were in regular contact with Rashid al-Malik, an Emirati businessman who was an intermediary with the countrys officials. Mr. Grimes and Mr. Barrack shared drafts of editorials, position papers and speeches with Mr. al-Malik, soliciting feedback from Emirati officials. The strangeness of these bedfellows is less about Mr. Mastrianos specific platform than the very fact of his candidacy; his willingness, stated in a prayer to God, to seize the power that we have given to us by the Constitution and by you; his regular touting of his military service; his enthusiasm for the militaristic and vengeful Mr. Trump; and his skepticism of the separation of church and state. This would be unremarkable were we talking about support among ordinary evangelical voters. But for Anabaptists, its exactly the walk in darkness we once fundamentally eschewed. And this shift is not unique to Pennsylvania; G.O.P. outreach and upticks in political engagement were reported in Amish communities in Michigan and especially Ohio over the past six years. Nor is it unique to Republicans. The biggest surprise of my seven years in a Mennonite Church USA congregation was how rapidly, how eagerly many of my coreligionists were diving into political action. There, the politics were typically pro-social-justice, anti-Trump progressivism very far from Mr. Mastrianos culture-war Republicanism. But the accelerating rush into politics was strikingly similar. That politicization was limited in my local church, but in the broader denomination, political engagement seemed to be on an inexorable rise. At a denominational conference in 2018, I was startled by how political much of the content was. Our confession of faith looked to God for true justice, but in one conference session after another, justice seemed a primarily political hope, often tied, explicitly or by clear implication, to voting out Mr. Trump. Im not alone in observing this shift among Anabaptists left and right. American Mennonites are feeling the seduction of political engagement, the Anabaptist scholar John Roth has noted, lamenting that often their political witness basically aligns with the partisan divisions of the broader culture. Mennonite Church USAs denominational discussion around the 2020 election simply assumed political participation, and in 2020, Mennonite pastors across six denominations addressed rising political polarization in their churches. Political operatives have taken notice, too, and in some cases are actively encouraging Amish and Mennonite forays deeper into political territory. As The Washington Post reported in 2019, Republican activists have identified the Amish and other theologically conservative Anabaptists as potential new party members, even founding a project called Amish PAC to recruit voters for Mr. Trump. The political action committee, which took in about $200,000 for the 2020 election and has reported raising about $31,000 for this cycle, has bought billboards and ads in local periodicals. Initially, many Amish people were resistant to the idea of voting, but since 2016, every single year, it gets a little bit easier, an Amish PAC official told The Post. I think behaviors are finally changing. Increases in new voter registrations from the Amish-heavy Lancaster, Pa., area in 2020 suggest hes right, even if the numbers remain modest. In 2016, researchers estimated, about 1,000 Amish people cast votes in the county out of about 15,000 eligible voters. The potential, though, is there for meaningful differences in close elections. And while its hard to get a firm tally of potential Anabaptist voters, they easily number in the tens of thousands in a few key states. Data from Elizabethtown Colleges Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies put the Pennsylvania Amish population north of 84,000, with 80,000 more in Ohio, and these numbers leave out more traditional but distinct Mennonite groups. Its the theologically conservative factions those more likely to vote Republican seeing rapid growth: Pennsylvanias Amish population nearly doubled in the last two decades. Still, it remains relatively rare today for the Amish to actually vote. Imagine you woke up after the 2024 U.S. presidential election and found that Donald Trump had been re-elected and chose Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Michael Flynn for defense secretary, Steve Bannon for commerce secretary, evangelical leader James Dobson for education secretary, Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio for homeland security head and Marjorie Taylor Greene for the White House spokeswoman. Impossible, you would say. Well, think again. As Ive noted before, Israeli political trends are often a harbinger of wider trends in Western democracies Off Broadway to our Broadway. I hoped that the national unity government that came to power in Israel in June 2021 might also be a harbinger of more bipartisanship here. Alas, that government has now collapsed and is being replaced by the most far-far-right coalition in Israels history. Lord save us if this is a harbinger of whats coming our way. The coalition that Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu is riding back into power is the Israeli equivalent of the nightmare U.S. cabinet I imagined above. Only it is real a rowdy alliance of ultra-Orthodox leaders and ultranationalist politicians, including some outright racist, anti-Arab Jewish extremists once deemed completely outside the norms and boundaries of Israeli politics. As it is virtually impossible for Netanyahu to build a majority coalition without the support of these extremists, some of them are almost certain to be cabinet ministers in the next Israeli government. As that previously unthinkable reality takes hold, a fundamental question will roil synagogues in America and across the globe: Do I support this Israel or not support it? It will haunt pro-Israel students on college campuses. It will challenge Arab allies of Israel in the Abraham Accords, who just wanted to trade with Israel and never signed up for defending a government there that is anti-Israeli Arab. It will stress those U.S. diplomats who have reflexively defended Israel as a Jewish democracy that shares Americas values, and it will send friends of Israel in Congress fleeing from any reporter asking if America should continue sending billions of dollars in aid to such a religious-extremist-inspired government. My Thursday column is about the assault on Medicare and Social Security that is almost certain to follow if Republicans prevail on Tuesday. If the G.O.P. wins control of Congress, we can expect it to hold the economy hostage, most obviously by weaponizing the debt ceiling, in an attempt to force big cuts in Medicare and Social Security. This isnt an outlandish scenario. It already happened once. In 2011, after taking control of the House, Republicans sought to extort major cuts in the social safety net from the Obama administration and they almost succeeded. In fact, President Barack Obama agreed to a rise in the age of Medicare eligibility, from 65 to 67. The deal fell through only because Republicans were unwilling to accept even modest tax increases as their part of the bargain. This time around, the demands are likely to be even bigger. A report from the Republican Study Committee, which probably gives a good idea of where the G.O.P. will go, calls for upping the retirement age and the age of Medicare eligibility to 70. The report justifies such a rise by pointing to the long-term increase in the number of years Americans can expect to live after age 65, which it calls a miracle. James Madison hoped that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom to lead their republic. And if not? If there was no virtue among us, then Americans were in a wretched situation. The reason, he explained, was that there were no theoretical checks that could render the nation secure in the absence of virtue: To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. James Wilson, who helped produce the first draft of the Constitution and served as one of the first six justices on the Supreme Court, did not think that republican government could survive among a citizenry that could not or would not sacrifice its personal interest for the public good. By the will and by the interest of the community, every private will and every private interest must be bound and overruled. Unless this maxim be established and observed; it is impossible that civil government could be formed or supported. Writing in a somewhat different vein, John Dickinson, who served as a delegate from Delaware to the constitutional convention, asked skeptics of the Constitution to ask how, exactly, a virtuous people would undermine their government. Will a virtuous and sensible people choose villains or fools for their officers? Or, if they should choose men of wisdom and integrity, will these lose both or either, by taking their seats? If they should, will not their places be quickly supplied by another choice? Is the like derangement again, and again, and again to be expected? Can any man believe, that such astonishing phenomena are to be looked for? In all of this, the framers and founding fathers were interpreting the classical republican theorists, who emphasized, in one way or another, the vital importance of civic virtue. The Americans vision of virtue was different from that of many of their interlocutors Virtue became less the harsh and martial self-sacrifice of antiquity, the historian Gordon Wood notes, and more the modern willingness to get along with others for the sake of peace and prosperity but it was still critical to the maintenance and preservation of republican liberty. As George Washington said in his first inaugural address, There is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity. I used to scoff at much of this, thoroughly convinced that institutions mattered more than virtue. It was more important, in my view, to provide the right incentives than it was to try to cultivate values of honesty, decency, forbearance and public spiritedness. But the example of the past seven years, from Donald Trumps infamous ride down the escalator in June of 2015 to the present, has pushed me in the opposite direction. Institutions matter, but so does virtue, especially among the nations leaders. Even if it is insincere, the performance of virtue helps inculcate those values in the public at large. It says, in essence, that this is how we behave, even as we fight for power and political influence. For decades now, originalism and opposition to abortion have been treated as synonymous by proponents and detractors alike. Pro-life organizations have routinely issued statements that are indistinguishable from originalist rhetoric in their denunciations of judicial activism and their emphasis on the role of a Supreme Court justice, which is to interpret the Constitution without prejudice and to apply the law in an unbiased manner. Justice Antonin Scalia, perhaps the most prominent originalist, appears as a matter of course on lists of pro-life heroes, even though he maintained that democratic majorities could legitimately legalize abortion if they chose to do so. Whose cause was really being advanced by such an alliance between a moral crusade and a constitutional theory? Originalism has won the day, but the anti-abortion cause has not. I believe that this state of affairs is a direct consequence of conflating what should have been an argument about principles with a question of tactics. The longer we nodded along with one another about what looks now like an ill-considered strategy vote for the Red Team so that it can get the White House and a Senate majority, which it will use to confirm judicial nominees who, if the right case emerges, may undo a half-century-old legal precedent the less attention we paid to whether we were all really trying to accomplish the same thing. I do not mean this cynically, though its true that many Republican politicians have been happy to instrumentalize abortion without having any serious underlying convictions themselves. Rather, I mean to bemoan the consequences of allowing abortion to be talked about at a remove, which has prevented generations of abortion opponents from cultivating the intellectual habits and the moral vocabulary necessary to advance their position directly. It is one thing to ask a candidate for public office to say that he supports nominees for the judiciary who interpret the Constitution as written. It is quite another to ask him to say, with philosophical consistency, that he regards abortion as the unjustified taking of human life, and that even horrifying circumstances of impregnation rape, for example do not alter the metaphysical status of those killed. If Dobbs has shown us anything, it is the limited usefulness of constitutional theory to the pro-life movement. The future of the cause will require sustained engagement with the questions of biology and metaphysics upon which the anti-abortion position has always depended, questions that lie outside politics in the conventional sense of the word. Legal thinking is by nature unsuited for such efforts and perhaps even corrosive to them. The anti-abortion movements legal gambit reminds us of the danger for any cause of eliding first-order moral questions into second-order questions about tactics. The ends may not always justify the means, but in making these calculations it is helpful if one begins with the recognition that they are not identical. Rarely does a document so bland generate such heat. On Oct. 24, 30 progressive members of Congress wrote President Biden a letter about Ukraine policy. The letter blamed Russia for the war. It endorsed military aid to Ukraine and long-term security guarantees to ensure it remains free and independent. And while it proposed a proactive diplomatic push to end the fighting, it also insisted that it is not Americas place to pressure Ukraines government regarding sovereign decisions. Given that Mr. Biden has already said the war must end in a negotiated settlement and that his top advisers are already talking to their Russian counterparts, the missive largely encouraged him to continue what hes already doing. Daniel Drezner, an international relations scholar at Tufts University, called it a giant nothingburger. And yet its release sparked a ferocious backlash. An official from the centrist think tank Third Way claimed the letters proposals dishonor the Ukrainian peoples courageous sacrifice by suggesting they give up everything theyve been fighting for. Representative Jake Auchincloss, Democrat of Massachusetts, called it an olive branch to a war criminal. Within a day of the letters publication, its authors retracted it. They retracted it because a new Cold War atmosphere now pervades Washington. Politicians who suggest even modest compromises with Americas great power foes face censure from both sides of the aisle. During the last Cold War, fears of appearing soft on communism cowed progressive legislators into silence as the United States descended into war in Vietnam. After the attacks of Sept. 11, many Democrats acquiesced to the Bush administrations invasion of Iraq because they feared being called soft on terrorism. When it comes to Russia and China, another climate of conformity is now taking hold. Unless challenged, it could eventually bring disaster as well. Waterfront properties are as popular as ever, said Dawn Neway, a real estate agent based in East Hampton, N.Y. And some homeowners with ample waterfront footage around 50-100 extra feet behind the current location are engaging experts to reposition their houses to take them farther away from ever-rising water. While the Denniss property in Truro is modest in its overall footprint, home lifting and moving is not limited by size. Guy Davis, the fourth-generation owner of Davis Building Movers in Blue Point, N.Y., who works on projects on the East Coast, has lifted or moved a wide range of homes, including some very large structures in the Hamptons. Just last year, he said, he moved a 15,000-square-foot home as well as a 20,000-square-foot home in the Hamptons. Its a multistep process. First, engineers must assess if the house is structurally sound to move. Once thats determined, Mr. Davis said, then physically we come in and typically excavate around the house and clean the perimeter of the house. Following the excavation, the next step is to jackhammer or cut holes in the foundation and slip a grid of steel under the house, he added. I have to design the length and weight of the steel to hold the structure without failure. I need to work out weight of structure before I start to position the jacking and lifting points and give my best estimation of whats necessary to hold the house safely when its under my control. If the home isnt undergoing renovations, it can be lifted or moved with household goods, including furniture in place, because that weight is a small fraction of the total weight, which can be many tons. (The furniture does not have to be secured, Mr. Davis said, but he does suggest taking pictures and mirrors down, along with other fragile items.) Mr. Davis said his grandfather would tell clients to put a glass of water on a table before the move. If it spilled, he said, there would be no charge. Mr. Davis claims his grandfather never lost a bet. This article is part of our latest special report on Waterfront Homes. For years, ecotourism has been both a buzzword and a lifestyle trend. Tour operators, hotels, and even private jet companies have come up with ways to attract the wealthy who still want to enjoy luxurious vacations while limiting their impact on the earth. These concepts have also arrived in the second-home market, where a new spate of buyers, keen on limiting their effect on the climate, are pushing developers to rethink how they plan and build both individual homes and communities. Renewable energy and sustainable building materials are only part of the way these destinations work to reduce their effect on the climate. Developers are becoming more aware of how they can help and how much potential owners want them to shape and improve local communities rather than simply develop the land and hire the local population for a work force. Here is a look at three areas where sustainability is in practice. Costa Elena, La Cruz, Costa Rica If the 400,000 acres of the Guanacaste Conservation Area can be considered Costa Elenas back yard, then the Pacific Ocean is the front. Seclusion has often been a desirable feature for homeowners and travelers, but these days few can afford to disconnect completely. Early on Friday morning, pieces of a 23-ton Chinese rocket stage tumbled back to Earth in the Pacific Ocean, the United States Space Command reported in a pair of tweets. It was Chinas latest round of celestial roulette involving a deliberate uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry. The rocket stage, by design, did not include a system to guide it into a specific spot on Earth, far away from people. That led to nervous sky-watching around the world. As it had three times before in 2020, 2021 and earlier this year, China launched a Long March 5B rocket, one of the most powerful rockets in operation today, on Monday to transport a third and final module of its Tiangong space station, the centerpiece of a space program that is second only to NASAs in technological sophistication. Each time, China has successfully gambled that the rockets parts would not cause injury to people on the ground. But while there were no immediate reports of damage, Fridays re-entry did cause disruption, including a closure of Spanish airspace that delayed hundreds of flights in the morning. A rocket of the same design is expected to be used again at least once more, in 2023. The pullback of advertisers from Twitter gathered steam on Friday amid growing fear that misinformation and hate speech would be allowed to proliferate on the platform under Elon Musks leadership. The Volkswagen Group joined several other companies in recommending that its automotive brands, which include Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Porsche, pause their spending on Twitter out of concerns that their ads could appear alongside problematic content. The Danish brewing company Carlsberg Group also said it had advised its marketing teams to do the same. The outdoor equipment and apparel retailer REI said it would pause posts in addition to advertising spending given the uncertain future of Twitters ability to moderate harmful content and guarantee brand safety for advertisers. And a spokeswoman for United Airlines, Leslie Scott, confirmed that the carrier had suspended advertising on Twitter earlier this week. Civil rights groups including GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League held a conference call on Friday urging other companies to abandon Twitter, saying that mass layoffs there were gutting what they described as an already anemic content moderation staff. Even Mr. Musk acknowledged the advertising slump, tweeting on Friday morning that Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, which he blamed on activist groups pressuring advertisers. I never thought I would be living on a street like that in Europe. Our country has been at war for 45 years, and I thought I could get a better life here. BASHARMAL MOHAMMADI, an Afghan seeking asylum in Brussels as Europe confronts a refugee crisis. This may seem counterintuitive to voters: Broad crime trends are often national in scale (that was the case when crime plummeted across the country starting in the 1990s, and when gun violence surged just about everywhere during the pandemic). But it doesnt follow that the answers are primarily federal ones. We have a national problem that isnt solved at the national level, said Phillip Atiba Goff, a Yale professor and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity. But our national narrative makes it harder to solve it at the local level which is the only level where its going to get solved. The federal government does play an important role. It funnels money to states and local governments, and often uses that money to incentivize local police to shift policies. Major components of the 1994 crime bill, for example, dedicated federal money to hire local police officers, fund victims services and construct state prisons. The federal government has also sent military-grade equipment to local police, although research suggests that has done little to reduce crime. In its other roles, the federal government offers technical assistance to local agencies and supports research on which policing strategies work. And it has a bully pulpit. President Biden signed an executive order in May directing federal law enforcement to restrict tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants. While the order has a limited reach, it could still nudge cultural changes among local departments. And individual senators and members of Congress can use their own megaphones to push policing priorities to local officials. As a whole, Congress could play a bigger role but often chooses not to. One of the reasons that we talk about the federal government having so little authority is not just because it cant do a lot of things, but also because it wont do certain things, said Thomas Abt, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, and chair of the Violent Crime Working Group. The single biggest thing that the federal government could do to limit violent crime in particular would be to pass reasonable regulations that limit access to deadly firearms. Relaxed gun laws at the federal and state level have allowed more guns on the street and made the problem of local violent crime worse, said Darrel Stephens, a retired chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and former longtime head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. It was a jumpy, 20-second video clip that touched off a firestorm: During a local primary election two years ago, the former mayor of this farm town of San Luis, Ariz., was filmed handling another voters ballot. She appeared to make a few marks, and then sealed it and handed a small stack of ballots to another woman to turn in. That moment outside a polling place in August 2020 thrust this town along the southern border into the center of stolen-election conspiracy theories, as the unlikely inspiration for the debunked voter fraud film 2,000 Mules. Activists peddling misinformation and supported by former President Donald J. Trump descended on San Luis. The Republican attorney general of Arizona opened an investigation into voting, which is still ongoing. The former mayor, Guillermina Fuentes, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years probation for ballot abuse or what the attorney general called ballot harvesting a felony under Arizona law. Ms. Fuentes is one of four women in San Luis who have now been charged with illegally collecting ballots during the primaries, including the second woman who appears on the video. But there have been no charges of widespread voter fraud in San Luis linked to the presidential election. Liberal voting-rights groups and many San Luis residents say that investigators, prosecutors and election-denying activists have intimidated voters and falsely tied their community to conspiracy theories about rampant, nationwide election fraud. The film 2,000 Mules, endorsed by Mr. Trump, has helped to keep those claims alive, and is often cited by election-denying candidates across the country. One of Californias November ballot measures has made for some strange political bedfellows. On one side, environmentalists have teamed up with firefighters, Democrats and Lyft, the ride-share company, which has poured more than $45 million into its campaign to pass a climate initiative. On the other, Gov. Gavin Newsom has aligned himself with California billionaires, teachers and Republicans in opposition. The focus of the unlikely coalitions: Proposition 30, a ballot measure known as the Clean Cars and Clean Air Act, which asks California voters whether to raise the personal income tax by 1.75 percent on those making more than $2 million per year, in order to pay for electric vehicle programs and help fight wildfires. Proponents say the measure would raise money from those who can afford it to fund critical state mandates on electric vehicle sales and ride-share miles that have been highly promoted but not fully funded. Opponents argue it would require taxpayers to foot the bill for electric vehicle subsidies that Uber and Lyft would eventually have to pay for on their own. In August, California regulators voted to ban the sale of all gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035, which was hailed by environmentalists and by Newsom as a significant step in combating climate change. Last year, the state implemented an even earlier standard for ride-share companies like Lyft and Uber: 90 percent of ride-share drivers miles will have to be in electric vehicles by 2030. WASHINGTON House Republicans are pressing Amtrak to answer questions about six-figure bonuses that top executives received last year despite the rail services poor financial performance and low ridership during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the chairman of Amtraks board of directors, two Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee asked the company to explain how it awards bonuses, saying that the payouts to executives seemed to be inappropriate and wasteful. The letter was sent after a report by The New York Times in August revealing that Amtrak paid out $2.3 million in short-term incentive bonuses to top executives in the 2021 fiscal year despite reporting its lowest revenue and biggest losses in more than a decade. Nine executives received bonuses exceeding $200,000. The letter, dated on Thursday, was signed by Representatives Sam Graves of Missouri, the top Republican on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rick Crawford of Arkansas, the top Republican on the panels railroads subcommittee. WASHINGTON A new study by Pfizer and BioNTech suggests that their updated coronavirus booster is better than its predecessor at increasing the antibody levels of people over age 55 against the most common version of the virus now circulating. Federal officials are hoping that the encouraging results will improve what has so far been a dismal public response to the retooled shots. Only about 8 percent of Americans ages 5 and up have received the new boosters from Pfizer and Moderna since they were introduced in September. Pfizer and BioNTech announced the study results in a news release on Friday. The companies said that one month after getting the new booster, clinical trial participants over 55 had antibody levels that were about four times as high as those who received the original booster. The study measured the levels of neutralizing antibodies against two sister subvariants of Omicron known as BA.4 and BA.5. The number of participants in the study was small, with 36 people over 55 receiving the new booster and 40 people in that age group receiving the old one. And because the study measured antibody levels only a month after trial participants were boosted, it did not provide any indication about the potential durability of the protection in the longer term. A Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina criticized his Democratic opponents campaign on Friday for showing one of his homes in a TV ad, saying that someone had recently fired a bullet into his parents house. The Hickory Police Department confirmed that the parents of the Republican candidate, Pat Harrigan, had reported on Oct. 19 that someone had fired a bullet that put a hole in a window in their homes laundry room the night before. No one was injured. The police report did not come to light until it was covered in local news reports on Thursday, and the campaign of Mr. Harrigans Democratic opponent, Jeff Jackson, took down the ad showing a different Harrigan residence. The ad had been running since Oct. 18, apparently the same date the bullet hole was found. During an appearance Friday morning on Fox & Friends, Mr. Harrigan accused Mr. Jackson of very poor judgment. Dr. Mehmet Oz owes much of his fortune and no small amount of his fame to Oprah Winfrey. But Ms. Winfrey, who branded Dr. Oz as Americas Doctor on her famed television show and went on to co-produce a spinoff, The Dr. Oz Show, announced her support on Thursday for her proteges Democratic rival, John Fetterman, in the tightly contested U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons, Ms. Winfrey said during a virtual midterms-focused event, according to a clip shared by the Fetterman campaign late Thursday. A high-profile liberal who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and offered public support for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, Ms. Winfrey had appeared as though she would sit out announcing her views on the Pennsylvania race. Last year, after Dr. Oz declared his candidacy, leaping into politics from 13 years as the celebrity host of his medical-advice show, Ms. Winfrey offered a noncommittal statement that its up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them. Dr. Oz, who was a prominent cardiothoracic surgeon in New York in the early 2000s, became a regular guest offering health advice on The Oprah Winfrey Show over five seasons. Ms. Winfreys company, Harpo Productions, helped create Dr. Ozs own daytime show in 2009. At a meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State in August 2021, in response to a wave of highly partisan reviews billed as audits of the 2020 election results, a group of four Republican and four Democratic secretaries of state drew up a resolution setting clear standards for audits. The measure passed unanimously with the exceptions of Mr. Warner, who voted against it, and Mr. Ashcroft, who abstained, and shortly after that left the association entirely in protest of the measure, which he argues violated the groups bylaws. Neither Mr. Warner nor Mr. Ashcroft directly claims that the election was stolen. Both have instead maintained that a significant number of ballots were cast outside of the law in key states on account of expansions in remote voting made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that these issues have yet to be sufficiently settled in court. Although many legal challenges to the election were rejected by judges on the merits, others were dismissed on technical grounds. One postelection challenge, to the use of drop boxes for voting in Wisconsin, won in the states Supreme Court this year. Some Republican secretaries who stood by the outcome of the 2020 election have nevertheless given credence to lesser claims, directly or indirectly. Frank LaRose, the Republican secretary of state of Ohio, has publicly rebuked conspiracy theorists claims about the election in Ohio, but also raised questions about things that happened in other states in interviews. Could it have changed the electoral count? he said in an interview with The Columbus Dispatch in April. Who knows. In December, Louisianas Voting Systems Commission, a panel led by the Republican secretary of state Kyle Ardoin, invited Phil Waldron, a prominent election conspiracy theorist, to testify at a hearing. In January, Mr. Ardoin announced that Louisiana would no longer participate in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a cross-state information-sharing platform used to maintain voter rolls, which had lately become the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories. This has angered some Democratic secretaries of state, who note that election officials and often secretaries of state themselves have faced personal threats as a result of the conspiracy theories that their Republican counterparts have been reluctant to check. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, took the witness stand at his seditious conspiracy trial on Friday, telling the jury that after the 2020 election he was afraid that leftist protesters might physically drag President Donald J. Trump out of the White House and that he hoped Mr. Trump would mobilize his far-right group to come to his aid. In his first day of testimony in Federal District Court in Washington, Mr. Rhodes sought to defend himself against sedition charges by painting an apocalyptic, albeit imaginary, scene of the White House being overrun by antifa activists and Mr. Trump being hauled from the building if he failed to concede that he had lost the election. Speaking in rapid-fire fashion, Mr. Rhodes also claimed that he and his group had brought weapons to the Washington area for a pro-Trump rally in the run-up to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, anticipating that Mr. Trump might employ a two centuries-old law called the Insurrection Act to summon them and other military personnel. If a president jumped up and invoked the Insurrection Act and said, Im calling on any veterans in the area to come defend the White House, Mr. Rhodes told the jury, wed be ready to do so. ACCRA, Ghana When Maxine Angel Opoku was still an upstart musician, relatively unknown and struggling to stand out in Ghanas competitive music scene, she sang about love, romance and being sexy. Then, in August 2021, lawmakers in the countrys Parliament introduced a bill that would imprison people who identify as transgender, as Ms. Opoku does, and her art urgently turned to advocacy. Her music began to attract both legions of new fans as well as powerful adversaries. Dear Mr. Politician, fix the country right now. The people who voted for you, are disappointed in you, Ms. Opoku sings in one of her latest songs. Kill it, kill it, kill the bill. The subject of the song is the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, which, if passed, would make identifying as gay, transgender or queer a crime punishable with a maximum prison sentence of five years. The incident came to light when a video of the boy receiving CPR circulated on social media. After a widespread outcry, the district health authorities published their report. They pledged to deeply learn from this painful lesson and said officials who had failed in their duties would be handled seriously. But the boys father, Tuo Shilei, said he took no comfort in that promise. This supposed handling wont happen. I know that. Its pretty much just for show, Mr. Tuo, a restaurant owner, said in an exchange of messages. He said his son hasnt received a true public accounting, and the public that has cared for and supported us throughout this entire process has not received a convincing, acceptable, open, just outcome. He also suggested that he had been warned against pressing for further accountability. The relatives whove suffered have been subject to endless public discussion and pressure from all kinds of unknown sources, and we have no choice but to temporarily compromise, Mr. Tuo said. Other than this, there has been no consolation. Chinas zero-Covid policy, now in its third year, seeks to eliminate infections through stringent, often repressive, controls on movement and personal freedom. Beijing has said it is meant to save as many lives as possible, while arguing that loose controls in other countries, especially Western ones, had led to millions of deaths. The controls have kept Chinas infection and death rates much lower than those elsewhere, and they enjoy significant public support. But they have also sometimes cut off peoples access to essentials like food and medical care a trade-off that some see as increasingly unjustifiable as the danger from the virus itself ebbs. Sometimes, the controls appear to have indirectly led to deaths themselves. NEW DELHI This years air pollution season in northern India is off to a dreadful start, even by the standards of a region with some of the worlds worst air. Particulate matter hovering over New Delhi, the capital, and nearby areas in recent days has turned the sky a muted gray and led to widespread suffering, school closings and other disruptions. Politicians are trading bitter accusations over who is to blame. We are not breathing air but smoking it, said Jyoti Pande Lavakare, an environmental activist in New Delhi and the author of Breathing Here Is Injurious to Your Health, a book about air pollution in the country. Public attention has focused on the pollution in New Delhi this week, she added, but hundreds of millions of people in northern India are also suffering from some of the worst air pollution they have seen in years. The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by emailThis weeks issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter with the Australia bureau. The advertisement for a dream job in a land far, far away is a distinctive subgenre of viral news stories. Maybe you would like to relocate to Saalfelden, Austria, and become a professional cave hermit. Or you might envision yourself quitting your desk job to become Japans first full-time foreign ninja. If either of these sound like the sort of escapism you crave, you might have been one of the 1,383 people from 24 countries who have applied to be a biodiversity supervisor for the Department of Conservation on New Zealands remote West Coast. Applications closed on Tuesday. The job will be based in the township of Haast, which has a population of about 85 people, and involves working with endangered New Zealand wildlife, like a rare sub-breed of the southern brown kiwi; monitoring fur seal populations; and working on the countrys innovative and extensive predator control measures. Haast is an extremely special place to live, surrounded by mountains and ocean, with endless activities for an outdoor enthusiast, the advertisement reads. KYIV, Ukraine With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently girding to battle for the city of Kherson, signs of Kremlin rule are disappearing from the citys streets while the remaining residents, unsure what to believe and afraid of what comes next, are stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat. Russian soldiers, patrols and checkpoints have suddenly become extremely scarce in the city center, according to residents reached by phone on Thursday, and most civilians have left. The Russian tricolor flag, raised over government offices after Moscows forces captured Kherson in February, was missing on Thursday from the main regional administrative building and other sites. Kremlin-appointed administrators have relocated to a site 50 miles away after looting anything of value they could take, residents and Ukrainian officials said. But Russian troops have not decamped from the area. Ukrainian military intelligence says Russia has deployed some 40,000 soldiers to the western bank of the Dnipro River to stop the Ukrainian military from reclaiming Kherson. In Rostov, Ms. Chistyakova managed to identify one soldier because he had an unusual bear claw tattoo on his right hand. His body had arrived at the morgue on June 3, more than two months before she found him. Nobody was actively looking because his parents were dead, she said, so she called his stepmother to tell her. After her first day, she sat under the stars on a darkened residential sidewalk in the city, weeping and praying. Her son is still missing. She is weighing whether to go back to the morgue. We dont give a damn about the politics, whatever you are doing there, just give them back, Ms. Chistyakova said. If they were killed, give back their bodies. The family of Vladimir Veselov, 36, had last heard from the contract soldier around May 16, and endured a month of silence before they began to look for him. His sister Elena said that she called the hotline and was told repeatedly that Vladimir did not appear on any negative lists, the euphemism for those confirmed killed, wounded or missing. Sleuthing among her brothers fellow soldiers led her to his units field medic, code-named Scalpel. An exploding tank shell had seriously wounded Vladimir in the head near Kharkiv, Scalpel told her. The medic had evacuated Vladimir to a hospital in Belgorod and had not seen him since. BRUSSELS The Russian war against Ukraine has given NATO a renewed sense of its vital role in the defense of Europe. With the risks of escalation and a wider war, this period may be as important as any in the history of the 73-year-old alliance, which was designed to deter the Soviet Union. With the tenure of NATOs current chief, Jens Stoltenberg, scheduled to end next fall, the jockeying among allies for who should replace him has begun in earnest, and the battle lines in the contest are already beginning to form, according to American officials familiar with the debate. While the officials cautioned that these are early days, and very often the names that surface first do not survive the bargaining among NATOs 30 members, they said one prime candidate has surfaced in Washington: Chrystia Freeland, 54, the Canadian-Ukrainian deputy prime minister and finance minister of Canada. Ms. Freeland, 54, a former journalist (who is married to a reporter for The New York Times), has also been Canadas foreign minister. Her advantages are considerable: she speaks English, French, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian; she has run complicated ministries; she is good at news conferences and other public appearances; and she would be the first woman and first Canadian ever to run NATO. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. MOSCOW In an industrial block in northeastern Moscow on a recent Friday night, organizers of an L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly art festival were assiduously checking IDs. No one under 18 allowed. They were trying to comply with a 2013 Russian law that bans exposing minors to anything that could be considered gay propaganda. The organizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challenging for gay Russians since the law passed, as the government has treated gay life as a Western import that is harmful to traditional Russian values and society. Now Russias Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all gay propaganda, signaling an even more difficult period ahead for a stigmatized segment of society. KYIV, Ukraine Russia is funneling newly drafted conscripts with little training to the front line in Ukraines east, while mounting intensified but ineffective attacks and suffering heavy casualties, according to the Ukrainian military and Western analysts. Grisly videos of Russian infantry in poorly prepared positions being struck by artillery have partly supported those assertions, as has reporting in Russian news media of mobilized soldiers telling relatives about high casualty rates. The videos, filmed by Ukrainian drones, have not been independently verified, and their exact locations could not be determined. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced on Friday that the draft he ordered on Sept. 21, a chaotic effort that swept up some men who should have been exempt, had added 318,000 troops to Russias military, with 49,000 of them already in combat. But he did not acknowledge the widespread complaints of inadequate training and equipment, with some soldiers being killed within days of deployment. Attention has shifted recently to the southern front, where Ukrainian forces are slowly closing in on the Russian-held city of Kherson, but the Kremlin is also pouring more troops into the eastern Donbas region, trying to halt recent Ukrainian advances while rebuilding ground forces that have been decimated by more than eight months of war. Mohammad, 17, emerged groggily from his hotel near Heathrow Airport into the spitting rain on Thursday, his flimsy sandals slapping at the wet concrete. It has been weeks since he slept or ate properly, he said. He crossed his arms and shivered, then gazed up at the sky as a plane roared overhead. Before he was taken to the hotel, Mohammad said, he spent 25 days at the Manston migrant center on Englands southeastern coast. Recounting his time in the troubled Manston center, Mohammad, who is from Iraqi Kurdistan, described how asylum seekers had been forced to sleep in chairs in freezing temperatures, adding that many had become sick in overcrowded tents. He said that he had been fed too little and often gone hungry, that many people were filthy because there werent enough showers, and that he had been prevented from contacting his family in Iraq to let them know that he had survived the perilous journey across the English Channel. WASHINGTON The Defense Department is setting up a new command to oversee how the United States and its allies train and equip the Ukrainian military, the Pentagon announced on Friday along with a new package of $400 million in security assistance. The Pentagons commitment to supplying Ukraine with weaponry and the new command are clear signals that the United States expects the threat from Russia to Ukraine and its neighbors to persist for many years, current and former senior U.S. officials said. The command will ensure we are postured to continue supporting Ukraine over the long term, Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary, told reporters at a news briefing. We remain committed to Ukraine for as long as it takes. In the military, a command is a focused organization dedicated to a particular geographical or strategic area. The new command, called the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, or SAG-U, will based in Germany and within the structure of the Pentagons European Command. With a staff of about 300 people, it will be focused on one mission: to help train and equip Ukraines military. MUNSTER, Germany The Group of 7 nations announced Friday that they would work together to rebuild critical infrastructure in Ukraine that has been destroyed by Russias military and to defend such sites from further attacks. Top diplomats from the countries have discussed sending more defensive military equipment to Ukraine to help it ward off missile and drone attacks by Russia that are crippling the countrys infrastructure, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday. The diplomats, meeting behind closed doors, discussed the war and which countries had the right equipment to send Ukraine for air defense, the official said. The Group of 7 issued a broad statement on Friday that declared positions on a wide range of issues from Russia and the Ukraine war to China to Iran and highlighted their agreement to protect Ukrainian infrastructure. The statement was the culmination of two days of meetings of foreign ministers in the old city hall of Munster, where negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia occurred, ending two 17th-century European wars in which millions died. Other signs displayed anti-Western phrases, like Death to America! One placard showed the flags of Israel, Britain and the United States arranged in the shape of a Nazi symbol. Another revealed a giant atom symbol, a brazen celebration of the progress Iran has made in recent years to stockpile highly enriched uranium that the United States says could now be used to build a nuclear weapon. As in anniversary commemorations in previous years, many attendees arrived at the demonstrations on buses paid for by the government. The orchestrated display of nationalism was a surreal contrast to the scenes of protests that have embroiled the country for seven weeks calling for overthrowing the clerical rule and the death of the supreme leader. In the anti-government protests, security forces violently attack the crowds, even opening fire on them, to prevent them from assembling in large numbers. Opposition groups and dissidents have never been allowed to freely demonstrate in the streets and display their number of supporters to counter the size of pro-government protests. The warring demonstrations and slogans underline the disconnect between the clerics who rule the country and the touchstones of the Islamic revolution, like the U.S. Embassy takeover. Many of the youthful protesters, born decades after the embassy takeover, have been turning out on the streets of Irans cities night after night to call for the end of the Islamic Republic. The nationwide protests were set off by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police for violating the countrys mandatory hijab law. The government has responded with a violent crackdown that has killed at least 300 protesters, including at least 40 children, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. The United Nations said this week that more than 14,000 people have been arrested. The government has severely limited internet access and communications as part of efforts to quash the largely leaderless demonstrations. JERUSALEM For Jewish Israelis, the election this week of a far-right alliance has left some joyful, and others with a sense of bewilderment and foreboding. But to Palestinians in both the occupied territories and within Israels Arab minority, it has summoned a different and contradictory blend of emotions: fear, indifference and, in some cases, a sense of opportunity. Barring a last-minute change of heart, Benjamin Netanyahu, the returning prime minister, will form a government with a far-right bloc whose settler leaders variously seek to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank, expel those they deem disloyal to Israel and make it easier for soldiers to shoot at Palestinians while on duty. One of those leaders, Itamar Ben-Gvir, until recently hung a large photograph of an extremist Israeli who shot dead 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994 on his wall at home. He still keeps a picture on display there of Meir Kahane, an extremist rabbi who sought to strip Arabs of their Israeli citizenship. But other parts of the immune system can come to our defense, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious disease physician and immunology researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. The mutations defining these new variants are clustered in and around a key area for antibody interactions, but the overall spike sequence is not really changed enough to affect T cells that recognize any part of the sequence, and they are what prevent severe illness, Dr. Yang said. People who are up to date on their vaccines and who get treatment early with Paxlovid or with remdesivir are going to do fine for the most part. (Paxlovid is an oral antiviral medication, and remdesivir is an injectable antiviral.) Most experts are not concerned with the possibility of new subvariants causing mild illness. If we see that deaths are reduced and if serious illness and hospitalizations are reduced, even if people do get infected, thats still a big success, said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Immune evasion is a bigger concern for people who are immunocompromised or who dont mount a strong immune response to vaccines. That includes people who have had stem cell or solid organ transplants, people receiving cancer treatments, people with autoimmune diseases and people who need immune-suppressive medication for various medical conditions, said Dr. Alpana Waghmare, an infectious disease expert at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Immunocompromised people often rely on preventive shots like Evusheld and intravenous Covid treatments like bebtelovimab, which are made from monoclonal antibodies and can fill in holes in the protection these patients may have from vaccines, Dr. Waghmare said. But the monoclonal antibody treatments are designed to act on one particular piece of the virus; if that piece is altered in the newer subvariants, these treatments may no longer be effective. Thats the concern for most clinicians, that we will lose this set of tools in our toolbox to fight Covid, Dr. Waghmare said. As a result, immunocompromised people may have to deal with more severe disease without the option for monoclonal antibody treatment, even if other antiviral treatments will still keep overall deaths from increasing in this group. What are the symptoms of a Covid-19 infection with one of the new subvariants? There is no evidence yet to suggest that people who are infected with BQ.1, BQ.1.1 or any of the other subvariants experience any new or unusual symptoms, or that their illness is more severe than what weve seen with previous Omicron variants, Dr. Waghmare said. Guess How Much These New York Jobs Pay Starting this week, most companies in New York City were required to include salary ranges on job postings, offering a window into potential compensation not just for applicants but also the curious general public. In a city full of iconic jobs taxi driver, bagel baker, right fielder for the New York Yankees take our quiz to see how well you can guess salaries on some only-in-New-York job openings. Its been almost two years since Arizona voters helped decide the 2020 election in Joe Bidens favor. How will they judge him and his party in this years midterm elections? To try to answer that question, we convened a group of 12 Democrats, Republicans and independents from across the state to speak with us about two of the most closely watched races in the country: Kari Lake versus Katie Hobbs for Arizona governor and Blake Masters versus Mark Kelly for one of the states Senate seats. The contest between Mr. Kelly and Mr. Masters could determine who controls the Senate, and the next governor of Arizona will hold significant power over the 2024 elections there. Several of our participants saw each of the two races as a choice between the lesser of two evils. Some were dissatisfied with what they perceived to be Mr. Kellys too-little-too-late break with Mr. Biden on the issue of border security, while many disliked Mr. Masters because of his past comments on topics such as race and guns. More than a few participants said their dislike was rooted in a gut feeling about Mr. Masters. For the governors race, some participants saw Ms. Lakes inexperience with government as a liability, while others, tired of career politicians, viewed it as an asset. Some praised her as charismatic; others characterized her as disingenuous. Ms. Hobbs engendered fewer strong feelings, with one participant calling her a wet noodle. Of the 12 participants, one said he might split his vote for Mr. Kelly and Ms. Lake. Another, a Republican thoroughly skeptical of Mr. Masters and upset with the Republican Partys position on abortion, said shed hold her nose and vote for him if it meant the G.O.P. would secure the Senate. Down where I live, the major issues are the border and the economy. I feel we just have to swing that pendulum the other way. Because its really bad right now for folks down here. Really bad. Polands national bank has hired MikeWorldWide for a global campaign to inform the general public about the impact of Russias invasion of Ukraine, particularly about the humanitarian crisis and challenges resulting from the wave of refugees. The major focus of the campaign is to boost awareness in the international community of the actual dimension of the war in Ukraine and the scale of the damages, according to MWWs services agreement with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The United Nations reports that 5.4M Ukrainians fled to neighboring Poland since Russia attacked on Feb. 24. Poland is currently hosting the most Ukrainians, 1.4M. Germany is second at 998K people, followed by the Czech Republic at 442K. BGK has budgeted $3M for the MWW effort. Of that amount, MWWs fee and out-of-pocket expenses are capped at $500K each. Spending for paid media channels (e.g., ads on Facebook, Twitter, NPR, USA Today, Spotify, Vox) is set at $1M if the campaign reaches an audience of 40M. Another $1M goes for influencer spending as long as 10M people are reached. MWWs Richard Tauberman, executive VP, and Shelley Noeldechen, senior VP, handle the effort. Antelope Valley Community College District, which has a more than 90-year reputation of serving communities and industries located in Los Angeles County, is looking for a firm to handle its digital marketing and advertising efforts to promote its vocational training programs. PRESTIGIOUS scholarships for study in agriculture and agri-business have been awarded to two Offaly people. Thomas Murray, Banagher and Margaret Edgill from Daingean will be introduced at the annual Nuffield Ireland conference in Dublin on November 18 where they will formally commence their scholarships. Thomas is an agronomist with OShea Farms in Co Kilkenny. As part of his Nuffield Scholarship, he will investigate decision-making tools for the future of potato and vegetable production in Ireland. He graduated from Waterford Institute of Technology with a Bachelors of Agricultural Science in 2016 and completed a Diploma in Leadership for the Agri-Food sector in 2021 from UCC. Thomas currently advises and manages potato and carrot growers on land selection, seed procurement, agronomy and storage management. Thomas plans to travel to the USA, Canada, Northern Europe, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Margaret Edgill is an organic farmer, artisan food producer and grower. As part of her Nuffield Scholarship, Margaret will look to develop a blueprint for farm diversification with a specific focus on the agri-food tourism sector. Margaret is a graduate from UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business with an MBs specialising in tourism. Since her return to the family farm in 2012 after a career in the arts and event management sector spanning 13 years, she has been pioneering in her capacity to innovate. Margarets own farm diversification strategy has been centred on connecting food & farming harmoniously. The theme for this years Nuffield Ireland conference, which will feature a range of panel discussions and presentations is Moving way beyond greenwashing: developing solutions for a net positive agriculture. Joe Leonard, Chair, Nuffield Ireland said: With so much antagonistic and polarised debate on how agriculture can adequately address the enormous climate challenge, our farmers are experiencing huge amounts of additional stress and it is very difficult to see a way forward. Never before has leadership been more important in order to meet our country's climate ambitions in a realistic way. I believe that Nuffield Ireland has a role to play in helping to encourage reconciliation on both sides of the debate in order to encourage all parties to work together in developing solutions. I believe that the almost hostile approach to the debate is adding more stress to farmers who are already feeling immense pressure. We need to encourage balanced dialogue in order to ensure the sustainability of our agricultural sector, both from an economic and mental wellbeing perspective. A THREE-month suspended sentence was imposed on a woman who had 3,280 worth of cannabis at her address in Birr. Tullamore District Court heard that Jessica Lawlor (34) admitted to having 164 grams of the drugs for sale at Camcor Park when gardai searched a residence on February 16 last. Sergeant James O'Sullivan said Ms Lawlor already had 16 convictions, none for drugs and mostly for theft, but had received the Probation Act for drugs possession on a previous occasion. Judge Andrew Cody said the amount of drugs before him was significant. Defending solicitor Donal Farrelly said his client was a mother who now lived in a hostel in Dublin and had been a heroin user for a long time. Now her life seemed to have turned around and she was in better health and looking much better because she was on methadone. Mr Farrelly added that Ms Lawlor had been homeless most of the time when she had been committing offences. Judge Cody suspended the three-month sentence for two years on the woman's own bond of 100. Despite calls from the Conservative party, some activists and the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, the government continues to rebuff calls to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity under its Criminal Code. Some Quebec junior colleges say 80 to 90 per cent of the international students they've accepted from Africa are being refused study permits by the federal government, jeopardizing their ability to offer programs and raising questions about bias in the immigration system. 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. States' climate goals have been held ransom by a treaty protecting fossil fuel interests, critics say. But as France, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland defect, energy firms are on notice. Cellphones the ultimate distraction keep children from learning, educators say. But in attempts to keep the phones at bay, the most vocal pushback doesn't always come from students. In some cases, it's from parents. Bans on the devices were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since schools reopened, struggles with student behavior and mental health have given some schools even more reason to restrict access. But parents and caregivers who had constant access to their children during remote learning have been reluctant to give that up. Some fear losing touch with their kids during a school shooting. Shannon Moser, who has students in eighth and ninth grades in Rochester, New York, said she felt parents were being pushed away when the Greece Central School District this year began locking away student phones. Theres a form of accountability, she said, when students are able to record what goes on around them. Everything is just so politicized, so divisive. And I think parents just have a general fear of whats happening with their kids during the day, Moser said. She said she generally has liberal views, but many parents on either side of the political divide feel the same way. Amid heightened scrutiny of topics such as race and inclusion, some parents also view cellphone restrictions as a way of keeping them out of their kids education. Over a decade ago, around 90% of public schools prohibited cellphone use, but that shrank to 65% in the 2015-2016 school year. By the 2019-2020 school year, bans were in place at 76% of the schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. California and Tennessee recently have passed laws allowing schools to prohibit phones. Now, in particular, educators see a need to keep students on task to recover... Russian President Vladimir Putin said civilians should be evacuated from the region of Kherson. Meanwhile, the G7 agreed on the need for a mechanism to help Ukraine repair its critical infrastructure. DW has the latest. Cubans celebrate UN vote against U.S. embargo 13:27, November 04, 2022 By Yosley Carrero ( Xinhua HAVANA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cubans on Thursday celebrated the overwhelming support they received from the international community at a United Nations vote condemning the U.S. trade embargo against the Caribbean nation. In the Cuban capital, hundreds of people gathered at University of Havana's campus to demand the lifting of the six-decade-long U.S. unilateral policy against the island as Cuban state TV broadcast the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session on outdoor giant screens. Among them was Oscar Barros, who studies Economics at the university. "The U.S. blockade negatively affects the fields of imports, exports and foreign trade," he said. The non-binding resolution on Thursday received 185 votes in favor and two against. Only the United States and Israel voted against it as Ukraine and Brazil abstained. Johana Tablada, deputy head of Cuban foreign ministry's department for U.S. affairs, said that the U.S. embargo continues to limit Cuba's access to equipment with more than 10 percent of U.S. components. "The U.S. blockade has made the Cuban people suffer and restricted (Cuba's) access to critical medicines for the treatment of different diseases," she said. The UNGA has now voted 30 consecutive times in favor of the small island's request to lift the U.S. embargo. Law student Karla Maria Grey, 22, told Xinhua the U.S. coercive measures against the island are aimed at suffocating the Cuban people. "The U.S. blockade intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting my country's access to medical supplies and raw materials to produce our homegrown coronavirus vaccines," she said. First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the United States to Cuban destinations except Havana and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home. The current U.S. administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Cuba remains largely in place. Thursday's UN resolution expresses concern about the continued promulgation and application of laws and regulations, such as the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, whose extraterritorial effects affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction, and the freedom of trade and navigation. It calls on all states to refrain from promulgating and applying such laws and measures, and urges states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to "take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime." (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) The Russian ambassador has warned the UK that it is "too deep" in the Ukraine war - but said Moscow would not use nuclear weapons in the conflict. Rumble 01 Nov 2022 "Now, there was glass broken at the rear door. We've seen those photos, but there looks like there's.. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants activists who break the law to be arrested and prosecuted. It comes amid a wave of civil disobedience acts by activists demanding tougher measures to combat the climate crisis. The German chancellor's trip to China would have an economic emphasis but Scholz vowed not to shy away from difficult issues. There are concerns at home in Germany and abroad about the visit. Rumble 08 Nov 2022 Pakistan's former PM Imran Khan has been shot and wounded during a protest march in the eastern city of Lahore, in an.. The German chancellor's trip to China has an economic emphasis but Scholz vowed not to shy away from difficult issues. There are concerns at home in Germany and abroad about the visit. Top diplomats of the G7 vowed to help see Ukraine through the coming winter as they held talks in Germany on Thursday. During a visit to South Korea, the German president criticized the North for repeatedly jeopardizing international security and urged Pyongyang to resume talks. The German chancellor's controversial trip to China had an economic emphasis, but Scholz discussed issues where differences between Beijing and Berlin are stark. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip to China is no ordinary visit, and the German public is acutely aware of this. However, Russia remains their biggest concern, according to a new survey. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Italy would not bear "the burden of this arrival alone". German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip to China is no ordinary visit, something that the German public is acutely aware of. But Russia remains the biggest concern, a new survey shows. *The battle is now not between Imran and the Shehbaz Sharif regime but between Imran and the all-powerful army.* Imran.. Eurasia Review 05 Nov 2022 It was the second time the Supreme Court has denied an emergency challenge to Biden's student loan forgiveness program in as many months. US President Joe Biden potentially made a strategic mistake when he framed the struggle for Ukraine as a battle between democracy.. Eurasia Review 13 Nov 2022 President Zelensky spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, and reported that the two discussed "all the challenges of winter." Majority Forward, a group affiliated with the Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has pushed nearly $50 million in anonymous donations into the midterm elections for Democrats. NPR's Steve Inskeep asks U.S. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for the GOP's closing argument to voters ahead of the midterm elections. A Nevada judge rejected a GOP claim that officials in Vegas are counting votes. The judge said the temporary workers hired to help process ballots aren't relevant in Tuesday's election. The majority of Americans in a bipartisan poll said they are concerned by the threat of politically motivated violence with nearly half of the participants blaming the media. University of Texas students sound off after public figures denounced Twitter's plan to charge a verification fee under its new owner, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Kairen said she felt a "deep anger" over asylum seekers believing they had a right to be in the country. The U.S. and South Korea warn North Korea on use of nuclear weapons; President Joe Biden kicks off a three-day campaign trip; G-7 leaders grapple with fallout from war in Ukraine; Houston Astros' bullpen combined for World Series no-hitter. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday (03 November 2022) met the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Istanbul. They addressed a range of issues, including Turkeys contributions to NATO security, the situation in the Aegean, the common fight against terrorism, Finlands and Swedens... Even before the German chancellor's plane took off, the timing of this trip to China had become a topic for debate and criticism both inside and outside Germany. Russia looks to be taking extreme measures to address the low morale in its army after a string of victories for Ukraine, UK intelligence said. After a meeting with Xi in Beijing, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the two leaders agreed that with the use of nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line drawn by the international community. Springbok captain Siya Kolisi shot down suggestions that South Africa see Saturday's Test as a revenge match after their heavy defeat in Dublin in 2017. Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan said Friday he was pausing his march on the capital, Islamabad, a day after a gunman opened fire on his campaign convoy, wounding him and killing one of his supporters. Thirteen others were hurt in the attack. Meet Air Niuginis longest serving employee and Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME), Alcan Mattiunga who has been with the airline for 45 years and continues to do what he knows and loves best. From inside the airlines engineering hangar, Alcan watched the Air Niugini fleet grow from a few DC3s to a fleet which has included Fokker 27 Friendship/F28, Dash 7/DHC8, Boeing 707, Airbus A310, Fokker F100/F70, Bombardier Q400 and Boeing B737 and B767 aircraft. Alcan has been with the airline watching operations grow from a small domestic airliner to a now significant regional carrier operating flights to Australia, Asia and the Pacific. LAME Mattiunga said Air Niugini has come a long way in its growth and development from when it first started to where it is now. He said A lot has changed for the airline over time from operations to commercial, training, recruitment, engineering and business processes and procedures. As new skills were developed with improved workplace practices, supported by the new technology, work has progressed and advanced a lot, resulting in greater efficiency and high productivity. When Alcan first started with Air Niugini Engineering, they use to refer all their work to the Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM), a bulky, heavy book which detailed the way in which all maintenance tasks on a specific aircraft must be carried out. The AMM contained information required to service, repair, replace, adjust, inspect and check equipment and systems on the aircraft. We use to fly with the manual when carrying out maintenance at the outports. This, however is not happening anymore as all work is now computerised. We also see new, better hangar facilities and tools now than it was in the past. Alcan said Being with Air Niugini for over four decades, Alcan knows the airline like the palm of his hand. He has successfully acquired several aircraft maintenance licenses under his belt including F28, F100/F70 as well as the B737. As a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME), Alcans responsibility is to certify the correct state of systems maintained on an aircraft such as engines, hydraulics, autopilot, communications and radar. He is the sole attributor of safety when the aircraft is on the ground and gives approval to a Certificate of Release to Service, a legal document stating, clearing safety when he is certain that the aircraft is 100 percent safe to fly following maintenance. Alcan said While successfully acquiring aircraft maintenance licenses was my biggest achievement, the thing that satisfies me most is training and mentoring young Papua New Guineans to also pick up their licenses. Its important as it provides them the opportunity to further develop their skills, become more competent in their roles and prepare them for further growth and opportunities in the future. Alcan was only 18 when he first joined Air Niugini in 1978 after he was selected the previous year during an interview at a career week held at Rabaul High school, he was doing grade 12 then at Kerevat National High School. In commencing with Air Niugini, he went straight into the airlines four-year apprenticeship program, where Alcan spent the first two years (1978 to 1979) at Idubada Technical college, now Port Moresby Technical College. Another two years were spent at Leonard Isitt Aviation Training centre in Christ Church, New Zealand. After successfully completing his training in New Zealand, Alcan was certified as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME), specialising in Engine Maintenance. I worked for three years as an AME before picking up my first license in 1985 to certify for maintenance on the F28 engine category thus making me a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME). Between 1985 and 2022(current), I picked up a total of four licenses, apart from F28, I also attained F100, F70 and the B737 licenses. I am certified to sign Release To Service (RTS) on these aircraft fleets. Three years after acquiring his first license (1988), Alcan worked as Station Engineer based in Wewak. From Viviran village in Gazelle Electorate, East New Britain Province, LAME Mattiunga is a product of late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somares vision in 1975 where he emphasized the need for Papua New Guineans to be engineers, pilots, doctors, lawyers, accountants and professionals in their own country. Mattiunga was among young Papua New Guineans who were too glad to be part of that vision and to make it a reality. PNG was a fairly new sovereign nation and as a young Papua New Guinean coming out of colonial rule to work in a professional field wasnt easy. But some of us took the challenge head on, we want to make that vision a reality. As a Papua New Guinean working for the national airline at that time, I was very proud and I am still today. Mattiunga said Alcan said employees are more likely to stay with a company if they believe in the work theyre doing and feel that their work is recognized and appreciated, adding that having a job sustains families and provide security for their welfare. His word to young Papua New Guineans out there who maybe dreaming of becoming an aircraft engineer one day. Becoming an Aircraft engineer is not easy, its a demanding job that requires great responsibility, but always remember that nothing is too hard when you set your mind to it. Set your priorities right, ensure honesty, reliability, commitment, discipline and show respect to your co-workers, whoever they are in whatever positions. Finally, always be guided by rules/regulations that are in place. Alcan said Alcan was only 18 when he first joined Air Niugini, he is now 62. As the company turned 49 years yesterday , Tuesday 01st November, 2022 Alcan said the option for retirement may not be far off. LAME Mattiunga acknowledged his wife, Helen and the three children for their support over the years. I wouldnt have made it here without my familys support and of course, Air Niugini, a great airline company to work for. Air Niugini gave me everything, which I am forever grateful. Alcan concluded Next : PNG National Broadcasting Corporation looks to Advance Broadcasting capabilities with Indonesia Paducah, KY (42003) Today Cloudy in the morning with scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. A few storms may be severe. High around 65F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms in the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 31F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Sara Mikulenkova has been officially confirmed to represent the Czech Republic in the 71st Miss Universe pageant in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA this January. Sara Mikulenkova has been officially confirmed to represent the Czech Republic in the 71st Miss Universe pageant in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA this January. "I don't even know where to start but yes, strange things are happening to me right now with life, but in a positive way. Fate took me in a different direction than I had planned. I feel humility, gratitude, joy, tears of happiness, and above all, support," said the newly appointed Miss Universe Czech Republic. This year's revolutionized Ceska Miss Essens pageant showcases the contestants' journey to the competition with the reality show "Hleda se Miss" on Prima Show. The judging panel consists of Czech model Pavlina Nemcova, model and former Ceska Miss titleholder Andrea Bezdekova, PURE Model Management Founder and CEO Roman Holarek, and ESSENS President Michal Kovar. The upcoming edition of Miss Universe will be held on January 14 at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center where Harnaaz Sandhu of India will crown her successor at the end of the event. Meet the new Miss Universe Czech Republic: Photos: Ceska Miss Essens, Sara Mikulenkova / Instagram RELATED POSTS: The 20-year-old model from Valasske Mezirici was chosen among the Top 20 finalists of the Ceska Miss Essens 2022 competition whose final show is scheduled for December 11. Another finalist, Anezka Heralecka, was already named Miss Earth Czech Republic 2022 and will go to the Miss Earth 2022 final this month in the Philippines. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Department of Health Emergencies of the Libyan Ministry of Health of the Government of National Unity reviewed here Thursday, with representatives of the International Task Force on Migrant Health, the draft emergency response plan for migrant health After a year that saw him attend his first Met Gala with Tommy Hilfiger, as well as starring in the brand's Spring and Fall campaigns, Anthony Ramos is taking their relationship to the next level by co-designing a new holiday capsule collection. The collaboration, which launches later this month at tommy.com, features Tommy Hilfiger staples like the polo shirt and varsity sweater reimagined with contrasting greens, yellows and reds, as well as a mix of TH Monogram prints. There are also vintage-inspired tracks jackets and joggers with contrasting stripe details. "I wanted to incorporate some colors [and] 'mess it up' a little bit... tilting the monogram, finding different ways to put the monogram in certain spots where it wouldnt have gone before," says Ramos, who celebrated the collaboration with his close friends and family this week at Negril BK, an authentic Caribbean restaurant in Brooklyn he frequents often. Tommy Hilfiger x Anthony Ramos Campaign (Courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger) He adds: "Tommy is New York. Tommy is a big part of hip-hop culture, especially the '90s. Im Puerto Rican, I grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn and hip hop was very much a part of my life. It was all of those things put together." The Hamilton and In the Heights star follows past friends of the house like Zendaya and Gigi Hadid in co-designing a collection with Tommy Hilfiger. For Ramos, the experience taught him to take chances and have a good time doing it. "Ive learned so much from those guys on the team," he says. There's quite a bit of personal references in the collection, including a shirt favored by his mother in the '90s which inspired two modern iterations: a green cardigan and oversized green polo, both with color-blocking stripe details. "She wore this in a baby picture that had these solid color bold stripes across her shirt," he says. "We flipped it and put the stripes coming down the shirt and its like my homage to my mom in that photo." The Tommy Hilfiger x Anthony Ramos Launch Party (Photography: Keith Champaco) Anthonys a close friend of the brand and his talent knows no bounds, said Hilfiger, who first met Ramos in London after the British Fashion Awards. He has a very strong eye for detail and use of color that can be seen throughout this entire capsule collection. He added fresh pops of color, like yellow and green, into each piece, which created the perfect contrast when paired alongside our classic red and blue. The campaign captures Ramos being home for the holidays with the community that raised him and is set around a festive get-together at home with his close friends and family, including his mother, brother, and dog Prince a concept they carried over to the Brooklyn launch dinner. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions After a so-called lost generation for graphics cards plagued by shortages and scalpers, things are finally looking up for PC gamersand the battle for next-generation GPU supremacy has finally arrived. Nvidia launched its ferocious GeForce RTX 4090 mere weeks ago, but its monitor-melting lead isnt going uncontested for long. This week, AMD revealed its next-gen RDNA 3 architecture and two GPUs serving as its paragon: the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT. This aint your mommas GPU throw-down though. AMD is doing some radically different things with RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and weve never seen a graphics card quite like this before. Weve already covered the Radeon RX 7900 XTXs technical notes in-depth in our announcement coverage, but if you dont feel like sifting through a discussion of dual-issue wave 32 instructions and memory-controller vagaries, here are the five key facts about RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX that PC gamers absolutely need to know before the launch on December 13. 1. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT are a lot cheaper than Nvidias offerings Adam Patrick Murray / IDG First, the price: Its hard to call graphics cards that set you back four figures a bargain, per se, but it appears AMD heard the outrage generated by Nvidias pricing of $1,600 for the GeForce RTX 4090 and $1,200 for the RTX 4080. By contrast, RDNA 3s flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX will set you back just $999, and the single-X Radeon RX 7900 XT costs $899. Thats the same price as the Radeon RX 6900 XT before it. Nvidia, on the other hand, increased the price of the RTX 4090 by $100 over the RTX 3090, while the RTX 4080 costs a whopping $40050 percentmore than the RTX 3080. 2. RDNA 3 chiplets FTW A Radeon RX 7900 XTX chip; see the six memory dies flanking the core GPU die? Adam Patrick Murray / IDG Part of those cost savings no doubt stem from the radical new technical design of the RDNA 3 GPUs. Traditionally, GPUs were built using huge monolithic dies that cram all necessary bits inside. But with RDNA 3, AMD is swiping a page from its ultra-successful Ryzen playbook. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT use several chiplets working together on the same package instead: a core GPU die surrounded by up to six memory cache dies that hold the cards Infinity Cache and memory controllers. We wade deeper into technical details in our RDNA 3 announcement coverage, but the upshot is AMD can use TSMCs cutting-edge 5nm manufacturing process to spit out an abundance of smaller 300mm GPU dies, then use its cheaper and more mature 6nm process for the memory dies. That helps AMD keep costs down on both nodes, and no doubt helps the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT achieve their more palatable prices. The central RDNA 3 GPU die measures just 300mm squared. Nvidias RTX 4090 die is over twice as large, and all of it is made using TSMCs expensive cutting-edge node. 3. Powerful but not overpowered Nvidia swung for the fences with its GeForce RTX 4090, pushing a monstrous 450 watts through that massive GPU die and cutting-edge GDDR6X memory for truly face-melting performance, power use (and melting 12VHPWR adapters) be damned. Adam Patrick Murray / IDG But in a world crippled by an energy crisis, power efficiency matters. AMD thankfully stayed true to its efficiency focus with RDNA 3, delivering a claimed 54 percent improvement in performance-per-watt over the already-impressive RDNA 2 graphics cards. That, in turn, let AMD stick to saner power requirementsboth the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT only require a pair of standard 8-pin power connectors. They draw 355 watts and 300 watts, respectively. The more modest power requirements mean that AMDs reference cards stick to slightly-chonky-but-fine 2.5-slot designs, compared to the 3- and even 4-slot monsters common to RTX 4090 models. Bottom line? Upgrading from a recent Radeon or Nvidia graphics card to a new Radeon RX 7900 XTX wont require reconfiguring your rig or being a beta tester for a troublesome new power connector. Yay! 4. RDNA 3 AV1, DisplayPort 2.1, and more Mmmmmmm DisplayPort 2.1. Adam Patrick Murray / IDG AMD fluffs out RDNA 3 with some compelling extras, too. Unlike Nvidias RTX 40-series GPUs, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT feature DisplayPort 2.1, which unlocks monitor refresh rates up to 4K/480 (yes, 480Hz) and 8K/165. Gotta go fast! AMDs new dual media engine also supports simultaneous encode/decode of HEVC/AVC streams, as well as bleeding-edge AV1 encoding, joining ranks with Nvidia and Intels recent GPU offerings. These upgrades may not mean much to you if youre not a content creator, but theyre very welcome indeed. 5. Will it beat the RTX 4090? Who knows! Finally, the elephant in the room: Will AMDs Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT topple Nvidias vaunted GeForce RTX 4090? That remains to be seenalways wait for independent reviews!but the initial presentation leaves the prospect looking questionable. AMD AMD AMD Dont take this the wrong way: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX will be a brutally fast performer if the charts AMD provided prove accurate. The Radeon RX 6950 XT already beat the RTX 3090, and AMD says the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is 1.5x to 1.7x faster than the 6950 XT at 4K gaming (for $250 less). Likewise, AMD added AI cores to RDNA 3, meeting a key Nvidia feature, and modified Radeons ray-tracing cores for up to 50 percent higher performance. But Im not sure even that huge uptick will be enough to best Nvidias RTX 4090 and 4080 in ray tracing after GeForces similarly huge uplift this generation. And crucially, AMDs benchmarks didnt make any comparisons to the RTX 4090 whatsoever, even though the 4090 has been available for weeks now. Between those tidbits and the much lower $999/$899 price tags, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT could wind up competing with the RTX 4080 insteadbut with so many new technologies at play in RDNA 3 its hard to prognosticate too heavily. Well have to wait for independent reviews to launch to know for sure. In the meantime, if you want even more nitty-gritty RDNA details, be sure to check out our much wonkier Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT announcement coverage. . . . . Is Crucial In Building A Digitized Africa Standard Chartered Innovation And Fintech Festival The second edition of the Standard Chartered Digital Banking Innovation & FinTech Festival came to an end with a call for stakeholders to invest more in programmes that will accelerate the growth of women-led businesses across the continent. In addition, a rallying call was made for more collaboration among banks, fintechs, regulators and other stakeholders in the financial sector even as participants committed to propel diversity, inclusion and sustainability in finance with technology as the driver. Speaking on the 2nd day, Dr. Emmanuel Kumah, Board Chairman, Standard Chartered Ghana PLC, reiterated the banks commitment to lifting participation and building a sustainable future by supporting entrepreneurs, particularly women, through its ground-breaking initiatives. He also emphasized the need for mentorship and funding facilities to help scale their businesses. He said, With a thriving start-up scheme, internet penetration of almost 50 percent, and the country having one of the highest rates of women-owned enterprises, we believe that these sessions will provide the insights and the opportunities for female techpreneurs looking to grow their businesses at scale and foster a stronger and more dynamic eco-system in Ghana and beyond. We at Standard Chartered Bank will continue to chart a journey towards digitization and self-disruption in Africa while making it a priority to harness technology, and at the same time, champion the next generation of entrepreneurs, Dr. Kumah added. On her part, H.E Harriet Thompson, British High Commissioner to Ghana, lauded Ghanas efforts in quickly becoming a regional tech hub and a pacesetter on the continent. She noted that in Ghana, women are the main actors in the countrys micro, small and medium enterprises. A sector that is the anchor on which the economy hangs, as SMEs represent 92 percent of businesses and contribute 70 percent of Ghanas GDP. The event highlighted the need to support more women-led and women-owned businesses through technological advancements, products and services seeing that their contribution to economic growth cannot be overstated. In a speech read on her behalf by Ms. Clarissa Kudowor, Deputy Director of the Payment Systems Department of the Bank of Ghana, the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi emphasized therole women-led businesses played in the economy and appealed to technology services to innovate products that meet the needs of these women. She remarked, If we think about the critical role women play in supporting families and livelihoods and the socio-economic life within the Ghanaian society, then this gap of 11 percent presents a significant developmental barrier and will require concerted policy action on all fronts. In the panel discussion on "Technology, Gender and economic growth: Expanding the role of technology in women-owned business for development, the panelists highlighted the difficulties that women entrepreneurs face in sourcing funding for their businesses. They concluded that getting more women in decision-making roles would make it easier for women-led ventures to access funding for their startups, technology to innovate their processes, and mentorship opportunities to move them forward in a competitive marketplace. Panelists on day two included: Ethel D. Cofie, Chief Executive Officer, Edel Consulting; Winnifred Kotin, Co-Founder Superfluid Labs; Rachel Crawford, Director of Special Projects at Village Capital, and Dr. Areeba Khan, Chief Executive Officer, Taqwa Invest (UAE) and moderated by Khadija Hashimi, Regional Head, Corporate Affairs Brand and Marketing, Africa & Middle East The event wrapped up with members of the Women in Tech Incubator Cohort 2 sharing their experiences, the impact SCB has made in elevating their businesses as women-led entrepreneurs, and a fintech exhibition of various disruptive technology innovations and businesses. The two day-long event convened thought leaders from banking, technology and entrepreneurship to discuss how technology is reshaping enterprises on the African continent and empowering women-led businesses in Ghana. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A 40-year-old Ghanaian man, Joshua Opoku has been jailed in Dubai for trafficking a narcotic substance believed to be cannabis also known as weed. Mr. Opoku was said to have been arrested at an airport in Dubai after the Gulf countrys officials found the substance on him. According to the brother of the convict, Yaw Amponsah, his brother did not know there was such a substance on him. He claimed that the substance was implanted on him unknowingly and Ghanaian Custom Officers at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) allowed him to pass after taking One Hundred dollars from him. Narrating how Opoku was arrested, Mr. Amponsah told crimecheckghana.org that his brother was introduced to a Dubai-based Ghanaian known as Prince by a friend. This he said was after his brother was promised a job in the Gulf State. He continued that his brother did not know Prince but were only in touch via phone. Mr. Amponsah indicated that Prince asked Opoku to bring along with him some local food items, which he obliged. The distraught man said when it was due for Opoku to go aboard the Dubai-bound airplane, Prince requested him to receive one last item from his brother for him. That particular item, according to Mr. Amponsah was already in a wrapped container and when Opoku wanted to know its content, Prince told him it was hair food. Mr. Amponsah said security officers at the Dubai airport arrested him when they found out that the content of the container was weed. Opoku had visited South Africa and wanted to go to Dubai for greener pastures. Opoku should have been arrested in Ghana but Customs officers at the KIA took $100 from him. So I think the officers saw the substance on him but they allowed him to pass, Mr. Amponsah alleged. Mr. Amponsah furthered that when Opoku was arrested, he mentioned that Prince asked him to bring him the substance. He said the Dubai authorities did not go after Prince but went ahead to imprison his brother for ten years. When we managed to contact Prince, he denied knowledge of the substance. The Dubai authorities did not go after him which is why they have jailed my brother. Opoku is an innocent man and he would never perpetrate such a crime, he said. Mr. Amponsah appealed to Ghanaian authorities to help serve his brother justice and enable him get his freedom. Source: crimecheckghana.org Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ogilvy Africa has appointed internationally experienced communications expert Howard Gregory as Managing Partner, to head up its Public Relations and Influence (PR&I) offering for its Nairobi office. He starts on 14th November and will report to Vikas Mehta, CEO Ogilvy Africa Howard has more than 25 years of experience in communications and joins Ogilvy Africa from Edelman UK, one of the most successful offices of the worlds largest PR firm. At Edelman, hes held various leadership roles in strategy and business development. We are excited to have Howard joining as Managing Partner in Kenya. I look forward to working with him across the EMEA region to continue growing our PR and Influence business in Sub-Saharan Africa. I know that his appointment will help to bolster our strategic capability and our overall value to our clients. Says Joanna Oosthuizen, CEO of PR&I for Ogilvy EMEA. World-class talent is a primary ingredient in creating a world-class service. Modern-day PR needs skill sets beyond whom you know and more of, what you know. Howard brings with him the right pedigree and experience to help our clients in Kenya, and the region, to experience a world-class PR&I offering from Ogilvy Africa. We are delighted to have him on board and I look forward to working with him to rapidly evolve our PR&I practice in the region, says Vikas Mehta, CEO. Ogilvy Africa. This appointment is part of Ogilvy Africas strategic investments to strengthen its leadership position on the continent. Ogilvy Africas PR&I offering is widely regarded as one of the best in the region, where the Kenya office serves as its hub for East Africa. After working in diverse roles at Diageo, General Electric and the top communications agencies, Howard has won accolades at Cannes and other notable global award shows. This is such an exciting time to join the team, says Howard. The time for Africa and the region culturally and commercially is now! The chance to contribute to the growth of businesses, brands and cultures, elevating themselves on the global stage, is truly a thrilling opportunity. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Governance Lecturer at the Central University, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, has sent a message to the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, hoping he addresses it as soon as possible. Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah has asked the IGP to bring closure to the murder case of the late Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, J.B Danquah-Adu, whose life was taken away while he was home. On 9th February 2016, the late MP was stabbed to death in the early hours of the day. Subsequently, the Police arrested a man, Daniel Asiedu, for the murder and in a reported confession by the suspect, JB Danquah was killed in a struggle when he tried to rob him. The suspect has since been remanded into Police custody. Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, Dr. Otchere-Ankrah was worried that it has taken too long to bring the criminal(s) to justice. "The prosecution is taking too long. The IGP was the Regional Commander at the time, so he was part of the officers who did the investigations. We plead with you that people begin to forget when it keeps long," he told Kwami Sefa Kayi. Meanwhile, the Police has indicated that a Unit called 'Cold Case Unit' has been established to revisit unresolved murder cases.The Police emphasized this Unit and its role in a press statement released yesterday and signed by Chief Superintendent of Police, Grace Ansah-Akrofi, Director, Public Affairs, in which they informed the public that musician Shatta Wale had been invited to assist investigations into the murder of the late artiste manager Fennec Okyere."The Police would like to put on record that the recently established Cold Case Unit, has been working for months on all unresolved murder cases, including that of Fennec Okyere with support from the affected families. This new development from Shatta Wale is therefore going to complement our ongoing investigation."We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the families who have been working with the Cold Case Unit since its establishment for their cooperation and understanding. We wish to assure the public that the Police will continue to work relentlessly on these cases in order to bring closure to the affected families", portions of the statement read. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor has called on all stakeholders of the Twenty-seventh session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) to join hands with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the organizers to make this year's event which is scheduled to take place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 6th -18th November 2022, a resounding success. Speaking at a Pre-COP27 event organised to bring together stakeholders in nature-based Climate actions, the Sector Minister called on them to rise up and rally behind the Ministry to promote forest and climate-based initiatives to climate change. "We look forward to an even greater participation and contribution to a global conference at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt and let us all join hands in solidarity to make COP27 a great success" He said. Highlighting the need and importance of COP27 Pre-event, he indicated that the event was to create a platform for stakeholders to share ideas and contribute to discussions on the countrys expectations in order to build on the Momentum garnered at COP26 last year. He announced that this year, with the help of the World Bank, the partnership for Forest and other stakeholders, Ghana has secured a pavilion at Sharm El Sheikh to showcase her Climate actions, woo investors and have partnership engagements while appreciating the effort and contribution of the UK government which culminated into Ghana getting for the first time, a pavilion at the COP26 last year. Hon. Jinapor outlined some of the activities scheduled to take place at the COP27 Ghana Pavilion, sighting a side event to be hosted by the office of the President as a pertinent example, he also mentioned a roundtable tropical forest ministerial event to be hosted by the Ministry and this he said will be to discuss forest solutions to climate change. He noted that a Key engagement at COP 27 is Ghana's participation in the Forest and Climate Leader's Partnership (FCLP), a COP26 Presidency initiative which is intended to give steam to the Glasgow declarations on forest and land use. He continued that the FCLP will create a platform for member states to scale up forest conservation and restoration action to implement climate solutions and provide sustainable development. He added that the partnership will, also, provide a unique space for intergovernmental collaboration and coordinated action with partners and stakeholders while announcing that President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo will join President Biden of the United States, and other Heads of State and Government at a Forests and Climate Leaders Summit, on 7th November in Sharm El-Sheikh, to officially open FCLP. The Lands Minister asserted that Ghana's membership of FCLP is a testimony that the countrys efforts to accelerate emissions reductions have been recognised globally. He disclosed that through these efforts, Ghana is set to receive some 4,862,208 dollars as payment for the countrys efforts in reducing carbon in 2019. This he said will be distributed according to a highly consultative and transparent benefit-sharing plan. He said communities will realise the result of their immense contributions as the benefit is shared which will boost their confidence in government climate interventions He, therefore, challenged all that the need to scale up the forest and other nature-based solutions are more important now than ever, particularly for the country where he believes most of the emissions emanate from agriculture, forest and land use activities. On her part, the United Kingdom High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E Harriet Thompson disclosed the UK'S support towards a series of events on Forestry at COP27 as well as the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership event this year. She continued that, "Ghana will be represented at the UK's Forest Agriculture Commodity Trade Dialogue to update on progress one year from its launch at COP26. There is also the Cocoa Forest Initiative event to mobilize action from global chocolate makers and cocoa companies, with the Government of Ghana taking part". H.E Thompson noted although the annual deforestation rate in Ghana is running at 3.5% with her forests under threat from agricultural expansion and illegal mining yet tackling the menace will require a huge, complex and sustained effort that must recognise how climate, poverty, and business interests all interact both as part of the problem and, ultimately, as part of the solution. The well-organised event was attended by members of the Diplomatic corps, Foresters, Representatives of the various MDA's members of the Business community, among others stakeholders. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (Rtd), has asserted that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has proved that politicians cannot be trusted. According to the former aide of President Akufo-Addo, his experiences with politicians during his active years back in the day have been nothing but short on trust. In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Mr. Nunoo-Mensah reiterated that his relationship with the current president didnt count when he together with other ex-personnel wanted to share their concerns on the state of the country. You can never trust a politician but you can trust for instance me as a military man. The second coup of Rawlings then I had retired but I had a call to come and serve again at the barracks. He came to me as a soldier when I didnt know who he was. The soldier came to my room armed yet I trusted him that he wont harm me with the AK47, he recounted. I have known the President very well on a personal level. I trusted him that is why I followed him as his campaign manager back in the day. They will use you to get what they want and throw you away. This has been the case all over the world. President Mahama is another in question, he added. Brigadier RTD. Joseph Nunoo-Mensah further hinted that the country could be headed towards destruction if the current public unrest over the economy is not addressed. Ghana as a country is worrying because we are heading towards chaos. The people we voted for have proven not to be serious with us as a country. Lets look at Lebanon, Sri Lanka and the others that Ive lived in. They are in chaos and if we dont take care thats where we are headed towards. Brigadier RTD. Joseph Nunoo-Mensah was a member of the New Patriotic Party and the campaign manager for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos bid for nomination as the partys candidate for the Ghanaian presidential elections in 1998. Nunoo-Mensah later defected from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), then in opposition. 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. Featured Video A Minnesota woman was shot dead outside her workplace for "repeatedly" rejecting a coworkers advances. Nicole Hammond, 28, died in the parking lot of her St. Cloud workplace on Oct. 24 after coworker Jordan Carpenter shot her in the neck, police said. Carpenter, 36, had fled the scene but was tracked down about three hours later hiding in a home in nearby Sauk Rapids, according to a statement by St. Cloud Police. The suspect was in possession of a handgun and was arrested on murder charges. The victim had texted the coworker one day before her murder and insisted that she did not want to be touched or manipulated by him, a probable cause statement obtained by the Kansas City Star revealed. Hammond had "repeatedly" rejected Carpenters romantic advances in the month leading up to the violent murder, police said, asking him "not to make things uncomfortable at work." Police also found a text Hammond sent to a friend saying Carpenter was mad at her. The harassment was evident among other coworkers, who said Carpenter has a "bad temper," according to the media outlet. The alleged killer admitted to officers he was upset about Hammonds rejection the night before her death. Carpenter did not admit to the killing, according to the probable cause statement, but claims he had been walking toward Hammonds car when he heard the gunshot. The alleged killer told cops he ran away from the scene because he "was too traumatized" after seeing his love interests body. "He didnt render aid, go to work, nor did he call 9-1-1," police said. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ashanti regional Minister, Hon Simon Osei-Mensah has admitted he cannot force but rather appeal to traders in the Kumasi metropolis to reduce the prices of commodities. The prices of commodities, especially oil, sugar, rice, and others have increased astronomically in the region and in the nation at large. Buyers have since complained and appealed to the government to intervene and ensure the prices are reduced to cushion them. Answering questions concerning the skyrocketing prices of commodities at a press conference on Thursday, November 3, 2022, the minister said: "There is no law to stand on to arrest people for selling goods at a certain price in the country." He noted that Ghana operates an open and free market policy where everyone is at liberty to price his or her goods at will. "Ghana," he said, "is operating a free-market economy" and for that reason, he can only appeal to the traders to reduce their prices. Mr Osei-Mensah said he had already engaged the traders concerning such issues and appealed to them to do something about the prices of commodities. He noted some market queen mothers have even started appealing to their members to reduce the prices of their commodities. The Minister said he is also intervening in the recent increase in transport fares in the region which is generating misunderstandings between the drivers and their passengers. Hon Osei-Mensah said he has directed for data to be collated on the fares to know where the operators have increased it by more than the 19 percent as approved by the government for action to be taken on it. 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. Featured Video The Kaneshie District Court has imposed a GH6,000 fine on Francis Awusi, an evangelist, for making false and offensive statements about Prophet Gabriel Akwesi Sarpong, General Overseer of Cross of Miracles International, Accra. Awusi, who is also a YouTube host, would in default serve one-year imprisonment. The said publications indicated that Prophet Sarpong (the complainant) was an occult pastor and a murderer, who had killed his wife for occultism to run his church. The court ordered Awusi to go to Peace FM, a private radio station, Daily Graphic Newspaper, and use his YouTube channel where he had defamed the complainant and render an apology. Awusi who was charged with offensive conduct and publication of false news earlier pleaded not guilty. However, when sitting resumed, Awusi, who was represented by a lawyer, informed the court that he wanted to change his plea. The prosecution had called three witnesses and played three videos at the ongoing trial. The court presided over by Ms. Ama Adomako Kwakye convicted Awusi on his own plea. His counsel, prayed the court to have mercy on him, saying he was a first offender, married with children, and was a man of God with a huge congregation. Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Richard Amoahsaid the complainant was Prophet AkwesiSarpong. The court said the convict was also a host of a YouTube channel programme, known as Hell and Heaven, whiles Isaac Gyasi, the second accused, aka K2 Temple, was at large. Chief Insp Amoah said Prophet Sarpong said the complainant reported to the police that in August 2020, Gyasi whose face was covered with a veil, made certain false and offensive statements about the complainant during a live YouTube TV programme, hosted by Awusi. Prosecution said Gyasi alleged among other things that the complainant, Prophet Sarpong, was an occult pastor and a murderer, who had killed his wife for occultism powers to run his church. Chief Insp Amoah said Awusi, who was hosting the live TV programme, also published the pictures and videos of some church activities of the complainant on the screen and had warned the public to stay away from his church. The prosecution said Awusi was arrested and during investigations, it was established that Awusi hosted the programme with Gyasi as his guest. Chief Insp Amoah said Awusi also supported the allegations made against the complainant by showing pictures and videos of the complainant on the YouTube channel on the internet. The prosecution said Awusi admitted the offence and explained that he only interviewed Gyasi, who was invited to participate in his programme by his producer and that he did not know Gyasi personally. 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. Featured Video Some 850 candidates of the Ghana School of Law are fit to be considered for the Ghana Bar on November 11, 2022, provided they meet other requirements, such as Good character. This is after the final results for the examinations conducted in July by the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) of the General Legal Council (GLC) to select qualified students of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) to be called to the Bar this year, were released on Thursday, November 3. The IEC is an institution created under the authority of Parliament in 2018 with the sole mandate to conduct and manage entrance examinations for admitting law students and other internal exams taken by the students. In a Citi News report sighted by GhanaWeb, the results released show that some 81 per cent of the over 800 Part Two Professional Law Course students defined as candidates who started and completed their professional law course on various campuses of the GSL have passed. Also, 18 per cent of candidates who sat for the exams failed at least one or more of the papers written in July 2022. The percentage of successful candidates belonging to the post-call law class defined as persons who have been called to the Bar in other common law jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Nigeria and The Gambia was, however, lower; at over 60 per cent. Around 33 per cent of post-call candidates failed at least one paper, meaning they are ineligible to be considered for the Ghana Bar this year. In total, some 850 candidates of the Ghana School of Law are fit to be considered for the Ghana Bar on November 11, 2022, provided they have equally met other requirements, such as Good character. To pass a paper, a candidate must obtain at least 50 per cent of the 100 available marks per paper. In cases where a candidate fails two papers or less, that candidate will be referred whereas if a candidate fails three or more papers, the candidate is repeated for the entire class because it is considered as a fail. In September this year, the GLC announced it would Call newly qualified lawyers to the Ghana Bar on Friday, 11 November 2022. On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the GLC is expected to hold a major dinner in honour of all the successful candidates. 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. Featured Video Some transport operators have abandoned their various bus terminals due to the continuous hike in fuel prices. The action of the transport operators has left numerous passengers stranded. According to Angel News sources, many passengers were seen in long queues at the Circle Neoplan Station however, there were no transport operators to attend to them. Prior to this, some frustrated drivers in the Greater Accra Region warned that they would not wait for price adjustment notices from their mother organisations anymore. They bemoaned that no one issues alert when there is increase in fuel prices therefore, they will not wait on the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to engage with government on the upward adjustment percentage. An obviously angry driver in an interview on Accra-based TV3 declared that things will be simple henceforth. He explained that when commercial drivers go to the filling stations and fuel prices have increased, they will just increase their fares as well so passengers should not await any announcement henceforth. Passengers on the other hand have also expressed their displeasure in the increase in fuel prices as this has resulted in an upward adjustment in transport fares. These frustrations are coming at a time when prices of fuel products have gone up again at the pumps. Fuel prices saw an upward adjustment twice in October 2022 which has compelled transport operators to even the score by increasing fares twice in less than two months. 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. Featured Video Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, has informed Parliament that the construction of apartments for the resettlement of the tidal waves victims is ongoing at Salakorpe in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region. He said the Volta Regional Coordinating Council and the Ketu South Municipal Assembly had been working with the relevant state institutions, including the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Ghana Refugee Board, to resettle the displaced persons. Dr Letsa said this on the floor of the House when he appeared to respond to a question by Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South, who wanted to know when the relocation of the victims would commence. He said the Ketu South Municipal Assembly had initiated the construction of 15 two-bedroom apartments at Salakorpe to resettle the about 150 victims, adding that the project was expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2023 to accommodate the first batch of victims. Giving the details, he said 110 plots of lands had been secured, contracts had been awarded, the roads to the site had constructed, and water and electricity extended to the site. The contractor is presently on site and has started work. He said the Assembly would continue to source for funding with the support of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, in partnership with the relevant state institutions to settle all the victims displaced. So far, with the support of the Ghana Red Cross Society, we have also erected 20 tents to accommodate about 150 to 200 of the displaced persons, Dr Letse said. Touching on source of funding, Dr Letsaa said the Municipal Assembly,, with support fromrom the Coordinating Council, had secured about two million Ghana ccedis thrhroughugh lobbying to lobbying to start the first phase of the resettlement programme. The project was delayed due to heavy rains, he said. 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. Featured Video Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, has rejected claims that the Ashanti Region has suffered lack of development under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He said the narratives by critics of the President did not support the reality on the ground considering the huge investments being made by the government in all sectors in the region. Addressing a news conference in Kumasi on the recent visit of the President, the Minister said the region had seen massive development since the NPP assumed office in 2017 compared to the eight years of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) preceding the current government. He said the recent tour of the region by the President was enough testimony of the level of development in the region, having commissioned a lot of strategic projects and inspected ongoing ones. Between 2009 and 2017 when we took over, no single hospital was commissioned in this Region, but three hospital projects including, Konongo, Tepa and Bekwai have been commissioned under this administration, he noted. He said much as the region had not received enough projects as expected, it would be disingenuous on the part of anybody to create the impression that Ashanti had been neglected by the President in terms of development. There are several legacy projects ongoing in the region some of which have been commissioned in the areas of education, health, local government, aviation, transport, judiciary and road sectors, Mr. Osei-Mensah pointed out. He mentioned projects such as the Local Government Training School, Paramedics Training School, both at Akomadan, Kumasi Airport Expansion Project, School of Creative Arts, and the Suame Interchange as some of the ongoing projects in the Ashanti Region. He said it was unfortunate and hypocritical for the NDC that could not construct a single interchange or flyover in the Ashanti Region for the 16 years it had been in office under the Fourth Republic, to accuse the President of not constructing any interchange in the region. The good people of Ashanti region, he said, were proud of the President for the numerous projects they were benefiting under his leadership. He implored the people of Ashanti to keep faith with the President, assuring them that the region would see massive transformation at the end of his tenure. On the economy, Mr. Osei-Mensah said the President was on course to fixing the fundamental challenges stifling growth through the implementation of pragmatic and viable policies geared towards reviving the economy. He said the Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District One Warehouse initiatives introduced by the government targeted food security and by extension cut down on importation of food. In the wisdom of the President, he thought it wise to introduce the One District One Factory so that the agro based ones will process the excess production under the PFJ, he observed. He said as the country increased its exports and minimised importation through such laudable policies, the fundamentals of the economy was being changed to accelerate growth. These initiatives, coupled with the Free Senior High School Policy, according to him, were making significant impact on the economy due to their correlating effects on productivity. The Regional Minister also underlined the huge investment the government was making in Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) to build the needed technical manpower for economic growth. He said the current challenges facing the country was a global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which had devastated many economies across the world. He therefore implored Ghanaians to keep faith with the government as it worked hard to turn this around to reduce the economic hardships in the country. 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. Featured Video The aspiring General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor has said he has no intention to step down from the race to be General Secretary should there be any approach for him to do so. According to him, he is the next General Secretary, and nobody can stop him from contesting. In an interview with Nimatu Yakubu Atouyese, he said nobody can bribe or persuade him from contesting. It is not true (I have been asked to step down). I have picked nominations. I am the next General Secretary of the NDC. He also added that he is a stronger contender in the race, and although he is the youngest person vying for the position of the party, age is the least of the things that should be used to determine his capabilities. Let me emphasize that the wisdom of Solomon has nothing to do with the age of Methuselah. You dont need to be old before you become efficient. Is Ghana huger than France? The Facebook that youre on, the internet that youre on, the website that you are on, they were all generated by young people, he said. 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. Featured Video James Kwabena Bomfeh has urged President Nana Akufo-Addo to double up his efforts to curbing corruption. According to him, the President's zeal to nip corruption in the bud has dwindled, hence giving Ghanaians little to no hope that he is committed to the fight. The former Acting CPP General Secretary, popularly referred to as 'Kabila', made this submission while tackling President Nana Akufo-Addo's nation address on the economy. Televised on Sunday, October 30, 2022, the President reiterated his commitment to making the lives of Ghanaians better. "We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy. "I urge us all to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light. We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana Beyond Aid. "I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well," he stated. But Kabila is unenthused by the President's performance against corruption. "One of the things that the President, today, will admit is that the excitement and the appeal that people got that he will bring a radical approach to fighting corruption, it is missing. We are not seeing it. If the President will step up within his 2-year term left to do something and show that he is taking steps with the fight against corruption, perceived or real, that alone apart from all that he has done will boost everything he is doing," he said while joining the Wednesday's panel on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' morning show. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Samuel Bryan Buabeng, a presidential staffer has explained why Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will not resign over current economic challenges the country is facing. He is of the view that just as former president John Dramani Mahama did not resign in the face of hardships during his tenure, "Akufo-Addo is not moving an inch!" Calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has become topical with one of the major proponents being private legal practitioner, lawyer Martin Kpebu. "Nana Akufo-Addo is NOT moving an inch! John Dramani Mahama did not resign from office when life became unbearable for Ghanaians, so much so, that Hajia Zenabu, a practicing Muslim resorted to pig farming to save her family," Buabeng tweeted on November 1, 2022. The call by Kpebu and others for Akufo-Addo to resign is linked to the harsh economic conditions that have largely been blamed on mismanagement and issues of corruption. In his most recent call for Akufo-Addo to resign, Kpebu said on JoyNews' 'The Probe' on October 30: "He has overstayed his welcome, so we are begging Mr. president, he should just resign. Theres a place for resignation. The constitution itself says so, that he can resign. He can. "Once as a people we tell him that respectfully we think that he should resignarticle 66 makes provision for his resignation so he resigns and lets not forget, Lieutenant General Joseph Ankrah, he resigned over allegations concerning about GH6,000 at the time The constitution makes it clear so its not as if by all means we should run the course of 4 years. No. Once you have seen that this problem is beyond you, you are not able to get your head around it you just resign because its the same story for 6 years, Kpebu opined. Akufo-Addo in his October 30 address on the economy blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causes for the countrys economic woes. While admitting that the country was in crisis and rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide, he said the situation was not peculiar to the country as many nations across the world were also experiencing difficulties. We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy, he said. But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes. President @NAkufoAddo is NOT moving an inch! @JDMahama did not resign from office when life became unbearable for Ghanaians, so much so, that Hajia Zenabu, a practicing Muslim resorted to pig farming to save her family. Source: Ghanab.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Institute Energy Security has said that the government is embarking on an unrealistic mission in search of of cheap reliable fuel around the world. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced in his address on Sunday October 30 that the government was working to secure reliable and regular sources of affordable petroleum products for the Ghanaian market to stabilise fuel prices. Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah had said that the government has tasked the Energy Ministry and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to find reliable and cheaper sources of fuel. He said The deregulated market we have here where BDCs import from big companies on high fees from the refinery wherever and bring them in is contributing to the quickened escalation of fuel prices. To arrest it, the Energy Ministry working through NPA and other agencies etc is been tasked to finding reliable, cheaper sources of fuel for the Republic so that the OMCs locally can tap into and hopefully halt that escalation in fuel prices. The IES in a statement issued on Thursday November 3 said Meanwhile, the search for that heavily discounted fuel price from elsewhere is an unrealistic hope, and the team may return empty handed, unless the expectation/request is exchanged with something valuable to the would-be supplier. If His Excellency the President and the handlers of Ghanas Energy Ministry look within, they would find what they are desperately looking for from outside the country. Indeed the search for reliable and affordable source of petroleum products starts with the Tema Oil Refinery, which has been down since March 2021, due to lack of crude oil which is the refinerys main raw material. It beats ones imagination how an oil producing country with a refinery capacity of 45,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd), would have it top government officials abandon its domestic competitive advantage, and rather seek to import refined petroleum product elsewhere, in the name of reliability and affordability. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Chief Executive Officer of the Intercity State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea, has asked President Akufo-Addo to be updating Ghanaians on progress made as far as his measures to salvage the economy are concerned. The President in his address on Sunday, October 30, 2022, mentioned 12 policy measures targeted at tackling the cedi depreciation and putting the economy back on track Among these measures, include a 30% cut in budgeted discretionary expenditures as well as salaries of appointees including the President and his Vice. "We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many evil forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that continue to bedevil our economy, he stated. Reacting to the President's address, Nana Akomea said for Ghanaians to continue having confidence in the President and the ruling government, there will be the need to give a progress report. "During Covid, almost on a weekly basis, he was giving updates and he was praised worldwide and so we are expecting that he will do the same for this economic challenges; the same crisis communication. Others claim it should have been earlier but better late than never. I pray that this should not be a one-off; there should be a progress report" he urged President Akufo-Addo. Listen to him in the video below Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Hon. Ambrose Dery, Minister for the Interior and Member of Parliament for Nandom Constituency, on Thursday November 3, 2022, paid a working visit to the headquarters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He was warmly welcomed by Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong, General Secretary of the Party; Mr. Haruna Mohammed, Deputy General Secretary; Miss Miriam Awurama Duah, Deputy National Women Organiser; Mr. William Yamoah, Director for Finance and Administration and Mr. Richard Ahiagbah, Director for Communications. The General Secretary, as part of his welcome address, noted that greater collaboration between government appointees and party functionaries is critical to the success of the Akufo-Addo administration, thus the decision by the national executive body to roll out the party-government Engagements initiative. He assured Hon. Dery that like all other government ministries, departments and agencies, he could also count on the party to succeed in order to put the Nana Addo-led government in a better light. Briefing the General Secretary on happenings at his Ministry, the Hon. Minister reiterated Ghana's enviable achievement as the most peaceful country in the West African Sub-region and second in Africa. He traced the aforementioned achievements to the numerous initiatives and reforms that have been introduced into the country's security agencies by the Ministry following his appointment in 2017. In his closing remarks, the General Secretary commended the Interior Minister for his hard work and proactive administrative measures which he indicated is necessary to improve Ghana's security. He also urged the Minister and all other government officials to continously engage various stakeholders of the party in its bid to retain power in 2024 for the betterment of the lives of Ghanaians. The New Patriotic Party, under Mr. Stephen Ayensu Ntim as National Chairman and Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong as General Secretary, has recorded a milestone with the introduction of the party-government engagements initiative. Since its implementation about two months ago, several government appointees have been drawn to the party headquarters to engage leadership and staff. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has been given the green light by the police to embark on his Kume Preko Reloaded' demonstration. He told NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie', in an interview that they [Police] said I can go ahead. The Kume Preko reloaded' demonstration is scheduled for Saturday, November 5, 2022. Martin Kpebu is, however, urging Ghanaians to join his push for the resignation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and some key members of his government due to their mismanagement of the economy. He insisted that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta as well as Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahen must be made to leave office. Listen to interview Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dr Smart Sarpong, a senior research fellow at the Kumasi Technical University (KTU), has said that it is completely erroneous to blame the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, over the current economic difficulties engulfing the country. Speaking during an appearance on Kumasi-based Fox Morning Drive, the governance expert said the Vice President is blameless over the economic situation because he did not constitute the Economic Management Team (EMT) that hes forced to work with. According to Dr Sarpong, aside from Bawumia, every other person on the team was appointed by the President and the blame lies with their woeful performances and not the Vice President. People are saying all sorts of things against Dr. Bawumia but let me put it on record that the team [Economic Management Team] headed by the Vice President, had the members selected and constituted by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and given to him [Dr. Bawumia] to work with, he said. The Finance Minister was appointed by Nana Akufo-Addo, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana is also appointed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. All the Ministers constituting EMT were somebodys selection and given to Dr. Bawumia to work with them, Dr. Smart Sarpong pointed out. According to Sarpong, the Vice President would probably like to replace some members of the EMT, but he lacks the power to do so. He didnt make the selection. The selection was made by someone and that person who is the President is not ready to change the people so we cant blame Dr. Bawumia, Dr. Smart Sarpong added. Wrong Place, Wrong Time Prior to taking office, there had been no question about the economic genius of Vice President Bawumia, yet the NPP government, after a brilliant start, appear to have sputtered, particularly within the past year. How can that be, with noted economic whizkid Dr Bawumia on the Economic Management Team? Aside Dr Sarpongs astute observations above, a senior Ghanaian journalist, Omanhene Kwabena Asante, recently revealed that the Vice Presidents advice on economic issues are routinely ignored. Speaking on Ekosii Sen on Asempa Fm, Asante opined that the Vice President has given sage economic advice at every step of the way but continues to be routinely ignored by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and other members of the EMT. Omanhene said Dr Bawumia has become a victim of circumstances ie his economic genius is being tainted due to the actions of other people. Behind the scenes, a lot is happening that cannot be said publicly. If we are allowed to say what is really going on between Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and [Finance Minister] Ken Ofori-Atta and the economic management team, [many troubling] things have transpired and continue to transpire, he said in Twi on the program on Asempa Fm. He added: Even at yesterdays meeting, a lot happened. We can give updates but it will be very unfair on our part to spill some of these secrets and dig Ghana into a deeper hole. The truth is that Dr Bawumia, unfortunately, continues to be a victim of circumstances. Unfortunately, he would not speak up to defend himself, and he would never do so. But in politics, we have the good, the bad and the ugly. Unfortunately for Dr Bawumia, he has fallen into the category where all Ghanaians believe the economic downturn, and cedi depreciation and other issues are all the cause of his policies but I can confidently tell you that is not the case. Gradually, a picture is emerging of dysfunction in the government in regards to following the path recommended by Bawumia, a proven economist with a stellar track record, as against those considered the Presidents men. As Ghanaians currently suffer, one can only wonder what might have been if those in charge actually listened to wisdom. Bawumia, after all, has proven his competence with the stunning digital drive which has completely thrust Ghana into the future, ahead of all her peers! Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video At the 18th Biennial Delegates Conference of the Accra Diocesan Council of AYPA on 24th September, 2022, Hon. Adjiri Blankson, a former Mayor of Accra, expressed how happy he was that his son, Hon. Joe Ghartey has confirmed to him his intention to run for the NPP's Flagbearship position. Hon. Blankson, a member of the Council of State, Chairman of NPP Greater Accra Council of Elders, stated that we must be assured that Hon. Joe Ghartey has a soild background. Hon Adjiri Blankson commented that, "If you want to play top grade politics, stand infront of your mirror and ask yourself do I deserve to be who I want to be". Hon. Ghartey, is one of Ghanas longest-serving Member of Parliament. He has served Essikado-Ketan Constituency in the Western Region for over a decade. Hon. Ghartey was Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the erstwhile former President John Agyekum Kufuor's government, moving on to become one of Ghanas youngest Minister of Justice and Attorney General in 2006. He also served as Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a former Minister of Railways Development. Hon. Ghartey is an astute lawyer and has lectured at the Ghana School of Law. He is a Patron of NPP Germany branch, among others. Hon Blankson also commented that Hon. Joe Ghartey has all the required qualities and as he Hon. Blankson is regarded of having clean hands in government so is Hon. Joe Ghartey regarded as having clean hands. "With his proven track record and work done in government, his bid for the flagbearship is backed in good standing," Hon Blankson concluded that he wished Joe Ghartey well. Hon. Adjiri Blankson also congratulated Hon. Joe Ghartey and his wife for their unconventional dowry of accepting just a Bible and rings for the hand of their eldest daughter in marriage. Hon. Blankson acknowledged that as well established lawyers themselves, Hon. Joe Ghartey and his wife did not have to make any exorbitant demands as their act was commendable. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video King of Amapiano DJ Azonto says he is willing to give his G-Wagon to any artiste whose song is bigger than "Fa Ne Fom." DJ Azonto's "Fa Ne Fom" single continues to make waves on radio, clubs and parties, especially ahead of the Christmas festivities. DJ Azonto, who is known for flaunting his fleet of plush cars on social media, revealed that he was disappointed as to how Nigerian music was dominating the Ghanaian airwaves with "Fa Ne Fom" being one of the songs, competing on the waves. "I want to dash my G-Wagon or Maserati to an A-list artist from Ghana who has a song bigger than 'Fa Ne Fom.' "I don't like the way Nigerians are dominating the clubs and parties and it is only "Fa Ne Fom" competing with them," he said in an interview. DJ Azonto was recently in the news after demanding higher payment for his upcoming performance at the 2022 Ghana DJ Awards. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ottawa Police Service interim Police Chief Steve Bell appears at the Public Order Emergency Commission, Monday, October 24, 2022 in Ottawa. Ottawa's interim police chief says his force is investigating allegations that officers leaked intelligence to organizers of last winter's "Freedom Convoy" protest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld The tug MT Kakisa is shown on Great Slave Lake near the Marine Transportation Services shipyard in Hay River, N.W.T., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Residents, fishers and politicians in Hay River, N.W.T. have intensified long-standing calls to dredge the river's channels leading into Great Slave Lake saying if its not completed, it could have wide-reaching impacts on the fishing industry, marine transport and flooding. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Emily Blake Nick Ramrod, a TDSB caretaker, holds his sign as he and other CUPE Ontario members and supporters demonstrate outside of the Queen's Park Legislative Building in Toronto, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Thousands of Ontario education workers are on picket lines indefinitely as of Friday in defiance of a provincial government law that has imposed a contract on 55,000 workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and banned them from striking. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston More than 700 students descended on the Kansas Technology Center on Friday to explore academic programs as they begin to make a career plan for whats next for them after high school a record, organizers say. Many came from Crawford County high schools, but there were several busloads coming in from hours away, including teachers from Circle High School in Towanda, Kansas a nearly 3-hour drive, as well as schools further away like Illinois and Texas. Its worth it, said Daniel Guthrie, who teaches technology courses at Circle High School and brought 21 students. I feel strongly in the quality of the programs here, and this day is a great way for our students to experience it in a hands-on way. Its a way to make contact with college students who are enrolled in these programs already, talk directly with faculty, so they can see exactly what its like. Id encourage other teachers to bring their classes, too. Eric Gudde, technology education teacher at Frontenac (Kansas) High School, brought a whopping 40 students, and said at least half of them are interested in a career in graphics, photography, or construction programs that are nationally known and highly regarded at Pittsburg State. These are students who are coming out of our building trades and digital media courses, so theyve gotten good exposure to it in high school and are ready to take it to the next level, he said. Michelle Laubenstein, the career and technical education director at Fort Scott (Kansas) High School, brought 34 students, many of whom also expressed interest in graphic design. Were bringing our students interested in automotive and other technologies in the spring, because we maxed out on numbers for this one this fall, she said. Her daughter, Anna, a senior in graphic design, was among them. Its good to see what types of things are available here, and to see the products and packaging that students have made, she said. Im still exploring my options as far as where to go. Seeing all the elements in person is important. Tanner Wiles, a junior at Southeast High School in Cherokee, Kansas, was back for his third year. One of his stops was the Plastics Engineering Technology lab, where Professor Rebeca Book was showing two students from Pittsburg High School the latest equipment the lab offers. Im still deciding, Wiles said. Each year they add new things, and this is a chance to see it and figure out my path. University students helped provide tours, taking students past each of the 15 program areas in the College of Technology: Automotive Construction (Construction Engineering, Construction Technology, Construction Management, Electrical, Environmental and Safety Management, Interior Design) Engineering Technology (Electronics Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Plastics Engineering) Graphics and Imaging Technologies Technology and Workforce Learning (Technology & Engineering Education, Workforce Development, Wood Tech) Demonstrations ranged from 3D printing to robotics and animation to heavy equipment to high pressure water jet cutting. Learn more about the College of Technology. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Kari Lake from a rally yesterday: I dont believe parents are terrorists at all. And Ill tell you what. If I were governor right now, and Joe Biden even thought he was gonna send his FBI or DOJ in to start coming after our parents, they would be met at the airport with the state police and arrested for going after our rights. We finally, as parents, have to rise up and say, No, were gonna take this anymore, and they call us terrorists. Thats unbelievable. Were in an upside-down world, and we need to right it. Kari Lake, as Governor, said she would send the Arizona state police to intercept FBI and DOJ agents at the airport to arrest them. pic.twitter.com/tpXgSMjAgj PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) November 2, 2022 That sounds concerning. Joe Biden might send his FBI and DOJ to come after parents? Forget that State Police cannot arrest the FBI if they are doing their jobs, it is unbelievable that the FBI would be sent to arrest parent terrorists. Literally unbelievable because none of this exists in the real world, and Kari Lake is tapping into the Qanon conspiracy ecosystem, the favorite habitat of the rabid MAGA voter who might otherwise be too lazy to vote. The actual FBI memo doesnt mention parents, only the safety of teachers and district staff: Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nations core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety. The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate. In the coming days, the Department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel. So, wait. Not all parents are terrorists? The FBI only plans to stop the death threats and aggressive action toward other state employees. like teachers and administrators? So, it would seem that the FBI doesnt call parents terrorists. No, the FBI calls terrorists terrorists. If a parent has concerns and goes to meetings and speaks their mind loudly, he or she isnt a terrorist; that person is a concerned parent. But if a parent or ISIS leader goes to a school board meeting and says that he knows where they all live and they are signing their death warrants, that person is a terrorist, parent or not. Yet again, its Lake who lives in an upside-down world. Katie Hobbs, win or lose, committed the greatest act of political malpractice ever by refusing to debate this person. Pffft, state troopers arresting FBI agents there to take in parents because theyre terrorists. Only Kari Lake would make such an assertion. Xi meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Xinhua) 13:29, November 04, 2022 Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and that it is also his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. Xi said the visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward. Xi stressed that China-Germany relations could not have reached today's level without the extraordinary vision and political courage of generations of Chinese and German leaders, mentioning this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. The five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress, he said. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to world peace and development. China will work with Germany for a future-oriented all-round strategic partnership and for new progress in China-Germany and China-Europe relations. Xi briefed Scholz on the 20th CPC National Congress, with a particular focus on the essence of Chinese modernization. He pointed out that modernization is an aspiration and goal shared by people in all countries. That said, countries should choose their paths to modernization in light of their own national realities. Xi said Chinese modernization has elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context, because of China's unique national conditions, because of China's social system and governance philosophy, and because of understanding gained through decades of endeavors toward modernization. The president said China has been upholding and promoting world peace through its own development. In this process, the development of China and that of other countries have become more interconnected and mutually reinforcing. China will stay committed to advancing high-standard opening up, keep to the right direction in economic globalization, promote an open world economy, and expand converging interests with other countries. Xi stressed that political trust is easy to destroy but difficult to rebuild and that it should be nurtured and protected by both sides. He cited a quote which former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt used and which he appreciated, that political leaders should have the serenity to accept the things they cannot change, the courage to change the things they can change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two. "It is important that China and Germany respect each other, accommodate each other's core interests, adhere to dialogue and consultation, and jointly resist disturbance from bloc confrontation and attempts to see everything through the prism of ideology," Xi said. He called on both sides to keep to the overall direction of bilateral ties from a strategic height, pursue the biggest common ground in a constructive manner, and advance practical cooperation with an open mind to create conditions for long-term and steady growth of bilateral ties. "There should be no self-imposed restrictions or unrealistic expectations," Xi said. Noting the high degree of stability and consistency in China's policy toward Germany, he called on Germany to follow a positive China policy for the mutual benefits of both countries. Xi pointed out that over the past five decades, bilateral practical cooperation has kept deepening, with two-way trade growing by almost 1,000 times, serving economic and social development in both countries. "The two sides should make the pie of common interests still bigger," he said, adding that while exploring more cooperation potential in traditional areas, efforts should be made to energize cooperation in emerging fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence and digitalization. China will work with Germany and Europe to further deepen aviation cooperation, conduct exchanges and cooperation on COVID-19, increase interactions and mutual learning on green development and ecological conservation, and encourage more people-to-people exchanges, he said, calling on Germany to join China in resisting protectionism so that the fruitful bilateral cooperation can deliver more benefits to the two peoples. Xi pointed out that China-Europe relations bear on global stability and prosperity in Eurasia and should be maintained and developed with efforts from both sides. Xi said China always regards Europe as a comprehensive strategic partner, supports the strategic autonomy of the European Union and wishes Europe stability and prosperity. China maintains that its relations with Europe are not targeted at, dependent on, or subjected to a third party. The more complex and difficult the situation becomes, the more important it is for China and Europe to uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, dialogue and cooperation, Xi said. "China will work with Germany and with Europe to step up coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly look for solutions for such global issues as climate change, biodiversity and food security." Scholz expressed his pleasure to visit China in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of Germany-China diplomatic relations and have an in-depth discussion with Xi on Germany-China relations and on important issues of mutual interest. He thanked Xi for the update on China's development outlook. He observed that in a complex and grave international landscape, Europe also faces unprecedented challenges. China is playing an important role on many global issues like climate change, biodiversity, COVID-19 response and food crisis. Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security. Scholz said China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole. Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling. Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses. Scholz said on issues where the two countries' positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties. A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously. Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be responsible. Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations. The two leaders also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi reaffirmed China's support for Germany and Europe to play an important role in facilitating peace talks and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe. Under the current circumstances, the international community should support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and call on relevant parties to remain rational and exercise restraint, start direct engagement as quickly as possible, and create conditions for the resumption of talks; oppose the use of or the threat to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used and that nuclear wars must not be fought, and prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia; work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and forestall disruption to international cooperation in energy, food, finance and other areas and consequent damage to global economic recovery, especially the economic and fiscal stability of developing countries; and make joint efforts to tide civilians in areas affected by the crisis through the winter, and improve the humanitarian situation to avoid a humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale. After the meeting, Xi held a banquet for Scholz at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liu Ning) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print For every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides. Injuries and Death Inside the Home, Trauma, 1998 August: 45 Marjorie Taylor Greene blames Paul Pelosi, in part, for his own attack because he wasnt standing there with an assault rifle ready to blast away: The U.S. now has the highest crime weve seen in decades, where Americans are robbed, stabbed, raped, kidnapped, carjacked and murdered, but the only crime victim you hear about from Democrats in the media is Paul Pelosi. Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked by a drugged out illegal alien that should have been deported. And Paul Pelosi should have been a gun owner and shot his attacker. goodness Marjorie Taylor Greene goads the audience at the Sioux Falls Trump rally into booing Paul Pelosi pic.twitter.com/K0ugAyhJp9 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2022 In this simply gross abuse of Paul Pelosi, is there any proof that Pelosi didnt own a gun and was simply caught totally by surprise, as so many would be in a home invasion? No, we have not heard. We havent heard a lot of the details of the matter. The illegal immigrant stuff spanned multiple administrations since he entered in 2008, and in that time, DePape became an anti-immigrant election denying Trumper. In Marjorie Taylor Greenes America, one in which were simply awash in violent crime (Historically speaking, were not), if you are attacked in your own home, despite considerable security measures, it is your fault for not blowing the guy away the moment he steps into your home. And, given that this is politics in 2022 expect to be booed as a victim of crime, unless you blew the person away like Rep. Greene would if she were caught totally by surprise, maybe brushing her teeth. Last thing, the intruder, DePape, entered the Pelosi home with a hammer and plastic ties rather than a gun. It is possible that Paul Pelosi is alive today because it is much harder to get a gun in California than in Texas, Georgia, or Iowa? See the study above; perhaps the California legislature read the stats and decided guns werent always the answer to home safety. Perhaps stopping violent crime prior is a better way to save ones life than a shoot-out between a prepared person and a surprised person. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print The top of the ballot in Pennsylvania are fighting with each other as Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano are set to be guest stars at Trumps Saturday rally. Ozs true feelings about Mastriano leaked to the press earlier in the week. Dr. Oz has been telling people that the Republican gubernatorial candidate is going to lose. Mastriano didnt like this, so according to The Philadelphia Inquirer: Mastriano, a state senator from Franklin County, on Wednesday circulated a memo among his colleagues, looking for cosponsors for future legislation that would prohibit scientific experiments on live domestic cats and dogs in the state. Even racist anti-Semite Doug Mastriano draws the line at Ozs puppy killing. In contrast, on the Democratic side at the top of the ballot, Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman have been running as a ticket and campaigning around the state. Shapiro has been urging Republicans who are planning to vote for him to also vote for Fetterman. Both of Trumps hand-picked Pennsylvania candidates cant seem to get along with each other and their appearance as sidebar guests in Latrobe, PA on Saturday night could be a dumpster fire. Oz and Mastriano are taking shots at each other as the campaign winds down, while Democrats are unified. Five Republican members of Congress representing South Carolina have asked State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman to get involved in the battle over what students are being taught in schools. U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan, Joe Wilson, Ralph Norman, William Timmons and Nancy Mace sent a letter to Spearman on Thursday asking that she require all public schools and districts terminate any association with the National Association of School Psychologists and its South Carolina branch, the South Carolina Association of School Psychologists, over their opposition to the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act. Duncan represents southwestern South Carolina up to and including Edgefield County. Wilson represents Aiken County and most of the Columbia suburbs. Norman represents the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metro area. Timmons represents Greenville and Spartanburg. Mace represents the Low Country including Charleston and Hilton Head. The Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, H.R. 9197, was introduced by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., on Oct. 18. It prohibits the use of federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10 and prohibits federal funds from being used to host or promote events where adults dance salaciously or strip for children. Sexually-oriented is defined in the bill as any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving sexual orientation, gender identity, gender dysphoria, or related subjects. The Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology, Johnson said in a news release announcing the bill. This common sense bill is straightforward. No federal tax dollars should go to any federal, state, or local government agencies, or private organizations that intentionally expose children under 10 years of age to sexually explicit material. Duncan, Norman and Timmons are among the 36 co-sponsors of the bill. The National Association of School Psychologists sent letters to members of Congress "vehemently" opposing the bill and asking the Congress members to publicly condemn the bill on Oct. 20. "NASP has long supported policies and practices that ensure the safety and well-being of all students, including those who are transgender and gender diverse," Executive Director Kathleen Minke, said in the letter. "H.R. 9197 is in direct conflict with our ethical standards, our positions, and the position of all major medical, mental health, and education organizations." She said the bill ignores the reality that there is no credible evidence that having honest and affirming conversations about all identities will predispose youth to adopt an identity or orientation other than their own. "Further, the bill turns a blind eye to the wealth of evidence demonstrating that inclusion and positive representation of LGBTQ+ persons in classroom instruction and respecting and acknowledging students' gender identity or sexual orientation prevents suicide and other devastating outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth," she continued. LGBTQ+ is an acronym used to describe individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or are a member of a non-traditional gender. Minke also said the bill would "essentially erase" LGBTQ+ people from virtually every aspect of society because of its grossly inaccurate definition of sexually oriented material and the private right to a lawsuit for parents whose children are shown the material. She said the bill severely limits the rights of parents to participate in their child's education because it could prohibit students from being their "authentic selves" in school even with parental consent. Minke added the bill could increase harm to LGBTQ+ students who are already bullied at a higher rate than other students. Duncan, Wilson, Norman, Timmons and Mace said in their letter that explicit sexual content should not be part of children's public education and the association's "desire" to push this agenda raises concerns about their resources and training materials used in schools. The individual members and staff of the Aiken Municipal Development Commission have argued that they should be dismissed from the lawsuit over Project Pascalis because they're not the proper parties for the plaintiffs to sue. Attorneys for commission members Keith Wood, Chris Verenes, David Jameson, Marty Gillam, Philip Merry, the Rev. Doug Slaughter and executive director Tim O'Briant recently asked for the court to dismiss them from the lawsuit filed on July 5. Project Pascalis was the city's name for an estimated $75 million redevelopment project focused on the block bounded by Laurens Street, Richland Avenue, Newberry Street and Park Avenue in downtown Aiken. Proposed plans called for the demolition of the vacant Hotel Aiken and a building next to it on Laurens Street and the construction of a 100-room hotel in their place. The Holley House and several buildings located between it and Newberry Street would be demolished to make way for an apartment complex and a parking garage. The city's former municipal building would be expanded into a conference center. The city's preferred developer, RPM Development Partners, sent notice on Sept. 14 that it was withdrawing from the project; and the Aiken Municipal Development Commission voted to stop the project on Sept. 29. The lawsuit challenging the actions of the Aiken City Council, Aiken Municipal Development Commission, Aiken Design Review Board, RPM Development Partners, Raines Company, Aiken Economic Development Director Tim O'Briant and City Attorney Gary Smith on the project was filed July 5. The plaintiffs in the suit are David Blake, Luis Rinaldini, former Aiken City Councilman Dick Dewar, Jenne Stoker, Beatrice McGhee, Gail King, the Historic Aiken Foundation, the Green Boundary Foundation and the South Carolina Public Interest Foundation. The defendants are the city of Aiken, the individual city council members, the Aiken Municipal Development Commission, AMDC individual members, AMDC Executive Director and Aiken Economic Development Director Tim O'Briant, the Aiken Design Review Board, its individual members, RPM Development Partners, Raines Company and its subsidiary Raines Development. Attorneys Dwight Drake, Matthew Abee and Madison Guyton moved on behalf of Aiken Municipal Development Commission Vice Chairman Chris Verenes for dismissal on Oct. 19. Attorney David Morrison moved at 3:58 p.m. on Oct. 28 to dismiss former Aiken Municipal Development Commission members Catina Broadwater, Stuart MacVean and Chad Matthews from the suit. Morrison moved at 4 p.m. on Oct. 28 to dismiss the remaining commission members Wood, Gillam, Jameson, Merry, Slaughter and Verenes from the suit. Attorney Michael Wren moved at midnight on Nov. 1 to dismiss Aiken Municipal Development Commission Executive Director and Aiken Economic Development Director Tim O'Briant from the suit. Requests for dismissal Verenes is listed three times in the complaint filed on July 5. In paragraphs 127, 187(c) and 199 (the complaint is over 90 pages long), the plaintiffs say that Verenes was one of the Aiken Municipal Development Commission who had interests in Project Pascalis and voted on the project despite a conflict of interest which violates the Ethics Government and Campaign Reform Act. "For example, Chris Verenes is CEO of Security Federal Bank, which owns branches all over Aiken and one directly across from the Hotel Aiken and has loans and other arrangements with numerous owners of property in the Pascalis Block and the blocks immediately around it," the plaintiffs said in paragraph 127. In the motion, Verenes says the plaintiff's claims that he violated the act fail. First, Verenes argues that he did not violate the act. He says that he recused himself from the votes to approve the beginning of Project Pascalis in late November 2021. Second, he argues that the Ethics act does not allow for a private cause of action. Third, Verenes argues that the court does not have jurisdiction to enforce the act because enforcement of the act is up to the state ethics commission. In the alternative (should the motion for dismissal fail), Verenes asks to be substituted out as a party in the suit because he was acting in his official capacity with the commission, therefore the commission is the proper party for the suit. Broadwater, MacVean and Matthews said they should be dismissed from the suit because they are no longer commissioners and they don't plan to become commissioners in the future. "They are sued in their official capacity as Commissioners only, which means simply that they are the alter ego of the Aiken Municipal Development Commission," Morrison said in the motion. "The AMDC is a Defendant in this case. Any request for relief against these Defendants is moot and would have no effect. As former Commissioners in their official capacities only, they are not proper parties to this lawsuit." Morrison adds the suit should also be dismissed as to the three former commissioners because their actions were taken as an alter ego of the Aiken Municipal Development Commission and suing both the commission and them as members is duplicative. Morrision's argument to dismiss the remaining commission members is similar to the argument made for dismissal of individual city council members in August. Basically, he argues that the proper party for the suit is the commission itself under the South Carolina law for suing governmental entities. Therefore, the inclusion of the individual commission members is duplicative. Morrison also argues that any allegations of violations of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act must be made against a public body and not its individual members. Jameson also moved for dismissal because there's no private cause of action under the ethics act. O'Briant uses a similar argument to the one made by Wood, Verenes, Jameson, Gillam, Merry and Slaughter. He says that his actions were made as the alter ego of the city or commission. Thus, the city and commission are the proper parties to the suit and, therefore, including O'Briant would be duplicative. COLUMBIA "Petty disagreements and personal attacks" among board members in Richland County School District Two are contributing to "dysfunction" and undermining its educational mission, the state Inspector General found following a months-long probe of alleged misconduct. A scathing report released Nov. 3 blamed concerns about financial and personal conduct on opposing board factions but shared the blame among all seven members on the governing body of the state's fifth-largest district. Investigators said district staff told them during interviews that students were aware of board behavior during meetings, leading staff to question "student discipline for the same conduct as that exhibited by the board." Staff also told investigators that the district's reputation has been damaged by the board conduct problems, with "job candidates seeking employment elsewhere and experienced teachers leaving the district for other teaching positions or leaving the profession altogether." In their meetings, board members over the last four years have only focused on academic-related agenda items 14 percent of the time, the report said. The Inspector General's report was the first of its kind since a new law was passed this year allowing the governor to ask the state to review school districts in turmoil. Gov. Henry McMaster asked for the investigation in May after receiving dozens letters and calls from parents complaining about Richland Two leadership. The General Assembly also passed a law this year allowing the governor to oust school board members for "mismanagement, misconduct, violations of state or federal law, or wrongdoing." The state investigation did not recommend the removal of any Richland Two board members. The governor is reviewing the findings, a spokesman said. The report's release comes days before the Nov. 8 school board election for the 28,000-student Northeast Columbia district, in which just one out of four incumbent board members with expiring terms is seeking re-election. The 54-page report followed a visit earlier this year from a leadership consultant who described Richland Two as the most dysfunctional board she had ever encountered. The Inspector General described a September 2021 walkout by three Richland Two board members that ended a work session over superintendent's evaluation as "disruptive behavior." The report also noted improper executive session recordings with demeaning language and "vulgar name-calling" that resulted ended at least one board meeting early. A heated verbal altercation during a closed-door meeting in late April led Teresa Holmes to press charges against Lashonda McFadden for threatening the life of a public employee after saying she would "(expletive) you up." A recording of the exchange was shared publicly. Board Chairman James Manning said he was "disappointed" with some of the report's findings. "I think the board needs to get refocused on students and education, which is what were there for," he said. Im going to leave it up to the public to determine what they think of the report. Holmes, the only incumbent seeking reelection, said she will comment after sharing her formal response with the Inspector General's office. The only other board member who responded for comment, Lashonda McFadden, said she had not had a chance to read the report to offer an opinion. Board members in conflict The report described dysfunctional or non-existent communication and lack of trust among board members, saying each of the members contributed to the problem through pettiness and personal attacks on one another. As bad as some of the heated exchanges have been in public, during executive sessions they have been even worse, devolving into vulgar name-calling where executive sessions were terminated without accomplishing its work. Even as the investigation was underway, investigators found increasing problems of failed communication between the board and superintendent, which affected morale and productivity of district staff. Investigators found that the boards problems stemmed largely from rival factions of members with opposing understandings of the boards role in handling the superintendent, toward whom one side acted with fawning deference and the other with hostility and disrespect. A majority four-member faction made up of Holmes, Manning, Cheryl Caution-Parker and Amelia McKie saw the board as existing to support the superintendent, setting goals but staying out of the weeds. Caution-Parker, Manning and McKie are not seeking reelection. The opposing minority three-member faction made up of McFadden, Lindsay Agostini and Monica Scott failed to provide Superintendent Baron Davis with full administrative authority to run the district and was at times hostile and disrespectful toward the superintendent and district staff, the report found. As the report reviewed multiple incidents and the overall pattern of board conduct, it often shared blame between members of each faction for actions in violation of board policy. Investigators found that the majority faction did little work in goal setting and was mostly uninvolved in the districts strategic plan. This faction was unwilling to ask the superintendent questions about important financial policies. Without an internal auditor, the report said, the board was responsible for checking on whether financial controls were working, but board members were generally unaware of longstanding problems with incorrect teacher payments or procurement issues. The minority three-member faction allowed disagreements with the superintendent to become personal and openly hostile. During a dispute over his handling of board spending policy, McFadden wrote an email to the superintendent threatening to question his integrity on his upcoming evaluation. Even though board members are expected to communicate through the superintendent and not other staff, McFaddens threatening behavior toward district staff on one occasion resulted in Davis issuing a notice of no contact with her except at board meetings. The report singled out demeaning language used by Holmes, citing the example of an executive session in which she called Lashonda McFadden little girl, boo, baby and honey. This exchange then escalated as McFadden threatened Holmes: Im just letting you know right now that I will (expletive) you up. Investigators found both violated board conduct policy, as did Manning who recorded the session and leaked it to the news media, a violation of board policy but not an illegal action. They also found that Manning, Holmes and McKie engaged in a three-way text discussion of the leaked recording, which Manning and McKie improperly failed to disclose to investigators. The report cited each faction for sending email about board business between one another, potentially violating state open-record laws requiring open communication between board members. At least one board member mistakenly believed she was not in violation of the law on this point as long as she only blind-copied other board members. In another case, Holmes only released information for evaluating the superintendents contract a day before a Sept. 2021 meeting. As a result, the three-member faction left the meeting protest. Investigators found that Holmes violated policy in not issuing the materials at least three days before the meeting and the other members acted improperly by disrupting the meeting and depriving the board of a quorum to conduct business. Policies need addressing Many of these issues came down to a failure to understand or comply with the board's own policies and the report recommended that all members be given training on board policies and then expected to comply with those policies. Several members were also improperly using personal emails for board business, but have since corrected this violation. Apparently unresolved, however, is board members use of personal cell phones to text one another about board business. Holmes in particular queried members of her own faction about whether a certain date and time was good for a special meeting, but excluded board members not typically aligned with her. To resolve these issues, the report recommended that all members be provided with not just offered a district cellphone for them to conduct business. The report also found that Holmes had exercised a heavy hand as chair in squelching free speech she disliked during public comments sessions and called members of the rival faction out of order when they challenged her actions. At other times, those on the wrong end of a disagreement were told they were being removed for trespassing. The report recommended adopting a policy that would provide due process and avoid stifling the free speech of those critical of board leadership. Not every finding broke down along faction lines. Board members during an Oct. 25, meeting argued over members exceeding their allotted travel expenses. But investigators found that members of both factions Holmes, Manning and Scott had in fact exceeded their allotments. They also singled out McFadden for attempts to misuse funds for expenses unrelated to board business, including attending a religious event in Atlanta. The report recommended that the board adopt policies with time constraints and other standards to address the problems with board member expenses. Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C. Republican Ellen Weaver's campaign received over three times the amount of contributions as Democrat Lisa Ellis did in their S.C. school superintendent cash duel. Weaver brought in about $741,000 in contributions, according to a Post and Courier analysis of campaign disclosure reports for the election cycle. Donate to our Investigative Fund to support journalism like this Our public service and investigative reporting is among the most important work we do. Its also the most expensive reporting we do. We cant do it without your support. Donate Now Ellis took in about $227,000, while Green Party candidate Patricia Mickel raised about $4,900. Leesa Danzek, Ellis's campaign spokesperson, said Weavers fundraising advantage doesnt concern Ellis but the amount and sources has worried her supporters. We get a lot of feedback from voters that they are concerned with the nature of Ellen Weavers donors, given the plentiful support from voucher enthusiasts and wealthy donors, Danzek said in an email. People are worried that this election will be bought by anti-public school donors, she added. Weaver did not respond to requests for comment by publication time. With the Nov. 8 election rapidly approaching, the two major party candidates have emptied most of their coffers. Weaver has spent about $605,000 in total, and Ellis has spent roughly $188,000. More than half of Weavers spending has been on advertising-related costs. Campaign management services, which include a range of work, from coordinating events and voter outreach programs to fundraising, were Ellis largest expense. They amounted to roughly a quarter of her spending. While Weaver ultimately raked in more dollars, Ellis saw more individual contributions nearly 4,500, or more than four times the number Weaver saw. Most of the donations were for small sums, with over a quarter consisting of $25 contributions. An overwhelming number of her supporters were South Carolina educators. Sign up for our Education Lab newsletter. Email Sign Up! The National Education Association, a national teachers union, also donated $3,500 to Ellis campaign, which Weaver criticized during their Nov. 2 debate. Among Weavers donors were several leading GOP figures, including former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who Weaver previously worked for; Mick Zais, former S.C. superintendent and former U.S. deputy secretary of education; and Gov. Henry McMaster. U.S. Sen. Tim Scotts Tomorrow is Meaningful PAC also donated to Weavers campaign. School choice advocates from across the country have rallied behind Weaver. Organizations such as Charter One and Education Freedom Fund, both from Arizona, and Charter Schools USA, based in Florida, contributed, along with Starlee Coleman of the Texas Charter Schools Association and Andrew Campanella of National School Choice Week. Their support of Weaver throughout her campaign isnt surprising. As head of the conservative think tank Palmetto Promise Institute since 2013, Weaver has pushed for using tax dollars to help parents pay for private tuition and open enrollment, among other school choice policies. During the Nov. 2 superintendent debate, Weaver quoted former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling school choice the great civil rights issue of our time. More Information The Post and Courier Education Lab is a multi-year project, employing four reporters, focused on the need for public education reform in South Carolina. The Coastal Community Foundation and Spartanburg Foundation serve as fiscal sponsors for the Education Lab, which is supported by grants from the Jolley Foundation, Intertech, anonymous donors, and generous donations on behalf of donors to The Post and Courier Public Service and Investigative Fund who designate to the Education Lab. Too often many families face income limitations because of their ZIP code and just because of their family circumstances, Weaver said. I want every child to be able to get into the education environment that is right for them. Ellis, a Richland 2 teacher and founder of teacher advocacy organization SC for Ed, has campaigned on keeping taxpayer dollars in public schools, as well as raising teacher salaries and increasing state funding for education. Lisa receives many small-dollar donations from everyday South Carolinians, and is thankful that people are scraping up a few dollars they have to make sure public money stays in public schools," Danzek said. Election Day is Nov. 8. At any given Charleston arts event, there has in recent decades been one inevitable sight. It was Boris Bohun-Chudyniv. By many accounts, he was Charlestons most prominent and perennial arts patron. On Oct. 20, he died at the age of 85 following a car accident. A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, who lived in Charleston for the past quarter of a century, Bohun-Chudyniv was easy to spot from a theater seat or along a gallery wall. With wavy white hair, an intricately carved walking stick and an ever-affable demeanor, his presence at an arts event was often as expected as the work being shown. And where he was, patrons could also expect to see Valerie Morris, the retired dean of the College of Charleston School of the Arts who was his wife and constant cultural companion. At intermission, Bohun-Chudyniv could be found in the lobby, convivially mulling well-weighed reflections with other patrons. Gracious and game, he never tired of engaging with the work, the artists and the fellow audience members. For so many of them, his enthusiasm and erudition offered invaluable and steady support in a field that can at times prove fragile, particularly amid a global pandemic. He had always a little sparkle in his gaze, said Ellen Dressler Moryl. In her role as former director of the office of cultural affairs for the city of Charleston, Moryl had long admired his joie de vivre. The last time she sat with him he captivated her interest with his perspective on a concerto they had just heard. He was so incredibly inspiring to everyone and had the most optimist outlook on everything, she said. While he might have been known for his light and charming touch, Bohun-Chudyniv was formidable in terms of his vast and varied trove of knowledge. The son of a prominent mathematician, he moved from Europe to the United States at the age of 12. After finishing high school in New York City, he went on to attend Columbia University, George Washington University, University of Maryland, Seton Hall University and American University, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in topics including physics, psychology, mathematics and Russian studies. In the midst of this fervor of learning, his main career was at the Library of Congress, where he served as a research analyst for 20 years, leaving and returning six times. He also worked as a dance technician and a professional photographer. Pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky, a longtime Charleston friend and fellow native of Ukraine, said the two were so close they called each other brothers. He has a Romantic spirit really, Vynnytsky said, citing the breadth of his interests. Not only was he exceptionally versed in music, literature and theater, Bohun-Chudyniv was a real estate agent who sold a home to the musician and his wife, cellist Natalia Khoma; polyglot and translator with a mastery of around a half-dozen languages; a pianist; a licensed wedding officiant; and a mushroom expert. His support of the couple was unflagging. He took them to the airport each year when they traveled to Europe for tours, gamely showing up as early as 4 a.m. to collect them. One time when heading out, Vynnystsky and Bohun-Chudyniv were so rapt in conversation that they forgot Khoma back at the house. They had, however, remembered to carefully pack her cello. With Morris, Bohun-Chudyniv attended every Charleston performance of the pianist and cellist. We were looking in the audience. Oh, here is Valerie and Boris, Vynnytsky said, adding that it was an occurrence that always upped their on-stage happiness quotient. Bohun-Chudyiv and Morris also traveled with them to Ukraine, and to the summer concert series for The Music and Art Center of Greene County at Grazhda, in New York, where Vynnytsky is music director. That being said, the deeply thinking culture vulture possessed the sort of informed perspective that swayed. He once abashedly admitted that after one performance in New York, he shared his observations with a prominent New York Times critic, only to discover to his chagrin that his candid insights on one performer had made it into the review. Rogue reviews aside, bolstering was more his bent. Charleston Symphony artistic director, principal pops conductor and concertmaster Yuriy Bekker observed that the perennial patron always made an effort to express how much he enjoyed them, offering kind and appreciative words. His face was one I came to expect at almost every event and it radiated warmth and support, becoming a comforting presence for me on stage, Bekker said. He was so loyal to Charleston artists and his kindness and love of us will never be forgotten." Boris was a titan when it came to supporting the arts, said Rob Taylor, founder of Taylor Music Group. Keenly interested and ever present, he was always there with a comment that betrayed he understood your artistic process and that he digested everything your performance entailed. And, most significantly to many artists, he always showed up. In a Facebook post, Mikhail Agrest wrote, Every time I enter an art accommodation facility here in Charleston, whether it is the College of Charleston Sottile Theatre, or Emmett Robinson Theatre, or just the Recital Hall at the School of the Arts, or Gaillard Center for the Arts, whether it would be a classical music, or a ballet performance, I always look for the man who is there and is glad to see me joining the audience in anticipation of the great pleasure. Boris Bohun-Chudyniv. Boris is always there! It doesnt matter how early I arrive he is there. A devoted husband to Morris and proud father, he leaves behind two children and their spouses, Anya Miller (Laurie) and Alexander Bohun-Chudyniv, and two grandchildren, Finley and Parker. A celebration of life will take place on Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at the American College of the Building Arts, 649 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston. Music will be performed by faculty and former faculty of the College of Charleston. The College of Charleston School of the Arts has established the Boris Bohun-Chudyniv Endowed Scholarship in Arts Management in honor of him. For more information, visit give.cofc.edu. GEORGETOWN Georgetown County voters received one last look at the candidates for two at-large seats on the county school board in a Nov. 3 forum hosted by the Georgetown NAACP chapter at Choppee Recreation Center. Two members of the three-candidate field of Michael Cafaro, Robert Cox and Kathy Ferdon-Anderson will serve as at-large representatives on the nine-member board following Election Day. Questions from moderator Steve Williams covered several topics that have become commonplace in school board discussions around the nation, including the content of social studies education, book challenges, and school choice. Cafaro, who served as principal of Georgetown High School for 10 years, unequivocally stated his opposition to school choice vouchers and said Georgetown County students have plenty of options, such as the Coastal Montessori Charter School. "As a public school candidate for the public school board of education, I would be in the wrong place at the wrong time if I'm going to take money, public money, out of the coffers to give to these private schools or some other entity," Cafaro said. Cox, who spent decades with the Georgetown County building department, was more sympathetic to the idea and noted the district's lagging test scores compared to the state average. Only 37.5 percent of students in the district who took the SC READY assessment in 2021-22 met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, well behind the state average of 46.6 percent. "My thing on school choice is, if it takes taking that child and making a choice, put them somewhere else to where they can get a proper education, I'm going to have to say I'm for school choice," Cox said. "And I think the choice should be for the child and the child needs money to follow that child to another school, to help them, then I'm for it." Ferdon-Anderson, who taught at Andrews High School for 31 years, said the district already allows students to transfer to other district schools. Intra-district transfers are permitted in Georgetown County under circumstances of "exceptional and compelling personal hardship unique to the student or the students family, which do not unlawfully contribute to re-separation of the races." Children of district employees can also transfer out of their attendance zone to the school their parent is employed at. Ferdon-Anderson stressed the importance of having students read age-appropriate books, and earlier in the forum stated that she is open to providing alternate reading options for students whose parents are uncomfortable with certain books. But she made clear she disagrees with the idea of blanket bans on books. "Now, if you come to me and say, 'I don't want my child to read this book, I don't want Marvin's child to read this book,' that's a different story," Ferdon-Anderson said. "'I don't want any child in Georgetown County to read this book.' Then we're going to have some problems." Cafaro said decisions on challenging books are a "community process" and that the district has considerable local autonomy on the matter. "When it comes to books, I think local standards, you know, local mores and folkways play into them," Cafaro said, adding that the process is "not like one person, like an Adolf Hitler, saying 'no, this is it, throw it on the burn pile.'" Cox said he is against banning books but added that the district needs to "take a closer look at" the subjects of books entering school libraries. When pressed on what books children should not be reading, Cox replied, "Books that were detrimental to a child, for example, a book on crime, a book on homosexuality. I would not be for those sort of books." On the topic of "teaching history even when it is uncomfortable," as Williams put it, Cafaro said such instruction is done by researching a topic and then presenting it in a way students can understand. "You teach it, after you do your research, what happened," said Cafaro, a former social studies teacher. "You don't be afraid of it. Yeah, slavery happened... Discrimination happened. You explain why, but you don't have to do it through binoculars to hate anybody or dislike anybody. You tell it like it is." Ferdon-Anderson agreed with Cafaro's assertion that research on the teacher's part is necessary. "We've got a whole faction of our society who doesn't believe the Holocaust occurred," Ferdon-Anderson said. "You've got to teach children. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Yes, it's horrible. Of course it's horrible. But they need to understand, too, that going forward we need to learn from that and be better people." Cox emphasized that history cannot be changed and that "God did not make a mistake" when creating people of different races. "(What) I would tell that parent is, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry that your child is offended you're offended because we're teaching the Holocaust or we're teaching slavery, but it's part of history,'" Cox said. "It's part of history, and that's what we have to teach is history." A fourth individual who registered for the at-large election, Brian J. Miller, appears to have dropped out of the race. A sample ballot posted on the Georgetown County website does not list Miller as a candidate. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Plenty of sunshine. High 71F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 51F. Winds light and variable. A man has been arrested on allegations he wounded four people in a shooting over the weekend at a West Ashley apartment. Damoreion Tyshawn Smiley was booked Nov. 3 by Charleston police on four counts of attempted murder, two counts of shooting into a dwelling and gun possession. The 18-year-old senior at R.B. Stall High School in North Charleston was denied bail on the attempted murder charges. A magistrate set bail at $50,000 on each of the lesser offenses. Officers were dispatched just before 3:30 a.m. Oct. 30 to an apartment at Waters at West Ashley, 1900 Hazelwood Drive, for a reported shooting with multiple victims, according to an incident report. The 911 caller waved officers down from outside the apartment, the report states. Upon entering, they found a juvenile shot in the lower leg. Three other victims with various gunshot wounds were also at the scene. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 19, police said. They were taken to a nearby hospital in stable conditions, but two of the victims had to undergo emergency surgery, the report states. While canvassing the scene, detectives found several surveillance cameras, which captured a white 2012 Audi A6 approach the Hazelwood Drive address about a minute before gunfire erupted, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The sedan backed into a driveway across the street from where the shooting occurred, the court document said. A lone person could be seen exiting the driver's side, walking across the street and seconds later, running back to the car and speeding away without headlights on. Police tracked the vehicle to Smiley's home address in Ladson, according to the affidavit. On Oct. 31, detectives searched Smiley's home, where they found two cellphones. Though Smiley denied being at the scene or in the car at the time of the shooting, police said in the affidavit that one the phones connected to the Audi via Bluetooth just minutes before the shooting. It didn't disconnected until just after 4 a.m., the affidavit states. At Smiley's bail hearing, defense attorney James Falk asked Magistrate Amanda S. Haselden to give Smiley a cash bond so he could stay in school. But a representative from the Charleston Police Department called the teen an "absolute danger" to the community and asked that he remain jailed while awaiting trial. In the age of cellphones and the internet, consumers often face a simple choice: convenience or privacy? Do we let Big Tech have access to our private communications and free email accounts because it's so easy? Once you've said yes and who among us has not? it's not a stretch to think t Read moreCommentary: Contact-tracing apps had good intentions. Then we got carried away. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that for any Speech or Debate in either House, members of Congress shall not be questioned in any other Place. The speech and debate clause, which also prohibits their arrest while theyre in session or traveling to or from the Capitol, long has been read as extending beyond just the words spoken on the floors of the House and Senate. But not far beyond that. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has said the fact that Senators generally perform certain acts in their official capacity as Senators does not necessarily make all such acts legislative in nature. Notably, it has warned that it isnt sound or wise to extend the privilege beyond its intended scope, its literal language, and its history, to include all things in any way related to the legislative process. Yet since July, that is precisely what U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has urged the courts to do in order to shield him from having to testify before a Georgia grand jury about disturbing conversations he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the days following the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Raffensperger interpreted Mr. Grahams comments as suggesting that the secretary of state should throw out votes for Joe Biden, as then-President Donald Trump also did, triggering the grand jury investigation. Mr. Graham has been assured that he is not a target of the investigation, only a witness, so in essence, he has been asking the courts to declare that hes immune from the normal duty of citizens to comply with subpoenas, simply because hes a member of the U.S. Senate. U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May refused to do that, so Mr. Graham appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court refused and decisively so so he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, without dignifying his appeal with any explanation beyond saying he had already been given all the protections he deserved, the Supreme Court refused as well. Were not surprised, but we are gratified by the courts ruling, because reinterpreting the plain words of the Constitution in the way Mr. Graham proposed would have turned members of Congress into a special class, akin to royalty a class that can never be questioned about anything. And now, having lost appeal after appeal, Mr. Graham is trying to spin the high courts unsigned, two-paragraph order into a victory. His response said mainly that the Supreme Court confirmed that the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause applies here and affirmed that Senator Graham may return to the District Court if the District Attorney tries to ask questions about his constitutionally protected activities. This was indeed a victory: for the notion that members of Congress are not above the law, that they are, in fact, citizens of our nation who have the same duties as other citizens. Its easy enough to imagine where an actual Graham victory would have taken us: By Mr. Grahams expansive interpretation of the Constitution, he could watch a murder being committed on the floor of the U.S. Senate and then refuse to testify about what he saw. Certainly the framers of the Constitution who were well familiar with the dangers of absolute immunity exercised by the British crown never envisioned such a situation. If Mr. Graham considers the order a victory, that proves that hes been wasting the courts time and needlessly delaying a grand jury investigation since September. Because the Supreme Court didnt confirm or affirm anything that the district judge didnt say back on Sept. 1, after the senator made the dubious claim that his calls to the secretary of state were part of his duty as chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss with state officials the processes and procedures around administering elections. Judge May wrote at the time that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis couldnt ask Mr. Graham about any factfinding inquiries relating to Mr. Raffenspergers decision to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, and that Mr. Graham could come back to court if there was a dispute over any of the questions. Which is all the Supreme Court noted on Monday. The court of appeals, by the way, had noted that the high court never even said that individual factfinding inquiries were covered by the debate clause and that even if they were, there is significant dispute about whether his phone calls with Georgia election officials were legislative investigations at all. But the court left Judge Mays restrictions intact. Having wasted the courts time for at least two months and having needlessly delayed a grand jury investigation into clearly untoward efforts of nearly a year ago, we urge Sen. Graham to act in good faith from now on and not raise any frivolous objections when the district attorney asks him questions that he just doesnt feel like answering. You are the owner of this article. Design Indaba, in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, launched an online project called Colours of Africa on Thursday. Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africans that inspires and empowers people to create a better future through design and creativity. The Colours of Africa project showcases 60 specially-curated artworks produced by over 60 unique African creatives chosen by Design Indaba each invited to contribute a work that captures the colour and character of their home country. The multidisciplinary mix of 60 artists includes Nigerian multi-talented creative and accomplished professional artist Nike Okundaye, Algerian photographer Ramzy Bensaadi, fashion designer Bisrat Negassi from Eritrea, filmmaker Archange Kiyindou Yamakasi from the Republic of Congo and visual artist Ngadi Smart from Sierra Leone. Selected by Design Indabas founder Ravi Naidoo, the creatives will showcase the best African craft, product, industrial design, fashion, film, animation, graphics, food, music, jewellery and architecture. Process The first artistic undertaking of this scale, the project will allow viewers to discover stories of Africa as told by the African creative community. The artworks will be showcased online, where users are invited to spin the kaleidoscope to explore the works to take users on a journey through Africa, asking them to view each country through the eyes of a local artist. The project involves creatives from almost every discipline imaginable, from architecture, illustration, painting and ceramics to writing, engineering, the performing arts and visual communications. The creatives converted their creations into images, videos, texts and illustrations. To bring the project to life, Design Indaba collaborated with former Design Indaba conference speaker Noel Pretorius and his creative partner, Elin Sjoberg. She collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab to create the design concept and interface for the digital exhibition. Nigerias artwork/concept As part of the project launch, Design Indaba commissioned accomplished Nigerian professional artist Nike Okundaye to capture Nigerias unique spirit in a colour that represents home to her. Ms Okundaye created an original painting involving female empowerment titled The Female Drummer/Ayanbinrin. Ms Okundaye, the Founder and Managing Director of Nike Center for Art and Culture, said after training disadvantaged women, widows, and young women for many years on fabric art, she is elated to put them at the forefront of her artistic philosophy. She said: I used blue for this painting titled The Female Drummer/Ayanbinrin to illustrate the love you see here between the drummer and her lover and the love desperately needed in the time of the coronavirus lockdown. In Yoruba societies, the talking drummer is usually at the front of the palace, sending messages to the king through the medium of the drum notes that the visitor might not understand. The unique thing about this painting, done during the lockdown, is the use of a female drummer instead of the typical male ones seen in traditional Yoruba art. Exhibition The exhibition features a kaleidoscopic navigation tool that viewers can use to explore the art randomly, giving the visitor a unique experience while allowing the art to shine. Nothing like this exists to date, so were excited to break new ground. This is an essential artistic catalogue, the first of its kind to plot the expanse of African artistry on Google Arts & Culture. We salute Google for taking this important step to provide the world with a resource like this not everyone can afford to travel here or access physical art fairs and museums to view this kind of work, said Design Indabas founder Ravi Naidoo READ ALSO: In addition to the Colours of Africa platform, the initiative will launch over 4000 images, videos and 20 carefully curated exhibits from Design Indabas extensive archive. Award-winning initiatives like Sheltersuit, Arch for Arch and Emerging Creatives will be profiled extensively for the first time online. New works by some essential creatives working on the continent and abroad will also be displayed. These include Fozia Ismail (featured creative on Serpentine Gallerys Creative Exchange programme), Mayada Adil El Sayed (represented Sudanese women at the Generation Equality Forum) and Lady Skollie (winner of the 10th FNB art prize). Design Indaba, which celebrated its 25th year in 2020, draws top thinkers and guests from across the globe. Acknowledged as the worlds best design conference, it continues to be a leader in foregrounding African creativity, making it the logical home for this project. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, said on Friday that primary schools in the Indian capital would be closed, following increasing levels of air pollution. Mr Kejriwal said the schools would be closed from Saturday. Were taking all steps to control the situation. Meanwhile, we are shutting down all primary schools in Delhi from tomorrow, the chief minister said at a news conference. According to him, his government was also contemplating bringing back the odd-even traffic rationing measure for vehicles in the capital city. The air pollution level in Delhi became severe on Friday for the second consecutive day. This is not the time for blame game and politics, but time to find a solution to the problem. Since our government is in Punjab, we are responsible for the stubble burning. It has been only six months since we formed the government there and there were issues that were being addressed. We are finding solutions. Give us a years time to address the issue, Kejriwal said. Earlier, on Wednesday, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav blamed Delhis ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for turning the capital into a gas chamber and accused it of a scam. READ ALSO: Yadav said there had been an increase in farm fires in Punjab, a state also governed by the AAP. Mr Kejriwal, however, promised that by November 2023, stubble burning would be reduced. The Indian capital Delhi is among the topmost polluted cities in the world. Industrial activities and vehicular traffic are significant contributors to air pollution in the city, along with rampant construction. However, in the last few years, air quality in Delhi has become hazardous ahead of winter every year. Reports say several residents have reported breathing difficulties, with the elderly and schoolchildren being the worst hit. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality is severe and prominent pollutants are PM 2.5 and PM 10. Experts say PM 2.5 are fine particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter and can travel deep into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs and entering the bloodstream. Health officials have advised people, especially those with respiratory illness in Delhi, to minimise outdoor exposure until the improvement in air quality. (Xinhua/NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has announced the dismissal of eight of its personnel from the service while 18 others have also been sanctioned for various offences ranging from indiscipline to employment racketeering and other forms of corrupt practices. This is as a total of 100 of the organisations officers and men hitherto attached to the Muritala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos have been redeployed to other units and departments, pending the determination of a recent allegation of bribe against them by a traveller. The development is contained in a statement issued on Friday morning and signed by Kenneth Kure, a Chief Supreintendent of Immigration at the Public Relations Unit of the NIS. Mr Kure signed the statement on behalf of the Comptroller General, Isah Idris. According to the statement, the decision was taken following the approval granted by the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB), which reportedly noted that the conducts of the personnel have remained grossly unbecoming and unacceptable as members of the Service. Road to sanction NIS said the dismissal of the eight concerned officers followed the due process and laid down procedures backed by the law governing the agency. It said a total of 35 personnel had earlier been presented before both the Senior Disciplinary Committee (SDC) and Orderly Room Trial (ORT) processes to ascertain their level of culpability in the various allegations of offences against discipline ranging from employment racketeering, sharp practices, dishonest conducts, absent from duty without official leave (AWOL) among others, as preferred against them. The statement reads in part: After exhaustive deliberations by the committees, eight personnel comprising one Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI), two Deputy Superintendents of Immigration (DSI), two Assistant Superintendents of Immigration II (ASI2) and three rank and file were summarily dismissed from the Service. Furthermore, one other Chief Superintendent of Immigration was ordered to proceed on compulsory retirement while nine other personnel were demoted in rank. They include one Assistant Superintendent of Immigration II (ASI2) who has been demoted to the rank of Inspector of Immigration, two Inspectors who have been reduced in rank to Assistant Inspectors and six (6) other junior personnel who have been ordered to lose their current ranks. Meanwhile, nine other personnel comprising one Assistant Superintendent of Immigration II (ASI2) and eight (8) junior personnel were issued warning letters just as six personnel were discharged and acquitted from all the allegations brought against them. Redeployed 100 officers Meanwhile, the agency said a total of 100 of its officers who were working at the MMIA in Lagos until the announcement this morning, have been posted out of the airport with immediate effect. The statement added that an undisclosed number of some of the affected officers have also been ordered to face disciplinary procedures to ascertain their level of involvements in some unprofessional conducts and practices reported at the airport recently. Earlier in October, a traveller, with the Twitter handle @derby__, narrated her ugly experience at the airport in Lagos, accusing some officials of the agency of extortion and bribery. The traveller, who displayed the picture of one of the accused in her tweets, said the officers had lied to her that because she was not yet 40 years old, she would not be allowed into the United Arab Emirates. She said she eventually gave N10,000 bribe to the officers but advised intending young travellers to be wary of the NIS officers at the airport. In reaction, the agency thanked the complainant for documenting her experience and pledged its commitment to investigate the matter and punish whoever is found guilty. Sanitising NIS my priority Idris Meanwhile, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr Idris, has said under his watch, no officer found guilty of any punishable offence would be spared. Mr Idris, who spoke in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, said as the managers of Nigerias border the integrity of its officers and men would have significant impact on the image of the nation. Whether land or air borders, our men are the first point of contacts, so if they have no integrity then the country is in trouble. So whether in terms of passport production or border management, we will try to instill discipline in our officers and we also plead with Nigerians to stop giving bribes because without givers there would be no takers, he said. The Comptroller General restated the commitment of his management to zero tolerance for any unprofessional conducts by any personnel and advises the public to feel free to report any such conducts by any of its officers for necessary actions. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigerias ruling party, APC, risks losing the largest state in Northern Nigeria in next years general election, a senior lawmaker of the party has warned. The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa (APC, Kano), said the APC risks losing Kano due to the ongoing crisis in the state chapter of the party. Kano is currently governed by the APC which also has the majority of the states lawmakers. Mr Doguwa, during a press briefing on Thursday at the National Assembly, accused the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in Kano State, Martala Garo, of creating a political crisis by excluding the members of the National Assembly from the political structure of the state. He stated that the ruling party risks losing the state if President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Umar Ganduje fail to intervene. He said the party risks losing to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) led by the ex-governor of the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso, whom he described as a formidable grassroots politician. Mr Kwankwaso, a former senator, governed Kano for eight years and is the current NNPP presidential candidate. Teacup incident PREMIUM TIMES reported the alleged violence that happened between Messrs Doguwa and Garo, where the latter accused the former of attacking him with a tea cup at the political meeting on Monday. Mr Garo told BBC Hausa that the majority leader violently invaded a meeting at the deputy governors residence and made several baseless accusations against the gathering including the deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, who is also the partys governorship candidate. Mr Garo said the majority leader became violent and injured him with a teacup while he was trying to defend himself against some of the accusations. Mr Doguwa has since denied the allegation, stating that Mr Garo slipped in the melee that ensued at the meeting. The lawmaker said he was not invited to the meeting but stumbled upon the meeting and raised concerns over the exclusion of members of the National Assembly from Kano State. Crisis in the party During the briefing, Mr Doguwa said there has been a systemic exclusion of members of the National Assembly from the political structure of the party in the state. He stated that about nine lawmakers were denied return tickets. Adding that five have decamped to other parties. He explained that Mr Garo, through his previous position as the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, has amassed significant political power that he is leveraging to disrespect members of the party. Mr Doguwa alleged that if action is not taken soon, the party risks losing out at the general election. The leadership of our party in Kano, unfortunately, for quite some time has been subjected to crisis. There is witch-hunting and chasing away of members. The governor has handed the party to some individuals who are now working for their personal interests. The party is not being managed with democratic inclusiveness. APC is in trouble. APC is in crisis because this gentleman (Mr Garo) has proven to be the man to destroy the APC by chasing away so many good people from the party. He has caused this party the exit and decamping of more than five members of the House of Reps because he hated them. They were denied ticket, he said. The majority leader said the party should forget about the 2023 general election if the national and state leaders fail to intervene and rescue the party. I want to draw the attention of all authorities at the national and state level to quickly wave into the affairs of the party in Kano because this boy is causing serious damage in the party. If action is not taken, and this gentleman is allowed to continue to mishandle the affairs of this party in the name of former commissioner of local government in the name of someone who feels that he is stronger than the governor, then we can forget it. If Murtala (Mr Garo) continues to be at the forefront of the party come 2023 during our elections I repeat, forget it, he said. Im ready to reconcile with Kwankwaso but will remain in APC Mr Doguwa also disclosed that he is ready to mend fences with Mr Kwankwaso. He said although the ex-governor failed to commensurate with him over the death of his father, if Mr Kwankwaso reaches out to him, he will reconcile. I can only forget but I cannot forgive him. He cannot say sorry that your father died. This is an affront. I can only forgive if he picks up call and reach out to me, he said. He stressed that he will not decamp from the APC irrespective of the outcome of the election. Kano, the largest state in northern Nigeria, has also had the highest turnout of voters in recent general elections. In the 2019 governorship election in the state, the APC narrowly and controversially defeated the Peoples Democratic Party which was then led by Mr Kwankwaso in the state. Mr Kwankwaso has since moved his political structure into the NNPP. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigeria and Cameroon inaugurated a newly constructed border bridge linking both countries and a joint border post for seamless trade and migration between the two countries. This is contained in a statement issued by the Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Transportation, Anastasia Ogbonna. President Muhammadu Buhari was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, while President Paul Biya of Cameroon was represented by the Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Njoumessi. Mr Buhari said the 1.5 km Ekok/Mfum Bridge and Joint Border Post (JBP) at Mfun, Cross River would deepen socio-economic and diplomatic relations between both countries. He said the project would provide veritable synergy and combat the teeming security challenges bedevilling countries along the region. It will also serve as a vital link between the Western and Southern African regions. The Federal Republic of Nigeria also expects that this Joint Border Post and bridge will enhance security patrol and facilitate effective cooperation in this part of our border with the Republic of Cameroon. It is also our hope that it will complement the efforts of the Governments of Nigeria and Cameroon to combat the scourge of terrorism and violent extremism in our region, he said. Mr Buhari commended the development partners, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank, for providing the funds for the realisation of the project. He also commended support by the partners to the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to help Nigeria and Cameroon complete the project in record time. On his part, President Biya said the construction of the bridge over Cross River is part of the Transport Facilitation Program on the Bamenda Manfe Abakaliki Enugu corridors. According to Mr Biya, the corridor covers 441 metres of road that will facilitate trade and strengthen relations between Cameroon and Nigeria. He said the Joint Border Post would not only strengthen the existing cordial relations but also enhance the volume of economic activities in the region. He reiterated that it would also aid the movement of persons, goods and services within countries along the corridors. Also speaking, Nigerias Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who expressed delight over the completion of the project, restated that the bridge would play a significant role in networking several cities across Africa. What is most important is that this bridge connects Nigeria and Cameroon. It is the beginning of a trans-African connection. We are not just trying to connect Nigeria and Cameroon; we are trying to connect Lagos to Mombasa in Kenya and this is the significance of this bridge, he said. Nigerias Minister of State for Transportation, Ademola Adegoroye, on his part, hailed the roles of international development agencies and partners in the project. Mr Adegoroye said that inter-governmental agencies of both countries, such as Customs, Immigration and others could work in synergy to promote mutual benefits and healthy co-existence between both nations. He said: the main objective of this project is for better trade facilitation between both countries. This will be achieved by combining customs clearance and other activities in one place to achieve economics of scale, simplify customs procedures and increase cooperation and coordination of controls amongst others. It is my hope that as border officials work together in cooperation, the ties that bind our countries will further be strengthened to the benefit of all. Also, it is hoped that the comfort of the new facility will enable the officials to work together in peace and harmony, resulting in the prosperity of the people of the region, he said. Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River, represented by his Commissioner for Works, Dan Asu, commended the governments of both countries for the remarkable project that would boost commerce and industry along the frontier states. The representatives of the European Union, Philippe Mayaux; the ECCAS, Mfola Marie; ECOWAS, Sediko Duok, and the Director of Operations of the AfDB, Orison Amu, in their goodwill messages, commended the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon for making the project a reality. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The governorship candidate of the APC in Kaduna State, Uba Sani, has called on Sani Shaaban to join hands with him to deliver the state to the ruling party in the 2023 elections. Mr Sani made the call on Friday in a statement personally signed by him following a Federal High Court judgement that upheld his nomination as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC in the 2023 election. PREMIUM TIMES had reported earlier that the Federal High Court, Kaduna, dismissed the suit filed by Mr Shaaban seeking the nullification of Mr Sanis candidacy for lack of jurisdiction to entertain the matter. Mr Shaaban had on 20 June sued Mr Sani and others, alleging that the primary that produced him as a candidate for the 2023 polls should be declared null and void for not following due process. Read the full statement below: Time to work together to ensure our victory in 2023 The Federal High Court today affirmed my candidature as the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 gubernatorial elections in Kaduna State. I commend my dear brother, Malam Sani Mahmood Shaaban for ventilating his grievance through the courts. That is the best way to grow and deepen our democracy. I want to use this medium to call on Malam Shaaban to join hands with me as we make the final push for Kashim Ibrahim House. He can add value to our incoming administration. All hands must be on deck to consolidate on the gains made in Kaduna State. Our people deserve the best. Our party men and women must see the conclusion of the case in court as an opportunity to build a united front for the 2023 electoral battle. Everybody is important. No one should be left behind. Inclusivity must be our watchword. I give thanks to Almighty Allah for this day. Senator Uba Sani, Kaduna Central Senatorial District. Kaduna State APC Governorship Candidate. November 4th, 2022. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) the brainchild of Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder and chairman of BUA Group, has performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of an Information & Communication Technology (ICT) building, and a Student Affairs Building at the University of Benin in Edo State. This is in fulfillment of the N1billion tertiary infrastructure grant awarded to UNIBEN in July 2021 as part of ASR Africa Tertiary Education Grants Scheme. The grant was drawn from ASR Africas $100million Fund for Social Development and Renewal. Performing the groundbreaking ceremony at the Ugbowo campus of the institution, Ubon Udoh, managing director of ASR Africa, applauded the management of the university for its prompt response in identifying projects within the ASR Africa project assessment and mutual accountability framework and committing to ensuring its take-off. Mr Udoh added that Abdul Samad Rabiu, through the ASR Africa Initiative, is committed to giving back to society and bridging developmental gaps in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Mr Ubon, The Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative was founded by Abdul Samad Rabiu, the Chairman of BUA Group to tackle urgent development needs in key areas within Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. Since our inauguration in 2021, ASR Africa has invested massively in sustainable education, health, and infrastructure development projects across Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, we were here to announce the award of a N1billion infrastructure grant and today we are here to begin construction. We are grateful to the management of the University for quickly identifying its needs and working with our team toward the takeoff of these projects. These projects are key to the university community and we are committed to ensuring that they are completed in the shortest possible time so they can be put to adequate use for the benefit of the student community, and society in general, Mr Udoh said. Reacting, Professor Lilian Salami, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, thanked ASR Africa and its chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, for its commitment to the project and the goodwill demonstrated towards her administration and the students of University of Benin. Professor Salami said the projects will enable the university to be more functional, improve the outlook of the institution, and groom students to be more useful to society. ABOUT ASR AFRICA The brainchild of African Industrialist, Philanthropist, and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) was established in 2021 to provide sustainable, impact-based homegrown solutions to developmental issues affecting health, Education, and Social Development within Africa. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Kaduna State Government on Friday said two farmers were killed on Thursday in Chikun Local Government after the vehicle they were travelling in drove over a landmine suspected to have been planted by terrorists operating in the area. The states Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, in a statement, said the incident occurred around 2:00 p.m. as the victims were returning with farm produce. Mr Aruwan said the victims vehicle drove over a landmine in Zangon Tofa, in the Kabrasha area of the local government. Chikun is perhaps the most terrorised area of the state with gangs of armed men freely abducting residents and travellers. Farmers have either been forced off their farmlands or made to pay protection levies to gangs before they are allowed to farm. The names of the farmers who were killed in the attack were Babajo Alhaji-Tanimu and Safiyanu Ibrahim. He said the Kaduna State Government is awaiting further details about the incident from the security agencies. Meanwhile, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has condoled the families of the citizens over the unfortunate incident. The Governor who prayed for the repose of the souls of the victims appealed to residents of the area to remain calm, the statement said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The House of Representatives Committee on Agricultural Colleges, Research Institutes and Universities has expressed dismay with the prolonged strike action by unions in research institutes. The Chairman of the Committee, Munir Agundi (APC, Kano), in his remarks at the budget defence session on Thursday, said three unions of the research institutes namely Academic Staff Union of Research Institutes, (ASURI), Senior Staff Association (SSA) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have been on strike since October 2021. Mr Agundi accused the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar, of failing to inform the committee of the protracted industrial action by the unions. He said the committee is curious about how the research institutes have expended their funding in the 2022 budget despite the industrial action by staff. The committee is curious to know how the affected agencies have been able to implement the budget alongside the strike. It is quite unfortunate that while the government is struggling to fully fund the budget including payment of salaries and allowances, staff are not appreciating the good gesture of the government, he said. He appealed to the minister to engage the unions through relevant authorities to address their grievances and achieve industrial harmony at the research institutes. READ ALSO: While responding, the minister said funding is the main challenge confronting research institutes. He stated that he will talk more about the institutes during the executive session. Our budget is low, especially for research institutes, that is something Mr Chairman we can discuss at the executive session. We will enumerate some of the challenges facing research institutes. The institutes need all the support and funding funding is an issue. Every ministry is asking for more and more. There are times when you look at certain ministries that are of priorityAgric is one, he said. The unions are asking the federal government to review their condition of service and for Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to finance research institutes. Speaking on food security, Mr Abubakar said the ministry is making plans for intensive dry season farming to crash the price of commodities. Food security is everything else before other security. Without food, we have issues. We are talking about going into intensive dry-season farming beginning next month to make sure there is continuous production of food, he said. PREMIUM TIMES reported how flood devastated farmlands across the country, raising the fear of food insecurity in the country. After the brief remarks by the minister, the committee went into a closed-door executive session. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The acting leader of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has urged supporters of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to actively participate in making him the next President of Nigeria. Mr Adebanjo spoke during the launch of the 157-page book, titled The Challenges of Good Governance and Leadership in Nigeria: The Peter Obi effect Factor, organised by the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF). It is no longer a tea party. Those who are there do not want to leave but we will kick them out. I want your action, dont let the opponents intimidate you, Mr Adebanjo said. Make sure you get people into the Obidient movement every day. Make sure you vote as an eligible voter and make their money useless that day. I have found in Peter Obi a person that would cool me down for a better tomorrow. Your future is in your hands and your positive action will make Peter Obi the next President, he said. Mr Adebanjos comments came days after another Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti, endorsed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu. Mr Fasoranti, 96, stepped down as the national leader of Afenifere, last year, and handed over to Mr Adebanjo, 94, who became the acting national leader. Book launch Uzodinma Nwala, the ADF national president and chief host of the event, said the book which was launched in honour of Mr Obi was inspired by his humility and good works. Mr Nwala, a professor, added that there is a need to rally around and support Mr Obi so that the future of Nigeria can be put in safe hands. The chairman of the occasion, Oluwadurotimi Olulana, said the book would help do justice to the present Nigeria situation. He described Mr Obi as a humble man and that anyone saying he is pretending is wrong. Peter Obi is the Moses of our time. He is blessed and anointed to change the whole vices and I assure you that he and Datti will take us to the promised land, he said. Reviewing the book, Dele Farotimi, a lawyer, said the book is a template for great development and expressed the hope that the book will continue to be reviewed for years to come. He said the book is also about how the Ndigbo looks at the Nigerian state and it intends to examine peculiar challenges. The first chapter of the book talks about Peter Obi as a leader and not a ruler. This he has eloquently exhibited as a charismatic leader while he was governor. The second chapter talks about the philosophy of good governance and leadership. Our leaders are far removed from the people but Peter Obi sees himself as connected with the people and this book recalls that. People often believe that revolution should be about violence but its not. Sometimes, it comes like the attire Peter Obi usually puts on. Peter Obi understands the urgency and the need to save Nigeria, he said. Clara Eromosele, the secretary, Peter Obi Good Governance Advocate, said the supporters of Mr Obi are not doing enough to own the country. Mrs Eromosele, who represented Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed at the book launch, said supporters should do more than talk but get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). READ ALSO: If you dont have a PVC then volunteer to monitor polling units. Dont give up and dont bow to threats, it is time to take our country back. To contribute your quota to making Nigeria great again, we need to make up our mind to support Peter Obi beyond just winning the election, she said. Mrs Eromosele further urged supporters of Mr Obi to represent him well and be good ambassadors both online and offline. The Father of the Day, Uma Oke Eleazu, said Mr Obi is a symbol of good governance and enjoined all his supporters to make themselves available when its time to vote. Mr Eleazu enjoined everyone to take charge and support Peter Obi, adding that the challenges before Peter Obi is formidable but not insurmountable. The Chairman of the Organising Committee, Nze Johnpaul, said since our national problems did not know religion, ethnicity or political colouration, then the solution should not be found along the same lines. He said Mr Obi is so passionate to see Nigeria rise again at no personal gain that he advised the people not to accept him because of his origin, but based on his competence. In the light of all these, we make bold to announce that we have found a man with integrity, capacity and competence to lead Nigeria. The man who has no structure but the common man has volunteered to be the structure. The man who has not assumed office, but has changed the face of electoral democracy in Nigeria and that man is Mr Peter Gregory Obi, he said. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday gave permission to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to temporarily seize 40 properties traced to Ike Ekweremadu. The order comes as Mr Ekweremadu, a former Deputy Senate President, is being held in the United Kingdom for allegedly trying to harvest David Nwaminis kidney for their ailing daughter. The judge, Inyang Ekwo, handed down the interim forfeiture order for his properties after hearing an ex-parte application filed by the EFCC. An EFCC lawyer, Ibrahim Buba, moved the application for the confiscation of the assets, saying they were suspicious proceeds of crime. The lawyer told the judge that the landed properties comprise 15 in Abuja, 10 in Enugu (Mr Ekweremadus home state), one in Lagos, two in the United Kingdom, three in the United States, and nine in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The EFCC claimed the assets were allegedly acquired with proceeds of fraud. Ruling, Mr Ekwo granted the application and ordered the EFCC to, within seven days from the date of the order, publish the interim forfeiture order of the assets in a national daily. This is to enable whoever has interest in the assets to approach the court give to convince the court not to issue an order of permanent forfeiture to the federal government. Money laundering case, more details of assets In a statement issued by the EFCC after Fridays proceedings, the commissions spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, cited a report of investigation giving more details about the case and Mr Ekweremadus assets involved. According to the statement, Afeez Mustapha, an investigator with EFCC, who deposed to an affidavit in support of the commissions application, disclosed that the former Deputy Senate President was being investigated for money laundering. Mr Mustapha said the commission received intelligence from some foreign entities on suspicion of money laundering involving the acquisition of several properties in the United Kingdom, Dubai and the United States of America through proxies and unregistered companies. The schedule of properties attached to the forfeiture application listed properties allegedly acquired by Mr Ekweremudu with funds not supported by his legitimate income. The properties, according to the commission, include a London property at Flat 4, Varsity Court, Hormer Street ( WIH4NW) which was acquired on December 4, 2008, for 830,000; three properties in Florida, United States, one of which was purchased for $155,000 USD. Also listed is a property on approximately 3000 square meter parcel of land consisting of 7 bedroom detached Boys Quarters, swimming pool, enclosed 3 car garage with roller shutter doors, gate house and generator house at No.6 Ilado Close, Ikoyi, Lagos bought for N630million on August 8, 2015. The list also includes three blocks of six flats each, totalling 18 luxury flats at Plot 904 Durumi, Abuja acquired for N700 million, and four Rootown House at Villa No. 148 Maeeni the Lahes Emirate Hill Dubai valued at $250,00 USD. Ekweremadus London detention PREMIUM TIMES reported that the prosecutors said the Ekweremadus were charged with bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK with the claim that he was to be given a better life in the UK but was actually to harvest his organ for their ailing daughter. But the couple, who have been denied bail and face charges of organ trafficking in London, had insisted that Mr Nwanini was 21 years old. While Mr Ekweremadu remains in custody, it was reported that a London Court has adjourned his case until May 2023. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Katsina State said efforts are being made to rescue the children and others abducted from a farm in Mairuwa community of Faskari local government area of the state. Sources told PREMIUM TIMES that 39 children were abducted. They also said other adults were among those taken but the police said only 21 children were abducted. The police spokesperson, Gambo Isa, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday evening that the teenager abducted by the terrorists are 21 based on the available records Though he didnt provide details of the rescue mission, Mr Isa said the police and other security agencies in the state are making efforts to rescue the abductees. UNICEF reacts Meanwhile, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has tasked authorities in Nigeria to immediately rescue the abducted children. The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, in a statement, Friday, described the action of the gunmen as reprehensible. A part of the statement read thus: Confirmed reports indicate the 21 children 17 girls and 4 boys aged between 15 and 18, were abducted last Sunday at about 12:30 p.m. by bandits. Abduction of children whether at home, at school, on the farm, or anywhere else, is reprehensible. Children should never be the target of violence, especially by anyone who should be protecting them. We call on the authorities to take necessary action to rescue the abducted children and reunite them with their families unhurt, and without delay. UNICEF also calls on the authorities to rescue other persons reported to have been kidnapped on the farm at the same time the children were abducted. This tragic incident is yet an indication of the danger children face by acts perpetrated by people who should protect them. Communities in the North-west states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi as well as Niger in North-central have been witnessing a series of terrorist attacks for years. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A group of Yoruba Nation agitators on Thursday attacked a team of soldiers around Oju-Ore axis of Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government, Ogun State. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the agitators, while holding a rally, descended on a vehicle conveying some personnel of the Nigerian Army. A resident in the area, Mayowa Aina, said the army had mobilised to arrest the situation. Some Yoruba nation agitators holding a rally around Oju Ore attacked some military men in their vehicle. In the process, they disarmed a soldier and carted away his rifle. A Twitter user identified as Uncle Deji, said: SouthWest Govs should be deeply concerned about the incident of yesterday at Oju Ore roundabout, along Sango-Ota-Idiroko road. Yoruba Nation Agitators on rally mobbed a soldier. SW region should remain peaceful. Residents of the area said the heavy presence of military men later caused panic among the people, with many abandoning their houses. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES . Mr Oyeyemi added that the command is currently investigating the matter. The police spokesperson said there was no casualty recorded in the attack, adding that the police had restored calm to the area. We are on the matter. We heard it that they (Yoruba Nation agitators) attacked some soldiers at Ota area, the police spokesperson said. So we are working in collaboration with the Nigerian Army to get to the root of that matter. We have not made any arrest, but we are on it. There is no casualty. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Civil and refined manners and language are very important parts of maintaining peace and cohesion in human society. The stakes during elections are very high and some people become desperate during campaigns and cross red lines that could create high levels of tension and political instability. Mobilising primordial loyalties is a dangerous pathway if we are to remain focused on having free, fair, credible and violence-free elections. After a lethargic start, the campaigns for the 2023 elections have finally taken off and the political atmosphere is heating up. My point today is that we must not allow it heat up to the boiling point when it might explode. The campaign started rather late because of the ambient reality the unhealthy elderly men who are the leading candidates needed to take time off, visit their doctors in Europe to get doped with performance enhancing drugs anabolic steroids and other stimulant drugs so that their old, sick and tired bodies can stand the strain of almost four months of arduous campaigns. So, our first duty as citizens is to watch them carefully how many weeks the fix they received will last, before forcing them back to Europe for more. Maybe for the first time in our electoral history, the major parties have had great difficulties in establishing their campaign councils. There has been a lot of bitter quarrels amongst different factions within the parties. Trust is lacking within the parties and each faction and its leaders are seeing the others as possible saboteurs and enemies, rather than allies in the same political formation. Of course, the other factor is based on the knowledge that money would flow in the campaigns, much more than in previous elections, and partisans are seeking to place themselves and exclude others from controlling positions for the spending of campaign funds. It is a statement about the underdevelopment of our political parties, in which political engagement is in fact political entrepreneurship, whereby politicians are engaged in bitter struggles for power so as to make money, rather than serve the people. The other dimension that is causing havoc within the parties is the suspicion many have that what is being said and acted in public will not be what would be done in practice. That is to say, people would climb the rostrum and say they support the candidate of their party but get their entourage to mobilise their supporters to vote for the candidate of another party. In other words, there are suspicions of impending betrayals and the atmosphere within many of the political parties today is very toxic. In fact, in some of the parties, we are witnessing open warfare. One of the most distressing trends is the rise of attacks on personalities through mudslinging, insults, innuendoes and very intemperate language. Highly placed individuals, including state governors and legislators, are involved in the use of vile language. Issues are being buried under tons of bad language. As we all know, the ideology question and the left/right divide have largely disappeared from Nigerian political parties Another disturbing trend with the on-going campaigns is the activities of some governors who are denying opponents permission to use venues for rallies and political meetings. There have also been incidents of denial of access to media, particularly at the state level. One of the threats to the sustenance of democracy is the absence of a level playing ground for competition. That is why the Electoral Act and the Broadcasting Code have made it clear that the right of candidates to campaign and have access to the media is sacrosanct and must be protected. The Electoral Commission and the National Broadcasting Commission must protect these rights to ensure Nigerians vote on the basis of full access to political messaging and choices made on the basis of their assessments of these messages. One of the most distressing trends is the rise of attacks on personalities through mudslinging, insults, innuendoes and very intemperate language. Highly placed individuals, including state governors and legislators, are involved in the use of vile language. Issues are being buried under tons of bad language. As we all know, the ideology question and the left/right divide have largely disappeared from Nigerian political parties, as such campaigns are becoming focused on the issues of personalities, ethnic groups, religion and geopolitical zones. Essentially, these have become the issues defining the campaigns. Religious and ethnic mobilisation have the negative force of dragging Nigerian politics down the dangerous slope to self-destruction. The political class has a responsibility to return political campaigns back to the key issues of concern to citizens security, jobs, education, health, and so on. Rather than speak to the contents of their manifestoes, however, many leading politicians divert into attacks on personalities and ethnic and religious politics, maybe because they think they can get more voter mileage by raising emotive issues. It is in this context that citizens need to rise to the occasion and sanction politicians who deviate from issues-based campaigning by refusing to vote for them. The Constitution requires that all political parties draw their programmes and manifestoes from Chapter Two of the Constitution Directive Principles of State Policy. That section of the Constitution places a lot of obligations on the state to provide for the welfare of citizens. It is virtually a social democratic manifesto. Party manifestos tend to reflect the issues cited in the Constitution. Rather than speak to the contents of their manifestoes, however, many leading politicians divert into attacks on personalities and ethnic and religious politics, maybe because they think they can get more voter mileage by raising emotive issues. It is in this context that citizens need to rise to the occasion and sanction politicians who deviate from issues-based campaigning by refusing to vote for them. Citizens must become fact-checkers of correct and civil discourse and show their displeasure when they see deviation away from it. Civil and refined manners and language are very important parts of maintaining peace and cohesion in human society. The stakes during elections are very high and some people become desperate during campaigns and cross red lines that could create high levels of tension and political instability. Mobilising primordial loyalties is a dangerous pathway if we are to remain focused on having free, fair, credible and violence-free elections. Lets do all that is in our will and power to ensure we have one of the best elections in our history. It is possible. It is necessary. It is the right thing to do. 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. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful 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. As for whats after: Dear brothers and sisters! Allah Almighty says in the Noble Quran: We have sent down the Book (Quran) to you which manifests the truth about all things and as guidance and mercy and good news for Muslims. [Quran, 16:89] Respected servants of Allah! It reminded me of a post I read on Facebook recently and I thought how true this is, but easy to forget. Society is often so focused finding complicated solutions when the answers are already in front of us. Muslims in particular have a lesson in it. Allah intends for you ease The religion is easy, beautiful and simply perfect. Why make things hard? Allah Almighty says: Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship. [Quran, 2:185] This Quranic verse explains that Islam is easy to follow and rather encourages us to create ease in religion. Unfortunately some Muslims are under the misconception that the more stringent they are in following religion, the more pious they become. This is totally in contradiction to what our pure religion teaches us. The misconception is a result of lack of understanding of religion and at times drives some people away from religion, mainly because of the way it is presented to them. Some people have aimed at causing religion to deviate from its essence, preventing religion from being practiced by attempting to add on many difficult practices and superstitions to it. Such practices have sadly resulted in people deviating from Islam. However from the information set forth in the verses in the Quran and the replete stories and Hadiths by the Prophet (Peace be upon him), we can ascertain that it is easy for sincere Muslims to be good Muslims. In this life we are tested and according to the morals and faith we show in this world Allah determines where our real life will be lived, that being Hell or Heaven. The test is quite easy; Allah Almighty wishes for us simply to live the life that brings happiness and peace in this world; in short to live our life in moderation. Dont go to extremes It is known in fact that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) always resisted any tendency toward religious excessiveness. He once said to his close companion Abdullah Ibn Amr: Have I heard right that you fast everyday and stand in prayer all night? Abdullah replied: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: Do not do that. Fast, as well as, eat and drink. Stand in prayer, as well as, sleep. This is because your body has a right upon you, your eyes have a right upon you, your wife has a right upon you, and your guest has a right upon you. [Al-Bukhari] This Hadith indicates that it is significant to maintain a delicate balance between the various obligations that demand our attention; between our obligations to Allah, our obligations toward others and our obligations toward ourselves. This is also demonstrated in many verses in the Quran illustrating that Allah is both merciful and kind. Confucius once said: Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. This deeply resonates as we read stories of how people strayed away from Islam because they failed to realise its beauty and were intimidated by restrictions feeling their life would be unhappy with Islams boundaries. There indeed is a need to clarify such misconceptions, and encourage and remind Muslims to question where did their beliefs originate from. Was it from the Quran and Sunnah or a tradition they have been following without knowing its origin? In all reality, Allah Almighty created us and in turn He knows whats best for us and those who do not know these truths feel they may lead happier and more comfortable lives when the limits are removed. Allah says in the Quran to pray for both the good in this world and the good in the Hereafter. It also speaks about the enjoyment of life: O children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer, eat and drink but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not wasters. Say: who has forbidden the beautiful gifts of Allah which He has produced for His servants and the things clean and pure which He has provided for sustenance. [Quran, 7:31-32] Concerning matters of practice in Islam we have been taught that the rule is that you are expected to follow the truth as much as is possible. Allah has promised that His expectations are simple. However, in order to follow them we need to understand; in turn allowing that this strategy would ensure things are kept simple. In sharing the message of Islam with people, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was advised in the Quran: It is part of the mercy of Allah that you deal gently with them. If you were severe or hardhearted, they would have broken away from you. [Quran, 3:159] It is on this note that when the Prophet sent his companions to teach Islam to the people he advised them: Facilitate religious matters to people and do not make things difficult. Obey each other and do not differ amongst yourselves. [Al-Bukhari] Allah has created a natural balance between what is easy to follow for humans and what is the minimal requirement needed to be a morally, ethically and spiritually pious person. This can be shown for example when we increase the price of a commodity, or make things more stringent, as mentioned earlier, in religion we will find lesser people wanting to buy that commodity. However, we must remember that easiness in religion has to be done in the way that Allah wants us to do it. It should not be mistaken for casualness. This is simply a reminder for all including myself as sometimes Shaitan (Satan) attempts to divert us from religion, from Allahs commands and good morals and even uses negative force on faith. By insinuating unfounded suspicions in our thoughts, suggesting faithlessness or through actions and speeches, Shaitan (Satan) tries to divert us from Islam and or its simplicity setting up many different traps for us. In short, Shaitan (Satan) is our enemy, as mentioned in the Quran which narrates: O You who believe enter Islam totally. Do not follow in the footsteps of Shaitan (Satan) he is an outright enemy to you. [Quran, 2:208] A balanced religion One of the main features of Islam is that it is a balanced religion. It is known that whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he always chose the easier, unless it was explicitly forbidden. This again proves the beauty of Islam and Allahs mercy toward us. While aiming to reach the afore mentioned balances between human spiritual needs and material needs I have personally come to realise it can be done by simplifying our life and lightening our material baggage by focusing more on our spiritual and mental needs. While I am not suggesting making vows of poverty, I support the idea of reducing our quest for material possession as one easy and balanced form of working in this world and doing good deeds for the next world. I have learnt one form of getting closer to Allah and obeying one of Islams pillars may be accomplished as we offer charity bringing happiness to those less fortunate. We must raise our children and remind ourselves that we can only keep what we have, by giving it away; somewhat like paying it forward, but for the afterlife if you may say so. Balancing between individual rights and responsibilities, we find that as life continues to bring us down many familiar journeys, one of those being a quest of living, we must work toward making everything simpler including our worships if we are to continue on our steady pace toward our ultimate goal, Jannah/Heaven. Dear brothers and sisters! Bear in mind we must allow others to influence us positively whenever we are going wrong. After all, Allah has promised that He is not going to make any soul accountable for anything more than what his potential is, promising that He will forgive those who repent. I end my todays sermon by saying: all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation; may Allah extol the mention of our noble Prophet Muhammad in the highest company of Angels, bless him and give him peace and securityand his family, his Companions and all those who follow him correctly and sincerely until the establishment of the Hour. Wishing you and all your loved ones a Joyous Jumuah Mubarak. 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, Rabiul Thani 9, 1444 AH (November 04, 2022). Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A suspected vandal on Thursday got electrocuted in the Kalashi community of Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. Four other vandals were also apprehended by members of some communities in Bauchi State. The suspected vandal, who was electrocuted, was said to have gone to the Kalashi Distribution substation to allegedly vandalise the transformer in the area but was electrocuted in the process. According to the head of corporate communications of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, Friday Elijah, the incident was reported at the Kanke Police Divisional office where some personnel of the division went to evaluate the corpse of the alleged vandal. In a similar incident, four suspects were arrested by members of the public in various communities in Bauchi while trying to vandalise electrical facilities. The suspects who have been handed over to law enforcement agencies were Dauda James (22 years), Enoch Mugana (19 years), and Sani Adamu (25 years) an 18-year-old whose name was not given. The suspected vandals reportedly cut four core armoured cables 150mm. The Managing Director of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc, Abdu Mohammed, commended members of the communities for their vigilance which culminated in the arrest of the suspected criminals and urged them to take ownership of electricity facilities in their environments. Last week, Mr Mohammed solicited the cooperation of the judiciary and the State Security Service to help tackle the menace of vandals in the area. Vandalism leads to the willful destruction of the company assets just as it also obliterates the economic and social life of the affected communities. It is therefore a crime against society. And so, we should collectively fight against it to stamp it out, hence your maximum cooperation is required, he said during a visit to the Plateau State Chief Judge, David Mann. He also visited the State Director of DSS, Albert Ogbole Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has presented a budget of N245 billion for the 2023 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for approval. Presenting the proposal tagged Budget of Consolidation and Prosperity II on Friday in Kano, Mr Ganduje said it was aimed at consolidating and improving the well-being of the people of the state. He said that the budget consisted of N144 billion for capital expenditure, representing 59 per cent and N100 billion for recurrent expenditure, representing 41 per cent. The health sector was allocated N39.1 billion; water resources N15 billion; transport sector N8.6 billion; agriculture sector N19.9 billion while works and infrastructure got N35 billion, he said. The governor said that the education sector got the lions share of the budget with N62 billion, representing 27 per cent, more than the UNESCO and UN recommendation. READ ALSO: He said that the money would be channelled into executing policies and programmes aimed at ensuring quality education at all levels. Mr Ganduje said that part of the money would also be used to enhance the states free and compulsory education programme. He urged the lawmakers to ensure speedy passage of the budget, to enable the government to continue to provide dividends of democracy to the people. The governor also urged youths to shun all forms of violence, especially as the 2023 general elections got nearer. The Speaker, Hamisu Chidari, assured the governor of speedy passage of the budget to create time for the January to December budget circle. He urged government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be ready for the budget defence at the House. The speaker also commended the governor for his stride in infrastructure development, security, health and the education sector. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, will hold his campaign rallies in Imo and Anambra States on Mondays despite the controversial sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-east region. The timetable released by the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) shows that Mr Tinubu will hold a campaign rally and a stakeholders engagement in Imo State on Monday, 21 November. On Monday, 30 January, the campaign train will move to Anambra, the home state of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate. Sit at-home order IPOB declared the sit-at-home order in August 2021 to put pressure on the Nigerian government to release its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is standing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, for treason and terrorism. The proscribed separatist group initially declared the holiday for Mondays but later extended it to every day Mr Kanu appears in court. There have been reported cases of the use of force by the group to enforce compliance. Gunmen have attacked traders and commuters across the region who flout the order. However, in recent times, compliance with the order has reduced with South-east governors deploying means to take control of the situation. The group has also vowed to disrupt all election activities in the region and has attacked electoral officers and party members. READ ALSO: Mr Tinubu has yet to declare his stance on the group, unlike Mr Obi that already promised to sit down with all agitators to find peace. However, the APC candidates campaign team is now set to dare the separatist group. Apart from enforcing the controversial sit-at-home, gunmen suspected to be IPOB members have also routinely carried out attacks in the South-east, killing many people and kidnapping others for ransom. Flag off in Jos On Thursday, the Director General of the campaign council and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, said the campaign will flag off in Jos, the Plateau State capital on 15 November. This will be followed by rallies in Delta on November 15, Imo on 21, Kwara on 22, Anambra on 24, Ogun on 26, Enugu on 29 and Sokoto on 30 November. The APC will hold two rallies in Lagos and Kano State. In Lagos, rallies will be held on 3 December and 13 February. And for Kano, 4 January and 11 February. While the Rivers State rally is scheduled for 1 December, the timetable says Mr Tinubu will spend the second week of December on international engagement. The Osun State rally is scheduled for 24 January. And for Abuja, there will be a rally and musical concert on 8 February. The Lagos State rally on 13 February will mark the end of the presidential campaign activities for the party and the last ten days before the election will be spent on election planning. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Anthonia Okonkwo, the widow allegedly stripped by some youths in an Enugu State community says she did not harvest snails from the scared forest as alleged by the perpetrators. Ms Okonkwo made the disclosure on Friday when an NGO, the Women Aid Collective (WACOL) led by the Founder, Joy Ezeilo, visited her in a hospital at Afam-Mmaku in Awgu Local Government Area of the state. Narrating her ordeal, the 44-year-old widow said she harvested and sold snails in the community for a long time to cater for her four children since her husband died 13 years ago. She said that on the day of the incident, she was in her house when she heard noises outside and in a swoop, youths invaded her home, and dragged her out, without any opportunity to defend herself. According to her, the youths started beating her with weapons and clubs, stripped her naked and tied fresh palm fronds around her waist and neck which symbolized an act of taboo in the community. I didnt even know what my offence was until I saw my snail customer in their midst who said that the youth accosted her on a bike, searched her bag and saw the fresh snails. They quizzed her and she led them to her house and that is what I am suffering. I did not go to the sacred forest. I pick my snails from the bush and not from the shrine, she said. The victim said that she was pained that her relation who came to rescue her was also beaten to a stupor for her sake. Mrs Okonkwo listed the names of the perpetrators including Sunday Nwangene, Jonathan Nwangene, Obi Nwangene, Chigazu Okpala, and Okechukwu Okeke. Others, she said, were Chukwudike Anikene, Chukwuebuka Agu, one Maduabuchi and his father as well as a girl who videotaped her during the attack. READ ALSO: Reacting to the incident, Mrs Ezeilo said the act of the youths was beyond harmful cultural practice. It is physical violence and the worst form of degrading treatment to strip her naked by children, some much younger than her son. As we speak, the entire family is traumatized, she is traumatized. Her son that saw her in that dehumanizing state is also traumatized, locked himself in a room for days. He has refused to talk to anybody or attend school because of the shame and fear of stigmatization. They all need immediate help to regain their self-esteem. The woman is still in distress, she needs comprehensive medical help, she lamented. The senior advocate said that WACOL had undertaken to move her from her current hospital which did not have adequate equipment to provide the requisite medicare and support she needed. The Professor of Law encouraged the victim/survivor and assured her that she and WACOL would do everything possible for her to obtain justice. She called on the government of Enugu State to immediately intervene to ensure a complete eradication of these harmful practices which continued to enable violence against women in communities, especially in light of the existing Enugu State Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the police have so far arrested seven suspects of the alleged incident while others are still at large. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print STOCKHOLM and MILAN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV) (SSE: ALIVsdb), the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, is looking beyond the car and developing a series of products to significantly improve motorcycle safety. The concepts include the world's first motorcycle helmet with an integrated airbag for enhanced head protection in collaboration with AIROH, airbags for protective clothing, and a motorcycle airbag. The innovations will be presented at the EICMA trade fair in Milan, Italy on November 8-13, 2022. A uniquely holistic approach to motorcycle safety Instead of focusing on one specific safety product, Autoliv Research has identified the types of severe injuries that are most frequently sustained by motorcycle riders. The injury mechanisms were then reproduced in virtual and physical testing. Based on insights derived from the tests, two sets of new safety solutions were developed: on-vehicle- and on-rider safety solutions. "To substantially reduce the number of motorcycle rider injuries and fatalities, we need to take a holistic approach where we investigate several combined countermeasures. We have always developed our products based on real world data to ensure the benefit for the end user. We intend to use the same approach to other mobility modes, like motorcycle riders, to save more lives", said Mikael Bratt, President, and CEO of Autoliv. On-rider safety solutions Together with Italian helmet manufacturer AIROH, Autoliv has studied and developed a concept of a motorcycle helmet with an integrated airbag. Autoliv's testing shows that the peak linear head acceleration and head injury risk in an impact can be significantly reduced by utilizing airbag technology. In addition, Autoliv is focused on improving chest and shoulder protection for motorcycle riders, primarily to protect a rider that is ejected from a motorcycle. Consequently, Autoliv is developing inflators and airbags for high-quality protective clothing such as rider jackets. "We have always focused on the safety of those who wear our helmets, which has impacted the development of the world's first motorcycle helmet with an integrated airbag. The early discussions we had with Autoliv convinced us of the feasibility of such an ambitious concept that could revolutionize the safety of millions of motorcycle riders", said Antonio Locatelli, CEO, and founder of AIROH. On-vehicle safety solutions Extensive virtual simulations and crash tests have shown that an airbag in a frontal collision can reduce injury risk to head, neck, and chest. Autoliv has developed an airbag mounted on the vehicle frame which is deployed in milliseconds during a crash. Autoliv's portfolio of new safety systems for motorcycle riders will be displayed at the EICMA trade fair, which is taking place November 8-13, 2022, in Milan, Italy. Read more: https://campaign.autoliv.com/eicma-2022 Inquiries: Media: Gabriella Ekelund, Tel +46 (70) 612 64 24 Investors & Analysts: Anders Trapp, Tel +46 (0)8 587 206 71 Investors & Analysts: Henrik Kaar, Tel +46 (0)8 587 206 14 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/751/3661139/1648301.pdf Press release as PDF SOURCE Autoliv PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Angeion Group, the leading provider of innovative settlement administration and legal notice services, today formally announces the appointment of Ryan Hallman as Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Hallman will be responsible for the continued building and maintenance of accountable, accurate, and efficient processes through the smart application of technology. He will report directly to Steven Weisbrot, Esq., Angeion President and Chief Executive Officer. "Ryan's tech savvy, business acumen, and fierce commitment to disrupting the status quo, make him uniquely suited to bolster Angeion's best in class technology program," said Weisbrot. "His unique view of the world, and his demonstrable experience in privacy and legal tech, will allow him to lead the organization further towards creating a seamless class member experience from notice through the digital distribution of settlement awards." In accepting this position, Mr. Hallman shares, "Prior to joining Angeion, I was working on a startup concept to deal with low participation rates in class action settlements, through which I met Steve. By joining Angeion, I am extremely excited about the myriad of opportunities to implement new and disruptive ideas to the class action administration space. Over the next few years, Angeion will continue to be a company to watch as we challenge conventional wisdom in the administration process to provide a better experience for those affected; the class members." About Ryan Hallman Ryan previously served as President of Diversified Medical Records Services (DMRS), which specialized in the secure and digital delivery of medical records. At DMRS, Mr. Hallman transformed both its operations and technology stack into a class leader in operating efficiency, accuracy, and reliability. By the end of 2021, he negotiated a successful exit of DMRS for its shareholders. His background in healthcare comes with a strong privacy focus and an emphasis on checks and balances to ensure reliability throughout the entire process lifecycle. Mr. Hallman has experience in private equity, helping take pre-IPO companies public. He holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from USC Marshall School of Business. In 2020, he was elected by his peers as the Vice President of Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services (AHIOS). About Angeion Group Angeion Group is an industry-leading provider of comprehensive settlement management and legal noticing services for class actions, mass tort, and bankruptcy administration. Leveraging world-class technology, proven best practices, and expert consulting, Angeion delivers the services and capabilities that increase efficiency, provide accountability, and give counsel and the court peace of mind. CONTACT: Gabriella Ward, [email protected], (215) 563-4116 SOURCE Angeion Group Bristow returns to the Netherlands to provide search and rescue (SAR) helicopter services The 10-year contract provides a 24/7 all-weather search and rescue service with dedicated SAR configured AW189 helicopters at the Den Helder and Midden Zeeland Airports on behalf of the Netherlands Coastguard Bristow's worldwide SAR expertise will ensure safe, operationally capable, and best value service to the Netherlands Coastguard DEN HELDER, Netherlands, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: VTOL), the leading global provider of innovative and sustainable vertical flight solutions, today embarks on a new 10-year relationship with the Netherlands Coastguard, delivering critical helicopter SAR operations for people and communities across the country through its affiliate, Bristow Netherlands B.V. At 1 p.m. Central European Time on November 4, 2022, two new custom-designed SAR bases officially went on-line at Den Helder and Midden Zeeland Airports, where specialist Bristow teams with SAR-configured helicopters now stand ready to respond to emergency events and critical government taskings in all weather, day and night. "Today marks an important moment for all of us at Bristow. It's a huge honor to be chosen to deliver this critical lifesaving service as we draw on our unmatched experience of delivering SAR for governments around the world," said Alan Corbett, Bristow Senior Vice President for Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia & Australia and Search and Rescue. "Bristow has a long history of operations in the Netherlands. In addition to bringing industry-leading skills, technologies, and innovation, we are also proud to re-establish our Target Zero safety culture in the Netherlands, which underpins our entire operations with each decision we make." Each new base is home to a winch equipped AW189 helicopter and is staffed by experienced engineers and ground support teams. Bristow will also provide an additional back-up aircraft, ensuring continuity of this lifesaving service. The aircraft crewed by two pilots as well as specialist winch operators and a SAR nurse also feature custom-designed ergonomic medical stations, giving the SAR nurse the right facilities to provide urgent medical care during flight. Bristow will also introduce new technologies such as mission management and data-link systems, ensuring ever-closer collaboration with other government services and assets and an increasingly effective SAR service for the Netherlands. As well as responding to emergencies, the new SAR teams, who are tasked by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Den Helder, are also trained and prepared to support the Netherlands Coastguard with other duties, such as the aftermath of disasters, incidents, and transporting the Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG). Bristow's expansive global SAR services include operations in the Dutch Caribbean, Falkland Islands, Guyana, Norway, Suriname, Trinidad, and the United States. Bristow also operates the HM Coastguard helicopter search and rescue service for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) of the U.K. Government. About Bristow Group Bristow Group Inc. is the leading global provider of innovative and sustainable vertical flight solutions. Bristow primarily provides aviation services to a broad base of major integrated, national, and independent offshore energy companies. Bristow provides commercial search and rescue (SAR) services in several countries and public sector aviation services such as SAR and other services on behalf of government entities. Additionally, the Company offers ad hoc helicopter and fixed wing transportation services. Bristow currently has customers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dutch Caribbean, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Suriname, Trinidad, the U.K., and the U.S. To learn more, visit our website at www.bristowgroup.com. SOURCE Bristow Group The performance luxury brand will make it snow in the desert and also expand its U.S. footprint to Denver, Aspen and Detroit TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Canada Goose continues its retail expansion across the United States with today's announcement of two new permanent locations in Las Vegas and Denver; and two pop-up stores in Aspen and Detroit. These openings, combined with expanded product categories lightweight down, apparel, footwear and exclusive designer collaborations, will showcase the brand's head-to-toe offering for all seasons and occasions. Canada Gooses storefront at the Wynn Las Vegas Canada Gooses Snow Room at Wynn Las Vegas Gayle Uyagaki Kabloona, Uvagut, at the Wynn Las Vegas Canada Goose Las Vegas City Toque Canada Goose Aurora Parka Canada Goose will open its doors in The Shops at Wynn Las Vegas on November 5, joining the Wynn's roster of the world's most coveted luxury brands. Next up in December, consumers can visit the brand's newest location in Denver's Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Denver's notoriety as a premier destination for outdoor recreation is a natural home for the brand committed to inspiring and enabling all people to thrive in the world outside. In Aspen, its new Pop Up will be nestled right on East Hyman Avenue, an oasis for West Coast luxury fashion. The brand's Detroit Pop Up will be located in Troy at Somerset Collection, offering metro Detroit shoppers a premium experience. Both Pop Ups are set to open by the end of 2022. "This season's openings across the U.S. are an invitation to experience our beloved brand, powerful product and exceptional experience, first-hand. They offer an opportunity to own a piece of the luxury of Canada," said Carrie Baker, President, Canada Goose. "Each of these cities are iconic in their own right and are the perfect locations to help us reach new heights and audiences." Immersive brand storytelling sits at the heart of every Canada Goose retail experience, bringing its heritage, purpose and function to life. Guests in the brand's Wynn location will be able to experience temperatures reach as low as -10F and a daily snowfall in the award-winning Snow Room. The Snow Room invites guests to put the brand's wide breadth of products to the ultimate test, be it for their everyday life or next big adventure. Each location also boasts a museum-like design with new installations from the Canada Goose Art Collection on display, reflecting its deep relationship with the Canadian North. With more than 400 artworks in 45 stores from paintings to illustrations to sculptures this is the largest retail collection of Inuit art in the world. For its new store in Las Vegas, the brand curated artwork from Inuit artist, Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, entitled Uvagut, which means "All of Us" a stark contrast piece featuring hands as a nod to Inuit craftsmanship. In Denver, two pieces by Jordan Bennett, who used diverse painting techniques to express the various states of time, place and season. Additional sculptures by Inuit artisans are presented throughout the stores, all embodying the symbiotic relationship between people and the planet complementing Canada Goose's purpose to keep the planet cold and the people on it warm. In each store guests can explore a full Canada Goose product assortment for men, women and children spanning parkas, lightweight jackets, rainwear, apparel, accessories and footwear as well as the brand's sought-after collaborations and special capsules. These reimagined collections are designed to reflect the unique passions of all consumers from hypebeasts to the socially conscious. New for Fall/Winter 2022 is a women's collection that combines style, performance and versatility, featuring smooth, soft-to-the-touch fabrics, luxurious colour palettes and sophisticated silhouettes. Additionally, City Toques knitted beanies featuring the name of each city will be available exclusively at the Las Vegas and Aspen stores. For a list of Canada Goose locations around the world, visit the brand's Store Locator Page. About Canada Goose Founded in 1957 in a small warehouse in Toronto, Canada, Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS, TSX:GOOS) is a lifestyle brand and a leading manufacturer of performance luxury apparel. Every collection is informed by the rugged demands of the Arctic, ensuring a legacy of functionality is embedded in every product from parkas and rainwear to apparel and accessories. Canada Goose is inspired by relentless innovation and uncompromised craftsmanship, recognized as a leader for its Made in Canada commitment. In 2020, Canada Goose announced HUMANATURE, its purpose platform that unites its sustainability and values-based initiatives, reinforcing its commitment to keep the planet cold and the people on it warm. Canada Goose also owns Baffin, a Canadian designer and manufacturer of performance outdoor and industrial footwear. Visit www.canadagoose.com for more information. Contacts Media: [email protected] Investors: [email protected] SOURCE Canada Goose Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation on pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. https://www.spendedge.com/sample-report/carbon-management-software-procurement-market-intelligence-report Major Pricing Trends in Carbon Management Software Procurement: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the Moderate bargaining power of suppliers. This makes it extremely important to get the pricing and pricing model right. Buyers should align their preferred pricing models for Carbon Management Software with the wider industry and identify the cost-saving potential. Flat-fee pricing, and project-based pricing are the most widely adopted pricing models in the Carbon Management Software. Each pricing model offers optimum benefits and fitment in specific situations. Buyers should identify the model that suits their operations in the best manner and link supplier performance to the pricing models. For More Insights on Buyer Strategies and Tactical Negotiation Levers: www.spendedge.com/report/arbon-management-software--procurement-market-intelligence-report Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. During the forecast period, the market expects a change of 3.00%-7.00%. Identify favorable opportunities in Carbon Management Software TCO (total cost of ownership). Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes. Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities. Some of the Top Carbon Management Software Suppliers Listed in This Report: This Carbon Management Software procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Wolters Kluwer NV Accenture Plc Johnson Controls International Plc Smart Procurement Starts Here: SpendEdge's procurement intelligence platform is the go-to tool for companies looking to access latest procurement research insights and supplier data on an easy to use platform: Subscribe Now for FREE, to get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment. 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 First service on November 13 at new Midtown location marks a historic expansion ATLANTA, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Cascade United Methodist Church (UMC) announces it will host inaugural, in-person services at the all-new Cascade United Methodist Church Midtown, formerly Grace United Methodist Church located at 458 Ponce de Leon Ave. in Atlanta on November 13 at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. ET. The announcement of a new campus was made earlier this year and has successfully completed both congregations' and the denomination approval processes. Rev. Dr. Kevin Murriel and the leaders of Cascade UMC will lead a celebratory service, including a ribbon cutting and press conference, at the all-new Cascade Midtown UMC at 8:30 a.m. on November 13 in front of the church. Invited guests include City of Atlanta officials, community leaders, UMC and other religious leaders, members of Cascade, and community residents. And the Two Became One Cascade UMC having experience with tackling social injustice, and the former Grace UMC having been on the verge of closure due to low membership, provided the perfect opportunity to establish a new congregation that will focus on racial and economic inequities, lack of affordable housing and gender inequality at a central location in the heart of Atlanta. By absorbing Grace UMC, Cascade UMC gives the church a second chance to thrive and an opportunity to address the "now" needs of the community. History In the Making Typical of the times in America through the Civil Rights era, 150-year-old Grace UMC was a "whites only" church in the segregated South. Cascade, founded in 1926 in the heart of the "Jim Crow" era, was one of few desegregated United Methodist Churches in Atlanta for people of color. Ironically, the first desegregation effort of record at Grace UMC was led in 1960 by civil rights leaders, including Rev. Joseph E. Lowery who would later serve as the 18th senior pastor of Cascade UMC. The Future of Cascade Midtown UMC Rev. Murriel's vision for Cascade and its members is one of social justice for all. "Our goal is to continue the mission and legacy of Cascade UMC to bring communities together through Christ," states Rev. Dr. Kevin Murriel, senior pastor of Cascade United Methodist. "With Cascade Midtown, we plan to stand by our core values and foster a healthy environment for community, service, love of neighbor, and the word of God." Murriel continues, "We are all God's children, and God intended that everyone be welcome in God's house. Cascade UMC will continue to take the necessary steps to welcome everyone just as God has welcomed so many of us." About Cascade United Methodist Church Cascade United Methodist Church was founded in 1926 as is located at 3144 Cascade Road in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, Cascade is a part of the North Georgia UMC conference and is home to over 7,000 members. The congregation is led by Senior Pastor Reverend Doctor Kevin R. Murriel as the 22nd senior pastor. Learn more about Cascade UMC at www.cascadeumc.org. Follow @cascadeUMC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Media contact: Cecilia Cheeks Email: [email protected] Phone: 404-909-9540 SOURCE Cascade United Methodist Church BEIJING, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the first EU leader to come to Beijing after the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, paid an official visit to China on Friday. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Scholz that the two major countries, with great influence, should work together "in times of change and instability" and contribute more to global peace and development. CGTN: China, Germany highlight cooperation 'in times of change and instability' Scholz stressed that his country hopes to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and world peace and security. China-Germany cooperation benefits EU, and the world As Germany is a pivotal country in the EU, the continent's prosperity is closely associated with Germany, and thus deepening China-Germany and China-EU cooperation will serve the interests of both sides and beyond. During their meeting, Xi stressed that China is ready to work with Germany to build a future-oriented all-round strategic partnership and push for new progress in China-Germany and China-EU relations. China and Germany should respect each other, accommodate each other's core interests, adhere to dialogue and consultation, and jointly resist the interference of camp confrontation, Xi said. China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Germany and the EU in international affairs and jointly find solutions to global issues such as climate change, biodiversity protection and food security, said the president. Scholz said that the world needs a multi-polar pattern and the role and influence of emerging countries should be taken seriously. Germany opposes camp confrontation, he stressed. Meanwhile, the two leaders also exchanged views on the crisis in Ukraine. China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and building a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework, Xi said. "This is a critical moment for both Germany and China. Their relationship may not be based on shared political values, but on reciprocal interests, on the common fight against climate change and the strong willingness to build a multilateral world," said Song Xin, former political adviser at the European Parliament, in an article published on CGTN. Liu Lirong, an associate professor at the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University also told CGTN that China-Germany cooperation not only benefits the EU but also the world. "China is the second largest economy in the world, and Germany is the largest economy in the EU. Chinese-German cooperation is of great significance in addressing many global challenges such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and global food security," Liu said. China-Germany cooperation shows huge potential The German chancellor's visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Germany. Over the past 50 years, China-Germany practical cooperation has deepened, and bilateral trade has grown by nearly a thousand-fold, Xi said, adding that the two sides should continue to make the "pie" of common interests bigger. In this regard, he highlighted revitalizing cooperation in new areas such as new energy, artificial intelligence and digitalization while expanding the potential of cooperation in traditional areas. Scholz said that China is an important economic and trade partner of Germany and Europe, and his country is ready to deepen economic and trade cooperation with China. Germany firmly supports trade liberalization and economic globalization and opposes "decoupling", he stressed. China was Germany's most important trading partner in 2021 for the sixth consecutive year. The trade volume between them has mushroomed to more than $250 billion in 2021 from less than $300 million at the very beginning of diplomatic relations. In the first nine months of this year, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland expanded 15.6 percent year on year to 1.00376 trillion yuan. In U.S. dollar terms, the inflow went up 18.9 percent year on year to $155.3 billion, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed. (Cover: Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, November 4, 2022. /Xinhua) https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-11-04/Xi-meets-German-Chancellor-Olaf-Scholz-1eGlonnwv1S/index.html SOURCE CGTN First Arkansas Operation Stand Down on Nov. 10 Offers Free Dental Care to Eligible Veterans SHERWOOD, Ark., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Delta Dental of Arkansas executives and three corporate board members are among the volunteer dentists who will provide free dental treatments to eligible veterans as part of the state's inaugural Operation Stand Down on Veterans Day, Nov. 10. Offered for the first time in Arkansas, Operation Stand Down was launched in 2012 by Dr. Daniel Fridh of La Porte, Ind. A practicing dentist and Air Force veteran, he sought to devise a scalable solution to the poor oral health he observed among many fellow service members and their families. He began offering a designated day of free dental care to his ex-military patients and encouraged fellow dentists to do likewise. Since then, Operation Stand Down has grown into a multi-state project. In Arkansas, Operation Stand Down will be hosted on November 10, Veteran's Day, by the Arkansas International College of Dentistry and coordinated by the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs at six locations: Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Arkadelphia. Among the participating volunteer dentists will be Thomas Redd , DDS, MS, VP, Professional Relations, Delta Dental of Arkansas , DDS, MS, VP, Professional Relations, Delta Dental of Niki Carter , DMD, MPH, Dental Director & Manager, Professional Relations, Delta Dental of Arkansas , DMD, MPH, Dental Director & Manager, Professional Relations, Delta Dental of Mark Bailey , DDS, of Waldron , board member, Delta Dental of Arkansas , DDS, of , board member, Delta Dental of Troy Bartels , DDS, of Jonesboro , board member, Delta Dental of Arkansas , DDS, of , board member, Delta Dental of Ned Alley , DDS, of Little Rock , board member, Delta Dental of Arkansas Drs. Bailey, Bartels and Alley have donated their clinics as sites. To receive treatment, veterans must present discharge papers or a DD214 and preregister by contacting Gina Chandler of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs at [email protected] or 501-682-6487. About Delta Dental of Arkansas Delta Dental of Arkansas is the largest dental benefits provider in the state, helping more than 800,000 Arkansans keep their smiles healthy through commercial and Medicaid coverage. As a not-for-profit company, Delta Dental is committed to improving the oral health of Arkansans through the philanthropic efforts of its Foundation, which donated more than $3 million to support oral health education initiatives in the last three years. For more information, visit www.deltadentalar.com/. Media Contact: Niki Carter, DMD, MPH Dental Director & Manager, Prof. Relations (c) 501-607-7778 [email protected] www.deltadentalar.com SOURCE Delta Dental of Arkansas NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy CEO Drew Marsh and members of Entergy's executive team plan to participate in investor meetings from Sunday, Nov. 13 to Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, during the 57th Edison Electric Institute Financial Conference. Handout materials will be posted Friday, Nov. 11 to Entergy's Investor Relations website at entergy.com/investors. About Entergy Entergy (NYSE: ETR), a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, powers life for 3 million customers through its operating companies across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy is creating a cleaner, more resilient energy future for everyone with our diverse power generation portfolio, including increasingly carbon-free energy sources. With roots in the Gulf South region for more than a century, Entergy is a recognized leader in corporate citizenship, delivering more than $100 million in economic benefits to local communities through philanthropy and advocacy efforts annually over the last several years. Our approximately 12,000 employees are dedicated to powering life today and for future generations. Learn more at entergy.com and follow @Entergy on social media. #WePowerLife SOURCE Entergy Corporation DUBLIN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component and End User" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market is expected to grow from US$ 94.74 million in 2022 to US$ 193.72 million by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2022 to 2028. Corrosion is a serious issue as it hampers the overall industrial ecosystems worldwide, and corrosion by products, such as rust, contaminate water bodies. Thus, corrosion can hamper the long-term viability of infrastructural assets, while corrosion-led pollution is detrimental to the environment and ecosystems. Businesses that fail to take appropriate measures to protect their equipment against corrosion tend to incur more costs due to the frequent need for equipment replacement and lengthy downtimes resulting from equipment breakdowns. Further, a rise in demand for asset management services by end-use industries and emerging countries presents opportunities in the corrosion under insulation monitoring market. The corrosion under insulation monitoring market is bifurcated into component and end user. Based on component, the market is segmented into hardware, software, and services. Based on end user, the market is segmented into oil & gas, marine, chemical & petrochemical, energy & power, food processing, and others. Canada accounted for the second-largest market in North America corrosion under insulation monitoring market share. According to the Association for Mineral Protection and Performance (AMPP) report in 2021, corrosion affected industrial sectors in Canada: energy, municipal, manufacturing, and marine. The corrosion-related deterioration and failure costs for the year were US$ 48.95 billion. Further, ~2.5% of the country's GDP is spent on corrosion-related issues. The end user industries, such as oil & gas, will have to take preventative measures to counter the replacement and maintenance costs of the equipment with the help of CUI monitoring solutions. Further, the presence of prominent market players, such as SGS Canada, will boost the growth of the corrosion under insulation monitoring market in the country. Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Based on country, the Asia Pacific corrosion under insulation monitoring market is segmented into Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the Rest of Asia Pacific. In 2022, India is expected to account for the second-largest corrosion under insulation monitoring market growth in the Asia Pacific. India has a robust chemical & petrochemical industry with growing investment by both regional and international players. It ranks 6th and 9th in imports and exports respectively in the global market, contributing ~12.8% in total imports and 12.9% in total exports in 2021. The growth of the industry is attributed to the increase in per capita consumption across the country. For instance, the consumption of polyethylene and polypropylene increased from 6.5 kg in 2015 to 8.2 kg in 2020. Additionally, the adoption of digitalization across the chemical companies is expected to contribute to the growth of the corrosion under insulation monitoring market. For instance, organizations are implementing sensors across their production sites to fetch real-time data across operational sites. These factors are further expected to increase the demand for CUI monitoring sensors from the chemical & petrochemical industry of the country. Additionally, the rise in investment by the Indian government to expand their oil refineries is expected to contribute to the growth of the corrosion under insulation monitoring market players of India. Market Dynamics Market Drivers Losses Caused by Corrosion-Related Damages Increasing Demand from Oil & Gas Sector and Rising Investment in Emerging Nations Market Restraints Requirement of Skilled Personnel and Technical Expertise Market Opportunities Rising Focus to Enhance Durability of Equipment in Food & Beverages Sector Future Trends Integration of AI with Corrosion Monitoring Systems Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 4. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market Landscape 5. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market - Key Market Dynamics 6. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market - Global Market Analysis 7. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market Analysis - By Component 8. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market - By End User 9. Corrosion Under Insulation Monitoring Market - Geographic Analysis 10. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Corrosion under insulation monitoring Market 11. Global Corrosion under Insulation Monitoring Market-Industry Landscape 12. Company Profile 13. Appendix Companies Mentioned Sci Limited Alabama Specialty Products, Inc. Eddyfi Technologies iSensPro KAEFER MAXWELL NDT MISTRAS Group TesTex Incorporated QSA Global, Inc. Cosasco For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ub4fay 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: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg SOURCE Research and Markets BEIJING, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday, and the two leaders agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Noting that Hassan is the first African head of state to be received by China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi said this fully shows the closeness of China-Tanzania relations and the important status of China-Africa ties in China's overall diplomacy. During their meeting, the two leaders agreed to maintain high-level communication, and strengthen cooperation on various levels between legislative branches and political parties. The two also agreed to expand trade scale, push forward infrastructure project cooperation and join hands in other fields such as green development as well as digital economy. Chinese experts believed the upgrading of ties will bring China and Tanzania closer in various fields when the African country is facing multiple challenges. Also, being the first head of state from an African nation to visit China after the successful conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the CPC shows Tanzania's endorsement of past cooperation with China, and the confidence and increasing willingness to cooperate with China will give this African country, as well as the whole continent, much-needed impetus for economic recovery amid COVID-19 epidemic, and help those countries successfully develop their own growth path, said experts. The two Presidents spoke highly of the traditional friendship between China and Tanzania, and noted with satisfaction the fruitful outcomes of China-Tanzania relations and their friendly cooperation in the past 58 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations. The two sides agreed to further leverage the political guiding role of head-of-state diplomacy, maintain the momentum of high-level interactions and dialogues; pledged to continue supporting each other on issues involving sovereignty, territorial integrity and other core interests and concerns. Hassan's visit not only demonstrates Tanzania's recognition of cooperation with China over the past years, but also shows the African country's increasing willingness to deepen ties with China, as the economy of Tanzania, along with many African countries, has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, Song Wei, professor from the institute of international relations at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times. Pragmatic cooperation When meeting with Hassan, Xi said China supports Tanzania on safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and firmly supports Tanzania to explore a development path that suits itself. China is ready to continue expanding import of specialty products from Tanzania, supporting Chinese enterprises to invest there, and providing assistance to Tanzania's economic and social development as its capacity allows, Xi said. The two sides agreed to expand bilateral trade volume, further deepen high-quality cooperation under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative, and enhance cooperation in processing and manufacturing, green development, and digital economy, among others. Shen Shiwei, a research fellow from Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University predicted the two countries will deepen their cooperation on infrastructure and agriculture, as China's help to Tanzania on agriculture has helped enhance the country's food security and China-assisted infrastructure projects have paved the way for Tanzania's development. The two sides are expected to see more growth potential in sectors such as key infrastructure projects, industrialization, supply chain, import and export of agricultural products as well as agricultural processing, Shen said. Speaking at a press conference last month, Tanzania's Ambassador to China Mbelwa Kairuki encouraged Tanzanians to prepare for the opportunities that will be brought during the visit, Tanzania Daily News reported. According to Kairuki, trade between the two countries has been growing by 20 percent in the past three years. He said that last year, the trade volume between Dodoma and Beijing was $6.74 billion. From the Tanzania-Zambia Railway built in the 1970s, to Xi's visit in 2013, to the cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, the two countries have formed a long-lasting friendship and reached comprehensive cooperation, covering various fields from infrastructure construction, agriculture to culture, according to He Wenping, director of the African Studies Section at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. As Tanzania has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, and its overall industrialization remaining at a relatively low level, there will be much more potential for the two countries to cooperate, and inject much-needed impetus for Tanzania's economic recovery, said experts. Real friend Xi also told Hassan that China has already explored a development path that suits China's situation. The CPC and Chama Cha Mapinduzi, the ruling party of Tanzania all shoulder the historical mission of national rejuvenation, and the CPC will continue to strengthen communication with Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and support the teaching and operation of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania. In February this year, Xi sent a congratulatory letter on the inauguration ceremony of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania, which had been a joint effort of six liberation movement parties in southern Africa. In May, the school held a seminar for middle-aged and young cadres of the six parties in Southern Africa. In his letter of reply to the participants of the seminar, Xi encouraged these Party members to be pioneers who drive the progress of the times and the pillars of national rejuvenation. In a phone call with Xi in June last year, Hassan expressed willingness to learn from China's experience in poverty alleviation and governance and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in trade, infrastructure, humanities, and other fields with China. Ever since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, there have been talks over enhancing exchanges of governance experience with African countries, which aim to help those countries improve their governance and find a development model that suits them, said Song. Power Africa had promised to invest and produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity in Africa by 2020. According to statistics, by the end of that year, actual power generation was only 4,194 megawatts, less than a quarter of the promised amount. It's been nearly a year since B3W was announced, but the US government has invested a mere $6 million in global infrastructure, much less than its commitment of $40 trillion, the Xinhua News Agency reported. China-Africa trade reached an all-time high in 2021, and the African economy's improvement in 2021 was mainly due to the improvement of the external environment, especially the active support of China and other markets that enhanced Africa's export capacity, Xinhua reported. A survey by the UK-based YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, carried out this summer covering 1,000 people in 25 African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, shows that across the continent, China was widely seen as a force for good. In South Africa, 61 percent of respondents saw China's influence in the world as positive, in Kenya the support for China was higher at 82 percent, and Nigeria was highest of the three, standing at 83 percent. "African countries need real cooperation instead of becoming 'chess pieces' in major power competitionas long as it is for the good of Africa, China is willing to cooperate with other countries to push forward rapid development for the continent," said Song. SOURCE Global Times VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Great Panther Mining Limited (OTCPK: GPLDK) ("Great Panther" or the "Company") announces that the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the "Court"), on application of the Company, has granted an extension of the stay of proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") to December 16, 2022, and has approved the previously announced Share Purchase Agreement (the "SPA") between Great Panther and Newrange Gold Corp. ("Newrange"). The Company also announces a senior management change. On October 4, 2022, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the "Court") pronounced an initial order (the "Initial Order") converting the Company's restructuring proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada) (the "NOI Proceedings") to the more flexible restructuring proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) ("CCAA"). The order granted November 3, 2022, extends the stay of proceedings and other relief granted in the Initial Order, as amended and restated up to and including December 16, 2022 (the "Stay"), on which date the Company will return before the Court to seek, among other things, an extension of the Stay. During the Stay, the Company will launch a Sale Investment and Solicitation Process, or "SISP," which has been announced via a separate news release. In addition to granting the Stay, the Court authorized the completion of the SPA, pursuant to which the Company has agreed to sell Great Panther Peru Holdings Ltd. and Great Panther Silver Peru S.A.C. (the "Subsidiaries"), which together indirectly own 100% of the Coricancha Mine in Peru, on and subject to the terms and conditions set forth therein. Under the terms of the Share Purchase Agreement, Newrange has agreed to acquire the Subsidiaries for a total purchase price of US$750,000, payable in cash. Completion of the transaction remains subject to certain closing conditions, including, but not limited to, receipt by Newrange of the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Separately, the Company also announced that Fernando Cornejo has resigned as Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective October 31, 2022. Mr. Cornejo joined Great Panther in July 2019 and became Chief Operating Officer in July 2021. Although mining activities have ceased at the Tucano Mine site, the processing plant continues to operate, processing existing stockpiles and spent ore. The local management team is leading these activities with the oversight of Sandra Daycock, President and CEO of the Company. Pursuant to the Initial Order, Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. was appointed as monitor in the CCAA Proceedings. A copy of the Initial Order and all materials related thereto, as well as any other information regarding the CCAA proceedings, are available on the court-appointed monitor's website at https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/GPR. ABOUT GREAT PANTHER Great Panther Mining is a precious metals producer focused on the operation of the Tucano Gold Mine in Brazil where the Company controls a land package covering nearly 200,000 hectares in the prospective Vila Nova Greenstone belt. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the Company's completion of the sale of the Subsidiaries and the satisfaction of the conditions precedent set forth in the Share Purchase Agreement. These forward-looking statements and information reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant procedural, operational, business, economic and regulatory risks and uncertainties, including risks related to the restructuring process and its impact on the Company's operations and financial conditions, uncertainty regarding the ability to obtain protection against all collection and enforcement actions during the judicial reorganization proceedings, uncertainty regarding the Company's ability to identify and pursue strategic alternatives that will maximize stakeholder value, and the risks described in respect of Great Panther in its most recent annual information form and management's discussion and analysis filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com and its most recent annual report on Form 40-F and management's discussion and analysis on Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov . There is no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove accurate or that actual results will not vary materially from these forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described, or intended. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements and information are designed to help readers understand management's current views of our near- and longer-term prospects and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not intend, nor does it assume any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, changes in assumptions, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. SOURCE Great Panther Mining Limited Firm received top-tier rankings for oil and gas law and commercial litigation HOUSTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Houston-based Hicks Thomas LLP has been named to the list of Best Law Firms by U.S. News & World Report and The Best Lawyers in America, one of the most respected legal listings in the country. The firm ranked in the top tier both nationally and in the Houston metro area for oil and gas law. It also received a Tier 1 ranking for its commercial litigation practice in Houston. U.S. News and Best Lawyers researchers base their selections on voting by lawyers and responses from law firm clients. Clients are surveyed on everything from firm expertise and responsiveness to business understanding and cost-effectiveness. Tier rankings are then determined by the scores the firms receive. "We have a great team of lawyers dedicated to their clients and their craft," said Hicks Thomas partner John B. Thomas. "We appreciate this peer-based recognition of our talented group." This honor is one of several that Hicks Thomas has received this year. In May, the firm was named a top commercial litigation firm in Texas by the prestigious Chambers and Partners, which recognizes the most outstanding law firms and lawyers around the world. Chambers describes the firm as an "accomplished team of commercial litigators with a wealth of trial experience." "They have an incredibly strong work ethic and an unfailing drive to win," one respondent told Chambers researchers. One Hicks Thomas client also called the firm "committed, communicative and results-oriented." Hicks Thomas lawyers have also been recognized by Texas Super Lawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and Lawdragon, which recently named all twelve Hicks Thomas partners to its list of 500 Leading Litigators for 2023. The full list of Best Law Firms is available online at bestlawfirms.usnews.com and will also be published in the 13th edition of Best Law Firms. Founded in 1997, Texas-based Hicks Thomas LLP is a premier litigation firm representing plaintiffs and defendants across the nation. With offices in Houston, Austin, Beaumont, Amarillo, and Sacramento, California, the firm provides in-depth experience in cases involving oil and gas, environmental, complex commercial, toxic tort, construction, products liability, corporate governance, securities, banking, insurance coverage, transportation, trade secrets and business litigation. Visit the firm at http://www.hicks-thomas.com . Contact: April Arias 800-559-4534 [email protected] SOURCE Hicks Thomas LLP The growing processed food industry, rising health-consciousness among the population, and rising demand for convenience food from the food industry are expected to drive the Hydrocolloids Market over the forecasted period. JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Hydrocolloids Market" By Type (Alginate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan), By Source (Botanical, Synthetic, Microbial, Animal), By Application (Confectionery, Bakery, Dressings and Sauces, Beverages), By Geographic Scope And Forecast. As per the deep research carried out by Verified Market Research, the global Hydrocolloids Market size was valued at USD 7.1 Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 10.8 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2022 to 2030. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=22661 Browse in-depth TOC on "Hydrocolloids Market" 202 - Pages 126 Tables 37 Figures Global Hydrocolloids Market Overview The increasing growth of the processed food industry, as well as the rising demands for convenience food from the food industry, are anticipated to drive the Hydrocolloids Market over the forecast period. Moreover, the availability of multifunctional applications including starch-based hydrocolloids and their biocompatibility is a primary factor influencing the market growth. In addition, rising health consciousness among the population and an increase in demand for natural hydrocolloids are leading to the growth of the market. The rise in the use of hydrocolloid-based building materials, combined with rising demand from the personal care industry, is estimated to drive the market pace during the forecast period. Furthermore, the high demand for thickening and gelling applications in the food and beverage industry is considered to be a major factor in increasing sales of the Global Hydrocolloids Market. The unfavourable conditions caused by covid-19 restrictions pose difficulties to the growth of the Hydrocolloids Market. The government's stringent rules and regulations governing a set of quality standards and norms also inhibit the Hydrocolloids Market's growth rate over the projected period. Science and technology advancements are assisting in increasing the shelf life of foods to a larger extent. The requirement for marketing food hydrocolloids to the smallest food and beverage manufacturers assists in a growing market. Where lifestyles are changing rapidly, demand from workplaces and homes is rising competitively, leading to a higher preference for convenience. Key Developments In November 2021 , Cargill, Inc. has announced the opening of a new, cutting-edge pectin production facility in Bebedouro, Brazil . The plant, which charges USD 150 million , greatly increases the company's ability to meet growing demands for the label-friendly texturizing ingredient. , Cargill, Inc. has announced the opening of a new, cutting-edge pectin production facility in Bebedouro, . The plant, which charges , greatly increases the company's ability to meet growing demands for the label-friendly texturizing ingredient. In February 2021 , Tate & Lyle PLC has introduced the Tate & Lyle Nutrition Centre, a new digital hub that allows easy access to authoritative science on ingredients that help address public health problems. For food and beverage companies, researchers, and health professionals, the hub houses expert insights, investigations, and educational tools. Key Players The major players in the market are BASF, CP Kelco, Tate & Lyle PLC, DowDuPont, Palsgaard A/S, Ingredion, Cargill, Kerry, and Darling Ingredients, and, Ashland Inc. Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Hydrocolloids Market On the basis of Type, Source, Application, and Geography. Hydrocolloids Market, By Type Alginate Guar Gum Carrageenan Gelatin Xanthan Gum Others Hydrocolloids Market, By Source Botanical Synthetic Microbial Animal Others Hydrocolloids Market, By Application Confectionery Bakery Dressings and Sauces Beverages Poultry and Meat Products Others Hydrocolloids Market, by Geography North America U.S Canada Mexico Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India Rest of Asia Pacific ROW Middle East & Africa & Latin America Browse Related Reports: Food Thickeners Market By Type (Hydrocolloids, Protein), By Category (Natural, Synthetic), By Source (Plant, Animal), By Application (Bakery & Confectionary, Dairy Products), By Geography, And Forecast Natural Antioxidants Market By Type (Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Carotenoids, Rosemary Extract), By Form (Dry, Liquid), By Geography, And Forecast Glycinates Market Size By Form (Dry, Liquid), By Type (Magnesium Glycinate, Zinc Glycinate, Calcium Glycinate, Copper Glycinate), By Application (Pharmaceuticals/Nutraceuticals, Food Additives), By Geography, And Forecast Nano Silver Colloid Market By Product (Pharma Grade, Food Grade, Industrial grade), By Application (Mineral Supplement, Soap, Antiseptic, Others), By Geography, And Forecast Top 10 Antibody Reagent Companies detecting reagents for protecting patients Visualize Hydrocolloids Market using Verified Market Intelligence -: Verified Market Intelligence is our BI Enabled Platform for narrative storytelling in this market. VMI offers in-depth forecasted trends and accurate Insights on over 20,000+ emerging & niche markets, helping you make critical revenue-impacting decisions for a brilliant future. VMI provides a holistic overview and global competitive landscape with respect to Region, Country, Segment, and Key players of your market. Present your Market Report & findings with an inbuilt presentation feature saving over 70% of your time and resources for Investor, Sales & Marketing, R&D, and Product Development pitches. VMI enables data delivery In Excel and Interactive PDF formats with over 15+ Key Market Indicators for your market. About Us Verified Market Research is a leading Global Research and Consulting firm servicing over 5000+ customers. Verified Market Research provides advanced analytical research solutions while offering information enriched research studies. We offer insight into strategic and growth analyses, Data necessary to achieve corporate goals and critical revenue decisions. Our 250 Analysts and SME's offer a high level of expertise in data collection and governance use industrial techniques to collect and analyze data on more than 15,000 high impact and niche markets. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research. We study 14+ categories from Semiconductor & Electronics, Chemicals, Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Automotive & Transportation, Information & Communication Technology, Software & Services, Information Security, Mining, Minerals & Metals, Building & construction, Agriculture industry and Medical Devices from over 100 countries. Contact Us Mr. Edwyne Fernandes Verified Market Research US: +1 (650)-781-4080 UK: +44 (753)-715-0008 APAC: +61 (488)-85-9400 US Toll Free: +1 (800)-782-1768 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/ Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1315349/Verified_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Verified Market Research DUBLIN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Electric Vehicles Patent Landscape 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Nowadays, the global transportation sector represents about one quarter of all direct carbon dioxide emissions. To remedy this, during the past few years, several national and supranational governments around the world have instigated policy regulations and financial incentives regarding research and development programs in order to help green hydrogen production, hydrogen infrastructures and fuel cell-powered electric vehicles thrive in the future. Moreover, numerous R&D programs, strategic alliances and partnerships among vehicle manufacturers, equipment suppliers (OEM) and hydrogen- and fuel cell-related companies have blossomed, giving a strong insight into the structuring and strengthening of this specific market. The last 10 years we witnessed a shift in technological interest in the automotive sector, with companies concentrating their R&D efforts and patenting activities on battery technologies. But with some as yet unresolved issues for electric vehicles (mileage autonomy, charging speed and safety to name a few), there was a revival in interest in fuel cell technology patent filings in the mid-2010s, with a CAGR of 18% between 2015 and 2021. In this context, the publisher is releasing a new report which aims to provide a comprehensive view of the patent landscape related to hydrogen-based fuel cells for terrestrial electric vehicles (cars, trucks and buses), from electrolyte and electrode materials to the fuel cell system and vehicle integration, segmented into fuel cell technologies - such as proton exchange membrane (PEMFC), solid oxide (SOFC) and molten carbonate (MCFC). Patent landscape analysis is a powerful tool to understand global hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles competitive and technological environment. Overall, patenting activity (patent filings) reflects the level of R&D investment made by a country or player in a specific technology, while providing clues as to the technology readiness level reached by the main IP players. What's more, the technology coverage along the value chain and the geographical coverage of the patent portfolios are closely related to the business strategy of IP players. A sector boosted by the emergence of newcomers With more than 30,000 patent families published in the past 20 years, hydrogen-based fuel cell technologies for road transportation (cars, trucks, buses) is a sector that has caught the attention of a lot of companies around the world. As in a lot of innovation-led industry sectors, Japanese players historically took over the fuel cell-related technological field in the 2000s, taking a quantitative approach in patenting activity. Players such as car makers (Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, etc.), equipment suppliers (Aisin Seiki, Denso, Soken, etc.), device manufacturers (Panasonic/Sanyo, Hitachi, Toshiba, Murata/Sony, etc.) or material suppliers (Toppan Printing, Nippon Steel, Toray Industries, Sumitomo, etc.) have been active all along the value chain, from electrode materials and fuel cell stacks to system integration into vehicles. Other players have joined their Japanese counterparts in patent filings in that period, like US General Motors and Ford, German Daimler, Volkswagen/Audi, Bosch and BMW, and South Korean Hyundai/Kia, Samsung and LG. More recently, the patenting activity is led by German vehicle manufacturers and Chinese newcomers, as a way to develop and diversify their businesses, for the former - Volkswagen/Audi, Bosch or BMW - and to take some market shares and develop fuel cell technologies, for the latter - vehicle manufacturers Grove Hydrogen Automotive, FAW China First Automotive Works, Dongfeng Motor, Yutong Bus or SAIC Group, and product devices sellers SinoHytec, Weichai Group, FTXT Energy Technology or Shanghai Shenli High Technology. Patent segmentation The patent families have been categorized according to the fuel cell technologies (PEMFC, SOFC, MCFC, PAFC, AFC, etc.), cell materials and components (electrodes, membranes, catalysts, gas diffusion layer, bipolar plates, electrolytes, etc.), management and control (thermal management, pressure management, etc.), stacking of fuel cells, fuel cell system, hydrogen storage, etc. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Scope of the Report and Methodology 3 Highlights and Key Insights 4 Patent Landscape Overview 5 IP Collaborations 6 IP Litigations and Oppositions 7 Patent Segmentation 8 Focus on PEMFC 9 IP Profiles of Key Players 10 Publisher Presentation Companies Mentioned AGC Aisin Seiki Anderson Industries Asahi Kasei BAIC Group (Beijing Automotive) Blue World Technologies BMW Bosch Canon Cellcentric Chery Automobile Daimler Denso Dongfeng Motor FAW (China First Automobile Works) Ford FTXT Energy Technology General Motors Grove Hydrogen Automotive Hitachi Group Honda Hylium Industries Hyundai/Kia J&L Tech Kolon Industries LG Group Mitsubishi Group Murata Manufacturing/Sony New Keli Chemical Nippon Steel Nissan Group Nuvoton Panasonic/Sanyo Refire Technology Renault Wuhan University of Technology University of Technology Zhejiang University For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/94nvd6 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: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg SOURCE Research and Markets The iconic premium seafood brand celebrates heritage and continues to produce the best seafood on the planet over a century since its inception SAN DIEGO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- King Oscar , the legendary Norwegian seafood producer, is proud to celebrate its 120th anniversary on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. King Oscar, currently the top purveyor of specialty seafood in the United States, remains committed to the heritage, craft and quality that earned a Kingly reputation for over 100 years ago. King Oscar, the iconic premium seafood brand, celebrates heritage and continues to produce the best seafood on the planet over a century since its inception. "King Oscar is steeped in history and heritage," said King Oscar USA president, John Engle. "It has been over a century since King Oscar gave us his name, and we continue to honor his legacy and the Norwegian tradition that represents the foundation that guides us toward innovative and nutritious products like our Mackerel Royal Fillets and Yellowfin Tuna varieties. We are on a mission to produce the best quality, best tasting seafood possible and to do it in a sustainable way." In 1902, King Oscar II of Norway tried the Brisling sardines from the Norwegian Stavanger Preserving Company, and he was impressed. So much so that he gave the company his greatest gift, his name by Royal Permission, a status the company still enjoys today. To this day, King Oscar continues to produce the same Wild Caught Brisling Sardines that so impressed the Norwegian King in 1902. But King Oscar has also introduced an abundance of innovative, industry-changing, Royally delicious products since that day. Most recently, the brand debuted a line of all-new, ultra-premium Yellowfin Tuna offerings. This best-in-class product features four flavor varieties: Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Green Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Sundried Tomatoes, Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Jalapeno Peppers, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Herbs de Provence. "King Oscar has been part of Thai Union since 2014. Our King Oscar USA business has shown exceptional growth since their acquisition of the company, and we are proud to be #1 in the Specialty Seafood Segment in this market," said General Manager for King Oscar worldwide, Bjrn Nordvik. "We are proud to play a small part in the tradition of the world's finest specialty seafood brand and the legacy of King Oscar II himself. Our ambition is to position the King Oscar brand for success in the next century and offer consumers the absolute best the oceans can offer," Engle said. About King Oscar: King Oscar is a leading international supplier and marketer of premium canned seafood. The company, founded in 1902, is best known for its premium brisling sardines, but also supplies a range of products, including skinless & boneless sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies, cod liver and other seafood. The company is based in Bergen, Norway. www.kingoscar.com King Oscar is owned by Thai Union, a global seafood leader with a dedication to sustainability and innovation. www.thaiunion.com Contact: Gordon Wright 415.887.9325 [email protected] SOURCE King Oscar WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA is targeting Monday, Nov. 14, for the launch of the Artemis I Moon mission during a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. EST. The launch countdown will begin Saturday, Nov. 12, at 12:27 a.m. Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, and the ground systems at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will pave the way for a crewed test flight and future human lunar exploration as part of Artemis. NASA's Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I arrived to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Nov. 4. Launch of the uncrewed Artemis I flight test is targeted for Nov. 14. Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky The SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived Friday, Nov. 4 at about 8:30 a.m. Live coverage of briefings and events will air on NASA Television, the NASA app , and the agency's website at: https://www.nasa.gov/live Engineers previously rolled the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) Sept. 26 ahead of Hurricane Ian and after waving off two previous launch attempts Aug. 29 due to a faulty temperature sensor, and Sept. 4 due to a liquid hydrogen leak at an interface between the rocket and mobile launcher. Prior to rolling back to the VAB, teams successfully repaired the leak and demonstrated updated tanking procedures. While in the VAB, teams performed standard maintenance to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system and recharge or replace batteries throughout the system. A limited number of seats inside the auditorium will be available during briefings to previously credentialed on-site journalists on a first-come, first-served basis. The deadline has passed for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch. To participate by telephone, media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of each briefing to: [email protected] . Media and members of the public may also ask questions on social media using #Artemis. Audio only of the briefings will be carried on the NASA "V" circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240 or -7135. NASA's media accreditation policy for virtual and on-site activities is available online. More information about media accreditation at Kennedy is available by emailing: [email protected] . Full launch coverage is as follows. All times are Eastern, all events will air live on NASA TV, and the information is subject to change. Follow NASA's Artemis blog for updates. Friday, Nov. 11 7 p.m.: NASA will hold a prelaunch media briefing following a mission management team meeting with the following participants: Mike Sarafin , Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters , Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters Charlie Blackwell-Thompson , Artemis launch director, Exploration Ground Systems Program, Kennedy , Artemis launch director, Exploration Ground Systems Program, Kennedy Emily Nelson , chief flight director, NASA Johnson , chief flight director, NASA Johnson Melody Lovin , weather officer, U.S. Space Launch Delta 45 Saturday, Nov. 12 12 p.m.: NASA will hold a prelaunch media briefing on the status of the countdown with the following participants: Jeremy Parsons , Exploration Ground Systems Program deputy manager, NASA Kennedy , Exploration Ground Systems Program deputy manager, NASA Kennedy Melody Lovin , weather officer, U.S. Space Launch Delta 45 Sunday, Nov. 13 2:30 p.m.: Coverage of tanking operations to load propellant into the SLS rocket begins, including views of the rocket and Launch Control Center and audio from a commentator. 9:30 p.m.: Coverage of launch begins in English. Coverage will continue through translunar injection and spacecraft separation, setting Orion on its path to the Moon. 11 p.m.: Coverage of launch begins in Spanish on NASA's Spanish-language YouTube account and will continue approximately 15 minutes after liftoff. Mission coverage updates will be posted on the NASA en espanol social media channels. 3 a.m.: Coverage of the postlaunch news conference will follow approximately one hour after the live launch broadcast ends. Coverage start time is subject to change, based on the exact liftoff time. The postlaunch news conference will include the following participants: Bill Nelson , NASA administrator , NASA administrator Mike Sarafin , Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters , Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters Mike Bolger , Exploration Ground Systems Program manager, Kennedy , Exploration Ground Systems Program manager, Kennedy John Honeycutt , Space Launch System Program manager, Marshall , Space Launch System Program manager, Marshall Howard Hu , Orion Program manager, NASA's Johnson Space Center , Orion Program manager, NASA's Johnson Space Center Emily Nelson , chief flight director, Johnson 7:30 a.m.: Coverage of Orion's first outbound trajectory burn on the way to the Moon. Coverage start time is subject to change, based on the exact liftoff time. 8:50 a.m.: Coverage of first Earth views from Orion during outbound coast to the Moon. NASA Television coverage of additional events throughout the mission is available online . NASA Launch Coverage in English Briefings and launch coverage will be available on the NASA website . Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates. On-demand video recordings and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. Follow countdown coverage on NASA's Artemis blog at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis Live NASA TV coverage leading to launch will begin with commentary of tanking operations at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, followed by launch coverage beginning at 9:30 p.m. Launch coverage will stream on the NASA website , as well as Facebook , Twitch , NASA YouTube , and in 4k on NASA's UHD channel . For NASA TV downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv On launch day, a "tech feed" will be carried on the NASA TV media channel featuring views of the rocket and audio from a commentator in the Launch Control Center throughout and a single channel of mission audio beginning 15 minutes before launch. Countdown activities with audio of the launch control commentator will be available starting at 2:30 p.m. by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240 or 7135; listeners will hear a single channel of mission audio beginning 15 minutes before launch. Full audio from the launch broadcast will begin at 9:30 p.m. and will be available by dialing 256-715-9946 with passcode 913 471 506#. Launch also will be available on local amateur VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz and UHF radio frequency 444.925 MHz, FM mode, heard within Brevard County on the Space Coast. NASA Launch Coverage in Spanish NASA's broadcast of the launch in Spanish will include interviews with Hispanic members of the mission and live commentary. The show, which will begin at 11 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, will be available on NASA en espanol's YouTube account, and will continue approximately 15 minutes after liftoff. Mission coverage will then follow on the NASA en espanol social media channels. Media and educational institutions interested in sharing the stream of the show can contact Maria Jose Vinas at: [email protected] . Attend Launch Virtually Members of the public can register to attend the launch virtually . NASA's virtual guest program for the mission includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a stamp for the NASA virtual guest passport following a successful launch. Watch and Engage on Social Media Stay connected with the mission and let people know you are following the launch on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with #Artemis. Follow and tag these accounts: The public can track the Artemis I mission as it happens using to Artemis Real-time Orbit Website, which will provide information about where Orion is in relation to the Earth and the Moon. Individuals also can also download a virtual boarding pass to commemorate the historic flight. Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar exploration and serving as a steppingstone to send astronauts to Mars. For more information about the Artemis I mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-i Para obtener informacion sobre cobertura en espanol en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en espanol, comuniquese con Antonia Jaramillo at: [email protected] or 321-501-8425. SOURCE NASA MILFORD, Del., Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a commitment to improve the quality of life in its communities, Perdue Farms is supporting La Plaza Delaware and its new Latino leadership program with a $20,000 grant funded through the Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation. The donation from Perdue's charitable giving arm is part of the company's Delivering Hope to Our Neighbors outreach focused on improving quality of life and building strong communities. Perdue Farms presents a $20,000 grant to support a new La Plaza Delaware Latino leadership training program. From left to right are Edwin Hernandez, Community Relations & Outreach Director, Office of Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long; Co-Chair of the Delaware Hispanic Commissions Latino Leadership Development Committee; Mary Dupont, Executive Director, La Plaza Delaware; Kim R. Nechay, Executive Director, The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation; Delaware Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long; Carlos de los Ramos, Chair, Delaware Hispanic Commission; Gary Miller, Vice President of Human Resources and Interim Chief Diversity Officer, Perdue Farms; Michelle Jewell, Program Analyst, Office of Governor John Carney; Rony Baltazar-Lopez, Vice Chair, Delaware Hispanic Commission. La Plaza's leadership program will aim to transform high-potential Latinos into high-performing leaders, focusing on GenZ and Millennials. Around 50 individuals from across Delaware will participate in the first year. "We want to help rising leaders develop the skills necessary to promote immediate and sustainable results for themselves and the organizations they serve," said Mary Dupont, La Plaza Delaware executive director, at a press conference at Perdue's Milford, Del., operation. La Plaza will use a nationally recognized curriculum from Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) that includes three months with programming content, networking, and collaboration in a group project. Nuestras Raices, the cultural nonprofit based in Wilmington, is a program partner. Additional funders include the Arsht Cannon Fund and the Delaware Hispanic Commission, which is also a program partner. La Plaza Delaware is a nonprofit partnership created to increase opportunities, business savvy, and prosperity for Latino and minority-owned businesses. Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, said the First State should be proud of the organizations that are supporting La Plaza's leadership program. "I am thrilled over the moon with the partnerships that we have here. This will make a difference in the lives of individuals who will go through the program . . . and to the state. We need to have true representation not only in workforce but in all leadership opportunities in our communities." Gary Miller, Vice President of Human Resources and Interim Chief Diversity Officer for Perdue Farms, said the leadership program will strengthen the region as rising Latino leaders use the skills they gather to further their careers and serve the community in many meaningful ways. "We are so grateful for an opportunity to invest in a leadership training program for the Latino population, specifically, and partner with such wonderful organizations as La Plaza Delaware," he added. Delaware Hispanic Commission Chair Carlos de los Ramos said the Latino community is fast changing and evolving. "We are the new leaders. We are the people who are moving and shaking the economy here in the state of Delaware. This program will help us nurture even more leaders," he said. Funding from the Perdue Foundation will support HACE in southern Delaware, building on HACE's record of professional leadership development, with workshops, mentoring and leadership training for emerging community leaders and entrepreneurs. Delaware is the 37th state to join HACE. Since 1982, HACE has been a resource for Latinos in the workplace and is an expert for corporations seeking to access diverse talent. Through professional development, resources and networks, and by offering access to meaningful career opportunities, HACE helps Latinos succeed. "In our survey to assess the needs and capacity of Latino businesses in Sussex County, Del., a common theme emerged," said Dupont. "Business owners were reluctant to assume high-profile leadership roles, as they were focused on day-to-day business survival. However, they were confident that their children, who grew up here and are more comfortable with the language and culture, are in a better position to represent the community. This feedback underscored the need for a two-generation approach that includes business and leadership development to achieve the goals of capacity building, increased financial stability and self-reliance." About the Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation , the charitable giving arm of Perdue Farms, was established in 1957 by company founder Arthur W. Perdue and is funded through the estates of Arthur W. Perdue and Frank Perdue. As part of our belief in supporting the communities where and with whom we do business, the Foundation provides grants on behalf of Perdue Farms in communities where large numbers of our associates live and work. At Perdue Farms, we believe in responsible food and agriculture. About Perdue Farms We're a fourth-generation, family-owned, U.S. food and agriculture company. Through our belief in responsible food and agriculture, we are empowering consumers, customers, and farmers through trusted choices in products and services. The premium protein portfolio within our Perdue Foods business, including our flagship PERDUE brand, Niman Ranch , Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Meats , Coleman Natural , and Yummy , as well as our pet brands, Spot Farms and Full Moon , is available through various channels including retail, foodservice, club stores and our direct-to-consumer website, PerdueFarms.com . Perdue AgriBusiness is an international agricultural products and services company. Now in our company's second century, our path forward is about getting better, not just bigger. We never use drugs for growth promotion in raising poultry and livestock, and we are actively advancing our animal welfare programs. Our brands are leaders in no-antibiotics-ever chicken, turkey, pork, beef, and lamb, and in USDA-certified organic chicken and beef. Learn more at Corporate.PerdueFarms.com . SOURCE Perdue Farms Brands dosa by DOSA, Pariva, Tres Lecheria and Wheyward Spirit Win $50,000 Each; Opportunity to Compete for $100,000 in Additional Support in 4th Competition from California Milk Advisory Board and VentureFuel TRACY, Calif., Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Startups dosa by DOSA, Pariva, Tres Lecheria and Wheyward Spirit claimed victory last night at the 2022 Real California Milk Excelerator: Open Innovation Final Pitch Event. Created by the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) and innovation advisory VentureFuel, the competition is designed to identify, curate and accelerate innovation in dairy-based products, from consumer food and beverages to textiles and beyond. The four cohort winners will each receive $50,000 in resources and funding to scale their products in California and will compete for an additional $100,000 in support based on continued performance. RCM Excelerator 2022 Winners left to right: Vince Berretta and Kevin Moulder, Tres Lecheria; Manjarrie Saha, Pariva; Emily Gilels, dosa by DOSA; and Emily Darchuk, Wheyward Spirit In its fourth year, the 2022 Real California Milk Excelerator advances innovation in its truest state: open. As one of the biggest dairy competitions in the world, the program sought early-stage applicants with high-growth potential that create a 50% cow's milk-based product or working prototype. Eight finalists participated in the November 2nd live pitch event where they presented to judges from companies representing retail, consumer packaged goods, food distribution and media before a live and virtual audience of key stakeholders. The support the four winning startups will receive is to grow and expand their product in California. After 12 months, one of the participating companies will unlock an additional $100,000 grand prize by establishing their presence in California and achieving the most significant growth. The total value of competition awards is half a million dollars. "I was already a winner having been selected to be a part of this competition alongside some awesome businesses. To be one of the winners is a game changer for Pariva. We are so looking forward to being a part of the California dairy community," said Manjarrie Saha, Founder and CEO of Pariva, a spreadable, marinated yogurt snack. "This is such an innovative program, I'm grateful to the CMAB and VentureFuel teams. I hope other states will see what CMAB is doing in California use it as a model to elevate their state, a model that helps the entire industry, from beginning to end." "Winning the finalist prize is an incredible honor for myself and the team at dosa by DOSA. We're on the cusp of scaling lassi, our natural Indian yogurt drinks, nationally, and need all the support we can get to build a robust multichannel marketing strategy," said CEO and Co-Founder Emily Gilels. "As an emerging brand, while we're deep in the trenches, we also want to have our heads up as visionaries planning and executing towards the future. The CMAB and VentureFuel teams have reminded us of the importance of building a strong, competitive business and have inspired us to reach our true potential. Participating in the 2022 Real California Milk Excelerator Cohort has given me incredible mentorship opportunities in everything from packaging to scaling my CPG business globally. I can honestly say that the ROI will be for many years to come and we're only just getting started on reaping the benefits of our newfound connection with VentureFuel and the CMAB." "We are so grateful to be chosen for a Top 4 spot in this year's Real California Milk Excelerator. The mentorship provided by VentureFuel have been the missing pieces of knowledge we needed to make a clear path towards scaling our business. Being chosen from a group of talented and hard-working businesses is a sincere honor," said Kevin Moulder and Vince Berretta, Co-Owners of single serving bakery business Tres Lecheria. "We'd like to especially thank the California Milk Advisory Board for supporting Tres Lecheria and partnering with us to continue driving the demand for Real California Milk. We are excited to further establish ourselves as a brand that highlights dairy from California farmers. We are proud to work towards bringing back the excitement and nostalgia for Latino and Latine folks of enjoying a fresh slice of this beloved dessert, while gaining new fans of this classic cake with a modern twist. And now, we can 'cake' it to the limit." "California, with its access to sustainable dairy, alcohol logistics and an ethos of innovation has been the natural home of Wheyward Spirit since our inception and we are so excited to have been chosen as a RCM Excelerator winner," said Emily Darchuk, CEO of Wheyward Spirit, an artisan spirit made from upcycled whey. "Our team looks forward to working in partnership with the CMAB over the next year to grow Wheyward Spirit and we are proud to be an example of category expanding sustainable innovation using Real California Milk." "While all eight of the finalists offered something unique to the market, the four winners stood out because of their taste, still of fundamental importance to consumers, and their use of dairy in new, innovative ways. Each brings global flavor profiles to the table while tapping into the inherent goodness of milk's nutrition and functional benefits," said John Talbot, CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board. "Innovation is the lifeblood of every industry, and these products show the best of dairy innovation. Our California dairy families have invested heavily to develop an innovation ecosystem to help with the next steps to grow these brands within the Real California Milk portfolio. And for the companies not selected, we'll continue to offer support and connections to continue their transition to using milk from our California dairy farmers." "This year's cohort shows the extraordinary, continued potential for dairy with innovative new products that are better for consumers, better for the planet and that offer unique new flavors and formats," said Fred Schonenberg, CEO of VentureFuel. "We built this program to commercialize and scale these new businesses to drive demand and excitement for California dairy and are so excited to help these dynamic founders grow their innovative, consumer-centric companies." The Excelerator's eight finalists were selected from a field of 48 qualified entries. Each finalist received access to a group stipend to help develop their product, business plan and marketing assets for the program, as well as a suite of resources including graphic design, lab or kitchen time and elite mentorship from global marketing, packaging, investment, retail and distribution experts from global brands and agencies. Winners will participate in a private retail buyer/investor week and will continue with customized marketing support from the California Milk Advisory Board's business development team. California, known for innovation, has a reputation for quality dairy products. As the number one milk producer in the U.S., California also leads the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. More than 1,100 family dairy farms produce the milk found in fluid milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, and other dairy products identified by the Real California Milk seal. About Real California Milk/California Milk Advisory Board The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is funded by the state's dairy farm families who lead the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. With a vision to nourish the world with the wholesome goodness of Real California Milk, the CMAB's programs focus on increasing demand for California's sustainable dairy products in the state, across the U.S. and around the world through advertising, public relations, research, and retail and foodservice promotional programs. For more information and to connect with the CMAB, visit RealCaliforniaMilk.com , Facebook , YouTube , Twitter , Instagram and Pinterest . About VentureFuel, Inc. Founded in 2014, VentureFuel is an independent innovation advisory that helps the world's best organizations ignite change through startup collaborations. Its innovation programs include Diagnostics, Corporate Accelerators and Commercial Pilots; and focus on solving clients' biggest challenges by driving greater efficiencies; closing strategic capability gaps; and identifying emerging business models. VentureFuel provides organizations like Hershey's, Comcast, Dick's Sporting Goods, AARP Foundation and the State of California the tools to drive transformative change with less risk, more speed, and greater proximity to the consumer than traditional innovation models. Learn more at: www.venturefuel.net , LinkedIn , Twitter and Instagram . You can listen to The VentureFuel Visionaries podcast on Apple , Spotify Simplecast or wherever you get your podcasts. SOURCE California Milk Advisory Board NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Satellite Transponder Market Research Report by Bandwidth, Service, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341249/?utm_source=PRN The Global Satellite Transponder Market size was estimated at USD 1,392.11 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 1,504.50 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 8.32% to reach USD 2,249.67 million by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Satellite Transponder to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Bandwidth, the market was studied across C Band, K Band, Ka Band, and Ku Band. Based on Service, the market was studied across Leasing and Maintenance & Support. Based on Application, the market was studied across Commercial Communications, Government Communications, Navigation, and Remote Sensing. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Satellite Transponder market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Satellite Transponder Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitor's strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Satellite Transponder Market, including Airbus SE, Arabsat, ArianeGroup, Embratel Star One, Eutelsat Communications S.A., HISPASAT S.A., Inmarsat Global Ltd., Intelsat, Intelsat S.A., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Loral Space & Communications Inc., NEC Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Russian Satellite Communications Company, SES S.A., Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Singtel Group, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, Sky Satellite LLC, Telefonica, Telesat Corp., Thaicom Public Company Limited, Thales Group, and The Boeing Company. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Satellite Transponder Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Satellite Transponder Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Satellite Transponder Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Satellite Transponder Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Satellite Transponder Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Satellite Transponder Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Satellite Transponder Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341249/?utm_source=PRN 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. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- (NEWSFILE) Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of U.S. Bankcorp ("U.S. Bankcorp" or the "Company") (NYSE: USB). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether U.S. Bancorp and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On July 28, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") fined U.S. Bancorp's banking subsidiary, U.S. Bank National Association ("U.S. Bank"), $37.5 million for illegally exploiting consumers' personal data to open sham accounts for unsuspecting customers. Among other things, the CFPB found that U.S. Bank and/or its employees issued credit cards and lines of credit, as well as opened consumer deposit accounts, without consumers' knowledge and consent. In sum, the CFPB found that U.S. Bank violated the Truth in Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Truth in Savings Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, and related regulations. The CFPB also ordered the Company to submit a compliance plan design to ensure that the Company's relevant conduct complies with all applicable federal consumer financial laws and the terms of a Consent Order. On this news, U.S. Bancorp's stock price fell $2.00 per share, or 4% to close at $46.12 per share on July 28, 2022. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Inaugurated in 2020, TADS Awards is the world's first annual international awards for the Tokenized Assets and Digitized Securities ("TADS") sectors. The 2022 TADS Awards has selected a total of 15 winners and a number of Rising Stars for three award categories, out of the nominees from 12 countries and territories. The "TADS AWARDS GALA 2022" award presentation ceremony will be held in conjunction with "Web 3 & TADS Summit 2022" on December 1, 2022 , at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. HONG KONG, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TADS Awards, the world's first annual international award for the Tokenized Assets and Digitized Securities ("TADS") sectors, announces 2022 winners for the three award categories, namely "Best of Class TADS," "Ecosystem Excellence" and "NFT Innovations." A total of 15 TADS Awards winners and 16 Rising Stars, were carefully selected by three judging committees comprised of industry experts from over twelve countries and territories including (alphabetically) the British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Luxembourg, Singapore, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. TADS Awards, the worlds first annual international awards for the Tokenized Assets and Digitized Securities (TADS) sectors, announces 2022 winners for the three award categories, namely Best of Class TADS, Ecosystem Excellence and NFT Innovations. The "TADS AWARDS GALA 2022" award presentation ceremony will be held in conjunction with "Web 3 & TADS Summit 2022" on December 1, 2022, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. All winners and Rising Stars were impartially selected by three judging committees formed by TADS Awards committee members according to the expertise and insights required for each award category. The TADS Awards 2022 winners and Rising stars are: 1) "BEST OF CLASS TADS" category, for issuers of different types of Tokenized Assets & Digitized Securities Winners: Rising Stars: 2) "ECOSYSTEM EXCELLENCE" category, for service providers and vertical solution providers along the TADS value chain - Winners: DeFi & Asset Management Solution Award : NH Asset KYC / Custodian Solution Award : Custonomy NFT Platform & Marketplace Award : Canvasland Tokenization & Bokerage Solution Award : Tokeny Trading & Liquidity Solution Award : ADDX Rising Stars: 3) "NFT INNOVATIONS" category, for issuers of different types of NFTs - Winners: Rising Stars: Samson Lee, Chairman of Organization Committee of TADS Awards 2022, and Founder & CEO of Coinstreet commented, "Since its inauguration in 2020, TADS AWARDS has gained strong support from industry leaders and key ecosystem drivers, and received very positive feedback globally. We are very delighted to receive an overwhelming response in terms of numbers and quality of nominees this year at the 3rd TADS Awards. My heartiest congratulations to all the winners. This is very exciting time for driving the industry forward together." TADS Awards is co-organized by Asia Pacific Digital Economy Institute, Coinstreet, and DAS (Digital Asset Series) Seminars. It has received strong support from strategic partners, including (alphabetically): Accenture, Association of Family Offices in Asia, Crypto Valley Association, Deloitte Hong Kong, DLA Piper, FinTech Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Cyberport, IBM, InvestHK, Microsoft Hong Kong, Morningstar, Somerley Capital, The Tokenizer, and West Park Capital, among many others, plus support from its Global Ambassadors from over sixteen countries. For more information about TADS Awards and results from the previous years, please visit https://tadsawards.org/ . About TADS Awards First launched in 2020, the Tokenized Assets & Digital Securities Awards ("TADS Awards") is the world's first annual international award for the Tokenized Assets & Digital Securities sector. Hosted annually, TADS Awards aims to nurture the growth of Web3 industries by gathering leaders and experts from across the world's financial technology and financial service sectors to establish best practices and performance standards through recognizing and honoring individuals and businesses for their distinguished achievements and contributions in TADS sectors. For more information, please visit - www.tadsawards.org About Asia Pacific Digital Economy Institute Asia Pacific Digital Economy Institute (APDEI) aims to create a center of excellence, leadership, and partnership to incubate new thinking and innovation in practice; advance thought-leadership; generate new growth opportunities; enhance the competitiveness and productivity of business; and cultivate talents to accelerate the digital economy. For more information, please visit - https://apdei.org/ About Coinstreet Founded in 2017, Coinstreet is an award-winning, private investment firm, a premium financial services firm for private wealth, and a professional technology consulting and advisory firm in Blockchain, Digital Asset and FinTech sectors. Coinstreet provides one-stop, end-to-end solutions for asset tokenization, international primary distributions of TADS, holistic token life-cycle management processes in secondary trading, post-issuance asset servicing and post-listing management. Over the past years, Coinstreet has helped 20+ Blockchain, Digital Asset and FinTech projects in the global market. For more information, please visit www.coinstreet.partners About DAS Seminars Digital Asset Series (DAS) is a series of educational seminars covering twelve (12) key topics in Digital Asset space the general public, aiming to facilitate mass adoption of digital assets. DAS is co-organized by seven (7) leading professional organizations in the digital asset ecosystem in Hong Kong, namely (alphabetically) the Asia Pacific Digital Economy Institute ("APDEI"), the Asia Security Token Alliance ("ASTA"), the Hong Kong Blockchain Association ("HKBA"), the Hong Kong Digital Asset Society ("HKDAS"), the Hong Kong Digital Finance Association ("HKDiFi"), the NFT Association of Hong Kong ("NFTAHK") and the Society of Registered Financial Planners ("HKRFP"). DAS is also supported by Invest Hong Kong, the HKSTP - Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, the Hong Kong Cyberport , and five (5) leading universities including the HKUST Crypto-Fintech Lab at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the CUHK Engineering FinTech Applied Research Academy (CEFAR), the LITE-lab (Law, Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship Lab) of Faculty of Law at The Hong Kong University, the Faculty of Digital Transformation Centre at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the EMBA Programme at the City University of Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.digitalassetseries.com PRESS CONTACT: Coinstreet Marketing & PR Coinstreet Partners Email: [email protected] CONTACT:Samson Lee, [email protected] SOURCE Coinstreet Partners SEATTLE, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Woodruff Sawyer, one of the largest independent insurance brokerages in the US, today announced Tim Schmidt has joined the firm as Vice President, Producer for the Seattle office. Prior to joining Woodruff Sawyer, Tim served seven years at Parker, Smith and Feek, where he was a Construction and P&C Producer. Before that, Tim spent 10 years in commercial banking, which gave him a unique perspective into the financial impact of risk management. Tim Schmidt, Woodruff Sawyer In his role, Tim will partner with Construction clients to navigate insurance solutions and advise on their overall risk management. He will be directly involved in the placement of insurance through guaranteed cost, loss sensitive, and alternative risk programs. Tim is certified as a Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS). He attended Washington State University. Tim says, "I'm thrilled to join a world-class organization like Woodruff Sawyer, and to help expand our Construction presence in the Northwest." Brett Bauer, Senior Vice President, Pacific Northwest Practice Leader adds, "Tim brings an energy and passion for working with clients, along with a local presence for our customers in the Seattle area. We're very excited to add an experienced construction producer like Tim to our growing national Construction Practice." About Woodruff Sawyer As one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the US, Woodruff Sawyer protects the people and assets of more than 4,000 companies. We provide expert counsel and fierce advocacy to protect clients against their most critical risks in property & casualty, management liability, cyber liability, employee benefits, and personal wealth management. An active partner of Assurex Global and International Benefits Network, we provide expertise and customized solutions where clients need it, with headquarters in San Francisco, offices throughout the US, and global reach on six continents. For more information, call 844.972.6326, or visit woodruffsawyer.com. Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Woodruff Sawyer 7:15 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. 8:40 a.m. to 9 a.m. 9 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. 9:25 a.m. to 9:55 a.m. 10:05 a.m. to 10: 35 a.m. 10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. 11:25 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. 12:05 p.m. to 12:35 p.m. 12:40 p.m. to 1:55 p.m. 2:05 p.m. to 2:35 p.m. 2:55 p.m. to 3:25 p.m. 3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. 3:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. 4:25 p.m. to 4:55 p.m. 5:05 p.m. to 5:35 p.m. Networking Breakfast NACTOY Hispanic Motor Press Subaru Global Debut Hyundai North American Debut Fiat North American Debut Genesis North American Debut Kia North American Debut Networking Lunch Charge Cars North American Debut Indy Autonomous Challenge Motor Trend "Coding The Car" Doc. VinFast North American Debut Hyperion Companies Global Launch/Auto Show Debut Blink Charging Global Launch Gilbert Lindsay Plaza Concourse Foyer Concourse Foyer West Hall South Hall West Hall South Hall South Hall Gilbert Lindsay Plaza West Atrium West Atrium Theater South Hall South Hall West Atrium As part of the 115th Anniversary events, the show's networking luncheon will kick off with a moderated Q&A session between Petersen Automotive Museum's Chief Archivist Laura Fisher and Czinger performance vehicles Founder Kevin Czinger and Co-Founder Lukas Czinger discussing automobile innovation over the last century and into the future. In the days leading to the November 17 AMLA media gathering, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen have chosen Los Angeles for debuts of significant vehicles encompassing electric, hybrid and traditional gas-fueled models. Held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the 115th anniversary Los Angeles Auto Show will run from November 18 to 27. The show will be highlighted by displays from Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Charge Cars, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, ElectraMeccanica, Fiat, Ford, Genesis, GMC, Honda, Hummer EV, Hyperion, Hyundai, INDI EV, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Subaru, Toyota, VinFast, Volkswagen and Volvo. The Los Angeles Auto Show will be cashless; tickets can be purchased online at laautoshow.com/tickets or at on-site ticketing kiosks with a credit or bank card. Individual tickets, family and VIP packages include: Any Day General Admission Tickets: Adult $22 , Senior $12 , Child $6 , Senior , Child VIP Early Entry on Saturdays and Sundays: Adult $45 , Senior $24 , Child $12 , Senior , Child VIP Guided Tours on Select Weekdays and Weekends: Adult $100 , Child $45 , Child Wednesday/Thursday Thanksgiving Family Four-Packs: $65 Special programs and ticketing options for military personnel and first responders are also available. For groups of 20 or more, please contact the Los Angeles Auto Show directly for group ticket pricing. For additional information, please visit laautoshow.com. About the Los Angeles Auto Show (LA Auto Show ) Founded in 1907, the Los Angeles Auto Show (LA Auto Show) is widely recognized as one of the most influential shows globally. Reflective of its location, the show celebrates the love affair Angelenos have with their cars and offers a global platform to industry technology and innovation, synonymous with California. The show runs for 10 full days over the Thanksgiving period and is a must-attend destination for many industry influencers, car enthusiasts and families wanting to enjoy a day out over the holiday season. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the LA Auto Show contributes several hundred million dollars to the local economy, stimulates the local job market, and is the number one revenue generator for the LA Convention Center. Taking place on November 17, AutoMobility LA media and industry day will include a range of groundbreaking industry announcements and reveals. Doors open to the public November 18-27. LA Auto Show is owned and operated by ANSA Productions. To receive the latest show news and information, follow the LA Auto Show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and sign up for alerts at laautoshow.com. For press inquiries, email Jeff Perlman at [email protected]. SOURCE Los Angeles Auto Show ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL), a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) and Contract Research Organization (CRO) to the U.S. Government and biopharmaceutical industry, announced it is one of three contractors awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for "Manufacturing and Nonclinical Studies support for Development of Therapeutic Biotechnology Products (Biologics) for Neurological-related Disorders" by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), contract number 75N95022D00023. ABL & NINDS Partnership The eight-year, multiple-award-IDIQ contract has a total potential funding value of $149.2M million. ABL, as an awardee of the IDIQ contract pool will provide NINDS current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) manufacturing and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) nonclinical (preclinical) services to support translational development of therapeutic biotechnology (biologics) products of various modalities for NIH's drug discovery and development programs. This contract supports the NIH Biologics development projects for the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network Biologics (BPN-Biologics) program, the NINDS Ultra-Rare Gene Therapy (URGenT) program, the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Pain Therapeutics Development Program (HEAL-PTDP), and other extramural or intramural NIH drug discovery and development programs. ABL's portfolio of services includes feasibility studies, process and assay development, cGMP manufacturing, IND-enabling GLP safety, pharmacokinetic and efficacy studies, stability studies, and product release testing. These services are provided either at ABL facilities or at one of the 42 companies that formed the ABL Collaboratory to support this contract. ABL's scientists have been supporting NIH's mission since the 1980s. Our Government Solutions staff has worked hand-in-hand with government and industry key opinion leaders (KOLs) for many years to develop novel biomedical products. "We look forward to continuing to serve the mission of the NIH through this contract with NINDS and in support of the most innovative investigators in the field who are developing cutting-edge products that prevent, treat, and cure neurological disorders, stroke, and ultra-rare genetic disease," said Marykay Marchigiani, COO of ABL. About ABL ABL, Inc. is a global contract research and manufacturing organization dedicated to advancing therapeutics, vaccines and other biological products. ABL has extensive experience working with diverse organizations including industry, government and academic entities. ABL maintains global GMP facilities meeting U.S. and European regulatory standards, providing manufacturing capabilities for the development and production of virus-based oncolytic therapies, gene therapies and viral vaccines. Our services include bulk drug substance, live virus fill/finish, process and assay development. We also support clients' preclinical and clinical sample processing and testing needs through our immunological laboratories. ABL is a part of the Institut Merieux, a group of companies dedicated to developing translational science for better patient care globally. www.ablinc.com SOURCE ABL, Inc. ACL AIRSHOP Gears-Up for Airlines Customers with more Long-Term Contracts and enhanced ULD Digital Suite Tweet this In addition to enlarging the ULD fleet each year and growing the worldwide network of hub stations, these important ongoing strategic initiatives are centered on customers' needs: Long-Term ULD Fleet Management Contracts Now Comprise Half of ACL Airshop's Deployed Asset Volume. Multi-Year Contracts can give customers cost-efficient access to all of the logistics and digital services that ACL Airshop offers, including repairs, nets, straps, digitalization, ULD Control, tracking, FindMyULD, and other end-to-end efficiencies. The company is continuously investing in more pallets and many other ULD types to expand its available fleet, and will be opening more network hub stations in response to clients' requirements. The combination of large deployable ULD inventory across a global network of convenient airport hubs is very desirable to airlines and cargo operators. That includes ACL's unique one-way lease/drop-off option. ACL Airshop's deliberate mix of short-term solutions and long-term recurring contracts is a formidable Value Proposition that helps customers with numerous options. Multi-Year Contracts can give customers cost-efficient access to all of the logistics and digital services that ACL Airshop offers, including repairs, nets, straps, digitalization, ULD Control, tracking, FindMyULD, and other end-to-end efficiencies. The company is continuously investing in more pallets and many other ULD types to expand its available fleet, and will be opening more network hub stations in response to clients' requirements. The combination of large deployable ULD inventory across a global network of convenient airport hubs is very desirable to airlines and cargo operators. That includes ACL's unique one-way lease/drop-off option. ACL Airshop's is a formidable Value Proposition that helps customers with numerous options. Award-Winning Digital Suite Makes Life Easier for All Users in the Customer's Logistics Ecosystem. ULD Control is a complete web based software solution for managing ULD equipment anywhere, 24/7/365. ACL Airshop is a key player at the nexus of the industry evolution in digital technologies that aid freight forwarders, shippers, cargo centers, and airlines in improving their operations. The company recently revealed in 2022 a newly designed and field-tested Bluetooth ULD tag for installation in the seat-tracks of cargo pallets. That product improvement is now rolling-out with several major customers. By combining ULD Control with the company's award-winning app FindMyULD, Bluetooth tracking, ACL's global Operations Center, plus advanced Repair Station software and other innovations, customers discover they can "do more with less." ACL Airshop has now even tied the Airway Bill itself to the Bluetooth tag of the ULD, creating useful new levels of end-to-end visibility and speed for air cargo customers and their end-user shippers. One of the company leaders likened these advances to the "Uberization" of the air cargo ULD sectorputting "everything in the palm of your hand" for customers and other parties across the cargo network. ACL Airshop owns, maintains and leases more than 60,000 Unit Load Devices (ULDs), including air freight pallets and containers, issued from 55 airport hub locations across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. ACL Airshop's strong growth in recent years builds on the company's 39-year heritage as an air cargo equipment and logistics specialist. Its worldwide services network has expanded from 23 airport hub locations in 2016 to 55 at latest count. More hubs are planned. Today, the company maintains the largest independent inventory of lease-ready ULD assets in the industry for short-term solutions, and also has a growing array of multi-year ULD Management contracts. The company deploys innovative logistics technologies in a comprehensive Digital Suite, such as "FindMyULD" which yield better fleet efficiencies and operational cost savings for customers. ACL Airshop was first-in-market among its competitive class to offer Bluetooth tracking & tracing of air cargo pallets and containers. For more information, please visit www.ACLairshop.com. Forward Looking Statements: The Company from time to time may discuss forward-looking information. Except for factual historical information, all forward looking statements are estimates by the Company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from management's expectations. SOURCE ACL Airshop NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the first, preeminent, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, agtech and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations with over 1,000 tenants, today announced that its executive chairman and founder, Joel S. Marcus, will present at the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference in New York City this morning. Mr. Marcus is among the four notable leaders of Baron Funds' high-conviction holdings who will be presenting to shareholders of Baron Capital's funds and the clients of its financial professionals at one of the investment community's most anticipated and highly regarded annual conferences. In recognition of the company's outstanding track record, renowned author and business strategist Jim Collins has stated, "Alexandria has achieved the three outputs that define a great company: Superior Results, Distinctive Impact, and Lasting Endurance." Mr. Marcus will highlight these noteworthy outputs, which are driven by the company's mission to advance human health and by its continued operational excellence and exceptional execution of a multifaceted business platform built on the foundation of its four key verticals of real estate, venture investments, thought leadership and corporate responsibility. "Innovation in medicine is a national imperative, and we are immensely proud to have built a one-of-a-kind mission-driven company that continues to catalyze this innovation across our life science ecosystems," said Mr. Marcus. "For Alexandria, our business is about much more than building state-of-the-art facilities it's about creating and operating world-class campuses with uniquely inspiring design, amenities and a collaborative vibrancy that enable our tenants to be productive, to be efficient, and that help them recruit and retain the best talent to advance their science and address massive unmet medical need. To our tenants, our brand means deep experience, expertise, creativity and dependability, and it has earned us the trust of over 1,000 tenants, who rely on us daily to help keep their mission-critical research and development platforms operational, safe and secure as they work tirelessly to translate their discoveries into therapies and cures to improve and save lives. I am honored to share the story of our visionary strategy, relentless passion and meaningful impact with the Baron Investment Conference attendees again this year. We are grateful to have Baron Funds as a longtime investor in Alexandria, and we congratulate Baron Capital on its 40th anniversary, a momentous milestone in its history." Alexandria, which first identified and created the life science real estate niche in 1994, has led the strategic transformation of the novel Labspace niche it pioneered into the mainstream asset class it is today. Over the past three decades, Alexandria has created an unassailable moat, powered by its stellar brand reputation; tremendous scale and quality of nearly 75 million square feet across the most premier life science clusters in North America; a REIT industry-leading roster of over 1,000 diversified tenants that drives stable, long-duration cash flows and solid leasing and also provides unmatched insight into the life science industry; the operational excellence of its best-in-class, mission-critical complex infrastructure; and the enduring strength and flexibility of its balance sheet with significant liquidity. Since Alexandria's initial public offering over 25 years ago, the company has maintained the highest standards of excellence to generate long-term value for its stockholders while making a meaningful, positive impact on society. Alexandria's outstanding total stockholder return (TSR) of 1,636% from its IPO in May 1997 through June 30, 2022 (assuming reinvestment of dividends) significantly outperformed various indices over the same period, including the MSCI U.S. REIT's TSR of 728% and the S&P 500's TSR of 612%. Additionally, Alexandria's tremendous execution of its continued dividend strategy enables the company to share its strong and consistent growth in operating cash flows with stockholders while also retaining a significant portion for reinvestment. As of September 30, 2022, Alexandria has a dividend yield of 3.4% and an average annual dividend per-share growth of 6.5% over the last five years. To watch a live stream of Mr. Marcus's presentation, which begins at 8:05 a.m. ET, visit www.baronfunds.com/conference. About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE), an S&P 500 company, is a best-in-class, mission-driven life science REIT making a positive and lasting impact on the world. As the pioneer of the life science real estate niche since its founding in 1994, Alexandria is the preeminent and longest-tenured owner, operator and developer of collaborative life science, agtech and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland and Research Triangle. The trusted partner to over 1,000 tenants, as of September 30, 2022, Alexandria has a total market capitalization of $33.3 billion and an asset base in North America of 74.5 million SF, which includes 41.1 million RSF of operating properties and 5.6 million RSF of Class A properties undergoing construction, 9.9 million RSF of near-term and intermediate-term development and redevelopment projects, and 17.9 million SF of future development projects. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A properties clustered in life science, agtech and technology campuses that provide our innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity and success. Alexandria also provides strategic capital to transformative life science, agrifoodtech, climate innovation and technology companies through our venture capital platform. We believe our unique business model and diligent underwriting ensure a high-quality and diverse tenant base that results in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns and greater long-term asset value. For additional information on Alexandria, please visit www.are.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the potential impacts of Alexandria's business model, including its dividend strategy. These forward-looking statements are based on the company's present intent, beliefs or expectations, but forward-looking statements are not guaranteed to occur and may not occur. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by the company's forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including, without limitation, the risks and uncertainties detailed in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update this information. For more discussion relating to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the company's forward-looking statements, and risks and uncertainties to the company's business in general, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. CONTACT: Sara Kabakoff, Vice President Strategic Communications, (626) 7885578, [email protected] SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. The criminal tax fraud trial against Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation has begun, including jury selection processes and opening statements. Attorney Michael van der Veen is part of the defense team for Trump Payroll Corp. PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, October 31, 2022, the criminal tax fraud trial against Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation began, including the jury selection process and opening statements. Attorney Michael van der Veen of van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin played a key role in those opening statements as one of the defense attorneys representing Trump Payroll Corporation. However, there has been an unplanned delay for approximately one week now that a key witness tested positive for COVID-19. The defense's arguments are focused on an important premise: keeping the blame for any criminal wrongdoing on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. In August, Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 felony tax fraud charges. Attorney van der Veen and other defense attorneys for both corporations are aiming to prove to the jury, court, and country that Weisselberg acted for his own gain. In his courtroom statements, Attorney van der Veen argued passionately, "This case is about individual, personal greed, and the abuse of trust necessary to feed that greed. Allen Weisselberg is a man who has fallen to his greed. Greed, greed made him cheat on his taxes, hide his deeds from his employer, and betray a trust built over nearly 50 years. Allen Weisselberg has admitted to cheating on his taxes. His taxes. He did this with the intention to benefit himself and his family. He did not do it with the intention to benefit the Trump Payroll Corporation." He also coined the theme of the defense: "Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg." Attorney van der Veen continued to explain how Weisselberg was only capable of committing such a degree of criminal tax fraud because he had earned the trust of the Trump Corporation and the Trump family across decades. "He was trusted to protect this company. He was trusted to run the accounting department properly. He was given an enormous amount of independent autonomy to conduct his job." Abusing that trust that he had cultivated for so long, he positioned himself alone to benefit from his misdoings. The prosecution has attempted to argue that Weisselberg's continued payroll position with the Trump Organization shows that the corporation and its owners are involved in tax fraud. Attorney van der Veen was quick to counter that Weisselberg's continued paychecks were a sign of goodwill and forgiveness from Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation. "It's a story as old as time. We all know the Bible story of the prodigal son, a man who put his own personal goals and desires ahead of his family's. And when it all falls apart, he is taken back in by that same family and allowed to move forward. Forgiveness, however, comes with some restrictions. In this case, he has been removed from his position as CFO, and he has been placed on a leave of absence, and he is not at the Trump Corporate Headquarters." Importantly, Attorney van der Veen and the defense are focusing on maintaining the innocence of the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation. Weisselberg's guilt has not been questioned, and it has even played a pivotal role in the defense's arguments. As Attorney van der Veen explained in the opening statements, "Now, in this case, we all agree that Allen Weisselberg cheated on his taxes. We all agree he adjusted his salary so that he could get income and benefits before tax dollars. What we vehemently disagree with and what the People will never prove beyond a reasonable doubt is that Allen Weisselberg did this with the intention to benefit the Payroll Corporation." Attorney van der Veen presented the "Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg" argument in three clear points, which will be the main points of argument as evidence is used throughout the trial. "One, he hid the cheating on his personal income taxes from the owners of the Payroll Corporation. [] The second way we know Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg is he calculated his benefits, his own personal benefits in a detailed equation he created to cheat on his taxes. [] And the third set of facts, the third set of facts that tell us Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg, is he carried out his scheme on such a small scale as to really only benefit himself, his family, and his buddy Calamari." During the jury selection process that began on Tuesday, potential jury members were quizzed for potential biases due to the highly controversial nature of some of the involved parties. Attorney Michael van der Veen has stated that he was focused on identifying even the slightest potential biases in jurors, so the trial can remain fair. With the jury selection completed, it is now estimated that the trial could take up to six weeks to complete. During that time, Attorney van der Veen and the rest of the defense counsel will continue to argue that Allen Weisselberg's actions cannot fairly reflect on the Trump corporations and, therefore, a not guilty verdict must be entered. For more information about Attorney Michael van der Veen and van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, interested parties can visit https://www.mtvlaw.com/. More information about the Trump (Payroll) Corporation federal tax fraud trial: Media Contact: Erica Green [email protected] SOURCE van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin Ecological and social actions are firmly anchored in Kneipp's priorities, as confirmed by EcoVadis: the world-renowned sustainability ratings provider has awarded the manufacturer of cosmetics and body care products the highest possible Platinum medal. WURZBURG, Germany, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of its long-standing commitment to sustainability, Kneipp has achieved Platinum status in the world's largest sustainability rating, attaining 75 out of a possible 100 points. This places Kneipp amongst the top one percent of all companies evaluated by EcoVadis and the top two percent of businesses in the cosmetics and personal care industry. The high benchmark set by the EcoVadis Ranking also provides measurable scope for high performing companies with platinum status to continue to make positive progress. "We are delighted to receive this confirmation of our achievements in the area of sustainability. Sustainability indicates responsibility and a company that does not take responsibility has no future. The award of Platinum ranking illustrates we are on a positive path and making an impact. Our aim is to continue to improve, and we hope that as a result we better our score next year, too," explains Alexander C. Schmidt, CEO of the Kneipp Group. Measurable success in all four categories The CSR performance ranking examines environmental and social practices within a company's supply chains. It evaluates 21 indicators in the areas of environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Kneipp's performance is rated as advanced in all areas. Its performance within the areas of environment and ethics stand out particularly positively: in both evaluations the company achieved 80 out of a possible 100 points. With this high rating, the company demonstrates that it takes its sustainability efforts seriously and that these are leading to clear successes. Kneipp actively drives forward sustainability goals When it comes to sustainability, Kneipp sets itself high goals: already, 75 percent of Kneipp packaging is recyclable; the goal is to reach 100 percent. In addition, the company is working on replacing all plastic packaging with recycled plastic, as well as increasingly using sustainable alternatives, such as bio-based packaging materials like cork or Paper Blend. "For us, sustainable work is more than just a phrase, but genuine conviction based on tradition. For our founder Sebastian Kneipp, living in balance with nature was of central importance. More than 130 years later, sustainability is an integral pillar within the business. Whether purchasing raw materials, production, or packaging sustainability is a foremost part of Kneipp's business strategy," emphasizes Kneipp CEO, Schmidt. Sustainability has always played a central role in the company, which is based in Wurzburg in southern Germany. For more than 12 years, an interdepartmental task force has been working on concrete measures for greater sustainability. And that pays off: in addition to the EcoVadis Platinum ranking, Kneipp was one of only a few businesses to receive the Green Brand biannual award for the fifth time, and thus for ten years in a row. Also, the company is climate-neutral at all its sites worldwide through offset projects. However, this is only the first step: Kneipp has long been actively working to continuously reduce its CO emissions. The company has been sourcing its electricity exclusively from hydropower since 2010. The declared goal is local climate neutrality by reducing CO 2 emissions. About Kneipp For more than 130 years, the traditional Kneipp brand has stood for effective, innovative and natural products for well-being and health based on the holistic teachings of Sebastian Kneipp. Naturopathic expertise and pharmaceutical experience, state-of-the-art production processes and careful scientific controls vouch for the quality of Kneipp products, which has been tried and tested for generations. The Kneipp Group, headquartered in Wurzburg, Germany, is active in 18 countries around the globe and employs about 700 people, including over 500 in Germany. Kneipp is a wholly owned subsidiary of PAUL HARTMANN AG, Heidenheim. Corporate PR: Simone Eschenbach Kneipp GmbH Winterhauser Str. 85, 97084 Wurzburg E-Mail: [email protected] SOURCE Kneipp GmbH MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has officially announced that Berger Financial Group been ranked among the top fastest growing Twin Cities businesses at its Fast 50 Awards reception. The rankings were published October 27, 2022. To view the complete article, visit https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2022/10/27/2022-fast-50-berger-financial-group-number-45.html?b=1666907435%5E22139717 The 2022 Fast 50 have combined 2021 revenue of more than $1.47 billion and employ around 9,800 people. Their average revenue growth rate from 2019 to 2021 was 132.63%, with the No. 1 company posting a jump in sales of over 954% in that timeframe. BERGER FINANCIAL GROUP RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE TOP 50 FASTEST-GROWING PRIVATE COMPANIES IN THE TWIN CITIES METRO-AREA B Tweet this So, how did the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal get this list of fast-growing companies? Earlier this year, they sought nominations from across the Twin Cities metro area, asking companies to share their revenue numbers, as well as their financial statements with their accounting partner, EisnerAmper, previously Lurie. To be eligible, companies had to: Be independently owned, privately held, for-profit businesses headquartered in the 24-county metro area; Have year-over-year revenue growth from the three most recently completed fiscal years; Have full-year revenue data from each of those years. Financial statements from all participating companies were analyzed by accounting firm EisnerAmper, which then calculated their revenue growth from 2019 to 2021. About Berger Financial Group Berger Financial Group is a Minneapolis based firm, specializing in financial planning, income tax and portfolio management. Berger Financial Group has over 60 employees with several Minnesota locations in addition to offices in South Burlington, VT, Sun City West and Scottsdale, AZ. For more information about Berger Financial Group visit their website: https://www.bergerfinancialgroup.com/ SOURCE Berger Financial Group Bioretec Ltd Inside information 4 November 2022 at 6:15 p.m. EET TAMPERE, Finland, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bioretec Ltd, a pioneer in biodegradable orthopedic implants, expects the European marketing authorization for the RemeOs trauma screw to be delayed from the original estimate of 2022. The company estimates, based on the stage of its own registration process and the latest reports on certifications in the healthcare industry, that obtaining a market authorization will move to 2023. The review process of the CE mark application is ongoing, and the company is still waiting for the feedback from the Notified Body on main sections of the submitted application. The company will disclose further information as soon as more details of the schedule for the market authorization will be available. Bioretec submitted the CE mark application for the European market authorization at the end of 2021. In the European Union, the CE mark applications are handled by Notified Bodies. The workload of the Notified Bodies has recently increased significantly, which has led to elongated handling times for CE certification applications. The ongoing process in the EU to recertify medical devices currently registered under the old Medical Devices Directive (MDD) under the new Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) has resulted to a high number of applications. Recertification approval deadline is latest on May 26, 2024. Aforementioned transition has overwhelmed the Notified Bodies, resulting in a significant increase in timelines also for all new product CE certifications. "Bioretec does not have control over the current MDR situation and Notified Body review process nor the related schedules. For our part, we will continue to work to complete the market authorization process. The application review process from our Notified Body has already taken longer than previously estimated. According to the industry*, the certification time for new devices is currently in average about 18 months, which is almost a double the time historically needed for certification under the Directives. Due to the reasons mentioned, we consider it to be unlikely that the CE mark would be approved during 2022. We will disclose further information, when more details on the registration process will be available," says Timo Lehtonen, CEO of Bioretec. *More detailed information on CE certification status on healthcare industry in Europe is available on MedTech Europe Survey report. https://www.medtecheurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/medtech-europe-survey-report-analysing-the-availability-of-medical-devices-in-2022-in-connection-to-the-medical-device-regulation-mdr-implementation.pdf Further enquiries Timo Lehtonen, CEO, tel. +358 50 433 8493 Johanna Salko, CFO, tel. +358 40 754 8172 Certified Adviser: Nordic Certified Adviser AB, tel. +46 70 551 67 29 Bioretec in brief Bioretec is a globally operating Finnish medical device company that continues to pioneer the application of bioresorbable orthopedic implants. The company has built unique competencies in the biological interface of active implants to enhance bone growth and accelerate fracture healing after orthopedic surgery. The products developed and manufactured by Bioretec are used worldwide in approximately 40 countries. Bioretec is developing the new RemeOs product line based on a magnesium alloy and hybrid composite, introducing a new generation of strong bioresorbable materials for enhanced surgical outcomes. The RemeOs implants are resorbed and replaced by bone, which eliminates the need for removal surgery while facilitating fracture healing. The combination has the potential to make titanium implants redundant and help clinics reach their Value-Based Healthcare targets while focusing on value for patients through efficient healthcare. The first RemeOs product market authorizations are expected in U.S. during April 2023 and in Europe during 2023. Bioretec is positioning itself to enter the addressable USD 7 billion global orthopedic trauma market and become a game changer in surgical possibilities. Better healing - Better life. www.bioretec.com SOURCE Bioretec NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The brown rice market size is expected to grow by USD 2.97 billion from 2021 to 2026. The growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a healthy CAGR of 3.82% during the forecast period. The growth can be mainly attributed to the surging growth of the wellness industry. However, global climate change will challenge market growth. View a comprehensive report summary that describes the market size and forecast along with research methodology. The FREE sample report is available in PDF format. Frequently Asked Questions Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Brown Rice Market 2022-2026 What are the major trends in the market? The emergence of quick-cooking brown rice varieties is the major trend in the market. The emergence of quick-cooking brown rice varieties is the major trend in the market. What is the year-over-year growth rate of the market in 2022? The year-over-year growth rate of the market in 2022 is 3.12%. The year-over-year growth rate of the market in 2022 is 3.12%. How big is the APAC market? 75% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. 75% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. Is the market concentrated or fragmented? The brown rice market is fragmented. Brown Rice Market 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis In a bid to help players strengthen their market foothold, this brown rice market forecast report provides a detailed analysis of the leading market vendors. Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Amira Nature Foods Ltd., DRRK Foods Pvt. Ltd., Ebro Foods SA, Flying Trade Group Plc, Goya Foods Inc., KRBL Ltd., Lotus Foods Inc., LT Foods Ltd., Lundberg Family Farms, McCormick and Co. Inc., Pride Of India, Ricegrowers Ltd., SHRI LAL MAHAL Group, Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd., and VeeTee Rice Ltd. are some of the major market participants. The key offerings of some of these vendors are listed below: Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd. - The company offers brown basmati rice of various sizes, such as long, medium, and short-grained rice, as well as non-basmati rice such as parboiled and golden. The company offers brown basmati rice of various sizes, such as long, medium, and short-grained rice, as well as non-basmati rice such as parboiled and golden. Amira Nature Foods Ltd. - The company offers brown basmati rice with various packing styles, such as 1kg, 5kg, and 10kg. The company offers brown basmati rice with various packing styles, such as 1kg, 5kg, and 10kg. Flying Trade Group Plc - The company offers brown basmati rice of various brands such as Laila rice, Surya rice, Laila Sella rice, and Apna rice. The company offers brown basmati rice of various brands such as Laila rice, Surya rice, rice, and Apna rice. Goya Foods Inc. - The company offers brown basmati rice in two forms, namely Brown Jasmine rice and organic long-grain rice. The company offers brown basmati rice in two forms, namely Brown Jasmine rice and organic long-grain rice. KRBL Ltd. - The company offers brown basmati rice under the brand India Gate Basmati rice. This report provides a full list of key vendors, their strategies, and the latest developments. Buy Now for detailed vendor information Brown Rice Market 2022-2026: Segmentation Type Sweet Brown Rice: The sweet brown rice segment will be a significant contributor to market growth during the forecast period. Sweet brown rice is a glutinous variant of brown rice. It becomes glue-like or sticky when cooked, which creates a slightly sweet-flavored and sticky texture. Brown rice has low fat and high fiber content. Hence, the demand for sweet brown rice is increasing due to its use in sushi rice. In addition, sweet brown rice is a high source of different minerals and vitamins such as sodium, potassium, and protein. Brown Basmati Rice Geography APAC Europe North America South America Middle East And Africa To learn more about the contribution of each segment and their impact on the future of market research, Download a FREE Sample Brown Rice Market 2022-2026: Scope The brown rice market report covers the following areas: Subscribe to our "Basic Plan" billed annually at USD 5000 that enables you to download 5 reports and view 100 reports per month Brown Rice Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during 2022-2026 Detailed information on factors that will support brown rice market growth during the next five years Estimation of the brown rice market size and its contribution to the parent market Forecasts on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the brown rice market across APAC, Europe , North America , South America , and the Middle East and Africa , , , and the and Analysis of the competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will impede the growth of brown rice market vendors Related Reports Packaged Rice Snacks Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: This report extensively covers segmentation by product (rice cakes, RCCB, and rice crisps) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and MEA). 84% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. The packaged rice snacks market share growth in the rice cakes segment will be significant. Rice Cakes Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: This report extensively covers segmentation by type (brown rice cakes, white rice cakes, and other rice cakes) and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and Middle East and Africa). 52% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. The market share growth by the brown rice cakes segment will be significant. Brown Rice Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.82% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 2.97 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.12 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 75% Key consumer countries US, China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Amira Nature Foods Ltd., DRRK Foods Pvt. Ltd., Ebro Foods SA, Flying Trade Group Plc, Goya Foods Inc., KRBL Ltd., Lotus Foods Inc., LT Foods Ltd., Lundberg Family Farms, McCormick and Co. Inc., Pride Of India, Ricegrowers Ltd., SHRI LAL MAHAL Group, Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd., and VeeTee Rice 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 Consumer Staples Market 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 Type 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 ($ billion) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) 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 Type 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Type Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Type 5.3 Sweet Brown Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Sweet Brown Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Sweet Brown Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 30: Chart on Sweet Brown Rice - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Sweet Brown Rice - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Brown Basmati Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Brown Basmati Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Brown Basmati Rice - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 34: Chart on Brown Basmati Rice - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Brown Basmati Rice - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Type ($ billion) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 37: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 38: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 40: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 41: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 43: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 44: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 45: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 47: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 48: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 51: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 52: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 55: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 56: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 59: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 60: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 63: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 64: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 67: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 68: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Vietnam - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Vietnam - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 71: Data Table on Vietnam - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 72: Chart on Vietnam - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on Vietnam - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 Indonesia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Indonesia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 75: Data Table on Indonesia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 76: Chart on Indonesia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on Indonesia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 79: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 80: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.13 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion) 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 Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd. Exhibit 89: Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 90: Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 91: Agistin Biotech Pvt. Ltd. - Key offerings 10.4 Amira Nature Foods Ltd. Exhibit 92: Amira Nature Foods Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 93: Amira Nature Foods Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 94: Amira Nature Foods Ltd. - Key offerings 10.5 Ebro Foods SA Exhibit 95: Ebro Foods SA - Overview Exhibit 96: Ebro Foods SA - Business segments Exhibit 97: Ebro Foods SA - Key offerings Exhibit 98: Ebro Foods SA - Segment focus 10.6 Flying Trade Group Plc Exhibit 99: Flying Trade Group Plc - Overview Exhibit 100: Flying Trade Group Plc - Product / Service Exhibit 101: Flying Trade Group Plc - Key offerings 10.7 Goya Foods Inc. Exhibit 102: Goya Foods Inc. - Overview Exhibit 103: Goya Foods Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 104: Goya Foods Inc. - Key offerings 10.8 KRBL Ltd. Exhibit 105: KRBL Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 106: KRBL Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 107: KRBL Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 108: KRBL Ltd. - Segment focus 10.9 Lotus Foods Inc. Exhibit 109: Lotus Foods Inc. - Overview Exhibit 110: Lotus Foods Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 111: Lotus Foods Inc. - Key offerings 10.10 LT Foods Ltd. Exhibit 112: LT Foods Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 113: LT Foods Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 114: LT Foods Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 115: LT Foods Ltd. - Segment focus 10.11 Lundberg Family Farms Exhibit 116: Lundberg Family Farms - Overview Exhibit 117: Lundberg Family Farms - Product / Service Exhibit 118: Lundberg Family Farms - Key offerings 10.12 Ricegrowers Ltd. Exhibit 119: Ricegrowers Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 120: Ricegrowers Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 121: Ricegrowers Ltd. - Key offerings 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 122: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 123: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 124: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 125: Research methodology Exhibit 126: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 127: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 128: 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: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio World's largest cruise company honored for second consecutive year on the Forbes annual list of the top female-friendly companies in the world MIAMI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company, today announced it has been named for the second consecutive year as one of the World's Top Female-Friendly Companies of 2022 by Forbes, a leading source of business news worldwide. The recognition builds on a series of other distinguished honors Carnival Corporation has earned this year from Forbes for companywide operations and dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion, including the World's Best Employers of 2022 and Best Employers for Diversity for 2022. Presented by Forbes and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider, the annual listing of the top female-friendly companies recognizes top-performing multinational organizations in a worldwide survey of 85,000 female workers, and companies with proven gender equality performance and significant representation of women in leadership positions. Carnival Corporation was ranked among the top 400 female-friendly companies in the world, and was the only cruise company recognized on the list. The full list of the World's Top Female-Friendly Companies for 2022 is available on the Forbes website. "We are proud to be named alongside other distinguished organizations that are champions for the support of women leaders, and we applaud all of the collective efforts being made globally to accelerate inclusion and diversity in the workplace," said Bettina Deynes, global chief human resources officer for Carnival Corporation. "We are focused on promoting diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our organization, and we are honored to once again be recognized by Forbes as it underscores our commitment to foster a positive and inclusive workplace that supports our talented and diverse employees, while providing equal opportunity and a strong sense of belonging for all." The Forbes World's Top Female-Friendly Companies list was determined through a globally administered independent survey of approximately 85,000 women across 36 total countries. Respondents were asked to anonymously evaluate their employer's performance across a broad range of gender-related topics, as well as overall workplace satisfaction and willingness to recommend their company, while also providing recommendations for other employers in their industry. Additionally, each company was evaluated based on publicly available information on female representation in leadership positions and through a women-only public opinion survey to measure perceptions of companies in relation to gender equity. In addition to several recent honors from Forbes this year, Carnival Corporation was named one of the Best Companies for Latinos by Latino Leaders Magazine and earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index, designating the company as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality for the sixth consecutive year. The company was also recognized by Forbes as one of the World's Best Employers and one of the World's Top Female-Friendly Companies in 2021, in addition to being named a Glassdoor Employees' Choice Award Winner honoring the best 100 U.S. places to work. Also in 2021, Carnival Corporation was named as one of America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek for the company's commitment to corporate social responsibility leadership. Diversity and inclusion have long been priorities at Carnival Corporation. The company is proud to employ a diverse workforce of people from more than 100 countries and has intentionally engineered opportunities for hiring, growth and advancement of women by championing all forms of diversity, including gender, ethnicity, background, upbringing, education, geographic origin and experience. Dynamic female leaders today are represented in top leadership roles throughout the company, including presidents of several of Carnival Corporation's operating companies and cruise line brands, and in key roles within global port and destination development, human resources, marketing, sales, communications, operations and finance. About Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is one of the world's largest leisure travel companies with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines sailing to all seven continents. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard. Additional information can be found on www.carnivalcorp.com, www.carnival.com, www.princess.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.seabourn.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.costacruise.com, www.aida.de, www.pocruises.com and www.cunard.com. SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc ROCK HILL, S.C., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carrie Watson, DO, FACOS, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Trauma Surgeon for her outstanding career in the Medical field and in acknowledgment of her achievements at Piedmont General Surgery Associates. Carrie Watson A well-versed physician specializing in trauma surgery, Dr. Watson is a part of the team of professionals at Piedmont General Surgery Associates in Rock Hill, SC. She also serves as the Trauma Medical Director and ICU Co-Director at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill. The doctor is involved with all disciplines of medicine, and she focuses on practice management guidelines using a multi-disciplinary approach. She works closely with other physicians to stabilize penetrating wounds and is the first line of care in the hospital. Her services include general surgery, trauma surgery (instructor for Advanced Trauma Life Support), rib fracture, chest wall stabilization, laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery with a special interest in ventral hernias, inguinal hernias, and colon resection, as well as surgical critical care. Trauma surgery is a surgical specialty that utilizes both operative and non-operative management to treat traumatic injuries typically in an acute setting. Trauma surgeons generally complete residency training in general surgery and often fellowship training in trauma or surgical critical care. They are responsible for treating bone fractures, cuts, internal injuries, burns, and shock. They also perform surgery to repair penetrating and blunt-force injuries. "I hope to provide excellent surgical trauma and critical care for my patients and their families," Dr. Watson says, in reference to her philosophy of care. "My goal is to create a safe environment based on communication and treatment of the whole patient. I am passionate about people and treat my patients as if they are family. Trauma and emergency general surgeries are unexpected; I meet people and their family members on the scariest and worst days of their lives. I want to bring comfort and hope on these darkest of days." Originally from Sand Springs, OK, Dr. Watson graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in psychology from the University of Oklahoma's Honors College. Growing up with a foundation and appreciation for osteopathic medicine, she pursued her medical degree (DO) at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Georgia Campus). She completed her residency at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, OH, where she was nationally recognized through the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons with the 2016 Resident Achievement Award. She then completed her surgical critical care fellowship at the UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville. Prior to her arrival at Piedmont, Dr. Watson practiced at a busy Level II trauma center and served as an assistant professor of trauma and general surgery and as assistant program director for the surgical critical care fellowship in Ocala, FL. She was honored in 2018 as Ocala Health's Physician of the Year and twice selected by the general surgery residency to receive the Attending of the Year award 2018-2019 and 2020-2021. A Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons (FACOS), Dr. Watson is dual board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care by the American Osteopathic Board of Surgery (AOBS). She is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Osteopathic Association. A strong supporter of women, Dr. Watson has participated on the planning committee for the Women in Surgery National Annual Conference. She emphasizes communication comradery and patient-centered care in her practice. She is dedicated to further advancing surgical and intensive care through active participation in clinical research as well as regional and national presentations. Her goal is to create a safe environment based on communication and treatment of the whole patient. She is passionate about people and treats all of her patients like family. In her spare time, the doctor does community outreach through lectures (SCMA) and speaking engagements regarding mental health in the medical profession. She also spends time with her family and friends. She loves to paint, dance, listen to music, read, and explore the outdoors with her two Labradors. In light of this recognition, Dr. Watson wishes to acknowledge her mentors: Constance Cashen, DO; Barry Knotts, MD; and Chasen Croft, MD. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who - Fast casual concept celebrates grand opening in West Little Rock on Nov. 15th - ATLANTA, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today the grand opening of its newest restaurant in West Little Rock, Arkansas. This location marks Chicken Salad Chick's sixth restaurant in Arkansas and third in the Little Rock area, following an opening in North Little Rock last May. Located at 17400 Chenal Parkway, Chicken Salad Chick West Little Rock features a drive-thru and patio seating. The new restaurant celebrates its grand opening on Tuesday, Nov. 15, and will offer free chicken salad for a year to the first 100 guests. During grand opening week, guests can expect to experience the Southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for with specials and giveaways that include: Tuesday, Nov. 15 Free Chicken Salad for a Year The first 100 guests will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for an entire year, with one of those lucky guests randomly selected to win one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week.* Guests may arrive starting at 7 a.m. for grand opening day only. The first 100 guests will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for an entire year, with one of those lucky guests randomly selected to win one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week.* Guests may arrive starting at for grand opening day only. Wednesday, Nov. 16 The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick Cutting Board.** The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick Cutting Board.** Thursday, Nov. 17 The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick Tumbler.** The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick Tumbler.** Friday, Nov. 18 Buy 2 Quick Chicks and receive 1 free Quick Chick all day long.** Buy 2 Quick Chicks and receive 1 free Quick Chick all day long.** Saturday, Nov. 19 - The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick Tote Bag.** Emily Gray and business partner Hudson Sandefur of Little Rocking Chick, LLC are the multi-unit franchising duo behind Chicken Salad Chick's expansion in Little Rock. The two met when Gray was working as a corporate trainer for the brand and Sandefur was opening several Chick locations across Mississippi and Tennessee. Pairing her background in education and inside knowledge of the brand with his previous ownership experience has been a recipe for success as the two focus on leading a business that can spread positive change and enrich the Little Rock communities where they develop. "Hudson and I opened our first Chicken Salad Chick together in June 2020, and the Benton community really supported us throughout all of the pandemic challenges that came with that timing," said Emily Gray. "We are forever grateful for those guests and our amazing team members who share our passion for service. It's been an honor to keep growing this business, expanding into North Little Rock and now this new location on the west side of our great city." Gray added, "My first experience working with Chicken Salad Chick in college was also when I fell in love with the feeling of joy and opportunity each restaurant exudes. Chicken salad is a beloved staple that people turn to for celebration and for comfort. Our teams take a lot of pride in preparing these fresh ingredients by hand and making someone's day with a smile and a delicious meal. We can't wait to open our doors in West Little Rock." Chicken Salad Chick in West Little Rock will be open Monday Saturday from 10:00 a.m. 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.chickensaladchick.com. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends. For more information on giveaways and specials, visit https://www.facebook.com/ChickenSaladChickWestLittleRockAR/. *Guests should start arriving at 7 a.m. to get checked in. The first 100 guests will be assigned a number and a designated return time between 10 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. Upon return, guests will make a purchase of "The Chick" or anything of greater value and enter a code on the Chicken Salad Chick app to officially secure your spot. If you are late, or miss the return time, your spot will be awarded to the next in-line. Guests will receive their first free Large Quick Chick electronically to your App the Monday following Grand Opening Day. **Must download the CSC App and be 16 years or older to purchase. Not valid with any other offers. Limit 1 reward per guest present. About Chicken Salad Chick Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Founded in Auburn, Alabama by Stacy and Kevin Brown, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick has grown to more than 220 restaurants in 17 states. Today, under the leadership of Scott Deviney and the Chicken Salad Chick team, the brand is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick has received numerous accolades including rankings in the 2022 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, Franchise Times' Fast & Serious for the second consecutive year, Fast Casual.com 's top Movers and Shakers from 2018 to 2022, QSR's Best Franchise Deals in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and Franchise Business Review's Top Food Franchises in 2020. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information. Contact: Nicole Hunnicutt Fish Consulting 404-558-4108 [email protected] SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick CLAREMONT, Calif., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A Claremont McKenna College-Rose Institute poll published today finds that governor races in the nation's four largest states - California, Texas, Florida, and New York - will shape the national political direction in the coming years. The poll surveyed 5,060 registered voters nationally, including oversamples of approximately 800 voters in each of the four states, between October 11-26, 2022. "The governorsGavin Newsom (D-CA), Kathy Hochul (D-NY), Greg Abbott (R-TX), and Ron DeSantis (R-FL)have come to embody the states' highly partisan models. Tuesday's election provides voters in the four states an opportunity to judge not only their governors, but also the blue or red agendas they represent," said Ken Miller, Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. "The four 'mega-states' have established rival and increasingly polarized visions of state governmentone blue, the other red. California and New York have become national catalysts for progressive policies, while Texas and Florida have become the most powerful advocates of conservative alternatives," said Miller. Additionally, the state elections may give momentum to at least two of these governorsNewsom and DeSantisto sell their states' competing visions to the nation by running for president in 2024, according to the Rose Institute poll. Highlights from the poll include: The governors of all four states have positioned themselves to win reelection in 2022 by retaining the support of members of their state's dominant party, rendering opposition by people outside that party largely irrelevant. The four governors are on track to win reelection even though a large share of their constituents is dissatisfied with recent economic and social trends. For the 2024 presidential race, 33% of Republican voters support DeSantis and 7% of Democratic voters support Governor Gavin Newsom . In a head-to-head match-up, DeSantis edges out Newsom, 51-49%, and former President Donald Trump leads DeSantis, 55-45%. Many residents of Florida , California , New York , and Texas are considering moving elsewhere, with many disagreeing with their state's dominant political orientation. Respondents report they are interested in moving to a location where neighbors have political and policy preferences closer to their own. The entire polling data is available in the full report , which looks at Florida, California, New York and Texas, their governors and these states' highly partisan policy models. Co-authors of the poll at Claremont McKenna's Rose Institute of State and Local Government: Andrew Sinclair, Ph.D.: [email protected] (cell: 626-376-1105) Kenneth P. Miller, J.D., Ph.D.: [email protected] Media Contact: Gilien Silsby, Director of Media Relations: 213-500-8673 SOURCE Claremont McKenna College SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Codeup, a leading tech/coding bootcamp in Texas has just become the first and only accredited coding bootcamp in the state. With locations in San Antonio and Dallas, Codeup's growth has reached new heights with this recent accomplishment. Codeup is accredited for postsecondary, non-degree granting, career and technology programs by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, (267) 284-5000. Codeup CEO Jason Straughan expressed enthusiasm about the progress, stating, "With accreditation, Codeup students know they are receiving a quality education and ensures employers that graduates will be well prepared for jobs in the tech economy." Codeup trains students to enter a career in tech, giving them ample knowledge and confidence to be successful in their future positions. Codeup also has a refund guarantee, which states that if you meet the outlined criteria and are not hired within 6 months of graduating from a Codeup program, your paid tuition will be refunded. For more information on Codeup's accreditation, visit here . Codeup: Website: https://codeup.com/ MSA-CESS: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_States_Association_of_Colleges_and_Schools Website: https://www.msa-cess.org/about-us/ Contact Information: Codeup Kyler Finnell Marketing and PR Specialist [email protected] SOURCE CODEUP, LLC CHICAGO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Collaborative robot (cobot) market is projected to grow from USD 1.1 Billion in 2022 to USD 9.2 Billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 41.5% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2028 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The growth of this market is driven by factors such as high return on investment as compared to the traditional industrial robotic system, increasing demand in the e-commerce and logistics industries due to contingency of COVID-19, collaborative robots to benefit businesses of all sizes, and increased ease of programming of collaborative robots. However, higher preference for low payload capacity traditional industrial robots over cobots in heavy-duty industries restrain the growth of the collaborative robot (cobot) market. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=194541294 Browse in-depth TOC on "Collaborative Robot (Cobot) Market" 214 Tables 55 Figures 291 Pages Collaborative robots with payload capacity up to 5 kg expected to hold the largest share of the market during the forecast period Cobots with payload capacity up to 5 kg holds the largest market share and is expected to retain its position during the forecast period. First-time users prefer low payload capacity cobots, which are cheaper and take up less space than robots with higher payload capacity. For instance, COBOTTA, a cobot from DENSO Corporation (Japan), has an inherently safe design owing to its low weight and, therefore, does not require extensive use of sensors compared to higher payload cobots, thus keeping it more affordable. SAWYER and SAWYER Black Edition from Rethink Robotics GmbH (US) are both single arm cobots with a payload capacity of 4 kg and a maximum reach of 1,260 mm. These collaborative robots are equipped with the company's proprietary software suite, Intera. Hence, they do not require a separate software interface. Automotive industry Europe accounts for largest market share of collaborative robot (cobot) market in 2021 The collaborative robot (cobot) market in the automotive industry held the largest share, both in terms of the value and volume in 2021. Collaborative robots are not only being used by major car manufacturers, but also by numerous OEMs that supply automotive parts to these car manufacturers. Conventionally, traditional industrial robots have been employed by the automotive industry and auto-parts manufacturers to perform high-speed operations behind cages. But, in recent years, the focus of the automotive manufacturers is shifting toward light weighting, the trend of substituting heavy metal parts with plastic to reduce vehicle mass and create greater efficiency. For this purpose, plastic injection molding machines are used in the automotive industry, and these machines require constant tending. It is difficult to find labor for performing such monotonous and repetitive tasks. In such a case, collaborative robots are preferable as they can work in tandem with the workers on the lines and perform such operations with inept flexibility in different areas such as material handling, machine tending, performing test and inspection, and packing finished goods. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=194541294 Europe accounts for second-largest market share of collaborative robot (cobot) market in 2021 Europe held the second-largest share of the collaborative robot (cobot) market in 2021. Many of the early adopters of collaborative robots were from European countries. With the advent of Industry 4.0 in Europe, the manufacturing sector brought in collaborative robots to modernize and improve their production capabilities. SMEs in Europe are largely looking into automation to deploy collaborative robots to perform dirty and dangerous jobs. Polishing tasks, for example, are being done by collaborative robots, with workers performing the final inspection. Europe houses several key collaborative robot players such as Universal Robots A/S (Denmark) and KUKA AG (Germany). KUKA AG was one of the first manufacturers to offer cobots to the market, while Universal Robots has been the market leader for cobots for several years now. Some of the key companies in the collaborative robot (cobot) market include Universal Robots A/S (Denmark), FANUC Corporation (Japan), ABB (Switzerland), Techman Robot Inc (Taiwan), KUKA AG (Germany), Doosan Robotics Inc. (South Korea), Denso Corporation (Japan), Yaskawa Electric Corporation (Japan), AUBO (Beijing) Robotics Technology Co., Ltd (China), and Rethink Robotics GmbH (US), Omron Adept Technologies, Inc. (US), Franka Emika GmbH (Germany), etc. Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=194541294 Browse Adjacent Market: Semiconductor and Electronics Market Research Reports &Consulting Related Reports: Industrial Robotics Market by Type (Traditional, Collaborative Robots), Component, Payload, Application (Handling, Processing), Industry (Automotive, Food & Beverages) and Region (North America, Europe, APAC, RoW) - Global Forecast to 2027 Cleaning Robot Market by Type, Product (Floor Cleaning Robots, Lawn Cleaning Robots, Pool Cleaning Robots, Window Cleaning Robots), Operation Mode (Self-driven, Remote Controlled), Sales Channel, Application and Region - Global Forecast to 2027 Top Robotics Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Top Industrial Robotics (Articulated, SCARA, Cartesian, Parallel, Collaborative), Top Service Robotics (Logistics, Domestic, Medical, Defense, Rescue, and Security) - Global Forecast to 2025 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robots Market by Robot Type (Service, and Industrial), Technology (Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Context Awareness, and NPL), Offering, Application, and Geography (2021-2026) Service Robotics Market by Environment, Type (Professional, Personal & Domestic), Component, Application (Logistics, Inspection & Maintenance, Public Relations, Education, Personal), and Geography (2021-2026) About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. 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Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/collaborative-robot-market.asp Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/collaborative-robot.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg SOURCE MarketsandMarkets LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report released by the Los Angeles Community Land Trust Programa $14 million pilot initiated two years ago with the support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisorsshowcases the power of community ownership strategies. The innovative partnership explores the Community Land Trust (CLT) model to address long-term housing affordability challenges and systemic racial inequities for immigrant, working class, and communities of color. It also aims to stem the tide of historic displacement and disinvestment in these communities that has only intensified since the start of the pandemic. A Community Land Trust is a nonprofit organization designed to ensure community stewardship of land. The independent reportcommissioned by Liberty Hill Foundation with support from the California Endowmentexamines the implementation of this acquisition and rehabilitation program and makes the case that CLTs can be an important model in responding to the housing and homelessness crisis as an alternative to traditional affordable housing. "As the pandemic exposed more vulnerable Angelenos to displacement, a coalition of activists, public agencies, community-based organizations, and community land trusts (CLTs) all came together in an unprecedented way," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, First District. "And we seized this opportunity to conceive a new, forward-thinking model of affordable housing preservation in the region that can serve as a model for other municipalities." The pilot enabled five established Community Land Trusts that currently constitute the Los Angeles Community Land Trust Coalition to acquire, rehabilitate, and preserve tax-defaulted properties for long-term affordable housing. The initial county investment helped preserve eight multifamily properties with a total of 43 residential units across all five supervisorial districtswhich enabled 110 individuals to live in stabilized affordable housing. The program was then further expanded to secure unsubsidized multifamily housing intended to protect renters at risk of eviction and homelessness due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, 95 percent of the units are occupied by households consisting of Black, Indigenous and people of color. Among the report's major findings is the recommendation that the Community Land Trust model become a permanent program across the City and County, with expanded public and private funding to support acquisition and rehabilitation of more small-scale at-risk multifamily properties. The report also recommends a variety of other supportive measures that can be taken to streamline the process and expand the pool of property acquisition opportunities, including investing in additional legal, real estate and technical expertise, increasing philanthropic and public investment in CLTs and other approaches to decommodify housing. One important step that would enable this expansion would be the passage of Measure ULA in LA City this fall, which would use a real estate transfer tax on property sales over $5 million to fund a variety of innovative solutions to protect renters and to build and preserve affordable housing units, including through CLTs. "Measure ULA is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fund essential, creative policies that will attack our housing crisis at the root," said Shane Murphy Goldsmith, President and CEO of Liberty Hill Foundation. "This report demonstrates how important it is to pass this measure to ensure we can continue funding efforts like the CLTs in this report that treat housing as a human right, not a market commodity, and empower communities to organize and build power around their own solutions." For more information about the Community Land Trust Pilot Program, the full results of the report, or any of the community organizations taking part in this work, please contact Courtney Kassel, Chief Communications Officer, at [email protected] . SOURCE Liberty Hill Foundation NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT (SEE "OFFER AND DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS" BELOW) NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Credit Suisse International (the Offeror*) announces the early participation results of its invitations to holders of the outstanding securities described in the table below (together, the Securities and each series of such Securities an Offers Series) to tender such securities for purchase by the Offeror for cash (each such invitation an Offer and together the Offers). This announcement does not contain the full terms and conditions of the Offers which are contained in the tender offer memorandum dated 7 October 2022 (the Tender Offer Memorandum) prepared by the Offeror, and are subject to the offer restrictions set out below and as more fully described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. Holders of the Securities set out in the table below are advised to read carefully the Tender Offer Memorandum, copies of which are (subject to distribution restrictions) available from the Dealer Manager and the Information and Tender Agent as set out below. Capitalised terms used in this announcement but not defined have the meanings given to them in the Tender Offer Memorandum. * Together with the issuer of the Securities, as described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. Results of the Offers at the Early Tender Deadline The Early Tender Deadline was 5.00 p.m. (New York City time) on 3 November 2022. Pursuant to the terms of the Offers, tenders of Securities pursuant to the Offers became irrevocable and any withdrawal rights terminated at 5.00 p.m. (New York City time) on 3 November 2022. The Offeror intends to accept for purchase all Securities validly tendered pursuant to the Offers at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline. The aggregate principal amount of each Offer validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline and accepted for purchase is set out in the table below. The Early Settlement Date for Securities validly tendered pursuant to the Offers prior to the Early Tender Deadline is expected to be 7 November 2022, when the Offeror will pay, for each U.S.$1,000 in principal amount of the relevant Securities, the Total Consideration, which will be calculated at 9.30am (New York City time) on 4 November, 2022 and will be announced promptly thereafter. The Offeror will also pay an Accrued Interest Payment for Securities accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offers. Title of Securities Issuer ISIN / CUSIP Number Principal Amount of Series Tendered and Accepted for Purchase Acceptance Priority Level 1.00 per cent. Notes due May 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2D25/ 22550L2D2 $81,771,000 1 Floating Rate Notes due August 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAD37/ 22550UAD3 $8,875,000 2 0.52 per cent. Notes due August 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2F72/22550L2F7 $165,831,000 3 1.25 per cent. Notes due August 2026 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York branch US22550L2G55/ 22550L2G5 $118,298,000 4 5.00 per cent. Notes due July 2027 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2K67/ 22550L2K6 $57,550,000 5 3.70 per cent. Notes due February 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2H39/ 22550L2H3 $108,018,000 6 Floating Rate Notes due February 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAF84/ 22550UAF8 $65,830,000 7 Floating Rate Notes due February 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAB70/ 22550UAB7 $54,309,000 8 4.75 per cent. Notes due August 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2J94/ 22550L2J9 $128,255,000 9 0.495 per cent. Notes due February 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2E08/ 22550L2E0 $76,013,000 10 3.625 per cent. Notes due September 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22546QAP28/ 22546QAP2 $107,318,000 11 2.95 per cent. Notes due April 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2C42/ 22550L2C4 $233,724,000 12 Any Holder that has not validly tendered its Securities by the Early Tender Deadline but who wishes to participate in the Offers must, in order to be eligible to receive the relevant Tender Offer Consideration and Accrued Interest Payment pursuant to the relevant Offer, validly tender their Securities by delivering, or arranging to have delivered on their behalf, a valid Tender Instruction (as more fully described in the Tender Offer Memorandum) that is received by the Information and Tender Agent at or prior to the Offer Expiration Deadline, which (unless extended with respect to any Offers) is 11.59 p.m. (New York City time) on 10 November 2022, in the manner described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The Tender Offer Consideration for each Offer will be the applicable Total Consideration (expected to be announced shortly after 9.30am (New York City time) on 4 November, 2022) less the Early Tender Payment of U.S.$30.00 for each U.S.$1,000 in principal amount of the relevant Securities. Holders of Securities subject to the Offers who tender their Securities after 5.00pm (New York City time) on 3 November 2022 (the Withdrawal Deadline) but before the Offer Expiration Deadline may not withdraw their Securities, unless otherwise required by law. Holders are advised to read carefully the Tender Offer Memorandum for full details of, and information on the procedures for participating in, any Offer. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is acting as Dealer Manager and D.F. King & Co., Inc. is acting as Information and Tender Agent. Questions and requests for assistance in connection with the Offers may be directed to the Dealer Manager: The Dealer Manager Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC Eleven Madison Avenue, 4th Floor New York, New York 10010 United States Telephone: Within the United States: (800) 820-1653 (U.S. toll free) (212) 538-2147 (Collect) Outside the United States: +44 20 7883 8763 Attention: Liability Management Group Email: [email protected] Questions and requests for assistance in connection with the delivery of Tender Instructions may be directed to the Information and Tender Agent. The Information and Tender Agent D.F. King & Co., Inc. 48 Wall Street New York, NY 10005 United States Banks and Brokers (Collect): +1 (212) 269 5550 All others (U.S. toll free): +1 (800) 714 3311 Attention: Michael Horthman Email: [email protected] DISCLAIMER This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Tender Offer Memorandum. The Tender Offer Memorandum contains important information which should be read carefully before any decision is made with respect to any Offer. If any Holder is in any doubt as to the action it should take, it is recommended to seek its own financial advice, including in respect of any tax consequences, from its broker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial, tax or legal adviser. Any individual or company whose Securities are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company or other nominee must contact such entity if it wishes to tender such Securities pursuant to the Offers. None of the Offerors, the Dealer Manager, the Information and Tender Agent or the Issuer makes any recommendation as to whether Holders should tender Securities pursuant to the Offers. OFFER AND DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS The distribution of this announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement and/or the Tender Offer Memorandum comes are required by each of the Offerors, the Dealer Manager, the Issuer and the Information and Tender Agent to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum constitutes an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell Securities (and tenders of Securities in any Offer will not be accepted from Holders) in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. In any jurisdiction where the securities, blue sky or other laws require an Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer and any of the Offeror's affiliates is such a licensed broker or dealer in such jurisdiction, such Offer shall be deemed to be made by such affiliate on behalf of the Offeror in such jurisdiction. Italy. None of the Offers, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or any other document or materials relating to the Offers have been or will be submitted to the clearance procedures of the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa (CONSOB) pursuant to Italian laws and regulations. The Offers are being carried out in the Republic of Italy (Italy) as exempted offers pursuant to article 101-bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998, as amended (the Financial Services Act) and article 35-bis, paragraph 4 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of 14 May 1999, as amended. Holders or beneficial owner of the Securities that are resident and/or located in Italy can tender the Securities for purchase in the Offers through authorised persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 20307 of 15 February 2018 16190 of 29 October 2007, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1 September 1993, as amended from time to time) and in compliance with any other applicable laws and regulations and with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority. Each intermediary must comply with applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-a-vis its clients in connection with the Securities or the Offers. United Kingdom. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum have been issued by Credit Suisse International (the Offeror) of One Cabot Square, London E14 4QJ, United Kingdom, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) of 12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN, United Kingdom. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum are being distributed only to existing holders of the Securities, and are only addressed to such existing Holders in the United Kingdom where they would (if they were clients of the Offeror) be per se professional clients or per se eligible counterparties of the Offeror within the meaning of the FCA rules. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum is addressed to or directed at any persons who would be retail clients within the meaning of the FCA rules and any such persons should not act or rely on this announcement or the Tender Offer Memorandum. Recipients of this announcement or the Tender Offer Memorandum should note that the Offeror is acting on its own account in relation to the Offers and will not be responsible to any other person for providing the protections which would be afforded to clients of the Offeror or for providing advice in relation to the Offers. The communication of this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other documents or materials relating to the Offers are not being made and such documents and/or material have not been approved by an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Accordingly, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and such other documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom, and the communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom, (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the Financial Promotion Order), (iii) persons falling within Article 43(2) of the Financial Promotion Order, or (iv) other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated. France. The Offers are not being made, directly or indirectly, to the public in the Republic of France (France). This announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other document or material relating to the Offers have only been or shall only be distributed in France and to qualified investors as defined in Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum have been or will be submitted for clearance to or approved by the Autorite des Marches Financiers SOURCE Credit Suisse International DUBLIN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Data Protection As A Service (DPaaS) Global Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global data protection as a service (DPaaS) market is expected to grow from $17.88 billion in 2021 to $23.09 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1%. The data protection as a service (DPaaS) market is expected to grow to $63.38 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 28.7%. The main types of data protection as a service are disaster recovery as a service, backup as a service, and storage as a service. Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud computing service model that enables an organization to back up its data and IT infrastructure in a third-party cloud computing environment and provides all DR orchestration, all through a SaaS solution, to regain access and functionality to IT infrastructure following a disaster. Data protection as a service can be deployed in the public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud in large enterprises and SMEs that can be used in various industries such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecom & IT, government & public sector, healthcare, retail, energy & utilities, manufacturing, others. North America was the largest region in the data protection as a service (DPaaS) market in 2021. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the data protection as a service (DPaaS) market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa. The increasing concern about data loss and data security is propelling the demand in the data protection as a service (DPaaS) market. Data loss refers to the loss of data due to internal issues like system failure or external issues like cyber attacks, etc. Enterprises from all around the world have been concerned about data security recently due to incidents of data loss and data leaks. For instance, according to Identity Theft Resource Center's report, a United States non-profit organization, the year 2021 saw 1,862 data breaches, which was up from 1,108 data breaches in 2020. These breaches have increased concerns about data loss in companies. Hence, the increasing concerns about data loss and data security are driving the growth of the data protection as a service market. New technological advancements like the integration of connected devices with the internet of things (IoT) and virtual private network (VPN) are shaping the data protection as a service (DPaaS) market. For instance, in May 2021, GLobal Electronic-SECurity (GLESEC), a cyber-security firm announced the launch of its new Orchestrated data leakage detection and protection service. This security-as-a-service has a unique offering of detecting and protecting data leakage without the need to classify all the information of the company. With this service, the company would address the need for the organization's security requirements. Scope Markets Covered: 1) By Service Type: Disaster Recovery as a Service; Backup as a Service; Storage as a Service 2) By Enterprise Size: Large Enterprise; SMEs 3) By Deployment Mode: Public Cloud; Private Cloud; Hybrid Cloud 4) By Industry: Banking, Financial Services And Insurance (BFSI); Telecom & IT; Government & Public Sector; Healthcare; Retail; Energy & Utilities; Manufacturing; Other Industries Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Data Protection As A Service Market Characteristics 3. Data Protection As A Service Market Trends And Strategies 4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Data Protection As A Service 5. Data Protection As A Service Market Size And Growth 6. Data Protection As A Service Market Segmentation 7. Data Protection As A Service Market Regional And Country Analysis 8. Asia-Pacific Data Protection As A Service Market 9. China Data Protection As A Service Market 10. India Data Protection As A Service Market 11. Japan Data Protection As A Service Market 12. Australia Data Protection As A Service Market 13. Indonesia Data Protection As A Service Market 14. South Korea Data Protection As A Service Market 15. Western Europe Data Protection As A Service Market 16. UK Data Protection As A Service Market 17. Germany Data Protection As A Service Market 18. France Data Protection As A Service Market 19. Eastern Europe Data Protection As A Service Market 20. Russia Data Protection As A Service Market 21. North America Data Protection As A Service Market 22. USA Data Protection As A Service Market 23. South America Data Protection As A Service Market 24. Brazil Data Protection As A Service Market 25. Middle East Data Protection As A Service Market 26. Africa Data Protection As A Service Market 27. Data Protection As A Service Market Competitive Landscape And Company Profiles 28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Data Protection As A Service Market 29. Data Protection As A Service Market Future Outlook and Potential Analysis 30. Appendix Companies Mentioned IBM Corporation Amazon Web Services Hewlett-Packard Development Company Commvault Systems VMware Quantum Corporation Asigra EMC Corporation Dell Veritas Technologies Commvault Quest Software Inc. NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Hitachi Vantara Corporation Atos SE For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/bb7ryz 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 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Datometry, the pioneer of database virtualization, announced today that it has been named a Red Herring Top 100 Global Winner. The list recognizes the leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia, celebrating these startups' innovations and technologies across their respective industries. Red Herring's Top 100 Global list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising companies and outstanding entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work. Thousands of the most interesting and innovative companies have graced the Top 100 list over the years. "Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat this year," said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. "After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across the globe to the Top 100 Winners. We believe Datometry embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. Datometry should be proud of its accomplishment as the competition was very strong." Datometry was evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. Red Herring's assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track records and standing of startups relative to their peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the "hype" and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models from around the world. "Datometry is honored to join the Red Herring 100, a list of businesses leading in innovation and growth," said Mike Waas, Datometry CEO. "This recognition underscores the impact we're making as a pioneer in database system virtualization. By eliminating the obstacles posed by conventional database migrations, we're freeing up our customers' resources enabling them to make better business decisions as they also innovate and grow." About Datometry Datometry is the global leader in database system virtualization. Datometry empowers enterprises to run their existing applications directly on the cloud database of their choice without the business disruption of costly and risk-laden database migrations and application rewrites. Leading Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises worldwide realize significant cost savings and consistently outpace their competition by using Datometry during this critical period of transformation to cloud-native data management. For more information, visit www.datometry.com Media contact Shermineh Rohanizadeh Market Street Group for Datometry [email protected] (949) 378-6469 SOURCE Datometry NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than three years of intense work, the Official Creditors Committee ("Committee") has negotiated a settlement with the Diocese of Rochester to resolve the Diocese's Chapter 11 case. The Committee, counseled by Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP ("PSZJ"), was appointed at the outset of the case to represent the interests of the approximately 475 sexual abuse survivors who asserted claims against the Diocese. The settlement provides that the Diocese and related entities will pay $55 million to a trust for the benefit of survivors and assign valuable insurance rights to that trust. Many survivors will also be able to pursue their claims in court against the Diocese and related entities in order to recover proceeds from their insurance policies. The Diocese previously announced a settlement of approximately $106 million with its insurers, which the Committee deemed inadequate. Under the new settlement, the insurance policies will be assigned to a trust that will pursue a more substantial recovery from the insurers. The settlement funding does not include any money from the Diocese's insurers. In exchange for the settlement payment, the Diocese will receive a discharge in bankruptcy and the affiliates will be released of their liabilities for the sexual abuse claims. Perpetrators and non-affiliates of the Diocese, such as religious orders, are not included in the settlement and will not be released. The negotiated settlement will be incorporated into a plan of reorganization that survivors will have an opportunity to vote on. The Committee expects that process to take approximately six months to complete. "The settlement is the result of the Committee's hard work and tenacity. The courage and faith of Rochester's survivors empowered the Committee to stand up and negotiate a settlement on our terms. The bankruptcy case has lasted a long time, and the Diocese's insurers still have not stepped up to provide an adequate recovery for survivors. This settlement will allow survivors to take control of the process and pursue financial recoveries from the insurers that are acceptable to us," said Jim Cali, Chair of the Committee. "The Committee has sought a fair and reasonable resolution for Rochester's survivors for over three years. The Committee has stood strong and united in its efforts to represent the interests of their fellow survivors. It will continue to do so as we move into the next phase of this process, which will seek an appropriate payment from the Diocese's insurers," said Ilan Scharf of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP. "The Diocese's insurers have not come forward with a sufficient settlement, and this agreement gives survivors the tools needed to seek an appropriate settlement from the Diocese's insurers," said Timothy Burns of Burns Bowen Bair LLP, insurance counsel to the Committee. The case is In Re: The Diocese of Rochester; Case Number: 19-20905 (PRW); Western District of New York. SOURCE Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones MADRID, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of an extensive agenda of public events and high-level private meetings with political, intellectual and business leaders of Ibero-America in the city of Madrid; the businessman and president of Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo, Dionisio Gutierrez met with president Ivan Duque Marquez of Colombia, who was in power between 2018 and 2022. Dionisio & Ivan Duque. Razon de Estado con Dionisio Gutierrez Dionisio Gutierrez & Ivan Duque Gutierrez began the conversation by recounting the challenges Duque faced during his presidency: "2019 was a year in which you had already assumed power and your government was implementing your plan. Colombia was the country in the region with the best economic growth and it was generating confidence. Suddenly the pandemic and other security threats arrived and the conditions to govern became very difficult. Colombia has been for decades a target and the crown jewel of Latin America". The former president recounted the challenges he faced and his legacy: "We had a government agenda and we never let it falter. In a government of 48 months, we had to face 30 months of pandemic and even so, we did not let it get us out of focus. We had to face protests and attacks from a violent opposition, and we can say that we left Colombia with the highest growth in its history. In 2021, 10.7% and this year a growth of over 8%. We leave Colombia first in the ranking of pandemic management in Latin America and the Caribbean". To conclude, Gutierrez highlighted the importance of the defense of classical liberal and republican values to face the populist threat that plagues the Latin American region: "The promoters and defenders who believe in liberal democracy, in the rule of law, in the republic, in the division of powers, have not been able to improve the political offer in Latin America. To have proposals that are competitive and capable of winning elections. We must improve our strategy and continue to insist that the only way out are republican and liberal values". Dionisio Gutierrez is an entrepreneur, activist and communicator with a PhD in Sociology and Political Science. He is President of the Latin American think-tank Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo and host of the weekly television program Razon de Estado, which is broadcasted in several countries in the region. For more information, visit fundacionlibertad.com SOURCE Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo Dole Sunshine Company continues to drive impact in underserved communities by bringing its Sunshine For All Cities Program to Central California, partnering with local leaders and organizations to educate and provide access to healthier food options WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As Dole Sunshine Company (DSC) continues to deliver on the Dole Promise to bring sustainable nutrition to all, today it announced the launch of the Dole Sunshine For All Cities Program in Merced, CA the third community to host this impactful initiative designed to bring nutrition access to those in need. To commemorate the beginning of the Sunshine For All Cities program, Mayor Matthew Serratto has proclaimed today, November 3rd, as Sunshine for All Day in Merced. Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto declares November 3rd Sunshine for All Day to launch Dole's Sunshine For All Cities Program at the Boys & Girls Club in Merced. Merced is located within the San Joaquin Valley in California, a region known for its rich farmland and fresh crop production. While the area is responsible for producing much of the state's agricultural bounty, Merced County's child food insecurity rate is more than 27% meaning more than 1 in 4 children in the area are experiencing hunger1. Dole Sunshine Company believes that in order to improve access to food in a way that creates a lasting effect on the community, the challenge needs to be met with comprehensive solutions. To bring Sunshine For All Cities to fruition in Merced, DSC is partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of Merced County to serve as the program hub. "We're thrilled to partner with DSC to bring this program to our families," said See Lee, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Merced County. "Having spent many years working with disenfranchised youth in the area, I've seen firsthand how hunger can impact the wellbeing in the short and long term. I'm excited to see the positive effect the program will have on our club and beyond." Mitchell Vanagten, longtime food access advocate and Executive Chef of Catering at UC Merced, will lead the kids' culinary and nutrition education program. "Education around good nutrition as well as shopping and preparing healthy meals on a budget is a critical component to creating systemic, lasting change," said Vanagten. "I look forward to getting in the kitchen with the Boys & Girls Club kids to instill knowledge and passion for cooking, using local ingredients paired with Dole's wide portfolio of good-for-you packaged fruits and juices." As part of the initiative, the Dole Kids Cooking Camp will equip kids to navigate the challenges of food insecurity and nutrition education, with classes covering basic cooking skills, healthy recipe preparation, smart grocery shopping and meal planning tips. Beyond cooking classes, the program will eventually grow to include pop-up farmers' markets and Good Stuff Kiosks , a system of free-standing refrigerated food kiosks to be placed at Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the country that were announced at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September. "Leveraging our resources and partnerships to support places like Merced is at the heart of our efforts to increase access to sustainable nutrition to 1 billion people by 2025," shared Orzse Hodi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Americas, Dole Packaged Foods, LLC. "We look forward to seeing the program's continued and lasting impact on communities like Merced, Baltimore and Jackson." The program, first introduced in Jackson, MS in 2020 followed by Baltimore, MD in 2022, has served over 30,000 families to-date with support from partners including GE Appliances, Bumble Bee Seafoods, Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation and more. To learn more about the Dole Sunshine For All Cities Program and its impact in Merced and beyond, visit dolesunshine.com . About Dole Sunshine Company The name Dole Sunshine Company is used to represent the global interests and combined efforts of Dole Asia Holdings, Dole Worldwide Packaged Foods and Dole Asia Fresh. Dole Sunshine Company is not an actual business entity and does not operate as such in any country or region. For more information on Dole Sunshine Company, please visit dolesunshine.com . About the Dole Promise In June 2020 Dole Asia Holdings announced The Dole Promise , with its three pillars around nutrition, sustainability, and the creation of shared value. Better for People: Access to sustainable nutrition for 1 billion people by 2025, moving towards zero processed sugar in all Dole Packaged Foods products by 2025. Better for Planet: Working towards zero fruit loss from Dole farms to markets by 2025, aiming for zero fossil-based plastic packaging by 2025. Working towards net zero carbon emissions in Dole operations by 2030. Better for all Stakeholders: Dole will continue to positively impact all farmers, communities and people working for Dole through its commitment to equal opportunity, living wages, and an ever-increasing level of safety, nutrition, and wellbeing. The company also seeks to advance human rights within the direct operations and supply chains by building a culture of transparency and accountability. The company also aims for a 50% increase in the value of its business by 2025. About Boys & Girls Clubs Merced The Boys & Girls Club of Merced County is part of one the largest and most impactful community organizations across America. We set out to serve youth, their families, and communities through evidence-based youth development programs. We are a non-profit organization that is working hard to fill in the gaps for our youth and it is our goal that every child graduates high school ready for opportunities in the workforce, vocational trade, post-secondary education, and/or the military. About Chef Mitchell Vanagten Chef Mitchell Vanagten began his culinary career in the Bay Area as an ACF apprentice at the prestigious Menlo Circus Club, where he worked his way up to sous chef. He then further refined his skills at Sharon Heights Country Club in Palo Alto, and eventually took on his first Executive Chef role at ALZA Pharmaceuticals. He has been the Executive Chef Lakeside Catering at UC Merced since 2005. With an extensive knowledge of international cuisine, and 'farm to table' cooking, Chef Mitch is often called on for his expertise and volunteers for philanthropic causes both on campus and in the Merced community. The main focus of his efforts are hunger relief, healthy eating education, and local sustainable agriculture. [1] Merced County Food Bank SOURCE Dole Sunshine Company Attack helicopters take off for round-the-clock flight training China Military Online) 13:35, November 04, 2022 Attack helicopters attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army take off from the runway successively during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on October 25, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Peng) Attack helicopters attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army take off from the runway successively during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on October 25, 2022.(eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Peng) Attack helicopters attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army take off from the runway successively during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on October 25, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Peng) Attack helicopters attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army take off from the runway successively during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on October 25, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Peng) Attack helicopters attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army take off from the runway successively during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on October 25, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Peng) (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) today announced the promotion of Steven D. Ridge to senior vice president and chief financial officer, succeeding James R. Chapman, who will be leaving the company for a senior finance role outside the utility industry after a transition period. Ridge will assume his new role in which he will be responsible for corporate and financial planning, investor relations, tax, treasury, mergers and acquisitions, and asset management effective later this month. Said Robert M. Blue, chair, president and chief executive officer: "At Dominion Energy, we have remarkable bench strength. Steven Ridge is a great example of that. After nearly a decade in energy investment banking, Steven joined Dominion Energy and has spent the past eight years in leadership roles in mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, financial management, and investor relations. During much of that time he worked closely with Jim Chapman and me, along with the rest of our senior leadership team. For the past year, he has been successfully leading our western gas operations that serve nearly 1.2 million customers. He has a wealth of experience in finance, is well-known to many of our investors, and is a strong, capable leader." Before his current role leading western gas operations, Ridge served as vice president-Investor Relations. Ridge was an executive director in the Energy Investment Banking Group at J.P. Morgan in New York prior to joining Dominion Energy in 2014. During his nearly decade-long banking career, Ridge worked with clients in the electric and natural gas utility sectors on strategic and financing transactions. Ridge earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Brigham Young University and a master's degree in international economics and finance from Brandeis University. Chapman came to Dominion Energy in 2013. He became senior vice president-Mergers & Acquisitions and treasurer in 2016 and assumed the role of chief financial officer in 2018. "During his tenure, Jim has adeptly overseen a rapid transition to an asset mix largely defined by state-regulated utility operations and a capital plan aimed at decarbonization in support of public policy goals and our commitment to Net Zero emissions by 2050," said Blue. "He has served the company well, and we wish him good fortune in the next chapter of his career." "I am very grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with the outstanding team at Dominion Energy over the past nine years, and am proud of the accomplishments we have made on behalf of this great company's customers and shareholders," said Chapman. About 7 million customers in 15 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to safely providing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy and to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more. SOURCE Dominion Energy A leading global company that operates as a leading validator for major global blockchains To contribute to the WEMIX3.0 ecosystem by improving user accessibility Blockdaemon, Allnodes and other global companies with proven track record joining one by one SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wemade welcomed DSRV, a blockchain infrastructure company, as an NCP of the 40WONDERS for the WEMIX3.0 Mainnet and assigned 3 as its unique identification number. DSRV is a global company and a leading validator of major blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, Aptos and more. It also operates an all-in-one node platform, All That Node, which allows developers to focus on creating blockchain services by providing various blockchain nodes. DSRV will participate as a validator and decision-maker of WEMIX3.0. It will also provide infrastructure to improve convenience and accessibility for users and contribute to the growth and betterment of WEMIX3.0 ecosystem. Blockdaemon, Allnodes and other global companies with proven track records are joining WEMIX3.0 as 40 WONDERS (WEMIX On-chain Network of Decentralized Ecosystem Regulators). More information on WEMIX3.0 can be found through the official website. SOURCE Wemade Co., Ltd CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) has posted its third-quarter 2022 financial results in a news release available on the company's website at the following link: duke-energy.com/investors. Lynn Good, chair, president and chief executive officer, and Brian Savoy, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the company's financial results and other business and financial updates during an investor presentation at 9 a.m. ET today. The call can be accessed via the investors' section ( duke-energy.com/investors ) of Duke Energy's website or by dialing 833-927-1758 in the U.S. or 929-526-1599 outside the U.S. The confirmation code is 714151. Please call in 10 to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. A recording of the webcast will be available on the investors' section of the company's website on Nov. 4. Duke Energy Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people. Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear. Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2022 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com . The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter , LinkedIn , Instagram and Facebook . Media contact: Jennifer Garber 800.559.3853 Analysts contact: Jack Sullivan 980.373.3564 SOURCE Duke Energy LONDON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recent study report released by Data Bridge Market research with titled "E-Commerce Packaging Market" (covering USA, Europe, China, Japan, India, South East Asia and etc) that highlighting opportunities, risk analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. This E-Commerce Packaging market research report performs the methodical and comprehensive market research study that puts forth the facts and figures linked with any subject about E-Commerce Packaging industry. The forecast, analysis, evaluations and estimations carried out in this E-Commerce Packaging report are all based upon the well-established tools and techniques such as SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces analysis. This market research report acts as a great support to any size of business whether it is large, medium or small. This market research report is formulated with the most excellent and superior tools of collecting, recording, estimating and analyzing market data of E-Commerce Packaging industry. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the e-commerce packaging market was valued at USD 47.61 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 114.55 billion by 2029, registering a CAGR of 11.60% during the forecast period of 2022 to 2029. The market report curated by the Data Bridge Market Research team includes in-depth expert analysis, import/export analysis, pricing analysis, production consumption analysis, patent analysis and technological advancements. Download Sample Copy of E-Commerce Packaging Market Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-e-commerce-packaging-market Market Synopsis: The e-commerce packaging is a technique which is used to transfer, store, and defend the components of the packet till it reaches the customer from the package's supplier. The products vary according to size, shape, qualities, and rigidity depending on the requirement of item's contents the increasing popularity of cross-border shopping has led to increase in demand for high-quality and effective packaging. Increasing popularity of cross-border purchasing has managed to a significant raise in the market for high and lucrative packaging. E-commerce packaging is attaining major attraction since recent past years. E-commerce players such as JD.com and Suning.com are accepting reusable plastic boxes, which is lucrative and generates low waste. JD.com also declared that it aims to increase the proportion of sustainable materials to 80% of its entire packaging material used by 2020, due to production of high waste from packaging. Opportunities for Players: Technology advancement The rising number of product innovations will boost new market opportunities for the market's growth rate. Various product advancements targeted at enlightening design and manufacturing processes are also aiding market expansion. Technological advancements for evolving effective and eco-friendly e-commerce packaging are likely to create beneficial opportunities for manufacturers in the global e-commerce packaging market. Moreover, rise in strategic collaborations and emerging new markets will act as market drivers and further boost beneficial opportunities for the market's growth rate. Some of the major players operating in the E-Commerce Packaging market are: Smurfit Kappa ( Ireland ) ) NIPPON PAPER INDUSTRIES CO. LTD ( Japan ) ) Crawford Packaging ( Canada ) ) Georgia -Pacific (US) -Pacific (US) DS Smith (UK) Mondi (UK) Packaging Corporation of America (US) Salazar Packaging, Inc. (US) Lil Packaging USA ( England ) ( ) Amcor Plc ( Switzerland ) ) Sealed Air (US) RENGO PACKAGING INC ( Japan ) ) Orora Packaging Australia Pty Ltd ( Australia ) ) RAJAPACK Ltd (UK) Pemcor packaging (US) Spartan Paperboard (US) Roberts PolyPro, Inc.(US) actionpakinc. Com (US) International paper (US) klabin S.A ( Brazil ) Get Detailed Research Report to Understand More @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-e-commerce-packaging-market Recent Development In May 2019 , Amcor Limited purchased Bemis Company , Inc. Amcor aims to build a powerful business model for stockholders, clients, employees and for the environment by merging the two leading companies. , , Inc. Amcor aims to build a powerful business model for stockholders, clients, employees and for the environment by merging the two leading companies. In July 2019 , Berry Global, Inc. purchased RPC Group Both purchases were made to expand the product offering and manufacturing capacity. The report provides insights on the following pointers: Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on the product portfolios of the top players in the E-Commerce Packaging market Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, R&D activities, and product launches in the market Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of the market strategies, and geographic and business segments of the leading players in the market Market Development: Comprehensive information about emerging markets. This report analyzes the market for various segments across geographies Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the E-Commerce Packaging Market Market Dynamics: E-Commerce Packaging Market Expansion of e-commerce industry Growth in the recognition of e-shopping and the increase in growth of electronic goods sector has raise the usage for its packaging products and other alternatives. Online shopping offers benefits over conventional major retailers, including such free delivery, delivery speed, and simple easy returns, these factors has driven the consumer benefits of online shopping, which is estimated to drive global growth. Rising demand of packaged food Rising preference for online shopping and increase the demand of packaged food are major factors expected to drive growth of the global e-commerce packaging market over the forecast period. Increasing demand of customers for sustainable packaging solutions across the value chain, manufacturers and environmental concerns is expected to the reason of growth of this market in the near future Consider Data Bridge Market Research for this Report which would Help Impact Your Revenues Positively This study offers the latest product news, trends, and updates from the industry's leading players who have leveraged their market position. It also offers strategic plans and standards to arrive at informed business decisions adopted by the main players, thereby advocating your go to market strategies. In addition, it offers insights into the dynamics of customer behaviour that can help the organization better curate market strategies Usage of exclusive tailor-made tools along with primary research, secondary research and our in-house data model helps us in extracting the exact market numbers Mapping the customer in 3P grid comprising of Purpose, Planning and Positioning, thereby delivering a solution by keeping the prospecting client at the sweet spot The market research report includes all of the market's valuable elements, such as sales growth, product pricing & analysis, growth opportunities, and recommendations for addressing market challenges The report covers all the primary mergers & acquisitions, alliances, and collaborations that have generated additional opportunities for market players or in some cases, challenges To Gain More Insights about this Research, Visit @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-e-commerce-packaging-market Key Industry Segmentation: E-Commerce Packaging Market By Forms Boxes Bags Tapes Protective Packaging Labels Mailers By Materials Plastics Corrugated Board Paper and Paperboard Glass By End-User Electronics and Electrical Apparels and Accessories Personal Care, Household Food and Beverages Retail, Automotive Pharmaceuticals Regional Analysis/Insights: E-Commerce Packaging Market The countries covered in the e-commerce packaging market report are U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, France, Italy, U.K., Belgium, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, United Arab Emirate, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa. Asia-Pacific dominates e-commerce packaging market in terms of market share and revenue and will continue to flourish its dominance during the forecast period. This is due to the rising consumer preference towards corrugated boxes in growing countries such as India, China, and Japan. , China is leading the Asia-Pacific market. During the projected period, North America is expected to be the fastest developing region due to the rising demand for electronics products, consumer goods, and packaged food which involves attractive customization in different countries in the region TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 01: Executive Summary Part 02: Scope Of The Report Part 03: Research Methodology Part 04: Market Landscape Part 05: Pipeline Analysis Part 06: Market Sizing Part 07: Five Forces Analysis Part 08: Market Segmentation Part 09: Customer Landscape Part 10: Regional Landscape Part 11: Decision Framework Part 12: Drivers And Challenges Part 13: Market Trends Part 14: Vendor Landscape Part 15: Vendor Analysis Part 16: Appendix To Check the Complete Table Of contents, click here @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-e-commerce-packaging-market Explore More Reports: Retail E-commerce Packaging Market, By Material (Corrugated Boxes, Protective packaging, Security envelopes, Tapes and labels, Others), Product Type (Protective Packaging, Boxes, Mailers, Labels, Tape, Others), Merchandise Type (Consumer Electronics, Fashion, Home Furnishings, Health, Personal Care and Beauty, Recreation Goods, Multimedia and Software, Food and Beverages, Home Care, Others), https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-retail-e-commerce-packaging-market Europe E-Commerce Packaging Market, By Form (Boxes, Bags, Tapes, Protective Packaging, Labels, Mailers and Others), Material (Plastics, Corrugated Board, Paper & Paperboard, Glass and Others), End-User (Apparels and Accessories, Electronics and Electrical, Personal Care, Household, Food and Beverages, Retail, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals and Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-e-commerce-packaging-market North America E-Commerce Packaging Market By Form (Boxes, Bags, Tapes, Protective Packaging, Labels, Mailers, Others), Materials (Plastics, Corrugated Board, Paper & Paperboard, Glass, Others), End-User (Apparels and Accessories, Electronics and Electrical, Personal Care, Household, Food and Beverages, Retail, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-e-commerce-packaging-market Middle East and Africa E-Commerce Packaging Market, By Form (Boxes, Bags, Tapes, Protective Packaging, Labels, Mailers, Others), Materials (Plastics, Corrugated Board, Paper & Paperboard, Glass, Others), End-User (Electronics and Electrical, Apparels and Accessories, Personal Care, Household, Food and Beverages, Retail, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Others), Country (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, South Africa and Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-e-commerce-packaging-market Asia-Pacific E-Commerce Packaging Market, By Form (Boxes, Bags, Tapes, Protective Packaging, Labels, Mailers, Others), Materials (Plastics, Corrugated Board, Paper & Paperboard, Glass, Others), End-User (Apparels and Accessories, Electronics and Electrical, Personal Care, Household, Food and Beverages, Retail, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-e-commerce-packaging-market Korea E-commerce Packaging Market, By Product (Boxes, Protective Packaging, Security Envelopes, Tapes and Labels, Packets, Bubble Wraps, Others), Materials (Glass, Paper, Wood, Plastic, Metal, Others), Printing Technology (Flexo Printing, Digital Printing, Litho Laminate Printing, Offset Lithography, Digital Printing, Others), Application (Electronics and Consumer Goods, Apparel and Accessories, Cosmetic, Home Care and Personal Care, Food and Beverages, Home Furnishing, Auto Parts, Healthcare, Recreation Goods, Others), End-User (Traditional E-Commerce Retailers, Third Party and Logistics Companies, Brick and Mortar Retailers, Specialty Retailers, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/korea-e-commerce-packaging-market Japan E-commerce Packaging Market, By Product (Boxes, Protective Packaging, Security Envelopes, Tapes and Labels, Packets, Bubble Wraps, Others), Materials (Glass, Paper, Wood, Plastic, Metal, Others), Printing Technology (Flexo Printing, Digital Printing, Litho Laminate Printing, Offset Lithography, Digital Printing, Others), Application (Electronics and Consumer Goods, Apparel and Accessories, Cosmetic, Home Care and Personal Care, Food and Beverages, Home Furnishing, Auto Parts, Healthcare, Recreation Goods, Others), End-User (Traditional E-Commerce Retailers, Third Party and Logistics Companies, Brick and Mortar Retailers, Specialty Retailers, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/japan-e-commerce-packaging-market Pharma E-Commerce Market, By Product (Prescription Medicine (Rx), Over the Counter (OTC), End User (Direct Sales, Distributors, Online) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-pharma-e-commerce-market Europe E-Commerce Logistics Market, By Service Type (Transportation, Warehousing, Others), Product (Baby Products, Personal Care Products, Books, Home Furnishing Products, Apparel Products, Electronics Products, Automotive Products, Others), Operational Area (International, Domestic), End User (B2B, B2C) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-e-commerce-logistics-market About Data Bridge Market Research: An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today! Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavours to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process. Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune. Data Bridge Market Research has over 500 analysts working in different industries. We have catered more than 40% of the fortune 500 companies globally and have a network of more than 5000+ clientele around the globe. Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate. Contact Us:- Data Bridge Market Research US: +1 888 387 2818 UK: +44 208 089 1725 Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475 Email:- [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1011053/Data_Bridge_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Data Bridge Market Research WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) welcomes Elsa Jacobsen and Kathlyn McHenry to its team as directors of state policy and government relations. Together they will help oversee ECEC's government relations operations in over a dozen states, track state-level legislative and regulatory developments on issues related to early childhood education and help develop advocacy strategies to engage key stakeholders on ECEC's policy goals. "Elsa and Kathlyn are amazing additions to our team. They will both help elevate ECEC's state work through their strategic insight into the policy landscape. They will be a major part of our continuing efforts to forward the objectives of ECEC and our partners," said Radha Mohan, ECEC's executive director. "They provide long-term experience working on early childhood education with a wide range of lawmakers in state legislatures and executive offices. With their addition to the team, I am confident that ECEC will be able to make significant strides on helping providers, educators and families advance their goals on the state level." Jacobsen previously served as director of public policy at Child360, an early learning non-profit in Los Angeles. In this position she developed and executed strategies to advance policies at the local, state and federal levels that increased access to high-quality early education and supported the early childhood workforce. She also conducted original research that informed policy and that highlighted, for legislators, the perspectives of both teachers and child care providers. Prior to her work at Child360, Jacobsen served as a law clerk with Young, Minney & Corr, LLP where she worked on a host of education issues for over 75 charter school clients. She also served an Education Pioneers Fellowship with the California Charter Schools Association and a Bing Public Service Fellowship in the office of the late Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA). "I am thrilled to join ECEC's dynamic team," said Jacobsen. "I'm excited to work with my colleagues to refine and expand ECEC's multi-state strategy and to advocate for smart policies that expand access to high-quality early childhood education." Jacobsen earned her bachelor's degree as well as her master's in education policy analysis and evaluation from Stanford University, and her law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School. McHenry served as a senior policy analyst with the Texas Workforce Commission's Child Care and Early Learning Division where she oversaw the implementation of a $3.5 billion child care stabilization grant. She simultaneously developed and reviewed policy approaches and ensured the state was aligned with federal law and regulation. This followed her time with the Bipartisan Policy Center's Early Childhood Initiative, where she developed and delivered strategic approaches to government affairs, including establishing visibility and credibility of the Initiative with Congress and the administration. Kathlyn also spent several years at the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives, working on programs including CCDBG, Head Start and Preschool Development Grants. "I am more than excited to hit the ground running with ECEC," said McHenry. "I am impressed by the work that the team has already accomplished in making sure all families have access to high-quality childcare and early education. I can't wait to be a part of these efforts in the future." She received her bachelor's degree from University of Washington. About ECEC: The Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) is a non-profit alliance of the leading multi-state/multi-site child care providers, key state child care associations, and premier educational service providers, representing over 6,500 programs in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and select international locations. Our members serve as the unified collective voice for providers of high-quality programs and services that support families and children from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. We are advocates for strong federal and state policies that bring quality to scale. SOURCE Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) Tech industry employment up 20,700, while tech unemployment rate remains in low territory DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tech industry companies maintained a steady pace of hiring, according to the latest "Tech Jobs Report" released today by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry and workforce. CompTIA's analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport reveals that tech companies added 20,700 workers in October, the 23rd straight month of job growth. Industry employment has increased by 193,900 in 2022, 28% higher than the same period last year. Tech industry employment has increased by 193,900 in 2022, 28% higher than the same period last year. Tweet this After a five-month slide, employer job postings for new tech hiring rebounded in October, with nearly 317,000 openings, an increase of more than 10,000 from September. Across the entire economy, tech occupation jobs declined by 116,000 but remain in solidly positive territory for the year. 1 The unemployment rate for tech occupations increased a tenth of a point to 2.2%, paralleling the increase of the national unemployment rate. "The data is roughly in line with expectations," said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. "Tech hiring activity remains steady, but there are undoubtedly concerns of a slowing economy." Within the tech industry the bulk of new hiring occurred in three sector categories IT services and custom software development (+8,800), other information services, including search engines (+6,800) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+5,400). Tech manufacturing employment is up 43% compared to the same period last year. Remote work hiring trends upward Remote work shows no signs of slowing down. Employer job postings for tech positions that specify remote work or work from home options continue to increase, with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021 and 22% in 2020. Major tech hubs saw significant month-over-month increases in tech jobs postings, including Boston (+2,732), New York City (+1,459), San Francisco (+884) and San Jose (+864). The top industries for tech job postings were professional, scientific and technical services (50,688), finance and insurance (35,500) and manufacturing (34,488). Positions for software developers and engineers led the October job postings (85,796). There is also strong demand for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers. The "CompTIA Tech Jobs Report" is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report. For more analysis and perspective visit the CompTIA Tech Job Report video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuqIJd7KnBU_nZd2oXEwa0I5X7Vt124eM. About CompTIA The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the estimated 75 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world's economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for unlocking the potential of the tech industry and its workforce. https://www.comptia.org/ 1 Monthly occupation level data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tends to experience higher levels of variance and volatility. Labor market data from the BLS and employer job posting data from Lightcast may be subject to backward revisions. Media Contact Steven Ostrowski CompTIA [email protected] 630-678-8468 SOURCE CompTIA NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The energy drinks market is set to grow by USD 25.15 billion, at a CAGR of 7.56% from 2021 to 2026. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. The increased scope of organized distribution channels will offer immense growth opportunities. 38% of the market will originate from APAC. Request Free Sample Report. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Energy Drinks Market 2022-2026 Energy Drinks Market 2022-2026: Segmentation Product Sparkling Energy Drinks During the projected period, the sparkling energy drink segment's market share will expand significantly. These sparkling energy drinks are popular among the younger generation across the world because they are reported to give quick energy. Vendors are creating a variety of effervescent energy drinks in order to meet the need for their great popularity among young people. Still Energy Drinks Type Standard Energy Drinks Energy Shots Geography APAC APAC will account for 38% of market growth. The two biggest markets for energy drinks in APAC are China and Japan . This region's market will grow more quickly than other regions' markets. The busy lives of people and their demand for fast energy are two major factors propelling growth in the energy drink market in APAC over the forecast period. and . This region's market will grow more quickly than other regions' markets. The busy lives of people and their demand for fast energy are two major factors propelling growth in the energy drink market in APAC over the forecast period. North America Europe South America Middle East And Africa Detail Insights on the impact of each segment and make informed business decisions, Download the Free Sample Report. Energy Drinks Market 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis and Scope Some of the major vendors of the energy drinks market include Amway Corp., AriZona Beverages USA LLC, Big Red Inc., Carabao Group PCL, Dabur India Ltd., Extreme Energy, Frucor Suntory New Zealand Ltd., Goldwin Health Care Pvt. Ltd., Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc., Living Essentials Marketing LLC, Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd., Monster Energy Co., Mutalo Group, National Beverage Corp., Red Bull GmbH, Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. Ltd., The Coca Cola Co., and Xyience Inc. To help businesses improve their market position, Technavio's report provides a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the market. AriZona Beverages USA LLC.: The company offers energy drinks that boast a vitality-inducing blend of green tea, tropical and citrus fruits, Panax Ginseng, Guarana, Schisandra, and Vitamins A, C, and E. The company offers energy drinks that boast a vitality-inducing blend of green tea, tropical and citrus fruits, Panax Ginseng, Guarana, Schisandra, and Vitamins A, C, and E. Dabur India Ltd.: The company offers energy drinks enriched with Vitamin-D and Calcium for easy assimilation and quick replenishment of essential vitamins, minerals, and body salts. The company offers energy drinks enriched with Vitamin-D and Calcium for easy assimilation and quick replenishment of essential vitamins, minerals, and body salts. Living Essentials Marketing LLC: The company offers energy drinks that avoid nervousness, sleeplessness, and occasionally rapid heartbeat. The company offers energy drinks that avoid nervousness, sleeplessness, and occasionally rapid heartbeat. Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd.: The company offers energy drinks that offer fat-free water-based non-alcoholic energy drink that increases energy levels immediately after consumption as it contains nutritional properties having the power to rejuvenate strength. The company offers energy drinks that offer fat-free water-based non-alcoholic energy drink that increases energy levels immediately after consumption as it contains nutritional properties having the power to rejuvenate strength. Monster Energy Co.: The company offers energy drinks with a powerful punch but a smooth, easy-drinking flavor. Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Buy Sample Report. The report also covers the following areas : The energy drinks market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate. The hectic lifestyle and need for instant energy will offer immense growth opportunities. However, the Stiff competition from low-cost substitutes will hamper the market growth. Energy Drinks Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026 Detailed information on factors that will assist energy drinks market growth during the next five years Estimation of the energy drinks market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the energy drinks market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of energy drinks market vendors Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights! Subscribe to our "Basic Plan" billed annually at USD 5000 . Related Reports: Tonic Water Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The report extensively covers the tonic water market segmentation by Application (Alcohol drinks mixer and Direct consumption) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa). Sugar-Free Carbonated Drinks Market by Distribution Channel and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The report extensively covers the sugar-free carbonated drinks market segmentation by distribution channel (off-premise and on-premise) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). Energy Drinks Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 7.56% Market growth 2022-2026 $25.15 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.78 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 38% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Amway Corp., AriZona Beverages USA LLC, Big Red Inc., Carabao Group PCL, Dabur India Ltd., Extreme Energy, Frucor Suntory New Zealand Ltd., Goldwin Health Care Pvt. Ltd., Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., Living Essentials Marketing LLC, Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd., Monster Energy Co., Mutalo Group, National Beverage Corp., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Inc., Red Bull GmbH, Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. Ltd., The Coca Cola Co., and Xyience Inc. 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. 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 Product Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Market Segmentation by Type Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 09: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 10: Parent market Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 13: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 18: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 19: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 20: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 21: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 22: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 23: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 24: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Product 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 25: Chart on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 26: Data Table on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Product Exhibit 27: Chart on Comparison by Product Exhibit 28: Data Table on Comparison by Product 5.3 Sparkling energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 29: Chart on Sparkling energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 30: Data Table on Sparkling energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 31: Chart on Sparkling energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 32: Data Table on Sparkling energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Still energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 33: Chart on Still energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 34: Data Table on Still energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 35: Chart on Still energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 36: Data Table on Still energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by Product Exhibit 37: Market opportunity by Product ($ billion) 6 Market Segmentation by Type 6.1 Market segments Exhibit 38: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 6.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 40: Chart on Comparison by Type Exhibit 41: Data Table on Comparison by Type 6.3 Standard energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on Standard energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Standard energy drinks - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 44: Chart on Standard energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 45: Data Table on Standard energy drinks - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 6.4 Energy shots - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Energy shots - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 47: Data Table on Energy shots - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 48: Chart on Energy shots - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on Energy shots - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 6.5 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 50: Market opportunity by Type ($ billion) 7 Customer Landscape 7.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 51: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 8 Geographic Landscape 8.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 52: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 8.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 54: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 55: Data Table on Geographic comparison 8.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 56: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 57: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 58: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 59: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 60: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 61: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 62: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 63: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 64: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 65: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 66: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 67: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 68: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 69: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 70: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 71: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 72: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 73: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 74: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 75: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 76: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 77: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 78: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 79: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 80: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 81: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 82: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 83: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 84: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 85: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 86: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 87: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.11 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 88: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 89: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 90: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 91: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.12 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 92: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 93: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion) Exhibit 94: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 95: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 8.13 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 96: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion) 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 9.1 Market drivers 9.2 Market challenges 9.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 97: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 9.4 Market trends 10 Vendor Landscape 10.1 Overview 10.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 98: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 10.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 99: Overview on factors of disruption 10.4 Industry risks Exhibit 100: Impact of key risks on business 11 Vendor Analysis 11.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 101: Vendors covered 11.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 102: Matrix on vendor position and classification 11.3 AriZona Beverages USA LLC LLC Exhibit 103: AriZona Beverages USA LLC - Overview LLC - Overview Exhibit 104: AriZona Beverages USA LLC - Product / Service LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 105: AriZona Beverages USA LLC - Key offerings 11.4 Dabur India Ltd. Exhibit 106: Dabur India Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 107: Dabur India Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 108: Dabur India Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 109: Dabur India Ltd. - Segment focus 11.5 Living Essentials Marketing LLC Exhibit 110: Living Essentials Marketing LLC - Overview Exhibit 111: Living Essentials Marketing LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 112: Living Essentials Marketing LLC - Key offerings 11.6 Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd. Exhibit 113: Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 114: Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 115: Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd. - Key offerings 11.7 Monster Energy Co. Exhibit 116: Monster Energy Co. - Overview Exhibit 117: Monster Energy Co. - Product / Service Exhibit 118: Monster Energy Co. - Key offerings 11.8 Mutalo Group Exhibit 119: Mutalo Group - Overview Exhibit 120: Mutalo Group - Product / Service Exhibit 121: Mutalo Group - Key offerings 11.9 National Beverage Corp. Exhibit 122: National Beverage Corp. - Overview Exhibit 123: National Beverage Corp. - Product / Service Exhibit 124: National Beverage Corp. - Key offerings 11.10 PepsiCo Inc. Exhibit 125: PepsiCo Inc. - Overview Exhibit 126: PepsiCo Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 127: PepsiCo Inc. - Key news Exhibit 128: PepsiCo Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 129: PepsiCo Inc. - Segment focus 11.11 Red Bull GmbH Exhibit 130: Red Bull GmbH - Overview Exhibit 131: Red Bull GmbH - Product / Service Exhibit 132: Red Bull GmbH - Key offerings 11.12 The Coca Cola Co. Exhibit 133: The Coca Cola Co. - Overview Exhibit 134: The Coca Cola Co. - Business segments Exhibit 135: The Coca Cola Co. - Key news Exhibit 136: The Coca Cola Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 137: The Coca Cola Co. - Segment focus 12 Appendix 12.1 Scope of the report 12.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 138: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 139: Exclusions checklist 12.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 140: Currency conversion rates for US$ 12.4 Research methodology Exhibit 141: Research methodology Exhibit 142: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 143: Information sources 12.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 144: 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 Webcast on November 8, 2022 LAKEWOOD, Colo., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) ("Energy Fuels" or the "Company") today reported its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2022. The Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and may be viewed on the Electronic Document Gathering and Retrieval System ("EDGAR") at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml , on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com , and on the Company's website at www.energyfuels.com . Unless noted otherwise, all dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars. Highlights: At September 30, 2022 , the Company had a robust balance sheet with $122.3 million of working capital, including $77.1 million of cash and cash equivalents, $11.6 million of marketable securities, $27.3 million of inventory, and no short term (or long term) debt. At current commodity prices, the Company's product inventory has a value of $44.1 million . , the Company had a robust balance sheet with of working capital, including of cash and cash equivalents, of marketable securities, of inventory, and no short term (or long term) debt. At current commodity prices, the Company's product inventory has a value of . During the quarter ended September 30, 2022 , the Company incurred a net loss of $9.3 million , which includes increases in development, permitting and land holding costs and selling, general and administration costs associated with the Company's efforts to enhance its business processes and operational readiness for the current and future growth and activity in our uranium and rare earth element (" REE ") operations. , the Company incurred a net loss of , which includes increases in development, permitting and land holding costs and selling, general and administration costs associated with the Company's efforts to enhance its business processes and operational readiness for the current and future growth and activity in our uranium and rare earth element (" ") operations. With recent uranium market strength and having secured three long-term uranium contracts with major U.S. utilities earlier this year, the Company has hired over 20 new employees and is beginning to perform the work needed to recommence production at one or more of our mines and ISR facilities, starting as soon as 2023. Until such time when the Company has ramped back up to commercial uranium production, we can rely on our significant uranium inventories to fulfill our new contract requirements. In June 2022 , the U.S. Department of Energy (" DOE ") issued a Request for Proposals (" RFP ") to purchase uranium (" U 3 O 8 ") for the new U.S. Uranium Reserve Program. The DOE states that they expect to purchase up to 1 million pounds of U 3 O 8 inventory from up to four (4) qualified U.S. uranium producers with individual awards ranging from 100,000 pounds to 500,000 pounds. The uranium must be physically located at Honeywell's Metropolis Works conversion facility (the " U.S. Converter "). Energy Fuels believes it meets all qualifications to supply the Reserve, and the Company currently holds about 610,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 at the U.S. Converter. The Company has submitted a bid to sell U 3 O 8 to the Reserve, taking into consideration our long-term contract commitments and current and expected market conditions. There are no guarantees the DOE will purchase uranium from the Company under this RFP. Assuming the bid review process is not extended by DOE, the Company expects the DOE to issue the awards by mid-November 2022 , with deliveries expected to occur by the end of 2022 or early 2023. , the U.S. Department of Energy (" ") issued a Request for Proposals (" ") to purchase uranium (" ") for the new U.S. Uranium Reserve Program. The DOE states that they expect to purchase up to 1 million pounds of U O inventory from up to four (4) qualified U.S. uranium producers with individual awards ranging from 100,000 pounds to 500,000 pounds. The uranium must be physically located at Honeywell's Metropolis Works conversion facility (the " "). Energy Fuels believes it meets all qualifications to supply the Reserve, and the Company currently holds about 610,000 pounds of U O at the U.S. Converter. The Company has submitted a bid to sell U O to the Reserve, taking into consideration our long-term contract commitments and current and expected market conditions. There are no guarantees the DOE will purchase uranium from the Company under this RFP. Assuming the bid review process is not extended by DOE, the Company expects the DOE to issue the awards by , with deliveries expected to occur by the end of 2022 or early 2023. During the first nine months of 2022, the Company produced approximately 205 tonnes of mixed partially separated carbonate (" RE Carbonate "), containing approximately 95 tonnes of total rare earth oxides (" TREO "). Energy Fuels' partially separated RE Carbonate contains a higher concentration of valuable NdPr, roughly 32% - 34% NdPr, compared to our previously produced non-separated RE Concentrate which contained approximately 22% NdPr, and is the most advanced REE material being produced in the U.S. today. During Q4-2022, the Company expects to receive approximately 640 tonnes of monazite, which will be processed into partially separated RE Carbonate during Q4-2022 and Q1-2023. "), containing approximately 95 tonnes of total rare earth oxides (" "). Energy Fuels' partially separated RE Carbonate contains a higher concentration of valuable NdPr, roughly 32% - 34% NdPr, compared to our previously produced non-separated RE Concentrate which contained approximately 22% NdPr, and is the most advanced REE material being produced in the U.S. today. During Q4-2022, the Company expects to receive approximately 640 tonnes of monazite, which will be processed into partially separated RE Carbonate during Q4-2022 and Q1-2023. In May 2022 , the Company announced it had entered into agreements to acquire a 58 square mile rare earth land position in Brazil (the " Bahia Project "). The Bahia Project is a well-known heavy mineral sand (" HMS ") deposit that has the potential to feed the Company's White Mesa Mill with REE and uranium-bearing monazite sand for decades. Due diligence on the Bahia Project was completed at the end of August, at which time the Company advised the sellers that it intended to proceed with the purchases and was ready to commence closing procedures. After completion of a number of administrative logistics required in both the U.S. and Brazil , the mineral transfers were initiated in mid-October, and closing is currently expected to occur in late 2022 or early 2023 upon approval of the Brazilian governmental authorities reviewing the pending transfers. Upon acquisition, the Company plans to conduct an extensive exploration program to better define the HMS and monazite resource, including comprehensive sonic drilling (for a total phase 1 program of 2,250 meters) and geophysical mapping, with the intent to undertake an Initial Assessment under SK-1300 (U.S.) and a Technical Report under NI 43-101 ( Canada ) during Q4-2023, to be completed in early Q1-2024. , the Company announced it had entered into agreements to acquire a 58 square mile rare earth land position in (the " "). The Bahia Project is a well-known heavy mineral sand (" ") deposit that has the potential to feed the Company's White Mesa Mill with REE and uranium-bearing monazite sand for decades. Due diligence on the Bahia Project was completed at the end of August, at which time the Company advised the sellers that it intended to proceed with the purchases and was ready to commence closing procedures. After completion of a number of administrative logistics required in both the U.S. and , the mineral transfers were initiated in mid-October, and closing is currently expected to occur in late 2022 or early 2023 upon approval of the Brazilian governmental authorities reviewing the pending transfers. Upon acquisition, the Company plans to conduct an extensive exploration program to better define the HMS and monazite resource, including comprehensive sonic drilling (for a total phase 1 program of 2,250 meters) and geophysical mapping, with the intent to undertake an Initial Assessment under SK-1300 (U.S.) and a Technical Report under NI 43-101 ( ) during Q4-2023, to be completed in early Q1-2024. The Company is currently in active discussions with several additional sources of natural monazite sands around the world to significantly increase the supply of feed for our growing REE initiative. The Company continues to make excellent progress toward installing full REE separation capabilities at the Mill to produce both "light" and "heavy" separated REE oxides in the coming years. The Company plans to initially install a "light" REE separation circuit within the existing Mill facilities in the next 12-18 months with the expected ability to produce between 2,500 5,000 tonnes TREO (500 1,000 tonnes NdPr oxide or oxalates) per year. As this circuit would be constructed within existing Mill facilities, capital expenditures are expected to be low. The Company is also proceeding with the design, engineering and permitting of a separate crack and leach circuit and a second larger "light" and "heavy" separations circuit with capacity in the order of 10,000 15,000 tonnes TREO per year to provide additional REE processing capacity at the Mill in the coming years. During the first nine months of 2022, the Company sold approximately 642,000 pounds of existing inventory of vanadium ("V 2 O 5 ") (as ferrovanadium, "FeV"), for an average weighted net price of $13.69 per pound of V 2 O 5 . Vanadium markets have dropped in recent months. Therefore, the Company has halted sales of its inventory which currently stands at approximately 987,000 pounds of V 2 O 5 . However, the Company expects to resume sales as markets may improve in the future. The Company is evaluating the potential to resume vanadium recovery at the Mill in the future as market conditions may warrant for future sale and to replace sold inventory, where its tailings pond solutions contain an estimated additional 1.0 to 3.0 million recoverable pounds of V 2 O 5 . Mark S. Chalmers, Energy Fuels' President and CEO, stated: "Energy Fuels continues to strengthen our U.S. market leading position in uranium and rare earth elements, which are both critical to the clean energy transition. Energy Fuels has 'one-of-a-kind' competencies that are critical to uranium, rare earth elements, medical isotopes, and vanadium markets; namely our ability to process feedstocks that are naturally radioactive and recover critical materials needed for the clean energy transition. No other company in the U.S. can do the things Energy Fuels does. We are committed to advancing each of these initiatives in a disciplined manner, while working toward profitability and sustained cash flow. "Uranium is the fuel for carbon-free nuclear energy, and nations around the world are embracing nuclear, as it provides reliable, carbon-free, baseload electricity. Governments in numerous countries, including the U.S., are supporting both existing and new nuclear to help solve national security, energy security, and carbon reduction challenges. We are saddened by the continuing atrocities being committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, and we stand by our partners in the U.S. nuclear industry and the U.S. government to shift away from Russian uranium and nuclear fuel imports as soon as practicable. As previously disclosed, Energy Fuels has signed new long-term uranium sales contracts with major U.S. nuclear utilities, with sales and sales revenues beginning in 2023. We are also excited to announce that we are making significant investments in a number of our existing mines and production facilities, including hiring people, with an eye toward resuming large-scale uranium production very soon. We have been the only U.S. company to continue to produce uranium over the past several years, while maintaining several of our projects on standby status, which provides an excellent foundation from which we can build our production in the coming years. We look forward to maintaining our position as the largest U.S. uranium producer and being a long-term supplier of secure and responsibly sourced U.S. uranium that is insulated from geopolitical, transport, and other supply chain issues. We are also pleased to have been able to submit a bid to sell uranium to the U.S. government under the new U.S. Uranium Reserve, a program that resulted from the Company's 2018 Section 232 Petition, and we eagerly await the results of that bidding process. "We also continue to make spectacular progress on rare earth elements. Indeed, we are pleased to announce that we plan to install a commercial-scale "light" rare earth separation circuit within the existing footprint of our White Mesa Mill in Utah that we expect to be operational in the next 12 18 months. We are already producing the most advanced rare earth product in the U.S. today, a high-purity, partially separated mixed rare earth carbonate. We expect to go one step further by producing up to 500 1,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide (or oxalates) per year by late-2023 or early-2024. If successful, we hope to be the 'first to market' in the U.S. for this high-value, advanced material. We anticipate selling our separated NdPr oxide (or oxalate) to major electric vehicle manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe, with a goal to significantly increase this capacity in coming years. This should position Energy Fuels as one of the 'go to' suppliers of advanced rare earth materials in the U.S. and one of the first companies that electric vehicle (EV) and other clean technology manufacturers look to for the raw materials they need. Ultimately, we plan to install the capacity to produce over 3,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide, plus 250 tonnes of dysprosium oxide and 100 tonnes of terbium oxide per year, in the next 3-4 years, subject to licensing, commissioning, financing, offtake, market conditions, and sufficient monazite feedstock. "On the monazite feedstock front, we continue to make excellent progress. With regard to our Bahia Project in Brazil, we continue to move diligently toward closing. The mineral transfers were initiated in mid-October after a number of administrative logistics required for closing were completed in both the U.S. and Brazil. Closing is scheduled to occur as soon as the transfers have been approved by the Brazilian governmental authorities reviewing the pending transfers, which we expect by the end of 2022 or in early 2023. Upon acquisition, the Company plans to conduct an initial phase of exploration drilling on the properties, totaling 2,250 meters, in order to maintain expected production timelines. In addition, we continue discussions with a number of monazite suppliers from around the world interested in partnering with Energy Fuels, and we are confident in our ability to secure monazite supply deals that ensure a 'win-win' for both Energy Fuels and our partners. "Finally, we continue to make progress on medical isotopes with major players in the space. If we can successfully recover radioactive isotopes needed for emerging cancer treatments from our existing process streams, we will have secured yet another opportunity to generate significant cash flows in the next 5 to 10 years. We also continue to track vanadium markets to determine when to resume sales of our existing inventories and when to resume production." Webcast at 4:00 pm ET on November 8, 2022: Energy Fuels will be hosting a video webcast on November 8, 2022 at 4:00 pm ET (2:00 pm MT) to discuss its Q3-2022 financial results, the outlook for 2022, uranium, rare earths, vanadium, and medical isotopes. To join the webcast and access the presentation and viewer-controlled webcast slides, please click on the link below: Webcast Link If you would like to participate in the webcast and ask questions, please dial in to 1-888-664-6392 (toll free in the U.S. and Canada). A link to a recorded version of the proceedings will be available on the Company's website shortly after the webcast by calling 1-888-390-0541 (toll free in the U.S. and Canada) and by entering the code 619525#. The recording will be available until November 22, 2022. Selected Summary Financial Information: Three months ended Nine months ended September 30, September 30, $000's, except per share data 2022 2021 2022 2021 Results of Operations: Total revenues $ 2,933 $ 715 $ 12,337 $ 1,524 Gross profit (loss) 1,404 (13) 4,497 796 Operating loss (13,664) (8,381) (30,584) (25,570) Net loss attributable to the company (9,167) (7,870) (41,950) (29,562) Basic and diluted net loss per common share (0.06) (0.05) (0.27) (0.21) As at As at $000's September 30, 2022 December 31, 2021 Financial Position: Working capital $ 122,334 $ 143,190 Property, plant and equipment, net 20,899 21,983 Mineral properties 83,539 83,539 Total assets 279,084 315,446 Total long-term liabilities 14,531 13,805 Financial Discussion: At September 30, 2022, the Company had $122.3 million of working capital, including $88.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities and $27.3 million of inventory, including approximately 692,000 pounds of uranium and 987,000 pounds of high-purity vanadium, both in the form of immediately marketable product. The current spot price of U 3 O 8 , according to TradeTech, is $52.50 per pound, and the current mid-point spot price of V 2 O 5 , according to Metal Bulletin, is $7.80 per pound. Based on those spot prices, the Company's uranium and vanadium inventories have a current market value of $36.3 million and $7.7 million, respectively, totaling $44.0 million. The Company also holds RE Carbonate inventory with a current value of $0.1 million, for total product inventory of $44.1 million at current commodity prices. During the quarter ended September 30, 2022, the Company incurred a net loss of $9.3 million, compared to a net loss of $8.0 million for the third quarter of 2021, and a net loss of $42.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 compared to a net loss of $29.7 million during the first nine months of 2021. The increased net losses in 2022 are due primarily to a non-cash mark-to-market decrease in the value of investments accounted for at fair value of $13.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. Operations Update and Outlook for 2022: Overview The Company continues to believe that uranium supply and demand fundamentals point to higher sustained uranium prices in the future. In addition, Russia's recent invasion of Ukraine and the recent entry into the uranium market by financial entities purchasing uranium on the spot market to hold for the long-term has the potential to result in higher sustained spot and term prices and, perhaps, induce utilities to enter into more long-term contracts with non-Russian producers like Energy Fuels to ensure security of supply and more certain pricing. Having recently secured three long-term uranium contracts with major U.S. utilities, the Company is beginning to perform the work needed to recommence production at one or more of its mines and ISR facilities, starting as soon as 2023. Until such time when the Company has ramped back up to commercial uranium production, it can rely on its significant uranium inventories to fulfill its new contract requirements. To that end, the Company purchased an additional 68,552 pounds of U. S. origin U 3 O 8 on the spot market in October 2022. The Company also continues to evaluate selling a portion of its inventories on the spot market in response to future upside price volatility, into the newly created U.S. Uranium Reserve Program, or for delivery into additional long-term supply contracts if procured. During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Company also sold a portion of its vanadium inventory into then strengthening markets. The Company will also continue to seek new sources of revenue, including through its emerging REE business, as well as new sources of Alternate Feed Materials and new fee processing opportunities at the Mill that can be processed without reliance on current uranium sales prices. The Company is also seeking new sources of natural monazite sands (in addition to the pending acquisition of the Bahia Project) for its emerging REE business, is evaluating the potential to recover radioisotopes for use in the development of targeted alpha therapy medical isotopes for the treatment of cancer, and continues its support of U.S. governmental activities to assist the U.S. uranium mining industry, including the new U.S. Uranium Reserve Program and other efforts to restore domestic nuclear fuel capabilities. Extraction and Recovery Activities Overview During 2022, the Company plans to recover 130,000 to 140,000 pounds of uranium, which is an increase over our previous guidance of 100,000 to 120,000 pounds of uranium in 2022. This increased uranium production in 2022, combined with other factors, has resulted in a delayed start of our second REE processing campaign in 2022, which is now expected to commence in November 2022 and carry over into Q1 2023. As a result, the Company now expects to produce approximately 205 tonnes of partially separated RE Carbonate in 2022 containing approximately 95 tonnes of high-value partially separated TREO, with the remaining production from the second 2022 REE processing campaign of approximately 410 tonnes of partially separated RE Carbonate containing approximately 200 tonnes of high-value partially separated TREO being packaged in and attributable to Q1 2023. The total expected production from this second 2022 campaign plus production to date in 2022 is equivalent to approximately 831 tons of non-separated RE Carbonate containing approximately 400 tonnes of non-separated TREO, which falls within our 2022 guidance of 650-1,000 tons of non-separated RE Carbonate containing 300-650 tonnes of non-separated TREO, although a portion of that total expected production will carry over into 2023. No vanadium production is currently planned during 2022, though the Company sold some of its existing vanadium inventory into recent strong markets and is evaluating the potential to recommence vanadium production in 2023 or later years as market conditions may warrant for future sale and to replace sold inventory. The Company secured three new long-term sales contracts with U.S. nuclear utilities in May 2022 and is continuing to strategically pursue additional uranium sales commitments with pricing expected to have both fixed and market-related components. The Company believes that recent price increases, volatility and focus on security of supply in light of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine have increased the potential for the Company to make uranium sales and procure additional term sales contracts with utilities at pricing that sustains production and covers corporate overhead. Therefore, existing inventories may increase from 760,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 (692,000 pounds as of September 30, 2022 plus 68,552 pounds acquired after quarter end) to 890,000 to 900,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 at year-end 2022 or may increase to a lesser extent, or be reduced, in the event the Company sells a portion of its inventory on the spot market, to the U.S. Uranium Reserve Program, or pursuant to term contracts in 2022. ISR Activities The Company expects to produce insignificant quantities of U 3 O 8 in the year ending December 31, 2022 from Nichols Ranch. Until such time when market conditions improve sufficiently, suitable term sales contracts can be procured, or the U.S. Uranium Reserve Program is expanded, the Company expects to maintain the Nichols Ranch Project on standby and defer development of further wellfields and header houses. The Company currently holds 34 fully permitted, undeveloped wellfields at Nichols Ranch, including four additional wellfields at the Nichols Ranch wellfields, 22 wellfields at the adjacent Jane Dough wellfields, and eight wellfields at the Hank Project, which is fully permitted to be constructed as a satellite facility to the Nichols Ranch Plant. The Company expects to continue to keep the Alta Mesa Project on standby until such time that market conditions improve sufficiently, suitable term sales contracts can be procured, or the U.S. Uranium Reserve Program is expanded. Conventional Activities Conventional Extraction and Recovery Activities During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Mill did not package any material quantities of U 3 O 8 , focusing instead on developing its REE recovery business. During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Mill produced approximately 205 tonnes of partially separated RE Carbonate, containing approximately 95 tonnes of high value partially separated TREO. The Mill recovered small quantities of uranium during the Quarter, which were retained in circuit. During 2022, the Company expects to recover 130,000 to 140,000 pounds of uranium at the Mill as finished product. The Company expects to recover approximately 205 tonnes of partially separated RE Carbonate (equivalent to approximately 277 tonnes of non-separated RE Carbonate) containing approximately 95 tonnes of high value partially separated TREO (equivalent to approximately 128 tonnes of non-separated TREO) at the Mill during 2022. The Company expects to sell all or a portion of its mixed RE Carbonate to Neo Performance Materials ("Neo") or other global separation facilities and/or to stockpile it for future production of separated REE oxides at the Mill or elsewhere. The Company is in advanced discussions with several sources of natural monazite sands (in addition to the Bahia Project) to secure additional supplies of monazite sands, which if successful, would be expected to allow the Company to increase RE Carbonate production. In addition to its 760,000 pounds of finished uranium inventories currently located at North American conversion facilities and at the Mill (692,000 pounds as of September 30, 2022 plus 68,552 pounds acquired after quarter end) and the 130,000 to 140,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 expected to be produced in 2022, the Company has approximately 170,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 contained in stockpiled Alternate Feed Materials and other ore inventory at the Mill that can be recovered relatively quickly in the future, as general market conditions may warrant (totaling about 1,060,000 to 1,070,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 of total uranium inventory). The Company is also seeking to acquire additional ore inventory from third party mine cleanup activities that can be recovered relatively quickly in the future. The Company currently holds approximately 987,000 pounds of V 2 O 5 in inventory, and there remains an estimated 1.0 to 3.0 million pounds of additional solubilized recoverable V 2 O 5 remaining in tailings solutions awaiting future recovery, as market conditions may warrant. Conventional Standby, Permitting and Evaluation Activities During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, standby and environmental compliance activities continued at the fully permitted and substantially developed Pinyon Plain Project (uranium and, potentially, copper) and the fully permitted and developed La Sal Complex (uranium and vanadium). The Company increased its number of employees, and continued carrying out engineering, procurement and construction management activities, at its Pinyon Plain Project during the Quarter. The timing of the Company's plans to extract and process mineralized materials from these projects will be based on sustained improvements in general market conditions, procurement of suitable sales contracts and/or the expansion of the U.S. Uranium Reserve Program. The Company is selectively advancing certain permits at its other major conventional uranium projects, such as the Roca Honda Project, which is a large, high-grade conventional project in New Mexico. The Company is also continuing to maintain required permits at its conventional projects, including the Whirlwind Project, which is now in the process of recommencing mining operations, and the Sheep Mountain Project. In addition, the Company will continue to evaluate the Bullfrog Project. Expenditures for certain of these projects have been adjusted to coincide with expected dates of price recoveries based on the Company's forecasts. All of these projects serve as important pipeline assets for the Company's future conventional production capabilities, as market conditions may warrant. Uranium Sales During the three months ended September 30, 2022, the Company did not enter into any new uranium sales contracts, having just recently entered into three uranium sale and purchase agreements with major U.S. utilities in May 2022, constituting its first new long-term supply contracts since 2018. Having observed a marked uptick in interest from nuclear utilities seeking long-term uranium supply, the Company remains actively engaged in pursuing additional selective long-term uranium sales contracts. The Company submitted an offer to sell a portion of its inventories currently located at the ConverDyn conversion facility to the DOE's newly created U.S. Uranium Reserve Program. If the offer is accepted, the Company may complete some sales of uranium during 2022. Vanadium Sales As a result of strengthening vanadium markets, during the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Company sold approximately 642,000 pounds of the Company's existing inventory of V 2 O 5 (as FeV) at a net weighted average price of $13.69 per pound of V 2 O 5 . The Company expects to sell its remaining finished vanadium product when justified into the metallurgical industry, as well as other markets that demand a higher purity product, including the aerospace, chemical, and potentially the vanadium battery industries. The Company expects to sell to a diverse group of customers in order to maximize revenues and profits. The vanadium produced in the 2018/19 Pond Return campaign was a high-purity vanadium product of 99.6%-99.7% V 2 O 5 . The Company believes there may be opportunities to sell certain quantities of this high-purity material at a premium to reported spot prices. The Company may also retain vanadium product in inventory for future sale, depending on vanadium spot prices and general market conditions. RE Carbonate Sales The Company commenced its ramp-up to commercial production of a mixed RE Carbonate in March 2021 and has shipped all of its RE Carbonate produced to-date to Neo's Silmet facility in Estonia, where it is currently being fed into their separation process. All RE Carbonate produced at the Mill in 2022 is expected to be sold to Neo for separation at Silmet. Until such time as the Company expects to permit and construct its own separation circuits at the Mill, production in future years is expected to be sold to Neo for separation at Silmet and, potentially, to other REE separation facilities outside of the U.S. To the extent not sold, the Company expects to stockpile mixed RE Carbonate at the Mill for future separation and other downstream REE processing at the Mill or elsewhere. During the quarter ended September 30, 2022, the Company sold approximately 89,000 kilograms of TREO at an average price of $25.03 per kilogram of TREO. While the Company continues to ramp up its mixed RE Carbonate production and additional funds are spent on process enhancements, improving recoveries, product quality and other optimization, profits from this initiative are expected to be minimal until such time when monazite throughput rates are increased and optimized. However, even at the current throughput rates, the Company is recovering most of its direct costs of this growing initiative, with the other costs associated with ramping up production, process enhancements and evaluating future separation capabilities at the Mill being expensed as underutilized capacity production costs applicable to RE Carbonate and development expenditures. Throughout this process, the Company is gaining important knowledge, experience and technical information, all of which will be valuable for current and future mixed RE Carbonate production and expected future production of separated REE oxides and other advanced REE materials at the Mill. As discussed above, the Company is planning to install a "light" separation circuit within existing Mill facilities and is evaluating installing a separate crack and leach circuit and full separation circuit at the Mill to produce both "light" and "heavy" separated REE oxides in the coming years, subject to successful licensing, financing, and commissioning and continued strong market conditions. About Energy Fuels: Energy Fuels is a leading U.S.-based uranium mining company, supplying U 3 O 8 to major nuclear utilities. The Company also produces vanadium from certain of its projects, as market conditions warrant, and is ramping up to full commercial-scale production of RE Carbonate. Its corporate offices are in Lakewood, Colorado near Denver, and all its assets and employees are in the United States. Energy Fuels holds three of America's key uranium production centers: the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the Nichols Ranch ISR Project in Wyoming, and the Alta Mesa ISR Project in Texas. The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the U.S. today, has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year, and has the ability to produce vanadium when market conditions warrant, as well as RE Carbonate from various uranium-bearing ores. The Nichols Ranch ISR Project is currently on standby and has a licensed capacity of 2 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year. The Alta Mesa ISR Project is also currently on standby and has a licensed capacity of 1.5 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year. In addition to the above production facilities, Energy Fuels also has one of the largest S-K 1300 and NI 43-101 compliant uranium resource portfolios in the U.S. and several uranium and uranium/vanadium mining projects on standby and in various stages of permitting and development. The primary trading market for Energy Fuels' common shares is the NYSE American under the trading symbol "UUUU," and the Company's common shares are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "EFR." Energy Fuels' website is www.energyfuels.com . Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain "Forward Looking Information" and "Forward Looking Statements" within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities legislation, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: production and sales forecasts; costs of production; any expectation that the Company will be awarded any sales under the U.S. Uranium Reserve; scalability, and the Company's ability and readiness to re-start, expand or deploy any of its existing projects or capacity to respond to any improvements in uranium market conditions or in response to the Uranium Reserve; any expectation as to future uranium, vanadium, RE Carbonate or REE market fundamentals or sales; any expectation as to recommencement of production at any of the Company's uranium mines or the timing thereof; any expectation regarding any remaining dissolved vanadium in the Mill's tailings facility solutions or the ability of the Company to recover any such vanadium at acceptable costs or at all; any expectation as to the ability of the Company to secure any new sources of Alternate Feed Materials or other processing opportunities at the Mill; any expectation as to timelines for the permitting and development of projects; any expectation as to longer term fundamentals in the market and price projections; any expectation as to the implications of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine on uranium, vanadium or other commodity markets; any expectation that the Company will maintain its position as a leading uranium company in the United States; any expectation with respect to timelines to production; any expectation that the Mill will be successful in producing RE Carbonate on a full-scale commercial basis; any expectation that Neo will be successful in separating the Mill's RE Carbonate on a commercial basis; any expectation that Energy Fuels will be successful in developing U.S. separation, or other value-added U.S. REE production capabilities at the Mill, or otherwise, including the timing of any such initiatives and the expected production capacity or capital and operating costs associated with any such production capabilities; any expectation that the Company will restore U.S. rare earth separation capabilities in the coming years; any expectation with respect to the future demand for REEs; any expectation with respect to the quantities of monazite sands to be acquired by Energy Fuels, the quantities of RE Carbonate to be produced by the Mill or the quantities of contained TREO in the Mill's RE Carbonate; any expectation that any additional supplies of monazite sands will result in sufficient throughput at the Mill to reduce underutilized capacity production costs and allow the Company to realize its expected margins on a continuous basis; any expectation that the Company may sell its separated NdPr oxide (or oxalate) to major electric vehicle manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe or that the Company may position itself as one of the "go to" suppliers of advanced rare earth materials in the U.S.; any expectation that the Bahia Project has the potential to feed the Mill with REE and uranium-bearing monazite sand for decades; any expectation that the Company will complete comprehensive sonic drilling and geophysical mapping at the Bahia Project or complete an Initial Assessment under SK-1300 (U.S.) and a Technical Report Technical Report under NI 43-101 (Canada) during Q4-2023 or Q1-2024, or otherwise; any expectation that the Company's evaluation of thorium and radium recovery at the Mill will be successful; any expectation that the potential recovery of medical isotopes from any thorium or radium recovered at the Mill will be feasible; any expectation that any thorium, radium or other isotopes can be recovered at the Mill and sold on a commercial basis; any expectation as to the quantities to be delivered under existing uranium sales contracts, or that such contracts may help underpin the Company's uranium business for many years to come; any expectation that the Company will be successful in completing any additional contracts for the sale of uranium to U.S. utilities; any expectation that any existing or potential future uranium sales contracts will be at prices and quantities that provide an appropriate rate of return or sustain production and cover corporate overhead; any expectation that the value of the Company's investments accounted for at fair value may improve in future periods; and any expectation that the Company will generate net income in future periods. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans," "expects," "does not expect," "is expected," "is likely," "budgets," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," "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," "be achieved" or "have the potential to." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, herein are considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements express or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated with: commodity prices and price fluctuations; processing and mining difficulties, upsets and delays; permitting and licensing requirements and delays; changes to regulatory requirements; legal challenges; the availability of sources of Alternate Feed Materials and other feed sources for the Mill; competition from other producers; public opinion; government and political actions; available supplies of monazite sands; the ability of the Mill to produce RE Carbonate to meet commercial specifications on a commercial scale at acceptable costs; the ability of Neo to separate the RE Carbonate produced by the Mill to meet commercial specifications on a commercial scale at acceptable costs; market factors, including future demand for REEs; the ability of the Mill to be able to separate radium or other radioisotopes at reasonable costs or at all; market prices and demand for medical isotopes; and the other factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available for review on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml , on SEDAR at www.sedar.com , and on the Company's website at www.energyfuels.com . Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information in this communication, except as otherwise required by law. SOURCE Energy Fuels Inc. In-Person Ediscovery Event Celebrates the Breakthrough Accomplishments of 7 Ediscovery Leaders SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Everlaw , the cloud-native investigation and litigation platform, honored seven customers for their breakthrough accomplishments in 2022 at Everlaw Summit , the company's flagship in-person experience for its customers, partners and the greater ediscovery community held this week at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Congratulations to Amy Prime of Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP - shown receiving Everlaws Rising Star in Ediscovery Award at #EverlawSummit in San Francisco on November 3, 2022. The Everlaw Summit Awards recognizes individuals, organizations and law firms who are making significant impact, innovation and contributions across the legal and ediscovery sector. In seven categories, Everlaw celebrates the top innovation, DEI change agent and community influencer and the vital role they play in our society, as well as those whose work focuses on promoting justice. The 2022 categories and winners of Everlaw Summit Awards are as follows: "These winners represent the 'best of the best' in the legal tech industry," Everlaw VP of Marketing Joshua Schnoll said. "Driving innovation, leading through change and striving for justice, they have made their mark in 2022 and continue to change the way ediscovery and litigation is conducted." A variety of legal practitioners competed among these categories, and Everlaw judges selected the winners, who received their awards at the Summit. Customers are at the center of Everlaw Summit with hours of customer-led content from Am Law 200 firms like Barnes & Thornburg, Benesch, Orrick and Seyfarth Shaw, to specialty firms like Hagens Berman, Loopstra Nixon and Sher Edling, to government-specific sessions with several state attorneys general represented. Key conference discussions featured topics such as the exceptional growth fueled by technology, how corporate legal teams are reimagining their approach to litigation and more. About Everlaw Summit The Summit features live programming centering on education, connection and transformation with 26 sessions and six networking events, including Women in Ediscovery. Attendees learn from experts, get hands-on guidance in the latest technology and connect with peers who are creating the future of ediscovery and litigation in the cloud. Social Media: For news and event updates, follow @Everlaw on Twitter and LinkedIn , and join the conversations using #EverlawSummit About Everlaw Everlaw helps legal teams navigate the increasingly complex ediscovery landscape to chart a straighter path to the truth. Trusted by Fortune 100 corporate counsel, 91 of the Am Law 200, and all 50 state attorneys general, Everlaw's combination of intuitive experience, advanced technology, and partnership with customers empowers organizations to tackle the most pressing technological challengesand transform their approach to discovery and litigation in the process. Founded in 2010 and based in Oakland, Calif., Everlaw is funded by top-tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, HIG Growth Partners, K9 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TPG Growth. Learn more at https://www.everlaw.com. Media Contact: Colleen Haikes [email protected] SOURCE Everlaw Company to Host Conference Call WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) today announced plans to report its third quarter 2022 financial results on Tuesday morning, November 8, 2022, before the opening of U.S. financial markets. Fannie Mae has scheduled a conference call to discuss the company's results at 8:00 a.m., ET, on November 8, 2022. Prior to the call, the company's third quarter 2022 earnings news release, quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and other supplemental information will be available on the company's Quarterly & Annual Results webpage at fanniemae.com/financialresults. A transcript of the call also will be made available on the page. CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPATION DETAILS Fannie Mae Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results Event day and time Tuesday, November 8, 2022 8:00 AM (ET) Listen-only webcast: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1575226&tp_key=4fba6c2c2b Click on the link above to attend the presentation from your laptop, tablet, or mobile device. Audio will stream through your selected device. If you have difficulty accessing the webcast, please click the "Listen by Phone" button on the webcast player and dial the number provided. About Fannie Mae Fannie Mae advances equitable and sustainable access to homeownership and quality, affordable rental housing for millions of people across America. We enable the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and drive responsible innovation to make homebuying and renting easier, fairer, and more accessible. To learn more, visit: fanniemae.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Blog Fannie Mae Newsroom https://www.fanniemae.com/news Photo of Fannie Mae https://www.fanniemae.com/resources/img/about-fm/fm-building.tif Fannie Mae Resource Center 1-800-2FANNIE SOURCE Fannie Mae HONG KONG, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5th China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "CIIE") will be held in Shanghai from 5 November to 10 November. Fosun will participate in the CIIE for the fifth consecutive year with its overseas member companies and partners from the global pharmaceutical and health industry, presenting a variety of China's first and industry-leading medical devices and innovative drugs to showcase Fosun's latest achievements in technology and innovation and global industrial operations and promote more "exhibits" to launch as "products" in China. The CIIE is the world's first import-themed national-level expo, showcasing the world's most cutting-edge and representative high-quality products and services. A total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will take part in this year's CIIE, and 284 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry-leading companies will participate in the Enterprise & Business Exhibition, exceeding last year's. At this year's CIIE, the da Vinci Xi surgical system and the Ion robotic-assisted bronchoscopy system to be presented at Fosun Health's booth have drawn a lot attention. The da Vinci surgical system introduced by Fosun has been a popular exhibit for five consecutive years since its debut at the first CIIE in 2018. In the past five years, Fosun has continued to promote the business expansion of the da Vinci surgical systems and technologies in the Chinese market. As of now, more than 300 da Vinci surgical systems have been installed in China, benefiting more than 366,000 patients in China. In August 2022, Intuitive Fosun's Medical Robot Manufacturing and R&D Center started construction in Pudong, Shanghai. It is expected to be completed in 2025 and reach production the following year to benefit more patients in China. In the field of innovative drugs, Yi Kai Da (Yescarta), the CAR-T cell therapy presented by Fosun at the first CIIE, was officially approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in June 2021 and became the first CAR-T cell therapy approved for marketing in China. As of the end of September 2022, Yi Kai Da has been included in urban customized commercial health insurance of 54 provinces and municipalities and over 60 commercial insurances, while the number of treatment centers on file has reached nearly 120. At this year's CIIE, Fosun Kite will further showcase the latest achievements of Yi Kai Da in the fields of drug research and development, production and operation, and innovative commercialization. The MRIdian Linac magnetic resonance guided radiation therapy system, which has been featured at the CIIE for three consecutive years, will be presented at the Fosun Health booth as a "product" this year. As of now, 55 systems of MRIdian Linac have been set up worldwide, treating more than 25,000 patients. MRIdian Linac has been approved by the NMPA in August 2022, providing more Chinese cancer patients with a new option for radiation therapy. Fosun Health will also present the world's first oral targeted drug for psoriasis, Otelza (apremilast tablets), the third-generation COMT inhibitor, Ongentys (opicapone), a medical-grade home beauty device powered by Israel's energy-based technology, LMNT one, and many other world-leading innovative drugs and medical devices. In addition, the 5th Hongqiao International Health Technology Innovation Forum, a supporting event of the CIIE hosted by Fosun, will be held on the morning of 6 November. Themed around "Gathering Innovation and Breakthroughs, Building a Healthy Future", the forum will bring together experts and professionals to discuss the global medical technology innovation trends and the innovative development of China's health industry from a global perspective. After years of accumulation, globalization and innovation have become the core competencies of Fosun's sustainable and steady development. As of now, Fosun has established profound industrial presence in over 30 countries and regions. Fosun's investment in technology and innovation in 2021 reached RMB8.9 billion, while its investment in technology and innovation for the first half of 2022 reached RMB4.6 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 21%. As of the end of 2021, Fosun owned over 1,500 patents for inventions with more than 500 new products under development. "The CIIE is an excellent display window for Fosun to connect with global technologies and continuously create happier lives for families." Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International, said that as a global innovation-driven consumer group, Fosun will, as always, adhere to the globalization strategy, continue to increase investment in research and development, and continuously meet the needs of global families with high-quality products and services to create happier lives. SOURCE Fosun AMSTERDAM, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Freya Pharma Solutions, a late clinical stage pharmaceutical company focusing on the development of effective pharmaceutical therapies for women diagnosed with Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD), has presented the design of its upcoming ALETTA pivotal clinical trial with Lybrido at the 23rd ISSM/SMSNA Scientific Meeting. The International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) Scientific Meeting & 23rd Annual Fall Scientific Meeting of Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA), was held late October 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida. The paper titled 'Design of the ALETTA Clinical Study: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study investigating the Efficacy and Safety of Lybrido in Premenopausal Women with Acquired FSIAD', was presented by first author Dr. Cobi Reisman and got a warm scientific reception by attending health professionals from all over the world. Dr. Jan van der Mooren, Chief Medical Officer of Freya, stated: "Presenting our ALETTA trial at this conference is an important step in acquiring feedback from an audience of international professionals in sexual medicine on our clinical development plans. The abundance of positive comments confirms our belief that there is a great unmet need for an effective treatment of female sexual problems, and that Lybrido has the potential to fill in that gap. The concept of Lybrido, creating a unique synergy of testosterone and sildenafil, is recognized by international experts as an innovative drug on a market with only two approved drugs for FSIAD in the United States, while no drug being approved in Europe so far." Freya Pharma Solutions is currently preparing the clinical development program with several studies in Europe, to be followed later by additional trials in the United States. The company is highly confident that it is well on track with the clinical development of Lybrido as a treatment for women suffering from sexual dysfunction, and the related distress which often negatively interferes with their quality of life and their relationships. About FSIAD Low sexual desire is consistently reported as the most common sexual complaint in women. As a result, many women are dissatisfied with their sex lives, which often affects their social and emotional wellbeing. FSIAD is defined in the 2013 version of the DSM-5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a publication by the American Psychiatric Association, as a persistent lack or significant reduction of sexual interest and/or arousal. Persons can be medically diagnosed after having a well-defined number of symptoms causing clinically significant distress and which have persisted for a minimum of six months. The disorder is specified by severity level and subtyped into lifelong versus acquired, generalized versus situational. About Lybrido A total of 20 phase 1 and phase 2a trials and large-scale phase 2b trials in 17 research sites in the US have been conducted to date. These trials have investigated the safety and efficacy of two novel on-demand pharmacological treatments. Lybrido increases central sexual motivation and physiological sexual responses, such as swelling of genital erectile tissue and vaginal lubrication. The therapy is being developed as 'on demand' treatment with the aim to increase central sexual motivation from 3 to 6 hours after intake. This treatment comprises a novel (dual-route, dual-release, fixed-dose) combination tablet consisting of a testosterone coating for sublingual administration and an inner-core component containing the phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE 5) inhibitor, sildenafil. The inner-core component is coated with a delayed-release matrix to ensure that the peak plasma concentration of the sildenafil coincides with the window of increased sexual motivation induced by the testosterone component. Thus, this combination enables an increase in genital arousal through an increase in responsivity to sexual stimuli. About Freya Pharma Solutions Freya Pharma Solutions is a late clinical stage company focused on developing effective pharmaceutical therapies for FSIAD, building upon fifteen years of solid research. The company has two compounds in development, Lybrido and Lybridos, to address the range of potential causes of FSIAD. Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Freya aims to offer patients a convenient, personalized 'on demand' solution for this recognized unmet medical need. Please contact for further information: Freya Pharma Solutions, Amsterdam Marcel Wijma, Chief Executive Officer E: [email protected] For media LifeSpring Life Sciences Communication, Amsterdam Leon Melens T: +31 6 538 16 427 E: [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1795348/Freya_Pharma_Solutions_Logo.jpg SOURCE Freya Pharma Solutions KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TAICEND TECHNOLOGY will participate in the MEDICA Germany Dusseldorf Medical Exhibition for the first time from November 14th to 17th this year. The MEDICA medical exhibition is the largest annual event in the medical material industry and a world-renowned comprehensive medical exhibition. It is recognized as the world's largest medical exhibition and provides a strong platform to display our developing technology to Europe. TAICEND TECHNOLOGY TAICEND TECHNOLOGY This year, TAICEND TECHNOLOGY will join 46 other medical material manufacturers in Taiwan to participate in this year's event. With the assistance of the Taiwan Trade Association, we will build the Taiwan Pavilion and present ourselves on the international stage. With the backdrop of an aging population and healthcare trends, the global care market continues to grow. Companies are searching for wound healing solutions through employing different and more advanced medical materials. A new generation of material technology that redefines the old concept of wound care TAICEND TECHNOLOGY will display a series of wound healing products, not only presenting the characteristics of a single product, but also bringing the concept of treatment into the field of wound healing. The TAICEND TECHNOLOGY R&D team has developed a new generation of material technology and redefined the former concept in the field of wound care. This has improved product efficacy and cut the amount of time required for chronic wound healing by nearly half. The company also provides suitable solutions and products tailored for each customer. In addition to reducing the care and economic burden on family members and patients, it also makes it easier for medical staff to handle the wound well, and is a more effective solution for wound healing. Skin decompression series, fulfilling patient needs Due to a growing aging population, many elderly people or those with fragile skin often suffer from skin pressure injuries caused by treatment or medical equipment. This year, TAICEND TECHNOLOGY cooperated with Chi Mei Hospital, a well-known hospital in Taiwan, to develop a series of decompression products. In addition to the decompression pad of CPAP oxygen mask, three new products are also launched for decompression of the skin, such as: a decompression pad for O2 Mask simple oxygen mask, a body decompression pad developed for long-term bedridden patients, a Medical Tube Decompression Pad used for compression injuries caused by medical Tube and the Fixing Device Decompression, which uses a fixed plate for intravenous infusion therapy. There are five products in total, of which three have won awards: one gold medal and two silver medals in the Green Ideas International Invention and Design Competition. Skin decompression has always been a prominent issue, by which we continue to pay close attention. We have always aimed to employ preventative measures before skin pressure injuries appear. We took the opportunity to collaborate with Chi Mei Hospital through help from medical staff. Helpful feedback and suggestions create the most suitable decompression products. Please visit us at the TAICEND TECHNOLOGY booth. Exhibition time: November 14-17, 2022 TAICEND TECHNOLOGY Booth: Hall 6, B09-1 Location: Dusseldorf Exhibition Centre Website: www.taicend.com Mail: [email protected] Media Contact: Jou Wu +886 981118607 [email protected] SOURCE TAICEND TECHNOLOGY NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polaris Market Research recently published [115+ Pages] research report on "Diagnostic Services Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Application (Neurology, Orthopedics, Cardiovascular, Oncology, Ultrasound, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Other); By Type; By Test; By End-Use; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" in its research database. According to the research report, the global diagnostic services market size & share was valued at USD 818.4 million in 2021 and is expected to surpass USD 2,487.8 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.3% during the forecast period. What is Diagnostic Services? How Big is Diagnostic Services Market Size? Overview? Diagnostic services are a critical component of many healthcare industries across the globe. These services can be defined as diagnostic examination that includes clinical services of pathology and laboratory medicine, psychological testing, and radiology. They are used to determine the nature and cause of a disease, illness, or injury in less time with high quality. Some of examples of diagnostic services are sonograms, nuclear medicine scans, X-Ray, MRIs, and computed tomography. The main motive of these services is to aid healthcare providers in identifying the disease and selecting the right treatment option. The demand for diagnostic services market is growing due to the rising technological developments in MRI modality and increasing the application of MRI in the healthcare profession. Also, Furthermore, increasing healthcare insurance for medical imaging offerings is expected to supplement the market expansion. Request Sample Copy of "Diagnostic Services Market" Research Report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/diagnostic-services-market/request-for-sample Our Free Sample Report Includes Report introduction, overview, and in-depth industry analysis Competitive landscape and leading competitor market shares 115+ pages research report Offer chapter-wise instruction on request Includes market presence across different geographies with share, size, and trends Updated list of tables and figures The report offers top market players with their sales volume, business strategy, and revenue analysis Factors and fact research methodology Some of the Top Market Players Are: Alliance Medical Inc Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited Dignity Health Incorporation F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG Global Diagnostics Corp. Healthcare Imaging Services Pty Ltd InHealth Group Medica Group Novant Health Group Quest Diagnostics Inc. RadNet Inc Sonic Healthcare Corporation Sysmex Corporation Thermo Fisher Scientific To Know More About Addition Information on Key Players, Download a Report PDF Brochure Growth Driving Factors Rising developments in diagnostic services to uptick the market demand The increasing number of product launches for advanced diagnostic testing services is one of the prominent factors driving the diagnostic services market size. The rising incidences of chronic diseases and the increasing demand for early diagnostic tests. The industry is also booming due to the major research and development funding by public and private firms for diagnostic services in the market. Rapid technological development is further boosting the diagnostic services industry demand. Moreover, increasing volumes of testing samples have led to increased advancements in data management and sample preparation, which is expected to flourish the diagnostic services market sales. In addition, a surge in investments in development of diagnostic services is estimated to people the industry's evolution. For instance, in November 2021, the UK Government announced financial support for the National Health Service (NHS) of 248 million ($334.6 million) to digitize diagnostic testing care and address the issue of patient waiting times. Directly Purchase a copy of report with TOC @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/checkouts/16701 Recent Developments In June 2022, Orange Health have announced the commencement of its services in New Delhi as a component of its optimistic geographical expansion strategy. Customers in the NCR region can now access a variety of diagnostic services in just 1 hour from the convenience of their homes, with the information provided in 6 hours. Segmental Analysis Neurology segment is anticipated account for the largest revenue share Based on application, neurology segment is expected to generate the fastest growth owing to the increasing cases of neurobiological disorders and stroke. Diagnostic services can assist healthcare professionals to identify and diagnose neurological conditions. Parkinson's disease, after Alzheimer's disease, is the most common neurological disorder. Further, due to a surge in occurrences of cardiovascular conditions in the United States, the cardiology segment is likely to account for a significant diagnostic services market share over the predicted period. CT Scans type segment industry held the major market share in 2021 On the basis of type, the CT scans segment witnessed the largest share attributing to the increased number of CT scan procedures and its relatively high cost. As per OECD report, in the United States, 83.3 million CT exams were performed in 2017 and 91.6 million in 2019. Moreover, the growing elderly population has led to increased consumption of CT scan procedures, which is fueling the segment growth in the diagnostic services market. Request for Discount on this Report Before Purchase @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/diagnostic-services-market/request-for-discount-pricing Diagnostic Services Market: Report Scope Report Attribute Details Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 2,487.8 Million Market size value in 2022 USD 918.8 Million Expected CAGR Growth 13.3% from 2022 - 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Year 2022 - 2030 Top Market Players Alliance Medical Inc, Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited, Dignity Health Incorporation, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Global Diagnostics Corp., Healthcare Imaging Services Pty Ltd, InHealth Group, Medica Group, Novant Health Group, Quest Diagnostics Inc., RadNet, Inc, Sonic Healthcare Corporation, Sysmex Corporation, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Segments Covered By Test, By Application, By Type, By End-User, By Region Customization Options Customized purchase options are available to meet any research needs. Explore customized purchase options The demand in North America is expected to witness significant growth Based on geography, North America will dominate the market because of the growing elderly population, increasing patient knowledge, and understanding of the importance of laboratory tests. Also, the COVID-19 outbreak caused increased financial support and testing, which has positively influenced the growth of diagnostic services market in North America. The rising cases of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and obesity in the United States have led to an increase in the demand for enhanced treatment with effective management. This is one of the major factors accelerating regional market growth. Moreover, Asia Pacific is anticipated to record the fastest CAGR throughout the foreseen period. This revenue share can be attributed to enhancing health infrastructure and surging spending on medical testing. Rising insurance advantages in several Asia Pacific nations are further bolstering the diagnostic services market demand. Browse the Detail Report "Diagnostic Services Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Application (Neurology, Orthopedics, Cardiovascular, Oncology, Ultrasound, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Other); By Type; By Test; By End-Use; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" with in-depth TOC: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/diagnostic-services-market For Additional Information OR Media Enquiry, Please Mail At: [email protected] Polaris Market Research has segmented the Diagnostic Services market report based on test, application, end-use, type, and region: By Test Outlook Lipid Panel Liver Panel Renal Panel Complete Blood Count Electrolyte Testing Infectious Disease Testing Others By Application Outlook Neurology Orthopedics Cardiovascular Oncology Ultrasound Obstetrics & Gynecology Others By Type Outlook X-ray Imaging Ultrasound Magnetic Resource Imaging (MRI) Computed Tomography Nuclear Imaging Mammography By End-Use Outlook Hospitals Diagnostic Centers Point-of-Care Testing Ambulatory Care Centers Research & Academia By Region Outlook North America (U.S., Canada ) (U.S., ) Europe ( France , Germany , UK, Italy , Netherlands , Spain , Russia ) ( , , UK, , , , ) Asia Pacific ( Japan , China , India , Malaysia , Indonesia . South Korea ) ( , , , , . ) Latin America ( Brazil , Mexico , Argentina ) ( , , ) Middle East & Africa ( Saudi Arabia , UAE, Israel , South Africa ) Browse More Healthcare Research Reports: Medical Refrigerators Market 2022-2030 Research Reports: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-refrigerator-market https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-refrigerator-market Anastomosis Devices Market 2022-2030 Research Reports: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/anastomosis-devices-market https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/anastomosis-devices-market Lymphedema Treatment Market 2022-2030 Research Reports: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/lymphedema-treatment-market https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/lymphedema-treatment-market Prostate Health Market 2022-2030 Research Reports: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/prostate-health-market https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/prostate-health-market Ai In Hiv/Aids Market 2022-2030 Research Reports: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-hiv-aids-market About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for PMR's clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve PMR's diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide PMR's customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Adept with a highly competent, experienced and extremely qualified team of experts comprising SMEs, analysts and consultants, we at Polaris endeavor to deliver value-added business solutions to PMR's customers. Contact: Likhil G 30 Wall Street 8th Floor, New York City, NY 10005, United States Phone: +1-929 297-9727 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com Follow US: LinkedIn | twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1316207/Polaris_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Polaris Market Research DUBLIN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Health Care Security System Market: Size, Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global health care security market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10%. Emerging healthcare technology & innovation are the driving force of the market's growth and therefore, are a key priority prime priority. Healthcare security systems play a vital role in development. The nature of their business poses unique security challenges that can leave them susceptible to theft & internal misuse. From sensitive medical records & high-value clinical equipment to pharmaceutical & medical inventories, healthcare security has become top priority and is improving in conditions when addressing issues of theft, organized crime, fire & life safety issues and so on. There is a need to provide safe facilities for patients, staff & healthcare workers, ensuring the security of sensitive information provided by the patients. In past few years there is rise in cybercrime & activity breaching the access in health care systems. In the case of research & innovation, breach of access may lead to theft of data & leak of vital information. High cost of systems & less concern over data safety have led the cybercrimes in action. The Healthcare sector in the U.S. is spending about $3.5 trillion on security systems, according to the Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the figure is projected to soar over the next decade. Significant Rise in Insider Fraud More than half of insider fraud incidents within the healthcare sector involve the theft of customer data, according to Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (CMUSEI). National Insider Threat Centre (NITC) Incident Corpus, identified about 88 malicious insider incidents that were mapped to over 91 healthcare centres were directly victim of attack from 1996 till present. These incidents do not include unintentional insider threats who may have accidentally left a laptop at a bus stop or sent an email containing PHI to a party that it wasn't intended for. The health network accounted for major insider frauds. Almost 80% of frauds or threats are caused by insider employees, rest 20% is caused by the other factors. To avoid the rise in insider frauds many software manufactures have built a technology driven system. Ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations increased four times between 2017 & 2020, and are expected to grow to 5X by the end of 2021, according to a report from Cyber security Ventures. It is a need for the healthcare systems to prevent the cyber-attack or breach of access of information. Training Remains a Key Challenge, Yet NA To Dominate The Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Breach of Unsecured Protected Health Information lists 592 breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals within the last 24 months that are currently under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. 306 of the breaches were submitted in 2020. According to a recent survey 24 % of U.S. health employees have never received cybersecurity awareness training, but felt they should have, according to a report analysed by Health IT Security last summer. Effective training enables the users to detect and react to phishing scams, which initiate more than 90 % of all cyber-attacks. Europe, Asia Pacific & other developing regions also have evidenced increasing cybercrime rate. Precautions should be taken to overcome the cyber-attacks as it leads to loss in business & also creates trust issues for the patients. Market Segmentation Product Electronic Access Control Systems Intercom & Emergency Communication Perimeter Protection Infant security Biometrics Video Surveillance Technology On premises Cloud based Key Topics Covered: 1. Preface 2. Executive Summary 3. Health Care Security System Market: Business Outlook & Market Dynamics 4. Health Care Security System Market: by Product, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 5. Health Care Security System Market: by Technology, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 6. North America Health Care Security System Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 7. UK and European Union Health Care Security System Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 8. Asia Pacific Health Care Security System Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 9. Latin America Health Care Security System Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 10. Middle East and Africa Health Care Security System Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 11. Company Profiles Companies Mentioned Siemens AG Bosch Security Systems Tyco Integrated Security Honeywell International Ltd Schneider Electric Emerson Electric Co Cisco Systems Ltd Avigilon Corporation Nedap Security Management ADT Security Services STANLEY Healthcare Seico Security Atos SE Johnson Controls Allied Telesis Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2rabse 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: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Melanoma Cancer Market Research and Forecast 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global market for melanoma cancer is projected to have a considerable CAGR of around 12.3% during the forecast period. Melanoma is a skin cancer that develops in the melanocyte cells, responsible for producing melanin, a pigment that gives color to the skin. It is the most serious type of skin cancer and it seems to be increasing in people under 40, especially women. The disease is curable when recognized and treated in the early stages and hence has a high success rate. The increasing incidence of melanoma skin cancer across the globe is the major factor boosting the growth of the market. For instance, according to the report of the American Academy of Dermatology Association, approximately 9,500 people in the US are diagnosed with skin cancer every day. More than 1 million Americans are living with melanoma. Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer in females age 15-29. The increasing adoption of immunotherapy and targeted therapy drugs for skin treatments, technological advancement to enhance the treatment, rising awareness about the treatment and diagnosis also drive the market growth. The government funding support for R&D of new drugs and therapies and the increasing number of regulatory approvals by the Food and Drug Administration are anticipated to drive the market during the forecast period. However, certain factors such as high costs associated with treatment, and increasing use of generic medicine are hindering the growth of the market. Medicines such as cisplatin is a generic and off-patent drug and are manufactured by multiple companies for cancer treatment across the globe. Innovation in drug development, and subsequent technological advancements & pipeline products are expected to create significant opportunities for the melanoma cancer market. Segmental Outlook The global melanoma market is segmented based on diagnosis and therapy. Based on therapy, the market is segmented into immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. On the basis of diagnosis, the market is further segmented into biopsy, computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Among these diagnosis methods, CT scan is projected to have a significant market share during the forecast period. A computerized tomography scan (CT or CAT scan) uses computers and rotating X-ray machines to create cross-sectional images of the body. Thus, the rising prevalence of melanoma will increase the demand for this, which, in turn, will further drive the growth of the market. Immunotherapy is projected to have a significant share in the melanoma cancer market Among therapy, immunotherapy holds the major market share in 2020 and is anticipated to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Immunotherapy is the use of medicines to stimulate a person's immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively. Immunotherapies are considered best for the treatment of melanoma, owing to the fewer adverse effects than other therapies, and provide longer life by boosting the immune system. The US Food and Drug Association have approved immunotherapy drugs for melanoma cancer which includes Ipilimumab (Yervoy), which is an anti-CTLA-4 inhibitor, Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), Nivolumab (OPDIVO), Interleukin-2 (IL-2, Aldesleukin(PROLEUKIN). However, targeted therapy is expected to have considerable growth during the forecast period. North America is anticipated to dominate the global melanoma cancer market Geographically, North America is projected to dominate the global melanoma market owing to the high prevalence of melanoma in the US and Canada along with a major market share in the region. Well-developed healthcare infrastructure and reimbursement policies are some of the major factors that are contributing to the growth of the market in the region. The presence of major market players and initiatives take by them to generate more revenue by producing new drugs also impact positively on the growth of the market. Europe is also expected to have a significant market share during the forecast period due to the increasing number of skin cancer cases, and the development of novel drugs. The UK, Germany, and France are the major countries with a high prevalence of melanoma cancer and contribute significantly to the market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Market Overview and Insights 3. Competitive Landscape 4. Market Determinants 5. Market Segmentation 6. Regional Analysis 7. Company Profiles Companies Mentioned Abbott Laboratories Ab Sciences AbbVie Inc. Amgen, Inc. AstraZeneca plc Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Castle Biosciences, Inc. Celgene Corp. Chinook Therapeutics, Inc. Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. ENB Therapeutics Eisai Co Ltd. F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. GlaxoSmithKline PLC Incyte Corp. Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. Merck & Co., Inc. Novartis AG Pierre Fabre S. A . . SciBase AB For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/holbjr 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 Printed electronic materials enable the development of electronic components on thin, flexible substrates, which helps in decreasing the overall weight, a key consideration for electric vehicles. FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BIS Research, the global leader in providing market intelligence on deep technologies, has released its latest study titled Printed Electronic Materials Market A Global and Regional Analysis. According to this study, the market size of the global printed electronic materials was valued at $3.45 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $17.56 billion by 2031. The following factors are responsible for the increase in demand for printed electronic materials: Growing adoption of printed electronic materials in the automotive industry Significant cost advantage Rising gross domestic product (GDP) of emerging markets Rising electric vehicle sales Growing adoption of smart devices, which is leading to an increase in the demand for flexible electronics worldwide Rising demand for thinner electronics and wearable devices The detailed study is a compilation of 148 market data tables and 40 figures spread through 247 pages. Check out the detailed table of content here a https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=1392&type=toc Analyst's Take on the Market Projection According to Neha Singh, Sr. Research Associate, BIS Research, "The global printed electronic materials market is growing due to increasing demand for printed electronics materials in flexible electronics. The rising adoption of the Internet of Things in healthcare, construction, transportation, leisure, sports, and other industries is providing growth to the market due to the rise in demand for flexible and high-performing materials. The recent focus of the medical industry is on the development of smart cards, safe medicine packaging, smart medical wearables, and others by utilizing advanced printed, electronic materials such as high conductivity inks, polyethylene substrates, etc. Furthermore, the rising energy demand and increase in the adoption of renewable energy storage are pushing users to adopt printed electronic materials. Such factors are expected to play a significant role in ensuring increased printed electronic materials adoption during the forecast period 2022-2031." Request a FREE sample of this report here a https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=1392&type=download Existing Competitive Landscape The companies that are profiled have been selected based on input gathered from primary experts and analyzing company coverage, product portfolio, and market penetration. Some of the established names in the market are Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, NAGASE & CO., LTD., E Ink Holdings Inc., Agfa-Gevaert Group, DuPont de Nemours, Inc., BASF SE, Molex, LLC, Teikoku Printing Ink Mfg. Co., Ltd., Creative Materials, Poly-ink, Sun Chemical, ACI Materials, Inc., Kayaku Advanced Materials, Inc., C3Nano, GenesInk, Dycotec Materials Ltd., Copprint, and Mateprincs. Recent Developments in the Global Printed Electronic Materials Market In August 2022 , C3Nano announced the successful completion of a $35 million growth capital financing by Element Solutions Inc. Furthermore, the received growth capital comprised both equity and debt, enabling the company to expand its Hayward, California -based silver nanowire synthesis and production capacity. , C3Nano announced the successful completion of a growth capital financing by Element Solutions Inc. Furthermore, the received growth capital comprised both equity and debt, enabling the company to expand its -based silver nanowire synthesis and production capacity. In January 2022 , Creative Materials developed 129-32 thermoformable in-mold compatible electrically conductive ink, which has applicability in the screen-printing market. The product series has excellent adhesion capabilities to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyester, poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), and a variety of other high-energy surfaces. Ink to Dominate the Material Segment During the Forecast Period of 2022-2031 Printed electronics is a term majorly used for different printing methods incorporated for the manufacturing of electronic devices through printing by various inks on different substrates. The inks comprise electrically active materials having luminescent, electrophoretic, semiconducting, conducting, or electrochromic properties. Based on material, the ink segment dominated the printed electronic materials market in 2021 and is the largest segment owing to growing demand from end-use industries such as automotive and consumer electronics due to its lightweight, flexible, thin, and cost-effective nature. In recent times, the demand for carbon-based ink has been increasing and seeking the interests of industrialists, which is helping in the growth of the ink segment in the printed electronic materials market. Want to learn more about the latest trends in the advanced electronic materials industry? Speak to our analysts Exclusive DeepTechTM MAP Analysis for Advanced Materials by BIS Research: Next-Generation Display Materials Market Global 3D Printing Plastics Market Global Thermoelectric Materials Market About BIS Research: BIS Research is a global B2B market intelligence and advisory firm focusing on deep technology and related emerging trends which can disrupt the market dynamics in the near future. We publish more than 200 market intelligence studies annually that focus on several deep technology verticals. Our strategic market analysis emphasizes on market estimations, technology analysis, emerging high-growth applications, deeply segmented granular country-level market data, and other important market parameters useful in the strategic decision-making for senior management. BIS Research offers syndicate as well as custom studies and expert consultations to firms, providing them with specific and actionable insights on novel technology markets, business models, and competitive landscapes. Contact: Bhavya Banga Email: [email protected] BIS Research Inc. 39111 PASEO PADRE PKWY STE 313, FREMONT CA 94538-1686 Visit our Blog @ https://bisresearch.com/news Connect with us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bis-research Connect with us on [email protected] https://twitter.com/BISResearch Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/495163/BIS_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE BIS Research Germany Teeth Whitening Market is expected to exhibit healthy growth of 6.4% CAGR during the forecast period. The Japan Teeth Whitening Market for teeth whitening is offering lucrative growth opportunities and is expected to exhibit healthy growth of 5.8% CAGR during the forecast period NEWARK, Del., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As per Future Market Insights' latest revised industry analysis, the global teeth whitening market was valued at around US$ 6.4 Bn in 2021, and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period (2022-2032). Cosmetic dentistry, which includes procedures like tooth replacement, space closure, contouring, and whitening, attracts a lot of interest. Smoking, consuming particular foods, and frequently consuming tea, coffee, and other liquids all cause teeth to become discoloured over time. Patients have more options now that allow them to have healthy, naturally white teeth due to advancements in cosmetic dentistry. Because it is both affordable and effective, tooth whitening has become one of the most used cosmetic dentistry procedure globally. These elements have contributed to the expansion of the global teeth whitening market. Request a Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-15717 About 47.2% of Americans over 30 in the U.S. have periodontal disease, according to the CDC. Additionally, increasing number of dental aesthetic operations has led to the development of new technology in cosmetic dentistry, and the established healthcare infrastructure is substantially supporting market expansion on a global level. Due to this there are now more licences and permits available on the market for teeth whitening products, which has increased the variety of products available. Enterprises in the market are focusing on obtaining regulatory approvals in order to advance the sector and offer items that adhere to rules. Thus, the market for teeth whitening will expand due to the growing usage of these products. Key Takeaways from Market Study The teeth whitening devices segment accounted for around 40.0% share of total teeth whitening market in 2021, owing to a rise in the awareness for oral hygiene as well as education of people regarding treatment of periodontal diseases through these devices. share of total teeth whitening market in 2021, owing to a rise in the awareness for oral hygiene as well as education of people regarding treatment of periodontal diseases through these devices. The retail sales segment dominates the teeth whitening market with about 59.0% share in 2021, owed to the increasing need for teeth whitening products. share in 2021, owed to the increasing need for teeth whitening products. North America accounts for the highest share of 32.4% of the global teeth whitening market share in 2021, due to the increased incidence of oral cancer cases, increasing influence of social media, and increase in the number of product approvals in this region. accounts for the highest share of of the global teeth whitening market share in 2021, due to the increased incidence of oral cancer cases, increasing influence of social media, and increase in the number of product approvals in this region. Europe is slated to be the second largest region for teeth whitening market, holding a market share of around 25.2% in the global market, in 2021, owed to the presence of a high number of independent dental practices. "Increasing incidence of periodontitis and associated diseases, and increasing number of approvals by the regulatory bodies for teeth, are factors set to boost the market over the forecast period," says an analyst of Future Market Insights. Request Brochure @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/brochure/rep-gb-15717 Market Competition In order to diversify their product offerings and increase their geographical presence, leading industry participants in the teeth whitening market are concentrating on the development, introduction, and approval of innovative products. American Orthodontics and Ultradent Goods, Inc. established a partnership on February 8, 2021 , in which American Orthodontics would exclusively distribute Ultradent's Opal Orthodontics branded products to orthodontists in the United States . , in which American Orthodontics would exclusively distribute Ultradent's Opal Orthodontics branded products to orthodontists in . Repair and Protect with Deep Repair toothpaste was introduced by GSK Consumer Healthcare in September 2021 to provide a minty and whitening toothpaste for people who have dentine hypersensitivity. What Does the Report Cover? Future Market Insights offers a unique perspective and actionable insights on the teeth whitening market in its latest study, presenting a historical demand assessment of 2012 2021 and projections for 2022 2032. The global teeth whitening market is segmented in detail to cover every aspect of the market and present a complete market intelligence approach to the reader. The teeth whitening market is segmented into two parts based on the product [teeth whitening gels and strips (carbamide peroxide with potassium nitrate and fluoride, carbamide peroxide, hydrogen peroxide), teeth whitening devices (LED curing lights {corded LED lights, and cordless LED lights}, UV lights, halogen lights), oral care products (toothpastes (whitening, sensitivity), mouthwashes, and others], distribution channel [institutional sales (dental hospitals, dental clinics, and group dental practises), retail sales (retail pharmacy, drug stores, hypermarket/supermarket, and online sales)], across seven key regions of the world. Ask an Analyst @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-15717 Future Market Insights' Expertise in Life Sciences and Transformational Health Future Market Insights facilitates corporates, government, investors, and associated audiences in the healthcare sector to identify and accentuate vital aspects applicable to product strategy, regulatory landscape, technology evolution, and other crucial issues to achieve sustainable success. Our unique approach to gathering market intelligence equips you in devising innovation-driven trajectories for your business. Know more about our sector coverage here. Teeth Whitening Market by Category By Product: Teeth Whitening Gels & Strips Carbamide Peroxide with Potassium Nitrate and Fluoride Carbamide Peroxide Hydrogen Peroxide Teeth Whitening Devices LED Lights Corded LED Lights Cordless LED Lights UV Lights Halogen Lights Oral Care Products Others By Distribution Channel: Institutional Sales Dental Hospitals Dental Clinics Group Dental Practice Retail Sales Retail Pharmacies Drug Stores Hypermarket and Supermarket Online Sales 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 1.5. Analysis and Recommendations 2. Market Overview 2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy 2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations 2.3. Inclusions and Exclusions 3. Key Market Trends 3.1. Key Trends Influencing the Market 3.2. Product Innovation / Development Trends Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/teeth-whitening-market Have a Look at Healthcare Domain Related Research Reports: Dental Whitening Lamps Market Size: The global dental whitening lamps market size is expected to be valued at US$ 331 Million in 2022. Monoclonal Antibodies Market Trends: The global monoclonal antibodies market was valued at US$ 186 Billion in 2021 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 12% from 2022 to 2032. Clinical Decision Support Market Growth: The global clinical decision support systems market is projected to have a moderate-paced CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period. The current valuation of the clinical decision support systems market is US$ 5.46 Bn in 2023. Drug Formulation Market Analysis: The global demand for drug formulation is expected to increase at 5.6% CAGR over the forecast period from 2022 to 2032. Preclinical Medical Device Testing Services Market Forecast: The global preclinical medical device testing services market garnered a market value of US$ 2.8 Billion in 2022 and is expected to accumulate a market value of US$ 6.63 Billion by registering a CAGR of 9% in the forecast period 2022-2032. 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. Contact: Future Market Insights, Inc. Christiana Corporate, 200 Continental Drive, Suite 401, Newark, Delaware - 19713, USA T: +1-845-579-5705 Enquiries: [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1197648/FMI_Logo.jpg SOURCE Future Market Insights VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Great Panther Mining Limited (OTCPK: GPLDK) ("Great Panther" or the "Company") announces that the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the "Court"), on application of the Company, has issued a court order (the "SISP Order") granting approval of the Company's proposed Sales and Investment Solicitation Process (the "SISP") involving it and, among others, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Mina Tucano Ltda. The SISP Order, among other things, approves (i) the SISP with respect to Great Panther and the majority of its present and after-acquired assets, undertakings, and properties, and (ii) the appointment of RBC Capital Markets ("RBC") as the Company's sale advisor under the SISP. The purpose of the SISP is to maximize the value of the Company and its subsidiaries' (the "Group's") property for the benefit of all of its stakeholders, whether pursuant to an asset or share purchase transaction, restructuring, recapitalization or other form of reorganization of the business, property or affairs of the Group, including but not limited to the Group's debt, share, or capital structure, or some combination thereof. The SISP contemplates a two-phase process, where the first phase ("Phase 1") will involve a broad marketing process ending with the submission of non-binding indicative offers, and the second phase ("Phase 2") will involve a further opportunity for due diligence followed by the submission of binding bids. The SISP will primarily be conducted over a marketing period of approximately twelve (12) weeks in the aggregate, with Phase 1 occurring over a period of five (5) weeks. In order to participate in the SISP and obtain access to a virtual data room, all interested parties must comply with the terms and conditions set forth in the SISP Order and other related documents, which are available on the court monitor's website at https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/GPR. Parties interested in participating in the SISP should contact RBC at the following email address: RBC Dominion Securities Inc. Suite 2100, 666 Burrard Street Vancouver, BC V6C 2X8 Attention: Michael D. Scott / Scott Redwood Email: [email protected] / [email protected] ABOUT GREAT PANTHER Great Panther Mining is a precious metals producer focused on the operation of the Tucano Gold Mine in Brazil where the Company controls a land package covering nearly 200,000 hectares in the prospective Vila Nova Greenstone belt. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the Company's intention to complete the SISP within the timelines contemplated and its ability to maximize the value of the Company's property for the benefit of all stakeholders. These forward-looking statements and information reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant procedural, operational, business, economic and regulatory risks and uncertainties, including risks related to the restructuring process and its impact on the Company's operations and financial conditions, uncertainty regarding the ability to obtain protection against all collection and enforcement actions during the judicial reorganization proceedings, uncertainty regarding the Company's ability to identify and pursue strategic alternatives that will maximize stakeholder value, the Company's and RBC's ability to attract investors to participate in the SISP, and the risks described in respect of Great Panther in its most recent annual information form and management's discussion and analysis filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com and its most recent annual report on Form 40-F and management's discussion and analysis on Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov . There is no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove accurate or that actual results will not vary materially from these forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described, or intended. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements and information are designed to help readers understand management's current views of our near- and longer-term prospects and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not intend, nor does it assume any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, changes in assumptions, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. SOURCE Great Panther Mining Limited SINGAPORE, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HashKey Capital Singapore Pte. Ltd. ("HashKey Capital Singapore", and together with its affiliates, the "HashKey Group") announced at Singapore Fintech Festival 2022 that it has received its in-principle approval for the Capital Markets Services ("CMS") license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") as a licensed fund management company (LFMC). When granted, the CMS license will allow HashKey Capital Singapore to conduct fund management services from Singapore. HashKey Capital Singapore, part of HashKey Capital, prides itself as a company which takes the next step in bringing digital assets closer to mainstream institutional adoption. "Singapore is quickly becoming the region's epicentre of Web3 innovation. Being recognised by the MAS as a licensed fund management company will allow HashKey Capital Singapore to contribute to and support the local Web3 community, which is considered a significant accomplishment for us. As one of the top Web3 institutional investors in Asia, HashKey Capital is prepared to make additional contributions to help the local Web3 industry grow even more." said Mr. Deng Chao, CEO, HashKey Capital Singapore. "Once the CMS license is granted, HashKey Capital will be able to offer its services to institutional and accredited investors. Moreover, we expect that it will strengthen the company's position across Asia and even on a global scale". HashKey Capital had also in early September 2022 been granted an uplift of its Type 9 licence for asset management by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, enabling the company to manage a portfolio of 100% virtual assets. Other than that, HashKey Capital is a "Recognised Investment Firm" under the [email protected] programme, the first blockchain venture capital firm to be recognised under this programme. The programme aims to help fast-growing companies hire key talent to grow and expand their business in Singapore, and is jointly administered by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Enterprise Singapore. HashKey Capital portfolio companies that meet the programme criteria can expect to receive company-level endorsement from the [email protected] Programme to the Ministry of Manpower ("MOM"), reducing the risks of rejections for their employment pass applications to the MOM. About HashKey Capital HashKey Capital, the investment arm of the HashKey Group, is an asset manager investing in blockchain technology and digital assets, managing over US$1 billion in client assets since its inception. As one of the largest blockchain funds based in Asia and is known for being Ethereum's earliest corporate investor in the region, our mission is to bridge digital assets to the mainstream while connecting Web2 and Web3. HashKey Capital operates in Hong Kong and Singapore, with strong connections in Japan and the U.S., and has invested in over 500 global projects from Layer 1, protocols, crypto finance, Web3 Infrastructure, NFT to Metaverse since 2015. For more information, please contact: Siya Yang [email protected] SOURCE HashKey Capital BANGKOK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 8th Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF 2022) was held in Bangkok, Thailand from October 24 to 28, 2022. Huawei showcased multiple cutting-edge technologies of optical transport networks, demonstrating innovative service ideas and technical practices for global carriers. As global digital services develop, optical private line services are widely used in various industries and scenarios. Optical private lines with high bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability have gradually set off a trend and become a common need in business scenarios. Although the development of private line services varies from region to region, how to monetize OTN private lines has always been a major concern of global carriers. Therefore, Huawei equips iMaster NCE with innovative capabilities to improve the intelligence of optical networks and provide key monetization enablement for private line services. As the technical core of the OTN network system, Huawei iMaster NCE provides full-service-lifecycle support for carriers' private line monetization. It not only provides basic service provisioning and alarm monitoring functions, but also supports sales through ACTN NBIs, helping carriers improve efficiency and increase revenue. In the private line sales expansion phase, carriers can quickly query the minimum latency of private lines based on the latency map from iMaster NCE, ensuring customers' latency and bandwidth requirements are fully met and improving the service matching efficiency. In addition, with the online visualization and automatic recommendation functions of private line availability, carriers can accurately filter for high-reliability private lines that meet the customer's further requirements. In the service provisioning phase, StellarGo, an innovative technology, implements customer SLA requirement satisfaction and improves the efficiency of OTN private line provisioning. It trains a path calculation and recommendation model based on expert experience and massive data, which can implement multi-factor, multi-policy intelligent path selection instead of the single-factor, single-policy path selection in the past. In addition, it provides personalized recommendations based on the SLA requirements of customers. It has been verified that the path calculation success rate reaches 99% and the service provisioning efficiency is improved by 70%. With the help of better recommendation algorithms, customers can obtain higher-quality private line services. In the service O&M phase, the private line SLA assurance capability helps carriers monitor key service performance indicators in real time so as to identify and avoid service SLA risks promptly. In addition, Huawei's reliability commitment also contributes to monetization of customers' private lines. By enabling ASON at the network layer, as well as intelligent incident management and fault forecast at the NMS layer, carriers can quickly identify root causes of faults, locate faults, and constantly provide highly reliable and zero-fault network services. Huawei experts conclude that the improvement of automation and intelligence capabilities will be an essential step for carriers' business success. Huawei believes that through the collaboration and continuous exploration, the premium connection of optical networks will benefit various industries and become a cornerstone of development in the digital era. SOURCE Huawei Featuring the innovative and environmentally friendly material, air leather, 25Home has released another phenomenal line with their Industrial collection. Numerous options promise the perfect piece for any home, with choices from color to size to storage abilities. AZUSA, Calif., Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 25Home is an industry-leading furniture brand that provides stunning, Nordic pieces. As both the manufacturer and the brand, they offer unbeatable pricing by cutting out the middle man and giving their price right to the customer. THE INDUSTRIAL, MODERN PRACTICALITY & CASUAL SOPHISTICATION 25Home has domestic warehouses for all of their products, making shipping fast so customers can get their new furniture as soon as possible. It's more than just an excellent customer experience with incredible prices. 25Home is an ethical brand that has a completely transparent supply chain. All of their employees are treated fairly, no matter what part of the process they work in. The Industrial Line 25Home is always releasing new, beautiful pieces, and the Industrial line is a stunning addition with modern practicality and casual sophistication. This line has everything from chaise sectionals to loungers in a wide variety of colors, sizes, and configurations. All are made with their sensational air leather material. The industrial line offers a closed sectional, an open sectional with a double lounger, and a double chaise sectional. Each of these styles is available in multiple sizes for different numbers of seats, depending on a customer's needs. They also have the option to add an ottoman for both additional seating and matching storage. All styles combine 25Home's unique blend of foam cushions and feather backrests to provide the ultimate comfort and stability in each and every piece. They also all come with free feather-down pillows to complete the look and comfort. The sofa feet are stylish and sturdy with a spherical shape unique to 25Home that is designed to prevent scratching or damage to floors when the couch is moved. Lovely color choices provide neutral shades that will match any decor. Tan, gray, camel, and black options range across the different styles, with some colors available for certain styles only. Air leather 25Home is using a revolutionary new material for the upholstery of the Industrial line. Air leather is a leather alternative made from environmentally and animal-friendly materials. This waterproof, stain-proof, and wear-resistant cloth is ideal for homes with pets and children, holding up to everyday wear and tear without damage. Air leather is soft and breathable but also durable. It doesn't need the typical upkeep demanded by traditional leather furniture, allowing it to be both affordable and low-maintenance. Conclusion 25Home has a history of providing incredible furniture. They're affordable and high-quality, thanks to their manufacturer-to-consumer business model. The Industrial line is a gorgeous range of sofas with multiple sizes, designs, and color options. The range is made for any home with the ability to fit into a wide variety of room sizes and a simplistic design that can enhance the existing decor. 25Home has a great customer service team, more than willing to answer any inquiries at [email protected]. Contact Details Contact Name: Ivy Contact Email: [email protected] Website: https://25home.com SOURCE 25Home Furniture Inc PITTSBURGH, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to create a new line of bandages, braces, and limb supports to better camouflage or blend in with the specific wearer," said an inventor, from Riverside, Calif., "so I invented MY SHADE. My aesthetic design would not bring attention to the wound, injury, or prosthetic." The invention provides an improved design for bandages, braces, or limb supports. In doing so, it enables the user to better match the product to their natural skin tone. As a result, it would not garner a great deal of attention and it could help to reduce embarrassment. The invention features a discreet design that is easy to use so it is ideal for the general population including African Americans, Asians, Latinos, whites, etc. Additionally, it is producible in design variations. The original design was submitted to the Orange County sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-OCM-1533, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com. SOURCE InventHelp PITTSBURGH, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I disliked how unorganized my things could be when traveling," said the inventor from Westland, Mich. "I thought of this idea to help provide frequent travelers with a convenient and safe way to pack clothing for easy travel." She invented EZ-TRAVEL that is comprised of a transparent unit which would allow security screeners to quickly and easily view the housed items. This would provide a foldable, convenient and safe means to pack clothing and valuables. It could save travelers time and lead to a more enjoyable vacation or business trip. Additionally, this could help reduce the incidence of overpacking that may result in additional fees due. The original design was submitted to the National sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-OSK-357, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com. SOURCE InventHelp MANCHESTER, N.H., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Manchester, NH John Coughlin, the Hillsborough County Attorney continues to fight back against serious crime. John Coughlin has said, "First, before we were even sworn in, we began seeking to rebuild relationships with our partner organizations. For example, we have been working hand in hand with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office on a wide variety of cases and organizational issues. We have also been working with police departments throughout the county to expand and improve communication and modernize case processing." Coughlin Team Campaigns For Re-Election The department has identified and assigned additional duties to a specific assistant county attorney to serve as a liaison with the Manchester Police Department, since Queen City is the largest community in our county and in the entire state. That assistant county attorney is physically present at the Manchester Police Station as their schedule allows and is also communicating electronically with police. The liaison fosters improved cooperation between the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office and Manchester Police Department. Coughlin added, "In addition, we are updating, managing, and disseminating a list of high priority cases on a bi-weekly basis. These cases have been identified by both our office and local law enforcement as meriting this kind of attention. We have been making a successful effort along with the county government to introduce new technologies and extract as much as possible out of limited resources. The county attorney's office is much improved from the operation it was 21 months ago." The campaign believes there is still much to be done, but the efficiencies, technology, and, most importantly, relationships we have established and reestablished are starting to yield dividends. Coughlin has also stated, "Our goals are the equal application of the law under the Rule of Law as well as protecting the rights of victims and allowing their voices to be heard. We continue to move the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office forward as we successfully prosecute serious felonies in both the Northern and Southern Districts. As a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard who served three tours in Iraq, as well as a retired State of New Hampshire judge, I understand and appreciate how truly precious and fragile our freedoms and justice are." To learn more about John Coughlin's re-election campaign, visit here: https://johncoughlin2022.com CONTACT: John J. Coughlin (603) 769-7499 [email protected] https://johncoughlin2022.com SOURCE John J. Coughlin For Hillsborough County Attorney $ unless otherwise stated TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945 BOSTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Investment Management, a company of Manulife Investment Management, today announced recent enhancements to its municipal fund suite bringing additional flexibility to advisors and their clients seeking tax-free income opportunities and potential cost savings to shareholders. Expense reductions Effective October 1, 2022, as a result of reductions to the management fees and contractual expense caps affecting John Hancock Municipal Opportunities Fund and John Hancock California Municipal Bond Fund, shareholders will see an immediate reduction in the funds' overall expense ratios. John Hancock High Yield Municipal Bond Fund is also affected by a contractual expense cap reduction. The new fee schedules can be found in the updated prospectus for each fund at jhinvestments.com. Lowered eligibility requirement for investments in Class A shares Effective August 1, 2022, reductions were made to the eligibility requirement for investments in Class A shares with no front-end sales charge for its municipal bond funds from $1 million to $250,000.1 This includes John Hancock Municipal Opportunities Fund, John Hancock California Municipal Bond Fund, and John Hancock High Yield Municipal Bond Fund. John Hancock Short Duration Municipal Opportunities Fund was launched with a similar $250,000 eligibility. These opportunities are available at all firms where the funds are approved or available. John Hancock Short Duration Municipal Opportunities Fund launch Effective June 9, 2022, John Hancock Investment Management announced the launch of John Hancock Short Duration Municipal Opportunities Fund. The objective of the fund is to seek total return exempt from federal income tax as is consistent with preservation of capital. The municipal suite is subadvised by Manulife Investment Management (US) LLC, John Hancock Investment Management's affiliated asset manager. The managers of the municipal suite of funds are Adam A. Weigold, CFA, senior portfolio manager, head of municipal bonds and Dennis DiCicco, portfolio manager, municipal bonds. 1 There is a 1.00% contingent deferred sales charge on any Class A shares upon which a commission or finder's fee was paid that are sold within 18 months of purchase. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus from your financial professional, by visiting jhinvestments.com, or by calling us at 800-225-5291. The prospectus includes investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should consider carefully before investing. NOT FDIC INSURED. MAY LOSE VALUE. NO BANK GUARANTEE. NOT INSURED BY ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY. This material does not constitute tax, legal, or accounting advice, is for informational purposes only and is not meant as investment advice. Please consult your tax or financial professional before making any investment decisions. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. About John Hancock Investment Management A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship. About Manulife Investment Management Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 19 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com. Manulife, Manulife Investment Management, Stylized M Design, and Manulife Investment Management & Stylized M Design are trademarks of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and are used by it, and by its affiliates under license. SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management SHANGHAI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- November 4, 2022 Lanvin Group (the "Group"), a global luxury fashion group, today announced that, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has declared effective the Registration Statement on Form F-4 (the "Registration Statement") of Lanvin Group Holdings Limited ("LGHL"), in connection with its previously announced proposed business combination with Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: PV) ("PCAC"). PCAC is a special purpose acquisition company listed on The New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") and is also an affiliate of Primavera Capital Group ("Primavera"), a leading global investment firm. Extraordinary General Meeting PCAC recommends that its shareholders vote in favor of the proposed business combination and the related proposals described in the proxy statement/prospectus dated November 4, 2022 (the "Proxy Statement"), at PCAC's extraordinary general meeting (the "Extraordinary General Meeting"). The Extraordinary General Meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on December 9, 2022 and conducted via live audio cast at https://www.cstproxy.com/pvspac/2022. PCAC's shareholders as of November 8, 2022, the record date for the Extraordinary General Meeting (the "Record Date"), are entitled to vote their shares either in person, remotely or by proxy card in advance to ensure that their shares will be represented at the Extraordinary General Meeting. Shareholders that hold shares in "street name," which means shares are held of record by a broker, bank or nominee, should contact the relevant broker, bank or nominee as soon as possible to ensure that votes related to such beneficially owned shares are properly voted. Summary of Recently Announced Transaction Updates Revised pre-money valuation The Group and PCAC have revised the pre-money equity value of the Group from US$1.25 billion to US$1 billion based on various considerations, including the latest currency and stock market environment since the proposed business combination was first announced on March 23, 2022 and the recent trading multiples of numerous listed global luxury companies. The Group believes that the adjusted valuation establishes a highly compelling entry point for investors, reflecting the Group's commitment to delivering significant upside potential and long-term value for both current PCAC shareholders as well as future shareholders of the Group. Cancellation of bonus pool After taking various considerations into account, the Group and PCAC have agreed to cancel the bonus pool for PCAC non-redeeming public shareholders and to explore alternative non-redemption incentives for certain selected holders of PCAC Class A ordinary shares to commit to not redeem their shares in connection with the business combination. Additional strategic investor Meritz Securities Co., Ltd (008560.KS) ("Meritz"), a subsidiary of South Korea-based leading global financial services conglomerate Meritz Financial Group (138040.KS), has recently committed US$50 million in a private placement ahead of listing and is considering an additional investment of up to US$15 million by way of a PIPE subscription, both at the same per share valuation as applicable to the de-SPAC transaction. Fosun Fashion's upsized PIPE subscription On March 23, 2022, the Group's shareholder Fosun Fashion Holdings (Cayman) Limited agreed to subscribe for 3,800,000 LGHL ordinary shares for an aggregate purchase price of $38 million, of which amount $30 million has already been funded to the Group in advance of the closing of the business combination. Subsequently, on October 28, 2022, Fosun Fashion Holdings (Cayman) Limited, Fosun International Limited and certain other parties thereto entered into an Amended and Restated Subscription Agreement, pursuant to which Fosun Fashion Holdings (Cayman) Limited has agreed to subscribe for a total of 13,327,225 LGHL ordinary shares at a price of $10 per share, upsizing its PIPE subscription investment by approximately $95 million, from $38 million to approximately $133 million. The additional approximately $95 million PIPE subscription commitment from Fosun Fashion Holdings (Cayman) Limited will be effected by way of re-investment of all of the repayment proceeds of certain existing shareholder loans that were borrowed by the Group from a shareholder of the Group for working capital purposes. Listing in NYSE under LANV ticket expected by end of year The proposed business combination with PCAC is expected to close by the end of this year, subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of PCAC's shareholders and the listing of securities of LGHL on the NYSE. Upon completion of the transaction, the business of the Group will operate under the Lanvin Group name. LGHL has applied to be listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "LANV". About Lanvin Group Lanvin Group is a leading global luxury fashion group headquartered in Shanghai, China, managing iconic brands worldwide including Lanvin, Wolford, Sergio Rossi, St. John Knits, and Caruso. Harnessing the power of its unique strategic alliance of industry-leading partners in the luxury fashion sector, Lanvin Group strives to expand the global footprint of its portfolio brands and achieve sustainable growth through strategic investment and extensive operational know-how, combined with an intimate understanding and unparalleled access to the fastest-growing luxury fashion markets in the world. For more information about Lanvin Group, please visit www.lanvin-group.com, and to view our investor presentation, please visit www.lanvin-group.com/investor-relation/. About Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: PV), is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. PCAC is an affiliate of Primavera, a leading alternative investment management firm. With offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Palo Alto, Primavera manages both USD and RMB funds for prominent financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, endowments, corporations and family offices around the world. As of September 30, 2021, it had assets under management of approximately US$17 billion. Primavera employs a flexible investment strategy comprised of buy-out/control-oriented, growth capital and restructuring investments. Having accumulated extensive experience in structuring and executing cross-border investment transactions, Primavera seeks to create long-term value for its portfolio companies by combining deep local connectivity in the Asia Pacific region with global experience and best practices. For more information, please visit www.primavera-capital.com. Enquiries: Media Lanvin Group FGS Global Richard Barton +852 9301 2056/+41 79 922 7892 [email protected] Harry Florry +852 9818 2239 [email protected] Louis Hung +852 9084 1801 [email protected] Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation Primavera Capital Group: [email protected] FGS Global: [email protected] Investors Lanvin Group [email protected] Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation Alex Ge +852 3767 5068 [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements This press release, including the information contained herein (collectively, this "communication") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and also contains certain financial forecasts and projections. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this communication, including, but not limited to, statements as to future results of operations and financial position, planned products and services, business strategy and plans, objectives of management for future operations of the Lanvin Group, market size and growth opportunities, competitive position, technological and market trends and the potential benefits and expectations related to the terms and timing of the proposed business combination with PCAC, are forward-looking statements. Some of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words, including "anticipate," "expect," "suggests," "plan," "believe," "intend," "estimates," "targets," "projects," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "forecast" or other similar expressions. All forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and forecasts and reflect the views, assumptions, expectations, and opinions of the Lanvin Group and PCAC, which are all subject to change due to various factors. Any such estimates, assumptions, expectations, forecasts, views or opinions, whether or not identified in this communication, should be regarded as indicative, preliminary and for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as being necessarily indicative of future results. The forward-looking statements and financial forecasts and projections contained in this communication are subject to a number of factors, risks and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; the timing and structure of the business combination with PCAC; changes to the proposed structure of the business combination with PCAC that may be required or appropriate as a result of applicable laws or regulations; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the business combination with PCAC and the other transactions in connection therewith, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the business combination with PCAC or that the approval of the shareholders of PCAC or the Lanvin Group is not obtained; the risk that the business combination with PCAC disrupts current plans and operations of PCAC or the Lanvin Group as a result of the announcement and consummation of the business combination with PCAC; the ability of the Lanvin Group to grow and manage growth profitably and retain its key employees including its chief executive officer and executive team; the inability to obtain or maintain the listing of the post-acquisition company's securities on the NYSE following the business combination with PCAC; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the business combination with PCAC; risk relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to the Lanvin Group; the amount of redemption requests made by PCAC's shareholders and the amount of funds available in the PCAC trust account; general economic conditions and other factors affecting the Lanvin Group's business; Lanvin Group's ability to implement its business strategy; Lanvin Group's ability to manage expenses; changes in applicable laws and governmental regulation and the impact of such changes on Lanvin Group's business, Lanvin Group's exposure to litigation claims and other loss contingencies; the risks associated with negative press or reputational harm; disruptions and other impacts to Lanvin Group's business, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions and restrictive measures implemented in response; Lanvin Group's ability to protect patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights; any breaches of, or interruptions in, Lanvin Group's technology infrastructure; changes in tax laws and liabilities; and changes in legal, regulatory, political and economic risks and the impact of such changes on Lanvin Group's business. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of LGHL's registration statement on Form F-4, PCAC's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed by LGHL or PCAC from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, there may be additional risks that neither PCAC nor Lanvin Group presently know, or that PCAC or Lanvin Group currently believe are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect PCAC's and Lanvin Group's expectations, plans, projections or forecasts of future events and view. If any of the risks materialize or PCAC's or Lanvin Group's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. PCAC and Lanvin Group anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause their assessments to change. However, while LGHL, PCAC and Lanvin Group may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, LGHL, PCAC and Lanvin Group specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, except as required by law. The inclusion of any statement in this document does not constitute an admission by Lanvin Group nor PCAC or any other person that the events or circumstances described in such statement are material. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing PCAC's or Lanvin Group's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this document. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. In addition, the analyses of Lanvin Group and PCAC contained herein are not, and do not purport to be, appraisals of the securities, assets or business of the Lanvin Group, PCAC or any other entity. Important Additional Information This communication relates to a proposed business combination between Lanvin Group and PCAC. This document does not constitute an offer to sell or exchange, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange, any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The proposed business combination with PCAC will be submitted to shareholders of PCAC for their consideration. LGHL has filed a Registration Statement with the SEC which includes a preliminary proxy statement in relation to the vote by PCAC's shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination and other matters as described in the Registration Statement, as well as a preliminary prospectus with respect to LGHL's securities to be issued in connection with the proposed business combination. PCAC and LGHL also will file other documents regarding the proposed business combination with the SEC. The Registration Statement has been declared effective by the SEC and PCAC will mail a definitive proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents to its shareholders as of the record date established for voting on the proposed business combination. This communication is not a substitute for the Registration Statement, the definitive proxy statement/prospectus or any other document that PCAC will send to its shareholders in connection with the business combination. PCAC's shareholders and other interested persons are advised to read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus, in connection with PCAC's solicitation of proxies for its special meeting of shareholders to be held to approve, among other things, the proposed transactions, because these documents will contain important information about PCAC, LGHL, Lanvin Group and the proposed business combination with PCAC. Shareholders and investors may also obtain a copy of the definitive proxy statement/prospectus, as well as other documents filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transactions and other documents filed with the SEC by PCAC, without charge, at the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to PCAC. INVESTMENT IN ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED BY THE SEC OR ANY OTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY NOR HAS ANY AUTHORITY PASSED UPON OR ENDORSED THE MERITS OF THE OFFERING OR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE. Participants in the Solicitation PCAC, LGHL and Lanvin Group and certain of their respective directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be participants in the solicitations of proxies from PCAC's shareholders in connection with the proposed transactions. Information regarding the persons who may, under SEC rules, be deemed participants in the solicitation of PCAC's shareholders in connection with the proposed transactions are set forth in PCAC's proxy statement/prospectus, which is filed with the SEC. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests is included in the proxy statement/prospectus. Shareholders, potential investors and other interested persons should read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents from the sources indicated above. No Offer or Solicitation This communication is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities pursuant to the proposed transactions or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act. Websites The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, the websites referenced in this document is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document. SOURCE Lanvin Group Tulsa Remote Attracts 2,000th Remote Worker to Relocate, Generates $62 Million for Local Economy TULSA, Okla., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tulsa Remote , the largest remote work incentive program in the U.S., announced today that it has recruited and relocated more than 2,000 remote workers to the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa Remote was launched in 2018 by the George Kaiser Family Foundation with the goal of attracting and retaining highly skilled young professionals away from major coastal cities and business hubs like New York and San Francisco. The previous trend, of workers from around the country relocating to the coasts, was endangering the heartland's ability to develop technology, innovation, and entrepreneurial sectors a brain drain that was ruinous for economic development "The economic and social impact of the Tulsa Remote program is remarkable," says Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. "Tulsa Remote is creating opportunities not only for the city of Tulsa but is also setting an example for many other heartland cities. Tulsa Remote provides a playbook for how to engage participants and create value for the community in the heartland." The Tulsa Remote program offers a $10,000 stipend to participants willing to relocate for at least one year, access to a free co-working space at 36 Degrees North Tulsa's basecamp for entrepreneurs, startups, and innovatorshousing assistance, and an engaged community with built-in programming, events, and meetups to help new Tulsans thrive in their new hometown. When it launched, Tulsa Remote saw the program as an experiment that might stay at modest scale but it received 10,000 applicants in the first year and more than double that in 2021 which far exceeded expectations. A recently conducted third-party impact report from The Economic Impact Group found that the program added $62 million in new local earnings in 2021 alone $51.3 million directly attributable to relocated remote workers and $10.7 million from the employment boost generated in the local economy. "We have had the distinct pleasure of watching Tulsa's recent growth and each and every Tulsa Remote member brings something new to our already vibrant community," says Justin Harlan, Tulsa Remote's Managing Director. "This is an incredible milestone for our program and for Tulsa, and we are grateful for the 2,000 remote workers who took a chance on our program and a chance on Tulsa. We can't wait to see how they continue to contribute, grow and thrive here." Today the program has over 2,000 memberswith the largest referral markets being Dallas, Los Angeles, Austin, and New Yorkand encompasses sectors including tech, finance, and communications. According to a recent Brookings report , the program has built a diverse community with people from all backgrounds who are likely to stay in Tulsa long-term, more likely to be actively engaged in the local community, and are experiencing higher real income growth. As a matter of fact, Tulsa Remoters showed an increase in their real income that was $26.5k/year larger than that of accepted applicants that have yet to move, even though these groups had similar 2018 income. The city's growth extends beyond the record-breaking influx of workers. Tulsa is getting back to its roots with attractions like the new Bob Dylan Center and the Woodie Guthrie Center. In a nod to a troubling racial history, the city has been rebuilding the iconic Black Wall Street by launching programs designed to support Black and minority founders and entrepreneurs. TechStars, an international accelerator program, launched its first ever cohort specifically for Black and brown founders in partnership with Build in Tulsa , an initiative also funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation also launched an incubator, Tulsa Innovation Labs , which garnered national attention after being granted $38.2 million from the federal Build Back Better grant. About Tulsa Remote: Tulsa Remote is a unique recruitment initiative aimed at attracting talented individuals to Tulsa. The program brings remote workers and digital nomads to the community by providing $10,000 grants and numerous community-building opportunities. Each grant is distributed over the course of a year to eligible remote workers or entrepreneurs living outside of Oklahoma. Funding is currently provided by George Kaiser Family Foundation. The City of Tulsa and other community organizations lend their support to ensure program participants are fully immersed and engaged in the community. To learn more, visit TulsaRemote.com . Media Contact Caroline Glennon Thunder11 516-941-8802 [email protected] SOURCE Tulsa Remote RESTON, Va., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, today announced the first Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) system operational at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE). The system, developed for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will reduce runway departure queues and allow for streamlined operations in the airport's air traffic control tower. "With an increase in air traffic nationwide, it's crucial for airports to leverage the most innovative systems and technology to keep airport traffic consistently flowing," said Fran Hill, senior vice president of Leidos' Transportation Solutions. "The benefits of TFDM are far-reaching. Not only will it improve the passenger experience by reducing delays, but it will also lower greenhouse gas emissions through reduced airplane taxi times." TFDM is a tower-based Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) technology that improves surface management and efficiency. The system shares electronic data among controllers, air traffic managers, aircraft operators and airports to stage arrivals and departures while managing surface traffic flow. Leidos is the prime contractor and lead integrator developing and implementing TFDM. Leidos teams perform program management, systems engineering, design and development, system integration and testing, adaptation, hardware production and site implementation. With its deployment, Leidos will continue to provide maintenance support services to maintain the system's functionality. A second deployment build is planned for Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2024. Build 2.0 will provide additional tools and expand data sharing to flight operators and other stakeholders. TFDM implementation will continue to additional airports across the U.S. over the next several years. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets. The company's 44,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $13.7 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com . Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the "Risk Factors" set forth in Leidos' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Leidos does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made. SOURCE Leidos The two-year partnership features a custom (RED)-themed air purifier that supports the fight against global health injustices with every purchase ANAHEIM, Calif., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Levoit, the #1 selling air purifier brand in the US*, announces today the (RED)EFINING Fresh Air campaign, launching as part of a two-year partnership with (RED), the organization founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006 to fight AIDS and the injustices that enable pandemics to thrive. The campaign will feature a custom (LEVOIT)RED Core 400s air purifier model which raises money to support life-saving programs with each and every purchase. (LEVOIT)RED Core 400s From October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2024, three percent of the purchase price of every (LEVOIT)RED Core 400s will go to the Global Fund to fight AIDS and COVID-19 with (RED), with a minimum guaranteed donation of $200,000. "We are so honored to be partnering with (RED) to help support their efforts to build stronger health systems that fight pandemics and be within their list of iconic brand partners," said Grace Yang, CEO and Founder of Vesync Co, Ltd. "As philanthropy has always been an important initiative for our Vesync family of brands, through our (RED)-themed version of our award-winning Core 400S air purifier, we are thrilled to donate a percentage of the sales to the Global Fund to support the AIDS and COVID-19 fight." The (LEVOIT)RED Core 400s is available to purchase for $219.99 at Levoit.com and Amazon. With powerful H13 True HEPA filtration, smart control, and advanced features such as VortexAir Technology, it purifies air in a matter of minutes. It offers innovative features including: 3-Stage Filtration: Captures at least 99.97 percent of airborne particles 0.3 microns in size, 99.9 percent of airborne particles 0.1 microns in size, and HEPA Smart Technology enhances filtration, capturing 99.99 percent of bacteria and mold, and 99.9 percent of viruses. Captures at least 99.97 percent of airborne particles 0.3 microns in size, 99.9 percent of airborne particles 0.1 microns in size, and HEPA Smart Technology enhances filtration, capturing 99.99 percent of bacteria and mold, and 99.9 percent of viruses. VortexAir Technology: Increases indoor air circulation and filtration efficiency. Increases indoor air circulation and filtration efficiency. AirSight Plus Technology: Laser Dust Sensor scans surrounding air for airborne particles. Laser Dust Sensor scans surrounding air for airborne particles. PM2.5 Display: Displays the amount of airborne particles detected by the laser dust sensor. Displays the amount of airborne particles detected by the laser dust sensor. ARC Formula: Helps neutralize household odors and pet smells. Helps neutralize household odors and pet smells. QuietKEAP Technology: Keeps noise levels as low as 24 dB. Keeps noise levels as low as 24 dB. App Control: Control settings, check filter life, receive real-time air quality updates and more. Control settings, check filter life, receive real-time air quality updates and more. Voice Control: Connect air purifier to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Connect air purifier to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Air Quality Indicator Rings: Indicates real-time air quality as Bad, Moderate, Good, or Very Good. "We are really thrilled to be joining forces with Levoit," said Jennifer Lotito, President & Chief Operating Officer, (RED). "AIDS is still a crisis, but only because of the injustices that have enabled it to thrive. Through this partnership, we can deliver money to the Global Fund that will help address these issues and save more lives in the years to come." Download Images Here Photo Credit: Courtesy of Levoit To learn more about Levoit and the company's award-winning smart home products, please visit Levoit.com. *Source: The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, US unit sales, 12 months ending October 2020. Based on Amazon sales. About (RED): Founded by Bono & Bobby Shriver in 2006 to fight AIDS, (RED) partners with the world's most iconic brands and people to create products and experiences that raise money, heat and urgency for global health crises. Every action you take with (RED) saves lives. All money generated by (RED) goes to the Global Fund, one of the world's largest funders of global health. To date, (RED) has generated over $700 million for the Global Fund, helping more than 245 million people. (RED) funding supports life-saving programs that empower health workers and provide testing, treatment and care in places where injustice has enabled pandemics to thrive. (RED) partners include AM Denmark, Anova Culinary, Apple, Balmain, Bank of America, Barefoot Dreams, Beats by Dr. Dre, Ember, eos, Fiat, Girl Skateboards, The Honey Pot Co., Jeep, KISS Products, Levoit, Louis Vuitton, Mavin Records, Morel Eyewear, Panasonic, Primark, RAM, The Ridge, Salesforce, Starbucks, Therabody, TRUFF, U-Mask, and Vespa. (RED) supporters include Merck and Roche. About Levoit: Launched in 2016, Levoit connects homes with award-winning smart products to create clean and comfortable atmospheres. The brand's collection of air purifiers, humidifiers and vacuums features industry-leading technologies and smart home applications. As part of the Vesync Family of Brands, Levoit has received worldwide recognition for its continued innovation in reliable, intuitive designs. To learn more, visit www.levoit.com. Media Contact: Kennedy Glanzer [email protected] 214-546-8866 SOURCE Levoit Part of the conglomerate's decarbonization mission WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH), a pioneering holding company in South East Asia, has chosen the work platform, Kissflow to further digitize FPH and its subsidiaries' operations as part of key steps to hasten the Philippine conglomerate's decarbonization mission. Kissflow's work platform now helps FPH as a group to further reduce its carbon footprint by eliminating and digitizing more office tasks. FPH, along with its subsidiaries, has long been campaigning at the forefront against climate change in the Philippines. "We seek to go beyond incremental efforts not only in sustainability but also in everything we do. With Kissflow, FPH and its subsidiaries are able to digitize dramatically major operations, especially in their finance and accounts operations," said Joseph Chavez of FPH Accounting FPH has digitized over 100 office processes, allowing the holding company to complete over 1,000 paperless approvals a month. FPH plans to transform and integrate more processes of other departments and subsidiaries using Kissflow. This means saving a lot of trees that otherwise would have been turned into pulp and processed into paper. "Our partnership with Kissflow helps improve operational and process efficiency that in turn enhances the way we serve our customers and vendors. At the same time, the partnership reaffirms the relevance of the FPH Group's new mission of 'forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future,'" Chavez added. FPH crafted the new mission in 2020 after it realized that incremental sustainability does not help reverse climate change. Its climate change advocacy explains why its subsidiary First Gen Corporation prioritizes the use of clean and renewable energy sources as fuel to run its power plants. This has turned First Gen into the country's clean energy leader with power plants running on geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar, which are renewable energy sources; and natural gas, the cleanest form of fossil fuel. To further reduce its carbon footprint, FPH has been ramping up its digital transformation initiatives across multiple subsidiaries not only in the energy business but also in real estate, manufacturing, construction, and other service sectors. As one of the key initiatives, FPH has rolled out Kissflow's work platform in its subsidiaries to automate all paper-based tasks. Now, with low-code addition to the product, Kissflow believes that FPH will be able to leverage and speed up its digital transformation journey; hence, its vision toward decarbonization. About Kissflow Kissflow provides a unified low-code no-code work platform for enterprises to digitally transform business operations. Kissflow brings enterprise IT and business users together to transform operations by embracing the low-code/no-code paradigm. Kissflow enables every enterprise user to build and manage apps, processes, tasks, analytics, integration, and collaboration in a single unified platform. Hundreds of global and Fortune 500 brands such as Airbus, Pepsi, McDermott, Comcast and Danone rely on Kissflow to simplify their work. Kissflow has been featured and recognized as an industry leader by Gartner, Forrester and G2. Founded in 2004, Kissflow is an industry pioneer in the low-code / no-code space with a globally distributed workforce. Learn more at https://kissflow.com/ Contact: Saivinai R +91 8056108978 [email protected] SOURCE Kissflow Key Highlights: Cynata to collaborate with Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands , in a new clinical trial in patients who have received a kidney transplant Trial to be funded by LUMC; Cynata will supply iPSC-derived Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at its cost to facilitate the trial and has full commercial rights There are approximately 130,000 kidney transplants around the world each year. Kidney transplantation is life-saving in patients with chronic renal failure and frees the patient from the need for dialysis. Currently, lifelong immune suppressive therapy is required in renal transplant patients to reduce the risk of rejection. This can lead to increased risk of infections and cancer and the main anti-rejection drugs are also directly toxic to the kidneys In previous clinical trials, mesenchymal stromal/stem cells have shown potential to enable the early withdrawal of anti-rejection drugs in renal transplant recipients without increased rejection and with preserved renal function MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cynata Therapeutics Limited (ASX: "CYP" or "Cynata"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specialising in cell therapeutics, is delighted to announce that the LUMC is funding an important clinical trial to investigate Cynata's Cymerus MSCs as a treatment for renal graft rejection and to potentially reduce the requirement for anti-rejection drugs. The clinical trial, entitled the "Safety and Efficacy of iPSC-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy in Renal Transplant Recipients - the Nereid Study", will be led by Prof. Ton Rabelink, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine of LUMC and will seek to recruit 10 patients who have undergone a renal transplant. The trial is expected to commence in 2023, pending receipt of customary and relevant regulatory, ethics and administrative approvals. Dr Ross Macdonald, Cynata's Chief Executive Officer, said: "This exciting new collaboration follows very promising clinical trial data with MSCs published by Professor Rabelink[1] and our own published pre-clinical data[2] in organ transplant rejection. The potential to enhance survival of transplanted donor organs while at the same time reducing or eliminating the need for damaging anti-rejection drugs would be a substantial breakthrough in transplantation medicine. We are delighted to be working with one of Europe's leading transplant centres and with Professor Rabelink and his team to conduct this important clinical trial." Professor Rabelink said: "There is an urgent need for more effective management of immune rejection of donor organs while preserving organ function and minimizing side effects of anti-rejection therapy. From this perspective, MSC therapy is of interest and our own clinical studies have provided strong support for MSC treatment to substantially advance the field of transplantation medicine. The consistency and potency of Cynata's unique iPSC-derived Cymerus MSCs make them an ideal candidate for this clinical trial." Authorised for release by Dr Ross Macdonald, Managing Director & CEO About the Clinical Trial The clinical trial, entitled "Safety and Efficacy of iPSC-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy in Renal Transplant Recipients the Nereid Study", is an open label, non-randomized, non-blinded, prospective, single centre clinical phase Ib study. It will be conducted in 10 renal allograft recipients, aged 18-75 years old. The principal investigator is Dr. HS Spijker, Department of Nephrology, LUMC. Following their transplant surgery, patients will receive a drug used to treat graft rejection and two doses of Cymerus MSCs 6 and 7 weeks after transplantation followed by withdrawal of anti-rejection medication. The primary end point is safety by assessing absence of acute rejection (absence of graft loss after 6 months) after withdrawal of anti-rejection medication. Other end points include assessment of renal function at 6 months and the incidence of opportunistic infections. About Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP) Cynata Therapeutics Limited (ASX: CYP) is an Australian clinical-stage stem cell and regenerative medicine company focused on the development of therapies based on Cymerus, a proprietary therapeutic stem cell platform technology. Cymerus overcomes the challenges of other production methods by using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and a precursor cell known as mesenchymoangioblast (MCA) to achieve economic manufacture of cell therapy products, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), at commercial scale without the limitation of multiple donors. Cynata's lead product candidate CYP-001 met all clinical endpoints and demonstrated positive safety and efficacy data for the treatment of steroid-resistant acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in a Phase 1 trial. Planning for a Phase 2 clinical trial in GvHD under a cleared US FDA IND is presently underway. Clinical trials of Cymerus products in osteoarthritis (Phase 3) and diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are currently ongoing. In addition, Cynata has demonstrated utility of its Cymerus technology in preclinical models of numerous diseases, including the clinical targets mentioned above, as well as critical limb ischaemia, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, heart attack, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and cytokine release syndrome. Cynata Therapeutics encourages all current investors to go paperless by registering their details with the designated registry service provider, Automic Group. [1] Reinders et al: Autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell therapy with early tacrolimus withdrawal: The randomized prospective, single-center, open-label TRITON study. Am J Transplant. 2021;21:30553065 [2] Khan et al: iPSC-derived MSC therapy induces immune tolerance and supports long-term graft survival in mouse orthotopic tracheal transplants. Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2019) 10:290 SOURCE Cynata Therapeutics People living with lung cancer and their caregivers share the importance of finding your community to live better with lung cancer WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, is kicking off Lung Cancer Awareness Month with the launch of its Find Your Lung Cancer Community public service campaign. This moving campaign features lung cancer survivors and their caregivers, sharing their stories about how finding others living with a lung cancer diagnosis brought them hope, empowerment, and friendship. LUNGevity Foundations educational campaign encourages those affected by lung cancer to find a community to fit their needs. Find support, information, and connection to live better with the disease. Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9035351-lungevity-foundation-launches-find-your-lung-cancer-community-psa/ Find Your Lung Cancer Community follows a series of social media-driven educational campaigns of the previous five years. This year's campaign illustrates that finding one's lung cancer community can help overcome the anxiety and loneliness of this diagnosis, which is a key aspect of living well with the disease. Long and short-form videos offer a variety of ways to connect with others, including one-on-one mentoring, virtual meetups, and online groups, so that everyone can find the group that best meets their personal needs. Each community can offer information, support, and understanding of the challenges of living with lung cancer. "While a lung cancer diagnosis can be especially isolating," notes Ann Fish-Steagall, BSN, RN, Senior Vice President of Patient Services. "It is important to know that you are not alone. LUNGevity and other groups can provide connections to people who are going through a similar journey. Family members and friends can be a great support, but only a fellow survivor or caregiver knows what it's like to deal with this diagnosis. Whether it's an online community, patient group, or mentor, LUNGevity can help you find the community that is right for you." Find Your Lung Cancer Community showcases survivors and caregivers whose connections made through their personal lung cancer community have been transformative. The campaign will use paid and organic social media to share this message of encouragement and drive viewers to the LUNGevity Lung Cancer Patient Gateways, where they can find a variety of organizational and outside groups, online communities, and meetups tailored to their type of lung cancer. The Find Your Lung Cancer Community campaign is supported by Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, and Exact Sciences. About LUNGevity Foundation LUNGevity Foundation is the nation's leading lung cancer organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer. The foundation works tirelessly to advance research into early detection and more effective treatments, and to ensure that patients have access to these advances. LUNGevity seeks to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship for everyone touched by the diseasewhile promoting health equity by addressing disparities throughout the care continuum. LUNGevity provides information and educational tools to empower patients and their caregivers, promote impactful public policy initiatives, and amplify the patient voice through research and engagement. The organization provides an active community for patients and survivorsand those who help them live better and longer lives. Comprehensive resources include a medically vetted and patient-centric website, a toll-free HELPLine for support, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, and an easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder, among other tools. All of these programs are to achieve our visiona world where no one dies of lung cancer. LUNGevity Foundation is proud to be a four-star Charity Navigator organization. About Lung Cancer in the US About 1 in 17 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime. More than 236,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers. Lung cancer takes more lives in the United States than the next two deadliest cancers (colorectal and pancreatic) combined. than the next two deadliest cancers (colorectal and pancreatic) combined. Only about 23% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it is caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically. Please visit LUNGevity.org to learn more. SOURCE LUNGevity Foundation Flight of Battery-Powered Robinson 44 Helicopter Accelerates Path to Sustainable Delivery of Life-Saving Organs EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- magniX , a manufacturer of electric propulsion solutions for aviation, is pleased to have powered the first fully-electric helicopter flight between airfields, in partnership with Tier 1 Engineering . The modified electric Robinson 44 (eR44) helicopter powered with a magniX magni250 electric propulsion unit (EPU) made its historic journey from Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport to Palm Springs International Airport, arriving on 29 October 2022 at 11:00am PST, in a flight that lasted approximately 20 minutes. magniX Powers First Point-To-Point Flight of an All-Electric Helicopter Tier 1 Engineering is developing the magniX-powered eR44 for Lung Biotechnology PBC , a subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation , a biotechnology company dedicated to addressing the severe shortage of transplantable organs in the U.S. The magniX EPU was retrofitted into the helicopter together with a battery system developed by Tier 1 Engineering, specialists in the design and development of electric aircraft. The eR44 is designed to deliver human and manufactured organs for transplant with zero carbon emissions at the point of use. "Building from our first flight of the eR44 helicopter last June, the successfully completed point-to-point flight takes us a step closer to the sustainable transport of life-saving organs," said Nuno Taborda, CEO of magniX. "magniX is excited to be part of an initiative that will positively affect those in need of urgent medical care. This is only the start of the applications for electric helicopters, which have a bright future as low-cost, carbon-free, reliable alternatives to combustion engine models." magniX Celebrates Another Industry First Since December 2019, magniX has also provided the technology to power a number of first flights, including that of Harbour Air's "eBeaver", a Cessna "eCaravan" and, most recently in September 2022, Eviation's all-electric commuter aircraft, Alice. This point-to-point flight of an electric rotary aircraft represents the latest first for the industry-leading electric solutions company. Tier 1 Engineering is currently working with the FAA on the eR44 project to obtain a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC). Lung Biotechnology PBC plans to acquire a fleet of sustainable aircraft to transport transplant organs. "We are committed to charting a new path forward for the zero-carbon delivery of life-saving organs," said Dr. Martine Rothblatt, one of the helicopter's pilots and CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation. "Saturday's point-to-point flight proves that the technology necessary for our mission is already here, as we actively work with the FAA to certify the eR44 helicopter." "Together we achieved an incredible outcome for the world's first airport-to-airport cross-country all-electric helicopter flight," said Glen Dromgoole, President of Tier 1 Engineering. "magniX has again demonstrated the reliability and power of its electric propulsion units, and we're proud to continue this journey to create sustainable options for organ donation and, ultimately, help save lives." About magniX Headquartered in Everett, Washington State, U.S., magniX is dedicated to leading an era of environmentally-friendly and sustainable aviation. magniX has developed a family of flight-proven electric propulsion units (EPUs) and is fast maturing its energy storage systems (ESS) for commercial aviation. With high levels of reliability, unparalleled performance and operational practicality, magniX is leading the aviation industry into a sustainable future. magniX is a subsidiary of the Clermont Group, an international business group headquartered in Singapore. For further information, please visit www.magnix.aero . Contact FINN Partners for magniX [email protected] SOURCE magniX SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Main Squeeze Juice Co. and Conscious Capital Growth continue the rapid expansion of this popular New Orleans-based brand by awarding of the Arizona Region to Don Gatzemeier and Shawnae Stollenwerk, two franchisee all-stars who, with the help of local franchisees, will open more than 30 locations statewide. Gatzemeier owns and operates Elements Massage, Amazing Lash Studio, and Club Pilates locations. Adding Main Squeeze Juice Co. as Regional Developer, he and Stollenwerk, area manager of his Amazing Lash Studio locations, will bring extensive business know-how to this venture and the franchisees awarded stores. Main Squeeze Juice Co. continues rapid expansion by awarding the Arizona Region with plans to open more than 30 stores. Tweet this Main Squeeze Juice Co. CEO Thomas Nieto said, "I'm confident Arizonans will love Main Squeeze as much as people in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Florida. The Main Squeeze lifestyle is life-changing. We are excited to expand our national presence and bring convenient, healthy options to more people. We're ready to win more raging fans who can't help but spread the word." Main Squeeze will open multiple locations in the Phoenix metro area along with Tucson, Flagstaff, and Prescott. With the renewed consumer focus on health and wellness, great-tasting 100% plant-powered, cold-pressed juices, smoothies, bowls, toasts, and more in demand than ever in Arizona and across the nation. Gatzemeier said, "Main Squeeze is an ideal fit. We couldn't believe how easy and great-tasting eating healthy can be and the Main Squeeze Juice Co. home office team really impressed us. They love their work, and the positive energy was all over the place." "My passion is driving franchisee success and providing career opportunities within the community. Even better, with Main Squeeze, we get to make people healthier, too," said Stollenwerk. "Don and Shawnae are perfect partners thanks to their track record of franchise success. They'll be great ambassadors for making healthy easier throughout Arizona," said Scott Schubiger, chief growth officer for Main Squeeze Juice Co. About Main Squeeze Juice Company Main Squeeze Juice Company, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been franchising its 100% plant-based, fast-casual concept since 2017. The original Main Squeeze, built in Lake Charles, Louisiana, achieved early success, prompting them to take their passion for healthy eating and meal replacement to the next level. The company has 27 locations open and 90 more in development. Their mission is to make healthy easier in the U.S. and worldwide. (www.mainsqueezejuiceco.com) About Conscious Capital Growth Conscious Capital Growth, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is an acquisition and growth accelerator firm focused on the franchise industry. The company's unique platform includes experienced leaders, industry advisors, instant infrastructure, and access to capital, bringing a decades-long track record of success in Wellness, Beauty, Pet, Services, Food & Beverage, Education, and Consumer Package Goods & Retail. (www.ccGRO.com). Main Squeeze Juice Co. home office 5521 Tchoupitoulas St. New Orleans, LA 70115 Conscious Capital Growth headquarters 9112 East Verde Grove View, Suite 101-E Scottsdale, AZ 85255 SOURCE Main Squeeze Juice Co. The brand is available now at launch through an exclusive retail partnership with REEDS Jewelers NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Metal Alchemist, a new jewelry brand that combines ancient alchemy and modern artistry to access the power of metal, launches today, it was announced by Founder Carolyn Rafaelian. Designed, forged and artisan-crafted in Rhode Island, the jewelry capital of the world, Metal Alchemist uses only the purest precious metals sourced from the United States. Through an innovative proprietary bonding process, the metals used in each piece are refined and forged to alchemical standards of purity that create wearable, energetic tools. "Metal Alchemist jewelry is the first of its kind in so many ways - from the quality of the precious metals to our proprietary refining and bonding processes that we do in-house, right here in Rhode Island, to working with ancient alchemical techniques in a whole new way." Tweet this Metal Alchemist is a revolutionary new jewelry brand that combines ancient alchemy and modern artistry to access the power of metal. REEDS Jewelers was founded in 1946 with a single hometown store in Wilmington, N.C. Its grown to a full-service, multi-channel presence with 62 stores in 13 states and an industry-leading ecommerce website. Metal Alchemist will have three main collections: Precious Bonded Metal, Woven Metal Mesh and Intention Wire. The heirloom pieces, including patent pending Posy Wire bracelets, and signature cuffs, rings, and necklaces, are made in a range of metals including incorruptible stainless steel, sterling silver, gold filled, 14K and 18K, and will range in price from $28 to $2800. REEDS Jewelers , a full-service, multi-channel company with 62 stores in 13 states and an industry-leading ecommerce website, is the exclusive retail launch partner for Metal Alchemist, offering consumers the full range and highlighted jewelry collections in all of its retail locations as well as online at REEDS.com . "This new venture is incredibly special to me, because it combines elements of my culture, my beliefs, and one of my passions - fine jewelry," shared Founder Carolyn Rafaelian. "Metal Alchemist jewelry is the first of its kind in so many ways - from the quality of the precious metals to our proprietary refining and bonding processes that we do in-house, right here in Rhode Island, to working with ancient alchemical techniques in a whole new way. We knew partnering with REEDS was the right decision for this launch because they also value quality, craftsmanship and customer experience." Each piece of jewelry from Metal Alchemist is designed using techniques from ancient alchemy in a revolutionary way. The highest quality precious metals go through a proprietary weeks-long process to maintain the quality and integrity of each metal. This is all done by master metalsmiths in-house in their Rhode Island factories, ensuring the purity from start to finish. Because each piece is alchemically pure, the moment you put it on, it immediately begins interacting with you, getting to know you, and harmonizing with you through sharing the benefits of each precious metal. "REEDS is honored and proud to support Carolyn Rafaelian as her exclusive partner to introduce Metal Alchemist," said Judy Fisher, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at Reeds. "Carolyn's new brand is launching in an extraordinary way because it is based on the principles of alchemy. Carolyn's long history in jewelry manufacturing makes her an expert in the properties of precious metals, and each metal has individual energy properties that she is unleashing in new and exciting ways." Metal Alchemist products will also be available in its new retail location at 156 Reade Street in New York City, as well as a direct-to-consumer website at MetalAlchemist.com . To learn more about Metal Alchemist watch an introductory video here . Metal Alchemist press photos available here . About Metal Alchemist Metal Alchemist is from the mind of Carolyn Rafaelian, one of jewelry's greatest energy innovators, and combines ancient alchemy and modern artistry to access the power of metal. This first-of-its-kind jewelry brand uses an innovative proprietary bonding process to refine and forge the metals used in each piece to alchemical standards of purity that creates wearable, energetic tools. To purchase Metal Alchemist pieces, visit REEDS.com and MetalAlchemist.com . To see the latest from the brand, follow @mtlalchemist on Instagram. About REEDS REEDS Jewelers was founded in 1946 with a single hometown store in Wilmington, N.C. It's grown to a full-service, multi-channel presence with 62 stores in 13 states and an industry-leading ecommerce website. The company has been the trusted jeweler of choice for generations thanks to its selection of prestigious designer brands, luxury Swiss timepieces, modern and on-trend fashion jewelry, and an array of beautifully crafted collections designed exclusively for REEDS. Throughout its 76 years, the company has remained family-owned and committed to its founding principles of honesty, transparency, and outstanding customer experience. Press Contacts Erin Haworth, High10 Media for Metal Alchemist [email protected] 201-602-0881 Mitch Cahn, Vice President of Marketing, REEDS Jewelers [email protected] 910-264-4590 SOURCE Metal Alchemist COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Miller Shah LLP announce that the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has approved the following announcement of a proposed class action settlement that would benefit participants in the L Brands, Inc. 401(k) Savings and Retirement Plan: IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO DONNA ALLISON, Civil Action No. individually and as a representative of a class of 2:20-CV-06018-EAS-CMV similarly situated persons, on behalf of the L BRANDS, INC. 401(K) SAVINGS AND RETIREMENT PLAN, Plaintiff, v. L BRANDS, INC., L BRANDS SERVICE COMPANY, LLC, THE RETIREMENT PLAN COMMITTEE OF THE L BRANDS, INC. 401(K) SAVINGS AND RETIREMENT PLAN, and DOES NO. 1-10, Whose Names Are Currently Unknown, Defendants. __________________________________________ SUMMARY NOTICE OF PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION AND SETTLEMENT FAIRNESS HEARING TO: ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE L BRANDS, INC. 401(K) SAVINGS AND RETIREMENT PLAN (THE "L BRANDS PLAN") BETWEEN NOVEMBER 23, 2014 AND SEPTEMBER 20, 2022 (THE "SETTLEMENT CLASS PERIOD"). PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY. A FEDERAL COURT AUTHORIZED THIS NOTICE. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. YOU ARE NOT BEING SUED. A settlement has been preliminarily approved by a federal court in a class action lawsuit by Plaintiff, Donna Allison ("Plaintiff"), on behalf of herself and on behalf of the Settlement Class against L Brands, Inc. ("L Brands"), the L Brands Service Company, LLC, and the Retirement Plan Committee of the L Brands, Inc. 401(k) Savings and Retirement Plan ("Committee") (collectively, "Defendants"), alleging breaches of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"). This Settlement will provide for a payment of $2,750,000, less any Court-approved fees and expenses, and administrative costs, to the L Brands Plan, which will then be allocated to current and former participants in the L Brands Plan who had accounts during the Settlement Class Period. All capitalized terms not otherwise defined in this Summary Notice of Class Action Settlement have the meaning provided in the Settlement Agreement (the "Agreement") available on the Settlement website (provided below). If you currently have an active account in the L Brands Plan, you will receive a Settlement payment without taking any further action. You do not need to send in a claim or take any other action to participate in the Settlement and receive a Settlement payment. If you do not have an active account with the L Brands Plan, you need to file a Claim Form to obtain a payment. YOU SHOULD READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY AS THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. IF YOU DO NOTHING, YOU WILL BE BOUND BY THE JUDGMENT AND THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, INCLUDING THE RELEASE CONTAINED IN THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio authorized this Notice. WHO IS INCLUDED IN THE SETTLEMENT? If you were a participant in the L Brands Plan at any time during the period from November 23, 2014 to September 20, 2022, inclusive, or you were a beneficiary or alternate payee of any such participant, then you are a member of the Settlement Class (a "Settlement Class Member"). WHAT IS THIS CASE ABOUT? Plaintiff claims that Defendants breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA. Plaintiff's allegations are described in more detail in the Class Action Complaint ("Complaint") available on the Settlement website. All Defendants deny any wrongdoing, and nothing in the Agreement is an admission or concession on the Defendants' part of any fault or liability whatsoever. Both sides agreed to the Settlement to avoid the cost, burden, and risk of further litigation. WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE? Defendants have agreed to create a Settlement Fund totaling $2,750,000 to be divided among eligible Settlement Class Members after payment of attorneys' fees and expenses to Class Counsel, a Case Contribution Award to the Class Representative, and payment of other costs and expenses of the Settlement, including notice and claims administration, as the Court may allow. The Agreement, other related documentation, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions, available at the Settlement website identified below, describe the details of the proposed Settlement. Your share (if any) of the Settlement Fund will depend upon the amount and value of your L Brands Plan account(s) during the Settlement Class Period. This Settlement releases certain claims against Defendants relating to the expenses of the L Brands Plan during the Settlement Class Period and releases all claims that were or could have been brought in the lawsuit based upon the allegations in the Complaint. HOW DO I RECEIVE A PAYMENT? If you are a Settlement Class Member or you are a beneficiary or alternate payee of such an individual, have an active account in the L Brands Plan, and you are entitled to a share of the Settlement Fund according to the Agreement, then you are not required to do anything to receive a payment. The payment will be made directly to your L Brands Plan account(s). If you are a Settlement Class Member and you do not currently have an active account in the L Brands Plan, or you are a beneficiary or alternate payee of a participant who does not have an active account in the L Brands Plan, you will need to file a Former Participant Claim Form in order to receive a payment from the Settlement Fund. If your address has changed since you closed your Plan account(s), please contact the Settlement Administrator toll-free at 866-274-4004 or by email at [email protected] to advise of the change of address. CAN I OBJECT TO OR OPT OUT OF THE SETTLEMENT? You do not have the right to exclude yourself from the Settlement in this case, but you do have the right to object, including to the amount of attorneys' fees and expenses requested by Class Counsel and the amount of the Case Contribution Award requested for the Class Representative. You may object by writing to the Court. You will be bound by any judgments or orders that are entered in this Action, and if the Settlement is approved, you will be deemed to have released all of the Defendants from all claims that were or could have been asserted in this case, including all Claims as defined under the Agreement, other than your right to obtain the relief provided to you, if any, by the Settlement. The Court will hold a hearing in this case on January 25, 2023 at 9:30 a.m., in the courtroom of the Honorable Edmund A. Sargus, Room 301 of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Joseph P. Kinneary United States Courthouse, 85 Marconi Boulevard, Columbus, Ohio 43215, to consider whether to approve the Settlement and a request by the lawyers representing all Settlement Class Members, Class Counsel, for attorneys' fees and expenses, for a Case Contribution Award to the Class Representative, and for other case-related expenses. If approved, these amounts will be paid from the Settlement Fund. You may ask to speak at the hearing by filing a Notice of Intention to Appear by January 10, 2023, but you are not required to speak at the hearing. Although you cannot opt out of the Settlement, you may object to all or any part of the Settlement and/or the Motion for Attorneys' Fees filed by Class Counsel and request for a Case Contribution Award in accordance with the instructions included in the long-form Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action and Settlement Fairness Hearing available at the Settlement website below. Objections must be written and submitted to the Court. Objections must be postmarked, or, if not sent by United States Postal Service, received by the Court by December 23, 2022. Please note that the time, place, and date of the hearing may change without a further mailing. Class Counsel will update the Settlement website below if the hearing time or location is changed. The Settlement Fairness Hearing also may be held by video or teleconference. Please check the website or contact Class Counsel if you wish to confirm that the hearing time has not been changed and to determine if it is occurring in person or by video or teleconference. HOW DO I GET MORE INFORMATION? If you are a Settlement Class Member and would like to receive additional information or to receive a copy of the long-form Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action and Settlement Fairness Hearing, you can obtain such information by (a) sending a letter to L Brands 401k Settlement Administrator, c/o Strategic Claims Services, 600 N Jackson St, Suite 205, Media, PA 19063; (b) sending an e-mail to [email protected]; (c) visiting the Settlement website at www.strategicclaims.net/lbrands401k/; or (d) calling toll-free at 866-274-4004. SOURCE Miller Shah LLP Early preliminary results show NT-I7 treatment led to a sustained increase in absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) and increased CAR-T cell absolute numbers in the peripheral blood ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NeoImmuneTech, Inc. (NIT or "NeoImmuneTech"), a clinical-stage T cell-focused biopharmaceutical company, today announced it will present first data from the combination of its main asset, NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa), with the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) tisagenlecleucel, at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 10-13, 2022. The NIT-112 phase 1b study is the first and only clinical trial that aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary anti-tumor activity of a long-acting human IL-7, NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa), after treatment with tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell Lymphoma (r/r LBCL). Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), a CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, has become standard of care for patients with r/r LBCL. The successful expansion and persistence of CAR-T cells strongly predicts response to this therapy. The scientific hypothesis is that the combination may increase expansion and persistence of CAR-T, increasing tumor response rate and improving clinical outcomes without safety concerns. As of 30 May, 2022, only the first three dose escalation groups out of seven dose levels (DL1-7: 60, 120, 240, 360, 480, 600, and 720 g/kg of NT-I7) had completed recruitment. No serious adverse events were observed. All patients experienced treatment-emergent adverse events, most of which were mild. Despite the limited number of patients currently enrolled in the lowest NT-I7 dose levels (DL1-3), and CAR-T levels being near the limit of assay detection, a single dose of NT-I7 at the CAR-T contraction phase (day 21) was able to increase both the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and the CAR-T absolute numbers. Dr Se Hwan Yang, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of NeoImmuneTech, Inc. said: "The early results of the Phase 1b study NIT-112 are promising and may have strong clinical implications. We feel encouraged to further investigate NT-I7 in combination with tisagenlecleucel as a potential efficacious addition to CAR-T standard of care in relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma". NIT presentation at the 2022 ASH Annual Meeting: Primary Author Abstract Title Presentation Details Ghobadi, A A Phase 1b Dose Expansion Study Evaluating Safety, Preliminary Anti-Tumor Activity, and Accelerated T Cell Reconstitution with NT-I7 (Efineptakin Alfa), a Long-Acting Human IL-7, Administered Following tisagenlecleucel in Subjects with Relapsed/Refractory Large B- Cell Lymphoma Abstract #4655 Session: 704. Cellular Immunotherapies: Early Phase and Investigational Therapies: Poster III Date: Monday, December 12, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Location: Ernest N . Morial Convention Center, Hall D About NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa) (rhIL-7-hyFc) NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa) is the only clinical-stage long-acting human IL-7 and is being developed in oncologic and immunologic indications, where T cell amplification and increased functionality may provide clinical benefit. IL-7 is a fundamental cytokine for naive and memory T cell development and sustaining immune response to chronic antigens (as in cancer) or foreign antigens (as in infectious diseases). NT-I7 exhibits favorable PK/PD and safety profiles, making it an ideal combination partner. NT-I7 is being studied in multiple clinical trials in solid tumors and as vaccine adjuvant. Studies are being planned for testing in hematologic malignancies, additional solid tumors and other immunology-focused indications. About NeoImmuneTech, Inc. NeoImmuneTech, Inc. (NIT) is a clinical-stage T cell-focused biopharmaceutical company dedicated to expanding the horizon of immuno-oncology and enhancing immunity to infectious diseases. NIT is led by the scientific founder and inventor of NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa) and has a strong executive team with rich industry experience. NIT is expanding rapidly in personnel and operations, as well as partnering with industry and academic leaders to investigate NT-I7 as monotherapy and in combination with various immunotherapeutics. For more information, please visit www.neoimmunetech.com. Forward-looking Statements The statements contained herein may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to NeoImmuneTech, Inc. (the "Company") that are based on its beliefs and expectations about the future. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions about the future, some of which are beyond the Company's control and are not a guarantee of future performance or developments. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the relevant forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that arise after the date of these documents. Accordingly, you should not place reliance on any forward-looking information or statements contained herein. Some of the data contained in these documents were obtained from various external sources, and the Company has not independently verified such data. Accordingly, the Company makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the data, and such data involves risks and uncertainties and is subject to change based on various factors. SOURCE The NeoImmuneTech, Inc The national voter survey and focus groups, commissioned by More Perfect, explored voter opinions on the concerns, health and improvement of democracy. WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new nonpartisan More Perfect poll shows that 86% of voters say our democracy faces very serious threats, with a nearly equal split among Democrats and Republicans. Yet, despite bitter partisan division in the country, nearly half of all voters (47%) believe that increased access to trusted news and information is one of the most important ways to improve democracy, ranking it as first or second most important. However, among the options tested, voters have the least confidence that the U.S. could achieve this. "American voters are worried about the health of our democracy at a time of national division," said John Bridgeland, CEO of More Perfect. "Encouragingly, they share strong views of what could help." These findings echo similar concerns from bipartisan leaders, including President Biden on Wednesday, as we approach the midterm elections. The survey and focus groups provide further insights into beliefs, concerns and hopes for our democracy that could guide through the uncertain election aftermath. Other key findings of the research include: 72% of American voters rate the health of American democracy as poor and many agree these are extremely concerning: too much money in politics (64%), political corruption (61%), and too much biased information and misinformation (58%). and many agree these are extremely concerning: too much money in politics (64%), political corruption (61%), and too much biased information and misinformation (58%). Voters largely agree on the most important elements of our democracy , including that elections are secure (78% saying extremely important among all voters, 77% Dem., 82% Rep.) and respect for the rule of law (74% all, 77% Dem., 74% Rep.). , including that elections are secure (78% saying extremely important among all voters, 77% Dem., 82% Rep.) and respect for the rule of law (74% all, 77% Dem., 74% Rep.). Yet we see some partisan division on elections being accessible to voters (73% all, 86% Dem., 61% Rep.) and even more on accepting election losses with a peaceful transfer of power (62% all, 85% Dem., and 41% Rep.). (62% all, 85% Dem., and 41% Rep.). Most voters agree that the country is not doing well on these elements. Aside from access to trusted information, there are other ways Americans say our democracy could be improved , including: , including: 43% of voters say boosting civic learning is one of the most important ideas, and 65% have confidence it could be achieved, 42% of voters say building confidence in elections is one of the most important ideas, and 63% have confidence it could be achieved, 40% say efforts to bridge differences in backgrounds and beliefs is one of the most important ideas, and 45% have confidence it could be achieved, 29% say voluntary national service (such as tutoring students, cleaning up rivers and parks, and building homes for the needy) is one of the most important ideas, and 45% have confidence it could be achieved. The survey was conducted by David Binder Research from October 8 through October 11, 2022, with a sample of 600 adults who have voted in the 2016 presidential election or any election since. It was supplemented by focus group sessions in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida. About More Perfect More Perfect is a national campaign to marshal energy, visibility, resources and results around six Sustainable Democracy Goals: universal civic learning, expanded service to the nation, bridging divides, fair elections, effective governance, and trust in accurate news and information. More Perfect is a campaign among nine Presidential Centers, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Karsh Institute for Democracy at the University of Virginia, and more than 100 organizations working to protect and renew American democracy. SOURCE More Perfect Significantly expands strategic capabilities in talent development, learning consulting, program design and delivery ATLANTA, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NIIT Limited (NIIT), a global talent development corporation and leading provider of managed training services, announced today that it has acquired 100% membership interest in St. Charles Consulting Group LLC (StC) through its wholly owned subsidiary, NIIT (USA), Inc. Headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois, StC is a leading provider of consulting, design, and implementation solutions for strategic learning programs to professional services firms and Fortune 500 companies. NIIT acquires St. Charles Consulting Group The acquisition was completed at a fixed consideration of USD 23.428 Million subject to certain adjustments as per definitive agreements. In addition, the definitive agreements provide for payment of annual performance based earnouts over the next four years. Founded in 2002, by two former Arthur Andersen Partners, St. Charles Consulting Group has a network of over 500 premier management consultants in the fields of learning, organization development, knowledge services, and workforce planning. The company offers solutions in four key areas - strategic consulting, custom learning experiences, learning curation, and managed services. With their genesis as leading Arthur Andersen learning professionals at Andersen's Worldwide Center for Training and Development, the company's founders and key team members have served over 12 out of the top 15 global professional services firms. The acquisition helps NIIT add significant presence in the professional services and management consulting sectors while strengthening NIIT's rapidly growing learning consulting practice. The transaction is in line with NIIT's stated goal of accelerating growth through investments that add new capabilities to bring more value to its customers and strengthen presence in attractive customer segments. St. Charles' deep experience in Strategic Learning Programs aimed towards advancing overall strategy, addressing strategic business priorities, and key initiatives at large organizations are in high demand across large, global organizations. NIIT believes there is a significant growth opportunity for StC's business going forward and expects the transaction to be margin and EPS accretive from the first year. "Learning and Development is at the epicenter of change in a post-pandemic world that is going through rapid business and industry transformation. As organizations strive to build and retain talent and skills for a future-ready workforce, L&D is leading the way on many key initiatives. St. Charles Consulting Group brings deep expertise and experience in building strategic learning programs which are in high demand across our customer base," said Sapnesh Lalla, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, NIIT Limited. "As NIIT helps our global customers build sustainable learning ecosystems for the future, the experience that the St. Charles team brings will be invaluable. Our consulting team is also on a high growth trajectory and the St. Charles team will help us fulfil the exponential demand for experienced learning consultants globally," he added. "The acquisition of St. Charles Consulting Group will give our customers access to an expanded capability of consulting, designing, and implementing strategic learning programs. This will enable us to engage with our customers on a deeper level to help them attain their strategic objectives," said DJ Chadha, Chief Customer Officer, NIIT Limited. "Given the accelerated change that businesses are experiencing as a result of advanced technologies, accelerated evolution of skills, and new service delivery models, organizations' ability to learn and adapt must be at the core of their business strategy and imperatives. As a result of the current business climate, St. Charles has experienced incredible growth over the last few years, helping our clients in this new frontier of learning. The time couldn't be better to join forces with NIIT to bring a broader array of capabilities to our clients. The two firms bring complementary learning capabilities and offerings which will allow us to more fully serve our clients and be even more competitive in the marketplace," said Larry Durham, President of St. Charles Consulting Group. VectorSpan and AGG acted as the financial and legal advisor respectively in this transaction. About NIIT NIIT Limited is a leading global talent development corporation that builds skilled human capital and enables workforce talent worldwide. At NIIT's Corporate Learning Group, we're transforming the way the world learns, for the better. That's why the world's best run learning functions across 30 countries trust us with their learning and talent. Since 1981, we have helped leading companies transform their learning ecosystems while increasing the business value of learning. Our comprehensive, high impact managed learning solutions weave together the best of learning theory, technology, operations, and services to enable a thriving workforce. To know more visit us at www.niit.com or write to us at [email protected]. Follow us on twitter @NIITMTS . About St. Charles Consulting Group St. Charles Consulting Group is known for helping Fortune 1000 organizations maximize the value of their talent by providing strategic consulting, innovative learning solutions, and managed services. We grow and build on the legacy of quality learning by not only using time-tested practices but also researching and innovating talent development solutions in our Innovation Center, The HIVE. Our innovative perspective on what needs to be done to design, build and support people solutions for our clients is derived from years of experience. We have invested over the last 20 years to build a premier, management consulting organization delivering hundreds of talent development solutions to over 120 client organizations. The St. Charles Promise is Quality, Guaranteed. We ensure satisfaction. We deliver quality. We guarantee our work. To know more visit www.stccg.com SOURCE NIIT CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unanimous verdict, a Nueces County jury ruled in favor of plaintiff Chris Garza, awarding him $18 million in actual and exemplary damages. Mr. Garza was injured while working on a job site for the defendants, Mostaghasi Enterprises, Inc. (MEI) and Raul Salas d/b/a R & T Framing. At the time of his catastrophic injury, Mr. Garza was acting as an employee of R & T Framing, who was acting as an agent of Mostaghasi Enterprise, Inc. MEI has been building and constructing homes for over three decades in Corpus Christi. While installing a 200-pound structural beam, at the direction of R & T Framing, the beam became loose, causing Mr. Garza to fall from his ladder. The beam ultimately broke free because the nails used in the project, which were provided by MEI and put in the nail gun by R & T, were too short. As a result of the fall, Mr. Garza sustained serious injuries, including a compound fracture of his forearm, requiring 5 surgeries, as well as a skin graft. The jury found that both parties were grossly and equally negligent in causing Mr. Garza's injuries by failing to exercise ordinary care to protect Mr. Garza from danger. As a result, the jury awarded over $15 million in actual damages. The court also found that both Mostaghasi Enterprises, Inc. and R & T Framing were grossly negligent, by clear and convincing evidence. The jury awarded an additional $2,000,000 against MEI and an additional $300,000 against R & T Framing. Attorneys John C. Duff and Matthew S. Hull of Hilliard Martinez Gonzales LLP, along with Jared Perkins of Perkins & Perkins, represented Chris Garza. "Mr. Garza's injuries could have been prevented," stated Mr. Duff, "had MEI and R & T Framing properly trained, supervised, and managed the job site and materials. Their failure to show ordinary care for their employee(s), puts all job sites in danger. For a homebuilder to have been in business, as long as MEI, there is no justification for their failure to supervise and provide a safe working environment with the appropriate materials to do the job." The court agreed, finding MEI and R & T Framing 90% responsible for this harm. The case is Chris Garza vs. Mostaghasi Enterprises, Inc. and Raul Salas d/b/a R & T Framing; Case Number 2014CCV-61767-3; in the County Court at Law Number 3, Nueces County, Texas. About HMG Hilliard Martinez Gonzales LLP (HMG) has been successfully representing clients in the United States and Mexico since 1986. The firm specializes in mass torts, personal injury, product liability, commercial and business litigation, and wrongful death. Founding partner Robert C.Hilliard was named 2016 Elite Trial Attorney of the Year (Motor Vehicles) and 2015 Elite Trial Attorney of the Year (Product Liability) by the National Law Journal. HMG also obtained the largest verdict in the country in 2012 and the #1 verdict in Texas in 2013. More about the firm can be found at www.hmglawfirm.com. Contact: Jennifer Dolan Phone: 321-519-0568 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Hilliard Martinez Gonzales, LLP VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - YourWay Cannabis Brands Inc. (CSE: YOUR) (OTC: YOURF) (FSE: HOB) (the "Company" or "YourWay"), a consumer-centric House of Brands committed to redefining the way consumers and cannabis brands interact, is providing an operational update, including initiatives being taken to address the management cease trade order (the "MCTO"), the delays in releasing the Company's audited annual financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021 (the "2021 Annual Financial Statements"), details of the Company's newly appointed leadership team, and the Company's expansion plans in Arizona. "There has been significant change and evolution in our business over the past twelve months," said Acting Chief Executive Officer, Jakob Ripshtein. "We have overhauled the organization from top to bottom, driven by a strategic corporate transformation and renewed corporate vision." The transformation began with a corporate rebrand in December 2021 from Hollister Biosciences Inc. to YourWay Cannabis Brands Inc. This update was tied directly to the Company's revamped strategic commitment to creating intuitive brands, releasing thoughtful products, and working intentionally to create a House of Brands that caters to every moment in a consumer's life. The Company is working with the auditors to finalize the 2021 Annual Financial Statements and the related management's discussion and analysis. Due to a combination of factors, including (i) the complexity associated with a change of the Company's auditors, which took effect on December 6, 2021; and (ii) changes in the management personnel of the Company, the Company is requiring additional time to support the auditors in finalizing the 2021 Annual Financial Statements. We expect to release our 2021 Annual Financial Statements by the end of 2022. Over the past few months, the Company has instituted enhanced financial and operational controls to improve accuracy, efficiency and reporting compliance. In addition to the work being done to finalize the 2021 Annual Financial Statements, the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") resolved to demand repayment of all amounts advanced, which total approximately US$166,325 to Ionic Brands Corp. ("Ionic) pursuant to a demand promissory note dated May 20, 2022 (the "Ionic Promissory Note"). YourWay has provided notice to Ionic of its demand for repayment, but the funds have not yet been returned. Throughout the year, there have been several adjustments to the leadership team and the Board to oversee the strategic corporate transformation of the Company. Recently, Jacob Cohen resigned as Chief Executive Officer of the Company to focus on his operational role as President of Arizona Operations. Mr. Cohen has extensive hands-on experience in the Arizona cannabis sector, and the Arizona marketplace continues to be a focus of YourWay's sales and marketing efforts. The Arizona cannabis marketplace is in flux, and since recreational marijuana sales launched in 2022, the Arizona medicinal market has seen a downturn. The Arizona Department of Health Services has reported a steady decline in the Arizona medicinal market.[1] This shift in the Arizona market has altered the focus of the Company's retail customers, and YourWay's sales team is adapting to satisfy the shift from the medicinal market to the new demand for recreational cannabis products. The Company is making an effort to balance out its portfolio by introducing several established brands to the Arizona marketplace. For example, Old Pal is a well-known and in-demand cannabis brand that has continued to be a strong performer since the Company began Arizona production and shipment in May of 2022. YourWay's exclusive multi-year licensing agreement to manufacture, produce, promote, distribute, and sell certain Old Pal-branded cannabis products in Arizona, including whole flower, pre-ground flower, pre-rolls, and distillate cartridges in association with the Old Pal brand, has allowed YourWay to capitalize on the shift in demand in the Arizona market. Additionally, in February of 2022, YourWay signed an exclusive agreement with AIRO, one of the top-selling cannabis brands across multiple markets, including Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland and Washington. AIRO is currently available in more than 1,300 dispensaries across the United States and Puerto Rico. Expanding the AIRO offerings is currently under consideration by the Company, and under the terms of the exclusive multi-year licensing agreement entered into between YourWay and AIRO, YourWay has exclusive right and license to manufacture, produce, promote, distribute, and sell certain popular AIRO products in Arizona, including the AIROPro, AIROSport, and AIROX, featuring formulations from AIRO's Strain Series, Artisan Series, and Live Flower Series, plus additional products. In addition to balancing our portfolio of brands, the Company has made a conscious effort to rationalize existing product SKUs, including price adjustments when appropriate and eliminating non-profitable products. In the past, a large portion of revenue was derived from non-branded bulk distillate and extracted products. Maintaining a reasonable margin within this category has been a challenge, and most related sales have now ceased. Although we expect an impact on total sales revenue based on the termination of this category, this will allow for an increased focus on the YourWay core strategic objective of creating value with its own brands, partner brands and select retailer control brands. The Company will continue to monitor opportunities in the bulk category and maintains the optionality to reactivate this category should business or market conditions change. YourWay has experienced operational challenges which have hampered the Company's ability to satisfy some of its contractual arrangements to provide services and generate revenue. While the Company reports cannabis-related revenue and expenditures due to financial reporting requirements under International Financial Reporting Standards, the Company does not have any cannabis licenses itself and, accordingly, is reliant upon third-party license holders, which has limited the Company's sell-through capabilities during 2022. An ongoing focus by the Company is to address operational challenges, and there are signs of improvement in that area. While the rapidly expanding recreational Arizona cannabis market provides many growth opportunities for the Company, it also presents an influx of competitor brands across the state. Throughout 2022 all wholesale product prices have decreased. The drop in the high-end market of the Arizona indoor flower price has dipped below those of California, with the breadth of quality and pricing adding to the complexity of retailing in the Arizona cannabis market.[2],[3] To combat this influx of competitors, the Company's growth strategy includes expanding the Venom Extracts brand, which has been part of the Arizona cannabis market since 2017 and as such, has developed significant brand awareness and loyalty amongst legacy cannabis users. Venom Extracts is positioned as an affordable cannabis brand with a following of consumers who exhibit a tendency for repeat purchases. Plans are in place for several line extensions to the Venom Extracts brand, including pre-rolls and infused pre-rolls. With COVID-19 restrictions eliminated for most of the hospitality and travel industries across the United States, many states, including Arizona, are seeing a significant increase in tourists. Increased tourist traffic to the state will provide an opportunity to market cannabis brands to visitors who may or may not have readily available legal cannabis for sale in their home state. Labor force participation in Arizona still remains below pre-pandemic rates and continues to be an issue for many industries in Arizona.[4] Delays in securing the appropriate labor contingent and licensing delays have impacted the Company's ability to bring the Cottonwood facility (the "Facility") online. Based on the delays and current state of the market, the Company is strategically reviewing options related to the Facility. The substantial increase in the supply of raw materials with attractive quality and wholesale price points as a result of new facilities coming online throughout the state creates additional optionality for the Company. About YourWay Cannabis Brands YourWay is a publicly traded, multi-state and consumer-centric House of Brands committed to redefining the way consumers and cannabis brands interact, with sales and operations in Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. By building their own brands, partnering with others, and supporting retail partners control brand strategy, they are dedicated to expanding their reach; remolding the cannabis industry and ultimately redefining consumers and cannabis brands interact. YourWay aims to connect with the cannabis consumer on a deeper level, utilizing decades of brand-building expertise and an integral understanding of the customer experience to create an intuitive suite of branded products that closely aligns with consumer need states. The YourWay portfolio is an all-encompassing house of brands designed to create a sense of belonging for every cannabis consumer regardless of their relationship with the plant. Please visit www.yourwaycannabis.com or follow on Twitter at @yourwaycannabis for the latest news and information about YourWay and its brands. Website: www.yourwaycannabis.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" as defined under applicable Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Company with respect to future business activities and operating performance. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and includes information regarding: the Company's intentions to finalize the 2021 Annual Financial Statements by the end of 2022; the impact of the Company's enhanced financial and operational controls; the Company's expansion plans for the Arizona cannabis market; the repayment of the Ionic Promissory Note; the Company's continued focus on sales and marketing efforts in the Arizona marketplace; the impact of the decline in the Arizona medicinal cannabis market; the Company's efforts to introduce established brands to the Arizona marketplace; the expansion of the AIRO offerings in the Arizona cannabis market; the expected impact on the Company's total sales revenue as a result of the termination of non-branded bulk distillate and extracted products; the Company's increased focus on its strategic objective of creating value with its own brands, partner brands and select retailer control brands; the Company's continued efforts to monitor opportunities in the bulk category in order to maintain optionality to reactivate the category if needed; the complexity of retailing in the Arizona cannabis market; the Company's strategy to expand the Venom brand; the expected increase in demand as a result of Arizona's increasing tourist traffic; the increasing tourist traffic in Arizona; the Company's options regarding the Facility; additional optionality for the Company as a result of increased supply of raw materials with attractive quality and wholesale price points; and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical fact but instead reflects management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance, or achievements of the Company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the timing for filing the Annual Filings and the Interim Filings; regulatory and licensing risks; changes in consumer demand and preferences; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; the global regulatory landscape and enforcement related to cannabis, including political risks and risks relating to regulatory change; compliance with extensive government regulation; public opinion and perception of the cannabis industry; the impact of COVID-19; and the risk factors set out in the Company's annual information form dated August 28, 2020, filed with Canadian securities regulators and available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company, through several of its subsidiaries, is indirectly involved in the manufacture, possession, use, sale, and distribution of cannabis in the recreational and medicinal cannabis marketplace in the United States. Local state laws where the Company operates permit such activities however, investors should note that there are significant legal restrictions and regulations that govern the cannabis industry in the United States. Cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under the US Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the United States to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or possess cannabis in the United States. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities in the United States may form the basis for prosecution under applicable United States federal money laundering legislation. While the approach to enforcement of such laws by the federal government in the United States has trended toward nonenforcement against individuals and businesses that comply with recreational and medicinal cannabis programs in states where such programs are legal, strict compliance with state laws with respect to cannabis will neither absolve the Company of liability under United States federal law, nor will it provide a defense to any federal proceeding which may be brought against the Company. The enforcement of federal laws in the United States is a significant risk to the business of the Company and any proceedings brought against the Company thereunder may adversely affect the Company's operations and financial performance. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated, or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. SOURCE YourWay Cannabis Brands REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A brand new hotel operator, Legendary Hotels and Resorts, will be entering the Icelandic hospitality market over the next two years, with ambitious plans to construct, purchase, or rebrand a portfolio of 12 hotels. The first hotel has already been purchased in Southern Iceland, with a full rebrand to begin early in 2023. Each venue will meet exacting corporate standards of luxury and convenience, including flexible check-in and check-out times, free high-speed wireless internet as standard, a variety of amenities and home comforts, along with seamless airport transfer for a hassle free end-to-end experience. Hotel guests will also enjoy some of Iceland's finest coffee and wines, mouthwatering international breakfast choices, and the very best professional service from a friendly, experienced team. CEO and Founder of Legendary Hotels and Resorts, Dmitrijs Stals, has 14 years experience in the hospitality industry, along with an extensive portfolio of successful hospitality investments. Dmitrijs said: 'Now that the worst of the COVID pandemic is behind us, we're optimistic about the growth of the travel industry in the next 5 to 10 years, and have identified a wide range of exciting opportunities for growth within Europe. We're optimistic about the success of our new pan-European project, and are looking forward to surprising, and delighting our customers with beautiful spaces, total comfort, and superior service". Legendary Hotels and Resorts ehf. is a company incorporated in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital city, and will continue to seek out further opportunities across Northern Europe, and beyond. The tight-knit team cares deeply about the satisfaction and happiness of each and every guest, with each hotel concept created using decades of hospitality industry expertise, along with viability studies conducted by Big Four accounting firms - a safe, and reliable investment, with tons of potential for growth. Watch this space! Contacts: Madara Kviesite, +3544499999, [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937724/Legendary_Hotels_and_Resorts_Logo.jpg SOURCE Legendary Hotels & Resorts ehf CLIFTON, N.J., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, Passaic Valley Water Commission (PVWC) started removing and replacing approximately 6,500 lead service lines in its owner cities of Clifton, Passaic and Paterson. The commission will continue inspecting about 11,000 additional service lines with unknown material. "While we are pleased to start replacing these lead service lines in our owner cities, we need our customers to participate in this free program," said PVWC Executive Director Jim Mueller. "Lead is bad and any exposure to lead is not considered safethat's why we're continuing to get the lead out as we have been doing since the 1980's," continued Mueller. Replacing lead service lines normally costs upwards of $10,000, but PVWC is doing it free of charge for customers in its owner cities. The replacement initiative is being funded by a 77% principal forgiveness Loan from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank. A law signed by Governor Phil Murphy in July 2021 requires water systems in New Jersey to identify all lead service lines, provide public notification regarding the presence of lead service lines, and replace all lead service lines by 2031. "There is no safe level of lead in drinking water," said Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette. "The Murphy Administration is proud to be a partner in this effort to protect the public, especially our children who are most susceptible to negative health effects of even very low levels of lead. Eliminating lead service lines, found in many communities across the state, is a key objective of the administration's innovative Water Infrastructure Improvement Plan (WIIP), fueled by federal funding under the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and continuing state appropriations championed by Governor Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Legislature. As we mark the 50th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act this year, rest assured that the administration will continue to work tirelessly with our communities and stakeholders to fulfill the promise of safe and reliable water for everyone." Assemblyman Gary Schaer said, "In 2021, Governor Murphy signed my historic lead remediation legislation to eliminate the State's estimated 350,000 lead service lines. This landmark infrastructure project will protect every resident from the life-long health effects of lead and give New Jersey's children the lead-free future they deserve. The Passaic Valley Water Commission has been incredible community partners, working effectively to deliver clean drinking water to Passaic's families." PVWC customers in the cities of Clifton, Passaic and Paterson are encouraged to visit pvwc.com where they can check what type of service line material is present at their properties. If lead or unknown service line material is present at a customer's property, the easy-to-navigate website explains the necessary steps needed to schedule a visual inspection and replacementall free of charge. For more information please contact Bryan Frierson at 973-931-4512 or [email protected] or Marisah Potkalesky at 973-207-1976 or [email protected]. SOURCE Passaic Valley Water Commission Net sales decreased 18% in Q3-2022 as compared to Q3-2021 driven by the mild North America fire season Fire Safety Q3 Adjusted EBITDA of $60.4 million; Specialty Products Q3 Adjusted EBITDA of $15.3 million Year-to-date net income of $123.7 million and consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $123.3 million New $100.0 million share repurchase authorization * CLAYTON, Mo., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Perimeter Solutions, SA (NYSE: PRM) ("Perimeter" or the "Company"), a leading provider of mission-critical firefighting products and services, as well as specialty products used in several end markets, today reported financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. Year-to-Date 2022 Results Net sales increased 1% to $319.2 million during the year-to-date period, as compared to $316.5 million in the prior-year period. Fire Safety sales decreased 13% to $207.0 million, as compared to $237.3 million in the prior year. Specialty Products sales increased 42% to $112.2 million, as compared to $79.2 million in the prior year. Net income during the year-to-date period was $123.7 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, an increase of $94.1 million from $29.6 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, for the same period of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 8% to $123.3 million during the year-to-date period, as compared to $134.6 million in the prior-year period. Fire Safety Adjusted EBITDA decreased 30% to $81.2 million, as compared to $116.7 million in the prior year. Specialty Products Adjusted EBITDA increased 135% to $42.0 million, as compared to $17.9 million in the prior year. Third Quarter 2022 Results Net sales decreased 18% to $160.5 million in the third quarter, as compared to $195.4 million in the prior-year quarter. Fire Safety sales decreased 29% to $122.0 million, as compared to $172.4 million in the prior year. Specialty Products sales increased 68% to $38.5 million, as compared to $23.0 million in the prior year. Net income during the third quarter was $78.7 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, an increase of $26.7 million from $52.0 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, for the same period of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 25% to $75.6 million in the third quarter, as compared to $100.4 million in the prior-year quarter. Fire Safety Adjusted EBITDA decreased 38% to $60.4 million, as compared to $97.9 million in the prior year. Specialty Products Adjusted EBITDA increased 512% to $15.3 million, as compared to $2.5 million in the prior year. *On November 3, 2022, the Company's board of directors approved the repurchase of up to $100.0 million of the Company's ordinary shares during the next 24 months. Conference Call and Webcast As previously announced, Perimeter Solutions management will hold a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, November 4, 2022 to discuss financial results for the third quarter 2022. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (877) 407-9764 (toll-free) or (201) 689-8551 (toll). The conference call will also be webcast simultaneously on Perimeter's website (https://ir.perimeter-solutions.com/), accessed under the Investor Relations page. The webcast link will be made available on the Company's website prior to the start of the call; go to the investor relations page of our website to the News & Events menu and click on "Events & Presentations." A slide presentation will also be available for reference during the conference call; go to the investor relations page of our website to the News & Events menu and click on "Events & Presentations." Following the live webcast, a replay will be available on the Company's website. A telephonic replay will also be available approximately two hours after the call and can be accessed by dialing (877) 660-6853 (toll-free) or (201) 612-7415 (toll). The telephonic replay will be available until December 4, 2022. About Perimeter Solutions Perimeter Solutions is a leading global solutions provider, providing high-quality firefighting products and specialty products used in several end markets. The Company's business is organized and managed in two reporting segments: Fire Safety and Specialty Products, formerly Oil Additives. The Fire Safety segment consists of formulating, manufacture and sale of fire retardants and firefighting foams that assist in combating various types of fires, including wildland, structural, flammable liquids and others. Our Fire Safety segment also offers specialized equipment and services, typically in conjunction with our fire management products, to support our customers' firefighting operations. Our specialized equipment includes airbase retardant storage, mixing, and delivery equipment; mobile retardant bases; retardant ground application units; mobile foam equipment; and equipment that we custom design and manufacture to meet specific customer needs. Our service network can meet the emergency resupply needs of over 150 air tanker bases in North America, as well as many other customer locations in North America and internationally. The segment is built on the premise of superior technology, exceptional responsiveness to our customers' needs, and a "never-fail" service network. The segment sells products to government agencies and commercial customers around the world. In June 2022, the Oil Additives segment, which produces and sells Phosphorus Pentasulfide ("P 2 S 5 "), was renamed the Specialty Products segment to better reflect the current and expanding applications for P 2 S 5 in several end markets and applications, including lubricant additives, various agricultural applications, various mining applications, and emerging electric battery technologies. Within the lubricant additive end market, currently our largest end market application, P 2 S 5 is primarily used in the production of a family of compounds called Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphates ("ZDDP"), which is considered an essential component in the formulation of engine oils with its main function to provide anti-wear protection to engine components. Forward-looking Information This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "goal," "seek," "believe," "project," "estimate," "expect," "strategy," "future," "likely," "may," "should," "will" and similar references to future periods. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance or results, and involve risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the Company's control) and assumptions. Although Perimeter believes any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect Perimeter's actual financial results and cause them to differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements, including the risk factors described from time to time by us in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including, but not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC on March 31, 2022. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers should consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by Perimeter in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Perimeter undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. CONTACT: [email protected] PERIMETER SOLUTIONS, SA AND SUBSIDIARIES Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) (in thousands, except share and per share data) (Unaudited) Successor Predecessor Successor Predecessor Three Months Ended September 30, 2022 Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Net sales $ 160,509 $ 195,414 $ 319,232 $ 316,460 Cost of goods sold 74,707 86,081 191,757 159,895 Gross profit 85,802 109,333 127,475 156,565 Operating expenses: Selling, general and administrative expense 22,381 15,333 64,803 42,544 Amortization expense 13,738 13,276 41,395 39,818 Founders advisory fees - related party (73,713) (154,026) Other operating expense (51) 313 405 1,066 Total operating expenses (37,645) 28,922 (47,423) 83,428 Operating income 123,447 80,411 174,898 73,137 Other expense (income): Interest expense, net 9,944 8,065 32,582 23,951 (Gain) loss on contingent earn-out (3,644) (13,042) 2,763 Unrealized foreign currency loss 4,705 1,634 8,741 3,892 Other (income) expense, net (785) 66 (820) (252) Total other expense, net 10,220 9,765 27,461 30,354 Income before income taxes 113,227 70,646 147,437 42,783 Income tax expense (34,516) (18,637) (23,692) (13,151) Net income 78,711 52,009 123,745 29,632 Other comprehensive loss, net of tax: Foreign currency translation adjustments (18,181) (2,020) (34,426) (2,424) Total comprehensive income $ 60,530 $ 49,989 $ 89,319 $ 27,208 Earnings per share: Basic $ 0.48 $ 0.98 $ 0.76 $ 0.56 Diluted $ 0.45 $ 0.98 $ 0.70 $ 0.56 Weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding: Basic 162,635,592 53,045,510 161,943,492 53,045,510 Diluted 176,777,958 53,045,510 176,085,858 53,045,510 PERIMETER SOLUTIONS, SA AND SUBSIDIARIES Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, except share and per share data) September 30, 2022 December 31, 2021 Assets (Unaudited) Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 166,256 $ 225,554 Accounts receivable, net 85,612 24,319 Inventories 120,467 110,087 Income tax receivable 655 816 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 4,876 14,161 Total current assets 377,866 374,937 Property, plant, and equipment, net 57,187 62,247 Goodwill 1,019,387 1,041,325 Customer lists, net 715,829 753,459 Technology and patents, net 233,861 247,368 Tradenames, net 95,047 100,005 Other assets, net 1,877 2,219 Total assets $ 2,501,054 $ 2,581,560 Liabilities and Shareholders Equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 31,856 $ 27,469 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 124,429 19,025 Founders advisory fees payable - related party 9,836 53,547 Deferred revenue 1,272 445 Total current liabilities 167,393 100,486 Long-term debt 664,986 664,128 Deferred income taxes 222,952 298,633 Founders advisory fees payable - related party 134,598 312,242 Redeemable preferred shares 100,263 96,867 Redeemable preferred shares - related party 3,245 3,699 Other non-current liabilities 8,951 22,195 Total liabilities 1,302,388 1,498,250 Commitments and contingencies Shareholders' equity: Ordinary shares, $1 nominal value per share; 4,000,000,000 shares authorized; 163,234,542 and 157,237,435 shares issued; 162,316,326 and 157,237,435 shares outstanding at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively 163,235 157,237 Treasury shares, at cost; 918,216 shares at September 30, 2022 and no shares at December 31, 2021 (7,572) Additional paid-in capital 1,697,644 1,670,033 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (41,561) (7,135) Accumulated deficit (613,080) (736,825) Total shareholders' equity 1,198,666 1,083,310 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 2,501,054 $ 2,581,560 PERIMETER SOLUTIONS, SA AND SUBSIDIARIES Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands) (Unaudited) Successor Predecessor Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 123,745 $ 29,632 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities: Founders advisory fees - related party (change in accounting fair value) (154,026) Depreciation and amortization expense 49,536 45,593 Interest and payment-in-kind on preferred shares 4,903 Share-based compensation 19,297 Deferred income taxes (72,441) (5,195) Amortization of deferred financing costs 1,196 2,432 Amortization of acquisition related inventory step-up 27,973 (Gain) loss on contingent earn-out (13,042) 2,763 Unrealized loss on foreign currency 8,741 3,892 Loss on disposal of assets 9 Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions: Accounts receivable (63,838) (72,103) Inventories (40,759) (5,554) Prepaid expenses and other current assets 9,058 3,104 Other assets 346 Accounts payable 4,975 12,971 Deferred revenue 889 831 Income taxes payable, net 88,673 11,180 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 15,547 2,725 Founders advisory fees - related party (cash settled) (53,547) Other liabilities (73) (200) Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (43,184) 32,417 Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of property and equipment (6,024) (5,149) Purchase price adjustment under Business Combination Agreement (1,638) Purchase of businesses, net of cash acquired (7,464) Net cash used in investing activities (7,662) (12,613) Cash flows from financing activities: Ordinary shares repurchased (7,572) Proceeds from exercise of warrants 529 Proceeds from revolving credit facility 19,500 Repayments of revolving credit facility (19,500) Repayments of long-term debt (4,211) Net cash used in financing activities (7,043) (4,211) Effect of foreign currency on cash and cash equivalents (1,409) 1,510 Net change in cash and cash equivalents (59,298) 17,103 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 225,554 22,478 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 166,256 $ 39,581 Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information: Cash paid for interest $ 18,299 $ 21,502 Cash paid for income taxes $ 7,588 $ 7,092 Non-cash investing and financing activities: Liability portion of founders advisory fees - related party reclassified to additional paid in capital $ 13,783 $ Non-GAAP Financial Metrics Adjusted EBITDA The computation of Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income plus income tax expense, net interest and other financing expenses, and depreciation and amortization, adjusted on a consistent basis for certain non-recurring, unusual or non-operational items in a balanced manner. These items include (i) expenses related to the Business Combination, (ii) founder advisory fee expenses, (iii) stock compensation expense, (iv) non-cash impact of purchase accounting on the cost of inventory sold, (v) contingent future payment related to an acquired business, (vi) management fees related to the services provided by SK Capital Partners IV-A, L.P. and SK Capital Partners IV-B, L.P (collectively, the "Sponsor") when acting in a management capacity and (vii) unrealized foreign currency loss (gain). To supplement the Company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, Perimeter is providing a summary to show the computations of Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-U.S.GAAP measure used by the Company's management and by external users of Perimeter's financial statements, such as investors, commercial banks and others, to assess the Company's operating performance as compared to that of other companies, without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered an alternative to net income (loss), operating income (loss), cash flows provided by (used in) operating activities or any other measure of financial performance or liquidity presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP (in thousands). Successor Predecessor Successor Predecessor (Unaudited) Three Months Ended September 30, 2022 Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Income before income taxes $ 113,227 $ 70,646 $ 147,437 $ 42,783 Depreciation and amortization 16,450 15,212 49,536 45,593 Interest and financing expense 9,944 8,065 32,582 23,951 Founders advisory fees - related party (73,713) (154,026) Non-recurring expenses 1 1,168 3,855 4,788 12,805 Share-based compensation expense 6,832 19,297 Non-cash purchase accounting impact 2 658 27,973 (Gain) loss on contingent earn-out (3,644) (13,042) 2,763 Management fees 3 313 937 Contingent future payments 4 625 1,875 Unrealized foreign currency loss 4,705 1,634 8,741 3,892 Adjusted EBITDA $ 75,627 $ 100,350 $ 123,286 $ 134,599 Net sales $ 160,509 $ 195,414 $ 319,232 $ 316,460 (1) Adjustment to reflect non-recurring professional fees and integration costs including expenses related to the business combination with Perimeter Solutions. (2) Represents the non-cash impact of purchase accounting on the cost of inventory sold in connection with the business combination with Perimeter Solutions. The inventory acquired received a purchase accounting step-up in basis, which is a non-cash adjustment to the cost. (3) Adjustment to reflect fees pertaining to services provided by the Sponsor when acting in a management capacity on strategic and other non-operational matters which do not represent expenses incurred in the normal course of our operations. These fees did not continue following the closing of the business combination. (4) Adjustment to reflect deferred consideration paid with respect to a 2019 acquisition. SOURCE Perimeter Solutions Although no new marine protections were designated, agreement was reached to harmonize conservation efforts in the Antarctic Peninsula HOBART, Australia, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project was pleased today as delegates from 26 nations and the European Union agreed to renew a krill fishery management measure while developing a new one that will further spread out the catch, closely monitor impacts on predators, and incorporate a proposal for an Antarctic Peninsula marine protected area (MPA) into the fishery's management. Credit: John B. Weller The renewed protections will maintain the current practice of spreading out krill fishing in the Antarctic Peninsula to reduce the impact of concentrated fishing on krill-dependent predators while a new regulation is developed. The new measure would be the first time in the heavily fished Antarctic Peninsula area that CCAMLR takes a holistic approach by developing the fishery's management and an MPA proposal in harmony. The decision came at the close of the 41st annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). As part of the Antarctic Treaty System, CCAMLR is the governing body responsible for protecting Southern Ocean wildlife. In addition to the renewed temporary krill fishery catch measure, CCAMLR agreed to a new work plan to collect the data needed to monitor the fishery's impacts on predators and krill, which is key to a new regulation that will protect against irreversible impacts on the ecosystem. These effects are expected to increase as climate change affects the region and krill fishing expands in the Antarctic Peninsula. In contrast to the good news on members' unanimous support for new krill protections, which will advance alongside the Antarctic Peninsula MPA proposal, the close of the meeting also marks the sixth consecutive year with no designation of Southern Ocean MPAs. To protect this spectacular region and the species that rely on it, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and its partners are working with CCAMLR and its member governments to ensure effective fisheries management and to establish a network of large-scale MPAs around Antarctica. The proposed MPAs for East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Weddell Sea would protect 3.8 million square kilometers (1,467,188 square miles) of the Southern Ocean, making a significant contribution toward the goal of safeguarding 30% of the world's oceans by 2030 while protecting the critical foraging and breeding grounds of species found nowhere else on the planet. The MPAs would also help ecosystems throughout the region build resilience to the changing climate. CCAMLR Members agreed to host an additional meeting focused solely on MPAs in 2023a meeting that Members and The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project hope will give countries more time to focus specifically on the MPA issue. Dona Bertarelli, philanthropist, ocean advocate, and Patron of Nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said: "Though small in size, krill play an enormous role in underpinning the health of the Southern Ocean. The renewed fishing limits and commitment to advance scientific monitoring offer some positive news, but in order to truly safeguard these vital creatures and the health of Antarctica's ocean, we need a designated network of marine protected areas." Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project's Antarctic and Southern Ocean work, issued the following statement: "The importance of krill in the Southern Ocean cannot be overstated. With the renewal of the krill conservation measure and the commitment to a new, more precautionary approach that incorporates the Antarctic Peninsula MPA, CCAMLR has shown that it agrees. These new management tactics will preserve the region's rich biodiversity while CCAMLR completes additional work to ensure that enough krill remain in the water for all the wildlife that depend on it, such as penguins, whales, and seals. But while the krill conservation measure is a good first step, new evidence underscores that the best precautionary approach to Southern Ocean conservation couples ecosystem-based fishery management and marine protected areas. "At this year's meeting, CCAMLR celebrated the grim milestone of being 10 years past its own deadline for designating a Southern Ocean network of MPAs. During this decade of inaction, a growing body of science has repeatedly emphasized the need for conservation action in the Antarctic. We've learned more about the dire state of global biodiversity, including extinction threats for emperor and chinstrap penguins. And we've seen reports that Earth's ice-covered regions are on the front lines of the climate emergency. "CCAMLR now needs to make good on its 2011 commitment and start adding MPAs to the agreed-upon network. The world can't afford to hear 'no new marine protections in the Southern Ocean' for one more year. "We are pleased that countries agreed to host a special meeting on marine protected areas in 2023 and we encourage Russia and China to work with MPA proponents to finally designate the East Antarctic, Weddell Sea, and Antarctic Peninsula marine protected areas." The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Learn more at pewtrusts.org. Barb Cvrkel, 202-510-5670, [email protected] SOURCE Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project Child development organization with a modest beginning now reaches more than 2 million babies, children, and young adults COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In the fall of 1952, Rev. Everett Swanson flew from Chicago to South Korea to minister to American troops fighting in the Korean War. Compassion International celebrates its 70th anniversary with Santiago "Jimmy" Mellado and Wess Stafford. During his time there, he grew increasingly troubled by the sight of hundreds of war orphans living on the streets. One morning, he saw city workers scoop up what looked like piles of rags and toss them into the back of a truck. He walked up to the truck for a closer look and was horrified to see that the "piles" were not rags, but the frozen bodies of orphans who had died overnight. Swanson could not turn his back on these unwanted children and vowed to find a way to help them. Upon his return home, Rev. Swanson began including his experience in Korea into his revival meetings, and Christians responded by donating funds to purchase rice and fuel for the children. Soon after, he developed special sponsorship programs for individuals, families, or churches to help support orphans for a few dollars a month. The sponsorship money provided biblical lessons, food, clothing, shelter, and medical aid on a regular basis. To handle the funds and attend to the day-to-day business of ministering to the orphans, Rev. Swanson formed the nonprofit Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association, now known as Compassion International, in the basement of his Chicago home. By September 1961, Compassion supported 108 orphanages and homes in South Korea, and that program grew into Compassion's child development program through sponsorship. Today, the organization partners with more than 8,000 local churches in 27 countries, delivering a blend of physical, social, economic, and spiritual care to over two million babies, children, and young adults in poverty. Compassion's child development program helps children fully mature in every facet of life and transcend what is often a generational legacy of poverty. Compassion's name and brand has been prolific in the Christian and gospel music industry, as well as among churches and influencers. The organization has grown into a billion-dollar charity and consistently ranks in the top 10 of Forbes' America's Top Charities List, thanks to the faithfulness of many sponsors and donors over the years. In honor of Compassion's 70th anniversary, president emeritus, Wess Stafford, and current president and CEO, Santiago "Jimmy" Mellado, sat down together to reflect on Compassion's history and their experiences leading the organization. Stafford recalled his favorite day at work. He was in Kampala, Uganda at an alumni gathering with a crowd of graduates from Compassion's program. Two of the graduates had grown up in different parts of the city and later met and married. The couple recently had their first baby and brought the baby up to the platform and asked Stafford to bless the child. Before blessing the child, he asked, "Do we need to find a sponsor for this little one?" The mother, with tears running down her face, responded, "No sir, you don't. We know how to take care of our little child now. Poverty stopped with us." Mellado talked about a memorable visit to a Compassion church in Nicaragua, literally a half a kilometer from where he lived as a child. The child development center was throwing a party, and more than 300 children were singing and dancing and enjoying the festivities within the walls of the compound. Mellado noticed a little boy peeking over the seven-foot wall, and he asked the staff members to invite him and his family inside. The boy's mom shared that they knew Compassion was expanding in the area, but they had missed registration and had to wait for another spot to open. So, the little boy kept hanging around the church and waiting, and he had climbed a tree stump to look inside. Mellado was broken by his story, explaining, "That is the picture of the hundreds of millions of children who are not in the party, and Jesus wants them all in the party. So, we have to find a way to reach the most of them that God is calling us to reach." The little boy, Carlos, became his seventh sponsored child, and this sponsorship reflects Mellado's heart for the future of Compassion. He hopes Compassion will be able to reach the most children possible and "fully realize the potential that God has birthed into this ministry." Stafford concludes, "As we grow big, my prayer is that we will never lose our heart, that we'll stay centered on Christ, that we will grow the number of children that we're able to minister to, and that God will use our credibility and our platform to inspire his church around the world." Happy 70th Anniversary, Compassion! Here's to many more years of releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. To learn more about Compassion's history, visit compassion.com/history. About Compassion International Compassion International is a Christian child development organization working to release children from poverty in Jesus' name. Founded in 1952, Compassion partners with more than 8,000 local churches in 27 program countries to deliver spiritual, economic, social, and physical care to over two million babies, children, and young adults in poverty. Ranked No. 10 in Forbes' America's Top Charities List in 2021, Compassion is a founding member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and an accredited charity with the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. For more information, visit compassion.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Wilburn 219-384-8177 [email protected] SOURCE Compassion International BEIJING, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PowerChina's regional headquarters business in the middle east and north Africa covers 20 countries, 59 projects are being implemented in 13 countries, and its total number of employees is 20,604. According to the ENR's 2022 Top 250 International Contractors, PowerChina ranked in front, as the world's largest engineering contractor in firmly in place. Bringing hope to out-of-school Iraqi children On the morning of June 18, the groundbreaking ceremony of PowerChina's Iraqi Model School Project was held On the morning of June 18, PowerChina held the groundbreaking ceremony of PowerChina's Iraqi Model School Project in Baghdad Province, Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Qadimi attended it. PowerChina's construction projects on the Iraqi model schools include building 679 schools in 10 governorates in Iraq flooring an area of 198,230m2. Bringing clean energy to the Iraqi people The Iraqi Rumaila combined-cycle power plant project implemented by PowerChina is the first power plant project in Iraq funded by a Chinese company after the war, with a total installed capacity of 707 megawatts, equipped with two power zones. The two units of the project were completed and commissioned in April 2022, and operated smoothly to supply safe, reliable, and clean power to the grid in southern Iraq. So far, the Rumaila Power Plant has provided more than one billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which has greatly alleviated the problem of electricity shortage and improved the livelihood of residents. Enhancing "Saudi Vision 2030" The King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex project implemented by PowerChina is the world's largest tanker port construction project and one of the main projects of Saudi Vision 2030. After the project has been completed, the port will become the world's largest shipyard, with the ability to manufacture and repair supertankers and offshore rigs, which will help Saudi achieve the strategic goal of "Self-transportation of oil and manufacture of tankers". The Saudi Red Sea Utility and Infrastructure project is also part of the Saudi Vision 2030. It is the first large-scale commercial utility project in the world to integrate complementary multi-energy solutions. The project focuses on clean energy and environmental protection to achieve a green and pollution-free energy supply. The Red Sea Development Company, which is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, is the final off-taker for the Red Sea project. Warming the hearts of the Saudi people As of June 2022, there were 1,757 Saudi employees in PowerChina's Saudi Arabia business unit. PowerChina provides health checkups, vaccinations, Covid-19 PCR testing, psychological counseling, and other health services for its employees, which are well received and appreciated by all employees. In addition, PowerChina attaches great importance to cross-cultural communication among employees. It respects the traditions of Muslims and established prayer spaces at all construction sites of all its projects. At the same time, Chinese employees introduce employees and local people to traditional Chinese culture and the gorgeous achievements of modern China, which has effectively enhanced the international image of China. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937964/image1.jpg SOURCE PowerChina BEIJING, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) is actively participating in the "Belt and Road" initiative in Africa, responding to the planning and demand of African countries. Promoting the localization Gaston Eloundou Essomba, Cameroon's Minister of Water and Energy (second on the right), accompanied by Ngangoua Serge (first on the left), at the site of the construction of the new transmission line of the Memve'ele hydroelectric power plant on July 10, 2020. At PowerChina, African staff plays a significant role. Employment is a key issue in African countries, especially women's right to work. Two female Caterpillar drivers are able to earn a dignified living since their collaboration with the PowerChina at the rehabilitation site of Lot 2 of National Road 4 in Cameroon. Such examples are not uncommon. After finishing school in China in 2014, Kilenga Nelly managed to be recruited by the Zongo II hydroelectric power plant project once she returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), allowing her to contribute to the development of her own country. In April, the company organized the first job fair in the DRC, at the University of Kinshasa, during which more than 90 students submitted their CVs. It is worth noting that some local employees are now in management positions. Young Cameroonian Ngangoua Serge started at PowerChina as an intern in 2008. After his doctoral studies in China in 2010, he assisted in establishing an office in his country and five years later, he was appointed as PowerChina's representative in Cameroon. Serving socio-economic development To achieve its Vision 2035 of becoming an emerging nation, Cameroon planned hydro power plants in 2009 to address the electricity shortage. PowerChina succeeded in taking charge of the construction of the Memve'ele hydroelectric power plant. PowerChina has also built roads here. The Mintom-Lele section has changed the daily lives of the local population, facilitating the local transport of people and goods, and has greatly stimulated economic activity. "Three Gorges Dam of West Africa", the Soubre hydroelectric plant, whose annual power generation capacity represents 43% of the country. It helps meet the huge demand for electricity and increase electricity exports to neighboring countries, becoming a new engine for economic development in West Africa. In 2021, the Gribo Popoli hydroelectric plant started construction. Taking social responsibility PowerChina has a tradition of volunteering at schools, orphanages and neighborhood hospitals near construction sites. On December 22, 2018, the company's volunteers in Ivory Coast gave about 100 children Christmas gifts worth 1 million CFA francs ($1,557). Besides, PowerChina has joined the fight against the COVID-19 with the local community. Volunteers from the Zongo II hydropower project held an epidemic prevention presentation event at a school in the village of Zongo in the DRC in May 2020. The volunteers also used vehicles to spread messages to prevent the epidemic. They drove through more than 10 villages in the DRC, making more than 30 presentations, covering more than 30,000 people. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937951/Gaston_Eloundou_Essomba_Cameroon_s_Minister_Water_Energy__second_right__accompanied.jpg SOURCE PowerChina CALGARY, AB, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Sean "Diddy" Combs announced today that he has agreed to purchase the planned divestiture of assets in New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts from Cresco Labs Inc. and Columbia Care Inc. This historic transaction will create the first minority-owned, vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator. ATB Financial is acting as Financial Advisor to Columbia Care on the divestiture process and on behalf of Combs Enterprises with regards to certain financing mandates. This transaction is expected to close at the end of Q1 2023. Sean Diddy Combs - Image courtesy of Getty Images (CNW Group/ATB Financial) "My mission has always been to create opportunities for Black entrepreneurs in industries where we've traditionally been denied access, and this acquisition provides the immediate scale and impact needed to create a more equitable future in cannabis," said Sean "Diddy" Combs, Chairman and CEO of Combs Enterprises. If approved by U.S. and state regulators, the deal could create the nation's largest Black-owned and licensed cannabis company. Mr. Combs has said he wants to use the business as a platform to increase Black participation in the cannabis industry. "ATB Financial is pleased to be an advisor of this milestone transaction which represents a pivotal moment for minority entrepreneurs as well as for this industry," said Curtis Stange, President & CEO, ATB Financial. "Our highly specialized team of experts at ATB Capital Markets helps companies find success locally and globally with expert advice and access to capital." About ATB Financial With $59.0 billion in assets, ATB Financial is an Alberta-built financial institution that is a catalyst for economic growth in our province. We got started in 1938 to help Albertans through tough economic times. Today, ATB Financial's more than 5,000 team members love to deliver exceptional experiences to over 800,000 clients through our many branches and agencies, our 24-hour Client Care Centre, four entrepreneur centres, and our digital banking options. ATB powers possibilities for our clients, Alberta and beyond. About ATB Capital Markets ATB Capital Markets offers holistic corporate and capital markets advice, combined with customized financial solutions to help businesses thrive. We're a full-service investment dealer for key industries on the cusp of a new era. Established in 2020, ATB Capital Markets helps clients with services that include investment and corporate banking, sales and trading, institutional research, and risk management. ATB Capital Markets is Broker/Dealer #03 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. SOURCE ATB Financial New hires position company for continued rapid growth MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qventus, the industry leader in AI-powered software for care operations automation, is pleased to welcome two new executives to support the company's accelerated growth and expansion. To download a headshot of Pat Saxman, click here. To download a headshot of Julie McCorkle, click here. Pat Saxman joined as Chief Growth Officer. He will lead the company through its next phase of growth by enhancing the end-to-end experience for health system customers. Saxman brings a wealth of healthcare and sales experience, previously serving as SVP, Patient Experience at R1 RCM; Chief Growth Officer at VisitPay; and President, Enterprise Sales at ZocDoc. He also held senior sales and marketing leadership roles at Ginger and GE Healthcare. A graduate of United States Military Academy West Point with a bachelor's degree in engineering, Saxman spent five years in the Army as a battalion commander chief of staff and Apache helicopter pilot. He has an MBA from the University of San Francisco and lives in Atlanta with his wife and three young children. "Throughout my career, I've been dedicated to bringing breakthrough innovations to healthcare organizations. Having most recently focused on patient financial engagement, I see massive opportunity to improve the financial strength of health systems through better operational efficiency," said Saxman. "I was drawn to the role based on Qventus' demonstrated leadership in the industry and the vision of the team. I am excited to lead the company's growth and enhance the value we bring to our customers, especially as health systems are looking for new ways to grow revenue and improve performance." Julie McCorkle, SHRM-SCP, joined as Vice President, People Operations. She is responsible for developing and executing against the company's long-term people operations strategy, including company culture and values, learning and development, career pathing programs, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, as well as broader HR compliance. McCorkle has nearly two decades of experience in human resources management, most recently serving as vice president of people and culture at Bloomerang. Previous employers include PERQ and B.F. Saul Co. She has an MBA and master's in HR Management from Marymount University and lives in Indianapolis with her husband and children. "Especially in high growth environments, people are crucial to an organization's success and evolution. I have closely followed the healthcare technology space, and I was looking for an opportunity at a mission-driven company to help bring their people function to the next level," said McCorkle. "I look forward to bringing my knowledge and experience to Qventus and creating an incredible employee experience that helps further our business goals and market leadership." "We're thrilled to have Pat and Julie join the Qventus team," said Mudit Garg, Qventus co-founder and CEO. "They both bring proven leadership experience and strong track records in helping companies scale successfully and will play key roles in furthering our company's rapid growth." About Qventus Qventus is the leading provider of AI-based software for care operations automation. Integrating with EHRs, the Qventus platform uses AI, machine learning, and behavioral science to power best-practice solutions for inpatient, perioperative, emergency department, and command center settings. As a partner to leading health systems and hospitals across the country, including Boston Medical Center, HonorHealth, M Health Fairview, Saint Luke's Health System, and ThedaCare, Qventus delivers proven outcomes, including over 2 new surgical cases added per operating room per month, 30-50% fewer excess days, and 1 full day reduction in length of stay. For more, visit https://qventus.com/. Media Contact: Jim Sweeney Amendola Communications on behalf of Qventus (216) 650-3376 [email protected] SOURCE Qventus NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jakubowitz Law announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has commenced on behalf of shareholders of Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD). To receive updates on the lawsuit, fill out the form: https://claimyourloss.com/securities/rite-aid-corporation-loss-submission-form/?id=33311&from=4 The lawsuit seeks to recover losses for shareholders who purchased Rite Aid between April 14, 2022 and September 28, 2022. Shareholders interested in acting as a lead plaintiff representing the class of wronged shareholders have until December 19, 2022 to petition the court. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. According to a filed complaint, Rite Aid Corporation issued materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) despite representations to the contrary, the number of new members that the Elixir pharmacy benefit management services business was adding during the selling season ending on January 1, 2023 was in material decline; (ii) Rite Aid was likely to recognize a significant charge for the impairment of goodwill related to Elixir due to a decrease in "lives" covered by Elixir's pharmacy benefit management services business; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Jakubowitz Law is vigorous in pursuit of justice for shareholders who have been the victim of securities fraud. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: JAKUBOWITZ LAW 1140 Avenue of the Americas 9th Floor New York, New York 10036 T: (212) 867-4490 F: (212) 537-5887 SOURCE Jakubowitz Law GOLDSBORO, N.C., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, GOP Senate nominee Ted Budd and several other candidates were joined by hundreds of parents and activists in Goldsboro on Thursday for a "Rally to Save Our Schools" hosted by 1776 Action, an organization dedicated to "restoring honest, patriotic education." Ted Budd U.S. Senate Candidate at 1776 action rally The debate over curriculum and "indoctrination" in the classroom has emerged as a major issue in North Carolina and beyond, and with the 2022 midterm elections just days away, Thursday night's speakers pledged to defend the rights of parents in their children's education and stop the promotion of political, racial and sexual propaganda in the classroom. "Our schools should be focused on preparing our kids for successful lives," remarked Robinson, "but too many are being abused by activists intent on waging an ideological crusade. It's completely inappropriate and only vigilant parents can stop it. Finally, it's starting to happen." Ted Budd, a Republican vying to help his party take control of the U.S. Senate, said "Parents not the government should control the direction of their children's education. It is the responsibility of schools to prepare our kids to lead productive and successful lives after graduation, not force-feed them the latest woke left-wing propaganda. Critical Race Theory and similar false and destructive ideologies have no place in our classrooms." In addition to candidate speeches, Thursday's event also featured parents involved in state education battles in which they shared their experiences discovering blatantly political curriculum and obscene, age-inappropriate sexual material. "It's hard to believe just how corrupted and misguided much of the educational bureaucracy has become, and it's time for serious leaders who will use their platform and the power of their office to stand up for parents and children," said Kathy Barnette, former U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania and 1776 Action Spokeswoman. "North Carolina will play a critical role in next week's elections and 1776 Action wants to ensure that people understand the stakes and the positions of their respective candidates." Formed last year after President Biden's cancelation of President Trump's 1776 Commission, 1776 Action has advanced anti-CRT legislation in a variety of state capitols, assisted educators in speaking out against radical curriculum, and worked to shape the education debate with its 1776 Pledge, signed by over 500 candidates across America including Governors Kristi Noem (SD) Glenn Youngkin (VA). SOURCE 1776 Action NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Satellite Phone Market share is set to increase by USD 137.43 million from 2022 to 2027. Moreover, the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.2% as per the latest market forecast report by Technavio. The market will also record a 3.2% Y-O-Y growth rate during the forecast period. To know more about the historic market size Request a Free Sample Report! Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Satellite Phone Market 2023-2027 Satellite Phone Market - Parent Market Analysis Technavio categorizes the global satellite phone market as a part of the global communications equipment market within the overall global information technology sector. The parent global communications equipment market covers manufacturers of enterprise networking products, including local area networks (LANs), Wide area networks (WANs), routers, telephones, switchboards, and exchanges. Technavio also includes communications infrastructure or telecom equipment market, within the scope of the communications equipment market. For more information parent market along with value chain analysis Grab an Exclusive sample! Satellite Phone Market Characteristics with Five Forces The Satellite Phone Market is fragmented, and the five forces analysis by Technavio gives an accurate vision Bargaining Power of Buyers The threat of New Entrants Threat of Rivalry Bargaining Power of Suppliers For information on the impact of the five forces analysis Click Now! Satellite Phone Market Customer Landscape The disruption threats are strategic in nature, and operational risks for suppliers have been mapped based on their negative business impact and probability of occurrence. The potential for the customer landscape will be available with Technavio Reports Buy Now! Satellite Phone Market - Segmentation Assessment Geography Segment Overview Technavio's market research report entails detailed information on regional opportunities in store for vendors, which will assist in generating sales revenues. The Satellite Phone Market as per geography is categorized into APAC, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. The report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all regions to the growth of the Satellite Phone Market size and actionable market understandings. Regional Highlights: APAC is projected to contribute 33% by 2027. The satellite phone market in APAC is experiencing the fastest growth among all the regions, mainly owing to the rapid increase in the demand for satellite communication from the developing countries in the region. Countries such as China, Japan, and India are investing in developing advanced satellite-based infrastructure capabilities at different locations. Cross-border security threats in APAC have been a prime motivator for governments to pursue development programs to manufacture multi-role satellites with advanced subsystems to ensure uninterrupted enhanced connectivity. Application Segment Overview The Satellite Phone Market as per type segmentation is categorized into Maritime, Aerospace, Government, and Energy. Revenue Generating Segment - The maritime segment accounted for a significant share of the global satellite phone market in 2022. The segment is expected to benefit from the rising investments in satellite technologies for surveillance, regional security, and spy intelligence in emerging economies such as China , India , and Russia . In May 2019 , the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched a new EO satellite, RISAT-2B (Radar Imaging Satellite-2B). The applications of the RISAT-2B include agriculture and forestry surveillance and support disaster management. It is also used for military surveillance, similar to RISAT-2, which was launched in April 2009 to monitor enemy camp activities inside Pakistan's border. The growth of this segment is primarily attributed to the increasing adoption of the satellite telephones market, which is driven by an increase in the global demand for the satellite phone industry. Download a FREE Sample Report that can help you to strategize your sales revenue - Get it now! Satellite Phone Market Market Dynamics Major Driver Boosting the Market The innovative features and user interfaces are notably driving the satellite phone market growth. Satellite phones utilize satellites to communicate with landlines, cellular, or other satellite phones across the globe. Satellite phones aid in maintaining the command and control functions during an emergency when the existing communications networks in that specific area are non-functional. Satellite phone communications companies are attempting to provide services with enhanced technologies such as better geographic coverage, audio quality, and reliability. Hence, the rugged nature of satellite phones will drive the growth of the global satellite phone market during the forecast period. Major trends influencing the growth of the Market Progression toward low-cost, satellite-based Internet services is the primary trend driving the satellite phone market growth. The constellation of nano and microsatellites placed in low-earth orbit (LEO), which is around 680 miles from the Earth, has lowered the latency in Internet services to approximately 20-30 milliseconds, which is comparable to the existing broadband Internet solutions that use fiber-optic cable networks. Nano and microsatellite-based infrastructure is, thus, a good alternative for providing low-cost satellite-based Internet services. Thus, the implementation of low-cost satellite-based Internet services may drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. Major Challenges interrupting the market growth Stringent regulatory standards for satellite phone development may impede the satellite phone market growth. Satellite mobile phones need to be manufactured in accordance with standards such as the European standard EN 62262/International Electrochemical Commission 62262 (IEC 62262), European standard EN 60529/International Electrochemical Commission 60529 (IEC 60529), and the US Department of Defense MIL-STD-810F. This long list of criteria that regulatory standards for satellite phones impose will hamper the growth of the global satellite phone market during the forecast period. To know about other factors of market dynamics Request a Free Sample! Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19-impacted market research reports. Satellite Phone Market 2023-2027: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027 Detailed information on factors that will assist satellite phone market growth during the next five years Estimation of the satellite phone market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the satellite phone market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of satellite phone market vendors Related Reports: Satellite Transponder Market by Application and Geography Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The satellite transponder market share is expected to increase by USD 6.05 billion from 2021 to 2026. Satellite Internet Market by End-user and Geography Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The satellite internet market share is expected to increase to USD 2.70 billion from 2021 to 2026. Satellite Phone Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2022 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.2% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 137.43 million Market structure Concentrated YoY growth (%) 3.2 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 33% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AT and T Inc., Inmarsat Global Ltd, Iridium Communications Inc., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Thuraya Telecommunications Co., United Parcel Service Inc., and Globalstar Inc. 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. 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 Application Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Market Segmentation by Product Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 09: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 10: Parent market Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market Definition Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 13: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2022 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027 Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 18: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2022 and 2027 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 19: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 20: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 21: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 22: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 23: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 24: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027 5 Market Segmentation by Application 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 25: Chart on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 26: Data Table on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Application Exhibit 27: Chart on Comparison by Application Exhibit 28: Data Table on Comparison by Application 5.3 Maritime - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 29: Chart on Maritime - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Data Table on Maritime - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 31: Chart on Maritime - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 32: Data Table on Maritime - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 5.4 Aerospace - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 33: Chart on Aerospace - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Data Table on Aerospace - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 35: Chart on Aerospace - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 36: Data Table on Aerospace - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 5.5 Government - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 37: Chart on Government - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Data Table on Government - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 39: Chart on Government - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 40: Data Table on Government - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 5.6 Energy - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 41: Chart on Energy - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 42: Data Table on Energy - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 43: Chart on Energy - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 44: Data Table on Energy - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 45: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 46: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 48: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 5.8 Market opportunity by Application Exhibit 49: Market opportunity by Application ($ million) 6 Market Segmentation by Product 6.1 Market segments Exhibit 50: Chart on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%) 6.2 Comparison by Product Exhibit 52: Chart on Comparison by Product Exhibit 53: Data Table on Comparison by Product 6.3 GEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 54: Chart on GEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on GEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on GEO - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on GEO - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 6.4 LEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 58: Chart on LEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on LEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on LEO - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on LEO - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 6.5 Market opportunity by Product Exhibit 62: Market opportunity by Product ($ million) 7 Customer Landscape 7.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 63: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 8 Geographic Landscape 8.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 64: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%) 8.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 66: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 67: Data Table on Geographic comparison 8.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 68: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 69: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 70: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 71: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 72: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 73: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 74: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 75: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 76: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 77: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 78: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 79: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 80: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 81: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 82: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 83: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 84: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 85: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 86: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 87: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 88: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 89: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 90: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 91: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 92: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 93: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 94: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 95: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 96: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 97: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 98: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 99: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.11 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 100: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 101: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 102: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 103: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 104: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 105: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million) Exhibit 106: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) Exhibit 107: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 8.13 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 108: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 9.1 Market drivers 9.2 Market challenges 9.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 109: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027 9.4 Market trends 10 Vendor Landscape 10.1 Overview 10.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 110: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 10.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 111: Overview on factors of disruption 10.4 Industry risks Exhibit 112: Impact of key risks on business 11 Vendor Analysis 11.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 113: Vendors covered 11.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 114: Matrix on vendor position and classification 11.3 AT and T Inc. Exhibit 115: AT and T Inc. - Overview Exhibit 116: AT and T Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 117: AT and T Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 118: AT and T Inc. - Segment focus 11.4 Globalstar Inc. Exhibit 119: Globalstar Inc. - Overview Exhibit 120: Globalstar Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 121: Globalstar Inc. - Key news Exhibit 122: Globalstar Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 123: Globalstar Inc. - Segment focus 11.5 Inmarsat Global Ltd Exhibit 124: Inmarsat Global Ltd - Overview Exhibit 125: Inmarsat Global Ltd - Business segments Exhibit 126: Inmarsat Global Ltd - Key offerings Exhibit 127: Inmarsat Global Ltd - Segment focus 11.6 Iridium Communications Inc. Exhibit 128: Iridium Communications Inc. - Overview Exhibit 129: Iridium Communications Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 130: Iridium Communications Inc. - Key news Exhibit 131: Iridium Communications Inc. - Key offerings 11.7 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson Exhibit 132: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson - Overview Exhibit 133: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson - Business segments Exhibit 134: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson - Key news Exhibit 135: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson - Key offerings Exhibit 136: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson - Segment focus 11.8 Thuraya Telecommunications Co. Exhibit 137: Thuraya Telecommunications Co. - Overview Exhibit 138: Thuraya Telecommunications Co. - Product / Service Exhibit 139: Thuraya Telecommunications Co. - Key offerings 11.9 United Parcel Service Inc. Exhibit 140: United Parcel Service Inc. - Overview Exhibit 141: United Parcel Service Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 142: United Parcel Service Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 143: United Parcel Service Inc. - Segment focus 12 Appendix 12.1 Scope of the report 12.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 144: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 145: Exclusions checklist 12.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 146: Currency conversion rates for US$ 12.4 Research methodology Exhibit 147: Research methodology Exhibit 148: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 149: Information sources 12.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 150: List of abbreviation 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 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 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a highly successful first edition, Saudi Arabia's Future Minerals Forum (FMF) participated in the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney, Australia, which ran between 2 4 November. FMF introduced its vision for shaping the future of the sector at the leading industry event and promoted investment opportunities and strategic partnerships across the emerging super-mining region spanning Africa to Central and Western Asia to global investors. The Future Minerals Forum stand at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) "To realize the Paris Agreement's net-zero goals by 2050, estimates suggest that more than three billion tons of minerals and metals, and up to $1.7 trillion in global mining investment will be needed. From the west of the super-mining region in Senegal to the East in Kazakhstan, the 9,000-kilometer emerging super-mining region has the geological potential to provide the world with the critical minerals it needs," said H.E. Eng. Khalid Al-Mudaifer, Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs, Saudi Arabia. "The region needs investment and expertise to leverage these vast and underexplored geological reserves in support of a sustainable future. The International Mining and Resources Conference in Australia, the largest and most influential industry event of its kind in the region, is the ideal platform for FMF to share with investors the significant potential of the region to provide the world with a resilient mineral supply chain," Al-Mudaifer added. Visitors to FMF's stand at IMARC will learn more about the significant mining investment opportunities across Africa and West and Central Asia. This includes exploration for platinum, phosphate, bauxite, manganese, cobalt and gold, and the $1.3 trillion worth of reserves estimated to be held in the Arabian Shield. The second edition of FMF will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January 10 -12, 2023. FMF is expected to see over 13,000 participants; including ministers, mining industry leader and CEOs of global mining companies, and over 130 countries to be represented. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938664/Future_Minerals_Forum_Logo.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938663/Future_Minerals_Forum.jpg SOURCE Future Minerals Forum JINAN, China, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a short communication published in Science Bulletin on Oct. 31, 2022, a team led by scientists from Shandong University presents a global lithologic map of the Moon with the highest resolution (at a 1:2,500,000 scale) for the first time, which is a fruit of efforts from dozens of researchers in the past decade. This map provides an important reference for lunar geologic studies, mission planning, and landing site selections in future lunar explorations. Scientific knowledge of lunar materials was first acquired in the 1960s1970s. However, the first series of lunar maps published in that era showed only morphological features but lacked compositional information. After two decades of silence, a new era of lunar exploration began in the 1990s. The very successful orbital missions provided the first global compositional datasets of the lunar surface. The 21st century is an exciting era for lunar exploration. Various missions were carried out by space agencies in Europe, Japan, India, and the U.S. China started its lunar exploration (Chang'e) program in 2004 and has already launched two orbital missions. These missions collect diverse datasets that are valuable in integrated research on lunar materials, improve our understanding of lunar evolution, and provide primary sources for this mapping effort. Shandong University participated in Chang'e missions from as early as 2008. With the technical successes of Chang'e missions, scientists from Shandong University made contributions to the interpretations of spectroscopic datasets returned by Chang'e missions. On December 22, 2015, scientists from SDU published a paper on Nature Communications and announced the discovery of a new type of lunar basalt by analyzing the data returned from Yutu rover (Chang'e-3 mission). Recently, based on the data collected by Yutu-2, the Chang'e-4 rover, scientists from SDU proposed a hypothesis of crustal backfill to help solve the riddle of the Moon's largest crater, South Pole-Aitken basin. The lithologic map of the Moon was also based on spectroscopic datasets from Chang'e missions. Scientists from SDU developed the data reduction processes of Chang'e-1 Imaging Interferometer. Subsequently, the Chang'e datasets were integrated with products from international lunar exploration missions and information gained from five preceding decades of lunar sample studies. A systematic classification scheme for lunar rocks was reconstructed to map the composition and evolution of the Moon. For more information, please visit https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927322004224 SOURCE Shandong University NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. ("Honda" or the "Company") (NYSE: HMC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Honda and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On September 28, 2022, a putative class action was filed against Honda alleging that the Company sold thousands of vehicles that contain a critical safety flaw putting drivers and others at serious risk of injury. Specifically, the lawsuit against Honda alleges that a wide range of Honda vehicles share a flawed "auto start/stop" function (also called "Idle Stop") intended to save fuel by shutting the engine down at stops, and that the Idle Stop system in these vehicles routinely fails to restart the engine as designed, leaving drivers unable to move their vehicles. The lawsuit further alleges that Honda was fully aware of the defect before marketing the vehicles. On this news, Honda's American Depositary Receipt ("ADR") price fell $0.74 per ADR, or 3.23%, to close at $22.19 per ADR on September 29, 2022. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Teck Resources Limited ("Teck" or the "Company") (NYSE: TECK). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Teck and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On August 19, 2020, Canada's federal government announced its decision to join in an environmental assessment of a significant expansion to Teck's Castle coal mine in British Columbia. The office of Canada's Environment Minister stated that the decision was reached after analyzing the project's potential to cause adverse effects within areas of federal jurisdiction. On this news, Teck's stock price fell $0.82 per share, or 6.47%, to close at $11.86 per share on August 20, 2020. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP The boot camp is for aspiring security analysts, network consultants, and penetration testers Applicants who have a bachelor's degree in any discipline can apply for the boot camp SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Simplilearn, a global digital skills training provider, announced its partnership with the University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education (UCI DCE) for a Cybersecurity boot camp . The boot camp will provide expertise on offensive and defensive enterprise cybersecurity and give information on malware analysis, ethical hacking, securing applications, and the like. The cybersecurity boot camp is best suited for aspiring security analysts, network consultants, penetration testers, and aspirants for other related roles. To apply for the program, the learner should be at least 18 years and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Work experience is preferable but not mandatory; likewise, prior knowledge of programming is not required to apply for the boot camp. This comprehensive program focuses on topics such as Web Application Penetration Testing, Application Security, Ethical Hacking, Threat Hunting, Malware and Ransomware Analysis, Cryptography, and Infrastructure Security. Learners will have the opportunity to interact with industry experts. They will receive masterclasses from UCI DCE instructors, six months of applied learning consisting of 10+ hands-on projects and 35+ demonstrations on integrated labs, access to cybersecurity labs, and more than 30 continuing education units (CEUs) from UCI DCE to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing learning and keep avenues to future opportunities open. Ransomware and Malware Analysis teaches learners to detect, analyze and protect businesses from ransomware attacks. Ethical Hacking and VAPT provides hands-on training to master the techniques hackers use to penetrate network systems and understand the finer nuances of advanced hacking concepts, penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. The cybersecurity boot camp capstone project gives learners an opportunity to implement the skills learned in the boot camp. It will teach problem-solving for real-world industry challenges and enable learners to showcase their expertise to prospective employers. Speaking on the program, Mr. Anand Narayanan, Chief Product Officer, Simplilearn, said, "The rapid expansion of technology has made us more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and the need for security online has increased multi-fold. Cybersecurity helps businesses protect information from unpleasant data breach incidents. To have a multi-layered level of protection, companies must understand the importance of cybersecurity; today, most organizations are focused on tightening their online security. With the relevance of this skill in mind, we are happy to partner with the University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education for the Cybersecurity boot camp. This partnership will help learners grasp the concepts and skills required to protect businesses from cyber-attacks." Speaking on the partnership, Ms. Julie Pai, Assistant Director of Technology Programs, UCI DCE, said, "Organizations, irrespective of size and capacity, face the threat of cyber-attacks. With technological advancements happening at a rapid pace, the challenges of such instances are inevitable. The monetary impact of data breaches aside, the effect of these attacks on the brand and the business is of significant concern. We are happy to partner with Simplilearn to address this skill requirement and co-deliver the professional program on Cybersecurity. We are confident that the knowledge provided through this boot camp will significantly boost the learners' careers." The boot camp will start with an orientation session, followed by a module on Enterprise Infrastructure Security that will enable the learners to gain knowledge and skills in a series of advanced and current concepts in cybersecurity. The Application and Web Application Security module will help learners understand the skills of OWASP tools and methodologies, clickjacking, black box, fuzzing, symmetric/asymmetric cryptography, hashing, digital signatures, patch management and much more. Simplilearn conducts more than 3,000 live classes, with an average of 70,000 learners who together spend more than 500,000 hours each month on the platform. Programs offered by Simplilearn give learners the opportunity to upskill and get certified in popular domains. About UCI DCE UC Irvine Division of Continuing Education (UCI DCE) was established in 1962 and has served the lifelong learning and career development needs of individuals, organizations, and the community on a local, regional, and global scale. Through a wide range of educational opportunities, including certificate and specialized studies programs, short courses and strategic partnerships, UCI DCE provides learning pathways for those seeking career advancement or personal enrichment. About Simplilearn Founded in 2010 and based in San Francisco, California, and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn, a Blackstone company is the world's #1 online Bootcamp for digital economy skills training. Simplilearn offers access to world-class work-ready training to individuals and businesses around the world. The Bootcamps are designed and delivered with world-renowned universities, top corporations, and leading industry bodies via live online classes featuring top industry practitioners, sought-after trainers, and global leaders. From college students and early career professionals to managers, executives, small businesses, and big corporations, Simplilearn's role-based, skill-focused, industry-recognized, and globally relevant training programs are ideal upskilling solutions for diverse career or/and business goals. For more information, please visit https://www.simplilearn.com/ SOURCE Simplilearn Solutions Private Limited NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sodium Nitrate Market Research Report by Grade, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341501/?utm_source=PRN The Global Sodium Nitrate Market size was estimated at USD 311.33 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 339.57 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 9.32% to reach USD 531.55 million by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Sodium Nitrate to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Grade, the market was studied across Food Grade and Industrial Grade. Based on Application, the market was studied across Chemicals, Explosives, Fertilizers, Food & Beverages, Glass, and Pharmaceuticals. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Sodium Nitrate market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Sodium Nitrate Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitor's strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Sodium Nitrate Market, including Airedale Chemical, BASF SE, Hongkong Sheng Shi Jiaozi, Indian OXALATE, Neostar United, Nilkanth Organics, Radiant Indus Chem Pvt. Ltd, Shaanxi Top Pharm, Shandong Haihua Group, Shandong Xin Hao Chemical Co., Ltd, Shankar Lal Rampal Dye, Shijiazhuang Fengshan, Shouguang Zixu, Shree Tripura, Shubh Industries, Tai'an Mingchen, The Deepak Group, Weifang Taihexing, Xiamen Hisunny, and Ying Feng Yuan Industrial Group Limited. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Sodium Nitrate Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Sodium Nitrate Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341501/?utm_source=PRN 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. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Space Heaters Market Research Report by Type, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341581/?utm_source=PRN The Global Space Heaters Market size was estimated at USD 1,892.11 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 2,063.79 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 9.32% to reach USD 3,230.99 million by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Space Heaters to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Type, the market was studied across Ceramic Fan-Forced Heater, Combination Heater, Convection Heaters, Micathermic Panel Heater, and Radiant and Infrared Heater. Based on Application, the market was studied across Basement, Bath Room, Bed Room, Living Room, and Offices. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Space Heaters market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Space Heaters Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitoras strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Space Heaters Market, including Crane USA, Daikin Industries, De Longhi S.p.A,, Duraflame Inc, Dyson Ltd., Energy Wise Solutions, HomeVision Technology, Honeywell International Inc.,, Infrared Heater, Lasko Products LLC, MIDEA Group Co. Ltd.,, Mill International AS, Newell Brands Inc., Optimus Enterprise Inc., Rinnai Corp,, SquareTrade, SUNHEAT International, Sunpentown International Inc., Twin Star Home, and Vornado Air LLC. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Space Heaters Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Space Heaters Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Space Heaters Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Space Heaters Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Space Heaters Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Space Heaters Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Space Heaters Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341581/?utm_source=PRN 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. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) Market 2022-2026 The analyst has been monitoring the small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market and it is poised to grow by $8.64 bn during 2022-2026, accelerating at a CAGR of 13.35% during the forecast period. Our report on the small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360265/?utm_source=PRN The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by vendor partnerships, collaborations, and agreements, the growing adoption of smart technology, and an upsurge in military spending. The small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market analysis includes application and type segments and geographic landscape. The small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market is segmented as below: By Application Civil Military By Type Light fixed-wing SUAV Heavy fixed-wing SUAV Multi-rotor VTOL SUAV Nano SUAV By Geographical Landscape APAC North America Europe Middle East and Africa and South America This study identifies the launch of new products as one of the prime reasons driving the small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market growth during the next few years. Also, growth in demand for improved surveillance solutions and contracts and agreements with military forces will lead to sizable demand in the market. The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources through an analysis of key parameters. Our report on the small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market covers the following areas: Small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market sizing Small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market forecast Small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market industry analysis This robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market vendors that include Advanced Aircraft Co., AeroVironment Inc., Airbus Group SE, Airgility, C Astral doo, Elbit Systems Ltd., Freebird Aerospace India Pvt. Ltd., General Atomics, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd, Leonardo Spa, Northrop Grumman Corp., Parrot Drones SAS, Skydio Inc., SwissDrones Operating AG, SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd., Teal Drones Inc., Teledyne Technologies Inc., The Boeing Co., Vantage Robotics, and Azur Drones SAS. Also, the small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage all forthcoming growth opportunities. The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors. The analyst 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 such as profit, pricing, competition, and promotions. It presents various market facets by identifying the key industry influencers. The data presented is comprehensive, reliable, and a result of extensive research - both primary and secondary. Technavio's market research reports provide a complete competitive landscape and an in-depth vendor selection methodology and analysis using qualitative and quantitative research to forecast accurate market growth. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360265/?utm_source=PRN 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. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Soy Flour Market 2022-2026 The analyst has been monitoring the soy flour market and it is poised to grow by $852.84 mn during 2022-2026, accelerating at a CAGR of 5.31% during the forecast period. Our report on the soy flour market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360286/?utm_source=PRN The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by a growing vegan population, rising demand for organic products, and government support for organic farming. The soy flour market analysis includes application segment and geographic landscape. The soy flour market is segmented as below: By Application a Bakery and confectionery a Meat substitutes a Others By Geographical Landscape a North America a APAC a Europe a South America a Middle East and Africa This study identifies the high nutritional value of soybeans as one of the prime reasons driving the soy flour market growth during the next few years. Also, growth in online retails and growing demand for soy flour from food and beverage industry will lead to sizable demand in the market. The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources through an analysis of key parameters. Our report on the soy flour market covers the following areas: a Soy flour market sizing a Soy flour market forecast a Soy flour market industry analysis This robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading soy flour market vendors that include Archer Daniels Midland Co., Batory Foods, Bobs Red Mill Natural Foods Inc., Calpro Specialities, Cargill Inc., CHS Inc., Devansoy Inc., Foodchem International Corp., International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Kerry Group Plc, Linyi Shansong Biological Products Co. Ltd., PacificSoybean and Grain, Qingdao ICD Biochemistry Co.Ltd., Sakthi Soyas Ltd, Shandong Yuxin Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Soy Austria GmbH, Sonic Biochem Extraction Pvt. Ltd., Unitechem Co. Ltd., and The Scoular Co.. Also, the soy flour market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage all forthcoming growth opportunities. The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors. The analyst 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 such as profit, pricing, competition, and promotions. It presents various market facets by identifying the key industry influencers. The data presented is comprehensive, reliable, and a result of extensive research - both primary and secondary. Technavioas market research reports provide a complete competitive landscape and an in-depth vendor selection methodology and analysis using qualitative and quantitative research to forecast the accurate market growth. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360286/?utm_source=PRN 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. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Grocer committed to hiring veterans, military service members and their families CINCINNATI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), America's grocer, today announced a virtual veteran and military family career expo event scheduled for Thursday, November 10 from 1-2 p.m. ET. "Kroger is immensely grateful for our nation's veterans, service members and military families, and we continue to honor our heroes by offering a meaningful career for those who have served, including military families and beyond," said Tim Massa, Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Kroger. "We recognize the unique skills and experience our brave servicemen and women have to offer through their military experience, and we look forward to hiring our heroes and feeding their future." The Veteran Career Expo will provide an opportunity for veterans and their families to learn more about career opportunities with the Kroger Family of Companies and participate in one-on-one conversations about recruitment and hiring. The virtual event will also spotlight Kroger veteran leaders to provide insight on the veteran experience within the organization. "In the last 10 years, Kroger has hired more than 50,000 veterans," said Dawn Gilmore, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Kroger. "By actively seeking to hire, retain and support veterans, we are not only providing an opportunity for their next chapter, we are also adding outstanding, highly-effective associates to the Kroger Family of Companies." Kroger provides a framework for action that meets the unique needs of finding and providing career opportunities for veterans, transitioning service members and their spouses. Prospective associates may register for the Veteran Career Expo here. "I am fortunate to work for an organization that values my military experience and leadership gained as a Captain in the US Army," said Cora R. Mauzy, a member of the Veteran's Associate Resource Group and Store Leader. "My experience coupled with great mentors have enabled me to advance with multiple promotions and national recognition as a Top Woman in Grocery (TWIG). I want all veterans to know that Kroger is a place where they can utilize their military experience to grow and advance in their career." Beyond comprehensive benefits and competitive wages, Kroger provides meaningful opportunities for associates to expand their horizons and grow their careers. From internal and external training and education programs to on-the-job training and personalized development opportunities, Kroger is dedicated to providing associates with the tools they need to feed their future. Learn more about a career at Kroger here. About Kroger At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit. We are, across our family of companies nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site. SOURCE The Kroger Co. TheServerHost Dubai latest plans comes with more Ram, Latest Processor, SSD Drive, Linux and Windows and Managed Services. DELHI, India, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TheServerHost is a leading provider of VPS and dedicated servers for businesses and individuals in Dubai introducing all new Low cost, high resource, efficient and Flexible plans. It offers a variety of dedicated server hosting solutions for Windows and Linux platforms. The best benefits of dedicated and VPS hosting in Dubai is the ability to customize your server to meet your specific needs. You'll be able to choose the operating system, applications, and hardware, and make any necessary changes to it. Dubai Dedicated and VPS Server Hosting Provider - TheServerHost For the best quality of performance, TheServerHost offers high-performance, enterprise-grade servers for your websites and applications. These servers are extremely reliable, secure. Additionally, these servers come with daily and weekly security scans. They also has an easy to use control panel that includes over 100 applications and scripts. These servers also have redundant power and network connections. This gives clients peace of mind that their website will be up and running at peak times. TheServerHost provides exceptional technical support. Its team of support specialists is available around the clock to assist you with your hosting needs. You can call, email, and live chat with a member of their technical support team. In addition to great technical support, TheServerHost servers come with free consultations for new customers and have dedicated ticket systems to handle problems. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, TheServerHost offers reliable servers with excellent uptime. TheServerHost Best Dubai VPS server hosting provider has advanced security features that can protect your website from various types of threats. A dual hosting firewall prevents unauthorized access to your server, while KernelCare automatically updates security patches. Other advanced features include a HackScan feature that scans your server 24 hours a day. You'll also find security features such as Server Hardening, which minimizes vulnerabilities and minimizes the risk of being exploited. With a VPS, you can install the latest applications and optimize your website for increased traffic and security. Dedicated servers are an excellent choice for business owners looking to host a website with complex applications. Dedicated VPS servers provide unparalleled flexibility and control, and are the best choice for large websites and high-traffic applications. Enterprise-class hardware and software that ensure enhanced performance and data transfer. Dubai Dedicated VPS server hosting allows for increased administrative and operational flexibility, allowing you to run mission-critical applications. They also come with a comprehensive cloud DDoS mitigation service that allows you to integrate with your existing applications. These servers are also a great choice for gamers. With a fully managed server, you only pay for what you use. It also comes with pre-installed software and operating systems to ensure that your business can make the most of the features available. These servers offer features such as SSH shell and Root access. Media contact: Robin Das [email protected] 09867818854 SOURCE TheServerHost A roundup of the week's most newsworthy energy industry press releases from PR Newswire NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 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 financial industry press releases from PR Newswire NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 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 finance 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 finance-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNfinance 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 Growing traffic congestion issues, demand for urban air mobility (UAM)solutions from the medical sector, an increase in research and development of UAM, and the adoption of strategies such as product launches and acquisitions drive the global urban air mobility market. PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Market by Platform (Air Taxis, Air Shuttles and & Air Metro, Personal Air Vehicles, Cargo Air Vehicles, Air Ambulance & Medical Emergency Vehicles, Last-mile Delivery Vehicles), by Platform Opeations (Piloted, Autonomous), by Range(Intercity, Intracity), by Platform Architecture (Rotory Wing, Fixed Wing Hybrid): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031." According to the report, the global urban air mobility industry generated $2.3 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $30.7billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 30.2% from 2022 to 2031. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chain, regional landscape, and competitive scenario. Drivers and Opportunities Growing traffic congestion issues and the demand for urban air mobility solutions from the medical sector drive the growth of the global urban air mobility market. However, high initial investment cost of urban air mobility hamper the market growth. On the other hand, an increase in research and development of UAM and adoption of strategies such as product launches, mergers & acquisitions, collaborations, partnerships, and refurbishing of existing technology present new opportunities for the market in the coming years. Download Free Sample Report (300 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6808 Covid-19 Scenario The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic affected various industries around the globe including the urban air mobility market. China is the leading producer and exporter of urban air mobility vehicles. However, as the pandemic originated there, the country's export was affected, leading to a decline in urban air mobility production. is the leading producer and exporter of urban air mobility vehicles. However, as the pandemic originated there, the country's export was affected, leading to a decline in urban air mobility production. The demand for air mobility vehicles was greatly reduced owing to the import-export restrictions, closed borders, and supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic. Economic slowdown affected the setup of new urban air mobility projects across the world as the majority of government funding was diverted towards healthcare sector, owing to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, thereby affecting the market growth. However, with the pandemic situation improving now, the UAM market has stabilized and is gaining traction. The air taxis segment to rule the roost during the forecast period Based on platform, the air taxis segment was the largest market in 2021, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the global urban air mobility market, and is expected to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. The growth of air taxis segment over the forecast period is attributed to favorable features of air taxis such as their well-designed aircrafts and ability to travel short distances. Furthermore, they can also extend their service to isolated areas with poor road infrastructure. On the other hand, the last-mile delivery vehicles segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 31.1% from 2022 to 2031.The segmental growth can be attributed to employment of aerial delivery drones to complete the final mile delivery of goods is a result of the growing need to increase delivery efficiency and reduce delivery time. Additionally, the growth of the segment is due to the introduction of superior UAM vehicles. The autonomous segment to maintain its dominance during the forecast period Based on platform operations, the piloted segment held the largest market share of nearly three-fifths of the global urban air mobility market in 2021. However, the autonomous segment is expected to maintain its dominance and is projected to witness the largest CAGR of 33.1% from 2022 to 2031. This growth is majorly driven by reduced human errors and more accuracy facilitated by aircraft operations, owing to increased autonomy, novel innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), and increased cost savings in the aviation sector worldwide. The intracity segment to maintain the fastest growth during the forecast period Based on range, the intercity segment held the largest market share of more than two-thirds of the global urban air mobility market in 2021, and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. This is because technological developments are now making UAMs a realistic possibility. However, the intracity segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR of 35.2% from 2022 to 2031. Key factors such as the dramatically growing traffic congestion in the busiest cities of the world namely New York, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, and Bengaluru, owing to the increasing population and migration of people from rural areas is expected to fuel the growth of the segment. Purchase Inquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6808 Asia-Pacific to maintain its dominance by 2031 Based on region, Asia-Pacific was the largest market in 2021, capturing more than two-fifths of the global urban air mobility market, and is expected to lead the trail during the forecast period. This is due to the increasing road traffic congestion in urban areas and the demand for fast transportation in the region. However, the market in Europe is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 31.4% during the forecast period. Countries in this region, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France are making significant investments in the creation and acquisition of cutting-edge UAM systems for use in commercial operations. Moreover, the urban air mobility market in Europe is expanding as a result of rising levels of automation and globalization in these nations. Due to the strong presence of major corporations and numerous initiatives regarding urban air transportation by the government in Europe, the market is anticipated to experience substantial expansion over the course of the forecast period. Access the Statistical Data and Graphs, Key Players Strategies https://bit.ly/3zIB2wX Leading Market Players: Ehang AAV Lilium Gmbh Airbus SE Wisk Aero LLC Bell Textron Inc. Volocopter GmbH Workhorse Group Inc. Joby Aviation. Kitty Hawk Corporation Archer Aviation WH Group Limited Trending Reports in Consumer Goods Industry (Book Now with 10% Discount): About Us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): 1-800-792-5285, 1-503-894-6022 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/reports-store/consumer-goods Follow Us on Blog: https://www.dailyreportsworld.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research "No virtual roots" trigger lets system administrators configure automatic responses when users can't connect to a virtual root path. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VanDyke Software , a developer of multi-platform secure file transfer and secure terminal emulation software, today announced the official release of VShell 4.8 server. New "No virtual roots" Trigger and Trigger Variable A "No virtual roots" trigger allows automatic responses if users are disconnected because no virtual roots are available. "VShell administrators can configure the trigger to send a notification when a user cannot connect because a virtual root path has become inaccessible," said Danielle Argiro, Product Manager for VShell. "This can happen, for example, when a virtual root path maps to a network drive. If the drive becomes unreachable due to network issues and causes VShell to disconnect users, the administrators can be alerted so they can fix the problem and allow file transfer to resume." Using a new variable for the short username, a file upload trigger can now incorporate the username into the file or folder name when copying or moving files. This is an easy way to identify who uploaded files, and group those files together. VShell Control Panel Adds Time Saving Features On Windows, the VShell Control Panel now includes an option to set the debug level when verbose logging is needed for troubleshooting. A button quickly opens the log file folder using Windows File Explorer. Increased Security Security is improved for FTPS and HTTPS by disabling weak TLS cipher suites 3DES, IDEA, and RC2. New Platforms Support has been added for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64-bit. Updated FIPS Module On Windows, VShell includes an updated module for Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliance. VShell 4.8 Includes Technical Support During Evaluation Fully-functional evaluation copies of VShell 4.8 can be downloaded from the company's website: https://www.vandyke.com/download/index.html. VShell evaluators have full access to VanDyke Software's expert technical support to assist with installation, configuration, and testing during the 60-day VShell evaluation period. Argiro said, "VShell provides security along with convenience and flexibility for file transfer using SFTP, FTPS, or HTTPS. Plus, our technical support team will be there to help when you need it. VShell lets you offer a wide range of file transfer capabilities to your organization and external partners with confidence." About VanDyke Software, Inc. Busy IT professionals depend on VanDyke Software to deliver rock-solid, easy-to-configure software for secure remote access, secure file transfer, terminal emulation, and remote administration. VanDyke Software offers a fully-supported evaluation of its products prior to purchase, providing both evaluators and customers with a higher level of service. The company's product offerings include the SecureCRT Secure Shell terminal emulator, the SecureFX secure file transfer client, and the VShell secure file transfer server. For more information about VanDyke Software, visit the company's website at www.vandyke.com. SOURCE VanDyke Software, Inc. Since Vivrelle raised its Series A in April 2021, the accessories membership club has increased revenue by 600% and aims to accelerate growth across all aspects of its business NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivrelle, the first-of-its-kind membership club that offers access to a shared closet of designer handbags and accessories, today announced the close of a $35 million Series B financing round led by 3L Capital, with participation from Origin Ventures, Chapford Capital Group, Plus Capital, actresses, Lily Collins and Nina Dobrev, and personality and entrepreneur Morgan Stewart McGraw. Vivrelle Raises $35MM Series B Round with Participation from Celebrities Lily Collins and Nina Dobrev Since closing its Series A round nearly a year and a half ago, the company's revenue has seen sixfold growth, and continues to see profitable triple digit expansion. As Vivrelle continues its journey at the forefront of innovation in the luxury borrowing space, and revolutionizes the way you view your closet, Series B funding will promote accelerated growth across all verticals of the brand's business. "This recent round of fundraising marks a milestone for Vivrelle we only dreamt about when launching in 2018," says Blake Geffen, co-founder and CEO, Vivrelle. "We are ecstatic to have support from Lily Collins, Nina Dobrev and Morgan Stewart McGraw, alongside the capital partners who share in our vision of transforming how consumers utilize their closets and experience luxury. We look forward to expanding Vivrelle on many fronts, including our inventory offerings, opening additional showroom spaces, and growing our hard working team." "Vivrelle has already emerged as a cornerstone of the resale and shared accessories marketplace, and is positioned to continue to expand upon this success through the strength of the brand's incredible business model," says Jodi Kessler, Partner, 3L Capital. "The fact that Vivrelle has been EBITDA profitable since inception while demonstrating best-in-class growth and member retention, makes us excited to partner with the Company as they reinvent the luxury retail experience, which we believe is a hybrid of retail, resale and subscription." Lily Collins, actor and investor, said, "I'm thrilled to support and invest in this female-founded company. I've always been a supporter of sustainable fashion and I love that Vivrelle offers accessible designer brands that feel tailored to the consumer's individual style and needs." "I've always had a deep love and admiration for fashion and style," said Nina Dobrev, actor and investor. "As a proponent of female-founded entrepreneurial ventures, I feel honored to support Vivrelle - a company that speaks to everything I love about fashion. I believe no one should be excluded from experiencing the luxury of designer accessories, and I'm proud to be a part of expanding Vivrelle's ability to reach even more people." Morgan Stewart McGraw, personality and entrepreneur said, "I am so excited to support and invest in Vivrelle, the ultimate luxury accessories closet. I've admired this company for years and am so thrilled to partner with them." Vivrelle continues to build on the changing landscape of the shared closet and luxury resale experience and drives forward its status as a vanguard in advancing accessibility and circularity. Vivrelle's inventory and membership options can be found on Vivrelle.com . About Vivrelle Founded in September 2018 by newlyweds Blake and Wayne Geffen, Vivrelle is a first-of-its-kind membership club that provides access to a shared closet of coveted designer handbags, jewelry and diamonds for a monthly membership fee. With a dedication to making luxury accessories fun, flexible, affordable, and sustainable, Vivrelle provides members with the ability to borrow items with no return date. In a fresh take on the try-before-you-buy model, Vivrelle members are also able to purchase items they love from Vivrelle's closet at exclusive members-only discounted prices. Encompassing the true meaning of a membership club, Vivrelle offers exclusive club perks, further transforming the way consumers experience luxury in everyday life. SOURCE Vivrelle BEIJING, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the recent 2022 Summit on China's Financial Development and the 13th China Jinding (Finance) Awards organized by the National Business Daily(NBD), a nationwide Chinese financial and economic daily newspaper published in Mainland China, Waterdrop won the"Annual Insurtech Progress Award" for its outstanding performance recognized across the industry. As a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service in China, Waterdrop has attached importance to technology since its inception and has continued to increase investment in technological innovation to facilitate its business, improve its operating efficiency and expand the extensiveness and depth of its inclusive insurance services, which have benefited more than 100 million customers. Optimizing Product and Service Quality Waterdrop has been vigorously committed to technological development for better products, services, and consumption experiences to customers. Based on its understanding of the healthcare industry, Waterdrop proposed the ABDC (AI+Blockchain+Data=Construction) strategy through which it expects to generate multiple intelligent solutions with the help of big data and AI. For instance, the personified digital employee "Waterdrop Assistant" based on robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) has been embedded in such links from sales to operation and claim settlement. This leads to one pioneering technological application in the industry and three pioneering applications in the insurance industry, with an intention recognition accuracy of 97% and a problem resolution rate of higher an 80%. According to Mr. Shen Peng, founder, and CEO of Waterdrop, the technological edge of Waterdrop is not creating state-of-the-art new technologies but rather using technologies to solve sore points for customers and the industry and exporting technologies to industry partners to promote the progress of the entire industry. In 2021, Waterdrop reported RMB 0.24 billion of income from exporting Technical services. Pursuing High-quality Development Waterdrop's net operating revenue for Q2 2022 was RMB 701.4 million which represented an increase of 8.1% quarter over quarter, and the net profit attributable to Waterdrop for Q2 2022 was RMB 206.9 million, an increase of 97.2% quarter over quarter, and profitability for three consecutive quarters. Waterdrop began to upgrade its business model and adjust its product supply and customer acquisition modes in Q3 2021. It transforms the model from pursuing rapid growth in customers and revenue to seeking higher-quality development and devoting more energy to product polishing and service upgrading. Waterdrop's high-quality development strategy includes two parts: first, it will cast aside the unsustainable mode of exchanging input for growth, try to improve efficiency through innovation in management and technology, and win customers with products and services rather than through marketing; second, it will increase investment in technological innovation to make technology barriers to competition, and open its capacity to cooperation partners and platforms to promote cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the insurance industry. Shen Peng commented, "We will continue to optimize the structure and quality of business growth, thereby achieving healthy and sustainable profitability of our established businesses for the full year." About Waterdrop Inc. Waterdrop Inc. (NYSE: WDH) is a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. Founded in 2016, with the comprehensive coverage of Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace and Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding, Waterdrop aims to bring insurance and healthcare service to billions through technology. For more information, please visit www.waterdrop-inc.com. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to 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," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to," and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Waterdrop's beliefs, plans, and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Waterdrop's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Waterdrop does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. For investor inquiries, please contact: Waterdrop Inc. Xiaojiao Cui [email protected] For media inquiries, please contact: Waterdrop Inc. PR Department [email protected] SOURCE Waterdrop Inc. Dr. Lande Ajose - an accomplished public policy leader and former vice president and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California - will serve as Managing Director & Chief of Staff while new Chief Operating Officer Jagadha Sivan - an experienced social impact executive - brings extensive management experience with mission-driven organizations SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Waverley Street Foundation , an organization that invests at the intersection of climate solutions and community priorities, today announced appointments in two senior staff roles: Dr. Lande Ajose will serve as the Foundation's Managing Director and Chief of Staff, and Jagadha Sivan will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Working directly with Foundation President Jared Blumenfeld, Ajose and Sivan will be instrumental in executing Waverley Street Foundation's global strategy and mission. Waverley Street Foundation Hires Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer Tweet this Lande Ajose, Chief of Staff, Waverley Street Foundation Jagadha Sivan, COO, Waverley Street Foundation "Jagadha and Lande share Waverley Street's core belief that real climate progress is driven by including voices that need to be heard and ensuring equity in everything we do. They both have a deep understanding of how to collaborate with communities to accelerate powerful solutions," said Waverley Street President Jared Blumenfeld. "We're incredibly excited to fill these roles with such extraordinary talent and strengthen the growing team that is moving Waverley Street's mission forward." By 2035, the Waverley Street Foundation has committed to invest the entirety of its endowment more than $3 billion as of 2022 to support organizations working on solutions at the intersection of climate change and community priorities. As Waverley Street Foundation's managing director and chief of staff, Ajose will lead the organization's development and implementation of strategic plans in a range of areas. As chief operating officer, Sivan will be at the forefront of the organization's execution and culture, ensuring effectiveness, accountability, transparency, and inclusion in everything they do. Throughout her career, Ajose has worked to improve the lives of Californians as a leader in state government, private philanthropy, and research institutions." At Waverley Street we are crafting a bold, intersectional, and global strategy to ensure the livability of our planet, while also addressing the challenges communities are facing from climate change in the here-and-now," said Ajose. "I'm excited about the opportunity to contribute to that work, and to be part of the team as we expand and energize Waverley's broad coalition of community climate partners." Sivan built her career seeking out innovative approaches to solving major societal challenges and has advised mission-driven organizations on a wide spectrum of matters including revenue and growth strategies and maximizing impact. "Waverley Street's ambition is to generate a huge positive impact in the next decade, and I'm thrilled to be part of a team that is so passionate about the work ahead," said Sivan. "We are ready to move with speed and dedication that matches the urgency of the climate challenge and supports the incredible work of our frontline partners." Executive Backgrounds Lande Ajose previously served as vice president, Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California's Future and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. She formerly served as senior policy advisor for higher education for California Governor Gavin Newsom, and helped to advance special projects for the governor during the pandemic. Before joining the Newsom administration, Ajose was executive director of California Competes, chaired the California Student Aid Commission, and served on the governance bodies of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the Institute for College Access and Success, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. She currently sits on the PPIC Higher Education Center Advisory Council and on the Board of Trustees at Occidental College. She holds a PhD in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and her research expertise includes addressing issues of poverty and inequality through education and employment. Jagadha Sivan most recently served as chief operating officer at ImpactMapper, where she led efforts to help philanthropies and corporations track the impact of their programs. She previously served as a board member at La Cocina, where she developed strategic plans to address inequities in business ownership for immigrant women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sivan also focused on launching a business incubator for previously incarcerated Black and Brown women, revamping the growth strategy for the largest Native American owned-operated CPG company, and addressing the lack of healthcare coordination for the publicly insured population in San Francisco. With a master's in computer science from University of Florida, Sivan pivoted to impact work, starting her career in this space as a founding member at World of Good, a venture-funded, socially conscious retail platform where she helped generate sustainable livelihoods for women artisans in more than 34 countries. About Waverley Street Foundation The voices, experiences, and innovations of neighborhoods and communities around the world have a central place in protecting people, nature, health, and our planet. Waverley Street Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports grantees working closely with farmers, students, investors, Indigenous peoples, advocates, and many others. By 2035, the Waverley Street Foundation has committed to invest the entirety of its endowment more than $3 billion as of 2022 to support organizations working on solutions at the intersection of climate change and community priorities. In the coming weeks, the Foundation will launch its website to provide more details on its mission, grantees, and the impact of their work. SOURCE Waverley Street Foundation Senior legal analyst examines recent developments as Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Program begins to take shape NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- What: Seven states may tax student loan forgiveness under the Biden Administration program Wolters Kluwer Expert Examines the Threats to Bidens Student Loan Forgiveness Program and Analyzes the Potential State Income Taxation for Borrowers Why: During his 2020 campaign, President Biden touted promises of student loan forgiveness, and on August 24, his administration announced that the application for debt relief was coming soon. Although the application was officially released on October 17, the program itself is currently "on hold," with no debt allowed to be forgiven until federal appeals courts, and potentially the Supreme Court, resolve ongoing challenges to the program. While the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) ensures that this debt forgiveness is not subject to federal income taxes, some states are still looking to impose state income taxes. In her new Strategic Perspective entitled "Fate of Student Loan Forgiveness Program Unclear, but State Income Tax Consequences for Borrowers Taking Shape", Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Senior Legal Analyst Anne H. Gibson offers keen insights on the program by analyzing eligibility, legal opposition, how it differs from other cancellation of debt initiatives, and how state income tax will affect it. In addition, Gibson provides a comprehensive map and chart detailing the quickly developing debt cancellation program. The map highlights states that will tax forgiven student debt, states that will not, and states that may do so. The chart breaks down each state's conformity with the IRC definition of income as well as relevant code sections. Who: Anne H. Gibson, J.D., LL.M. The student loan forgiveness program is sure to be a boon to many borrowers, but the one-time debt relief could result in an additional tax burden for those living in states that have chosen to tax it. Some opponents of the program have even based their legal challenges on this potential state taxation. - Anne H. Gibson, J.D., LL.M. Senior Legal Analyst To read the full Strategic Perspective, visit: Fate of Student Loan Forgiveness Program Unclear, but State Income Tax Consequences for Borrowers Taking Shape Contact: To arrange an interview with Anne H. Gibson, or other legal experts from Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. on this or any other legal topics, please contact Linda Gharib: [email protected] About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk, and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of 4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com , follow us on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube . MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Gharib Director, Brand & Communications Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Tel: +1 (646) 887-7962 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. XIAMEN, China, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yealink (Stock Code: 300628), a global leading unified communications (UC) solution provider, has officially announced the release of its new MeetingBar A10, specially designed for meetings in huddle spaces. Though compact, MeetingBar A10 packs powerful AI-enhanced video and audio features. It is fully certified by and compatible with leading video platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and also adds flexibility as a standalone USB peripheral. Yealink's full-scenario portfolio of Android-based solutions has every option you need for your video meeting needs, from home office to large rooms, no matter where you are. Organizers of meetings in huddle spaces used to shy away from integrated video bar solutions because of budgetary constraints. Therefore, organizers of such meetings would often rely on USB peripherals for video conferencing, thus ignoring rapidly developing technology and solutions in the video conferencing arena. However, huddle rooms are the future of the workplace. According to recent research by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, it is estimated that by 2025, over 75% of video meetings will take place in huddle rooms. The Yealink MeetingBar A10 will be both affordable and ultra-convenient to use and set up. Catering to all the huddle space and home office needs The Yealink MeetingBar A10 caters to all the huddle space meeting needs. It is compact enough to fit in anywhere. Customers can set up within minutes and kick off their huddle space meeting in seconds. Furthermore, compared with USB peripheral solutions, MeetingBar A10 offers more: powerful video and audio, native meeting control and remote device management. Leading video platforms supported The Yealink MeetingBar A10 is fully certified by and fully compatible with leading video platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. It also adds flexibility as a standalone USB peripheral. No matter what platform a company starts with, later when migrating to a native experience like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, the transition can be completed seamlessly. Mini size, hard core Though compact, the bar packs powerful AI-enhanced video and audio features. The AI-powered camera features real-time and precise Auto Framing and Speaker Tracking. Yealink's deep learning intelligent audio analysis technology erases background noises. Thanks to this powerful video and audio technology, everyone gets an equal seat in the meeting. When working as a peripheral device, A10 supports wireless connection with WPP30 presentation pod. Simply plug the WPP30 pod into the laptop's USB-C port, rich video and audio from A10 are shared immediately without the need for installing software or drivers. Keep tabs on everything remotely The Yealink MeetingBar A10 can be monitored, controlled and upgraded remotely with a free YMCS (Yealink Management Cloud Service) account. Whether its firmware updates, configuration updates, or troubleshooting, can all be done remotely. Yealink's comprehensive Android-based solutions for video meetings With the introduction of the MeetingBar A10, expected to be available in December, Yealink adds to its impressive portfolio of Android-based video meeting solutions. DeskVision A24 for phone room and hot-desking collaboration MeetingBar A10 for huddle spaces and home office MeetingBar A20 for small rooms MeetingBar A30 for medium-to-large rooms MeetingBoard for all sizes of rooms, from manager's office to large rooms Yealink's portfolio of Android-based solutions has every option customers need for their video meeting needs, no matter where they are. Learn more about MeetingBar A10 at www.yealink.com. Explore more about MeetingBar A10 and Yealink Android solution at Zoomtopia onsite at the San Jose Convention Center between November 8-9 or online here. About Yealink Inc. Yealink (Stock Code: 300628) is a global brand that specializes in video conferencing, voice communications and collaboration solutions with best-in-class quality, innovative technology and user-friendly experience. Yealink is Top5 video conferencing provider (IDC Global Video Conferencing Market Statistics 2021), and ranks No.1 in the global market share of SIP phone shipments (Global IP Desktop Phone Growth Excellence Leadership Award Report, Frost & Sullivan, 2020). For more information, please visit: www.yealink.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937957/Though_compact_MeetingBar_A10_packs_powerful_AI_enhanced_video_audio_features.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1937958/Yealink_s_full_scenario_portfolio_Android_based_solutions_option_video_meeting_home_office.jpg SOURCE Yealink Tehran, Nov 4 : At least two people were killed and a number of others injured in "riots" on a highway near Iran's capital Tehran. The "riots" occurred on Thursday on the Karaj-Qazvin highway, Ahmad Mahdavi, head of the Medical Emergency Management Center of Alborz Province, was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency, Xinhua news agency reported. The details of the "riots" were being investigated, Mahdavi added. A number of "rioters", under the pretext of marking the 40th day of the victims killed in the recent riots in Alborz, blocked the Karaj-Qazvin highway for several hours, before the police reopened the road for the motorists. Over the past two months, protests have taken place in some parts of Iran over the death of a young woman in hospital after her release from police custody. Yangon, Nov 4 : At least 40 houses were destroyed by a fire in central Myanmar's Mandalay region, local rescue organisations said. No fatalities were reported due to the blaze, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the rescue groups. The fire broke out at around 5:00 p.m. local time on Thursday at Gan Village of Chanmyathazi township in Mandalay region, Myanmar Fire Services Department said. The department said the fire was extinguished at around 6:14 p.m. local time. Gonda, Nov 4 : In an apparent case of honour killing, a young man allegedly hacked his minor sister to death and then surrendered at Katra Bazar police station in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda. The accused was reportedly upset with his 16-year-old sister's suspected affair with a boy of a different community. The youth had earlier thrashed his sister after having caught them chatting. Police have sent the body for post-mortem and an FIR of murder has been registered against the youth on the complaint of his mother. He has been arrested while the sharp-edged murder weapon used to kill the girl was also recovered. Circle officer, Colonelganj, Munna Upadhyay, said the youth worked as a labourer. His father Saleem, who worked in Delhi, had committed suicide three years ago. He, along with her mother and younger sister, lived in Damodar village. "He spotted his sister with a neighbourhood youth of another community chatting. This first led to an argument between the two siblings. Later in the night, the matter snowballed again as he spotted his sister talking to the same boy over the phone," said Upadhyay. In a fit of rage, he took out a sharp-edged weapon and hacked his sister to death. Thereafter, he reached the police station and surrendered, police said. Lucknow, Nov 4 : The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) has arrested two persons from Deoband town in Saharanpur district for their alleged association with two terror groups - AQIS (Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent) and JMB (Jamat-ul Mujahideen, Bangladesh). The two accused have been brought to Lucknow from Saharanpur after their names surfaced during interrogation of people arrested earlier in this connection. The duo was identified as Aash Mohammed, 28 (Deoband resident), and Mohd Haris, 23 (resident of Haridwar), currently living in Deoband, said ATS officials in a press statement. Prashant Kumar, Uttar Pradesh Police ADG (law and order), said that the duo was arrested for their alleged involvement with the two groups promoting terror activities in the country. Earlier, eight people, including Lukman, Shahzad, Kari Mukhtar, Mudassar, Kamil, Ali Noor, Nawazish Ansari and Mohd Aleem, were arrested for their alleged links with the AQIS and the JMB and the names of the duo arrested now, surfaced in information extracted from the others, he added. Pratapgarh, Nov 4 : The POCSO court in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district has awarded death sentence to two accused for gang rape and attempt to kill a minor. The judgment was pronounced within 11 months of the crime that was committed on December 27, 2021. Besides, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the two accused after holding them guilty of raping the 11-year-old survivor and also damaging her left eyes and bones of face and leg. Taking cognisance of the crime, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had issued direction for prompt action against the culprits. The POCSO court had concluded the trial within 10 months and on October 21, 2022 held two accused - Halim and Rizwan - guilty of committing rape, kidnapping and attempt to commit culpable homicide with the minor girl. The third accused was a minor. According to prosecution, three accused - Halim, Rizwan and another - after raping and seriously injuring the minor girl, threw her on the railway track and ran away. Since one of the accused was a minor, his case was transferred to Juvenile Court. A criminal case was registered at police station Nawabganj of Pratapgarh district on the same day under sections 326 (hurt), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 363 (kidnapping) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and POCSO Act. The survivor's brother, who is the complainant in this case, rushed her sister to the SRN Hospital at Prayagraj in an unconscious state. When she regained consciousness after five days, the survivor gave a statement before the police, identifying the three accused behind the gruesome incident. According to inspector in charge of Nawabganj police station, Sudhir Kumar, immediately after the registration of the criminal case, the police swung into action and collected all the evidence, including the medical as well as forensic evidence, within two months. The three accused persons were immediately arrested and sent to jail. The girl was produced before the judicial magistrate, where she got her statement recorded under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). After concluding investigation and recording the statement of all the persons associated with the incident, a chargesheet against all the three accused persons was submitted by the police promptly within two months. According to the inspector, the girl gradually recovered after treatment. According to the complainant, her 11-year-old sister was going to a grocery shop on December 27, 2021, when three accused persons caught hold of her and took her to a nearby railway track. He alleged that after raping her, they damaged her left eye and bones of face and leg. Thereafter, they threw her on the railway track. He said that he reached the crime scene after being informed by villagers. Colombo, Nov 4 : Sri Lanka has reported the first case of monkeypox in a youth who had arrived from Dubai, Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella announced on Friday. The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry said that the 20-year old patient arrived in the island nation on Tuesday, Rambukwella told the media. Monkeypox is a viral disease that can spread from person to person through close contact with an infected person, including through hugs, kisses, massages or sexual intercourse, according to experts. The ongoing global monkeypox outbreak was first confirmed in May this year. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more that 73,080 confirmed cases in some 109 countries Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak Kushinagar : , Nov 4 (IANS) Six health workers have been terminated after a viral video showed a stray dog licking blood of an injured person inside the emergency ward of Kushinagar district hospital. Kushinagar district magistrate, S. Raj Lingam issued the termination orders. He has sought an explanation from the chief medical superintendent and two medical officers. The district magistrate has also ordered an ADM-ranked officer to verify the incident and initiated the action after the report was received. Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who is also the state's health minister, has ordered a probe into the glaring lapse. The health department officials said, a 25-year-old, identified as Bittu, was injured in a road accident on the night of November 1 near a village under the Jathan police station of Kushinagar. He was admitted to the hospital's emergency ward. A viral video showed a stray dog licking blood from his wounds. "The incident tarnished the image of the district and that is why services of six health workers were terminated," the district magistrate said. Chief medical superintendent Dr S.K. Rai said that the patient had fallen down from his bed while the staff on duty were talking to other patients. In the meantime, a stray dog sneaked inside the hospital emergency and someone made a video of the entire incident and uploaded it on social media. Jakarta, Nov 4 : Seventeen leaders of the G20 member nations have confirmed their attendance at the summit to be held in Bali on November 15-16, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said. Faizasyah was reluctant to name the other three leaders who have not declared their presence for security reasons, reports Xinhua news agency. "This is related to security aspects and other things that need to be taken care of before the event," the spokesperson told a virtual press conference. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Monday that new Prime Ministers of the UK and Italy, Rishi Sunak and Giorgia Meloni, had confirmed their attendance for the upcoming G20 summit. The G20 leaders are scheduled to arrive in Bali starting November 13 and will leave the resort island on November 16 afternoon or November 17, added Marsudi. Some of them will fly directly to Bangkok to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. San Francisco, Nov 4 : Twitter has notified employees that it will be "reducing its global workforce" on Friday, as its new CEO Elon Musk aims to cut roughly half of its 7,600-strong workforce. Employees were set to receive an email by 9 a.m. PST (9.30 p.m. India time) confirming whether they have been laid off or not, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge. The employee badge access to Twitter's offices will be shut off "temporarily". "To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home," Twitter said in an internal memo. "We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted," the memo further read. "Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere," the company added. According to the report, Musk's team of advisors has determined which engineers and technical managers to keep based on their contributions to Twitter's codebase. In Twitter's Slack and group chat groups, employees complained about the lack of internal communication from Musk and other senior executives. "Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email," said the company. "If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email," said the company. Twitter said this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Musk took over as the Twitter boss last week and immediately fired Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, the company's policy chief Vijaya Gadde, among others. The company's chief marketing officer Leslie Berland is also leaving, along with other senior people amid growing uncertainty. South Africa: Disrupting Harm in South Africa report launched Government has launched the Disrupting Harm in South Africa report that presents the national data needed in the countrys quest to protect our children. Speaking on occasion of the launch of the report on Friday, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said she welcomes the Disrupting Harm in South Africa report on behalf of the government of South Africa. As one of the pathfinding member countries, she said, today South Africa is joining other countries who have already launched their country reports. Together with UNICEF, the Department of Social Development conducted a nationally-representative study where 2 643 children who were aged between 9 and 17 years, as well as 1 393 parents or caregivers in all the nine provinces of the country participated in the study that explored childrens online behaviours and experiences. Minister Zulu said that the community-grounded partnership is the basis for the inclusion of South Africa in this international initiative. In 2020, UNICEF observed that one in three women were experiencing gender based-violence, and that one in five children under the age of 18 years were experiencing sexual abuse. The abuse, neglect and exploitation of children girls and boys alike are intentional conducts that make this an epidemic that is drowning the mental health, physical well-being and prospects of South Africas future: children. The astronomic increase in the number of child pregnancies is the regrettable indicator of the prevalence of this destructive menace, Minister Zulu said. The Minister said that the Disrupting Harm in South Africa report provides government with the baseline national data on the extent of online-facilitated child sexual abuse. On the grounds that these data will form the basis for the strengthening of the countrys technologically facilitated child sexual abuse research agenda, we are assured that responsive policies and programmes will flow from them. The Disrupting Harm in South Africa study is presenting us national data that we need in our quest to protect our children. The reports findings are as clear, as its recommendations are unambiguous, Zulu said. To demonstrate South Africas commitment in caring for and protecting the children, the Department of Social Development has developed guidelines that are relevant to the prevention of child exploitation and how its regrettable eventuality must be responded to. These guidelines specifically address subjects such as child trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation. Working together with UNICEF South Africa, the Department of Social Development is designing a training manual on the prevention of and response to Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in South Africa. This manual will be particularly useful to frontline officials, including police, social workers, teachers, etc. Moreover, the Department is implementing a myriad of targeted social behavioural change programmes that are enabling young people to make the right choices and decisions which will have a lasting impact on their lives. In launching the Disrupting Harm in South Africa report, we do so urging for a targeted people-public-private-civic-academic-multilateral implementation partnership that will carry out the reports recommendations in line with the mandate of ensuring that South Africas children are protected when they are tapping into the benefits of digital technologies, Zulu said. South Africa being a member of WeProtect Global Alliance, Minister Zulu said government is continuously and progressively developing its implementation capabilities with respect to the Model National Response to online child sexual exploitation. She added that this is work-in-progress. Moreover, I call upon the Department and its entities to realise the recommendations of the Disrupting Harm in South Africa report by establishing alignments with the She Decides initiative, among others, Minister Zulu said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China overtakes Germany to become world's second-largest auto exporter (People's Daily App) 15:38, November 04, 2022 China's auto exports in the first three quarters surpassed Germany's, ranking second in the world with 2.2 million units. Europe has become a key market for China's auto exports, according to CCTV News. (Produced by Gao Yuan and Dong Feng) (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) San Francisco, Nov 4 : South Korean giant Samsung is building an '8K' ultrawide monitor which will feature DisplayPort 2.1, to replace its Odyssey Neo G9. Computer chip company AMD had revealed at its event that a record-breaking 8K resolution version of a large curved screen is about to be unveiled by the tech giant, reports The Verge. The upcoming monitor will feature DisplayPort 2.1 and more details will be out in January next year. "While the 32 by 9 aspect ratio of these monitors suggests the screen won't be a true 8K resolution," the report said. Earlier, the company had launched the world's first 55-inch 1000R curved gaming screen in the Indian market. The Odyssey Ark monitor was available for sale at a starting price of Rs 2,19,999. It came with a 55-inch screen that surrounded the user's field of vision with its 1000R curvature. It also had a cockpit mode that allowed the screen to be rotated vertically 270 degrees. For the best screen positioning, this mode enabled the screen to pivot, tilt, and rotate using a HAS (Height Adjustable Stand). Bengaluru, Nov 4 : Starbucks co-founder Zev Siegl visited Bengaluru's iconic and heritage restaurant Vidyarthi Bhavan on the sidelines of the Global Investors' Meet and cherished the taste of famous masala dosa and filter coffee. The photos of his visit went viral on social media and his gesture was appreciated by one and all. The Vidyarthi Bhavan on its social media shared information about his visit and stated, "We were happy and proud to have Mr. Zev Seigl, Co-founder of Starbucks at Vidyarthi Bhavan today (Thursday). "He enjoyed our Masale Dose and Coffee and expressed it in our Guest book as well." In turn, Zev Seigl in his note in the guest book of the eatery mentioned, "It is an honor to enjoy your famous food, coffee and warm welcome. I will take this wonderful experience with me back to Seattle. Thank you." He had given three stars for the restaurant. Zev Seigl was seen taking a tour of the restaurant and posed with staff members of the hotel. One of the users commented on the post: "Guess he has realized what real coffee tastes like!!!" Another user said, "Amazing, Starbucks founder having VB's delicious filter coffee after masala dosa! Proud of you." A user wrote in his comment, "Must be the first time he's had true coffee." Zev Seigl is in Bengaluru as a participant in the Global Investors Meet 2022 to share his entrepreneurship insights based upon his accumulated experience. Chennai, Nov 4 : The Tamil Nadu police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) are continuing raids across the state in connection with the Coimbatore blast. Sources in the Coimbatore city police told IANS that for the past ten days, more than 100 places have been raided in the city and suburbs. Surveillance of many people who were indirectly involved in the blast is also continuing. Meanwhile, the NIA has conducted raids and searches on residences and premises of friends and relatives of the seven who were involved in the blast. Firoz Ismail, one of the arrested under the Unlawful Prevention Prevention Act (UAPA) charges, was deported in 2019 by the UAE government following his connection with Islamic States (IS) during his stay in that country. However, his mother Maimuna Beegum claims that Firoz and his brother Mohammed Nawaz Ismail (another of the arrested under UAPA in the case) were innocent and that Firoz was not deported from UAE and had come back after his visa expired. Coimbatore City police have already got information from an e-commerce portal that the deceased Jameesha Mubin and his associates Afsar Khan and Mohammed Azharuddin had purchased chemical substances through their sites. Notably, chemicals like potassium nitrate, Aluminum powder Sulphur, and charcoal which could be used in making IED bombs were recovered from the residence of the deceased Mubin. According to sources, the NIA is conducting searches in many areas of Tamil Nadu that are related to the accused. However, the details of the investigation and the premises of the raids are not known. Meanwhile, the appearance of certain sketches of Jihad recovered from the residence of Mubin appeared on social media. This, according to police, was recovered by the state police before the case was taken over by the NIA. The police have also commenced investigation as to how these details have come up in social media. Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 4 : Amid protests by CPI-M organisations, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan's nominee Dr Ciza Thomas, on Friday, took charge as the in-charge Vice Chancellor (VC) of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University here. In October, the Supreme Court had directed incumbent Vice-Chancellor M.S. Rajasree to quit , saying that her appointment was "invalid" as crucial UGC norms for appointments were not followed. This was raised in a petition filed by a petitioner P.S.Sreejith, whose plea on the same was dismissed by the Kerala High Court in 2021. Acting on the order, Khan reportedly played a "googly", when he refused to appoint a new VC as directed by the Kerala government and went forward by appointing Thomas, presently the Senior Joint Director , Director of Technical Education as in-charge VC. This morning, Thomas' vehicle had to stop at the University's gate when a large number of Students Federation of India (SFI) youths did not allow her to go forward. Soon, a large police force arrived and accompanied her to the office. When she reached the office, she again came under duress when pro-Left employee organisations staged a protest. It was only after police's intervention that she was able to take her seat and informed the chancellor's office that she had taken charge. Later, speaking to the media, she said she has to do her duty as this post was assigned by the chancellor who gave her the order to take over as in-charge VC. "I am duty-bound to obey the chancellor's orders. The protest was expected and I can understand the students' protests. But unfortunately, the employees are also protesting. This is a very crucial post and we can go forward only by team work", said Thomas. "Since last evening, when I got the order appointing me as the in-charge VC, I have received more than 200 emails from students asking me to speed up issuing of their certificates which are pending. I assure the students, I will do my best to help them," she added. Incidentally, the pro-Left organisations are upset after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan went hammer and tongs against Khan, who based on this apex court order, asked 10 other VCs of other universities in the state to quit. The Left has taken the fight into the camp of Khan and has announced a massive protest when one lakh of their supporters will stage a protest before the residence of Khan on November 15. Istanbul, Nov 4 : Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkey and should be allowed entry into the NATO, Secretary-General of the military alliance Jens Stoltenberg said here. "It's time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of NATO," said Stoltenberg during a press conference in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday. "Their accession will make our alliance stronger and our people safer," he said, noting that Finland and Sweden are ready to work closer with Turkey to fight terrorism. Turkey, along with Hungary, are yet to finalis the process of ratifying the NATO memberships for the two Nordic countries despite signing the initial protocol in July. Turkey has repeatedly stated that before the process could be finalized, Finland and Sweden must take "concrete steps" to ease its concerns, including signing criminal extradition protocols and lifting sanctions on Ankara's defence industry. Stoltenberg aims to accelerate the ratification process by Turkey during his three-day visit, during which he will also hold meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Defence Minister Hulusi Akar. However, in response to the NATO chief's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. "Some steps were taken indeed. But it is impossible to state that they have been fully implemented by these two countries. It is not our intent to block (NATO's) expansion. We just want to see concrete steps," the Foreign Minister added. United Nations, Nov 4 : The UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a resolution to demand an end to the decades-old US embargo on Cuba. The resolution was adopted on Thursday with 185 votes in favour, 2 against, and 2 abstentions, reports Xinhua news agency. While the US and Israel voted against the draft, Brazil and Ukraine abstained. The resolution expresses concern about the continued promulgation and application of laws and regulations, such as the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, the extraterritorial effects of which affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction, and the freedom of trade and navigation. It calls on all states to refrain from promulgating and applying such laws and measures, and urges states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime. The resolution also requests the UN Secretary-General to prepare a report on the implementation of this resolution and to submit it to the General Assembly at its next annual session. Thursday's resolution was the 30th in a row on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the US on Cuba. First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the the two countries except Havana and capping remittances Cuban-Americans can send to their families back home. The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against the island nation remains largely in place. Chennai, Nov 4 : The Coimbatore division of the Tamil Nadu forest department is on high alert after villagers of Palladum in Tiruppur district complained of spotting a leopard in their area. Swinging into action, the forest department conducted a recce of the fields and other areas of the village where the leopard could probably be hiding. Though there has not been any complaint regarding the animal attack, the locals are worried about it attacking the school-going children and their cattle. P.R. Ramasamy, a farmer at Palladium village, told IANS, "We are certain of the presence of a leopard in the village and have registered a complaint with the Tiruppur forest office. They inspected the fields and nearby shrubs to find out whether the animal was hiding there, However, it was not found." He said that the forest department officials had verified the CCTV visuals of the presence of a leopard. However, when asked, a senior official of the forest department said, "We scanned the CCTV footage provided by a farmer in whose farmland the animal was seen last night. The quality of the video is bad but the animal in it did resemble a leopard. We are alert and are bringing more forest officials to track its movement and capture it." The forest department officials, however, said that they have spoken to several villagers, who were not sure whether the animal was indeed a leopard. London, Nov 4 : King Charles III welcomed members of the Asian community, including Indians, who came to the UK some 50 years ago after they were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The first major engagement to take place at Buckingham Palace since royal mourning was attended by distinguished business leaders from Uganda and British-Asian and Indian community members, including High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami. On August 4, 1972, some 60,000 Ugandan Asians were given 90 days' notice to leave the country by fAmin. About 27,000 of them fled to the UK and were placed in temporary military camps across the country. Sixteen temporary resettlement and reception camps were set up around the country with 63 voluntary sector organisations mobilised to provide humanitarian support for the evacuees. "The ceremony offered thanks to over 60 voluntary organisations who provided humanitarian assistance and reunited many of the refugees and volunteers," The Royal Family said in a tweet. The King spoke to Virginia Bottomley and Peter Bottomley, MP, who opened their home to Indian-origin Razia Jetha and her late husband Roshan when they arrived from Uganda in 1972, The National reported. "It was so appalling the situation, we felt we must do something and Peter went down to the reception camp at West Malling and came back with the Jethas," said Virginia Bottomley, holding hands with Razia. Arriving with nothing, Ugandan Asians quickly set about trying to rebuild the luxurious lives many had lived in East Africa. As former British Prime Minister David Cameron had said in 2012, Indians and Asians from Uganda are "one of the most successful groups of immigrants anywhere in the history of the world". Indians first moved to East Africa in the 1890s to work in infrastructure projects. By the 1970s, they were leading in business and other fields, which got Amin worried, who gave them 90 days to leave Uganda, with only $50 each. They left behind homes, businesses, friends and memories for an uncertain future in Britain, Canada, India and Kenya. Indians from Uganda settled in various parts of Britain, with a large concentration in the east Midlands town of Leicester. Twinned with Rajkot, the 'multicultural' Leicester is reputed to host the largest Diwali celebrations outside India. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Keeping Covid infection risk low from Omicron variants now requires room ventilation rates 50 times greater than in 2020 when the pandemic arrived, researchers have revealed. Building scientists and air quality specialists have assessed the ventilation rates of rooms required to keep the risk of infection under one per cent, concluding that Omicron and its variants require ventilation some 50 times greater than the virus did when the world first encountered it in 2020. Despite the manifest benefits of vaccination, the risk of airborne transmission in confined spaces might be higher, and so the corresponding precautions regarding ventilation needed to be re-appraised, according to the study published in the journal Building Simulation. The researchers also found that air purifiers were ineffective in reducing transmission when used in scenarios without N95 masks. For all three variants of concern, ventilation rates had to increase substantially to ensure an infection probability of under one per cent, they said. The ventilation rate is defined as the rate at which fresh air flows into a room or building, measured in cubic meters per hour. For Alpha, this meant ventilation rates of 650-1,200 cubic meters per hour for 15 minutes of exposure, and 8,000-14,000 cubic meters per hour for three hours of exposure. For Delta, the rate jumped up further still, to 2,200-6,800 cubic meters per hour for 15 minutes, and 26,000-80,000 cubic meters for three hours. For the Omicron variant (not distinguishing between sublineages), the ventilation rate hit 5,400-17,000 cubic meters per hour for 15 minutes and 64,000-250,000 cubic meters per hour for three hours. "Without any additional measures, this means the Alpha variant requires a ventilation rate some four times more aggressive than the ancestral strain," said Bin Zhao, professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, "while the Delta and Omicron variants require ventilation rates roughly 20 times and 50 times greater. This is difficult to meet for actual building engineering." However, the good news is that if both the infected person and the susceptible person are wearing N95 masks, the ventilation rate required to keep the risk of infection to under one per cent decreases to about one hundredth of these reported values, said the researchers. Riyadh, Nov 4 : iPhone maker Foxconn and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund have formed a joint venture called 'Ceer' to build and sell electric vehicles. The joint venture will license component technology from BMW to use in the vehicle development process. Foxconn said in a statement that it will develop the electrical architecture of the vehicles which will lead to "a portfolio of products" in the areas of infotainment, connectivity and autonomous driving technologies. By 2034, the new company expects to directly contribute $8 billion to Saudi Arabia's GDP, and to bring over $150 million of foreign direct investment. It will create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. "Saudi Arabia is not just building a new automotive brand, we are igniting a new industry and an ecosystem that attracts international and local investments, creates job opportunities for local talent, enables the private sector, and contributes to increasing Saudi Arabia's GDP over the next decade," said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Additionally, the venture will support the country's Vision 2030 initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability in order to lessen the impact of climate change. The Ceer cars are expected to be released in 2025. Young Liu, Chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, said that they want to make electric vehicles mainstream, "and that is what Ceer is going to achieve in Saudi Arabia and the wider region". Santiago, Nov 4 : A massive forest fire in central Chile's Maule region has ravaged at least 3,600 hectares of land, damaged several homes and is yet to be brought under control, authorities said. The fire, which has been burning since Monday in the communes of Molina and Rio Claro, some 200 km south of the capital Santiago, presents a threat to nearby homes, Xinhua news agency quoted the country's National Forestry Corporation as saying in a statement. While "the fire is generally of low intensity and spreading slowly", aerial firefighting has been hampered "due to thermal inversion" preventing the smoke from dissipating, the statement said. The flames have damaged eight houses and destroyed two warehouses, according to the latest report from the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Safety. Military forces, private forestry brigades and government institutions have been working together to combat the blaze. Guwahati, Nov 4 : The policemen in Assam may lose their jobs if found intoxicated during duty hours, warned the state DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta. He said that new rules will be introduced to check the wrongdoings of those policemen who do not work sincerely. Mahanta also said that the state government has been working to quickly solve various problems faced by the police. It includes the lack of infrastructure, living quarters, etc. He said, "The chief minister immediately arranged the allocation of funds for the construction of 1,000 police residences when he was informed about the requirement. Moreover, there was a detailed discussion with him on various issues such as combating cybercrime, working to provide benefits to people's lives, etc." The top cop said that the police should be friendly with the public. "Even people should not be called to the police station in petty matters rather the police personnel would visit their homes to provide services," he said. "In Assam, we have decided to scrap small cases to lower the burden on the judiciary and police should also work in synchronization with this decision," the DGP added. Mahanta thanked the Chief Minister for paying attention to the problems faced by the police department. He assured that the police will work tirelessly for the development of the state. San Francisco, Nov 4 : Samsung in its new ad has mocked iPhone users that tells people to come over to its Android phones as Apple always make iPhone users wait for new and useful features. According to Android Authority, the 30-second commercial was shown on Samsung's US YouTube channel. In an ad called "On the Fence", it depicts a man sitting on an actual fence, with two iPhone users discouraging him from doing so. "But on the Samsung side, they have foldable phones and epic cameras," the man says. "You don't want to leave. We're waiting for all that to come over here," says one of the iPhone users. "Why? It's already over there," replies the fence sitter, according to the report. Samsung is essentially mocking Apple for not having foldable phones. Even though it is Samsung's biggest rival, the manufacturer of the iPhone hasn't yet joined the movement. As per Samsung's own predictions, Apple intends to launch its first foldable product in 2024, which is just a little more than a year away. However, if Apple plans on launching a foldable in 2024, it must already be finalising its plans, said the report. Los Angeles, Nov 4 : Filmmaker Ryan Coogler's memories of late actor Chadwick Boseman still leave him with overwhelming emotions whenever he talks about the late actor. The director got emotional as he recalled his last conversation with the 'Black Panther' star, reports aceshowbiz.com. In the first episode of 'Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast', the filmmaker said he just finished writing the 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' script about T'Challa grieving the loss of time from the five-year "Avengers: Endgame" Blip when he reached out to Boseman. "I just finished (the script). My last conversation with him was calling him asking him if he wanted to read it before I got notes from the studio. That was the last time we spoke," he said. "He passed maybe a couple of weeks after I finished." When the interviewer asked for details about Boseman's response, Coogler took a moment to compose himself. In between what sounded like tears, he told host Ta-Nehisi Coates: "He was tired, bro...I could tell he was tired." "(Boseman) called me, and I could tell he was laying down when we were talking," he continued. "Simone (Boseman's wife) was with him, and he kicked Simone out because he told her he didn't want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with an NDA. And she didn't want to leave him. So I could tell something was up." Coogler said the couple was in good spirits and "joking and laughing," as he remembered Boseman talking about their upcoming wedding in South Carolina. "Then he said he didn't want to read (the script) because he didn't want to get in the way of whatever notes the studio might have. So he said he'd read it later," Coogler recalled. "But I found out later he was too tired to read anything." The 36-year-old revealed he and Denzel Washington, Boseman's longtime friend and producer of his film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", had been trying to reach Boseman for days by the time he got Boseman on the phone. Coogler said he went through denial when he learned the news of Boseman's passing from his agent and manager just several weeks later. It wasn't until a call to Washington and an unreturned text to Boseman that Coogler realised the reported death of his friend and leading man wasn't a rumour or hoax. "You know, you go through that denial. And with technology, I think it makes it kind of easier to deny things, you know? You think maybe it's a hoax, 'Let me text or call him.' So I texted him," Coogler said. "And then I told Denzel to check and see if it's a rumour. He called me back and said, 'It's not a rumour.' Then my agents called back and said that the release had just been posted. So that was how I found out." Following Boseman's passing, Coogler contemplated quitting the second film altogether, but he changed his mind after he began to replay his old memories of Boseman. He realised that the actor filmed the first movie while he was sick, which made some things, like Boseman having incredibly sad bays or taking a much longer time to warm back up from water scenes, make sudden sense. "He was sick when I met him," Coogler shared. "But looking back on it, it's like, my man was dying. It's a shocking thing to realise, and it's also a thing where it's like 'I can't quit.' If he did all that while he was going through that, this is just grief. So we gotta push through." Kevin Feige confirmed in December 2020 that the role of T'Challa would not be recast in the wake of Boseman's death. The 'Black Panther' sequel is set to arrive in US theatres on November 11. New Delhi, Nov 4 : A sharpshooter of infamous Kapil Sangwan gang, involved in nine cases including murder, attempt to murder and armed robbery, has been arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, said an official on Friday. The accused has been identified as Amit alias Khachhar (35), a resident of Baba Haridas Nagar in Delhi. According to Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), in the light of recent incidents of gruesome murders due to ongoing gang rivalries, the Special Cell has been assigned the task to identify and apprehend the wanted hardcore criminals and sharpshooters of infamous gangs involved in sensational cases. "In this process, the police team has identified Amit, the member of infamous Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu-Shakti Sharda gang, who is also an absent 'Bad Character' of Baba Haridas Nagar police station. Amit has not been appearing on court dates for more than a year in his cases," said the DCP. "Due to his non-appearance before the trial courts concerned, he was also declared 'Proclaimed Offender' in two cases," stated the DCP.' "Meanwhile, specific inputs were received that Amit is trying to contact and re-unite with his old associates to commit some sensational crime. The police team raided a number of his hideouts in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan during the last three weeks and on some occasions, he narrowly escaped from the clutches of the team," said the DCP. "Finally, he was nabbed on Thursday near Surakhpur road in Najafgarh. At the time of apprehension, he also took out his loaded country-made pistol to open fire in order to flee away but was overpowered by the police team," said the official, adding that further investigation is in progress. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Section 11 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The plea was argued by retired IAS officer S.N. Shukla on behalf of his NGO. Lok Prahari. The provision in the Act entrusted the Election Commission with the power to remove or reduce the period of disqualification of a legislator. During the hearing, Shukla contended before the apex court that the provision should either be struck down or read down since it suffered from the vice of "excessive delegation". Shukla made submissions before a bench comprising Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice Bela M. Trivedi. After hearing the arguments, the bench issued a notice to the Central government and others. The bench asked him what was so bad about Section 11, adding that Parliament itself felt that power could be delegated to the Election Commission. Shukla pressed that the delegation of power amounted to excessive delegation. After hearing submissions from Shukla, the bench issued notice and scheduled the matter for further hearing on December 5. Bengaluru, Nov 4 : A day after a woman and her twin babies died during childbirth reportedly after being refused treatment at a government hospital, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar on Friday ordered the suspension of three women nurses and a doctor on charges of negligence. He also constituted a three-member team to probe the matter and submit its findings within two weeks. The minister said that the state government will also consider bringing in a law to fix accountability and punish medical staff in government hospitals if they misbehave with patients. "If doctors and staff in government hospitals misbehave with people, they will be terminated from service. I will speak to the Chief Minister in this regard and if need be, we will bring necessary amendments to laws in the next session of the Assembly," Dr. K. Sudhakar stated. The deceased, a labourer from Tamil Nadu, was allegedly turned away by the duty staff at the government hospital in Tumkur, as she reportedly did not possess documents such as Aadhaar card or state government maternity card. The woman, who was unable to arrange transport to Bengaluru, later died at home during childbirth and twin babies also died. The minister said that such incidents will not be tolerated in future. "In cases of emergency, hospitals should not insist on documents. Documents can be collected after attending to the emergency. There are about 76 notified emergency services, and instructions are already in place not to deny or delay treatment in such cases. In case treatment is not available in the government hospitals people can avail it in private hospitals also and the government will bear the cost," Dr. Sudhakar stated. Hyderabad, Nov 4 : The Telangana High Court on Friday adjourned hearing to Monday on a BJP petition seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or sitting judge into the alleged attempt to buy four MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The court also adjourned the hearing on the petitions of the wife of one of the accused and others. Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy made it clear that the stay on the investigation in the case will continue till the next hearing. As the state government has filed an elaborate counter, the counsel for the BJP sought time to go through the same and prepare for arguments. The court agreed to give the time till Monday. Additional Advocate General Ramachandra Rao requested the court to lift the stay on the investigation, but the court ruled that the stay will continue till next hearing. The Additional Advocate General also sought the permission to file petition for police custody of the three accused, but the court refused to give the permission Journalist Chintapandu Naveen alias Teenmaar Malanna also filed a petition to implead himself in the case. Mallanna's counsel submitted that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao tried to influence the judiciary in the case. At a press conference on Thursday, the chief minister had released the evidence in the case. He said this has been submitted to the Telangana High Court and also sent to the Chief Justice of India, all Supreme Court judges, chief justices of all high courts and various agencies. Alleging that democracy was under threat, he appealed to the judiciary to protect it. The high court on October 29 had stayed the ongoing investigation into the case and asked the state government and other respondents to file the counter by November 4. Another single judge bench of the High Court on the same day set aside the order of a lower court rejecting remand for the three accused. The judge asked the lower court to demand the accused to judicial custody upon their production by the police. Cyberabad police subsequently arrested Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma, Kore Nanda Kumar alias Nandu and Simhayaji and produced before the First Additional Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases who sent them to judicial custody for two weeks. The three accused said to be BJP agents were arrested by the police from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad on the night of October 26 when they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of TRS with offers of huge money. Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others. The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act. Chennai, Nov 4 : In a gruesome incident, three siblings, including two women, were asphyxiated to death in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu in the wee hours on Friday. The deceased were identified as V. Girija (63), her sister , S. Radha (55) and their brother, Rajkumar (48). Rajkumar's wife Bhargavi (41) and daughter Aaradhana (7) are admitted to the hospital. Police said that the family had come to Chengalpattu to perform the first death anniversary rituals of Girija's husband Venkataraman who had passed away last year due to illness. Girija was staying with her son in Dubai and had returned to the family flat at Guduvanchery on November 2 and her siblings and family had moved in on Thursday. The family was supposed to return to their place of work when a sudden explosion in the refrigerator occurred leading to asphyxiation and death of the three. Bhargavi and Aaradhana were sleeping in the bedroom while the three siblings were sleeping in the living room. The smoke that engulfed them after the refrigerator exploded asphyxiated Bhargavi and Aaradhana also. When the neighbour heard their cries for help, they broke open the flat's door. A senior police officer at Guduvanchery police station told IANS: "Doctors declared Rajkumar, Girija, and Radha brought dead on arrival at the hospital. Bhargavi and Aaradhana were unconscious when brought to the hospital and are now recovering." The bodies of the siblings are kept in the mortuary of Chengalpattu government hospital. The Guduvanchery police have registered an FIR and initiated investigation. Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 4 : Tushar Vellapally, who heads the BDJS -- an ally of the BJP-led NDA in Kerala --, on Friday rubbished claims of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that he was behind the sensational MLAs' poaching case. Tushar is the son of the SNDP strongman Vellapally Natesan and informed the media here that he had no role in it. "I have not contacted any MLAs and I have had no role in this. If they claim to have evidence, let them bring it. Whatever has come out there is nothing to prove my involvement," said Tushar, who is presently out of the state. Tushar was the candidate of BDJS against Rahul Gandhi at Wayanad in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and speculations were rife that he would be made a Union Minister to please the powerful Hindu Ezhava community to which he belongs, but nothing happened. According to the Telangana chief minister, one of the three arrested persons, alleged to be the agents of the BJP, spoke to Tushar Vellapally and he also released a photograph of Tushar with Home Minister Amit Shah. Rao alleged that three agents of BJP were arrested in Hyderabad while trying to buy four MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) by offering huge money. The Chief Minister presented video and audio evidence to expose the alleged BJP 'conspiracy' to buy TRS MLAs at Rs 100 crore. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said the entire evidence, including the conversation the 'brokers' had with the MLAs has been sent to the Telangana High Court. He revealed that the evidence has also been sent to the Chief Justice of India, all Supreme Court judges, chief justices of all high courts, agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the media. Citing the conversation the accused had with the TRS MLAs over phone and in person, he said they spoke about eight state governments already toppled and the plans to topple governments in four states -- Telangana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. KCR claimed that after catching the gang red-handed, he alerted the AAP government in Delhi about the conspiracy to topple it. The Chief Minister claimed to have three-hour long footage in which the accused explained how they toppled the eight governments and what they plan to do to topple others. New Delhi, Nov 4: India must up its ante as Bangladesh's opposition parties including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are now gearing up to hold rallies and processions and even blockade the country in a bid to oust the current Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina on Thursday said in Parliament that the opposition parties are trying to stir up political instability in her country. "When the country is in a transition period (crisis), I've not seen such concern among those who are in our opposition. Rather I've seen that they are trying how to create a political instability, taking its advantage. Is it fair to do that?" she said. Amanullah Aman, senior member of the BNP said on October 8 that his party is planning to launch a new programme across the country targeting the government. "If necessary, we will be martyrs but no election under (Prime Minister) Sheikh Hasina will be allowed. We will return home after ensuring the removal of this government," Aman said. Earlier, a report by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) noted that the "behind-the-scenes role" of the Pakistani agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has hugely boosted the BNP and other radical outfits. The Awami League has been in power in Bangladesh since January 2009. "Bangladesh has witnessed unprecedented growth in the last 10 years. This is due because Hasina in a pragmatic way prioritised economy over ideology. Simply put, she has delivered," geopolitical and security analyst Navita Srikant told India Narrative. Now it is slated to exit UN's Least Developed Countries (LDC) list in 2026, Bangladesh, which was considered a basket case at its birth in 1971, reached lower-middle income status in 2015, driven by Hasina's economic policies. But the recent economic crisis in the country has provided it with a solid issue around which to mobilize people, the Diplomat said. India is home to more than 200 million Muslims and unrest in Bangladesh has a direct impact on Indian polity, especially its northeastern states, which border the South Asian nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Bangladesh as a joho jatri or a co-passenger in India's economic and social journey. "India and Bangladesh enjoy a strong relationship, we need to grow together and we need greater collaboration to weed out extremism in the region. Peace has to prevail for both economies to grow and enhance economic cooperation," Srikant said. From time to time, Bangladesh has witnessed anti India activities. Despite Hasina's repeated urge to maintain peace and uphold the principles of secularism, a Kali temple in Dautiya village in Jhenaidah district was vandalised just last month. In 2021, the Durga Puja festival was marred by violence leaving at least seven people dead. "Since a long time, radical elements have been part of the society, which otherwise has been driven by its culture where both Nazrul Geeti and Rabindra Sangeet have been prevalent. These radical forces have been playing a part from time to time," Anil Trigunayat, former diplomat, told India Narrative earlier. The Hefazat-e-Islam, which launched violent protests last year during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka, continues to pose challenges to the Hasina government, though sources said that Dhaka has tried to make peace with the radical outfit in a bid to maintain overall peace. Just a few days ago the HeI said it will write a letter to Hasina seeking withdrawal of all cases filed against the organisation's leaders and activists since 2013. It will also demand the release of their leaders who are in prison. (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative Hyderabad, Nov 4 : Congress MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has submitted his reply to the showcause notice issued by the party for indiscipline. The Bhongir MP submitted his reply to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on November 1, denying the allegations made against him. Congress general secretary Tariq Anwar had issued notice to the Lok Sabha member on October 22 asking him to reply within 10 days. The notice was issued after a voice recording went viral on social media in which Venkat Reddy is heard asking a Congress leader to support BJP candidate and his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy in Munugode by-election. Venkat Reddy is understood to have told the party leadership in his reply that it was a "fake" audio. The MP reportedly wrote that he is a senior leader in the party who has been serving the organisation for the last 35 years. He complained that he was not given due importance in the party. A video clip had also gone viral a few days ago in which Venkat Reddy is heard predicting that Congress will lose the by-election to Munugode Assembly seat. Venkat Reddy, who is the star campaigner of the Congress party, did not campaign for the party in Munugode, where polling was held on Thursday. Venkat Reddy's brother Rajagopal Reddy had resigned as MLA and also quit Congress to join the BJP. He contested as BJP candidate. There have been speculations in recent weeks that Venkat Reddy will also follow his brother and switch loyalties to the BJP. The audio and video of the MP have surfaced days after he made it clear that he will not campaign in Munugode. His action had embarrassed the party when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra was passing through Telangana. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had told reporters in Hyderabad on November 1 that if any party member crosses 'Lakshman Rekha', the party will definitely take action. Chennai, Nov 4 : Malayalam actress Kani Kusruti will be seen in the lead role in director Shuchi Talati's upcoming Hindi film 'Girls will be Girls.' After their star studded wedding reception last month, actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal celebrated by taking their first production, 'Girls Will Be Girls', on the floors in Uttarakhand. The film which is being directed by debutante Shuchi Talati has already been in the news for the various prestigious grants it has received this past year. The story is set in a boarding school in a small town in the Himalayan foothills and follows a 16-year-old Mira, whose rebellious coming of age is hijacked by her mother. Earlier this year, the film won the Arte Kino prize and the VFF Talent Highlights Award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Multi-award winning Malayalam actress Kani Kusruti who has been roped into play the lead role, has won the prestigious Kerala State award, Filmfare award, the Rome Prisma Award and the BRICS international awards in the past and is a name to reckon in the world of independent cinema. The film will also mark the debut and launch of two new young actors, Preeti Panigrahi and Kesav Binoy Kiron, who will be essaying the lead roles alongside Kani. Shuchi Talati, director of the film, said: "I am overwhelmed by the process naturally and am very excited to make my first film. I feel confident about the script since I received validation due to the numerous grants our project has received. I hope I can live up to expectations. I am working with a fantastic set of actors and a great crew, so I feel grateful." Adding to her thoughts, actress and producer Richa Chadha said: "I am grateful for these humble beginnings as I always wanted to get behind good quality indies. Shuchi and I have been friends since college and I am happy to be a part of her journey. I am confident she will make a good feature which has huge international prospects." Speaking about their maiden production, Ali Fazal said: "We started this creators lab with the intent of backing new talent. 'Girls Will Be Girls' is the apt first film step for us in that respect." The film is an Indo-French Co-production being jointly produced by Pushing Buttons Studios, Crawling Angel Films and French company Dolce Vita Films. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed New Delhi, Nov 4 : Homegrown brand Noise on Friday said it logged 200 per cent growth by selling two million smartwatches in the country during the festive season. Calling watches became the best-selling product in the smartwatch category, driving the company's growth during the festive season. Icon Buzz, Pulse Go Buzz, and Pulse 2 Max were among them. According to Counterpoint Research, India's smartwatch market grew 312 per cent (year-on-year) in Q2 2022. Noise captured the second spot with a 26 per cent share and registered 293 per cent (year-on-year) growth. The brand has ramped up its domestic production in the second quarter and contributed 3/4th of the locally manufactured smartwatches. "India's Smartwatch shipments grew by 4x annually in Q2 2022," said research analyst Anshika Jain. The company introduced more models with Bluetooth calling features and this feature was present in 40 per cent of its shipments for the quarter, said the report. "We saw over 300 smartwatch models selling this quarter, the highest ever number. The top three brands combined offered 75 different models. The quarter saw over 50 new launches from major brands," said research Analyst Harshit Rastogi. Moreover, Noise was the best-selling brand in online channels. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chennai, Nov 4 : Upcoming hero Naga Shaurya is to work with director S. S. Arunachalam on an action entertainer next. Sources close to the unit said that Naga Shaurya is particular that his next set of movies are different from each other and that they must be commercially viable. Under these circumstances, the makers of his 24th film have announced that the project is to be directed by S.S. Arunachalam. The movie is tipped to be an action entertainer laced with fun, family and emotional aspects. Srinivasa Rao Chintalapudi, Vijay Kumar Chintalapudi and Dr Ashok Kumar Chintalapudi are to produce this movie on a grand scale for the banner, Vaishnavi Films. Baby Advaitha and Bhavishya will present the movie. Director S.S. Arunachalam has himself penned the story and screenplay of the movie and Naga Shaurya will play a role that is different from the characters he has played so far. The actor will also be going for a makeover. The yet-to-be-titled project is to go on floors soon. Sources said that while some well-known actors will be playing pivotal roles, top-notch technicians will be be roped in for the movie. New Delhi, Nov 4 : As we move towards self-reliance, it is imperative for schools to develop an ecosystem that instills resilience, encourages innovation, promotes sustainability and equips our students to be ready to face the disruptive future. While the pandemic has already accelerated transformational change at the institutional level, it is important for other stakeholders, including the government, industry and the society, to work towards making systemic changes and build a robust, resilient, student-centric and futuristic school education system. With all these in mind, FICCI ARISE is organising its annual flagship conference for school education on the theme 'Reboot-Re-imagine-Rebuild' on December 9-10 in New Delhi. Through this conference, FICCI ARISE aims to bring forth solutions whereby the K-12 sector can work along with the government to make a definitive difference and complement our nation's priorities to facilitate a mindset needed to drive future-oriented teaching and learning. The conference will witness participation of more than 500 delegates including state and central government officials, regulators, prominent educators, think tanks, consulting firms and institutions from across India. On the side-lines of the conference, FICCI ARISE has also organised focused Master Classes on School Improvement Framework and School Safety and Child Protection. The conference also features world-class keynote speakers: Proven experts with contributions that will take you on a journey far beyond the conference theme, and bring new perspectives and new impulses for innovation. Additionally, this edition has an exciting opportunity to visit top of the line schools in Delhi/NCR region and gain exposure to successful pedagogical tools and practices and innovative learning spaces. Chennai, Nov 4 : The Tamil Nadu power utilities, Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Ltd (Tantransco), and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (Tangedco) have expressed concern over shut down of Unit 1 of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), as it led to reduced power generation affecting South Chennai areas. Both the power utilities of Tamil Nadu have written to Southern Regional Power Committee on the shutdown of Unit 1 of Madras Atomic Power Station since January 18, 2018. Tangedco, which has 75 per cent share of the installed capacity of 440 MWs of both the units of MAPS, expressed concern to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). Sources in Tangedco told IANS that the NPCL has informed it that the power generation from Unit -1 of MAPS was having technical issues and that it would not be functioning in 2022-23. Tantransco also demanded that the biennial shutdown of the unit be planned either before January 2023 or after August 2023. This, according to the communique by the Tamil Nadu power utility was to keep the power network stable. Seoul, Nov 4 : South Korean tech giant Samsung will reportedly start developing a new series of chipsets designed for home appliances and future self-driving cars that may share some similarities with smart homes. According to SamMobile, the company may start the development of such chips before the end of 2022. Back in August, Samsung announced that it wants nearly all future home appliances to be Wi-Fi and SmartThings-enabled. In order to support its vision of a connected home, the company might soon develop new chipsets to help the cause. Additionally, Samsung reportedly noticed a trend in which businesses are starting to conceptualise electric self-driving vehicles with electronics and home appliances like TVs and refrigerators. The company wants to create chipsets that can power smart homes as well as future EVs that may boast "home on wheels" characteristics, according to the report. Despite declining quarterly profits in Q3, Samsung's automotive electronics division, led by Harman International, saw sales rise 51 per cent year-over-year. The company is now said to push its digital cockpit products more to the forefront. To achieve this vision of making chips for "home on wheels", Samsung may have to move away or upgrade from the existing Exynos Auto V9 platform or at least explore additional solutions, reports SamMobile. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Samsung India on Friday said that its mobile business division garnered record revenue of Rs 14,400 crore during the festive months of September and October in India, making it the best Diwali sales for the South Korean giant. Samsung India's mobile division turned in record sales riding on strong consumer demand for premium smartphones such as Galaxy S22 series and the recently-launched foldables, Aditya Babbar, Senior Director and Head of Product Marketing, Mobile Business at Samsung India, told IANS. "Sales grew in healthy double digits during the festive months on the back of strong demand for premium smartphones and Samsung's premium smartphones (Rs 30,000 and above) grew 2 times in the current year (January-September)," Babbar informed. Both Galaxy S22 series and the fourth generation of foldables -- Galaxy Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 -- have seen huge demand from customers. Samsung said it continues to lead the broader smartphone market by sales for the 10th year running. "We have consolidated our smartphone leadership this year. Along with premium smartphones, 5G smartphones have seen huge demand from consumers in India," Babbar said. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung led the 5G smartphone segment in India for the fourth straight quarter in Q3. Samsung was also the fastest-growing brand in the premium segment. Samsung held the second spot in Q3 in India and was the only smartphone brand among the top five to register an annual growth. The company also led the handset (feature phone+smartphone) market with an 18 per cent share in the country. Babbar said that Samsung had the biggest 5G portfolio in India, with more than 20 5G smartphones and tablets selling in the country right now. "Consumers have upgraded in a big way -- both to 5G smartphones and to premium smartphones -- in the just concluded festive season," Babbar told IANS, citing the growth in 5G smartphones as another big reason for Samsung India's success. Babbar said the company's innovations in terms of platforms and services have helped consumers in a big way. Samsung Finance+, the company's lending platform for new-to-credit customers, saw more than 1 million transactions during the festive season, he informed. Hyderabad, Nov 4 : Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services Ltd has adopted an African lion, named 'Manohar', at Nehru Zoological Park for a period of one year. The company officials on Friday handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh. Company representatives Ashutosh Anil Kotwal, Satyanarayan Giri and B.L.N. Deepak handed over the cheque to the park's Deputy Curator A. Nagamani towards the adoption and maintenance charges of African lion. Nagamani thanked Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services for coming forward to adopt animals for the consecutive years. Last year, they adopted a Royal Bengal tiger for a period of one year. Later, company representatives took round of the Zoo and appreciated its maintenance and cleanliness. Earlier, on October 27, as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) had announced adopting two tigers (a Royal Bengal tiger and a White tiger) at the Nehru Zoological Park. NMDC Chairman and Managing Director, Sumit Deb, and other officials had presented a cheque of Rs 2 lakh The public sector company also organised plantation drive in the zoo. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Reviewing the status of implementation of measures directed to restrict farm fire counts in Punjab, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas held a meeting with senior officials. The primary focus of the review meeting was to assess the on-ground implementation of directions and reiterate the need for immediate intensification of actions to put a halt to the sudden spike in stubble burning cases seen in the last few days in Punjab. The Chief Secretary and Deputy Commissioners of 22 districts of Punjab were reminded of their earlier commitments surrounding farm fire counts. Officials said that the Deputy Commissioners of 10 Districts including Amritsar, Barnala, Bhatinda, Firozpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Tarn Taran and Patiala where more than 1,000 fire counts are reported, were specifically advised to pay special attention and focus on the implementation of the action plan. During the review meeting, the Chief Secretary and Deputy Commissioners assured that they will put their best foot forward to substantially bring down the rising farm fire incidents in Punjab. They also assured that a decline in stubble burning incidents is expected to be seen in the coming days. Amid the alarming level of air quality in the National Capital Region, Stage IV of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been implemented. As per the dynamic model and weather/ meteorological forecast, the overall air quality over Delhi is likely to remain in 'Severe'/ 'Severe+' category from November 3 to 5. Kolkata, Nov 4 : Sisir Mondal, the Chairman of Trinamool Congress-controlled Dainhat Municipality in West Bengal's East Burdwan district, on Friday resigned from hi pot following the instructions of the party high command after his name got involved in a sex for job scandal. Mondal handed over his resignation letter to the office of the Katwa sub-divisional officer but refused to make any statement to the waiting media persons. Trinamool's East Burdwan President, Rabindranath Chattopadhyay confirmed to the media persons that Mondal has resigned following the instructions of the party high command. Recently an audio clip went viral, where a young woman, reportedly in a telephonic conversation with Mondal, requested him for a job. However, during the conversation, he was allegedly heard putting forward some indecent proposal to that woman. As the audio clip went viral it posed immense embarrassment for the Trinamool leadership and a section of the party leadership gave clear indications that the party might adopt some strong disciplinary step against Mondal. Initially, he denied the allegations and claimed that it was a conspiracy to frame him where someone else said such things in his voice. However, the opposition parties launched a scathing attack against the Trinamool on this count. As the criticisms on this count started snowballing, the Trinamool asked Mondal to first resign and then come clean. Jaipur, Nov 4 : Amid the ongoing political crisis, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday left for Delhi. He is supposed to reach Delhi in a special plane at 4 p.m. where he will meet senior Congress leaders. Gehlot will make a night halt in Delhi. Next day, on November 5, he will be on an election tour of Gujarat for three days from November 5 to November 7. Gehlot will address 10 public meetings and will also hold a press conference in Rajkot. He will also visit Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth place and native village in Karamsad. Gehlot, who is the senior observer of the Congress party in the Gujarat assembly elections, will be accompanied by Raghu Sharma, election in-charge for the state. In all public meetings, Gehlot will appeal to the general public to vote in support of the Congress candidates in the assembly elections. Meanwhile, political uncertainty prevails in Rajasthan as former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday had asked Congress high command to take disciplinary action against three Gehlot loyalists, two ministers and one RTDC president, who convened a parallel meeting when an official meeting was already called by Congress high command on September 25. Pilot also termed it as an interesting development after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Gehlot, saying that Modi praised Ghulam Nabi the same way as he did praise Gehlot. We know what happened thereafter, Pilot quipped. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said the state government will leave no stone unturned for making state free from paddy straw burning by coming year. Interacting with the mediapersons here, the Chief Minister, accompanied by his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, said the state government is working on a multi-pronged strategy and has already roped in agriculture experts and the farmers unions for working out a viable solution for this problem. He said already the government has given 1.20 lakh machines for the in-situ management of the paddy straw. Mann said this is problem of the entire north India, and the Union government must intervene for joint resolution of this matter by all aggrieved states. The Chief Minister said the state is encouraging the farmers to adopt crop diversification. However, he said the Union government must give them remunerative minimum support price (MSP) for these crops. Mann said this will help encouraging the farmers adopt alternate crops and solving this problem. The Chief Minister said the farmers get time of 10-12 days between harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat. He said in lack of any viable alternative, the farmers rely on a matchstick to solve the problem. Mann said if the Centre provides solution for it, then the farmers will never burn the paddy straw. The Chief Minister said the government has already encouraged farmers after thousands of panchayats had passed resolutions for not burning paddy straw. The country feels proud that in any year bumper crop has been produced. However, Mann said "we forget that this has also enhanced the production of paddy straw too". The Chief Minister said in Punjab, farmers cultivate paddy on 75 lakh hectares out of which the paddy straw is burnt over only on 40 lakh hectares. He said the remaining farmers never indulge in such practice, which pollutes environment. Mann said the state government has set up a plant of bio energy production in Sangrur, adding more such plants will be set up across the state. The Chief Minister reminded that Punjab farmers had played a major role in making the country self-reliant in food production. He said they had submitted a detailed solution for the paddy straw burning by offering to jointly pay financial assistance to farmers worth Rs 2,500 in lieu of not burning paddy straw. However, he said instead of accepting this proposal, the Centre had "blatantly refused" to bail out the farmers. Likewise, Mann said in order to provide a viable solution for management of paddy straw, a large number of investors wanted to come to the state and set up bio energy plants. Islamabad, Nov 4 : Supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took to the streets in different parts of the country against the party chief and former Pak premier Imran Khan's assassination bid, media reported. As per reports, PTI supporters have started gathering at Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's (K-P) Peshawar Toll Plaza. All workers of the Peshawar district are expected to protest at the toll plaza. Meanwhile, the GT Road from Chakbeli Mor in Rawalpindi was blocked as violent protests erupted against the assassination attempt on the PTI chief. A heavy presence of both motorway police and district police were seen at the protest venue. Moreover, protesters have also set tyres of the vehicles on fire and blocked the road. As a result of the blockade, passengers from both sides of the road are facing problems. PTI workers have also started gathering outside the Allama Iqbal Park in Rawalpindi. Party MLAs Ali Nawaz and Khurram Nawaz were also present at the venue. According to PTI, people begin to gather for protest outside Insaf House in Karachi, Express Tribune reported. The police of the federal capital have asked the Rawalpindi administration to stop protesters from carrying out "illegal actions" while protesting at Faizabad. They added that protesters had pelted police with stones and were carrying sticks and slingshots. Pak Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said the ruling parties are willing to inquire about Imran Khan's health in person if the environment improves, Geo News reported. "Before when Imran Khan had an incident, Nawaz Sharif went to inquire about his health," said Sanaullah. He added that the prime minister is considering going to inquire about Khan's health and will take a decision on this. Rejecting the allegations made by PTI against him, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that they see Imran Khan as a political opponent, not as an enemy. "We see Imran Khan as a political opponent, not an enemy. Imran Khan thinks of political opponents as enemies," said Sanaullah during a press conference, Geo News reported. The minister also pointed out that the suspect is in police's custody and his statement was recorded in Gujrat. "No FIR has been registered of the incident. Maybe they are trying to register the FIR as per their wishes," said Sanaullah. PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar said on Thursday that party chairman Imran Khan suspects three people - Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military officer - are behind the assassination attempt on him, Geo News reported. "Imran Khan has said that he had the information beforehand that these people might be involved in the assassination attempt on him," Asad said during a video statement alongside party leader Mian Aslam Iqbal. Asad, quoting the PTI chairman, demanded that all three people - the premier, the interior minister, and the senior military officer - should be removed from their offices, Geo News reported. Islamabad, Nov 4 : Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday that the ruling parties are willing to inquire about Imran Khans health in person if the environment improves, media reports said. "Earlier when Imran Khan had an incident, Nawaz Sharif went to inquire about his health," said Sanaullah, Geo News reported. He added that Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif is considering going to inquire about Khan's health, and will soon take a call on this. Rejecting the allegations levelled by PTI against him, Sanaullah said that he sees Khan as a political opponent, not as an enemy. "We see Imran Khan as a political opponent, not an enemy. But Imran Khan thinks of political opponents as enemies," said Sanaullah during a press conference, Geo News reported. The minister also pointed out that the prime suspect in the firing incident in Gujranwala on Thursday, in which Khan sustained bullet injuries in his leg, is in police's custody and his statement has been recorded by the police in Gujrat. "No FIR has been registered in the incident. Maybe they are trying to register the FIR as per their wishes," said Sanaullah. PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar had said on Thursday that Khan suspects three people -- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military officer -- to be behind the assassination attempt on him, Geo News reported. "Imran Khan has said that he had the information beforehand that these people might be involved in the assassination attempt on him," Asad said in a video statement. Asad, quoting the PTI chairman, demanded that all three people -- the premier, the interior minister, and the senior military officer -- should be removed from their office, Geo News reported. Kolhapur : , Nov 4 (IANS) In a major initiative, the Governors of Maharashtra and Karnataka met in this Maharashtra town on Friday to boost cooperation in the border districts of the two adjoining states. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and his Karnataka counterpart Thaawarchand Gehlot held the meeting along with Collectors and Superintendents of Police of 9 border districts - five of Maharashtra and four of Karnataka - at the Residency Club here this afternoon. The meeting, held at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, assumes significance in view of the sentimental and long-pending boundary dispute between the two states that creates regular political friction. "There is good coordination between the border districts of the two states and this meeting will definitely be beneficial in the future. The state governments will be informed about the problems that need to be resolved at the state-levels through discussions among the officials on both sides," said Koshyari. "The meeting was satisfactory.. As per the discussions held today, all the concerned administrations should create better coordination among each other and try to get the government schemes' benefits to the citizens living in the area," noted Gehlot. The Collectors and SPs also made their presentations at the meeting and along with the deliberations outcome, all the inputs would be compiled and sent to the Raj Bavans of the two states which would act further. Kolhapur Collector Rahul Rekhawar said that as per the meeting held on June 26, 2020, it was decided that the water levels in the Almatti Dam should be around 517-517.50 metres to reduce the impact of floods from the Krishna River. The participants also felt that the Excise Departments of both the states need to coordinate more with each other to prevent illicit liquor trafficking from Goa by thoroughly inspecting vehicles on the Shinoli, Sankeshwar, and Kognoli routes. Other major points discussed were steps to curb the incident of lumpy skin disease in the cattle of the two states, easier trade and market for cattle fodder, the problems of migration of elephants from Karnataka to Maharashtra, growing animal-human conflicts, compensation to victims of Covid-19 from Kolhapur who died in Karnataka and stringent implementation of the PCPNDT Act to stop illegal sex determination tests in the border areas. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Around 810 km of metro line are operational in 20 cities in the country while more than 980 km of metro network and RRTS is currently under construction in 27 cities, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri said on Friday, adding India currently has the fifth-largest metro network in the world. "India will soon overtake advanced economies such as Japan and South Korea to become the third-largest network. These developments will lead to a significant reduction of traffic congestion and the associated air quality and emissions concerns," the Minister said. Puri, and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday jointly inaugurated the 15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference and Expo 2022 in Kochi. Acknowledging the incorporation of best practices/ learnings from other countries into Indian Urban Mobility Systems, Hardeep Puri said that we have been able to learn from the experience of other countries. The metro lines that we are introducing today are the kind of systems which are incorporating the best practices from others. Our process of indigenisation is going to contribute to also an experience wherein we will be able to share with other countries placed in the similar level of the developmental ladder, he added further. The Minister expressed satisfaction for his association with transport and the evolution of metro systems and other transport systems over the period of five years. The Minister congratulated the Kochi Metro for the innovative Kochi Water Metro project, which will connect 10 islands through 15 routes and will cater to more than 100,000 people daily across 78 km of network. The Water Metro will also provide a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to daily commuters. Inland water transport is inherently more energy efficient than road or rail transport, he said. Bengaluru: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari during the International Flight Test Seminar organised as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), in Bengaluru on Friday, Nov. 04, 2022. (P Image Source: IANS News Bengaluru: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari being presented a memento by ASTE Commandant Air Vice Marshal Jeetendra Mishra during the International Flight Test Seminar organised as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Aircraft and Image Source: IANS News Bengaluru: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari addresses during the International Flight Test Seminar organised as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), in Bengaluru on Friday, Nov. 04 Image Source: IANS News Bengaluru: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari being presented a memento by ASTE Commandant Air Vice Marshal Jeetendra Mishra during the International Flight Test Seminar organised as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Aircraft and Image Source: IANS News Bengaluru, Nov 4 : Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari on Friday lauded the contributions made by the Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE) and its alumni in numerous aircraft developments, weaponisation and upgrade programmes which have been pivotal in the enhancement of the IAF operational capability. The Indian Air Force Chief was speaking after inaugurating an International Flight Test Seminar (IFTS) organised to celebrate 50 years of the ASTE. The Air Chief Marshal complimented the efforts of the Indian Flight Testing fraternity in design, development and operationalisation of successful weapon platforms such as LCA Tejas, ALH Dhruv and LCH Prachand, thereby underlining the capability of Indian defence airspace eco system. The seminar served as a platform for interaction between the Flight Test crew, Defence Research and Production agencies, distinguished scholars for academic institutes and representatives from international agencies engaged in flight testing. Noting that the Indian Aerospace industry is witnessing unprecedented growth towards becoming a self-reliant ('Aatmanirbhar' Bharat), the Chief of Air Staff said, "On this occasion, it is important to highlight the government policies which aim to support holistic incorporation of advanced technologies, impetus on domestic manufacturing, enhancing public-private partnership and enhancing the overall indigenous component in the defence sector. These have created a robust roadmap laden with a multitude of opportunities for our flight testing community to engage proactively and contribute effectively to meet the national policy objectives." Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment, a unique and premier unit of the Indian Air Force (IAF), is celebrating its Golden Jubilee milestone after completing 50 years of service to the nation. Over the last five decades, ASTE has contributed actively towards various integration and developmental projects in support of inducting and absorbing niche aerospace/defence technologies. It's flight test crew have actively participated in design, development programme of Saras MK-II and Hansa NG, apart from various complex aircraft upgraded and weapon integration programmes. Barcelona, Nov 4 : Several Spanish airports closed their airspace earlier on Friday morning because of an out-of-control Chinese rocket, the media reported. Flights into and out of Barcelona, Tarragona, Ibiza and Reus were known to have been grounded with reports other regions including La Rioja and Castilla and Leon have been affected, the Daily Mail reported. The measure lasted around 40 minutes, although local reports were pointing to the possibility places such as Ibiza could still face delays of several hours, Daily Mail reported. Local media in the Balearics said flights between the islands and the UK would be the most affected by the problems caused by the out-of-control Chinese space junk. It came after China launched the third and final piece of its new Tiangong space station on Monday -- and warnings had been sounded about the rocket's 23-tonne body coming back down on the Earth with Spain identified as one of the countries in its path, Daily Mail reported. The module, named Mengtain, blasted into space from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on the southern island province of Hainan. Mengtian, or 'Celestial Dream', joins Wentian as the second laboratory module for the station, collectively known as Tiangong, or 'Celestial Palace'. Both are connected to the Tianhe core module where the crew lives and works. As it tumbles back down, it will send large and heavy pieces of debris that will hit the surface of the Earth, Daily Mail reported. Debris from the rocket, flying around the world at 17,500 miles per hour, is being tracked live by the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking. Los Angeles, Nov 4 : Rapper Kanye West has revealed he is giving up talking, sex, adult films, and alcohol for 30 days as he embarks on a "verbal fast". The 45-year-old rapper took to Twitter to reveal that he is going on a "verbal fast" as part of a 30-day cleanse, which will involve him not speaking to anybody throughout the time period, reports femalefirst.co.uk. Kanye wrote: "I'm taking a 30 day cleanse. A verbal fast. No alcohol. No adult films. No intercourse. In God we praise. Amen. But my Twitter still lit." He added: "I'm not talking to nooobody for a month." But minutes after posting the message, the 'Praise God' hitmaker shared several tweets. He concluded with: "I'm a bit sleepy but tomorrow... : ))) I promise it will be allll love speech guys I promise." It comes after Kanye was suspended from Twitter last month after he posted an anti-Semitic tweet - but new Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed last week that the star's account had been restored. The 51-year-old businessman wrote on the micro-blogging platform: "Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes." In response, an account called Republicans against Trumpism asked the new Twitter boss: "So why did you restore already Kanye West's account? Twitter should not be a platform to spew racism and antisemitism." Elon Musk, who is a friend of the controversial rap star, explained: "Ye's account was restored by Twitter before the acquisition. They did not consult with or inform me." Kanye's ex-wife Kim Kardashian recently appeared to voice her disapproval of his anti-Semitic messages, after she took to social media to write that hate speech is "never OK" or "excusable". But she didn't mention the rap star by name. Kim wrote on Twitter: "I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end." New Delhi, Nov 4 : Last placement season at IIT-Delhi in academic year 2021-22 broke all the previous records as over 1,300 job offers were given by over 600 companies. Final year students bagged over 1,000 job roles, while under-graduate students received more than 830 internship offers from over 200 companies. "This is the highest ever number of offers received by the students through the Institute's Office of Career Services (OCS) for both placement and internship," Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT-Delhi told this to the IANS on Friday. A face-to-face processes for the placement season in the academic year 2022-23 will commence on December 1, 2022. IIT-Delhi is expecting a robust hiring season. To help students prepare for the forthcoming placement season, the Alumni Relations Department of the Institute will organise "Mock Interviews" sessions for them. This is a successful initiative that saw over 400 mock interviews during the last placement season. Under this initiative, esteemed alumni community of IIT-Delhi conducts the mock interviews with the students, Prof. Banerjee added. Meanwhile, IIT-Delhi will be holding its 53rd Annual Convocation Ceremony on Saturday (November 5). As many as 2100 graduating students would be awarded degrees and diplomas at the ceremony. The IIT Director said that Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation (DRIIV), an initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, has partnered with IIT-Delhi's Arun Duggal Centre of Excellence for Research in Climate Change and Air Pollution (CERCA) to conduct a technology pilot - Project SAMEER i.e. Solutions for Air-pollution Mitigation through Engagement, Engineering, and Research in Delhi-NCR from November 2022-February 2023. Under this pilot project, awareness and community engagement will be ensured. Doctors and health practitioners will engage with communities such as farmers, school and college students, RWAs, urban slums etc to create awareness about the adverse health impact of air pollution. Science and technology interventions will monitor and reduce PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels. These solutions will be deployed in high AQI areas of Delhi and Gurugram as a pilot to assess their efficacy, Prof. Banerjee added. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday commuted death penalty of a rape and murder convict, observing that he was incarcerated in solitary confinement, which led to ill-effects on his well-being. A bench, headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit noted that B.A. Umesh was kept in solitary confinement at Belagavi jail for a period of 10 years in violation of law. "The incarceration in solitary confinement, thus, did show ill effects on the well-being of the appellant. Against the backdrop of these features of the matter, in our view, the appellant is entitled to have the death sentence imposed upon him to be commuted to life," said the bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Bela M. Trivedi. However, the top court said he should undergo a minimum sentence of 30 years before considering any remission plea on his behalf. "In our view, ends of justice would be met if while commuting the death sentence awarded to the appellant, we impose upon him sentence of life imprisonment with a rider that he shall undergo minimum sentence of 30 years and if any application for remission is moved on his behalf, the same shall be considered on its own merits only after he has undergone actual sentence of 30 years," it said. Umesh moved the apex court challenging the Karnataka High Court's order passed in September 2021, dismissing his plea for quashing the rejection of his mercy plea due to delay. He also questioned the decision to keep him in solidarity confinement since trial court handed down a death penalty to him in 2006. The bench noted that in the instant case, the period of solitary confinement is for about ten years and has two elements: one, from 2006 till the disposal of mercy petition in 2013, and secondly from the date of such disposal till 2016. The top court noted that the entire period beginning from March 3, 2011 to May 15, 2013 spanning over a period of 2 years and 3 months saw disposal of mercy petition at two different levels, one, by the Governor and other by the President. All the while, there was an order of stay granted by it on March 19, 2011, which was operating all through. "First and foremost, the time taken by each of these authorities and the functionaries assisting them cannot be called or termed as 'inordinate delay' and secondly, it was not as if every passing day was adding to the agony of the appellant. The order of stay of execution had put the matter in a different perspective. In the given facts and circumstances of the case, in our view, the first submission does not merit acceptance," said the apex court. The top court also clarified that a death row convict can file mercy plea after exhaustion of all remedies in court of law and not within seven days of rejection of appeal. The apex court in 2016 upheld the sentence of death penalty imposed on Umesh, a cop-turned-criminal, for raping and murdering a woman in Bengaluru's Peenya Police Station limits on February 28, 1998. The apex court had considered his criminal antecedents, including seven convictions for rape and robbery among others. It then rejected his plea against the capital punishment and noted that "there is little hope of rehabilitation and reformation of the petitioner". Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 4 : With daggers already drawn and a few rounds of clashes having taken place between Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, the latter on Friday sent a letter to his appointing authority -the President of India - complaining of Vijayan's violation of precedents, conventions, and protocols. Khan complained to the President that Vijayan failed to officially inform him when he went on a European trip early last month and nor did he get in touch with him after he returned to the state after his trip. Incidentally Vijayan is understood to have conveyed this to Khan orally, when the two met briefly at the funeral of senior CPI-M politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Hours after that, Vijayan travelled to Norway and returned after 10 days. Khan on Thursday went hammer and tongs against Vijayan and warned that he will intervene if the Chief Minister's Office is involved in gold smuggling, as the people of Kerala are now speaking about it, warning that his duty is to uphold the rule of law and it will be done. Islamabad, Nov 4 : The failed assassination attempt on former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to change many equations in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan Army where top Generals are currently huddled to deal with the deluge of criticisms and accusation coming their way. In fact, the injured Imran Khan has already fired the first shot by accusing Major General Faisal Nadeem, head of ISI-Directorate C of conspiring to assassinate him. Nadeem, a few days, was nicknamed by Khan as 'Dirty Harry'. Nadeem and one of his sector commanders were in news recently for allegedly torturing a senior PTI leader, Azam Swati. Swati was detained for an alleged tweet maligning the army. He accused Nadeem and another ISI officer of stripping him and beating him mercilessly. Imran Khan had sought immediate sacking of both the ISI officials, calling them 'Dirty Harry' Ever since his forced resignation as Prime Minister early this, Imran Khan has been targeting the Army chief, General Javed Qamar Bajwa and his other officers for playing dirty with him. Khan was not long ago a protege of Bajwa who, along with his former boss, Raheel Sharif, had literally hoisted him to Islamabad seat of power. Both fell out in a power struggle. His ouster catapulted him to greater public support and since then, his stridently anti-Army posturing has increasingly found empathy among the people, much like Benazir Bhutto after her return to Pakistan. The Imran Khan saga has parallels with the tale of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who fell to assassins in December 2007. Although she was not as lucky as Imran Khan, Benazir was on her way to assume power challenging the army when she was killed. In fact, she had accused several ISI officers, and President Pervez Musharraf, of conspiring to kill her. Like Imran Khan, she too had named a few ISI officers and others, including a close confidante of Musharraf, Brigadier Ijaz Shah whose involvement with militant groups was well known. It was later learnt that Benazir was warned by the then ISI chief, Nadeem Taj, not to attend the rally in which she was killed. Imran Khan is now infallible and the General's attempt to call him out on his secret rendezvous with the army all along has boomeranged. Recently, in a surprise move, the ISI chief, Nadeem Anjum, had addressed a press conference, accusing Imran Khan of many things, including tempting General Bajwa with 'life-long extension'. There was widespread befuddlement over the ISI chief's presser but Imran Khan dismissed it as 'lies' and went ahead with his long march to Islamabad. Since his unceremonious ouster, Imran Khan has not let up his tirade against the army leadership calling them 'animals', 'neutrals' and 'traitors'. After the ISI chief presser, he had decided to take them head on, calling for the sacking of 'Dirty Harry', an ISI senior officer who had allegedly tortured his party colleague and Senator, Swati. Within the army, as Bajwa is set to hang his boots, nervousness is obvious. Imran Khan has for some time been a dividing agent among the leadership. Some Generals were not happy with Bajwa abandoning the army's protege. There were similar dissension within the middle ranks and troops. It is said that Bajwa had to personally calm the storm down. It is not known how successful he had been. In fact, several retired senior officers of the army, including former ISI chief, Zahirul Islam, had openly come out in support of Imran and his party, PTI. There are many in Rawalpindi who think that it was premature on the army's part to cut ties with their protege. They feel that the leadership has failed to sense the direction of the wind. Imran, whatever his failings may be, is today a far more popular leader than any of his opponents and that alone should have cautioned the Generals. The army's plan to challenge Imran Khan directly, which the ISI chief presser was clearly, has not worked. In fact, with the botched up assassination attempt, Imran Khan's popularity, like Benazir Bhutto's, has also risen among the people. With Imran Khan's popularity rising, the army's disconnect with the people has been equally staggering, much of which exposes the failings of General Javed Qamar Bajwa. If Bajwa and his men were to press ahead against Imran Khan, it would be the most debilitating conflict the army has got into with the people of Pakistan. Imran Khan is here to stay and the new Chief of Army Staff would do well to work with him. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Board of Directors of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), at its meeting held on Friday, based on the recommendation of the Human Resources, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, considered and recommended to the shareholders for approval, the appointment of K.V. Kamath as an Independent Director of the Company for a term of five consecutive years with effect from the date of assumption of office. The Board of Directors also approved the postal ballot notice in this regard. Further, Reliance Strategic Investments Ltd (RSIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company has appointed Kamath as an Independent Director and non-executive Chairman. As intimated earlier, RSIL will be renamed as Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) and listed pursuant to a scheme of demerger approved by the Board of Directors for demerger of the financial services business of the company into RSIL. Kamath will continue as Independent Director and non-Executive Chairman of JFSL upon consummation of the scheme and listing of JFSL on stock exchanges. Currently the Chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), Kamath has served as Chairman of Infosys. In 2015 he was appointed as the first President of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS countries from where he retired in 2020. Under his leadership, ICICI Bank transformed itself into a diversified, technology-driven financial services group across banking, insurance and asset management in India, and a global presence. He retired as Managing Director and CEO in 2009 and continued as the Chairman of ICICI Bank till 2015. Kolkata, Nov 4 : The West Bengal government on Friday informed the Calcutta High Court that it has moved the Supreme Court against the high court's earlier decision directing the state government to pay to dearness allowances (DA) arrears to the state government employees within three months, the deadline for which has already expired. The matter is likely to come up for hearing at the Supreme Court on November 7. Incidentally, Friday was the deadline for state Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi and Finance Secretary Manoj Pant to file an affidavit in the high court, explaining why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for not honouring its judgement directing the state government to clear DA arrears by August 19. On May 20, the high court's division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta had directed the state government to pay the arrears within the next three months. However, after the deadline for the same expired, a contempt of court petition was filed at the same division bench against the state government. On September 22, the bench asked the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary to file affidavits by November 4 on why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them. Reacting on the development, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said that since the beginning, it was clear that the state government is not in a financial position to pay the DA. "So, they have moved the Supreme Court and I feel that the state government will be defeated there as well as it had in the Calcutta High Court and before that at the State Administrative Tribunal," he said. Till the time the report was filed there was no reaction from the ruling Trinamool Congress on this count. Already, the Confederation of State Government Employees too filed a caveat in the apex court for making it party in any case filed by the state government. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Delhi government on Friday banned the entry of trucks other than essential services in the national capital following the introduction of GRAP IV, and also set up a 6-member committee to monitor truck entry in the city. Environment Minister Gopal Rai said: "Only CNG and electric trucks will be allowed to enter Delhi other than those serving essential services. The Delhi government has constituted a 6-member monitoring committee to oversee the same." Addressing a press briefing, he also said that the Delhi government's offices will run at 50 percent capacity while 50 percent employees will work from home and 500 new eco-buses will be run in the state. A special task force will be formed for the hotspots, while a total of 33 teams have also been formed to monitor industrial pollution. "in view of the severe situation of pollution in Delhi, CAQM had directed us to implement the fourth phase of GRAP. In view of this, the restrictions imposed in Delhi from today are being tightened even more. There is already a ban on construction and demolition work, but till now some categories of construction and demolition activities were exempted. Among them, the work of highways, flyovers and roads, pipelines and power transmission is also being banned," the Environment Minister said. He said that the decision was taken after a meeting with the officials of MCD, construction agencies, the General Administration, Revenue, Environment, and other departments concerned, and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. "Only CNG, petrol and electric vehicles will be allowed to enter Delhi. There will also be a ban on medium and heavy vehicles of diesel registered in Delhi, which are not connected to essential services. Small vehicles with diesel engines which are not BS6 compliant will also be banned," Rai said. "In the offices of Delhi government, it has been ordered to ensure 50 per cent attendance of the employees, the remaining 50 per cent will work from home. Along with this, advisory is being issued for private offices to do the same," he added. Chandigarh, Nov 4 : Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister J.P. Dalal on Friday condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the issue of increasing pollution in Delhi NCR. He said that Kejriwal frequently makes false statements about Haryana; whereas the truth is that Haryana has made efforts to curb stubble burning. Dalal told press that it was unfortunate that Kejriwal held the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi accountable for any issue that arises in Delhi. "The Aam Aadmi Party has not left Delhi even worth living in. Delhi does not want a leader who implements such ideas like closing offices, shutting down schools and universities, and instituting odd-even formula to dissuade people from commuting." He said that Kejriwal's attitude is such that he can even claim that people in Delhi have illusion regarding pollution. Dalal said that Kejriwal earlier spoke about farmers of both Punjab and Haryana states that they burn stubble, but now he only blames Haryana, which is absolutely unfair. The Agriculture Minister said that the incidents of stubble burning have increased by 20 per cent in Punjab, due to which pollution has increased in Haryana. He added that instead of blaming the Central government, AAP leaders should solve the problems at their own level. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The BJP's Central Election Commission is likely to meet on November 10 to decide on the list of candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections next month, party sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to be attend the meeting in which party President J.P. Nadda, General Secretary B.L. Santhosh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, among others, will be present. As the Election Commission announced the Gujarat Assembly poll schedule, parties are rushing to finalise the names of the candidates. Polling is scheduled for December 1 and 5 and counting will be on December 8. Chandigarh, Nov 4 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has done a wonderful job with Agro Tech India by bringing in a synergy between agriculture and industry, and also by bringing all relevant stakeholders at one platform, Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said on Friday at the inaugural session of CII Agro Tech India 2022 here. "Our ultimate aim should be to generate sustainable incomes for our farmers. This will reduce poverty and enhance prosperity for our 'annadatas'. We need to focus on not just on food production, but also on food processing and value addition. This will go a long way in transforming Indian agriculture in the 21st century," Dhankhar said. The Vice President said with the contribution of visionary policymakers, ingenious scientific minds and above all 'annadatas' (food producers), India has attained the feat of becoming the largest producer of millet, pulses, milk, and jute. The CII flagged off the 15th edition of its biennial agro technology and business fair named CII Agro Tech India 2022 on Friday. Making its return to the city after 2018, the response on the first day was overwhelming with farmers from the region thronging the fair. Talking about the theme for this year, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman, CII Agro Tech India 2022, and Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd, said, "CII Agro Tech India 2022 focuses on sustainable agricultural technologies, enhancing productivity and innovations for growth. Agro Tech reflects one important intervention in our journey to make a meaningful contribution to transforming Indian agriculture from production centric system to demand centric system with modern technology and sustainable agriculture." The theme of this year's edition is 'Digital Transformation for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security', which encompasses focusing on sustainable agriculture; technologies; enhancing productivity and profitability for various stakeholders in the agriculture chain; innovations for growth and sharing of best practices for agri-excellence. The event will consist of 246 exhibitors, including 27 international exhibitors from four countries. Sharing about Haryana's agri sector, Governor Bandaru Dattatreya said though the state has a comparatively small geographical area, it is one of the biggest contributors to the food basket of India. Agriculture is backbone of GDP and Haryana's contribution to agriculture is such that 14 crops are being purchased under the minimum support price (MSP), which is the highest in the country, Dattatreya said. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit said, "The state having land area of only three per cent of the net cultivate land of the country contributes to 25-35 per cent of rice, 38-50 per cent of wheat to the central pool of foodgrain. The state ranks fourth in the world in the terms of productivity and first in India amongst all the other states. I am proud being a governor of Punjab," said Punjab and Haryana are the host states of Agro Tech India 2022, while the UT of Jammu and Kashmir is a partner state. Chandigarh, Nov 4 : Punjab Cabinet ministers Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Friday slammed the Central government for highlighting the issue of stubble burning to divert people's attention from the unfortunate incident that took place in Gujarat. Both the ministers also said Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is spreading misleading propaganda against Punjab on this issue of stubble burning. They said as per the Central Pollution Control Board, Punjab's Air Quality Index is better than Haryana. The ministers said according to the data till date many cities of Haryana are in the first 10 cities in the list of the most polluted cities in India, including Hisar, Faridabad, Sirsa, Rohtak, Sonepat and Bhiwani, etc., while from Punjab, no city is in the first 10. This clearly shows that stubble is being set on fire more in Haryana than in Punjab. They also accused the Lt Governor of Delhi of playing politics at the behest of the Centre on the issue of stubble burning and writing letters to the Chief Minister of Punjab on this matter without any authority. Dhaliwal and Hayer said stubble burning and crop residue management is a joint issue of many states of northern India, but the Central government is playing politics instead of supporting Punjab in this matter. They said the Punjab and Delhi government prepared a proposal, which was sent to the Centre to give assistance of Rs 2,500 per acre to the farmers for crop residue management and stubble management. As per the proposal, the Punjab government had to contribute Rs 500, the Delhi government also Rs 500 and the Centre to contribute Rs 1,500, but the Central government rejected this proposal. Agriculture Minister Dhaliwal said cases of stubble burning have fallen down enormously. He said sanctions for 42,342 subsidised machines for stubble management have been given to farmers. Besides, the Agriculture Department has given machines to small farmers for stubble management for free use. Due to these efforts of the government, this year, two million tonnes of straw has been baled, compared to 1.2 million last year. Environment Minister Hayer said that despite the Centre not providing any help for stubble management, the target given by the Centre for Punjab for stubble management is being fulfilled 100 per cent at its own level. --IANS vg/vd A A Morbi : , Nov 4 (IANS) In wake of the Morbi bridge collapse that left 141 persons, including 51 children dead, the Gujarat Urban Development Department has suspended Morbi Magarpalika Chief Executive Officer Sandipsinh Zala. According to Urban Development Department sources, Zala has been posted at the Regional Municipal Commissioner's office in Rajkot with an instruction to not to leave the station without permission of higher authorities or government. IANS tried to get confirmation of the development from the Secretary, Urban Development, Regional Commissioner, Municipalities, Morbi District Collector, but they did not respond. On Thursday evening, investigation officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police S.A. Zala had questioned Zala for almost two hours in connection with the contract signed between Morbi Nagarpalika and the Ajanta Manufacturing Company of Oreva group. Police, during the investigation, have collected documents from Oreva's office, in which they have found documents of 2007 contract too. Mumbai, Nov 4 : A buried chapter in history was literally dug up when a 132-year-old tunnel constructed during the British era was discovered at the state government-run Sir J.J. Hospital grounds, officials said here on Friday. The tunnel, measuring around 200 metres long, has a date mentioned on the foundation stone '1890' and was accidentally found by a resident medical officer on Wednesday, said the hospital Dean Dr. Pallavi Saple. She told mediapersons that the building under which the tunnel with brick walls has been discovered was the erstwhile Sir D.M. Petit Hospital for Women and Children, which was opened in March 1892, on the sprawling hospital campus at Byculla. The building is now being converted into a nursing college, and though there was speculation of a tunnel on the campus, there were no official records or maps to locate it, added Dr. Saple. A hospital medic, Dr. Arun Rathod, while on a routine round, found a hole near the nursing college wall, explored it to discover the tunnel almost accidentally, and carried out a preliminary exploration. The tunnel may have been built purportedly to connect the former women and children wards, though exact details are still sketchy. Incidentally, the foundation for the Sir J.J. Hospital was laid on January 3, 1843, and as per the date (1890) on the stone found now, indicates that the tunnel may have been constructed much later. The hospital authorities plan to provide all details of the discovery to the Collectorate and the Archaeological departments in Mumbai for further investigations. Earlier, in August 2016, the ex-Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao was credited with discovering a huge underground bunker and tunnel spread across 15,000 sq. feet under the Raj Bhavan compound. The bunker, said to be around over 110-years-old or in the pre-World War era, had 13 rooms, and could be accessed by a 20-feet-high gate, with proper ventilation and other basic facilities. The bunker was cleaned up, strengthened, and conserved after which the former President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Martyrs' Museum that has been created there. Later, in November 2018, Governor Rao helped discover two gigantic British-era war cannons weighing 22 tonnes each, from the rugged hillocks of the Arabian Sea-facing Raj Bhavan premises. The two massive cannons were lifted by cranes, conserved and are now occupying a prominent, eye-catching location on special pedestals erected outside one of the buildings of the gubernatorial residence. Amaravati, Nov 4 : The chief security officer of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was injured when unidentified persons pelted stones on his convoy at Nandigama in NTR district on Friday. The incident occurred when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president was addressing a road show as part of an anti-government protest in the town. Naidu's chief security officer Madhu Babu sustained bleeding injury when a stone hit him on the chin. He was provided first aid. Following the attack, National Security Guard (NSG) commandos went on alert and formed a cordon around Naidu. The incident triggered tension in the town. Additional security personnel were deployed around Naidu's vehicle. Police also asked him to wind up the road show. Naidu condemned the stone pelting. He said poor security by the police led to the attack. Blaming ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) for the attack, the TDP chief asked Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy not to do Pulivendula politics. He said he will not be cowed down by such attacks. In his speech, Naidu told people that their children will not have a secure future under the YSRCP rule. He remarked that the state will get a relief only when YSRCP is defeated in all Assembly constituencies. The TDP leader reiterated that he will step into the Assembly only after becoming the chief minister. Chandigarh, Nov 4 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said with the changing nature of traditional farming, farmers can earn more income by adopting new technologies in the agriculture sector. With this objective, the government is taking concrete steps for promoting research in the agriculture sector, which will prove beneficial in the economic upliftment of the farmers, he said while interacting directly with the farmers and agricultural experts after inaugurating Dhanuka Agritech Research and Technology Centre at Sihol village in Palwal district. The Chief Minister said two big projects on Friday were dedicated to Palwal district, of which one project is for water conservation and the other project will motivate the farmers towards farming with new technology. He said the indigenous company Dhanuka is working in the interest of the farmers, which will definitely increase the income of the farmers. The traditional farming depends on many aspects and farmers were not aware of new technologies earlier. But now, the time has come to make a shift as per the changing environment and for this, there is a dire need to conduct research in the agriculture sector. Congratulating the Dhanuka management for the new research and development centre, the Chief Minister said all necessary facilities and cooperation would be provided by the Haryana government. He said the quality of food grain is declining due to excessive use of pesticides. Research centres play a pivotal role to deal with this issue. Khattar said instead of paddy, the government is giving preference to 3Ms -- moong, mustard and maize. In this newly built research centre, 11 types of laboratories related to agriculture have been built, through which farmers will be helped in cultivating improved varieties. The farmers will get benefit from this training centre. The Chief Minister said the government is also encouraging farmers to adopt horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry and other options. Today, the use of drones is increasing continuously. The government has setup Drone Imaging and Information Services of Haryana Limited (DRIISHYA) for using drones in agriculture, mining sector and for traffic. Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal said Haryana is an agrarian state and this research centre will not only benefit Palwal but also the farmers of the adjoining areas. Spread over 6.24 acres, the Centre has come up with an investment of Rs 10 crore. The facility is equipped to undertake basic, applied and adaptive research to address current and future challenges for the sustainable development of Indian agriculture. The R&D facility will also enable researchers of the agriculture sector to undertake scientific studies. The facility will also be open to farmers for soil testing, water analysis, and testing of bio-pesticides among others, said R.G. Agarwal, Chairman of Dhanuka Group. New Delhi, Nov 4 : After more than 30 years, Gujarat is all set to witness a three-cornered contest in the forthcoming Assembly elections to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. This was revealed by an exclusive CVoter-ABP Gujarat Opinion Poll to gauge popular perceptions and voting intent of adult citizens in the state with a sample size of 22,807 spread across all the 182 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat using random sampling techniques. As per the poll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has emerged as a formidable force in the state and is projected to gather a vote share of more than 20 per cent in the forthcoming elections. This makes the Gujarat Assembly elections a three-cornered contest like what was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh during the last three decades before popular support for the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) collapsed in the 2022 Assembly elections. The last time Gujarat witnessed a similar three-cornered contest was in 1990. In that election, the erstwhile Janata Dal had polled almost 30 per cent the vote share while the Congress' vote share had slumped to 31 per cent. An ascendant BJP had then polled about 27 per cent of the vote share. The popular sentiment in Gujarat that is leaning towards a three-cornered contest will inflict maximum damage on the Congress, just as it had done in 1990. According to the projections made by the opinion poll, the vote share of Congress is expected to crash by 12.5 per cent to 29.1 per cent this time, as compared to the 2017 Assembly elections. In 2017, the Congress had given a close fight to the BJP in a bipolar contest by winning 77 seats in the 182-member state Assembly. But the change from a bipolar to a three-cornered contest would hurt the Congress as it is projected to win between 31 and 39 seats this time. Gujarat will go to the polls in two phases on December 1 and 5. The results will be declared, along with that of Himachal Pradesh, on December 8. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Former Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta has been appointed Honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for tirelessly promoting India-Australia bilateral relationship. "Congratulations Mr Amit Dasgupta AM for your appointment as an Honorary Member, General Division, Order of Australia (AM). Honoured to confer this award, on behalf of Australia's Governor-General, to @amit_adg for his longstanding contribution to the Australia-India bilateral relationship," Sarah Storey, Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to India, tweeted. Congratulations @amit_adg! Your tireless support to the Australia-India bilateral relationship over the years is so worthy of this national recognition, Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O'Farrel, tweeted. As Consul-General of India to Sydney from 2009 to 2012, he was awarded a gold medal by the Multicultural Commission of the New South Wales government for promoting multiculturalism and harmony. During this period, attacks against Indian students threatened Australia's international reputation. Dasgupta's personal efforts diffused the tensions and reassured the Indian diaspora. Dasgupta played a pivotal role in establishing the Australia India Youth Dialogue. Now in its second decade, the Dialogue is a permanent fixture of the bilateral relationship, and fosters connections between Australian and Indian young people. He continues to advance relations between the two countries as a Distinguished Fellow of the Australia India Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Society for Policy Studies, and as the Inaugural Country Director of the University of New South Wales since 2016. Dasgupta's deep and longstanding service to the Australia-India bilateral relationship is commendable and worthy of formal national recognition through his appointment as an Honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM). A published author and educator, Dasgupta has served in various capacities in India and abroad in the course of his diplomatic career, including Cairo, Brussels, Kathmandu, Berlin and Sydney. New Delhi, Nov 4 : A 24-year-old man, member of Prince Tewatia gang, has been arrested for allegedly robbing a Toyota Fortuner car at gunpoint from Delhi Cantonment area last week in the wee hours of Saturday. Police said that they are also conducting raids to nab two of his two associates who were involved in the crime, and are on the run. The accused has been identified as Saurabh, a resident of JJ Colony in Khanpur. Police said that he recently came out from jail on one-month parole, and had to surrender on October 27. On Saturday morning, Rahul (35), a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh had called Delhi Cantonment police station and reported that after dropping his employer at IGI airport, he was on his way back to Meerut, when three men on a bike robbed his SUV at gunpoint after he stopped his car near RTR Flyover at Mini 24x7 Outlet. They also fired from their pistol and ran away, with the Fortuner car. The entire incident, which occurred on Friday, was captured on the CCTVs installed in the vicinity. The footage shows the armed assailants publicly robbing the person of his Fortuner car by brandishing a pistol and fleeing. "During investigation, the police team gathered all information about the accused persons involved in these types of crimes and developed local intelligence and also deployed informers," said Ravindra Singh Yadav, the Special Commissioner of Police (crime). "Specific inputs were received about wanted accused Saurabh and he was apprehended," said Yadav. "During interrogation, Saurabh disclosed he had planned to take revenge from Rohit Chaudhary, who is a rival of gangster Prince Tewatia. He along with other gang members, Parkash, Bhanu, Hunny, Raka alias Rakesh made a plan to take revenge from Kunnal Bachha alias Takkal, who had attacked him with a blade on his face while he was in custody," said the Special CP. They needed a car for execution of their plan and to hide from the clutches of law. As per the plan, Hunny Rawat arranged a stolen bike. "On the intervening night of October 28-29, he along with Tewatia, Bhanu, Parkash and Hunny Rawat were present in a hotel at Gurgaon, where they drank alcohol," said Yadav. "After that Saurabh along with Tewatia and Parkash moved out from the hotel on the stolen bike in search of a car and reached the Delhi Cantonment 24x7 store," said Yadav. "Saurabh was driving the bike when Prince saw the Fortuner car. Prince and Parkash threatened the car driver with a pistol and fired. They robbed the key of the SUV from the driver and all three ran away with the SUV," said Yadav. "After robbery, they parked the car in the Kakrola village area and hid themselves," the Special CP added. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday issued a slew of directions for payment of compensation to the families of victims in the 1992-93 Mumbai communal riots and also for the revival of dormant cases, by constitution of a special cell, in connection with absconding accused. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S. Oka, and Vikram Nath noted that Article 21 of the Constitution of India confers a right on every citizen to live with human dignity and it encompasses into itself the right to live a meaningful and dignified life. "If the citizens are forced to live in an atmosphere of communal tension, it affects their right to life guaranteed by Article 21. The violence witnessed by Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 adversely affected the right of the residents of the affected areas to lead dignified and meaningful life. It cannot be disputed that certain groups were responsible for the large-scale violence in December 1992 and January 1993," it said. Justice Oka, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said one of the root causes of their suffering was the failure of the state government to maintain law and order. Therefore, the affected persons had a right to seek compensation from the state government, he added. During the hearing, the bench had asked the state government whether 168 people, on the missing list, were included among the 900 identified victims. The Maharashtra government had provided Rs 2 lakh compensation to the riot victims and it was paid to their legal heirs. The bench noted that although 168 persons were reported to be missing after the riots, the state government told the court that it could pay compensation to only the families of 60 missing persons, as the legal heirs of the others could not be traced. "The state government will also place material regarding efforts made to trace family members of 108 missing persons who have been deprived of compensationa... the state government shall make all possible efforts to trace the legal heirs/family members of the missing persons," it said. The top court said the state government would provide details of 97 cases on dormant files to the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court within one month from Friday. It added that on receipt of the details, the high court should issue necessary communication to the courts concerned in which the cases are pending to take necessary steps to trace the accused. "The state government shall immediately constitute a special cell to trace the absconding/missing accused in these cases and to assist the concerned courts so that the trial can proceed against them," it said. "The state government shall pay compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the legal heirs of the missing persons traced out hereafter, with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from 22nd January 1999 i.e. from the expiry of the period of six months from the date of the second government resolution, till actual payment." The top court also constituted a committee headed by the Member-Secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) to monitor the implementation of the directions issued in the judgment. "The state government shall appoint a revenue officer, not below the rank of Deputy Collector, and a police officer, not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, who shall be the other two members of the Committee," it added. The bench added that the committee shall monitor the efforts of the state government to trace other victims who were entitled to compensation. "The victims identified hereafter shall also be paid the compensation with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from 8th January 1994 i.e. from the expiry of the period of six months from the date of the first government resolution, till actual payment," said the bench. The top court said the state government should comply with the requirement of submitting necessary details to the committee within a period of two months from Friday. "The entire exercise of payment of compensation and/or interest shall be completed by the state government within a period of nine months from today," said the bench. The top court passed these directions while disposing of a writ petition filed by Shakeel Ahmed in 2001 seeking implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report, which was constituted by the Maharashtra government to probe into the riots. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Imran Khan said on Friday that Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Major General Faisal plotted to kill him, according to a media report. The former premier said that three others, separate from the ones he had named in a tape stashed abroad, had plotted to kill him, Dawn reported. "How did I find out? Insiders told me. The day before Wazirabad, they made the plan to kill me as they saw the number of people increasing using the script of religious extremism." Khan has alleged that the "government and its handlers" had planned to get him murdered in the same way former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was killed, Dawn reported. "Firstly, they accused me of blasphemy, they made tapes and released them and PMLN projected it, I knew who was doing it. It is very easy to find out because this is a digital world. So, first it was projected that I disrespected religion and then their plan was what they did in Wazirabad... that a religious extremist killed Imran Khan," the PTI chief claimed, Dawn reported. Khan said that he had already narrated this plan to the public during a September 24 rally. "This [the attempted assassination] happened exactly according to the script," he said. Earlier on Friday, Khan had claimed that four people plotted to kill him, stating that the "handlers" were taking the decisions at the back but the people were turning out to his rallies in record numbers, Dawn reported. "Four people plotted to kill me. I made a video and named those people and have stashed it abroad," Khan said, adding that it would be released in case something happens. He indicated that he received the information of this plot through the relationships he had formed while in power. In his first address since the assassination attempt on him in Gujranwala on Thursday, in which Khan sustained bullet injuries in his leg, the PTI chief stated that he was aware of the plot to kill him. "I'll come to the details of the attack later. I got to know the day before [the attack] that either in Wazirabad of Gujrat, they planned to kill me," he said, Dawn reported. The former Prime Minister said that Pakistan's own agencies were not allowing democratic processes to continue. "During the by-elections in July, all the state machinery was used, rigging was done, but PTI swept the elections. What happened next was that more pressure and threats were given. A handler came to Islamabad -- Major General Faisal -- and he said that he will show how to straighten them [PTI] out," Khan alleged, Dawn reported. "More strictness started on media and journalists favouring PTI. Our MPAs were approached, scared and threatened to abandon me... they threatened to release inappropriate videos and blackmailed them." Khan said that his party wasn't "made by the establishment" like the PPP and the PML-N, asserting that he came to power with the people's support, Dawn reported. "The way the people supported me, I was surprised... we announced a long march on May 25. They staged three marches during our tenure. We thought the law and Constitution permitted us [to stage a protest]. "We thought they would give us permission because we have given them permission, he said. But instead they subjected our workers and leaders to violence. "They shelled families in Islamabad... they thought the party would end but they didn't understand the [sentiments of the] nation because when decisions are made in closed rooms, you don't know what is happening," Khan said. Chennai, Nov 4 : Madras High Court on Friday granted permission to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to conduct route march at 44 destinations across Tamil Nadu on November 6. Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan of the Madras High Court said that he had gone through the sealed intelligence report submitted by the Tamil Nadu police. The court said that there was no adverse report on the RSS except for some minor incidents affecting law and order. The judge said that these minor disturbances could not be considered for denial of permission. Tamil Nadu government had on Wednesday said that the permission for the RSS route march could be allowed only at three of the 50 places sought by the organisation. The police cited the Coimbatore blasts and the monsoon fury for denial of permission. However several petitions were filed by RSS men. After hearing this, Madras High Court pronounced the judgment allowing the route march to be held at 44 places across the state. However, the judge denied permission for conducting route march at Coimbatore city, Mettupalayam, Arumanai, Nagercoil, Pollachi, and Palladam till the prevailing tense situation following the Coimbatore car blast was over. The court also directed the RSS to file a fresh petition to conduct the route march at the six places where it was denied permission due to the law and order situation at the moment. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor appearing for the Tamil Nadu government, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, told the court that the police report suggested that the law and order situation in the state was sensitive. Justice Ilayanthiraiyan however said that the intelligence report did not suggest any such threat. The Madras High Court directed the petitioners that stringent action would be taken if any untoward incidents occur during the route march. It may be noted that the RSS route march was scheduled to be held on October 2 but the home department prevented it citing the ban on the Popular Front of India. New Delhi, Nov 4 : The Supreme Court has sentenced an Indian-origin Kenyan to one year imprisonment besides slapping a fine of Rs 25 lakh for civil and criminal contempt of court in a decade-long custody battle of his 11-year-old son. Smriti Madan and her Kenyan husband Perry Kansagra have been locked in a legal battle for the cross-border custody of their child. The child, who enjoys dual citizenship of Kenya and the United Kingdom, is an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI). In 2020, granting permanent custody of the child to the father, who has a Kenyan passport, the top court had asked Perry Kansagra to obtain a "mirror order" from the Kenyan court within two weeks to take the child to Kenya. Mirror orders are passed to safeguard the interest of a child who is in transit from one jurisdiction to another. Later, Smriti Kansagra filed an application stating that the father got custody by allegedly giving a forged or wrong mirror order from the Kenyan High Court. It was also alleged that he not only refused to obey the directions granting visitation or meeting rights to the mother, but also moved the Kenyan court for declaration of invalidity of Indian jurisdiction, Live Law reported. The two-judge bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice P.S. Narasimha observed that Perry Kansagra had deliberately and with a clear intention committed egregious acts of contempt. After Perry's fraud came to light last year, the Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to bring the child back from Kenya and register a criminal case against the father. It also served a contempt notice to the father. Perry has been punished with simple imprisonment for a term of six months along with a fine of Rs 12,50,000 for civil contempt of court for his acts of deliberate and willful disobedience of the orders passed by the Supreme Court. He has to further serve a term of six months and pay a fine of Rs 12,50,000 for criminal contempt of court for obstructing the administration of justice and lowering the authority of this court. In each case, in default, Perry shall further undergo simple imprisonment for one month, the top court ruled. The court further clarified that these sentences shall be served consecutively and that the total fine of Rs 25,00,000 will have to be deposited by the contemnor in the registry of the court within four weeks and the same shall be released to Smriti Kansagra upon an application filed by her, Live Law reported. Chandigarh, Nov 4 : In a broad daylight sensational killing, Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was shot dead on Friday outside a temple in Punjab's Amritsar during an agitation. Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said local shopkeeper, Sandeep Singh Sunny, has been arrested for firing at and killing the Shiv Sena leader, while terming the incident as unfortunate. He said a weapon of offence, a .32 bore pistol has been recovered from the possession of the accused, who runs a garment shop near Gopal Mandir in Amritsar. Suri was sitting on a protest outside Gopal Mandir in Gopal Nagar at around 3.40 p.m. when he was shot at by an unknown person from the crowd. He was taken to the Escort Hospital, where he succumbed to the bullet injuries. DGP Yadav told the media here that a first information report in this connection was registered under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections. He said further investigation is being conducted and Punjab Police will get to the bottom of the case. "An in-depth investigation is being conducted and any conspiracy in this matter would be unearthed," he said, adding that the police is committed to maintaining peace and harmony in the state. The DGP said situation in Amritsar is fully under control and police will keep updating about the developments in this case. Chennai, Nov 4 : Hospitality major Marriott International will be adding about 13-14 hotels in India under different brands in 12 months time, said a senior official. "Currently, the Marriott is managing about 134 properties under different brands. Another 13-14 more hotels will be added in 12 months time," Gaurav Singh, Market Vice President, South & East India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, said. The group has about 60 agreements for hotels to open in the future. In the markets overseen by Singh, Marriott will be opening the new hotels under brands like Courtyard, Sheraton, Tribute in India - south and east, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. According to him, the new properties in India will be in Meghalaya, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and other places. He said the tier II cities in India are offering good business potential and Marriott is tapping that. The global hospitality chain recently opened a Courtyard By Marriott Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) property with 108 rooms. This will be the first five star hotel property in Trichy though it has an international airport. Marriott converted an existing property called Sangam Hotel in Trichy into a Courtyard brand. Though the hospitality group is looking at converting an existing property to its own brand as part of expansion, Singh said almost all the upcoming properties are new ones. About the business in India, Singh said it is good with the domestic travellers contribution being the major. Queried about the business in Sri Lanka with the island nation facing economic turmoil, Singh said the nation has been going through tough times in the recent years - Easter bomb blast, Covid and now the economic issues. "The island nation came out of the Covid pandemic early and the business in January and February was very good. In the last two months, the occupancy is about 50 per cent," Singh said. The hotels in the island nation get its business mainly from Europe. But with Europe facing economic issues, Singh said the focus is to promote Sri Lanka in the nearby regions. Marriott is adding two more properties in Sri Lanka taking the total to four. As regards the Bangladesh market, Marriott operates three properties and will be adding one more soon under the Sheraton brand. The Bangladesh economy is doing well and its garment industry is good which gets the hotels their business, he said. Patna, Nov 4 : Political strategist Prashant Kishor (PK), who is currently on Jan Suraj Yatra in Bihar, on Friday said that he will decide to form a political party or not in Bettiah on November 12. PK had started the Jan Suraj padyatra on October 2 from West Champaran and plans to cover 3,000 km. Interacting with media persons in Yogapatti in West Champaran, he said that his padyatra will end on in the district on November 11 and a convention is scheduled to be held in Bettiah a day later. "During the convention in Bettiah, the members connected with Jan Suraj campaign will vote in front of media persons to decide whether we would form a political party or not. It is a democratic process to make the decision," PK said. "There is a provision in a voting where we ask the members about what are the points they think of making a political party would be a better idea to bring Jan Suraj (Janata Ka Sundar Raj) in Bihar. The question will be asked on issues like education, health jobs, agriculture, flood, basic amenities, roads etc," he added. "After completing one month of Padyatra in Bihar, we interacted with many villagers and learnt about their problems. There are many basic facilities that people in rural areas are lacking," he said. New Delhi, Nov 4 : A Delhi court on Friday granted interim bail to wrestler and two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar who was arrested in connection with the case of murder of a former junior national wrestling champion, Sagar Dhankar. Sushil Kumar's counsel Pradeep Rana told IANS that his client has got interim bail to look after his ailing wife. "Savi -- his wife, is ill. He wanted to meet her during this crucial time. The court heard the matter and allowed the interim bail," Rana said. Sushil was lodged at Tihar Jail. He is facing murder charges. As of now, the police have arrested 18 people in connection with the matter. Two chargesheets have been filed against Sushil Kumar and others by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police. The case is pending before Rohini Court. New Delhi, Nov 4 : Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday attacked Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju over his claim that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru didn't want Tawang to be part of India. In a series of tweets, the Rajya Sabha MP while describing Rijiju as as a 'distorian' tweeted, "Kiren Rijiju, the latest entrant to the Modi stable of Distorians, now says Nehru did not want Tawang to be part of India." Ramesh backed his claims by citing two top secret telegrams which were declassified in 2018. Quoting the two telegrams, dated March 11 and March 14, 1951 respectively and exchanged between Indian mission in Lhasa, Tibet and the foreign ministry in New Delhi, Ramesh said that they make India's control of Tawang amply clear. "This utter lie is exposed by two top secret telegrams that were declassified in 2018. The first telegram is dated March 11 1951, which Nehru would have seen as the External Affairs Minister. The second telegram is dated March 14 1951, which Nehru would have drafted or approved as the Minister concerned," Ramesh said in a series of tweets. He informed that both the telegrams are contained in Volume-I of "India-China Relations 1947-2000: A Documentary Study," edited by Avtar Singh Bhasin. "The conclusion is irrefutable: the raising of the Indian flag at Tawang in early February 1951 was a policy decision based on strategic considerations. The exact timing of the operation had been left by Nehru and others to local commanders," Ramesh concluded. In an interview, Rijiju had claimed that in 1951 when the then governor sent an Assam Rifles team to Tawang, it was merged with India by the paramilitary unit. "When Nehru came to know about it, the governor was admonished by the prime minister when he visited Delhi. The Congress says Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang are part of India but the Congress had refused to accept Tawang as part of India," the law minister was quoted as saying in the interview to a news magazine. Kochi, Nov 4 : A Special NIA court in Kerala's Ernakulam on Friday sentenced two men convicted of stealing computer hardware components from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) to different jail terms. Sumit Kumar Singh was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 1,70,000 and Daya Ram to three years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 1,70,000. Both the accused were convicted under Sections 120B, 201, 461, 454 and 380 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code besides section 66F(1)(B) of Information Technology Act. The case pertains to the criminal trespass and theft of critical computer hardware components, including processors, RAMs and solid state drives installed on computer systems aboard Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Kochi, between July and September, 2019, thereby causing damage to sensitive defence infrastructure with the intention of threatening the security of India. The case was initially registered at Ernakulam Town South Police Station in Kochi in 2019 and later on, the probe of the matter was taken over by the NIA. The NIA investigators recovered one of the stolen SSDs and a RAM during search at the house of Sumit Kuman Singh in Bihar's Munger district. Investigations revealed that the accused had sold one of the stolen processors. All remaining items, reported to be stolen, were recovered from Gujarat's Surat, where he had stayed for two months, after leaving Kochi in September 2019. Bengaluru, Nov 4 : Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced at the concluding ceremony of the 3-day Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Bengaluru that "investments totaling about Rs 9.82 lakh have been committed in diverse sectors in the state." Bommai thanked the participants in the event and investors. Addressing the gathering, the CM said, "This GIM is different from other such Investor Meets as this has been organised during challenging times and has succeeded in showing us the way forward. What Karnataka thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. We will work with the investors shoulder to shoulder to make all these investments fructify on the ground." Thanking all the investors and delegates who participated in the GIM 2022, Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister, Murugesh Nirani, said "Invest Karnataka has laid a strong foundation for the development of Karnataka in the next five years. I am happy that we have met the core objective of this GIM, which is to bring in investments in diverse sectors and create jobs, and take industries beyond Bengaluru." The valedictory session was also attended by Bhagwanth Khuba, Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Chemicals & Fertilizers. Inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually on Wednesday, the event culminated on Friday with the valedictory session in which Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai re-assured investors from all across the world of sustained support by his government. Among top industrialists, Chairman of Jindal Group, Sajjan Jindal; Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, Vikram S. Kirloskar; Chairman, Wipro, Rishad Premji; Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Rajan Bharti Mittal; CEO, Adani Ports and SEZ, Karan Adani and MD, Sterlite Power, Pratik Agarwal shared their experience in Karnataka and expressed continued interest in the state. The Global Investors Meet witnessed 30+ immersive sessions spread across three days. These sessions were a mix of innovative formats such as panel discussions, fireside chats, and TED-style talks. In addition to the speaker sessions, a number of networking events, cultural performances, business exhibitions (with 300+ exhibitors), and country sessions ran parallelly across the 3 days. The country sessions were hosted by partner countries -- France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and Australia. Jammu, Nov 4 : The Pahari tribe in Jammu and Kashmir is jubilant after the Registrar General of India (RGI) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) sealed the recommendations of the three-member Backward Class Commission to include the tribe in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. According to the Pahari leadership, they are fully convinced that the current government is for the poor and the middle class people. Till date, the file for inclusion of Paharis in the ST category could not go beyond the institutions of Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, but now with the stamp of these institutions on the file, the pending demand is seen to be fulfilled. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also made it clear during his recent visit to Kashmir that justice will be done to the Pahari tribe very soon. The efforts of the All Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Cultural and Welfare Forum to bring justice to the Pahari tribe, who were victims of Partition, are bearing fruit now. A movement was started under this banner in the seventies which led to Pahari programme being broadcast from the All India Radio station in Srinagar, while Pahari programme 'Lashkara' was telecast fro the Doordarshan Kendra in Srinagar. Separately, the establishment of a department for the promotion and development of language and literature, the formation of the Jammu and Kashmir Hill Advisory Board for the development of the tribe, the establishment of more than nine hill hostels, scholarships for hill tribe students, 4 per cent reservation in Jammu and Kashmir until ST status is granted etc. also helped the community. According to the Pahari leadership, ST status for the tribe is a great success, the credit for which goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thanking the Central government, Abdul Majeed Zindadil, a prominent leader of the tribe, said that with this historic move, he is convinced that Prime Minister Modi is keeping his promise of welfare of the lower and middle class people in the society. "Justice has been done to the Pahari tribe, who were suffering for a long time. And this has been possible because of Prime Minister Modi," he said. Jammu, Nov 4 : The government is working to provide houses to all the economically weaker families residing within the limits of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), who cannot affors to build houses. Flats are being constructed at various places under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in this regard. This was revealed during a meeting held under the chairmanship of Deputy Mayor Baldev Singh Biluria on Friday, in which the implementation of the 'Houses for All' scheme was reviewed. The meeting was attended by officials from JMC, Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board, and Jammu Development Authority. It was informed that 750 flats are being constructed in Kot Bhalwal under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The scheme supervised by the Government of India is being implemented by the government of Jammu and Kashmir. The houses will be given to the deserving families whose annual income is less than Rs 0.3 lakh. The price per flat is about Rs 9.25 lakh. Rs 1.66 lakh is subsidy while Rs 2 lakh is interest-free loan which can be obtained from the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and be repaid in 10 years. Guwahati, Nov 4 : While signing an MoU with Bright Star Investments Pvt Ltd for infrastructure development of the second medical college in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that within the next five years, Assam will have 24 medical colleges which will greatly improve the availability of doctors and healthcare in the state. He said the state government is working with a vision to set up one medical college in each district in Assam. Already, the government has taken steps for setting up 15 new medical colleges in addition to the nine existing ones. Out of the 15 new medical colleges, seven are being constructed in Nalbari, Nagaon, Kokrajhar, Tinsukia, Charaideo, Biswanath Chariali, along with the second medical college in Guwahati. Sarma informed that the government is going to start construction of five more medical colleges at Golaghat, Bongaigaon, Marigaon, Tamulpur and Dhemaji during this month, while work for three more medical colleges at Sivasagar, Karimganj and Goalpara will be taken up very soon. With the increase in medical colleges in the state, the number of MBBS seats has also increased from 726 in 2014 to 1,200 in 2022. Till 2014, the total number of post-graduate (PG) seats in Assam was 395, which has gone up to 711 in 2022. Similarly, 44 super-specialty seats are now available in various institutions. The state will have 2,700 MBBS seats once the construction of the proposed medical colleges is completed, the CM said. "It is for the first time that the Assam government has collaborated with the private sector for building infrastructure for a medical college in the state," he added. In 1960, the first medical college in Guwahati was established to cater to the needs of the people of Assam as well as the neighbouring states. Bengaluru, Nov 4 : In an important judgment, the Karnataka High Court on Friday ruled that if a minor girl in a brothel complains that a person had forceful sex, he can't be categorised as a customer and let off. A single-judge bench headed by Justice M Nagaprasanna gave the order while dealing with the petition of Mohammad Sharif a.k.a Fahim Haji, 45, seeking quashing of proceedings against him. The petitioner from Kerala's Kasaragod was booked for visiting a brothel by Mangaluru Woman's Police Station and was seeking quashing of the case and legal proceedings against him. The bench stated that, those who are caught at the time of conducting raids could be considered as customers. But, if victims, who are minors, have complained against the accused, they can't be considered as customers only. Counsel for petitioner had argued that the accused was a customer and had been booked for human trafficking. It was also argued that the investigation officer had lodged many FIRs for one case, and therefore, the case must be quashed, counsel argued. However, the court did not agree to it and dismissed the petitioner's plea. In this case, a 17-year-old girl was residing with her relative and pursuing studies. The accused, who had approached her in the guise of helping her, had instead pushed her into the brothel. They had recorded the video of the girl with customers and forced her to continue in the flesh trade. The accused had threatened the girl that they would put her videos on social media if she didn't listen to them. According to investigation, the petitioner had sex with minor girl, recorded the act, and threatened her. The girl who managed to escape from the clutches of the accused, informed her parents and lodged a police case. The police booked many accused including the petitioner under the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Act, Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology Act and submitted the charge sheet to the court. The court opined that it is not a case of raid, and though the victim is one person, the offences committed against her are of different nature, and it is not possible to demand clubbing of all cases as one case. Patna, Nov 5 : RJD's 'bahubali' (strongman) leader and former MP Anand Mohan was given a 15-day on Friday. A special court of Muzaffarpur granted him parole to attend the marriage of his daughter. He was lodged in Saharsa jail in connection with an alleged lynching case of then Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiyya in Muzaffarpur in 1994. Anand Mohan was received by his wife Lovely Anand and son Chetan Anand (RJD MLA), apart from a large number of his supporters. "I have been given parole for a good work and I have no complaints with anyone," he said. Anand Mohan is serving life imprisonment. Bhubaneswar, Nov 5 : The crime branch of Odisha police has arrested one Prasant Dwivedi from Kolkata on Friday for his involvement in an online cheating case of Rs 74 lakh. A team of the crime branch led by inspector Abantimani Nayak the arrested fraudster from Alipore, Kolkata and seized incriminating evidence like ATM card etc. from his possession, police officers said. He was arrested based on a complaint filed by a senior citizen Ramballav Rath (63 years) of Bhubaneswar, who was duped of Rs 74 lakhs by fraudsters. As per the complaint, Rath, an advocate, deposited the money in several installments. The police said Rath had been receiving frequent calls from different mobile numbers since May 2018 identifying themselves as officials of various firms. He was enticed to deposit processing amounts etc. to clear up his huge insurance benefits and in that process, he had deposited a sum of more than Rs 74 lakhs in installments to different given fraudulent accounts, they said. The fraudsters had managed to siphon out the money sharing several fraud email IDs, fake official letters, etc. The crime branch has already arrested one Dharmendra Kumar (36) from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh last month. He had created a fake domain IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) and created a fake email Id viz. 'IRDAI.org' with his own credentials and had sold the email id and password to one Prasant of Lucknow, who was arrested from Kolkata on Friday. New Delhi, Nov 5 : In a tragic incident, a 20-year-old youth was killed while his younger brother and neighbour were seriously injured after their bike collided with a concrete railing on the capital's Signature Bridge, police said on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Akash, a resident of Chandan Vihar, Nangloi while his injured brother has been identified as Badal and their neighbour as Harshit. According to a senior police official, a police control room (PCR) call was received from LNJP hospital at 5.47 a.m. on Thursday, regarding three unknown persons, who were brought to the hospital from an accident spot, which was near Y-point Signature Bridge, following which a police team was sent to the hospital and the spot. "One of them was declared brought dead whereas two with serious injuries are undergoing treatment at the hospital," said the official. "The bike was found in an accident condition on the spot. Two persons, who were under treatment were declared unfit for the statement by the doctors." A case under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered in Timarpur police station. "During initial investigation, it was revealed that the trio, without wearing helmets, had left home on bike around 3.30 am for the Signature Bridge and the accident took place around 4.30 a.m," said the official privy to investigation. "It seems that they were in speed and while taking a sharp turn, the driver lost control and hit concrete railings," said the official, adding that further investigation is going on. Shillong, Nov 5 : The 46th edition of Wangala Festival, also known as 100 drums festival which is Meghalayas one of the most famous post harvest carnivals, will begin at Wangala dam Chibragre near Tura in West Garo Hills district on November 10, officials said on Friday. The three-day cultural festival organised by the Hundred Drums Wangala Festival Committee will see the participation of 10 ten dancing troops from all four corners of Garo Hills, one of the four regions of Meghalaya. The festival is a thanksgiving ceremony observed by the indigenous Garo tribes to seek blessings from the deity 'Misi Saljong' for bumper yields in the sowing season. The festival is also held in the neighbouring tribal dominated areas of Bangladesh. Traditionally, young boys and girls choose their life partners during this festival. With Covid-19 restrictions having been completely withdrawn, a large number of people, both locals and those from outside the state, are expected to participate in the festival. Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, opposition leader Mukul M. Sangma, Garo Hills Autonomous District Council chief executive member Albinush Marak are expected to attend the festival on different days. Other highlights of the festivals include handloom and handicraft exhibition and competitions in traditional recitation and folk songs. New Delhi, Nov 5 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said that they have filed a chargesheet against six persons in the case related to the seizure of arms, ammunition, explosives and cash from Haryana in May. The chargesheet has been filed against Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, Amandeep Singh alias Deepa, Parminder Singh alias Pinder and Bhupinder Singh, Rajbir Singh alias Raja and Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda. They were going to deliver the consignment by keeping it in a specially designed cavity in their Innova car to Adilabad, Telangana. The case was initially registered with Madhuban police in Haryana under sections 13, 18 & 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, sections 4 & 5 of the Explosive Substance Act and Section 25 Indian Arms Act. Later on the probe was taken over by the NIA. During investigation, it is learnt that the explosives, arms and ammunition were sent by terrorist Rinda of proscribed terrorist organisation 'Babbar Khalsa International' from Pakistan through drones into the Indian territory for executing terrorist acts in Punjab. Rinda was carrying out the delivery of arms, ammunition and explosives into the Indian Territory through drones to his India-based associates for carrying out terrorist attacks at different parts of India. Further investigations in the matter are on. Javascript Error Javascript is deactivated in your browser. To use all functions on this portal, for example the login, Javascript must be activated. Please activate Javascript in your browser settings. From fearless and uplifting brights to soothing calm tones, 2023 sees comfort, security and liberation as key drivers for the year ahead." CCW.TRENDS reveals their top interior design trend predictions for 2023. From fearless and uplifting brights to soothing calm tones, 2023 sees comfort, security and liberation as key drivers for the year ahead. Creative Content Works, a global creative production business based in Manchester, today announced the release of their Interior Trend 2023 report. This follows last months launch of a brand-new website CCW.Trends, an online hub dedicated to interior design research and trends forecasting. The full-report features over 50 pages of jaw-dropping interior trends, 5 standout colour palettes, moodboards and examples of how these trends can be used in practice across kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms (KBB). All accompanied with opinion on what we can expect to see over the next 12 months. The interior trend report was put together by award-winning creative production agency, CCW. Their expert team of Interior Stylists and Creatives have worked on creative marketing content and ad campaigns for well-known high street brands including John Lewis, JD Sports, The White Company, Azko Nobel, Magnet, Dreams, The Cotswold Company, Carpetright and Feather & Black they help brands to keep up with creative evolution and digitally transform at scale. James McVitie, Managing Director at Creative Content Works comments on the launch of sub brand, CCW.Trends: Creative Content Works is a creative production company with a difference - we fuse world-class creative ideas and strategy, with proven content production all backed by cutting-edge technology. Were best known for our photorealistic CGI, VFX and animation within the home and interiors space. This long-standing reputation relies on having the best talent behind the scenes to make sure all our clients imagery is on trend and suits the look and feel of their brand. After all, style makes all the difference to the story youre trying to tell. The team have built up years of experience and always keep ahead of the latest trends. Following the stylist's trip to Milan Design Week back in April, I felt there was no better time than now to give our stylists a dedicated platform to showcase their research and insights to a wider audience. Molly Woodward-Moor, Head of Styling at CCW, highlights some of their key findings from the report: From fearless and uplifting brights to soothing calm tones, 2023 sees comfort, security and liberation as key drivers for the year ahead. The report highlights a duality at play between trends that look back for reassurance and familiarity (Nostalgia) and those that look to the future with a newfound sense of freedom and confidence to try something new (New Era Bold / Vivid Realities). Were set to see colour, texture and material combinations coming together to create maximalist contrasts, and highlight a desire for self-expression and individualism through unexpected colour combinations. On the other end of the spectrum, well see those seeking comfort looking back to previous design eras, and those that need to retreat through escapism and travel, bringing exotic aesthetics back into the home. A connection to nature and sustainability remain hot topics underlying all our trend predictions. We wanted the trend report to be as accessible as possible which is why we have created 3 packages to suit all budgets. Whether youre an interior designer, brand or marketing manager, our goal is to equip you with the tools you need for a successful year ahead. - Grant Tildsley, Creative Director at CCW The full 2023 Interior Trends Report is available to download from the CCW.TRENDS website. ABOUT CCW.TRENDS CCW.TRENDS is an online hub dedicated to Interior Design Trends research and reports. Powered by Creative Content Works (CCW), an award winning creative content production agency based in Manchester, Sofia and London. Today, CCW consists of a passionate team of 70 creative thinkers, stylists, designers and tech innovators. We build powerful partnerships with brands, solving creative and technology challenges for a digital future. For more information on Creative Content Works visit https://www.creativecontent.works/ To download your copy of the Interior Trends 2023 Report visit https://www.ccw-interiortrends.com/ Follow @creative_content_works on Instagram, and @creativecontentworks on Facebook and Linkedin. PRESS CONTACT Amanda Mulquiney, Marketing Manager at Creative Content Works amanda.mulquiney@creativecontent.works Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization 2022 Summit Historically, women worldwide have been underpaid, undervalued, underrepresented, underfunded and underestimated. We are dedicated, determined and driven to change this global imbalance, states Wendy Diamond, Founder of the Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization. Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) #WEDO2022 Summit Delegates Dining Room United Nations New York City November 19, 2022 |10:00 am 3:00 pm FEATURED SPEAKERS/HONOREES Beverly Johnson (Iconic Supermodel/CEO Beverly Johnson Enterprises Inc), Janice Bryant Howroyd (Founder/CEO, The ActOne Group of Companies), Lele Pons (Celebrity Influencer, NFT/Crypto Enthusiast/100 Million Followers), Wendy Fisher (Artist/Philanthropist/President of the Board Guggenheim), Neeti Mehta (Co-Founder/Chief Impact Officer Automation Anywhere), Amanda Feilding (COUNTESS of Wemyss and March, Founder Beckley Foundation & Psychedelics Pioneer) , Wendy Diamond (CEO/ Founder WEDO, LDP Ventures & Animal Fair Media Inc.). #WEDO2022 agenda, celebrates the pivotal role women play in the impact of disruptive technologies and the rapid global adoption of blockchain technology, and Web 3.0. We will spotlight the positive impact this Community is having globally to advance economic freedom, dignity, and entrepreneurial advancements for WOMEN! EMPOWER, CELEBRATE, AND SUPPORT WOMEN AND GIRLS GLOBALLY TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY. Live-Streamed From United Nations To 144 Countries and 111 Top Universities Around the World (NEW YORK CITY, NY November 19, 2022) The Annual International Womens Entrepreneurship Day (WED) convenes at the Delegates Dining Room at the United Nations in New York City on Saturday, November 19, 2022. November 19 is the official internationally proclaimed day. The summit is presented by the Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO), a non-governmental volunteer organization with a mission to economically empower women and alleviate poverty worldwide. The summit will also be live-streamed around the world through its ambassador team in 144 countries and 65 Universities. At WEDO, we ignite a network of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities around the world. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, WEDO builds and catalyzes vital networks of like-minded individuals and organizations that women business leaders need to realize their full potential and change the world. Historically, women worldwide have been underpaid, undervalued, underrepresented, underfunded and underestimated. We are dedicated, determined and driven to change this global imbalance, states Wendy Diamond, Founder of the Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization. Through this summit, we will find innovative ways to economically empower women. By elevating women financially, their communities, states, and countries will prosper. Not only will they prosper, but we will be creating the blueprint for eradicating poverty worldwide, Diamond explains. WEDO - Women Entrepreneurs DO Make A DIFFERENCE! Summit Highlights Include: The positive impact of The Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) around the world, with a focus on recent impact in Ukraine. An announcement of the funding of 1000 impoverished women with microloans to start their own entrepreneurial endeavor providing a HAND UP, not a handout - in partnership with Opportunity International. The #WEDO2022 Summit will feature some of the most accomplished people of our time, such as: Lele Pons (Celebrity Influencer, NFT/Crypto Enthusiast/100 Million Followers), Janice Bryant Howroyd (Founder/CEO The ActOne Group of Companies) Beverly Johnson (Iconic Black Supermodel, 1st Black Woman to appear on the Cover of Vogue), Wendy Fisher (Artist/President of the Board Guggenheim), Ginger Dhaliwal (Founder Upflex), David Song (Founder Rosie Labs), Neeti Mehta (Co Founder/Chief Impact Officer Automation Anywhere), Seth Ginns (Managing Director CoinFund), Gary Weinstein (Head of Global Regulatory Relations, Electric Coin Co.), Lily Wu (Co Founder WoW Pixies Nft & Start Up Lead Stripe), Jamis Johnson (Founding member/Chief Pleasing Officer Pleasr DAO), Danielle Morris (Global Public Health Lead Amazon Web Services (AWS), (Nicole Colwell (Prasaga Protocol), Jen Soule (President Other World Computing), Amanda Feilding (COUNTESS of Wemyss and March, Founder Beckley Foundation & Psychedelics Pioneer) , Christine Lee (Anchor Coindesk), Ali Hassan (Managing Partner Perceptive Capital), Lauren Young (Wealth Editor Reuters), Loreen Arbus (Founder Arbus Productions, Arbus Goldensohn Foundation), and many more fabulous people will be announced very soon! WEDO is sponsoring disadvantaged female students to attend #WEDO2022 at the United Nations. WEDO supports Restart Academy, which provides educational services for 1321-year-old students in transitional settings, including juvenile justice, substance use treatment, mental/behavioral health treatment, hospitals, social services agencies, and other temporary or involuntary settings. 2022 WEDO Partners include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Prasaga Labs, Ava Labs, UBS, Rosie Labs and Kirsh Foundation. About Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO)/#ChooseWOMEN is a 501c3 all-volunteer grassroots movement that carries throughout the year in support of women in economically globally. WEDO ignites women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities worldwide. WEDO is celebrated in 144 countries, 65 universities/ colleges internationally and the United Nations. The WEDO mission is to empower the 4 billion women worldwide to be catalysts for change and uplift over 250 million girls living in poverty worldwide. When women are elevated financially, families, communities, states, and countries prosper; this builds a global blueprint that will alleviate and eradicate poverty. #ChooseWOMEN Join Our Social Impact Campaign on November 30, 2022, and CELEBRATE, EMPOWER, AND SUPPORT WOMEN IN BUSINESS TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY. WEDO has proclaimed the Wednesday after Thanksgiving to be dedicated to Women in Business! This grassroots social media movement that began in 2019 inspires women and men to pledge their support to #ChooseWOMEN in business. About Wendy Diamond - Founder WEDO/#ChooseWOMEN Diamond is an Impact Investor, Entrepreneur, Humanitarian, Founder of LDP Ventures, Animal Fair Media and an Ellis Island Honor Society recipient. She was inspired to launch Womens Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO)/#ChooseWOMEN in 2013 after volunteering in Honduras with the Adelante Foundation, an organization that provides microcredit to locally impoverished women. Recognizing the fact that women perform 66% of the worlds work, yet only earn 10% of the worlds income while at the same time account for 85% of consumer purchases and control $20 trillion in worldwide spending, Diamond was inspired to create this global movement to economically empower women to alleviate poverty. Read more at http://www.wendydiamond.com #WEDO2022 Speakers/Agenda #WEDO2022 LIVESTREAM Press Registration - Limited Availability - Must Be Approved Media Contact: missy@womenseday.org Women's Entrepreneurship Day/#WomenWOW #ChooseWOMEN #WED2022 Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization/#WomenWOW #ChooseWOMEN http://www.womenseday.org Our mission is to Empower, Celebrate & Support Women in business worldwide to alleviate poverty! Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin YouTube Pinterest Both Urban Engineering and Urban Civil are industry leaders in public works, land and site development, and surveying work for public and private clientele along the Texas Gulf Coast and other regions. The combined organization will continue to operate under the Urban Engineering name, which was established in 1965. In making this acquisition, DCCM is expanding its existing partnership with industry veterans Chip Urban and Jim Urban, who will continue in their current leadership roles. The acquisition of Urban Engineering is an exciting addition to the DCCM family. We are delighted to have found a new partner whose vision aligns with ours, said James F. (Jim) Thompson, PE, DBIA, CEO of DCCM. The experience Urban Engineering brings will allow us to expand our engineering services capabilities further as we continue to build our company to provide the best engineering services for our customers. Becoming part of the DCCM family is a fantastic development for Urban Engineering and its stakeholders, said Chip Urban. This alliance with DCCM unlocks tremendous opportunity for our staff and our customers. Elie P. Azar, Managing Director of White Wolf, added, "its with great enthusiasm that we add Urban Engineering and Urban Civil to the DCCM family of companies. We are excited to further expand DCCMs reach in the State of Texas and look forward to partnering with the entire Urban team in their continued growth. About Urban Engineering and Urban Civil Urban Engineering is based in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Urban Civil is based in New Braunfels, Texas. Both firms have grown to become industry leaders in public works, surveying, and land and site development work. Their expertise also extends to the development of master plans for site development work and construction management on water, wastewater, and drainage projects for municipalities and other governmental entities. For more information, please visit: http://www.urbaneng.com and http://www.urbancivil.com. About DCCM DCCM is a provider of design, consulting, and program & construction management professional services focusing on infrastructure marketplaces throughout the public and private sectors. Through a family of complementary brand companies, DCCM serves a variety of end markets while offering a national reach. DCCM is aggressively hiring key industry professionals in all disciplines and is actively seeking further acquisition opportunities throughout North America. For more information, please visit: http://www.dccm.com. About White Wolf White Wolf is a private investment firm that began operations in late 2011 and is focused on making direct and indirect investments in leading North American middle market companies. White Wolf seeks private equity and private credit investment opportunities in companies with $20 million to $200 million in revenues and up to $20 million in EBITDA. Typical situations include management buyouts, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and investments for growth. Preferred industries include manufacturing, business services, government services, information technology, security, aerospace, and defense. White Wolf also looks to invest with other private fund managers as a limited partner. Targeted investment candidates are North American focused private credit funds looking to raise $50 million to $500 million, with a focus on the lower-middle and middle-market. White Wolf's office locations include Miami, Chicago, Montreal, and New York City. For further information, please visit http://www.whitewolfcapital.com. Macao businesses head for CIIE in Shanghai Xinhua) 16:04, November 04, 2022 MACAO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Delegates from 35 enterprises in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) headed for Shanghai on Friday to attend the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE). The enterprises cover industries ranging from conventions and exhibitions, finance, science and technology, e-commerce and catering to manufacturing and logistics, according to the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute. About a quarter of the 35 enterprises were attending the expo for the first time, the institute added. The delegation will work to expand business opportunities through exchanges with other delegates during the CIIE, which is scheduled to be held on Nov. 5-10, said the institute. The Macao businesses will exhibit food and drinks made in Macao or Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) as well as services in multiple sectors. A forum will also be held on Sunday in Shanghai to promote the advantages of Macao as a platform linking China and the PSCs. (Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun) The American Library Association this week announced that two candidates will vie for the 2024-25 ALA presidency: Cindy Hohl, director of policy analysis and operational support at the Kansas City Public Library (Missouri), and Eric D. Suess, director of the Marshall Public Library (Idaho). Hohl is past president of the American Indian Library Association and is an active member of other ALA affiliates, including the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, Black Caucus of ALA, Chinese American Librarians Association and REFORMA. As a member of the Public Library Association, a division of ALA, she currently co-chairs the Membership Advisory Group, and was a member of the PLA Strategic Plan Review Team. Hohl is also a member of several round tables: Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT), Library Research Round Table (LRRT), and Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT). With recent activities threatening equity of library service, promoting censorship, and targeting library staff through harassment and other forums, there has never been a better time for an experienced library leader to stand for election as ALA President-Elect to lend their voice and provide steady leadership when faced with adversity, Hohl, in a statement. Suess is an active member of the Idaho Library Association, a chapter of ALA, where he previously chaired its Intellectual Freedom Committee. He was also a member of the ALA Council for more than 10 years and was involved in several council committees, including the Policy Monitoring Committee, Committee on Legislation and the Committee on Organization. He is also involved with numerous ALA divisions, including the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), Core, PLA, and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). He also belongs to several round tables, including International Relations Round Table (IRRT), IFRT, Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) and Games and Gaming Round Table (GAMERT). This is a time of significant change and complex challenges," Suess said in his statement. As we address issues of finance, organization, public perception, and the need for growth, it is crucial that we do so while upholding our professional values with intelligence and passion." The current ALA president, Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, will conclude her presidential term at the ALA Annual meeting in June of 2023, at which time president-elect Emily Drabinski will begin her term as the 2023-24 president. In addition, the ALA nominating committee announced 61 candidates running for a total of 34 at-large seats on the ALA Council. That number includes 32 councilor-at-large seats for the 2023-2026 term, one councilor at-large seat to serve until 2024, and one councilor at-large seat to serve until 2023. ALA Members who wish to run for ALA Council may still run for office by petition, and have until 11:59 p.m. CDT on Dec. 31, 2022 to file an electronic petition with the ALA executive director. The petition must have the signatures at least 25 current personal members. Instructions for filing petitions and additional election information is available on the ALA Election page. Ballot mailing for the ALA election will begin on Monday, March 13, 2023 and will run through Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Individuals must be members in good standing to vote in the 2023 ALA Elections. Renew your membership online or by calling 1-800-545-2433, option 1. For more information, please visit the ALA Election page. Ballot mailing for the election will begin March 13, 2023 and will run through April 5, 2023. Hohl and Suess will engage in a virtual candidates' forum on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. CDT. Each candidate will have the opportunity to share a statement and answer questions from members. ALA members can register for the forum here. Masters program will focus on skills critical to the semiconductor workforce CHENNAI, India Purdue University and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) will soon launch a dual-degree masters program in semiconductors as part of a newly signed agreement to cooperate in education and research in semiconductors and microelectronics. The proposed dual-degree program will be designed to ramp up skilled talent for the next generation of the semiconductor workforce. It will focus on an innovative, cooperatively developed curriculum to meet the industrys growing needs. Undergraduate students with strong academic credentials and deep interest in working on topics related to semiconductor devices, chip fabrication, and circuits and systems will be candidates for the future masters program. Purdue University is home to over 2,700 students from India, and Purdue has a long and deep strategic partnership with India and IIT Madras in particular, said Mung Chiang, Purdues president-elect and executive vice president for strategic initiatives. We recently launched the first comprehensive Semiconductor Degrees Program (SDP) with the goal of becoming the top source of skilled semiconductor talent for the U.S. We are thrilled to be partnering with IIT Madras on these dual-degree programs to rapidly contribute to the workforce needs of the large semiconductor industry in both the U.S. and India. On Nov. 3 at IIT Madras, officials from both institutions signed a letter of intent agreeing to the collaboration. V. Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras and professor of computer science and engineering; Nagendra Krishnapura, professor and head of the IIT Madras Department of Electrical Engineering; and Raghunathan Rengaswamy, dean of global engagement, represented IIT Madras. Representing Purdue were Mung Chiang; Dimitrios Peroulis, the Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Reilly Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Vijay Raghunathan, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of semiconductor education; and Arvind Raman, executive associate dean of Purdues College of Engineering. The India Semiconductor Mission looks at the large-scale development and deployment of microelectronics products, said V. Kamakoti. This joint initiative with Purdue will certainly augment our quality human resource development efforts in semiconductor electronics. The partnership would also involve research collaboration in areas such as semiconductor supply-chain management, chip design, packaging, system architecture, and advanced manufacturing methods. The Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University and the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras have forged particularly strong bonds over many areas in the past, said Dimitrios Peroulis, head of the school. We are delighted to join forces again to address common critical needs in semiconductors and microelectronics. Nagendra Krishnapura said the new dual degree will offer students both knowledge and autonomy: IIT Madras has world-class faculty in the area of semiconductors, from electronic devices to circuits and systems. This new dual-degree program in semiconductors will give students a solid foundation in these areas, while also giving them the freedom and flexibility to specialize in their chosen area of interest. We also expect the program to open new avenues for collaboration in research and teaching with Purdue University in these areas. Emphasizing the significance of the two institutions collaboration, Vijay Raghunathan of Purdue added, The semiconductor industry worldwide is facing a tremendous shortage of talent. Purdue and IIT Madras are implementing an innovative program to address this gap by enhancing the best human and curricular resources and leveraging the complementary strengths of the faculty at the two institutions. Other aspects of the collaboration yet to be fully defined include exchange of faculty and research scholars and collaborative research and discovery, learning and teaching, and engagement. About IIT Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an Institute of National Importance. The activities of the institute in various fields of science and technology are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centers. The institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs leading to BTech, MSc, MBA, MTech, MS and PhD degrees in a variety of specializations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 600 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell. Recognized as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) in 2019, IITM has been ranked No. 1 in the Overall Category for the fourth consecutive year in India Rankings 2022 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The institute has also been ranked No. 1 in the Engineering Institutions category in the same rankings for seven consecutive years from 2016 to 2022. It was also declared the Top Innovative Institution in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019, 2020 and 2021. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education. Follow IIT Madras on FACEBOOK / TWITTER / LINKEDIN / INSTAGRAM / YOUTUBE About Purdue University Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu Writer/Media contact: Rhianna Wisniewski, rmwisnie@purdue.edu Source: Vijay Raghunathan, vr@purdue.edu Make TV is part of Imagine Aviator, a cloud-native platform designed to enable broadcasters, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and digital-first providers to easily plan, make and monetise premium-quality, ad-supported linear and connected TV (CTV) content from a single, unified platform.Led by an AWS Partner Solutions Architect, t he FTR process is designed to provide specific guidelines and AWS best practices to reduce risks around security, documentation, reliability and operational excellence, as defined by the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The result is that Imagine can review projects against the requirements of the FTR, adhering to best practices and ensuring the best possible outcomes for the end user. The FTR allows AWS Partners to identify and remediate risks in their products or solutions.The FTR also offers a layer of understanding around cloud technical and security evaluation, which in turn allows the products to be sold and supported in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalogue with software listings from independent software vendors.In gaining the certification, Imagine said that it has a detailed, highly qualified quality assurance program in-house to ensure its software meets the real needs of media companies, providing very high availability and protection from cyberthreats. Aviator Make TV includes capabilities to deliver premium-quality linear channels, with unified origination for broadcast and digital streams.Imagine Aviator is a completely new concept, drawing on decades of Imagine experience, observed Rob Malcolm, chief product officer at Imagine Communications . It was conceived from the ground up to be a cloud platform, and that is where its unique strengths lie. We have been a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN) since the very beginning of the cloud for media, and we develop according to the principles of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Successfully completing the FTR is another key step towards widespread understanding and adoption of our ground-breaking, end-to-end Aviator platform. The rlaxx TV app is now available on more than 60% of smart TVs in 26 countries as well as on media streamers, iOS and Android mobile devices, and as a Beta version on the web. The app is free of charge and does not require registration.Under the terms of the deal, rlaxx TV will use Magnites technology to manage its OTT inventory across CTV and mobile apps. Magnites CTV platform will provide rlaxx TV with tools specifically built to support premium, long-form video and the high-quality viewing experiences that this content demands.In order to make high quality VOD content accessible for free, were focused on making our advertising as efficient and effective as possible, commented Ronny Lutzi, CEO at rlaxx TV. Magnites proven track record working with major OTT media owners as well as the industry-leading features within their CTV platform give us great confidence that we are on the right track.Ad-supported streaming is growing across Europe and we're looking forward to working closely with the rlaxx TV team to capture this momentum, added Magnite EMEA managing director, CTV, Sam Wilson. Magnites technology will give r laxx TV more advanced tools, insight, and control to help them make the most of the inventory and grow their programmatic advertising strategy. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/04/2022 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. alum Deavan Clegg has welcomed her third child -- but first baby with boyfriend Christopher "Topher" Park.Deavan, who starred on the first two seasons of : The Other Way with her ex-husband Jihoon Lee from 2019 to 2020, brought her new baby home from the hospital this past weekend."Baby Park is healthy and doing well," Deavan, 25, said on Wednesday, November 2, according to In Touch Weekly."We are just enjoying our time with our new bundle of joy. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this time #labor #birthvlog #90dayfiance #babypark #csection #birthstory #pregnancy."Deavan, however, didn't reveal whether she had a boy or girl, and she has yet to announce the newborn's name.Deavan is already a mother to daughter Drascilla from a previous relationship and son Taeyang, whom she shares with Jihoon. Deavan has had a lot on her plate recently considering Taeyang has been battling b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.Deavan and Topher announced they were expecting a child together back in May."We are happy to announce baby Park will be arriving Fall 2022 [baby emoji]," Deavan wrote on Instagram at the time.Deavan got pregnant with Baby No. 3 after suffering a miscarriage only months beforehand in April 2021.Jihoon confirmed he and Deavan split in August 2020 after one year of marriage, which was around the same time Deavan started hinting she was in a new relationship by posting photos of an unidentified man on Instagram with his face cropped out.Deavan officially filed for divorce from Jihoon in September 2020, but she accused Jihoon of dragging out the process by not signing the papers and cooperating.In that same month, Deavan and the mystery man -- who turned out to be Topher, a Korean-American actor -- went Instagram official when Topher posted sexy photos with Deavan on social media.Deavan revealed she actually met Topher in the Los Angeles airport while she was still in a relationship with Jihoon but the pair's first interaction was casual and they didn't follow up on anything until Deavan became single again.After dating for a brief amount of time, Deavan and Topher moved in together.Deavan, whose divorce from Jihoon wasn't finalized until earlier this year, previously claimed Jihoon had been "abusive" during their relationship and had done "disgusting" and "vile" things Deavan even alleged Jihoon had abused Drascilla, which Jihoon firmly denied In a Q&A session on Instagram in May, Deavan insisted Jihoon's alleged lack of responsiveness and care for Taeyang is why a judge awarded her full custody of Taeyang during the divorce proceedings.Deavan revealed in August 2020 she had moved back to the United States after trying to move to South Korea for the second time to be with Jihoon. She then confirmed their split on social media shortly afterwards.But Deavan revealed in her Q&A that she and Jihoon actually ended their relationship in November 2019, shortly after she had announced having a miscarriage with their second child on social media, but they chose to continue filming : The Other Way for the money.Deavan suggested in her Q&A that she was thinking about having Topher adopt both Taeyang and Drascilla."He would very much love that... Blood doesn't make a father a father," Deavan shared on Instagram Stories.She elaborated, "Topher has been in Taeyang's life for two years. Taeyang calls Topher dad and cries for him more than me. I think Taeyang only knows him. Unfortunately, that is what my ex decided. He had his rights and didn't take them."Deavan insisted in 2020 she was completely done filming with the franchise after multiple bad experiences. Deavan said she was asked to fake scenes with Jihoon, and she also accused the editing team of making Drascilla look out of control.Deavan also claimed 's production company had driven cast members to consider suicide Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Friday's Google Doodle features artwork by Nigeria-based Haneefah Adam, celebrating the West African dish of jollof rice. ADVERTISEMENT Senegalese jazz musician Herve Samb created the soundtrack for the animation, which shows tomatoes, onions, peppers and regional spices simmering in a pan. "On this day each year, rice farmers plant and reap a bountiful harvest, and cooks across West Africa prepare to make fresh jollof," the Google website said. "Also known as benachin and thieboudienne, jollof rice is a one-pot meal that originated from the Wolof tribe in the 14th century. The Wolof Empire, ruling parts of modern-day Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania, popularized jollof throughout West Africa." In 2022, the dish is served with fish, chicken, beef or goat. Top Gear is returning with new episodes this month on BBC America and AMC+. ADVERTISEMENT Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness will host four episodes and a holiday special called Top Gear: Driving Home for Christmas. The new season will kick off Nov. 17. "This season of Top Gear sees a pick-up pilgrimage across Thailand, discovering the amazing nation that loves these trucks more than anywhere else in the world. There's a supercar showdown in the Alps, featuring the all-new Ferrari 296 GTB, the all-new Porsche Cayman GT4 RS, and the astonishing, multi-million pound four-wheeled work of art that is the Pagani Huayra BC," the networks said in a press release Thursday. "At the opposite end of the market, the trio has been to Paris, testing the very latest in affordable electric microcars, while closer to home they've had a thorough -- and thoroughly outrageous -- look at the best way to get into the delivery driver game on a budget." Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. With some help from Twitter's new owner, misinformation about the grievous attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband is surging online El Ausente, or The Absent One. That is the name of one of two songs the Villalobos Brothers opened with in their debut concert at the University of Georgias Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall on Wednesday night. Herschel Walkers name is and always will be synonymous with Georgia football for sports fans. Up until 2021, the decision to wear a Walker jersey with the number 34 on the back was rooted in nostalgic memories of Vince Dooley and Larry Munson. Now, Walker is using his Bulldog prominence to bolster his campaign for office in the U.S. Senate race against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. In the process, he is potentially rewriting his legacy. Members from the University of Georgia chapters of College Republicans and Young Democrats took the stage at the UGA chapel for their Great Debate on Wednesday night. Both groups discussed various policy issues, as the polls close in under two weeks. This photo provided by the Massachusetts Historical Society shows a portrait of Abigail Adams. Abigail Adams, one of the most influential and important women in the history of the U.S., is being honored on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, with a new statue in the community just south of Boston where she and husband President John Adams lived. Members of All Souls Church in Brattleboro make wreaths and other holiday decorations on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022, for the annual Holiday Bazaar that will be held on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The bazaar has been going on since the late '70s and people can also buy handmade g Photographer / Multimedia Editor Has been working as a photojournalist since 2007, before moving into newspapers, he worked with an NGO called Project HOPE. He then went to work for the Press and Sun-Bulletin in New York, and then in New England working for the Brattleboro Reformer. Bats are on the move, with a reputation to improve Chinese reaction to new policies may follow U.S. midterm elections and Biden-Xi meeting at G-20, experts say. The $52 billion in recent subsidies for Americas microchip sector are necessary for U.S. national security, President Joe Biden said on Friday, recalling a visit he made to a Lockheed Martin facility that he said could not source the chips it needed to make key weapons. The speech came as industry leaders told a trade event that American and Chinese chipmakers were both still assessing the likely impacts of the spate of recent U.S. policies impacting the chip industry, with Beijing likely weighing retaliatory measures. Speaking in San Diego, California, Biden said the subsidies, part of the $280-billion CHIPS Act signed into law Aug. 9, were needed to restore U.S. capacity to fabricate chips that he said power more and more of what we need, including smartphones, cars and hospital equipment. America invented the computer chip, and led the industry for decades. Then something happened, Biden said. American companies went overseas for cheaper labor; American manufacturing got hollowed out. The United States couldnt afford to rely on foreign supply chains, he said, due to the risks posed by pandemics or by political decisions made in China, Taiwan or other places. Such a reliance was already being exposed by U.S. efforts to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of the country, Biden added. This is also a national security issue, he said. "Earlier this year, I went down to a Lockheed factory in Alabama. They make Javelin missiles. Guess what? They were having trouble supplying Javelin missiles to Ukraine, because they didn't have the chips. We didnt have the chips to help [Ukrainians] defend themselves against Putin. Changing industry The $52 billion in subsidies under the CHIPS Act have been paired with a series of export controls meant to cut China off from U.S. technologies. Announced Oct. 13 by the Department of Commerces Bureau of Industry and Security, the rules require licenses to export chip-making technology to 28 listed Chinese entities. They target Beijings ability to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors, the new rules say. The slow drip of new rules against a backdrop of massive subsidies has upended a global industry that is now worth more than $600 billion a year, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics. At an event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association earlier on Friday, Jimmy Goodrich, vice president of global policy at the Semiconductor Industry Association, said the U.S. chip industry was still taking stock of the likely impact of all the new rules and subsidies. Its really been a very busy, chaotic few weeks for the private sector to try to understand the scope of the rules, but also to understand how theyre going to move forward in the short, medium and long term, Goodrich said, noting the policies arrived amid a cyclical industry downturn. Some private sector firms have announced forecasts next year where they might see a decline in revenue by $1 billion to $2.5 billion per company, so this is a significant set of rules in terms of commercial impact, he said. And of course, firms in China are struggling. Exacerbating concerns among American chipmakers has been the unilateral nature of the export controls, with some firms worried about a vacuum forming in the Chinese market that could be filled by producers in Europe and Asia. A U.S. official said last month that he is confident a multilateral deal will soon be struck, but Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told firms on Thursday that it could take nine months. Melissa Duffy, a partner for trade and national security at the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West, said while many expect the United States to bring major chip makers like the Netherlands and Japan into an export control deal, the U.S. can act unilaterally in the meantime. The Commerce Department has expanded its jurisdiction with this rule to capture more things that are made outside the United States, Duffy said at the Washington International Trade Association event, adding that many European and Asian chip firms rely on U.S. technology. So something that could be made in Europe for instance, in the Netherlands or made in Japan or South Korea that may not have any U.S. content in it could still be subject to these rules if the products are based on U.S.-origin technology or software, she said. Threat of blowback The question of Chinas response also remains. So far, Beijing has slammed the U.S. export controls as being part of a Cold War mentality, but has otherwise refrained from introducing retaliatory measures. Paul Trio, the director of international standards at SEMI, a global industry association representing electronics makers, told the event that Beijing was likely weighing its response until after next week, with key elections in the United States in Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to meet on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Bali. The Chinese response is going to wait until after the U.S. midterms, and then after the Biden-Xi summit, before we can see something a little more public and maybe a little stronger, Trio said, suggesting Beijing could limit exports of rare earths, magnets or electric vehicle components. Any action there would have a lot of downside for Chinese companies and for China, too, he said. Theyre considering all these things, but theres a whole host of other things they can do, like regulatory changes or investigating U.S. companies, to send a clear message on this. Local one-stop shop services will boost state control over food supply, and could be linked to war planning. State canteens have been popping up in residential compounds across Hunan, Hubei, Shandong and Yunnan provinces since July, often run and funded by neighborhood committees. The Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping is accelerating a return to the state-run economics of the Mao era, with local governments and neighborhoods ordered to build self-contained community depots to serve residential compounds in time of need, experts told RFA in recent interviews. The ministries of housing and civil affairs have ordered residential communities in pilot areas to build self-contained service depots in residential compounds offering convenience stores, vegetable stalls, state-run canteens, mail and express delivery service facilities, hair salons, laundry shops, pharmacies, maintenance points, and housekeeping services. If rolled out nationwide, the move would effectively make it far easier to confine people to their homes, whether due to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy or other national contingencies like war, natural disaster or civil unrest. Any grouping of 100 households must have a comprehensive service hub of at least 30 square-meters (325 square-feet) under the pilot plan, which will be implemented by local governments and district and neighborhood committees. Efforts must be made to ensure that residential compounds all have access to community hospitals, schooling, nursing homes, and state canteens, newly built if necessary, within 15 minutes of people's homes, a Nov. 1 report on the official Chinese government website said. State-run "community canteens" are already starting to appear, with a social media video of one in the Fengqing residential community in the central city of Wuhan showing people lining up to buy mass-produced meals. "I'm here to taste the kind of fare on offer at a state-run canteen," the presenter says to camera, before tucking into a bowl of rice with various other dishes in colorful bowls on a tray. The memory of state-run canteens and state stores under the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives has made many older people in China uneasy with the break with the market-reform era of Deng Xiaoping, which followed the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. "We suffered under the planned economy, and it's only now, under the market economy, that we finally have enough to eat," Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping told RFA. "Barely have we eaten our fill, and it's back to the planned economy again." "To be honest, we all have a sense of dread ... People are also speculating whether this means there is going to be a war," he said. "War would be the only reason for a return to the planned economy, which is obviously a kind of regression." Hunan current affairs commentator Li Ang agreed. "The old planned economy and [attempts at] socialist self-sufficiency are still fresh in our memories," Li said. "We experienced all of that when we were kids." "It's a clear demonstration of their determination in the face of their belief in the decoupling from Western civilization, in the wake of the 20th party congress," he said. A newly built residential canteen in Wuhan, China. Credit: RFA screenshot from video Looking ahead to 'a country at war' State canteens have been popping up in residential compounds across Hunan, Hubei, Shandong and Yunnan provinces since July, often run and funded by neighborhood committees, and offering more affordable meals than commercial restaurants. They have been particularly popular with people on a low income, such as the elderly. "Back then, they built canteens on a large scale to make economies of scale, and also to minimize food waste," current affairs commentator Ma Ju told RFA. "They figured that having only a few people in any place doing the cooking would free up other laborers, which could improve productivity." "Today's large-scale canteen construction feels more like we're looking ahead to being a country at war." However, centralizing canteens also politicizes food, and who gets to eat it, Ma said. "Building canteens is also about controlling people through food ... and associating the Communist Party in people's minds with getting fed," he said. "The purpose is to enable them to impose emergency measures [on the population], anywhere and at any time." Both state canteens and supply and marketing co-ops also evoke memories from the 1970s and 1980s of being asked for food rationing tickets limiting the amount of rice, oil and other foods a family could buy in a week, with the neighborhood committees in charge of handing these over to residents. Lai Rongwei, assistant professor at the General Education Center of Longhua University of Science and Technology, agreed that the Chinese Communist Party is looking to maintain social stability by offering a "one-stop shop" to serve people locally, and to exert collective controls over them at the same time. "Put simply, this is about controlling resources," Lai told RFA. "On the supply side, they will be looking to centralize all agricultural production, similar to the People's Communes before the [Deng market reforms]." 'Decoupling' from the global economy Analysts told RFA in recent interviews that China is quietly rebooting a Mao-era institution that once functioned as a pillar of the socialist command economy to prepare for future "decoupling" from the global economy, pointing to the elevation of supply and marketing co-ops chief Liang Huiling to the ruling party's Central Committee last month. Wu Chien-chung, associate professor at the National Taiwan Ocean University, agreed that Beijing could be planning for war. "It remains to be seen whether local governments ... are capable of implementing this thinking from central government, which wants to store grain to prepare for war," Wu told RFA. Former top Communist Party aide Bao Tong warned in an essay written to mark Mao Zedong's centenary in 2020: "Markets, just like history itself, can move backwards as well as forwards, and there is always a danger of regression under a great leader flying the banner of honor and right thinking." "The destruction of the markets was among the most prominent of Mao's tyrannies," wrote Bao, who spent seven years in prison after the fall of his political mentor Zhao Ziyang in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and remains under close surveillance in Beijing. While the rebooted supply and marketing cooperative stores look more like a modern supermarket than the general stores of the 1970s and 1980s, many older people in China still remember rationing -- the side-effect of a top-down, command economy. "I remember there was a building for the supply and marketing co-op, but they didn't let just anyone go in and buy stuff," Beijing-born economist Li Hengqing told RFA. "You had to have special ration tickets to buy oil, rice, meat and many other items." "Nobody wants to go back to that," Li said. There wasn't any choice of products, and the attitude of the staff was generally very bad," he said. "I can still remember trying to buy meat and them refusing to give me any, because they were keeping it for someone they knew, or for one of the leaders. That was [typical of] state-owned enterprises." Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The technology helps monitor groups and censor material in places such as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Pedestrians walk on an overpass near a surveillance camera overlooking a street in Beijing, Dec. 14, 2021. Updated at 12:45 p.m. EDT on 11-4-2022 Chinese public security entities have been acquiring U.S. technology with the transfers becoming increasingly regular, especially of DNA analysis equipment needed for mass surveillance, a new report has found. "The Role of US Technology in China's Public Security System" by the U.S. intelligence and security research group Recorded Future revealed the sweeping extent of technology transfers from U.S. companies to Chinese companies to be used by the public security apparatus, including in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. From DNA analysis to thermal imaging, from data storage to digital forensics and cyber security, a vast range of U.S. technology has been transferred to the Chinese public security system. Surveillance and counter-surveillance are among the main focuses of the technology transfers, the report said. In some cases, public security entities in China almost certainly seek technology from U.S. companies because foreign products outperform domestic equivalents, it said. In other cases, the technology was acquired to ensure compatibility as it had already been used by Chinese organizations. According to the report, public security entities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region appear to have purchased at least 481 hard disk drives from Seagate and Western Digital in early-to-mid 2022, including surveillance-specialized drives and drives acquired alongside equipment from Chinas leading surveillance providers. Both Seagate Technology Holdings and Western Digital Corporation are well-known American data storage companies. Other entities in Xinjiang, such as prisons belonging to the paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, have also recently carried out surveillance-oriented purchases of Seagate or Western Digital hard disk drives, it said. Another report released last year also said U.S. technology companies were supplying Chinas surveillance state with equipment and software for monitoring populations and censoring information, including in Xinjiang. Western governments and human rights groups have condemned Beijing for surveillance and other abusive policies against the 12 million Muslim Uyghurs in the region, which they said amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. China has repeatedly denied the allegations. The Chinese flag behind razor wire at a housing compound in Yangisar, south of Kashgar, in China's western Xinjiang region, in a photograph taken on June 4, 2019. CREDIT: Greg Baker/AFP Extremely common transfers When I started the research, I did not expect these technology transfers to be so prevalent, said report author Zoe Haver. She began the project by looking at transfers of counter-surveillance devices used by the U.S. military and U.S. law enforcement, but during the process she found that Chinese public security entities were purchasing U.S. technology for use in many other areas, such as aviation, DNA analysis, thermal imaging, optics, surveillance, cybersecurity, network infrastructure, and data storage. With some of the technologies that I was tracking, such as DNA analysis equipment, I observed new purchases on pretty much a day-to-day basis. These transfers are extremely common across China, she told RFA. The Chinese public security apparatus has been seeking DNA analysis equipment, with the reliance on U.S. technology in this area most notable, according to the analyst. This equipment can potentially be used to help build population databases and carry out mass surveillance, Haver said. Entities belonging to the powerful Ministry of Public Security (MPS) have been acquiring U.S. technology via legal channels at industry exhibitions, third-party agents and distributors, and even from U.S. companies local subsidiaries in China. Recently more and more U.S. firms have been bought by Chinese companies and this has aided the growth of Chinas domestic industries and facilitated sales of U.S. products to public security end users, according to the report. Another factor is the cross-border flows of talent that have become increasingly common in the era of globalization. U.S. control response Haver compiled the report by sifting through thousands of public Chinese government procurement records and she said that she was struck by the sheer number of procurement documents. In response to the state violence that Chinese public security entities carry out, particularly in Xinjiang, the U.S. government has taken some steps in recent years to restrict the transfer of U.S. technology to them. The Export Control Reform Act of 2018 referred to items that have law enforcement-related applications and stipulated that the U.S. export control policy should serve to protect human rights. In 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security placed 21 Chinese public security entities (in addition to various Chinese companies) on an export licensing restrictions list. But Recorded Future report raised the question of the efficacy of current U.S. export control measures that target Chinese public security entities and the Chinese companies that support them. As third-party distributors and agents play such a prominent role in the technology transfer process, the U.S. government may find it difficult to implement effective export restrictions, Haver told RFA. This story has been updated to clarify the attribution of the research report. The move is a significant departure from market-oriented economic policies of the last four decades, analysts say. In a major departure from the market-oriented economic policy of the past 40 years, the Chinese Communist Party is moving to take greater control of technology and telecoms companies, with a return to the era of "joint ventures" between the state and private sector. China's market regulatory body approved a new joint venture between the investment arm of state-owned telecoms giant China Unicom and tech giant Tencent, the agency said in an announcement on its official website last week. The joint venture was "based on the strategic needs of the companys comprehensive advancement into the digital economy," according to statements filed by China Unicom to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Tencent brings to the deal a massive amount of data gleaned from its WeChat super app that provides social media, payments and messaging services to 1.4 billion people in China and beyond. However, Unicom Innovation Venture Capital will hold a 48% stake compared with Tencent subsidiary Shenzhen Tencent Industry Venture Capital's 42% stake, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported. Meanwhile, the Shanghai subsidiary of China Mobile signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Nov. 1 with e-commerce giant JD.com's subsidiary JD Technology. The goal of that joint venture is smart city technology, digital governance, big data and communications, Shanghai Securities News reported. Sources familiar with the private sector in China said further similar deals are expected by year's end, with major private tech firms assigned a state-owned "partner," meaning the state will effectively take control of at least some of their assets. The move follows a regulatory crackdown on privately owned tech giants in recent years. In July 2021, state-owned assets spokesman Peng Huagang said his agency would press ahead with "mergers" between private sector and state-owned companies, with takeovers implemented both by paid acquisitions and uncompensated nationalization, as well as share transfers. Huang Guangyu, chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd., shown in this 2006 file photo, and his wife are selling off their shares in their private retail empire GOME. Credit: Reuters Accelerating nationalization Hangzhou-based scholar Chang Yu said the nationalization process now appears to be accelerating in the wake of the Chinese Communist Party's 20th National Congress last month. "Everyone knows that this public-private 'partnership' only works in one direction," Chang told RFA. "Even before the party congress, the government was moving against [what they termed] the disorderly expansion of capital, and stopped allowing private companies to expand." "Now the party congress is over, they can speed up that process and take more drastic steps." Beijing-based commentator Wu Qiang said the moves are another indicator that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is taking China away from the market reforms introduced by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, and in the direction of a state-controlled economy similar to that of the Mao era. "This heralds an era of a planned economy as mentioned in [Xi Jinping's] report to the 20th party congress," Wu told RFA. "This will place private capital, particularly Tencent and JD.com, under the control of the government in Beijing." "Looking at the shareholding structure, it seems to be a hybrid kind of joint venture driven by ideology," he said. Wu said it was made clear during the party congress that nobody should be lobbying to protect or endorse major private companies. "The last protections and lobbying [attempts] for these huge online platforms have been removed," he said. Current affairs commentator Ma Ju said the purpose of the joint ventures was to ensure state control of resources and technology. "The aim of the cooperation agreements between China Unicom and Tencent and China Mobile and JD.com is [state] control over the flow of information and materials," Ma told RFA. "For [the Chinese Communist Party], anything relating to the internet is a matter of national security." "They are controlling these companies in exactly the way they did back in 1953, through public-private 'partnerships," he said. Political commentator Jiang Feng said some private companies could eventually be eliminated. "Private enterprises encourage a market economy, which goes against totalitarian rule, so they must be restricted or even eliminated," he told RFA's Asia Wants to Talk chat show. "They are laying the groundwork for a command economy." Chinas wealthy looking for an out Reports are emerging that China's wealthiest people are getting the message, with home electronics magnate Huang Guangyu and his wife selling off their shares in their private retail empire GOME, cashing out to the tune of H.K. $960 million (U.S. $122.3 million) and reducing the size of their stake from 51.5% to 42.8% across the course of this year. Nanjing-based retailer Xu Jing said many wealthy business owners are highly pessimistic about their future in China, and will leave if they can. "Wanting to leave and being allowed to leave aren't necessarily the same thing ... because [entrepreneurs may now be] on a government [border] control list because they have a lot of debt," Xu said. "Particularly real estate bosses." Changsha-based real estate insider Tian Hui gave a similar account. "Business is not good now; earnings are low, yet expenditures are ongoing," he said. "Returns are too slow, and there are bank loans [to pay back]." "[The wealthy] have been selling off famous artworks and properties ever since 2019, and they are taking the money to the United States to buy land and build properties there," he said. Scholar Ma Hong said in a joking reference to a 1980s Chinese rock anthem by Cui Jian, "Rock and Roll on the New Long March." "These rich people and bigwigs are all heading out on the new Long March, because now the government is promoting socialism in the new era," Ma said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Authorities have been slow to deliver on pledges of compensation and houses after 2018 disaster. New permanent homes for survivors of flooding from a 2018 saddle dam collapse at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower plant are seen in southern Laos in 2021. More than four years after a huge dam collapsed in southern Laos, sweeping away homes and flooding villages, about 100 families are still waiting for the houses and full compensation that authorities promised them. Instead, theyre living in small, temporary shelters that many describe as inadequate and unstable. They say officials tell them the houses, promised for September, will be ready in December, but theyre not holding their breath. The handover of our homes has been postponed, said one villager who, like other sources, requested anonymity for safety reasons. Its now already November, and were still waiting for our new homes. The July 23, 2018, collapse of the saddle dam at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower plant in Attapeu province killed 71 people and displaced more than 14,400. Authorities pledged to build new homes for them, pay compensation and provide one to two hectares of arable land so farmers could make a living by growing rice and vegetables. Some 700 houses have been built, and many residents have been resettled, but about 100 families are still waiting, displaced villagers said. The Lao government, which continues to plan and build hydropower dams at blistering speed despite grappling with crushing debt, has yet to rectify the problem, villagers said. Based on the latest relief and recovery plan, Lao authorities are scheduled to complete the construction of all new permanent homes this year. The Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Co. is financing the entire project at a cost of 828 billion kip, or roughly U.S.$50 million. Another villager recalled that authorities said they would finish building all new homes and hand them over to their owners in October, but all residents of Tamayod village and Samong-Tai village are still in limbo. The homes have not been completed yet, he said. They still live in the metal shelters as usual. Around the fourth anniversary of the disaster, Laotians affected by the flooding told RFA that while four years have been a sufficient amount of time to rebuild the saddle dam, survivors have been unable to rebuild their lives, given the lack of suitable temporary accommodations and delayed or reduced payments. In August, other survivors told RFA that they were still struggling to scratch out a living because much of the farmland that was underwater remained unusable. Attapeus provincial governor told Lao media in early September that since the disaster, officials had completed the most important work by improving the living conditions of the survivors. Work on building the remaining permanent houses is slow due to a lack of manpower, said another Laotian who lost a home during the disaster. From my observation, the construction of the permanent homes is too slow and has been delayed because only a few people are working on it, he said. I go looking at my [new] home often, and its not yet finished. They said that all new homes will be completed in December this year, the source added. The villager went on to say that government officials have not paid the sixth and final round of compensation to those affected by the dam collapse. They said well get paid sometime in December, but I think our chances of getting it next month are very slim, he said. An Attapeu province official acknowledged that the construction of the remaining permanent houses has been delayed. We will have to postpone the handover of the homes from October to December [because of] a shortage of workers, he told RFA Thursday. The workers say theyre having trouble getting paid. Authorities will pay the final round of compensation to affected villagers in December, he said, adding that officials are working on the matter with the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company. If the company agrees with the new assessment [of the property losses], then the survivors will get compensated for the last time in the upcoming month, the official said. If not, well have to do a new assessment. First of all, were speeding up the construction of the homes, then well pay the compensation. Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Promised high-paying jobs in Singapore and Dubai, they wound up in the murky Golden Triangle economic zone. The Kings Romans casino is seen across the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in northern Laos' Bokeo province, Januar, 2012. Authorities in Laos have rescued 11 Indian nationals who were lured to the Chinese-run Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in the north of the country and put to work as phone scammers, according to the Indian Embassy. The operation shines a light on the murky enclave in Bokeo province home to the Kings Roman Casino resort where many foreigners who were promised lucrative jobs end up held against their will by trafficking rings that exploit them under threat of violence. The Golden Triangle economic zone is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens situated along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. In 2018, the U.S. government sanctioned the Chinese tycoon who is said to run the SEZ as head of a trafficking network. Last week, Lao authorities acted on a tip from the Indian Embassy to rescue 11 Indians who had been held for more than a month by traffickers in the zone. They were recruited by unscrupulous middlemen to work as IT specialists in Dubai, Singapore and Thailand with offers of well-paying jobs and pre-arranged flights, visas and passports, according to Indian Embassy sources who discussed the situation off the record because they were unauthorized to speak to the press. Instead, they wound up in northern Laos, where they were forced to work in call centers largely unmonitored by authorities, calling people to solicit money for fraudulent investment schemes or engage in cryptocurrency scams. Rights groups estimate that at least 1,000 people from South and East Asia have been lured to work as scammers at the Golden Triangle zone, many of whom continue to be held against their will there. Extricated by Lao officials last week, the 11 workers were brought to the Lao border with Thailand and handed over to a team from the Indian Consulate in Chiang Mai, before being repatriated to India over the weekend via Bangkok, the Indian Embassy in Laos said in an announcement posted to its Facebook page. RFA Lao was unable to reach Lao authorities operating in the Golden Triangle economic zone or officials in the Indian Embassy in the Lao capital Vientiane for comment on the rescue operation. Conditions at scam centers A Lao national who previously worked as a scammer in the zone told RFA on condition of anonymity that trafficking is rife there and said several foreign nationals were being held against their will at the call center where he was located. There were three or four Indians and as many as 20 Thais working as scammers [when I was there], he said, adding that most foreign nationals being held at the zone at the time were Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese, although he also met Indonesians and Malaysians. The former scam center worker from Laos told RFA that if they follow orders, trafficked workers could earn U.S. $450-725 per month, depending on the number of people they scammed, while those who could speak Thai, Chinese, or Vietnamese could earn even more. But rules were strict and anyone who left the call center without informing members of the trafficking ring or escaped and was caught would face a serious punishment, he said. Despite the restrictions and the threat of punishment, the Lao national said that he planned to return to the zone again because I know how to do the work and they will hire me right away. In addition to luring unsuspecting foreign nationals through middlemen, scam centers also recruit workers through other means, the Lao national told RFA. During an outbreak of COVID-19 in August and September 2021, authorities in Bokeo province temporarily closed the Golden Triangle economic zone to force employers based there to allow their workers to return home and renegotiate hiring contracts, due to the slowdown of the economy. Instead of allowing them to return, he said, many of the centers simply sold their workers to trafficking rings who forced them to do the same work stipulated in their existing contracts, threatening them with beatings and imprisonment if they refused. Meanwhile, the worker said, Lao authorities cannot easily enter the Chinese-run zone, which operates largely beyond the reach of the Lao government, and are often unable to arrest ring leaders because the victims of the scams rarely report their losses to police. Nobody takes them to court because theres no proof, he said. Those who lose money dare not tell the police or take legal action. Foreigners targeted Chinese-run enclaves in Southeast Asia have come under heavy scrutiny in recent months after hundreds of Taiwanese nationals were rescued after being lured into human trafficking and abusive jobs scams in Cambodia, with many victims taken to work in Chinese-owned casinos in the coastal city of Sihanoukville. The government has so far registered 1,267 workers in the Golden Triangle zone, only a fraction of the total, although the exact number employed there is unknown, according to Lao officials. Efforts to register workers to protect them from human trafficking and other abuses have met with limited success because workers balk at paying the fees and fear that signing up will get them sent home, sources have told RFA. In addition to the 11 Indian workers rescued last week, authorities freed 44 Pakistanis from the zone on Oct. 20 and seven Malaysians on Oct. 6. Malaysian authorities have said there are 50-100 Malaysians still being held by traffickers in the zone. Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A 13-year-old boy and his grandmother died after being hit by shrapnel. Destroyed buildings in Zee Ka Nar village, which was shelled by the army on Nov. 3, 2022. Army shelling of a village in Sagaing regions Kanbalu township killed a teenager and his grandmother and injured two other members of the same family. A junta shell hit a house in Zee Ka Nar village on Thursday. The boy, Paing Set Hmu, was hit in the head and died instantly. His grandmother was also hit by shell fragments and died the next morning, locals told RFA. The boys seven-year old sister and a female relative in her 60s suffered minor injuries to their heads, hands and legs. Junta troops in Koe Taung Boet village fired a shell and it landed on a house in Zee Ka Nar village which is located in the west [of the township], a local said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. The whole family was injured. The 13-year-old boy, Paing Set Hmu, died immediately and his 68-year-old grandmother, Win, was hit in the abdomen and died this morning, he said. Junta forces shelled the nearby forest on the same day and fought skirmishes with local Peoples Defense Forces, the local said. Residents said troops stationed in Koe Taung Boet village arrested and interrogated around 10 locals after they attacked villages around the township. RFA has not been able to verify the information independently and calls to the junta spokesman for Sagaing region, Social Affairs Minister Aye Hlaing, went unanswered on Friday. Some 1,512 civilians died in Sagaing in the 21 months since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP) reported at the end of last month. Sagaing has the largest number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Myanmar since the coup, after intense fighting forced them to flee their villages. As of Oct. 19, there were more than 680,629 or 41 percent of the countrys IDPs in the region the independent research group said. The islands are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather. The South Pacific Ocean pounds the coastline of Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu, 19 February 2004. Pacific Island nations are among the most vulnerable to higher sea levels. Samoas environment minister says Pacific island nations want the international climate talks in Egypt this month to establish a basis for compensating developing countries for losses caused by climate change. Pacific island nations account for only a tiny fraction of the pollution that drives global warming, but are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather linked to higher average global temperatures. The risks over coming decades are particularly severe for low-lying atoll nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. We have to stand together as a Pacific family, if this situation is not remedied, the Pacific islands will face loss and damage issues, Samoas Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Toesulusulu Cedric Schuster, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Samoas Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, speaks at the Sydney Energy Forum in Sydney, Australia, July 13, 2022. Credit: Reuters Developing nations have for decades called for financial help to address loss and damage, a term in the U.N climate negotiations that covers the consequences of planet warming that go beyond what countries can adapt to, according to the World Resources Institute, a research organization. It includes economic losses and human trauma such as flooding of burial grounds and community relocation or migration. A few developed countries including Germany and New Zealand have signaled some support for such finance, but the United States, which is behind only China as a polluter, has not. The 27th annual U.N climate talks start on Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The annual talks between nearly 200 nations are widely known as COP, short for Conference of the Parties. It has the overarching goal of limiting the increase in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, though activists and scientists say emissions reductions have not been far-reaching enough to achieve that. Egypt has said that COP27 will be about moving from negotiation to implementation "One of the core issues that will be addressed at the COP is loss and damage which has been a long-standing concern for Samoa let alone the Pacific, said Schuster. It remains one of Samoas priorities and it's evident in the delegation numbers that will be attending the COP this year, he said. The United States and China are both vying for influence in the Pacific and their stances at the climate talks will give an indication of the authenticity of their commitment to the region, activists say. The United States has vowed a renewed focus on the Pacific in response to Chinas greater involvement in the region over the past two decades through development aid and infrastructure projects. Climate change is the single biggest security threat, the threat being our livelihoods, our wellbeing, said Lavetanalagi Seru, regional policy officer for the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, a non-governmental organization (NGO). If they are to work with the Pacific then they really need to consider what the Pacific island countries and leaders deem as a priority, he said. Samoas Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa told the United Nations General Assembly in September that action from the climate talks is a matter of survival for Pacific island nations and other small island states. "We should not put out the flame for loss and damage, she said. Natural disasters continue to devastate countless lives. Recent climate events are transboundary and drive home the reality that no country is immune to the impacts of climate change. Separately, Pacific island countries have created the Pacific Resilience Fund, which they hope will attract up to U.S. $1.5 billion for coping with climate change. Tongas Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said in September wealthy countries should contribute to the fund rather than only impose their own climate projects. The Pacific is competing with other developing nations for assistance and so far has got less than 1.0% of the money allocated by wealthy nations for climate projects, according to Seru. The hope is that these funds will directly go to supporting grassroots communities and NGOs, he said. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service. Solomon Islands police are under equipped but their weapons have previously been stolen and used in conflicts. Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale, Australian High Commissioner Lachlan Strahan, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, and Solomon Islands Police Commissioner Mostyn Mangau (left to right) with Daniels Defense MK18 rifles gifted by Australia to the Solomon Islands police force, on November 2, 2022 in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital. China and U.S. ally Australia have donated weapons and vehicles to the Solomon Islands police, sparking criticism their rivalry could cause new instability in a South Pacific country that spiraled into chaos only two decades ago. On Friday, China handed over two water cannon trucks, 30 motorbikes and 20 white utility vehicles emblazoned with the red China Aid logo. Two days earlier, Australia presented 60 MK18 rifles and 13 vehicles, some of which will be used in a new mobile protection unit for VIPs. Both countries also have been providing training in policing techniques. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare looks on as a member of Chinas police liaison team talks at the handover ceremony for vehicles that China donated to Solomon Islands police force, on Nov. 4, 2022 in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital. Credit:Gina Makaa It is clear Australia is anxious that if they do not supply guns then China will. Geopolitical interests have surpassed national interest in this country and it is a sad state of affairs, said Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale. The country of some 700,000 people has become a hot spot for the U.S.-China rivalry in the Pacific. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavares government switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019 and signed a secret security pact with Beijing earlier this year. China, along with countries such as Australia and Indonesia, is also helping to bankroll the Pacific Games in the capital Honiara next year. The new weapons have caused concern in the Solomon Islands and abroad. Several years of instability around the turn of the century, fueled by stolen police equipment, still looms large for Solomon Islanders, who call the period The Tensions. Corruption, ethnic strife and political divides made the country seem ungovernable and culminated in an Australian-led military intervention from 2003 until 2017. Vehicles donated by China to the Solomon Islands police force are on display at a handover ceremony in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on November 4, 2022. Photo: Gina Makaa Sogavare, speaking at the ceremony for the handover of Chinas equipment, said people who see a better equipped police force through a negative lens should consider that it has a responsibility to protect the lives and welfare, liberty, property of all people in this country. He said riots in Honiara in November last year which torched the citys Chinatown and were linked to the change of diplomatic recognition and earlier public unrest, showed the consequences of a lack of police capacity. We must have the capacity as our first line of defense and not depend on others, Sogavare said. Mihai Sora, an analyst at Australias Lowy Institute and former diplomat in the Solomon Islands, said community concerns about the gifts of water cannon, high-powered rifles and vehicles are well founded. There is a risk that the donated weapons and water cannons could be misused against protesters, further inflaming local tensions, he said. It appears that Australias hand was forced as it tries to retain its relationship with the Solomon Islands police in the face of the governments increasingly close police and security ties with China, Sora said. Vehicles donated by Australia to the Solomon Islands police force on display at a handover ceremony in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on November 2, 2022. Credit: Australian High Commission handout Chinas ambassador to the Solomon Islands, Li Ming, said Chinas donation of equipment is meant to improve the capacity of Solomon Islands police. We are fully opposed to any geopolitical games. What we are doing is to provide necessary assistance to Solomon Islands government and people to help maintain the safety, security and public order of the country, he said on Friday. Australias High Commission to the Solomon Islands said earlier in the week that there are stringent training and safeguards for the rifles that Australia has provided. The weapons are part of a police rearming that began in 2013 and would be used by a specialized police response team as a last-resort option only, it said. In the wrong hands it will all go wrong, but the police do need equipment, and water cannons are better than bullets, said Clive Moore, a University of Queensland professor who authored a Solomon Islands encyclopedia. But every time this happens it moves the Solomons further away from unarmed community policing. Its part of a drift that suits Sogavare, he said. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service. Another detained Uyghur also dies shortly after his release from jail. Tudahun Nurehmet, former chief of the Achatagh Hospital in Uchturpan county, Aksu prefecture, in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, in an undated photo. A Uyghur doctor sentenced to eight years in prison in Chinas northwestern Xinjiang region for removing a bullet from the foot of a suspected criminal, died shortly after being released from prison in September, local police and people with knowledge of the situation said. Tudahun Nurehmet, also known by the surname Mahmud, was the former chief of the Achatagh Hospital in Uchturpan (in Chinese, Wushi) county, Aksu (Akesu) prefecture. In 2013, he was sentenced for treating a person Chinese authorities identified as a terrorist who was wounded during a clash in Aksu's Aykol (Ayikule) township in August of that year. On that day, a brawl between Muslim Uyghurs and police broke out during a security check of a mosque on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr Islamic festival marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. During the altercation, police fired at unarmed people, killing three Uyghurs and wounding 20 others, RFA reported. Those who were wounded either were taken to the hospital or left the area and sought treatment on their own, according to a policeman who was at the scene. It was at one of these hospitals that Tudahun apparently treated one of the wounded, fulfilling his role as a doctor which later got him arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison because the patient was identified as a terrorist. Kidney disease in prison Tudahun was released to his family because of his deteriorating health and died of kidney complications on Sept. 18, according to a person named Nurxenim Uyghur who posts information about the deaths of Uyghurs in Xinjiang on Facebook. A police officer in the town of Achatagh said Tudahun served his sentence in Urumqis No. 6 prison, though he did not have information about the physicians death. A village policeman from Achatagh said Tudahun, the father of two children, was released one year ago and had a severe kidney problem and could not walk. He was healthy before his arrest and died due to a kidney disease that developed during his prison time, the police officer said. A second village police officer from the area told RFA that Tudahun was accused of protecting a crime suspect because he treated that persons wound, but he could not provide the suspects name or the place where he received medical care. They did not tell us whom he treated, he said. It was due to an incident that took place on Eid day. Tudahun was taken away on the third day of Eid, the village policeman said. I dont know if the wounded people came to the hospital or if he went to treat them. I heard he treated the terrorists and was therefore accused of aiding them. A village Communist Party secretary in Achatagh said Tudahun was sentenced to eight years for removing a bullet from the foot of a wounded suspect involved in the August 8th incident in Aksu, referring to the deadly clashes. He was arrested because he hid the situation of a person who got shot, and he treated him, he said. But he said Tudahun was a very skilled physician who treated patients from other towns and villages. The party secretary said Tudahun treated the suspect on the day the incident occurred, and when the suspect was arrested on the second day, he exposed Tudahun, and police subsequently arrested the doctor. He was taken from his home, the secretary said. As for the suspect, he left after receiving medical treatment and was later arrested at another location. Another death after release In a similar case of an Uyghur individual dying after being released from prison, 27-year-old Alimjan Abdureshit from the town of Toqquzaq (Tuokezhake) in Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture, died on Oct. 2, about 40 days after his release from a prison or an internment camp, according to the same the Facebook page of Nurxenim Uyghur. He was detained for five years for participating in illegal religious activities. A staffer at a neighborhood committee in Kashgar Yengisheher (Shule) county told RFA that police took away the body of Abdurishit, who died from a combination of illness and starvation during a recent coronavirus lockdown there. RFA reported earlier that authorities in Xinjiang have been collecting the bodies of deceased Uyghurs, many of whom died of starvation or lack of medical treatment during lockdowns, without informing their relatives whether their corpses would be handled according to Islamic burial rituals. Abdureshit lived in downtown Toqquzaq when police took the former school security guard to the internment camp in 2017, said an expatriate from the county who has knowledge of the situation. A neighborhood committee staffer in Kashgar Yengisheher said authorities took Abdurishit away to receive so-called education while he was working at a middle school. Abdureshit was healthy before his detainment, he said, though he did not know if the young man had been ill when he was released or if he died because of starvation during the lockdown. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Reported in English by Roseanne Gerin. Trinh Ba Tu's father was turned back this week after two unsuccessful trips to the prison last month. Trinh Ba Tu who claims he was beaten and chained by guards at Prison Camp No. 6. Jailed land rights activist Trinh Ba Tu is being denied family visits at Prison Camp No. 6 in Vietnams bleak Ngha An province after he started a hunger strike nearly two months ago to protest against prison guards beating him. He started to refuse food on Sept. 6 and told his father later that month he had been put in solitary confinement, beaten and shackled. At the end of September, right after Tus father Trinh Ba Khiem returned from prison, his family filed a petition to the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the accusations. The ministry replied that the family should send the petition to the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province. So far, his family has not received a response. Tu was also denied two visits from his father last month and the punishments show no signs of ending, even though its unclear whether he is still on hunger strike. Tus father went to the prison on Thursday and asked to see his son but his request was refused. He was told he couldn't make another appointment for more than two weeks. "I went in there for about an hour to submit the [appointment] book. Then a prison officer came out and said that Tu was still being disciplined so I couldn't send him things or see my child until November 21. I don't know if Tu has stopped his hunger strike yet, and I don't know what the situation is yet. The Prison Camp 6 warden said nothing more. Khiem said the warden he spoke with was called Loc who was a captain of the local management team for political prisoners. RFA Vietnamese called the prison on Thursday to verify Khiems claims but no one answered the phone. Prisoners normally have the right to a one-hour monthly visit from their relatives, to make a 10-minute phone call every month and to receive provisions from their families. Khiem said he was extremely worried about his son's health, especially since two political prisoners died while serving their sentences in the prison. In 2019, former teacher Dao Quang Thuc died in the prison while serving a 13-year sentence. This August, citizen journalist Do Cong Duong also died there. Both men were healthy before being transferred to the prison camp. Trinh Ba Tu, 33, his brother Trinh Ba Phuong, 37, and their mother Can Thi Theu, 60, were arrested in mid-2020 on charges of "conducting propaganda against the state" for speaking out strongly on social networks about the Dong Tam land rights dispute. The dispute centered on construction of a military airport opposed by villagers south of Hanoi. The ensuing January 2020 clash left a popular local leader and three policemen dead. Twenty-nine villagers were arrested, and many were given stiff sentences. At the beginning of May last year, Tu and his mother were sentenced to eight years in prison and three years probation each. Phuong was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prison No. 6 is located in the region with the harshest climate in the Central region. Many former prisoners have told RFA that the guards are particularly brutal to prisoners of conscience. Vietnamese lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan spoke to RFA about a Nov. 1 meeting with U.S. officials in the run-up to the 26th U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue. On Nov. 1, Vietnamese rights lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan attended a meeting between representatives from the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and family members of several jailed political dissidents at the eve of the 26th U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue held on Nov. 2. Radio Free Asia spoke to him about the meeting on Nov. 3. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. RFA: What were your recommendations for the U.S. government at the meeting regarding human rights in Vietnam? Ngo Anh Tuan: The meeting was held on the eve of the annual U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue. I came to the meeting at their [the U.S. governments] invitation and was the only lawyer there. I cant repeat what I said verbatim but here are the key things that I raised: Firstly, Vietnam should hold dialogues with political dissidents and utilize their knowledge and talents for the countrys development. President Ho Chi Minh did this after establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which had been seen as an appropriate policy. Unfortunately, they [the current Vietnamese government] dont do it now. Secondly, [Vietnam] has to amend or remove the harsh provisions relating to freedom of speech in its current Penal Code as they contradict Vietnams 2013 Constitution and human rights treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory. Thirdly, [Vietnam] must immediately stop using its Departments of Information and Communications (DOICs) to assess peoples thoughts and ideologies and accuse them [instead of] investigation and procuracy agencies and judges. As long as these practices arent eliminated, DOIC assessors should be summoned to trials to clarify what they have assessed and respond to defense lawyers. Currently, DOIC assessors avoid attending hearings. While the current law stipulates that all the evidence to accuse a defendant must be clarified at the trial, Ive never seen any judiciary assessors at any trials that I have attended. RFA: Were there any lawyers giving similar recommendations? What are your expectations for the implementation of these recommendations? Ngo Anh Tuan: I did not ask how many lawyers they had invited but I was the only lawyer at the meeting. I dont expect all of my recommendations will be implemented right away as it would be too ambitious for a dialogue like this. It would also be challenging to realize the easiest thing in my first recommendation. Some minor issues can be done at the moment. RFA: Suppose they could only implement one of the three recommendations, which one would you like to prioritize? Ngo Anh Tuan: We want all of them to be implemented. However, what I think they can do now is the third one, i.e., the assessment of peoples thoughts and ideologies. I believe people from investigative agencies, the procuracy and the courts realize this legal flaw. If assessors are allowed to [freely] make accusations, they will be able to easily charge people for so many things. It is unacceptable that they [the assessors] examine the ideological side and then conclude the objective side of a crime. By doing so, they have made accusations before [the judicial system]. This goes against all legal principles of both Vietnam and the world. Lawyers have raised this issue many times with them and I think they also want a change. However, they wont be able to do so if the current regulations are not amended. RFA: Lawyers often encounter unpleasant or even illegal acts from authorities. Why didnt you raise this issue in your recommendations? Ngo Anh Tuan: I think the oppression against lawyers is not that serious but the disrespect for lawyers is a matter of fact. However, we [lawyers] put clients interests before ours. If we face difficulties, we still can fight against them while our clients are in much more disadvantaged situations. Our clients and ordinary people out there are much more vulnerable and disadvantaged than us. It is more appropriate for the Vietnam Bar Federation or provincial bar associations to speak up for lawyers' rights. I choose to speak up for people's rights as people's interests should outweigh lawyers'. RFA: You have said that freedom and democracy wont come without effort and we have to create them and create opportunities for people around us instead of waiting for others to bring freedom and democracy to us. Could you elaborate on this? Ngo Anh Tuan: I believe most intellectuals are knowledgeable enough to realize this but they may think this is someone elses job, not theirs. They also understand that we need to join hands to make the country a better place but they also think its OK if that does not include their hands. A Vietnamese saying goes: Lead the charge if its a party. Follow others if its a march across waters. They would think: As the pioneers have raised their hand, we can stand behind them and will raise our hand when success is almost there. Politics is not something super. It affects everyone, including us and our family members. For example, an inappropriate administrative decision creates difficulties for ordinary people, including us. Familiar things like land and salary issues are also politics. Society will be better if everyone speaks up against injustice and wrongdoings. Everyone can make contributions but many chose to forgo their rights. If everyone thinks we dont need to speak up since the person next to us will do it, society, of course, will be at a standstill. RFA: Do you hope that human rights in Vietnam will be improved after each human rights dialogue between the U.S. and Vietnam? Ngo Anh Tuan: In this meeting, an officer asked me if they [the U.S. government] could help in any way. I bluntly asked back: Why did you ask that question? Can you really help? I also attended a similar meeting with the EUs representatives before their human rights dialogue with Vietnam which seems to not have borne many fruits. Meanwhile, Ms. Erin Barclay, a senior official from the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was very enthusiastic. She said that the U.S. government shared my thoughts and that she would make every effort regardless of whether the issue is small or big. She said she hoped that Vietnam would make progress and that positive changes would come. RFA: Thank you very much. MINSK -- The Belarusian Interior Ministry has added two RFE/RL journalists to its list of extremists amid an ongoing crackdown on independent media, opposition politicians, rights activists, and democratic institutions. People on the list are not eligible for a pardon, and those who are free can be stopped from leaving or entering the country. Losik, who already had an extremism label attached to his prison clothing, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December last year on charges that remain unclear. Hruzdzilovich was released in September after serving 18 months in prison for being present at mass protests challenging the official results of the 2020 presidential election that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office. He is currently in Lithuania. Another jailed RFE/RL correspondent, Andrey Kuznechyk, was added earlier to the list of extremists in Belarus. Kuznechyk was sentenced to six years in prison in June on a charge of creating an extremist group. Losik, Hruzdzilovich, and Kuznechyk have maintained their innocence, calling the cases against them politically motivated. The jailed husband of exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Syarhey Tsikhanouski, opposition politician Mikalay Statkevich, and other jailed activists and public figures are among the individuals added to the Belarusian Interior Ministrys list of extremists on November 4. In all, 1,714 men and women have been added to the list, most of whom were sentenced on politically motivated charges. Many of them have been recognized as political prisoners by domestic and international human rights groups. The ongoing crackdown was sparked by unprecedented mass rallies challenging the results of the August 2020 presidential poll. Security forces used sometimes deadly force as they violently detained tens of thousands of people. Much of the opposition leadership since the election has been jailed or forced into exile. Several protesters have been killed and there also have been credible reports of torture. Belarusian authorities have also shut down several nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets. The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown ordered by officials. The coaches of the U.S. and Iranian soccer teams have said that they do not want to get caught up in a game of political football when their sides clash for a chance to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup. "I envision the game being hotly contested for the fact that both teams want to advance to the next round -- not because of politics or because of relations between our countries," U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said ahead of the November 29 showdown at Al-Thumama Stadium in Qatar. "Our preparation starts with a good rest, refresh the minds, and put all the complementary and garbage things outside of our minds," said Carlos Queiroz, the Portuguese head coach of Iran's national team. But as the two coaches attempt to keep the focus on the playing field with either team assured of advancing to the next round with an outright victory, a political fever pitch looms over the game pitting two countries that severed relations more than 40 years ago and are open rivals on the world stage. The World Cup has been a showcase of discord in Iran since the tournament kicked off on November 20, with Tehran's deadly crackdown on ongoing anti-government demonstrations leading to fresh U.S. sanctions against Iranian officials and dividing the country's fan base. The Iranian team has faced immense pressure from the authorities and protesters alike to take sides amid the demonstrations, which are seen as one of the greatest threats to Iran's clerical establishment since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The nationwide demonstrations erupted following the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman who died shortly after she was arrested for allegedly violating the state-mandated requirement that women wear the hijab, or head scarf. According to rights watchdogs, at least 450 people have been killed and more than 15,000 detained in the government crackdown. Some fans have honored Amini's memory by wearing "Mahsa Amini-22" shirts in a nod to her age when she died. In an apparent sign of solidarity with demonstrators, members of the Iranian team did not sing the country's national anthem ahead of their first game, a 6-2 loss to England that was blamed partly on outside distractions. But the players did join in singing what anti-government demonstrators have called the "blood anthem" ahead of the second game, a 2-0 win against Wales on November 25. While that result was cause for mass celebration, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reported from Qatar that a group of pro-government fans who waved the flag of the Islamic republic harassed and intimidated a group of Iranian supporters who aired their grievances against the clerical regime. Following the Wales match, a former coach of the U.S. team, Jurgen Klinsmann, came under fire for his postgame comments. Speaking as a pundit on the BBC, Klinsmann said the Iranian team "worked the referee." "They work the linesman and fourth official, they are constantly in their ear," he said. "There were a lot of incidents we didn't see. This is their culture, they take you off your game." Queiroz -- who coached Iran during two stints from 2011 to 2019 and was once hired by U.S. Soccer to develop a road map for the United States to win a World Cup by 2010 -- responded with a torrent of tweets defending Iranian culture and his team. He said Klinsmann's comments were a "disgrace to football." Just days before the decisive group match, the U.S. Soccer Federation triggered a row when it temporarily displayed Iran's green, white, and red flag without the emblem of the Islamic republic in a social-media post. The Iranian government responded angrily, with Iran's hard-line Tasnim news agency calling for the U.S. team to be kicked out of the World Cup and suspended for 10 games. The post was eventually removed, with U.S. Soccer explaining that the intention had been to show "support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights" by displaying the Iranian tricolor without the emblem for 24 hours. Back in Iran, former members of the Iranian national soccer team have apparently been punished for supporting the ongoing demonstrations. Voria Ghafouri, who has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian establishment and was surprisingly left out of this year's World Cup squad, was reportedly arrested on November 24, just days after expressing sympathy for Amini's family and calling for an end to the violent crackdown on protesters in his and Amini's native western Kurdistan region. Iranian state media reported that the 35-year-old Ghafouri had been arrested for "insulting the national soccer team and propagandizing against the government." Ghafouri earlier this month tweeted that "it is better to die standing than to live kneeling." In June, he was accused by an Iranian official of being a Kurdish separatist after the player tweeted the word "Kurdistan" twice. Iranian media reported that Ghafouri has been released on bail. But rights groups said he had been transferred from western Iran to a prison in the capital, Tehran. Pressure has also been placed on an Iranian soccer legend, Ali Daei, who said he chose not to travel to Qatar due to the government's crackdown and said on social media on November 28 he had received "numerous threats against myself and my family in recent months and days." The Black Reward hacktivist group, which has targeted Iranian government institutions and infrastructure, added to fears that Tehran was targeting fans by leaking recordings this week purporting to reveal an Iranian pro-government militia commander saying that Qatar had provided a list of Iranians who had purchased tickets to the World Cup, allowing the Iranian authorities to identify 500 individuals known for anti-government activities. While Iran could progress with a draw on November 29, it cannot afford to lose if it wants to advance to the last 16. The United States has no option but to win. The U.S. players have said they were unaware that U.S. Soccer had planned to publish its controversial flag post, while also publicly declaring their support for women's rights. The day before the big match, U.S. coach Berhalter was apologetic for the flag post but also insistent that he was not focusing on the controversies leading up to it. "Of course, our thoughts are with the Iranian people, the whole country, the whole team, everyone, but our focus is on this match," he said on November 28. Doctors for former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have recommended against transporting him to the Tbilisi City Court building from a clinic where he has been treated since May despite his desire to take part in a hearing in a case against him. Saakashvili had expressed his desire to be transferred to the court to attend the hearing on a charge of illegal border crossing filed last year, and it had been expected that he would speak at the trial. But his attending physician said it would be inappropriate, based on the fact that he could not take responsibility for the possible deterioration of Saakashvili's health during the transfer. Judge Nino Chakhnashvili decided on another postponement of the trial after receiving the doctors' recommendation. Court hearings have been repeatedly canceled or postponed because the 54-year-old Saakashvili, who held two separate hunger strikes earlier this year, has been unable to appear in court for health reasons. Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president from 2004 until 2013, is the founder of the main opposition United National Movement (ENM) party. The ENM believes that the authorities are trying to conceal the state of Saakashvili's health. Representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party disagree, saying that Saakashvili's public appearance would only be a publicity stunt. Saakashvili, who cannot move independently, had decided that he would arrive at the trial in a special wheelchair, according to one of his lawyers, Shavla Khachapuridze, who added that his condition was "serious" and that his defense team had been told by phone from abroad that arsenic was found in his blood. Nika Melia, chairman of the ENM, said that had Saakashvili appeared in court it would have confirmed the conclusions of several foreign experts who have spoken about the deterioration of his health and would have confirmed the comments of people who have visited him that his condition has deteriorated sharply since his transfer from prison to the Vivamed clinic. The authorities do not want this to be disclosed to the public because it would conflict with "propaganda" circulating in the media that Saakashvili and his defenders have exaggerated his condition, Melia said. Saakashvili was convicted in January 2018 in absentia of abuse of office and sentenced to three years in prison. Later that year he was again convicted in absentia of abuse of office and sentenced to six years in prison. He was arrested on October 1, 2021, after he returned to the country to rally the opposition ahead of local elections. Saakashvili and his supporters say all his prosecutions were politically motivated. Georgia has been plagued by political paralysis and escalating tensions between Georgian Dream and the opposition since parliamentary elections in 2020. The crisis has been exacerbated by the arrest of Saakashvili, who doctors say suffers from severe post-traumatic stress and anorexia that most likely developed after his hunger strikes. They said in May that he needed urgent and complex neuro-psychological and physical treatment. Even before Saakashvili was transferred to the Vivamed clinic his relatives, friends, and colleagues demanded the authorities allow him to travel abroad to receive medical treatment. The regional police chief in the north of Kosovo has been suspended after he was accused of refusing to implement the government's policy on phasing out license plates issued by Serbia when Kosovo was still part of the country. Nenad Djuric was suspended after the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo announced on November 3 that he is suspected of criminal offenses related to his refusal to implement the plan. Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Svecla said that the refusal to implement the governments decisions represents a serious threat to the security and stability of Kosovo. The Kosovo police is one [force] and all its members should have the same mission: the rule of law and the creation of a safe environment for all citizens regardless of difference, Svecla said on Facebook. We will not allow any action that violates this mission, and together with the Kosovo Police we will continue its implementation. The main party representing Serbs in Kosovo, Serbian List, said that the decision to suspend Djuric was illegal. Goran Rakic, chairman of the party, said that the Serbs should "strengthen and build" their own institutions in northern Kosovo in cooperation with Serbia. Rakic said that he has called an extraordinary meeting of the Serbian List with the mayors of four municipalities in the north of Kosovo with Serbian majorities. The meeting will be held after the "illegal and anti-Serbian decision" to suspend Djuric, he said. Radic said he will call on Serbs to vacate institutions in the north, including judicial, police, and other institutions. Meanwhile, the head of the office for Kosovo in the Serbian government, Petar Petkovic, told a news conference on November 3 that Djuric was suspended because "he stood in defense of the Serbian people." He questioned what mistake Djuric had made by refusing to participate in the decisions of Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, which are political." Djuric said on November 2 that the police in the north would not implement the government's decision to issue warnings to drivers who have cars with license plates issued by Serbia. Djuric was appointed regional police commander in the north in June 2013 after Kosovo and Serbia reached the first agreement on the normalization of relations in the dialogue mediated by the European Union. The agreement stated that the regional commander in the four municipalities with Serbian majority is to be appointed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo has attempted several times this year to require its Serb minority to change their old car plates from before 1999 when Kosovo was still part of Serbia. Authorities began implementing the latest plan to phase out old vehicle license plates on November 1. Kurti announced the plan last week, saying drivers would first be given warnings during an initial three-week period starting on November 1. That is to be followed by a two-month period when 150 euro ($149) fines will be issued. There will then be another two-month period during which temporary license plates will be valid. If drivers do not change their plates by April 21, their vehicles will be confiscated, according to the government decree. Kosovo and Serbia fought a war in 1998-99, with Kosovo eventually declaring independence from Serbia in 2008. Ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo have been using car plates issued by Serbian institutions since the end of the war with the acronyms of Kosovar cities such as KM (Kosovska Mitrovica), PR (Pristina), or UR (Urosevac). The government in Kosovo regards the plates as illegal but until now has tolerated them in four northern municipalities with Serb majorities. BISHKEK -- Police in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, have released journalist Sanrabia Satybaldieva, who is pregnant with her second child, after detaining her and a cameraman overnight on an extortion charge she says is an attempt to frame her. The Interior Ministry said in a statement on November 4 that Satybaldieva and and cameraman Kalys Ashirbaev, who work for the MIR24.kg news website, are suspected of extorting $2,000 from lawmakers, allegedly blackmailing them with unspecified compromising audio recorded in 2016-17. Satybaldieva, whose reporting has been critical of the government, said that she is being "framed" by the chief of the State Committee of National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, and his brother Shairbek. "I cannot say everything now as the investigation is under way. They all colluded and framed me. I will reveal everything after I am released.," Satybaldieva said. Doctors rushed to see Satybaldieva at a police station overnight after she felt unwell. Abdirasulova added that Satybaldieva was rushed to hospital from a police station overnight after she felt unwell. Despite the doctors warning that she should stay under their care or risk losing her child, police took her back into custody. They were later forced again to visit her after her condition worsened a second time, Abdirasulova said. Satybaldieva said on November 4 that she had been released so she could go to a hospital for treatment. She was ordered not to leave Bishkek until the investigations against her are over. Ashirbaev's pretrial restrictions will be decided on by a court on November 5. Kyrgyz Ombudswoman Atyr Abdrakhmatova told RFE/RL that she met with Satybaldieva earlier in the day and stressed that the journalists' rights were violated by police. "Despite doctors' orders to take her to a hospital, Sanrabia was brought to a detention center, where she fainted. Doctors came twice and were surprised that she was not hospitalized. It is a cruel and inhumane attitude. The investigator who detained her must be held accountable," Abdrakhmatova said. Rights groups have warned recently that Kyrgyz authorities have increased efforts to control and censor mass media amid a broader crackdown on freedom of expression and civil society. The Kyrgyz government on October 26 blocked the website of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, after the broadcaster refused to take down a video, produced by Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. The video reported on clashes at the border with Tajikistan. Officials claimed the segment "predominantly" took the position of the Tajik side, an accusation RFE/RL rejects. The government has since frozen Radio Azattyk's bank account without explanation. The detainment of Satybaldieva and Ashirbaev came the same day that another Kyrgyz journalist, Semetei Talas-uulu, was placed under house arrest on an extremism charge that he and his supporters reject as politically motivated. In September, a court in Bishkek convicted the director of the NEXT television channel, Taalaibek Duishembiev, and handed him a suspended three-year prison sentence over the airing of a report related to Russias war in Ukraine. Duishembiev has maintained his innocence. Russia launched more kamikaze drones on infrastructure and civilian targets in southeastern Ukraine, officials said on November 4, as extensive damage to the power grid left millions of Ukrainians without electricity, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accuse Moscow of "energy terrorism." 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, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovskov region, said the Ukrainian military destroyed eight Iranian Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones in the region's southern Nikopol district. "Our air defense did a great job this night. Eight enemy Shaheds downed," Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. It was the second day in a row that Nikopol was targeted by Russian drones. Reznichenko said Russian troops also pounded four settlements in the same district -- Myrivska, Chervonogrigorivska, Marganetska, and Nikopolska -- with Grad rockets and artillery fire, damaging a gas pipeline and a power line and destroying residential buildings. Russian troops regularly bombard the Dnipropetrovsk region, one of Ukraine's steelmaking hubs, with various types of weapons. Moscow denies its attacks on civilians in Ukraine. Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on November 3 that millions of Ukrainians were temporarily without power due to the Russian attacks. "Tonight, about 4.5 million consumers have been temporarily disconnected from energy consumption," Zelenskiy said. "The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way." Russia has been targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other civilian buildings with missile, drone, and artillery attacks for several weeks amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has driven Russian troops out of the northeast and pushed them back in the east and southeast. Over the past days, however, despite heavy fighting, there has been no significant change on the ground on the eastern and southern Ukraine fronts, with preparations building for a fight over the southern city of Kherson. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainian citizens from Kherson to Russia. "The Russian occupation administration has begun mass forced relocation of residents of the left bank [of the Dnieper River] of the Kherson regionto the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea or the Russian Federation," the ministry said in a statement on November 3. Similar deportations are also being carried out by Russia in the Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions, as well as in Crimea, the ministry said. Russia in September proclaimed to have seized the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Donetsk following referendums condemned by Kyiv and the West as shams. Volodymyr Saldo, the Russia-appointed head of Kherson, announced on October 31 an expansion of what Russia has called the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens. Saldo said he was moving people further into the region or to Russia because of the risks of a "massive missile attack." Just three days earlier, the Russian-installed officials announced that the evacuation process in Kherson region had ended. Kyiv reiterated on November 3 that it saw the move as a "deportation." It also said reports continue to circulate about the alleged mining of the Nova Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant by Russian troops. Zelenskiy previously said that Ukraine suspects Russia has mined the dam and units of the power plant on the Dnieper River, and that if it were blown up, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, would be in danger of flooding. The Foreign Ministry statement also accused Russian troops of looting industrial, cultural, educational, and medical institutions, as well as private houses and apartments. Russian forces also removed roadblocks in Kherson. The head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich, believes that they did this to create the illusion that Russian forces have left the city. WATCH: Near Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces often rely on artillery from the 1970s and '80s. The front line there is one of the most hotly contested areas. The soldiers say that although the Soviet-era weaponry is old, it is still very effective. It was also reported that the Russian flag was removed from the Kherson regional administration building. The head of the joint coordination press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Natalya Humenyuk, said that this could be a provocation. The loss of Kherson, which Russian troops captured in March in the early days of the war, would signal a significant retreat. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asked to comment on the battlefield situation in southern Ukraine, said he believes Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region have the capacity to retake the territory on the west side of the Dnieper River and Kherson city from Russian troops. With reporting by Reuters Over the past five years, Iranian officials and state media have touted the "indigenous" ingenuity in the Islamic republic's mass-produced Mohajer-6 combat drone, which Russia has deployed in its war against Ukraine. But a new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, has found that electronic components underpinning Tehran's production of the Mohajer-6 are far from homegrown. The Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of such technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes dual-use technology. The presence of these components in the Mohajer-6 does not mean their producers are in violation of U.S. or EU sanctions, and RFE/RL does not have evidence that this is the case. The investigation also found Mohajer-6 components produced in China, including a real-time mini-camera made by a Hong Kong firm that said it was "very sorry" that its products were being used in war. At least one major foreign-produced component of the Mohajer-6 has previously been identified by reporters in a Mohajer-6 recovered from the battlefield by the Ukrainian military: an engine made by the Austrian manufacturer BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Bombardier Recreational Products. But Ukrainian intelligence assesses that the Iranian combat drone contains components from nearly three dozen different technology companies based in North America, the EU, Japan, and Taiwan, the Schemes investigation has found. A majority of these companies are based in the United States. A Schemes reporter who personally inspected the foreign-made drone parts identified components produced by at least 15 of these manufacturers. These include parts made by the U.S. technology firm Texas Instruments, which said in a statement that it does not sell into Russia or Iran and complies with applicable laws and regulations. To identify these components, Schemes reporters examined parts of the Mohajer-6 drone that the Ukrainian military shot down over the Black Sea near the Mykolayiv region coastal town of Ochakiv. They also reviewed Ukrainian intelligence records on the sources of these components. The drone also contains a microchip bearing the logo of a California technology company and a thermal-imaging camera that Ukrainian intelligence says may have been produced by a firm based in Oregon or China. Both Western officials and experts on illicit technology transfers say Iran has built a broad, global procurement network using front companies and other proxies in third countries to obtain dual-use technology from the United States and the EU. "Exporters will look at the request coming from the [United Arab Emirates] or another third country, and they'll think that they're selling to an end user based there, when really the end user is in Iran," Daniel Salisbury, a senior research fellow with the Department of War Studies at King's College London, told RFE/RL. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions specifically targeting Iranian companies that Washington links to the production and transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia for deployment in its war on Ukraine. Fighting rages with no sign of an end more than eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked invasion on February 24. "Non-Iranian, non-Russian entities should also exercise great caution to avoid supporting either the development of Iranian UAVs or their transfer, or sale of any military equipment to Russia for use against Ukraine," U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement announcing the sanctions. Chinese Cameras, California Chips Development of the Mohajer-6, the latest model in a series of drones Tehran has used since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, began in 2017, while mass production began the following year. During a ceremony commemorating the Islamic Revolution, then-Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said that the new tactical drone could perform surveillance, reconnaissance, as well as help destroy targets. Hatami extolled what he described as the drones domestic design, a portrayal echoed in later reports by Iranian media. "The homegrown drone was made through cooperation among the army, Defense Ministry, and Quds Aviation Industries," the English-language Tehran Times quoted an Iranian military official as saying in July 2019. The dismantling of the Mohajer-6 drone recovered by the Ukrainian military shows that the UAV is packed with foreign components. One of these parts is a bright-orange real-time mini-camera produced by the Hong Kong-based company RunCam Technology. Documents seen by Schemes show that Ukrainian intelligence has also identified RunCam as the producer of the camera, which likely assists in remote guidance of the drone. Founded in 2013, RunCam is involved in the development and production of so-called "first-person-view" real-time cameras. "Our users are our friends," the company's website states. The site says that RunCam has two authorized Iranian dealers. Reached by Schemes for comment about the use of its camera in the Iranian drone deployed by Russia in its war on Ukraine, RunCam said in an e-mailed response: "We are very sorry to know that RunCam's products were used in warfare. RunCam is specialized in producing products for model aircraft hobby. We never contact any customer related to military." The provenance of the Mohajer-6 drone-s thermal-imaging camera is more difficult to determine. A Ukrainian intelligence assessment reviewed by Schemes indicates it could be the Ventus Hot model produced by Sierra-Olympic Technologies, based in the U.S. state of Oregon, but that it also resembles a cheaper analog available for sale by the Chinese company Qingdao Thundsea Marine Technology. Qingdao Thundsea Marine Technology said in an e-mailed statement that the company did not "have any business with Iran," because "it will affect our business." The company said it specializes in marine services and is not involved in manufacturing. It also said that it did not have a single successful order for its online advertisement of the thermal-imaging camera resembling the one recovered from the Iranian drone. Sierra-Olympic Technologies did not respond to a request for comment on the possible use of its thermal-imaging cameras in Iranian combat drones in time for publication. Microchips recovered from the drone also featured the logos of the California-based company Linear Technology Corporation and its parent company, the Massachusetts-based semiconductor company Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI). ADI did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment on the possible use of its technology in the Iranian combat drone. Schemes reporters also observed among the components of the Iranian drone a voltage step-down converter produced by Texas Instruments. The company said in an e-mailed statement that it "does not sell into Russia, Belarus, or Iran." "TI complies with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, and does not support or condone the use of our products in applications they weren't designed for," Texas Instruments said. Schemes reporters also saw several components produced by the California-based technology manufacturer Xilinx, whose parent company is the multinational semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), also based in California. According to Ukrainian intelligence, one of these Xilinx components was integrated into a video data-link module located in the wing of the Mohajer-6 that helped carry out attack missions. I'm Steve Gutterman, the editor of RFE/RL's Russia/Ukraine/Belarus Desk. Welcome to The Week In Russia, in which I dissect the key developments in Russian politics and society over the previous week and look at what's ahead. To receive The Week In Russia newsletter in your in-box, click here. Russia backed down in a grain-deal standoff. President Vladimir Putin delivered remarks meant to recruit, confuse, and create room for maneuver amid setbacks in the war on Ukraine, now in its ninth month with no sign of a resolution. Muted gatherings honoring the victims of Stalin and the Soviet state are an unsurprising sign of the times. Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward. The Big Story Putins apparent obsession with Ukraine has led him to do things that might be called crazy, although there are plenty of other adjectives that would describe the unprovoked invasion of that country, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven from their homes as Russian forces have destroyed villages, towns, and cities in over eight months of bombardments and ground attacks. But over 23 years as president or prime minister, Putin has frequently shown a pragmatic side, pulling back to reduce the risk to his grip on power and popularity when he realizes he is about to go too far -- or has already done so. In many ways, it is too late for Putin to erase the effects of his miscalculations over Ukraine, which he seems to have believed would be subjugated within a few days or weeks of the February 24 invasion. But on a smaller scale, observers could almost hear the gears grinding as Putin reversed a decision to suspend participation in a painstakingly negotiated July deal to unblock grain exports from Ukraine, which are crucial for global food security. On October 29, Russia announced it was withdrawing from the deal, at least temporarily, after accusing Ukraine of unleashing a drone attack on warships off Sevastopol, the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, the peninsula Moscow occupied and seized from Ukraine in 2014. But four days later, the deal was back on or rather, Russia was back in it. Climbdown was the word of the day as analysts said that Russia appeared to realize too late to avoid embarrassment that there was little it could do to thwart the exports without taking actions that could increase the ire of the international community and set it up as a cause of exacerbated world hunger. The UN, Turkey and Ukraine called Moscows bluff, continuing the ship convoys regardless of the Russian withdrawal, Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, wrote on Twitter. Faced with the choice of sinking third-country merchant ships or an embarrassing climbdown, Putin chose a climbdown. While Moscow said it had returned to the deal because it was satisfied with Kyivs assurances that Ukraine would not use the Black Sea grain shipping corridor to attack Russia, other experts echoed the more credible explanation for the flip-flop. The Kremlin itself fell into a trap from which it did not know how to get out, R.Politik, an analytical firm headed by Russian expert Tatyana Stanovaya, wrote on Twitter. The deal was suspended, but it turned out that the Kremlin does not have the leverage to stop grain exports. There is no way, unless one could do it militarily, which was not part of the plan. The Bigger Picture Putin had to retreat and make a good facewith a bad game, R.Politik wrote. That is significant -- however obsessed Putin is with Ukraine, his historical mission and his belief in being right, he remains a rational politician, able to retreat if necessary. Russia has done a fair amount of retreating in Ukraine since the first days and weeks of the invasion, when its forces seized territory in the north, south, and east. They were driven out of northern Ukraine entirely after failing to take Kyiv. In the past two months or so, they have also pulled back substantially amid Ukrainian counteroffensives in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east and the Kherson region in the south. There have been signs this week that Russian forces were abandoning the city of Kherson, the only regional capital they have taken over since the February 24 invasion, but Kyiv said it could be a setup. But does the display of rationality with the grain deal mean that Putin wont use nuclear weapons if his back is against the wall in Ukraine? Thats impossible to say, though theres no lack of speculation some informed, some less so about whether he might do the unthinkable. After months of very thinly veiled threats to potentially use nuclear weapons, Russia seems to be seeking to convince the world that it wont. A senior diplomat made unequivocal-sounding remarks to CNN, and a November 2 Foreign Ministry statement seemed designed to ease concerns after Putin appeared to broaden the short list of circumstances under which Russia might use nuclear arms. Then again, it was Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, among others, who said repeatedly that Russia would not invade Ukraine and when it did invade, he said that it hadnt. So how much can the ministrys reassurances really be worth? Plus, much of the statement seemed devoted to emphasizing that if any incident involving weapons of mass destruction does occur, it will be the fault of Ukraine and the West though Russias evidence-free claims that Ukraine is preparing to set off a dirty bomb got a rebuke from UN inspectors. Meanwhile, nobody has retracted any of Putins remarks on the issue, including his comments on October 27 at the Valdai International Discussion Club, a closely choreographed forum he uses to send signals to Russians and the rest of the world and where for the umpteenth time he could have made a clear statement about the use of nuclear weapons but chose, instead, to obfuscate. Responding to one of a hail of softball questions, he used convoluted language to make a clear but completely deniable suggestion that Russia could use nuclear weapons to protect its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, or the security of the Russian people hurdles far short of the main potential triggers of a nuclear response in official doctrine: a nuclear attack or a conventional attack that threatens the very existence of Russia. But it would be foolish to turn to a Putin speech for a clear statement of intent or for much of anything in the way of valuable information, for that matter. Folks, life is short, surprising and meaningful. Putin's speeches aren't. Choose wisely, Sam Greene, a professor at the Russia Institute at Kings College London, wrote on Twitter shortly after Putins remarks. Putins speeches are not meant to inform, Greene elaborated in a subsequent blog post. Instead, he wrote, they have three main objectives: to recruit Russians and foreigners in his support, to confuse, and to provide room for maneuver. In the months since the February invasion, Putins room for maneuver has shrunk. The grain-deal climbdown was one of many setbacks for Russia, on and off the battlefield. Heavy losses in the war he expected to win quickly have prompted Putin to decree a massive military mobilization that has led tens of thousands of men or more to flee the country, while others are sent off, unprepared, to face death in Ukraine. It was also a personal blow to Putin, whose cultivated image at home as a successful leader is being undermined by these developments, despite efforts to slough the blame off onto others. Putins need to continually project strength is one of the main weaknesses of his centralized system of rule, Daniel Treisman, a political science professor at UCLA, wrote in a November 2 article in the journal Foreign Affairs that asked the question: "What Could Bring Putin Down?" Amid wartime stresses, Putin must simultaneously deal with battlefield reversals, elite conflicts, economic failures, shrinking budget revenues, unrest over mobilization, and labor protests. And this list will only increase, Treisman wrote. As the burden grows, so does the danger of loss of control. The war is exacerbating the systems internal weaknesses, he wrote, nudging it in the direction of collapse. The Real Big Story Since the U.S.S.R. fell apart in 1991, many Russians including rights activists, responsible historians, and progressive politicians have said that the Soviet Unions main successor would never thrive without a clear reckoning with the states crimes against the people. While he has acknowledged the Soviet governments crimes at times, Putin has taken Russia in a dramatically different direction over 23 years as president or prime minister. And with the invasion of Ukraine, he has cast the future of his own country deeper into doubt. Amid oppression at home that has worsened since the invasion as the Kremlin seeks to stifle dissent over the war, a day of remembrance on October 30 provided a glimpse of a Russia that might have been and might still be someday, though for the moment it seems to many like a distant dream. In several cities, small gatherings were held to mark the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions. Many of the events were part of Returning the Names, an initiative under which demonstrators read out the names of victims of repression under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The gathering was prohibited in Moscow. Returning the Names is an initiative of the human rights group Memorial, which first held such gatherings in 2006 and which was outlawed and shut down by Putins government this year. "This event is about the fact that nothing is more precious than human life and that the government did not have the right to murder people in 1937 and it does not have that right in 2022," Memorial said on Twitter. That's it from me this week. If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts). The next edition of The Week In Russia will appear on November 18. Yours, Steve Gutterman Feature: Bangladesh businesses see opportunities in CIIE Xinhua) 18:59, November 04, 2022 DHAKA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- "We want to explore this opportunity, and also we want to grab this (Chinese) market potentiality," Eleash Mridha, the managing director of Bangladesh's leading business group Pran, told Xinhua ahead of the China International Import Expo (CIIE). The CIIE is the world's first import-themed national-level expo, and its fifth edition will be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10. Pran, the largest agribusiness and plastic product manufacturer in Bangladesh, currently exports goods to 145 countries, and it has decided to expand its footprints in China, said Mridha, noting that the CIIE offers an excellent platform for global companies to explore and expand in the Chinese market. Pran will exhibit its products in the CIIE, said Mridha. "I hope that Chinese consumers will enjoy our taste and our quality products." He told Xinhua that the products they are producing through the Chinese equipment are in line with global standards. "We've been acquiring a lot of equipment from China as well as we are bringing a lot of Chinese technology to our country to enrich our industrial growth," said the official, adding that they are working with many big Chinese companies since long. According to Mridha, his company buys equipment from these Chinese companies, and they send their people to train Pran staffs. "Also, we've sent our people to China for training," he added. Mridha said the CIIE, or whatever the Chinese government is going to organize, "we appreciate it." As the fifth CIIE is in the final preparation stage, Al Mamun Mridha, acting secretary general of the Bangladesh China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCCI), said it presents huge opportunities that have kept the world economy rolling during hard times, showing China's sense of obligation and responsibility towards the world. Acknowledging China has taken a zero-tariff treatment for 98 percent of taxable items exported to China from Bangladesh, the BCCCI official said he hopes more Bangladeshi businessmen will take the opportunity to increase exports to China. Official data shows that the bilateral trade volume between China and Bangladesh grew to more than 25 billion U.S. dollars last year, registering a growth rate of 58 percent. Bangladesh's export to China exceeded 1 billion dollars for the first time last year. The BCCCI official voiced his expectation that there will be more and more contact between the two peoples and their businesses of the two friendly countries. "I request more and more Bangladeshi companies to join this great platform and to take advantage of the global business community that you may find in this very occasion," he said. "I wish the CIIE all the success and all our best wishes are with you," said the official. (Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming) Written By Managing Editor she/her | Bridget is the Messengers managing editor. She oversees the newsroom and covers the Maple Run and Franklin West school districts, the communities of St. Albans and Fairfax and pays attention to recreation, food and the arts. She's also an avid cyclist and skier. | Weather Alert ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY... * WHAT...South winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph expected. * WHERE...Western Franklin, Orleans, Western Chittenden, Lamoille and Eastern Franklin Counties. * WHEN...From 7 AM to 7 PM EST Wednesday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects. && Page Content Protecting the confidentiality of complainants and others participating in workplace investigations is a tightrope act for investigators. They need to provide assurances of confidentiality to the extent possible without guaranteeing complete confidentiality. This article provides tips on walking this fine line. A previous piece provided other tips on planning workplace investigations. "Employers cannot guarantee that an investigation will stay confidential," said Gillian McKean Bidgood, an attorney with Polsinelli in Denver. But they can and should take appropriate steps to keep the investigation confidential to the extent possible so that witnesses do not coordinate or confuse their memories by discussing the events, she added. "Additionally, keeping investigations confidential is important to avoiding damage to the company and employees if the investigation concludes that an impropriety did not occur," she noted. Virtually everyone involved in an investigation is concerned about confidentiality, so the employer and investigator should understand this from the start, said Julie Moore, SHRM-SCP, a lawyer with and president of Employment Practices Group in Wellesley, Mass. "Before the investigation commences, discussions should take place about who will be told, who will be involved, where interviews will be conducted and what steps will be taken throughout the process to ensure the investigation is kept as confidential as possible," she said. Policy Statements Even before the investigation, policies should be in placeeither in the code of conduct or elsewherethat require employees with potential knowledge of violations of policy or the law to cooperate in the employer's investigations, said Toni Michelle Jackson, an attorney with Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C. This requirement should be coupled with appropriate statements about confidentiality, she noted. "I see a lot of employee handbooks that imprudently promise complainants confidentiality or near confidentiality if they raise complaints through the employer's prescribed process," said Martha Boyd, an attorney with Baker Donelson in Nashville, Tenn. "When I am revising these handbook provisions, I do so with an eye toward narrowing any promises of confidentiality." Need to Disclose The employer typically has significant incentives to keep the investigation as confidential as possible, Boyd noted, but may need to disclose information learned during the investigation to: Defend the termination of the subject of the investigation. Demonstrate to the complainant or to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state civil rights agency or a court that the matter was promptly and thoroughly investigated. Respond to a "discovery" request in another case. "The employer should qualify any representation that the investigation will be kept confidential to account for these types of potential scenarios," Boyd said. If a disclosure is necessary, employers should consider what the minimum information needed to be revealed is, according to Thomas Johnson II, an attorney with Faegre Drinker in Philadelphia. For instance, he said, if the investigator needs a video recording of employees in the workplace, the investigator may need to reveal the date, time and place of the recording to security, but not much else. In contrast, if the investigator needs to review e-mails between an employee alleging harassment and the alleged harasser, the investigator may need to reveal more to IT, including the identities of the individuals and other details, but not necessarily every detail of the allegations or the investigation, Johnson added. It is often necessary to disclose facts to individuals in IT, finance or other areas to gather specialized information and documents necessary to evaluate certain claims, including electronic messages, time cards and expense reports, Johnson noted. In addition, a witness will need to know at least some of the information in the complaint or learned as part of the investigation in order for the witness to provide information about or respond to an allegation, he said. There also might be circumstances where an employer may want to strategically reveal confidential information to a witness to test credibility or to obtain a reaction to that information, added Philip Kontul, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Pittsburgh. "The calculus for deciding what information to reveal typically is that there is no other feasible way to obtain other necessary information except for such a disclosure," he said. When revealing that confidential information, an employer might identify it as such, ask that confidentiality be maintained by the employee receiving the information and emphasize its policy of nonretaliation. The employer might remind the employee that there could be discipline for retaliating against any individual based upon such confidential information provided by the employer. "As few people as possible should know," Moore said. "Likely certain executives and managers need to know. Perhaps the board or a select number of people on the board need to know. It depends on the circumstances." Interview nonemployeessuch as former employees, customers, clients or other third partiesonly when essential, Moore added. "Nonemployees face little to no repercussions for failing to comply with confidentiality admonitions, since they are not part of the organization," she said. Handling Interviews Many investigations come to light when employees see a parade of witnesses going into a conference room or the HR office, Bidgood said. Meeting in a more private place can help employees speak more freely. Consider the ways that witnesses are contacted for an interview as well, Johnson recommended. For example, an investigator appearing and summoning someone from the shop floor to accompany the investigator for an interview will almost certainly generate interest and create a situation where the witness or someone else may reveal something about the matter or at least feel pressure to do so. In contrast, Johnson said, quietly contacting a witness and scheduling time in a private office for an interview "is more effective at ensuring that the entire matter stays confidential, avoids possible pressure on the witness from third parties, and limits the opportunity for the investigation or the witness's participation becoming fodder for the rumor mill." The Competition Commission of India (CCI) handed Google two significant fines over the past two weeks, but more importantly, it recommended behavioral remedies that will fundamentally alter how Android and the Play Store operate. Throughout the investigations, CCI and Google both presented compelling arguments that established standards for upcoming antitrust actions involving technology. In 2019, the CCI ordered a probe into Google's unfair business practices in response to customer complaints regarding smartphones running the Android operating system. The Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) and the Anti-Fragmentation Agreement, two contracts between Google and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of the Android OS, served as the foundation for the accusations against Google (AFA). Due to the required pre-installation of the whole Google Mobile Suite (GMS) under MADA and the lack of an uninstall option, the CCI claimed that Google had violated competition law. GMS is a set of Google programs and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that aid in facilitating functioning across many platforms. Google's flagship products, such as Google Search, Google Chrome, YouTube, Play Store, and Google Maps, are all included in GMS. The imposition of unfair conditions on the device manufacturers by Google amounted to a violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act. Abuse of a dominant position is covered by Section 4 of the Competition Act. One of the main reasons that CCI has been able to establish dominance and subsequently abuse dominance is because it considers Android and iOS as two different relevant markets. Google had strongly objected to this and had repeatedly claimed that the iOS and the App Store are both strong competitors to Android and Play Store. However, to concur with the CCI on this for the following reasons: Due to its control over the Android operating system and other licenses, Google has an advantage over its rivals in that it can pre-install the Chrome browser and other popular search entry points on Android devices. Additionally, Google held a considerable competitive advantage over its other revenue-generating apps on Android smartphones, such as YouTube. Google limits app developers' ability to distribute their apps by side-loading or making them available outside of the Google Play Store. This is crucial because Google has long advised users against side-loading programs and described it as being a security risk. In-app Digital products, which are a key way for app developers to monetize their inventions, are not made available to users who are making purchases using Google's payment system. Users may not be given a direct link to a website that offers an alternative payment option, and app developers may not use wording that doesnt encourage users to buy the digital good outside of the app. Additionally, the app creators must adhere to Google's rules on the use of GPBS to submit their apps to the Play Store and obtain access to the sizable pool of potential Android users. In the Android order, CCI has directed Google to permit the Play Store to list more app stores. not impose any limitations on side loading, such as user warnings. Downloading apps using the APK file outside of app stores is referred to as side-loading. not restrict access to Play Services APIs for Android fork developers In the Play Store ruling, CCI instructed Google to not impose any limitations on app developers' use of third-party billing for either in-app or app purchases. In both these cases Google had argued that allowing the above will pose significant security risks to users. For example, Google cannot guarantee that an app that has been side-loaded is safe for a user or that a third-party app store has sufficient moderation processes in place like Play Store. In another response to the penalties, Google stated that Indian developers have benefited from the technology, security, consumer protections, and unrivaled choice and flexibility that Android and Google Play provide. And, by keeping costs low, our model has powered India's digital transformation and expanded access for hundreds of millions of Indians. We remain committed to our users and developers and are reviewing the decision to evaluate the next steps. Taiwan has renewed its thrust to deepen manufacturing ties with India. This comes amid heightened tensions with China and a US-driven effort to look at alternatives to Beijing in setting up factories for products ranging from smartphones to aeroplanes. A Taiwanese delegation led by its deputy economic affairs minister Chern-Chyi Chen arrived in Delhi on Wednesday; and is expected to go to important cities, including Chennai, a ministry official aware of the tour plan of the delegation said. The delegation also has members from Taiwans trade body Chinese National Federation of Industries. Addressing a meeting of Indian and Taiwanese industrialists in Delhi on Thursday, Chen said Taiwan was looking to partner with India with a renewed focus. Our companies tend to be small and medium enterprises. 97% of our economy is supported by these small and medium enterprises. Secondly, our companies tend to be very quick at technology and work in the business model of OEM. Taiwanese companies business model requires the utmost trust from customers, Chen said. Taiwans focus on partnering with India comes at a time when tensions between it and China are at an all-time high. The friction peaked after the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) conducted military drills following the recent visit of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, to Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province. Sources said the Taiwanese industrial delegation has representatives from large manufacturers - Foxconn and Pegatron - and other industry associations. For the industry, the interests are primarily from two sources: Taiwanese business interests are dependent on China, and they wish to change that; and secondly, the USs stand vis-a-vis China has also been adversarial, an official said. Taiwan-India ties have grown organically over the years since the establishment of economic and cultural centres in New Delhi and Taipei nearly three decades ago. Bilateral trade touched $5.7 billion by end-2020, according to Invest India, a government-run investment promotion agency. Industry experts view Taiwans strong focus on bilateral ties favourably and believe that the visit is an extremely positive development for India. Taiwan is actively strengthening ties in electronics and several areas. So far, Taiwanese companies have not focused on engaging with the product development and R&D talent of India. I am sure they would soon move forward in that direction, HCL cofounder Ajai Chowdhry, a veteran of the electronics manufacturing industry, said. As per earlier report, Foxconn chairman Young Liu would visit India for a second time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amid a serious attempt to hold the ground-breaking within this year for the Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture to make semiconductor chips in Gujarat. Tamil Nadu has so far bagged two of three Taiwanese firms - Foxconn and Pegatron - making iPhones in India. A senior government official said that Tamil Nadu was in talks with Foxconn for many projects including on electric vehicles, for which Tamil Nadu has shown its a leading state. A New Ringgold man is locked up in Schuylkill County Prison after an investigation revealed he was in possession of weapons and various illegal drugs. The resident of the home was found to be 32-Year-Old, Jason H. Hill, who was on active state parole. Information was provided to State Parole, who did a home visit of Hill on October 25, 2022, with officers of the West Penn Township providing exterior security for the probation officers. During their home visit, Probation officers discovered a firearm in the residence and turned the incident over to the West Penn Township Police. Hill did consent to the West Penn Township Police for a search of the residence. During that search, several weapons were recovered including 1 with an obliterated serial number. Also found at the residence were brass knuckles, multiple boxes of ammunition, Crystal Methamphetamine, Heroin, numerous baggies with heroin residue, marijuana grinders, pipes, needles, a large quantity of packaging materials, and 6 scales. Hill was charged by West Penn Township Police with persons not to possess a firearm, possessing a firearm with altered number, possession of drugs with intent to deliver, possession of offensive weapons, crimes committed with firearms, and other charges. Hill was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Andrew J Serina in Orwigsburg and committed to the Schuylkill County Prison in lieu of $100,000 straight bail. According to West Penn Township Police, information was received by the West Penn Police Department of drug sales and weapons occurring at 47 Mush Dahl Road, New Ringgold, West Penn Township. Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Go to form She celebrates passing 200,000 followers by offering half-price on her patented Elon Mask cleansing masks an odd joke, but lets go with it. She also sells lengths of rope that are used to symbolise the boundaries around oneself, within which one can feel safe. Literally, money for old rope. In this case, the young woman has no special powers, but she has become a successful influencer 12 years after leaving behind the traumatic schoolyard. Sissy ( Aisha Dee ) signs her video posts with Sincerely, Cecilia and the words I love you all so much. Horror is the perfect medium for getting square. The title of this new low-budget Aussie splatter comedy seems to echo Carrie, the Brian de Palma classic from 1976, in which Sissy Spacek used her special powers to lay waste to her high school bullies. In case youre already gagging, we havent got to the horror yet. That takes place on a lonely farm, during a hens party weekend for the girl who was once Sissys BFF. Emma (Hannah Barlow, who co-wrote and co-directed the movie, with Kane Senes) runs into Sissy in the supermarket. They havent seen each other for years, so the bright-eyed Emma insists she must come. Sissy remembers the video they made on Emmas 13th birthday, vowing to be best friends till the grave. The other people at the party are mostly loud and self-consciously awful: catty, obsessed by celebrity TV, vapid. One is Alex (Emily De Margheriti), who made Sissys life hell when they were 13. Loading Horror is flexible enough to encompass a social agenda. Barlow and Senes have a lot on their minds the effects of bullying, the rise of online charlatans and their impact on tender young minds, the cruelty of modern technological communication but it can bring an earnest tone to what should be a freewheeling adventure. Just when this threatens, the filmmakers unleash some quite unexpectedly gory mayhem. The movie never looks back after this. Its far from perfect, but it has a fresh tone and the desire to take risks. The gore just keeps getting funnier as the events turn darker. We cross into the realm of horror-comedy, as Sissy realises how long she has been waiting for revenge. Dees performance is one of the films strengths: Sissy is as confused as everyone about the terrible accidents that keep happening. MUSICAL Phantom of the Opera State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, from November 4 One eerie theatre tradition has seen a major resurgence in recent times the practice of putting ghost lights on stage to ward off spirits between performances. These shone constantly during Melbournes many lockdowns, and now theyve flickered out, the most famous spectre in musical theatre has made a triumphant return. Josh Piterman and Amy Manford as the Phantom and Christine in Phantom of the Opera. Credit:Brittany Long/Getty Images Melbourne has a special connection to Phantom of the Opera. In the early 1990s, audiences flocked to its premiere at the Princess Theatre an atmospheric venue reputed to be haunted by the ghost of opera singer Frederick Federici and it became the longest-running musical in Australian history. Two decades later, when the sequel Love Never Dies tanked on the West End (one newspaper unkindly dubbed it Paint Never Dries), Andrew Lloyd Webber looked to Melbourne to salvage the show, with Simon Phillips 2011 production opening at the Regent in a dazzling redesign. My very first job after getting my degree in art history was at the Art Gallery of NSW as curatorial assistant, which is the most junior messenger girl curator, Mendelssohn recalls. I had to check labels, work out dates, which was right up my street. Podcast fan and art historian Joanna Mendelssohn had just the thing. The conundrum that had been perplexing her since she started working at the Art Gallery of NSW in the early 1970s is now the subject of one of the half-hour episodes in the ABCs new series named after the podcast. The podcast had come out of a running joke the former host of SBS The Feed had with fellow Feed host Jan Fran, telling historical stories focused on artworks and artefacts that had been plundered from around the world by the Brits. How do you figure out what subject your new TV history documentary series should cover? If youre Marc Fennell, you simply ask the listeners of your deliberately provocative Radio National cult podcast, Stuff the British Stole. At the entrance to the new Asian gallery, there was this absolutely magnificent statue that I had to pass every day on my way to the office. And it stood out because it was completely different to everything else in the collection. It was large, when most of the things there were tiny ceramics. It was a very aggressive work. It looked magnificent and I loved it dearly. The Chinese guardian statues labels though told nothing of how this Ming Dynasty artwork had found its way to Sydney in the early 20th century. It was, to use an expression that crops up a lot in relation to this series, a history mystery. Art historian Joanna Mendelssohn with Marc Fennell Credit: Almost all of the episodes in the TV series have been the result of tip-offs, says series producer Kate Pappas. Tip-offs isnt quite the right expression, but weve been made aware of that story from the listeners of the podcast. Then weve gone through the really interesting process of joining the dots, digging into the history, the personalities; finding out what happened back then but also asking what does it mean now to people who are the descendants of the different cultures at play or people whove been related to this object in some way? The story of the Chinese statue, for example, harks back over a century to the days of the Boxer Rebellion, when Beijing was besieged by a legion of hostile nations including Britain, which had earlier occupied Hong Kong. Mendelssohn explains: Back then, Europe decided China was ripe for the picking. It was imperialism writ large and you start to understand why China may still be antsy about the rest of the world. Last September I returned home to help Mum plant an avenue of pear trees. It was tough going, using a crowbar to bore out holes in the dry clay ground. Once we had finished and the sun was setting over the red gums, we sat back with a beer and admired our work. Mum put her arm around me and said something like: I can already imagine the grandkids riding their bikes through the trees. No pressure, though, she was quick to add. On my most recent visit to Echuca, last week, we wore gumboots and had to wade in through water up to our knees. Five days earlier, my mum and sister packed their bags and fled the house just hours before the Campaspe River broke its banks, overwhelming sandbag levees and submerged pumps on its way to our home. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size This story is part of the November 5 edition of Good Weekend. See all 16 stories . I was wandering around a park with an acquaintance the other day, when he casually mentioned that hed lost the power of speech when his father died. My heart lurched forward. I could speak to them on the phone, he said, of friends and family, but when Id see them in person His voice trailed off, and he gestured with his hand away from his throat. Why? I asked. Shock, he said, with a small smile. He needed therapy to learn how to utter words again in the presence of other people. The author as a child in Canada in 1976 with her father, David. Credit:Courtesy of Samantha Selinger-Morris I had waited 18 years, since my own father died at 58 of brain cancer, for this moment. To speak plainly about what losing a parent does to you. Nobody used to talk much about death and grieving. So, whenever Id glimpse a middle-aged man with my late fathers lumbering gait like a grocery store owner walking the shops aisles cradling a stack of ungainly tomato tins in his arms Id have to sit down and jam the palms of my hands into my eyes. Advertisement Loading My father, David Morris, struggled to find his place in the world. He did fantastic drawings; the gently swooping neck of his swiftly sketched brontosaurus, tossed off on the back of a restaurant paper placemat, hinted at a river of subterranean creativity he wasnt able to express in everyday life. Anxiety and depression, and a tendency to bristle at his co-workers, pushed him from job to job. He worked, variously, as a security guard, draftsman, computer technician and amateur Canadian military historian before becoming, at 56, a teachers aide in a Toronto high school. On a family trip to California in 1989. Credit:Courtesy of Samantha Selinger-Morris My dad, whod dropped out of high school before later graduating as a mature-age student, became giddy with joy. No kidding! he emailed me in 2003, a year before his death. Me, a former mathematical bonehead is providing a positive touch in a mathematics class. His pride leapt off the screen. Loading He was the one who fretted about who drove me home at night even when I lived more than 15,000 kilometres away. I, too, have long coped with anxiety, and struggled to find where I belonged. Shortly after he died, I remember walking towards my office and stopping, frozen, in the doorway. That cocoon of care was gone. Forever. Advertisement How is one meant to live with great loss? In my case, I did what any type A personality would do. I researched the crap out of it. Id nod vigorously to myself, in my bedroom, while scrolling through Instagram and reading quotes about grieving. Like this one by Canadian author Saul Bellow: Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate-glass window. You didnt know it was there until it shattered, and then for years to come youre picking up the pieces, down to the last glassy splinter. I took perverse pride in what my grief gave me. I was an aristocrat of pain. And did you know, Id all but pant to my husband while we got ready for bed, that Stephen Colberts father and two brothers died in a plane crash when he was 10? That he once said the experience delivered him the gift of being able to love those in his life more deeply? I took perverse pride in what my grief gave me. I was an aristocrat of pain. Now, finally, stories about loss are coming out of the conversational wilderness. People regularly tweet about losing friends and family. One of the buzziest new podcasts is All There Is with Anderson Cooper, in which Cooper, a CNN host and son of the late fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, talks with guests about grief, both his and their own. Its this thirst that everyone has, and no ones pouring water for anybody, says Stephen Colbert in one episode. The author and her father on her wedding day in Canberra, in 2001. Credit:Courtesy of Samantha Selinger-Morris I all but smacked my forehead. Oh, this feeling is normal. Im not alone. It was a fitting discovery, given my father taught me to revere the practical. Be a plumber or a baker, hed often say. The world will always need them. And, my personal favourite: Never get a tattoo where a judge can see it. It used to be that, when it came to coping with the loss of my father, I was like John D. Rockefeller, who, when asked by a reporter, How much money is enough? , responded: Just a little bit more. I was the same with solace for my dad. No matter what my wonderful friends or patient husband said, it was never enough. Advertisement A former US military pilot who was arrested in Australia shortly after returning from China will deny he committed any criminal offence and make a complaint to the inspector general of intelligence, his lawyer has said. Daniel Duggan, 54, an Australian citizen and father of six from Orange in central western NSW, has been in custody since he was arrested at the request of the United States on October 21. A formal request has not yet been made for his extradition. The arrest came shortly after Australian authorities said they were investigating the practice of former military personnel being offered lucrative contracts to train pilots in China. Daniel Duggan formerly operated Top Gun Australia, a scenic flight business. Duggans lawyer, Dennis Miralis, said on Friday the exact allegations against his client remain unclear because he was secretly indicted by a US grand jury and the details are not required to be divulged until a formal extradition request is made. Australian singer-songwriter Tina Arena has provided a testimonial for celebrity manager Titus Day, who is awaiting sentencing for embezzling more than $600,000 of pop star Guy Sebastians earnings, in which she states she trusts him implicitly, a court has heard. Day, 49, was found guilty by a jury in June of 34 counts of embezzlement, totalling $624,675, relating to royalties and income from corporate gigs and wedding performances between 2013 and 2020. Titus Day, Tina Arena, Guy Sebastian. Credit:Brook Mitchell / Fiora Sacco The Crown alleged at trial there were shortfalls in amounts transferred by Day to Sebastians Guytunes bank accounts. In sentencing submissions in Sydneys Downing Centre District Court on Friday, Days barrister Dominic Toomey, SC, said the judge had been provided multiple glowing references from people of high standing in the community about his client, and pointed to a testimonial from Arena. The victim of a Melbourne school music teachers sexual abuse says she was held prisoner by her poor mental health after almost two years of being groomed and assaulted. Brian Kenneth William Wallwork, 48, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Friday to two counts of committing an indecent act with a child, one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16, and one count of sexual penetration of a child aged 16. In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said that Wallwork had made her feel special, but in reality, she had been targeted by a paedophile. Brians actions have impacted me for more than half my life. My teen years, which should have been the happiest of my life, were stolen by a child sex offender and I can never get them back, she said. I was in denial that crimes had even happened to me. This toxic pattern of thinking had a significant impact on my mental health I was held prisoner by my own mind. Huh-oommmm, droned the crowd, over and over, accompanied by a trumpet held on a single drawn-out note. It was as close to an animist ceremony as you might imagine, though most of the townspeople and those who had come in from farms and settlements around the bay mightnt readily identify with the belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual being. Yet there it was: animism comes from the Latin anima, meaning variously breathing, air, spirit and life. The Aboriginal dancers who preceded this call to the sea needed no explanations. Their people, the Gunditjmara, have breathed the spirit and the life of the coast and its hinterland for longer than imagination. The Koondoom Yarkeen Karweeyn dance group, representing the Gunditjmara Nation, at Portlands Upwelling Festival. Credit:Rebecca Tobin Their dance ground on the beach, called Karweeyn Mirring, was fashioned in the shape of a whale, and they placed whale bones around. A fire was built to produce purifying smoke. Gunditjmara clans had feasted since forever on whales beached around these parts. The songlines performed by the dancers spoke of reverence for all living things on this coastline, and sorrow at the numerous species that had gone to extinction. They paid homage, too, to the old Portland clan, the Ure, long disappeared. Only eight of the original 59 clans of the Gunditjmara survive today. When European whalers came in the early 1800s, one of the clans, the Cart Gunditj, who lived on a hill overlooking the bay, raised smoke to signal to the white hunters when whales came into sight, trusting theyd get a share of the catch. But when a harpooned whale blew ashore in a storm and the people of a neighbouring clan, the Kilcarer Gunditj, insisted on their right to it, the whalers got their guns and convinced the clan it was not theirs. Loading And so occurred, at what is still called the Convincing Ground, the first known massacre of Aboriginal people by whites in what became the state of Victoria. Yet two centuries later, here in Portland, Victorias oldest town, were Gunditjmara dancers from both the east and the west of their nation and hundreds of people with no Indigenous heritage joined in a reverential call from the beach to the krill and whales and other sea creatures. Nearby, at the towns wharf reserved for fishing trawlers, a pastor performed another ancient and spiritual ritual, brought from the Mediterranean and the British Isles. The pastor blessed the fishing fleet, prayed for the safety of all who go to sea, and tossed a cross into the water. Hardy swimmers leaped in, competing to retrieve the cross. This was last weekends Portland Upwelling Festival. It seems an apt name for a festival that achieved such an upwelling of the spirit of a people with a conflicted past that it drew hundreds to stand together, united in a form of song on a beach. The Upwelling, however, refers to something vastly older than any human ritual. The Australian continent finally separated from Antarctica and set off north at a few centimetres a year about 30 million years ago. Yet around November every year, a whisper of the Antarctic returns when south-easterly winds cause the relatively warm surface waters of the Portland coast to veer out to sea. Chilled water from the Antarctic rushes from the depths to compensate, funnelled to the surface through canyons on the lip of the continental shelf, where the continents tore apart all that time ago. The shelf stretches to its slope only about 20 kilometres from the coast of Portland and west beyond Robe in neighbouring South Australia. It is the narrowest strip of the shelf along the Australian coastline. The frigid water brings a riot of new life, starting with the krill right up the food chain to the great whales and the sharks. This is the Upwelling. Loading Call it, if youre given to romance, a sort of ancient yearning for reattachment between continents long estranged. The Gunditjmara have known of this magic for thousands of years. The fishing folk who came originally from Cornwall to Portland the century before last, requiring their religious leaders to bless them before they ventured onto the water, learned it, too. The international energy crisis is causing backsliding, with some European countries forced to rely on fossil fuel to a greater extent than theyd planned. Also, the conference will see pressure on developed countries for a fund to compensate poorer countries that suffer devastating weather events, such as the floods in Pakistan. Australias preference is to confine its assistance to its immediate region, rather than commit more widely. The Australian government will also have to admit that its ambition to host (with Pacific countries) the 2024 COP (which would be before the next election) was overreach. It is now expected to bid for the 2026 conference. At home, while the government has put its 43 per cent medium-term emissions-reduction target into law, it still has to legislate, and regulate, for changes to the safeguard mechanism. These will strengthen the obligations on the big polluters. The legislation will be introduced in the very crowded remaining parliamentary weeks of the year. The proposed changes are already running into resistance from some big emitters. Loading Most immediately, with the public reeling from the budgets forecast of massive price increases for electricity and gas, the government knows it needs to come up with a gas policy quickly. The energy crisis, substantially driven by overseas events, has already blown away any chance of Albanese meeting his election promise of a $275 reduction in household power bills by 2025. Ministers dodge questions about the promise, the fate of which is a warning against over-precise commitments. But being unable to deliver a price cut is now not the issue its how to head off extraordinary price hikes, by acting on gas. Appearing on the ABC on Thursday night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said there were three paths the government could go down: act on tax, provide subsidies to people or companies, or regulate to bring down prices. Our preference is to do something with regulation, he said, and that was the focus of the work being down. But we dont want to rule out subsidies or tax. His aim is an announcement before Christmas. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says hes open-minded about the need for tax reform. Credit:Eamon Gallagher Meanwhile, Treasury is looking at whether changes should be made to the petroleum resource rent tax. Despite his strongly stated preference for regulatory action, Chalmers said, I do understand there is an appetite for us to get a better return on our resources. He said he would consider whatever Treasury said on the tax and try and involve the Australian public in that conversation. Before the election, Labor put itself in a tight corset on taxation generally. Although the government would face minimal voter backlash if it decided to impose a super profits tax, it would involve breaking a promise. A survey for the Australia Institutes Climate of the Nation report, launched on Thursday, found 61 per cent support for a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. Such a tax would, however, obviously bring a sharp reaction from the industry and nervousness about international contracts. The current policy debate also goes to gass longer-term role. The government recognises it as an essential transition fuel, which means fending off critics of new projects. Looming state elections in Victoria and NSW are playing into the pressures on the Albanese government. NSW Liberal Treasurer Matt Kean, who wanted cost-of-living relief in the budget, later said Bowen needed to come up with a solution to support homes and business. Victorias Premier Dan Andrews urged a domestic reserve, as exists in Western Australia, so that our gas is for our businesses and our households first, and then the bit that we dont need, these private companies can sell that to the world. Some in federal Labor thought Andrews had a hide, given Victorias ban on onshore unconventional gas mining. At the federal level, Industry Minister Ed Husic has again lashed out at the gas companies, declaring this is not a shortage-of-supply problem; this is a glut-of-greed problem. The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association accused him of demonising the industry. As the energy issue escalated, its unlikely the government was surprised at opinion polls showing the budgets poor reception. In Newspoll, 47 per cent thought the budget was bad for them, and 29 per cent said it was bad for the economy. But people didnt think the Coalition would have done any better. The ANUs Economic and other wellbeing in Australia October survey, out this week, highlighted the impact of general cost-of-living pressures. The survey of nearly 3500 (completed before the budget) found a steep increase during the year in the proportion of people who think rising prices are a very big problem. Loading In January 2022, over one in three (37.4 per cent) of Australians thought that price rises were a very big problem. This increased to 54.6 per cent in August 2022 and then again to 56.9 per cent in October 2022, the survey found. One of the key determinants of life satisfaction in October 2022 is peoples experiences of price increases. Life satisfaction in October 2022 was 10 per cent lower for those who thought that rising prices were a very big problem compared to those who did not. Exactly a week after the budget, its inflation forecast was blown up. Should the PM continue to encourage his opponent to sign up for a bipartisan campaign when Dutton cant guarantee a united Coalition position? That will depend on whether Dutton is serious when he says he wants to see what the government is planning. Loading Albanese could cut to the chase, and publicly call on Dutton to choose between accepting the governments mandate or campaigning against the Voice. If he thinks Dutton cant unite the Coalition, or doesnt really want to, will it help or hinder the Yes case if Albanese paints him as a wrecker? A pre-emptive strike carries obvious risks. It assumes that a divisive debate is unavoidable. Albanese would walk into the trap that Indigenous leader Noel Pearson wants all white politicians to avoid, of making the referendum a test of their own identity as white Australians. As Pearson explained in the first of his Boyer Lectures for the ABC last week: A large part of the conflagration in these past 50 years, since racism became unacceptable in the 1960s, is the fight between progressive and conservative Australians over race and Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are the subjects of this fight, but they are not its prime protagonists. This is what is now the culture war between liberals and conservatives in the United States and progressives and conservatives here in Australia. That we have followed the Americans in this is unfortunate but not surprising. Pearson has Albaneses ear, and the prime minister will have noted the opening of the lecture was directed to him personally: We know the nations leader must be joined by all his counterparties in the federal parliament, and in the parliaments of the states, and communities across the country but our hearts are hopeful. But the question of Albaneses approach to Dutton applies equally to Pearsons own dialogue with the opposition leader. Dutton generously quoted Pearson in his speech at the opening of the 47th parliament in July. Illustration: Simon Letch Credit: Successive Liberal leaders since John Howard have borrowed Pearsons formulation of Australia having three parts an ancient heritage, a British inheritance and multicultural achievement. Each, in his way, has avoided the conclusion that Pearson wanted them to draw, that Australia is incomplete without the empowerment of Indigenous Australians. Will Dutton break the habit of his predecessors, and accept what Pearson is actually saying, or will he join the list of conservatives who let him down? These three stories will make us one: Australians, Pearson said in his Boyer Lecture. Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians is not a project of identity politics, it is Australias longest standing and unresolved project for justice, unity and inclusion. Note that whenever Dutton is asked about the Voice, he switches the topic. Consider the following exchange with the ABCs Sarah Ferguson on 730 in August: Loading Dutton: Noel Pearson obviously has put forward a thoughtful piece to consider in relation to the Voice and he and other Indigenous leaders have done a lot of work on this and from my perspective Ferguson: But what about you, Peter Dutton? Dutton: From my perspective, I want to respectfully listen to the arguments because I think reconciliation is important. I also think the practical assistance to kids in those communities ... Professor Marcia Langton sits alongside Pearson in the governments working group on the Voice, and was the co-author of the report to Scott Morrisons government on a model for its implementation. She sees Duttons repeated calls for a royal commission into sexual abuse of Indigenous children as a divisive strategy. I think its entirely unnecessary, and inappropriate, she told 730. The solutions had already been identified in the 2007 Little Children Are Sacred report, co-authored by Pat Anderson. The Voice is central to Labors mandate, along with climate action and an integrity commission. It was the very first thing Albanese mentioned in his victory speech. Dutton accepted he could do nothing to stop Labors emission-reduction target, and has been willing to negotiate in good faith on an integrity commission. Why does he insist his agenda for a royal commission sit alongside the Voice, when Indigenous leaders are opposed to the mixing of the two? Is he preparing an excuse to campaign for the No case? The question then returns to Albanese. Does he really need Dutton? If this were any other issue, a newly elected government, facing a demoralised opposition that just suffered its worst defeat since the formation of the Liberal Party, would insist that the will of the people be respected. But Albanese has a visceral memory of the last time Labor was in power. He was a cabinet minister when a global shock denied Kevin Rudds government the clear air to deliver it key election policy on climate change. Rudd had a mandate for an emissions trading scheme, and an opponent in Malcolm Turnbull willing to negotiate. But the global financial crisis of 2008-09 ate up a year of the governments first term, leaving it too little time to develop the ETS and sell it to the community. Labor people prefer to recall the double-cross of the Greens, who sided with Tony Abbott after he rolled Turnbull for the Liberal leadership. But action on climate change died because Rudd left it to last. Paul Keating delivers his landmark Redfern Speech in 1992. Credit:Kylie Anee Pickett The counter-example from Labors glory days of reform is Paul Keatings Mabo legislation in 1993. He devoted the first year of his term to its delivery, even though the early 1990s recession still cast its shadow with double-digit unemployment. But the Keating method carries its own danger. What if the electorate turns selfish in a downturn and sees the Voice as an elitist pursuit that wont put food on the table for the battlers? Dutton may well make this argument next year, which is why Albanese might want to call his bluff beforehand. The federal government will push through sweeping changes to Australias workplace laws that aim to increase wages across the economy days after aged care workers were awarded a 15 per cent pay boost in a landmark decision handed down by the Fair Work Commission. The Health Services Union had called for a 25 per cent pay rise for aged care workers and nurses, comparable to $5 an hour, after the royal commission into the sector called on the Commonwealth and providers to overhaul the historical underpayment of the feminised workforce. Anthony Albanese and Labor backed a significant pay rise for aged care workers. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Workplace relations minister Tony Burke said the aged care decision handed down on Friday afternoon signified the first step in changing the undervalued nature of care work. We fought for this pay rise because our government is committed to getting wages moving again, particularly in low-paid, female-dominated industries like this one, he said. With less than six months until the NSW state election, on March 25, the gap between the two major parties has narrowed, but it still looks like Labor leader Chris Minns to lose. The latest Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for the Herald by research company Resolve Strategic, recorded a major improvement in the Coalitions share of the vote and, to a lesser extent, in Premier Dominic Perrottets approval rating. Labors first preference support was a whopping 43 to the Coalitions paltry 30 back in September, when the government was mired in the John Barilaro scandal and facing criticism for its response to floods. The Coalition has made up some ground in the past two months and its first preferences are now 35 to Labors 38. Minns was 1 percentage point ahead of Perrottet as preferred premier in September, but he has slipped back slightly to 1 percentage point behind. The NSW government has clawed back lost ground after the damaging John Barilaro trade appointment scandal and the fallout from the federal election, narrowing the gap between the Coalition and Labor less than five months from the election. As the government heads in to the final weeks of parliament with crucial legislation to pass before the March poll, Dominic Perrottet is now the preferred premier over Labor leader Chris Minns. Labor remains ahead, but the Coalitions primary vote has jumped five points to 35 per cent, after slumping to just 30 per cent in September. Labors primary has slipped from 43 per cent to 38. The improvement in the Coalitions standing with voters follows a horror few months for the government, which was dominated by the Barilaro scandal and the federal election in which their Canberra colleagues were booted from power amid a rise in support for so-called teal independents. Explore more of our in-depth coverage of the seat of Richmond this state election. See all 21 stories . Victorian election 2022 Full election results Labor's candidate for the crucial marginal seat of Richmond has hit out at public questioning of her claim to Yorta Yorta heritage, including from members of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria. Lauren ODwyer, whose family hails from Echuca, describes herself as a proud Yorta Yorta woman, tracing her ancestry to her great-grandfather. Lauren ODwyer with Premier Daniel Andrews at her campaign launch on Thursday night. Credit:Penny Stephens An online campaign, largely led by Aboriginal people, has built over the past week, questioning both ODwyers Aboriginality and her ties to the Yorta Yorta community. Yorta Yorta country stretches over a large area on both sides of the Murray River in northern Victoria and southern NSW. This article has been written on the basis of information discovered outside the draft IBAC report. The premiers office did not answer The Ages queries. Instead, Andrews media manager responded with a series of questions seeking further details of the allegations and questioning whether The Age trusted its sources. Daniel Andrews, then health minister Jill Hennessy (third from right) and union leader Diana Asmar (right) announcing the $2.2 million election commitment a week before the 2018 election campaign began. Credit:Paul Sakkal IBAC interviewed several others involved in the contract negotiations as part of its investigation, The Age was told, including former health minister Jill Hennessy. The corruption watchdog released a statement on Friday saying all examinations for the investigations were held in private as they did not meet the organisations thresholds for public hearings. When IBAC drafts a report arising from an investigation, relevant people involved in the investigation will be given an opportunity to respond to IBACs preliminary findings, the statement read. These responses must then be considered before IBAC finalises the report. This natural justice process is critical. It would be quite unfair to these persons if preliminary findings or other private information were to become public. Reputations may be unfairly damaged, or witness welfare harmed. No public interest is served in preliminary findings being published. It is for such reasons that IBAC took the necessary step of seeking an injunction. A crucial meeting The government awarded a $1.2 million contract, which is outlined in public documents, to the HWU on the eve of the 2018 election. Seven days earlier, and before the tender had been finalised, Andrews publicly announced an additional $2.2 million election promise for the same training program alongside Asmar. Publicly available footage shows the premier announcing the funding as a partnership with the union during a press conference with Asmar and Jill Hennessy, who was health minister at the time, a week before the caretaker period. Loading Andrews said at the time: Were announcing today $2.2 million in additional investment, in partnership with the HWU, to make sure every member of staff is trained and has the knowledge and the skills to keep themselves safe. We know that health environments can be very challenging. Two sources with knowledge of the investigation told The Age that a critical meeting between the premier, Asmar and others in early October, weeks before the $2.2 million announcement, had been a particular focus of IBAC investigators. Sources alleged Andrews promised the money. The Age has confirmed that IBAC investigators questioned witnesses about whether political advisers in the offices of both Andrews and Hennessy had applied pressure on public servants to approve the $1.2 million payment to the union. On the election campaign trail on Friday, Andrews was asked if IBAC investigators had interviewed him or his staff. What IBAC is or isnt doing, who they have or havent spoken to, is a matter for them, he said. Asmar said in a statement to The Age she could not comment on any inquiry resulting from the awarding of the contract, but said the union had acted appropriately during the contract negotiations. The Health Workers Union acted solely in the interests of our members and health workers, she said. Any union secretary would have lobbied government to protect their members workplace safety. Violence against health workers is real, and it was entirely appropriate for the premier to support this much-needed initiative. Revelations of the anti-corruption investigation will prompt fresh questions about the governments integrity record, particularly because Operation Daintree is probing Andrews personal actions, unlike other corruption inquiries for which he was questioned but was not central. It is the fourth known anti-corruption inquiry that has privately interviewed the Labor leader, who is seeking his third term as premier. He was also questioned in IBACs operations Richmond, into Labors dealings with the firefighters union, Sandon, into allegedly corrupt developers, and Watts, which criticised Labors internal culture. Caretaker conventions The Age has confirmed that the union first approached the government with a proposal for the training program in early 2018. Other suppliers were not considered, which is unusual for a contract of that size. Before the Health Departments due diligence process for the training course was completed, the government which was about to go into caretaker mode made a fresh $2.2 million pledge for an expanded training course for 1000 workers, which is referenced on the unions Facebook page and a government press release. Tender documents show the first promised contract, of $1.2 million, was eventually signed off on October 30, the day before the caretaker period before the 2018 election. Once this phase begins a month before election day, the government cannot enact government policy. In the days before it, convention dictates the government should not bind a future government to controversial decisions. The unions training entity, the Health Education Federation, received only a fraction of the promised funding because COVID-19 lockdowns brought the training program to a halt in 2020. Sources familiar with the negotiations said department officials later attempted to cancel the unions contract because they determined the program was of poor quality. Asmar rejected that criticism, telling The Age the training module was refined over time and run by highly credible instructors. It was necessary for a training program for frontline health workers to be developed by the people that represent frontline health workers, Asmar said. From day one, however, the Health Department had to be dragged kicking and screaming from their sloth-like state by their political masters to action this important issue. The Health Department did not respond to detailed questions from The Age. Loading Integrity in government has been a key issue in the early stages of the 2022 election campaign. Voters across the state, consulted as part of The Ages Victorias Agenda project, said they wanted to know how the parties would protect Victorias political system from corruption and misuse of public funds. The Coalition initially targeted the government on integrity issues in the lead-up to the election campaign, before that line of argument was derailed by revelations that Opposition Leader Matthew Guys then chief of staff Mitch Catlin sought $100,000 in payments to his private marketing company in a contract that, if signed, could have breached the states rules on political donations. Guy was copied on the email that contained the proposed contract. Guy described the number of anti-corruption investigations to examine the government as unprecedented during a press conference on Friday. Its one of the reasons I have said that I believe the corruption commission needs its powers to be expanded, and its powers to be more secure and expanded. Paris: The Wallabies have promised to come out all guns blazing against a French side who have described their Australian opponents as fighters and tough like cowboys ahead of the first Test between the sides in Paris in six years. After squeezing past Scotland by a solitary point in Edinburgh, the Wallabies know they will need more than luck in their second spring tour match to prevail over a France outfit boasting 10 straight Test wins, a national record. A glance over both starting XVs indicates Australia would do well to win any match on paper, with France halves Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack widely regarded as the best No.9 and 10 combination in world rugby at the moment. Even Frances world No.2 ranking has been questioned by Wallabies coach Dave Rennie, who says Fabien Galthies men are undoubtedly the most dangerous international side. Anthony Albanese has been told to lift his game after his decision not to attend the next round of United Nations climate negotiations dismayed officials in host country Egypt, whod been given the impression that Australia would be represented at the highest levels. Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will instead lead Australias delegation to COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the prime minister saying he cant be everywhere at once. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Senator David Pocock. Credit:Eamon Gallagher, Alex Ellinghausen So far, criticism of Mr Albaneses snub has been muted, in stark contrast to the backlash seen in the UK when furious Tory MPs and sections of the right-wing press rounded on new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for initially suggesting he needed to be at home attending to his upcoming economic statement. Sunak relented and confirmed he would attend after all, alongside other world leaders including US President Joe Biden and Italys new right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni. London: A pioneering program run by Indigenous women to restore and protect the Great Barrier Reef has been named among the finalists for one of the worlds most prominent climate prizes. The group is among 15 projects to be named as nominees for the Earthshot Prize - the pet project of Prince William and other climate advocates, including Academy Award-winning actor Cate Blanchett and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef are among the finalists for the $1.77m prize. The Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef are among three finalists listed for the Revive Our Oceans category, a program that combines 60,000 years of knowledge with digital technologies to protect land and sea. They will be in the running to receive one of five 1 million ($1.77m) cheques at the second-annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony. The prize takes inspiration from President John F. Kennedys Moonshot which united millions of people around an organising goal to put man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s. PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Central Committee meeting on November 7, 2022. The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday at 10.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. The Minister of General Affairs and the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport will be present. The agenda point is: Presentation by and discussion with the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport on the recent decision by the Council of Ministers on the St. Martin Unity Flag (IS/146/2022-2023 dated November 2, 2022) Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. All persons visiting the House of Parliament must adhere to the house rules. The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg. The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on TV 15, Soualiga Headlines, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.sx and www.youtube.com/c/SintMaartenParliament UN says 5.7 million people in Sri Lanka require humanitarian aid Xinhua) 19:42, November 04, 2022 COLOMBO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 5.7 million Sri Lankans, or 26 percent of the country's population, need humanitarian aid, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday, warning an ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka was likely to deepen the situation. The OCHA said in a statement that without immediate humanitarian assistance and upstream interventions to address the fragility of systems, services and facilities, this number will multiply and the consequences will deepen in the South Asian country. "Food security and livelihoods have suffered directly because of the economic crisis, while access and availability of basic services such as education and healthcare, including hospital maternity care, and sexual and reproductive health services have been disrupted," it said. "A serious decline in domestic agricultural output brought on by an unsuccessful agricultural transition to organic farming has deepened the crisis," the UN agency added. At the community and family level, the OCHA said the macroeconomic collapse in Sri Lanka had translated into a complex humanitarian emergency, as millions of people were increasingly suffering, with severe shortages of food, fuel, cooking gas, medicine, and other essentials. Ninety-six percent of households in the survey had been affected by the current crisis and the three main priority needs at the household level concerned food, health and livelihoods. Sri Lanka has been facing one of its worst economic crises as the country suffers a shortage in foreign currency, which leads to a shortage of essential supplies and even food items. (Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming) Cant Nobody Hold Me Down (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET) (TV-PG, DLV) (HDTV)PERSISTANCE After what happens at the press conference, Spencer (Daniel Ezra) and Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) try to secure as many commitments before the end of National Signing Day to help their team. Asher (Cody Christian) tries to capitalize on the unfortunate opportunity by swaying some new recruits with an assist from an unlikely source. Olivia (Samantha Logan) is torn on how to publish her article while also protecting those she loves. Patience (Chelsea Tavares) is pushed outside her comfort zone while shooting a music video. Meanwhile, Jordan and JJ (Hunter Clowdus) throw a party that escalates and ends with Jordan witnessing a rude awakening. Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul directed the episode written by Micah Cyrus. (#506). Original airdate 11/21/2022. Welcome To SpoilerTV We bring you a comprehensive and up to date spoiler service on all the major US TV shows and Movies. You can find specific show content by clicking the menu system at the top of the screen. We scour the Internet for spoilers as well as posting our own exclusive spoilers (Scripts, Casting Calls, Set Photos etc) as well as recaps and other fun articles and polls. We hope you enjoy your stay. Algeria, November 04, 2022 (SPS) - The Venezuelan Ambassador to Algeria, Mr. Jose de Jesus Sojo Reyes, renewed his country's support for the Sahrawi people and their just cause. Mr. Jose de Jesus Sojo Reyes paid a farewell visit to the Sahrawi ambassador to Algeria Mr. Abdelkader Taleb Omar, at the headquarters of the Sahrawi Embassy in Algiers, on the occasion of the end of his duties as ambassador of his country in Algeria, where they discussed the friendship and cooperation relations between the two friendly countries and peoples, the Sahrawi Republic and Venezuela, as well as the prospects for their strengthening and development. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international developments. The Venezuelan ambassador expressed his support and solidarity with the just struggle of the Sahrawi people for their legitimate rights to freedom and independence, praising the fruitful cooperation he received during his diplomatic representation of his country in Algeria from the Sahrawi embassy. For his part, the Sahrawi ambassador valued the cooperation and efforts made by the Venezuelan ambassador during the performance of his diplomatic duties, highlighting his multiple visits to the Sahrawi refugee camps and to the liberated territories of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to express the support of the State of Venezuela to the Sahrawi people and their just cause. SPS 110 TRA Historian Adrian Cioroianu, head of the National Library of Romania, proposed that the caravana project "Centenary of the Coronation of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria" be taken "beyond the city limits." The Artis Association organized, on Friday, in the Cerchez Hall of the Cotroceni National Museum, the closing event of the caravan educational project "Centenary of the Coronation of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria." "You see, Greater Romania was a rural Romania. The one that Queen Maria and King Ferdinand visited was a predominantly rural Romania. We now only went through the cities. That's the truth. Of course, there was an evolution... in time... For us, the breaking point is 1985, I repeat, 1985, when the urban population became equal to the rural one. It is much more convenient to go through the country's cities, but I am very afraid that such a project should be taken beyond the city limits," said Cioroianu, ambassador of the "Centenary of the Coronation of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria" caravan, told Agerpres. He pointed out that "wherever there is a child, wherever there is a student, films like the documentary "King Mihai - The Road Home" "are necessary." The manager of the Brasov County Museum of History, Nicolae Pepene, who was an ambassador of the project, stated that the average age of those who carried out the project was well below 20 years. Film critic Irina-Margareta Nistor, ambassador of the project, confessed that during the caravan what impressed her the most was the meeting, in the Republic of Moldova, with "a lady who said she remembered a visit from her childhood, a visit from King Mihai." The President of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Liviu Jicman, characterized the project as "a very good, very important initiative" and pointed out that it "can also be presented abroad." The "Centenary of the Coronation of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria" caravan, a project carried out in partnership with the City Hall of Iasi, under the auspices of the Royal Family of Romania, 100 years after the coronation of the kings of Great Romania, was launched in May in Iasi. Between May 12 and October 20, the caravan followed in the footsteps of the Royal Family's visits to Romania as a whole (1919-1927), stopping in 23 towns in the country and the Republic of Moldova and covering 6,500 km; it organized 28 history lessons, which gathered 6,000 spectators (pupils, students, teachers and history enthusiasts). In addition to the project ambassadors, more than 40 special guests (historians, specialists, teachers) took part in the 28 history lessons. The management of the customs administration in Turkey was invited to pay a visit to Romania by the president of the Romanian Customs Authority (AVR), Bogdan-Lari Mihei, to strengthen cooperation in the field and consolidate the good relations between the two authorities, in the interest economic and commercial development beneficial to Romania and Turkey, told Agerpres. According to a press release sent to AGERPRES, the president of the Romanian Customs Authority, together with other representatives of AVR, participated on November 2, 2022 in the high-level meeting of the Joint Customs Committee within the Romania-Turkey Joint Commission in the economic field. "On November 2, 2022, the high-level meeting of the Joint Customs Committee within the Romania-Turkey Joint Commission in the economic field took place in Ankara, Republic of Turkey. The invitation was sent by Mr. Riza Tuna Turagay, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Commerce from Turkey, coordinator of the General Directorate of Customs, the General Directorate of Imports and the General Directorate of Services and Circular Finance, the leader of the Turkish delegation," the press release informs. According to the quoted source, the Romanian Customs Authority was represented at this meeting by Bogdan Lari Mihei, president, by Marcel Simion Mutescu, general director, Directorate General of Risk Management and Customs Investigations, and by Raluca Mihail, head of the International Relations Service. "The discussions between the leaders of the two customs administrations focused on good professional collaboration, the stage of implementation of the objectives included in the joint action plan and the importance of the fields of cooperation aimed at updating the parameters of the Customs Union between the European Union and the Republic of Turkey", the press release reads. The agenda of the meeting included topics of interest to both parties, such as: cooperation in the customs field, including through the prism of the crisis situation in Ukraine; mutual administrative assistance and the exchange of risk information in the customs field; the exchange of experience and good practices in areas of interest - risk analysis, subsequent control, the operation of canine teams. At the same time, the Turkish experts presented the risk analysis system and the methods of carrying out the subsequent control. The responsibilities regarding the accommodation and feeding of the troops and ensuring related services, namely water supply, energy, waste management, at the base in Cincu, for the NATO Battle Group, fully belong to the French side, informs a MApN (Ministry of National Defence) press release, told Agerpres. MApN reminds that the Collective Defence Battle Group (CDBG) is made operational on Romanian territory by France, as a framework nation, and integrates, on a rotational basis, forces from Belgium and the Netherlands. It was established starting in May, by transforming the allied multinational elements within the NATO Response Force deployed in our country. The main forces of the CDBG are stationed in the National Joint Training Centre in Cincu, in a camp built gradually by the CDBG forces starting in May. "As the host nation, the Romanian side has made available all the elements requested so far by the representatives of the French army and the other allied contingents and will act promptly in the future too, to provide assistance and support, according to the requests, according to the national legislative framework and with the commitments that will be assumed through the technical agreement to be concluded between the Romanian side and the French side," states the MApN. The representatives of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) on Friday signed, at the headquarters of Romtehnica, an agreement for the acquisition of 32 F-16 aircraft from the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, worth over 380 million euros, informs a press release of the MApN, told Agerpres. The military institution agreed with the Norwegian representatives on the acquisition of 32 F-16 aircraft in the M6.5.2 configuration, spare engines and logistic support. The value of the agreement signed with the Government of the Kingdom of Norway is 388 million euros and will take place over a period of three years, with the first aircraft to be delivered towards the end of 2023. The agreement is carried out with the support of the Government of the United States of America, as the Government of Romania sent a "Letter of request" to the Government of the USA expecting an answer before the end of the year. The aircraft will be delivered to Romania in operational condition, with an available resource that will allow their operation by the Romanian Air Force for a period of at least 10 years, respectively during the transition period to the 5th generation airplanes. The acquisition of the 32 aircraft from the Government of the Kingdom of Norway represents, in fact, a transfer of capability between two NATO member states, which will increase Romania's defence capacity and ensure the national contribution to the collective defence within the North Atlantic Alliance. MApN obtained, in December 2021, the approval of the Romanian Parliament for the initiation of acquisition procedures. Currently, the Romanian Air Force has 17 F-16 aircraft in the M5.2R configuration, which will be upgraded to the M6.6 configuration, purchased based on the provisions of the Concept for the gradual realization of the air defence capability within the "Multirole Aircraft of the Air Force." The missions specific to the Permanent Combat Service - Air Police (SLP-PA) are executed with F-16 and MiG-21 LanceR aircraft, but their use is a short-term solution (one year). The gradual decommissioning of the MiG-21 LanceR aircraft and the need for the permanent execution of the Combat Service - Air Police with F-16 aircraft, combined with the development of the regional security environment, determined the need to identify a solution that would allow the defence of the airspace of Romania with F-16 aircraft and the execution of SLP-PA with F-16 aircraft, according to the commitments made to NATO. National Defence Minister Angel Tilvar participated in the ceremony celebrating Italy's National Unity and Armed Forces Day, Italy's Embassy in Bucharest informed, told Agerpres. The event took place in a small circle format, with several guests and without public, at the Ghencea Italian Cemetery in Bucharest, according to a press release issued by the diplomatic mission. Italy's Ambassador Alfredo Maria Durante Mangoni and Defence Military Attache Ivano Antonio Romano laid wreaths of flowers at the monuments of Italian and Romanian heroes, in order to commemorate all the servicemen who sacrificed themselves in Italy and abroad, in times of war and peace. The vast majority of them are heroes who fell in line of duty during the First World War, belonging to the Italian Division, which, being part of the Allied Army of French General D'Espery, participated in the offensive on the Macedonian front in September 1918, and heroes who fell in line of duty during the World War II, who lost their lives while moving from and to the Russian front. "We owe respect to those who sacrificed themselves for their motherland. Our heroes, fallen in battle, sacrificed their lives for our nations, thus becoming legends. 1,750 of the Italian soldiers who fell in both world wars on the territory of our country have their eternal sleep here, in the heart of the Romanian capital, alongside the Romanian heroes," Minister Angel Tilvar stated, according to a National Defence Ministry (MApN) press release. In his speech, the Romanian Minister also mentioned the current security situation, caused by the war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which "represents a flagrant violation of the international law." "Romania, alongside Italy and the entire world, condemned in the strongest terms Russia's unjustified and brutal aggression against Ukraine and supports, together with NATO, the European Union and the international community, Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, within its internationally recognized borders," Tilvar showed. With the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community committed itself to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. At the Glasgow summit in 2021, a number of states assured that they would no longer invest into coal, oil and gas. Russia's war in Ukraine threw many things into disarray. Now, the climate targets are to be improved at the UN's COP27, told Agerpres. Russian gas no longer flows to Europe. Germany, for example, is investing billions in new liquefied natural gas terminals on the coast. Coal-fired power plants are put back into operation to secure the electricity supply this winter. Similar things are happening in other parts of Europe. Nevertheless, the EU states assure that they want to meet the EU's climate protection target, i. e. reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. Ahead of the UN's COP27 Climate Change Conference, which takes place in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6, the EU Parliament calls for more leadership in mitigating climate change. The EU must show leadership and increase its 2030 emission reduction targets, stated a resolution adopted by the EU parliament in October. The EU Parliament called on industrialized countries to increase their climate protection targets, saying that Russia's war against Ukraine and its consequences made it all the more urgent to transform the global energy system. In addition, MEPs requested that the developed countries must keep their promise and ensure that the developing countries receive 100 billion US dollars in funding each year for climate protection. Germany's State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the Federal Foreign Office, Jennifer Morgan, called on the EU to take the leading role at the international conference: 'The EU must lead the way in accelerating the energy transition in solidarity with weaker nations.' She added that it was also important to keep financial commitments to developing nations and to support countries particularly affected by climate change through a solidarity pact. Germany will double its international funding commitments for environmental protection to 1.5 billion euros per year by 2025 at the latest. EU pledges more than 23 billion euros in climate finance to the Global South On October 28, the Council of the EU announced that the European Union and its 27 member states have pledged 23.04 billion euros in climate finance to the Global South. The funding from public sources aims 'to support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change,' a press release read. 54 percent of the funds were either earmarked for climate adaptation or for measures tackling both adaptation and climate change mitigation, the statement read, citing European Commission figures. Almost half of the total amount was pledged in the form of grants. International public climate finance aims to support countries of the Global South in implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement. Slovenia one of the fastest warming countries The targets of the Paris Agreement are increasingly at risk. Slovenia is one of the fastest warming countries. Experts from the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics have calculated that the country already exceeded the two-degree warming limit back in 2020. They warned that if only moderate action was taken, average temperatures in Slovenia could increase by almost five degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning Uro Brean sees great potential in solar energy. There's also a debate on the potential construction of a second unit at the Krko nuclear power station. The life span of the plant's first unit is to be extended to 2043. Next year, Slovenia is expected to adopt a climate change law, which is to introduce a climate council, a body bringing together experts, political players and NGOs in a bid to find the most suitable measures to mitigate climate change. The country expects the COP27 Climate Conference to focus on issues concerning the developing countries. Environment Minister Brean, who will attend the conference in Sharm El Sheikh, said that the issue of financing will always arise in the relationship between developed and developing countries. The promise that developing countries would receive 100 billion US dollars in climate aid a year had not been kept. 'I believe we can make progress there. Slovenia, as a developed country, is committed to making a greater effort,' Brean said. Serbia's climate promise Serbia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33.3 percent by 2030 and announced that by the end of this year, the country will publish the first National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change in Serbia. The country aims to abandon fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy sources, as well as switch to a circular economy model and reduce waste. The EU delegation in Serbia welcomed the country's increased climate ambition and called for the adoption of long-term strategies for climate neutrality by 2050. The head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, said that 'the EU will provide direct budget support in the amount of 165 million euros to mitigate the energy crisis. In parallel, the EU supports Serbia in increasing the energy efficiency of public and private facilities and the share of renewable energy sources.' Ahead of the UN Climate Summit COP27, the Digital Climate Atlas of Serbia was presented in Belgrade. The online platform is based on meteorological and geospatial data, providing insights into current and future climate changes for the entire territory of Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina's dependence on thermal power plants Serbia's neighbor Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) became a member of the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2000. However, for its electricity supply, BiH is still dependent on thermal power plants, which are major polluters. Authorities in the country have approved the continued operation of two thermal power plants, one in Tuzla and the other in Kakanj, whose service life has expired. This is to maintain stability in electricity production. BiH authorities had previously pledged that these plants would not operate for more than 20,000 hours after January 1, 2018. The Energy Community (EC), an international organization of the EU and several third states, initiated proceedings against Bosnia and Herzegovina for violating the regulations. The EC states that pollution protection systems have not been modernized as required and that the continued operation of the two thermal power plants violates the EU's Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) as well as BiH's own national plan for the reduction of harmful gas emissions. The Energy Community has to ensure that signatory states commit themselves to liberalizing their energy markets according to the requirements of the acquis and the EU Treaty. According to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bosnia and Herzegovina generated 42.3 percent of its total energy from renewable sources in 2021. Europe one of the fastest-heating regions in the world despite progress in emission reduction Meanwhile, according to a joint report by the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, temperatures in Europe have increased by more than twice the global average over the past three decades, making it the fastest-warming of all continents. However, according to preliminary figures, emissions from the 27 EU states fell by 32 percent between 1990 and 2020, which means that the climate target of a 20 percent reduction by 2020 was clearly achieved, states a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on October 26. The experts at the Copenhagen-based EU agency wrote that the annual progress would have to be more than doubled on the way towards meeting the more ambitious climate and energy targets for 2030. Emissions would have to decrease by an average of 134 million tons of CO2 per year, or 4 percent, to meet the target of reducing emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. For WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, 'Europe presents a vivid picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not safe from the effects of extreme weather events.' But the WMO also notes that it's not all bad news: 'Europe can play a key role in achieving a carbon-neutral society by mid-century to meet the Paris Agreement,' said Petteri Taalas. For Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 'European society is vulnerable to climate variability and climate change, but Europe is also at the forefront of international efforts to mitigate climate change and develop innovative solutions to adapt to the new climate that Europeans will have to live with.' Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu had a telephone conversation with his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky, on Friday, in the context of the Czech Republic holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) release sent to AGERPRES informs. Within the conversation, the Romanian Minister reiterated "Romania's full support for the objectives and the smooth running of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, including in the complex context of the Russian Federation's armed aggression against Ukraine," the quoted source stated. In this context, Minister Lipavsky informed about the conclusions of his recent visit to Kyiv, and the two heads of diplomacies had an exchange of views on the developments in the area. At the same time, Minister Bogdan Aurescu highlighted the extensive multidimensional measures taken by Romania to support Ukraine, including by facilitating the entry into Romania of over 2.75 million Ukrainian citizens, as well as at the level of food security, by facilitating the transit through our country of over 6.5 million tons of Ukrainian grain. Minister Aurescu assured that Romania will continue to provide support on this strategic level and take measures to improve transit logistics capacities. The Czech Minister thanked for all the efforts Romania made. In this context, the two ministers also discussed the situation of the Republic of Moldova, with an emphasis on the need to maintain the EU's support also at a bilateral level for the energy security of this country. Romania's Foreign Affairs Minister mentioned the steps taken by Romania to ensure the energy needs of the neighboring state. The head of the Romanian diplomacy also thanked for the efforts of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU aimed at supporting Romania's accession to the Schengen Area. Moreover, the two ministers discussed the status and continuation of the steps on this file. The Czech Foreign Minister assured his Romanian counterpart that Romania will continue to benefit from all the support of the Czech Republic throughout the Schengen accession process. Within the discussion, the two ministers also exchanged views regarding the situation in the Western Balkans, with an emphasis on the situation in Kosovo. In this context, the role of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, facilitated by the European Union, was brought to mind, encouraging the continuation of the commitment of the two sides and the need to maintain a general positive climate, without challenges from any side. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, said on Friday that at the national level, about 30,000 infections associated with medical assistance were reported annually, which means almost 1.3% of all discharged cases, told Agerpres. "In Romania, compared to what exists in many other countries, especially in northern Europe, these multiresistant bacteria are a daily presence, including in hospital units, because we consume a lot of antibiotics. In Romania traditionally, this also happens and in other countries in the south of the continent, there is high consumption of antibiotics. We are in second place in consumption in the European Union. Other countries affected by this are Cyprus, Greece and Italy. Implicitly, this inappropriate use of antibiotics also leads to high levels of resistance, and these bacteria produce invasive infections that are difficult to treat, and then we have to address both problems simultaneously. (...) At the national level, we now have about 30,000 infections reported annually. That means somewhere around 1.3% of all cases discharged. The average of the European Union is 7%", Rafila said on the occasion of the 15th National Conference of Microbiology and Epidemiology. He stated that a National Strategy and a National Plan regarding antibiotic resistance and healthcare-associated infections are to be approved by the Government. The President of Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor, stated on Friday that aggression of any kind cannot be justified, "neither if it is expressed in a narrow circle against a journalist, nor if one desires hanging politicians because they hoisted the Szekler flag", told Agerpres. "Recently, a journalist from Romania was threatened with death. Our position is clear and unchanged for the last 32 years: regardless of who it is, a citizen, a politician, a journalist, a public figure of any kind, we consider it unacceptable and we firmly reject any aggression against them!" Kelemen Hunor wrote on Facebook. The UDMR leader said that he expects the same position from the others, noting that often verbal aggression is followed by physical aggression. "We expect the same attitude and position from others. Because when it comes to verbal aggression, which is often followed by physical aggression, there is no room for negotiation! Aggression of any kind cannot be justified. Even if it is expressed in a narrow circle against a journalist, even if one desires to hang politicians for hoisting the Szekler flag", Kelemen Hunor also wrote. The Romanian Broadcasting Society took a position on Friday, through a press release, in the case of the statements of a Hungarian politician in Sfantu Gheorghe made about the Public Radio employee Paraszka Boroka. "In his message, he says: 'you can see Paraszka Boroka, you can hear her on Radio Targu-Mures. Well, if the Hungarians are not able to hang such people, to eliminate them from among themselves, let's not be surprised that we have reached where we are'. The politician added: 'we are witnessing the gypsyization of Szeklers and the Hungarian people'. The assessments were made during a meeting organized in Sfantu Gheorghe, where the Hungarian politician was present. An audio recording broadcast by a journalist present at the meeting in Sfantu Gheorghe proves the fact that, in addition to the xenophobic assessments towards the Roma and the Jewish community, the name of the Hungarian journalist, employed by the Romanian Broadcasting Company, is also mentioned," the release states. The Romanian Broadcasting Society considers the above-mentioned comments as "a serious attack against the basic norms of democracy, the rule of law", adding that "statements that appeal to racial purity are unacceptable in a democratic and tolerance". "The Romanian Broadcasting Society strongly condemns in these difficult times, any extremist and manipulative behavior that propagates and incites violence and expresses its disagreement with this type of approach. Fighting for equidistance, impartiality and correct information, in accordance with the mission to publish, in the spirit of defending journalistic ethics and freedom, as well as a credible and relevant source of news, the Romanian Broadcasting Society wishes to firmly condemn and discourage biased and extremist attitudes and continues to be part of the camp for the defense of truth and values described in the Romanian Constitution", the press release also says. At the same time, the Criminal Investigations Service within the Mures County Police Inspectorate announced on Friday an investigation in the case of the statements attributed to a representative of the Hungarian formation Mi Hazank, regarding the "hanging" of a journalist with Radio Targu Mures. The criminal investigation police were alerted after the Romanian-language press took over an article from the Telex.hu publication, in which a politician from the extremist group Mi Hazank allegedly said, regarding the journalist Paraszka Boroka on Radio Targu Mures, that if "Hungarians cannot hang such people, cannot eliminate them from among themselves, then it is no wonder that we ended up where we ended up". Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said on Friday that so far this year, about 1,100,000 Romanians have been immunised against influenza for free, told Agerpres. Another 400,000 doses of the flu vaccine are available, but the quantity can be supplemented, if there is demand for it. "As many as 1.1 million people have been vaccinated [against influenza]. There are about 400,000 doses left, just under 400,000 doses available. They will probably be exhausted this month. We are thinking of supplementing the quantity, if there is any more demand for it. (...) We have already made an inventory, and we are trying to use up the current stockpile by the end of the month," said Rafila. He added that he hopes this month the new version of the vaccine against COVID-19 will arrive in Romania. "I hope that this month we can also have the new version of the vaccine available. Of the new version of the vaccine, we are trying to get a quantity that is somewhere around 25% of that contracted for 2022. The doses in the warehouses are in the warehouses until at the expiration date, there is nothing we can do because there is no desire on the part of any other country to receive them, even for free. So it is clear that they will stay here, and as they expire, they will have to be neutralised accordingly. (...) Probably up to three million doses as against 11.2 million contracted," said the minister. The General Inspectorate of the Border Police informs that on Thursday, 69,100 people, including 8,288 Ukrainian nationals, entered Romania through border points throughout the country, reads a press release by IGPF sent to AGERPRES on Friday. Approximately 146,300 people, Romanian and foreign citizens, with more than 46,800 means of transport, passed the control formalities through the border points throughout the country, both inbound and outbound.On February 10, 2022 (pre-conflict period), 2,745,843 Ukrainians entered the country.On Thursday, 15 foreign citizens who did not meet the conditions provided for by law were not allowed to enter the country and 19 Romanian citizens were not allowed to leave for various legal reasons. The feature film PANDEMIA.MD directed by Bessarabian filmmaker Valeriu Jereghi will make its Bucharest premiere on Monday, as of 18:30, at the Peasant Museum's Cinema, in the presence of director Valeriu Jereghi, producer Sergiu Pascaru and actors Nicolae Jelescu, Olivia Furtuna and Emilia Jereghi. According to the synopsis, the film is set in the days of the Covid-19 pandemic and sees the director and his family leaving the city and taking refuge in the countryside during the entire period of the quarantine instated in the Republic of Moldova. There, faced with the new realities of life, the director conceives a new film about man's creative mission in the modern world, now dominated by immorality and lack of spirituality. The artist, who has dedicated his entire creation to the love for humanity, is compelled to accept an open confrontation with a new destructive force for civilization.The film was made by the Pascaru Production House with the financial support of the National Center of Cinematography of the Republic of Moldova, in co-production with MAYA FILMS (Romania) and MEDIA BIRLII (ATO Gagauzia).The event is organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest in partnership with the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has called "a serious attack on democratic values" threats against Targu-Mures Public Radio journalist Paraszka Boroka, calling for the authorities "to exercise their legal powers to protect mass-media people." "I am publicly condemning the threats against the Targu-Mures Public Radio journalist, which I find unacceptable and a serious attack on democratic values. Journalists' freedom of speech is a basic condition of the rule of law and a fundamental value in any democracy. I am asking the relevant state authorities to exercise their legal powers to protect journalists and to hold accountable those responsible for propagating speech that incites hatred and negative discrimination," Ciuca wrote on Friday in a Facebook post, told Agerpres. The Romanian Public Radio Broadcasting Corporation took a position on Friday in a press release in the case of controversial statements by a Hungarian politician in Sfantu Gheorghe against public radio employee Paraszka Boroka. "In his message, he says: 'you can see Paraszka Boroka, you can hear her on Radio Targu-Mures. Well, if the Hungarians are not able to hang such people, to eliminate them from among themselves, we should not be surprised that we are where we are'. The politician added: 'we are witnessing the gypsyisation of Szeklerland and the Hungarian people.' The statements were made during a meeting in Sfantu Gheorghe, where the Hungarian politician was present. An audio recording broadcast by a journalist in attendance at the meeting in Sfantu Gheorghe proves the fact that, in addition to the xenophobic speech towards the Roma and the Jewish community, the name of the Hungarian journalist, employed by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, is also mentioned." The company calls the comments "a serious attack against the basic norms of democracy, the rule of law," adding that "statements that appeal to racial purity are unacceptable in a democratic and tolerant Romania." "The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation is strongly condemning in these difficult times any extremist and manipulative behaviour that propagates and incites violence, while voicing its disagreement with such approach. Fighting for equidistance, impartiality and correct information, in accordance with the mission to publish, in the spirit of defending journalistic ethics and freedom, as well as a credible and relevant source of news, the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation wants to firmly condemn and discourage biased and extremist attitudes and continues to be part of the camp for the defence of truth and values enshrined in the Romanian Constitution." The Criminal Investigations Service with the Mures County Police Inspectorate announced on Friday having started an investigation into statements allegedly made by an official of the Hungarian Our Homeland Movement regarding the "hanging" of a Radio Targu Mures journalist. The criminal investigation police were alerted after the local Romanian-language press carried an article from the Telex.hu publication, in which a politician from the extremist group Our Homeland Movement allegedly said, regarding journalist Paraszka Boroka, that if Hungarians cannot hang such people, cannot eliminate them from among themselves, then it is no wonder that they are where they are. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has decided the setting up of an Interministerial Committee for the development of the normative framework on the regulation of activities in outer space, told Agerpres. According to the decision published on Friday in the Official Gazette, the Committee analyzes the international legislation applicable to state activities in outer space and presents to the institutions with attributions in the field proposals for the normative framework on the regulation of national space activities. The committee is coordinated by the president of the Romanian Space Agency, and its composition includes expert level representatives from several public authorities: the Romanian Space Agency; Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure; Ministry of National Defense; Ministry of Justice; Civil Aeronautical Authority; Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration ROMATSA. "Excellent telephone conversation with Likud president Netanyahu. I congratulated him for winning the elections in Israel. I look forward to strengthening the strategic partnership between Romania and Israel," Ciuca wrote on Facebook on Friday.Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies won the majority of seats in the Israeli Parliament in the legislative elections held on November 1, the Israeli Electoral Commission announced on Thursday. An international Romanian-Hungarian-Ukrainian research team has discovered a new species of plant in Romania, Salvia revelata, informs the Romanian Ornithological Society (SOR). "Although it is not a rare plant, but has a wide distribution throughout the steppe region of Europe, this species of sage has simply been hidden in plain sight for centuries, being mistakenly identified as Salvia austriaca, a common species of Central Europe, which this plant is closely related with," according to the press release."Researchers have named it Salvia revelata in Latin, reflecting the laborious process of revealing the correct identity of this cryptic taxon, and as a vernacular name they have proposed the Pontic sedge. Salvia sedge is distinguished from Salvia austriaca (Austrian sedge) on the basis of differences of floral morphology, genetics, pollination biology, ecology and distribution," said botanist Matis Attila, researcher of Babes Bolyai University (UBB) from Cluj-Napoca and the coordinator of the team that made this important discovery.The new species is related to the Pontic steppe habitats, so in Romania it is restricted to the steppe meadows of Dobrogea. Experts consider this part of the country a real treasure of biodiversity, a place where different biogeographical regions meet, which makes the flora and fauna very rich, Mediterranean, Central European and Asian species being present here.According to the quoted source, seven years ago, during the studies carried out in the Padurea Dumbraveni Reservation in Dobrogea, botanist Szabo Anna noticed that some specimens of Salvia austriaca looked a little different in Dobrogea compared to those in other regions of Europe - taller, more hairy."She drew the attention of her colleague, Matis Attila, to the plant, who, after carefully looking at the structure of the flower, had a revelation," the press release states.The botanist Matis Attila has contributed in the last decade with very valuable discoveries about the local and worldwide flora (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) I am a sociologist who studies how the overdose crisis affects patient care. My research shows why these funds cannot come quickly enough for the communities poised to receive them. In my view, money spent increasing access to methadone and buprenorphine, drugs backed with strong evidence, would significantly narrow this treatment gap. More treatment funding The settlements could help because they recommend that at least some of those billions fund treatment. However, state legislatures will ultimately decide where most of this money goes. If settlements lead to a significant increase in treatment, it would mark an improvement over what happened to the Big Tobacco settlements reached in 1998. Most of the funds from those deals that were supposed to support smoking cessation and prevention have instead padded state budgets and funded unrelated projects. 3 drugs are prescribed for opioid use disorder Ensuring that the settlement funds support what theyre supposed to pay for is only one hurdle. A separate challenge is defining what counts as treatment including who can provide it. The field is vast and varied. Treatment can come in a pill or consist of talk therapy. It can require a residential rehab stint or outpatient programs. Anyone from physicians to peers can provide this care, and its hard to determine what will work for a specific person. While no approach works for everyone, clear evidence suggests that more people should have access to medications for opioid use disorder. It might seem strange that the best treatment for people hooked on drugs is another drug. However, providing methadone and buprenorphine isnt just substituting one drug for another. These medications interrupt chaotic drug use and remove the highs and lows of addiction. They regulate the body just as antidepressants or insulin do. The FDA has approved three drugs: methadone, a solution taken by mouth dispensed in specialized clinics; buprenorphine, a tablet or film taken in doctors offices; and naltrexone, a pill or injection physicians may administer. People treated for opioid use disorder take these drugs for a year or longer. A study found that patients on methadone or buprenorphine were significantly less likely to die by overdose than patients who didnt take them. Methadone was associated with a 53% reduction in overdose risk, and buprenorphine was associated with a 37% decline. In contrast, people who took naltrexone were just as likely to overdose as those taking no medication. More research is needed to determine whether naltrexone makes a difference. Evidence for detox and inpatient programs Research suggests that residential programs, which can cost as much as $60,000 for 90 days of inpatient rehab, and other nonmedical approaches are less effective at treating opioid use disorder than drugs. A study that reviewed different kinds of treatments found that patients who got detoxification or intensive behavioral health therapy were as likely to overdose or need acute care as those who received no treatment at all. Sadly, some people enrolled inpatient, abstinence-based programs may even experience harm, because someone with an opioid use disorder is vulnerable to relapse right after treatment ends. Since abstaining from drugs altogether lowers tolerance, taking the the same amount of a substance as before rehab increases overdose risks. Cost isnt the only obstacle If medication works well for treating opioid use disorders, why is it so hard for people who need help to get these drugs? I see four main barriers. First, federal laws tightly restrict distribution. Methadone, used to treat opioid use disorders in the U.S. since 1972, can be provided only in federally certified opioid treatment programs, and physicians who prescribe it must register annually with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Patients getting methadone must attend counseling and visit a clinic daily to receive a single dose. People on methadone call it liquid handcuffs because of the strict rules they must follow to get it. Some restrictions have relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government now allows states to apply for an exemption that permits treatment programs to provide up to a months supply to take home. Many patients say they like not having to make daily trips to a clinic. A second barrier is that physicians are reluctant to prescribe buprenorphine, which the FDA approved to treat opioid use disorders in 2002. Physicians can prescribe buprenorphine from their offices as long as they get a Drug Enforcement Administration waiver. However, some pharmacists shy away from dispensing buprenorphine because they fear being targeted by law enforcement. The third barrier is that although patients run a high risk of dying after surviving an overdose, most emergency departments send them away without helping them find long-term treatment. Emergency medicine physicians I have interviewed tell me they dont have ways to make these referrals, so they revive patients from overdose and discharge them without additional care. Some hospitals see this as a missed opportunity. Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, and Bostons Massachusetts General Hospital have developed programs to put people on buprenorphine after an overdose and to connect them to physicians authorized to prescribe it long-term. Expanding access to treatment based in emergency departments would reduce the risk of overdose death. However, political opposition to these programs persists, even in West Virginia and the other places hardest hit by the overdose crisis. When programs manage to take root, they are underfunded. Making the settlement money count Many kinds of programs will compete for the funds made available through the settlements. But the research is clear: Medications for opioid use disorder offer a substantial return on investment. To be sure, these are chronic, relapsing conditions. People struggling with them need an array of services to get their lives on track. Still, medications are a critical tool. Americans have lost more than 1 million loved ones to overdoses since 1999. I believe that states would save lives if they used money from legal settlements to make medications that treat opioid use disorders more widely available. This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 25, 2022. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/drugs-that-treat-opioid-use-disorder-are-a-good-use-for-multibillion-dollar-settlement-funds-178392. ST. LOUIS From a mobile abortion clinic traveling along the Illinois border to more men seeking sterilizations, doctors, advocates and patients are responding in new ways to the post-Roe landscape that has left millions of women unable to get an elective abortion in their home states. In the past month, radio ad campaigns have been launched in states where abortion is banned to inform listeners how to get medication abortion pills in the mail. And an abortion clinic relocated from Memphis, Tennessee, where abortion is banned, to Carbondale, becoming the nearest abortion clinic for many people across the South. Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund relying on volunteers to help cover travel expenses for women seeking abortions, has tripled its staff since spring, going from two full-time employees to six plus a part-timer. Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, joined staff on Tuesday in cheering the delivery of a mobile abortion clinic the first in the U.S. for Planned Parenthood. This is truly an all-hands-on-deck moment, where we need everybody to be thinking innovatively and boldly and taking steps to do things a little bit differently, McNicholas said after touring the 37-foot RV equipped with two exam rooms. The clinic is expected to be operational by the end of year, first offering medication abortions up to 11 weeks gestation and then eventually procedural abortions, at spots along the states border with Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. We are going to continue to show up. We are going to continue to fight for access, and we are going to be defiant in the ways that we can, McNicholas said. This mobile unit truly is for us, an act of defiance. 10,000 fewer abortions Meanwhile, those who believe abortion is morally wrong are also stepping up efforts to prevent women from circumventing abortion bans. They are celebrating a study released this week that showed 10,000 fewer abortions a 6% drop were performed in the two months after the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that left access to abortion up to the states. In states where the procedure remained legal, the number of abortions rose, but not enough to offset drops elsewhere. Thirteen states including Missouri banned or severely restricted abortion in those months, and nine more added major restrictions. The data was collected by WeCount, a new effort led by the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion rights, to get real-time data from abortion providers across the U.S. Brian Westbrook, executive director of nonprofit Coalition Life, which places volunteers outside of abortion clinics in Illinois to encourage patients to continue their pregnancies, said the organization is targeting the flood of abortion pills. We celebrate all lives that have been spared from abortion since the (Supreme Court) decision, yet our focus is on all the women still being harmed by abortion and turning their bathroom into an abortion facility, Westbrook said. We remain committed to advocating for the protection of these women and the children they carry. Officials with Planned Parenthoods abortion clinic in Fairview Heights say they have seen a 370% increase in patients coming from outside Illinois and Missouri where abortion has long been severely limited since the Supreme Court decision. Many are also having to wait longer for appointments. The number of surgical abortions in the second trimester doubled from 49 in June, to 103 in September and 98 in October; and went from 26% of all surgical abortions to 36%. McNicholas said wait times at Fairview Heights have gone from two days to two weeks. Its too soon yet to see how much the Oct. 11 opening of the CHOICES clinic in Carbondale will help, she said. The clinic a two-hour drive from St. Louis and three from Memphis or Nashville, and near an Amtrak stop is currently only offering medication abortion. The number of folks that are coming to southern Illinois for care continues to be something to tackle, McNicholas said, despite operational changes that weve made in our brick and mortar increasing hours, increasing the number of days, increasing the number of folks we can see. Home abortion Unplanned pregnancy? Home abortion using pills is safe and effective, the radio ads say. Learn how to access abortion pills by mail at PlanCpills.org. Plan C since 2016 has provided information about medication abortion, or abortion pills, which were approved by the FDA over 20 years ago to end an early pregnancy. Plan C partnered with local groups in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi to launch ads on iHeart-owned radio stations in those states. The most recent ads launched on Oct. 17 and will run for the next 10 weeks. The purpose of these ads is to spread awareness of the pills and ensure people know that they still have options, even in states that have banned access to clinic-based or local abortion care, said Elisa Wells, co-director of Plan C. The Plan C website offers ways to access abortion pills according to each states laws, and hotlines to provide medical and legal advice. Crisis pregnancy centers such as Thrive St. Louis, religious-based groups that encourage women not to have an abortion, have also stepped up radio advertising, saying they offer a full array of options from nonjudgmental staff. Alison Dreith, a client coordinator for Midwest Access Coalition, says an increasing number of clients are wanting information about getting abortion pills in the mail a question that was hardly ever asked in recent years. This time last year, the organization was mainly helping clients from the Midwest, but now more are seeking help from southern states, Dreith said. Clients are facing traveling across several states to get the earliest appointment they can. More are interested because they dont want to travel three states over, she said. They cant afford to be gone five days or however long travel is. Last year, the organization helped 800 clients seeking abortions. As of Nov. 1, they helped 1,302. One small snip A travel trailer sitting in the lot of the Planned Parenthood health clinic in St. Louis on Thursday was covered in pictures of large sperm and a sign that read, One small snip for man, one giant leap for humankind(ness). A urologist from Iowa, Dr. Esgar Guarin, brought the trailer to Missouri to partner with Planned Parenthood in providing vasectomies for free to men without health insurance across Missouri as part of World Vasectomy Day. St. Louis was the trailers first stop before it was scheduled to travel to the Planned Parenthood clinics in Springfield and Joplin on Friday and Saturday. At each stop, 10 surgeries will be performed in the trailer, and 10 inside the Planned Parenthood clinic for a total of 60. The two providers partnered last year for the first time to offer 14 free vasectomies in St. Louis. They decided to expand it to more cities this year in an effort to reach more people in rural areas. As soon as we began to advertise this, our spots filled up immediately and we have a waiting list, and more people want to participate that we can take care of, said Dr. Margaret Baum, medical director of the regions Planned Parenthood. While the responsibility for contraception has mainly fallen on women, the Supreme Court decision has prompted an increased interest in vasectomies, Baum said. Planned Parenthoods three regional clinics provided 146 vasectomies last year. By the end of October this year, they have already completed 220. People will say, Oh, Ive been thinking about this for a year to two years, but now I have to have it done, she said. There seems to be a real sense of urgency about getting this procedure done. Denny Dalliance, 31, who recently moved from Independence, Mo., to Kansas City, is scheduled to get a vasectomy Saturday in Joplin. It is something that had been in my mind as an option for a long time, and after the Roe decision, it was bumped up much higher on the priority list, Dalliance said. As a truck driver, he cant afford to have a child, he said. And he does not want his partner to have to manage barriers to getting an abortion in the case of an unplanned pregnancy. If he should decide to become a father, he said, he would consider adoption. Baum said, Questions of whether or not to have a family, how to build their family, how to create a family are fundamental rights of people that people will always want no matter what the legislation says. So, people will find a way. Originally posted at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3. Editors note: Medication abortion pills are offered up to 11 weeks gestation. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said 12 weeks. NEW ORLEANS (AP) A Louisiana prison's treatment of its mentally ill prisoners including inadequate care, incomplete medical records and prolonged stints in solitary confinement violates federal law and the Constitution, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote's 165-page ruling states that officials at the David Wade Correctional Center have used solitary confinement, also referred to as extended lockdown, as a depository for mentally ill prisoners that only worsens their mental illnesses. The Shreveport-based judge's ruling, dated Tuesday, is the latest development in a 2018 lawsuit filed by criminal justice advocates on behalf of inmates at the prison in north Louisiana's Claiborne Parish. Her findings were based on evidence of prisoner treatment prior to March 2020. Next in the case comes a January remedy phase in which the state will have to show what it has done to correct the problems. After that, the court will step in to force changes if needed, Foote wrote. The state has denied the accusations in the lawsuit. We strongly disagree with the ruling, Department of Public Safety and Corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick said in an email. He declined further comment, citing pending litigation. Melanie Bray, lead attorney on the case for Disability Rights Louisiana, applauded the ruling. When people with mental illness are sent to the state prison as punishment for a crime, the state has an obligation to provide baseline mental health care," Bray said in a news release. "The proof in this case showed that there was virtually no mental health care at DWCC, and that men there are suffering greatly as a result of the states indifference. Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, the Promise of Justice Initiative and the law firms of Adams & Reese and Cohen Milstein also worked on the case. Foote rejected allegations by the inmates' lawyers that the prison officials engaged in retaliation against inmates involved in the suit, or that First Amendment rights were violated through the censoring of mail. But she was highly critical of the prison's treatment of mentally ill prisoners, saying they were deliberately indifferent while housing inmates in inhumane conditions. Those conditions violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel punishment, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Foote ruled. Matt Hancock, the U.Ks scandal-prone former health secretary, sought an unlikely form of redemption: attempting to win Im A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here a grueling, often gruesome reality TV show set in the Australian jungle. Hancock led Britains response to COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic, telling people to stay away from others to protect the health service, then breaking his Governments own rules, when video emerged of him kissing and groping an aide he was having an affair with. Viewers have upended expectations by voting Hancock through to the show's final, but he finished third. JEFFERSON CITY In a scorching rebuke, a Missouri judge Friday blocked parts of a Republican-led effort to restrict voter registration efforts and absentee voter outreach. Missouri Voters Guide for today's elections The Post-Dispatch and the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis present this guide to the candidates and races on the Nov. 8 ballot. With just four days before voters head to the polls to elect a new U.S. senator and decide the fate of a proposal to legalize marijuana, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued a preliminary injunction stopping parts of the expansive law from being enforced. At issue are new rules banning paid solicitation of voter registration applications and a requirement that volunteers who attempt to sign up more than 10 voters must register with the state. Another provision targeted in the lawsuit filed by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Missouri said volunteer solicitors must be Missouri voters. A fourth provision barred people from soliciting a voter into obtaining an absentee ballot application. Beetem said those parts of the law were unconstitutional because they limit free speech. And, he said, the state could not adequately explain how those provisions would address alleged fraud. The chilling effect of the challenged provisions threatens to cause increased voter confusion and decreased voter participation, Beetem wrote. The lawsuit by the two groups was separate from one that unsuccessfully challenged the states new photo ID law, which was included in the overall package approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Parson earlier this year. The photo ID ruling is being appealed. It remains in effect for Tuesdays balloting. The overall new law was a key legislative priority for Republicans after former President Donald Trump falsely alleged he won the 2020 election. The so-called voter integrity effort was touted by supporters as ensuring clean elections, even though there have been few examples of voter fraud. Among them was Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, who said, After the chaos and uncertainty of the 2020 election, it was imperative that we tighten election laws in Missouri to further secure our elections. Burlison won the Republican primary to represent a southwest Missouri congressional seat and is expected to cruise to victory on Tuesday in the heavily Republican district. Opponents said the legislation was an effort to suppress Democratic votes. The ruling came as Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was scheduled to appear on Facebook to answer election-related questions on Monday, the evening before voters head to the polls. In filing the suit, the NAACP said the provisions will force the group to stifle voter registration and absentee voting activities. The plaintiffs, represented by the Campaign Legal Center, American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, asked the court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the challenged provisions. Beetem agreed, saying the groups had been hurt by the law. Plaintiffs are injured both because the requirement reduces the pool of potential volunteers who can carry their pro-voter message and because it requires them to dedicate additional resources toward compliance, the judge said. Beetem also said limiting how many people a voter can encourage people to register to vote is unconstitutional. Such a direct restriction on core political speech is plainly prohibited by the Missouri Constitution, he said. I am excited as is the NAACP that our efforts to fight Jim Crow legislation initiated by Jay Ashcroft have prevailed again, Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, told the Post-Dispatch. Efforts to prevent Missourians and in particular Black and brown voters from participating meaningfully in elections have failed again. Ashcroft said the ruling doesnt affect voting for the Nov. 8 election and added that Beetems decision only temporarily prohibits the enforcement of the provisions contained in House Bill 1878. We look forward to vigorously defending these aspects of HB1878 at trial, an Ashcroft spokesman said. Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. Missouri Voters Guide for today's elections The Post-Dispatch and the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis present this guide to the candidates and races on the Nov. 8 ballot. UPDATED with mother returning girl to hospital The Missouri Highway Patrol canceled an Amber Alert early Thursday after searching hours for a critically ill baby girl who was taken from St. Louis Children's Hospital. The girl's mother, Jayana Johnson, 24, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after returning her 10-month-old daughter to the hospital for treatment. The girl, wrapped in a pink blanket, was taken from the hospital by her mother on Wednesday against doctor's orders, police said. After issuing an Amber Alert, police searched overnight for the mother and child who were in a Chevrolet Malibu. The child had been hospitalized Wednesday in critical and unstable condition due to neglect, St. Louis County police said. The mother fled with her child, and the hospital told officers the child was in "imminent threat of death" without medical care. The Amber Alert was issued about 12:30 a.m. Thursday and canceled less than three hours later. On Nov. 2, 2021, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolaks reelection campaign received 10 separate $10,000 contributions from what appeared to be unrelated health insurance plans from across the country. The Buckeye Community Health Plan of Ohio, Louisiana Healthcare Connections, and Peach State Health Plan of Georgia were among the companies that sent money to the Democrat, according to state campaign finance records, even though only one, SilverSummit Healthplan, provided insurance in the Silver State. But a thread connects the companies: Each is a subsidiary of Clayton-based Centene Corp., ranked 26th on the Fortune 500 list, and the nations largest private managed-care provider for Medicaid, the government insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Centene had already sealed Medicaid deals in Nevada through its SilverSummit subsidiary yet a potential new line of business was on the horizon. Sisolak, who is up for reelection Nov. 8, had just approved a new public health plan option that would later open up to bidding from contractors such as SilverSummit. And then, less than two months after Centenes subsidiary contributions were made, Nevada settled with the company over allegations the insurer overbilled the states Medicaid pharmacy program. The state attorney generals office did not publicly announce the $11.3 million settlement but disclosed it in response to a public records request from Kaiser Health News (KHN). Sisolak who has accepted at least $197,000 from Centene, its subsidiaries, top executives, and their spouses since August 2018 issued a statement through his campaign spokesperson Molly Forgey that said Medicaid contracts are awarded by an independent group. There is zero correlation between Centenes donations and how the governor legislates, Forgey said. The governor in no way acts unilaterally in decisions to award state contracts. The contract went before the Nevada Board of Examiners for final approval. Sisolak is one of three voting members. Centene has similarly amplified campaign contributions to governors in New York and South Carolina, two states where it has profitable contracts and such giving by multiple subsidiaries is allowed. And despite having pledged to investors to disclose its political giving, Centene has revealed to shareholders only a portion of its contributions omitting much of its subsidiary giving from reports on its website. Under corporate law, each subsidiary is its own business, which allows companies to increase their political footprints in some states by giving the maximum allowed donations from more than one entity, said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University in Florida. In some cases, they can increase it tenfold depending on how many subsidiaries and how much money they want to aim at a particular politician, Torres-Spelliscy said. They will exploit any loophole. Since 2015, the company, its subsidiaries, its top executives, and their spouses have given more than $26.9 million to state politicians in 33 states, to their political parties, and to nonprofit fundraising groups, according to a KHN analysis of IRS tax filings and data from the nonpartisan, nonprofit group OpenSecrets. That total doesnt include the millions of dollars Centene and its subsidiaries have given to state politicians political action committees because OpenSecrets doesnt track those donations. The KHN analysis also does not include giving to congressional and presidential candidates. Its a purposeful political investment: Centene earns billions of dollars from governments and then uses its profits to back the campaigns of the officials who oversee those government contracts. The company has developed this sophisticated, multipronged strategy as it pursues even more state government-funded contracts and defends against sweeping accusations that it overbilled many of those very governments. Centene declined to make a representative available for an interview and didnt respond to specific questions about its political giving. But company spokesperson Suzy DePrizio said in a statement that the company follows all local, state, and federal laws and records all contributions from its political action committee. She said Centenes contributions are intended to serve as support to those who advocate for sound public policy healthcare decisions, which is evident by our nearly equal support of candidates from both parties. This year, according to IRS filings that go through Sept. 30, Centene has given $2.2 million, combined, to the Republican and Democratic governors associations, which help elect candidates from their respective parties. And Centene gave $250,000, combined, to the Republican Attorneys General Association and its Democratic counterpart. Since last year, state attorneys general, whose campaigns are benefiting from the associations money, have negotiated massive settlements with Centene over accusations the companys prescription drug programs overbilled Medicaid. More than 20 states are investigating or have investigated Centenes Medicaid pharmacy billing. The company has agreed to pay settlements to 13 of those states, with the total reaching about $596 million. And Centene told KHN in October that it is working to settle with Georgia and eight more states that it didnt identify. It has denied wrongdoing in all the investigations. KHN found that Centene, like many corporations, also pays dozens of lobbyists in state capitals across the country and in Washington, D.C. It courts officials with fundraising parties and perks such as tickets to sporting events like Sacramento Kings games. And it helps fund committees set up to pay for governors inaugural events as it did for Sisolak, with a $50,000 donation, separate from its campaign contributions, according to the Nevada secretary of states office. Executives and their family members make political contributions in their own names. For example, from 2015 through 2021, Centenes then-CEO Michael Neidorff and his wife, Noemi, wrote at least $380,000 in personal checks to state candidates, with more than 60% going to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who governs a state where the insurer generated 11% of its revenue in 2019. The Neidorffs lived in St. Louis. Theres no proof Centenes contributions swayed politicians decisions, but campaign finance experts say money can translate into access and that can lead to influence. Theyre trying to protect their market share, said Gerald Kominski, a senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. They see it as necessary to maintain good relations with the agencies and with the individuals who are involved in decision-making because thats the way government works. Billing question surfaces in Ohio Health care industry players from insurers, to doctor lobbying groups, to drug companies routinely make large political donations. Centene rival Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem, has spent at least $21.8 million on state political contributions since 2015, according to KHNs analysis. What makes Centene stand apart from competitors is the massive share of its business that is funded by taxpayers. Founded as a nonprofit in 1984 by a former hospital bookkeeper, Centene earned $126 billion in revenue last year up from $5 billion a decade ago, according to the companys annual reports. Its rocketing revenue has been fueled by its thriving Medicaid managed-care business, takeovers of competitors, and growth in its Medicare Advantage membership and in enrollment in health plans it sells via the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces. Centenes Ambetter plans, available on the exchanges, have the highest enrollment nationally. The company has also locked up lucrative deals to deliver health care to state prisoners, military members, and veterans. Centene has reported that two-thirds of its revenue comes from state Medicaid contracts that cover about 15 million people across the country. So when Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued Centene in March 2021 over what he called a complex scheme of corporate greed to fleece taxpayers out of millions, other states took notice. Ohio investigators accused Centene of overcharging the states Medicaid program through the companys pharmacy benefit managers, which provided medications to Centene-managed Medicaid patients. Pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, act as middlemen between drugmakers and health insurers and as intermediaries between health plans and pharmacies. Centene denied wrongdoing but faced immediate consequences. Ohio officials froze its application to renew its contract to offer insurance to state Medicaid enrollees. Ohio had Centene over a barrel, said Antonio Ciaccia, a consultant who worked with the state on the dispute. The company settled three months later for $88.3 million. Its application was soon unfrozen, and it won a Medicaid contract that summer for its subsidiary Buckeye Health, whose lobbyists include Michael Kiggin, a law school buddy of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for DeWine, said the states competitive bidding process was reviewed by a court, which noted Buckeye Health Plan scored highly in the bid process. Since last year, 12 other states have settled with Centene over pharmacy services: Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington. Of the states that have reached settlements so far, at least five have subsequently awarded government contracts to the company. Louisiana settled with the insurer in November 2021 for $64.2 million and just three months later awarded a statewide Medicaid contract to Centenes subsidiary Louisiana Healthcare Connections. KHN learned of the settlement, which was not previously publicly announced, in October through a records request. Nebraska officials also hadnt publicly announced the states $29.3 million settlement with Centene in December until they received a recent KHN public records request. Nine months after the settlement, the state awarded Centene subsidiary Nebraska Total Care a Medicaid contract. One reason Centene keeps winning contracts, Kominski said, is that such large insurers dont have much competition in some parts of the country. Its not as if states can easily say, OK, were going to have an open competition and then they have hundreds of insurers willing to participate in the marketplace, Kominski said. Health care is not, in general, a very competitive marketplace. Some politicians are tired of that playbook. In Mississippi, the state House of Representatives voted in February to prohibit Republican Gov. Tate Reeves administration from awarding a contract to any company that the state had settled with for more than $50 million. Centene paid Mississippi $55.5 million the year before. I am for doing away with our business to a company who took $55 million of our money that was supposed to be spent on the poor, the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled, Republican state Rep. Becky Currie, who authored the amendment, told her colleagues on the House floor. The House adopted Curries amendment, but the Senate stripped it out of the bill. Reeves gubernatorial campaign committee has received $210,000 from Centene since 2015, according to OpenSecrets data, and Mississippi lawmakers and party organizations have reaped at least $600,000. Reeves office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the donations. In August, just over a year after the settlement, Mississippi awarded Centene subsidiary Magnolia Health Plan a new Medicaid managed-care contract. Showing up as a partner in the market In Georgia, reports of Medicaid overbilling by insurers surfaced in 2018. The following year, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp retained Mississippi-based law firm Liston & Deas to investigate, according to a letter KHN obtained. But three years later, while other states have settled with Centene, Georgia has not. Centene is also currently trying to renew a Medicaid managed-care contract in the state. Meanwhile, the company, its subsidiaries, and employees have given at least $139,500 in contributions to Kemp since his first bid for governor started in 2017, according to state campaign records. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carrs campaign has received at least $53,000 in Centene-related giving just this year, with most coming from company executives, including Centenes new CEO, Sarah London, who gave $10,000. Carr, a Republican whose office would oversee any potential Centene settlement, and his spokesperson Kara Richardson said the state Medicaid agency is reviewing the billing data. Centene is also trying to renew Medicaid managed-care contracts in Florida, Texas, and New Mexico. In angling for those deals, London told investors in September that shes spending more time in states talking to key leaders because our state relationships are a critical part of the business. In the conversations that I have been having with governors, she added, I hear a lot of positive feedback about the way that Centene shows up as a partner in the market. London, her fellow top executives, and their spouses have given just over half a million dollars since 2015 to gubernatorial and attorneys general candidates across the country. Their checks were often dated the same day for the same amount to incumbent politicians whose governments oversee Medicaid managed-care contracts in states, including in Arizona, Kansas, and North Carolina. The optics of this are pay to play when decisions are made, said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a nonprofit watchdog group. It could be perceived as this health care company buying influence from lawmakers and elected officials. Giving down the ballot Centene brands its health plans under local names, such as Peach State Health Plan in Georgia and SilverSummit in Nevada. Because Centene has more than 300 U.S. subsidiaries, the insurer has many avenues for political giving. As it did for Nevadas governor, Centene lined up its health plans nationwide to support the governor of South Carolina three times while it had and renewed a Medicaid contract in that state. In 2017, according to OpenSecrets data, Republican Gov. Henry McMasters campaign received $66,500, combined, from Centene and 17 of its subsidiaries. In 2019, Centene and 10 subsidiaries gave $38,500 on a single day. Then this year, on April 28, 11 Centene affiliates sent the governor a total of $36,000. This years contributions to McMasters campaign werent included in reports that Centene has published about its political spending since 2020. The McMaster campaign did not respond to questions about the donations. Also omitted from Centenes published disclosures on its website were most of the contributions made by its California-based subsidiary Health Net, which is among Centenes most politically active health plans and is a huge revenue maker for the company. Together, Health Net and another Centene subsidiary, California Health & Wellness, gave at least $3.8 million to ballot measure campaigns and state and local politicians from 2015 through Oct. 25, 2022, according to the California secretary of states office. Health Net also gave $50,000 to Newsoms inaugural committee in 2018, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Wed be surprised if it was an accident that contributions were not included in the website report to shareholders, said Bruce Freed, president of the Center for Political Accountability, a nonprofit advocacy organization that rates companies on their disclosure of political donations. Former Centene CEO Neidorff, who died this year, and his wife gave Newsom $240,800 from 2018 through 2020, according to the California secretary of states office. Thats on top of the $121,800 that Health Net has contributed to Newsoms campaigns since 2015. All of those fell within state campaign contribution limits. Neither the governors office nor his campaign returned requests for comment. The governor has pushed proposals expected to help Centene and other insurers including expanding insurance subsidies, requiring Californians to have health insurance, and extending coverage to immigrants regardless of their legal status. Noemi Neidorff did not respond to requests for comment. At the moment, the company has billions of dollars at stake in California: The state is among those currently investigating its pharmacy billing practices, KHN has reported. And the company is appealing the states decision this summer not to award key Medicaid contracts to Health Net in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and other counties. While these decisions are pending, the company has continued to send checks to campaigns, including to dozens of local leaders mayors, city council members, and county supervisors in regions critical to its business. Now, some of those local leaders are writing to state officials, asking them to reverse their decision and give Health Net a Medicaid contract locally, according to letters KHN obtained. Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna and two of his fellow supervisors were among those whose campaigns received checks from Health Net. They declined to comment. It certainly doesnt mean that we cant use our meager bully pulpits to affect, perhaps, reconsideration of their selection, Serna told a group of Health Net employees who showed up in pink T-shirts to testify at a public hearing in September. He had written a letter to state officials urging them to reopen the bidding six days earlier. Phillip Reese, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento, contributed to this article. Originally posted at 5 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4. JEFFERSON CITY Unlike the mayor of St. Louis, Kansas Citys chief executive is throwing his support behind a Missouri ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and over. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas endorsement was announced Thursday by the group Legal MO 22 along with the support of several state lawmakers and two St. Louis aldermen ahead of the Nov. 8 election. The lawmakers backing the amendment include those usually diametrically opposed on policies such as state Rep. Nick Schroer, an OFallon hard-right Republican, and state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat. The constitutional amendment, listed on the ballot as Amendment 3, has divided some legalization advocates and progressive-leaning organizations over how the state should legalize marijuana. The amendment has been endorsed by civil liberties groups such as the Missouri ACLU and Empower Missouri. But other groups, such as Pro-Choice Missouri and the Missouri NAACP, have said it doesnt go far enough to address historic harms of marijuana criminalization. Lucas endorsement of the measure marks his latest disagreement with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who in August criticized the ballot measure as a disaster. It also contrasts with St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones position. She urged voters to reject the amendment, saying it fell short on promises of decriminalization. We deserve better, she said via Twitter. The Nov. 8 ballot question will ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to legalize marijuana for adults. It would create a licensing program for who can legally sell or grow weed and would expunge the criminal records of people with past nonviolent weed charges. The Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. SUNSET HILLS A St. Louis County judge has ordered Sunset Hills to pay a half million dollars in attorney fees for its unjustified, vexatious and spiteful hostility to a property owner whose rezoning requests city officials repeatedly denied. The withering order from St. Louis County Circuit Judge John Borbonus follows five years of litigation between Sunset Hills and a trust led by Dr. George Despotis, which sued the city in 2017 after failing to win rezoning for land along Lindbergh Boulevard between West Watson Road and Court Drive. Despotis had operated a medical imaging center at the corner until it was destroyed by the tornado that struck the region on New Years Eve 2010. Despite commercial development on all sides of the roughly 5 acres he had assembled and offers to build townhomes as a buffer for the nearby subdivision the city denied all of his rezoning requests, which sought to allow construction of a credit union. The actions by the southwest St. Louis County suburb of 9,200 people appeared personal, the judge ruled. Despotis testified that he heard Sunset Hills longtime lawyer, Robert E. Jones, say that the city was not going to lose to this family again, testimony Borbonus found credible. It was an obvious reference, the judge wrote, to Sunset Hills 1981 loss at the Missouri Court of Appeals to Despotis mother, Olga Despotis, in a similar zoning dispute that forced the city to rezone the property where the former medical office was built. Sunset Hills attorney in the prior case was Jones father, Robert C. Jones Jr. Robert E. Jones whose Clayton firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & OKeefe specializes in representing many of St. Louis Countys nearly 90 municipalities said in an email that he didnt recall saying that the city wasnt going to lose to the Despotis family again. The city defended its legislative decision to maintain reasonable and long-standing residential zoning for the subject properties, he wrote. I will not criticize or comment further on the Judges ruling because this matter is in active litigation. Sunset Hills filed a notice of appeal last week. City Administrator Brittany Gillett, responding to an inquiry sent to Mayor Pat Fribis and other members of the board of aldermen, declined to comment but said the city had spent just under $40,000 out of pocket on the litigation since 2017. After a March trial, the judge in July ordered Sunset Hills to rezone the property, which sits mostly vacant and undeveloped along busy Lindbergh Boulevard. Borbonus followed that up with an Oct. 20 order for the city to pay $509,000 in attorney fees to Despotis lawyers because of what he said were spiteful actions from the city. Despotis attorney Jill Rembusch of Brentwood-based Hein, Schneider and Bond, said 30,000 to 40,000 cars pass the Despotis property every day. Its really stunning that the city maintains someone wants to build a house right there, Rembusch said. Prominent area engineer George Stock a veteran of zoning across the region testified that the citys handling of the Despotis petition was perfunctory, very unusual and not consistent with his experience, Borbonus noted. And Sunset Hills officials ignored their own staffs recommendations and those of its land use consultant to rezone the property. The citys proffered explanations, excuses and rationales at trial were not credible, especially when viewed against the overwhelming amount of commercial development it previously approved, and continued to approve, all around the proposed development area and along both sides of the Lindbergh Boulevard corridor, while simultaneously denying the trusts petitions, Borbonus wrote. Editor's note: This story corrects the title of St. Louis County Circuit Judge John Borbonus. Regarding Police: FBI background check blocked gun sale to accused St. Louis school shooter (Oct. 28): I am so disgusted by Gov. Mike Parsons response to the recent school shooting. He said, You got a criminal that committed a criminal act, and all the laws in the world are not going to stop those things. But if laws dont matter, then he wouldnt have had a 22-year career as a sheriff. If laws dont matter, then lets just get rid of all of them. Regarding the editorial For serious voters, Missouris ballot offers an array of unacceptable choices (Oct. 28): The Post-Dispatch Editorial Board chose not to make a voter recommendation in the Missouri Senate race. For voters, one option is to vote for the a candidate who, although a political novice, is educated and has served her community. The other candidate behaves like a right wing extremist. For me, thats not really a hard choice to make. Carmody MacDonald P.C. has promoted two attorneys to shareholder and five attorneys to partner. The new shareholders are Mark Mulchek and Patrick Wittenbrink. The new partners include Brittany Brown, Jordan Poole, Elizabeth Barrett, Brad Zimmerman, and Brennan Connor. We are proud to recognize all of our new shareholders and partners for the significant contributions and value they have brought to our firm, said Kevin Cushing, a managing partner at Carmody MacDonald. They have earned significant professional recognitions in their careers while also providing important contributions to the community through their personal involvement. Mark and Patrick are in the firms corporate/transactional practice group. Mark represents clients primarily in estate planning, business law, and real estate, and leads the firms associates committee. Patrick focuses his practice in the areas of banking and finance as well as business law, estate planning, and real estate. Mark joined the firm after graduating from law school in 2008, and Patrick joined us ten years ago, Cushing added. We are grateful for the results they have achieved on behalf of our clients and the impact they have made upon our entire staff. Brittany, Jordan, Elizabeth, Brennan, and Brad are now among the 36 partners currently at Carmody MacDonald. Brittany and Jordan are in the firms family law practice group. Brittany and Jordan concentrate their practices in divorce and family law matters and have extensive experience with complex and high conflict litigation. Brittany and Jordan have the knowledge and proficiency that allow our family law department to continue to provide valuable services to our clients, said Joyce Capshaw, a principal attorney in the family law practice group and the first associate attorney hired by Carmody MacDonald 41 years ago. They understand the dynamics of todays family law issues and have both been instrumental in expanding our practice. Elizabeth, Brennan, and Brad are in the firms corporate/transactional practice group. Elizabeth concentrates her practice in the areas of banking and finance, real estate, and business law. Brennan and Brad focus their practices in the areas of tax, estate planning, real estate, and business law. Our business law clients have been impressed with the results that Elizabeth, Brad, and Brennan have achieved, Cushing said. Their promotions are well-deserved and an important factor in the ongoing growth of our firm. For more information about Carmody MacDonald, visit www.carmodymacdonald.com. CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / November 2, 2022 / Sustainable Origins Inc. ("Sustainable"), a subsidiary of Forza Innovations Inc. (the "Company") (OTC PINK:FORZ) today announces the schedule for the opening of their steel tank fabrication shop. The opening of their new facility is set for December 3, 2022 and is projected to quickly ramp up to producing two to three new tanks per week. Sustainable places these tanks at customer locations, where they are used to store used cooking oil that is then collected to convert to Biodiesel. The fabrication shop will also be producing tanks for other Biodiesel production companies nationwide. Sustainable projects initial weekly revenues of $15,000 to $20,000, with projected monthly revenues in the six-figure range when fully operational. Heading up the fabrication team for Sustainable is Travis Drake, who holds numerous certifications in welding and fabrication design. His addition to the team will have an immediate impact. Travis' over 25 years of experience includes aviation construction and development, proprietary gate lock fabrication, numerous industrial and Commercial projects including business and governmental, as well as projects for the military. Travis has also conducted work for major companies including Duke Energy and Tesla. The rest of the fabrication team is comprised of sanitation certified welders, with stainless steel, aluminum, and steel certifications. In total, they have over 40 years of fabrication experience. This will give the facility the ability to build automatic collection systems internally. The shop will also be working on their own product lines in other sectors, including aluminum roofing panels and roofing products with embedded solar panels. Sustainable' s CEO Aloysius Callaghan looks forward to working with Travis Drake in the new shop, "Travis had been constructing Sustainable's new recycled cooking oil tanks from a third- party standpoint. Now having him in house will be extremely beneficial to Sustainable's current core business, as well as him becoming a key player in creating other revenue streams." Forza Innovations CEO Johnny Forzani is pleased with his company's overall progress towards its goals, "Week in, week out, we continue to grow at a rapid pace. Adding our own fabrication shop and team brings us one step closer to becoming a 7-figure business. This is the trajectory we are on; we are not taking the foot off the gas for 1 second until our collective goals are achieved. I firmly believe that $FORZ is the most undervalued stock on the exchange." ABOUT SUSTAINABLE ORIGINS Founded in 2020 by two Canadian entrepreneurs with a dream, Sustainable Origins' mission is to leave our communities better than we found them by reducing the waste of oil and the stress of disposing it while giving businesses the compensation they deserve to reinvest into their operations. Sustainable accomplished this by becoming Biodiesel experts through months of research. They connected with scientists, Fortune 500 oil and gas CEOs, investors, and renewable fuel experts. The founders were then referred to a small-scale Used Cooking Oil ("UCO") collection operation based out of Denver, NC called Oil Industries LLC. The owner showed them the ins and outs of the industry throughout 2021 and Sustainable bought out his business, invested in new equipment and focused on building a thriving UCO collection business. Sustainable installs storage tanks at the customer's location, then works with their partners, pays their clients for the oil, collects it without spillage or mess, and converts it to clean burning biodiesel. CONTACT: Aloysius Callaghan PHONE: (704) 761-3955 EMAIL: [email protected] ABOUT FORZA INNOVATIONS Forza Innovations Inc. (OTC PINK:FORZ), is in the health-tech wearable performance business. Its offices are based in San Diego, California and houses an innovative health-tech lab, stocked with state-of-the-art industrial machinery that specializes in the design and development of patented IP. Our focus at Forza is to create world-class IP and patent our products through both utility and design protection. Please refer to the Company's website www.forzinnovations.com CONTACT: Johnny Forzani EMAIL: [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends, and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts, such as statements regarding the closing of the exchange agreements and expected reduction in our total outstanding debt and annual interest payments. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "outlook," "potential" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect our current views. SOURCE: Forza Innovations, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: First National Bank Texas and FHLB Dallas Fund Home Repairs LUBBOCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- U.S. military veteran Angel Flores has traveled the world as a member of the Marine Corps, the Army and the National Guard before medically retiring in 2014. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005544/en/ Representatives from First National Bank Texas, the office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn, the office of State Representative Jodey Arrington and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas joined to award a military veteran with $10,000 in Housing Assistance for Veterans. (Photo: Business Wire) Mr. Flores years of service spanned 16 years from 1998 to 2014. During that time, he got married and started a family. He purchased a home after returning to his hometown of Lubbock, Texas. His family which includes a teenager and two adult children who work and attend school, endured nearly two years of extreme temperatures both hot and cold, without a working central heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system (HVAC). We relied on window units and space heaters for years, said Mr. Flores. This wasnt an ideal solution, but thats what we were able to afford. Now, Mr. Flores has a new HVAC system thanks to a $10,000 Housing Assistance for Veterans (HAVEN) grant from First National Bank Texas (FNBT) and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas). With winter coming up, were so grateful to have been selected for the HAVEN grant and to finally have a working system again. We can be so much more comfortable in our home now, he said. My family and I are so appreciative for this assistance from FNBT and FHLB Dallas. It has truly been a Godsend. HAVEN assists with necessary modifications to homes of U.S. veterans and active-duty, reserve or National Guard service members who became disabled as a result of their military service since September 11, 2001. Alternatively, the funds can be awarded to Gold Star Families that were impacted during this time frame for home repairs/rehabilitation. Representatives from both banks joined the Flores family for a check presentation at the Flores home. The event was also attended by staffer Joel Riedel, from the office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and staffer Kaci Morris from the office of State Representative Jodey Arrington (TX-19). April Niswonger, assistant vice president at FNBT, said being able to share this experience with others is fulfilling. As a community bank, awarding this HAVEN grant was an impactful experience for us. We are just as thrilled for Mr. Flores to have these home renovations, which will now increase the comfort level in the home, she said. Taking care of veterans and their families is a high priority for us, and the HAVEN grant through FHLB Dallas is a great way to achieve this goal. Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas, says HAVEN is a unique program because it specifically reaches military veterans and their families. It takes strong community partners like FNBT to disburse HAVEN grants and help those that have served, he said. HAVEN is a great tool for our members to invest in their communities while assisting men and women of the armed forces. About First National Bank Texas First National Bank Texas (FNBT) is dedicated to providing customers with quality financial products and services. The bank was founded in 1901 in the Central Texas town of Killeen and has grown to over $3.7 billion in assets and operates in over 340 locations in Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, and New Mexico. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $77.7 billion as of June 30, 2022, serves approximately 800 members and associated institutions across our five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. FHLB Dallas provides financial products and services including advances (loans to members) and grant programs for affordable housing and economic development. For more information, visit our website at fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005544/en/ Corporate Communications Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (214) 441-8445 fhlb.com Source: Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Albertsons Companies (NYSE: ACI) (Albertsons Cos. or the Company) today announced that the Attorney General of the State of Washington has been granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) by a Commissioner assistant to the Judge. The TRO restrains the Company from paying the previously announced $6.85 per common share Special Dividend (the Special Dividend), originally scheduled to be paid on November 7, 2022. The Order enables the Court to consider the merits at a hearing scheduled for November 10, 2022. The Order remains in effect until November 10, 2022, unless within that time, an order is entered extending or dismissing the TRO. Albertsons Cos. intends to seek to overturn the restraint as quickly as possible because the temporary order was based on the incorrect assertion that payment of the Special Dividend would impair its ability to compete while its proposed merger (the Merger) with The Kroger Co. (Kroger) is under antitrust review. A hearing on the State of Washingtons request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for November 10, 2022. Albertsons Cos. continues to maintain that the lawsuit brought by the State of Washington, and the similar lawsuit brought by the Attorneys General of California, Illinois, and the District of Columbia are meritless and provide no legal basis for canceling or postponing a dividend that has been duly and unanimously approved by Albertsons Cos. fully informed Board of Directors. Albertsons Cos. is a thriving business which has delivered over $75 billion in revenues in the rolling four quarters ended September 10, 2022, following strong performance of $71.9 billion in revenues in fiscal 2021. Albertsons Cos. is well-capitalized, with limited debt and significant free cash flow and is in a strong position financially. The size of the dividend reflects the Companys strength, rather than the illogical and damaging accusation that it is an attempt to weaken the Company. The Companys plan to return capital to stockholders is part of its long-stated capital-return strategy and does not change the fact that Albertsons Cos. is in the strongest financial position it has ever been. The Company remains fully committed to investing in the associates, stores, and digital capabilities that have made its recent growth and strong performance possible. Albertsons Cos. is confident that it will continue to make strategic progress following the payment of the Special Dividend, given its strong cash flows and low debt profile. After payment of the Special Dividend, Albertsons Cos. will have approximately $3.0 billion of liquidity, including approximately $500 million in cash and approximately $2.5 billion available under its already existing asset-based lending facility, and expects to continue to generate strong revenues and positive free cash flow, furthering increasing liquidity. Albertsons Cos. intends to argue vigorously based on the factual record that there is simply no basis to continue restraining the payment of the Special Dividend. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The forward-looking statements include our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the Special Dividend and the payment thereof. They include statements which the Company believes to be reasonable at this time. You can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as outlook, may, should, could, estimates, predicts, potential, continue, anticipates, believes, plans, expects, future and intends and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements and risk factors. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect our view only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation, other than as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In evaluating our forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties more fully described in the Risk Factors section or other sections in our reports filed with the SEC. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006426/en/ For Investor Relations, contact [email protected] For Media Relations, contact [email protected] Source: Albertsons Companies, Inc. Local Leadership Appointment Helps Advance Aloricas Strategy for Transformative Growth in India BENGALURU, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Alorica Inc., a trusted global leader in next-generation customer experience (CX) solutions, today announced the hiring of Sanjay Ponnappa as Regional President overseeing its India operations effective immediately. Ponnappa, who brings a proven industry track record of digital CX success, will focus on elevating Aloricas service delivery from India to support clients and customers worldwide. Ponnappa will manage Alorica's rapidly expanding India operations, which has grown to more than 3,000 employees across sites in Bengaluru and Mohali as well as those working from home in the region. Alorica India provides services across the entire customer lifecycle including customer care, tech support, revenue generation, content management & moderation. Its Bengaluru site is also the home to the companys global Digital Business Centera technology hub and innovation lab that focuses exclusively on digital transformation including analytics and process re-engineering. Through the DBC, Alorica develops, tests and deploys digital CX solutions, such as automation, AI, omnichannel and more. "Adding Sanjay to the executive leadership team at this point of Alorica Indias trajectory aligns well with our plans for massive growth in the country," said Aloricas Chief Operating Officer Bong Borja. "Our operations in India offers tremendous opportunities for scalability, digital and AI-based solutioning and cost efficiency for clients anywhere in the world. At the same time, we take great pride in the award-winning culture we have in place for our employees professional development, satisfaction and engagement. With Sanjays operational background, strong leadership and localized expertise, I have confidence that our teams in the region will execute and thrive. Ponnappa brings more than 29 years of experience to the Alorica team, including two decades in business process management, program delivery and robotic automation deployment. In his previous roles, he has been responsible for operations spanning voice, non-voice and back-office support for 10,000+ employees in India, Philippines and the United Kingdom. His expertise ranges from winning new business; improving performance, NPS & profitability; enhancing the employee life cycle; and upskilling talent to capture digital transformation opportunities. To learn more about Alorica India and the diverse job opportunities available, go to: https://www.alorica.com/careers/india About Alorica Alorica creates insanely great digital customer experiences at scale. Our team of 100,000 solutionists, technologists and operators partner with global brands and disruptive innovators to deliver digitally-charged; tailored interactions customers crave. With a track record of creating long-term loyalty, Alorica brings actionable insights, proven processes and CX leadership to transform clients business needs, whether theyre focused on digital optimization, customer engagement or market expansion. Through strategic partnerships with best-in-breed technology, we design, integrate and optimize digital solutions personalized to reach clients most desired outcomes now and for the future. Alorica drives CX innovation for the best clients around the globe from its award-winning operations in 18 countries worldwide. To learn more, visit www.alorica.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103005529/en/ Media Contact: Sunny Yu [email protected] Source: Alorica Inc. LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BenevolentAI (Euronext Amsterdam: BAI), a leading clinical-stage AI drug discovery company, announces that it will participate at the upcoming Jefferies London Healthcare Conference from 15-17 November. Nick Keher, Chief Financial Officer of BenevolentAI is scheduled to present at 10.20 AM GMT on Thursday, 17 November 2022. The presentation will be live-streamed on the following link, and a recording will be made available shortly after on the Investor Portal of BenevolentAIs website. BenevolentAIs management, investor relations and business development team will be attending and available throughout the conference for meetings. About BenevolentAI BenevolentAI (AMS: BAI) is a leading, clinical-stage AI-enabled drug discovery and development company listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. Through the combined capabilities of its AI platform, scientific expertise, and wet-lab facilities, BenevolentAI is well-positioned to deliver novel drug candidates with a higher probability of clinical success than those developed using traditional methods. The Benevolent Platform powers a growing in-house pipeline of 13 named drug programmes and over 10 exploratory programmes, and it maintains successful collaborations with AstraZeneca, as well as leading research and charitable institutions. BenevolentAI is headquartered in London, with a research facility in Cambridge (UK) and a further office in New York. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006393/en/ Investors Fleur Wood - Investor Relations [email protected] Media Rajin Kang - VP Communications [email protected] Business Development Catherine Tucker [email protected] FTI Consulting: Ben Atwell, Simon Conway, Victoria Foster Mitchell [email protected] +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 Source: BenevolentAI Company welcomes new customers with industry-leading service LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- California American Water announced the companys acquisition of the City of Bellflowers municipal water system. Approximately 1,800 homes and businesses who are customers of the Bellflower municipal water system will now be served by California American Waters Los Angeles County District. Today, the $17 million transfer of the system was completed in accordance with the California Public Utilities Commissions recent decision approving the sale. The Bellflower municipal water system is located approximately 20 miles from California American Waters Los Angeles County operations located in Rosemead. Our team is excited to serve the City of Bellflowers municipal water customers and expand our footprint in Los Angeles County, said Kevin Tilden, President of California American Water. We have a long history of providing high-quality, reliable service to our customers and we look forward to playing a vital role in the lives of our new customers. We welcome the Citys municipal customers and look forward to providing them with the same great level of service that our existing customers already enjoy. The sale will bring many benefits to the Citys former municipal water customers who will now be provided service by California American Waters dedicated professionals. Former Bellflower municipal customers will get immediate access to the companys online platform for service alerts, 24-hour emergency service through a customer service line (888-237-1333), paperless billing, multilingual service, and more. Customers will also be able to access their accounts through MyWater, the companys online customer service portal, where they can review their account, pay bills, and read important service announcements in multiple languages. Bellflowers municipal water customers will receive welcome packets and customer information by mail, that will include new contact information, how to enroll in MyWater, payment options, as well as other customer service programs and benefits. About California American Water: California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and wastewater services to more than 725,000 people. Information regarding California American Waters service areas can be found on the companys website www.californiaamwater.com. About American Water: With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,400 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and regulated-like drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people in 24 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable, and reliable water services to our customers to help keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and diversityataw.com. Follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006395/en/ Media: Evan Jacobs Director, External Affairs Phone: 707-495-6135 Email: [email protected] Source: California American Water LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Future Planet Capital (FPC), the international venture capital and impact investor, is pleased to announce its participation in Edinburgh-based food & ag tech company Roslin Technologiess latest 11m funding round, helping to fuel the companys next wave of growth in its mission to become the leading provider of animal cell lines to the emerging cultivated meat sector. Cultivated meat is meat grown directly from animal cells without the need to raise animals. Cultivated meat offers a promise to improve animal welfare, lower antibiotics use, and reduce the environmental footprint of meat production. The cultivated meat sector is rapidly growing with billions of dollars invested to date, in over 100 active companies including global meat producers. To make cultivated meat viable, production cost needs to come down and products need to create great consumer satisfaction. High quality cell lines are required to make cultivated meat safe, affordable and nutritious. Having made an initial investment of 10m in 2017, FPC has supported Roslin as it has grown from an intial concept to the revenue generating commercial enterprise it is today through board representation, funding and strategic commercial introductions. FPC was also honoured to facilitate an introduction to the now King Charles at its leadership event at COP 26. As a long term partner looking to profitably solve the worlds greatest challenges, FPC is now pleased to be making a substantial contribution to this latest round via its Blue Ocean mandate and its Challenge Response II (CRII) strategy. This new funding will allow Roslin Tech to invest in expanding its cell line portfolio and further developing the protocols for scale up of its cells into competitive cell biomass for meat production. It will do so jointly with its customers, development collaborators, and the University of Edinburgh with which Roslin Tech has a privileged relationship. It will also invest in its insect venture which focuses on breeding better insects for the emerging insect protein sector, a promising regenerative agricultural technique. Guy Pengelley, Investment Director at Future Planet Capital, said: Roslins ambitions to create disruptive biotechnologies to improve how proteins are made, very much aligns with FPCs mission to deliver returns while tackling the worlds greatest challenges. As an early investor, were delighted to be in the position to continue to back their both their momentum and continued growth and are excited to see what more we can achieve together over the longer term. Ernst van Orsouw, CEO of Roslin Tech, says: The closing of this series A round is a real milestone for Roslin Tech as we look to commercialise our ground-breaking stem cell technologies. The trust from the new investors is a testament to the platform and team that we have built with support from Future Planet Capital and our other founding shareholders. We are very pleased that Future Planet Capital continues to support us both financially and strategically. Their networks are incredibly valuable to continue to grow our business and have an impact on society. ENDS About Future Planet Capital Future Planet is the impact-led venture capital firm built to back growth companies from the world's top universities and research ecosystems. Headquartered in London, but investing globally, the firm manages over $350M for institutional investors having backed over 180 companies across geographies and stages. Future Planet Capitals goal is to profitably solve the world's greatest challenges in climate change, education, health, sustainable growth & security. Blue Ocean The Blue Ocean mandate aims for a portfolio of ten to fifteen high-growth and high-impact companies that profitably tackle key issues within the Blue Economy. The strategy is partnered with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Monaco Government in the context of the Monaco Blue Initiative (MBI). Managed by Future Planet Capitals experienced investment team, including Ed Phillips, Partner and Head of Origination, and Lyle Pentith, Portfolio Manager, the investment strategy focuses on three areas within the Blue Economy: preventing pollution, preservation of marine environments and ecosystems and sustainable marine productivity. Challenge Response II Future Planet Challenge Response II (CRII) is a thematic basket investing in top companies directly combating the effects of climate change. It is part of a wider series, providing preferred access to investment into growth-stage life science and technology companies from the worlds top universities. It is designed to provide a rapid investment response to immediate global challenges. CRII, managed by Lyle Pentith, invests in three themes: Energy and Emissions, Sustainable Consumption, and Food Agriculture and the Environment. About Roslin Technologies Limited Based outside Edinburgh, Roslin Technologies Limited is an ambitious food and agriculture technology company which creates disruptive biotechnologies to improve how proteins are made. The companys core capabilities lie in developing and commercialising a suite of unique animal stem cells and resources for the nascent global cultivated meat industry. Roslin Technologies was founded in 2017 as a venture between two investment firms and the University of Edinburgh with which it has an privileged relationship with certain rights to commercialise intellectual property from the Universitys school of veterinary medicine and the Roslin Institute, a global leader in animal science. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103005785/en/ H/Advisors Maitland Jonathan Cook, [email protected] Kate Pledger, [email protected] T: 020 7379 5151 Source: Future Planet Capital TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Inovalis Real Estate Investment Trust (the REIT) (TSX: INO.UN) announced that it is advancing its plans to redevelop and revitalize the 110,000 square foot Arcueil property located in the prime Vache Noir urban district of Paris now that it has received formal notice from Orange S.A. the sole tenant of the property, that it will not be renewing its lease. In August, the Board of Trustees already contemplated the risk of non-renewal of the Orange S.A. lease when it reduced the REITs annual distributions to Unitholders by 50%. This conservative measure was adopted in part due to the uncertainty about this lease renewal as well as the anticipated reduction in revenue from the other strategic vacancies in properties of the REIT being marketed for sale and redevelopment. Orange has now confirmed it will vacate the property in mid-2023. This lease currently represents 28% of the REITs overall property portfolio and contributes 36% towards the REITs annual rental revenue. The REIT had previously adjusted the book value of the Arcueil property and deducted potential leasing costs based on the assumption there was a 75% chance of non-renewal. As a result of such changes, the book value of the property was previously reduced by 12%. The delivery of the formal notice of non-renewal now allows the REIT to advance its alternative plans for mixed use re-development of this asset that will offer LEED certified best-in-class operational, environmental, life-safety and health and wellness systems. Inovalis S.A., the REITs manager, has a proven track record of transforming real estate projects using specialized financing structures to significantly enhance workspace environments. Stephane Amine, President of the REIT said, Management is developing plans for a multi-use redevelopment of this 335,000 square foot asset. Its strategic location, 5 minutes away from Paris southern ring road and the planned focus on LEED certification will elevate this asset to the category of prime assets that are so greatly in demand in central Paris. Management is exploring strategic financing structures similar to that used for the 2016 2018 Rueil redevelopment project that provided a 20% return to Unitholders. We are very excited about this welcome opportunity. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The use of any of the words anticipate, continue, estimate, expect, intend, may, will, project, should, believe, confident, plan and intends and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements made in relation to the impact that the non-renewal of the sole lease on the Arcueil property may have on the REITs overall financial condition. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of the REIT to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking information. The REIT believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information included in this news release are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular there can be no assurance that the REIT will achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking information included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. More information about the risks and uncertainties affecting the REITs business and the businesses of its royalty partners can be found in the Risk Factors section of its Annual Information Form and in its most recent Managements Discussion and Analysis, copies of each of which are available under the REITs profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All of the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the REIT. The forward-looking information included in this news release is presented as of the date of this news release and the REIT assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law. About Inovalis REIT Inovalis REIT is a real estate investment trust listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada. It was founded in 2013 by Inovalis and invests in office properties in primary markets of France, Germany and Spain. It holds 14 assets representing 470 million Euros of AuM. Inovalis REIT acquires (indirectly) real estate properties via CanCorpEurope, authorized Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) by the CSSF in Luxemburg, and managed by INOVALIS S.A. About Inovalis Group Inovalis S.A. is a French Alternative Investment fund manager, authorized by the French Securities and Markets Authority (AMF) under AIFM laws. Inovalis S.A. and its subsidiaries (Advenis S.A., Advenis REIM) invest in and manage Real Estate Investment Trusts such as Inovalis REIT, open ended funds (SCPI) with stable real estate focus such as Eurovalys (for Germany) and Elialys (Southern Europe), Private Thematic Funds raised with Inovalis partners to invest in defined real estate strategies and direct Co-investments on specific assets Inovalis Group (www.inovalis.com), founded in 1998 by Inovalis SA, is an established pan European real estate investment player with EUR 7 billion of AuM and with offices in all the world's major financial and economic centers in Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Frankfurt, Toronto and Dubai. The group is comprised of 300 professionals, providing Advisory, Fund, Asset and Property Management services in Real Estate as well as Wealth Management services. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005638/en/ David Giraud, Chief Executive Officer Inovalis Real Estate Investment Trust +33 1 5643 3313 [email protected] Khalil Hankach, Chief Financial Officer Inovalis Real Estate Investment Trust +33 1 5643 3323 [email protected] Source: Inovalis Real Estate Investment Trust Accelerating strategic initiatives that will drive profitable growth TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Q4 Inc. (TSX: QFOR) (Q4 or the Company), a leading capital markets communications platform, today announced its financial results for the three and nine months period ended September 30, 2022. All amounts are expressed in US dollars unless otherwise stated. The results of the third quarter reflect progress toward our overall strategic vision and the actions taken toward sustained profitable growth, said Darrell Heaps, CEO of Q4. We executed several initiatives to improve our sales efficiency and reduce costs, resulting in better margins and accelerating future operating leverage. The positive impact of these initiatives, combined with sustainable double-digit revenue growth, will better position the Company to capitalize on new opportunities that will drive profitability in 2023. In September, despite macro headwinds, our team achieved a record sales bookings month and we saw a significant increase in average deal size, all of which reinforces the value our customers receive from our Capital Connect platform. Third Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights Delivered revenue of $14.2 million, representing growth of 11.2% when excluding the discontinued virtual shareholder meeting (VSM) segment from Q3-2021 results. Including the VSM business impact on Q3-2021, revenue increased 8.8%. Expanded annual recurring revenue1 as of September 30, 2022 to $54.7 million, an increase of 8.7% year over year, driven by 67 new subscription customers added and 96 existing customers purchasing additional products. Average recurring revenue per account (ARPA) grew 5.7% for the quarter, an increase over the preceding quarter's ARPA growth rate of 4.1%. Gross margins continued to improve, reaching 59.0%, an improvement of 212 basis points year over year, driven by new customers, higher average prices, and the expansion of our proprietary virtual events platform across all of our event clients. The company reiterates its expectation to exit the year with a gross margin above 60%, increasing to the mid-70% range in the latter half of 2023. There was a net loss of $11.9 million, or EPS of $(0.30) and Adjusted EBITDA2 loss of $7.5 million. On an adjusted EBITDA basis EPS would be $(0.19). As of September 30, 2022, the company had availability of $60.0 million to grow the business, which includes $30.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, $7.0 million in short-term investments, and an untapped revolving credit facility of $22.5 million. Third Quarter and Subsequent to Quarter-End Operational Highlights Completed Q3 with 2,679 total customers compared to 2,600 customers from the prior year period. Executed strategic initiatives to reduce operating expenses and accelerate the path to profitable growth, including: Established a new Latin America centre of excellence, located in Mexico, to enhance our productivity and competitiveness by taking advantage of this highly skilled deep talent pool. Completed a restructuring that reduced the workforce by 8% in order to right-size our sales and marketing efforts and research and development, and drive more efficient execution. Redesigned our go-to-market strategy to focus on bundled sales and highlight the value of our platform approach. Q4 is leveraging multiple products, resulting in a healthier pipeline, higher conversion rate, and attainment of larger multi-year deals. Capital Connect, our unified data platform that provides a single user experience and unique insights, is now used by over 1,500 customers who rely on the platform daily to manage interactions with Q4 and the market. The company expects the majority of its 2,600+ customers to be on Capital Connect in 2023. Engagement Analytics, the unique data product based on Capital Connect interactions, rolled out to customers during the quarter. Initial feedback and reviews have been very positive with traction accelerating as new products are introduced across our larger and more diversified client base. Q4 Login, our unified investor login product for earnings calls, grew significantly in third quarter reaching 114,000 registered users, up 35% from 85,000 in the second quarter. Q4 was recognized as one of Canadas Top Growing Companies by The Globe and Mail and recognized as A Great Place to Work for the third year in a row. Webcast Information Q4 will host a webcast with Darrell Heaps, CEO and Donna de Winter, CFO and COO to discuss the Company's financial results at 9:30 am ET on Friday, November 4, 2022. Participants can register in advance or access the webcast live at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/328493037. Supplemental materials will be available at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the event. A replay of the webcast will be available at investors.q4inc.com shortly after the event concludes. Audience questions will be taken real-time via the Q4 Platform. Investors can also submit their questions in advance to [email protected] or via our IR website. We will do our best to respond to your questions either on the webcast, if time permits or shortly thereafter. We appreciate your interest. Q4's unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the three and nine months period ended September 30, 2022 will be available on Q4's IR website and will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Third Quarter 2022 Results Selected Financial Measures Revenue Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 2021 Change Change 2022 2021 Change Change (U.S. dollars in thousands) $ $ $ % $ $ $ % Capital markets platform 12,933 12,115 818 6.8% 38,338 39,134 (796) (2.0)% Platform services 1,232 869 363 41.8% 3,492 2,435 1,057 43.4% Other 10 39 (29) 44 68 (24) Total revenue 14,175 13,023 1,152 8.8% 41,874 41,637 237 0.6% Gross profit 8,360 7,405 955 12.9% 24,143 23,384 759 3.2% Percentage of total revenue 59.0% 56.9% 57.7% 56.2% Key Performance Indicators September 30, 2022 September 30, 2021 Change Change (U.S. dollars, except ARR which is in millions) $ $ $ % Annual Recurring Revenue $ 54.7 $ 50.3 $ 4.4 8.7 % Average Revenue per Account $ 19,154 $ 18,120 $ 1,034 5.7 % Results of Operations The following table outlines our consolidated statement of loss and comprehensive loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021: Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 30, September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 (U.S. dollars in thousands) $ $ $ $ Revenue 14,175 13,023 41,874 41,637 Direct cost of revenue 5,815 5,618 17,731 18,253 Gross profit 8,360 7,405 24,143 23,384 Operating Expenses Sales and marketing 5,645 4,535 17,294 13,371 Research and development 4,884 2,612 14,006 8,236 General and administrative 6,234 3,739 17,782 13,348 Depreciation and amortization 923 996 2,738 3,079 Foreign exchange loss (gain) 624 (307) 988 (141) Other expenses 1,914 10 2,261 282 Total operating expenses 20,224 11,585 55,069 38,175 Loss from operations (11,864) (4,180) (30,926) (14,791) Finance expenses 19 309 60 749 Finance income (6) (8) (12) (16) (Gain) loss on derivative financial instruments 136 (1,221) 4,880 Loss before income taxes (11,877) (4,617) (29,753) (20,404) Income taxes 58 63 228 129 Net loss (11,935) (4,680) (29,981) (20,533) Other comprehensive loss Foreign exchange loss on foreign operations (54) (7) (117) (21) Net loss and comprehensive loss (11,989) (4,687) (30,098) (20,554) Basic and diluted loss per share (0.30) (0.43) (0.75) (2.01) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding - basic and diluted 39,973 10,824 39,772 10,236 Key Balance Sheet Information September 30, 2022 December 31, 2021 Change Change (U.S. dollars in thousands) $ $ $ % Cash and cash equivalents 30,553 63,283 $(32,730) (51.7)% Total assets 80,870 109,117 (28,247) (25.9)% Total liabilities 29,790 30,415 (625) (2.1)% Total long-term liabilities 7,953 8,065 (112) (1.4)% Non-IFRS Measures and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS financial measures including key performance indicators used by management and typically used by our competitors with software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore not necessarily comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS financial measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from managements perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. These non-IFRS financial measures and industry metrics are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and liquidity and thus highlight trends in our business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. We also believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS financial measures and industry metrics, in the evaluation of similar companies. Management also uses non-IFRS financial measures and industry metrics in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, the preparation of annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of executive compensation. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA We define EBITDA as net loss, adjusted for depreciation and amortization, finance expenses, finance income and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental measure used by management to assess our financial and operating performance without regards to financing methods or capital structure. Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA, adjusted for the following: share-based compensation, unrealized foreign exchange (gain) loss, (gain) loss on derivative financial instruments, costs associated with restructuring and other one-time expenses. We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, two non-IFRS financial measures, are useful in assessing our operating cash flows as they eliminate the effects of non-cash expenses and one-time or non-recurring items recorded in the statements of loss and comprehensive loss. The Companys definition of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may be different than similarly titled measures used by other companies. The following table reconciles Adjusted EBITDA to net loss for the periods indicated. Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 30, September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 (U.S. dollars in thousands) $ $ $ $ Net loss (11,935) (4,680) (29,981) (20,533) Depreciation and amortization 923 996 2,738 3,079 Finance expenses(1) 19 309 60 748 Finance income (6) (8) (12) (16) Income taxes 58 62 228 129 EBITDA (10,941) (3,321) (26,967) (16,593) Other adjustments Share-based compensation expense(2) 325 187 1,347 642 Unrealized foreign exchange loss (gain)(3) 624 (289) 988 (23) (Gain) loss on derivative financial instruments(4) 136 (1,221) 4,880 Restructuring(5) 1,598 1,598 Other one-time expenses(6) 862 29 884 848 Adjusted EBITDA (7,532) (3,258) (23,371) (10,246) Note: (1) Finance expenses are primarily related to interest and accretion of financial liabilities. (2) Share-based compensation includes non-cash expenditures recognized in connection with the issuance of options under our Legacy Equity Incentive Plan to our employees and directors. Options granted under the Legacy Equity Incentive Plan have become options under our Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan (the Omnibus Plan) in connection with the IPO in 2021. This amount also includes the restricted share units ("RSUs"), performance share units ("PSUs") and deferred share units ("DSUs") granted under the Omnibus Plan. (3) These adjustments represent the change in the value of foreign currency denominated transactions that are recorded in financial statements prior to the settlement of invoices. (4) These adjustments represent fair value adjustments relating to outstanding warrants. (5) Represents restructuring expenses in the third quarter of 2022, primarily related to employee compensation. (6) Other one-time expenses include expenses relating to our IPO, costs related to M&A activity for professional, legal, consulting and accounting fees that are non-recurring and would otherwise not have been incurred. Free Cash Flow Free cash flow represents cash flow from (used in) operating activities less additions to property and equipment. We use Free cash flow, a non-IFRS financial measure, to assess the amount of cash available for dividend payments, debt repayment and other investing and financing activities. We believe that this information is useful to certain investors and analysts to evaluate the Companys performance with respect to its operating cash flow capacity to meet non-discretionary outflows of cash. The following tables reconciles our cash flow from (used in) operating activities to Free cash flow: Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 30, September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 (U.S. dollars in thousands) $ $ $ $ Cash flow from (used in) operating activities (6,614) 2,021 (24,615) (7,509) Purchases of property and equipment (77) (123) (508) (314) Free cash flow (6,691) 1,898 (25,123) (7,823) Key Performance Indicators This press release also makes reference to Annual Recurring Revenue or ARR and Average Revenue Per Account or ARPA, which are key performance indicators we use to help us evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans and make strategic decisions. Our key performance indicators may be calculated in a manner different from similar key performance indicators used by other companies. Definitions of these key performance indicators can be found under the heading Key Performance Indicators in the Companys managements discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021. Forward-Looking Information This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to our future financial outlook and anticipated events or results and may include information regarding our financial position, business operations, business strategy, growth strategies, budgets, operations, financial results, taxes, dividend policy, plans and objectives. In certain cases, forward-looking statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and/or can be identified by the use of words such as expect, continue, anticipate, intend, aim, plan, believe, budget, estimate, forecast, foresee, close to, target or negative versions thereof and similar expressions, and/or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent managements expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. Forward-looking information is based on our opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we currently believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Despite a careful process to prepare and review the forward-looking information, there can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Certain assumptions underlying the forward-looking information in this MD&A include: our ability to continue investing in infrastructure to support our growth and brand recognition; our ability to continue maintaining and enhancing our technological infrastructure and the functionality of our platform; our ability to develop and implement new product offerings; our ability to capitalize on growth opportunities and implement our growth strategy; our ability to build our market share and enter new geographies; the total addressable market for our products; our ability to retain key personnel; our ability to maintain existing customer relationships and to continue to expand our customers use of our platform and products; our ability to maintain existing relationships on similar terms with our current service providers, suppliers, channel partners and other third parties; our ability to maintain and expand our geographic scope; our ability to execute on our expansion plans; our ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms or at all; the impact of competition; the successful integration of future acquisitions; the changes and trends in our industry or the global economy; changes in laws, rules, regulations, and global standards; and that the risks and uncertainties noted below will not materialize. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, estimates and assumptions that we considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such statements are made, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the following risk factors described in greater detail in the Summary of Factors Affecting our Performance and Financial Instruments and Other Instruments sections of this MD&A, and in the Risk Factors section of our Annual Information Form, which was filed on March 30, 2022, and is available under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the opinions, estimates or assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results or future events might vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. The opinions, estimates or assumptions referred to above are described in greater detail in "Summary of Factors Affecting our Performance" and should be considered carefully by prospective investors. Although we have attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to us or that we presently believe are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this MD&A represents our expectations as of the date of hereof (or as of the date they are otherwise stated to be made), and is subject to change after such date. However, we disclaim any intention or obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws. Additional information relating to Q4, can be found on SEDAR under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. About Q4 Inc. Q4 Inc. (TSX: QFOR) is a leading capital markets communications platform that is transforming the way publicly traded companies, investors and investment banks make decisions to efficiently discover, communicate and engage with each other. The Q4 end-to-end technology platform facilitates interactions across the capital markets through its IR website products, virtual events solutions, capital markets CRM, shareholder and market analytics tools. The firm is a trusted partner to more than 2,650 public companies globally including many of the most respected brands in the world. Q4 is based in Toronto, with offices in New York and London. Learn more at q4inc.com 1 Annual recurring revenue or ARR is a key performance indicator. See Key Performance Indicators 2 Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure. See Non-IFRS Measures and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005166/en/ Investor Relations: Sara Pearson, [email protected] Media Inquiries: Heather Noll, [email protected] Source: Q4 INC. The affiliation creates a beneficial continuity of care approach for geriatric patients with end-stage kidney disease, simplifying patient placement to single locations for rehab, dialysis and recovery while reducing the strain on SWHR resources. BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dialyze Direct, the nations leading provider of home hemodialysis services in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), announced today that beginning January 1, 2023, it will be a preferred provider for Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR), a clinically integrated network created by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Resources. The affiliation ensures patients needing dialysis and managed rehabilitative care can transfer care from the hospital to a facility where they can maintain and even improve their recovery progress by having access to Dialyze Directs onsite, staff-assisted gentler, more frequent dialysis (MFD) regimen. MFD is proven to deliver outcomes such as decreased mortality, fewer re-hospitalizations, faster dialysis recovery time (DRT), reduced infections, more availability for rehab therapies, and increased comfort and well-being. Our unique model involves a three-way effort to bridge the divide between hospital systems and SNFs to create a continuity of care for patients well enough to thrive outside the institutional setting in the homelike environment SNFs provide, said Robert Aberman, SVP, Population Health at Dialyze Direct. We are pleased to begin our association with SWHR to help them offer patients a gentler form of dialysis care through our network of SNF partners across North Texas, as part of this preferred provider care coordination agreement. Dialyze Directs approach involves establishing within SNFs dialysis treatment dens that typically serve 10 to 18 patients a day, five days a week. The American Heart Association recently endorsed home dialysis therapies, including the MFD modality, in a published report that encapsulates many of Dialyze Directs key findings about its MFD. Traditionally, dialysis patients residing in SNFs represent one of the most costly patient populations for insurance plans and hospital systems. With Dialyze Direct, the SNF partnership model is designed to include in the care management the dialysis care team, SNF staff, and the patient's physician. As a result, patients re-admit to the hospital less, discharge from the hospital sooner, recover more quickly after treatment and achieve a higher quality of life. Dialyze Direct continues to form new SNF partnerships and dialysis dens in Texas and other regions of the country, reaching more patients with its life-enhancing-enhancing dialysis treatment. About Southwestern Health Resources Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR) is a patient-centered, clinically integrated network of 31 hospital locations and more than 5,500 physicians and clinicians caring for more than 730,000 individuals across 16 counties in North Texas. Blending the strengths of Texas Health Resources and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, SWHR offers an unmatched ability to connect individuals with a full spectrum of nationally preeminent, clinical care. For the past four years, SWHR has been recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as a Next Generation Accountable Care Organization for shared savings, generating more than $38 million in 2020 and nearly $158 million in Medicare savings since 2017. About Dialyze Direct Founded in 2015, Dialyze Direct is a leading kidney care innovation company that seeks breakthrough solutions for patients suffering from kidney disease. With a mission to build the next generation of kidney care, Dialyze Direct leverages its leading nephrology specialists to develop new methods and technology to evolve the treatment options nephrologists have at their disposal. Dialyze Direct pioneered significant changes to the existing treatment model for dialysis patients in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), in which many of the most medically challenging subsets of dialysis patients reside, and has grown to become the nations largest provider of home dialysis in the SNF setting. Dialyze Directs innovative staff-assisted home hemodialysis treatment model entails a gentler, personalized treatment plan comprised of meticulously crafted protocols designed to tackle the unique fluid management challenges of geriatric dialysis patients, resulting in increased overall patient health and reduced hospitalizations while substantially decreasing costs for payers. Dialyze Direct currently operates in 14 states with new operations launching soon in additional states. www.DialyzeDirect.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005385/en/ Zumado Public Relations Nicholas Gaffney [email protected] 415-732-7801 Source: Dialyze Direct Article L. 238-8-II of the French commercial Code and article 223-16 of the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) general regulation PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: Denomination sociale de l'emetteur : Veolia Environnement (Paris: VIE) 21 rue La Boetie 75008 PARIS (code ISIN FR0000124141-VIE) Information closing date Total number of shares forming the share capital * Total number of voting rights * October 31, 2022 700,571,716 Total number of theoretical voting rights (1): 715,303,261 Total number of voting rights that may be exercised (2): 702,549,033 * Inclusion in the Veolia Environnement Articles of Association of a clause requiring a reporting obligation of the declaration of crossing a shareholding threshold, complementary to the one relating to the thresholds provided by the French law and the regulations in force (article 8). (1) Number of theoretical voting rights = after taking into account the number of shares with double voting rights as of October 31, 2022 (14,731,545 shares) and the number of treasury shares held as of October 31, 2022 (12,754,228 shares). (2) Number of voting rights that may be exercised = number of theoretical voting rights (or total number of voting rights attached to shares) - shares without voting rights (number of treasury shares held as of October 31, 2022). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005545/en/ Veolia Environnement Source: Veolia Environnement Transaction expands Wings into Wisconsin APPLE VALLEY, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wings Financial Credit Union and SB Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Settlers bank, announced today that the two organizations have reached an agreement for Wings to acquire the bank, including their three branch locations in Appleton, Madison, and Windsor, Wisconsin. The transaction, which requires approval by state and federal regulators, is expected to close in mid-2023. When the transaction is complete, Settlers bank locations will be re-branded as Settlers Best Credit Union, a division of Wings Financial Credit Union. Settlers bank was started 15 years ago to be accessible and to build relationships through collaboration. Wings shares these values and our partnership will allow us to build on our already strong market momentum, said Settlers bank Founder and CEO, Tom Spitz. Settlers bank Founder and President, David Fink added, We are excited that the approach to the transaction will keep the systems and team of Settlers bank intact to allow us to continue to serve our markets without disruption. Were excited about the opportunity to introduce our services to the Wisconsin market, said Frank Weidner, Wings Financial Credit Union President and CEO. Weve been exploring opportunities to expand into Wisconsin and this transaction was a great fit for both Settlers bank and Wings. This opportunity will jumpstart our market presence in Wisconsin. Raymond James & Associates, Inc. served as financial advisor and Honigman LLP, Chicago, IL served as legal advisor to Wings Financial Credit Union. Settlers bank was represented by Boardman Clark & Clark, LLP, Madison, WI, and Oak Ridge Financial Services Group, Inc served as financial advisor. About Wings Financial Credit Union Wings Financial Credit Union is Minnesota's largest credit union and one of the top credit unions nationally, with over $8 billion in assets and more than 340,000 members. In 2022, Wings was named one of the top credit unions nationally by Gobankingrates.com, as well as being recognized by the Star Tribune as Minnesotas Best Credit Union and as a top workplace for the 10th consecutive year. Wings members enjoy some of the area's best savings and lending rates, convenient mobile and online access, over 80,000 surcharge-free ATMs and 28 branch locations throughout the state of Minnesota, plus branches in Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando, and Seattle. To learn more, visit www.wingsfinancial.com About Settlers bank Settlers bank is a privately owned, premier provider of commercial, treasury, mortgage and private banking services with $390 million in assets operating from three locations in Wisconsin including Appleton. Founded in 2007, Settlers bank was started to be accessible, offer solutions and to build relationships through collaboration. To learn more about Settlers bank, visit www.settlerswi.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005590/en/ Wings Financial Credit Union: Brent Andersen VP Marketing (952) 237-5875 [email protected] Settlers bank: Trisha Thompson Chief Marketing Officer & SVP Human Resources (608) 842-5013 [email protected] Source: Wings Financial Credit Union FILE PHOTO: Packages of Cheerios, a brand owned by General Mills, are seen in a store in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 12, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly (Reuters) -General Mills Inc and Luxury automaker Audi of America said on Thursday they have paused advertising on Twitter, days after the social media platform was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion. "We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend," a General Mills spokesperson said. Audi of America, the Herndon, Virginia-based U.S. unit of Audi - a Volkswagen Group brand - said it would "continue to evaluate the situation." The two companies join top U.S. automaker General Motors Co, which last week said it had temporarily halted paid advertising on Twitter. The ad pauses comes after Musk said in an open letter to advertisers last week that he wants Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform" in a bid to gain their trust. Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter, and Reuters reported earlier that the company was struggling to keep its most active users who are vital to the business. At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already skeptical and concerned over Twitter's future. Earlier on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources that Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc also temporarily halted advertising with Twitter. Twitter, Mondelez and Pfizer did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia, Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Rashmi Aich) FILE PHOTO:People holding laptops line up to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a nucleic acid testing site at an office building, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, November 3, 2022. REUTERS/Aly So SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China will make substantial changes to its "dynamic-zero" COVID-19 policy in coming months, a former Chinese disease control official told a conference hosted by Citi on Friday, according to a recording of the session heard by Reuters. Separately, three sources familiar with the matter said China may soon further shorten quarantine requirements for inbound travellers. Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention who has remained outspoken on China's COVID fight, said the conditions for China opening up were "accumulating", citing new vaccines and progress the country had made in antiviral drug research. Asked by Citi chief China economist Yu Xiangrong if China would open up after its annual meeting of parliament that traditionally takes place in early March, he said many new policies would be introduced in the next five to six months, without indicating the basis for that information. "The situation is changing now and China's 'dynamic zero' will also undergo major changes. Substantive changes will happen soon," he said, according to the recording of the session, which was titled "China's Exit Strategy from Zero-COVID". Citi declined to comment on Zeng's remarks. Zeng and Yu did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Zeng's remarks add impetus to recent investor hopes China will ease some of the strict measures that have made it a global outlier and inflicted deep damage to the world's second-largest economy. Public health experts have warned that reversing China's rigid COVID regime would require a clear timeline and strategy for booster shots in a nation of 1.4 billion people with little natural immunity, and many believe China will begin significant easing only after the March parliamentary session. This week's optimism defies news of rising infections and widespread COVID-related disruptions in China, including the postponement on Friday of the Guangzhou auto show that had been planned for later this month. Chinese health authorities will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday on COVID-19 prevention, according to a notice that said officials from the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention would attend. No other details were immediately available. TRAVEL TWEAKS Still, China has continued to fine-tune its COVID approach and may soon shorten COVID-19 quarantine requirements for inbound travellers from the current 10 days to seven or eight days, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Under the new rule, arrivals would need to spend five days in a quarantine facility and a further two or three days at home, one of the sources said, compared with the current requirement of seven days in a facility, typically a hotel, and a further three days under home monitoring. China's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Such a move would follow China's decision in June to slash quarantine time for inbound travellers by half. Also on Friday, Bloomberg News reported that China was working on plans to scrap a system that penalises airlines for bringing COVID-positive passengers into the country, citing people familiar with the matter, saying the effort was a sign authorities were looking for ways to ease the impact of its COVID policies. Chinese airlines on average flew 145 international flights a day in October, up 21.9% from September, according to aviation data provider Variflight. Still, international capacity to and from China is only at 7.3% of 2019 levels, based on data from industry information providers CAPA and OAG. LOCKDOWNS AND PROTESTS Authorities on Friday reported 3,871 new locally transmitted infections for the previous day, a tiny number by global standards but the most in China since early May. Zeng was part of a top team at China's National Health Commission when the virus started to spread from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to other parts of China in 2020. He has previously urged against using excessive measures to fight COVID that risk exhausting people, and in March said that China would look for a route to "flexible and controllable opening up". While most of the world has largely done away with virus curbs, China has resolutely stuck to a zero-tolerance approach that reacts to even single cases with lockdowns and mass testing. Those measures have roiled the economy and are increasingly frustrating the public. Markets surged this week on hopes that China would relax its approach after rumours - based on an unverified note that circulated on social media - indicated China was planning a reopening from strict COVID curbs in March next year. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at the time he was unaware of the situation. On Wednesday, the country's National Health Commission said the nation should unwaveringly stick to zero-COVID. Wuhan is again making COVID-related headlines in China after imposing an array of temporary lockdowns and restrictions when dozens of new cases were reported over the past week. Videos showing rowdy protests inside a compound in Wuhan's Hanyang district on Thursday night were shared on social media on Friday. Reuters could not immediately verify them. Angry residents in the videos were seen smashing COVID disaster relief tents and calling for an end to their lockdown, with crowds shouting: "Give us freedom, give us freedom!" (Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Writing by Brenda Goh and Tony Munroe; Editing by Alex Richardson, Edmund Klamann and Mark Potter) FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks about new Autopilot features during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California October 14, 2015. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach (Reuters) -New owner Elon Musk said on Friday that Twitter Inc had seen a "massive" drop in revenue and blamed activist groups pressuring advertisers. The world's richest person, who took control of the social media company last week, said the decline came "even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists." "Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," he said in a tweet. It was not immediately clear who Musk was referring to as "activists". Twitter recorded a fall in revenue in its last reported quarterly results in July, blaming Musk's $44 billion buyout proposal and a weakening digital advertising market. Surging inflation and fears of a recession have forced some advertisers to slash their budgets. Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter. At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already skeptical on concerns that Musk would scale back content moderation and security protection on the platform. Several companies including General Mills Inc and luxury automaker Audi of America have paused advertising on Twitter since Musk completed his purchase, while General Motors Co said it had temporarily halted paid advertising. Musk last month said he wants Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform" and not a "free-for-all hellscape", in a bid to gain the trust of ad buyers ahead of the close of his deal. Twitter will form a content moderation council "with widely diverse viewpoints", Musk tweeted last Friday, adding that no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) The logo of Baker Hughes (BKR) is seen in this image provided July 21, 2020. Baker Hughes/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Russian company Nefteservisnie Tekhnologii to acquire U.S. oilfield services provider Baker Hughes' Russian assets, a Russian government document published on Friday showed. Baker Hughes announced in March that it was suspending new investments in Russia after Western countries imposed unprecedented sanctions when Moscow ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. In August, Baker Hughes announced it had sold its oilfield services business in Russia to the local management team. (This story has been refiled to fix day of the week) (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Louise Heavens) VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIGG Digital Assets Inc. (BIGG or the Company)(CSE: BIGG; OTCQX: BBKCF; WKN: A2PS9W), owner of Netcoins (Netcoins.ca) (Netcoins), the online cryptocurrency brokerage that makes it easy for Canadians to buy, sell, and understand cryptocurrency, and owner of Blockchain Intelligence Group (blockchaingroup.io) (BIG), a leading developer of blockchain technology search, risk-scoring and data analytics solutions, announces that it has divested of its minority investment in Luxxfolio. Following the Luxxfolio news release on Nov 2, 2022 highlighting the challenges for Luxxfolio and the crypto mining industry as a whole, and that Luxxfolio has decided to seek strategic alternatives, BIGG has chosen to sell its minority investment in Luxxfolio. Full details of the Luxxfolio news release can be found here:https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/luxxfolio-operations-update-840566412.html On behalf of the Board Mark BinnsCEO[email protected] Investor Relations Victoria Rutherford[email protected] T: 1.480.625.5772 About BIGG Digital Assets Inc.BIGG Digital Assets Inc. (BIGG) believes the future of crypto is a safe, compliant, and regulated environment. BIGG invests in products and companies to support this vision. BIGG has three portfolio companies: Netcoins (netcoins.ca), Blockchain Intelligence Group (blockchaingroup.io), and TerraZero (terrazero.com). Blockchain Intelligence Group builds technology to power compliance and intelligence for the crypto future. Banks and crypto companies depend on our technology to monitor risk from crypto transactions. Investigators and law enforcement quickly identify and track illicit activity. Blockchain Intelligence Group is trusted globally by banks, crypto companies, law enforcement, fintechs, regtechs and governments. Netcoins develops brokerage and exchange software to make the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency easily accessible to the mass consumer and investor with a focus on compliance and safety. Netcoins utilizes BitRank Verified software at the heart of its platform and facilitates crypto trading via a self-serve crypto brokerage portal at Netcoins.app. TerraZero is a vertically integrated Metaverse development group and leading Web 3.0 technology company specializing in the Metaverse space. The Companys Metaverse agnostic vision is to develop, acquire, and finance the Metaverses most promising companies, entrepreneurs, and developers. TerraZero also owns digital real estate and provides offices and services to those interested in the Metaverse. BIGG owns ~30% of TerraZero. For more information and to register to BIGGs mailing list, please visit our website at https://www.biggdigitalassets.com. Or visit SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include completion of the search technology software and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as may, expect, estimate, anticipate, intend, believe and continue or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of BIGG. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because BIGG can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from BIGGs expectations include, consumer sentiment towards BIGGs products and Blockchain technology generally, technology failures, competition, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, BIGG disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, BIGG undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above. The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this Press Release. Source: BIGG Digital Assets Inc. Appointment of Auditors On 4 November 2022, Coloplast Finance B.V. appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V. as auditors for the company in line with the expectation described in the Base Prospectus dated 9 May 2022 for the notes issued by Coloplast Finance B.V. under the EUR 3,500,000,000 Euro Medium Term Note Program. For further information, please contact Investors and analysts Aleksandra Dimovska Director, Investor Relations Tel. +45 4911 1800 / +45 4911 2458 Email: [email protected] Kristine Husted Munk Senior Manager, Investor Relations Tel. +45 4911 1800 / +45 4911 3266 Email: [email protected] Press and media Peter Mnster Sr. Media Relations Manager Tel. +45 4911 2623 Email: [email protected] Address Coloplast Finance B.V. Holtedam 1 DK-3050 Humlebaek Denmark Company reg. no. 863769603 Website www.coloplast.com Attachment E xploring financial and strategic options to fund Phase 2 trials of KIN001 in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis KINFAST phase 2 clinical trial of KIN001 in mild to moderate Covid-19 patients to continue Basel, Switzerland, 4 November 2022. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (SIX: KNRS) (Kinarus), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat viral, respiratory, and ophthalmic diseases, today reiterated its plans to focus on clinical trials in wet age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and to refocus its capital resources and financing efforts to drive these programs. Following the discontinuation of the Phase 2 KINETIC study of KIN001 in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, Kinarus is exploring various financial and strategic options to initiate mid-stage clinical development of its lead drug candidate, KIN001, in wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). KINFAST, a Phase 2 study of KIN001 in ambulatory COVID-19 patients who are not hospitalized, is continuing and funded from existing Kinarus resources and the Programme for Covid-19 medicines of the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health. Dr Alexander Bausch, CEO of Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG, commented: Our current resources are committed to conducting the KINFAST study, which is jointly financed by the Swiss government. While the outcome of the KINETIC study in hospitalized Covid-19 patients was disappointing, KINFAST is testing KIN001 in a different population with different endpoints, both of which are better suited to a potential positive outcome. Therefore, we plan to continue KINFAST as planned. However, we founded Kinarus to pursue wAMD and IPF and, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we successfully demonstrated in preclinical testing that KIN001 has strong potential to provide meaningful improvements for patients suffering from wAMD and IPF when used in combination with marketed therapies. Now that it is once again possible to conduct clinical trials in non-Covid indications - which was not the case during the height of the pandemic - we are refocusing our teams efforts on our initial goal of running Phase 2 clinical testing of KIN001 in wAMD and IPF patients. We are exploring all options to advance KIN001 into Phase 2 clinical trials in these indications. Current Clinical Programs KINFAST Phase 2 trial in Covid-9 KIN001 potentially targets the multiple mechanisms of acute and long Covid-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus hijacks the p38 MAPK pathway for replication. Kinarus has discovered that KIN001 is active against SARS-CoV-2, as well as its variants of concern. KIN001 also possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic activity. The phase 2 KINFAST trial is currently actively enrolling patients in Switzerland and Germany. We anticipate to get results in 2023 pending the Covid 19 KIN001-AMD Phase 2 trial - KIN001 is under development as oral therapy complementing current anti-VEGF drugs, intended to extend the time interval between ocular injections. Kinarus has received regulatory approvals to conduct a Phase 2 clinical study in Switzerland and Germany. The trial is anticipated to start enrolment once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001- IPF - IPF is a devastating disease with high morbidity and mortality and significant unmet need. KIN001 targets multiple underlying mechanisms of disease progression, reducing the irreversible fibrosis and loss of respiratory capacity. Protocol development is completed, and regulatory submissions are expected once the company has raised sufficient funds. KIN001 is a patented combination of two active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs): pamapimod and pioglitazone. Pamapimod is a highly selective clinical stage small molecule inhibitor of the p38 MAP kinase signaling pathway. Kinarus has obtained an exclusive worldwide license from Roche for the development of pamapimod in all therapeutic indications. p38 MAPK inhibitors were broadly considered to have blockbuster potential, with several compounds evaluated through mid-stage clinical trials. Most efforts were abandoned after finding that the initial therapeutic benefit of p38 MAPK inhibition decreased over time due to compensatory mechanisms that blocked its beneficial effects. Kinarus has discovered a potential way to overcome this limitation. Kinarus has found that combining pamapimod with pioglitazone, a safe and well-tolerated marketed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, leads to synergistic efficacy and increased duration of action in preclinical models of wAMD, IPF and other autoimmune/inflammation indications. The KIN001 drug combination thereby revives the important therapeutic potential of p38 MAPK inhibition. KIN001 enjoys broad patent protection in the US, EU, China, and other countries through at least 2037, with intellectual property wholly owned by Kinarus. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (www.kinarus.com) was founded in 2017 by experienced pharmaceutical executives in Basel, Switzerland. The Kinarus team utilizes its knowledge and drug development competencies to in-license and develop mid-stage clinical assets in which they have identified an increased probability of clinical and regulatory success and a rapid path to market. Kinarus possesses the exclusive worldwide license to pamapimod covering all indications. Contacts Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AGHochbergerstrasse 60C 4057 Basel, Switzerland+41 61 633 29 71 [email protected] Investors & MediaChris MaggosBioConfidant Sarl+41 79 367 6254 [email protected] Legal disclaimer THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL NOR AN INTIMATION TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SECURITIES OF KINARUS THERAPEUTICS HOLDING AG. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, INTO OR WITHIN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BE DISTRIBUTED. Source: Kinarus Therapeutic Holding AG VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NorthWest Copper (NorthWest or the Company) (TSX-V: NWST) (OTCQX: NWCCF) is pleased to announce that it has released its foundational Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report for the period ending December 31, 2021, which is available at: The report highlights the Companys initial scan on its adherence to reporting standards and ethical and transparent project development. NorthWest was formed in March 2021 when the Company merged with Sun Metals Corp. Launching the tracking and reporting of the Companys ESG practices and performance was an important first step for the Company. NorthWest Copper has prioritized ESG from our inception in 2021, said President and CEO Peter Bell. We are pleased to provide this report as part of our commitment to transparency. It gives us a strong baseline to track and demonstrate our progress in this area as we advance our projects. The report, which is aligned to the standards and framework of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, includes both quantitative and qualitative metrics from March 5 to December 31, 2021. NorthWest plans to produce this report on an annual basis going forward. About NorthWest Copper:NorthWest Copper is a new copper-gold explorer and developer with an exciting pipeline of projects in British Columbia. With a robust portfolio in a tier one jurisdiction, NorthWest Copper is well positioned to participate fully in a strengthening global copper market. We are committed to working collaboratively with First Nations to advance our work in a culturally and environmentally respectful manner. Additional information can be found on the Companys website at www.northwestcopper.ca. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of NorthWest Copper Corp.Peter BellDirector, President and CEO For further information, please contact:Peter Lekich, Director Investor RelationsTel: 604-697-4962Email: [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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements in this news release about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking information including but not limited to statements with respect to: the Companys goals for 2022 and 2023; the Companys ESG goals, reporting and performance; magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; future operations; mine plans; future exploration prospects; the completion and timing of technical reports; future growth potential of NorthWest Copper; and future development plans. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect and intend and statements that an event or result may, will, should, could or might occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein constitutes forward-looking information. Although NorthWest Copper believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information since NorthWest Copper can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in NorthWest Coppers periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Forward-looking information is subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from NorthWest Coppers expectations include risks associated with the business of NorthWest Copper; risks related to reliance on technical information provided by NorthWest Copper; risks related to exploration and potential development of the Companys mineral properties; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and First Nation groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time and additional risks identified in NorthWest Coppers filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Forward-looking information is based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. NorthWest Copper does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Source: NorthWest Copper Corp. Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Pratteln, Switzerland, November 4, 2022 Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) provides an update on its activities and is calling an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), which will be held on November 29, 2022, at 10:30 hrs at the domicile of the Company. At the EGM, Santhera seeks authorization for additional funding to enable continued pipeline development and preparations for the commercialization of vamorolone. Funding OutlookAs announced earlier, the primary operational focus of Santhera in 2022 continues to be the advancement of the regulatory submissions for vamorolone in the U.S. and the EU towards approval. In parallel, the Company plans to advance operational preparations for product launches anticipated for 2023 in both regions. In order to ensure the execution of the Companys plans to mid-2023, when approval of vamorolone for DMD in the U.S. is expected at the earliest, Santhera will need to secure additional funds. Santhera is pursuing strategic options including but not limited to non-dilutive funding in the form of out-licensing agreements and/or the monetization of assets and, in parallel, is also evaluating debt financing, royalty financing, standby equity distribution agreement or, depending on market conditions, equity-based funding. Santhera still has treasury shares, conditional and authorized capital from past authorizations by shareholders which are available for future placement, subject to market conditions. This, in combination with cash balances of CHF 12.7 million (at June 30, 2022), the recent drawdown from the Highbridge facility and remaining facilities, is expected to provide a liquidity runway into Q1-2023. In order to have the flexibility to raise additional capital, Santhera is calling for the present extraordinary meeting of shareholders and proposes to its shareholders an ordinary share capital increase as described below, which would allow Santhera to secure additional equity-based financing. On the Agenda Items and ProposalsSanthera proposes to the shareholders an ordinary capital increase in respect of up to 40 million shares to allow for a potential financing or refinancing in Q1-2023 at short notice. At the same time, Santhera proposes an increase of its authorized share capital and its conditional share capital for financings to enable its Board to enter into equity or equity-based financings or re-financings at a moment favorable to the Company. It is currently uncertain whether Santhera will consummate a financing based on the ordinary capital increase (if approved by shareholders) within the statutory three-month time window. Also, Santhera has not decided on the structure of any such financing. For instance, such financing could be in a transaction form at the exclusion of shareholders' subscription rights, e.g., a PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) or an ABB (accelerated book building). It could also be in the form of a rights offering that would allow all eligible shareholders to participate. Agenda ItemsThe BoD proposes: Ordinary capital increase by up to CHF 400,000.00 to up to CHF 1,137,213.74 by issuing up to 40,000,000 fully paid-in registered shares with a par value of CHF 0.01 each. Increase of authorized capital by CHF 100,000.00 (currently CHF 368,606.87) and its extension until November 28, 2024. Increase of conditional capital for financings by CHF 100,000.00 (currently CHF 313,746.64). Approval of total maximum variable compensation of CHF 2,500,000 for the members of the Executive Management (incl. employer contributions to social security). The figures above (motions 1 to 3) do not reflect any share issuances from authorized or conditional capital that may occur before the EGM. If the ordinary capital increase is not consummated within three months after this EGM (i.e., on February 28, 2023), the resolution with respect to motion 1 of the EGM will lapse by operation of law. If at said date, the ordinary share capital has not been increased by at least CHF 200,000.00, the resolutions with respect to motions 2 and 3 of the EGM will lapse by operation of law. The variable compensation (motion 4) will be performance and time based; it will not be paid out immediately but only if and when performance criteria, which will be set by the Board, are met. The Board will, at its discretion, pay such compensation intended to retain Executive Management, depending on the financial condition of Santhera and the availability of shares (e.g., from authorized or conditional capital or treasury shares) (i) in cash, (ii) in equity instruments, such as options or performance share units, or (iii) a mix of cash and equity instruments. Invitation and agenda items for the EGMThe invitation with agenda items and explanations for the Extraordinary General Meeting can be viewed on Santheras website at https://www.santhera.com/investors-and-media/investor-toolbox/share- bondholder-meetings. COVID-19Due to the extraordinary circumstances and in accordance with the applicable Covid-19 legislation, shareholders may exercise their rights at the EGM exclusively via the independent proxy. There is no possibility to attend the EGM in person. About SantheraSanthera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. The Company has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. Santhera has submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. FDA and a marketing authorization application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for vamorolone for the treatment of DMD. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com. Raxone is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact:[email protected] orEva Kalias, Head Investor Relations & Communications Phone: +41 79 875 27 80[email protected] Disclaimer / Forward-looking statementsThis communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment Source: Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG LAS VEGAS, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Jeep brand and ADDAX OverlandTM are proud to launch the Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX Overland Trailer. Inspired by the U.S. military's all-but-indestructible surveillance trailers, and engineered by the team that set a world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Jeep Branded Edition has set the new benchmark for off-road overlanding performance, capability and comfort. Boasting an unprecedented dry weight of just 850 pounds, Jeep adventure seekers can now tow a 1,200 pound payload up previously unfathomable terrainall without compromising a Jeep brand vehicle's signature stability and efficiency. The Jeep Branded Edition's high-strength, lightweight engineering makes it the perfect companion for technical rock climbers and beginner off-roaders alike. And thanks to the Jeep Branded Edition's foldable tongue and compact 5-foot-by-6 foot dimensions, even those adventurers with limited garage space can always be ready to get off the grid. The Jeep Branded Edition's independent torsion axle trailer suspension system provides an aggressive 17 inches of ground clearance for maximum maneuverability, control and comfort. And the 3/16 inch military-grade steel chassis and 14-gauge steel body are seamlessly bent instead of welded to deliver industry-leading durability. The Jeep Branded Edition comes standard with a robust 35 cubic square feet of storage; four 8,000 pound stabilizing corner jacks; a foldable tongue; an articulating hitch; a rear receiver hitch and a heavy-duty, custom rack for endless mounting possibilities. "We are proud to have earned the Jeep brand's trust by creating a trailer that can conquer any terrain" says ADDAX CEO Kirk Jowers. "We are excited to continue to engage with Jeep in engineering the most innovative and comprehensive line of overlanding products for the Jeep brand's loyal community." "Together with the team at ADDAX, we are excited to announce the co-launch of the most cutting-edge overland trailer on the planet," said Jim Morrison, senior vice president and head of Jeep Brand North America. "The Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX can truly follow a Jeep Trail-Rated vehicle anywhere and demonstrates the Jeep Brand's commitment to empowering our community with the gold standard in overlanding performance. Thanks to the Jeep Branded Edition, adventurers can now enjoy the most beautiful and remote places on Earth even longer." Off-roading enthusiasts and Jeep brand loyalists will be able to secure a sneak peek of the Jeep Branded Edition by ADDAX at SEMA's New Product Showcase, Overlanding Exhibit and Booth 60119 during Nov. 1-4, 2022. MOPAR, JEEP, DODGE, HEMI, PLYMOUTH, RAM, SRT, CHRYSLER and related logos, vehicle model names and trade dress are trademarks of FCA US LLC and used under license by ADDAX Overland, LLC. About ADDAX Overland Built upon a combined 60 years of off-road industry chops, ADDAX Overland is proud to create the world's most rugged, reliable, and trailblazing overlanding trailers. Our innovative spirit secured a world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. And our thirst for open-air freedom drives our uncompromising pursuit of the ultimate in overlanding performance. We're based in the backyard of Moab, UtahJeep's home away from homeand we pride ourselves in pushing our trailers to the limit on the iconic red-rock terrain. Forged in the U.S.A. Tested in Hell. Jeep Brand Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Gladiator, Grand Cherokee and Wrangler. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is now being enhanced by a global electrification initiative, that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. A fully electric Jeep 4xe will be offered in every SUV segment by 2025. About Stellantis Stellantis N.V. (NYSE / MTA / Euronext Paris: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider. Its storied and iconic brands embody the passion of their visionary founders and today's customers in their innovative products and services, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall, Free2move and Leasys. Powered by our diversity, we lead the way the world moves - aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which it operates. For more information, visit www.stellantis.com. MOPAR, JEEP, DODGE, HEMI, PLYMOUTH, RAM, SRT, CHRYSLER and related logos, vehicle model names and trade dress are trademarks of FCA US LLC and used under license by ADDAX Overland LLC. Contact Information: Ellesse Balli CMO [email protected] 801-694-2009 Robin James Global Licensing Manager [email protected] 248-914-5011 Related Images Image 1: Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX The Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX sets up camp in the Uintas. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX Jeep Branded Edition Overland Trailer by ADDAX Source: ADDAX Overland Vadym Prystaiko and Igor Smelyansky urged decision makers to make a firm alliance with Ukraine during an event in London with over 200 leaders hosted by leadership advisory firm Boyden. London, UK, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, and Igor Smelyanksy, CEO of Ukraines national postal service Ukrposhta, made a special live appearance to address over 200 UK business leaders at Boydens Annual Assembly, where they spoke about leadership through a global crisis. The two Ukrainian leaders both impressed upon guests at Boydens Annual Assembly that conflict can be alleviated through alliances during times of conflict. Praystaiko encouraged leaders to not be complacent about a victory for Ukraine saying that the whole world is not behind Ukraine, and they hope for more support from neutral nations. He reminded leaders that the Ukrainian Government continue to want to be a part of NATO and live peacefully like other NATO members because they want to do business with people, knowing we are defended. In advising other leaders on how to run their teams, Prystaiko spoke about his experiences over the last eight months: I have had to understand where my teams limits are. You can work 24/7 for eight months and sooner or later they will lose their effectiveness as a team. And on top of this we are extremely ambitious that, somehow, we can help the millions of people in Ukraine from London, believing we can resolve everything. I have a feeling of guilt to be in safe and comfortable London when people are dying in my home country. But I am driven to urge world leaders they have a moral obligation to ally with those who are killed and bombarded. To win this war, we must have two things: hope and unity. We can succeed if leaders around the world across business, government, military and beyond unite and believe Russia can be defeated. Speaking via video link from Ukraine, Smelyansky implored the audience - please dont stop sending mail to Ukraine. He divulged that small and medium businesses in Ukraine make over $500 million through eBay and Amazon meaning anyone in the UK can help people across Ukraine in a couple of clicks. Smelyanskys advice to other leaders was: You just have to keep winning, and your work will support you. I work with a long-term view but knowing that every day could be my last. No matter what my stress level is during the invasion I have to make a decision, live with it and move on to make the next one. Every day we go against standard corporate governance procedure, like when I am personally going to the front line to deliver post. But it is essential to help me understand what is happening on the ground, how adaptable my team must be, and most importantly how they feel. In the boardroom, striking a balance between making executive decisions and asking my regional directors to decide whether their workforce can do their jobs under invasion is a challenge. But, when peace times come, it will have changed my business for the better. Prystaiko and Smelyansky shared their candid experiences of providing leadership during a time of crisis to an audience including former MPs, military, defence, and business leaders from organisations including Apple, Thames Water, Viacom CBS, Heineken and Danone. Thames Water, Babcock International, Superdry, and Roald Dahls Marvellous Childrens Charity. Nick Robeson, CEO at Boyden UK & Ireland, who conceived of the idea of this years Annual Assembly said: It was an honour to listen to Vadym and Igor, who sit in the front line of a global crisis and learn from their awe-inspiring leadership. We are driven to provide a bridge between Ukraine and the UKs business leaders, especially when the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted Boydens office in Ukraine directly. In todays increasingly challenging global environment, the UKs business leaders will have been inspired after receiving their insight about leading through a global crisis. I have no doubt they will be reflecting on how to apply the pairs mentality to their own leadership. Oleksii Dolhikh, Managing Partner at Boyden Ukraine, said about the event: I am proud to be a part of the Boyden family, who against the current injustices are continually supporting humanitarian efforts in my country. Whether it is welcoming Ukrainian colleagues into their homes or providing financial support to families, I hope that UK business leaders will hear about the medium to long-term impact they can have in resolving this crisis and defeating Russia. About Boyden Boyden is a premier leadership and talent advisory firm with more than 75 offices in over 45 countries. Our global reach enables us to serve client needs anywhere they conduct business. We connect great companies with great leaders through executive search, interim management and leadership consulting solutions. For further information, visit www.boyden.com. Notes to editors Interviews with Boyden spokespeople available on request. Please contact: [email protected] / 0771 864 1065 Attachments FILE PHOTO: An Amgen sign is seen at the company's office in South San Francisco, California October 21, 2013 REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/Files By Blake Brittain WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Amgen Inc's bid to revive patents on its cholesterol drug Repatha that were invalidated due to a legal challenge by rivals Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA. The justices took up Amgen's appeal of the lower court ruling that threw out the Repatha patents. Amgen and other drugmakers have called the case a test of their ability to earn and defend patents for important drugs. Amgen first sued Regeneron and Sanofi in 2014 over their rival drug Praluent, which works by a similar mechanism as Repatha. The two monoclonal antibody drugs won U.S. approval weeks apart in 2015. An Amgen spokesperson said the company was encouraged by the decision and "firmly believes in the validity of its patents." "Amgen believes that patent protection is essential, not only for Amgen, but also for the entire biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry to make the significant investments required to discover and develop new innovative therapeutics," the spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Regeneron said it is the company's "longstanding belief" that Amgen's patents are invalid, and it expects a decision from the high court by the end of June 2023. Representatives for Sanofi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen sold more than $1.1 billion worth of Repatha worldwide last year. The two drugs, which lower "bad" LDL cholesterol by blocking a protein called PCSK9 that prevents its removal from the blood, can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with heart disease. Amgen sued French drugmaker Sanofi and Tarrytown, New York-based partner Regeneron shortly after they sought regulatory approval for Praluent. Regeneron sold $170 million worth of Praluent in the United States last year, and Sanofi sold over $200 million worth in the rest of the world. A Delaware judge in 2019 threw out a jury verdict in favor of Amgen after finding the patents invalid. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which focuses on patent law, agreed with the lower court last year, finding that the patents failed to tell an ordinary person how to recreate the antibodies without "undue experimentation." Amgen told the Supreme Court that the type of patent "genus claims" the Federal Circuit invalidated are common in the pharmaceutical industry, and that the ruling's impact was "devastating, particularly for critical biotech and pharmaceutical innovations." A brief filed in support of Amgen by companies including Biogen Inc, Bristol Myers Squibb Co and Merck & Co said the Federal Circuit's decision would "slow the pace of research and development and hinder innovation, to the detriment of patients and the public at large." The Biden administration said in a September court brief that the high court should decline to review the case. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington and Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Will Dunham and Bill Berkrot) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Hunter Technology Corp. (TSXV: HOC) (OTCQB: HOILF) (WKN: A2QEYH) (FSE: RWP) (ISIN: CA4457372080) ("Hunter" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will consolidate all of its common shares on the basis of one (1) post-consolidation common share for every two (2) pre-Consolidation common shares (the "Consolidation"). The common shares of the Company will commence trading on a post-Consolidation basis under the existing ticker symbol on November 8, 2022. As of the date of this news release, the Company has 4,533,307 common shares issued and outstanding. Following completion of the Consolidation, the Company is expected to have approximately 2,266,600 common shares issued and outstanding. No fractional common shares will be issued pursuant to the Consolidation. Any fractional interest in common shares resulting from the Consolidation will be rounded down to the nearest whole common share. No fractional shares will be issued and will be eliminated. A letter of transmittal will be mailed to registered shareholders by the Company's transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc., once the Consolidation has taken effect. The letter of transmittal contains instructions on how registered shareholders can exchange their share certificates evidencing their pre-Consolidation shares for new share certificates representing the number of post-Consolidation shares to which they are entitled. Beneficial shareholders holding their shares through a brokerage may be subject to different procedures for obtaining their post-Consolidation shares. If shareholders have any questions in this regard, they are encouraged to contact their respective brokerage or intermediary. About Hunter Technology Corp. Hunter Technology Corp. develops interactive software platforms that digitalize and streamline physical oil trading throughout the transaction lifecycle. With its solutions, Hunter delivers more favorable economics and fair market access for all and promotes the transition towards a more environmentally and ethically responsible ecosystem. Its flagship product OilEx will connect independent oil producers, buyers, and traders in a trusted digital marketplace to optimize prices, simplify processes, improve transparency, and support a reduced carbon footprint. Through its data analytics capabilities, Hunter offers real time supply chain management tools for tracking the origin, logistics, and processing of hydrocarbons and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance during their life cycle. For inquiries, please contact: Dr. Konstantinos Ghertsos Chief Executive Officer (778) 655-9202 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. ("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 press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") as such terms are defined by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," and "intend," statements that an action or event "may," "might," "could," "should," or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond Hunter's control and Hunter's actual results could well differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to many various factors. These include, but are not limited to, statements and information regarding: (i) the completion and potential benefits of the Consolidation; (ii) the expected number of common shares issued and outstanding following the Consolidation; (iv) the timing and anticipated effective date of the Consolidation; and (v) TSXV approval. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. The timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, one should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of today's date and Hunter undertakes no obligation to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143082 Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 4, 2022) - Northern Superior Resources Inc. (TSXV: SUP) (OTCQB: NSUPF) ("Northern Superior" or the "Company") and Royal Fox Gold Inc.(TSXV: FOXG) ("Royal Fox") are pleased to announce the successful completion of the previously announced acquisition by Northern Superior of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Royal Fox (the "Royal Fox Shares") pursuant to a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the "Transaction"). As a result of the Transaction, Northern Superior acquired the Philibert gold project (the "Philibert Project") located 60 kilometers southwest of Chibougamau, Qubec. The board of directors of Northern Superior has been reconstituted to include three new members from Royal Fox, four remaining members of the Northern Superior board and now consists of Victor Cantore, Andrew Farncomb, Michael Gentile, Frank Guillemette, Simon Marcotte, Gordon Morrison and Francois Perron. Mr. Victor Cantore has been appointed Executive Chairman and Mr. Simon Marcotte has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Thomas Morris has been appointed as Chairman of the Company's high-profile Technical Committee, which also includes Gordon Morrison, former VP Exploration of FNX Mining Co. Inc. and President of TMAC Resources Inc., Catharine Farrow, current director of Franco Nevada Corp. and former CEO and director of TMAC Resources Inc., and David Beilhartz, former VP Exploration of Lake Shore Gold Corp. Ms. Adree DeLazzer has been appointed Vice President, Exploration and Rodney Barber has been re-appointed as Senior Vice President, Exploration. Mr. Victor Cantor, newly appointed Executive Chairman, commented: "I am very excited to be part of the new Northern Superior and humbled by the quality and depth of its Board of Directors, Technical Committee, and management team, all of which will allow the company to realize the full potential of the opportunities at hand." Simon Marcotte, newly appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, added: "The consolidation of the gold camp of Chibougamau has been long in the making. Rarely are we presented with such an opportunity, and I couldn't be more excited by its potential." Fundamentals Following the acquisitions of Genesis Metals Corp. and Royal Fox, Northern Superior is now positioned as a leading company in the Chapais-Chibougamau district, a mining-friendly region having produced over 6.7 million ounces of gold, and which hosts several major deposits including IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan deposit (inferred gold resource estimate of 3.2 million ounces at 1.02 g/t gold 1 ); ); Largest property holdings and gold resources of any gold exploration company active in the Chapais-Chibougamau district; Largest land holdings in the district estimated to be more than 62,000 hectares, including four major properties, each of which having either a National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") compliant mineral resource estimate (Croteau Est2 and Chevrier3) or a meaningful gold discovery being advanced towards a mineral resource calculation (Lac Surprise and the Philibert Project); NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimates of approximately: 1,295,000 ounces in the inferred category (643,000 ounces at Croteau Est 2 and 652,000 ounces at Chevrier 3 ), and 260,000 ounces in the indicated category (Chevrier 3 ); Two significant gold discoveries with potential to move towards a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource calculation by the end of 2023: The Lac Surprise (Falcon Gold Zone), located just 12 km southwest of the Philibert Project, which has defined 900m of strike length and 380m of vertical continuity with all 31 holes drilled thus far intersecting gold mineralization, and The Philibert Project itself, which is building on a total of 75,000 metres of drilling and is being rapidly advanced with 120 holes completed in the 2022 winter drilling program. To date, more than C$13 million has been spent on the property ; Intention to spin off the Company's Ontario assets, including the TPK Property; Improved trading liquidity with an enhanced capital markets profile better positioned to attract a broader base of institutional and retail investors; and Strong insider ownership with over 20% of the shares of the Company. Details of the Transaction Pursuant to the Transaction, former Royal Fox shareholders received 0.12 (the "Exchange Ratio") of a Northern Superior common share (each whole common share, a "Northern Superior Share") for each Royal Fox Share held (the "Base Purchase Price"). As a result of the Transaction, Northern Superior issued an aggregate of 35,575,817 Northern Superior Shares, resulting in existing Northern Superior and former Royal Fox shareholders owning approximately 29% and 71%, respectively, of the Northern Superior Shares outstanding, on a non-diluted basis. In addition to the Base Purchase Price, the former Royal Fox shareholders received contingent consideration in the form of one contingent value right (each, a "CVR") for each Royal Fox Share that provides for the potential payment of additional consideration upon the declaration by way of news release of a maiden mineral resource estimate on the Philibert Project (the "Resource Calculation") within 12 months from the closing of the Transaction (the "Contingent Purchase Price"). If the Resource Calculation confirms a mineral resource estimate of 1.2 million ounces or more of gold in the inferred, measured or indicated categories (as such terms are defined in NI 43-101), each CVR will be exchanged for: 0.02 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 1.2 million ounces of gold and less than 1.6 million ounces of gold; 0.04 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 1.6 million ounces of gold and less than 2.0 million ounces of gold; or 0.06 of a Northern Superior Share, if the Resource Calculation is greater than or equal to 2.0 million ounces of gold. As part of the Transaction, all outstanding stock options of Royal Fox have been exchanged for economically equivalent stock options to purchase Northern Superior Shares (subject to adjustment based on the Exchange Ratio) and holders of Royal Fox warrants are entitled, in accordance with the terms of such warrants, to receive Northern Superior Shares on the exercise of such warrants (subject to adjustment based on the Exchange Ratio). Warrant holders and option holders of Royal Fox were required to exercise their warrants and options prior to the effective date of the Transaction in order to be eligible to receive the additional CVR consideration. Northern Superior has received acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") to list the Northern Superior Shares issued pursuant to the Transaction on the TSXV. The Royal Fox Shares are expected to be delisted from the TSXV at the close of trading on or about November 8, 2022. Royal Fox intends to submit an application to the applicable securities regulators to cease to be a reporting issuer and to terminate its public company reporting obligations as soon as possible. Pursuant to the letter of transmittal mailed to shareholders of Royal Fox as part of the materials in connection with the special meeting of shareholders of Royal Fox held on October 31, 2022 (the "Meeting"), in order to receive the Northern Superior Shares to which they are entitled, registered holders of Royal Fox Shares are required to deposit their share certificate(s) representing Royal Fox Shares, together with a duly completed letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal"), with Computershare Investor Services Inc., the depositary under the Transaction. Shareholders whose Royal Fox Shares are registered in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, trust company or other nominee must contact their nominee to deposit their Royal Fox Shares. Further information about the Transaction is set forth in the materials prepared by Royal Fox in respect of the Meeting which were mailed to Royal Fox shareholders and filed under Royal Fox's profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. Northern Superior has agreed to make joint elections with eligible Royal Fox shareholders in respect of the disposition of their Royal Fox Shares pursuant to Section 85 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (and any similar provision of any applicable provincial tax legislation) in accordance with the procedures and within the time limits set out in the Letter of Transmittal. Holders of Royal Fox Shares should consult their investment and tax advisors prior to making their election. A tax information package containing detailed requirements to make such Section 85 election is available upon request by emailing Northern Superior at [email protected]. None of the securities to be issued pursuant to the Transaction have been or will be registered under the United State Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and any securities issued pursuant to the Transaction are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Early Warning Reporting By virtue of its acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding Royal Fox Shares under the Transaction, Northern Superior is required to file an early warning report pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the early warning report will be filed on Royal Fox's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Michael Gentile, a director of the Company, acquired 2,112,000 Northern Superior Shares and 17,600,000 CVRs pursuant to the Transaction as well as common share purchase warrants to acquire an additional 1,068,000 Northern Superior Shares. Following completion of the Transaction, Mr. Gentile holds, directly and indirectly, an aggregate of 12,896,358 Northern Superior Shares, representing approximately 10.65% of the issued and outstanding Northern Superior Shares on an undiluted basis. Mr. Gentile also holds, directly, an aggregate of 495,000 stock options and an aggregate of 7,435,858 common share purchase warrants, entitling him to acquire an equal number of Northern Superior Shares. Assuming the exercise of all of Mr. Gentile's stock options and warrants and assuming payment of the maximum Contingent Purchase Price, an aggregate of 21,883,216 Northern Superior Shares will be, directly or indirectly, owned by Mr. Gentile, representing approximately 14.39% of the current issued and outstanding Northern Superior Shares on a partially diluted basis. Mr. Gentile acquired the additional Northern Superior Shares for investment purposes. He will review his holdings from time to time and may increase or decrease his position as future circumstances may dictate. The early warning report of Mr. Gentile, as required under National Instrument 62-103, contains additional information with respect to the foregoing matters and will be filed under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. For further information, contact Mr. Gentile at the following address and phone number: 1470 Peel St. Tour A, Suite 480, Montreal (Qc) H3A 1T1; (514) 316-0231 x103. Grant of Restricted Share Units The Company also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 759,297 restricted share units to directors and officers of the Company under the terms of the Company's 2022 equity incentive plan and which have a one year vesting period. Qualified Persons Rodney Barber, BSc., P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration for Northern Superior, is the Qualified Person under 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical information regarding the Northern Superior properties disclosed in this news release. Adree DeLazzer, P.Geo., newly appointed Vice President, Exploration for Northern Superior, is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical information regarding the Philibert Project disclosed in this news release. References #1: (Nelligan) Reference for IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan 3.2MM Inferred Gold Resource: "Carrier, Alain (M.Sc., P.Geo); Nadeau-Benoit, Vincent (P.Geo); Fauvre, Stephane (PhD., P.Geo). October 22, 2019. NI 43-101 Technical Report and Initial Resource Estimate for the Nelligan Project, Quebec, Canada." #2: (Croteau Est) Reference for Northern Superior's 643,000-ounce Inferred Gold Resource: "Technical Report on the Croteau Est Gold Project, Quebec" prepared by Mark Drabble, B.App.Sci. (Geology), MAIG, MAusIMM, Kahan Cervoj, B.App.Sci., MAIG, MAusIMM, Rebecca Morgan, BSc Hons (Geology), GDip (Mining), MAIG, MAusIMM, and Ian Glacken, BSc Hons (Geology), MSc (Mining Geology), MSc (Geostatistics), GDip (Computing), FAusIMM (CP), MIMMM, CEng dated September 11, 2015. #3: (Chevrier) Reference for Northern Superior's Mineral Resource Estimation: "NI 43-101 Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimation for the Chevrier Main Deposit, Chevrier Project, Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada" prepared by Susan Lomas, P.Geo., Jonathan Lavoie, Eng., M.Sc., and Andre Liboiron, Geo with an effective date of October 20, 2021 and a completion date of September 23, 2022. About Royal Fox Gold Inc. Royal Fox Gold Inc. is a mineral exploration company focused on the development of the Philibert Project near Chibougamau, Quebec. The Philibert Project comprises 110 mineral titles having a total approximate area of 5,392 hectares of highly prospective ground, 9km from IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan Gold project which was awarded the "Discovery of the Year" by the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association (AEMQ) in 2019. To date, more than C$13 million (historical value) have been spent on the Philibert Project, with more than 75,000 metres of drilling completed. Royal Fox is focused on de-risking the asset and releasing a maiden NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate which will incorporate results from both brownfield and greenfield exploration, combined with extensive historical data. The Philibert Project is owned by SOQUEM. Royal Fox is currently undergoing an ownership option process, details of which can be found in the corporate presentation available on Royal Fox's website. More details are available in the corporate presentation of Royal Fox at: www.royalfoxgold.com. About Northern Superior Resources Inc. Northern Superior is a gold exploration company focused on the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp in Quebec. The Company has consolidated the largest land package in the region, with total land holdings currently exceeding 56,000 hectares. The three main properties include Lac Surprise, Chevrier and Croteau Est. Chevrier hosts an inferred mineral resource of 652,000 ounces Au and an indicated mineral resource of 260,000 ounces Au, Croteau Est hosts an inferred mineral resource of 640,000 ounces Au, and Lac Surprise hosts the Falcon Zone Discovery, the western strike extension of IAMGOLD Corporation's Nelligan Deposit (3.2 million ounces at 1.02 g/t gold1). Northern Superior also owns significant exploration assets in Northern Ontario highlighted by the district scale TPK property. More details are available in the corporate presentation of Northern Superior at www.nsuperior.com. For further information, please contact: Simon Marcotte, CFA President and Chief Executive Officer Northern Superior Resources Inc. Tel: (647) 801-7273 Email: [email protected] www.nsuperior.com Neither the TSXV nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information under applicable Canadian, United States and other applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including, without limitation, statements with respect to realizing the full potential of the opportunities at hand, the Company being positioned as a leading company in the Chapais-Chibougamau district, two significant gold discoveries having potential to move towards a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource calculation by the end of 2023, the declaration of an expected mineral resource estimate on the Philibert Project within 12 months from the closing of the Transaction and the delisting of the Royal Fox Shares and the application for Royal Fox to cease to be a reporting issuer. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Northern Superior and Royal Fox's (collectively, the "Companies") current beliefs or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as the Companies' actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the estimated costs associated with the advancement of the Companies combined projects; and the Companies' ability to achieve the synergies expected as a result of the Transaction. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companies' expectations include risks associated with the business of Northern Superior and Royal Fox; risks related to exploration and potential development of the combined projects; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the impact of COVID-19 on the Companies' business; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and indigenous groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time and additional risks identified in Northern Superior and Royal Fox's filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Northern Superior and Royal Fox. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Northern Superior and Royal Fox undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143129 Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Donald Trump who chaired the former president's inaugural fund, arrives for his trial at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -Tom Barrack, a onetime private equity executive and fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, was found not guilty by a jury on Friday of unlawfully acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack, who chaired the former president's 2017 inaugural committee and served as an informal adviser to the campaign, was acquitted of all nine counts he faced, including conspiracy to act as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to the FBI in 2019 during their probe of his interactions with Emirati officials and their representatives. "I'm humbled," Barrack told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn after the verdict, which followed a six-week trial. "I have no hostility, I'm just proud to be an American." Barrack, 75, hugged his lawyers in the courtroom after the verdict was read. His lawyer Randall Jackson said during closing arguments on Tuesday that there was "nothing nefarious" about his ties to Middle Eastern politicians, whose portfolios included investments. In a statement, Trump called the verdict a "Great Victory for our Nation." "Great news for our Country, Freedom, and Democracy in that businessman Tom Barrack, who should have never been charged or tried, was just acquitted," Trump wrote. "My great respect goes out to the jurors for their courage and understanding in coming to an absolutely correct decision." Prosecutors last year charged Barrack with using his influence with Trump's 2016 campaign and administration to push UAE policy interests, without notifying the U.S. attorney general as required by law that he was acting as an agent for the Middle Eastern country. Barrack's former assistant and co-defendant, Matthew Grimes, was also acquitted of acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. Leaving the courtroom, Grimes, 29, said he was "grateful to live in the United States" and to be tried by a fair and impartial judge and jury. During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors hundreds of text messages and emails between Barrack and Grimes, and a businessman named Rashid Al-Malik, whom prosecutors say acted as an intermediary between the two and UAE officials. Al-Malik is at large. Prosecutors said the messages showed that Barrack received input from Emirati officials and intermediaries on what to say about the Middle East in TV interviews, and passed along sensitive details about U.S. foreign policy and personnel appointments. In arguing to the jury on Tuesday about why that mattered, prosecutor Sam Nitze said Emirati officials were pleased with Barrack's televised comments about the UAE and its leaders, and said U.S. law was designed to make sure the government knows when someone acts as a foreign government's "mouthpiece." 'DIRECTION OR CONTROL' Barrack testified in his own defense. He did not dispute meeting and speaking with Emirati officials, including national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, but denied ever agreeing to act under the country's direction or control, as U.S. law defines agents. Instead, he described his meetings with the officials as part of his role running Colony Capital, now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc, and said he also sought to improve mutual understanding between the United States and the Middle East. Emirati sovereign wealth funds invested $374 million with Colony in 2017 and 2018, which prosecutors described as Barrack's payout for acting as an agent. Barrack's lawyers said that amounted to less than 1% of the firm's balance sheet. The decision is a defeat for the U.S. Department of Justice, which has ramped up enforcement of laws designed to curb foreign influence campaigns in recent years. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, which prosecuted the case. Several Trump associates and allies have been convicted in recent criminal trials. Trump pardoned some of them before leaving office. During his testimony, Barrack told jurors he never asked Trump for a pardon. (Reporting by Luc Cohen; additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Alistair Bell and Rosalba O'Brien) NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) announced that it will be attending the Wolfe Research Wealth Symposium in New York City on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Edmund Reese, Chief Financial Officer, will be participating in a fireside chat on that day at 10:30 A.M. Eastern Time, which will be webcast via Broadridge's investor relations website at broadridge-ir.com. About BroadridgeBroadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with over $5 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. In addition, Broadridge's technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of on average more than U.S. $9 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work, Broadridge is a part of the S&P 500 Index, employing over 14,000 associates in 21 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com. Investors W. Edings Thibault Sean Silva Investor Relations Investor Relations (516) 472-5129 (332) 213-6371 Media Gregg Rosenberg Corporate Communications (212) 918-6966 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/broadridge-to-participate-in-investor-conference-301668886.html SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Inobrodib is a pioneering drug targeting twin tumour drivers p300/CBP, providing a new way to treat specific cancers Objective responses have been observed in multiple settings, including as monotherapy in relapsed refractory multiple myeloma ASH is the annual flagship scientific and clinical haematology meeting which is taking place in New Orleans on 9-13 December 2022 CAMBRIDGE, England, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CellCentric, a privately owned, clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering small molecule inhibition of p300/CBP to treat cancer, today announces that the Chief Investigator of its haematological malignancies programme, Professor Tim Somervaille, will be presenting compelling pre-clinical and early phase clinical activity data for inobrodib (CCS1477) at the American Society of Haematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition 2022, in New Orleans on the 9-13th December. Presentation Details: Title: "Potent Pre-Clinical and Early Phase Clinical Activity of EP300/CBP Bromodomain Inhibitor CCS1477 in Multiple Myeloma"Session Name: 651. Multiple Myeloma and Plasma Cell Dyscrasias: Basic and TranslationalSession Date: Saturday, December 10, 2022 Presentation Time: 4:00 PM Room: Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans Theater CPublication Number: 349 CellCentric has developed a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor drug, inobrodib, that targets twin cancer gene regulators, p300 and CBP. An extensive Phase I clinical programme has been undertaken, and a recommended Phase II dose and schedule (RP2D) as monotherapy has been established. At the RP2D, this novel drug has been shown to be well tolerated long term, delivering objective responses in multiple specific settings as monotherapy, including in relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (MM), acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and lymphomas. Inhibiting p300/CBP impacts the expression of key cancer drivers including MYC, IRF4 and the androgen receptor (AR). MYC and IRF4 are particularly important in the progression of certain blood cancers. CellCentric has demonstrated that its pioneering drug, inobrodib, has a direct impact on these key oncogenes. Inobrodib is formulated as a capsule, taken orally. Patients appreciate being able to take medicines themselves, at home, with less impact on routines and quality of life. Andrew Hughes, CellCentric Board member and previous head of global clinical Phase I/II oncology at AstraZeneca, said: "It is fabulous to see the pre-clinical promise of targeting p300/CBP translate into the clinic and deliver meaningful results for people with cancer. Many first in class compounds fail to achieve long term tolerability, as well as delivering efficacy. Targeting the bromodomain of p300/CBP is proving to have been the right drug discovery strategy." Tim Somervaille, Professor of Haematological Oncology at Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute and The University of Manchester, Honorary Consultant Haematologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Chief Investigator of the multi-centre international inobrodib Haematological Malignancy study commented: "These initial data provide great promise for the potential clinical utility of inobrodib as monotherapy, to treat late stage multiple myeloma patients, who have few alternate choices. We are expanding our existing encouraging cohorts, and also testing inobrodib now in combination with existing standard of care agents." As well as testing in heavily pre-treated, relapsed refractory haematological malignancy patients, CellCentric also has a study evaluating inobrodib for solid tumours, including late-stage prostate cancer, known to be driven by MYC and AR. The Company continues to explore the drug both as monotherapy and in combination with existing agents, in these additional settings. These data will be reported separately. About CellCentric: CellCentric is a research driven and patient-centric clinical stage, private biotechnology company pioneering small molecule inhibition of the twin proteins, p300/CBP. It is focused on the rapid development of inobrodib, a first-in-class small molecule p300/CBP inhibitor, which has the potential to benefit patients with many different cancer indications. The Company was originally founded with Prof Azim Surani of the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, one of the first people to report on the phenomenon of epigenetics. This is a heritable code separate from DNA, that controls which genes are used or not used. CellCentric has investigated over 50 epigenetic-related targets as new ways to treat disease, and specifically cancer. The company actively pursued multiple drug discovery programmes before prioritising p300/CBP inhibition and inobrodib. An earlier arginine methyl transferase programme was licenced to Takeda Pharmaceuticals. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cellcentric-to-present-inobrodib-phase-i-multiple-myeloma-efficacy-and-safety-data-at-the-american-society-of-haematology-301668106.html SOURCE CellCentric NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT (SEE "OFFER AND DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS" BELOW) NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In connection with its previously announced invitations to holders of certain outstanding securities as described in the table below (together the Securities and each series of the Securities a Series) to tender their Securities for purchase by the Offeror for cash (each such invitation an Offer and together the Offers), Credit Suisse International (the Offeror*) announced today (i) the Reference Yield, Total Consideration and Tender Offer Consideration with respect to the Securities in the table below and (ii) an extension of the Expiration Deadline for the Offers. This announcement does not contain the full terms and conditions of the Offers which are contained in the tender offer memorandum dated 7 October 2022 (the Tender Offer Memorandum), as amended by the announcement dated October 27, 2022, each as prepared by the Offeror, and are subject to the offer restrictions set out below and as more fully described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. Capitalised terms used in this announcement but not defined have the meanings given to them in the Tender Offer Memorandum. For the purposes of the Offers in respect of each Series, the Price Determination Time was 9.30 a.m. (New York City time) on 4 November 2022. The Total Consideration for each such Series has been determined by reference to the sum of (i) the fixed spread specified for the relevant Series in the table below and (ii) the yield (the Reference Yield) based on the bid side price of the Reference Treasury Security specified for the relevant Series in the table below as reported on Bloomberg Reference Page PX1 at the Price Determination Time and specified in the table below, all as more fully described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The Total Consideration is payable to holders of Securities subject to the Offers who validly tendered and did not validly withdraw their notes before the Early Tender Deadline, which was 5.00 p.m. (New York City time) on 3 November 2022. The Offeror has accepted for purchase all Securities validly tendered pursuant to the Offers at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline. The Total Consideration for the Securities is based on an assumed Early Settlement Date, which will occur as soon as possible after the Early Tender Deadline and is currently expected to be 7 November 2022. Following the Early Settlement Date, the amount of the Total Offers Purchase Funds Available remaining for the purposes of the purchase of Securities pursuant to the Offers on the Final Settlement Date will be U.S. $903,019,211.06. * Together with the issuers of the Securities, as described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. Title of Securities Issuer ISIN / CUSIP Number Reference Treasury Security Reference Treasury Rates Fixed Spread Total Consideration(1) Early Tender Payment(2) Tender Offer Consideration(1) Total Amount Tendered and Accepted 1.00 per cent. Notes due May 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2D25/22550L2D2 4.250 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2024 4.760 % 305 basis points U.S. $967.58 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $937.58 $81,771,000 Floating Rate Notes due August 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAD37/22550UAD3 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable U.S. $971.25 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $941.25 $8,875,000 0.52 per cent. Notes due August 2023 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2F72/22550L2F7 4.250 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2024 4.760 % 310 basis points U.S. $947.15 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $917.15 $165,831,000 1.25 per cent. Notes due August 2026 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2G55/22550L2G5 4.125 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2027 4.355 % 355 basis points U.S. $787.58 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $757.58 $118,298,000 5.00 per cent. Notes due July 2027 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2K67/22550L2K6 4.125 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2027 4.355 % 375 basis points U.S. $881.17 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $851.17 $57,550,000 3.70 per cent. Notes due February 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2H39/22550L2H3 3.500 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 15 September 2025 4.642 % 360 basis points U.S. $906.90 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $876.90 $108,018,000 Floating Rate Notes due February 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAF84/22550UAF8 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable U.S. $950.00 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $920.00 $65,830,000 Floating Rate Notes due February 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550UAB70/22550UAB7 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable U.S. $953.75 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $923.75 $54,309,000 4.75 per cent. Notes due August 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2J94/22550L2J9 4.250 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2024 4.760 % 370 basis points U.S. $940.55 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $910.55 $128,255,000 0.495 per cent. Notes due February 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2E08/22550L2E0 4.250 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2024 4.760 % 350 basis points U.S. $910.48 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $880.48 $76,013,000 3.625 per cent. Notes due September 2024 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22546QAP28/22546QAP2 4.250 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 30 September 2024 4.760 % 370 basis points U.S. $919.15 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $889.15 $107,318,000 2.95 per cent. Notes due April 2025 Credit Suisse AG, acting through its New York Branch US22550L2C42/22550L2C4 3.500 per cent. U.S. Treasury Notes due 15 September 2025 4.642 % 350 basis points U.S. $887.87 U.S. $30.00 U.S. $857.87 $233,724,000 (1) Per U.S.$1,000 in principal amount of the Securities. Accrued Interest will also be paid up to (but excluding) the relevant Settlement Date. (2) Calculated as the relevant Total Consideration less the relevant Early Tender Payment. Holders of the Securities who validly tender and do not validly withdraw their Securities before the Early Tender Deadline will receive the Total Consideration, which includes an Early Tender Payment of U.S.$30.00 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of such Securities tendered by such holders that are accepted for purchase. Holders of Securities subject to the Offers who validly tender their Securities after the Early Tender Deadline, but before the Expiration Deadline (which has been extended as described below), will receive the Tender Offer Consideration, which is the Total Consideration minus U.S.$30.00 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Securities tendered by such holders that are accepted for purchase. Holders of Securities subject to the Offers who tendered their Securities at or before 5.00pm (New York City time) on 3 November 2022 but not thereafter (the Withdrawal Deadline) may not withdraw their Securities after the Withdrawal Deadline, unless otherwise required by law. Holders of Securities subject to the Offers who tender their Securities after the Withdrawal Deadline may not withdraw their Securities, unless otherwise required by law. Extension of the Expiration Deadline Credit Suisse International has amended the Offers to extend the Expiration Deadline to 11.59 p.m. (New York City time) on 18 November, 2022 (originally 10 November, 2022). Except as set forth herein, all other terms and conditions of the Offers described in the Tender Offer Memorandum remain unchanged. Each Final Settlement Date will be promptly after the applicable Expiration Deadline, and is currently expected to be 22 November 2022. Holders of Securities are advised to read carefully the Tender Offer Memorandum for full details of, and information on the procedures for participating in, any Offer, copies of which are (subject to distribution restrictions) available from the Dealer Manager and the Information and Tender Agents as set out below. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is acting as Dealer Manager and D.F. King & Co., Inc. is acting as Information and Tender Agent. Questions and requests for assistance in connection with the Offers may be directed to the Dealer Manager: The Dealer ManagerCredit Suisse Securities (USA) LLCEleven Madison Avenue, 4th FloorNew York, New York 10010United States Telephone:Within the United States:(800) 820-1653 (U.S. toll free)(212) 538-2147 (Collect)Outside the United States:+44 20 7883 8763 Attention: Liability Management Group Email: [email protected] Questions and requests for assistance in connection with the delivery of Tender Instructions may be directed to the Information and Tender Agent. The Information and Tender AgentD.F. King & Co., Inc.48 Wall Street New York, NY 10005United States Banks and Brokers (Collect):+1 (212) 269 5550All others (U.S. toll free):+1 (800) 714 3311Attention: Michael HorthmanEmail: [email protected] DISCLAIMER This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Tender Offer Memorandum. The Tender Offer Memorandum contains important information which should be read carefully before any decision is made with respect to any Offer. If any Holder is in any doubt as to the action it should take, it is recommended to seek its own financial advice, including in respect of any tax consequences, from its broker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial, tax or legal adviser. Any individual or company whose Securities are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company or other nominee must contact such entity if it wishes to tender such Securities pursuant to the Offers. None of the Offerors, the Dealer Manager, the Information and Tender Agent or the Issuer makes any recommendation as to whether Holders should tender Securities pursuant to the Offers. OFFER AND DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS The distribution of this announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement and/or the Tender Offer Memorandum comes are required by each of the Offerors, the Dealer Manager, the Issuer and the Information and Tender Agent to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum constitutes an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell Securities (and tenders of Securities in any Offer will not be accepted from Holders) in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. In any jurisdiction where the securities, blue sky or other laws require an Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer and any of the Offeror's affiliates is such a licensed broker or dealer in such jurisdiction, such Offer shall be deemed to be made by such affiliate on behalf of the Offeror in such jurisdiction. Italy. None of the Offers, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or any other document or materials relating to the Offers have been or will be submitted to the clearance procedures of the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa (CONSOB) pursuant to Italian laws and regulations. The Offers are being carried out in the Republic of Italy (Italy) as exempted offers pursuant to article 101-bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998, as amended (the Financial Services Act) and article 35-bis, paragraph 4 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of 14 May 1999, as amended. Holders or beneficial owner of the Securities that are resident and/or located in Italy can tender the Securities for purchase in the Offers through authorised persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 20307 of 15 February 2018 16190 of 29 October 2007, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1 September 1993, as amended from time to time) and in compliance with any other applicable laws and regulations and with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority. Each intermediary must comply with applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-a-vis its clients in connection with the Securities or the Offers. United Kingdom. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum have been issued by Credit Suisse International (the Offeror) of One Cabot Square, London E14 4QJ, United Kingdom, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) of 12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN, United Kingdom. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum are being distributed only to existing holders of the Securities, and are only addressed to such existing Holders in the United Kingdom where they would (if they were clients of the Offeror) be per se professional clients or per se eligible counterparties of the Offeror within the meaning of the FCA rules. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum is addressed to or directed at any persons who would be retail clients within the meaning of the FCA rules and any such persons should not act or rely on this announcement or the Tender Offer Memorandum. Recipients of this announcement or the Tender Offer Memorandum should note that the Offeror is acting on its own account in relation to the Offers and will not be responsible to any other person for providing the protections which would be afforded to clients of the Offeror or for providing advice in relation to the Offers. The communication of this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other documents or materials relating to the Offers are not being made and such documents and/or material have not been approved by an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Accordingly, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and such other documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom, and the communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom, (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the Financial Promotion Order), (iii) persons falling within Article 43(2) of the Financial Promotion Order, or (iv) other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated. France. The Offers are not being made, directly or indirectly, to the public in the Republic of France (France). This announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other document or material relating to the Offers have only been or shall only be distributed in France and to qualified investors as defined in Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum have been or will be submitted for clearance to or approved by the Autorite des Marches Financier. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/credit-suisse-securities-international-announces-reference-yield-total-consideration-and-tender-offer-consideration-and-an-extension-of-the-expiration-deadline-for-the-offers-301669152.html SOURCE Credit Suisse International MADRID, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of an extensive agenda of public events and high-level private meetings with political, intellectual and business leaders of Ibero-America in the city of Madrid; the businessman and president of Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo, Dionisio Gutierrez met with president Ivan Duque Marquez of Colombia, who was in power between 2018 and 2022. Gutierrez began the conversation by recounting the challenges Duque faced during his presidency: "2019 was a year in which you had already assumed power and your government was implementing your plan. Colombia was the country in the region with the best economic growth and it was generating confidence. Suddenly the pandemic and other security threats arrived and the conditions to govern became very difficult. Colombia has been for decades a target and the crown jewel of Latin America". The former president recounted the challenges he faced and his legacy: "We had a government agenda and we never let it falter. In a government of 48 months, we had to face 30 months of pandemic and even so, we did not let it get us out of focus. We had to face protests and attacks from a violent opposition, and we can say that we left Colombia with the highest growth in its history. In 2021, 10.7% and this year a growth of over 8%. We leave Colombia first in the ranking of pandemic management in Latin America and the Caribbean". To conclude, Gutierrez highlighted the importance of the defense of classical liberal and republican values to face the populist threat that plagues the Latin American region: "The promoters and defenders who believe in liberal democracy, in the rule of law, in the republic, in the division of powers, have not been able to improve the political offer in Latin America. To have proposals that are competitive and capable of winning elections. We must improve our strategy and continue to insist that the only way out are republican and liberal values". Dionisio Gutierrez is an entrepreneur, activist and communicator with a PhD in Sociology and Political Science. He is President of the Latin American think-tank Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo and host of the weekly television program Razon de Estado, which is broadcasted in several countries in the region. For more information, visit fundacionlibertad.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dionisio-gutierrez-meets-with-former-colombian-president-ivan-duque-301669254.html SOURCE Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo Interview: China plays crucial role in wetlands conservation 21:17, November 04, 2022 By Martina Fuchs ( Xinhua GENEVA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) is about to open Saturday, Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention, said Thursday that China is playing a crucial role in saving and restoring these vital ecosystems. "What we've seen with the government of China is really absolutely exciting because there's a move and amplification of legislation. They have made sure that over 50 percent of the wetlands in China are under protection in one form or another, be it a national park or a community park," Mumba told Xinhua in a video interview. The meeting will be held from Nov. 5 to 13, with its main venue in central China's Wuhan city, the official hosts of COP14, and a parallel session in Geneva, Switzerland, in both physical and online formats. Wetlands are among the most diverse and productive ecosystems as they provide essential services and supply all our fresh water. According to the Convention, an estimated 85 percent have been lost measured against the year 1700. "Lake Chad, for example, is a lake that is shared between Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad the country itself. This lake has shrunk to less than 10 percent and is a Ramsar site. It is also a pathway for birdlife species. Indigenous peoples... have depended on this wetland ecosystems for medicine, for food, for fish, but also really the microclimate of this region," Mumba said. "Our cities are the spaces where more than 50 percent of the world's population by 2050 will be living. This means that we'll be living within either concrete jungles or we will have specific infrastructures that also increase the heating of cities," Mumba said. "What wetlands do as part of the ecosystem services, and these services are valued at over 47 trillion (U.S.) dollars, is the cooling effect. We can see that having wetlands within cities provides a mechanism of cooling, but also at the same time, an increase of biodiversity and green spaces." "This is why this COP matters and this is why I think China is really pushing towards this action and calling on all the contracting parties of the convention to act." The Convention entered into force in China on July 31, 1992. China currently has 64 sites designated as "Wetlands of International Importance" (Ramsar Sites). With 13 cities, China now has the largest number of wetland cities in the world, and the country has adopted several measures to protect wetlands, including promoting wetland legislation, implementing wetland protection and restoration schemes, designating internationally significant wetlands and carrying out wetland surveys. "I'm beginning to really believe that it's important when other contracting parties see this leadership why we should invest in these ecosystems and why it's important to make sure that these ecosystems are protected, because the protection also goes for climate change and for biodiversity," Mumba said. The Convention on Wetlands was adopted on Feb. 2, 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Having 172 contracting parties so far, the intergovernmental treaty provides a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Mumba stressed that strengthening international cooperation was crucial to tackle these vital issues for our planet. "We're meeting for the first time after the start of the pandemic. We did not meet since 2018. So here we are now meeting together to really look at the state of wetlands and the plight of wetlands, and why wetlands matter and why they're central to our livelihoods collectively as humans on this planet," she said. The COP14 will be held as the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) is to take place on Nov. 6-18 in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian Red Sea resort city. The 14th COP meeting is "back-to-back with the climate COP27 and then eventually with the biodiversity COP. What does that mean? That also means that the wetland conversation is happening within the conversations related to climate and biodiversity, really showing the world that all of this is interconnected," said Mumba. "We're inching closer to the last five years before the end of the agenda of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All of this comes very cleanly within legislation and regulatory frameworks," Mumba said. "SDG 17 is the goal on collaboration and partnerships. We cannot do this alone as the Convention on Wetlands, we need to do this collaboratively with everyone, youth, indigenous peoples, women, politicians, scientists, everyone is a part of this journey to make these spaces much better for both, us and nature alike." (Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming) MANCHESTER, N.H., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Manchester, NH John Coughlin, the Hillsborough County Attorney continues to fight back against serious crime. John Coughlin has said, "First, before we were even sworn in, we began seeking to rebuild relationships with our partner organizations. For example, we have been working hand in hand with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office on a wide variety of cases and organizational issues. We have also been working with police departments throughout the county to expand and improve communication and modernize case processing." The department has identified and assigned additional duties to a specific assistant county attorney to serve as a liaison with the Manchester Police Department, since Queen City is the largest community in our county and in the entire state. That assistant county attorney is physically present at the Manchester Police Station as their schedule allows and is also communicating electronically with police. The liaison fosters improved cooperation between the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office and Manchester Police Department. Coughlin added, "In addition, we are updating, managing, and disseminating a list of high priority cases on a bi-weekly basis. These cases have been identified by both our office and local law enforcement as meriting this kind of attention. We have been making a successful effort along with the county government to introduce new technologies and extract as much as possible out of limited resources. The county attorney's office is much improved from the operation it was 21 months ago." The campaign believes there is still much to be done, but the efficiencies, technology, and, most importantly, relationships we have established and reestablished are starting to yield dividends. Coughlin has also stated, "Our goals are the equal application of the law under the Rule of Law as well as protecting the rights of victims and allowing their voices to be heard. We continue to move the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office forward as we successfully prosecute serious felonies in both the Northern and Southern Districts. As a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard who served three tours in Iraq, as well as a retired State of New Hampshire judge, I understand and appreciate how truly precious and fragile our freedoms and justice are." To learn more about John Coughlin's re-election campaign, visit here:https://johncoughlin2022.com CONTACT: John J. Coughlin(603) 769-7499[email protected]https://johncoughlin2022.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-coughlin-hillsborough-county-attorney-continues-fight-against-crime-in-nh-301669297.html SOURCE John J. Coughlin For Hillsborough County Attorney The iconic premium seafood brand celebrates heritage and continues to produce the best seafood on the planet over a century since its inception SAN DIEGO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- King Oscar, the legendary Norwegian seafood producer, is proud to celebrate its 120th anniversary on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. King Oscar, currently the top purveyor of specialty seafood in the United States, remains committed to the heritage, craft and quality that earned a Kingly reputation for over 100 years ago. "King Oscar is steeped in history and heritage," said King Oscar USA president, John Engle. "It has been over a century since King Oscar gave us his name, and we continue to honor his legacy and the Norwegian tradition that represents the foundation that guides us toward innovative and nutritious products like our Mackerel Royal Fillets and Yellowfin Tuna varieties. We are on a mission to produce the best quality, best tasting seafood possible and to do it in a sustainable way." In 1902, King Oscar II of Norway tried the Brisling sardines from the Norwegian Stavanger Preserving Company, and he was impressed. So much so that he gave the company his greatest gift, his name by Royal Permission, a status the company still enjoys today. To this day, King Oscar continues to produce the same Wild Caught Brisling Sardines that so impressed the Norwegian King in 1902. But King Oscar has also introduced an abundance of innovative, industry-changing, Royally delicious products since that day. Most recently, the brand debuted a line of all-new, ultra-premium Yellowfin Tuna offerings. This best-in-class product features four flavor varieties: Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Green Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Sundried Tomatoes, Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Jalapeno Peppers, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Herbs de Provence. "King Oscar has been part of Thai Union since 2014. Our King Oscar USA business has shown exceptional growth since their acquisition of the company, and we are proud to be #1 in the Specialty Seafood Segment in this market," said General Manager for King Oscar worldwide, Bjrn Nordvik. "We are proud to play a small part in the tradition of the world's finest specialty seafood brand and the legacy of King Oscar II himself. Our ambition is to position the King Oscar brand for success in the next century and offer consumers the absolute best the oceans can offer," Engle said. About King Oscar: King Oscar is a leading international supplier and marketer of premium canned seafood. The company, founded in 1902, is best known for its premium brisling sardines, but also supplies a range of products, including skinless & boneless sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies, cod liver and other seafood. The company is based in Bergen, Norway. www.kingoscar.com King Oscar is owned by Thai Union, a global seafood leader with a dedication to sustainability and innovation. www.thaiunion.com Contact: Gordon Wright415.887.9325[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/king-oscar-celebrates-120-years-as-the-king-of-seafood-301669288.html SOURCE King Oscar DALLAS, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McKool Smith secured a $5 million verdict against Santander Consumer USA Inc. this week for breach of contract on behalf of Enterprise Financial Group, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program. McKool Smith Secures $5 Million Verdict in Breach-of-Contract Case Against Santander Bank The verdict was announced on November 2, 2022 following a six-day jury trial before Judge Bridgett Whitmore in Dallas County District Court. Jurors found that Santander, owned by the largest bank in Spain, materially breached a services contract with A+ BBB-Rated Enterprise Financial Group. Finding Santander breached its contract first, the jury also excused the breach-of-contract claim against Enterprise Financial Group. In their verdict, jurors awarded Enterprise Financial Group $5,000,000 in damages, with attorneys' fees still to be decided. "As we demonstrated throughout the trial, it was the defendant, not our client, who was in breach of the contract at issue," said McKool Smith Principal Robert Manley, lead counsel for Enterprise Financial Group. "Our client is pleased with the verdict and appreciates the jury closely examining the facts in the case." "With a 45-year history of protecting consumers and honoring the terms of our contracts, this verdict holds significant meaning to Enterprise Financial Group way beyond the financial implications," said John Pappanastos, President and Chief Executive Officer of EFG Companies. "We were steadfast throughout the five-year duration of this lawsuit knowing the facts and the truth were on our side." Along with Mr. Manley, the McKool Smith trial team included Principal Michael Miguel, and Associates Veronica Manning and Carson Young. The case is Enterprise Financial Group, Inc. v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., case number DC-18-08119, in the 193rd Dallas County District Court. With 130 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America's leading trial firms. The firm has secured 13 nine-figure jury verdicts and 15 eight-figure jury verdicts, obtaining more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal "Top 100 Verdicts" than any other law firm. These courtroom successes have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as "one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade." McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, insurance recovery, and white collar defense matters. For more information, please contact Keith Hill at (903) 923.9005 or email [email protected]. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mckool-smith-secures-5-million-verdict-in-breach-of-contract-case-against-santander-bank-301669246.html SOURCE McKool Smith DALLAS, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Simmons Bank, as Trustee of the Sabine Royalty Trust (NYSE: SBR), today declared a cash distribution to the holders of its units of beneficial interest of $0.582550 per unit, payable on November 29, 2022, to unit holders of record on November 15, 2022. Sabine's cash distribution history, current and prior year financial reports and tax information booklets, a link to filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission and more can be found on its website at http://www.sbr-sabine.com/. Additionally, printed reports can be requested and are mailed free of charge. This distribution reflects primarily the oil production for August 2022 and the gas production for July 2022. Preliminary production volumes are approximately 36,531 barrels of oil and 983,628 Mcf of gas. Preliminary prices are approximately $98.32 per barrel of oil and $6.82 per Mcf of gas. This month's distribution is lower than the previous month's primarily due to decreased production due to the timing of receipts through the end of the month as compared to the previous month's timing of receipts, offset by a slight increase in oil pricing and a decrease in pricing for gas. The production from new horizontal gas wells in Panola County, Texas, has contributed approximately $850,000 reflecting July production. They were averaging about 573 Mcf per well, per day during July totaling over 142,000 Mcf with an average pricing of $6.43 per Mcf. In addition to these proceeds, the additional 8 new wells which were paid upon for the month of July, contributed approximately $168,000, reflecting an average of 118 Mcf per well, per day. Also, revenue of $172,000 was received for one additional well in Panola County reflecting June production, averaging 1,149 Mcf per day. Additionally, another 3 horizontal wells, also in Panola County, were paid on by another operator for the month of production for August 2022, with production of 1,110 Mcf per well, per day with the respective pricing of $7.68 per Mcf resulting in approximately $756,000 being received by the Trust in October. As more regular monthly receipts are made in the months to come, additional information will be made available. The table below compares this month's production and prices to the previous month's: Net to Trust Sales Volumes Average Price Oil (bbls) Gas (Mcf) Oil (per bbl) Gas (per Mcf) Current Month 36,531 983,628 $98.32 $6.82 Prior Month 71,923 1,472,082 $96.81 $7.26 Revenues are only distributed after they are received, verified, and posted. Most energy companies normally issue payment of royalties on or about the 25th of every month, and depending on mail delivery, a varying amount of royalties are not received until after the revenue posting on the last business day of the month. The revenues received after that date will be posted within 30 days of receipt. Due to the timing of the end of the month of October, approximately $5,103,000 of revenue received will be posted in the following month of November in addition to normal receipts during November. Since the close of business in October and prior to this press release, $4,102,000 in revenue has been received. Approximately $755,000 for 2022 Ad Valorem taxes was deducted from this month's distribution as compared to $165,000 this time last year. These payments are normal expenditures at this time of year. The 2021 Annual Report with Form 10-K and the January 1, 2022 Reserve Summary has been posted on the Sabine website at http://www.sbr-sabine.com/. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sabine-royalty-trust-announces-monthly-cash-distribution-for-november-2022-301668899.html SOURCE Sabine Royalty Trust EDITORS NOTE: ASTHO President and Chief Medical Officer of the Alaska Department of Health Anne Zink, MD, FACEP; State Health Officer and Medical Director of the Louisiana Department of Health Joseph Kanter, MD, MPH; and Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health Manisha Juthani, MD, are available for media interviews. ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) President and Chief Medical Officer of the Alaska Department of Health Anne Zink, MD, FACEP, issued the following statement given the rise in respiratory illness activity across the country and increasing strain on hospitals. "We are concerned about the surge in children's respiratory illnesses circulating in communities across the country. Many states are seeing a spike in children's hospitalizations from COVID-19, flu, and RSV; adult cases are also on the rise. Unfortunately, this means that many hospitals are at or near capacity and it is beginning to strain healthcare systems. Public health officials are currently partnering with hospital systems throughout the country to increase bed capacity, explore ways to address workforce shortfalls, promote immunization, and communicate with the public on the best ways to prevent the spread of these diseases. The partnership between public health and healthcare is essential in ensuring individuals have the knowledge and tools to prevent illness and can access care when needed. State and territorial public health officials urge parents and families to take precautions now in order to be healthy and to avoid putting strain on hospital systems. The best way to avoid serious complications from many respiratory illnesses is for everyone to stay up to date on their vaccinations. Other prevention measures such as frequent handwashing and staying home when you are sick can also help stop the spread of illness." ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/state-health-officials-urge-families-to-take-preventive-measures-during-current-respiratory-virus-surge-301668482.html SOURCE Association of State and Territorial Health Officials SHANGHAI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The China International Import Expo, which has been widely hailed as the premiere platform for foreign businesses to tap into the myriad opportunities in the Chinese market, will be held in Shanghai for the fifth time from Nov 5 to 10. A total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations have confirmed their participation, according to Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, who made the remarks at a press conference on Nov 1. The world's first national-level import-themed trade fair launched in 2018, the expo will once again comprise a business exhibition, a country exhibition and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum. Eight countries - Nicaragua, Djibouti, Mauritania, Comoros, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Iceland will attend the country exhibition for the first time. In addition, all member states of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will have companies taking part in the expo. The number of participating countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has also increased. A total of 284 of the world's top 500 enterprises and industry giants will be present at the business exhibition, and hundreds of new products, technologies and services will be exhibited at the six major exhibition areas - Food and Agricultural Products, Intelligent Industry and Information Technology, Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products, Consumer Goods, Trade in Services, and Automobiles, Sun said. In line with the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and targets through 2035, the event has established special subsections for the crop seed industry and artificial intelligence, optimized the special subsection for low-carbon energy and environmental protection technology, and expanded the innovation and incubation subsection. More than 150 startups specialized in technological equipment, consumer products, and the medical and automotive fields will present their products and services at the innovation and incubation subsection. An integral part of the CIIE, this year's Hongqiao International Economic Forum will focus more on topics related to global openness, with the number of sub-forums expanding from 14 to 24. Some parallel sessions will be co-hosted by ministries and commissions, think tanks and a number of international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Global Compact, etc. Five of these forums will have keynote speeches delivered by Nobel laureates. Nearly 20 authoritative reports, including the World Openness Report 2022, will be released during the forum. ContactMs. Cui YanTel.0086-21-968888Email[email protected]Websitehttp://www.ciie.org/zbh/en/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/ciieonline Twitterhttps://twitter.com/ciieonline Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938443/China_International_Import_Expo_Venue.jpgLogo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938442/CIIE_Logo.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-fifth-ciie-to-welcome-more-participants-301669141.html SOURCE CIIE Dr. Lande Ajose - an accomplished public policy leader and former vice president and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California - will serve as Managing Director & Chief of Staff while new Chief Operating Officer Jagadha Sivan - an experienced social impact executive - brings extensive management experience with mission-driven organizations SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Waverley Street Foundation, an organization that invests at the intersection of climate solutions and community priorities, today announced appointments in two senior staff roles: Dr. Lande Ajose will serve as the Foundation's Managing Director and Chief of Staff, and Jagadha Sivan will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Working directly with Foundation President Jared Blumenfeld, Ajose and Sivan will be instrumental in executing Waverley Street Foundation's global strategy and mission. Waverley Street Foundation Hires Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer "Jagadha and Lande share Waverley Street's core belief that real climate progress is driven by including voices that need to be heard and ensuring equity in everything we do. They both have a deep understanding of how to collaborate with communities to accelerate powerful solutions," said Waverley Street President Jared Blumenfeld. "We're incredibly excited to fill these roles with such extraordinary talent and strengthen the growing team that is moving Waverley Street's mission forward." By 2035, the Waverley Street Foundation has committed to invest the entirety of its endowment more than $3 billion as of 2022 to support organizations working on solutions at the intersection of climate change and community priorities. As Waverley Street Foundation's managing director and chief of staff, Ajose will lead the organization's development and implementation of strategic plans in a range of areas. As chief operating officer, Sivan will be at the forefront of the organization's execution and culture, ensuring effectiveness, accountability, transparency, and inclusion in everything they do. Throughout her career, Ajose has worked to improve the lives of Californians as a leader in state government, private philanthropy, and research institutions." At Waverley Street we are crafting a bold, intersectional, and global strategy to ensure the livability of our planet, while also addressing the challenges communities are facing from climate change in the here-and-now," said Ajose. "I'm excited about the opportunity to contribute to that work, and to be part of the team as we expand and energize Waverley's broad coalition of community climate partners." Sivan built her career seeking out innovative approaches to solving major societal challenges and has advised mission-driven organizations on a wide spectrum of matters including revenue and growth strategies and maximizing impact. "Waverley Street's ambition is to generate a huge positive impact in the next decade, and I'm thrilled to be part of a team that is so passionate about the work ahead," said Sivan. "We are ready to move with speed and dedication that matches the urgency of the climate challenge and supports the incredible work of our frontline partners." Executive Backgrounds Lande Ajose previously served as vice president, Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California's Future and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. She formerly served as senior policy advisor for higher education for California Governor Gavin Newsom, and helped to advance special projects for the governor during the pandemic. Before joining the Newsom administration, Ajose was executive director of California Competes, chaired the California Student Aid Commission, and served on the governance bodies of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the Institute for College Access and Success, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. She currently sits on the PPIC Higher Education Center Advisory Council and on the Board of Trustees at Occidental College. She holds a PhD in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and her research expertise includes addressing issues of poverty and inequality through education and employment. Jagadha Sivan most recently served as chief operating officer at ImpactMapper, where she led efforts to help philanthropies and corporations track the impact of their programs. She previously served as a board member at La Cocina, where she developed strategic plans to address inequities in business ownership for immigrant women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sivan also focused on launching a business incubator for previously incarcerated Black and Brown women, revamping the growth strategy for the largest Native American owned-operated CPG company, and addressing the lack of healthcare coordination for the publicly insured population in San Francisco. With a master's in computer science from University of Florida, Sivan pivoted to impact work, starting her career in this space as a founding member at World of Good, a venture-funded, socially conscious retail platform where she helped generate sustainable livelihoods for women artisans in more than 34 countries. About Waverley Street Foundation The voices, experiences, and innovations of neighborhoods and communities around the world have a central place in protecting people, nature, health, and our planet. Waverley Street Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports grantees working closely with farmers, students, investors, Indigenous peoples, advocates, and many others. By 2035, the Waverley Street Foundation has committed to invest the entirety of its endowment more than $3 billion as of 2022 to support organizations working on solutions at the intersection of climate change and community priorities. In the coming weeks, the Foundation will launch its website to provide more details on its mission, grantees, and the impact of their work. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/waverley-street-foundation-fills-senior-staff-roles-301669357.html SOURCE Waverley Street Foundation The purpose of this notice is to inform you of the dates for your Funds current repurchase offer. If you are not interested in selling your shares at this time, please disregard this notice. November 4, 2022 Dear Invesco Senior Loan Fund Shareholder: We extend this repurchase offer to provide liquidity to shareholders because shares of your Fund, which is structured as a closed-end interval fund, are not redeemable daily for cash and are not traded on a stock exchange. Prior to each monthly repurchase offer, the Fund is required to send notification of the repurchase offer to all of its shareholders. You will receive a notice similar to this once per month. The Fund will offer to repurchase shares only during each regularly scheduled monthly repurchase offer period. This notice is provided to make you aware of the deadlines and procedures to tender your shares should you wish to do so. Note that early withdrawal of shares from the Fund may result in a sales charge and may be a taxable event; consult your financial advisor or tax advisor for more information. Please remember that you are not obligated to do anything with your shares at this time. This repurchase offer period begins on November 11, 2022 and ends (unless extended) on the repurchase request deadline at the close of the New York Stock Exchange (normally the Exchange closes at 4 p.m., Eastern Time, but it may close earlier on certain days) on November 18, 2022. Shares accepted for repurchase will be purchased at a price equal to the respective net asset value of such shares on the repurchase pricing date, which is described further in the enclosed Repurchase Offer Terms. For informational purposes, on October 28, 2022, the net asset values per share of the Funds share classes were as follows: Class A $5.93 Class C $5.94 Class IB $5.93 Class IC $5.93 Class Y $5.93 If you intend to sell or exchange your shares during this repurchase offer period, please read the enclosed documents. You should also consider the following: Determine if your account is held with your financial advisor or directly with Invesco Investment Services, Inc. (IIS). If you are unsure if your account is held directly with IIS or with your financial advisor, please review your most recent account statement. If your statement is from your financial advisor, you must contact your financial advisor for assistance because there may be different requirements for making a repurchase request during the repurchase offer period. If your statement is from Invesco, you may either contact your financial advisor or you can contact a Client Services representative at 800 959 4246. If you wish to sell shares held in an Invesco sponsored retirement plan account with Invesco Trust Company (ITC) serving as custodian, you must complete and submit the appropriate Invesco retirement account distribution form in addition to the enclosed Repurchase Request Form to execute your request. Please note that Required Minimum Distributions, Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (72t) or any other systematic redemptions will not be allowed out of the Invesco Senior Loan Fund. To obtain a distribution form, please contact a Client Services representative at 800 959 4246 or you may download the form at invesco.com/us. If you wish to sell any of your Fund shares during this repurchase offer period, all requests must be received in good order prior to the close of the New York Stock Exchange on November 18, 2022. Please refer to the Funds Prospectus and the enclosed Repurchase Offer Terms and Repurchase Request Form if you have any questions or contact a Client Services representative at 800 959 4246. The enclosed documents apply to the current repurchase offer period. New documents will be mailed to you in connection with any subsequent monthly offers. File No . 33-58282 811-07512 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM N-1A REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 [X] Pre-Effective Amendment No. [__] Post-Effective Amendment No. 57 [X] and/or REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940 [X] Amendment No. 57 [X] (Check appropriate box or boxes.) BNY Mellon Worldwide Growth Fund, Inc. (Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter) c/o BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. 240 Greenwich Street, New York, New York 10286 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code) Registrant's Telephone Number, including Area Code: (212) 922-6400 Deirdre Cunnane, Esq. 240 Greenwich Street New York, New York 10286 (Name and Address of Agent for Service) It is proposed that this filing will become effective immediately upon filing pursuant to Rule 462(d). Explanatory Note This Post-Effective Amendment consists of the following: 1. Facing Sheet of the Registration Statement. 2. Part C to the Registration Statement (including signature page). 3. Exhibit (d)(2) to Item 28 to the Registration Statement. This Post-Effective Amendment is being filed solely to file the Sub-Investment Advisory Agreement as Exhibit (d)(2) to Item 28 to this Registration Statement on Form N-1A. Part A of the Registration Statement was filed on February 24, 2022 pursuant to Rule 485(b) under the Securities Act of 1933 and is incorporated by reference herein; and Part B of the Registration Statement was filed on August 31, 2022 pursuant to Rule 497(e) under the Securities Act of 1933 and is incorporated by reference herein. BNY MELLON WORLDWIDE GROWTH FUND, INC. (formerly, Dreyfus Premier Worldwide Growth Fund Inc.) (formerly, Dreyfus Premier Growth Fund, Inc.) (formerly, Premier Growth Fund, Inc.) PART C. OTHER INFORMATION ITEM 28 Exhibits _______________ Other Exhibits (1) Power of Attorney, dated September 22, 2021, is incorporated by reference to Other Exhibits of Post-Effective Amendment No. 56. __________________________ * Filed herewith. Item 29. Persons Controlled by or under Common Control with Registrant. Not Applicable. Item 30. Indemnification. The Registrant's charter documents set forth the circumstances under which indemnification shall be provided to any past or present Board member or officer of the Registrant. The Registrant also has entered into a separate agreement with each of its Board members that describes the conditions and manner in which the Registrant indemnifies each of its Board members against all liabilities incurred by them (including attorneys' fees and other litigation expenses, settlements, fines and penalties), or which may be threatened against them, as a result of being or having been a Board member of the Registrant. These indemnification provisions are subject to applicable state law and to the limitation under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, that no board member or officer of a fund may be protected against liability for willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence or reckless disregard for the duties of his or her office. Reference is hereby made to the following: Article VI of the Registrant's Articles of Incorporation and any amendments thereto, Article VIII of Registrant's Amended and Restated By-Laws, Section 2-418 of the Maryland General Corporation Law and Section 1.11 of the Amended and Restated Distribution Agreement, which is incorporated by reference to Exhibit (e)(1) of Post-Effective Amendment No. 25. Item 31(a). Business and Other Connections of Investment Adviser. BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. (BNYM Investment Adviser) and subsidiary companies comprise a financial service organization whose business consists primarily of providing investment management services as the investment adviser and manager for sponsored investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and as an investment adviser to institutional and individual accounts. BNYM Investment Adviser also serves as sub-investment adviser to and/or administrator of other investment companies. BNY Mellon Securities Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNYM Investment Adviser, serves primarily as a registered broker-dealer of shares of investment companies sponsored by BNYM Investment Adviser and of other investment companies for which BNYM Investment Adviser acts as investment adviser, sub-investment adviser or administrator. Item 31(b). Business and Other Connections of Sub-Investment Advisers. Registrant is fulfilling the requirement of this Item 31(b) to provide a list of the officers and directors of Fayez Sarofim & Co., the sub-investment adviser of the Registrant, together with information as to any other business, profession, vocation or employment of a substantial nature engaged in by Fayez Sarofim & Co., or those of its officers and directors during the past two years, by incorporating by reference the information contained in the Form ADV filed with the SEC pursuant to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 by Fayez Sarofim & Co. (SEC File No. 801-1725). Item 31. Business and Other Connections of Investment Adviser (continued) Officers and Directors of Investment Adviser Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates Kenneth Bradle Vice President and Director BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Director President 10/20 Present 6/19 Present BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. ++ Director Vice President 10/20 Present 6/19 - Present BNY Mellon Transfer, Inc. ++ Chairman and Director 6/19 - Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates David DiPetrillo Vice President and Director BNY Mellon Family of Funds ++ President 1/21 - Present BNY Mellon ETF Trust ++ President 3/20 - Present BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. ++ Director and Vice President 2/21 - Present BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Director and Executive Vice President 1/21 - Present DTR Commodity Fund Ltd. ########## Director President Vice President 10/21 - Present 8/21 - Present 6/19 8/21 GRR Commodity Fund Ltd. ++ Director President Vice President 10/21 - Present 8/21 - Present 8/19 8/21 Christopher O'Connor Chief Administrative Officer BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Executive Vice President 6/19 Present Peter M. Sullivan Chief Legal Officer BNY Mellon Family of Funds ++ Chief Legal Officer Vice President and Assistant Secretary 7/21 Present 6/19 Present BNY Mellon ETF Trust ++ Chief Legal Officer Vice President and Assistant Secretary 7/21 Present 3/20 Present BNY Mellon Funds Trust ++ Chief Legal Officer Vice President and Assistant Secretary 7/21 Present 3/19 Present John Squillace Chief Compliance Officer BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Chief Compliance Officer (Investment Advisory Business) 6/19 Present Gregory Pasquale Chief Financial Officer BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Chief Financial Officer 1/21-Present BNY Mellon Transfer, Inc. ++ Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer 1/21-Present Katherine Scott Chief Risk Officer BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Chief Risk Officer 6/19-Present Peter Arcabascio Vice President Distribution BNY Mellon Investment Management* Senior Vice President 7/06-Present BNY Investment Strategy and Solutions Group, LLC * Manager 6/15- Present James Windels Vice President BNY Mellon ETF Trust ++ Treasurer 3/20 - Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates BNY Mellon Family of Funds ++ Treasurer 11/01 - Present BNY Mellon Funds Trust ++ Treasurer 11/01 - Present BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. ++ Vice President 9/20 - Present BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Vice President 6/19 - Present Charles Doumar Vice President Tax Alcentra NY LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer - Tax 9/14 - Present Alcentra US. Inc. Assistant Treasurer - Tax 9/14 - Present Alternative Holdings I, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer - Tax 1/14 - Present Alternative Holdings II, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer - Tax 1/14 - Present Asset Recovery II, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 9/13 Present Asset Recovery IV, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 9/13 Present Asset Recovery V, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 9/13 Present Asset Recovery XIV, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 3/13 Present Asset Recovery XIX, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 7/13 Present Asset Recovery XX, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 7/13 Present Asset Recovery XXII, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 7/13 Present BNY Alcentra Group Holdings, Inc. Assistant Treasurer - Tax 3/13 - Present BNY Capital Funding LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 - Present BNY Investment Strategy and Solutions Group, LLC * Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/15 - Present BNY Mellon Community Development Corporation ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 10/13 - Present BNY Mellon Distributors Holdings Inc. # Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/14 Present BNY Mellon Investments CTA, LLC * Assistant Treasurer 9/13 Present BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. + Assistant Treasurer 3/14 Present BNY Mellon Investment Servicing Trust Company # Assistant Treasurer 3/14 Present BNY Mellon Transfer, Inc. ++ Assistant Treasurer 6/19 - Present BNY Mellon Trust of Delaware # Assistant Treasurer 11/13 Present IVY Asset Management LLC + Assistant Treasurer 9/13 Present Mellon Hedge Advisors, LLC * Assistant Treasurer 10/13 Present MUNB Loan Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 10/13 Present Albridge Solutions, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates Allomon Corporation Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/13 Present AP Residential Realty, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/13 Present APT Holdings Corporation # Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/13 Present B.I.E. Corporation + Assistant Treasurer Tax 12/13 Present B.N.Y. Holdings (Delaware) Corporation # Assistant Treasurer Tax 4/13 Present BNY Capital Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present BNY Capital Markets Holdings, Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present BNY Capital Resources Corporation ####### Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/13 Present BNYM CSIM Funding LLC +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/14 Present BNY Falcon Three Holding Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Foreign Holdings, Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 10/13 Present BNY Lease Equities (Cap Funding) LLC ######## Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Lease Partners LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Leasing Edge Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Mellon Clearing, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/16 Present BNY Mellon Clearing Holding Company, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Mellon Fixed Income Securities, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/13 Present BNY Mellon Trust Company of Illinois ***** Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/13 Present BNY Mezzanine Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/13 Present BNY Mezzanine Holdings LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/13 Present BNY Mezzanine Non NY Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/13 Present BNY Mezzanine NY Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/13 Present BNY Partnership Funding LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present BNY Recap I, LLC # Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present BNY Salvage Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/13 Present BNYM GIS Funding I LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present BNYM GIS Funding III LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates Amherst Capital Management, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/14 Present BNYM RECAP Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/14 Present BNY-N.J. I Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 4/13 Present BNY-N.J. II Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 4/13 Present BNY Mellon Insurance Agency, Inc. ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/19 - Present BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Vice President Tax 6/19 - Present Boston Safe Deposit Finance Company, Inc. * Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present CenterSquare Investment Management Holdings, Inc. +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 12/13 Present Colson Services Corp. Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/14 - Present CenterSquare Investment Management LLC +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/18 Present Cutwater Asset Management Corp. ++++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/15 - Present Cutwater Holdings LLC ++++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 1//15 - Present Cutwater Investor Services Corp. ++++ Assistant Treasurer - Tax 1/15 - Present EACM Advisors LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present Eagle Access LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present Eagle Investment Systems LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present ECM DE. LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present HedgeMark International, LLC ## Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/14 Present iNautix (USA) LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/13 Present IRE-1, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present Island Waterworks, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present JRHC 1998A LLC #### Assistant Treasurer Tax 12/13 Present Lockwood Advisors, Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/14 - Present Lockwood Insurance, Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/14 - Present Lockwood Solutions, Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/14 - Present Lease Equities (Texas) Corporation ##### Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present Madison Pershing LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present MAM (MA) Holding Trust * Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/13 Present MBC Investment Corporation # Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/13 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates MCDI (Holdings) LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present Mellon Holdings LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer 2/15 - Present Mellon EFT Services Assistant Treasurer - Tax 10/15 - Present MELDEL Leasing Corporation Number 2, Inc. # Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present Mellon Financial Services Corporation #1 + Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present Mellon Financial Services Corporation #4 + Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present Mellon Funding Corporation + Assistant Treasurer Tax 3/14 - Present Mellon Global Investing Corp. + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/14 - Present Mellon Investments Corporation* Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/19- Present Mellon Investor Services Holdings LLC ++++++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/16 Present Mellon Leasing Corporation + Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present Mellon Life Insurance Company + Assistant Treasurer Tax 10/13 Present Mellon Overseas Investment Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 12/13 - Present Mellon Properties Company **** Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/13 Present National Residential Assets Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 4/13 Present Newton Capital Management LLC. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 8/14 - Present NY CRE Asset Holdings, LLC. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present NY CRE Asset Holdings II, LLC. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 1/14 - Present One Wall Street Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/13 Present Pareto New York LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 11/13 Present PAS Holdings LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present Pershing Group LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present Pershing Investments LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present Pershing LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present TBC Securities Co., Inc. * Assistant Treasurer Tax 6/13 Present TBCAM, LLC * Assistant Treasurer Tax 10/13 Present Technology Services Group, Inc. ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present Tennessee Processing Center LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 9/13 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates The Bank of New York Consumer Leasing Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 7/13 Present The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, National Association + Assistant Treasurer 10/13 - Present MBNA Institutional PA Services LLC + Treasurer 7/13 Present MBNA PW PA Services LLC + Treasurer 7/13 Present Stanwich Insurance Agency, Inc. *** Treasurer 12/13 Present BNY Aurora Holding Corp. *** Vice President 11/13 Present Agency Brokerage Holding LLC *** Vice President Tax 6/13 Present Stephen Hagan Director of Investment Oversight None N/A N/A Bushra Mannan Vice President J.P. Morgan Asset Management Executive Director 9/13 11/21 Robert Pomeroy Vice President Derivative Risk Management BNY Mellon Asset Management ^^^ Vice President -Senior Performance Analyst 1/18 Present John Tobin Vice President Cash Strategies None N/A N/A Christine F. Algozzini Vice President - Cash Strategies The Bank of New York Mellon ++ Vice President 2/17 - Present Anthony Mayo Vice President Information Systems BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Chief Technology Officer 6/19 Present Vivian Herrera Vice President Tax BNY Mellon Insurance Agency, Inc. ++ Vice President Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Securities Corporation++ Vice President Tax 5/21 Present Asset Recovery II, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery IV, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery V, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery XIV, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery XIX, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery XX, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Asset Recovery XXII, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Investments CTA, LLC * Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Transfer, Inc. ++ Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates BNY Mellon Trust of Delaware # Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Mellon Hedge Advisors, LLC * Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Mellon Holdings LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present MUNB Loan Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present Albridge Solutions, Inc. Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present Alcentra NY, LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present Alcentra US, Inc. Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present Allomon Corporation Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present Alternative Holdings I, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present Alternative Holdings II, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present AP Residential Realty, Inc. Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present APT Holdings Corporation # Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present B.N.Y. Holdings (Delaware) Corporation # Assistant Treasurer -Tax 5/21 Present BNY Administrative Services LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Alcentra Group Holdings, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Capital Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Capital Funding LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Capital Markets Holdings, Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Capital Resources Corporation ####### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Falcon Three Holding Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Foreign Holdings, Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Investment Strategy and Solutions Group LLC * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Investment Management Services LLC # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY ITC Leasing, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Lease Equities (Cap Funding) LLC ######## Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Lease Partners LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Leasing Edge Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates BNY Mellon Alternative Investments Holdings LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Clearing Holding Company, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Clearing, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Community Development Corporation ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Distributors Holdings Inc. # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Fixed Income Securities, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Investment Servicing Trust Company # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Performance & Risk Analytics, Inc. (US) Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Performance & Risk Analytics, LLC + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Transition Management Advisors, LLC ** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Trust Company of Illinois ***** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mezzanine Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mezzanine Holdings LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mezzanine Non NY Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mezzanine NY Funding LLC ****** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Partnership Funding LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Real Estate Holdings LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Recap I, LLC # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Salvage Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Wings, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY XYZ Holdings LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNYM CSIM Funding LLC +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates BNYM GIS Funding I LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNYM GIS Funding III LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Amherst Capital Management LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNYM RECAP Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY-N.J. I Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY-N.J. II Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Boston Safe Deposit Finance Company, Inc. * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present CenterSquare Investment Management Holdings, Inc. +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Coates Holding LLC # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Colson Services Corp. Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present CenterSquare Investment Management LLC +++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Cutwater Asset Management Corp. ++++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Cutwater Holdings LLC ++++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Cutwater Investor Services Corp. ++++ Assistant Treasurer - Tax 5/21 Present EACM Advisors LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Eagle Access LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Eagle Investment Systems LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present ECM DE, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present HedgeMark International, LLC ## Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present iNautix (USA) LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present IRE-1, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Island Waterworks, Inc. Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present JRHC 1998A LLC #### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Lease Equities (Texas) Corporation ##### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Lockwood Advisors, Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Lockwood Insurance Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Lockwood Solutions, Inc. ###### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Madison Pershing LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates MAM (MA) Holding Trust * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present MBC Investment Corporation # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present MBNA Institutional PA Services LLC + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present MBNA PW PA Services LLC + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present MCDI (Holdings) LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present MELDEL Leasing Corporation Number 2, Inc. # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon EFT Services Corporation Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Financial Services Corporation #1 + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Financial Services Corporation #4 + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Funding Corporation + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Global Investing Corp. + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon International Leasing Company # Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Investments Corporation * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Investor Services Holdings LLC Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present ++++++ Mellon Leasing Corporation + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Life Insurance Company + Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Overseas Investment Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Mellon Properties Company **** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present National Residential Assets Corp. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Newton Capital Management LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present NY CRE Asset Holdings II, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present NY CRE Asset Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present One Wall Street Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Pareto New York LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present PAS Holdings LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Pershing Group LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Pershing Investments LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Pershing LLC ### Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Name and Position With BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Other Businesses Position Held Dates PFS Holdings, LLC *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Stanwich Insurance Agency, Inc. *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present TBC Securities Co., Inc. * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present TBCAM, LLC * Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Technology Services Group, Inc. ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present Tennessee Processing Center LLC ++ Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present The Bank of New York Consumer Leasing Corporation *** Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, National Association + Assistant Treasurer 5/21 Present USPLP, Inc. ******* Assistant Treasurer Tax 5/21 Present BNY Mellon Investment Management Holdings LLC # Assistant Vice President Tax 5/21 Present BNY Aurora Holding Corp. *** Vice President 5/21 Present Agency Brokerage Holding LLC *** Vice President Tax 5/21 Present Andrew Provencher Director BNY Mellon Securities Corporation Director Executive Vice President 10/20 Present 6/18 - Present James Bitetto Secretary BNY Mellon Family of Funds ++ Vice President and Secretary 6/19 - Present BNY Mellon ETF Trust ++ Vice President and Assistant Secretary 3/20 - Present BNY Mellon Funds Trust ++ Vice President and Secretary 2/18 Present BNY Mellon Insurance Agency, Inc. ++ Secretary 6/19 - Present BNY Mellon Securities Corporation ++ Assistant Secretary 6/19 - Present * The address of the business so indicated is One Boston Place, Boston, MA, 02108. ** The address of the business so indicated is 50 Fremont Street, Suite 3900, San Francisco, CA 94105. *** The address of the business so indicated is One Wall Street, New York, NY 10286. **** The address of the business so indicated is 3601 N. I-10 Service Road, Suite 102, Metairie, LA 70002. ***** The address of the business so indicated is 2 North LaSalle Street, Suite 1020, Chicago, IL, 60602 ****** The address of the business so indicated is 445 Park Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY, 10022. ******* The address of the business so indicated is 225 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10286. ******** The address of the business so indicated is Grand Canal House, 1 Upper Grand Canal Street, Dublin, 4 Ireland. ^ The address of the business so indicated is BNY Mellon Centre 160 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4LA. ^^ The address of the business so indicated is 87 Mary Street, George Town, KY1-9005, Cayman Islands. ^^^ The address of the business so indicated is 201 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108. ^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is 2-4, rue Eugene Ruppert, L-2453 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. ^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is One Dockland Central, Guild Street, IFSC, Dublin 1. ^^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is 33 Sir John Rogersons Quay, Dublin 2. ^^^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is Ogier House, The Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 9WG. ^^^^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is Room 6053, Level 6, 21st Century Building, No.210, Century Avenue, China, (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. ^^^^^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is 6th Floor, 2 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland. ^^^^^^^^^^ The address of the business so indicated is 32 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. + The address of the business so indicated is One Mellon Bank Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15258. ++ The address of the business so indicated is 240 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10286 +++ The address of the business so indicated is 630 West Germantown Pike, Suite 300, Plymouth Meeting, PA, 19462. ++++ The address of the business so indicated is 113 King Street, Armonk, NY 10504. +++++ The address of the business so indicated is 320 Bay Street, Toronto, ON M5H 4A6. ++++++ The address of the business so indicated is 480 Washington Blvd, Jersey City, NJ 07310. +++++++ The address of the business so indicated is Hartpiece, Lamarsh, Bures, Suffolk, CO8 5EP.. The address of the business so indicated is Two Mellon Center, Suite 329, Pittsburgh, PA 15259. The address of the business so indicated is 100 White Clay Center, Newark, DE 19711. The address of the business so indicated is 1633 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019. The address of the business so indicated is 10877 Wilshire Blvd, #1550, Los Angeles, CA, 90024. The address of the business so indicated is 1735 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103. The address of the business so indicated is 10 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7JD. The address of the business so indicated is 114 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4V 4BJ. The address of the business so indicated is 4 New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004. The address of the business so indicated is 200 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk, CT, 06854-1940. The address of the business so indicated is One Wells Avenue, Newton, MA, 02459. The address of the business so indicated is 65 LaSalle Road, Suite 305, West Hartford, CT, 06107. The address of the business so indicated is 1313 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA, 98402. The address of the business so indicated is David M. Breen & Co. Suite 4, Wallace House, Maritana Gate, Canada Street, Waterford. The address of the business so indicated is 277 Park Ave, New York, New York 10286. # The address of the business so indicated is 301 Bellevue Parkway, Wilmington, DE, 19809. ## The address of the business so indicated is 780, Third Avenue, 44th Floor, New York, NY, 10017. ### The address of the business so indicated is One Pershing Plaza, Jersey City, NJ, 07399. #### The address of the business so indicated is 601 Travis Street, 17th Floor, Houston, TX, 77002. ##### The address of the business so indicated is 1201 Louisiana, Suite 3160, Houston, TX, 77002. ###### The address of the business so indicated is 760 Moore Road, King of Prussia, PA, 19406-1212. ####### The address of the business so indicated is 8400 E. Prentice Ave, Greenwood Village, CO, 80111. ######## The address of the business so indicated is 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10104. ######### The address of the business so indicated is 6 C, route de Treves, L-2633 Senningerberg, Luxembourg. ########## The address of the business so indicated is P.O. Box 309, Ugland House, George Town, Cayman Islands, KY1-1104 Item 32. Principal Underwriters (a) Other investment companies for which Registrant's principal underwriter (exclusive distributor) acts as principal underwriter or exclusive distributor: 1. BNY Mellon Absolute Insight Funds, Inc. 2. BNY Mellon Advantage Funds, Inc. 3. BNY Mellon Alcentra Opportunistic Global Credit Income Fund 4. BNY Mellon Appreciation Fund, Inc. 5. BNY Mellon California AMT-Free Municipal Bond Fund, Inc. 6. BNY Mellon Funds Trust 7. BNY Mellon Index Funds, Inc. 8. BNY Mellon Intermediate Municipal Bond Fund, Inc. 9. BNY Mellon Investment Funds I 10. BNY Mellon Investment Funds II, Inc. 11. BNY Mellon Investment Funds III 12. BNY Mellon Investment Funds IV, Inc. 13. BNY Mellon Investment Funds V, Inc. 14. BNY Mellon Investment Funds VI, Inc. 15. BNY Mellon Investment Funds VII, Inc. 16. BNY Mellon Investment Portfolios 17. BNY Mellon Large Cap Securities Fund, Inc. 18. BNY Mellon Midcap Index Fund, Inc. 19. BNY Mellon Municipal Bond Funds, Inc. 20. BNY Mellon Municipal Funds, Inc. 21. BNY Mellon New Jersey Municipal Bond Fund, Inc. 22. BNY Mellon New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond Fund 23. BNY Mellon New York Tax Exempt Bond Fund, Inc. 24. BNY Mellon Opportunistic Municipal Securities Fund 25. BNY Mellon Opportunity Funds 26. BNY Mellon Research Growth Fund, Inc. 27. BNY Mellon Short Term Municipal Bond Fund 28. BNY Mellon State Municipal Bond Funds 29. BNY Mellon Stock Funds 30. BNY Mellon Stock Index Fund, Inc. 31. BNY Mellon Strategic Funds, Inc. 32. BNY Mellon Sustainable U.S. Equity Fund, Inc. 33. BNY Mellon Sustainable U.S. Equity Portfolio, Inc. 34. BNY Mellon U.S. Mortgage Fund, Inc. 35. BNY Mellon Variable Investment Fund 36. BNY Mellon Worldwide Growth Fund, Inc. 37. CitizensSelect Funds 38. Dreyfus Cash Management 39. Dreyfus Government Cash Management Funds 40. Dreyfus Institutional Liquidity Funds 41. Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Money Market Funds 42. Dreyfus Institutional Reserves Funds 43. Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 44. Dreyfus Treasury Obligations Cash Management 45. Dreyfus Treasury Securities Cash Management 46. General Money Market Fund, Inc. 47. General Municipal Money Market Funds, Inc. 48. General New York Municipal Money Market Fund (b) Name and principal Business address Positions and offices with the Distributor Positions and Offices with Registrant Kenneth Bradle** Director and President None Joe Gross**** Chairman, Executive Vice President and Director None David DiPetrillo**** Director and Executive Vice President President Catherine Keating* Executive Vice President None Peter Arcabascio ++ Executive Vice President None Christopher D. O'Connor**** Executive Vice President None Irene Papadoulis** Executive Vice President None Matthew Perrone**** Executive Vice President None Andrew Provencher**** Executive Vice President and Director None Gregory Pasquale *** Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer None John McLean**** Chief Legal Officer None John Squillace**** Chief Compliance Officer (Investment Advisory Business) None William Kennedy**** Chief Compliance Officer (Broker-Dealer Business) None Katherine M. Scott* Chief Risk Officer None Anthony Mayo* Chief Technology Officer None Christine Algozzini* Senior Vice President None Timothy I. Barrett** Senior Vice President None Kevin Brown**** Senior Vice President None Eric P. Cola**** Senior Vice President None Christopher A. Stallone** Senior Vice President None John Cimino**** Vice President None Christopher Donoghue** Senior Vice President None Tina Rizzo** Vice President and Privacy Officer None Jonathan M. Snyder Senior Vice President None Ryan Care**** Vice President None Susan ODonovan*** Vice President None James Windels**** Vice President Treasurer Caridad M. Carosella** Vice President Compliance/Anti-Money Laundering Officer Anti-Money Laundering Officer Marianne Thomas+ Vice President Human Resources None Charles Doumar**** Vice President Tax None Vivian Herrera*** Vice President Tax None Dennis Rimkunas**** Vice President Tax None Elizabeth Schuette**** Vice President Real Estate None Jennifer Stewart**** Vice President Real Estate None Chase Ayers*** Secretary None James Bitetto**** Assistant Secretary Vice President and Secretary Cristina Rice*** Assistant Secretary None * Principal business address is 200 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10166. ** Principal business address is 144 Glenn Curtiss Blvd., Uniondale, NY 11556-0144. *** Principal business address is BNY Mellon Center, 500 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15258. **** Principal business address is 240 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10286. Principal business address is 100 Saint Paul Street Denver, CO 80206 Principal business address is 160 Queen Victoria Street, London, England, Greater London EC4V4LA + Principal business address is 19 Vreeland Road Florham Park, NJ 07932 ++ Principal business address is 1 Boston Place, Boston, MA 02108-4407 Item 33. Location of Accounts and Records 1. The Bank of New York Mellon 240 Greenwich Street New York, New York 10286 2. BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US), Inc. 4400 Computer Drive Westborough, Massachusetts 01581 3. BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. 240 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10286 4. BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. 200 Park Avenue New York, New York 10166 Item 34. Management Services Not Applicable Item 35. Undertakings None SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Registrant certifies that it meets all of the requirements for effectiveness of this Amendment to the Registration Statement pursuant to Rule 485(b) under the Securities Act of 1933 and has duly caused this Amendment to the Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, duly authorized, in the City of New York, and State of New York on the 4th of November 2022. BY: /s/ James Bitetto James Bitetto, Vice President Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this Amendment to the Registration Statement has been signed below by the following persons in the capacities and on the date indicated. Signatures Title Date /s/ David DiPetrillo* President (Principal Executive Officer) 11/04/2022 David DiPetrillo /s/ James Windels* Treasurer (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) 11/04/2022 James Windels /s/ Joseph S. DiMartino* Chairman of the Board 11/04/2022 Joseph S. DiMartino /s/ Francine J. Bovich* Board Member 11/04/2022 Francine J. Bovich /s/ Peggy C. Davis* Board Member 11/04/2022 Peggy C. Davis /s/ Nathan Leventhal* Board Member 11/04/2022 Nathan Leventhal /s/ Robin A. Melvin* Board Member 11/04/2022 Robin A. Melvin *BY: /s/ James Bitetto James Bitetto Attorney-in-Fact INDEX OF EXHIBITS Exhibits (d)(2) Sub-Investment Advisory Agreement between BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. and Fayez Sarofim & Co., dated October 25, 2022. ATTACHMENTS / EXHIBITS SUB-ADVISORY AGREEMENT (Tribune News Service) A new MH-139 Grey Wolf test helicopter from Boeing has stopped at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls for the first time, officials said Wednesday. Stops were also made at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on the way back from flight testing in Colorado, officials said, adding that military personnel were able to check out the new aircraft bound for their bases in the not-so-distant future. The U.S. Air Force received the first four test helicopters from Boeing in August. Boeing was awarded a $2.4 billion contract in 2018 for 84 helicopters, training systems and associated support equipment. The Grey Wolf is a multi-mission aircraft based on the proven commercial AW139 helicopter designed to protect intercontinental ballistic missiles and transport U.S. government officials and security forces. They will replace the Vietnam-era Bell UH-1N Hueys that now protect the ICBMs. Boeing officials said the Grey Wolf has a 50% increase in cruising speed and range, 30% larger cabin and an additional 5,000 pounds of lift capability than its predecessor. It also has state-of-the-art avionics with full autopilot mode, advanced flight deck functionality and lower operating and support costs. It also has better flexibility and improved safety. Funding for the helicopters was through the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and the Defense Appropriations Bill. It is the first major acquisition for the command in its 10-year history, Air Force officials said. The Air Force dubbed the MH-139A helicopter the Grey Wolf during a 2020 naming ceremony at Duke Field, Florida. It was derived from the wild species that roams the northern tier of North America, which also encompasses the intercontinental ballistic missile bases, Air Force officials said. (c)2022 the Independent Record (Helena, Mont.) Visit the Independent Record at www.helenair.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa The first F-22A Raptors roared into Kadena Air Base on Friday, kicking off a two-year plan to replace the installations aging F-15 fighters with a superior rotational force. The 18th Wing declined to say how many Raptors arrived from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, but Japan's Ministry of Defense said "around a dozen" would be touching down at the base in southern Japan in the "coming few weeks," a spokesman told Stars and Stripes in an email Friday. Some government officials in Japan speak to the media on condition of anonymity as a requirement of their positions. "These aircraft will work in conjunction with local Kadena-based assets to maintain steady-state fighter capabilities and enhance U.S. operational readiness to defend Japan while ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific," the wing said in a statement Friday evening. The plan calls for the Air Force to perform a "phased withdrawal" of the base's two aging F-15C/D squadrons over the next two years by replacing them at least initially with F-22 fifth-generation stealth fighters on six-month rotational deployments. There will be no gaps in fighter coverage, the 18th Wing wrote in a statement Friday to Stars and Stripes. As more Raptors arrive, more F-15s will depart. It's unclear if the rotational presence will be temporary or an interim measure until a new generation of fighters is positioned permanently on Okinawa, Ralph Cossa, president emeritus of the Pacific Forum think tank in Hawaii, told Stars and Stripes in an email Oct. 28. Critics have said the move sends the wrong message to China and U.S. allies in the region. Prominent Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday asking to be briefed about the plan. They included Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida; Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Armed Services personnel subcommittee; Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, the former ambassador to Japan; and Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee. "We believe that DODs plans to replace permanently-based fighters with rotational forces will lead to a tangible reduction in American forward combat power in the Indo-Pacific, lowering the bar for aggression and demonstrating a continuing mismatch between the Biden Administrations talking points on the Indo-Pacific and Americas actual commitments in the region," the letter said. The group agrees with modernization but is concerned there will be no permanent fighter presence, according to the letter. Kadena is home to 48 F-15C/Ds of the 18th Wings 44th and 67th Fighter Squadrons. The Air Force also has F-16 Fighting Falcons at Misawa Air Base in northeastern Honshu, the largest of Japans four main islands. The F-15C/D has been in service for more than 30 years, the 18th Wing told Stars and Stripes. They are being retired due to "challenges" related to becoming obsolete, "sustainment costs, and technical airworthiness." The Raptor by Lockheed-Martin and Boeing is a multirole fighter designed for air dominance, according to an Air Force fact sheet. The Air Force had 183 of the $143 million aircraft as of August. The Raptor boasts a "combination of stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability," the fact sheet said. It seats one and is armed with a 20-mm cannon, six AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and two AIM-9 Sidewinders, a short-range air-to-air missile. burke.matt@stripes.com Twitter: @MatthewMBurke1 koja.keishi@stripes.com Twitter: @KeishiRKoja Chinese President Xi Jinping told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he opposed the use of nuclear force in Europe in his most direct remarks yet on the need to keep Russia's war in Ukraine from escalating. During the two leaders' first in-person talks on Friday in Beijing, Xi called on the international community to "reject the threat of nuclear weapons" and advocate against a nuclear war to prevent a "crisis on the Eurasian continent," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The Chinese leader also spoke of the joint need to ensure the stability of food and energy supply chains, which have both been disrupted by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin officials including former President Dmitry Medvedev have warned in recent months about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine as Moscow's faltering war enters its tenth month. Xi's comments send a clear message to Putin that nuclear threats are a red line for China, giving Beijing some common ground with Brussels on a conflict that's strained ties with the bloc. The Chinese leader's declaration of a "no limits" friendship with Putin before the invasion prompted Europe to reexamine the security risks of expanding economic ties with Beijing. Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said Xi's comments would please those in Europe who'd hoped China would use its position as a "friend of Russia" to deter Moscow against nuclear threats. "Xi's remarks are unambiguous here, against both the use and threats of use of nuclear weapons," he said. "That will be interpreted by some as a very important message." Scholz is the first major European leader to visit China in more than two years, as Xi returns to in-person diplomacy after his long spell of self-imposed Covid isolation stifled such exchanges. The German leader, who is joined on the one-day trip by top executives from BASF, Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and BioNTech, is also the first from the bloc to meet Xi after he clinched a precedent-defying third term in office last month. The German leader said his trip came at a "time of great tension," as Russia's war in Ukraine challenged the rules-based order, and stressed the importance of face-to-face dialogue. "We can now talk concretely and directly with each other to respond to the challenges the world is facing and the bilateral relations between Europe and China," he said in a statement. "Destroying political trust is easy, but rebuilding it is difficult, so it requires both sides to take care of it," Xi told Scholz, according to Xinhua. In a press briefing after meeting Premier Li Keqiang on Friday afternoon, Scholz said he'd urged China to use its influence over Russia to deter it from nuclear force. Xi has engaged in a flurry of diplomacy this week, hosting top foreign leaders from Vietnam, Pakistan and Tanzania as he begins a third term focused on increasing China's global influence. The Chinese leader didn't leave his nation for two years after Covid emerged, a period that saw Beijing's ties with the West sour over Xi's crackdown on Hong Kong, treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and military pressure on Taiwan. Later this month, Xi is expected to expand that outreach campaign at major summits in Thailand and Indonesia, where he could sit down with President Joe Biden for the first time since the U.S. leader took power. That meeting could ease hostilities between the world's two largest economies, which have reached a new low during the pandemic. While Xi seems to have eased his own virus restrictions, meeting dignitaries in person and appearing unmasked in public, the nation's Covid Zero policy remains in play. The German delegation had to take two PCR tests before landing in Beijing, and another on arrival, while workers wearing hazmat suits were seen rolling out a red carpet for Scholz. Xi's efforts to solidify ties with Germany this week are part of a broader push to prevent relations with the European Union from further deteriorating. Last year, the EU halted an investment agreement with China after both sides traded sanctions over Xinjiang, where the US has accused Beijing of genocide. China denies such allegations. For its part, Berlin is working to hone a new national strategy on China that aims to weaken reliance, diversify supply chains and enhance security, while reinforcing business ties. That handed Scholz the delicate balancing act of pushing trade ties in Beijing, while voicing concerns on sensitive issues. Noah Barkin, managing editor of the Rhodium Group's China practice, said that while Scholz will likely view Xi's warning to Moscow on nuclear force as a victory, the Chinese leader still hadn't turned his back on Putin. "The lessons of the past year are that Xi will stick with Putin through thick and thin," Barkin said, adding that Scholz's push to deepen economic ties with Beijing was at odds with his own government's aims. "It will raise questions among Germany's allies in Europe, the U.S. and Asia about where Berlin really stands." For the fourth time in less than three years, a massive Chinese rocket stage reentered the Earth's atmosphere, this time over the Pacific Ocean. There were no initial reports of damage of injuries from the Chinese Long March-5B rocket stage when it came down shortly after 6 a.m. Friday. But its return to Earth highlighted a tension among space faring nations over China's practice of letting its spent rockets tumble back to Earth after days in orbit. While the chances are low of any one person getting hit by the returning space debris, several of the tracks the rocket possibly could have taken passed over a large swath of the Earth's populated areas. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has repeatedly condemned China for the practice. In a statement Friday morning, he said: "It is critical that all spacefaring nations are responsible and transparent in their space activities and follow established best practices, especially, for the uncontrolled reentry of a large rocket body debris - debris that could very well result in major damage or loss of life." China is alone among space-faring nations in allowing the unplanned return of its boosters, instead of ditching them at sea, as most others do, or returning them to a soft landing, like Space X. "The technology exists to prevent this," said Ted Muelhaupt, a consultant in the chief engineer's office at the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit that drew possible tracks for the rocket's return. The rest of the world doesn't "deliberately launch things this big and intend them to fall wherever. We haven't done that for 50 years." The booster of China's massive Long March-5B rocket stays aloft for several days after launch and then comes crashing back to Earth, tumbling out of control. This one was launched Monday, carrying the final module of the Tiangong space station that China is assembling in Earth's orbit. As of Wednesday, the Aerospace Corporation's calculations had the stage possibly landing over areas of land where 88 percent of the world's population lives. And so the possibility of casualties, Muelhaupt said, was between one in 230 to one in 1,000. That risk far exceeds the internationally recognized standard that says a reentering space object should not have greater than a one in 10,000 chance of causing injury. The Chinese rocket stage is massive - weighing 22 metric tons and measuring as long as a pair of 53-foot semitrailers parked end to end, Muelhaupt said. He estimated that between 10 and 40 percent of the booster would survive reentry. After a launch of the Long March-5B in May 2020, a piece of the rocket landed in the Ivory Coast in Africa. In July, debris fell in Indonesia and Malaysia. Chinese Long March rockets are the third, fourth, fifth and sixth largest uncontrolled re-entries ever into Earth's atmosphere, he said. NASA has gone to great lengths to ensure the expendable core stage of its Space Launch System rocket falls into the Atlantic far from people, Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, told reporters Thursday. "We have very clear direction to safely dispose of what we put in orbit," he said. "That is core to what NASA does." Russian boosters fall in designated areas of Kazakhstan and Russia that are unpopulated. Getting other nations to behave responsibly, however, remains a problem. While the nations launching objects to space are liable if they cause injury or damage on the ground, there are no laws that prohibit nations from letting large pieces of debris crash to Earth. "The reality is that there aren't any real laws or treaties internationally that govern what you're allowed to do in terms of reentry," said Marlon Sorge, a technical fellow at the Aerospace Corporation. "So, there isn't really a direct legal way to control what's going on an international level." In other words, there are few, if any, rules to the road that govern space. Instead, there are efforts underway by the Aerospace Corporation, and others to create standards that countries with space programs would adhere to. "While it's really difficult, we believe that establishing an international consensus on these norms for behavior involving space is absolutely a worthy and important endeavor," said Lael Woods, a space traffic management expert at the Aerospace Corporation. Meantime, space is littered with all sorts of debris, including upper stages from rockets that can stay in orbit for months, even years. While many burn up when they fall through the atmosphere, some survive, at least in part. Earlier this year, for example, a part of a SpaceX's booster landed in Australia, where it was found by a sheep farmer. "Pretty frightening, actually," Mick Miners, told the New York Times. "I was quite surprised. It's not something you see every day on a sheep farm." CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea North Koreas state-media on Thursday said the United States and South Korea made an irrevocable and awful mistake by extending their ongoing aerial exercise, which the two allies said was a decision based on Pyongyangs recent flurry of missile launches. Extending the large-scale exercise was an irresponsible decision that was stoking tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean ruling party secretary Pak Jong Chon said in a statement from the Korean Central News Agency. Following Paks statement, North Korea on Thursday night launched three short-range ballistic missiles and fired 80 rounds of artillery toward the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. The five-day Vigilant Storm exercise was scheduled to end Friday. But South Koreas Ministry of National Defense on Thursday night extended it to at least Saturday due to ongoing North Korean provocations. The U.S. and South Korean military shared a view that they need to show an iron joint defense posture of the alliance in the face of the current security crisis that is escalated due to North Korean provocations, a ministry statement said. The U.S. airmen in the exercise are looking forward to taking this opportunity to continue our combined training and enhancing our combat readiness with the South Korean air force, 7th Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Kelley Jeter said in an email to Stars and Stripes on Thursday. Vigilant Storm, this year the largest ever, includes 100 U.S. and 140 South Korean aircraft. Roughly 1,600 sorties were scheduled. North Korea fired six ballistic missiles on Thursday, including one that Japans Ministry of Defense suspects was an intercontinental ballistic missile. One of the missiles landed in the East Sea and prompted a take-shelter alert in at least three Japanese prefectures. The communist regime has conducted 29 rounds of missile testing so far this year, with more than 65 missiles launched, a record. On Wednesday, North Korea fired at least 23 missiles from its western and eastern coasts, a one-day launch record. For the first time since the division of the Korean Peninsula, at least one missile splashed down south of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime border, according to South Koreas Defense Ministry. South Koreas military responded the same day by firing three surface-to-air missiles into the sea north of the line. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup on Thursday said he and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed to use U.S. strategic assets to the level equivalent to constant deployment in and around the Korean Peninsula." Lee met with Austin that day in Washington, D.C. Secretary Austin and I pledged to encourage [North Korea] to choose denuclearization and the path for a brighter future, Lee said at a Pentagon news conference. We also pledged to continue our cooperation to achieve a complete denuclearization of North Korea. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa Japans reported plan to extend the range of a high-speed missile, currently in development, to reach the Senkaku Islands and parts of China and North Korea may require it to amend its pacifist constitution, according to a retired general. Work on the land-based, long-range missile, which has yet to be named, began in fiscal year 2018, Kyodo News reported Oct. 30. Prototypes have a range of just over 400 miles. An improved missile would extend that range by an additional 200 miles, according to the report, which cited unnamed government sources. The news came the same week North Korea fired six ballistic missiles, including one possible intercontinental ballistic missile, into the sea west of Japan on Thursday. Security experts believe the longer range is necessary due to burgeoning threats in the region, but at least one believes Japan may have to change its constitution to facilitate such an upgrade. Article 9 of the countrys constitution states that its people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. It is necessary to change [the constitution], but it is important that the political parties come together, Toshiyuki Shikata, a former lieutenant general in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. It is not just about changing the capacity of the missiles; its about changing the concept of national security. Shikata believes that increasing the missiles range to include parts of China and North Korea would make the weapon offensive in nature, running afoul of Article 9. Junjiro Shida, an associate professor of international politics at Meio University on Okinawa believes increasing the missile range is appropriate. Each country must protect their territories by themselves against countries that conduct military attacks, he told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday. So, it is appropriate to think that the government is starting to consider these opinions. A spokesman from Japans Ministry of Defense requested questions in writing from Stars and Stripes on Tuesday but had not responded as of Friday afternoon. Some government officials in Japan speak to the media on condition of anonymity as a requirement of their positions. The missiles are expected to be mass produced sometime after April 2023 and deployed in fiscal 2026, the Kyodo report said. They will contain a number of features that make them hard to intercept, according to the report. They may be fired from mobile launchers; warheads will separate at a high altitude and travel on an irregular path before gliding toward their targets at supersonic speed. News of the possible upgrade comes at a time of increasing tensions in the region. Japan and China remain at odds over the uninhabited but resource rich Senkaku chain, which are approximately 105 miles northeast of Taiwan and about 280 miles west of Okinawa. Taiwan also claims the islands. The Senkakus, which China calls Diaoyu Dao, are the scene of frequent territorial clashes between Japanese and Chinese fishermen and coast guard vessels. Chinese threats of integrating Taiwan by force have also rankled Japan, as have North Koreas constant missile barrages, including one missile earlier this year that flew over the Japanese mainland. The possibility of a military attack is getting higher, Shida said. Shikata believes the situation regarding Taiwan is more worrying than the war in Ukraine. If China attacks Taiwan, it will threaten the lives of the Japanese, he said. Japan has no choice but to reinforce their weapons. OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea South Koreas air force on Friday scrambled 80 aircraft after about 180 North Korean warplanes were detected flying in several areas north of the border between the two countries. The North Korean aircraft were detected between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., South Koreas Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Friday afternoon. North Korean planes flew near the eastern and western coasts of their country and north of a boundary line that the South uses for aerial defense measures, according to the Defense Ministry. Among the aircraft South Korea sent in response were F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, according to the Defense Ministry. North Korea conducted a similar drill with eight fighters and four bombers in October, prompting South Korea to scramble 30 warplanes. The flights come as the United States and South Korea conduct the large-scale Vigilant Storm aerial exercise. Roughly 240 aircraft are participating in the exercise that includes 1,600 sorties. Vigilant Storm aircraft maintained a readiness posture during the North Korean flights, according to the Defense Ministrys statement. The exercise, which kicked off Monday, was scheduled to end Friday; however, the U.S. and South Korea extended the drills to at least Saturday after the North fired a volley of ballistic missiles this week. The North launched six ballistic missiles Thursday and 23 on Wednesday, a one-day record. Hannah Pick-Goslar remembered it well, the diary with the red checkered cover and elegant metal clasp that Anne Frank received for her 13th birthday in 1942. The girls had been schoolmates and friends for nearly as long as they could remember. From the first day of kindergarten they were inseparable. Like Anne, Pick-Goslar was a German-born Jew and had sought refuge in the Netherlands with her family shortly after Hitler came to power. She was half a year older than Anne and, by her own account, almost nothing like her. Anne was the popular one, a chatterbox content to be the center of attention. Hanneli, as Pick-Goslar was called, was more reserved, with none of what she described as Annes feisty streak. And yet the girls shared a bond that would endure the vicissitudes of adolescence and transcend their separation when Anne and her family went into hiding to evade capture by the Nazis. For more than two years, until their arrest on Aug. 4, 1944, Annes diary served as a repository for her thoughts and fears. First published in Dutch in 1947 and later adapted to acclaim for the stage and screen, it has sold more than 30 million copies in 70 languages and remains perhaps the most famous document of the Holocaust. For Pick-Goslar, the diary was a revelation of the interior life of her cherished friend, a budding author who liked to bring her journal to school and write between lessons. When curious classmates asked what she was writing, Pick-Goslar recalled, Anne deflected their inquiries. None of your business, she said Anne would reply. Pick-Goslar encountered Anne for the last time on the other side of a barbed-wire barrier at Bergen-Belsen, the Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany where both were imprisoned, and where Anne and her older sister, Margot, died of typhus two months before the camp was liberated in April 1945. Pick-Goslar was among the last people to see Anne alive, according to Gertjan Broek, a senior researcher at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In the decades after World War II, she traveled around the world as a living link to Anne Frank and a guardian of the memory of the other 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. Pick-Goslar, 93, died Oct. 28 at her home in Jerusalem. The cause was a heart ailment, said her son Chaim Pick. Her story was recorded in the book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend (1997) by Alison Leslie Gold and was dramatized in a Dutch film released last year on Netflix, My Best Friend Anne Frank. Her memoir, My Friend Anne Frank, written with journalist Dina Kraft, is slated for publication next June, on the occasion of what would have been Anne Franks 94th birthday. - - - Hannah Elisabeth Charlotte Goslar was born in Berlin on Nov. 12, 1928. Her father was a prominent Zionist and served in the Weimar government as a deputy minister in charge of the press bureau. Her mother, a schoolteacher, died giving birth to a stillborn baby in 1942, leaving Hanneli to help care for her younger sister, Gabi. After Hitler became chancellor in 1933, the Goslars moved to London and then to Amsterdam, where Hannelis father earned a modest income assisting other refugees. Hanneli was grocery shopping with her mother when they met Anne and her mother, Edith Frank, who were also newly arrived from Germany. Hanneli was 5; Anne was 4. Neither yet spoke Dutch. On the first day of kindergarten, Hanneli spotted Anne in her class. She was making music with bells, Pick-Goslar told an interviewer. Anne turned around and ran into my arms and I ran into hers, and from then on we were friends. The girls lived next door for years and filled their days with games of hopscotch, marbles and jump rope. As they grew older, they and other girls played ping-pong and collected photographs of European royalty. They sometimes went to work with Annes father, Otto Frank, dialing each other on the office telephones and plotting pranks. A portion of the office, which was located on Amsterdams Prinsengracht canal, would serve as the Franks hiding place, the Secret Annex, whose entrance was disguised by a movable bookcase. Hanneli Goslar, or Lies as shes called at school, is a bit on the strange side, Anne wrote in one of her earliest diary entries, on June 15, 1942. Shes usually shy - outspoken at home, but reserved around other people. She blabs whatever you tell her to her mother. But she says what she thinks, and lately Ive come to appreciate her a great deal. The Goslars were more religiously observant than the Franks, but the two families sometimes celebrated the Shabbat together. In her recollections of Anne, Pick-Goslar added dimension to the portrait that emerges from the pages of her diary. My fiery Anne was ebullient, precocious, boy-crazy, she once told the Times of London. Remarking on Annes insistence on her own point of view, Pick-Goslars mother observed that God knows everything, but Anne knows better. After the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Anne and Hanneli were forced to attend a Jewish school. The Franks went into hiding after Margot received an order to report for a work camp. Pick-Goslar learned they were gone when she knocked on their door and a lodger relayed a rumor that they had fled to Switzerland. Anne and her family were joined in hiding by four other Jews - Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their son, Peter, and a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer. In her diary, Anne chronicled their day-to-day activities and reflected on the past and future, for what she could imagine of it. She wrote several times about Hanneli, unburdening herself of regrets about how she had treated her old friend while exploring new acquaintances. She confessed feelings of guilt about her own relative safety in hiding while Hanneli remained on the outside, her fate as yet unknown to Anne. - - - On June 20, 1943, Pick-Goslar and her family were arrested in a roundup and taken to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. In February of the following year, they were transferred to Bergen-Belsen. I saw her in front of me, clothed in rags, her face thin and worn, Anne wrote on Nov. 27, 1943, describing a dream in which she said Hanneli had appeared before her. Her eyes were very big and she looked so sadly and reproachfully at me that I could read in her eyes: Oh, Anne, why have you deserted me? Help, oh, help me, rescue me from this hell! Hanneli returned to Anne in another dream the following month. Dear God, watch over her and bring her back to us, Anne wrote on Dec. 29, 1943. Hanneli, youre a reminder of what my fate might have been. I keep seeing myself in your place. The circumstances that led to the Franks arrest have never been conclusively determined. They were taken to Westerbork and then Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, where Edith Frank ultimately perished. Margot and Anne were transferred to Bergen-Belsen in November 1944. Pick-Goslar learned that a group of Dutch women had arrived at the camp. Among them was Auguste van Pels, who informed her that Anne was there, too. In February 1945, Anne and Hanneli were reunited. They could not see each other because the barbed-wire fence dividing them was stuffed with straw, but Pick-Goslar immediately recognized her friends voice. What are you doing here? Pick-Goslar recalled asking. You were supposed to be in Switzerland. Through tears, they told each other of everything they had endured. Otto Frank by then had been liberated from Auschwitz, but Anne did not know and believed both her parents to be dead. With Margot near death, Anne had no reason to live, she told Hanneli. Annes not the same person, Pick-Goslar recalled thinking. Neither am I. Were broken girls. Risking her life by leaving her assigned area in the camp, Pick-Goslar repeatedly returned to the barrier in attempts to toss bits of food and other supplies to her friend - a crust of bread or a sock or a glove, anything that gave a little warmth, she said. Then Anne was apparently transferred to another section of Bergen-Belsen, and they never saw each other again. The fact that I survived and she didnt is just a cruel accident, Pick-Goslar said. Pick-Goslar and her sister were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust. When they returned to the Netherlands, Pick-Goslar was seriously ill. Widowed and childless, Otto Frank had also returned home and looked after them like a father, journalist Melissa Muller wrote in a 1998 biography of Anne Frank. He helped the two sisters make their way to Switzerland, where they lived in the care of relatives before Hanneli immigrated to what was then the British Mandate for Palestine in 1947. Her sister later followed. In Israel, Pick-Goslar became a pediatric nurse. Her first husband, Pinchas Walter Pick, died in 1985 after three and a half decades of marriage. Four years later, she married David Cohn. He died in 1992. Survivors include three children from her first marriage, Yochanan Pick and Ruthie Meir, both of Jerusalem, and Chaim Pick of Tel Aviv; her sister, now known as Rachel Moses; 11 grandchildren; and more than 30 great-grandchildren. She described her large family as her answer to Hitler. Pick-Goslar remained in touch with Otto Frank until his death in 1980 at age 91. Just as Anne felt Hannelis presence in hiding and saw her friend in dreams, Pick-Goslar said she often felt Anne was with her when she spoke about their lives. Annes diary . . . stops right in the middle one morning when Anne and the others in hiding were arrested by the Nazis, Pick-Goslar observed. She offered her testimony, she added, in the hope that it might fill in what really happened - as horrible as it was - to my friend after the diary ends. (Tribune News Service) After months of reluctance, Israel is softening its opposition to providing military aid to Ukraine, as Iran's deepening support for Russia's invasion evolves into a threat to Israeli security. A turning point came late last month, when Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz took a long-requested call from his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov. Israel committed to help Ukraine develop an early-warning system, similar to one that alerts Israelis to incoming fire from the Gaza Strip. Gantz also agreed to assess Ukraine's air-defense alert needs, though Israel is declining to provide Ukraine the means to shoot down incoming drones and missiles. "These are weapons that we have to be prepared to confront we are the only country in the world that knows how to do that," said Yossi Kuperwasser, a former top Israeli military intelligence official. "Ukraine can be a testing ground for our counter-measures." While former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to return to power after winning elections on Nov. 1, an Israeli government led by him won't have significantly different security priorities from the current administration, Kuperwasser said. In another new development, Israel has begun to share its intelligence, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Oct. 26, welcoming what he called a "positive" trend. "I am pleased with the last few days, we started working," he told reporters, citing information shared by Israel that he said confirmed Ukrainian intelligence. "The Iranian collaboration with Russia was a big shift for us," Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, said at his country's embassy in Tel Aviv last week. "We'd hoped Israel would choose to be on the right side of the war as a democratic country. But in the end, it happened because we have the same enemy, which is Iran." Spokespeople for Gantz and the Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment for this story. Russia's foreign ministry and the foreign ministry in Tehran didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister, said Ukraine needs help as soon as possible to counter Iranian weapons. He said Reznikov had requested air-defense support on the call with Gantz. Battle tested Russia in the past few weeks escalated its attacks on Ukraine after suffering a series of battlefield setbacks in its eight-month offensive, unleashing a blitz aimed at knocking out Ukrainian electricity, heating and other infrastructure ahead of the winter months. Ukrainian officials say 40% of the power system has been damaged. Relying increasingly on Iranian drones as it burns through its own stockpiles of precision-guided missiles, Russia's attacks aim to create enough hardship for the population to persuade Kyiv to sue for peace, Ukrainian officials say. Russia denies using Iranian equipment, and Iran denies supplying it. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been more equivocal, acknowledging in a speech last month that the world was concerned about Iran selling drones and boasting about them being looked upon as "dangerous." Remnants of Iranian drones rebranded Geran-2 by Russia have been found after being shot down over Ukraine. Israel has been reluctant to get more involved because of fear that antagonizing Moscow could have direct security implications in the Mideast and for Russian Jews. Israel routinely carries out strikes over Syria in areas where Russia has control over airspace, to stop Iran from supplying its proxies there. There are an estimated one million Jews living in Russia whose safety is also a concern, especially with Russia-Israel relations at their worst in years. In July, Russian authorities set off alarms in Israel when they asked a Moscow court to liquidate the local offices of the Jewish Agency, which helps Jews emigrate, for alleged violations of Russian law. But the mass strikes on Ukrainian targets with Iranian drones and expected provision of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia have changed Israel's calculations, with concern growing that the Ukrainian experience could allow Iran to hone its capacity to attack Israeli cities. Israel so far has only provided Ukraine with humanitarian assistance and defensive equipment such as helmets and protective vests. For an early-warning system based on Israeli designs, its radar technology and software would have to be used, according to former and current Israeli officials. The sale of such technologies requires export authorization, which is a complex process involving a number of ministries, including the defense ministry. Risk of retaliation Russia has informed Israel that it will retaliate if Israeli-made air-defense missiles or other interceptors get to Ukraine, whether directly or via third countries, according to two people with knowledge of Russian policy. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior security official, warned Israel last month against providing arms to Ukraine, saying that such a step would be "reckless" and "destroy" ties between Russia and Israel. "The real question is how to do it in a way that isn't provocative for the Russians," Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which lobbies for stronger measures to counter Iran, said in an interview in Tel Aviv. Israel could supply anti-drone and anti-missile equipment to other countries assisting Ukraine, in turn allowing those third countries to provide more of their own arsenals to Kyiv, said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general in the Israeli army. "For example if you sell it to Germany and then Germany delivers another set of weapons, it's not Israeli, no problem," he said. Drone swarms Iran has mostly supplied Russia with the Shahed-136 single-use so-called "suicide drones," which are difficult to detect because they're relatively small and low-flying. Recently upgraded with commercial GPS systems, they can loiter for hours before locking onto a target. Iran delivered 1,000 of them in August, according to the U.S., and plans to deliver 2,400 eventually, Ukraine says. Drones based on Iranian technology have also been used in attacks on Saudi oil facilities and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in a reconnaissance mission Lebanese militia Hezbollah was attempting over a gas rig in the Mediterranean in July, according to the U.S. and its allies. Israel shot down all three drones approaching the rig. Ukraine intercepts 70% or more of the drones, but when used in swarms, shooting them down becomes increasingly difficult. Produced at a cost of $20,000 each, according to Western defense experts, the air-defense missiles used to intercept them often cost multiples more. On October 17, an Iranian drone slammed into a four-story apartment block in Kyiv, killing five people. For Israel, even though its so-called Iron Dome System has a good track record of halting short-range rocket attacks by Palestinian militant groups and the Iranian-allied Hezbollah, the new mass drone tactics used by Iran represent an unprecedented challenge, said Avivi, the ex-general, who now heads an association of former and reserve members of the security forces. "Imagine 100 suicide drones crossing the Israeli border toward the port of Haifa. As good as our air defense is, it would take 90 out of 100, still 10 will hit. It's a big threat," he said. Shadow war A shift in the Ukraine war into a proxy competition between Iranian and Israeli capabilities expands the shadow conflict the two countries have been fighting for years. "The Iranian weapons have been effective on the ground because they're causing damage and it's also a great way for Iran to show it's working with Russia and isn't isolated," said Dina Esfandiary, an analyst from the International Crisis Group in Brussels. Tehran has agreed to send surface-to-surface missiles to Russia and, as soon as November, the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar rockets, which are capable of striking targets from a range of 300 to 700 kilometers (180 to 420 miles), could be in use, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with The War Zone published Oct. 28. Russia's growing dependence on Iran's military potential in Ukraine is also fanning Israeli concerns that Tehran in return could seek Russian assistance with its nuclear program. Israel rejects Iran's assertions that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and says it will take any steps necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a bomb. Bloomberg News staff writers Daniel Avis, Golnar Motevalli and Daryna Krasnolutska contributed to this report. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Paul Pelosi, who was attacked in his home last week by an intruder with a hammer, was released from a San Francisco area hospital Thursday, according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office. Pelosi, 82, husband of Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had been hospitalized since being attacked early on the morning of Oct. 28. He underwent surgery last week to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, and is expected to make a full recovery, according to the speakers office. The statement Thursday said Paul Pelosi is at home and remains under doctors care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process. The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world, according to the statement from the speakers office. The family also thanked the first responders and staff at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. David Wayne DePape, 42, faces several state and federal charges related to the attack on Paul Pelosi, including attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, among other charges. DePape told police he was on a suicide mission and had a target list of state and federal politicians as part of his effort to combat lies coming out of Washington. There is another hearing in DePapes state case scheduled for Friday, but he waived his right to an appearance, according to his public defender, and he is not expected in the courtroom. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said DePape was searching for Speaker Pelosi when he entered the home in the tony Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. This brought to mind for many the chants from rioters looking for Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The incident has sparked informal conversations between lawmakers about the level of their security. Pelosi is second in line to the presidency. The Capitol Police installed cameras around Pelosis home more than eight years ago, reported The Washington Post, but the officers tasked with monitoring the 1,800 cameras surveying the Capitol and beyond only noticed the camera at the Pelosi house when they saw the police responding. Much of her security left her hours after Pelosi left San Francisco last week and returned to D.C., according to The Post. The officers in Washington no longer stayed trained on the video feeds outside her house. CNN first reported Paul Pelosis release. CHEYENNE (Tribune News Service) State lawmakers criticized Wyoming Military Department officials for deciding to close the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy in September amid an inability to keep and find personnel. The decision was not made lightly, Adjutant General Greg Porter responded during a report to the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee. We were not able to ensure their safety with the lack of people. The most recent class began with 82 cadets, and 39 of the 48 authorized full-time staff, with vacancies that included the deputy director. An inspection was done in July, and Porter said the school received an overall unsatisfactory rating in August from the National Guard Bureau for not meeting the cadre-to-cadet ratio, and exposing the school to numerous potential legal liabilities. The programs director retired days after the summary was received, and chronic absenteeism was noticed by Chief of Joint Staff Col. Holly Shenefelt. There were an average of seven daily vacancies among a staff of 18. WCCAs mission is to provide a safe, disciplined and professional learning environment that empowers non-traditional learners (ages 16-18) to improve their educational level and employment potential and become responsible productive citizens. Although Gov. Mark Gordon authorized Wyoming National Guard service members to augment staff to get the class to graduation in December, it was decided that the program at Camp Guernsey would be shut down to keep cadets safe. Porter said he informed the staff on Sept. 14 the closing, and it was as awful as he anticipated. He said employees were shocked, hurt, angry and they certainly did not see it coming. Students had a similar reaction. Forrest Kamminga said his son had just hit his stride. The dad said his child endured homesickness, became a platoon leader and was doing well at WCCA. Kamminga questioned why it recruited a new class and didnt see the closure coming sooner. To get the announcement that he was coming home and theyre shutting down the program was literally like watching a rug get pulled out from underneath him, Kamminga testified. What do you do with them when they come home? Arrangements were made for students to return home, where they could chose to take online WCCA classes, or to take them to other such programs. Legislators asked why they werent informed at the meeting in August. Porter said officials thought they could recover and make fixes from the inspection, to at least continue until December. He apologized for not getting inspection reports sooner, adding he had no intention of withholding information. Inspection We need to look at this 169-page report comprehensively and have further discussions on the failed leadership, because this is what it boils down to, said Rep. Clarence Styvar, R- Cheyenne. Being prior service military myself, this has failed the leadership portion of this, if this goes back as far as it has. He said he wanted to understand how the academy went downhill, because as he scanned the unsatisfactory report by the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Inspection Program, he said many of the issues should have never occurred. Although Porter said the main reason for closing was staffing, there were other inspection findings. The academys overall health rating and operations compliance component declined from marginal to unsatisfactory, its performance remained unsatisfactory, and the resource management compliance and financial performance fell from excellent and outstanding to unsatisfactory. Employees were found to have unsupervised access to cadets without a criminal background screening, and the program doesnt conduct a criminal background or sex offender screening on mentors. Failures noted included deaths and critical injuries not being reported immediately to the program office by phone; lack of proper investigations into hands-off leadership violations, including profanity; and improperly administering and documenting cadet drug testing. Recommendations were to put security cameras outside restrooms, and add doors or curtains to toilet and shower stalls. Other budgetary, drug-testing, investigation and training issues were outlined, and the WCCA was reported to have had a significant number of Serious Incident Reports (SIRs), including a high percentage of law enforcement involvement. Moving forward Im deeply disappointed in this outcome, said Sen. Brian Boner, R- Douglas. When I was on active duty, I expected folks under my supervision to come to me with solutions, not problems. I know weve all heard about the staffing issues for some time, but thats all we heard of this problem. Boner said he was disappointed with how things were handled. He wanted the focus to be on moving forward. The Wyoming Military Department has recommended an interim study, which would determine feasibility of standing up the program in other locations within the state or other alternatives. Lawmakers sought a look into hiring and recruitment strategies, and working with outside organizations such as the Department of Education or Department of Family Services. Concurrence came from Gov. Gordon on a study, as well as calling into question the role of the department at WCCA. Senior Policy Analyst Erica Legerski said while the governors office found it valuable, it is not the core mission of the Wyoming Guard. She said that needed to considered, as well as staffing and location. Can we sustain that? Can we have those kids be successful? she asked. Because we need to make sure that we have all of those components, so that we dont stand up a program and then find ourselves in trouble again. Members of the committee agreed to find a solution, because if a program isnt supported by the state, they would have to pay to put at-risk youth elsewhere. (c)2022 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) Visit Wyoming Tribune-Eagle at www.wyomingnews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A 21-year-old Fort Riley soldier is facing a murder charge in the stabbing death of another soldier at the Army base in Kansas, according to Army court documents and local police. Spc. Jalen D. Thomas was charged with murder, manslaughter, assault and domestic violence, in connection with the death of Sgt. Stacy Subotich, 30. She died Aug. 6 in Junction City, a town about five miles from Fort Riley. Subotich, who was from Georgetown, Texas, enlisted in November 2017 and had been assigned to Fort Riley since May 2019, said Lt. Col. Alex Tignor, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley. Thomas also is charged with assault for stabbing a man in the leg, which caused a deep cut, according to Army court records. In addition, Thomas is charged with domestic violence for hitting a third victim in the face with his hand. The third victim is a woman with whom he had an intimate relationship, according to the court documents. The names of all victims were redacted in the court documents, but Subotich was identified by the Junction City Police Department. Thomas entered a guilty plea during his arraignment hearing Wednesday before Col. Steven Henricks, a judge in the 3rd Judicial Circuit, according to the Armys online court records. However, the records do not show whether he pleaded guilty to all or only some of the charges. Tigon declined to answer questions about the case, but said the next court appearance for Thomas is scheduled for Dec. 2. Junction City police initially arrested Thomas, but the case was later turned over to the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the charges were filed through the military justice system. Thomas was previously held at Geary County Jail, but has since moved into the Armys custody, according to the jail. Thomas, who is from Brandon, Fla., enlisted in the Army in June 2019 and was assigned to Fort Riley in February, Tignor said. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem described the U.S. border with Mexico as a "war zone" last year when she sent dozens of state National Guard troops there, saying they'd be on the front lines of stopping drug smugglers and human traffickers. But records from the Guard show that in their two-month deployment, the South Dakota troops didn't seize any drugs. On a handful of occasions, they suspected people of scouting for lapses in their patrols, but mission logs don't contain any confirmed encounters with "transnational criminals." And a presentation from the deployment noted that Mexican cartels were assessed to be a "moderate threat" but were "unlikely" to target U.S. forces. Some days, the records show, the troops had little if anything to do. "Very slow day. No encounters. It has been 5 days since last surrender," wrote one Guard member whose name was redacted from a situation report created as the deployment neared its end in September 2021. For Noem, who is up for reelection Tuesday amid speculation she could be a 2024 White House contender, the deployment was an eye-catching jump into a political fight more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from her state. Noem justified the deployment and a widely criticized private donation to fund it as a state emergency. Dangerous drugs, she said, made their way to South Dakota after coming over the southern border. But the documents obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington through an open records request cast doubt on whether the deployment was effective at stopping drug trafficking, even as Noem claimed that Guard members "directly assisted" in stopping it. Most drugs don't come through unwatched expanses of the border or the Rio Grande where the Guard members were stationed, said Victor Manjarrez, a former Border Patrol senior officer who is now a professor of criminal justice at the University of Texas at El Paso. They are smuggled into the United States at established border checkpoints, he said. South Dakota Guard members were stationed at observation posts where they parked Humvees or other military vehicles alongside the Rio Grande. They watched for groups of migrants to report to Border Control, which would then take them into custody. On several occasions, they reported groups of hundreds of people migrating, and at one point, a Guard member performed CPR on a child who had drowned. During the two-month deployment, the Guard logged 204 people who were turned back to Mexico and 5,000 others who were apprehended by the Border Patrol to evaluate for asylum claims. Those apprehensions were a small fraction of the over 162,000 encounters Border Patrol reported during July and August in the Rio Grande Valley Sector the 34,000-square-mile swathe where the Guard was stationed. "Like any operation there are going to be busy days and some slow days, that is expected in all operations," Marshall Michels, a spokesman for the South Dakota Department of the Military, said in an email response to questions on the records from AP. Noem last year joined with seven other Republican governors to harden the border through Texas's Operation Lone Star. The state-backed mission sought to discourage migrants by making arrests under Texas laws. The mission gave Republicans occasion to deride President Joe Biden's border policies, but the operation has not curbed the number of people crossing the border. It has also faced criticism for being a rushed mission that gave members little to do while potentially running afoul of federal law. Noem's decision to send 48 Guard members was met with particularly harsh criticism because she covered most of its cost with a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire who has often donated to Republicans. Top brass from the National Guard Bureau and an aide to South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune, a fellow Republican, questioned what legal authority the state had to accept a donation to fund the deployment, the recently released emails show. CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) sued the South Dakota Guard and the U.S. Army after they refused a Freedom of Information Act request for records on the deployment and communication between the National Guard, the governor's office and the Department of Defense. Under that legal pressure, the agencies turned over the documents, which CREW shared with The Associated Press. Noah Bookbinder, CREW's president, said they wanted to bring transparency to a donation that he called "a particularly craven example of how money can drive not just politics but how governments operate and how military forces can be used." Congress later banned such private donations for Guard deployments. Noem's administration has insisted that the National Guard, with its military training, was best-suited to tackle what she called "a national security crisis." "It literally is a war zone," she told reporters this July. Noem's office referred questions on the deployment to a statement last year when she called Biden's border policy an "utter disaster" that facilitated illegal border crossings and said that Mexican cartels were using the surge in migrants as a "distraction for their criminal activities." "The scope of the drug smuggling and human trafficking taking place has been made clear to us, and it is staggering," she said. During the two-month deployment, Guard members reported spotting 11 people they deemed to be scouting for lapses in surveillance. On another occasion recorded in the logs, Guard members pointed flashlights at five people with backpacks crossing the Rio Grande who then retreated. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Marlette, the head of South Dakota's Guard, later told a South Dakota legislative committee they were likely carrying drugs. Those were the only times the Guard members reported suspected drug trafficking. The South Dakota National Guard said it accomplished its mission by supporting Texas's Operation Lone Star and referred questions on its success to the Texas National Guard. Texas's 17-month operation has recorded 21,000 criminal arrests with most of those resulting in felony charges, Gov. Greg Abbott's office recently reported. The Texas National Guard also said it has been responsible for 470,000 migrant detections, apprehensions and turnbacks, as well as the construction of 114 miles of fencing and barriers. WASHINGTON An additional $400 million in U.S. aid for Ukraine will pay for more weapons and vehicles, including older Soviet-made tanks from the 1960s, to help Ukrainian troops fight off Russian forces, the Defense Department announced Friday. The department also announced the creation of a new security headquarters in Germany that will handle weapons shipments and personnel training. It will be called the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, or SAGU. Officials said SAGU establishes more of a permanent command post in Europe to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. The new aid will pay for upgrades to military equipment, including HAWK air-defense missiles and dozens of armored tanks belonging to the Czech Republic that will be shipped to Ukraine, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. The T-72B Czech tank is a Russian-made armored vehicle that first entered production in the late 1960s during the Cold War. The Pentagon said its putting money into upgrading those older tanks rather than introducing a U.S. tank -- because its more cost-efficient to do so and makes more sense for the Ukrainian troops who will use them. When the tanks were introduced more than 50 years ago, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union and Ukraines military has had a lot of experience with them in the decades that followed. These are tanks that the Ukrainians know how to use on the battlefield, Singh said, noting that investing in a different tank would be costly, time sensitive and be a huge undertaking for the Ukraine military. The Defense Department isnt concerned about Ukraine troops using the 45 older tanks, which will all receive optics, communications and armor upgrades. These tanks, we believe, will make a difference on the battlefield, Singh said. The overhauled T-72B tanks included in this package are part of a trilateral, coordinated effort with the Netherlands and Czech Republic, the Defense Department said in a statement. The total number of T-72B tanks for Ukraine will be 90, including an additional 45 tanks provided by the Netherlands with the support of the Czech Republic. Singh said the new aid will also refurbish a number of U.S.-made HAWK air-defense missiles and more than 200 M1117 armored vehicles. The funding also will pay for more than 1,000 Phoenix Ghost drones, dozens of armored boats, tactical communications, surveillance systems, training and maintenance. Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the United States has provided about $19 billion in security aid to Ukraine, defense officials said. Most of that has come after what the Pentagon called Russias brutal and unprovoked war in Ukraine, which is now in its ninth month. The Pentagon noted the additional aid is part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is a funding program that for years has allowed the United States to contribute to Ukraines defense. The program has been a major part of U.S. aid since the war began Feb. 24. Together with our allies and partners, our efforts will help Ukraine continue to be successful today while building the enduring strength of Ukraines forces to ensure the continued freedom and independence of the Ukrainian people, the Defense Department said in its announcement. (Tribune News Service) Lodi resident Frank Wright took a trip back in time last month when he returned to southern California to revisit the birth of his military career. Wright, 97, enlisted with the United States Marine Corps in 1942 at the age of 16 and completed basic boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. He fought in battles throughout the Pacific Theater during World War, including at Iwo Jima, where he witnessed the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi, which has since been memorialized in Joe Rosenthals photograph that has become synonymous with victory for American armed forces. An original member of the Marine Corps Raiders special forces unit, Wright was recalled to the depot on Oct. 13 to commemorate his service. My mind went back to January in 1942, seeing some of the areas I had been, Wright said during an Oct. 17 press conference about his trip to San Diego. Of course, it has completely changed in that 80 years, he said. I had a picture made with the our (sleeping quarters) that I stayed in, and they have them on display in the San Diego area. The Marine Raiders are a special operations unit created in 1942 to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. However, most combat operations during the war saw the Raiders used as conventional infantry. Wright was assigned to the 4th Raiders unit out of Camp Pendleton, led by Lt. Col. James Roosevelt, son of the president. I had the honor of help designing the combat course in San Diego with Col. James Roosevelt, and it brought back memories of what we had done, Wright said. We were in standing committee at this time, and I just cant believe its grown so much in the 80 years that I have left. There were a total four Raiders units during the war, and all were engaged in heavy combat in the upper Solomon Islands. On 15 March 1943, the four battalions were organized as the 1st Marine Raider Regiment at Espiritu Santo. Two additional Raider units were created in early 1944, but because the anticipated need for commando-type units within the Marines had not materialized, they were deactivated on Feb. 1 of that year. The units were renamed, with Wrights 4th Raiders now called the 2d battalion, 4th Marines. A total of 8.078 men, including 7,710 Marines and 368 sailors were assigned to the Raiders. During his service, Wright fought in four major battles, traveled between islands on 11 different Navy ships, was wounded in the stomach by a bayonet while recapturing Guam, and was shot in the chest and arm by machine gun fire on the island of Iwo Jima. He spent the last six months of his enlistment as a Marine drill instructor training new recruits. Wright was awarded the Purple Heart with two stars, the Presidential Unit Citation with two stars, Navy Unit Commendation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign with three service stars, the Fleet Marine Force with four stars, the Marine Corps Expedition Medal. Combat Action with four stars, the Victory medal and the Good Conduct Medal. He is believed to be one of the three last surviving members of the Raiders, and penned a memoir about his experiences in 2019 entitled Battles in the Pacific. Born in Arkadelphia, Ark., Wright said he enlisted when he learned the country had been attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. I heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, he said. I didnt know where Pearl Harbor was at the time, but I knew that somebody bombed us. I went down to the Post Office to see the different advertisements... the Navy and Marines... and that kind of stirred myself up to be one of those. Wright said he ultimately chose to enlist in the Marines because the poster at the Post Office showcased men in their dress blues, the attire typically worn during formal events and engagements. And they were all looking sharp, and they were all on a ship (on the poster), he said. During his trip to San Diego, Wright met General David H. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and boarded the USS Anchorage. He was also invited to attend the 2022 Boot Camp Graduation ceremony on Oct. 14, and given a tour of the Marine Corps Recruitment Depot Museum. Its the most honored thing I have ever had in my life, he said. It was recognized not only for me as an individual, but for honoring the Raider battalion for the Marine Corps. I couldnt believe that I was so welcome to so many people, not only me as an individual, but (as part of) the Raiders. But (the Raiders) are acknowledged very much. In 2006, the Raiders were reactivated when the Marine Special Operations Regiment was renamed the Marine Raider Regiment. It currently consists of 1,512 personnel. (c)2022 the Lodi News-Sentinel (Lodi, Calif.) Visit the Lodi News-Sentinel at www.lodinews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. At the centre of the CAB case is 304,000 in cash, two properties, a Rolex watch, a Mercedes car and a Ford Transit van. Paralysed crime boss Owen Maguire tried to dodge being served legal papers by ignoring officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau who called to his Drogheda home three times. Officers were told he wasnt at home despite believing he was there and told to mind your own business when they asked questions. Maguire is regarded as the joint head of the Price-Maguire Organised Criminal Gang and which has been involved in a lethal gangland feud in Drogheda since 2018. He is described as a major scale drug dealer supplying drugs in much of the countrys north-east area who survived being shot six times in a murder bid at his home. At the first attempt in August this year CAB called to his home at St Anthonys Park in Drogheda which is described as having steel grates on all the windows. Two teenage girls informed the CAB officers Maguire was not there that he doesnt want to talk to you. Both girls were asked their names to which they replied mind your own business and refused to call Maguire on the phone in the officers presence. I believed that Owen Maguire was present in the property at the time, the officer stated in an affidavit used in the High Court to seek a substitute service order. On the same date officers also called to his brother Brendan Maguires home next door which appeared empty with a side door open. As they walked away from the property a cousin of the two men approached them and became verbally abusive towards to local members of the gardai who were present. Four days later they tried again and one of the teenage girls who again refused to give her name said Maguire was at the physio, but again refused to call him. At a separate location on the same day Maguires mother Kathleen told gardai she didnt want to get involved with his business when asked to call him. When a mobile phone number for him was found the male who answered told the officer you have the wrong number and which then rang out when called again. On the third occasion the officer explained to the woman, who they had now identified, they wanted to give him a box containing documents in relation to the High Court and a letter explaining the process. She replied I cant take that box and after going back inside and then re-appearing told officers that Owen Maguire would not take the box. The officer, in his affidavit said that he knew Owen Maguire is in a paralysed state in a wheelchair after an attempt on his life in July 2018 in which he was shot six times. He also stated he believed Maguire to have been present at his home on all three occasions when they called and that he had instructed the woman not to engage with the CAB officers. Last month CAB also applied to serve orders on Brendan Maguire outside of the jurisdiction which was granted. The High Court heard that Maguire is currently living in the Rochdale area of Manchester in the UK. Judge Alex Owens said he would have 28 days to enter an appearance in the matter from the time papers are served on him. Also granted was an order for a substitute service on Owen Maguire who officers believe has deliberately avoided being served official papers in relation to the CAB case. This will allow them to leave the box of documents at the door of his home. Mr Wlodowski, of no fixed address, is charged with two counts of trespassing in a manner likely to cause fear A TRESPASSER was arrested after he was caught leaving a love note and a bunch of flowers at a house for a woman he was fixated on, it is alleged. Rafal Wlodkowski (35) is accused of putting the married couple who lived at the house in fear for their safety. He was granted bail at Dublin District Court under strict conditions, including a ban on entering the neighbourhood where the incidents allegedly happened. Mr Wlodowski, of no fixed address, is charged with two counts of trespassing in a manner likely to cause fear. The offences, under Section 13 of the Public Order Act, are alleged to have happened at Dollymount Park, Clontarf on November 3. Garda Kevin O'Boyle gave evidence of the accused's arrest, charge and caution. Objecting to bail, he told Judge Bryan Smyth there were two alleged incidents. In the first, the alleged injured party - the householder - received a CCTV activation on his phone and on viewing it there was a male present at the address. The alleged victim identified this person as the accused, the garda said. It was alleged he was seen placing a love note into the letter box. In the second incident, it was alleged, the resident again received an activation on his phone and identified the accused on CCTV knocking on the door. The accused then allegedly placed a bunch of flowers on the doorstep. He did not have permission to be on the property. Gardai were called and Mr Wlodkowski was arrested a short distance away. Gda OBoyle said he believed if granted bail the accused would not obey court orders and would return and interfere with the alleged victim and his wife. The garda said he feared for the couples well-being and said the accused was fixated by the female. The couple were under stress and worry and in fear, the garda said. The alleged victim was not in court as he had left the jurisdiction. Applying for bail, defence solicitor John Quinn said his client was presumed innocent and from his reply to the charges, he denied responsibility. Judge Smyth said the alleged victims were said to be in fear but were not before the court to give evidence. He granted bail in the accuseds own bond of 200, with no cash lodgement required but under strict conditions. Mr Wlodkowski is to stay away from the address in question and out of the Dublin 3 area. He is to provide gardai with an address within 48 hours of taking up bail and sign on at a garda station three times pers week. Judge Smyth remanded the accused on bail until next Tuesday and warned that in the event of any breach of the conditions, the gardai could apply to revoke bail and he could go into custody. The garda said further charges were possible. Judge Smyth ordered disclosure to include any CCTV evidence and granted the accused free legal aid. Not nice to find your partner of six years in bed with another man. Lets hope his head is as sore as my knuckles A man who broke into his ex-girlfriend's flat and battered her new boyfriend as the couple slept has avoided jail after paying his victims 10,000. Daniel Ferry broke into his ex-girlfriend's flat and in a fit of rage battered her new boyfriend as the couple slept. Ferry, of Shroughan, Falcarragh, Co Donegal left a bloodbath at the home of Kerrie McFadden after the invasion on August 7th, 2020. He battered Barry McGinley so badly that his nose and lips turned black with bruising. He later sent a snapchat message to a group of friends saying: Not nice to find your partner of six years in bed with another man. Lets hope his head is as sore as my knuckles. The 26-year-old accused man appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court and was given sentences totalling five years and two months. However, he was given a chance to avoid spending time behind bars as the sentences will be suspended if he comes up with a total sum of 10,000 for his victims and signs up to attend counselling. Thug Ferry pleaded guilty to burglary and also pleaded guilty to assaulting Barry McGinley and causing him harm, and of harassing Ms McFadden. Mr McGinley woke up at 7.50am with a man straddling him and punching him on the face. He was able to identify his attacker as Ferry, the ex-boyfriend of Ms McFadden. Garda Martin Gallagher told the court that when he went to Letterkenny University Hospital to meet with Mr McGinley, he noticed the right-hand side of Mr McGinleys face was completely swollen, from his right eye to his jawline. His lips and nose were beginning to turn black with bruising. Ms McFadden told Gardai that Ferry was punching Mr McGinley with both fists. I didnt know if he was unconscious, Ms McFadden told Gardai. The court heard that Ferry had initiated a break-up with Ms McFadden, with whom he had been in a relationship for six years, and there had seemed to be no animosity. Counsel for the State, Ms Patricia McLaughlin BL, said Ferry had sent Ms McFadden several text messages, attended at her house and had followed her and Mr McGinley in the car. He was calling her persistently and he arrived at her driveway, Ms McLaughlin said. Ms McFadden said in a victim impact statement that her house had been left like a bloodbath and she had to replace furniture. Cleaners were required to clean up the room. All I am left with is the place that he thought he had a right to violate, Ms McFadden said. His actions have taken my home away. In the victim impact statement, read into the court record by Ms Patricia McLaughlin BL, counsel for the State, Ms McFadden said her life had changed in every way since the incident. I was the most independent person I know, but I moved out of the house and I was a 24-year-old who needed someone to stay with them due to nightmares and I sleep with the lights on, she said in her statement. My nightly routine is now checking locks. His violation of my home and the stalking has taken away my independence and my trust in people. I cant let anyone close to me. Ms McFadden has since left a management position in a job she loved to live in the United Arab Emirates. I couldnt see any other way out, she said. The decision did not come lightly. My confidence was completely knocked. I have had to restart my whole life. The thought of living in Falcarragh any more is daunting. Ms McFadden remembered attending a concert and how Ferry stood behind us all night. Repeated actions such as this was very intimidating, she said, adding how she could not post her location on social media like her peers. I was doing everything to keep my location private. In his victim impact statement, Mr McGinley said he felt so fortunate to be still alive and conscious after the attack. I felt so vulnerable and I felt defenceless, he said. There was nothing I could do and it intimidated me a lot. When the doctors told me that my skull may be fractured and my nose broke, it dawned on me how things could have changed and it was scary. Mr McGinley required surgery on his nose and he told how cracked and chipped teeth had made him so conscious of his appearance. Ms Fiona Maguire BL, for Ferry, said her client had 2,000 by way of compensation in court and a further 8,000 would be made available to offer as some form of apology and restitution. Mr Ferry couldnt cope when Ms McFadden began dating Mr McGinley, Ms Maguire said. He struggled to come to terms with it. She was his life as he had known it. He took his emotion and the subject of his anger and hurt out on Mr McGinley. Judge John Aylmer said his starting point for sentencing Ferry was four years imprisonment for the burglary, three years in prison for assault causing harm and 12 months for harassment. He was in the throes of a jealous rage, Judge Aylmer said. There was, Judge Aylmer noted, significant mitigation to be considered. Ferry was entirely co-operative with Gardai and showed a remorseful attitude, he said. This is a man who, but for a once-off jealous rage, wouldnt be before the court in relation to serious criminal offences, Judge Aylmer said. Judge Aylmer reduced the sentences to two-and-a-half years imprisonment for burglary, a two-year prison term for assault and eight months in prison for harassment, with the sentences to run concurrently. Ferry, who was deemed as a low risk of reoffending, paid the 10,000 into court with 2,000 be paid to Ms McFadden and 8,000 be paid to Mr McGinley. Judge Aylmer said he would suspend the sentences in their entirety, upon Ferry entering into a bond to keep the peace for two years. AN UNINSURED driver got behind the wheel of his friends car because the friend was too drunk to drive, a court has heard. Viceslav Toderici, who is in his 30s, realised he made the wrong decision but thought he was helping out a friend. Toderici was spotted by gardai after he drove past them at high speed, and started swerving between traffic on the M50 and M1 motorways. Judge David McHugh fined Toderici 200, disqualified him from driving for five years and imposed a five-month sentence suspended for two years. The defendant, of Park View, Swords Manor in Swords, admitted driving without insurance or a driving licence at M50 Blanchardstown on May 16, 2021. Toderici was charged with dangerous driving, but a plea to the lesser charge of careless driving was accepted. Blanchardstown District Court heard gardai were on mobile patrol at 1.55am when they saw a black Mercedes drive past them at speed. He was serving between traffic on the M50 and M1, Garda Stuart Gleeson said. The garda activated his blue lights and sirens and the defendant came to a stop. Gda Gleeson asked Toderici to produce his insurance but he failed to do so. Defence solicitor Aoife McNichol said Toderici worked as a painter and was supporting a wife and child. On the night, he was out with friends, and to save a friend from driving while under the influence he decided to get behind the wheel, she said. The passenger was about to board a flight to Istanbul when they were searched by Revenue officers. A passenger making their way through Dublin Airport was stopped with over 107,000 in cash on Sunday. The passenger was allegedly about to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey when they were searched by Revenue officers. It is suspected the money is the proceeds of, or was intended to be used in, criminal activity. The sum of cash was caught as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged smuggling and shadow economy activity, a spokesperson for Revenue said. The 107k was discovered by routine profiling in Dublin Airport. Investigations are ongoing. "If businesses, or members of the public have any information, they can contact Revenue in confidence on Confidential Phone Number 1800 295 295, a Revenue spokesperson. He groomed and manipulated a child into thinking he could trust him and that this abuse was normal A convicted sex offender has had his sentence increased after investigators uncovered further crimes Paul Roberts (39) from St Helens, will serve more prison time after admitting sexually assaulting a child under 13 and sexual communication with a child. Roberts is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for breaching his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), by communicating with a child under 16 without supervision and allowing the child to visit his address without supervision or consent from parents. In December 2020, NCA officers established that Roberts had additionally breached the order by sexually assaulting another child, this time under 13, and sending him sexually explicit messages. He had also engaged in conversations with a user on the dark web where the pair shared detailed descriptions of child sexual abuse offences that they were both committing. Investigators found parallels between these messages and those exchanged on WhatsApp between Roberts and the victim. Roberts sexually assaulted the child on two separate occasions, one of which followed an invitation to his flat to watch TV. He also sent the boy messages in April 2021 which were sexual in nature. Roberts electronic devices were examined and showed that he had attempted to conceal his online activity from his sex offender manager. Four indecent images of children, not of the victim, were also found: One category A (the most severe) and three category B. Roberts was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child and two counts of making indecent photographs / pseudo-photographs of a child. He pleaded guilty to all the charges via video link from prison at Liverpool Magistrates Court on 6 October and was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on November 3. He was jailed for three years and four months, put on the sex offenders register for life, given a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a destruction order on his electronic devices. NCA Operations Manager Hazel Stewart said: Despite the conditions imposed on him, Roberts persistently sought out opportunities to satisfy his sexual interest in children. He groomed and manipulated a child into thinking he could trust him and that this abuse was normal. Protecting children from sex offenders is a priority for the NCA, and we continue to pursue criminals in the UK and internationally to ensure abusers like Roberts are held to account. The Chicago man was arrested for doling out an unknown quantity of cannabis candy Police in Chicago say they are not sure if any kids ingested the candy Jarod Feilen was arrested and charged with five counts of child endangerment A Chicago man was arrested this week after handing out gummy bears to kids on Halloween that may have been contaminated with cannabis. According to police and a local report, Jarod Feilen (25) claimed that he ran out of candy, and resorted to the drugged sweets. An alert parent and grandparent discovered the suspicious candy and turned the packages over to police, the South Chicago Heights Police Department said. The yellow gummy bears were packaged in wrappers with no branding or print, in clear shrink film over silver foil with a black back panel. I was walking down the street and someone commented that someone was handing out black packets of marijuana gummies, one local dad said. I checked my 4-year-old daughters bag and yes, I found three packets of gummies that smelled like marijuana. During an investigation, the report said that officers identified Feilen as the suspect believed to have handed out the potentially contaminated gummy bears. He said that he ran out of candy, Chief William Joyce said yesterday morning local time. So, he had some, some little baggies and he put some of his gummies in there and started distributing them. Police in Chicago say they are not sure if any kids ingested the candy The suspect was arrested and charged with five counts of child endangerment, police said. Police sent the recovered samples to a crime lab for testing to determine whether there was any contamination. While the department said it was not aware of any children ingesting the gummies, it asked parents to contact them with any information about the suspicious candy packages. Having killed two young women who were full of the promise of life you became a vulture, picking your victims from among the dead. Photo issued by Kent Police of David Fuller, the double murderer who sexually assaulted dozens of corpses in hospital mortuaries. Issue date: Wednesday December 15, 2021. PA A disturbed killer serving a life-sentence in the UK has admitted to abusing over 100 women most of his victims dead in mortuaries when he preyed upon them. David Fuller (68) is in prison for a full-life sentence for the murder of two women and the sexual abuse of corpses. The hospital electrician strangled 25-year-old Wendy Knell and 20-year-old Caroline Pierce just months apart in Kent, southeast England in 1987. Last year, he was sentenced to life in prison for their murders and 51 other offences. Murder victim Caroline Pierce. Photo: Pierce family/PA PA He was found to have defiled 78 victims in mortuaries between 2008 and 2020. The total number of Fullers victims has now reached 101 as he has admitted sexually abusing a further 23 dead women in hospital mortuaries ranging in age from nine to 100 years-old. This includes 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse. His sentencing at Croydon Crown Court is set for next month, with prosecutor Michael Bisgrove saying many family members are preparing statements on the impact of Fullers horrifying crimes. Read more Man who choked pregnant girlfriend after she refused to eat his cooking jailed On surface level, the man had been living a mild and ordinary life, said Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb at Fullers 2021 sentencing for murder. "In seclusion, she said that the killer committed acts of the deepest darkness. "Having killed two young women who were full of the promise of life you became a vulture, picking your victims from among the dead, within the hidden world of hospital mortuaries which you were left free to inhabit, simply because you had a swipe card," she added. The murders of Caroline Pierce and Wendy Knell had been dubbed as cold cases until technological advancements linked Fuller to the crimes by DNA. Fuller was caught in his crimes by police who searched his home as the hospital worker had filmed himself committing the heinous attacks. Murder victim Wendy Knell. Photo: Knell family/ PA PA Evidence dating back as far as 2008, though it is assumed Fuller was offending at a scale that will never truly be known he had worked in the hospital since 1989. The offences he is charged with include the sexual penetration of a corpse, possessing extreme pornographic material involving sexual intercourse with a corpse and taking indecent images of children. An inquiry is underway as to how the man was able to go unnoticed in his crimes for so long. The mum of one of Fuller's victims, 24-year-old Azra Kemal who had died after a tragic fall, spoke to Sky News about the horrifying impact of his crimes. Nevras Kemal said she had found comfort in being with her daughter at the mortuary. "I had spent two hours in the mortuary sleeping with her. And that gave me some sort of comfort. Little did I know that my daughter had been violated prior to that day and the evening of that day. "So, whilst I'm stroking my daughter's hair, sleeping on her hair, a man had... crawled all over her skin... And there's me kissing and cuddling and saying my last goodbyes." "And that is quite awful, quite awful, however, it is not Azra's shame. It is not my shame. "Like women who are raped around the world they have a voice, Azra has a voice - I am speaking out for my daughter." She questioned how he had been abled to enter the morgue without being stopped. In the interests of humanity wed ask the minister to do the right thing by the Sheehy family The family of murdered Irish boxer Kevin Sheehy gathered at the Dail today to protest against his killer's proposed move to a UK prison. Ahead of the next court hearing of the transfer application next Thursday, Kevins parents Kevin Snr and Tracey Tully as well as family and friends staged the demonstration at Leinster House. As she pleaded with the Government to halt the transfer of her sons murderer to a UK prison so he can be closer to his family, Tracey told reporters she believed her son would be training for the Olympics if he wasnt brutally killed by Logan Jackson in 2019. If this murderer wasnt in the country, I know for sure that my son would be training for the Olympics for his country, I know that for sure, she said. Thats what Kevins mind was focused on, training for the Olympics and it would have been for his country. Kevin's mum Tracey Tully speaking today Gareth Chaney Whats being done to his memory its an insult, its outrageous. Im hoping that she (Minister McEntee) might reverse or she might listen to me or listen to someone today, that she might give us some.. The suffering, the waiting and waiting, to come up here is so draining. Its never-ending for us. Traceys local TD, Deputy Willie ODea said that he had raised the proposed transfer of Jackson with both the Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, and Justice Minister, Helen McEntee. Basically, were calling on the Minister for Justice to reverse her earlier decision to repatriate this guy, he said. In the interests of humanity wed ask the minister to do the right thing by the Sheehy family. There is a lot of support throughout Limerick for the Sheehy family and you can see that from the turnout, which was arranged at very short notice. Ive brought this matter up before the Dail on a number of occasions and Ive raised it with the Fianna Fail parliamentary party. Ive also spoken to the Taoiseach personally about it as well as the minister. Were continuing to fight the good fight. "The next hearing is on Thursday but we're hoping for a positive decision before that. In July Tracey, whose 20-year old son had been tipped to represent Ireland at the 2024 Olympic Games before he was murdered in a deliberate hit and run three years ago, won the right to bring a challenge aimed at preventing her sons killer being transferred to a UK prison. She had sought a High Court order preventing Coventry criminal Logan Jackson, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, being repatriated to England to serve out the remainder of his sentence near his family. Ms Justice Siobhan Phelan granted Ms Tully leave to appeal in a judicial review action aimed at challenging a decision by the Minster for Justice Helen McEntees to sanction the prison transfer, last March. The transfer has been put on hold pending the outcome of the action. Jackson, (31), denied Mr Sheehys murder but admitted manslaughter, and was jailed for life in December 2021 after a jury at the Central Criminal Court unanimously rejected his defence of provocation. A supporter holds a picture of Kevin at the briefing today Gareth Chaney The court heard Jackson, of Longford Road, Coventry, attempted to lead gardai on a merry dance with a tapestry of self-serving lies, and that Mr Sheehy, a five times national champion, was an innocent victim. Ms Tully said she had not been made aware of Jacksons transfer request nor had she been immediately informed of the transfer being sanctioned only three months into Jacksons life sentence. Ms Tullys application is being opposed by legal representatives of the minister and Jackson, who is a notice to the proceedings. Ms Tullys legal representatives have claimed that if the transfer goes ahead, Ms Tully will not have a say, nor be able to make submissions to the UK authorities should Jackson apply for parole. They also argued that the transfer now would breach Ms Tullys rights under the 2017 Victim of Crime Act; that it is unconstitutional; and that it is an abdication of the Irish States responsibility to determine when a person serving a life sentence may be paroled. Speaking after the judgement was delivered Ms Tully, said: Im very good today, delighted with the news that we got, its great. Tracey Tully with Limerick TD Willie O Dea Gareth Chaney Im overwhelmed, Im very proud of myself to be honest to get this far, I had no idea what way it was going to go this morning, so I can breathe a little easier now, yes, Im very happy with the decision. The Ministers decision was made without any consideration to any member of my sons family, and I just think the way it was handled was very disrespectful to victims families, and we have rights. Im very proud of myself today because the day that I heard about the transfer decision I only had a month to try and figure out what was actually happening and to try and to try and stop this, and today now I am very proud. Kevin is always with me, she added. I feel that I wouldn't be able to do it without him. I feel we are being heard now, Im very thankful to the judge today." A garda security assessment of the safety of 50 asylum-seekers was sought after an emergency accommodation centre in Finglas was attacked by protesters. Documents released under Freedom of Information (FoI) also revealed that at least 25 new accommodation centres housing well over 2,000 people were opened in Ireland between January and August of this year to cope with what was described as extreme pressure on accommodation. Fun Galaxy, a former childs soft play area that was turned into a Covid-19 testing centre during the pandemic, was contracted as an emergency accommodation centre for more than 200 asylum-seekers last August. There were plans to move 220 single men quickly into the temporary centre, which had cubicles for people to sleep in. Twenty-five men were moved in on August 15 and another 25 the following day. But at 9pm on the second night, a small group of people entered the centre during a delivery and demanded to know why they had seen beds arriving at the centre. An incident report said that within a few minutes more people were coming to the door, shouting they are not going to leave, and they will not accept this happening. By 10.20pm, the Department of Equality and Integration had been warned of a serious incident at Fun Galaxy. Emails between department staff said protesters were very aggressive and had smashed windows. There were also threats of more direct action against the centre, the email said. It added the department would now need to consider any further transfers which may exacerbate the situation in the short-term. The next day, it was decided to cancel plans to move 30 more people in to the temporary accommodation centre. The department wrote to gardai and said it was very concerned at the risks to the 50 male residents of the centre. In preparation for a briefing with local politicians, the department said a list of new accommodation centres was prepared. Finglas residents wrote to Integration Minister Roderic OGorman about the asylum-seekers at Fun Galaxy. One asked why he had placed 220 unvetted refugees in Finglas without consulting the community. Branches in Stephens Green and High Street in Kilkenny are being shuttered in the weeks after Christmas. A woman carrying several shopping bags on Henry Street in Dublin's city centre during Black Friday last year PA Argos has announced the closure of two stores in Dublin and Kilkenny. Branches at Stephens Green in the capital and on High Street in Kilkenny are being shuttered in the months after Christmas. It is understood that the two Leinster locations are the only planned store closures however. Speaking to The Irish Times, Argos property director Patrick Dunne revealed the Stephens Green store did not sufficiently recover after Covid restrictions. The moderate level of recovery the store made after the easing of restrictions was not enough to viably continue operations. The decision to close the Kilkenny branch is due to a range of factors", parent company Sainsburys said in a statement to KCLR. "We are consulting with our colleagues following the difficult decision to close our Kilkenny Argos store, they said. We understand this will be an unsettling time for those affected and we are supporting them in every way we can. We regularly review our property estate and the decision to close a store is never taken lightly. The decision is based on a range of factors specific to the store, which is expected to close in Spring 2023. Multiple Argos stores will remain in Dublin, while the closure of the Kilkenny store marks the end of the retailers presence in the county. After 20 years, the Argos branch at the Grand Parade in Cork closed in 2019 along with a store in Ipswich in the UK. Whats next for Revolut? Can it ever be your only bank? Might it soon offer mortgages? And now that it has introduced messaging services, is it trying to become Europes first super app? Revoluts Irish user base is huge. With over 2m users, as well as 135 people employed here, Ireland is the companys second biggest market after the UK. Its range of services has mushroomed in recent times, too. As well as money transfers, the app now offers loans, insurance, credit cards, crypto-trading and cash-back shopping. The latest feature introduced this week is messaging. And the UK companys co-founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky, told the Irish Independent that it has another offering under consideration mortgages. We will definitely do mortgages for consumers, he says. Because when I look at all the mortgage processes, it can take one to two months. At best, its seven days. Its all quite legacy. So what might a Revolut mortgage look like? It could be one of two models, or a combination, he says, in a podcast interview with the Irish Independents Big Tech Show podcast. The first one is a mortgage financed by us as a bank. Or it could be like a mortgage introduction. But ultimately what we want to build is a frictionless experience that is 100pc digital, so that within the app you apply for the mortgage, select the house that you want to buy and then be emailed at the same time. Everything would be instant and automated. Mr Storonsky declined to put any timeline on a new mortgage offering for Revolut users. But he says that it has been a poignant week for him, personally. While Revolut was announcing new features, it emerged that Mr Storonsky revoked his Russian citizenship as a response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Why did he choose to do that? Well, Im against the war, he says. Did that hurt, emotionally? A little bit. But Ive been living in the UK for the last 16 years and my business is in Europe. There are other family ties to the fallout from the invasion, which he has described as abhorrent. Mr Storonskys father was admonished and put on a sanction list by Ukrainian authorities for his role as a director with the Russian energy firm Gazprom. One of the reasons why were so popular in Ireland is because the banks are not good However, speaking at this years Web Summit in Lisbon, he appears more focused on ways to grow the Revolut app than dwelling on the war. Hes not shy about pointing out the shortcomings of Irish banking apps, some of which still cant properly display tablet versions of their apps. One of the reasons why were so popular in Ireland is because the banks are not good there, he says. Its a massive problem. We got used to thinking about the bank as some kind of a building where you go to get something you want, but the reality is that banking is a software business. Everything should be automated and be provided instantly, efficiently and autonomously. In Ireland, Revolut operates using its Lithuanian banking licence. It tried to get an Irish licence but was left waiting by the Central Bank for 30 months, at which point it decided just to go with the Lithuanian licence. The move changed Revoluts plans to make its Irish office a more central European regulatory base. While others inside the company privately describe the drawn-out waiting period from the Central Bank as disappointing, Mr Storonsky doesnt want to be drawn into a blame game. He says that it worked out fine for Revolut. It was more like a cost benefit analysis for Irish customers, he says. When we applied in Ireland, it was a pre-Brexit thing, he says. And because it wasnt ready in time for Brexit we used our Lithuanian license. So then, by the time the Irish license was ready, we had already rolled out in every single country. At that point we just thought, okay, what is beneficial for Irish customers? Obviously, we could have used our Irish eMoney license in Ireland for Irish customers, but then they wouldnt have [the same] customer protection. So it made sense [to go with the Lithuanian licence]. Did that episode affect the viability of the companys Irish office, which employs 135 people? No, he says. We transferred the majority of people in Ireland to the Lithuanian bank. If you look at our [Europe] CEO for the bank [Joe Heneghan], he used to be CEO of Ireland. And what plans now, if any, are there for the Irish office? Were always hiring people, he says. But in terms of licenses, were set in Europe at the moment. While Revolut is waiting on a pending licence application in the UK, reportedly described as close to completion, the Lithuanian licence is the one the company currently leans on for its European banking. Does Mr Storonsky think thats enough to run a pan-European financial institution with 20m users and evermore ambitious plans? For now, he says. Weve branched out in every single country in Europe. That means were also regulated as a bank in every single country by a local regulator. So its enough for now. Now that Revolut has a messaging service, talk of becoming a super app, like the type of do-all services seen in Asia, is starting to emerge. Mr Storonsky bats off the question, preferring to think of Revolut as a financial super app. A super-app is a very high level concept, he says. Ultimately, we want to have in one app all the financial services that people use, in a simple, intuitive and cost effective way. So if I want to trade, I can trade. If I want to buy or sell crypto, I can do it, or withdraw money, of do foreign exchange or borrow money. For me, it should be a tool where I can get everything I need at a good price. You can listen to the full interview with Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky on The Big Tech Show, available on all podcast platforms. Elon Musks social media firm will fire up to half of the companys employees today. The social media firm, which employs over 500 people in Dublin and over 7,000 globally, plans to cut up to half of its workers today. Woke up to the sad news that Im no longer a Tweep, tweeted one Dublin staff member this morning. The company sent an email to staff informing them that they would be informed today whether they still have a job. Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, the internal memo to the employees noted. We recognise that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn, has already made several changes to the company, starting with the firing of three of its top executives, including chief executive Parag Agrawal. He had earlier told prospective investors that he intended to reduce the companys staff from around 7,500 down to just over 2,000. Gardai and emergency services responded to reports of a fire at a residence in the Clonskeagh area of Dublin 14 in the early hours of Thursday A spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade said firefighters entered the downstairs apartment around 2am, amid a well developed fire Garda investigators examine the scene of the fire Gardai at the scene of the blaze in South Dublin A woman has tragically died after she was rushed to hospital in a critical condition following a house fire in Dublin. Emergency services rushed to the scene of the blaze in the Clonskeagh area of south Dublin in the early hours of this morning. A spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade said firefighters entered the downstairs apartment around 2am, amid a well developed fire A woman, aged in her 60s, who was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a critical condition later passed away. No other injuries were reported. A technical examination of the scene has been conducted. A spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade said firefighters entered the downstairs apartment around 2am, amid a well developed fire. Garda investigators examine the scene of the fire They managed to rescue a woman from the property. She was subsequently rushed to hospital where she later died. Gardai and emergency services responded to reports of a fire at a residence in the Clonskeagh area of Dublin 14 in the early hours of Thursday, gardai said. A woman, aged in her 60s, was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a critical condition. She has since passed away. No other injuries were reported. A technical examination of the scene has been conducted. It is understood that foul play is not suspected. The film features interviews with Lyra McKee's family and friends and voice recordings from her phone, computer and dictaphone A billboard dedicated to Lyra McKee; the documentary celebrating her life and work is directed by Bafta-winning Alison Millar and executively produced by Hillary Rodham Clintons Hidden Light Productions. Photo: Wildcard Distribution Wildcard Distribution On April 18, 2019, on the fringes of a Derry riot, a young life full of promise was snuffed out. An investigative reporter who had written fascinating pieces on growing up gay in Northern Ireland, and the continuing consequences of the Troubles, Lyra McKee was just 29 years old when she was hit in the head by a bullet ostensibly aimed at PSNI officers. Her death caused an outcry in Ulster and beyond, and a divided society was briefly united in outrage and grief. But Alison Millars documentary refuses to focus on McKees martyrdom and instead gives us a sense of who she really was. Millar, a family friend, was granted access to McKees extended family and friends, and what emerges is a picture of a dynamic, talented, caring woman who had so much more to say. The documentary draws on hours of voice recordings from Lyra McKees own mobile, computer and dictaphone. Photo: Wildcard Productions Through video footage, we catch glimpses of McKee as a little girl, bookish at an early age, and squirming around uncomfortably in her communion dress. Born in 1990, she grew up in Belfasts Ardoyne, one of the areas worst hit by the still raging Troubles. As a child she recalled her mother giving out to her for playing with toy guns in the yard in case the army helicopters that hovered above might mistake them for real ones. Instead of shying away from all that conflict, McKee was fascinated by it, and by her early teens had decided she wanted to become an investigative journalist. She won a Sky News Young Journalist Award at 16, and came to wider public attention when she posted a blog entitled Letter to my 14-year-old self, in which she described the challenges of growing up gay in Northern Ireland. As her journalistic career hit its stride, McKee reported on the Ballymurphy massacre, the Norths disproportionately high suicide rate, and before her death had started a book, The Lost Boys, which investigated the disappearance of two young boys in 1970s Belfast. Shed signed a two-book deal with Faber & Faber and was about to propose to her girlfriend. Then came that bullet. A billboard dedicated to Lyra McKee; the documentary celebrating her life and work is directed by Bafta-winning Alison Millar and executively produced by Hillary Rodham Clintons Hidden Light Productions. Photo: Wildcard Distribution Wildcard Distribution Millars excellent, clearheaded film includes poignant interviews with McKees sister, cousins and her mother, who died almost a year after the shooting; according to the family, she died of grief. I hope thats the end of it, her sister says, I hope that bullet doesnt travel any further. The documentary also includes footage of McKees funeral, where northern politicians who were refusing (then as now) to share power and form a government, squirmed in their pews while Father Martin Magill excoriated all and sundry for their cynicism and inaction. But this film is not about McKees death, but her life. Interviews and archive footage are interspersed with segments of McKees clear, concise, lyrical writing, and constantly we hear her disembodied voice, asking hard questions, laughing with friends, pondering the tragic conundrum that is Northern Ireland. Three years on, Lyra McKees loss is keenly felt: her killer has never been caught. Lyra will open in Irish and UK cinemas on Friday 4th November. The Northern Ireland Secretary of State has confirmed there will be no December election following his meetings with party leaders earlier this week. Chris Heaton-Harris said he would lay out my next steps in a statement to Parliament next week. Mr Heaton-Harris had been legally obliged to call an election following the passing of the deadline last week for an executive to be formed after the last poll in May. The Stormont Assembly has been in flux since February when the DUP withdrew First Minister Paul Givan in a bid to push the UK government to act on unionist concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Mr Heaton-Harris has not yet named a date for any future election. In his statement, Mr Heaton-Harris said: At midnight on 28 October, I came under a duty to call an Assembly election. Since then, my engagement with the political parties has continued. "I have had valuable conversations with people across Northern Ireland, including business and community representatives. I have listened to their sincere concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time. I can now confirm that no Assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season. Current legislation requires me to name a date for an election to take place within 12 weeks of 28 October and next week, I will make a statement in Parliament to lay out my next steps. My objective, what the people of Northern Ireland deserve, is the restoration of a strong devolved government. My duty is to create the right environment for the parties in Northern Ireland to work together to restore the devolved institutions and deliver on crucial issues impacting Northern Irelands people. I do not take this duty lightly, nor do I overlook the very real concerns people have around their cost of living. In response, former Secretary of State Lord Peter Hain told BBC Radio Ulster: I am not surprised at all nobody thought an election would resolve anything. It gives me no pleasure at all to say this but I dont think the secretary of state or government know what they are doing. "They seem to be lurching from one problem to another. This is not a way to govern and not a way to try and resolve the very difficult problems. "Rule number one for any Secretary of State, if you set a deadline you have to meet it. The fundamental problem is there are no solutions yet to the problems the protocol has caused. The rest of everybody in Northern Ireland wants serious negotiations to fix the bumps. These are fixable. On Wednesday, Steve Baker, a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, had insisted the date for an election would be confirmed soon. Reacting to the news, Ulster Unionist Party deputy leader Robbie Butler tweeted: The correct decision by @chhcalling for the people of Northern Ireland. No election this side of Christmas. "Its imperative that all steps are taken to address the lack of an executive and the partisan NI Protocol. We ALL must do better for the stretched and beleaguered public. Alliance Party MLA John Blair wrote: If the SoS [Secretary of State] is as concerned about the devolved institutions and the people of Northern Ireland as his statement says, then he will introduce the required reform to end this endless cycle of stand off, stalemate and ransom politics. Neil Thompson, who is a tenant in the Rathmines property, fears he will become homeless again when he is evicted. Photo: Mark Condren Tenants in up to 20 apartments in a Dublin city centre property have been served with eviction notices as the landlord intends to sell the building. The residents living in the adjoining buildings of 94 and 96 Lower Rathmines Road were served with eviction notices in August to vacate the property next February. However, due to the winter eviction ban introduced this month the residents are now protected until May. Neil Thompson (33) has lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the property for the past two years and said he is worried that he will end up homeless again when he is evicted. He was homeless and living between hostels for 10 months before he moved into the property, and described conditions in the hostels as rough. I had never been homeless before this, that was my first time being in that situation, Mr Thompson said. Even though he has until May, he feels there is zero chance of being able to find an affordable property to rent. I started looking immediately when I received the letter because I know how long it could take for me to find a place, he said. Im 100pc worried that I wont find anything. From August up until now Ive sent about 500 to 600 emails to different landlords and estate agents all around Dublin and even outside of Dublin. In all that time I only got one viewing for a home in Terenure. There is extremely little available and within my own budget there is next to none in Dublin, he said. The buildings are owned by Hazelwood Walk Holdings Ltd. A spokesperson for the landlord said: We can confirm that the properties at 94 and 96 Lower Rathmines will be offered for sale following the completion of some essential repairs. Accordingly, some limited number of tenants at this address have, for some months now, been in receipt of the appropriate tenancy termination notice. We are satisfied that all notices issued are legally valid and that correct procedure has been observed in all cases. I might also add that we have offered our assistance to the affected tenants whom have reached out directly to us in sourcing alternative accommodation. The residents are hoping that when the building is sold they will be given the opportunity to move back into the apartments, while the landlord has offered the tenants the opportunity to re-occupy the apartments if a sale has not been agreed in nine months. Under a recent law, known as the Tyrrelstown Agreement, a landlord cannot terminate 10 or more tenancies or units within a single development over six months with the intention to sell the property. In the eviction notice, seen by theIrish Independent, tenants were told that the law does not apply in this case due to the exemption that it would cause the landlord undue hardship. It also states in the exemption that the sale of the building with the tenants in situ would be more than 20pc below the market value that could be obtained if the building was vacant. A spokesperson for the Depart-ment of Housing said during the period of the winter eviction ban, which will last until next April 1, if you are renting private rented accommodation you cannot be evicted during these months, even if you have been issued with a valid notice of termination. The eviction ban applies if you have a termination date that falls during the winter emergency period. It includes notice of terminations issued before October 30, 2022, they added. Evictions remain the largest issue facing private renters, according to a new report from Threshold, published yesterday, which revealed how the charity prevented 1,000 people from becoming homeless between July and September this year. The figures show that 1,384 private renters sought the charitys help when they received a notice of termination, with 60pc of notices issued because the landlord intended to sell the property. Johnny Depp has joined Rihannas new Savage Fenty X Vol 4 fashion show in a brief cameo appearance. Earlier reports had suggested that Depp would be the focus of the shows star moments. In the past, celebrities such as Cindy Crawford and Erykah Badu have appeared in this capacity. Following recent rumours of Depps guest appearance, which alarmed Rihanna fans, The Independent has confirmed his name features in the shows end credits. The Savage X Fenty Vol 4 show is described as a fashion experience and will include performances from Anitta and Burna Boy, plus cameos from models including Irina Shayk, Cara Delevingne, and Precious Lee. It will premiere on Prime Video on November 9. The Independent has contacted Amazon for comment about Depps role. Earlier this year, Depp was embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard concerning a 2018 piece published by The Washington Post. Depps legal team claimed that the op-ed, written by Heard, had defamed him by implying that he had abused Heard when the pair were married. A jury ultimately found that Heard had defamed Depp, and ordered the Aquamanstar to pay Depp $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. However, the jury also awarded Heard $2m in a simultaneous countersuit, ruling that, in characterising her abuse allegations as a hoax, one of Depps attorneys had defamed her. Heard is set to appeal the verdict, with lawyers arguing that the two rulings handed down by the jury were contradictory. A UK court previously ruled that The Sunhad not defamed Depp by describing him as a wife beater. A judge described the statement as substantially true. Ahead of Depps confirmed appearance, fans of Rihanna reacted with unease to earlier rumours of Depps involvement in the fashion show, sharing their thoughts on social media. Rihanna cant be serious? With all these beautiful and unproblematic men in Hollywood, and Johnny Depp is the one that appeals to you the most? one person wrote. Still trying to figure out why Rihanna would chose to take this risk and feature Johnny Depp in the Savage X Fenty Show. Like, she knowsssss that is going to cause a whole lotta outrage so why even bother? wrote Daily Mailjournalist Nola Ojomu. The Independenthas contacted representatives of Rihanna and Depp for comment. The couple have been enjoying their time together Anna Geary has finally managed to jet off on honeymoon with husband Kevin Sexton three years after getting married. The couple, who tied the knot in October 2019, had initially planned to travel around America before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted their plans. However, the Ireland's Fittest Family star said it was worth the wait as she and her partner delighted in taking in the breathtaking viewers and popular tourist spots. Anna jets off Writing on Instagram she declared: "Iceland snippets. The delayed honeymoon 3 years in waiting, but worth it!" After flying into Reykjavik together they have been visiting natural parks and waterfalls. They have also enjoyed snowmobiling and the relaxing lagoons that she captured in a series of jaw-dropping snaps of her trip. In one picture Anna and Kevin are seen at the Blue Lagoon while in another she is all geared up while riding a snowmobile. Herself and her hubby are also seen in a stunning selfie together in the snow. Anna's friends and fans, including RTE star Maia Dunphy, said: "Looks incredible!" Leanne commented: "Absolutely amazing! Worth the wait! Enjoy every moment." Joanne wrote: "Looks amazing. Cant wait to hear all about it." Katie commented: "Oh so worth it! Enjoy you guys." We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Anna recently said that she had some "much needed" dancing and laughing at her pal's wedding after she sadly lost her father Michael back in March after a short illness. Over the May bank holiday weekend, Anna and her hubby Kevin Sexton headed to a bash at Ashley Park House in Co Tipperary. Anna wrote: "Time in good company is good for the soul. "Much needed dancing & laughter xxx." A man has been jailed for 16 years on a series of drug smuggling, money laundering and related charges resulting from an extensive Customs-led investigation in 2018. Thirty-two-year-old Sami Zagros was sentenced at the High Court in Christchurch on Wednesday. Customs investigations manager Cam Moore describes the smuggling activities controlled by Zagros as sophisticated. Sophistication was also applied by law enforcement to build the case and evidence dubbed Operation Resist, says Ca, Investigations found the man was clearly a ringleader running a network of people for drug smuggling and distribution in New Zealand. The joint Customs and Police investigation exposed links to a crime syndicate smuggling methamphetamine, mostly from Mexico and the USA, which was funding a lavish lifestyle in New Zealand, and involved laundering the criminal proceeds through bitcoin. Customs and Police put significant time, resources, and effort into breaking up this transnational organised criminal operation, which has led to a total of 41 successful convictions against those involved. Zagros accepted responsibility for smuggling or attempting to smuggle about 8kgs of methamphetamine into New Zealand between May and September 2018, which was hidden in a range of goods declared as things like wedding gifts, toys, and clothing. That quantity is estimated to produce around 400,000 average common doses of methamphetamine. Customs arrested Zagros in early September 2018. During search warrants, around 14,000 MDMA (ecstasy) tablets were located at a Christchurch storage unit linked to him and which matched nearly two dozen MDMA tablets found at his home. At the time, the joint operation led to the seizure of around $400,000 in cash and property from Zagros and his associates. Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Johnson says police remain committed to working with Customs and other partner agencies to disrupt and dismantle drug networks. Drugs like these cause significant social harm in our communities. Police and Customs will continue to target those who seek to profit from this type of crime. Gather your friends and family for a 5km Red Tulip Walk for Parkinsons around Mauao today, November 5. Parkinsons is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world, and in New Zealand, about one in 500 people have Parkinsons with 2700 diagnosed every year. The average age of onset is 59 but many Kiwis are diagnosed with early-onset Parkinsons in their thirties and forties. Well-known symptoms of Parkinsons are slowness of movement, tremor, stiffness, and loss of balance, but there are lesser-known symptoms which can include pain, problems with sleep, depression, anxiety or apathy. Parkinsons New Zealand is the only national charitable trust in New Zealand providing information, education and support for the person diagnosed, their carer, whanau and health professionals. The Parkinsons NZ Action Group in the Bay of Plenty raises funds so people in our region who have Parkinsons can attend activities including exercise classes, which can help to self-manage symptoms and provide social connections. During the week of November 5-11, there will be display stalls at the Papamoa Plaza, Bayfair Shopping Centre and the Crossing to raise awareness of Parkinsons. The Parkinsons NZ Action Group in the Bay of Plenty is urging people to get involved with the Red Tulip Walk around Mauao. Look out for the mass of people wearing red at Salisbury Wharf, Mount Maunganui at 10am Saturday, November 10. Tickets for the Red Tulip Walk are at: www.iticket.co.nz/events/2022/nov/red-tulip-walk-mount Please dig deep in your pockets and give generously, as your donations can have a big impact on the services we can provide. Parkinsons NZ charitable trust is reliant on the generosity of all New Zealanders to help people have the information, education and support they need to live positively with Parkinsons. For more information about Parkinsons, visit www.parkinsons.org.nz To purchase your Red Tulip Walk for Parkinsons ticket, head to: www.iticket.co.nz or contact BOP Action Group chair David Monk on: davidandjessiemonk@gmail.com Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The European Union commends the constructive atmosphere in which the 3rd meeting of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border commissions took place in Brussels on November 3, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Nabila Massrali said in a statement. The EU today hosted and opened in Brussels the 3rd meeting of Armenia's and Azerbaijan's border commissions. This meeting follows agreements reached at the highest level between President of the European Council Charles Michel, President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during their trilateral Brussels meetings. The EU commends the constructive atmosphere in which the meeting was conducted, and the willingness of the parties to continue working on addressing border-related issues, as well as to improve the security situation, the statement says. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. NATO supports the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and welcomes the efforts of the European Union on this direction, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colomina said. Good news to see our partners discussing border delimitation, a must to increase security on the ground. NATO supports the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and welcomes EU efforts towards that end, including hosting this talks and launching recently the EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia, Javier Colomina said on Twitter, sharing the post of Secretary General of the EU External Action Service Stefano Sannino regarding the 3rd meeting of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border commissions held in Brussels on November 3. Google Keep is an app that lets you easily create notes on the go. Since it syncs your notes to Google, you can access them virtually anywhere: on your Android device, through a Chrome app, and on the web. Create: Use text, voice, or photos to create notes quickly and easily, and add multi-purpose checklists. Organize: Drag & drop your notes and lists to rearrange them, and archive them when you no longer need them. Access: Browse and search notes easily - you can even use widgets for quick note-taking and viewing. Features Keep track of your thoughts via notes, lists and photos Have voice notes transcribed automatically Use homescreen widgets to capture thoughts quickly Color-code your notes to help find them later Swipe to archive things you no longer need Turn a note into a checklist by adding checkboxes Use your notes from anywhere - they are safely stored in the cloud and available on the web at https://drive.google.com/keep What's New Chrome version updated to 4.21452.600.1 Added four new note color options Create auto-numbered lists in text notes Bug fixes and performance improvements Important: To use Google Keep, you need to sign in with your Google Account. You can switch accounts or add a new one by going to Settings > Account. In brief: Google started letting Chromebook users test Steam in alpha back in March on a limited range of devices. The new beta allows users easier access to Steam on more Chromebook models with various improvements to the user experience. Google released the beta Steam client for Chromebooks this week. It still only supports a few devices, but the beta's system requirements are lower than the alpha's. The Chromebook Steam alpha only supported seven hardware variants, requiring at least an 11th-generation i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM. The beta adds compatibility with AMD's Ryzen 5000 C-Series and 12th-generation Intel processors. It also supports i3 or Ryzen 3 CPUs, though it still recommends at least an i5 or Ryzen 5 with 16GB of RAM. The new specs extend the list of compatible Chromebooks to 20 models, including Google's new cloud-gaming Chromebooks: Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W) Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W) Acer Chromebook 516 GE Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (CP514-3H, CP514-3HH, CP514-3WH) Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (CP714-1WN) Acer Chromebook Vero 514 ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400) ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500) ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5601) ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition HP Elite c640 14 inch G3 Chromebook HP Elite c645 G2 Chromebook HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook 16 Lenovo 5i-14 Chromebook Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook 14 Lenovo ThinkPad C14 Further lowering the barrier to entry, the Steam Chromebook beta doesn't require entering dev mode. Users interested in the beta just have to switch to the beta channel, enter "chrome://flags#borealis-enabled" in the Chrome address bar, restart, search for Steam in the ChromeOS launcher, and follow the setup instructions that appear. One of the beta's main improvements is a new game installer that uses a sparse disk and ballooning, which helps games that download things from outside Steam. The new installer also improves game performance through the Proton compatibility layer. General performance should be better in the beta, which adds support for DirectX 12 and Vulkan 1.3. The alpha only recommended that users play at 1080p or lower, but the beta features a scaling system to make games look better on 1440p or 4K displays. Google still suggests users select lower resolutions. The beta's lower CPU overhead with Vulkan and DirectX compared to the alpha should extend battery life. Additionally, the system will notify users when the battery is low, even in exclusive fullscreen games. Google's Steam ChromeOS page includes a list of recommended games that has expanded since the alpha. It primarily consists of relatively old or technically lightweight titles like Stardew Valley, Tetris Effect: Connected, Tunic, Vampire Survivors, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, Doom 2016, Dark Souls: Remastered, Euro Truck Simulator 2, and many more. There is still no indication of when Steam for Chromebooks will enter the stable branch. A hot potato: Expressing a bipartisan concern about China surveillance on US citizens, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr wants a national ban against the TikTok app. However, TikTok is not giving in and is still looking forward to an agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Brendan Carr, a lawyer currently serving as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has returned to his favorite sport: bashing TikTok and calling for a tighter control on the Chinese-controlled app by the US government. At this point, Carr said, there is very little confidence about the company's ability to properly handle US users' data. Carr was appointed as a member of the FCC by Donald Trump in 2017, and he has been a vocal critic of the data collecting app for a while. In the commissioner's own words, TikTok isn't "just another video app" but "a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data" with direct connections to Beijing's communist dictatorship. A few months ago, Carr asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their respective app stores; in a new interview with CNN, the commissioner is now calling for a nationwide ban despite the efforts made by both parties the US government and TikTok to come to an agreement. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, is currently negotiating with the CFIUS a proposal that should ease any concern about the Chinese government authorities' access to TikTok data relating to US citizens. The company has supposedly migrated all such data to servers run by Oracle, but there's still a bipartisan opinion about the fundamentally Orwellian nature of the app. According to Carr, even the best deal cut by the CFIUS wouldn't be enough; at this point "I have a very, very difficult time looking at TikTok's conduct thinking we're going to cut a technical construct that they're not going to find a way around," Carr said. The new position expressed by Carr reflects a "natural progression" in his thinking about TikTok, and it is apparently informed by the FCC's own work to limit China's influence in US telecommunications networks. On the other hand, TikTok remains confident about a satisfying agreement with Washington. "Commissioner Carr has no role in or direct knowledge of the confidential discussions with the US government related to TikTok," the company remarked, "and he is not in a position to discuss what those negotiations entail." YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. From 12 January 2023 Wizz Air will start operating regular flights on the route Venice - Yerevan- Venice, Armenia International Airports CJSC said in a statement. Flights will be operated twice a week: every Thursday and Saturday. For the availability of air tickets, their acquisition and other details, please, visit the webpage of the airline at wizzair.com or contact the local travel agency, the statement says. In brief: Researchers have found a WiFi security flaw that can allow hackers to locate and track devices through walls with an accuracy of 3.3 feet. The attack uses a loophole in smart devices that the researchers call "polite WiFi." The University of Waterloo research team explains that smart devices automatically respond to contact attempts, even on a password-protected network. So they developed a drone they call "Wi-Peep" that sends out several signals as it flies and then measures the response times. This technique allows it to triangulate network devices to within a meter of their position and can also be used to track moving devices like cell phones. "The Wi-Peep devices are like lights in the visible spectrum, and the walls are like glass," explains Dr. Ali Abedi, an adjunct professor of computer science at Waterloo. "Using similar technology, one could track the movements of security guards inside a bank by following the location of their phones or smartwatches. Likewise, a thief could identify the location and type of smart devices in a home, including security cameras, laptops, and smart TVs, to find a good candidate for a break-in." Even more unsettling is that attackers can remain virtually invisible to their target since they can operate a camera-equipped drone from a hidden location. An adjacent building or a van parked down the street are suitable covert surveillance opportunities. Even if the victim spots the drone (which is not likely), there would be no way of pinpointing the operator. Whatsmore, the Wi-Peep was effortless and cheap to build. The researchers only had to fit an off-the-shelf drone with about $20 worth of "easily purchased hardware." Unfortunately, there is no mitigation for this type of attack yet. The polite WiFi loophole exists to make communication between devices seamless. It allows your phone to transfer files to your computer or another phone or your WiFi-only smartwatch to receive calls made to your phone. So without entirely revamping the whole system, there is not much that users or admins can do other than turn off WiFi. That said, the Waterloo team is encouraging WiFi chip manufacturers to at least incorporate random variations in response times. If the signals return randomly, the method cannot accurately calculate a device's position. Camera-equipped drones outfitted with WiFi-enabled spying components are becoming more popular. Last month a financial firm discovered attackers had used two modified drones to infiltrate its network from outside the building. Security analysts say using drones to crack networks has become more common in recent years. The team published their study with the Association for Computing Machinery. It is available for free on the ACM website. Chinese graphics card maker, Moore Threads, released its latest GPU which aims to deliver a significant performance that the public may utilize for different needs and requirements for the computer. The latest drop was said to rival the 2020 release from Nvidia, focusing on its GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards centering on its mid-range GPUs. The Chinese tech aims to deliver a card that would be available for use on many processes including gaming, an artificial intelligence focus, and loading massive processes from data centers. Moore Threads: China's Chunxiao GPU Lineup (Photo : Moore Threads) Moore Threads announced its latest industry-first Chinese graphics card under the Chunxiao lineup, centering on different releases for various needs in its computer landscape. Its latest GPU is the MTTS80 which centers on the company's MUSA architecture, intended for games and massive processes on the computer. On the other hand, Moore Threads also centers on a device for data centers, with its MTT S3000 which is intended for server applications, as per its release. The Chinese company also said that it is for a more upgraded function that will center on metacomputing, with Moore Threads' "all-in-one MCCX" feature. Read Also: How to Tell if Your GPU is DYING-Here are the Simple Ways to Determine It Moore Threads Graphics Cards: Specs (Photo : Moore Threads) The MTT S80 GPU centers on 256-bit memory and is compatible with GDDR6 memory for its graphics process for computers. On the other hand, it clocks 1.80 GHz to 1.90 GHz core frequency, centers on its 4,096 stream processors, and PCIe Gen5 lanes. According to Tom's Hardware, the powerful chip aims to deliver a performance that is similar to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, with its Chinese architecture being a first in its class. Graphics Card Development The computer needs a graphics card to deliver the visual display that a program aims to deliver, ensuring that massive processes from PCs bring users what they need to see and adapt to their needs. However, for the longest time now, the GPU industry in the world have suffered from shortage which led to delays and stock problems. However, there is a massive change this 2022 for the GPU's fate in the market, especially as there have been improvements in its availability and deliveries to those who ordered it from known companies. Many global companies intend to deliver the latest and fastest graphics processors that the world needs and some are famous names like Nvidia with its GeForce and RTX lineup which takes GPUs to the next level. On the other hand, AMD also centers on its Radeon GPUs, and Intel with its Arc graphics cards. There is another company that aims to catch up on the global market for GPUs, and it is Moore Threads' latest release, also a Chinese industry-first graphics card from the company. It is yet to be tested, but its release brings promising specs and numbers to deliver for users, especially as it rivals a known RTX release. Related Article: NVIDIA Retracts the Launch of Its 12GB RTX 4080 GPU After Backlash: Graphics Card to Return but with a New Name This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Isaiah Richard 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A hydrothermal vent was found in the Arctic Ocean in 2014, and it was given the name Aurora hydrothermal system by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Five years later, a follow-up mission to the location found that the hydrothermal system may contain information about the existence of life on other planets and their moons, as reported first by Interesting Engineering. (Photo : Chris German, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) The view of the Aurora hydrothermal Field as seen from above ice floes in the Arctic Ocean. Ocean Floor Hydrothermal Vent Ocean floor hydrothermal vents are not a new discovery. Each major ocean in the globe has hundreds of these vents, according to oceanographers. Hence, when the WHOI researchers discovered the Aurora Hydrothermal vent, they went back, thinking it was another similar vent covered in a thick layer of ice. A return trip to the location, however, uncovered much more about the vent and how it can aid researchers in their search for life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Europa and Enceladus, which both have deep oceans. "The single biggest part of what we may have discovered is a vent site beneath an ice-covered ocean that is also a great place to study organic synthesis relevant to the origin of life and the search for life beyond Earth," Chris German, senior scientist from the WHOI's Department of Geology and Geophysics, said in a press release statement. He added that the team's examination of the geology of the seafloor and the chemistry of the overlying water column revealed special qualities of the vent site. Read Also: The Arctic Ocean is Becoming More Acidic Than Ever, Is it Melting the Ice? Concentrations of Copper and Gold According to the research on the vent site, hydrothermal mineral deposits may be much more common than previously thought along half of all ridge crests in the world. This is because the deposits contain significant concentrations of copper and gold. (Photo : Alfred Wegener Institute)) A view of tall stalagmite-like hydrothermal chimneys from mineral deposits at the Aurora hydrothermal field. German said that this is a group of vent sites that were once disregarded because they couldn't support the expansion of significant hydrothermal mineral deposits. Scientists had previously believed that such tiny volcanic systems could not support hydrothermal circulation for very long, allowing such massive mineral deposits to form. But now, it might just help astronomers in searching for signs of life outside the planet. The Aurora hydrothermal system is distinct not only because it is situated in the Arctic but also because it is over 328 feet (100 m) wide. The high concentrations of copper and gold found in Aurora's deposits make these vents places of economic importance in addition to their role as potential indicators of life. The scientific findings from the Aurora hydrothermal system have just been published in the journal Nature Communications. Related Article: Canada's Arctic Meltdown: Collapsing Lost 40% Ice Mass in Two Days, Result of Arctic Amplification This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Jace Dela Cruz 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Apple is reportedly developing a foldable tablet over at its camp, and its delivery seeing 2024 for its release to the public, with Samsung reportedly being the insider of this information. On the other hand, the South Korean company releases another ad that takes a jab against the famous Cupertino tech manufacturer for having no foldable devices in their lineup. The sarcastic ads depict the iPhones and MacBooks in use by Apple loyalists, who said that fans of the company "wait" for new things from the brand. (Photo : NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) The Apple logo is seen at the entrance of an Apple store in Washington, DC, on September 14, 2021. - Apple users were urged on Tuesday to update their devices after the tech giant announced a fix for a major software flaw that allows the Pegasus spyware to be installed on phones without so much as a click. Apple Foldable Tablet in 2024? Samsung Says So 9to5Mac reported that Samsung executives were in a meeting with suppliers in the past month, with its focus being the current smartphone market which speculated on competitors and rivals. In the meeting, Samsung allegedly claimed that they expect Apple to bring a foldable device by 2024, and it would be available in two years. Samsung's mobile division which participated in the meeting also claimed that this foldable device would not be a smartphone, also known as the famous iPhone. The insiders leaked that Samsung is expecting Apple to deliver either a folding tablet or laptop by 2024, but not revamping its iPhone line to deliver foldables. Read Also: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Phones Likely to Feature S-Pen Slots Soon, Report Hints Samsung New Ad Attacks Apple's Foldables On the other hand, Samsung released its latest ad that is a direct shade against Apple, and this advertisement shows a person hopping the "fence" from being an iPhone fan. The ad showed iPhones and MacBooks in use. while the main character speculates on foldable devices and gets mesmerized by those. The ad says that foldable are already available over at Samsung, while Apple fans say that they "wait" for the company's releases. Apple and Samsung's Tech Rivalry Samsung and Apple are known rivals in the tech industry for a long time now, especially with their phones being the global leaders that center on delivering the latest developments for the mobile industry. Also, the pair are famous for Samsung's controversial shades that it throws against Apple with its ads which bring a funny take on bashing the iPhones. The ads which Samsung released in the past years deliver on shedding a light on its Galaxy smartphones' massive difference from the iPhones, something which puts it on a superior footing. There have been massive debates regarding who delivers the better device between Apple and Samsung, with a world also centering on mixed feelings between the two. Not to mention the many rivals in the tech industry from other known developers including Google, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Motorola, and more. Now, another ad from Samsung sheds light on Apple's decision to go from standard screens to foldable, especially with the Cupertino giant still sharing nothing regarding its development. The new report centers on a possible foldable tablet in 2024, something different from modern takes which deliver folding screens for smartphones. Related Article: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Phones Likely to Feature S-Pen Slots Soon, Report Hints This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Isaiah Richard 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Lucid Motors is set to introduce its new EV lineup this November, including the all-new Air Pure. The electric vehicle (EV) maker confirms that it plans to unveil its complete lineup of electric cars in mid-November. (Photo : PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) A Lucid Air Grand Touring electric luxury car is displayed at the Lucid Motors Inc. studio and service center on February 25, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California. Besides the debut of new Lucid Air trims, the automaker will also reveal its plans moving forward. Lucid Motors is Set to Introduce New EVs As per the latest news story by Electrek, the EV startup announced that its global launch event which goes by the name "In the Air and Beyond" kicks off this November 15. Lucid is set to introduce its full EV lineup during its unveiling event this month. The all-electric carmaker is taking the opportunity to introduce the last two variants of its Lucid Air electric sedan. It includes the all-new Air Pure and the Air Touring. Electrek notes in its report that the flagship sedan of the EV maker only offers two variants of its Air sedan. Initially, the tech firm introduced its Dream Edition. And later on, the automaker debuted its second trim, the Grand Touring. But this time, the American car maker is looking to complete all the variants of its Air sedan. It is worth noting that the firm initially announced that it is getting a total of four trims. And it turns out that two of them have already seen the light of day. Read Also: Lucid Reveals Stealth Look for Its Air EVs | Additional Features: Mirror Caps, Glass Roof trim, & Frames Around The Headlights Lucid Air Pure and Air Touring: Here's What to Expect Lucid plans to reveal the last two trims of its EV - the Air Touring and Air Pure -- in its upcoming event. Given that the EV startup has yet to formally introduce these two news variants, there is not much we know about it as of writing. However, Lucid could not help but tease some of their specs and pricing. (Photo : PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) A model of the Lucid MultiCore Boost Charger for an electric luxury car is displayed at the Lucid Motors Inc. studio and service center on February 25, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California. - The California-based electric vehicle company announced this month that it plans to go public via a merger with a company that values it at $24 billion, with the pure-electric luxury sedan Lucid Air launching in 2021. The press release of Lucid confirms that the Air Touring retails at roughly $107,400. With that hefty price tag, it rocks a balance of luxury and performance. On the other hand, the Air Pure is cheaper than the Air Touring. It only starts to the tune of $87,400. The EV maker offers this trim with an all-wheel drive and dual motor. Meanwhile, the rest of its specs, including the EPA rating, are coming out at the upcoming event. Related Article: Lucid Air EV Sales Reaches Peak This 2022 in Q3 - How Many Cars Were Delivered? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Rocket Lab is preparing for its second attempt to catch a rocket booster mid-air through a helicopter, as reported by TechCrunch. The mission is called "Catch Me If You Can" and will be on November 4 at the company's launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. (Photo : NASA via Getty Image) CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - JANUARY 10: In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft launch from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for their fifth official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting lab on January 10, 2015 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 75-minute launch window opens at 1:15 PM EST, and will be the 32nd Electron launch to date. The goal is to carry a single science research for the Swedish National Space Agency to sun orbit. It will also use the Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy satellite to study more about atmospheric waves. Not an Easy Mission Catching a rocket booster mid-air is not easy. In fact, the first helicopter recovery attempt was held on May 2, in which the Sikorsky S-92 was able to grab hold of the parachute line around 6,500 feet above the ocean; however, it released almost immediately. Like other recovery attempts, the booster was dropped into the sea and recovered via boat. Now, Rocket Lab will deploy the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter before launch with added features for higher chances of success. If it is successful, the company intends to secure the parachute to the helicopter and lower it back to the launch site for refurbishment and reuse. Also Read: Rocket Lab Sets Official Date to Pluck a Falling Rocket Booster with a Helicopter in Mid Air Reuse and the Future In the future, Rocket Lab's plan is to recycle even more of the Electron booster. Its new air-dropped recovery method is just the latest attempt at reusability. The company already demonstrated a sort of catch-and-release method during a mission in November 2017. After a successful launch of three satellites for NASA, Rocket Lab used its Curie engine module to deorbit and drop into the Pacific Ocean for later recovery. If a similar approach is taken for future launches, it will allow for Electron to stay in service longer, saving time and money for the company. As Rocket Lab continues to progress toward its goal of rapid, repeatable and reliable access to space, the company hopes to lower the cost of accessing space. Successful or not, Rocket Lab's attempts at reusable space travel are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, and it will be interesting to see what the company is able to accomplish over the course of its next few missions, as well as how the industry as a whole will respond. The company is one of several that are all striving toward a new, reusable model for the space industry, and it will be exciting to see what happens as more companies get involved. Related Article: Rocket Lab Will Explore Use of Neutron and Electron Launch Vehicles for US Military's Cargo Transport This article is owned by Tech Times Written by April Fowell 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Twitter employees received word from an internal memo that the company's new management team, led by Elon Musk, will start making layoffs on Friday morning, as reported first by TechCrunch and The Verge. This follows circulating rumors that Musk will reduce Twitter's workforce will be reduced by 75%, even though he dismissed these claims after his first visit to the company's headquarters. (Photo : Twitter account of Elon Musk/AFP via Getty Images) TOPSHOT - This video grab taken from a video posted on the Twitter account of billionaire Tesla chief Elon Musk on October 26, 2022 shows himself carrying a sink as he enters the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. "Your Role at Twitter" All staff members were notified via email on Thursday evening that they will learn of their employment status at 9 A.M. P.T. on Friday with the subject line "Your Role at Twitter" in each email. An employee will receive notification on their work email if they retain their positions; if they are fired, they will receive notification on a personal email address. "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward," the memo, obtained by The Verge, reads. Employees at Twitter have reportedly been filling an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to find out their destiny tomorrow, according to a post from a Twitter employee (although the tweet is already deleted). By asking programmers to print out the code they have generated in the last 30 to 60 days, Musk's team has already attempted to gauge the productivity of Twitter staff. Tesla engineers were also invited by Musk to review the Twitter code. However, it's unclear which business units may be impacted. Musk fired the whole PR department of Tesla in the past, therefore it stands to reason that he will also probably fire Twitter's PR department, according to TechCrunch. Has it already started? Happy layoff eve! pic.twitter.com/0AcaQjGJvm Rumman Chowdhury (@ruchowdh) November 4, 2022 Looks like Im unemployed yall. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack. #OneTeam forever. Loved you all so much. So sad it had to end this way Simon Balmain (@SBkcrn) November 4, 2022 Read Also: Banned Twitter Accounts to Remain Suspended? Elon Musk Promises Clear Process Before These Profiles Return Musk's Era As part of Musk's purchase agreement, Twitter agreed to take on $13 billion in bank debt, which will result in annual interest payments of around $1 billion for Twitter. Platformer has reported that Twitter's newsletter service Revue will be discontinued by the end of the year. In January 2021, Twitter paid an unknown sum to purchase Revue. The report also claims that Twitter's plans to create cryptocurrency wallets as well as Notes, a long-form publishing tool, are on hold. CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett, and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde were all sacked as soon as Musk completed his acquisition last week. The next day, Sarah Personette, Twitter's chief consumer officer, and Dalana Brand, the company's chief of people and diversity, both announced their resignations. Related Article: Elon Musk Slaps $8 Subscription to All Verified Users Complaining, Including NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Jace Dela Cruz 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The universe's most extreme objects are black holes. The centers of all giant galaxies are likely home to supermassive versions of these dense structures. There are an estimated 100 million stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way alone, which are significantly more prevalent and weigh five to one hundred times as much as the Sun. But only a few of them have been verified so far. Now, the closest black hole to Earth has been named Gaia BH1 by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope on the island of Hawaii, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory, run by NSF's NOIRLab. It is three times closer to Earth than the previous record-holder, an X-ray pair in the constellation of the Monoceros. This dormant black hole is around 10 times as big as the Sun and is situated about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Read also: NASA Detects Most Powerful Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst, Signals the Beginning of a New Black Hole? First Unambiguous Detection The discovery was made possible through in-depth investigations of the movements of the black hole's companion, a star similar to the Sun that orbits the black hole at a distance equivalent to that of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. "While there have been many claimed detections of systems like this, almost all these discoveries have subsequently been refuted. This is the first unambiguous detection of a Sun-like star in a wide orbit around a stellar-mass black hole in our Galaxy," Kareem El-Badry, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, said in a press release statement. Data from the Gaia spacecraft of the European Space Agency were initially examined by the researchers to determine the system's potential presence of a black hole. Gaia captured the minuscule deviations in the star's velocity brought on by a huge invisible object. The Gaia measurements hinted that a black hole might be that tugger, but additional information was required to be sure of its existence. The Gemini North and Keck 1 telescopes in Hawaii, the Magellan Clay and MPG/ESO telescopes in Chile, and other ground-based telescopes were used to study the star. The team was able to thoroughly assess the system thanks to these subsequent observations and the Gaia data. They found that the unknown object orbits the system's mass center once every 186 Earth days and has a mass of 10 suns. Given Gaia BH1's mass, the star that exploded and gave rise to it must have been massive-at least 20 solar masses or more, according to the team. These giants balloon inflate enormously before passing away after only a few million years. The new findings were made available online by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Friday, Nov. 4. Related Article: Astronomers Raise 'Imminent' Collision of Two Supermassive Black Holes With Combined Mass of 200 Million Suns! This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Jace Dela Cruz 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Twitter is facing a lawsuit over new CEO Elon Musk's intention to terminate around 3,700 employees at the said social media platform. Employees claimed the company is now taking these actions without providing enough notice, which is illegal under federal and California law. In a report by Bloomberg, the filing of a class-action lawsuit in the federal court in San Francisco took place on Thursday, Nov. 3. Related Story: Musk Era: Twitter Reportedly Starts Mass Layoffs Based on Tweets from Employees The Email Sent to Twitter Employees According to an email sent to Twitter workers on Thursday evening, the firm plans to start laying off employees beginning Friday at noon. Musk reportedly aims to remove half of the workers in order to save expenses after acquiring the platform for $44 last month. The mentioned email that CNN obtained stated, "If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email. If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email." Also, in order to safeguard the safety of Twitter's workers and its systems, the company's offices will be temporarily closed, and all badge access will be disabled. At the end of the email, an acknowledgment was made that it would be a very difficult circumstance for everyone in the workforce to go through. Before Musk's takeover, there were around 7,500 people working at Twitter. The Lawsuit Filed Against Elon Musk's Twitter Large corporations are prohibited under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, from carrying out mass layoffs unless they provide their employees with at least 60 days notice in advance. The complaint requests that the court issue an order mandating Twitter to enforce the WARN Act and preventing the business from asking workers to sign paperwork that potentially gives away their ability to join in litigation. Shannon Liss-Riordan is the lawyer who filed the complaint on Thursday. She said in an interview via Bloomberg, "We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights." In June, Liss-Riordan sued Tesla for identical allegations after Musk's automotive company cut 10% of its workers. A federal judge in Austin ordered the employees in that case to arbitrate their complaints. Elon Musk Previously Denied Mass Layoffs On Oct. 31, new Twitter owner Musk refuted claims made in a weekend New York Times report that he wanted to terminate employees before Nov. 1. ProPublica's deputy managing editor Eric Umansky tweeted that Musk was making sure to dismiss employees at Twitter before part of their year-end pay rolls out on the first day of November. Musk's only reply was, "This is false." The billionaire did not specify what about the claim was untrue. After today's news dissemination, however, it is clear that the only inaccurate information was the exact date. See Also: Twitter Feud: AOC Says Her Account Stops Working Properly After a Spat With Elon Musk This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Trisha Kae Andrada 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Vietnam's Ministry of Communications is considering drafting a law requiring some "toxic" material to be deleted from social media within three hours in certain circumstances and other misleading news to be removed within 24 hours. Vietnam's Effort to Achieve a 'Toxic'-free Digital Space According to Bloomberg, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung made statements in front of the National Assembly. He emphasized that imprudent fake news on the internet would spread extremely wide if handled slowly. The ministry plans to implement 24-hour, and three-hour take-down orders for content deemed malicious and harmful. The proposed timeframe is an increase over the present 48-hour take-down order. Hung added that while the punishment for spreading false information has grown by a factor of three, it is just a small fraction of what is being imposed in other nations. He said that the ministry would continue collaborating with other government entities to increase the monetary penalty. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health is also considering guidelines that would instruct social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to delete advertising that includes incorrect information, particularly about nutritional items. In 2020, the government ministry already blacklisted 1,700 websites as they displayed indicators of fraud. Related Article: Fake News: Here's Why People Believe Them, According To Science Prior Initiative: Strengthening Cybersecurity in the Country The initiatives of the nation's Communist authorities to strengthen the regulation of internet conduct came months after they proposed and implemented new rules that triggered worries from US business organizations. According to a previous report by Reuters, new orders are forcing foreign technology companies to set up local offices and keep the data of their Southeast Asian customers in the area. The decree stipulates that authorities may make data collection requests for investigative purposes. They may also order service providers to delete information that is regarded to violate government norms. Foreign companies will have 12 months from the time they get instructions from the Minister of Public Security to establish local data storage and representative offices. Additionally, they will be required to keep their customers' data onshore for at least 24 months. Prior Initiative: US Businesses Called it a Huge Burden Meanwhile, US businesses considered and called it a "substantial burden" that may have the potential to harm investments, Bloomberg reported. It was on the letter signed by the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam, along with the Asia Internet Coalition, which comprised Amazon, Google, and Meta. It also said that the laws make it impossible for corporations to estimate the costs associated with operating in Vietnam. Prior to all these new orders, Vietnam instituted stricter internet regulations over the last several years. These include new cybersecurity legislation taking effect in 2019 and national guidelines on social media conduct that were presented in June of last year. Read Also: Google Shares Plan to Stop the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News About Ukrainian Refugees This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Trisha Kae Andrada 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Cybersecurity experts have found evidence of criminals posing as powerful multinational legal firms to scam victims into paying for work that never existed. Abnormal Security researchers discovered a completely new Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack that was carried out by a gang of malicious hackers known as Crimson Kingsnake, TechRadar reported. According to an article by Bleeping Computer, the first discovery of the group's activity was in March 2022, with 92 domains connected to them. All of these domains are designed to seem like they belong to legitimate US law firms. See Also: FBI Warns Businesses About Iranian Hacker Group Emennet Pasargad Crimson Kingsnake in Action In what analysts refer to as "blind BEC attacks," the victims are most likely selected at random. To put it another way, the perpetrators of the attack would cast a broad net and see what caught their attention. To initiate the attack, the threat actors would send out an email, purporting to be one of many prominent legal firms in the US, and asking money for work that was reportedly done many months earlier. The actual email is very well constructed, using names of prominent law firms and accounting firms like Kirkland & Ellis, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Deloitte. The email address is virtually similar to the legitimate email affiliated with the legal company but is not identical. Even though it is obviously a typo-squatted email, the content has all the appropriate logos and letterheads. In addition, it has punctuation, which is not a characteristic that often appears in BEC or phishing attempts. The Victims Things take an unusual turn for the better when the victim confronts the attackers. The hackers would bring in a third identity; a pretend executive from the target company, who would verify the request's legitimacy and approve the payment. The report said, "When the group meets resistance from a targeted employee, Crimson Kingsnake occasionally adapts their tactics to impersonate a second persona: an executive at the targeted company." Crimson Kingsnake pretends to be a number of different US legal firms, including the following: Allen & Overy Clifford Chance Deloitte Dentons Eversheds Sutherland Herbert Smith Freehills Hogan Lovells Kirkland & Ellis Lindsay Hart Manix Law Firm Monlex International Morrison Foerster Simmons & Simmons Sullivan & Cromwell Since these are huge international corporations that have a presence all over the world, the actors believe that their targets would be familiar with them, which gives a sense of legitimacy to the email. Do Not be a Victim Phishing emails and corporate email compromise threats are still one of the most common methods for cybercriminals to carry out their operations. Employees on the receiving end of these emails usually act recklessly and are overworked or distracted. They tend to do things they normally would not do, such as making wire transfers, downloading files and software, clicking the links provided in the email, and other similar activities. Also Read: Australia's Cybercrime Reports Shot Up by 13% With Over 76,000 Complaints in a Year This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Trisha Kae Andrada 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Electronic Arts (EA) is gearing up for the most prestigious competition in "Apex Legends." So far, the biggest event that will grace the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Year 2 is the upcoming Apex Legends Pro League which is slated to start on Saturday, Nov. 6. This 2023, 90 teams will compete for glory and fame in hopes of snagging the most elusive prize. The $500,000 prize pool will be shared by the victors of the event. List of All Participating Teams Per Region (Photo : EA) The prestigious event will be joined by 30 teams from three regions. According to AFK Gaming, here's the updated list of all teams and their respective groups for each region. Asia Pacific North Group A FNATIC Crazy Raccoon DetonatioN Gaming MUSHIKING ENTER FORCE.36 Meteor WQTAKO Grow Gaming O2 Esports MukawakiN Group B VOKUVOKU ORTHROS FANG FENNEL Donuts USG GHS Professional Reginite Lag Gaming NAKED EVA:e UNLOQ Group C PULVEREX Ganbare Otusan FC Destroy Flora FUNNY LOCO Riddle 456 Nebula e-Sports NORTHEPTION KINOTROPE REALIZE Asia Pacific South Group A EXO Clan Free Agents Chicken Sandwich DuGuPlay North side Esports ADAL Wolves MDY-White GQ Boogie Boarders Golden Sage Group B Moist Esports DEWA UNITED HRMGRD Sry Truth Esports 505 StinkyB Emmanuel TWO MNK ONE PAD MeiDuiYao Group C DreamFire Buriram United DNZ ANT Esports Club PK 20th Guaranteed RTL T4 Dynasty Esports ATHXHVY Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Group A Pioneers Acend Gaimin Gladiators Forge Phoenix Legacy Heroez Turkish Stars High Peak Bitfix Gaming Three Muppets Group B Alliance iG International Element 6 Horizon EKO Esports NAVI Vexed Gaming Corpa Incentive Arise Game of Drones Group C SCARZ Fire Beavers Aurora Reply Totem Start a Fight FUT Esports GameWard VZD High Society V2 North America Group A: DarkZero NRG Team Liquid CLG G2 MPL Complexity Rakk Attack Team Smiley Bots Group B FURIA TSM Cloud9 E8 Atlanta Premier Sign Us Please Tripods Esports Arena SZN BR Demonz Group C 100 Thieves Spacestation OpTic Luminosity Sentinels Oxygen The Guard FaZe Clan Slept On First Attempt South America Group A GDFIRE K1CK Valhalla Exotick Horus FusioN E-Sports ELN Fenix Team Blood Show Wkey Group B Team Singularity 1iQ BreakingRulleZ LeaveNoWitness Two Much Rush Brotherhood Fellas SA Abusers Blackhat Esports Coritiba Esports Group C Los Cuys NorCal Esports Monterrey Esports LFO Enygma TBG ESPORTS Insanity Vermouth no reply KriticalRush Tortugas Ninjas Related Article: 'Apex Legends:' Seer Heirloom is Leaked to Come in Season 15 Along With Prestige Wraith Skin 'Apex Legends' Pro League Format Each region will be divided into three groups which consist of 10 teams. The qualification of the teams will be based on their performance during the ALGS Year 2 and Year 3 Preseason Qualifiers. There will be a triple round-robin format for the upcoming event. This means that each team in the group will play each team from the other groups thrice across the qualifying rounds. The top 20 teams who stood out during the Regular Season will move to the online Regional Finals. The Match Point format will determine the qualified squads. The Split 1 playoffs will include 10 teams from the Asia Pacific (APAC) North, North America (NA), Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In APAC South and South America, there will be five teams that will enter the same playoff. The Regional Finals winner will be included along with the top four teams with the most points during the Regular Season. The regional bottom eight teams in the Split 1 Pro League Regular Season will be demoted to the Split 20 Pro League Qualifier. They will be scheduled to fight the best teams who will stay on top of the Challenger Circuit. The remaining "Apex Legends" Pro League team who will fail in the qualifying rounds of the playoffs will have their final shot at the Last Chance Qualifier. For the schedules, you can visit this website for more information. If you want to view the tournament online, you can go to Twitch, YouTube, and Steam. Read Also: 'Pokemon GO': How to Find Zorua in the Wild, Find the Dark-Type, Zoroark Evolution Tips This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joseph Henry 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ambassador calls on Chinese, British business communities to further promote cooperation Xinhua) 21:51, November 04, 2022 LONDON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang has encouraged the business communities of China and Britain to contribute their insight and strength to stronger practical cooperation between the two countries. "Your contribution will go a long way to create more highlights of bilateral cooperation," said Zheng when addressing the Fifth China-UK Economic and Trade Forum on Wednesday in London. The ambassador also shared with the audience the significance of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), introducing key words including Chinese modernisation, high-quality development, and peace and cooperation. The 20th CPC National Congress has underpinned new opportunities and new energy for China's relations with Europe and Britain, the ambassador noted. "We should strive for mutual benefits and reject decoupling and disruption of industrial and supply chains. And we should champion multilateralism and resist unilateralism," he said. Also speaking at the forum, Fang Wenjian, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, called on the participants to adopt an open and pragmatic mindset and take action to grasp the opportunities, and to create mutual benefits for the two peoples and societies of China and Britain. Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, also stressed that China is a great opportunity for the British. "It is important and vital to the British people, not just British businesses but we as a country, to engage with China and do business with China," he said. Hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, the forum gathered over 300 representatives from all walks of life to communicate and explore more opportunities for cooperation. (Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming) YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan hosted today the first session of the Armenian-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission. In his remarks Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said that the session outlined all the priority steps which will help to boost the relations between the two countries not only in the commercial but also in different other areas. We have a list of a lot of works to do and also talks on some issues, and I think that the cooperation connected with intensive orchards and the TUMO is the most realistic for implementing it in a short period of time, he said, adding that the Kyrgyz partners have visited both the TUMO and several agricultural sites of intensive orchards. He stated that Armenias mutual trade with Belarus will soon cross 100 million dollars, that with Kazakhstan is not surpassing 50 million dollars, and with Kyrgyzstan 5 million dollars. Our economic relations with Russia are very important, but there is a very big potential with other countries of the EAEU as well, he said. Minister Kerobyan said Armenia is trying to intensify the relations with the other member states of the EAEU. The trade turnover between the two countries in the first 8 months of this year is around 3 million dollars. I think it will reach 5 million dollars by the end of the year, but the potential is many times higher. Another sector, where there is cooperation and we should continue, is the export of fish food from Armenia to Kyrgyzstan, Vahan Kerobyan said, stating that Kyrgyzstan is interesting to Armenia from the perspective of hydroenergy and solar energy. We are interested in the agricultural opportunities of Kyrgyzstan. As China is our second largest trade partner and neighbors with Kyrgyzstan, we are interested in Kyrgyzstans opportunities aimed at deepening the trade with China, the minister said. Minister of Economy of Kyrgyzstan Daniyar Amangeldiev thanked the Armenian side for the proper organization of the session and highlighted the intensification of commercial relations between the two countries. We are ready to use the experience of our Armenian partners in the field of the development of intensive orchards. We have also discussed the possibilities of holding business forums in the future, he said. At the end of the session Vahan Kerobyan and his Kyrgyz counterpart signed the protocol of the session. The new law provide conditions for a long-term peace policy, allowing the current and future administrations to establish and implement agreements in favor of peace. On Thursday, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Colombia approved the report of the "Total Peace" Law, which will allow President Gustavo Petro to dialogue with all the armed groups in the country. The new law provide legal conditions for a long-term peace policy, allowing the current and future administrations to establish and implement agreements in favor of peace. More specifically, the representatives of the Colombian State will be able to sign agreements with the spokespersons or members of the illegal armed groups in order to obtain solutions to the armed conflict that has prevailed in this South American country for more than 6 decades. "Basically, the Law provides instruments to the President of the Republic and the High Commissioner for Peace to achieve a situation of full peace in Colombia," Interior Minister Alfonso Prada said. #Colombias @petrogustavo admin is close to winning full congressional support for its ambitious Total Peace plan. Shorton what we know about plans for dialogue with armed and criminal groups. pic.twitter.com/OJAUP9s3Er Elizabeth Dickinson (@dickinsonbeth) October 27, 2022 "The law is the most solid and inclusive norm approved to date in Colombia. It has the indispensable instruments to inaugurate an era of peace," Historical Pact Senator Ivan Cepeda pointed out. The "Total Peace" Law also creates the "National Program for the Voluntary Surrender of Arms", which establishes that people who surrender their weapons will be able to avoid criminal prosecution for having possessed weapons illegally. Additionally, the "Total Peace" law defines that the "Social Service for Peace" can be an option for young people who do not wish to perform compulsory military service. Listen to the continuation of the story of the English scientist Charles Darwin, told by the historian Virginie Girod, in an unpublished story in two episodes. During a scientific expedition in Latin America where he was able to observe nature, Charles Darwin saw his vision of the world, supposed to be organized by God, called into question. His theory of evolution, according to which species evolve over time to adapt to their environment, is in the making. But it's a new discovery that will shake up his certainties! This story is a Europe 1 Studio production. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received today leader of the EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia Marek Szczygie and his delegation, the Foreign Ministry said. During the meeting the Foreign Minister presented the current security situation in the region following the latest aggression of Azerbaijan against Armenias territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as the positions of the Armenian side over the normalization of the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The FM highlighted the deployment of the EU civilian mission in Armenia, expressing confidence that it will contribute to establishing stability and peace in the region. Marek Szczygie thanked the Armenian side for the support provided to the EU civilian mission and introduced the framework of their activities and upcoming works in Armenia. The sides also discussed issues relating to future partnership. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. For already the second time Armenian businessmen will have an opportunity to present their products in the United States on the sidelines of the Armenian-American Business Bridge exhibition-festival. The event will take place in the US city of Glendale on December 1-8, President of the Council of the International Business Relations Support Mariam Manukyan told a press conference in Armenpress, adding that this year the event will have more participants and products. More than 500 applications were submitted by the Armenian companies for participation in the exhibition. Both large and small and medium enterprises have applied. 40 companies have been selected. I want to note that it was very difficult to select. Several criteria have been taken into account, in particular, the companies must have had operated at least for 3 years and the turnover must have started from 20 million, Mariam Manukyan said, adding that several small companies have been provided with an opportunity to be presented in a single pavilion with several product samples. The selected companies present different products textile, shoes, bags, canned food, dried fruits, jewelry, tourism, IT, etc. Member of the Council of the International Business Relations Support Gevorg Aghabalyan said that major activities are being carried out with Armenian companies. There are technical criteria in the US market which the companies need to meet in order to be able to enter an international market. Unfortunately, even large companies, the Armenian manufacturers often are not ready for that criteria. Our working group has made all efforts to ensure certification, licensing so that our companies will be able to sell their products without any obstacle, he said. During the festival the Armenian companies will not only have an opportunity to sell their products, but also to establish business ties. The participants are going to have a busy agenda as meetings are expected with the representatives of the Chambers of Commerce of Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. Despite being held for just the 2nd time, the exhibition-festivals results are already visible. More than 10 companies, which participated in the previous event, have already managed to find partners in the US and export their goods. Voters walk to and away from voting, on the first day of early voting at the State Archives building on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Early voting for the Nov. 8 Louisiana open congressional primary election runs through Tuesday, Nov. 1. Polls are closed Sunday, Oct. 30. Voters statewide will consider a U.S. Senate primary and eight constitutional amendments. All voters in the Baton Rouge area will have a congressional race on the ballot. All area parishes except West Feliciana have local races. Visit geauxvote.com for additional information on candidates and issues. A list of early voting locations is available at https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/earlyvoting; please note that hours may be different at satellite offices. Voters are asked to bring an ID with them to vote. Voters without an ID will be allowed to vote after filling out an affidavit. The Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 S. River Road, is hosting Super Science Sunday: Lets Get Chemical as a part of the American Chemical Society 2022 Southwest Regional Meeting from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6. Three Louisiana teens learn an important history lesson in an unlikely way in 'Hollow Tree.' GYUMRI, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The Office of Human Rights Defender of Armenia will soon publish an ad hoc report presenting facts about the anti-Armenian manifestations in Azerbaijan, Ombudswoman Kristinne Grigoryan told reporters at a briefing in Gyumri city. She said that her Office continues the works on collecting facts about the tortures of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives held in Azerbaijan, as well as is working with various international organizations, different countries and embassies which are somehow engaged in the negotiations. You are aware that 17 persons have returned, but its painful that we still have captives in Azerbaijan, most of whom are from the Shirak province. Our works in collecting facts under the light of international rights continue. In this respect we are in active touch with the US Embassy and the Delegation of the European Union to increase the international pressure which should eventually lead to the return of our boys, Kristinne Grigoryan said, adding that they also work with the families of the captives. As of this moment we know the needs of almost all families, social, economic, psychological, etc. In line with it, we are also trying to present proposals to the government for the support, compensations or other programs. We will soon release an ad hoc report based on our individual interviews with those 17 returned POWs, presenting facts about the anti-Armenian manifestations in Azerbaijan. The report will be presented to the international community. These activities must not stop, she said, adding that in addition to the confirmed captives, there are also other captives in Azerbaijan but their authorities deny it, although there are sufficient evidences that these persons are in captivity in Azerbaijan. Armenuhi Mkhoyan Downtown Greenville, South Carolina. More than 100 business, political and community leaders wrapped up a three day visit to the city Friday and came away with a goal to continue meeting in order to make the ideas that came out of the trip become a reality. Oyo Hotel Baton Rouge East I-12, at 9999 Gwenadele Ave, seen Thursday, May 19, 2022. This particular OYO location had the most overdose EMS calls of any hotel or motel in the parish since the start of last year. YEREVAN, 4 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 4 November, USD exchange rate up by 0.18 drams to 395.52 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.07 drams to 387.25 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 6.37 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.54 drams to 443.65 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 254.95 drams to 20711.61 drams. Silver price down by 10.82 drams to 240.59 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams. Australias best known bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse may be fined up to $121,000 after allegedly incentivising a customer to continue punting after they requested their account be closed. The states gaming regulator, Liquor & Gaming NSW, confirmed it is prosecuting the 67-year-old Waterhouse for alleged breaches of the Betting and Racing Act. However, they declined to comment on the matter as its before the courts. Robbie Waterhouse is one of Australias leading bookmakers. Credit:Jessica Shapiro The bookmaker is facing a total of 11 charges. Five charges pertain to allegedly incentivising a person against shutting down their betting account following a closure request. The remaining six pertain to allegedly accepting bets from a person who requested to close said account. All 11 charges revolved around a single customer of RobWaterhouse.com. If convicted, Waterhouse faces fines totalling $121,000. The Betting and Racing Act 1998 in NSW prohibits offering individuals inducements to participate in any gambling activity. Waterhouse will appear at Downing Centre local court on December 6. He was approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication. He has not yet formally responded to the charges. The argument in workplaces goes something like this. We, of course, aspire to treating others equitably. This begs the question of how do we measure our aspirations? What measures can we put in place to ensure equity? Notice, here, the move from aspiration to accountancy. This is a mistake. Setting sail on the good ship equity we leave behind those petty sorts who cheat the system. But if we are not careful, we might run onto the rocks of accountability. The siren call of the bean-counting mermaids at a distance seem alluring. Frequently only when it is too late do we realise these mermaids are distinctly fishy. Who is not for fairness, impartiality and even-handed dealing? OK, OK, I get it you have already made a long list, including several previous bosses and organisations even. Or that bloke on the bus who deliberately takes up both seats to prevent other commuters sitting down. Or. Or. It is a mistake because the logic from this point on is inexorably perfused with measurement. For instance, having decided we wish to champion equity, we decide we must define what we mean by equity. Because we want to initiate measures, it follows that our definition must permit us to be able to measure whether or not we are achieving our goal of equity. Fairness seems a promising place to start. From there it is but a short step to declaring that everyone must be treated the same. But that does not seem very equitable given people differ in many (most?) things including their needs, their level of effort, their investment, their performance, their results, and a whole range of other factors. Loading Should all clients and customers be treated the same? What about accommodations for those who have particular needs? Does equity mean that everyone gets exactly the same experience? This is the McDonalds versus the local restaurant debate. I could walk into any gin joint or Scottish burger bar in the world and my Gordons will taste the same, as will my Big Mac. This is what commoditisation aims to achieve. Consistency of experience, product, and service. This consistency comes with some costs. Churning out the same old, same old is hardly a receipt for innovation or creativity. It robs consumers of the chance to experience the brilliance of a local chef or an artisanal distillery. It is conformity to the mean average in the name of equity. Too frequently this is a receipt for mediocrity. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A little over a century ago, Louis Brandeis, who would go on to become a US Supreme Court justice, coined a phrase that sunlight is the best disinfectant. It would quickly become a household saying, but many of the influential men and women who sit on the boards of Australias biggest companies, are still learning Brandeis lesson in transparency when it comes to disclosure on sexual harassment and other discrimination within organisations. This month, the federal government will release guidelines for companies on the use of controversial non-disclosure agreements in workplaces, following the expected legislation in federal parliament of the Respect at Work bill. The Respect at Work bill was developed out of the work and the 55 recommendations made in Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins landmark Respect at Work report. The reports recommendations, and the bill once it becomes law, puts the onus on boards and companies to be proactive rather than reactive in tackling sexual harassment. Secrecy is now regarded quite badly. Kate Jenkins, Sex Discrimination Commissioner The legislation will state that boards and companies have a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination at their workplace, and disclose the frameworks they have put in place for employees to report incidents. It was fundamental to the operation of the Sex Discrimination Act that there should be positive duty on employers, explains Kate Jenkins. The external climate has made boards realise that even if you dont want to be disclosing details, or if you dont want to be monitoring sexual harassment, the community, the workforce and investors now expect more of organisations. Secrecy is now regarded quite badly. Jenkins says the issue of sexual harassment remains widespread within companies and society. Its a view shared by Louise Davidson, chief executive at the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), who describes it as endemic across every industry. Advertisement In the past few months, Davidson and ACSI staff have held discussions with public company boards ahead of the annual meeting season to learn what steps the nations biggest companies are taking to prevent and address sexual harassment. Some companies are definitely giving this a lot of focus and putting in place better information flow to the board, says Davidson. Others havent grappled with the extent of the problem that might exist in their organisation or that ultimately its the board that is accountable. They havent quite realised that this is a big risk for them. ACSI chief executive Louise Davidson wants companies to disclose data on their use of non-disclosure agreements, particularly around sexual harassment. Credit:Louise Kennerley ACSI has also been asking boards if their companies use non-disclosure agreements, particularly in sexual harassment cases. If so, then Davidson wants those organisations to make the data available publicly about how many NDAs they have put in place on an annual basis. ACSI represents the nations biggest superannuation funds that hold substantial shareholdings in publicly listed companies. In June last year, ACSI and the Sex Discrimination Commissioners office released a report, Equality across the board: Investing in workplaces that work for everyone, which surveyed 118 out the 200 biggest public companies. The report found that only one in five respondents from those 118 companies thought that their boards had primary responsibility and accountability for the prevention and response to sexual harassment. The report also pointed to the loss in productivity and profit that occurs when companies dont address sexual harassment but instead prefer to cover it up. A Deloitte Access Economics report has estimated the economic cost is as much as $3.8 billion, through lost productivity, staff turnover, absenteeism and other associated effects. Advertisement A handful of companies that are leading in transparency on misconduct matters such as sexual harassment, bullying and racism, include Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank, BHP and Rio Tinto. Macquaries 2022 annual report discloses that it had 82 incidents in its financial year, with 38 involving breaches of the companys code of conduct or workplace behaviour, while 44 incidents involved risk management and technology breaches. In one third of the 82 cases, staff were fired. While in almost half of the cases, there was disciplinary action taken as well as additional training, and also a 44 per cent cut to those employees profit share. Macquarie has a staff of 18,000. Nicola Wakefield Evans, a Macquarie board director, says such disclosure is important in sending a message. What were trying to do is say to our staff and external stakeholders, we take this stuff seriously, and these are the consequences if somebody breaches any of our conduct policies. Its the consequence management thats important because employees want to see that we take action. Macquarie director Nicola Wakefield Evans says providing data on misconduct at the organisation was linked to its culture of accountability. Employees want to see that we take action. Credit:Janie Barrett In its annual report, Commonwealth Bank, which has 49,245 full-time staff, said it had 1,071 incidents in its financial year. The bank did not break out what the misconduct was but said 76 employees were sacked of which eight were senior leaders. The bank has introduced a Speak Up program, through which 317 of those incidents were reported, while another 96 were from whistleblowers. BHP, which employs nearly 80,000 staff and contractors, reported 5,402 incidents in its recent financial year. Those incidents can include safety breaches, fraud, corruption, trade or sanction violations, bullying, racism or sexual harassment. BHP said that across its global operations 103 of those incidents were substantiated cases of sexual harassment. In all but two of those 103 cases the perpetrator was fired, resigned or was removed from the site if they were a contractor. BHP further outlined that 37 of those cases involved non-consensual kissing or touching of a sexual nature - none involved non-consensual penetration or intercourse. While 66 involved other forms of sexual harassment, including inappropriate comments of a sexual nature, unwelcome gestures or comments, sending inappropriate text messages or images, or other unwanted advances or invitations. Advertisement In 2018, the Australian Workplace Survey Report indicated that 70 per cent of women in the mining industry had experienced some form of sexual harassment. Fortescues deputy chair Mark Barnaba says the company has spent more time looking at these issues, and its operational and governance approach to them. This has always been top of mind for the Fortescue Board, however recent events have meant how we as a company address and prevent misconduct has become a far more intrinsic part of our governance model. Fortescues deputy chair Mark Barnaba says the company has spent more time looking at sexual harassment and discrimination issues, and its operational and governance approach to them. Credit:Philip Gostelow Earlier this year, Rio Tinto released a review of its workplace culture, which was carried out by Elizabeth Broderick, a former sex discrimination commissioner. The review found bullying, sexual harassment, racism and other forms of discrimination throughout the company. In September, Rio Tinto reported that one of its workers in the Pilbara in Western Australia was alleged to have sexually assaulted another co-worker and threatened her with a makeshift weapon, and is now facing criminal charges. The alleged perpetrator was removed from the site immediately, and the company informed its entire iron ore staff of the incident in a memo with the support of the alleged victim. Advertisement MinterEllison partner Amanda Watt, who specialises in employment law and has advised many major corporations, says she has witnessed progress by boards around disclosure and acting on sexual harassment cases. They understand that these behaviours often start with everyday sexism and a lack of respect, says Watt. The ones that are really doing well, they are holding their executive leadership teams to account on what Id say is proper data, so they can understand where to target their strategies to address the behaviours. Watt says transparency and disclosure of poor workplace behaviour is a good start, but agrees with Nicola Wakefield Evans that its what the organisation does next that is critical. Its here is our data and what have we learned from these cases, and what are we going to change in how we manage them in the future, says Watt. People know where the bad behaviour is, and theyre looking to the executive leadership team and the board to see whether theyre going to walk their talk. ACSIs Davidson says AMP was a catalyst for the change that is now occurring, while others have listed the #MeToo movement. In 2020, AMPs chair David Murray and board director John Fraser resigned after revelations by The Australian Financial Review that its AMP capital boss Boe Pahari was promoted after a sexual harassment claim made against him by a colleague was settled. AMP was a clear demonstration of how mismanaging a sexual harassment case could ultimately destroy value in a company, says Davidson. Advertisement If youre a Booker Prize follower, youve probably bought this years winner, Shehan Karunatilakas The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, and possibly the shortlisted books to read over the next few months. Or maybe youre looking at the bestseller lists and buying what everyone else is buying. But just for a change, might I suggest another reading list? My choice is fresh, challenging, exciting and all-Australian. These seven vastly different books will intrigue and engross you with tales about everything from loss and mourning to a velociraptor revenge wedding. They can be deeply serious or wildly funny. The shortlisted books in the Small Press Networks 2022 Book of the Year award. You might not have heard of the authors yet. Their themes and style might be too out-there to attract major book deals with the more conservative big publishers. But they deserve to be widely read. Actually other people have made my choice for me, and thats fine. The judges of the Small Press Network (Penni Russon, Bec Kavanagh and Andrew Finegan) have chosen these seven from 100 entries as the shortlist for their 2022 Book of the Year, with the winner to be announced on November 25. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Since the last global climate talks ended in what was described as a fragile win for our warming Earth, the global order has spun further out of control. Russias invasion of Ukraine has prompted an energy crisis that has seen some nations dive back into coal. Grain exports from Ukraine were suspended, driving up the price of staples, while crops were being battered by climate-exacerbated heatwaves across China, Africa, Europe and the US and floods in China, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to name a few. Although the stakes are high and the sense of impending chaos palpable, not all the news this year has been bad. The US has passed the greatest climate package in its history; a world desperate for new energy has turned more to green solutions than brown; and the pace of renewable energy deployment in China has been eye-watering. Brazils Jair Bolsonaro, whose presidency saw mass clearing of the Amazon rainforest, recently conceded defeat in a national election, much to the relief of climate observers. Still, as world leaders gather in Egypt for another round of climate talks, they have a lot to talk about. Not far off in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, millions of people face hunger and the prospect of famine. And developing nations are pushing back. So, whats on the agenda in Egypts Sharm el-Sheikh? And what do loss and damages actually mean? Credit: First, wholl be at COP27? The cast of COP27 includes US President Joe Biden and (after a late reverse ferret) British PM Rishi Sunak as well as Frances President Emmanuel Macron. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi both leaders of greenhouse gas giants will be there. Advertisement Nor will Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is travelling to meetings of ASEAN, APEC and the G20 in Cambodia, Thailand and Bali, which conflict with the second week of the COP. Instead, the Australian delegation is led by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and includes Pacific Minister Pat Conroy and Senator Jenny McAllister. Does it matter? Well, maybe. Albaneses decision has raised some eyebrows because his government has been determined to raise the nations climate ambitions and because it hopes to secure support to co-host a COP with the Pacific in the coming years. The negotiators, activists and leaders who go to these annual COPs short for Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are from among the 196 nations that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting carbon emissions. But the talks normally attract the full flight of world leaders only every five years, when countries are expected to announce new targets, as was the case in Glasgow last year. Having passed the USs most ambitious climate laws ever, Biden has good cause to attend. (The laws funnelled $US370 billion into measures to ramp up renewables, which modelling suggests will reduce its emissions by up to 40 per cent on 2005 levels.) And Sunaks absence would have been conspicuous because, as hosts in Glasgow, Britain still holds the COP presidency until it is formally handed over to Egypt at the meeting. Another key climate figure who is not in town is activist Greta Thunberg. The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing, she said, referring to the growing trend of corporate performative action on climate. From left, US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the climate summit in Egypt. Credit:AP Advertisement Whats top of the agenda in Egypt? Looming over the talks will be the fact that since last years COP26, the world has failed to put itself on track to meet Paris Agreement targets to hold warming to well below 2 degrees. In fact, the world is headed for 2.8 degrees of global heating by the end of the century, according to a recent report from the UNs Environment Program. The recommendations in todays report are clear, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. End our reliance on fossil fuels. Avoid a lock-in of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Invest massively in renewables. He added: Commitments to net zero are worth zero without the plans, policies and actions to back it up. In Sharm el-Sheikh, negotiations over payments for loss and damage will ramp up. This last point is crucial. The Egyptian hosts have declared that if the Glasgow talks were about driving nations to set more ambitious targets, these will focus on creating the policies to meet them. Not only that, but participants will be urged to restore what the COPs incoming president, Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, has called the grand bargain of the Paris Agreement. That bargain is the agreement at the heart of the UN climate treaty, in which developing nations agreed to cut emissions and rich nations agreed to help pay for the effort. So in Sharm el-Sheikh, there will be negotiations about pumping billions, if not trillions, into a range of public and private sector funds, all of which have so far not been hitting their targets. And negotiations over payments for loss and damage will ramp up. In Pakistan in August, displaced people travel floodwaters that followed an extreme monsoon season. Credit:AP Advertisement What was that about loss and damage? Ever since COPs began in 1995, the developing world has felt let down on climate change by the developed world which has enjoyed the economic benefits of pumping out greenhouse gases as it pursued wealth, but which has failed to keep promises both to cut those gases and to provide the funds to help emerging economies adapt to a warming world. As climate impacts grow worse, this inequity is becoming more stark. During floods this year, Pakistan which has contributed around .09 per cent of global greenhouse gases saw 12 per cent of its land inundated, more than 1700 people killed and over 2.1 million displaced. Developing nations say its time for the West to stump up for loss and damage which, put bluntly, means compensation payouts. In UN-speak, the West has failed to keep its promises on both climate mitigation (paying for the costs of reducing emissions) and climate adaptation (paying for green technologies). So, developing nations say, its time for the West to stump up for loss and damage theyve incurred which, put bluntly, means compensation payouts. Loading Wealthy nations, particularly the US, have trenchantly opposed focus on loss-and-damage payment negotiations, fearful of admitting culpability for climate change of opening a chequebook that would be difficult to close, as the ANUs Professor Mark Howden puts it. According to the London School of Economics, depending on the extent of global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, loss and damage could cost developing countries between $US290 billion ($460 billion) and $US580 billion in 2030, and between $US1 trillion and $US1.8 trillion in 2050. Advertisement But in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian hosts have ensured that loss and damage is on the agenda for formal negotiations. How is this affecting geopolitics? The frustration at these failures among developing nations is spilling into other areas of global negotiations, says Mohamed Adow, director of the climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa. The rich world will have to look back to their past commitments, and what they agreed to pay to help clean up the mess theyve caused in the world and which they havent actually honoured and think through the implications beyond the impact of climate change. They will have to think about the implications for global co-operation and global and international solidarity. Unless the world can come together to fairly tackle climate, he says, it cannot presume to solve the competing crises caused by Russian aggression, the energy crunch, increasing tension between the US and China or the global pandemic. Indeed, he says the Wests failure to either provide Africa with vaccinations or waive intellectual property payments for making its vaccines drove some African nations closer to China, which proved more willing to help. That doesnt mean that theyre supportive of Russia, far from it. Its just that they dont see, always, partners on the part of the West. Mohamed Adow Facing its own crisis with the invasion of Ukraine, some in the West were surprised when some African nations abstained from crucial UN votes condemning Russian aggression. That doesnt mean that theyre supportive of Russia, far from it, says Adow. Its just that they dont see, always, partners on the part of the West. The developed North cannot expect the South to respond to its call for support when the North does not reciprocate, he says. Advertisement Australia risks looking like a laggard when it comes to supporting a fellow liberal democracy under siege. In the past two weeks alone, lawmakers from Germany, Indonesia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the European Union have visited Taiwan in public shows of solidarity. These rapid-fire rendezvous with the Taiwanese government come on the back of a slew of similar trips in recent months by representatives from Japan, Canada, the United States and France. Meanwhile, British parliamentarians are planning to visit later this year and Indian lawmakers have mooted a similar trip. A Taiwanese frigate fires an anti-air missile. Chinese and Taiwanese and Chinese forces have staged rival military demonstrations in the Taiwan Strait amid heightened tensions. Credit:AP By contrast, its now been more than five years since a publicised visit from an Australian parliamentary delegation. However, like their counterparts in other democracies, Australian MPs have compelling reasons to make the trip to Taipei. Although Beijing seeks a world-class military capable of prevailing in any military clash in the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese government would still prefer to weaken and eventually annex Taiwan without the dangers of war. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Tony Burke thrives on the front line of political battles. But now Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses workplace relations minister, leader of the House and close confidant faces his toughest assignment: bulldozing through industrial relations changes that would restore unions power by allowing them to bargain across businesses. Passing the Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation in the three sitting weeks left for 2022 shapes as the biggest test of 52-year-old Burkes 19-year career in politics and six years in the union movement. His mission is to blast the controversial bill through a swift inquiry and past Senate crossbenchers David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie before Christmas, despite the public and private fury of the nations most powerful business groups. Asked why the rush, Burke recites his mantra: Labor is determined to get wages moving again. Tony Burke is not known for taking a backward step. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In an interview, he says the government is more than willing to spend its political capital to steer through the laws. Asked about the risk of losing some of the goodwill Labor has enjoyed since its election victory in May, he says: A determination to get wages moving isnt risking goodwill, its a condition of it. He isnt surprised by business opposition but says he feels the pressure to deliver on Labors campaign promise to lift wages: No matter which way this lands, we need to make sure that peoples wages get moving. Advertisement Burke is not known for taking a backward step, be it endorsing multi-party bargaining on ABC TVs 7.30 program, goading business critics as a two-bit peak body or treating opposition questions with full-throated contempt during question time. A polarising figure who doesnt mind a little blowback, Burke is talked about in hope and dread as a future leader of the party if he plays his cards right. After a fiery day on the floor of the House of Representatives, he sometimes retreats to the ministerial office once occupied by Albanese, where he keeps three guitars, a keyboard and a record player. If its a day of fire therell be some Nirvana coming on the guitar. If theres about to be some fun in question time, Ill sit at the piano and play Come On Eileen. Tony Burke on guitar and Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh singing in the Labor Party caucus room in the band Left Right Out. Having served just 18 months in the NSW upper house, he moved to Canberra in 2004 and has never been absent from the front bench. He was a key player in the Labor leadership switch from Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard in 2010 and a subsequent member of the praetorian guard that backed Australias first female prime minister almost to the end. Hes served as agriculture minister, environment minister, population minister and arts minister twice, and in opposition held portfolios including small business, finance, environment and workplace relations. Advertisement As manager of opposition business under Bill Shorten (and later Albanese), Burke used his debating skills to lead the attacks that ultimately removed Bronwyn Bishop from her job as Speaker though he too ended up under fire over flights he charged the taxpayer to bring his kids to join him at Uluru. The flights were within the rules but not, as Burke said, in line with community expectations and, as a former staffer notes, that was the closest he has come to a near-death experience in politics. A staunch Catholic who led the No campaign against euthanasia in NSW in the mid-90s, he voted against same-sex marriage in 2012 before switching sides after communicating his views to his strongly anti-gay marriage electorate in 2015. Along the way, he and first wife Cathy Bresnan split in 2012, only going public about it in 2014. Loading He has since married Skye Laris, who was his chief of staff until March 2011. Laris an experienced staffer, lobbyist and campaigner serves in a senior role in Albaneses office. After 25 years in public life and close to 20 years in parliament, Burke has matured from a young minister who hosted after-work drinks and had a mirror ball in his office to someone who quit drinking when parliament was sitting once he became manager of opposition business. My view was just I was the point person in the parliament. At any moment, I could have to deliver a speech on which the side relied, and it wasnt that Id ever be intoxicated or anything like that, I just needed to always be at my sharpest, he explains. Advertisement The disco ball has been replaced by the band he now leads Left Right Out, a collection of caucus members and staffers who jam in a caucus anteroom. Membership of the group is loose, with Burke on guitar or piano, Albanese speechwriter James Jeffrey on the bagpipes, West Australian MP Matt Keogh and Michelle Rowland staffer Arley Black singing, Queensland MP Graham Perrett on bass, Burke staffer Georgie Betros on drums, Stephen Jones staffer Tom Iggulden on guitar or drums and Tony Sheldon staffer Stephen Fitzpatrick on trombone. His Instagram is littered with pictures of him jamming with musicians, wielding guitars and attending gigs. As far as outlets go, its a healthy one as one member notes, its better than heading down to Kingston Hotel for a beer. Ive always loved music, and a whole lot of people in here get into the gymnasium and different sporting activities. I tried the gym a few times when I first got here, and there was too much ego around it, Burke says. I think you need the window into a world that is away from the world of non-fiction. I think you do your job better that way. Colleagues relate that Burke was gutted when Shorten gave the arts portfolio to Mark Dreyfus when Labor moved into opposition in 2013, but now hes arts minister again. Advertisement High arts and the bruising rounds of the IR portfolio might look like an uneasy mix, but for Burke the arts not only help define Australia but teach people to set standards without settling for less. Theres a great story that Paul [Keating] tells of having a group of cabinet ministers around to his home when he was at Red Hill [a Canberra suburb] when he was treasurer John Button, John Dawkins, his tight group, Burke says. And one time he played to them Mahlers Symphony No.2, the Resurrection Symphony, played it through, and they were thinking, Whats he doing?. He makes them all be quiet. And at the end, he says to them, Well, what does it mean?. If its a day of fire therell be some Nirvana coming on the guitar. If theres about to be some fun in question time, Ill sit at the piano and play Come On Eileen. Tony Burke And theyre all sort of, What are you on about?, and Paul says, It means we have to do better. You cant hear work thats perfect and walk off and say how do we find a compromise?. And thats where I think the arts not just in national identity but in policy ambition give you a sense that it is possible to nail things and get them right. In many ways, Burke is a politician in the Keating mould, mixing the highbrow and the hardline. And the scope of his ambition like Keatings is clear to see. Ambition is a word that comes up time and again when discussing Burke, and its part of what makes him less than universally loved among his colleagues. His desire to be prime minister one day after Albanese leaves the stage keeps coming up. Advertisement YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. On November 3, the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Ms. Kristinne Grigoryan, and the President of "The Institute of Liberal Politics" NGO, Ms. Tatevik Matinyan, signed a memorandum of cooperation, the Office of the Ombudsperson said. The Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Armenia, H.E. Mr. Nico Schermers, attended the ceremony. By signing the memorandum, the parties agreed to cooperate in defense of human dignity and freedom from discrimination, regardless of gender, race, skin color, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, belonging to a national minority, property, birth status or any other factor of identity as well as to combine their efforts within the framework of the "Combating hate speech for the sake of pluralism and tolerant, democratic society" project funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Republic of Armenia. During the meeting preceding the memorandum signing, the Defender and Ms. Matinyan expressed their gratitude to H.E. Mr. Schermers for providing productive assistance in the fight against hate speech. In response, the Ambassador expressed hope that due to joint work, it will be possible to develop an effective toolkit that will be applicable to prevent the dissemination of hate speech not only in Armenia but also in any other country, including the Netherlands. A major Queensland coal power station connected to the national grid has been taken offline by equipment failures, sparking fresh concerns about blackouts in the Sunshine State. State-owned electricity generator CS Energy says all four units at the Callide power station, near Biloela, were offline at one point on Friday morning. CS Energys callide power station near Biloela has been taken off the grid. One unit has been out of action since a catastrophic explosion in May 2021, then another turbine unit was taken offline as a precaution after a cooling tower partially collapsed on Monday. CS Energy says a third turbine unit was tripped out during routine testing on Tuesday, while the Mining and Energy Union says the fourth unit was tripped on Friday morning. Cost of living, health, transport ... and dog parks. Premier Daniel Andrews changed pace on Friday, the third official day of the Victorian election campaign, sinking a pot of beer and patting dogs in Caulfield Easts Pawfield Park after two days of major cost-of-living and health initiatives. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, his wife Catherine, and Penny the sausage dog in Caulfield East. Credit:Joe Armao Andrews was heckled by passersby as he announced $13.4 million to fund six new dog parks and upgrade 22 others. Youre a disgrace, one man yelled. A second later followed Andrews and the press pack to Labors big red bus and called out, what are you running away from? Had such a program been properly assessed and developed with the input of relevant experts from the governments Health Department, it might have helped protect hospital workers against the violent outbursts by patients and family members which peaked during the COVID crisis. Instead, IBAC is investigating the circumstances which led to the program being approved against the advice of the department and abandoned due to COVID restrictions after only a handful of workers were trained. How did this happen? The full story will not be clear until IBAC tables its final report but so far, this is what The Age has been able to establish from people with knowledge of the matter. The Age has been told that after Asmar pitched her idea to government in the lead-up to the 2018 election, her proposal was placed in the hands of two political advisers, rather than bureaucrats with specialist knowledge of health programs. Loading A Labor source described one of the advisers, who worked for Hennessy and has since left government, as a proactive, smart and impeccably connected political operative who got things done. In this instance, she lived up to her reputation. The problem is that health department bureaucrats appear to have been bypassed along the way. This is symptomatic of how the Andrews government works. Nearly every significant decision taken by the government and every public communication issued originates from within the Premiers Private Office. When Ted Baillieu was premier, 20 people worked in PPO. It now employs 90 staff and a further 287 ministerial advisers. Redlich in his lecture described a symbiotic relationship between the premiers personal staff and ministerial staff. In Victoria, there is constant movement and communication between the two and their demarcations and professional and political allegiances are blurred. The effect is that senior public servants and even Cabinet ministers can be frozen out of government decisions. Sources familiar with awarding of the HSU contract say it is unclear how much Hennessy knew about it. Was the political adviser taking directions from her nominal boss or the premiers office? Either way, Hennessy and Andrews are likely to have plausible deniability. It is an affront to traditional notions of ministerial accountability, but chances are we will never know for certain. Where bureaucrats tend to keep copious notes, political advisers prefer not to put things in writing. Advisers can be questioned by IBAC but they cant be called before parliamentary inquiries and are difficult to capture through Freedom of Information requests. None of this is an accident. It allows some of the most powerful people in government to operate beyond the normal accountability and scrutiny of government. Yee-Fui Ng, a former adviser to the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet who now lectures at Monash University, has written extensively about how the influence of advisers is reshaping Australian politics and other Westminster systems around the world. We have got a new class of very powerful advisers that were not envisaged by the legal or constitutional system or the political system, she says. They can be used as scapegoats and blamed for anything that goes wrong but they can also act as a filter between a minister and the public service and block advice from the public service. It increases the risk of corruption in government decision-making if ministers are able to evade accountability. It means that government decisions may not be made on merit, but pushed into more partisan or political considerations. It means the public service is not able to give frank and fearless advice, which means we are not having good quality decision-making on the whole. She says Victoria and other jurisdictions need a code of conduct for political advisers, overseen by an independent commissioner, as happens in Canada and Britain. The review into the Australian Public Service chaired by David Thodey adopted this as one of its recommendations. Centralisation of political power is not limited to Victoria but Australian National University honorary professor Colleen Lewis, an associate of the Centre for Public Integrity, has particular concerns about the scale of what is happening here. I cant understand how a state premiers office needs 80 advisers, she says. It is out of all proportion. I go back to the mindset that got us into the red shirts affair (directing electorate officers to do campaign work). It seems to me that the Labor Party spends a lot of time trying to work out and scheme ways in which it can use the public purse for its own party political matters. Loading What was the party political matter the Andrews government needed to address by approving the HSU training scheme? Diana Asmar. Asmar is a vocal, highly influential figure in the Victorian Labor Party, to which her union pays $80,000 a year in affiliation fees. Like the United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall, she is also difficult to keep happy. When Andrews called a press conference in October 2018 to announce the HSU training program, he had a strong interest in placating Asmar. In the lead-up to the 2018 election, Adem Somyurek was cementing his factional control over the Victorian ALP. Somyurek, through a combination of industrial-scale branch stacking, deft political manoeuvres and sheer force of will, had managed to unite right factions of the party with elements of the industrial left to create a dominant voting block. Asmars HSU was one of the last significant hold-outs from this grand factional bargain. Andrews, like Somyurek, was keen for her to join. San Francisco: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her husband, Paul Pelosi, was released from the hospital on Thursday after his treatment for injuries from a violent assault last week in which he was attacked with a hammer. Pelosi said: Paul remains under doctors care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home. Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in their home. Credit:AP Law enforcement officers who responded to the break-in early last Friday witnessed Paul Pelosi being struck in the head with the hammer at least once, according to court documents. Officials said the assault was captured on the officers body cameras. Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Centre. Speaker Pelosi said her husband was grateful to the emergeny services operator who directed police to the family residence, emergency responders, ICU staff and the entire hospital staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. On November 4, at 7:40 p.m., the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire from different caliber firearms in the direction of the Armenian positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. ARMENPRESS reports, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia reports that the Armenian side has no casualties. As of 22:00, the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable. NATO supports the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and welcomes the efforts of the European Union on this direction, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colomina said. November 4, 2022, 11:59 NATO supports normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan - Secretary Generals Special Representative STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: Good news to see our partners discussing border delimitation, a must to increase security on the ground. NATO supports the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and welcomes EU efforts towards that end, including hosting this talks and launching recently the EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia, Javier Colomina said on Twitter, sharing the post of Secretary General of the EU External Action Service Stefano Sannino regarding the 3rd meeting of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border commissions held in Brussels on November 3. The Congress of Deputies of Spain, the lower house of the parliament, did not approve the international agreement signed with Azerbaijan as a sign of solidarity with Armenia. November 4, 2022, 12:51 Spains Congress of Deputies expresses solidarity to Armenia, votes against agreement with Azerbaijan STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: Spanish member of parliament Jon Inarritu said that the agreement, which was signed in Madrid in December 2021, involved exchange of confidential information with Azerbaijan and protection of that information. But the agreement was not ratified as 174 lawmakers voted against it and 132 voted in favor. During the debate of the agreement before the voting Jon Inarritu called the signing of such an agreement an absurdity, especially now when aggressor Azerbaijan has carried out an attack on Armenia in September, occupying several square kilometers of the territory of Armenia. The Azerbaijani regime is corrupt, aggressor and intolerant to dissidents, the lawmaker said, emphasizing the fact of violations of human rights and freedom of speech and the high number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Another lawmaker Marta Rosique condemned the Spanish government for staying silent over the aggression carried out by Azerbaijan against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. She also criticized Spain that it has not yet recognized the Genocide committed against Armenians. To follow up on the information provided in reference to the deputy involved shooting in the 6900 block of Horse Soldier Road on 10/31/2022. The deceased male suspect in this case has been identified as 55-year old James Albert Templeton, Jr. from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Deputies were actively seeking information regarding the location of Templeton for several months, as he possessed multiple felony warrants. Those warrants included: a felony Strangulation of a Household Member warrant from Laramie County, Wyoming; a felony Kidnapping warrant with full extradition from Jefferson County, Colorado; and a third warrant issued by the Denver Police Department for a charge of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender. It was also discovered that Templeton had been disqualified and prohibited from possessing a firearm. As previously released, the investigation into the officer involved shooting is being conducted by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and at this time the Sheriffs Office is unable to release any further details regarding the investigation. Any questions regarding the on-going investigation should be directed to DCI. The US embassy expressed concern about the obstacles to peaceful assemblies in Azerbaijan, Turan reported. November 4, 2022, 14:36 US embassy expresses concern about human rights violation in Azerbaijan STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: ''We remain concerned about pressure on citizens exercising their constitutional rights in Azerbaijan. We call on the government to respect the rights of its citizens, including the right to peaceful assembly,'' said US embassy spokeswoman Alys Spensley, answering a question about the Azerbaijani authorities blocking the rights of citizens to hold street rallies. In recent years, the Azerbaijani authorities have imposed a ban on street protests by opposition and civil groups, in defiance of the First Article of the Azerbaijani Constitution and the law on freedom of assembly. Batavia, NY (14020) Today Generally cloudy. High around 45F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy this evening then becoming windy with rain developing after midnight. Low 39F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Higher wind gusts possible. * The fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) will open on Nov. 5 in China's economic hub Shanghai. * Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. * As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. SHANGHAI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Andreas Thorud is putting the finishing touches to a seafood-themed booth at the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in China's economic hub Shanghai. "We are very happy and excited to be part of this fifth edition of the CIIE," said Thorud from the Norwegian Seafood Council, a first-time CIIE exhibitor. This photo taken on Nov. 2, 2022 shows the west entrance of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the upcoming fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) According to Thorud, eight Norwegian companies, led by the seafood council, will be joining the upcoming event. They will be promoting a variety of star seafood specially selected for the Chinese market, including Norwegian salmon, shellfish and king crab. The past few years have been full of opportunities for global exporters, as China's appetite for seafood has grown continually. It was this fact that prompted Thorud and his peers to gravitate to the CIIE. This year's CIIE is going to be a very exciting platform "for us to see how we can develop new areas, new business partners and new types of consumers," Thorud said. OPEN MARKET As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. U.S. carmaker Tesla's robotic product Tesla Bot will make its debut on the Chinese mainland at this year's expo. As the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory manifests China's commitment to its pledge of furthering reform and opening up. "The report to the 20th CPC National Congress has once again emphasized China's commitment to opening wider to the outside world. It was on such a premise that Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China," said Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin. Tao added that the CIIE has provided an open, collaborative and mutually beneficial platform for global enterprises to share business opportunities in the Chinese market, and is a vivid practice of building a human community with a shared future. This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2021 shows the booth of AstraZeneca at the medical equipment and healthcare products exhibition area of the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) Having joined all the four previous editions, the biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will set up a 1,000-square meter main booth at the upcoming CIIE, which is one of the largest booths at the medical equipment and healthcare products exhibition area. "Over the past four years, AstraZeneca has gone from being a newcomer at the CIIE to becoming a regular participant, and we have benefitted from the powerful CIIE spillover effects," said Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president of AstraZeneca. "The annual event provides us with an opportunity to summarize our phased results in China and open a new chapter of cooperation and exchange. We will continue to participate in CIIEs with an impressive score card," noted Wang. SHARED GROWTH Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday that 284 industry-leading enterprises, including some of the world's top 500 companies, will participate in the upcoming expo. New Zealand's dairy brand Theland has already signed up for the sixth CIIE. "We've tasted the sweetness at the CIIE, and we certainly can't miss such a great opportunity," said Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Theland Global R&D at Milk New Zealand Dairy, an "old friend" to the CIIE. Hurk said that all the commitments China made at the previous CIIEs to open wider have been fulfilled. For example, the delivery time of fresh milk from New Zealand farms to Chinese consumers has been cut to just 72 hours from more than eight days. According to Hurk, the expo has helped Theland quickly grow from a relatively small brand to a well-known name even in counties in central and western China. An exhibitor introduces products on a livestream at the booth of Theland of New Zealand at the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) "Theland is a staunch supporter of the CIIE, which has become a new driving force for the development of global enterprises and a platform for win-win cooperation, and helps mitigate the uncertainties that the pandemic brought to the global economy," said Hurk. Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that, from 2018 to 2021, exhibitors at the four previous editions of the CIIE launched more than 1,500 new products, technologies and services, with a total expected turnover exceeding 270 billion U.S. dollars. "The CIIE is the perfect platform of collaboration. I've been witnessing it for four years myself, and seeing more and more exhibitors, from more and more countries, in more and more domains," said Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China. "I think there are no other ones in the world which are able to bring so many industries, so many country representatives, and have this dialogue that allows us really to look at shared opportunities and discuss the values that are important for us," Megarbane added. (Video reporters: Ding Ting, Pan Xu, Chen Jie, Xu Xiaoqing, Sun Qing, Zhou Rui; Video editors: Liu Yutian, Luo Hui) Turkey and Russia have agreed to supply food countries in need free of charge, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, Tass informs. November 4, 2022, 15:40 Turkey, Russia agree to supply grain to countries in need for free - Erdogan STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: "During our talks with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, we agreed to ship grain free of charge to countries in need. We will ensure that bulk grain ships reach countries that are currently suffering from a severe food crisis and famine," the Turkish leader stressed. According to Erdogan, he also discussed the initiative with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. In addition, the president announced his intention to raise the issue of food supply to African countries at the upcoming G20 summit in Bali. Erdogan stressed that the attempts of Western countries to teach the lessons of humanity, while ignoring the suffering of people in Africa, is a shame. At the same time, he noted that Turkey is not surprised by Europes mentality and behavior, but does not accept it. On November 2, President Putin announced that even if it withdraws from the grain deal, Russia is ready to supply grain to the poorest countries. He made a special emphasis on the fact that the grain deal was carried out under the pretext of ensuring the interests of the food security of the poorest countries, but only 4% of the grain was delivered to them from the territory of Ukraine. He also assured that Russia would not interfere with the supply of grain from Ukraine to Turkey in the future. John F. Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, will discuss on Nov. 4 the newly published 2022 Missile Defense Review and its implications. Tom Karako, the director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project, will be moderating the event. The Epoch Times will livestream the event, which will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. at the headquarters of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Access the livestream on this page, and also at EpochTV. * Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List. Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV 4 Current, Former Samsung Employees Charged With Semiconductor Tech Theft South Korea a frequent target of Chinese intellectual property theft South Korean prosecutors on Oct. 27 indicted four current and former Samsung employees for stealing proprietary semiconductor technology from the Korean conglomerate and leaking them to overseas firms, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Two of the employees are former engineers, while the other two were still employed as researchers for Samsung Engineering at the time of reporting. The stolen technology pertains to the highly valued ultrapure water system used in chip fabrication and other key technical data. Ultrapure water is purified to an uncommonly stringent specification, with common impurities such as ions, organic matter, and microbes removed. The water is used for cleansing in chip manufacturing, a critical process to ensure good yields of semiconductors. Since 2006, Samsung Electronics has invested more than $21 million annually to develop its ultrapure water systems. One of the cases of theft involves a former employee who worked in the semiconductor field allegedly obtaining confidential information from two employees in August 2018. The former employee reportedly acquired an operation manual and a blueprint for an ultrapure water system and other key technology data from two Samsung engineers and leaked the documents to a Chinese semiconductor consulting firm, where he was looking to job hop at the time. After getting a job at the Chinese firm, he allegedly used the stolen materials to build an ultrapure water system for the company. Prosecutors said the other former employee was charged with stealing a computer file containing the foundrys key semiconductor technology. He allegedly leaked that file to rival company Intel while still working at Samsung, Yonhap reported. Frequent Target of Chinese Intellectual Property Theft Samsung, one of the worlds leading chipmakers, has been a frequent target of Chinese industrial technology theft. In May, South Korean prosecutors indicted two former researchers of SEMES, a Samsung Electronics subsidiary and semiconductor-related supplier, and two other employees of a supplier of SEMES for their alleged involvement in technology theft, The Korea Herald reported. The theft involved selling crucial wafer cleaning machines to an undisclosed Chinese entity, according to Suwon District Public Prosecutors Office. The machines are used in the early stage of chipmaking when it is crucial to keep the chip wafers clean. Later stages would require a more sophisticated approach. The equipment uses carbon dioxide in a supercritical fluid state to clean the wafer compared with cleaning with other fluids like ultrapure water. In December last year, four South Korean nationals were charged for allegedly leaking cutting-edge semiconductor technologies to a Chinese company. According to Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, an unnamed South Korean companycoined company Aillegally obtained the sensitive technology from another South Korean companycompany Band then sold it on to a newly established semiconductor company in China. The alleged illegal activity took place between August 2015 and January 2016 and occurred when company A poached an executive from company B to work on a semiconductor-related project. Upon leaving the job, the executive took sensitive technology from company B without authorization and brought it to company A, which allegedly then sold the technology to a Chinese company. The stolen technology is a design drawing of a Hot Zone, said to be cutting-edge equipment for manufacturing semiconductor chips that company B invested significant time and capital in creating. By applying the technology, the newly established Chinese semiconductor company was able to sail through technical barriers and reap large profits. The prosecutor said the Chinese company made an operating profit of approximately $50 million in 2019 and 2020. Experts: More Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Needed According to the South Korean Supreme Prosecutors Office, from 2017 to September this year, there were 112 reported cases of domestic industrial technology that leaked overseas. Among them, 36 cases pertain to national core technology, mostly in the field of semiconductors and display technology. Semiconductors are seen on a circuit board that powers a Samsung video camera at the Samsung MOBILE-ization media and analyst event in San Jose, Calif., on March 23, 2011. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on Oct. 27 released a survey it conducted on 26 industry security experts. About 85 percent of the respondents said that South Koreas protection level of its advanced technology was weaker than that of the United States, while the countrys R&D capabilities are on par with its rival nations. Based on the experts estimates, the report said the average annual damage caused by industrial technology leaks, including overseas leaks, is about $40 billion, equivalent to 2.7 percent of South Koreas GDP in 2021 and 60.4 percent of the countrys total R&D expenditure in 2020. Meanwhile, 92.3 percent of the experts believe that China is the country that South Korea should be most wary of regarding leaks, while 7.7 percent believe it is the United States. South Korea ranked third among 63 countries in science infrastructure in the 2022 national competitiveness ranking released in June by Switzerlands International Institute for Management Development (IMD). However, it was ranked 37th for protection of intellectual property rights. Yu Hwan-ik, chief of the FKIs industrial research division, said that Korea is at great risk of losing core technologies and human resources as a highly competitive country in cutting-edge technologies. He added that the society needs to raise awareness as a whole and make institutional improvements. Lisa Bian Follow Lisa Bian is a Korea-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Korean society, its culture, and international relations. The "Long Day School" program has been implemented in Grisha Muradyan secondary school of the community of Vaghuhas of Artsakhs Martakert region. November 4, 2022, 16:02 "Long Day School" program implemented in Vaghuhas secondary school STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: The director of the educational center Armen Grigoryan informed "Artsakhpress". "The "Long Day School" has been operating in our school for 3 days, in which 133 students of grades 1-9 participate. "The "Long Day School" has been operating in our school for 3 days, in which 133 students of grades 1-9 participate. Before the implementation of the program, we did preparatory work, as a result of which we have formed 4 groups andfurnished 2 classrooms, said A. Grigoryan, assuring that both students and parents accepted the implementation of the program with satisfaction. Referring to the problems of the school, the director noted that they do not have a gymnasium. Physical education classes are held in the playground next to the school and in the classrooms in winter. Referring to the problems of the school, the director noted that they do not have a gymnasium. Physical education classes are held in the playground next to the school and in the classrooms in winter. Alenush Grigoryan, the head of the department of educational programs of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Artsakh Republic, Alenush Grigoryan informed Artsakhpress that for the implementation of the program in Vaghuhas secondary school, teachers' trainings were organized. 7 Elections Reversed After Ballot Harvesting Scandals This is an adapted excerpt from Fred Lucas new book The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Lefts Assault on Clean Elections, now out from Bombardier Books. The paid operatives are sometimes called ballot brokers. In Florida, they were known as boleteros, and in Texas they were called politiqueras. Both of these states passed laws to ban ballot harvesting after significant scandals. HR 1, the wish list bill of election proposals that Democrats call the For the People Act that failed to pass, would have prohibited state bans on ballot harvesting. The bills text said the state shall permit a voter to designate any person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot and may not put any limit on how many voted and sealed absentee ballots any designated person can return. Here are seven examples of elections overturned after ballot harvesting scandals. 1. North Carolina Congressional Race Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. was a convicted felon for committing insurance fraud. Nevertheless, for years numerous political candidates from both parties in North Carolina had turned to himand his consulting firm Red Dome Groupto try to win elections. In 2018, Mark Harris, a Republican candidate for North Carolinas 9th Congressional District, hired Dowless firm to work for his campaign. Early on Mark Harris sonJohn Harriswarned his father against bringing Dowless into the campaign because of the previous election shenanigans. Harris clearly should have listened. In a gloomy year for Republicans, Harris went on to defeat his Democrat opponent Dan McCready by 905 votes, about 0.3 percent of the ballots cast that November. However, the victory would unravel. Although Democrats typically laugh at even the suggestion that mass mail-in voting might be prone to fraud, in this case, North Carolinians and the nation would see Democrats getting a nasty taste of what its like being on the losing end of fraud. The North Carolina State Board of Elections refused to certify the results after evidence of what it called concerted fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail ballots. The fraud was heavily about vote trafficking, also known as ballot harvesting, in which third parties, including candidates and political operatives, collect and deliver ballots. The North Carolina election boards investigation determined that absentee ballot requests were fraudulently submitted under forged signatures, including a deceased voter. The final report says that Dowless paid people to collect absentee request forms, to collect absentee ballots, and to falsify absentee ballot witness certifications. His employees were compensated based on how many absentee ballots they collected. So, corrupt incentives were built in. For his part, Mark Harris, who denied knowing what Dowless was doing, admitted a new election should be heldand declined to run in it. After an investigation that included 142 voter interviews, the board ended up voiding the Harris victory as well as voiding two other local elections. It ordered a new special election. The board determined Dowless ran the fraud scheme that was enabled by a well-funded and highly organized criminal operation. The board further determined the election was corrupted by fraud, improprieties, and irregularities so pervasive that its results are tainted as the fruit of an operation manifestly unfair to the voters and corrosive to our system of representative government. Because of the coordinated, unlawful, and well-funded absentee ballot scheme that perpetrated fraud and corruption upon the election, the state Board of Elections ordered a new election. The members determined it wasnt possible to determine the precise number of ballots affected by the fraud and whether it determined the outcome. A Wake County grand jury indicted Dowless in February 2019 for obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, possession of absentee ballots, and perjury in connection to both the 2016 general election and 2018 primary election. However, in April 2022, Dowless died of lung cancer before going to trial. Republican Dan Bishop won the September 2019 special election over McCready. This case and others prove that a well-funded, well-organized plot to steal an election can occur. It was stopped in this casebut the fact is that what went on in North Carolina isnt entirely illegal in other states. Yes, outright forgery and voter intimidation are outlawed virtually everywhere. But laws that specifically allow ballot harvesting invite such practices. 2. Messing With Texas Ballots In 2016, former Weslaco City Commissioner Guadalupe Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of providing illegal assistance to a voter in a 2013 race he won by 16 votes. Rivera admitted to filling out an absentee ballot in a way other than the way the voter directed or without direction from the voter. A judge determined that 30 ballots were cast illegally and ordered a new election, which Rivera lost. He initially faced 16 related charges, but 15 were dropped as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine. 3. Coerced Ballots in Florida In 2017, in Eatonville, Florida, Mayor Anthony Grant was convicted of a felony charge of voting fraud and misdemeanor absentee voting violations. Prosecutors said that as a candidate in 2015, Grant coerced absentee voters to cast ballots for him. In at least one case, prosecutors said, Grant personally solicited an absentee vote from a nonresident. Grant, a former mayor, lost the in-person vote but won the election with more than twice the number of absentee ballots that incumbent Bruce Mount got. After Grants indictment, then-Gov. Rick Scott suspended the mayor. After his conviction, he was sentenced to 400 hours of community service and four years probation. 4. Empire State Trouble New York State Assembly candidate Hector Ramirez pleaded guilty to one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument during his 2014 campaign. Prosecutors charged Ramirez with deceiving voters into giving their absentee ballots to his campaign on the false premise that it would submit them. Instead, Ramirezs campaign inserted his name on at least 35 absentee ballots, prosecutors said. Ramirez initially won, but a recount determined that he lost by two votes. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett ruled that Ramirez could not run for office again for three years. 5. Vote or Get Evicted State prosecutors argued that Mayor Ruth Robinson threatened to evict residents from properties she owns if they didnt vote for her. In clear abuse of local government power in Martin, Kentucky, Mayor Ruth Robinson, her husband, and her sons were all convicted of voter fraud after they intimidated poor and disabled citizens living in public housing and in properties that Robinson owns into voting for her on absentee ballots in the 2014 electionsome of which Robinson herself had filled out. The family members offered bribes to others for buying votes, prosecutors said. She was sentenced to 90 months in prison. 6. The East Chicago Way In the 2003 mayors race in East Chicago, Indiana, challenger George Pabey had a 199-vote election night lead over eight-term incumbent Mayor Robert Patrick. But after 278 absentee votes came in, it appeared the incumbent was the winner. Local political operative Allan Twig Simmons, working for the mayor, convinced voters in the city to allow him to fill out their absentee ballots in exchange for jobs. Simmons ended up pleading guilty and was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service. The trial lasted a week and a half and included 165 witnesses. The judge determined that the mayors allies perverted the absentee voting process and compromised the integrity and results of that election. The judge found direct, competent, and convincing evidence that established the pervasive fraud, illegal conduct, and violations of elections law that proved the voluminous, widespread and insidious nature of the misconduct. In a scam that involved vote buying, voter intimidation, and phony absentee voter application forms, the fraud led to at least seven convictions or guilty pleas by 2008. When the case made its way to the Indiana Supreme Court, the states high court said a new election was compelled because a deliberate series of actions occurred making it impossible to determine the candidate who received the highest number of legal votes cast in the election. 7. Voting Vice in Miami In 1997, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo won overwhelmingly in a five-way race with in-person voting, but it was not quite a majority. So, the Nov. 4 contest went into a runoff on Nov. 13, in which his opponent, Xavier Suarez, got two-thirds of the absentee votes and won the electionor so it seemed. Law enforcement found evidence of at least 5,000 fraudulent absentee ballots. Fifty-four people were convicted in the voting fraud case, including a Miami City commissioner charged with being accessory after the fact to voter fraud, the commissioners chief of staff, and the chief of staffs father, according to the Miami-Dade County grand jury report. Investigators found the overall 1997 scam involved stolen ballots, false registration addresses, false witnessed ballots, and hundreds of ballots illegally cast obtained by 29 ballot brokers who invoked their right not to testify to avoid self-incrimination. During the scheme, volunteers pressured elderly food stamp recipients into voting. The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for uncovering the election wrongdoing. The newspaper told the story of a 70-year-old woman recovering from a stroke at a hospital who said she was badgered by the harvesters to vote for Suarez. There were other stories of seniors in hospitals and nursing homes being taken advantage of. The trial court ordered a new election, but the appeals court ruled that the city shouldnt bother and overturned the election, reinstating Carollo as mayor. The appeals court ruled that given such massive absentee voter fraud, the best solution was to not encourage such fraud by holding a new election. [W]ere we to approve a new election as the proper remedy following extensive absentee voting fraud, we would be sending out the message that the worst that would happen in the face of voter fraud would be another election, the appeals court said. 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. 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) 9 out of 10 Albanians Allowed to Stay in UK While Their Modern Slavery Claims Are Checked Ninety-one percent of Albanians who claimed to be the victims of modern slavery when they arrived in Britain after crossing the English Channel have been allowed to stay in the country pending a full investigation of their claims by the Home Office, according to the latest figures. On Oct. 26, Dan OMahoney, the Home Offices Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, told the Home Affairs Committee 12,000 Albanian migrants had crossed the Channel this year, up from 800 in 2021, and the Home Office figures show that 3,467 of them have claimed to be victims of trafficking or modern slavery. Under the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), people who claim to have been the victims of trafficking or modern slavery cannot be deported until their claim has been investigated. The Home Office data, published on Thursday, said 91 percent of Albanians were found to have reasonable grounds to be accepted onto the NRM and it said the average application was taking 561 days to process, during which time they are offered accommodation, food, legal aid, and counselling. Home Secretary Suella Braverman leaves after a visit to the migrant processing centre in Dover, Kent, on Nov. 3, 2022. (PA) OMahoney, who met Home Secretary Suella Braverman when she visited the Manston processing centre in Kent on Thursday, told the committee many Albanians were deliberately gaming the system. He said: We will typically put them in a hotel for a couple of days, and then theyll disappear, work illegally in the UK for maybe six months, maybe a year, send the money home, and then theyll go back to Albania. OMahoney added, They are able to do that because the way the asylum system works and the NRM works makes it quite easy for them to do so. Ministers have also claimed the Modern Slavery Act is being abused by illegal immigrants in order to avoid deportation. Of all modern slavery claims, Albanians account for 28.6 percent of them, up from 14 percent in 2020. In the third quarter of this year a record 4,586 people claimed to be victims of modern slavery and 1,310 were from Albania. People thought to be illegal immigrants pass the car of Home Secretary Suella Braverman during her visit to the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent on Nov. 3, 2022. (PA) On Monday Braverman told the Commons, If those people are genuinely victims of modern slavery they should be claiming that protection in Albania. She also referred to the migrant crisis as an invasion but was immediately criticised by Albanias Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who wrote on Twitter, Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britains crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact. He later told the BBC, I really am disgusted about this kind of politics that at the end is doomed to fail. But Rama also confirmed Albania was a safe country of origin, suggesting Albanians had no reason to seek asylum in Britain or anywhere else. Alberta Justice Minister Criticizes Feds for Not Publishing Info on Provinces Opposed to Gun Confiscation Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said on Nov. 3 that the federal government made a unilateral decision to withhold meeting notes related to multiple provinces refusal to devote policing resources to the federal gun buyback program. The information stemmed from the annual federal-provincial-territorial meeting of Justice and Public Safety ministers, which was held on Oct. 13 and 14. Usually, official meeting notes summarizing discussions and decisions are made public. Shandro said that the government informed the provinces and territories that it wouldnt be releasing the communique publicly due to a lack of consensus on language. The federal governments unilateral decision to cease discussions on the release of the joint communique undermines the ability of Canadians to learn about key justice and public safety initiatives ministers discussed, Shandro said in a statement. The disagreement over language centred on Albertas request that provinces opposed to taking police officers off the street to confiscate firearms be listed by name in the communique. Alberta has demanded the feds list all provinces that have refused to use provincial policing resources for federal gun confiscation. So far, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, and New Brunswick have stated their opposition to using police resources for the so-called federal gun buyback program, which will see more than 2,000 models of firearms, including rifles and shotguns commonly used for hunting and shooting sports, banned by federal decree. The Liberal government implemented the gun ban in May 2020, by reclassifying thousands of firearms purchased legally as prohibited weapons. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau specified that it would be a ban on what he called military-style assault rifles. Automatic weapons are already banned in Canada. All legal gun owners are subject to training, testing, and extensive background checks by police before being issued a permit to own a firearm. Two years ago, the federal government said that using police resources would be expensive and inefficient, Shandro said. Now the federal government has resorted to using police resources to seize firearms from Canadians. Make no mistake, the federal firearms confiscation program will cost us billions and will not improve public safety. Albertas government is not legally obligated to provide resources and will not do so. Opposition Sask. Chief Firearms Officer Bob Freberg wrote to the RCMP in September stating no provincially funded resources of any type, will be devoted to seizing legally purchased guns from registered firearms owners. The Yukon legislature passed a motion on Oct. 12 saying that local police will not become enforcement for the federal governments seizure and confiscation of personal property. Meanwhile, Manitoba Justice Minister and Attorney General Kelvin Goertzen, said: Manitoba has consistently stated that many aspects of the federal approach to gun crimes unnecessarily target lawful gun owners while having little impact on criminals, who are unlikely to follow gun regulations in any event. Shandro said Quebec is routinely extended the courtesy of being noted as in opposition to a particular federal initiative. Alberta, he said, expects the same. Alberta has asked over and over again to be treated as an equal partner in Confederation, on par with Quebec. The federal government made it clear that it is unwilling and disinterested in even taking a small step in that direction. January Littlejohn speaks at the Florida Family Policy Council event in Orlando, Florida on November 11 2021. (Courtesy of Patti Sullivan) Americans Wont Vote for Candidates Who Support Youth Transgender Procedures: Poll 'Parents know that children don't have the cognitive maturity to make life-long, irreversible medical changes to their bodies' The vast majority of Americans will not vote for candidates who support transgender procedures for minors, a recent survey finds. According to a recent national survey (pdf) from the Trafalgar Group, 72.7 percent of American voters say they are not likely to vote for a candidate who supports allowing minors to use puberty blockers or to undergo sex-change surgeries Only 27.4 percent said they are likely to vote for candidates who support transgender procedures for children. Among Republicans, the margin is 96.5 to 3.5 percent. Among independents, the margin is 79.2 percent to 20.7 percent. Among Democrats, 57.3 percent are likely to support candidates who favor gender transition procedures while 42.7 percent would not. The survey was conducted from Oct. 2530 among 1,080 likely general election voters. It has a margin of error of 2.9 percent. I am not at all surprised by this statistic, Florida mom January Littlejohn told The Epoch Times. Parents know that children dont have the cognitive maturity to make life-long, irreversible medical changes to their bodies. Once more Americans realize that gender-affirming care equates to chemically castrating children and surgically removing healthy body parts, Littlejohn believes more will oppose candidates who support the procedures. In August 2021, Littlejohn discovered that school officials were encouraging her then-13-year-old daughter to adopt a transgender identity through secret meetings. On Oct. 28, the Florida Board of Medicine voted to start drafting a measure that would ban all minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgeries as treatments for gender dysphoria. Littlejohn provided testimony. I am so grateful about what Florida and the Florida Board of Medicine are doing, Littlejohn said. Theyre making the doctors and psychologists who are pushing this experimental medical intervention on children defend and justify the practice. According to Littlejohn, the biggest fallacy pushed by transgender advocates is that transition is a suicide prevention measure. She cited a 2017 report that concludeddespite assertions that transition is necessary to prevent suicidethere is no persuasive evidence to suggest that gender transition reduces the likelihood of suicide. Another study showed that the post-transition suicide rate is 19 times higher than that of pretransition youth. News of the survey brought hope to another Florida mom. It makes me feel great, the mother told The Epoch Times under the condition of anonymity to protect the identity of her daughter. The mom added that she was given a parenting book by school administration, telling her if she didnt transition her child she was going to commit suicide. Her then 11-year-old daughter was socially transitioned by school staff without her consent or knowledge. She immediately pulled her daughter from the school. It gives us hope, those of us going through this, the mother said. It helps to know we have so much backing. During their first and only debate, Democratic gubernatorial challenger Charlie Crist criticized the measure signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis that limits discussion of sexual orientation in schools and his opposition to gender transition treatments for minors. Florida Democrat Congressman Carlos Guillermo Smith fought legislation to make it a felony for a doctor to prescribe hormone therapy or perform sex-change surgery on minors. Smith is seeking reelection. A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft prepares to land at Honiara International Airport in Honiara, Guadalcanal Island, Solomon Islands, on Nov. 30, 2021. (CPL Brandon Grey/Australian Department of Defense via Getty Images) Australian Liberal Senator Urges Federal Labor to Avoid Arms Race With Beijing Over Solomon Islands Liberal frontbencher, Simon Birmingham, has urged the Albanese government to avoid an arms race with Beijing following the Chinese regimes counter-donation of police equipment and vehicles to the Solomon Islands. This follows a donation of 13 vehicles and 60 MK18 rifles made by the Australian Federal Police to the Solomon Islands that was formalised in Honiara on Nov. 2. Speaking to Sky News host Kenny Heatly on Nov. 4, Birmingham said Australias commitment to supplying security support to the Solomon Islands has been ongoing since the time of the Howard government. When asked whether Australia was now in an arms race with Beijing following reports of Chinas donations, Birmingham said Australia certainly shouldnt be (in an arms race). I trust thats not the case, he said. We are working cooperatively with the Solomon Islands government and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force as we have done for a long period of time. We have lived up to the terms of being the security partner of choice, which the Solomon Islands Government under Prime Minister Sogavare continues to state that we are. Counter Donation On Nov. 4, Beijing announced that it would donate two water cannon trucks and other vehicles to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF). The move comes as both Canberra and Beijing compete for influence over the Solomon Islands as concerns grow over Beijings growing influence in the South Pacific. In April, the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with Beijing that would pave the way for Chinese troops and weapons to be stationed on the island nation. However on Oct. 6, Sogavare assured Australia that it would not endanger his country by allowing Beijing to build a naval base in the South Pacific. Meanwhile, Australias Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Australia was not attempting to outcompete Beijing for the Solomon Islands friendship, saying that all Pacific countries are free to have the relations they want, with any country they want. Weve just got to focus on our own relationship with the Solomon Islands and indeed with all the countries of the Pacific, he told ABC radio on Nov. 4. I genuinely do believe that if we are present and if we are engaged with the countries in the Pacific, theyll want to work with us. Weve been working with the Solomon Islands police force over a very long period of time, Im confident that if we do that we will be the natural partner of choice. In June, Marles said Beijings militarisation in the Asia Pacific was the largest and most ambitious seen by any country since the end of the second world war. So it is critical that Chinas neighbours do not see this buildup as a risk to them. Because without that reassurance, it is inevitable that countries will seek to upgrade their own military capabilities in response. Insecurity is what drives an arms race, Marles said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Australias approach will be anchored in a resolve to safeguard our national interests, and our support for regional security and stability based on rules. Australias investments in defence capability are a necessary and prudent response to the military buildup we see taking place in the Indo-Pacific. Bay Area residents call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China, in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2022. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times) Bay Area Residents Call for Release of Persecuted Family Members Imprisoned in China A group of Bay Area residents gathered at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Nov. 3 and called for the release of their family members who have become political prisoners. They said the family members were abducted during a major recent political event and are being held as prisoners of conscience in Chinese jails. Newark resident Huang Changyu told NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times, that he hasnt heard from his father in nearly a month. They came at around 7 p.m. on October 11 to abduct my father away from his home, Huang said. According to his aunt, police in Beijing abducted his 66-year-old father, named Huang Yongchang, for practicing the Chinese meditation discipline Falun Gong. They locked him in the Chaoyang District Detention Center. Huang Changyu in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2022. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times) The arrest came amidst the 20th National Congress for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has persecuted Falun Gong for over 20 years. Sweeping political persecution often precedes large political events in the communist country. My father was distributing some messages in the social media. [Eventually] it was noticed by the police, and I dont know the real reason. Right now, we are still trying to see why [the police] just come to my home. Thats our guess, Huang said. Huang hasnt given up hope of getting back in touch with his father, although family members are restricted from visiting him in prison. His father, like many Falun Gong practitioners, perseveres in the face of persecution, as the practice has brought him many health benefits. His father has been healthy for the 20 years since he began to practice Falun Gong, and he hasnt needed to take any medicine during that time. In addition, his vision improved, and he didnt need glasses. Huang said his father also became a better person. Before his father practiced Falun Gong, he would beat Huang for making mistakes, in the hope that Huang would behave better. But after he practiced, he stopped doing that. When I make mistakes, he will just blame himself for not teaching me well, Huang said. Falun Gong consists of five sets of meditation exercises, as well as teachings that guide people to follow the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. But in 1999, the CCP unofficially banned the practice in China and began to persecute it. The CCP has conducted similar persecutions against other spiritual groups, such as house Christians and Uyghurs. When the CCP captures a Falun Gong adherent, it may illegally detain or torture the person or even kill the person by having his or her organs surgically harvested for black market sale. My appeal is to hope the U.S. government can help reach out to the Chinese government, President Xi, and the local police station to tell them to release my father, who is innocent, who is just doing good for the society, Huang said. Liu Zhitong in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2022. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times) Liu Zhitong, an Alameda resident, is calling for the release of her 56-year-old mother, Kong Qingping. Police abducted her on Oct. 22 and sent her to the Yaojia Detention Center in the northeastern Manchurian city of Dalian. Her mother is also a Falun Gong practitioner, and similarly, family members are not allowed to see her. Im worried because I know the Chinese government brutally persecutes Falun Gong practitioners, Liu said. So Im worried shes now facing the same predicament. Her mother has practiced Falun Gong since 2004. Before she practiced Falun Gong, she had many health problems. Her body was bad. And because she was unwell, she was easily irritated. But after she practiced Falun Gong, she became healthy, Liu said. In addition, her condition became very good. The family became harmonious. Friends and relatives voiced grave concern for the safety of the two imprisoned parents. They worry that the prisoners may be subjected to a show trial, a common formality that prisoners of conscience suffer in China. Liu, Huang, and others called urgently for an international appeal to release their family members immediately. Lear Zhou Follow Lear is a reporter based in San Francisco covering Northern California news. Bidens Migrant Policy Worsens Central Americas Root Causes, Critics Say When Vice President Kamala Harris visited Mexico last year, she cited poverty, crime, and political instability as root causes driving millions of migrants to cross the U.S. border. But some critics with regional expertise say Biden administration policies, which migrants have interpreted as an invitation to travel north, have severely worsened those root causes, destabilizing large swaths of Central America and Mexico. The torrent of people moving across the region has delivered billions of dollars to the coffers of human smuggling rings and the drug cartels that have taken advantage of Americas overwhelmed border patrol to deliver fentanyl and other deadly substances to the United States. Criminal organizations, these experts say, have stoked rampant corruption, especially in Mexico, as they pay bribes to police and other local officials to ease passage of their cargo. The migrants themselves are prey to gangster elements that, according to one account, leaves more than two-thirds of them victims of crime and nearly one-third of the women subjected to sexual assaults. Mexico is probably one of the most dangerous places for the transit of migrants, said Dr. Juan Luis Hernandez Avendano, rector of the Ibero-American University of Torreon-Monterrey-Saltillo, who has been an outspoken critic of the surging corruption in his country. And despite this, the routes to enter the United States continue to be fed not only by Central Americans, but increasingly by Caribbeans, and according to reports from the Jesuit Migrant Service, more Asians and Africans, Avendano told RealClearInvestigations. In effect, we are experiencing a humanitarian crisis, since they are not only extorted by the cartels, but also subjected to labor and sexual slavery. It has gotten worse because Venezuelan migration has joined the human tide. Avendano has been sharply critical of the situation for years, going so far this year as to declare swaths of Mexico failed states for the inability of authorities to protect native Mexicans and illegal immigrants, and the increasing corruption and unreliability of federal forces and local authorities. While much attention in the United States has focused on the problem caused by migrants at the border, Avendano is part of a growing chorus of people who say the Biden administrations policies are exacerbating problems to the south. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. The illegal immigration surge shows no signs of abating, although on Oct. 12 the administration quietly reinstituted so-called Title 42 measures that have blocked entrance for many Venezuelans. Another monthly record for encounters was shattered in September, according to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, and the 227,000 total for that month was 11 percent higher than the figure for August. Encounters with illegal immigrants are up 37 percent in 2022 from 2021, and to date more than 3 million have crossed into the United States since Bidens inauguration. To put that number in perspective, the total number of illegal immigrants under Biden would top Chicagos population to become the 3rd largest city in the U.S. The border crossers would constitute the unions 34th largest state, exceeding the population of Mississippi and nearly equaling that of Arkansas. Although the administration has claimed that the border is secure and that it has told migrants not to come to America, it has instituted many policies they see as welcoming. This began on President Bidens first day in office, when he declared that no one would be deported for 100 days. These policies have helped empower criminal elements. The fees paid to smugglers by this human flood have put an additional $2.6 billion into Mexican criminal cartel coffers in the past 12 months, according to an October analysis by the Washington Times. The profits have risen along with the price, as immigrants now pay roughly $8,600 in smuggling fees if they start their odyssey in Mexico, while those starting farther south can pay $11,500 or more. And those figures do not include transportation fees or bribes immigrants must pay to cross various borders across the Central American isthmus. Most recently, the route to the United States for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants begins in Venezuela, a country rich in oil and natural resources but impoverished by more than two decades under the governance of a socialist military dictatorship. The trip from Caracas, the capital, to San Diego is more than 3,500 miles, an overland odyssey that crosses at least six countries and at its beginning entails traveling through the Darien Gap that joins Central with South America, considered one of the most untamed spots on earth. While Venezuelas crime rate was the worlds highest in 2021, people fleeing to the United States must still pass through violent lands in Honduras (ranked fifth in the world in crime last year, according to the World Population Review) and El Salvador (ranked eighth). Today thousands of Venezuelans just beginning the trek occupy makeshift camps along streets in San Jose, Costa Ricas capital, with flags proclaiming their home country and signs begging for money and food. Its shockingthere are families on the streets here with kids, said Roberto Leiton, a U.S.-based businessman with operations in Costa Rica. Theres thousands of them; my wife was crying as we drove by and we went to the supermarket to get bags of food. But they have no money, theyre going to have to stealsomething is going to happen. Just how countries north of Costa Rica are coping with the human rivers transiting them can be difficult to gauge. President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, for one, has publicly blamed the Biden administration for doing little to address the problem, saying last month in an interview with the Daily Caller Foundation that it has refused to provide the tools to deport illegal immigrants heading to the U.S. To be sure, these Central American nations do receive some benefits from this migration as migrants send money back home from the United States. Remittances hit an all-time high in 2021, rising 27 percent to Mexico and 29.4 percent throughout Central America, according to Inter-American Development Bank. That represented 28 percent of the economy in Honduras, for example. Not everyone familiar with the situation thinks the massive increase in illegal immigration spells worse conditions for those making the arduous trek. In some cases, the increase has made the process more purely transactional for groups profiting handsomely from the torrent and thus, oddly, made it safer. Things have changed a lot and the violence has been transformed, said Guadelupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University who researches border issues and has written about the Zetas, the defunct Mexican criminal organization that infamously massacred some 300 people in Allende in 2011. Kidnapping is still an issue, but I have not heard the stories I heard in previous years and I dont think they are doing now what they did four or five years ago, Correa-Cabrera said. Some rapes and violence have continued but not the shocking bloodshed we saw previously. As recently as last July, however, non-governmental organizations and individuals concerned about the situation throughout Central America were decrying what Doctors Without Borders first described as a humanitarian crisis in a 2017 report. That report, derived from verbal questionnaires the group did with illegal immigrants at its Mexico treatment stations, concluded that more than two-thirds of those making the trek had been victimized by criminals and nearly one-third of the women had been sexually assaulted. Doctors Without Borders declined to speak with RealClearInvestigations. On July 11, nearly 90 NGOs and individuals signed a letter to Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in which they outlined dire circumstances. In addition to the 53 illegal immigrants found dead in a truck outside San Antonio last summer, the groups described another smuggling disaster in Chiapas, Mexico, fatal to 55 people in December 2021also a result of overcrowding. The letter cited more than 10,000 cases of kidnapping and other brutal attacks in Mexico, where since 2020 organizations have documented deeply concerning incidents of members of Mexicos National Guard and the National Migration Institute (INM) beating Black migrants, separating families, and utilizing excessive force towards migrants along Mexicos southern border. The solutions proposed in the letter were more streamlined and open border policies, as enforcement-centric policies fuel violence and attacks towards migrants, increase humanitarian crises at our borders, and enable smugglers and traffickers to prey on migrants, according to the letter. RCI reached out to more than a dozen signatories to the letter, but only the Washington Office on Latin America responded. In July, it produced a report on deplorable conditions for immigrants in Tapachula, Mexico, near the border with Guatemala. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding there in what immigrants dub a prison city, according to Stephanie Brewer, WOLAs director for Mexico and an author of the report. You can try to stop it or move it around, but that simply leads to a dip or a reconfiguration of the migration routes, Brewer said. U.S. taxpayers have contributed to aid programs for immigrants in Mexico, contributing more than $38.7 million, or 77 percent, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees budget in that country in 2021. Despite such contributions, Brewer echoed Vice President Harris view in pointing to root causes, arguing that those moving toward the United States are driven by the crime-riddled and poverty-stricken pockets of their native Latin American countries. The push factors outweigh the pull factors in the decision to leave, she said. Nevertheless, such attention has yielded no dividends. That is evident not only in the ever-increasing numbers of illegal immigrants pouring across the southern border but in Central American capitals, too. Todd Bensman, who for two years has reported from various hotspots along Central American immigration caravan routes for the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said he always asks immigrants what they have seen along the way. The images they show him on their phonesof corpses, some of them of pregnant women clutching their dead infantshas convinced him the surge in traffic is something close to an international crime. Theres most definitely a lot of blood on the hands of the Biden administration for opening the Southern border on purpose, and not to know what will happen and then how to deal with it, Bensman told RCI. Untold numbers of people are dead. Packages containing nearly 1,533 pounds of cocaine seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in a tractor-trailer at Colombia-Solidarity Bridge in Laredo, Texas, on Aug. 26, 2022. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) Border Patrol Agents Find $43,000 Worth of Cocaine Washed Up on Florida Coastline U.S. Border Patrol agents in Florida discovered 3 pounds of cocaine that had washed up near the coastline of Cape Canaveral on Thursday. Officials said they found the drugs, which have an estimated street value of $43,000, inside a water-logged package that had washed up on the shore, Fox News reported. The drugs will now be processed for seizure, officials said. The Epoch Times has contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for comment. This is not the first time drugs have washed up on Floridas coastline. On Oct. 15, Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar, who leads the agencys Miami Sector, said on Twitter that a good Samaritan walking in Daytona Beach had discovered a suspicious-looking package washed up along the shoreline. Upon opening the package, officers discovered it contained nearly 11 pounds of cocaine with a street value of over $150,000. Elsewhere, Department of Homeland Security agents are still investigating 50 packages of cocaine worth an estimated $1.7 million that washed up on Vero Beach, Florida, on Oct. 7. Major Drug Seizures in Recent Days The day before the cocaine was discovered in Florida, border officers in California seized more than 2 tons of hard narcotics over a two-day period, including packages of methamphetamine that had been concealed inside a shipment of onions, officials said Wednesday. The first seizure occurred at about 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 20, when border officers from the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility inspected the tractor-trailer of a 28-year-old man who claimed his vehicle contained a shipment of green onions. Upon further examination of the vehicle, officers found a package disguised as onion chives that had been concealed deep in the middle of the pallet of the green onions. Officers searched the shipment and detained 183 packages containing methamphetamine hidden within the shipment of green onions. In total, officers seized approximately 1,529 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $3.3 million. The following day at about 10:53 a.m. officers came across a 29-year-old man driving a tractor-trailer, who said he was transporting a shipment of electronics. Officers said they discovered anomalies in the trailer and a K-9 team was bought in to screen the truck and trailer where they later found 195 packages of methamphetamine and 75 packages of cocaine concealed within a false wall in the vehicle. In total, CBP officers seized about 1,993 pounds of methamphetamine and 1,037 pounds of cocaine, which they estimate has a street value of $20.8 million. The total estimated street value for both seizures is $24.2 million, officials said. CBP officers are the front-line of stopping these dangerous drugs from entering the U.S., said Jennifer De La O, CBP director of field operations for the San Diego Field Office, in a statement. The lengths drug trafficking organizations are willing to go to conceal and smuggle narcotics is a testament to how effective our officers are. Boris Johnson Had Enough Nominations to Challenge Rishi Sunak in PM Race: Top UK Tory Boris Johnson had enough nominations from Conservative MPs to mount a challenge to Rishi Sunak in last months race to become Tory party leader and UK prime minister, a senior Tory MP has said. Johnson dramatically pulled out of the contest on Oct. 23, saying he had secured enough nominations but admitting he would not be able to unite the party even if he succeeded to replace Liz Truss as prime minister. Sunak became prime minister after the only other candidatePenny Mordauntfailed to secure the backing of 100 Tory MPs to enter the ballot. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Ministers Questions at the House of Commons in London on Nov. 2, 2022. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Speaking to the BBC on Nov. 3, Sir Graham Bradychair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPssaid two candidates had reached the threshold, and one of them decided not to then submit his nomination. This appears to have confirmed Johnsons claim that he had got enough backing among Tory MPs, which had been met with some scepticism because only around half that number went public with their support for the former prime minister. Not the Right Time Johnson had raced home from a holiday in the Caribbean to try and secure the backing of 100 Tory MPs to enter the ballot to replace Truss, who was forced to resign on Oct. 20, just six weeks after replacing Johnson in 10 Downing Street. But in a statement issued on Oct. 23, Johnson said he was pulling out despite having enough support among MPs. Johnson said he had secured 102 nominations, though only 57 Tory MPs have voiced their support for his bid publicly. He said there was a very good chance that he would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members and could be back in Downing Street on Friday. But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do, he said. You cant govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament. He added, I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time. Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation outside of 10 Downing Street on Oct. 20, 2022. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images) Resignation Chats Brady also spoke about his experiences meeting with Truss and Johnson at separate stages this year to tell them they no longer commanded majority support from their MPs. He told BBC North West Tonight that the chat with Truss was the easiest and most straightforward of the three similar conversations he has held with Conservative leaders facing the end of their time in power because she had come to the same conclusion as him regarding the untenable status of her premiership. But Brady said the conversation with Johnson was more difficult, as he was still determined to go on the night before he announced his resignation. He mulled it over after that, and he called me early the next morning to say that hed changed his mind, Brady added. PA Media contributed to this report. A baby who was born with a rare genetic disorder that causes facial deformities was given a poor prognosis by doctors and abandoned by his birth parents. However, he got a second chance at life when he was adopted by a Christian family who supported him through surgeries, an autism diagnosis, brutal bullying, and countless battles for acceptance. Today, that man is 47-year-old Dr. Francis Joel Smith of Denver, Colorado, who is a medical research scientist, public speaker, and advocate for others with the same diagnosis as his: Treacher Collins syndrome. For some, the wildly misunderstood condition is almost invisible, but for Smith it was life-threatening. He told The Epoch Times: At my birth, doctors thought I would die soon, and if I lived, I would be mentally retarded and unable to lead a normal life without hearing or speech due to my facial deformities. Dr. Francis Joel Smith as a child. (Courtesy of Francis J. Smith) Given Up By His Birth Parents Smith, who was named Hugh Dermot OConnor, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with no ears, eye sockets, or cheekbones, a cleft palate, and jaw deformities. Shortly after his birth, he needed emergency surgery to open his airway so that he could breathe. Bloomington Hospital transferred the baby boy to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis where doctors performed his surgery. Once he was stable, he was diagnosed with the most severe form of Treacher Collins syndrome his doctors had ever seen. They said I would need a lot of surgical reconstruction of my face and jaw, a lot of speech therapy, special bone-conduction hearing aids, and other specialized work, Smith said. With all my challenges, the doctors did not hold out much hope for my survival, much less a normal, productive, intelligent life. Smiths biological parents were academics from Ireland visiting the United States to do a sabbatical at Indiana University in Bloomington. As they couldnt handle his serious medical needs or take him back home in his condition, they gave him up to the state of Indiana. Dr. Francis Joel Smith with his adoptive father in the hospital. (Courtesy of Francis J. Smith) For the first three years of his life, Smith was fostered by an elderly African-American woman in Indianapolis who had an arrangement with Riley Hospital to care for sick babies. Just before Smiths third birthday, the state found a Fort Wayne family who agreed to long-term foster care with the goal of adoption. The Smiths already had nine adopted children with special needs, after losing a dozen babies to stillbirth, and would adopt another after Smith. They changed his name from Hugh Dermot to Francis Joel, named after St. Francis of Assisi, and finalized the adoption when Smith turned 14. Perseverance Besides bountiful love and care, Smith received two life-changing gifts from his adoptive family: faith and music. Smith said: My parents and my siblings have encouraged me over the years to persevere, have a strong Christian faith, and strive towards my goals in life. My parents also discovered, when I was very young, that I possessed musical talents despite having no ears, and that I was naturally talented in playing the piano, so they encouraged that. To this day, Smith plays piano and violin, and the organ at his church. Following his passions was no mean feat. Smith, who was an intelligent, observant little boy, knew he was different but he learned a lot from his parents thoughtful explanations of Treacher Collins. Unfortunately, strangers were not so kind. I was always stared at when out in public with my parents or in school, Smith said. Children were scared by my facial appearance, and adults assumed I was retarded or otherwise limited, and even pitied me my parents and I often faced discrimination and exclusion from schools, churches, and other places that could not handle my condition. Smith was crushed by bullies and underestimated by his teachers. Dr. Francis Joel Smith with his entire family. (Courtesy of Francis J. Smith) I was regularly teased and bullied by classmates during elementary and middle school, Smith said. That devastated me emotionally, psychologically, and even physically. It wasnt until he transferred to an academically rigorous high school that he was seen as being a gifted student. I gained confidence, and accepted my condition as part of my life and identity, he said. To date, Smith has undergone 30 craniofacial reconstructive surgeries including cleft palate repairs, reconstruction of his lower eye sockets and cheekbones, multiple major upper and lower jaw reconstructions, building outer ears, and multiple bone-conduction hearing aid implants. Dr. Francis Joel Smith when he was in the second grade. (Courtesy of Francis J. Smith) A Call From God Smith responded to his lot in life with an irrepressible curiosity. As a child, he developed a strong interest in human anatomy. As a teenager, he heard a call from God to go into the medical field, especially in craniofacial anomalies. The discovery of the gene for Treacher Collins syndrome in the 1990s augmented his interest in genetics, DNA, and advances in surgical treatments of the syndrome. After studying biology at Purdue University for a bachelors and masters, Smith applied to medical school but did not get in. He believes that God showed him another direction: a biomedical sciences program at Kings College London in England. Smith said: I had my first opportunity to study craniofacial science and do laboratory research in craniofacial genetics and embryology. This proved to be the right fit for me, as my professors encouraged me to go on to pursue a Ph.D. This I did at the University of California, San Francisco. Smith earned his crowning achievement, a Ph.D. in 2012. His dissertation research has educated other scientists and medical professionals about Treacher Collins syndrome and other craniofacial disorders, alongside giving Smith a platform for telling his story. Dr. Francis Joel Smith with his adoptive mother, Betty, on his graduation day. (Courtesy of Francis J. Smith) As an adult, Smith still struggles with breathing through an abnormally narrow airway; has trouble biting, chewing, and swallowing food; has a speech impediment; compromised hearing; and a lack of physical strength. He is legally blind in one eye, has age-related deterioration in the other, and wears glasses with a custom elastic strap since his surgically-grafted ears cannot support them. Smith suffers from heightened anxiety as a result of Aspergers syndrome. He had a small stroke in 2019 and has a degenerative spinal condition in his neck affecting his vertebrae and nerves. However, he has had a good psychological recovery and found a level of acceptance from those around him. Wonderfully Made Besides my faith, what helped me stay positive and strong to overcome my challenges were my determination, persistence, and stubbornness, as well as the support of my family, friends, and colleagues, he said. Right now Im having to lean more on God to guide me in whatever direction He wants to lead me while Im between jobs/opportunities. While not currently employed in a research science position, Smith is actively involved in writing, medical illustration, public speaking, and advocacy for both Treacher Collins and his other passion, the pro-life movement. Active in the church, he is also considering a possible religious vocation in the future, should God call me in that direction. His supporters convene on his website, Friends of Francis. Smith began writing about his life experience with Treacher Collins in high school when he was invited to write a chapter for a childrens book. He has also published nine journal articles in craniofacial research to date, and co-authored a memoir, Wonderfully Made: The Dr. Francis Joel Smith PhD Story, which was published in 2018. For years I had been contemplating writing my life story in a book, he said. In the early 2000s, I began writing down my memories of my childhood hospitalizations by hand in a blank journal-type book. I eventually expanded the scope of my writing to a full life story over the years. He met his co-author, a fellow Ph.D. student, who took on the challenge of writing his story with him. According to Smith, it was a project that took ten years. Over the years, Smith has been speaking and lecturing on his condition and similar conditions to students, colleagues, and medical professionals around the world, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Europe, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. He said: The most inspiring feedback I have received from my speaking and lecturing is that sharing my life story has encouraged families of those with craniofacial differences and students, faculty, colleagues, and professionals have all said that I bring life to the subject with my own life experiences and thus have made my teaching memorable and inspiring. Another major achievement Smith has had is receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws, which was conferred by colleagues at the University of Dundee Dental School in Scotland in 2019, in recognition of his lifetime work in craniofacial advocacy and research. Smith hopes, one day, to learn even more about his birth parents and any biological connections he may have in Ireland. 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 Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that it was important to evacuate Kherson residents from the most dangerous areas. November 4, 2022, 17:49 Putin highlights need to evacuate Kherson residents from dangerous areas STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Now it is, of course, necessary to relocate those who live in Kherson from the most dangerous zone because civilians should not suffer from bombardments, from some offensive, counter-offensive and other measures related to military activities," the head of state said. The Russian leader laid flowers together with participants in youth and volunteer organizations at the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky on Moscows Red Square earlier on Friday on Russias Unity Day celebrated on November 4 and talked with young people. Russian President laid flowers at the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, which opened after reconstruction on Moscows Red Square, on Russias Unity Day on Friday. The president said earlier that at the beginning of the 17th century the country was on the verge of losing its sovereignty, but the people of Russia did not allow this, and, having united in a militia army led by Minin and Pozharsky, defended their homeland. British Activist Against Transgenderism Tours US: Land of Free Speech Doesnt Feel Free FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.British womens rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen is touring the United States to raise more awareness that gender transition is mutilating childrens bodies and the sterilization of those children. At the same time, she didnt feel that the United States was so free. I want people to be fully knowledgeable about what [gender transition] is that theyre consenting to and promoting. And at the moment, I just simply dont think they do, she told The Epoch Times. She said left-wing media propagated that gender-transitioning children was a lovely, kind gesture, and it was not. A lot of people have no idea whats happening here, she said, explaining the objective of her Let Women Speak tour in America. Ultimately, if I change that, if they understand whats happening, I think they will object. And I think it will stop. Kellie-Jay Keen (2nd L) at a rally in front of the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on Nov 3. 2022. (Courtesy of Suzanne Satterfield) Land of Free Speech Doesnt Feel Free Keen arrived in the United States in mid-October and had visited several major cities on the West Coast and in middle America before the two rally stops in Loudoun and Fairfax counties in northern Virginia on Nov. 3. She said she wanted women to be able to speak in the actual public square because they couldnt do so freely on social media. She is also making a documentary about her U.S. tour to encourage more women to join the conversation. This is the land of free speech, and I just dont feel it when Im here, she said of her experience in the United States. It doesnt feel like you have very solid First Amendment rights. According to Keen, her Portland rally, initially scheduled for Oct. 25, had to cancel due to death threats. On Oct. 26, she ended her womens rights rally early in Tacoma, Washington. A middle-aged lesbian was injured in the arm. In Austin, on Oct. 29, a group of men tried to shut down her event. She said she and her supporters were circled by a transgender rights group shouting obscenities. And on Oct. 30, the police arrived to protect her group in Chicago. She said whether the East Coast would be different remained to be seen. Keen founded Standing for Women, a womens rights group, in 2018. She said she decided to be vocal against gender transition because it had challenged her bottom line. Cutting the breasts of 13-year-old girls! If people arent motivated to come out and speak out against that, I really dont know what it will take, she added. She has four childrena daughter at 16 and three sons at 20, 19, and 14. We bore our children; we heard their first words; we gave them their first cuddles, she said. And now we are going to protect them from this cancer that is transgenderism. That is the erasure of their sexual boundaries. That is just mass grooming. Her next stops will be in Miami, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York before returning to the UK in mid-November. Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, a British activist against sterilization of children through gender transition, speaks at a rally outside a Fairfax County School Board meeting in Falls Church, Va., on Nov. 3, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times) Parental Rights and Midterms The two rallies at the Loudoun and Fairfax counties in northern Virginia a week before the midterms thrust Keen into the center of parental rights issues. In both Fairfax and Loudoun counties, schools can assist childrens gender transitioning without informing parents. In September, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin introduced a new transgender student policy requiring schools to obtain parents written requests to use preferred pronouns or assist with social and medical transition for students. And the new guidelines require students to use bathrooms according to sex at birth. Facing much pressure from trans rights groups, the policys public comment period was extended 30 days until the end of November. We have a thing in the UK called loco parentis [in the place of a parent], which is the school is kind of considered your parent when the parents arent there. I think its gone a little bit too far now, where I think the school thinks they are the parents, said Keen. And actually, they remain the parents even when the children go home. I want my children to be looked after at school; I dont want them to be ideologically captured. Right now, you need to show the Democrats a big fat lesson that [promoting gender transition] is not okay. And then you can punish the Republicans if you want the next time around if they dont do a great job, she told the attendees at a rally outside a Fairfax County School Board meeting in Falls Church on Nov. 3. Republican Congressional candidate Jim Myles (L) joins a rally outside the Fairfax County School Board meeting in Falls Church, Va., on Nov. 3, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times) Difference Between UK and US On Oct. 20, Englands National Health Service (NHS) announced new gender dysphoria service guidelines for children and young people. Under the new guidelines, doctors will no longer encourage preferred pronouns or social transitioningbeing treated as the opposite sex in social settings without medical interventionsto gender-curious children. In July, NHS announced the closure of the countrys only childrens gender identity clinic. It would be replaced by two regional hubs and a more holistic approach with mental health support. The new policy (pdf) in October cited the Cass Report that social transition might have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning. The Report was the result of a review by Dr. Hilary Cass, a British pediatrician and past president of the Royal College of Pediatrics. Keen said the key was nobody financially gains from the outcome of the Cass Report in England. In the United States, many people financially gain from pretending that they think its a good idea to transition children. So, they skew their results. They put biases in their actual hypothesis, she said. It really is no surprise when an industry makes billions from transitioning children that they would find reports to support such an idea. In addition, the UKs Gender Recognition Act of 2004 also makes the exception that aristocrats cannot inherit title or property based on gender. So we already know the elite people in our country, right from the get-go, knew that men really couldnt be women. Otherwise, you know, youd have women transitioning into the inheritance, she said. Bullets and bullet fragments recovered from the bodies of patients that were shot sit atop their medical reports at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in the Tabarre neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 3, 2022. (The Canadian Press/AP-Ramon Espinosa) Canada Sanctions Haitian Officials as MPs Told Gangs Are Wreaking Civil War Canada is sanctioning two senior Haitian officials for their alleged support of gangs, which MPs have been told are exploiting children and wreaking havoc akin to a civil war. Haitians are increasingly deprived of essentials, exposed to increasing violence, and feel abandoned, said Patrick Auguste, head of a diaspora youth association, at a House of Commons subcommittee meeting on Friday. Haiti is facing an intractable series of crises that have closed hospital and schools during a deadly cholera outbreak and widespread power outages. Its all made worse by gangs that are blockading the countrys main fuel terminal, leading the government to call for a foreign military intervention, despite not holding an election since 2016. On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced sanctions in lockstep with the U.S. for two senior Haitian officials who allegedly financed gangs in their country. The new sanctions include Joseph Lambert, the president of the Haitian senate, and his predecessor, Youri Latortue, whom Ottawa accuses of giving illicit financial and operational support to armed gangs. The U.S. Treasury Department was more specific, accusing both of leading cocaine trafficking from Colombia and directing people to engage in violence. At the House subcommittee on international human rights, non-governmental organizations told MPs on Friday that gangs are paying desperate Haitians to act out at protests and cause chaos in the streets. Due to what we can only call a civil war, there are currently over 100,000 internally displaced persons in Haiti, said Morgan Wienberg, head of the group Little Footprints Big Steps. Wienberg said foreign pedophiles are sexually abusing children with impunity, since Haiti cant get illegal orphanages under control, a problem thats existed since she moved to the country a decade ago and ramped up in recent months. She encouraged Canada to work with civil-society groups to stem problems that are leading to gangs recruiting children. The Haitian government cannot be the voice that foreign governments are listening to, because its very clear the Haitian government is not acting on the interests of the Haitian people, Wienberg said. Others testified that Haiti has faced a power vacuum since the Duvalier dictatorship ended in 1971, leading to zero-sum politics with no consensus on how to govern the country. Chalmers LaRose, a political-science lecturer with the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and Royal Military College of Canada, said part of the chaos stems from the whims of foreign countries. LaRose noted that Haiti was economically punished by France for declaring its independence in 1805, followed by an American invasion in 1915. It was a state that was completely banished from the rest of the world, for at least a century, he said in French. He was skeptical of recent comments by U.S. officials that Canada could be a key player in a military intervention. Canada must also find its own voice in this crisis and not simply seek to be the lapdog of the U.S., LaRose said. Other witnesses suggested using drones to fire on gangs, or coming up with an aid package modelled on the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild postwar Europe. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada must help Haiti in some capacity, even if it doesnt mean a military intervention. We look at the crisis, rapes, the violence, the poverty and the cholera and health crisis. And then we say to ourselves, we have to intervene in one way or another, he told reporters in French on Wednesday. That evening, he was briefed by his former national security adviser, Daniel Jean, who led a four-day assessment mission last week. An official readout did not indicate how Trudeau will proceed, but said a cabinet committee explored a range of options to support a Haitian-led solution. Auguste proposed Canada make a public apology on behalf of all Western nations for their centuries of meddling in Haiti, to help end finger-pointing between the government, gangs and foreign countries. Whats happening now is everybody passes the buck, he said. By Dylan Robertson In the bustling streets of Hong Kong, people walk everywhere, and all kinds of people are close to each other; but they always have an unconscious facade and seldom open their hearts to strangers. When I was taking photos of people interacting with cats, I saw that people can drop their facades and get along with cats showing their true temperament. For example, when I recently photographed a man playing with cats, I could see him smiling happily even with his mask on, which was heartwarming! Street cat photographer Jonas Chan has visited the streets of Hong Kong for six years and photographed many warm and amusing street cat scenes, which are now assembled into the photo album CATisfy. Jonas observed the remaining kindness and innocence in human nature from the perspective of cats. Store manager cat is the theme of photography that Jonas frequently uses, and cats have become a medium for him to further know about the neighbors and store owners. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Jonas introduced himself jokingly to be a boring person who stepped into the close circle of cats: I shuttle between humans and cats, exploring the life of cats, which lets me observe the sincere side of this city, Hong Kong. Six years ago, he started to do street photography. During the filming process, he discovered many places that he had never noticed when living in Hong Kong in the past, and many small shops in the old district had a store manager cat, he began to notice the cute side of these shop cats, and also opened up conversations with the shopkeepers by discussing the shops cats, which gave him a lot of fun. Gradually, street cat photography became a major interest of Jonas, which even changed his personality. Following the cats footsteps, he had a deeper understanding of a different Hong Kong. Visiting the streets of Tai Po, which he rarely visited in the past, Jonas captured the world of cats through the lens, which led him to discover a different Hong Kong. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) On Looking Back, I Realized I Was a Hongkonger Not Familiar with Hong Kong Born and bred in Hong Kong, Jonass activities have been mostly limited to a two points and one line lifestyle; that is, he only traveled between his home and his workplace every day. The idea of exploring Hong Kong first came to Jonas when he ended his second full-time job. During the gap between jobs: I suddenly realized that although I was born and raised in Hong Kong, I was not very familiar with the city. There were many places in Hong Kong I had never visited, I had some free time between jobs, so I would find a place to walk around to find out more about the place where I grew up. Jonas often visits the old districts of Hong Kong to look for cats and has photographed many interesting pictures of people interacting with cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) It seemed a little boring to simply go shopping, so Jonas bought a camera and began to take street photographs. He started with documentary portraits and landscape photography and began to visit some old districts that he had not visited in the past. Gradually, he found that there were many cats in some old shops and parks. Sometimes he walked into grocery stores or Chinese medicine shops and interacted with the store manager cat, and after buying something, he would chat with the shopkeeper, usually the topic would revolve around the shop cat. Jonas got closer to new people. He says that Hong Kong people are relatively indifferent and rarely take the initiative to hold deep conversations with strangers, and cats became a medium for him to further understand the shopkeepers and people of the neighborhood. Street cat photographer Jonas Chan has visited the streets of Hong Kong for six years and has taken many warm and witty pictures of street cats. Now he has assembled them into a photo album, CATisfy, to observe the remaining kindness and innocence in human nature from the perspective of cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Some shopkeepers may tell more and more stories of themselves when they are not busy so that I can learn a lot about the stories of the district or the shops. I thought that if I could record these stories through photography, it would be very meaningful. Jonas described the store manager cat as a navigator who led him to explore Hong Kong, giving him the opportunity to understand Hong Kong from another perspective and discover the lives and stories of Hong Kong people. Jonas often visits the old districts to look for cats and has photographed many interesting pictures of people interacting with cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Different from general professional cat photographers, Jonas thinks that he enjoys the interaction between people and cats during the shooting process, rather than simply photographing the cats themselves: Some Japanese photographers go to Cat Island to simply take photographs of cats, but I dont enjoy that very much. Id like to find the picture of both people and cats, to find the stories between Hong Kong people and Hong Kong cats. Jonas often visits the old districts to look for cats and has photographed many interesting pictures of people interacting with cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) The Human Touch of Store Manager Cats When it comes to the old-fashioned culture of Hong Kong stores, I must mention the store manager cat. The original reason for keeping cats was that some old districts were infested with rats. Many shops kept cats to avoid the invasion by rats of the products, medicinal materials, and food in the shop, so some cats were adopted into the shops. Jonas observed that there are many old shops in Tai Po, Sai Ying Pun, Sham Shui Po, Jordan, and Yau Ma Tei with a store manager cat, and Jonas has taken many great photos in these places over the years. Jonas often visits the old districts to look for cats and has photographed many interesting pictures of people interacting with cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Jonas has a social media page, Street CATography, which has accumulated 150,000 fans in the past few years. He often shares many interesting interactive pictures of people and cats with netizens. He talks about his experience in shooting cats: Generally, the stray cats in the urban areas are more afraid of people, and mostly I have to go to the shop cat to film the interaction between people and cats. They are well cared for and are more likely to trust strangers. In December 2921, Jonas was invited to work as a wedding photographer at a familiar medicinal herb shop. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) During the shooting of the shop cat, Jonas felt a strong friendship between the shop owner and the neighbors. He shared his experience as a wedding photographer when he was invited to be the cat shop manager last year. The owner of a familiar medicinal herb shop invited him to the store for a photo shoot. Brother Wen, had recently adopted a little female cat and named it Little Dragon Girl. After the owner adopted the kitten, Cocky kid, a cat already raised by the owner that is usually humble, would come forward to protect Little Dragon Girl when she was bullied by a big dog. Seeing this, Brother Wen felt that the two cats complemented each other, and they happened to be a male and a female, so he thought of holding a wedding for them and invited the people from the neighborhood to come and celebrate together. Brother Wen, the owner of the herbal medicine shop, held a wedding for the two cats in his shop and took the opportunity to invite the neighbors to a gathering. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) The so-called wedding was very simple. The boss posted the wedding photos and notices of Cocky kid and Little Dragon Girl outside the store and prepared two large plates of roast pork for the visiting guests. Jonas said with a smile: Of course, the two cats may not know what happened; I personally think this is a very interesting thing; the boss mainly used this opportunity to invite the neighbors to gather together and have a good time with roast pork. Looking back at the photos taken in the past six years, Jonas is very grateful to have visited different areas in these years and used the lens to record many wonderful moments of the old shop Store Manager Cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) In recent years, old shops in Hong Kong have had difficulty surviving due to the epidemic and the impact of the migration wave of Hong Kong people; there have been shops closing one after another. Looking back at the photos taken in the past six years, Jonas is very grateful to have visited different areas in these years and used the lens to record many wonderful moments of the old shop Store Manager Cats: Some of them have gone away, and some old shops have also left us. After they were closed, the friends you could always find in the shops can no longer be found, so I will cherish every opportunity to take photos and capture more moments! Looking back at the photos taken in the past six years, Jonas is very grateful to have visited different areas in these years and used the lens to record many wonderful moments of the old shop Store Manager Cats. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Meet The Catwoman in Tai O In 2017, Jonas participated in a community animal exhibition in Tai O Fishing Village and got to know a German woman, Cheung Mun-fong , the founder of Tai O Stray Cat Home. She used her savings to treat sick stray cats and implemented the Cat Field Care Program (CCCP), a pilot program called Trap, Neuter, and Return Scheme (TNR), in the district. She did a lot of community work over the years and was named Catwoman. Jonas got to know her and began to understand the stray cats in the Tai O community. He found that the stray cats in Tai O are more laid-back and not afraid of people like the stray cats in the urban city areas, and they can act as models for shooting. Salted fish and cats photographed by Jonas in Tai O. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) The cat Mickey and his pigeon friends in Tai O. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Comparing the stray cats in Tai O and the stray cats in the urban areas who hide from people, Jonas reflects, actually, I believe that if someone is nice to cats, cats will naturally be nice to them as well. This is what makes me reflect. I just simply photograph the cats in the community, and now I want to express a message that people and cats can live in harmony, a concept of harmony between people and animals in the community. He felt that getting along with cats also reflected the problems of human beings. When people show their kindness, the cat can also feel that people are good to it, rather than hurting it, so the cat will also let down its guard. Cooperating with the Tai O Home for Stray Cats to publish a charity calendar, as well as the upcoming book Together (Photo Album), Jonas hopes through his photographic works to convey the message that humans and animals can coexist in harmony. Jonas put his street cat photography from 2016 to 2022 into a photo album, CATisfy. (Courtesy of Jonas Chan) Jonas put his street cat photography from 2016 to 2022 into a photo album, CATisfy, published by local publisher EastPro. For being able to fulfill his dream of publishing a book, Jonas is most grateful to his photography mentor, Mr. Leo Kwok. Leo for volunteering to assist in the design and photo editing of the book. Over the years, Leo also taught him how to be bold, communicate with strangers, and take brave steps to overcome his fear of being embarrassed. The book is named CATisfy, which is a rewrite of the English word satisfy. He hopes this series of photos can bring satisfaction to many people in this stressful life, let go of the fake mask, and experience innocence and happiness from the heart. Jonas (left) shared his experience of creating CATisfy at the book fair in July this year. (EastPro Facebook) CCP Locks Down More Cities Under Its Zero-COVID Policy Chinas communist regime has locked down more cities and districts with fewer announcements amid increasing public criticism of its strict zero-COVID measures. Under the regimes zero-COVID policy, a single case could cause a whole neighborhood, district, or city to be shut down. Officials in Wuhans Jiangan district issued a notice on Oct. 31 stating that beginning on Nov. 1, there would be five days of lockdown to curb COVID-19. Many people fled the city overnight after hearing the announcement, causing traffic jams. In the early morning of Nov. 1, many residents were still lining up to buy food and supplies to prepare for the sudden lockdown, emptying the shelves of major supermarkets. Mr. Wu, a resident of the Jianghan district of Wuhan who didnt give his full name for fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that on Nov. 1, there were no new cases in the community where he lived. However, it was also shut down. A notice stated that it will be closed for three to five days. On Sept. 19, large groups of students at the College of International Business and Economics of Wuhan Textile University gathered on campus to protest against a long lockdown and a power outage. (Supplied by interviewee) I read the official announcement every day, and I havent seen any newly infected patients living in our streets, but our community is still locked down, and I dont know if there was an internal report that wasnt announced to the public or its the result of layers of political orders, he said. Wu also revealed that the lockdowns in Wuhan have been escalating in recent days, reminding him of the full lockdown when the virus first broke out in the city in early 2020. Many communities that hadnt been shut down before have been locked down. He said he got inside information that the Hubei provincial government held an emergency meeting last weekend to discuss a large-scale lockdown in Wuhan. On Nov. 5, the World Wetland Ecological Environment Protection and Development Conference will be held in Wuhan, and the elimination of COVID-19 in Wuhan hasnt been achieved. He believes that the escalation of the lockdown is related to the event. Another Wuhan resident also told The Epoch Times that Wuhan has been locked down on a larger scale in the past few days, even without public announcements. A guard wearing protective gear is seen at the entrance of the Hubei provincial center for disease control and prevention. (Hector Retamal /AFP via Getty Images) The resident showed a screenshot of an internal document to The Epoch Times that shows that Union Hospital, which is affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Jianghan District, was shut down at 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 26. Nobody was allowed to enter or leave because a staff member in the cafeteria tested positive for COVID-19. According to the official website of the hospital, medical services such as outpatient and emergency services, fever clinics, health examinations, and other medical services in the main hospital area were suspended on Oct. 26. As for when the services will be resumed, the public will be notified later. The resident provided another document, this one being an internal notice issued by the Hanyang District Organization Department of the CCP. It stated that from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30, the whole district would be locked down and that enforcers would be on 24-hour duty to ensure that nobody entered or left the residential communities in the district. Covert Lockdowns Across the Country According to a report from minghui.org, as early as Oct. 20, Wuhan was locked down for three days, shutting off all stores and residential communities, leaving only banks, gas stations, and pharmacies open. Qiaokou district has also been shut down. In Hanyang district, there were outbreaks reported on Oct. 23. Several areas in the district, such as Hanzheng Street and Tongji Hospital, have been locked down. After the initial three days of lockdown, it continued in Qiaokou District. Authorities have locked down Chinas northeastern city of Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province since Oct. 28. The entire city of Gaobeidian of Baoding in Hebei Province also has been under lockdown. According to local villagers, they arent allowed to leave the village or their houses. They cannot go out to the fields for the autumn harvest. Xia Song and Luo Ya contributed to this report. Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole gives his concession speech at his election night headquarters during the Canadian federal election in Oshawa, Ont., on Sept. 21, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) CCP-Owned Media Targeted Tory Candidates in Last Federal Election: Disinformation Monitoring Expert Chinese state media and pro-Beijing actors ran propaganda campaigns to smear the credibility of Conservative candidates in the last federal election, says the director of a foreign disinformation monitoring and debunking organization. The narratives pushed in those campaigns indicate a likelihood of a coordinated operation to influence Chinese-Canadian voters. Testifying before the parliamentary House Affairs committee on Nov. 3, Marcus Kolga, director of DisinfoWatch, said weeks before the federal election on Sept. 20, 2021, his team was alerted to Chinese state media narratives that directly targeted the Conservative Party and its leader Erin OToole. Simultaneously, members of the Chinese Canadian community brought to our attention similar narratives appearing on local Canadian Chinese language media platforms and Chinese local media channel WeChat, he said, adding that WeChat is commonly regarded as a tool used by the Chinese government for surveillance and repression. In his opening statement, Kolga said on Sept. 9, 2021, the Chinese Communist Party-owned tabloid Global Times published an article attacking the Conservative Partys foreign policy platform on China. The Global Times article threatened Canadians that if they elected a Conservative government, Canadians should expect a strong counter strike and Canada will be the one to suffer. Specifically, the Global Times article made reference to a report by The Hill Times, saying that an OToole government would shift trade priorities away from China, including recognizing the Chinese persecution of [Uyghurs] as genocide, banning Huawei from Canadas 5G infrastructure, and having greater political cooperation with [the] island of Taiwan. Falsely Accused At the same time, an anonymous article was posted to WeChat targeting an incumbent MP, Kenny Chiu, Kolga told the committee. Chiu was a former Conservative MP who lost his seat in the B.C. riding of StevestonRichmond East in the 2021 federal election after serving one term. He was known for his pro-Chinese democracy stance and for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Conservative MP Kenny Chiu rises during question period in the House of Commons on April 13, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) During his election campaign, Chiu told The Epoch Times he had been a target of misinformation in previous election campaigns, but in 2021, it has been exceptional. Prior to the election in April 2021, Chiu had introduced Bill C-282, a private members bill that sought to compel those working on behalf of foreign entities to register as foreign agents in order to increase transparency. The anonymous WeChat article falsely accused Chiu of seeking to suppress the Chinese community through his bill, Kolga said. Both the Global Times and WeChat narratives were shared on local Chinese Canadian digital and social media platforms. Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked if the interference materially affected the outcome of the election. Its incredibly hard to measure the impact of these sorts of operations on election outcomes, Kolga replied. At the same time, we cant dismiss that they may have had an effect. Foremost Aggressor Adam Fisher, director general of intelligence assessments at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told committee members that China is the foremost aggressor in foreign interference in Canada. China is more interested in working within the system to corrupt it, compromising officials, and elected officials, and individuals at all levels of government, within industry, within civil society, so using our open and free society for their nefarious purposes, he said. Lyall King, a director with the federal Communications Security Establishment, testified that foreign threats to Canadas electoral processes extend beyond the election period. I will just note that there were activities observed during the election, King said. But I will note in context as well its activity also that we see on a persistent basis. That is to say that we observe things before, during, [and] after the election. Tara Denham, director general of human rights at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said it wasnt easy to trace the interference directly to a foreign state. We are looking for foreign threats, she said. We were not able to verify that the behaviour was directed by a state or whether it was organic or an intermingling of the two. Kolga said given that the narrative pushed in Global Times and WeChat against the Tories was spread to various different platforms, and likely to have been seen by tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Chinese Canadians, there is cause for concern. The fact that so many people saw that narrative, it should be of concern. And I think that we can certainly assume that that was an effort to undermine the integrity of our elections, he said. Chinese-owned video app TikTok admitted that its staff in China has the ability to access the private accounts data in the United Kingdom and the European Union. This comes after years of criticism from around the world, particularly in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States over concerns that personal information could be passed on to the Chinese regime. The app is coming under intense scrutiny by government authorities in the West, as its parent company, ByteDance, repeatedly denies that it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok Attempts to Explain a Privacy Loophole Chinese Diplomat With a Knife Threatens a Chinese Activist in the Netherlands As the recent media exposure of the Chinese regime setting up illegal police stations outside China shocked the world, Wang Jingyu, a 20-year-old Chinese rights activist, told The Epoch Times that the CCP has committed more outrageous acts than that. Wang, who currently lives in the Netherlands, spoke to The Epoch Times on Oct. 30, and recounted the horrible experience he had in a CCP black jail in Dubai. He then described being intimidated by a suspected Chinese diplomat who broke into his home, wielding a knife. In 2019, Wang expressed his support for Hong Kongs pro-democracy protests on the internet. In that same year, his parents decided to move him to another country for his protection. He was only 17 at the time. On June 9 of this year, five days after Wang organized an event at the Chinese Embassy in The Hague commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a Chinese man arrived at his apartment building, speaking to Wang from downstairs with a knife in his hand. He said he was going to to kill me. Because I saw him carrying a weapon, I immediately called the police. Soon after, the Dutch police took me and my girlfriend directly to a hotel, saying that we couldnt stay in our apartment any more, as it was too dangerous, Wang said. The man fled when he realized that the police were on their way to the building. The next day, while Wang was describing the incident to officers at the police station, the man called Wang and threatened him again. When Wang told the caller that he was at the police station, the man asked to speak to the police. Basically, he said he was not afraid of the police and that they had no authority to arrest him. He said the police couldnt do anything to him, Wang told The Epoch Times. Then he sent me an image of his passport and a selfie video footage, which he also sent to the Dutch police. The Dutch government thought this was too unbelievable, and the police said that he should be classified as a terrorist. Wang believes the intruder has ties to the Chinese embassy in The Hague because he noticed that the mans passport was different from an ordinary Chinese citizens passport in that the cover was bright red, and the Passport ID started with the letter D. According to public information, Chinese passports are divided into diplomatic passports, public service passports, and ordinary passports. The cover of a diplomatic passport is bright red, while that of an ordinary passport is dark red. The ID format of a diplomatic passport is DE followed by seven numbers, and it is the only passport ID that starts with the letter D. The Dutch police told Wang that after the knife-wielder escaped, he immediately went to Germany, then Luxembourg, then Belgium, and went back to Germany. He is most likely still in Germany. The Dutch police have handed the case over to the countrys General Intelligence and Security Service. CCP Set Up Police Stations in 21 Countries According to recent reports from Chinese state media, the Fuzhou Police Department has set up 30 overseas service stations in 21 countries, including one in New York, three in Toronto, three in England, two in France, four in Spain, and one in the Netherlands. However, a spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry said that there are two such police stations in the Netherlands, and that the authorities have initiated investigations into the stations, as unofficial police stations are illegal entities. Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO based in Spain, released a report in September revealing that the CCP has set up police service stations in dozens of countries on five continents and is suspected of extraterritorial jurisdiction and cross-border law enforcement. The CCP uses these police stations to coerce dissidents into returning to China. The methods they use include threatening, harassing, detaining or imprisoning family members in China, as well as approaching their targets via internet communications or sending agents abroad to directly threaten and harass them. Apparently, Wang is one of the expatriate targets of the CCP. Chinese Consulate Sets Up Black Prison in Dubai In 2021, during the Sino-Indian conflict, Wang challenged the CCP for falsifying the details published in the Chinese media. Subsequently, a wanted notice for Wang appeared on China Central TV (CCTV) and the Peoples Daily, two mouthpieces of the CCP. Chinese authorities ordered him to return to China within three days. Wang believes that he will be arrested if he does so. In April 2021, Wang flew from Turkey to the United States and had a transit stop in Dubai. As soon as I arrived in Dubai, I was arrested by the Dubai police, who said I would be deported to China. The Chinese consulate in Dubai and the Chinese embassy in Abu Dhabi came to see me three times and asked me to sign a document written in Arabic only. The officials refused to explain to me what it was about at all, but claimed that I could go back to China after I signed, and that nothing would happen to me if I were to return to China as long as I wrote a guarantee statement. Wang said. Chinese police often demand dissidents and those arrested for their religious beliefs to write a so-called guarantee statement as a pre-requisite for them to regain freedom. In the statement, the signee declares that he is remorseful for his speech, conduct, or spiritual beliefs, and guarantees never to do it again. Wang was wise enough to not believe their claim. They even put a wanted notice on CCTV, and their Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they would arrest me. So I definitely dont believe it, he said. Wang called his girlfriend Wu Huan. Wu immediately flew to Dubai to help Wang get a lawyer, and at the same time posted a Twitter message asking for help on May 21. The incident caught the attention of the U.S. State Department, which told the Associated Press that the United States called on UAE to release Wang immediately, as it was a human rights case. The United Arab Emirates let me go because the United States spoke out. On May 27, they let me go without saying a word. It was actually a deportation, as the local authorities expelled me and sent me back to Turkey, Wang said. Wang Jingyu on the flight to Turkey on May 27. (Courtesy of Wang Jingyu) However, Wu was unaware that Wang had been released. Two hours later, Dubai police and the Chinese consulate went to Wus hotel and detained her. Three days later, officials from the Chinese Consulate in Dubai drove a commercial vehicle to the police station and took Wu to a villa. The villa is a black prison of the CCP, where the CCP officials tortured her for nearly a week, attempting to force her to sign a false accusation against me and to call some relevant organizations such as the U.S. government officials who were concerned about my case, including the leaders of some NGOs, asking them not to help me. She suffered torture for a whole week, Wang said. In the end, ChinaAid, an international non-profit Christian human rights organization, and the U.S. State Department, sent people to Dubai and successfully rescued Wu Huan. Multiple Countries Investigate CCP Illegal Police Stations The CCPs practice of extraterritorial law enforcement has caused alarm in many countries. On Oct. 27, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that it was investigating reports of criminal activity related to so-called foreign police stations in Canada, as reported by Rocky Mountain Outlook. On the same day, the Irish Times reported that the Irish Foreign Office had ordered the closure of a Chinese police station in central Dublin. A day later, on the eve of German Chancellor Scholzs upcoming visit to China, German authorities also said they were investigating whether the CCP had an illegal offshore police station in Frankfurt. On Oct. 26, in response to questions from the foreign media, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin claimed that the CCPs foreign police stations are service stations for overseas Chinese, whose main purpose is to assist Chinese nationals with services such as renewing their Chinese drivers licenses and medical examinations. Wang refuted the explanation, saying is is a load of nonsense. I have solid evidence that [at one time] the CCPs overseas police station in Rotterdam used its official phone number to call me 20 to 30 times a day, threatening me to turn myself in and return to China, and then sent me threatening text messages using the telegram app registered with their official number, he said. A Gangster Group Disguised as a Nation Wang said the CCPs overseas police stations are intended to suppress rights activists and dissidents, who also jeopardize national security in Western countries. They want to extend the autocratic dictatorship to the whole world, Wang said. Their fundamental purpose is to silence all those who pursue democracy and freedom and oppose the CCP. He pointed out that if these offshore police stations were not exposed, in the future, the CCP may well target those non-Chinese who oppose the communist regime. Wang said that the CCPs practice of setting up police stations in other countries completely disregards international laws and standards and violates the sovereignty of those countries. The threatening, harassment, and even kidnapping of dissidents in other countries territories fully demonstrates that the CCP is an organized criminal gang in the form of a nation that is active all over the world. In this regard, all democratic countries must be fully aware of how much influence and damage the CCPs actions have brought to the international system, democracy, and rule of law. We must take resolute action to fight against it, Wang said. Visitors take pictures of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (approx. 1665) during a preview for the press of the renovated Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands on June 20, 2014. (Peter Dejong/AP Photo) Climate Activists Get a Month in Prison for Vermeer Protest THE HAGUE, NetherlandsTwo Belgian activists who targeted Johannes Vermeers iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring painting in a climate protest last week were sentenced Wednesday to two months in prison, with prosecutors saying their action crossed a line of acceptable protest. Half of the sentence was suspended by a judge in The Hague, meaning the men will serve one month. A third suspect is due in court Friday. Their identities were not released, in line with Dutch privacy rules. One man glued his head to glass protecting the 17th-century masterpiece at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague while another poured a can of thickened tomato soup over his head. The second man, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Just Stop Oil, then glued his hand to the wall next to the painting. A third man filmed the protest. The painting was not damaged, but the glass covering it had to be replaced and the protest caused other minor damage, prosecutors said. The painting was returned to its wall a day later. Vermeer was not a prolific artisttaking a long time over every workand just about three dozen of his paintings have survived, displayed in museums and galleries in various countries. In a statement, prosecutors in The Hague said that the activists goal, however important you consider it, does not justify the means. The prosecutors had demanded four-month sentences, saying they wanted to send a message that paintings hang in museums to be enjoyed, not exploited for activist ends. You keep your hands off them. Earlier this month, climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum and a similar protest happened in London, where protesters threw soup over Vincent van Goghs Sunflowers in the National Gallery. In both those cases, the paintings were not damaged. Life could have turned out so differently for one Colorado deputy. But the moment she had her badge pinned on at her graduation from the sheriffs academy, by an officer who saved her life 22 years years ago, shows how far she has come. Escondido police Sgt. Jeff Valdivia with Dep. Natalie Young. (Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriffs Office) On a fateful day in November 2000, Escondido police officer Jeff Valdivia arrived at a home in south Escondido, California, to assist state parole with a search. Valdivia found 6-week-old Natalie Young in a very vulnerable situation. She was lying on a bed next to her mother with a meth pipe laying close by. The little girl was underweight and her mother (only 17 years old) was already struggling with a drug problem, the Escondido Police Department shared in a post on Facebook. The little girl was a clear neglect victim, so the officer took her from the mother and placed her in protective custody. Nearly two decades later, Young wanted the officer who saved her life to know that she was placed with a loving adoptive family and that everything turned out all right. In early October, as Young was set to graduate from the El Paso County Sheriffs Academy, her mother found Sgt. Valdivia, who was still working at Escondido Police Department, and invited him to Youngs graduation ceremony at Colorado Springs so that he could meet the little girl. Sgt. Jeff Valdivia pins a badge on Dep. Natalie Youngs shirt during her graduation from the El Paso County Sheriffs Academy, 22 years after saving her life. (Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriffs Office) The heartwarming pictures show Sgt. Valdivia pinning freshly-minted Deputy Youngs badge and giving her a heartfelt embrace. Congratulations, Deputy Young! wrote Escondido PD. Welcome to a noble profession. The post has since garnered thousands of reactions with many netizens taking to the comments section. Sgt. Jeff Valdivia and Dep. Natalie Youngs share a hug during her graduation from the El Paso County Sheriffs Academy. (Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriffs Office) This story has me in tears, how beautiful, commented one. As a mother blessed thru adoption with beautiful children doing wonderful things in their community, I couldnt be prouder of all those involved in this story. Another user added: Such an amazing example of how one act of kindness can change a life forever. God bless you both and may God protect you as you serve your communities. Her parents must be so proud, wrote a third. Sharing the story, El Paso County Sheriffs Office stated it was an honor to welcome Young as part of their family, and emphasized the positive, long-lasting impact Sgt. Valdivia has had on his community. The EPSO appreciates our first responders in all communities and we alongside them will always be committed to service before self, according to Fox News. Dep. Natalie Young stands with her new coworkers from the El Paso County Sheriffs Office. (Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriffs Office) 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 Parents and community members speak out at an Orange County Board of Education meeting against the Santa Ana Unified School Districts referring students to the National Suicide Hotline and The Trevor Project in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Nov. 2, 2022. (Micaela Ricaforte/The Epoch Times) Community Speaks Out Against Use of Crisis Lines, LGBT Chatrooms in Santa Ana Schools Parents and community members spoke out against the Santa Ana Unified School Districts referring students to the National Suicide Hotline, which they say surveys children about their gender and sexualitywithout parental consent, and The Trevor Project, a national LGBT organization promoting chatrooms with what some say are controversial topics for young people. During a Nov. 2 Orange County Board of Education meeting, some, including parents, teachers, and members of a group called Gays Against Groomers, asked trustees to investigate the districts use of the hotline and the organization and to remove posters promoting both from school classrooms and hallways. The Trevor Project provides 24-hour access to counselors and other services for LGBT youth and features TrevorSpace, an online forum with hundreds of chatrooms on different topics. Some speaking to the trustees brought large signs depicting some of the chatroomsincluding those with names like Guilt, Pain, Secrets, Solace, Witchcraft Club, Polyamory Club, Furries United, and Bi+ and Mspec Folks. Parents and community members bring signs displaying TrevorSpace youth chatrooms with controversial topics at an Orange County Board of Education meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Nov. 2, 2022. (Micaela Ricaforte/The Epoch Times) Parents and community members bring signs displaying TrevorSpace youth chatrooms with controversial topics at an Orange County Board of Education meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Nov. 2, 2022. (Micaela Ricaforte/The Epoch Times) The public needs to be aware of what our children have access to in the guise of inclusivity and diversity, one parent said during public comment. Others expressed concern that the chatrooms might be a hunting ground for sexual predators posing as children online. Brenda Lebsack, a teacher in the district, told trustees she tested the chatrooms and the suicide hotline, posing as a student. On TrevorSpacewhich is aimed at ages 13 to 24Lebsack said she signed up for an account by merely entering a false date of birth. As for the suicide hotline, Lebsack said it surveyed her about her gender and sexuality, requiring her to choose from a list of 11 different genders or to write in however she identified if not on the list. It also asks for callers sexual orientation, whether they are asexual, bisexual or pansexual, gay or lesbian, heterosexual or straight, questioning or unsure, prefer not to answer, or other write in. Another public speaker suggested that the hotlines surveying of children without parental consent violates Californias Education Code 51513. No test, questionnaire, survey, or examination containing any questions about the pupils personal beliefs or practices in sex, family life, morality, and religion shall be administered to any pupil in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, unless the parent or guardian of the pupil is notified in writing, the code states. In God We Trust hangs in the meeting area of the Orange County Board of Education in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Oct. 7, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Trustee Jorge Valdes, whose district covers Santa Ana, told The Epoch Times he was shocked to learn of these materials in schools. Resources and posters promoting the suicide hotline and TrevorSpace are often used by teachers and school staff as classroom resources and are not vetted through the county education board, Valdes said. The trustee said he is planning to meet with Santa Ana Unified Superintendent Jerry Almendarez about removing the materials from schools. Those concerned about the materials also attended a Santa Ana Unified school board meeting earlier this month, asking trustees to for an investigation and to remove the posters from campuses. Members of the public make comments to Santa Ana Unified School District trustees at a board meeting in Santa Ana, Calif., on Oct. 11, 2022. (Screenshot via Santa Ana Unified School District) During the meeting, board member John Palacio suggested the board look into the complaints, while other trusteessuch as Carolyn Torres and Rigo Rodriguezcriticized the concerns as dehumanizing toward the LGBT community. Almendarez did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline. Couple Gets Life in Prison; Wanted in 5 Killings in 3 States CHESTER, S.C.A man and his girlfriend suspected of killing five people in three states last year have pleaded guilty to two of the killings in South Carolina and been sentenced to life in prison without parole, authorities said. Tyler Terry and Adrienne Simpson each pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and numerous other charges Wednesday in Chester County, according to media reports. Prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty in any of the five killings as long as the couple also pleaded guilty to two shootings near St. Louis, Missouri, and another in Memphis, Tennessee. All five deaths happened in May 2021, investigators said. Terry, 27, said nothing in court other than to answer questions about his guilty plea, while Simpson apologized to the families of the victims, which included her estranged husband. Simpson, 34, said she was heartbroken over what happened and wished she could turn back time. Her lawyer said Simpson has struggled with abusive relationships. Police began looking for Terry last year after he fired at an officer who tried to talk to him when he was parked at a closed restaurant. The officer kept chasing him with a bullet hole in her SUVs windshield, authorities said. Simpson was arrested at the end of the chase, but Terry managed to avoid more than 300 officers looking for him over seven days in one of the largest manhunts law enforcement could recall in South Carolina. The couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing Simpsons estranged husband Eugene in Chester County and Thomas Hardin in York County on the same day in May 2021. Terry and Simpson then ended up in Missouri 13 days later where prosecutors said they shot and killed Sergei Zacharev during a robbery in a restaurant parking lot in the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood. They then killed Barbara Goodkin as she sat in her car with her husband in University City, authorities said. Goodkins husband was also shot, but investigators said the bullet hit his cellphone, which may have saved his life. Two days later, Danterrio Coats was found shot to death near a car with its emergency flashers on in Memphis, said investigators, who think he was also robbed. Prosecutors in South Carolina said their counterparts in Tennessee and Missouri also agreed not to seek the death penalty against either Terry or Simpson as long as they plead guilty in those states, too. The couple will serve their life sentences in South Carolina prisons after they are sent to the other states to admit to the crimes, authorities said. DeSantis Endorses Republican in Tight New Hampshire Senate Race Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 3 announced his endorsement of Don Bolduc, New Hampshires Republican candidate for Senate, who is currently locked in a tight race against Democrat incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan. The U.S. Senate doesnt need any more Biden Yes Men, DeSantis said in one of a series of tweets supporting various Republican candidates. @GenDonBolduc will be a Senator New Hampshire can count on to fight reckless spending and work to get costs under control, the governor continued. He will do whats best for the people of his state. Urging his followers to support the retired U.S. Army generals campaign, DeSantis also included a link for donations. Bolduc, according to his campaign website, became the youngest police officer in the history of New Hampshire at age 18. He later joined the U.S. Army, where he served 33 years, including during the war in Afghanistan, and earned two awards for valor, five Bronze Star medals, and two Purple Hearts. In addition to the support of Floridas governor, Bolduc also recently received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who issued a statement of support via his social media platform, Truth Social. General Don Bolduc has run a great campaign to be the U.S. Senator from the beautiful State of New Hampshire, Trump wrote in an Oct. 31 post. As of Nov. 4, the Real Clear Politics average showed the New Hampshire Senate race to be a statistical tie, with Hassan holding a razor-thin lead of 0.8 percent. However, having closed what was a nearly 10-point gap just one month prior, Bolducwho now has 47 percent support compared to Hassans 47.8 percentwould appear to have the momentum heading into the Nov. 8 election. The contentious race has been heating up even more as of late, as prior to the candidates Nov. 2 debate, a man was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct after approaching Bolduc and causing a disturbance. The man was identified as Joseph Hart, 37, of Greenville, Rhode Island. At first, there appeared to be some confusion over what had occurred, with Bolduc exclaiming that he had been struck. Video footage later revealed that Bolduc was greeting his supporters when Hart approached the candidate while holding a camera. Bolduc was accidentally hit by supporters who rushed to his aid. In the clip, it appears Hart didnt touch Bolduc. I wouldnt call it an assault, no, Bolduc told local media after the incident. If the police didnt do their job, it probably would have been an assault, but you cant speculate. Meanwhile, Hart, a libertarian and anti-war activist, said he has filed a complaint against Bolduc, alleging that the candidate elbowed him. During the debate, Bolduc described Hassan as a career politician and slammed her for supporting President Joe Bidens failed policies. Hassan, on the other hand, accused Bolduc of receiving donations from Republicans using dark money to influence elections and Supreme Court decisions. The U.S. Supreme Court has become more and more political as a result of significant dark money over the past three decades with a concerted effort to put in conservatives with a particular point of view, she contended. Hassan also pointed to Bolducs initial position on the 2020 election as evidence that he was an election denier, wondering whether he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election if the results were not in his favor. Bolduc has attracted scrutiny over his stance on the issue, as he previously maintained that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but declared after winning the primary that Biden is the legitimate president. The Epoch Times has reached out to the Hassan campaign for comment. Tesla head Elon Musk talks to the press as he arrives to have a look at the construction site of the new Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 3, 2020. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images) Elon Musk Says Twitter Suffering a Massive Drop in Revenue After Activist Group Pressure Elon Musk wrote Friday that Twitter has suffered a massive drop in revenue in recent days after activist groups pressured advertisers to stop using the platform. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists, he wrote on the platform. Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America. Musk did not name the groups. Nor did he name the advertisers or companies. Several days ago, Musk wrote that he met with the heads of several left-wing groups, including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Color of Change, Free Press, The Bush Center, and the Asian American Foundation. Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks, Musk wrote around the same time. This week, reports indicated that top advertisers including Pfizer, General Mills, Volkswagen, and Audi joined a list of companies that have suspended advertising on Twitter. Musk did not address whether those companies specifically departed Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion last week. Twitters content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence, he wrote early Nov. 2. And when he acquired the firm, he told advertisers that he wont allow Twitter to become a free-for-all hellscape. But several of the aforementioned activist groups were critical of Musks takeover. Just days ago Elon Musk promised Twitter advertisers that this site would not become an anything-goes hell-scape. We got news for you. It already is, Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez said on the platform, claiming that Musks proposed council isnt good enough for her group. Yael Eisenstat, vice president at the Anti-Defamation League and who met with Musk, wrote that when the worlds richest man/owner of this very site himself traffics in conspiracy theories days after claiming to advertisers that hes going to be a responsible leader, all I can say is: Im not overreacting by expressing my concerns. Actions always speak louder than words. At the same time, Musk has floated charging users $8 per month to keep their blue check mark and to access other features. The announcement drew pushback from some verified users, including left-wing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) The current system of lords and peasants, with those who have the blue tick and those who dont, is [expletive], said the Telsa CEO and SpaceX founder on Tuesday. Power to the people! Blue for $8 a month. The Twitter logo is seen on a sign on the exterior of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022 (Constanza Hevia/AFP via Getty Images) Elon Musk to Begin Twitter Layoffs Friday Morning: Reports Twitter has reportedly informed its global workforce of 7,500 employees that layoffs will be announced on Friday morning, according to reports citing a company message. Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, the message, published in full by Business Insider, reportedly states. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward. The company reportedly informed employees that impacted individuals would receive a message to their personal email accounts with the subject line Your Role at Twitter by 9 a.m. PST on Nov. 4. Employees not impacted were told theyd be sent a message to their Twitter emails. According to the message, Twitter will temporarily close its offices, and all badge access will be suspended during the process. The company said this is to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home, the message reportedly reads. The Epoch Times contacted Twitter for comment and confirmation about these reports. Past Denials by Musk The move was reported by the Washington Post, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider. Musk has previously denied reports by the Washington Post and the New York Times on his plans for Twitters workforce. On Oct. 31, Musk denied a NY Times report published the day before, which claimed Twitter layoffs would occur before Nov. 1, when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation. The new Twitter owner responded to the report on the platform, saying, this is false. Musk also denied an Oct. 20 Washington Post report that he planned to terminate 75 percent of Twitters workforce. A Bloomberg report corroborated the story, citing anonymous people close to the situation. Musk has yet to confirm or deny the Bloomberg story. While Twitter has not yet confirmed the veracity of the reports about staff layoffs being announced on Friday, senior executives were among the first to be fired when Musk took control of Twitter, including CEO Parag Agrawal, finance chief Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. Trucks get refueled at a rest stop in in Las Vegas, Nev., on March 23, 2020. (Andrew Hay/Reuters) Energy Supplier Warns of Rapidly Rising Prices Due to Demonization of Fossil Fuels An energy supplier based in New York state warned that diesel distillates such as heating oil or jet fuel are at their lowest levels in more than a decade, saying that the Northeast United States could face shortages this winter. Our suppliers are really saying its a fine tightrope that if we have a drastically cold winter, [it] could be trouble, Mike Taylor of Combined Energy Services told Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight on Thursday. He noted that all New England and Mid-Atlantic state has signed onto the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative cap-and-trade pact that has been criticized by Republicans. All of our oil comes out of that region, Taylor said. It floats up through New York Harbor, and that supplies New England. Weve already seen curtailments and shortages up on the Hudson River terminals. That was early October, he added. According to data provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States currently has about 25.8 days left of diesel as of Oct. 28, the last date available. During previous years, the U.S. diesel supply has often fallen below 25 days of supply, including on April 18, 2008, when it fell to 24.9 days. However, according to a Bloomberg News report last month, thats the lowest seasonal amount on record. Last month, White House economic adviser Brian Deese described the levels as unacceptably low in a Bloomberg interview. All options are on the table, he also said. But prices for diesel have remained elevated and near record levels. Data provided by AAA as of Friday show a gallon of dieselwhich is used by long-haul trucks and freight trainsstands at $5.31; one year ago, it was $3.63 per gallon. Diesel prices for November delivery have increased 38 percent and will likely mean more expensive home heating oil prices, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, to Fox News. All of this is occurring as inventories around the world are drawing down, Lipow said. The result is rapidly rising diesel prices. Taylor noted in the interview that individuals who use kerosene as a source of heat will suffer the most. Currently, kerosene stands at a record $7 per gallon, he said. Its very hard to get [kerosene] right now and its going to be unaffordable, he added, noting that people who depend on kerosene are often on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Kerosene is also used as a backup heat source if there is a power outage. In the interview, Taylor blamed policies implemented by politicians in Northeast states amid the Russia-Ukraine war. The climate change agenda in the Northeast is really whats causing this, he said, noting there is a rampant demonization of fossil fuels. This week, we feature novels ranging in locale from Hawaii to Mount Everest and a revelatory history of the Third Reichs abuse of pharmaceuticals. Fiction Thrills at Everests Peak Abominable: A Novel By Dan Simmons Great stories need three things: a solid plot, memorable characters, and an engrossing setting. Simmons brings all three together in his novel about an attempt to summit Mount Everest while also trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of several climbers. Little, Brown and Company, 2013, 672 pages A Grand Tour of the Aloha State Hawaii By James Michener Your bank account may not allow for a vacation to the islands, but Hawaii is the next best thing. This thick novel is Micheners first work to bring places and their people to life through fiction. We start with volcanoes forming the islands, then move hundreds of years through history: the arrival of the Polynesians, then the Europeans and missionaries, and the Chinese, as well as the making of modern Hawaii. This heavily researched piece of historical fiction offers a grand respite from the blast of winter. Dial Press Reprint Edition, 2002, 937 pages History High Times in Nazi Germany Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich By Norman Ohler This revelatory book shows that the Third Reich was founded on drug abuse, ran on methamphetamines, and was led by an addict. Nazi armed forces systematically abused the methamphetamine Pervitin, allowing armored columns in Poland and France to keep moving and stay awake for days. Hitlers doctor doped the leader with feel-good opioids and cocaine, warping his judgment. Eventually, Pervitin abuse burned out Germanys armies, and Nazi leadership became too addled to realistically run the war. Mariner Books Reprint Edition, 2018, 304 pages Biography An Influential Childrens Book Author Astrid Lindgren: The Woman Behind Pippi Longstocking Jens Andersen Anyone older than 50 probably read Pippi Longstocking as a child. In the 1950s and 1960s, virtually every child read it. This biography tells the life of Pippis Swedish author, Astrid Lindgren. The anti-authoritarian themes of her childrens book series were a swipe at Nazi Germany. Andersen reveals Lindgren as multidimensional, examining her forays into politics (as a tax-cutting reformer) and pacifist. His revelations of Lindgrens life will surprise readers. Yale University Press, 2018, 360 pages How to Handle Health Care Costs Medicare for All, Really?! By Rich Yurkowitz Are health care costs in the United States too high? Is Medicare for All the answer? Assembling facts and figures on where health care is today and where its headed, Yurkowitz, a health care actuary by profession, shares his knowledge and offers insights into these complex questions. He argues that the government shouldnt get involved. Amplify Publishing, 2022, 352 pages Classics A Manual for an Ordered Life The Rule of St. Benedict Edited by Timothy Fry Sixth-century Europe was a place of warring kings and tribes. Into this chaos came Benedict of Nursia, a founder of monasteries, but even more importantly, the author of The Rule of St. Benedict. This code served other monastic orders, giving Benedict the title of Father of Western Monasticism. The rule became one of the foundation stones of European culture. Although it was designed for the monastic life, many Christians have relied on this guide to order their own lives. Vintage, 1998, 112 pages For Kids A Sweet Mother-Daughter Story This Quiet Lady By Charlotte Zolotow A little girl learns her mothers story by looking through photographs of her from when she was a child until she became a mother. A lovely book for children, it may spark talk of Moms own past. Illustrated by Anita Lobel. This book is for ages 4 to 8. Greenwillow Books, 2000, 24 pages Making the World More Beautiful Miss Rumphius By Barbara Cooney This lovely tale of a woman who sets out to make the world a more beautiful place by planting lupine seeds everywhere she goes is both inspiring and heartwarming. She leaves a beautiful legacy for generations to come. This is a classic. Puffin Books, 1985, 32 pages Dustin Bass Follow Dustin Bass is the host of EpochTV's "About the Book," a show about new books with the authors who wrote them. He is an author and co-host of The Sons of History podcast Jeff Minick Follow Jeff Minick lives and writes in Front Royal, Virginia. He is the author of two novels, Amanda Bell and Dust on Their Wings, and two works of nonfiction, Learning as I Go and Movies Make the Man. Mark Lardas Follow Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, Texas. His website is MarkLardas.com Anita L. Sherman Follow Anita L. Sherman is an award-winning journalist who has more than 20 years of experience as a writer and editor for local papers and regional publications in Virginia. She now works as a freelance writer and is working on her first novel. She is the mother of three grown children and grandmother to four, and she resides in Warrenton, Va. She can be reached at anitajustwrite@gmail.com Europes Natural Gas Shortage Leading to Global Food Crisis The Russian war in Ukraine is taking place solely in Ukraine, but the effects of the conflict are global. Sanctions and counter-sanctions have increased energy prices, and fears of a food shortage have amplified as Ukraine and Russia are major grain exporters. Still, its not just a reduction in grain exports that have food scarcity concerns soaring. Developed countries across the globe have committed themselves to a net-zero future (pdf) in which they shun fossil fuels like natural gas and embrace wind and solar power, instead. The transition to wind and solar might not have aggravated food concerns in an ideal environment. But Russias invasion of Ukraine set the ball rolling on cascading challenges, including food production, as natural gas is a critical ingredient in nitrogen fertilizer, a key component in crop production. In their pursuit of net-zero, and before Russia invaded Ukraine, countries like Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, and others reduced domestically produced fossil fuels. They also increased their reliance on Russian natural gas imports to compensate for their energy shortfalls. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) gestures while speaking to Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sept. 16, 2022. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) As a result, Russia is a world-leading natural gas producersecond only to the United Statesand is the worlds largest natural gas exporter. In 2021, Russia supplied almost 40 percent of European Union natural gas demands, according to the International Energy Agency. Germany, the largest economy in the EU, was even more reliant as more than half of its natural gas supply originated from Russia. But following the Russian invasion, Europe implemented sanctions against Russia in coordination with the United States and its allies. In retaliation, Russia took measures to cut off Europe from its gas shipments. Alone, fertilizers could have avoided an exponential price increase from Russias drawback in natural gas deliveries. But the drawback was coupled with Russia also being a significant fertilizer supplier owing to its vast stores of natural gas and willingness to tap those reserves. Nitrogen and Crop Production Since the 18th century, predictions of a global food crisis have abounded, with clerics like Thomas Robert Malthus hypothesizing that food supplies would eventually act as a barrier to population growth. But thanks to innovations in crop productivity, the Earth now boasts a population of almost 7.8 billion, and mass starvation has mostly remained at bay. One such innovation was the invention of nitrogen fertilizer, as crops need phosphorous, potassium, and nitrogen to grow. Specifically, while nitrogen is naturally occurring, its primarily in the unreactive N2 form, which plants cant use. A farmer spreads nitrogen fertilizer in his wheat field in Blecourt, France, on May 27, 2021. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters) To solve the lack of reactive nitrogen in the soil, pioneers like Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber looked for ways to produce ammonia, eventually leading to the invention of reactive nitrogen fertilizer. That allowed farmers to significantly increase crop yields. Estimates now say nitrogen fertilizer supports approximately half of the worlds global population, according to Our World in Data. Furthermore, for his work, Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. Still, one of the critical ingredients in nitrogen fertilizer is natural gas. Plus, manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer also requires it. Increased Russian Reliance Thanks to its early commitment to net-zero, Germany has the most significant penetration of renewable energy in its energy mix. Renewable energy is energy derived from sources such as the sun or wind that replenish faster than theyre used. However, renewables only account for 19 percent of Germanys energy mix, according to Geopolitical Intelligence Services. Seventy-six percent still comes from fossil fuels, with natural gas making up 26 percent of Germanys energy needs. Despite that, Germanys domestic gas production is a meager 5 percent. The remaining amount is imported, with 55 percent coming from Russia. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Czech Republic, Italy, the EU, and other countries are in a similar situation. Additionally, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Russia is responsible for 15 percent of global trade in nitrogenous fertilizers and 17 percent of global potash fertilizer exports. Potash is soluble potassium, which is another primary plant macronutrient. Belarus, Russias ally, accounts for an additional 16 percent of the global potash supply. The logo of the Russian energy company Gazprom is seen on station in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 27, 2022. (Spasiyana Sergieva/Reuters) Even before the UkraineRussia conflict, fertilizer prices had increased because of European production cutbacks. In November 2021, the World Bank reported, Surging natural gas prices in Europe resulted in widespread production cutbacks in ammoniaan important input for nitrogen fertilizers. It further noted that the price increase was driven by supply curtailments and trade policies. The IFPRI further reported that almost all European countries have varying dependencies on nitrogenous fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus. In some countries, the reliance reaches as high as 60 percent or more. For example, Germany imports 33.4 percent of its nitrogenous fertilizer from Russia; the Czech Republic and Italy import 33.5 percent; Albania imports 69.1 percent; and Moldova imports 83.9 percent. European potash imports are even more extreme, with most countries importing more than 60 percent from Russia and Belarus. With such a heavy reliance on Russia and its ally Belarus for natural gas and fertilizer, it comes as little surprise that commodity pricesnatural gas, fertilizer, and potash are all commoditiesskyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Escalating Food Prices Immediately following the start of the war in Ukraine, fertilizer prices surged 30 percent. That 30 percent increase was on top of 2021s 80 percent increase. The World Banks Commodity Market Outlook (pdf) reported, Commodity prices rose sharply following the start of the war in Ukraine, particularly for commodities for which Russia and Ukraine are key exporters. It added (pdf) that the price spike for food and fertilizers was the third largest after the spikes in 1974 and 2008. Price increases from April 2020-March 2022 were the largest for any equivalent 23-month period since 1973 for energy, and since 2008 for fertilizers and food. That price increase, according to the IMF, will add $9 billion to food and fertilizer imports in 2022 and 2023. Russias war in Ukraine exacerbated pressures on international prices for food staples and fertilizers. Moreover, high prices for fertilizers and energy as well as substantial downside risks weigh on the outlook. As a result of all these developments, the world is now facing a food crisis of a proportion that is at least equal to the 200708 crisis that left many countries with severe undersupply of food and caused large suffering and a high number of deaths, the IMF said. Jennifer Jones sorts her bills at her small flat in London, on Aug. 25, 2022. Like millions of people, Jones, 54, is struggling to cope as energy and food prices skyrocket during Britains worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. (Frank Augstein/AP Photo) Alzbeta Klein, CEO and director of the International Fertilizer Association, and John Baffes, senior economist at the World Bank Group, elaborated in their podcast: We have a brewing food crisis because we dont have fertilizers to fertilize lands all over the world so that we can produce for the next harvest and the one after. Fertilizer prices went up because prices of energy went up. This has an impact on how farmers behave, what they plant, what they do not plant, how they tend their fields. Soy requires less fertilizer than corn, so we have seen a tilt towards more soy and less corn, which has an impact further down the value chain. The impact unfortunately will be global and felt in every part of the value chain. Our food system is extremely interconnected and global. They added specifically about the effects of the war in Ukraine: Another side of the problem is that some fertilizers, especially nitrogen-based fertilizers, use natural gas as the main input. Because natural gas supplies have been affected by war in Ukraine (and even prior to the war), there has been a reduction in the supply of fertilizers elsewhere, apart from Belarus and Russia. Falling Domestic Production In 2021, at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), 153 countries committed to new 2030 net-zero commitments (pdf). But that wasnt the first time countries made such commitments to net-zero pursuits. In 2000, Germany enacted the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which required 6 percent of energy to come from renewable resources. In 2017, Germany revised the legislation, upping renewable resources to 40 to 45 percent in 2025. Then in 2030, the requirement will increase to 65 percent, according to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. In 2018, the Czech Republic committed to at least 13 percent of consumed energy from renewable sources by 2020. And it also committed to 18 to 25 percent of its electricity production from renewables by 2040 and said it generally supported EU targets for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (R) greet U.S. President Joe Biden at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 1, 2021. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Additionally, according to the Glasgow Climate Pact, which resulted from COP26, 90 percent of the worlds collective money and global emissions now fall under net-zero commitments. As a result, countries are phasing out things such as domestically produced coal and natural gas and increasing their reliance on wind and solar. However, natural gas is necessary for fertilizer and energy needs. Consequently, countries committed to net-zero have increased their reliance on Russia for fertilizer and natural gas deliveries. That reliance has resulted in an evolving global food crisis. Extreme Risk Protection Orders Double at Orange County, New York, District Attorneys Office The number of extreme risk protection orders handled by the Orange County District Attorneys Office has doubled to 62 following the expansion of red flag law in New York, according to District Attorney David Hoovler on Nov. 3. An extreme risk protection order (ERPO) is a court order under state law that prevents a person deemed at risk to himself or others from buying or owning guns. The law was expanded in June to mandate police officers to file ERPO petitions when they have credible information that an individual is likely to harm himself or others. Since then, quite a few local police departments have turned to the county district attorneys office for help, including legal advice in filing applications as well as legal presentations during subsequent court hearings. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler. (Courtesy of Orange County District Attorneys Office) For the most part, anyone that asks us for help is never turned down. Our goal is that we will assist any law enforcement or any civilian that asks for assistance, Hoovler told The Epoch Times. Under the ERPO law, civilians such as school officials and health professionals can also file ERPO petitions. Most ERPO cases assisted by the office by far had to do with people having mental health issues, suicidal thoughts, or threatening behaviors, he said. ERPO serves a purpose as a precautionary measure. Its an investigative tool, he said. However, they do not help us get illegal guns off the street and off the drug dealers and gang memberswe cannot conflate ERPOs to that. Extra Workload The increasing ERPO workload has put a strain on his office, Hoovler said. The investigation and application for a single petition typically takes an entire workday; additional time is required for future court hearings and procedures. They are extremely time-consuming from our perspective. It is a big strain, he said. The burden on local police departments has also increased. In ERPO cases, police officers either work by themselves or with help from assistant district attorneys throughout the process. Police vehicles parked outside the Middletown Police Department in N.Y. on Oct. 13, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times) At Middletown Police Department, ERPO applications have grown exponentially since the new red flag law, according to Lieutenant Jeffry Thoelen. By Oct. 25, the department had applied for 23 ERPO orders, 9 of which were approved, 11 were denied, 1 was withdrawn by the judge, and 2 were pending. The Mount Hope Police Department had handled zero ERPO orders before July. Since then, the police have applied for three. If the state wanted to do this, they should have at least put some resources towards it, including representing the police at the hearing. I think the state rushed this thing through without understanding the practical effects, Mount Hope Police Chief Paul Rickard told The Epoch Times on Oct. 25. Unfunded Mandate On Oct. 24, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an additional $4.6 million in the 2023 budget to help state police to handle the increasing ERPO applications. Since the summer, ERPO orders issued statewide have doubled to 1,908, according to the Governors Office. State police are mandated to file ERPOs whenever there is probable cause that an individual is likely to harm himself or others, according to an executive order issued by Gov. Hochul days after the May 14 Buffalo mass shooting. But the funding does not help local police departments like his, Rickard said. Luckily, in Orange County, the District Attorney said he would help us. But if he doesnt do it, then we have to pay for an attorney to present us in the hearings, he added. Orange County Government in Goshen, N.Y., on Oct. 18, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times) Hoover said it would be nice if there were state funding for local law enforcement agencies to process ERPO cases. Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus told The Epoch Times in an Oct. 3 email, It is another unfunded mandate put forward by Albany, which micromanages too much. Conversely, working with Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler and other County departments, we have increased what we do to assist our local governments. Our hope is that this preventative measure keeps our residents safe, the email says. The Epoch Times reached out to Gov. Hochul for comments. Orthodox Jewish men pass New York City police guarding a Brooklyn synagogue prior to a funeral for Mosche Deutsch in New York on Dec. 11, 2019. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo) FBI Warns of Broad Threat to New Jersey Synagogues, Issues Warning The FBI said on Nov. 3 that it has received credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in New Jersey. The Newark FBI shared the warning on Twitter while asking members of the public to take all security precautions to protect your community and facility. We will share more information as soon as we can. Stay alert. In case of emergency call [the] police, officials said. The agency added that it is taking a proactive measure by issuing the warning while it conducts an investigation into the matter and is engaging with its faith-based partners in the affected community. In a separate statement on Twitter New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that he had been in contact with the New Jersey Attorney General, Homeland Security, and FBI Newark regarding a credible threat to synagogues in the area and that they are closely monitoring the situation and are working with local law enforcement to ensure that all houses of worship are protected. Elsewhere, the New York Police Department said in a statement that it is aware of the FBIs alert and, out of an abundance of caution its intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus are working with the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure the safety and well-being of every area that encompasses our Jewish citizens and synagogues here in New York City and the tri-state area. Rise in Antisemitic Incidents The alert comes amid a rise in antisemitic incidents across the United States, with 2,717 antisemitic incidents throughout the country in 2021, according to an audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). That marks a 34 percent increase from the 2,026 incidents tabulated in 2020 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979. Of the 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021, 1,776 were cases of harassment, and 853 incidents were cases of vandalism, according to ADL. The non-governmental organization said on Thursday that it is working with the FBI as they mobilize to address this credible threat and advised synagogues and other Jewish organizations to remain calm and in a heightened state of alert. New Jersey was home to one of the worst antisemitic attacks in recent years in 2019 when two shooters opened fire in a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, killing six people, including the suspects. According to the Berman Jewish DataBanks 2018 survey (pdf), there were 545,450 Jews in New Jersey, who made up 7.9 percent of the total U.S. Jewish population. Elsewhere on Thursday, New Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop tweeted that extra police would be deployed to the citys seven synagogues and the broader Jewish community until more information about the threat was available. (LR) Lawyer Keith Wilson and Freedom Convoy organizers Chris Barber and Tamara Lich hold a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 3, 2022. (NTD) Following Lawyers Testimony, Ottawa Police Launch Investigation Into Police Leaks to Convoy Organizers Following the Nov. 2 revelation by a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission that law enforcement intelligence was leaked to the Freedom Convoy during the protest, Ottawa Interim Police Chief Steve Bell said an investigation is underway. Weve already, as of last night, initiated an internal investigation, Bell told a parliamentary committee on Nov. 3, noting that the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) would be contacting convoy lawyer Keith Wilson, who spoke of the leaks during testimony at the Emergencies Act inquiry. There was a steady stream of information and leaks coming from all of the different police forces and security agencies, Wilson, a lawyer representing the core Freedom Convoy group of organizers, testified on Nov. 2. There were numerous times where information would come into the operation centre from various police sources that a raid was imminent. He said a raid would then follow on a number of occasions, with police taking firewood, fuel, or food from the truckers. Evidence was heard from the police that some planned raids were aborted. Lawyer for the class-action honking lawsuit, Paul Champ, asked Wilson, You were getting information from sympathetic police, is that right? Wilson replied Yes. He testified that people with the same mission statement came together: former police officers, military, Navy, CSIS, airplane pilots, doctors, nurses. Another convoy organizer, Tom Marazzo, a former military member, testified he had sympathetic law enforcement officers approaching him directly with intelligence. Wilson also told the inquiry he had been openly involved with various other police service liaison members, including with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the OPS. Bell said Wilsons testimony was new and would be investigated. He also said that a number of investigations and discipline actions were previously carried out against officers who made donations to support the convoy. OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said at the Oct. 3 committee meeting that concerns were raised that some members of the police force were sympathetic to the convoys cause, but said there was no ongoing investigation at this time. Other Accusations There are also allegations that the Freedom Convoy organizers had direct law enforcement knowledge and leaked it internally. A person of interest profile, created by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and entered into evidence before the commission, alleges that a former RCMP sniper on Justin Trudeaus private security detail may have leaked the Prime Ministers schedule a few months ago. The Jan. 30 document redacts the officers name but states he resigned from the RCMP in 2021 after mandatory vaccinations were implemented for all federal employees by the Trudeau government. The document says the individual has been very vocal on social media in his belief that the vaccine mandates are in violation of the Canadian Constitution and alleges he is involved with Mounties for Freedom. The document also notes there have been no criminal charges laid against the individual in connection with these intelligence documents. CBC News suggests the individual was head of Freedom Convoy security and names the redacted former officer, explaining there is a redacted photo of him sourced from a YouTube interview. The individual was labelled as head of convoy security in media reports, but he told the Globe and Mail last week that he did not have that role and that the media misinterpreted his involvement. He said he acted as a volunteer security coordinator and police liaison. Ive never revealed any kind of sensitive information or revealed any kind of tradecraft that would be protected under the Security of Information Act, he said. The Canadian Press contributed to this report. A video has resurfaced from the 1990s and has bewildered people on Tiktok after racking up more than a million views. The clip posted to TikTok with the caption what jumped, has stumped viewers and sparked heated debate. Doesnt look like a whale, the poster, a fisherman from the US, wrote alongside the video which he claimed came from his dads 1990 tuna VHS tapes. He later said it was shot from a 40ft (12m) fishing vessel. The footage reveals a blue sky and sparkling ocean off the New England coast before something jumps from the deep and splashes back down. The video, which has had 1 million views on TikTok, has divided viewers over what jumps out of the water. Source: TikTok Unknown 25ft sea creature sets off war of words The mystery at Cashes Ledge, an underwater mountain range 130 kilometres off the coast of Massachusetts, has ignited a fiery dispute between TikTokers. It began when someone suggested that the questionable shape was actually two dolphins. Its bottlenose dolphins, they said. Two of them jumped at the same time. And plenty of people agreed. Tails are sideways, so dolphins, one person wrote. Those are 100 per cent two dolphins after watching it for a second time, another added. You can see the node of the second and the first dolphin turns so the tail is vertical, someone else said. While another suggests it was a larger pod. If you save the video and go frame by frame, I actually think its three dolphins, they wrote. Two jump out high but one barely leaves the water as the others go back in. But the poster, a professional fisherman who claims the creature was 25ft long, has slammed the suggestion of dolphins. I never thought some people would say dolphins, he wrote in the comments. Thats foolish [and] really shows how clueless people are. Ive never seen a 25ft dolphin before. If you see two dolphins, I know 100 per cent you have never even been out commercial fishing in your life. Story continues While any ideas of a whale sighting have been shot down. Doesnt look like a whale to me, Adelaide Deddan, a PhD candidate researching the migration of whales at the University of NSW told Yahoo News Australia. Unfortunately I dont think Id be able to say confidently what that is without any other footage. Jaws resurfaces in 30 year old tape As it turns out the fisherman behind the video has his own theory. Its a basking shark, get a grip, he wrote online, adding that his dad had caught hundreds of those gummers in the nets at Cashes. Some were quick to side with the TikToker. 100 per cent I think basking but Ive never seen them jump before, one person wrote. Its got the same shape as a basking shark and basking sharks always jump. another added. While someone else was convinced that it was a tiger or a great white shark. Great whites are known to jump out of water to catch their prey, they said. 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. Former Wisconsin Election Official Charged After Sending Fake Military Ballots Ahead of Midterms A Wisconsin election official who was fired this week has been charged with making false statements over her alleged sending of fake military ballots to another person. Kimberly Zapata, the just-fired Milwaukee Election Commission deputy director, was charged with misconduct in public office and making false statements to obtain absentee ballots, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Epoch Times. Zapata faces up to five years, and a fine of up to $13,000, if convicted. According to the complaint, Zapata created three fake names, including Holly Brandtjen, and used them to apply for military ballots before using her governmental access to a voter database to obtain the address of JB. The details in the complaint match those made public by state Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen after she received three military ballots. State law enables military voters to request ballots without providing proof of identification or residence. Zapata admitted to her boss, Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, on Nov. 1 that she applied for and sent the ballots to Brandtjen to show how easy it is to commit fraud in this manner, according to the complaint. During an interview with investigators, Zapata acknowledged what she had done and said she wanted to bring the actual true fraud out. She also said that she wanted to redirect Brandtjens focus away from outrageous conspiracy theories and to something that is actually real. Zapata accessed the MyVote site on Oct. 25 using her city-issued laptop and created the false identities, choosing random addresses in Shorewood, South Milwaukee, and Menominee Falls to use. and then sending them to Brandtjens home. She utilized her government access to the WisVote database to find the lawmakers address. By submitting false military absentee ballot requests, Zapata did an act that was in excess of her lawful authority and that she was forbidden by law from doing. By submitting these absentee ballot requests, Zapata was falsely asserting that she was the individual listed on the ballot requests, assistant Milwaukee District Attorney Richard Westphal said. These false statements were made for the purpose of obtaining absentee ballots and in fact resulted in the issuance of such ballots. Zapata did not respond to a request for comment. Her initial appearance in court is slated to take place on Nov. 28. Waukesha County authorities were initially investigating the ballots, but handed over the probe to Milwaukee officials. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, announced Zapatas firing on Thursday. This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement, he said. Tamara Lich appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov 4, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) Tamara Lich Undergoes Cross-Examination at Emergencies Act Inquiry Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich faced cross-examination at the inquiry into the Emergencies Act on Friday and she pushed back on assertions brought by lawyers opposed to last winters trucker-led protest. Lich was asked by Government of Canadas counsel Andrea Gonsalves whether she was aware that officials had received death threats around the time of the Freedom Convoy. These included Mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson, then-Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, according to Gonsalves. Lich said she was not aware about those at the time. She became aware of the threat against Freeland in recent days, as it was entered as evidence at the commission. I was also receiving death threats, Lich said, explaining that she had to leave the hotel she was staying at because it was receiving the threats. Lich testified over two days before the Public Order Emergency Commission. The commission is tasked with examining the Liberal governments invocation of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 to clear cross-country protests and blockades demanding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Other protest organizers and participants testified earlier this week, such as Chris Barber, Tom Marazzo, Pat King, and James Bauder. Disruption Paul Champ, the lawyer representing some Ottawa residents and businesses, sought to have Lich admit that the protest had been disruptive for the city. He highlighted the statement released by the Freedom Convoy after it reached a deal with the city on Feb. 12 to move trucks out of residential neighbourhoods. The statement said the protesters never intended to negatively impact the residents of Ottawa. We didnt want to create a big disruption to them. We wanted it to be respectful to the citizens of Ottawa for sure, Lich said. Because from January 29 till February the 13th, you recognize it wasnt very respectful to the people of downtown Ottawa, Champ replied. Lich countered that there had been a lot of support from Ottawa residents. What I will say is that I was approached by hundreds of Ottawa citizens who had come out to support. I was approached by federal government employees who were donating items to the protesters. Champ highlighted to Lich that despite a number of setbacks faced by the protesters they decided to stay. Werent you getting the message? Champ asked, after noting the shutdown of the GoFundMe fundraiser, the state of emergencies declared by the city and the province, and the injunction against honking. Well, we had a message too, said Lich. Champ asked whether that was more important than what the people of Ottawa were experiencing. After the stories that I heard coming across Canada, that were absolutely heartbreaking after two years of lockdowns and restrictions, yeah, said Lich. Gabbards Critiques of the Far-Left Based on Common Sense and Allegiance to US Constitution Commentary Former rising Democrat Party star and Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard recently announced her departure from the Democratic Party in a formal video, causing uproar in the American media and political circles. Notably, with the mid-term elections less than a month away and the Democratic Partys unfavorable ratings in the polls, Gabbards withdrawal represents quite a blow to the party. The political parties in the United States are not Leninist parties. One may join or leave a party as he wishes. There is no introducer, no organizational approval, and certainly no gangster blood oath like the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) death to the whole family for betrayal. But Gabbards withdrawal from the Democratic Party is still out of the ordinary. She was once the Democratic Partys star of tomorrow and a 2020 presidential candidate. Most importantly, in her withdrawal statement, she launched a list of accusations against the Democratic Party, spelling out nine major flaws, each of them a deviation from the principles established by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Gabbard began her statement by calling the Democrat leaders an elitist cabal of warmongers, and argued that it is the current Biden administration that has put the American people in the most dangerous position, leading to the brink of nuclear war. When we are at war, the military-industrial complex makes a lot of money. When politicians, even if were not at war but were threatening that we may go to war, they make a lot of money. And these decisions are not made within the context of what our military actually needs, Gabbard said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Oct. 12. It is very often when members of Congress are advocating for even more than what the military is asking for. Because of those cozy relationships with the military-industrial complex, these massive defense contractors, and their lobbyists. Gabbard herself had served in the military and was deployed to Iraq as a military officer in the Hawaii National Guard. She has always opposed excessive U.S. involvement in foreign wars, especially wars that aimed at overthrowing foreign governments, such as those in Iraq and Syria. In her resignation video, she urged U.S. and NATO leaders to stop fueling the war and push for a negotiated outcome. Secondly, Gabbard accused the Democratic Party of undermining the foundation of the rule of law in the United States with far-left campaigns such as defund the police and the release of criminals back onto the streets. Moreover, she criticized the Biden administration for politicizing everything, including the Department of Justice, jeopardizing Americas democracy. She cites the example that organizers of pro-life demonstrations have all been targeted for IRS investigation, with half of them receiving heavy prison sentences for tax evasion along with other attacks on political opponents of the left. While she did not cite President Donald Trump as an example herelikely because she does not seem to like himwhat happened to Trump could have illustrated her point more clearly: first accusations of collusion with Russia, then tax investigations, impeachments, and most recently, the unprecedented FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate. Gabbard also slammed the woke ideology that declares men can become pregnant. The issue of gender identity has been the subject of heated debate lately. There are many discussions on the internet over the question: Can a man get pregnant? According to the Democrats woke theories, a man can get pregnant because it depends on how the pregnant person identifies their gender. If she is biologically a woman and thinks she is a man, then a man can get pregnant. So, according to their form of political correctness, if you say a man cant get pregnant, that constitutes gender discrimination. Gabbard also discusses the destruction of the family by the far-left. Families are the foundation, the basic element, of a society. Because the most extreme leftist agenda is now promoting transgender education in schools, children as young as 5 or 6 may choose to change their gender, without their parents knowledge, with the help of their teachers. These teachers will encourage the child to think along these lines, and if the child feels that he or she prefers a gender that is different from his or her biology, the school will provide different clothing, decorations, toys, and even hormone-altering drugsall of which can be done without the parents consent. When parents object, the school can go to the government and legally take from these parents their right to custody of their child and place the child in a social support institution. The problem is, as psychologists point out, childrens minds and psyches are very susceptible to change when they are immature. Young boys sometimes wish they were girls, or girls wish they were boys. But as they get older and their physical and mental states stabilize, they come to have a fixed perception of their gender roles. Giving a child under the age of 10 medication or even surgery without notifying their parents is a means of destroying the family. This brings us to the other issue Gabbard criticizes the Democrat Party overfree speech. She accuses the left, along with the leftist media and Big Tech, of censoring and suppressing dissenting views. The Biden administration had tried to organize a government agency to determine what is true and what is not on the internet. While pro-abortion advocates have rallied to besiege the homes of Supreme Court justices, and have even publicly threatened the judges and their families, the Democrat administration has tolerated this groups actions, saying they are exercising their freedom of speech. Gabbard also denounced the partys hostility to people of faith, saying that Democrat leaders actively try to undermine our religious freedom. High-profile Democrat leaders openly mock and discriminate against people of faith, especially Christians, she said. This hostility actually started during the presidency of Barack Obama. Since then, Merry Christmas has become politically incorrect as they believe it is offensive to non-Christians. As a non-Christian, I myself have no feelings whatsoever toward the Merry Christmas greeting. If what they claim is rational, when Chinese people greet each other with the Chinese New Year greeting Kung Hei Fat Choy, would it be offensive to non-Chinese? Speaking on racial discrimination, Gabbard stated that the Marxist critical race theory promoted by the Democratic Party is a completely racist agenda that targets white people. I can no longer remain in todays Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, she said. Gabbard is of mixed race, of European and Samoan origin, and of Hindu faith, so racial and religious discrimination and the oft-used label of white supremacist cannot be easily applied to her. The impact she will have on the Democratic Party could go beyond Novembers midterm elections. Gabbards critique of the far-left is based on common sense and loyalty to the principles of the U.S. Constitution. For those of us who have lived under a communist dictatorship, the far-left schemes are all too familiar. Redefining and distorting moral values, and eventually brainwashing by violent means, are the same old communist tactics used by numerous authoritarian regimes. The far-left in the United States just wants to continue communism, literally translated as communal ownership. Nonetheless, they will do what theyve always donetake other peoples property, by force if necessary. The Chinese people know this very well. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Rather than get bogged down in the neverending debate on vaccine science, Matt Jordan set out to simply give people a voice when he launched Jab Injuries Global. The platform, which has garnered 113,000 followers on its Australian Instagram account in just 10 months, has big plans globally, with local accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand beginning to gain traction. We are offering a service. Ive got a team of about 12 writers, and we sit on the phone with people for about one-and-a-half to two hours. We type out their whole story from beginning to end in as much detail as possible so that the community can go through and see whats really happening, Jordan told The Epoch Times. Were not really sharing science, news, data, or any of our own opinions. Weve allowed the people to speak about their experiences and their stories. I think weve got 300 now, he said. The platform comes as debate continues on the efficacy of vaccines and processes that governed their worldwide rollout during the pandemic years. Stories From Post-Vaccine Recipients The Instagram pages include testimonials from individuals reporting side effects, including pericarditis to seizures. In one case, a Gold Coast-based woman says she was told she contracted long-COVID after receiving two vaccine doses months earlier. She reported severe symptoms like body spasms, diarrhoea, and extreme fatigue. A medic prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Netanya, Israel, on Jan. 5, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images) The only real response I received from the GP was that there was no data on long-COVID in Australia, so there was nothing she could do. I found this strange as in the UK, long-COVID is a common diagnosis, according to her testimonial. While one volunteer stillborn photographer claimed the number of jobs she was doing a year increased from 70 a year to around 400. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Australian Department of Health both state that vaccines are safe for pregnant women. The testimonials are signs the previous consensus around vaccine safety is beginning to unravel. Just a week earlier, the mother of a 17-year-old Tasmanian teenager went public with her daughters story, telling 2GB radio young Faith was suffering severe muscle tics and spasms after receiving her second Pfizer dose. So we took her straight up to the local hospital. They did a lot of tests, couldnt figure out what was going oneverything came back quite normal, the mother, Tanya, said. I did actually ask the question then: Could it have been the vaccine? And I was actually told by the surgeons to not be so, and I quote, bloody stupid. Dr. Paul Marik, co-founder and chief scientific officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, previously told The Epoch Times that post-vaccine symptoms include some degree of neurological impairment. He also said the symptoms were harder to treat compared to long COVID. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Australias Therapeutic Goods Administration keep tabs on adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines. Motivated to Help and Build a Community Meanwhile, Jordan says it was through a personal experience that he was inspired to create Jab Injuries Global. I was quite confident in myself that I didnt want it, not because Im an anti-vaxxer, just a healthy person, he said. I was in a position where I had people in my close circle give me a hard time, and I was thinking, Whats the best argument to defend my freedom of choice? He realised personal stories on localised pages would be the best way to educate the wider public on concerns around the newer vaccines. Currently, the team has distributed 180,000 12-page booklets around the state of Victoria in Australia. In response, Senator Gerard Rennick of the centre-right Liberal Party welcomed the move. Well done to Matt, who has volunteered so much of his time to give a voice to those who really needed it, he wrote on Facebook. Yet Jordan emphasised the creation of the platform was about building a community. Awareness is still important, and we will still continue to do that. But we are trying to bring the world together. There are plans for a new website and, eventually, a directory indexing post-vaccine conditions around the world. Vaccine Injury Claims Process a Slow Burn An ongoing challenge for those claiming to suffer post-vaccine injury is linking the harm to the jab itself. Its a process that has frustrated personal injury lawyer Clare Eves from Shine Lawyers, who has said navigating Australias COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme was a challenge. The first hurdle really is, do you have one of the recognised covered conditions? If you dont, then youre probably not going to be eligible, she previously told The Epoch Times. Eves said she encountered individuals suffering ailments that fall outside of the recognised adverse reactions (eligible for compensation) to the jab, including deconditioning, headaches, fatigue, strokes, and seizures. While this financial year, the government has paid out $937,000 in compensation, budget documents estimate that number could balloon to $77 million (US$49.35 million) in the next financial year. However, around the world, vaccine injury compensation claims have garnered little traction with authorities. As of late July, Japanese authorities have approved 820 vaccine injury claims from 3,680 applications. In Canada, eight claims have been approved out of 774 claims, while the United States has yet to compensate a single claim. President Donald Trump greets Pastor Robert Jeffress at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on July 1, 2017. (Olivier Douliery-Pool via Getty Images) GOP Politicians Out the Texas Tribune After the News Organization Targets Conservative Churches As next weeks midterm elections quickly approach, a war is brewing in Texas between a nonprofit news organization and at least one pastor. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica are inviting readers to report conservative church leaders who endorse specific candidates for election, but that isnt stopping Robert Jeffress from encouraging his parishioners to vote according to their biblical beliefs. This Sunday [Nov. 6] in our church, Im going to end just like I did in 2020 by encouraging people to vote their biblical convictions, acknowledging we dont endorse candidates, but we do endorse Christians standing up against the godless agenda of the Left, he said. No need to mention names. A senior pastor at the 16,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Jeffress is a Fox News contributor and vocal supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Pastors have the right to personally endorse any candidate they want to endorse and secondly, pastors have the freedom and the responsibility to preach about issues voters ought to consider in the election on Nov. 8, he said. Jeffress is among the conservative pastors noted in an Oct. 30 Texas Tribune article as appearing to violate the Johnson Amendment, a provision in the U.S. Tax Code that prohibits 501(c)3 organizations from endorsing or condemning specific political candidates. If anybody thinks what I say violates the Johnson Amendment, well see you in court, he added. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica allege that sermons on 18 occasions over the past two years violate the amendment. But it is subject to interpretation and often to the detriment of conservative voices, according to Jeffress. The Johnson Amendment needs to be repealed, he said. Its selectively enforced. What is prohibited in conservative churches has been allowed for years in Democrat-leaning churches. Although like many religious organizations and churches, the Texas Tribune is a fellow 501(c)3 organization, the reporters posted a link at the end of their article inviting readers to document the political activity of churches, such as helping a candidate raise funds, sharing campaign literature, posting signs, hosting candidates, criticizing or praising candidates during a sermon or function, and publishing a voter guide. The IRS says pastors endorsing candidates from the pulpit is clearly prohibited, but other situations are less clear, the form states. Please send us examples of any political activity you see at churches or other religious organizations, and well look into whether it breaks the rules. However, Jeremy Dys, special counsel for litigation and communications with First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization in Plano, told The Epoch Times that religious organizations can host partisan events as long as the opportunity is offered to both political sides. It seems like every election cycle there is somebody whos bothered by pastors in churches, either in their individual capacities or as a church themselves, who would dare to speak unto the cultural issues of the day, but to try and intimidate churches into silence is the very last thing that the founding fathers wanted in our country, he said. The controversy escalated when, in a tweet posted on Twitter this week, the Texas Freedom Coalition turned the tables on the Texas Tribune by asking constituents for their input on any violations of the Texas Tribunes nonprofit status and included a link to their Texas Accountability Project submission form. Any time you see them campaigning or helping Democrats fundraise or not giving equal deference to both Republicans and Democrats, we ask you to report, said State Rep. Mayes Middleton, chairman of the Texas Freedom Caucus, in a statement online. The Texas Tribune did not respond to several requests for comment. ProPublica acknowledged receipt but did not issue a statement. A coalition of 10 elected Republican state representatives, the conservative caucus of Texas politicians condemned the Texas Tribunes data-collecting as a witch hunt targeting churches and labeled the nonprofit news organization as a de facto arm of President Joe Bidens IRS. Churches should be left alone, State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) told The Epoch Times. The First Amendment includes the right to free speech and the right to practice your faith. Shaheen is a member of the Texas Freedom Caucus. The stakes are high for both the Texas Tribune and nonprofit conservative churches nationwide because a Johnson Amendment complaint to the IRS can result in the loss of tax-exempt status and becoming entangled in a costly investigation. Jeffress recalls being the subject of such an inconvenient inquiry after former Vice President Mike Pence visited First Baptist Church in June 2020 five months before the presidential election and two months before Pence was officially nominated as a political candidate. We followed all the protocols, never mentioned his candidacy, never urged people to vote, and I contrast that with what Joe Biden did the Sunday before the election in 2020 in which he openly campaigned at a church with a campaign banner and yet theres no evidence the IRS ever investigated that, Jeffress added. The IRS acknowledged receipt of a request for comment but did not issue a statement. If pastors or churches or synagogues or other houses of worship and religious institutions are facing the threats of the IRS or anyone else from the government, they need to go to FirstLiberty.org, Dys told The Epoch Times. Look us up to see if we can help them out. The First Liberty Institute defended Christians Engaged last year after the IRS denied the nonprofit its 501(3)(c) status because it allegedly engaged in prohibited political campaign intervention. Christians Engaged is bipartisan but its president had campaigned for political office as a Republican. Eventually, after we were able to get involved, we got them out from underneath that IRS investigation, Dys added. So, thankfully theyre able to continue to do their work that theyve been called to do without any further interference. Health Care Workers Call on Alberta Premier to Prevent Future Mismanagement by Health Officials A large group of health care workers have written an open letter to Albertas new premier, Danielle Smith, criticizing Alberta Health Services (AHS) for what they call the organizations draconian policies and mismanagement during the provinces COVID-19 response. The letter states Smith was accurate in describing the unvaccinated as the most discriminated group of Albertans in her lifetime. We have lived it. We have been ostracized at work, investigated, and punished by our licensing bodies for practices that would have previously been expected. Many of us have lost our means of providing for our families, the letter continues. Signed by 1,600 peoplespecifically, upwards of 367 health care professionals, more than 46 frontline workers, and over 1,200 concerned Alberta residentsthe letter was sent to the premier by Airdrie lawyer Carol Crosson, who specializes in constitutional law. Warm Reception Expected Crosson told The Epoch Times that the premier has confirmed receipt of the letter, and she expects it will be met with a warmer reception than a similar letter attempted in 2021, before Smith was elected. Last year, around the same time, about 3,500 Alberta healthcare professionals sent a letter to Alberta Health Services sharing deep concerns about vaccine mandates, sharing similar fundamental principles as supported in this years letter, Cross said. She adds it is encouraging to see Smith discussing the vaccine mandates openly. Abhorrent Abuse of Authority The letter pointed to the AHS Mandatory Covid Vaccine Policy, calling it a direct violation of the principle of informed consent. Threatening to take away jobs, for refusing an unproven, undesired medical procedure would certainly qualify as compulsion, duress, and coercion, the letter says. This alone is an abhorrent abuse of [AHS] authority. The letter states that AHS implemented a mandatory COVID vaccine policy, and universally denied legitimate, valid medical and religious exemptions. This is another abhorrent abuse of authority administrators, who had no proper medical knowledge of the patient, were over-riding the medical advice of established patient-doctor relationships, reads the letter. The letter notes that doctors who spoke out against the preferred government narrative, or who provided vaccine exemptions to patients, were subject to disciplinary actions by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. The mismanagement of AHS, the letter alleges, resulted in significant loss of health care staff: through dismissal, being put on unpaid leave, early retirement, and mass exodus from the province. The group says the result was decreased morale, fewer workers, higher surgical wait times, and closures of beds, hospitals, and clinics. Informed Consent The group suggested Smith should question her political opponents if there is continued support for mandatory COVID vaccines and other public health policies. Science should encourage questions, whereas Tyranny persecutes those who question, says the letter. Some of the groups demands include asking the premier to reinstate the concept of informed consent for health care choices and to end any COVID vaccine mandates still in place in the province. It also suggests AHS needs to be restructured to prevent abuse of authority. The letter calls on the government to implement an independent provincial vaccine injury reporting system, and alleges the existing framework is staffed by nurses that appear to arbitrarily reject most reports. The group, which has a website inviting ordinary Albertans to sign in support, calls for an end to COVID vaccination for children, stating they are a population not at any serious risk from COVID. The letter further requests the province provide whistleblower protection for nurses and doctors, so that governing bodies cannot threaten or revoke licenses of health workers. The signatories to the open letter have stayed anonymous for fear of reprisal, but if the premier requests it, a full list of signatories can be provided in confidence, states the letter. The premier and AHS were contacted for comment but did not reply by press time. With the dodgy tests, $100,000 payouts to hospitals and death by ventilators, it was a manufactured crisis from the start. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Polls taken in 2020 and 2021 revealed Americans were wildly confused and misinformed about their true risk of dying from COVID Based on a new preprint analysis by professor John Ioannidis, theres no reason for anyone to live in fear anymore, regardless of your age, as your risk of dying from COVID is and always was minuscule across the board Before the COVID jabs were rolled out, if you were 19 or younger, your risk of dying of COVID was 0.0003%; only 3 per 1 million infected with COVID at this age ended up dying. Between ages 60 and 69, the infection fatality rate was 0.501%, i.e., 1 out of 200 infected died Emerging evidence suggests the shots are causing immune deficiency in some people, thereby actually raising their risk of dying from SARS-CoV-2 infection, even with the now-milder strains The real-world risk of dying from COVID-19 based on published data from the Irish census bureau and the central statistics office for 2020 and 2021 is as follows: For people under 70, the death rate was 0.014%; under 50 years of age, it was 0.002%, which equates to a 1 in 50,000 risk, or about the same as dying from fire or smoke inhalation. Under 25 years of age, the mortality rate was 0.00018%, or 1 in 500,000 risk of dying from COVID Do you really understand your risk of dying from COVID-19? According to The Hill,[1] a poll taken in mid-August 2020 showed Americans have a significant misunderstanding of the risk of death from COVID-19 when it comes to different age groups. On average, Americans were under the impression that people under the age of 44 made up about 30% of deaths, when the actual figure was less than 3%. At the time, 58% of those polled who were between the ages of 18 and 24 also said they feared significant health consequences were they to get infected, when in reality this age group accounted for a mere 0.1% of COVID deaths. Similar stats were found in April 2021, when the Washington Examiner reported on polls showing COVID-19 alarmism had resulted in 18- to 24-year-olds being the most anxious about resuming normal life despite being by far the least at risk from COVID-19.[2] At the time, the reported death rate among this group was 0.006%, yet half reported being nervous about interacting socially. Meanwhile, in the highest-risk group, those 55 and older, only 31% were nervous about social interactions; 65% were not. Has anything changed? Anecdotally, it seems mask wearers these days are primarily young (and seemingly healthy) people, while the majority of older individuals have embraced the freedom to breathe freely again. Based on a new preprint analysis by professor John Ioannidis, theres really no reason for anyone to live in fear anymore, regardless of your age, as your risk of dying from COVID is and always was minuscule across the board. Pre-Jab Infection Fatality Rates Ioannidis paper,[3][4] posted on the preprint server medRxiv October 13, 2022, looked at pre-jab national seroprevalence studies to ascertain the age-stratified infection fatality rate (IFR) of COVID-19 in people between the ages of birth and 69. As noted in the abstract: The infection fatality rate (IFR) of COVID-19 among non-elderly people in the absence of vaccination or prior infection is important to estimate accurately, since 94% of the global population is younger than 70 years and 86% is younger than 60 years. In systematic searches in SeroTracker and PubMed we identified 40 eligible national seroprevalence studies covering 38 countries with pre-vaccination seroprevalence data. For 29 countries (24 high-income, 5 others), publicly available age-stratified COVID-19 death data and age-stratified seroprevalence information were available and were included in the primary analysis. Based on these data, the authors came up with the following median IFRs: Birth to 19 years: 0.0003% = 3 out of 1,000,000 infected were dying 20 to 29 years: 0.003% = 3 out of 100,000 infected were dying 30 to 39 years: 0.011% = 1.1 out of 10,000 infected were dying 40 to 49 years: 0.035% = 3.5 out of 10,000 infected were dying 50 to 59 years: 0.129% = 1.3 out of 1,000 infected were dying 60 to 69 years: 0.501% = 1 out of 200 infected were dying Source: Ioannidis et al.[5] Overall, the median IFR for all age groups combined (birth to 69 years) was 0.095%, with an interquartile range of 0.036 0.125%. Limiting the age range to between birth and 59, the median IFR was even lower, just 0.035%, with an interquartile range of 0.013 0.056%. In other words, before the COVID jabs came along, out of 10,000 infected people under the age of 59, three died. Looking at the full age spread birth to 69 7 in 10,000 infected individuals died. According to the authors:[6] At a global level, pre-vaccination IFR may have been as low as 0.03% and 0.07% for 0-59 and 0-69 year old people, respectively. These IFR estimates in non-elderly populations are lower than previous calculations had suggested Large differences did exist between countries and may reflect differences in comorbidities and other factors. The graph below illustrates the ranging IFRs across populations in different countries. As reported by the Daily Skeptic,[7] The significantly higher values for the top seven [countries] suggest some of the difference may be an artifact of, for example, the way COVID-19 deaths are counted, particularly where excess death levels are similar Wide variations in IFR between countries for the same age groups were also found, which they postulate may be due to:[8][9] Data artifacts, such as inaccurate measures of seroprevalence or inaccurate recording of deaths Presence and severity of comorbidities For example, in the U.S., obesity affects 41.9% of the population, compared to just 2% in Vietnam and 4% in India Prevalence of frailty (number of elderly living in nursing homes) Differences in health care management and societal support Prevalence of drug problems Pre-Jab COVID Survival Rates Presenting this same data as COVID survival rates in the pre-jab era (i.e. 2020, before the rollout of the COVID shots) instead of fatality rates, you get the following: Birth to 19 years: 99.9997% survival rate 20 to 29 years: 99.997% survival rate 30 to 39 years: 99.989% survival rate 40 to 49 years: 99.965% survival rate 50 to 59 years: 99.871% survival rate 60 to 69 years: 99.499% survival rate Now, these numbers were all prior to the COVID jabs. Emerging evidence suggests the shots are causing immune deficiency in some people, thereby actually raising their risk of dying from SARS-CoV-2 infection, even with the now milder strains. Real-World Comparisons of Risk Using Irish Data With Professor John Ioannidis' new mortality/risk paper published, I thought I'd share the real-world risk levels for age groups in Ireland (government CSO published data only unequivocal & unquestionable) A great super-short one to share with unscientific, bedwetting normies pic.twitter.com/XC22dRQJ20 Ivor Cummins (@FatEmperor) October 17, 2022 Its important to understand that when youre dealing with a risk that is but a fraction of a percent, the real-world hazard is so small its really pointless to worry about. As a follow up to Ioannides new paper, Ivor Cummins, founder of TheFatEmperor.com, decided to review the real-world risk of dying from COVID-19 based on published data from the Irish census bureau and the central statistics office (CSO) for 2020 and 2021 (see video above[10]). In other words, these data are based on actual deaths, not projections or estimates. He also compares it to the risk of suffering other causes of death, such as accidental poisoning or falling off a ladder. Heres a summary of Cummins findings: Under 70 years of age (i.e., ages birth through 69), 600 out of 4.4 million (0.014%) died of COVID. This equates to a 1 in 7,500 risk of dying from COVID, or approximately the same as your risk of death from accidental poisoning In the 50 to 60 age group, 130 died out of 600,000 (0.022%), which equates to a 1 in 5,000 risk Under 50 years of age, 70 died out of 3,4 million (0.002%), which equates to a 1 in 50,000 risk, or about the same as dying from fire or smoke inhalation Under 25 years of age, fewer than five deaths were recorded in a population totaling 1.65 million. Since no number is specified, Cummins settled on three deaths to make his calculation, which gives us a mortality rate of 0.00018%. This equates to a 1 in 500,000 risk of dying from COVID if youre under 25, or one-fourth the risk of dying from falling down stairs or off a ladder Keep in mind that these deaths are not confirmed as being due to severe COVID infection. Theyre people who died with a COVID positive PCR test, so the real-world risks are likely to be even lower if youre healthy and have no comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and preexisting heart disease. In all, only 150 Irish people died from COVID during 2020 and 2021 who had no underlying health conditions contributing to their deaths, meaning they truly died from COVID and nothing else. Lockdowns Cannot Account for Low Death Rates Cummins has also published a draft paper titled Evidence For and Against the Effectiveness of Lockdown Policies.[11] He points out that during 2020 and 2021, there was massive PCR positivity across the Irish population, so lockdowns were NOT the reason for why the death toll was so low. People were testing positive in droves, even during lockdowns, yet very few were dying. The only reason that could be so is because the infection really wasnt as lethal as they made it out to be. People were testing positive in droves, even during lockdowns, yet very few were dying. The only reason that could be so is because the infection really wasnt as lethal as they made it out to be. Why Did so Many Die With COVID? As of early May 2022, the official COVID death toll in the U.S. was reported as 1 million, and 4 out of 10 Americans polled claimed they knew someone who died of COVID.[12] But did they really die from COVID? That is the question. Theres ample evidence suggesting the vast majority of so-called COVID deaths were of three main categories: People who died of other causes but had a positive COVID test within the last month There were all sorts of incentives to mark non-COVID deaths down as COVID, from hospitals getting paid extra for each COVID patient[13] to families getting funeral expenses paid (up to $9,000) for deceased family members who died from or with COVID.[14][15] COVID patients were killed by incorrect and lethal standard of care treatment for COVID It started with routine use of ventilators, which was quickly recognized as killing rather than curing patients. According to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) whistleblowers, 84.9% of Texans who were placed on ventilators died within 96 hours.[16] Yet the practice continues to this day. Then came routine use of remdesivir, a failed Ebola drug with extreme toxicity, and denying patients basic nutrition and fluids. There are countless horror stories of people who had no symptoms of COVID when entering the hospital but were placed on this death protocol simply because they tested positive on PCR, and subsequently died from the treatment.Attorney Thomas Renz has calculated[17] that hospitals, at a minimum, are making $100,000 extra per COVID patient provided they do not deviate from the standard of care protocol, which includes lethal remdesivir and lethal ventilation, and bars the use of life-saving options like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, vitamin D or anything else shown to effectively treat the infection.In short, every patient who has tested positive has had a massive bounty on their head, and hospitals have cashed in by overtreating and mistreating patients. Its been estimated that 75% to 80% of all COVID deaths could have been prevented had early treatment with successful protocols not been vilified or outright banned.[18] COVID (when it did play a significant role) primarily took out those already close to death, either because of their age or poor state of health For example, as detailed in The Truth Is Coming Out About COVID Deaths, the average age of death in the U.K. from COVID in 2021 was 82.5 years. Compare that to the projected life expectancy in the U.K., which is 79 for men and 82.9 for women.[19] Release Any Vestige of Fear In closing, COVID-19 was never as dangerous as they made it out to be, and the virus has not gotten more lethal over time. Its gotten milder. More infectious, yes, but milder, being near-indistinguishable to the common cold. So, please, if youre still panicked about COVID, its time to stop. Its safe to stop. It was a manufactured crisis from the start. I encourage you to read Dr. Russell Blaylocks article, COVID Update: What Is the Truth? published in the April 2022 issue of Surgical Neurology International. Heres an extended excerpt from this excellent article in which he covers most if not all the basics:[20] The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most manipulated infectious disease events in history, characterized by official lies in an unending stream lead by government bureaucracies, medical associations, medical boards, the media, and international agencies. We have witnessed a long list of unprecedented intrusions into medical practice, including attacks on medical experts, destruction of medical careers among doctors refusing to participate in killing their patients and a massive regimentation of health care, led by non-qualified individuals with enormous wealth, power and influence Neither Anthony Fauci, the CDC, WHO nor any medical governmental establishment has ever offered any early treatment other than Tylenol, hydration and call an ambulance once you have difficulty breathing. This is unprecedented in the entire history of medical care as early treatment of infections is critical to saving lives and preventing severe complications. Not only have these medical organizations and federal lapdogs not even suggested early treatment, they attacked anyone who attempted to initiate such treatment with all the weapons at their disposal loss of license, removal of hospital privileges, shaming, destruction of reputations and even arrest Never in the history of American medicine have hospital administrators dictated to its physicians how they will practice medicine and what medications they can use. The CDC has no authority to dictate to hospitals or doctors concerning medical treatments. Yet, most physicians complied without the slightest resistance It should be an embarrassment to the medical profession that so many doctors mindlessly followed the deadly protocols. Big Money for the Hospitals Blaylock continues addressing the only rational reasons for why hospitals were following clearly lethal protocols passed down from on-high by medically illiterate bureaucrats: The federal Care Act encouraged this human disaster by offering all US hospitals up to 39,000 dollars for each ICU patient they put on respirators, despite the fact that early on it was obvious that the respirators were a major cause of death In addition, the hospitals received 12,000 dollars for each patient that was admitted to the ICU explaining, in my opinion and others, why all federal medical bureaucracies (CDC, FDA, NIAID, NIH, etc) did all in their power to prevent life-saving early treatments. Letting patients deteriorate to the point they needed hospitalization, meant big money for all hospitals It has been noted that billions in Federal COVID aid is being used by these hospital giants to acquire these financially endangered hospitals, further increasing the power of corporate medicine over physician independence One must also keep in mind that this event never satisfied the criteria for a pandemic. The World Health Organization changed the criteria to make this a pandemic The draconian measures established to contain this contrived pandemic have never been shown to be successful, such as masking the public, lockdowns, and social distancing. A number of carefully done studies during previous flu seasons demonstrated that masks, of any kind, had never prevented the spread of the virus among the public The Fact Check Scam Blaylock also reviews how truth has been suppressed while falsehoods have flourished during these COVID years: The designers of this pandemic anticipated a pushback by the public and that major embarrassing questions would be asked. To prevent this, the controllers fed the media a number of tactics, one of the most commonly used was and is the fact check scam When sources are in fact revealed they are invariably the corrupt CDC, WHO or Anthony Fauci or just their opinion. Here is a list of things that were labeled as myths and misinformation that were later proven to be true. The asymptomatic vaccinated are spreading the virus equally as with unvaccinated symptomatic infected. The vaccines cannot protect adequately against new variants, such as Delta and Omicron. Natural immunity is far superior to vaccine immunity and is most likely lifelong. Vaccine immunity not only wanes after several months, but all immune cells are impaired for prolonged periods, putting the vaccinated at a high risk of all infections and cancer. COVID vaccines can cause a significant incidence of blood clots and other serious side effects. The vaccine proponents will demand numerous boosters as each variant appears on the scene. Fauci will insist on the COVID vaccine for small children and even babies. Vaccine passports will be required to enter a business, fly in a plane, and use public transportation. There will be internment camps for the unvaccinated (as in Australia, Austria and Canada). The unvaccinated will be denied employment. There are secret agreements between the government, elitist institutions, and vaccine makers. Many hospitals were either empty or had low occupancy during the pandemic. The spike protein from the vaccine enters the nucleus of the cell, altering cell DNA repair function. Hundreds of thousands have been killed by the vaccines and many times more have been permanently damaged. Early treatment could have saved the lives of most who died. Vaccine-induced myocarditis (which was denied initially) is a significant problem and clears over a short period. Special deadly lots (batches) of these vaccines are mixed with the mass of other COVID-19 vaccines. Blaylock goes on to review COVID jab hazards, evidence of hot lots, the unprecedented lack of autopsies being done on people who die shortly post-jab, Pfizers deceptive trial practices, the shameful vilification of useful drugs, going even so far as to fabricate studies to make them look deadly, the dangers of the COVID jab during pregnancy, the skyrocketing excess mortality post-jab and much more. Its a fairly long article, but well worth reading through for a summary of where weve been and where were headed. Originally published Oct 24 2022 on Mercola.com References 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. Can this inexpensive and convenient vitamin improve and heal the toughest of ailments? My ongoing relationship with vitamin C now spans a full 20 years, when I first met Dr. Hal Huggins, a pioneering dentist who opened my eyes to a wide array of clinical approaches to different diseases with hitherto unheard-of clinical results at his clinic in Colorado Springs. I can honestly say that my first visit to his clinic began the most meaningful part of my medical education. Nothing has been the same since. My office where I practiced adult cardiology ended up being shuttered shortly after that first visit. And I have never looked back. While there are many things I learned from Dr. Huggins, and there were many areas I then ended up exploring because of what he taught me, the single most important thing I learned from him was the incredible ability of vitamin C to improve or heal so many conditions. Without exception, seriously ill patients, often with such diseases as Parkinsons, ALS, Alzheimers, MS, and atherosclerosis, almost always had extensive dental toxicity in the form of root canal-treated teeth, infected dental implants, mercury amalgams, extensive cavitational osteonecrosis, and/or advanced periodontal disease. Each of these individuals had anywhere from three to five sessions of extensive dental work, typically involving a great deal of dental surgery along with the inevitable exposure to the toxins associated with anaerobic dental infections and the inescapable assimilation of some mercury vapor if amalgams were being removed. However, all of these patients received 50-gram (50,000 mg) infusions of vitamin C administered continuously before, during, and following the dental sessions. In patients with diseases that I had been led to believe could not really be improved upon, dramatic clinical improvement was routinely apparent immediately following the dental sessions. While I knew the removal of dental toxicity was very important in their clinical improvements, watching these patients perk up after their first vitamin C infusion was extraordinary. Most healthy people I knew just wanted to go to bed after hours of extensive dental work. On at least one memorable occasion, after the first vitamin C infusion was complete, one especially sickly patient immediately began talking with her caregiver about what restaurant they could go to that evening to enjoy a meal. This patient had several teeth extracted, but was still looking forward to attacking a steak with the remaining teeth in her mouth. On a few priceless occasions, I even saw some wheelchair-bound patients take a few steps, with assistance, before they finished their two-week treatment period at the clinic. Seeing was believing, and I realized the entire way that I approached patient care simply had to change. I needed to learn a lot more about the intravenous delivery of this molecule known as ascorbic acid, or ascorbate. I resolved to research this vitamin as completely as possible, learn the nuances of that research as best I could, and then proceed to spread the word on the application of this incredibly potent, inexpensive, and non-toxic substance. Research Many of the leads that I followed in accumulating the many thousands of abstracts and articles came from the 1972 ground-breaking book by Irwin Stone entitled, The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease. Stone obtained forewords for his book by the renowned Nobel Prize winners, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who had discovered vitamin C in 1932, and Linus Pauling, who pretty much put vitamin C into the public eye as nobody else has been able to do. In order not to miss any significant information published in the medical literature about vitamin C since the publication of Stones book, I entered the term ascorbic acid into the search engine of PubMed, and list of about 24,000 articles appeared. I gave all of these articles careful consideration in documenting the many clinical effects and laboratory effects of vitamin C. What began to emerge as I proceeded to review these thousands of articles was that vitamin C is more important than any other treatment for infection or exposure to toxin. Probably most impressive was the fact that vitamin C in test tube experiments had always neutralized any toxin to which it was exposed, regardless of the chemical structure of the toxin. The validation and enormous importance of much of this test tube research came from the work of Frederick Klenner, MD in North Carolina. His clinical experience demonstrated how vitamin C was just as effective in the body as in the test tube in neutralizing or negating the toxic impact of whatever toxin the patient was exposed to. Snake venom, heavy metals, pesticides, cyanide, alcohol, carbon monoxide were all neutralized. The results that Dr. Klenner reported with infections were also astounding, as vitamin C, properly administered, proved to be the ultimate virucidal agent, curing all acute viral infections. These viral infections remain incurable by the standard approaches of modern medicine today. Furthermore, Klenner showed that vitamin C was also very effective in the treatment of many non-viral infections, improving the efficacy of treatment by antibiotics and other medications administered today. While I have seen but a fraction of the types of conditions that Dr. Klenner described, I fully believe the accuracy of everything Dr. Klenner published. I have applied vitamin C treatment to many patients with conditions similar to those treated by Dr. Klenner, along with several other conditions that Dr. Klenner did not have the opportunity to treat. With the perspective of this clinical experience, I have little reason to doubt any of the fabulous outcomes that he reported. What I Have Witnessed I recall here some of the most dramatic anecdotes about the healing power of vitamin C in the hope of conveying to the reader what an extraordinary addition it can be to the clinical options of any medical doctor. Shortly after the vitamin C book was completed and published, I began a limited clinical practice with a few colleagues. The circumstances were pretty much ideal for me, as I was able to give or prescribe intravenous vitamin C as needed. Severe Influenza In 2003 Denver was in the middle of a flu epidemic that infected over 6,000 individuals and ended up killing more than ten children and infants. In this setting, a slender but healthy 26-year-old woman developed a persistent fatigue that continued to progress. After a month of this ongoing fatigue she fell severely ill very quickly, with the classical flu-like symptoms of fever, chills, muscle aches and pains, headaches, and nausea. She tried in vain to deal with her symptoms and still go to school. However, after about a week of these symptoms and trying to maintain a normal level of activity, she only had the energy to stay in bed. She remained in bed for the next ten weeks. Even her short trips to the bathroom depleted what little energy she had, as the out-of-bed excursions would cause her to feel feverish and would worsen her headaches. When I first saw her, she had lost 20% of her body weight, going from 100 pounds down to about 80 pounds. In response to a plea from her caregiver, I made a house call to her with my office manager/assistant, and we administered her first vitamin C IV there. I found her primarily just emaciated and appearing very malnourished. There was no evidence of liver enlargement or enlarged lymph nodes. Her bloodwork suggested a past Epstein-Barr virus infection, and it was reasoned that this chronic viral infection had just made her all the more susceptible to the epidemic of flu that was working its way through Denver and the rest of Colorado. Her first IV consisted primarily of 50 grams of vitamin C as sodium ascorbate in 1,000 cc of lactated Ringers solution infused slowly over a period of about three hours. Six grams of glutathione was added toward the end of the infusion. The next five infusions contained 100 grams of sodium ascorbate, completed by the six grams of glutathione. The morning after the first IV she was free of headaches for the first time in three months, and she felt much stronger. However, by the second infusion, she was able to walk a bit around the house. By the morning after the third infusion, she was able to walk outside and enjoy a little sunshine. She was able to walk into the clinic for her fourth infusion and subsequent treatments. She felt completely normal the day after the fourth infusion, but two more infusions over two more days were administered to prevent the possibility of relapse. An oral regimen of supplementation was started, and she was discharged from regular care. Of particular importance in understanding the amount of vitamin C needed to effectively cure this patients chronic/acute viral syndrome is to note the patients weight of 80 pounds when first seen. 100 grams of vitamin C in a 80-pound patient is equivalent to 250 grams in a 200-pound patient. Further, the efficacy of the vitamin C was enhanced by the glutathione administration. Our conclusion from many similar cases was that any viral syndrome not resolving with vitamin C was almost always due to inadequate total dose, along with the virus not being readily accessible by the molecules of vitamin C, as in chronic hepatitis. A terminal (not early stage) case of a dangerous virus such as Ebola in a nutrient-depleted body might require even higher doses of vitamin C for clinical resolution, depending upon body size. H1N1 Influenza A New Zealand farmer contracted H1N1 influenza in 2009. Well-documented on New Zealands version of 60 Minutes, this individual had progressed to the point of being on life support, and the doctors had nothing further to offer. A family member contacted me to ask what to do, and I advised intravenous vitamin C, 50 grams or more daily, immediately. However, I did not think there was any chance that the hospital or doctors would allow such treatment. After an enormous struggle, the family finally got the doctor in charge to give vitamin C before pulling the plug. 25 grams of vitamin C was given intravenously the first day, 50 grams the second day, 75 grams the third day, and then 100 grams daily for 4 to 5 more days. At that point a new doctor in charge of the case discontinued the vitamin C completely, for unclear reasons, even though the patient was clearly responding, waking up, and dramatically clearing up the previous white-out state seen in chest X-rays of his congested lungs. A full week later, intravenous vitamin C was restarted at a mere one gram twice daily. But for the docs who thought the vitamin C was a foolish intervention, the proof of its efficacy was already at hand. Pulmonary Embolism While visiting Colombia, South America, I had the opportunity to see a 30-year-old woman who was bedridden and appearing to be in imminent danger of dying. She had been diagnosed with pulmonary embolism, and both of her legs were tender and swollen, appearing ready to set loose further emboli that would seal her fate. She was already on Coumadin anticoagulation, and her blood tests indicated the thinning of her blood was optimal. Since I had brought some supplies with me on this trip in order to give a few selected friends (as well as myself) some intravenous vitamin C, I decided to try to help this individual out as best I could. While I was concerned about the vitamin C neutralizing the anticoagulant effects of the Coumadin, I was hoping to relieve her suffering a bit. I proceeded to give her 50 grams of vitamin C over about three hours. She tolerated the infusion well. The following afternoon I returned to give her another vitamin C infusion. Her improvement was nearly miraculous. She was sitting up in bed and combing her hair, as she had just gotten out of bed and taken a shower on her own. On the fourth day, following the third infusion, she was smiling and very pleased to report how good her legs were feeling. I was very pleased, but I was also concerned over the possibility of relapse, as I could not continue the IV infusions. She did continue to improve, however, as I left her with several months worth of vitamin C powder, taken at 2,000 mg daily. West Nile Virus I have treated two cases of West Nile virus, and both responded very dramatically. A Colorado man in his 60s had already been sick for a month or two when he went to his local hospital and ended up testing positive for West Nile virus. His symptoms included persistent headaches, a bit of disorientation, and a low-grade fever. Upon arrival at my clinic, he was given 75 grams of vitamin C intravenously followed by 6 grams of glutathione intravenously. He was also given a hyperbaric oxygen treatment. By 36 hours post-treatment, he felt completely normal and remained so. Another man in his 50s contracted the West Nile virus and presented with a history of chronic virus-associated symptoms over the preceding six months. He received three infusions of vitamin C on consecutive days and reported having no further symptoms after the completion of the third infusion. There was no clinical relapse, and the cure was complete. He commented that the whole experience seemed like a miracle. Infectious Mononucleosis Two college students presented with chronic infectious mononucleosis. Both had been sick for months, primarily with severe fatigue, and they had already dropped out of their classes, not having the energy to continue. Both received several 50-gram infusions of vitamin C and had prompt, complete resolution of their chronic infections and persistent symptoms. Acute Lyme Disease A young woman in Pennsylvania was bitten by a pathogen-carrying tick, developed the classical Lyme-associated rash, and proceeded to get very ill over the next seven to ten days. She received several infusions of vitamin C at her house. The first infusion was 100 grams, and her caregiver reported that she seemed much improved upon the completion of that infusion. Five more infusions of 50 grams each were given over the next two days. By the time that 72 hours had passed, she was completely well, never having a clinical relapse or any chronic Lyme symptoms. Chronic Lyme Disease A woman with a 12-year history of chronic Lyme disease, documented by blood testing, desired having regular and prolonged high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy for her condition. Under the aegis of a prescribing physician who had attended one of my presentations of vitamin C, a nurse practitioner was able to give the patient what she wished. This individual had already been taking liposome-encapsulated vitamin C and glutathione orally without a significant improvement in her condition. On four consecutive days, she received infusions of 25, 50, 75, and then 100 grams of vitamin C. Then, for 19 more days, she received 5 or 6 infusions weekly of 100 grams of vitamin C in each infusion. Until day 23, she felt no improvement. However, she was determined to continue in spite of the lack of improvement and the increasing expense of the whole process. On day 23, the nurse practitioner reported that she looked like a new person, and that it was like a switch was flipped and she was well. At her request, the patient received another week of 100 gram daily infusions to be sure her condition was truly resolved, a very good idea on her part. About a month later, her Lyme blood testing was completely negative. A physician reported to me similar experiences with a series of Lyme patients, who showed no positive clinical response after an extended number of vitamin C infusions, then had a dramatic, abrupt clinical resolution of their condition, very much as described above. Final Notes Vitamin C is truly Natures gift to health and healing. Virtually all medical conditions are associated with increased oxidative stress, and the relief, or at least partial relief, of this oxidative stress with the vigorous administration of vitamin C and other quality antioxidants, will always help. The oxidative stress caused by disease and environmental toxins can deplete the bodys level of vitamin C and other antioxidants. In serious illness, the bodys reserve of vitamin C goes to zero because the rate at which the body regenerates it is far lower than the rate of depletion. This can require huge doses to bring it back to normal. Even if you are taking antibiotics or other prescription medicines, bringing your levels of vitamin C in your body back to normal, or temporarily supranormal, will virtually always result in profound benefits. The treatment is effective and, compared to the expense of conventional treatment, it is inexpensive. Few medicines and therapeutic interventions are more affordable than, and as non-toxic as, vitamin C. Even though something as extraordinarily beneficial as vitamin C might seem too good to be true, thats definitely not the case. Republished from GreenMedInfo.com Subcommittee Chairman Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) speaks during a hearing before House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 23, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) House Majority Whip: GOP Rhetoric Has US On Track to Repeat Nazi Germany House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Nov. 4 likened the current political climate in the United States to that of Nazi Germany, blaming Republicans demonization of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the recent attack on her husband and an overall decrease in civility across the aisle. This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, when it elected a chancellor that then co-opted the media, Clyburn contended in an interview with Fox News Digital. This past president called the press the enemy of the people, he continued. That is a bunch of crap. And that is whats going on in this country. The representatives comments followed what many perceived to be a divisive speech on Wednesday from President Joe Biden, who railed against extreme MAGA Republicans and accused them of trying to suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself. During that speech, Biden seemed to liken Paul Pelosis alleged attacker to those who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riotsan event he claimed was incited by a president repeating over and over again the Big Lie that the election of 2020 had been stolen. Additionally, Biden made similar comments in a speech in September, during which he accused former President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans of posing a threat to the very foundations of our democracy. However, Clyburn, in the Fox interview, held that Bidens rhetoric was incomparable to that of the Republicans as the presidents attacks were leveled at a philosophy, not a person. Further, when asked why voters should support Democrats in the upcoming election given the countrys current economic woes, the South Carolinian said: I think that people should be voting in their own self-interest. And their self-interest is much more than what you may or may not be paying for gas or a loaf of bread. Holding that the preservation of democracy should be a top priority, Clyburn added: The question is, are we going to have a society that everyone can participate in? Or are we going to have an autocracy? Since the 2020 election, many Democrats have denounced the concern of some Republicans that potential fraud may have influenced the results as the Big Lie or election denialism. However, Democrats have contested the results of presidential elections in the past as well. In 2005, Clyburn was among a group of Democrats who objected to awarding Ohios electoral votes to then-President George W. Bush, claiming that votes had been transferred from Democratic candidate John Kerry using electronic voting machines. But that objection, Clyburn said, did not amount to election denialism. Its totally different, he said. We didnt call anybody about a change in the votes. We just voted on a process. To protest a process is what we did. Nobody stormed the Capitol. Nobody disrupted the count. We only voted to protest a process, which is a legitimate thing in this country. Republicans, meanwhile, have called out what they described as hypocrisy from Democrats on the issue of the 2020 election. In June, the Republican National Committee released a list of more than 150 times Democrats denied the validity of election results. The Epoch Times has reached out to the Republican National Committee for comment. Police suppress the parents seeking help from Renze government about their children being locked up inside Renze No. 2 High School for more than a week without proper food and medical care on Oct. 30, 2022. (Video screenshot) Hundreds of Chinese Students Locked Down at School for Weeks; Parents Lose Contact Parents seeking information meet with beatings and arrest from police Hundreds of students at a Chinese high school have been kept in lockdown for over two weeks in the schools dorms, and some have been transferred to unknown locations. Worried parents seeking information about their children have been met with police beatings and arrests. The dramatic situation comes amid public unrest as millions in China face new or continued lockdowns under the regimes Zero-COVID policy. The students attend Renze No. 2 school, a combined middle and high school, in Xingtai, in northern Chinas Hebei Province. The school has been locked down, with all students kept inside the dorms, since Oct. 21. Some students have been transferred to various locations. Parents were not notified of the transfer, and some parents have lost contact with their children, a parent told The Epoch Times Chinese language edition on Nov. 2. They could only share information among themselves as word spread on the evening of Oct. 29 that students had left the school. Police Beat, Arrest Parents About 200 parents gathered in front of the district town hall seeking help on the morning of Oct. 30. Cell phone video taken by bystanders shows police in riot gear confronting parents. The video shows at least three parents on the ground after apparently having been beaten. Some parents were arrested. Anxious Parents Ignored The Epoch Times spoke with Cheri, a parent who asked not to be named. She is the mother of a junior high student at Renzi No. 2 school. Cheri said there are 12 classes in each grade, with about 50 students in each class. Students of [her childs] grade have all been relocated. We dont know about other grades, she said. In China, most students from 9th through 12th grade stay at school during the weekdays to save travel time. Cheri said that no one from the government seemed to care about the parents concerns. If someone would come to discuss with the parents, there would not have been conflict, she said. Cheri said that parents were never informed of the specific cause of the lockdown. Students at Renze No. 2 School in Hebei Province stay in one room, with no beds and no restroom, during the school lockdown that started on Oct. 21, 2022. (Provided by anonymous parent) Unsanitary Conditions, Insufficient Food Parents turned to social and news media as their only means of getting help for their children. One parent issued a post addressed to the school on the Chinese social media app Weibo, pleading that parents are not trying to cause trouble, simply hoping to obtain proper medical treatment and isolation conditions for their children. A video posted online shows a parent attempting to deliver food, using a long pole with a knapsack to reach students behind barred windows on the schools second floor. Another video circulating online showed students calling for help through the schools windows. A woman can be heard crying in the background. What little information Cheri has comes from her childs reports. She emphasized that she is one of the lucky ones: many parents are still unable to reach their children. Some parents have attempted to send food, supplies, and cell phones to the students, but found that the supplies did not reach the students. Food at the locked-down school is insufficient, and medical supplies, with the exception of thermometers, are non-existent. The students were given PCR tests, but no results have been made available. Cheris child registered a temperature of 102F. We dont know what the school is trying to hide. Are all the kids infected? We know nothing, Cheri said. Cheri was told that all the students, infected or not infected, are being housed together. Photos she posted on social media show at least a dozen students kept in one room, with no beds or toilet. A chair has been converted into an improvised toilet seat, and excrement packed in black plastic bags is piled up in the corner. We Are Really Scared One of the locked-down students posted on Weibo: Teachers locked the doors, and said its for our own good. But we are really scared. Cheri says she is feeling increasingly desperate and knows that every second counts. We want to save our children. The Epoch Times reached out to the Renze district government for comment and was told to contact the local Propaganda Department. However, the number provided was a fax number. Subsequent calls to the Renze district Center for Disease Control were met with busy signals. Xia Song and Hong Ning contributed to this report. (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo had a sobering message for US makers of chipmaking equipment this week: youll need to wait as long as nine months before Washington can reach an accord with US allies over strict new rules aimed at restricting Chinas access to certain technologies. The US is working on an agreement that would make companies in the Netherlands and Japan -- home to some of the biggest makers of chipmaking gear -- subject to limits on sales of such equipment to China. US companies are already bound by the export controls, which they say will cost them billions of dollars in revenue even as their main competitors in Europe and Japan face fewer limits on China sales. Reaching the accord, aimed at leveling the playing field, could take six to nine months, Raimondo told representatives of the US companies, according to people with direct knowledge of the meeting. Washington announced a new round of export control rules on Oct. 7 to limit Chinas access to advanced chips and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment made with US technologies. Raimondo made the comments when she met representatives from equipment makers including Lam Research Corp. and KLA Corp., on Wednesday, said the people, who requested anonymity discussing a non-public interchange. A spokeswoman for the US Department of Commerce declined to comment. Representatives of Lam Research and KLA did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Read: How Bidens Chip Actions May Be Broadest China Salvo Yet The global chip-production equipment market is dominated by US companies Lam, KLA, Applied Materials Inc., as well as ASML Holding NV in the Netherlands and Japans Tokyo Electron Ltd. Currently, the non-US suppliers have more latitude in doing business with China. For the US triumvirate, restrictions on what their overseas competitors can ship to China cant come fast enough. Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA have warned investors that the new export control measures will cut into their revenue. The risk for them is that -- until the restrictions apply in a more even-handed way -- foreign peers will win market share in China, generating added revenue that in turn can be plowed into developing new products. Story continues I think theres definitely a sense of disappointment that allies were not on board with this rule when it rolled out but a sense of urgency that they come on board soon to try and ensure that US companies dont bleed out market share to their foreign competitors, Jimmy Goodrich, vice president of global policy for the Semiconductor Industry Association, said in an online discussion hosted by the Washington International Trade Association. That doesnt help the US government achieve the objective, it harms US industry, but more importantly it does not address the national security goals, because those entities of which the US government has concern over in China are still able to access that technology the US government does not want them to obtain, Goodrich said. So on the multilateral front, that is a significant area where the private sector is watching that very closely for future developments, he said. While the overall market for chipmaking gear will shrink next year, according to estimates, analysts project that the three American companies will suffer steeper revenue declines than their Japanese counterpart. Washington is now preparing to amp up pressure on allies to block chip gear sales to China. Senior US National Security Council official Tarun Chhabra and Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez are slated to travel to the Netherlands for discussions on China-chip curbs later this month, Bloomberg News has reported, although no deal is expected to come out of the talks. Estevez said last week that he expects a deal with allies to be reached in the near term. He said he wants rules for American companies to be fair with their competition across the globe, and its fair for their competition with each other, adding that he and other officials such as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Raimondo are talking to allies about the issue. --With assistance from Eric Martin. (Updates with Semiconductor Industry Assiciation comment in eighth paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. IEA Says Europe Must Act Now to Avoid Winter 2023 Gas Shortages OSLOEurope needs to act now to avoid a natural gas shortage next year given the loss of Russian supply and expectations Chinese demand will increase, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. The European Union has succeeded in filling storages to 95 percent ahead of this winter, 5 percent or 5 bcm above their 5-year average, but the IEA said the challenge next year was likely to be greater and there was a danger mild weather had led to a sense of complacency. We are ringing the alarm bells for the European government and for the European Commission for next year, IEA head Fatih Birol told journalists when presenting a report on Europes supply-demand balance for 2023/24. The report found that Europe could face a gap of as much as 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas during the summer period of lower demand that is crucial for refilling its gas storage sites in 2023. Such a gap could see storages only 65 percent full ahead of next winter, instead of a targeted 95 percent level, Birol said. Depending on the weather, storage levels by the end of the 2022/23 heating season could be anywhere between 5 percent and 35 percent, resulting in summer 2023 injection between 60 bcm and 90 bcm, the IEA said. Supply, already disrupted, could fall further next year if Russian pipeline gas flows stop completely, while competition for liquefied natural gas (LNG), on which Europe has relied heavily this year, is likely to increase as Chinese demand grows, the agency said. While demand from China could take up 85 percent of an expected 20 bcm increase in global LNG supply in 2023, Europe will almost certainly have far less Russian gas than this year. In 2022, Russian pipe gas supplies to Europe were 60 bcm for the first 10 months despite a drop in flows due to the war in Ukraine. In 2023, they will in all probability drop to less than half that amountand could cease completely, the IEA said. By Nora Buli People make their way on a street in smoggy conditions in New Delhi on Nov. 4, 2019. (Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images) India Closes Primary Schools in Delhi Due to Severe Air Pollution Primary schools in Delhi, India, will be closed starting Nov. 5 and outdoor activities for secondary schools will be suspended due to severe air pollution levels, authorities said on Friday. Smog has formed over the nations capital of New Delhi due to vehicle exhaust, factory emissions, and smoke from burning crop stubble. Delhis air quality index (AQI) exceeded 400 on Friday, indicating severe pollution that could lead to a spike in respiratory illnesses. Were taking all steps to control the pollution situation. Meanwhile, were shutting down all primary schools in Delhi from tomorrow, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, according to local reports. Indias federal pollution control board has banned the entry of diesel trucks carrying nonessential goods into the capital, while Delhis administration has suspended most construction and demolition work in the region. Kejriwal urged the Indian government to take action, saying that pollution is a problem throughout Northern India, not just in Delhi. He admitted the stubble burning in Punjab contributed to the pollution. See pollution in North Indian towns. Its not just Punjab and Del. Entire North India suffering from severe pollution. Lets stop blame game. Lets find solutions as a country Its our first yr in Punjab. Punjab govt tried its best in short time. By next yr, we shud see good results pic.twitter.com/6FeSIE1FkW Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 4, 2022 The decision to shut some schools came after concerned parents and environmentalists took to social media, and residents complained of discomfort in breathing and irritation in the eyes, nose, and throat. Healthy people can be affected, and those with existing health conditions are at greater risk when the AQI rises past 400, the federal government warned. According to a Lancet study published in November 2020, air pollution caused about 167 million deaths in India in 2019, with ambient particulate matter pollution and household air pollution being the leading causes. The increasing death rate attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution reflects increasing pollutant emissions from rising energy consumption, accelerated urbanization, rapid industrialization, and growing numbers of petroleum-powered vehicles, it stated. Reuters contributed to this report. Half of Americas states have changed their rules for absentee voting in 2022. Some of the most substantial changes have come in response to the unprecedented use of mail-in voting in 2020. While blue states tend to focus on cementing the mail-in voting expansion executed during the COVID-19 pandemic, red states lean toward restrictions addressing the 2020 election controversies. Arizona Tightens Rules SCR1012, Proposition 309 On Feb. 28, the Arizona House of Representatives passed a resolution to introduce a ballot measure amending election rules. It would require voters to add an ID number and a date of birth on their mail-in ballots in addition to their signature. HB 2492 On March 30, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that tightens proof-of-residence and proof-of-citizenship rules for voter registration. Registrants would need to present an ID acceptable for voting in person, such as an Arizona drivers license or a state ID number. Loosens Rules SB 1460 On June 7, Ducey signed a bill that allows people to vote a regular ballot in person even if they were sent an absentee ballot as long as the absentee one is marked in an electronic voting system as not returned or accepted or the person surrenders the ballot. Previously, all voters who were sent an absentee ballot had to vote a provisional one in person. SB 1411 On July 6, the state passed a law requiring counties that use mail-in ballots to offer online ballot tracking to voters. Florida Tightens Rules SB 524 On April 25, Florida enacted a law that toughens penalties for election violations, ramps up the states election fraud investigation apparatus, and improves voter roll maintenance. It also limits drop boxes to select election supervisor offices. Some measures were amended out of the bill, such as the requirement to put an ID number on ones mail-in ballot. Instead, it requires a feasibility study on the ID requirement. Louisiana Tightens Rules SB 144/Act 539 On June 17, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill that bans alternative drop-off sites for hand-delivered absentee ballots. New Jersey Loosens Rules AB 3822 On July 28, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill that allows officials to open absentee ballots inner envelopes five days before Election Day instead of on Election Day. Oklahoma Tightens Rules HB 3364 On May 20, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed several election-related bills. One requires voters to put their ID number and birth date on an absentee ballot application in addition to their signature. The information must match the voter file. But if theres no birth date or ID number on file, voters dont need to provide it. HB 3321 Another bill makes a number of changes to the election code. It bans connecting election equipment to the internet, albeit with some exceptions. It also prohibits people from distributing absentee ballot applications under the official letterhead of a candidate or an elected official. HB 3365 Yet another bill aims at improving voter roll maintenance. It requires voters to be removed from the roll if the authorities get information that the voter is no longer eligible to vote at their current address, such as by registering to vote in another state or not responding to an address confirmation letter upon missing two election cycles. Previously, the law allowed removal of such registrations, but didnt require it. Pennsylvania Tightens Rules SB 106 In July, Pennsylvania passed a constitutional amendment resolution that would enshrine voter ID rules into the states constitution. To come into effect, the amendment would have to be passed again next year and then put up for a public vote. Idaho Tightens Rules SB 1352 On March 23, Gov. Brad Little signed a bill that requires that officials investigate a voters registration if an absentee ballot sent to them is returned as undeliverable. Kentucky Tightens Some Rules, Loosens Others HB 564 On April 7, Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill that expands early voting options. It also explicitly bans connecting election equipment to the internet. Missouri Tightens Some Rules, Loosens Others HB 1878 On June 29, Gov. Mike Parson signed a major bill that changes absentee and early voting rules. The law establishes no-excuse early voting. Previously, the state only allowed voting early or by mail with a valid excuse. The bill eliminates the option to vote a regular ballot in person without an ID. A provisional one would have to be cast. The bill bans using ballot drop boxes, connecting election machines to the internet, and soliciting voters to get absentee ballot applications. People wont be allowed to get paid for soliciting voter registrations, except with government money. The bill also prohibits vote-by-mail elections and bans officials from altering election laws through settlement agreements. This was a hot-button issue in the 2020 elections, when officials and advocacy groups in some states circumvented legislators and changed election procedures by entering into settlement agreements over civil litigation. The bill also prohibits election officials from accepting private funding except for some in-kind donations. This measure is an apparent response to the hundreds of millions poured into local election offices by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ahead of the 2020 election. Some research indicated that the donations disproportionately benefited Democrats. Nebraska Tightens Rules LB 843 On April 19, Gov. Pete Ricketts signed an election reform bill that imposes some regulations on the use of ballot drop boxes, such as requiring them to be fastened to the ground and surrounded by a 200-foot no-electioneering zone. It also bans private funding from elections, except for donations of food and space. Rhode Island Tightens Rules HB 7428 On June 7, Rhode Island enacted a law that sets a specific absentee ballot signature verification process. Two reviewers need to agree on a signature match. If they dont, two supervisory reviewers need to. If they dont, the voter will be notified to cure the ballot defect. The law also allows absentee ballot processing to start 20 days (instead of 14 days) before an election and requires that the ballots be under constant video monitoring from the moment they are received. It also lets the election board set new rules for challenging mail-in ballot certifications. Loosens Rules HB 7100 Also on June 7, the state enacted an election reform that establishes no-excuse absentee voting. It removes the requirement to have notarized signatures on absentee ballot return envelopes. Voters can apply for absentee ballots online and sign electronically if they provide their ID number and date of birth. The law also mandates the use of ballot drop boxes. South Carolina Tightens Some Rules, Loosens Others SB 108 On May 13, South Carolina enacted an expansive set of election reforms. Among other measures, it prohibits ballot drop boxes; requires photo ID for returning an absentee ballot in person; requires the last four digits of ones Social Security number for requesting an absentee ballot; requires that absentee ballots be requested at least 11 days before an election, instead of four; constrains ballot harvesting by prohibiting a person from requesting or returning more than five absentee ballots other than his own; narrows valid excuses for absentee voting, such as by eliminating jury service and death in the family as excuses; bans campaign volunteers, not just paid campaign staff, from requesting an absentee ballot on somebody elses behalf; bans election officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications; makes it a felony to give or accept anything of value for requesting, collecting, or delivering an absentee ballot; requires absentee ballots to include security features; allows campaign-appointed watchers to observe absentee ballot opening, but not so closely as to identify how specific people voted; elevates several election-related crimes, such as double-voting, to felonies; and bans election officials from accepting private funding. The bill also establishes early voting in the two weeks preceding an election. California Loosens Rules SB 504 On March 31, California enacted a law that requires convicted felons to get notified when their eligibility to vote is restored based on information provided by the states corrections department to the secretary of state. If people get such a notification and dont know that they are in fact still not eligible to vote, such people would be immune from prosecution if they tried to vote. County election officials are also immune from prosecution if they act or fail to act based on erroneous information from the secretary of state. AB 2608 On Aug. 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that relaxes ballot harvesting rules in California. People returning ballots on behalf of others no longer have to write on the envelope their relationship with the voter. They still need to put their name and signature on the envelope. The bill also allows voters to have a representative pick up a replacement ballot for them. The voter just needs to sign a request, and the signature needs to match the one on file with the election authorities. Connecticut Loosens Rules HB 5262 On April 8, Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill that expands valid excuses for absentee voting. In addition to people with an illness or disability, those caring for people who are sick or disabled are now also eligible. Delaware Loosens Rules SB 320 On July 22, Gov. John Carney signed a bill that codifies a lot of the temporary provisions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents can vote absentee without a valid excuse as long as they put an ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on the return envelope. With a valid excuse, they dont need to include the number. The bill also authorizes ballot drop boxes, which were already used in 2020. Illinois Loosens Rules SB 829 On May 13, Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed a bill that allows people with print disabilities to receive and sign an absentee ballot electronically, print it out, and return it as a regular ballot. Such voters can also sign up for the permanent absentee list, receiving their ballots this way automatically for each election. The bill also allows poll workers to duplicate ballots that cant be counted by tabulation machines, even if those ballots arent damaged or defective. Massachusetts Loosens Rules SB 2924 On June 22, Massachusetts enacted an election reform that expands mail-in voting. Each voter will be sent a mail-in ballot application before an election. Voters can also apply online and for their family members, not just for themselves, and return ballots for their family members. The law explicitly allows ballot drop boxes. It requires signatures on mail-in ballots to be matched against the signature on the ballot application, unless a family member was the one who applied on the voters behalf. Eligible voters are also no longer allowed to opt out of automatic registration during interactions with authorities, such as when applying for a drivers license. Now they need to wait for the mailed registration notification, and only then can they opt out. Municipal clerks will also be able to hire poll workers regardless of party affiliation and other requirements if they have a shortage of qualified workers. Michigan Tightens Some Rules, Loosens Others HB 4491 On Oct. 7, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill that allows pre-processing of absentee ballots on the Sunday and Monday before Election Day in cities with over 10,000 residents. It also requires the appointment of partisan inspectors to observe the pre-processing and allows for the appointment of one challenger for every six inspectors. The bill also specifies some rules regarding ballot drop boxes, such as how often they need to be emptied. It says that only drop boxes installed after Oct. 1, 2020, need to be video monitored. Iranian students climb over the wall of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Iran Marks Anniversary of US Embassy Seizure Amid Continuing Civic Unrest Iran on Nov. 4 marked the 43rd anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by pro-revolution Iranian students. The incident, which occurred immediately after the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution, kicked off decades of hostility between Iran and the United States. Large pro-government rallies were held on Nov. 4 in several parts of the country to mark the anniversary. Images broadcast on Iranian state television showed tens of thousands of people taking part in the demonstrations. The rallies were held amid ongoing unrest in Iran, which has included seemingly random acts of violence and intermittent protests against the government. On Nov. 3, a Shiite cleric in the southeastern city of Zahedan was shot dead by unknown assailants, according to reports in the Iranian press. Located near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, Zahedan has become a flashpoint for violence in recent weeks. On Sept. 30, Iranian state media reported that 19 people, including security personnel, had been killed in the city when a police station came under attack by militants. But rights groups have challenged the official account of events, with Amnesty International saying that 66 peopleincluding demonstrators and bystanderslost their lives in the incident. Recent violence, however, hasnt been confined to Zahedan. On Oct. 26, more than a dozen Shiite pilgrims were gunned down in the southern city of Shiraz in an attack later claimed by the ISIS terrorist group. The violence comes amid ongoing anti-government protests that have continued intermittently in several parts of the country since mid-September. The protests began on Sept. 16 when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody in Tehran after being detained for wearing inappropriate attire. Despite promises by authorities to investigate Aminis death, protests quickly spread from Tehran to other Iranian cities, including Esfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad. Protesters have reportedly torched police cars and attacked government buildings, while Iranian security forces have been accused of using lethal force to disperse demonstrations. Bullet holes on the wall and blood on the ground after gunmen attacked the Shah Cheragh shrine in the southern city of Shiraz, Iran, on Oct. 26, 2022. (Mohammadreza Dehdari/Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA via AP) Were Gonna Free Iran Tehran blames the unrest on Irans longtime enemies, including the United States and Israel, although it has provided scant evidence for the claims. At a Nov. 2 meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi alleged that the same forces that pushed Syria into crisis were now actively working against Iran. Attempts to destabilize Iran are manifestations of the enemys anger and desperation to achieve its goals in Iran and the region, Raisi was quoted as saying by Irans Fars News Agency. Fars previously quoted Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as explicitly stating that the ongoing unrest was being orchestrated by the United States and Israel. I state clearly that these developments were planned by America, the Zionist regime, and their acolytes, he said in an Oct. 3 speech. Their main problem is with a strong and independent Iran and the countrys progress. U.S. officials, meanwhile, have made no secret of their support for the anti-government demonstrators and have repeatedly accused Tehran of committing rights abuses. In mid-October, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington had adopted a range of aggressive actions to try to support the protesters in Iran. On Nov. 3, U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to free Iran during a campaign speech in California. Dont worry; were gonna free Iran, Biden told the audience. Theyre gonna free themselves pretty soon. The following day, Raisi responded to the U.S. presidents remarks. I say to Biden: Iran was freed 43 years ago, he said in a televised address marking the anniversary of the embassy takeover. On Nov. 4, 1979, following the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah, pro-revolution Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. They were eventually freed after 444 days in captivity, but the incident served to permanently rupture U.S.Iranian relations. President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Nov. 3, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Dangerous Escalation In a related development, Iran this week dismissed reports in the Western press that it was preparing to attack Saudi Arabia. On Nov. 1, The Wall Street Journal reported that Riyadh had shared intelligence with U.S. officials suggesting that an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia was imminent. In a statement issued the same day, the U.S. National Security Council said: We remain in constant contact with the Saudis. We will not hesitate to act in the defense of our interests and partners in the region. Responding to the accusation, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman described The Wall Street Journals assertions as baseless. On Nov. 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking by phone with his Iranian counterpart, warned that an information campaign by the Western media could lead to a dangerous escalation in the region. The next day, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg reiterated claims that Iran was planning to supply Russia with ballistic missilesand advanced combat dronesfor the latters military operations in Ukraine. We see Iran offering drones and considering ballistic missile deliveries to Russia, Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Istanbul. This is unacceptable. Moscow and Tehran both deny Western claims that Russian forces are using Iranian drones to strike Ukrainian targets. Reuters contributed to this report. Oprah Winfrey attends the Tribeca TV Festival series premiere of "Released" at Cinepolis Chelsea in New York City on Sept. 22, 2017. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Tribeca TV Festival) John Fetterman Gets Oprahs Endorsement in Pennsylvania Senate Race Days Before Election Celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey has announced her support for Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race over his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz. I said it was up to the citizens of Pennsylvania and of course, but I will tell you all this, if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons, Winfrey said during her online event, A Virtual Voting Conversation, on Nov. 3. Winfrey, a Democrat, extended support to other Democrat candidates, including Rep. Val Demings in Florida, Cheri Beasley in North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, Beto ORourke in Texas, and Sen. Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams in Georgia. Her support for Fetterman is noteworthy as she was the person who brought Oz to public prominence as a health expert by inviting him to her show several years ago. Oz eventually began his own talk show in 2009, which was produced by Winfreys company, Harpo Productions. Fettermans campaign said Oprahs endorsement of the Democrat candidate over Oz was a decision that speaks volumes, according to the New York Post. Calling the endorsement an honor and privilege, Fetterman said he is grateful for her support. Oz spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said that the GOP contender loves Winfrey and respects the fact that they both follow different politics, according to Politico. During a meeting in December 2021, Oz had remarked that he did not want Winfrey to be involved in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Debate, Public Support In late October, Oz and Fetterman had their first and only debate, during which Fettermans recent auditory and speech delays came to the forefront. Since suffering a stroke in May, Fetterman has struggled with verbal communication and auditory processing. Following the debate, Ozs support grew. According to a recently published survey by The Hill and Emerson College Polling, Oz was leading Fetterman 48 percent to 46 percent among likely voters. This is the first time that Oz has surpassed his opponent in the polls. While Ozs support has risen by 5 percentage points since September, Fettermans support has only risen by 1 point. Of those who say they have heard, seen, or read a lot about the debate, Oz leads Fetterman 55 percent to 41 percent, Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College polling, told The Hill. But among those who have heard, seen, or read only a little or know nothing of the debate, Fetterman was leading 56 percent against Ozs 28 percent. Overall Republican chances to win the Senate have also improved. Richard Baris, director of Big Data Poll, recently told The Epoch Times that the most likely outcome is that the GOP will retake the Senate with at least 52 seats and could exceed its historic cap of 247 seats in the House. The Associated Press contributed to this report. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell waits outside the West Wing of the White House before entering in Washington, on Jan. 15, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Judge Denies Mike Lindells Request to Have Phone Seized by FBI Returned, Access Search Warrant Materials MyPillow CEO Mike Lindells request to have his mobile phone returned after it was seized by FBI agents was rejected by a federal judge in Minnesota on Nov. 3, court documents show. Lindells mobile phone was seized by the agency while he was at a Hardees drive-through in Mankato, Minnesota, with a friend in September. Court documents show that the device was taken as part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into alleged identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer, and conspiracy to commit identity theft or intentionally damage a protected computer. According to the DOJ, Lindell is among several other individuals, including Mesa County, Colorado, election clerk Tina Peters, who are part of an investigation into the alleged security breach of voting equipment in Mesa County. Peters has maintained her innocence. Following the seizure of his mobile device, Lindell filed a lawsuit (pdf) in a federal court in Minnesota claiming that the move violated his First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights. The businessman requested that his phone be returned to him and that the DOJ and FBI be prohibited from accessing any data collected from the device or releasing any information that was on his phone. He also asked to see the search warrant materials supporting the search. Lindell has not been charged with any crime. I lost a whole 10 days of data, Lindell told The Epoch Times. Ive done nothing wrong. Ive never seen anything like this. However, Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, said in a 36-page ruling (pdf) on Thursday that Lindell has failed to show that the search and seizure of his mobile device was unconstitutional and that the DOJ demonstrated a compelling interest in preventing the premature disclosure of search warrant materials during its ongoing federal criminal investigation. My Pillows Mike Lindell greets attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, on Aug. 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times) Significant Governmental Interest in Integrity of Ongoing Criminal Probe That compelling interest outweighs Lindells right of access, the judge said. Multiple factors here justify keeping the search warrant materials under seal. The extensive, 80-page search warrant affidavit describes in considerable detail the nature, scope, and direction of the governments investigation and the individuals and specific [activities] involved, including information obtained from recorded communications, confidential informants, and cooperating witnesses, the judge continued. Tostrud also noted that the search warrant materials also reveal information about individuals who are not targets of the search warrant and that premature disclosure of these materials would significantly undermine the Governments ongoing criminal investigation, giving Plaintiffs (and potentially, other targets of the investigation) a window into the Governments investigation that could compromise the investigation as a whole. The significant governmental interest in the integrity of an ongoing criminal investigation, as well as the privacy interests of these associated, uncharged individuals, outweigh Plaintiffs interest in access to these search warrant materials, he wrote. The judge also said that there is no practical way to provide a redacted version of the 80-page warrant to Lindell. Based on this, the judge denied Lindells request to have his phone returned and to access warrant materials that were used for the search. Lindell has claimed that the FBI targeted him because he has been vocal about allegations of election fraud and voting irregularities during the November 2020 general election. Lawyers for the businessman have also said that he was not allowed to back up the contents of his phone, which is connected to his hearing aids, and from which he runs five companies, when his mobile device was seized by agents in September. That means they could go out to anybody they see as a potential witness, go confiscate their phones, and you wont have a leg to stand on. Were completely at their mercy. Theyve weaponized the FBI against our citizens and this has to stop. Im gonna do everything I can to keep being proactive to try and stop the tyranny thats going on in this country, Lindell said. Eva Fu contributed to this report. Judge Grants Request for Court Monitor to Oversee Trump Organization in Lawsuit Filed by New York AG A judge on Thursday granted New York Attorney General Letitia James request to have an independent court monitor to oversee the Trump Organizations submission of financial information in a civil lawsuit. The latest decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron comes in a civil lawsuit James filed (pdf) on Sept. 21 against former President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, three of his children, and others, alleging years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits. Trump has criticized the lawsuit, calling it a politically motivated attack. James then asked a judge in mid-October (pdf) to block Trump from moving his assets to a new holding company he formed amid the pending civil lawsuit. Her request came after she noted that the Trump Organization registered a new company called Trump Organization II LLC on the same day she filed the civil lawsuit. She also sought for an independent court monitor, which she said would oversee any new financial disclosure that the Trump Organization makes to banks and insurers, to ensure they are not fraudulent. The court monitor will be a third-party expert to be named by the court at a later date. James office and Trump and other defendants in the case will have until Nov. 10 to each suggest three potential monitors for the court to consider and have until Nov. 15 to comment on each others nominations. This court will appoint an independent monitor, to be paid by defendants, for the purpose of ensuring compliance with this order, Engoron wrote in the order (pdf) Thursday. If the monitor reasonably determines that defendants have violated this order, the monitor shall immediately report that matter to [Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York], defendants, and this Court. Engoron also barred the Trump Organization from selling, transferring, or disposing of any non-cash assets without having 14 days of written notice to James office and to the court. Communism Come to Our Shores: Trump In a press release Thursday, James said the courts decision will ensure that Donald Trump and his companies cannot continue the extensive fraud that we uncovered and will require the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee compliance at the Trump Organization. Trump in a response to the court decision called the situation a manifestation of communism. A puppet judge of the New York Attorney General and other sworn enemies of President Trump and the Republican Party has just issued a ruling never before seen anywhere in America, Trump said on his Truth Social platform. It is Communism come to our shores. He added: Businesses will be fleeing New York, which they already are, for other states and other countries. Todays ridiculous ruling by a politically-motivated, hand-picked judge makes it even more vital for courts in both New York and Florida to do the right thing and stop this inquisition. We have to fight back against radical tyranny and save our Country! Former President Donald Trump walks to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Sues New York AG Trump had on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Florida State Circuit Court against James, alleging that she has contravened both New York and Florida law in engaging in a war of intimidation and harassment against him, his family, his business interests, and associates. The suit is seeking to bar James from obtaining records from a trust that holds ownership of the Trump Organization. The complaint (pdf) states that James has repeatedly abused her position as Attorney General for the State of New York to pursue a relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade against President Trump with the stated goal of destroying him personally, financially, and politically. The complaint noted that James started to make threats against Trump even before she was elected as New Yorks attorney generalat a time when she possessed no actual information or insight into President Trumps business. Former President Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images; David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) Civil Lawsuit Seeking $250 Million James in her September civil lawsuit alleged that Trump and others at the Trump Organization falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company. The lawsuit alleged more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets included in the 11 Statements covering 2011 through 2021. James office, among multiple demands, is asking the Trump Organization to pay a fine of at least $250 million in restitution for the people of New York. It also asked the court to bar the Trump Organization from entering into any New York state commercial real estate acquisitions for five years and block Trump and his children from serving as an officer or director of any corporation or business entity in New York. Election personnel sort absentee ballot applications for storage at the Gwinnett County Board of Voter Registrations and Elections offices in Lawrenceville, Ga., on Nov. 7, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images) Judge Says Virginia County Must Use GOP Assistants Nominated by Republicans in Nov. 8 Elections A retired judge from Loudon County granted a motion this week requiring the Registrar of Prince William County to use Republican assistants in the upcoming elections. Virginia law requires that a chief and assistant chief in each precinct be from different political parties, but the registrar had allegedly assigned people without regard to that requirement. No one is above the law, and the Prince William County Elections Office violated state law by denying Republicans equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process, said Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, in a statement. Judge Thomas Horne ruled on Nov. 1 that the Prince William County Elections Office may not exclude Republicans from both chief and assistant chief positions in any precinct. That means that where there were non-affiliated officers proposed and we had people who were available to serve, that our person will be filling those roles And in situations where we disagreed with the characterization of somebody as a Republican election officer, that they will be replaced by someone who is acceptable to us, Denny Daugherty, chair of the Prince William County GOP Committee, told The Epoch Times. Prince William County is home to the largest concentration of voters in the states 7th Congressional District, which is represented by Democrat incumbent Abigail Spanberger. Yesli Vega, a law enforcement officer, is out to unseat Spanberger with the endorsement of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Nov. 1s hearing was on a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and an order requiring the registrar to use Republican assistants because some officers the elections board had designated as Republican had not been nominated by the GOP. The complaint, filed in the Prince William County 31st District Circuit Court, alleged eight instances in which the county GOP committee was asking for a person to be replaced because individuals whom the registrar had assigned as Republicans had allegedly voted as Democrats in prior primary elections. The order will require that those designations be corrected. The Republican Party believes that to be fair, honest, and open, elections must be conducted following every rule in place, Anderson stated. The Code of Virginia sets out clear rules about the appointment of officers of election representing the political parties. Tom Barrack, former Deputy Interior Undersecretary in the Reagan administration, delivers a speech on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21, 2016. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Jury Finds Trump Friend and Fundraiser Tom Barrack Not Guilty Former President Donald Trumps former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty on Friday after facing charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI. Described also as a longtime adviser and friend to Trump, Barrack was also acquitted of obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI agents in 2019 about his interactions with Emirati officials and their representatives. Barracks former assistant and co-defendant, Matthew Grimes, was also acquitted of acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. Its these people who should take the victory lap, Barrack told Reuters after the not guilty verdict was read. Im so moved by them and by the system, he added. Prosecutors alleged that Barrack had used his friendship with Trump to illegally provide officials in the United Arab Emirates access and inside information to the Trump administration. Prosecutors alleged that messages showed that Barrack received input from Emirati officials and intermediaries on what to say about the Middle East in TV interviews, and passed along sensitive details about U.S. foreign policy and personnel appointments. The defendants unlocked the back door of the American political systemits campaigns, its media, its governmentto the UAE, Ryan Harris, one of the prosecutors, said on Tuesday during closing arguments, according to the New York Times. During the trial, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Barrack is a highly respected businessman and did not believe he worked as a foreign agent of the United Arab Emirates. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was called to testify in Barracks defense about a meeting with him in June 2017 when Barrack disagreed with Trumps comments about backing a blockade on trade with Qatar. [Barack] came in with the idea of telling me that he thought the President had made a mistake supporting the blockade and going through his reasoning why, Mnuchin testified. His position was clearly in support of Qatar. His lawyers also said that Barrack wanted better relations between the United States and Middle Eastern countries, he never agreed to act under the United Arab Emirates direction or control. He also said, I never did anything wrong. This whole prosecution has been an act of misdirection, Randall Jackson, one of Barracks attorneys, said during closing arguments on Tuesday in a Brooklyn courtroom, according to the NY Times. What exactly did Tom and Matthew influence? What exactly did they say that wasnt true? Reuters contributed to this report. LA Mayor Garcetti Calls Gov. Newsoms Pause on Homeless Grants Perplexing Following Gov. Gavin Newsoms announcement Nov. 3 that the state would be pausing the third round of homeless grants to local jurisdictions, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the move perplexing. The Homelessness Housing, Assistance, and Prevention grants, which amounted to $1 billion, would help address the lack of homeless housing across the state, according to Newsom. The Governor paused the funding distribution to call for more aggressive action on homelessness, he said in a statement. Housing plans across the stateresulting in double-digit increases in some counties homelessness and a 2 percent decrease statewide over four years, the governor saidare failing. Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo, he said. As a state, we are failing to meet the urgency of this moment. California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a VA Facility in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Garcetti disagreed with Newsom since the city worked directly with and received positive feedback from state agencies and county partners to develop our plan. He said the state hasnt provided enough resources to local communities. Having already waited 16 months for this funding, it cannot help people suffering to have the agreed funding timeline changed at the last minute, Garcetti said. Californians deserve a government that works in unison to bring urgency to this crisis. Lives are on the line and we cant afford for this work to get mired in more politics and bureaucracy. Garcetti added that Los Angeles has made more than 84,000 permanent housing placements in the last five years, and that the city spends five times what the state spends on homelessness. According to the 2022 Los Angeles County Homeless Count, there are more than 69,000 homeless people in the county. This is a 4.1 percent increase from when the count was last conducted in 2020. Despite some good steps forward from the governor and legislature in recent years, this fight is still disproportionately shouldered by local communities with far fewer resources than the state, Garcetti said. Arson within a homeless encampment creates smoke from fires in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 2, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) A spokesperson from Newsoms office told The Epoch Times the governor plans to meet local leaders in mid-November to push for more aggressive action from local communities, and the details about the gathering in mid-November are being ironed out. According to his earlier statement, the meeting will review the states collective approach to homelessness and identify new strategies. Each jurisdiction must submit a plan to reduce homelessness and increase permanent housing to the state for approval in order to receive the grants. At Californias current pace, Newsom said, it would take decades to significantly curb homelessness in California. [T]his approach is simply unacceptable, Newsom said. Everyone has to do bettercities, counties, and the state included. We are all in this together. Through the Homeless Emergency Aid Program and the first two rounds of the state homeless funding, the state has allocated $1.5 billion in emergency aid to address homelessness, according to the governors office. California has the largest unsheltered homeless population70 percent of the estimated 173,800 homeless statewide the previous winter, as reported by CalMattersin the nation. Women walk past homeless encampments in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) said in a statement Nov. 3 that Newsoms policies have been a total flop. Republicans call for accountability and results-based legislation, which have fallen on deaf ears for the last two years, Wilk said. The state adopted a Housing First model in 2016 and enacted related laws to address the homeless crisis by requiring counties to provide low-barrier shelters and housing to homeless people, without imposing specific requirementssuch as sobriety or participation in mental health treatmentto be admitted. Skid Row in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) In the same year, Los Angeles voters passed Proposition HHH, a $1.2 billion bond designed to provide 10,000 housing units for the homeless in 10 years. Six years later, major issues, including exorbitant building costs, surfaced, and only 1,142 units have been completed as of February 2022. In one instance, over $800,000 was spent on a single unit. Other efforts to address the crisiswhich is the top concern for Los Angeles voters according to early pollshave appeared on the Nov. 8 ballot too, including Initiative Ordinance ULA, which would place a 4 percent tax on real estate sales over $5 million to generate funds for affordable housing. For properties of more than $10 million, the tax increases to 5.5 percent. City News Service contributed to this report. David Wilcox I edit The Citizen's features section, Lake Life, and weekly entertainment guide, Go. I've also been writing for The Citizen and auburnpub.com since 2006, covering arts and culture, business, food and drink, and more. Follow David Wilcox 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 Last month, David Clifford won an award for doing something that got him arrested 20 years ago. The Auburn man took second place in the edibles category at the New York Harvest Fest's Cannabis Cup, held Oct. 7-10 in Washington County. Clifford was honored for an apple pie cider infused with cannabis flower, he told The Citizen. "It's just like apple cider with a little spice mixed in," he said. "It tastes just like liquid apple pie." A local farm Clifford works at, Blessed Weed, also took second, third and fourth place in the cup's flower category. For Clifford, the awards continue a 180-degree arc that began when New York state legalized recreational cannabis in March 2021. "We used to have to hide before, but now we're coming to the light," he said. "It's definitely incredible how quickly it's come around. I've been waiting 25 years for this." Clifford works with a team of about 10 at Blessed Weed, a 100-acre organic farm that also grows produce and raises livestock like chickens and pigs. The farm is based in the Auburn area, but does not list its address publicly. He joined the team after it secured a state license to cultivate hemp, he said. Together they break down, trim and process the farm's cannabis plants by hand. Blessed Weed's hemp license qualified the farm for its conditional cultivation license from the state Office of Cannabis Management this year, Clifford said. The farm later intends to apply for a microbusiness license. Microbusinesses can grow, process and sell cannabis products, making them vertically integrated while other businesses are limited to one stage of production. The tradeoff is that microbusinesses are limited by size. New York state has yet to issue its final regulations, but other states have limited microbusinesses to 1,000 plants or 1,000 pounds of cannabis products per month. Clifford said the farm's Cannabis Cup awards will help with those plans, raising Blessed Weed's profile among both consumers and fellow producers. He won his own award, meanwhile, through a cannabis brand he operates called Nugghugger. The secret to his apple pie cider, he said, is infusing its brown sugar with full flower instead of distillate. The latter concentrates THC, but lacks the other cannabinoids that are optimal for medical uses. Clifford himself uses a medical license to grow his own cannabis. Nugghugger can't sell products currently since the state has yet to begin licensing cannabis retail businesses. Sales aren't expected to begin until the end of this year at the earliest. Until then, the brand and its producers have been donating all of their proceeds as part of their mission of social outreach, which has also included efforts like school supply and Thanksgiving food drives. "We're trying to break the stigma that potheads are bad people," Clifford said. That stigma was strong in April 2003, when Clifford was arrested for growing cannabis in Elbridge. Neighbors had called police with a noise complaint, he said. Upon smelling cannabis, police discovered 199 plants in the residence. Clifford was ultimately given five years of probation, after which he left New York state. He later owned a dispensary in Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in 2012. Along with planting seeds for the state's legal cannabis market, last year's Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act also expunged Clifford's conviction. The change is still surreal to him, he said. Once, he didn't keep any paperwork related to growing cannabis because it could become evidence to police. Now he does, and even puts his cultivation history on his resume. "All the places where I could apply for a job I think they'll want to know I grew a long time ago," he said. "It hurt me for a long time, but now it's going to help me." Cannabis queue: Farms, entrepreneurs in Cayuga County area await industry's launch On March 31, 2021, recreational cannabis became legal in the state of New York. Immediately, people 21 and older could possess up to 3 ounces "Ghost guns" seized in federal law enforcement actions are displayed at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) field office in Glendale, Calif., on April 18, 2022. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) Los Angeles Sees 85 Percent Increase in Recovered Ghost Guns: Police Los Angeles saw an 85 percent increase since 2019 in the number of what are known as ghost gunsnon-serialized privately manufactured handguns and riflesthat have been recovered, according to Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore. The LAPD recovered more than 1500 ghost guns to date, Moore told the police commission Nov. 1. Additionally, there has been a 45 percent increase in robberies involving a firearm compared to 2019, Moore said. Parts of the ghost guns are sold continually from out of state vendors, commercial establishments, and online sellers, and are assembled in small machine shops, or sometimes garages and backyards, he said. Not only do we see the higher prevalence of firearms in regards to robberies, certainly [in the] rate of shooting violence and homicides [too], Moore said. Moore said theres been a nearly 4 percent increase in violent crime compared to this time last year. In response to the uptick in crime, the department established the Violent Crime Task Force in June, which helped curtail some incidents, he said. Over the last four months, Moore said officers with added overtime shifts made 444 felony arrests, recovered 142 firearms, and conducted 273 follow-up investigations. There is a limit on what these resources can achieve, I do believe its an important strategy as we deal with the reduced workforce and the pressures in regards to the rate of crime here in Los Angeles, he said. Los Angeles was ranked among the nations most dangerous cities in an October study by Wallethuba personal finance website. Out of 182 cities, it ranked 172 when accounting for metrics such as number of mass shootings, assaults and thefts, murders, law enforcement personnel, and other data points. Man Charged in Fatal Trader Joes Shooting Can Act as His Own Attorney LOS ANGELESA man accused of engaging in a gunfight with police that resulted in the death of an assistant manager at a Trader Joes in Silver Lake in 2018 will be allowed to act as his own attorney, a judge said Nov. 3. Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench noted that the case has some very complicated legal issues and that she thought it was a really bad idea for Gene Evin Atkins to represent himself. The 32-year-old defendant responded that he still wanted to go forward with representing himself. Police officers escort people after a suspect barricaded inside a Trader Joes supermarket in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, on July 21, 2018. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Atkinswho was found mentally competent to stand trialhad briefly acted as his own attorney for about three months after being charged with murder for allegedly setting off a chain of events on July 21, 2018, that led to the death of Melyda Mely Maricela Corado, who was fatally shot by a police officer in front of the store in the 2700 block of Hyperion Avenue. Atkins is also facing 50 other counts, including attempted murder, attempted murder of a peace officer, assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, kidnapping, fleeing a pursuing peace officers motor vehicle while driving recklessly, grand theft of an automobile, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, false imprisonment of a hostage and mayhem. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore confirmed in 2018 that the bullet that killed Corado was fired by an officer, not Atkins, who surrendered to a SWAT team after about three hours of negotiations following a tense standoff inside the store, where a number of customers and employees were held hostage at gunpoint. Though he did not shoot Corado, Atkins is charged with her killing under the theory that he triggered the events that led to the 27-year-old womans deathincluding allegedly shooting his 76-year-old grandmother and his 17-year-old girlfriend in South Los Angeles, then taking his grandmothers car and leading police on a wild chase during which he tried to carjack a white Jeep Wrangler at gunpoint at a gas station. He allegedly fired shots at police during the chase, and again when he got out of the car following a crash and fled into the store. Relatives of Corado filed a wrongful death and negligence suit in November 2018 against the city and the officers. The Los Angeles police officer who fired the shot that accidentally killed Corado said in a sworn declaration that he had no choice but to open fire to protect himself, his partner, and bystanders. I had no alternative but to fire my weapon at Gene Atkins in order to stop this deadly threat that he, himself, had created, Sinlen Tse said in his sworn statement. I fired based upon his actions and stopped when I realized he was moving into the Trader Joes entrance to avoid striking individuals inside. In a 2020 memorandum, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office found that Tse and Officer Sarah Winans were justified in using deadly force in an attempt to stop the suspect. Atkins allegedly fired shots at the two officers during the chase, and again when he got out of the car following a crash and fled into the store. After the crash, Atkins immediately exited the Camry and fired his handgun three times at Tse and Winans as he ran into the Trader Joes, according to the DAs memorandum. Tse and Winans returned fire in an attempt to stop Atkins from trying to injure or kill them or civilians in the Trader Joes. Atkins showed no consideration for the lives of others and it was reasonable and lawful for Tse and Winans to use deadly force to protect themselves and the public. The District Attorneys Office noted that no bystanders were visible behind Atkins or in the line of fire when the officers fired at the suspect, with the evidence suggesting that Corado was accidentally struck by gunfire when she ran toward the front doors of the store after the vehicle crash. Neither I nor Officer Winans fired any additional shots due to the concern regarding the patrons inside Trader Joes, demonstrating one of several instances where Officer Winans and I showed restraint, control, and reverence for human life, Tse said. Tse said he never considered pursuing Atkins inside the market, saying that would have only put more patrons and employees in danger due to the poor decisions Gene Atkins was making and the fact he had no regard for human life, except for his own. Tse said he learned later that one of the five shots he fired proved to be the one that mistakenly killed Corado. Atkins did absolutely nothing to help Corado for nearly 20 minutes despite knowing she was injured, Tse says. In her declaration, Winans said there came a point where Atkins posed as much of a deadly threat to the Trader Joes patrons as he did to her and Tse. No longer could I avoid the unfortunate need to fire my weapon to stop Gene Atkins deadly actions, but I also was forced into this situation based upon the deadly actions that Gene Atkins had demonstrated he was capable of engaging in, said Winans, who fired three shots. My heart goes out to her family for their tragic loss, Tse said. Atkins remains jailed while awaiting a Jan. 12 pretrial hearing. No trial date has been set yet. Man Charged With Threatening to Kill Republican Gubernatorial Candidate A Chicago man has been arrested and charged after authorities say he left threatening voicemails for a Republican gubernatorial candidate. Scott Lennox, 21, said in one message that he was going to skin Darren Bailey alive after killing the candidates family, according to a filing from the Cook County States Attorneys Office that was obtained by The Epoch Times. He better kill himself and if he doesnt, I am going to kill him, Lennox said. Lennox also described Baileyan Illinois state senator who is running against Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzkeras a racist white person and said he knew where Bailey and his children sleep. Lennoxs phone number was recorded on the caller id and he admitted to making the calls when officers with the Illinois Secretary of State Police went to his home, according to the filing. However, police declined to arrest him or transport him for further questioning. Illinois State Police were made aware of the threat and their investigation led to Lennoxs arrest. Lennox was charged with threatening a public official and two counts of harassment, all felonies. He faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted. Divisive, inflammatory, and misleading rhetoric is driving hatred across our state as some attempt to label political opponents as dangerous threats, Bailey said in a statement to news outlets. Whether we agree or disagree on policies, we are all Americans. I pray this young man gets the help he needs. We must bring our state together and fight for the safety and prosperity of every Illinoisan. Pritzker reacted to the arrest by saying: The violent rhetoric and division were seeing across our country is unacceptable. Hatred in any form has no home in Illinois. We need these violent threats to stop. Politicians on both sides of the aisle need to lower the rhetoric and bring back civility to our politics. I dont agree with Mr. Baileys policies, but I want nothing but the best for him and his family, added Illinois House Speaker Emmanuel Welch, another Democrat. Bond Set Bond was set at $75,000 during a Nov. 2 hearing, according to the state attorneys office. Lennox was ordered not to have any contact with Bailey or Baileys family, to possess no weapons, and to not post unlawful or threatening messages on social media. Assistant States Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said during the hearing that Lennoxs motivation for the voicemails was shock value for his friends, WTTW-TV reported. While the defendant did not carry forward with his threats, theres no way to know what would have happened if the defendant was not found and stopped, Scaduto said. These threats must be taken seriously as they were. While the defendant may claim these were mere words, these words let forth a cascade of events that, again, must be taken seriously. Suzin Farber, a public defender representing Lennox, noted that defendant has no criminal history and possesses no firearms. She said that there was no attempt to follow through on the threats. Lennox was still being held on Friday, according to Cook County jail records. The Canadian icebreaker Amundsen sits in the Port of Churchill on July 2, 2018. (The Canadian Press/John Woods) Manitoba Cautious, Saskatchewan More Open to Smiths Proposal for Port of Churchill SASKATOONAlberta Premier Danielle Smiths proposal to ship more Western Canadian products out of the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba is being met with caution by the government of Manitoba, while the Saskatchewan government appears more open to the idea. I will tell you there are more pressing things for us to be dealing with right now, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said at a press conference on Oct. 31, although she did not rule out future discussions. A statement to the Epoch Times from Saskatchewans Ministry of Highways said the province supports the safe and efficient movement of goods across Canada and to our many customers all over the globe. All provinces are working to strengthen existing corridors and identify potential expansion, the statement said. The province has always worked well with its colleagues in Alberta and Manitoba. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told reporters on Oct. 31 hes supportive of efforts to expand services in Churchill, CBC reported. In a letter dated Oct. 24, Smith asked the premiers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba for a meeting in the town of Churchill to discuss working together to push for a renewed look at the Port of Churchill, along with the possibility of pipelines to the port. The port, which sits on the edge of Hudson Bay, is Canadas only Arctic port serviced by a rail line. Smiths letter says because of the war in Ukraine, the world needs access to responsibly produced and affordable energy and food. In my view the federal government is generally unmoved by the urgency of this global crisis, she wrote. The purpose of the meeting would be to discuss how our three provinces could work together to address energy and food security issues, and in particular opportunities at the Port. A similar idea was proposed by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in August, when he was running for the leadership. As part of a plan to end overseas oil within 5 years, a Poilievre government will provide fast approvals to allow the Port of Churchill to export responsibly-produced Canadian energy & create more paycheques for our people, he wrote on Twitter. Professor Ken Coates, an expert on northern development and innovation, says Smiths proposal has merit. I think this is a project that has considerable potential, said Coates, whose expertise includes a focus on aboriginal and northern issues as director of the Indigenous Affairs Program for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. We need more capacity to get Canadian products to the ocean. Weve got similar problems with wheat and lentils, and pulse crops and things of that sort coming out of western Canada. And whats amazing is as a country, weve paid so little attention to this. Theres been staggering backlogs, he said in an interview. If we were any other country in the world, wed be really upset about this. But unfortunately, our national government doesnt think very much about Western issues. Oil Pipelines Fraught With Emotional Challenges Coates believes besides freight and grain, there is potential for Churchill to be used as a hub for exporting natural gas, although hes doubtful about oil. If you focused on natural gas as a possibility, I think the chances are very substantial, he said. I think the whole business of oil pipelines is fraught with a whole bunch of emotional challenges that are far, far greater than they are for natural gas. The Port of Churchill has been in operation since the early 1930s, but because the rail line to the port is built over rough northern terrain, it has encountered problems. In 2017 the line flooded and was out of service for more than a year. In August this year, the Manitoba and federal governments announced $147.6 million over two years to maintain and upgrade the Hudson Bay Railway. The money is going to the Arctic Gateway Group, a consortium of indigenous and northern communities that now owns the port and the railway that leads to it. AGG has done significant work on the rail line this year, but there is still more to do in 2023. Although freight and passengers have been travelling over the line, grain shipments have been paused. In a news release last November, AGG said the pause in shipping grain was because our aim is to fix the tracks permanently and pausing grain shipments until thats done will ensure that we have a permanent long-term solution that will make HBR safe, sustainable, and profitable. Smith sent her letter on Oct. 24, and on Nov. 1 Saskatchewan introduced the Saskatchewan First Act, which is designed to assert provincial jurisdiction over natural resources. Coates said the two moves are simply different sides of the same coin. Federal government overreach for a number of years, particularly on the environmental front, particularly on the resource development front, [has] had a massive, under-documented impact on the economies of Alberta and Saskatchewan, he said. And now theyre determined to push back and theyre going to push back really, really hard. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks during a press conference on the House Jan. 6 Committee hearings at the U.S. Capitol on June 15, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Marjorie Taylor Greenes Legal Fight Over Candidacy Dismissed Ahead of Midterms A federal appellate court ruled Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), incited by a challenge to her candidacy eligibility, as the dispute was no longer active given her spot on the ballot in the midterm election. The Republican congresswoman sued Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in April to prevent Georgians from being able to challenge her, as a candidate, eligibility to run for reelection. It was not until Nov. 3 that a three-judge panel dismissed the case as moot in an unsigned opinion (pdf), noting Greene was not disqualified as a candidate and is presently on the ballot for the upcoming election. Accordingly, we no longer have the ability to accord Rep. Greene meaningful relief. We therefore hold that this case is moot, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in the papers. It came months after a group led by left-wing activists argued in March that Greene helped facilitate the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump delayed the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results for several hours. The group, Free Speech For People, contested Greenes constitutional right to run for Congress, citing the rarely invoked Disqualification Clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Such a provision can be enacted in the wake of the Civil War to keep former Confederates out of Congress. Greene, who will be on the Nov. 8 election ballot representing Georgias 14th Congressional District, argued that the preelection challenge on officeholders was unconstitutional and then appealed a district courts decision of denial. The congresswoman was ultimately deemed eligible for reelection by Raffensperger in May, as no evidence showed Greene had participated in an insurrection. The Epoch Times reached out to Greene for comment. After oral argument and careful consideration, and because of intervening circumstances, we remand this case to the district court with instructions to dismiss the case as moot, the Thursday court filing reads. Greene remains very likely to win over her Democrat challenger Marcus Flowers. Poll aggregator and analytics website FiveThirtyEight offers her a 99 percent chance of victory. The state has had record turnout since the first day of the early voting period this year, surging to nearly twice the number on the first day in 2018, according to the Secretary of States office. The turnout by Oct. 19 surpassed the 2020 presidential election early vote totals. McCloskeys Facing a Catch-22 in Regaining Their Law Licenses Due to Probation Issues Attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskeyarrested and charged after they pointed weapons toward Black Lives Matter demonstrators near their home in St. Louis in June 2020are struggling to fulfill their probation requirements. They have to work 200 hours of service probation and wanted to do so by representing Project Veritas, a conservative activist group. But the states highest court issued an order denying that request. Respondent is required to provide pro bono legal services at or through organizations that provide legal services without charge to or on behalf of poor or indigent Missouri residents, wrote Missouri Supreme Court Chief Judge Paul Wilson in the March 18 order. So, the McCloskeys applied to Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM) where low-income families reportedly receive free legal help. The couple was rejected even though the spouses are both trial attorneys who founded the McCloskey Law Center some 25 years ago. I got a call from Jim Guest, the director of volunteers at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, and he said that he didnt know when or if there might be time for us to undergo training to handle the rigors of pro bono work and, even if there was, there is no guarantee that they would have anything for us to do, Mark McCloskey said. That was a week ago, and no word since. McCloskey has also contacted the Missouri Attorney Generals Office to work pro bono for the Defenders Program, which addresses legal issues that cannot be resolved by military defense attorneys. Id like to provide pro bono work for that organization and that program has been approved by the Bar but Im not sure that program actually exists, he told The Epoch Times. I got a call back from a gentleman in the AGs Office, told him wed love to help veterans for free and he said hed get back to me, but he never has. The Missouri Attorney Generals Office did not respond to requests for comment. It may be that we have an obligation for which there is no solution and that is designed to keep us from being able to go back to an unfettered law practice, McCloskey said. The McCloskeys had risen to national prominence two years ago for brandishing guns in front of their St. Louis home while Black Lives Matter demonstrators marched towards former Mayor Lyda Krewsons home nearby. The couple were arrested and charged with misdemeanors, defined as crimes of moral turpitude, and on Feb. 8, the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order indefinitely suspending their law permits. We were originally offered a diversion program as part of our plea agreement, but we were told by our lawyer that a diversion program is problematic because it never ends so thats one of the reasons we chose not to do that, McCloskey said. But Im a little afraid that the terms of our probation under the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel may be a similar event where we can never get the rock to the top of the hill. Chief Disciplinary Counsel Alan Pratzel did not respond to requests for comment and Beth Riggert, a spokesperson for the Missouri Supreme Court, declined to comment. If no organization will accept them for pro bono legal services, it seems to me their recourse is to go back to the court, say that, and seek an alternative community service, such as working in a food pantry, said Laurence Mass, a legal malpractice attorney in Clayton, Missouri. Evita Tolu, a St. Louis immigration attorney, was surprised to hear that LSEM rejected the free legal assistance the McCloskeys offered since two minor immigrants she referred to LSEM were allegedly turned away. They spent hours calling LSEM and waiting on a phone to be connected to a human being to learn that, at the moment, no legal help was available due to a shortage, Tolu told The Epoch Times. The minors were asked to call again the following week, which they did, and spent a significant amount of time on the phone to learn that they need to wait again. LSEM did not respond to requests for comment. It indicates that LSEM has unreasonable policies which take precedence over the dire legal needs of the clients they are supposed to serve, Tolu alleges. In June, it was announced that LSEM was to receive a windfall of $36.5 million to help low-income residents access legal services through the court victims compensation fund as part of $2 billion in punitive damages awarded in the Johnson & Johnson talcum powder litigation. Im a little concerned that when our year of probation is up, we may not have been able to find anybody that the Bar finds acceptable for us to work with or on the reverse, that the charitable organizations wont find us acceptable to work with them, and that were never going to be allowed to practice law again because we cant complete that aspect of our punishment, McCloskey said. Michigan Supreme Court Reinstates Jocelyn Bensons Election Guidance Manual The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday allowed local election clerks to use new poll challenger guidelines issued by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in the form of a manual, which a judge had previously found to violate the law. The high courts ruling temporarily stops an Oct. 20 ruling by a Michigan Court of Claims judge that found Benson, a Democrat, had exceeded [her] authority in certain parts of a new election manual published in May. That Michigan judges now-paused order had blocked Bensons new manual, which required increased credentialing for poll challengers and banned personal electronic devices in absentee counting boards. The case, which made its way to Michigans highest court, will now be determined in a final ruling that will come after the midterm elections, while it waits to go through an appeals process. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein, a Democratic appointee, found there were clearly significant legal issues at play, but it wouldnt be feasible to review the case in the time left before Election Day. The ruling is a loss for the plaintiffs who on Wednesday asked the Michigan Court of Claims to declare Benson in contempt of court for noncompliance with an Oct. 20 court order. Benson was previously accused of noncompliance with a court order in another case when she failed to convince a judge to dismiss a case that could force her to remove over 25,000 deceased people from Michigans voter rolls. Poll workers board up windows of the ballot counting area at the TCF Center in Detroit on Nov. 4, 2020. (Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images) The five plaintiffs in the case, a group of citizens concerned about protecting the rights of challengers and poll watchers from infringement by Bensons nonconforming or extra-legal guidelines, are known collectively as OHalloran et al. The Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. Bensons legal defense team includes the Elias Law Group, founded by nationally known Democrat strategist Marc Elias, which was also involved in a lawsuit challenging ballot drop box watchers in Arizona. Benson celebrated the Michigan Supreme Court ruling, saying shes grateful her updated challenger guidelines and protocols, which were used in the August primaries, remain in effect for next weeks general election. Weve long been confident in the legality of the Michigan Bureau of Elections guidelines surrounding election challengers and their rightful balance providing transparency while protecting voters and poll workers from disruptions and intimidation, Benson said in a statement. Lawsuit Michigan Court of Claims Judge Brock Swartzles Oct. 20 ruling found that some provisions in Bensons manual had not gone through the proper rule-making procedure with input from the public and state lawmakers. The court found that the guidance Benson issued, therefore, didnt have the force and effect of law. Bensons new manual outlines the rights and duties of election challengers and poll watchers. She created it in response to confrontations between election officials and poll challengers and watchers during the 2020 presidential election. The new guidance outlines that challengers cant take personal electronic devices into counting rooms where absentee ballots are processed prior to polls closing. Challengers will also have to communicate with a challenger liaison instead of election officials. The Republican plaintiffs asked Swartzle to cancel Bensons updated election manual, arguing it should have been issued as a promulgated rule as per the law instead of as an instructive guide. They argued that the manual violates Section 733 of the Michigan Election Law, and they asserted that the manual was distributed to election clerks unlawfully. A migrant family from Venezuela illegally crosses the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas, at the border with Mexico on June 30, 2022. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images) Migrants Are Given Literal Roadmaps to Reach the US BorderAnd Big Tech Is Funding It GUATEMALA CITY, GuatemalaDoctors Without Borders, a medical aid nonprofit which is funded by a number of prominent tech companies, is publishing and distributing maps to migrants showing routes through Central America that reach the United States, according to a copy of the map seen by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The map is labeled shelters for people on the move in Spanish and lists a number of clinics and other areas where aid can be found along the journey to the United States, according to the document. While Doctors Without Borders hasnt received U.S. government funding since 2002, the group still receives sizable donations from American companies, including from tech giants Microsoft, Google.org, and Amazon. The group has also gotten millions in donations from the foundations of billionaires Elon Musk and Michael Bloomberg, according to its website. As a medical humanitarian organization providing medical and mental health care to people on this migration route, MSF [Medecins Sans Frontieres] prints and distributes these maps to ensure that people know where to find shelter and humanitarian assistance and how to access mental health services along the migration route, Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman Jessica Brown told the DCNF. (Daily Caller News Foundation) The map shows paths starting in Guatemala that lead up to the U.S.-Mexico border. Each path is marked with locations for shelter and aid along several different routes through Central America that end in the United States. The map also lists the locations of clinics and shelters along the Mexican border across from major U.S. cities, such as El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California. The fact that an international medical NGO with billions in the bank is making literal roadmaps to guide migrants from Central America to our southern border is not only an affront to its core mission, but a globalist attack on our sovereignty, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Director of Government Relations and Communications RJ Hauman told the DCNF. The map is labeled Medicos Sin Fronteras, which is the name used by the organizations offices in Argentina and Spain, which have separate finances in addition to a combined international account with the U.S. office. Doctors Without Border has previously highlighted its work assisting migrants on their dangerous journeys. We provided treatment for people emerging from the Panama side of the jungle, who are mainly from Cuba or Haiti, although our teams have seen people from West Africa. Regardless of origin, everyone passing through the Gap is heading north, where they still face the dangerous route through Mexico, in search of a better life in the United States, the group noted in a 2021 report. Between October 2021 and September 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered roughly 2.3 million migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico. Many of the migrants made the trek through South and Central America, where some are receiving the map, which Hauman compared to the smuggling operations of cartels. No American citizen, company, or foundation should give a dime to Doctors Without Borders until they quit working hand in glove with cartels and smugglers to enhance mass migration in the region while the federal government hasnt funded Doctors Without Borders since 2002, there are plenty of other NGOs with similar missions that do quietly receive taxpayer dollars. Republicans must examine this immediately next Congress, Hauman said. Bloomberg, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft also didnt respond to the DCNFs requests for comment. The Musk Foundation couldnt be reached for comment. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Mike Lindell, founder and CEO of My Pillow, arrives for a "Save America" rally by former US President Donald Trump in support of House of Representatives candidate, Sarah Palin, in Anchorage, Alaska on July 9, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) EXCLUSIVE: Mike Lindell to Appeal After Judge Denies Bid to Reclaim Seized Phone MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell will appeal a federal judges rejection on Nov. 3 of his request to have his cell phone returned to him after it was seized by the FBI, according to his attorney. Responding to the judges ruling on Friday, Lindells attorney Andrew Parker told The Epoch Times that the government had no right to seize all the information on his clients phone. The government has taken Mike Lindells cell phone and is looking through thousands of pieces of private information including his contacts, associations, financial and business information, medical information, and other personal information, the attorney, with law firm Parker Daniels Kibort, said in a statement. While the government has certain latitude to conduct investigations, it has no right to seize and rifle through a persons entire life (which is often stored on ones cellphone) when that information is wholly unrelated to any investigation. In September, Lindell filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI following the FBIs Sept. 13 seizure of his phone while he was at a Hardees drive-through in Mankato, Minnesota. According to the search warrant, signed Sept. 7 by Magistrate Judge Tony N. Leung, Lindell is being probed along with several other co-conspirators, including Mesa County, Colorado, election clerk Tina Peters, who was indicted by a grand jury in March on charges relating to an alleged security breach of voting equipment in the county. Peters has maintained her innocence. The warrant specifies that all records and information on Lindells phone that constitute fruits, evidence, or instrumentalities of violations relating to alleged identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer, and conspiracy to commit identity theft or cause damage to a protected computer, were subject to seizure. Parker, noting the broad scope of information available on Lindells phone, said The digital age allows for search segregation of information, and when the government conducts searches without first presenting protocols and safeguards to a court for approval at the time of seeking a warrant to seize the cell phone, they violate the U.S. Constitution. To our knowledge, that did not occur here. In his lawsuit, Lindell had requested a preliminary injunction to have the phone returned to him and prohibit the FBI from accessing any data on the device or releasing any information found on it, alleging that the warrant breached his constitutional rights. Lindell also asked that he be granted access to the search warrant materials that justified the need for a warrant. Mike Lindell speaks in Casper, Wyoming. The rally is being held to support Harriet Hageman, Rep. Liz Cheneys primary challenger in Wyoming, on May 28, 2022. (Chet Strange/Getty Images) However, on Nov. 3, Judge Eric Tostrud denied those requests, stating that Lindell had failed to prove that the seizure violated his constitutional rights, and that the government had demonstrated a compelling interest in the ongoing investigation that outweighed the businessmans right of access. Multiple factors here justify keeping the search warrant materials under seal, Tostrud said in a 36-page ruling (pdf). The extensive, 80-page search warrant affidavit describes in considerable detail the nature, scope, and direction of the governments investigation and the individuals and specific [activities] involved, including information obtained from recorded communications, confidential informants, and cooperating witnesses, Tostrud continued. The judge added that the search warrant materials contain information about individuals who are not targets of the investigation, and that releasing them could also compromise the investigation itself. Parker, however, said that the warrant was reminiscent of the general search warrants that prompted the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. General search warrants of peoples homes were ruled unconstitutional during colonial times, he said. This is a modern-day general search warrant and this type of search and seizure of information and property should concern us all. The attorney told The Epoch Times that while they have yet to formally file an appeal, it will be done within the 30-day time limit set by the court. Samantha Flom Follow Samantha Flom is a freelance political reporter for The Epoch Times. A graduate of Syracuse University, she has a background in journalism and nonprofit communications. Contact her at scflom@gmail.com More Than 34 Million People Have Voted Already as Researchers Reveal States With Most Pre-Election Ballots More than 34 million pre-midterm ballots have been cast in more than 45 states, according to data from election officials and researchers. The U.S. Election Project, a University of Florida program that compiles state voting data, shows that 35.5 million people have voted in 44 states as of Friday. Meanwhile, officials with Edison Research and Catalist told CNN that 34.6 million have voted as of Friday in 47 states. Early voting for 2022 is ahead of the 2018 pace across the states where data is currently available as compared with the past three midterms. However, its too early to determine whether the turnout will reach the same levels as in 2018 as there are still several more days to go before the Tuesday, Nov. 8 contest. More than 4 million early ballots have been cast in Texas, California, and Florida so far, according to the U.S. Election Project. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a Thursday news release that more than 2.2 million Georgia residents have cast early ballots, breaking all-time records for midterm elections. By close of business today, two million Georgians will have cast their ballot in persona record for Early Voting in a midterm, said Raffensberger, who faced criticism from former President Donald Trump and Republicans for how his office handled the 2020 election, including tallying mail-in ballots. Georgia is the state where voters show up early, and our county election directors have created that infrastructure to make it a resounding success. Officials say that some 103 million people cast early ballots during the presidential election in 2020. Early voting got a significant boost two years ago when many states made it more readily available due to the COVID-19 pandemica move that critics say opened up more avenues for voter fraud and significant delays. Voters in Brazil, for example, cast presidential ballots last Sunday. Election officials in that country were able to tally up all the votes, which were done in person, within just a few hours. Every state offers the opportunity to cast early ballotssome by mail, some in person, some both. For places with in-person early voting, the windows in which someone can cast an early ballot vary from more than a month to just over a week. Early voting and in-person absentee voting starts as early as nearly six weeks ahead of Election Day itself in places such as Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia. In other places, in-person, early voting is open right up to Election Day itself. Others, including Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Ohio accept voters until the day before the election. Some, like New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Oklahoma wrap up the process the Saturday before Election Day. Louisiana closes its early polls a week before Election Day. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Environmental advocates plan to plant and study chestnut trees in a Cayuga County nature preserve. The Finger Lakes Land Trust on Friday announced that it has partnered with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry on a trial planting of the American chestnut tree at the Owasco Bluffs Nature Preserve in Niles, where the trees will be monitored to evaluate their growth and survival. According to a news release, the American chestnut was once a prolific species in eastern North America until the late 19th century when the chestnut blight fungus was accidentally introduced to New York City in a shipment of chestnut trees from Asia. The nature preserve in Niles was chosen as a suitable location for the reintroduction of 20 wild-type trees. Often reaching heights of 100 feet and four to five feet in diameter, the American chestnut was used for centuries by indigenous peoples as a source of food and medicine, the land trust said, and European settlers used its rot-resistant, straight-grained wood for building materials and its bark for tanning leather. A keystone species, the American chestnut is a fast-growing tree whose nuts once fed people as well as wildlife and livestock. Chestnuts were harvested and shipped to urban agricultural markets, providing income for rural communities. Until the arrival of the blight, the chestnut was a major driver of many rural economies in the Appalachian region. Overlooking the eastern shore of Owasco Lake, the 74-acre Owasco Bluffs Preserve protects over 1,100 feet of undeveloped, pristine shoreline. The preserve features forested bluffs overlooking the lake as well as wetlands, meadows, and a rugged gorge. It is the first FLLT preserve in the Owasco Lake watershed, and only the third publicly accessible conservation area on the lake. By working cooperatively with landowners and local communities, the Finger Lakes Land Trust said it has protected over 29,000 acres of the regions undeveloped lakeshore, rugged gorges, rolling forest, and scenic farmland. The FLLT owns and manages a network of over 46 nature preserves that are open to the public and holds perpetual conservation easements on 172 properties that remain in private ownership. Additional information about the Finger Lakes Land Trust may be found at fllt.org. Vice President Kamala Harris (L), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (C), and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) hold up their hands at the conclusion of a New York Women Get Out The Vote rally at Barnard College in New York on Nov. 3, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) New York Gov. Hochul Touts Abortion Rights in Rally Days Before Election News Analysis New York Gov. Kathy Hochul gave an impassioned speech at a rally at Barnard College on Nov. 3, in the course of which she repeatedly portrayed her Republican opponent in the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election, Lee Zeldin, as a MAGA-style Republican extremist who seeks to roll back so-called hard-won rights in the areas of reproductive freedom, voting, civil rights, and gun control. References to an issue of overriding concern to many New Yorkers and to Americans in general, namely violent crime, were almost entirely absent from Hochuls 12-minute address. Hochul, who was never elected to her current position but ascended to the governors office from her role as lieutenant governor, when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid numerous allegations of sexual harassment, spoke before an enthusiastic crowd on the campus of Barnard College in Manhattans Morningside Heights neighborhood. Preceding her onstage was an array of highly prominent women in Democratic politics, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and former Secretary of State and two-time presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also took the stage to deliver remarks in support of Hochuls campaign. Following Hochuls talk, Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage and delivered a lengthy speech in support of reelecting Hochul on Nov. 8. I personally am thrilled that were going to have Vice President Harris with us, Clinton said, before going on to acknowledge her fellow Democrats in attendance. This election is one that has such far-reaching repercussions, and I think you know that, thats why youre here, but I am going to ask you, get out after todays rally and literally get everybody you know to turn out and vote early or on Tuesday. Ive known Kathy Hochul for a long time, we worked together, and I really appreciate the way she is bringing leadership and stability and hope for our future to New York, Clinton said. As lieutenant governor, she has crisscrossed New York, literally going to every single county and a lot of the towns and villages and hamlets within them, bringing all kinds of good ideas, bringing people together. But this election, like every election, is a choice, and its not just a choice between two candidates, it is a choice about two very different ideas about who we are as a state and a country, and how we should work together, or not, and what kind of future we want for ourselves and our children and our grandchildren, she added. Lee Zeldin, Kathys opponent, along with Donald Trump and their allies, are literally fighting tooth and nail to turn back the clock. Theyve spent 50 years trying to make that happen, they want to turn back to the clock on womens rights in general, on civil rights, on gay rights, on voting rights, they are determined to exercise control over who we are, how we feel and be and act in ways that I thought we had all left behind, Clinton continued. Hochuls speech was full of rhetoric about carrying on the struggle for rights undertaken by suffragists in the 19th century, and explicitly characterized candidate Zeldins support for overturning Roe v. Wade and handing jurisdiction over the legality of abortions back to the states as an attack on womens rights and an effort to regress to a time in America when civil liberties were the domain of the privileged few. Hochul barely discussed or acknowledged the importance to voters of any issues other than abortion. Living in the Past Making reference to the Seneca Falls Convention in New York state in 1848 that discussed and approved extending suffrage to women, Hochul described the gathering at Barnard as an event in a similar spirit. Three hundred people fought their way to a place that became the intersection of rights. Native American rights, abolitionists, womens rightsit all came together in this small community in upstate New York. You need to go there! Hochul continued with a largely symbolic discussion of the legacy she said that she and Hillary Clinton had inherited as pioneers of womens rights. Those women back then were so brave and so audacious, they went against the tides of their time, they were ridiculed and spit upon and jailed because they had the audacity to say, We have rights. And if you read the declaration, its written on the wall, and you can feel their disdain, dripping from every word: We are sick and tired of being the property of men. We want to have a chance to be free, we want to vote. And that happened nowhere else but right here in the state of New York. Hochul went on with an account of past activism, making no reference to current issues and problems in the state in which she seeks election as governor. We finally achieved that goal that was so elusive for so long. When it came to other rights, reproductive freedom, the right to decide whether you could make a decision about your own body, New York, again, was three years ahead of the rest of the nation. And Ive always been proud of the fact that weve led these movements: womens rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rightsit all started nowhere else but in our state. They not only passed down a gift, they passed us a torch. Today, we hold that torch in our hands, and its up to us, who will be judged by generations years from now, who look back at this time and say, What happened in 2022? Hochuls Priorities Hochul then issued a warning about socially conservative, anti-abortion extremists who would strip away hard-won rights when complacency sets in. Friends, its up to us We march to the polls to stand up for future generations and say, We will protect the right to an abortion in this state, right here and right now and forever! Hochul went on to criticize her opponent Rep. Zeldin (R-N.Y.) for having suggested that the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization had not fundamentally changed the status of abortion rights in New York, even though it overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a federal right to legal abortion in all 50 states. This portion of Hochuls talk drew some of the wildest applause from the largely undergraduate audience. One of the points of contention between Zeldin and Hochul during their Oct. 25 debate was what Zeldin sees as Hochuls lack of concern about crime in the city and state. In his opening statement, Zeldin told voters, Youre poorer and less safe because of Kathy Hochul and extreme policies. References to the issue consistently cited by New Yorkers as a leading concernviolent crimewere almost entirely absent from Hochuls 12-minute speech. Nowhere in her talk did Hochul make any mention of the fact that crime in New York City has risen sharply in several categories compared to the same period a year ago, according to New York Police Department figures, with rape up 15.8 percent, robbery up 1.7 percent, and burglary up 8.9 percent. Hochul did not discuss, or even acknowledge, numerous recent incidents that have stirred alarm among New Yorkers over rising crime, such as the pushing of a 32-year-old man, David Martin, onto subway tracks in Bushwick, Brooklyn, by a total stranger whom the victim said he barely saw in the moments before the attack. Martin was taking the subway to work as per his routine and the attack reportedly was completely unprovoked. Nor did Hochul mention recent incidents of violent crime affecting Zeldin himself and his family, namely the attack on Zeldin at a campaign stop in upstate New York in July and a report of gunfire last month outside Zeldins Long Island home, which led to his daughters calling the police. The only specific crime Hochul mentioned was the May 14, 2022, mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets outlet in Buffalo, New York, by a man who identified himself as a white supremacist, killing ten people and injuring three. Hochul described the attacker as an extremist who had become radicalized on social media, and implicitly drew a link between this radicalization and the rhetoric used by so-called MAGA Republicans such as her opponent in the gubernatorial race. Vox Populi Some who turned out to support the rally were more explicitly concerned with reproductive rights. Kristy Mendoza, a Barnard undergraduate from Texas, cited the Dobbs decision and its ramifications for her home state as motivating factors in her attendance of the rally. This is my first time voting, actually, Mendoza said. I wanted to see Kamala Harris. Im a Democrat, so I wanted to see them. Im from Texas, and [the Supreme Court decision on] abortion, and Roe v. Wade, it was very impactful, and I think it just makes things a lot worse, especially with access to health care. The state and the country just hindering us from doing that, and making it much harder for us to be well, I think its just absurd. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, our college decided to meet the demand for reproductive and contraceptive devices, and I feel like having the womens rally here, that shows the significance of what [the issue] means to us, concurred another Barnard student, Hannah Ramsey. Hannah Ramsey (L) from Alabama and Kristy Mendoza from Texas stand outside Manhattans Barnard College in New York City on Nov. 3, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Others who turned out were more forthright about the severity of the crime problem, though they found aspects of Zeldins platform problematic. This is a very important election, even though the Democrats are failing on bail reform, because crime is very high, it is real, it is not made up. But at the same time, our rights as LGBTQ, and womens rights, are in danger, because this guy, Lee Zeldin, is pro-Trump. That means Zeldin is anti-LGBTQ, anti-womens rights, said Dinick Martinez, who works as a dishwasher. Dinick Martinez from Queens stands outside Manhattans Barnard College in New York City on Nov. 3, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) THC-infused candy and snack foods with counterfeit brand marketing were confiscated at gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops in N.C., officials said on Nov. 3, 2022. (Courtesy of the N.C. Secretary of State's Office) North Carolina Authorities Seize Counterfeit Candy Laced With THC, Marketed to Children Thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit candy and snack foods laced with THCincluding imitations of brands such as Skittles and Cheetoshave been confiscated from gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops in North Carolina. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Authorities confiscated nearly $224,000 worth of THC-infused snacks concealed by popular brand names marketed to children. Counterfeit Trademark Enforcement agents with the state office, along with the North Carolina Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force, worked with local authorities to seize the products, which, in addition to Skittles and Cheetos, also included THC-infused imitations of Lifesavers and Girl Scout cookies. Our agents launched this coordinated enforcement effort after seeing a growing trend of THC-infused gummies and snacks concealed in packaging counterfeiting popular snack brands marketed to children. These are brands that kids can easily pick up and consume without knowing whats really in it, North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said in a press release on Thursday. Marshall referenced an incident earlier in 2022 when a 4-year-old boy in Virginia died after eating THC-infused gummies, adding that the fact that so many of these products were counterfeiting brands geared toward kids is very troubling. THC-infused candy and snack foods with counterfeit brand marketing were confiscated at gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops. (Courtesy of the N.C. Secretary of States Office) According to a press release from the Spotsylvania Sheriffs Office in Virginia, a Spotsylvania County Grand Jury indicted the mother for the death of her son that occurred on May 8, 2022. It was reported that the child suffered from a high toxicity level of THC. However, the childs death caused by THC is in dispute because physicians are still on the fence as to whether a human can in fact die directly from marijuana alone. Medical experts agree that the drug can have negative health consequences while simultaneously being beneficial for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illnesses that require nausea-inducing medications, but there have been no conclusive reports on THC being the direct cause of death. According to the North Carolina authorities, the packaging on the THC edibles included markings indicating that the snacks contained THC. However, Marshall said those markings could easily be overlooked. A total of 23 search warrants and 30 consent searches led to the counterfeit products being removed from a variety of establishments in eastern North Carolina. Before Halloweena concern for authorities regarding the potential for mistaken purchases leading to young trick-or-treaters ingesting THCpolice in Roxboro, North Carolina, seized 145 counterfeit products imitating Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, Oreos, and even Cocoa Puffs cereal. According to the Roxboro Police Department, 126 of the 145 items violated copyright laws. No Arrests A spokesperson for the North Carolina Secretary of States Office told The Epoch Times that there were no arrests because it was an educational enforcement sweep. The merchants told law enforcement that they werent aware the products were counterfeited. The individuals were given warnings with the understanding that our agents, along with local task force agents, will be checking back in on them, the spokesperson said. Products with THC derived from hemp plants are legal in North Carolina, provided the THC concentrations do not exceed 0.3 percent. As a result, North Carolina residents can legally purchase THC products from online retailers or local stores. A significant health concern behind this is that even though adults who are making these purchases know what they are buying, children could be attracted to the packaging, not knowing that the products contain THC, the spokesperson said. Undated photo of Parliament Buildings, often referred to as Stormont, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. (Paul Faith/PA) Northern Ireland Secretary Rules Out Assembly Election Before New Year There will be no snap election in Northern Ireland before the New Year, the UK central governments Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said on Friday. In a written statement, the minister said the decision to rule out a Christmas election came after he listened to concerns from people across Northern Ireland. He also said he will make a statement in Parliament next week to lay out his plan. Heaton-Harris is legally bound to call an assembly election within 12 weeks from Oct. 28 after Northern Irish politicians failed to form a functioning executive and an assembly by the deadline over a dispute about part of the UKs Brexit deal concerning Northern Ireland. Caretaker ministers at the Northern Ireland Executive had to leave their posts, putting the region into direct rule under Westminster in London. It was previously believed that Heaton-Harris would set an election date on Oct. 28, but the minister opted to speak to party leaders in Northern Ireland before making a decision. On Friday, Heaton-Harris confirmed that no Assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season. The minister said he had listened to the sincere concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time of people in the region, including business and community representatives. He said he will update Parliament in Westminster next week regarding the next steps, adding that his objective is the restoration of a strong devolved government in Northern Ireland. Powersharing Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian fighting among Irish nationalists and pro-UK unionists, the legislative and executive power in Northern Ireland must be shared between the largest unionist party, DUP, and the largest Irish republican party, Sinn Fein. The executive stopped fully functioning in February after then-First Minister, DUPs Paul Givan resigned in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, which automatically triggers the removal of Sinn Feins Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill. Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle ONeill in an undated file photo. (Liam McBurney/PA) Following an assembly election on May 5, in which Sinn Fein surpassed the DUP to become the largest party in the assembly for the first time, the DUP refused to participate in forming a new executive or nominating an assembly speaker unless the UK government deals with the Protocol. The assembly cannot carry out its function until a speaker is elected. Following a legislative change earlier this year, executive ministers, who were previously allowed to stay in post for two weeks after an election, can now remain for 24 weeks before a new election has to be called. The deadline passed on Oct.28. The Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the UKs Brexit deal, left Northern Ireland in the E.U.s single market to avoid a hard border between the region and the Republic of Ireland. But it has effectively put a trade border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland Protocol Following Heaton-Harriss statement on Friday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has called on Twitter for a razor-sharp focus on getting a solution to the Northern Ireland Protocol, either by negotiating with the E.U. or legislating to unilaterally suspend parts of the deal. There is no solid basis for a fully functioning Stormont until [the Northern Ireland Protocol] is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support, he wrote, adding, progress can only be made when both the unionists and the nationalists are aboard. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Sinn Feins ONeill said the delay is unacceptable, and accused Heaton-Harris of adding to political instability. In a written statement, she said the British government is fuelling the political instability caused by the DUPs failure to recognise the result of the May election when the people voted for change. The British government and the DUP are leaving us in a prolonged state of political limbo with no Assembly, Executive, or caretaker ministers, she said. Its unclear whether the institutions in Northern Ireland can be restored after a new election, as the DUP has vowed to block their formation until the UK government takes decisive action on the Northern Ireland Protocol. On his second day in office, the UKs Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin that his preference regarding the solution to the Protocol remained a negotiated outcome, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman. A Northern Ireland Protocol Bill that aims to unilaterally override parts of the protocol, brought forward by Liz Truss as one of her last acts as the foreign secretary, is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords. Former President Donald Trump worked up the crowd at a rally in Iowa. Find out what he said to tease a possible 2024 presidential run. NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets offered up some apologetic words after being suspended for a recent social media post that caused backlash for some alleged antisemitic content. Its the final stretch on the campaign trail before the midterms. In New York, big names came out to support candidates in the governors race. Topics in this episode include: 1. Irving Apologizes for Twitter Post 2. Former LAPD Captain Probed in Tip-off to CBS Chief 3. Trump Teases 2024 Presidential Run for 3rd Time 4. Hochul, Harris, and Clinton Rally Supporters in New York 5. Final Days Zeldin Rally 6. Forecast Predicts GOP Will Win Control of Senate 7. Georgia US Senate Candidates in Dead Heat 8. Med Students Worry About Abortion Training 9. USS Tripoli Arrives in Sydney 10. Toxic Pollution in Indias Capital 11. Hawaiis Largest Volcano Could Erupt Soon 12. Migrating Pelicans Compete for Fish in Israel * Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List. Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV Orange County Fire Authority Orders 2 New Helicopters IRVINE, Calif.The Orange County Fire Authority Thursday announced it had approved the acquisition of two new firefighting helicopters. The new Sikorsky S70 Firehawk helicopters were approved by the authoritys board a week ago. The new helicopters replace the authoritys 1966 UH-1H Super Hueys which had become too expensive to maintain. A Sikorsky S70 Firehawk helicopter. (Courtesy of the Orange County Fire Authority) A Sikorsky S70 Firehawk helicopter. (Courtesy of the Orange County Fire Authority) The new aircraft is the same as used in departments in Santa Barbara, Ventura County, Los Angeles County, San Diego, and the state. The authority also has two Bell 412EP helicopters, so the Firehawks will up the departments firefighters from the air to four vehicles. The new helicopters can carry 1,000 gallons of water, a substantial increase from the Bell helicopters, which can hold 350 gallons. The new helicopters are due to be delivered in the fall of next year. CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) education workers strike on the picket line in Kingston, Ont., on Nov. 4, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg) Ontario Files Labour Board Application to End Education Workers Strike Provinces education minister says the government is 'using every tool available' to end the strike The Ontario government has filed an application with the provinces labour board to stop job action by thousands of education workers who walked off the job on Nov. 4. In a tweet on the afternoon of Nov. 4, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government is using every tool available to end this illegal strike and get kids back to class. Immediately following proclamation of the Keeping Students in Class Act, we filed a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board in response to CUPEs [Canadian Union of Public Employees] illegal strike action, Lecce said. Nothing matters more right now than getting all students in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so. The labour relations board began hearing arguments Friday, and the case is set to continue into the weekend. Education workers represented by CUPE gathered at politicians offices Friday, including at Lecces constituency office in Vaughan, Ontario. A large crowd also picketed at the provincial legislature at Queens Park. A day earlier, the Ontario government passed Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act, which imposed a four-year contract on the roughly 55,000 CUPE workers. The bill also applies a notwithstanding clause, which lets the provincial legislature override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to address disputes involving school board employees. CUPE has demanded an annual wage increase of 11.7 percent as well as overtime at twice the regular pay rate, 30 minutes of paid prep time per day for educational assistants and ECEs. On Oct. 30, it gave the Ontario government five days notice, saying educational workers would go on strike if its demands were not met. CUPE said on Nov. 3 that it made a final offer of about half of what was originally proposed, which would be about a 6 percent wage increase. Our political protest in Pickering was in full swing as of early this morning! Members of the community are here to show their solidarity to education workers and let them know that they deserve more! https://t.co/Z92gxiA31o#OnPoli #OntEd #DontBeABully #39KIsNotEnough pic.twitter.com/B4CHwcy597 CUPE Ontario (@CUPEOntario) November 4, 2022 The government originally offered raises of two percent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 percent for all others, but Lecce said the four-year deal would give 2.5 percent annual wage increases to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5 percent raises for all others. CUPE has said that way of framing it is not accurate because the wage increases actually depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers who earn less than $43,000 in a year wouldnt get 2.5 percent. The union said the strike will continue for an indefinite time, and many school boards across Ontario have announced school closures or a shift to online learning. Lecce described the protest as an unprecedented challenge on children. We use every tool at our disposal to keep schools open, he wrote on social media Nov. 3. Children should not pay the price for an education unions desire for higher pay. Its just not right. Bill 28 has set out fines for violating a prohibition on strikes of up to $4,000 per employee per day, or up to $500,000 for the union. The Canadian Press contributed to this report Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce answers questions in the Ontario Legislature during Question Period on Nov. 1, 2022, as members debate a bill meant to avert a planned strike by 55,000 education workers. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press) Ontario Passes Back-to-Work Bill, Applies Notwithstanding Clause Ahead of Education Workers Strike The Ontario legislature has passed back-to-work legislation to impose a four-year contract on education workers and make a planned workers strike starting Nov. 4 illegal. However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says said its members will still walk off the job on Nov. 4. Bill 28, or the Keeping Students in Class Act, is applying a notwithstanding clausewhich allows the provincial legislature to override the Charter of Rights and Freedomsto address the disputes involving school board employees, represented by CUPE. CUPE, which represents about 55,000 education workers who make on average $39,000 a year, has been seeking an annual salary increase of 11.7 percent as well as overtime at twice the regular pay rate, among other demands. On Oct. 30, it gave the Ontario government a five-day notice, saying educational workers would go on strike if its demands were not met. Bill 28 has set a 2.5 percent annual wage increase for individual workers making less than $43,000 a year and a 1.5 percent increase for all other employees. The union said on Nov. 3 that its latest offer was about half of what was originally proposed, which would be a roughly 6 percent wage increase. Mediation Mediation fell apart as the union and the government failed to reach an agreement. This is a call to arms for union members, workers, and anyone who believes in Charter rights across Canada. This isnt just about education workers, this is about the rights of all working people across the country, Mark Hancock, CUPE national president, said in a news release. The message from our leaders here in Ontario is clear: our members are united, and they intend to fightand they have Canadas largest union in their corner and we are going to fight alongside them. The union said its members will begin a provincewide strike starting Nov. 4, even though Bill 28 has made it illegal, warning parents to make alternative arrangements into next week. CUPE didnt provide a specific timeline for ending the strike, but said education workers will be off the job until our members decide otherwise. Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the province will use every tool we have to end their disruption. Following the Ontario School Board Council of Unions announcing the conclusion of the mediation, Lecce said at a press conference that the province made a good faith effort, but CUPEs refusal to take its threat of a strike off the table left the government no choice but to pass Bill 28. For the sake of Ontarios 2 million students, to keep classrooms open, CUPE has left us with no choice but to pass the Keeping [Students] in Class Act, Lecce said. Fines for violating a prohibition on strikes during the term of the collective agreement set out in Bill 28 are up to $4,000 per employee per day, while fines for unions are up to $500,000. We are giving our members clear instructions, said Candace Rennick, CUPEs national secretary treasurer. If you are fined on the picket line, you report that fine to your president and you let the union know and we will provide you with further instructions. We are in the process of seeking legal support on that. If the government of Ontario wants to clog up the justice system with $4,000 per member per day fines, then I say bring it on. Schools to Close During Strike Many school boards across the province, including the Toronto District School Board, have said schools will be closed during the strike, while others are planning to shift to online learning. In a memo obtained by The Canadian Press, the Ontario Ministry of Education has urged school boards to implement contingency plans, where every effort is made to keep schools open for as many children as possible. If boards determine they cant safely open schools without the CUPE members, the ministry said school boards must support students in a speedy transition to remote learning. The Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) said many boards are closing schools for the duration of the CUPE strike. Where schools are closed to in-person learning it is because they are unable to maintain the healthy and safe operation of schools for students without these critical education workers, OPSBA president Cathy Abraham said in a statement on Nov. 3. We hope this disruption is short-lived and that we can get back to in-person learning as soon as possible. The Canadian Press contributed to this report. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Joyful Warriors National Summit of Moms for Liberty in Tampa, Fla. on June 15, 2022. (Natasha Holt/The Epoch Times) Parent Revolution Sweeping the Country as Election Day Nears With the days, hours, and minutes winding down to Election Day on Nov. 8, voters around the country are paying attention to school board elections like never before, parent activists say. Previously, there was a disconnect between the citizens and the school board, Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told The Epoch Times. But no more, she said. But parents suddenly seem to be realizing that being a member of a school board is an important political position, she said. We want to have an impact on who gets to make those types of decisions for our kids. They vote on the budget, and the budget helps them to prioritize how theyre going to know whats important, Justice said. I think Americans woke up to the fact that their school board members were in charge of making all kinds of decisions, and they didnt even know who their school board members were. Tiffany Justice (L) and Tina Descovich are mothers and former school board members, who co-founded Moms for Liberty in 2021 with the aim of pushing back against concerning public school policies. (Courtesy of Tiffany Justice) Getting to know your school board representative is important, she advised. And choosing those elected officials is a process that should involve great care. To help voters heading to the ballot boxes, Moms for Liberty announced endorsements this week for more than 270 school board candidates across the country. People can learn more about the candidates chosen for support by contacting local Moms for Liberty chapters. Were so incredibly proud of the chapters around the country going through the process of vetting and endorsing candidates, Justice said. Its not an easy thing to do. It takes time, and its something theyve never done before. That can be scary. You have to really put yourself out there to your community. But thats what Moms for Liberty is all about. The group enlists members who have the desire to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government, and are lending their knowledge and experience to help parents fight those battles, Justice said. School boards dont always follow typical election cycles, and thats been something that our moms have really had to learn and focus on, Justice said. The group has become particularly suspicious of teachers unions. Many unions worked hard to keep children at home during the pandemic, rather than in classrooms. And recently, The Epoch Times reported that the National Education Association has been selling $2 wearable badges to teachers. Those rainbow-colored badges identify a teacher as a safe person, with whom children can discuss questions about sex, gender-identity, and the LGBT lifestyle, without worrying their parents will be told. But were wise to them, Justice said of unions. Were wise to their game and were coming. During the pandemic, parents got a glimpse of what was being taught in the schools and parental involvement was amplified, said Justice, the mom of four school-aged children. Shes also a former school board member in Indian River County, Florida. As parents began reacting to pandemic policies, we watched as microphones were shut off at school board meetings, and teachers unions worked with the government and the bureaucrats to keep schools closed, she said. Now, parents are more involved than ever in speaking out about school policies, Justice said. This is a parent revolution across the country. We are reclaiming public education and righting America. Justice and fellow parent Tina Descovich formed Moms for Liberty in January 2021 after recognizing a need for school policy changes, she said. Many existing education policies were short-sighted and destructive, and hurt families and children, she said. The organization began with two chapters. Since then, its blossomed to include more than 250 chapters with 100,000 members nationwide. Sarah Hanganu, of Dutchess County, N.Y., looks over materials for a virtual academy at a booth at a Moms for Liberty conference in Tampa, Fla., on June 16, 2022. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times) The group also encourages members to run for school board positions. Many people dont think of themselves as qualified to run for school board. Thats a misconception, Justice said, noting that no college degree is required. I think everyone is qualified. Being a good listener, and being in touch with your communityand the wants and needs of the parents of your communityis important. The primary stakeholders in education are parents and children, she said. But, also, the country at large is a stakeholder, because we all benefit from a good-quality education system, Justice continued. Unfortunately, that is not what we have right now. With more than two-thirds of schoolchildren reading and doing math below grade level, the education system is failingnot only children, but the country at large, she said. Instead of admitting failure or being concerned about it, excuses are being made for that educational failure, she said. Some left-leaning groups complain that students arent doing well because schools in some states, such as Florida, have banned the teaching of woke ideology, including Critical Race Theory (CRT). People protest the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) outside the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images) They say, if only the student had social-emotional learning, or queer theory, or if only students had access to pornographic books they would learn better, Justice railed. Thats just nonsense! In October, Justice attended a Florida State Board of Education meeting to speak with leaders concerning the rule-making for HB 1557, known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, and HB 1467 which requires school districts to be transparent about curriculum materials used. At the meeting, she made suggestions regarding activist school teachers, who present topics that have been banned by those bills or who hide information from parents. If you have activist teachers that are breaking the law, they should lose their license100 percent, she told the state board. They should not be allowed to teach. If you knowingly break the law as a teacher and act in defiance of state law, you should lose your job. Some may have felt it was a controversial statement to make, she admitted. But, she felt it needed to be said. School districts across the United States are experiencing a teacher shortage. But more concerning, Justice said, is that many parents are scared to send their kids to school, because of activist teachers. On Aug. 16, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a three-pronged approach to the recruitment of teachers into the states classrooms. The measure aims to put retired first responders and military veterans on a fast track to teaching certification. And its designed to help teachers get advanced degrees, allowing them to teach dual-enrollment courses that give high-school students college credit. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses the media in Miami, in April 2022. (Courtesy of the Florida Governors Office) Its a recruitment program focusing on our heroes, DeSantis told reporters. We want to bring their leadership and wisdom into the classroom. No Easy Job Problem teachers, on the other hand, can negatively affect families of many cultures and religions, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, Justice said. Parents shouldnt be worried that every time they send their child into the classroom that the teaching in the classroom is antithetical to the teaching in the home. Families often report that values taught in classrooms now are in conflict with their teaching in their religion, she added. This crosses all racial and cultural areas. Standing up to educators and school boards isnt always an easy job for Moms for Liberty members. Parents associated with the group have been called bigots, domestic terrorists, racist, homophobic, transphobic, just because they dont want any adults having private conversations with their child about sexual orientation or gender identity, Justice said. Moms for Libertys diverse group of members share a common goal, she said. We represent everyone from many different religions and many different political backgrounds. The Nov. 8 election is critical to saving the social fabric of the country, Justice said. Its a chance to elect good, effective school board members who will represent their communities in line with what the community wants, she added. It is a very important election for our country, and we feel it. Paul Pelosi (L) and then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attend the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner at Washington Hilton in Washington, on April 28, 2018. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) Paul Pelosi Released From Hospital One Week After Being Attacked Paul Pelosi was released from a hospital in San Francisco about one week after he was attacked inside his home, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), his wife, announced late Nov. 3. Paul Pelosi, 82, was transported to the couples house Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Paul remains under doctors care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home surrounded by his family who request privacy, she said. Doctors at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital had been treating Paul Pelosi since Oct. 28, the day a man broke into the Pelosi residence and violently assaulted the elderly man, according to local and federal authorities. David DePape, 42, has been identified as the suspect. DePape struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer at least once in the presence of police officers, who had responded to a 911 call from Paul Pelosi. Authorities have so far refused to release the call or body camera footage from the responding officers. The assault left Paul Pelosi with a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, according to Nancy Pelosis office and the San Francisco District Attorneys Office. He underwent emergency surgery at the hospital. DePape was disarmed and arrested. Hes facing charges including attempted murder. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Friday. DePape is in the country illegally, U.S. officials said. Paul Pelosi has not spoken publicly since the attack. Paul Pelosi told a police officer in the ambulance while being taken to the hospital that he had never seen DePape before and recounted DePape asking about his wife. Paul Pelosi called 911 from the bathroom after asking DePape for permission to use the bathroom, according to a court filing from the district attorney. During the call, Paul Pelosi said that he did not know who DePape was while DePape described himself as a friend of the family. Dispatch audio indicated that it was Paul Pelosi who said DePape was a friend. Paul Pelosi spoke to officers again on Oct. 30, telling them that the hammer DePape used did not belong to the Pelosi family. Nancy Pelosi said her family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world and grateful to first responders and medical personnel who responded to the scene and helped to treat and care for her husband. Paul Pelosi received excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment after the assault, she said. Pennsylvania Legislature Legalizes Switchblade Knives Second Amendment legislation gets bipartisan support The Pennsylvania Legislature has ended the states prohibition on automatic knives. Also known as switchblades, these knives are tucked into the handle until the user presses a button and the blade snaps out. Just four states now ban the use of switchblades: Washington, Minnesota, Hawaii, and New Mexico. Pennsylvania law prohibits repairing, selling, dealing, using, or possessing offensive weapons, which the law defined as bombs, grenades, machine guns, blackjacks, sandbags, metal knuckles, stun guns (including Tasers), automatic knives, and a few related weapons. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 2, 2023, was authored by Republican Rep. Martin Causer. It simply removes automatic knives from the list of prohibited offensive weapons. The bill passed the House in April with 107 Republicans and 85 Democrats voting yes, and just one Republican, Rep. Christopher B. Quinn, voting no. Then on Oct. 26, the Pennsylvania Senate voted unanimously for the change. Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf signed it into law Thursday. This change in law will benefit the Commonwealths outdoor enthusiasts and tradespeople who find automatic knives helpful in their work and activities, Causer said in a statement. It will also benefit knife manufacturers here in the state who have been at a competitive disadvantage with manufacturers in 43 other states where there was no prohibition on these tools. Bipartisan Agreement This repeal is the culmination of 10 years of advocacy group Knife Rights efforts in Pennsylvania, according to Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter. Our mission is to repeal knife bans, Ritter told The Epoch Times. The organization has been behind 20 repeals of automatic knife bans. You know, the Second Amendment doesnt say anything about firearms. Knives are certainly covered. But were the only Second Amendment organization that gets support from both sides of the aisle. He offers two reasons for bipartisan support. Even though it is a Second Amendment issue, knives are not guns, and allowing people to legally carry them is criminal justice reform, Ritter explained. Democrats get this because its criminal justice reform and their constituents, as well as Republican constituents, are getting arrested for simply carrying a knife that opens differently than someone in the 1950s thought it should. The reality is, there are lots of kinds of knives that can be opened just as quickly as a switchblade that are perfectly legal. Earlier this year, Knife Rights was instrumental in repealing a switchblade ban in Virginia. How Switchblades Got Banned The switchblade bans came into being in the 1950s. Before that, there were no bans on switchblades, Ritter said. They came about because of one crusading journalist, Ritter said. It was all about, Oh, these gangs are carrying switchblades. It was a made-up story and it made it into movies. West Side Story, for example. Movies demonized the carrying of switchblade knives, which before then, nobody cared about, he said. Weve had switchblade knives in America for over 100 years. Ritter traces the bad reputation of switchblades to a news feature in the November 1950 issue of Womans Home Companion titled The Toy that Kills by Jack Harrison Pollack. A pocketknife is as important to a growing boy as a lipstick to a young lady, the article said. But the switchblade was replacing the old-fashioned pocketknife, and its chief purposeas any crook can tell youis for committing violence. Pollacks article goes on to make a case for regulating switchblades to make them as hard to buy as a gun, and the 1950 article offered advice for readers to support safer communities. If your son has a pocketknife for scouting or fishing, discourage his taking it to school, the movies or other public places. Dont let him be smart-alecky about it. De-glamorize knife-carrying to him. It suggested prosecuting dealers who sell switchblades to minors, and said women should help local law-enforcement round up knives and work for passage of a state law which bans switchblades and controls other dangerous knives. Its just a spring. It is not exotic technology, Ritter said. The concept of opening a blade with a spring goes back centuries. While many states have repealed switchblade bans, Ritter says, some cities still regulate them. In Philadelphia, for example, knives are banned on public property. Nov. 4, 1992 After the roughest campaign of his political career and one of the most vicious anywhere Mike Nozzolio yesterday won a landslade state Senate victory. Nozzolio defeated Democrat Jim Foley by a two-to-one margin in a race marred by a phone tape scandal, acidic personal slurs and some of the dirtiest political advertising this area has ever seen. "I'm absolutely flabbergasted and humbled and thrilled by the tremendous support that you have given me," Nozzolio told a cheering crowd of local Republicans at the Auburn Holiday Inn last night. Foley said, "In my family, we understand that wars are a series of battles. I concede this battle. I do not concede the war." Nozzolio, the area's assemblyman for the past decade, outpolled Foley throughout the five-county district, apparently beating him everywhere except the Democrat's home precinct. Nozzolio said he was able to win because people focused on the issues rather than falling for Foley's "dirty campaigning." He said voters wanted a representative who would get things done to reform Albany, overhaul welfare and slash state spending. Japanese F-15 jets fly during the military review at the Ground Self-Defense Force's Asaka training ground on Oct. 27. China created an air defense zone in the East China Sea, which requires foreign jets to cooperate with Chinese authorities. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) Pentagon Seeks to Remove Fighter Jets From Japan; Republicans Demand Answers Republican lawmakers are seeking an explanation from U.S. military leadership about reports that the Pentagon is seeking to end the presence of dozens of fighter jets in Japan without creating a new permanent force to replace them. According to Defense News, the Pentagon is planning to remove two squadrons of F-15C Eagle fighters that are currently stationed in Japan. The effort is intended to help modernize the military by phasing out old aircraft such as the F-15, which has been in service since 1976. The vacancy left by the maneuver, however, will only be covered by rotational forces and not a permanent fighter presence, leaving the close U.S. ally in a tight spot amid continuing tensions with communist China and North Korea. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) have sent a letter (pdf) requesting that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin explain the Pentagons decision to not reinforce the units. As you know, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expanding its aggression in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, the letter reads. We are concerned that [the Department of Defenses] decision sends the wrong signal, not only to the CCP, but also to our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific. The decision to end the stationing of the two squadrons would terminate the presence of at least 48 fighters. The letters signatories say that the Pentagons plans to replace the squadrons F-22 fighters from Alaska on a rotational basis wouldnt be sufficient to make up for that loss. Instead, they say, such an effort would result in a tangible reduction in American forward combat power. While we agree with the need to modernize the Air Forces fleet in order to counter the rising threat of the Peoples Liberation Army, we are concerned with reporting that indicates that there will be no permanent presence to replace the Okinawa F-15s, the letter reads. Moreover, the signatories claimed that the removal of the two squadrons without an adequate permanent replacement would decrease the United States ability to deter CCP leader Xi Jinping from fulfilling his vow to forcibly unite Taiwan with the Chinese mainland. It is abundantly clear that General Secretary Xi intends to take over Taiwan and establish the CCP as the hegemon in the Indo-Pacific, which would have catastrophic strategic, geopolitical, military, and economic consequences for U.S. interests, the letter reads. Police and protesters face off as authorities move to end the Freedom Convoy demonstration against vaccine mandates, in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston) Police Viewed Tools, Tire Irons as Weapons That Could Be Used by Freedom Convoy Protesters Weapons among Freedom Convoy protesters, as claimed by the Ottawa Police Service in past reports, could include items such as tire irons or tools, a parliamentary special committee heard on Nov. 3 A weapon can be many things, said acting deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service Patricia Ferguson while testifying before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency. Theres been focus on guns in most of these conversations, but a weapon can be a knife. It can be a tire iron. It can be a number of different things, she said, as first reported by Blacklocks Reporter. A weapon is any object that can be used to threaten or assault somebody with. So, knives, I think, tools, tire ironsthose types of things were in the mix. OPS interim chief Steve Bell said in March that police found no firearms in the possession of protesters during the Freedom Convoy demonstration in Ottawa in February. Were weapons found? Were loaded firearms found, yes or no? Conservative MP Dane Lloyd asked Bell during a House of Commons public safety committee meeting on March 24. No, not relating to any charges to this point, Bell replied. Bell added that cabinet would have been informed if any firearms had been found in the trucks of protesters. Dont Have a Solid Number Ferguson said Nov. 3 that police didnt search every truck and so cant say conclusively whether or not protesters had firearms. We did not search every vehicle that we cleared as we had to move through the city fairly methodically and quickly for the safety of our officers and everyone involved, she said. Many of those vehicles were not searched and so we dont know if there were guns in them or not. Senator Jane Cordy asked Ferguson, How many and what types of weapons were seized by the police? In terms of the amount of guns, if thats what people are focusing on, I dont have a solid number on that, Ferguson said. She added that there were only threats or intimations of guns being present in vehicles, but none were actually found. How many weapons had been seized based on the information reported in your threat assessment? asked NDP MP Matthew Green on Nov. 3. I dont have that information, Bell replied. RCMP sent a briefing note to cabinet deputy ministers on Feb. 14 saying, Intelligence information also suggests that convoy protesters are beginning to weaponize themselves. However, a report on the same day by the public safety departments Government Operations Centre described the protesters as peaceful. No concerns at this time, noted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the report. On Oct. 19 at the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings on the use of the Emergencies Act, Supt. Patrick Morris, commander of the Intelligence Bureau of Ontario Provincial Police, testified that there was no evidence of firearms. I want to be clear on this, he said. We produced no intelligence to indicate these individuals would be armed. There has been a lot of hyperbole around that. Professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, Kathleen Stock, poses with her medal after being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to higher education a investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London, on July 14, 2022. (Victoria Jones/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Proposed UK Law to Restrict Hecklers Veto in University Debates Following the treatment of female academics by transgender activists, an amendment to a new free speech bill will attempt to deal with those who try to silence speakers on campuses. Academics have forwarded an amendment to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill to deal with the use of the hecklers veto on campuses. The hecklers veto refers to attempts to silence the speech of others by drowning out and shouting over speakers with the aim of severely disrupting events. Lawyer and academic James Murray, alongside professor Alice Sullivan of University College London, drafted the amendment with Labour peers Lord Hunt and Baroness Morris in order to combat the use of the hecklers veto to silence legitimate debate and dampen academic freedom on campus. They said it was inspired by the treatment of female academics on campus who reject and speak out against radical transgender ideology. For example, professor Kathleen Stock of the University of Sussex was harassed on campus for years by transgender activists. She was forced to resign in 2021 for saying that trans women shouldnt be in spaces such as female dressing rooms in a completely unrestricted way because many of them are still males with male genitalia and are sexually attracted to females. Protect Freedom of Speech The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is a proposed act of Parliament that would impose requirements for universities and students unions to protect freedom of speech, tightening existing legislation to make the promotion of it a statutory duty. This means that if universities fail to uphold free speech, they could be taken to court. Writing for legal business Taylor Vinters, Murray said that by way of summary, the amendment explicitly excludes attempts to silence the speech of others from the scope of the core secure duty under the bill, and requires universities to take positive steps to mitigate the effects of those exercising the hecklers veto without disproportionately affecting the right to lawful protest. This could effectively see such speech switched off, if shown that such conduct had both the purpose and effect of restricting anothers lawful speech or academic freedom. The amendment and the bill were debated in the Grand Committee of the House of Lords this week. During the debate on Oct. 31, Hunt said that the government essentially is seeking to address a failure of leadership in many of our universities by legislation, which, from the amendments weve seen today, to me would suggest that this is going to be very very hard to implement. The amendments selected by the Lords will be sent back to the House of Commons for further consideration. We expect the bill is likely to pass into law in later 2022 or early 2023, said Murray. Censoring the Free Speech of the Heckler Professor Dennis Hayes, president of Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF), told The Epoch Times by email that there is such a thing as a well-aimed heckle. AFAF maintains a Banned List, which is a list of academics and others who have faced attempts to censor them or ban them from campuses. I remember hearing someone shout at an academic who said I dont believe in truth Is that true? Sometimes heckles are not so clever, [like] Rubbish! or You are talking garbage! said Hayes. The issue is, when is a hecklers shout an example of free speech and when is it a wall of sound aimed at making it impossible to hear a speaker? The latter is not free speech or speech in any sense, he said. The test of the legislation will be in its application, he said. In the current climate in which people are over-sensitive to what they see as offensive, the line is likely to be drawn too close to censoring the free speech of the heckler, he added. Eric Kaufmann, professor of politics at BirkBeck College, London, in an undated screenshot from an interview with NTD. (Screenshot/NTD) Leading researcher into cancel culture in the world of academia, professor Eric Kaufmann, told The Epoch Times by email, I think its important to restrict the right of people to protest when it interferes with others freedom of speech. Kaufmann is a professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities. He has pioneered the use of surveys to research authoritarianism and political discrimination in universities in the United States and the UK. Kaufmann has argued that cultural socialism, which he calls a religious form of wokeness, is dominant among students and younger people. My hope is that the bill will put a stop to disruptive actions like the ones that affected Kathleen [Stock]. People have the right to protest, but not to disrupt the speech of others, said Kaufmann. Push for Republic Referendum to Come After Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Treasurer Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers indicated that the government would begin its push to turn Australia into a republic after the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is finalised. Speaking on ABCs Q and A program, Chalmers said he would prefer to see an Australian replace the late Queen Elizabeth II for the new design of the five dollar note rather than King Charles III. First thing that we need to do is a Voice to Parliament, he said. When we achieve that together, then we need to move on to a republic. I cannot believe that a country like us in this day and age couldnt see itself with one of our own as a head of state. I think thats so important. It comes after the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Philip Lowe, said the bank was seeking advice from the government about the design of the five-dollar note following Queen Elizabeths passing. We recognise that this is an issue that is of national interest, and there is a long tradition of the monarch being on Australias banknotes, Lowe told the Reserve Board dinner on Nov. 1. Indeed, the monarch has been on at least one of Australias banknotes since 1923 and was on all our notes until 1953. Andrew Leigh, the assistant minister for competition, charities, and treasury, previously said new Australian coins would be made with the Kings portrait but that a decision on the five-dollar note had yet to be made. Stacks of five Australian dollar notes are seen on Sept. 1, 2016. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) The Republic Debate in Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated multiple times that the governments priority referendum for the current term was enshrining a Voice to Parliament, suggesting the republican debate would come to the forefront if the Labor government won a second term in parliament. We are a great multicultural nation, and of course, we have that historic and important link to the United Kingdom, he said on Sept. 12. But it is, in my view, [that] the priority, in terms of constitutional change, is recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution. Meanwhile, the Greens party have been strong advocates for the republic movement in Australia, calling for the country to move forward by creating a Treaty with First Nations people and become a republic. But according to a survey conducted by Roy Morgan on Sept. 12, 60 percent of Australians believed the country should remain as a constitutional monarchy. It found those in favour of keeping the current political system where 58 percent of centre-left Labor party voters, 68 percent of centre-right Coalition voters, 34 percent of left-wing Greens party voters, and 72 percent of independent and other party supporters. Surprisingly, this represented an 18 percent increase in support for the monarchy in Labor voters and a fall of three percent in Coalition voters compared to the 2012 survey. A real estate sign is seen at property in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 6, 2022. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images) Regional Housing Crunch Causes Legal Spike Housing and homelessness problems in regional New South Wales have reached a crisis point, with legal advocates fielding a surge in calls for assistance. Legal Aid NSW says services provided to clients at risk of losing their homes have increased by 53 percent in the past year. Calls for help have mostly come from regional areas, where the combination of tree-changers and widespread flooding has gutted the affordable rental market. Theres basically no social housing available, one beneficiary of the legal assistance, Joel Renshaw, told AAP. The Gubbagunyo man and Lismore resident evacuated his temporary accommodation in February due to flooding and moved into his mothers one-bedroom flat. As he wasnt the authorised occupant of his mothers tenancy, he was faced with homelessness when she later moved out. Legal Aids advocacy, coupled with support from local MP Janelle Saffin, allowed him to stay in the one-bedroom rental despite the technical breach in policy, he said. Renshaw, who lives with a disability, said it wasnt as easy as some critics may say to get a job and find a private rental. I have worked most of my life until I sustained an injuryits very difficult to exist on government benefits, without people like Legal Aid advocating for you, he said. (Housing) is a cornerstone, a foundation of anyones existence and their wellbeing. Legal Aid solicitor Natalie Bradshaw said calls for help had massively increased in the past two years. Regional areas are bearing the brunt of it, she said. Housing problems are one of the largest civil law areas for our clients, and these problems are often associated with other legal issues. Increasing numbers of clients need legal assistance to save their tenancies or access the support they need to take the first steps to overcome homelessness. The Productivity Commission in September said the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement had failed to address the problem and was too focus on systems, not people. Among dozens of recommendations, it called for an overhaul of rent subsidies and the redistribution of first home buyer grant funding to schemes that help those at high-risk of homelessness. The NSW government on Thursday released figures showing 2500 rezoning lots and around 30,000 dwellings had been approved in the September quarter. Housing supply and affordability is complex and there is no single solution, but we are supercharging infrastructure and supply, helping homebuyers get a head start and investing in social, affordable and Aboriginal housing, NSW planning department official Monica Gibson said. A rocket launches from missile system as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia on Dec. 9, 2020. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) Russia Warns That the Worlds 5 Nuclear Powers Are on Brink of Direct Armed Conflict Russias foreign ministry said it fears that the worlds five declared nuclear powers are on the brink of a direct armed conflict, with Moscow warning of a catastrophic fallout and insisting that avoiding a clash is its top priority. The Kremlin statement, issued on Nov. 2, accused Western powers of encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction and called on the West to stop or face the prospect of catastrophic consequences. Western powers, by contrast, have accused Moscow of issuing repeated threats to use nuclear weapons as its invasion of Ukraine has faced setbacks and to pressure Kyiv into accepting concessions. The Kremlin recently accused Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive dirty bomb, claims that Ukrainian authorities have denied. Unpredictable and Dangerous Consequences Following a Ukrainian attack on Russias Black Sea fleet in Crimea last week, Russias foreign ministry issued a statement on Thursday warning the United Kingdom of unpredictable and dangerous consequences after earlier accusing London of helping Kyiv orchestrate a drone attack on its ships in the port of Sevastopol. Such confrontational actions by the British pose the threat of an escalation and can lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences, the ministry said in a statement. The UK, which Russia has also accused of being involved in the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in September, is one of the worlds five major nuclear powers. Meanwhile, Russias foreign ministry said in the Nov. 2 statement that it sees avoiding armed conflict between nuclear powers as a key objective amid simmering tensions over the Ukraine conflict. We are strongly convinced that in the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of nuclear powers, the ministry stated. Nuclear War Cannot Be Won The Kremlin added that it continues to stand by a joint declaration issued in January, in which China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States pledged to do everything in their power to avoid a nuclear clash. We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, the January joint statement reads. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weaponsfor as long as they continue to existshould serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. On the same day that the Kremlin issued the warning that the five nuclear powers are teetering on the verge of armed conflict, the Pentagon said the United States has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons. At the same time, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby denounced Russias rhetoric around the potential use of nuclear weapons. Weve been clear from the outset that Russias comments about the potential use of nuclear weapons are deeply concerning, and we take them seriously, Kirby said. We continue to monitor this as best we can, and we see no indications that Russia is making preparations for such use. Amid what he calls a special military operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has on several occasions hinted at the possibility of a nuclear strike, while Kremlin officials have repeatedly said Russias military doctrine permits the use of nuclear weapons if the countrys territorial integrity is under threat. Moscow has sought to portray its actions in Ukraine as preemptive by accusing the West of seeking to establish Ukraine as a military bulwark against Russia, allegations NATO and Kyiv have denied. San Francisco DA Vows to Limit Access to Paul Pelosi Attack Evidence As Much as Possible The San Francisco prosecutor investigating the man accused of hitting Paul Pelosi with a hammer last week is vowing to limit the publics access to evidence surrounding the case. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said a very limited number of family members will be able to access evidence in the case, including police body-camera footage and the 911 call. Pelosi is the longtime husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). For us, revealing that evidence through the media is just not what we think is appropriate, Jenkins told the network on Thursday. We want to make sure that this individual is held accountable for these egregious acts, she also said. For us, were going to make sure that we limit the evidence as much as possible in order to get that done. The evidence includes footage of the alleged hammer attack by David DePape, 42, that sent Paul Pelosi to the hospital for about six days. He was released on Thursday evening, according to the House speakers office. DePape is accused of breaking into the Pelosi home when she wasnt there before he approached Paul Pelosi while he was sleeping and asked him where his wife was, according to court documents. Later, he allegedly told investigators that he wanted to break Speaker Pelosis kneecaps. In the incident, DePape allowed Pelosi to use the bathroom, where he called the police. When officers arrived, the court papers said, both DePape and Pelosi had their hand on the same hammer. They told the suspect to drop the hammer, and he swung it at Pelosis head, officials said. Jenkins told CNN that DePape has been cooperative with investigators and submitted to a lengthy interview before he obtained a lawyer. What was going on in his mind as to why he did that, I cant speak to that. But what is very clear to me from viewing that body worn camera is he tried to kill Mr. Pelosi, San Francisco police chief Bill Scott told reporters this week. Questions have emerged about why Pelosis home had no security and why Capitol Police were not monitoring cameras at the home amid Democrats politically charged claims that extremists are threatening U.S. institutions. Speaker Pelosi is second in line to the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris. On Wednesday, the Capitol Police issued a statement saying that it will carry out an internal review of its security protocols following the attack. It said that its Command Center has access to roughly 1,800 cameras and said there are cameras used to actively monitor the Speakers San Francisco residence around the clock when she is there. At Democrat Josh Shapiros bus stops, supporters are invited to write well wishes on his campaign bus. These voters sign during a Nov. 4, 2022 campaign stop in Lancaster, Pa. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) Shapiro Focuses on Education, Public Safety, and the Economy in Bid For Pennsylvania Governorship Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvanias attorney general and Democrat gubernatorial candidate is spending the final days on the campaign trail on a bus tour hitting multiple cities each day. Speaking to a crowd of around 200 supporters in Lancaster, Shapiro highlighted his plan to provide more opportunities for future generations. I worry, moms and dads, that we brought our children into this world at a time where just maybe they have fewer opportunities than the world I was blessed to be born into 49 years ago, Shapiro said. He addressed education, public safety, and the economy. Opportunity begins in our public school classrooms, said Shapiro, who sends his four children to private school. Pennsylvania attorney general and Democrat candidate for governor, Josh Shapiro speaks in Lancaster, Pa. on Nov. 4, 2022, as part of a final effort to get out the vote before election day, Nov. 8, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) When I am your governor, we will fully fund public education. We will make our schools opportunities zones for our kids. Lets do away with our reliance on standardized testing. And lets bring vo-tech [vocational-technical] back to our classrooms and show our kids the opportunity to build a skill-set to go out and succeed in this economy. The left-leaning Pennsylvania State Education Association has given Shapiro $400,000 through its political action committee. We need to be sure that our children not only have the best and well-paid teachers around, and the books and computers they need to be successful, Shapiro said. Lets also make sure that our children can walk down the hall and find a mental health counselor in every single school building. Our kids are struggling, and they need help right now. He believes children should be able to walk to school without confronting crime, so Shapiro vowed to hire more police. Well make sure that they are from our community and that they look like us, theyre properly trained, and they work together with our neighbors to make our community safer, Shapiro said. Pennsylvania attorney general and Democrat candidate for governor, Josh Shapiro campaigns in Lancaster on Nov. 4, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) He talked about creating an economy that would lift everyone, raise wages and create opportunities. Were going to work together to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, Shapiro said. Were going to invest in union apprenticeship programs because we know that when you go through a union apprenticeship program, youre going to earn 30 percent more wages over your lifetime. Shapiro envisioned making more people eligible to work for state government. On day one, I will sign an executive order doing away with the college degree requirements for thousands of state government jobs, Shapiro said. He said he had been tough on drug dealers. As attorney general, weve arrested 8,200 drug dealers for bringing poisons into Lancaster County and all across this commonwealth, Shapiro said. Dog with political stickers at Lancaster, Pa., rally for Democrat candidate for governor, Josh Shapiro, Nov. 4, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) This crisis, which claims the lives of 14 Pennsylvanians every single day, didnt start on Pennsylvania street corners. It started in pharmaceutical company boardrooms, where those executives demonstrated a greed thats claiming lives today. So we took them to court and won, and took a billion dollars back to Pennsylvania for drug addiction disease. He stressed that addiction was an illness, not a crime. Shapiro used a portion of his speech to attack his opponent, Republican Doug Mastriano, a retired Army Colonel. This guy loves to talk a good game about freedom all the time, Shapiro said. Its not freedom to tell women what theyre allowed to do with their bodies. Thats not freedom. Its not freedom to tell our school children, what books theyre allowed to read. Mastriano is pro-life and, as a state senator, worked to remove books that graphically depict sex acts from school libraries. Shapiro, who is being sued by a private Pennsylvania citizen for defamation for allegedly untrue things he said about her in political ads, told the Lancaster crowd that Mastriano wanted to take away their votes, charge women who have had abortions with murder, and ensure people who work can never join a union. They believe him. Supporters take yard signs at Lancaster, Pa. rally for Democrat candidate for governor, Josh Shapiro, Nov. 4, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) Democrat voters Perspective The Epoch Times asked attendees why they support Shapiro. A number refused to give their names. One woman feared far-right voters might see her name and that she would be in danger because she believed the right is radicalizing. She supported Shapiro because he would protect a womans access to healthcare, adding that abortion was healthcare. Lexx Smith of Berks County said Shapiros values and beliefs aligned with everything she believed, and she appreciated that Shapiro was speaking to young people on TikTok, where he was sometimes amusing, she said. I like his stand on womens rights, a senior woman, who would not give her name, said. Josh Shapiro doesnt seem to be beholden to anyone. At Democrat Josh Shapiros Pennsylvania bus stops, supporters are invited to write well wishes on his campaign bus. Someone added support for his opponent Doug Mastriano. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) James Minder of Lancaster County said he supported Shapiro because the candidate was a Democrat. Thats how I vote, straight Democrat, Minder told The Epoch Times, And I cant understand why anyone would vote different. Another woman who would not share her name said she liked Shapiro because he was pro-education, pro-abortion, pro-healthcare and pro-election integrity. She explained that in the 2020 election, as attorney general, Shapiro had a hand in certifying the election, whereas Mastriano was an election denier, she said. Shapiro ended by telling supporters that while his name was on the ballot, their rights and future were on the line. He encouraged them to take yard signs, and tell friends to vote for him. After the rally, supporters were given Sharpie markers to write encouragements on Shapiros bus, which already had countless signatures, and well wishes from around the state, including at least one, that said, Doug 4 Gov, in support of Mastriano. Stolen Big Rig Driver Surrenders After Cab Burst Into Flames on 5 Freeway CASTAIC, Calif.A man was taken into custody Nov. 3 after allegedly stealing a big rig cab that burst into flames on the Golden State (5) Freeway in Castaic. California Highway Patrol units began pursuing the truck cabwhich was reported stolen from Kern Countyabout 2:40 p.m. in the Gorman area. The driver refused to yield to authorities and fled at slow speeds on the Golden State Freeway through the Newhall area into Castaic, at one point driving over a spike strip. The front tires of the truck eventually fell off the rims, which began sparking against the asphalt of the freeway. The truck burst into flames about 3:20 p.m. near Lake Hughes Road, prompting the driver to stop and surrender to police. He was taken into custody without further incident as fire crews were called to the scene to douse the flames. Firefighters were attempting to extinguish the fire as of about 3:30 p.m. A boat makes its way through rock formation becoming increasingly visible as Lake Powell recedes, near the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in Page, Ariz., on Sept. 1, 2022. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Indian Tribes Bid to Access Water From the Colorado River 9th Circuit previously sided with the Navajo Nation, allowing the lawsuit to proceed The Supreme Court agreed Nov. 4 to hear a dispute about whether an Indian tribe has the right to draw water from the Colorado River. The case pits the Navajo Nation, a large Indian reservation occupying territory in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, against the states of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and the U.S. Department of the Interior. One hundred years ago an interstate compact spelled out the water rights relating to the Colorado River. The tribe, based in the arid Western part of the United States, says it needs access to the river because many of its members rely on wells for water. The tribe sued in 2003 seeking access to the main section of the river and litigation has been pursued since then. The often-reversed U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in February that the tribe could move forward with its lawsuit. The Navajo Nation urged the Supreme Court in a brief (pdf) not to take up the appeal by the state and federal governments and the water district. The 9th Circuit was correct in its holding that the tribe should be allowed to pursue its claim that the United States owes the [Navajo] Nation a fiduciary duty to assess, protect, and preserve the Nations water rights, the tribe said. The Supreme Court need not get involved in the case because the circuit courts conclusion does not conflict with any decision of this Court or any other court of appeals. The Biden administration disagreed, saying the 9th Circuit erred in finding the existence of a judicially enforceable duty. Nothing in the supposed sources the court of appeals cited imposes any specific and affirmative duties on the federal government on behalf of the Navajo Nation with respect to the water of the Colorado River or the basin more generally, much less a duty to conduct the sort of broad-ranging inquiry the Navajo Nation seeks, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued in court papers (pdf). The court of appeals decision conflicts with this Courts precedents and with decisions of other courts of appeals. And if allowed to stand, the decision below will undermine Congresss role in implement[ing] national policy respecting the Indian tribes, while imposing a regime of general judicial oversight of the United States relationship with Indian tribes, Prelogar wrote, citing the Supreme Courts 2011 ruling in U.S. v. Jicarilla Apache Nation. The states, which are also aligned against the Navajo Nation in the case, argued that if the 9th Circuit ruling stands, it will hinder their ability to access water when drought restrictions have made it scarce. The case is actually two cases that have been consolidated, Arizona v. Navajo Nation, court file 21-1484, and Department of the Interior v. Navajo Nation, court file 22-51. The court provided no reasons for why it granted the petitions. At least four justices have to vote to hear a case in order for it to proceed. A date for oral argument has not yet been set. ROCHESTER The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester will pay $55 million to survivors of sexual abuse committed by clergy members under a settlement announced by church officials. The diocese, which declared bankruptcy in 2019 after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against it under the state's Child Victims Act, will create a trust for abuse survivors, Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano said Thursday. Survivors may also be able to pursue further claims with the dioceses insurers, Matano said. The settlement was negotiated with abuse survivors and is subject to bankruptcy court approval. The Rochester diocese includes churches in Cayuga County. The history of sexual abuse of children in our Church has caused tremendous pain, hardship, alienation, and understandable anger. It seriously has impacted survivors, their families, our priests and others in diocesan ministries who had no part in these egregious acts," Matano said. Church officials said they hope the settlement will enable the diocese to emerge from bankruptcy sometime in 2023. Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, whose firm represents 175 of the claimants against the Rochester diocese, called the agreement a pathway to a full measure of accountability. He added, "This is a historic day with a historic deal. Facing lawsuits, Rochester Diocese files for bankruptcy The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday amid a wave of lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse of children Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 96 of the claimants, said the settlement allows many clergy sexual abuse victims to deservedly obtain validation, self-worth and a sense of accomplishment." More than 9,000 survivors of sexual abuse filed lawsuits against clergy members, teachers, Boy Scout leaders and others after New York state passed the Child Victims Act, which loosened the state's statute of limitations for molestation cases and temporarily set aside the time limit for filing civil lawsuits. The deadline for filing lawsuits was originally set for Aug. 14, 2020, but it was extended to Aug. 14, 2021 amid concerns that court disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic might have kept survivors from coming forward. Swiss Drugs Regulator Looking Into Bubbles in COVID Booster Vials BERLINSwiss drugs regulator Swissmedic said on Wednesday it is examining potential risks in connection with bubbles that appeared in vials of COVID-19 vaccine boosters retooled to target the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Swissmedic said it had been informed by vaccination centers of the appearance of bubbles during the preparation of the updated vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech targeting the original version of the coronavirus and the BA.1 Omicron variant that led to a record surge in cases last winter. Vials of the batch concerned contained bubbles after being removed from the fridge, said Swissmedic, adding that the phenomenon seems to be accentuated when the syringes were prepared several hours in advance. Cantons and vaccination centers have been informed as a precaution, the regulator said. It added that it was looking into possible causes. Swissmedic had temporarily approved the booster shot in early October, but said it was too early to approve the bivalent booster targeting the currently circulating BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants in addition to the original virus, which is being used in the United States despite less available data. A BioNTech spokesperson said Pfizer was in charge of the supply chain and distribution in Switzerland and had no further immediate comment. Switzerland Re-Examines the CCPs Human Rights Abuses, Weakens Trade Ties With China Switzerland, a European country known for its neutral foreign policy, released its first China Strategy document last year, with emphasis on the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) human rights issuesa move strongly opposed by the CCP. Since then, there have been some subtle relationship changes between the two countries. Swiss commodities trading giant Mercuria Energy Group bought back all of the minority stakes held by the CCPs state-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) since 2016, Chinese financial news outlet Caixin reported on Oct. 27. A Mercuria spokesperson said that the company bought the minority stakes in the third quarter of 2022 following a six-year commercial and strategic partnership under the terms and timeframe originally envisaged for the investment. ChemChina, the largest chemical industry group in China with a refining capacity of 530,000 barrels per day, bought a 12 percent stake in Mercuria. ChemChina merged with Sinochem in 2021. Mercuria is one of the top five oil traders in the world, trading about 2 million barrels per day of oil and refined products. It is also a major producer of electricity and natural gas, with record net profits of $1.3 billion and revenues of $130 billion in 2021. Major Swiss Businesses May Break Ties With Chinese Companies Swiss mining group Glencore is looking to cut ties with its current partner in China after two successive setbacks in the country. Glencore is one of the worlds largest commodity traders, with its three core areas of business being energy, metals and minerals, and agriculture. The first setback was a liquidity crisis for Maike Group, a key partner of Glencore in the sale of refined copper in China. Maike Group is located in Xian City, Shaanxi Province, and is the largest importer of copper in China. Glencore sells approximately 600,000 tonnes of high purity copper to China through Maike Group each year. Maike Group founder He Jinbei publicly admitted in late August that his business was facing temporary difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some shipments delayed and some suppliers canceling deliveries. He Jinbei has reportedly invested heavily in Chinas real estate market with funds raised through his copper trading business. As a result, the Chinese real estate market weakened after the outbreak of COVID-19, and his investments were hit hard. Another Glencore setback was also related to copper. In August, Reuters reported that approximately $500 million worth of copper concentrates disappeared from the Huludao Ruisheng Trading Company in Liaoning Province, China. The company imports a large amount of copper concentrate each year for distribution to various smelters in China. The Financial Times reported that the 300,000 tons of copper concentrate (worth $740 million) in the hands of Ruisheng was owned by 13 Chinese companies. However, warehouse inspections found only one third of the stock, indicating a loss of $490 million worth of copper. The report suggests that the scandal likely involves Chinas commodity financing problems, as there are known to be similar problems in China. Some companies use the same assets as security for multiple lenders which results in the lenders collecting the security at the same time. The Financial Times report said that although suppliers were not affected much, both Glencore and another Swiss metals trader, IXM, have stopped supplying Ruisheng. Glencore also moved some of its existing metal stocks urgently to avoid a similar problem. Bilateral Trade Talks Stalled Efforts to renew a free trade agreement (FTA) between Switzerland and China have stalled as the Swiss government takes a more critical approach to the CCPs human rights record. In a statement sent to the Swiss weekly newspaper SonntagsBlick, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said, As of now, the two sides have been unable to reach a consensus on a list of relevant issues that should be explored more extensively, Reuters quoted the Swiss German-language media on May 29. In a story headlined The Chinese impasse, the Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag also said that Switzerland has taken a more critical stance on the CCPs human rights record. The legal committee of the National Council of Switzerland recently passed a resolution stating that forced labor of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, is a real problem. Although the Chinese Ministry of Commerce later denied that the talks were at an impasse, neither side has yet renewed the FTA. Switzerland and China signed a free trade agreement in 2013, the first FTA between Beijing and a European country. Switzerland Takes a Closer Look at Chinas Human Rights Record On March 19, 2021, the Swiss government released the China Strategy document. According to the document, China is Switzerlands third largest trading partner, but there are clear differences in values between the two countries. Therefore, the document suggested that it is important to ensure a clear and consistent policy toward China. The Swiss government acknowledged that the strategy was a response to current geopolitical developments. In his presentation on foreign policy toward China, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis emphasized that human rights dialogue and trade interests would be two of the main issues in bilateral relations between Switzerland and China. Switzerland wants to adopt an independent policy towards China and defend Switzerlands fundamental values. Cassis stressed that the new proposal in the strategy towards China will focus all bilateral relations on human rights issues. Following release of the Swiss document, the Chinese ambassador in Switzerland responded in a statement that Switzerland was sending the wrong signals to the outside world by attaching some malicious labels to China (CCP). He said the China Strategy document as not conducive to the healthy development of Sino-Swiss relations and China is firmly opposed to it. Switzerland is known for its neutrality in international politics. Over the past 200 years, its government has earned the status of a neutral country amidst the chaos of European power struggles and wars. The basic principles of the Swiss governments policy of neutrality: humanitarianism, no involvement in war, no permission for belligerents to use their territory, and no provision of mercenary troops to belligerents, are found on the Swiss governments website. Influenced by years of the CCPs propaganda, Switzerland had a good relationship with the Chinese regime, but after the CCP became more and more authoritarian; suppressed Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and religious minorities; and had sharp conflicts with the United States, EU, Australia, and other countries, Switzerland developed the new strategy toward China. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Switzerland is Chinas ninth largest trading partner in Europe, and in 2021, the trade volume between China and Switzerland was $44.11 billion, of which China exported $6.23 billion to Switzerland and imported $37.88 billion from Switzerland. Fan Yi contributed to this article. Ultimately, achieving success is up to you During a recent visit with my brother, a retired chemist, he shared some advice that his first supervisor gave him over 35 years ago. Id been there for a few months, Doug said, when the guy called me into his office one day and told me I should think of my job and my work in the lab as my own little store in a mall, that I could do whatever I wanted with it. I could grow it and make it successful, or I could just put in my time and let it languish. It was all up to me. That supervisors advice seemed as excellent a suggestion as any Id ever heard for someone beginning a new job. To make that arrangement work, of course, both parties must be on the same page regarding the mission of the organization. In the Army, the staff sergeant commanding a squad of two rifle teams and the lieutenant colonel who has charge of a battalion have very different duties, but the ultimate mission of both of these infantry unitsto close with and destroy the enemyis the same. A key factor in the success of any mission is trust. The foreman of a large factory must trust the know-how and competency of his subordinates, and they must trust his leadership abilities and decision-making. Once these elements are in place, then everyone involved in an enterprise really can become the manager of a little store in a mall. Instead of just showing up for work and dragging themselves through the day, they have a shared stake in the enterprise and the freedom to perform the job to the best of their abilities. Years ago, when I worked for a large restaurant as a waiter, the owner conducted monthly meetings for the wait staff. Here, her agenda might include new items on the menu or a review of customer suggestions from the past month, but she always came back to the missionto serve up good food with a cheerful attitude and make the meal a pleasant experience. How we chose to do those things was up to us. The reward for our hustle, manners, and smiles came when the customer left the table with a handsome tip on it. The reward for the owner came when those same customers returned to the restaurant. This arrangement brings success to a multitude of enterprises. Growing a company, for instance, usually means hiring employees who bring initiative and their own skill sets and talents to the workplace. Once they understand the mission and trust is established, good managers cut them loose to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Conversely, supervisors who micromanage the men and women in their charge can easily do much more damage than good. They may see the trees, but their real job is to see the forest, the big picture, and leave the details to their subordinates. By doing so, they allow creativity to come into play and enhance a sense of pride among the employees, which in turn breeds success. The benefits of this shared sense of mission and trust can be seen as well in other scenarios. Raising children strong in body, mind, and spirit, for example, is best accomplished when mom and dad are on the same page. Both parents may bring different highlights into the picturedad stresses table manners while mom imbues the children with nursery rhymes and fairy tales at bedtimebut both have the same endpoint in mind, and the kids themselves possess a clear sense of the meaning of family. Brighten the corner where we are: Those words from the old Ella Fitzgerald song apply here. And my brother? He took his supervisors words to heart and made a whopping success of his little store in the mall. Tears of Thousands of Canadians on My Shoulder: Tamara Lich Gives Emotional Testimony at Emergencies Act Inquiry Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, a mother and grandmother from Medicine Hat, Alta., explained why she got involved in the protest movement during her Nov. 3 testimony at the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act to end convoy protests earlier this year. I was growing increasingly alarmed with the mandates and the harm that I was seeing the mandates inflict, said Lich, who got emotional several times during her testimony. I heard from families that were living in their vehicles because theyd lost their jobs. I heard from people that had lost their jobs and lost everything. I have the tears of thousands of Canadians on my shoulder, who everyday told me that we were bringing them hope. Lich said she saw families torn apart due to COVID-19 policies. The suicides in my hometown were so numerous that they stopped reporting them, she said. Elderly people were dying by themselves in long-term care facilities and saying goodbye over iPads. Lich explained how the policies impacted both herself and her family members. She said she and her husband lost their jobs due to COVID-19 policies, and her parents, who run a trucking business, could no longer cross the border. She added that vaccine passports restricted many Canadians who chose not to get vaccinated for COVID-19 from entering any non-essential business, which meant they didnt go out. A protester holds a sign on Wellington St. during the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa on Feb. 12, 2022. (Noe Chartier/The Epoch Times) She said her 94-year-old grandmother was locked in her apartment by herself for two years, and by the time lockdowns were lifted her grandmother wasnt healthy enough to do things. Her father, who lives in a small town in Saskatchewan, used to go to a local restaurant for coffee every day to see his friends, she said, but was asked to leave, presumably referring to vaccine mandates that barred unvaccinated Canadians from non-essential businesses. Lich said she didnt want her children and grandchildren to live in that kind of world. I listened to my prime minister call me a racist, and say that [people like me] shouldnt be tolerated. I found his rhetoric to be incredibly divisive, she said. Im a believer that if youre a leader of a country, you have to lead all of your people, even if you dont agree with them. Freedom Convoy The Freedom Convoy protest began as a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truckers travelling across the Canada-U.S. border. But it grew to a larger movement as people against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions joined the cause. Lich said in her testimony that as the convoy travelled across Canada, many people offered them support. They said dont stop until we are free. Dont stop until the mandates are lifted, she said. When the convoys GoFundMe campaign raised the first $1 million, Lich said she was exhilarated. She said she never expected that level of support, but with it came responsibility that caused her overwhelming anxiety. She told the commissionto some chuckles from the roomthat her previous fundraising experience consisted of selling chocolate-covered almonds. The convoys fundraising campaign on GoFundMe gathered over $10 million before it was shut down by the platform. The group raised the same amount on GiveSendGo, but the funds were frozen by a court order. Protesters gather during the Freedom Convoy demonstrations against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 29, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Lich, who was formerly part of the Maverick Party which calls for Western autonomy, said she didnt want to be part of the movement anymore after bonding with people from different parts of Canada during the protest in Ottawa. She said one day while in Ottawa, as she was talking with some protest organizers from Quebec through Google Translate, she realized that theyre the same as us. This division has all been a lie, she said. I knew that I didnt want to see Canada divided at that point. Arrest The Public Order Emergency Commission has been set up as required by law to evaluate whether the use of the Emergencies Act to clear convoy protests was justified. The act was invoked by the federal government on Feb. 14, and revoked on Feb. 23 after the protest in Ottawa was cleared. Lich was arrested in Ottawa on Feb. 17 on charges of mischief, and was initially denied bail. She was kept in jail until March 7, when the Ontario Superior Court overturned the initial decision to deny her bail, and set her free on bail. She was arrested again on June 27 for an alleged breach of bail conditions, related to a brief exchange shed had with fellow convoy organizer Tom Marazzo at an award ceremony in Toronto on June 16. She was released on bail on July 26, with Ontario Superior Court Judge Andrew Goodman saying that the previous decision by another court to detain her was clearly inappropriate. Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich with her lawyer Lawrence Greenspon as she leaves court after being released on bail, in Ottawa on July 26, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Lichs court hearing for her mischief charges is scheduled for September 2023. Her bail conditions include not talking with other convoy organizers, not using social media, and not organizing further protests. Lich took a few minutes to contain her emotions before answering the commission about how her arrest and bail conditions have impacted her life. Ive lost my job. Ive lost my freedom of speech. Ive lost my freedom to communicate with my friends, which was quite traumatizing because we just experienced something huge, she said. I have to be very careful about every move that I make. As you know, I was arrested on an alleged breach charge for attending a dinner in Toronto. I have a daughter, and I dont want her to be seen with me, because Im worried. Lichs testimony at the inquiry will continue on Nov. 4. The logo of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is seen in Tel Aviv, Israel Feb. 19, 2019. (Amir Cohen/Reuters) Teva to Pay $523 Million to New York in Opioid Settlement Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will pay a total of about $523 million to New York state to settle lawsuits that alleged the Israeli-based company had contributed to the opioid epidemic in the United States. The $523 million total opioid payout to New York comprises two separate settlement agreements with Teva. The other settlement is a nationwide one reached in July that the company is working to finalize, valued at up to $4.25 billion. New Yorks share of that amount is $210,548,226.20, according to Attorney General Letitia Jamess office. The latest settlement with New York state increased Tevas total opioid payouts by $300 million. According to James office in a release: After achieving a historic liability verdict following a seven-month jury trial against Teva in 2021, todays Teva New York Agreement resolves the remedies phase for a total of $313,343,793.95. Combined, New York will receive $523,892,020.15 from Teva. Teva produces Actiq and Fentora, drugs that are fentanyl products intended to treat breakthrough pain in cancer patients. It also makes other generic opioids, including oxycodone, which is used to treat moderate to severe pain. More than $2 billion of opioid settlements secured under James will be used for abatement, treatment, and prevention efforts. Teva will pay the overall settlement funds to New York over 18 years and expects to start paying in 2023. Teva Chief Executive Kare Schultz told Reuters the time frame is good for us because it means that its very manageable in relation to our cash flow and our debt situation. The opting-in process of states and local authorities has begun and would take a few months to complete, Schultz told the newswire service. We are quite optimistic that we will get a very, very high number of states and subdivisions joining and we will put the majority of opioid litigation behind us. The settlement agreement also bars Teva from selling high-dose opioidsgreater than 40mg, and using prescription savings programs. It also blocks Teva from marketing opioids, funding third parties that promote opioids. Teva would also be restricted from political lobbying, among other requirements in the agreement. Holding Teva Accountable The settlement concludes the New York attorney generals litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors. It also would additionally resolve lawsuits against Teva by Nassau and Suffolk counties if the county legislatures approve it, James office stated. We are holding Teva Pharmaceuticals accountable for its role in the opioid crisis and the irreparable harm it has done to New Yorkers, their families, and their communities, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. This company misrepresented its products for decades, flooding the market with dangerous prescription drugs and endangering countless lives. States, cities, counties, and tribes in the United States have filed more than 3,000 lawsuits in recent years against opioid manufacturers such as Teva, often alleging them of misrepresenting the level of risk of opioid addiction and failing to stop pills from being diverted for illegal use. The news comes a day after CVS and Walgreens announced they will pay a total of nearly $10 billion to substantially resolve various opioid-related lawsuits launched against them. Reuters contributed to this report. The GDP Offers No Comfort Weak sales and production will soon lead to a softening jobs market Commentary After two quarters of decline earlier this year, the nations real gross domestic product (GDP) ticked up in the summer quarter. Political needs will point to the news in predictable ways, but practically speaking, the modest 2.6 percent annualized growth changes nothing in the underlying economic picture. Things remain weak and on the verge of recession, if the economy isnt already in one. Since theres some debate over the definition of recession, the matter can be put this way: If, as some contend, the two declining quarters earlier this year count as a recession, then the third quarters paltry real gain hardly says that the ordeal is over. The statistical picture of the quarter points to future declines. If, as others contend, the two down quarters dont yet count as a proper recession, then the third quarter describes more of the already evident weakness and warns that recession is close. This preliminary third-quarter growth figure looks positive enough to stand, even after the inevitable revisions made by the Commerce Department statisticians in November and December. The final figure may even be slightly higher. But whether the revisions edge up or down, the picture will remain one of weakness. Certainly, this range of growth looks poor enough compared with the almost 6.0 percent growth averaged over the four quarters of 2021. It also shows an extension of the softening trend that started earlier in the year. With the third-quarter GDP 1.8 percent over levels of 2021s third quarter, theres quite an erosion from the 3.7 percent growth momentum real GDP showed as it entered 2022. Consumers hold shopping bags on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on July 29, 2016. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images) As usual, the American consumer is key. Consumer spending constitutes at least two-thirds of overall GDP. It rose at only a 1.4 percent annualized rate from the second to the third quarter. It is barely 2.0 percent above year-ago levels and shows a marked decline from the almost 5.0 percent growth momentum consumer spending had at the start of the year. More telling still is that only spending on services increased. Spending on goods declined at a 1.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter. Consumers begin cutbacks with spending on goods, as it takes longer to cut back on most service arrangements. Since after-tax income is hardly growing in real terms, it is hard to see any coming improvement in this trend. Of course, steeply rising mortgage rates have precipitated a sharp decline in housingwhat the Commerce Department statisticians refer to as residential construction. This measure fell at a 26.4 percent annual rate in the summer quartergreatly exaggerating the slide that began earlier in the year, which produced a 3.1 percent annualized drop in the first quarter and a 17.8 percent drop in the second. Business investment in productive facilities and equipment also showed weakness, but nothing this extreme. Its noteworthy that even spending on research and technology, which had increased at a robust 10.0 percent annualized rate on average during the first half of the year, rose at only a 6.9 percent rate during the third quarter. A view of houses in a neighborhood in Los Angeles on July 5, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Also indicating a soft economy is how the summer quarters GDP would have shown no growth at all were it not for the nations foreign account. Because the world economy faces shortages of food and energy, U.S. exports surged during the third quarter, rising at a 14.4 percent annual rate. Much of this increase was in petroleum products. This is a little strange, since domestic production cutbacks over the past year and a half have eliminated what was once a considerable American energy surplus. It would seem, then, that much of the reduction in the nations strategic petroleum reserve has gone overseas. At the same time, the slowdown in consumer spending caused imports to drop at a 6.9 percent annualized rate. Because exports count as a positive in the GDP and imports count as a negative, the net of them contributed some 2.8 percent to overall real GDP growth. And since this figure is actually higher than the overall GDP growth estimate, it should be clear how weak the domestic economy really is. This picture of continued weakness, if not outright decline, should set the tone for this last quarter of the year and at least the opening months of 2023. To be sure, a countertrend remains in still-strong hiring trends. Many in the media have even suggested that these contrary trends make this cycle unique. Its not. The seeming countertrends are a function of the well-established lag between changes in activity and those in the labor market. As those lags work out, the labor market will show the weakness, and soon. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Principal Bernadette Fabri along with students pose for a photograph at St Patrick's Primary School, Parramatta in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 18, 2021. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts) The Sanctity of Religious Schools Could Be Eroded by WAs Anti-Discrimination Review Commentary An indispensable part of religious freedom is the freedom to associate. A key way that governments may support religious freedom is by allowing people to create institutions and allow them to manage memberships so that they can be committed to the core principles of their founders. After all, as noted by law professors Rex Ahdar and Ian Leigh, the freedom to associate is also tied closely with the freedom to exclude others. In a liberal society, those so excluded are free to join other religious groups (or to form their own group) and so this should not be seen as harmful, they wrote. Ahdar and Leigh also said that government intervention to stop any form of exclusion (via non-discrimination laws) could end up impeding on religious liberties. Paradoxically, perhaps, exclusive societies add to the diversity of society. In this context, the Attorney-General of Western Australia (WA), John Quigley, recently tabled a report into the Review of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 that has major ramifications for religious schools across the state. The Law Reform Commission of WA, which authored the report and where I served for five years, made 163 recommendations, including anti-discrimination protections to those that identify as trans, gender-diverse, or non-binary without the need for recognition from the Gender Reassignment Board, as well as strengthening legal protections for LGTQIA+ staff and students in religious schools. Attorney-General John Quigley speaks during a press conference in Perth, Australia, on June 27, 2018. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright) Another key recommendation is an inherent requirement test that would force religious schools to prove that religious beliefs or activities are an essential requirement of the job. Organisations must also prove that conformity with the prevailing religious belief is an inherent part of the jobmeaning non-Christians could even be hired for roles at religious schools. International Human Rights Implications So now the drafting process of a Bill to reflect these aspirations has commenced. It is important to note that the role of religious schools is fully recognised under international law. For example, Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares that parents have the basic right to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions. And since religious freedom recognised by international law, the WA government should not make it too hard for schools to become authentic religious education institutions. Therefore, a significant way in which governments can protect religious freedom is by giving communities sufficient freedom to associate. The right to discriminate on religious grounds is essential to the freedom [of a religious organisation] as the group could not exist as a distinctive religious entity without it, writes Reid Mortensen, professor and head of law at the University of Southern Queensland. How Can Religious Schools Stay Religious? Even when some employment positions in these religious schools are not considered to have the characteristic of religious vocation, the mission fit of employees is critical for these schools to provide an authentic religious environment. By the same token, ordering the employment of teaching staff who do not support the core values of a religious school will undermine the purpose of such a school. In some instances, these schools may steadily lose their religious identity and become indistinguishable from government and non-religious schools. Of course, there is no point in having a religious school if the only staff with a religious worldview are the principal, the chaplain, and the religious studies teacher. The facade of St. Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk, File) As noted by Vanessa Cheng, executive director of the Australian Association of Christian Schools, the proposed changes in WA make it very difficult for religious schools to employ staff and preference families in enrolment who share their beliefs. Surely it is not for the government to determine how a Christian school should be a Christian school, she said. The ability to discriminate on the basis of an organisations core principles is central to democratic freedom. When recruiting staff or appointing officeholders, a political party shows the same discrimination practiced by religious organisations. Governments must work to ensure these freedoms are protected and ensure schools have the flexibility to make decisionseven dismiss employeesbased on their beliefs. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The TikTok Trojan Horse and Chinas Surveillance Dystopia Social media app is a threat to US national security, says author of 'The Perfect Police State' Its a disaster waiting to happen, Geoffrey Cain says. Because TikTok, although the company denies it, is fundamentally obligated to follow the laws of Chinalaws created by the Chinese Communist Party. In a recent episode of EpochTVs American Thought Leaders, host Jan Jekielek speaks with Cain, an award-winning journalist, technologist, and author of The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey Into Chinas Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future. Cain recently testified before the U.S. Senate about TikTok and why he believes the social media apps troubled emergence in the United States, its shadowy corporate structure, and its connection to Chinas security and data laws make it a unique national security threat. Jan Jekielek: Recently, you were in the U.S. Senate giving testimony about social media and national security, specifically about TikTok. What did you find? Geoffrey Cain: TikTok is a national security threat to the United States. Its a disaster waiting to happen, because TikTok, although the company denies it, is fundamentally obligated to follow the laws of Chinalaws created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok is an app thats popular among Generation Z users. Its the next wave of social media where anyone can create a short clip of themselves dancing to music or showing their cat. You can load up celebrities and see what theyre up to. The app seems harmless, but beneath the surface, theres a lot going on. It was created five or six years ago by ByteDance, a Chinese company based in Beijing. Then, theres the Council on Foreign Investment in the United States [CFIUS]. Its charged with reviewing foreign investments that might pose some kind of national security risk. CFIUS has reviewed investments in semiconductors, surveillance cameras, and military weaponry and components. Now, TikTok is essentially a data-scooping machine. Its getting your face, your voice, your behavior, your movements. Its learning about you. Like all social media platforms, these systems are extremely profitable because they use that data to sell ads to consumers. And yet, there wasnt even a CFIUS review at the beginning. That should sound alarm bells. Why did TikTok decide not to do that review? Its as if they sneaked into the market to place their software in the hands of the next generation. Mr. Jekielek: Doesnt that somehow create an opportunity to do a CFIUS review? Mr. Cain: In 2020, the Trump administration initiated a CFIUS review. President Donald Trump wanted to get TikTok banned. TikTok challenged this review in court and challenged some of the decisions. For the past year, TikTok has been under a CFIUS review, but theyve been very quiet about it. Its not clear whats going to happen. According to TikTok, some kind of agreement with the U.S. government will ensure that data sharing with China wont be possible. Thats their claim, but I dont totally believe it. One of the problems is that the TikTok algorithm decides what you see, and in the past, TikTok executives have admitted the app has been used to suppress bad news coming out of China. In 2019, a leaked moderation guideline showed ByteDance instructing TikTok moderators, including in America, to look for material that might look bad. That included anything that shows poverty, slums, poor people, and so-called ugly people. The moderation guidelines said: You need to suppress this kind of material. We only want to see beautiful people who are happy and nice and attractive. This was used to suppress news about the Uyghurs and human rights abuses in China. Mr. Jekielek: Lets jump to the data gathering and what that creates. Please give me the picture. Mr. Cain: Heres the problem. The Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that it wants to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, and that AI is going to be a major pillar of Chinese military and surveillance power. Xi has made it clear hes building a surveillance state that will know everything thats going on within China, and potentially outside of China, too. This is where the TikTok and the ByteDance connection becomes problematic. The Chinese Communist Party will see TikTok fundamentally as a Chinese company and one that needs to report to the government. The National Intelligence Law of China and National Security Law require people in China to take part in intelligence operations upon request. It doesnt matter if TikTok says, and this is how they always respond, Were an American company, were separate, were based all over the world, were not the same as the Chinese company ByteDance. But they also admit they have employees in China and these employees, as we know, are subject to the harsh realities of the Chinese Communist Party. And the evidence that keeps coming out contradicts what they say under oath in front of U.S. senators. There are audio files where you could hear people talking about how they had to go through Chinese executives and developers to figure out how the data of Americans was being observed and used. TikTok has come out full blast trying to deny this is the case, but the audio files are there. One other piece of evidence is in TikToks own privacy policy, which says, We can share data with our corporate group. TikTok was pressed about this in a previous congressional hearing. The senator asked them three times, What is the definition of your corporate group? Does this include ByteDance in China? After dodging the question repeatedly, TikTok finally admitted, Yes, our corporate group includes ByteDance. That means, according to their own policies, they might share their data with the Chinese arm. Mr. Jekielek: In The Perfect Police State, you had a guide tell you the three steps toward a perfect police state. Please explain those. Mr. Cain: When I was writing the book, I found that many of the Uyghurs I was talking to, including my guide in Xinjiang, were not just awash in propaganda. They were informed about events around the world and were very sharp on what was going on around them. My guide told me there was a three-step process toward a police state, and that he had been observing it very carefully. The first step was this process of ensuring that technology, these social media apps, were in the hands of everybody and were then used to blast misinformation at users about supposed terrorism and how the communist party must react. The Chinese government exploited a sea change in technology to feed people misinformation and to spy on them. Mr. Jekielek: What are the other two steps? Mr. Cain: The second step was to create artificial categories, looking for ways to separate the population, to move the Uyghur population, for example, to different areas from the majority Han Chinese population. The third step was what my guide called the panopticon, a very old term. Imagine theres a circular prison camp with a guard post in the center and theres one guard in this post who can see all of the prisoners because its a giant circle around him. But the prisoners cant see the guard looking at them, so they can only guess if theyre being watched at any moment. Its a very good system for controlling the prison population, because everybody is scared of being watched, and nobody wants to get in trouble. This is the system the Chinese Communist Party set up in western China back in 2016 and 2017. It was a digital panopticon in which everybody was constantly being watched by an artificial intelligence system, which was called the IJOP or the Integrated Joint Operations Platform. This platform would gather data from smartphones. It would gather data from cameras. This region had cameras that covered almost every square inch. They would track everybody and try to create this sense of fear that the party is watching and you have to fall in line. You never knew if you were going to be the next target. Mr. Jekielek: A former U.S. senator told me that at one point he really believed we could change China and help it become a more democratic, a more fair and open system. Then he said, But I actually think they changed us. And I agree with that. Mr. Cain: The Chinese system has changed us. Ask any major corporate CEO of any major company operating in China: What do you think about Chinas human rights record? Do you condemn the genocide of the Uyghurs? What is your stance on Tibet, on Taiwan, on Falun Gong, and on all these different groups? They typically respond that theyre not diplomats. Theyll often say, Were not human rights activists, were just here to do business. What theyre admitting is that they just want the money. A lot of big corporations are turning us into something more like China with this vow of silence that we are not allowed to criticize China or raise the problem of human rights, that we must take a vow of silence in exchange for profit. 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." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question from the opposition during Question Period in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Trudeau Repeats That International Partners Expressed Concern Over Convoy When Asked About Invoking Emergencies Act Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that international partners had expressed concern about the Freedom Convoy protests in the lead-up to the federal governments invoking of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14. Quite frankly, there were concerns expressed by international partners as well, seeing the illegal occupations of border crossings, of sites across the country, Trudeau told reporters in Toronto on Nov. 4. Two days before invoking the emergency powers, Trudeau told his ministers that a number of international partners had expressed concerns with the governments ability to handle the protests, according to cabinet meeting minutes. Trudeau also said Friday that there were a lot of Canadians worried about the Freedom Convoys impact on Canadas reputation as a country of peace, order, and good government. So many things were causing instability and difficulties for Canadians, Trudeau said, adding there were security concerns for people across the country and direct impacts on residents in many parts of the country. These are things that Canadians remember from the Convoy occupations and this is part of why this inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, which is something that we invoked, is so important. The Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) is currently examining the basis on which the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act in February to evaluate if the acts use was justified. Testimony Trudeau and several members of his cabinet, including Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Justice Minister David Lametti, are set to testify before the commission near the end of its public hearings phase. So far, Ottawa residents, city councillors, various police officials, and convoy organizers have testified. RCMP officials, including commissioner Brenda Lucki, are set to testify soon. Trudeau told reporters Friday that hes looking forward to testifying at the inquiry. Its really important for Canadians to understand what was going on in that moment and why it was the right thing to do, to invoke the Emergencies Act in a responsible, time-limited, targeted way. Both the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) commissioner and Ottawa Police Service (OPS) interim chief have testified so far that they still had legal tools at their disposal to clear protesters from downtown Ottawa when the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique told the commission on Oct. 27 that he agreed with sentiment expressed by Lucki in an email dated Feb. 14 where she said police had not yet exhausted tools that are already available through the existing legislation. Several days before Carrique testified, OPS interim chief Steve Bell said police were going to clear the protests even without the Emergencies Act. Now-retired OPP senior officer Carson Pardy also told the POEC on Oct. 21 that both the provincial declaration of emergency and the Emergencies Act provided some help to police, but wasnt necessary to end the protests. In my humble opinion, we would have reached the same solution with the plan that we had without either of those pieces of legislation, he said. Noe Chartier contributed to this report. Twitter Employees File Lawsuit Over Mass Layoffs Twitter has been sued by multiple staff members over an alleged violation of federal law, with workers claiming they were not given enough notice regarding planned layoffs. Employees who had worked at Twitters offices in San Francisco, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco) on Thursday. The lawsuit comes amid reports that Twitter will start laying off staff members from its global workforce of 7,500 employees on Friday morning, following Elon Musks takeover of the social media platform. It is unclear how much of Twitters workforce Musk plans to lay off. In their lawsuit, plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, allege that the move amounts to a violation and anticipated further violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, as well as the California WARN Act. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act is a U.S. labor law requiring that employers with 100 or more employees provide 60 calendar-day advance notice to employees regarding mass layoffs. The California WARN act, short for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, is slightly more strict. It requires employers to provide workers with at least sixty days notice before mass layoffs, although under that law, a mass layoff is defined as the layoff of 50 or more employees in a 30-day period. Employers who fail to do so may be sued for damages and could be liable for employee back pay and benefits. The exterior of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on April 27, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) No Advanced Written Warning It has been widely reported that Twitter plans to lay off about 3,700 employees, approximately 50 percent of its total workforce, plaintiffs wrote in Thursdays lawsuit, referencing multiple reports regarding the planned layoffs. Twitter began the layoffs with a few employees, the lawsuit states, alleging that one of the plaintiffs was terminated on Nov. 1 without being provided with advanced written warning, as required by the federal WARN Act and California WARN Act. The lawsuit also states that three other plaintiffs in the lawsuit were allegedly locked out of their Twitter accounts on Nov. 3, which they understood to signal that they were being laid off. Plaintiffs are very concerned that Twitter will continue these layoffs without providing the requisite notice, the lawsuit noted while stating that Musks eclectic vehicle company Tesla also recently engaged in mass layoffs without notice. That company (Tesla) attempted to obtain releases from laid-off employees without informing them of their rights under the federal or California WARN Acts. A federal court subsequently ordered the company to provide employees notice of the claims that had been filed on their behalf, the lawsuit states. Plaintiffs file this action seeking to ensure that Twitter complies with the law and provides the requisite notice or severance payment in connection with the anticipated layoffs and that it not solicit releases of claims of any employees without informing them of the pendency of this action and their right to pursue their claims under the federal or California WARN Act, plaintiffs wrote. Plaintiffs are also seeking immediate injunctive relief, and ask that the court issue a declaratory judgment to prevent Twitter from avoiding the requirements of the WARN Act and the California WARN Act. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media award in Berlin on Dec. 1, 2020. (Hannibal Hanschke/AP) Layoffs Will Place Twitter on a Healthy Path We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights, Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursdays complaint, told Bloomberg in an interview. We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees, Liss-Riordan added, referencing Musk. It appears that hes repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla. An internal company message shared among Twitter employees this week, which was published in full by Business Insider, informed workers that layoffs will be announced on Friday morning. Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, the message reportedly states. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the companys success moving forward. According to the message, Twitter will temporarily close its offices on Friday, and all badge access will be suspended during the process. Earlier this week, billionaire Musk denied a report by The New York Times that he planned to lay off some Twitter employees before Nov. 1, when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation. However, the businessman has remained tight-lipped regarding how much of Twitters workforce he allegedly plans to remove. The Epoch Times has contacted attorneys for the plaintiffs and Twitter for comment. Caden Pearson contributed to this report. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday. The two presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Noting that President Hassan is the first African head of state China has received after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi said it speaks volumes about the two countries' close ties and the important position of China-Africa relations on China's diplomatic agenda. Xi recalled putting forth, while visiting Tanzania in 2013, the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith to guide China's cooperation with African countries. It has now become the basic policy guiding China's solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. Under the new circumstances, the sound growth of China-Tanzania relations not only advances the common and long-term interests of the two countries, but also carries great significance for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, said Xi. Xi briefed President Hassan on the proceedings of the 20th CPC National Congress. He pointed out that starting from now, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. "Modernization does not mean Westernization," Xi said, adding China has already found a development path suited to its national conditions. Chinese modernization is grounded in China's own realities, with features that are unique to the Chinese context, said Xi. Xi pointed out both the CPC and the Tanzanian Revolutionary Party (CCM) shoulder the historical mission of strengthening themselves and the country they govern, adding the CPC will expand exchanges and cooperation with the CCM and support the curriculum and operation of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School. Xi stressed that China views its relations with Tanzania from a strategic perspective and will always be a trustworthy friend of Tanzania. Moving forward, Xi said the two sides should advance friendship and cooperation across the board, in keeping with the China-Tanzania comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. China firmly supports Tanzania in upholding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and in exploring a path of development that suits Tanzania's conditions. China and Tanzania will continue to show firm support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi also said China will further increase import of specialty products from Tanzania, and support Chinese companies in investing and operating in Tanzania, so as to contribute to the economic and social development of Tanzania. China is ready to exchange experience and best practices with Tanzania on rural revitalization, and support the betterment of livelihood there, added Xi. Xi pointed out that the Tazara Railway marks a milestone in China-Tanzania and China-Africa friendship. Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this railway. "Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, help our African friends achieve common development, and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era." In growing China-Africa relations, Xi said both sides need to remain committed to the overall direction of mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual learning and mutual assistance. Both China and Africa need to build on their time-honored traditional friendship, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and show greater historical initiative in advancing friendship between China and Africa, he added. Xi went on to point out China's continuous development will create new opportunities for Africa. China will speed up the implementation of the ongoing nine initiatives for cooperation with Africa. "With a particular focus on infrastructure, we will continue to nurture new drivers for China-Africa cooperation through trade, investment and financing." China stands ready to work with African countries to uphold the basic norms governing international relations including the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, actively operationalize the Global Development Initiative, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance, and do more to bring about a community with a shared future for mankind, said Xi. Noting that she was excited and honored to be invited to visit China soon after the successful conclusion of the 20th CPC National Congress, Hassan said that the visit is a testament to the high level of Tanzania-China relations. On behalf of the CCM and the Tanzanian government, Hassan once again extended warm congratulations on the success of the 20th CPC National Congress and Xi's re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Tanzania views China as its top real friend and will always be a trustworthy partner for China, said Hassan, adding that with the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Tanzania will work with China to strengthen practical cooperation across the board, take the relationship to a new height, and turn it into an exemplar for Africa-China relations in the new era. Hassan stressed that Tanzania will continue to firmly support China on issues relating to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other core interests of China. She expressed appreciation for China's support in the development of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, and conveyed the hope of southern Africa's six sister parties to step up experience sharing with China on national governance in order to achieve better development. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has not only boosted the development of African countries in various fields, but also had a demonstrative effect in driving other countries' cooperation with Africa and helped enhance Africa's international standing, the president said, adding that Tanzania will continue to take an active part in and support the development of FOCAC. Noting that the Global Development Initiative put forth by Xi is very timely and conducive to addressing the global challenges of today, Hassan said Tanzania will work with China to operationalize this initiative and build a community with a shared future for mankind. The two heads of state agreed to keep up the momentum of high-level exchanges and dialogue, and enhance exchanges and cooperation at all levels between the localities, legislatures and political parties of the two countries. They agreed to expand the scale of bilateral trade, boost the level of trade and economic cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance cooperation projects on infrastructure, enhance industrial complementarity and production capacity cooperation, and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation in such areas as manufacturing and processing, green development and digital economy. The two heads of state reached consensus on strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges, holding a China-Tanzania year of tourism and culture at an appropriate time, encouraging more exchanges between the academics and media organizations of the two countries, and carrying forward the friendship between the two peoples. The two presidents agreed to enhance cooperation in international and multilateral settings, step up communication and cooperation on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and jointly uphold international fairness, justice and the common interests of both sides. At the end of the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents covering trade, investment, development cooperation, digital economy, green development and blue economy. The two sides issued a Joint Statement on Establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania. Prior to the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Hassan in the Great Hall of the People. Upon President Hassan's arrival at the Great Hall of the People, a 21-gun salute was fired in Tiananmen Square to greet her. Seventeen honor guards lined up the steps on both sides of the red carpet to salute her and trumpeters blew horns to welcome her. The two presidents stepped onto the review stand, after which the military band played the national anthems of the two countries. Accompanied by Xi, Hassan then reviewed the guard of honor of the People's Liberation Army and watched the march-past. After the talks, Xi held a welcoming banquet for Hassan at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) One thing that's certain for Cayuga County residents regarding their next representative in Congress: Neither person on the ballot will be similar to U.S. Rep. John Katko, the moderate Republican who won four straight elections. Redistricting split the county off from the Syracuse area, known for its centrist politics, and lumped it into a massive new district that's tilted heavily in favor of the GOP. Moreover, Katko decided against running for another term after he was largely ostracized for rightfully voting to impeach Donald Trump following the failed insurrection in 2021. But while Steven Holden and U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney would be a major shift from Katko's representation, only one has shown they could be trusted to put aside vitriolic politics to work for the betterment of constituents. Tenney is in her second term as a congressional representative, but her district does not currently include Cayuga County or much of any part of the new 24th. But seeking the easiest path to another term, she exercised her right to choose the district she'd run in, and to her credit, did relocate during this campaign to Canandaigua. Holden, a U.S. Army veteran who is new to running for office, also comes from outside the boundaries of the district, although he's lived much closer to it as an Onondaga County resident and plans to move into the 24th if he wins. It's not hard to find major differences between these candidates, and that starts with what should be a huge concern for all Americans: protecting Democracy. Holden rightly views what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol as a Donald Trump-driven attack on our government, and wants to make sure we never allow such an ugly scene to ever happen again. Tenney, like so many who have put blind loyalty to Trump ahead of all other priorities, has amplified the lies about the 2020 election results and simply could never be trusted to act with integrity if anything similar were to happen this year or in 2024. But even if one believes that concerns about Jan. 6 and democracy are overblown, there's a mountain of reasons to be deeply concerned about having Tenney as a representative for this county. Her voting record shows that unlike Katko, she is not interested in reaching across the aisle to enact meaningful legislation that would greatly benefit her district. She voted against arguably the two most important bills for upstate New York, the bipartisan infrastructure legislation and the chip manufacturing support act, because that was the directive of party leadership which still starts with the twice-impeached ex-president who is under multiple criminal investigations. What Tenney prefers doing over legislating is making inflammatory comments and introducing meaningless bills. She's on the record as wanting to impeach President Joe Biden even though she can't come close to pointing to a legitimate reason for it (a disagreement over border policy is not a high crime or misdemeanor). She recently mocked the brutal assault of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, tweeting "LOL" at a homophobic post made by a far-right account. She responded to the aftermath of the awful 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, by saying "its interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats." Those are just three of far too many examples of Tenney's toxicity. Holden, on the other hand, is a highly accomplished retired lieutenant colonel who has taken time to explain his reasoned positions on the key issues that matter to voters. He believes in enacting common-sense gun safety laws that don't infringe on Second Amendment rights, protecting our natural resources and fighting climate change, addressing crime in a comprehensive manner that addresses root causes and working to stabilize an economy that has been rocked by the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Holden wouldn't be unequivocally loyal to any president or speaker, and he wouldn't go out of his way to demonize people who disagree with his votes. What he would do is attempt to represent all of his constituents, regardless of their party, to the best of his ability and work hard to make the most informed decisions he can on their behalf. That's what Cayuga County residents deserve from their congressional representative. The Citizen endorses Steven Holden in the race for the 24th Congressional District. The Citizen Editorial board includes president and director of local sales and marketing Michelle Bowers, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd. The Twitter headquarters signage on 10th Street in San Francisco on Nov. 4, 2022. (David Odisho/Getty Images) Twitter Temporarily Closes Offices as Layoffs Begin Twitter Inc. temporarily closed its offices and cut workers access to internal systems on Friday after telling employees they would be informed by email about whether they were being laid off. The move follows a week of chaos and uncertainty about the companys future under new owner Elon Musk. The social media company said in an email to staff it would tell them by 9 a.m. Pacific time on Friday about staff cuts. In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday, said the email sent on Thursday, seen by Reuters. Staff who worked in engineering, communications, product, and content curation were among those impacted by the layoffs, according to tweets from Twitter staff. Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a hellscape. However, his reassurances have failed to prevent major advertisers from threatening to withdraw from the platform. Volkswagen has recommended its brands to pause paid advertising on Twitter until further notice in the wake of Musks takeover, it said on Friday. Its comments echoed similar remarks from other firms, including General Motors and General Mills. Musk blamed civil rights activists pressure on advertisers for a massive drop in revenue in a tweet on Friday morning. Extremely messed up! Theyre (civil right groups) trying to destroy free speech in America. Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure an attack on the First Amendment. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Access to Systems Cut Some staff tweeted they lost access to work email and Slack channels before receiving an official notice, which they took as a sign they had been laid off. Twitters curation team, which is responsible for highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter, has been axed, employees said on the platform. The companys communications team in India has also been laid off, according to a Twitter executive in Asia. A team that focused on research into how Twitter employed algorithms, an issue that was a priority for Musk, was also eliminated, according to a tweet from former senior manager at Twitter. Senior executives including vice president of engineering Arnaud Weber also said their goodbyes on Twitter on Friday: Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but Im proud of what we accomplished, he wrote on Twitter. Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription that Musk is bolstering, were also let go. An employee with the handle SillyRobin who had indicated they were laid off, quote-tweeted Musks previous tweet saying Twitter Blue would include paywall bypass for certain publishers. Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this, the employee said. Some staff reported losing access to internal systems and being unable to message goodbyes to colleagues. Looks like Im unemployed yall. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack, a user with the account @SBkcrn wrote on Twitter. The users profile is described as former senior community manager at Twitter. Twitter hired consulting firm KPMG in some international markets, including in Asia, to assist with the layoffs, according to one person familiar with the manner. Twitter employees vented their frustrations about the layoffs on the social network, using the hashtag #OneTeam. User Rachel Bonn tweeted: Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old. Just got cut off from laptop access. Responding to the #OneTeam thread, Twitters Head of Safety & Integrity Yoel Roth, said: Tweeps: My DMs (direct message routes) are always open to you. Tell me how I can help. Roth was the most senior executive to message publicly with a tweet of support for staff who are losing their jobs. He also appeared to still have his job. Last week, Musk endorsed Roth, citing his high integrity after he was called out over tweets critical of former President Donald Trump years earlier. Roth and Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Twitter said in the email that its offices would be temporarily closed and all badge access suspended in order to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data. Doors Locked The companys office in Piccadilly Circus, London, appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. Inside, any evidence the social media giant had once occupied the building had been erased. Security staff said there were ongoing refurbishments, refusing to comment further. The company said employees who were not affected by the layoffs would be notified via their work email addresses. Staff who had been laid off would be notified with next steps to their personal email addresses, the memo said. A member of security staff at Twitters Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters in Dublin told reporters that nobody was coming into the office on Friday and employees had been told to stay home. Another member of security staff locked the revolving doors at the front of the building where around 500 members of staff worked before the layoffs began. A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday against Twitter by its employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law. The lawsuit also asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case. By Sheila Dang, Katie Paul and Martin Coulter Detainees inside the Manston short-term holding centre for illegal immigrants wave to members of the media outside, near Ramsgate, Kent, southeast England, on Nov. 3, 2022. (Daniel Leal /AFP via Getty Images) UK Minister Criticises Cheek of Illegal Immigrants Complaining About Accommodation A British minister has criticised the cheek of illegal immigrants complaining about conditions at their temporary accommodations when UK taxpayers are spending billions every year looking after them. Pro-immigration campaigners are threatening legal action against UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman over conditions at the Manston holding centre for illegal immigrants in Kent, where at one point as many as 4,000 people were being detained in a site intended to hold just 1,600. Lawyers on behalf of Detention Action, an NGO, and a woman held at Manston sent an urgent pre-action letter to the Home Office on Nov. 1, slamming the unlawful treatment of people held at the facility and the egregiously defective conditions there. But Chris Philp, a Home Office minister, said the centre is legally compliant and the UKs asylum accommodation is better than most European countries. Talking to Times Radio on Nov. 4, Philp said, If people choose to enter a country illegally and unnecessarily, it is a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions when youve illegally entered a country without necessity. He said that people who had passed through other countries in Europe dont even have to come here, and described the numbers as overwhelming. Were spending something like two or three billion pounds a year looking after people who have entered the country illegally and unnecessarily, he added. Compassion and Respect Philps comments were criticised by opposition parties. The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the ministers remarks reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston. Later, Downing Street appeared to distance itself from Philps comments. Asked if Philp was speaking for the government, Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks official spokesman said that the illegal immigrants deserve to be treated with compassion and respect. Obviously the current approach is not working and it is placing huge pressuresboth in terms of on the government and on the local areaand that is presenting significant challenges, which is why we continue to work both with French colleagues and more broadly to try and resolve this issue. Downing Street said the number of people at Manston has fallen to 2,600, with 1,200 taken off the site within the last four days. PA Media contributed to this report. Undetected Earthquake: Europes Highest Court Denies Extradition to China Commentary Years in the making, the first-ever trial has been held by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a case concerning an extradition to Chinaand the decision, out just weeks ago, is extraordinary, and can best be likened to an undetected earthquake. Consequences will be felt across all of Europe, not merely the EU. The ECtHR is the court established by the European Convention on Human Rights. Its a legally binding treaty for all its 46 member states, which includes all of Europe except Belarus and, since this year, Russia, which was expelled after refusing to follow one of its decisions. Its the highest court of its kind for the nearly 700 million people in its member states. So how can one case, one decision, be so influential? It all has to do with the person at the center of it, a Taiwanese citizen named Liu Hongtao. Safeguard Defenders and I, personally, have been fighting extraditions from Europe to China for years, almost like an ambulance going around Europe to offer expert legal advice and appear in courts to block them. We are happy to be able to say that most of our cases have been successful, including in high courts. However, its merely putting out fires; it isnt addressing the underlying process that makes these requests from China possible. Despite eight calls by the European Parliament for all EU members who have such treaties to suspend them, there has been no actual movement to do so in these countries, whose political cowardice means no one will actunless the EU as a whole acts first. Instead, one decision, by the ECtHR, has rendered all extradition requests from China meaningless, as no case can possibly be successful after this precedent-setting decision. Its not a full victory, and a greater push to suspend the actual treaties is still needed, but its a great blow against the Chinese regimes attempt to use European nations to undermine their own commitment to the rule of law. Liu is an alleged scammer and online fraudster who lived in Spain with a large number of Chinese and Taiwanese. The ring was broken up in a joint SpanishChinese operation, and Spain rather quickly agreed to extradite the 208 Taiwanese captured to China, largely overlooking a review of their legal commitments before doing so. Liu, however, left Spain and was caught in Poland more than half a year later, in mid-2017. Since then, he has languished in a Warsaw detention center for more than five years awaiting his final decision. Hes not Tibetan, nor a Uyghur, nor does he belong to a persecuted religious group. Hes also not a dissident, human rights defender, or public critic of China or the Chinese Communist Party. He is, allegedly, merely a regular white-collar criminal. These are exactly the kinds of cases in which the Chinese regime has had the most success in seeking extraditions back to the mainland. Its because of this that the ECtHRs decision is likely to make any extraditions, no matter what the person is accused of, impossible. The decision is crystal clear that torture and ill-treatment in China are so predominant that no extradition is possible, as it would violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The defense also wanted it deemed impossible due to there being no right to a fair trial (Article 6), but as the court made such a clear decision on Article 3, it chose to not review that allegation. This was a lost opportunity, as a clear decision on Article 6 would have been a final nail in the coffin. But its nonetheless a significant victory that will alone make extraditions nearly impossible. Ongoing cases in Cyprus and Italy are next in line, and this decision will likely play a key role in denying those as well. After that, the next step is, given the futility in ever securing extraditions, to get European countries ministries of justice to stop allowing extraditions at all, as such requests, even when the defense can be certain to succeed, can, as in the case of Liu, still lead to severe consequences, as he has now spent more than five years in custody. It shows how fragile the rule of law and basic rights can be even in a place like Europe. In fact, the court also decided that Poland itself had violated his right to not be placed into arbitrary detention, in an additional broadside against Polish authorities. After a great decision, a great day for the rule of law and human rights in Europe, now its up to local media in these countries to pressure their ministries of justice and foreign affairs on this, to ensure prosecutors stop pursuing extraditions, and to create the political will in parliaments to suspend these treaties once and for all. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is helped after he was shot in the shin in Wazirabad, Pakistan, on Nov. 3, 2022 in this still image obtained from video. (Urdu Media via Reuters) US Condemns Shooting Attack on Pakistans Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan at Rally The United States said Thursday that it strongly condemned the shooting attack on former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at a protest convoy in central Punjab province. Khan was leading a protest convoy in Warzirabad on Thursday when gunshots were fired. One person was killed, and several others were wounded. Khan was taken to the hospital after being shot in the leg, but his condition is stable. His aides claimed that it was an assassination attempt by his rivals. Khan, 70, was ousted in April after losing a vote of confidence in parliament. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the shooting and called on all parties to refrain from violence. We wish Imran Khan and all others who were injured a quick and thorough recovery, and we offer our condolences to the family of the individual who was killed, Blinken said in a statement. Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment, and intimidation. The United States is deeply committed to a democratic and peaceful Pakistan, and we stand with the Pakistani people, he added. The United Nations also condemned the shooting and called for a full and transparent investigation into the incident. We very much hope that this will not create further challenges to the political situation in Pakistan, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. Alleged Shooter Claims He Acted Alone A man suspected of shooting Khan was arrested at the scene after being stopped by one of the people at the rally. In a video released after his arrest, the suspect admitted that he had acted alone. It is unclear who posted the video. The unnamed suspect said that he wanted to kill Khan because the politician was misleading the people. I thought they were violating [the sanctity of] Azaan by playing loud music [on their sound system]. My conscience could not deal with it, and I took action, he said, Geo TV reported. Azaan refers to the Muslim call to prayer. I acted alone. I did not have anyone to back me up for the shooting, the suspect added. The person who stopped the shooter told Geo TV that the suspect had fired only once during the rally, but because he had put the handgun in burst mode, shooting continued until the clip was empty. Khan aide, Asad Umar, believed that Pakistans Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and intelligence official Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer were behind the attack. But he did not provide any evidence to back the allegation. Sharif said on Twitter that he condemned the shooting in the strongest words and ordered an immediate investigation. Khanwho was convicted after his removal from office by Pakistans election commission of selling state gifts unlawfully, charges that he deniedhad been whipping up large crowds on his way to Islamabad in a campaign to topple Sharifs government. Reuters contributed to this report. A TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missile launch with file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Lee Jin-man/AP Photo) US, South Korea Vow to End Kim Regime If North Korea Uses Nukes The United States and South Korea have vowed to mount an overwhelming response that they said would end the Kim Jong-un regime if North Korea launched a nuclear attack. The two allied nations issued a joint communique on Thursday after a meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jong-sup, at the Pentagon. Austin reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to provide South Korea the full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities and advanced non-nuclear capabilities. He said that any nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime, according to the statement. A South Korean Air Force F-35A fighter jet takes off from the runway during the Vigilant Storm U.S.-South Korea joint aerial drill at Gunsan Air Base, South Korea on Oct. 31, 2022. (South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images) Austin said at a joint press conference that North Koreas activities are destabilizing the region. So we call on [North Korea] to cease that type of activity and to begin to engage in serious dialogue, he said. US, South Korea Extend Air Drill The joint statement followed a series of North Korean missile launches this week. Among them, South Koreas military said North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday, but the launch may have been unsuccessful. The suspected ICBM launch prompted the United States and South Korea to extend their joint air drill to Nov. 5. The Vigilant Storm drill involved 240 military aircraft from both sides plus an air refueling tanker from the Royal Australian Air Force. Ive consulted with Minister Lee, and weve decided to extend Vigilant Storm, which is our long-scheduled combined training exercise, to further bolster our readiness and interoperability, Austin said. North Korea denounced the decision as a dangerous and false choice. Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the ruling Workers Party, warned that the extended air drill would result in an uncontrollable phase, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Visitors watch a news broadcast showing file footage of a North Korean missile test at the ferry terminal of South Koreas eastern island of Ulleungdo, in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Nov. 3, 2022. (Anthony Wallace/AFP) The Kim regime views the U.S.-South Korea joint drills as an invasion rehearsal and has responded with a barrage of missile launches. North Korea fired three ballistic missiles on Thursday, one of which is believed to be the aforementioned ICBM, after launching over 20 missiles the day before. South Koreas military responded to Wednesdays missile launches with three air-to-ground missiles, which officials said landed a similar distance past the Northern Limit Line (NLL)the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol held an emergency National Security Council meeting on Wednesday and ordered that strict measures be taken to ensure that North Korea pays a clear price for its provocation. Afghan war veteran Chris Deering responds to a question from counsel during the Public Order Emergency Commission hearing in Ottawa on Nov. 4, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Veteran Tells Inquiry Police Dumped Him Without Charges 10km From City Core During Convoy Protest A wounded combat veteran who served in Afghanistan told the Public Order Emergency Commission on Nov. 4 that he was arrested, beaten, and dumped without charges far from downtown Ottawa by police during the clearing operation of the Freedom Convoy protest on Feb. 18. It really wasnt that I wanted to come to Ottawa. Its that I felt it was my duty and I had no choice [but] to be there, said veteran Chris Deering while explaining why he had attended the protest. He said he wanted to protest the mandates as they impacted his mental health as a wounded veteran member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). I couldnt do anything. I couldnt take my family to a restaurant, I couldnt take my kids to gymnastics. I couldnt grieve my comrades in Nova Scotia because I wasnt allowed to cross the border, in my own vehicle, by myself, to a cemetery where no one was living, and lay my flowers. The trucker-led protest demanding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions started in Ottawa on Jan. 29. Deering, who lives in New Brunswick, said he first attended the protest on the Feb. 12 weekend and then returned home. After the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, Deering said he rushed back to Ottawa to do what I could to protect the peaceful citizens. He said that when the police clearing operation began, on Feb. 18, he linked arms with fellow veterans near the National War Memorial and was arrested by police. A video of the incident was entered as evidence at the commission. It shows him being grabbed and hit by police. Deering was the only crew member of his military vehicle to survive a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan and sustained heavy injuries. He was wearing his military medals that day in Ottawa and says he told his story to police officers before the arrest. He said some moved down the line, not wanting to have anything to do with him. But when enforcement began, he said he was kneed, kicked, and punched in the head while lying down. Deering said that after being arrested and while waiting to be processed, he asked police if he could kneel or sit as he was in chronic pain and needed to be able to take his medication, but his requests were denied. It was obvious my face was flushed and I cried multiple times, and I dont cry ever. It was the worst pain I had felt since Ive been blown up, he said. Here's the video of veteran Chris Deering being arrested that was entered as evidence before the #POEC. https://t.co/eQiFcb8so7 pic.twitter.com/r7PAv6lM88 Noe Chartier (@NChartierET) November 5, 2022 He said that after being processed by police, he was told he was being charged with public obstruction and mischief. Police then drove him and others in a paddy wagon 10 kilometres from Parliament Hill and released them without charges, he said. The police officer came out and gave a stern warning, and said dont come back to Ottawa or youll be charged, Deering said, noting that the police left him and the others at a public works building stranded in freezing weather, their cellphone batteries drained. I never thought that I would get dumped out of the city like trash by the police. Freedom Corp lawyers representing the protesters at the commission had raised this matter with Ottawa police officers who testified earlier. Ottawa Police Service Deputy Chief Steve Bell told the commission on Oct. 24 that he was unaware of the issue. He did say the police had remote post-arrest processing sites in the south end of Ottawa, calling it a common practice for the police. Bell said protesters were brought to a municipal parking lot to which the trucks were being towed. That parking lot doesnt have a building. It doesnt have a phone. It doesnt have any of that, does it? asked Freedom Corp lawyer Brendan Miller. I dont know what the logistics at the building were. I would imagine it would have needed to have a phone because you have to be able to call your lawyer, said Bell. I can tell you it didnt, replied Miller. "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell (Shutterstock) William Brooks: Canadians Are Defending Free Speech While It Still Exists Commentary If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. George Orwell For more than a century of socialist cultural advance, mans capacity for independent thought and free expression has been in a state of precipitous decline. From state radio and TV stations to the internet, almost all modern innovations in communication have been employed to control, rather than liberate, individual human expression. More than 60 years ago, Frankfurt School Marxists like Herbert Marcuse brought powerful intellectual campaigns against democratic capitalism to the shores of North America. From beachheads at various American universities, Marcuse deployed deceptive post-modern theories against what he referred to as Western repressive tolerance. He argued that, because of the injustice in Western society, freedom of expression and tolerance for differing viewpoints amounts to social oppression. Marcuse rejected the liberal principle of indiscriminate tolerance, the conviction that all opinions matter, in favour of discriminate tolerance, which infers that only Marxist opinions deserve a hearing. The Lefts Ongoing Rejection of Liberty Marcuses legacy still sets the tone for the lefts ongoing rejection of free speech and human liberty. For example, a 2020 New York Post story reported that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors happily declared that she and her fellow organizers were trained Marxists. From then on, it came as no surprise that BLM supporters regarded an assertion like all lives matter as forbidden speech. The lefts opposition to freedom of expression is clearly explained in a 2019 book titled The Case Against Free Speech, by progressive American journalist Peter Moskowitz. Moskowitzs book was advertised as a hard-hitting expose that shines a light on the powerful conservative forces that have waged a multi-decade battle to hijack the meaning of free speech. Marxist critical theorists are laser-focused on the reification of power relationships. Writers like Moskowitz see no value whatsoever in Western democratic ideals. Their duplicitous references to powerful conservative forces are as ludicrous as they are tired and dishonest. Radical pundits regularly conjure up vast right-wing conspiracies and the ever-present legacy of Adolf Hitler. This is the Marcusian-inspired rationale for shutting down adversary opinion and denying any measure of open discourse. Our urbane Wokerati duplicately depict free speech as hate speech. Nineteenth-century British liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote: If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. In the 21st century, Mills liberal views no longer have a place in Canadas formative institutions. For the guardians of woke orthodoxywho can be mustered within hours to prevent a dissident opinion from being voiced on a college campusthe right to say things that some may not want to hear is no longer valued as a tenet of Western liberalism. Citizens Are Asking: Isnt Free Speech a Human Right? This September, members of Civitas Canada and the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) teamed up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to organize a public symposium on the status of free speech. Interested citizens were invited to the Halifax Public Library for an evening of free discourse on the question: Isnt Free Speech a Human Right? The event included a three-person panel and plenty of time for participation from the attending public. Despite posters for the symposium being torn down as quickly as organizers could put them up, the topic attracted a lively roomful of concerned citizens, students, academics, and businesspeople. Speaking from an academic perspective, Stephen Perrott, a senior professor of psychology at Mount St. Vincent University, began by saying: I grew up in an era when free speech was demanded by the political left. Somewhere, when I wasnt paying attention, free speech became right wing. Im not quite sure what happened. Perrott contended that, today, it is the professoriate that restricts speech and demands conformity. Somehow they have been able to convince most students that censorship is carried out in the pursuit of justice he said. Throughout the symposium, proponents of free speech described getting the cold shoulder from friends, being disadvantaged in media manipulated political debates, losing the healthy culture of disputation in institutions of higher education, and being silenced or punished in hyper-politicized workplaces and neighbourhoods. The full event can be viewed on YouTube. The intrepid Nova Scotians who turned up at their public library to assert their Canadian charter rights could be a welcome sign that a truly democratic counter-culture is on the rise. Citizens are beginning to challenge the political ideologues who seek to transform free societies into authoritarian backwaters. Take away our capacity to choose what we want to say and we are no longer fully functioning human beings. Thats why Canadians are stepping forward to defend free speech while it still exists. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A young girl paints a picture of herself on the school window as children of key workers take part in school activities at Oldfield Brow Primary School in Altrincham, England, on April 8, 2020. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Young Children Running Drugs for UK County Lines Gangs Becoming the Norm Children as young as nine running drugs for county lines gangs in England has become the norm, said the former childrens commissioner who has urged the government to treat the issue as seriously as terrorism. Anne Longfield leads the Commission on Young Lives, an independent body, which published a report (pdf) on Friday after spending a year gathering evidence on vulnerable children. In the report, Hidden in Plain Sight, the commission warns that children are the commodity of choice for drug dealers who exploit them in order to evade the police. Longfield told the PA news agency children as young as 9 or 10 were being used to run drugs, and boys aged as young as 14 were even in charge of some county lines operations. County lines is a term used in the UK to refer to urban drug dealers who supply narcotics to small towns or rural areas, often involving gangs preying on vulnerable people like children and disabled adults. A line, in criminal parlance, is a drug dealing operation often based around a pay-as-you-go mobile phone number which addicts and users are encouraged to call to place an order. Last month the Metropolitan Police arrested 230 people and claimed to have smashed 70 county lines during an operation which took 4 million ($4.5 million) worth of heroin and cocaine off the streets. The latest government figures said there were 10,140 occasions in which criminal exploitation was a factor in assessments of children in need, but the commission believes that is just the tip of the iceberg. Children in More Middle Class Areas Being Targeted Longfield said in the last two years, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, two trends have emerged: the targeting of primary school children, and an increasing focus on middle-class children in more affluent suburbs and towns. She said social media contentespecially TikTok and Snapchat videoswas increasingly being used to attract them to county lines operations. Longfield said: There are many, many cases. I think its now become the norm for the older age primary school child to be involved in the outskirts of running. Ive been told more and more about the 14-year-oldseven a 13-year-old Ive heard ofas being involved in that role in a county line. She said: What people say is that while the market was suppressed during the pandemic, actually when it opened up those that were targeting young people went for a younger group of kids to do so, which is horrificthese are children. Longfield said they also found evidence of grandmothers being asked to carry or hold on to drugs in order to protect their grandchildren. She said the cost-of-living crisis had also pushed many children towards county lines operations and said, Were seeing kids being put in a really, really difficult position where they want to do things to help their family, they want to be able to help financially if they can, and seeing an opportunity to do so. The Department for Education said the government had given councils an extra 4.8 billion ($5.4 billion) to deliver services between now and 2025. A spokeswoman said, We are investing more than 1 billion to improve early help services, through a network of family hubs, programmes supporting thousands of families to stay together safely, support with their mental health, and providing healthy food and activities during the school holidays. We are also strengthening the links between social care and education and providing targeted support to keep children most at risk of exploitation engaged in their education, she added. India has handed over 80 vehicles to Nepal ahead of upcoming general elections. Mahindra Scorpio pickup trucks were offered to the country's Election Commission by the Centre on Thursday. At a ceremony, Naveen Srivastava, Indian Ambassador to Nepal, handed over these vehicles to Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal. India has delivered more than 200 vehicles to the poll body in the neighbouring country so far. India has been supporting Nepal by offering vehicles on request. So far, 214 vehicles have been gifted to Nepal's apex poll agency. "We are in the process of conducting an election for House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies on November 20, 2022. From today we only have 17 days for Election Day. The periodic election is a must to sustain the democratic system. The Government of India has been helping us in our major elections by providing the vehicles, election materials and other essential supports," said Thapaliya at the ceremony. "India always has been a good friend of Nepal, our relationship always has been cordial. Being a neighbour and democratic nation, India always has been accepting requests of Nepal's Election Commission, based on which we are handing over the 80 vehicles," said Srivastava. The vehicles handed over will be used during the upcoming general elections from November 20. Of the 200 odd vehicles handed over by India, 80 will be used by the poll body for election-related work while 120 others will be used by security forces. Nepal, being a mountainous terrain, will be benefited by Mahindra's all-terrain model Scorpio. This is not the first time India has gifted Nepal with vehicles. Over the years, Nepal has received more than 2400 vehicles to various authorities, including the Nepal Police and Armed Police Forces as well as the Nepali Army. Nepal will go to elections on November 20 to elect 165 members to the House of Representatives or the Lower House of parliament. First Published Date: " " Jason Fisher, head mechanic at Gosford Classic Car Museum, drives a 1966 Amphicar 770 in the Sydney Harbour, Feb. 2, 2018, in Sydney, Australia. James D. Morgan/Getty Images It hardly needs saying that amphibious motor vehicles like the 1961-1968 Amphicar have not exactly been common over the years. There are several reasons, including certain design compromises dictated by their dual-purpose nature and, typically, a resulting purchase price much higher than that of comparable cars or boats. But the Amphicar is an exception. Introduced by inventor Hans Trippel at the 1959 Geneva Salon, it saw fairly high production 3,770 units over a relatively lengthy period: eight years. And it was successfully marketed in both Europe and the United States at a price that was surprisingly reasonable for a machine that could do almost everything but fly. Advertisement Unfortunately, that price was so reasonable that the venture could never fly very far, but it has left us with an appealingly versatile little vehicle that had come into its own as a bona fide collectible within two decades. The Amphicar may have been the most commercially successful amphibian but it was far from the first. That honor likely goes to a 20-ton steam-powered monster built by Oliver Evans of Philadelphia way back in 1803. That same year, he drove his alarming contraption over a mile and a half of the city's streets and down to the banks of the Delaware River. Of course, he didn't stop at the water's edge but drove right in and went to work. This work was accomplished by a dredge mounted on the wide-beamed, scow-like body. Christened "Orukter Amphibolus," this vehicle ably fulfilled Evans' contractual assignment, which was to dredge space for a number of the Quaker City's first docks in what was to become a major harbor. Little more was heard of it after that. More than a century later in 1917, to be exact William Mazzei of Seattle, Washington, designed an amphibious car of more normal size and put together a company to produce it. Called "Hydrometer," a name more appropriate for a measuring instrument than a car, it was powered by a conventional internal-combustion engine supplied by Continental. Contemporary accounts describe the Hydrometer (some sources list the name as "Hydromotor") as looking more like a boat than a car, but it did have four wheels and was said to have been capable of 60 mph on land and 25 mph on water, the latter no doubt exaggerated. That same year, George Monnot of Canton, Ohio, announced his "Hydrocar," a car/truck combination with a steering wheel at each end and a four-cylinder Hercules engine. Monnot tried to interest the U.S. Army in his rig for all-purpose use in World War I, but it was rendered unnecessary by the end of hostilities the following year. By that time there was no money left for pursuing the civilian market. Perhaps the most famous automotive amphibian was the one that did see action, though in a later conflict: World War II. Of course, we're talking about the four-wheel-drive Schwimmwagen derived from the land-only Kubelwagen ("bucket car"), the equivalent to the American Jeep in the army of Nazi Germany's Third Reich. Both were designed by the renowned Dr. Ferdinand Porsche along principles he'd established with the "people's car" project so beloved by Adolf Hitler. Though neither vehicle was a "Volkswagen" in the strict sense, they're usually considered as such because they were produced at the huge new Wolfsburg factory that Hitler had erected before the war to build the little low-price car we've come to know as the Beetle. VW thus deserves credit for the first mass-produced amphibian, and the Schwimmwagen was indeed turned out in large numbers during the war years. Some found their way into private hands once peace returned, while others were avidly studied by motor manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic. That release could not be found. Addis Ababa, 04 November 2022: Ethiopian Airlines Group has signed a renewed agreement with Travelport International Operations Ltd. to distribute Travelport+ and other related products of Travelport in Ethiopia. It is to be recalled that Ethiopian Airlines and Travelport International Operations Ltd. have been working together in distributing Travelports Galileo for more than a decade. The renewed agreement includes Travelports new features and products to be deployed in Ethiopias agency market and remains effective until end of 2026. Ethiopian Airlines renews agreement with Travelport International Operations Ltd. During the signature ceremony held on 03 November 2022, Mr. Mesfin Tasew, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group said:We are very happy to strike a renewed deal with Travelport to distribute Travelport+ and other related products in Ethiopian market. Our long-standing journey with Travelport remains very fruitful and useful for both parties and Travel Agencies in Ethiopia. Travelports new products, in addition to the main GDS Travelport+, are very important to simplify the business transactions in the market for both the Airline and Travel Agencies. I am very delighted that Ethiopian and Travelport decided to continue working together for the better future ahead. And I want to say congratulations to Travelport and to all Travel Agencies. Travelport+ is the worlds leading distribution system. It has been very successful in working with Ethiopian Airlines for the past 15 plus years. On the signature ceremony, Mark Meehan, Global Vice President and Managing Director for Global Operators at Travelport, said: We are delighted to renew our valued partnership with Ethiopian Airlines. Travelport and Ethiopian have a very strong growth record during our many years together, and the next 4 years will continue that success. Travelport+ is the worlds leading distribution system, and together with Ethiopians growth with travel agencies in Ethiopia and beyond, this is a winning partnership. Im confident that this strategic partnership will continue to increase value for our customers through a wider range of choice and enhanced retailing tools. Ethiopian Airlines renews agreement with Travelport International Operations Ltd. Ethiopian Airlines, the largest Aviation Group in Africa, has been named the winner of four awards at the SKYTRAX 2022 World Airline Awards, at a ceremony held in London on 23 September 2022. Ethiopian has taken the crown for Best Airline in Africa 2022 for 5 consecutive years, Best Business Class Airline in Africa 2022 for 4 consecutive years, Best Economy Class Airline in Africa 2022 for 4 consecutive years and Best Business Class Onboard Catering in Africa. With the current renewed agreement with the worlds leading system distribution company, Travelport International Operations Ltd., many more miles are expected to be reached. About Ethiopian Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing Airline in Africa. In its seventy-five plus years of operation, Ethiopian has become one of the continents leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success. Ethiopian commands the lions share of the Pan African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 130 international passenger and cargo destinations across five continents. Ethiopians fleet includes ultra-modern and environmentally friendly aircraft such as Boeing 787-8, Boeing 787-9, Airbus A350, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-200, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-8, Freighter, Bombardier Dash 8-400 double cabin with an average fleet age of seven years. In fact, Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate these aircraft. Ethiopian is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading aviation group in Africa with Seven business units: Ethiopian International Services; Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services; Ethiopian MRO Services; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian ADD Hub Ground Services, Ethiopian Airports Services and Ethiopian Express Services (Domestic). Ethiopian is a multi-award-winning airline registering an average growth of 25% in the seven years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For additional information, please visit www.ethiopianairlines.com. Email: [email protected] Tel: (251-11)517-8913/165/529/ Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EthiopianAirlines Twitter: https://twitter.com/flyethiopian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fly.ethiopian/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCV26xfT57LiOgrZM45ouCg/featured LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ethiopian-airlines/ Telegram: https://t.me/ethiopian_airlines About Travelport International Operations Ltd.: Travelport is a global technology company that powers bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide. Buyers and sellers of travel are connected by the companys next generation marketplace, Travelport+, which simplifies how brands connect, upgrades how travel is sold, and enables modern digital retailing. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom and operating in more than 180 countries around the world, Travelport is focused on driving innovation that simplifies the complex travel ecosystem. Government defends foreign land ownership proposal BANGKOK: Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda yesterday (Nov 3) defended the ministrys foreign land ownership proposal, saying the move would attract investments and stimulate the economy. land By Bangkok Post Friday 4 November 2022, 10:37AM Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda. Photo: Bangkok Post The government has recently come under fire, accused of selling off the country after the Cabinet approved the ministrys draft regulation to allow four groups of wealthy foreigners to purchase and own up to one rai of land in return for investments. Gen Anupong responded to questions by the opposition yesterday in parliament about the land policy, reports the Bangkok Post. He said the draft regulation was being put up for public input and it can still be revised to introduce additional limitations, such as upping the required amount of investment and limiting its duration. Under the draft regulation, wealthy individuals, pensioners, work-from-Thailand professionals and specialists who hold Long-Term Resident visas can apply to buy and own up to one rai of land for residential purposes with conditions. Those eligible must meet certain criteria, including a minimum B40 million investment requirement and the land slated for purchase must be located in Bangkok, Pattaya City, as well as other municipalities and zones specified as residential areas. Anupong said the draft regulation aims to lure foreign investments, adding it is not selling off the country or catering to investors as some suggested. I insist it is not about selling the country off and I dont think people here see it that way, he said. For those who are concerned it will lead to foreign land grabs, well further add regulations to prohibit them from buying connected plots. These plots can later be sold for property development. Anupong said the policy will not lead to land holding by nominees, adding the government is also tackling land ownership inequality problems. We can improve the regulation, such as by increasing the [required] investment to B100mn or raising the investment period to 10 years, he said. [The plan] can be scrapped if people have serious concerns. We wont see it as a loss of face. He also addressed criticism that the government is at a loss with the economy and has to resort to this measure to shore up investments. When it comes to tackling economic problems, no government will use just one measure, he told the House. All governments will explore all possible measures. If we want to draw tourists and investors, we motivate them and use several incentives. Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said that mechanisms would be in place to prevent abuse of the land policy by money launderers. He said the policy, aimed at generating B1 trillion, was formulated based on input from businesses and potential investors. Singaporean killed in motorbike crash PHUKET: A 29-year-old Singaporean man died after he lost control of the motorbike he was riding on the coastal road south of Kamala and crashed head-on into an oncoming six-wheeled truck yesterday (Nov 3). tourismtransportSafetydeathaccidentspolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Friday 4 November 2022, 11:45AM Photo: Kamala Police Kamala Police Deputy Chief Lt Col Atcha Yatiwat said his officers were notified of the accident at 11:45am. Officers arrived to find the red Honda Click 125 motorbike stuck under a Hino truck. The Singaporean man was unconscious and unresponsive, and presumed dead, at the scene. Kusoildharm foundation rescue workers transported his body to Patong Hospital. While police asked for the mans identity to be withheld pending his next of kin being notified, officers confirmed that his passenger, Singaporean national Natalie Yi, also 29, suffered internal injuries in the accident. Paramedics from Kamala Tambon Administrative Organisation (OrBorTor) rushed her to Patong Hospital for treatment. The driver of the truck, who police have yet to name, told officers that he was unable to avoid the collision. He was rounding the curve when he saw the motorbike swerve into his lane and crash into the front of the truck. Following their inspection of the accident site and the drivers statement, officers said they believed that the Singaporean man was unfamiliar with the road and lost control of the motorbike while navigating the curve. Kamala Police said they were coordinating with the Singapore embassy in Bangkok over the incident. *The Phuket News is also withholding the mans name until it has been confirmed his next of kin has been notified. TAT signs airline deals in bid to lure 1m Americans BUSINESS: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is hoping to welcome at least 1 million tourists from the US next year after securing partnerships with Delta Air Lines and Korean Air to bring travellers from 17 gateway cities across the country. tourism By Bangkok Post Friday 4 November 2022, 11:18AM People wait for arrivals at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday (Nov 3). Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb As Thailand does not have a flag carrier that can offer direct flights from the US, the agency turned to international airlines to bring tourists here, said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn. TAT hosted a business-to-business (B2B) meeting yesterday (Nov 3) for 50 travel agents from around the US to meet Thai tourism operators in Bangkok, part of a nine-day familiarisation trip, reports the Bangkok Post. The B2B meeting aimed to increase visitor numbers from North American markets. Other joint sessions with local operators were held in Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya and Phuket. Americans in general have a strong desire to come to Asia, said Akinori Yokosawa, manager of international speciality sales at Delta Air Lines. He said Delta has 17 flights per day from the US to South Korea, of which five connect in Thailand each day, comprising three via Bangkok, and one each to Chiang Mai and Phuket. Average airfares could be 30% higher than in 2019, but load factors for these flights have already hit 95%. Most passengers are leisure travellers, who are at 75% of 2019 levels, while corporate customers are at 50%. Mr Yokosawa said with China, a popular destination for Americans, still closed, demand has pivoted to Thailand, a top destination in Southeast Asia. The strong US dollar has also helped American travellers stay longer, for an average of 10 days. Atthawish Supaka, senior sales manager at the Renaissance Pattaya Resort and Spa, said tourists from the US ranked among the top five source markets for the hotels guests. The property is run by Marriott, a well-known brand in the US. Most of the guests were couples on honeymoon and families who booked more than seven nights, often opting for all-inclusive packages. Melissa Barkalow, a US-based travel consultant at World Travel Service, which offers customised, high-end tours, said she is looking for new destinations in Thailand and Asia because 95% of her tours currently go to Europe. Ms Barkalow said food, culture and temples are attractive to American travellers. The estimated price for an eight-day trip to Thailand would be around US$10,000 (B377,000), according to the agency. From January to September this year, 225,909 American and 39,950 Canadian tourists came to Thailand. Three dead, two injured in Rawai accident PHUKET: Two Russian nationals and a Thai woman have died as a result of a road accident in Rawai this morning (Nov 4), Chalong Police have confirmed. Two other foreigners have been taken to hospital with injuries, yet so far there has been no update on their condition. accidentsdeathSafetytourismtransport By Eakkapop Thongtub Friday 4 November 2022, 03:13PM A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub A Ducati bike crashed into a scooter in Rawai, resulting in two Russian nationals and a Thai woman killed and two other foreigners hospitalised. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Lt Col Prasit Ra-ob the Chalong Police was notified of the accident on Wiset Rd in Rawai at around 3.30am. Having arrived at the scene in front of Siam Commercial Bank, Rawai Branch, police officers and rescue workers found two damaged motorcycles and a damaged taxi on the northbound side of the road. Four people, one Thai national and three foreigners, required medical attention and were rushed to hospitals. One foreigner was reported as found dead at the scene. Having questioned the witnesses, police officers learned that a red Ducati motorcycle was moving at speed from Rawai Pier in the direction of Chalong and crashed first into a Yamaha Filano scooter with three people on it and then into a parked Isuzu MU-7 taxi with green license plates. The Ducati rider was identified as a 35-year-old Russian national. He was the victim who died at the scene. A 29-year-old Russian woman was riding pillion with the man. She was taken to Dubuk Hospital and later pronounced dead. The two foreign males and the Thai female, who were riding the Yamaha Filano scooter, sustained injuries and were taken to Chalong Hospital for treatment. The 26-year-old woman was then transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital but died later resulting in three fatalities in total. The names of the dead are withheld by The Phuket News pending notification of relatives. Chalong Police did not disclose the names, ages, and nationalities of the two foreign men who sustained injuries and were taken to Chalong hospital. Police officers are now investigating the cause of the accident. This includes questioning witnesses and checking CCTV records from the scene. Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinas new energy vehicle startup Aiways celebrated its 10,000th vehicle rolling off the production line at its Shangrao intelligent factory in Jiangxi Province on November 3. Photo credit: Aiways The milestone vehicle is Aiways signature electric smart SUV, the U5, which is also the first production model manufactured at the Shangrao intelligent factory. According to the startup, the U5 is the first intelligent pure-electric SUV certified by the EU Whole Vehicle Type-Approval System (WVTA) in Chinas A+ segment. With its solid quality and forward-looking strategy, the U5 has been successfully exported to 20 countries and regions worldwide, including to Germany, France, and Belgium. The model is exceptionally popular in Israel, Aiways said. Up to now, Aiways has completed the deployment of its global sales network, with 155 stores across the world, marking a step further in reinforcing its global influence. In China, Aiways currently holds nearly 200 stores in 120 cities, indicating that its sales channels from coastal to inland have basically taken shape. Dedicated to in-house development and manufacture, all Aiways-branded vehicles are produced in the digital and physical twin factories built in compliance to the industry 4.0 standards. Moreover, the factory, which holds great potential and a stable momentum of development in the channels of intelligent manufacturing, product testing, logistics, marketing, services, and so on, has attracted local investments worth more than 32 billion yuan ($4.4 billion). Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinas auto-grade LiDAR supplier LiangDao Intelligence announced on November 4 the completion of its B1 financing round, which raised over 100 million yuan. Photo credit: LiangDao Intelligence LiangDao Intelligence disclosed that the proceeds from the latest round will be put to the R&D of mass-produced auto-grade LiDAR products, accelerate the development and iteration of perception software algorithms, build fully automated production lines, ensure the quality of the companys products, and further promote the overall mass production and application of auto-grade LiDAR system. Notably, LiangDao Intelligence closed its Series A financing round in January 2022, which also raised the company over a hundred million yuan. As a LiDAR supplier based in China and Germany, LiangDao Intelligence strives to promote the mass production and application of LiDAR systems in the intelligent driving and intelligent transportation fields. The company offers a one-stop solution for automakers. Its services include LiDAR hardware integration, perceptual algorithm development, big data-based test and verification, and function iteration. The company possesses solid technical delivery ability in China and Europe. After 5 years of R&D accumulation, LiangDao Intelligence has obtained project cooperation with well-known Chinese and European automakers, such as Great Wall Motor, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. In May this year, the company launched its homegrown solid-state Flash LiDAR, LDSatellite, marking the first of its kind nationwide. The product is scheduled for production validation in the first quarter of 2023. As he brought the 4x4 to a stop in the wildlife preserve in Nanyuki, Kenya, the driver told us, Watch. From out of the jungle of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a herd of elephants appeared. Single file, with the babies protected in the middle, they walked right past our vehicle on their way to the only watering hole within miles. As an elephant lover since childhood, watching the beautiful, huge, powerful, intelligent, gentle creatures took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. Since I was little, Africa has intrigued me. I saw every Tarzan movie. The John Wayne movie Hatari which means danger in Swahili is my all-time favorite. I thought I would only ever dream about visiting Africa. But in August, I was able to experience the trip of a lifetime with my husband. Through his Bucknell Alumni Travel group and the Orbridge Travel Company, who organizes and runs the trip, Kenya Safari: The Big Five adventure began. We arrived in Nairobi at 9 p.m. Kenya time which was 1 p.m. Pennsylvania time. We left the previous day at 6 p.m., so it was a very long trip. We were met in Kenya by a representative from Orbridge and, once we gathered our luggage, we were off to our hotel for a good nights sleep. Over the next two days, we visited the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Giraffe Center, then visited the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where the Kenyans have the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. Believe me, there is nothing more adorable than a baby elephant. The playful, funny animals were grouped according to age and entertained us for as long as we were there. What Kenya is doing to save and preserve their wildlife is nothing short of incredible. In Kenya, it is illegal to hunt any form of wildlife. The punishment is swift and heavy if you kill a wild animal. There are armed rangers patrolling everywhere. Our next stop was Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where we stayed at Sweetwaters Serena Camp. This is a 90,000-acre private wildlife facility located on the equator in Kenyas Laikipia District. In addition to the elephant parading past our 4x4, we also saw Jacksons hartebeest, zebras, cheetahs, giraffes, baboons, hippos, impalas and hyenas. We went out on game drives every morning and every afternoon, awed and amazed by the wildlife we were able to see. Sitting on our deck in the evening, we saw the Cape Buffalos come to drink at the watering hole. They were not alone the impalas, zebras and a variety of birds also joined the group for the much-needed water. I was fortunate enough to go on an extra night game drive and our driver pulled up right next to two sleeping lionesses and two cubs who had just gorged themselves on a warthog. They never moved and I was close enough to reach out and rub their bellies not that that would ever happen! The next morning we visited the rhino sanctuary to see some of the protected rhinos living there. Rhinos are magnificent creatures and Kenya takes very good care of these treasured animals. We then went to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary where these animals, orphaned and abused from West and Central Africa, are provided lifelong refuge. There are currently 35 chimpanzees there and it is the only place in Kenya where they can be seen. Our next stop was Lake Nakuru National Park. Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valleys lakes and is best known for its flamingos nesting along the shores. On our game drive in the afternoon, we observed black rhinos, Rothchild giraffes and a variety of exotic birds. Seeing these magnificent animals in their natural habitat is beyond amazing. We were in Lake Nakuru for one night and left early the next morning to travel along the Rift Valleys western rim into the Maasai Mara National Reserve, which is the northern extension of the Serengeti and perhaps one of the most rewarding observation sites for wildlife. The savanna here is known for its vast concentration of plains animals. We were out on game drives every morning and every afternoon and saw our Big Five lion, leopard, buffalo, black rhino and elephant. We also saw a mother cheetah and her four playful cubs, giraffes quietly and serenely eating the leaves from the tops of the trees, zebras grazing peacefully and lions lying lazily in the shade snoozing the day away. At the Mara Engai Lodge, perched high on a hillside, we had members of the Maasai tribe escort us to and from our tents. The monkeys get frisky at night and the elephants come up the very steep road to feast on the vegetation. The guides used spears and slingshots to keep the monkeys at bay. They just make noise to scare the elephants away and keep them from destroying the plants surrounding the lodge. I was fortunate enough to take a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara and over the Mara River, which is the home to a plethora of hippos. We visited those hippos later in the day and right next to them were as many crocodiles. Our guide explained that the crocodiles dont mess with the grown hippos. Our last stop on this fabulous journey included a one-hour flight in a very small prop plane to Amboseli National Park, which boasts an unmatched view of Mount Kilimanjaro. When we arrived at the Ol Tukai Lodge, we were told never to leave your room with food as the baboons and monkeys are very food-motivated and can be dangerous. Rooms must be locked, as the monkeys have figured out how to get into unlocked rooms. They are scary little creatures and one did manage to get into our room and steal my husbands bag of peanuts, which our brave maid tried to get back. She was able to retrieve half the bag, but the little guy was not a happy monkey. After all that excitement, it was time to return to Nairobi for our trip back to the United States and ultimately Pennsylvania. This was a once in a lifetime trip that I will cherish and remember always. I learned so much and saw so many beautiful animals. Orbridge did an unbelievable job in making sure we saw everything we could possibly see and have the finest experience while in their care. Kathy Pezak lives in Archbald with her husband, Joe, and two boxers, Otto and Winnie. Shes a retired high school English teacher and hes a retired school superintendent. When theyre not spending time at home or at the condo in Myrtle Beach, the couple loves to travel. Glencore was yesterday penalised to the tune of 281m after pleading guilty to a string of bribery offences across several African states. A judge at Southwark Crown Court handed the commodities giant a penalty of around 183m reduced from 274m after it admitted its guilt plus a 93.5m confiscation order to take back the proceeds of the corruption. Glencore will also pay 4.6m to cover the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigation costs. The multi-million pound fine is the largest ever imposed on a company in a UK court. Glencore was yesterday penalised to the tune of 281m after pleading guilty to a string of bribery offences across several African states The SFO brought charges against Glencore following a long-running investigation which revealed its London-based oil trading desk paid bribes of over 24m for preferential access to shipments in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan. In a sentencing hearing, Mr Justice Fraser said the facts of the case demonstrated 'not only significant criminality but sophisticated devices to disguise it'. He added the corruption was 'endemic' among Glencore's traders on the desk. Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, said the judgment was 'a landmark case' for the UK as it was the first time a company had been convicted for authorising bribery under British law. A Glencore subsidiary pleaded guilty in June to the charges, which included incidents where cash was flown by private jet to bribe officials. A month before, Glencore agreed a 957m settlement with the US Department of Justice concerning the scandal. Chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said: 'The conduct that took place was inexcusable and has no place in Glencore.' He added that Glencore is 'committed to operating transparently under a well-defined set of values, with openness and integrity at the forefront' and it has taken 'significant action towards implementing a world-class ethics and compliance programme'. Hugo Boss' success was helped after it enlisted celebrities including Naomi Campbell Hugo Boss hailed an 'extremely successful' quarter after its autumn and winter clothing proved to be a hit with shoppers. The luxury German fashion brand is on track for a record year after sales jumped 18 per cent in the three months to September 30, to 813m. That was up from 690m a year earlier, and more than a quarter higher than pre-pandemic levels. Hugo Boss saw profit rise 8 per cent in the period to 80m. It now expects sales this year of up to 3.1bn, its highest ever, with 290m of profit. But despite the bumper update, shares fell 3 per cent, leaving the business worth 3.1bn. Hugo Boss is engaged in a revamp focused on refreshing the main Hugo and Boss brands to attract younger shoppers. Its success was helped after it enlisted celebrities including Naomi Campbell (pictured), Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner to endorse its clothing. A German energy giant has reported a 35bn loss one of the biggest in corporate history after Russia choked off gas supplies. Uniper, which yesterday published results for the first nine months of the year, has become the biggest corporate casualty so far of the Kremlin's action. The group, which has seven power stations in the UK as well as a gas storage facility, high-pressure gas pipelines and an operation in Kent to convert imported liquid natural gas (LNG) back into natural gas, is in the process of being nationalised as a result of the crisis. Uniper, which yesterday published results for the first nine months of the year, has become the biggest corporate casualty so far of the Kremlin's action Shares fell more than 5 per cent on the latest results and are down by 93 per cent for the year to date, taking its value from 13.3bn to 960m. When Russia cut off gas to Europe it left Uniper having to buy supplies at much higher prices, which were not passed on to consumers. Paying for the more expensive supplies saw the company incur losses of up to 87m a day when gas prices spiked over the summer, falling to less than 9m a day by the end of October as prices cooled. That has added up to nearly 9bn so far with an expected 27bn of future losses related to the same issue pencilled in. Chief financial officer Tiina Tuomela said the situation 'has left massive scars' in the business's financial results. Uniper has threatened legal action against Russia's Gazprom, which had been its main supplier, which could see it seek billions in compensation. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC AION, the new energy vehicle (NEV) subsidiary of GAC AION, on Nov. 3 launched its new-generation platform dedicated to premium battery electric vehicles (BEVs), named AEP 3.0, which will be applied in the models under AION's Hyper premium car brand first. According to GAC AION, the AEP 3.0 platform boasts a supercar-level electric drive technology. Using the X-PIN flat wire and intelligent multi-mode gear shifting technologies, the platform enables a vehicle to zip from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds driven by an electric motor and in as low as 1.9 seconds under the two-motor-drive condition. The maximum speed for an AEP 3.0-powered vehicle can reach 300km/h. Hyper SSR; photo credit: GAC AION The vehicle model atop the AEP 3.0 platform will have a supercar-style low center of gravity and a lightweight body structure, which contribute to a rear-wheel-drive layout with a higher manipulation extremity and the scalability to have an all-wheel-wheel arrangement. Photo credit: GAC AION Moreover, on the new platform, GAC AION adopts its unique AICS (AION Intelligence Chassis System) to adjust the output torque of wheels, braking torque, and rigidity of suspension based on a slew of parameters like wheels' rotate speeds, cornering degrees, and yaw velocity, so as to realize dynamic multi-system matching and control, and achieve a turning radius as low as 5.3 meters and a 30% increase in steering sensitivity and precision compared to sale-level vehicles. The first model riding on the AEP 3.0 platform is the Hyper SSR, which starts at 1.286 million yuan ($177.101 million) in presale, and is expected for volume production and delivery in Oct. 2023, according to Zhang Xiong, deputy general manager of GAC AION. Dubbed "Xingling" (Chinese Pinyin), GAC AION's all-new electrical/electronic architecture will be officially launched on Nov. 8. 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. RoboSense to supply 2nd-generation solid-state LiDAR to Chery RoboSense, a world-leading provider of Smart LiDAR Sensor Systems, on Nov. 3 announced the cooperation with Chinese automaker Chery Automobile, which will introduce the second-generation intelligent solid-state LiDAR products of RoboSense in several models riding on its all-new high-performance all-electric vehicle platform. Those cooperative models are expected for volume production in the second half of 2023. RoboSense 2nd-generation solid-state LiDAR; photo credit: RoboSense Foton Motor's new energy vehicle sales surge 166.46% YoY in Jan.-Oct. 2022 Foton Motor, one of BAIC Group's subsidiaries, sold 36,004 vehicles in Oct. 2022, including 2,582 new energy vehicles (NEVs). For the first ten months of 2022, the automaker saw its auto sales dip 31.49% year on year to 396,109 units, while the NEV sales still surged 166.46% over a year earlier to 16,475 units. Lifan Technology boasts 1,014.91% YoY hike in Oct. 2022 sales In Oct. 2022, Chinese automaker Lifan Technology sold 5,831 vehicles (+1,014.91% YoY), including 4,092 new energy vehicles (+682.41% YoY). In Jan.-Oct. 2022, the company sold 37,683 vehicles (+4,322.89% YoY), 26,879 units of which were new energy vehicles, which represented a 3,138.43% year-over-year spike. XPeng completes RMB964 million debut issuance of auto leasing carbon-neutral asset-backed securities on Shanghai Stock Exchange XPeng Inc. today announced that its subsidiary, Guangzhou Xiaopeng Automotive Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., has successfully concluded its debut issuance of RMB964 million (app. US$133.5 million) automobile leasing carbon-neutral asset-backed securities (ABS) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Farasis Energy breaks ground on new power battery base in Ganzhou city On Nov. 1, Farasis Energy broke ground on a new power battery base in Ganzhou city, Jiangxi province, which features a designed annual production capacity of 30GWh. The new factory will work on producing the SPS (Super Pouch Solution) batteries and power batteries. Xiaomi-backed fund invests in chip developer Pride Silicon Chinese chip developer Pride Silicon recently completed its Pre-A round of financing, which was exclusively invested by Beijing Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Equity Investment Fund Partnership (L.P.), one of Xiaomi Group's industrial investment arms, according to the corporate information platform Tianyancha. Horizon Robotics, Alibaba-backed Banma team up on intelligent driving platform On November 4, Alibaba's automotive intelligence arm, Banma, jointly launched an intelligent driving ecosystem platform with Horizon Robotics at Alibaba's Aspara Conference 2022. Alibaba-backed Banma joins hands with SemiDrive for smart cockpit development Alibaba-backed intelligent auto solution provider Banma joined hands with Shanghai-based automotive chip supplier SemiDrive at Alibaba Group's Apsara Conference 2022. GAC AION launches new premium BEV-dedicated platform APE 3.0 GAC AION, the new energy vehicle (NEV) subsidiary of GAC AION, on Nov. 3 launched its new-generation platform dedicated to premium battery electric vehicles (BEVs), named APE 3.0, which will be applied in the models under AION's Hyper premium car brand first. China's LiDAR supplier LiangDao Intelligence closes B1 financing round China's auto-grade LiDAR supplier LiangDao Intelligence announced on November 4 the completion of its B1 financing round, which raised over 100 million yuan. Geely-backed Cao Cao Mobility partners with Huawei Cloud Geely-backed ride-hailing service platform Cao Cao Mobility reached a strategic cooperation with Huawei Cloud on November 3, in a bid to promote the development of intelligent mobility industry. Aiways celebrates 10,000th vehicle rolling off production line China's new energy vehicle startup Aiways celebrated its 10,000th vehicle rolling off the production line at its Shangrao intelligent factory in Jiangxi Province on November 3. BYD achieves highest-ever monthly auto sales in Oct. 2022 BYD Company Limited ("BYD") saw its monthly auto sales hit a new high of 217,816 units in Oct. 2022, surging 142.19% from the previous year, according to the company's latest monthly sales results. A ceasefire deal in Ethiopias northern Tigray region has raised cautious hope among millions of people impacted by the bloody two-year conflict that their anguish could be coming to an end. Many civilians are also reflecting on the terrible losses they suffered, and look to promised aid to rebuild their lives after a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine. Im very happy because this will put a hold on the suffering, said a Tigrayan man in Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa who declined to be named out of fear of repercussions at his place of work. The positivity comes from humanitarian assistance and the restoration of basic services, he said, referring to pledges made by Tigrayan regional forces and the federal government in a joint statement on Wednesday after eight days of formal peace talks. The two sides agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities and to systematic, orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament, but the scars are still fresh and run deep. All sides fighting in the Tigray war committed violations that may amount to war crimes, according to a joint investigation by the United Nations and Ethiopias state-appointed human rights commission. Last month, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Tigray, said food and healthcare were being used as weapons of war in the region, which has been largely cut off from the outside world. Hospitals have run out of crucial medicines, while hundreds of thousands are teetering on the brink of famine. The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied blocking humanitarian supplies to Tigray. My father we havent spoken to him in more than three years. We havent even gotten any voice messages from him, the Tigrayan man in Addis Ababa told Reuters. Another man, Molla, who declined to use his full name, said he was in his home in the northern Amhara town of Kobo when Tigrayan fighters attacked in September last year. Human Rights Watch, citing witnesses, said 23 civilians were killed by Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters in Kobo at that time. Tigray leaders said they would punish any fighters targeting non-combatants. They shot at us. My brothers died, we had to bury (them), said Molla, who escaped with a bullet wound in his shoulder. We would be happy if this is a real peace. We would be so relieved. We will have to find a way to stop re-living the past. WE LOST EVERYTHING The seesawing fortunes of the belligerents saw Tigray forces advance to within a days drive of Addis Ababa in November last year, prompting some foreign embassies to evacuate all but essential staff, but the TPLF was later pushed back. Last month, the government made significant battlefield gains, capturing several large towns in Tigray, before the two sides finally sat down face to face in Pretoria, South Africa. We lost everything. Just, literally everything, said Andom Gebreyesus, who ran a tour company in Tigray before the war. He managed to escape to Kenya with his children but, like many, has not heard from the rest of his family in more than a year. The cessation of hostilities may bring relief to them, he said, but is unlikely to offer lasting peace. Its the mostthe most unreachable place. No communication, no power, no banking system. I dont even know if they are alive. I dont know. SOURCE: REUTERS Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese chip developer Pride Silicon recently completed its Pre-A round of financing, which was exclusively invested by Beijing Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Equity Investment Fund Partnership (L.P.), one of Xiaomi Group's industrial investment arms, according to the corporate information platform Tianyancha. Photo credit: Xiaomi Group The fresh round raised tens of millions of yuan for Pride Silicon. The proceeds will be used in R&D of the chips under the CAN/Ethernet PHY series. Founded in March 2021, Pride Silicon focuses on the design of highly reliable digital-analog hybrid automotive chips. The company is permitted to operate such businesses as design, manufacturing, and sales of IC chips, software development, as well as auto parts R&D, according to Tianyancha. As of today, it has completed two rounds of financing. Its angel round was closed in Dec. 2021, attracting such investors as Walden international, Sunic Capital, Innoangel Fund, and OFUND Angel. Xiaomi Group has so far invested in over 100 chip, semiconductor, and electronics companies over the past five years, whose operations involve photoelectric chip, automotive chip, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and other fields. More than 14% of registered voters in South Carolina have already cast ballots for the 2022 general election after the state opened up no excuse early voting to all for the first time [November 03, 2022] California Pizza Kitchen Thanks Our Nation's Veterans and Active Military with a Complimentary Meal for Veterans Day This Veterans Day, California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is proud to once again invite the nation's veterans and active U.S. military members to enjoy a complimentary entree and beverage at all participating CPK locations nationwide* in recognition of, and gratitude for, their service. Additionally, for the fourth consecutive year, CPK is partnering with the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) on a nationwide fundraiser November 7 through November 9 to support the non-profit organization's programs and services for veterans and their families. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006320/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) DAV is a nonprofit charity that provides a lifetime of support for veterans of all generations and their families, helping more than 1 million veterans in positive, life-changing ways each year. Last year, the organization provided more than 163,000 rides to veterans attending medical appointments and assisted in filing over 151,000 claims for benefits. In 2021, DAV-represented veterans received more than $25 billion in earned benefits. DAV's services are offered at no cost to all generations of veterans, their families and survivors. DAV is also a leader in connecting veterans with meaningful employment, hosting job fairs and providing resources to ensure they have the opportunity to participate in the American Dream their sacrifices have made possible. To participate in DAV's fundraiser, guests can show a flyer or mention DAV to their server when visiting any CPK and the brand will donate 20% of all food and beverage sales to the organization. Donations will be made for any dine-in, take-out, catering and online orders at cpk.com when a guest enters PROMO CODE: DAV at checkout**. On the November 11 Veterans Day holiday, veterans and active military members can select complimentary items from a special CPK menu, including a choice of one of CPK's California-inspired pizzas, pastas or entree salads and a beverage. CPK will also provide an exclusive buy one, get one free pizza, pasta, or salad offer good for a return visit from November 12 through November 21***. "California Pizza Kitchen is honored to celebrate active and retired U.S. military members for their bravery and sacrifice this Veterans Day," said California Pizza Kitchen EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Scott Hargrove. "As part of our longstanding tradition, we are proud to show our appreciation and gratitude for their service with a complimentary meal and nationwide fundraiser that supports and lifts up the veteran community." "It's been wonderful working with CPK these past four years as they help us continue our mission of supporting our nation's veterans and their families," said DAV CEO Marc Burgess. "We're grateful we can thank our veteran community together this way and know funds raised will help create a lasting, positive impact for many who dedicated their lives to protecting our nation." For more information on CPK's Veterans Day menu, please visit https://www.cpk.com/events/veteransday. About California Pizza Kitchen In 1985, California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) opened its first restaurant in Beverly Hills and introduced diners to gourmet California inspired pizza. With a passion for combining fresh, seasonal ingredients with flavor inspirations from around the world, today CPK is a global brand serving creative California cuisine in more than 180 restaurants across 10 countries and U.S. territories. From its innovative, hearth-baked pizzas such as The Original BBQ Chicken, Thai Chicken, and California Club, to inventive salads, and unique pasta dishes that combine the old world with the new, CPK does everything with an imaginative California-inspired twist that guests love. For more information, visit cpk.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Download the CPK Rewards app for iOS and Android to earn & redeem rewards, order online, and enjoy exclusive CPK perks all year long. About DAV (Disabled American Veterans) DAV empowers veterans to lead high-quality lives with respect and dignity. It is dedicated to a single purpose: keeping our promise to America's veterans. DAV does this by ensuring that veterans and their families can access the full range of benefits available to them; fighting for the interests of America's injured heroes on Capitol Hill; providing employment resources to veterans and their families and educating the public about the great sacrifices and needs of veterans transitioning back to civilian life. DAV, a nonprofit organization with more than 1 million members, was founded in 1920 and chartered by the US Congress in 1932. Learn more at dav.org. *Offer valid for veterans and active military only. On 11/11/2022, choose one entree from our special Veterans Day Menu, dine-in only. No substitutions. Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. **Fundraiser valid only on 11/07/22 - 11/09/22. Tax, gratuity, gift card and retail sales are excluded from the donation. Offer valid for dine-in, takeout, online, catering, curbside and CPK delivery. Not valid for third-party delivery. ***Veterans special offer card available while supplies last. Offer valid for a Free Pizza, Pasta or Salad (of equal or lesser value) on your next visit with the purchase of any Pizza, Pasta or Salad; excluding alcohol, tax and gratuity. Valid for dine-in only. One time use only. No cash value. Not valid on delivery. Offer excludes add-ons, substitutions and seasonal menu items. Limit one offer per table. Offer valid 11/12/22 -11/21/22 only. Veterans Day Menu, DAV Fundraiser, and Veterans Special Offer Card valid at participating locations; not valid at franchise locations in Guam, stadiums, universities, airports, international locations, the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, or the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006320/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] Neurosteer Announces FDA Clearance of the Neurosteer EEG Brain Monitoring Platform Neurosteer's EEG System Features Novel Brain Activity Representation Based on Advanced EEG Signal Processing Technology NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurosteer Inc. today announced the FDA clearance of its Neurosteer single-channel EEG brain monitoring platform. This clearance allows Neurosteer's unobtrusive multi-purpose system to be used in a broad range of clinical settings. In the ICU, it can offer continuous brain monitoring to support critical interventions. In a doctor's office, it can aid in the early detection of pre-symptomatic cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia. And in pharma drug trials, it can assist in the rapid and cost-effective mass screening of subjects who may be suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. "This is an important step in achieving our goal of making brain monitoring and assessment widely available to all populations." Nathan Intrator , Founder and CEO of Neurosteer Neurosteer advances the century-old EEG into the 21st century, using an adhesive electrode strip connected to a pocket-sized sensor that wirelessly transmits EEG data to the cloud for advanced signal processing. Using just a single adhesive forehead strip, Neurosteer's innovative solution offers the traditional EEG frequecy bands while also being cleared by the FDA to include several novel "brain metrics" visual representations. These brain metrics rely on Neurosteer's advanced signal processing technology and may assist trained medical staff in making neurological diagnoses. In addition, affixing the adhesive strip to the forehead avoids interference from the hair, and using dry gel supports unattended operation for up to 12 hours. Finally, the system includes a noninvasive assessment with auditory prompts that can aid in the early detection of brain deterioration. Dr. Amitai Bickel, Surgeon at Western Galilee Hospital, commented, "After working with the Neurosteer EEG system for several years, I've realized what an advantage it is to have a compact, easy-to-apply EEG brain monitor that can be used for real-time continuous monitoring. Neurosteer's innovative platform has the potential to revolutionize the standard of care in managing brain health." Dr. Nathan Intrator, Founder and CEO of Neurosteer, said, "We are extremely pleased that the FDA has cleared our portable and affordable EEG system, and moreover, recognized the potential clinical value of our brain metrics visual representations. This is an important step in achieving our goal of making brain monitoring and assessment widely available to all populations." About the Company Neurosteer Inc. has developed an innovative brain monitoring platform that is based on a portable single-channel EEG. It uses an adhesive forehead electrode strip connected to a pocket-sized sensor that wirelessly transmits EEG data to the cloud for advanced signal processing. It complements traditional frequency band analysis with "brain metrics" visual representations. The company was founded in 2015 by Dr. Nathan Intrator to commercialize brain monitoring technology that he initially developed at Tel Aviv University. With offices in New York, California and Israel, the company's patented product is currently being validated in clinical trials and used by pharmaceutical companies for patient screening and efficacy testing of new drugs. www.neurosteer.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neurosteer-announces-fda-clearance-of-the-neurosteer-eeg-brain-monitoring-platform-301668471.html SOURCE Neurosteer Inc [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] ThitsaWorks was awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of Concept (POC) grant for Inclusive Cross-Border Remittances SINGAPORE, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ThitsaWorks, in partnership with INFITX (previously ModusBox) and Visa, was awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of Concept (POC) grant on 29-June-2022. The FSTI POC grant supports the experimentation, development, and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector. While many remittance options exist for overseas migrant workers in Singapore, options to reach rural areas where many workers' families live are complicated, expensive, and slow. Additionally, friends and family who only have accounts with MFIs and rural banks cannot receive direct payments. Together with Rapyd and Lucy, ThitsaWorks, INFITX, and Visa have introduced the Inclusive Cross-Border Remittances Project to make remittances for Singapore-to-Philippines corridor more affordable and efficient. The project aims to connect small financial institutions to real-time payment networks to enable fast, convenient, and ubiquitous cross-border remittances. Our solution couples an inclusive RTP network, which creates the foundation for faster payments, with an alias resolution service to facilitate transmission. In this regard, ThitsaWorks, INFITX, and Visa have started a proof-of-concept for a Visa Direct-Mojaloop solution connected to MFIs and rural banks on a new inclusive subnational network: i2i (by UBX) in the Philippines. The POC is initially established between Singapore and the Philippines but is replicable to any receiving country with an RTP network and open banking frameworks. Mr. Nyi Nyein Aye, CEO and Co-founder of ThitsaWorks, said, "We are happy to be a part of the Inclusive Cross-Border Remittance Project which will make remittance cheaper and faster for?the Singapore-to-Philippines corridor.?I believe this project?will positively affect the remittance challenges that many overseas migrant workers in Singapore undergo, which we witness daily.?Our ThitsaWorks team is also very excited?to work?closely with prominent financial industry participants and learn from each other."? Mr. Steve Haley, Director of Market Development and Partnerships from the Mojaloop Foundation, stated, "The Mojaloop Foundation is thrilled to join the Cross-Border Remittance Project. The potential of emerging economies to innovate and deploy efficient, interoperable domestic and cross-border applications shapes our mission to enhance financial inclusion worldwide. We believe this project will significantly impact achieving the?goal we share with our partner organizations." Dr. Warren D. Carew, Managing Director of INFITX, stated, "We are excited to be the?project's technical partner. We will focus?on connecting small financial institutions to real-time payment networks to make cross-border remittances for the Singapore-to-Philippines corridor more efficient and comfortable." Mr. Deepan Dagur, Vice President and Head of Visa Direct, Asia Pacific at Visa, commented, "Remittance is an essential financial service to the migrant community in Singapore to enable workers to tay connected to their families back home. Visa's partnership with ThitsaWorks and regional client financial organisations will enable us to provide a convenient and secure option for migrant workers to easily send money to the Philippines." Ms. Debbie Watkins, CEO and Co-founder of Lucy Holdings Pte. Ltd., added, "We are thrilled to collaborate with the industry-leading financial services for the Cross-Border Remittance Project. As the project steering committee, we will contribute to the project by incorporating user feedback into design discussions, and we are excited to witness the project's impact." Mr. John Januszczak, President and CEO of UBX shared, "This is the big step forward to enable fast, convenient, and ubiquitous cross-border remittances for the benefits of the Filipino migrant workers in Singapore. I am confident that this partnership will also accelerate financial inclusion in the Philippines by giving clients across all regions of the archipelago - regardless of how rural or remote - access to secure and connected payments through any financial service provider including rural banks, cooperatives and other community based financial institutions. We see this as making a material impact on the ability for all Filipinos to participate in the digital economy." For further information, please contact at [email protected]. About ThitsaWorks: ThitsaWorks is a FinTech that provides digital payment and data analytics solutions for financial institutions to transact, collect, manage and analyze data needed to run effective operations and manage risks. ThitsaWorks's data-driven solutions help financial institutions grow and make better credit decisions, and improve financial inclusion by providing users with access to financial literacy, financial information and appropriate financial products. ThitsaWorks' solutions include core banking software, microfinance data sharing platform, digital financial literacy platform, and interoperable payment switch platform. For more information about ThitsaWorks, visit https://www.thitsaworks.com . About the Mojaloop Foundation: The Mojaloop Foundation's mission is to increase financial inclusion by empowering organizations to create interoperable payment systems to enable digital financial services for all. Sponsor-level members include Coil, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, MAS, INFITX (previously ModusBox), Ripple, and The Rockefeller Foundation. To achieve its mission, Mojaloop Foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organisation, maintaining its free, open-source software, Mojaloop, and community as public goods in the service of financial inclusion. Merchants, banks, providers, government offices, and other entities looking to build inclusive payments platforms can use Mojaloop whole, adapted, or as a real-time payments reference model. For more information about the Mojaloop Foundation, visit https://mojaloop.io/ . About INFITX: INFITX (Inclusive Financial Technology eXperts) delivers fast and low-cost deployments of effective Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS) and real-time payment (RTP) solutions. We support Financial Services Providers (FSP) and FinTechs in participating in the Payment Schemes with easy onboarding and optimised participation - the keys to the Scheme providing successful interoperability. INFITX holds a leading role as one of the founding members of the open-source community that maintains Mojaloop - the first open-source platform for interoperability in a real-time payment network. As a participant in this community, we contribute to the core solution and development of adjacent capabilities. Through capacity building and technical assistance programmes, INFITX empowers government, industry, and commercial organisations to create schemes that realise IIPS/RTP hubs and support FSPs and FinTechs that participate in them. We have expertise in scheme creation, hub business operations, and technical operations for self-hosted or cloud-based solutions. We support hub operators with services and solutions that de-risk the journey of adopting OSS solutions, like Mojaloop, and ensure a dependable and supported service. And, following best practices, we provide support for FSPs and FinTechs, as 3rd Party Payment Initiators, to optimise their participation in instant payment systems. Learn more: https://infitx.com About LUCY: Lucy is a digital neobank and integrated empowering community toolkit that helps entrepreneurial women become unstoppable by leveling the financial playing field. Lucy has been designed from the ground up to provide entrepreneurial women everywhere with the tools they need to take control of their financial future, realize their potential, grow and thrive. We equip them with the financial services, business-building tools, and belief in their capabilities and potential that they need to take control of their future and make a positive contribution to their growth and, through that, to the economy's growth as a whole. Our solution is entirely virtual and app-based and leverages cutting-edge technology to enable streamlined digital delivery, a customer-centric product portfolio, and a clean and intuitive user interface. For more information about LUCY, visit: https://welucy.com/ About UBX: Originally the financial technology venture studio and fund of UnionBank of the Philippines, UBX is now the Philippines' leading Open Finance platform. UBX is predicated on a future where financial services are invisible: seamlessly embedded into the experiences and activities that truly matter to businesses and people. For more information about UBX, visit https://www.ubx.ph/ SOURCE ThitsaWorks Pte Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] PCS Software Releases 3rd Quarter Updates to the AI Transportation Management Platform. HOUSTON, Nov. 3, 2022 /CNW/ -- PCS Software (PCS), the leading transportation management (TMS) platform provider for shippers, carriers and brokerages in North America, announces new software updates that enable customers to further streamline freight transactions and enhance their service capabilities. New Features Unveiled for PCS Shipper TMS PCS Software updated its Shipper TMS platform with features that harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and improve results in key transportation and logistics processes. The feature updates include: LTL Rating - PCS Shipper TMS can now automate the LTL rating process. This update reduces errors and frees users from manual work, allowing companies to redeploy resources on more valuable activities like generating revenue, procuring capacity, and finding cost savings. DAT Rate Index - Users can now take full advantage of their investment in the DAT rating index. A robust integration with PCS Shipper TMS connects with the DAT rating index and gives users instant access to rates based on equipment type (flatbed, dry van, reefer, etc.), origin and destination, rate type (truckload, LTL, intermodal), period, geographic market, and more. Quote APIs - PCS has added the ability for users to access and book capacity for new trade lanes and commodities without resorting to spot market rating AND without procuring a contracted rate. The new service is backed by leading freight brokers such as Uber Freight, Convoy, and more. PCS Shipper TMS helps users save time and money by directly accessing a guaranteed rate for loads they need to cover. The above features are set to lanch alongside several updates for Shipper TMS that include improved reporting capabilities, support for the movement of inbound materials, and a better user interface and experience (UI/UX). PCS Carrier TMS Expanding Capabilities for Dispatch Service Providers Dispatch service providers can now access a cutting-edge TMS to service their carrier clients. PCS Carrier TMS is now offering unlimited subordinate databases under a single company. This allows providers to streamline dispatch services for an unlimited number of clients without the need to jump from app to app or manually manage their databases with disconnected spreadsheets. By managing their services within a single platform, independent dispatchers can scale operations as their business grows without costly investments into additional TMS accounts. Open Trial for PCS Prime Express PCS is announcing that PCS Prime Express is now entering open trial stage. Prime Express is a novel AI Transportation Management Platform (TMP) that optimally matches loads, assets, and drivers within networks and across supply chains. Utilizing an innovative and holistic approach, Prime Express is a departure from traditional transportation management software. Rather than serving individual sectors of the transportation and logistics industry, PCS has developed a single, unified web-based solution that serves both shippers and carriers and brings them together into a single platform. The software automates load planning for shippers as well as dispatch notifications to carriers with one simple platform that integrates with their existing PCS Carrier or Shipper TMS. With built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, this new method offers immediate benefits not found in other systems, all through an easily accessible portal. "The release of Prime Express comes at the perfect time. With access to powerful load and driver optimization technology in a single, easy-to-use platform, shippers and carriers of all sizes will be able to increase efficiency and sharpen their competitive edge." Paul Beavers , CTO of PCS Software. About PCS Software PCS Software is an AI-driven transportation management platform leader fielding disruptive innovation for mid-to-large sized enterprise shippers, carriers, and brokers in the United States and Canada. Cloud-based, API-integrated, PCS Software automates the entire transportation logistics operation via a single, comprehensive solution. Accessible via the web or the companion mobile app, the PCS platform delivers powerful functionality to manage rate and route optimization, mode selection, dispatch/tendering, carrier and fleet management, safety and compliance, freight yard management, settlement/accounting and more. For more information, visit www.PCSSoft.com . PRESS CONTACT: Paul Beavers [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pcs-software-releases-3rd-quarter-updates-to-the-ai-transportation-management-platform-301668515.html SOURCE PCS Software [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] ACL Airshop Shifts into Higher Gear for Air Cargo Customers Long-Term ULD Management Contracts and Digital Suite Upgrades Highlight New Growth Investments by Leading Air Cargo Equipment & Logistics Provider GREENVILLE, S.C. and MIAMI, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ACL Airshop, a global leader in air cargo Unit Load Device (ULD) logistics solutions to over 200 airlines, air cargo carriers, and other transportation clients, is announcing strategic initiatives and technology themes at the Air Cargo Forum in Miami. The air cargo convention is paired with the Transport Logistics Americas supply chain forum and runs November 8th through 10th. TIACA (The International Air Cargo Association) is hosting this major annual aviation event. TIACA works with industry partners and regulators to advocate and drive change for a safe, profitable and united air cargo industry that embraces modern technologies and practices to sustainably and fairly serve trade and social development worldwide. A specialized company in the air cargo value chain, ACL Airshop is also a Trustee level member of TIACA. ACL AIRSHOP Gears-Up for Airlines Customers with more Long-Term Contracts and enhanced ULD Digital Suite ACL Airshop has geared-up two key aspects in its businss offerings, centered on customers' needs. While maintaining its market dominance on short-term ULD leasing solutions , it is (1) adding a growing array of selective Long-Term Multi-Year ULD Fleet Management Contracts with its customers, and (2) continuously upgrading its comprehensive Digital Suite of innovative logistics technologies. In addition to enlarging the ULD fleet each year and growing the worldwide network of hub stations, these important ongoing strategic initiatives are centered on customers' needs: Long-Term ULD Fleet Management Contracts Now Comprise Half of ACL Airshop's Deployed Asset Volume. Multi-Year Contracts can give customers cost-efficient access to all of the logistics and digital services that ACL Airshop offers, including repairs, nets, straps, digitalization, ULD Control, tracking, FindMyULD, and other end-to-end efficiencies. The company is continuously investing in more pallets and many other ULD types to expand its available fleet, and will be opening more network hub stations in response to clients' requirements. The combination of large deployable ULD inventory across a global network of convenient airport hubs is very desirable to airlines and cargo operators. That includes ACL's unique one-way lease/drop-off option. ACL Airshop's deliberate mix of short-term solutions and long-term recurring contracts is a formidable Value Proposition that helps customers with numerous options. Multi-Year Contracts can give customers cost-efficient access to all of the logistics and digital services that ACL Airshop offers, including repairs, nets, straps, digitalization, ULD Control, tracking, FindMyULD, and other end-to-end efficiencies. The company is continuously investing in more pallets and many other ULD types to expand its available fleet, and will be opening more network hub stations in response to clients' requirements. The combination of large deployable ULD inventory across a global network of convenient airport hubs is very desirable to airlines and cargo operators. That includes ACL's unique one-way lease/drop-off option. ACL Airshop's is a formidable Value Proposition that helps customers with numerous options. Award-Winning Digital Suite Makes Life Easier for All Users in the Customer's Logistics Ecosystem. ULD Control is a complete web based software solution for managing ULD equipment anywhere, 24/7/365. ACL Airshop is a key player at the?nexus of the industry evolution in digital technologies that?aid?freight?forwarders,?shippers,?cargo centers, and?airlines in improving their operations. The company recently revealed in 2022 a newly designed and field-tested Bluetooth ULD tag for installation in the seat-tracks of cargo pallets. That product improvement is now rolling-out with several major customers. By combining ULD Control with the company's award-winning app FindMyULD, Bluetooth tracking, ACL's global Operations Center, plus advanced Repair Station software and other innovations, customers discover they can "do more with less." ACL Airshop has now even tied the Airway Bill itself to the Bluetooth tag of the ULD, creating useful new levels of end-to-end visibility and speed for air cargo customers and their end-user shippers. One of the company leaders likened these advances to the "Uberization" of the air cargo ULD sectorputting "everything in the palm of your hand" for customers and other parties across the cargo network. ACL Airshop owns, maintains and leases more than 60,000 Unit Load Devices (ULDs), including air freight pallets and containers, issued from 55 airport hub locations across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. ACL Airshop's strong growth in recent years builds on the company's 39-year heritage as an air cargo equipment and logistics specialist. Its worldwide services network has expanded from 23 airport hub locations in 2016 to 55 at latest count. More hubs are planned. Today, the company maintains the largest independent inventory of lease-ready ULD assets in the industry for short-term solutions, and also has a growing array of multi-year ULD Management contracts. The company deploys innovative logistics technologies in a comprehensive Digital Suite, such as "FindMyULD" which yield better fleet efficiencies and operational cost savings for customers. ACL Airshop was first-in-market among its competitive class to offer Bluetooth tracking & tracing of air cargo pallets and containers. For more information, please visit www.ACLairshop.com. Forward Looking Statements: The Company from time to time may discuss forward-looking information. Except for factual historical information, all forward looking statements are estimates by the Company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from management's expectations. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acl-airshop-shifts-into-higher-gear-for-air-cargo-customers-301668528.html SOURCE ACL Airshop [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] Albertsons Companies Issues Statement Regarding the Temporary Restraint of its Special Dividend Payment as a Result of Washington State Court's Temporary Restraining Order Albertsons Companies (NYSE: ACI) ("Albertsons Cos." or "the Company") today announced that the Attorney General of the State of Washington has been granted a temporary restraining order ("TRO") by a Commissioner assistant to the Judge. The TRO restrains the Company from paying the previously announced $6.85 per common share Special Dividend (the "Special Dividend"), originally scheduled to be paid on November 7, 2022. The Order enables the Court to consider the merits at a hearing scheduled for November 10, 2022. The Order remains in effect until November 10, 2022, unless within that time, an order is entered extending or dismissing the TRO. Albertsons Cos. intends to seek to overturn the restraint as quickly as possible because the temporary order was based on the incorrect assertion that payment of the Special Dividend would impair its ability to compete while its proposed merger (the "Merger") with The Kroger Co. ("Kroger") is under antitrust review. A hearing on the State of Washington's request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for November 10, 2022. Albertsons Cos. continues to maintain that the lawsuit brought by the State of Washington, and the similar lawsuit brought by the Attorneys General of California, Illinois, and the District of Columbia are meritless and provide no legal basis for canceling or postponing a dividend that has been duly and unanimously approved by Albertsons Cos.' fully informed Board of Directors. Albertsons Cos. is a thriving business which has delivered over $75 billion in revenues in the rolling four quarters ended September 10, 2022, following strong performance of $71.9 billion in revenues in fiscal 2021. Albertsons Cos. is well-capitalized, with limited debtand significant free cash flow and is in a strong position financially. The size of the dividend reflects the Company's strength, rather than the illogical and damaging accusation that it is an attempt to weaken the Company. The Company's plan to return capital to stockholders is part of its long-stated capital-return strategy and does not change the fact that Albertsons Cos. is in the strongest financial position it has ever been. The Company remains fully committed to investing in the associates, stores, and digital capabilities that have made its recent growth and strong performance possible. Albertsons Cos. is confident that it will continue to make strategic progress following the payment of the Special Dividend, given its strong cash flows and low debt profile. After payment of the Special Dividend, Albertsons Cos. will have approximately $3.0 billion of liquidity, including approximately $500 million in cash and approximately $2.5 billion available under its already existing asset-based lending facility, and expects to continue to generate strong revenues and positive free cash flow, furthering increasing liquidity. Albertsons Cos. intends to argue vigorously based on the factual record that there is simply no basis to continue restraining the payment of the Special Dividend. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The "forward-looking statements" include our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the Special Dividend and the payment thereof. They include statements which the Company believes to be reasonable at this time. You can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "may," "should," "could," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "anticipates," "believes," "plans," "expects," "future" and "intends" and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements and risk factors. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect our view only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation, other than as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In evaluating our forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties more fully described in the "Risk Factors" section or other sections in our reports filed with the SEC. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103006426/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] NEC debuts highly secure and scalable Advanced Visitor Experience Platform with biometrics authentication at SingHealth Tower and Outram Community Hospital Visitors can now visit their loved ones speedily with enhanced registration process SINGAPORE, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NEC Asia Pacific (NEC APAC), the regional headquarters for NEC Corporation in Southeast Asia, has worked with the Integrated Health Information Systems to deploy its highly accurate biometric authentication system to the new Facial Recognition Automated Visitor Management System (FRAVMS) for visitors to SingHealth Tower and Outram Community Hospital (OCH). NEC's solution enables visitors to pre-register remotely through a mobile site before their arrival, and speedily enter through a security gantry equipped with facial recognition capabilities upon arrival at the hospital. This six-month FRAVMS trial for a more seamless visitor experience was initiated by SingHealth, Singapore's largest public healthcare group consisting of acute and community hospitals, national specialty centres and a network of polyclinics, and IHiS, Singapore's largest healthtech company and the technology agency for public healthcare. The registration process starts with visitors verifying their identity using Singpass Face Verification. Following which, visitors will take a photograph that is stored in SingHealth's facial recognition software for the duration of the patient's admission, to complete the online registration. On the day of the visit, cameras at the gantry will detect the visitor's face and verify it against the pre-enrolled information before allowing them access. This system is also fitted with temperature detection capabilities to ensure that only visitors who are physically well, i.e. not running a fever, are allowed to enter the wards. Prior to this deployment, visitors had to register manually with their physical identity cards or Digital IC in the Singpass app at an on-site kiosk or registration counter. This pilot programme aims tostreamline these processes by digitalising them, and helps free up resources (i.e. manpower, consumables like papers, and number of kiosks required to facilitate registrations, etc.) so that OCH can redeploy staff to areas that require more attention. If the visitors prefer to register onsite, the existing system continues to be available. "We are glad to offer visitors to our wards the convenience that this new system brings, so that they can have a more pleasant visiting experience in the hospital," said Mr Tan Jack Thian, Group Chief Operating Officer, SingHealth. "Operationally, we can also expect a smoother flow of visitors during visitation hours since NRIC-scanning will not be required at the gantries. Meanwhile, we continue to offer the usual methods of registration at the counters or e-kiosks for visitors who may need more time to familiarise themselves with the online registration process, or for those who prefer registering their visit manually." "The integration with Singpass is a key component of this trial, enabling visitors to quickly and securely register their visit," said Mr Ong Leong Seng, Deputy Chief Executive, IHiS. "This is the first time face verification technology is being implemented in a physical healthcare setting. We integrated the security features, simplified the registration process and enabled a contactless experience at the gantries. This is expected to benefit more than 300 daily visitors and save each visitor about 10 minutes for registration. We are very pleased to be able to collaborate with SingHealth, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and NEC on this meaningful and impactful project." Mr Teh Chong Mien, Managing Director, NEC APAC, said, "We are delighted and privileged to partner with SingHealth, IHiS and GovTech in this trial. Our Advanced Visitor Experience Platform offers a seamless and secured experience for users where they can simply register their identity via their mobile devices, and proceed to enter the hospital vicinity smoothly and safely. It's simple and contactless. This digital platform has the advanced capabilities to configure and manage the entire process based on stipulated local hospital policies. This helps to ensure safety and security while making it easier for the visitors. The platform is an extension of NEC's Smart Face Authentication solution, which features the world's No. 1 face authentication engine in terms of accuracy, as well as its outstanding flexibility and scalability." Mr Teh added, "NEC will continue to contribute towards societal values and promote a more sustainable world where everyone can use digital technology safely, securely, and conveniently. Through co-creation and co-development with our customers, partners and the community, we hope to accelerate the delivery of innovative digital solutions to solve real life challenges." About NEC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. Singapore-based NEC Asia Pacific (NEC APAC) is the regional headquarters for NEC Corporation (HQ: Japan) in Southeast Asia. Established in 1977, NEC APAC provides innovative products and services that promote safety, security and enhance the quality of life for Singapore's residents. Today, NEC APAC drives digital transformation through the areas of public safety, managed services, enterprise applications and infrastructure, financial solutions and multimedia platforms to enable smart cities in the region. Together with NEC Laboratories Singapore, NEC APAC aims to create social value with solutions tailored to the requirements of local and regional markets. For more information, please visit https://sg.nec.com. SOURCE NEC APAC Pte Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 03, 2022] The International SeaKeepers Society kicks off first ever The Ocean Collective Summit in Singapore SINGAPORE , Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The International SeaKeepers Society kicked off the first day of The Ocean Collective Summit (TOCS) at ONE15 Marina Sentosa Cove Singapore today. TOCS is part of Blue Water EduFest 2022 and the inaugural event saw Guest of Honour Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration in attendance. He later delivered a speech reiterating the nation's commitment to coastal conservation as part of Singapore's sustainability endeavours. While weather patterns of late give a grim indication of the impact of climate change, the resounding message from Day 1 of the Conference was one of hope, encouragement and more importantly, one of personal responsibility. Speakers ranging from keynote speaker; famed Aquanaut, Oceanographic Explorer and Environmental Advocate, Fabien Cousteau; Dr Karenne Tn, Director of the Coastal and Marine and Terrestrial Branches, National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board (NParks); and Dr Steven Fong, Programme Chair DMAC, Republic Polytechnic; stressed the importance of personal action. Instead of waiting for work or action to be taken by the authorities or a collective group, individual action is just as important and should not be neglected. Speakers also urged attendees to look at making changes in their daily habits, a change of mindset, and even changing the language. For instance, instead of "seafood", the term can be replaced with "sealife" so that in time, sea creatures are seen as cohabitants of the planet and not just food for consumption. Dr Tun further shared the personal actions she's taking with her lifestyle as a demonstration of how everyone has a part to play to help achieve the targets set out in The Singapore Green Plan 2030. The message of personal responsibility rings true for today's youth who formed a large part of the audience. The youth are identified as the group showing the most concern as well as the group most demanding for action to be taken. The message of personal responsibility and action resonated with the attendees and sets the stage for the second day of the conference where a brainstorm will be held and targets can be set. The second day of the conference also explores how corporate citizens maintain the balance between commercial requirements and responsibility to the environment. Speakers from some of the world's most established brands, such as Citi Private Bank, SDAX ,Archwey and VE Capital and Company, will share how their organisations in line with their respective business interests, provide solutions towards achieving sustainability. These speakers will also elaborate on their partnerships with the various environmental groups and how they raise awareness of these efforts, including through media platforms and stakeholder communications. Singapore Airlines, was also announced today as the Official Airline for TOCS, providing air travel for several of the guest speakers. Other Official Sponsors include Citi Private Bank, Archwey, and SDAX. The Ocean Collective Summit 2022 is part of the programming for the Blue Water EduFest 2022. SOURCE The International SeaKeepers Society, Asia [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] Alibaba Group Will Announce September Quarter 2022 Results on November 17, 2022 Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988, "Alibaba" or "Alibaba Group") today announced that it will report its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 before the U.S. market opens on Thursday, November 17, 2022, and will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results at 7:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (8:30 p.m. Hong Kong Time) the same day. All participants must pre-register to join this conference call using the Participant Registration link below: English: https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10026188-8zkda0.html Chinese: https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10026189-wl8eug.html Upon registration, each participant will receive details for the conference call, including dial-in numbers, conference call passcode and a unique access PIN. To join the conference, please dial the number provided, enter the passcode followed by your PIN, and you will join the conference. A live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed at https://www.alibabagroup.com/en-US/ir-financial-reports-quarterly-results. An archived webcast will be available through the same link following the call. A replay of the conference call will be available for one week from the date of the conference (Dial-in number: +1 855 883 1031; English conference PIN 10026188; Chinese conference PIN 10026189). Please visit Alibaba Group's Investor Relations website at https://www.alibabagroup.com/en-US/investor-relations on November 17, 2022 to view the earnings release and accompanying slides prior to the conference call. About Alibaba Group Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a good company that lasts for 102 years. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005263/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] POMPANO BEACH, Fla.During National Gratitude Month, M.D. Science Lab's Swiss Navy sends a message of thankfulness to its customers around the globe. Said ACS, M.D. Sciences vice president of sales and marketing Briana Watkins, "Our entire Swiss Navy family is thankful for our partners everywhere. We know that our success is also their success. Our sales continue to grow month after month and were proud to be able to continually help others expand their business and their blessingsand we appreciate each and every one of them! While helpfulness was a central component for Swiss Navy throughout 2021 due to the pandemic and supply chain disruptions, 2022 has been a year of gratitude and support. Said M.D. Science Labs CEO Ralph Albrecht, "Our Swiss Navy team has always aimed to help our customer-family on multiple levels. Briana and her team have expanded our merchandise selection, provided solutions to help boost retailers sales, and worked to launch a game-changing certification program, all in response to our customers needs." In 2022, Swiss Navy launched Deep Throat Fast Acting Oral Numbing Spray and Anal Jelly Premium Personal Lubricant, with several more thoughtful products in development based on consumer demand and customer requirements. Watkins added, "Im thankful that Swiss Navy was able to be a part of our customers success this year. Our entire team is industry family-focused, and we keep our customers a constant priority. We are all incredibly thankful to be a part of this industry and appreciate how Swiss Navy is consistently embraced." To learn more about Swiss Navy and to view its latest product range, visit swissnavy.com. For sales and marketing resources, visit Swiss Navys B2B Resource Center at b2bswissnavy.com. To learn more about becoming a Swiss Navy Certified Expert with free online certification, visit swissnavycertifiedexpert.com. [November 04, 2022] ICFAI Business School Management Program giving an Edge to One's Corporate Career HYDERABAD, India, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anyone who wants to grow steadily in their career today needs leadership skills, team management abilities, communication skills, etc. beyond their core subject knowledge. MBA/PGPM degree from a renowned Business school in India is a weighing addition to one's resume and also for skill enhancement required for vertical growth in any given domain. Like every year, candidates who are aspiring for MBA/PGPM are applying for all the entrance tests and preparing rigorously towards the same. IBSAT is one of the various popular entrance tests that most aspirants apply for and prepare for qualifying. About IBSAT Most MBA aspirants apply for IBSAT which is conducted by The IFHE (ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education). It is the entrance test to qualify for eligibility for the selection process for a 2-year full-time MBA/PGPM and PhD Program in IBS Hyderabad and IBS Bengaluru (Off Campus IFHE), MBA program in IBS Dehradun and IBS Jaipur, and PGPM program in IBS Ahmedabad, IBS Gurgaon, IBS Kolkata, IBS Mumbai, and IBS Pune. ICFAI Business School gives a clear message of the fact that an MBA/PGPM degree is very important right now for anyone ambitious about a booming corporate career. And this very approach is being resonated through every effort IBS puts in by helping aspirants for upcoming competitive exams, providing the applicants with more insight about MBA and its benefits, etc. The reasons how ICFAI Business School shapes a promising career for its students: World-class faculty : The faculty community is the torch bearer for the students. ICFAI Business School (IBS) is recognized nationally and globally for its continuous efforts in providing a world-class faculty resource that is very important for a memorable and positive learning experience for the students. ICFAI Business School (IBS) thrives to be an educational institution that empowers the philosophy of making learning the most productive. : The faculty community is the torch bearer for the students. ICFAI Business School (IBS) is recognized nationally and globally for its continuous efforts in providing a world-class faculty resource that is very important for a memorable and positive learning experience for the students. ICFAI Business School (IBS) thrives to be an educational institution that empowers the philosophy of making learning the most productive. Case Study-based Learning : The 2-year MBA/PGPM course curriculum in ICFAI Business School (IBS) is unique due to the extensive emphasis on case study-based learning. Students are provided with worldwide business case stuies continuously, which are further to be presented with a solution and discussed in the classroom setup. : The 2-year MBA/PGPM course curriculum in ICFAI Business School (IBS) is unique due to the extensive emphasis on case study-based learning. Students are provided with worldwide business case stuies continuously, which are further to be presented with a solution and discussed in the classroom setup. Summer Internship Programs : MBA/PGPM program at ICFAI Business School (IBS) needs the students to invest a good time in the Summer Internship Program. The program is usually for 14 weeks when the student gets an opportunity to be a part of a renowned corporate house as an intern in a team working on a particular project. It is an orientation to the real-time work culture and provides a horizon to learn beyond books. : MBA/PGPM program at ICFAI Business School (IBS) needs the students to invest a good time in the Summer Internship Program. The program is usually for 14 weeks when the student gets an opportunity to be a part of a renowned corporate house as an intern in a team working on a particular project. It is an orientation to the real-time work culture and provides a horizon to learn beyond books. Campus Placement : ICFAI Business School (IBS) has maintained outstanding statistics of placements for students both nationally and internationally over the years since its inception. The placement procedure is carried on in a very systematic manner. The students are exposed to various rigorous pieces of training to prepare for the interviews. Every year ICFAI Business School (IBS) welcomes an elaborate list of firms from varied domains and industries for the placement process and has maintained providing salary packages that the students deserve. The overall average package offered during placement 2022 has been INR 8.71 LPA, with the top 10% average package being INR 14.31 LPA. The highest international package that many students have acquired is INR 53. 45 LPA. : ICFAI Business School (IBS) has maintained outstanding statistics of placements for students both nationally and internationally over the years since its inception. The placement procedure is carried on in a very systematic manner. The students are exposed to various rigorous pieces of training to prepare for the interviews. Every year ICFAI Business School (IBS) welcomes an elaborate list of firms from varied domains and industries for the placement process and has maintained providing salary packages that the students deserve. The overall average package offered during placement 2022 has been INR 8.71 LPA, with the top 10% average package being INR 14.31 LPA. The highest international package that many students have acquired is INR 53. 45 LPA. The humane element : IBS understands that holistic growth is equally essential for a student besides professional and academic learning. A person cannot deem fit as a successful leader or a team player if he/she doesn't impart the humane element within them. Extra-Curricular activities, recreational facilities, top-notch infrastructure, and a friendly atmosphere makes ICFAI Business School (IBS) a great choice for the wonderful 2-year experience for students. Facts on how ICFAI Business School (IBS) makes a difference: Fair and Equal Selection Process: While someone is aspiring to pursue MBA/PGPM, he/ she is certainly aiming and preparing for the top Business Schools in India . However, at times the selection process for MBA in India in many management colleges has criteria of quota and other preferences; which is no doubt good but a little demotivating for many potential aspirants who face loss at a narrow margin. The selection process in ICFAI Business School (IBS) doesn't adhere to any such criteria and believes rather in an organic and equal selection process for everyone. While someone aspiring to pursue MBA/PGPM, he/ she is certainly aiming and preparing for the top Business Schools in . However, at times the selection process for MBA in in many management colleges has criteria of quota and other preferences; which is no doubt good but a little demotivating for many potential aspirants who face loss at a narrow margin. The selection process in ICFAI Business School (IBS) doesn't adhere to any such criteria and believes rather in an organic and equal selection process for everyone. IBSAT National Mock Test: ICFAI Business School (IBS) conducts IBSAT National Mock Test every year, which gives the aspirants a great insight into the MBA entrance test. This year the IBSAT National Mock Test is being conducted from 1st October 2022 to 15th November 2022 . The registration procedure and all the details about the same are available at https://ibsat-mocktest.ibsindia.org/. The first 100 toppers will get gift vouchers, the first prize being Rs.10000 and 2nd to 100th Rs.2000 . ICFAI Business School (IBS) conducts IBSAT National Mock Test every year, which gives the aspirants a great insight into the MBA entrance test. This year the IBSAT National Mock Test is being conducted from to . The registration procedure and all the details about the same are available at https://ibsat-mocktest.ibsindia.org/. The first 100 toppers will get gift vouchers, the first prize being and 2nd to 100th . Scholarship worth Rs.10 Crores : ICFAI Business School (IBS) is sanctioning Scholarships worth Rs.10 Crores for the toppers of IBSAT who join the class of 2023- 25. It will be a huge support and game changer for many students reducing their financial burdens. Application Procedure Those who have not applied for IBSAT 2022 yet, still have the opportunity to do the same as ICFAI Business School (IBS) is still accepting applications. Online: Candidates can apply online by visiting the official site and following the guided instructions. Purchase from ICFAI Business School (IBS) information Office: Candidates may locate the ICFAI Business School (IBS) office closest to them from the website and visit the same for purchasing the bulletin and submitting the application form. This year again IBSAT will be conducted online, and candidates may appear for the test from the comfort of their homes. The mandatory requisites will be a device and a steady internet connection for the two hours of the test. To know more and register for IBSAT 2022, visit https://ibsindia.org/. Contact: IBS Admission Office Plot No. 65, Nagarjuna Hills Punjagutta, Hyderabad - 500082 Telangana Ph: 040 - 23440963 (5 lines) Toll Free :1800 425 55 66 77 E-mail: [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1023356/IBS_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] Global Ecommerce Leaders ESW and Mamenta Announce Joint Partnership Mamenta, Inc., a leader in global ecommerce, and ESW, a leading global direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce company, announced today that the two ecommerce leaders have partnered together to improve the ecommerce experience. ESW will be integrated with Mamenta, a technology platform that makes it easy for brands like Harman International, Nestle, McAfee, and others to seamlessly connect data and inventory positions to Global Marketplaces. Moreover, apparel, beauty, luxury and technology brands on ESW's solutions will gain access to the Mamenta network of 600+ online marketplaces in 70+ countries, which are supported by 75+ distribution centers. The integration enables brands utilizing ESW to more easily expand revenue by accelerating cross-border commerce into new markets, and/or test a product's viability in markets under consideration. Patrick Bousquet-Chavonne, President & CEO, ESW Americas, commented, "This partnership provides a game-changing advantage for global direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands. Through a single integration, Mamenta and ESW will offer brands a powerful combined solution to accelerate and exponentially expand reach and revenue through a direct channel or on global marketplaces. Both options enable brands to enter new markets more quickly and efficiently and begin generating revenue without significant capitalexpenditures." Shopping across borders has become much more acceptable to a wide range of consumers. A recent "Global Voices Q2 2022" survey of 14,000 shoppers globally by ESW reveals approximately 30% of consumers across all demographics purchase apparel, luxury or beauty products across borders because they are unable to find what they are looking for in their home country. Mamenta's Global Trade Platform links disparate infrastructures with centralized marketplace listing management, inventory and supply chain transparency, and messaging between sellers and marketplaces. Its unified sales and performance data delivers critical intelligence across global commerce markets. Mamenta Founder and CEO Chad Epling said, "Consumers shop in different ways around the world. The combined ESW and Mamenta offering enables us to capture sales in all the ways a buyer wants to shop online. We look forward to a long and impactful relationship." ABOUT ESW ESW is the leading global and domestic direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce company, empowering the world's best-loved brands and retailers to expand their DTC channel. ESW acquired Scalefast in June 2022, and the combined organization offers brands and retailers a complete portfolio of technology and services that cost-effectively support any stage of a company's development. From compliance, data security, fraud protection, taxes and tariffs to demand generation, checkout, delivery, returns and customer service, our powerful combination of technology and human ingenuity covers the entire shopper journey across 200 markets, with 100% carbon neutral shipping to consumers. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ESW has global offices in the US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. ESW is an Asendia Group company, a joint venture between La Poste and Swiss Post. ABOUT MAMENTA Mamenta makes it easy for brands to drive revenue through new global channels. Brands need to be in multiple marketplaces around the world. Each marketplace has unique attributes and incredibly complex logistics that requires significant integration and investment. The cloud-based Mamenta Global Trade Platform empowers our clients to launch and manage their marketplace presence on more than 600+ online marketplaces in 70+ countries and is supported by 75+ distribution centers. Mamenta unifies global data flows and management of Catalog, Inventory, Orders, Price, Shipping, and Messaging between sellers and marketplaces. Mamenta is trusted by brands including Harman International, Nestle, McAfee, and many others. Headquartered in Colorado, Mamenta additionally has global offices in India and Japan. For more information visit www.mamenta.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005230/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] FiscalNote to Report Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NOTE) ("FiscalNote"), a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS company that delivers legal and regulatory data and insights, today announced it will report financial results for the third quarter 2022 on Monday, November 14, 2022 prior to market open. FiscalNote will host a conference call on Monday, November 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (U.S.) to review the Company's financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022. To access this call, dial 1 (888) 660-6510 for the U.S. or Canada, or 1 (929) 203-0882 for callers outside the U.S. or Canada with the conference ID 1271923. A live webcast of the conference call will be accessible from the Investor Relations section of FiscalNote's website at https://investors.fiscalnote.com/. An audio replay of this conference call will also be available through November 28, 2022 by dialing 1-800-770-2030 for the U.S. or Canada, or 1-647-362-9199 for callers outside the U.S. or Canada, and entering 1271923. A recording will also be archived and accessible at https://investors.fiscalnote.com/. About FiscalNote FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) is a leading technology provider of global policy and market intelligence. By uniquely combining AI technology, actionable data, and expert and peer insights, FiscalNote empowers customers to manage policy, address regulatory developments, and mitigate global risk. Since 2013, FiscalNote has pioneered technology that delivers mission-critical insights and the tools to turn them into action. Home to CQ, Equilibrium, FrontierView, Oxford Analytica, VoterVoice, and many other industry-leading brands, FiscalNote serves more than 5,000 customers worldwide with global offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. To learn more about FiscalNote and its family of brands, visit FiscalNote.com and follow @FiscalNote. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005208/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] ORYZON to Give Updates on Corporate Progress in November Kabuki Syndrome Foundation Annual Conference 11 th Drug Discovery Strategic Summit Inv$tival Showcase LSX Leaders 2022 Jefferies London Healthcare Conference 2022 MADRID, Spain and BOSTON, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oryzon Genomics, S.A. (ISIN Code: ES0167733015, ORY), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging epigenetics to develop therapies in diseases with strong unmet medical need, announced today that its management will give an update on corporate progress at several international events in November. Oryzons medical team will participate at the Kabuki Syndrome Foundation Annual Conference, which will be held virtually on November 4. The company will present two brief oral communications about epigenetic medicines for genetic syndromes and the upcoming vafidemstat's Phase I/II HOPE trial in Kabuki syndrome to an audience of KS investigators and KS patients and families. Click on link for more info about the Kabuki Syndrome Foundation 2022 Conference Oryzon will participate at the 11th Drug Discovery Strategic Summit 2022, which will be held in Amsterdam (Netherlands) on November 10-11, where the company will present an oral communication entitled: Target validation adventures: HDAC6 as an example. Click on link for more info about the 11th Drug Discovery Strategic Summit Oryzon will participate at the Inv$tival Showcase LSX Leaders 2022 conference, which will be held on November 14 in London (United Kingdom). The company will take part in a panel entitled CNS and the Market -- What is New in the Pipeline and in Deal Activity?on November 14 at 15:00 local time. Click on link for more info about the Inv$tival Showcase LSX Leaders conference Oryzon will also attend the annual Jefferies London Healthcare Conference 2022, which will be held in London (United Kingdom) on November 15-17, where the company will provide a corporate update and will also hold one-to-one meetings with pharmaceutical companies and global investors. Click on link for more info about Jefferies Healthcare Conference 2022 About Oryzon Founded in 2000 in Barcelona, Spain, Oryzon (ISIN Code: ES0167733015) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company considered as the European leader in epigenetics. Oryzon has one of the strongest portfolios in the field, with two LSD1 inhibitors, iadademstat and vafidemstat, in Phase II clinical trials, and other pipeline assets directed against other epigenetic targets. In addition, Oryzon has a strong platform for biomarker identification and target validation for a variety of malignant and neurological diseases. For more information, visit www.oryzon.com About Iadademstat Iadademstat (ORY-1001) is a small oral molecule, which acts as a highly selective inhibitor of the epigenetic enzyme LSD1 and has a powerful differentiating effect in hematologic cancers (see Maes et al., Cancer Cell 2018 Mar 12; 33 (3): 495-511.e12.doi: 10.1016 / j.ccell.2018.02.002.). A FiM Phase I/IIa clinical trial with iadademstat in R/R AML patients demonstrated the safety and good tolerability of the drug and preliminary signs of antileukemic activity, including a CRi (see Salamero et al, J Clin Oncol, 2020, 38(36): 4260-4273. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.03250). In an ongoing, fully-accrued Phase IIa trial in elder 1L-AML patients (ALICE trial), iadademstat has shown encouraging safety and efficacy data in combination with azacitidine (see Salamero et al., EHA 2022 poster). The company has obtained approval from the U.S. FDA for its IND for FRIDA, a Phase Ib trial of iadademstat plus gilteritinib in patients with relapsed/refractory AML with FLT3 mutations. Beyond hematological cancers, the inhibition of LSD1 has been proposed as a valid therapeutic approach in some solid tumors such as small cell lung cancer (SCLC), neuroendocrine tumors (NET), medulloblastoma and others. In a Phase IIa trial in combination with platinum/etoposide in second line ED-SCLC patients (CLEPSIDRA trial), preliminary activity and safety results have been reported (see Navarro et al., ESMO 2018 poster). New trials in combination in SCLC and NET are under preparation. Oryzon has recently entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) to collaborate on potential further clinical development of iadademstat in different types of solid and hematological cancers. In total iadademstat has been dosed so far to more than 100 cancer patients in four clinical trials. Iadademstat has orphan drug designation for SCLC in the US and for AML in the US and EU. About Vafidemstat Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) is an oral, CNS optimized LSD1 inhibitor. The molecule acts on several levels: it reduces cognitive impairment, including memory loss and neuroinflammation, and at the same time has neuroprotective effects. In animal studies vafidemstat not only restores memory but reduces the exacerbated aggressiveness of SAMP8 mice, a model for accelerated aging and Alzheimers disease (AD), to normal levels and also reduces social avoidance and enhances sociability in murine models. In addition, vafidemstat exhibits fast, strong and durable efficacy in several preclinical models of multiple sclerosis (MS). Oryzon has performed two Phase IIa clinical trials in aggressiveness in patients with different psychiatric disorders (REIMAGINE) and in aggressive/agitated patients with moderate or severe AD (REIMAGINE-AD), with positive clinical results reported in both. Additional finalized Phase IIa clinical trials with vafidemstat include the ETHERAL trial in patients with Mild to Moderate AD, where a significant reduction of the inflammatory biomarker YKL40 has been observed after 6 and 12 months of treatment, and the pilot, small scale SATEEN trial in Relapse-Remitting and Secondary Progressive MS, where antiinflammatory activity has also been observed. Vafidemstat has also been tested in a Phase II in severe Covid-19 patients (ESCAPE) assessing the capability of the drug to prevent ARDS, one of the most severe complications of the viral infection, where it showed significant anti-inflammatory effects in severe Covid-19 patients. Currently, vafidemstat is in two Phase IIb trials in borderline personality disorder (PORTICO) and in schizophrenia patients (EVOLUTION). The company is also deploying a CNS precision medicine approach with vafidemstat in genetically-defined patient subpopulations of certain CNS disorders and is preparing a clinical trial in Kabuki Syndrome patients. The company is also exploring the clinical development of vafidemstat in other neurodevelopmental syndromes. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains, or may contain, forward-looking information and statements about Oryzon, including financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, capital expenditures, synergies, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates and similar expressions. Although Oryzon believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Oryzon shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Oryzon that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the documents sent by Oryzon to the Spanish Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), which are accessible to the public. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and have not been reviewed by the auditors of Oryzon. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to Oryzon or any of its members, directors, officers, employees or any persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above. All forward-looking statements included herein are based on information available to Oryzon on the date hereof. Except as required by applicable law, Oryzon does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Oryzons securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of Oryzons securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from Oryzon or the selling security holder, as applicable, that will contain detailed information about Oryzon and management, as well as financial statements. IR, US IR & Media, Europe Spain Oryzon Ashley R. Robinson Sandya von der Weid Patricia Cobo Saikat Nandi LifeSci Advisors, LLC LifeSci Advisors, LLC / Carlos C. Ungria Chief Business Officer +1 617 430 7577 +41 78 680 05 38 +34 91 564 07 25 +1 917 208 8293 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] American Express Commits Over $5 Million to Help Cities Build Resilience to Fight Climate Change Ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) taking place next week in Egypt, American Express (NYSE: AXP) is pledging more than $5 million to organizations helping cities and coastal communities build resilience against future climate-related events, including Ocean Conservancy, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Resilient Cities Catalyst, and Regional Plan Association. These multi-year grants are part of American Express' Environmental, Social and Governance pillar to advance climate solutions with a goal to back low-carbon communities through at least $10 million in philanthropic funding by 2025. Earlier this year, the company announced $3.1 million in grants to support nature-based solutions and sustainability efforts in local communities. Including the grants in this announcement, American Express has now pledged over $8 million in grants towards its $10 million philanthropic goal. "Combating climate change starts at the local level as the negative impacts of climate-related events are experienced in local communities with regional organizations and leaders on the front lines driving action and disaster response," said Madge Thomas, Head of Corporate Sustainability and President of the American Express Foundation. "We've seen the impact of extreme weather events in cities around the world, which is why we're making it a priority to invest in initiatives that provide cities with infrastructure and tools to prepare for disasters, which can help them to remain safe and thriving centers of community, commerce and tourism." American Express' new partnerships include: $2.5 million to Ocean Conservancy to help scale the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) and the Urban Ocean program -- two programs that partner with local groups in cities and coastal communities around the world to help prevent the flow of trash and plastic pollution into the ocean, promote resilience and protect ecosystems. In addition, the grant will be used to build an active network of volunteers, including American Express colleagues around the world. American Express and Ocean Conservancy have been partnering on beach cleanup events since 2018 as part of the company's Green2Gether program. to help scale the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) and the Urban Ocean program -- two programs that partner with local groups in cities and coastal communities around the world to help prevent the flow of trash and plastic pollution into the ocean, promote resilience and protect ecosystems. In addition, the grant will be used to build an active network of volunteers, including American Express colleagues around the world. American Express and Ocean Conservancy have been partnering on beach cleanup events since 2018 as part of the company's Green2Gether program. $1.5 million to Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) to support its Neighborhood Climate Resilience program by designing and delivering community-led climate resilience projects to communities affected by the impacts of climate change within the City of Houston, the City of Tampa and international locations. The program will support a cohort of climate leaders to co-design infrastructure and community building projects that utilize nature-based or clean energy solutions to help increase the resilience of neighborhoods to future risks and disasters. (RCC) to support its Neighborhood Climate Resilience program by designing and delivering community-led climate resilience projects to communities affected by the impacts of climate change within the City of Houston, the City of Tampa and international locations. The program will support a cohort of climate leaders to co-design infrastructure and community building projects that utilize nature-based or clean energy solutions to help increase the resilience of neighborhoods to future risks and disasters. $1.2 million to Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) to install solar energy systems on homes and small businesses in low- and moderate-income communities in three cities, including Phoenix and Salt Lake City. These systems lower energy costs for businesses and residents, can be more resilient during extreme weather, support local clean energy jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. $150,000 to the Regional Plan Association to address climate change and disaster resilience in New York City and the greater tri-state region, including northern New Jersey and southeastern Connecticut. Coinciding with the 10-year anniversary of Super Storm Sandy this year, the grant will support the development of a Resilience Agenda for the tri-state region with goals, targets and actions for city leaders and policy makers, informed by research and engagemet with community stakeholders. In addition, the grant will support events and workshops focused on opportunities to address and respond to climate change from the local to the regional level. https://go.amex/esg. ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress. Key links to products, services and corporate responsibility information: personal cards, business cards, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, Accertify, Kabbage, Resy, corporate card, business travel, diversity and inclusion, corporate responsibility and Environmental, Social, and Governance reports. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005134/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] Envoy Solutions Enhances Packaging Capabilities in the Northeast With the Acquisition of United Packaging GLENVIEW, Ill., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Envoy Solutions announced today that it has acquired Bristol, Pa.-based United Packaging. United Packaging is a solutions-driven distributor offering high-quality packaging, shipping, safety, and janitorial supplies. By joining forces with United Packaging, Envoy Solutions continues to enhance its packaging capabilities, one of its core business units, while expanding its geographic footprint in the Northeast, where it already has a strong presence with existing companies. With this new partnership, Envoy Solutions advances its position as a specialized distributor and solution provider serving the U.S. market through a family of regional distributors in packaging, facility care, foodservice, and marketing execution. "It's exciting to see the significant growth in our packaging capabilities, and United Packaging will help us continue building that momentum," said Mark M. Fisher, CEO of Envoy Solutions. "I'm excited to work with Jeff Seidel and the rest of his outstanding team, who like us, are solutions-oriented and committed to customer service excellence. With United Packaging and our existing cmpanies in Pennsylvania, we are better positioned than ever to create greater efficiencies for our clients to solve the industry's toughest challenges in the Northeast and across the country." United Packaging, founded in 1992, takes a holistic and consultative approach with its clients. The company's focus is to provide clients with the resources and expertise that they need to run their packaging operations as efficiently as possible. With the support of Envoy Solutions, United Packaging will have access to new world-class products and services while being part of a growing national platform. "This is an incredible opportunity for our company to join forces with Envoy Solutions, a strong national partner and the gold standard in specialized distribution," said Jeff Seidel, President, and CEO of United Packaging. "With its differentiated business model, Envoy Solutions is redefining our industry by leveraging the capabilities of regional distributors to better serve clients. By joining Envoy Solutions, we will greatly expand our resources, deepen our category knowledge, and have a larger pool of customers from coast to coast." About Envoy Solutions: Glenview, Ill.-based Envoy Solutions is a specialized distributor and solution provider serving the U.S. market through a family of regional distributors. We specialize in packaging, facility care, foodservice, and marketing execution. Envoy Solutions offers a broad catalog of top brands and products, along with deep expertise and advice, to help our client-partners succeed. We are driven to make facilities cleaner and more sustainable, people safer, and operations more productive, every day. For more information, please visit www.envoysolutions.com . About United Packaging: United Packaging, founded in 1992, is a solutions-driven distributor offering high-quality packaging, shipping, safety, and janitorial supplies. The company strives to be a partner, not a vendor, by taking a holistic and consultative approach with its clients. United Packaging's wide-ranging services help its clients increase efficiency through properly managing inventory, streamlining packaging, better equipment, and decreasing safety issues. For more information, please visit www.unitedpkg.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/envoy-solutions-enhances-packaging-capabilities-in-the-northeast-with-the-acquisition-of-united-packaging-301668402.html SOURCE Envoy Solutions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] DreamBox Learning Selected by East Baton Rouge Parish School System for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Math Equity Grant DreamBox Learning, Inc. ("DreamBox"), the leading education technology provider and pioneer of intelligent adaptive learning, today announced it is partnering with East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS), La., and Louisiana State University in a math equity research and development initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Together, these partners will develop and improve tools to help school districts address learning gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the Nation's Report Card, the student score gap between White students and their Black and Hispanic peers was larger in 2022 than in 2019. As one of only two school districts in the country to be awarded this grant after a six-month selection process by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EBRPSS will partner closely with both DreamBox and Louisiana State University to better understand which learning solutions and teaching practices serve the unique needs of all students. Through the development of scalable research tools and practices, the partnership aims to serve as a model and resource for other school districts in the U.S. to improve math learning, confidence, and self-identity for Black, Latino, and students experiencing poverty. "At DreamBox Learning, we understand that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity does not. We believe that unlocking the learning potential in every student is the best way to close the opportunity gap," said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO and President of DreamBox Learning. "We are inspied by this East Baton Rouge Parish School System collaboration funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and believe that it will advance our efforts to inspire a love of learning for every student no matter where they live or their background. It is also symbolic of how the entire education industry needs to work together to further develop effective solutions to solve equity challenges and shorten the long road to academic recovery." EBRPSS began partnering with DreamBox to accelerate math learning growth for its K-9 students for the 2020 to 2021 school year. DreamBox, the only dual-discipline solution rated 'Strong' by Johns Hopkins University's EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading, is proven to increase student achievement by more than five national achievement percentile points for students who use DreamBox Math for an hour a week in as little as eight weeks. In just the first year of the partnership, EBRPSS experienced accelerated student achievement with DreamBox. "Some of the biggest challenges we face as school district leaders and instructors are those that are difficult to physically observe, and too often the idea of mathematics is a stigmatized prospect for students who may not have had excellent foundational experiences in the curriculum," said East Baton Rouge Parish School System's Superintendent Sito J. Narcisse, Ed.D. "Our district's ongoing partnership with DreamBox Learning has provided an integral strategy in reaching students with the greatest academic needs, and this new program alignment aims to identify those barriers and intervene at the vulnerable points in each student's academic career. We are excited about entering another wonderful collaboration project with the experts at DreamBox Learning and the potential these efforts stand to provide for our students." To learn more about DreamBox, visit https://www.dreambox.com/. About DreamBox Learning DreamBox Learning, the leading K-12 education technology provider, is radically transforming the way the world learns. As the only dual-discipline solution rated "Strong" by Johns Hopkins' EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading, DreamBox uniquely provides schools high-quality adaptive learning solutions independently proven to accelerate student growth. Built by teachers and for teachers, DreamBox empowers educators with robust data analytics and content-specific professional development solutions to complement instruction. DreamBox supports 400,000 educators and approximately 6 million students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Mexico. For more information, visit https://www.dreambox.com/. For information about partnering with DreamBox, contact: [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005116/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] STL revenues up 17%; progressing towards global optical leadership MUMBAI, India, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- STL ( NSE: STLTECH), one of the industry's leading integrators of digital networks, today announced its financial results for quarter ended 30 September 2022. STL reported profitable growth with revenues of INR 1,768 crores, up by 12% Q-o-Q and 17% Y-o-Y. Nearly 70% of revenue came from the US and Europe. A robust order book of INR 11,697 crores further cemented STL's position as a global partner for 5G and FTTH. 5G, FTTH and data centre roll-outs are picking up pace globally and optical demand is on a strong upward trajectory, with the optical fibre cable market size expected to reach ~$10 Bn by 20241. India's much awaited 5G roll-out has started and will strongly hinge on fibre with telcos planning to lay ~2,00,000 cable kilometers and spend between ~$1.5 Bn to $2.5 Bn2 on fibre roll-out in next 2 to 3 years. STL has already made strategic investments for this demand cycle and is playing a pivotal role in this ongoing decade of network creation, both in India and internationally. STL is progressing towards becoming one of the top 3 optical players globally. Expressing confidence on the company's growth trajectory, Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, STL said, "The world has now recognised broadband as a basic necessity. 5G, FTTH, and Rural connectivity efforts are all coinciding to connect the remaining 40% of the world. Fiberisation is going to be front and centre in this decade of network creation and STL is fully prepared to meet this demand with global capacities, great talent and technology-led solutions. We are constantly innovating to build these networks fast and in the most sustainable way." Some key performance highlights Continued, long term customer wins: STL reported one of its highest quarterly order intakes of INR ~3,200 crores. The company signed deals with Vocus in Australia , and a top telecom service provider in the US. It also won and a large deal for Optical Interconnect, which comprises of plug and play FTTx accessories and connectorised solutions, with a top-tier European telecom service provider STL reported one of its highest quarterly order intakes of INR ~3,200 crores. The company signed deals with Vocus in , and a top telecom service provider in the US. It also won and a large deal for Optical Interconnect, which comprises of plug and play FTTx accessories and connectorised solutions, with a top-tier European telecom service provider Market momentum in key markets: STL now holds ~11% market share of the global (ex- China ) OFC market and ~14% market share in the US. In India , the company reported a strong order book with profitable projects in strategic segments STL now holds ~11% market share of the global (ex- ) OFC market and ~14% market share in the US. In , the company reported a strong order book with profitable projects in strategic segments Leadership in innovation with 742 patents: STL recently unveiled India's first multicore fibre which will quadruple the capacity of networks. It also announced bespoke solutions for tower fiberisation (5G Cosmos) and rural fiberisation (Gram Galaxy) STL recently unveiled first multicore fibre which will quadruple the capacity of networks. It also announced bespoke solutions for tower fiberisation (5G Cosmos) and rural fiberisation (Gram Galaxy) Progress towards Net-Zero by 2030 roadmap: STL became the world's first optical manufacturer to receive Zero Liquid Discharge certification for all its Indian operations and also announced that 100% of its operations in India and Italy are now Zero Waste to Landfill certified Key financial highlights STL continued the positive momentum while focusing on prudent capital allocation and profitability. The company recently divested IDS - a UK-based niche data centre player to rebalance its portfolio. Financial Parameters (INR Crores) Q2'FY23 Q1'FY23 Q-o-Q growth Revenues 1,768 1,575 12 % EBITDA 202 119 70 % PAT (after minority interest) 44 -20 - Commenting on STL's performance, Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, STL, further added, "We hold our purpose of transforming billions of lives very close to our hearts and are very excited about this opportunity to connect the unconnected. This quarter saw one of the highest order intakes of ~3,200 crore. I really want to congratulate the entire team for delivering such a strong performance in a complex operating environment. There is good traction for our solutions, and we believe that our focused efforts will create stakeholder value and bring us closer to being amongst the top 3 optical players globally." About STL - Sterlite Technologies Ltd: STL is one of the industry's leading integrators of digital networks that helps telecom service providers, cloud companies, citizen networks and large enterprises deliver enhanced experiences to their customers. Read more, Contact us. stl.tech |Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube 1 Source: CRU 2 Source: STL estimates Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1938327/STL_Q2_FY23.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/876464/Sterlite_Technologies_STL_New_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] Austin Bank, Texas N.A. and FHLB Dallas Award $16K to Cleveland, Texas, Nonprofit Austin Bank, Texas N.A. (Austin Bank) and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) awarded $16,000 in Partnership Grant Program (PGP) funds to the nonprofit Trained, Unwavering, Focused and Fit Kids (TUFF Kids). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005450/en/ Representatives from Austin Bank, Texas N.A. and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas awarded $16,000 in partnership grant program funds to TUFF Kids, a nonprofit in Cleveland, Texas. (Photo: Business Wire) The award, which includes a 3:1 match of funds from FHLB Dallas, was celebrated during a ceremonial check presentation at the TUFF Kids Youth Center in Cleveland, Texas. "We're honored to receive this funding from Austin Bank and FHLB Dallas to support the children and families we serve," said Eisha T Jones, executive director of TUFF Kids. TUFF Kids recently began focusing on the parents of the children they serve to better equip them with tools for homeownership, money management, creit building and other skills. The organization plans to use the grant to develop an internship program and hire a team to assist in processing United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mortgages for low-income families. "FHLB Dallas provides simple ways to connect with our communities," said Debbie Braune, senior vice president and CRA officer of Austin Bank. "This PGP award will allow us to provide funding for the incredible services offered by TUFF Kids." In 2022, FHLB Dallas awarded $400,000 in PGP grants, and its members provided an additional $158,985 for an impact of $558,985 in its five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. "The PGP enables us to assist members, including Austin Bank, with advancing the grassroots work of community-based organizations," said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. See the complete list of the 2022 PGP grant recipients. For more information about the 2022 PGP grants and other FHLB Dallas community investment products and programs, please visit fhlb.com/pgp. About Austin Bank, Texas N.A. Austin Bank, a community bank headquartered in Jacksonville, Texas, has been voted one of the "Best Companies to Work for in Texas" for the fourteenth consecutive year. With assets in excess of $2.7 billion, bank offices are located in 36 East Texas locations within 26 cities and 14 counties. Austin Bank is locally owned and operated by the Austin family who is celebrating 113 years of service in the Texas banking industry. For more information about Austin Bank, visit the bank's website at www.austinbank.com. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $77.7 billion as of June 30, 2022, serves approximately 800 members and associated institutions across our five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. FHLB Dallas provides financial products and services including advances (loans to members) and grant programs for affordable housing and economic development. For more information, visit our website at fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005450/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2022] CUPE BC stands with Ontario education workers, condemns Ford government's abuse of power CUPE BC is sending the support of its more than 100,000 members to education workers in Ontario, whose constitutional rights have been stripped by the Ontario government of Premier Doug Ford. In a vote held last month, the 55,000 Ontario education workers voted 96.5% in favour of a strike mandate, and served strike notice last week. In response, the Ford government passed legislation to prevent a strike, making job action illegal and imposing a contract on workers. "This action by the Conservative government of Ontario is an abuse of power, a violation of working people's rights, and an affront to our democracy," said CUPE BC President Karen Ranalletta. "There is no better example of why Conservative governments are bad for working people, and our country as a whole, than this action by the Ford government." Courts have repeatedly held that the Canadian Charter of Rights an Freedoms provides citizens with the right to free and fair collective bargaining, and that governments cannot use their legislative power to remove those rights. The Ford government's legislation invokes the Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter, a seldom-used provision designed for situations of competing rights or national emergencies, to pre-emptively deny workers their fundamental rights. "This isn't just union busting," said Ranalletta. "It is a draconian measure by a bully government, misusing a legal tool to supress the rights of its own citizens. It should be a wake-up call to all Canadians: our rights can be eliminated with the stroke of a pen, and that is exactly what Canadian Conservative parties intend to do when elected." CUPE BC has offered support and solidarity to the 55,000 education workers in Ontario who plan to proceed with a day of protest on Friday, despite the Ontario government's threats of fines to the union and individual members. CUPE BC President Ranalletta and National Diversity Vice-President Debra Merrier will travel to Ontario, joining other members of CUPE's National Executive supporting the protest. "CUPE BC will be there, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ontario education workers. We will not let the Ontario Conservative's trampling of citizens' rights go unchallenged." cope491 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005512/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Following the recommendation of a citizens commission, Flagstaff City Council voted on Tuesday to give the first read of an ordinance that would substantially increase Council and mayor salaries. The decision came following an overwhelming show of support from public commentators who lauded the increase as a means to make public leadership more accessible to a financially diverse population and increase competition for public office. The ordinance will come before city council for its second read and formal adoption in an upcoming meeting before the end of the month. In adherence to a 2020 request from the majority of Council, the Citizen Commission on Council Salaries was formed earlier this year and was tasked with evaluating and making recommendations on the pay rate for members of council and mayor. The commission included four citizens as well as five commission members from the Flagstaffs Planning and Zoning, Parks and Recreation, Tourism, Water and Transportation Commissions. Throughout September and October, the citizens commission met to field public feedback, conduct research and craft their recommendation. As presented during Tuesdays meeting, the commission recommendation was to give councilmembers and the mayor a raise and a big one at that. The commission members finalized their recommendation during the Oct. 12 meeting to include an increase in the mayor's salary from $38,500 to $54,340 and councilmembers' salary from $25,500 to $44,650 following the 2022 election. Then, effective Dec. 1, 2024, the commission recommended an increase in the mayor's salary from $54,340 to $70,180 and Council's salary from $44,650 to $63,800. The recommendation also includes a change to the monthly routine travel and meals stipend for the mayor from $150 to $200 with a city vehicle and $250 to $300 without a city vehicle, and for councilmembers from $166 to $200 per month. It means in two years, Flagstaff's mayor and councilmembers would earn roughly 250% of what they do now. The purpose of doing two increases was to phase in these increases over time, rather than having one large jump, explained deputy city manager Shannon Anderson, who served in a human resource capacity for the commission. According to Anderson, the commission arrived at the recommendation through consideration of numerous variables, including examples of the mayoral and council workloads, municipal benchmark data including population, budget and salary, county benchmark data including population and salary, the consumer price index, and local minimum wage and cost of living. Additionally, they included in their recommendation a recognition of the irregular schedule of councilmembers and difficulty to fit within a normal work schedule, a need to compensate for time being spent fulfilling duties and meeting community expectations, and an advocacy that Council salaries retain an ability to attract quality and diverse candidates to fill council vacancies. On this final point, public commentators at Tuesdays meeting voiced resounding support. The general rationale was that unless public service pays a living wage, only those who dont need the money can afford to pursue office. With better wages could come more diversity of candidates and more competition for office. Looking at the current city council stipend, Jeff McCarroll said, I see numbers that do not create a place for diversity in the type of people that can run for these positions. Cost of living is not going down, McCarroll added, saying if salaries are not increased, it will eventually create a situation where unless youre retired, own a business or are independently wealthy, you cant run for public office. While a large departure from current conditions, McCarroll did not believe the new proposed salaries were by any means extreme. Professional positions of commensurate responsibility are well within that number, he said. We need a more professional city council, said Kyle Nitschke, a candidate for LD7 who also served on the citizens commission. He pointed to the trend of low-paying public service jobs as a reason for statewide political stagnancy and lack of economic diversity in political representatives. As an example, he shared that state legislative representatives are given $24,000 for their service. And these guys hang on for years and years and years, even with term limits, he said. Nitschke also pointed to low salary as a huge reason why Flagstaff failed to produce a full ballot of city council candidates for the upcoming election. Salary was the reason that Anthony Garcia shared for his recent withdrawal from a pursuit of public office. I live paycheck to paycheck, I represent the blue collar worker, Garcia said. I really wanted to run for city council, but there was no way possible that I could stay living in Flagstaff and commit 100% of myself as a full-time city councilmember. Ultimately, making the hard decision between dedicated public service and basic necessities ended Garcias campaign, but he voiced support that if Council were to adopt the recommended salary increase, it would open up the possibility of public service to currently underrepresented demographics. There are important voices that right now are serving tables when they should be seated at the table, Garcia said. Joining the chorus, former Flagstaff mayor Coral Evans expounded upon the historical difficulty of serving as mayor while also having to hold multiple jobs to make ends meet. The job of a public servant requires tremendous dedication and time, Evans said, adding that currently for someone to have the ability to serve in a leadership role, they would had to have come from privilege, they would have to come from wealth. A total of nine public participants voiced unanimous support for the recommended salary increase before the city council shared their thoughts. Councilmember Austin Aslan fully endorsed the recommended salary increase, calling it course correction after years of laughable compensation for public office. You get what you pay for, Aslan said. And paying our city council a professional wage is critical if we want to have candidates election after election that are both qualified and diverse. Councilmember Adam Shimoni was equally supportive, especially for the economic diversity that such a raise would invite into city hall. I want to see single moms run for office, he said. I want to see teachers run for office. I want to see firefighters and police department personnel run for office. I want to see people who work in the service industry run for office. Like Nitschke, Shimoni said he sees the lack of candidates on the 2022 ballot as embarrassing, and stated that with the recommended salary increase that will never be the case again. We will have competition, he said. The fact that there are so many voices in our community that go unheard and unseen because they cannot make the sacrifice required to be in a position like this not only breaks my heart, but tells me that we need to do something to make a change, said Councilmember Khara House, noting that she would only benefit if successful in her current write-in campaign. This is not for us, she said. This is for the future of Flagstaff. Vice Mayor Miranda Sweet also voiced support and recognized that service on the council was largely feasible for her because she is a successful small-business owner who was able to hire a day-to-day manager for her business a privilege that should not be a roadblock to others interested in public service. Councilmember Regina Salas inquired whether the city budget could accommodate the recommended salary increases, and when satisfied by affirmative response from city staff, offered her support as well. Councilmember Jim McCarthy was notably less gung-ho. While making a point that the expiration of his term meant that salary increases would have no impact on him personally, he suggested that the large increase recommended by the commission carried a heavy amount of sticker shock and proposed a more relaxed increase that would bring mayor salary to $70,000 and councilmember salary to $50,000 across the same time span. Mayor Paul Deasy also expressed concerns that the stark increase would be a hit to morale for city staff. Ive spoken to city staff who felt this was a real slap in the face while theyre receiving a 3% raise, he said. Theyre having to sit through all these meetings, too, late into the night. However, discussion of a middle ground floundered and ultimately a motion from Shimoni resulted in 6-1 majority vote in favor of adopting the commission recommended salary increase. Only Deasy opposed, though he clarified that his opposition was purely to invite the opportunity to vote on a middle-ground proposition such as the one made by McCarthy. This opportunity never came, and the ordinance was given its first read. It is yet to be determined whether the second read and formal adoption of the ordinance will come before Council during the Nov. 8 or 15 meeting. In either case, a future meeting will also provide another opportunity for public comment and discussion of the ordinance. Colibri Real Estate Announces Fall Virtual Career Expos for Aspiring Agents Colibri Real Estate, a leading provider of real estate education nationwide, today announced the schedule for several upcoming virtual career expos where new and existing real estate agents can meet with real estate brokers who are hiring. "We understand how difficult it can be for real estate agents to find the right place to get started and grow in their profession," said Jennifer Dixson Hoff, President of Colibri Real Estate. "As a dedicated learning partner, we are in the perfect position to connect hundreds of broker partners with newly-licensed students as well as existing professionals who are looking to thrive in the right environment." Colibri Real Estate offers Career Expo events to new and existing real estate agents throughout the year across the country. At these events, future or current real estate agents can network with recruiting brokers, learn about the local market and pursue a career with a local brokerage. Hiring brokers have the opportunity to present individually to the students about their real estate brokerages, respond to questions and share contact information. Interested real estate agents can register for an upcoming event in their area. The San Francisco Virtual Expo takes place on Tuesday, November 15t, 2022 at 11am PST. The Sacramento Virtual Expo takes place on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 at 11am PST. Sacramento area real estate students and agents can register at: https://www.Colibrirealestate.com/career-expos/ Colibri Real Estate sister schools, Gold Coast Schools and Arizona School of Real Estate & Business, are also hosting upcoming local expos. Gold Coast Schools Virtual Expos take place in Tamarac, FL on November 9th, 2022 and East Orlando, Florida on November 29th, 2022. Arizona School of Real Estate & Business Virtual Expos take place in Phoenix on November 11th, Tuscon on November 16th, and Phoenix again on November 29th. Brokers who are interested in exhibiting at an upcoming Career Expo can fill out the following form: https://www.colibrirealestate.com/grow-with-colibri/ ABOUT COLIBRI REAL ESTATE Colibri Real Estate empowers aspiring and seasoned real estate professionals to start or advance their career through unmatched learning solutions. Colibri Real Estate is part of the Colibri Group, an education company composed of elite brands that provide learning solutions to licensed professionals. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005463/en/ [November 04, 2022] Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. Closes Initial Tranche of Private Placement /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAWS./ TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. (the "Company" or "BVCI") is pleased to announce that the Company has closed the first tranche of its recently announced non-brokered private placement offering of up to 640,000 Common Shares at a price off $1.25 per share (the "Private Placement"). In the first tranche, the Company issued a total of 256,000 Common Shares (each a "Share") at a price of $1.25 per Share for total gross proceeds of $320,000. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Private Placement to fund corporate expenditures and general working capital purposes in respect of the development of the Company's BvcPay platform and CADT. All securities issued under the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration under U.S. federal and state securities laws or an applicable exemption from such U.S. registration requirements. About Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. BVCI is an Ontario incorporated company, and is registered as a money service business with the Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). It is a provider of an innovative technology infrastructure to participants in the emerging blockchain and distributed ledger technology industry. Instrumental to BVCI's business and growth strategy is BVC Chain, a proprietary blockchain platform and distributed ledger technoogy, which can operate as a centralized or decentralized ledger. BVC Chain was designed to be a turnkey solution, which can be customized and implemented by organizations wishing to deploy blockchain platform based solutions, products or services. BVC Chain will also serve as the platform and infrastructure for BvcPay and CADT. BvcPay is a cloud based mobile application that is intended to have the capability to function as a Digital Currency wallet and which can facilitate point of sale and online transactions using Bitcoin, Ethereum and CADT. CADT is the native Digital Currency of the BVC Chain, and it is intended to be a stablecoin. BVCI's CADT business division is expected to issue CADT, a cryptographic stablecoin supported on a 1:1 basis with an equivalent amount of Canadian dollar held in a custodial account. CADT is expected to support real time pricing, payment, settlement, digital asset issuance and ledger capabilities. To allow BVCI to carry out its CADT related business, BVCI filed an application on June 17, 2021 to obtain registration as an exempt market dealer in accordance with applicable securities laws in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. Such application is pending, and there is no assurance that BVCI will obtain such registration. Unless and until the Company is registered under applicable securities laws for purposes of carrying out its CADT related business, or the Company is otherwise satisfied that it can conduct such business in compliance with all applicable securities laws, it intends to have all its CADT trading occur through a dealer (via the BVC Chain) that is registered in a category of registration under applicable securities laws which permits CADT to be traded through it, which dealer arrangement is subject to finalization. Accordingly, there is no assurance BVCI will be able to pursue its proposed CADT business or any related BvcPay business that relies on CADT. Forward-Looking Information and Statements Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company or the industry in which it operates to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "believe", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "may", "should", "will", the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to statements related to: the Company's business plans and strategies; use of proceeds from the Private Placement; and closing and size of the Private Placement. Such statements reflect the current expectations of the management of the Company with respect to future events based on currently available information and are based on certain assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including assumptions and risks related to receipt of regulatory approvals, the Company obtaining registration as an exempt market dealer or implementing its arrangement with a registered dealer. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time, including, without limitation, under the heading "Risk Factors", in the Company's listing statement, which is available on www.sedar.com., and in other continuous disclosure documents that are filed by the Company from time to time with the Ontario, Alberta or British Columbia Securities Commissions which are available at www.sedar.com and to which readers of this press release are referred for additional information concerning the Company, its prospects and the risks and uncertainties relating to the Company and its prospects. New risk factors may arise from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all of those risk factors or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results, performance and achievements of the Company to be materially different from those contained in forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent and investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is current only as of the date hereof. The Company does not undertake or assume any obligation, except as required by law, to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. No securities commission or regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release nor have they approved or disapproved of the content hereof. SOURCE Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The IBM 7030 (The Stretch) IBM's 7030, or Stretch, is something of a paradox. It introduced new technologies, many of which are still in use today, and was the fastest computer in the world for three years after it was introduced. However, it was considered a failure to such an extent that IBM reduced its price before discontinuing it very quickly with a loss of around $20 million. How could this be? In 1956, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory awarded IBM a contract to build a supercomputer. The goal of this computer was to offer a hundred-fold improvement over the IBM 704's performance. This was a very ambitious goal indeed. And in fact, the 7030 outperformed the 704 by a factor of up to 38 when it was released in 1961. Due to this "disappointing" performance, IBM was forced to lower the price of the machine from $13.7 million to a paltry $7.78 million, which meant IBM lost money on every machine. This being the case, after meeting its contractual obligations, IBM withdrew the 7030 from the market, which was a major disappointment and failure. Or was it? Not only was the performance of this machine far ahead of its time (0.5 MIPS), but the technologies it introduced read like a who's who list of modern computing. Does instruction prefetching sound familiar? Operand prefetching? How about parallel arithmetic processing? There was also a 7619 unit that channeled data from the core memory to external units, like magnetic tapes, console printers, card punches, and card readers. This is an expensive version of the DMA functionality we use today, although mainframe channels were actual processors themselves and far more capable than DMA. It also added interrupts, memory protection, memory interleaving, memory write buffers, result forwarding, and even speculative execution. The computer even offered a limited form of out-of-order execution called instruction pre-execution. You probably already surmised that the processor was pipelined. The applications are almost equally impressive. The 7030 was used for nuclear bomb development, meteorology, national security, and the development of the Apollo missions. This became feasible only with the Stretch due to the enormous amount of memory (256,000 64-bit words) and incredible processing speed. In fact, it could perform over 650,000 floating point adds in a second and over 350,000 multiplications. Up to six instructions could be in flight within the indexing unit and up to five instructions could be in flight within the look-ahead and parallel arithmetic unit. Thus, up to 11 instructions could be in some stage of execution within Stretch at any one time. Even compared to the excellent 7090 released at that time, the 7030 was anywhere from .8 to 10 times the speed, depending upon the instruction stream. So, while the 7030 had a short, but very useful life, its technology is still with us today, and had a very important impact on the legendary System/360 family. This could easily be the most important computer in the history of mainframes. Yet, it was a failure. Who says life makes sense? The B 5000 By now, at least a few of you would probably like to remind me that IBM was not the only company to make a computer since the UNIVAC. Your point is well taken, so let us take a look at a machine from Burroughs, the B 5000. This is a really interesting machine, especially considering that it was announced in 1961. In fact, to this day, UNISYS still supports the software. The B 5000 was developed for high-level languages, namely COBOL and ALGOL. By this I mean the machine language was created mainly for easy translation from higher-level languages. It contained a hardware stack, segmentation, and many descriptors for data access. The descriptors had many uses, which included allowing bound checking in hardware, distinguishing between character strings and arrays of words, easing dynamic array allocation, indicating the size of characters, and even whether something was in core memory or not. Why would we need that? In two words, virtual memory. The B 5000 was the first commercial computer with this technology. It also supported multiprocessing and multiprogramming, even with ALGOL and COBOL. In fact, the Master Control Program (MCP), as the operating system was called, handled memory and input/output unit assignments, segmentation of programs, subroutine linkages, and scheduling, which freed the programmer from all these tedious and time-consuming tasks. Another aspect Burroughs was proud of was the modular nature of the computer. It could be increased or decreased, without costly "reprogramming" of the entire machine. The B 5000 was not the commercial success IBM mainframes were. In fact, it was sometimes referred to as the machine everyone loves but no one buys. However, its design was nothing less than elegant and efficient. It focused on solving problems within the context of how humans interacted with and related to computers, as opposed to speed for the sake of speed. Perhaps more importantly, some of the technologies it introduced, like virtual memory and multiprocessing, are necessities in present computers, some of which still support this magnificent architecture 48 years after it was introduced. The UNIVAC 1107 While IBM deserves much praise for the innovations first expressed in the Stretch, Remington Rand, the number-two computer company in the world at the time, was busy conjuring up some of its own magic with the UNIVAC 1107 Thin Film Memory Computer. As you no doubt guessed from its name, the main technological accomplishment was the use of thin-film memory. It had an access time of 300 nanoseconds and a complete cycle time of 600 nanoseconds, making it extremely fast for 1962, when the machine was released. However, this did not replace core memory, which had a cycle time of roughly two microseconds, but rather was used to provide multiple accumulators, multiple index registers, and multiple input-out control registers. This allowed for greater parallelism, with increased speed as the end result. In total, there were 128, 36-bit words of thin-film memory (alternatively called "control memory" because of its function). By today's standards, this would not be considered memory at all, but part of the processor, much like registers. Although, in both cases, they are really very fast internal memory. One difference is that the control-memory registers were actually accessed by using a memory address as opposed to register name, but only when using special instruction designators or when referred to by an execution address. If not accessed this way, the addresses were mapped to core memory. So, rather strangely, the memory map for the first 128 bytes was different depending upon the context. While the thin-film memory was certainly the biggest splash in the pool, there were other interesting features of this enduring line worth mentioning. For one, it had usable word sizes of 36-bits. Characters were expressed in six bits. Memory banks were interleaved so that if reads were done from different banks in successive reads, the access time was only 1.8 microseconds. If the word was in the same bank, it was four microseconds. As mentioned, this averaged out to two microseconds since it was more likely to access a different bank. The 1107 also contained 16 input and 16 output channels, all of which could be used concurrently to support a maximum of 250,000 words per second. The main storage of the machine consisted of one to eight magnetic drums, each capable of storing from 262,144 to 6,291,456 words, giving this machine an enormous capacity of over 94 million 36-bit words (or over half a billion characters of storage). Although the UNIVAC 1107 was without question a fine machine in its own right, its more important significance was the family of computers it started. While never approaching the sales of a series of computers that IBM would soon introduce, UNIVAC's 1100-series made the company the second-largest in the world for many years and is still supported by UNISYS today. But enough of the horse that placed. Let's head back to Big Blue. IBM's System/360 Series When most people think of a mainframe, they think of the System/360 family of computers from IBM, arguably the most important computer architecture created. In many ways, it is similar to 8086 processors in that it created the standard for an industry and spawned a long line of descendants that are still alive and thriving to this day. One big difference is that IBM actually intended the System/360 to be important, unlike the 8086, which gained an importance its creator could never have foreseen. In fact, as many of you know, Intel even tried to kill off this instruction set with the Itanium. But let's get back to the matter at hand. Prior to the System/360, IBM had something of a mess on its hands, having created many systems that were incompatible with each other. Not only did this make it more difficult for its customers to upgrade, but it also was a logistical nightmare for IBM to support all these different operating systems on different hardware. So, IBM decided to create what we almost take for granted today: a compatible line of computers, with differing speeds and capacities, but all capable of running the same software. In fact, in April 1964, IBM announced six computers in the line, with performance varying by a factor of 50 between the highest- and the lowest-end machines. This actually doubled the design goal of 25, which in itself posed many problems for IBM. Scalability of this magnitude was said to be impossible even by the infamous and brilliant Gene Amdahl. It was never a simple matter of just making something 25 times "bigger" than the smallest part and it really had to be completely re-implemented. Today, it is common to disable parts of a processor, or underclock it to somehow compromise the performance. But back then, it was not economically feasible to create a high-end processor and artificially lower its performance for marketing purposes. So, IBM decided on the idea of adding "microprogramming" to the System/360, so that all members of the family used the same instruction set (except for the lowest-end, Model 20, which could execute a subset). These instructions were then broken down into a series of "micro-operations," which were specific to that system implementation. By doing this, the underlying processor could be very different, and this allowed scalability of the magnitude IBM wanted, and as mentioned, even exceeded it by two times. This probably sounds familiar to you, since something similar has been implemented on x86 processors since the Pentium Pro (or really, NexGen Nx586). As mentioned, however, IBM planned this. The x86 designers did this because the instruction set was so poor, it could not be directly executed effectively. There was one very important advantage of this micro-programming that could not be easily implemented on a microprocessor. By creating new micro-programming modules, the System/360 could be made compatible with the very popular 1401, for the lower end machines, and even the 7070 and 7090 for the higher end System/360s. Since this was done in hardware, it was much faster than any software emulation, and in fact generally ran older software much faster on the System/360 than on the native machine, due to the machine being more advanced. Some of these advances are still with us today. For one, the System/360 standardized the byte at eight bits, and used a word length of 32-bits, both of which helped simplify the design since they were powers of two. All but the lowest-end Model 20 had 16 general-purpose registers (the same as x86-64), whereas most previous computers had an accumulator, possibly an index register, and perhaps other special-function registers. The System/360 could also address an enormous amount of memory of 16 MB, although at that time this amount of memory was not available. The highest-end processor could run at a very respectable 5 MHz (recall that is the speed the 8086 was introduced at 14 years later), while the low-end processors ran at 1 MHz. Models introduced later in 1966 also had pipelined processors. While the System/360 did break a lot of new ground, in other ways it failed to implement important technologies. The most glaring deficiency was that there was no dynamic address translation (except in the later model 67). This not only made virtual memory impossible, but it made the machine poorly suited for proper time-sharing, which was now becoming a possibility with the increasing performance and resources of computers. Also, IBM eschewed the integrated circuit, and instead used "solid-logic technology," which could roughly be considered somewhere between the integrated circuit and simple transistor technology. Conversely, on the software side of things, IBM was perhaps a bit too ambitious with OS/360, one of the operating systems designed for the System/360. It was late, used a lot of memory, was very buggy, lacked some promised features, and more than that, continued to be buggy long after it was released. It was a well known, high visibility, and dramatic failure, although IBM eventually did get it right and it spawned very important descendants. Despite these issues, the System/360 was incredibly well-received and over 1,100 units were ordered in the first month, far exceeding even IBM's goals and capacity. Not only was it initially successful, but it proved enduring and spawned a large clone market. Clones were even made in what was then the Soviet Union. It was designed to be a very flexible and adaptable line, and was used extensively in all types of endeavors, perhaps most famously the Apollo program. More importantly, the System/360 started a line that has been the backbone of computing for almost 50 years, and represents one of the most commercially important and enduring designs in the history of computing. The CDC 6600 While IBM was busy focusing on a wide swath of compatible systems with its System/360 line, a company called CDC had a different design goal for its next computer: fast and really fast. Unshackled by any other considerations, such as compatibility or cost, Seymour Cray was free to use his legendary talents to focus on raw speed. He succeeded, as the roughly $7 million machine was the fastest computer from 1964 to 1969 by employing a unique design that relied on what would now be called an asymmetric multiprocessor design. The main CPU ran at a blazing 10 MHz, but was very limited in the instructions it could perform, since it was in a very real sense a RISC processor long before the term was coined. It was capable of only very simple ALU functions, but was complemented by 10 logical peripheral processors that could do what the CPU could not, and kept it fed with data, while unfettering it from retiring data. The ability to make the processor more specialized and the parallelism by using the 10 "barrel" processors were key components in the exceptional performance of this machine. With an enormous amount of memory (128 K words), this 60-bit computer could trade off larger executable size for the additional performance that a simple instruction set could offer. Although the CDC 6600 was a profitable machine, it was never a threat to the System/360s market sharenor was it ever intended to be. Like our next machine, sometimes it was better to compete where IBM was not, rather than where it had targeted. The 6600 targeted a market higher than even the System/360 Model 75 could reach, while the next computer we look at targeted a market below where the System/360 Model 20 could. DEC's PDP-8 While IBM was busy releasing its magnificent System/360 line, Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) was about to release a computer that would have a major impact on the future of computing as well, the PDP-8. Although the different computers in System/360 had an enormous range of performance characteristics and capacities, they were still mainframes, and even the lowest-end models were still too expensive for many businesses. This opportunity was not lost on DEC's founder, Ken Olsen. Although DEC had released computers as early as 1960, these models were only modestly successful and had little impact on the industry. However, the steady advance of technology, mainly in the form of integrated circuits, allowed DEC to sell a much smaller and much less expensive computer than its predecessors. Integrated circuits also allowed for much lower power use, and consequent to that, much less heat dissipation. This freed computers from purpose-built air-conditioned rooms. When released in 1965, the PDP-8 sold for an astonishingly low price of $18,000, which, with the aforementioned housing requirements, put computers within the reach of many companies that previously found them to be prohibitively expensive. One unique feature of the PDP-1, DEC's first product, was the use of true direct memory access (DMA), which was much cheaper and less complicated than the channels mainframes used, and without much negative impact on the processor performance. In fact, a single mainframe channel cost more than the entire PDP-1. DMA was used on every successive computer DEC made, including the PDP-8. However, not all the cost-cutting comprises made for the PDP-8 were so benign. The 12-bit word length dramatically limited the amount of directly addressable memory, while only 7-bits of the word comprised the address field, allowing only 128 bytes to be directly addressed. There were ways around this drawback, one of which was to use indirect addressing, where the 7-bits pointed to a memory location that contained the actual address that you wanted to access, which was slower, but allowed a full 12-bit access. The other way was to divide memory into segments of 128 bytes, and change segments when necessary (and people thought the 64 K segments of 16-bit x86 processors were bad). Neither solution was desirable, and they severely limited the usefulness of the PDP-8 with high-level languages. The PDP-8 was also no speed demon, and was capable of only 35,000 additions per second. Despite these compromises, the PDP-8 was remarkably successful, selling over 50,000 machines before it was discontinued. The low purchase price, low continuing costs, and ease of housing it all were more compelling than its deficits were damning. In fact, this modest machine sparked a whole new type of computer, called the mini-computer, which became very successful for over two decades and made DEC the second-largest computer company in the world. Perhaps sadly, the mini-computer did not survive the march of the micro-computer, and is now an extinct species, and thus is more applicably called a dinosaur than the normal recipient of that unflattering term, the mainframe. The mainframe still sits on top of the food chain, capable of things far beyond desktop computers. The System/370 Although the System/360 was very successful, and in some ways, revolutionary and innovative, it also eschewed leading-edge technologies that left opportunities for other companies to exploit. To its credit, however, it was still selling well even six years after its announcement, and it laid a foundation for generations that followed it, of which the System/370 was first. The initial launch of the System/370 in 1970 consisted of just two machines, the charismatically named 155 (running at almost 8.70 MHz) and 165 (running at 12.5 MHz). Naturally, both machines were compatible with programs written for the System/360 and could even use the same peripherals. Additionally, the performance was greatly improved, with the System/370 165 offering close to five times the performance of the System/360 65, the fastest machine available from that line when it was released in November 1965. There were also several new technologies for the System/370, compared to the System/360. IBM finally moved to the integrated circuit, a change many people thought long overdue. Most models in the line had transistor memory rather than core memory. The System/370 also finally supported dynamic address translation (on all but the initial two models), which was an important technology for time sharing and virtual memory. There was also a very high-speed memory cache (80 ns for the 165), which IBM called a buffer. This was used by the processor to mitigate the relatively slow (two microsecond or 2,000 ns) main memory access time. Another important consideration was that the System/370 was built from the beginning with dual processors and multiprogramming in mind. So, while the System/370 was not a spectacular announcement, it did plug up some glaring holes in the System/360, improved speed considerably, expanded the instruction set, and maintained a high degree of compatibility. It was a solid step forward and maintained IBM's dominance in the mainframe world. The 3033: The Big One While the System/370 line dominated mainframe computing for many years by introducing new models with new features and performance characteristics, IBM announced in March 1977 the successor to this very successful family of computers, the 3033, or "The Big One." Although IBM mainly stressed the additional speed (1.6 to 1.8 times the speed of the System/370 168-3) and its much smaller size, ironically for "The Big One," this machine's technical merits would not look out of place on a modern computer. Running at 17.24 MHz, the processor sported an eight-stage pipeline, branch prediction, and even speculative execution. It contained several logical units and 12 channels. The units of 3033 processor were the instruction preprocessing function (IPPF), execution function (E-function), processor storage control function (PSCF), maintenance and retry function, and the well-known channels indigenous to all IBM mainframes. The IPPF fetched instructions and prepared them for the execution by the E-function, determined priority, and made fetch requests for the operand. It not only used branch prediction, but it could buffer three instruction streams at once, so in the event it "guessed" wrong, it was likely to have the other instruction sequence ready and preprocessed for the E-Function. The E-Function, not surprisingly, was the execution engine of the processor, boasting a very large 64 K cache (with a 64 byte line size) for the first time, to speed up memory accesses. Memory itself was eight-way interleaved, allowing refreshes to occur in the seven banks it was not accessing when it did a read, which sped up read time if the next access was in one of those seven banks (DRAM requires a refresh after a read to be accessed again). The processor storage control function handled all requests for storing or fetching data from processor storage, and translated virtual address to absolute storage addresses using a technology we previously mentioned as dynamic address translation. Like modern processors, it used translation lookaside buffers to speed this up. Essentially, this is a cache of addresses already translated from virtual to absolute, so if the processor can find them there, conversion is unnecessary. On the 3033, if an address could be found, it would take one clock cycle to resolve it, or if not, it could take anywhere from 10 to 40, which is quite a difference. The maintenance and retry function provided the data path between the operator console and the 3033 processor for manual and service operations. So, while ostensibly the 3033 was just a very fast successor to the powerful System/370 168-3, when we look closer we see it has almost all the technologies of a modern processor and even some that are lacking in a portion of today's modern CPUs. However, it was still a scalar design, and despite its impressive characteristics, was replaced relatively quickly by the 3081. While I know you are just brimming with curiosity about the 3081 (who could blame you?), and I can assure we will get very familiar with it, let us first take a short interlude by looking at what DEC, the second largest computer company of the world at that time, had to offer. The VAX-11/780 While most of our readers know that the x86 instruction set originated in 1978 with the 8086, perhaps a more important development happened a year earlier when Digital released the infamous VAX-11/780. But how could anything possibly be more important than the x86 instruction set? When most people think of DEC, they remember a large mini-computer maker that failed and was bought by Compaq when the micro-computer usurped DECs key market. But what happened in 1977 that was so important? DECs VAX and its very comely wife, VMS, the latter of which still has much relevance today. The VAX-11/780 was ostensibly released to address the shortcomings of the highly successful and very well liked PDP-11. DEC downplayed many of the changes and instead focused on the ability to finally break the 16-bit (64 K) addressable memory limitation of the PDP-11 with the VAX-11/780s 32-bit address. However, there was much more to it than that. The VAX is considered by most to be the finest of all CISC instruction sets, rivaled only by those influenced by it. It was a highly orthogonal instruction set, with 243 instructions on several basic data types and with 16 different addressing modes. This elegant architecture was a strong influence in the Motorola 68000 family, which became the platform for Apple Lisa and MacIntosh until it was replaced by the PowerPC in the 1990s. Incidentally, the performance of the VAX-11/780 was adopted as a standard measurement when VAX MIPS, or later just one MIPS, became a measure of computer performance. However, perhaps the most important contribution of the VAX was VMS. Windows NT was developed by none other than Dave Cutler, the designer for VMS. He was one of many VMS developers who went over to Microsoft to work on the development of Windows NT. Despite the controversy surrounding Windows, Windows NT is still the dominant operating system in use today, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, particularly since Windows 7 is being far better received than Vista. This is not to denigrate the VMS operating system as insignificant other than its impact on Windows NT as it was a much respected design that was especially user friendly. Many showered accolades on this easy-to-use operating system, which was very much ahead of its time. In fact, although the VAX is dead, OpenVMS is clearly not, and is currently running on Intel's Itanium processors and HP's archaic Alpha processors, with a new release due out later this year. Thus, since its release 32 years ago, the operating system is still going strong. As delightful as the VAX and VMS were, and the latter still is, they never challenged the Big Blue beast in any real economic way and instead probably helped IBM in its fight with the government, which was not too fond of what they considered IBM's monopoly. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan dropped the anti-monopoly suit against IBM, and that same year, Big Blue released the 3081, which incidentally, was the first mainframe with which I had experience. And what an experience it was. The 3081 I still remember it like it was yesterday, that spring day in 1988 when I got a call from IBM telling me to come in to interview for a computer operator position. I was ecstatic when what was considered to be the greatest company in the world, the only one I wished to work for, was going to be my employer. It was a different time then, when IBM represented everything good about American business, and represented the pinnacle of success. During my first day of work, I was introduced to a machine that was released in 1981, the 3081. I had some experience with an old Univac 1100/63 in college, but until then, I was more familiar with micro-computers, which were best represented by the still fairly-new 80386 and 68030. My first impression of the mainframes was unfavorable. Even by the microcomputers standards of the day, the interface was primitive and far less intuitive than that of PCs. I was not impressed. The scale of things was shocking. The air-conditioned, raised-floor room was hundreds of feet wide and long, with almost a dozen 3081s and an enormous number of DASDs. We had six printers, which were enormous and almost the same size as the mainframe. There were three sets of consoles, one for the print area and one for the tape area, while the computers were monitored closely in the main console area. We had three interfaces to MVS, as the operating system was called, which stood for multiple virtual storages, but we derisively referred to it as man versus system. There were the system consoles, which were essentially only available in operations: time share option (TSO) and operations planning and control (OPC). TSO was what many people used to do their work, while OPC was mainly for scheduling batch jobs that were going to run on the system. Many programmers preferred to work on VM, which was another operating system IBM offered for the 3081, before transferring their work to the MVS machine. Our site had responsibility for the customer master record (CMR), which was used by many applications and sometimes directly by people. This ran on an IBM internal application called AAS, which was never sold. There were also some applications on CICS, which was the product IBM sold and is still widely used today by many companies. Many of these applications were critical, and any down time was extremely expensive during normal working hours. In fact, we were told that it cost IBM a million dollars every minute the system was down, which I never believed and still do not. Anyway, after these online applications would go down (usually at around 8:00 PM), the batch processing would begin. Jobs were scheduled in OPC and were submitted in kind of a "wrapper" called job control language (JCL). JCL could run several executables in one job and it specified the resources and order for the executables. You did not tell it explicitly in the executable which DASD to access, as the JCL defined where the input and output were. As mentioned, jobs were tracked in OPC, and were released based on time and/or dependencies. They were sent to the job entry system (JES) and from there were executed. As mentioned, interfaces were poor compared to PCs of that time, but the reliability of the operating system was far greater than the Windows NT derivatives that we use today. It's something I learned to appreciate over time, and I still marvel at it. The 3081 was a "dyadic" design, meaning it had two processors that even shared the same cache. They could not be split into two computers, as they were inseparable. However, the sophistication of this operating system was such that even if one of the processors died, the system would stay up and continue to execute. The application that was using the failed processor would crash, but it would do so fairly gracefully as the operating system would recognize the failure and send it into the proper place for crashed applications (we'd track them in OPC, and either fix them ourselves or get their support team to take care of the problem). This is not to imply the 3081 CPUs were always crashing, as it was rare when they did so. DASDs did fail fairly often, although most of the time failures happened when we had to power them down and then back up periodically. This was expected behavior and we always had CEs there for scheduled downtimes to repair those that were especially problematic. Normally, only one or two would fail out of the few hundred on the floor during each power down. Each 3081 processor ran at a blistering clock speed of almost 38.5 MHz. By IBM's somewhat optimistic measurements, the base 3081 (model D) was up to 21 times faster than the 3033UP, while the higher-end model K was almost 30 times faster. Some of this, of course, came from the extra processor, although sharing the cache did create some overhead. The uniprocessor 3083, for example, actually ran 15% faster than the 3081 when the workload could not engage the 3081s second processor. The 3084 was another extension of this line, and actually had a pair of dyadic processors. Unlike the 3081, it could be divided into two separate machines. Another improvement of the 3081 was that it could address more than 16 MB and used 31-bit addressing rather than the 3033s 24-bit addressing. All in all, considering it was released only four years later than the 3033, it was a substantially improved machine. The hardware was good and the stability of the software was just incredible. I hope the personal tone of this entry does not bore or irritate the reader, but I wanted to give a view of what working with these machines was really like. In many ways they were amazing machines. Still, as amazing as the 3081, 3083, and 3084 were, we were envious of sites that had the 3090, and we had heard the stories of how incredible the performance was. Again . . . Apropos for #TBT . . . The aftermath of a teen party shooting provides yet another good reason why it's good to "let the past be the past" and resist the urge hang out with high school friends after that time is complete. Fun fact . . . Making fun of guys in their 20s at high school proms is the only solace for those of us who didn't go or the poor souls who showed up by themselves. Deets here . . . Daijon Estell was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Katron Harris, as well as one count of aggravated assault, two counts of endangerment and eight counts of aggravated child endangerment, according to the Wyandotte County District Attorney's Office. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Charges filed in deadly KCK shooting on Halloween night Wyandotte County prosecutors have charged Daijon Estell in connection with a shooting at a Halloween party that killed one teenager and injured six others.Estell, 22, is facing 12 criminal charges, including first-degree murder.Police said there was an invite-only party at a home in the 1600 block of South 50th Street when some unknown people showed up at the home. Suspect facing charges in shooting death of teen at KCK Halloween party KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A 22-year-old man is facing charges in connection to a mass shooting at a Halloween party in Kansas City, Kansas, that left one teenager dead and multiple others injured. Developing . . . Regarding this persistent DECEPTION . . . Let's define terms first . . . The Silicon Prairie, a take on the Silicon Valley, can refer to one of several places in the United States: including the DallasFort Worth area in Texas, the Chicago and Champaign-Urbana areas in Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin. Silicon Prairie is also a reference to a multi-state region loosely comprising parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas. A tragic fact that neither our politicos nor biz leaders will speak too or frames in the proper and devastating perspective amid layoffs and massive forced departures . . . Cerner, one of Kansas Citys largest employers, was formally acquired by Austin-based Oracle in June. The exit was announced in December 2021. Read more about the impact of harsh times via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Oracle closing former Cerner HQ in post-acquisition scaleback across metro Editor's note: The following story was originally published by CityScene KC, an online news source focused on Greater Downtown Kansas City. Click here to read the original story or here to sign up for the weekly CityScene KC email review. Oracle Cerner's soon-to-be-vacant campuses put more than 3M square feet on the market - Kansas City Business Journal Some people found it more an inevitability than a surprise that Oracle Cerner eventually would close all its Kansas City-area offices aside from its Innovations Campus. The question now is what comes next for the health care IT company's (NYSE: ORCL) World Headquarters and Realization campuses. Developing . . . Right now we roundup more than a few local news links regarding court cases against law enforcement, tragedy impacting youngsters, allegations of misdeeds and public safety notices. As always, nicer news links are toward the conclusion of the compilation . . . Check TKC news gathering . . . Kansas City police to pay $5 million over 2019 fatal shooting of Terrence Bridges The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners reached a $5 million settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by the family of Terrence Bridges Jr., a Black man who was shot and killed by a Kansas City police officer in 2019. Lawrence police warn against 'Felony Lane Gang' Posted: Updated: LAWRENCE, Kan. - Police ask the community to be aware of crimes often committed by a group known as the " Felony Lane Gang." Lawrence police said they have taken several reports over the past several months that fit the type of crimes members of the gang are known to commit. Johnson County man pleads guilty; avoids first-degree murder in toddler's death OLATHE, Kan. - A Johnson County man pleaded guilty to distributing drugs that ended in the death of a toddler. Court records show prosecutors originally charged 28-year-old Jean Pierre Morales with first-degree murder, child endangerment and drug possession in the case. KC man faces murder charge in August fatal shooting at Independence Ave BP A Kansas City man, 23, faces Murder 1st Degree charge in the August 2022 fatal shooting of Myana Henderson, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced November 2. D'Angelo L. Fisher faces Murder 1st Degree, Assault 1st Degree, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm and two counts of Armed Criminal Action charges. KCPD looking for missing 73-year-old not seen since September Kansas City, Missouri, police are looking for a 73-year-old that has not been in months. KCPD says Ronald Rattler was last seen on Sep. 21, 2022. Rattler is known to frequent the area of Longview Road and Blue Ridge Blvd.His family told police he suffers from undiagnosed dementia. Beyond breathing: Study shines light on benefits of breathing techniques for police KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In recent years, police departments across the country have come under closer scrutiny as use of force cases have made headlines. While those stories are visible, sometimes the efforts police are taking behind the scenes to make changes are not. Fallen North Kansas City officer honored at regional police academy KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A fallen North Kansas City Police Officer is be remembered at the police academy where he spent months training. Instructors at Kansas City's Regional Police Academy hung a plaque for Officer Daniel Vasquez along the Fallen Officers wall in the building. Developing . . . As we noted earlier this week . . . Amendment 4 already looks like a dramatic victory for police supporters & might even win in Kansas City proper. Sadly, the consequences of that vote might not settle much for so many locals who don't have a very nuanced understanding of local law enforcement issues. Accordingly, we offer another roundup to more local crime news, court cases, police action and alleged misdeeds that offers more perspective on the highly politicized nature of the current debate . . . Check TKC news gathering . . . Missouri's Amendment 4 boils down to one core question: Who should control KCPD? The ballot measure would give the legislature the power to order Kansas City to increase the police budget. Supporters say the amendment gives needed funding to a city with growing crime rates. Critics argue it gives the state legislature control over decisions that belong to residents. The battle for local control over Kansas City's police force is on the November ballot The battle over local control of the Kansas City, Missouri, police budget is on the November state ballot.Voters throughout Missouri will decide if amendment 4 should change the state's constitution.State senator tony Luetkemeyer is running for re-election.He wants people to vote yes on amendment 4."A vote yes on amendment four is a vote for our law enforcement officers. Man who allegedly shot at Independence police officer charged in incident KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man who allegedly shot at an Independence police officer at a gas station early Thursday morning has been charged in the incident. Ryland E. Polson, 30, was charged with first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Woman says Kansas City officers used excessive force; KCPD investigating KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City woman said her late-night walk turned brutal when she was attacked by a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer. "I thought I was going to die, honestly," Vera Lenley said. Lenley said she went on a walk on Oct. Man who was shot by Independence police officer early Thursday now charged with felonies A man who was shot and wounded during an exchange of gunfire with an Independence police officer during a confrontation near a gas station early Thursday has been charged with shooting at the officer.Ryland E. Johnson County man sentenced to life in prison after murdering his wife in 2018 KANSAS CITY, MO. - A man who killed his wife was sentenced by a Johnson County judge Thursday to life in prison without chance of parole. A jury convicted Robert Lee Harris, 35, of first degree premeditated murder on Aug. 19, 2022 in the death of Tanisha Harris, according to a news release from the Johnson County District Attorney's Office. New group to investigate deadly use-of-force incidents for 4 jurisdictions in Jackson County There's a new cooperative effort among four police departments in Jackson County to investigate each agency's deadly use-of-force incidents.The East Jackson County Police Involved Incident Team, or PIIT, is comprised of detectives from the Independence, Grandview, Blue Springs, and Lee's Summit police departments.PIIT is working on its first case after an Independence police officer shot a suspect early Thursday after investigators said that suspect pointed a gun at the officer. Caldwell County man charged with 9 counts of child molestation, 3 counts of sexual abuse CALDWELL COUNTY, MO. (KCTV) - Damion Micah Bergan, 34, has been charged with nine counts of child molestation and three counts of sexual abuse. Bergen was arrested Wednesday in Clinton County, Mo., following a standoff in Lathrop. He had an active felony no bond warrant out of Caldwell County. JOCO sheriff's office asks for help finding 2 runaway teens makenzie goodall, genesis shead SOURCE: KMBC The Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff's Office is asking for help in finding two teenage runaways.Authorities said 14-year-old Makenzie Goodall (pictured, left) and 16-year-old Genesis Shead ran away from their home in Edgerton, Kansas, early Thursday.The sheriff's office said they were last seen driving a gold 2016 Chrysler Town and Country minivan in the Kansas City, Kansas, area at 1 p.m. Myana Henderson's family feels relief after charges announced against her alleged killer KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Myana Henderson was 21 years old when she was shot and killed at a Kansas City, Missouri, convenience store parking lot in August. Now nearly three months later, her family says they are relieved charges have been filed against her alleged killer. What are some Missouri death row inmates' final meal requests? KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It's been just over a year since Julie Green, an artist known for painting final meal requests of death row inmates on ceramic plates, died at the age of 60. Green is known for their project, "The Last Supper," currently displayed at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington, totaling 1,000 plates. Developing . . . Some of our most KICK-ASS readers sent this one our way but we didn't have time for it. It's worth going back to consider. Some of the scarier deets the preceded charges . . . Fluke-Ekren converted to Islam years ago, while attending the University of Kansas and was "predisposed to zealotry," her father said, according to a government filing. She fled to Egypt, Libya and ultimately Syria, all the while "using different husbands to advocate for approval of her military training plans from the leadership in the terrorist groups with whom she was associated overseas." Once in Syria, according to one of at least six government witnesses who say they interacted with her, Fluke-Ekren presented a plan of attack to a paid U.S. foreign government source. That plan, Fluke-Ekren admitted in court earlier this year, was to target an American college campus in the Midwest with explosives. Although Fluke-Ekren said the plan had been presented to the then-leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, it was ultimately put on hold, the initial charging documents said. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Kansas woman who led all-female ISIS battalion sentenced to 20 years in prison | CNN Politics Allison Fluke-Ekren, a Kansas woman who led an all-female ISIS battalion in Syria, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia. American woman who went from Kansas teacher to ISIS leader sentenced to 20 years in prison Fluke-Ekren waged violent jihad in Libya, Iraq and Syria for eight years, prosecutors said. She trained women and children to use AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts. Fluke-Ekren's lawyers argued she deserves a shorter sentence after trauma and loss she suffered. Halloween aftermath for a local college elicits culture war outcry . . . Context . . . A week before the incident, Washburns Campus Activities Board held a confab to educate students on cultural appropriation, its effects on society and how it relates to costumes. Campus Activities Board Cultural Program Director Megan Dorantes, a Washburn senior, defined cultural appropriation as aspects from a non-dominant culture used by someone from the dominant culture without acknowledgment of creation, societal benefits and respect. Dorantes encouraged her peers to correct anyone they see engaging in cultural appropriation. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Professor investigated for 'cultural appropriation' of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' | The College Fix A chemistry professor at Kansas's Washburn University is under investigation for allegedly committing "cultural appropriation" at a faculty Halloween party. According to the Washburn Review, Holly O'Neil dressed up as "King of Pop" Michael Jackson at the English Department's October 27 Halloween party. She also reportedly "performed a dance" to Jackson's hit song "Thriller." Even more context . . . Not all of us posses the talent of "The Amazing Christopher" in order to pay tribute to the King Of Pop . . . Here's one of my all-time favorite performances . . . BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The construction of infrastructure for a big science biomedical imaging project in Beijing was officially completed on Thursday, according to Peking University, which owns the facilities. The National Biomedical Imaging Center, with a construction area of 100 mu (about 66,667 square meters), is located in Beijing's Huairou District and has an approximate total investment of 1.72 billion yuan (about 237.33 million U.S. dollars). The center will focus on visually representing and accurately measuring the structures and functions of living organisms, and providing multiple imaging research methods for the study of complex life science issues and major diseases, the university said. Imaging technology is needed in a wide range of fields, such as scientific research, medicine, education and industry, and is particularly important for major biomedical problems. Without the clear observation of changes on different scales during the pathological process, including changes in molecules, proteins, cells and organs, it is hard to treat diseases accurately, said Chen Liangyi, a biomedical imaging expert at Peking University. Biomedical imaging facilities help doctors observe the dynamic processes of diseases in a multi-level, panoramic and visual way, so as to better screen targeted drugs for patients, he explained. The newly built project mainly comprises several key devices, used for multimodal medical imaging, multimodal live cell imaging, multimodal high-resolution molecular imaging, and an image integration system, according to the university. The completion of the project will promote the country's research in the life sciences, including the brain and cognitive sciences, stem cells and their regeneration, as well as neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases and the accurate diagnosis of tumors, said Cheng Heping, a professor at the university and the project's chief scientist. As a new research tool, the imaging project will reveal the mysteries of life in a panoramic way, Cheng said. The center was built by Peking University, together with other institutions and universities, including the Institute of Biophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Harbin Institute of Technology, and the University of Science and Technology of China. It is expected to begin trial operations in 2023. Nearly 40 years after the high-profile murders of two Toronto women, police announced they have arrested and charged a man with the 1983 slayings of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour the latest decades-old cases to be cracked using genetic genealogy. At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pays an official visit to China on November 4. Scholz becomes the first Western leader to go on an official visit to China following the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Despite the persistent COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitics, the bilateral trade has been growing over the past two years, hitting record highs. Last year, a total of the two-way trade exceeded $239 billion, and China has been Germany's largest trading partner for six consecutive years. What will be the prospects of deeper bilateral ties and China-EU relations? Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : ROMANCE TRAVEL EXPERT Industry: Travel Agents (TRAVPR.COM) USA - November 4th, 2022 - Your Destination Fun is a hotel travel agent that specializes in creating romantic getaways for couples. The company has been successful from its inception and is celebrating its first Anniversary on November 6th. They are a team of experts passionate about helping couples find the perfect place to go on vacation and make memories that will last a lifetime. They have served over 1500 clients worldwide since they started over a year ago. Their number one priority is to help clients create wonderful memories for each other that will last for many years to come. Since 2021, Your Destination Fun, a destination wedding expert, has been helping people to find the best destinations for romance, honeymoons, and special occasions. The agency has a team of experts that know the most beautiful places in the world and how to offer a unique experience to its clients during their vacations. Now, Your Destination Fun celebrates its one-year Anniversary with a new website and new features to help couples find the perfect destination for their vacations. The agency offers various destinations worldwide, including cruise travel, Mexico travel, resort hotels, luxury resorts, and eco-friendly resorts. "Gone are the days when couples had to rely on their relatives, friends, or even themselves to plan their romantic getaways. Your Destination Fun is a company that focuses on finding the best places to visit and providing travel services that will make your trip unforgettable. From luxury hotels and restaurants, to scuba diving packages and hiking tours, we have all of your romantic travels covered. It is our goal to help people fulfill their dreams", says Eric B Shaffer, founder of Your Destination Fun. "I started this company after I was disappointed with my own experience in finding an ideal vacation spot for my wedding. We have been working hard to help our clients find the perfect vacation spot." "If you've ever needed a dependable Disney travel agent, Your Destination Fun is the perfect solution for you! We saved a ton of money using them for our trip to Disney World. My kids had such a great time and weren't upset about one thing on the trip. The vacation was perfect for us and very affordable. I would recommend this company to anyone planning a Disney vacation.' Said one of the happy customers. About Your Destination Fun Your Destination Fun, is a romance travel expert based in Galveston, Texas, specializing in romance travel and group travel services. Eric B. Shaffer, the founder of Your Destination Fun and has over twenty years of experience in the hospitality and tourism business. He received his tourism and hospitality management certification from Florida Atlantic University. For more information about Your Destination Fun travel services, please visit https://yourdestinationfun.com/. Contact: Your Destination Fun Eric B Shaffer, Founder 346-262-6721 EricS@Yourdestinationfun www.yourdestinationfun.com 527 Moody Ave- 21 St Street #166 Galveston, TX 77550 ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release : CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Eric B Shaffer Company: Your Destination Fun Phone: 346-262-6721 Email: EricS@Yourdestinationfun Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS Photo shows migratory birds at Nanhu wetland nature reserve in Gongqingcheng city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Kuang Jian) More than 10,000 migratory birds recently arrived at Nanhu wetland nature reserve in Gongqingcheng city, east China's Jiangxi Province, to spend the winter. Since late June this year, Jiangxi has experienced a prolonged period of continuous high temperature and little rain, resulting in an early dry season for Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake in the eastern province. In an effort to enhance the functions of the wetland and create a sound environment for the migratory birds, Gongqingcheng city has effectively reduced the impact of drought on the local environment by ensuring all-weather ecological water replenishment. The Tv6 Fan Zone touched down at the All Out Sports bar again on Monday at the Queens park O By Jeff Murphy, November 3, 2022 The University of Central Missouri Board of Governors listened to presentation on on-boarding new freshmen when it held committee meetings on Oct. 27 in the Elliott Student Union, prior to its plenary session. WARRENSBURG, MO In its plenary session Oct. 27, the University of Central Missouri Board of Governors approved two new options to the Bachelor of Science in Design and Drafting Technology program, the demolition and cleanup of select vacant structures on university property, a contract for timber harvesting at the Prussing Farm, a proposal that positively impacts the cost of education for military dependents, and policy changes that apply to UCM emeriti faculty and staff. Consistent with the universitys efforts to serve individuals in the military and their families, the board approved a recommendation to expand the universitys in-state tuition rates to dependents of service members and veterans. This expansion is effective for the fall 2023 semester. It aligns with best practices and also is in compliance with Veterans Affairs (VA) requirements related to students who are using transfer of entitlement under Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance Program. This measure benefits dependents of individuals who currently serve in the military, (active duty, guard, and reserve) regardless of the state where the military member is serving. It also applies to dependents of veterans who do not have VA educational entitlement, and to dependents who have exhausted their VA educational entitlement. UCMs Office of Military and Veterans Services will manage the new initiative, which will contribute to the institutions standing as a 2022-2023 Military Friendly School, currently with a gold ranking. Noting its appreciation for retired faculty and staff members, the board in October 2002 adopted a policy which comprehensively addresses the designation of emeriti status and UCM retirement benefits governed by the board. Proposed updates, that had been revised in recent months following feedback from UCM retirees and other constituents, were adopted during the boards most recent meeting. One of these updates pertains to the university identification card. As employees and students move to the option of a traditional card or electronic credentials, the administration is making it possible for retirees to have the same options. Additionally, upon request to Human Resources at the time of submitting notice of retirement, retirees will now receive a new UCM email account with the domain established by the Office of Technology signifying retiree status (@retiree.ucmo.edu). The change in email accounts is expected to eliminate concerns related to businesses and other individuals continuing to communicate with individual accounts, not knowing a person is retired and no longer working on behalf of the university. This will also allow UCM to focus targeted communication more appropriately. It was noted that individuals who retired prior to this policy update also will transfer to the new email address reflecting their retirement status. Revisions to the emeriti policy also make it possible for staff members who retire with a minimum of 10 consecutive years of employment in a benefits eligible position at UCM to achieve emeriti status upon their retirement. In the past, the minimum length of service for staff to achieve this designation has been 20 years. In other business the board adopted proposed changes in the Design and Drafting Technology degree program, which currently has four emphasis areas: Mechanical (Product/Machine) Design, Architectural/Structural, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) and Industrial Piping Systems, and Civil/GIS. To meet student and employer needs, the board authorized the College of Health, Science and Technology to provide two options for this degree from these four emphasis areas. These 120-hour options are now the B.S. in Design and Drafting Technology Civil and Architectural Design Technology and the B.S. in Design and Drafting Technology Mechanical Design Technology (Product/Machine). The board approved the issuance of a contract to Infinity Group, LLC in the amount of $699,098 for labor and materials needed for the construction of new offices, counseling rooms, and new restroom and finishes upgrades in the Lovinger Building Gymnasium. This space will become the Dr. Michael Hough Education and Counseling Center, benefiting from a gift through the UCM Alumni Foundation. A contract with Reasbeck Construction, Inc., Warrensburg, in the amount of $741,615 was approved to remove the existing gravel parking lot and construct a paved asphalt lot with concrete curb and gutter at the South Recreation Complex. This will be funded by the Capital Construction budget. The board approved a contract with Aquila Industries, LLC, Raymore, Missouri, in the amount of $418,375 for renovations at the James C. Kirkpatrick Library. Expected to increase building utilization and space, this project includes selective demolition of storefront systems, clerestory glazing, walls, wood column wraps, overhead wood headers, carpet, miscellaneous built-in shelves, and high-density library shelving (with integrated recessed track). New construction consists of patching the floor as needed, the creation of new study rooms, recessed booths, new casework for a breakroom and wellness room, information desk, information hubs, and installation of acoustical unit panels and room finishes. It also includes ductwork, temperature controls and lighting improvements. The university was authorized by the board to seek bids for the excavation, demolition and disposal of a total of 18 structures at UCM-owned properties located at 705 S. Mitchell St.; 117 E. Hunt St.; 318 NW 200 Road; and 1104 S. Holden St., in Warrensburg. The project will consist of clearing identified properties, removing and disposal of debris in accordance with Missouri state guidelines, backfilling excavation sites with clean material and quality topsoil, and grading where needed to ensure proper drainage. It will be funded by the Facilities Operations and Planning maintenance and repair budget. Board members approved a request to contract with Stuart Collins, Knob Noster, for professional logging/timber harvesting services for approximately 160 acres at Prussing Farm. This consists of trees that have reached the end of their maturity and if left standing will be subject to dying, rot and falling over. Harvesting the timber will reduce the risk of damage to neighboring properties, fence lines, and pasture, and provide room for smaller trees to grow in place of those that are harvested. Additionally, there is a small financial benefit as UCM will receive 70 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Black Walnut logs. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, showed during the meeting of the heads of foreign affairs of the G7 nations the debris of the Iranian-made drone that recently struck Kyiv. The minister reported this on Twitter, as seen by Ukrinform. "During my todays address at the meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers I demonstrated them a part of an Iranian-made drone which has recently hit Kyiv. Iran must cease supplying Russia with weapons used to kill Ukrainians or face an even stiffer global pressure and consequences," Kuleba wrote. He added that despite the blackout that disrupted the link, he managed to address the G7 foreign ministers. Read also: Air defense forces destroyed kamikaze drones heading towards Zaporizhzhia "Key signals: energy transformers, air and missile defenses, NATO-standard tanks, new weapons to support Ukraines offensives, sanctions, accountability for the crime of aggression against Ukraine," the minister noted. As Ukrinform reported, a summit of G7 foreign ministers is being held in Munster, Germany, on November 3-4. Usually, the G7 top diplomats meet twice a year, but under the current conditions, the meeting is already the 10th since year-start. Many people who used zinc nasal sprays suffered a permanent loss of smell. For this reason, Mayo Clinic doctors caution against using such sprays. Eight civilians have been killed and 14 injured in Russias shelling of the Donetsk region over the past day. The relevant statement was made by Donetsk Regional Military Administration Head Pavlo Kyrylenko on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. On November 3, 2022, Russians killed eight civilians in the Donetsk region: five in Bakhmut, one in Pokrovsk, one in Nelipivka and one in Krasnohorivka, Kyrylenko wrote. In addition, law enforcement officers discovered the body of a civilian killed by Russian troops in the Donetsk regions Krymky during occupation. Fourteen more people were reported injured. The exact number of casualties in Mariupol and Volnovakha is remaining unknown, Kyrylenko added. mk The Armed Forces of Ukraine eliminated another 840 Russian invaders and destroyed 28 armoured personnel vehicles over the past day, November 3. "840 occupiers and 28 armoured vehicles per day not a record, but mighty. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in Lyman and Avdiivka directions," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook. In total, Russia lost about 74,840 military personnel from February 24 to November 4. Moreover, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 2,750 (+16 over the past day) enemy tanks, 5,580 (+28) armoured personnel vehicles, 1,772 (+17) artillery systems, 391 (+1) MLRS, 201 (+3) air defense systems, 277 aircraft, 258 helicopters, 1,450 (+8) operational-tactical UAVs, 397 cruise missiles, 16 ships/boats, 4,174 (+12) vehicles and fuel tanks, 155 (+1) special equipment units. The data are being updated. ol Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's new government is set to approve Italys sixth military aid package for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. This was reported by ANSA, according to Ukrinform. "The only thing that we cannot do at such a complex time like the one we are experiencing is to lose contact with our international allies, the EU and the Atlantic alliance. So, there is only one way to act and decide. If the situation in Ukraine does not change, there will be a sixth decree to send new military aid, Crosetto said. He also added that the decree will be right and proper, just like the others were". As reported by Ukrinform, on October 18, Ukraines Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov stated that Italy provided Ukraine with a new military aid package. iy Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has called on Brazil to help with ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft system to protect grain hubs from Russian attacks. He said this at a briefing in Odesa on Friday, addressing a Brazilian journalist, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "I will also send a signal to your government, because you also have the opportunity to provide us with ammunition for the Gepard system [German anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery]. They are not only in Switzerland, but also in Brazil, so if you convey such a request from me, I am ready to formalize it," Reznikov said. According to him, Ukraine needs ammunition for Gepards for a humanitarian mission, because these systems protect the sky from Iranian drones, so that they do not destroy the logistics and supply systems of grain hubs. "And from these grain hubs, grain, sunflower oil, and corn are supplied to countries facing hunger. Therefore, if you give us these munitions today, we will protect the sky from terrorist drones, which means that this will be a humanitarian mission on your part, because we will save lives and people will not die of hunger in Africa and Asia," he said. Brazil adheres to the position of neutrality in Russia's war against Ukraine. Photo: Maurizio Gambarini / dpa The Netherlands will provide another assistance package to Ukraine worth EUR 120 million. The Netherlands is again supplying heavy military materiel to Ukraine. The total value of the support package is 120 million euros, of which 45 million is designated for the provision of T-72 tanks, the Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands announced. Together with the United States and the Czech Republic, the Netherlands will provide 90 modernised and reconditioned Czech tanks. The first batch of tanks is expected to be delivered to Ukraine as early as next month. As reported, the Netherlands will supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles for air and missile defense to the tune of 15 million euros. Photo credit: clarusapex.com ol Jose Manuel Albares Bueno, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, saw with his own eyes the consequences of Russian shelling during his visit to Kyiv and made sure of the need to protect the Ukrainian sky from missiles and drones. "I am in Kyiv for the second time this year. It has changed a lot since what I saw in February, just before Vladimir Putin started this illegal and brutal aggression that turned into a war... I could see with my own eyes the wounds of war, which are visible not only on the buildings but also in the eyes of Ukrainians... Spain understands, and Minister Kuleba also told me about it, that it is extremely necessary at this moment to protect the Ukrainian sky, because today I saw the destruction in Kyiv, where six people were killed," Minister Albares said at a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. He expressed solidarity with the Ukrainians fighting for their independence "with all their strength, courage, and great pride." "I want to convey our firm support to Ukraine and today I arrived to do it personally. This is political, diplomatic, humanitarian and military support to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and help the civilian population suffering from illegal aggression," the minister said. In this context, Albares noted that the latest package of Spains military aid would include air defense systems against Russian drones and missiles. As reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba announced a new package of military aid from Spain, which includes a battery of Aspide missile system with missiles, four Hawk air defense systems, anti-tank missile systems, mortars and munitions for them. On October 10, six people were killed and about 50 people were injured in Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv due to Russias massive missile attack. Photo credit: Jose Manuel Albares @jmalbares ol President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his active participation in preserving the grain agreement, unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. I thanked Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his active participation in preserving the grain deal, for his steadfast support of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Zelensky wrote on Twitter. The president also noted they discussed further steps to return Ukraines POWs and political prisoners, adding that in this issue, he also counts on support of Turkey. As Ukrinform reported, on October 29, the Russian Federation announced its withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, justifying its decision by an alleged attack on ships of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol Bay. Russia accused Ukraine and the United Kingdom of carrying out the attack. However, twelve ships left Ukrainian ports on Monday under the Black Sea Grain Initiative On November 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced at a meeting of the parliamentary group of the Justice and Development Party that the operation of the "grain corridor" has been resumed, and grain transportation will be carried out as before. iy The U.S. administration is ready to use all available tools to counter arms shipments from North Korea to Russia. Ukrinform's own correspondent reports that U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said this during a Washington briefing Wednesday. Just as the U.S. is using all the tools available to counter the supply of Iranian weapons to Russia, it will act in a similar way in the case of such arms supplies by DPRK, said the official representative of the State Department. He emphasized that it is about the application of sanctions, as well as additional tools of influence to counter this activity, including appeals to other governments. The Department of State believes that this is the responsibility of countries around the world, especially those that have leverage over the North Korean regime, which the United States in some cases does not have, Price said. He emphasized that all responsible nations, especially permanent members of the UN Security Council, are obliged to fully comply with the requirements of sanctions introduced by the UNSC. The U.S. will continue to explore ways to hold North Korea accountable not only for its programs of developing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, but also for any further supply of weapons to Russia, the State Department spokesman emphasized. As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Wednesday, the White House said North Korea had been supplying large batches of artillery munitions to Russia for their use in the war on Ukraine. On Thursday, November 3, the Parliament of Bulgaria voted to authorize the supply of weapons to Ukraine against the backdrop of Russian aggression. Thats according to The Sofia Globe, Ukrinform reports. 175 deputies voted "for" and 49 -- "against," while one MP abstained in the vote that followed a four-hour debate on Thursday, November 3. The "green light" from parliament gives the Bulgarian government one month to draft a decision on the military and military-technical assistance that Bulgaria has to provide to Ukraine. The government is also required to organize the signing of agreements on defense assistance as soon as possible, taking into account "Bulgaria's capabilities." In addition, the parliament's decision requires the government to negotiate with Bulgaria's NATO allies to provide the country with military equipment and thus speed up the time frame in which Bulgaria must dispose of its outdated Soviet-era weapons. The parliament also requires the government to propose a package of measures for Bulgaria's participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine and requires Bulgaria to support Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights. As reported by Ukrinform, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria, Ivan Demerdzhiev, said earlier that the government allowed to continue the program for the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees. Photo: parliament.bg Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani have discussed the ways of speeding up the delivery of Italys latest security assistance package to Ukraine and the development of the next military aid package. The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. In our call, my Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani and I focused on ways to speed up the delivery of the latest package of Italian security assistance to Ukraine, Kuleba wrote. In his words, they also discussed the next military aid package, and Kuleba emphasized the importance of including air defense systems in it. mk Southern School District was awarded a $395,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Clean School Bus Program. The funds will allow the school to purchase a new electric school bus and the infrastructure to charge it. The Biden-Harris Administration previously announced that nearly $1 billion would go to 389 school districts in the United States as a part of the Building a Better America Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Approximately 2,000 districts applied. Six school districts in Nebraska were granted funds. Chris Prososki, Superintendent of Southern Schools, said he was very excited that the district was chosen as a recipient. He said he worked with Tyler Cox at Blue Bird Corporation to complete the grant. The bus has passenger seating for 72 students and travel up to 120 miles after an eight-hour charge, Prososki said. The Blue Bird fact sheet indicates that it costs approximately $17 to completely charge the bus opposed to the cost of diesel. There are no filters or engine upkeep costs with an electric vehicle. The battery has a 10-year warranty. A new diesel bus is approximately $130,000-$140,000, so this is one way we can try out the electric bus at no cost to the district, he said. Obviously we would not have bought an electric bus without this grant. One of the requirements is that the district would utilize the electric bus for five years or more. They are also required to trade in and destroy an older diesel bus. The district plans to use the new bus as a route bus with a close proximity to the school. The bus will run for approximately 40 minutes to an hour twice a day as we learn more about its capabilities. Prososki said he was unsure when the bus would be delivered, but expected the charging station to be built north of the high school building in Wymore. The Southern School District has around 380 students enrolled in Preschool to 12th grade and approximately 100 employees. The school has a fleet of 10-12 buses currently. The five other schools in Nebraska receiving the grant include Hay Springs, Hershey, McCool Junction, Raymond-Central and Summerland. The G7 countries have agreed to establish a coordination mechanism to help Ukraine restore and defend its critical infrastructure. The foreign ministers of the G7 countries said this in a statement posted on the website of the German Foreign Ministry, Ukrinform reports. "Today we establish a G7 coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure," the statement said. The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the High Representative of the European Union said they remain committed to contribute to the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine. They also look forward to the December 13 international conference in Paris aimed at supporting Ukraine's civilian resilience, organized by France and Ukraine. The diplomats once again called on Russia to immediately stop its war of aggression against Ukraine and withdraw all of its forces and military equipment. Together with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, they condemned Russia's recent escalation, including its attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, in particular energy and water facilities, across Ukraine using missiles and Iranian drones and trainers. Indiscriminate attacks against civilian population and infrastructure constitute war crimes and the G7 foreign ministers reiterated their determination to ensure full accountability for these and crimes against humanity. The diplomats also called Moscow's nuclear rhetoric unacceptable and emphasized that any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences. They also rejected Russia's false claims that Ukraine is preparing a radiological "dirty bomb," noting that the inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that these allegations are baseless. At the same time, the G7 countries support the IAEA's efforts to establish a Safety and Security Zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The statement condemns Russia's continued seizure and militarization of the nuclear power plant, the abduction and reported abuse of Ukrainian personnel, and the willful destabilization of its operations. The G7 ministers said that they would continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscow's war of aggression, "as several of us have already done regarding Iran's provision of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to Russia." They also reiterated their call for the Belarusian authorities to stop enabling Russia's war of aggression, including permitting Russia's armed forces to use Belarusian territory to launch missiles targeting Ukraine. "If the Belarusian authorities more directly involve Belarus in Russia's war, the G7 will impose overwhelming additional costs on the regime," the statement said. At the same time, the ministers welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's readiness for a just peace based on respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and its legitimate right to defend itself from aggression. "Russia's calls for negotiations are not credible when it continues to escalate the war and issue new threats and disinformation," the statement said. The diplomats reiterated their unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defense, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. "We will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes," the statement said. The foreign ministers of the G7 countries met on November 3-4 in the German city of Munster. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the decision of the Parliament of Bulgaria to provide defense assistance to Ukraine. I welcome the decision of Bulgarian parliament on providing defense assistance to Ukraine. Bulgaria proves its unwavering solidarity with Ukraine, Kuleba posted on Twitter. As the minister noted, this support surely can not be seen as involvement in the war. On the contrary, it helps to put an end to it sooner. On Thursday, November 3, the Parliament of Bulgaria voted to authorize the arms supplies to Ukraine against the backdrop of Russian aggression. ol A formerly stateless family display their newly-obtained identity documents at their home in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. UNHCR/Didor Saidulloyev Stronger efforts are needed to resolve the plight of those who lack a nationality, urged UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, today on the 8th anniversary of UNHCRs global #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness. Affecting at least 4.3 million people, statelessness is a pervasive and grave human rights violation. Deprived of the fundamental right to a nationality, those who have been born or left stateless face a devastating legal limbo. They are prevented from accessing their basic human rights and from fully participating in society. Their lives are marked by exclusion, deprivation, and marginalization, said Grandi. While we have seen great progress in the past few years to remedy this blight on humanity, much more political commitment and effort is needed to improve the lives of the millions languishing without citizenship and living in the shadows. Mandated by the international community to identify and protect stateless people, and to prevent and reduce statelessness around the world, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched the decade-long #IBelong Campaign in 2014 to draw attention and support to resolve the issue. Solutions have been found since the campaigns launch. Almost 450,000 stateless people have acquired or had their nationality confirmed, and tens of thousands of people across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas now also have a pathway to citizenship as a result of newly enacted legislative changes. Twenty-one states introduced procedures to identify stateless people on their territory and facilitate their naturalization. Thirty accessions have been made by states to one or both of the UN Statelessness Conventions. Across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, statelessness civil society regional networks have also been established, adding to those already in place in Europe and the Americas. Three countries have reformed gender discriminatory nationality laws a root cause of statelessness, though 24 continue to deny women equal rights to grant nationality to their children, on the same basis as men. Progress also continues to stall across some major situations of statelessness, often rooted in discrimination based on race, religion or ethnicity. While statelessness remains a global problem, with many different causes, it is one that can be remedied through, often very simple, local solutions, Grandi said. I appeal to governments and legislators around the world to use the next two years of the campaign to accelerate action and close the legal and policy gaps that continue to leave millions of people behind. More information on UNHCRs global campaign is available here: www.unhcr.org/ibelong/ For more information on this topic, please contact: Tucked away in rolling green mountains some 60 kilometres from northern Thailands bustling city of Chiang Mai lies an ethnic Akha and Lisu hill tribe village where Meepia Chumee lived in a constant state of uncertainty for more than 30 years. Born to a mother with Thai nationality and a stateless father, she was abandoned as a baby and her birth was never registered, leaving her with no legal status in the country where she was born. She was raised by her grandmother and uncle, who were also stateless. Thailand has a registered stateless population of more than half a million one of the largest in the world. Nearly a quarter of them live in Chiang Mai. They are mostly members of indigenous ethnic minorities from the mountainous border areas. Being registered provides them with some access to education, work, and health care, although their ability to travel between provinces is limited. However, there are an unknown number of stateless people, like Meepia, who are unregistered and face additional challenges accessing their basic rights to education, work and health care. Meepia was forced to leave school after second grade and later could only find labour-intensive farming work for which she received at most a hundred baht (less than US$3) a day. She was terrified to venture out of her village after being stopped at a police checkpoint and fined for not having an ID document. When her husband, who was also stateless, managed to gain citizenship, their children were able to claim nationality from their father, but not Meepia. It was extremely difficult, she sighs. Sometimes I felt disheartened and asked myself why I didnt have the same things as everyone else. Meepia harvests dried corn in the fields she rents for extra income. As an unregistered stateless person, she struggled to complete her education or find work. UNHCR/Rachaphon Riansiri Thailand has endorsed the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCRs #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024 and has gradually reformed its nationality and civil registration laws to make it easier for people to claim their citizenship and rights. Over 100,000 stateless people have acquired Thai citizenship since 2008. However, in practice, procedures are often difficult to access, bureaucratic and complex. When Meepia was 30, by a stroke of luck, someone from her village met her mother in the nearby province of Chiang Rai. Without hesitation, Meepia seized on the chance to start the process of applying for nationality. She plucked up the courage to contact her mother and ask her to do the DNA test that would prove their relationship. She then gathered all the documents she had and travelled to the district office 17 kilometres away a big risk as an unregistered stateless person. But after three years of waiting, her application was not accepted and she was told to restart the process in her mothers province, hundreds of kilometres away. Meepias story travelled through her village and reached the ears of Meefah Ahsong a community casework volunteer working for Legal Community Network (LCN) and Legal Advocacy Walk (LAW) two grassroots NGOs which work alongside UNHCR in supporting people to navigate the process of applying for legal status and nationality. Im illiterate. I knew enough to understand what certain documents were, but I didnt really understand them 100 per cent, says Meepia. Meefah called me and told me that her organization could help. Meefah had been stateless herself and knew full well the struggles Meepia was facing. She is among around 20 to 30 community volunteers in ethnic villages across five of Chiang Mais districts who are the unsung heroes working to end statelessness in Thailand. All previously stateless themselves, they are nominated by other villagers and then trained by LCN and LAW on nationality laws, how to collect information, and how to work with government officials at district offices. Meefah helped Meepia with her paperwork and accompanied her to the same district office, but this time with backup. Meefah told me to bring my mother along, so I called her to come, Meepia recalled. On the day, Meefah brought along my village elder, other volunteers in the NGO, and even officials from the Department of Provincial Administration, and I was able to be registered into the system. Meepia finally acquired her Thai citizenship in August this year at the age of 34. Meepia shows off her new Thai identification card. UNHCR/Rachaphon Riansiri Meefah describes helping others in her community to gain citizenship as a blessing. Im happy that they have a new life, they have better work, and access to health coverage she says. I want stateless villagers to be more aware of the rights that they are entitled to. As for Meepia, she hopes her hard-won citizenship will open the door to job opportunities with the many resort hotels in the region, which would not hire her before without an ID. She also says her official status has given her newfound confidence. The day I held the Thai ID card in my hand, I felt happiness and massive relief. Even though I may not have money like others, I now have the same rights as them. I dont have to live in fear anymore. Halloween has come and gone. But the events, well they just keep right on coming. Here's some of the best happenings in Billings this week. Food Truck Lunch in downtown Billings Ditch the brown bag for one day and treat yourself to the finest food you can get from a vehicle at the Downtown Billings Alliance's Food Truck Lunch on Friday, Nov. 4 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in the parking lot of Valley Credit Union's new downtown branch location (3100 2nd Ave. N.). FAM at the YAM and 'Global Asias' Exhibition Celebration The Yellowstone Art Museum has free admission for First Friday on Friday, Oct. 4. And that's good because there's two great events that day. Start out with FAM at the YAM from 4-6 p.m. Billings-based artist Terri Porta will lead anyone interested in creating an enormous community artwork. After that, from 6-8 p.m., stay at the YAM for a celebration of their newest exhibition "Global Asias," which features work from 16 artists of Asian heritage. Gallery conversations will be held in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Day of the Dead Day of the Dead Dia de los Muertos is a holiday largely of Mexican origin that honors and celebrates the dead. We're pretty far north up here in Montana, but there will be a big Dia de los Muertos celebration in Billings on Saturday, Nov. 5, anyway. Family activities kick off at at 11 a.m. downtown and run throughout the day, with a costume contest for kids at the Babcock Theatre at 3:30 p.m., followed by one for adults at 7:30 p.m. Also at the Babcock, catch a family concert from the local band Mariachis de Corazon at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 18. Jared Stewart, a noted Crow guitarist, will close out the night at the theater at 8 p.m. Tickets for that show are $20. Get more info or tickets in advance at arthousebillings.com/dayofthedead. The Erik Olson Quintet at Art House Cinema One of the finest musicians in Billings makes his return to one of the city's least expected jazz stages as Erik Olson is playing at the Art House Pub and Cinema on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. Olson will be joined by a cadre of local talent with Scott Jeppesen on saxophone, Zach Paris on drums, Mike Leslie on bass Luca Rodoni on trumpet, with Olson himself rounding out the quintet on piano. They'll be playing the music of Joe Henderson, the iconic tenor saxophonist who recorded over four decades in the latter half of the 20th century. Tickets are $20 at the door or at arthousebillings.com/erikolson. Bert Kreischer at the Metra Comedian, actor, podcaster and body positivity icon Bert Kreischer is bringing the Berty Boy Relapse Tour to the First Interstate Arena at MetraPark on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. His partying exploits at Florida State University in the 1990s were so legendary Kreischer was the inspiration for "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." And he hasn't settled down much since. Tickets at metrapark.com are sparse, but there's still some seats available, ranging from $39.75 all the way up to $349.75. Honorable mentions Kill off Halloween for good at the Christmas Sip-N-Shop Craft Market at the MetraPark Expo Center. 300+ vendors will have all their holiday wares ready on Friday, Nov. 4 from 10-8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov 5 from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Lailani Upham will talk about storytelling and documentary filmmaking at the Library on Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. A rock doubleheader will touch down at Kirks' Grocery on Friday, Nov. 4 with The Love Darts and Scuba Steve and the Sharks sharing the stage. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. The lovely local country blues group Counting Coup are at the Thirsty Street Garage on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. $10 tickets. They'll follow that up be headlining The Americana Ball at the Elk Lodge on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. $10 suggested cover, all ages. The Heights VFW features Little Joe and the Cartwrights on Friday, Nov. 4 from 7-11 p.m. and Sunday, Nov, 6 from 2-6 p.m. Offerings at the Pub Station run the gamut this week, from the vintage rockers Saving Able on Friday, Nov. 4 and rising Portland-based indie songsters MAITA on Monday, Nov. 7. Tickets and more info are at thepubstation.com. The Rocky Mountain College Department of Theatre Arts is presenting an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" at Billings Studio Theatre on Nov. 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Show time is 7:30 p.m. for each night, and the shows are free, although donations are always welcome. Explore electronic sounds at Kirks' on Saturday, Nov. 5 with LUER, Fancy Mark and Cobalt Pencil. Show is from 7-9 p.m., and tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Parker Brown and Erik Olson, two of Billings' best, will share the Craft Local stage on Saturday, Nov. 5. Skevos opens at 7 p.m. $5 cover, all ages. Laugh for a good cause at the Alberta Bair for COMEDY beCAUSE on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m., as standup showcase featuring Cody Sutton, Conner Roma, Mark Dawson, Julie Seedhouse, Josh Florhaug and Lukas Seeley that benefits Family Promise of Yellowstone Valley. $37 tickets are at albertabairtheater.org. There is something called DogVideoFest coming to the Babcock on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. You can probably guess what it'll entail. $10 tickets, with proceeds going to Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter, are at arthousebillings.com. BSCI is having a dance at the Columbia Club (2216 Grand Ave.) on Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 7-10 p.m., with Cimarron Band providing country tunes. $5 gets you in at the door. Reconnect with nature right before it becomes too cold to do so on the Billings Audubon Center's Full Moon Night Hike on Wednesday, Nov 9 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Audubon Center at 7026 S. Billings Blvd. It's $10 per person, or $5 for members. A man on parole in Billings and previously sentenced for assault, will spend at least the next 10 years in prison after trying to kidnap a woman in his effort to escape Yellowstone County authorities last January. Terry Allen Smith, 36, was sentenced to 30 years total in Montana State Prison on Tuesday. Along with aggravated attempted kidnapping and multiple counts of assaulting a police officer, Smith pleaded guilty earlier this year to counts of criminal endangerment, burglary and drug possession. At Tuesdays sentencing, Yellowstone County District Judge Brett Linneweber restricted Smiths parole eligibility to 10 years. A Billings police officer saw Smith and two others spray painting a Subaru on the 300 block of South 27th Street in late January 2021, court documents said. He spoke briefly with Smith, who refused to give his name. While the officer was trying to get a read on the Subarus license plate, Smith got into the vehicle and drove away, nearly striking the officer and colliding with the police cruiser. The Subaru was later confirmed to be stolen. In the area of Yellowstone Trail and Dickie Road, which skirt Interstate 94 outside of Lockwood, Smith used the Subaru to run a womans vehicle off the road that same day. He then got out and attacked the woman, attempting to drag her into the Subaru, court documents said. Another driver pulled up to the scene, and the woman escaped Smith, driving away in the third vehicle. Smith followed the two before getting onto I-94 East. While Yellowstone County deputies and members of the Montana Highway Patrol tried to stop Smith, he reached speeds of over 100 mph, and drove into oncoming traffic. Smith nearly hit an MHP trooper outside of his cruiser while swerving to miss road spikes near Ballantine. Even after an MHP cruiser rammed the Subaru, Smith continued his escape attempt until he rolled over spikes near the Pompeys Pillar exit. With the Subaru immobile, he tried to run away. Near the bank of a frozen ditch, court documents said, two deputies tazed Smith to stop him. He was carrying methamphetamine, syringes and other drug paraphernalia, court documents said. Yellowstone County prosecutors charged Smith with 11 counts, eight of them felonies. He was booked into Yellowstone County Detention Facility on Jan. 26, 2021, and has remained there since on a $1 million bond. Judge Linneweber dismissed four counts at Smiths sentencing on Tuesday, including charges of burglary, drug possession and criminal mischief. Linneweber sentenced Smith to 30 years in MSP for the most serious crime, aggravated attempted kidnapping. For the remaining six counts, Lenneweber gave sentences of five to 10 years, all of which will be served concurrently with the 30-year sentence. Prior to his sentencing Tuesday, Smith had previously been sentenced for assault with a weapon, theft and felony escape. He was on parole when he was arrested in January 2021. November 4 2022 A novel three-dimensional bridge has opened to the public in North Glasgow, improving active travel links between Maryhill, Ruchill and Gilsochill. The Stockingfield Bridge has been delivered by Scottish Canals, in partnership with Jacobs, Balfour Beatty and Sustrans. It adopts a double-decked solution to navigate the challenging topography of the area. The bridge has been designed around a new area of the public realm centred on a dramatic pylon-style observation deck, incorporating commissioned artwork and surrounded by a network of pathways. Reconnecting a section of towpath cut off by the construction of the Bowling canal branch back in the 18th century the bridge removes a bottleneck that forced pedestrians and cyclists to divert beneath the canal using a single-lane road tunnel. Plans for an upgraded crossing date back to 2009, when sculptor Andy Scott developed plans for a dramatic 'Big Man' sculpture. The Alliance of Defenders of Acceptance and Belonging has scheduled a second meeting with local law enforcement agencies. This time the group is expanded to include the US Marshals Office and the Montana Highway Patrol. Acting U.S. Marshall for Montana, Timothy A. Hornung and Captain Kyle Hayter of the Montana Highway Patrol have agreed to attend. Sheriff Mike Linder and Chief Rich St. John have also agreed to attend. The ADAB is sponsored by the Billings Interfaith Network of local churches, and is particularly interested in discrimination on the basis of race in the Billings community. The meeting will be held at 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the community room of the Billings Public Library on Wednesday, November 9. The public is invited and encouraged to come. The agencies will all receive copies of the questions in advance of the meeting. Paris, Nov 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2022 ) :World number one Carlos Alcaraz retired from his Paris Masters quarter-final against Holger Rune on Friday with an abdominal injury, while defending champion Novak Djokovic made quick work of Italy's Lorenzo Musetti. Alcaraz, the reigning US Open champion, lost the first set and was trailing 3-1 in a second set tie-break when he decided to stop, having received treatment to his left side at the previous changeover. "It's something wrong on the abdominal," said Alcaraz. "At the end of the set, it was wrong. It was getting wrong and I preferred to retire and take care about it." The Spanish teenager had been attempting to win a third Masters title of the year after victories in Miami and Madrid. Alcaraz would have been confirmed as the year-end world number one before the ATP Finals in Turin later this month had he lifted the trophy this weekend in the French capital. Instead, his participation at the November 13-20 event is now in doubt. Alcaraz had arrived in Paris struggling with a knee injury, an issue he downplayed earlier in the week. "Right now I have some test on how it's gonna be before Turin, but right now I'm focused to try to get better in the abdominal and trying to be at 100 per cent in Turin," said Alcaraz. "I cannot stretch. I couldn't serve well. I couldn't hit the forehand well. When I turn the body, I feel it. I feel the abdomen in so many movements." "It's in a zone that I have problems, I have problems before," he added. "Let's see if it's the same problem as I felt before or not." Rune will face in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in Sunday's final. The 19-year-old Dane lost to Auger-Aliassime in the final in Basel last weekend. Djokovic charged into the last four with a 6-0, 6-3 demolition of the 20-year-old Musetti. Musetti, who lifted the trophy in Naples last month, won just eight points as Djokovic motored through the first set in 24 minutes. The 21-time Grand Slam champion, gunning for a record-extending seventh Bercy title, dropped serve early in the second set but swiftly recovered with successive breaks. Djokovic meets the winner of Friday's late match between fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Tommy Paul, the American who dumped Rafael Nadal out in the second round. Earlier, Auger-Aliassime continued his quest for a fourth title in as many weeks by beating Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-4 to stretch his winning run to 16 matches. The 22-year-old Canadian also won in Antwerp and Florence last month. No man has won four tournaments in four weeks since Ivan Lendl in 1981, on his way to winning five in a row. Having raced through the opening set against the 21st-ranked Tiafoe, Auger-Aliassime needed six match points to finally see off the American and reach his second Masters semi-final. The eighth-seeded Auger-Aliassime has enjoyed a breakout season. His 56 wins are third most on the ATP Tour this year, while only Alcaraz has bettered his four singles titles. "I have felt great not only this week but in the last few weeks," said Auger-Aliassime. "Sixteen wins in a row is special. I have an opportunity to win again tomorrow. I'll try to seize it, but definitely it's been an amazing period." Guayaquil, Ecuador, Nov 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :At least 15 police and soldiers were wounded Thursday in the latest prison riot to hit Ecuador, officials said, as the country is gripped by violence blamed on organized crime groups waging a deadly drug war. The 15 were injured while trying to put down an uprising at the infamous Guayas 1 prison in the southwestern port city of Guayaquil, said Guillermo Rodriguez, director of the SNAI prison authority. A source at SNAI who asked not to be named told AFP that the police officers were confronted by inmates with guns and explosives. Some 1,300 police took part in the prison assault, said General Victor Zarate, a police commander. Explosions were heard coming from within the prison until midafternoon, when they ceased. Drones flew overhead. An unknown number of soldiers also participated, and wounded soldiers were carried out to aid stations set up outside the overcrowded prison, which holds 6,900 inmates. Ecuador -- once a relatively peaceful neighbor of major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru -- has seen a wave of violent crime that authorities blame on turf battles between rival gangs with ties to Mexican cartels. President Guillermo Lasso, who declared a state of emergency and nightly curfews in the western provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas on Tuesday, tweeted Thursday that his government will quell the violence. "This government will not surrender to narco-terrorists; in this country, they will not impose their will," Lasso tweeted along with photos of inmates lying face down in a prison yard. Civilians have increasingly been caught up in the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 police lives since last year. Hundreds of inmates have died in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons since February last year -- many beheaded or burned as the gang war is waged also behind bars -- especially at Guayas 1. Widespread corruption among guards allows inmates to obtain guns and explosives, among other contraband. In attacks Tuesday, five police officers and a civilian were killed. Groups armed with weapons including car bombs hit more than 18 targets in the two provinces, including police and gas installations, a clinic -- where a civilian was critically wounded -- and a bus terminal. Prisoners at a facility in Esmeraldas also took hostage eight guards on Tuesday to protest the inmate transfer, but later freed them. In the same city on Monday, two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge. Tuesday's attacks were said to be in response to a mass transfer of inmates from the Guayas 1 prison, which is largely in the control of gangs. Clashes at the prison on Wednesday left two inmates dead and six wounded. Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit route in recent years to an important distribution center in its own right. The United States and Europe are the main destinations of drugs from Latin America. The murder rate in Ecuador nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, and reached 18 per 100,000 between January and October this year, according to official data. In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far this year's seizures total 160 tons. COLOMBO, Nov. 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :Sri Lanka's Health Ministry on Friday said the country has detected its first case of monkeypox after an infected patient arrived from Dubai recently. The ministry said that the first patient was identified as a 20-year-old youth who arrived from Dubai on Nov. 1. He is presently admitted at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) on the outskirts of the capital Colombo, local media reported. The ministry said it would continue to monitor the arrival of tourists and local citizens from overseas and would step up efforts to detect any possible infected cases. (@FahadShabbir) ANKARA, Nov 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :A Turkish soldier was killed in a terror attack in northern Iraq, authorities said on Friday. Lokman Akcaglayan was killed after terrorists opened harassing fire in the Operation Claw-Lock zone, according to the Turkish National Defense Ministry. The ministry extended its condolences to Akcaglayan's family, the Turkish Armed Forces, and the nation. Trkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April to target the PKK terror organization's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border. It was preceded by Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle launched in 2020 to root out terrorists hiding in northern Iraq and plotting cross-border attacks in Trkiye. In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Trkiye, the PKK listed as a terrorist organization by Trkiye, the US and EU has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2022) Criminal charges have been brought against seven people, including a teenager, in Ecuador in a case concerning car explosions in the city of Guayaquil, where the reorganization of prisons triggered attacks on police earlier this week, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor General's Office said on Friday. "The attorney general's office has prosecuted seven people, including a teenager, on suspicion of organized crime. The detainees allegedly participated in the car explosion during the November 1 violence in Guayaquil," the statement read. The court has already ordered arrest for three of them, the prosecutor's office said. Searches in the homes of seven suspects found a total of three firearms, 12 cell phones, drugs, ammunition of various calibers, more than $8,000 in cash, fuses, detonating capsules and an explosive substance called pentolite, the prosecutor's office added. Ecuador's government started moving inmates between prisons in a major overhaul aimed at separating leaders from gangs, as deadly gang clashes in prisons frequented in recent years. This prompted riots in prisons and attacks on police officers on the streets, which Interior Minister Juan Zapata called acts of terrorism. At least 24 attacks on police precincts, cars and gas stations with the use of arms and explosive devices have occurred in various Ecuadorian cities since Tuesday. Five police officers were killed and eight others were wounded during the attacks. About 200 inmates from the country's most brutal prison in Guayaquil have already been transferred to other local penitentiaries. On Wednesday, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso canceled his visit to the United States to coordinate government and security forces responding to violence. He declared a state of emergency for 45 days in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas. Local media reported a series of bombing attacks on Thursday. Four car explosions took place in Guayaquil, one in Duran and another one in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Shared among relatives and people they trust -- that is how misinformation often moves among the estimated 34.5 million Americans of Hispanic origin eligible to vote in US midterm elections on November 8, experts say, with the specter of communism a common narrative Washington/Mexico City, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :Shared among relatives and people they trust -- that is how misinformation often moves among the estimated 34.5 million Americans of Hispanic origin eligible to vote in US midterm elections on November 8, experts say, with the specter of communism a common narrative. Those contributing to the spread regularly appeal to the emotions of a community in which authority and familiarity play a fundamental role, with politicians looking to garner support with messaging that tugs at the heartstrings. Misinformation evoking painful memories -- such as the communist or socialist regimes which the families of many Hispanic Americans left behind to come to the United States -- can quickly proliferate among a group that makes up around 14 percent of the US electorate. Maria Corina Vegas, a Venezuelan living in Miami, Florida, says she receives numerous text messages associating the Democratic Party of Joe Biden with the "Chavista radical Left," a reference to former socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Constant streams of polarized content cause family friction, according to Vegas. "It has led me to avoid discussions," she said, noting that some family members cannot stop themselves from arguing about the messages they've seen. Vanessa Cardenas of America's Voice, an immigrants' rights organization, told AFP that purveyors of misinformation know false and misleading content can discourage electoral participation. Yet the very same information "is more credible when it comes from people you trust." This explains how Hispanics in the US are vulnerable to misinformation on WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging app used by 20 percent of the community, according to a survey by Equis Institute. WhatsApp "is where family and people you trust are," said Julio Rivera, head of campaigns for the NALEO Educational Fund, which promotes the participation of Latinos in US elections. Cynthia Perez of Cubanos Pa'lante, an organization that encourages "progressive Cuban-Americans" to vote in Florida, agreed. "The first generations of Latinos (to arrive in the US) have a lot of respect for authority," she said. "When they listen to the president, the governor, or a police officer, they don't automatically think that person is telling lies. And they believe them because they are people they trust." - Fear of communism - Although many misinformation narratives circulating ahead of the midterms are translated from English, others are created or adapted to exacerbate feelings in Hispanic communities, analysts say. For example, many Cuban and Venezuelan emigres fleeing communism and socialism are the targets of campaigns spreading fear that what happened in their countries could happen in the US if they vote for certain candidates, Rivera said. Evelyn Perez-Verdia, head of strategy at the consulting firm We Are Mas, echoed the same concern. "The actors who create misinformation, domestic or foreign, understand the pain that word -- communism -- causes the Latin American or Caribbean community," she said. "In 2018, they started accusing anyone who was a Democrat, even right-wing centrists, of being socialist-communist because it immediately created fear in the community." As of that year, there were 1.3 million Cubans in the US, according to official data. There were more than 540,000 Venezuelans as of 2021, according to R4V, a platform for refugees and migrants from Venezuela co-led by the UN. The evocation of communism has been visible in midterms campaigning, with Republicans such as US Congresswoman Mara Elvira Salazar of Florida characterizing Biden as a far-left politician. Other posts circulating on WhatsApp make false claims about voting and abortion rights, particularly following the US Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, raising fears that vulnerable people will not seek medical attention when they need it. Part of the problem, Rivera said, is that more resources and controls are needed to stop the flow of misinformation in Spanish in the US since such content "stays up longer" online compared to claims in English. A report by Avaaz, an activist group that studies disinformation, indicates 70 percent of inaccurate content in Spanish on Facebook did not receive warning labels, compared to 29 percent in English. On WhatsApp, news organizations such as AFP have established tip lines to fight disinformation by answering users with reliable information and facts. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2022) The Russian Embassy in the US plans to issue a complaint to US officials over failure to provide adequate conditions during a meeting with Russian national Alexander Vinnik in a prison in California, Russian Ambassador Antonov told reporters. Antonov visited Vinnik in prison earlier on Thursday. "I will come to Washington, we will write to the State Department, and I will express my negative attitude to my colleagues from the White House. We have a written consent to have a contact with our compatriot, we consider the situation that has happened now simply unacceptable," Antonov said. Despite the long and difficult coordination through the State Department and White House, the prison administration did not allow Vinnik to meet Russian diplomats in the same room, so they were forced to talk through a window, Antonov said. Vinnik, who denies his charges, is accused of financial crimes by US authorities, including money laundering through his cryptocurrency trading platform BTC-e. Prosecutors allege the platform enabled criminal activity by obscuring and anonymizing transactions and sources of funds. NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2022) Sri Lanka's Health Ministry said on Friday it had detected the first case of monkeypox in the country. The virus has been detected in a 20-year-old man, who came to Sri Lanka from Dubai on November 1, according to the country's health minister, Keheliya Rambukwella. The Medical Research Institute (MRI) of Sri Lanka said on Friday that the man had been referred to a clinic with enlarged lymph nodes, fever and skin blisters on November 2. The MRI collected samples and conducted a PCR test on monkeypox, which was confirmed as a result. The UK Health Security Agency was the first health authority outside Africa to report a case of monkeypox on May 7, in a patient who had recently traveled to Nigeria. Since then, monkeypox outbreaks have been confirmed in various countries across the world. In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a public health emergency of international concern. On November 1, the the WHO said that the virus outbreak remained a public health emergency of international concern despite some progress having been made in the global response to the disease. As of November 2, 77,935 confirmed monkeypox cases, including 36 fatalities, had been registered in 109 countries since the beginning of 2022, according to the latest data from the WHO. Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that is usually transmitted to people from wild animals and is endemic in some African countries. The disease can be transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets and other contaminated materials. The disease usually results in fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2022) Former US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will "very, very, very probably" participate in the 2024 presidential race in the United States and will unveil his plans "very soon." "I ran twice. I won twice. And did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. And likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far. And now, in order to make our country successful, and safe, and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again, okay?" Trump told a rally in the state of Iowa, adding: "Get ready! That's all I'm telling you! Very soon! Get ready!" Trump continues to insist that he has won the 2020 presidential election but lost his second term because of the rigged election results. Trump and incumbent US President Joe Biden are expected to announce their presidential bids after the midterm elections. US voters will go to the polls on November 8 to cast their ballots in the midterm elections, as the Democratic Party's narrow control of Congress hangs in the balance. All 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for election this year, in addition to statewide and local positions. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The United States imposed sanctions on two top Haitian politicians, former Senate President Joseph Lambert and former senator Youri Latortue, accusing them of being longtime drug traffickers Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :The United States imposed sanctions on two top Haitian politicians, former Senate President Joseph Lambert and former senator Youri Latortue, accusing them of being longtime drug traffickers. The US Treasury said Lambert, who made a bid for the presidency last year, and Latortue, formerly a top security official, "have abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal and gang networks to undermine the rule of law in Haiti." In a parallel statement placing Lambert on the State Department's blacklist, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the powerful politician was involved in "significant corruption and a gross violation of human rights." Blinken said there was also credible evidence that Lambert was behind an extrajudicial killing. The announcements, which said Canada was also sanctioning the two, came as the international community seeks to help the Haitian government restore order and regain control of crucial port facilities after a surge in gang violence. Since mid-September armed gangs have virtually paralyzed Haiti, including blockading the most important oil terminal of the country, causing shortages of fuel and drinking water. On Monday UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council that it was urgent to act on a proposal to send an international peacekeeping force to Haiti to deal with the "nightmare" there. John Kirby, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said Friday that discussions were ongoing on a multinational force for Haiti. "We're actively involved in talking with a variety of partners about what a force could look like," he said. "No decisions have been made about any one particular state participating," he said, adding that the force would be restricted to "provision of humanitarian assistance." - Gangs and drugs - Both Lambert and Latortue have been accused of close associations with gangs. A classified 2006 US diplomatic memo leaked in 2010 by Wikileaks said Latortue "may well be the most brazenly corrupt of leading Haitian politicians." It identified him as the "first cousin once removed" of former prime minister Gerard Latortue. The Treasury said Lambert and Latortue have long histories of drug trafficking. Both were deeply involved in trafficking cocaine from Colombia and Haiti, gave protection to other traffickers, and ordered followers to carry out violent acts on their behalf. "The United States and our international partners will continue to take action against those who facilitate drug trafficking, enable corruption, and seek to profit from instability in Haiti," said Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson in a statement. Kirby said US authorities "stand ready to take additional action as appropriate against other bad actors."Treasury sanctions seek to seize any assets that those named have under US jurisdiction and block any US individuals or entities, including international banks with US offices, from doing business with them. The State Department designation generally bans them from entry into the United States. The State Department also blacklisted Lambert's wife Jesula Lambert Domond. Police and SWAT team members Yellowstone County law enforcement have responded to an armed standoff on West Third Street just west of Second Avenue in Laurel. At least one shot was fired before the suspect went into a house and refused to come out. Police are trying to establish contact with the suspect, Laurel police said. Afghan journalists who fled across the border to Pakistan to escape Taliban rule say they still face an uncertain future. Living in Pakistan often on temporary or family visas, many are unable to find work and are concerned about their legal status when their permits expire. "We don't know what is going to happen to us," said 24-year-old Waslat Khan. A presenter for the Kabul-based Jawanan TV until the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, Khan told VOA her three-month visa expired in June and she has "yet to receive an extension." Living with her husband in a suburb of Islamabad, Khan said she fears jail or deportation after Pakistan announced new measures against those who overstay. Earlier this year, Pakistan's Ministry of Interior announced a visa amnesty in place until Dec. 31, 2022. During that time, authorities will not issue charges for those who have overstayed a visa by up to a year. After that, authorities will take action. Under Pakistan's 1946 Foreigners Act, overstaying a visa can result in up to three years in prison. The announcement has caused concern among the dozens of Afghan journalists who have fled to Pakistan. Neither the spokespersons for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry nor the Interior Ministry responded to VOA's email requesting comment and further details on the visa amnesty. Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesperson for the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, told VOA that his organization has called on host countries not to turn away Afghans whose lives would be at risk. "We have issued advisories, and we requested all the countries not to, you know, send back some of those whose lives might be at stake," Afridi said. "Developed countries should also support the refugee-hosting countries such as Pakistan and Iran, because [those countries] have supported refugees for the last many years." Khan believes her life would be in danger if forced to return to Afghanistan. "My house was searched many times, and I was forced to escape and come here to Pakistan," she said. The journalist told VOA she received anonymous threats before Kabul fell saying if she didn't leave her job, she would be killed. When the Taliban took power, her home was searched at least three times, "but fortunately I was not there," she said. Her husband was later detained and beaten. Shortly after, Khan applied for a medical visa that allowed her entry to Pakistan. Since the Taliban has been in control, the environment for Afghan journalists has declined, with media rights groups citing censorship, violence and economic hardship. Female reporters are most affected. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has found that since August 2021, 40% of Afghan media outlets have closed, and 84% of women have lost their jobs. The Taliban did not respond to VOA's request for comment. Escaping Afghanistan did not address all of Khan's concerns. "I thought that I could find a job here [in Islamabad], and someone would support us. But I was wrong," she said. Now, Khan said, she feels "hopeless" and "depressed" and says she doesn't know what to do. 'Most are jobless' Najibullah Habibi, the former owner of Tajala TV in central Maidan Wardak province, told VOA that around 250 to 300 Afghan journalists are now in Pakistan, including himself. Habibi moved to Islamabad with his wife and four children in March. "Afghan journalists who moved to Pakistan have multiple problems," Habibi said. A few found work online, but "most of them are jobless," he said. "Some of them even sold their laptops and cameras to get money to buy food and pay the rent." A few international organizations have helped journalists, said Habibi, "but only those who have been threatened and provide documentation of that are helped financially." "It is not easy to provide such documentation," he added. Uncertain future For Shukria Seddiqi, a journalist from the western province of Herat, financial issues are her biggest concern. Seddiqi worked for Radio Faryad before moving to Islamabad with her husband and their three children two months after the Taliban takeover. "We spent all the money that we brought with us here from Afghanistan," she told VOA. "Now, we are asking our families and relatives in Afghanistan to send us money so we can live here in Pakistan. It is difficult. I worked for 14 years in Afghanistan, but now I have to stay home." Pauline Ades-Mevel, editor-in-chief of RSF, told VOA that many of the Afghan journalists who fled to Pakistan don't know how long they will stay. RSF is one of several media rights groups that helped evacuate "a number of journalists to European countries," and which provides financial support to at-risk Afghans, Ades-Mevel said. Since the Taliban takeover, RSF has helped relocate more than 200 at-risk journalists and assisted in the cases of around 150 others. Ades-Mevel said RSF is in contact with Afghan journalists in Pakistan and other countries and is working with host countries. "There are hundreds of journalists, and RSF alone cannot cover them all, but we are doing everything we can to support them," she said. Habibi said he and many other Afghan journalists want to be relocated to third countries. "We want to go to a place where our children would have a future," he said. This story originated in VOA's Afghan Service. Aid groups say they are ready to deliver much-needed food and medicine to Ethiopia's northern Tigray region after the warring sides agreed to a cease-fire Wednesday. The deal between the Tigray rebels and Ethiopia's government commits federal officials to ensuring "unhindered humanitarian access" to Tigray, which is in the grip of one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises. Some 5 million people there need humanitarian assistance, while doctors at the region's flagship Ayder Hospital say they have run out of medicines to treat sick patients. Representatives of the World Food Program and the International Committee of the Red Cross told VOA their organizations were ready to send trucks carrying aid supplies into Tigray but have not been given the green light by the federal government. Jude Fuhnwi, a spokesperson for the ICRC in Ethiopia, welcomed the signing of the deal Wednesday, saying the conflict has caused "vast civilian suffering" since it broke out two years ago. "The ICRC remains committed to supporting the population of northern Ethiopia. And we have already made the necessary preparations to immediately dispatch our next humanitarian supplies by air and by road, as soon as the humanitarian routes are open," Fuhnwi said. Roughly one-third of children and three quarters of lactating mothers screened for malnutrition in Tigray last week displayed signs of malnourishment. Meanwhile, fighting has displaced around half a million people in northwestern Tigray. Most of them are cut off from aid distributions. On Thursday, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told reporters that they "are in contact with the government of Ethiopia and others to resume the movement of aid convoys and personnel" to the cities of Mekelle and Shire. Aid deliveries to Tigray have been severely restricted since the war in northern Ethiopia began. No aid trucks have entered the region since fresh fighting erupted on August 24. Aid deliveries have resumed to parts of the Amhara and Afar regions next to Tigray that were also affected by the fighting. Asians make up a quarter of the residents in the greater Houston area of the U.S. state of Texas. A few are elected officials or are running for office in the midterm elections. They share with VOA's Elizabeth Lee their keys to political success and discuss the challenge of reaching Asian voters. Videographer and producer: Elizabeth Lee Cameroon says more than 1,000 Nigerians have crossed the countrys border in the past three weeks - fleeing attacks by Boko Haram militants in northeast Borno state. Cameroon's overcrowded camps are struggling to feed the displaced Nigerians as the country is also dealing with an outbreak of cholera. Cameroon's military says the Nigerians were displaced by a fresh wave of Boko Haram atrocities. Sule Dabarou, a community leader in Logone and Chari, the area in northern Cameroon where most of the Nigerians have sought shelter, said his region is most affected by the influx of people displaced by Boko Haram. Speaking Friday on Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV, he said the displaced Nigerians are from the town of Gamboru Ngala and surrounding villages, adding that all of the displaced Nigerians are from Borno state. Bulami Abakura, a 46-year-old Nigerian, saidhe trekked for several days from his village near Gamboru before Cameroonian officials took him to a village named Mafufu. "Boko Haram killed people in Shikwa village, he said. Because of that I have come to Cameroon. Now I am refugee in Mafufu village because of Boko Haram." Abakura said he doesn't know how many people were killed in the most recent attacks. He said he saw wounded people as he was escaping to Cameroon. VOA could not independently verify accounts of fresh Boko Haram atrocities in border localities. But Cameroon and the displaced say Boko Haram attacks have increased in border regions over the past three weeks. Cameroons government says host communities and charity groups are providing food and water to the newly arrived. The World Food Program this week said it has a 40% shortfall of the $37.8 million it urgently needs to provide food and other humanitarian assistance to several million people in Cameroon, including displaced Nigerians. The displaced Nigerians come as Cameroon is struggling to contain a cholera outbreak triggered by floods on its northern border with Nigeria and Chad. Logone and Chari reported 48 new cases of cholera this week. Manouda Malachie, Cameroon's minister of Public Health, said the government and humanitarian agencies have deployed health workers to the northern border with Nigeria to treat all cholera cases there. He said health workers are educating displaced persons and host communities on prevention measures, which he said are to respect basic hygiene rules. Manaouda said he asked health workers to pay particular attention on the northern border because Nigeria also has reported a cholera outbreak. Boko Haram attacks have left more than 36,000 people dead, mainly in Nigeria, while 3 million have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Rose Park Elementary is asking the community to help identify those behind recent vandalism at the school. Throughout the month of October, eight total windows have been broken during the weekends with two of them occurring Oct. 28. In a letter sent out to parents the following day, Principal Amber Griffith informed parents of the recent trend and encouraged them to report any suspicious activity at or around the school to the police department. The letter also asks parents to inform other neighbors and remain vigilant. Hopefully with some diligence as a community, we will be able to stop the vandalism that has been recently plaguing our school, Griffith wrote in the letter. A police report has been filed by the school and their school resource officer has requested extra coverage around the area. This includes extra calls made to police patrol to routinely check the area. Since the letter was sent out, some parents have approached the school to report activity theyve noticed along with offering camera footage capturing anything suspicious, but no arrests have been made to date. The school does not currently have their own security camera system installed but is working with the school district to potentially add one along with improved lighting around the school. Additional preventative measures are also being discussed. All of the broken windows have been for classroom windows located on the sides and back of the school and were caused primarily by thrown rocks, according to Griffith. Despite temperatures beginning to drop into the winter season, she said that classroom temperatures or any other school operations havent been negatively affected by the damages to date. Only one window was completely broken through and has been temporarily boarded up. This years been terrible A work order has been submitted to School District 2 which has made an initial estimate for total repair costs at $500 per window, though this figure is more of a ballpark-estimate for the purposes of filling out a police report. The window repairs are expected to be completed between two and three weeks but the timetable for this type of job depends on the type, size, placement and installation of the window and the true total cost wont be known until the job is finished, according to Billings Public Schools Executive Director of Facilities Scott Reiter. Vandalized school windows are not unheard of but there has been a sharp increase across Billings this year. The string of broken windows at Rose Park comes on the heels of similar cases at Meadowlark and Highland Elementary and Skyview High School. In Highlands case, 22 windows were broken in the days leading up to the new school year. This years been terrible, Reiter said regarding the number of windows damaged compared to previous years. Repairs for these windows come out of the school districts general fund as unanticipated costs and often include overtime labor with work being done over the weekends along with buying and installing new materials. So far this year, the district has spent a total of $12,928.40 on window repairs. Reiter added that restitution is possible for these costs, but only if the vandals are caught, which is rarely the case. Its really irritating because the cost of this ultimately falls on the taxpayers and theres that much less out of the general fund for us to work with, Reiter said. Theres that much less concrete to pour, or parking lot to finish or any other summer project that cant get done now because you cant have broken windows [in school]. People noticing any suspicious activity around schools or nearby areas are encouraged to call the Billings Police Departments non-emergency phone number 406-657-8200 and report the activity. When China's former President Hu Jintao was escorted out of the 20th National Congress in full view of the foreign press corps, his exit appeared to signal a change in status for a whole generation of Chinese Communist Party leaders who had supported President Xi Jinping's election to an unprecedented third term. "The second generation of Chinese leaders ... now realizes that [Xis] promotion of those who inherited the red genes was done to enhance [his] power and to use them as steppingstones," said Gao Wenqian, whose own family carries the so-called red genes inherited from the first generation of party leaders. Gao is now affiliated with the human rights organization Human Rights in China. Video of Hu's departure from the meeting held once every five years circulated online for days. It appeared to show two men escorting from the hall the 79-year-old who led China from 2003 to 2013. The move prompted online speculation that Hu was suffering a health crisis or was possibly upset over Xi's removal of his proteges from the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. China's state-affiliated Xinhua News Agency tweeted, "Hu Jintao insisted on attending the closing session of the party's 20th National Congress, despite the fact that he has been taking time to recuperate recently." The thread continued, "When he was not feeling well during the session, his staff, for his health, accompanied him to a room next to the meeting venue for a rest. Now, he is much better.'' But for Deng Yuwen, a political commentator and researcher at the think tank China Strategic Analysis Center, Hus removal was very symbolic. "It symbolizes the end of an era, he wrote in an op-ed for VOA Mandarin. Not only did the old generation's involvement in politics completely withdraw from the historical stage during the Xi period, but also the relatively enlightened history of the CCP that lasted from Deng [Xiaoping] to Hu's period is gone. China has now entered a new era of Xi's political chill." The phrase "red genes" emerged in the latter half of Hu Jintao's second term but didn't take hold in the political mainstream until Xi came into power and began promoting all things red, according to the China Media Project (CMP). The CMP website says the phrase refers "to the revolutionary spirit and history of the Chinese Communist Party as a kind of political and cultural inheritance." Even before the CCP celebrated its 100th birthday last year, tourism, songs and even movies became red that is, imbued with nationalist significance as Xi expanded China's global influence. Yet after the 20th National Congress, which concluded October 22, those with some of China's reddest genes seem to have found themselves bumped to the side. In response, according to Gao Wenqian, "More and more members of the second generation of Chinese leaders are abandoning [Xi]." "They saw Xi Jinping as an opportunity to realize their ambitions, but soon found out that they trusted the wrong person," Gao said. "In the past two years, Xi Jinping has frequently attacked the most prominent figures in the second generation of the revolutionary families the princelings." Hu's exit "exposed the division within the party to the public," Gao said. "It was a major political incident. Some foreign media interpreted this as Xi's attempt to deter opposition forces within the party. But I don't think so. In fact, the damage to Xi politically is far greater than he gained. It exposed the brutality of the CCP's high-level politics making everyone in the CCP officialdom feel insecure." Gao listed other targeted princelings: "Chen Xiaolu died inexplicably, Ren Zhiqiang was severely sentenced, Liu Yazhou was placed under house arrest, and even Li Peng's son, Li Xiaopeng, was suddenly out of the 20th National Congress." Chen, the youngest son of Marshal Chen Yi, who helped found communist China, died after a heart attack in hospital on the southern island of Hainan, according to press reports. He was affiliated with Anbang, the insurance company that purchased the landmark Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. China was prosecuting Anbang's chairman for economic crimes before Chen died. Ren Zhiqiang, a onetime real estate tycoon, was known for his outspoken criticism of Xi. Ren received an 18-year sentence for corruption in 2020. His father, Ren Quansheng, served as China's deputy secretary of commerce. Liu Yazhou, a retired air force general and son-in-law of former Chinese Chairman Li Xiannian, was arrested in December 2021. There has been no official statement on Liu's case. Online speculation in China suggests that allegations of his family's corruption masked official irritation over Liu's criticism of Xi. Li Xiaopeng has been China's minister of transport since 2018 and was governor of Shanxi province from 2012 to 2016. His father, Li Peng, who died in 2019, served as the fourth premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1998 to 2003. Outside China, the elder Li is remembered for his role in the bloody military crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy student movement. Federal agents have identified the man they believe posted a broad online threat against synagogues in New Jersey but do not think he was planning to carry out a specific plot, a law enforcement official said Friday. The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was questioned by law enforcement and told agents he had been bullied in the past and harbored anger toward Jewish people, the official said. But investigators do not believe the man had the means or motive to carry out any specific attack, the official added. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The source of the threat "no longer poses a danger to the community," the FBI in Newark tweeted. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in an emailed statement Friday that the threat had been "mitigated," but the Democrat did not offer details. "We will not be indifferent. We will remain vigilant. We will take any and every threat with the utmost seriousness and we will stand up and stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish congregations," Murphy said. The FBI said Thursday that it had received credible information about a "broad" threat to synagogues in New Jersey, a warning that prompted some municipalities to send extra police officers to guard houses of worship. The nature of the threat was vague. The Newark FBI released a statement urging synagogues to "take all security precautions to protect your community and facility" but wouldn't say anything about who made the threat or why. "It raises the anxiety level," said Jason Shames, leader of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. "This one for us was about vigilance. We keep having to say: See something, say something." Public warnings about nonspecific threats against Jewish institutions, made by a variety of groups including Christian supremacists and Islamist extremists, aren't unusual in the New York City metropolitan area, and many turn out to be false alarms. But the area has also seen deadly attacks. Five years ago, two New Jersey men were sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of a series of attacks in 2012 that included the firebombings of two synagogues. They also threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of a rabbi as he slept with his wife and children. In 2019, a man stabbed five people at a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, fatally wounding one person. Chabad Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, director of Chabad of Hoboken and Jersey City, helped the community deal with an antisemitic shooting rampage in Jersey City in December 2019 that killed three people in a Jewish grocery and a police officer in a nearby cemetery. "Jewish people all over, and particularly identifiable Jewish people, are concerned and worried," he said. "We recognize that it's not only, God forbid, if someone wants to or does something terrible. It comes back to saying something antisemitic. It has that trickle-down effect." The heightened state of vigilance called for on Thursday by an organization that advises Jewish communities on safety and security does not need to be maintained now that a suspect has been identified and questioned, said Craig Fifer, a spokesperson for the group, Secure Community Network. But, he added, individual Jewish communities need to decide what level of security is right for them. "We encourage that people go ahead and live their Jewish lives," he said. "This really is a bigger conversation not tied to any one particular threat." Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told lawmakers Friday fires burning on Mount Kilimanjaro the past two weeks have been largely contained after hundreds of military personnel were deployed this week to fight the blazes. Speaking to Tanzania's parliament, Majaliwa said the fire destroyed some 33 square kilometers of the Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to many endangered species. He said fires also spread to other areas on the mountain adjacent to the park, but they were contained, and tourist areas were saved. "Efforts to tackle the fires continue and most areas are under control. The government is still investigating the source of the fires to take appropriate action," Majaliwa said. He noted that high winds complicated efforts to bring the fires under control. He reported that 878 soldiers and two helicopters were deployed this week to reinforce civilian firefighters and volunteers battling the blaze in the Karanga area, where the blaze started October 21. The distinctive, snow-capped mountain is visited annually by thousands of tourists from around the world who come to climb the 5.9-kilometer-high mountain. Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. If you're a registered voter in the Western U.S. state of Nevada, youd have received a mail-in ballot this year, whether you asked for one or not. That's thanks to a new law that the state enacted last year as part of a broader effort to make it easier for people to vote. But if you're a voter in the Southwestern state of Texas, that option is not available to you. Indeed, a 2021 Texas law makes it a crime for election officials to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters. The two laws epitomize the divergent paths that U.S. states have taken in the past two years as they've changed their election laws largely in response to the two consequential events of 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. presidential election. While the U.S. has always had a Balkanized election system, the divide in voting procedures has widened as Democratic-led states have sought to expand voting access by codifying certain pandemic-era measures and adopting other rules, and Republican states have tightened rules in response to concerns about election integrity. The Nevada legislature is controlled by Democrats, while in Texas Republicans are in charge. The result that we're seeing is that we're really seeing two different democracies develop in our country where a person's ZIP code determines their level of ballot access, which is a growing trend, said Liz Avore, a senior policy adviser at Voting Rights Lab, an organization that tracks election-related legislation. Nearly every state has made some change to its voting laws over the past two years, according to the Voting Rights Lab. But while more states have expanded voting access than have restricted it, "for folks in those states that are restricting voter access, it's going to be more difficult for them to vote," Avore said. John Fortier, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said access to voting is not an issue. "There are a lot of access options in many states," Fortier said. Even states that do not encourage voting by mail give that option to many voters, he said. "Many people are choosing that," Fortier said. Changes in voting by mail The growing divide in state voting procedures can best be seen in voting by mail, Avore said. While 20 states have made it easier to vote by mail over the past two years, 11 others have made the practice more restrictive, according to a report by the Voting Rights Lab. Of the 10 restrictive election laws enacted this year, half put new limits on vote by mail, ranging from stricter identification requirements to prohibitions against drop boxes, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Mail voting allows voters to cast ballots mailed to them by election officials. They can return their completed ballots by mail or use designated drop boxes. Long popular with voters, mail voting saw a dramatic surge during the 2020 election, held during the coronavirus pandemic. But then-President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the practice, calling it unsafe and prone to fraud, and encouraged his supporters to vote in person instead. While there is no evidence that mail voting is unsafe, many Republican lawmakers remain suspicious, and they've moved to tighten the rules. Texas is one of several Republican-led states that have made it a crime for election officials to automatically send mail-in ballots or applications to all registered voters. While in most states voters can vote by mail using basic identifying information such as their name and date of birth, other states such as Florida and Texas have required mail-in voters to provide a driver's license or Social Security number. Many U.S. states allow the use of drop boxes to return mail-in ballots. But while several states such as Virginia have expanded access to drop boxes over the past two years, others such as Georgia have reduced the number. In 2020, Georgia election officials set up secure ballot drop boxes across the state for the first time, with voters using them to return 41% of mail-in ballots. But this year, Georgia limited the number of drop boxes each county could have," said Spencer Overton, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and a law professor at George Washington University. Voter registration and voter rolls Other restrictive laws affect voter registration and the maintenance of voter rolls, according to the Voting Rights Lab. Overton said voter registration is "one of the most significant barriers to participation." Yet the U.S., unlike other major democracies, does not have automatic voter registration, he noted. That has left each state to adopt its own system. Currently, 22 U.S. states have automatic voter registration. Delaware joined the list last year, but Arizona has moved to bar the method. Other recently adopted restrictive laws threaten to purge eligible voters from the voter rolls, Overton said. New laws in Arizona and South Carolina allow voters to be removed from registration lists if government databases show they're not citizens. This can lead to "faulty purges," the Brennan Center warns. Election interference laws In addition to restrictive voting laws, voting rights advocates have voiced concern over a proliferation of what the Brennan Center and the Voting Rights Lab call "election interference laws." These are laws that affect the administration of elections rather than the voter experience, Avore said. Election interference laws come in different forms. One type gives partisan actors such as county election commissioners and poll watchers a greater role in elections. Another common form imposes criminal penalties on election administrators for failure to enforce new rules such as strict citizenship verification requirements. The 2021 Texas election law allows poll watchers "to enter the vehicle being used by a voter with a disability to vote curbside," according to the Voting Rights Lab. At least seven states have enacted 12 election interference laws this year, according to the Brennan Center. Republican supporters of these laws say they're aimed at combating voter fraud. But voting rights groups say they increase the likelihood of political interference in elections. "The election interference laws really open the opportunity for politicians to select the voters," Overton said. Early voting surges Even as they've moved their separate ways in changing their election rules, most states, whether red or blue, have found common ground in one area: allowing early in-person voting. Avore calls this "one of the bright spots" in new state election laws. Missouri and South Carolina, both Republican-led states, have established a two-week, no-excuse early voting period. "So, voters in those states will be able to cast their ballot in person early for the first time this election," Avore said. Even states that have otherwise tightened voting rules, including Texas and Georgia, have expanded early voting, according to Avore. Today, 46 states and the District of Columbia allow early voting, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Despite warnings about restrictions on voting access, however, it is too early to know their full impact, according to election law experts. During the Texas primary earlier this year, election officials rejected nearly 25,000 mail ballots that failed to comply with the state's new law. That's a rejection rate of more than 12%, up from 2% during the last midterm But early voting figures suggest high voter enthusiasm, with Texas reporting 4.2 million, Florida 3.6 million and Georgia a record 2.09 million. All three states have been criticized for imposing restrictions on voting access. Irans government held rallies in cities across the country marking the 43rd anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Iran and the Islamic revolution, which brought the current clerical government to power, while anti-government protests continue around the nation. In 1979, radical students cemented Iran's Islamic Revolution by storming the U.S. Embassy soon after the fall of the U.S.-backed Shah, and they took hostage 52 Americans who were held there for 444 days. Irans state-run television carried live coverage Friday of state-supported rallies across the country marking the event, with banners saying, "National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance," while songs called for "Death to America" and schoolchildren carried banners in support of the seizure of the U.S. embassy. The Associated Press reports that while the rallies in and around the capital, Tehran, were large, the observations in other parts of the country were considerably smaller, with perhaps a few dozen people. Speaking at a gathering in Tehran, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday ridiculed a vow by U.S. President Joe Biden, who said during a campaign speech the U.S. was going to "free" Iran. Speaking Thursday during a campaign stop in California, ahead of Tuesdays midterm elections, Biden said, "Don't worry, we're going to liberate Iran," promptly adding, "They [the Iranian people] will soon free themselves." In his rejoinder, Raisi said that the U.S. says it wants to free Iran, but I must tell you that Iran liberated itself 43 years ago and will no longer submit to you." When asked whether the president was signaling his support for a regime change in Tehran, a Biden aide appear to walk back the statement. What he was signaling was our solidarity with the protesters in Iran. And he's been doing that from the outset, John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications said in an interview with VOA Friday morning. The Iranian leadership is dealing with problems of its own making, Kirby added. But ultimately, the future of Iran should belong to the Iranian people. When asked whether Biden misspoke, Kirby said the president was speaking very plainly about the U.S. standing in solidarity with the Iranian protesters. Raisi also ridiculed the anti-government protesters, linking them to the U.S. and other western powers they have publicly accused of sponsoring the protests. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month at meeting with Iranian activists at the State Department in Washington, I know that the Iranian regime will try to paint this and other expressions of solidarity with those standing up for their freedoms as evidence that these protests are somehow made outside of Iran and the work of others. And if that's the case, if they genuinely believe that, they fundamentally do not understand their own people, because this is about Iran's struggle, the struggle of the people of Iran for the fundamental freedoms that have long been denied them." Meanwhile, the anti-government protests that have been ongoing almost daily for the past six weeks continued Friday in Irans southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, as well as in central Isfahan province, among others. Video posted to social media shows protesters clashing with security forces, and demonstrators throwing rocks at police who answer with gun fire. In a statement Friday, U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Secretary of State Blinken discussed Irans violent crackdown and suppression of the Iranian people, with his counterparts from Britain, France, and Germany. The foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in Muenster, Germany. Protests in Iran began in September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of the countrys morality police. Analysts say the daily demonstrations have become some of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic in its history. Amini, from Irans Kurdistan province, was detained in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab, or head scarf, "improperly." She died while in police custody three days later, with the police reporting Amini had a heart attack. Aminis family says she had no history of heart trouble. Rights groups say more than 200 people have died during the protests, and hundreds, if not thousands, have been arrested. VOAs Persian Service contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Journalists at The Irrawaddy have vowed to keep reporting despite Myanmars junta last week announcing a ban on the media outlet. The military council said via state media on October 29 that The Irrawaddy is to be banned and its license revoked for damaging state security, rule of law and public tranquility through its coverage. The Irrawaddy responded to the decision via its own website, saying the announcement is the first time the military has publicly acknowledge its efforts to clamp down on The Irrawaddy. The media outlet said it has weathered a "series of lawsuits, raids, arrests and other moves since the 2021 military coup. Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of the outlets English-language section, told VOA via email that the news site will continue despite the setback. The Irrawaddy and other outlets moved outside of Myanmar earlier after the junta raided our offices and revoked publishing licenses, Kyaw Zwa Moe said. But he added, Wherever we are, we can still provide our readership across the world with accurate, insightful, in-depth and analytical stories. That's the mission we journalists in The Irrawaddy strive for every day, without compromising our journalism ethics and editorial stand. Founded nearly 30 years ago by a team mostly living in exile in Thailand, the publication is known for its breaking news and investigative reporting in both Burmese and English. But pressure on the news outlet has been constant since the coup. Shortly after the junta removed and arrested the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the military blocked access to The Irrawaddys website inside Myanmar. Authorities have raided its offices in Yangon and sued the news outlet over its reporting on anti-government protests. In August 2022, a court sentenced former Irrawaddy photojournalist Ko Zaw Zaw to three years in prison for incitement. The junta has revoked licenses for at least 12 other media outlets, including the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), one of Myanmars largest independent media organizations. Dozens of journalists have been detained or fled into exile since the takeover. Myanmars military council has denied targeting media, telling VOA on several occasions that any journalists detained or arrested are not targeted for their work but because of terrorist-related activities or instigation of unrest. Most journalists to be detained are held on charges under Section 505A, a new provision of Myanmars Penal Code law that criminalizes causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating crimes against the government. Kyaw Zwa Moe said that reporting in Myanmar brings significant risks. Generally, journalists can't work or report independently inside Myanmar. Since the coup last year, most journalists left the country to evade arbitrary arrests and torture because the junta raided most independent media houses, revoked their licenses and targeted journalists. "The current situation for journalists under this military regime is the worst ever if compared to that even under the previous military regimes over the past decades, he said, adding, Myanmar is the world's second biggest [jailer] of journalists since the coup last year. Zee Pe, director of the free expression activism group ATHAN, told VOA via email the country is in the dark age of repression. Reporters on the ground are facing unsafe physical and mental [risks] in their daily life, Zee Pe said, adding that the continual arrests of journalists and raids on their newsrooms and homes have forced many to flee to other parts of Myanmar. Some reporters choose areas under the control of ethnic armed organizations or flee abroad to ensure sustaining their journalism professions and careers, Zee Pe said, adding that the military regime violates journalistic rights and fundamental civil rights. According to Athan research, over 170 journalists have been arrested since February 2021. Of those, 77 are still detained, Zee Pe said. Analysts described the period after the coup as Myanmars most oppressive year for media. Myanmar ranks 176 out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index, where 1 has the best media environment. The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, says conditions in the country have gone from bad to worse to horrific for untold numbers. Andrews told the Human Rights Council in September that 1.3 million people are displaced, 28,000 homes haven been destroyed, villages burned to the ground, and more than 13,000 children killed. Everyday citizens and opposition voices are also under pressure. As of Friday, data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group run by Burmese in Thailand, shows at least 2,413 people killed by the junta since February 2021, and more than 16,000 arrested. Of those, 12,879 are still detained. For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in Russias war on Ukraine. All times EDT. 10:13 p.m.: Norway announced Friday that it will sell 32 used F-16 fighter jets to fellow NATO member Romania for $385 million. The deal, which comes as Romania needs to replace its obsolete Soviet MiG-21 fighters amid the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, will see the fighters delivered in 2023 and 2024 after being overhauled, the Norwegian defense ministry said. The contract includes the sale of spare parts, maintenance and training of technicians. Norway finished taking its 64 F-16 fighters, purchased in the 1980s, out of active service earlier this year as it deploys fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters. 9:44 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Russian company Nefteservisnie Tekhnologii to acquire U.S. oilfield services provider Baker Hughes' Russian assets, a Russian government document published on Friday showed. Baker Hughes announced in March that it was suspending new investments in Russia after Western countries imposed unprecedented sanctions when Moscow ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. In August, Baker Hughes announced it had sold its oilfield services business in Russia to the local management team. 9 p.m.: In Izium on Friday, residents lined up for DNA testing in order to identify missing Ukrainian relatives from the war with Russia, The Associated Press reports. Dmytro Chubenko the spokesperson for Kharkiv Prosecutor's Office said that the DNA swabs would not only help locate and record individuals but also to gather evidence against Russia for possible tribunals in the International Criminal Court. "In large cities, such as Volchansk, Kupyansk, there is a problem in identifying the dead since we have both mass graves and individual graves where relatives and neighbors buried people," Chubenko added. 8:12 p.m.: A new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service, has found that the Mohajer-6 Iranian drones contain electronic components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of such technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes dual-use technology. Read more on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 7:37 p.m.: Foreign ministers of the worlds richest democracies, expressed their unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian invasion. Wrapping up their two-day talks in Muenster, Germany, the G-7 ministers pledged military and security equipment to bolster Ukraine defense, more sanctions against Russia, were aligned, were united and were working together as never before, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, The Associate Press reports. 7 p.m.: 6:45 p.m.: Ukrainian forces using captured weapons fired at Russian targets near the key eastern city of Bakhmut on Friday as fighting dragged on in an area that Moscow is trying hard to capture. Russian forces have repeatedly launched attacks against Bakhmut and nearby Avdiivka in the Donetsk region but are being pushed back with what Kyiv says are heavy losses. "Last week there was very intense fighting ... there are a lot of them (Russians), both people and equipment," said a soldier who gave his name only as Moriak, the Ukrainian word for sailor. Reuters journalists saw a captured Russian T-80 tank and a 2S23 Nona SVK self-propelled mortar, now controlled by Ukrainian crews, firing at targets outside Bakhmut. 6:10 p.m.: Ukraine has sufficient gas supplies for this winter when planned imports are taken into account, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, as the country prepares for further Russian strikes targeting its energy systems. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Shmyhal said Ukraine now had sufficient amount of natural gas in its underground storages, Reuters reports. "Taking into account expected deliveries from abroad, this amount is sufficient for the heating season," Shmyhal was referring to the October-April period when Ukraine switches on centrally supplied heating in homes. Ukraine faces a perilous winter as Russia fires missiles and loitering munitions at its power, water and heating infrastructure. Winters in Ukraine are usually very cold, with temperatures often plunging well below zero Celsius. At a press conference in Muenster, Germany, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinker, said Russia has destroyed some 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including thermal energy plants that provide many Ukrainian homes, schools, hospitals." He added, President Putin seems to have decided that if he can't seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze it into submission," he said. 5:33 p.m.: Residents in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday snapped up a new postage stamp commemorating a blast that damaged a major bridge linking Russia to Crimea in a blow to the prestige of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported. "There isn't a corner of the world which hasn't asked us to send them (the stamp)," said Liudmyla Samoilova, among dozens of people who lined up to get the stamps when they went on sale at Kyiv's post office. "We've sent them to America, Australia," she said as she stuck the stamps to envelopes. "People are excited about these events and wait for the good news." The bridge, a showcase project of Putin's rule and crucial supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine, was partially wrecked in an explosion last month. Russia blamed Ukraine but Kyiv has not claimed responsibility. 4:40 p.m.: The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with tanks and other heavy military equipment with a total worth of $119 million, the Dutch defense ministry said on Friday, Reuters reported. The Netherlands said it would spend about $45 million on T-72 tanks, as it cooperates with the United States and the Czech Republic on a shipment of 90 modernized Czech tanks. 4 p.m.: A Russian-installed official in the Ukrainian region of Kherson said on Friday that a curfew had been imposed in the city but then swiftly backtracked and said no such limits were in place, Reuters reported. The Russian-installed deputy governor of the region, Kirill Stremousov, said in a video message on Friday that a round-the-clock curfew had been imposed ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive. But an hour later, he posted another video in which he said that no limits had been imposed and reposted an edited version of his earlier video message without any reference to a curfew. It was not immediately clear why Stremousov denied his own remarks. Reuters was not able to immediately verify if a curfew was or was not in place in Kherson. 2:50 p.m.: The United States on Friday announced an additional $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, including refurbishing T-72 tanks and missiles for HAWK air defense systems for Kyiv, according to Reuters. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that the U.S. would pay for 45 T-72 tanks from the Czech Republic to be refurbished and fund refurbishing some missiles for HAWK air defense systems. Singh said in addition to the funds to refurbish the HAWK missiles, the pledged $400 million Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds would refurbish the Soviet-era Czech tanks and give them "advanced optics, communications and armor packages." There was also funding to buy 1,100 Phoenix ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems and 40 armored riverine boats, among other capabilities. The tanks would be refurbished by privately-owned Czech CSG, according to a person familiar with the matter, who added that once work is complete they would be equivalent to the T-72 AVENGER, which has been modernized to improve protective systems and to add modern night-vision and communications equipment. A spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In October, Reuters first wrote about the initiative to furnish HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukraine. They would be an upgrade to the Stinger missile systems - the smaller, shorter-range air defense system - that the United States has already sent to blunt Russia's invasion. 2:45 p.m.: U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday that the United States' support for Ukraine would remain "unwavering and unflinching" following next Tuesday's midterm congressional elections, Reuters reported. "We fully intend to ensure that the resources are there as necessary and that we'll get votes from both sides of the aisle to make that happen," Sullivan told reporters during a briefing at the Ukrainian presidential administration. Some Republicans have called for U.S. aid to Kyiv to be scaled back if they win control of the U.S. Congress in the November 8 vote. Last month, top House Republican Kevin McCarthy said Americans should not "write a blank check" for Ukraine. But Sullivan, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said President Joe Biden was committed to bipartisan cooperation "under any scenario" to keep economic, humanitarian and security aid flowing. 11:25 a.m.: White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told VOA it is encouraging to hear Russians saying they are not interested in a nuclear exchange. We hope that they actually mean that, because we agree that a nuclear war should never be fought. It certainly cant be won, he said. But he added, Washington is judging them not by what they are saying but by what they are doing on the ground such as calling up 300,000 reserves, conducting a sham referendum and establishing martial law to try and politically annex ground they could not occupy militarily as well as seek military help from countries like Iran and North Korea. 11:10 a.m.: Russias flag has been removed from the main administrative building in Kherson leading to the impression that Russia is retreating from the area, but Ukrainian officials say this may be a deceptive scheme by Russia while it is ramping up reinforcements for an offensive westward. According to the Hill, the flag is the latest sign of Russian surrender in Kherson. 11:00 a.m.: In an interview with VOAs Patsy Widakuswara, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon will announce shortly additional funding to help refurbish T 72 tanks the Ukrainians know how to operate. Kirby said that the U.S. is working in lockstep with the Ukrainians. He said the Pentagon and Kiyv talk almost every day on Ukraines military capabilities, what they need and what the Washington can provide for them. The spokesman said that the US is looking at providing more advanced capabilities to help Ukraine knock down drones and cruise missiles that the Russians keep firing on civilian infrastructure. We are also working with allies and partners of some 40 other countries [who] are contributing security assistance to Ukraine. France, Spain, Germany have been real big contributors with respect to providing some additional air defense capabilities, Kirby added. 10:30 a.m.: The Czech lower house of parliament approved on Friday a steep 60% windfall tax on energy firms and banks, aiming to raise $3.4 billion next year from profits to help people and firms hit by soaring electricity and gas prices, Reuters reports. Energy prices in Europe have risen sharply since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and reductions in Russian gas supplies. The center-right government in Prague is looking to tax extra profits from energy groups such as majority state-owned utility CEZ CEZP.PR, and other energy traders, miners, oil refiners, wholesale fuel traders and from large banks. The tax, similar to those imposed by other European countries, will apply for three years from 2023. The bill must still win Senate approval. The tax applies to profits exceeding 120% of the 2018-2021 average and comes on top of a 19% corporate tax rate. 10:25 a.m.: The Group of Seven wealthiest democracies rallied their support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion and agreed to coordinate their efforts for repairing, restoring and defending Ukraines energy and water infrastructure. Deutsche Welle reports the foreign ministers of the G7 are wrapping up their two-day meeting in the western German city of Muenster and are going to release a statement on their joint positions on Ukraine, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. 9:35 a.m.: In a tweet the Kyiv Independent reported estimates by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of Russias combat losses as of November 4. 9:30 a.m.: Greece sent the first batch of armored vehicles to Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent reports. Meeting with the President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked her for the first batch of BMP-1 fighting vehicles that arrived in Ukraine from Greece. The presidents also discussed defense cooperation, the strengthening of sanctions against Russia, and Ukraine's post-war reconstruction. "The community of Ukrainian Greeks traditionally lives in the south of our country... a large part of which was badly affected by the Russian strikes," said Zelensky in his video address. "When we return the Ukrainian flag to all the cities and villages of the country's south, we will invite Greece... to participate in restoring normal life there." Sakellaropoulou said Greece would never recognize Russia's illegal annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories, according to the President's Office. "We've been on your side from day one. We support your determination to protect your territorial integrity and will support you as long as necessary," she said. 9:05 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing the mobilization of people who have committed serious crimes but excludes those who have been convicted of child sex abuse, treason, spying or terrorism. The report came from RIA news agency, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Putin said, Russia has drafted 318,000 reservists for military service since September 21, when Moscow announced a "partial mobilization" after military setbacks in Ukraine. 9:00 a.m.: Civilians in Ukraine's Kherson region should be evacuated from the conflict zone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, Friday. "Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer," Putin told pro-Kremlin activists as he marked Russia's Day of National Unity. Reuters reports, this was the first time the Russian president acknowledged the deteriorating situation in a region he claims to have annexed. Putin's remark, which came unprompted after one activist told the Russian president on Red Square about his work delivering Russian flags to Kherson, was shown on state television and reported by state news agency RIA. On Thursday, Kherson's Russian-appointed deputy governor Kirill Stremousov issued several video appeals for civilians to leave the part of the province on the west bank of the Dnipro river. He said that Russian forces will likely give up the west bank of the Dnipro to Ukraine. Kherson region, the majority of which Russia has controlled since shortly after launching its military campaign in Ukraine on Feb. 24, is seen as strategically important controlling both overland access and much of the water supply to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. 5:14 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian authorities may be setting conditions to imminently transfer the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the Russian power grid. Meanwhile, the update said, the Russian military continues to face pronounced issues in the supply of critical military equipment, the Russian Ministry of Defense is likely continuing mobilization efforts covertly and Russian occupation officials continued forced evacuations in Kherson Oblast. 4:09 a.m.: U.S. personnel are inspecting stocks of American-supplied military equipment in Ukraine as part of efforts to keep track of gear provided to Kyiv's forces, the Pentagon said Thursday, according to The Associated Press. The United States has committed nearly $18 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded the country in February, and Washington wants to make sure it is not misused. "A small team comprised of US Embassy Kyiv Office of the Defense Attache personnel have conducted multiple inspections of US security assistance deliveries within the last couple months at locations in Ukraine," spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement. "These locations are not near the frontlines of Russia's war against Ukraine," Ryder said, adding that the "inspections are not reactive we have no evidence of widespread diversion of U.S. security assistance in Ukraine." 3:06 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said that due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying barrier troops or blocking units." These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces. 2:09 a.m.: Two U.S. senators met with families in Ukraine's capital Thursday and promised continued humanitarian support for the war-torn country as winter nears, The Associated Press reported. Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Rob Portman emphasized their commitment to the people of Ukraine while visiting a distribution center in Kyiv and speaking to families bracing for a dark, cold season with inadequate heating and electricity. 1:03 a.m.: 12:02 a.m.: Some 4.5 million Ukrainians, more than 10% of the pre-war population, were temporarily without power Thursday evening because of Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video address Thursday night, Reuters reported. Zelenskyy said those affected were in Kyiv and 10 other regions. He urged local authorities to save power, saying this was not the time for bright shop windows or signs. Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. The United States and South Korean defense leaders are warning Pyongyang that any use of nuclear weapons by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be the end of his regime. [U.S. Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin and I affirmed that any nuclear attack by the DPRK, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance, South Korean Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup told reporters Thursday at the Pentagon. In a show of solidarity, the two defense leaders also announced that they were extending the ongoing joint military exercise Vigilant Storm beyond Friday, when it was set to end. Ive consulted with Minister Lee, and weve decided to extend Vigilant Storm, which is our long-scheduled combined training exercise, to further bolster our readiness and interoperability, Austin said during the joint press conference. About 240 aircraft have participated in the exercise, along with thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners told VOA the air exercise would be extended to Saturday. "We remain in close coordination with our ROK ally on any additional changes and the security environment on the Korean Peninsula. Our commitment to the defense of the ROK is ironclad, Meiners said, abbreviating South Koreas official name, the Republic of Korea. North Korea continued its unprecedented pace of missile launches Thursday, firing six missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It fired more than 20 missiles a day earlier. A South Korean government source told CNN the ICBM launch Thursday failed. VOA has not been able to independently confirm the reporting. The North Korean leader called the decision to extend Vigilant Storm a terrible mistake. What they're in effect doing is showing Kim Jong Un that his strategy is failing. However, ironically, his failed strategy is also what is making him more desperate, David Maxwell, an Army veteran who was stationed in Japan and South Korea and is an analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told VOA. South Korean and U.S. officials have for months warned that North Korea is in the final stages of preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test since 2006, and its first since 2017. North Korea issued on Tuesday what was perceived as a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons. Critics of U.S. policy on the peninsula have said the Norths nuclear provocations, coupled with the recent missile launches, could be signs that U.S. and South Korean military muscle might not stop Pyongyang from trying to attack Seoul. Austin disagrees. I believe that they are deterred" from attacking South Korea, he said Thursday, "and I also believe they are deterred from employing a nuclear device. Businessman Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was released from the San Francisco hospital where he underwent surgery for injuries suffered at the couples home when he was attacked six days ago by a hammer-wielding intruder. The 82-year-old real estate and venture capital executive "remains under doctors' care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence" back at home, the speaker said in a statement issued by her office. The latest update on his condition came as U.S. immigration officials said the man charged with the hammer attack, Paul Wayne DePape, 42, is a Canadian citizen who has been in the United States illegally 14 years after he entered as a visitor. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it had issued a "detainer" notice with San Francisco authorities seeking custody of DePape once criminal proceedings against him are completed. Under the detainer lodged with the San Francisco County Jail on Nov. 1, four days after his arrest, DePape would be turned over to ICE for possible deportation to Canada after serving any prison sentence he receives, according to ICE. DePape was arrested Friday at the Pelosis home in San Francisco after he allegedly forced his way into the residence, demanded to see Nancy Pelosi and then clubbed her husband in the head with a hammer. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who is second in the line of succession to the presidency, was in Washington at the time. According to court documents filed by prosecutors, who labeled the incident a politically motivated assault, DePape told police after his arrest that he had planned to kidnap the speaker, interrogate and break her kneecaps if she "lied." The attack left Paul Pelosi with a fractured skull and injuries to his arms and hands for which he underwent surgery, according to the speaker's office. DePape, who has been jailed without bond, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to state charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse, false imprisonment and threatening a public official. He could face a maximum sentence of 13 years to life in prison if convicted. Federal prosecutors have charged DePape separately with assault and attempted kidnapping charges punishable by up to 50 years in prison. Records show that DePape entered the United States as a temporary visitor in March 2008 at the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Diego. According to immigration officials, admissible Canadian travelers who present themselves as visitors for business or pleasure generally do not require a visa and are typically admitted for a stay of up to six months in the United States. The detainer is a request to another law enforcement agency to notify ICE before any deportable individual is released from detention so immigration officials "can take custody of that person in a safe and secure setting," the agency said. Refugees in Malawi's Dzaleka camp who were removed from a food rations list have protested and seized a World Food Program vehicle. The WFP removed about 600 refugee families comprising nearly 2,500 people from the list for receiving food rations in February, saying they were self-sustaining and citing inadequate funding. But some families, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, say they are now struggling with food insecurity. The refugees started the protests Wednesday, demanding the WFP officials resume providing them with rations, saying that living without food assistance has become unbearable. WFP officials say that between 20 and 30 demonstrators in and around the Community Hall are protesting the assessment procedure, but the situation in the camp is calm. I cannot work so that I can feed my family, but I am very hungry, said Ndaize Eliwude, a refugee from Burundi who arrived at the Dzaleka camp in 2002. I am not castigating or insulting them, I am just complaining that they did not do a good job to remove me from the list, because now I am not managing to get some food for my household. The protesters are holding on to the vehicle they seized from WFP officials Wednesday during the protests. It is just an act of symbolizing that this car belongs to the company that would give us food and it has taken food from us, Eliwude said. So now, let us hold it so that the owners can know that we are here and that we are hungry. Badre Bahaji, head of communications for WFP in Malawi, said the refugees took the car as the WFP officials left a meeting with partners on the camp premises. The meeting went very well but after 11:30 a.m. [the] WFP vehicle and staff were prevented from leaving the camp, Bahaji said. So the refugees surrounded the vehicle, preventing it from leaving. The situation was handled without any violence. After a couple of hours the WFP staff left the camp unharmed. But the WFP vehicle is still blocked in the camp. The refugees holding the vehicle said they will release it only if the WFP puts them back on the list of food ration recipients. Bahaji said the WFP will soon conduct a profiling exercise for all households at the camp, which houses about 52,000 refugees. He said the exercise will provide an opportunity for all the refugees, including those taken off food ration assistance, to explain their food security situation. China is ready to work with other countries to build a maritime community with a shared future, protect marine safety, promote marine development and negotiate maritime governance, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday. China is willing to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to speed up the negotiation process of consultations on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, Wang said via video at the opening ceremony of the Symposium on Global Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance. Regarding ocean governance, Wang said it is important to fully, accurately and comprehensively interpret and apply the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in its entirety and respect the legitimate rights and interests of countries under the Convention and customary international law. To safeguard marine safety, he said maritime conflicts should be dealt with peacefully, adding that countries should resolve disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests through dialogue and consultation and avoid unilateral acts that complicate the situation. China opposes maritime hegemony and resists provocations and other acts that endanger maritime peace and tranquility, the foreign minister said. China calls for cooperation to address threats in areas such as piracy, transnational crime, smuggling and drug trafficking, and jointly safeguard freedom and security of navigation, he said. China is willing to build a high-quality 21st Century Maritime Silk Road with all parties and jointly promote the blue economy partnership, he added. The symposium runs from Thursday to Friday in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. CODY The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will host an open house event for the public at the new regional office building in Cody on Nov. 16. The office is located at 2 Tilden Trail. The event will begin at 10 a.m. with opening remarks from the Wyoming Game and Fish director and commissioners. Members of the public are then welcome to tour the building anytime through 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. The new building will open for business on Nov. 7. The office includes a large, ADA-compliant meeting room, aquatic invasive species check station, wildlife check-in area, more parking space for hunters and boaters pulling trailers and provides more space at the front counter to accommodate customers, among other benefits to the public. The new office provides a better space for us to work with the public to address wildlife management challenges like chronic wasting disease and the threat of aquatic invasive species, said Dan Smith, Cody Region wildlife supervisor. The wildlife check-in area for example, gives us space to take biological samples that are critical to the management and health of wildlife herds, and the integrated AIS check station provides a convenient and efficient means for boaters to get watercraft inspected. The new facility remained within budget, costing $9.6 million. The commission planned for and reserved money for this project prior to construction. No state of Wyoming general funds were utilized and no debt was incurred. We welcome the community to tour the new facility, and learn how it will function to create efficiencies and improve service, Smith said. The event will also be a great opportunity to visit with Game and Fish commissioners and local staff in an informal setting. Community members are welcome to come anytime between the hours of 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. on Nov. 16 to tour the facility. Local Game and Fish staff will provide walk-throughs of the facility or participants are welcome to tour the building on their own. Human Rights Watch says Australian and New South Wales officials failed "to take effective steps" to help its most at-risk population "from foreseeable harm" during a flood in February in the New South Wales town of Lismore. The human rights group said in a statement Thursday that officials failed to provide "adequate flood warnings, evacuation, or rescue support, leaving older people, people with disabilities, and those who were pregnant facing life-threatening circumstances with little government assistance." Four Lismore residents drowned in the flooding, and more than 2,000 houses became uninhabitable. "Such extreme weather events," HRW said, "are likely to begin happening more frequently as a result of climate change conditions. Although "no conclusive evidence attributes the 2022 floods to the climate crisis," HRW reported, the "the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's leading scientific body on climate change, projects an increase in more extreme rainfall events and flood magnitudes in eastern Australia due to warming temperatures." The report said that Australia has a "human rights obligation" to help at-risk groups in extreme weather circumstances because Australia in a top greenhouse gas emitter and fossil fuel producer. HRW reported that emergency workers knocked on people's doors and told them to leave, but offered no transportation assistance, "leaving families with small children, older people, and people with disabilities unable to leave." One 24-year-old man said he risked his life to save a 91-year-old woman, after failing to reach anyone at NSW's designated emergency phone number. "That was the scariest thing ever," he said. Emergency services said its phone system was overwhelmed by the phone calls and stopped working. "Climate change exacerbates inequalities, and the failures seen in Lismore highlight the urgent need for the authorities to ensure inclusive climate action and planning," said Sophie McNeil, an Australia researcher at HRW. The Somali National Army and local clan militias say they have killed at least 100 militants as retribution for last Saturdays terrorist bombings that killed more than 100 people in Mogadishu. Briefing the media Friday in Mogadishu, Defense Ministry spokesperson Abdullahi Ali Anod said the clashes occurred in the Garas Magan and El Hareeri villages of the Hiran region in central Somalia, about 320 kilometers north of Mogadishu. Government forces have targeted the militants at a place they were regrouping in preparation for an offensive against bases of our allied forces, Anod said. Major Ahmed Abdullahi Beeryare, commander of a battalion of the SNAs U.S.-trained Danab unit, who is among the generals leading the campaign against al-Shabab, said that the number of al-Shabab fatalities could be as high as 200. "We are still in the middle of putting together the numbers of those killed in different places," Beeryare said. "It was both preemptive and a revenge operation for the killing of our innocent people in the recent twin terrorist bombings in Mogadishu. We will not stop until we end them." The government officials paraded confiscated weapons captured from the group and dozens of dead bodies in military camouflage, saying they were al-Shabab militants. VOA and other local news organizations have not been able to independently verify the government claims and the exact number of militants killed. Beeryare added that airstrikes carried out by drones were involved in the operation, but he did not elaborate about whether it was foreign air support. The U.S. Africa Command regularly conducts such airstrikes against Somali militants at the request of the Federal Government of Somalia. The most recent one was on October 23, in which militants were targeted as they attacked Somali National Army troops near Buulabarde, about 220 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu. The current government military operation began several months ago, after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in May, declared that his top priority was ending the country's 15-year Islamist insurgency. Calls for unity In August, Mohamuds government took the bold step of bringing in one of its former archenemies, former al-Shabab founder, deputy leader and spokesman Mukhtar Robow, as part of its strategy to end terrorism. Robow was named religious affairs minister. Speaking at the Friday prayers sermon in a Mogadishu mosque, Robow urged the Somali people to unite against terrorism and assist their government in the current fight against al-Shabab. We cannot describe a Muslim as a person killing another Muslim in the middle of worship and prayers inside a mosque, and that is what al-Shabab does, Robow said. They are Khawarij. The term Khawarij, which means renegades in English, comes from the Arabic word that means those who left. It refers to a group of Muslims who were initially followers of the Prophet Muhammad and later took a position that Muslims who commit grave sins effectively reject their religion, entering the ranks of apostates, and therefore deserve capital punishment. Do not fear the Khawarij; do not hide them amongst you and spy. With Allahs willing, they will be eventually defeated, and Somalia will be a peaceful and prosperous nation, Robow added. In the past four months, al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab armed groups have lost villages and strongholds in the central Somali regions of Hiran, Middle Shabelle and Galgudud. Government officials claim nearly 1,000 al-Shabaab militants have been killed. Abdiaziz Ahmed contributed to this report from Mogadishu. North Korea continued its unprecedented pace of missile launches Thursday, sending six more missiles into the sea. But as the Kim regime continued to lash out at the United States and South Korea for conducting joint military exercises, the two allies agreed to extend the drills beyond Friday, when they were due to conclude. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more. Russia may be ready to shoot its retreating and deserting soldiers in Ukraine, according to Britain's Defense Ministry's daily update on Russia's war on Ukraine. "Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying 'barrier troops' or 'blocking units," Friday's intelligence update said. "These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces." "Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorizing shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given," the Defense Ministry said. "Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death." The tactic of shooting its own deserters, the ministry said, "likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces." Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with several of his international counterparts - French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Germany to discuss continued transatlantic cooperation on a number of key issues, including consistent support for Ukraine in the face of Russias brutal war of aggression and Irans military support of Russia and its violent crackdown and suppression of the Iranian people, according to the U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his troops Thursday as the country observed the Day of Missile Troops and Artillery and the Day of Engineering Troops. "Ukrainian artillery became the strongest in Europe and one of the strongest in the world," Zelenskyy said. "It will always be like that. Despite the physical advantage of enemy artillery - simply quantitative - our warriors provide better results. The advantage of our gunners is qualitative - skills, intelligence, faith in themselves and in our country." Zelenskyy also spoke to the daily difficulties of living in a conflict zone and asked local authorities to "ensure that there is no unnecessary use of electricity in all cities and communities of Ukraine. Now is definitely not the time for bright showcases, signs, advertisements and other such lighting." He also appealed to energy companies "publicly, so that everyone can hear." He asked the companies to: "Please be more active in explaining to people when and why you disconnect this or that street, this or that district. Now is the time for such microcommunications. People have a right to know." The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that after having "unfettered access" to three Ukraine locations in Ukraine where Russia claimed Ukraine housed undeclared nuclear activities and materials, the watchdog could not find any evidence to support Russia's claims. The three locations were the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro. Christine Akuol not her real name is just 15 years old but already is the mother of two children. Three years ago, her impoverished family married her off in exchange for food. Unfortunately, the man she was married to delivered only pain, both physical and emotional. A scarcity of resources forced her into subsistence farming. Even that was taken away this year by the persistent floods that have plagued much of South Sudan. Now, like many South Sudanese, Christine is not sure where her next meal is coming from. She said would welcome any kind of support from NGOs. She said she doesnt have a room for sleeping because floods destroyed all of her possessions. She said she and her children dont have food or money for medical treatment. Joint report describes stark situation Josephine Lagu, South Sudan's minister of Agriculture and Food Security, said a report produced by the World Food Program, UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organization points to a very worrying situation for South Sudan. The most severe acute food insecure populations are in locations with chronic vulnerabilities, worsened by frequent climate-related shocks, severe flooding and dry spells, the war in Ukraine, the macroeconomic crisis, and of course, low agricultural production," he said. "These chronic vulnerabilities are found in 47 counties. George Otto, U.N. humanitarian resident coordinator, said urgent action is needed to save nearly 8 million people, including 1.4 million who could face severe malnutrition. "The report is here. This is the time for action," he said. "The U.S. is committed to working hand in hand with the government in its effort to ensure that over time, well be able to address the key particular issue of food security in South Sudan. According to the U.N. report, eastern Equatoria, in the country's southeast, has seen the most significant deterioration in food security among South Sudan's drought-affected counties. Meshack Malo, FAO representative in South Sudan, said South Sudan needs urgent support to promote self-reliance through smart agricultural practices that mitigate the impact of climate change. It is significantly important that peace, which is one of the factors that affect food security, is put in place," said Malo. "Second, flooding continues to be a factor. We now need to put into planning. It is just not going to be unprecedented because it is something that has become a reality, so smart agriculture planning is going to be significant so that we plan with these aspects in mind. Climate, conflict, climbing costs linked to hunger Experts say the decline in food security and the high prevalence of malnutrition is linked to a combination of conflict, poor macroeconomic conditions, climate change, and spiraling costs of food and fuel. A drop in the funding of humanitarian programs despite the steadily rising need also has been cited as a major contributor to the worsening situation. The U.N. agencies say funding for next years humanitarian response in South Sudan is needed within the next few months, or agencies will be unable to position aid, leaving millions of families at risk of sinking deeper into hunger. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tuerk is calling for a resumption of a U.N.-mediated truce in Yemen. The truce expired just over a month ago, resulting in a sharp rise in civilian casualties. In a statement, Tuerk said he deplores the uptick in fighting and the loss of life since Yemens warring parties failed to extend the six-month cease-fire, which expired October 2. He urged the parties to negotiate an end to the devastating conflict. U.N. Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said the Houthi Ansar Allah forces in Yemen are largely to blame for the reported loss of life and injuries. Laurence said it is difficult to confirm the number of civilian casualties, but his office has verified three incidents of shelling by the Iranian-backed rebels in the government-controlled territory, as well as three incidents of sniper shootings. He called this regrettable, given that the U.N.-mediated truce clearly was working and that, by and large, parties observed the cease-fire. We did notice that there was a sharp decline in casualties, that displaced people were able to access vital food and other materials for their well-being," he said. The outbreak of war more than eight years ago plunged Yemen into what the U.N. calls the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The U.N. reports more than 350,000 people have died from direct and indirect causes of the war. It says nearly 6 million people have been displaced and an estimated 24 million need humanitarian aid to survive. Under international humanitarian law, Laurence said parties to the conflict must allow civilians to access humanitarian and life-saving services. Furthermore, the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects is prohibited by international law and constitutes a war crime," he said. "Any such attacks must immediately cease, and the relevant authorities should investigate such incidents and hold those responsible to account." Laurence said the suffering of the Yemeni people will continue until the conflict ends. He said U.N. rights chief Tuerk echoes the U.N. secretary-generals call to the warring parties and their international backers to choose peace for good. The United States is providing about $400 million more in security assistance to Ukraine as the fight against Russias invasion enters its ninth month. The Defense Department said Friday that the latest package underscores the continued U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine by meeting their most urgent needs, while also building the capacity of Ukraines armed forces to defend its sovereignty over the long term. The U.S. now has committed more than $18.2 billion to Ukraine since the beginning of Russias unprovoked and brutal invasion February 24, the statement read. The U.S. military assistance includes refurbished HAWK air defense missiles; funding for 45 refurbished T-72B tanks with advanced optics, communications and armor packages; 1,100 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems; 40 armored Riverine Command Boats; funding to refurbish 250 M1117 armored security vehicles; tactical secure communications systems and surveillance systems; and funding for training, maintenance and sustainment. In his nightly address Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for its latest military assistance and said it was the armored vehicles in particular that we very much need to move forward at the front. I am grateful to President Biden, the U.S. Congress and the entire American people for the continued and vital assistance," he said. Earlier Friday, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said during a visit to Kyiv that U.S. support for Ukraine would remain "unwavering and unflinching" following next Tuesday's midterm congressional elections. "We fully intend to ensure that the resources are there as necessary, and that we'll get votes from both sides of the aisle to make that happen," Sullivan told reporters during a briefing. Some Republicans have indicated they would try to scale back U.S. aid to Kyiv if they win control of the U.S. Congress in the November 8 elections. Last month, Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House, said Americans should not "write a blank check" for Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Netherlands said it would spend nearly $45 million on T-72 tanks, as it cooperates with the U.S. and the Czech Republic on a shipment of 90 modernized Czech tanks. Ukraine also received the first batch of BMP-1 armored vehicles from Greece. Zelenskyy thanked Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou for the aid. In a tweet, the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, thanked the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the U.S. for their joint decision to provide 90 T-72 tanks to Ukraine. Earlier, in an interview with VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman, said the U.S. is working in lockstep with the Ukrainians. He said Washington and Kyiv talk almost daily about Ukraines military capabilities, what is needed and what Washington can provide for them. Kirby said the U.S. is looking at providing more advanced capabilities to help Ukraine knock down the drones and cruise missiles the Russians are firing at civilian infrastructure. We are also working with allies and partners of some 40 other countries [who] are contributing security assistance to Ukraine. France, Spain, Germany have been real big contributors with respect to providing some additional air defense capabilities, Kirby said. Kirby also told VOA it was encouraging to hear that Russians do not want a nuclear exchange. We hope that they actually mean that, because we agree that a nuclear war should never be fought. It certainly cant be won, he said. But, he added, Washington is judging them not by what they are saying but by what they are doing on the ground. He was referring to Putins mobilization of more than 300,000 reserves and Moscows sham referendum in Ukraine to politically annex ground it could not occupy militarily, as well as to Russia's seeking help from countries like Iran and North Korea. Meanwhile, the Kremlin signaled it was withdrawing from Kherson, a region strategic for Russia for westward expansion. The Russian flag has been removed from Khersons city council building. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed the evacuation of civilians from parts of Ukraine's southern Kherson region on Friday, the latest sign of Russia's retreat in one of the most bitterly contested areas in Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russian-installed officials in Kherson have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from the city and surrounding areas while pro-Kremlin media members have reported that withdrawing Russian troops carried away bronze statues of 18th-century Russian commanders and have moved their headquarters 50 miles to the southeast. Russia may also be ready to shoot its deserting soldiers in Ukraine, according to the British Defense Ministrys daily update on Russias war on Ukraine. Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying barrier troops or blocking units, Fridays intelligence update said. These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives. The tactic of shooting deserters, the ministry said, likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces. Zelenskyy accused Russia of continuing to draft men to fight in Ukraine despite announcements that the mobilization was over. The truth is, in the regions of Russia and on our occupied territory, they continue to collect people to send them to death, he said Friday. The Ukrainian president said Russia is simply lying to people that the mobilization task has been completed. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with several of his international counterparts French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Germany. They discussed continued transatlantic cooperation on a number of key issues, including consistent support for Ukraine in the face of Russias brutal war of aggression and Irans military support of Russia and its violent crackdown and suppression of the Iranian people, according to the U.S. State Department. Speaking to reporters in Muenster, Germany, Blinken said Russia had destroyed about 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including thermal energy plants that provide many Ukrainian homes, schools and hospitals with heat when temperatures can drop to 20 degrees below Celsius. President Putin seems to have decided that if he can't seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze it into submission, Blinken said. Zelenskyy has asked local authorities to ensure that there is no unnecessary use of electricity in all cities and communities of Ukraine. He also appealed to energy companies to be more active in explaining to people when and why you disconnect this or that street, this or that district. Now is the time for such micro-communications. People have a right to know. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday again declined to block President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, this time in a challenge brought by two Indiana borrowers, as a lower court considers whether to lift a freeze it imposed on the program in a different case. Barrett denied an emergency request by the Indiana borrowers, represented by a conservative legal group, to bar the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Democratic president's plan to forgive debt held by qualified people who had taken loans to pay for college. Barrett on October 20 denied a similar request by a Wisconsin taxpayers organization represented by another conservative legal group. The justice acted in the cases because she is the justice assigned to handle certain emergency requests from a group of states that includes Indiana and Wisconsin. Biden's plan, unveiled in August, was designed to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples. Borrowers who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled. The policy fulfilled a promise Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign to help debt-saddled former college students. Democrats hope the policy will boost support for them in Tuesday's midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on October 21 put the policy on hold in yet another conservative challenge by six Republican-led states while it considered their request for an injunction pending their appeal of their case's dismissal. That request remains pending. Two borrowers, Frank Garrison and Noel Johnson, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, filed Friday's case, contending they would be irreparably harmed if some of their student loans were automatically forgiven because they would face increased state tax liabilities. Soon after they sued, the Education Department created an opt-out option for borrowers. U.S. District Judge Richard Young on October 21 dismissed the case, finding that the debt forgiveness program did not injure Garrison and Johnson. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on October 28 declined to block the plan while Garrison and Johnson pursued an appeal, noting that the program is "not compulsory" and that the plaintiffs could avoid tax liability simply by opting out. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that debt forgiveness would eliminate about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt and that more than 40 million Americans would be eligible to benefit. U.S. President Joe Biden is hoping to use the U.S.-ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh next week to continue making his case for strengthened economic ties and diplomatic neutrality in a region that has become a geopolitical battleground between America and China. Bidens bid to cement strategic alliances comes several months after the White House hosted a summit of ASEAN leaders highlighting Americas commitment to the region. However, analysts speaking after the Washington gathering were pessimistic that the high-profile diplomacy would curb Beijings influence in ASEAN, a sentiment that hasnt changed in the run-up to the November 12 meeting of the Southeast Asian bloc of 10 nations. This is because China is an important economic partner for the region and China has also established many functional areas of cooperation with ASEAN, many of which are already institutionalized, said Joanne Lin Weiling, a co-coordinator of the ASEAN Studies Center at the Singapore-based ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. She noted that Bidens strategic alliances in the region are largely intended to counter China. This makes them an uncomfortable fit for ASEAN members such as Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, which have very strong ties and relations with China, she said, adding ASEAN does not exclude China in its approach to the Indo-Pacific. Still, the Biden administration is hoping to find receptive partners in areas such as maritime cooperation, sustainable development, transportation and infrastructure connectivity, and economic relations and will likely avoid issues that raise obvious conflicts with Beijing. The reality in the region is most of the ASEAN member states are trying desperately to not be forced into making a choice between China and the U.S., Phil Robertson, a deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, told VOA Khmer. So, there is an ongoing game of strategic ambiguity in the region, where ASEAN member states will take what they can from each side while trying to make as few concrete commitments as they can which would cause them problems with one side or the other, he said. The White House announced that Biden would attend the 10th U.S.-ASEAN summit in person on November 12. Participants are expected to establish the U.S.-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to boost multilateral relations. The U.S.-ASEAN Summit is part of a series of diplomatic meetings around the ASEAN summit, which Cambodia is hosting before it passes the baton of annual leadership for the regional bloc to next years chair, Indonesia. The summit comes during a time of soaring geopolitical tensions over the Russia-Ukraine war and Chinas ambitions to take control of Taiwan. The most pressing crisis within ASEAN continues to be Myanmar, where a military junta that seized power in February 2021 has refused regional diplomatic interventions or global calls to release political prisoners. ASEAN has tried to play a peacemaking role since shortly after the junta ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy activist and daughter of the countrys founder, Aung San. The Myanmar crisis will be front and center in the discussions at the ASEAN summit because both the ASEAN member states as well as the various dialogue partners are extremely concerned by the disastrous situation in that country, the massive rights violations and crimes against humanity happening every day there, and the growing civil war, Robertson said. Last month, ASEAN foreign ministers held a special meeting on Myanmar in Jakarta. They said their efforts to quell the fighting havent achieved significant progress and called for concrete, practical and time-bound actions to strengthen the implementation of a five-point consensus the group reached in April last year on ways to seek peace. Robertson added that he hoped the bloc would agree on clear penalties if Myanmar fails to release political prisoners, cease attacks on its people or move toward democracy, such as a global arms embargo and targeted sanctions against the junta and its business interests. But when it comes to making commitments regarding democracy and human rights in their own countries, Robertson said, Washington is unlikely to secure any firm agreements. Seven ASEAN member states are also part of the U.S Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which was launched in May this year to further economic collaboration in areas such as digital economy, supply chain resilience, clean energy and sustainable infrastructure. As part of the U.S. push in the region, Biden is also going to join the East Asia Summit on November 13 before leaving Cambodia to attend a G-20 meeting in Indonesia on that day. Chheang Vannarith, executive president of the Asian Vision Institute in Cambodia, noted the ASEAN Summit comes just days after Xi Jinping secured power for another term during the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. And Taiwan is just one area of growing stress between China and the U.S., along with the South China Sea and North Koreas nuclear threat. The Chinese role and influence in the world are growing at the same time the power competition between United States and China is still rising in the region and the world. So, that is very complicated, he said. Cambodia faces the difficult task this week of keeping all 10 ASEAN members and numerous dialogue partners happy, or at least avoiding sticking points that will highlight disagreements. As Chheang Vannatith put it, Being the ASEAN chair this year is not easy. Colin Meyn contributed to this report. U.S. officials charged with helping to secure the upcoming midterm elections fear the most dangerous and most likely threats may be difficult or impossible to detect in advance, and that the risk of violence will only escalate once the polls close. The assessment, based on intelligence from multiple agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Counterterrorism Center, has been shared in recent weeks with state and local law enforcement agencies, lending increased urgency to their efforts to secure the vote. Parts of the assessment also have been shared publicly, including by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which serves as the national lead on election security. You've got these horrible physical security concerns at an unprecedented level, CISA Director Jen Easterly told a forum in Washington on Tuesday. Threats of intimidation, of violence, of harassment against election officials, polling places, voters. The most plausible threat, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be quoted and spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence, is from a so-called lone wolf an individual who may or may not be associated with an extremist group and decides to act on his or her own. Such individuals are likely to be driven by a belief that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was fraudulent as well as by other hot-button political issues, the official said. Likely targets could range from election-related infrastructure, such as polling places and ballot drop boxes, to election workers, voters and even political candidates and events like Election Day rallies and watch parties, the official added, noting a decision on which target to go after could come down to ease of access. But much of what has election security officials so concerned is that extra motivation for anyone leaning toward violence is easily accessible. Misinformation campaign targets This past week, CISA warned that U.S. adversaries are using misinformation and other influence operations to incite violence against election officials. CISA officials and those with other U.S. agencies declined to share additional specifics. But some researchers have found reason to worry. The influence attempts do not directly encourage people to undertake violent actions, but very likely lay the groundwork and allude to some physical action, Brian Liston, a senior threat intelligence analyst for the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, told VOA by email. Some of it can be tied to Russias infamous troll farm, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which has been reactivating accounts on social media platforms, especially those that cater to far-right audiences, and has set up a new website to promote allegations of voter fraud, he said. Headlines provided on the site recently say that Democrats will use everything in their disposal to manipulate votes and counting, and accuse Democrats of burning a mail truck in Georgia containing Republican ballots, Liston said. One image found by Recorded Future, posted by an IRA-linked account under the name Nora Berka, further fans the flames, claiming, Yes, we are at war, along with an image of former President Donald Trump holding a rifle. The graphic further states, Democrats are your sworn enemies. Recorded Future warns it is not just the troll farms. Russian state media and covert media sources are very likely intending to subtly lay the groundwork for some sort of physical action, Liston said, pointing to headlines that talk about mobilizing to prevent voter fraud and secret armies. Liston said Iran state-sponsored outlets, like the Tehran Times and Tasnim News Agency are also pushing violent undertones, noting a recent article [November 1] from the Tehran Times warning, there are growing fears the country could slip into a civil war. Unlike Recorded Future, the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks official state actors and state-backed media, told VOA it has not seen information campaigns specifically encouraging violence. But that does not mean that adversaries, such as Russia, would not welcome election-related violence. Their proven strategy is to amplify the most polarizing and extreme content to further divide the electorate, the ASDs Rachael Dean Wilson told VOA. If their strategy incites or contributes to inciting violence, it would serve their ultimate goal of chaos. Graphika, a social media analytics firm, said it has seen a renewed effort by Russian actors to target far-right audiences in the U.S. but that the efforts have failed to make much of an impact and that the campaigns have not sought to glorify or encourage violence. Requests for comment by VOA to the Russian embassy and to the Iranian Mission to the U.N. regarding the allegations by U.S. officials and by researchers were not immediately answered. Both have denied allegations of meddling in U.S. elections in the past. Still, officials and researchers expect the online narratives, and the threat of violence, to persist and possibly worsen after the polls close. The U.S. official who spoke to VOA about the intelligence assessments on the condition of anonymity, said prolonged certification processes and potential legal challenges could fuel existing grievances and spur potential attacks. And while officials from multiple agencies admit the warnings may sound dire, they argue the events of the past several years, such as the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, warrant the high level of concern. We've seen the domestic terrorism threat grow for the last two years, FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Robert Wells told a forum on homeland security late last month. We've also seen the anti-government cases grow, obviously January 6. So, our case numbers have gone up. The number of reported threats against election workers also has jumped. According to the FBI, there have been more than 1,000 reports since June 2021, leading to at least six arrests. And almost 60% of the reported threats came from seven states Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin all of which ran audits or saw considerable debate about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. And the threatening chatter has not slowed. What really concerns us, it is the threats to election workers. It's calls for a second civil war, which we're seeing in some of the [social media] platforms, Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency Director Chris Rodriguez said last month, speaking alongside the FBIs Wells. We need to make sure that we have the intelligence and information we need to keep our communities safe as the experience on January 6th really showed us, he said. North Dakota turns 133 years old Wednesday was North Dakotas 133rd birthday. President Benjamin Harrison signed papers admitting North Dakota and South Dakota as the 39th and 40th states in the union on Nov. 2, 1889. Legend says Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them. The two states initially were part of the Dakota Territory created in 1861, which also included much of the present-day states of Montana and Wyoming. Juveniles arrested in smoke shop burglary Mandan police arrested two juveniles in connection with a Saturday break-in at a Memorial Highway smoke shop. The boys, ages 15 and 13, are charged with burglary, according to the police department. A 14-year-old girl is charged with possession of stolen property. Police early Saturday responded to a call of a burglary at Moes Smoke Shop. A glass door had been shattered by a rock and many vaping products were missing. Video showed two people were involved, police said. The two boys were identified shortly after the burglary. They were arrested Tuesday when police executed a search warrant at a Mandan home. Some of the stolen items were recovered, and the 38-year-old mother of the teens was arrested on drug charges, police said. FFA members participate in national convention Four Mandan FFA members and students placed eighth at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis last week. Team members Adam Gress, Alexis Ritzman, Medora Ellingson and Paige Friedt will attend the U.S. Poultry and Egg Associations National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in January 2023. Gress also placed fifth individually at the convention. The team developed a new food product that was shelf-stable ready to eat food called My Thai-m, a microwaveable noodle dish marketable to the younger community. They also developed the packaging, factory layout with quality control information, nutritional information, a marketing plan, cost analysis and accounting for food safety. Mandan wins award for Main Street Mandan has been recognized with a Main Street Excellence Award at the 2022 Main Street North Dakota Summit held Oct. 26. This award in the communities with a population greater than 5,000 category recognized Mandans Main Street for creating a vibrant and engaging environment by focusing on downtown revitalization. North Dakota is a state full of opportunity and active community partnerships, Gov. Doug Burgum said. We are grateful for all the communities that have invested in the ideals of the Main Street Initiative to help us garner even more opportunity for our residents and businesses. The Governors Main Street Awards are a collaboration of the governors office and the North Dakota Department of Commerce. Glen Ullin gets federal money for electric school bus The Glen Ullin school district in western North Dakota is getting $395,000 in federal funding to buy an electric-powered school bus. The money is through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Clean School Bus Program. Two eastern North Dakota school districts also are getting money Mapleton is getting $395,000 for one bus and Enderlin nearly $1.6 million for four buses. These zero-emission electric buses will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate exposure to harmful pollutants such as soot, fine particulates and nitrogen oxides, EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said in a statement. EPA is doling out $913 million nationwide for 2,463 buses, most of which will be electric. Election has 10 newspaper contests Voters in 10 North Dakota counties will be deciding contested races for official county newspaper in the Nov. 8 general election. Those races are in Barnes, Dunn, McHenry, McIntosh, McLean, Mercer, Mountrail, Slope, Traill and Ward counties. Two counties Dunn and Slope have no newspapers, so papers in neighboring counties are competing. The Killdeer-based Dunn County Herald closed in 2019; the neighboring Beulah Beacon took over as the countys official newspaper. With the title of official newspaper comes revenue to print a countys legal notices, including meeting proceedings. For example, Ward County last year spent about $12,000 on publications, according to Auditor/Treasurer Marisa Haman. The term of official status is for four years, beginning the first Monday in January. The Bismarck Tribune and the Mandan News are running unopposed for official newspaper in Burleigh County and Morton County, respectively. Staff reports U.S. and South Korean warplanes will continue large-scale joint military exercises for another day, officials announced Friday, as North Korea continued lashing out at the drills with a record pace of launches. The Vigilant Storm air drill, which involves 240 aircraft running mock attacks, will now run through Saturday, South Koreas military announced, citing North Korean provocations. Since Wednesday, North Korea has launched 30 missiles, including some that triggered air raid alerts and emergency shelter orders in South Korea and Japan. The United Nations Security Council will meet Friday to discuss North Koreas launches, at the request of countries including the United States, multiple diplomats told VOA. Overnight, North Korea also launched 80 artillery rounds into a sensitive sea border area off its east coast, according to a statement by South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff. In Washington, the South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs vowed Thursday to increase their defense posture in response to North Koreas tests. South Korean National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, speaking alongside his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said the U.S. agreed to deploy strategic assets "to the level equivalent to constant deployment. South Korea has urged the United States to send more nuclear-capable warplanes and ships to the region, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ramps up missile tests and warns of his ability to conduct tactical nuclear strikes against the South. Any nuclear attack against the United States or its Allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime, Austin said, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting at the Pentagon. The two leaders also visited a U.S. air base just outside Washington, where they posed with B-1B and B-52 bombers, the latter of which is nuclear-capable. During past cycles of tension, the U.S. has run those bombers across the Korean Peninsula in a show of force. North Korea strongly objects to such displays. It also uses them as an occasion to show off its own weapons. In a late-night statement slamming the extension of the U.S.-South Korean drills, a senior North Korean official blamed Washington and Seoul for bringing tensions to an uncontrollable phase. The U.S. and south Korea will get to know what an irrevocable and awful mistake they made, said the statement by Pak Jong Chon, a senior official in North Koreas ruling Workers Party. North Korea has fired about 60 ballistic missiles this year, a record, by far. Its launches this week have been among its most provocative yet. The launches created especially tense situations in northern Japan early Thursday. In Miyagi, Yamagata, and Niigata prefectures residents were warned to take shelter indoors. Japanese television broadcasts were also interrupted by emergency alerts, which initially said a North Korean missile flew over and past Japanese territory. However, defense officials later retracted that claim, saying they lost track of the missile while it was flying over the sea. North Korea aimed three of Wednesdays launches toward South Korea, triggering television alerts in the South and air raid sirens on an island off the coast. In response, South Koreas military on Wednesday said its warplanes launched three missiles north of the de facto sea border to demonstrate South Koreas capability and readiness to strike the enemy with precision. Neither country had sent missiles across the Northern Limit Line since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War; on Wednesday they both did within hours of each other. Russia may be ready to shoot its retreating and deserting soldiers in Ukraine, according to Britain's Defense Ministry's daily update on Russia's war on Ukraine. "Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying 'barrier troops' or 'blocking units," Friday's intelligence update said. "These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces." "Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorizing shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given," the Defense Ministry said. "Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death." The tactic of shooting its own deserters, the ministry said, "likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces." Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with several of his international counterparts - French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Germany to discuss continued transatlantic cooperation on a number of key issues, including consistent support for Ukraine in the face of Russias brutal war of aggression and Irans military support of Russia and its violent crackdown and suppression of the Iranian people, according to the U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his troops Thursday as the country observed the Day of Missile Troops and Artillery and the Day of Engineering Troops. "Ukrainian artillery became the strongest in Europe and one of the strongest in the world," Zelenskyy said. "It will always be like that. Despite the physical advantage of enemy artillery - simply quantitative - our warriors provide better results. The advantage of our gunners is qualitative - skills, intelligence, faith in themselves and in our country. Zelenskyy also spoke to the daily difficulties of living in a conflict zone and asked local authorities to "ensure that there is no unnecessary use of electricity in all cities and communities of Ukraine. Now is definitely not the time for bright showcases, signs, advertisements and other such lighting." He also appealed to energy companies "publicly, so that everyone can hear." He asked the companies to: "Please be more active in explaining to people when and why you disconnect this or that street, this or that district. Now is the time for such microcommunications. People have a right to know." The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that after having "unfettered access" to three Ukraine locations in Ukraine where Russia claimed Ukraine housed undeclared nuclear activities and materials, the watchdog could not find any evidence to support Russia's claims. The three locations were the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro. JOHANNESBURG South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at a summit on gender-based violence in the country, said murders of women jumped by 50% this year and called for action to stop the trend. Experts say his governments efforts are falling short. It is a story of a nation that is seemingly at war with itself a nation that is at war with the women of this country and the children of this country, Ramaphosa said this week as he addressed the summit. National police reported 1,753 women were murdered in just the first half of this year. M, whose name is being withheld for her safety, said she thought shed become one of those statistics when her ex-boyfriend imprisoned her and her daughter in his apartment for months. I had to beg for my life, she said. And then I told him, You know what, Ill never ever annoy you with the thing of wanting to go home. You know what, you can do whatever you want to do with me. I'm all yours. Please, please spare me my life because I still have daughter to raise. M had met her boyfriend online. She said at first, he was sweet, and the relationship was ordinary. But once she had been staying with him for a prolonged period, he turned on her and became violent, subjecting her to physical and sexual abuse. M said she later learned she wasnt his only victim. I even discovered that he had murdered another girl, she said, He murdered his girlfriend, his previous girlfriend. There are other victims that he had. So, I was not the second [survivor of abuse], I was not the third. Maybe hes been doing that, and then I was the next victim. He was going to kill me also and then get another victim. M and her daughter are now safely staying at a womens shelter. They had managed to escape in July when her partner forgot his cellphone at home, giving her a rare opportunity to call the police. As she waits for her case to make it to the courts, M said she wants other women like her to know there is help available. Vanita Daniels, administrative director for the nonprofit Rise Up Against Gender-Based Violence, said there are droves of women seeking help. We are almost five times the international average for femicide its horrendous, those numbers, she said. Its a cause for great concern, especially when we are not, you know, a war-torn country. Weve had survivors that had to leave their homes with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their backs. And so, they go into a shelter space, and they need everything. Despite it being four years since the inaugural presidential summit on gender-based violence, nonprofits supporting survivors say there are still shortfalls in funding and resources from government to meet those needs. We on the ground are asking the president what has gone wrong, said Lisha Stevens, a social worker with Nisaa Institute for Womens Development in Johannesburg. Where have they not assisted? Why are they not reaching a minimum target in gender-based violence deaths? Government needs to intervene, give us a budget, so that we can equip and empower these women. Both experts agree that in addition to supporting women fleeing violence, there need to be greater efforts to prevent it in the first place. Daniels said that requires a societal overhaul in how men and women are treated and valued. One of the things that we are not tackling in this country effectively is issues around culture, issues around religion, issues around harmful patriarchal practice, she said. And so, one of the things that we do as an organization, we do behavioral change programs, and we work specifically with men because we believe in prevention. Womens rights advocates say laws and policies have improved to protect survivors and that the next step is better enforcement. Latinos are the second-largest voting group in Arizona. And in this year's midterm elections, Latino youth could be a driving force for change in the state. Jorge Agobian traveled to Tucson and met with some of these voters to see what their expectations are. FILE - New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff, left, looks over work by George Booth at the magazine's offices in New York on Nov. 27, 2001. Booth, a prize-winning cartoonist for The New Yorker who with manic affection captured the timeless comedy of dogs and cats and the human beings somehow in charge of their well being, has died Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. He was 96. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Adding 1,000 or even 500 steps to your daily routine could lead to a longer life, new research suggests. Experts have long endorsed walking as a free and easy way for people to get a wide variety of health benefits, including improved sleep, prevention of weight gain and reduced risks for serious conditions like heart disease, stroke and diabetes. While fitness apps often recommend taking 10,000 steps a day, experts say there's no magic number for improving health. Still, a group of European researchers wanted to get a clearer idea of how many steps might help people live longer. The research team analyzed 17 studies that gathered data on step counts, deaths from all causes and specifically from cardiovascular problems. The 226,899 adults in the studies were followed for an average of 7.1 years. Each increase of 1,000 steps taken daily by the studies' participants was associated with a 22% lower chance of dying from all causes, the researchers calculated. Each 500-step increment was linked to a 7% drop in cardiovascular-related deaths. When researchers looked at the median number of step counts, walking more especially a lot more seemed to have a greater connection to reduced death rates. Compared with a group of people logging almost 4,000 steps daily, risk of death from any cause was reduced by: 49% for 5,500 steps; 55% for 7,400 steps; and 67% for 11,500 steps a day. For deaths from cardiovascular causes, compared with about 2,350 steps a day, risk fell by: 16% for 4,000 steps; 49% for 6,700; and 67% for 10,400 steps a day. The study will be presented Saturday at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions being held in Chicago and virtually. The findings are considered preliminary until the full results are published in a peer-reviewed journal. "The message is you don't need to walk a lot to get large benefits. Walking just 1,000 extra steps a day can be very important," said Dr. Maciej Banach, the study's lead author. "Obviously the more, the better." The key is to do it regularly. Banach, a cardiologist, said he tells his sedentary patients to look for any opportunity to increase their steps. He tells them to leave the car at home and walk to nearby destinations whenever possible. "It's so easy. But the important thing is you can't just do it for one week or one month. You should be trying to walk every day for the rest of your life," said Banach, head of the department of preventive cardiology and lipidology at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland. Banach said the study was limited by the fact that it was based on observation, rather than testing a specific intervention, and could not prove cause and effect. The potential benefits of extra daily steps need to be studied in well-designed, randomized controlled trials of different populations, he said. Amanda Paluch, who was not involved in the research, said the study provides quantitative evidence of the benefits of walking and reminds us that "any small improvement can be meaningful for your health, particularly if you are not active right now." She urged medical professionals to try to motivate patients to be physically active. "Patients value advice from physicians. Taking just a few seconds to encourage active lifestyles can be meaningful," said Paluch, assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. While the study focused on life span and exercise, Paluch said people should think about walking as a way to lengthen their "health span." "It's not just about quantity of years, but quality of years lived," she said. "Being active can prolong healthy years to play with the grandkids, check off more of those bucket list trips, and simply enjoy daily living without the burdens of disease." American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. By Thor Christensen, American Heart Association News THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 -- U.S. doctors prescribing opioids for pain relief now have a new -- and more nuanced -- set of guidelines from the federal government. Issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, the new recommendations incorporate new science developed since the last set of guidelines were released in 2016, at the height of the country's opioid epidemic. For example, the guidelines now offer advice on short-term pain relief as well as treatment of chronic pain, Christopher Jones, acting director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said during a media briefing. Doctors can also find advice on how to best taper off opioid use, if it's determined that a patient should no longer be on the medications, Jones added. But most importantly, the 2022 guidelines are being presented not as hard-and-fast rules, but as a means to help doctors and patients decide the best course of treatment for their pain, Jones noted. After the 2016 guidelines were issued, insurance companies and lawmakers placed inflexible and sometimes harsh limits on opioid prescribing that went beyond what the CDC had intended, Jones explained. "The guideline recommendations are voluntary and meant to assist and guide shared decision-making between a clinician and patient," Jones said. "The guidelines should not be used as a rigid standard of care or inflexible policy or law. It's not meant to be implemented at absolute limits of policy or practice by clinicians, health systems, insurance companies and governmental entities." About 1 in every 5 U.S. adults deals with chronic pain, according to the report published Nov. 4 in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. While opioids can be essential for pain management, they also carry the risk of addiction and overdose. Opioid prescriptions and OD deaths both increased fourfold between 1999 and 2010, the report noted. The recommendations focus on four major areas, Jones said: Determining whether to prescribe opioids for pain in the first place. Selecting the appropriate opioid and dosage for each patient. Deciding how long the opioid treatment will last, and when to reassess whether it's still needed. Assisting the risks and addressing the potential harms of opioid use. The 2016 set of guidelines focused solely on treatment of chronic pain, which is defined as pain that lasts more than three months, Jones said. These new guidelines also include treatment of acute pain, which lasts less than a month and typically follows minor surgery or an injury, as well as subacute pain that lasts longer than a month but has not yet become chronic, Jones said. "It's particularly important that the guidelines address this type of pain, as research shows that long-term opioid therapy often is initiated during the subacute time frame, Jones said. The 2022 guidelines also offer tips on safely ending opioid therapy. "Practical tips on how to taper in an individualized, patient-centered manner have been added to help clinicians if the decision is made to taper opioids, and the guideline explicitly advises against abrupt discontinuation or rapid dose reductions of opioids," Jones said. Making a patient quit opioid treatment cold turkey, or reducing their meds too quickly, can cause "very real harms," Jones explained. "We tried to highlight that in the guidelines -- things like mental health crises, suicidal ideation or behavior, psychological distress and potentially even for some people seeking out opioids through other markets like illicit markets, in order to stave off withdrawal or to supplement if they are at too low of a dose," Jones said. Specific recommendations from the report include: Maximizing the use of non-opioid painkillers before turning to opioids, particularly for subacute and chronic pain. Choosing immediate-release opioids rather than extended-release or long-acting opioids to treat any kind of pain. Prescribing the lowest effective dose of opioids, particularly for patients who haven't used the drugs before. Issuing short-term prescriptions for people recovering from surgery or injury. Regularly reassessing whether opioids are still needed to maintain a patient's quality of life. Offering the OD reversal drug naloxone to patients prescribed opioids. Reviewing medical records to determine a patient's specific risk regarding opioid use, to assess addiction risk and ward off interactions with other drugs like benzodiazepines. Making sure to arrange evidence-based treatment for patients who develop an opioid-use disorder. "Pain and pain care remain a problem for millions of Americans, and there is much work to be done to advance equitable pain treatment in our country," Jones said. "Our hope is that this new guideline, informed by the latest science and what we've learned about the human story of patients living with pain, can be a tool to help clinicians ensure the safest and most effective treatment for their patients is provided, and that pain, function and quality of life will improve for the millions of Americans dealing with pain each day," he said. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about prescribing opioids for pain. SOURCES: Nov. 3, 2022, media briefing with: Christopher Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH, acting director, U.S. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Nov. 4, 2022 THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Monkeypox spreads even before a person shows any telltale lesions or other symptoms, a new study suggests. More than half of monkeypox transmission in the United Kingdom occurred in the pre-symptomatic phase, the researchers said. The new findings published online Nov. 2 in the BMJ may explain why monkeypox spread so quickly. More than 70,000 cases have been identified worldwide since an international outbreak started in May, but cases do seem to be on the decline. Monkeypox is a cousin of the smallpox virus, and the smallpox vaccine can protect people from monkeypox. Monkeypox transmission was seen up to four days before symptoms started, and the researchers estimated that 53% of transmission occurred during this phase. Thomas Ward, head of infectious disease modeling at the UK Health Security Agency in London, led the new study. In the past, it was thought that monkeypox only spreads when a person is showing symptoms, said Hannah Newman, director of infection prevention at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She has no ties to the research. Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that people can transmit the infection only after they develop symptoms. Prior to this study, researchers were aware it was possible to shed the virus before symptoms appeared, however, it was unknown how common that may occur, Newman said. These findings could also have important implications for global infection control and raise questions on whether the current guidance asking people to isolate once symptomatic is enough to prevent transmission of the virus. For the study, the researchers tapped into routine surveillance and contact tracing data for more than 2,700 individuals in the United Kingdom who tested positive for the monkeypox virus between May 6 and Aug. 1, 2022. The investigators looked at the time symptoms started in the first patient to symptom onset in the next contact, and at the time from exposure to onset of symptoms. They created two models. The average incubation period was estimated to be 7.6 days in one model and 7.8 days in the other. The estimated serial interval time between the start of symptoms in one person and in the person they infected was 8 days in one model and 9.5 days in the other. Fully 10 of 13 patient pairs reported pre-symptomatic transmission. Four days was the maximum time that transmission was detected before monkeypox symptoms appeared, the study showed. Several experts stressed the importance of both prudence and prevention during the ongoing outbreak. Dont assume your partner is not infectious just because they arent exhibiting symptoms, Newman said. People should be aware of this and adjust behavior based on risk tolerance, she advised. If someone is in a high-risk group, the first thing they can do is get vaccinated if they haven't already, she said. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up the majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak. Have open communication with sexual partners and anyone you will have close contact with [and] avoid close skin-to-skin contact (sexual intercourse, kissing, or touching each others bodies, or sharing towels, toothbrushes, etc.) with anyone who has been diagnosed with monkeypox and anyone who thinks they were exposed to someone with monkeypox, even if they are not showing symptoms, Newman said. People with active monkeypox and those who are caring for them or close to them should wear masks and avoid direct skin-to-skin contact, and take care in handling contaminated items like clothing or linens, Newman added. Dr. Esther Freeman, director of the Center for Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, co-wrote an editorial that accompanied the new study. Freeman noted that pre-symptomatic means that there will be symptoms, ultimately. By contrast, asymptomatic means there wont be symptoms. "There may be subtle symptoms that haven't been noticed yet or no symptoms among pre-symptomatic people with monkeypox," she said. The good news is that doctors know how to prevent monkeypox. Vaccines are really important, and we are very lucky we already have a really safe vaccine that is working well," Freeman said. We also need to increase access to vaccines, especially outside of the U.S. Its a two-dose vaccine regimen, but even one shot helps, she added. Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was not involved with the study but reviewed the findings. He said there is more pre-symptomatic transmission of monkeypox happening than people appreciated. This makes contact tracing an uphill battle, he noted. Monkeypox is not spreading as easily as COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses, Brewer said. Its not as easy to transmit monkeypox as it really requires physical contact with secretions and body fluid. So, what else can you do to stay safe? If you have any recent sexual contacts and new rash, get in contact with your doctor to see if you have monkeypox, and if you have sex with new partners, use barrier protection such as condoms, and dont have sex if you see lesions," Brewer advised. More information The American Academy of Dermatology has more on monkeypox. SOURCES: Hannah Newman, MPH, director, infection prevention, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Esther Freeman, MD, PhD, director, Center for Global Health Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, and associate professor, dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Timothy Brewer, MD, MPH, professor, medicine and epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles; BMJ, Nov. 2, 2022, online THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A single psychedelic trip with psilocybin -- the mind-altering component of magic mushrooms -- appears to lift the fog of major depression in some hard-to-treat patients, a new clinical trial reports. A 25-milligram dose of a synthetic psilocybin compound called COMP360 caused a "rapid and durable response" in more than a third of patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression, said Dr. Steve Levine, senior vice president of patient access for the London-based pharmaceutical company COMPASS Pathways. It focuses on psilocybin research and created the COMP360 synthetic compound and funded the clinical trial. The results occurred in a phase 2 trial aimed at finding the most effective dose of COMP360, according to a report published Nov. 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, there was one caveat: While side effects were minimal, four patients (out of 79) who took the highest dose either reported having suicidal thoughts or intentionally harming themselves in the weeks that followed. The psilocybin compound will now proceed to a full-fledged clinical trial that promises to be the largest ever conducted for a psychedelic compound, Levine said. The trial testing its effectiveness is expected to include more than 900 people in 14 countries, including the United States, Levine said. It's expected to conclude in mid-2025. These early findings show that psilocybin could well provide an alternative to standard treatments for major depression that doesn't respond to antidepressants, said Dr. Brian Barnett, a psychiatrist who runs the Cleveland Clinic's program for treatment-resistant depression. "In this patient population, we don't see a lot of treatments that are very successful outside of things such as electroconvulsive therapy [ECT] and ketamine," said Barnett, who was not part of the study. "The results here look to be on par with those treatments." About a third of the 8.9 million U.S. people taking antidepressants don't really respond to the usual drugs, a 2021 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry estimated. "We really have made a decision to focus on an area of big, big unmet need, which is when people have difficult-to-treat depression," Levine said. "And that's who we enroll in these trials." The latest clinical trial results came from a study involving 233 people from 10 countries, including Canada and the United States, who received either a 25 mg, 10 mg or 1 mg dose of COMP360, the NEJM report said. All of the patients had difficult-to-treat depression, and were in the middle of a depressive episode that had not been alleviated with treatment using at least two and as many as four different antidepressants, Levine said. No therapy occurred during their psychedelic trip, which for heavy doses lasted between six to eight hours, Levine said. Instead, each patient simply sat in a calm, quiet room, wearing eyeshades and listening to music, letting the drug work on their minds. Two therapists stayed with them the entire time, for support. In the week following their treatment, the patients attended "integration" therapy sessions, in which they discussed what they experienced with the therapists who had sat with them during the treatment. The results from the 10 mg and 1 mg doses were negligible, but about 37% of people who got the heavy 25 mg dose had significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms three weeks out from treatment. In fact, about 29% had symptom scores so low that their depression appeared to be in remission, results show. The effect of the trip waned over time, however. Just 20% of the 25-mg group still had lower depressive symptoms at the three-month mark. But that is on par with other treatments used in depression patients who aren't responding to antidepressant drugs, Barnett said. Those patients might need "ECT once a month, potentially for the rest of their life. In the case of ketamine, some patients need ketamine weekly or twice a month or monthly, possibly the rest of their life as well," Barnett said. "It looks like it's helpful for patients who have failed antidepressants, because that's really going to be one of the primary questions for insurance coverage if this is approved," he added. "A treatment this intensive, it's going to be expensive. And so obviously, insurers are going to require that patients fail in antidepressants before they would consider covering it." Most of the side effects were "things like headache, nausea and dizziness, things that you might naturally expect with the administration of a psychedelic substance," Levine said. Suicidal behavior or thoughts are a concern. Three weeks out from the psychedelic session, two patients in the heavy dose group reported suicidal thoughts and two had intentionally harmed themselves. In their report, the researchers noted that "suicidality demands clinical vigilance in future trials of psilocybin for depression." Whether psychedelics induce suicidal thoughts in some vulnerable people has always been a big question, Barnett noted. The numbers are small, he added, but a signal is there. "The big question is: Was this directly related to the psilocybin or was it this phenomenon we often see in clinical trials of patients with treatment-resistant depression, where they're very invested in being in the trial because they think this is finally going to be the thing that works," Barnett said. "With psychedelics there's a lot of hype by the media, and so a lot of patients have what's called a disappointment reaction afterwards. I am wondering if that's what happened here." So how might psilocybin affect the brain in a way that would treat depression? Researchers suspect that the drug affects receptors in the brain that lead to neurochemical and psychological changes that let people see things in a different way. "People under the influence of psilocybin, they're able to look at themselves, look at the narrative that they've developed about their life and their identity in different ways," Barnett said. "And it does seem that the psilocybin allows new flexibility in the way that we think about our lives and the stories of our lives." COMPASS Pathways plans to follow up with two clinical trials, Levine said. One trial will test a single 25 mg dose directly against a placebo. The other will retest the three different doses, but this time patients will undergo two trips, one administered three weeks after the first. More information Brown University has more information about psilocybin. SOURCES: Steve Levine, MD, senior vice president, patient access COMPASS Pathways, London; Brian Barnett, MD, psychiatrist, Cleveland Clinic; New England Journal of Medicine, Nov. 3, 2022 Severe drought expanded dramatically in North Dakota during a week of record-warm weather that saw Bismarck break a mark that had stood for 135 years. Severe drought is in the middle of a five-scale range of the U.S. Drought Monitor, a partnership of the National Drought Mitigation Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That level of drought expanded to encompass nearly the entire southeastern quadrant of the state, according to this week's drought map. Severe drought also continues to impact the western fifth of North Dakota. In total it now covers 40% of the state, up from 19% last week. Another 52% of North Dakota is in moderate drought, a lesser category, and the other 8% is considered abnormally dry, the lowest category. "Warm and dry conditions dominated the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest," National Drought Mitigation Center Climatologist Brian Fuchs wrote in this week's report, adding that "temperatures were 8-10 degrees above normal in the Dakotas." Bismarck on Tuesday and Wednesday had record-high temperatures for the dates, of 74 degrees and 77 degrees, respectively, according to the National Weather Service. The city's previous record for Nov. 2 was 75 degrees, set in 1978; for Nov. 1 it was 73 degrees, set in 1887. Three months ago, only 2% of North Dakota was in any form of drought. Dry weather has persisted since then. October climate statistics released Thursday by the weather service show that precipitation for both Bismarck and Dickinson for the month was an inch below normal. Bismarck received less than half of inch of precipitation and Dickinson just one-fifth of an inch. "Flash drought conditions are impacting the region, especially in the Dakotas where warm, dry and windy conditions have provided ideal harvest conditions but have started taking a toll on the region," Fuchs said. A "flash drought" refers to one that develops or intensifies quickly. The early week weather pattern included a westward dip in the jet stream that brought mild conditions to the Central Plains, according to AccuWeather. A cold front that passed through the region midweek has abruptly changed the conditions. The weather service forecast calls for seasonal weekend highs in Bismarck-Mandan in the mid-50s Saturday and around 40 on Sunday, slipping into the 30s on Monday with snow likely. Crop report The soybean and flaxseed harvests in North Dakota have wrapped up. Three-fourths of the corn and one-third of the sunflowers are in the bin. The harvest of all four crops is ahead of the average pace, according to this week's crop report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Nearly all of the winter wheat crop has emerged. The crop is rated mostly in fair to good condition. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, goes dormant over winter and begins growing again in the spring. Soil moisture supplies statewide declined again over the week. Topsoil moisture supplies are rated 73% short or very short, with 68% of subsoil moisture in those categories. The percentages a week ago were 70% and 65%, respectively. Pasture and range conditions are rated 23% poor or very poor, compared to 27% last week. Stock water supplies are 55% short or very short, compared to 48% a week ago. At 2 a.m. on Sunday mornings, Kyle Cook is usually nearing the end of a long Saturday of selling records, tending bar and co-hosting a late-night radio show on KOPN. When the clock strikes 2 o'clock this Sunday morning, however, it will merely be a tease before flashing back to 1 a.m. in the blink of an eye making his longest day of the week even longer. "I'm engaged for like, 20 hours straight," Cook said. Standard time returns to Missouri at 2 a.m. Sunday. At that moment, residents who have clocks that don't automatically recognize the time change are encouraged to manually turn their clocks back an hour, to 1 a.m. Cook along with anyone else working overnight this Saturday will have the end of daylight saving time to blame for the extension of the workday, while those who work in the morning will be grateful for an extra hour of sleep. But regardless of it the biannual change is something to dread or look forward to, it might be the last. Sunshine Protection Act Introduced in 2021 and passed in the U.S. Senate in March of this year, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 would make daylight saving time "the new, permanent standard time." The measure has not been approved by the House. Daylight saving time usually begins in March and ends in November, while standard time is observed November through March. If passed in the House and signed into law by President Biden, this Sunday will be the last time to "fall back" an hour into standard time before the bill takes effect November 5, 2023. Though the bill passed unanimously in the Senate, it's not as popular with health experts. Several sleep specialists and organizations are in agreement that it's standard time, not daylight saving time, that should be made permanent. But is a one-hour difference that controversial? When Daylight Savings Time began Daylight saving time has been a topic of debate since its initial implementation in 1918 to cut energy costs during World War I. The time change came and went sporadically over the years until the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which stated daylight saving time would begin annually in the spring and conclude in the fall. The idea was that more sunlight at night would lead to massive electricity savings, but a 2008 study found that energy costs actually increased overall during daylight saving time. While it's true that lighting costs decreased, cold, dark mornings and warm, sunlit evenings led to increases in heating and cooling. In addition to the unintended economic consequences, experts agree that daylight saving time is not aligned with the human body's biological clock that runs on a 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm. Dictated by light exposure, the circadian rhythm is what wakes humans up at sunrise and makes them sleepy at sunset. By disrupting this natural cycle for reasons that are biologically irrelevant, the body is unable to adapt to daylight saving time. In a statement outlining their position in support of permanent standard time, the National Sleep Foundation said that "sleep becomes disrupted, less efficient, and shortened" during daylight saving time. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine outlined several effects of transitioning in and out of daylight saving time in their own statement supporting permanent standard time. Increases in "sleep disruption, mood disturbances and suicide" as well as traffic incidents and fatal car crashes have been correlated with the switch, according to the statement. Long term effects of daylight saving time are more accurately described as the effects of a perpetually out-of-whack circadian rhythm. The statement describes "the chronic misalignment between the timing of demands of work, school or other obligations against the innate circadian rhythm" as "social jetlag," which can lead to "obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and depression." Without adjusting arrival times, winters with daylight saving time would involve children walking to the bus stop to go to school and adults sitting in traffic on their way to work in the dark. Tips to help you when daylight saving time ends Standard time will be returning on Sunday after its seven-month hiatus, but while the human body prefers it over daylight saving time, experts still recommend taking a few steps to ease into the change. "Remember to get morning sunshine before noon if possible. This helps invigorate your sleep wake rhythms," sleep medicine specialist Abhinav Singh said in an email. Singh also recommended winding down earlier in the evening to allow for a full eight hours of sleep and refraining from scheduling important events in the week following the change. Lastly, if the transition out of daylight saving time or the idea of living in it permanently in the near future leads to sleepiness or fatigue, rest easy. Naps are encouraged next week. NORTH PORT The family of Gabrielle "Gabby" Petito is going forward with a lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department. Officers with the Moab Police Department encountered Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in the summer of 2021, after an argument escalated to physical violence. Lawyers for Petito's family previously filed a notice of claim in August, making known they were seeking $50 million in damage against the police department. On Thursday, the filing against Moab Police Department and other local officials was officially placed. Petito's parents, New York residents Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, said that they would donate the money to organizations combating domestic violence. The suit names the Moab police officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins as defendants, along with the police department itself and several local and state officials. The Petito family alleged that if police officers had followed procedure for cases of domestic violence, Gabby Petito would still be alive. Petito and Laundrie had lived with the latter's parents in North Port before setting off in traveling van setup, where they posted about their life on social media. Shortly after their encounter with Moab police, Laundrie returned to North Port without Petito. Her family had not heard from her for some time, and began putting out requests for information. Petito's remains were later found in Wyoming in September. In the coroner's reported, she was determined to have died by strangulation. She was 22. Laundrie left his parents' house that same month. In October, his skeletal remains were found in the Carlton Reserve north of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, near North Port. At the time of his death, he was 23. Laundrie also left behind a notebook, where he wrote a confession to killing Petito, authorities noted. On Aug. 12, 2021, Moab police responded to a 911 call where a witness reported seeing Petito and Laundrie arguing with each other in their white van. The witness also reported seeing Laundrie hitting Petito in the van. Police officers who pulled over the van took statements from both of them and determined that both struck each other during an argument. The officers then suggested they both find separate accommodations for the night to cool off. A later investigation report written by a police captain from Price City in Utah found that the Moab officers involved had mistaken the domestic violence situation with a "disorderly conduct," and thus did not act appropriately. However, the report also claimed that the officers made good-faith attempts to handle the situation with the training they had up to that moment. "They both believed at the time they were making the right decision based on the totality of the circumstances that were presented," the report read. The report recommended that the officers involved to be placed on probation, as well as expanding domestic violence awareness and response training for all Moab officers to prevent future mistakes. The story of Gabby Petito's disappearance and death stirred concern both nationally and locally. People laid flowers at a memorial near the Laundries' property for weeks, asking the family to help the Petitos find their daughter. Hundreds of North Port residents attended a vigil to pray for her safety before it was learned that she had died. The Russian Federation has sent a long letter to the 195 member states of the United Nations outlining the difficulties it faces in obtaining visas for its diplomats at the United Nations. The missive points out that Washington no longer makes a secret of its intention to limit the number of Russian diplomats present at the General Assembly, plus the various committees. It denounces the violation of the obligations undertaken by the United States under its agreement with the United Nations to host the headquarters of the organisation. Finally, it refers to resolution 76/122, adopted by the General Assembly on 6 December 2021, in which Washington was already reminded of its obligations. This letter, quite unique in its form, comes at a time when the United States is stepping up contacts with a view to having the General Assembly vote on a reform of the UN Charter which would allow Russia to be excluded from the organization. Anticipating the worst, Moscow is contemplating to create a structure separate from the UN for the settlement of international disputes in compliance with international law, in line with what Tsar Nicolas II had done in relation to the Hague conferences. A Wisconsin company that cleans hundreds of meatpacking plants nationwide is defending itself against allegations that it employed more than two dozen minors working overnight shifts cleaning massive saws and other dangerous equipment. Labor Department officials said in court documents that they believe Packers Sanitation Services Inc. might be employing underage workers at other plants but investigators have only just starting reviewing thousands of pages of employee records at plants besides the ones in Nebraska and Minnesota where they confirmed teenagers were working. A judge already issued a temporary order prohibiting the company from employing minors and interfering in the investigation. The company says it's cooperating and already prohibits hiring anyone younger than 18. A new estimate of oil and gas mineral rights owned by North Dakota pegs their value at $2.8 billion. The appraisal released Thursday to the state Land Board says that's an 18% increase from last year. Officials say the increase comes largely from strong oil and natural gas prices and sustained production over the past year. The report examined about 9,000 wells in which the state holds an interest. That's about half of those operating in the state. In the fiscal year that ended in June, North Dakota received a record $464 million in royalties from state-owned minerals. Rome swaps cobbles for asphalt, and vice-versa, on streets in the city centre, causing much debate in the capital. Rome's historic cobblestones are in the news again as the mayor Virginia Raggi continues the city's project to dig up and relocate the 'sampietrini' from a number of prominent streets in the centre. Works are underway on Via Nazionale, a busy central thoroughfare, where the iconic basalt stones are being dug up and replaced with more traffic-friendly asphalt. The mayor says the newly-tarmacked Via Nazionale will be safer for motorbikes and mopeds, adding that when the works are finished the street will have a new bicycle path. The traditional sampietrini, or sanpietrini, have already been removed from the nearby Via IV Novembre where a thin strip of cobbles remains along the side of the road as a reminder of the past. The cobbles are set to be taken from other busy streets too, including Viale Aventino near the Circus Maximus, and moved to streets with little or no traffic, notably Via del Corso. The sampietrini will remain however in the central Piazza Venezia which has recently been repaved. Rome swaps sampietrini for asphalt on Via Nazionale. The removal of the cobblestones - despite their subsequent redeployment elsewhere - has led to objections from traditionalists and some local politicians who throw about terms like "barbarians" and "sacrilege." Tourists and visitors to Rome have also voiced their concerns that part of the city's heritage is being lost. The plan, however, is perfectly acceptable to many of the city's residents who say that heavy traffic and a lack of maintenance renders the sampietrini a dangerous and outdated form of road surface for the modern era. Roman drivers have a love-hate relationship with the cobblestones which are particularly treacherous for motorini, especially when it rains, and they make for a bumpy drive in cars and buses. The connection between Rome and the sampietrino dates back to the end of the 16th century when they were first used in the area around St Peter's - hence their name - under the pontificate of Sixtus V. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Elon Musk has his work cut out for him if he wants to get Twitter on healthy financial footing. Yet one of the biggest impediments to righting the ship appears to be Musk himself. From the start of Musks on-again, off-again pursuit of Twitter that culminated in a $44 billion acquisition that closed last week, the entrepreneur has asserted he could do a much better job of running the company than previous management. Musk has also said that he would open the platform to voices that he contends have been suppressed on Twitter, and in particular those expressing conservative political and policy views. Musk isnt wrong about this. Controversial ideas associated with right-leaning politics sometimes ran afoul of Twitter standards, or Twitter algorithms, in the past. But Musks ego and his bizarre instincts around speech are undermining whatever opportunity he has to live up to his vow to find new revenue through user payments. Advertisement Musk has said that he is an absolutist when it comes to free speech. Yet it can be hard to tell if that reflects a genuine if sometimes extreme commitment to civil liberties, or if its just Musks way of justifying outrageous comments. It certainly seemed more like the latter last weekend, when Musk promoted (and later deleted) a tweet containing a baseless conspiracy theory around the violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This is disturbing on its face. It also seems likely to complicate Musks task of finding ways to make loyal users pay to use the site. Musk started the week by suggesting users will have to pay $20 a month later reduced to $8 to keep the blue badge awarded to so-called verified users. A more judicious CEO might have had a shot at making the plan work. But Musks behavior has instead alienated many Twitter adherents who said sending money to a company run by Musk in exchange for the blue badge would amount to a badge of shame. Advertisement The checkmark saga is a pity, not just because Musk might be losing out on an opportunity to funnel much-needed revenue into Twitter, which has rarely been profitable and was to begin laying off employees Friday. It also makes it difficult for rational people to consider that Musk had a point when he complained about speech suppression. Conservatives have long decried how pre-Musk Twitter disciplined users deemed in violation of its terms of service. They contend that the companys use of a practice known as shadowbanning using algorithmic techniques to limit a users visibility on the platform, potentially without their knowing ended up censoring right-wing and controversial points of view. Opinions tied to topics including Covid, race and transgender policies have been especially vulnerable to shadowbanning (or, even outright suspension), they say. (In congressional hearings, Twitter executives have denied that shadowbanning intentionally singled out conservatives.) Even under the best of circumstances, Musks blue-badge gambit faces a tough road. For one thing, as much as journalists and other high-profile users had come to rely on the check as a confirmation of legitimacy and reliability, plenty of other heavily followed users thrived without the validity of a blue check. Advertisement The figurative ink wasnt even dry on Musks takeover when a conservative poster who uses the handle @Catturd2 weighed in: Reportday one of @elonmusk owning Twitter. Ill be doing this everyday to see if anything changes. As of now, Im still Shadowbanned, ghostbanned, searchbanned, and Twitter removed 1200 followers today as usual. Nothing has changed Ill report again tomorrow. Musk promptly responded to @Catturd2: I will be digging in more today. @Catturd2 is a Twitter powerhouse, with 959,000 followers. But because @Catturd2 posts pseudonymously, the handle wasnt eligible for a blue badge under pre-Musk Twitter policies. As Musks reaction shows, its a hugely influential account. Countless other Twitter accounts some conservative, some not, some pseudonymous, some not have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of followers who deem their posts informational and reliable without the need of blue-badge legitimacy. Advertisement As long as these users are able to post, its unclear what Musk can offer them to pay for their user experience. (Nothing, it seems: On Wednesday, a seemingly irritated @Catturd2 declared that he was wrong about @elonmusk changing Twitter.) Meanwhile, why would existing blue-badged users want to send money to a CEO who regularly demonstrates his willingness to pamper his ideological soulmates? Musk wants to influence public debate and augment Twitters revenue. As fellow moguls Rupert Murdoch and Jeff Bezos might attest, its not easy. Both corporate titans own major media platforms (the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and Fox News for Murdoch, the Washington Post for Bezos) that they use to express their worldviews. But its rare to see either personally opining on their own platforms. Advertisement They probably recognize the wisdom in having some pragmatic distance between themselves as proprietors and their media brand. Musk, in contrast, sees himself as the brand and wants to imprint himself on every one of his products. That worked fine for Tesla and SpaceX. But Twitter may soon show him the limits of such a strategy. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Giving Zuckerberg Unquestioned Power Was Asking for Trouble: Chris Bryan Chief Twit Elon Musk Makes a Mostly Disastrous Start: Parmy Olson Microsoft Layoffs Wont Be the Last for Tech: Parmy Olson This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Robert A. George is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering government and public policy. Previously, he was a member of the editorial boards of the New York Daily News and New York Post. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The surest way to test Canadas famed affability is to buy their miners and drillers. When it comes to lithium, even minority stakes in companies just exploring for the stuff now appear to be out of bounds: Ottawa just ordered Chinese investors backing three local developers of the battery metal to ditch their shares. Given the deepening rift between China and the West, this may not surprise. But, does it actually help or hinder Canadas strategic goals? Foreign investment in a countrys natural resources often comes with hefty emotional baggage; centuries of resource wars and colonialism will tend to do that. The history of oil, for example, is replete with such conflict. Yet that industry has financed the development of gargantuan fields via partnerships between companies hailing from all corners of the globe. Why? Because its a good way to raise capital. In managing the very real risks posed by Chinas dual identity as a manufacturing powerhouse and authoritarian regime, there is still room for nuance rather than mere knee-jerks. Advertisement Lithium is strategic because it is vital for the millions of batteries required to meet the decarbonization goals set by Canada and many other countries, including the US. Yet, just as net-zero emissions has emerged as a policy priority, so too has net-zero Chinese involvement. Which is a problem, since China controls 70% or more of 11 key segments of the global solar and battery supply chain, including lithium refining.(1) China isnt particularly rich in quality lithium resources, with Australia and Chile being the leading producers. However, Beijing began implementing a strategic push into batteries over a decade ago, when Canada was more obsessed with stuff like potash and the US was dazzled by shale oil and gas. Since lithium is so hard to process, especially into a form pure enough for batteries, China built a world-class refining industry and electric vehicle sector. It could then dangle long-term purchasing contracts and financing to take stakes in lithium mines and miners elsewhere. Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd. and Tianqi Lithium Corp. have emerged as global, vertically-integrated powerhouses. Cue horrified security hawks. But its worth remembering that absent Chinese industrial policy, many of the newer lithium projects might never have got off the ground (the same goes for cheap solar power). A longstanding refrain in the lithium business concerns the struggle to raise even nominal sums to prove a deposit or just go exploring. Junior miners must look at the $44 billion Elon Musk CEO of one Tesla Inc. has splurged on an overpriced social media network and weep. Advertisement In considering the role of Chinese investment in lithium, therefore, its worth pausing to consider the nature of the asset. We arent talking about critical infrastructure here like a power grid, a chips fab or even an overpriced social media network. A lithium deposit is just stuff in the ground. It cannot be floated across the Pacific en masse. And if relations with China sour into outright hostility, it can be seized by dint of the fact that it sits in the host countrys territory, not Chinas. On that score, ask anyone at the oil majors old enough to remember the 1970s or, if they were active in Russia, old enough to remember this year. Right now Mexico is weighing the fate of a lithium concession bought by Gangfeng prior to the countrys recent nationalization of the industry. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors recent comment that they can say its not valid to apply it retroactively, but lithium now belongs to the nation, doesnt sound like that of a man particularly concerned with the finer points of contract law. Do Chinese investors want guaranteed supply for their investment? Yes. But selling projected output under long-term agreements is how these mines get financed. And having some of it head to China is hardly a bad thing in the near term since the West lacks the processing capacity needed anyway. Would China gain valuable insights into Western lithium resources and mining techniques? Possibly, but that value is debatable. Unlike the usual concerns about technology transfer, in this case Chinas head start means the transfer would likely run the other way. The strategic imperative for Western countries like Canada and the US with regards to lithium is to build domestic supply chains quickly enough to make a difference to decarbonization, while mitigating dependence on stuff made in China. So why not hear me out let Chinese companies help fund that effort if they want to? Advertisement If not, domestic lithium miners will be in the curious position of being prodded to get a move on while also being told to shun one of the biggest pools of cash available to do so. The end result could be governments having to fund a bigger chunk of the risk capital themselves. Canadas move also fits with the zeitgeist of greater government intervention in energy and commodity markets, which are fragmenting under the pressures of war and the backlash against globalization. The inevitable friction will challenge the long decline in clean technology costs that has made net-zero viable as even an ambition in the first place.More From Bloomberg Opinion: The US Just Cant Match Chinas Industrial Heft: Anjani Trivedi The Great Lithium Squeeze: Elements by Clara Ferreira Marques China Keeps the Wheels on Electric Vehicles: Anjani Trivedi Advertisement Want more from Bloomberg Opinion? {OPIN }. (1) Source: Localizing Clean Energy Supply Chains Comes at a Cost, Bloomberg NEF, October 2022. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. A former investment banker, he was editor of the Wall Street Journals Heard on the Street column and a reporter for the Financial Timess Lex column. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article We looked at any potential weaknesses in the election system of our state that could be exploited by someone with nefarious intent. The determination after extensive review from our contractor was that our election systems are incredibly secure across our state. -- State Auditor Josh Gallion, following an examination of North Dakota's electoral systems. q q q Im unpersuaded by almost everything I read in the judges ruling and we look forward to responding. -- Attorney General Drew Wrigley, after a judge kept North Dakota's abortion ban from taking effect, saying there's a "substantial probability that a constitutional challenge to the law will succeed. q q q Its been kind of a hit or miss type of thing. One neighbor was told well be lucky if we get mail every other day or every third day. -- Rural Bismarck resident Howard Tweeten, on mail delivery woes attributed to the e-commerce boom and labor shortages. q q q "We do need to build a new bridge -- this one is reaching the end of its life span. Moving North Dakota grain, moving coal, this bridge is a very important piece of our network, and the infrastructure we need to replace. We are eager to get started on that." -- BNSF Railway spokeswoman Amy McBeth, after the U.S. Coast Guard finished a lengthy environmental review of a proposed new railroad bridge over the Missouri River between Bismarck and Mandan, setting the stage for removal of the existing 139-year-old Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge. q q q "The historic 1883 rail bridge is six years older than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and is as important to the identity of the Bismarck/Mandan community as the Eiffel Tower is to the people of France, as evidenced by the more than 6,000 people who signed a petition to save it shortly after BNSF announced its intention (to) replace the 139-year-old bridge." -- Friends of the Rail Bridge, a nonprofit hoping to preserve the Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge. q q q "We want physicians who are treating patients to feel like they can use their best medical judgment and training and not be looking at the law books as to how they can take care of patients." -- Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Womens Clinic, which is making a constitutional challenge to North Dakota's abortion ban. q q q Those people who made it hard to vote in the first place will likely still be there and Im not certain the training will be strenuous enough. I am planning to vote in person again but I am worried of a repeat of last time not just for myself but for others, too. -- Sewit Eskinder, a Black woman from Fargo who was rejected at a polling site in the June primary, expressing skepticism about poll worker training after Attorney General Drew Wrigley said state law does not require a voter to provide documents of citizenship in order to vote. q q q "We feel we didn't do anything wrong from top to bottom." -- Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, whose companies are entangled in a building cost overrun incurred under late Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. q q q "Expanding their capacity and supporting in-state meat processing is a win-win for producers, businesses and consumers." -- U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Erin Oban, announcing a $10.5 million federal investment in meat processing in North Dakota. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Seven weeks into the antiregime protests in Iran, signs of panic among the theocrats in Tehran are growing. Hoping to distract attention from the most potent challenge to its legitimacy in decades, the leadership of the Islamic Republic, from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on down, is lashing out in every direction with the familiar menaces and mischief. These include threats of attacks against Arab states, the reiteration of vows to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani and blaming the protests on the US and Israel. The challenge for President Biden is to look past these outbursts and focus on providing more support, in word and deed, to the protesters. To this end, his administration should harness the growing international revulsion over Khameneis ruthlessness and pile more pressure on the rattled regime. In this, Biden can count on the unwitting help of the supreme leader. Khameneis brutal crackdown against the protesters is helping to undo the damage wrought to the international consensus against the theocratic state by Donald Trumps recklessness. European leaders, who were displeased by Trumps unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and dismayed by his bellicose rhetoric, are getting a useful reminder that the real bad guy in this picture lives in central Tehran, not Mar-a-Lago. Advertisement Theres a reality check, too, for Gulf Arab states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have been pursuing detente with the Islamic Republic. Fresh intelligence reports suggest that Iran is planning to resume attacks on the petrostates, and the regimes media outlets have helpfully provided a video mock-up of what that might look like. The rulers in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi know that the emergence of a new government in Iraq dominated by Iranian proxies gives Tehran a bigger launchpad for its aerial threat to the sea lanes of the Persian Gulf as well as Saudi and Emirati oil infrastructure. The Saudis have already endured attacks from Iraq. At the opposite end of the Arabian Peninsula, the Iran-backed Houthi militia of Yemen is again threatening strikes against Saudi and Emirati oil companies. If the Europeans and the Arabs needed any more proof of the Iranian menace, they should look at Ukraine, where Russians forces are using Shahed-136 drones supplied by Tehran to target civilian infrastructure. For good measure, Iran is reportedly sending Russia a shipment of short-range ballistic missiles. Advertisement This should put paid to the Europeans tendency to view the Iranian threat as one-dimensional nuclear and negotiable. The European Union is already lining up sanctions against Tehran for drone sales to Russia, and missile shipments will undoubtedly invite a stronger response. The European Union, like the US, has also sanctioned regime officials responsible for the crackdown on the Iranian protesters. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said the EU is examining how we can list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. Recall that the Europeans balked when Trump slapped that designation on the IRGC in 2019. This about-turn required no exertion of diplomatic effort by the Biden administration: The images of gross abuses by Iranian security forces were sufficient to convince European leaders, and the huge demonstrations of solidarity in their capitals helped stiffen their resolve. Advertisement Now the Biden administration should build on this growing consensus to pile more pressure on Tehran. European support will be essential to the new initiative, announced this week by Vice President Kamala Harris, to eject Iran from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Canada and New Zealand have already called for Irans removal; the EU should join the effort. Other countries Russia and China among them will likely balk at this. But a strong push by a US-led coalition might be enough to overcome objections. Even if the effort were to fail, it would demonstrate to the protesters the wide international support they have won. And if Khamenei continues to use harsh measures against them, the Biden administration might be able to persuade the Europeans to expel staff from Iranian embassies, a tactic the US cant employ because it doesnt have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic. Advertisement The determination of the protesters as well as the despotism of their rulers should allow the US to rally international support behind efforts to get more Starlink receivers into Iran, allowing Iranians to circumvent the regimes communications blackouts. The more images they can share of their heroic resistance and the horrific repression they endure, the stronger the international response will be, and the more power Biden can harness. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: If Putin Orders a Nuke, Will His Generals Obey?: Andreas Kluth NATOs Nuclear War Games Are a Risk It Needs to Take: James Stavridis Can the US Take on China, Iran and Russia All at Once?: Hal Brands 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. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shown no interest in resuming talks with the US after agreeing in 2018 to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Instead, he has been busy making his nuclear-equipped arsenal bigger, deadlier and better able to strike America and its allies in Asia. Kim has fired off a record number of missiles this year to demonstrate his weapons advances and may soon conduct his first atomic bomb test in five years. 1. What is Kim working on? An array of ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads to hit the US allies of South Korea and Japan, longer-range rockets that could strike American bases in Guam, as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to deliver an atomic strike to New York or Washington. Kim has also modernized his missile arsenal, steering away from the Soviet-era Scud variants that had been a staple to produce rockets that rely heavily on domestic technology and can be manufactured despite sanctions. Hes also seeking to improve the technology to miniaturize warheads for strikes in the region and increase the power of warheads for an ICBM. Advertisement Kim has rolled out new solid-fuel ballistic missiles that are easier to move, hide and fire than many liquid-fuel versions. Hes launched more than 80 since May 2019, including nuclear-capable, super-fast KN-23 missiles that can strike all of South Korea -- and US forces stationed there -- within a matter of minutes. He has also launched KN-25 short-range missiles designed to be fired in rapid succession from a single launcher to overwhelm interceptors. It tested hypersonic missiles in September 2021 and again in January 2022, which are designed to deploy a high-speed glide vehicle that can carry a warhead and maneuver past interceptors. In October 2022, it fired its first missile over Japan in about five years, launching what appeared to be a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range rocket. It splashed into the Western Pacific after reaching an altitude of 970 kilometers -- more than twice as high as the International Space Station. Advertisement The country also showed off last year, and again in January, what it said was a new delivery system to fire missiles off a train, making them harder for prying eyes to track. 2. Could Kim really hit the US? He appears to have acquired that capability after successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017, the Hwasong-15. A newer, larger ICBM, the Hwasong-17, was displayed at a military parade in October 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party. It may have exploded shortly after launch in a failed test in mid-March 2022. Eight days after that failure, North Korea fired off an ICBM that South Korea believes was the Hwasong-15. Weapons experts say the likely purpose of the Hwasong-17 is to deliver a multiple nuclear warhead payload that could overwhelm US defenses, or a single, high-yield weapon. North Korea is also said to be developing an ICBM that uses solid-fuel technology, potentially giving the US less warning of an imminent launch. Still, its unclear whether the countrys ICBMs could beat antimissile systems and are refined enough to strike their intended targets, as well as whether the warheads could survive reentry into the atmosphere. Advertisement 3. How many nuclear devices does North Korea have? Experts estimate that North Korea has assembled 40 to 50 nuclear warheads, the fewest among the nine nations with nuclear weapons. However, one estimate, from a 2021 study by the RAND Corp. and Asan Institute, put the number as high as 116. The country has conducted six atomic tests, with Kim responsible for the last four. The US, Japan and South Korea have all said Pyongyang could soon conduct another test. The first detonation in 2006 measured less than one kiloton, leaving experts wondering whether it had been a partial failure. (A kiloton is equal to the force of 1,000 metric tons [1,102 tons] of TNT). In the most recent test, in September 2017, the estimated yield of 120 to 250 kilotons dwarfed the 15 to 20 kiloton US bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. North Korea probably has developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into its ballistic missile warheads, according to the assessment of several countries cited in a 2020 United Nations report. 4. Where does Kims military get its fissile material? Advertisement It has been self-sufficient for decades in fissile material, the main ingredient to create a nuclear chain reaction and explosion. The program today relies largely on enriched uranium and, according to weapons experts, produces enough annually for about six bombs. In addition, North Korea appeared in mid-2021 to have resumed plutonium-producing operations -- another means of creating fissile material -- at a nuclear reactor in its antiquated Yongbyon complex. 5. What other surprises might be out there? North Korea may be working on ICBMs that carry multiple warheads and in-flight countermeasures to throw interceptors off the trail, according to Datayo, an open-source weapons research site. Kim has pushed to develop his fleet of submarines and is looking to deploy a new vessel soon that experts say could fire missiles. Advertisement 6. How can the country afford all this? The money needed is not huge in global terms. North Korea spends about $7 billion to $11 billion a year -- around 20-30% of its economy -- on its military, according to a US Defense Intelligence Agency assessment. Thats roughly equivalent to two days US military spending. Although international sanctions have hit the economy hard, North Korea evades some through methods such as clandestine transfers at sea of banned goods such as oil, and it generates cash by means that include ransomware attacks. Kims decade-old regime has already taken in as much as $2.3 billion through cybercrimes and is geared to rake in even more, US and United Nations investigators have said. 7. Wasnt Trump going to fix this? Former President Donald Trumps talks with Kim, beginning with Singapore in June 2018, turned the duo from insult-throwing enemies into dialogue partners. But their three meetings didnt produce any noticeable change, and North Korea has become what three decades of diplomacy had tried to prevent -- a state capable of developing, projecting and detonating atomic bombs. Kim has shown no interest in the President Joe Bidens call for him to return to nuclear talks. --With assistance from Paul Geitner. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Bail has become the center of an increasingly heated debate across the U.S., as reforms that had been years in the making collide with a rise in violent crime in many cities since the start of the pandemic. New York and Illinois have passed legislation greatly restricting the use of so-called cash bail, a practice so widespread that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found in a report released Jan. 20 that 60% of defendants wind up in jail awaiting trial because they cant afford to post bail. The burden of bail falls most heavily on the poor and minority communities, the report said. Local prosecutors in cities like New York and San Francisco are also using their discretion to rein in cash bail. But there has been pushback from mayors and police officials who say that the result has been more crime, an assertion pushed heavily by Republican candidates for governor in the November elections. Its a debate, however, taking place without much data on the impact of relatively new policy shifts. 1. What is bail? After a person has been arrested and processed they must appear in front of a judge at a hearing. If the charges are not dropped, the judge must decide what restrictions to place on the person as they await trial, which could be months away. The judge can order the person wait in jail, release the person on their promise to return or set bail conditions for their release. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. jail population, or half a million people, are there awaiting trial, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics data. Advertisement 2. What is cash bail? Cash bail is the most common provision judges set. Thats when a court asks for a specific sum of money paid up front that a defendant only gets back by showing up for court. The amount is typically set at the judges discretion, and can vary depending on the severity of the accusations and the judges estimate of a defendants likelihood of flight. Other defendants are allowed to post bonds, meaning they are released without paying anything up front but sign a contract requiring payment if they fail to appear. From 1970 to 2015, there was a 433% increase in the number of people detained in jail, the civil rights commissions 281-page report said. 3. Whats the case against cash bail? The civil rights commission said it conflicts with the presumption of innocence, which it called the bedrock of our criminal justice system. Critics say it acts as a penalty for poverty and that low-income people of color are disproportionately impacted. Advertisement Black defendants in state court are nearly 10 percentage points more likely to be held than their similar White counterparts, academic research shows. A study in Harris County, Texas, conducted prior to recent changes to bail practices there, found that people jailed while awaiting trial were 25% more likely to plead guilty than similarly situated individuals who were released. People who are held for even a few days, even if they eventually post bail, face consequences like losing their job or custody of their children, bail reform advocates say. Its expensive for governments to hold people in jail before trial -- in New York City it costs $1,525 a day to incarcerate a single person, according to the city comptrollers office. Nationwide, jailing such individuals costs $14 billion annually, according to an estimate from the National Partnership for Pretrial Justice, an advocacy group. Advertisement 4. How have bail practices changed recently? City and state lawmakers and prosecutors, who generally have discretion over whether to seek bail or not, have implemented changes to bail at the local level. Some efforts have narrowed the list of crimes for which cash bail can be imposed, while others have given judges new options or requirements for setting bail. Here are some examples: New York State: In 2019, the state eliminated cash bail and mandated release for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, such as shoplifting, which make up roughly 90% of arrests. Violent felonies, sex offenses and terrorism charges were still subject to possible cash bail. In April 2022, however, a budget agreement included provisions giving judges more discretion in deciding bail if an individual was charged with causing serious harm, among other factors. Advertisement Manhattan: District Attorney Alvin Bragg in January published new bail guidelines, urging prosecutors not to send people to jail while they await trial except in the cases of the most serious accusations. Illinois: In 2021, the state passed a law eliminating cash bail for all arrests. A judge, however, can decide not to pursue bail at all and has more discretion over whether to detain people for certain crimes. The law doesnt fully take effect until 2023, though Cook County, which houses Chicago, has already begun to implement some of the changes. Houston: A 2019 federal decree forced the county to stop relying on cash bail for low-level misdemeanors. San Francisco: In 2020, District Attorney Chesa Boudin told prosecutors to stop asking for cash bail for people who werent viewed as public safety risks. Advertisement 5. What are alternatives to cash bail? Individuals awaiting trial can be released with conditions such as electronic monitoring, which geographically restricts their movements. Some jurisdictions also have supervised release programs which connect people with social services and require the accused to check in with case workers. 6. How do bail-reform advocates see this working? Advocates say bail reform has allowed defendants to keep their jobs, housing and custody of their kids. They say keeping people out of crowded jails also reduces Covid risks. What we see is wildly successful policy, said Elissa Johnson, director of criminal justice reform advocacy and campaigns at Fwd.us, an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group. 7. Whats the backlash? Critics say releasing people without cash bail leads to higher crime levels -- an issue that has grown in importance as violent crime rose in major U.S. cities during the pandemic. Lawmakers in New York have already rolled back some of the bail provisions, narrowing the types of crime that are ineligible for cash bail and making it easier for judges to hold people in jail. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked for a pause on the implementation of some parts of bail reform, saying that too many people let out of jail on electronic monitoring were violent, dangerous offenders. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had pressed for the changes agreed to in the April 2022 budget, saying they were meant to assuage New Yorkers concerned with the uptick in crime. But the state Legislature rejected her proposal to introduce a new dangerousness standard into bail considerations, a move that advocates said would increase the racial disparities already plaguing the criminal justice system. Hochul came under steady attack on the subject from her Republican challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin. Nationwide, Republicans spent $50 million on ads that mention crime after Labor Day, according to a Washington Post analysis, often focusing on bail reform even in states where it had not taken place. Advertisement 8. What does the research show? In many cases, the reforms are too new to make a call on how they work. The Illinois reforms havent even taken effect yet. New York City data from the first half of 2021 show that fewer than 1% of the 45,000 to 50,000 people who are free while awaiting trial in a given month are arrested for nonviolent or violent felonies. Data out of Harris County show fewer people are being held in jail before their trials, but that the rate of re-arrests has remained relatively stable. While opponents of bail reform often point to high profile instances of individuals who were released and committed violent crime, New York State data analyzed by The City, a nonprofit news site, found that 23% of New York City defendants freed on supervised release were rearrested on felony charges between January 2020 and June 2021. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share In 2005, when I was a 3-star vice admiral and senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, I met in Brasilia with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, universally known as Lula. He was about a year into his first term as Brazils president. The immediate impression was of a tough, working-class leader who famously lost a finger in an accident while he was a metalworker and trade unionist decades earlier. He and Rumsfeld had a very friendly exchange, despite their deep political and cultural differences Lula is a global socialist, and Rummy was a rock-ribbed American Republican. I watched them essentially charm each other with their shared sense of hard work, grit and humor. Rumsfeld praised Brazils major role in commanding a big multinational peacekeeping mission in Haiti, and Lula positively glowed. While they agreed to disagree on leftist leader Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and his role in the region, overall it was a very amicable and indeed friendly exchange. Advertisement At the time, there was an evident drift to the left across Latin America and the Caribbean. This greatly concerned the US, but seeing those two men at the top of their respective games was heartening. Later, as commander of US Southern Command, I met several more times with Lula. Those were heady days for Brazil; commodity prices were high, and he had a lot of confidence in where the country was headed. I came away again impressed with his political instincts, an ability to find balance between the hard left in South America (particularly Chavez) and the US and other more conservative nations in the Americas. He was idealistic about moving resources to the enormous needs of poor Brazilians, but was also a reasonably pragmatic actor in his interactions with business. Brazils trajectory, and Lulas, in the intervening years has been difficult, to say the least. Commodity prices dropped. Lulas hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, had a failed presidency and was impeached. Lula himself was convicted of corruption charges and served time in jail. Advertisement Now he is back at the helm of a huge and important country at a turbulent time in the larger world. What should we expect from Lula 2.0? What are the implications both in the Americas and in the world? First, we need to realize this was an incredibly close contest: Polls in the final month of the campaign tightened significantly in the direction of the right-wing incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro. Lula emphatically does not have a mandate, and must govern a deeply divided nation, essentially a 50-50 electorate. A wounded Bolsonaro has yet to concede, although he has authorized the start of a constitutionally required transition process. While there is a possibility of some protests and challenges, both the courts and the armed forces have shown no inclination to overturn the results, nor are they likely to do so. Bolsonaro will probably become a very difficult leader in exile, much as former President Donald Trump has done in the US. Nothing will come easily, and Lula knows it. Advertisement This will lead Lula to gradually seek more control of the political middle by positioning himself as a conciliatory figure who will govern (as he has said explicitly) for all the people of Brazil, not just those who voted for him. It will be a difficult course, especially given the strong possibility of a hard landing for many national economies next year, and a high level of expectations from his supporters. As much as Lula wants to funnel resources to the poorest and weakest in Brazilian society, many of his ministers will counsel him to build effective relationships with the business sector and even the military. Second, looking around the region, there is a new pink tide rising, a phenomenon identified two decades ago as many governments moved left. Now, after an intervening period of resurgence from the right, there are left-leaning governments in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru along with stalwarts Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Advertisement Lula will position himself as a leader not just in Brazil, but in the developing world and the so-called global south. He will work hard at connections with India, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, South Africa and others. There will be an aggressive move to reverse Bolsonaros environmental policies that led to a staggering two billion trees cut or burned in the Amazon, the lungs of the earth. Third, on the security scene, he will seek balanced positions. On the Ukraine war, he will likely take an essentially neutral path and continue to maintain relations both with Kyiv and Moscow. Look for him to encourage stronger relations with China. Closer to home, the Brazilian military needs reasonable recapitalization to include better long-dwell sensors and maritime assets to monitor the vast offshore hydrocarbon deposits, for example. Lula will seek stronger relations with the senior military leadership to head off Bolsonaro making further inroads with them. Advertisement Expect good cooperation in counternarcotics, environmental fishery enforcement, and general training between the Brazilian armed forces and the US Fourth Fleet, based in Florida. During a Joe Biden presidency, the level of mutual respect between Washington and Brasilia will be high, and good cooperation likely. If the US shifts hard to the right, however, either at next weeks midterms or in the 2024 presidential election, the seas will be far choppier between the two giant nations of the Americas. Lulas deep experience in government will be an asset in navigating a critical patch in US-Brazil relations. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Lula Could Be a Good Friend to Brazil Investor: John Authers Challenge Begins Now for Brazils Comeback Kid: Clara Ferreira Marques Brazils Middle Class Isnt Buying What Lulas Selling: Eduardo Porter Advertisement This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A retired U.S. Navy admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, he is vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group. He is the author most recently of To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Last December, we all made fun of the company that laid off 900 workers via Zoom call. That now seems downright humane compared to informing employees of their fate in a message that may have gone to spam. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Elon Musk, as part of his effort to make Twitter Inc. either profitable or dead, plans to lay off half its staff today in a mass email. In an emailed warning of the layoffs, Twitter told workers to watch for the subject line Your Role at Twitter. The company helpfully suggested employees check your email, including your spam folder. Some employees didnt even have to go that far, apparently. They were informed via Google password rejection: You could argue these employees had plenty of notice. Reports of mass layoffs coming at Twitter, regardless of who owned the company, have been circulating for weeks. Tech takeovers and mass layoffs go together like a horse and carriage. This is business, not preschool. Advertisement But if you care about Twitter as a service or an investment, then you kind of have to worry about how clumsily these layoffs are being handled, especially in the broader context of Musks butterfingered management of the site he took over just a week ago. After firing the board and top management, Musk has been frantically throwing random ideas at the wall to see if theyll stick, including his infamous plan to charge people money for verification. He started off with a $20 price for that feature which actually protects Twitter, not users, but never mind then haggled himself down to $8 in public negotiations with Stephen King, the author of The Stand, an epic struggle of good versus evil. Then he mocked power users who didnt want to pay for a product that has no value to them. These are not the actions of someone with a carefully considered business plan. The Washington Post reports Musk is running Twitter about as deftly as Donald Trump ran the country, leaving employees in constant dread and confusion about the companys future and having to follow their new leaders Twitter feeds for updates essential to their work. Meanwhile, Musk is busy tweeting personal attacks and dangerous misinformation to his 113 million followers. Sounds familiar. It also sounds like the evil twin of Tom from MySpace. Advertisement Caring about a companys governance may sound pathetically woke. But it is never a good sign when a company joins the Layoff Hall of Infamy along with Better.com (the Zoom firer), Patch (conference call) and RadioShack (mass email). Its also another expensive distraction for a company that can hardly afford one: Workers in California have already filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Twitter of not giving fired workers enough notice. Other employees might file their own suits. Chasing off skilled employees, advertisers and the customers who generate Twitters most valuable content might help the company turn a profit, but its hard to see how. Then theres the whole issue of Twitters plan to launch the $8 verification plan just a day before the election, with half the staff gone and much of the other half demoralized. Under this plan, I could theoretically pay $8 to get a blue check mark, declare myself Herschel Wa1ker and wreak havoc on Georgias senate race. Will there be any content moderators to stop me? Theyll find out via email today. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and writer of the Opinion Today newsletter. A former managing editor of Fortune.com, he ran the HuffPosts business and technology coverage and was a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share In the race to succeed retiring Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, you hear a lot of China bashing and the ills of globalization in this prototypical Midwestern state. What you dont hear in this persistently xenophobic yet critical race for a spot in the US Senate is just how much Ohio has benefitted from globalization. The seventh-largest states $736 billion gross domestic product owes more of its prosperity to the growing interdependence of the worlds economies than any other after California, Texas and Florida. Thats based on the 771 active foreign factories located in Ohio, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Among the 10 biggest US states, Ohio has the most foreign-owned factories per thousand square miles. None of these inconvenient truths are uttered by the two men competing to succeed Portman, who as President George W. Bushs US Trade Representative negotiated and signed agreements with China and Mexico among about 30 countries. They also never mention that the business they decry with China and Mexico is embraced by almost every Ohio company from Cincinnati-based personal care manufacturer Procter & Gamble Co. to family-owned Panacea Products Corp. in Columbus. Advertisement Tim Ryan, a Democratic congressman since 2003, repeatedly reminds voters that one of my first bills I had was to penalize China for manipulating their currency. I work to get tariffs on Chinas steel coming in, he said during an October debate with JD Vance, the Republican venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy endorsed by Donald Trump. Why has China taken a huge amount of Americas jobs? Vance asked. One of the reasons is because energy is too expensive. You cannot do modern industrial manufacturing without high quality energy. But where would Ohios economy be without China, its critical trade partner, and the other foreign demand for its goods? Ohio imported $10.2 billion of goods from China in 2020, the largest supplier after Canada, and exported $3.6 billion to China, its third-largest customer after Canada and Mexico. China happens to be a major supplier to Walmart Inc., Ohios No. 1 employer with more than 55,000 associates earning an average hourly wage of $17.39. This next chart of Ohios international trade comes from the globalEDGE site created by Michigan State University: Proctor & Gamble, Ohios No. 1 company with a market value of $320 billion, increased overseas sales by 12% the past three years to 54.5% of total revenue. During the past decade, Greater China contributed between 8% and 10% of worldwide sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Sherwin-Williams Co., the Cleveland-based maker of paints and Ohios third-largest company, sells $4.2 billion of products overseas annually, a 5% increase from three years ago, with exports 20% of total sales. Even with 80% of its sales in the US, Sherwin-Williams counts 41% of its suppliers among overseas firms. Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. sold almost 50% of its products overseas during the past 10 years. Abercrombie & Fitch Co., the New Albany-based apparel retailer, reports that 60% of its new store openings are outside the US, up from 41% three years ago, according to Bloomberg data. Advertisement Ryan, Vance and their respective political parties are similarly silent about the tens of thousands of high-paying jobs created throughout the state by Japans Honda Motor Co., Germanys Siemens AG, Belgiums Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, Frances Air Liquide SA and Indias Tata Steel Ltd. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace organized a task force of former policymakers from Democratic and Republican administrations which concluded in a 2018 study, Is U.S. Foreign Policy Working for Ohios Middle Class?, that political antipathy toward global trade will continue amid a paucity of Ohioans who remain worried that unstable trade policy would undermine Ohios efforts to attract foreign investment and [they] made it clear that they welcomed investment from China. What Ohio citizens say and do when it comes to globalization is contradictory based on the studies that my colleagues and I have done, said Bill Shkurti, who retired in 2010 as The Ohio State Universitys vice president for business and finance and is the former director of Ohios Office of Budget and Management. If Honda wasnt here, wed be missing 15,000 auto jobs, he said in a Zoom interview last month. Ohio has lost about half of its manufacturing jobs since they peaked in the early 60s. The single largest culprit is automation. We now have half as many people in manufacturing as we did 50 years ago. But the value of what theyre producing is twice as much as it was 50 years ago. If Ohio didnt automate and stay competitive, we probably would have lost even more jobs. Theres certainly xenophobia among Ohioans that belies the reality that most Ohioans would be appalled to hear how globalized we are, said Paul Beck, professor emeritus at Ohio State, where he was Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Science and the former chair of its political science department. Procter & Gamble probably has the highest percentage of its employees sons and daughters who speak a foreign language. But I dont hear Procter & Gamble saying that so much. Advertisement Ryan, who comes from the Rust Belt and who over the course of his career decried the loss of jobs to Canada, Mexico and China, doesnt acknowledge the reality of the globalization of Ohio employment and profits, said Beck in a Zoom interview. I grew up in a small town in Indiana and my mother was the daughter of somebody who ran a hardware store there, he said. And when Walmart came into town, it destroyed the market for the hardware store, Beck said. She would not ever go into a Walmart. But when she needed something and Walmart was the only place to get it, shed say Ill ride with you to the store but I will not go inside because Walmart is the enemy. So, I went inside. I had no problem. Neither did Portman, the congressman, trade representative and senator the past 30 years. Automation may have displaced the traditional factory worker, but globalization kept Ohio working.More from Bloomberg Opinion: Republicans Have No Plan to Fix the Economy: Allison Schrager Advertisement What Happened to Republicans Policy Agenda?: Jonathan Bernstein Abortion May Not Be Winning Issue for Democrats: Ramesh Ponnuru --With assistance from Shin Pei. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Matthew A. Winkler, editor in chief emeritus of Bloomberg News, writes about markets. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Artificial intelligence has been moving so fast that even the scientists are finding it hard to keep up. In the past year, machine learning algorithms have started to generate rudimentary movies and stunning fake photographs. Theyre even writing code. In the future, well probably look back on 2022 as the year AI shifted from processing information to creating content as well as many humans. But what if we also look back on it as the year AI took a step towards the destruction of the human species? As hyperbolic and ridiculous as that sounds, public figures from Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, and going right back to Alan Turing, have expressed concerns about the fate of humans in a world where machines surpass them in intelligence, with Musk saying AI was becoming more dangerous than nuclear warheads. After all, humans dont treat less-intelligent species particularly well, so whos to say that computers, trained ubiquitously on data that reflects all the facets of human behavior, wont place their goals ahead of ours as legendary computer scientist Marvin Minsky once warned. Advertisement Refreshingly, theres some good news. More scientists are seeking to make deep learning systems more transparent and measurable. That momentum mustnt stop. As these programs become ever more influential in financial markets, social media and supply chains, technology firms will need to start prioritizing AI safety over capability. Last year, across the worlds major AI labs, roughly 100 full-time researchers were focused on building safe systems, according to the 2021 State of AI report produced annually by London venture capital investors Ian Hogarth and Nathan Benaich. Their report for this year found there are still only about 300 researchers working full-time on AI safety. Its a very low number, Hogarth said during a Twitter Spaces discussion with me this week on the future threat of AI. Not only are very few people working on making these systems aligned, but its also kind of a Wild West. Advertisement Hogarth was referring to how in the past year a flurry of AI tools and research has been produced by open-source groups, who say super-intelligent machines shouldnt be controlled and built in secret by a few large companies, but created out in the open. In August 2021, for instance, the community-driven organization EleutherAI developed a public version of a powerful tool that could write realistic comments and essays on nearly any subject, called GPT-Neo. The original tool, called GPT-3, was developed by OpenAI, a company co-founded by Musk and largely funded by Microsoft Corp. that offers limited access to its powerful systems. Then this year, several months after OpenAI impressed the AI community with a revolutionary image-generating system called DALL-E 2, an open-sourced firm called Stable Diffusion released its own version of the tool to the public, for free. One of the benefits of open source software is that by being out in the open, a greater number of people are constantly probing it for inefficiencies. Thats why Linux has historically been one of the most secure operating systems available to the public. Advertisement But throwing powerful AI systems out into the open also raises the risk that theyll be misused. If AI is as potentially damaging as a virus or nuclear contamination, then perhaps it makes sense to centralize its development. After all, viruses are scrutinized in bio-safety labs and uranium is enriched in carefully constrained environments. Research into viruses and nuclear power are overseen by regulation, though, and with governments trailing the rapid pace of AI, there are still no clear guidelines for its development. Weve almost got the worst of both worlds, says Hogarth. AI risks misuse by being built out in the open, but no one is overseeing whats happening when its created behind closed doors either. For now at least, its encouraging to see the spotlight growing on AI alignment, a growing field that refers to designing AI systems that are aligned with human goals. Leading AI companies such as Alphabet Inc.s DeepMind and OpenAI have multiple teams working on AI alignment, and many researchers from those firms have gone on to launch their own startups, some of which are focused on making AI safe. These include San Francisco-based Anthropic, whose founding team left OpenAI and raised $580 million from investors earlier this year, and London-based Conjecture, which was recently backed by the founders of Github Inc., Stripe Inc. and FTX Trading Ltd. Advertisement Conjecture is operating under the assumption that AI will reach parity with human intelligence in the next five years, and that its current trajectory spells catastrophe for the human species. But when I asked Conjecture Chief Executive Officer Connor Leahy why AI might want to hurt humans in the first place, he answered matter-of-factly. Imagine humans want to flood a valley to build a hydroelectric dam, and there is an anthill in the valley, he said. This wont stop the humans from their construction, and the anthill will promptly get flooded. At no point did any humans even think about harming the ants. They just wanted more energy, and this was the most efficient way to achieve that goal. Analogously, autonomous AIs will need more energy, faster communication, and more intelligence to achieve their goals. Leahy says that to prevent that dark future, the world needs a portfolio of bets, including scrutinizing deep learning algorithms to better understand how they make decisions, and trying to endow AI with more human-like reasoning. Advertisement Even if Leahys fears seem overblown, its clear that AI is not on a path thats entirely aligned with human interests. Just look at some of the recent efforts to build chatbots. Microsoft abandoned its 2016 bot Tay which learned from interacting with Twitter users, after it posted racist and sexually charged messages within hours of being released. In August of this year, Meta Platforms Inc. released a chatbot that claimed Donald Trump was still president, having been trained on public text on the Internet. No one knows if AI will wreak havoc on financial markets or torpedo the food supply chain one day. But it could pit human beings against one another through social media, something thats arguably already happening. The powerful AI systems recommending posts to people on Twitter Inc. and Facebook are aimed at juicing our engagement, which inevitably means serving up content that provokes outrage or misinformation. When it comes to AI alignment, changing those incentives would be a good place to start. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Advertisement Techs Terrible, Terrible Week Told in 10 Charts: Tim Culpan Wile E. Coyote Moment as Tech Races Off the Cliff: John Authers Microsofts AI Art Tool Could Be a Good Thing: Parmy Olson (Fixes spelling of Nathan Benaichs last name in the 5th paragraph.) This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of We Are Anonymous. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Almost 15 years ago, on a cold winter evening in Rawalpindi, Pakistans most popular politician was killed at a political rally, just weeks before elections that she was expected to win. When news came in late on Thursday evening that former prime minister Imran Khan now unquestionably Pakistans dominant political figure had been shot at a political rally, it was hard not to recall the turmoil following Benazir Bhuttos assassination. For a brief moment before she died, it had looked like Pakistan was on its way to prolonged political stability. Since her murder, that stability has seemed difficult to achieve. The attack on Khan is likely to put any political equilibrium out of reach for years. Khan, ousted as prime minister earlier this year, was in the middle of a long march meant to drum up support for early elections. His supporters already felt hard done by, blaming Pakistans all-powerful establishment for Khans lost majority in parliament. The attack on their leader might well cause their anger to curdle into permanent resentment. Clips of the would-be assassin claiming to have acted alone are all over Pakistani media. Yet it is hard to imagine that claim being widely believed in a country already consumed by conspiracy theories. Pakistanis will remember that nobody found out who killed Bhutto and be suspicious of any simple explanation, whether or not it is true. And they will find someone to blame: Already, pro-Khan protesters have vandalized symbols of the militarys power across the country. Advertisement Pakistans army was already playing defense against Khans resurgent party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Just a week ago, the countrys spy chief, Lt.-Gen. Nadeem Anjum, held an unprecedented press conference in which he simultaneously insisted that the military was politically neutral and that Khan was a hypocrite who had made secret, unconstitutional demands of the army. Never before has the head of Inter-Services Intelligence had to lower himself so far as to answer questions from the press corps. Later this month, the most powerful post in Pakistan chief of the army staff was supposed to receive a new incumbent. Some had hoped that this might allow the military to turn its promise to stay out of politics into a reality and that the departure of the current military chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, would allow Khan to move on from attacking the military for betraying him. Now, the attempt on Khans life may create an almost irreconcilable divide between the corps commanders who have dominated Pakistan for decades and the populist insurgent they helped elevate to the premiership just four years ago. Many of us have long anticipated a time when Pakistanis would turn against the military-dominated establishment that has so hobbled the countrys democratic development and economic growth. Yet Khans Islamist, anti-Western rhetoric hardly inspires confidence either. Advertisement Khans supporters will point out that Pakistanis dont care about concerns expressed by liberals in the West or elsewhere. The country no longer needs their backing. But Pakistan close to bankruptcy, wracked by the after-effects of climate change and burdened by an unproductive economy cant survive without outside protectors. And, of late, those protectors have generally been found in Beijing. In fact, Khans successor as prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had gone to meet Chinese leaders this week, fully aware that China holds about 30% of Pakistans $100 billion external debt. The International Monetary Fund just had to shell out $1.2 billion to Pakistan to prevent the country from defaulting. In Beijing, Sharif had to endure some unexpectedly harsh words from Chinese President Xi Jinping about the safety of Chinese citizens working in Pakistan. (Earlier this year, three Chinese teachers were killed in a suicide bombing in Karachi.) Xi warned that China expected a reliable and safe environment for Chinese agencies and nationals in Pakistan. Advertisement The events of this week make Pakistan look anything but reliable and safe. How can Beijing trust Sharifs promises? Given how unstable and divided the countrys polity is now, how can any Pakistani government with or without Imran Khan, with or without the militarys support make promises it can keep? Chinas bet on Pakistan is beginning to look as bad as its bet on Russia. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Pakistans Floods Test Friendship With China: Bobby Ghosh A Political Crisis Is the Last Thing Pakistan Needs: Editorial Pakistan Could Have Averted Its Climate Calamity: David Fickling This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, he is author of Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Rishi Sunak won the race to become Britains new prime minister by promising to fix his predecessors fiscal errors and unify his party. Oddly, he wasnt asked to say much about Brexit which has hobbled the country for the past six years and remains the governments biggest challenge. Addressing it will make cleaning up the budgetary mess look easy. Sunak got an abrupt reminder of the trouble ahead after less than a week in office, when a quarrel over trade rules between Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland flared anew. When the UK left the European Union, it was understood that an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic was essential to preserving the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. But this meant Brexit would require an economic border in the Irish Sea, between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Desperate to get Brexit done, Britains government agreed to a so-called protocol making that stipulation in 2020 and set the issue aside. In protest at the new border, the Norths Democratic Unionist Party shut down the regions power-sharing assembly in May. The Tories then moved legislation in Westminster to unilaterally cancel the protocol theyd previously agreed to. A trade war between the UK and the EU became a distinct possibility. Advertisement It still is. A deadline for restoring the Belfast assembly has passed, triggering new elections. By themselves, to be sure, these will solve nothing: Until the quarrel over the protocol is resolved, the ground is laid for yet more political turmoil and economic uncertainty. Adding to that prospect is a bill moving through Britains Parliament to excise every piece of EU-derived legislation by the end of next year a reckless, arbitrary target and a formula for bureaucratic chaos. Sunak supported Brexit, and he previously said hed move even faster to purge the EU from the statute book. If he now intends to emphasize pragmatism and managerial competence, a wholesale reset of UK-EU relations would be a great place to start. The difficulties caused by the protocol are real: Checks on goods moving across the Irish Sea are a costly nuisance. But these problems can be largely resolved through good-faith negotiation, information-sharing and technical accommodations. Talks during the brief term of Liz Truss, Sunaks predecessor, reportedly made progress. Up to that point, Britains mistake was to lose patience with the EUs devotion to process and pivot to barking commands. That was delusional. The UK negotiates with the EU from a position of weakness. Sunak needs to understand this, even if he cant afford to admit it. Advertisement Flexibility on supposedly immovable issues of principle will be necessary not just on customs procedures but also on matters such as the standing of the European Court in resolving disputes. For its part, the EU can afford to bend on points of contention so long as the UK emphasizes mutual interest, not We win, you lose. In the same spirit, other post-Brexit frictions in UK-EU trade can be lessened. In due course, a closer trade partnership should be feasible. For this to work, Sunak will have to distance himself from the Brexit hard-liners whove been intent on digging the UK into an ever-deeper hole. Hell also have to disappoint (or bribe) the DUP extremists who deplore compromise of any kind. It helps that opinion in Northern Ireland seems to be shifting against the DUP, and that Sunaks fellow Tories in Westminster, contemplating their own electoral oblivion, currently prefer unity over factionalism. Geopolitics pushes the same way: Russias war on Ukraine underlines the need for Britain and the EU to be close friends and allies, not spiteful rivals. If Sunak wants his leadership to make a difference, this is how and it wouldnt be a moment too soon. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Sunaks Dullness Dividend Might Not Last: Editorial What Rishi Sunak Brings to the Tory Mess: Adrian Wooldridge Sunak Must Detoxify Brexit to Save Himself: Therese Raphael The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Mike Pences comments were also one of the clearest instances of the former vice president trying to set himself apart from Donald Trump, amid the expectation that Pence will challenge Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. MORE COVERAGE I hope this story gets some follow-up because there has to be some interesting backstory. A family followed behind an erratic driver, probably hoping not to be hit, and presumably slowed to ensure everything was OK when the SUV pulled over and stopped. No one expects a hail of gunfire. NBC News: A family of four was traveling south on Highway 281 near Parkdale at 8:43 p.m. Monday, "following behind an SUV that was driving erratically," the Hood River County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. When the SUV pulled over, the family "slowed to get a description of the suspect vehicle" before a "male subject stepped out of the passenger side and fired multiple rounds from a handgun at the passing" car, the sheriff said. The suspect was later identified as Dowen Jones, 47, the mayor Rufus, a city with fewer that 270 residents about 100 miles east of downtown Portland, the sheriff said. No one in the family car, two adults and two children 5 and 8 years old, was wounded. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The attempted kidnapping of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which a delusional, hammer-wielding assailant broke into her home and left her husband, Paul, severely wounded was a heinous and despicable act that reflects an increasingly toxic US political culture. But it reflects something else, too: a nation that leads the developed world in murder. No other high-income country even approaches the US murder rate, and the primary reason is simple: No other country makes it so easy for dangerous people to acquire guns and to carry them, without any safety training requirements. Knives, of course, can kill people. So can hammers. But they are far less likely to kill their targets, to kill innocent bystanders, to kill children who stumble across them, to kill people who are gathered in schools, malls, theaters, houses of worship and other public places or to kill people in their own homes. The fact is: Paul Pelosi is likely alive because his assailant did not have a gun. Advertisement Republicans have been quick to blame any number of possible factors for this incident, some bordering on the delusional, and ignore the accused mans reported descent into MAGA conspiracy land. But the fact is, the US is uniquely susceptible to violent incidents of this kind and the Pelosis are lucky that they avoided the all-too-common fate of other victims in similar circumstances. Speaker Pelosi has been a strong champion of gun-safety legislation. But many common-sense measures such as closing the loopholes that allow guns to be sold without background checks and requiring people to complete a safety course before buying a gun have been blocked by members of Congress who do the bidding of the gun industry and its lobbyists, who are more interested in maximizing profits from gun sales than protecting the public from violent crime. Unfortunately, many of those who rightly expressed outrage at the attempted attack on Speaker Pelosi are snugly in the pocket of the gun lobby. They are willing to speak out against an attack on a colleague, but what about the 67 people who are murdered every day in the US, 53 of them with guns? Where is their outrage? And more important: Where is their courage? Advertisement Instead of bucking the gun lobby to take on the primary problem the lack of basic gun-safety laws many of them instead say: Punish the perpetrators. And by all means, throw the book at them. But punishment doesnt bring anyone back from the dead. It doesnt spare loved ones from decades of grief. And there is no evidence whatsoever that states with the toughest sentencing laws, including the death penalty, have lower murder rates. In fact, a recent report showed that 9 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates have Republican legislatures and the death penalty. When someone is considering murder, they dont stop and ponder the particulars of the penal code and rationally weigh the costs and benefits of putting a bullet in someones head. Get real. The fact is: Communities across the country are dealing with tragic episodes of violent crime every day, and the victims rarely make the national news. In many places, murder rates are still far higher than they were before the pandemic, and voters are understandably frustrated with politicians who arent doing anything about it. But promising to be tough on crime without being smart on gun safety is just bloviating and its a cynical evasion of the problem for political purposes that will cost innocent people their lives and produce untold sadness and hardship. Advertisement Thank goodness Nancy Pelosi was not home, Paul Pelosi appears to be slowly recovering, and the assailant did not have a gun. But every year, tens of thousands of people are not so fortunate. Voters should demand that elected officials be just as alarmed and outspoken about violence directed at average Americans as they are about violence directed at themselves. Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, and chair of the Defense Innovation Board. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Money is edging toward its biggest reinvention in centuries. Modern technology and even the coronavirus pandemic have pushed consumers to go cashless, and with alternative concepts like stablecoins and cryptocurrencies taking hold, central banks are acting quickly to ensure they dont fall behind on innovation. The goal is a digital form of money that can compete with private-sector alternatives by being safer, more resilient and cheaper. 1. What would CBDCs be like? Not so different, at least on the surface, from keeping electronic money in a bank account and using cards, smartphones or apps to send that money into the world. The key difference is that money provided by a central bank like cash is generally considered a risk-free asset. For example, a dollar bill issued by the US Federal Reserve is always worth $1. A dollar in a commercial bank account, while in theory convertible into paper cash on demand, is subject to that banks solvency and liquidity risks, meaning consumers might not always be able to access it and can lose money if a bank goes bust. CBDCs, like bank notes and coins, would be the direct liability of the central bank, carrying its guarantee. Advertisement 2. What do CBDCs have to do with crypto? Not much. Even when the value of Bitcoin rose, its use in payment transactions was still limited. The cryptocurrency movement where groups of private citizens develop protocols for their own versions of money symbolizes a revolt against centralized financial authority, while central banks and CBDCs epitomize it. One possible overlap is the blockchain technology pioneered by Bitcoin, which functions as a publicly distributed ledger of transactions. Some countries are experimenting with blockchain, though experts doubt that in its current form the technology could handle the volume a CBDC might generate. The crypto development central banks worry about most involves stablecoins, which peg their value to an existing currency or asset. The plans Facebooks operator announced in 2019 for a stablecoin (first called Libra, later Diem, now dead) gave central banks a jolt and sped up work on CBDCs. 3. How would CBDCs work? Advertisement Central banks are experimenting on two main tracks: wholesale and retail. In retail applications, consumers could have direct access to digital central bank money, for instance within an existing bank account or through a wallet offered by a payment service provider. In wholesale projects, the focus is on exploring more innovative technologies for interbank payments and settlements, and they often even experiment with blockchain. A wholesale CBDC wouldnt be an entirely new concept, though, since central banks already grant lenders access to digital accounts. 4. How would payments improve? Digital payments could be settled faster than they currently are -- even instantly, eliminating credit risk -- and more cheaply. In some countries where electronic payment methods are not very widespread due to high costs for merchants, payments by card or phone could become more widespread. In addition, a lower-cost CBDC could foster competition among payment service providers so that even conventional card payments -- like Visa or Mastercard -- might become cheaper. Advertisement 5. What are potential downsides? Denmark and some other countries have ruled out the retail model for CBDCs, since traditional banks that support economies by providing loans could be undermined if depositors switched en masse to central bank accounts. Privacy advocates worry about a loss of anonymity and the potential for government surveillance. 6. Whos trying this? The International Monetary Fund says some 100 countries are at varying stages of exploration. Nigerias eNaira went into circulation in late 2021, India is launching its first pilot of the digital rupee, and in China, hundreds of millions of consumers have already used the digital yuan during its trials. Some of the islands in the eastern Caribbean that share a central bank launched their own digital currency, DCash. Its use was expanded to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2021 after a volcano erupted; the rollout was seen as a key part of recovery efforts. Advertisement 7. Whos not? The Fed has also been lukewarm on the idea. It published a paper outlining benefits, but officials say there will be no Fedcoin without congressional action. It has, however, conducted research: In November, an official at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said a team there found that a central bank digital currency using distributed ledger technology could reduce the time it takes to settle foreign exchange transactions from two days to under 10 seconds. Other central banks also say theyre building technical capacity but see no pressing need to act. The Swiss National Bank has conducted what it says were successful tests of digital payments but officials have expressed doubt about whether a CBDC would fill a real gap. Swiss National Bank Vice President Martin Schlegel likened CBDCs to a wheel whose road has not been built. 8. Is there a precedent for this? Advertisement Not quite, though there are parallels. For centuries, it was common for transactions to be conducted in privately issued bank notes and coins, despite the endless headaches caused by fluctuating values. In the late 1800s, many governments seeking greater monetary control gave their central banks a monopoly over the issuance of currency. Now, with electronic payments pushing out cash and even volatile assets like cryptos emerging, central banks are seeing the need to get creative again. --With assistance from Alastair Marsh. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Technology giant Meta will stop using humans to edit news on Facebook before the end of the year, telling Australian publishers it could not afford to spend large amounts of money in areas it believes users are not overly interested in. Metas local news partnerships boss Andy Hunter informed Australian media companies on Thursday of the companys plans to move to automated news content, the latest sign of its ambitions to distance itself from publishers that have demanded millions of dollars for the appearance of articles on its website and focus on keeping its users away from TikTok. Meta will now automate all news that appears on its website, a reversal of a 2019 decision to hire editors to curate content for its users. The decision will result in a change in positions for a small local team who handpicks stories for the websites news tab. It will not affect existing multimillion-dollar deals struck with local media companies for use of their news content. Along with European curation deals expiring, we plan to end our in-house curation of Facebook News in Australia by the end of the year, a Meta spokesperson said. This update will have no impact on our commercial deals and the Facebook News product will still be accessible in Australia. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder has defended the airlines reputation for playing hard ball on staff pay deals and hit out at the federal governments proposed reforms to industrial relations. Goyder told shareholders at the companys annual general meeting on Friday that the governments bill, which would give workers the ability to strike agreements across a number of employers in the same industry, has the power to centralise wage negotiations and make it harder for employers long term. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder. Credit:Louie Douvis Were concerned the proposed changes effectively dismantle the enterprise bargaining system that has served Australia well for decades, Goyder said. While wage growth was pivotal to improving the standard of living in low-paid industries, he said, Qantas did not fall into that category. Goyder said the average non-executive salary at Qantas was above $100,000 and about 85 per cent of its workforce was covered by enterprise agreements negotiated with unions. For two years, bad news has kept piling on for Chinese property developers. The nations worsening credit crisis has led to defaults, failure to deliver homes on time and an unrelenting market selloff. Now a new phenomenon is happening: Builders founders are leaving. Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, who now live in New York, resigned in September as chairman and CEO, respectively, of their real estate empire, Soho China. Credit:Getty Longfor Groups Wu Yajun resigned on Friday as executive director and chair, shortly after Soho China Ltd.s Pan Shiyi quit in September. While Wu cited health reasons, the timing has startled analysts. Its very likely that we will see more mainland property founders leaving important roles in their firms, said Kakei Lam, fund investment officer at Metaverse Securities in Hong Kong. The golden age of Chinese property is gone, and they probably dont see too much they can do to help. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The woman who put the hole in modern sculpture died alone in her studio in 1975. Barbara Hepworth had battled throat cancer for several years, but it was a fire at Trewyn Studio in the Cornish seaside town of St Ives that ended her life. The 72-year-old artist was an inveterate smoker and the blaze was probably started by one of the cigarettes she enjoyed in bed. At the time of her death, Hepworth and Henry Moore were already enthroned as Britains greatest sculptors. In America, where she was probably best known as the creator of Single Form, a monumental bronze installed in New Yorks United Nations Plaza, she was acknowledged by a New York Times obituary as one of the worlds foremost sculptors. The article recounted her description of sculpture as a three-dimensional projection of primitive feeling: touch, texture, size and scale, hardness and warmth, evocation and compulsion to move, live and love. Hepworths standing in Australia, a place she never visited, but where her work influenced a generation of mid-century artists, is more muted. Examples of her art are held in several state gallery collections the polished bronze Head (Ra) is a popular exhibit at the Art Gallery of South Australia, for example but there has never been a major Australian survey. Until now, that is. Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium, an exhibition of more than 40 works, opens at Heide Museum of Modern Art on November 5. Hepworths influence on Australian sculpture has been widespread, but not well examined, says Kendrah Morgan, co-curator of In Equilibrium. Her work connects to some really elemental ideas about people, landscape and the universe, and shes a great example of an artist synthesising big themes into accessible forms. Barbara Hepworth with the plaster of Curved Form (Bryher II) in the Palais de Danse, 1961. Credit:Studio St Ives, Bowness The show features plenty of the sensuous ovoid forms she carved from wood and stone in her St Ives studio. Figure (1933) is an early example of her pierced work, says Heides artistic director and co-curator of In Equilibrium, Lesley Harding. She was exploring the idea that a void or absence could be filled with meaning. Spring (1966), which is a firm favourite of both Harding and Morgan, brings all of her ideas together in one stunning bronze. Its got everything, Harding says. The ovoid form, the colour, the piercing and the strings [pieces of cord threaded across the sculptures aperture like a harp] that were so important to her middle period. Advertisement The co-curators appreciation of the modernist sculptor runs deep, which is just as well because the realisation of Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium was far from straightforward. The pair began work on the show in 2018 with visits to Hepworths childhood home in Yorkshire, the St Ives studio and the wild Cornish coastline that inspired much of her work. They negotiated loans in the face of competition from a major British show and hung on tight when COVID struck. To their delight, many institutions in Britain, Australia and New Zealand honoured their promises to loan work despite the decision to move the show from 2021 to 2022. Loading Heide is the obvious place to stage a Hepworth survey, they argue. She was a contemporary of Heide founders John and Sunday Reed and they would have known her work, Morgan says. They were interested in the same kind of politics and they read the same kind of books. Theres a lovely parallel stream. Hepworths personal life suggests she also shared the Reeds disregard for social conventions. She met her first husband, sculptor John Skeaping, in Rome and was still married to him when she began an affair with the abstract painter Ben Nicholson in 1931. The liaison produced triplets three years later. As Nicholson shuttled between life with Hepworth in London and his wife and three children in Paris, Hepworth felt trapped in a basement flat with three newborns and Skeapings four-year-old son. I felt fear for the first time in my life, she wrote. Clockwise from main: Mother and Child, 1934; the triplets in 1937; Three Magical Stones, 1973. Desperate to keep making art, she made the difficult decision to allow her babies to be cared for at a nursery training college. The episode has been interpreted as the work of a coldly ambitious woman who chose art over motherhood. But letters published in 2020 reveal both her deep love for the infants and the agony she suffered when debating whether to let others care for them. She did have contact with them later in life and her works often reflect the significance of the number three. Critics have speculated that works such as 1973s Group of Three Magical Stones, which will be shown at Heide, are a direct reference to the triplets. Advertisement Harding acknowledges the need for an exhibition to strike a balance between the artists story and their work. You cant talk about art without talking about the artists life, she says. But its also true that female artists have been defined by their relationships to a far greater degree than their male counterparts. Barbara Hepworth in Trewyn Studio, October 1949. Credit:Studio St Ives, Bowness Which brings us to Henry Moore. The tendency to compare and contrast Hepworth with a man she first met as a student at art school in Leeds, began in her lifetime and did her few favours. They mixed in the same artistic circles and took holidays together in Norfolk with mutual friends. But as their stars rose, the comparisons between their work were often detrimental to her. When Hepworth represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1950 two years after Moore some commentators mistook her for his student. In fact, Hepworth pierced her first work in 1931; Moore followed suit 12 months later. Yet it was Moore, a confident, vocal proponent of his own work, who declared 1932 to be The year of the hole. Hepworth, happily ensconced in St Ives, was sometimes seen as a provincial artist, while Moore was a global art star with solid art establishment connections. In 2018, it was revealed that he actively undermined Hepworth when the board of the Tate Gallery was considering buying one of her wooden works. Moore, a Tate trustee at the time, wrote: If sculpture [was] nothing more than that, it would be a poor affair. His interjection was effective and the purchase was scrapped. Barbara Hepworth, Two Figures (Menhirs), 1964 (left) and Figure, 1933. Credit: Art historian Dr Sophie Bowness, who is Hepworths granddaughter, acknowledges the incident came at a time when her grandmother was very short of money and therefore had a real impact. It doesnt reflect well on Henry, she says. Hepworth sometimes felt unsupported by key institutions such as the Tate Gallery and the British Council, Bowness says. Both favoured Moore to a degree that we may now see as unbalanced and unfair, she says. But Hepworth and Moore are very different artists, and the constant, indiscriminate coupling of her with Moore, or presentation of her as an epigone of Moore, in the past and to some extent still today, is very tedious and inaccurate. Advertisement Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Armageddon wasnt really around the corner in 1980, but US presidential candidate Ronald Reagan was all for talking it up. Out there in space, the Soviet Union might make a push for world domination at any moment. At home, there were threats that were less explicit, but you could hear the hum of racism in the motor of the arguments. Reagan used barely coded language to use race to help him win, remembers film director James Gray. I wasnt aware of it as an 11-year-old. I wasnt, but I was. Like, you somehow absorb the drippings of it, you somehow got the sense that something wasnt right. For his latest film Armageddon Time, Gray whose more recent films, such as The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra, have leaned towards adventure has returned to his childhood stamping ground in Queens, New York. While he has dealt with his family history more obliquely in The Yards and The Immigrant, this is all about him: specifically, about his friendship with a black kid in his last year of primary school. Gray was Jewish and growing up in what he describes as Archie Bunker territory; he heard his share of anti-Semitic jibes. In his last year of primary school, however, he would be confronted by the racism marbled into the social system. Much of Armageddon Time is actually pleasurable viewing, because Gray remembers so much with such honesty. Details were important to the film: they even used his familys old dinner plates. The Gray family is renamed Graf, both being abbreviations of their real name; it was important to fit in. James becomes Paul, played by Banks Repeta. Grays mother, called Esther in the film and portrayed by Anne Hathaway, had been a home economics teacher and is, as the story begins, a big wheel in the schools parent teacher association. His father, called Irving and played by Jeremy Strong, is a plumber. Jeremy and Annie are exactly what my parents were, says Armageddon Time director James Gray. Credit:Corina Marie/Focus Features Paul is something of a mystery to them artistic, flighty and sometimes unaccountably, uncontrollably brattish, sending his father into rages in which he beats the boy but he has an instinctively close relationship with his maternal grandfather, a wise old owl played by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins isnt Jewish, of course, but Gray says he finds the stock figure of the immigrant codger with a Yiddish accent dense as a bagel quite offensive. His grandfather wasnt like that. He was a very proper person, he came through Southampton and he always wore a tie. We gave Tony Hopkins my grandfathers tie and hat. Hes doing my grandfather uncannily. Jeremy and Annie are exactly what my parents were. Details like the tie were important; the carpet, chandelier and the plates on the table were the same. So was the mood of the house, the whole passage of history, a heaviness carried forward from the Russian pogroms that drove his grandparents out of Europe. Never forget, his grandfather would tell him. People are capable of this. Advertisement Interestingly, the actors say they avoided imitating Grays parents. The character that I wanted to create was not necessarily what James wanted me to do with the role, says Jeremy Strong, whose own grandfather was also a plumber. But as an actor you only have your own instincts; at a certain point you cant think about that character as the father of the filmmaker. Anne Hathaway agrees, saying she worked on Esther the way she would on any character. They met Grays memories somewhere in the middle, where it always felt truthful, she says. Grandpas influence bore fruit. Armageddon Time is a great act of remembering, with the canker of racism as its centrepiece. In the United States, the myth is that you can pull yourself up by the bootstraps, that you too can make it if you work hard. James Gray, filmmaker Irving and Esther Graf would certainly not think of themselves as racists. On the contrary, Irving sneers at Reagan, just as Grays father did. Grays parents even gave him the middle name Marshall after their hero Thurgood Marshall, the first black judge on the Supreme Court. But they had their issues, says Gray. Pauls friend Johnny is played by instantly likeable Jaylin Webb. The real Johnny would play up in class Gray thinks now he had ADHD, but nobody thought about that then and lived in poverty with a grandmother rapidly succumbing to Alzheimers. In the film, Pauls parents discuss school crowding; they tut about children being bussed in from further north; they murmur about bad influences when Paul is hauled before the headmaster; they worry about drugs. Like Reagan, they use codes for their anxieties that would be awkward if deciphered. The decision is made, as it was for Gray, to send Paul to a private school, Kew-Forest, where they have small classes, uniforms, computers and conflicts of a different kind. The boys are entitled, bullying and racist. Controversially, Gray has one use of the forbidden N-word. I refused to get rid of it because I didnt want to erase history, he told Deadline. I cant rewrite a more pleasant, nicer version of what those kids were. The schools most famous alumnus, who comes to lecture the children on their bright futures as the citys future CEOs and political leaders, is Fred Trump, Donalds father. Advertisement Grays enduring focus through his films, unusually for American filmmakers, has been class under capitalism, specifically the unwritten ways in which people are kept in their place. Every successful civilisation requires a myth we can call it a lie that it tells itself in order to thrive, he says. In the United States, the myth is that you can pull yourself up by the bootstraps, that you too can make it if you work hard, but then there are times when you see behind the curtain. They know that theyre the ruling class. You are the future leaders! They would say that to us. Banks Repeta as Paul and Jaylin Webb as his friend Johnny in Armageddon Time. Credit:AP The system requires its collaborators; like most people, the Gray/Graf family had signed up. Even his grandfather would urge him to take advantage of the opportunity to integrate. He says, Your name is Graf, youre gonna fit in, make new friends. Basically, Go and hide. Go and hide as someone who will fit into the system. And then he says, Be a mensch [someone of integrity]. It is Pauls failure to be a mensch that brings Armageddon Time to its crisis point. Paul lets Johnny down, betraying him with his silence when the white boys at his fancy new school snigger at the idea of having anyone black in your actual house; trying but failing to shelter him when he becomes homeless; and, finally, abandoning him when they get into a scrape with the police. Johnny tells Paul to leave and let him take the blame. Thats what was going to happen anyway. Pauls dad is able to pull some strings. And so Johnny fades from his life. I think a lot of the movies that are made now are about enormous events that are about nothing, you know? This is the inverse of that. Jeremy Strong, actor After the film was first shown in Cannes, there was considerable discussion in the US press about whether Armageddon Time was a so-called white guilt movie, in which Gray points the finger at himself, sets out his mea culpa and seeks absolution. Not at all, Gray retorts; he doesnt feel guilty. When youre 11 or 12, you do not have the moral or ethical foundation to grapple with a world that is unendingly complex, he told Indiewire at the time. I think my behaviour at times was utterly disgraceful and gutless, but at the same time I dont know what the heck else I could have done at that age. A white-guilt movie, he says now, would show his alter-ego moving towards the light. But there is no solution, no moral at the end. Its not like the kid learns a valuable lesson and then becomes a great guy. It doesnt work out that way. It doesnt work out that way because it cant. Instead, it becomes Pauls personal Armageddon. Advertisement I love the way that James takes what is a small, not insignificant, but certainly not a seismic, event and we feel, as the audience, the enormity of it, says Jeremy Strong. I think a lot of the movies that are made now are about enormous events that are about nothing, you know? This is the inverse of that. James Gray, centre, with Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong at the Telluride Film Festival in September. Credit:Getty Images He remembers how Gray talked to him about a passage in Marcel Prousts Swanns Way about the passing of places that we remember that no longer exist. Houses and roads and avenues being as fleeting as the year, Strong says. James is also in search of lost time. He is trying to retrieve a moment, to bring this time capsule to us and show the kind of moral education that lead to a first crossroads, these first moments of adulthood in this boy. People are cruel; people are driven to demean others; slavery and the Holocaust do not, says Gray, exist independently of each other. Thats what adults know. I dont mean this as medicine, says Gray. The movie is not medicine in that way. But it is my job as a creative person to talk about one of the major threads in our lives, what it means to be a person. So much of it is connected to this idea of I make more money than you, down the block they have a nicer car than I do, and thats part of my identity, like skin colour and what religion I follow: what we now generically call privilege. The film may not be medicine, but Anne Hathaway took a message from it. The first thing that I would hope everyone is doing is to become educated about what privilege is, she says. And when you do make a mistake and you will, because youre a human being make the mistake gracefully, listen and apologise; be aware of the way bias looks in the world and how others might be expecting you to participate in it, then do the opposite. But its not a prescriptive thing. Its an ongoing situation. The conclusion that James offers is that it may not make a difference, but its in the doing of it that your character is formed. Banks Repeta and Anne Hathaway in Armageddon Time. Credit:AP When we talk via Zoom, Gray is in his guesthouse what we would call a granny flat because the sink in his kitchen is spouting boiling water everywhere, the plumber is trying to fix it and the dog is going berserk. I am impressed he managed to get a plumber immediately. He only lives three blocks away, says Gray. Hes a very nice guy. I ask if he told him his own father and his father before him were plumbers in New York. I think I did tell him, he says. But I dont know if he would remember. Advertisement Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Grant Nundhirribala has driven through the night. From Maningrida, 14 hours, non-stop, he boasts as kids and grandkids spill from a silver dual cabin Hilux with red dirt trim. I was filling up at Jabiru, then from Jabiru to Katherine. Im feeling tired but every festival when you call me Im coming there straight away. The people of Beswick are thrilled to see him. Hes soon sitting in regal command on the shipping container stage of the Djarmalak Festival, still wearing his Aussie flag truckers cap, his family transformed with white paint and red lap-laps (loincloths) into the Red Flag Dancers. Grant Nundhirribala: When I [feel] goosebump, I know my father is next to me. And I sing really strong. Credit:Anthony Gray His songs come in short, urgent bursts, clapsticks ringing and dancers kicking up sand as the big blue sky pales to yellow. This ones called Sunset. Aeroplane is about the big bird that astonished his grandfather over the mission in Numbulwar. Each is followed by a roar of appreciation that balanda (white-man) acts seldom muster up here. I am Songman for Red Flag, he explains later. Its a role bestowed by birth, passed from father to son. The red flag songs are connected to the seafaring Macassan traders of Indonesia, who began visiting northern Australia around the middle of the 18th century. Young performers at this years Djarmalak Festival. Credit:Paz Tassone Every bedtime my father used to sing all these songs, all the red flag songs and the smoking ceremony songs, he says. I listen all the time. When I went hunting together with my father; always singing. Advertisement How many songs? Thousand songs, he says. Songs from my grandfather. Too much. How does he keep track of them? He taps his head. All in here. Djarmalak is an annual celebration in memory of Nundhirribalas nephew, the local legend now referred to as Balang T.E. Lewis, star of music, film and theatre from The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith to The Shadow King. Over many years, Lewis Walking With Spirits festival put this small community 90 minutes east of Katherine on the map for a limited number of tourists permitted to visit the spectacular Beswick Falls site nearby. Since his passing in 2018, the party has moved here to the community hub of the Djilpin Arts Centre, run by his widow, Melbourne arts veteran Fleur Parry, in consultation with Jawoyn elders. She sits on the steps as visitors learn about bush medicine and grass weaving, or buy local art and textiles. Its about cultural survival, she says. Part of my job is to consult all the time with my board and work with them. Ill say What do you want to be doing? And every time without fail, Weve got to keep culture alive cause were seeing it fading every day. Young audience members at the 2022 Djarmalak Festival. Credit:Paz Tassone Dance is super important, painting... but the big thing is the stories. Its all a bit of a tapestry and I guess the cultural dispossession thats happened is pulling at the threads but whats critical is language. You could have a hundred dancers but if theres no songman, they cant get up. Advertisement Songs From Walking With Spirits was one of Lewis most inspired survival projects. In 2007, he recorded four Arnhem Land songmen with new musical backing by himself, Melbourne guitarist Ross Hannaford, Gurrumuls bassist Michael Hohnen and others. Each of those songmen (Hannaford too) has since passed, but their voices are now about to take the next step into eternity on streaming services worldwide. The embrace of Apple Music, which negotiated an early release of the songs this week, seems to illustrate a growing hunger for this kind of material. Ngulmiya, for example, is Grant Nundhirribalas new album with the Budapest Art Orchestra, sung in Wubuy language peppered with old Indonesian words; language that tells a long story in and of itself. Then theres Yirrkala songman Rrawun Maymurru, recorded by classical-electronic artist Nick Wales for a Sydney Dance Company production a few years ago. His just-completed collaboration with pianist-composer Sophie Hutchings promises another frontier for ancient songlines infiltrating contemporary music landscapes in 2023. The new drones are neither here nor there to Lewis sister Loretta George, a teacher at Beswicks Wugularr School. You can mix it all up together, she says, as long as the stories are delivered faithfully. Loretta George, whose brother, Balang TE Lewis, is celebrated at the annual Djarmalak Festival. Credit:Paz Tassone Some of the kids know their culture, but some of them dont know their land, their stories. Thats why we do learning on-country at school This one, she says, indicating the Walking With Spirits CD, you really want them to learn about and really start singing because thats [disappearing]. I told the school mob to let the young boys listen. Some of them, they know how to do the didgeridoo but somebody needs [to be] the songman. The storyteller. She names a few boys who are learning, but the absence of living teachers concerns her. Songs by the late Victor Hood and Jimmy Wesan, sung in endangered languages Dalabon and Rembarrnga, might have been saved by the miracle of digital streaming but they need to hear it [live] to sing strong, the young ones, she says. Whats really good is if one of the older men could get this back for the younger ones, to keep it alive again. Advertisement Loading Todays Djarmalak headliner is Torres Strait hip-hop artist Mau Power, a mighty presence on-stage and off. The sky is dark purple when he takes the stage. We come all the way from Torres Strait to share culture. The dancers come to call the spirits down, he booms as they stalk the stage in stunning plant-fibre capes and headdresses, wielding stylised paddles like downward-pointing spears. Raise your hands and feel the energy of our ancestors here with us. As the DJ kicks in, the visitation turns a little eerie as a pack of normally sedate town dogs noisily surrounds the dancers on their way back to the dressing room. Later, Power and his team are convinced the animals saw the ghosts. When we call the ancestors, the spirits come and get embedded into the gear. They can actually haunt you. Thats happened to our surprise all the time, he says. Mau Power with dancers at the Djarmalak Festival. Credit:Paz Tassone Back in ancient times, they had the turtle shell masks; the eyes are made of pearl. If you want to move the masks, you must remove the eyes because they actually watch you. And if you dont, it haunts you. Even the British Museum curators know this. Because the elders came over and told them. On a good day like this one, the elders ghosts are everywhere. When I perform in these places I can feel my father next to me, says Nundhirribala, back at his Hilux and preparing for the next leg of his journey. He pinches his arm. When I [feel] goosebump, I know my father is next to me. And I sing really strong. Everywhere he follows me, no matter where. Advertisement Would-be surrealists took inspiration from the distinctive aesthetic of Edward Gorey, mailing in original pieces on envelopes to a Cape Cod museum dedicated to the late artist. The Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts sent out the initial call in April for their annual all-ages Envelope Art Contest, offering the theme of "Act II/Scene I." The rules were simply stated: "Artists are invited to fill an envelope-shaped stage with a story of their own devisingand we're getting dropped into the middle of it." With a deadline of October 17, decorated entries have been arriving to the museum since. On their Facebook page, the museum has started showing off some of the deliciously dark pieces, many done by children. Here's a look: by Amara Kern, age 14 by Shixin Zhuu, age 14 by Grace Whitten, age 14 by Krishna Majmudar, age 13 by Sansita Nagapadman, age 14 by Jennifer Johnston, adult by Ora Sizemore, age 9 It should be noted that Gorey himself was known to bring his special brand of cross-hatched pen-and-ink magic to his personal correspondence. And, if you're ever on the Cape, a visit to the museum is a must! It's housed in what once was Gorey's home, a drafty old place built in 1820. It's only open April through December, so plan accordingly. images: Edward Gorey House / Facebook, used with permission Guillermo del Toros Cabinet of Curiosities Director Guillermo del Toro steps out of the shadows at the beginning of each of these delicious horror tales, like a modern Alfred Hitchcock, complete with a small miniature he retrieves from a literal cabinet of curiosities to introduce each self-contained episode. Del Toro curates eight tales, each from a different director, and while the styles vary, del Toros signature style vivid colour palettes, lavish production design, old-school gore is present throughout. The series opens with director Guillermo Navarro, cinematographer of del Toros Oscar-winning Pans Labyrinth. Based on a story by del Toro, Lot 36 follows Nick (Tim Blake Nelson), a bitter, fascist-leaning army veteran who buys abandoned storage units in the hope that their contents can pay off his nasty debt collectors. When Nick buys Lot 36, the facility manager tells him it has been visited every day for 40 years by the man who rents it. Nick enters the storage unit, and discovers some old furniture pieces that he thinks will make him a nice profit but these are no ordinary antiques. Lot 36, a dark morality tale, sets the tone for the series. Keziah (Lize Johnston), Nancy Bradley (Essie Davis) and Blobman (Kevin Keppy) in Guillermo del Toros Cabinet of Curiosities. Credit:David Lee, Ken Woroner/Netflix Other directors here include David Prior (The Empty Man), whose episode The Autopsy features a reanimated corpse, Keith Thomas (Firestarter) who adapts H.P. Lovecrafts story Pickmans Model, about an artist who creates terrifying paintings and Catherine Hardwicke (Miss Bala), updates another Lovecraft tale, The Dreams in the Witch House, about a man trying to reach his dead sister by breaching the dimension between the living and the dead. AustralianSuper purchased a 25 per cent stake in affordable housing developer Assemble Communities in 2020, and several large super funds including CBus have also invested in bonds through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, which is leveraging private capital into community housing providers. However, super funds may also be wary of government-sponsored programs given the well documented issues with the National Rental Affordability Scheme that was a flagship housing policy of the Rudd government. Someones got to pay to bridge the gap between what it costs to build and maintain that home and what its rented to a low-income earner. Brendan Coates, Grattan Institute economic policy program director Coates said he strongly supported trying to remove the barriers to get super funds to invest in residential housing, but current state land tax regulations made it uneconomic for large institutional investors. There were also other specific challenges with investing in social and affordable housing, he said. Someones got to pay to bridge the gap between what it costs to build and maintain that home and what its rented to a low-income earner, said Coates. The super funds are not going to pay to do that. So ultimately, the government will have to pay if you expect to see super funds investing in social affordable housing. Its not clear how getting the super funds involved, what problem they solve. Australian National University associate professor Geoff Warren also said for super funds to invest in social housing, the government would need to contribute money. Loading If the government is putting something in the tin to give a sweetener to the returns, it starts to make sense. But theyve got to raise it to the point where returns are attractive enough so that the funds arent working against their members returns, he said. Its about how much theyve got to actually put in the tin to make it work is the question ... It has to be done in a way thats not going to compromise their returns. And theres a lot of complications around that and making that work. Industry analyst Alex Dunnin said the accord was a smart development but its success would come down to the structure of the investment proposal. It makes huge sense for governments to finally see super funds as actively interested constructive economic players. But if governments think these super funds are going to make naive quick investments before theyve really analysed whats being proposed, they are kidding themselves. The federal government has said it will incentivise funds to invest in social and affordable housing by covering the gap between market and subsidised rents through availability payments. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said they had been encouraged by the interest of super funds and other institutional investors to invest more in affordable housing, and they were committed to working with super, state and local governments, and the construction sector to try and shift the needle to build the affordable homes in areas where the jobs and opportunities are. Housing is set to be the focus of the Treasurers Investor Roundtable in late November Industry super funds have come out in strong support of the housing accord, however the response from retail funds has been more muted. A number of both retail and industry funds have signed up to the accord. Blake Briggs, the chief executive of the Financial Services Council, which represents the retail super industry, said he looked forward to addressing the historical challenges that have prevented institutional capital from investing in affordable housing. Proposals must be consistent with the legal obligation on super trustees to promote the best financial interests of members, he said. Spokespeople from Insignia Financial Group (which provides super products through IOOF and MLC), Colonial First State and AMP said they would be part of the discussions as the details are worked through but all stressed their focus on producing strong returns for members. David Bryant, the Australian chief executive of Mercer, said they were keen to understand what the accord specifically entailed to ensure investments stack up against other local and global opportunities. A sector like social infrastructure has the potential to present attractive opportunities for the capital markets. That said, its small and needs aggregating if its to attract big players. To ensure domestic funds can invest here, the landscape needs to change, he said. Industry Super Australia deputy chief executive Matt Linden said as the size of super funds had increased, their appetite for and capacity to invest in different assets such as housing had improved. He said governments would need to address issues around land release and planning, as well ensuring the projects were of a large enough scale to justify investment in housing from super funds. If governments and everyone working together can get those policy settings right, then our assessment is that it would certainly be a very workable investment for the funds, provide attractive risk-adjusted returns to members and thats the primary consideration of the funds, Linden said. The chief executive of $200 billion fund Australian Retirement Trust said they supported the need for institutional investors and the private sector to carefully examine the role they can play in investments and the barriers they can clear, but members financial interests always came first. Chief executive Bernard Reilly said the government had signalled its intention to make these types of investments more attractive to institutional investors by covering the gap between market rents and subsidised rents, which will be a key consideration for the fund when assessing the risk-adjusted returns. Real estate company Harcourts has confirmed a data breach occurred at its Melbourne City office, potentially exposing the personal information of tenants, landlords and trades to hackers. The franchisee became aware on October 24 that its rental property database was accessed by an unknown third party without authorisation. Sensitive information of tenants, landlords and trades has potentially been exposed in the data breach. Credit:Getty For tenants, the personal information potentially breached included names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, signatures and photo identification, according to an email sent by the office to its customers and circulated online. For landlords and trades, the data comprised bank details as well as names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and signatures. A New York judge yesterday appointed a financial monitor to oversee the finances of the Trump Organization, which is in trouble for overstating its assets when securing loans for the big man and his cronies. State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron signed off on a preliminary injunction that also blocks former President Donald Trump's company from transferring assets without court approval. In his ruling, Engoron said the company must also make the monitor aware of all its holdings and assets and give 30 days' notice of any restructuring at the company and any plans for "disposing or refinancing of significant Trump Organization assets." (Supreme Court is the name of New York state's top trial court.) Given "defendants' propensity to engage in persistent fraud, failure to grant such an injunction could result in extreme prejudice to the people of New York," he wrote. There seems to be no doubt at all about what's going on. Trump already started a new business, named "Trump Organization 2", when yesterday's outcome loomed: it's a game between him and how fast the law can move, and he's seven decades in without it getting close. He will, at least, be aggrieved and upset about it: "There'll be ketchup on the walls tonight", writes Dendad6972 on Reddit. A postal inspector experienced some real Disney magic! Inspector Jeff Andre was spending the day at Animal Kingdom when he spotted a fugitive he'd been chasing for a year, Quashon Burton. Rather than cause a big scene and thru-park crazy chase like we'd see in the movies, Andre called the Orange County sheriff's who conducted the arrest. New York Post: A New York City fugitive who had been on the lam for nearly a year was arrested last month after a federal officer working his case miraculously spotted him while on vacation at Walt Disney World. Federal postal inspector Jeff Andre was hanging out in the Florida amusement park's Animal Kingdom on Oct. 20 when, in an incredible stroke of luck, he saw Quashon Burton, who fled his Brooklyn home last November after being accused of fraudulently obtaining coronavirus relief aid, WDWNT reported. Andre, who signed the criminal complaint against Burton, recognized the 31-year-old fugitive by a unique cursive letter H tattoo on his neck. South Africa: President Ramaphosa to address Presidential Climate Commission President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the Presidential Climate Commission on governments priority investment and financing interventions under the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, this afternoon. According to the Presidency, the engagement of the commission will serve as preparation for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP27 which is expected to be held in Egypt next week. The Presidential Climate Commission is focused on creating a social partnership around a just transition; defining a vision for a just transition, and means of achieving that vision, covering the necessary sectoral shifts, technological innovation, employment opportunities, and climate finance, as well as conducting independent analysis into climate change impacts on jobs, the economy, and policy. The President will update the Commission in his capacity as Chair of this independent, statutory and multi-stakeholder body established to oversee and facilitate a just and equitable transition towards a low-emissions and climate-resilient economy, the Presidency said. South Africa has entered into a partnership with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. "Under the Just Energy Transition Partnership, South Africa, ahead of COP27, requires a financing package that is aligned to the countrys fiscal realities and demands, upholds the development and climate finance principles and obligations that are due to developing countries, and is inclusive and just," said the high office. At a media briefing on Friday morning, Presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said the President will be accompanied to COP27 by Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele; Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor and Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Barbara Creecy. The Presidents focus will be on securing maximum ambition in terms of climate action, the honouring of previous commitments and the provision of enabling means of implementation support for developing countries, including South Africa. With COP27 taking place in Africa, it presents an opportunity to advance African priority issues, namely: raising the ambitions on mitigation, adaptation and support to developing countries; advancing financing arrangements for loss and damage; building on progress made in Glasgow on the importance of Just Transitions [and] advancing discussions on the special needs and circumstance of Africa, Magwenya said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Biosecurity knows no borders and has an impact on the common interests of mankind as a whole, a Chinese envoy said on Wednesday, adding China firmly opposes the development, stockpiling or use of biological weapons by any country under any circumstances. The UN Security Council Wednesday failed to adopt a draft resolution put forth by Russia to set up a commission consisting of all members of the council to investigate its complaint about the non-compliance with the obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention. Since March, Russia has repeatedly lodged allegations to the Security Council that the United States is suspected of conducting bio-miliary activities in Ukraine, which China is gravely concerned about, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said in his explanatory remarks after voting in favor of the draft resolution. China believes that any evidence or clues related to compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention should receive full attention from the international community and "deserve thorough and to-the-point responses and clarifications by the parties concerned," he said. A fair and transparent investigation by the Security Council can effectively address compliance concerns and help uphold the authority and effectiveness of the Biological Weapons Convention, he noted. China always stands for the complete prohibition and elimination of all weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons, the envoy said. Geng expressed the hope that all state-signatories will actively and constructively participate in the 9th review conference on the Biological Weapons Convention scheduled to be held later, and resume as soon as possible negotiations on the verification protocol that have been stalled for more than 20 years. He also called on all parties to promote the early establishment of a multilateral verification mechanism, further enhance global biosecurity governance, and lift the level of global biosecurity. Texas's Department of Public Safety has apologized to Emilia Marin for falsely accusing her of propping open a door and enabling the mass shooting which killed 19 children and two adults earlier this year. But it has refused to explain why it did so, why Col. Steve McCraw lied about her in a press conference, or why they defamed her after it would have been obvious their version of events could not possibly be true. The answers are obvious: they were scapegoating her because policeat one point nearly 400 of themhad failed to challenge the mass shooter for an hour as he slaughtered children at Robb Elementary School. Nonetheless, she wants people to know how just how unwilling they are to face what they did. In an interview with ABC News, Gutierrez elaborated, saying he watched 10 troopers in their signature DPS cowboy hats closely examining video captured that day. Though he couldn't say exactly which videos he saw them reviewing, he watched as they scrutinized the footage, repeatedly rewinding, fast-forwarding and slowing portions of video. He said the detailed analysis of the evidence that he witnessed contradicts the information McCraw was given prior to the briefing Marin watched with her daughter on May 27. "It defies logic that these people didn't know the truth as to what Amy Marin did or didn't do," Gutierrez said. "When they accused Amy Marin, they knew that she absolutely did the right thing and yet they let her feel the pain of that accusation for five days, and she will never be the same." Fuck these lying cowards and fuck their stupid hats. If you know of local business openings or closings, please notify us here. PREVIOUS OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS - Air Products & Chemicals Inc. plans to invest a half-billion dollars to produce environmentally friendly hydrogen in New York state. - The Trexlertown Chick-Fil-A plans to add a second drive-thru lane as part of a plan to reduce traffic congestion. - The Harrisburg-based Mid Penn bank has opened its first full-service branch in the Lehigh Valley in South Whitehall. - The Allentown Planning Commission put off a decision on a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at the site of the former Nostos Greek restaurant. - The former Star Crete concrete plant at the intersection of Farmersville Road and Easton Avenue has been sold for $1.58 million, and that may clear the way for a medical office building. - The local business SuperSets Gym will open its third location in Allentown's South Mall, with no opening date set yet. - The jewelry boutique Versant will close later this year, but the business will be consolidated at Gary Werkheiser's other location in Saucon Valley Square. - The DSW Woodmill Commons has moved to Berkshire West, 1101 Woodland Road in Wyomissing. - Trainer Michael Melendez has opened his new Reading Extreme Boxing Club where PacSun used to operate in the Berkshire Mall. - Frackville NAPA Auto Parts held a grand opening with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Frackville Business & Professional Association. - Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers in North Manheim Township held a grand opening, in conjunction with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Pottsville Business Association. - PDC Machines, a maker of hydrogen compressors, showed off a new plant in Lower Salford. - Maya Capital Partners has acquired Amwell Valley Self Storage, a 265-unit storage business on Route 31 in Ringoes, New Jersey. - Norwescap is buying the former Sullivan's on the Main restaurant in Phillipsburg to renovate the building and then use it for programs to help educate and feed people. Today Sunshine gradually mixing with high clouds. Tonight Mostly clear early, then increasing clouds late. Tomorrow Cloudy with some rain likely from late-morning onward. Turning breezy as well. TILDEN TWP., Pa. A Georgia woman is facing multiple charges in a deadly pile-up on Interstate 78 in Berks County last year. Authorities said Brenda Brownfield, then 69, drove an empty school bus into traffic that was slowing for an active work zone on the eastbound side of I-78 in Tilden Township on Dec. 14, 2021, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. PSP troopers said their investigation revealed that the bus was traveling at 62 miles per hour when it hit the first car, which was traveling at only 9 miles per hour. A second vehicle was then struck and became lodged beneath the bus. The driver of one car, August D. Schwartz, 20, of South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, and a passenger in another car, Thalia Jackson, 25, of Easton, died at the scene. Schwartz, known by his family as friends as "Gus," was a former Parkland student who was heading home for the holidays from Penn State University's main campus; Jackson was the mother of a then-2-year-old girl. A third person involved in the crash was hospitalized in critical condition. Brownfield told investigators that she was on her way to Canada to deliver the school bus. Receipts for fuel along her journey revealed that she falsified her driving logs and should not have been behind the wheel of the bus at the time of the crash, according to court documents. Brownfield was charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless driving. She was freed on $25,000 unsecured bail. READING, Pa. With only days to go until the general election next Tuesday, Nov. 8, the Berks County Board of Elections voted Thursday to take further steps to have more than 600 voters rectify mail-in ballots that were cast without the necessary signature or correct date. Whenever voters put their mail-in ballot in a drop box or place it in the mail, they receive an email stating that their vote has been received. Now, voters will receive an email telling them that their ballot has been canceled if it was received without the signature or date. If voters receive such an email, they will have two options: They can go to the elections office in downtown Reading to correct the omission, or they can report to their polling location on Election Day and cast a provisional ballot. "You have now until Tuesday 8 o'clock, Election Day to come into the counter to ask for your ballot, to see if in fact you dated it," said Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt. The board's vote came after a lengthy discussion about whether the county should cure ballots by contacting voters to inform them of the errors. Barnhardt, a Democrat, attempted to get his colleagues to agree to ballot curing based on a decision made last week to have deputy sheriffs stationed at the drop boxes to ask voters whether they signed and dated the envelope. "I got to thinking, well, we're not affording the same courtesy to people that mailed theirs in," Barnhardt said, "so I think there is a little disparate treatment that we're asking deputy sheriffs to verify that you've done that before you put it in the box, but we're not doing the same for the mail-in ballots." Barnhardt said that, as of Wednesday, the county had received 563 undated ballots and 49 ballots with erroneous dates. Although the elections board had previously decided to count and segregate such ballots, a ruling the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down on Tuesday ordered that undated mail-in and absentee ballots not be counted. Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach, a Republican, said he was still opposed to the curing of ballots based on ambiguity in the state law. "We went through this in 2020 prior to the general election," Leinbach said. "The vast majority of county solicitors and election board solicitors looked at that (curing ballots) said no, we can't do that. And they didn't do that. That, to me, is the real issue. We continue to have had basically zero [legislative] reform on election law since the 2020 election. The reality is we can't change the law and we can't clarify the law." "So, we're going to disenfranchise at least 612 voters," Barnhardt asked. "I just want to make sure that that's out there." After being pushed further by Barnhardt, Leinbach and fellow Republican Commissioner Michael S. Rivera said they had no problem with voters be notified that their ballots had been canceled when there were errors on the outer envelope. At first, all three commissioners were fine with the cancelation, with the message to contact election services, but Ronald R. Seaman, the county's chief administrative officer, asked for further action. "I think it's incumbent upon the board to take a stand definitively with respect to what constitutes casting a ballot," Seaman said. "If we, a person, receives a notification that their vote is canceled, I don't see how that can be counted as casting a ballot, and therefore, irrespective of the affidavit on the provisional ballot, I think it would be important just to bring finality that this board make a decision whether canceling that negates the casting and would allow a provisional ballot to be cast. Elections Services needs to verify each one of those against any ballots that we received to make sure that there's not duplication in voting." After further discussions and opinions from Cody L. Kauffman, the county's first assistant solicitor, the commissioners came to the unanimous decision that voters who receive a cancelation notice could cast a provisional ballot. County officials said there needs to be more clarity from Harrisburg to help voters and those who run elections. "There needs to be clarity on Act 77 and what it really means, because they slapped it in in October of 2019," Barnhardt said. "It was implemented in June of 2020, and we're still working on the tweaks here." Beyond that issue, the county said it's making last-minute Election Day preparations. "Some of the last-minute things we're taking care of," Barnhardt said, "obviously, we've approved over 850 poll workers to help us at the polls, a total of 1,200." The polls in Pennsylvania will be open on Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. In another matter, the commissioners agreed to refer a matter of inappropriate political signage to the district attorney for investigation and possible prosecution. Signs have appeared throughout the county calling Democrats scumbags, but they carry no disclaimers as to who is responsible for the signs. Tom Herman, a board member with the Berks County Democratic Committee, called the signs despicable. "They continue to promote the increased polarization that we find in this country, and that hurts everybody," Herman said. "There's no place for hate in Berks County. The coward who made these things didn't even bother to put an attribution on the signs, which is a violation of campaign finance law." Kauffman addressed the matter. "We were made aware recently of various signs put up throughout the county which state "vote scumbag Democrats out of office," Kauffman said. "Campaign finance law indicates that whenever any person makes an expenditure for the purpose of financing communications that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate through broadcasting means, which includes outdoor advertising, then that signage must clearly and conspicuously state that it's been authorized by the candidate or state the name of the person or organization who financed the expenditure." Kauffman said such action is a misdemeanor offense with a fine up to $1,000. But Kauffman added that removing the signs is not something that the county has control over and that the matter should be left up to local municipalities or PennDOT. Kauffman then recommended referring the matter to the district attorney for further action. All three commissioners condemned the signage. "From the standpoint of content, let me tell you, I've pretty much had it with the language on any extreme," Leinbach said. "I don't care what it is, but free speech is a funny thing. It protects some pretty awful stuff, and we've got to be very careful." Leinbach added that, as a Republican, he finds the signs offensive. Buffalo Startup Week returns for in-person event Buffalo Startup Week is back for an in-person event for the first time since 2019. The free weeklong event is a chance for the Western New York startup community to come together, learn, share experiences and showcase its accomplishments. "We're very excited to be back in person and to invite the community at large into our world," said event executive director Kat Carter, who previously worked at several Buffalo startups and has her own consulting business working with startups. Startup week will feature panel discussions, speakers, networking opportunities and expos for everyone from entrepreneurs and investors to students and community members who want to learn more about startups in Western New York. Speakers include ACV co-founders Jack Greco and Dan Magnuszewski. Founders and employees from local companies such as Circuit Clinical, PostProcess Technologies, Arbol, Whose Your Landlord, JECA, AireXpert, LenderLogix, Top Seeds, 26 Shirts and Oxford Pennant will participate in panels with topics such as working at a startup, women in startups, setbacks, marketing and sales. Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week. Carter recommends attendees check out the event's keynote speaker, Washington, D.C. entrepreneur Marcus Bullock. He started a company called Flikshop, which strives to reduce recidivism by keeping inmates and their families connected while incarcerated. Bullock's talk will focus on the importance of angel and seed investing to bolster startup communities, Carter said. Bullock's keynote address will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Seneca One auditorium. There will also be two expos during the week, from 4 to 8 p.m. On Tuesday, 60 Western New York companies will show off their products and tech, and on Thursday, 30 local startup support organizations will have information on the resources they offer. This event is important to Carter, all the volunteers and the startup community as a whole because it is an opportunity to showcase all the resources and support that exists in Western New York to help startups become successful. "I hope that (attendees) walk away understanding how vibrant the startup community in Buffalo is. And what a worthwhile investment it is for our city and region and how many opportunities there are to get involved." Buffalo Startup Week runs from Nov. 14 through 18. All programming will take place daily from 3 to 8 p.m. at Seneca One tower, 1 Seneca St., Buffalo. For a full schedule or to register to attend, visit startupweekbuffalo.com. Registration closes Nov. 13. Natalie Brophy Want to know more? Three stories to catch you up: Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com. WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH ... Synacor moves Buffalo headquarters to flexible office space Then: Buffalo software company Synacor, one of the city's original technology startups, for years had its headquarters in a traditional office building on the Buffalo waterfront, at 40 La Riviere Drive. Now: The company is now moving its headquarters to the HANSA workspace, a flexible office center on Ellicott Street. "Synacor has completely embraced the hybrid workplace for all employees, Synacor vice president of human resources Jody Sirianni said. The move gives Synacor's 41 Western New York employees the flexibility to decide where they want to work. Synacor's international offices in Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and India are also based in flexible coworking spaces, according to the company. THE LATEST, IN CONTEXT What: The Buffalo-based startup accelerator Launch NY has been named one of the top five nonprofit seed-stage startup investors in the United States. Tell me more: Launch NY was among the 43 nonprofit investors recognized by the startup publication SeedRound. Why it matters: Launch NY mentors and funds early-stage startup companies across Western and upstate New York. The organization's services and support are essential at getting startups off the ground and growing the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through the third quarter of 2022, Launch NY has invested $1.48 million in 16 upstate New York startup companies, an 11% increase compared to last year. THE LATEST Catch up on the latest news from the Buffalo Niagara economy: A Niagara Falls manufacturer is planning a $6 million expansion that will add 45 jobs. Ellicott Development is moving forward on a project to build a six-story apartment building on Main Street, near Best Street. Electric battery systems maker Viridi Parente is planning to expand its Buffalo operations. Edwards Vacuum plans to build a $319 million factory with 600 jobs at the STAMP site in Genesee County. The Buffalo Niagara Marriott hotel in Amherst is going up for auction next month. Gasoline prices are rising again across the Buffalo Niagara region, ending a steady decline that had been going on since mid-June. A Cheektowaga highway maintenance company is planning to move to a bigger facility in Alden. In the weeks leading up to SUNY-Erie Community College President David Balkin's suspension last week, he had explored moving the library at ECC's City Campus into space at the main downtown library. Nearly a year after the first Starbucks stores in Buffalo voted to unionize, talks on a first contract agreement are moving slowly. The three Fucillo auto dealerships on Grand Island have been sold to an Ithaca dealer. A federal judge in Buffalo has granted Starbucks' request that the Starbucks Workers United union turn over all of its messages with reporters, raising questions about free speech issues. Uniland is seeking tax breaks for the second warehouse it plans to build in Lackawanna. Young Development is moving ahead with a $17 million apartment project in Lancaster, with 50 units. The Town of Tonawanda nursing home where a resident fell from a window to her death has been fined by the state. The long-delayed Sawyer's Landing development in Amherst is poised to move forward, but at a much higher cost. ICYMI Four reads from Buffalo Next: 1. Made in WNY: Honeywell: Workers at Honeywell's research laboratory in Buffalo are looking for good ideas that could become commercial products five or 10 years from now. 2. After a crippling pandemic, can one of Western New York's last independent hospitals stay on its own? Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center has been independent since it was founded in 1895, but top officials there are now weighing whether that model will be financially sustainable moving forward. 3. For kids with autism, a different way of learning: Canisius College's Institute for Autism Research offers a unique social skills intervention that starts with young children, but could improve the quality of life for all autistic people. 4. Will there be enough snowplow drivers this year? Some municipalities say they are short-staffed, and others say they are ready for the winter months. The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the regions economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Deputy Business Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to get the latest in your inbox five days a week. BETHLEHEM, Pa. It's unusual to see both political parties come together a week before an election, but they did Thursday to talk about slashing the state's corporate net income tax in half. Democratic state Reps. Peter Schweyer (22nd District) and Mike Schlossberg (132nd District) were joined by their Republican colleagues Rep. Zachary Mako (183rd District) as well as Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (134th District) and Milou Mackenzie (131st District) at press conference hosted by the PA Chamber of Business and Industry at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation's office in Bethlehem. "Whereas we might come from this at different angles, our goal was the same: to make sure we have a competitive business climate here," Schweyer said, "so that all of our residents are able to get a good job." "There is nothing progressive or positive about having the second highest corporate net income tax in the country," Schlossberg said. The reduction was passed in this year's state budget. The current rate of 9.99% drops to 8.99% this year. It will then drop .5% every year until it hits 4.99% in 2031. "Which takes us from the second highest to the eighth lowest [in the country]," said Luke Bernstein, president and CEO of the PA Chamber. There are reforms also targeted at small business. The budget expanded Act 179, which now allows small businesses to deduct $1 million in capital equipment purchases a year. "It's really wonky in-the-weeds tax reforms that the general public may not think about on a daily basis, but are really very meaningful changes for our small businesses," Ryan Mackenzie said. Two of the region's largest companies, Olympus and Martin Guitar, were also there to talk about the impact of the cut. "The tax environment in Pennsylvania has only gotten better, and this is a major change in that direction," said Nathan Eckhart, chief financial officer of C.F. Martin & Co. He says it will allow the company to reinvest and hopefully draw more business in: "We hope that over time, some of our vendors may consider Pennsylvania, and move that supply closer to where we are." Both of the candidates for governor Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano want to see the rate lowered at a faster clip than 2031. "It is a balance and that's why we set up a schedule, and we have this phased approach," Ryan Mackenzie said. "We want to make sure there's not any significant one-year hit to the budget." WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. The "Big Fights Bus Tour" rolled into Whitehall Friday and was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd outside local Teamsters 773. "Good to be back in Lehigh County and here in the Lehigh Valley, the swingy-est valley in the nation, right here," said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro after he hopped off the bus. "Y'all got a lot of power in your hands." Shapiro and Austin Davis, candidate for lieutenant governor, say they will be crisscrossing Pennsylvania right up until 8 p.m. on Election Day, talking to as many voters as they can. "To ask them for their vote, and let them know what we're trying to build here in this commonwealth, a commonwealth of opportunity," Shapiro said. "It starts in our classrooms, it leads to safe communities, stronger economy, the protection of people's rights. It's all on the line right now." According to some polls, Shapiro is 10 points ahead of his Republican opponent Doug Mastriano. A win for democrats would make Davis Pennsylvania's first African American lieutenant governor. "Representation, quite frankly, matters," Davis said. "I'm deeply humbled by the opportunity, but it's something that I'm keenly aware that it's not an opportunity that I paid for." "I stand on the shoulders of many great African American leaders," he continued, "and I just, I'm going to work every day to make sure that we're delivering real results for every day Pennsylvanians and to make them proud." After the rally, the democratic duo asked voters to help get the vote out and to sign their bus before taking those signatures and hitting the road. EASTON, Pa. A man accused of assaulting five college students at Lehigh University and Lafayette College was found guilty on 26 charges Friday afternoon at Northampton County Courthouse. Clement Swaby, 36, was accused of rape, burglary, and the assault of five different female college students in three separate incidents, in their homes, over the course of a year. A jury took two hours on Friday, the fifth day of the trial, to find him guilty of all charges. Swaby faces a maximum state prison sentence of 269 years. "Today's verdict will give these five women their first restful night of sleep since the incidents occurred," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Tatum Wilson, who prosecuted the case. In her closing argument to the jury, Wilson called Swaby a "living, breathing nightmare." After the verdict was read Friday, Wilson got the judge to agree to revoke Swaby's bail, which had been set at $1.5 million. "I believe he is a danger," Wilson said. "I don't want, even though the bail was set at a very large amount, I don't want to give him any chance of being able to get out on these charges." The Northampton County district attorney's office said extensive investigation, review of multiple surveillance cameras and DNA testing led to the charges against Swaby. The strongest piece of evidence against Swaby was DNA linking him to the rape of a Lehigh University student in 2020. During that incident, a female near Lehigh in Bethlehem awoke to see a man standing in her bedroom doorway. Swaby ran toward her with a knife and then sexually assaulted her and threatened to come back if she called the police. In February 2021, a female at a home near Lafayette College in Easton said Swaby entered her bedroom with a knife and threatened to rape her, while another victim heard her roommate scream and then a male's voice. Swaby fled the scene, and one woman reported that cash was stolen from her wallet during the incident. Then in March 2021, police responded to another home near Lafayette, where two women said Swaby entered their bedroom with a knife and demanded they perform a sexual act on each other. One victim realized a few days later that almost $500 was missing from her purse, and the other victim received notification that her Starbucks gift card was used at a store in New Jersey for an unauthorized purchase. Swaby's defense tried to put doubt in the minds of the jury members, suggesting the victims might have been coached on what to say. Wilson was surprised they tried that argument. "Of course, we would never tell a victim what to say," Wilson said. "That would be completely inappropriate, and it's something that I took great offense to." Wilson said victims getting up to testify in front of their assaulter is one of the most difficult things a person can do, and she hopes this encourages others to come forward. "I'm just hoping that this does send a positive message to anyone out there who is afraid to speak out that we're here for you, and we'll fight for you," she said. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. with Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Koury. FLEMINGTON, N.J. A camp counselor who worked at Camp Bernie in Lebanon Township was indicted Thursday on sexual assault charges involving three children under the age of 13. A Hunterdon County Grand Jury returned a seven-count indictment charging Joshua F. Daranijo, 24, of Levittown, Pennsyvlania, with three counts of second-degree sexual assault, three counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child (possession of child pornography). In August 2022, an investigation revealed that Daranijo had sexual contact with three victims under the age of 13 while employed as a camp counselor at Camp Bernie, according to a statement released by the office of Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee M. Robeson. The issue of "parental choice" has played a major role in governors' races across the country, and it's also on the minds of many voters in Pennsylvania. In order to talk about the concept of parental choice, we have to be clear what we mean. It all comes down to some parents wanting a different education for their child than they're currently receiving in public school. That often leads those parents to look for ways to move their kids out of public school altogether. In the Pennsylvania governor's race, both candidates now say they support the state using public money, at least in some cases, to help students seeking a private education. Parent Mary Ellen Branner became concerned about her son's fifth-grade curriculum in 2019. "The stories that they're reading are all, in my opinion, really promoting anti-traditional Christian values," Branner said. "Be who you want to be, marry who you want to marry. When did a school ever become the place to do that?" Branner was a substitute teacher at her son's school, and began to investigate the textbooks further. "The more I looked into the curriculum, the more alarming it became, because it ended up in high school looking like social justice all the way through," Branner said. She decided to pull her son out of public school and put him in a private school, with the help of the nonprofit CEO America, which offers grants to parents like Branner. "Up until about seven or eight years ago, we never had applications like this with problems with the curriculum, indoctrination," said CEO America President Jim Saunders, "but that's quite common right now." Saunders said his organization issues about 150 grants a year for an average of $3,500 to give parents who can't otherwise afford to put their kids in private school. Now, that's something Democrat Josh Shapiro says the state should do as well. His campaign website shows he supports funding "lifeline scholarships." Those would go to students in the bottom 15% of school districts, and could be used to help pay for private school tuition. However, his opponent, Republican Doug Mastriano, says Pennsylvania should go further, cutting the per-student funding in Pennsylvania's public schools to give to parents. "I think instead of $19,000, we fund each student around $9,000 or $10,000, and they can decide which school to go to: public school, private school, religious school, cyber school or home school," Mastriano said in a radio interview in March of this year. But many don't agree with using public money to help students attend private schools, like Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Joseph Roy. "This is not about education. This is about politics," Roy said. "It's about driving public money there's a lot of money in education to private interests so people can make profits off of it." Roy believes public schools generally outperform private or charter schools, and that they are more inclusive and beneficial to the community. "Where else does everybody come together? Of every background, family income, race, religion. Where else does it happen? Nowhere," Roy said. He would like to see the money stay in the public school system, but Branner feels differently, and she said she's not alone. "My group of friends in the community would 100%, within a certain boundary, get behind a candidate who allows us to choose where our kids want to go to school," Branner said. A bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Clint Owlett (68th District), that would make those "lifeline scholarships" a reality in Pennsylvania, has passed the House and is sitting in the Senate Appropriations Committee right now. HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman wants Pennsylvanians to educate themselves about their rights before they vote in person on November 8. Voters have the right to cast their vote without harassment or intimidation, Chapman said. They can find a wealth of information about their rights at the Department of States site, vote.pa.gov. Here are some important tips regarding voter rights in Pennsylvania: WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- The West Chester Borough Police Department is searching for Francis Bango, 22. An arrest warrant has been issued for Bango. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Bango is asked to contact the West Chester Borough Police Department at 610-696-2700 ext. 126 or anonymously contact the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers Toll Free at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online at https://www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=107 All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest, the solving of a crime/cold case or the location of a wanted person/fugitive or missing person. Moog Inc., which has steadily expanded its Elma campus over the past decade, is expecting to make significant investments in its local facilities over the next three to five years. John Scannell, Moog's chairman and CEO, said Friday that Moog, which is one of the region's largest private sector employers, has seen strong growth in its local business, which is centered around the company's space and defense products. "We're looking to grow the footprint," Scannell said. "We're looking to invest significantly over the next three to five years in new buildings and new capabilities." Moog earlier this year said it planned to invest $25 million and add up to 500 jobs to expand its local operations for work on the military's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, along with flight training simulators, and the hardware Moog makes for satellite and NASA programs. That program, coming on the heels of a $44 million investment Moog had recently completed for a project to support its aircraft business, has helped build its Buffalo Niagara workforce to around 4,000 people and turn it into the largest manufacturer in the region. Scannell touched on other topics as Moog reported a 15% drop in its fourth-quarter profits, mainly due to higher taxes and a one-time loss from the sale of one of its businesses. Otherwise, its adjusted operating earnings were up 7%. Hiring remains difficult. The tight labor market continues to be a drag on Moog's growth in Western New York and across its global operations, Scannell said. "The availability of talent continues to be a challenge for us, particularly for high-end machines and very specialized engineering," he said. "Labor availability, particularly some of those specialized skill sets, that's been a drag on our ability to grow faster, Scannell said. "But I think we're holding our own. We're working hard at it." Supply chain issues persist. Moog, like most businesses, continues to grapple with supply chain issues. "It seems like maybe it's not getting any worse," Scannell said. "It's not necessarily getting any better." The supply chain crunch is especially challenging for highly specialized products, like those used in its components and space businesses, Scannell said. "That's proven to be a real issue this last quarter," he said. "This is very specialized stuff, and that's turned out to be a really, really big challenge." A big opportunity. Moog officials also are waiting anxiously for a Defense Department decision on a program to replace the military's Blackhawk helicopters. Moog has teamed with Bell Textron on one of the two competing bids for the program, known as future long-range assault aircraft, or FLRAA. Moog is not part of the other bid from Boeing-Sikorsky. A decision is expected by the end of the year, and Scannell said if the Bell Textron bid wins, it could turn into one of Moog's biggest aircraft programs, with sales worth around $100 million a year a decade from now. "It's a huge opportunity," Scannell said. "We've been working on it for a decade." MILAN (AP) Italy's new far-right led government adopted a measure Friday formalizing the closure of its ports to rescue ships run by humanitarian groups as four vessels with more than 1,000 migrants continued to press for a safe port. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters Italy would allow a German migrant rescue ship to arrive in Sicily to land minors and those with medical emergencies, but he said the ship must then return to international waters with the rest of the migrants. Piantedosi said the German-flagged Humanity 1, carrying 179 people, forced the situation by entering into territorial waters.'' But he emphasized Italy's position that it is the flag country of each charity-operated ship that must intervene to provide a safe port and not Italy. The fate of the other ships was not addressed, but Piantedosi said France had indicated it could accept the possibility to disembark" the Norway-flagged Ocean Viking, which has 234 people on board. The Humanity 1 was on its way to the Sicilian port of Catania, Piantedosi said, adding it would be allowed to remain in Italian waters only long enough to disembark minors and people needing medical care. The move came after France and Germany asked Italys new government to grant a safe port to more than 1,000 people rescued by humanitarian groups in the central Mediterranean, some of whom have been stuck at sea for more than two weeks. The posture adopted by Premier Giorgia Meloni's new government marks a return to the anti-NGO position adopted by Matteo Salvini, now a deputy premier, when he was interior minister in 2018-2019. Salvini, currently the infrastructure minister in charge of ports, welcomed the new decree in a Facebook post, saying it would ensure that foreign ships cannot arrive solely in Italy with their illegal immigrants. "If there are minors or the sick on board they may disembark, as it should be. All of the others aboard a German ship leave Italian waters and go toward Germany,'' Salvini said. Humanitarian groups caring for the rescued migrants on four ships in the central Mediterranean have sounded the alarm about deteriorating conditions, including people sleeping on floors in the cold and spreading fevers. A German charity, Mission Lifeline, reported that its ship was in extreme danger with 95 rescued people on board, half of them women and children, and bad weather forecast. Piantedosi drafted new measures contending the non-governmental groups violated procedure by not properly coordinating their rescues, setting the groundwork for Italy to close the ports. At the same time, Italian authorities continue to allow the arrivals of people rescued at sea by Italian patrols, including 456 arriving in Calabria on Thursday and some 6,000 over the last week. Charities have denied circumventing procedures, and say it is their duty to rescue people in distress at sea. According to the U.N. refugee agency, coastal states are obligated to accept people from rescue ships as soon as practicable, and governments should cooperate to provide a place of safety for survivors. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Friday that international law makes clear that Italy, as the closest port, must let the ship in. He cited the Ocean Viking operated by the group SOS Mediterranee, which has one of its headquarters in France. We have no doubt that Italy will welcome the ship ... that Italy will respect international law, he told French news broadcaster BFM TV. He also said France and Germany have told Italy that they are both ready to receive some of the migrants so Italy wont bear the burden alone. The German Foreign Ministry also asked Italy to intervene quickly to help those aboard the German-flagged Humanitarian 1. The boat was carrying 100 unaccompanied minors as well as a 7-month-old baby, the SOS Humanity charity said. They continue to be exposed to the elements, having to spend the cold nights on deck. Still, they are sleeping on the floor while winds and waves are increasing, said spokesman Wasil Schauseil, adding that the state of limbo was adding to their mental stress. Fever was also spreading among the rescued people, with COVID tests turning up negative. Also at sea is the Doctors Without Borders-run ship Geo Barents, also flagged by Norway, with 572 people on board, including 60 unaccompanied minors as well as families with children and the elderly. Another German-based charity, Mission Lifeline, said that its ship Rise Above picked up 95 people in three operations Thursday, and that neither Italy nor Malta had responded to requests for a port. The proportion of women, children and babies is unusually high, comprising about half of the people on board. We are particularly worried about the health of the eight babies as well as the small children. Many had been at sea for days at the time of the rescue and are extremely exhausted,'' said Heremine Poschmann, a Mission Life spokeswoman. The Rise Above is in extreme danger, Poschmann said, with bad weather forecast in the coming hours and with 104 people total on board a relatively small boat at 25 meters (82 feet) long. Normally they would transfer rescued people immediately to other bigger charity boats, but the other three are already at capacity, she said. The migrants rescued at sea have mostly traveled through Libya, often being subjected to torture by human traffickers along the way, as they seek a better life in Europe. Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration. In 1979, the Iran hostage crisis began as militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, seizing its occupants, and more events that happened on this day in history. 1922: King Tutankhamen 1942: El Alamein 1956: The Hungarian Revolution 1979: Iran Hostage Crisis 1980: Ronald Reagan 1985: Vitaly Yurchenko 1991: Presidents 1995: Yitzhak Rabin 2008: Barack Obama 2011: Andy Rooney 2014: Republicans 2016: "Bridgegate" 2016: Rolling Stone 2020: Election 2017: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman HANOVER TWP., Pa. Students and staff at the high school building of Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Hanover Township, Northampton County, were evacuated Friday afternoon. In an email from LVA CEO Susan Mauser to the school community just after 1 p.m., she wrote that the upper grades building, which houses students in grades 7-12, was being emptied "out of an abundance of caution due to a few staff members and students feeling unwell." She said individuals who were not feeling well were being checked by emergency medical services, while the building was being examined. The Lehigh County Hazmat response team also was called to test air levels. Fire and ambulance vehicles swarmed the property in the 1500 block of Valley Center Parkway. Officials said 39 students and adults had to be transported to hospitals across Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. At one point, an entire LANTA bus was filled with students and medical staff. Parents who arrived at the scene were shaken up and worried. "Instant anxiety, it'll go right through you," said Mike Kish. "You worry instantly. You have no idea for sure what's going on. You just want to find out if your kids are alright. Pretty much panic immediately." One parent who has two students in the school said her one child had to be picked up earlier in the day because she felt sick. "It gets a little concerning when schools get evacuated, not knowing the initial reason why or what's causing it," said parent Jessica Benevides. "So I'm relieved that she's OK and she's doing alright." No information has yet been released on what caused the issues Friday. LVA is a public charter school that serves students in grades K-12. It is currently building a new campus on Avenue C and Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem. Check back for more information on this developing story. Daylight saving time wasn't invented to help farmers, and it doesn't help save energy. But it did help a New Zealander hunt bugs back in 1895. Intro 1. A guy invented it to look for bugs 2. People always get the name wrong 3. Not helpful for farmers 4. Doesn't really save energy 5. Easy to live without it 6. Doesn't benefit moderate locations 7. Throws off your sleep 8. Increase in accidents 9. Focus up 10. Cyberloafing 11. Bad for your health 12. Time zone headaches 13. Bad for some businesses 14. DST is basically standard time 15. Keep it simple, stupid Donmar Warehouse is amongst those venues that have lost NPO status this year for the coming round of Arts Council funding. NPOs are companies which receive a share of ACE's funding allocation between April 2023 and March 2026. This year's funding announcement comes against the backdrop of the government-led policy of "Levelling Up" areas outside of the capital. Adam Kenwright, Chair of the Donmar Warehouse commented: "The Donmar's impact is wide, its voice powerful and the stories it tells are essential, making today's decision a disappointing day not just for the Donmar, but for future generations of theatre makers. Since 2000 the Donmar has been supported by government to deliver high quality work on and off the stage that is accessible to the widest possible audiences. As we look ahead to our future, excellence and access will remain at the core of our mission. We will find a way to continue to deliver for audiences, the sector and our communities." In their application to ACE, the Donmar had committed to support the Government's Levelling Up agenda by creating a fund using private support to amplify public funding, driving private money and building skills in Kent, the West Midlands and Nottinghamshire around headline projects, supporting local organisations to build skills and capacity. This was to have built on the Donmar's work taking projects on UK tour (most recently Blindness, which helped theatres reopen post-pandemic in 2021) and into schools. Without public subsidy, this will no longer be viable. The Donmar was planning to support 17,000 children and young people over the investment period through this work, but this is now at risk. The Donmar's investment in diverse and emerging artists feeds the commercial sector in the UK, and is a trailblazer for British creative industries globally. The company has long been at the forefront of nurturing talent not just with the Resident Assistant Director Scheme which has influenced the theatre landscape across the UK for the past 30 years, with alumni including Lynette Linton (AD, Bush Theatre), Rupert Goold (AD, Almeida Theatre and formerly Royal & Derngate Northampton) and Robert Hastie (AD, Sheffield Theatres); but also CATALYST, their paid skills development programme for future artists and administrators. This short-sighted and self-defeating approach in removing all subsidy will impact not only the company itself, but the essential training ground it offers, and the benefit to the entire theatre community. Sam Mendes, film and stage director and founding artistic director of the Donmar: "Cutting the Donmar's funding is a short-sighted decision that will wreak long lasting damage on the wider industry. The Donmar has been at the heart of British theatre for three decades, and has a hard won legacy of punching well above its weight in both its ambition and reach. It is a world renowned and hugely influential theatre, and the UK cannot afford to put it at risk." Kit Harington, actor: "When I played Henry V on stage at the Donmar at the start of 2022, it was the realisation of a dream I'd had since watching the play as a teenager. The experience of watching that play as a young student was the inception of my desire to work in this industry. I was lucky enough to perform the same part that so inspired me to local students on the Donmar stage. these schools performances were the most thrilling shows we put on. It is vital and essential that students and young people are not denied opportunities to see live theatre like this in the future." Noma Dumezweni, actor: "There is nothing else like the excitement of live theatre - the connection, sense of communion and its shared experience. And the Donmar is unparalleled for creating that sense of deep connection with audiences so close to the performers. It is a vital venue for British theatre and the loss of subsidy is devastating". Alongside the Donmar, other venues to lose the status are the Hampstead Theatre, Oldham Coliseum, the Gate Theatre the English National Opera, which makes its home at the London Coliseum. The Hampstead Theatre said in a statement: "Hampstead Theatre is disappointed and saddened by Arts Council England's decision to cut the theatre's funding. We will now consider how best to ensure the future of a company which nurtures and supports so many writers and which has for so long been an essential part of British theatre. In the meantime, our current programme of new plays will continue as announced and we thank all our supporters for their ongoing commitment to our work." The Watermill in Newbury has also lost its place as an NPO. Paul Hart, Artistic Director and Chief Executive and Claire Murray Executive Director of The Watermill commented: "We understand that difficult decisions have had to be made as part of the Investment Programme. Arts Council England's decision not to offer NPO funding to The Watermill Theatre presents a significant challenge. However, we remain committed to serving our audiences and the communities of West Berkshire and to contributing to the UK's thriving cultural ecology. We will now take some time to explore other funding options and partnerships that can enable us to continue our ambitious and exciting programmes on and off stage. We'd like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to our Trustees whose support and guidance is invaluable. We'd also like to thank the brilliant team at The Watermill whose passion for creating great theatre, dedication to collaborating with our communities and commitment to nurturing and developing talent, is exceptional. We know with their support, along with that of our loyal audiences, donors and sponsors, we will find a way to navigate this challenge." Opera is also facing a tough time as noted by journalist Alex Marshall, the English National Opera is no longer getting any regular funding (and may look to relocate to Manchester), the Royal Opera House down 10 per cent, Welsh National Opera down 34 per cent and Glyndebourne is down 50 per cent. 990 organisations (with 276 new companies) received a share of 446 million this year, with "Levelling Up" locations also seeing a significant increase in spend. Of this, 48 new companies are from theatre disciplines. In total, 24 organisations plan to relocate from London from October 2024, including 18 NPOs. These include Headlong, the famed theatre company responsible for major touring and West End shows, as well as Paines Plough. We will update this article as we crunch the numbers. After years of trying, New York state's growing presence in the semiconductor industry is about to pay off for Genesee County. Just weeks after Micron Technology announced a blockbuster $100 billion investment in a chip-making plant outside Syracuse, Edwards Vacuum on Wednesday disclosed plans for a $319 million plant supporting the semiconductor industry. When fully developed, the plant is expected to employ 600 people, drawing workers from Buffalo and Rochester. The project is the type of breakthrough long sought by promoters of the Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, in the Town of Alabama. The hope is that Edwards' plant will act as a magnet for other projects tied to the semiconductor industry. "Just as Micron told folks upstate New York is good, Edwards Vacuum will say STAMP is a good place to come," Sen. Charles Schumer said. "Were going to get many more inquiries. We have hundreds of acres that are still available and ready to go." Edwards Vacuum plans to bring $319 million plant, 600 jobs to Genesee County The announcement comes just after Micron Technologies announced it will build a $100 billion semiconductor plant just outside of Syracuse. For most of the past decade, Genesee County officials were trying to lure the first company to the rural commercial park. A deal to lure a solar panel manufacturer in the mid-2010s fell through. It wasn't until early last year that STAMP landed its first-ever tenant, Plug Power, which is building a "green hydrogen" plant that will employ about 70 people at the site. But the mostly undeveloped 1,250-acre business park has been trying to land a big-ticket chip industry project, like the $17 billion plant that Samsung chose to build in Texas instead. The Edwards plant isn't of that magnitude, but it will give STAMP a foothold in the semiconductor industry. Economic development specialists say the park is well positioned to support chip plants in the vicinity and could attract other tenants that are links in the semiconductor supply chain. Micron is building its massive plant just a few hours down the Thruway. As big semiconductor plant heads to Syracuse, STAMP site in Genesee County misses out again The project is expected to create as many as 9,000 jobs over the next two decades at the White Pine Commerce Park in Clay. "That I-90 corridor is now looked at as a premier place for new semiconductor and related industry," said John Boyd, a site selection specialist and a partner in Florida-based Boyd Co. Along with Micron's planned project, upstate New York state is home to operations such as Wolfspeed near Utica, ON Semiconductor in Dutchess County and Global Foundries near Saratoga Springs. To the west, Intel is investing $20 billion in two semiconductor plants in Columbus, Ohio. Companies like Edwards say, 'Wow, STAMP is perfectly situated proximate to all these companies that are customers of ours," said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center. The Edwards plant demonstrates how there are big projects to be had both in jobs and investment with companies connected to the semiconductor industry, even if they don't produce chips. Edwards makes dry pumps that maintain a clean setting in plants that produce chips. When news broke that Micron had chosen the Syracuse area for its project, STAMP was said to be a contender for 20 projects. One of them turned out to be Edwards, which is based in the United Kingdom and has 8,000 employees worldwide. Edwards' selection of STAMP could spur other companies to follow suit, Boyd said. Companies dont like to be pioneers," he said. "So the idea that that site now has this endorsement, thats very significant." STAMP's promoters had to persuade Edwards the site had the assets the company needed to make its project viable. And Edwards stands to benefit from lucrative financial incentives for the plant. But other factors also worked in STAMP's favor: Micron's planned investment - which calls for creating 9,000 direct jobs - has drawn renewed industry attention to upstate New York for chip production. The recently signed federal CHIPS and Science Act, championed by Schumer, is aimed at pumping up domestic production of semiconductors. "It's really manifested and really kickstarted companies starting to invest in bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the States," Hyde said. Supply chain disruptions during by the pandemic exposed weaknesses in the availability of chips made in Asia. And the state has approved its own "Green CHIPs" legislation. There's been a push within the semiconductor industry to spread production around the country, instead of just places like Texas and Arizona. Tom Kucharski, president and CEO of Invest Buffalo Niagara, said STAMP's pitch to Edwards included its ample land, access to water and power, nearby colleges and universities, workforce training, and labor from the Buffalo and Rochester markets. With those factors lined up, "that really strengthens our sales proposition in the future," Kucharski said. "Companies will tend to go places they know they can recruit the type of talent theyre looking for and be supportive of those efforts." STAMP is in the town of Alabama, a rural community north of Batavia and about four miles from a Thruway exit. Critics have questioned whether the site was too remote to land the big projects it was pursuing. Kucharski believes those criticisms are misplaced. "People say, 'Where is the STAMP site?'" he said. "It's 20 minutes from East Amherst. It's half an hour from Rochester. It's right off the Thruway." And semiconductor industry plants don't want to build in sites exposed to the vibration caused by highway traffic, given the sensitive nature of their production, he said. Kucharski said Edwards' plant is expected to draw workers from both Buffalo and Rochester, a "convergence" he thinks business recruiters can apply to other projects. "A lot of our assets, institutions, programs and companies are much more complementary than they are competitive," he said. "If you can somehow link us together and then start to build around it, you really have something thats unique in North America." Construction of Edwards' plant is expected to get under way in spring 2023. Meanwhile, talks continue with other prospects for STAMP. "We have other expressions of interest that are part of the production, development and distribution process in this industry," Kucharski said. Boyd said he believes it is "not unrealistic to expect more, similar announcements in the months ahead, perhaps not on this scale, with respect to the size of it. They always say economic development is fishing where the fish are," he said. "This is an especially timely industry for upstate New York. A Buffalo police officer was charged with unsafe storage of a gun after he allegedly left a loaded handgun in a rental car last month, according to a police report. The officer, Dequinn Saunders, was given an appearance ticket Wednesday on the misdemeanor charge. According to the police report, an employee at Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda called police Oct. 10 after finding a 9mm handgun in a holster under the front passenger seat after it was returned by a different person. Tonawanda police responded and took possession of the weapon. The gun had one round in the chamber with a loaded 13-round magazine, the police report said. The car had been rented by the unnamed person from Oct. 7 to 10 and by Saunders from Sept. 8 to Oct. 7, police said. Tonawanda police ran the serial number of the gun and that yielded no results. They also ran the names of Saunders and the other person and found no pistol permits. However, law enforcement officers in New York are not required to obtain a pistol permit to purchase a gun. Instead, they must submit a specific form to the state known as a C form. On Oct. 11, Saunders came to the Town of Tonawanda police station to retrieve the gun but he didn't have a copy of the form. Town police confirmed that Saunders had legally purchased the gun and that the proper form had been filed. However, Tonawanda police charged Saunders with failing to properly store the handgun. Under New York State penal law 265.45-02, firearms left inside a vehicle may not be loaded and must be stored in a lockbox that is out of sight from the outside the vehicle. The law in a new amendment that was just passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in July as part of a package of gun-related measures after the Supreme Court struck down the state's century-old concealed carry laws. Saunders' attorney, Rodney Personius, said that his client admits that he made a mistake. "Officer Saunders acknowledges that his carelessness has a consequence. He accepts responsibility for his actions," Personius said. Saunders is a patrol officer assigned to the Ferry-Fillmore District who has sometimes been assigned to drive Mayor Byron Brown. Saunders, who rented the vehicle while his car was being repaired, put the gun under the car seat because he was going to a bar with friends, Personius said. "He thought better than to take the firearm with him," Personius said. The next day, Saunders returned the car to Enterprise, having forgotten that he left his gun under the passenger seat, according to Personius. A day later, he went to Enterprise where he learned that it had been handed over to the Tonawanda police. He then went to the police station to explain what had happened and to retrieve the gun. "He was completely open and forthcoming about what happened and cooperated with their questions," Personius said. "The decision was made that this technically fits all the elements of the statute and a decision was made to charge him." Personius added in a statement: "His ownership and possession of the firearm is in all respects lawful. There is nothing about the circumstances of this matter to in any way indicate he engaged in any impropriety of any kind save for his forgetfulness. He will use this experience as a learning opportunity, and will continue to serve the community as a well-regarded, highly respected member of law enforcement." Saunders was suspended without pay while the Buffalo police conduct an internal affairs investigation. The New Lisbon School District has renewed its call for substitutes, with positions open for teachers, secretaries, custodians, paraprofessionals and kitchen staff. The citys schools are fully staffed, but with four staff members on maternity leave, the district faces a shortage of substitutes. As reliable subs step in to fill those long-term roles, New Lisbon has struggled to cover other gaps made when staff call out or fall ill. District Administrator Scott Hickey added that even before this years string of maternity leaves, the district was already experiencing a substitute shortage. Were dealing with a couple of issues where we put out calls, we advertise as much as we can. Last year, we increased the rate that we pay substitutes and it did not make a difference whatsoever, he said. Hickey noted that there has been a steady decrease in the number of available substitutes in the last three school districts he worked for. Retired teachers, who traditionally make up the bulk of a school districts sub pool, are simply not returning. I totally understand. Theyve done their time; they have their state pension, Hickey said. But teachers are retiring, and they are not necessarily coming back to sub in their free time. The New Lisbon School District isnt alone in its struggle; Mauston has also found itself facing an uphill battle to fill substitute teacher positions. There are a number of reasons for that, but our biggest constraint is operating within a budget that has seen no additional state revenues for the past two years, Superintendent Joel Heesch said. Hickey stated the New Lisbon School District will continue advertising on a monthly basis to fill positions. All substitute jobs are strictly part-time, and subs have the opportunity to set their own availability. Each shift is voluntary; the district informs its substitutes ahead of time and gives them the opportunity to accept or decline. Candidates for substitute teacher must meet degree requirements and have either a teaching license or a substitute license. Its a good position for people that are retired, that are flexible, Hickey explained. Its a good schedule for people that may have young children that are going back to school, that dont want to work every day, but may want to come in and work the same hours their kids are in school. He added that while a lack of substitutes has been challenging, the district is making do. Teachers have been pulled in to cover during their preparation periods, and some non-essential services like Title I programs have been paused or are offered on a less frequent basis to allow staff to be shifted elsewhere. Hickey and New Lisbons High School Principal Mark Stamper have supervised students as needed. The school district has not yet had to combine classes. No matter what, were never going to have a classroom and say, All right, high school English, were not going to be doing Lord of the Flies. We hope you make it through these 45 minutes. We dont do that, Hickey said. We always find a way. Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity strives to build and renovate safe, decent homes that it sells to low-income families through low-interest mortgages. To qualify, families may not earn more than 60% of the local median income, or $62,280 for a family of three, and must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents who demonstrate a need for housing as well as the ability to make mortgage payments. Visit go.madison.com/habitat-for-humanity to learn more or apply for housing. Tim Michels Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels speaks to supporters Thursday at Bristled Boar Saloon & Grill in Middleton. Speaking at a campaign event Thursday in Middleton, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels repeated what has become a standard part of his stump speech. If he defeats Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday, Michels said, his administration would make it easier to vote and hard to cheat, or impossible to cheat. While Michels has signaled plans to sign into law a handful of bills that were passed by the Republican-led Legislature but vetoed by Evers that would add restrictions to voting, he has yet to say how he would deliver on the first part of that pledge: to make voting easier. Nor has he provided details on one of the major components of his election integrity platform, to jettison the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. Michels, the co-owner of Brownsville-based Michels Corp., said only that he would replace it with what he called the Wisconsin Election Integrity Group. It will have representation from all eight congressional districts, and we are going to make sure that the people of Wisconsin are confident that they have election integrity here in the state of Wisconsin, Michels said of his proposed agency. Michels took just three questions from reporters at Thursdays campaign event and did not elaborate on his proposed agency. Despite announcing the proposal three months ago, Michels and his campaign have not said how the group would be structured, its party makeup or who would appoint members. Five of Wisconsins eight congressional districts are held by Republicans, while the elections commission is evenly split between three Democratic and three Republican appointees. Tony Evers has vetoed numerous bills designed to ensure free, fair, and secure elections, Michels spokesperson Anna Kelly said when asked for specifics about the proposals. All Wisconsinites deserve to have confidence in our democratic process, and Tim Michels will ensure that everyone in Wisconsin can cast their ballot with confidence. Evers, who is seeking a second term this fall, has largely defended the elections commission, which was created in 2016 by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers. He has vowed to protect voters rights and ensure elections remain free, fair and secure. Among other things, the commission provides nonbinding guidance to election officials across the state for administering elections. But under Michels proposal, all such guidance would be repealed. 2020 residue GOP criticism directed at the agency skyrocketed after the 2020 election, due in part to decisions made by the agency, including 2020 guidance allowing clerks to bypass sending poll workers to nursing homes shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. Election skepticism has also been fueled by baseless claims of widespread fraud and mounting pressure from former President Donald Trump, who continues to push the lie that the election was stolen. Recounts, reviews and court decisions have affirmed that Trump lost Wisconsin to President Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes. Trump endorsed Michels in June, about a month after he entered the race. Republican leaders in the state Assembly and Senate have said they oppose abolishing the commission something that was proposed by Michels primary challengers. Michels has said he would seek to remove the agencys six commissioners, terminate all senior staff and require them to reapply under the newly appointed commission. Any staff member who participated in issuing guidance that did not comply with state law would be prohibited from rejoining the agency. Michels plan would also ban private grants for administering elections and the use of unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes, which the state Supreme Court has already declared dont conform with state law. He also calls for a twice-annual purge of dead and inactive voters from the polls. Currently, the commission performs a daily check to identify dead voters or those who have become ineligible. Voters who have not cast ballots in four years are purged from voter rolls. GOP proposals Beyond the elections commission, Michels has said he would sign a series of bills that passed through the Republican-controlled Legislature last session but were vetoed by Evers, who said they would have made voting harder, rather than easier. During his first term, Gov. Evers has been the last line of defense on voting rights, vetoing countless bills passed by Republican lawmakers that would have made it more difficult for seniors and people with disabilities to cast a ballot, Evers campaign spokesperson Kayla Anderson said. The governor will continue to do the right thing and veto any radical legislation that undermines our democracy. Republican legislative leaders have also signaled interest in reintroducing those bills if Michels wins on Tuesday. Among them: would give the GOP-led budget committee the ability to enforce staffing cuts or reduce agency funding at the elections commission or other departments if the committee finds the departments failed to comply with election-related laws. The committee would have the ability to cut staff or reduce agency funding by up to $50,000 for each day of noncompliance. would limit who could claim indefinitely confined status, which allows voters who cant get to the polls to request absentee ballots without having to submit a photo ID. The practice has been allowed in the state for more than 30 years but saw increased scrutiny after its usage during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. would require the elections commission to submit to the Legislatures rules committee any guidance issued to elections officials. That would allow the GOP-led committee to nullify that guidance. would give the budget committee final say over how the elections commission spends any federal funds allocated to the agency and require the bipartisan commissions lawyers to be partisan attorneys appointed by Republican and Democratic leaders. would prohibit special voting deputies from being barred from assisting nursing home residents with casting absentee ballots unless a public health emergency is in place or the facility is closed due to infectious disease at which point personal care voting assistants must be trained to assist residents. The bill would also ban the use of private grants to help administer elections and bar election clerks from filling in any missing information on a voters absentee ballot envelope, and prohibit anyone other than a voter, immediate family member or guardian or designated individual to return an absentee ballot. would require voters to submit a valid ID in order to receive an absentee ballot. Currently, voters with a photo ID on file do not need to provide new identification when requesting an absentee ballot. Evers struck down the bills in April, writing in a veto message that several of the proposals were passed under the guise of needing to reform our election system because elected officials in this state have enabled disinformation about our elections and election processes. I have and will object to each and every effort by this Legislature and its members to undermine our democracy, to erode confidence in our elections, and to demean and harass dedicated clerks, election administrators, and poll workers, Evers wrote in the April 8 veto message for one of the bills. Republican lawmakers, including former election clerk Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, introduced several of the bills in January after an Oct. 2021 audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election but made more than a dozen recommendations to the Legislature for how election administration could be improved. COP27 explained by experts: what is it and why should I care? COP27 is the 27th Conference of the Parties (countries) that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention was established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and has been ratified by 198 countries. They agreed to stabilise the production of greenhouse gases in order to prevent dangerous climate change. Since then, the Conference of the Parties has been hosted in a different country each year. These conferences broadly provide a platform for the negotiation of international climate change treaties. The very first treaty acknowledged that the responsibility for action was different for developed and developing countries, because developed countries were responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions. Despite some gains, commitment to these treaties has not translated into the action necessary to shift the course of global climate change. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report states that global average temperatures have already reached 1.1C above pre-industrial levels and that warming of over 1.5C is all but inevitable unless drastic action is taken. Everyone is affected by climate change, but some people and regions are more vulnerable than others. Regions that will experience the most adverse impacts of climate change are West, Central and East Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, Small Island Developing States and the Arctic. Populations living in informal settlements will have the worst of it. Vulnerability to climate change impacts is driven by socioeconomic, political and environmental factors. African countries have already experienced loss and damage due to climate change. For example, food production, economic output and biodiversity have all declined and more people are at risk of dying due to climate change in African countries. The COP27 is therefore important because that is where decisions are made about how to respond to climate change. Climate change treaties Three international treaties have been adopted on international climate change cooperation. They led to the development of different bodies which all convene under the banner of the COP. COP is where they meet, negotiate and evaluate progress, even though COP technically only refers to the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The first treaty was the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The second was the Kyoto Protocol, established in 1997. Countries made commitments to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol was based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. It acknowledged that because of their higher levels of economic development, developed countries could and should take greater responsibility to reduce emissions. The third and most recent treaty is the 2015 Paris Agreement. It covers climate change mitigation, adaptation and financing and aims to limit the rise in temperatures to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels. All signatories need to develop a non-binding plan for climate change mitigation, including reducing emissions. They also have to report on progress. A key weakness of the Paris Agreement is that it is non-binding. Also, the commitments are self-determined. A recent study found that even if all countries did meet their commitments, it would not be enough to limit warming to below 2C. It is important to understand and engage in these processes as the impacts of climate change are increasing globally. The increase in the global average temperature is one of several climate impacts. Others include increased likelihood of droughts or floods, and increased intensity of storms and wildfires. The frequency of climate events will increase as temperatures rise. There is an urgent need for action to prevent global warming from rising above 2C. Temperatures over 2C will result in irreversible climate impacts such as sea level rise, and affect far more people than an increase of 1.5C. Responses to climate change There are three policy areas which have emerged to respond to climate change. The first is mitigation the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to stabilise the climate. Examples of mitigation include replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, or developing electrified public transport to replace private vehicles powered by combustion engines. The second is adaptation interventions which would support climate resilience and reduce vulnerability. Examples include improved water management and conservation to reduce risk of drought, initiatives to improve food security and support for biodiversity. The last policy area deals with loss and damage. Loss and damage refers to the economic and non-economic damages associated with slow onset events and extreme weather events caused by global warming and the tools and institutions that identify and mitigate such risks. Interventions to address loss and damage can include risk management support and finance which is often framed as climate reparations. Mitigation and adaptation are well understood and established within climate policy. And they have finance mechanisms within international treaties, even though existing commitments to these mechanisms have not materialised in practice, particularly when it comes to adaptation. Loss and damage, however, has received far less attention in international treaties and negotiations. Highlighting loss and damage The Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage was established in 2013 to provide a framework to address loss and damage. It aims to improve understanding of risk management approaches, increase coordination and dialogue among stakeholders and enhance action and support. The issue of loss and damage was incorporated into the Paris Agreement, but without any specific commitments around it. During negotiations at COP25, the Santiago Network was set up to avert, minimise and address loss and damage for developing countries but it focuses mostly on technical assistance rather than finance. At COP26 (in 2021) there was an agreement to fund the Santiago Network, but the institutional framework is not yet finalised. Loss and damage was raised as an important issue to be addressed during COP26. There were some promising moves, such as the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, pledging 2 million towards a loss and damage finance facility. But many rich nations did not support this. The negotiations led to the proposal to establish the Glasgow Finance Facility for loss and damage. But the wording of the decision was changed at the last minute to the Glasgow Dialogues, which committed to discussing arrangements for funding activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage. This change has delayed any real financial support for loss and damage in the short term. This was very disappointing for developing country parties, who will be pushing once more to secure financing for loss and damage at COP27, and holding other countries to account for the US$100 billion annual commitment towards climate finance which has yet to materialise. Many climate activists from the global south feel that if a financing facility for loss and damage is not discussed at COP27, it will be a failed conference. The researchers are from the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. This article first appeared in The Conversation. A Buffalo woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in Erie County Court to two counts of criminal possession of a firearm while an investigation into the fatal shooting of her grandmother continues, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said 41-year-old Jamien L. Harris faces a maximum four years in prison when she is sentenced on Jan. 19, 2023. Harris remains free on her own recognizance since the charges are non-qualifying offenses for bail. According to the District Attorney's Office, at 11:08 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2021, Buffalo police responded to a domestic disturbance at a Highgate Avenue residence where they encountered Harris at the front door. Police discovered a deceased elderly woman in the living room of the residence. The Erie County Medical Examiner's Office later determined that the victim, Harris' grandmother, had died from a gunshot wound to the chest and ruled the death a homicide. Prosecutors said the death of 90-year-old Catherine Jones remains under investigation. Police found two loaded, unregistered handguns inside of the house. The self-proclaimed white supremacist who meticulously planned and then carried out the mass murder of 10 Black people at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue pleaded guilty Monday morning to 15 charges against him, guaranteeing he will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Students learn sword handling skills during a Wushu training session in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Oct. 27, 2022. Wushu has become a popular sport in Bangladesh, particularly among school girls who find the traditional Chinese martial art has a special appeal. [Xinhua] DHAKA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) Wushu has become a popular sport in Bangladesh, particularly among school girls who find the traditional Chinese martial art has a special appeal. It is a graceful kind of dance, keeping them in shape and teaching them self-defense. Bangladeshi school girls are showing interest in Sanda and Taolu, two categories of competitive Wushu. Sanda is a fighting system developed by the Chinese military and based on traditional kung fu and modern combat techniques. Taolu refers to choreographed set routines of movements. To Dance, and to Protect Ourselves "What do we girls really need? We need Sanda to protect ourselves when we walk on the streets," Nusrat Jahan Mim, a class 10 student, told Xinhua recently. Mim who is studying at Shajahanpur Railway Colony Government High School in Dhaka intends to participate in Sanda at this year's National Games. "Here the instructors guide us very well," said Mim on the sidelines of a training session conducted by the Bangladesh Wushu Federation in the capital Dhaka. "Young people are specially catered for each of our events." Another student, Labiba Akhtar Momo, said she has been practicing Wushu for four years. "Wushu is very good for our physical and mental development," said Momo, a student of Khilgaon Girls School and College in Dhaka. "I'm learning techniques of Taichi and I hope I will win gold medals in the future." Farzana Roman Rifat is a mother of two Wushu kids. "Wushu is very effective for physical and mental development. That is why I chose it," said Rifat. Saharat Hossain Loton is a businessman who wants his daughter to learn Wushu. "Especially for self-defense, I think it is best for any kid to learn Wushu," said Loton who loves Taolu demonstrations. Loton said good competitors can bring honor to the nation with international medals. National and International Support The Bangladesh Wushu Federation (BWUF) receives support from the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), the governing body for wushu in all its forms worldwide. The BWUF was founded in 2007 and Md. Dulal Hossain is the general secretary of the federation. "We're implementing various programs to promote popular Chinese martial arts all over Bangladesh. We want to produce international stars," said Hossain. The BWUF regularly organizes Wushu competitions in cooperation with the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, including the Ambassador's Cup. "We are very grateful to the Chinese government, for providing us with Wushu equipment through the embassy," said Hossain. Students learn sword handling skills during a Wushu training session in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Oct. 27, 2022. [Xinhua] A student learns sword handling skills under the guidance of a trainer during a Wushu training session in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Oct. 27, 2022. [Xinhua] (Source: Xinhua) BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday sent a message of condolence to Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos over a tropical storm hitting the Philippines. In the message, Xi said he was shocked to learn that the tropical storm has caused heavy casualties and property losses, and that he would like to, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, extend condolences over the passing of the victims and express sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured. Xi also said he believes that under the leadership of Marcos and the Philippine government, people in the affected areas will surely overcome the disaster and rebuild their homes. The Chinese side is willing to provide assistance within its capacity for the post-disaster reconstruction in the Philippines, he added. (Source: Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan] BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday. The two presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Noting that President Hassan is the first African head of state China has received after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi said it speaks volumes about the two countries' close ties and the important position of China-Africa relations on China's diplomatic agenda. Xi recalled putting forth, while visiting Tanzania in 2013, the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith to guide China's cooperation with African countries. It has now become the basic policy guiding China's solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. Under the new circumstances, the sound growth of China-Tanzania relations not only advances the common and long-term interests of the two countries, but also carries great significance for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, said Xi. Xi briefed President Hassan on the proceedings of the 20th CPC National Congress. He pointed out that starting from now, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. "Modernization does not mean Westernization," Xi said, adding China has already found a development path suited to its national conditions. Chinese modernization is grounded in China's own realities, with features that are unique to the Chinese context, said Xi. Xi pointed out both the CPC and the Tanzanian Revolutionary Party (CCM) shoulder the historical mission of strengthening themselves and the country they govern, adding the CPC will expand exchanges and cooperation with the CCM and support the curriculum and operation of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School. Xi stressed that China views its relations with Tanzania from a strategic perspective and will always be a trustworthy friend of Tanzania. Moving forward, Xi said the two sides should advance friendship and cooperation across the board, in keeping with the China-Tanzania comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. China firmly supports Tanzania in upholding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and in exploring a path of development that suits Tanzania's conditions. China and Tanzania will continue to show firm support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi also said China will further increase import of specialty products from Tanzania, and support Chinese companies in investing and operating in Tanzania, so as to contribute to the economic and social development of Tanzania. China is ready to exchange experience and best practices with Tanzania on rural revitalization, and support the betterment of livelihood there, added Xi. Xi pointed out that the Tazara Railway marks a milestone in China-Tanzania and China-Africa friendship. Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this railway. "Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, help our African friends achieve common development, and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era." In growing China-Africa relations, Xi said both sides need to remain committed to the overall direction of mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual learning and mutual assistance. Both China and Africa need to build on their time-honored traditional friendship, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and show greater historical initiative in advancing friendship between China and Africa, he added. Xi went on to point out China's continuous development will create new opportunities for Africa. China will speed up the implementation of the ongoing nine initiatives for cooperation with Africa. "With a particular focus on infrastructure, we will continue to nurture new drivers for China-Africa cooperation through trade, investment and financing." China stands ready to work with African countries to uphold the basic norms governing international relations including the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, actively operationalize the Global Development Initiative, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance, and do more to bring about a community with a shared future for mankind, said Xi. Noting that she was excited and honored to be invited to visit China soon after the successful conclusion of the 20th CPC National Congress, Hassan said that the visit is a testament to the high level of Tanzania-China relations. On behalf of the CCM and the Tanzanian government, Hassan once again extended warm congratulations on the success of the 20th CPC National Congress and Xi's re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Tanzania views China as its top real friend and will always be a trustworthy partner for China, said Hassan, adding that with the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Tanzania will work with China to strengthen practical cooperation across the board, take the relationship to a new height, and turn it into an exemplar for Africa-China relations in the new era. Hassan stressed that Tanzania will continue to firmly support China on issues relating to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other core interests of China. She expressed appreciation for China's support in the development of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, and conveyed the hope of southern Africa's six sister parties to step up experience sharing with China on national governance in order to achieve better development. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has not only boosted the development of African countries in various fields, but also had a demonstrative effect in driving other countries' cooperation with Africa and helped enhance Africa's international standing, the president said, adding that Tanzania will continue to take an active part in and support the development of FOCAC. Noting that the Global Development Initiative put forth by Xi is very timely and conducive to addressing the global challenges of today, Hassan said Tanzania will work with China to operationalize this initiative and build a community with a shared future for mankind. The two heads of state agreed to keep up the momentum of high-level exchanges and dialogue, and enhance exchanges and cooperation at all levels between the localities, legislatures and political parties of the two countries. They agreed to expand the scale of bilateral trade, boost the level of trade and economic cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance cooperation projects on infrastructure, enhance industrial complementarity and production capacity cooperation, and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation in such areas as manufacturing and processing, green development and digital economy. The two heads of state reached consensus on strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges, holding a China-Tanzania year of tourism and culture at an appropriate time, encouraging more exchanges between the academics and media organizations of the two countries, and carrying forward the friendship between the two peoples. The two presidents agreed to enhance cooperation in international and multilateral settings, step up communication and cooperation on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and jointly uphold international fairness, justice and the common interests of both sides. At the end of the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents covering trade, investment, development cooperation, digital economy, green development and blue economy. The two sides issued a Joint Statement on Establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania. Prior to the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Hassan in the Great Hall of the People. Upon President Hassan's arrival at the Great Hall of the People, a 21-gun salute was fired in Tiananmen Square to greet her. Seventeen honor guards lined up the steps on both sides of the red carpet to salute her and trumpeters blew horns to welcome her. The two presidents stepped onto the review stand, after which the military band played the national anthems of the two countries. Accompanied by Xi, Hassan then reviewed the guard of honor of the People's Liberation Army and watched the march-past. After the talks, Xi held a welcoming banquet for Hassan at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. [Xinhua/Yao Dawei] Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan] (Source: Xinhua) US intel officials believe Iran is seeking Russia's help to bolster its nuclear weapons program. Pictured is the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Bushehr, Iran on November 10, 2019. The campaigns of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin are exchanging accusations of scandal as the unexpectedly competitive governor's race reaches its final week. In Hochul's case, the incumbent from Buffalo has come under withering criticism over the state's $637 million no-bid contract to purchase rapid Covid-19 tests through a intermediary company whose owner and family members are generous donors to the governor's re-election campaign. Analysis: It's down to the wire in New York's race for governor Republicans seem downright giddy about their prospects, though the savvy among them note that winning in ultra-Democratic New York still represents the ultimate challenge, Bob McCarthy writes. The Zeldin campaign, for its part, is under investigation for possible improper coordination with political action committees that are pouring millions of dollars into ads that attack Hochul and support her Republican challenger. Both campaigns have denied wrongdoing. Some political observers raise concerns about the accusations lodged against the candidates, saying they're symbols of an election system far too reliant on contributions from wealthy donors and corporations. PolitiFact: Checking claims in the Hochul-Zeldin debate In the only debate in the race for New York governor, incumbent Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin offered plenty of claims and counterclaims. But it's not clear whether the accusations of corruption will carry weight with voters at a time of deep political divisions. "Partisanship allows us to excuse an awful lot," said Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo. Test contract scrutinized The Albany Times-Union in September first raised questions about the Covid-19 testing contract, noting the Hochul administration did not seek bids under its emergency Covid-19 spending powers. The state in late 2021 agreed to buy 52 million "Carestart" rapid tests, produced by New Jersey-based AccessBio. With Election Day closing in, Dems, GOP calling on big names to close governor contest Both parties are importing big names to convince anyone who remains undecided, and more importantly, to get out the vote from committed supporters. New York bought them through a distributor, Digital Gadgets, whose owner, Charlie Tebele, and family members have donated about $300,000 to Hochul with most contributions coming after the testing contract was issued. Republicans and some good-government advocates slammed the deal as bad for taxpayers. The Times-Union reported California paid about $6.75 per test for 10 million AccessBio tests it purchased, about 45% less than the average price of $12.25 per test paid by New York. Unlike New York, California purchased the tests directly without going through an intermediary company. Reinvent Albany called for a federal investigation into the awarding of the contract because federal pandemic-relief funds were used to buy the tests. "It's very troubling, because it looks like a vendor was given a huge contract because of campaign contributions. And there were hundreds of millions of dollars that were overpaid," said John Kaehny, the watchdog organization's executive director. Republican Lee Zeldin targets a tough audience: NYC Democrats Zeldin is sticking to a calculated game plan of constant appearances before potential Democratic defectors. He cites former Republican Gov. George E. Pataki's three consecutive victories in 1994, 1998 and 2002, and thinks it can be done again. At last week's gubernatorial debate, Zeldin pressed Hochul on the "pay-to-play corruption that is plaguing you and your administration." Hochul rejected the premise and reiterated the test contract came at a time during the 2021-22 school year when the Omicron variant was spreading. "I told my team, you go out and find every single test kit you can find. This was early on. We were hit harder than other states, like California, that didn't deal with it till later," Hochul said. Moderator Susan Arbetter questioned the optics of taking large donations from companies that do business with the state. "I understand the concern you just raised. I have always, for 30 years as an elected official, played by all the rules," Hochul said. "There has never been a situation where there's a return from someone giving a campaign contribution to me." Gov. Kathy Hochul summons powers of incumbency to stave off Lee Zeldin's challenge As Gov. Kathy Hochul's faceoff against Republican Lee Zeldin enters its final days, she is charging harder than at any other time in her long political career. Coordination probed The state Board of Elections is examining whether the Zeldin camp illegally coordinated advertising and other efforts with two super PACs. The probe was launched after reporting by the Times-Union and a complaint filed by the state Democratic Committee presented examples of ties between the Zeldin campaign and the super PACs. Under federal election law, the PACs can accept unlimited donations from campaign contributors and spend as much as they want on ads supporting one candidate or opposing another. However, New York election rules require the PACs to operate independently of the campaigns they support. The New York Times reported that two PACs, Safe Together New York and Save Our State NY, had as of last week raised more than $12 million to spend on ads attacking Hochul and touting Zeldin using language and images in line with the Republican's campaign message. Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder is the biggest donor to the two PACs, the Times-Union reported, with roughly $9 million in contributions. "I'm at risk of sounding hyperbolic here, you know, using terms like 'threat to democracy,' " Kaehny said. "But that is one or two people buying, and attempting to buy, an election. And that's appalling." In December, the Times-Union reported, Safe Together paid $100,000 to John McLaughlin, a longtime Lauder political consultant who serves as Zeldin's campaign pollster, to produce an anti-Hochul radio ad. At the gubernatorial debate, after Zeldin accused Hochul of a "pay-to-play" scandal, the governor raised the PAC contributions from Lauder. "If you want to talk about unseemly circumstances, how does one person get away with giving you $10.5 million in your election?" Hochul said. Zeldin spokeswoman Katie Vincentz did not respond for comment. She told the New York Times that the state investigation was a "desperate" attempt to divert attention from Hochul's record. Its absolutely zero coincidence that the person pushing this agenda at the Board of Elections is a political appointee of the Cuomo-Hochul administration, she said, referring to Michael L. Johnson, chief enforcement counsel at the agency. Nothing is likely to come out until after the election because the investigation was delayed when Republican members skipped a board meeting, denying the required quorum for a vote on whether to issue a subpoena. Robert Galbraith, senior research analyst at the Public Accountability Initiative, said the Zeldin campaign's connections to the super PAC are concerning, but it is possible they technically don't violate state election law. "We know there's all sorts of ways that campaigns and super PACs sort of are able to coordinate without, you know, coordinating," he said. Do voters care? The two cases are both rooted in the need for candidates in New York to raise significant sums of money from corporations and wealthy donors, Galbraith said. As a result, he said, those contributors, often people who have business contracts with the state, have outsized influence on statewide elections. "It can be really lucrative to be a vendor to the state," Galbraith said. "And I think that frequently translates into campaign support." Galbraith and others say they doubt the reported scandals will change voters' minds in this election. Given how polarized people are today, it is unlikely that news of the testing contract controversy will turn Democrats away from Hochul or coverage of the Zeldin campaign investigation will sway his Republican supporters, UB's Neiheisel said. "I don't know if this gets traced back to Tammany Hall days, or something like that, but there's certainly a normalization of that kind of politics," he said, referring to the pay-to-play accusations, in particular. "And it's also extraordinarily difficult to prove motive in cases like that. There's a strong circumstantial element to it." If anything, Reinvent Albany's Kaehny said, it could serve to turn off some potential voters. "I think that the biggest concern would just be one of reducing voter turnout through cynicism and discouragement and apathy," he said. Basic Income pilot scheme having positive impact on north Wales care leavers Care leavers in north Wales are amongst those receiving a Basic Income as part of a multi-million pound pilot scheme. Launched in July, the initiative will see more than 500 people turning 18 and leaving care in Wales being offered 1600 each month (before tax) for two years to support them as they make the transition to adult life. The 20 million pilot, which will run for three years, will be evaluated to carefully examine its effect on the lives of those involved. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, it is hoped the lessons learnt from the pilot scheme can benefit future generations to come by helping them overcome barriers they face starting adult life and set them on a path to live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives. After launching the scheme with the First Minister and Deputy Minister for Social Services Julie Morgan, Social Justice Minister Jane Hutt and the Deputy Minister recently met with a number of young people benefitting from the pilot in north Wales. It has been fantastic to hear about how the pilot scheme has already impacted the young lives of those taking part in it, she said. Our ambition for the scheme is that it will allow the young people who are benefitting to make their own choices, whether that means they are able to choose where they live, what jobs they can apply for, whether to continue studying or deciding to go and travel the world. The life choices of looked after children should not be determined by the circumstances of their childhood. It is heartening to hear how many have already received support to take the first steps to achieve this and it puts them in good stead for the future. She added: We want them to have independence as they get older, and by giving them a helping hand as they start their adult life we can improve their chances of doing so. By providing financial stability to a generation of young people facing huge barriers to reach their full potential, we are giving them the tools to overcome them and thrive. Those taking part in the pilot will also receive individual advice and support to help them manage their finances and develop their financial and budgeting skills. Deputy Minister for Social Services Julie Morgan said: It has been heartening to hear from the young people the impact the pilot scheme has had on their lives. Weve learnt a lot from meeting with them today and we appreciate them sharing their thoughts with us We are committed to providing support to the most vulnerable in our society, many of whom have grown up without a support network through their formative years. We hope this scheme, as well as the advice and information available to them through it, will give them the confidence and strong foundations to achieve their dreams. Local authorities will play a key role in supporting them throughout the pilot. Voices from Care Cymru will also work with the young people to give them advice on wellbeing, education, employment and help them plan their future after the pilot. Emma Phipps-Magill, of Voices from Care Cymru, who also attended the meeting, added: We have already seen the pilot have a positive impact on young care leavers as they adapt to having financial independence. We are still at a very early stage of the pilot, but they have grasped the opportunity with both hands and have already made progress with many of their goals. Relaunch of life-saving app to alert first aiders of nearby cardiac arrests The Welsh Ambulance Service has partnered with a life-saving app that lets first aiders know when there is a cardiac arrest in their area. GoodSAM uses GPS technology to alert trained first responders registered on the app to a nearby cardiac arrest. When someone has a cardiac arrest, they collapse and become unresponsive. They either stop breathing entirely, or they may take gasping or infrequent breaths for a few minutes, which can be misinterpreted as snoring. If the responder is available, they can accept the alert via the app and make their way to the patient to begin CPR prior to the arrival of an ambulance. Responders include NHS workers like doctors, nurses, paramedics and therapists, as well as police and fire staff, first aiders and others who are trained in CPR. Several thousand responders in Wales are already signed up to the app, 800 Welsh Ambulance Service staff and volunteers but now the Trust is inviting more. Carl Powell, Clinical Support Lead at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: When someone goes into cardiac arrest, every second counts, so the sooner that effective CPR is started, the better. In a cardiac arrest situation, we will send an ambulance as quickly as possible on lights and sirens, but if theres someone closer who can begin the chain of survival, it could mean the difference between life and death. Often its the first few minutes that determine a patients outcome, which is why the GoodSAM app is a brilliant resource. Early CPR is crucial, which is why we would encourage everyone is who CPR-trained across Wales to consider registering on the app. The Welsh Ambulance responds to over 6,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Wales every year, but for every minute without CPR, a persons chances of survival drop by 10%. The Welsh Ambulance Service first began using the GoodSAM app in 2018, and within two days, it has saved the life of Phil Nunnerley who went into cardiac arrest at a Wales vs Scotland game at Cardiffs Principality Stadium. Use of the app was paused during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the partnership with GoodSAM has since been relaunched to allow more responders to come forward. Mark Wilson OBE, Co-Founder and Director of GoodSAM, said: If your job requires CPR training or you are a first aider, then we encourage you to sign up. If we can get as many people involved, there could be a GoodSAM responder on every street. Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Professor Chris Jones, added: The GoodSAM initiative is a huge step forward for Wales to ensure that anyone in the vicinity with the skills to save a life will be notified and can help. We are doing lots of work to increase peoples confidence to intervene in a cardiac arrest emergency which includes highlighting Help is closer than you think, the importance of calling 999 immediately, support provided by the call handler to do CPR and how to locate a defibrillator until an ambulance arrives. Early intervention is vital as every second counts. If you see someone having a cardiac arrest, phone 999 immediately and start CPR. In addition, a defibrillator will deliver a controlled electric shock to try and get the heart beating normally again. Ambulance call handlers will tell you where your nearest defibrillator is. You can this video from the Resuscitation Council UK about how to perform CPR. It is important that new and existing defibrillators are registered on The Circuit in order that 999 call handlers can quickly and easily alert callers to their location if needed. More information on the GoodSAM app and to register can be found here. Most of the money in the race for New York governor has come from New York City. But deep-pocketed donors in Western New York have opened their wallets to chip in more than $1.8 million this year to the campaigns of Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, and Rep. Lee Zeldin, her Republican challenger. A Buffalo News analysis of state campaign finance records shows Hochul raised $1.5 million from her home turf of Erie and Niagara counties through October. That's more than five times more than the $292,000 that Zeldin, of Suffolk County, raked in. The News' analysis did not include dark money spent on behalf of the two candidates by political action committees that did not directly contribute to them. Most of the checks came from frequent donors and people with business before state government, like real estate developers, labor unions, attorneys and law firms. Zeldin's largest local donation, though, comes from a strange source: a trust fund of someone who isn't alive. Unusual donation State campaign finance records show Zeldin received three donations this year totaling $30,000 from Michael Cimasi, a criminal defense attorney in Buffalo. But Cimasi said that while he is in charge of the money, the funds are not his. "I do support Lee Zeldin but I have not donated one dollar to him," Cimasi said. Cimasi told The News that he serves as a trustee and fiduciary agent for "several trusts that are not my money that are encumbered in very particular ways." The money in the trusts belongs to a man who died "a long time ago," Cimasi said, though he declined to give the man's identity. Cimasi said he believes the campaign contribution may have been misreported by the Zeldin campaign, whose spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. State election officials say that while a dead person can't vote, the law says they actually can contribute to elections if they bequeath their money through a will or trust fund before their death. Still, it's rare for such a contribution to be made in a high-profile election like the race for New York governor. "I've never heard of anything like this," said John Conklin, spokesperson for the State Board of Elections. Hochul's biggest donors On the Democratic side, Howard A. Zemsky and his wife, Leslie H. Zemsky, the developers of Buffalo's Larkin District, each contributed $70,000 to Hochul's campaign this year. Howard Zemsky was also president, CEO and commissioner of Empire State Development under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The Buffalo News rents office space from Zemsky's company. Three labor unions donated the following sums in their efforts to make Hochul the Empire State's first elected female governor: Building & Construction Trades Council, $49,000; International Union of Operating Engineers, $45,000; and United Auto Workers, $25,000. Buffalo developer Rocco Termini contributed $33,000, and Morgan McDole gave $32,600. McDole's husband, Russ Maxwell, owns the Syracuse-based Medical Answering Services, which has offices in Buffalo. In August, the Albany Times-Union reported that Medical Answering Services received a $5 billion contract from the State Health Department to serve as a broker arranging rides for Medicaid patients. John F. Maxwell, a Buffalo attorney, contributed $30,000 to Hochul. Five others contributed $25,000 or slightly more to Hochul, including former Grand Island Deputy Supervisor James R. Sharpe; Clover Management Inc. President Michael L. Joseph and his wife, Roberta Joseph; Delta Sonic president Ronald Benderson; and Gordon J. Reger, the CEO of West Seneca development company Reger Holdings. Zeldin's biggest donors Aside from the mystery donation, Zeldin's next highest donors are all political players in Erie or Niagara counties. Former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Carl P. Paladino contributed $22,587 to Zeldin through his own funds as well as companies he controls. Jeffrey Williams of Lewiston, an official with the State Republican Party, gave $21,280. Outgoing Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-Orchard Park, and companies he controls contributed $17,000. Developers and business owners made up the rest of Zeldin's biggest donors. Matt Cherry of Glendale Development gave $15,000; Paul Stephen, a Clarence developer, contributed $12,500; Gerald Buchheit of Accent Stripe Inc. gave $10,000; the Phillips Lytle law firm contributed $8,500; Dan Gernatt of Gernatt Gravel gave $5,000. A company associated with Buffalo developer Nick Sinatra donated the same amount. The mass loss of life of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas continues. Dozens more died this week. According to the Aegean Boat Report (ABR) group, 22 dead bodies have been recovered but at least 34 more are missing from a shipwreck near the Greek islands of Evia and Andros. Among the dead found in the Kafireas Strait are five children and six women. There were around 68 people on the boat which sank on Tuesday. Separately, eight people are missing after an inflatable dingy overturned and sank off the eastern Aegean island of Samos on Monday. On November 2, ABR issued more information on the Kafireas Strait sinking, stating in a Facebook post, We have decided to release one of the two videos filmed onboard the sailboat just before it sank. There is no faces in the video, and the voice has been changed so it no longer can be recognized, due to the sensitivity of this tragedy. In the videos the man is speaking Sorani, so most likely from Northern Iraq (Kurdish), The man is talking on the phone, it seems with emergency services saying, the water is coming inside the boat, please hurry to save us, we have only ten minutes and the boat will go down. An ABR tweet on November 1 showed four pictures of refugee women and children squeezed onto a dingy and exhausted on the shoreline rocks, with the words, 40 people arrived on [Greek island] Lesvos last night, 11 of them are now safe in camp, 29 was arrested, beaten and robbed before thrown in a life raft by Greek coast guard, left helplessly drifting in the Aegean Sea, this is Greek border management. These are just the latest horrific instances, as the Greek and Turkish authorities compete with one another over who can impose the most brutal anti-immigration policies on the southern border of Fortress Europe. Before this weeks deaths, at least 27 refugees and asylum seekers drowned last month in two separate sinkings. Eighteen people died when a boat that had set sail from Turkey sank off Lesbos. Another boat containing 100 people went down in a gale, resulting in at least nine deaths, with six people still missing. People remain missing after a sailboat carrying 95 refugees crashed onto rocks on October 5, east of Kythiras main port of Diakofti, off the coast of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. At least 11 people died, with just seven bodies recovered and eight people still missing. The boat sailed from Turkey two days prior, on route to southern Italy. Bodies of migrants are seen next to floating debris after a sailboat carrying migrants smashed into rocks and sank off the island of Kythira, southern Greece, October 6, 2022. Residents of Kythira pulled shipwrecked migrants to safety up steep cliffs in dramatic rescues after two boats sank in Greek waters, leaving at least 23 people dead and many still missing. [AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis] Another incident epitomises the sheer brutality and inhumanity shown by governments towards desperate men, women and children fleeing their devastated homelands. Over the weekend of October 15, 92 immigrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Morocco, Iran, Bangladesh and Pakistan were discovered in Greeceat the Evros river border with Turkeyafter having been abandoned and stripped naked by authorities. Among their number were children. Neither the Greek nor Turkish governments have accepted responsibility. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), describing the incident as cruel and degrading treatment, called for an investigation. Whoever is directly responsible for this atrocity, it is an outcome of the brutal anti-immigration measures agreed between both countries and the European Union (EU). In March 2016, the EU-Turkey Statement was adopted as a temporary and extraordinary measure stipulating that people deemed to have crossed illegally to the Greek islands from Turkey would be returned there. No systematic data is kept by the EU or any European country on the numbers of refugees being drowned or arrested and deprived of their democratic rights in the Mediterranean and Aegean. It is left to organisations such as the Aegean Boat Report group, with limited resources, to compile information and document the horrific treatment of refugees by a fascistic pushback policy. On November 2, the ABR tweeted that the previous month, it had registered 105 illegal pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, performed by [Hellenic Coast Guard], 2,618 people, children, women and men, have been denied their right to seek asylum, their human rights have been violated by the Greek government. Its October report notes that the Greek and Turkish coastguard have stepped up their persecution of migrants and asylum seekers in recent weeks. Explaining that in 2022 the number of people arriving was up 153.2 percent compared to 2021, it found that in October arrivals of people on Greek islands had decreased 16.3 percent compared to September. ABR adds, 225 boats started the trip [from Turkey] towards the Greek islands in October, carrying a total of 6,113 people. 54 boats made the trip carrying a total of 1,282 people, the rest, 171 boats, 4,831 people were picked up by the Turkish Coast guard, half of these boats had been pushed back by the Greek Coast Guard. Of the year so far, In 2022, 1,386 boats have been stopped on their way towards Greece, and a staggering 44,041 people have been arrested. The latest bimonthly bulletin on refugees and migrants from ReliefWeb site provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), provides more examples of the criminal treatment of refugees. It notes, Between 15 March and 27 September 2022, the European Court of Human Rights granted 20 interim measures in a series of cases of refugees and migrants in the Evros region, represented by GCR [Greek Council for Refugees], ordering the Greek authorities for their immediate rescue. Despite the court rulings, most of the people were pushed back or forcibly expelled to Turkey. Those who were formally arrested and registered report that they had previously experienced pushbacks. Among the cases reported by ReliefWeb are: In August, 38 refugees were stranded on an islet in the Evros river for days. No rescue operation was launched by the Greek authorities, who claimed that the refugees were located on Turkish territory. The refugees were formally arrested and registered only after they reported that a five-year-old girl died on the islet. Since 10 August, around 50 people are said to be missing after a migrant boat leaving from southern Turkey and heading to Italy sank in the Aegean Sea, off the Greek island of Rhodes. International law is being violated with refuges often left to die on the seas. ReliefWeb writes, An increasing number of migrants on boats sailing from Turkey and Lebanon to Italy disembark on southern Greek islands or coastal areas after several days adrift at sea. Dramatic delays in EU states Search and Rescue (SAR) operations demonstrate their disregard of international obligations to rescue victims in the Mediterranean Sea. In one horrific event, A 4-year-old Syrian girl died from dehydration, an 8-month pregnant woman lost her child, many were injured and two people went missing after a delayed and inadequate SAR operation in the Maltese SAR zone, off Crete. The treatment of refugees housed in Greeces camps is ever more abhorrent. ReliefWebs report notes, An unjustified 25-day movement restriction has been applied to newly arrived asylum seekers in Samos Closed Controlled Access Center. It adds, Newly arrived Yezidi refugees remained homeless and without access to drinking water outside of Serres Camp for days. Greeces conservative New Democracy government violently closed Elaionas [or Eleonas] camp with the involvement of riot police. This took place in August, with Info Migrants reporting, The clearance operation of the Eleonas camp started at 5:00am local time in Athens. However, when they arrived, police initially ran into barricades, which the residents of the 670-strong camp had erected around the gates in a bid to stop their eviction. After removing the improvized structures, police clashed with migrants, eventually pushing them back with the use of tear gas and a flash grenade. According to a UNHCR report in May this year, more than 3,000 migrants died, or have gone missing, presumed dead, while trying to reach Europe by sea in 2021. This was twice as many as in 2020. This year is expected to be similarly deadly, with at least 478 people having already perished or gone missing at the time the report was published. Greek Minister for Migration Notis Mitarachi has claimed guarding the border has reduced the number of lives lost. Just how grotesque this lie is has been exposed by the humanitarian group Koraki. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles cited its research finding that while arrivals have significantly decreased partly as the result of the governments illegal and immoral acts the proportion of mortalities has in fact gone up from one in every 835 people to one in every 66.5 person attempting to reach Greece via the Aegean Sea. Two serological surveys released on Thursday suggest that at least two-thirds of the Australian population, or 16.9 million people, have been infected at least once with COVID-19. It is estimated that one-fifth of all adults in the country contracted the virus between June and August. A drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, January 8, 2022. [AP Photo/Mark Baker] For the first time, blood samples from children and teenagers were tested. The rate of COVID-19 infection among those aged under 20 was similar to the overall population, with 64 percent of samples testing positive, although the rate was slightly higher among school-aged children. These results make clear that official infection figures are a vast understatement of the extent of the virus. Since the start of the pandemic, around 10.4 million cases have been reported across the country, an undercount of at least 6.5 million according to these surveys. In fact, the true figure is likely higher still. Previous studies have established that nucleocapsid protein antibodies are not detectable in 15 to 20 percent of vaccinated people infected with Omicron. These antibodies are produced at lower levels and wane more quickly when an individual has received at least a partial course of COVID-19 vaccine. Given Australias high vaccination rate, at least for the initial two-dose course (96 percent), it is likely that more than 20 million people in the country have been infected. Almost all of these infections have occurred in 2022. On December 31, 2021, the official total for Australia stood at 395,504. The mass infection of the population with a highly contagious and deadly virus is the result of the deliberate and bipartisan adoption of let it rip policies by all Australian governments, state, territory and federal. One of the sharpest expressions of the reopening drive was the herding of (then mostly unvaccinated) students and teachers back to face-to-face schooling in February, during what was, at the time, the worst surge of COVID-19 in Australia throughout the pandemic. This was motivated by the demands of big business for parents to go back to work, under conditions of staff shortages exacerbated by the pandemic. This has resulted in the mass infection of children, who have in turn become a significant and unwitting vector, spreading the virus to their parents and older relatives, who are most at risk of severe illness or death. Between June 8 and August 31, the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network collected samples from 2,046 children and teenagers who were undergoing procedures at eight hospitals across the country. Nucleocapsid antibodies were detected in 64 percent of the paediatric survey participants. Among school-aged children and teenagers, the prevalence was slightly higher, at 70 percent for 1219 year olds and 67 percent for 511 year olds. Of those school-aged children who were unvaccinated, 75 percent were nucleocapsid positive, including 81 percent of teenagers. Nucleocapsid antibodies were detected in 38 percent of young people under 20 with no history of past infection, pointing to the high incidence of asymptomatic infection and the lack of surveillance testing. The surveys also tested for spike protein antibodies, which remain detectable in the blood for longer, but because these are also produced in response to the COVID-19 vaccines used in Australia, they are only a reliable marker of infection among the unvaccinated. Spike antibodies were detected in 79 percent of children aged between one and four years old, all of whom are unvaccinated. Across the whole survey, 82 percent of unvaccinated children and youth had these antibodies in their blood. Only 90 percent of those who had previously been infected tested positive for nucleocapsid antibodies, which is in line with the known limitations of these tests, especially among the vaccinated. This suggests that the difference in infection rate between vaccinated and unvaccinated children is negligible. Therefore, the spike positive figures for the unvaccinated, showing that 94 percent of teenagers and 84 percent of 511 year olds have been infected with COVID-19, are likely closer to the true infection rate. The Australian COVID-19 Sero-surveillance Network conducted its third survey of blood donated by adults, analysing 5,005 samples collected between August 23 and September 2. Nucleocapsid antibodies were detected in 65 percent of samples, up from 46 percent when the survey was last conducted in June, and 17 percent in February. Extrapolating from these results, it is likely that at least half the adult population of Australia contracted COVID-19 over a period of six months. The highest prevalence was found among 1829 year-olds, with 79.7 percent of that cohort testing positive for nucleocapsid antibodies. The study noted these antibodies do not necessarily confer immunity, especially from BA.4, BA.5 and other Omicron subvariants, which have substantial immune escape, and re-infections are common. It is not possible to determine from these results how many of the participants have had multiple cases of COVID-19. The full implications of the mass infection and re-infection of the population, especially young people, with COVID-19 may not be known for decades. Some studies have shown that up to 30 percent of people infected with even a mild case will continue to experience symptoms of Long COVID for months and years afterward. Even using the most conservative estimate, of a 5 percent incidence of Long COVID among highly vaccinated populations, these serological surveys would suggest that more than 1 million Australians are already suffering from the debilitating and poorly understood disease. University of Queensland researchers recently discovered that COVID-19 can trigger an inflammatory response in immune cells in the brain, potentially leading to the development of Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease. Figures from the Australia Bureau of Statistics show that deaths from dementia were 19.8 percent higher than historical averages in the first seven months of the year. Deaths from diabetes were 21.3 percent higher than average over the same period and 24 percent higher in July. Overall, in the year to July, there were 16,375 excess deaths, 17.3 percent higher than average, including 2,503 in July. This compares to official COVID-19 death figures of 1,949 in July and 9,607 for the first seven months of the year. These statistics reveal that, like the infection figures, the official COVID-19 death toll, now at 15,705, vastly understates the lethal consequences of the pandemic, in terms of additional illness and death caused by complications of infection, as well as the reduced capacity of an overwhelmed health system to deal with otherwise treatable conditions. Officially reported COVID-19 deaths in Australia to November 4, 2022 [Photo: WSWS] As COVID-19 infection and death have continued to mount, governments, the corporate media and the unions have promoted the dangerous lie that the pandemic is over and should be considered no more serious than the common cold. Virtually all public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 have been torn down since late 2021. This includes border closures, quarantine, contact tracing, mass testing, capacity limits and mask mandates. This offensive against public safety has continued and deepened since the election of the federal Labor government in May. In recent months, mandatory isolation and paid pandemic leave for those infected with COVID-19 have been eliminated, placing workers, especially casuals and others without sick leave entitlements, under enormous financial pressure to attend work while infectious, placing their coworkers at risk. Public health policy is now being entirely dictated by the demands of the corporate elite. COVID-19 mitigation measures have been scrapped to ensure that nothing stands in the way of the continued operations and profits of big business. In an attempt to cover over the catastrophic impact of these moves, the Albanese government and the Labor-dominated National Cabinet have reduced the reporting of COVID-19 statistics from daily to weekly. Now, the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, have ended mandatory reporting of positive rapid antigen tests, in an effort to further obfuscate the spread of the virus. Despite this, official infection figures in the two states are increasing, indicating that another wave of COVID-19 is developing. The continued mass infection of the population cannot be allowed to continue. The pandemic can be eliminated, but it will take a fight by the global working class, directed at ending the capitalist subordination of human health and lives to the profit demands of the corporate and financial elite. As part of the fight to build such a movement, the Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee (HWRFC) and the Committee for Public Education (CFPE) call on all workers, students and professional people to join an online public meeting on Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m. (AEDT). The meeting, titled, Unite educators and health workers: Oppose the ending of COVID protection measures! Lives before profit! will outline a political perspective, including the building of rank-and-file committees, to unify health workers, teachers and other sections of workers in the fight for decent wages, working conditions and the elimination of COVID-19. Register now: https://bit.ly/3CRCuOh The Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin, millionaire construction boss Tim Michels, told supporters at a rally Monday that if he won on November 8, the Republican Party would remain in power forever. Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after Im elected governor, he declared. This starkly anti-democratic promise, effectively pledging the establishment of a one-party dictatorship in the Midwestern state, shows the real content to the claims by hundreds of Republican candidates that they have concerns about election integrity, or that the 2020 election in which Donald Trump was defeated was actually rigged by the Democrats. In the case of Michels in Wisconsin, after his boast about achieving permanent power for the Republican Party was made public in media reports, his campaign tried to pretend he had not meant it that way. They were concerned that a backlash against this statement could affect the outcome of the election, currently seen as a toss-up between Michels and incumbent Democrat Tony Evers. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin points to Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels at a rally with supporters on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. [AP Photo/Morry Gash] Michels would insure Republican candidates were successful because of the results he would supposedly achieve, his campaign said: lower taxes, better schools, uniform election laws and safer communities. How this miracle would be accomplished and how it would assure perpetual political power the campaign did not explain. Given the record of the Republican Party in Wisconsin, however, the meaning of Michels words is not in doubt. The state has been a watchword for Republican gerrymandering to rig elections, with district boundaries so crafted that with 47 percent of the vote in 2020, Republicans hold 64 percent of the seats in the state legislature. Republican candidates in virtually every closely contested state have made similar promises, although none so brutally direct as the statement by Michels. Hundreds of Republican candidates for Congress and for top state government positions are election denialists, who reject the legitimacy of the 2020 election in which Joe Biden defeated Trump by 7 million votes, and by a wide margin in the Electoral College. These include candidates for governor and secretary of state (usually the top election official) in nearly all the battleground states in the 2020 presidential elections, which are expected to be closely contested in the 2024 presidential election. In the event the Republican candidates win these contestsand most are considered toss-ups or within the margin of error in the latest pollsthe Republican presidential candidate could have a decisive edge, regardless of actual popular sentiment. Biden won six states in 2020 by narrow margins in the popular vote: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All six have gubernatorial contests in 2022 and four of the six have elections for the top state official to oversee the voting (Pennsylvanias secretary of state is appointed by the governor, and Wisconsin has no election official with statewide authority). Eight of the ten Republican candidates in these racesall but the two in Georgiaare fervent supporters of Trump and his bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen. These include Kari Lake and Mark Finchem in Arizona, Tudor Dixon and Kristina Karamo in Michigan, Joe Lombardi and Jim Marchant in Nevada, Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Michels in Wisconsin. Finchem, Karamo and Marchant are running for secretary of state, and the other five for governor. Mastriano, now the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, brought three busloads of Trump supporters to the January 6, 2021, rally in front of the White House which culminated in a march on Congress and then the fascist-led storming of Capitol Hill. Finchem, running for secretary of state in Arizona, is a self-admitted member of the Oath Keepers, one of the paramilitary groups that played a key role in attacking the Capitol on January 6. Finchem was in Washington for that event, and he attended a QAnon conference this year in Las Vegas, along with Marchant and Karamo. Marchant, running for secretary of state in Nevada, played the leading role in organizing a network of America First candidates for secretary of state in at least eight states, all pledged to seek the overturn of the 2020 election result and to guarantee a Republican victory in 2024. Interviewed on the podcast of fascist Steve Bannon, he said the purpose of the group was to find ways to influence the next election in 2022 and export it all over the country. In Michigan, Republican secretary of state candidate Karamo has filed suit asking a judge to require residents of Detroit to vote in person or obtain their ballots in person at the clerks office. Karamo, who is African American, has embraced Trumps claim that ballot-stuffing in Detroit was responsible for his election defeat in 2020. The eight Republican candidates for secretary of state enlisted in Marchants America First coalition are all pledged to cut back on voter access to the polls through such methods as restricting mail-in ballots, curbing the hours and days during which polls are open and purging people from the list of registered voters for the most trivial of reasons. Marchant and several others also want to eliminate electronic voting entirely and conduct elections entirely through paper ballots that are hand-countedan enormous source both of erroneous figures and long delays in obtaining results. Such vote-rigging methods are not, by any means, the only threat to the democratic rights of working people. Far more ominous is the increasing resort to intimidation, threats and outright violence, which has culminated in the assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was described as near-fatal by the police. Leading Democrats have belatedly raised the issue of the attack on democracy, with President Biden making a campaign speech on the subject Wednesday evening near the Capitol, and former President Barack Obama taking it up later that night at a rally in Arizona. Both speeches revealed the enormous political crisis in the United States and the complete impotence of the Democratic Party. The WSWS analyzed Bidens pathetic remarks here. Obamas were no better. He warned that if Republicans won the states top three officesgovernor, attorney general and secretary of state, Democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona. As with Biden, Obama sought to use the threat of Republican dictatorship to motivate voting for the Democrats, while at the same offering no action to oppose fascist violence. Instead, he boasted of his own role in welcoming Trump to the White House. When Donald Trump won, I stayed up till 3 in the morning so I could offer a congratulatory call to somebody who opposed everything I stood for, but I believed in the peaceful transfer of power, Obama said. I sat at his inauguration. We welcomed him into the White House Does that apply to only one side? Obama was diplomatically silent about the most revealing event of the transition to Trump, when he told the media that the 2016 election had been an intramural scrimmage, and that the Democrats and Republicans are on the same team. Indeed they are: the team of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus. Such is the crisis of American capitalism, however, that one faction is seeking to eliminate the other, in order to establish an openly authoritarian regime to suppress the upsurge in the class struggle and assert the overseas interests of American imperialism through military aggression. With the drastic shift to the right under Trump, the Republican Party is being transformed into an outright fascist political formation, with demands for lockstep loyalty to the party leader and an open resort to intimidation, threats of violence and outright physical assault. The Humans is a 2021 film written and directed by Stephen Karam, based on his own play, first staged in 2015. A family gathers for the Thanksgiving holiday in a dilapidated New York City apartment that is a new home to the youngest daughter. Erik and Deirdre Blake (Richard Jenkins and Jayne Houdyshell), residents of Scranton, Pennsylvania, are visiting Brigid (Beanie Feldstein), an aspiring composer, and her Asian-American boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun). Another daughter, Aimee (Amy Schumer), who lives in Philadelphia, has come for the holiday meal. The Blakes have also brought Eriks mother (June Squibb), wheelchair-bound and in dementia. The Humans (2021) As the drama unfolds, almost all the characters situations prove to be challenging. Aimee has lost her girlfriend and her job at a law firm, and suffers from a condition requiring surgery. Brigid is struggling financially in an expensive city. Deirdre has toiled 40 years in an office, but she now works for two guys in their 20s who make five times what she does. Late in the film, we learn that Erik too has lost his job, as a janitor at a Catholic school, because of an affair with a teacher. He has no pension, no savings. A beloved lake house has had to be sold because of the parents financial woes. Things are only getting worse. Dont you think it should cost less to be alive?, someone pointedly asks. As for rich people, God knows where their money comes from. Erik has a recurring nightmare about a faceless woman. He and Aimee barely escaped being caught in the 9/11 attacks. Deirdre has a tense, problematic relationship with Brigid. Both daughters tend to sneer at their mother, her oddball religious beliefs and her eating habits behind her back. The grandmother is virtually vegetative, except for a painful, angry outburst. We do get to see something of her former thoughtful, sensitive self through the reading out loud of an email she sent her granddaughters (Look out for each other) on the eve of her descent into senility. The nearly unfurnished apartment, in Lower Manhattans Chinatown, plays an active role in the film, as a threatening, almost malevolent presence. Paint bubbles ominously on the walls, the electricity fails from time to time, rusty pipes rattle and hiss, the windows on an interior courtyard are smeared and filthy, sudden, inexplicable noises come from neighboring apartments, cell phones barely function. With its ominous atmosphere, The Humans has many elements or motifs consciously borrowed from the horror genre. All in all, the picture of the Blakes is not a pretty or happy one. Various tributes to family and how that is what matters largely ring hollow, especially as solidarity among the family members seems tenuous. Sadness, loneliness, declining economic prospects Deirdre expresses a dislike for gory movies: Theres enough going on in the real world. The film ends with the characters in almost complete darkness. The American family drama has reached a point of considerable bleakness, having traveled some distance (along with the society it reflects) from a play and film such as Frank Gilroys The Subject Was Roses (first staged in 1964, filmed in 1968). The Humans Karams father is Lebanese American. He was raised in Scranton, he told an interviewer, in a Maronite Christian householdMaronite is the Lebanese version of Roman Catholicism. He has written a number of plays, including columbinus (inspired by the Columbine High School mass shooting), Speech & Debate and Sons of the Prophet (about a Lebanese-American family). Karam reveals a sensitivity to the downward mobility of wide layers of the US population. He would have seen some of that growing up in Scranton, a beat-up industrial city whose population fell by half between 1930 and 2010. In an interview, he referred to worries about poverty, sickness, losing the love of someone as existential human fears and indicated that his theme in part was the dying middle class. He went on, As a playwright, you can't write about what it means to be alive and not be political. And if you're writing about what it means to be alive today, you're going to end up writing a political play. Karam spoke to the New Yorker specifically about the problem of having an aging parent: In a place like New York, where the rich are very rich, its easy to forget that for most people its not a viable financial option to put your parents into assisted-living facilities for a long period of time. These financial stresses are terrifying, as if watching your parents health fade year after year wasnt scary enough. I think that can take a serious toll. Also, people are working harder longer. I have relatives who have worked at the same place for over forty years and are still not retired. These are all legitimate and even praiseworthy concerns. An obvious intelligence is at work here. The actors all do top-notch work. This is no surprise in the cases of Jenkins, Houdyshell and Yeun (Minari), but Schumer continues to exceed expectations as a serious actress. However, one has to point out that Karam expresses a degree of shock (and even amazement) over physical circumstances of life that have bedeviled millions of New York (and other urban) working-class residents for decades and more. Whats new is that these miserable conditions are extending themselves ever upward and outward, dragging in a greater and greater proportion of the population. A handful of human beings live like pharaohs, with golden toilets, in Karams own phrase, while broad layers sink into social deprivation. The writer-director has obvious skills as a writer of dialogue, some of it amusing. Certain moments have the ring of truth. Other elements are more jarring. Jenkins Erik, for example, who spends a great deal of time gazing disconsolately out windows or staring into space, has more the demeanor of a stoical, introverted college professor than a high school maintenance man. Beyond that, Karam half-jokingly terms The Humans a family thriller, but it is far from clear how the lurid-Gothic aspects contribute to the drama, if they do at all. How does making the work resemble a horror movie add anything to our understanding of the Blakes and their relationships, to each other and to the world? It might be one of those overly clever conceptions that should have been set aside. The apartment is so menacing it is not clear why anyone, even on a limited income, would rent it. The self-conscious emphasis on the disturbing character of the space distracts the viewer from the painful social realities. It also may serve to distract him or her from the fact that the drama is not all that well or at least evenly developed, that the characters at times are a bit thin, even predictable. The net result, oddly enough, of the horror dimension is the weakening of the social commentary. A sensible review in Reverse Shot observes that the camerawork [in The Humans] is at times over-deliberate, too intent on aestheticizing the cramped quarters when a more straightforward approach might have benefited the narrative. Not only the camerawork. A more straightforward approach in general would have strengthened the narrative. In any event, Karam demonstrates sincerity and compassion in The Humans. We shall see where he goes from here. A federal judge for the second time in two weeks has blocked a state ban against concealed weapons in places of worship from taking effect in Erie and Niagara counties. U.S. District Court Judge John Sinatra late Thursday issued a preliminary injunction that orders state police and district attorneys in Erie and Niagara counties to stop enforcing a new state law that bans permitted gun owners from carrying concealed firearms in houses of worship. Sinatra on Oct. 22 had issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the place of worship ban until he ruled on the preliminary injunction request brought by two local church pastors. The Rev. Jimmie Hardaway Jr. of Trinity Baptist Church in Niagara Falls and Bishop Larry A. Boyd of Open Praise Full Gospel Baptist Church in Buffalo sued in federal court to block the place of worship gun ban, citing the need to defend themselves and their congregations against the possibility of attacks like the 2015 racist mass shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church that killed nine people. Both lead congregations made up predominantly of Black worshippers. Hardaway and Boyd argued that the states prohibition against carrying a concealed gun in church violated their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, named as a defendant in the case, said in a statement this morning that his office was now prohibited from enforcing the ban on concealed weapons in places of worship until the federal case is resolved. As he did in granting the temporary restraining order, Sinatra said the state had failed to establish that its place of worship gun ban was consistent with the Nations historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations a standard the U.S. Supreme Court in a pivotal June 2022 decision that struck down parts of New Yorks longstanding concealed carry laws. The state responded to the Supreme Court ruling by adopting the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which identified sensitive spaces where guns are prohibited, including houses of worship. But Sinatra said in his preliminary injunction ruling that the states new measure with regard to places of worship was inconsistent with the countrys historical tradition and infringed on the right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense. Fliers claiming to have uncovered the names of the eight Akron, Ohio, police officers involved in the June 27 murder of 25-year-old Jayland Walker appeared throughout the city over the weekend and on social media. As of this writing, at least 75 people have been arrested on trumped up charges for protesting the killing of Walker, including family members of Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake who journeyed to Akron in expression of solidarity with victims of police violence earlier this summer. Jayland Walker While hundreds of workers and youth have been injured or arrested for peacefully protesting Walkers murder, on October 10, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett announced that the eight officially unidentified cops involved in the killing of Walker would be ending their paid vacation and returning to duty. This is despite the fact that the Ohio Bureau Criminal of Investigation inquiry into the police officers actions is still ongoing and expected to last for several more months. Mylett claimed that his actions were necessary because of a crisis in staffing at the department, and that the killer cops would only be relegated to desk duty. The chiefs decision to bring back the uncharged cops provoked outrage throughout the community. Three weeks after the killer cops returned to duty, fliers were posted throughout the former tire capital of the world with a picture of the cast from the Scooby Doo cartoon with the headline Did we find the cops who killed Jayland? Next to the picture is a QR code with the website URL releasethenames.com. The website was published on October 29, 2022, and the only identification listed on the site is admin. On the website, a link to the full report states: Cross-referencing 47 pieces of information from the personnel files of the officers involved in the killing of Jayland Walker with publicly available information sources produced eight names of individuals employed by the Akron Police Department. On the fliers and on the website, the names of eight cops listed are: Matthew Tyler Ritzinger, Cory Anthony Siegferth, Dylan James Carmany, Joseph M. Filimon, Joshua Scott Getz, Judd Allen Bishop, Justin D. Trawick and Katee Lenae Sweeney. At the bottom of the paper fliers are tear-off strips that read Demand Justice with a phone number to the Akron Police Department. On the website, the author notes While this report lays out likely matches to the identities of the eight involved officers, it is ultimately up to Akron officials to be transparent and hold officers accountable. This is something the Akron Police Department, and every other police department in the US and throughout the world, has refused to do for decades and will never do as long as capitalism, the economic system which they defend, exists. The police are an instrument of class rule and are impervious to reform. They do not exist to protect and serve the community, they are, in fact, given billions of dollars by Democrats and Republicans alike to uphold inequality and capitalist property rights. Each of the names on the website has links to publicly available information, such as government documents, YouTube videos and newspaper clippings, demonstrating that the redacted police files match the identified cops. Directive issued by Akron Police Department Chief Stephen Mylett placing the eight cops responsible for shooting and killing Jayland Walker on "Administrative Leave with pay." Asked to comment on the veracity of the names by the Akron Beacon Journal, Chief Mylett refused to confirm or deny its accuracy. Attorneys for the Walker family, Bobby DiCello and Kenneth Abbarno, likewise told the Beacon Journal that they too had yet to verify the accuracy of the information. While it is unclear at this time if these eight officers are indeed Walkers killers, it is notable that the police did not deny the information, nor has it been dismissed by Beacon Journal reporters, who have had access to the same personnel files according to their November 1 article on the release of the names. Revealingly, the Beacon Journal article on the release of the alleged names noted that the paper had already coordinated with the citys law department to obtain the names and emails of everyone who had previously requested the police personnel files in an attempt to expose the identity of the person(s) who appears to have identified the killer cops. Since the murder of Walker in June, Chief Mylett, working in concert with Democratic Mayor Dan Horrigan and a compliant local press, have suppressed the names of the eight cops who shot the fleeing and unarmed man at least 46 times. Seeking to squash popular outrage at one of the more heinous of the 970 police killings so far this year in the US, after details of the killing began to emerge, Chief Mylett attempted in a July 3 press conference to present a false narrative to justify police shooting over 90 rounds at Walker. Despite Myletts efforts, the heavily edited police body camera footage unequivocally demonstrated that the cops who chased after and shot Walker were not in any danger when they executed the young African American DoorDash delivery driver, former Amazon worker and high school wrestler. After releasing a small portion of the body camera footage, which did not show police actions after the shooting nor the circumstances that led up to the police chase initially, the Akron Police, with the assistance of the FBI and the Democratic Party, instituted a nightly curfew and virtually outlawed protests. Defying police repression, community and family members continued to protest throughout the summer demanding Justice for Jayland. New elections will now not take place in Northern Ireland until next year at the earliest. Conservative government Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris stated Friday morning, I can now confirm that no assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season. Current legislation requires me to name a date for an election to take place within 12 weeks of 28 October, and next week I will make a statement in parliament to lay out my next steps. The delay points to British imperialisms serious pursuit of a new agreement with the European Union (EU) over the provisions of the Brexit treaty dealing with Northern Ireland. According to the Guardian, It is understood that the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had pushed for the delay to give talks over the Northern Ireland protocol a chance. The assembly has been suspended since February 2022, when Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) First Minister Paul Givan resigned in protest against the protocol. The hard-right loyalist DUP are fiercely opposed to its introducing partial trade barriers and documentation checks between Britain and Northern Ireland for undermining the place of the six counties in the UK economy and their own political position. Elections in May this year resolved nothing. Although the republican Sinn Fein became the largest party, under the terms of the 1998 power-sharing Good Friday Agreement a new executive can only be formed if the largest nationalist and unionist parties both nominate a First and Deputy First Minister. The DUP lost some ground but remained by far the largest unionist party. They refused to nominate a Deputy First Minister, halting the assembly and ruling executive. Under the terms of the New Decade, New Approach deal of 2020 between the British and Irish governments, which restarted the assembly after its previous suspension between 2017 and 2020, another round of elections must be called if the assembly has been suspended for 24 weeksthis October 28. The grossly undemocratic character of the power sharing executive, a mandatory coalition of the largest nationalist and unionist parties, designed under the Good Friday Agreement to maintain and rest on sectarian divisions, means that the DUP is in a position to prevent a government being formed indefinitely. It has made clear it intends to do so until the protocol is abandoned. Boris Johnsons government (2019-2022) lent its support to the DUPs ultimatums. Its Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, giving Westminster the power to abandon the protocol and break the EU Withdrawal agreement, is currently making its way through the House of Lords. But the severe economic disruption and divisions this has provoked with the EU and the United States as a result of Brexit are prompting a reversal, under conditions in which the UK and world economy are confronted with recession and the US is seeking to hold together an anti-Russian war camp. The US opposed Brexit as a threat to US influence in the EU and opposed the British governments moves to abandon the protocol as a threat to US investments in Ireland, which depend on political stability. Johnson tried to square the circle by proving himself Washingtons most loyal ally in the NATO war against Russia but was repeatedly scolded by Biden and other US officials over Northern Ireland. Johnsons replacement Liz Truss continued the effort, holding a 75-minute call with Biden, part of which was devoted to reducing tensions over the protocol. But mending relations has become all the more important as part of new Tory party Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks task of stabilizing British capitalism after months of chaos in Westminster and with the Bank of England predicting a two-year recession. One of Sunaks first calls was to Irish Taoiseach, Micheal Martin. Both Sunak and Martin stressed the importance of Irish support for NATOs war against Ukraine, while a spokesman for Martin noted, both agreed on the importance of EU-UK engagement to find agreed solutions to the issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol, and they discussed ongoing developments in Northern Ireland. Truss and Sunaks Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has had several calls with EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, which both sides also reported favourably. A proposal by the nationalists Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the cross-community Alliance Party, and the Irish government to institute some form of joint authority between London and Dublin over Northern Ireland was not instantly rebuffed by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO). It told the Belfast Newsletter the government intended to carefully consider what other steps may need to be taken in the absence of an Executive to ensure that it delivers on its responsibilities to the people of Northern Ireland. All wings of unionism erupted in fury at the suggestion. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson warned, If the Irish Government thinks that by threatening me or my party with joint authority that that will help us to get to a solution that it will move us forward on the basis of mutual respect and understanding then Im afraid the Irish Government is deluded. Unionist peer Reg Empey of the Ulster Unionist Party complained that this was a very high-risk strategy and very dangerous. I don't think the NIO has the institutional memory of where we came from over the post Troubles period. The Loyalist Communities Council, representing the paramilitaries, warned of dire consequences if there was no movement on the protocol and that the presence of Irish Government ministers visiting sanitised audiences in Northern Ireland continues to inflame anger and tension in loyalist communities. On October 30, the Belfast Telegraph reported that an alleged loyalist attack, details unspecified, in the Republic of Ireland was called off hours before being put into action. Following talks with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, Heaton-Harris distanced the government from the joint authority proposal. He announced, The Belfast [Good Friday] Agreement clearly sets out that the consent principle governs the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. The UK Government will not countenance any arrangements that are inconsistent with that principle such as joint authority. However, relations between Westminster and the DUP are fractious. Even arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker, made a Northern Ireland minister by Truss and kept in position by Sunak, has drawn the partys ire. After urging unionists to find it within themselves to choke down their refusal to join the Northern Ireland executive and help the aim of reaching an agreed outcome with the EU which does work for everyone, he was told by DUP MP Sammy Wilson to spend less time preaching. Whether the British ruling class succeeds in reaching a new agreement with the EU, and whatever the response of the DUP, the task which falls to the working class in Ireland is to do away with the whole rotten framework. Stormont Parliament building outside Belfast, Northern Ireland [Photo by Dom0803 / CC BY-SA 3.0 The Good Friday Agreement brought the decades of the British Armys dirty war against Irish republicans to an end by bringing Sinn Fein into the British-controlled Northern Ireland government along with its unionist rivals. Brokered by the US, and underpinned by the EU, a new era of peace and prosperity based on investment was promised. The new political structures of the assembly and executive maintained the sectarian division of political life to control the working class and stabilize capitalist rule and maintain Britains grip on its oldest colonial possession. A quarter of a century later, living standards in both parts of the island are collapsing. In the North, the non-functioning devolved government has a 600 million black hole in its finances. Health and social services face unrelenting pressure. Workers have launched a series of strikes in local authorities and private industry, alongside workers in Britain. In the low-tax South, living costs, particularly housing, are intolerable, with successive cost-of-living protests held while transnational finance and production operations extract daily fortunes from the working class. Meanwhile, the island remains partitioned along the lines established a century ago by British imperialism and the then Ulster Tories. Although the last 25 years have seen the border dismantled and a high level of economic integration achieved, the logic of Brexit and the DUPs position on the protocol threaten to throw this violently into reverse. The working class must find a way to confront the filthy maneuvers of British imperialism and the unionists in Northern Ireland, without adapting either to rival imperialists or the Irish bourgeoisie. Workers, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, need a means to unify their struggles and safeguard their political independence from all other class forces. Rank-and-file committees organized in the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees and an Irish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, tasked with leading the struggle for socialism in a unified Ireland as part of the fight for the United Socialist States of Europe, are urgently required. On Saturday, December 10, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) is hosting an international online meeting to oppose the war in Ukraine. The IYSSEthe student and youth movement of the Socialist Equality Parties, the national sections of the International Committee of the Fourth Internationalcalls for the building of a mass global movement of young people against war. The war in Ukraine must be stopped before it results in a global catastrophe. The interaction of NATOs imperialist militarism, recklessly pursuing its global geopolitical agenda whatever the consequences, and the increasing desperation of Russias oligarchic capitalist regime threatens to escalate into a nuclear conflagration. The IYSSE aims to set into motion a movement to unite young people in a common fight, directed to the working class and based on a socialist program, against war. We say to students and youth throughout the world: If we are to have a future, we must fight for it! We cannot stand on the sidelines while the ruling classes plot to turn the entire world into an inferno! By Liang Guohong A US C-17 transport plane delivers Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD) to Guam. The US Department of Defense released the unclassified version of 2022 Missile Defense Review report on October 27. American media said the report reiterated the primary importance of homeland missile defense with special emphasis on air defense and anti-missile fortifications in Guam. As the Biden administrations overarching guideline on missile defense, the document is considered to be of great importance for directing the US militarys air defense and anti-missile system development. But analysts generally believed the latest report is just harping on the same string compared with previous ones and it doesnt have a clear execution plan. UAS threat overplayed The previous Missile Defense Review report was released by the Trump administration in 2019, which put a missile defense plan against the background of major-country competition for the first time. The 2022 report reflects Americas current missile defense policy to a large extent by emphasizing the full spectrum of air and missile threats, particularly UAS, which is described as an inexpensive, accessible, flexible, expendable way to carry out tactical-level strikes as well as larger scale attacks.It states that UAS can have similar lethality to cruise missiles and can launch from a wide array of locations, virtually undetected. UAS are generally not perceived by adversaries as having the same destabilizing geostrategic implications as larger missile forces, making them an increasingly preferred method to carry out tactical-level strikes. Besides, the continuous development of UAS technology has also expanded the scope of its usage. According to the report, the US will continue to develop active and passive defenses against regional hypersonic missile threats, and pursue a persistent and resilient sensor network to detect, track and intercept all hypersonic weapons. Homeland defense the top priority The report restresses homeland missile defense as the top priority in Americas missile defense strategy, and that the country will continue to upgrade and develop ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) systems. It believes the US military needs to continue developing Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), which is expected to be deployed around 2028 and gradually replace the existing interceptors. According to a DoD official, they plan to buy 20 new interceptors, for which US$2.8 billion has been allocated from the 2023FY budget. American media reckoned that the countrys ground-based missile defense systems will mainly be used to cope with ballistic missile threats from medium-sized and small countries but not capable enough to counter major countries nuclear arsenal. Another key region the report pays close attention to is Guam, which is considered part of the US homeland and a key logistics hub in the Indo-Pacific region. According to the report, within the context of homeland defense, an attack on Guam or any other US territory by any adversary will be considered a direct attack on the US. Additionally, as Guam is home to key regional power projection platform and logistics nodes, it is necessary to first and foremost implement the construction and upgrade plan for the ongoing missile defense system project there while enhancing regional defense and deterrence through intensified cooperation with allies and partners in joint air and missile defense. Many issues left in limbo Analysts generally held that this type of report released by the US is getting increasingly like make-do. First, it doesnt have a specific timetable or clearly planned stages for addressing key issues. Some American experts said the report proposes to introduce hypersonic defense systems and space sensors for the defense of Guam, but it doesnt give a timeline to evaluate whether those systems and devices can be used within 10 years. Second, some parts of the report are vague. For instance, it doesnt clarify Americas defense policy against missiles fired by major countries. The report reaffirms the previous stance that the US will fully rely on nuclear deterrence rather than missile defense to defend the homeland from ballistic missile attacks by major countries. It also commits to defending Guam as part of homeland, and suggests applying defense systems to keep the homeland from cruise missile attacks by major countries. Besides, the report wont change the congress attitude. It stresses competing with other countries in advanced technologies, such as hypersonic weapons, but the Senate is opposed to providing extra funds for the glide-phase interceptor currently developed by the Missile Defense Agency to intercept hypersonic missiles and isnt likely to allocate too much money for similar programs in the future either. Max Della Pia was knocking on doors along Maple Avenue in Hamburg a few days ago in an old-fashioned approach to running for Congress. The Democrat and 30-year Air Force veteran has not raised much campaign money in his uphill effort against Nicholas A. Langworthy, the Republican nominee in the 23rd Congressional District New York's most Republican. His ads will not even appear on TV let alone dominate the airwaves like those of other candidates this year. And Della Pia is hardly recognized anywhere beyond his home base of Owego in Tioga County. Nick Langworthy eyes transition from operative to elected official The state GOP chairman heads toward Election Day as the favorite to capture the overwhelmingly Republican district, and if successful against Democrat Max Della Pia, must undergo a major transition to elected member of Congress. But the Tioga County Democratic chairman, a Michigan native making his third run for Congress, starts with a simple message he wants those on Maple Avenue and throughout the seven-county district to hear. "I'm not running for money or power," he tells each potential constituent. "For me, it's about service, and that's all it's ever been." Della Pia, 69, doesn't dwell on the divisive issues of the day in his campaign as much as what has defined his life so far: Air Force Academy graduate, pilot, Senate staffer, lawyer, Bronze Star recipient, Gulf War and Afghanistan veteran, and commander of the Schenectady-based airlift wing servicing Antarctica. The retired colonel logged more than 120 missions to the South Pole, and casually mentions the Della Pia glacier is named after him. But his pitch also features the warning that Tuesday's election ranks as "the most consequential of our time." In an era when partisanship reigns supreme, Della Pia avoids wrapping himself in any ideology. In several interviews with The Buffalo News, he steers away from divisive issues and constantly returns to themes of consensus and cooperation. It may not adhere to today's ways of Washington, but he appears convinced the approach can work. "My parents taught me service gives life a purpose," he says. "I believe it's far better rather than a poke in the eye to say let's pick one or two things that we can work together on to improve the country. Right now everything is polarized. But it's not hopeless." Still, Della Pia has drawn sharp distinctions with Republicans during his recent years in politics an unsuccessful Democratic primary effort in 2020 and another defeat against Republican Joe Sempolinski in the August special election for the remainder of former Rep. Tom Reed's term in the old 23rd District. His stand on gun rights may draw the most scrutiny because of the June controversy surrounding Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park, and the Republican congressman's decision not to run again after the May 14 shootings that killed 10 people in a Buffalo Tops market. Republican and Conservative leaders instantly rejected Jacobs when he supported Democratic proposals for a ban on assault weapons after the massacre. Now Della Pia advocates for similar measures in a district where Second Amendment rights are widely viewed as sacrosanct. "There are a lot of sensible things we can do that respect the culture of the outdoors but also the need for safety," he says, labeling as a "knee-jerk reaction" the notion that every semiautomatic rifle qualifies as an assault weapon. Della Pia supports universal background checks with no exception for family inheritances or gun shows. Magazines on weapons holding 30 or more rounds "have no place in our world," he says, and notes the Tops shooter obtained modified weapons in Pennsylvania just a few miles from his Broome County home. Washington needs to embrace an overarching law, he says. "We need some kind of national consensus and I think we can get it," he says. "Some people would like me to say there should be no restrictions whatsoever," he says. "I think there are ways to say you can be pro-Second Amendment, but you can't look a parent who has lost a child in the eye and say we're doing the best we can. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." He also departs from his opponent on fracking, banned by New York State but an active part of the Pennsylvania economy just across the border. Della Pia says he remains skeptical that the chemicals used in the natural gas extraction method are not harmful. "When someone cannot tell me that what they pump into the ground has potential ramifications, I'm hesitant to give them a heads up," he says. Dueling TV debate is a clash of styles between Della Pia and Langworthy There were no fireworks in the live debate between 23rd Congressional District candidates Max Della Pia and Nick Langworthy on television Tuesday night, just a lot of clashing swords. The Democratic candidate points to his Southern Tier base like Langworthy, he says he will move into the district as prompting his recognition of pressing problems like rural health care. Many small hospital are bleeding money, he notes, while the small cities and rural towns dotting the district are often unable to attract needed medical professionals. He wants to create incentive programs to lure doctors and nurses to the Southern Tier and improve broadband to expand telemedicine services. "If we start closing clinics and hospitals, it will create a real problem," he says. Della Pia enters the last weekend of the campaign concentrating on population centers like Hamburg and West Seneca and other parts of Erie County that constitute 43% of the district. He will flood 40,000 homes with mailers outlining his "record of service," attempting to counteract the name recognition Langworthy established in his multimillion-dollar primary battle against Carl Paladino. He knows he is outgunned and laments that national Democrats have ignored his pleas for financial help, insisting he could win with just $50,000. "If we send a different kind of congressperson," he says, "I think we can restore hope and the reputation of an institution that's failed us." For more than two decades, Nicholas A. Langworthy toiled as a "behind the scenes guy" the political operative type who shunned the limelight, but managed the politics for a host of local and state Republicans. All that changed in June, when Langworthy suddenly and unexpectedly became the Republican candidate for the 23rd Congressional District. Now, the state GOP chairman heads toward Election Day as the favorite to capture the overwhelmingly Republican district, and if successful against Democrat Max Della Pia, must undergo a major transition to elected member of Congress. With all that experience behind him, even at only 41, Langworthy says he's ready. "This was not on my radar. If you had asked me in May if I would ever be a candidate in the future, I would have said no," he said a few days ago. "But as the circumstances unfolded, I realized I was familiar with the district, I had my time as a congressional staffer and as Erie County Republican chairman. I had also watched so many others go in and out the door, and felt I could do a better job." Langworthy was elected Erie County Republican chairman in 2010 at 29. Before that, he managed campaigns, served on the congressional staffs of Reps. Thomas M. Reynolds and Chris Lee, and acknowledges his vocation in life as partisan politician. He expects to serve in the House as a loyal Republican, he says, but realizes a different role lies ahead. Trump waits a while, but endorses Langworthy for Congress The former president late Thursday tweeted his "Complete and Total Endorsement," the phrase he has employed for years in conveying his approval of GOP candidates committed to his agenda. "That's my job electing Republicans," he said of the state party post he plans to relinquish in January. "My job here will be to represent 800,000 people before the federal government, and I will represent independents and Democrats, too." Langworthy heads toward Election Day on Tuesday after a bruising summer primary battle against fellow Republican Carl P. Paladino, resulting in a four-point victory hardly a mandate. Paladino bested Langworthy 2 to 1 in southern Erie County 43% of the seven-county district even though Langworthy formerly served as Erie County Republican chairman. But Langworthy countered with similar tallies throughout the other six Southern Tier counties, recording a clean sweep of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Schuyler and Chemung counties. "It was a contrast in styles," he said of his August victory in the primary. "Our voters (in Erie County) are just as conservative as in the Southern Tier, but don't appreciate the in-your-face style of my opponent. I said I would be the stable, conservative voice for Western New York and the Southern Tier. I know their values, and will use my voice in an effective way." Conservative, to be sure. But Langworthy says he does not anticipate joining ultraconservative groups like the Freedom Caucus in the House, nor does he ascribe to "stolen election" claims or that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020, though he gives credence to some of the objections. "He won the Electoral College. It's over," Langworthy said, still noting that Democrats in the past have objected to Republican slates of electors "and no one took them to task." And he favors requiring identification for voters, even in New York, where few problems of voter fraud ever surface. Secret $1 million boost from GOP establishment aided Langworthy, records show Federal records show that the American Liberty Action PAC, which was created this summer, dumped $1.04 million into the GOP primary in New York's recently redrawn 23rd District. "You should be who you say you are. Anyone afraid of voter ID wants a poorer system," he says. "We have to safeguard the system." Langworthy and Della Pia differ on some basics. He is pro-life; the Democrat is pro-choice. They differ in their approach to Second Amendment issues. Della Pia has never joined the camp of Donald Trump, while Langworthy maintains regular communication with the former president. Indeed, he was among those urging the then-real estate developer to run for New York governor in 2014, establishing a relationship, leading to Trump's eventual desire for Langworthy's state chairmanship. Will he support him for president again in 2024? "We've got to see if he runs," he says. "I certainly appreciate the relationship, and he is keenly aware of what goes on in New York." And while Della Pia has no intention of voting for Rep. Kevin McCarthy for speaker, Langworthy says he will support him should the GOP succeed. Michael Kracker's election as Erie County GOP chairman marks new era "I didn't really expect to do this, but I've spent the vast majority of my career in service to the Republican Party in one form or another," Kracker said in an interview. Langworthy acknowledges his difficulty in totally leaving behind his days on the political side of the government business. He expects that will serve him well. Should Republicans capture the House on Tuesday, some expect him to follow in Reynolds' footsteps as an immediate "player" within the caucus. As chairman, Langworthy has familiarized himself with every region of the state and has met all kinds of influential people along the way. "I come to the table with a lot of personal experience," he says. "If there's a way to improve that experience within the House conference, I am happy to do that." While he takes nothing for granted, the candidate is ready to make plans for a new career in Washington. He will move into the district from his Niagara County home, angle for a seat on the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee on which no New York Republican serves to address the district's health care and communications needs. He promises to investigate aid for district water projects, solutions to problems surrounding rural health care and opposition to continued state efforts to ban fracking. Langworthy thinks he has already identified the best way to approach his goal of serving in Congress. "I've learned you've got to show up," he said. "You have to do the work, ask peoples' opinion. You have to be a partner with local governments, and I want to use the time left in this campaign as a transition period to hit the ground running." Six candidates are vying this year for five seats on the Western New York bench of State Supreme Court. Four candidates two Republicans and two Democrats are cross-endorsed by the Republican and Democratic parties and appear on both parties' ballot lines. Republicans Kelly A. Vacco and Gerald J. Greenan III have bipartisan support. Vacco is a Town of Boston justice. Greenan, an administrative judge for the state Parole Commission, is making his third bid for Supreme Court. Incumbent Democratic Justices Tracey A. Bannister, of the Appellate Division, and Craig D. Hannah, a former Buffalo City Court judge appointed to a vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, also were cross-endorsed. Each of the four are expected to garner enough votes to secure victories Tuesday. The race for the final Supreme Court slot may come down to two other candidates who were not cross-endorsed by both major political parties: Buffalo City Court Judge Shannon M. Heneghan, a Democrat who also has the Working Families Party backing, and Joseph C. Lorigo, a Conservative with Republican backing who leads the minority caucus in the Erie County Legislature. Heneghan was appointed to the Buffalo City Court by Mayor Byron W. Brown in late 2017 and was elected to the position in fall 2018. Prior to that, she was a litigator for 19 years, primarily in State Supreme Court, she said. I think just my experience alone makes me a great candidate for Supreme Court, Heneghan said. Between my experience as a litigator and then my experience on the bench and as a trial judge at this level, youre really exposed to so many different things. You really kind of learn how to work in a courtroom from a different perspective of a practicing attorney. She received a well-qualified rating from the Bar Association of Erie County, a highly qualified rating from the Womens Bar Association of Western New York and a superior assessment from the Minority Bar Association of Western New York. Heneghan also has received endorsements from the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, Buffalo Firefighters and about a dozen other union endorsements, she said. Lorigo has been a county legislator since 2012, and a lawyer for 15 years. Being the only practicing attorney in the field of candidates sets him apart, and both roles give him a unique perspective for the bench, he said. Everyone else is either a sitting judge or some type of administrative judge, he said. I think its an important distinction because Im out there every day representing clients. Im out there in the courts. Im out there dealing with people. And I get calls from people, from clients, every single day not only as a lawyer but as a legislator from people who are looking for help, whether that be legal help or governmental help. And thats not something that any of my opponents in this race can say. Lorigo has been endorsed by the Conservative and Republican political parties of all eight counties in Western New York and has the endorsement of AFSCME Local 1095, the blue-collar union for Erie County employees, he said. Thats the endorsement that he values very highly. Still, the only endorsement that matters in this race is the endorsement of the people who go out and vote, he added. Lorigo and Greenan were the only candidates for Supreme Court that received a "not recommended" rating from the Erie County Bar Association. Prior to Greenan's current role as an administrative judge for the state Parole Commission, presiding over thousands of parole violation hearings, he prosecuted violators for more than a decade as a general counsel and then deputy commissioner at the state Liquor Authority. Bannister was elected as a State Supreme Court judge in 2008 and was appointed to the Appellate Division by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Nov. 1, 2019. She was rated "outstanding" by the county bar association. Hannah, who was recently appointed to the State Supreme Court, previously served as a Buffalo City Court judge from 2006 until his appointment as chief judge on May 1, 2019. He was rated "outstanding" by the county bar association. Vacco's husband is former Republican state Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco. She was rated "well qualified" by the county bar association. Western New York native Chrystal Doust lived in Ontario when the Covid-19 pandemic tore through North America in spring 2020. Anxiety that doctors and mental health counselors helped her keep at bay since childhood worsened as the isolation and uncertainty churned toward summer, and beyond. Doust also needed more support as postpartum depression set in after the birth of her first child. But she was in Canada, where the wait to talk online with a counselor stretched for months. I felt like there were no resources for me, she said. She turned to Doctor on Demand, a U.S. telemedicine company that addressed her needs as she made plans to move back to the Buffalo Niagara region and reconnect with her family medical practice. Doust and her Canadian-born husband landed jobs working remotely for American companies, got new health insurance and moved to Hamburg late last year. They've gotten used to how Covid-19 transformed primary care in the region. Things continue to evolve as the pandemic wanes, but some changes seem destined to remain. Several doctors including the physician who treats the Dousts weighed in on what patients can expect going forward. Appointments Health screenings for appointments done by phone changed at the start of the pandemic, when there was no treatment for Covid-19 or readily available rapid test to learn if someone was infected with the virus that causes the respiratory disease. Primary care providers looking to prevent the spread encouraged patients to treat mild symptoms at home and visit a hospital emergency room if labored breathing persisted. This fall, providers manage Covid-19 and a variety of similar illnesses, including more instances of the flu and an alarming number of cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). This means nurses who perform the screenings by phone ask more questions about symptoms, particularly when someone looks to schedule a sick visit, said Dr. Fred Archer, interim division chief for general pediatrics with UBMD Physicians Group, which runs two child health clinics in Buffalo. Staff asks if the patient who is sick has had a home Covid-19 test and, if so, the result. Nurses spend more time going through specific symptoms, like an extreme runny nose that might signal RSV, a condition most concerning in children 3 and younger. Those who test positive for Covid-19 are still discouraged from visiting the office, said Dr. Adnaan Sheriff, of Amherst Medical Associates, who treats Doust and her family. The practice also continues to use a more intensive screening process, which helps triage patients, get them the best help more quickly and reduces the number of patients who need to see Sheriff and his colleagues in their North Bailey Avenue office. "We don't see 30 patients a day in the office anymore," Sheriff said. "We see maybe 15. But our patients are more engaged than they have ever been." Waiting rooms Amherst Medical Associates is among primary care practices that added a kiosk in their offices where patients can check in, show an insurance card if necessary, and pay copays or balances. The arrangement gives staff more time to take calls, schedule appointments and streamline patient visits, Sheriff said. Most primary care waiting rooms also contain fewer chairs, set farther apart. The screening process became more important in deciding how best to treat patients before they arrive. If a kid is here for sick visit, we want to get them triaged appropriately so they're not sitting in the waiting room too long, Archer said. UBMD Pediatrics was among practices that set aside isolation rooms in 2020 for patients who scheduled office visits and might have Covid-19. We don't call them isolation rooms anymore, he said of the dedicated rooms, but we do have what we call our sick rooms for kids who have more acute respiratory-type illnesses. Those and other rooms where patients have symptoms of a respiratory condition undergo a deeper cleaning between patients, he and Sheriff said. Telehealth Doust, 29, who grew up in Niagara County, and her husband, Brian, work remotely from home. Their son, Jack, turns 3 in December. All three see Sheriff, whose office is about 25 miles north of their home. Throughout the pandemic, most of the contact has taken place online or by phone. Doust worked online with Sheriff to come up with a mental health treatment plan and assure she was on track. She also dealt that way with a rash on her son. I honestly don't even know how we went to the doctor before there was telemedicine, she said. I have to drop my son off at day care at 8:30, and then Ive got to work at 9. It's nice to have a 30-minute pocket of time from my desk to be able to prioritize myself and my health. The appointments save her a long drive and allow her to address urgent matters with a primary care staff that has treated her for 15 years. The tradeoff of driving to and from Amherst for occasional wellness visits is worth the comfort she feels. To be sure, telehealth today isnt what it was during pandemic surges. Last year, 37% of adults, including four in 10 patients in the Northeast, used it at least once, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention reported last month. Amherst Medical had two telehealth appointments in 2020 before March 1. It had 617 from May 1 to June 30 of that year. The numbers also came down before and after the Delta and Omicron surges last winter. There were 38 phone and video appointments in the last two months of 2021, Sheriff said, and 155 in the first 10 months of this year. Dr. Kenyani Davis, chief medical officer with Community Health Center of Buffalo, said telehealth appointments ebbed and flowed in the practice in much the same way, but continue to play an important role, especially with mental health visits. The federally qualified health center serves more than 20,000 patients at offices in Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Lockport and Niagara Falls. During the pandemic, all kinds of appointments were conducted online, Davis said. They even included urgent appointments that allowed dentists to diagnose abscesses online and prescribe antibiotics until patients could get into the office. It reduced our no-show rate, which was somewhere between 20% and 22%, down to 10% to 13%, Davis said. It also underlined two challenges that limit the ability to complete scheduled primary care office visits, the lack of reliable transportation and child care, she said. One of the great things about telehealth is that you get a chance to see the patient in their own environment, Davis added. She recounted seeing a patient online in her late 70s walk to the bathroom to get her medication and throw rugs, a tangle of electrical cords and sharp-edged furniture along the way. The look-in prompted her to ask a community nurse to visit the patient at home and conduct a risk assessment for falls. Patient portals More patients of all ages have learned during the pandemic that leaving primary care providers a message by email or through a confidential patient portal is a good way to get questions answered without visiting the office or even making a phone call. Messages are returned within 24 hours, and often much sooner. It is common to see lab results and other paperwork including vaccine records as well as manage mild illnesses. Doust gets appointment and payment reminders on the Amherst Medical Associates patient portal. She also gets a synopsis from Sheriff of their appointments, as well as references to resources that can buttress her health and wellness. It's been a huge help, she said. Im very comfortable with it. Honestly, I think my grandmother could use it. More mental health Most adult practices have lost patients to Covid-19. Most patients have lost at least one friend or family member. This, coupled with the isolation and uncertainty Covid-19 wrought, increased post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. It kept social workers and mental health counselors at Buffalo Community Health Center among the busiest on the 130-member staff. In 2021, they completed 2,071 virtual visits for behavioral health, Davis said. Mental health concerns doubled among patients with Amherst Medical Associates, Sheriff said. Mental health awareness has gone up, he said, and you hear the topic of burnout where maybe it wasn't as prevalent before. Vaccine recommendations Expect primary care providers to add their voices to federal recommendations that adults, as well as children 6 and older, get vaccinated to lower the risk for infection and a bad case of Covid-19. Vaccinations were always part of our workflow, Sheriff said. Pneumonia vaccine, flu vaccine, shingles vaccine, you name them. They are all contagious illnesses for which a vaccine is available. Masking Some medical specialty clinics have lightened up on mask-wearing protocols. It remains mandatory for patients and staff in most primary care offices. It is needed so primary care staff doesnt get sick and cant work, as well as to protect patients most vulnerable to severe respiratory diseases, Archer said. Federal standards have long called for hospital staff to wear masks when treating patients with the flu and other contagious viruses, Sheriff said, and even more personal protective equipment when treating those with more deadly infections, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MERSA). Sheriff believes masking policies will change, but it could take years. Prior to the pandemic, there were times where someone came in and they were coughing or looked really ill, the family doctor said. We would have them wear a mask, just to limit contagiousness or spread during that time. It wasn't every patient. I think, as time goes on, the higher the vaccination rates go, hopefully the milder the variants, the comfort level will increase. And I think we'll learn how to live with Covid, just like we've learned how to live with flu and other respiratory illnesses. What you wont see The pandemic also accelerated a greater move away from the fee-for-service model toward value-based primary care, in which providers are paid more by health insurance companies for keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital. Instead of focusing on the number of visits per day, it allows you to deliver care that may be most directed to the patient, Sheriff said, and therefore more helpful. Telehealth services and patient portals work well within this model, but can create challenges for practices that have lots of patients with more than one chronic health condition. That means longer hours for physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Primary care providers worry that insurers will start to pay less for non-office care. Some already have, those interviewed for this story said. The greatest challenge that remains is reimbursement, Davis said. We have all of this new technology, and all of these new ways of doing things, but it has required us to pivot very quickly. You need the resources to do that. Now that we've have telehealth, you can't put it back in the bag, she said. People are used to it. Rome-based 102 Distribution has taken on worldwide sales of Mexican feature Presencias, the company announced at this weeks American Film Market. Directed by Mexicos Luis Mandoki, and starring Academy Award nominee Yalitza Aparicio (Roma) and Goya Award winner Alberto Ammann (Narcos: Mexico, The Year of Fury, Cell 211), the film is an ViX+ original movie. The title premiered exclusively in the U.S., Mexico, and in most of Spanish-speaking Latin America, on Sept. 7. More from Variety The horror-thriller revolves around Victor, a young and famous actor, and his wife Alicia, who go back to the place where he and his family spent both happy and tragic times at a lake where his sister drowned. Soon he is haunted by nightmares. Victor wakes up in a hospital, where he is told by a police detective that his wife has died pregnant with his child. Victor cannot remember what happened. As the weeks pass, the investigation stalls. Determined to find out the truth, Victor escapes the hospital to go back to the cabin. But the truth turns out to be worse than his nightmare. Mandoki long ago established himself in Hollywood and then, once more in Mexico. His Hollywood films include White Palace (1990) with Susan Sarandon and James Spader; Born Yesterday (1991) with Melanie Griffith and John Goodman; and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia. He has since directed multiple features in Mexico, including Gaby: A True Story and Innocent Voices. He is currently developing several features nationally and internationally. 102s current titles take in the drama Red Shoes by Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser, which played in Venice this year, and the Berlinale autism-themed film A School in Cerro Hueso, by Betania Cappato. Story continues 102 started life as an Italian production and distribution company, focused on acquiring and producing Italian and international films, as well as exploiting the rights internationally. It recently broadened its scope by acquiring multi-territories rights for select titles, as well as handling international sales, and sometimes the release in other countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and China. This years AFM runs Nov. 1-6. Presencias Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, so let the clock-changing debate resume. The November ritual of turning the clocks back an hour may no longer be a chore because smartphones, computers and other electronic gadgets do it automatically. But the practice continues to stir emotions. Most of the United States has been changing the clocks twice a year for more than a century. In Oregon, it is all we know. Daylight saving time note saving is singular begins the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November. Spring forward and fall back are familiar terms used as a reminder for which direction to adjust the clocks. We lose an hour in the spring and gain an hour in the fall, but it is hardly that simple. Tinkering with time The complicated history of daylight saving time in the U.S. began in 1918. It was introduced as a temporary measure during World War I to conserve energy and maximize daylight. Germany, the United Kingdom and France used it in their war efforts for two years prior. It was repealed after the war in the U.S. when it proved unpopular but reintroduced under the same guise during World War II. From 1945 to 1966, there were no systematic rules for daylight saving time, and states could choose whether to observe it and when it would begin and end. Confusion across state lines led Congress to pass the Uniform Time Act, which split the year into six months of standard time and six months of daylight saving. It allowed states to opt out, which Arizona and Hawaii eventually did. The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time during the energy crisis in the 1970s, but it was considered a failed experiment. The current daylight saving period was established with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and went into effect in 2007. The pros and cons Many consider daylight saving time an antiquated practice from wartime with just as many negative as positive results. Setting the clocks ahead one hour in the spring adds an hour of natural daylight. Proponents argue longer evenings motivate people to get out of the house, be more active and give them more time to shop and dine out, boosting the economy. Story continues Detractors argue changing clocks is unhealthy, altering sleep patterns and messing with the body's natural rhythm. Studies have found the risk of heart attack increases following the spring change, and the risk of depression increases when the clocks are set back in the fall. Upticks in car accidents and crime also are linked to the fall time change. Americans are divided on the subject. A poll released in March by Monmouth University in New Jersey found that 61% of Americans would do away with the nation's twice-a-year time change, while 35% wanted to keep the practice. Those wanting a year-round time in place prefer daylight saving time. A CBS News poll released in April also found making daylight saving time permanent was favored over standard time by nearly all demographic and political groups. Just one in five Americans were content with continuing to switch clocks back and forth every year. Where does Oregon stand? Oregon took its first step toward eliminating the time changes in 2019 when lawmakers passed a measure that would keep most of the state minus Malheur County, which is on Mountain Time permanently on daylight saving time. Gov. Kate Brown signed the legislation, but it has yet to go into effect. The bill was contingent upon California and Washington doing the same, plus approval from Congress. California and Washington did their part, joining Oregon in the wait for Congress. While a state can opt out of daylight saving time and be on standard time year-round, federal law does not allow the reverse despite widespread interest. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that in the past seven years or so, state legislatures have considered 450 bills and resolutions on the topic. At least one-third of states endorse year-round daylight saving time as soon as the federal law allows it. Waiting on the feds Many federal lawmakers agree that "spring forward" and "fall back" clock changes should be done away with, but cannot agree on what the permanent time should be. Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to abolish clock changes and make daylight saving time permanent, beginning in 2023. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, was among the co-sponsors. "Glad the Senate has passed the Sunshine Protection Act so Oregonians arent springing back & forth each year in a silly exercise that hurts everybodys health & our economy," Wyden tweeted March 15. "Time now for the House to act." In June 2022, the U.S. House failed to pass the bill, which is now stalled and scheduled to expire in December. Let the debate resume in March 2023. Capi Lynn is the Statesman Journal's news columnist. Send comments, questions and tips to her at clynn@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6710. Follow her work on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ. Consider supporting local journalism in the Mid-Willamette Valley: Sign up for a digital subscription today. This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: As Daylight Saving Time ends, Oregon wants to stop changing clocks Irans sparsely populated southeast erupted in protests and violence on Friday, with tens injured and killed at the hands of security forces in multiple cities, according to human rights monitors. Protesters emerged from prayers to gunfire in the cities of the largely ethnic Baluch region along the countrys southeast border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, a long restive region. One human rights activist told The Independent that some 30 people were injured or shot dead in the city of Khash, a sleepy desert town of 60,000. There were also outbreaks of political violence in Zahedan, the provincial capital, Iranshahr, Rask and Saravan as the Revolutionary Guard and other regime armed forces opened fire on the protesters. There were very large protests, many people came out, Shir-Ahmad Shirani, editor of Haalvash, a Baluch rights advocacy group and website, said in an interview. The security forces started firing on the people from the rooftops. Is the Islamic republic founded by Khomeini, under a legitimate threat? (UGC/AFP/Getty) Videos posted online showed protesters blocking roads with rocks and fires. In Zahedan, young protesters could be seen ducking for cover as regime forces opened fire. Death to the dictator! they call out. Another clip showed a lifeless young man reportedly struck by gunfire in Khash and covered in blood. Allahu akbar! someone calls out in grief. Another clip showed an entire commercial district Khash et afire, allegedly at the hands of security forces. Hospitals warned of shortages of blood for treating the wounded. Many of the injured and dead were under 18 years old, Mr Shirani said. Iran has been riven by seven weeks of protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been abducted by the morality police. Daily protests have led to at least 300 dead and at least 37 slain members of the security forces, according to Hrana, an Oslo-based rights group. On Friday, the G7 group of wealthy western nations issued a statement of support for the Iranian protesters. We condemn the violent death of the young Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini after her arrest by Irans so-called morality police, said the statement. We further condemn the brutal and disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters and children. Story continues Many of those killed in the protests have been in Irans eastern and western border regions which are largely settled by ethnic and religious minorities. Iranians are overwhelmingly members of the Shia sect of Islam while minority ethnic Baluchis are Sunni Muslims. But few religious tensions have emerged in the weeks of protests as Iranians from across ethnic, regional, religious and gender divides have come together against the Tehran regime. Fridays violence came a day after the assassination of Sajjad Shahraki, a Shia cleric loyal to Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in the ethnic Baluch city of Zahedan. It also came on the day that the top Sunni cleric in Zahedan, Molavi Abdolhamid, called in his prayer sermon for an internationally monitored referendum in the country, garnering cheers from worshippers. 100s of US scholars sound alarm. Iranian academics are under attack. Following the brutal murder of #mahsa_amini, and Iranians uprising for human rights, the regime has dramatically increased its oppression of university students & faculty. https://t.co/wSjbLlkitT Borzou Daragahi (@borzou) November 4, 2022 The protests also coincided with the anniversary of the 1980 takeover of the United States embassy compound in Tehran by Iranian Islamic radicals, an event celebrated in Iran with pro-government rallies. State television showed thousands of regime supporters on the streets of various cities, burning American flags and effigies of New York-based Iranian womens rights activist Masih Alinejad. Iranian officials have accused the US of being behind the attacks. You want to create discord among ethnicities and pit people against people and create civil war, Friday prayer leader Kazem Seddiqi told worshippers on Friday. During a fundraising appearance in California on Thursday, the US president Joseph Biden spotted a Free Iran sign in the crowd and responded, Dont worry. Were gonna free Iran. Theyre gonna free themselves pretty soon. New York is already home to one of the oldest populations in the nation a trend that is about to speed up and put a strain on the state's resources. Under a plan announced Friday, it aims to not only be ready to handle the challenges that will bring, but to help seniors thrive. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday laid the groundwork for a New York Master Plan for Aging that will foster more collaboration and innovation to support the health and well-being of older state residents and their loved ones. We continue to take important steps to empower and support older New Yorkers," Hochul said, announcing she signed an executive order directing the state Department of Health and Office of Aging to lead the effort. "This Master Plan for Aging will provide us with tools to ensure our aging New Yorkers have access to quality long-term care in healthy, livable communities where they can thrive." The two state agencies will lead a council with input from leaders in the aging fields to forge a roadmap to improve, not replace, existing efforts in a state where one-quarter of residents are expected to be 60 and older by the end of the decade. This is a landmark moment for New Yorks older adults and all people who value healthy aging across the state, said Nora OBrien-Suric, president of the Health Foundation for Western & Central New York, which focuses on supporting programs for children and older adults, as well as health and racial equity in health care. The foundation helped meld more than 80 aging-focused organizations across New York into a bipartisan, independent New York Sate Master Plan for Aging Coalition. Members signed a letter last December encouraging New York to join Colorado, Texas and Massachusetts, which have already committed to a master plan for aging, as well as California, the first to finish one in January 2021. Hochul included the idea in her State of the State address and as a line in the state budget. She signed her executive order on Older New Yorkers' Day, as well as the fourth day of National Family Caregivers Month. Caregiving has emerged as a central issue in aging, because of the rapid growth of the number of people who are caregivers, said Robert Blancato, coordinator of the state master plan coalition and the national Elder Justice Coalition. There are 40 million Americans who have some caregiving responsibilities, but we are so far behind in recognizing that from a policy perspective. Keeping fit, staying sharp: UB works to uncover secret of aging gracefully Dr. Bruce Troen often says that if you want to live a long life, you should choose your parents wisely. Thats good news for Kathy Clerkin, whose mom died a decade ago at age 98, followed by her father, two years later, at 101. Still, at 75, Clerkin hardly relies solely on her genetics when it comes to her The state plan will focus on how services are coordinated, delivered and financed to better meet the needs of older adults and their families. In 2017, New York became the first state to join the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities, and works with the nonprofit organization to make the state more attractive for housing, transportation, jobs and other needs important to those 50 and older who make up 36% of the state population and plow more than $700 billion a year into the state economy. Adults older than 60 provide nearly $500 million hours of community service each year at an economic value of $13.8 billion. Roughly two-thirds also own homes and have no mortgage, the Hochul administration said in making the Friday announcement. The state Department of Health created an Office of Aging and Long-Term Care in July to address the administration's goal of "a long-term care system that is accessible, effective and affordable, a system that will recognize the unique needs and expectations of each of the individuals it serves," said state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett, who will lead the Master Plan for Aging Council. Blancato, also a member of the national AARP board, told The Buffalo News that only 5% of older American adults live in nursing homes, underlining the need of aging in place with necessary services. This is really about providing the necessary infrastructure to allow them to stay in New York, whether it's better housing, better roads, better services, whatever it may be, he said. Support for caregivers is at the heart and soul because its one of the bigger challenges in the field of aging. He said he also hopes the plan will address more effective ways to confront elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. The Master Plan for Aging Coalition hopes to work closely with state agency leaders who make up the Master Plan Council. Coalition members include leaders and members of community organizations, long-term care advocates and providers, foundations, academic institutions, groups interested in racial and socioeconomic justice, paid and family caregiver organizations, county offices for the aging, and several national aging organizations and coalitions. Those groups hope a plan will be in place by 2024. The clock is ticking. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated four years ago that there will be more adults 65 and older in America than children by 2035. The 85-and-older population will likely more than double from 6.6 million before the pandemic to 14.4 million in 2040. With this swelling number of older adults, the country could see greater demands for healthcare, in-home caregiving and assisted living facilities, the Census Bureau reported. It could also affect Social Security. Before the pandemic, 51% of those 65 and older lived in nine states: California (5.8 million), Florida (4.5 million), Texas (3.7 million), New York (3.3 million), Pennsylvania (2.4 million), Ohio (2 million), Illinois (2 million), Michigan (1.8 million) and North Carolina (1.8 million), according to a 2021 report from the federal Administration for Community Living. Pressure in those states and across the country will grow in every sector, Blancato said, hitting health care, housing, transportation, insurance, business and government hardest. That is why planning matters, he said. State agencies in New York are doing activities that would fit into a master plan, Blancato said, so it isn't like you'd have to start from scratch. What you need is to be able to coordinate what you're doing in such a way that it produces better results and outcomes. This story was produced with support from the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations and universities dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about successful responses to social problems. The group is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. Read related stories at nymisojo.com. The collaborative also has compiled a detailed Caregiving Resource Guide with links to online information about various issues of interest to caregivers. Dominic West as King Charles III in Netflix's "The Crown." Netflix Dominic West plays Prince Charles in seasons five and six of the Netflix drama "The Crown." He is an ambassador of The Prince's Trust and offered to quit when taking the role of the monarch. The private secretary to Prince Charles assured him that was not necessary. Dominic West offered to resign as an ambassador of the Prince's Trust when he was cast as Prince Charles in the fifth and sixth seasons of "The Crown." The Prince's Trust is a charity started by King Charles in the '70s before he ascended to the throne in 2022. According to its website, the organization focuses on helping young people in the United Kingdom who are experiencing issues such as homelessness or mental health crises by offering financial and educational resources. It also funds recreational and artistic programs, and according to its website, it currently "offers hundreds of free courses, grants, and mentoring opportunities." As an ambassador, West has publicly endorsed the organization. Other ambassadors of the trust include actor David Oyelowo, and West's co-star in "The Wire" Idris Elba. West told Radio Times magazine his resignation was refused by the private secretary who was serving Prince Charles at the time, Sir Clive Alderton, when he accepted the role. "'You do what you like, you're an actor. It's nothing to do with us,'" West said he was told, adding that it was his belief King Charles III held a similar opinion. The series picks up in the later stage of the marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Keith Bernstein West said having the opportunity to meet Prince Charles helped him interpret the character for the Netflix drama. "I've been in a line to shake his hand a few times and it's fascinating. It's very useful to meet the character you're playing, obviously," he said. West plays Charles through the 1990s at a time of great turmoil for the real monarch when there was growing public opposition to the monarchy. It was also a difficult time in the royal's personal life as Charles was the subject of a tabloid phone-tapping scandal and he and Princess Diana divorced in 1996. Story continues Camilla, Queen Consort to King Charles III, is played by Olivia Williams in seasons five and six of "The Crown." West said The Radio Times when he ran into the Queen at a party, she jokingly referred to him as "your majesty." Seasons one through four of "The Crown" are now available on Netflix. Season five premieres on November 9. Read the original article on Insider Blue Note Records has announced the first-ever official release of Donald Byrds Live: Cookin with Blue Note at Montreux on what would have been the legendary trumpeters 90th birthday: December 9, 2022. The dynamic 1973 live set is available for pre-order now on the Blue Note Store website in exclusive blue vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and digital download. The vinyl release is all-analog cut directly from the original analog master tapes. To celebrate the announcement, Black Byrd is out today as a digital single. In July 1973, Blue Note Records headed to Montreux, Switzerland to showcase several of the labels stars at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Produced by Blue Note President George Butler, live albums all titled Live: Cookin with Blue Note at Montreux followed from vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, organist Ronnie Foster, flutist Bobbi Humphrey, and vocalist Marlena Shaw, but one of the performances by trumpeter Donald Byrd remained unreleased in the Blue Note vaults, until now. That summer, Byrd was fresh off the release of his hit crossover fusion album Black Byrd, the first of his innovative and incredibly successful studio collaborations with producer Larry Mizell. But in a live setting the band had a rawer, harder edge, as this searing set attests. Byrd led a 10-piece band that included Larry Mizell on synthesizers, Fonce Mizell on trumpet and vocals, Allan Barnes on tenor saxophone and flute, Nathan Davis on soprano and tenor saxophone, Kevin Toney on electric piano, Barney Perry on electric guitar, Henry Franklin on electric bass, Keith Killgo on drums, and Ray Armando on congas and percussion. The set list includes Larry Mizells tune Black Byrd along with otherwise unrecorded Byrd originals like The East, Kwame, and Poco-Mania, as well as an excellent cover of Stevie Wonders Youve Got It Bad Girl. Story continues Larry Mizell: My brother Fonce and I were invited by Blue Note Records (President George Butler and Donald Byrd) to travel with the Blue Note artist roster to attend and perform at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival. At the time, Donald Byrds Black Byrd album was a big success for Blue Note, along with Bobbi Humphreys Blacks and Blues. The American Airlines plane was playing various cuts from Black Byrd as part of the cabin music. The plane ride over was fun, energetic, and wild. Pre-order Live: Cookin with Blue Note at Montreux. 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. Donald Trump has taken what appears to be a bizarre swipe at his own brood as he told attendees at an Iowa rally that some of us have horrible children. The former president took to the stage in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday night to help boost Republican candidates in next weeks midterms and to tease his own 2024 White House run. During a rally speech intended to show support for Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and US Senator Chuck Grassley, Mr Trump instead began boasting about his own record, pointing to changes to estate tax which lowered the amount paid when the rich pass money onto their children. At that point, the father-of-five suddenly got sidetracked, launching into a rant about inheritance and whether people should leave their wealth to horrible children. You pass away, you can if you like your child. I always say if you dont like them leave it to charity, he said. Some of us have horrible children. He then asked the crowd if they had horrible children who they wouldnt want to pass their farms down to. Do you have any horrible children? he asked. Does anybody have like a child where you are really not going to leave your farm? Any farmers? No you dont have to. If you dont like em, then dont. The former president didnt elaborate on who he was referring to as the horrible children. In recent months, tensions appear to have grown between Mr Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner both worked as senior advisers to Mr Trump during his time in the White House and have both given testimony to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday (AP) In footage played during one of the House committee hearings in June, Ivanka said that she had accepted then-Attorney General Bill Barrs announcement in early December that a Justice Department investigation had uncovered no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Her statement was a marked departure from her fathers stance as he continues to push the debunked claims that the election was stolen from him. Story continues Mr Trump hit out at Ivanka over her testimony, by downplaying his daughters role in his administration and claiming that she had long since checked out. Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!), he wrote on his Truth Social platform the day after the hearing. During Thursday nights rally in Iowa, Mr Trump continued to peddle the false claims of election fraud as he gave the strongest hint yet that he is planning a 2024 White House run. The former president told the crowd that he will very, very, very probably enter the presidential race. And now, in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again, he said. Get ready thats all Im telling you very soon. Get ready. Ballots are received and sorted for the primary election on Monday, May 16, 2022 at the Marion County Clerk's office in Salem, Ore. With only a few days before Election Day, tens of thousands of ballots are filtering through drop boxes and the mail in Marion and Polk counties. As of Wednesday, the Marion County Clerk's Office had scanned 54,171 ballot return envelopes. Although the number is only slightly higher than the number of ballots scanned the Wednesday before the last mid-term Election Day in 2018, election officials are anticipating a higher voter turnout this year. "We ended up with 65.56% turnout in 2018," Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess said. "We anticipate 70% to 75% turnout this election due to high public interest." 2022 Oregon November general election:Learn more about the candidates and measures on your ballot There are 220,329 eligible voters in Marion County, an increase of almost 20,000 from 2018. By Wednesday, 24.57% of those voters had turned in a ballot. Midterm elections typically see fewer people voting than in presidential election years. In November 2020, Marion County reported a 78.94% turnout. Voters who have already returned their ballot can check its status on the Oregon Secretary of State's Office website at sos.oregon.gov. Click on the My Vote tracker. Burgess said anyone who has not yet received their ballot needs to get a replacement from Marion County Clerk's Office immediately. "After today, they need to come in person to our office because it will be too late for us to mail them a ballot," he said. More:Thousands of valid Oregon ballots counted after Election Day under new law In Polk County, 16,383 ballots have been accepted. Polk County Clerk said the turnout was 26%. Four years ago, it was 27.2% at this stage. In the past, ballots needed to arrive at county elections offices by 8 p.m. on election day to be counted. But in 2022, following a new law passed by the Oregon State Legislature, ballots simply need to be postmarked by election day. Ballots received up to seven days after election day will be considered valid. Story continues Results will be released shortly after 8 p.m. Nov. 8. During the May primary, elections officials cautioned that vote counts would likely rise more after election day than in past years due to valid ballots arriving at counting locations up to seven days after the election. Some races remained too close to call until the final ballots were counted. In the primary election earlier this year, Marion County's elections office received 3,809 ballots after May 17, while Polk County received 1,300 ballots. Here are available ballot drop-off locations: Salem and Keizer (Marion County) Marion County Clerk: 555 Court St. NE, Ste 2130, open 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Mon-Fri. Marion County Health: 3180 Center St. NE, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Marion County Public Works: 5155 Silverton Road NE, Salem, inside during business hours. Roths Fresh Market Hayesville: 4746 Portland Road NE, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily. Roths Fresh Market, Vista: 3045 Commercial St. SE, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily. Roths Fresh Market Sunnyslope: 4555 Liberty Road S, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily. Keizer City Hall: 930 Chemawa Road NE, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Marion County: South and east Aumsville City Hall: 595 Main St., curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Jefferson Public Library: 150 N. 2nd St., curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Stayton Public Library: 515 N. First St., curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Sublimity City Hall: 245 NW Johnson St., curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Turner City Hall: 5255 Chicago St SE, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Marion County: North and central Donald City Hall: 10710 Main St., curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Gervais City Hall: 592 Fourth St., Gervais, inside during business hours. Hubbard City Hall: 3720 2nd St, Hubbard, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Mt. Angel Public Library: 290 E. Charles St., Mt. Angel, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Silverton: 208 Lewis St. and South First St., Silverton, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Woodburn Public Library: 280 Garfield St., Woodburn, curbside dropbox, open 24 hours. Polk County Polk County Clerk's Office: 850 Main St., Dallas, 24-hour drop site on east side of Polk County Courthouse. Fall's City Market, Falls City: 319 N. Main St., 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. Mon-Fri, 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Independence City Hall: 555 S. Main St., 24-hour dropbox inside front lobby. Roth's Fresh Market (Monmouth): 1517 Monmouth Independence Highway, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily. Roth's Fresh Market (West Salem): 1130 Wallace Road NW, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde: 9615 Grand Ronde Road, dropbox outside, open 24 hours. Western Oregon University, inside Werner University Center, Monmouth: 345 N. Monmouth Ave., 7:30 a.m. - 8 p.m. Mon-Thurs, 7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Saturday. For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com, call 503-910-6616 or follow on Twitter @wmwoodworth This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: What's the voter turnout in Marion, Polk counties? The final day to cast a vote in 2022 midterm elections is on Tuesday, November 8. Trevor Bexon/Getty Images Voting in the midterm elections ends on Nov. 8, but there is still plenty of time to cast your ballot. In most states, voters can cast their ballots either in-person during early voting or on Election Day or they can vote by mail. Here's a guide to the most important things you should know as Election Day approaches. Many Americans have already cast their ballots in the 2022 midterm elections. If you haven't yet, there are still several days left to vote. The last day to cast your ballot is Tuesday, November 8. Since the pandemic, election officials have made it easier and safer for Americans to cast their ballots. Here are 12 interactive charts, maps, and graphics Insider made to make it easier to navigate the rules and deadlines when it comes to voting in the 2022 election: What is the deadline to register to vote in my state? While the deadline to register to vote online or by mail has passed in most states, 17 states and the District of Columbia offer same-day and in-person voter registration. Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming all allow voters to register on Election Day. In order to vote in the US you must be 18 years of age or older and a citizen. When completing your registration you'll need to provide the number on your driver's license or non driver state ID card or the last four digits of your Social Security number. For voters who are already registered, but have moved, changed addresses, or want to check to make sure their voter registration is still active, they can update their registration at sites in states where same-day voter registration is allowed. When does early voting begin and end? Early voting for the the 2022 midterm elections on November 8 has already begun. Start and end times for early voting vary by state, but can extend all the way up to Election Day. Casting your ballot early gives you a chance to avoid potentially long lines and having to send your vote via snail mail. Story continues Early voting locations may differ from those on actual Election Day, so be sure to check with your local elections precinct to clarify where you can vote early. Additionally, some states require certain forms of identification to be presented to polling workers when you cast your ballot, so don't forget to see what forms of photo or non-photo ID are accepted in your state. If you miss the deadline to vote early, you can vote in-person on Tuesday, November 8. What time do the polls open and close on Election Day? For voters who choose to cast their ballots in-person on Election Day, the times polls open and close vary by each state. Most states have polling sites open for at least 12 hours a day. As noted in the chart, some opening and closing times are dependent on what county and time zone the polling places are located in, so be sure to verify what times your local precinct is open for voting hours. States that are split between two time zones may not have full election results available until the last polling station closes. Be prepared to wait in line with your state's required proof of identification form ready. As long as you are in line by the time the polling station closes, you should be able to cast your ballot in every US state. Do I need to bring identification with me to cast my ballot? In 38 states, voters who head to the polls on Election Day will need to provide proof of identification to poll workers. The other 13 states do not require voters to show any form of ID when casting their ballot. There are four classifications for states with voter ID laws: strict photo, non-strict photo, strict non-photo, and non-strict non-photo. For states with photo ID requirements (strict photo and non-strict photo), proper forms of identification that must be shown to poll workers in order to vote include a state-issued driver's license, non-driver ID or voter card, US passport, or a military, tribal, student, or state employee card. Most states have exemptions for citizens who cannot be photographed due to their religious beliefs. Non-photo ID states accept mail that verifies the voter's name and address, including pay-stubs, bank statements, and rent or utility bills. Voters can also use official government mailings as their proof of ID. Stricter states require voters to cast a provisional ballot or later provide proof of residency to their election officials in order for their votes to count. In less strict states, voters without the required documentation are allowed to cast a sworn affidavit, reasonable impediment declaration, or have a poll worker vouch for them to vote. Can I take time off work to vote? In order to alleviate the stress of having to miss work in order to vote, many states have begun to mandate that employers give their employees time off so they can head to the polls. At this time there is no federal mandate for time off, however many states have taken the initiative. Currently 22 states and the District of Columbia offer employees paid time off to vote. There are seven states that offer unpaid time off. Ohio doesn't have a specific limit for voting time off, however only salaried employees are able to receive compensation for their time off to vote, as noted in the chart. There are 20 states that still do not offer any time off accommodations for employees looking to vote early or on Election Day. Make sure to check the laws in your state and alert your employer in advance if you plan to take time off to cast your ballot. Can I vote by mail? Seven states and the District of Columbia conduct all-mail elections. This means that voters do not have to request their absentee ballots because the state will send them out to most or all voters automatically. Voters in these states can vote in-person during early voting or on Election Day as well. Excuses are required in 16 states in order to vote by mail. The deadline to request a ballot has passed in most states, but there is still time to submit them to election officials if you have not yet done so. Many states will accept ballots as long as they have been postmarked or received by Election Day, November 8. When will I get my absentee ballot in the mail? Many voters may have chosen to vote by mail. The deadline to request an absentee ballot has passed in most states, so voters should have already received their ballots in the mail. Most states began sending mail-in ballots in September and October. If you requested an absentee ballot, but have not yet received it, you can vote in-person at the polls on Election Day in most states. You may be required to submit a provisional ballot or sign an affidavit canceling your mail-in ballot if you vote at the polling place. Make sure you check what is required by your state to vote on Election Day if you did not receive your ballot in the mail. When is the deadline to submit my mail-in ballot? Many states require mail-in ballots be postmarked or received by Election Day. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot has passed in many states, however there are some states that allow requests within a week of the election. The earlier you submit your ballot, the better to avoid any possible delays with the Postal Service. You can also drop off your ballot at some in-person polling locations during early voting and on Election Day. Make sure to check if your state requires the ballot to be postmarked or received by the due date listed. On average, first-class mail takes two to five days to be delivered, so it is best to set aside enough time for your ballot to be received on time for counting. Does my absentee ballot need to be verified? Some states have implemented ballot verification rules to ensure the authenticity of a voter's ballot. Currently, 27 states require absentee ballots to be verified using a few different methods: signature match, voter signature only, notary or witness signatures, photo ID, or the last four digits of a person's Social Security number. If a ballot is rejected, oftentimes it will be returned to the voter so that they can correct the error. This is called the signature "cure" process. There are 24 states that require voters to be notified when there is a signature missing or a signature discrepancy on their ballot. In states where this process is not required, ballots are thrown out. Be sure to check if your state has a signature curing process and what you can do to make sure your ballot is counted if it was sent back to you. How do people in the military or overseas vote? Every state allows members of the military stationed overseas and US citizens living abroad to submit their ballots by mail. Some states allow ballots to be submitted by fax or online. As required by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act, military voters and other US citizens abroad can use the Federal Post Card Application to request their absentee ballot. This application both serves as a way for citizens to complete their voter registration and request their absentee ballots ahead of the election at the same time. It can be difficult to submit a mail-in ballot on time when you are a military voter, especially when mail delivery can be unreliable in some areas. As an alternative option, 32 states accept ballots through online portals or by fax. Military members or citizens stationed overseas can also register to vote and request their absentee ballots from the nonpartisan Overseas Voter Foundation. Can I vote if I have a felony conviction? Voting rights for Americans with felony convictions have been at least partially restored in most states, but there are many felons who are still facing obstacles to exercising their right to vote. There are currently 48 states where voting rights have been restored to some extent. Only Vermont, Maine, and the District of Columbia allow all people with felony convictions to vote. In 21 states, those with felony convictions can vote after they're released from prison. In 16 other states, these individuals can vote after they complete their time in prison, parole, and/or probation. In 11 states, people with felony convictions are indefinitely disenfranchised. Can I take a "ballot selfie"? Social media has become a popular way for people to encourage others to exercise their right to vote. Posting photos of yourself with your ballot also known as a "ballot selfie" is one way voters share how they're exercising their rights. This can be anything from a picture with a mail-in ballot to a photo of an "I voted" sticker. While this may be allowed at certain polling places, many states actually have laws making it illegal to snap selfies at the voter booth or take photos of a marked ballot. While state laws don't specifically ban posting photos of ballots on social media, they do prohibit showing marked ballots to others. These laws are to protect voters from bribery, vote-buying, and voter coercion, securing Americans' right to a secret ballot. Currently, 27 states and the District of Columbia allow voters to take ballot selfies or use cell phones at the polls. Some states let voters use their phones to access information about the candidates if they need assistance making their decision on Election Day. Phone usage or ballot selfies are completely banned in 20 states. Many polling places will display signs indicating the rules of phone use, so be sure to check what your local station does and does not allow. Read the original article on Business Insider Germanys Little Brother Films & Engizek Films have snapped up all German-speaking rights to the much-anticipated animated feature film Dalia and the Red Book. The deal was closed at AFM after new footage was screened, according to FilmSharks Guido Rud, who negotiated the pact with Ekrem Engizek & Timo Joh. Mayer. Inspired by classics The NeverEnding Story and Corpse Bride, the upcoming pic centers around 12-year old Dalia whose father is a famous writer. After her fathers death, Dalia takes it upon herself to finish his last book. However, in order to do so, she has to enter the book and face off against the characters who have taken over the plot and are tussling over who plays the leading roles. More from Variety Directed by Argentinas David Bisbano (A Mouse Tale), Dalia utilizes Epic Games 3D animation tool Unreal Engine and combines CGI, stop-motion and 2D animation. It is slated to be completed by late 2023 or early 2024. Bisbano, known as the Latin Tim Burton, also directed CGI-3D animation pic, Rodencia and the Princess Tooth, which sold out worldwide. FilmSharks, which produces as well as handles sales, first screened early footage at the Berlinale in 2019 and has since sold it to The Walt Disney Co. which scooped up all Latin American rights and will release the film through its new regional distribution label, Star, as a Star Original Production. Other major players on board are: Rocket Releasing for Russia/CIS; AV jet for Taiwan and E-Muse for Singapore. Advanced talks are underway with buyers from France, the U.S. and Italy. The films producing partners include Disney, Epic Games, Alvaro Urtizbereas Vista Sur Films (Lucrecia Martels The Holy Girl), FilmSharks, Matte CG (Ecuador), Doce (Spain), Cinefilm (Brazil) and Signos Studio (Colombia), which has carried out all the tests together with the support of Golem Studio from Peru and Kapi Studio from Ukraine. Story continues Said Rud: Its an honor to see top players pre-buying and joining us in this masterpiece. We are thankful to all our partners, including Disney and Epic Games, that are supporting Dalia and the Red Book through the Epic MegaGrants program. Although animation has done an excellent job in entertaining through comedy and colorful creatures, there is also a huge appetite and opportunity to share unseen epic stories like this one that allows us to provide larger-than-life cinema experiences, he added. Dalia and the Red Book Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Tom Barrack, a longtime supporter and adviser of former President Donald Trump, was found not guilty Friday of illegal foreign lobbying charges. The charges stem from federal prosecutors accusing Barrack of acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. The trial was held in Brooklyn. Barrack, a billionaire businessman who also was the inaugural committee chairman for Trump, was found not guilty by a jury of his peers after deliberating for three days. (The trial itself lasted for nearly two months.) He was committed of all the charges leveled against him, including conspiracy, obstruction and lying to the FBI. Prosecutors, as the New York Times reports, accused him of attempting to advance the interests of the Emirates in the White House and in the media, serving as a secret back channel for communications and passing sensitive information to Emirati officials. According to the New York Times, As the verdict was read, Mr. Barrack bowed his head and his family wept in the courtroom benches. Also Read: 5 Midterm Senate Races That Hollywood Has Bet the Most on Winning (Including One Republican) Barrack, a 75-year-old private equity investor from Los Angeles, is the latest in a long line of Trump associates who are now facing legal prosecution, particularly in their dealings with foreign entities. He was tried alongside his his former assistant, Matthew Grimes. Grimes was also charged with acting as a foreign agent and was also acquitted. The trial, which featured Barrack taking the stand for several days, centered around the lead up and immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, when Trump was surrounding himself with nebulous figures who had potentially dangerous sway. Barrack, who speaks Arabic and is of Lebanese descent, offered to help Trump with his dealings with the Middle East. Those dealings, prosecutors argued, crossed moral and legal lines. Also Read: Trump Eyes Nov. 14 to Announce 2024 Presidential Run (Report) Oct. 28BYU Hawaii and the surrounding community gave a welcome worthy of a superhero to Hawaii-born actor Jason Momoa on Thursday, when he encouraged the crowd to sign up to donate lifesaving bone marrow or blood stem cells to those in need. BYU Hawaii and the surrounding community gave a welcome worthy of a superhero to Hawaii-born actor Jason Momoa on Thursday, when he encouraged the crowd to sign up to donate lifesaving bone marrow or blood stem cells to those in need. Momoa, best known for playing the title role in the 2018 blockbuster "Aquaman " and for portraying warlord Khal Drogo in "Game of Thrones, " rode up to the Laie campus on a motorcycle and was greeted by a throng of cheering admirers. He hoisted up Rhyder Lopez, a 6-year-old from Waipahu who is in search of a match for a bone marrow transfusion to treat a rare blood disorder. Momoa was the main attraction in an event organized by BYU Hawaii's Healthcare Professionals Club and Be the Match, a division of the National Marrow Donor Program that maintains a registry of potential bone marrow and stem cell donors. According to Be the Match, a bone marrow transplant can be used to treat more than 70 diseases, and for many it is the only proven treatment. Meanwhile, there is an acute shortage of donors, particularly in Pacific Island communities. "We are all here to help Rhyder, " Momoa said to the crowd. "It's pretty crazy, the statistics of what's in the registry. I learned today (the number of people in the registry is ) a half of a percent in the world. Not even 1 %. If we were all one tribe and we lived here in Laie, say it's 1, 000 people, and two people were sick, wouldn't we all go there ? Wouldn't we all go there to swab our cheeks just to help our community ?" Rhyder was accompanied by his family, including his brother Rhaiden, 9, who himself needed a bone marrow transplant at age 9 in 2015. The boys' mother, Iza Lopez, said the family had to travel to Cincinnati for the operationa journey made even more complicated because she was pregnant with Rhyder at the time. Story continues "We were actually there for a year and a month, because we got backed up, " she said. "I ended up giving birth there. ... He was a C-section baby." Momoa got involved in advocating for the donor registry through his friendship with part-time Kauai resident Travis Snyder, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2015. Snyder is known for organizing the Color Run, a series of 5K runs held around the world as fundraisers for charity. "He's got three children and he's fighting for his life. Turns out he has a little bit of Polynesian in him, and he could be the whitest person I know, " Momoa told the crowd with a laugh. "So you could really be a help." Snyder has been treated twice, once with chemotherapy and a second time with a stem cell donation from his brother. But his cancer returned in March, and another stem cell donation has been deemed his best chance at remission. It was recently determined that someone with Pacific Island ancestry would likely be the best match. "They'll do some surface testing of your genetics and do the match, and then researchers will go the next level and try to identify the exact components of my illness, and they found it's a more difficult match, " Snyder said in a phone call from Los Angeles, where he is while waiting for a match. He said he has known Momoa "since before 'Aquaman' took off, " initially meeting through mutual friends on Kauai. "He had a bit more time on his hands, and our kids all had fun together, " Snyder said. "He's part of the magic of Kauai and that aloha spirit." The BYUH registry drive was held over two days, with about 110 students signing up Wednesday. That number likely was surpassed significantly Thursday, when a long line of potential donors snaked into the BYUH Aloha Center ballroom to swab their cheeks and start the registration process. Many came from outside BYUH, such as Khrystine Felipe, who is vacationing on the North Shore and heard about the event through Momoa's posts on social media. "If I have a chance to save a life or help someone in need, I will if I can, " she said. Felipe was born in Hawaii but now lives in Sacramento, Calif. Allison Legaspi, a freshman at BYU Hawaii from the Philippines and a member of its Healthcare Professionals Club, got her cheek swabbed Wednesday, to "have a chance at saving a life." She said it was important to get "a diversity of people to get their cheeks swabbed in order to get more matches." For more information on the donor registry, visit. Isabella Solimene and Ha Nguyen. PR Newswire The identical twins Isabella Solimene and Ha Nguyen were separated at birth. Solimene was raised in America, while Nguyen grew up in Vietnam. They reunited, and their relationship is the topic of a new book, "Somewhere Sisters." When Isabella Solimene told her identical twin, Ha Nguyen, she had begun the long process to become a US diplomat in the Middle East, Nguyen could have been forgiven for telling her sister not to leave. After all, the twins didn't grow up together or meet until they were 13. The twins' story began in 1998, when their birth mother saw that the newborns were malnourished. She didn't have enough money to buy them food. She placed Solimene in an orphanage. But she arranged for Nguyen the sicker of the two girls to be adopted by her sister and her partner. The couple, who lived in a rural village, doted on Nguyen as she grew up. Solimene had to wait until she was 4 to be adopted by an affluent white couple from Chicago. They'd flown to Vietnam with the dream of expanding their family. They visited Solimene's orphanage and chose to take her home. She went on to grow up in the US with their five other kids. Related video: AZ Sen. Mark Kelly, twin brother took part in NASA experiment The twins' story is chronicled in Erika Hayasaki's new book, "Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family." It features interviews with Nguyen, Solimene, and their families. Each girl was told about their identical sister when she was old enough to take it in. But they were too young to process the situation. Solimene's mom wanted to track down her daughter's identical twin Neither put pressure on her parents to track the other one down, Hayasaki said. "I was curious about my twin. I knew she lived in America," Nguyen told the writer. But, she added, "I told myself I would not ever go to America. So I just thought then, 'I guess I will not ever meet my twin sister either.'" Story continues As for Solimene, she told Hayasaki, "I grew up being curious about it." She added, "There was another person out there just like me, but I didn't feel like I needed to know who it was." Nguyen's adoptive parents a rice picker and a babysitter raised their daughter in a humble village with sparse electricity. It was situated in the mountains in a coastal region hit by typhoons. They didn't have the resources to trace her sibling. But Solimene's adoptive family did. Solimene's mom told Hayasaki that she felt it was her duty to bring them back together. She'd read a number of expert studies about the psychology of twins. She said that she'd thought, "I'm going to just find this little orphan girl and bring her here," and that Solimene's sister would be "child number seven in our family." The mom was determined to locate Nguyen. Hayasaki wrote that the mother visited Vietnam to ask the staff at the orphanage for clues. She tried to get hold of adoption records. But there were too many privacy rules. It was especially challenging because she couldn't speak Vietnamese. Solimene and Nguyen. PR Newswire In the end, she asked a local woman for help. The woman, who had a variety of contacts in the region, became her eyes and ears. Hayasaki wrote about the search for Nguyen in her book. She said the journey began with local gossip about the twins' biological mom. People said thst she put them up for adoption because she couldn't afford to feed them. The Vietnamese woman went on to discover that Nguyen was being raised by her biological aunt and her partner. The Vietnamese woman explained the situation to the three of them. She showed them a picture of Solimene it might as well have been a photo of Nguyen. Solimene's mom visited the family in July 2008. She played videos of her adoptive daughter practicing her favorite sports. Nguyen told Hayasaki she felt overwhelmed. She recalled the Vietnamese woman translating the conversation. At one point, Nguyen said, Solimene's mother asked, "Do you want to climb in my backpack and come back to America with me?" The twins were reunited in 2011 at the age of 13 Nguyen was shocked. "She said firmly in Vietnamese: 'No,'" Hayasaki wrote. "Her defenses suddenly shot up." The girl wondered whether it was a scam. She wasn't sure whether the American had her sister after all. She told the interpreter that she wanted to meet Solimene in person. "We'll bring her back," the American woman replied. She began to wire money to Nguyen's parents to help meet the costs of raising her. But, she told Hayasaki, she questioned her white privilege and her desire to have Nguyen come to the US. "You know, like who am I to think that I'm going to come in and save this little girl?" she told Hayasaki. "She's so happy." In 2011, the mom decided to fly Solimene to Vietnam. The twins reunited at the age of 13. Hayasaki wrote that the meeting which took place at an airport was awkward. The girls compared their features, but their different hairstyles set them apart. They couldn't communicate because of the language barrier and the fanfare at the airport. Solimene, who had always been reserved, said her body went "limp" when Nguyen gave her a hug. She said that she felt "resentful" because she already had sisters in the US and didn't want another. But Nguyen was overcome with emotion and didn't pick up on it. It was a slow start. But, Hayasaki wrote, the twins began to relate to each other. They talked about their respective childhoods. They laughed when Solimene recalled the time that a child bullied her by blocking the slide at the playground. Nguyen said she'd never had a slide. "I would get bullied if someone took my rocks," she told her sister. "We have similar scars in similar places," Solimene told Hayasaki. "Different little nicks and moles all over our bodies." Nguyen and Solimene went to the same college in the US The Solimene family paid for Nguyen to attend an elite private school in Vietnam. They rented an apartment so that her parents could live nearby. They also gave Nguyen the latest electronics, including a laptop and an iPhone. In 2016, Nguyen decided to finish her high-school education in Chicago. She told Hayasaki that it was hard to leave Vietnam. She said that after saying goodbye to her parents and boarding the bus to the airport, she thought, "This is not forever. This is a normal goodbye. I will come back." The twins became inseparable as Nguyen settled into life in the US. They left high school in 2018 and studied at the same college for four years. Solimene told Hayasaki that her sister "has helped me a lot in my life to be a little bit more emotionally present." The young woman added, "She has allowed me to grow in an environment that is a safe space. I have always felt like she's had my back." Nguyen said she was happy for her twin to pursue a career in diplomacy even if meant living thousands of miles apart for a second time. "I know she will say the same to me," Nguyen told Hayasaki. "And I know we will always find a way to come back to each other." Read the original article on Insider Ohio Republican and U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance was thoroughly mocked on social media after making accusations against his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan that one pundit described as Mad-Libs for bigots. During an interview Thursday night with Tucker Carlson, Vance claimed that if Ryan whom he described as the poster board for oligarchy won the race, hed be flooding America with illegal aliens and then using American tax dollars to fund gender reassignment surgeries for those aliens. He then falsely asserted that this was exactly what Tim Ryan has proposed doing. According to JD Vance, Tim Ryan is planning on "flooding America with illegal aliens and then using American tax dollars to fund gender reassignment surgeries for those aliens" pic.twitter.com/iMOPiEMuxT Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) November 4, 2022 As RawStory notes, Vance appeared to be conflating Ryans support for providing gender transition care to transgender and nonbinary people relying on state medical care including those in prison or immigration detention with his support for reducing the size of the immigration system. Kat Abu of Media Matters For America posted the exchange between Vance and Carlson, describing Vances fear-mongering slab of Republican red meat as Mad-Libs for bigots. She also called out the Hillbilly Elegy author for calling Ryan a poster board (he presumably meant poster boy). yes this clip is very funny but he also called Tim Ryan a "poster board" and I think we need to talk about that Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) November 4, 2022 Other Twitter users mocked Vances claim. This is LOL crazy fun. @jdvance1 looks like he is about to cry as he denounces the oligarchy to the prep school fascist. @JDVance1 started a fake opioid charity. @JDVance1 is a liar @JDVance1 is saying @TimRyan is going to do sex change surgery on all the kids is weird https://t.co/vn2i3Ih5BJ Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) November 4, 2022 They just make shit up and get to amplify their lies on the most-watched cable news program in America. https://t.co/ugckMsM2xN Farron Cousins (@farronbalanced) November 4, 2022 Saying he'd provide medical care to transgender people in prison or immigration detention is quite a bit different that what Vance is suggesting. Vance makes it sound like he's planning to recruit transgender people from other countries. Crunk (@Crunk1977) November 4, 2022 Immigrants coming to the country, working hard, and funding critical healthcare for a underserved community? Sign me up. https://t.co/CWFA0WvxPF Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) November 4, 2022 I know this is Tucker's typical expression, but his dumb, vaguely perplexed stare is an appropriate response to the utter nonsense Vancy is spouting. https://t.co/xicpzzaWax James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) November 4, 2022 It's obvious that Jack Daniels Vance only glanced over the fascist talking points and then said them all together. https://t.co/83PPq4jaxN Alexandra Halaby (@iskandrah) November 4, 2022 He's using that website you visit when you want to find the name for your new rock band ... https://t.co/RXgPFvKTBQ Keith Devlin (@profkeithdevlin) November 4, 2022 Some people wondered why Democratic candidates didnt make similar unfounded claims. Story continues Have Democrats considered just making shit up like this? Just give it a shot. Here: J.D. Vance wants to round up everybody's puppies for Dr. Oz to conduct painful experiments on in his lab. https://t.co/Dyf6icyaJK Matt Ortega (@MattOrtega) November 4, 2022 But then there were those who decided the only proper response was to go full tinfoil. Tukker! Tim Ryanz haz Bill use taxpayer moolah ta lasso the moon an turn all Virgos inta Capricornz! Pretty sure he wanna make a tranz immigrant King of Congress like fer real! The whole thingz Supergay! *Tucker furrows brow - blinks twice* LikeSuper Gay! https://t.co/SFynlcCKH1 Hal Sparks (@HalSparks) November 4, 2022 And then using those gender re-assigned aliens to study REAL saucer-flying aliens who abduct only those infected by 5G Covid nanobots. https://t.co/t592w9M98t Denver Riggleman (@RepRiggleman) November 4, 2022 The illegal aliens will then poop in litter boxes in gender neutral school bathrooms while being forced to watch drag queens. https://t.co/yW6wZmBIA8 Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) November 4, 2022 ...then they take the now-transgendered illegal aliens and teach them Critical Race Theory, while forcing them get abortions. While they're still drugged up on fentanyl from both surgeries, they release them in the suburbs for a crime-orgy. Have I got that right, JD? https://t.co/T4iHr14cTn Jonah Blank (@JonahBlank) November 4, 2022 Although RealClearPolitics shows that Vance currently has a 3.7 point lead over Ryan, political consultant Liz Mair thinks his attempt to smear Ryan with an anti-trans, very xenophobic theory is a sign he thinks hes in trouble. This is the kind of interview you generally see candidates do when theyre still struggling to consolidate their base, Mair tweeted. Does JD Vance not have this put away yet or something? This is the kind of interview you generally see candidates do when theyre still struggling to consolidate their base. I have a hard time believing thats where Vance is tho I know a bunch of OH Rs who arent backing him. https://t.co/pfpODixoLG Liz Mair (@LizMair) November 4, 2022 This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) Infowars host Alex Jones faces the possibility of having more steep penalties heaped onto the vast amount he already owes for spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as the punitive damages phase began Friday in a lawsuit filed by the victims' families. A Connecticut jury last month ordered Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, to pay $965 million to the Sandy Hook families for harm they suffered after he persuaded his audience that the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors. The jury also said punitive damages should be awarded. That amount, to be determined by Judge Barbara Bellis following the court hearing Friday and another one Monday, would be added to the compensatory damages already ordered. Fridays hearing, which was only about the plaintiffs legal fees and was held via a video conference, suggested a big additional penalty was possible for Jones. Both sides reached agreement earlier this week that the families contract with their attorneys calls for them to receive one-third of the amount of the compensatory damages nearly $322 million. If the judge approves punitive damages in the amount of the legal fees, that would increase what Jones and his company would have to pay the families to $1.29 billion. The plaintiffs lawyers, in court filings, suggested punitive damages under the act could total $2.75 trillion based on one hypothetical calculation, but they have not asked for a specific amount. Justice requires that the Courts punitive damages award, punish and deter this evil conduct, attorneys Alinor Sterling, Christopher Mattei and Joshua Koskoff wrote in a motion. Only a punitive damages assessment of historic size will serve those purposes. Jones lawyer, Norm Pattis, has asked the judge not to award any punitive damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Few defendants alive could pay damages of this sum, Pattis wrote in a brief. Indeed, most defendants would be driven into bankruptcy, their livelihood destroyed, and their future transformed into the bleak prospect of a judgment debtor saddled for decades with a debt that cannot be satisfied. To regard this as anything other than punishment would be unjust. Jones was found liable last year for damages to eight victims' relatives, and an FBI agent who responded to the school, for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and violating Connecticuts Unfair Trade Practices Act. On Monday, the judge will hear debate about damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Although punitive damages are generally limited to attorneys fees for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, there are no such limits for punitive damages under that act. All 15 plaintiffs gave emotional testimony during the trial, describing how they have been threatened and harassed for years by people who believe the shooting didn't happen. Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted some of them in public. People hurled abusive comments at them on social media and in emails. And some said they received death and rape threats. In a calculation in a plaintiffs' court filing, they said Jones' comments about Sandy Hook were viewed an estimated 550 million times on his and Infowars' social media accounts from 2012 to 2018. They said that translated into 550 million violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. If each of the 550 million violations were assessed at the $5,000 statutory maximum, the total civil penalty would be $2,750,000,000,000 ($2.75 trillion), their attorneys wrote. They also said punitive damages for violations of the unfair trade practices law typically are multiple times more than compensatory damages. Jones has said on his Infowars show that it doesn't matter how large the damages awards are, because he doesn't have $2 million to his name and he wouldn't be able to pay the full amounts. That contradicted testimony at a similar trial in Texas in August, when a jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting due to his lies about the massacre. A forensic economist testified that Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars' parent company, have a combined net worth as high as $270 million, which Jones disputes. Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in the middle of the trial in Texas, while a third trial over the hoax conspiracy is planned around the end of the year. As promised, Johnny Depp's legal team has filed to appeal Amber Heard's counterclaim win during their highly publicized court battle. Calling the verdict "erroneous," the actor's lawyers are pushing for the decision to be overturned. In June, a jury concluded that Heard intentionally and maliciously defamed Depp when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed identifying herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. Though she never named Depp in the piece, he claimed that the op-ed destroyed his career and reputation. The Fairfax, Va., jury agreed, awarding Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (the judge later reduced the punitive damages to Virginia's statutory cap of $350,000). Heard earned a small victory in her countersuit, which argued that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed her by calling her abuse accusations a "hoax" in the press, insinuating that her friends had set Depp up. The jury agreed that the statements were defamatory and that Waldman was working as an agent of Depp when he made the remarks, awarding Heard $2 million in compensatory damages. After the verdict, both sides announced plans to appeal. On Wednesday, Depp's team followed through, officially taking steps to contest the damages awarded to Heard. Filing in the Virginia Court of Appeals, lawyers for the 59-year-old actor argued he should not be liable for comments made by his attorney. Johnny Depp testifies in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, April 25, 2022. - Actor Johnny Depp sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." (Photo by Steve Helber / POOL / AFP) (Photo by STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images); Amber Heard (L) testifies as US actor Johnny Depp looks on during a defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 5, 2022. - Actor Johnny Depp is suing ex-wife Amber Heard for libel after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. (Photo by Jim LO SCALZO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP/Getty; SCALZO/POOL/AFP/Getty In court documents published online by Law & Crime Network, Depp's attorney Benjamin Chew maintains that while much of the trial in June resulted in a favorable outcome, "the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous." The documents add, "Ms. Heard presented no evidence at trial that Mr. Depp was personally involved in directing or making any of the three Waldman Statements. Indeed, Mr. Depp testified that he had never even seen the Waldman Statements prior to the filing of the Counterclaim in August of 2020." Story continues His team adds that "Mr. Waldman is an independent contractor, whose allegedly tortious conduct is not automatically attributable to Mr. Depp" and "no evidence of Mr. Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial" by Heard's team. They are seeking for the judgment to be overturned while the other counts that were in Depp's favor are upheld. Reps for Heard did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has, for the second time, rejected an emergency request to block President Joe Bidens student debt relief, even as legal uncertainty from other cases hangs over the program days before the midterm elections. Barrett on Friday turned down a bid to stop the program by two Indiana borrowers who claimed they were in line for Bidens debt relief but would be left worse off because of the state tax consequences. Barrett, who handles emergency matters coming from the 7th Circuit, rejected the request without comment or any indication that she referred the matter to the full court. She last month denied a similar effort by a Wisconsin taxpayer group, which claimed it should have the ability to challenge the program on behalf of taxpayers who it said would be harmed. The latest decision has no immediate effect because the Biden administration is already prohibited by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals from discharging student loans under its debt relief program. The appeals court temporarily halted the debt relief on Oct. 21 while it weighs an emergency request by six GOP states to block the policy. That case, which is being led by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, is likely the next to head to the Supreme Court. The states have already said in court filings they intend to ask the high court to intervene if they lose their request for an injunction against the debt relief program. Biden has vowed to continuing fighting in court to defend his debt relief program, which offers up to $20,000 of loan forgiveness to individuals earning under $125,000 and families earning under $250,000. The White House this week has pushed the message that Republican officials are standing in the way of debt relief for millions of Americans. Biden announced on Thursday that his administration would approve the applications of some 16 million Americans by the end of the week but that the relief is on hold because of the GOP-led lawsuit. Story continues Republican members of the Congress and Republican governors are doing everything they can, including taking us to court, to deny the relief and even to their own constituents, Biden said Friday during remarks at a community college in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He decried GOP opposition to the plan as "simply wrong" and "hypocritical" because some Republican lawmakers benefited from a pandemic loan forgiveness program for small businesses. The Biden administration has continued accepting and processing debt relief applications even while it's barred from discharging the loans. The Education Department has already sent millions of approved applications to its contracted student loan servicers as of Friday, according to people familiar with the matter. The agency has directed the companies to hold off on actually applying the relief to borrowers' accounts because of the court order. Nearly 26 million borrowers, in total, have now provided the required information to be considered for debt relief, the White House said. The Education Department estimates that roughly 40 million Americans are eligible for the relief if they apply for it. The legal challenge rejected by Barrett on Friday was brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian group, which argued that Bidens debt relief was an illegal abuse of authority. The lawsuit had argued that debt relief will leave two borrowers in a worse financial position because Indiana plans to tax loan forgiveness. After the lawsuit was originally filed, the Biden administration announced that borrowers in line for automatic debt cancellation would be allowed to opt-out of the student debt relief program if they dont want the relief. But lower courts ruled that the Indiana borrowers did not have any injury because the Biden administration wont actually be canceling their loans. None of their debt will be cancelled, and they will not be subject to a tax on a reduction of indebtedness, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a unanimous decision last week. It follows that the program does not injure them and that they lack standing to sue. Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said after Barrett's decision that the group would continue to fight this program in court. "Practically since this program was announced, the administration has sought to avoid judicial scrutiny. Thus far they have succeeded, he said in a statement. But that does not change the fact that this program is illegal from stem to stern. Most borrowers must fill out an application to obtain relief. But the pair of Indiana borrowers are among several million borrowers for whom the Education Department is able to automatically provide debt relief because it already has their income information. The agency has already sent out notices to those borrowers with instructions on how they can turn down any loan forgiveness, if they want to, by a Nov. 14 deadline. James Kvaal, a top department official, said in a court filing that only 102 borrowers had availed themselves of the opt-out option, as of Oct. 17. Its not clear how much higher the number is now. Yarieli Cuevas has only lived in Louisville for five years, but the 25-year-old from Puerto Rico said she's picked up a trend her community, she believes, is not represented by the city's current slate of elected officials. Cuevas, who transferred to the University of Louisville after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, works as a communications specialist at La Casita Center, a local nonprofit that aims to provide a "foundation for systemic change with long-term effects" for the city's Hispanic community. And in her eyes, a lack of elected officials with a Hispanic background means the people who make decisions that impact her and her community aren't in tune with the experience and struggles of many people they represent. "If it's somebody that's making decisions that are going to affect me, I would prefer somebody that has maybe gone through an experience similar to the one I have gone through that maybe has gone through the same obstacles like me, of the language (barrier), of being a minority, of being looked as less because they are Latina, that can bring that experience, that vision, at the moment of making those decisions," Cuevas said in Spanish in an interview with The Courier Journal. Voting guide:Election Day is soon. What to know about voting in Kentucky and who's on the ballot Election Day is around the corner and high-stakes seats and issues are on the ballot, including the race for Louisville's next mayor and the potential elimination of the right to an abortion in Kentucky. Representation, though, will also be on the minds of many voters from Louisville's Hispanic community many who spoke with The Courier Journal said seeing more people that look like them in office is a priority. Where Louisville's Hispanic population lives The number of people that identify as Hispanic or Latino has grown in Louisville in recent years, but several in those communities say the number of candidates that look like or represent them has not. Story continues Across Jefferson County, according to 2020 U.S. Census data, about 59,000 people identify as Hispanic or Latino, accounting for 7.5% of the city's population of about 783,000 residents. The number of residents has jumped by about 81% since 2010, according to the data, when just over 32,500 people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity were reported to be living in the area. Newburg is home to a large portion of that population, with 2020 Census data showing 25% of residents in the neighborhood identify as Hispanic. Between 2010 and 2020, The Courier Journal previously reported, 3,198 Latino residents moved into the subdivision. Other neighborhoods with relatively high percentages of Hispanic residents include Fairdale (24%), Okolona (22%) and Watterson Park (20%). Every other neighborhood in Louisville, 103 in total, has a Hispanic population rate of 20% or less, including nine neighborhoods with population rates of just 2%. Why aren't there many Hispanic Americans in office? Louisville's Hispanic population has risen in recent years. So why hasn't the number of elected officials risen with it? One key factor is sprawl. Louisville's Hispanic population has grown but it's spread throughout different parts of the city, which lessens its impact in hyper-local races like a neighborhood council elections. Areas like Newburg, Fairdale and Okolona have relatively higher amounts of Hispanic voters, but those are only a few communities out of more than 100 across Jefferson County. Dieruf vs. Greenberg:Kentucky General Election: Where the Louisville mayor candidates stand on LMPD, abortion Irina Baptiste ran in the primary with hopes to represent an area with a high Latino population, but she fell short of her goal to make it on the November ballot. Baptiste ran in the Republican primary for Metro Council to represent District 21, a South End district that's home to 14% of Louisville's total Hispanic population in neighborhoods like Beechmont, Iroquois, Southland Park and Southside. She lost, though, garnering 36% of the votes against her opponent, Stephen Dattilo. Baptiste ran for a seat on Metro Council "because of the community, the people would like to really actually have representation. ... I think after 2020, really the community understand that somebody must be in the public arena to tell everybody else at least what the Hispanic people think about what's going on." Other candidates with Hispanic backgrounds were on the ballot in the primary this year but fell short, including Darien Barrios, who lost his race against Stuart Ray for the Republican nomination Louisville's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Philip Molestina, a local pastor who lost to Bill Dieruf in the Louisville mayoral Republican primary. Other members of the Latino community have held political positions in the state, including Luis Fuentes, the publisher and editor of Louisville's "El Kentubano" publication, who was appointed to the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Board of Commissioners in 2018 by former Gov. Matt Bevin and was later reappointed by Gov. Andy Beshear. His term wrapped up in October. More local stories:'It's been there too long': Why some fear redesign isn't enough to end Ninth Street divide And while many in the community are optimistic about the future, another factor that has kept more Hispanic residents out of office, candidates running this year said, has been a low number of Latino candidates on the ballot. The Kentucky Secretary of State's office does not collect data on ethnicity from political candidates, according to communications director Michon Lindstron, which means the number of Hispanic candidates who have been on the ballot in previous years is unclear. But Diana Duran, the founder of a local organization that strives to get more Hispanic people involved in politics, said she believes the lack of Latin Americans on the ballot can be attributed to personal priorities such as work (many members of the community work two jobs, she said) and taking care of their families. Her organization, "Nueva Fuerza," works to promote Hispanic involvement in Louisville politics, including efforts to get more candidates to run. The candidates After Baptiste, Barrios and Molestina lost in the primary, just two candidates remain on the ballots this month who come from Latin American backgrounds Nathan Hernandez, who's running for a St. Matthews City Council seat, and Yvette De La Guardia, a candidate for district judge. De La Guardia is not the first member of Louisville's Hispanic community to run for a seat on the bench, but tragedy has followed local Latin American judges and judicial candidates in recent years. Local attorney Danny Alvarez won a judicial primary in May 2018 but died unexpectedly a day later, an incident that rocked the city and robbed the Latin American community of a chance at seeing a Hispanic district judge in Louisville for the first time in history. And Ellie Garcia Kerstetter, a Jefferson County family court judge who became the first Latina judge in Kentucky when she was sworn in in 2020, died in late September due to ALS. De La Guardia is well aware of that history, and the impact it's had on the local Latin American population. "I think, because of how close we've been in the last four or five years, and the tragedy that has followed, the community is just very much looking forward to seeing themselves in the judiciary," De La Guardia told The Courier Journal. She was hesitant to enter the race for a number of reasons, she said, including a lack of people in her community who have done this before. But De La Guardia eventually decided to run after speaking with her supporters and "knowing that people believed in me." Read more:Kentucky GOP poised to expand supermajority, but Democratic hopes hinge on one factor A 34-year-old attorney, De La Guardia is running against Lora Chisholm Holman for a nonpartisan position as a judge in the 30th Judicial District's Fourth Division. In her eight years as an active lawyer, she's defended kids in juvenile court as a juvenile public defense attorney and represented indigent people as an appellate attorney in the Kentucky Supreme Court and Kentucky Court of Appeals. Hernandez, meanwhile, is one of 13 candidates running for a seat on St. Matthews City Council, in a home rule-class city that has a Hispanic population rate of 5%. He was surprised initially by the support he felt from the local Hispanic community, he said. But he soon learned why. "Hispanic people in Louisville," Hernandez said, "are so hungry for representation." Hernandez, the youngest candidate on the ballot at age 30, said he would be the first person of color elected to the council in St. Matthews. The son of a Mexican father and a self-described "Appalachian hillbilly at heart," Hernandez was born in Texas but moved to Greenup County in Eastern Kentucky at a young age. He ended up in the city at age 18, when he enrolled at the University of Louisville. He's interned for former state Rep. Jim Wayne and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, two Democrats, but touted his platform as nonpartisan. His biggest goals in office, he said, would be to promote and support local businesses he called St. Matthews the "retail hub of Louisville" along with addressing racial equity issues and advocating for local employees and unions. The 'new strength' Hernandez said he feels responsible to represent the community and, win or lose, encourage other Latin Americans to run for office. He plans to use what he's learned from his campaign to help Hispanic candidates in the future. Two candidates are running this year, but Hernandez said he hopes 10 make it on the ballot in 2024. He's optimistic, he said, because Louisville's Hispanic population is young and "aging into being politically active." Duran, a 31-year-old woman from Peru, is working to encourage more members of the Louisville's Hispanic community to have a voice in politics, from getting on the ballot to simply learning how to vote, with her nonpartisan group Nueva Fuerza, which translates to "New Strength" "I've always been passionate about the community and giving back and how we can elevate each other because there is definitely no representation of the Hispanic/Latinx community in like, the leadership roles, and in the spaces where people make decisions that impact the community," Duran said. "It's always been a passion of mine, kind of like fighting for that." "Nueva Fuerza" started as a project for the New Leaders Council Kentucky, where she serves as a 2022 fellow. The team currently has three people, including her, but she has the support of other Latin Americans from different countries and backgrounds who give their opinions on the plans she has for the future of the organization. More:From baby formula to immigration: La Casita Center tends to Louisville's Latinx community Duran does not want to run for office, though. She said that given the political history in her country, including a history of corruption by the people in power, she wants to exclude herself from any political position. In the meantime, Cuevas is just one of many who hope to see more Hispanic representation in office. The La Casita Center employee said if people outside her community aren't ready to see that, then they need to get ready. "Us Latinos are just as qualified as non-Latinos. ... We have been to the same schools, we have taken the same tests, the same bar exams, everything," Cuevas said. "So if they aren't ready, I think it's just their problem." Reporter Bailey Loosemore contributed. Reach reporter Ana Rocio Alvarez Brinez at abrinez@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election: Louisville Hispanic community wants representation Mariah Carey wasted no time in ringing in the unofficial start of the Christmas season this week, but her announcement got a playfully frosty reception from none other than Martha Stewart. Appearing Thursday on Today, Stewart pleaded with Carey to hold off on trimming the tree so that autumns most oft-overlooked holiday, Thanksgiving, could get its moment to shine, too. Mariah, you know me, the lifestyle mogul said. I am a traditionalist with a twist, and you cannot give up Thanksgiving just because you dont like turkey. I love turkey, and many, many other people love turkey, so do not think that we are gonna give up Thanksgiving just because you say so. You cannot give up Thanksgiving!" @MarthaStewart makes a plea to @MariahCarey to slow her roll after the singer posted a video on social media celebrating the end of Halloween and skipping straight to Christmas. Mariah, what do you say? pic.twitter.com/dWDGVuqtYX TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 3, 2022 Stewarts remarks came in response to a video that appeared Tuesday the first day of November on Careys social media platforms. In the clip, the pop diva transforms from a spooky Halloween witch into her iconic Queen of Christmas persona, as her 1994 classic All I Want for Christmas Is You plays. Carey appeared to take Stewarts remarks in stride. Later on Thursday, she replied and reassured her that she hadnt turned her back on Thanksgiving completely. Dearest Martha!! NEVER will I give up Thanksgiving!! she tweeted. But we can still start getting into the festive spirit now! Carey went on to suggest that her acknowledgment of the November holiday could be guaranteed if the two celebrated together. Story continues P.S Id love to have you at my Thanksgiving dinner although Ive yet to be invited to your Thanksgiving extravaganza! she noted. And THAT is MAJOR! Esp if Snoops coming! True to form, Carey is going to be busier than ever between now and Jan. 1. This week, she unveiled The Christmas Princess (The Adventures of Little Mariah), a holiday-centered childrens book. And next month, she returns to the stage for a series of four Merry Christmas to All! concerts in New York and Toronto. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... The Massachusetts Republican Party faces a make-or-break gubernatorial election. Democrats comfortably control the Massachusetts House of Representatives; Senate Democrats currently hold a 34-seat advantage; and with a Maura Healy win in November, the Democrats could control the governor's office for just the second time since Michael Dukakis left office in 1990. Academics, experts, and party members question whether Massachusetts has become a one-party state. There's a first party, and there's a third party there is no second party, said Liam Kerr, founder of Priorities for Progress and co-founder of The Welcome Party, which describes itself as committed to growing the Democratic Party. Kerr said the MassGOP shouldnt be treated like a major party in Massachusetts when the state has one of the least competitive legislative elections in the country. The 18-point margin between Republican Anthony Amore and Democrat Diana DiZoglio, for state auditor is the slimmest between the two parties among the major races. Evan Falchuk, who ran against outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker in 2014 as a United Independent Party candidate, called the GOP a democracy-denying organization thats not serious about governing. He said politics are currently rigid in Massachusetts because of the lack of choices. You can't vote for Republicans when they're not serious about governance, and you can't vote for third party candidates, because either they have no chance of winning, or they might shift the outcome of the election in ways you don't like, Falchuk said. 8th Bristol District:Rep. Schmid faces a challenge from Gendreau for 8th Bristol District House seat The former gubernatorial candidate said he learned during his 2014 campaign that voters want choices. He said non-competitive elections have contributed to the Legislature spending less time debating issues and candidates withholding policy specifics during campaigns Democrats can work behind closed doors because they have a substantial majority. Story continues Priorities for Progress public policy analyst John Griffin said the GOPs greatest mistake was aligning itself with Donald Trump. He calls the party disorganized and divided because of their current internal struggle between the pro-Trump wing led by party chair Jim Lyons and moderate Republicans who support Baker. If the Republican Party was a more serious organization that made more of an effort to appeal to voters more in the middle, they would have more seats in the state Senate right now they're just not making any effort to appeal to people in the middle, said Griffin. 5th Bristol District:Incumbent state Rep. Haddad and Thurber vie for 5th Bristol District house seat Dave Hopkins, associate professor of political science at Boston College, said it will be difficult for the Republicans to compete in future statewide elections because the moderate candidates, who used to have a track record of being electable, are having a difficult time getting through the primaries. Hopkins is confused by the GOPs current strategy. He said Baker, and former Govs. Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, and Paul Cellucci successfully argued during their campaigns that moderate Republicans are needed to keep Democrats in the Legislature and Constitutional offices accountable. Hopkins said it was difficult for Baker to create a robust party infrastructure because hes faced internal opposition for not being conservative enough. [Baker] was not particularly interested in advancing conservative policies or picking a lot of fights with liberals and in the state Legislature, said Hopkins. He didnt want to risk running for a third term because its embarrassing if your own party wont even nominate you. The Boston College professor said Republicans had long-standing problems recruiting candidates. He said young, ambitious moderate politicians whod previously run as a Republican are now more likely to register as either a Democrat or independent. We definitely need another person like Charlie Baker coming along, who can kind of rally the troops again, said a Republican active in party politics. Anthony Amore, who is running for auditor, is one of the key people we need to look to, to bring this party forward in the future. Will Mass. become a one-party state? Republicans set to elect new party chair in January The Republican activist added that there are divisions within the party because of those currently in charge. They are calling for new leadership who can raise funds and redevelop relationships with donors. Jaclyn Corriveau, member of Massachusetts GOP State Committee, said the media criticism of the party has been fair. She said there are divisions within the party, and if the party doesnt put in the work that needs to be done, Massachusetts will become a one-party state. I'm very optimistic about it [and] I think everyone's heart is in the right place. It's just a matter of all coming to the same table and having some really difficult discussions, Corriveau said. Efforts to reach Lyons were unsuccessful. This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Academics, experts question whether MA has only one political party OKB, the native token of the crypto exchange OKX, has surged nearly 25% over the past 24 hours and reached a new monthly high of $22.15, according to data from Coingecko. After retreating some from a longer bull run, OKB now trades at around $20.37 as of this writing and is the 19th-largest cryptocurrency with a $5.1 billion market capitalization. Trading volumes have also spiked by 208% to $90.019 million in the last 24 hours. OKB is now just a half-billion dollars away from surpassing the popular decentralized exchange (DEX) token behind Uniswap. On a weekly note, OKB has gained more than 28.9%, the third-largest weekly gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. OKB reached its monthly high. Source: OKB/USDT via TradingView. Despite todays tremendous gains, the coin is still down over 53% from its all-time high of $44.01 recorded in May 2021. Whats driving OKXs token? As per the companys press release, OKX, the exchange behind the OKB token, has registered itself as a Digital Asset Business in the Bahamas, fueling the tokens appraisal. The company has also opened an office in Nassau, the capital of the island country with plans to hire at least 100 people. Where do ambitions of world dominance take #OKX next? The Bahamas OKX is proud to expand its global footprint by opening a regional hub in Nassau pic.twitter.com/tuMOtB7EOZ OKX (@okx) November 3, 2022 This is not the first time a crypto exchange has opened shop in the Bahamas. Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX also moved its headquarters to the Bahamas last year. Bahamas clear regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies has been one of the key reasons for firms to set up operations in the Caribbean. Thanks to the countrys Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) bill launched in the late 2020s, companies can easily issue and sell digital tokens, which are scrutinized far more heavily by other regulatory authorities across the globe. OKX has also been registered under the DARE act, according to the companys press release. An Oregon mayor in a road rage incident was arrested for attempted murder after he allegedly shot bullets into the side of a car carrying a young family inside, authorities said. Rufus mayor Dowen Jones, 47, was taken into custody on attempted murder and assault charges on Tuesday, one day after the mayor of the town, located 100 miles east of Portland, had allegedly fired rounds into the side of a passing car, the Hood River County Sheriffs Office said in a statement. On Monday at approximately 8.43pm, a car carrying two adults and two children, five and seven years old, noticed that the SUV travelling south ahead of them on Highway 281 was driving erratically. The family continued to travel along behind the weaving car until the driver of the SUV pulled over abruptly, causing the driver of the trailing car to register some concern. When the familys car slowed down beside the now parked SUV to get a better description of the vehicle and its driver, for the purpose of reporting the erratic driving to the Sheriffs Office, the report noted, events took a grave turn. As the family passed the suspect vehicle, a male subject stepped out of the passenger side and fired multiple rounds from a handgun at the passing family, local authorities said. There were no injuries reported from the shooting, but the sides of the familys car were damaged from the multiple rounds fired from the mans handgun, authorities said. Deputy Joel Ives with the Hood River County Sheriffs Office said two adults and two children were traveling south of Hood River on Halloween when they noticed an SUV driving erratically in front of them (KGW/video screengrab) By Tuesday, the sheriffs office had identified the SUV as belonging to Rufus mayor Jones. Mr Jones faces one count of attempted murder and four counts of attempted assault in the first degree. Records from the Northern Oregon Corrections indicate that the 47-year-old mayors bail, set at $100,000, has not been paid and he is being held in custody in The Dalles, located 26 miles west of the town of Rufus where Mr Jones was elected mayor with 76 votes in 2018, according to OregonLive. The investigation into the incident is ongoing, the sheriffs office said. Story County's five Iowa House and Senate races show varied fundraising. But one thing in common is the majority of money is coming into the county from political action committees. Here are the highlights from local legislative campaign finance reports filed with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. Reports cover the time period of July 15 to Oct. 14. Final campaign finance reports are due to the board Friday. The general election is Tuesday. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Iowa Senate District 25 State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, Democrat, is running for his sixth four-year-term for Senate District 25 with what appears to be little opposition. Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames Quirmbachs opponent, Jordan Taylor of Ames, has filed no campaign finance committee reports and has not registered with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. A candidate committee is required to register with the board if the candidate raises or spends more than $1,000 in a calendar year. Quirmbach, on the other hand, raised $9,095 in the past four months and spent $31,431. However, almost all of that expenditure, $30,000, was to the Iowa Democratic Party for a Senate majority fund contribution. Of the contributions the Quirmbach committee received, more than $5,800 came from political action committees and other interest group donors, including Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC ($2,000); Bankers Unite in Legislative Decisions ($1,000); MuniPAC ($600); and Heavy Highway PAC ($500). The Quirmbach committee has carried over an unpaid loan from the candidate for several reporting periods of $10,000. The committee ended the reporting cycle with $23,815 on hand. The most recent report doesnt list a chairperson. Mary Lundy of Ames is listed as treasurer. Iowa House District 48 Republican Phil Thompson of Boone is running for reelection in newly-drawn House District 48 against two challengers, Boone County Democrats Chair Penny Vossler and no-party candidate Luke Barnes. Story continues Rep. Phil Thompson is running for reelection to the Iowa House of Representatives. Thompson is running for a third term. In the most recent reporting period, Thompson raised $47,115. Of that, $32,500 came from political action committees, including Iowa Farm Bureau Federation PAC ($4,000); Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC ($3,000); and Iowa Hospital Association PAC ($3,000). Thompson received a $1,000 donation from the Greene County Republican Central Committee even though the newly drawn district no longer represents any of Greene County. The Thompson campaign also received $18,012 in-kind contributions from the Republican Party of Iowa for advertising. During the reporting period, Thompson spent $56,906. Of that, $55,000 was donated to the Republican Party of Iowa. Vossler, a Democrat from Boone, raised $2,387. Her campaign spent $1,892. The campaign finished the reporting period with $1,660 cash on hand. The committee chairperson is Penny Vossler. Boone County Democrats Chair Penny Vossler is running for Iowa's District 48 House of Representatives seat. Barnes has not registered with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, which indicates the candidate has not raised or spent at least $1,000 in a calendar year. Iowa House District 49 Democratic incumbent Beth Wessel-Kroeschell of Ames is uncontested in her bid for her ninth term serving Iowa House District 49. Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, is running for her 9th term in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wessel-Kroeschells campaign raised $14,720 in the past four months and spent $22,020. Of those expenditures, the campaign gave $21,500 to the Iowa Democratic Party. Of the campaigns contributions raised, $10,500 came from political action committees, including Justice for All PAC ($3,000); Iowa Hospitals Association ($2,500); and Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC ($2,000). The treasurer of the committee is Thomas Jackson of Ames. Records dont list a committee chairperson. Iowa House District 50 Incumbent Democrat Ross Wilburn of Ames is running uncontested for the Iowa House District 50 seat. Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, is running for reelection for District 50. Wilburn's committee reports in May, July and October were all filed late. However, none incurred a late charge from the state. The Oct. 19 report was amended Nov. 1 Wilburns campaign raised $18,125 in the past four months. The campaign spent $19,298. Of those expenditures, the campaign gave $19,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party. The campaign ended the reporting period with $8,233 on hand. Of Wilburns fundraising contributions, more than $14,450 came from political action committees, including Justice for All PAC ($3,000); Iowa REALTORS Pac ($2,000); Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC ($2,000); and Hy-Vee Inc. Employees PAC ($2,000). Iowa House District Republican David Deyoe of Nevada is running for reelection in Iowa House District 51. This would be his eighth term in the House. Deyoe raised $14,300 and spent $12,000. All of those expenditures went to the Legislative Campaign Committee and its Eisenhower Club-DIS for Iowa House Majority Fund support. The bulk of Deyoes fundraising came from PAC donations, including $3,000 from the Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC, $2,500 from the Iowa Friends of Rural Electrifications-IAEC PAC, and $1,500 from the Associated Builders & Contractors of Iowa PAC. Deyoe is listed as the chairperson of his election committee. Libertarian Joshua Herbert of Maxwell is challenging Deyoe for the Iowa House seat. Herbert has no campaign reports filed with the state ethics and campaign board. Iowa House District 55 Iowa Rep. Shannon Latham (R-Sheffield) is running for reelection for District 55. She is running uncontested for her second term. Her report was amended Nov. 1. Latham raised $22,462 and spent $14,013. Most of those expenditures went to a $10,000 donation to Republican Party of Iowa. Her campaign finished the filing period with $14,562 cash on hand. The bulk of her fundraising came from political action committees, including $2,500 from the Iowa Corn Growers Association State PAC, $2,000 from the Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC, and $2,000 from Joni Ernsts political action committee, JONIPAC. Teresa Kay Albertson covers politics, crime, courts and local government in Ames and central Iowa for the Ames Tribune and Des Moines Register. Reach her on Twitter @TeresaAlberts11 and at talbertson@registermedia.com, 515-419-6098. This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Campaign finance reports for House, Senate candidates in Story County Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Donald Trump's billionaire friend Tom Barrack was found not guilty on Friday after a trial that went on for weeks couldn't apparently convince jurors that Barrack had illegally acted as an unregistered foreign lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates. The five-week trial in New York City was a rare sight, with federal prosecutors aggressively attacking a modern-day real estate baron. The uber-wealthy investor was acquitted of being an unregistered lobbyist for a foreign government. He was also found not guilty of lying to the FBI about his interactions with UAE royals and spy agency personnel. Barrack, 75, faced up to 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice, given the way he misled FBI special agents about his secret second phone, which he used to have encrypted chats with spy-connected Emiratis about the ways he was looking out for their interests. Those communications happened as Barrack advised Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. At trial, prosecutors presented emails and text messages that showed the lengths to which Barrack would go to please his UAE friends, which included Emirati royals and spy officials. The otherwise commanding capitalist was reduced to a supplicant stooge who sought their approvalall for the promise of a hefty infusion of Gulf state cash into his real estate investment company, Colony Capital. Photos showed how Barrack would hang with rich Emiratis who dangled the chance to dip into the seemingly bottomless Gulf state sovereign wealth fundsa promise that prosecutors say was fulfilled in 2017 and 2018 in the form of a $374 million cash infusion. However, it wasnt enough to convince Brooklyn jurors that the relationships amounted to an agreement for Barrack to represent UAE interests. During the trial, Brooklyn jurors were shown how Barrack was first approached by Emirati businessman Rashid Al-Malik with an opportunity to cozy up to UAE royalty. In early 2016, just as it became apparent that Barracks financier status would usher in Wall Street support for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Emiratis turned Barrack into their cheerleader: on national TV news and even at the Republican National Convention. Then when Trump actually made it to the White House, Barrack's handlers used him to ingratiate themselves with the American president. Story continues Emails documented the extent of the controland the embarrassingly enthusiastic way Barrack kept seeking their approval. It always pleased the UAE, and that sometimes spilled over into favors for Saudi Arabia. In early 2016, for example, Barrack sent Al Malik multiple versions of a draft energy plan before the billionaire ever passed it onto the Trump campaign. Later that summer, Barrack successfully pulled any mention of Saudi royal involvement in a speech about the 9/11 terror attacks. In early 2017, Barrack ignored then-State Secretary Rex Tillersons pleas to not get involved in Saudi political affairs and instead used his influence in the Trump administration to make sure a Saudi prince who was vying for total control of that countryMohammed bin Salman Al Saudwould get treated as if he were already in charge. In texts, Barrack gloated about his White House influence, noting how he forced them to elevate him to the level of prime minister instead of deputy crown prince for protocol purposes. MBS, as he is popularly known, is now the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The UAE campaign was persistentand well documented. In March 2017, Al Malik sent Barracks personal assistant a list of eight talking points the billionaire should parrot. That list was sent verbatim to CNN host Erin Burnett, who interviewed Barrack on her evening show. At trial, prosecutors pointed out how Barrack would find painfully odd ways to name drop his future patronslike the way he consistently championed the actions of Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAEs top national security adviser, even when the topic at hand had little to do with him. At times in text messages, Barracks side even referred to the spy chief as the boss. Barrack similarly became a cheerleader for the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known colloquially as MBZ. This was about product placement. This is about ensuring that MBZ and the boss were pleased, prosecutor Ryan C. Harris told jurors in his closing arguments. This is about using UAE money to influence the American public. Although the Justice Department didnt manage to get any insiders at Colony Capital or the UAE to confess to the intimate details of the operation, FBI special agents managed to get Al Maliks draft iPhone notes, down to the moment they were drafted and tweaked. They also seized Barrack emails marked totally confidential that laid out the plan, which was explicitly referred to as a strategy to strengthen UAE influence in the USA and strengthen the influence and prosperity of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and their people. At one point, Barrack even emailed his assistant, Matthew Grimes, to make sure they could use the encrypted chatting app Signal to keep privately communicating with the UAE spy chief, Sheikh Tahnoun. By contrast, Barracks lawyers cast the entire body of evidence as a big misunderstanding. This was merely a billionaire establishing friendly business relationships and hoping to use the sunset of his career to bring peace to the Middle East. Defense attorney Randall Jackson told jurors it makes no sense that after a storied career Barrack would say, in my final chapter, Im going to engage in serious crimes. This Brooklyn trial was a unique criminal case, with law enforcement putting Barracks lavish lifestyle and his complex business and political connections under a microscope. Part of that was the billionaires decision to champion Trumps rise to power at a time when his offensive, nativist policies had yet to take hold. In his own words at trial, Barracks relationship to Trump has proved disastrous. On the stand, he testified that Trumps racist Muslim ban and nonstop political scandals poisoned his business relationships with Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The damage unraveled his life. Barrack resigned from the real estate investment firm he founded, Colony Capital, shortly before he was arrested last year. And he briefly indicated that friendship led to his criminal trial. Barrack has been dealing with that fallout for years. He also chaired Trumps 2017 presidential inauguration, which was mired in corruption allegations after the Trump family diverted donor fundsan enrichment scheme that ended in a settlement with the District of Columbia attorney general. 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. The Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving for at least five games without pay, saying they were dismayed by his failure to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs. Hours after Irving refused to issue the apology that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sought for posting a link to an antisemitic work on his Twitter feed, the Nets said that Irving is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets added in a statement that they were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film. Irving did later issue an apology on Instagram. Uber has applied to withdraw a petition in Kenya challenging the new ride-hailing regulations that capped commissions at 18%, and required taxi apps operating to acquire licenses. Coulson Harney, the law firm representing Uber, filed the notice of withdrawal, bringing to an end its push to have the new digital ride-hailing regulations annulled. Take notice that Uber B.V, the petitioner, gives notice and wholly withdraws its petition and the notice of motion application, read the application, seen by TechCrunch, and which came days after Uber lowered its commission from 25% and got a license to operate in Kenya. Estonia's Bolt, Kenya's Little and Rwanda-based Yego have also received approval to operate in the East Africa's biggest economy. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch that it had applied to withdraw the case, saying it remains committed to working closely with Kenyas policymakers to help improve driver earnings, and ensure a great user experience. On 03 November 2022, Uber filed an application to withdraw the constitutional petition on the new transport network regulations published by the Ministry of Transport in June. Having received a transport network license from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has and considered several factors, we felt that the best course of action was to comply with the regulations, which includes the lowering of our service fee from 25% to 18%. We will continue to liaise with NTSA on the implementation of the regulations, said an Uber spokesperson. The new law by Kenyas Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure gives NTSA the mandate to enforce it. We remain committed to Kenya and to creating economic opportunities for drivers and providing enhanced mobility for riders, as we have done since our launch in the market in 2015, Uber said. Uber filed the petition in September this year, urging Kenyas high court to expunge the newly implemented regulations, adding that some sections were unconstitutional, discriminatory, discouraging to foreign investments and infringing on its rights and those of its riders and partners. Story continues Uber protested Kenyas decision to cap commissions charged per ride, and plans to reevaluate pricing structures, saying the move would dent its earnings. It insisted that Kenya is a free market, where ride-hailing companies have the right to negotiate commercial agreements without external influence. It also claimed that the regulations were made and gazetted without following due process and public participation. The new law requires all platforms to have a physical presence in Kenya, and to obtain a license to operate. Uber had also faulted the condition that all ride-hailing companies must obtain a transport network license from NTSA to operate, saying that it was not a transport service but an app offering intermediation service. It said the regulations are discriminatory because only persons with Kenyan Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) were allowed to obtain the mandatory license. Ride-hailing companies in Kenya, including Bolt and Little, are also required to share drivers and riders data upon request by the authority. Uber said that this would be a contravention of the new Data Protection Act. ballot drop box Election Day in Illinois is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and is a holiday, meaning state offices and most schools will be closed. Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill in June 2021 establishing the holiday temporarily. Nineteen states have some form of Election Day holiday. All polling places are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. A federal holiday to coincide with Election Day has been proposed but has not been enacted. Federal workers are allowed to take up to four hours of administrative leave to vote. There is mail delivery on Election Day and banks will be open. Illinois elections 2022:With 14 days to go, candidates slam 'dark money,' stump the state, smash fundraising record Government buildings Federal buildings and courts will be open. State of Illinois buildings and courts and Sangamon County buildings and courts will be closed for the day. City of Springfield offices, including Lincoln Library and administrative offices at Oak Ridge Cemetery, will be open and operate normal business hours. A student walks down the hallway with a member of the staff at Rochester Elementary School in Rochester, Ill., Wednesday, September 15, 2021. [Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register] Schools Springfield School District 186 students will not be in session. Ball-Chatham, Williamsville-Sherman and Rochester school districts are closed. Sacred Heart-Griffin High School and Lutheran High School will not hold classes, but Calvary Academy will be in session. The University of Illinois Springfield campus will be closed. Lincoln Land Community College and Midwest Technical Institute will be open. SMTD offices Public transportation Sangamon Mass Transit District buses will be running regular service. Other attractions Sites like the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Lincoln Home and the Dana-Thomas House will be open regular hours. Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie. This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: What's open, what's closed in and around Springfield for Election Day The parents of Gabby Petito are suing police in Utah, alleging officers neglected to properly investigate her fiance, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before he killed the 22-year-old in a case that garnered international attention. The lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages and was filed against the police department of Moab, Utah, a rural town known for being an entryway to iconic national parks, including Arches National Park. Petito's parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schimdt, argue officers should have issued a domestic violence citation after interviewing Petito and her fiance Brian Laundrie, 23, in August 2021 about a fight they had. If officers had done more to protect Petito while investigating the violent exchange, her murder two weeks later could have been prevented, the parents argue in the lawsuit. "The officers egregiously misinterpreted Gabbys extreme emotional distress, seeing it as the cause of the domestic violence rather than its result," the lawsuit reads. Thursday's filing is the latest development in the high-profile case around Gabby Petito's death. What began as a missing person's case last summer rode a wave of true crime obsession to become a social media sensation, drawing amateur online sleuthers and the kind of worldwide attention that can help authorities locate missing people. CONCEALMENT: Gabby Petito's family sues Brian Laundrie's parents, alleging they knew of her murder Petito went missing in late August 2021 during a cross-country trip with Laundrie. A few weeks later, her remains were found in Teton County, Wyoming, and a coroner ruled her death a homicide by strangulation. Laundrie was named a person of interest in Petitos disappearance and disappeared himself before being found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Floridas Carlton Reserve in October. At a press conference Thursday, Schmidt, other family members and their team of lawyers stood in front of an old picture of Petito smiling in a slot canyon. Story continues Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt, speaks during a news conference as her husband Jim Schmidt looks on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Salt Lake City. There are laws put in place to protect victims. And those laws were not followed. And we dont want this to happen to anybody else, Schmidt said, her voice quivering. The suit also claims police officers "coached Gabby to provide answers that the officers used to justify their decision not to enforce Utah law," which requires action be taken in response to domestic violence incidents. Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt "was fundamentally biased in his approach to the investigation, choosing to believe Gabbys abuser, ignoring evidence that Gabby was the victim and intentionally looking for loopholes to get around the requirements of Utah law and his duty to protect Gabby," the lawsuit says. After the lawsuit was filed, the city of Moab said the death was tragic yet not the fault of their police department. Our officers acted with kindness, respect, and empathy toward Ms. Petito, city spokesperson Lisa Adams said in a statement. No one could have predicted the tragedy that would occur weeks later and hundreds of miles away, and the City of Moab will ardently defend against this lawsuit. The lawsuit follows a notice of claim filed in August, notifying Moab that Petito's family intended to file for damages due to wrongful death. An independent investigation in January faulted police for making several unintentional mistakes including not issuing a domestic violence citation after Petito told police she had hit her boyfriend. Contributing: Scott Gleason, USA TODAY; Associated Press. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gabby Petito family files wrongful death lawsuit against Moab police Joe Rogan walks back on his claim that schools were putting out cat litter for kids who are 'furries.' Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Joe Rogan admitted his claims about schools providing litter boxes for "furry" kids were baseless. Rogan first made the comment in October during a podcast with former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. The claim, which has been circulating for months, has been repeatedly debunked by school officials. A month after saying on his podcast that a school installed a litter box in the bathroom for a "furry" child, Joe Rogan has admitted his claims were baseless. On an October 26 podcast episode with author Michael Shermer, Rogan walked back his initial comments, saying, "I don't think they actually did it. I think there was discussions about doing it because there was one particularly wacky mother, but it doesn't seem that there's any proof that they put a litter box in there." On an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" last month, the podcaster told former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard a story about how his friend's wife "works at a school that had to install a litter box in the girls' room because there is a girl who was a furry, who identifies as an animal." In the podcast, Rogan said the girl's mother "badgered" the school "until they agreed" to the decision. In his conversation with Shermer last week, Rogan admitted that he "fed into" the false claims. Rogan added that he had been inclined to believe the hoax because of his experience when he encountered a furry convention in Pittsburgh a decade ago. Rogan's original comments mirror claims that have been circulating since at least January, per a New York Times report. Numerous school boards, including schools in Tennessee and Iowa, have since issued public statements clarifying their stance and shooting down the litter box claims. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican lawmaker from Nebraska, had to retract his words after repeating the hoax on a televised debate in March, per the AP. Rogan did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Insider This Native American Heritage Month, queue up these Indigenous stories. rumblethemovie.com This November marks Native American Heritage Month in the United States. The month, officially designated in 1990 by former President George H. W. Bush, recognizes the significant contributions of Native Americans toward the establishment and growth of the U.S. Despite these vast contributions, Native American voices and narratives have been historically marginalized. So, engaging with art and media created by Indigenous writers, producers, and directors is one way to connect with these storiesand enjoy a great book or movie at the same time. While there are countless options to choose from, this list surveys our favorite creative works from a diverse range of Native American and Indigenous voices throughout North America. :Etsy Launched an Indigenous Artisans CollectiveAnd We Can't Wait to Shop the Stunning Handmade Jewelry Ernestine Hayes In her first book, Blonde Indian, Ernestine Hayes, recounts her journey of returning to her Tlingit home in Juneau, Alaska after many years away. In The Tao of Raven, Hayes digs deeper into this experience, combining elements of memoir and fiction to express frustration at the prejudices still facing Alaskan Natives on their own land. Connecting time and space in the Indigenous worldview, Hayes reflects on her own lifegraduating from college in her fifties and becoming a professor and writerand the legacy she will leave behind to future generations. Amazon.com This middle-grade chapter book was written by novelist Keith Egawa (Lummi Nation) and medicine woman, illustrator, and teacher Chenoa Egawa (Lummi and S'Klallam Nations of Washington). The book follows a whale named Shiny. After learning about the dangers facing the worlds oceans because of human carelessness, Shiny agrees to be transformed into a boy. Then, he meets Alex, a Salish girl, to warn her and teach her about the worlds waters. For children aged 7 to 8, this book introduces Pacific Northwest Indigenous cultures, and shares messages of hope, environmental protection, and personal responsibility. Story continues The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open is a Canadian drama written and directed by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn. It follows a chance encounter between two Indigenous women navigating intimate partner violence. Filmed as one continuous take, this movie was well-received by critics. Domestic violence in native communities in the U.S. is a pressing issue, and films like this foreground how widespread and harmful it truly is. Amazon.com This reflective poetry collection focuses on the language used in the United States governments interactions with Native American peoples and tribes, from treaties to apologies. Ogala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier employs short lyrics, prose poems, narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers to examine histories and her own identity. This musical documentary highlights Native American involvement in the evolution of the rock industry across North America. The film profiles U.S. and Canadian figures with native ancestry, like Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as non-native artists who promoted Indigenous musicians in the rock scene. Stevie Salas, a Native American guitarist who's worked with artists like Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, George Clinton, and moreis one of the producers of Rumble. Long overdue, this film is perfect for music enthusiasts looking to learn more about the foundations of the genre. Amazon.com Jessica Hernandez is a Maya Ch'orti' and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of the environmental agency Pina Soul. In this book, she examines ideas of western conservationism, highlights why they are ineffective, and proposes Indigenous models as alternatives. She foregrounds Indigenous environmental knowledge that has been continually pushed aside. In light of recent concerns over the immediacy of climate change activism, this book offers case studies, historical overviews, and anecdotes on ways to recover and revitalize our planet. Horror buffs need to look no further. This Canadian zombie flick blends scare tactics with sociopolitical messages. This movie depicts a zombie apocalypse on the Red Crow Indian Reservation in Quebec. The people on the First Nations reserve, played by actors likes Michael Greyeyes (Muskeg Lake Cree Nation), Forrest Goodluck (Navajo), Kiowa Gordon (Haulapai), are immune to the contagious zombie-fying disease. Thanks to their heritage, the Indigenous characters dont succumb to illness, but they still have to survive the world around them. Both a commentary on colonialism and a contemporary thriller, this movie is a fresh take on the zombie genre. Amazon.com Muscogee (Creek) Nation poet Joy Harjo is the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States. In her poetry collection, she highlights the tensions between the joys and struggles of daily life against a background of the politics of what it means to be human. Incorporating elements of travel, memory, and music, this collection provides readers with important reflections and opportunities for hope. Amazon.com This award-winning picture book is perfect to show the diversity and pride of Native America. Written in verse, debut author Kevin Noble Maillard (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) explores family tradition, community, and history. Using the staple food of fry bread as a narrative thread, Maillard shares a heartwarming and affirming story that is a wonderful gift or collectors item. Amazon.com Raised a Black woman with American Indian roots, Shonda Buchanan explores the complexities of identity and multi-racial heritage in her memoir Black Indian. This inspiring and thought-provoking narrative tells the story of Buchanans Michigan tribe. She navigates societal ostracization while straddling multiple races and cultures. Digging deep into her background, this award-winning writer offers a moving story that doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable and dives far down into family truths. For more Real Simple news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Real Simple. Twenty-one people in five states have been arrested, accused of being part of a nationwide catalytic converter theft ring, the Justice Department reported Wednesday. The arrests took place in California, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada and North Carolina, the Justice Department said. Some of the suspects have already been charged for their roles in the conspiracy, prosecutors said. Ten different federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation, executing 32 search warrants. Law enforcement officials seized millions of dollars in assets from the suspects, including homes, bank accounts, cash and luxury vehicles. The DOJ said brothers Tou Sue Vang and Andrew Vang, along with Monica Moua, allegedly sold over $38 million in stolen catalytic converters to DG Auto in New Jersey. They operated an unlicensed business out of their home in Sacramento, California, where they bought stolen catalytic converters from local thieves, prosecutors allege. The operators of DG Auto, a company that buys catalytic converters, knowingly purchased stolen catalytic converters, extracted the precious metal powders and sold them to a metal refinery for over $545 million, prosecutors claim. FILE -- An undated photo of catalytic converters. / Credit: CBS News Other defendants in the case include Tyler James Curtis, who received over $13 million in wired funds from DG Auto for the shipment of catalytic converters, as well as another $500,000 from another company for catalytic converters, prosecutors said. Defendant Adam G. Sharkey received over $45 million in wired funds from DG Auto, while defendant Martynas Macerauskas received over $6 million in payments from DG Auto, the DOJ said. A federal grand jury in California returned a 40count indictment, charging nine of the defendants with conspiracy to transport stolen catalytic converters, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other related charges. "With California's higher emission standards, our community has become a hot bed for catalytic converter theft," U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California said in a statement. Story continues Talbert said approximately 1,600 catalytic converters were stolen in California each month last year. California accounts for 37% of all catalytic converter theft claims nationwide, he said. Meanwhile, a federal grand jury in Oklahoma returned a 40-count indictment against 13 defendants in the case. U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson for the Northern District of Oklahoma said in a statement that 2,000 catalytic converters were stolen in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last year. "Organized criminal activity, including the large-scale theft of catalytic converters, is costly to victims and too often places citizens and law enforcement in danger," Johnson said. Catalytic converter theft is on the rise in the U.S., the DOJ said in its press release. The car part reduces the toxic gas and pollutants from a vehicle's internal combustion engine into safe emissions. They are typically stolen because they contain precious metals like palladium, platinum, and rhodium. Some of these metals are more valuable than gold, and their value has been increasing. Catalytic converters can cost more than $1,000 each on the black market, the DOJ said. They are also easy to steal with a thief able to lift them from a car in less than a minute. They often lack serial numbers, so they are difficult to trace once removed from the car. "Thus, the theft of catalytic converters has become increasingly popular because of their value, relative ease to steal, and their lack of identifying markings," the DOJ said. On Friday, in an unrelated case, a suspect was arrested in Chicago for allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic converter, CBS Chicago reports. The owner of a muffler shop in Denver said his shop has manufactured and installed as many as 1,000 shields that are welded into cars to protect catalytic converters, CBS Colorado reported last week. Many autobody shops offer similar protection. Farmers Insurance recommends looking into these anti-left devices. The company also recommends etching your license plate number into the catalytic converter, so it is traceable if found. It also suggests parking in a well lit area and making sure your car's alarm is on. Study finds psychedelic mushrooms can be used to treat depression Twitter employees laid off a week after Elon Musk's takeover What does October's strong jobs report say about the U.S. economy? From rave-worthy Riesling to weighty, complex Pinot Noir, German wine has much to offer. Jorg Greuel / Getty Images Profoundly complex and expressive of the most exacting intricacies of terroir, the wines of Germany are among the most iconic and revered in the world. Remarkably, they are also among the most undervalued and misunderstood. Germany epitomizes the cool-climate wine region, with its vineyards tiptoeing the northernmost limits of viticulture for nearly 2,000 years. Amidst inhospitable climes, grape vines are coaxed to greatness by the most unimaginable confluences of sun exposure, topography, and soils. Home to over half of the worlds Riesling vines, Germany is the unrivaled benchmark for Riesling production worldwide. Regional grapes like Silvaner, Scheurebe, or Muller-Thurgau can yield gloriously pure, often thrilling white wines. Germany is also the third largest producer of Pinot Noir (known locally as Spatburgunder), after France and the United States. Alongside Pinot Noir, its home to a growing production of exceptional Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) too. The oft-heard claim is that German wines are dismissively sweet and simple,yet in truth, an increasing majority of German wines today are dry (or trocken), and crafted in better quality than ever before. While cooler climates dominate, Germanys thirteen wine regions span a diversity of climate and terroir, and have benefited substantially from the warming effects of climate change. Most of Germanys vineyards trace the paths of river systems that temper harsh vineyard climates. In the southwest, vines stretch along the Rhine River and its tributaries from Mittelrhein and the Ahr in the north to Baden in the south. Far afield to the east are Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen (also known as Saxony) in what was formerly East Germany. Key Wine Regions in Germany Mosel The Mosel is Germanys most famous wine region, best known for its spry, laser-cut expressions of Riesling that span the full spectrum from dry to unctuously sweet. Running northeast from Germanys borders with Luxembourg and France, the Mosel region extends along the Mosel River to its junction with the Rhine and through the valleys of its tributaries, the Saar and Ruwer. Story continues Ethereal in body yet electrifying on the palate, the wines of the Mosel are born out of a juxtaposition of extremes. Cool climates countered by intense sunlight are amplified by the regions rivers, precipitous slopes, and famously rocky, heat retaining slate soils. We have a special situation here in the Mosel, says Ernst Loosen, whose family winery, the Dr. Loosen estate, boasts eight of the Mosels storied grosse lage, or grand-cru sites. The cool, northern climate, our slate soil, and the deep, twisting river valley give us very steep, south-facing vineyard sites. All of that adds up to wines that are intense in flavor but not high in alcohol and with a racy, elegant structure that is unique to slate soil. Like many of the regions best winemakers, Loosen focuses exclusively on Riesling in the Mosel, sourced in part by exceptionally rare vines dating 130 years in age. Increasingly warmer growing seasons have contributed to fuller-bodied, weightier expressions of dry Riesling in recent decades along with small but consistent quantities of elegant red wines, particularly Pinot Noir. Rheingau The Rheingau region is easily identifiable on a map as the abrupt left turn in the Rhine Rivers otherwise northerly path between the cities of Wiesbaden and Mainz. Planted along the northern banks of the river on hillsides dotted with ancient castles and monasteries, the vineyards of the Rheingau enjoy mild winters and warm summers due to southern exposure and protection from cold winds and rain by the nearby Taunus mountain range. The Rheingau is a small but beautiful area with vastly diverse vineyards [differentiated] not just by climate conditions [but] different elevations [and] soil types [that] create a unique place for Riesling, says Wilhelm Weil, co-owner and director of Weingut Robert Weil, one of Germanys most iconic estates. Wines from the Rheingau, says Weil, are marked by fine acidity, a distinctive mineral tone, and complexity. Riesling, typically plusher and silkier in mouthfeel than those in the Mosel, makes up 80% of the Rheingaus vineyard plantings. Dry styles of Riesling are most typical in Rheingau today, but top producers like Weil excel with both dry as well as complex, age-worthy sweet wines. The Rheingau is also famous for perfumed, pure-fruited Pinot Noir grown on the slate and quartzite slopes of Assmannshausen, the regions historic red-wine enclave. Rheinhessen South of Rheingau across the Rhine, Rheinhessen is a fertile agricultural basin of soft, undulating hills framed by the Rhine to the north and east and the Nahe river to the west. Shielded from harsh weather by surrounding mountains and forests, Rheinhessen boasts one of the sunniest, driest climates in Central Europe. In the increasingly distant past, Rheinhessen was known for inexpensive, mass-produced sweet wines like Liebfraumilch. Today, its better recognized as one of Germanys most dynamic wine regions with a growing fellowship of star winemakers producing exceptional, diverse wines. Uniquely, no single grape variety enjoys predominance in Rheinhessen. There are a lot of places with great terroir for Riesling and the Burgundian varieties [Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc], says Philipp Wittmann, winemaker and owner of Weingut Wittmann, one of the regions flagship organic and biodynamic wineries. Rheinhessen also produces striking examples of Silvaner, Scheurebe, and Chardonnay. Diversity of soil is a defining characteristic of Rheinhessen,. Most famous, he suggests, is the Rheinfront (also known as the Rheinterasse) subregion near Nierstein with its majestic Roter Hang, a red sandstone escarpment that produces complex, often savory expressions of Riesling. He notes that Wonnegau in the south with its amazing limestone driven soils, the loamy soils around Ingelheim to the north, and the volcanic soils in Siefersheim all add to the range and complexity of Rheinhessens viticultural identity. Nahe Tucked away in a pocket nearly enclosed by mountain ranges, the Nahe wine region is one of Germanys smallest. Vineyards in the Nahe fringe the valleys of the Nahe Rivers junction to the Rhine as well as its own tributaries. From volcanic soils to decomposed slate, sandstone, limestone and clay, the Nahe offers the widest range of soil types of any of Germanys wine regions. Riesling is most celebrated in the Nahe, particularly among the regions best producers Donnhoff, Schlossgut Diel, Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer Frohlich, Gut Hermannsberg and others. The diversity of Nahes terroir fosters a wide range of grape varieties too including some of Germanys finest Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris. Franken More than wine, Bavaria is probably better known for its historic villages and lively beer culture. For die-hard devotees of German wine, however, the south-eastern state is personified by the distinctive, stately wines of Franken (also known as Franconia). Frankens most prominent vineyards trace the bends of the Main River, a grand tributary of the Rhine that extends from east to west through central Germany. Franken produces noteworthy examples of Riesling and Pinot Noir, but the true king of Franken is Silvaner a uniquely textural white wine thats almost always produced in a bone-dry style. The taste of Silvaner originates in the soil, says Andrea Wirsching, owner of Hans Wirsching Winery, a family estate that dates back to 1630. In Franken, most vineyards are planted on one or more layers of rocky soils deposited during the Triassic period buntsandstein (or Bunter sandstone), muschelkalk (or shell-limestone) and keuper. In Iphofen, where Wirschings vineyards are based, keuper soils yield opulent, even luminous, expressions of Silvaner with intense minerality and delicate acidity. Bone-dry yet bolstered by the full flavor of ripe grapes and a characteristic herbal tone, the wines of Franken reflect the regions rich history and culture as encapsulated by the bocksbeutel, the regions uniquely round, squat bottles. Pfalz South of Rheinhessen and extending further south to Germanys border with Alsace, the vineyards of the Pfalz are sandwiched through the rift of the Rhine Valley between the Haardt Mountains (a southern extension of the Vosges) and the Rhine, explains Hansjorg Rebholz, owner of Okonomierat Rebholz, one of Germanys most heralded organic and biodynamic estates. Southerly latitude and sun-drenched terrain make the Pfalz (also known as the Palatinate) one of Germanys warmest winegrowing regions. The Pfalz has an incredible diversity of soils, says Rebholz, whose vineyards undulate between outcrops of limestone, loess and loam, to sandstone and slate. This complexity of soil functions in combination with the traditionally broad range of grape varieties in the region, reflecting the terroir of the individual vineyards. The region is known most prominently for opulent expressions of bone-dry Riesling and Pinot Noir, but also seductively aromatic whites like Pinot Gris, Scheurebe, Muskateller (Muscat Blanc) and Gewurztraminer. Baden Southernmost of all of Germanys wine regions, Baden extends north from Germanys southwestern border with Switzerland a narrow corridor flanked by the Rhine and the Alsatian border to the west and the Black Forest to the east. Traditionally the warmest and sunniest of Germanys wine regions, Baden is a natural stronghold for the production of richly concentrated expressions of Germanys Pinot trio Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. Pinot Noir is especially reflective of the diversity of soils in the region weighty and complex when grown in the volcanic stone and loess terraces of the Kaiserstuhl, thrilling and finessed in the shale limestone soils of the Breisgau. Ahr North of the Mosel and along the banks of the Ahr River as it flows into the Rhine, the Ahr Valley is one of Germanys smallest wine regions. Despite its extreme northerly latitude, the uniquely sheltered microclimate of the Ahr Valley is almost Mediterranean, bathed in intense sunlight and warmed by heat that radiates off the regions dark slate and volcanic soils. The region produces miniscule volumes of wine but specializes in perfumed, bright-fruited expressions of Pinot Noir. Federal labor officials filed a complaint Thursday alleging that Chipotle illegally closed a store in Augusta, Maine, in response to an organizing effort by workers. The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board recommended in the filing that Chipotle be ordered to reopen the store and bargain with the union, according to a board spokesperson. Laurie Schalow, Chipotles chief corporate affairs officer, said in a statement that the closure had nothing to do with union activity and that the company plans to vigorously defend ourselves. Our operational management reviewed this situation as it would any other restaurant with these unique staffing challenges, Schalow said. We respect our employees rights to organize under the National Labor Relations Act and are committed to ensuring a fair, just, and humane work environment that provides opportunities to all. The burrito chain, which has 3,000 locations in North America, shuttered the Augusta store in July, not long after workers there filed for an election. Workers must round up union cards from at least 30% of a workplace in order for the labor board to schedule a vote. (Photo: Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images) (Photo: Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images) The company said at the time that the closure was due to inadequate staffing. But a lawyer for the workers told The New York Times in July that the move amounted to Union Busting 101. The general counsels decision to issue the complaint means investigators looked into the workers allegations and found merit in them. If Chipotle and the general counsel cant reach a settlement, the matter will be litigated before an administrative law judge and, eventually, perhaps the five-member board in Washington. Its illegal for an employer to close an individual location expressly to snuff out union organizing (although it is legal to shut down an entire business for that reason). The complaint against Chipotle is one of many aggressive moves made under the purview of the NLRBs general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, whom President Joe Biden appointed. Story continues Abruzzos office filed a separate complaint earlier this week accusing Starbucks of retaliating against workers by closing a store in Ithaca, New York. That complaint also recommended that Starbucks be compelled to reopen the location. As a practical matter, it is difficult for labor board officials to force a company to reopen a worksite. The complaint typically takes years to litigate, with several opportunities for appeal, and the workers affected often move on with their lives. In addition to reopening the store, the general counsel says Chipotle should have to reinstate the workers who lost their jobs and offer them back pay covering any wages they lost. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Since the pandemic began in 2020, the headlines surrounding education have been consistent: students have suffered from significant learning losses, and the college-going rate has been on a downward spiral. But now, education partners here in Memphis and all across the state are working together to turn the tide to create greater opportunities for all students. We know that high school seniors who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) are more likely to enroll in higher education, persist in their college coursework, and obtain a degree. Yet, even with thousands of dollars in scholarships, grants, and other forms of financial aid available, additional job training or education after high school has not been the end result for too many Memphis students. State education leaders realized something had to change. As a result, theyve established new goals and set in motion an array of initiatives to create a new momentum year in college-going and FAFSA completion. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) has set a 60% college-going rate goal for the class of 2023. To reach this goal, each county in Tennessee will need to strive for an increase of more than 7% in their county college-going rate. The current college-going rate for the class of 2021 in Shelby County is 49%, a significant drop from the countys class of 2019 rate of 60%. In addition to the college-going rate goal, THEC has set a 90% FAFSA Submission goal for this years graduating class. Innovation grants grow from six to 10 schools The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) is pleased to partner in this work and we are going a step further with a FAFSA challenge in Memphis and Shelby County. FASFA is free and a good resource for educational funding. Last year, SCORE provided FAFSA innovation grants to six Memphis-Shelby County schools to encourage all students to fill out the FAFSA. At first glance, the numbers seemed positive. Memphis had an 85% FAFSA filing rate. However, closer inspection revealed that only 65% of the FAFSA applications filed were complete with accurate parent or guardian information. Seeing this gap inspired SCORE to boost our work and commitment to students in Memphis and Shelby County. Story continues Knowing we needed to do more, SCORE has increased the number of FAFSA innovation grants from six to ten Memphis-Shelby County schools this year. Schools that receive the innovation grants have agreed to identify a FAFSA coordinator, set a FAFSA completion goal, track progress, and schedule time for seniors to complete the FAFSA application during the school day. We have also worked with the Memphis Area Presidents Council, a network of college presidents and educational leaders in the Memphis area, to look for additional ways we could come together as a community to help encourage greater FAFSA participation among the Class of 2023. To that end, weve formed the Memphis Area FAFSA Initiative, a partnership between the school district, local public higher education institutions, and community organizations to increase awareness about the FAFSA and develop a sense of urgency for why the FAFSA is vitally important for students thinking about enrolling in a postsecondary institution after high school. But talking about student participation among a room full of adults isnt going to bring students to the table. Personal connections matter most. So, throughout the 2022-2023 school year, our SCORE team is attending several events in Memphis to meet with students and school counselors about the importance of FAFSA completion. We are encouraged by the response weve received so far. FAFSA is a students gateway to the postsecondary degree or credential On October 18, SCORE partnered with the University of Memphis, Southwest Tennessee Community College, TCAT Memphis, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools to host a Memphis Area FAFSA Challenge kick-off event to provide students and their families with information on how to complete the FAFSA accurately and to share admission and scholarship information from the partnering colleges. The evening was a huge success. Students and their families were engaged and eager to learn about the many financial options available to them. The partnering colleges are committed to building on that success by hosting additional financial aid information sessions on their respective campuses this winter. We know Tennessee students are thinking about their next steps and wondering what the future holds. But we also know that the process of filling out college applications and various financial aid forms can be daunting. We are determined to help students learn more about the importance of FAFSA and share resources to help them complete the process so that they are not discouraged by the tedious paperwork. The FAFSA is a students gateway to the postsecondary degree or credential that could lead to a lifetime of opportunity. By getting into schools earlier in the school year and making direct connections with students and counselors, our goal is to help guide them through the FAFSA process and set them on a course for success after high school. Dr. Jamia Stokes leads and coordinates SCOREs postsecondary strategy. Prior to joining SCORE in 2022, Dr. Stokes served as dean of student success at Rhodes College and previously served as director of advising and student services at the UT Knoxville College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis students can take control of their future through FAFSA funds Brittany Tichenor-Cox, holds a photo of her daughter, Isabella "Izzy" Tichenor, during an interview during an interview on Nov. 29, 2021, in Draper, Utah. Attorneys representing Brittany Tichenor-Cox on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022 said they would seek damages for the 2021 death of her daughter, Isabella SALT LAKE CITY The family of a Black fifth grader in Utah who died by suicide last year plans to file a $14 million lawsuit against her school, arguing that an inadequate response to reports of her being bullied over her race and disabilities led to her death. Attorneys representing Brittany Tichenor-Cox on Wednesday said they would seek damages for the 2021 death of her daughter, Isabella Izzy Tichenor. In a notice of claim, they said the school had violated state and federal laws, including those that require schools ensure equal treatment, provide educational opportunity and protect students experiencing homelessness. Notices of claim are required before people can sue government entities and the familys claim said that the lawsuit will seek $14 million in damages. The notice of claim from Tichenor-Cox names Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake City as a defendant, as well as its director and principal. It also names as defendants the Davis School District, school board and superintendent. They have 60 days to respond before the family can file a lawsuit based on the claim. We appreciate the interest on the case, but until we carefully review it and confer with legal counsel, our district will not be able to comment further, Chris Williams, spokesperson for the Davis School District, said in a statement after the notice of claim was filed. Tichenor's death in November 2021 sparked massive outcry and a groundswell of anger over youth suicide, bullying and the treatment of children with autism. In Utah, a predominantly white state where incidents of racism in schools frequently make headlines, it prompted state legislators to pass a new law requiring districts to track reported bullying and racism in schools. The notice of claim recounts how Tichenor, who was autistic and the only Black student in her class, was bullied by students who said she smelled, made fun of her skin color, eyebrows and used racist slurs against her. It provides a timeline of Tichenor's parents repeatedly alerting the school of bullying in the months leading up to their daughter's death and alleges administrators did not take action to stop it. Story continues As a result of this unchecked bullying and the school's overall deliberate indifference to minority students, Izzy failed nearly all her classes. At the time of her death, she could barely read or do math on a first-grade level, it says. More: Utah Gov. Cox references own suicide ideation as a youth, asks those who need help to seek it The Davis School District teaches roughly 73,000 students in Salt Lake City's north suburbs. Only about 1% are Black. It was reprimanded last year by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to address widespread racial discrimination and forced to as part of a settlement agreement change its policies, offer more training and establish a new department to handle complaints. The district defended its actions last year after Tichenors death, arguing it had responded to Tichenor's family appropriately and worked extensively" with them over their complaints. This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Family of bullied Utah girl who died by suicide files claim against school Why was I given a provisional ballot? Provisional ballots are issued to voters at a polling location when there are eligibility questions that prevent them from casting a regular ballot on Election Day. They are a fail-safe method to ensure that everyone who is registered to vote gets to cast a ballot, says Charles Stewart III, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Election Lab in Boston. The ballots, which are sometimes known as challenge or affidavit ballots, are currently offered in all but three states Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire. Those states, however, offer same-day registration, which allows residents to both register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day. Each state sets its own guidelines for when provisional ballots are required and how theyre processed. The most common reasons theyre offered include when an election official challenges a voters eligibility or when a voters name isnt found on the list of eligible voters, they lack proper identification or do not reside in the precinct in which theyre attempting to vote, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which publishes a nationwide analysis following every general election. Provisional ballots are set aside for review after polls close on Election Day, but the delay in counting them has led to confusion and allegations of voter fraud in recent elections. Former President Donald Trump and other election skeptics, for example, questioned why vote counts in some states continued to grow long after polls closed in 2020. Some have also suggested that being required to fill out a provisional ballot means someone else has already fraudulently voted in your place and that your vote wont ultimately be counted. But all provisional ballots are reviewed by election officials in every election, says the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan research group that serves lawmakers across the country. If a ballot is deemed legitimate, it will be counted, regardless of how wide the margin of victory in an election might be, the organization said. Election officials are also required to inform voters whether their provisional ballot was counted and the reason if its rejected. This is usually in the form of a toll-free telephone number or an online tool. As provisional ballots are verified, theyre added to the final tally, Stewart said. If all you do is compare the vote totals from election night to the totals with the provisional ballots added, it might look like someone has been stuffing the ballot box, he said in an email. Instead, people who voted on Election Day are simply having their vote counted after Election Day. Provisional ballots represent an increasingly small share of all votes cast, comprising less than 1% of all votes in 2020, down from 1.4% in 2016 and 1.7% in 2012, the two most recent presidential elections, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's most recent analysis. Overall, roughly 1.7 million provisional ballots were cast nationwide in 2020, of which about 78% were ultimately counted and about 21% were rejected, the commission found. The AP is answering your questions about elections in this series. Submit them at: FactCheck@AP.org. Jill Biden will join the Arizona Education Association at a Phoenix get-out-the-vote event on Saturday, making her the latest national political figure to campaign in Arizona amid a high-stakes election season. On the Arizona ballot this year will be two governor candidates with deeply different visions for the future of education in Arizona. Voters will also weigh in on the next state superintendent of public instruction and can vote in their local school board races. This election is an opportunity for educators, parents, and education supporters to send a clear message to elected officials that quality public education is our number one priority, the association said in a press release. Thats why hundreds of AEA members have spent their weekends knocking on doors for AEAs recommended candidates. Election guide: November 2022 Biden is an educator with experience teaching English at the high school and community college level, and a member of the National Education Association. The event will take place on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 11 a.m. The location has not been publicly released. Yana Kunichoff is a reporter on The Arizona Republic's K-12 education team. You can join the Republic's Facebook page, and reach Yana at ykunichoff@arizonarepublic.com. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jill Biden to rally with educators in Arizona ahead of Election Day Before any roads were built on Presque Isle, there were only rough paths made by Native Americans. These were narrow footpaths because the Iroquois and Eriez usually did not use horses for travel. Their paths were unimproved dirt that could be muddy or flooded in rainy weather. Over time, new-growth trees developed on the paths, making travel quite a problem. When the first settlers arrived in northwestern Pennsylvania, they found that the paths were only wide enough for one horse or horse and cart. The settlers soon found these dirt paths inexpensive to expand, but they were sometimes still impassable. In winter, the roads were easier to traverse, so they used sleds instead of wagons. Erie-area history: The American Revolutionary War and northwestern Pennsylvania In 1753, Michel-Ange Du Quesne de Menneville, Marquis Du Quesne, the governor of New France, ordered a French force to construct a series of forts leading to the Ohio River Valley. The first French fort site was located at Presque Isle. When built, it was located on the western bank of what became known as Mill Creek. A detachment of French soldiers quickly occupied the fort. They were then assigned to build a road to Le Boeuf, which is Waterford today. This was the first road in the area and ran from Fort Presque Isle south to Le Boeuf. Erie's earliest days: The building of the French fort at the harbor This is a contributed photo of the Fort Presque Isle Pennsylvania Historical Marker in Erie County from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The route chosen was rough and hilly, yet also the most practicable. There were areas through marshes and across small streams. The French would cut small tree trunks to use in the wet areas and lay them close together across the roadway. This made it dry and solid. However, this part of the road had a corduroy quality and was quite rough. When the settlers moved into the area, they used the same route with minor changes around these wet areas. In August 1753, the French commander of the fort sent word to Du Quesne that the fort at Presque Isle was finished and the portage road to Le Boeuf was ready for wagon traffic. The road had a large storage house at its midway point, and was six leagues in length. This term was a unit of measure at the time. Unfortunately, it can mean anywhere from 2.4 miles to 4.6 miles depending on who was doing the measuring. That meant the road could have been either 14.4 miles or 27.6 miles today. In actuality, those two points are about 15 miles apart. Story continues Judah Colt was hired by the Population Company, which owned the land in the area. He became the only land agent and sold land to new settlers. After a few years, Colt established Colt Station in 1797 at Greenfield Township. That same year, he built a road to Colt Station as a supply route from Lake Erie. Goods soon traveled by ship from Buffalo, New York, to Erie at the Sixteen-mile Creek, where Colt had built a dock. Goods were transported overland to Colt Station. He extended the road in early 1798 to French Creek, where he established a boat landing. He then continued the road to the forks of the creek at Wattsburg later that same year. This road was the first one built after the American occupation of the area. Finally, in 1802 or 1803, the commonwealth built a road from the headwaters of the Delaware River to Ohio. Back then, it was known as the State Road. It is hard to determine if that information is 100% correct because the Erie Court House burned down and all records were lost. Over the next 15 or 20 years, many other roads were constructed because the population of the Erie area was expanding and traffic through the port was growing by the day. More: Before he led the U.S. victory on Lake Erie in 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry crossed it by ice Gene Ware is the author of 10 books. He serves on the board of the Presque Isle Light Station and is past chairman of the boards of the Tom Ridge Center Foundation and the Presque Isle Partnership. Email him at ware906@gmail.com. Gene Ware This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: History of Erie County's first road, Fort Presque Isle to Le Boeuf Lafayette Parish will get $4.8 million in additional rent assistance funds to help residents struggling to afford housing thanks to a redistribution of federal rent aid funds. The funds, accepted by Lafayettes city and parish councils Tuesday, will add to nearly $22 million in previous federal aid already dispersed to some 5,300 households in Lafayette Parish since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Lafayette Consolidated Government partnered with SMILE Community Action Agency and Catholic Charities of Acadiana over a year ago to launch its Lafayette Emergency Assistance Program with the funds, which Catholic Charities CEO Kim Boudreaux said has been key to keeping families in Lafayette Parish in their homes. This has allowed a number of families that have experienced financial hardship and crisis to retain their housing, Boudreaux said. When we look at issues relating to housing instability, making sure that we prevent as many episodes of homelessness as possible is critical to reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness on our streets in Lafayette. Catholic Charities of Acadiana CEO Kim Boudreaux talks about the new $7 million Lafayette Emergency Assistance Program during a press briefing on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. The additional funding for Lafayette Parish is coming from a reallocation at the state level. LCGs rent assistance program has outdone efforts in more rural parts of Louisiana to get the funds to those who need them, thanks in no small part to SMILE and Catholic Charities. We have led the state in this effort with the rental assistance, LCG Community Development & Planning Director Mary Sliman said. We were off the ground fast. We were able to engage SMILE and Catholic Charities very quickly to establish our program, and it has been a model for the state, which is one of the reasons I believe that we have continued to receive additional funding. Boudreaux pointed out that while Lafayettes need for aid and the programs success are clear, rural communities can face similar needs but struggle to organize such programs because of their limited resources. Story continues Its a reallocation of funding that was originally meant for other communities, so its bittersweet that Lafayette has been able to be actively administering these program funds, which our community needed and continues to demonstrate a need for, she said. But we hate to see that other communities have not been successful in implementing this program. The LEAP program is available to residents of all parts of Lafayette Parish but does not extend to the full-service areas of SMILE or Catholic Charities of Acadiana. The funds are used to directly pay landlords and utility companies for as much as 12 months of unpaid rent or bills, with a three-month extension available under certain circumstances. The program is open to Lafayette Parish households with income levels below 80% of the parish's median income for their household size. For a family of four in Lafayette Parish, the income limit would be $61,200 in 2022. More information on income limits is available online from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Parish residents can apply for assistance online at smilecaa.org, by phone at (337) 234-3272 ext. 200 or in person at SMILE's downtown Lafayette office at 501 St. John Street. Priority will be given to applicants from households that include someone who has been unemployed for over 90 days or households earning below 50% of the parish's median family income, or $38,250 for a family of four. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lafayette will get $4.8 million from unused rent aid funds around LA The two California-based brands call these pints "a Central Coast Thanksgiving celebration." Tana Gandhi Founded in 1868, the Watsonville, California-based Martinelli's is possibly the most recognizable brand of non-alcoholic cider in the country and their champagne-style bottles of sparkling cider are a classic alcohol-free alternative during the fall and winter cider season. Over 80 years later and over 200 miles south, McConnells Fine Ice Cream was established in Santa Barbara in 1949 and has recently expanded to six scoop shops in the state. Now, these two long-running California brands are collaborating for the first time on a product they say is built for the holiday season: Martinellis Apple Cider & Cranberry Jam Ice Cream. Tana Gandhi Billed by the brands as "a Central Coast Thanksgiving celebration," this new flavor "features Martinelli's crisp, sweet, effervescent, delicious Sparkling Apple Cider infused into McConnells sweet cream ice cream, backed by ribbons and ribbons of McConnells house-made tart cranberry jam to create the ultimate Thanksgiving Day dessert." RELATED: 3 Delicious Ways to Spike Your Apple Cider "Martinelli's has been a holiday favorite for generations," Gun Ruder, president and CEO of S. Martinellis & Co., stated in an announcement detailing the cider brand's first-ever ice cream collaboration. "We wanted to make this season even more memorable by creating a uniquely flavored limited-edition ice cream and California-based McConnell's was the perfect partner. Theyve successfully captured the essence of Thanksgiving in one scoop of ice cream." Of course, one key characteristic of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider is the "sparkling," so if you're wondering whether the ice cream itself is in any way bubbly, a representative for the brand told Food & Wine, "surprisingly the infusion process didn't knock out the bubbles entirely, so there is a slight zingy, effervescent quality to the flavor." If youre interested in spooning out your cider instead of sipping it, pints will be available starting today, November 4, while supplies last through the McConnells online store at mcconnells.com (minimum order of four pints), in McConnells scoop shops, and at select retailers nationwide. Meanwhile, Martinelli's and McConnell's arent the only beverage and ice cream brands working together this year to make something special for the holidays. Last month, the Ohio-based Jenis Splendid Ice Creams teamed up with Tennessees Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey for a Boozy Eggnog ice cream. And yet, just like with Martinelli's cider ice cream, this "whiskey" ice cream is also alcohol-free. The Rev. David Wilson speaks at a remembrance service near Okemah as the Rev. Jimmy Nunn, Oklahoma Methodist bishop, at left, and Dr. Delores Subia Bigfoot, a metro-area child psychologist, on the right, listen to his remarks. An Oklahoman has made history as the first Native American to be elected to the position of bishop in the United Methodist Church, the nation's second largest Protestant denomination. The Rev. David Wilson was elected as bishop in the denomination's South Central Jurisdictional Conference on Wednesday at the jurisdiction's meeting in Houston. The denomination's South Central Jurisdiction includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and portions of Texas. Wilson, 59, a member of the Choctaw Nation, currently serves as assistant to the bishop of the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference and Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, based in Oklahoma City. "It is an honor to be elected by folks who recognized the need to not only elect an Indigenous person, but one they believed is qualified to do this work," Wilson told The Oklahoman on Thursday. "I am excited about this new role and look forward to being a bishop to all wherever I am appointed. It is an exciting time in the life of the United Methodist Church and I am thankful to be a part of this history." More: What we know: Oklahoma churches seeking to cut ties with United Methodist denomination The Rev. Joseph Harris, assistant to the bishop of the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference and the conference's communication's director, said Wilson's election, along with that of two women, was a highlight of Wednesday's gathering in Houston. "He will do well wherever we appoint him so there was just a lot of history that was made yesterday history for a new church," Harris said. "Because of disaffiliations and other things, the United Methodist Church will be a different church moving forward and these will be some of the new leaders that will help us move forward." Wilson has been the assistant to the bishop for the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference since 2021, following 19 years as a conference superintendent, according to United Methodist News Service, the United Methodist Church's official news outlet. The news service said he was lead coordinator for the North Oklahoma City Native American Ministry for eight years, following eight years as a pastor of a Norman church. He served seven years as director of promotions/interpretations for the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, after being pastor of a church in Tahlequah, and campus minister for the Native American Campus Ministry program at Northeastern State University. Story continues More: 'Emotional for everyone': OK Methodist leaders reflect on Native American boarding school vigil Wilson was elected by United Methodist clergy and laity from the eight states forming the South Central Jurisdiction, according to United Methodist News Service. The news outlet said assignments of bishops in the South Central Jurisdiction will be announced later in the week, with terms of service to begin Jan. 1. In the United States, United Methodist bishops are elected to serve for life. Over the years, he has played a vital role in several Native American initiatives and activities in Oklahoma and beyond and he is known internationally for his work. In addition to his faith activities, Wilson also directs the nonpartisan Rock the Native Vote. And, he was one of the first faith leaders in the state to acknowledge the importance of the reckoning surrounding the legacy of Native American boarding schools in North America. In 2021, Wilson helped coordinate the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference's remembrance service for victims of Native American boarding schools, both those who died at the schools and those who survived. That service and another held in September 2022 were held in conjunction with National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools observed across the United States and Canada. Oklahoma has more than 83 former and current boarding school sites, more than any in the nation, according to the National Boarding School Coalition. In July, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland launched a year-long Road to Healing Tour to document permanent oral history from first-person accounts of boarding school experiences. The tour included a stop in Oklahoma. 'We made history' Harris said the South Central Jurisdiction also marked another first Wednesday by electing the Rev. Delores "Dee" Williamston as the jurisdiction's first female African American bishop. The other clergy leader elected bishop at the jurisdiction's meeting was the Rev. Laura Merrill. "We made history last night and we elected three outstanding leaders," Harris said on Thursday. "They represent the diversity of the United Methodist Church the diversity of America." He said he is on the committee that would be meeting on Thursday to decide where each of the newly elected bishops will be sent. The minister said there were "shouts of joy" as the new bishops were elected. He said Wilson's election was a "major accomplishment, a major achievement." This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: David Wilson elected as first Native American United Methodist bishop State election officials say they've received more than one million absentee ballots ahead of Election Day in Michigan, Tuesday, Nov. 8. If you're curious as to whether your local clerk has received your ballot, there are ways to verify that it's been received before the election. The Michigan Voter Information Center, at michigan.gov/vote, is an online resource where voters can catch up on a myriad of election details, including the status of their absentee ballot. On the website, you can search for your voter information, either by name and the zip code you're registered to vote in or by your driver's license number. In addition to tracking your absentee ballot, you can also check your voter registration status, view what's going to be on your ballot and check the location of your polling place. The website also contains contact information for your local clerk they will be able to verify if your ballot has been received, as well. More:Voter guide for Michigan election 2022: Macomb, Oakland, Wayne counties More:Election Day 2022 in Michigan is next week. Here's what you need to know It says my ballot hasn't been received what now? If you've mailed in your absentee ballot at least two weeks before Election Day, it's still likely to get to your local clerk before polls close Tuesday. This close to the election, however, it's encouraged that absentee ballots are returned directly to your clerk's office or in secure dropboxes in the city or township you are voting in. Locations for the dropboxes can be found on the Michigan Voter Information Center. I'm still worried can I 'spoil' my absentee ballot? If you are concerned that your ballot won't make it to your clerk's office in time, you do have the option of spoiling an absentee ballot. Voters can spoil an absentee ballot for any reason, but common factors include a candidate dropping out of a race or a voter being concerned their ballot won't be received in time. Story continues To spoil a ballot, a voter must submit a written request with their local clerk. If an absentee ballot has not been received, voters have until 4 p.m. the Monday before Election Day to go in person to their local clerk's office and submit a request to spoil their absentee ballot. Since it's so close to Election Day, it's probably a better option to visit your clerk's office in person rather than submit the spoiling request through the mail. If your ballot has been received by your local clerk and you'd still like to spoil it for any reason, this request must be submitted by 5 p.m. the Friday before Election Day. If you requested an absentee ballot but have not returned it by Election Day, you can surrender your ballot at the polls or sign a statement saying the absentee ballot was lost or destroyed. This will allow you to cast your vote at your local precinct. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo. Become a subscriber today. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Check status of Michigan absentee ballot: How to track it was received President Biden on Thursday said that 16 million Americans who applied for the student loan debt program will be approved by the end of the week, the last step before they begin receiving forgiveness checks. By the end of this week, the Department of Education will have approved applications of 16 million Americans and sent the necessary paperwork to student loan servicers the last step before the 16 million Americans can have their loan discharged, Biden said in remarks at the Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, N.M. Those 16 million people should be seeing relief in the coming days, he said, while noting that the program is on a temporary hold because of legal challenges. He blamed Republicans for the halt, adding that their outrage is just simply wrong, and I might add Im not being too political here, but hypocritical. A legal ruling halted the administration from disbursing relief while a federal appeals court considers a challenge from six Republican-led states. Biden previously predicted checks would arrive in coming weeks and that his administration would win the court case. The plan is set to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and as much as $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants. Biden has touted the program, despite the halt, in the days leading up to the election as one of the major accomplishments of his administration. My plans going to make a real difference lowering the monthly costs for families, Biden said on Thursday. He added that 150,000 New Mexicans who took a Pell Grant to go to college qualify for the loan forgiveness. Biden was joined in his remarks by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who is in a competitive reelection bid against Republican challenger Mark Ronchetti. The president will campaign for the governor in an event later on Thursday, despite New Mexico being a typically blue state and Lujan Grisham leading in the polls. A recent poll shows her holding a 3 percentage point lead over Ronchetti. Biden will leave New Mexico on Thursday evening for a campaign event in San Diego, Calif., another blue stronghold, to campaign for incumbent Rep. Mike Levin (D.) For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The commercial capital, Bujumbura. Burundi is classified as one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of GDP per capita, according to the World Bank Chronology of key events: pre-1300s - Hutu people settle in the region.` 1400s - Tutsi settlers arrive. 1500s - Distinct Burundian kingdom emerges. 1890 - The kingdoms of Urundi and neighbouring Ruanda (Rwanda) incorporated into German East Africa. Children in rural Burundi 1916 - Belgian army occupies the area. 1923 - Belgium receives League of Nations mandate to administer Ruanda-Urundi. 1959 - Influx of Tutsi refugees from Ruandan half of the territory following ethnic violence there. 1959-1961 - Independence drive led by cross-communal UPRONA party of Prince Louis Rwagasore, which wins 1961 legislative elections. Prince Louis becomes prime minister of Ruanda-Urundi but is assassinated shortly afterwards. Independence 1962 - Urundi secedes and becomes independent kingdom of Burundi, under King Mwambutsa IV. 1963 - Thousands of Hutus flee to Rwanda following ethnic violence. Refugees flee violence in Burundi in 2015, which has seen several episodes of inter-ethnic strife 1965 - King Mwambutsa refuses to appoint a Hutu prime minister after Hutus win a majority in parliamentary elections; attempted coup put down by army chief Michel Micombero. 1966 - Michel Micombero abolishes the monarchy and declares himself president. Massacres and one-party rule 1972 - About 120,000 Hutus are massacred by government forces and their supporters in the wake of a Hutu-led uprising in the south. 1976 - President Micombero is deposed in a military coup by Jean-Baptiste Bagaza. 1981 - A new constitution makes Burundi a one-party state under UPRONA. 1987 - President Bagaza is deposed in a coup led by Pierre Buyoya. 1988 - Thousands of Hutus are massacred by Tutsis, and thousands more flee to Rwanda. Dashed hopes 1992 - New constitution providing for a multiparty system is adopted in a referendum. 1993 June - Melchior Ndadaye's Frodebu wins multi-party polls, ending military rule and leading to the installation of a pro-Hutu government. Melchior Ndadaye was assassinated in 1993 1993 October - Tutsi soldiers assassinate President Ndadaye. In revenge, some Frodebu members massacre Tutsis, and the army begins reprisals. Burundi is plunged into an ethnic conflict which claims some 300,000 lives. Story continues 1994 January - Parliament appoints a Hutu, Cyprien Ntaryamira, as president. 1994 April - Plane carrying President Ntaryamira and his Rwandan counterpart is shot down over the Rwandan capital Kigali, killing both and triggering genocide in Rwanda in which 800,000 are killed. 1994 October - Parliament speaker Sylvestre Ntibantunganya appointed president. 1995 - Massacre of Hutu refugees leads to renewed ethnic violence in the capital, Bujumbura. Buyoya returns Pierre Buyoya (R) seized power twice 1996 - Ex-president Buyoya seizes power. Transitional government 2001 October - Talks brokered by South African President Nelson Mandela lead to installation of transitional government, but main Hutu rebel groups refuse to sign and fighting intensifies. 2003 April - Domitien Ndayizeye - a Hutu - succeeds Pierre Buyoya as president, under terms of three-year, power-sharing transitional government inaugurated in 2001. 2003 July - Major rebel assault on Bujumbura. Some 300 rebels and 15 government soldiers are killed. Thousands flee their homes. 2003 November - President Ndayizeye and Hutu rebel group Forces for Defence of Democracy (FDD) leader Pierre Nkurunziza sign agreement to end the civil war at summit of African leaders in Tanzania. Smaller Hutu rebel group, Forces for National Liberation (FNL), remains active. 2004 - UN force takes over peacekeeping duties from African Union troops. 2005 January - President signs law to set up new national army, incorporating government forces and all but one Hutu rebel group, the FNL. Nkurunziza becomes president 2005 August - Pierre Nkurunziza, from the Hutu FDD group, is elected as president by the two houses of parliament. The FDD won parliamentary elections in June. 2006 April - A curfew, imposed during the violence of 1972, is lifted. 2006 September - The last major rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), and the government sign a ceasefire at talks in Tanzania. Sporadic clashes recur over the next two years. 2007 February - UN shuts down its peacekeeping mission and refocuses its operations on helping with reconstruction. 2007 April - DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi relaunch the regional economic bloc - Great Lakes Countries Economic Community - known under its French acronym CEPGL. 2007 December - Burundian soldiers join African Union peacekeepers in Somalia. Peace agreement 2009 March - The Paris Club of creditor nations cancels all of the $134.3m debt Burundi owed to its members. 2009 April - FNL lays down arms and officially becomes a political party in a ceremony supervised by the African Union. 2010 June - President Nkurunziza re-elected in uncontested poll after main opposition parties boycott the vote. 2013 June - President Nkurunziza approves new media law which critics condemn as an attack on press freedom. 2013 August - The leader of the former rebel FML, Agathon Rwasa, resurfaces after three years in hiding and says he will stand in the 2015 presidential election. Burundian troops have been part of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia since 2007 and have suffered some casualties 2014 March - Parliament blocks a government attempt to introduce changes to the constitution seen as threatening the balance of power between the country's main ethnic groups. Authoritarian moves President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to stand for a third term prompted months of protests 2015 May - Constitutional Court rules in favour of President Nkurunziza's decision to stand for a third term, amid reports of judges being intimidated. Protestors take to the streets and tens of thousands flee the violence. An army officer's coup attempt fails. 2015 July - President Nkurunziza wins a third term in the presidential election with 70% of the vote. Opposition leader Agathon Rwasa describes the polls as a "joke". 2016 January - President Nkurunziza threatens to counter the deployment of external peacekeepers after the African Union announces plans to send in 5,000 troops to protect civilians from escalating violence between government and rebel forces. Critics accused Pierre Nkurunziza of authoritarian tendencies 2016 March - With the political situation showing little sign of improvement, the EU announces that it is suspending direct financial aid to the Burundian government. 2017 October - Burundi becomes the first ever country to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC). 2017 November - ICC judges approve the opening of a full investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Burundi, where at least 1,200 people have died in unrest since 2015. 2018 May - Official results say a referendum backed constitutional reforms that could allow President Nkurunziza to stay in office for another sixteen years. 2018 December - Burundi issues international arrest warrant for former president Pierre Buyoya over the killing of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993. Mr Buyoya's supporters say the move is politically motivated. 2019 April - Capital moved to Gitega, although Bujumbura remains the commercial capital. 2020 June - Former Hutu rebel leader Evariste Ndayishimiye takes office as president, a week after President Pierre Nkurunziza died suddenly in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. As it gets colder and more people move their activities indoors, the recent decline in COVID-19 cases across the United States has started to level off. Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are ticking up in a number of states, including Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. And there have been a variety of unnerving headlines about the immune evasion and increased transmissibility of the next round of coronavirus subvariants. At least half a dozen versions of the virus are competing to become the next dominant strain in the United States, but they are part of the same family tree. They are all offspring of omicron, said Dr. Albert Ko, a physician and public health researcher at the Yale School of Public Health. Though each subvariant has slightly different mutations, none of them seem to be creating significant waves just yet, the way the delta and omicron variants did when they first appeared, Ko said. Heres what experts know so far about the new subvariants and what their mutations may mean for repeat infections, symptoms, case spikes and treatment options. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Which subvariants are circulating right now? And what is the nightmare variant? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the BA.5 subvariant, which powered the summertime COVID-19 surge, still causes just under half of infections across the country. But two other subvariants are growing rapidly and are expected to outcompete BA.5 very soon: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. As of last Friday, BQ.1 accounted for 14% of COVID-19 infections in the United States, while BQ.1.1 accounted for 13.1%. Another variant, called BA.4.6, has also gained some ground since August. It now accounts for 9.6% of cases. BF.7, BA.5.2.6, BA.2.75 and a number of other variants are also jockeying for position in the United States, while another variant called XBB has made headlines for its role in a COVID-19 case surge in Singapore. Some reports have gone so far as to call XBB the nightmare variant, even though the number of cases and hospital admissions associated with it was already significantly down by Oct. 29. Story continues The case counts and locations of each subvariant are important mainly for close observers of the pandemic, who are trying to track how well the subvariants evade immune protections, how much they will circulate in a community and how severe they can be for those infected. How worried should I be about these new subvariants? The evolution of new coronavirus variants is nothing new. Weve dealt with this before, with influenza, for example, Ko said. Viruses and pathogens are constantly trying to adapt and escape the immune pressure that we pose to them. With new, more immune-evasive subvariants, healthy adults are more likely to be infected even after vaccination or after a previous infection with a different variant. Indeed, a few preprint studies indicate that prior infection or vaccination might not produce antibodies that protect strongly against the new subvariants in lab experiments. But other parts of the immune system can come to our defense, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious disease physician and immunology researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. The mutations defining these new variants are clustered in and around a key area for antibody interactions, but the overall spike sequence is not really changed enough to affect T cells that recognize any part of the sequence, and they are what prevent severe illness, Yang said. People who are up to date on their vaccines and who get treatment early with Paxlovid or with remdesivir are going to do fine for the most part. (Paxlovid is an oral antiviral medication, and remdesivir is an injectable antiviral.) Most experts are not concerned with the possibility of new subvariants causing mild illness. If we see that deaths are reduced and if serious illness and hospitalizations are reduced, even if people do get infected, thats still a big success, said Michael Osterholm, a public health researcher and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Immune evasion is a bigger concern for people who are immunocompromised or who dont mount a strong immune response to vaccines. That includes people who have had stem cell or solid organ transplants, people receiving cancer treatments, people with autoimmune diseases and people who need immune-suppressive medication for various medical conditions, said Dr. Alpana Waghmare, an infectious disease expert at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Immunocompromised people often rely on preventive shots like Evusheld and intravenous COVID treatments like bebtelovimab, which are made from monoclonal antibodies and can fill in holes in the protection these patients may have from vaccines, Waghmare said. But the monoclonal antibody treatments are designed to act on one particular piece of the virus; if that piece is altered in the newer subvariants, these treatments may no longer be effective. Thats the concern for most clinicians, that we will lose this set of tools in our toolbox to fight COVID, Waghmare said. As a result, immunocompromised people might have to deal with more severe disease without the option for monoclonal antibody treatment, even if other antiviral treatments will still keep overall deaths from increasing in this group. What are the symptoms of a COVID-19 infection with one of the new subvariants? There is no evidence yet to suggest that people who are infected with BQ.1, BQ.1.1 or any of the other subvariants experience any new or unusual symptoms or that their illness is more severe than what has been seen with previous omicron variants, Waghmare said. The most common symptoms still include a mild runny nose, headache and sore throat. These could precede a positive COVID test, and symptoms could be mild or moderately bad for the duration of the illness. Its hard to tell whether the reduced severity were seeing is due to the actual variant or because people are more protected because theyve either had the vaccine or seen an infection before, Waghmare said. How can I protect myself against the virus? The best thing most people can do to protect themselves in the winter is to be vaccinated and boosted. In particular, those who are at high risk, as well as those who have not had a booster or a COVID infection in the last four to six months, should make a plan to get a shot, Yang said. Some experts recommend getting a booster even sooner. One study from Pfizer suggests that the updated bivalent booster, which became available in September, produces a better antibody response against BA.5 for people over age 55 than the previously available booster. Other independent data indicates the shot may not offer much additional benefit to relatively young and healthy people who have already received four doses of the vaccine. The bivalent booster can train your immune system to recognize the original virus from 2020 as well as the BA.5 omicron variant. But it remains to be seen how well antibodies from the bivalent shot may work against newer subvariants like BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which have already diverged from BA.5. Antibodies aside, the T cell protection that arises from the booster should still be able to protect you against severe illness if you do get infected, Yang said. According to some studies from Israel, T cell protection appears to start waning around six months, so you could consider getting another shot if it has been longer than that, even if you are young and healthy. People who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 or have vulnerable family members should also consider masking, avoiding crowded indoor venues and asking others about COVID symptoms or exposures if they go to gatherings during the holiday season. They should also test frequently and get antiviral medication such as Paxlovid early on if a test comes back positive, Waghmare said. 2022 The New York Times Company Canada has the right idea and Buffalo should already be on board. Canadians have long been comfortable with immigration, especially as compared to the United States, a country of immigrants that is nonetheless skeptical sometimes resentful of them. Now, our neighbors are turning to it to help solve an economically threatening employment problem. Canada this week announced a plan to welcome a record-breaking 1.45 million immigrants over the coming three years. Its aim is to help the country meet a labor shortage that, as of today, is reflected in nearly 1 million job openings. Without action, the nations low birthrate and the expectation of a tsunami of retirements, will exact a painfully high cost, said Sean Fraser, Canadas immigration minister. If we dont do something to correct this demographic trend, the conversation were going to have 10 or 15 years from now wont be about labor shortages, he said. Its going to be about whether we have the economic capacity to continue to fund schools and hospitals and public services that I think we, too often, take for granted. That happens here, too. And, while Fraser didnt mention it, increased immigration will also help to bolster Canadas safety net programs, including health care, social insurance and others. It could do all the same things in this country filling crucial jobs, improving the economy, supporting programs like Medicare and Social Security. Buffalo and Erie County have benefited significantly from immigration in recent years, especially from the welcome influx of refugees. Immigration powered the population growth that the 2020 census revealed for Buffalo the citys first increase since the 1950 census of 70 years earlier, when Harry Truman was president. Erie Countys population rose in the just completed census, as well. As if to counter wrongheaded and sometimes racist views of immigrants that prevail in parts of the country, Buffalo has found immigrants to be net contributors to the community. They work jobs, start businesses, fill vacant houses, pay taxes. They become Americans, just as immigrants to this country have done for centuries. Their children are Americans. Yet, immigration legal, beneficial immigration has become a bugaboo to many Americans, especially on the political right. Under former President Donald Trump, immigration was throttled, sliced by half as his term neared its end. Under his administration, legal immigration was projected to fall to 601,660 from its 2016 figure of nearly 1.2 million. But, like Canada, Buffalo and the rest of the country have jobs that go begging. We have services we dont want to give up and a safety net Social Security and Medicare, in particular that Republican congressional candidates are now talking about cutting. Immigration is a solution a much better solution. The National Foundation for American Policy understood the risks. Average annual labor force growth, a key component of the nations economic growth, will be approximately 59% lower as a result of the administrations immigration policies, if the policies continue, it wrote of Trumps policy. Economic growth is crucial to improving the standard of living, which means lower levels of legal immigration carry significant consequences for Americans. That includes Western New Yorkers, whose state and federal representatives should be pushing to increase immigration to this country and region. Consider that to be proportionate to Canadas new goals, this country should be looking to welcome about 36.5 million immigrants over the next three years about 20 times the rate as the final year of the Trump administration. We have lots of room to do better. 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. A judge overseeing the case against accused murder suspect Richard M. Allen has recused himself hours after granting a motion to transfer Allen from a county jail to a state prison. Allen, 50, of Delphi has been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of teens Liberty German and Abigail Williams, whose bodies were found Feb. 14, 2017, after they went hiking the day before. Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Benjamin A. Diener signed a motion Thursday transferring Allen away from the small, close-knit Indiana town where the teens were found killed and over to the custody of the Indiana Department of Corrections "for safekeeping." Delphi murders update:Franklin, Ind., attorney appointed to represent Delphi murder suspect Images of Libby German and Abby Williams, who were killed while hiking the Delphi Historic Trails on Feb. 13, 2017. Judge Benjamin Diener recuses himself Hours later, court records appeared showing Diener submitted an order of recusal to the Indiana Supreme Court, requesting a special judge outside of Carroll County oversee the case. Trial court judges can recuse themselves from a case for a variety of reasons, Kathryn Dolan, a spokesperson for the Indiana Supreme Court, said in a statement. While the order is public record, a judge does not have to explain a reason for recusal. But in the motion to transfer Allen to state prison for holding, Diener cited a "blood lust" for information from the public in the case that's made officials feel unsafe and not protected. For subscribers:A look back on all of our reporting of the Delphi murders since 2017 "This finding is not predicated on any acts or alleged acts of the Defendant, since arrest, rather a toxic and harmful insistence on "public information" about Defendant and this case," Diener wrote. He noted he's been made aware of YouTube videos containing photos of his family members. The Indiana Supreme Court has appointed Allen County Judge Fran Gull as special judge in the case, according to Dolan. Superintendent of Indiana State Police Doug Carter speaks during a press conference addressing updates regarding the investigation of the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German, Monday, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, at Delphi United Methodist Church in Delphi, Ind. Judge Fran Gull: Who is the judge overseeing the Delphi case? Gull began her tenure as judge in 1997 and has been re-elected four times. Story continues She's been recognized by Indiana Supreme Court Justice Loretta Rush for her work in making the jury system more convenient through devices that allow jurors to communicate with court administrators via text or QR codes. In December 2021, Gull opted into a pilot project in five Indiana trial courts that allowed media cameras in the courtroom, an Indiana Court Times article reported. Broadcasting, taking photos and recording inside a courtroom is otherwise prohibited. Other details about the case remain scant. Doug Carter, superintendent of the Indiana State Police, announced last week the probable cause affidavit would remain sealed for the time being. Additional information will be released, Carter added, but "today is not that day. This investigation is far from complete and we will not jeopardize its integrity by releasing information before it's time." Delphi murders:Suspect case remains under seal. Experts weigh in on 'unusual' move John Tufts is the night editor for the USA TODAY Network in Indiana. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Delphi murder update: Judge recuses himself in Richard Allen's case Isaac Apodaca, 25, and Kiara McCulley, 19 (Santa Fe Police Department) A New Mexico couple was arrested after allegedly stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend with a 3ft sword and attempting to decapitate her. Kiara McCulley, 19, and her boyfriend Isaac Apodaca, 25, have been charged with murdering Grace Jennings, 21, in the garage they lived in together at his mothers home in Santa Fe. When police arrived at the building they reportedly found the body of the victim, which showed several injuries consistent (with) being cut or stabbed with a sharp object and injuries consistent with attempts to decapitate. A bloody sword was also found inside the garage, a criminal complaint states. The pair are also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and Ms McCulley is charged with tampering with evidence. Prosecutors say that Mr Apodacas mother told police that her son said he had found his girlfriend killing another female in the garage. Mr Apodaca then called 911 and told dispatchers that his girlfriend had killed someone with a sword. Investigators say that the suspects and the victim had shared a bed together the night of the killing and the criminal complaint states that the suspects had both had a previous relationship with the victim. Grace Jennings (GoFundMe) Ms McCulley told police that she did not remember killing the victim because of her undiagnosed multiple personality disorder. McCulley stated she was partially hopeful Ms Jennings was dead but could not remember what happened to her, the complaint stated. Mr Apodaca told police that Ms McCulley had planned to kill the victim for several years. But according to The Santa Fe New Mexican police searched his phone and allegedly found messages in which the suspects discussed killing the victim. The messages... described how Mr Apodaca and (McCulley) would clean up the mess by using hydrogen peroxide and an ice washer to get it out, the complaint stated. Ms McCulley told police that her boyfriend had told her that if she killed his ex-girlfriend she would rise in a secret organisation she belonged to called Ghost. Neither suspect has yet entered a plea. As Elon Musk looks for new ways to make money from Twitters hes facing a much more urgent problem: advertisers are fleeing the platform. Musk said Friday that Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue due to advertisers concerns about content moderation and other issues raised by activists. A number of major companies have paused ads in recent days, including GM, Audi, Pfizer, General Mills, Volkswagen and other big names who are wary of potential changes to Twitters policies as well as the departure of top executives. Industry groups have also expressed concern about brand safety under Musk, and The New York Times reported this week that IPG, one of the worlds largest advertising companies, issued a recommendation for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter. On Friday, the NAACP joined other civil rights groups in calling for an advertiser boycott of the platform. It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories. Until actions are taken to make this a safe space, we call on companies to pause all advertising on Twitter. Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 4, 2022 Advertisers' pullback amid calls for an ad boycott show just how quickly Twitters ad business has deteriorated under Musk. It also comes barely a week after Musk tried to reassure the industry he didnt want to turn the platform into a free-for-all hellscape. Twitter saw a significant spike in hate speech and racial slurs immediately following the news of Musks take over of the company. Twitters head of safety later blamed the activity on a coordinated trolling campaign. But the activity further fueled the concerns of civil rights groups, prompting Musk to meet with civil rights leaders this week. On Friday he seemed to blame the drop in ad revenue on many of the same activists. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists, he tweeted. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! Theyre trying to destroy free speech in America. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022 But a coalition of civil rights groups and activists rejected Musks characterization. During a call with reporters on Friday, they said that Musks mass layoffs of Twitter staff, including people who work in moderation and safety, undermine the commitments he made following their meeting. When you lay off almost 50% of your staff, including teams that are in charge of actually tracking, monitoring and enforcing content moderation rules, that necessarily means that content moderation has changed, said Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press. The group also raised concerns about Musk's amplification of far-right conspiracies regarding the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband; it also cited reports the now-CEO could chip away at current Twitter rules protecting trans users. "If Twitter does not take immediate concrete actions that illustrate a true commitment to maintaining best practices that protect users that companies then companies will not support with ad dollars and we're seeing it happen in real time, said GLAAD CEO Sarah Ellis. The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public. Experts say most Americans are not aware that this will happen and will be in for a major case of sticker shock. They warn without additional protections or funding, the transition to commercialized treatments and preventive services will lead to health barriers. The way that it works in the U.S. [right now] is actually more similar to how a lot of health care works in other countries too. But when the public health emergency ends, its going to start looking like health care in the U.S does, which is that its complicated and it costs a lot of money, said Cynthia Cox, an insurance expert and vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Instead of free access to tests and treatments like Paxlovid, insurance companies and manufacturers will set the price. The days of free, easily accessible COVID-19 tests will also likely end. Private insurance may not cover over-the-counter tests anymore, and patients may need a prescription first for a PCR test. I dont know that most people are aware that things are going to change, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor and co-director of Georgetown Universitys Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Vaccines will still be free to people with private insurance, though the cost will likely be reflected in premiums. Even with insurance, patients will likely see costs if they go to an out-of-network provider. But the biggest impact will be on uninsured or underinsured Americans, many of whom have jobs that put them at greater risk of COVID-19 exposure. If youre an uninsured adult, youre kind of out of luck, Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said during a briefing last month. Theyll have no guaranteed access at all to tests or treatment in a new environment without federal purchasing and protection. Story continues Two key changes will lead to commercialization: the end of the U.S. governments public health emergency declaration and the depletion of the federally purchased supply. The Biden administration renewed the public health emergency for 90 days on Oct. 13, but it is expected to be the final extension. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told providers in August to start preparing for a return to pre-pandemic rules as soon as possible. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said they will give the public 60 days notice before lifting the public health emergency, which puts the deadline at Nov. 12. The White House has been urging Congress to provide billions more in funding to pay for a steady supply of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, but lawmakers have shown no appetite for doing so. The federal government has said it anticipates running out of money to purchase and distribute vaccines as soon as January, and expects its supply of therapeutics to be depleted throughout 2023, depending on the specific product. A top administration official said the plan has always been to wind down federal involvement in procuring and distributing COVID-19 countermeasures, especially now that supply is no longer limited. When stockpiles run dry, the administration will transition the products into the private market. Regardless of whether were going to get COVID funding, we were going to eventually have to make this transition at some point. Part of the COVID request makes this a little less bumpy, Dawn OConnell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, said at a news briefing last month hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. OConnell said the administration is coordinating with manufacturers to make sure they have enough supply of tests, treatments and vaccines on hand to put onto the commercial market when the government involvement ends. Much of the supplies have gone to the U.S government. Were currently continuing to make them available, but theres going to be a point where our supplies run low and their supplies need to ramp up in order to take on this work, OConnell said. We can calibrate that easier if were continuing to be able to purchase these while the manufacturer continues to ramp up. We might not be in a position to be able to do that if we dont have the funds. Health experts and advocates have expressed concern that without the federal governments involvement, drug companies may start charging exorbitant prices. Pfizer said it expects to quadruple the cost of its COVID-19 shot, and charge between $110 and $130 a dose once the government contract ends, possibly by early next year. Eli Lillys monoclonal antibody treatment is already being sold directly to providers at a list price of $2,100 per dose, though it may not be effective against some of newer omicron subvariants. With increased prices, consumers with private insurance could face tiered benefits to limit utilization or face medical necessity determinations. For the uninsured, the barriers could be huge. And if theres a winter surge of infections, there could be significant consequences. If we do get another surge, it could be a real problem, said Corlette. Testing services will probably not be as widespread. People will face cost sharing, uninsured folks will have to pay out of pocket for tests and vaccines. So, its a potentially scary situation. Certain providers, like community health centers, may provide services for reduced prices or for free, and HHSs OConnell said the administration is working with manufacturers on ways to help the uninsured maintain access. But the Biden administration doesnt have many tools at its disposal. There is no dedicated program for [the uninsured] rather, we revert back to the imperfections of the U.S. health care system, Kates said in an email. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Arizona Cardinals held a walkthrough on Wednesday instead of a full practice but were back on the practice field Thursday preparing for their Week 9 home game against the Seattle Seahawks. They released their second injury report of the week. It had no changes from their first report of the week. Five players were non-participants for the second day in a row and the same five guys were limited Thursday as were on Wednesday. Check out the details of the injury report below. Listen to the latest from Cards Wires Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Latest show: Previous shows: and Did not participate S Budda Baker (ankle), OL Max Garcia (shoulder), OL Rodney Hudson (knee), OL D.J. Humphries (back), DL Jonathan Ledbetter (ribs), CB Christian Matthew (hamstring) Kliff Kingsbury already ruled out Hudson for Sundays game. Humphries is day-to-day. Hopefully, he is able to do enough Friday to play Sunday. Baker missed for the second day in a row. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said he is getting better and hopes he can play. Limited participation RB James Conner (ribs), LB Dennis Gardeck (ankle), CB Byron Murphy (back), K Matt Prater (hip), LB Cameron Thomas (back) All were limited for the second day in a row. Gardeck was able to do individual work. Vance Joseph is hopeful he can play. Murphy played Sunday and the team released Rodrigo Blankenship, which suggests Prater will be good to go. Perhaps Conner will be back this week. Full participation OL Josh Jones (knee) Its a good thing that Jones is fine because, with Humphries status unknown, Jones needs to be available. Seahawks' Thursday injury report Did not participate WR Marquise Goodwin (groin) LB Darrell Taylor (groin) Limited participation TE Noah Fant (hamstring) WR Penny Hart (hamstring) S Ryan Neal (ankle) DL Al Woods (rest) Full participation C Austin Blythe (knee) LB Jordyn Brooks (ankle) G Gabe Jackson (hip, knee) WR Tyler Lockett (hamstring, ribs) WR DK Metcalf (knee) Story originally appeared on Cards Wire FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom displays a bill he signed that shields abortion providers and volunteers in California from civil judgements from out-of-state courts during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, June 24, 2022. Newsom on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022 posthumously pardoned abortion rights activist Laura Minor, who was convicted in 1949 of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. She was sentenced to four yours in prison on the twin felonies and died in 1976. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday posthumously pardoned an abortion activist from the 1930s and 1940s, acting days before Californians finish voting on whether to enshrine increased protections in the state Constitution in response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Laura Miner was convicted in 1949 of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. She was sentenced to four years in prison on the twin felonies, and died in 1976. I can still hold my head up, and I respect myself because my conscience is clear," she wrote while serving her prison sentence. "I have helped humanity someday it will be legal for a doctor to help a woman who will then have a right to decide for herself how many children she shall have, and when. Her statement proved prescient, for a time. The U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ruled in 1973 that protections under the U.S. Constitution included the right to have an abortion. But a majority of the high court earlier this year said that is up to individual states. Increased protections also are before voters next week in Michigan and Vermont, and restrictions in Kentucky and Montana. Related video: California Gov. Newsom pauses $1B in homelessness spending Newsom, a Democrat who is actively supporting the proposed constitutional change, in a statement called Miner a powerful reminder of the generations of people who fought for reproductive freedom in this country, and the risks that so many Americans now face in a post-Roe world." The No on Prop 1 campaign did not directly comment on Newsom's pardon, but said in a statement that the governor hopes the measure will work for him politically, " while expanding abortion rights would ultimately be dangerous for California women. California's original 1850 Constitution criminalized abortions, but Miner was among those who provided them at a time when abortion was still illegal in California except when necessary to protect a womans life. She did so in San Diego from 1934 to 1948, until she and her staff were arrested. Story continues She was convicted in San Diego Superior Court in 1949 and starting at age 50 served 19 months in prison and 27 months on parole. Miner provided health care to patients on a sliding fee scale, using payments from her wealthy and sometimes famous clients to cover the indigent. She was a licensed chiropractor, according to an online account by her granddaughter, who called her eccentric, stubborn and always independent. The Journal of American History said she ran a nine-room abortion clinic and was part of the Pacific Coast Abortion Ring in 1935 and 1936. Miner was arrested after an investigator for the district attorneys office kept her clinic under surveillance for nearly three months, according to her unsuccessful appeal of her conviction. He even attempted an early wiretap, entering the clinic at night with the intent to install a dictaphone. When she was young, she saw her mother nearly die from a botched illegal abortion. Her mother then died when she was 9, according to Newsom's office, leaving behind Miner and seven siblings. She had four children herself, two of whom died of illness as infants. "Ms. Miner gave women a safe alternative in a dark era for reproductive rights," Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, a professor of history at La Sierra University in Riverside, California and a historian on the history of medicine, said in a statement. Whether you've been following Ohio's redistricting saga or not, you're probably voting in a new House of Representatives district for the Nov. 8 general election. A months-long redistricting fight over charges of gerrymandering by Ohio's Republican-controlled state government means residents voting in this year's midterms will use maps declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. Franklin Country previously included 10 Ohio House districts. Under the new map, now there are 12 districts. If your voting district has changed (which you can find out using the Secretary of State's Find My District tool online,) your representatives may have changed, too. The Dispatch attempted to reach out to all 16 candidates running in contested races for House seats in Franklin County districts. Some did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. There are eight contested races in these midterms. Four races are have Democrats running unopposed: Dontavius Jarrells in District 1, Latyna M. Humphrey in District 2, Allison Russo in District 7 and Munira Yasin Abdullahi in District 9. Here's a roundup of candidates running in contested races for Ohio House of Representatives seats from Franklin County: District 3 This district includes the Arena District, the Short North, parts of the University District, North Linden, parts of Old North Columbus, parts of the Northeast Side and Easton. Ismail Mohamed, a Democrat, is one of the city's first Somali-born attorneys licensed to practice in Ohio. In 2018, Mohamed ran in the Democratic primary against then-incumbent Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent of District 25 and narrowly lost by 658 votes. According to his campaign website, Mohamed said he is running for state office to ensure students have access to a high-quality education regardless of ZIP code, to invest in communities through affordable housing, and to promote workforce development programs. Mohamed did not respond to a request for comment from The Dispatch. Story continues J. Josiah Lanning, a public policy advocate from North Linden, is the Republican candidate. He is a self-described "political outsider," "policy innovator" and "individual rights champion," according to his campaign website. Lanning's priorities, according to his website, include adopting a penal system that is tough on crime while also ensuring fairness for formerly incarcerated individuals, tightening the state budget, suspending Ohio's gas tax for at least one year, making Ohio more accessible for disabled and elderly residents, and education reforms to "empower parents to be in complete control of their child's education." Lanning did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. District 4 This district covers the northeast corner of Franklin County, including parts of Westerville, Gahanna, New Albany and parts of the Blacklick mailing address. Mary Lightbody is an incumbent Democrat from Westerville currently serving her second term representing the Ohio 19th House District. For the last three decades, Lightbody was an educator at the K-12 and collegiate level, most recently as a senior lecturer at Ohio State University's Newark campus. Lightbody's priorities include easy access to birth control and accurate contraceptive education, access to free or low-cost quality healthcare, education and job training; and funding municipal services like fire, police and social services. "I have a reputation in the Statehouse and in the district as a hard-working, thoughtful, attentive, and commonsense member," Lightbody told The Dispatch. "I am running for re-election to continue the work I have started and to explore and identify shared values and common ground to make the promise of democracy real for everyone." Jill Rudler, a realtor from New Albany, is the Republican challenger. With more than four decades of real estate experience and 20 years of working with the advocacy groups Columbus Realtors and Ohio Realtors to protect private property rights, Rudler decided to run for state office to advocate for even more Ohioans. Rudler said the biggest issues for her district are safe neighborhoods, quality schools and a strong economy. Rudler told The Dispatch that she "has worked with people to find a common thread to help all sides reach reasonable compromises when needed. She said she intends "to use her business experiences to serve as an effective and successful State Representative accomplishing important work for her future constituents." Oct 18, 2022; Columbus, OH, USA; Suzanne Mahon, of Reynoldsburg, votes with her dog Maddie, at her side during early voting at the Franklin County Board of Elections. District 5 This district covers a swath of southern Franklin County, including Galloway, Darbydale, Lockbourne, Obetz, parts of Canal Winchester and Reynoldsburg. Richard Brown is the incumbent Democrat from Canal Winchester currently representing Ohio House of Representatives District 20. Brown was appointed to the seat in 2017, finishing the last year and a half of his predecessors term. He has held his seat in two elections since and is seeking his third full term in the House, in addition to being a lawyer. Some of the issues Brown prioritizes include investing in public infrastructure, making sure teachers have the flexibility and resources they need to teach all children, and connecting veterans with housing, job-readiness and mental health services. "I bring experiences to the House that my opponent cannot bring: life experience, legislative experience, leadership experience and legal experience," Brown told The Dispatch. "These experiences make me the best candidate for this House seat. I will continue the work I have been doing for more than five years, working across the aisle, working with people of both parties, to find solutions to the important issues facing our great State of Ohio." Ronald Beach IV is a Republican from Obetz running to replace Brown. Beach is a graduate student at Ohio State University, a healthcare worker and serves in the Ohio Army National Guard. As a self-described young conservative, Beach told The Dispatch his focus will be on economic development, supporting law enforcement and strategic funding of education and post-secondary options like trade schools should he be elected. "This race is about having a Representative that gives their undivided attention to District 5 to address its needs and to ensure this community is left thriving," Beach said. District 6 This district includes parts of the Hilltop, Lincoln Village and the Far West Side. Adam Miller is an incumbent Democrat currently seeking a fourth term as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing District 17. He is a former teacher and school board member, and has served 26 years in Army JAG Corps. Miller told The Dispatch that he has opposed "extreme and reckless gun laws" and has introduced multiple "common-sense" solutions to gun violence. He has also prioritized efforts to increase access and affordability to housing, health care, and mental health and addiction services. "In a time of unnecessary hyper-partisanship, I have fought for Ohio and put its people over politics," Miller said. Joe Wharton, the Republican challenger, is an independent contractor and former Prairie Township trustee. Wharton said he is running for state office to improve neighborhoods through public-private partnerships, redevelop struggling businesses, and ensure funding fire, police and community services for mental health crisis interventions. "We need to come together as a community and move away from being divided," Wharton told The Dispatch. "Stop looking at neighbors as adversaries and just see neighbors. We need common sense legislation and bring stability and rationality back to governing." District 8 This district includes the Northwest Side, Far Northwest Side, Worthington and parts of Clintonville. Dr. Beth Liston is the incumbent Democrat currently serving her second term representing Ohio House District 21. She began her career in medicine and is now a professor of clinical internal medicine and pediatrics at Ohio State University. In the General Assembly, Rep. Liston serves as the ranking member on the House Health Committee, and sits on the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, the Families Aging and Human Services Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. Liston told The Dispatch her priorities include expanding access to healthcare and affordable medicines, as well as policies that "impact opportunity" including public education and financial security. "As a doctor, I have seen first hand the harm that can come from laws driven by ideology and not fact," Liston said. "If re-elected, I will continue to work for the people of my district, advocating for common sense bills that improve people's lives." Zully Truemper is the Republican challenger running for District 8's House seat who won in the August special election as a write-in candidate. Originally from Venezuela, she currently works as a bilingual agent at the customer support company iQor in New Albany. Truemper describes herself as "Pro-Life, Pro-2nd Amendment, Pro-Trump," has an "Ohio First Agenda," and prioritizes "opportunities above entitlements" and "law and order," according to her campaign Facebook page. Truemper did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. District 10 This district includes parts of the Hilltop, Southwest Columbus, Grove City and parts of the Far South Side. Russell Harris, a longtime government relations consultant and lobbyist for the Ohio Education Association, is running as a Democrat to represent the new 10th House District. As a former educator, the Grove City resident has long history of working in Ohio education policy, including an appointment by former Gov. Bob Taft to the Ohio Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding to address the inequities in our system. Improving education outcomes then is a top priority for Harris, according to his campaign website. Harris also is in favor of university-based partnerships for economic development, community mental health services and combating drug abuse. Harris did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. David Dobos is a Republican also vying for the new House district. Dobos, a former Columbus City school board president from the West Side, is president of Sheridan WorldWise, Inc., a supplier of STEM educational materials to schools and school districts. According to his campaign website, Dobos is in favor of increased school funding for additional security and mental health services, increasing funds for police, better infrastructure, less regulation and growing Ohio's economy through state and regional partnerships. Dobos did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. District 11 This district covers the northwest corner of Franklin County, including Hilliard and Dublin. Dr. Anita Somani is an OB-GYN from Columbus who is running as a Democrat for the 11th Ohio House District. Somani told The Dispatch that issues she cares about include access to health care, stopping restrictive laws against abortion and LGBTQ people, education, gun safety and the environment. "Over the past 30 years of living in Ohio, I have been worried that our state has gone down the wrong path in regards to health care and increasing maternal and infant mortality, more abortion restrictions, less gun restrictions and marginalizing communities," she said. "... I believe I will bring a fresh perspective to the Statehouse as a physician, a woman of color and an Asian American." Omar Tarazi, an attorney and Hilliard City Council vice president, is a Republican looking to represent District 11. Before joining city council, Tarazi served on the Hilliard Board of Zoning Appeals and continues to serve on both the Ethics Committee and Admissions Committee of the Columbus Bar Association. If elected, Tarazi said he would bring additional state funding to support economic development in the district, work on education reform and use his experience as an attorney to "make sure that balanced, well-thought-out laws are passed for Ohio." "I led in transforming Hilliard while maintaining and enhancing its unique identity as a great place to raise a family and if I am elected, I will lead in bringing reforms to Ohio to secure a bright and prosperous future for our state," Tarazi told The Dispatch. District 12 This district covers a small sliver of northwestern Franklin County, including Hillard and Dublin, and mostly represents Madison and Pickaway counties. Brian Stewart, the incumbent Republican from Asheville, currently represents Ohio 78th House District. Stewart is also an attorney and an Iraq War veteran. He is the former vice president and spokesman for the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial, a statewide memorial for Ohio service members killed in the line of duty since 9/11. Stewart's priorities include being "watchdog when it comes to taxpayer money," expanding broadband internet to rural communities, and partnering with local governments for state resources, according to his campaign website. Stewart did not respond to The Dispatch's request for comment. Matthew Briner is a write-in candidate running as an Independent to replace Stewart. A Pickaway County native, Briner has experience as an independent public auditor for local governments and nonprofits, and he currently works as an accountant. "Im tired of culture wars and divisive politics that divide our country," Briner told the Dispatch. "Im a believer in reaching across the aisle to achieve good policies for the majority of the people, even on contentious issues." shendrix@dispatch.com @sheridan120 Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for her Mobile Newsroom newsletter here and Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here. Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio House 2022 vote: Who's running for Franklin County seats? Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting in the cockpit of Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber in August 2005. Vladimir Rodionov/Getty Images Putin's repeated nuclear threats during the Ukraine war have raised alarm worldwide. But Jack Barsky, a former KGB agent, threw cold water on the possibility Putin would use a nuke. "Vladimir Putin is not a suicide bomber. Vladimir Putin wants to live," Barsky told Insider. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made repeated nuclear threats since he ordered the Ukraine invasion, sparking backlash and concerns across the world. Putin could even decide to attack Ukraine with a tactical nuclear weapon if he gets desperate enough, Western governments and top Russia analysts have warned. But a former KGB agent is throwing cold water on the worries that Putin a KGB officer during the Cold War who is now extremely powerful and reportedly a multibillionaire would use such a devastating weapon. "During the Cold War, it was pretty tense and we got pretty close to nuclear war a couple of times. But the Soviet leaders were not suicidal. They didn't wanna die. This was guaranteed mutual destruction. Vladimir Putin is not a suicide bomber. Vladimir Putin wants to live," Jack Barsky, who served as an undercover agent in the US for the KGB during the last decade of the Cold War, told Insider. Barsky, who was born Albrecht Dittrich in East Germany before getting recruited by the KGB, said that Putin might be a "maniac" but he's not suicidal. "He's still working on his legacy, and he pretty much knows that if he explodes a nuke he's toast. That's not the kind of legacy that he's interested in," Barsky said of Putin, adding, "Putin may pretend to be very spiritual because he wears a cross, and he now goes to church. But he's a rational thinker. And for him to start something that pretty much guarantees his demise is highly unlikely." Barsky served during the same era at the KGB as Putin and has interacted with one of the Russian leader's former KGB bosses, Oleg Kalubin. Barsky eventually became a US citizen and consulted the FBI and NSA offering insights on the KGB after being exposed as a former sleeper agent in the 1990s. Story continues Barsky also questioned how the use of a tactical nuclear weapon whose explosive force can range from conventional blasts to ones larger than the US's 1945 attack on Hiroshima, Japan would fundamentally change the war and benefit Putin. "How do you get more territory by exploding a nuke and killing a hundred thousand people?" Barsky said, going on to say that such an attack could backfire by also exposing Russian troops to potentially deadly radiation. Shortly after the war began, Putin claimed to have placed Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. He's consistently made references to Russia's nuclear arsenal, which is the largest in the world, in public remarks on the war on Ukraine. "This is not a bluff," Putin said in September after making a veiled threat to employ nuclear weapons while vowing to defend Russia's "territorial integrity." Top Russian military officials recently had conversations on the circumstances under which Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, according to recent reports citing new US intelligence. But Putin was reportedly not involved in the discussions, and a report from CNN suggests that US officials are divided over the intelligence and aren't sure what to make of it. Some officials were quite alarmed by the intelligence and are worried about the desperate actions Russia might take as it becomes increasingly frustrated in Ukraine. But other officials believe that the intelligence may have been taken out of context and isn't a sign that Russia is taking steps to use such a weapon, CNN said. Putin in late October also tamped down the nuclear rhetoric somewhat, suggesting using such a weapon in Ukraine would serve no purpose. "We see no need for that," Putin said in remarks at a conference attended by foreign policy experts, per the Associated Press, adding: "There is no point in that, neither political, nor military." Top Russia and military experts have also assessed that there is not an imminent risk of Putin employing a tactical nuclear weapon, but have underscored that the Kremlin's threats should be taken seriously and that the risk will go up as Russian forces continue to suffer losses and Ukraine's forces recapture territory. Read the original article on Business Insider A news report from chinadaily.com.cn BEIJING, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Situated in Nanjing county, Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian province, Yunshuiyao (original name Changjiao) Ancient Town has a long history and is one of the scenic spots of the world heritage site, the Fujian Tulou. There is a magnificent banyan tree group in the town consisting of 13 banyan trees, some of which are thousands of years old, including the province's biggest banyan tree. Yunshuiyao (original name Changjiao) Ancient Town in Nanjing county, Zhangzhou, East Chinas Fujian province[PhotoIC] Yunshuiyao Ancient Town is renowned for its unique tulou clusters at the foot of the mountain. Fifty-three of these earthen buildings,which were first constructed in the mid Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), are still standing today and are in different shapes and styles. The town is also home to stilted buildings, bamboo pole buildings and mansion-style earthen buildings. In addition to being a world cultural heritage, the town is home to the Hegui Building, which is built on marshland and is called "the oddest structure in the world", and the Huaiyuan Building, which is an exquisite and well-preserved double-ring earthen building. In the film The Knot(2006) Director Yin Li Starring Chen Kun, Li Bingbing, Vivian Hsu The story starts in Taipei in the 1940s. Chen Qiushui (played by Chen Kun), a poor medical student at National Taiwan University, works as an English tutor in his spare time, teaching a boy from a wealthy household. He meets the boy's elder sister Wang Biyun (played by Vivian Hsu) during his tutorage, and they fall in love. But Biyun's mother, upon discovering their relationship, holds a dim view of their future and dismisses Qiushui with an excuse. Qiushui returns to his hometown in the countryside and finds a niche in a local granary. Biyun takes up the opportunity of an outdoor painting camp to travel all the way down to the village to find him. The lovelorn pair meet in the village under a century-old banyan tree in Yunshuiyao Ancient Town. They spend a happy time there before Qiushui is forced to leave Taiwan. Biyun waits for him for her whole life but they never reunite. Story continues Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/film-shot-in-yunshuiyao-ancient-town-301669109.html SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn 33 Korean companies exhibit and sell their products in Manila, Philippines from November 5 to November 7 CHEONGJU, South Korea & MANILA, Philippines, November 04, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chungcheongbuk-do has started to secure export channels for promising exporters in North Chungcheong Province to the Philippines market. The 2022 CHUNGBUK BEST PRODUCT PROMOTION will be held by Chungcheongbuk-do and Chungbuk Business Agency for three days from November 5 (Sat) to 7 (Mon) at JAPAN HOME WHOLESALE CENTRE located in Manila, Philippines. 33 companies from Chungcheongbuk-do province will introduce excellent products to local citizens in Philippines through the event. About 99 types of excellent quality products such as food, cosmetics, quarantine products, and pet products of companies in Chungcheongbuk-do Province will be showcased and sold at the promotion. The event will be organized in various ways such as tasting events and surveys to promote and sell Chungbuk products while consumers can experience and express their opinions on the products. In addition, corporate visitors interested in Chungbuk products displayed at the promotional exhibition can also have a 1 on 1 business meeting at the site. The major companies in Chungcheongbuk-do participating in the promotion are as follows. Biopolytech (SKINUA COLLAGERN) BAC KOREA Co., Ltd (bbac lab recovering: toner, serum, foaming cleanser, essence) Chowol red Ginseng (red ginseng: stick, jelly, candy) fromthenature (MASK TROUBLE CARE MIST) CoreGreen Co., Ltd (ilpoom seasoning) HighBoss (Ayul Pure cream, Ayul Pure toner) Haesarang (Small Lunch Size Laver) J&G Cosmetics Co., Ltd (GSEED All in one serum 120mL, LIPOBODY WRAP, LIPO BODY CONTOURING GEL) An official from the Chungcheongbuk-do Business Promotion Agency, the organizer of the promotion, said, "2022 CHUNGBUK BEST PRODUCT PROMOTION will be a good opportunity to promote the excellent quality products of Chungcheongbuk-do companies to the world." Story continues JAPAN HOME WHOLESALE CENTRE, the venue for the promotion, is located in: 84 Panay Ave, Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines and the event runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005032/en/ Contacts Chungcheongbuk-do Business Agency JUNHOKOREA Sang Hoon Park project-6@kocean21.com MUENSTER, Germany (AP) Top diplomats from the worlds major industrialized democracies on Friday rallied support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russias invasion, expressing unwavering commitment to Ukraine's defense, and expressed suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness amid a panoply of global crises. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations, wrapping up two days of talks in the historic western German city of Muenster, released a joint statement asserting common positions on Ukraine, Russia, China and recent developments in Iran and North Korea. Were aligned, were united and were working together as never before, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. A year after warning Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine, the G-7 ministers endorsed further punishments for the Kremlin, including setting a price cap for Russian oil exports in the coming weeks. They also pledged additional backing for Kyiv by creating a new way to assist with its reconstruction and to help other countries affected by the food and energy shortages exacerbated by the war. President (Vladimir) Putin bet that we wouldnt back up our words with actions. We proved him wrong, Blinken said, adding that G-7 sanctions and export controls have directly impacted Putins ability to wage war." We reiterate our unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defense, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement said. The ministers accused Russia of trying to terrorize the civilian population of Ukraine by targeting critical power, water and other infrastructure and demanded an end to the war. We will continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscows war of aggression," it said. The G-7 is made up of the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Story continues As the meeting ended, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration boosted its military assistance to Ukraine by $400 million, bringing the U.S. contribution to more than $18.2 billion since Russia invaded Feb. 24. The ministers also called out Iran for allegedly supplying weapons including drones to Russia and for a violent crackdown on antigovernment protesters. They condemned Iran's brutal and disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters and children" as well as Tehran's continued destabilizing activities in and around the Middle East. All of that will draw consequences and the Iranian regime has to be aware of that, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. We have made it very clear we will impose further sanctions, significant packages of sanctions. In addition, the G-7 statement further condemned the recent escalation of tensions in Asia caused by North Korean missile launches and delivered a stern warning against a possible new nuclear test. Any nuclear test or other reckless action must be met with a swift, united, and robust international response, they said. One senior U.S. official said the group had demonstrated remarkable unity on virtually all major issues despite often-competing domestic interests, particularly in regards to China's growing economic clout and global ambitions, even as the leader of G-7 host Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visited Beijing. The ministers said they sought constructive cooperation with China, where possible and in our interest in areas like climate change, clean energy and health but cautioned that Beijing must abide by global regulations, especially as it relates to Taiwan. These challenges can only be tackled successfully through cooperation within the rules-based international order, the G-7 said. We remind China of the need to uphold the principles of the U.N. Charter on peaceful settlement of disputes and to abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of force. We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. The G-7 stands together in defense of the rules-based international order, Blinken said, referring to China and stressing that an understanding was reached about the need to align our policies in the face of growing coercion and unfair trade practices by Beijing. The convergence, the alignment on China, is increasingly strong and increasingly clear," he said. Yet Scholz was in Beijing on Friday, the first European and G-7 leader to make the trip since the war in Ukraine began. Chinese investment in a major port in Germany has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals that China might gain a controlling interest in critical infrastructure in the heart of an allied country. Scholz's visit has drawn criticism due to Chinas tacit support for Russia and for coming after Chinese leader Xi Jinping cemented his authoritarian rule at a Communist Party congress last month. But it reflects the importance of Germanys trade ties with China, the worlds second-largest economy. Despite the strong words, it remains unclear how much influence the G-7 actually wields. Its warnings to Putin last December to stay out of Ukraine went unheeded and Xi is forging ahead with plans to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, if necessary. In the meantime, Iran has ignored calls to return to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, started to supply weapons to Russia and launched a major crackdown on domestic dissent. Similarly, North Korea has shunned appeals to return to nuclear negotiations and stepped up missile launches, raising fears of an open conflict. In Germany, many noted the historic significance of the venue where the G-7 ministers met: the room where the Treaty of Westphalia ending Europes bloody 30 Years War was signed in 1648. Blinken referred to the 374-year-old document, saying Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an attack on the concepts of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that many believe the centuries-old treaty established. And, while chairing a meeting between her G-7 counterparts and the foreign ministers of Kenya and Ghana, Baerbock said she had raised the blocs concerns over the growing presence of Russian and Russia-affiliated security forces in Mali and elsewhere on the continent and called for accountability for all those responsible for human rights violations. Republicans path to the Senate majority continues to broaden ahead of Tuesdays election now including a state that Joe Biden carried by 7 points just two years ago. The Senate race in New Hampshire is moving from Lean Democratic to Toss Up in POLITICOs Election Forecast a reflection of the tightening in that campaign in recent weeks. While Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan still has a narrow lead over Republican Don Bolduc, she is no longer a significant favorite. The overall battle for the Senate majority continues to be a Toss Up. But the range of plausible outcomes now includes a sizable Republican majority: A sweep of the six Toss Up races would give the GOP 54 seats. And if the two parties split the Toss Up races evenly, Republicans would still win a one-seat majority in the chamber. Democrats are banking on the power of incumbency and lingering unpopularity of some Republican nominees to overcome an increasingly rough political environment for the party in power. New Hampshire is one of three Senate races changing in our latest ratings update, in addition to four governors races and 13 House races with almost all of the shifts going in Republicans direction. The political environment in the closing days of the race continues to move toward the GOP. Here are the three main takeaways from the latest ratings update: New Hampshire firmly in play, Washington State on the board In addition to moving New Hampshire to Toss Up, two other races are moving in Republicans direction: Sen. Marco Rubio has all-but-cemented his lead in Florida, and his race shifts from Lean Republican to Likely Republican, despite the well-funded challenge hes faced from Democratic Rep. Val Demings. And the Senate race in Washington State has become more competitive. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray is still the favorite, but Republican Tiffany Smiley who is outspending Murray in the races final month has gained ground. The race moves from Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic. Story continues Though polls have tightened in Washington, Smiley is still hampered by the states partisan lean. In the August primary, Murray (52 percent) and Democratic candidates combined for more than 55 percent of the vote. The political environment is trending better for Republicans now, but thats a steep hill to climb. In moving to Toss Up, New Hampshire joins five other states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Yet not all of them are pure coin flips. Hassans slight edge in her race is similar to GOP Sen. Ron Johnsons modest advantage in Wisconsin. Numerous public surveys this week showed Johnson still leading Democrat Mandela Barnes, though by threadbare margins. Like Arizona, which moved to Toss Up last week, the tightening in New Hampshire has come despite some national Republican groups pulling out of the state. But while the top GOP super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, has been absent, more ideological groups have filled the gap, like the Steve Wynn-funded Our American Century ($2.9 million in ads) and Sentinel Action Fund ($1 million), which is a partner organization of Heritage Action, an advocacy organization affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. New York governor moves to Lean Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is still the favorite to win a full term in her race, but Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin is mounting a furious charge in the races closing weeks. New York, which has sat at Likely Democratic since the Election Forecast launched, moves one notch over, to Lean Democratic. Zeldins focus on crime has proved potent polls show more voters rank it as their most important issue than any other topic but hes still running as an ally of former President Donald Trump and an opponent of abortion rights in New York State. Still, the closer-than-expected race at the top of the ticket is causing some agita for New York Democrats downballot. Three of the 12 House races moving toward Republicans are in New York. The three other gubernatorial races shifting toward Republicans are in states Democrats hoped to contest earlier in the cycle, but where GOP incumbents have commanding leads: New Hampshire, Ohio and Vermont each move from Likely Republican to Solid Republican. GOP closes in on House majority Republicans are now favored in 215 House districts just 3 shy of the majority mark. Two contests previously rated Toss Up are now Lean Republican: A newly-drawn open seat in Colorado and Democratic Rep. Cindy Axnes race in Iowa. Much of the polling in Axnes district shows a tied race including a publicly released internal poll from Republican Zach Nunns campaign but undecided voters are expected to break against the incumbent. Meanwhile, four races previously rated Lean Democratic are now in the Toss Up category: the seats belonging to Reps. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, along with an open seat on Western Long Island belonging to retiring Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.). Republicans have made a late play for the Maloney seat. Congressional Leadership Fund, the top House GOP super PAC, has reported spending $8.8 million mostly in the final three weeks to oust the chair of House Democrats campaign arm this year. Unlike other districts that have seen last-minute spending, Maloneys seat is a Toss Up neither he nor Republican Mike Lawler is a significant favorite. In other seats shifting in this update, late spending has made them more competitive, but Democrats retain an advantage. Reps. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) and Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) all shifted from Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic, as did an open seat in Pittsburgh, where Democratic candidate Summer Lee is facing both a barrage of late spending by AIPACs new super PAC and a potentially confusing situation on the ballot. Her GOP opponent, Mike Doyle, shares the same name as the districts retiring Democratic congressman. One race did move toward Democrats: GOP Rep. Steve Chabot is now the underdog to win reelection in his Cincinnati-based district. That race moves from Toss Up to Lean Democratic. CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated Sentinel Action Funds affiliation. It is affiliated with Heritage Action. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty President Joe Bidens Wednesday speech at Union Station in D.C., where he warned of the perils facing U.S. democracy ahead of next weeks midterm elections, just wasnt forceful enough, according to host Andy Levy on this weeks episode of The New Abnormal podcast. In his speech, Biden made reference to the hammer attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband, Paul, last week, warning the country faces escalating threats of political violence. The president also criticized former President Donald Trump for his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. But it wasnt enough, according to Levy and guest host Josie Duffy Rice, who writes about prisons and prosecution at The Unnamed. The only quibble I would have with the speech is that it wasnt forceful enough and I kind of feel like Democrats are not making this argument enough, Levy says. The main thing wrong with this speech is its not enough. And the Democrats in general are not doing enough at sounding the alarm bells on this issue. Were in a new abnormal, dare I say, and we have a party that doesnt seem all that interested in democracy. We have a candidate in, is it Wisconsin, who is saying that if he wins, Republicans will never lose again in Wisconsin. [Levy is referring to GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels.] You have to combat that rhetoric and you have to draw peoples attention to it, Levy says. Rice says Democrats have failed where Republicans have blossomed, claiming the speech also highlights a fundamental problem with the Democratic Party. Rice claims the right are organizing, they are electing local public officials who are willing to overturn elections for their preferred candidate. They are mobilizing people to monitor elections. I just dont think narrative is a good enough foe for the war that were fighting. You can make the best speech possible, but theyre not occupying the same space youre occupying. Its just kind of a lost cause. Story continues Also on the podcast, Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, discusses whether Twitter can survive under Elon Musks ownership. Twitter is probably the most influential social network used by the smallest amount of people on the planet, Isaac says, citing a leaked internal document that said most people dont tweet. The most active users on the platform tweet three to four times per week once a day. But it has a very outsize influence on society, and things that pop on Twitter trickle down to other networks, whether its Facebook, whether its Reddit, whether its television news, whether its radio, whether its podcasts. Its in a real weird position where its incredibly influential and spreads to everywhere, but also not necessarily used by a lot of people all the time and doesnt have a hugely active user base. It is both largely influential and also kind of not very important at the same time. Isaac said Musks attempt to turn Twitter into a subscription-based model is really hard to do. People dont like paying for things. Why Its Totally Possible for Jon Stewart to Be President Then, Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, discusses how Republicans twisted the story of Paul Pelosis hammer attack from a crime story to a national conspiracy: that the violent assault was the result of some sort of lovers spat or falling out. This is simultaneously a business strategy, right? Its a great way to create and keep customers if you tell them that all of your competitors are in league with dark elite cabals. But it is also an effective political maneuver because it keeps you from having your base question the assumptions of the Republican Party and the right-wing movement. Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher. 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. MILAN Ten months after the death of Nino Cerruti, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti is changing hands and found in fellow Biella, Italy-based wool mill Gruppo Piacenza SpA its new owner. The group has bought out the storied textile company, which marked its 140th anniversary last year, from London-based fund Njord Partners, which had acquired an 80 percent interest in the textile firm in 2018. The remaining 20 percent stake, held by the Cerruti family, was also acquired by Gruppo Piacenza. More from WWD Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It is understood that Filippo Vadda, chief executive officer of Cerruti since 2020, will leave his position in light of the acquisition, although a successor has yet to be named. The move is also seen as an internationalization avenue for Gruppo Piacenza as it will be able to leverage Cerrutis footprint in the Asian market. As part of the deal, Gruppo Piacenza is taking over offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong. Were proud to be taking up the baton from those who preceded us and to continue safeguarding a storied wool mill, a synonym of exceptional beauty and with which we share the same innovation and evolution path, both believing in the importance of the territory and respect of people, with a strong focus on sustainability, said Gruppo Piacenza CEO Carlo Piacenza. Compared to other textile businesses in the same area in the Piedmont region, a leading textile district in the country, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti was hit harder by the casualization trend in the past few years and lagged in responding to customers demand for performance and easy-care suiting. Njord Partners had been investing throughout the four years to support growth for the company and lead its sustainable advancements. Gruppo Piacenza has operated a successful business banking on its high-end textiles, also dipping its toes in ready-to-wear via its Piacenza 1733 menswear brand, which showcased its spring 2023 collection at Pitti Uomo last June. In 2020 the textile specialist acquired Lanificio Piemontese, another Biella-based woolen mill, signaling its commitment to grow its manufacturing scope and in sync with the sectors mergers and acquisitions environment, defined by increased alliances, as reported. Click here to read the full article. Delicious, intricate detail is back. Let us reintroduce you to Victorian piping. Courtesy Larissa Neto Larissa Neto, founder and owner of Bakey Bakes, an Atlanta-based boutique bakery, was searching for a cake style for a particular cake she was making for a client in 2020. It was themed after Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I wanted to mimic her yellow dress with the swoops and ruffles, says the buttercream artist. She recalled the types of cakes she grew up with in her native Portugal. I used to see them as old-fashioned, but I didnt realize at the time that by modernizing the colors and the shapes of the cake it would have such a wide appeal with contemporary audiences, she says. Because she enjoyed making that Belle cake so much, she did a flash sale of mini cakes in the same style to test if there was demand in Atlanta. They sold out instantly. She knew she was on to something, and it turns out she was ahead of a national curve of more overly ornate cakes. You might have seen them called Victorian piped cakes, Lambeth cakes, or overpiped cakes, but the concept is all the same: an intricately decorated cake, with multiple piping styles. As these cakes rise in popularity, heres what you need to know, including a brief history, why theyre popular, and how to tackle one at home. Courtesy Larissa Neto What Is A Victorian Piped Cake? While the ornate style is popular, it does go by several different names. The overpiping or Lambeth method was a cake decorating technique used in Europe in the 19th century, traditionally made with royal icing, Neto explains. Lambeth in particular refers to an American cake decorator. These intricate and symmetrical techniques were developed to wow people in the same way the intricate rooms and architecture were also done at the time, she says, which is why they can also be referred to as Victorian piping. Excess was all the rage! she says. Modern Lambeth cakes mostly use buttercream, which Neto attributes to taste: I imagine a mouth full of royal icing is pretty unpleasant as it is rock hard when dry. However, some people still use royal icing for the more intricate and thinner Lambeth cakes. Story continues Courtesy Larissa Neto Why Theyre Suddenly Popular Search once for a Lambeth cake on Instagram and you will be inundated with dozens of accounts showing off delicate piping. Neto theorizes that theres a cake revolution in the works. People dislike the taste of fondant and are bored by that perfect, clean look, she says. Theres also the vintage element at play. Theres true value being attributed to products that appear more handmade and are reminiscent of times where care, love, and labor were put into things we consume. Shelby Bower, the Houston-born baker behind cake decorating online destination The Sugar Scoop, says shes seen an uptick in brides asking for this very romantic style. Im so excited to use these skills again. Brides are inspired by timeless beauty and theres nothing more beautiful and classic than a detailed and skillfully-piped wedding cake, she says. Jason Reaves, the executive pastry chef at Salamander Resort and Spa, is also seeing it in wedding cakes, sometimes fitting of a venues historic vibe. We made this style for a couple that wanted to have a cake that was inspired by the wedding cakes that their parents had at their own weddings 40 years prior, he says. Be forewarned, though, that a true Victorian piped cake requires quite a bit of intense labor on the bakers partwhich will come through to you in the price. It depends on the size of the cake, how intricate the piping layout is, or how many colors it has, says Neto, who says that it can take anywhere from an hour to four to five hours to pipe a cake in this style. Courtesy Larissa Neto Why Southerners Love Victorian Pipping Southerners lean into this trend perhaps more than others because of a love of formality, history, and nostalgia. I grew up [ in Portugal] seeing ornate historical architecture and a longing for those days when so much care was put into things. I suspect it's the same here in the South, Neto says. We marvel at houses and buildings that remind us of how things were before the sterility of the modern era. We attribute so much value to those things and romanticize them because theyre no longer common. Bowers agrees: Southerners are drawn to beauty. We love romance and combining beauty with hospitalityits very similar to embroidery, cross-stitching and crochet, she says. Southerners appreciate these methods of creating beautiful art that takes time and patience. Courtesy Larissa Neto How To Tackle One At Home A true Lambeth cake might be better left to the professionals, but Neto says that anyone with a piping bag and some patience can try their hand at home. Steady As She Goes Neto says that practicing steadiness is key, as you need to have a super steady hand to work the sides of the cake. Gravity is your enemy, she says. If you lose pressure on the buttercream in any way, or if an air bubble cuts the stream, your line will immediately fall off and break the flow. Mayra Garcia, an instructor who has developed a Lambeth cake course available at Fairfax, Va.-based bakery Frans Cake and Candy Supplies, also emphasizes pressure as a pain point. Figuring out the pressure takes some practice and experience. Once you figure it out, its not too technically difficult. She likes that its a very repetitive motion, which allows for wiggle room to make things up as you go, advising you to pace yourself. Sometimes you can get sloppy with an achy hand, she says. Courtesy Fran's Cake and Candy Supplies Keep It Flowing Another thing to consider: the flow of your icing. Bowers offers that high-quality piping tips and icing of the correct thicknesstraditional royal icing or notare extremely important. You also have to tip your take at a certain angle to get the string work to lift off the cake just right, she adds. Garcia says that preparing multiple bags of icing ahead of time will help to regulate the temperature of the icing, which can change with the warmth of your hand. Alternate bags to manage the temperature, which will maintain the right consistency, she says. Garcia notes that a common mistake is overfilling bags, which leads to hands tiring faster. If youre nervous, I recommend starting with the shell tip and sticking to it. There are so many designs you can make with just that one tip, she says. Courtesy Larissa Neto Map It Out Reaves advises measuring and mapping out the design fully on the cake ahead of time to save you time and effort in the end. Make tiny marks in the frosting with a small knife or toothpick that you will pipe over so you know where to start and finish each repeating design, he says. Practice ahead of time by piping on a piece of parchment paper that has been wrapped around a cake pan or fake cake tier. Most importantly, though, have fun, as modern Lambeth cakes are meant to represent whimsy as well as nostalgia. Even a bad Lambeth cake can be pretty, Neto says. For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Southern Living. During a court hearing that lasted nearly nine hours, the attorney representing GOP secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo in a legal bid seeking to halt the count of tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Detroit yelled at the judge and cited a widely debunked film that has furthered conspiracies about ballot drop boxes. Attorney Daniel Hartman also pressed for specific details about election security plans in Michigan's largest city ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm. Hartman grew angry when Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Kenny noted that the lawsuit would prevent military voters deployed overseas from having their ballots counted in the election because the complaint asks the court declare only absentee ballots requested in person can count. "You are asking for... somebody who wants an absentee ballot has to come in to the Detroit clerk's office. That excludes the military," Kenny said, raising his voice and noting that his own son served in the military. "To characterize me as trying to disenfranchise the military voter is offensive," Hartman yelled in response. "I'm tired of being called a racist by Mr. Fink," he said, referring to David Fink, the lawyer representing Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey in the case, who called the lawsuit "blatant racism" reminiscent of Jim Crow era voter disenfranchisement during a hearing Monday. "I'm tired of Mr. Fink saying Im trying to disenfranchise the heroes in the military when Im trying to secure this election," Hartman continued. More:Detroiters see disenfranchisement in Karamo bid to tweak majority-Black city's voting rules More:Kristina Karamo seeks court order that could impact thousands of Detroit voters Karamo, one of several GOP candidates running for secretary of state in key battleground states backed by former President Donald Trump, filed the legal challenge less than two weeks before the upcoming midterm. Story continues Kenny said the lawsuit was filed at the "eleventh hour" and asked for a "substantial and radical alteration... the eve of the general election." Detroit voters, prominent political leaders from the city and the Detroit Branch NAACP decried Karamo's lawsuit as an attempt to disenfranchise thousands of voters in the nation's largest majority-Black city. And during the lengthy hearing held over Zoom, Kenny asked why the lawsuit targets Detroit voters. "Is there a reason why you didn't file this in Petoskey?" Kenny asked, referring to the city where Hartman's law office is based. "I'm an attorney. I'm not the plaintiff here," he said. Multiple times during the hearing, Hartman referred to his clients as Detroit residents who hired him to bring the lawsuit. The complaint lists only one plaintiff in the case Patricia Farmer as a Detroit resident. As the hearing reached its end, Hartman cited the widely debunked 2,000 Mules film by a far-right provocateur purportedly showing illegal votes returned via drop boxes election experts say provides no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Kenny repeatedly shot down Hartman's attempts to discuss previous elections in a lawsuit seeking an extreme intervention by the court ahead of the upcoming one. At one point, Hartman accused Kenny of "hand-cuffing" him. Ahead of the hearing Thursday, Hartman sought to disqualify Kenny and all Wayne County Circuit Court judges from presiding over the case. Hartman alleged that if a visiting judge didn't hear the case, it would create an appearance of impropriety. Hartman withdrew the motion for disqualification during a hearing Monday when he learned that as chief judge, Kenny presides over all election-related cases and that his name does not appear on the ballot for the upcoming midterm because he will retire in several weeks. At multiple points during the hearing Thursday, Kenny prevented Hartman from asking questions related to security plans in place in Detroit such as where security personnel would be assigned in the Detroit absentee counting room. Fink suggested answers to those questions might benefit those trying to interfere with the Detroit election. But the bulk of the evidentiary hearing held over Zoom focused on election minutia from the election equipment used in Detroit to the layout of the room where Detroit election workers process absentee ballots cast by the city's voters. For hours, Hartman grilled former Michigan elections director Chris Thomas, who came out of retirement to serve as an adviser for Winfrey ahead of the 2020 election. Kenny took issue with some questions from Hartman, saying Hartman was inquiring about hypothetical situations regarding how election officials in Detroit might handle different election scenarios. "This is as close to fishing as it gets," Kenny said at one point. Early on in the hearing, Kenny issued a stern warning after Hartman interrupted Fink. Kenny said he would not tolerate any interruptions and threatened to mute those who failed to follow his instructions. Kenny's patience seemed to wear thin at times. He repeatedly asked Hartman to rephrase his questions. Following one question from Hartman related to how Detroit election workers review ballot images, Kenny said he was "more than a little confused." Kenny also sustained multiple objections raised by Fink, who accused Hartman of asking questions not germane to the administration of the upcoming election in Detroit. Hartman honed in on election observers' access to a platform in the central area of the Detroit counting room where election results data is collected, according to Daniel Baxter, who oversees the absentee counting board. Baxter and Thomas noted that poll challengers don't have access to the platform. Thomas cited media reports about calls to unplug voting machines. Ryan Kelley, a GOP gubernatorial candidate who lost the August primary, urged party supporters to unplug voting machines if they thought they saw malfeasance during his campaign. Kenny scheduled another hearing in the case for 8:30 a.m. Friday. Election officials recommend voters who have requested and received their absentee ballots complete and return them as soon as possible in person at their local clerk's office or a drop box to avoid postal delays. Those eligible can register to vote and cast a ballot until 8 p.m. on Election Day, which is Nov. 8. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Kenny does not appear on the ballot this year. Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lengthy hearing tests Karamo lawsuit targeting Detroit voters Married couple arrested after pregnant Arkansas woman and her fetus are found dead in different locations A married couple were accused of kidnapping Thursday after the body of a missing pregnant woman and her fetus were found in separate locations in Missouri, authorities said. Ashley Bush, 33, of Benton County, Arkansas, appeared to have been fatally shot after she responded to a job posting Monday, prosecutor Nathan Smith told reporters. Bush was 31 weeks pregnant. Smith declined to say how the fetus, Valkyrie Grace Willis, was removed from Bush's body but added: Clearly, the baby was not found with the mother. Ashley Bush. (Benton County Sheriff's Office via Facebook) Smith said he expected more charges against the couple, Amber and Jamie Waterman. They were booked into the McDonald County Detention Center in Missouri on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping after the sheriff's office there said it served a search warrant at a local address. Human remains that appeared to be connected to Bush's missing person's case were found, the McDonald County Sheriff's Office said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the Watermans have lawyers to speak on their behalf. "This is just a reminder that there is evil in the world, Smith said. People do evil things. That someone would prey upon a pregnant woman at her most vulnerable state is unimaginable. Thats the world we live in. Smith said a motive remained unclear. Bush disappeared after having corresponded online with someone named "Lucy" who authorities believe was actually Amber Waterman, Smith said. Bush had been looking for a job working from home, the Benton County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Tuesday. The two met Monday morning at a convenience store in Maysville, in Arkansas' northwestern corner, where Bush was to have been taken to a job interview nearly 30 miles away, in Bentonville, the sheriff's office said. Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway said authorities don't believe Bush ever went to Bentonville. Valkyrie was found Wednesday, and Bush was found Thursday both in Missouri. Holloway declined to provide more details, citing the ongoing investigation. Two counts of homicide are possible because state law allows the charge in the killing of a pregnant woman, Smith said. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Regular Press Conference of the Ministry of National Defense on October 27 EditorChen Zhuo Time2022-11-04 17:47:41 By Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, Deputy Director General of the Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Spokesperson for the MND Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), answers reporters' questions at a regular press conference on October 27, 2022.(Photo/mod.gov.cn) (The following English text of the press conference is for reference. In case of any divergence of interpretation, the Chinese text shall prevail.) Question: Recently, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully held. Please share with us relevant information about the campaign to study and apply the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress by the military. Answer: The 20th CPC National Congress is a meeting of great importance held at a critical time as the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups embark on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and advance toward the Second Centenary Goal. The report delivered by comrade Xi Jinping has demonstrated the great appeal of faith, given directions and spiritual inspiration to the entire Party, the entire military and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. It is a political declaration for the Party to bring together the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and lead them in securing new successes on a new journey. The Congress elected a new CPC Central Committee and a new CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and passed the Resolution on the Report of the 19th CPC Central Committee, the Resolution on the Work Report of the CCDI, and the Resolution on the Revised Constitution of the Communist Party of China. At the first plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, a new CPC leadership was elected. The military firmly supports the election. In accordance with the arrangements and requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC), officers and soldiers of the entire military watched or listened to the live broadcast of the meeting and carried out extensive study and discussion activities on it. Major media outlets of the military have set up columns to show the vivid scenes and practical actions of the troops at all levels in studying and implement the spirit of the 20th Congress in various forms. The campaign is in full swing across the military. Over the past 10 years in the new era, we have set the Party's goal of building a strong military in the new era, and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military and the military strategic guideline for a new era. We have upheld the absolute leadership of the CPC over the peoples military, coordinated efforts to strengthen military preparedness in all directions and domains, and carried out profound reforms of national defense and the armed forces. The peoples military has assumed new systems, a new structure, a new configuration, and a new look. We owe the great transformation over the past decade in the new era to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress says achieving the militarys centenary goal by the year 2027. It enriches the connotation of the CPC's goal of building a strong military in the new era and clearly marks the central tasks of the Chinese military in the next five years. It is a mission the peoples military must answer to. From now on, studying, publicizing and implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress will be the primary political task of the Party and the military. With instructions from President Xi and specific arrangements made by the CMC, all military units are carefully planning and organizing activities to study, publicize and implement the spirit of the congress. Going forward, a promotional group organized by the military for interpreting the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress will give its first report and start a tour of lectures. We will select delegates to the 20th CPC National Congress and outstanding political instructors from the military to give lectures for grass-roots units. We will have a special seminar on studying and implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress at the National Defense University with participation of senior military officers and organize theorists in the military to carry out research and interpretation of the spirit of the congress. All officers and soldiers of the military will unswervingly implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, the CMC and President Xi, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military, have profound comprehension of the decisive significance of the establishment of Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; strengthen our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership; enhance our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; resolutely uphold Comrade Xi Jinpings core position on the Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the CPC Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership; and enforce the CMC chairman responsibility system. They will firmly obey the command of the CPC Central Committee, the CMC and President Xi Jinping, and make their contribution to achieving the militarys centenary goal by 2027 and accelerating the transformation of the people's military into a world-class military. Question: According to media reports, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that defense ministers of Russia and China recently had a telephone conversation. What is your comment on this? Answer: Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe recently had a telephone conversation with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. They exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern. Question: It is reported that the CMC General Office has recently issued the newly revised Provisional Regulations on Leave of Service Members. Why is revising the regulation important? What are the differences and features of the revised version? Answer: With the approval of the CMC, the CMC General Office has recently issued the newly revised Provisional Regulations on the Leave of Service Members, which will come into force on January 1, 2023. The military vocation features heavy tasks and intense working pace, and many service members are separated from their families. Rest and leave is not only an important right enjoyed by service members but also an important way to generate combat capabilities. To implement the Law on the Protection of the Status, Rights, and Interests of Servicepersons, the new regulation adjusted and optimized leave policies to adapt to the latest developments in using and training the military force in the new era. First, it is oriented to improve combat readiness. Taking into account factors such as work intensity, risk coefficient and hardship degree, the revised regulation adopts a policy of "basic leave days plus additional leave days" and gives preferential treatment to grass-roots troops and service members in special areas or on special positions. It adds a new arrangement that the annual leave can be arranged over a span of two years to ensure that all officers and soldiers can have time and opportunities to take a leave. Second, it adopts an integrated and systematic design. The regulation redesigned leave policies for officers and NCOs. It sets vacation days for them according to their location, post and type of personnel. It also regulates the annual leave, family leave, as well as marital leave and maternity leave in accordance with relevant state and military rules, maintaining a balanced and coordinated approach. Third, it emphasizes a better implementation mechanism. The regulation adjusted the standard and payment of financial compensation for unused leave days and prioritized planning and implementation of leave. It specified the planning, approval, supervision and accountability of leave to form a strong implementation mechanism. Fourth, it calls to improve service for leave. A service network for military personnel on vacation will be established based on existing military and civilian guesthouses and reception agencies. The standards of travel reimbursement to visit family members will be raised for some service members in accordance with economic and social development, ensuring better implementation of the leave system. Question: The White House recently released the US National Security Strategy 2022, claiming that China is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and the power to advance that objective , posing the most serious geopolitical challenge to the US. What is your comment on this? Answer: The report published by the US side is full of cold war and zero-sum thinking. It deliberately exaggerates the so-called "China challenge", geopolitical conflicts and great power competition, maliciously creates bloc confrontation along ideological lines, and questions China's normal military development. This is a misjudgment of China-US relations and a misreading of China's development. It runs counter to the theme of our times for peaceful development and the common expectation of the international community. As a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China stays committed to the path of peaceful development. We actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system, and remain a staunch defender of the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law. This has long been a consensus of the international community, and cannot be smeared by a report from one country. This report shows that the US side is still following its old path of creating enemies, ganging up allies and expanding military strength. It is promoting "integrated military deterrence", accelerating build-up of nuclear triad, making excuses for seeking and consolidating its hegemony and dominance, and prioritizing its own interests over international justice. This is in fact a major threat and a serious challenge to the international system and world order. China and the US stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. We urge the US side to take an objective and rational view of China and Chinas military development, and put into practice President Joe Biden's statement that the US does not seek a new Cold War or to change China's system, the revitalization of US alliance is not anti-China, the US does not support Taiwan independence, and it has no intention to have a conflict with China. The US side should work together with the Chinese side to bring the China-US relations back to the track of healthy and stable development. Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), answers reporters' questions at a regular press conference on October 27, 2022.(Photo/mod.gov.cn) Question: According to Japans Kyodo News Agency, the Japanese government is considering revising its National Security Strategy by the end of 2022. The new strategy may include policies such as no unilateral change of the status quo by force will be tolerated over Taiwan , a free and open Indo-Pacific" and the Quad mechanism among Australia, India, Japan and the US. What is your comment on that? Answer: We have noticed relevant reports. For some time, the Japanese side has deliberately hyped up China-related issues like the Taiwan question. These actions grossly interfered in China's internal affairs and the so-called China military threat. They are out of ulterior motives and irresponsible. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, and Taiwan is a part of China. The Japanese side made solemn commitments in the China-Japan Joint Declaration fifty years ago. The Government of Japan recognizes that Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China . The Government of the People's Republic of China reiterates that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. The Government of Japan fully understands and respects this stand of the Government of the People's Republic of China, and it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Postsdam Proclamation . Japan should abide by the basic norms of international relations and fulfill its political commitments to China, instead of interfering in the Taiwan question. It must be noted that in recent years, Japan has been keen on following up another countrys policy of containing China, and has built targeted small groups in the name of freedom and openness. These moves are against the common expectations of regional countries for peace, development and cooperation . This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations. The Japanese side should review its original aspiration and work with the Chinese side to implement the important consensus of being each others cooperative partners, not a threat, so as to promote bilateral relations along the right track. We urge the Japanese side to take history as a mirror and speak and act cautiously in the field of military security, and refrain from interfering in China's internal affairs, undermining Chinas security interests, or undermining regional security and stability. Question: It is reported that the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 under discussion by the US Senate may include part of the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 adopted by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September. What is your comment, please? Answer: Recently, the US side has been making up many Taiwan-related policy bills that undermine China's sovereignty, and has intensified its efforts to use Taiwan as a pawn to contain China. In particular, some terms are intended to strengthen Taiwans military ties with the US and support the so-called self-defense of Taiwan. Such acts have seriously interfered in Chinas internal affairs, seriously violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques , and seriously violated its serious political commitment to China on the Taiwan question. A country that is well aware that a house divided against itself cannot stand and has used force to maintain its own unity is now repeatedly breaking its promise and taking reckless actions on matters involving others sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. This is typical double standards. We firmly oppose this and have made solemn representations to the US side. Taiwan is Chinas Taiwan. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese. We urge the US side to stop playing with fire on the Taiwan question. The PLA remains the linchpin for safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any attempt to thwart Chinas complete reunification will be doomed to failure. Question: It is reported that the first Africa Air force Forum opened recently. Has the Chinese military sent representatives to this forum? Please tell us more about the exchanges and cooperation between the air forces of China and African countries. Answer: The first Africa Air force Forum was held in Dakar, capital of Senegal, from October 26 to 27. A Chinese Air Force delegation participated in it. The forum aims to strengthen cooperation between the air forces of Africa and other countries to better cope with regional security challenges. In recent years, the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) has fully demonstrated its goodwill of opening-up, cooperation, and exchanges through a series of bilateral and multilateral platforms, including the global air force chiefs conference , air shows, and joint exercises and training. It has carried out practical cooperation with foreign air forces worldwide, including those of African countries. The PLAAF has also played a positive role in international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, regional security cooperation, and other areas. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the PLAAF has dispatched aircraft to deliver urgently needed medical supplies, medicines, and apparatus to many countries in Asia and Africa many times. By taking various practical measures, the PLAAF has made its due contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind and preserving world peace. Question: It is reported that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in an interview that the US is trying to reopen military communication channels with China and hopes that China can cooperate with the US in this regard. Please comment on that. Answer: Weve noticed the relevant remarks by the US side. China high values the mil-to-mil relationship with the US and is willing to communicate. However, we have principles and red lines on doing that. In response to the US sides vicious provocations earlier on, the Chinese side has taken resolute countermeasures to safeguard its national sovereignty and dignity. Everything has its own cause and effect. The US side should bear full responsibility for the serious difficulties in the current China-US mil-to-mil relationship. If the US intends to strengthen military communication with China, it should match its words with deeds to show sincerity, respect Chinas interests and major concerns, and remove the negative factors hindering the relations between the two militaries. Question: Taiwan media reported that the 21st US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference recently wrapped up. Sources in Taiwan revealed that the US might announce multiple arms sales to Taiwan by the end of the year. What is your comment on that? Answer: For quite some time, the US side has repeatedly breached its political commitment of not supporting Taiwan independence and used the Taiwan card to interfere in Chinas internal affairs, even sending the wrong message of helping Taiwan resist reunification by force. These bad actions have seriously harmed Chinas sovereignty and security, gravely threatened peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, posed great strategic risk to the China-US bilateral and mil-to-mil relations, and sent very wrong signals to the Taiwan independence separatist forces. China is severely concerned and strongly opposed to that. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the China-US Joint Communique on August 17, 1982. In the communique, the US side clearly recognized that there is but one China, Taiwan is a part of China, and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China is the sole legal government of China. The US made a clear commitment that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, and intends to gradually reduce its arms sales to Taiwan, leading to a final resolution . Yet despite these unmistakable, unambiguous statements in the communique, the US has in fact broken its commitment over and over again. Whats more, in recent years, the US has hollowed out the one-China principle, conducted multiple arms sales to Taiwan, and created obstacles to Chinas peaceful reunification At the end of the day, the security of Taiwan depends on a peaceful cross-Strait relationship. Americas arms sales to Taiwan will only escalate tensions and increase risks of conflicts and confrontation in the Taiwan Strait. We urge the US side to stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan and refrain from making further mistakes. The PLA is closely watching the situation and will continue to take effective measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security interests. Question: It is learned that Chinese representatives participated in the ADMM-Plus Experts Working Group virtual meeting on Peacekeeping Operations . Please tell us more about the defense and security cooperation between China and ASEAN. Answer: Chinese representatives participated in the ADMM-Plus Experts Working Group virtual meeting on Peacekeeping Operations from October 11 to 12. At the meeting, peacekeeping experts and representatives from various countries and international organizations shared their experience and practice in implementing the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative . They discussed how to better respond to the risks and challenges in peacekeeping operations, strengthen cooperation among the ADMM-Plus members, and jointly enhance the capability of performing peacekeeping missions. In early November, China will send representatives to attend the ADMM-Plus Experts Working Group meeting on Military Medicine to discuss with other participants the implementation of the Medical Assistance Reserve initiative. In recent years, China and ASEAN countries have deepened defense and security cooperation through regional dialogues and cooperation mechanisms. The Chinese military stands ready to work with its ASEAN counterparts to further enhance strategic mutual trust, improve exchange and cooperation mechanisms, and continue to take an active part in ASEAN-led cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping, and mine action. We will further consolidate and substantiate China-ASEAN defense cooperation, jointly protect regional prosperity and stability, and work together to build a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future. Question: The 101st Session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently reviewed and approved the plan for the destruction of abandoned chemical weapons (ACWs) by Japan in China beyond the year 2022. Please comment on that. Answer: During its war of aggression against China, the Japanese militarists blatantly violated the international law and used a lot of chemical weapons on Chinas soil, causing serious casualties of Chinese soldiers and civilians. After losing the war, they secretly buried or abandoned huge amounts of chemical weapons in China, which still pose a grave threat to the life and property of the Chinese people and the ecological environment. The Chinese side has been urging the Japanese side to strictly abide by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and relevant memoranda of understanding between the two governments, and to safely and thoroughly destroy the ACW sat an early date. Unfortunately, the current destruction process has far lagged behind the CWC-stipulated deadline. It has been overdue three times and will soon be overdue for the fourth time. The 101st session of the Executive Council of OPCW reviewed and approved the plan for the destruction of ACWs by Japan in China beyond the year 2022. It shows the international community attaches importance to and supports the destruction of ACWs by Japan. The Chinese side strongly urges the Japanese side to implement this plan in a comprehensive, complete and accurate manner, honor its political and legal commitments to the international community and to China, increase input and speed up the process to eradicate the dangers caused by these Japanese ACWs as soon as possible. Question: Foreign media reported that former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said recently that Australia should withdraw from the AUKUS trilateral security partnership. Otherwise, it would be a tragedy for Australia. Whats your comment, please? Answer: The US, the UK and Australia have built the AUKUS trilateral security partnership and conducted cooperation on nuclear submarines. It has posed a serious risk of nuclear proliferation, intensified arms race and undermined peace and stability in the region, and jeopardized world peace and security. China has repeatedly expressed its firm and clear opposition to that through multiple channels. China believes that regional mechanisms should be consistent with the trend of our time for peace and development, be conducive to improve mutual trust and cooperation between regional countries. They should not target any third party nor harm a third partys interests. We urge the US, the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War or zero-sum game mindset, faithfully fulfill their non-proliferation obligations, revoke relevant wrong decisions, and do more things to promote regional peace and stability. Question: The leader of the Taiwan region Tsai Ing-wen said in the so-called October 10speech that the island would speed up its efforts to enhance military capacity and develop asymmetric combat power. It is also reported that Taiwan regions defense authority will soon propose the budget report for 2023, which will see a massive increase in defense spending. Whats your comment, please? Answer: Weve noticed relevant reports. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have long been promoting false narratives such as defending democracy and freedom and responding to threats from the mainland to fool the people in Taiwan and mislead international public opinion for their political expediency. They are most generous when treating the security of Taiwan compatriots as stakes for gamble, which reflects their true intention of seeking Taiwan independence by force and splitting the country . These attempts and actions will never succeed because they are against the historical momentum and overall interests of the Chinese nation. They will only bring grave disasters to the Taiwan compatriots. These obstacles to peaceful reunification must be uprooted. Taiwan independence is a dead end while reunification is the only right path forward. The Chinese PLA will stay on high alert and take concrete actions to resolutely fulfill its sacred mission of defending national sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity. 10 Winners to be announced at Awards Ceremony in January 2023 across the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools 4,538 submissions from 152 countries, marking a 13% increase in entries compared to the previous cycle ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, November 04, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAE's pioneering global award for recognising excellence in sustainability, held its Jury meeting to elect winners for its current 2023 cycle, who will be announced during the Prizes Awards Ceremony at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), this January. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005336/en/ Images of the 2023 Zayed Sustainability Prize Jury (Photo: AETOSWire) A total of 30 finalists were confirmed and are now in competition for the 10 awards, across the five categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water, and Global High Schools. This year, the Prize received a record 4,538 applications, marking a 13% increase in entries compared to the previous cycle, while attracting submissions from 152 countries. The Prize Jury, comprising former heads of state, UAE government ministers, and international business figures, met in Abu Dhabi in October to review the shortlisted submissions identified by the Prizes Selection Committee. Remarking on the announcement of the finalists, H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Director General of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: "The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan instilled in the UAE a commitment to inclusive sustainable and humanitarian development, and the Zayed Sustainability Prize continues to honour his legacy by turning this commitment into action. For the past 14 years, the Prize has accelerated the deployment of practical yet sustainable solutions that have positively transformed the lives of over 370 million people." Story continues "The Zayed Sustainability Prize has played an important role in supporting the UAE's vision to drive inclusive climate action. The Prize will continue to amplify the UAEs track record of supporting sustainable innovation across the world and driving progress toward empowering entities and schools who are contributing to global development," he added. Many of this years finalists proposed sustainable solutions that tackle environmental issues while also empowering local community members by unlocking their entrepreneurial potential. Many of those solutions leverage next generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive impact. The Chair of the Jury and former President of the Republic of Iceland, H.E. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, added: "The diverse range of innovations demonstrated in this years applications, including inspiring projects envisioned by the youth, reflects the Prizes continuous ability to bring out the worlds sustainability pioneers by offering them a unique platform for driving transformational change." Health finalists focused on providing specialised medical care to remote communities. The Health category finalists are Associacao Expedicionarios da Saude (Brazil), an NPO that provides specialised medical and surgical care for indigenous communities geographically isolated within the Amazon through its Mobile Hospital Complex. Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (Germany), an NPO that developed the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System, an open-source digital platform for early detection of disease outbreaks and epidemic control management. Ory Laboratory (Japan), an SME that developed the robot, OriHime, designed for people with disabilities to reduce social isolation and provide them the opportunity to work and connect with society. Food finalists focused on transforming small farmers into entrepreneurs with improved agricultural productivity, either through innovative business models or advanced technologies. The Food finalists are: Nuru International (USA), an NPO that helps farmers in Africa transition from subsistence farming to farmer-owned and farmer-led cooperative agribusiness, tailoring their capacity development activities to existing efforts by government agencies and adapting to the local context. Sanergy (Kenya), an SME that combats issues of high farm input prices, low availability of supplies, and declining soil fertility faced by Sub-Saharan African farmers by manufacturing organic fertiliser and insect protein from diverse waste streams. Ynsect (France), an SME that produces insect protein and natural insect fertilisers, with Europes first of its kind insect factory equipped with innovative vertical farming and integrated biorefining setup. Energy finalists focused on extending clean energy access to vulnerable communities while also introducing new business models that promote a gender-inclusive clean energy sector and generate socioeconomic opportunities. The Energy category finalists are: Green Girls Organisation (Cameroon), an NPO that uses patented algorithms to identify areas where women and girls can benefit from energy access, and then deploys decentralised solar PV and biogas systems in identified areas for lighting and clean cooking. NeuroTech (Jordan), an SME that developed Al-based algorithms with a blockchain-based transaction system to bring reliable energy access to refugee camps. Solarkiosk Solutions GmbH (Germany), an SME that developed the "E-HUBB" and the Connected Solar Market Center "THE PULSE" to empower local farmers and micro-businesses with renewable energy for productive use. Water finalists focused on affordable solutions to make safe drinking water and sanitation more accessible in last-mile communities. The Water category finalists are: HELIOZ WADI (Australia), an SME that deploys a solar-powered device that informs people when water is safe to drink a method that reduces CO2 emissions and indoor air pollution. LEDARS (Bangladesh), an NPO that integrates water resource management models to solve water scarcity issues in disaster-prone areas where water becomes unusable due to salinity and flooding. Seisui Industries Inc. (Japan), an SME that developed a movable wastewater treatment plant which can be customised as per needs and deployed when and where its needed. The Global High Schools finalists presented project-based, student-led sustainability solutions, with finalists divided into 6 regions. The regional finalists include: The Americas: Centro Etnoeducativo Integral Rural Nuestra Senora del Carmen (Colombia), Escuela Tecnica Nro.3 Maria Sanchez de Thompson (Argentina), and Fundacion Bios Terrae - ICAM Ubate (Colombia). Europe & Central Asia: ES Kreativno pero (Serbia), Northfleet Technology College (United Kingdom), and Romain-Rolland Gymnasium (Germany). Middle East & North Africa: Gifted Students School (Iraq), JSS Private School (UAE), and Obour STEM School (Egypt). Sub-Saharan Africa: Cheshire High School (Nigeria), Mary Mount Secondary School (Kenya), and UWC East Africa - Arusha Campus (Tanzania). South Asia: Dhaka Residential Model College (Bangladesh), Kopila Valley School (Nepal), and Obhizatrik School (Bangladesh). East Asia & Pacific: Bohol Wisdom School (The Philippines), Kamil Muslim College (Fiji), and Sangam Sadhu Kuppuswamy Memorial College (Fiji). In the Health, Food, Energy, and Water categories, each winner receives US$600,000. The Global High Schools category has six winners, representing six world regions, with each winner receiving up to US$100,000. Since its launch in 2008, the US$3 million Prize has, directly and indirectly, transformed the lives of over 370 million people across 150 countries. Today, the Prize remains a catalyst for addressing the worlds most pressing issues as it continues to drive and deliver long-term impact to various communities around the world. About the Zayed Sustainability Prize The Zayed Sustainability Prize is the UAEs pioneering global award in sustainability and a tribute to the legacy of the late founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Established in 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize aims to drive sustainable development and humanitarian action by recognising and rewarding small and medium-sized enterprises, nonprofit organisations, and high schools that are delivering impactful, innovative and inspiring solutions in the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools. Through its 96 winners, the Prize has positively impacted the lives of 370 million people around the world. *Source: AETOSWire View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005336/en/ Contacts Reem Diab Reem.Diab@bcw-global.com In their final debate of a nasty campaign for governor, Republican Ashley Kalus and Democrat Dan McKee attacked each other's character Thursday night with terms including "incompetent," "clueless," "corrupt," "liar" and "evil." And in the middle of it all, McKee teased details from long-awaited school standardized test scores he had been under fire for not releasing in full to the public. The debate on WJAR-TV came five days before voters head to the polls and after Kalus has seen a string of explosive disputes from her past dredged up to call her temperament into question. The most recent: leaked text messages that show Kalus berating a Chicago contractor with insults to his "social status" and gender slurs some have described as homophobic. "This was a seedy Chicago contractor. The contractor defrauded me, my family and made inappropriate statements to women in my practice. And you should have seen what he said to me," Kalus said about the texts. "I will not be taken advantage of." "Yeah, so I mean there's a pattern here, right?" McKee said. "Whether it's Illinois police reports, whether it's with the disruptions in terms of interaction with people that do work for Ms. Kalus and then she headed to Florida with fines down there because of zoning issues. And then to come to Rhode Island and have another police report in Westerly." Moments earlier, Kalus stood by her comments that McKee is "clueless, corrupt, a misogynist, No Plan Dan, a liar and incompetent" as a "pretty good summary" of him. "He keeps personally attacking me instead of running on his record. I am here to have a conversation about policy, about things he has done in office," she said. "I understand the pattern here is a governor that is incompetent, who cannot release the RICAS scores because he is afraid of the political consequences." Story continues But then McKee, who had said repeatedly that he hadn't seen the standardized test scores for public school students and has no control over their release, announced on stage that he had just been briefed on the scores which, unbeknownst to the TV audience, would be public by Friday morning. He anticipated the "reading scores are going to go down slightly, and the math scores are going to go up ... and right now we are in the same range as Massachusetts in terms of the [post-pandemic] recovery." "Are you going to compliment him for that or criticize him?" moderator Gene Valicenti asked Kalus. "Here's what I will say based on his record," she said, recalling their first debate weeks back when he said the "vendor had not delivered the scores. Later that week we found out that was not true ... So the governor does not have a good record of being forthright." "I understand the governor often bows to pressure ... but we have delayed the release for weeks at a time, which hurt individual children, it hurts teachers and it's frankly unacceptable." McKee was asked how he would describe the status of the state and federal investigation into a consultant contract awarded to friends in the ILO Group. "All I know is what I've read. Right?" he said. "So go to the people who are doing if you want and get answers from them." Kalus: "If Dan has nothing to hide, he should simply release the subpoena. You can release the subpoenas and you have failed to do so. You refuse to do so. If you trust the people of Rhode Island, which I do, I trust their judgment. Will you do that?" McKee: "The answer is I've already answered the question." The candidates, who have debated several times in the last month, didn't break much new policy ground or stray far from their talking points. One new issue that's emerged in the last week is whether the state will allow a village of "pallet" shelters for homeless residents to be built at the Pastore complex in Cranston. Neighbors in that city, like those in Providence and Pawtucket before them, have said the tiny, 2-person shelters should not go in their backyard. Neither Kalus nor McKee answered the question of whether they would agree to Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins' request to keep pallet shelters out of Cranston. Kalus attributed the resistance to McKee's failure to confer with city officials. "He doesn't get involved until there is a crisis," she said. McKee, in response, said he has been talking regularly to the mayor. He also cited the $250 million earmarked for new and more affordable housing in the current year budget, and said his administration was "working on a plan right here at Rhode Island College," to provide transition teachers and nurses into housing on campus as they graduate so they can afford to work in our communities and our state." "There is no plan," said Kalus, insisting McKee's rundown will fall hundreds of housing units short of the identified need. "This is the dishonesty that I am talking about," McKee said. The debate was held at Rhode Island College, and students there asked the candidates whether they would commit to providing two years of tuition-free education at their school, as is currently offered at the Community College of Rhode Island. Neither candidate committed to it if elected, although Kalus said she would "like to do it." Asked to say what he has done for residents who "don't get handouts" and "pay the bills," McKee listed the child tax credits, military-pension tax exemption and car-tax elimination funded in this year's state budget. "Let's talk about somebody who takes credit for other people's work," Kalus said about the car-tax phaseout, which was started by former House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. On rising electricity rates, Kalus again blasted McKee for not deferring the 47% rate increase that just went into effect. "It's gonna open up the state to millions of dollars of ... litigation. You don't need that," McKee said. "This plan will not save the ratepayers in the state of Rhode Island one penny. She is deferring the expense out across 12 months." "You are putting the seniors at risk. They are choosing between heating and eating," Kalus said. "He is pretending he cares about lawsuits while he is appealing the truck toll decision." Asked to say why he thinks the state will win its appeal of a federal court decision that truck tolls are unconstitutional, McKee declined, saying "we're not going to give our defense on live TV." This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Final debate of a nasty campaign for RI governor between McKee, Kalus A member of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruzs defence team is being investigated by the Florida bar association after being accused of flashing her middle finger at cameras in court before his sentencing. The inquiry into Tamara Curtiss behaviour in court was confirmed to The Independent by Florida bar spokesperson Jennifer Krell Davis on Friday. It follows a jarring scene at a pre-sentencing hearing weeks ago that was decried by parents of the 17 victims killed at Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. In a 39-second clip making the rounds on Twitter this week, Ms Curtis points out at the camera set up in the courtroom, bringing it to the attention of Cruz and another member of the defence team. Ms Curtis colleague then appears to share a laugh with her before flashing her middle finger, in what many viewers took as a suggestion for Ms Curtis to do the same. The trio takes turns looking at the camera before Ms Curtis gives a dismissive wave, appearing to suggest for the person controlling it to stop zooming in on the defence table. She then appeared to raise her middle finger and rub it against her cheek before bursting out a laugh that was echoed by the convicted Parkland shooter. Ms Davis said she could not confirm nor deny whether the exchange seen in the video had anything to do with the bar association investigation. The exchange was condemned by loved ones of the Parkland victims when they were allowed to address the defence during the two-day sentencing. Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in the attack, said the defence was despicable and had lost their humanity after Ms Curtis laughed with the killer like an immature punk child. Manuel Oliver, who lost his son in the massacre, also hit out at the defence, flipping his own middle finger and saying you need to learn how to flip a middle finger. Michael Schulman, the father of slain teacher Scott Beigel, also told the defence that they had a right to defend Cruz, but had no right to demean [the victims.] Story continues Tamara Curtis flipping the bird at a pre-trial hearing (Law&Crime) At one point during the sentencing, the defence asked Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer to interfere with the victim impact testimonies heard in court, arguing that the rhetoric could initiate violence. Ms Scherer, who sentenced Cruz to 34 consecutive life terms, dismissed the complaints. When these people are upset about specific things that have gone on from that table, like shooting the middle finger up at this court, and laughing and joking, she said. When these people have sat in this courtroom and watched this behaviour from that table and they want to say that theyre not happy about it, what is the problem? "One of the most disgusting and unprofessional actions": The mother of Parkland shooting victim #NicholasDworet called out the gunman's defense team for holding, giggling and touching with the murderer. "We found this to be so offensive to our family," she said. pic.twitter.com/IzIXKbLKGG Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) November 2, 2022 Florida Bar spokesperson Jessica Krell Davis told The Independent that the complaint against Ms Curtis and other documents in the investigation have not been made public yet. Ms Davis said she could not speculate when asked whether there are plans to investigate any other members of Cruzs defence team. On Wednesday, Mr Schulman spoke of the moment captured on video weeks before. Zealous representation of a confessed murderer does not mean flipping the bird when you think the cameras arent on you, Mr Schulman said. You should be embarrassed. The mother of Nicholas Dworet, 17, Annika Dworet, said that one of the most disgusting and unprofessional actions that occurred in this courtroom was the defence team holding, touching, and giggling with this cold-blooded murderer. Tamara Curtis laughs with convicted Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz at a pre-trial hearing (Law&Crime) The defence team attempted to argue that they were being personally attacked by the families during the first day of sentencing on Tuesday. Public defender Gordon Weekes asked the judge to intervene in the impact statements in light of the attack on Nancy Pelosis husband, Paul Pelosi. Mr Weekes claimed the children of the defence team had been referenced and that nobody had gone through what [the defence] had to go through. Judge Scherer shut down Mr Weekes remarks, saying that the victims families had maintained composure and made acceptable comments for the most part. Chief Assistant Public Defender David Wheeler later seconded those claims, saying family members of the victims had brought up the defences children, while Judge Scherer said she had not registered those remarks and that she did not know what he was talking about. Judge, I can assure you that if they were talking about your children, you would definitely notice it, Mr Wheeler pushed. Judge Scherer then excused Mr Wheeler from the defence table, saying that he had been out of line and the defences behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional. To try to threaten my children and bring up my children is inappropriate, go to the back of the room now. That just violated about every rule of professional responsibility, Scherer also told Mr Weekes. Go sit down. We are moving on with the sentencing. Manuel Oliver flips the finger at the defence (Law&Crime) The following day, Mr Guttenberg and his wife called for Mr Weekes resignation. Yesterday, the elected public defender said that nobody had to endure what this defence has endured, Jennifer Guttenberg, the mother of Jaime Guttenberg, said on Wednesday. And as a reminder, Mr Weekes, and the rest of the defence attorneys, your client murdered our loved ones in cold blood. Hunted them down, shot them over and over until he knew he accomplished his goal. To suggest for one second that we would be the kind of people or anyone back there would be the kinds of people who would incite violence, you all should be ashamed of yourselves, Mr Guttenberg continued. Victim Joaquin Olivers sister, Andrea Ghersi, refused to address Cruz during his victim impact statement, but lashed out at the defence after the events on Tuesday. I will not allow any of you to make us out to be the kind of people that resort to any kind of threats, especially threats toward children, Ms Ghersi said. She continued: No one in this courtroom has had to go through what we have had to go through, a statement by Gordon Weekes. What exactly have you had to go through? Did you have to sit here for the past few months and listen from medical experts how many shots your loved one received? Judge Elizabeth Scherer orders Chief Assistant Public Defender David Wheeler to sit in the back of the courtroom ( South Florida Sun Sentinel 2022) How much they suffered while being hunted down by their murderer. Are you that out of touch? Cruz was formally sentenced to life in prison for the mass murder of 17 students and staff members at the end of two days of heartbreaking impact statements from victims and their families outraged that their loved ones killer has avoided the death penalty for his crimes. The judge praised the loved ones of victims and survivors for supporting each other throughout their unimaginable loss, and thanked them for their composure during the emotional four months of trial. I know that doesnt help at all and If I could take your pain or carry your pain for you, just for five minutes, so you could breathe, I would, Ms Scherer said. Because I cant even imagine what youre going through today. Cruz was sentenced to 17 life sentences without the possibility of parole, and 17 other life sentences with the possibility of parole after 20 years served. ReportLinker The Global Pest Control Services Market size was estimated at USD 21. 99 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 23. 28 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 6. 12% to reach USD 31. New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Pest Control Services Market Research Report by Service Type, End-User, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340559/?utm_source=GNW 42 billion by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Pest Control Services to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Service Type, the market was studied across Chemical Control Services and Mechanical Control Services. The Chemical Control Services is further studied across Organic and Synthetic. Based on End-User, the market was studied across Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial, and Residential. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Pest Control Services market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Pest Control Services Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Pest Control Services Market, including ABC Home & Commercial Services, Animal Pest Management Services, Inc., Anticimex Group, Apex Pest Control, Inc., Aptive Environmental, LLC, Arrow Exterminators Inc., Asante Inc., Cooks Pest Control, Inc., Dodson Pest Control Inc., Ecolab, Inc., Environmental Pest Service, LLC, Florida Pest Control & Chemical, Green Earth Pest Control, LLC, Home Paramount Pest Control, LLC, Hulett Environmental Services, Lloyd Pest Control, Massey Services, Inc., Plunketts Pest Control, Rentokil Initial PLC, Rollins, Inc., Senske, Inc., ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc., and Truly Nolen of America, Inc.. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Pest Control Services Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Pest Control Services Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Pest Control Services Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Pest Control Services Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Pest Control Services Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Pest Control Services Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Pest Control Services Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340559/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Procter and Gamble, the home of leading consumer brands such as Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, announced that Nantha Kumaran Kalimuthu is appointed as the Country Manager of Malaysia & Singapore effective April 1st, 2022. Nantha Kalimuthu will lead the growth of the selling and market operations of P&G in Malaysia & Singapore. Nantha Kumaran Kalimuthu, named Country Manager of P&G Malaysia & Singapore Nantha Kumaran Kalimuthu joined Procter and Gamble in 2006. For the last 17 years at P&G across Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and Asia-wide roles, he has served in various positions with diversified experiences in Sales and Commercial Operations. Prior to this new appointment as Country Manager for Malaysia and Singapore, Nantha Kalimuthu was the Senior Director - Corporate Market Strategy & Planning (MS&P) and Distributor Leader of P&G Korea, where he made remarkable steps in changing the Korean distributor business. Before that, he was the Commercial Leader and Corporate MS&P head of P&G MSV (Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam). Over the years in various capacities, Nantha Kalimuthu has proven himself an accomplished and innovative Market Strategy leader with a demonstrated history of delighting shoppers and developing organizations. On his new appointment, Nantha Kalimuthu said, "I am honored by the opportunity to lead P&G Malaysia & Singapore. It is both exciting and challenging. Together with our amazing team of P&G talents and our world-class brands, I am confident that we will continue to build strong brands and bring meaningful, superior innovation to our shoppers and consumers." Malaysia & Singapore are important markets for P&G today and in the future. In line with P&G's sustainable growth strategy, the company continues to invest in innovation to raise the bar of excellence and deliver superior products that delight local consumers. Being committed to being a Force for Growth and a Force for Good, P&G Malaysia & Singapore has stepped up to do its part in building a more equal and inclusive world, protecting the planet and creating significant impacts on the community. Story continues About Procter & Gamble P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks, and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. About Procter & Gamble Malaysia & Singapore Starting operation in Malaysia and Singapore in 1987, P&G Malaysia & Singapore is home to one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Dynamo, Downy, Fab, Ambi Pur, Febreze, Joy, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Rejoice, Herbal Essences, Hair Recipe, Olay, SK-II, Gillette, Oral-B, Pampers, Tampax, Whisper, Vicks, Becombion, Cavit-D 3, Cebion Vitamin C, Hemobion, lliadin, Neurobion, Sangobion, Seven Seas. SOURCE Procter & Gamble The race to succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the leader of House Democrats may have been clinched at a meeting in the Capitol on Sept. 1. Thats when House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York slipped back to Washington to connect in Clyburn's office during the summer congressional recess at Jeffries request. Jeffries, the fifth-ranking House Democrat who aspires to be the first-ranking House Democrat in the next Congress, was picking up heightened chatter from colleagues about California Rep. Adam Schiffs outreach expressing his own interest in the top caucus job. The 52-year-old Jeffries was concerned enough that he offered to fly to South Carolina to seek the counsel of the 82-year-old Clyburn. The younger lawmaker wanted to gently make sure his elder in the Congressional Black Caucus knew of Schiffs quiet campaign and to even more gently warn Clyburn about the risk of splitting votes between them and opening a path for the ambitious Californian. Jeffries need not have been alarmed. Theres nothing I would ever do to impede the progress of our up-and-coming young Democrats and I see him as an up-and-coming young Democrat, Clyburn said in an interview about Jeffries. He knows that, I didnt have to tell him that but I did. Asked if he would be willing to serve in an emeritus role in the leadership, Clyburn said he is willing to do anything the caucus thinks is to their benefit, noting that Jeffries has referred to me as a mentor. The South Carolinians reassurances his most pronounced to date and downright blunt in the diplomatic parlance of leadership races are likely to prove the linchpin for Jeffries all-but-certain campaign. Jeffries declined to comment. A spokesperson for Schiff, Cate Hurley, said his time and energy are on helping colleagues to retain the House Democratic majority. Even before the savage attack on Pelosis husband last week, House Democrats have afforded her a measure of public respect. Jeffries and Schiff have traveled extensively to stump for their colleagues in the midterm campaign, but only mentioned their aspirations to other lawmakers in private meetings or subsequent phone calls. Even then, the two have tried to be careful not to explicitly state that theyre running for her job or make firm requests for support. Story continues This restraint, however, masks what so many House Democrats assume: that they will lose the majority on Tuesday and the speaker will step down from her post, creating the first vacancy atop the caucus since Pelosi succeeded Richard Gephardt two decades ago. What has been less clear to lawmakers, at least before Clyburns candid remarks, is whether he and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer would vie to succeed Pelosi. Unlike Schiff, 62, and Jeffries, the two octogenarian leaders have not been lighting up their colleagues cell phones with calls and texts alerting them of their interest in the fashion of the two younger lawmakers what one House Democrat called the if-then approach if theres an opening atop the caucus, then Id be interested. Yet if Hoyer or Clyburn were to seek the top job, it could complicate matters for Schiff and Jeffries. The dynamic could prove particularly awkward should Clyburn run, raising the prospect of a generational battle within the CBC. If the South Carolinian does clear the way for his younger colleague, however, the 58-member bloc would overwhelmingly rally to Jeffries, paving the way for him to become the first African-American to serve as a congressional leader. He brings old-school political acumen with an ability to relate to younger people, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, another member of the CBC, said of Jeffries, while taking care to note he was not going to formally declare his preference until after the election. Privately, a number of Democratic lawmakers said Jeffries is their best option as leader because hes the rare member whos proficient at both the outside and inside game, skilled enough to carry the partys message on television but also attuned to his colleagues needs and wants. Jeffries' ascent would be significant for a number of reasons. Theres his history-making status, a descendant of enslaved people leading his party in a building partly built by enslaved people. With the current trio of House Democrats in their 80s, the transition to a lawmaker who came of age in the 1980s, and is given to quoting Biggie Smalls and even rapping at fundraisers, would also further fuel questions about the future of a president about to turn 80. Then theres the matter of Pelosis departure. A historic figure herself, the speaker has kept a once-fractious caucus remarkably unified over a 20-year period during which time Republicans have gone through four leaders opposite her. What shes not been able to do, though, is groom a successor. This deficiency is why some House Democrats believe Schiff suddenly began sounding out his colleagues earlier this year. Pelosis lieutenants insist shes not nudging her fellow Californian to take on Jeffries, but she has tried to find him a perch before. She lobbied California Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint Schiff state attorney general last year and when the governor passed him over, Pelosi left Newsom a message expressing her disappointment in no uncertain terms. To MSNBC-attuned Democratic activists and donors, Schiff may be the second best-known House Democrat and, after helping to lead two impeachment trials against Donald Trump, Pelosis de facto deputy. But a cable television profile does not a leader make, at least not in the relationship-driven politics of congressional elections. Schiff has helped himself by donating to his colleagues, raising or giving a combined $14 million to House candidates this election. But he is now playing catch-up with Jeffries, who has been building support since he was elected to the leadership following the 2018 election. Hes harvesting seeds Adam is just now planting, said Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, whose own relationship with Jeffries stems from that post-2018 leadership race. Like Phillips, Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan was also first elected in the 2018 Democratic wave, and when she met with Jeffries over nachos in her suburban Detroit district last month, she told him up front that she was on board. Another longer-serving lawmaker could not believe he had to inform Schiff of what should have been obvious. The fact he didn't know I was for Hakeem tells you how out of touch he is, said this lawmaker. Im part of Hakeems whip operation. To Schiffs detriment, its not only that hes playing catch up, its that its obvious hes playing catch up. More focused on raising his media profile than cultivating colleagues during the Trump years and seen in the caucus as capable but aloof his outreach has prompted some lawmakers to privately ridicule him for only texting them for the first time when he became interested in the leadership. In private, Schiff has expressed confidence that the 42-member delegation of California Democrats could vault him into contention. But that bloc is hardly unified around him. Should there be a change in leadership I think Hakeem would be a strong, unifying leader, said Rep. Ami Bera of California, whos eyeing the DCCC chairmanship. Another one of Schiffs California colleagues said Schiff should avoid the near certainty of losing a leadership race when lawmakers return to Washington after the midterms. If he played his cards right, hed say, Im not going to do this, I need your help for the Senate, said this lawmaker. With over $21 million on hand in his House campaign account, money that could be rolled over to a Senate bid, he could be formidable in Californias TV-driven statewide politics. That is, however, assuming theres a race at all. Should Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein vacate the seat before her term expires in 2025, Newsom has said hell name a Black woman as senator. This same attentiveness to the Democratic coalition is what ultimately may pose the biggest challenge to Schiffs House ambitions. Its not just the symbolism of tapping a white man rather than elevating the first Black leader to succeed the first female speaker. Its that Jeffries is poised to ascend with a pair of well-liked deputies, Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California, who together reflect the makeup of their party a Black man, a white woman and a Latino. Few Democrats more fully grasp the power of the partys diversity than Clyburn, the man whose eleventh-hour endorsement helped revive President Bidens campaign in the first primary state with a large share of Black voters. The caucus commitment to diverse leaders is what this country is all about, he said. And, he added, that bodes well for Hakeem. Twice a year most Americans change their clocks for daylight saving time. But is the practice still necessary? South Carolina, along with 18 other states, has made bids to try to do away with the practice of moving clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall, but only two states in the United States have actually succeeded in abolishing the practice in recent years. Daylight saving time will end 2 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 6. At that point, the time will fall back to 1 a.m., and people can enjoy an extra hour of sleep. Here's what you need to know about the more than a century-old practice: Daylight saving time in SC:Ask Angelia: How daylight saving time could become permanent in SC without act of Congress Not falling back:Why South Carolina might not 'fall back' this year from Daylight Saving Time When did daylight saving time start? Daylight saving time began during World War I in Germany when the country was looking for ways to save energy. Germany moved the clock forward to have more daylight while people were at work. Several countries, including the U.S. in 1918, followed suit for the duration of the war. Daylight saving time was used again during World War II as a way to save energy for war production and later became a national standard in the U.S. in 1966 when Congress passed the Uniform Time Act. The only two states that don't follow DST are Arizona and Hawaii. South Carolina opts out of time change In 2020, a bill passed in the South Carolina State House to help pave the way for the end of daylight saving time, but it was contingent on federal authorization for states to observe daylight saving time year-round by amending a federal statute. This piggybacked off U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio introduced bill called The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, a bill that "makes daylight saving time the new permanent standard time, effective November 5, 2023," and it passed the Senate in March 2022. A new bill to make daylight saving time permanent by having the state Attorney General Alan Wilson submit a waiver request to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation that would not require an act of Congress was introduced in the State House in January and referred to the House Judiciary Committee in February. Story continues Who has voted 'no' on daylight saving time? Along with South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Florida have either had some state congressional backing or resolutions passed in the last four years. Some states have commissioned studies on the topic, including Massachusetts and Maine, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Florida was the first state to do away with DST and in 2018 California voters also voted to do away with it, but both states must wait for federal precedent before it can be enacted. This year, 33 states have introduced 80 pieces of legislation addressing DST. There remain 22 states with 60 pieces of pending legislation. Five states Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi and Montana, have passed DST legislation, pending federal law authorization, according to NCSL. Why 'falling back' might not be good practice In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson officially made DST a standard practice in the U.S., now other officials are working to change the practice. Florida Sen. Rubio proposed the Sunshine Protection Act to put an end to the falling back phase of DST. Here are some of the things included in Rubio's proposed act to end DST: The American Journal of Public Health said better alignment of daylight hours with drivers standard work hours will increase visibility and may reduce car crashes. The Department of Transportation also supported this information. The change could reduce the risk of cardiac issues, stroke and seasonal depression due to disruption of circadian rhythms. A 2015 Brooking Institute study said the end of DST could lead to a decrease in robberies by up to 27 percent because of additional daylight in the evenings. A study by JP Morgan Chase found there is an economic activity drop of 2-5 percent when clocks are moved back. The International Journal Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health said there could be a reduction of childhood obesity and increased physical fitness for all Americans due to more hours of sunshine in which to be active. The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that during DST, pedestrian traffic increases by 62 percent and cyclist activity increases by 38 percent. A U.S. Department of Energy report in 2008 showed that the end of DST could mean a savings of 0.5 percent in electricity per day, a total of 1.3 trillion watt-hours. Other studies have shown mixed results in actual savings. Wichita Falls Times Record News contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Time change 2022 South Carolina: Does SC observe daylight saving time Getty Images; Insider South Dakota Initiated Measure 27 would legalize marijuana use for adults over the age of 21. Proponents say that the measure is about "personal freedom." Opponents say that legalization will result in consumer addiction. A "yes" on South Dakota's Initiated Measure 27 would permit recreational marijuana use for adults. Ballot measure details Known as the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, Measure 27 would legalize marijuana use and possession for adults 21 years old and older. If passed, the initiative would limit possession to one ounce of marijuana. Support and opposition The measure is sponsored by South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. Supporters argue the measure is about "personal freedom." "I would describe Measure 27 as cannabis legalization for the individual. It does not include licensing regulations, taxation; it's really about personal freedom and ensuring that small amounts of cannabis do not make you a criminal," Matthew Schweich, campaign leader for the Yes on 27 campaign, told KELO-TV. Protecting South Dakota Kids is leading the effort against the measure, arguing that legalization will result in addiction for consumers and an increase in car accidents because of intoxicated drivers. "More minority kids are being arrested in Colorado for pot since legalization, and car crashes related to marijuana, young adult use, and workplace positives are skyrocketing in legal states. We do not need to legalize in order to reform the criminal justice system. We can remove criminal penalties, expunge records, and offer justice without commercializing today's highly pure THC pot products," the coalition says on its website. What experts are saying In 2020, South Dakota voters passed Amendment A, a measure that aimed to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, but a lawsuit filed by Gov. Kristi Noem shot down the measure. Schweich told OpenSecrets that Initiated Measure 27 is "a shorter, simpler version" of Amendment A. Read the original article on Business Insider A producer on one of the highest-grossing of Spanish films in the last decade, Alex de la Iglesias Perfect Strangers, Madrid-based Nadie es Perfecto is ramping up production as it rebrands and, following the hire of ex-Netflix exec Juan Mayne, focuses on broadening its bridges with Mexico and Latin America. In one move, Christopher Hool at Mexicos SDB Films (The Deal, Doblemente Embarazada) has boarded the NEP-produced Locomia, directed by Kike Maillo, and La Navidad esta en sus manos, from Joaquin Mazon, produced by Bowfinger International Pictures, Esto Tambien Pasara and Nadie es Perfecto and associate produced by AF Films. More from Variety NEP also adapted Mexican hit series El Juego de la Llaves, a property of Corazon Films, for Spain, producing with Warner Bros. and local broadcaster Atresmedia. The company is rebranding as Nadie es Perfecto+. We aim to make more films, be present in more series and open up to her formats, and were already advancing on a brace of titles, Nadie es Perfecto founder Kiko Martinez told Variety. For Martinez, the incorporation of Juan [Mayne] connects us with the talent he has worked with not only in Spain but Latin America and the U.S., which will allow us to grow in both areas. Nadie es Perfecto is in good company, linking with other Spanish companies with a presence in Mexico and Latin America, a combination which allows partners to raise production standards to notable levels. Originated at NEP, La Navidad en sus manos is produced with one of the most powerful independent producers in Spain, Bowfinger Intl. Pictures, headed by Maria Luisa Gutierrez and Santiago Segura and also one of Spains most longterm producers with Latin America, and with Alvaro Arizas Esto Tambien Pasara. Story continues Producing last year both Chus Gutierrezs Sin ti no puedo and Con los anos with Hools Mexico-based SDB Films, in the case of La Navidad en sus manos, ETP brought SDB onto the project, while Frank Ariza at AF Films, who co-wrote Sin ti no puedo and directed Con los anos, has come on board as an associate producer. Starring Santiago Segura, ranking with Eugenio Derbez as the biggest comedy force in the Spanish-speaking world, La Navidad en sus manos is a Christmas movie, a building but still not fully established phenomenon in Spain. Written by Daniel Monedero and Fran Arnal, scribes on Netflixs 1000 km de la Navidad, La Navidad en sus manos turns on middle-aged man encharged to save Christmas after Santa Claus (Segura) suffers an accident which has him in need of psychiatric counselling. Positioned as a movie which will see a first-window release in cinema theaters and slated to shoot from mid-November, La Navidad marks the latest movie from Mazon who recently bowed La vida padre and has directed episodes of iconic Spanish series such as Cuerpo de elite Alli abajo and Con el culo al aire. Targeting kids and adults Mazon says he is an adult who has drunk deeply at the well of American aventure movies such as The Goonies La Navidad en sus manos will be an highly entertaining film and visually ambitious, which will help it to travel, Mazon said. Directed by Kike Maillo who burst onto the scene with his first feature, 2011 Venice Festival hit Eva with Daniel Bruhl as a robot engineer Locomia stars Jaime Llorente, (Money Heist, Elite, Prison 77), Alberto Ammann (Narcos, Mexico, The Year of Fury) and Alejandro Speitzer (Dark Desire, Someone Has to Die). It weighs in as a biopic of a band, Loco Mia, which was as successful as it was singular as well as being Spains first boys band, said Maillo. Made up of fashion designers who worked as gogo dancers in Ibiza, Loco Mias hallmark was its dancing while waiving huge fans. Locomia Backed by Netflix and Atresmedia, the biopic is a portrait of Spain in the 80s and early 90s, an epoch of new freedoms at multiple levels: Nudity in films, Madrids movida, sexual liberty and drugs, a compulsive reaction to a very closed prior era with a castrating Catholic culture, said Maillo. The film talks about ambition, youth, nightlife, self-discovery, the freshness of a generation which embraced their identities without any hesitation, he added. Set to go into production in March. much of the film takes place in Ibiza, beginning with a party thrown by Freddie Mercury, Maillo said calling the film a dynamic musical comedy targeting YA audiences. Nadie es Perfectos expansion reflects a new streaming platform age. 20 years ago, sales agents sold territory by territory. Now we can reach a larger public more easily, Martinez reflected. Before, for films to travel, they had to be made in English. Now that doesnt matter so much. The ambition of a project is more important, and the Spanish-language market allows us to be more ambitious. A larger ambition also means opening up to international co-production, especially with the Spanish-speaking worlds other big film-TV hub, Mexico. We will take advantage of the relations we have in Mexico, which is the gateway to the U.S., to make more co-productions with Latin America and emerging operators on the other side of the Atlantic which are targeting Mexico, Martinez announced. Nadie es Perfecto is also targeting Europes underserved kids and family market and plowing into genre, another growth film-TV line. Teaming as a producer on movies directed by Alex de la Iglesia movies 2017s El Bar and smash hit Perfectos Desconocidos Nadie es Perfecto also backed a brace of De la Iglesia productions such as Eduardo Casanovas eye-catching debut feature Skins (Pieles). Still pushing into horror, Nadie es Perfecto has produced horror comedy Fenomenas, directed by Carlos Theron and inspired by the famous paranormal group Hepta, led by father Pilon. The film stars Belen Rueda, Toni Acosta and Gracia Olayo as members of Hepta group and Emilio Gutierrez Caba as father Pilon. We will continue down this road. Horror connects with young people, we have great precedents in Spain, Martinez said. Kiko Martinez and Joaquin Mazon Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 2, 2022 /CNW/ - Hurricane Fiona has had a devastating effect on communities across Atlantic Canada and Eastern Quebec. Houses and buildings have been severely damaged and destroyed, as well as small craft harbours that are critical to fisheries and coastal communities. Extreme weather is a major cause of lost fishing gear, known as ghost gear (such as nets, line, rope, traps, pots, and floats), and Fiona has caused a lot of this fishing gear to be lost in the Atlantic Ocean. This lost fishing gear costs money for fish harvesters to replace, and is also a severe threat to the marine environment. As part of the $300 million Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund, the Government of Canada is investing in efforts to retrieve, return, and responsibly dispose of this marine litter, as well as looking at ways to prevent fishing gear loss in the future. Today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Joyce Murray, announced that up to $28.4 million will be available specifically for Hurricane Fiona ocean cleanup activities in a new call for proposals through the Ghost Gear Fund. This is in addition to the immediate funding of up to $1.5 million that supports 11 partners for cleanup this fall in areas hit by the storm. Fish harvesters are the backbone of many coastal communities. Any fishing gear that is found and can still be used by its original owner will be returned. Removing it from our oceans and coasts reduces the economic hardship to fish harvesters and supports healthier and safer waters. More information on how to apply can be found at Canada.ca/ghost-gear. Proposals must be submitted by December 19, at 23:59 PST. The funding will be available for projects in areas directly impacted by Hurricane Fiona from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. The Government of Canada is committed to removing ghost gear from our oceans and creating new solutions to reduce abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear. We ask fish harvesters to report their lost gear, including fishing gear lost due to Hurricane Fiona. This reporting helps us know the ocean litter hotspots, prioritize areas for retrieval, and also return usable fishing gear to fish harvesters. Story continues Quotes "Hurricane Fiona's devastation extends beyond the shore. Getting this lost fishing gear out of the water as quickly as possible is a priority for the Government; that way waters will be safer for coastal communities and aquatic ecosystems. The Ghost Gear Fund will help reunite fish harvesters with their usable fishing gear, so they can continue their work feeding a hungry world. We remain dedicated to supporting Atlantic Canada and Eastern Quebec as communities rebuild." The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Quick Facts The Government of Canada is providing up to $300 million through the Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund to support local communities and businesses impacted by the storm and to help long-term recovery efforts like: Ghost gear is fishing gear that is lost, often as a result of poor weather conditions, conflict with other fishing gear, and snags with the sea floor. All commercial fish harvesters in Canada are required to report their lost fishing gear to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. This reporting helps the Department and other partners locate and remove lost fishing gear from our waters and, in many cases, return the fishing gear to its rightful owner. Due to the extensive damage to infrastructure, details regarding the extent of fishing and aquaculture gear loss rates are not yet available. To date, 1,287 units of fishing gear, over 100 feet of net and over 52,475 feet of rope has been reported lost through the Fishing Gear Reporting System (FGRS). Since 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Ghost Gear Fund has provided $26.3 million to support 91 projects, leading to over 1,357 tonnes of fishing gear removed from waters. Associated Links Stay Connected Follow Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Follow the Canadian Coast Guard on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada Cision View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/02/c8161.html KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's military leaders have submitted notes on a draft constitution as a basis for talks under international mediation, three political sources told Reuters, signalling an easing of a year-long political deadlock. The draft constitution, drawn up by the Sudanese Bar Assocation in August, provides for a transitional civilian-led authority with oversight over the armed forces, who would exit politics after the signing of a deal. However, it faces opposition from Islamists who held power under former president Omar al-Bashir and protested the talks on Saturday, and a protest movement that has been staging large demonstrations for more than a year. The military seized control in a coup in October 2021, halting a transition towards democratic elections following Bashir's overthrow in a 2019 uprising. A new deal would have the potential to restart reforms and draw in much needed foreign financing. Talks that began informally last month involving the military and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition that shared power with the army before the coup are now expanding under the facilitation of the United Nations mission in Sudan, said the sources. The talks are supported by the "Quad" of the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Sudanese Revolutionary Front, which represents most of the country's rebel groups, said it was on board with the process in a statement on Wednesday. In its response to the constitutional draft, the military asked that it be allowed to name its own commander general, according to a person who saw the notes, which also contain the military's view on restructuring and relinquishing some of its business activities. A spokesperson for the military did not immediately respond to a request for commment about the notes. Two sources from the FFC said that an understanding had been reached with the coalition that top military officers would not be subject to prosecution but that wider consultations would continue on the topics of immunity and transitional justice. The FFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Story continues Protesters have called for generals to be brought to justice for the killing of demonstrators and other violations since 2019, rejecting the idea of immunity. The sources said the new deal would also include the participation of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), two groups which protesters have shunned for their participation in Bashir's government but which have since sought to distance themselves from Bashir loyalists. "Given our stance against the coup ... we are a key part of the arrangements for a political solution and are in contact with the political parties and UNITAMS," said PCP political secretary Kamal Omer. Osama Hassona, a DUP official, said his party was in favor of the draft constiuttion and UN-led political process as well. Bashir's Islamist movement retains a deep presence in the military and security apparatus and has staged a comeback in public life in the year since the coup. On Tuesday, pro-democracy groups accused Bashir loyalists of storming the premises of the Sudanese Bar Association and attacking lawyers inside. Leadership of Bashir's now-dissolved National Congress Party did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel) Takeoff, a member of rap trio Migos, was shot dead in Houston, Texas on Tuesday (1 November). The rapper full name Kirshnik Khari Ball was 28 years old. Police officers were called at approximately 2.34am local time (7.34am GMT) about a shooting outside of 810 Billiards and Bowling Alley in downtown Houston, where a private party of around 40 people was taking place. Takeoff and his Migos bandmate Quavo were both in attendance. Quavo real name Quavious Keyate Marshall was not injured in the altercation. The third Migos member, Offset, was not present. An argument emerged, reportedly after a game of dice, and shots were fired. Takeoff was pronounced dead at the scene. His death has been mourned by industry figures and fans, with tributes for the late rapper pouring in on social media. Celebrities including James Corden, Drake, SZA, Outkast, and Khloe Kardashian have shared posts remembering the rapper. As of yet, no suspects have been arrested with Houston police chief Troy Finner calling on witnesses to step up with information about the shooting. The police, as well as fans of the rapper, have urged others to remove graphic videos of the incident that have been circulating online. KEY POINTS What Houston police have said about the fatal incident In one of his final interviews, Takeoff said he wanted to be recognised for his work Police Chief says they have no reason to believe Takeoff was involved in anything criminal' Takeoffs lawyer calls his death a devastating loss, particularly for Atlanta Takeoff shooting: Coroners report reveals Migos rapper was shot multiple times Wednesday 2 November 2022 17:00 , Annabel Nugent In a 2021 interview with NME, Takeoff reflected on the death of Juice WRLD. The rapper, who collaborated with Migos on their 2021 album Culture III, died aged 21 in December 2019. His contribution to the record was posthumous. Speaking about his death, Takeoff said: I had a conversation with him on the phone. Hes a good person. Story continues Juice WRLD performing in 2019 (Getty Images for iHeartMedia) His bandmate Offset continued: He did a few songs and he has the same passion as us in music. He goes straight in there and doesnt like to play around in the studio. Off the top like he is, he lets it come to him but hes a great artist man. Bro was hard. Everything the Houston police have said about the fatal incident Wednesday 2 November 2022 17:15 , Annabel Nugent Houston police called a press conference on Tuesday (1 November) to speak about the shooting that killed Takeoff. During the conference, police chief Troy Finner revealed several key details about the tragic event. Police officers said they were called at approximately 2.34am local time (07.34 GMT) about a shooting outside 810 Billiards and Bowling Alley in downtown Houston where a private party of around 40 people, including Takeoff and Quavo, had been taking place. Everything we know after Migos rapper Takeoff shot and killed An argument emerged and shots were fired from at least two weapons, said the police, which led to many people fleeing the scene. Takeoff was pronounced dead at the scene. At the time, officials did not name the victim but identified him as a Black male in his 20s. It was Takeoffs representatives who first confirmed his death, with the police confirmation following shortly after. Two other individuals a 23-year-old male and a 24-year-old female were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. In saying so, police appeared to confirm that Quavo was not injured during the altercation given that he is 31 years old. Offset changes Instagram avatar to photo of Takeoff Wednesday 2 November 2022 18:23 , Tom Murray Offset has paid a subtle tribute to his late Migos bandmate on Instagram. The rapper changed his profile photo on the social media platform to one of Takeoff on Wednesday (2 November). Neither he nor Migos third member, Quavo, has commented verbally on their friends passing. Read more: Offset changes Instagram avatar to image of Takeoff after Migos bandmates death James Corden pays tribute to Takeoff during The Late Late Show' Wednesday 2 November 2022 19:26 , Tom Murray The Late Late Show host James Corden paid special tribute to offset on his show. The rapper had appeared with his Migos bandmates in Cordens highly popular Carpool Karaoke segment in 2018. I was lucky enough to spend some unforgettable moments with Takeoff over the past few years, Corden said. He was an incredible guy, warm and generous. Whenever Id see him hed always call me Big Drip and he knew how much I loved that. Read more: James Corden says hes utterly devastated by Takeoffs death NEW: Takeoffs cause of death confirmed in coroners report Wednesday 2 November 2022 19:50 , Tom Murray Certain media outlets have obtained a copy of Takeoffs autopsy report, which confirms his cause of death by penetrating gunshot wounds. The analysis by the Harris County Medical Examiner reveals that the rapper was shot multiple times. Migos label Quality Control Music previously said that Takeoff was killed by a stray bullet. Read more: Coroners report reveals Migos rapper Takeoff was shot multiple times Roddy Rich dedicates live performance to Takeoff Wednesday 2 November 2022 21:30 , Tom Murray Fellow rapper Roddy Rich dedicated a live rendition of his song Die Young to Takeoff at a concert last night. The sad reality of it is, that Ive had to sing this in tribute to a lot of the n***** that Ive known, Rich told the crowd. Roddy Ricch spoke on receiving the tragic news about Takeoff and dedicated his performance of Die Young to him#LongLiveTakeoff pic.twitter.com/H1pLHX1nPx Wave Check (@thewavecheckk) November 2, 2022 50 Cent says he paid tribute to Takeoff at show in Finland Wednesday 2 November 2022 22:54 , Tom Murray 50 Cent has become the latest rapper to pay tribute to Takeoff. The In Da Club artist tweeted a shot from his concert in Finland on Wednesday. The photo shows Takeoffs face projected on various screens around the stage. I paid tribute to Takeoff last night in Finland it was lit, 50 Cent tweeted. GLG. GreenLightGang. [World] tour lets get it! I paid tribute to Takeoff last night in Finland it was lit GLGGreenLightGang tour lets get it! pic.twitter.com/IDlXQoE8g3 50cent (@50cent) November 2, 2022 Takeoffs only solo studio album was released four years ago today Wednesday 2 November 2022 23:33 , Tom Murray Takeoffs only studio album The Last Rocket was released four years ago today, RapTV pointed out on Twitter. The album's release made Takeoff the second member of Migos to release a solo album, following Quavo's Quavo Huncho, which came out a month earlier. The Last Rocket was met with widespread critical acclaim and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart. Takeoffs only studio album The Last Rocket dropped 4 years ago today pic.twitter.com/ViEBh7xFqf RapTV (@Rap) November 2, 2022 Video of Quavo and Offset naming Takeoff the best' Migos resurfaces Thursday 3 November 2022 00:31 , Tom Murray A 2018 interview with Migos for Beats Radio has resurfaced in the wake of Takeoffs death. In it, Quavo and Offset agree that Takeoff is the best member of the rap trio and that he was most rated in their hometown of Atlanta. Quavo and Offset giving Takeoff his flowers as the best Migo pic.twitter.com/6ANeawuicW regina (@regi_nacho) November 1, 2022 Desiigner had a highly emotional reaction to Takeoffs death Thursday 3 November 2022 01:29 , Tom Murray New York rapper Desiigner broke down in tears on Instagram Live after learning of Takeoffs death. The Panda artist vowed to quit rap music for good over the killing, which occurred at a private party in Houston, Texas. Why? Why do we f***ing do this? Desiigner yelled during the video. Read more: Desiigner says he's 'done with rap' as he tearfully mourns Takeoff's death Takeoffs cause of death officially ruled homicide Thursday 3 November 2022 02:30 , Tom Murray The Migos stars cause of death was officially ruled a homicide in the coroners report obtained by media on Wednesday (2 November). The autopsy revealed that Takeoff was shot several times and confirmed his cause of death was penetrating gunshot wounds. Read more: Coroners report reveals Migos rapper Takeoff was shot multiple times Offset changes Instagram profile picture to image of Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 04:39 , Peony Hirwani Offset has paid a subtle tribute to his late bandmate Takeoff after the rapper was shot and killed in Houston, Texas on Monday. While Offset has yet to verbally comment on his friends passing, the rapper changed his profile photo on Instagram Wednesday (2 November) to one of Takeoffs face. Jaden Smith and Denzel Curry pay tribute to Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 05:25 , Peony Hirwani Jaden Smith and Denzel Curry have paid tribute to Takeoff. Takeoff aint deserve that, Curry wrote on Twitter on Wednesday (2 November). Takeoff aint deserve that Denzel Curry (@denzelcurry) November 2, 2022 Smith added: Rest In Peace Takeoff, This S*** Is Sad As F***. Photograph of Takeoff and Quavo as kids goes viral Thursday 3 November 2022 05:45 , Peony Hirwani A photograph of Takeoff and Quavo as kids has gone viral on social media. Takeoff and Quavo as kids pic.twitter.com/8hUm0B36w6 RapTV (@Rap) November 1, 2022 LeBron James changes Instagram profile picture to image of Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 06:11 , Peony Hirwani American basketball player LeBron James has paid tribute to Takeoff by changing his Instagram profile picture to the late rappers image. (LeBron James/Instagram) Where is Quavo following fellow Migos rapper Takeoffs death? Thursday 3 November 2022 06:45 , Peony Hirwani Following the news of Takeoffs tragic death, worried fans have been wondering about the status of his fellow The Migos bandmate and uncle Quavo, who was present during the fatal incident. According to Houston police, Quavo, who was present at the time of the incident, and Takeoff were at a private party prior to the fatal shooting. In a following update, police tweeted: Two other victims taken in private vehicles to hospitals. During a later press conference on Tuesday (1 November), the police chief said that a 23-year-old male and 24-year-old female brought themselves to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the incident. The news seemingly verifies that 31-year-old Quavo was not among those injured, however, his status remains unknown. Read more: Where is Quavo following fellow Migos rapper Takeoffs death? 50 Cent pays homage to Takeoff during Finland concert Thursday 3 November 2022 08:30 , Peony Hirwani 50 Cent paid homage to Takeoff during his Finland concert on Wednesday (2 November). I paid tribute to Takeoff last night in Finland it was lit GLGGreenLightGang tour lets get it! pic.twitter.com/IDlXQoE8g3 50cent (@50cent) November 2, 2022 Producer Metro Boomin pays tribute on Twitter Thursday 3 November 2022 10:25 , Nicole Vassell Metro Boomin, who produced Migoss hit song Bad and Boujee, expressed his sadness over Takeoffs death on Twitter. I can't even really put into words how bright and warming of a genuine soul he was, reads part of his heartfelt tribute. Long live my brother Take pic.twitter.com/Bm8F6EFGxL Metro Boomin (@MetroBoomin) November 2, 2022 Beyonce dedicates her official website homepage to Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 11:22 , Nicole Vassell Beyonce has paid tribute to Takeoff by dedicating the homepage of her website to him. Using a black-and-white image of the late rap star, the message reads: Kirsnick Khari Ball, Takeoff, 1994 - 2022, Rest in Power. Migos have previously expressed their appreciation of Beyonce, with Takeoff once claiming in an interview that they were all in the Beyhive, most definitely. Beyonces tribute to Takeoff on her website (beyonce.com) Offset updates Twitter images in homage to cousin and groupmate Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 12:06 , Nicole Vassell Offset, one of the three members of Migos, has updated his Twitter header and profile picture to feature Takeoff. Although neither Offset nor Quavo has publicly commented on their group mates death, Offset has made subtle tributes by changing his pictures on social media. As well as being groupmates, Takeoff was Offsets first cousin once removed, and Quavos nephew. Offset has changed his Twitter profile picture and header to feature Takeoff (Offset / Twitter) Los Angeles Lakers basketball team honours Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 13:47 , Inga Parkel The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team is among the latest to honour Takeoff. In preparation for last nights game against the New Orleans Pelicans, it was all Migos music for the Lakers warm up tonight in a tribute to Takeoff, tweeted Lakers reporter Mike Trudell. The Lakers were also team to former basketball player Kobe Bryant, who tragically died in a helicopter crash in January 2020, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others. All Migos music for the Lakers warm up tonight in a tribute to Takeoff. Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) November 3, 2022 A new mural in Takeoffs honour has been painted in Atlanta Thursday 3 November 2022 15:08 , Nicole Vassell An underpass in Atlanta, Georgia is now home to a mural of Takeoff. Takeoff was a native of Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta, along with fellow Migos star Offset. This Takeoff mural in Atlanta is so well done. Rest easy, legend. (: ape_inc/IG) pic.twitter.com/jAjKfgG1Ri Okayplayer (@okayplayer) November 3, 2022 The mural is located under the John Lewis Freedom Parkway Bridge near Fourth Ward Park. Video shows man with a gun at party where Takeoff was shot Thursday 3 November 2022 18:13 , Tom Murray A video obtained by TMZ appears to show a person of interest standing with a gun in his pocket moments before Takeoff was fatally shot. The man is seen standing with a gun as Quavo, Takeoffs bandmate, gets into an argument with someone. The same individual can then be seen with the gun drawn before shots are heard. Police are aware of the footage. Watch here: Person of interest filmed with a gun moments before Migos member Takeoffs death Now may you rest in perfect peace: Nicki Minaj pays tribute to Takeoff Thursday 3 November 2022 19:32 , Tom Murray Nicki Minaj has become the latest rapper to pay tribute to Takeoff after his death. The Superbass artist shared a photo of the Migos member on her Instagram Story Thursday (3 November). She wrote in a caption: Now may you rest in perfect peace. nicki minaj shares tribute honoring rapper takeoff on via instagram story pic.twitter.com/C0CyGte4s3 JA (@sleezyjamie) November 3, 2022 Kanye West honours Takeoff in Twitter tribute Thursday 3 November 2022 20:55 , Inga Parkel Following the recent reinstatement of his Twitter account, Kanye West followed up his return by posting a photo in honour of Takeoff. Alongside a picture of him and The Migos rap trio during the earlier release of his Donda 2 album, West wrote, Love forever, followed by a subsequent photo of Takeoff, Offset and Quavo, with the caption: Family. Autopsy reveals Takeoff was shot more than once Thursday 3 November 2022 23:43 , Tom Murray Takeoff was shot multiple times, the coroners report confirmed. The Harris County Medical Examiner confirmed his cause of death was penetrating gunshot wounds and ruled his death as a homicide. Read more: Artists tribute to Takeoff goes viral on TikTok Friday 4 November 2022 00:54 , Tom Murray Artist Rob The Original has gone viral for his astonishing portrait of the late rapper formed out of clothing. A video of the creator finishing off the portrait has nearly two million views on TikTok at the time of writing. Offset pays tribute to Migos bandmate Friday 4 November 2022 02:07 , Tom Murray Offset and Quavo have yet to issue a full statement aftee the death of Takeoff. However, Offset has paid a subtle tribute to his late Migos bandmate by changing the profile photos on his social media profiles to images of Takeoff. Read more: Offset changes Instagram avatar to image of Takeoff after Migos bandmates death James Corden says hes utterly devastated by Takeoffs death Friday 4 November 2022 03:34 , Peony Hirwani James Corden says he shared some unforgettable moments with Takeoff, and fondly remembered how the US rapper used to refer to him as Big Drip. The host of the US programme The Late Late Show said the artist had essentially willed Migos into existence and that they had become one of the most influential rap groups of this generation. Read more: James Corden says hes utterly devastated by Takeoffs death Metro Boomin pays tribute to Takeoff Friday 4 November 2022 04:41 , Peony Hirwani Metro Boomin, who produced Migoss hit song Bad and Boujee, expressed his sadness over Takeoffs death on Twitter. I cant even really put into words how bright and warming of a genuine soul he was, reads part of his heartfelt tribute. Long live my brother Take pic.twitter.com/Bm8F6EFGxL Metro Boomin (@MetroBoomin) November 2, 2022 Offset changes Instagram profile picture to image of Takeoff after Migos bandmates death Friday 4 November 2022 07:30 , Peony Hirwani ICYMI: Offset has paid a subtle tribute to his late bandmate Takeoff. While Offset has yet to verbally comment on his friends passing, the rapper changed his profile photo on Instagram Wednesday (2 November) to one of Takeoffs face. Read more: Offset changes Instagram avatar to image of Takeoff after Migos bandmates death Autopsy reveals Takeoff was shot more than once Friday 4 November 2022 07:48 , Peony Hirwani Takeoff was shot multiple times, the coroners report confirmed. The Harris County Medical Examiner confirmed his cause of death was penetrating gunshot wounds and ruled his death as a homicide. Video shows man with a gun at party where Takeoff was shot Friday 4 November 2022 08:30 , Peony Hirwani ICYMI: A video obtained by TMZ appears to show a person of interest standing with a gun in his pocket moments before Takeoff was fatally shot. The man is seen standing with a gun as Quavo, Takeoffs bandmate, gets into an argument with someone. The same individual can then be seen with the gun drawn before shots are heard. Police are aware of the footage. Watch here: Friday 4 November 2022 09:22 , Peony Hirwani Migos - made up of Takeoff, Offset and Quavo grew up together in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Migos was formed in 2008. The trio originally called themselves the Polo Club. The three members are directly related and were raised together; Quavo was Takeoffs uncle, and Offset is Quavos cousin. Which label was Takeoff signed to? Friday 4 November 2022 10:25 , Peony Hirwani Takeoff was signed to Quality Control. In a statement shared on social media, the label said they were devastated by the senseless violence. It is with broken hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the loss of our beloved brother Kirsnick Khari Ball, known to the world as Takeoff, the statement read. Senseless violence and a stray bullet has taken another life from this world and we are devastated. Please respect his family and friends as we all continue to process this monumental loss. Quavos assistant reportedly shot in incident that killed Takeoff Friday 4 November 2022 11:06 , Peony Hirwani Quavos assistant Joshua Wash Washington was one of the two other people shot in the shooting that killed Takeoff, as per TMZ. J Prince addresses Houston shooting incident that killed Takeoff Friday 4 November 2022 12:00 , Peony Hirwani J Prince has addressed the fatal shooting that killed Takeoff in Houston earlier this week. The Prince family would like to send our condolences to the family and friends of a beautiful soul, he wrote on Instagram. To Houstonians and families around the world, this one breaks my heart because Takeoff was a brother, a son, a role model, and God-loving human being. This shouldnt have happened. This shouldnt have ever happened in our city, he continued. This shouldnt have been recorded, and this damn sure shouldnt be circulating across social media for family, friends and fans to see. As I write this Im angry about the lack of love and respect we have for one another as a race which keeps bringing us back to the same tragic place of Black on Black killing. They say satan is the author of confusion and right now there are a lot of lies and false narratives being spread by media whores, he said. I consider myself a man thats quick to listen and slow to speak, therefore to whomever is responsible for putting that bullet in my little nephews head, let it be known that you cant hide behind me, beside me or anywhere near me because I dont tolerate dumb shit. To the homies in Georgia and around the world that got love for Takeoff like we do know this: lets change the narrative in our culture by putting an end to every argument or disagreement resulting in violence, he concluded. Its okay to live and let live to see another day. Rest in peace Takeoff. Fans leave tributes at place of shooting in Houston Friday 4 November 2022 13:16 , Nicole Vassell A Migos fan page has documented a visit to a memorial for Takeoff in Houston, Texas. After the rap star was gunned down early on Tuesday (1 November), appreciators of his music have paid tribute in various ways, including a memorial in Atlanta. Some have left flowers, candles and photos outside of 810 Billiards and Bowling in Houston, where the shooting took place. Takeoff memorial in Houston (Instagram / ultimatemigos) An account named ultimatemigos posted footage from the memorial, with a caption that reads: I swear Take, I promise to keep visiting you forever, I will keep coming back I wont ever forget about you bro. Takeoff was unconscious when nurse arrived at scene Friday 4 November 2022 14:33 , Nicole Vassell A nurse who attended the scene of the Houston shooting that killed Takeoff has recalled the moments directly followed. In a conversation with local news outlet Click2Houston, the health professional (who chose not to be identified) told of how she heard the commotion at 810 Billiards and Bowling from her home nearby. Although she was not on duty, she attended the scene to see whether she could help. I could not have lived with myself if I knew I had the equipment to save his life and I didnt, she said. Later in the report, she claimed that Takeoff had no pulse when she arrived and that she saw his eyes rolled back with a pool of blood behind his head. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. Quavo and Offset maintain silence after groupmates death Friday 4 November 2022 15:00 , Nicole Vassell The two remaining members of Migos, Quavo and Offset, have yet to make official comments on Takeoffs death. With all three being relatives, they grew up together in and around Lawrenceville, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb. The day before Takeoffs death, he and Quavo had released the music video to their song Messy from their duo project, Only Built for Infinity Links. Did Takeoff have any children? Friday 4 November 2022 16:00 , Nicole Vassell Takeoff born Kirsnick Khari Ball left behind no children. He was unmarried and had no known significant other at the time of his death. Second video shows another person of interest with a gun Friday 4 November 2022 20:26 , Tom Murray A second video obtained by TMZ shows another man holding a pistol in his hand. The publication reports that the man in the video is a person of interest to the police. In the video, Takeoff and Quavo can be seen involved in an argument before multiple gunshots ring out. Mural artist says he wanted people to remember Takeoff smiling Friday 4 November 2022 21:30 , Tom Murray The artist behind a mural of Takeoff in downtown Atlanta spoke about the decision to paint the rapper without his signature sunglasses. Speaking to TMZ, Armondo Monoletti said he worked through the night to get the mural completed with the few paints he had available. He told the publication that he painted Takeoff without his sunglasses to humanise the rapper and with a smile for his fans to remember better times. Pierre Zakrzewski had always come home. From Syria. From Libya. From Afghanistan. As a cameraman and photographer who had spent most of his long career in conflict zones, he knew when to duck, when to run, the dicey scenarios to navigate, the trouble spots to avoid. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. So when Michelle Ross-Stanton received a phone call from Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott on the evening of March 14 saying that her husband had been missing in Ukraine for five hours, she figured that he was hunkered down somewhere. Probably tending to the members of his team, as he'd always done. "I decided not to tell his family," she said, "because I was so sure he was going to show up. We all knew he had nine lives." But Ross-Stanton wasn't waiting for the next message from Fox: A former journalist herself, she started making calls from her London home that night to friends, sources, distant connections - anyone who might know something about Pierre. The next day she learned that Zakrzewski, 55, had been killed, along with a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist on his team, Oleksandra Kuvshynova. They had been in the Kyiv suburb of Horenka on a reporting trip when their vehicle was hit by an explosion. The third member of their reporting team, Benjamin Hall, then 39, was alive but suffering grave injuries that would cost him a foot, an eye and part of his leg. Two Ukrainian soldiers they were traveling with were killed as well, The Washington Post has learned. Seven months later, Ross-Stanton hasn't stopped working the phones. For war correspondents, the risk of death has long been accepted as part of the job. Already, 15 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in February, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. But as of November, Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova remain the only journalists working for a U.S. television network who have died in this conflict. Story continues Ross-Stanton remains on a quest to understand the murky circumstances of her husband's death. Though she has pieced together some of the story of how his team ventured out to the front lines of the fighting at a particularly dangerous time, she is still trying to determine whether anyone - beyond the military force that launched the attack - is responsible for what happened, or for the chaotic aftermath. Video: Russian attacks on Ukraine use drones, Soviet-era missiles One particular detail continues to trouble her: The team of security consultants hired by Fox to work with its journalists in Ukraine was not traveling with her husband and his team when they were attacked. Her frustration with the dearth of information is shared by the parents of Kuvshynova, a young arts maven and aspiring journalist who launched into conflict-zone reporting when her country was invaded. They said no one from Fox called to tell them that their daughter had been attacked, and they have not been given any more information in the months that followed about how she died. They first became aware of the incident after reading a social media post from a Ukrainian government official. "We were not kept in the loop at all. The communication was not sufficient," said her father, Andrey Kuvshynov. "We learned about it from the internet." A Fox News spokesperson said that senior leadership was in touch with both families and worked with a translator to communicate with Kuvshynova's parents. In a statement, the spokesperson added that Fox was completely devastated by their deaths. "Their extraordinary dedication to telling the stories of those impacted by the war in Ukraine placed a critical spotlight on the atrocities unfolding there daily - we are forever grateful for their commitment to journalism and their ultimate sacrifice. We did everything humanly possible in the aftermath of this unprecedented tragedy amid the chaos of a war zone." While she declined to discuss the details, Ross-Stanton said she is still in talks with Fox over a settlement that would provide compensation for Zakrzewski's death. Meanwhile, with a notebook and calendar at her side, she has been constructing a chronology of her husband's final days and hours. "I want the truth and I want the whole truth and I want to know exactly what happened," Ross-Stanton said in the first interview she has given about her husband's death. "It's not that I don't trust Fox to give me the right answers, but I don't trust anybody to give me the answers that I want to hear." - - - Zakrzewski arrived in Ukraine in late January along with a crew of Fox News colleagues. After checking into the InterContinental Kyiv hotel - a popular base camp for Western journalists - they got to work reporting on the growing threats of a Russian invasion. A relentlessly upbeat presence with a shaggy push-broom mustache, Zakrzewski came to this assignment with a higher status than most camera operators. A reputation for competence and command built over his decades of field experience had also positioned him to take on some of the traditional responsibilities of a producer. From his home base of London, he was frequently dispatched to danger zones as well as for less perilous news stories across Europe, such as British royal functions - which his wife says he didn't particularly enjoy covering. Even their vacations were globe-trotting adventures. Family videos show Zakrzewski - a French-Irish dual citizen called "The Mad Irishman" by some friends - zooming around on his motorcycle, chatting up the locals. "He never unpacked," Ross-Stanton said. "I learned not to buy food for more than two days at a time. For him, it was a lifestyle choice." In their first weeks, the Fox News team produced regular updates on the Russian threat, usually through the lens of Zakrzewski's camera. Many were broadcast live from the hotel's rooftop, though correspondents also went to the streets of Kyiv and other cities, talking to residents about the growing threats of war. In late January, Fox reported on a group of civilians training for combat; in February, it captured scenes of Ukrainian soldiers conducting live-fire training outside of Chernobyl and, later, teenagers lobbing grenades to prepare for guerrilla combat. Most of the Fox staff had worked together before. But they had one new member of the team: Oleksandra Kuvshynova, a festival organizer and publicist who viewed the chance to work with Fox as a great opportunity to break into journalism. Starting in mid-January, she began helping the Fox crew coordinate and translate interviews and find their way around the region. She bonded with her new colleagues over their shared love of coffee and her passion for music. "We were very proud of her and knew it was important work to do when the war started," her father said, speaking for himself and her mother, Iryna Mamaysur. When her parents fretted about her safety, "she tried to calm us down and told us that Fox News was reliable, and they had all security measures in place." In recent years, Fox News has cemented its ratings dominance with a focus on hot-button conservative punditry, and its newsgathering presence in Ukraine was smaller than some of its competitors' - about 20 people during the conflict's early weeks, while CNN had 75 at the beginning of the invasion. But "Fox threw everything at Ukraine," Ross-Stanton said. "They did throw a lot of resources at it. Everybody was over there." The Kyiv bureau's first on-camera brush with danger occurred on Feb. 19, when correspondent Trey Yingst traveled to Ukraine's eastern border and broadcast footage of troops preparing for the invasion. As Yingst interviewed the country's interior minister, Russian-backed separatists began artillery strikes. The correspondent made a run for it on live television. As Zakrzewski's jostling camera tried to keep up, Yingst could be heard yelling, "Where's Pierre? Where's Pierre?" On Feb. 24, Russia began its assault on Ukraine. Hall, who primarily covered the State Department from Washington, moved from the relative safety of the western city of Lviv to join the Kyiv staff. On March 11, the British-born correspondent reported on air that Russian troops were poised to invade the capital. Fox aired a segment filmed at a children's hospital in Kyiv - the voices of young patients raised in song, the half-covered body of a dead boy lying on the floor. Air raid sirens could be heard in the distance. "Thanks, Benji," anchor John Roberts said at the conclusion of the report. "Stay safe." As the Russians advanced across Ukraine that month, journalists became captivated by one evacuation route: the bridge across the Irpin River that separated Kyiv from the vulnerable western suburb of Irpin. Ukrainian forces had destroyed the bridge to keep Russian tanks from rolling into the capital from the west, but now panicked suburbanites were struggling across wooden planks laid on top of the water to escape the shelling - a dramatic scene highlighted in many news stories. Then, on March 13, an American documentary filmmaker was shot and killed while passing through a military checkpoint on the western side of the river. Brent Renaud, 50, had been working on a project about war refugees for Time Studios. Zakrzewski witnessed the shooting from some distance away, according to his wife. Renaud's death shocked the Kyiv-based press corps. It also jumbled their logistics: The mayor of Irpin called for journalists to stay away, and a main highway was closed off, forcing those who wanted to travel to the front to take a more indirect route. The next day, March 14, Zakrzewski headed back into the western suburbs with Hall and Kuvshynova. - - - From the moment she learned her husband was missing, Ross-Stanton went her own way. That night, she began reaching out to her husband's colleagues, to an array of contacts from her own career as a videographer for the BBC and advocacy organizations. "Every single journalist that I knew on the ground, I contacted them to say, 'Help, find my husband.' " Later, after she got the call that Zakrzewski was dead, Ross-Stanton insisted on flying to Krakow, Poland, then traveling to the Ukrainian border to retrieve his body. Fox News paid for the private plane and later for the funeral in Ireland, but she rebuffed suggestions that its executives accompany her or make the trip for her. "I was very rude to the CEO of Fox News," she said, adding that she later apologized. "I said, 'No, I'm going. He's my husband, and I'm going to get him.' ... I was prepared to go to Kyiv if I had to and drag him out of the morgue if I had to." And then she set out to learn exactly how her husband died. Hall, the lone survivor of the attack, is still recovering from devastating injuries. He has not publicly described what happened, and Fox News did not make him available for an interview. But from conversations with her husband's co-workers and other sources with firsthand knowledge, Ross-Stanton has re-created most of his final day. She believes Zakrzewski, Hall and Kuvshynova left Kyiv around midday with the plan of filming soldiers digging trenches to mount a defense of the capital. When military officials waved them away, they detoured to a village that had recently been shelled. The team probably ended up in the village of Horenka by way of a road that looped the long way around the off-limits town of Irpin. The Fox News team did not travel alone. Two soldiers from a Ukrainian militia, the Azov Battalion, gave them a ride from a meeting point in the western suburbs, said the group's co-founder and top commander, Col. Andriy Biletsky. The group was formed in 2014, and its far-right views made its members controversial figures early in the war, though they would later be hailed as heroes for their long, doomed defense of Mariupol. Zakrzewski felt confident of their safety, his wife says, because a team of New York Times journalists had made the same trip with the same soldiers one day earlier. But "there was a lot of shelling," said Andriy Dubchak, a Ukrainian reporter who worked with the Times on that assignment. "No one knew where the front line was. It was really unpredictable." Sviatoslav Yurash, a close friend of Kuvshynova who serves in the Ukrainian parliament, said military investigators told him that they believe the Fox crew was filming when they spotted Russian forces and tried to find a safer location - only to end up in the path of artillery fire, possibly launched from the nearby Russian-controlled town of Hostomel. From her own reporting, Ross-Stanton believes the assault happened when they were stopped at a checkpoint instead. The barrage was intense - probably about 40 rockets, according to Biletsky, the Azov commander. When Yurash visited the scene later with Kuvshynova's father, they found utter devastation, with houses and vehicles decimated by shelling. Still, the shelling was "very imprecise," Biletsky said: That the Fox team's vehicle happened to be where the rockets landed was "fantastically poor luck." According to video from the scene viewed by Ross-Stanton, the first shell landed about 20 feet in front of their vehicle. She says she could hear her husband shouting "Reverse! Reverse!" and "Get out!" Kuvshynova was trapped in the vehicle, Ross-Stanton learned from two people with close knowledge of the incident, while Hall and Zakrzewski escaped or were thrown from the vehicle. She believes that a shell sprayed the shrapnel that pierced her husband's femoral artery just below his flak jacket. Both Azov soldiers were killed, Biletsky said. Back in Kyiv, though, all anyone knew that afternoon was that the Fox team was missing. As word began to spread, security consultants employed by Western media organizations huddled at the InterContinental Kyiv, conferring in hushed tones about how they could help. Kuvshynova's parents - who only knew she had headed out on a reporting trip that day - grew concerned when she stopped responding to messages. Dubchak, the Ukrainian stringer for the New York Times, spent hours that evening accompanying two security consultants - one with the Times, the other with Fox - on a search of area hospitals. They eventually located Hall in one hospital, where he had been transported by soldiers who found him at the blast scene. Jennifer Griffin, Fox's national security correspondent who had been assisting the search from Washington, scrambled to help coordinate Hall's evacuation via ambulance to the Polish border, then to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. But Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova remained missing. With nightfall and continued shelling in the area, Dubchak advised them to suspend the search until the morning. Back in the United States that same day, Fox News anchor John Roberts delivered the news that Hall had been injured, giving few details and saying nothing about his colleagues. The following day, roughly 20 hours after Zakrzewski was known to be missing, the two security consultants working for Fox found his body in a morgue. There was an immediate outpouring of grief when Fox News reported the death of the widely beloved cameraman. As word began to circulate in Kyiv that Kuvshynova also had died, some journalists chided Fox on Twitter for not promptly reporting this news. In fact, the network was waiting out of deference to her family, who had known so little about the work she was doing, or the danger it involved, that they couldn't comprehend why they were asked - the day after the attack - to come to the InterContinental Kyiv to collect her belongings. When they were not given an explanation for the trip, they decided not to go. Yurash, who had once worked as a local producer for Fox, tried to convince them that she had been killed. But it wasn't until yet another day passed, her father said, that a coroner at a local morgue confirmed her death for them. Eventually, Ross-Stanton would come to understand one reason for both the confusion of that day and the shortage of information she could obtain: Except for their militia escorts, the Fox News crew was alone out there in Horenka. - - - "Why did they end up there?" asked Kuvshynova's father in an anguished interview he gave to Insider.com a month after her death. Now, Kuvshynov says: "It was the wrong decision to send them on that specific assignment and to that location, because they knew it was extremely dangerous." Some journalists - including a few Fox colleagues - felt the same way initially, noting the death of Renaud in the area a day earlier. But ultimately, most of the foreign correspondents interviewed by The Post - a close-knit community still grappling with the deaths of their friends - decided that the Fox News team had simply gone where the story was that day. The Post spoke with more than 10 correspondents from a variety of news organizations; many said that they would have taken the same trip and that the Fox crew had merely accepted the standard degree of reasonable risk that comes with their line of work. Ross-Stanton agrees: "They didn't consider it a risky mission," she said. Many journalists expressed confidence in Zakrzewski's instincts and caution, his habit of conducting what his wife called "dynamic risk assessments" with every assignment. "He was a man with great bravery, but I've definitely been with him when he said, 'Well, I'm not doing that one,' " said Stuart Ramsay of Britain's Sky News, a friend of many years. Several Kyiv-based correspondents said Renaud's death factored into their own decision-making but did not keep them from leaving their hotels. "Our management back at home in London, they don't say, 'You're not going out today because this has happened,' " said Jeremy Bowen, a veteran BBC correspondent. A representative for Fox News said network officials discussed safety and caution with its team in Kyiv every day. Renaud's death "was part of that discussion, and we were always urging caution," the person said. The reality of television journalism is that reporters need visuals to tell a story - and venturing into the world to collect footage produces a more compelling package than a stand-up broadcast from a hotel rooftop in Kyiv. "Your networks are always happy to take footage, until something goes wrong," said a former Fox News foreign correspondent, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships. But some questioned whether the Fox team should have traveled with the militia. "There is no security role that allows you to travel with soldiers in the front line under fire," said Anton Skyba, a veteran local producer in Ukraine who now works for Canada's Globe and Mail. "If you are with the Ukrainian military anywhere, you are at the risk of being hit by shell fire, because it's an artillery war," said Richard Spencer, a correspondent for the Times of London, who had attempted a trip to Horenka a few days before the Fox team. But it's not unusual for media organizations to "embed" with a military unit in an active war zone. Several correspondents said it was often the only way for journalists to cover the Ukrainian front lines. Dubchak didn't think twice about embedding with the Azov soldiers the day before the Fox team went out. "They know the locations. They know the area," he said. "And they have a gun to protect us if something happens." In the months since her husband's death, Ross-Stanton's investigation has focused heavily on the question of whom his team did not travel with in its final hour - anyone from the team of security consultants hired by Fox to provide logistical support and guidance. In conflict zones, security consultants often serve as battlefield medics and extraction experts, marshaling resources to evacuate injured journalists. Most major news organizations operating in Ukraine have hired in-house security consultants or work with contractors. Fox News has long contracted a security firm called Separ International, a small company that conducts hostile-environment-awareness training for a variety of media organizations. Fox acknowledged in a statement to Insider.com in the spring that the journalists separated from the security team: "Our security team knew exactly where they were. We knew where we dropped them off, where they were going, and where they ended up." Ross-Stanton was baffled by this account - noting that team was missing for several hours. "They've said that they knew exactly where they were all of the time, and that's not true," she countered. "Standard operating procedure is for security to go with them," she said. "Why didn't they?" From her sources, she learned that the consultants stayed behind after dropping them off with the soldiers because there wasn't enough room in the Azov vehicle. She argues, though, that in situations like that, security consultants typically travel behind in a separate vehicle - a position from which they might have been able to help after the Fox car was struck. "What runs through my head every single night is: What if?" she said. "If [the consultants] had been there, would they have been able to save Pierre? Because all he needed was pressure on his wound to stop the bleeding. That's all he needed." Reached by phone, Separ International chief executive Stephen Smith said he couldn't discuss the attack because of the sensitivity of the matter and out of respect to the families of those killed. A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment on Separ's actions on the day of the attack. But the journalist who took the same trip a day earlier offers a possible explanation: When Dubchak and his Times colleagues approached a checkpoint near Horenka with their Azov escorts, the guards would allow only one of their two cars to pass, citing safety concerns. Two vehicles, they explained, would offer the Russians a bigger target than one. Assuming the Fox team faced the same obstacle, the decision whether to travel on without security - on what was supposed to be a quick trip, to a destination less than a mile from where their security detail would reunite with them - would have probably been made between the journalists and the Separ team. "I would love to know who made that decision for them not to go," Ross-Stanton said. "In some ways I sort of hope it was Pierre that told them not to come because it was too dangerous, because then I'm not going to blame anybody for his death." - - - Every war correspondent finds a way to come to terms with the risks. Some of Zakrzewski's friends are now reevaluating them. "You tell yourself that you will be okay because you are very cautious," said Clarissa Ward, a longtime foreign correspondent now with CNN. "But the reality is that there is an element of luck and randomness to all of it, and Pierre's death really rammed that home for me." Sky News's Ramsay - who survived an explosion in Mosul, Iraq, in 2017 and was shot in the lower back near Kyiv in late February - teared up as he recalled the emotional last hug he shared with Zakrzewski before he left Ukraine to recover from his injuries: "My last words to him were, 'Please take care. It's really dangerous.' " Now, Ramsay said, he finds himself wondering: "Is it possible to do this job without it being incredibly dangerous? If it's not incredibly dangerous, you're probably not doing it." "Pierre was unlucky," said Nabih Bulos, a Los Angeles Times correspondent who has reported extensively on Ukraine. "They could say the same thing about me at some point." On a recent afternoon, Ross-Stanton sat in the living room of the small flat she shared with her husband in southeast London, a place filled with relics of overseas assignments: his passports, a gas mask, his famously large collection of fanny packs. There were condolence letters from President Biden and Mick Jagger, and a note she had once scrawled for him in marker on the back of an envelope: "Put yourself first. It's only TV - not life and death!" Zakrzewski "would have loved to have been a father," his wife says, but she worried about raising a child while he was off working in dangerous places. "Our plan was for Pierre to retire early, and we were going to go off on our boat and have a dog, a water dog," she said. "We just had so many plans." Now the old Dutch barge that he spent endless hours repairing - his "expensive mistress," Ross-Stanton jokes - remains docked in western London, its hull featuring a new portrait of Zakrzewski and his family's new mantra: #BeMoreLikePierre. Ross-Stanton doesn't like being alone in the flat anymore. She's thinking about moving. In an appearance at a Fox News staff meeting in September, Hall spoke up for the work that had cost his team so much. "When we think back to both Pierre and [Oleksandra], we have to remember what we can learn from them," he said. "That what we do, that this job is so important that we have to keep doing it. We have to keep doing it in their names." In fact, the fallout from their deaths has been bitter. Lawyers for Kuvshynova's parents said they sent questions for Fox to ask Hall about her work assignment and the circumstances of the attack - details they sought to help prosecute Russia for a war crime. "They were not helpful at all," the lawyer, Olga Grygorovska, told The Post. "After we had a chat with two of their lawyers, they simply ignored our requests." Ross-Stanton said pointedly of her still-unresolved settlement talks with Fox: "Pierre thought that I would be taken care of if anything happened to him," adding that he joined the network as a full-time staffer to guarantee a "level of protection" for her. Yet she agreed with Hall that conflict-zone reporting is worth the risks. "Pierre wanted to tell the truth," she said. "He wanted to be the voice for people who didn't have a voice. ... This was exactly what he wanted to be doing." She continued: "I get angry when people say they don't watch the news because it's too depressing. And I explain that people risk their lives to bring you that news so that you know what's going on in the world, and you should be watching it." She is still making calls, tracking down sources, trying to find answers. She has taken a role as a key witness in a war-crimes tribunal investigation launched by France in March and hopes the findings will yield new details - though, she said, "I don't know if we will ever actually find out the truth." She is also raising money for medical aid to Ukraine and plans to establish awards through the Frontline Club, a professional organization supporting freelance journalists, to honor both her husband and Kuvshynova. "I am dedicating myself to keeping his legacy alive," she said. "That's my job. That's what's keeping me going." Related Content She crossed New Mexico on a mission: Transform the child-care industry Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducts Washington guitarist Libba Cotten As a jury weighed the Parkland shooter's fate, police raided his brother's home ISTANBUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said the process of the United States approving the sale of F-16 fighter jets to NATO member Turkey was going well and could be completed within a couple of months. Turkey made a request to the United States in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes to update its air force after the purchase of F-35s fell through. CNN Turk cited spokesman Ibrahim Kalin as saying in an interview with the broadcaster on Thursday evening that the administration of President Joe Biden was making sincere efforts on the issue. "It's not very easy to give a clear forecast but it appears there is a high probability of the process being completed in the next month or two," Kalin was quoted as saying when asked if the United States would sell F-16s to Turkey. "When this happens the F-16 problem, both the modernisation and the purchase of new F-16s, will be resolved." In September, Erdogan said he had received "positive" feedback from two U.S. senators he met in New York on their potential support for the sale. Sentiment toward Turkey in the U.S. Congress has turned sour over the past few years after Ankara acquired Russian-made defence missile systems, triggering U.S. sanctions and Turkey's removal from the F-35 fighter jet programme. (Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Kim Coghill) Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey (left), Daniel Radcliffe as Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey (left), Daniel Radcliffe as "Weird Al" Yankovic (second from left and far right) and Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna (right) in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story." The real "Weird Al" Yankovic (center). (Photo: Illustration: Jianan Liu/HuffPost. Photos: Getty Images; Aaron Epstein/The Roku Channel) Perhaps we shouldnt have expected a biopic on Weird Al Yankovic to be anything other than a parody. Fans who were around in the 80s and 90s during his Eat It and Amish Paradise heyday especially know that spoofs are kind of his thing. But turning that shtick into a nearly two-hour movie that incessantly ridicules its very existence? It takes about 30 minutes to grow weary of that, after which Weird: The Al Yankovic Story becomes an unhinged freefall that aims for all laughs and exactly zero substance. Directed and co-written by Eric Appel, sharing screenwriting credits with Yankovic himself, Weird begins as your typical read: too typical biopic. We meet the parody musician (Daniel Radcliffe) as an accordion-playing child growing up in California and raised by a sheepish mother (Julianne Nicholson) and tyrannical father (Toby Huss), who oppose his interest in music and generally all his dreams right from the giddyup. Of course, its that discouragement that fuels his eventual success. From left: From left: "Weird Al" band members Steve Jay (Spencer Treat Clark) and Bermuda (Tommy O'Brien) with "Weird Al" (Radcliffe) and deejay Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson) in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story." (Photo: Aaron Epstein/Roku) And yes, of course, he just stumbles upon his first hit, My Bologna, a parody of The Knacks 1979 song My Sharona, while hanging out in his apartment with his roommates making a bologna sandwich. Fame and success as well as a ludicrously fictional and toxic relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood), whose 1984 hit Like a Virgin he parodied with Like a Surgeon contributes to his alcohol-infused maniacism and professional downfall. But not too catastrophically that the biopic cant obligatorily culminate with his incredible comeback. Story continues Yes, biopics often follow a template, and the drama is almost always amplified (or entirely made up, as it is in much of Weird). But doing a big-screen bit on biopics vaguely related to Yankovics life and career, no matter how low that fruit hangs, just isnt interesting. Certainly not in 2022, when theres been such a complex conversation around comedy that it should easily open the door for a wider reflection on the enduring Weird Al phenomenon, even by the man himself. "Weird Al" Yankovic with Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels (left) and Joseph "Run" Simmons of Run DMC. (Photo: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) What was it about his music or pop culture, particularly in the 80s and 90s, when the film is mostly set, that allowed for a White and Nerdy musician to have free rein to lampoon pretty much any song or recording artist he wanted regardless of race, gender or message? Maybe that would be better explored in a new documentary, one that expands on the principal biographical facts chronicled in the 1999 Behind the Music episode on him, or a more objective narrative feature that Yankovic doesnt also write. Though, its clear from Weird that the musician considers a lot of biopics to be cliches. Or, at least cliched just enough for him to riff off them without actually addressing anything related to his artistry or motivations. Thats certainly how Yankovic has navigated his work since the beginning. Daniel Goldmark, a professor and the head of popular music studies at Case Western University, considers it a key to the level of success Yankovic has had that surpassed any comedy musician before or since him. "Weird Al" Yankovic at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo: Lee Celano/WireImage via Getty Images) Its like, Lets take something that seems like a totally normal setup and then one screw is loose, figuratively speaking, and then what happens if we just keep pressing on that? Goldmark suggested to HuffPost. So, if thats the way you think about pop music and thats the way you hear things Oh, yeah, what happens if ? And then you just sort of go from there. That is a pretty common understanding of Yankovics accomplishments. That and the fact that while he doesnt legally need permission to record new lyrics over someone elses music, he always asks the recording artist for it anyway underscoring his reputation for being a genuinely harmless and nice guy. And that everything hes done has been purely innocuous. Yankovic put it more succinctly in a 2017 interview with The Washington Post. I dont want to hurt anybodys feelings, Yankovic told the newspaper. I dont want to be embroiled in any nastiness. Thats not how I live my life. I like everybody to be in on the joke and be happy for my success. I take pains not to burn bridges. "Weird Al" Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) dazzles Oprah Winfrey (Quinta Brunson) with his gold records and his closet filled with his signature Hawaiian shirts in the new parody biopic. (Photo: Aaron Epstein/Roku) It is true that there is a difference between Yankovic and acts like Eminem or Blink-182, who more bitterly parodied pop stars like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys in the late 90s and early 2000s in songs and music videos, such as The Real Slim Shady and All the Small Things. Theres an obvious cynicism in their music that just isnt there in Yankovics. Still, considering the fact that Yankovic has made a whole career out of poking fun at everyone else rather incisively, Weird would have been a much smarter film had it made room for some introspection even in his own signature spoof style. Like, maybe acknowledging that his well intentions overlooked the fact that a few artists, notably Black, declined his use of their songs in order to maintain their social and political resonance. Michael Jackson, who was otherwise obviously a fan of Yankovics work since he gave him permission to parody Beat It and Bad, declined a spoof of Black or White. "Weird Al" Yankovic attends the American Music Awards on Jan. 29, 1996, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo: , California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)) And Coolio very publicly took issue with Yankovic parodying Gangstas Paradise, a truth that does make it into Weird in a caricature-like way, because his record label accepted Yankovics request for permission without consulting Coolio, unbeknownst to Yankovic. (The two later patched things up, long before the rappers death this year.) Prince also declined four of Yankovics requests to use his songs. Its admirable that Yankovic respected the artists enough to not move forward with a song theyd declined. But it makes you wonder whether that encouraged him to gain an appreciation for social messaging in pop music, especially since parodying James Browns Living in America with Living With a Hernia years prior in the 80s. But no such reflection or even a cheeky acknowledgment happens in Weird. Its clear that Yankovic has the talent to very wittingly mock popular music but cant seem to be able or want? to turn that critical eye on himself in this way. This is how a more objective screenwriter might have benefited the film. "Weird Al" Yankovic at New York City's Beacon Theatre on Feb. 6, 2000, performing "Fat," his song parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad." (Photo: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images) At the same time, though, theres something to be said about the fact that Yankovics 80s and 90s hits remain massively beloved and youd be hard-pressed to find much cultural critique around his work in this era. His album Bad Hair Day, which featured Amish Paradise, was his bestselling album at the time. His music is understood as inoffensive and unquestionably easy listening. Fans certainly werent having these conversations then, and, as Yankovic expressed in that Washington Post interview, he went out of his way to keep things light at all times. Theres still some stuff he doesnt deal with, Goldmark said. He doesnt deal with sex, I think, drugs, alcohol. I feel like thats part of his image as the nerdy white guy. Nerdy white guys are square, which means they dont get involved in that kind of stuff. The professor thought about that some more. I think maybe it gives him a way to focus on the stuff that he enjoys, he continued. Like, Im just going to stay away from those things. He doesnt deal with politics too much either. Although that can come in much more easily, I think, depending on the way people interpret his songs. Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) is hot for Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) is hot for "Weird Al" Yankovic (Radcliffe), as well as his parodies, in the over-top new film. (Photo: Aaron Epstein/Roku) Exactly. Because another way to look at it is that Yankovic merely capitalized off a long history of nerdy white guys often protagonists in films like Sixteen Candles and Revenge of the Nerds recentered as heroic in narratives that take large detours from reality. Theres been enough distance from this era to really reflect on it more deeply without fans haranguing Yankovic for doing something in an era of which he was merely a byproduct. You could argue that Yankovic engineered his own life in an improbable way with a career that, in some sense, seems too unbelievable to be true. Hes a widely revered, hugely successful pop star who doesnt necessarily fit inside the prototype of a pop star and whos managed to take shots without ever being on the receiving end. And maybe he co-penned Weird in that same fantastical vein, complete with an absurd narrative in which he victoriously contends with Pablo Escobar. The accordion-playing The accordion-playing "Weird Al" Yankovic (Radcliffe) wows a live audience with his parody music in the new film "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story." (Photo: Aaron Epstein/Roku) Still, it leaves a lot to be desired. It would have benefited from some self-examination, for instance. By his own admission to the Los Angeles Times last month, he is reluctant to even do his parody music today. For instance, hes stopped performing Eat It because of the child molestation allegations against Jackson. Yankovic is cognizant of how the recording artists hes parodied view his spoofs as their I made it moment, so he will no longer give that tribute to those he now considers unsavory. But its reported in the piece that he hid his most immediate reaction to the question of doing parodies today with his hand over his face, implying he might be a bit more conflicted about this. What he actually says is: I dont rail against PC culture and all that because I think when somebody is accused of being politically correct, that usually just means theyre being sensitive to other peoples feelings. Fair point. But this adds a bit more texture to his own narrative, begging for something sharper and more trenchant than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a Ukrainian official in Kyiv, November 3, 2022. President of Ukraine Zelenskyy said he won't go to the G20 summit if Putin goes, according to Ukrainian media. Both Zelenskyy and Putin are invited, though neither has committed to attending. Many G20 nations have condemned Russia's invasion but host nation Indonesia aims at neutrality. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would turn down an invitation to the upcoming G20 meeting if President Vladimir Putin attends, according to Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. "My personal position and the position of Ukraine was that if the leader of the Russian Federation will participate, then Ukraine will not participate," he said on Thursday, per Ukrinform. "Let's see how it will be in the future," he added. Unlike Russia, Ukraine is not a member of the G20 group of nations, whose next meeting is scheduled for November 14 and 15 in Bali, Indonesia. However, Zelenskyy tweeted in April that he was invited by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and mentioned on Thursday another call with Widodo, where they discussed the summit. Several major players in the G20, including the European Union, the USA, the UK, Canada and Japan, have firmly aligned with Ukraine since the beginning of the war, condemning Putin's actions in the strongest possible terms and offering extensive military and humanitarian support. One month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden called for Russia to be removed from the G20, as Reuters reported at the time. But Indonesia's ambassador to Russia, Jose Tavares, told Russian state-run news agency TASS in October that Putin was still invited. "Even if other countries would put pressure on us, we have our own position," Tavares said. Russia is working towards expanding its diplomatic presence in Indonesia, Tavares said. The country has a tradition of neutrality, and in June Widodo visited both Ukraine and Russia, as Deutsche Welle reported. As of Thursday, Indonesia was still waiting to hear if Putin will attend, the country's foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, told Reuters. Read the original article on Business Insider This year's race between incumbent Democrat Emily Randall, left, and Republican Jesse Young for the Washington state Senate seat in the 26th Legislative District has attracted millions of dollars in political spending. (Washington State Senate and Washington State House of Representatives) 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. In 2018 Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer caught the attention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a far-right, anti-government group that wrongly asserts a sheriffs power supersedes that of state and federal authority. In 2019, they awarded Songer the Washington State Constitutional Sheriff of the Year Award. (Klickitat County Sheriff's Office) If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. For the third year in a row, Canada's winter weather forecast is being dominated by the La Nina phenomenon, where some Canadians will see a stormy weather pattern, while others will likely be saving some money on their heating bill this winter, according to AccuWeather. Cold concentrated in the Prairies, mild in the East, stormy in the West, Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather told Yahoo Canada. We're looking at the third straight La Nina winter, it's been over 20 years since that's happened, so this is quite unusual to have three in a row like this. La Nina is the abnormal cooling of the surface water in the Pacific Ocean, along the equator, and when we have that, it alters the jet stream pattern across North America. AccuWeather's Canada Winter Forecast 2022-2023 Stormy weather in British Columbia, coldest temperatures in the Prairies The main story for people in British Columbia this winter is to expect a stormy season in some areas of the province. Typically when we have a lot of La Nina, usually we have one main storm track coming in off the Pacific Ocean, typically directed into British Columbia, thus we usually predict above normal rain and snow across western Canada, particularly British Columbia, Anderson explained. Then what typically happens is the jet stream turns southward into the central United States, so that allows most of the cold air from the Arctic to dump southward through the Prairie region. I think we're going to be dealing with numerous storms into the Canadian Rockies, even the coastal mountains of British Columbia. I think those areas are going to see a good amount of snowfall this winter, which is great for skiers and snowboarders We are going with the idea of a colder winter across much of the Prairies and then the jet stream usually comes back up across the Great Lakes, and again the jet stream is typically the path where we see most of our storm. AccuWeather's Canada Winter Forecast 2022-2023 Ontario gets a break from the cold temperatures Looking at Ontario and Quebec, a significant part of the area will see a notable amount of rain and snow, with a mix of mild temperatures. Story continues We are predicting above normal rain and snow for a good part of Ontario and northern Quebec this winter, Anderson said. I don't think it's a cold winter, I think temperatures are going to be above normal much of the winter. You're going to still get some cold air, no question about it, but it's not going to be the type of cold where it's going to lock in for an extended period of time... There'll be opportunities for natural snow [but] with a lack of sustained cold and higher humidity, probably not a great season for snowmaking, but we're going to be more dependent on the natural snow. Anderson also identified that it is going to be a cloudier winter for the area. With the storm track nearby, the temperatures will be mostly above normal during the nighttime hours, because when you have more clouds, clouds act as a blanket, traps heat close to the ground, Anderson said. "The nights are not going to be nearly as cold as what they typically can be during the wintertime." "With more clouds during the day, daytime temperatures will probably be averaging closer normal, if not a little bit above normal, but we'll see the greatest departures certainly during the nighttime hours with more clouds expected. AccuWeather's Canada Winter Forecast 2022-2023 Atlantic Canada should 'keep their guard' for second half of the winter season The AccuWeather winter forecast paints a picture that looks like Canadians in Atlantic Canada will likely save some money on their heating bills this year, but that doesn't mean snow is out of the question. We're going above normal temperatures across much of the East for this winter, however that doesn't mean there can't be snow," Anderson said. "Through the interior maritimes, especially later in the winter, I think they'll see their opportunities, probably mostly in February and March across Atlantic Canada. That type of flow pattern with the jet coming in from the southwest, that kind of cuts off most of the Arctic invasions,...that opens the door to milder intrusions across much of eastern Canada and also Atlantic Canada. AccuWeather is urging Canadians in Atlantic Canada to "keep their guard up" for the second half of the winter season for possible storms. 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. Several tens of thousands of teachers have participated in an online survey organised by the interior ministry, and their responses will be used as a guideline for the government when planning future wage hikes for teachers, the ministry said. The majority of teachers want teachers who work in poor areas with disadvantaged children to receive priority when it comes to wage planning, and they also expressed agreement with linking pay increases to performance assessments. The pay rises are contingent on the successful outcome of an agreement to unlock Hungarys European Union funding, the ministry said, adding the planned increases would be the biggest made since the post-communist transformation. Participation in the survey was voluntary and submissions were anonymous, the ministry said. MTI Photo: Attila Balazs The United States Embassy in Budapest has responded to attacks in the pro-government media and calls for the resignation of two Hungarian judges after they recently met with newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador David Pressman. Several voices in government-friendly media outlets claim that by meeting the Ambassador, Tamas Matusik and Csaba Vasvari violated rules on the prohibition of politicization. But in a statement, the Embassy argues that that the meeting was in line with normal diplomatic activities conducted worldwide by the United States and other countries, including Hungary. The United States Embassys recent meeting with representatives of the Hungarian judiciary is consistent with the normal conduct of diplomacy by the United States and other countries including Hungary around the world. What is inconsistent with normal diplomatic practice between allies is the recent coordinated media attack on the spokesperson and international liaison of the National Judicial Council in what appears to be an effort to instill fear in those who wish to engage with representatives of the United States. - the Embassys statement reads. Interference in dialogue with U.S. government officials does nothing to advance the U.S.-Hungary bilateral relationship, the statement added. To demonstrate that such get togethers are part of normal diplomatic relations, the U.S. Embassy provided several examples of similar meetings held between representatives of the judiciary, and ambassadors and politicians in democratic countries. For example, Viktor Orban met with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy when Orban was prime minister. In addition, Hungarian Ambassador to Croatia Jozsef Magyar also met with judges on the Croatian Constitutional Court, and former U.S. Ambassador David Cornstein met with Tunde Hando, who was then president of the National Judiciary Office. The National Judicial Council (OBT) has expressed its support of Matusiks and Vasvaris meeting with Ambassador Pressman. However, the meeting was condemned by Andas Zs. Varga, the former deputy of Prosecutor General Peter Polt and current President of the Curia High Court, who was appointed to his position without any judicial experience. On Thursday morning, Nepszava reported that Tamas Matusik applied for the role of president of the Integrity Authority, the anti-corruption body set up under pressure by the EU. The Aptitude Committee accepted his nomination, but Matusik was only ranked third on the professional ranking. GRAND ISLAND G.I. Pride submitted a proclamation to the City of Grand Island in August recognizing the groups annual community event and showing support for Grand Islands LGBTQ+ members. But Mayor Roger Steele didn't acknowledge the proclamation. The proclamation, written by G.I. Pride, was sent to the city Aug. 12. It talked about basically making Grand Island a safe space for LGBTQ individuals, said Chrissy Brooks, G.I. Pride event organizer. It was basically just asking the mayor to recognize our event, to recognize the pride event, recognize that there are LGBTQ people in the community, and that our community is a safe place for them. City Clerk RaNae Edwards confirmed to the Independent that the proclamation was submitted to the city and forwarded to Mayor Steele, who chose not to take action on it. Mayor Steele did not respond to a request from the Independent for comment. G.I. Pride held its annual event Sept. 10 at Grand Islands Grace Abbott Park. With elections coming up, I think its very important for the LGBTQ community, who will be voting in our upcoming election for our mayor, to know that Mayor Steele does not support you, said Brooks. He does not support the LGBTQ community, and he did not want to sign a proclamation for us recognizing our event. She added, That was very disappointing. The proclamation, as submitted by G.I. Pride, reads: Whereas, our nation was founded on the principles equality before the law and the pursuit of happiness, but the fulfillment of these promises have been long in coming for many Americans. Some of the most inspiring moments in our history have arisen from the various civil rights movements that have brought one group after another from the margins to the mainstream of American society; Whereas, in the movement toward equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, an historic turning point occurred on June 28, 1969, in New York City, with the onset of the Stonewall Riots. During these riots, LGBT citizens rose up and fought against the discriminatory criminal laws that have since been declared unconstitutional; Whereas, LGBT pride celebrations have taken place around the country every June to commemorate the beginning of the Stonewall Riots; June is celebrated as LGBT Pride Month nationwide; Whereas, Grand Island celebrates pride the second Saturday in September; Whereas, Grand Island has a diverse LGBT community that includes people of all ethnicities, religions and professions; Whereas, everyone should be able to live without fear of prejudice, discrimination, violence and hatred based race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation. ... It is important for a city to show support for its LGBTQ members, said G.I. Pride member Raul Arcos Hawkins. We want that equality. Were not asking for any other rights than anybody else has, but I think its important to showcase also why its important to be represented, he said. To us, it was important for him, as a city official, just to acknowledge it. He didnt even acknowledge it. We had previously asked the year before and we also didnt get it. Hawkins is disappointed that Steele will not work with the group. I had previously worked with the mayor and he always seemed very welcoming, he said. Even if he would have just signed the proclamation, we didnt specifically ask him to be there, I think that would have been recognition enough, that he also represents the LGBTQ community in the city. Thats all we wanted. Brooks, as a Grand Island resident and parent of LGBTQ kids, shares this disappointment. I was sad and a little angry that the mayor, who was elected to represent the people of Grand Island, did not feel it was necessary to recognize our event, which is inclusive of all the people in Grand Island, she said. Some hostility toward LGBTQ+ people does exist in Grand Island, Brooks said. It depends on who youre talking to and where youre going, but I think there are still quite a few LGBTQ individuals in our community that do not feel safe here, that do not feel welcome here, she said. G.I. Pride and Grand Island PFLAG (Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) are working to change this perception. As part of the pride committee and as president of PFLAG, I do my best to make our community as open and welcoming and accepting of people, regardless of their sexual identity and their gender identity, Brooks said. Unfortunately, with all that went down with the newspaper at Grand Island Northwest, we have a long way to go still. Northwest Public Schools administrators eliminated Northwest High's journalism program in June after the student newspaper, the Saga, published its school-year-ending issue, which included student editorials on LGBTQ topics, along with a news article titled, Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+ on the origins of Pride Month and the history of homophobia. G.I. Pride will submit its proclamation to the city again next year, Brooks said. Honda Cars India currently has a total of five products in its Indian lineup. The Japanese carmaker is putting in all its efforts to survive in the competitive Indian market. Keeping sedans as its key forte, Honda has recently launched the new strong hybrid version of the Honda City. While the festival sales helped Honda Cars India to post good numbers, the company is now offering heavy discounts on all its models in the Indian market, namely City 4th-gen, City 5th-gen, Amaze, Jazz, and WR-V. In case you are planning to get one home, here are full details of model-wise discounts. Honda Amaze November Discounts Honda Amaze is one of the most of the best-selling products of the carmaker in the Indian market. It is available with two engine choices - 1.2L petrol and 1.5L diesel. Also, it is currently on sale with discounts going up to Rs 19,896, which comprises a cash benefit of Rs 10,000 or free accessories worth Rs 11,896. Besides, a customer loyalty bonus of Rs 5,000 and corporate benefit of Rs 3,000 are available on the Amaze. Honda City 4th-gen November Discounts The 4th-gen Honda City can be bought with just a corporate benefit of Rs 5,000. The company is not offering any other benefit on this model. In fact, rumours have it that Honda might soon discontinue the 4th-gen City from the Indian market. Honda City 5th-gen November Discounts Honda City 5th-gen in its petrol MT guise is available with a cash discount of Rs 30,000, while the CVT-equipped models attract a cash benefit of Rs 20,000. Furthermore, the company is extending a customer loyalty bonus of Rs 5,000, an exchange benefit of Rs 7,000, and a corporate discount of Rs 5,000. Honda Jazz November Discounts The Jazz remains Hondas take in the premium hatchback space. It goes against the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Hyundai i20, and Tata Altroz. Well, it manages a dwindling performance on the tally. However, currently, an exchange bonus of Rs 10,000 is applicable on the Honda Jazzs purchase, along with a loyalty bonus of Rs 5,000, a corporate benefit of Rs 3,000, and a Rs 7,000 exchange bonus. Also read - Delhi Air Pollution: Top 5 vehicles with Air Purifier under Rs 15 lakh in India to stay safe while travelling Honda WR-V November Discounts On this compact SUV or cross hatch, discounts go up to Rs 63,144, in summation. The carmaker is extending a cash discount of Rs 30,000. If not needed, free accessories worth Rs 36,144 can be bought against the cash benefit. In addition, a discount on car exchange of Rs 10,000 is being offered. Alongside, buyers will also get a corporate benefit of Rs 5,000, a loyalty bonus of Rs 5,000, and an exchange benefit of Rs 7,000. Getty Images; Insider Proposition 309 would require mail-in voters to provide their voter ID and date of birth. Proponents say that the measure would make mail-in voting more secure. Opponents say that the measure could disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters. A "yes" on Proposition 309 would require extra identification requirements for in-person and mail-in voters. Ballot measure details Proposition 309 would require mail-in voters to add their date of birth and voter ID number to their signed early voting affidavit. This voter ID number would be provided through a driver's license, state ID, or the last four digits of a social security number. In-person voters would be required to present a valid and unexpired photo ID or driver's license at a polling place. If the voter cannot provide identification, they would be required to vote with a provisional ballot or a conditional provisional ballot. The law made its way to the ballot after the Republican-led Arizona legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 1012 in March of this year. Support and opposition Arizonans for Voter ID is leading the campaign in support of Proposition 309. Supporters of the law include the Republican Party of Arizona and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. The coalition argues that requiring voter ID will make elections more secure and argue that other states already have these requirements. Defend Arizona Rights is leading the campaign against Proposition 309. The League of Women Voters and Democratic state lawmakers also oppose Proposition 309. Those opposed say that voter identification is already required. Currently, state law mandates that people without a photo ID can identify themselves with other valid documents. They also add that requirements will make it more difficult for those without a Voter ID to vote. The Arizona Association of County Recorders argued that the proposed measure "imposes new burdens on voters, it delays tabulation results, it jeopardizes voter data privacy, and it will likely disenfranchise thousands of voters." Read the original article on Business Insider The Internet is full of amazing stories, and we too came across something interesting on LinkedIn, which we thought of sharing with you folks as well. We bumped into a post from Amitabh Shah, who hails from Gujarat, and his post shares a rather sweet story. The man was flying from Delhi to Kanpur when he saw an elderly couple in the boarding area. He reveals that they look tired, as they came to the airport from a faraway village in Uttar Pradesh after an 8-hour-long bus ride. Amitabh could gauge that they were travelling via a flight for the first time and looked confused about further boarding procedures. Well, Amitabh helped the couple with boarding, and he later found out that they sat in the row right ahead of him. The couple asked him to click a picture of them seated in the plane, which they wanted to send to their daughter to let her know that they are safe and had boarded the plane. Moreover, Amitabh shared, When the Airhostess came to serve food, they declined but clearly seemed hungry and thirsty for hours. I told the air hostess to give them paneer sandwiches and juices & to tell them it was complimentary as they were lucky customers to win a free meal. Of course, I paid for it when they were not seeing. They simply smiled at me as we landed and went our own ways. Also read - Twitter CEO Elon Musk reportedly buys private jet worth Rs 650 crore, check LUXURIOUS interiors- In PICS Soon after Amitabh shared the story, it received mixed reactions from netizens. While some commented, Good Act !! Kindness and Publicity? Why man..why?, users also appreciated the mans efforts and offered praises to him - Appreciate the good gesture, really commendable to be subtle and bring joy to the people. Another interesting fact that is visible from this narrative is that we need to be proud that air travel is being experienced by all sections of people based on the fact the next generations are motivated to give an experience to their near and dear ones. Thank you for the kind gesture which is really assuring in different dimensions! Wedding season 2022: Wedding day is one of the most important days for any individual. It always has been a grand affair and grand wedding seems to have become a trend these days. With the influencer, celebrities and many others experimenting with the wedding planning, people these days have become more excited to make the D-day more innovative and creative. Thus, destination weddings are also a hot topic thus season. If you want a beach wedding rather than going for regular wedding, here's a list of destinations to begin a new journey with. Goa Talking about Indian beaches and it is impossible to not name Goa in the list. Nothing compares the beaches of Goa and this is the reason, it has always been a favourite destination for wedding. Lakshadweep Located off mainland India, Lakshadweep Islands can be the best option if you are looking for intimate wedding. It not only has some of the best beaches but is not frequently visited by travelers which makes it a crowd-free destination for weddings. Alibaug Those who want a break from the crowd and noise of Mumbai can always opt for Alibaug which is a nice option for couples for their D-day. Get the Goa beach vibes without being in Goa. Pick resort or hotel depending on your preference and begin a new journey of your life. Kerala Keralas immense beauty needs no introduction, and it is also believed to be the gods own country. Kovalam, Varkala, Alappuzha, Cherai and Kozhikode are the places which are perfect for destination wedding. The warm and humid weather would be perfect for a winter wedding. Havelock Island or Swaraj Dweep Havelock could be the right destination if you want a dreamy wedding. The weather here is mild and thus, it would not be difficult for the couple, families and the guests as well. Ola Electric is achieving new milestones every day. This time the electric vehicle manufacturer has achieved a production record by rolling out 1 lakh scooters down its production line of its Futurefactory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. The new milestone comes just 10 months after the company started manufacturing from the plant late in November last year. The milestone comes after the company launched its most affordable scooter in India, falling under the Rs 1 lakh price mark. Currently, the company is selling Ola S1, Ola S1 Pro, and Ola S1 Air in the Indian market. Also read: Delhi Air Pollution: Top 5 electric cars to buy in India under Rs 25 lakh - Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV and more The Ola S1 Air comes as the company's third electric scooter in the nation at the price of Rs 84,999. The cheapest e-scooter in Ola's lineup will be delivered to clients in April 2023, with reservations opening up in February. Meanwhile, the electric scooter maker sold 20,000 units in October 2022, the most of any EV brand in the Indian market. It outpaced the overall EV segment by two times and saw a month-over-month growth of 60 percent. Our cumulative production numbers: Dec 2021: 0 Nov 2022: 1,00,000 Nov 2023: 10,00,000 Nov 2024: 1,00,00,000 This is the journey to #EndICEAge by 2025 pic.twitter.com/HV8x6JbCgm November 4, 2022 To increase sales, the company is upgrading its scooters in terms of software. The most recent upgrade in discussion recently has been the MoveOS 3, which comes with multiple updates fixing bugs and new features to be more interactive and easy to use for the users. Moreover, it also gives the users new features for rider's ease. Meanwhile, the company's CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, has expressed his intentions to expand the company's footprint multiple times. Working in the same direction, Ola Electric plans on launching its first electric car in India. The automaker has teased the car multiple times. However, the company has kept its lips shut on the details of the SUV. Moreover, the company plans to launch the car in 2024. New Delhi: The OTT platform ZEE5 has announced its new series 'Country Mafia' starring Ravi Kishan, Soundarya Sharma, Anshumaan Pushkar, Anita Raaj, and Satish Kaushik. Ajay (Anshumaan Pushkar) and Nannu (Soundarya Sharma), who were studying abroad to become IAS officers, are the subjects of the political retribution thriller 'Country Mafia.' But circumstances force them to alter their plans and go on a vengeance rampage against Babban Rai, the largest liquor baron in Bihar (Ravi Kishan). The siblings are motivated by their mother's (Anita Raaj) fierce vengeance against Babban for killing both their father and husband. Through compelling storytelling and engaging characters, the program promises to give viewers a glimpse into the world of the liquor mafia in the Hindi heartland. The series, which is produced by Gold Harvest Film, is aptly titled 'Chadega Khoon Ka Nasha.' Here is the trailer of the series: Ravi Kishan who will lead the series said, I am excited for my next Hindi Original series, Country Mafia. It is a genre which I love and watch myself and it is with talented actors like Soundarya Sharma, Satish Kaushik, Anshumaan Pushkar and Anita Raaj so I am looking forward to its premiere on 18th November. For all the lovers of crime, politics and drama, add this to your binge-list!. Satish Kaushik, talking about the mafia series said, I look forward to OTT projects because they let you know explore the characters in-depth. Country Mafia is going to keep the viewers hooked because it is pulpy, exciting and engaging. I hope that it reaches a wide audience since it is available for free and that it appeals to the lovers of this genre. Producer, Balendu Dixit while talking about the series said, We have put in a lot of effort in making Country Mafia with the support of a supremely talented cast and crew and I hope that the audience enjoy this thrilling revenge drama which is inspired by the many heartland stories. Also, I am thankful to ZEE5 for making this series available for free to its viewers and for encouraging storytellers like us. Gold Harvest Film Partner and Producer, Deepak Gupta said, It is a dream come true moment for any budding producer to have the support of such a talented ensemble cast and to be backed by ZEE5. We are really thankful to ZEE5 and to the wonderful team of cast and crew members for supporting our vision. The series 'Country Mafia' is all set to release on the 18th of November. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed Maharashtra Government to trace legal heirs of the missing persons of the 1992 Mumbai riots and pay them compensation. A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S. Oka and Vikram Nath passed these directions. The court directed Maharashtra Government to submit a report to the Committee containing details of 168 missing persons including their names and addresses and will also place material regarding efforts made to trace family members of 108 missing persons who have been deprived of compensation in terms of the second Government Resolution. The court directed that the State Government shall make all possible efforts to trace the legal heirs/family members of the missing persons. The court also suggested that the Committee shall monitor this exercise, which will assist the legal representatives of the missing persons to complete the procedural formalities. Also Read: 'Very bulky counter': SC on Gujarat govt's reply on release of 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano rape case The State Government shall also submit to the Committee the record relating to compensation paid in terms of the Annexure to the First Government Resolution as well as in terms of the second Government Resolution by incorporating the specific dates on which the compensation was actually paid to the persons entitled to it, the court directed. It further added that the State Government shall also provide a list of victims who have not been paid compensation in terms of both the Government Resolutions. "The State Government shall pay compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to the legal heirs of the missing persons traced out hereafter, with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from 22nd January 1999 i.e. from the expiry of the period of six months from the date of the second Government Resolution, till actual payment," the court said. The court was dealing with a petition seeking to pay compensation to the persons identified as MISSING in the 1992 Mumbai riots and the cases concerning them to be closed. In December 1992 and January 1993, there were about 900 deaths, 168 persons were reported missing and about 2036 persons suffered injuries. As a result of the serial bomb blasts of 12th March 1993, there were 257 deaths and 1400 people were injured. The petition has also sought to declare that a public servant found guilty/indicted under the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 be liable to be summarily dismissed. The top court directed the State Government to expeditiously implement all the recommendations made by the Commission on the issue of reforms in the police force which were accepted by it. New Delhi: Sudhir Suri, a Shiv Sena leader, was killed on Friday after being shot near Gopal Mandir in Amritsar during an agitation. Suri was rushed to the hospital shortly after the incident, where he died. At the time of the incident, CCTV showed the presence of police on the scene. Eyewitnesses described how the incident occurred. Suri was shot five times, according to police, before collapsing. He was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries. According to local media, the crowd apprehended the alleged attacker and handed him over to police. Sandeep Singh has been identified as the suspected attacker. "Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Shri has been shot. We have reached the spot and are still verifying everything. The senior officers will brief you," Police say. pic.twitter.com/otlJ0UXLyL November 4, 2022 Details of the incident According to local media, the crowd apprehended the alleged attacker and handed him over to police. Sandeep Singh has been identified as the suspected attacker. In response to the incident, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma stated that the state's law and order situation has completely collapsed. Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said, "He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. FIR registered u/s 302 (murder) and accused Sandeep Singh Sunny was taken into custody from the spot itself. His interrogation is underway. The situation in Amritsar is fully under control. The accused has been arrested Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri shot dead in Amritsar, Punjab | "He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. FIR registered u/s 302 (murder) and accused Sandeep Singh Sunny was taken into custody from the spot itself. His interrogation is underway," says Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav pic.twitter.com/NJZNW8k4Eo ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 Gaurav Yadav added, Sudhir Suri was on a sit-in protest over a dispute of Gopal Mandir management. The assailant has a garment shop there. He fired bullets from his licensed .32 bore-revolver, some of which hit Suri and he was taken to hospital immediately (With agencies inputs) Delhi: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, announced on Friday that primary schools in the city will be closed beginning tomorrow until the pollution situation improves. "We`re taking all steps to control the pollution situation. In lieu of that, we`re shutting down all primary schools in Delhi from tomorrow... Also shutting down outdoor activities for all classes above class 5," CM Kejriwal said. Kejriwal was speaking at a press conference with his Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, here. Further, Arvind Kejriwal said, "We`re also mulling whether the odd-even scheme for vehicles should be implemented". The chief minister of Delhi added that this was "not the time for finger-pointing and blame games." This is the second day in a row that the national capital's air quality has been deemed "severe." In the meantime, the Supreme Court decided today to hear a case involving air pollution in Delhi. Gopal Rai, the environment minister for Delhi, has called a high-level conference today to go over the execution of restrictions on polluting activities under the Graded Response Action Plan's final phase. On Wednesday, the Delhi government was urged by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to close schools until the capital's air quality improved. The burning of stubble contributed to 34% of Delhi's PM 2.5 pollution, according to SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), which was released on Friday. The air quality in Delhi remained in the "severe" category on Friday morning as the city's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) increased to 472. According to data released by SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research) India, Gurugram's AQI stood at 539 and continued to be in the "severe" category, while Noida's AQI, which is a part of the national capital region, recorded an AQI of 562, and continued to be in that category. When the Air Quality Index is between 0 and 100, it is good; when it is between 100 and 200, it is moderate; when it is between 200 and 300, it is bad; when it is between 300 and 400, it is very poor; and when it is between 400 and 500 or above, it is severe. Some schools in the capital are holding online classes while others have cut down on physical activities and have asked students to wear N-95 masks. Primary schools will be shut in capital from tomorrow. In Noida and Greater Noida, schools have stopped physical classes till Class 8, and the administrations are mulling over future course of action. New Delhi: Alarmed by hazardous pollution levels and health warnings, the Delhi government on Friday announced that primary schools will remain shut from Saturday and 50 per cent of its staff will work from home, while private offices have been advised to follow suit. Delhi's air quality remained "severe" for a second day on the trot, with stubble burning accounting for 30 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in the capital, according to the Central Pollution Control Board and SAFAR, a forecasting agency under the Ministry of Earth and Sciences. Over the last few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party have traded barbs over the increase in stubble burning in Punjab. However, on Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann owned responsibility for paddy straw burning in the agrarian state and promised to curb the practice by next winter. "We (AAP) have our government in Punjab and we are responsible if 'parali' is being burnt there. Farmers are not responsible for it," Kejriwal said in a joint press conference with Mann. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said stubble burning is not a "political issue" but expressed concern over rising farm fires despite funding and machines provided by the Centre. Also Read: Delhi MCD polls 2022: BJP has only SPREAD GARBAGE in 15 years, will be OUSTED, claims Arvind Kejriwal The number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab rose 12.59 per cent year-on-year to 26,583 in the last 50 days, with a spurt in such cases after Diwali, according to the latest Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) data. However, when compared to Punjab, the number of paddy stubble burning events in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi remained lower between September 15 and November 4 this year, the data showed. The Supreme Court agreed to list for hearing on November 10 a public interest litigation seeking fresh guidelines on stubble burning. Primary schools in Delhi to be shut tomorrow onwards till the pollution situation in the National capital improves pic.twitter.com/XOIrB16nCL ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 Also Read: Nobody is SAFE in Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari after attack on Union Minister Nisith Pramaniks convoy National Human Rights Commission asked the chief secretaries of 4 states Taking note of the hazardous air quality, the National Human Rights Commission asked the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to appear before it on November 10 to discuss the matter, an official statement said. The commission said it was "not satisfied" with the action taken so far to address the issue and that "much more" needs to be done to reduce pollution in Delhi. While parents breathed a sigh of relief following the announcement to shut primary schools, academicians expressed concern over learning losses due to the frequent suspension of classes -- earlier in view of the Covid pandemic and now because of deteriorating air quality. Experts on air pollution Experts suggested that the government should rejig vacation schedules as pollution turns severe every winter. At a press conference, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said schools would be asked to curtail the outdoor activities of senior students. Rai ordered 50 per cent of the staff of the Delhi government to work from home and said an advisory would be issued to private offices to follow suit. He said the Delhi government has decided to implement the anti-pollution curbs recommended by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), including a ban on non-BS VI diesel-run light motor vehicles. A six-member panel chaired by the special commissioner of transport has been set up to monitor the implementation of curbs on anti-polluting activities. Revenue commissioners have been asked to prepare a plan for staggered timings of markets and offices. New Delhi: Delhis Director General of Prisons Sandeep Goyal, on Friday, November 4, 2022, has been transferred from Tihar jail in connection with allegedly helping conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar in the prison. Delhis Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has issued a transfer order in which D-G Prisons Sandeep Goyal has been directed to report to the Police Headquarters. IPS Sanjay Beniwal has been appointed as the new D-G Prisons of the Tihar jail. Delhi | DG Prison Sandeep Goyal transferred, Sanjay Beniwal to replace him. pic.twitter.com/3oUso9slIz ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 Sandeep Goyal was accused of providing facilities to conmen Sukesh Chandrashekhar in jail. More than 80 officers of Tihar Jail are on the radar in connection with the case. Sukesh Chandrashekar's revealation The LG's order comes after the conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar said that Satyendar Jain, the incarcerated Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi minister, had extracted Rs 10 crore as "protection money" to keep him safe in Tihar Jail. Sukesh Chandrashekhar made these allegations in a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, claiming to have known the AAP politician since 2015. The jailed conman stated in his letter that a total of Rs 50 crore was paid to AAP, which promised him a key party post in south India. After my arrest in 2017, I was lodged in Tihar Jail and was visited multiple times by Satyendar Jain, who held the portfolio of jail minister... In 2019 again, I was visited by Jain, whose secretary asked me to pay Rs 2 crore every month as protection money and to get basic facilities inside the jail, Chandrashekhar claimed in his hand-written letter. In the letter, Sukesh also claimed that he had disclosed the payments made to Jain and D-G Prisons to a CBI probe team last month. The letter was sent to the Delhi LG through his lawyer. In view of his explosive letter, the Delhi LG is said to have ordered an inquiry to verify the truth. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Delhi Police to ensure that the steps taken by them for enhanced security at the CM`s residence are implemented and there is strict adherence to the aforesaid stance. The direction came on a plea, which was disposed of, against the incident of vandalisation at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in the month of March. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain appeared for Delhi Police on Thursday, drawing the attention of the court that the Delhi Police in order to ensure the security and safety at the CM`s residence have taken steps. Noting down the submissions, the HC bench comprising Justice Sarish Chander Mishra and Justice Subramonium Prasad disposed of the matter. The court was hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj against the attack and vandalization at the official residence of the Delhi Chief Minister on March 30, this year. Earlier, the Delhi Police had informed the Delhi High Court that the security of the Chief Minister of Delhi residence has been beefed up and also no protest will now be allowed at Civil Lines Metro station. Appearing for Delhi Police, the Additional Solicitor General had submitted before the court that, this incident should not have happened. A review of security has also been done. CCTVs have been preserved and the part of the investigation. Also read: 'BODY MASSAGE inside TIHAR jail!': TROUBLE for Arvind Kejriwal's minister as Home Ministry seeks REPORT Earlier, the Delhi High Court had shown displeasure with the Delhi Police status report over the incident of violent Protest and vandalism outside the Delhi Chief Minister and said what happened at the residence of a constitutional functionary is a very disturbing state of affairs. The petitioner Saurabh Bhardwaj, sitting MLA from AAP stated that the party strongly supports the right to protest peacefully, even if such protest is against the Delhi government, it is submitted that in the name of protest, violence cannot and ought not to be permitted and condoned, plea stated. Also read: 'WON'T STOP IT': Arvind Kejriwal after Delhi LG suspends 'Dilli Ki Yogshala' The plea further stated that in this case, the violence was especially egregious as it was directed toward the Delhi CM and his family. It was meant to subdue, by the use of force, the highest elected official in NCT of Delhi and therefore the elected Government of Delhi. According to the plea, this was a direct attack on democracy, adding that those who were charged with the protection of the Delhi CM, that is, Delhi Police, completely abdicated their duty, without any regard for the fact that they were protecting an elected constitutional functionary and the fact that he was given Z plus security by Delhi Police itself. (With ANI Inputs) Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@captimes.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. GATE 2023: Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kanpur has postponed the dates for the GATE 2023 Correction window. The GATE 2023 application correction window will now be opened on November 8, 2022, according to the most recent statement from IIT Kanpur. Candidates will be able to visit the correction window on the official website, gate.iitk.ac.in, once it has been opened. The GATE 2023 correction window was supposed to open today, November 4, 2022, according to the previous schedule. However, the dates have been altered, according to an official notification from IITK. Candidates will be able to access their GATE 2023 application number, email address, and password created during registration once the application correction window on gate.iitk.ac.in opens. From November 8 through November 14, 2022, the rectification window will be open. GATE 2023 Correction Window: What all changes are allowed Name Date of birth Gender Category Address College details Details of parents or guardians Exam paper Additional exam paper Existing paper Exam City The GATE 2023 exam will be administered by IIT Kanpur on February 4, 5, 11, and 12, 2023. On January 3, 2023, participants will receive their admission cards for the GATE 2023 exam. New Delhi: Less than twenty-four hours after the Election Commission announced the Gujarat assembly poll dates, the BJP-led Gujarat government can be seen in action, as they suspended Morbi Municipality's chief officer Sandipsinh Zala on Friday, November 4, 2022. This comes only days after a bridge collapse in Gujarat claimed at least 135 people. GT Pandya, the District Collector of Morbi, stated that the Chief Officer has been delegated to the Resident Additional Collector of Morbi. "The State Urban Development Department has suspended Chief Officer of Morbi Municipality Sandipsinh Zala," said Morbi District Collector GT Pandya. Resident Additional Collector of Morbi has been given the additional charge of the Chief Officer until further orders, he said. However, the official notice is yet to come, as informed by the District Collector. At least 135 people, including women and children, were killed and over 100 are receiving treatment for their injuries sustained after a cable suspension bridge in Morbi town collapsed on Sunday, plunging people into the Machchhu River. According to the reports, the cable of the bridge was rusting away and only the flooring of the bridge was done. The cables were not changed and oiling-greasing was also not done. Several opposition leaders across the country have condemned the mishap and expressed their dismay over the misgovernance of the BJP in the state. Also Read: 'TRUMP CARD' is Narendra Modi, but THESE factors to play a major role in the BATTLEGROUND of Gujarat Assembly Election As announced by the Election Commission on Thursday, the Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, and the results will be declared on December 8, the Election Commission announced Thursday. Of the 182 seats in the Legislative Assembly, 89 will go to polls in the first phase and 93 in the second. There are over 4.9 crore electors eligible to vote this year. There will be more than 51,000 polling stations set up, including more than 34,000 in rural areas. New Delhi: Congress on Friday released the first list of 43 candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls to be held in December this year. Arjun Modhwadia got a ticket from the Porbandar seat, while Rajya Sabha MP Amiben Yagnik will contest from Ghatlodia. Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, while the votes will be counted on December 8. Earlier on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a meeting of the party's central election committee (CEC) during which several candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls were finalised. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined the meeting online, while the rest of the participants attended it physically at the AICC headquarters here. CEC members and party general secretaries Mukul Wasnik and K C Venugopal, besides Mohsina Kidwai, Girija Vyas and Ambika Soni, were among those present at the meeting. Also Read: Gujarat Polls: Congress has already accepted defeat, says Syed Shahnawaz Hussain All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Gujarat Raghu Sharma and the party's state unit chief, Jagdish Thakor, were also in attendance. The Congress is seeking to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the government in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the saffron party has been in power for more than two decades. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Following the announcement of the dates for the Gujarat Assembly elections by the Election Commission of India on Thursday (November 3), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal announced the name of AAP's CM candidate from Gujarat. He named Isudan Gadhvi as the CM face. He is also the Aam Aadmi Party's National Joint General Secretary and a member of its National Executive. He joined the Aam Aadmi party in June 2021. Isudan was born on January 10, 1982, in Pipaliya village near Jamkhambhaliya town in Gujarat's Devbhoomi Dwarka district. His father is a farmer named Kherajbhai Gadhvi. He has arrived in Ahmedabad to inaugurate the AAP's state headquarters. Isudan Gadhvis earlier career He was previously known as a TV journalist and editor of VTV News, as well as the anchor of his popular news, show Mahamanthan on VTV Gujarati. Isudan has become a popular face of the AAP in Gujarat since joining active politics. On November 4, 2022, he was announced as the AAP's Chief Minister candidate for the 2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Also Read: Isudan Gadhvi is AAP's chief minister face for Gujarat Assembly polls, check other details Isudan Gadhvi exposed scam of illegal deforestation in Gujarat Gadhvi began his journalism career by working on a popular Doordarshan show called 'Yojana.' Isudan worked as an on-the-ground journalist for ETV Gujarati in Porbandar from 2007 to 2011. Later, on his news show, he exposed a Rs 150 crore scam of illegal deforestation in Gujarat's Dang and Kaparada talukas, forcing the Gujarat government to take action. The incident catapulted Gadhvi to fame and earned him the reputation of a fearless journalist. Isudan Gadhvi, National Joint General Secretary of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), announced as the party's CM candidate for the upcoming #GujaratElections2022 pic.twitter.com/GYWoZjbXJ8 ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 Isudan Gadhvi entered politics only a year ago. On 14 June 2021, he joined the party in the presence of Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He worked in journalism for about ten years prior to this. He made a name for himself in the field of journalism. Following this, he joined the AAP in order to enter politics. The AAP will now work to capture the OBC vote by electing Isudan Gadhvi as the CM candidate. In the last 14 months, he has visited Gujarat twice. During this time, he travelled 1.10 lakh kilometres and provided an opportunity for AAP by strengthening the bail against the BJP and Congress. During this, Gadhvi stated that everything was fine while Narendra Bhai (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) was Gujarat's Chief Minister, but after his departure, the people left behind ruined the state's condition. Following this, Gadhvi stated that if Narendra Bhai gives us Gujarat, he can take care of the country. Gujarat will be well taken care of. At the same time, he asked Narendra Bhai (Prime Minister Modi) to assist AAP in forming a government in Gujarat. Also Read: 'Only pollution, NO solution': BJP slams Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over Delhi air quality The announcement came after the party held a crowdsourcing campaign in which residents of the state could vote on a number and an email address provided by the party until 5 p.m. on November 3. On October 29, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal launched a campaign asking people who they wanted as their chief ministerial candidate. Prior to the Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP had conducted a survey in which Bhagwant Mann had been the clear popular choice. Mann went on to become the state's chief minister. The Election Commission announced the dates for the Gujarat Assembly elections earlier on Thursday. (With agencies inputs) New Delhi: According to sources, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at nearly a dozen locations in West Bengal and Jharkhand on Friday in connection with a money laundering case against those illegally occupying Indian Army lands. According to sources, the raids are taking place in nearly four locations in West Bengal and eight locations in Jharkhand. According to sources, the locations searched included the home and office of a Kolkata-based businessman named Amit Agrawal, as well as several others. According to sources, Agrawal was previously detained by the Enforcement Directorate, and the raids were planned following his revelation in the case. According to reports, several acres of Army land in Jharkhand were illegally occupied in collaboration with 'land mafias' and politicians. Amit Agrawals arrest Amit Agrawal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last month in connection with a money laundering investigation. On July 31, ED officials arrested Amit Agrawal in connection with the seizure of Rs 50 lakh from advocate Rajiv Kumar in Kolkata. Agrawal, who is being held in Jharkhand's Birsa Munda Central Jail, is accused of allegedly giving the money to Kumar in exchange for his name being removed from a public interest litigation filed in the Jharkhand High Court. In addition, the ED has filed a prosecution complaint against Agrawal in the PMLA court. Also Read: Punjab mein COMEDIAN', Gujarat mein 'ANCHOR': Is Arvind Kejriwal trying to change the DNA of politics in India? Illegally grabbing land owned by the Indian Army in Jharkhand The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted four raids on Friday at various locations linked to a Jharkhand-based businessman currently residing in Kolkata in connection with a complaint of stealing Army land. According to ED sources, similar raids are being carried out in various parts of Jharkhand by eight teams of the central investigation agency. Amit Agarwal, a businessman, is accused of illegally grabbing land owned by the Indian Army in Jharkhand. The first ED team raided and searched Agarwal's home in Salt Lake, on the outskirts of Kolkata's northern outskirts. Another team conducted a similar raid and search operation at Agarwal's motor parts office in Nonapukur, Kolkata's central business district. Also Read: Delhi MCD election 2022 on December 4, results on December 7; Model Code of Conduct comes into effect from today According to reports, this is not the first time the ED has conducted raids at Amit Agarwal's premises. Previously, the central investigation agency officials conducted similar raids on this count twice last year. Dilip Ghosh, the BJP's national president and a Lok Sabha member, responded to the raids by saying that West Bengal has become a hub of corruption, and thus raids and search operations by central agencies have become routine. "The people of West Bengal are really frustrated with this trend. The people will get more frustrated if the offenders are not punished," he said. There was no reaction from the ruling Trinamool Congress until the report was filed. (With agencies inputs) Indonesia's Ambassador to India Ina Krisnamurthi has emphasized on "dialogue" as the Russia-Ukraine conflict looms large over the G20 Bali summit due to take place later this month. The summit takes place from 15th to 16th November at the Nusa Dua Convention Center in Bali, a well-known tourist destination nicknamed the "Island of the gods". Speaking to our diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Ambassador Krisnamurthi said, one of the principles Indonesia's presidency has is that dialogue in whatever form is more important than no dialogue whatsoever. Indonesia has extended invites to both the Russian President Putin & Ukraine's President Zelensky to attend the mega summit. This year's summit is important for India as the presidency of the grouping will be handed over to New Delhi. India as the president of the grouping for a period of one year will host the summit in September of next year. Asked about the hopes regarding India's president, Ambassador said, "I believe India will champion the G20 presidency in the future." Together, the G20 members represent more than 80 per cent of world GDP, 75 per cent of international trade and 60 per cent of the world population. The group emerged primarily as an economic grouping after the 2008 financial crisis and has taken on a political role as well amid a dysfunctional United Nations Security Council. Talking to Zee Media, Ina Krisnamurthi discussed the key issues ahead of G20 Bali summit and tell about the key focus areas under Indonesia's presidency. Q: What are the preparations underway to host this mega big-ticket summit? A: Logistically to ensure that all guests are welcomed properly, and they feel at home during the stay in Bali. Security wise, Bali is one of the most secure places. It is an island, destination very close to the hearts of the Indian people, culturally, historically. My leaders, President, Minister of finance, foreign affairs, coordinating minister for economy, maritime all are trying their best in coordinating efforts to make G20 a success. Q: What will be the key focus area under the Indonesian Presidency for the grouping? A: Throughout the year, since December 2021 when we received handover from Italy, we had 3 priorities--health, governance and digital economy and energy. We push forward for any effort, any policy implemented to and for G20 members, and we keep that promise. All though it is not an easy period for G20 because of the global dynamics, we push forward for that. That is with 2 principles in mind, which is that we want a stronger multilateral forum, and want to have a very inclusive way of decision which is why we included pacific island countries in our deliberation. Priorities are done throughout the year, and we will not change that for the summit. Q: How significant is it for your country, because so far countries who have hosted the summit are developed countries and with Indonesia it is the start of developing countries hosting the summit? A: Until 2025, G20 will be headed by emerging economies, so for sure the Presidency of G20 is very important because we make an effort for the interest of the emerging economies to be heard, listen in the G20 format. This presidency is also important because the pandemic resulted in a very severe economic situation for everyone and the worst victims have been emerging economies, less developed countries. For sure, G20 is very important for Indonesia because Indonesia is experiencing turbulence in its economy while we experience the pandemic. We have priorities, like health Governance, so that we are more prepared for future pandemic, 2nd is digital economy that during the pandemic, we have survived and thrived due to digital economy and 3rd issue is more and more it is important food, energy, water security with climate change is becoming key element for progress and development for our community and society. Q: What challenge do you see for the G20 summit, in front of you, even as the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been having its impact? A: One of the principles Indonesia's presidency has is that dialogue in whatever form is more important than no dialogue whatsoever. People coming in one room to discuss matters, common concerns are more important than thinking about 2-3 parties' interests. Throughout the presidency for Indonesia , bridging all interests is making everyone come in the same room, to develop dialogue, to discuss the common interest. That is why we have priorities we keep putting forth for whatever reason the global dynamics is. The challenge to bridge the tension, differences, yes, it is very challenging. But at the same time, if we do not sit together in one same room, the challenge or the problem or the matter will not go away. Pandemic also teaches us that no one is securely safe from the pandemic. Everyone experiences the pandemic. Everyone can't live by themselves; everyone needs support to survive the pandemic. Bridging the pandemic is not about making sure everyone has one interest. At Least we tried to come up with an avenue for everyone to sit together, to do the dialogue. Q: Do you expect a family photo, the western leaders and the Russian President to be together? A: I think, all are in the eyes of the beholder because the photo ops are not actually substantive in nature, that is my personal opinion. Because the family photo is only a family photo opportunity and doesn't show anything. There are more than 20 people coming at one stage and taking pictures, does not show anything. The reason for them to come to Bali and sit together, that is more substantial for us rather than family photos. It is not important for family photos to happen or not to happen. The most important thing is that the G20 becomes an avenue for everyone to just state views, state opinions on what to do for the world for a better international community. Q: Have President Putin, President Zelenskyy confirmed that they will come to Bali? A: Well, the last information, you can find in open media, that my President did not even say who and when they are coming. But for sure, we are trying our best. Even my President taking calls from leaders. During G7 meetings, he made an effort to everyone to understand Indonesia's position and Indonesia to understand everyone's position on certain issues, so avenue of dialogue is there. We have seen efforts by my minister, foreign minister and also finance minister to just go and have meetings. You may know, the G20 is the only prime economic framework for leaders to sit down and think about the future of the world. Q: Are you hopeful of a breakthrough in Bali, in terms of the leaders coming together, do you President Putin, Zelenskyy meetings? A: For the bilateral meetings, I believe, many bilateral. Breakthrough, I think Sidhant even to sit down in the same room and speak, maybe not to each other but speaking on behalf of the G20 is a breakthrough. Q: How do you see the Indian presidency of the grouping that will be handed over from you? A: I think the most interesting part for the Indian Presidency is that the troika is the historical troika because in the first time of the history of G20, the troika would consist of 3 emerging economies, never before in G20. For us now, it is Italy. For India it is very historical. I have seen how the internet goes crazy with minister Jaishankar going around the world and explaining about India's policy. I think his way of leadership for sure will be a good way for India to lead the G20 into a better position in the future. Unfortunately, India, Indonesia hope that the challenge we experience will be completed before India's presidency but unfortunately-not the problem of food, energy, and water security is still there. India is among the best in making sure the emerging economies experience the same positive impact. I believe India will champion the G20 presidency in the future. Q: Why was Bali chosen for the G20 summit? A: During covid, Bali for us is the worst victim of pandemic. More than 90% of its economy depends so much on tourism. We need to help our brothers and sisters in Bali to overcome this challenge. To rebuild themselves are the covid. Secondly, Indonesia has hosted events at the level of summit, including WTO ministerial, APEC. We believe that Bali has a certain vibrancy. Everyone coming to the island has certain comfortability and at the end the meeting is successful, and the outcome is also substantive. This is why Bali is the host of the G20 summit. Agartala: Former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has called all "secular and democratic forces" to unite against the "assault on people's liberty" by the BJP. Sarkar said that the saffron camp's "bid to loot votes" during the upcoming assembly polls would be resisted by all means while addressing a press conference here on Thursday night. The leader of the opposition in Tripura said that the Left parties are expecting a positive response from all "secular" outfits. Sarkar insisted that "The CPI (M) seeks to corner the BJP and the RSS, intensify the political struggle and defeat the divisive forces. All secular and democratic forces are welcome to join the battle," adding that his party has decided that the local leadership will be allowed to take a call on the formation of electoral alliances in respective states. Former Tripura Chief Minister came down heavily on the ruling BJP and said that the saffron camp, "scared of defeat" in the 2023 elections, is trying to scuttle political programmes organized by opposition parties in the state. "The BJP will be living in a fool's paradise if it thinks that it can loot votes anymore. This time, people who are an integral part of the democratic process will resist such bids by all means," PTI quoted him as saying. Also read: 'TRUMP CARD' is PM Modi, but THESE factors to play a major role in Gujarat Rubbishing Chief Minister Manik Saha's claims that the "law and order situation in the northeastern state is better than what it used to be" under the Left regime, adding "There are reports that police personnel share tea and biscuits with criminals at police stations. They ask women victims to discuss and sort out the problem with the perpetrators of crime." New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has charged six people in connection with the seizure of arms, ammunition, and explosives at Haryana's Bastara Toll Plaza. Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, a terrorist with a Pakistani terrorist organisation, delivered the explosives and ammunition. The organization's name is 'Babbar Khalsa International.' Drones were used to transport weapons, ammunition, and explosives from Pakistan to India in order to carry out terrorist acts in Punjab. NIA said Rinda was carrying out the delivery of arms, ammunition and explosives into Indian Territory through drones to his India based associates for carrying out terrorist attacks at different parts of India. ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2022 National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed the charge sheet against six accused in the case related to the seizure of arms, ammunition and explosives at Bastara Toll Plaza in Haryana's Madhuban, the agency quotes. NIA said, Rinda was carrying out the delivery of arms, ammunition and explosives into Indian Territory through drones to his India-based associates for carrying out terrorist attacks at different parts of India. Also Read: Nobody is SAFE in Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari after attack on Union Minister Nisith Pramaniks convoy Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are conducting additional raids throughout the state in connection with the Coimbatore blast. According to sources in the Coimbatore city police, over 100 locations in the city and suburbs have been raided in the last ten days. Many people who were indirectly involved in the blast are also being watched. The NIA has conducted raids and searches at the homes and businesses of friends and relatives of the seven people killed in the blast. Firoz Ismail, one of those arrested under the Unlawful Prevention and Punishment Act (UAPA), was deported by the UAE government in 2019 due to his involvement with the Islamic State (IS) during his stay in the country. His mother, Maimuna Beegum, claims that Firoz and his brother, Mohammed Nawaz Ismail (another of those arrested under UAPA in the case), are innocent and that Firoz was not deported from the UAE and returned after his visa expired. Police in Coimbatore City has already received information from an e-commerce portal that the deceased Jameesha Mubin and his associates Afsar Khan and Mohammed Azharuddin purchased chemical substances from their sites. Notably, chemicals such as potassium nitrate, aluminium powder sulphur, and charcoal that could be used to make IED bombs were recovered from the deceased Mubin's home. Also Read: Gyanvapi Mosque case: HC admits petition challenging permission for carbon dating, scientific investigation of 'Shivling' The NIA, according to sources, is conducting searches in many areas of Tamil Nadu related to the accused. However, the scope of the investigation and the locations of the raids are unknown. Meanwhile, the appearance of certain Jihad sketches recovered from Mubin's residence appeared on social media. According to police, this was recovered by state police before the case was turned over to the NIA. The police have also begun an investigation into how these details ended up on social media. (With agencies inputs) New Delhi: Leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari attacks the government of West Bengal over the cattle and coal scam. He also commented on the attack on Nisith Pramaniks convoy in Coch Behar on Thursday (November 3). Adhikar said Nobody is safe in Bengal, not even public representatives. Police work for TMC and collect cut money. Law and order are not followed in West Bengal. He added, that the ED's cattle smuggling case was filed in Delhi. It involves a large number of people. If proven, they will be sent to Tihar jail, where they will not be provided with the same facilities as in Bengal. TMC is a government of thieves involved in coal and cattle smuggling, Ponzi schemes, and recruitment scams. Kolkata, West Bengal | Nobody is safe in Bengal, not even public representatives. Police works for TMC and collects cut money. Law and order not followed in the state: LoP Suvendu Adhikari on the attack on Union Minister Nisith Pramanik's convoy pic.twitter.com/sndaLXSJ8P November 4, 2022 Nisith Pramaniks convoy attack The convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik was allegedly attacked in Cooch Behar on November 3, 2022. According to visuals, the incident occurred in the Sitai area of Cooch Behar on Thursday afternoon when a mob carrying sticks was seen passing through the area while Pramanik's convoy was passing through. Following the incident, MoS Pramanik expressed concern about the security lapse and questioned West Bengal's law and order situation. Also Read: Priyanka Gandhis BIG announcement on Agnipath scheme, says If Congress comes to POWER "If the Bengal administration is strict, how can so many people gather on my route? The state police made the route of my convoy. We went according to the route defined by the police. How could there be such a big threat to me when it was state police who mapped out the route for my escort?" the union minister told media persons here. "The gathering even had sticks, stones and other weapons despite police presence. They surely did not show up with sticks to shower flowers. How this happened is a question that needs to be asked. BJP workers would not sit quietly if their minister is attacked in front of them. Why the atmosphere is being ruined? We want a peaceful atmosphere in Coochbehar," he added. It is worth noting that West Bengal has made headlines for political violence on several occasions in recent months. Also Read: Punjab mein COMEDIAN', Gujarat mein 'ANCHOR': Is Arvind Kejriwal trying to change the DNA of politics in India? (With ANI inputs) Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, using his powers as Chancellor of the universities in the state on Thursday appointed Professor Dr. Ciza Thomas as Vice Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in Thiruvananthapuram. The Governor made the appointment of Thomas, who is the senior joint director of the Directorate of Technical Education. This is additional to her normal duties till further orders. "In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section 7 of Section 13 of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Act, 2015 (Act 17 of 2015), read with clause 7.3 of the UGC Regulations, 2018, the Chancellor of the University is pleased to order that pending the appointment of a regular Vice Chancellor in the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University. Prof. (Dr.) Ciza Thomas, Senior Joint Director, Directorate of Technical Education, Thiruvananthapuram, shall exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Vice Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University with immediate effect, in addition to her normal duties, until further orders," the notification issued by the Raj Bhavan stated. Last month on October 21, the Supreme Court set aside the appointment of MS Rajasree as Vice-Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has given charge to Prof Dr Ciza Thomas, senior joint director, Directorate of technical education, Thiruvananthapuram to exercise the powers and perform the duties of Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University. ANI (@ANI) November 3, 2022 A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar allowed the appeal filed by Professor Sreejith P.S. challenging the Kerala High Court order dated August 2, 2021. Professor Sreejith PS had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging order dated 02.08.2021 passed by the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam by which the Division Bench of the High Court has dismissed his appeal and the review petition preferred by the appellant herein and has confirmed the judgment and order passed by the learned Single Judge refusing to issue a writ of quo warranto to declare the appointment of the respondent Rajasree as Vice Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram. The court noted that even as per Section 13(4) of the University Act, 2015, the Committee shall recommend unanimously a panel of not less than three suitable persons from amongst the eminent persons in the field of engineering sciences, which shall be placed before the Visitor/Chancellor. The court observed that in the present case, admittedly the only name of respondent Rajasree was recommended to the Chancellor. As per the UGC Regulations also, the Visitor/Chancellor shall appoint the Vice Chancellor out of the panel of names recommended by the Search Committee. Therefore, when only one name was recommended and the panel of names was not recommended, the Chancellor had no option to consider the names of the other candidates, the top court observed. Therefore, the appointment of the respondent Rajasree can be said to be dehors and/or contrary to the provisions of the UGC Regulations as well as even to the University Act, 2015, the top court noted. 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. The process of collecting the opinions of the voters through mobile and e-mail started a few weeks ago. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal announced the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat a day after the announcement of assembly polls. Isudan Gadhvi, one of the most popular TV personalities in Gujarat, was the Delhi Chief Minister's bet this time to capture the state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. 40-year-old Garhavi was a popular TV host and journalist in Gujarat. He has also served as the editor of several news channels. A resident of Dwarka district, Gadhvi is the All India General Secretary of AAP. Replay of Punjab and Goa AAP leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was present next to Kejriwal during the announcement of Isudan Gadhvi's name on Friday. Kejriwal chose Mann as the 'Chief Ministerial Candidate' directly from the 'Janata Darbar' before the Punjab polls last February. And breaking decades of polarization between Akali Dal and Congress, AAP formed the government in that state with a huge majority. Incidentally, Kejriwal also announced the name of eminent lawyer Amit Palekar as the Chief Minister of Goa at that time. However, it did not succeed. However, the way former bureaucrat Kejriwal is making popular faces outside the circle of traditional politics as candidates for the post of chief minister in various states, many people think that it is part of his political strategy. According to them, the perception of most corrupt politicians is not very good. Kejriwal's move is based on that. Isudan Gadhvi vs Gopal Italia Since the end of October, names of 'preferred Chief Ministers' have been being collected from Gujarat's local voters through emails and mobile calls. The process officially ended at 5 pm on Thursday. The UP chief announced his 'result' on Friday. Gopal Italia, the president of AAP's Gujarat branch, was the rival of Isudan Gadhvi in the final round. Gopal was one of the faces of the Patidar conservation movement led by Hardik Patel six years ago. Over the past few weeks, many voters in Gujarat have been calling to know their preferred names as chief ministerial candidates. The recorded voice there requested button taps for 'any other choice' besides Gadhvi and Gopal. On Friday, Kejriwal said, former journalist and TV presenter Gadhvi was chosen based on the opinion of the majority. Also Read: 'Only pollution, NO solution': BJP slams Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over Delhi air quality In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP came to power in Gujarat for the fifth consecutive time by winning 99 seats. But after 1990, it was the lowest number of seats won by the BJP. On the other hand, the Congress surprised many political analysts by winning 77 seats in the 2017 assembly polls. Independents and others got 6 seats. This time, however, AAP has entered the polls with full force. Recently, AAP has come second behind the Congress in the bypolls of some cities, including Surat. After that, Kejriwal started visiting Gujarat continuously. He claimed that the BJP's main fight would be with AAP in the assembly polls as well. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government has asked the teachers in state-run schools to reach schools 15 minutes before students and leave 30 minutes after closing hours. An announcement in this regard was issued by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths office on Friday as part of a strict system being implemented by the state to ensure the regular presence of teachers in government schools across Uttar Pradesh. Government teachers have been instructed to be present in their schools 15 minutes before the commencement of classes and leave only after 30 minutes following the completion of school hours, the government said in a release. Moreover, regular updating of records and registers as well as preparing a lesson plan for the next day has been instructed. Also, 100 per cent compliance with the weekly calendar is to be ensured. These steps are aimed at establishing an environment of learning in state-run schools and providing quality education to the students, said an official release. If compliance with the timetable prescribed in the academic calendar is not ensured, then in addition to its fulfillment, additional classes will have to be arranged. Apart from this, it has been directed that no co-curricular activities such as rallies, Prabhat Pheris, or seminars will be organized during classes, it said. All the Basic Education Officers have been instructed to implement it on the instructions of the Chief Minister, the government stated in an official release. Director General of School Education, Vijay Kiran Anand has also issued a guideline stating that the action is being taken up on the basis of time and motion study as the time period and assignments for academic work in schools were not found satisfactory. In such a situation, all the Basic Education Officers should ensure their compliance in their respective districts, the guidelines said. DG School Education Vijay Kiran Anand has also sought a report from all the District Basic Education Officers of the state by November 20 regarding adherence to the prescribed timetable for all academic works including the hours of study in schools. Schools have been instructed to mandatorily conduct at least 240 teaching days in every academic session and also ensure the distribution of textbooks for free, DBT, and any other item only after the school period. School teachers have also been instructed not to go out of the school premises during the teaching period for banking and other works like entry/updation in passbook, talks with village head/MDM related requirements, and coordination, among others. Arrangement of the Manav Sampada Portal has been ensured for online execution of all works related to teachers` salary, leave, medical, etc, the release said. It has also been made mandatory to convene a meeting of all the teachers under the chairmanship of a headmaster at least once a week. In this meeting, the next week`s action plan and compliance with the instructions of monthly review meetings held at the block level will be reviewed, the government said. Politics in India has intensified after the deadly attack on former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. BJP leader and former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi attacked the opposition leaders of the country on the pretext of an attack on Imran Khan. Naqvi said, "Imran Khan has been attacked in Pakistan.This shows that the land of Pakistan is not safe. Muslims are more secure in India. Pakistan is a mirror for those who question the security of Muslims in India." Two gunmen opened fire on former Pakistan PM Imran Khan during the rally. One person was killed in this attack, while more than half a dozen were injured. The incident happened on Thursday evening when Imran Khan was moving towards Islamabad while addressing a rally. During this time, shots were fired at him. In this incident, Imran was shot in the leg. After surgery, he was advised to complete bed rest. On the other hand, on the pretext of attacking Imran Khan, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi targeted the opposition leaders. He said that the incident in Pakistan is a mirror for those who question India. He said, "Those who defame India should take a lesson. Muslims are more secure in India. The attack on Imran Khan in Pakistan is strong proof of this. India is a very safe country for everyone. The Muslims living here are more secure than any other country. The Muslims here are given religious, personal and voluntary freedom." New Delhi: With the national capital's air quality remaining in the 'severe' category for the second day in a row, SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research) reported on Friday that stubble-burning contributed 34% of Delhi's PM 2.5 pollution. On Friday morning, Delhi's air quality remained in the 'severe' category, with the city's total Air Quality Index (AQI) climbing to 472. Noidas average AQI is reported around 562 today. Ghaziabads AQI reaches 407 and Delhis Dheerpur area records AQI of 512. Most of the areas in Delhi-NCR are under the severe category. At the same time, Gurugram's AQI stood at 539 and remained in the 'severe' category. BJP accuses AAP of severe AQI Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called the poor air conditions of Delhi a complete failure of the Kejriwal and Mann led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. BJP spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla said that the Punjab AAP government has completely failed to tackle the situation of stubble burning. He attacked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the diminishing air quality in the national capital region and said that "Delhi has become a gas chamber". "This kind of a situation arises every year in Punjab, due to the lack of concrete policy by the Delhi government regarding the large-scale burning of stubble in the fields and other causes of pollution," Poonawala said. "On one hand, the continuously falling level of pollution in Delhi remains a problem for the common man, on the other hand, politics has also intensified regarding this air pollution," he added. Diwali crackers or stubble-burning, asks BJP Attacking the Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi, Poonawalla said, "Delhi has become a gas chamber. A health emergency has started in Delhi because, in many areas, the AQI level is going beyond 700-800 at 7 am. This is happening because, in Punjab, where the AAP is in power, the incidents of stubble burning are increasing continuously." "So far 21,000 incidents have occurred. There have been 3,600 incidents of stubble burning in the last 24 hours. This means that the Aam Aadmi Party of Punjab has completely failed," Poonawalla added. Accusing Kejriwal of shifting blame on Diwali crackers and stubble burning, Poonawalla asked, "what happened to the proposal of buying stubble from farmers? What happened to the bio-decomposer? Delhi`s pollution is not just because of stubble. Sometimes the Aam Aadmi Party blames the Diwali crackers, and sometimes the Delhi government blames the stubble." Air Quality Index from 0 to 100 is considered good, while from 100 to 200 it is moderate, from 200 to 300 it is poor, and from 300 to 400 it is said to be very poor and from 400 to 500 or above it is considered as severe. Also Read: Air Pollution: Delhi Minister Gopal Rai to hold high-level meeting; odd-even system may be implemented People in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) woke on Friday with complaints of choking and "eye burning" from smog and air pollution, which left them gasping for breath. Delhi LG issues notice to Bhagwant Mann Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena has issued a notice to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the increasing instances of stubble-burning. In an official letter, he urged Punjab CM to look over the stubble-burning instances, which has been increased by 19% in the period between October 24 to November 2 as compared to the corresponding period in 2021. "I wish to draw your attention toward the pain and suffering that the people of Delhi are experiencing for no fault of theirs, and request you to undertake the urgent and substantive measures to control Parali burning in Punjab, that has converted the National Capital once again into a gas chamber," LG Saxena wrote in letter. Air Quality to remain poor till... However, the forecast indicates that air quality in Delhi and surrounding areas will continue to deteriorate, with an expected improvement on November 5. "Air quality is likely to remain within `Severe` today and likely to improve tomorrow to `lower end of Severe` and from 5th onwards air quality is likely to improve further to `Very poor` due to upper-level wind reversal that prevents inflow of stubble-related pollutants. Higher surface wind speed on 5th Nov is likely to disperse pollutants," said a press release. Amid the worsening conditions of air quality in Delhi-NCR, a high-level meeting has been scheduled at 12 PM today by Delhis Environment Minister Gopal Rai. Officers of the Environment Department and other related departments will be present in the high-level meeting today. Amid the worsening Air Quality in the city, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) implemented Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) with immediate effect on Thursday. Mumbai: Arjun Kapoor`s heart swelled with pride after watching his younger sister Janhvi Kapoor's performance in latest release `Mili`. On Friday, Arjun took to Instagram and penned a note for Janhvi that`s filled with praises and love."You continue to make me prouder @janhvikapoor! Your growth as an actor, as a star is phenomenal... And you are just getting started which is really, really exciting," he wrote. Arjun added, "You are brilliant in #Mili - what a spine-chilling act! I wish it does phenomenally well and you get all the love that you truly deserve. Love you lots." Alongside the heartfelt note, he dropped a few images of himself with Janhvi. The first picture is from Arjun and Janhvi`s childhood days. In the image, Arjun is seen pulling his little sister`s hair while Janhvi flashes her cute smile.The second image seems to be the latest one in which they are seen posing for a stylish photoshoot. Here is the post shared by the actor: Replying to Arjun`s post, Janhvi commented, "Love you." While Arjun and his sister Anshula are Boney`s children from his first marriage to late Mona Shourie, Janvhi and her sister Khushi Kapoor are Boney`s kids from second marriage to late actor Sridevi.Earlier this year in March, Arjun on Janhvi`s birthday acknowledged that he wasn`t with Janhvi since her early years and promises to be with her forever now. "I know I wasn`t around for quite a few birthdays but now you`re stuck with me for life," Arjun had posted. Speaking of `Mili`, it is the Hindi remake of the filmmaker`s 2019 Malayalam hit Helen. Said to be based on true events, the film traces the struggles of Janhvi as Mili, who races against time to stay alive inside a freezer. Mathukutty Xavier has directed it. Besides Janhvi, Mili also features Sunny Kaushal and Manoj Pahwa in key roles. It is Janhvi`s first professional collaboration with her father Boney Kapoor, who backs the film. NEW DELHI: Bengali actress Aindrila Sharma, who was treated for and recovered from cancer not once but twice, is again come battling her health woes. As per the latest report, the actress recently suffered a massive stroke and has been admitted to a hospital in Howrah, where her condition is said to be severe. A Telly Chakkar report stated that doctors found multiple clots in her brain, which deteriorated her condition further. The report added that while she has shown signs of improvement in the last few days, her health condition, however, continues to remain fragile. The report claimed that Aindrila Sharma is on a ventilator currently. Aindrila had previously got operated on for critical surgery and underwent several chemotherapy sessions after which she was declared cancer-free by doctors. Post her recovery, Aindrila resumed her work and began shooting again. However, her latest health condition has left her fans and loved ones completely shocked. Her fans have flogged her Instagram account and flooded the comment section with wishes and speedy recovery. Aindrila Sharma recently featured in Zee Bangla Cinema Original film 'Bhole Baba Par Karega' and was seen in the role of Anirban Chakraborti's daughter. She has been a part of many OTT projects and also appeared in the role of lead actress in 'Jibon Jyoti', and 'And Jiyon Kathi'. She made her debut with the television show 'Jhumur' which featured Sabyasachi Chowdhury as the male lead. As per reports, she is dating Sabyasachi Chowdhury. New Delhi: Actress Janhvi Kapoor, whose much-talked about film Mili released in theatres today was busy promoting the venture on possible platforms. And during one such film event, she was clicked wearing a blue body-fitted gown with a thigh-high slit with safety-pins as embellishments. The actress was papped in Mumbai and had an oops moment as her outfit was a little see-through. Netizens were quick to compare her look with Bigg Boss OTT star Urfi Javed, who is known for her bizarre outfits. JANHVI KAPOOR'S OOPS MOMENT Janhvi suffered an oops moment with her glamourous and sexy gown which was too tight for comfort. Netizens didn't seem too happy with her sartorial choice this time and expressed it in the comments section on social media. Take a look here: Janhvi Kapoor's last release Good Luck Jerry got her rave review from critics and masses. Now, all eyes are on Mili, which has been produced by her father Boney Kapoor and is a remake of 2019 Malayalam thriller Helen. Recently, it was reported that Janhvi has purchased a swanky new duplex apartment spread over 8,669 square feet, with a carpet area of 6421 sq ft. The property in Bandra is priced at a whopping Rs 65 crore and has been purchased along with her younger sister Khushi Kapoor and father Boney Kapoor. New Delhi: Social media influencer Mira Rajput, who is married to actor Shahid Kapoor, recently visited the pink city, Jaipur. She took to Instagram to share some pictures from her stay and also posted a long note, where she detailed her experience and also shared recommendations for her fans. While sharing the pictures from her travels, she wrote a long note that read, "Jaipur is my soul city. I immediately feel a sense of warmth, comfort and belonging when Im there. Maybe because Ive lived through my Moms memories of school and explored the city with her, or the memorable trips to the Lit Fest over the years or maybe just the intensity of culture without it being overwhelming." She further added, "The people, the art forms, the Jantar Mantar (I was blown away by how the astronomical centre was built 300 years ago to correctly calculate time, planetary movements and even the percentage of each zodiac sign in the sky) and the Thali! Every time I visit I want to stay just one more day." She concluded the note by sharing her favourite food recommendations., "Food recco - found this amazing Thali place called Thali and more (which is a simple all vegetarian eatery) and man Im still dreaming about the Dal Batti Churma and the Aloo Pyaz sabzi. The one in the picture is from Rambagh Palace and ask for Kishen ji to tell you all the stories from when he spent time with Maharani Gayatri Devi as her personal butler. And do not miss Rawat ki Kachori. I had one everyday with Lassi! #travelgram #jaipur". Here is the post shared by Mira: Here are couple of pictures shared by Mira: Mira Rajput got married to Shahid Kapoor in the year 2015. They have a daughter named Misha and a son named Zain. New Delhi: Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are one of the most loved and adored couples in the industry. Everyone just goes 'awww' on their chemistry and social media banters. Both actors leave no page unturned in showing the world how much they mean to each other, and once again they have made their fans awestruck. During his recent visit to Delhi for an event, Ranveer couldnt stop gushing about his wife Deepika's poster at a store. He lovingly stared at the poster for a while and then gave a flying kiss to her. He even pointed at Deepika's poster and said 'mine' with a hand gesture. This adorable video went viral within minutes and fans are going nuts after DeepVeer. Also, Deepika shared the video on her Insta story and wrote, "Find someone who looks at you like you are their whole universe" while tagging Ranveer. On the work front, Ranveer will next be seen in Rohit Shetty's 'Cirkus' along with Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. Also, he will share the screen with his sakhi Alia Bhatt in Karan Johar's 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani.' On the other hand, Deepika has several big releases in her pipeline. She will be sharing the screen with Shah Rukh Khan in 'Pathaan'. Besides this, she has also been shooting for 'Project K' which stars Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan too. The actress will also be seen in the Hindi remake of 'The Intern.' New Delhi: Days after TV actress Charu Asopa accused husband Rajeev Sen of infidelity, the latter has responded with similar allegations. Sushmita Sen's brother claimed that his wife is having an illicit relationship with another popular television star Karan Mehra. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Rajeev Sen stated, "She wants to play the woman card all the time. She has clearly lost her mind and all my respect for her as an individual. She has no proof, but her ego has gone out of the roof. My entire family loved her and supported her more than me, yet such shameful allegations. I dont deserve this. I will never forgive her for this torture and humiliation." Rajeev claimed that through voice notes sent by Charus mother, Neelam Asopa, it was evident that the actress is having an affair with TV actor Karan Mehra. "One of the points to be noted from the voice note is her romance with TV actor Karan Mehra being disclosed by her mother. She made a romantic reel with him. She blames me for cheating on her and being suspicious of her. What a world we live in. I only came to know about Karan through her mothers voice note. I had no clue what was going on between them," he said. Charu had also claimed that her husband Rajeev was not there with her absent when she was pregnant with their daughter Ziana. Rajeev and Charu tied the knot in 2019 and within a year reports of marital discord were surfaced. Amid separation talks, the couple welcomed their first daughter Ziana in 2021. Central Government Pensioners DR Hike: In a much-needed help for Central Government pensioners, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has decided to increase the Dearness Relief for Contributory Provident Fund (CPF) beneficiaries by 15 per cent with effect from July 1. ".....the President is pleased to decide that the Dearness Relief admissible to the CPF beneficiaries in receipt of basic ex-gratia payment in the 5th CPC series shall be enhanced w.e.f 01.07.2022," said an office memorandum dated October 31st. It further said that the Dearness Relief has been enhanced from 381 per cent of the basic ex-gratia to 396% of the basic ex-gratia. "The surviving CPF beneficiaries who have retired from service between the period 18.11.1960 and 31.12.1985, and are entitled to basic ex-gratia @Rs 3000, Rs 1000, Rs 750 and Rs 650 for Group A, B, C, and D respectively w.e.f. 4th June, 2013 vide OM No. 1/10/2012-P&PW(E) dtd. 27th June, 2013 shall now be entitled to an enhanced Dearness Relief from 381% of the basic ex-gratia to 396% of the basic ex-gratia w.e.f. 01.07.2022," said the memorandum. Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg announces Communities, 32-person video calling on WhatsApp The notification also said that the CPF beneficiaries including widows and eligible dependent children of the deceased CPF beneficiary who had retired from service before 01.01.1986 or who had died while in service before 01.01.1986 and are entitled to revised ex-gratia @ 645 per month are entitled to get Dearness Relief up from 373 per cent of the basic ex-gratia to 388 per cent of the basic ex-gratia with effect from 01.07.2022. Central government employees who had retired on CPF benefits before 18.11.1960 and are in receipt of ex-gratia payments of Rs 654, Rs 659, Rs 703 and Rs 965 are also entitled to the DR enhancement from 373 per cent to 388 per cent. The notification further said that the pension disbursing authorities, including the nationalised banks will be responsible for calculating the quantum of DR payable in each individual case. New Delhi: Adivi Sesh, who is basking in the success of his last action release, 'Major,' is back with the teaser for HIT 2, which ever since its release has been doing the rounds all over the internet. His commercial blockbuster film Major was appreciated by critics as well as pan-Indian audiences and was a huge hit across all regions. The teaser for HIT 2 features a relatively composed Adivi Sesh in the role of a police officer on the Homicide Intervention Team in the typically peaceful town of Visakhapatnam. When he comes across a murder where a woman is discovered dead with her body parts chopped, things start to go south. The thrilling experience is heightened by the stirring dialogue, "Where women are worshipped, there blossoms divinity," and "Where women are not worshipped there, all actions remain unfruitful." Here is the teaser of the film: Audiences who have watched the teaser took to their social media accounts to talk about the film. A fan who watched the teaser appreciated the teaser saying, HIT-2 is gonna be a huge HIT!!! I was not expecting such gruesome visuals!! Another wrote, Kudos to the team for pulling this off. As usual, Adivi Sesh is magnificent. All the best to the team! The film which has directed by Sailesh Kolanu and also stars actors such as Vinni Mobstaz and Krishna Murali Posani. It is all set to hit the theatres on the 2nd of December. If you are planning to buy an Apple iPhone 14, then this could be your chance to get it at a discount of Rs 6000 along with an exchange credit of up to Rs 58730 as offered by the smartphone manufacturer. Apple is offering a discount of 5 per cent or Rs 6000 when a person buys the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus from its website. While iPhone 14 is priced at Rs 79,999 on Apple's website, iPhone 14 Plus is priced at Rs 89,999. If you opt for exchanging your smartphone, Apple is offering you a credit of Rs 2200 to Rs 58730 depending on the smartphone model. "Get 5% instant Cashback up to Rs 6000 with qualifying HDFC Bank credit cards on orders over Rs 41,900. And for iPhone purchases, get up to Rs 58730 in instant credit when you exchange your eligible smartphone," reads the offer page on Apple's website. Also Read: Central Government Pensioners ATTENTION: Government hikes Dearness Relief by 15 percent for THESE CPF beneficiaries The smartphones are available in 128GB, 256 GB and 512GB variants and in all five colours - Blue, Purple, Midnight, Starlight and Product Red. Apple also mentioned on its page that every iPhone 14 (PRODUCT)RED purchase now contributes directly to the Global Fund to combat COVID-19. Also Read: ICICI Bank, Yes Bank Fixed Deposit FD Rates 2022 hiked; check latest return rate here The iPhone 14 comes with a 6.7 or 6.1 Super Retina XDR display and an advanced dual-camera system with a main camera of 12MP. The cameras sport Ultra Wide, Photonic Engine for better clarity. The battery gives a back up of up to 26 hours of video playback, claimed the company. The smartphone runs on an A15 Bionic chip with a 5-core GPU. San Francisco: HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, on Thursday launched the new Nokia 2780 Flip phone that comes with FM radio support, a good old clamshell design, and a T9 keyboard. According to GSMArena, the company launched the feature phone in the US in two colours, Red and Blue, which are priced at $90 and will go on sale starting November 15. (Also read: Twitter Down? Netizens face problem in accessing feed page, web users affected) The phone runs on KaiOS 3.1 which brings features such as FM Radio, MP3 support, and Wi-Fi support. The device features a Qualcomm 215 chipset, a quad-core CPU running at 1.3GHz, and an X5 LTE modem with peak downlink speeds of 150Mbps, according to a report. The phone comes powered with a 1,450 mAH battery, which is also removable. It also supports VoLTE and RTT, which allow users to send texts while on the call. Nokia listed the phone as having 512MB internal storage and 4GB RAM, although this might be a mix-up since a feature phone does not require so much memory, it added. Meanwhile, back in August, the company launched the Nokia 2660 Flip phone that comes with signature features like a big display, big buttons, hearing aid compatibility, and an emergency button for Indian consumers. Priced at Rs 4,699, the Nokia 2660 was available in black, blue and red colours. New Delhi: Twitter new owner Elon Musk has announced his plans to take a charge for blue tick to Twitter users soon on the monthly basis. The charges will be dependent on income proposition and purchasing power parity of each country/region. This has raged a debate with many users complaining to charge for a service which was free earlier. ALSO READ | Twitter employee can be seen sleeping on office's floor due to high pressure What is Twitter Blue Tick? Its a verification badge given by Twitter to promient and popular people and organisation to verify their accounts. The blue Verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. This helps to weed out fake accounts to the orginial ones. Twitter blue tick has become a status of symbol for users to mark out their importance and responsibilty. It cant be bought before Musk takeover. ALSO READ | Starbucks co-founder eats Masala Dosa & drinks filter coffee in Bengaluru Whats the procedure of getting verification tick? The person who wants to verify his/her account must have these three things: Authentic, Notable, and Active. How to apply for Verfication as of now? Step 1: One needs to navigate to more *** icon in the main menu. Step 2: Then select Settings and Support option. Step 3: Then select Setting and Privacy option. Step 4: Now select Your Account. Step 5: Tab on Account Information and then enter in your passoword to continue. Step 6: Under verified, select Request verification. Then Start request. There are several categories for verification inlcuding government, news organisations, individuals in news & journalists, companies, brands & organisations, content creators & influential individuals, many more. New Delhi: Actress Tina Datta was recently informed by Bigg Boss on the show about her pet dog Rani's deteriorating health. It is now learned that Rani has unfortunately passed away, and Tina was pulled out of the Bigg Boss house to be told of the unfortunate demise of her beloved dog, is heartbroken! The actress was seen sharing this news once back in the house and breaking down emotionally. She was extremely upset about not being able to attend the last rites because of being in the house and was in tears. Tina adopted Rani who was a crossbreed puppy, in 2010. Living alone in the city made Rani and her other pet Golden Retreiver Bruno her family. In the last few years Rani developed a cancer in the body which affected her health. Before coming into the Bigg Boss Tina was all hands on Rani's wellbeing, running from pillar to post to ensure that she had the best of treatments from the best of doctors in the city. While Rani is sadly no more, Tina is mourning the loss inside the house. It is truly said that a dog is a man's best friend and dogs are animals who can understand humans unlike any other. Hence the presence of Rani in Tina's life definitely proved that! We also mourn the loss of Tina's beloved Rani along with her. We hope that Rani's favourite memories can help the young actress cope with this loss in the Bigg Boss house. Two gunmen attacked Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan in Wazirabad while he was leading a rally against the ruling dispensation yesterday. The attack, carried out by two men, left around a dozen injured, though unofficial reports have claimed fatalities. Reports also say that one of the attackers was lynched by the crowd and Khans bodyguards, while the other was taken into custody. Imran was shot one after another. He was shot in the leg and was admitted to the hospital. According to sources, multiple bullets hit his leg. He was then rushed to Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore. He underwent surgery there. A four-member team has been formed for Imran's treatment. It is headed by Dr. Faizal Sultan. He is the former Special Assistant for Health to the Prime Minister. But doctors have confirmed that the bullet has been removed from Imran Khan's leg. However, one of his leg bones was damaged by the bullet. Doctors said he is out of danger now. His physical condition is stable. However, according to sources, he is somewhat stable after being shot in the leg. The doctors are keeping an eye on him. Dr. Faizal Sultan, head of the medical team, said that Imran Khan is currently stable and his blood pressure is also fine. Meanwhile, Imran's followers have been worried ever since he was shot. His followers started praying for his speedy recovery. At the same time, Imran's followers also started holding protest programs in various places. But at last, the news of Imran's health brought relief to his followers. Security has been beefed up at the hospital where the former Pakistan Prime Minister is admitted in Lahore. India-backed international organization - Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure or CDRI will be launching a trust fund and operationalizing a program for small island states at COP27 (Conference of the parties) summit in Egypt. The program, Infrastructure for resilient island state program or IRIS will help island states in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean to deal with the impact of climate change. Speaking to Zee Media, Director General of CDRI Amit Prothi said, "any island country which is more than 50, will be eligible for applying for the program. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any Island that is suffering, or facing risk from climate change is eligible for applying to this facility.". CDRI was launched in 2019 by Indian PM Modi at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit and has over 30 members so far. Prothi explained that under the 2 projects, CRDI will "support early warning systems, nature-based solutions, looking at alternatives" and look at "risk-informed discussion making, using data for better decisions, and we will be helping to mainstream resilience". The operationalization of IRIS will take place on the 17th, while the launch of the trust fund will take place on the 9th. IRIS was launched by PM Modi, along with PMs of the United Kingdom, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius during last year's COP summit in Glasgow. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP27 will take place in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh from November 6-18. The annual summit sees the world gather to chalk out ways to deal with the climate crisis. Also Read: Indonesia's envoy Krisnamurthi emphasizes on dialogue as Russia-Ukraine conflict looms over G20 Bali summit Q: If you can explain to our viewer, what is CDRI all about? A: Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is an organization that was announced by PM Modi in 2019 in the UN climate summit. It is our leadership in the world, trying to see how we can influence the world's agenda to reduce disaster risk to infrastructure. For example, we are reading a lot more about flooding, damages that happens due to earthquakes, we are reading about cyclones that impact the coastal communities. So how do we reduce the risk we are facing from the continued events, natural events like earthquakes or events due to climate changes. So how do we address those risks and organization really about taking leadership around the world. We are a coalition of 31 member countries, under the leadership of India. We have the US, UK, Ghana, Chile, Dominican Republic, so it's a whole gamut of countries around the world who have said that we will join India to demonstrate what we can do to reduce the risk. So essentially a coalition, under the Indian govt's leadership. So, we have a rotating co-chair. We had the UK govt as the co-chair, now it is the US govt that is part of it. Q: You will be going to COP27 naturally, what will be the focus of CRDI and the proposal that will be put.. A: Climate change summit that starts has a lot of focus on adoption, solution and financing. It is the first summit in the global south for a long time, it's in Egypt, Africa. The agenda is how do we show, demonstrate, and share examples of solutions that are working to address the risk of climate change. How do you also increase the financing that is going towards a climate change solution? For CDRI it is an opportune moment to talk at this global advocacy platform. It gives us a platform to share what CDRI is, and why we are important in the whole discussion. Advocacy is a big agenda for us. The second agenda is the finance topic. We are actually going to be launching a trust fund that will focus on resilient infrastructure solutions. We got commitments from the India, UK, Australian govt and EU. It will be a big announcement from CDRI, likely on the 9th. Another agenda will bethe Indian PM and 5 other PMs at the last year's climate summit announced-- Infrastructure for resilient island state program (IRIS). 6 PMs got up and said that we will help find solutions to problems that small island developing states are facing across the world. So we had a year now to do consultations across different island states, we have reached out to the Caribbean, pacific and Indian ocean island states to understand what the challenges might be. At this COP we will be announcing assistance through a technical and capacity-building facility and knowledge creation facility to invite small island states to apply for these kinds of support via CDRI and our partners. We are going to launch at this year's COP and start to roll out the program in the next few months. Q: If you can explain on IRIS and how many countries will be reached out. A: IRIS or its program for Infrastructure for resilient island states. We are basically saying, any island country which is more than 50, will be eligible for applying for the program. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any Island that is suffering, or facing risk from climate change are eligible for applying to this facility. The focus will be, we will support early warning systems, we would support nature-based solutions, looking at alternatives, we are going to support innovative solutions. We are also looking at risk-informed discussion making, using data for better decisions, and we will be helping to mainstream resilience--building roads, airports- how do we make sure those are free from future risks in these island states. Q: When the launch happens, will any leader be present? A: IRIS will be on the 17th of this month, the trust fund likely on 9th. World leader event happened last year; this is basically an operational announcement. So, we will senior members from the representative govt. Not a head of state, but senior members from various govts. Q: CDRI has a rotational partner, what have they done? A: UK has been our first partner; they have been really instrumental in helping us set up as an organization. We were brand new; the PM made an announcement in 2019, 2020 covid hit and we were starting to set up. The UK govt has been really instrumental in helping us build the organization and conceptualize IRIS. They have been close partners; how does the coalition support small island developments right from the beginning. They have supported us to build circulars. Between Indian and UK universities, new circulars to address risks in the future. Now the US govt has shown interest in that particular agenda item and we are exploring with them, how do we build a large network of universities with our coalition partners to train the next generation how to address risk in the future. That is one agenda from the US, they are also keen on private participation. At the end of the infrastructure is built by the private sector. How the private sector can be brought to the coalition, we have some members and how information can be taken to them. They are making decisions on infrastructure. The US has invested in a team that is sitting in Delhi that is building our capacity. Lot of our members are building our capacity to understand risk and deliver that across the world. These are some of the ways governments are helping us. Islamabad: Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders on Thursday said that former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan believes that the attack on him in which bullets were fired was carried out at the behest of three people including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, country`s Interior Minister and a top ISI general and his remarks were based on information he had received."A short while ago, Imran Khan told us to issue this statement on his behalf. He believes there are three people on whose behest this was done- Shehbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah and Maj Gen Faisal. He said he was receiving information and is saying this on that basis," Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Asad Umar and Mian Aslam Iqbal said. Rana Sanaullah is Pakistan`s Interior Minister and Major General Faisal Naseer is Director General (C) ISI.The PTI leaders also said that Imran Khan`s condition is stable and he is out of danger. Asad Umar, who is general secretary PTI said in a video posted by the party, that "the three people should be removed from their posts". "I talked to Imran Khan as there were reports we were receiving that Imran Khan is in danger. However, he said we should leave this to Allah. Imran Khan demanded that these three people should be removed from their posts. We are waiting for Imran Khan`s nod. If these people are not removed there will be countrywide protests," he said. "Imran Khan was shot in the leg. His CT scan has been done. If anyone had the slightest doubt it should have been cleared today as Imran Khan was saying again and again that he, for the freedom of this nation, is ready to sacrifice his life," he added. The suspect caught by police in Pakistan for opening fire during the PTI`s long march, has said he wanted to kill former Prime Minister Imran Khan because "he was misleading the public," media reports said. Imran Khan was injured in a firing incident near his container in Wazirabad in Pakistan`s Punjab province during his long march against the ruling coalition, reported ARY News. When the police asked why he committed the crime, the shooter said, "Imran Khan was misleading people and I could not tolerate it so I tried to kill him. I tried my best to kill him. I tried killing only Imran Khan and no one else." "I thought of this as there was Azaan going on and on the other side, Imran Khan is taking out his container and making noise. My conscience did not approve of this. I decided this suddenly... I conspired against Imran Khan from the day he kicked off his long march from Lahore. I made up my mind that I will not leave him alive," the shooter said according to a video shared on social media. Responding to whether there was someone else in the conspiracy, the shooter said, "I have conspired this alone and no one else is involved in this. I came on a bike and I parked it at my uncle`s shop. He has a motorcycle showroom. "The Punjab police have confirmed that seven people were injured and a person was killed during the firing incident. As per the police, the deceased has been identified as Muazzam Nawaz, reported Dawn. Pakistan Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has urged Punjab police to immediately cordon off the crime scene and seal Imran Khan`s container for investigation purposes.PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has also condemned the firing incident on PTI chief Imran Khan and the party members. Earlier, Faisal Javed Khan, a Senator of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who was injured in "the firing incident" near the container carrying Imran Khan during the long march, said it was an "assassination attempt" on the former Pakistan Prime Minister, according to media reports. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report from Interior Minister. He also directed the Interior Minister to get a report from the Punjab Chief Secretary and IGP Punjab. Imran Khan started long march last week towards Islamabad and had targeted the country`s spy chief and accused him of holding a "political presser". He had also targeted a few other officers. Eleven orthopedic surgeons are leaving SSM Health Dean Medical Group to start an independent practice in Madison managed by an Arizona company, with plans to build a specialty hospital in Dane County within two years and multiple outpatient surgical centers in the region. The move could shake up one of the most lucrative parts of health care in a market dominated by SSM Health and UW Health. It positions the doctors to take on financial risk with insurers and employer groups, accepting gains or losses through set payments per patient for whatever joint replacements or other orthopedic services they need, said Dr. Jason Sansone, leader of the group. Were looking forward to being able to disrupt that market, said Sansone, who has been SSM Health orthopedics chairman and will be CEO of Orthopedic Physicians of Wisconsin, which plans to open in January. We need to lead the charge as it relates to delivering value better quality, lower cost. He compared the move to direct primary care, in which family medicine doctors are leaving large groups like SSM Health and UW Health and starting up independent practices, often charging monthly fees, outside of insurance. SSM Health spokesperson Kim Sveum said the organization is recruiting other orthopedic surgeons and remains committed to providing and investing in orthopedic services for our patients. Last month, she said SSM Health valued its clinically integrated model of care. We believe that the independent model proposed by these physicians would weaken that integration and not be in the best interest of our patients, Sveum said. St. Louis-based SSM Health acquired Dean Clinic, which had long been independent but affiliated with St. Marys Hospital in Madison, in 2013. Orthopedic surgeons each generate an average of $3.3 million a year in hospital revenue, according to a report this year by consultant Merritt Hawkins. That is second only to interventional cardiologists, who bring in an average of $3.5 million. Other leading provider types are gastroenterologists, at $2.9 million; family medicine doctors, at $2.1 million; and obstetricians/gynecologists, at $2 million. New sites planned Sansone said the orthopedic surgeons plan to maintain privileges to operate at SSM Healths St. Marys hospitals in Madison and Janesville and its St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, even though they will no longer be employees, while expanding to other hospitals in the region. They plan to build a specialty orthopedics hospital and an ambulatory surgery center for outpatient procedures in Dane County by January 2025, he said. Additional surgery centers are planned, likely in the Janesville and Baraboo areas and possibly elsewhere in the region, he said. The surgeons plan to continue contracting with Dean Health Plan, which is owned by SSM Health, though that is not yet arranged, he said. They plan to contract with national insurers such as Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and United Healthcare, he said. They also intend to contract with Monona-based WPS Health Insurance and The Alliance, a Fitchburg-based cooperative of 300 self-insured employers that purchase medical services collectively. Cheryl DeMars, CEO of The Alliance, said building more medical facilities can sometimes add to health care cost, especially when large health systems do it. But the orthopedic surgeons risk-based approach should lower cost and improve value. We support the goals they want to achieve, DeMars said. They want to compete on price and quality and be the best. National footprint Phoenix-based Healthcare Outcomes Performance, or HOPCo, will manage the practice, Sansone said. HOPCo, which has similar arrangements with orthopedic groups in 32 states, covers orthopedic services for all United Healthcare members in Arizona, absorbing gains or losses from capitated rates, he said. The Madison surgeons will seek similar arrangements in Wisconsin, where they will be HOPCos first presence. The idea here is that were an anchor for a HOPCo Midwest, Sansone said. We feel very good about the ability to compete in this entire region. Sansone said the move to leave SSM Health and start an independent group is not driven by a desire to earn more money. The surgeons want more autonomy and ability to adapt to market changes, he said. Its not about pay and reimbursement, he said. We dont even know that doing this will necessarily be more profitable for us. The doctors will be able to see their previous or current SSM Health patients, but they wont be able to solicit them directly, Sansone said. Four to remain In late September, 15 of SSM Health Deans 17 orthopedic surgeons submitted 90-day resignation notices with the intent of starting the group. Four of them have decided to stay with SSM Health, Sansone said. Besides Sansone, the other 10 leaving are: Kashif Ali, Aaron Carpiaux, Rajit Chakravarty, Richard Glad, Brian Keyes, Dayton Opel, James Prosser, Joseph Sizensky, Brian Steffin and David Wolff. Their headquarters will be in the Arbor Gate complex off the Beltline near Todd Drive, where SSM Healths orthopedics group was based before moving early this year to its South Madison Campus on Fish Hatchery Road. Sansone said the plan is unrelated to one recently proposed by UW Health orthopedic surgeons to start an ambulatory surgery center in the Madison area. In June, Dr. Thomas Zdeblick resigned as UW orthopedics chair after Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said he didnt approve of Zdeblicks plan in which he and other UW doctors would own 62% of a new surgery center. Zdeblick, 65, said he will retire from UW at the end of the year and is no longer pursuing a surgery center. When asked in a Wisconsin State Journal interview if other UW doctors were still pursuing the idea, he said he wasnt sure. For over 20 years, a medical team from Global Passion Ministries has gone to Nicaragua to provide medical aid, food, education and hope to the people of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, with many from Nebraska joining over the years. Puerto Cabezas, a port town on the Atlantic coast of the country, will see two Columbus residents this year as Melanie Jensen joins 11-year veteran Tamra Boettcher and 17 others from around the United States on their mission trip in January. The stories shes told me over the years, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, all the volunteers are truly angels donating their time and talents to help all the kids, they help in so many ways even when theyre not in Nicaragua, and ask for no notoriety either, Jensen said. Boettcher, a nurse practitioner at CHI Health, helps organize the Ditzel Clinic on the trip, which is responsible for skin-based medical issues such as moles and scars, and files the paperwork for everyone going. It humbles me and fills my bucket to be able to go help them. I know people say theres a lot to do here in the U.S. and I understand that and I dont deny it, but this is just where I have been drawn to serve and I am lucky enough to get time from work to go serve and form these relationships, Boettcher said. Boettcher said this all started for her when Dr. Nila Navatny from Columbus Community Hospital asked her to accompany her on a trip in 2011. Boettcher has taken a couple of odd years off between now and then, but she is now on her tenth trip. I went with her that first year, I dont know if I went the second year but bless her heart for asking me, Boettcher said. She continues to go on mission trips but generally to different locations. In turn, Boettcher told Jensen, owner of Mel.Hair in Columbus, that she could come along as well and help, despite not being a medical professional. To be able to go along and lend a hand myself whether its serving food or doing hair or helping build something or even just to give out hugs, its cool you can just go and help a little bit, Jensen said. This is Jensens first trip to Nicaragua and first mission trip. Jensen said after hearing about the work the group does, even outside of the time they are in Nicaragua, she was elated to go with them and be part of it, no matter what she ends up helping with. Its breathtaking to hear how giving and hardworking and amazingly wonderful the team is and how much they truly care for the community down there to help as many people as they can in just such a short amount of time, Jensen said. Boettcher said that while in Nicaragua, the team will be working with local medical professionals to do a lot of cleft lip and cleft palate repairs, a common issue in some of the lower-income areas. Ear, nose and throat issues are also common, and people often travel for many miles to be there for the 10 days the team is in Puerto Cabezas. We actually use Nicaraguan surgeons who are very well-skilled and they have really good outcomes, Boettcher said. Jensen said the cleft lip/palate work is something that initially drew her in, as she had seen the impact it can make on someones life very well. Thats kind of a pretty big surgery. Here we dont think much about it and down there its so common and so many kids down there need that surgery so having a group that goes down and focuses on that is huge, Jensen said. One thing that has come of the need and poverty in these areas is a type of ingenuity. Necessity being the mother of invention, Boettcher said the locals have found ways to make what they need from what they have. Its interesting to see some of the things, Ive got pictures of a wheelchairthey took a white plastic lawn chairthe seat had broken out of the wheelchair and they jammed that in there, it still has the wheels from the wheelchair, Boettcher said. Jensen added that things like wheelchairs, or even food, are greatly needed there when in the U.S., theyre so common people rarely think about them. The simple things we have here they dont have down there, like simple access to a wheelchair, it is just mind boggling to me or even food, the amount of kids that just need meals. I get teared up just talking about it, Jensen said. Boettcher said that over the years, she and the rest of the team have built relationships with the people of the area they serve and become almost family with some of them. One in particular, she said, was recently involved in a bus accident, a young woman with two sons who helped out at the compound. I dont know if shes out of her coma but shes in the hospital outside of Mexico City on a ventilator, unresponsive. Her little boys are OK, Boettcher said. Ive always called her my Nicaraguan daughter; you just worry about them and care about them. You just get very close and you get to know each other. Boettcher added that Hurricanes Eta, Iota and, most recently, Felix, have dealt a lot of damage to the region, leveling buildings in some places and making repairs difficult. The building where the team stays lost its top floor and a second building for housing visitors was completely lost. All that was left standing was the cement steps so that has been since rebuilt but the place on the compound site is not rebuilt yet, Boettcher said. Then just two weekends ago another hurricane came through but not near to the extent and damage of the others. Jensen said after hearing about the need and about the experiences people have on the trip, excitement builds every day as she prepares herself to help the group help others. Every day that we get closer I get more and more passionate about it because I keep learning more and doing more research on the community, Jensen said. I keep meeting the team members that have gone down all these years, every day I just feel like Im getting connected more and more. The group will leave Jan. 11 and return on Jan. 22. Leading up to the event, they will hold several fundraisers. In the past, support has been outstanding, Boettcher said. Peace Lutheran Church will host a free will donation spaghetti feed on Dec. 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Bos West Bar and Grill will raffle off items during the month of November with proceeds going to the cause and Mel.Hair, 1268 27th Ave in Columbus, has flyers for the spaghetti feed and a donation box for those interested in simply donating. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and that it is also his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. Xi said the visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward. Xi stressed that China-Germany relations could not have reached today's level without the extraordinary vision and political courage of generations of Chinese and German leaders, mentioning this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. The five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress, he said. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to world peace and development. China will work with Germany for a future-oriented all-round strategic partnership and for new progress in China-Germany and China-Europe relations. Xi briefed Scholz on the 20th CPC National Congress, with a particular focus on the essence of Chinese modernization. He pointed out that modernization is an aspiration and goal shared by people in all countries. That said, countries should choose their paths to modernization in light of their own national realities. Xi said Chinese modernization has elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context, because of China's unique national conditions, because of China's social system and governance philosophy, and because of understanding gained through decades of endeavors toward modernization. The president said China has been upholding and promoting world peace through its own development. In this process, the development of China and that of other countries have become more interconnected and mutually reinforcing. China will stay committed to advancing high-standard opening up, keep to the right direction in economic globalization, promote an open world economy, and expand converging interests with other countries. Xi stressed that political trust is easy to destroy but difficult to rebuild and that it should be nurtured and protected by both sides. He cited a quote which former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt used and which he appreciated, that political leaders should have the serenity to accept the things they cannot change, the courage to change the things they can change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two. "It is important that China and Germany respect each other, accommodate each other's core interests, adhere to dialogue and consultation, and jointly resist disturbance from bloc confrontation and attempts to see everything through the prism of ideology," Xi said. He called on both sides to keep to the overall direction of bilateral ties from a strategic height, pursue the biggest common ground in a constructive manner, and advance practical cooperation with an open mind to create conditions for long-term and steady growth of bilateral ties. "There should be no self-imposed restrictions or unrealistic expectations," Xi said. Noting the high degree of stability and consistency in China's policy toward Germany, he called on Germany to follow a positive China policy for the mutual benefits of both countries. Xi pointed out that over the past five decades, bilateral practical cooperation has kept deepening, with two-way trade growing by almost 1,000 times, serving economic and social development in both countries. "The two sides should make the pie of common interests still bigger," he said, adding that while exploring more cooperation potential in traditional areas, efforts should be made to energize cooperation in emerging fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence and digitalization. China will work with Germany and Europe to further deepen aviation cooperation, conduct exchanges and cooperation on COVID-19, increase interactions and mutual learning on green development and ecological conservation, and encourage more people-to-people exchanges, he said, calling on Germany to join China in resisting protectionism so that the fruitful bilateral cooperation can deliver more benefits to the two peoples. Xi pointed out that China-Europe relations bear on global stability and prosperity in Eurasia and should be maintained and developed with efforts from both sides. Xi said China always regards Europe as a comprehensive strategic partner, supports the strategic autonomy of the European Union and wishes Europe stability and prosperity. China maintains that its relations with Europe are not targeted at, dependent on, or subjected to a third party. The more complex and difficult the situation becomes, the more important it is for China and Europe to uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, dialogue and cooperation, Xi said. "China will work with Germany and with Europe to step up coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly look for solutions for such global issues as climate change, biodiversity and food security." Scholz expressed his pleasure to visit China in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of Germany-China diplomatic relations and have an in-depth discussion with Xi on Germany-China relations and on important issues of mutual interest. He thanked Xi for the update on China's development outlook. He observed that in a complex and grave international landscape, Europe also faces unprecedented challenges. China is playing an important role on many global issues like climate change, biodiversity, COVID-19 response and food crisis. Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security. Scholz said China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole. Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling. Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses. Scholz said on issues where the two countries' positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties. A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously. Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be responsible. Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations. The two leaders also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi reaffirmed China's support for Germany and Europe to play an important role in facilitating peace talks and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe. Under the current circumstances, the international community should support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and call on relevant parties to remain rational and exercise restraint, start direct engagement as quickly as possible, and create conditions for the resumption of talks; oppose the use of or the threat to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used and that nuclear wars must not be fought, and prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia; work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and forestall disruption to international cooperation in energy, food, finance and other areas and consequent damage to global economic recovery, especially the economic and fiscal stability of developing countries; and make joint efforts to tide civilians in areas affected by the crisis through the winter, and improve the humanitarian situation to avoid a humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale. After the meeting, Xi held a banquet for Scholz at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Juniors and seniors at Lakeview High School were able to get one step ahead in their future careers on Thursday with the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerces mock interview day. As part of the chambers Drive for Five workplace development initiative, roughly 150 Lakeview students took part in interviews with leaders at area businesses to help strength their skills. Sarah Ehlers, director of talent and workforce development at the chamber, said all area chamber members were invited to take part in the mock interviews. Students underwent two interviews each and received feedback on what they did well, how they can improve and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Also, students submitted their resumes which volunteers scored to help them improve their resume-writing skills. Its really a fantastic opportunity for them to also meet community leaders and have the community involved, Ehlers said. I really believe that bringing industry into education is really important for the growth of the community, so thats why were doing this. On Thursday, representatives from just over 50 businesses participated. Ehlers noted there were no issues in getting people to volunteer for the event. We sent out one email, and they just all jumped on it, Ehlers said. The students get to dress up, really put their best foot forward. I think that first interview gets a lot of their nerves out. The interviewers held a variety of positions from different fields. Ehlers said they included plant managers, realtors, staff assistants and Congressman Mike Flood. We just have really a broad spectrum and were looking at this from anywhere from CEOs and presidents of companies to people on the frontlines of the hospital to people who work in production, Ehlers said. Theyre able to see the advantages of all those different (areas) and theyre able to ask back what they (the interviewers) do. A variety of questions were posed to the students, such as their learning and leadership styles, where they see themselves in 10 years and what is most important to them in their ideal community. Students are not given the questions ahead of time. Different questions that they could possibly ask for scholarships and for jobs. I really believe the kids need to be prepped for those scholarship interviews because theyre becoming more and more common now, Ehlers said. Lakeview teacher and Future Business Leaders of America adviser Tara Dlouhy said juniors spend about three weeks preparing for mock interview day. They go through creating a cover letter and resume, how to conduct themselves during an interview and sample questions, Dlouhy said. It is really great to give students that opportunity to practice those with somebody other than myself, Dlouhy said. Most of these students are going to have an interview at some point in their life, and they not might have not had one already. This gives them a great opportunity to make connections in the community while practicing their interview skills. Lakeview student Sidney Jaixen, an 18-year-old who is planning to pursue a career as an attorney after high school, noted the experiences shes gained from the mock interview days. As a senior, this was the second event she attended. I feel like I learned a lot of skills that I can use in the workplace and later on, such as how to interview and what interviewers are looking for, Jaixen said, adding she feels as though she has improved from last years event. I think my confidence has improved, 100%. I think thats one of the biggest things. And I think just having more work experience on my resume and having more experience with colleges and stuff like that has really helped. Dlouhy said she hears positive feedback from the mock interview days and Lakeview appreciates the time the interviewers give for the event. From community members, they always say how well Lakeview represents themselves and that their students are very prepared and always look very good. They dress the part, Dlouhy said. The students are always nervous going in, but coming out of it, they are always enthusiastic about their futures and they get great feedback. Notably, Ehlers said a big question the students were asked this year is if they would rather have limitless money or limitless time. I think 10 years ago, almost everyone would have said limitless money. But I think COVID has changed perspective where limitless time is becoming more precious to them, Ehlers said, noting that values and priorities are changing for the workforce. Thats not just about the job but about the community. This is part of the community, (we) want them to come back to the community they live in and have grown up in to give back and work in that community and raise a family. This is their first opportunity to really meet the people in the community outside of their school. The chamber will be holding a mock interview day at Scotus Central Catholic on Dec. 1 and Reality 101 at Columbus Middle School on Dec. 16. one roof. Jithesh Engineers was established in the year 2008 solely as a fruit of the hardwork and dedication put in by the Founder, Jithesh K.Jithesh Engineers employs individuals that are dedicated towards their respective roles and put in a lot of effort to achieve the common vision and larger goals of the company. The team at Jithesh stays abreast with cutting-edge technologies and trends to improve operational efficiency and sustainability. This provides a well established design and functionality and meets the customer's needs with a unified engineer to designer solution.Jithesh engineers endeavors to be a consultancy firm that drives value to the clients' demand accustomed with `Integrity, Trust, Commitment and Excellence'. The firm designs high performing buildings at a low cost with minimal use of steel, ensuring complete safety even for complicated structures. Jithesh engineers strongly concentrates on the design based on the clients wants and aims to reach them in an economical manner. An experimental approach to building a four storey RCC( Conventional Method) building in 16 days was carried out in the Calicut district, and it proved successful. Jithesh Engineers' clients mostly come up with commercial building projects that have a requirement for flat slab design. The firm's expertise makes a head start on planning. At the same time, load analysis on analytical model eliminates defects before the final design is provided, thereby saveing time, reducing errors, and minimizing redundancies during construction. Mean while, this increases Jithesh Engineers' challenge to design efficiently. To boost the project efficiency, Jithesh's engineers work with software's like StaadPro, Etabs, RAM concept, SAFE, RCDC and so on.Jithesh Engineers is a global firm that focuses on design, cost and most important, the latest technology. Commenced as a two-employee company, Jithesh Engineers got it's first project from Malabar Builders through STAPATI, one of the Leading Architectural Firms in South India. Thenceforth, the firm has grown over the years with services all over Kerala and other states in the country, all the way to GCC nations. Over the span of 14 years, the company has successfully completed more than 2500 projects and worked for more than 20 reputed builders in the state. Jithesh Engineers Pvt. Ltd aims at providing value to the clients through innovative structural engineering solutions based on integrity, trust and commitment to excellence. "We are creative and innovative problem solvers providing opportunity for professional and personal growth of our employees while contributing to the safety of our community", adds Jithesh K.Today with a team of 20+ employees that comprises of planners, structural engineers, marine structure engineers, geotechnical engineers and more, Jithesh Engineers continues to prosperand prioritise customer satisfaction beyond anything.In the near future, the company intends to expand it's line of products and services and cater to a larger client base. Moreover, Jithesh Engineers aims to continue working towards its client's needs economically. "Together with hardwork and passion, our company soon advanced into one of the fastest growing Indian company overcoming any hurdles along the way. Over the course of its journey, our business has established a firm foothold in this industry", concludes Jithesh. Argentina Tax Officers Find $20m Worth of Crypto Mining Hardware on Livestock Farm Source: Galyna Andrushko/Adobe The tax body of Argentina is continuing its crackdown on unregistered crypto mining and has swooped on a livestock and cereal farm to uncover some $20 million worth of coin-mining hardware. In a government notice, the national tax authority, known locally as the AFIP, explained that the equipment was found in the premises of an agricultural company dedicated to raising livestock and growing cereals. The AFIP explained that the farm was based in the province of Santa Fe, in the town of Reconquista. It added that the farm had acquired 35 crypto mining rigs, in addition to video cards and motherboards that were going to be used to mine cryptocurrencies. However, it appears that the hardware had not yet been connected to the internet, so the farm operators may escape more severe forms of punishment. The farm operators are likely to face fines, however, and it does not appear that the hardware had been smuggled into the country. The AFIP last month exhibited a haul of over 340 illegally imported mining rigs that were intercepted at one of countrys biggest ports. The rigs had been concealed inside shipping containers containing range of consumer goods. More Illegal Crypto Miners Busted in Argentina The AFIP added that it had also carried out another operation near Santa Fe on a property where electricity consumption had spiked by a whopping 800%. Officers were dispatched to investigate and reportedly unearthed equipment including 96 video cards. The AFIP stated that the hardware had an estimated value of $14 million and was being used to mine cryptocurrencies. The propertys owner had not declared any activity related to the [mining] of cryptoassets, said the tax body. It added that it would issue the miner with fines and corresponding tax adjustments. The AFIP has been searching nationwide for crypto miners who fail to register their operations in the past few months after ministers called for crypto-related tax reforms back in February this year. Carlisle Area High School's Swartz Auditorium filled with rounds of applause Thursday evening as the Employment Skills Center hosted its first in person, programwide graduation since the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization is dedicated to providing free professional and educational programming for adults, and the ceremony highlighted people who completed the organization's GED, English as a Second Language; digital literacy, Microsoft Excel & Outlook and/or nurse aid training programs. "Its important for us to recognize the accomplishments of our students throughout the year, but its especially impactful to recognize them with a formal ceremony something that many of them may have never experienced before," said Mindy Tremblay, the center's executive director. "As an agency, we recognize how difficult it is to return to school as an adult. We all feel the impact of lifes challenges just as our students do, and we are humbled by their stories and the barriers they have overcome to reach their goals. Its truly an honor to learn from them and to celebrate their successes together." More than 180 students were recognized Thursday evening, but Tremblay said several had completed their programs last year or earlier this year and others were unable to attend the graduation. She estimated that 50 to 60 students crossed the stage at the event. While each of the programs is different, Tremblay said some students participated in multiple programs over several years. Most of those honored at the ceremony participated in programs over the past two years, and those who completed workforce development trainings, which include digital literacy, Microsoft, and nurse aid, spent between two and six weeks in the programs during that time, she said. The event included an opportunity for two graduates, Cammie Jenkins and Jahlisa Mayo, to speak about their experiences with the program and recognized Tasha Kelfer and Naalma Bouhouch as recipients of the Julie McKain Memorial Award. This scholarship was awarded to students who demonstrated academic achievement, dedication, participation in the classroom, attendance and other qualities, as well as consideration of post-graduate achievements. Carlisle Mayor Sean Shultz and Lou Werdebach of the borough's Truth and Reconciliation Commission also spoke during the ceremony. "You have accomplished something simply by getting through this process for each of you, whether it was your GED or nursing program, learning new skills in Microsoft or digital literacy," Shultz said. "That's something you're going to go forward and use for your own purposes. You're going to use it not just to better yourselves, but to help uplift your families, your friends and your community. So when you leave tonight, you'll have a piece of paper, but what's so critical is what you're going to do going forward, and I thank you all for what you will do in the future." Tremblay said this week's ceremony marked the first in-person celebration for program graduates in four years. "To be in a position where we can bring our students and their loved ones together to celebrate their accomplishments is exciting. We are so inspired by their hard work and determination," she said. "Many of them have overcome challenges and have continued to persevere in order to achieve their personal and professional goals, and we could not be more proud of them." Newville residents will likely not see a tax increase in the boroughs budget for next year. Borough council tentatively approved the General Fund Budget during a special meeting Oct. 17 with a 5-0 vote, with President Pro-Tempore Joey Diehl absent. The proposed budget retains the general tax levy of 4.45 mills, after an increase of half a mill last year to account for the boroughs new municipal building. A mill equates to $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. We kept all the fees the same, building permit fees the same, nothing has changed, Borough Manager Fred Potzer said. All other taxes, the earned income tax, reality transfer tax, occupational assessment tax, they all remain the same. The proposed budget includes revenues of $1,074,400. Primary sources include the real estate tax, which is estimated to generate $305,500, and the earned income tax, which is expected to bring in $170,000. Other revenue sources include realty transfer taxes associated with home sales and property transfers and the Comcast cable television franchise fee. Throughout the past two years, the borough has received American Rescue Plan Act grant funding of $140,000, but the borough will not receive that money next year. Expenditures next year total $1,064,250. Some of the largest expenditures are the salaries and operation costs of Newvilles four-officer police department, which makes up 42% of the total budget; administration, which equates to 11% of the budget; and Public Works Department at 11.5% of the budget. Our budget is a salary-oriented budget, its salary and benefits, Potzer said. Other expenditures include insurances, donations to nonprofit organizations, the boroughs tax collection office and parks and community recreation. Another expenditure in next years proposed budget involves the move from the boroughs office at 4 West St. to the new location that is under construction on South High Street. Work on the building expected to wrap up by late spring or early summer, Potzer said. The borough estimates the move to cost $63,000. That includes the price of IT services, a new phone system, alarm and security systems and an emergency generator among other items. It does not include the replacement of office furniture or the potential installation of a public address system. The need for this system will be determined once the building is in operation, the borough said. Next years General Fund Budget also includes $10,150 in unallocated funds. The budget is available for review at the Newville Borough Office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. People can also contact Borough Secretary/Treasurer Jody Hoffman at 717-776-7633 or newvilleboroughsecretary@newvilleborough.us. The budget is set for final adoption at the borough councils meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 29 at the borough office. Youre out of the Will! is something someone might shout at a family member who they feel has wronged them in some way. While it is unfortunate when relationships fall apart, you do have the right to disinherit a child, a parent or a more distant relative. You might even choose to exclude a child from your estate because of gifts given during your lifetime. The one person you cannot completely write out of your Will is your spouse. Pennsylvania laws include provisions to protect spouses. The Commonwealth does not want widows to be left penniless and reliant upon the welfare system to survive. If a spouse is not provided for in the Will, or receives too little under the Will, that spouse has a right to claim a share of the estate called the Spousal Elective Share. That share amounts to one third of certain property from the estate, but some assets are excluded and some must be waived if the elective share is claimed. The Spousal Elective Share does not include insurance proceeds, certain retirement benefits, any property that was sold or given away with both spouses agreement, and some more complex items. The spouse can, however, claim a share of certain property that was sold or given away without their consent. Why might someone want to disinherit their spouse? The most obvious circumstance is if the couple is having marital problems and is in the process of divorcing. The legislature thought about that, and made provisions for divorcing spouses. Tom and Katie were married for several years, and then things fell apart between them. Tom began an affair with Sheila, and then he decided to leave Katie. He changed the beneficiary designations on his retirement account and life insurance policies to benefit his siblings and updated his Will to write Katie out of it. He pulled all of the money out of savings and used it to buy a house for himself and Sheila. Katie came home one day to find their apartment and bank accounts had been cleaned out, and Tom had begun a new life with his mistress. Katie filed for divorce, but before the divorce could be completed, Tom was in a fatal car accident. What happens to Katie? That depends on how far along they were in their divorce. If the couple was still in the early stages of exchanging documents and negotiating settlement, then Katie would claim a Spousal Elective Share from Toms estate. Even though Tom wrote her out of his Will, she could receive a third of the money in his bank accounts and a third of the value of the house he bought for Sheila. Katie could not, however, receive any of the life insurance proceeds. Depending upon how Toms retirement accounts were set up, Katie may or may not be able to receive a share of those. If grounds for divorce had been established and the court was close to dividing up their marital property, then Katie would not be able to claim an elective share from Toms estate. She would, however, have the option of continuing the divorce proceedings to receive what might be a larger share of his estate than the Spousal Elective Share. A spouse may be omitted from a Will in a healthy marriage, too, though. Consider a different circumstance, with Robert and Linda. Robert and Linda married later in life, after each of them had their own separate children from prior relationships. They each sold their prior homes and used the funds to buy a house together. Linda kept about $300,000 in separate bank accounts, $100,000 in joint bank accounts with Robert, and had a few life insurance policies benefiting her children. Her Will left everything to her children and nothing to Robert. Robert could claim a Spousal Elective Share from Lindas estate, but would he want to? If he does not, he would receive the entire house and joint bank accounts by action of law. If he claims a Spousal Elective Share, he would waive his right to receive those. Instead, the estate would calculate how much Linda contributed to the house and joint bank account, and Robert would only receive a third of that, along with a third of Lindas separate bank accounts. That is, a third of what remains of those after the estate pays other debts and expenses. Robert would probably receive more if he does not claim a Spousal Elective Share. What if the Elective Share would be more, though? What if Robert had advanced dementia and his son from a previous marriage was acting for him under a Power of Attorney? Would Roberts son claim the Spousal Elective Share to increase Roberts inheritance? The couple could have done better planning to ensure their agreements would be honored. Consider another circumstance. George and Mabel were married for many happy years before Georges health declined. Mabel did the best she could to care for him at home, but after the third fall, the doctor determined it was not safe for him to return home. He needed skilled nursing care. Mabel went through a complicated process to get George qualified for Medicaid to help pay for his care in the nursing home, while preserving as much of their combined property for Mabel to live off of for the rest of her life. Mabel then passed away while George was still living in the nursing home. If Mabels estate plans leave George less than the Spousal Elective Share, the Department of Human Services will claim the Spousal Elective Share on Georges behalf. The kids will have to go through more work to get George eligible for Medicaid again. If Mabel did not get the best possible legal advice, the kids might have more work and expense than was absolutely necessary. Even in a happy marriage, there may be good reasons to limit what your spouse inherits. Make sure you get the best possible legal advice to accomplish your goals. Call Keystone Elder Law at 717-697-3223 to find out if an elder law attorney can help you. You may also attend a free online planning workshop. They will start in a couple weeks. Find more information about the workshops at KeystoneElderLaw.com. "I was shocked to tell you the truth," Sandy Morrison said of her reaction to receiving the wheelchair. "It was just a shock, thats all, to see it and actually touch it and know it was mine." PITTSBURGH Pittsburgh officials have admitted that although a police presence had been requested at a funeral last week where a shooting left six people injured, no officers showed up for the event. Acting Police Chief Thomas Stangrecki said in a statement Thursday that the officers involved will face disciplinary action, which will be handled internally. It was not clear, though, if police failed to respond to the funeral request or if they did respond and failed to show. A department spokesperson said the reason behind the unfulfilled request remains under investigation. Six people were injured when two shooters opened fire outside the Destiny of Faith Church on Oct. 28. Five of the victims were shot, while the other was injured in the melee. Shawn Davis, 19, of McKees Rocks, and a 16-year-old from Pittsburgh face charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and weapons counts in connection with the shooting. The funeral was for 20-year-old John Hornezes Jr., who was among three people killed in an Oct. 15 shooting in Pittsburgh. Authorities have repeatedly declined comment on whether Davis and the teen suspect had any connection to Hornezes or anyone attending his service. The Board of Directors of the St. Francois County Joint Communications Center agreed last Wednesday to move ahead with a massive radio project predicted to improve communication among all emergency responders in the centers coverage area within the next year and a half. The radio project, overseen by consulting service Rey Freeman Communications out of Minnesota, involves upgrading the centers equipment and expanding its digital capabilities and reach. The project could cost up to $4.1 million, but the consulting firm says it would vastly improve the unity, quality and response time of emergency services due to improved communication. First responders have found that, with the attractiveness of metal roofs and concrete blocks for construction, sometimes the effectiveness of responders radios is lacking. Center Director Alan Wells gave the board his perspective. Before we put in the new tower (last summer on Simms Mountain), our public safety communications was probably 70%, at best. There was a big margin of error in not being able to communicate with responders in a distressed time. So the new tower, which we expected would help greatly but we didnt know how well, I think probably moved that effectiveness up to 80-85%, but thats still a great margin of error, he said. Lives are at stake, and its crucial that were able to communicate immediately and dependably. This new system will clean all of that up and put us at about a 98% coverage, which to me is something we owe to our responders and our citizens. Many emergency response agencies in St. Francois County and Ste. Genevieve County have been discussing the radio project since it was laid out at the September board meeting, mulling over what it might mean for their fire, police, and EMS budgets and operations. P25 is key to the project Project 25 is the next phase of digital communications for first responders, yet the technology is able to work backwards and forwards, with both analog and digital radios, and allowing for encryption so that crucial communication among responders is not intercepted by third parties. The flexibility of P25 technology has given rise to the number of radio manufacturers, which is said to allow for better price competition. Wells pointed out, even if smaller departments cannot afford radio updates at this time, the upgraded infrastructure will still work with their older radios. He pointed out, once they upgrade, theyll likely be getting digitally-compatible radios anyway, since thats all manufacturers are making anymore. Wells also said first responders could apply for a grant for mobile and portable radios. He said, to his recollection, agencies can pursue up to $20,000 with a 50% match, which could fund two radios. During the meeting, Bonne Terre Police Chief Doug Calvert and Bill Stegall, board member and lieutenant with Bonne Terre Police Department, confirmed their department was currently looking into slowly replacing all of their radios, with Stegall estimating it would be about $2,300 per unit for police vehicle radios, and about $1,000 per handheld radio. Calvert said, with todays unsteady supply chain, the department found it could probably get a new vehicle built before the radio for it would be ready. Its estimated, once a funding mechanism for the radio project is chosen subleases, loans and paying half out of the centers budget has been discussed -- the switch over would start in the spring of 2023 and last until just after 2024, if all goes well and equipment can be shipped in a timely fashion during the widespread, post-COVID supply chain disruptions. But first, the center has to secure funding. Wells told the board he and Deputy Director Chuck Farr III recently met with legislators on potential grants or other sources of funding for the radio project. There is nothing available per se for the infrastructure backbone at the present time that we can apply for, however, we have sparked some interest with our state and our legislative bodies about a potential bill that may be written or introduced this next year, he said. Whether it'll go anywhere or have any success or not, I don't know. Board Chairman Ron Bockenkamp asked if the bill had been drafted yet. Wells said to his knowledge, it hadnt, and the legislative session doesnt begin until Dec. 1. Wells asked the board for approval to proceed with finding funding options for the project. Other news shared with board members: Finance Committee Chair and board member Ginger Taylor, CPA, reported the center had almost $5.5 million in total account balances, with $1.4 million in the contingency fund. The contingency fund, she reminded her fellow board members, is based on six months operating expenditures and is intended to provide a cushion during times of extreme economic volatility or changes in sales tax revenues, which is how the center is supported. Wells provided the monthly statistics of emergency dispatchs operations. Total calls for service in September were 11,291, which averaged to about 376 calls per day, which Wells said was a slight increase. Actual 911 amounted to 3,114, or 97 per day average, and 82% of the calls were on wireless technologies and devices. Center employees entered 773 warrants and cleared 766 of them. Wells said two members of the centers staff, Gary Fryman and Matt Hart, had completed state-required training to become certified dispatchers. The program is accredited by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and approved by the state as the certifying mechanism. Charlottesville early voting turnout has increased by more than 30%, and Albemarle County has seen a nearly 50% increase since the 2018 general election. The expandingly popular option is making it more difficult to predict election results at all levels, local election experts say. Virginia lifted restrictions on early voting in 2020, coinciding with safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling locations. House Bill 207 lifted the requirement that state residents provide an excuse when applying for an early voting or absentee mail-in ballot. Now, the option is relieving some of the pressure of Election Day as Virginians have more time to cast their vote before the actual day, which this year is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Elections are like the pandemic, in that every state handles them differently, said Miles Coleman, voting analyst and associate editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. It was during the 2019 elections that Democrats in Virginia got full control of state government. Thats when they started to expand early voting. Before 2019 you had to have an excuse if you wanted to vote early. Virginia election workers count all ballots as soon as they are submitted, guaranteeing a timely public result on election night. Pennsylvania, however, will present one of the most challenging election results to predict because election workers are not permitted to count ballots until the final polling place closes on election night next Tuesday, Coleman says. Conversely, Arizona, where all of the House seats are up for election, is categorized as a predominately mail-in ballot state. More than 1.05 million Arizona residents cast early votes as of October 25, according to AZ Central. Mail-in votes are overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic candidates, while Republican voters most often wait for Election Day to cast their votes, Coleman says. The difference is another reason predicted elections is more difficult than it was before new early voting laws. Although Charlottesville and Albemarle County early voter numbers are up and in favor of Democratic candidates, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, the 5th District remains a Republican one. One problem for Democrats in this district is yes, it has Charlottesville but the rest of it is very much not Charlottesville, Coleman said. Its a Republican district. I would expect at least Charlottesville and Albemarle County are going to come out strong for Throneburg with 80% or more of the vote in Charlottesville. Good may underperform, but he still has an R next to his name. In addition to loosening the Election Day time constraint, the early option gives voters the opportunity to confirm that the state Department of Elections sends the correct information to their proper polling place. During a student forum with Democratic U.S. House of Representative candidate Josh Throneburg, Senator Tim Kaine told University of Virginia students that his most recent voter registration was mistakenly not sent to his new polling place. Kaine said going to the polls early allowed him the opportunity to resolve the error before Election Day. Election workers have more time to stop and smell the ballots with a more scattered voting style this year. Its relieved a little bit of the work from poll workers, Taylor Yowell, General Registrar and Director of Elections for Charlottesville City. There are just as many situations happening on Election Day, but now there will be less foot traffic, which has been the case for the last couple of years when we had a high turnout for early voting. While mail-in ballots accounted for 40% of last years gubernatorial election and Charlottesville has seen further increase so far this year, a four-year election cycle will help experts determine updated early election trends. Virginia residents can still participate in early voting at their respective polling place through Saturday, November 5 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. The Oregon State Police have arrested a Brownsville man on suspicion of manslaughter in connection to a May double fatal motor vehicle crash on Highway 20 near Sweet Home. Police arrested Robert Prettyman, 34, and booked him in the Linn County Jail following a grand jury secret indictment filed with Linn County Circuit Court. Prettyman is accused of two counts of second-degree manslaughter and one count of third-degree assault. The crash The charges stem from a head-on motor vehicle crash May 14 on Highway 20 that killed Carl Curtis, 79, and his passenger, Yvonne Levy, 73, both of Huntington Beach, California. The crash occurred northwest of Sweet Home at about 4:45 p.m., according to an Oregon State Police news release at the time. Prettyman was reportedly driving a red Mazda 3 eastbound near Liberty Road when he swerved across all lanes of traffic, hit the westbound shoulder and swerved back into the eastbound lanes. The Mazda then collided with a Nissan Versa operated by Curtis, the news release said. Medics transported Prettyman to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. A 4-year-old child that was a passenger in his car was taken to a hospital with critical injuries, OSP said. Highway 20 was closed for four hours during the investigation. Sweet Home Fire District, the Linn County Sheriffs Office and the Oregon Department of Transportation assisted OSP. Formally charged Almost six months after the crash, Prettyman was due in Linn County Circuit Court for an arraignment Friday afternoon, Nov. 4. Shortly after the crash, OSP said it needed any witnesses who observed Prettyman driving prior to the crash to come forward. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. According to the indictment, 12 witnesses appeared before the grand jury, including seven people associated with Oregon State Police. The court document alleges Prettyman recklessly caused the deaths of Curtis and Levy as well as seriously injured another victim. At the time the indictment was filed Thursday, Nov. 3, security was set at $150,000. According to Oregons online court database, Prettyman has retained Kyla Mazhary-Clark as his defense attorney. Editors note: This story references suicide and contains words readers may find vulgar. In 2022, the Nov. 8 general election in Lebanon the city that friendliness built, according to its motto may be a referendum on just how friendly it is, at least to one segment of the community. The races, for mayor and to represent all three wards on the City Council, pit people who urged the outgoing mayor to proclaim June as Pride Month against those whod rather not talk about sexuality. At all. Instead, they talk about keeping Lebanon a small town with small town values, and making sure growth is managed to attract homebuyers not renters. But the presence of candidates who are vocal in their support of the LGBTQ+ community is forcing the issue, placing one of the fastest-growing cities in Oregon at a crossroads. Even their opponents acknowledge it, framing the other side as the ones being divisive. Zayn Its usually about the time he gets downtown that Zayn Chapman wonders whether his rainbow-colored shirt is a liability. The weather turned gray in late October. When he wears it, Chapmans pink, blue, black-white-and-brown apparel appears striking in the cloudy pallor. I love my rainbow shirt, he said. Its dope. (But) I sometimes feel scared wearing that in Lebanon. He was standing along Highway 20. In Lebanon, bracketed by the oldest section of the city and conveying traffic through a resurgent commercial heart, its Main Street. On this walk on this day, Main Street also is Chapmans source of vigilance. He said people in passing cars have hurled insults or trash. The F-word, he said, is among the most persistent. Rolling tires and revving motors some take for granted have given way at times to voices shouting Chapman down. Fag. Its the simplest, most reductive version of the concept that Chapman is trying to convey that for nearly half of his life, people have told him he doesnt belong. That his existence is wrong. That hes going to hell. That means Chapman, who was injected into city process in April, also is on the ballot. His mom literally is. Cassie Cruze, a program manager at Lebanon Downtown Association, is running in Ward 2. It was the association that sought out the proclamation to coincide with a Pride event it was planning. The coffee shop that became a rallying point for Chapman and his allies in the spring is worth the chilly walk from a nearby apartment. Im comfortable when Im with my family, he said. I know theyll defend me to the death. I was terrified Visibility is Chapmans point. The 16-year-old said he lived in relative silence while he learned the words and concepts to describe himself. Years before, nearly 300 road miles away in Washington, Chapman was surrounded by family and a church community and felt completely alone. Chapman said he heard that same-sex attraction was gross. He heard that people who are queer are going to hell. And Chapman knew by fourth or fifth grade, he said, that he was going to be attracted to girls. That attraction wasnt the version idealized by his dads family or church. Chapman was born with the genitals of a girl male by gender, but female by biological sex. I started realizing, Oh! I like the same gender, he said. It was an instance of people saying being gay is wrong, and youre going to go to hell. I was terrified to say anything. Chapman started to affirm his gender years later and is now transitioning. But it took a couple of moves, close support and attempts to end his life to get there. No one told me that its possible to be attracted to the same sex, he said. Chadwick A year before he moved to Boise, Chadwick Gerig sat in a church and gave himself a week to live. I dont feel God in any of this, Gerig said. I dont feel hope. Gerig barely felt anything. He came of age in the time of Moral Majority, he said. The right-wing and Republican-backed political group is credited with mobilizing conservative Christians in U.S. politics. Preacher and founder Jerry Falwells words found purchase in rural America, and Gerig turned 18 against a backdrop of condemnation. Roe v. Wade, the group argued, would set women free from traditional familial roles, and gay rights were portrayed as special privileges for people who would bring about the demise of American culture. Lebanon was convulsing, its population racing from 6,636 in 1970 to 10,413 one decade later. The family Gerig ran from is Mennonite, he said. His high school classmates made jokes and used names to describe others, to tag and label people in Lebanon as other-than. Gerig felt like an outcast. None of the comments were directed at Gerig he had told no one he was different. But he recognized the targets in the language. I knew it was about me, he said. In his home he lived under a constant threat, he said: We will disown you if you are gay. At 15, 16, there is a finger in my chest, Gerig said. Where am I going to go? I stayed quiet. Rigid family hierarchy was all Gerig knew, he said. But the neighbors had something different. Gerig said his dad banned him from talking to the two older men who lived on the block, which of course piqued his interest. He said he didnt have the language to describe their relationship, but it seemed more genuine and loving than the way he heard gay men described in Falwells rural Oregon. I knew they werent just roommates, Gerig said. I knew it was real. By the 1990s, he had all but given up on fitting in with his family. He moved to Idaho in 1997. Gerig eventually cut ties with religion, took a five-ish-year break from his family, he said, and had enough distance from Lebanon to begin processing childhood trauma. He came out. Gerig found supportive friends, tried counseling, developed the language, concepts and history to describe what he had been through. Theres a thousand strands in this cobweb, and every one of them is laced with gasoline, Gerig said. By his 40s, the suicidal ideation had faded, he said. Gerig returned to Lebanon, he said, half a lifetime later to be the person he should have been when he left. The rainbow emblems on his sweatshirt and water bottle in early October defied the silence of his childhood. He considers himself a survivor of the words, looks, signs, social media posts, sermons and dismissiveness that have followed him from a young age. Not everyone survives, he said. Gerig hopes the visibility of his life now communicates to other people in Lebanon theyre not alone. Im here to help Jr., whoever that is. The Zayns of Lebanon, Gerig said. Help asked for When Cruze and other LGBTQ+ allies came before the City Council in April and again in May, it was to stand up for and stand by Chapman, who addressed the council himself, to tell members about his experiences in Lebanon. Chapman described how he was among students wearing the Pride flag as a cape at Seven Oak Middle School. Others wore Trump flags and terse exchanges turned physical. He told them had been choked with his own Pride flag at school by 25 other students who also called him homophobic slurs. A school district spokesperson said administrators did discipline an unspecified number of students for bullying in a flag-choking incident about five years ago. It was under this context that the Lebanon Downtown Association wanted to hold the Lebanon Family Pride Event several years in the making and sought out a proclamation of support, declaring June as Pride Month. Mayor Paul Aziz shut it down. When pushed again, he stopped making proclamations altogether. Lebanon resident Jonathan Pedersen, who attended the April 13 council meeting in support of the proclamation, said all communities have a nucleus around which people tend to gravitate and build common values. Among Lebanons top priorities is avoiding controversy, he said. He knows. Hes grew up in the city as a gay boy, then man, trying to find his way. Lebanon is a place where people live, work and play, Pedersen said, but only if performed a certain way. He said his quality of life has kept him in town, even though hes considered moving away many, many times. People in Pedersens family told him he was loved after they found out hes gay. Of course, he said, they also told him the Bible expects him to be straight. Its not like I became gay I was gay. Man, I was gay, Pedersen said. He said he became more comfortable in Lebanon as he met more people who are LGBTQ+. A groundswell of support appeared to carry the city away from its homophobic past. Then came the proclamation controversy and now the election. Since May Three people on the ballot, mayoral candidate Kenneth Jackola, Ward 1 candidate Carl Mann and Ward 2 candidate David Workman, and a write-in candidate for Ward 3, Lisa Stroud, are allied in the other direction. All appear on a flier from a conservative political action committee known as the Candidate Identification & Support Committee. They are not only supported by the PAC, they also have contributed to it. According to the latest filings by deadline, the committee has taken in just under $10,000, of which $2,000 came from Workman, $2,000 from Stroud and $1,000 each from Mann and Jackola. That means their donations make up 60% of all donations received. A Secretary of State spokesperson said in most cases, political action committees make contributions to candidates, not the other way around.The PAC shares space in the Lebanon Plaza strip mall with Free Linn County; Linn County Parents for Academic Excellence; and Parents Rights in Education. The flier distributed in October called the failed proclamation one based on sexual and lifestyle preferences. The arguments since May have been that elected officials shouldnt have to hear about the sexuality of their constituents and that a Pride proclamation would elevate LGBTQ+ people over everyone else.They also argue drawing attention to people who have had to fight bullying, discrimination and disproportionate violence will cause those people to experience even more violence. In a prior interview, Workman tried to distance himself from the sentiments that were eventually included in the PAC flier. Because (LGBTQ+ people) want to be special for a month. Thats how theyve (Aziz and supporters) read it. I dont necessarily agree with how they feel, Workman said in an earlier interview. Ive heard enough that it works against (LGBTQ+ people), almost. Both Workman and Jackola, who were interviewed earlier for profile stories, declined requests for additional comment. Mann declined to participate in previous stories. The flier contains some misrepresentations about what happened at the April 13 meeting. The PAC letter says conservative council members argued against the proclamation. But the council held no discussion about the Pride proclamation. It also says councilors voted for a compromise to proclaim a one-day celebration. That didnt happen either. There was no vote. Pedersen posted on Facebook about the flier, hoping to galvanize those who knew what happened, but no one responded. He believes others see the chance to defend others in their community from language thats belittling or dismissive. But defending people who are LGBTQ+ can feel risky to people who dont know how their family or neighbors will respond, he said. Outgoing mayor speaks Aziz, who has endorsed Jackola and Workman, said hes not concerned about their proximity to the political action group, although he is surprised that both were among a litany of candidates who actually have paid into the Candidate Identification & Support Committee. Messaging and organizing strategies from the state-level version of the group, based in Tigard, became entwined with a furor earlier this year over a proposed clinic at Lebanon High School. Some among the proposed clinics critics were angry over rumors that Lebanons school district would refer students for abortions or sex hormone treatments. The group on its website targets the state Equality Act of 2007 with the heading LGBTQ+ Agenda, calling out what it deems LGBTQ and transgender comprehensive indoctrination in public schools. The T in LGBTQ is commonly used to denote transgender. Course curriculum plans require students to respect and accept these lifestyles as NORMAL, the site reads. Lebanons school board had to shut down a meeting after people lining up to speak into a microphone didnt adhere to time limits, and a clamoring audience derailed discussions. Aziz said hes seen online political conversations become laced with increasingly extreme language. But he said he believes Jackola and Workman are independent, only going to the (the PAC) for support making signs. I cant imagine them going into some far-right thing, he said. Whos the victim? In an interview with the Mid-Valley Media Editorial Board, Jackola said the script reversed and Aziz became the victim of the LGBTQ+ community. The newsgroup put in a records request and received all email correspondence to Aziz between April 1 and May 1 regarding the proclamation. It became this big union of people who were against us, Aziz said in an interview by phone. Most of the email received through May 1 politely or urgently asked Aziz to sign the proclamation. Many commented on inclusivity and reducing discrimination. One did call him a coward, and another said he was homophobic. Medical students organized their own campaign, bringing email from Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the PacificNorthwest. A junior officer in the U.S. Army was among those petitioning Aziz to support LGBTQ+ people. It saddens me that the freedom we have fought for is not extended toward all, he wrote. A Springfield man called Aziz a hero and wrote that refusing to sign was another small victory against wokeness. An unsigned email asked Aziz, please dont let our town be ruined by groomers from Portland and elsewhere looking to take the focus away from the Strawberry Festival. Thank you for your input, Aziz replied. He seemed to have responded only to supporters. When asked about that, Aziz said he didnt want to engage with the other side. A Mt. Angel resident wrote to Aziz to say that shes been battling these ill-informed people since 1976. Going from being just gay and lesbian to so many letters now, (lifestyles) one cant keep up. It will never be enough for their agenda until everyone agrees, she wrote. A man who described moving from the Los Angeles area to Portland, then Salem, then Lebanon said a gay parade day request will become the worst cancer this great town will ever encounter. Not in a vacuum The current controversy, of course, didnt suddenly appear in a vacuum. And it took place almost exactly one year after a City Council member, a lesbian councilor, stepped down following a decision to move out of town. Karin Stauder said she just accepted that Lebanon was safe she never felt threatened, she said. So, pushback on a Pride proclamation caught her off guard. I am surprised, Stauder said. I am completely blown away. She arrived in Oregon to become eventually a Corvallis police officer, a volunteer in the Lebanon Fire District and city councilor in the mid-1980s. The state was on the precipice of civil rights conflict. Like Pedersen, she believes in a silent majority who wouldnt judge her. But theyre not comfortable speaking up, said Strauder, who still works as an instructor at the state police academy. She remembered Measure 8 with an emphatic, Oh, yeah! The bill pulled out a surprise victory in 1988. Footed by Oregon Citizens Alliance, Measure 8 overturned an executive order prohibiting discrimination in state government. Citizens Alliance put forward Measure 9 four years later, asking voters to effectively ban same-sex marriage. The ballot items, writes William Shultz in Oregon Historical Quarterly, came firmly from the conservative Christians fired up over the gay rights movement of the preceding decade. They called for all governments to discourage homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism and masochism. Only, proponents didnt market the measure as a discrimination law its narrative was no special rights. The measure failed, but the call for no special rights has sticking power. Annelise Heinz, a historian of womens and gender studies, said rural Oregon is still dealing with the fallout of Measure 9 three decades later. Identity often is a part of that, especially white identity, especially white Christian identity, especially white Christian nationalism, Heinz said. She said that defense of identity has found particular success organizing around the parents rights movement. A town grows In Lebanon, the focus was on jobs with the closure of wood products mills in the 1980s and 90s. Stauder went to her own job, city leaders plotted to attract new employers and the ex-cop didnt see any cause to think she was not welcome in Lebanon. Lebanon landed a medical school, a community college campus and massive warehouse when the city needed jobs. The city grew by 1,847 in the decade before 2019, a 12% change. That put Lebanon in the top 9.8% of all U.S. municipalities. Lebanon was in the top 6% of nearly 19,500 cities for the people added between 2020 and 2021, when the population reached an estimated 18,945. Before she moved to Bend with wife Mary Gentle in 2021, Stauder served on the council. Gamael Nassar, whos now running for mayor, replaced Stauder when she resigned. The following month, in May, Aziz was absent. Council President Michelle Steinhebel filled in for the mayor, unable to second councilor Nassar when he tried to get the proposed proclamation on the agenda for official discussion. I honestly wonder what would they have done if I was still sitting on the council, Stauder said. She said the mayor made proclamations at most meetings while she served. He proclamated many, many, many things, Stauder said. She pushed back on now-common rhetoric of special recognition: Pride is about uplifting people, she said. Thats just so not the point. Its not about what happens in the bedroom, Stauder said. Its about who people are as a whole sentient being. Anger works Keith Kolkow did convince a mayor to make a Pride proclamation. Then-mayor Sharon Konopa granted Kolkows request at July 2017 City Council meeting to recognize Pride Week in Albany. At the very next meeting, the council attempted during a work session to strip Konopa of her power to make proclamations. Theres a trend of rolling back rights, or at least chipping away at rights, Kolkow said. Kolkow is a Democratic political operative and organizer who began talking with Cruze about a potential downtown association Pride event as early as 2019. He helps organize Albanys event and said the Lebanon contingent wanted a family-friendly event. It may be seen by a bigger city as tame, but its reflective of the town, Kolkow said. In 2020, Kolkow ran for Albany City Council and said local messaging mirrored what he sees in state- and U.S.-level politics, where he works on the campaign of Oregon 5th District House candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner. Kolkow said he believes messaging targeting people who are transgender, labeling people as groomers or pedophiles has captured some potential voters. Unless a candidate enjoys immense popularity, a message consolidating around grief or anger or hate works, he said. Teaching respect Chapman believes people can be taught respect. They need to blame someone, he said. The ability to put a face or a name to something, its less of a threat. Young people who are LGBTQ+ are four times more likely to kill themselves than straight peers.And the U.S. Department of Justice determined that gay and lesbian people were victimized by violent crime more than twice as frequently as straight people between 2017 and 2020. People who are trans were 2.5 times more likely to be victimized by violent crime during the same period. Students walked out of class in the months after the May City Council meeting, protesting discrimination. Others followed, several students said, to counter-protest. Chapman said being heard melts him. Being that voice for others to hear was amazing. Unlike other political action committees, the power behind far-right Timber Unity to influence the 2022 General Election doesn't come in the form of money but endorsements. The political organizing and lobbying concern has handed out endorsements in 50 races on the Nov. 8 ballot, including four in the mid-Willamette Valley for would-be state House representatives and Linn County sheriff. How it began About 2 1/2 years ago, a timber executive appeared in the woodworks to oppose restrictive environmental legislation working its way through the Oregon House. From Facebook group to political action committee in a couple of weeks, Timber Unity was borne on the early donation of an industry stalwart, quickly establishing itself in opposition to House Bill 2020. The cap-and-trade measure would have introduced escalating limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Standards would force polluters to limit their emissions over several decades, eventually getting to zero. Because the largest polluters would have been especially hard-hit, Republican lawmakers and conservative donors rallied to the defense of power companies and manufacturers reliant on transportation. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Republican senators walked off the legislature floor. And Timber Unity rallies focused on a populist face to the pushback, backed by members of armed right-wing militias Three Percenters and Oath Keepers, who offered to transport and protect fleeing senators. Andrew Miller is the president of Stimson Lumber and a handful of other Oregon-based companies. Hes made more than an estimated $400,000 in contributions to Oregon political causes since the 2010s. Miller made the first cash contribution recorded by Timber Unity, $5,000 in June 2019. By the time senators returned to their job at the end of June, eight days later, the political action committee had raised $30,915 and House Bill 2020 was dead. Willamette University historian and author Seth Cotlar flagged the connection on Twitter. The multi-millionaire heir who is a man of the people has kind of become a thing in American politics these days, Cotlar wrote. Cotlar showed how Miller mobilized fear among conservatives, especially those in rural areas. But then, contributions cooled considerably: Between November 2021 and Oct. 25, Timber Unity took in $3,897 in cash contributions. By Thursday, Nov. 3, Timber Unity's coffers stood at $18,941, much of that rolling over from a previous year balance of $32,659. How it's going (locally) Although incumbent Sheriff Michelle Duncan had financial backing from Frank Timber Resources ($6,000) and Freres Lumber Co. ($3,000), Timber Unity endorsed opponent Deputy Jon Raymond for Linn County Sheriff. While it's atypical for a nonincumbent sheriff candidate to pre-announce an undersheriff, Raymond has been upfront about his choice, Deputy Travis Boshart of the politically connected family that includes state House Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis. Boshart is a name linked to Timber Unity. The PAC has financially backed other Bosharts, albeit in small amounts, donating $500 each to the campaigns of Boshart Davis and Katie Boshart Glaser, in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Boshart Glaser lost her bid to represent District 11 in the state house. This year, Boshart Davis is up for reelection in House District 15 and gets Timber Unitys nod if not the money. Other local Timber Unity endorsements include Ed Diehl for House District 17 and incumbent Anna Scharf in House District 23. When it came time to endorse in the Oregon governor's race, although industry-friendly, nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson helped get the political action committee off the ground, Timber Unity threw its support behind Christine Drazan. Drazan attended a Raymond fundraiser dinner in September in Tangent and publicly campaigned with Boshart Davis. The Jan. 6 connection Despite the fact that founding members of Timber Unity were at the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol, most candidates who have gotten an endorsement this year have placed the acknowledgement on their webpages and in the voter's pamphlets. Kelsy Kretschmer, an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University who studies political action committees and organizing, said voters' acceptance of language and actions has shifted ever rightward. I dont think theyre paying the same price for that anymore, she said. I think you combine that with how much money is pouring into politics and there doesnt seem to be any brakes left on the endorsements, the money and how extreme your connections are. In the race for Albany City Council, challengers are outraising two longtime incumbents seeking reelection on the Nov. 8 ballot. Some of the seats on the City Council have been occupied by the same ward representatives for decades. For example, Ward 1's Dick Olsen has been involved with city government on and off for 50 years. He's been in his current seat since 1999. While he's raised nothing, his three challengers have made it a $21,000 race. So far. In Ward 3, 20-year incumbent Bessie Johnson is being outpaced in fundraising by one of her two challengers. First term Mayor Alex Johnson II is also facing a challenger. While he's built himself a war chest, his challenger hasn't raised a dime. Ward 1 Olsen is facing off with Steph Newton, Greg Hamann and Matthew Prudell in Ward 1, which includes North Albany, downtown and the Willamette neighborhood east of Lyon Street and Pacific Boulevard. Of the $20,301 raised so far, according to the Oregon Secretary of State, donations to Newton represent $11,041.60 of that, in cash and in-kind contributions. Newtons largest single donation, $1,500, came from the Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee. Other notable contributions include $1,000 from Nathan Soltz, chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon's 2nd Congressional District Committee, and $1,000 from Jerred Taylor, Linn County Democrats chair. Newton, who is first vice chair of the Linn County Democrats, noted the two were good friends of hers. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Newton's ending cash balance is $6,294.64. Former LBCC president Hamann has raised $9,260 in cash and loan contributions. Hamanns largest contribution, $2,500, came from the Good Government Council, the endorsing arm of the Albany Chamber of Commerce. He also received contributions from Rod Holmquist, vice president of Korvis Innovation at $2,000, and other businesses, such as Aasum-Dufour Funeral Home. Current city Councilor Ray Kopczynski, who is not up for reelection this year, donated $500 to Hamann, who has $524.35 left in his cash balance after expenditures. Financial statements for Prudell, who is crafting his campaign around ridding the water supply of fluoride, were not on file with the Secretary of State. Olsen, who has raised nothing, said it was an intentional choice to refuse contributions. He doesnt want to behold anyone by taking contributions, he said, and instead has used his own money, all of which has gone toward fliers. The signs that are out and about town are recycled from previous years, he added. Olsen said he wasnt expecting his competitors to raise so much: Im surprised that they are so anxious to be on City Council." Ward 2 Candidates Jackie Montague and Josiah Blaisdell are running for Ward 2, roughly central and southwest Albany. The seat is held by Stacey Bartholomew, who opted not to seek another term. Montague has raised $3,439, $2,995.00 in the form of cash contributions. The remaining $444 come from in-kind contributions. At $1,000, Montague's largest contribution comes from the chamber's Good Government Council. Some of Montagues contributions are from individuals, such as an $800 donation from Camron Settlemier, a member of the advisory board for the Central Albany Revitalization Area. Montague has an ending cash balance of $820.05 after expenditures. Educator Blaisdell had no contributions reported to the Secretary of State. Ward 3 Meanwhile, contributions totaled $14,280 in Ward 3, where 20-year incumbent Bessie Johnson is facing off with Ramycia McGhee and Bryan Munson to represent the east side of the city. McGhee, an LBCC professor, has raised $7,230 in cash and in-kind contributions. Her largest contribution, $700, came from the Linn County Democratic Central Committee. After expenditures, McGhee has an ending cash balance of $2,682. Munson has raised a total of $2,500 in cash only. He received $1,000 from the Oregon Firearms Federation Political Action Committee and $1,500 from Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee. Munson has an ending cash balance of $2,320.09 Bessie Johnson has received $4,550 so far with no in-kind contributions. Her largest donation, $2,000, came from the Good Government Council. She also received contributions from Swan Investment Company LLC and Conser Design and Construction. Bessie Johnson has an ending cash balance of $1,095. Mayor's race The mayors race, a standoff between current Alex Johnson and challenger William Tally, has garnered the most contributions, but they're totally one-sided. Johnson has raised $29,515; while Tally is not registered with the Secretary of State. Johnson received $29,515 in contributions in 2022. That breaks down to $28,781 in cash, $234 in in-kind donations and $500 in loans. At $5,000, Johnson's largest recieved cash contributions were from two developers, Willamette River Holdings II, LLC, and David A. Montagne, of Montagne Development in Salem according to the Secretary of State. Other notable donations include $2,500 from the Oregon Realtors PAC, $1,000 from the Oregonians for Affordable Housing and $500 from Mike's heating and Air Conditioning. Johnson also recieved $1,000 from Lakeshore Lanes, owned by Linn County Comissioner Roger Nyquist. Johnson has an ending cash balance of $3,929.09 after expenditures, according to numbers from the Secretary of State. Editor's note: This article has been edited to better characterize Councilor Dick Olsen's experience at City Hall and accurately account and contextualize Alex Johnson's contributions. SATURDAY, NOV. 5 The Stars & Stripes Ball, 5:30 p.m., Boys & Girls Club of Albany, 1215 Hill St. SE. Hosted by LinkUpVets, the ball is returning after a successful first year. The ball is a fundraiser that includes a formal dinner and dance that follows in the tradition of military balls. Doors open at 5:30 for a social hour and a toast to all military branches. Dinner comes with a choice of tri-tip, chicken or salmon; bid for your favorite dessert. No-host bar. Live and silent auctions, plus games and prizes. All branches of the military and veterans will be honored. The general public is encouraged to attend; guests must be 18 or over. LinkUpVets has been working within the Albany community since 2014 to fight for the success and wellness of the nations veterans. All are invited to join in the battle against veteran post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and mobility issues due to service-connected injuries. Individual tickets: $125 each; sponsor a table of eight for $1,500; visit https://linkupvets.org . THURSDAY, NOV. 10 Willamette Valley Concert Band Veterans Day concert, 7 p.m., Lebanon High School, 1700 S. Fifth St. The 90-minute program is free and open to the public; donations will be accepted. The money will be used to defray costs of presenting the program, and a portion will go to the high schools music program. The band will present a wide selection of music appropriate for marking the annual Veterans Day commemoration. The Lebanon High School Choir, directed by Eric Zittel, will join the band and sing The Star-Spangled Banner, Our America and Pride of America: Armed Forces, featuring the official songs of the U.S. Armed Forces. The choir will also sing Irving Berlins America, incorporating patriotic songs written by Berlin, accompanied by the band. Other selections will include An American Spectacular, a medley of American patriotic songs from the time of the American Revolutionary War through World War II; Band of Brothers, featuring music from the soundtrack of the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring Tom Hanks, plus traditional marches Americans We by Henry Fillmore and The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa, among other pieces. The band, a community ensemble based in Albany, was formed in 1970. Its membership includes some 50 musicians ranging from teens to senior citizens from Benton, Linn, Marion and Polk counties. The band director and assistant director are, respectively, John Russell, a professional trombonist who has recently moved to Oregon, and Julie Buchert, a longtime band member and retired middle school band and choir director. The program announcer will be Terry Deacon, a Lebanon resident and Vietnam veteran who was a Gunners Mate aboard a fleet oiler in the Tonkin Gulf. The concert is part of the Linn County Veterans Day Celebration. Information: www.wvcband.org or Facebook. The spate of crime that struck metro Denver, including back-to-back shootings that claimed the lives of five people in the last few days alone, has unnerved Colorado's business leaders, some of whom emphasized how the violence is directly affecting residents' quality of life. The recent shootings which left one killed in Denver on Tuesday, four in Aurora on Sunday came atop a violent weekend in October, when seven people also died in eight separate shootings along the Front Range. Rising crime plagues metro Denver, with numbers that are among the worst in the country. Car theft in Denver, for example, is second highest in the nation, and three other Colorado cities rank in the Top 10, according to a study by the Common Sense Institute. Car thefts are on track to exceed 48,000 this year, while include arson, robbery and vandalism also continue to spike, said the study, which cited FBI statistics. "With Colorado's recent shootings, it's no surprise that our Colorado Business Roundtable partners have listed community safety as a top issue impacting the overall business community and individuals," Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable, told Colorado Politics. Brown suggested a holistic approach. "As part of our policy pillars," she said, "we believe crime, substance abuse and homelessness must be viewed with an integrated, long-term approach to save lives, create quality of life and protect business owners and businesses." Elizabeth Peetz, vice president of government affairs for the Colorado Association of Realtors, hinted at the sense of fear that has gripped the metropolis. "We heard from our local staff who live in Aurora that trick or treaters were very low in the neighborhoods near the murders last night," Peetz said. "When your parents are visiting you overnight in Denver and the first thing you do in the morning is check to see if their car was stolen it affects your quality of life and feeling of safety. When you have to check to see if there is a package lockbox near you or your work will accept packages when you decide where to live pocketbook issues are affecting your housing decisions," she added. Crime or, more precisely, how to curb it occupies the center of the political discourse at the state Capitol, where Gov. Jared Polis recently unveiled a budget that proposes a $42 million package for public safety spending next year. "Last year, I announced our goal to make Colorado one of the ten safest states in the nation," Polis said in his letter outlining his priorities to legislators. "As we turn the page on the pandemic, my administration is making bold new investments to support local law enforcement, address novel safety concerns as they arise, and support the services Coloradans need to live healthy, productive lives." Polis acknowledged the increase in crime under his watch but blamed it on "the social and economic crisis caused by COVID-19." He also sought to paint the rise in crime as a situation not unique to Colorado. Mitch Morrissey, who served as District Attorney for the Denver-based 2nd Judicial District from 2005 to 2017, earlier said he had hoped for a quieter 2022 following a spike in crime in 2021, notably homicides. Morrissey said it is unusual to have multiple victims in a shooting. When you got four people killed in one incident It is disturbing, he said, referring to the shooting in Aurora that killed four people. I just hope that this week is the end of it, he said. MTN Group has named Lebanons M1 New Ventures as the buyer of its Afghan unit as it prepares to finalise its exit from the market. The pan-African group has been gradually withdrawing from the Middle East since 2020 in a bid to refocus on its core African markets. In August 2022, it announced that it had found a buyer for its Afghanistan operations, although it did not identify the interested party. M1 is now set to acquire MTN Afghanistan for US$35 million, although the deal must receive regulatory clearance. M1 Group has also recently acquired Telenors Myanmar operations following the Norwegian groups exit from the market. Fintech firm Yabx has announced that it is entering the Nigerian market. The Netherlands-headquartered firm plans to provide digital lending offerings as well as other fintech products that can sit between Nigerias new-to-credit segments and banks. Yabx has partnered with several African banks to create large, scalable and profitable digital lending portfolios by leveraging its fintech platform. It has typically proven challenging for banks in Nigeria to underwrite their captive base optimally. To help address this, Yabx aims to help banks broaden their service offerings with new products such as Buy Now Pay Later, Personal Loans, Payday loans, and MSME. Rajat Dayal, CEO & Founder of Yabx said, While digital financial services have catalysed financial inclusion, access to financial services and credit remains an obstacle in countries like Nigeria. Without available credit services, smalls farmers, SME owners, and the new to credit segments face difficulty in obtaining loans to make profitable investments or pay off debts. Our platform doesnt only increase the reach of such banks but also helps them play a major role in creating a global credit score which will eventually help the new to credit segments in the country build a life without any external aid. Yabx uses Big Data Analytics and AI/ML algorithms on large volumes of alternate data to create a detailed financial identity of customers and help banks underwrite them over Yabx Loan origination and Lifecycle Management System. This customer origination and servicing can be done on various channels like the banks own digital banking app, USSD channel, website or even as embedded options in third-party apps. Pan-African network operator Paratus Group has announced a multi-year agreement with global telecommunications provider OneWeb to build a gateway in Luanda, Angola. It will be operational in the second half of 2023. The new gateway will provide low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services to several countries in the region and will facilitate the provision of high-speed, low-latency connectivity to businesses, government, schools, clinics, and hospitals in under-serviced areas. The teleport will consist of 16 antennas and a network hosting facility, linking to OneWebs LEO infrastructure and thereby connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa. This agreement, combined with the recent launch of the Paratus fibre connection to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the inauguration of the Paratus Groups data centres in Zambia and Namibia, and coverage in all of the Angolan provinces, means that Paratus has the requisite infrastructure to provide a highly sophisticated network hub in Angola and one that allows for expansion beyond its borders. Chief Technical Officer of Paratus Group, Rolf Mendelsohn describes this as another giant step in realizing our plan to use Angola as a communications hub for the region. According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, Paratus Angola operates two data centres on its campus. Data Center 1, with a capacity for more than 1,500 servers and Data Center 2, with a capacity for more than 7,000 servers. Data Centre 1 currently has a 100% occupancy. This is the first of several planned OneWeb gateways in Africa. Geneva County authorities have arrested an 18-year-old in connection with a stabbing at a Halloween party reportedly prompted by a Ku Klux Klan costume. WDHN is reporting that Michael Harrison Barrett, 18, a senior at Slocomb High School, has been charged with first-degree assault. More arrests could follow, authorities said. Attempts to contact Geneva County Sheriff Tony Helms were not ... Confiscated handbags are laid out inside Saigon Square in Ho Chi Minh City on October 2, 2022 during an inspection. Photo courtesy of of inspection authorities A total 90% of vendors at Saigon Square, a popular shopping location in Ho Chi Minh City, have shut up shop after authorities confiscated thousands of counterfeit goods. Only a few fashion and footwear shops were open Friday morning at the mall in District 1 as market authorities continued their counterfeit goods inspection, which began Tuesday. Vendor Hoa said the inspection has slowed down her sales. "We have no choice but to keep the store closed until the end of this week." Lan, another vendor, said that although her store is closed, she still sells to some customers while she waits to reopen her stall once the inspection is over. Managers of the mall said that 90% of vendors are watching the situation to see when they could reopen their stalls. "They said that in previous years, only 5-10% of vendors have typically shut up their shops and that it has never reached Friday levels." The inspection is part of the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillances initiative to change vendor attitudes toward selling counterfeit goods. Authorities confiscated 2,000 products with no clear origin Tuesday and thousands of other products Wednesday. Most of them are labeled Chanel, Gucci, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. More inspection of counterfeit goods in HCMC will be conducted later. Saigon Square was launched in 2000 and is considered a "shopping haven" in HCMC thanks to its large amount of goods. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung speaks to lawmakers at a National Assembly session on November 4, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Thang Vietnam is set to clamp down on false advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung. The appearance of unwanted ads is very popular on cross-border platforms, and it is difficult for Vietnamese authorities to detect these ads as they are personalized to each user, he told lawmakers Friday. He was responding to a question of a legislator, Huynh Thi Phuc from the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau, who wanted to know what the ministrys solution was in dealing with offensive ads on social media. There are also promotions of products and services that seem unregulated, she added. Another lawmaker, Trinh Xuan An from Dong Nai Province, said that many fake watch ads pop up from time to time, such as a VND20 million ($800) Patek Philippe product. This brand typically charges at least $20,000 for a watch. Hung said that recently the ministry has reviewed a number of these ads and required 2,000 ads for medicines and functional foods to be taken down from YouTube. The ministry is still working on a complete legal framework to deal with these violations. Some companies have also been editing newspaper and broadcast publications and turning them into ads, which is a violation of the law, Hung said, adding that his ministry is collecting more evidence to cooperate with other ministries to punish such cases. Lawmakers also expressed concern about citizens data being leaked. One of them, Trinh Lam Sinh, said that many people claim to have received phone calls from fraudsters pretending to be authorities saying they have violated some laws and must submit a fine via bank transfer. "How can bad people know the phone number, work address and titles of citizens? Personal details are somehow being leaked." Minister Hung said that some companies and organizations have been careless in collecting and storing personal details and that hackers took advantage of this to steal valuable data. The Ministry of Public Security estimates that around 1,300 gigabytes worth of personal details have been leaked, equating to billions of personal information, he said. Another reason is citizens have been neglectful in providing personal details and have yet to understand the importance of protecting their own details. Hung said that his ministry blocks around 30,000-40,000 spam calls every month, and network providers have so far disconnected 22 million SIM cards which do not have adequate user information. The information ministry has issued a handbook on data safety to guide people on keeping their details safe. It has also built a database of leaked information on which citizens can search among 120 million leaks to see if their information has been compromised and take necessary action. The ministry also suggests that government organizations and companies work with telecommunications companies to have their organizations name displayed on an incoming call so residents can distinguish them from potential prank calls, which only show phone numbers, Hung said. November 3, 2022 | 11:48 pm PT Visa debate aside, there are deep-rooted problems Vietnam should deal with to improve its tourism competitiveness, like traffic danger and poor services. "The visa situation is legitimate but it's only one factor. Let's remember that Vietnam had the worst return rate by far in Southeast Asia for tourists pre-pandemic. That means they essentially can only get first-time travelers and there are less of them whereas other places get both return tourists and first-time travelers. Why the travelers don't return has been discussed many times but it boils down to poor service, poor value for money, and generally disappointed with their experience." Chris Roberts "I think you'll find it goes back a long way before visa policy changed. For a start, Vietnam has low return/repeat business customers. It's about 5% but a lot of them are foreigners doing visa runs and they're counted again every month. Thailand and Bali are up over 55% in return customers. So, over 95% come once, take a look, tick the box and move on and never come back. Why? And it will likely get worse since places that did have a nice ambiance have become concrete ghettos, lost their charm and became destinations for mass market tour groups on those infamous zero-dong tours. Tour operators were doing business at close to cost to attract them. Vietnam was a fantastic place to come 10-15 years ago, but now, ugly concrete ghettos built beachfront has ruined that ambience it once had [...] Vietnam isn't trending anymore and potential travelers all research blogs & FB groups for information, & currently that picture looks grim with a lot of unhappy people. A 90-day visa may be too little, too late to fix the damage done to Vietnam's image." swander77 "Get those motorbikes off the pavements and enforce RED at a traffic light means stop NOT go. Read the comments on the website about the dangers of visiting or traveling in Vietnam. That should give clues why tourists stay away. It's not rocket science." Scooter "Same problems never solved. Poor quality/customer service. Construction sites everywhere. Noise pollution is terrible. Visa hassles. Why should tourists deal with these issues?" Russ Harvey The world's tallest bronze Buddha statue in Taiwan's Kaohsiung. Photo by Anh Duong Low-cost carrier Vietjet Air has reopened direct routes from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Kaohsiung, a major tourist hub in Taiwan, after prolonged Covid-led suspension. There would be three weekly flights from HCMC and two from Hanoi, it said in a press release. The carrier also plans to increase the frequency of flights next month to meet growing travel demand during the year-end season as many overseas Vietnamese return home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, Vietnams biggest holiday. Taiwan resumed visa policies for tourists from Vietnam since last month. Visitors to Taiwan no longer need to furnish a negative Covid test result or make a medical declaration before boarding. In recent years, Vietnam has been among the biggest sources of visitors to Taiwan, which has been enjoying a tourism boom. In 2019, the year before the onset of Covid, it received over 777,000 Vietnamese tourists. That year, visitor numbers from Taiwan to Vietnam rose 30% to 850,000. Vietnam reopened its borders and resumed pre-pandemic visa policies on March 15. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. "Around the world, women and girls are under threat from conflict and repressive regimes. Under threat from climate and under threat from poverty," said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Lithium Americas Corp. announced Nov. 3 that it intends to advance a reorganization that will result in the separation of its North American and Argentine business units into two independent public companies. The North America focused lithium company, Lithium Americas (NewCo), will own the Thacker Pass lithium project north of Winnemucca in Humboldt County and the current companys North American investments. An Argentina focused lithium company, Lithium International, will own Lithium Americas current interest in its Argentine lithium assets, including the near-production Cauchari-Olaroz lithium brine project. In February Lithium Americas announced it was assessing alternatives and potential structures which could be pursued to create a standalone Thacker Pass company. The Nov. 3 announcement said that after months of review by the company, along with its advisors and the board of directors, the decision was made to proceed with the separation. Lithium Americas signs agreement with local tribe Lithium Americas has agreed to build an 8,000 square foot community center for the tribe that includes a daycare, preschool, playground, cultural facility and communal greenhouse to support reclamation efforts and provide income for the tribe Following a comprehensive review of the merits of separating Lithium Americas into two public entities, we have reinforced our beliefs that separating the North American and Argentine businesses will facilitate unlocking the full potential of their significant asset base to deliver maximum value to our shareholders and other stakeholders, said Jonathan Evans, Lithium Americas president and CEO. Upon completion of the separation, Lithium Americas shareholders will retain ownership in two leading lithium businesses one of the largest known lithium developments in North America, which is central to the U.S. domestic supply chain, and a near-term producing portfolio with significant growth from two high-quality projects in Argentina. A Reuters story said the split is a step designed to jumpstart development of its flagship North American mine while giving partner Ganfeng Lithium Co Ltd wider berth to develop South American lithium projects. Follow Mining the West on social: You can now find Mining the West content on social media. Follow our page for the latest updates from the mining world. The article stated that analysts have said the affiliation with China-based Ganfeng had likely raised concerns among some automakers and may have posed an impediment to garnering U.S. government financial support. Tim Crowley, Lithium Americas vice president of government affairs and community relations, said Nov. 3 that the decision is solely about operational excellence. Its about finding the right groups and the right business to run two very different types of operations. Thacker Pass will extract lithium from clay, whereas the Argentine mine will be a brine operation. Theyre two different beasts, and should be run by two different companies, Crowley said. Regarding Ganfeng, Crowley said, Their investment decisions are theirs alone. They are investors in LAC and what they do with those shares in the future is really their business. We dont play any role in that. They dont have now, or will they in the future have any managerial role in Thacker Pass, in our North American operations. Under a plan of arrangement under the laws of British Columbia, it is expected that each shareholder of the company will retain their proportionate interest in shares of the company, which will become Lithium International, and will receive newly issued shares of Lithium Americas (NewCo) in proportion to their then-current ownership of the company. The separation should be completed by the end of 2023. Lithium Americas (NewCo) and Lithium International are expected to build on the teams already in place in North America and Argentina. Jonathan Evans intends to remain the president and CEO of Lithium Americas (NewCo). The separation announcement said Lithium Americas (NewCo) shareholders will benefit from the value created by financing and developing one of the largest lithium resources in the U.S. The company is moving Thacker Pass towards production and has received all federal and state permits needed to commence construction. A ruling on an appeal of the projects Record of Decision is expected in early 2023. On July 20 of this year the company celebrated the inauguration of its Lithium Technical Development Center in Reno, which was developed to demonstrate the processing of Thacker Pass ore. The center has achieved battery-quality specifications with product samples being produced for potential customers and partners. Eric D. Jackson Jr., 20, of Elko was arrested Oct. 29, 2022, at 3222 Montrose Way on a warrant for battery domestic violence on a pregnant victim. Bail: $3,140 Allan T. Jacobsen, 57, of Reno was arrested Oct. 29, 2022, at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital for assault on a protected person. Bail: $10,000 Elisabeth G. Moore, 22, of Elko was arrested Oct. 30, 2022, in the 400 block of Idaho Street for battery on a protected person. Bail: $2,500 Bryan A. Ramirez-Flores, 19, of West Wendover was arrested Oct. 30, 2022, at 955 Park Place for attempted driver disobeying peace officer endangering persons or property, possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, driving without a drivers license, and speeding 6-10 mph over limit. Bail: $3,070 Enrique J. Granillo, 25, of Elko was arrested Oct. 31, 2022, in the 1100 block of Silver Street for assault with a deadly weapon. Bail: $20,000 Kenneth L. Brensel, 58, of Berkeley, California was arrested Nov. 1, 2022, at 116 Sixth St. for unlawful breaking into vacant property and unlawful occupancy of real property. Bail: $5,000 Nuel D. Gilbert, 37, of Elko was arrested Nov. 1, 2022, at 2221 Oil Well Road for possession of stolen property, two counts of possessing a stolen vehicle, possessing a credit or debit card without consent, and false statement to obstruct a public officer. Bail: $51,140 Edward Garcia, 38, of Elko was arrested Nov. 2, 2022, at 1200 W. Wendover Blvd. for burglary of a motor vehicle. Bail: $20,000 Mark A. Peltzer, 20, was arrested Nov. 2, 2022, at Vitality Center for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Joseph R. Cathey, 58, of Spring Creek was arrested Nov. 3, 2022, at Elko County Courthouse for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Craig Long Soldier, 47, was arrested Nov. 3, 2022, at 2520 Mountain City Highway for assault on a protected person and false statement to obstruct a public officer. Bail: $3,640 The charges listed do not imply guilt. Under the law, everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. A shooting for which an Elko man changed his plea on Monday occurred in January 2021, not the date listed in an article in Tuesdays Elko Dail RENO A 48-year-old Winnemucca man died Tuesday after being accidentally shot by his friend on a hunting trip. Elko County Sheriffs Deputies were contacted Tuesday morning with a report of a hunter who had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest in the North Pequop Mountains. Deputies, along with Reach Air Medical Services, arrived on scene but declared the victim deceased just after 9 a.m. that morning. A preliminary investigation by Elko County Sheriffs Deputies and game wardens with the Nevada Department of Wildlife determined that a friend of the victim was attempting to place his weapon into a plastic gun case attached to a side-by-side ATV when the rifle accidentally fired, hitting the victim in the chest. Game wardens report that often tragedies such as this occur while entering or exiting a vehicle with a loaded weapon. Nevada law prohibits carrying loaded rifles and shotguns in or on vehicles, including ATVs and snowmobiles, yet carrying a loaded weapon in a vehicle is consistently one of the top three citations given out each year. This is only the second hunting related fatality in Nevada since 1997. The other incident occurred in 2015 when a hunter was loading his rifle into a truck when it went off and shot a 48-year-old from Carson City in the chest. The Nevada Department of Wildlife encourages everyone to use extreme caution when dealing with firearms and to always follow The Big Four rules: Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction Every gun is loaded until you check it yourself Keep your finger off the trigger until youre ready to shoot Be sure of your target and whats in line with it Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and that it is his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. The visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward, Xi said. Stressing that this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations, Xi said the five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually-beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to global peace and development. * The fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) will open on Nov. 5 in China's economic hub Shanghai. * Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. * As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. Andreas Thorud is putting the finishing touches to a seafood-themed booth at the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in China's economic hub Shanghai. "We are very happy and excited to be part of this fifth edition of the CIIE," said Thorud from the Norwegian Seafood Council, a first-time CIIE exhibitor. According to Thorud, eight Norwegian companies, led by the seafood council, will be joining the upcoming event. They will be promoting a variety of star seafood specially selected for the Chinese market, including Norwegian salmon, shellfish and king crab. The past few years have been full of opportunities for global exporters, as China's appetite for seafood has grown continually. It was this fact that prompted Thorud and his peers to gravitate to the CIIE. This year's CIIE is going to be a very exciting platform "for us to see how we can develop new areas, new business partners and new types of consumers," Thorud said. OPEN MARKET As the first major international expo held in China since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the fifth CIIE once again demonstrates that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. U.S. carmaker Tesla's robotic product Tesla Bot will make its debut on the Chinese mainland at this year's expo. As the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory manifests China's commitment to its pledge of furthering reform and opening up. "The report to the 20th CPC National Congress has once again emphasized China's commitment to opening wider to the outside world. It was on such a premise that Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China," said Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin. Tao added that the CIIE has provided an open, collaborative and mutually beneficial platform for global enterprises to share business opportunities in the Chinese market, and is a vivid practice of building a human community with a shared future. Having joined all the four previous editions, the biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will set up a 1,000-square meter main booth at the upcoming CIIE, which is one of the largest booths at the medical equipment and healthcare products exhibition area. "Over the past four years, AstraZeneca has gone from being a newcomer at the CIIE to becoming a regular participant, and we have benefitted from the powerful CIIE spillover effects," said Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president of AstraZeneca. "The annual event provides us with an opportunity to summarize our phased results in China and open a new chapter of cooperation and exchange. We will continue to participate in CIIEs with an impressive score card," noted Wang. SHARED GROWTH Official data show a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations will partake in this year's expo. Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday that 284 industry-leading enterprises, including some of the world's top 500 companies, will participate in the upcoming expo. New Zealand's dairy brand Theland has already signed up for the sixth CIIE. "We've tasted the sweetness at the CIIE, and we certainly can't miss such a great opportunity," said Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Theland Global R&D at Milk New Zealand Dairy, an "old friend" to the CIIE. Hurk said that all the commitments China made at the previous CIIEs to open wider have been fulfilled. For example, the delivery time of fresh milk from New Zealand farms to Chinese consumers has been cut to just 72 hours from more than eight days. According to Hurk, the expo has helped Theland quickly grow from a relatively small brand to a well-known name even in counties in central and western China. "Theland is a staunch supporter of the CIIE, which has become a new driving force for the development of global enterprises and a platform for win-win cooperation, and helps mitigate the uncertainties that the pandemic brought to the global economy," said Hurk. Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that, from 2018 to 2021, exhibitors at the four previous editions of the CIIE launched more than 1,500 new products, technologies and services, with a total expected turnover exceeding 270 billion U.S. dollars. "The CIIE is the perfect platform of collaboration. I've been witnessing it for four years myself, and seeing more and more exhibitors, from more and more countries, in more and more domains," said Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China. "I think there are no other ones in the world which are able to bring so many industries, so many country representatives, and have this dialogue that allows us really to look at shared opportunities and discuss the values that are important for us," Megarbane added. At the groundbreaking ceremony (Photo: baodautu.vn) The groundbreaking ceremony saw the presence of Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Danish Prince Crown Frederik, said the Vietnam News Agency. The factory covers an area of 44 ha in Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park III, making it the sixth of its kind in the world and second in Asia. LEGO CEO Niels B. Christiansen said it is the first factory designed as a neutral carbon facility. Apart from solar panels on the roof, the factory will also have a nearby solar power farm to meet annual energy demand and use energy-saving equipment to meet the minimum standards of LEED Gold, a green building certification programme used worldwide. Once completed in 2024, the factory is expected to generate thousands of jobs for skilled workers, contributing to Binh Duongs economic development in the coming years. Delegates visit the model of the factory (Photo: baodautu.vn) Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee Vo Van Minh praised the group for its biggest hi-tech and green project in the province since the COVID-19 pandemic was put under control, as well as its programmes to nurture childrens creativity and offer intensive training to local educators. He expressed wish to cooperate with the group for better young generations in the future. Vietnam-Kaohsiung air route to resume in November Flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Kaohsiung in Taiwan (China) will be resumed by low-cost carrier VietJet Air starting from November. The move comes following Taiwan (China) officially reopening its borders to international tourists from October 13, said Radio the Voice of Vietnam. Moving forward, VietJet will operate a total of three flights per week on the Ho Chi Minh City - Kaohsiung route, with this increasing to four flights per week from December 16. A plane of VietJet Air (Photo: vietjetair.com) Furthermore, the airline will also run two flights per week on the Hanoi - Kaohsiung route, with this increasing to one daily return flight from December 16. Passengers will be able to move between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Taipei, with many flights throughout the week. Moreover, flight routes to both Taichung and Tainan will quickly be restored in order to meet the increasing demand for travel before the upcoming New Year and Lunar New Year holidays. With just over three hours of flight, visitors will be able to purchase direct flight tickets to explore a range of destinations in both Vietnam and Taiwan (China), with fares starting from only 615,000 for a one-way ticket. According to the Taiwanese Tourism Bureau in Vietnam, foreign tourists should purchase medical insurance before their departure and agree to fully comply with Taiwanese pandemic prevention regulations. Vietnamese scientist finds precious compounds from rice husks A research group led by Prof. Dr. Tran Dang Xuan of Hiroshima University has demonstrated that the compound extracted from rice husks has an inhibitory effect on cancer cells and is safe for normal cells, said Radio the Voice of Vietnam. The study results were published in the journal Cancers in October. In this study, for the first time ever scientists have been able to clarify the mechanism of killing cancer cells of the compounds purified from rice husks, Momilactones A (MA) and Momilactones B (MB), through the regulation related proteins (p-38, BCL-2, and caspase-3). The discovery of the cytotoxic properties of momilactone against cancer cells is expected to pave the way for future research, as well as the development of effective cancer drugs based on this compound. Professor-Dr. Tran Dang Xuan (right) and a researcher at the Laboratory of Physiology, Plant and Biochemistry. (Source: Hiroshima University) Dr. Nguyen Van Quan of Hiroshima University said that the research team has clarified more about the operational mechanism of MA and MB, which serves to increase the destruction process and inhibits the growth of cancer cells. With a concentration equivalent to causing cancer cell death, this compound is viewed as completely safe for normal cells. Several studies conducted around the world have previously shown the anti-cancer potential of momilactones, although the cytotoxic mechanism of action has not yet been thoroughly examined. In-depth studies into this compound are typically few as the compound is particularly difficult to isolate and purify, as well as being very expensive. The plant physiology and biochemistry laboratory of Hiroshima University led by Prof. Xuan is one of the few laboratories in the world that can purify momilactones from natural sources such as rice. In the January, 2019, announcement, the team found and successfully isolated 600 mg of MA and MB from 30 kg of rice husks. Prof. Xuan said that many pharmaceutical companies both inside and outside of Japan are in the process of working alongside the research team to develop the extraction of MA and MB according to industrial processes. This is along with conducting clinical research in order to develop immune system boosting drugs against cancer, diabetes, and cosmetics production. According to Prof. Xuan, many rice varieties in the country have shown initial results containing a high concentrations of MA and MB. Indeed, the hybridisation of rice varieties with high medicinal and pharmaceutical activities will therefore contribute to improving the overall value of Vietnamese agricultural products. Phu Quoc welcomes first flight from Uzbekistan after pandemic Phu Quoc island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has welcomed 158 Uzbek tourists aboard a charter flight of Uzbekistan Airways. The tourists were warmly welcomed by local authorities. They are scheduled to stay in Phu Quoc for 10 days. The Uzbek tourists are welcomed at the airport. (Photo: zingnews) According to Nguyen Minh Dong, Director of Phu Quoc International Airport, Phu Quoc will welcome one flight on the route each week. Phu Quoc is known as a pearl island endowed with clear blue water beaches such as Bai Sao and Bai Dai, and plenty of local specialties including seafood, pepper and pearls, among others. It was voted by readers of Conde Nast Traveler at the sixth place in the top 10 resort islands in Asia for 2022. It was also selected one of 25 best islands in the world by readers of US magazine Travel+Leisure. Since the beginning of the year, Phu Quoc has welcomed 528 international flights. The island lured 1.74 million visitors so far this year, completing 87% of its target for the whole year./. Deputy Secretary of the Ha Nam provincial Party Committee Dinh Thi Lua (right) receives Danish Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth. (Photo: VNA) Receiving the delegation, Dinh Thi Lua, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, confirmed that the visit to Vietnam by Danish guests will open a new stage of development in the two countries' cooperation relationship, towards effective and sustainable cooperation. She briefed the guest on the province's potential and advantages for tourism and industry development, saying that the province is particularly interested in green production and using renewable energy towards green transformation. Elizabeth said the Danish Royal Family has time-honored relations with Vietnam. The ongoing visit to Vietnam by Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth not only deepens the existing relationship but also further promotes bilateral cooperation, opening up new development steps in the Denmark-Vietnam relations, she added. She assessed Ha Nam as a province with strong industrial development. Denmark has large enterprises specializing in green fields such as green product production, wind energy, and efficient energy management and use, who are ready to cooperate and share experience so that the two sides can work together towards a common goal of promoting green transformation. On the same day, Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth attended a meeting and exchange program between Danish businesses and businesses in Ha Nam province about green transformation and efficient use of energy in industry. Speaking at the meeting, Tran Xuan Duong, Vice Chairman of the Provincial Peoples Committee confirmed that Denmark and Vietnam have close and long-term friendship and cooperation, especially in the field of energy. Since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1972, the bilateral relationship has been increasingly developed in many fields, bringing many practical results, meeting the aspirations and interests of the two countries' people, he said, adding that several businesses in Ha Nam province are using modern technologies of large Danish corporations. He expressed his hope that Ha Nams businesses and Danish businesses will exchange, share and learn from each other to find cooperation opportunities in the future. Ha Nam will welcome more Danish businesses and investors to invest in the province, he said. On this occasion, Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth and the Danish business delegation visited Xuan Thanh Cement Factory in Thanh Nghi Commune, Thanh Liem District. The second cement production line of the plant uses equipment and technology designed and provided by the FL Smidth Group (Denmark). The delegation also presented gifts to students of Thanh Nghi Primary School and visited Tam Chuc tourist area./. Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, speaks at the event (Photo: VNA) At a debate on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the US against Cuba (called Item 36) on November 2 as part of the UN General Assemblys 77th session, Giang emphasised that the embargo violates international law and the basic principles of the UN Charter, and goes against a common desire for equal relations between countries. From its traumatic experience, Vietnam fights against all forms of embargo and unilateral imposition on a sovereign nation, the diplomat said, calling for the promotion of dialogue and trust building, and urging the US to end the embargo and reverse its current policy towards Cuba. He also reaffirmed Vietnam's support, friendship, cooperation and solidarity with the Cuban people as well as its commitment to upholding the principles of international law. At the event, the majority of countries called for an end to the embargo imposed on Cuba over the past six decades and shared difficulties facing the Cuban people due to the embargo.| The UN General Assembly has discussed Item 36 since 1992 and approved a resolution on the matter, which was joined and supported by a large number of member states./. Le Thi Mai Anh, Director of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Asia-Pacific Market Department, speaks at the forum. (Photo: VNA) The forum, co-organised by the Vietnam Trade Office in Thailand and the Vietnam Fruit Association (VinaFruit), was intended to promote the presence of Vietnamese fruits in the Thai market. VinaFruit President Nguyen Thanh Binh said fruits account for 10-20% of Vietnams total agricultural product exports, adding that Vietnamese fruits have been shipped to more than 70 countries and territories worldwide. Le Thi Mai Anh, Director of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Asia-Pacific Market Department, suggested the two sides step up cooperation in high-tech and organic agriculture, processing industry and building production and supply chains for agricultural products to boost exports to third countries, thus helping to raise the position of both Vietnam and Thailand in the regional and global supply chains. Nguyen Thanh Huy, head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Thailand, noted that Vietnamese products, particularly coffee, fruits and handicrafts, have been increasingly popular in Thailand. He suggested Vietnamese enterprises study local consumers' taste more carefully to make suitable adjustments in their production, pushing the penetration of Vietnamese fruits and fruit products into Thailand. Paul Le, Vice Chairman of Central Retail Vietnam, a subordinate company of Thailands Central Group, said Vietnam should pay more attention to packaging and diversifying fruit products, and suggested organising Vietnamese fruit festivals in Thailand./. Photo for illustration. (Source: hcmcpv.org.vn) At the conference, the delegates said that Islamic people make up the majority in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other Middle Eastern countries. However, only a few countries produce Halal products, and now the demand for Halal products has increased sharply not only due to the increase in the number of Islamism but also because many non-Muslims still prefer Halal products. Mr. Nguyen Tuan, Deputy Director of ITPC, said that strict requirements of Halal products are not a small challenge for businesses in countries that do not follow or the number of people who follow Islam is very small. Therefore, the Islamism-friendly standard will be a new door for businesses looking to enter the potential markets. Aiming to create conditions for businesses to take advantage of this opportunity, experts have provided necessary content and information about products suitable to the needs of Islamic markets for Vietnamese businesses to expand their markets.; help them identify criteria to achieve certification of products that are friendly to Islamism countries. Accordingly, in order to achieve the certificate of eco-friendly products, products must meet standards such as environmentally friendly products, products that follow sustainable trends, and are recyclable. From 2020, ITPC cooperates with Vietnam Halal Center and related units to organize many training sessions to provide cultural and economic knowledge, especially programs related to Halal content. In particular, the Halal Executive Program has provided full information on Halal product standards for 20 businesses in the southern city to expand exports to Islamic markets./. At the signing ceremony (Photo: VNA) Quyen spoke highly of Belgimexs support to Hanoi over the past decade to breed high-yielding 3B bulls and bring high incomes to farmers. Visiting its farm there, Quyen expected that the company would continue assisting Hanoi in technology transfer to develop 3B bull herds in Vietnamese localities and Hanoi in particular. On the occasion, the Hanoi Livestock Breeding JSC (HLBC) and Belgimex signed a deal to continue completing the process of transferring 3B breed and bovine semen to Vietnam to continue improving the quality of cow herds in Hanoi and other Red River provinces. Vice President and Minister of Economy, Foreign Trade and Agriculture of Wallonia Willy Borsus said with strengths in hi-tech agriculture, Wallonia is ready to promote cooperation with Vietnam to develop other plant and animal varieties as well as transfer technology. HLBC Chairman and General Director Bui Dai Phong said a decade ago, the company cross-bred 3B bulls with Sind cows into F1 that has weight as twice as higher than other breeds and good health. This hybrid cow breed has a fast growth rate and well adapts to living conditions of Vietnam, helping generate more jobs to farmers and raise their incomes. In February 2021, the municipal Peoples Committee approved a project to pilot farming of this hybrid cow breed in Hanois outlying districts of Ba Vi, Soc Son, Gia Lam, Phu Xuyen, Dan Phuong, Phuc Tho and Thach That. Over 30,000 Vietnamese farmers have so far joined in 3B breeding and over 260,000 F1 calves have been born. Each muscular bull could gain weight of 1-2kg each day with meat percentage of 75%. At present, Vietnam is now home to high-yielding 3B bull farms with 100-200 heads each./. Black-necked cranes are seen at Dashanbao National Nature Reserve for Black-necked Cranes in Zhaotong City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 1, 2022. Over 100 migratory black-necked cranes, a species under first-class state protection in China, were recently spotted in a national nature reserve in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China, marking the arrival of their wintering period.(Photo by Wu Taiping/Xinhua) KUNMING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Over 100 migratory black-necked cranes, a species under first-class state protection in China, were recently spotted in a national nature reserve in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China, marking the arrival of their wintering period. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, more than 100 black-necked cranes, along with over ten other migratory bird species, had arrived at the Yunnan Dashanbao National Nature Reserve for Black-necked Cranes, said the reserve's administration bureau. Compared with the number recorded last year, this year has seen an earlier arrival of the rare cranes and an increase in the number of the first batch of wintering black-necked cranes, according to the bureau. The reserve, located in Zhaoyang District of Zhaotong City, is the most significant wintering habitat and transfer station for migratory black-necked cranes on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Over recent years, the reserve has made a determined effort to implement conservation measures, such as wetland protection and restoration and construction of food source bases, in order to steadily improve its ecological environment for migratory birds. During the past three years, an average of over 1,500 black-necked cranes were spotted arriving at the reserve for wintering, while the numbers of other migratory birds were also on the rise thanks to these local conservation efforts. Black-necked cranes are seen at Dashanbao National Nature Reserve for Black-necked Cranes in Zhaotong City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 1, 2022. Over 100 migratory black-necked cranes, a species under first-class state protection in China, were recently spotted in a national nature reserve in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China, marking the arrival of their wintering period.(Photo by Wu Taiping/Xinhua) Editor: WXY Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on Thursday. The two presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Noting that President Hassan is the first African head of state China has received after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi said it speaks volumes about the two countries' close ties and the important position of China-Africa relations on China's diplomatic agenda. Xi recalled putting forth, while visiting Tanzania in 2013, the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith to guide China's cooperation with African countries. It has now become the basic policy guiding China's solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. Under the new circumstances, the sound growth of China-Tanzania relations not only advances the common and long-term interests of the two countries, but also carries great significance for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, said Xi. Xi briefed President Hassan on the proceedings of the 20th CPC National Congress. He pointed out that starting from now, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. "Modernization does not mean Westernization," Xi said, adding China has already found a development path suited to its national conditions. Chinese modernization is grounded in China's own realities, with features that are unique to the Chinese context, said Xi. Xi pointed out both the CPC and the Tanzanian Revolutionary Party (CCM) shoulder the historical mission of strengthening themselves and the country they govern, adding the CPC will expand exchanges and cooperation with the CCM and support the curriculum and operation of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School. Xi stressed that China views its relations with Tanzania from a strategic perspective and will always be a trustworthy friend of Tanzania. Moving forward, Xi said the two sides should advance friendship and cooperation across the board, in keeping with the China-Tanzania comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. China firmly supports Tanzania in upholding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and in exploring a path of development that suits Tanzania's conditions. China and Tanzania will continue to show firm support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi also said China will further increase import of specialty products from Tanzania, and support Chinese companies in investing and operating in Tanzania, so as to contribute to the economic and social development of Tanzania. China is ready to exchange experience and best practices with Tanzania on rural revitalization, and support the betterment of livelihood there, added Xi. Xi pointed out that the Tazara Railway marks a milestone in China-Tanzania and China-Africa friendship. Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this railway. "Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, help our African friends achieve common development, and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era." In growing China-Africa relations, Xi said both sides need to remain committed to the overall direction of mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual learning and mutual assistance. Both China and Africa need to build on their time-honored traditional friendship, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and show greater historical initiative in advancing friendship between China and Africa, he added. Xi went on to point out China's continuous development will create new opportunities for Africa. China will speed up the implementation of the ongoing nine initiatives for cooperation with Africa. "With a particular focus on infrastructure, we will continue to nurture new drivers for China-Africa cooperation through trade, investment and financing." China stands ready to work with African countries to uphold the basic norms governing international relations including the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, actively operationalize the Global Development Initiative, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance, and do more to bring about a community with a shared future for mankind, said Xi. Noting that she was excited and honored to be invited to visit China soon after the successful conclusion of the 20th CPC National Congress, Hassan said that the visit is a testament to the high level of Tanzania-China relations. On behalf of the CCM and the Tanzanian government, Hassan once again extended warm congratulations on the success of the 20th CPC National Congress and Xi's re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Tanzania views China as its top real friend and will always be a trustworthy partner for China, said Hassan, adding that with the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Tanzania will work with China to strengthen practical cooperation across the board, take the relationship to a new height, and turn it into an exemplar for Africa-China relations in the new era. Hassan stressed that Tanzania will continue to firmly support China on issues relating to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other core interests of China. She expressed appreciation for China's support in the development of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, and conveyed the hope of southern Africa's six sister parties to step up experience sharing with China on national governance in order to achieve better development. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has not only boosted the development of African countries in various fields, but also had a demonstrative effect in driving other countries' cooperation with Africa and helped enhance Africa's international standing, the president said, adding that Tanzania will continue to take an active part in and support the development of FOCAC. Noting that the Global Development Initiative put forth by Xi is very timely and conducive to addressing the global challenges of today, Hassan said Tanzania will work with China to operationalize this initiative and build a community with a shared future for mankind. The two heads of state agreed to keep up the momentum of high-level exchanges and dialogue, and enhance exchanges and cooperation at all levels between the localities, legislatures and political parties of the two countries. They agreed to expand the scale of bilateral trade, boost the level of trade and economic cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance cooperation projects on infrastructure, enhance industrial complementarity and production capacity cooperation, and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation in such areas as manufacturing and processing, green development and digital economy. The two heads of state reached consensus on strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges, holding a China-Tanzania year of tourism and culture at an appropriate time, encouraging more exchanges between the academics and media organizations of the two countries, and carrying forward the friendship between the two peoples. The two presidents agreed to enhance cooperation in international and multilateral settings, step up communication and cooperation on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and jointly uphold international fairness, justice and the common interests of both sides. At the end of the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents covering trade, investment, development cooperation, digital economy, green development and blue economy. The two sides issued a Joint Statement on Establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania. Prior to the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Hassan in the Great Hall of the People. Upon President Hassan's arrival at the Great Hall of the People, a 21-gun salute was fired in Tiananmen Square to greet her. Seventeen honor guards lined up the steps on both sides of the red carpet to salute her and trumpeters blew horns to welcome her. The two presidents stepped onto the review stand, after which the military band played the national anthems of the two countries. Accompanied by Xi, Hassan then reviewed the guard of honor of the People's Liberation Army and watched the march-past. After the talks, Xi held a welcoming banquet for Hassan at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) Editor: WXY Four new IAEA experts have arrived at Zaporizhia NPP to replace their colleague at the plant, Director General of the agency Rafael Grossi has said on Thursday. "A new team of four experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived at Ukraine's Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) today to replace the four experts who had been on the site for the past four weeks," Grossi said in the statement. Grossi also said "it was the second rotation of IAEA nuclear safety, security and safeguards experts" since the Director General travelled to Europe's largest nuclear plant on September 1 to establish the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission. "Thanks to the support of all concerned parties, we were able to successfully carry out a rotation of staff at Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant a few hours ago." Zaporizhia NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with six VVER-1000 power units. From February 28, 2022, it is occupied by the Russian army. The Czech company J.B.Plus s.r.o. in a German laboratory successfully tested an electric motor with a view to its subsequent installation on Ukrainian oil pipelines instead of obsolete Russian equipment. According to the company's press release, the tests were carried out with the participation of the international certification center TESCO LLC, and the engineering was carried out jointly with the companies SCHORCH (Germany) and ELIN Motoren (Austria). "This was not an easy task, since the engine weighing approximately 10 tonnes must be installed in the same place, observing the same room and foundation parameters as for the Russian-made engine. At the same time, the new European engine must work in accordance with modern requirements and a higher efficiency," the press release notes. The delivery of the first new German electric motor to the Ukrainian oil pipeline is scheduled for November this year. The remaining two will be delivered in December. According to the data in the ProZorro e-procurement system, in October 2021, J.B.Plus won the tender of PJSC Ukrtransnafta for the supply of three high-voltage electric motors until December 31, 2022. The G7 is creating a coordinating mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend vital energy and water infrastructure, G7 foreign ministers said following their meeting in Munster. "Today we establish a G7 coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure. We look forward to the 13 December international conference in Paris aimed at supporting Ukraine's civilian resilience, organized by France and Ukraine. We also welcome the outcomes of the 25 October International Experts Conference in Berlin and remain committed to contribute to the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine," according to a statement by the G7 foreign ministers on Friday. We will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes, the ministers said. The Foreign Ministers again called on Russia to immediately stop the aggressive war against Ukraine and withdraw all its troops and military equipment. "Together with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba we condemn Russia's recent escalation, including its attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, in particular energy and water facilities, across Ukraine using missiles and Iranian drones and trainers. Through these attacks, Russia is trying to terrorize the civilian population. Indiscriminate attacks against civilian population and infrastructure constitute war crimes and we reiterate our determination to ensure full accountability for these and crimes against humanity," the statement reports. The G7 ministers warned that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with serious consequences. "We also reject Russia's false claims that Ukraine is preparing a radiological 'dirty bomb.' The inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that these allegations are baseless, and we commend Ukraine for its transparency," they said. "We also condemn Russia's continued seizure and militarization of Ukraine's Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, the abduction and reported abuse of Ukrainian personnel, and the willful destabilization of its operations. We support the IAEA's efforts to establish a Safety and Security Zone," the ministers said. "We will continue to impose economic costs on Russia and on other countries, individuals or entities providing military support for Moscow's war of aggression, as several of us have already done regarding Iran's provision of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to Russia," the statement reports. "We reiterate our call for the Belarusian authorities to stop enabling Russia's war of aggression, including permitting Russia's armed forces to use Belarusian territory to launch missiles targeting Ukraine. If the Belarusian authorities more directly involve Belarus in Russia's war, the G7 will impose overwhelming additional costs on the regime," the ministers said. "We reiterate our unwavering commitment to continue providing the financial, humanitarian, defense, political, technical, and legal support Ukraine needs to alleviate the suffering of its people and to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. We salute the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia's unprovoked aggression, and we are committed to helping Ukraine meet its winter preparedness needs," they said. "Recalling the 11 October G7 Leaders' statement, we welcome President Zelensky's readiness for a just peace based on respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and its legitimate right to defend itself from aggression. Russia's calls for negotiations are not credible when it continues to escalate the war and issue new threats and disinformation," the statement reports. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny discussed the situation at the front with his NATO counterpart Christopher Cavoli, as well as Russian missile attacks and the use of UAVs. "I talked over the phone with Supreme Commander of the NATO Joint Armed Forces in Europe and commander of the U.S. Armed Forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli," he wrote on the Telegram channel. He noted that they discussed the situation on the Ukrainian front. "Its tense, but controlled. The enemy has tripled the intensity of hostilities in certain sectors of the front up to 80 attacks daily. Thanks to the courage and skill of our soldiers, we are holding the defense," he said. Zaluzhny also stressed that during the conversation, the parties noted the problem of Russian missile attacks and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. According to him, Ukraine's partners understand the need to supply missile and air defense systems and are making significant efforts to do so. "I am sincerely grateful to them for their help and support," the Ukrainian commander-in-chief summed up. Yermak on visit of heads of NATO member states: This is powerful signal of support for Ukraine from Alliance countries Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak has said that the visit of the heads of NATO member states is a powerful signal of support for Ukraine from these countries, the presidential press service reported. Such visits are a powerful signal of support for our country from the countries - members of the Alliance, the message reads. Yermak noted the importance of such a visit to Ukraine in those days when Ukrainian cities are experiencing another wave of Russian attacks with missiles and drones. The head of the President's Office informed the interlocutors about the current situation at the front, noting the advance of Ukrainian troops in the south of the country with the aim of de-occupation of Ukrainian territories. "We liberate parts of our territory every day. The situation in Donbas remains very difficult, in particular in the Bakhmut region, where a significant number of Russian forces is concentrated," he said. Yermak noted the need to develop a strong position of NATO member countries on a number of important issues. "Especially with regard to these air attacks by missiles and drones, as well as with regard to the recent attempts of illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia," said the Head of the President's Office. In addition, Yermak stressed that at the end of September, Ukraine applied for membership in NATO, and many countries already support the possibility of our state gaining membership in the Alliance. But such a decision requires the consensus of all NATO countries. Yermak also expressed hope for the formation of broader support within the Alliance for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic prospects. "We expect confirmation of the Alliance's open door policy in the context of Ukraine's application for membership, as well as the expansion of assistance to Ukraine to strengthen air defense. In addition, we expect progress in the dialogue with NATO member countries regarding security guarantees," he noted. Yermak noted that an international group of experts co-chaired by Andriy Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen developed recommendations on security guarantees for Ukraine, which can become the basis of the Kyiv Security Compact. He also emphasized the importance of rebuilding Ukraine and eliminating the consequences of the Russian invasion. According to him, two major conferences were held in Lugano and Berlin, dedicated to the plan for the restoration of our state. However, now the Ukrainian side is focused on the implementation of the Fast Recovery Plan. "Because 24/7 we live in a situation where all our services are working to provide citizens with light and heat, so that people have a place to live," he explained. In addition, the head of the Presidents Office focused on the importance of a clear and powerful reaction from the leaders of NATO member countries to nuclear blackmail and threats to the Russian Federation. "These eight months, during which Ukraine, with the support of its partners, is resisting Russian aggression, have shown that it is possible not to be afraid, and confirmed the leadership of NATO as the most powerful military and political alliance in the world," Yermak noted. "Ukraine demonstrates that it can successfully fight the aggressor and confirms that it is capable of winning with the help of its partners. We are sure of our victory," added the Head of the Office of the President. Yermak expressed his conviction that Ukraine, which will become a member of the Alliance in the future, will only strengthen its positions. In his turn, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Ihor Zhovkva informed foreign partners about the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the conclusion of joint declarations on the Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. "The first such declaration was signed between Ukraine and the Czech Republic at the beginning of this week. I hope that your countries will also support this initiative," he said. In addition, Zhovkva emphasized the importance of our country receiving from the Alliance as soon as possible means to counter UAVs in the framework of NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine. Invaders withdrawing some units from right bank of Dnipro, but its not yet clear whether they will fight for Kherson ISW Russian occupation forces continue to withdraw some units from the north-west of Kherson region, but it is still unclear whether Russian troops will fight for the city of Kherson, according to a report by analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for November 3. Some Russian elite units such as airborne forces and naval infantry are reportedly continuing to operate on the right (western) bank of the Dnipro River and their full withdrawal from northern Kherson region would be a clearer indicator that Russian forces will not fight for Kherson City or settlements on the right bank, the analysts say. It was also reported about the closure of some Russian checkpoints in the vicinity of Kherson, the theft of city monuments and the removal of the Russian flag from the building of Kherson Regional Administration with the transfer of the occupation administration to Henichesk as indicators of the ongoing withdrawal of Russian troops from the city. The relocation of Kherson region occupation government may suggest that Russian forces are preparing to abandon Kherson City, it may equally indicate that they are setting conditions for urban combat within the city, the ISW noted. It is reported that the occupiers hastily sent recently mobilized personnel for offensive operations in the western part of Donetsk region, having received minimal and operationally insignificant territorial gains, but having suffered significant losses. The ISW notes that such Russian attacks are unlikely to create enough momentum to regain the initiative on the battlefield. One or two Russian motorized rifle companies with artillery and tank support conducted ground attacks within the past week to seize Pavlivka in an effort to reach Vuhledar, but that Russian forces have suffered losses due to Ukrainian defenses. Russian sources also acknowledged on November 3 that the rate of Russian advances near Vuhledar is slow due to Ukrainian resistance and mud The Russians conducted over 40 ground attacks in Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and western Donetsk region areas in the past 24 hours, sustaining over 300 casualties (100 killed) in just one direction, the report says. Russian sources on Thursday claimed that Ukrainian forces continued to conduct counter-offensive operations in the direction of Kreminna and Svatove of Luhansk region. According to analysts, the occupiers themselves continued offensive operations in the area of Bakhmut, Avdiyivka and Donetsk. At the same time, the Russian military continues to face pronounced problems in the supply of critical military equipment. The Russian Ministry of Defense is likely continuing mobilization efforts covertly. Russian occupation officials continued forced evacuations in Kherson region, the report reads. Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna has held a meeting with a group of ambassadors -permanent representatives of NATO member states who arrived in Ukraine on a visit. "The parties discussed the priority needs of Ukraine and Ukraine's application for membership in NATO. The meeting participants paid special attention to the planning of assistance to Ukraine, in particular, through a Comprehensive package of assistance to Ukraine, as well as its financing through the NATO Trust Fund," the press service of the Deputy Prime Minister said following the meeting. Stefanishyna noted that since the beginning of the full-scale war, much attention has been paid to bilateral military and non-military cooperation. "Today is the time to talk about more systematic planning for the long term and what role NATO can play in coordinating such efforts. It is important to understand how we can use a comprehensive package of assistance to Ukraine," she said. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the policy of strategic uncertainty in relation to Russia has exhausted itself. "It is important that the Alliance continues to support the policy of open doors," Stefanishyna said and noted that Ukraine's membership in NATO will help deter the aggressor from war in the future. Among other things, the parties discussed security guarantees for Ukraine within the framework of the Kyiv Security Compact. "The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the importance of moving forward on this issue. According to her, Ukraine needs military planning for years ahead, which will also require appropriate planning from the allies. She also focused on the continuation of military assistance," the report says. It is noted that representatives of ten foreign countries visited Ukraine: Head of the Albanian Mission to NATO Visho Ajazi Lika, Acting Head of the Bulgarian Mission to NATO Zlatin Krastev, Head of the Estonian Mission to NATO Yuri Luik, Head of the Latvian Mission to NATO Skuja Edgars, Head of the Lithuanian Mission to NATO Deividas Matulionis, Head of the Polish Mission to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski, Head of the Slovak Mission to NATO Peter Bator, Head of the North Macedonia Mission to NATO Dane Taleski, Head of the Romanian Mission to NATO Danut-Sebastian Neculaescu, and Head of the Czech Mission to NATO Jakub Landowski. The Russian occupiers are carrying out filtration measures against the population in Luhansk and Kherson regions, abducting and taking citizens to an unknown destination, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. "Representatives of the so-called military commandant's office carried out filtration measures against the local population in the village of Pisky in Starobilsk district of Luhansk region. About 30 citizens were abducted and taken to an unknown destination," the report says. According to the General Staff, this is a violation of international humanitarian law, laws and customs of warfare. It is noted that similar events are held in settlements along Oleshky Nova Kakhovka highway of Kherson region. In addition, there is an increased movement of trucks and cars with looted property along the highways of Kherson region. Significant robberies are committed in Beryslav and nearby settlements. In particular, property and repair facilities are being removed from electric grid maintenance enterprises. In the village of Topolivka, the Russian occupiers use as a "human shield" a local school and kindergarten, where up to three hundred enemy soldiers with equipment are housed. At the same time, the leadership of Primorsky Territory of the Russian Federation is forced to introduce additional security measures and strengthen the police regime. In the city of Vladivostok, the authorities are preparing for possible protest manifestations among the local population, who are dissatisfied with the mobilization measures carried out earlier and the large losses of representatives of the region in the war in Ukraine. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann has arrived in Kyiv on a visit, the German Federal Ministry of Justice has announced. "We stand firmly on the side of Ukraine. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann left last night to visit the country. One thing is clear: we provide financial, military and humanitarian support and we will continue to do so. We will not give up freedom and justice!" the ministry said on Twitter on Friday. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi donated 163,000 doses of flu vaccine to medical workers in Ukraine. According to a press release from the company, citing Minister of Health Viktor Liashko, as of September, Sanofi has provided Ukrainian patients with 31 million doses of medicines worth more than EUR 23 million. The company reminds that in February 2022, the Ministry of Health, the French Embassy in Ukraine and Sanofi signed a memorandum of understanding to provide patients in Ukraine with wider access to high-quality medical care and medicines, as well as to promote the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation in the field of healthcare with EU legislation. Russian enemy forces once again fired on one of the energy enterprises of the DTEK group DTEK Energy on Friday, the 12th attack in a month, the company has said. "Today, one of DTEK Energy's enterprises was once again damaged by missile attacks. This is already the 12th attack on the company's energy enterprises over the past month," DTEK said on Facebook on Friday. According to preliminary information, no casualties in the shelling on Friday are reported, but the power equipment was substantially damaged. As reported, on Friday Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions were shelled by the occupiers. Based on the materials of the investigators of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) under the procedural leadership of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), all property of President of JSC Motor Sich Viacheslav Bohuslayev, as well as the head of the Department of Foreign Business Activity of the enterprise, suspected of working for the aggressor state, was seized, the SBU press reports said. "The total amount of seized assets is about UAH 1 billion. These are, first of all, funds in the hryvnia equivalent, as well as vehicles and real estate of both defendants," the service said. The PGO also said that among those seized were 100% of the corporate rights of the financial institution PJSC Motor Bank, owned by the head of Motor Sich, as well as stakes in several Ukrainian enterprises. As reported, SBU officers detained the president of the Motor Sich Corporation and the head of the JSC Foreign Business Activity department. The suspects were declared suspected under Article 111-1 (collaboration activity) and Article 111-2 (complicity with the aggressor state) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Ukraine receives 700 generators from donors, another 900 to be delivered soon PM Ukraine has already received 700 generators from donors, and another 900 will be delivered in the near future, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said. "We are preparing for any scenarios. We are stockpiling equipment to generate energy in emergency situations," he said at a government meeting on Friday. The prime minister said that on November 3, a coordination meeting was held with the UN structures and USAID. "We talked about preparing for winter. We have already received 700 generators from donors. Another 900 will be delivered from them in the near future," the prime minister said. On Monday, November 7, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a discussion entitled "Successes and failures of Ukrainian policy amid autumn escalation of hostilities." Participants include political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; director of sociological service "Ukrainian barometer" Viktor Nebozhenko; political scientist, co-founder of the "National Platform for Sustainability and Cohesion" Oleh Sahakyan (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. More and more cryptocurrency mining companies are switching to renewable energy sources, which are almost equal in price to the usual ones. This is reported by Ukrainian entrepreneur and founder of White Rock Management Serhiy Tron in his column for the Medium website. It is the case of using surplus energy that is not used in the power system either green energy or the products of mineral processing. The investor emphasizes that the process of mining can be compared to power consumption of an entire city or even a country. The mining process constantly requires more and more computing capacity and, accordingly, more power. One bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of power as the average family consumes in two and a half months, i.e. about 2170 kW*h. Nature Climate Change published a study with a forecast that at the current pace of bitcoin development, its mining will create enough carbon dioxide emissions to warm the planet by 2C in less than 30 years, said Serhiy Tron. According to the crypto-investor, the issue of excessive power consumption and harmful emissions into the atmosphere was raised more than once in the expert environment, this resulting in the Crypto Climate Accord initiative, which was supported by over 250 mining companies. The initiative aims to achieve zero net emissions in the crypto-industry by 2030. For a complete transition to a new system, it is necessary to develop uniform standards and start implementing them in mining practice. According to Serhiy Tron, it is difficult to detect exactly what energy sources miners use, but nothing prevents them from switching to more environmentally friendly resources. "Right now, the price of power from renewable sources is almost comparable to other environmentally harmful ones, and the miner can choose between clean and dirty energy. To avoid harm to the environment, miners use surplus energy that is not used in the power system: either green energy or products of mineral processing. According to various data, the share of renewable energy sources in bitcoin mining ranges from 39% to 74%. There is no more exact data because of decentralization of cryptocurrencies. Simply put, anyone in the world with a computer can mine bitcoin. And it is quite difficult to track what energy sources they apply," said the owner of White Rock Management. According to Serhiy Tron, effectiveness and feasibility of using renewable energy sources in the crypto-industry is confirmed by experience of many countries. For example, in China, where they banned mining in an attempt to reduce atmospheric emissions, they achieved the opposite effect: miners moved to other countries, and the released volumes of RES appeared to be useless. As a result, the share of alternative energy sources in the country's power system has dropped by 20%. The businessman gives another example. A hydroelectric power plant in Costa Rica, the services of which were rejected by the authorities, offered to generate power for crypto-investors. As a result, the station owner was able to retain his assets, jobs, and reach profitability. As we can see, mining stimulates the development of green energy and acts as a significant driver of economic advance as a whole: it ensures the launch of new renewable energy facilities, which results in new jobs and tax payments. Miners act as an enzyme that activates competition and adoption of new technologies. Cryptocurrency mining by socially responsible investors becomes a growth point that multiplies the development of related industries, concluded Serhiy Tron. One of the world's first cities came close to being wiped off the map during tragic floods this summer in Pakistan. Though Mohenjo Daro survived, it has become a symbol of the threat global warming poses to humanity's cultural heritage. The Biden administration said Monday that Russia has abruptly and without explanation postponed the scheduled resumption of arms control talks this week. New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced condemnation after his spokesman announced Thursday he will not attend next month's COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt due to "pressing domestic commitments". Britain hosted the last such summit, COP26, when it stressed the importance of global leaders convening to discuss climate change amid growing criticism of their failure to meet vital carbon reduction targets. Sunak's decision came on the same day the United Nations warned that countries' climate pledges leave the world on track to heat by a potentially calamitous 2.6 degrees Celsius (36.7 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. It also follows his moves to stop allowing the government's COP26 minister Alok Sharma and climate minister Graham Stuart attending cabinet, as they had done under his predecessors. Sunak was only installed Tuesday as the UK's third leader in two months. He replaced predecessor Liz Truss after she was ousted just seven weeks into her tenure over a disastrous tax-slashing mini-budget unveiled last month that sparked economic turmoil. Truss had been set to attend the UN climate conference in Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh, British media said. "The prime minister is not expected to attend COP27 and this is due to other pressing domestic commitments including preparations for the Autumn Budget," his spokesman told reporters, referring to a November 17 announcement of the government's revised fiscal plans. Downing Street insisted Sunak was "absolutely committed" to supporting COP27, denying he was downgrading the importance of tackling the climate crisis. But he faced immediate criticism from opposition politicians and environmental groups. "This is a massive failure of climate leadership," said Ed Miliband, the main opposition Labour party's former leader and now climate change spokesman. "We were the COP26 hosts and now the UK prime minister isn't even bothering to turn up." He accused Sunak of failing to understand "that tackling the climate crisis isn't just about our reputation and standing abroad, but the opportunities for lower bills, jobs, and energy security it can deliver at home". Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, compared Sunak's decision to "a runner failing to turn up with the baton at a crucial stage of the relay". "Coming just after the ousting of Alok Sharma from the cabinet, this suggests that the new prime minister neither takes the climate crisis seriously enough, nor recognises the opportunities for Britain to take a leadership role in helping to solve it." Search Keywords: Short link: South Africa: Government fight against corruption bearing fruit Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says efforts taken by the current administration to root out corruption and fight state capture are bearing fruit. Magwenya was addressing the media and public on Friday in Cape Town on President Cyril Ramaphosas public engagement programme for the week and on topical issues of public and media interest. The several high profile cases that are before the courts bear testament to the success of the enablement provided by the Ramaphosa administration to law enforcement agencies in support of their fight against corruption, he said. Magwenya laid out efforts by the administration in the fight against corruption and State Capture. These are the appointment of new leadership at the Hawks which has restored the credibility and stability of the institution and led to action against corruption. Since 2018, the Hawks have secured 4 500 convictions on corruption and other priority crimes. The appointment of a new National Director of Public Prosecutions on the recommendations of an independent panel following a transparent public process. The establishment of the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] Investigating Directorate to prosecute state capture and other significant corruption cases. The Investigating Directorate has by August 2022 enrolled over 20 corruption cases and charged 65 accused, he said. Magwenya added that to ensure the state recovers monies looted from its coffers, the Special Tribunal was appointed to expedite civil claims against corrupt individuals. Since it was established through a proclamation by President Ramaphosa in 2019, the Special Tribunal has recovered more than R8.6 billion for state coffers. On matters of the State Security Agency, Magwenya said much work has been undertaken to end corruption and politicisation of the agency including the appointment of new leadership and implementation of recommendations of a high level panel on the SSA. At Eskom, Magwenya said the work of multiple agencies to address sabotage and theft has resulted in the enrolment of some 67 cases with three finalised with a conviction. This a significant step towards ridding Eskom of rogue elements that undermine one of the key tenets of achieving the countrys energy security, which is the fixing of Eskom and improving the operational performance of existing power stations, Magwenya said. Tembisa Hospital Turning to media reports linking the President to businessman Hangwani Maumela who allegedly received controversial tenders at the Tembisa Hospital, Magwenya said the President has no knowledge of Maumela's business dealings or his involvement at Tembisa Hospital. To the extent that Maumela is the son of the Presidents ex brother-in-law, the President has no further knowledge of Maumela nor has he ever had any relationship with him. Furthermore, President [Ramaphosa] does not have any knowledge of Mr Maumelas business dealings neither was he aware of his involvement with the Tembisa Hospital or any other state entity. The President expects law enforcement agencies to conduct their investigations without any fear or favour, regardless of who may be involved and to arrest those who are or were party to malfeasance, he said. Magwenya emphasised that the President will sign off on any proclamation application from the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the Tembisa Hospital. In the exercise and fulfilment of his constitutional powers, the President remains duty bound to always act in accordance to the constitution and his oath of office. This he does without any fear or favour. SIU Proclamations are never signed based on the individuals involved. The Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals act no.74 of 1996 sets out guidelines in which the President may exercise his powers. The President considers every application by the SIU on its merits and he will certainly sign such a proclamation should the SIU, as it so often does, motivate for the need for such an investigation, Magwenya said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. On the afternoon of 6 of October 1973, the Egyptian Armed Forces shook the world with a courageous and surprise attack on Israel to liberate Sinai. Someone had to capture this and other moments of bravery that led to victory - and send them back to the people to confirm the good news. On that day, Egyptian soldiers had managed for the first time since the 1967 defeat to cross to the Israeli-occupied eastern side of the Suez Canal and to bring down the reputedly impregnable Bar Lev Line. Starting 7 October, Egyptian dailies began posting news and pictures of the war. Given the trauma that resulted from the falsely declared victory in the 1967 War still lingering in their minds, people sought proof of the crossing in pictures taken from the front. These were the pictures that the photojournalists were taking and sending to Cairo for publication just as they had done during the 1956 War and the 1967-1970 War of Attrition. Shawky Moustafa: 'An image for forever' Shawky Moustafa On the morning of 8 October 1973, a certain picture was posted that was to become ubiquitous and iconic. The picture shows an Egyptian soldier raising his gun in defiance, joy and pride upon getting to the eastern side of the Suez Canal. It was captured by the late Shawky Moustafa, a photojournalist who was working for the state-owned Dar El-Helal at the time. A social media post by Moustafa's grandchild to express pride in the immortality of their granpa's work and iconinc image At that time and for many years to come not many people cared about crediting photojournalists for their work," said Sherine Shawky, Moustafa's son. "This photo, which was inscribed on a postage stamp in the glorious memory of the October Crossing, was re-published over and over by the press but without credits, Shawky lamented. Moustafa, who passed away over 10 years ago, covered more than one of Egypt's wars against Israel and worked for almost all the country's dailies throughout his distinguished career. The first shot he took in an Egyptian-Israeli war, however, was during the 1956 Suez War when he was an army conscript. Shawky said that though his father had taken many photos on various frontlines he was especially proud of the pictures he took during the October war. Sherine Shawky Shawky recalls with joy how his dad kept sending photos non-stop from 7 October till the end of the war. Many of his photos capture the bravery of Egyptian soldiers. The picture, however, that he would stare at and that remained his favourite is the picture of the soldier crying out victory, he noted. Antoine Albert: 'Not to be deterred' Antoine Albert Another iconic photo, published on 8 October in Al-Ahram, depicts the first soldier to plant the Egyptian flag on land that had just been liberated from Israeli occupation. The shot was taken by Antoine Albert, another photojournalist with a long history of photographing Egyptian-Israeli wars. According to his widow, Alice Aiyyad, Albert, who had passed away 10 years ago, was once held captive by the Israeli army during the war of attrition. Before he was captured, Albert had been with two prominent journalists at the time, Anis Mansour and Gamal Helal. Mansour returned to Cairo carrying a love letter from Albert to his then young fiancee Alice. Antoine had wanted to reassure me that everything was alright, but for some reason Anis Mansour never handed this letter to me. Perhaps he thought I would get more worried when I read it, or maybe he learned of Antoine's capture before he had a chance to call and pass the letter to me, she recalled. Alice learned of this letter when Albert returned home after spending over two months in Israeli custody. She stressed that his imprisonment by the Israelis never deterred him from wanting to go back to the front to take pictures. He wanted to take pictures of the soldiers who were getting ready for the day when they will reverse the defeat, she said. He never hesitated for a moment when he was summoned to go to the front and take pictures; for him his mission had not yet been accomplished, Alice added. More heroes: 'Send me to the frontline' Many journalists had been keen on taking photos from the front during the October War. Tony Fares and Mohamed Lotfy, two photojournalists from Al-Ahram, spent days at the front. Fares was among the first photojournalists to request to go to the front soon after he heard the news of the crossing. He should have been given credit for the large number of photos he sent, which depicted the defiance of Egyptian soldiers, their joy over the crossing, and their pain over losing comrades who fell for the glory of Egypt. His photos also included unique shots of the damage that the Egyptian Armed Forces had inflicted upon the Israeli army. Lotfy is another Al-Ahram photojournalist who should have been given credit for so many photos of Israeli prisoners of war - photos that are still in print today. Tony Fares Tony Fares at work Mohamed lotfy on the frontlines Israeli soldiers coffins - Photo by Mohamed Lotfy 'We document courage' Makram Gad El-Karim and Farouk Ibrahim went to the front with Gamal El-Ghitany, the prominent novelist who started his career as a war correspondent. Their photos still reflect the sentiments and memories that Ghitany captured in his book The October Dairies: At the Frontline. The book, which falls in three parts, spans the period between the war of attrition and the October War. El-Ghitany dedicates a large part of the book to portraying the courage and fortitude of Egyptian soldiers, whose faces are documented in the iconic photos taken by Gad El-Karim and Ibrahim. Images are constant reminders The archives of the photos of the October War are largely fragmented and incomplete. In October 2014, however, the Bibliotheca Alexandria uploaded on its website a large collection of these photos. These photos thus act as constant reminders of the valour of these soldiers. They also document their individual feelings and emotions and articulate what this war meant for every one of them. Finally, for a generation that has never witnessed the war, these pictures will remain a source of inspiration and pride long after the guns were put down. Search Keywords: Short link: More than 2,000 people were detained during and after the deadly clashes between security forces and protesters in Chad last month, a rights group said Monday, voicing fears of more violence to come. The World Organization against Torture, known by its French acronym OMCT, told AFP that around 1,000 people were arrested and detained in the capital N'Djamena during and after the October 20 protests. Another 1,100 people had been detained in the Moussoro prison, around 300 kilometres from the capital, and in the high-security Koro Toro prison located in the middle of the desert, it said. Isidore Collins Ngueuleu Djeuga, who heads OMCTs African rights division, said that Chad's judicial authorities were due to go to Koro Toro this week to inform the detainees of the charges against them. The Geneva-based NGO called for all of those detained to be released, or at the very least be granted a fair trial, and demanded security guarantees for their lawyers as they cross the desert to the prison. Opposition groups called the protests to mark the date when the ruling military had initially promised to hand over power, a timeline recently extended for another two years by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. The 38-year-old succeeded his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years before being killed during an operation against rebels in April 2021. The authorities say 50 people died, including a dozen members of the security forces, and accused the opposition of mounting an "insurrection." OMCT said Monday that as many as 115 may have died, and has accused the security forces of summary executions and torture. 'Very Violent' Ngueuleu Djeuga said the authorities violent repression of the protests did not bode well, voicing fear that a "very violent" system was being set up in the country. Two Chadian rights activists in Geneva this week to attend a review of their country's record by the United Nations Committee Against Torture voiced alarm at developments and called for the international community to do more to stop the violence. During the curfews put in place in a number of cities, "they go to people's homes and arrest them," Mahamat Boukar Adoum, interim head of the Chadian Human Rights League (LTDH), told AFP. "This is still going on. People are taken duing the night They are brought to Koro Toro, the 'Chadian Guantanamo'," he said, drawing comparison to the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. "People have no contact with their family, their lawyers. There is no official list of the people detained," he said. "It is total confusion." Agnes Ildjima Lokiam, head of the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (ATPDH), meanwhile told AFP the heads of opposition parties and organisations "have gone into hiding" because they fear for their lives. "We are demanding an independent, impartial and international investigation." Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts National Initiative for Smart Green Projects announced the winning 18 projects out of 6,281 submitted from all governorates. The winning projects will be presented at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) -- set to take place in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh -- along with one project from each governorate. Ambassador Hisham Badr, the general coordinator of the initiative, said that the initiative contributes to developing smart and unprecedented solutions to climate problems, noting that the initiative is sponsored by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. According to Badr, 162 projects were selected, with 6 projects from each governorate before being shortlisted to 18 winning projects to be presented at COP27, with each governorate choosing a certain project to be its ambassador. He explained that clear criteria were set for evaluating projects, and the executive committees in the governorates were adequately trained. First place winner will be awarded EGP 750,000, the second EGP 500,000, and the third EGP 250,000. This is in addition to the United Nations' support for the 18 projects. The announcement was made in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawi, and President of the National Council for Women Maya Morsy. The event was attended by representatives of international organisations, including Elena Panova, the resident representative of the United Nations in Egypt. In August, the prime minister launched the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects to choose the best proposals in six categories, including large and medium-sized projects, small local projects, especially those associated with the presidential initiative "Decent Life", and projects provided by startups and non-profit communities. The categories also include development projects related to women, climate change and sustainability. Each governorate submitted 6 projects, one in each category. In the final stage, three projects were selected from each category, bringing the total of the winning projects at the national level to 18 projects. The UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda Mahmoud Mohieldin stressed that COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh comes in a global atmosphere that calls for innovative solutions. Mohieldin explained that the initiative is one of three important initiatives adopted by the Egyptian presidency, and no one has preceded us in this regard." The initiative will be an annual event. In addition to this initiative, another initiative is to prepare a list of projects from the five regions globally and a third initiative is to support Egyptian universities and research centres in innovation and research related to climate action. "In this regard, we thank all Egyptian universities and research centres for supporting the Smart Green Projects Initiative." Mohieldin added that green and smart initiatives are linked to sustainable development in Egypt, praising the prime minister's decision to support and hold this initiative annually. Egypt, he added, enjoys the ability to compete and respond to global initiatives such as this one, and this became evident with the number of projects it submitted. He explained that the initiative comes as a translation of the goals of localising sustainable development. At the level of investment, Mohieldin said there are great opportunities for the projects presented in the competition to cooperate with the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Stock Exchange, and international institutions with the aim of opening up broader horizons. The climate champion also stressed that these initiatives provide a dynamic map for investment in Egyptian governorates as well as an opportunity to increase investment and exports and achieve further development and innovation. There is an opportunity to take this initiative from its local framework to international horizons, he added. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt condemned on Friday the assassination attempt on Pakistans former Prime Minister Imran Khan, stressing its solidarity with the government and people of Pakistan in the face of all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism. In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wished a speedy recovery for Khan and all those injured during the assassination attempt. On Thursday, Khan, 70, who served as Pakistans premier 2018-2022, was shot in the leg at a political rally but is recovering in a stable condition. One person was killed and several others were injured during the attack. Police announced the arrest of a suspect. Search Keywords: Short link: Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the world's leading Sunni Islamic institution, called for ending the Russia-Ukraine war and halting ongoing fighting in various areas worldwide. El-Tayyeb made the remarks in a speech on Thursday at the Bahrain Dialogue Forum organised in the capital Manama under the theme East and West for human coexistence from 3-4 November. I add my voice to that of philanthropists who call for peace and an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and urge stopping bloodshed of innocent people, El-Tayyeb said in his speech. The two-day forum, which was hosted by King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and attended by the Vatican's Pope Francis, brought together 200 scholars and religious representatives from around the world for an inter-faith dialogue. The Al-Azhar grand imam called for waving the flag of peace instead of the flag of victory, and sitting on the dialogue and negotiations table. He also called for rebuilding bridges of dialogue, understanding and confidence, to restore peace around the world amid ongoing conflicts. El-Tayyeb, who is also chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, urged religious scholars worldwide, regardless of their sect, to hold a serious dialogue to promote unity and rapprochement over division, strife and sectarian conflict. This dialogue should include the cessation of hate speech, provocation and excommunication, and emphasise the necessity of overcoming historical and contemporary conflicts, he stressed. El-Tayyeb, 76, is a long-time advocate for religious coexistence. In 2019, he and Pope Francis signed the Document of Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together in Abu Dhabi with the aim of reinforcing the principle of coexistence among religions. Search Keywords: Short link: More than 3,000 journalists and media professionals from around the world will cover the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh between 6-18 November, Chairman of Egypts State Information Service (SIS) Diaa Rashwan said. In a press statement posted on the SIS website on Friday, Rashwan said that significant numbers of media professionals and correspondents from news agencies, newspapers, websites and television channels have registered to cover the COP27 and most of them have already arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh. The number includes 2,800 journalists, correspondents, and photojournalists representing about 450 media outlets from all over the world. It includes about 300 journalists and correspondents accredited to the SIS representing nearly 50 foreign media and press institutions that have bureaus in Egypt, he said. It also includes photojournalists, broadcasters and journalists accompanying official delegations to the conference, Rashwan said. He noted that these numbers do not include the over 500 journalists, media professionals and photojournalists representing dozens of Egyptian media outlets who have already registered to cover the conference. Rashwan, who is also head of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate, said the conference is expected to be covered in 15 major languages, including Arabic, English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. A significant number of media outlets will be broadcasting the conference proceedings from Sharm El-Sheikh, including Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, Fox News, in addition to news agencies from Russia, Italy, China and others, Rashwan said. Media delegations from the world's major television networks, notably the BBC, the British Sky News, NBC, CBS, Al Hurra, CNN and Euronews will also be covering the conference, Rashwan said. In addition, there will be media delegations from television networks from Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, China, and others, along with Arab and African media outlets, he added. Correspondents from the worlds biggest newspapers including the New York Times from the US, the Independent from the UK, and Le Monde and Jeune Afrique from France will be present, he added. Furthermore, media delegations of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the United Nations will be present at the conference in addition to media delegations from the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Arab region, he noted. Journalists will be provided with all facilities needed to broadcast from the event, thanks to coordination between the UN office in Cairo and the governments ministries, Rashwan said. The SIS is facilitating this process by receiving media professionals at Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh international airports and facilitating customs release of their equipment, he said. They are also issuing the necessary permits and facilitating the movement of journalists throughout the conference, as well as providing some technical materials and equipment necessary for their work, Rashwan said. These arrangements are being carried out through the global press centre that the SIS has already set up, Rashwan added. More than 40,000 are expected to participate in the COP27. French President Emmanuel Macron will be attending the conference, according to statements on Friday by the French ambassador to Egypt. US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are also attending. Search Keywords: Short link: The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group will emphasise the urgency of mobilising massive resources for global warming mitigation and adaptation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) that is set to be held in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh on 6-18 November, the bank said in a statement. The EU bank will affirm its unwavering commitment to deploying its full range of financial tools in support of the swift decarbonisation of the worlds economies. The EIB Group will launch new initiatives under its Climate Bank Roadmap to support a just transition to net-zero carbon emissions globally, and a framework to promote environmental sustainability. In addition, the EIB will team up with partners to announce new green financing projects and initiatives. EIB President Werner Hoyer said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a "catastrophic human tragedy that has also exposed worlds dependence on fossil fuels. "Decarbonisation has now become a prerequisite not just for saving the planet from climate disaster, but also for energy security and safeguarding cohesion at a global level. This is why our response to the crisis must focus on renewable energy efficiency and innovative technologies that will power sectors such as heavy industry, shipping and aviation. Hoyer followed this up by emphasising the banks commitment to financing new technologies for green solutions, in conjunction with its partners. Meanwhile, EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle highlighted the importance the importance of providing climate financing to those countries and communities with the greatest need. Through our dedicated arm for operations outside the European Union, EIB Global, we are stepping up our efforts to support green energy projects globally, with a special focus on Africa," Fayolle explained. Finally, EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti reiterated the banks close cooperation with Egypt to make the conference a success. The EIB has worked with Egypt since 1979. We will continue our partnership to support the countrys ambitious National Climate Change Strategy 2050, including investments in energy, transportation, agriculture and water resources." Search Keywords: Short link: Ahram Online provides a compiled list of definitions and significance for the most used climate change-related terms. Mitigation Making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere. Mitigation is achieved either by reducing the sources of these gases, increasing the share of renewable energies, establishing a cleaner mobility system, enhancing the storage of these gases, or by increasing the size of forests. Adaptation This refers to actions that decrease the negative impact of climate change, while taking advantage of potential new opportunities. It involves adjusting policies and actions because of observed or expected changes in climate. Adaptation can be reactive, occurring in response to climate impacts, or anticipatory, occurring before the impacts of climate change are observed. In most circumstances, anticipatory adaptations will result in lower long-term costs and be more effective than reactive adaptations. Climate finance This refers to local, national or transnational financingdrawn from public, private and alternative sources of financingthat seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions. The Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable. This recognises that the contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent it and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions. Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate. Climate crisis This term is used to show a greater sense of emergency and urgency about climate change. It asserts the severity of the threat that climate change poses. Climate emergency This term is used by the United Nations to stress the need to take urgent action to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it. Loss and damage This phrase normally refers to the destructive impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided either by mitigation or adaptation. It reflects the fact that climate change is already having negative effects on ecosystems, infrastructure and peoples health and livelihoods around the world. However, there is no internationally agreed definition for loss and damage. Loss and damage is often divided into economic loss and damage, including to livelihoods and property, and non-economic loss and damage, including loss of life and losses to biodiversity and cultural heritage. Climate justice This term is used by the United Nations and other organisations, such as the NAACP, that frame climate change as a social and political issue rather than just an environmental one. According to the UN, climate change disproportionately affects those nations where the average income is much lower than in industrial nations and would have a much greater impact on populations in countries in Africa and Asia. These nations have largely rural societies and lack the wealth or resources to make up for the significant absence of food that would occur due to climate change. Climate strike A form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change. Paris Agreement (Paris Accord) The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP21 in Paris on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5, degrees Celsius. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century. The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. Sea-level rise The term sea-level rise, or its variants such as relative sea-level rise or global sea-level rise, might be more familiar to you than the other terms on this list, but you may not know exactly what it means. The sea level is the horizontal plane or level corresponding to the surface of the sea at mean level between high and low tide. Sea-level rise refers to the steadily increasing sea levels that scientists are recording on a global scale. Carbon emissions It is the amount of carbon dioxide, in general, emitted into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels or through industry. Biodiversity It is diversity among and within plant and animal species in an environment. Climate change has a severe negative effect on biodiversity. Biodiversity is important to maintain a healthy environment (such as in pollination of plants and continuing the nutrient cycle), but we humans depend on biodiversity as well for medicines, food, and the joy we get from seeing flourishing plants and animals. Visit Ahram Online special coverage page for COP27 for more news and analysis The U.N. climate summit is back in Africa after six years and four consecutive Europe-based conferences. The 27th annual Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change - better known as COP27 - will be held in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and begins on Sunday. It's been branded as the ``African COP``, with officials and activists hoping the conference's location will mean the continent's interests are better represented in climate negotiations. Hosts Egypt say the meeting represents a unique opportunity for Africa to align climate change goals with the continent's other aims, like improving living standards and making countries more resilient to weather extremes. Organizers expect over 40,000 participants, the highest number ever for a climate summit on the continent. Ever since the conference's first iteration in Berlin in 1995, the U.N. climate summit continues to rotate annually among the five U.N. classified regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, central and eastern Europe, and western Europe. It's the fifth time that an African nation has held the U.N. climate summit, with Morocco, South Africa and Kenya all serving as former hosts. The first African summit, held in Marrakech in 2001, passed landmark accords on climate funding and made other key decisions on land use and forestry. The following three meetings on the continent had some success on issues like adapting to climate change, technology and sowing the seeds for the Paris Agreement in 2015 years earlier. Marrakech is also the last African city to host the event, having hosted a second COP in 2016, that aimed to implement some of the Paris goals. The Paris Agreement considered a major success of the U.N. climate summits, saw nations agree to limit warming to ``well below'' 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with an aim of curbing it to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). And although experts don't expect agreement between countries to reach the same scale as Paris, hopes on the continent are high for the upcoming conference. Mithika Mwenda, who heads the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, told The Associated Press that the summit ``presents a unique opportunity to place Africa at the center of global climate negotiations'' and hoped the conference ``truly delivers for the African people.'' Mwenda said that the ``special needs and circumstances'' of the continent need to be considered as it attempts to both increase access to electricity for millions of people while addressing climate change and limiting the use of fossil fuels. He added negotiations must prioritize how vulnerable countries will adapt to climate change, address compensation from high-polluting countries to poorer ones, known as ``loss and damage'', and seek avenues for financing for both a move to cleaner energy and building resilience to climate change. Many developing countries look to the U.S. and much of Europe, who have contributed the largest share of emissions over time, to pay for damage caused by climate change. So far, pledges by rich countries on climate finance, such as the $100 billion-a-year promise to help poorer nations meets their climate goals, have not been met. The Egyptian organizers said the summit should focus on how countries can implement pledges made in previous years. ``Africa's hopes for COP27 is that there has to be progress on a new goal on financing,'' said Jean-Paul Adam, who heads the climate change division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, adding there needs to be ``clarity as to what will be provided as grants and what will be provided as concessional loans and the remainder being dealt with through prudential private sector investment.'' The onus is also on industrialized countries to rapidly reduce emissions so that the global climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius can be achieved, Mwenda said. African countries account for just 3% of total global greenhouse gas emissions but experts say they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in large part because they lack the ability to quickly adapt to the warming climate. The climate conference will be a real test of world leaders' commitment to addressing climate change, said Landry Ninteretse, regional director for the environmental group 350Africa.org. ``We are tired of years of empty talk and broken promises,`` said Ninteretse. ``We are now demanding nothing else but robust funding mechanisms that address loss and damage in a fair, accessible and transparent way.'' Ninteretse agreed that ``the biggest emitters must commit to rapidly cut emissions`` and ``help the nations most vulnerable to climate change'' by financing climate initiatives. Past COPs have seen disagreements and hardline positions emerge as national interests clash, a concern for those hoping tangible results will come out of the negotiations. ``The discussions tend to be protracted, uncompromising and acrimonious at times,`` said Mwenda, a veteran of the climate negotiations circuit. ``But in 2015, the world ratified the Paris Agreement, which was a major milestone.'' But the success of the COP in Paris was the exception, rather than the rule, experts say, with a lot of work still to do to address climate change. ``Negotiations have lasted three decades but the impacts of the climate crisis, manifested by floods, droughts, among other extremes, persist,'' Mwenda said. Search Keywords: Short link: The breakthrough deal signed by Ethiopia's government and Tigrayan rebels has been hailed as a crucial step to ending two years of war, but much remains unclear, observers say, raising questions about whether it will lead to a durable peace. Other than the silencing of the guns, the accord notably calls for the provision of humanitarian aid to war-stricken regions, the re-establishment of federal authority over Tigray and the disarming of Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters. But the "Agreement for lasting peace through a permanent cessation of hostilities", which has been published online by the government, relies largely on the good faith of the parties to resolve intractable disputes, leaves aside several crucial issues and remains vague on others, analysts said. According to Patrick Ferras, geopolitical researcher and president of Strategies Africaines, the deal is effectively "a letter to Santa Claus because it is difficult to achieve". "We have the impression that everything has been processed but it was done in a hurry," he told AFP. The negotiations in Pretoria were mediated by the African Union and barely covered nine days. The final document also made no mention of Eritrea -- whose forces have backed Ethiopian soldiers during their operations in Tigray -- or of the various regional militias involved in the war. The failure to consider these key players and their role while hammering out the deal has created a situation rife with risk, observers say. 'Too many unknowns' For instance, the contested Western Tigray region, which has been occupied by Ethiopia's Amhara militias since the war erupted, is one of the issues looming over the peace process, and the deal does little to address it. The TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's election in 2018, has always refused to negotiate on the matter, a position echoed by the Amhara who also claim the region. Even more worrying, the agreement suffers from "an Eritrea-sized hole", said Ben Hunter, Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki "did not sign the agreement and still harbours expansionist ambitions," Hunter told AFP. "He is likely to try provoking the TPLF into breaking the ceasefire," Hunter added, with the two sides sharing an enmity that goes back decades. Eritrea's presence in Tigray -- its forces have been accused of horrific atrocities against civilians -- also casts doubt over the likelihood of the TPLF disarming its fighters, as it has pledged to do. The Tigrayan authorities "will not depose arms in exchange (for) vague promises," said Benjamin Petrini, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, pointing to the climate of deep distrust between the parties. "What are the security guarantees offered to the TPLF to disarm?" he asked, underlining the presence of "too many unknowns" in the agreement. 'Poisoned chalice' The biggest unanswered question concerns the future of the TPLF, a party whose influence over Ethiopian politics was unquestionable for many years, but which now faces an uncertain road ahead. The crucial issue is whether the "TPLF (will) maintain its role of ruling party" in Tigray, said Petrini. Barely 24 hours after the deal was signed, Abiy told a crowd of supporters in southern Ethiopia that his government had secured "100 percent" of its demands in the negotiations. Researcher Ferras agreed, saying, "on paper Abiy got everything he wanted", leaving the TPLF with very little to show for two years of war and a humanitarian crisis that has left Tigray battling severe food and medicine shortages. The war broke out on 4 November 2020, capping months of tensions between Abiy's government and the TPLF, then the ruling party of Tigray. Shortly after the peace deal was announced, the Tigrayan delegation's chief Getachew Reda admitted his side had "made concessions because we have to build trust". But its willingness to accede to the government's demands may not find favour with Tigray's six million residents, who have "paid a high price for two years" as the war dragged on, said Ferras. The region is teetering on the brink of disaster, with limited access to basic services such as power, communications and banking, and rebuilding it will prove a monumental task, he warned. "In the eyes of the population, the TPLF may have lost all credibility," he said. With so many issues hanging in the balance, the lack of substance in the deal has raised eyebrows even as many have welcomed the public commitment to a peace process by both the TPLF and the Abiy government. "The African Union will for now be breathing a sigh of relief following sharp criticism of its previous mediation efforts," said Hunter. But it is too soon to celebrate, he said. "Overseeing this deal may yet turn out to be a poisoned chalice". Search Keywords: Short link: The G7 has agreed a new structure to funnel aid to Ukraine to help rebuild infrastructure targeted by Russia, the group's foreign ministers said after talks in Germany on Friday. "Today we establish a G7 coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure," the ministers said after a two-day meeting in the western city of Muenster. The club of rich countries said Russia was trying to "terrorise the civilian population" of Ukraine with attacks against people and infrastructure, in particular energy and water facilities. "Indiscriminate attacks against civilian population and infrastructure constitute war crimes and we reiterate our determination to ensure full accountability for these and crimes against humanity," the ministers said in a statement. The G7 also expressed concern over Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent comments on nuclear weapons and said any use of such arms would be met with "severe consequences". "Russia's irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable," they said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Russia's campaign against Ukraine's energy network has left around 4.5 million people without power. For weeks Russian forces have rained missiles and explosive drones onto Ukraine infrastructure, apparently hoping to turn sentiment among the Ukrainian public and its neighbours against the war during the cold of winter. Russian strikes over the past month have destroyed around a third of the country's power stations. The Kyiv government has urged Ukrainians to conserve electricity as much as possible. Ahead of the G7 meeting, its host German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the group would assist Ukraine with items including generators and heaters to survive the winter. Search Keywords: Short link: The German government on Friday warned that escalating protests by activists ahead of the UN climate conference in Egypt must not break the law. Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said that while Berlin shared the goal of climate protection with the demonstrators, their protests "must not take place outside the bounds of our laws". Climate activists in several European countries have targeted famous museum pieces to draw attention to their cause ahead of COP27, which will start this month in Sharm el-Sheikh. In Germany, protesters last week threw mashed potatoes over a Claude Monet painting in Potsdam and on Sunday glued themselves to an exhibition of a dinosaur skeleton at Berlin's Natural History Museum. But the issue gained urgency this week after a street protest in Berlin on Monday allegedly prevented emergency workers from getting to the scene of an accident. An emergency vehicle was delayed in reaching a cyclist who had been run over by a cement mixer as activists had glued themselves to a nearby street. The cyclist in hospital has since been declared braindead. Buechner said he was "expressly" not blaming the demonstrators for the woman's fate, noting that the "investigation continues" into the accident and its aftermath. But he said that "these types protests accept that they can create dangers for others", a fact the government "condemned". Chancellor Olaf Scholz this week also chided the activists. "I am very sad about what is happening and very glad that it has not come to the point where an irreplaceable artwork has been permanently damaged," Scholz told reporters. "There are other ways to express one's opinion and perhaps a little creativity could be used." Scholz also urged the activists not to create public risk. Protesters trying to make a political point "should always bear in mind that there should be no endangerment of others", Scholz said. Search Keywords: Short link: The newly re-restored Carter House on the West Bank in Luxor reopened on Friday to mark the centenary of the greatest archaeological find ever made: the discovery of King Tutankhamuns tomb by British Egyptologist Howard Carter (18741939) and his team on this day in 1922. The reopening ceremony was attended by Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa, Luxor Governor Mostafa Alham, renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, former antiquities minister Mamdouh El-Damaty, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri along with a number of foreign ambassadors in Egypt. The resoration project, carried out from February-November 2022, was implemented in collaboration with the American Research Centre in Cairo (ARCE) and was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Adina Lei Savin Family Trust. The mudbrick structure was repaired to address water damage, and alterations were made to the landscaping to prevent similar damage in the future. Old, broken subsurface waste pipes from the house were replaced, while hedges and trees that were planted too close to the walls were removed. In addition, a water-free buffer zone was constructed around the house. Considerable effort went into developing an engaging and representative visitor experience at the house. Visitors will now enjoy comprehensive and bilingual (Arabic and English) information panels with archival images that contextualise the social and political circumstances surrounding the discovery of the tomb and the many key figures Egyptian and foreign that were involved. Supplementary information about what life was like in the early 20th century and interesting details of the functions of the house and its various specialised rooms, such as the photographic darkroom, will also be included. The new on-site information will also be complemented by a virtual tour of the house. Carter built the house in 1911 and expanded it subsequently after the discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb to process his finds. On 4 November 1922, after a search that spanned for nearly a decade, Carters team stumbled upon the first of 12 steps that led to a closed doorway with seals bearing the name of Tutankhamun. This momentous day was the start of what became a ten-year project to excavate and conserve the 5,000 objects inside the tomb and transfer them to Cairo. During this period and until his passing in 1939, Carter lived in the house to be close by to the entrance of the Valley of the Kings. The home contains a single domed central hall, Carters study, in addition to a photography laboratory and other original fixtures that have been retained over the past 100 years. In 1939, the house was transferred to the Egyptian Service des Antiquites and was subsequently used as a rest house by the local inspectorate. In 2009, the Carter House was first restored and opened to the public as a cultural tourist attraction. Morcos Zaki, the grandson of Morcos Hanna Pasha, Egypts minister of works in the 1920s who helped preserve Tutankhamuns tomb, also spoke at the event. It is a great honour to see my grandfather, Morcos Hanna Pasha, recognised for the role that he played in this great discovery, and for the lasting impact of his actions. As a family, we are very excited by the achievements of this project and visiting Carter House and learning about the rich history of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Zaki said. The project to restore Carter House and renew its visitor information has ensured that this relatively contemporary heritage site in the west bank of Luxor will continue to provide awareness and engaging information about the discovery of Tutankhamun and Howard Carters life to all those who visit it. The projects success is owed to our strong collaboration and partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and the support of our donors and technical partners, said Dr. Nicholas Warner, the director for cultural heritage projects at ARCE. Last three images of the late Howard Carter courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation Search Keywords: Short link: Before Egypt was ruled by the Pharaohs, during a time called the Pre-Dynastic Period cultures rose and flourished throughout the Nile Valley, which offered rich land and water for hunting, herding, and agriculture. In Upper Egypt (the south), stratified societies developed at several sites, which evolved into powerful chiefdoms. Through a long process, these chiefdoms in turn became a single kingdom. The culture of this Upper Egyptian kingdom spread slowly northward to Lower Egypt (the north). Eventually, one king ruled the entire Nile Valley from the first cataract at Aswan all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The first Pharaoh had emerged. The ancient Egyptians conceived of their gradual period of state formation as the conquest of one kingdom by another, even though no single Lower Egyptian kingdom ever existed. The concept of duality was an important one, so the idea of an Upper and Lower Egypt was appealing. The ancient Egyptians devised many ways to express this concept, which they called sema-tawy, or the union of the Two Lands. As a result, the Pharaoh often appears under the protection of the cobra, representing the patron goddess of Lower Egypt, Wadjet, and the vulture, Nekhbet, who was the patron goddess of Upper Egypt. Each of the Two Lands had its own crown, a white crown for the south and a red crown for the north, which the king might wear separately or as the combined double crown of ancient Egypt. The lotus and the papyrus were the floral symbols for Upper and Lower Egypt. All of these reminded the people of the very distant past and of a country that was now united under the rule of one true king of Egypt. The Third Dynasty marked the beginning of the Old Kingdom, a new era of Egyptian history when for the first time Egyptian kings were powerful and wealthy enough to undertake royal construction programmes that were enormous even by todays standards. The administrative capital of the country was at Memphis, now in the area of Mit Rahina in the vicinity of modern Cairo. The kings sent expeditions to Sinai, the Western Desert, and deep into Nubia to engage in trade with neighbouring cultures, to mine gold, and to quarry stone. The growing economy gave Egypt the necessary resources for huge construction projects, most famously the Great Pyramid constructed by the Pharaoh Khufu at Giza. Many other pyramids were also built, as were temples for the gods. Since the earliest times, the ancient Egyptian had identified themselves with the god Horus, and during the Old Kingdom they began to call themselves sons of Re, or sons of the sun god. Through the course of the Old Kingdom, or during the Third to the Sixth Dynasties, royal power slowly waned, and high officials from families unrelated to the kings gained more control over matters in Egypt. This political change, and possibly a change in climate, brought Egypt into the so-called dark age of the First Intermediate Period when the Two Lands disintegrated and the power of the state lay in the hands of strongmen who ruled chiefdoms scattered along the length of the Nile. These local rulers sometimes allied themselves with and sometimes challenged rulers in the north who still styled themselves the kings of all Egypt. After 100 years or so of disunity, a very capable and ambitious king rose to power in the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes (modern Luxor). Through force of arms he consolidated the Two Lands and brought the people of Egypt together under his sole rule. His name was Mentuhotep II, and his reign marked the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the second great age in ancient Egyptian history. This was a period of cultural flowering, and literature and art reached their peaks at this time. The rulers of the Middle Kingdom built a line of fortresses along the River Nile at the second cataract in Nubia and in the north in Sinai in order to regulate trade with foreigners in these regions and guard Egypts borders from its enemies. In the area of modern Fayoum, one of the early Middle Kingdom rulers, Amenemhat I, founded a new capital city called Itj-tawy, or Seizer of the Two Lands. However, Thebes remained important as a religious centre, and one of its gods, Amun (the Hidden One) became prominent. Mentuhotep II was buried on the west bank at Thebes, but later kings were buried elsewhere. In the north, other kings built pyramids that never reached the enormous size of those constructed during the Fourth Dynasty. They were also built somewhat more economically, with enormous amounts of mud brick and rubble. During the Middle Kingdom, foreigners from the Levant began to settle in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta. These people grew in number and influence as they came to hold important positions in the royal court. The more the power of the king diminished, the more control they gained over administrative matters, until they at last established their own kingdom with its capital at Avaris, a city along the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Another influx of Levantines, known as the Hyksos, then took over the north of Egypt and founded their own ruling dynasty, the 15th. They ruled the north of Egypt for the next century or so, while a weakened Egyptian dynasty, the 16th, ruled the south. The 16th and the 17th Egyptian dynasties ruled from Thebes, and once again this southern city gave rise to a ruler who would reunite the Two Lands. The Theban king Seqenenre Tao and many Egyptian soldiers sacrificed their lives in the fight against the Hyksos. Seqenenre Tao was succeeded by Kamose, who continued the struggle. Ahmose, Seqenenres son and Kamoses successor, later took command of the army and pushed forwards farther to the north. Both sides used new military equipment that had been introduced from Asia, including horse-drawn chariots and compound bows that gave archers a greater range than the older type of bow. Ahmose then voyaged downstream with his army to Lower Egypt, sacked Avaris, and drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. Egypt was then reunified under a new dynasty at the opening of a new golden age, known today as the New Kingdom. Ahmoses 18th Dynasty was one of the strongest to rule Egypt in ancient times. His descendants were so powerful that they expanded the empire until its southern limit was in the area of modern Khartoum in Sudan and the holdings of its vassal states in the north reached the southern borders of modern Turkey. However, the Egyptians remembered what had happened before at the end of the Middle Kingdom, and they determined that Egypt would never again fall prey to outsiders. Booty from war and merchandise from peaceful trade with neighbouring empires added to Egypts wealth and splendour. Ahmose and his successors credited the god Amun with their victories, and the gods temple and priesthood grew wealthy and influential. For their burial place, most rulers of the New Kingdom selected a valley in the hills to the west of Amuns sacred city of Thebes overlooked by a peak that resembles a pyramid. Today called the Valley of the Kings, this place offered security to the dead kings: here they and the treasures necessary for their afterlife could be hidden away and guarded. Egypts wealth was so great that foreign kings claimed that gold was like dust in the country. Such wealth made it possible for Amenhotep III, the boy-king Tutankhamuns grandfather, to undertake major building projects all over Egypt. These were so numerous and of such magnitude that some scholars consider him to be the greatest builder of the New Kingdom. Egypt was then the most powerful and the wealthiest empire of the ancient world, and the ancient Egyptian civilisation was at its zenith. Search Keywords: Short link: Police say she had a heart attack in custody, but her family disputes that. The family's request for a committee of independent doctors to investigate her death was rejected by the Iranian authorities. Thomas-Greenfield spoke at an informal meeting of Security Council members, known as an Arria meeting, focused on the mass protests that started in Iran on Sept. 16, following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. The Kurdish woman was arrested in Tehran by so-called morality police for wearing her headscarf "improperly." "This work is vital. It makes a real difference," U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of the CSW. "And it deserves our full support, especially when the rights of so many women and girls are under attack. But the commission cannot do its work when it is being undermined from within." She said Iran's membership is an "ugly stain" on the body's credibility. "In our view, it cannot stand," she said. The U.S. announcement was first made in a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris's office earlier Wednesday. The United States called Wednesday for Iran to be removed from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Independent Probe Urged "It is clear that the so-called investigations into the death of Mahsa Amini have failed the minimum requirements of impartiality, independence and transparency," Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur for Iran, told the meeting in a video briefing. He called for an independent, international investigation into her death -- a call that was supported by several council members. Iran's ambassador sent a letter on Monday to all UN members urging them not to participate in Wednesday's meeting, saying it violated the UN Charter by interfering in Tehran's internal affairs. Ahead of the meeting he told reporters that Iranian law enforcement could "manage" any unrest, but that it "would not do so at any cost." "The importance of human life and dignity is what ultimately guides our decision," Amir Saeid Iravani said without taking any questions. "Therefore, the restraint displayed by Iranian law enforcement should not be [seen as] a sign of weakness." The regime has been widely criticized for its use of disproportionate force against peaceful protesters. The special rapporteur said at least 277 people, including 40 children, have been killed by security forces in the demonstrations. Thousands more have been arrested. "Make no mistake about it, the Islamic Republic [of Iran] is a totalitarian system that uses forced confessions and torture to stifle all dissent," actor and activist Nazanin Boniadi told council members. She said the future of the country can "only be written by its own people on its own streets" and urged international support. "The international community should want what the courageous demonstrators in Iran want," Boniadi said. "It's time for us to stop abetting the Islamic Republic and support the freedom-loving people of Iran." Albania co-sponsored the meeting with the United States. Iran Police 'Ignited a Fire' "The Iran morality police wanted to make an example. They ignited a fire," Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha said of Amini's arrest. He said now the genie of freedom is out of the bottle. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights lawyer Shireen Ebadi said the people will no longer settle for anything less than a democratic and secular government. "Many young people in Iran were killed for freedom and democracy," she said by video. "Don't let the Islamic Republic impose more grief on people's lives. We'd be grateful for your standing on the right side of history." The UN Economic and Social Council is the body that elects members to the Commission on the Status of Women. Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the meeting that she would work with other countries in the coming days and weeks about how to proceed on seeking Iran's removal. Two of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains -- CVS and Walgreens -- are reported to have tentatively agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle more than 3,000 state and local lawsuits involving the dispensing of opioid painkillers. In a statement released Wednesday, CVS Health said it agreed it will pay approximately $5 billion -- with $4.9 billion to states and political subdivisions and approximately $130 million to Native American tribes -- over the next 10 years beginning in 2023. In a similar statement, Walgreens said it would make $4.95 billion in remediation payments to be paid out over 15 years. The company said the settlement frameworks include no admission of wrongdoing or liability. In the statement, CVS Health Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel Thomas Moriarty said, "We are committed to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and will continue our own important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opioids." South Korea and the U.S. decided to extend massive aerial drills that were to end Friday after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday morning. Pak Jong-chon, the top military officer in North Korea, warned Thursday night that extending the air drills is a "huge mistake" and the situation is now "out of control." At midnight, the North fired three more short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea. The long-range missile fired in the morning is believed to have fallen into the East Sea once the second-stage booster separated from the missile. "The North fired an ICBM into the East Sea from Sunan, Pyongyang around 7:40 a.m.," the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said. "We found that the missile flew 760 km at a speed of Mach 15 after reaching an altitude of about 1,920 km." The booster separated successfully, but the missile seems to have fizzled due to a shortage of thrust power. Though the launch was not a complete success, the regime seems to have made some progress compared to earlier tests. With a range of 15,000 km, the missile -- unofficially dubbed Hwasong 17 -- could strike any target in the U.S. Pyongyang also fired two short-range ballistic missiles Thursday morning. North Korea's frenzied barrage of missile and artillery launches in recent days could have paid for a year's rice imports for the impoverished country, experts estimate. In an interview with Radio Free Asia on Thursday, Bruce Bennett of the conservative RAND Corporation estimated the cost of the 25 missiles fired on Wednesday alone at US$50-75 million given that each costs $2 to 3 million. In 2019, the North imported $70 million worth of rice from China. "The actual cost of North Korean missiles might be lower than the international level, considering that they're making missiles by overtaxing manpower and squeezing materials," a military officer here speculated. "The latest provocations show that they're in a desperate situation." Actress Lee Young-ae has offered to pay for the repatriation of the body of Yuliana Pak, a young Russian woman who died in the Halloween stampede in Itaewon. According to the Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities on Thursday, Lee heard that the 25-year-old woman's father, Artur Pak, is in financial difficulty and said she wants to help. The actress is one of advisers for the foundation. The father, an ethnic Korean, had been struggling to come up with the US$5,000 required to transport his daughter's body back to Russia. He is not fluent in Korean and ekes out a living working in a nursing home. The Russian Embassy in Korea promised to speed up the paperwork, and the Yongsan district office, which oversees Itaewon, also offered to help with the cost. The government has promised the families of foreign victims W20 million in compensation and up to W15 million for funeral expenses or repatriation of the body, but it could take some time until that is disbursed (US$1=W1,424). Samsung has been ranked fifth on the world's 100 top brands list for the third year running. According to a list of the best global brands by consulting firm Interbrand released Thursday, Samsung's brand value was estimated at US$87.69 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier. Samsung attributed its growth mostly to higher demand for memory chips due to an increase in data usage. Hyundai maintained its 35th spot, but its brand value grew 14 percent to $17.31 billion thanks to the favorable global response to its Ioniq 5 and 6 electric cars and the expansion of its business into future mobility technologies such as metaverse and robotics. Affiliate Kia was ranked 87th with $6.6 billion, up nine percent from last year. Apple topped the list again with a value of $482.22 billion, followed by Microsoft ($278.29 billion), Amazon ($274.82 billion) and Google ($251.75 billion). Funerals for the victims of the Halloween stampede in Itaewon have been taking place around the country. Out of 156 people who died in the crowd crush last weekend, the obsequies for some 128 victims were completed six days after the tragedy. People pay tribute to victims of the Halloween stampede in Itaewon, Seoul on Thursday. Of the 26 foreign victims from 14 countries, three from Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Vietnam have been sent to their home countries but the rest are still waiting for their repatriation. The government will provide W20 million in compensation and W15 million for funeral expenses to each of the victims (US$1=W1,424). People read messages for victims of the Halloween stampede in Itaewon, Seoul on Thursday. After the stampede, President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a week of national mourning which will last until this Saturday. Memorial altars were set up in many places across the country, including Seoul City Hall and Itaewon, and many people have been paying tribute. KYODO NEWS - Nov 5, 2022 - 04:40 | All, Japan, World The foreign ministers of Japan and the United States on Friday agreed to "pay close attention" to China after President Xi Jinping started last month a rare third term as chief of the ruling Communist Party with new leadership, according to a Japanese official. Meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven foreign ministerial gathering in Germany, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reaffirmed close bilateral cooperation toward the denuclearization of North Korea as concerns grow over a barrage of missile tests by Pyongyang. The launches, seen at an unprecedented pace this year, are "totally unacceptable," Hayashi said at the outset of the meeting in the western German city of Munster, touching on the test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday and a missile that landed near South Korea's territorial waters a day before. Blinken said the series of provocative actions by North Korea only reinforces the "absolute" U.S. commitment to the security of Japan and South Korea, as well as deepens the three countries' determination to "work even more closely together" to take measures against Pyongyang's repeated violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions. North Korea is also believed to have made preparations to conduct its seventh nuclear test, which would be the first since September 2017. Such behaviors have intensified security concerns in the Indo-Pacific area, where China has been growing assertive, including over Taiwan. Hayashi and Blinken reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait during their 30-minute conversation, according to the Japanese government official. Taiwan is a self-ruled democratic island that Beijing regards as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Concerns are growing that Xi may take a more hardline stance on the island as he accelerates his concentration of power. The Japanese official said the two diplomats agreed to monitor developments including over the new leadership lineup, which has been stacked with Xi loyalists. Hayashi hailed the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden for mentioning in its recently released National Security Strategy that the U.S. defense commitment under their bilateral security treaty covers the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, located just 170 kilometers from Taiwan. China has carried out repeated incursions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. Hayashi and Blinken also reaffirmed the need to bolster the bilateral alliance's deterrence and response capabilities amid the increasingly challenging security environment and to work together to support Ukraine as it fights back against Russia's aggression, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The two had already held a brief conversation on Thursday over North Korea's missile tests that took place earlier in the day and on Wednesday. North Korea's latest missile launches appeared to be in retaliation for the first large-scale joint air exercise by the United States and South Korea in five years, which began in late October. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country's military activities that followed the air drill were "due reaction and action warning to the hostile provocations," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Friday. North Korea "once again clarifies that it will never tolerate any attempt of the hostile forces to infringe upon its sovereignty and security interests but respond to it with the toughest counteraction to the last," the statement said. Related coverage: Japan, U.S., South Korea agree to beef up deterrence against North Korea Japan, U.S. diplomats vow close cooperation in addressing China Japan, U.S., South Korea vow to keep effective defense cooperation KYODO NEWS - Nov 4, 2022 - 13:50 | All, Japan, Coronavirus A ferry service connecting Fukuoka in southwest Japan with South Korea's Busan resumed Friday, becoming the first regular international sea route Japan has restarted since suspending ship passenger arrivals due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ferry operator said. JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Inc.'s newly built high-speed ship the Queen Beetle, which can carry up to 502 passengers, left Hakata port in Fukuoka on Friday morning with about 130 people on board. The resumption of ferry services between the two cities for the first time since March 2020 was in line with the easing of Japan's border restrictions last month. Following Friday's voyage, the ship will operate only on Saturdays and Sundays in November, connecting the Japanese and South Korean cities in three hours and 40 minutes. A one-way ticket is priced at 16,000 yen ($108) but passengers in November can board the ship for half price to commemorate the restart of services. The schedule from December onward is expected to be announced later, according to the unit of the railway firm Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu). "As more customers from South Korea are expected to come to Japan for shopping and dining, we'd like to create a timetable that accommodates their needs," said JR Kyushu Jet Ferry President Masayuki Mizuno. About 100 to 200 seats have been reserved for each service so far in November, according to a company official. Kahori Kurata, a 23-year-old resident of Fukuoka, boarded Friday with her mother. "I'm so happy we are now able to casually travel to South Korea. I'm looking forward to enjoying Korean food," she said. The JR Kyushu group started the route in 1991 and a total of over 6.5 million people have used the service so far, the ferry operator said. A special event to commemorate the resumption of the service had been planned but the company decided to cancel it after a crowd crush in Seoul late last month that left more than 150 people dead. Japan has eased border controls with the aim of reviving the country's struggling tourism sector, while hoping that the weak yen will encourage spending by visitors. Related coverage: Japan scraps COVID border controls in hopes of reviving tourism boom FOCUS: Hopes grow for win-win effect of inbound tourism in Japan, weak yen South Korea, Japan resume flights between capitals as COVID-19 eases KYODO NEWS - Nov 5, 2022 - 02:10 | All, World Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Friday pledged to continue to "impose economic costs" on Russia, more than eight months into its invasion of Ukraine, while committing to continuous support for the Eastern European nation. In a joint statement issued before wrapping up a two-day meeting in the western German city of Munster, the G-7 top diplomats also called for a peaceful resolution to the Taiwan issue amid tensions over the self-ruled democratic island that China regards as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union, have led efforts to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine since late February, such as asset freezes against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country's central bank. In view of Russia indicating its willingness to use nuclear weapons against the neighboring country, the statement said Moscow's "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable" and that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be met with "severe consequences." The G-7 ministers also expressed their "unwavering commitment" to continue supporting Ukraine. They vowed to set up a coordination mechanism to help restore and defend Ukraine's critical infrastructure, following Russian attacks against civilian targets that left many Ukrainians without electricity and water supplies. Alleging that Iran has provided Russia with military drones and trainers deployed in the attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, the statement indirectly criticized Tehran's involvement in the war. According to the Japanese government, the G-7 ministers agreed to seek Iran's halting of "any support" for the Russian invasion. The foreign ministers affirmed their commitment to providing relief goods for Ukraine "to meet its winter preparedness needs." The top G-7 diplomats expressed their strong opposition to "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion," and their serious concerns about the situation in and around the East and South China seas, in an apparent reference to China's maritime assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Underscoring "the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," they called for a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues. Cross-strait tensions have been heightened, especially since a visit to Taiwan in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the third-highest-ranking U.S. official, despite China's warning against any official contact between Taipei and Washington. As for North Korea, the G-7 ministers said they "strongly condemn the unprecedented series of unlawful ballistic missile launches" by Pyongyang this year, citing a missile that was "recklessly launched" on Oct. 4 and flew over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years. Amid speculation that the North is set to carry out its seventh nuclear test, the first since September 2017, the top diplomats warned that "any nuclear test or reckless action must be met with a swift, united, and robust international response." The G-7 countries condemned Russia's war as a "driver of the most severe global food and energy crisis in recent history" and its attempts to leverage those exports as a "tool of geopolitical coercion." Concerns about food supplies have grown, especially in some nations in Africa and the Middle East that are highly dependent on grain imports from Ukraine, a major producer, with Russia accused of destroying the country's agricultural infrastructure. Russia, another major grain exporter and one of the largest crude oil producers, has blamed the food shortages along with rising prices for food and energy resources on economic sanctions led by the G-7 being imposed on Moscow. Last week, Moscow announced the suspension of a July agreement with Kyiv to allow Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports, fueling fears of an exacerbated food shortage. However, on Wednesday, Russia decided to go through with the deal. The G-7 also emphasized that their close cooperation with African nations is vital since the continent is particularly vulnerable to food insecurity, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. Related coverage: G-7 foreign ministers call for peaceful resolution of Taiwan issue KYODO NEWS - Nov 4, 2022 - 20:26 | All, Japan SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. President Yuichiro Kondo on Friday expressed his intention to resign once he finishes leading the brokerage's revamp efforts following a market manipulation scandal that caused former executives to be indicted. "I would like to step down to take responsibility once the company gets back on track," Kondo told a press conference without giving any time frame. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for having betrayed everyone's trust." SMBC Nikko and its parent Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. also announced pay cuts for their leadership, with Kondo passing up any compensation for the next six months. Monthly pay for SMFG President Jun Ota will be reduced by 30 percent for the same period. "I take it very seriously that we brought about a situation like this," Ota, who accompanied Kondo at the press conference, said. Other executives at the companies are also taking similar pay cuts or returning part of their compensation. SMBC Nikko illegally propped up some stock prices to stabilize them in transactions called "block offerings" a couple of years ago, according to investigative authorities. Six former executives of the company, including a former deputy president, have been indicted over the practice. In block offerings, a brokerage mediates trading between large shareholders who want to sell chunks of shares and investors hoping to buy them during off-hours trading. The brokerage profits from the difference between the purchase and sale prices. Japan's Financial Services Agency last month ordered SMBC Nikko to suspend part of its operations for three months, urging the brokerage to improve compliance, while also instructing SMFG to strengthen its supervision of the subsidiary. The companies revealed a series of measures to beef up compliance Friday, including allocating more resources to personnel in charge of risk management. Related coverage: SMBC Nikko ordered to suspend some operations over trading scandal KYODO NEWS - Nov 4, 2022 - 21:42 | All, World, Japan Japan and South Korea are considering holding a summit in mid-November, a Japanese government source said Friday, as the two countries continue to try and improve their relations hurt by wartime issues. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol may meet on the sidelines of an international gathering, such as the Group of 20 summit to be held in Indonesia later this month, according to the source. The move to bring the leaders together follows Kishida's attempt to facilitate a summit by sending former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to meet Yoon in Seoul on Wednesday. The two agreed, during their 85-minute talk, on the need for further communication to improve bilateral ties. Tokyo-Seoul relations reached their lowest point in years during the tenure of Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae In, after South Korea's top court ruled in late 2018 that two major Japanese firms must pay damages to Korean plaintiffs over issues surrounding forced labor during World War II. Among Yoon's pledges in assuming the presidency in May was to take a future-oriented approach toward Japan, while Kishida has also emphasized the necessity of building constructive ties with the country. When Kishida and Yoon met in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's annual session, both governments characterized their talks as informal. Increasingly provocative actions by North Korea are also in the background of the two countries' moves to improve ties. The country fired a barrage of artillery projectiles on Wednesday, including one missile that fell on the south side's maritime border, and launched multiple missiles as recently as Thursday. One of the projectiles was initially on course to fly over Japan before disappearing from radar over the Sea of Japan. In response to rising tensions over North Korea, Kishida and Yoon are also planning to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in mid-November, possibly on the fringes of an international meeting such as the G-20 summit, according to other government sources. Working age is one of the important bases for defining whether employees are eligible for signing the labor contract or not. In accordance with current regulations, how old are the working ages in Vietnam? 1. How old are the working ages in Vietnam? In accordance with Clause 1, Article 3, Labor Code 2019, Employee means a person who works for an employer as agreed upon between the two parties. He/she is paid a wage and is managed, directed, and supervised by the employer. For the working age, Clause 1, Article 3, Labor Code 2019 points out clearly that: The minimum working age prescribed for an employee is full 15 years, except in the cases prescribed in Section 1, Chapter XI of this Code. Within that, the minimum working age of occupations and jobs is 15 years old. For some easy occupations and jobs on the list promulgated by the Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, employers are allowed to use employees aged from full 13 years to under full 15 years (In accordance with Clause 3, Article 143, Labor Code 2019). Employers may not recruit and employ persons aged under full 13 years, except the jobs in the fields of arts and physical training and sports, provided that such jobs are not harmful to the physical, intellectual, and personality development of these persons, and shall get the consent of specialized agencies in charge of labor under provincial-level Peoples Committees (In accordance with Clause 3, Article 145, Labor Code 2019). The Labor Code 2019 only limits the minimum working age, not limits the maximum working age. Therefore, if the employee is not healthy enough to do the job, and at the same time, the employer has a demand for using the employee, two parties can sign the agreement to do the job. 2. What should pay attention to when using minor workers? In accordance with Clause 1, Article 143, Labor Code 2019, the minor worker is a worker under full 18 years old. Pursuant to Section 1, Chapter XI, Labor Code 2019, the employer must pay attention to the problems in the recruitment process as follows: * Agreed jobs: - Employees aged from full 15 years to under full 18 years may not perform the jobs or work in the places which are prohibited for employees aged under full 18 years. - Employees aged from full 13 years to under full 15 years may only perform the easy jobs on the list promulgated by the Minister of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs. - Employees aged under full 13 years may only perform the jobs in the fields of arts and physical training and sports, provided that such jobs are not harmful to physical, intellectual, and personality development. * Labor contract: - Entering into a labor contract with an employee aged between full 15 years and under full 18 years, with the written consent of his/her at-law representative; - Entering into a labor contract with an employee aged under full 15 years and his/her at-law representative. * Working conditions: - Arrange a working time that does not affect the school hours of an employee aged under full 15 years; - Obtain a health certificate issued by a competent health establishment stating that the health of this person is suitable to his/her job, and organize health checks at least once every 6 months for an employee aged under full 15 years. - Ensure working conditions and occupational safety and health are suitable to the age of this employee. - Working time for the employee aged under 15 years old: Must not exceed 4 hours per day and 20 hours per week; no overtime or night work is allowed. - Working time for the employee aged between full 15 years and under full 18 years: Must not exceed 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week, may work overtime or at night for the occupations and jobs. 3. What should pay attention to when employing elderly workers? In accordance with Clause 1, Article 148, Labor Code 2019, elderly workers can continue working after the age defined for retirement. Pursuant to Section 2, Chapter XI, Labor Code 2019, the employer must pay much attention to the regulations when employing elderly workers as follows: - Elderly workers may reach an agreement with employers to reduce their daily working time or apply the regime of part-time work. - Parties can sign many definite-term labor contracts, but must not sign indefinite labor contracts. - Must not pay social insurance, health insurance, or unemployment insurance for elderly workers. Instead, additionally, pay him/her an amount equivalent to the number of compulsory insurance premiums payable by the employer for the employee at the time of salary payment. - The employer may not employ elderly workers in heavy, hazardous, or dangerous occupations or jobs or extremely heavy, hazardous, or dangerous occupations or jobs that are harmful to their health unless it/he/she can guarantee safe working conditions. Here is the information on working ages in Vietnam and some attached notes. LUSAKA, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Villagers in Zambia's rural areas are expecting increased farming productivity and income thanks to a Chinese-aided project aiming to help reduce poverty in the southern African country. The project, the Demonstration Village for China-Africa Agricultural Development and Poverty Reduction, was proposed during the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held last November. It aims to establish 10 demonstration villages in the rural areas of Zambia over the next few years. Earlier this month, Shimwengwe Village in Chongwe District, Lusaka Province was set up as one of the demonstration villages. Simushi Liswaniso, the project coordinator, said the project, which runs from this year to 2025, has been financed by China under the Belt and Road/South-South Cooperation Agricultural Education, Science and Technology Innovation League (BRSSCAL) through China's Jilin Agricultural University. He thanked the Chinese government for supporting the project, adding that such projects will enhance the friendship between the two countries since it was aimed at improving people's lives. He further thanked Jilin Agricultural University for spearheading the project and hoped that more funds will be secured to ensure the smooth implementation of the project. Liswaniso said the results from the pilot project will be used to assess whether to extend the project to other parts of the country in order to improve the lives of vulnerable families in rural areas. Zambia has a lot to learn from China which has managed to lift millions of its people out of poverty because of its robust poverty reduction programs, he added. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Redwan Hussien Rameto (2nd L), representative of the Ethiopian government, and Getachew Reda (2nd R), representative of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), sign a peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, Nov. 2, 2022. The two sides on Wednesday announced an agreement to end a two-year-long conflict in Northern Ethiopia. (Photo by Alet Pretorius/Xinhua) ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government and the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on Wednesday announced an agreement to end a two-year-long conflict in Northern Ethiopia. The peace accord was signed in the South African capital Pretoria, days after an African Union (AU)-led negotiation, which was facilitated by Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU high representative for the Horn of Africa and former president of Nigeria, along with the former president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, and former deputy president of South Africa Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities and orderly disarmament, Obasanjo said at a press briefing on the outcomes of the negotiation. The deal includes restoring law and order, restoring services and unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, he said. The direct talks facilitated by the pan-African bloc were part of the ongoing AU-led process to support the related parties in finding a political solution to the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has seen a devastating conflict between government-allied troops and forces loyal to the TPLF since November 2020, which has left millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The agreement is an outcome of African solutions to African problems, Obasanjo said, emphasizing that the moment is not the end of the peace process but the beginning of it. The peace talks, launched on Oct. 25, paved the way for restoring peace, security and stability in the Tigray region, the AU said in a statement on Wednesday. "The agreement marks an important step in efforts to silence the guns, and provides a solid foundation for the preservation of Ethiopia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the immediate cessation of hostilities, the resumption of unhindered humanitarian access, the restoration of services as well as healing and reconciliation," the statement read. The High-Level Panel for the AU-led Ethiopian Peace Process congratulated and commended the parties for their "commitment, diligence and stellar leadership throughout the process, and for prioritizing the Ethiopian people and the supreme interests of the Ethiopian nation." "As the country embarks on this next chapter in its great history, the Panel affirms its commitment and readiness to continue accompanying the process towards a more democratic, just and inclusive Ethiopia in which youth, women and men participate fully and in peace," the statement read. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development congratulated the Ethiopian government and the rebel TPLF on signing the agreement. "By signing this agreement to silence the guns and end the armed conflict, the people of Ethiopia now have the opportunity to establish a long-lasting peace," Workneh Gebeyehu, executive secretary of the trade bloc, said. Gebeyehu encouraged all parties to the agreement to implement its provisions. He further commended the Ethiopian government's commitment to finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict and the critical role of the AU. Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union (AU) high representative for the Horn of Africa and former president of Nigeria, attends a press briefing on the outcomes of the AU-led negotiation in Pretoria, South Africa, Nov. 2, 2022. The Ethiopian government and the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on Wednesday announced an agreement to end a two-year-long conflict in Northern Ethiopia. (Photo by Alet Pretorius/Xinhua) This photo taken on July 4, 2022 shows a workshop of the Volkswagen Anhui MEB (Modular Electric Drive Matrix) plant under construction in east China's Anhui Province. (Xinhua) HEFEI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Noting that China is the world's largest new energy vehicle (NEV) market that cannot be neglected by international carmakers, Erwin Gabardi, CEO of Volkswagen Anhui said the company unwaveringly strives to implement its "In China, for China" development strategy. Based in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, Volkswagen Anhui is Volkswagen Group's first joint venture in China that focuses on the research and development (R&D) and manufacturing of NEVs. Covering an area of about 500,000 square meters, the Volkswagen Anhui MEB plant is about to complete construction after just over one year and the first pre-series car of Volkswagen Anhui is expected to roll off the production line shortly. "The mass production of electric vehicles is scheduled for 2023," Gabardi told Xinhua in an interview, attributing the progress to the strong and consistent support from local partners. Official data shows that China's NEV output and sales have ranked first globally for seven consecutive years since 2015. "We are continuing to develop our R&D team, adjust our R&D strategy and innovate products exclusively for Chinese customers to suit the consumption preferences of the Chinese market," said Gabardi, adding that the local R&D at Volkswagen Anhui is the key to the Volkswagen Group's transformation and e-mobility strategy. "Our local R&D mainly focuses on hardware and software development and testing for NEVs as well as the development of China-specific modules and platforms," Gabardi explained, adding that by 2023, the number of employees in Volkswagen Anhui is expected to surpass 3,500, of which 1,300 will be R&D engineers. Over the years, a comprehensive local supply chain ecosystem has been built around Volkswagen Anhui. Volkswagen Group has invested in a battery cell manufacturer and established a digital sales and services company in Hefei to promote the high-quality development of the province's NEV industry. "Among Volkswagen Anhui's 260 production suppliers that are already on board, 16 are based in Anhui, while 37 suppliers have moved to Anhui with us and have made local investments," said Gabardi. Inspired by Germany's vocational education system, the Dazhong College, co-built by Volkswagen Group China, Volkswagen Anhui, and Hefei University, has been launched, with the goal of cultivating more skilled talents suited to the needs of enterprises. "Chinese and German companies share a common vision in many aspects. Volkswagen Anhui is an obvious example of such a constructive partnership," said Gabardi. "We will share the pursuit of developing high-quality and advanced NEV products with Chinese partners, and combine each other's technological strengths to achieve 'In China, for China,'" he said. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The First Committee of the UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a Chinese-tabled draft resolution on "Promoting international cooperation on peaceful uses in the context of international security." This was the second year in a row that China has tabled such a draft. The resolution reaffirms that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security, while noting with concern that undue restrictions on exports to developing countries of materials, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes persist. It emphasizes that non-proliferation control arrangements should be transparent and open to participation by all states, and measures preventing the proliferation of the three weapons should not hamper international cooperation on meterials, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes, as well as developing countries' requirement for them for the countries' continued sustainable development. It urges all UN member states, without prejudice to their non-proliferation obligations, to take concrete measures to promote the cooperation for peaceful purposes, in particular not to maintain any restrictions incompatible with the obligations undertaken. It encourages all member states to continue dialogues on promoting peaceful uses and relevant international cooperation. In introducing the draft resolution on Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Li Song, who heads the Chinese delegation to the First Committee, said that due attention has not been given to the rights of developing countries to the peaceful uses of science and technology and to international cooperation. Developing countries still face unreasonable restrictions on their normal access to materials, equipment, and technology, he said. Last year, China worked with member states and saw the adoption of the resolution by the General Assembly entitled "Promoting international cooperation on peaceful uses in the context of international security" for the first time, Li said. The resolution reflects the international community's interests in issues related to peaceful uses and highlights member states' expectation for an open, inclusive dialogue process to promote non-proliferation and peaceful uses in a balanced manner. It has initiated a new process of an open, inclusive dialogue on peaceful uses and export control under the UN framework, said Li. This year, China has again taken the lead by proposing the draft resolution, which reflects the common interests of developing countries, he said. This draft resolution reflects true multiculturalism. Everything is above-board, open and transparent, be it the content of the draft or the way co-sponsors have worked in the process. The purpose is to generate mutually reinforcing and complementary dynamics between peaceful uses and export control through multilateral dialogue on the basis of equal and mutual respect, he said. Supporting the resolution is not an act of taking sides. Rather, it is an act of supporting true multiculturalism and of siding with the common interests of developing countries and with the promotion of international cooperation on peaceful uses, he said. BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Supreme People's Procuratorate has ordered the arrest of Zhang Bencai, former chief procurator of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate, for suspected bribe-taking. The case was transferred to procuratorial authorities for prosecution following the conclusion of an investigation by the National Commission of Supervision. The handling of the case is underway. SHENYANG, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the autumn harvest in northeast China comes to an end, farmers are taking various measures to protect the rare black soil. In Changtu County, Liaoning Province, the local practice of returning maize straw to the farmland not only increases soil organic elements but also helps prevent wind- and water-driven soil erosion. The black soil, or chernozem soil, found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, produces about one-quarter of the country's total grain output. However, excessive reclamation had eroded the soil's nutrients. In recent years, China has made continuous efforts in farmland protection. More and more fertile black soil is helping ensure grain security for Chinese people. Produced by Xinhua Global Service This photo taken on Nov. 4, 2022 shows the Chinese and English versions of a white paper titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era". China issued a white paper on the country's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Friday. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China issued a white paper on the country's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Friday. Titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era," the white paper said that BDS has been built into a world-class navigation system. It laid out how China plans to refine the system by improving its operation management, promoting sustainable development of BDS-based applications, and upgrading its governance in the coming years. The white paper noted that BDS is dedicated to the world, and China will step up international cooperation for better compatibility and interoperability between BDS and other navigation satellite systems. China is committed to "building a comprehensive spatiotemporal system that is more extensive, more integrated and more intelligent on the next generation of BDS," said the document released by the State Council Information Office. It pointed out that China is ready to share its achievements in developing BDS, and it will work with all other countries to promote the development of navigation satellite systems and make an even greater contribution to building a global community of shared future and a better world. A press conference on a white paper titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era" is held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. China issued a white paper on the country's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Friday. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China has carried out active international cooperation on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and advanced its applications across the globe, contributing to building a global community of shared future, according to a white paper published Friday. The white paper titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era" was released by China's State Council Information Office. The international cooperation and applications of BDS were based on the principles of openness, integration, coordination, compatibility, complementarity and sharing, said the white paper. China has been active in advocating and advancing the compatibility and interoperability of different navigation satellite systems to provide users with more high-quality, diverse, secure and reliable services. The cooperation between BDS and other global navigation systems, including GPS of the United States, Galileo of the European Union and GLONASS of Russia, has made excellent progress, BDS spokesperson Ran Chengqi told a press conference during the release of the white paper. The country continues to promote international cooperation and exchanges of BDS through measures such as strengthening cooperation mechanisms, increasing cooperation channels, and establishing cooperation platforms and windows, the white paper said. China has carried out bilateral and multilateral cooperations and exchanges with countries in Central Asia and Africa, and regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the League of Arab States, Ran said. A Chinese delegation recently attended the meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, which was held in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and has received proposals from many countries and organizations for enhanced cooperation with BDS, Ran added. The country is also making every effort to have BDS ratified by international standards organizations and standards organizations in the industrial and specialized application sectors, such as civil aviation, maritime, search and rescue, and mobile communication, read the white paper. The previous international rescue signal was one-way, so it was unknown to the caller whether the distress signal was received by search and rescue organizations, Ran explained, adding that BDS ingeniously developed two-way signals to notify the caller that the distress signal has gotten a response, which would be a tremendous mental support for the caller. According to the white paper, China is working to accelerate the large-scale application of BDS worldwide to boost economic and social development and improve public well-being across the globe. BDS products currently serve more than half of the countries and regions across the world, Ran said. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Humanitarians in northern Ethiopia seek the green light to resume aid convoys following the peace accord announcement ending almost two years of war, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. "Our colleagues are in contact with the government of Ethiopia and others to resume, as soon as possible, the movement of aid convoys and personnel to Mekelle and Shire," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, referring to cities in the troubled northernmost Tigray region. Travel by road through the neighboring Afar region into Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray, was halted on Aug. 24 because of fighting. "Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that critical supplies, including food, nutrition items and medicines, are running very low in Tigray," Dujarric said. "We, along with our humanitarian partners, continue to distribute aid using the remaining stocks in the region, and we started to assist those who are currently in accessible areas." Last week, about 189,000 newly displaced people in the Northwestern Zone of Tigray were assisted with food, and around 6,000 displaced people from Afar received food assistance in the Southeastern Zone. Food distribution also started in Mekelle last week, targeting about 500,000 people, he said. In neighboring Amhara and Afar, humanitarian partners continue to respond to humanitarian needs, including in places where displaced people return to their homes, as access has improved allowing humanitarian partners to reach areas that were so far inaccessible, he said. In Afar, humanitarian partners reached more than 613,000 people, or 94 percent, of the targeted population, with food assistance for the current food distribution round. In Amhara, more than 2.1 million people received food assistance last week, said Dujarric. However, substantial response gaps remain in other sectors mainly due to a lack of resources, including water, food, non-food items, health, and education support, he noted. The peace agreement was signed Wednesday in South Africa between the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, ending fighting that broke out in November 2020. BEIRUT, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on Thursday signed an agreement with Lebanon to provide 500,000 U.S. dollars to support the country's wheat cultivation plan. The agreement was signed between Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan and FAO Representative in Lebanon Noura Ourabah Haddad, the Elnashra news website reported. The donation is divided into two parts, with 250,000 dollars allocated to buying seeds and the rest for technical training for farmers and rehabilitating the seed multiplication center at the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute. Hassan launched the national wheat cultivation strategy a day earlier, amid concerns about a wheat crisis in Lebanon as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues. Fears of disruption in wheat supplies have increased in Lebanon since the eruption of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in late February, as the country imports the bulk of its grains from the Black Sea region. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly First Committee has included in its three resolutions the notion of "a community of shared future for humankind." This is the sixth consecutive time that the notion has been included in First Committee resolutions. The resolutions are "Further Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space," "No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space" and "Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security," which were adopted on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. During the deliberations, a handful of countries raised questions about the phrase "a community of shared future for humankind" contained in the drafts and demanded separate votes on relevant paragraphs. In the voting, the inclusion of the notion was supported by more than 100 member states on all occasions. Prior to the voting on Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Li Song, also head of the Chinese delegation to the First Committee, noted that the phrase was not rejected by any state in the first two years of its inclusion in resolutions. "It wasn't until 2019 that certain countries requested separate votes on the relevant paragraphs. This is outright political manipulation," Li said. These countries are doing so simply because this concept was put forward by China. They are so obsessed with the Cold War mentality and ideological bias that they would oppose anything Chinese. In essence, they are trying to seek supremacy at the United Nations, he said. "I would like to emphasize that expressions in UN documents reflect the collective wisdom of all member states. They are not the proprietary rights of any country. Today, a handful of countries can vote down anything Chinese, tomorrow they may well obstruct at will other countries' ideas that are positive, constructive and reflecting the shared interests of the broad membership," he said. This is not the way things should work in the world, let alone in the United Nations, Li said. "A community of shared future for humankind" is a neutral term without any ideological undertone. This concept is highly consistent with the content of the relevant draft resolutions, he said. This concept is open, above-board and an embodiment of true multilateralism. It has been widely supported and recognized by the international community, Li said. LANZHOU, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- An adult snow leopard, a species on the country's top protection list, has been rescued by rangers and police after it inadvertently strayed into an abandoned storage room in the Qilian Mountain National Park, northwest China's Gansu Province. Zhao Zhiliang, a member of staff at the park's conservation station, received a call from local herders last Thursday saying they had found a snow leopard. When Zhao and the police arrived at the scene, they first dispersed the nearby crowds and then confirmed the health of the snow leopard. "The snow leopard was alert. It kept lying in the room and did not come out, probably because it was sacred of the crowd outside," said Zhao. After two hours of waiting, Zhao and the police decided to break the window of the storage room. The snow leopard eventually managed to jump out of the window after several attempts and returned to nature. Recent years have seen the expansion of the geographical distribution and population of these rare animals thanks to the improving ecological environment, said Liao Kongtai, director of the park administration, adding that it was the first time they had rescued an adult snow leopard at short range. "With more wild animals rescued in recent years, efforts to strengthen the public's awareness of environmental and animal protection are paying off," Liao said. Snow leopards are under China's highest national-level protection and are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The geographical distribution and population of this rare leopard are among the key indicators used to evaluate the health of the local ecosystem and biodiversity. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reacts during his morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, June 6, 2022. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua) "It is a clear violation of human rights because there may be political and ideological problems, but the damage is to the population, to the people," the Mexican president told reporters during his daily press conference at the National Palace. MEXICO CITY, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday denounced as an "infamy" the U.S. decades-long economic blockade of Cuba. Just hours before a vote on a resolution calling for an end to the sanctions against Cuba at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Lopez Obrador called the more-than-six-decade U.S. blockade "retrograde, medieval and inhumane." "It is a clear violation of human rights because there may be political and ideological problems, but the damage is to the population, to the people," the Mexican president told reporters during his daily press conference at the National Palace. "It should not be possible to isolate a country like Cuba or any other," he said, adding that the United States claims to champion human rights, so it should act accordingly and vote against the blockade. For the 30th time in a row, the UNGA voted Thursday on the resolution Cuba submits to end the economic, financial and trade blockade imposed by the United States. As in past years, the vast majority of UN member states voted in favor of lifting the sanctions, while the United States and Israel voted against. JERUSALEM, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The right-wing bloc of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the general elections with a clear majority in the 120-seat parliament, according to the country's election committee chief. The count of all votes from Tuesday's elections was concluded and changes in the results were not likely despite the fact that more routine checks for fraud are still needed, Orly Ades, director of the Central Elections Committee which oversees elections in Israel, said in a broadcast statement on Thursday. The official results will be submitted to President Isaac Herzog next week, who is expected to task Netanyahu with forming the next government, Ades added. The final count showed Netanyahu, backed by an alliance of extreme-right parties, would return to power with 64 seats, while his main rival, centrist Yair Lapid and his bloc of the current coalition government, garnered 51 seats. Netanyahu's main partner in his upcoming government is expected to be the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionist Party with 14 seats, a faction of three far-right parties featuring Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has described himself as a disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahana, leader of the extremist Kach movement which was blacklisted as a terror group in Israel in 1994. Ben-Gvir, a 46-year-old lawmaker, has several convictions for charges including racist incitement and membership of a terrorist group. During the election campaign, he promised to pass a law that will grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, to deport Arab legislators he accuses of "terrorism," and to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank. Until 2021, Ben-Gvir had repeatedly failed to pass the electoral threshold to get him into the Knesset, the parliament. But in the latest elections, the fifth in about four years, his faction emerged as the third largest party and a key partner in Netanyahu's future coalition. Ben-Gvir said he hoped to lead the Ministry of Public Security. The Religious Zionist Party has vowed to make amendments to Israeli law that could get Netanyahu's criminal trial over his corruption charges cancelled. As the Balad, an Arab party, has failed to pass the electoral threshold, only two Arab parties now remain in the parliament, with both Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al having five seats. Earlier on Thursday, Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party won 24 seats, called Netanyahu and congratulated him on his victory, according to a statement issued by Lapid's office. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that climate adaptation must be treated with a seriousness that reflects the equal worth of all members of the human family. In a message on the launch of the Adaptation Gap report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Guterres said the lack of support for adaptation needs in the developing world is unacceptable. The UNEP Adaptation Gap report makes clear that the world is failing to protect people from the here-and-now impacts of the climate crisis. Those on the front lines of the climate crisis are at the back of the line for support, said Guterres. The world is falling far short both in stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and starting desperately needed efforts to plan, finance and implement adaptation in light of growing risks, he said. Adaptation needs in the developing world are set to skyrocket to as much as 340 billion U.S. dollars a year by 2030. Yet adaptation support today stands at less than one-tenth of that amount, he noted. The most vulnerable people and communities are paying the price. This is unacceptable, he said. "Adaptation must be treated with a seriousness that reflects the equal worth of all members of the human family," said Guterres. "It's time for a global climate adaptation overhaul that puts aside excuses and picks up the toolbox to fix the problems." Starting at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, or COP27, the adaptation gap must be addressed in four critical ways, he said. First, there is a need to dramatically increase the quantity and quality of financing for adaptation needs, said Guterres. Last year developed countries agreed to double support for adaptation to 40 billion dollars a year by 2025. At the upcoming conference, they must present a credible roadmap with clear milestones on how this will be delivered -- preferably as grants, not loans, he said. Developed countries must also use their influence as government shareholders of multilateral development banks to prioritize adaptation, resilience and vulnerability, he said. Second, there is an urgent need for a new business model for turning adaptation priorities into investable projects, said Guterres. "There is a mismatch between what governments propose and what financiers consider as investable. The investment pipeline is blocked. We must unblock it now." It is high time for unprecedented coordination among recipient governments, development partners and other financiers. This is the only way to ensure diverging priorities coalesce in support of developing countries' adaptation efforts, he said. Third, there is a need for far better climate risk data and information. Vulnerable countries and communities need access to localized data and information on climate risks to inform adaptation actions, he said. Fourth, there is a need to deliver on a promise of universal early-warning coverage for climate disasters within five years, he said. He called for the financial and technical support needed to implement an action plan to be presented by the World Meteorological Organization at COP27. "These four priorities demand unprecedented international cooperation and support," said Guterres, adding that COP27 must provide a clear and time-bound roadmap for closing the finance gap for addressing loss and damage, and this will be a "central litmus test" for success at COP27. The world must step up and protect people and communities from the immediate and ever-growing risks of the climate emergency, said Guterres. "We have no time to lose." Huawei's Vice President for Southern Africa Region Phil Li (2nd L) and Zambian acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima (3rd L) unveiled the visual designs of the forthcoming National Digital Innovation Hub during the launch of an information communication technology (ICT) fund in Lusaka, Zambia, on Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) Chinese tech giant Huawei has launched an ICT fund to develop innovation leaders with a view to accelerating the digital transformation agenda in Zambia. LUSAKA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei on Thursday launched an information communication technology (ICT) fund to develop innovation leaders with a view to accelerating Zambia's digital transformation agenda. Dubbed the Hakainde Hichilema Innovation Fund, the fund is part of the four-year partnership and initiative by Huawei that will see the training on ICT of 5,000 young people by the year 2025. Huawei's Vice President for Southern Africa Region Phil Li said the company wanted to help identify and develop special and bankable talent that anchor Zambia's digital transformation agenda to accelerate both economic and social development through ICTs. "It is our desire to offer ICT basic skill training to at least 50 instructors and 50 selected government officials in the Ministry of Education and its affiliates," he said. According to him, the launch follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Huawei and the Zambian government in March this year for a digital innovation leadership program. The company, he said, will also establish an innovation hub, a physical space for the incubation and actualization of ICT ideas that will accommodate all the necessary infrastructure needed for innovators to generate, develop and test the viability of their digital solutions under the keen mentorship of dedicated experts. Minister of Technology and Science Felix Mutati welcomed the initiative and thanked the Chinese company, saying it will go a long way in promoting digital skills and entrepreneurship among university and college students. In a speech read for him by Brilliant Habeenzu, the permanent secretary of the ministry, the minister commended Huawei for implementing various projects in the ICT sector in Zambia and for its continued support in the development of the sector. The government was committed to unlocking the country's economic potential through ICTs, he said. Acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima said the government has partnered with Huawei to ensure that every learner in the country acquires digital skills and is prepared to face the fast-changing digital world. Zambian acting Minister of Education Elijah Muchima delivered a speech during the launch of an information communication technology (ICT) fund in Lusaka, Zambia, on Nov. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) According to him, Zambia has made strides toward digital transformation over the past few years, as evident in digital infrastructure, digital financial systems, and digital platforms. He, however, said gaps still exist in digital skills and digital entrepreneurship and commended Huawei for coming up with the initiative to provide young people with ICT skills. "My ministry believes that through technology and digital systems, we can take the learning resources to all parts of this country so that every learner in Zambia has the digital skill to unlock their potential," he said. BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China has made continuous efforts to refine the products supporting the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) industry, expand its application fields, improve its industry ecosystem, and promote its large-scale applications, according to a white paper published Friday. The white paper, titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era," was released by China's State Council Information Office. China has established a set of platforms featuring BDS services including international search and rescue, short message communication, satellite-based augmentation, and ground-based augmentation. It has also developed a series of basic products such as chips, modules and antennas, and realized 100-million-scale manufacturing of BDS products. By developing standards and norms, intellectual property rights, testing and certification, and industrial assessment in a systematic manner, China has created a sound industrial ecosystem for BDS applications with all necessary factors and a strong innovation capacity, said the white paper. BDS has been widely used in various industries and fields in China's socioeconomic development. It has been deeply integrated with emerging technologies such as big data, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence, fostering new business forms based on BDS. In 2021, the total output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry reached 470 billion yuan (about 64 billion U.S. dollars). BDS has been widely applied in daily life through applications such as smartphones, vehicle terminals, and wearable devices. In 2021, 324 million Chinese smartphones supporting BDS services were shipped, accounting for 94.5 percent of the country's total, according to the white paper. China has released the first mobile phone in the world that supports the BDS-3 regional short message communication service by incorporating a chip into a mobile phone. Users can send short messages through BeiDou short message civil platform without changing SIM cards or phone numbers, BDS spokesperson Ran Chengqi told a press conference on the release of the white paper. Users can still report their location by text message even when there is no cell phone signal, the spokesperson added, noting that BDS allows users to stay in touch with the outside world giving them a sense of security. He also added that BDS has been widely used in agriculture and has become an important sci-tech force for supporting agricultural development. BDS-based agricultural equipment, such as farming machinery, drones, autonomous tractors, planters and harvesters, are providing services to farmers around the country, helping them boost production efficiency. Farmers are able to plan their driving routes in advance through mobile phone terminals, Ran said. This photo taken on Nov. 2, 2022 shows the west entrance of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the upcoming fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) Africa should tap into the upcoming 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) to diversify its export base in China and beyond across the global market, an Ethiopian scholar has said. ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Africa should tap into the upcoming 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) to diversify its export base in China and beyond across the global market, an Ethiopian scholar has said. Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic adviser to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), told Xinhua in a recent interview that the CIIE presents a rare opportunity for Ethiopian and other African companies to penetrate the market opportunities in China and elsewhere. The expert, who argued that economic and market barriers have been affecting the development performance and trajectory of Africa's export-oriented businesses, emphasized the need for African companies to diversify their export portfolio in the international market with the help of the CIIE. "Much of the focus (at the CIIE) would be on Africa; because many African countries are now developing well, especially in terms of their GDP and industrial capacity. Therefore, this trade show would encourage Africans to look into specific companies that would help African countries develop," he said. The file photo shows an exhibitor from Kenya demonstrating a tooth-brushing product from Africa during the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Yin Ke) Costantinos further emphasized that while strengthening the market share for Africa's agricultural export commodities in the Chinese market, African companies and governments should look for other market opportunities in China besides Africa's traditional export commodities. He said the platform is "very important" for many countries in terms of developing their trade relations with the rest of the world. The 5th CIIE is scheduled on Nov. 5-10 in China's economic hub Shanghai. The event provides a platform for companies worldwide to display their products, promote their brands, and find more business partners in the world's second-largest economy. Costantinos, also a professor of public policy at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, noted that as China is set to open up further to the world, African countries and companies should seize the chance to further penetrate the broader Chinese market. The expert, in particular, emphasized that the CIIE would enable emerging economies in Africa and elsewhere with market opportunities in China as well as trade amongst themselves. "Opening up is going to benefit China a lot, and it is also important in terms of South-South cooperation, where African countries, Latin American countries and Southeast Asian countries can have more access to China," he said. The expert further underscored that Africa should prioritize China as the Chinese economy helped stabilize the global economy against the backdrop of socio-economic barriers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis. "I have a firm belief that the economy in China will continue to grow in a healthy manner," he said, emphasizing the importance of China's growth in promoting development in Africa and across the developing world. SUVA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ishmael Kalsakau, president of the Union of Moderate Parties, was sworn in as Vanuatu's prime minister after being elected by an overwhelming majority of 50 out of the 52 members of the country's parliament on Friday. According to Vanuatu's English newspaper the Daily Post, Kalsakau as prime minister went unopposed in the parliament Friday afternoon. He was the only nominee for prime minister after his nomination was supported by former Prime Minister Bob Loughman. Kalsakau is a lawyer by profession. Before his involvement in politics, he served as the island nation's attorney-general. He was deputy prime minister in the last government. On Oct. 13, Vanuatu held a snap election triggered after the dissolution of the country's parliament in August by Vanuatu President Nikenike Vurobaravu, and on the eve of a motion of no-confidence against then Prime Minister Bob Loughman. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for the renewal of the Ukraine grain deal, and for the application of the same spirit of multilateralism at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, or COP27. At a press encounter, Guterres called for the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as Russia has agreed to resume its participation. "Now that the initiative has fully resumed, I appeal to all parties to concentrate efforts in two areas: first, to renewal and full implementation of the Black Sea Initiative; second, to removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer," said Guterres. "I am fully committed -- along with the entire United Nations system -- to the achievement of both these essential objectives," he said. The initial duration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from Black Sea ports, is 120 days and expires on Nov. 19. The parties had agreed that the deal could be extended automatically on the condition that no party objects. The Russian announcement on Saturday of the suspension of its participation in the deal had dampened hopes for its renewal. Russia announced on Wednesday that it will resume its participation, after days of diplomatic engagement. Guterres had to alter his travel plan to focus on this issue. The world needs safe and unimpeded navigation for exports of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizer from Ukraine through the Black Sea, and the world needs concerted efforts to urgently address the global fertilizer market crunch and make full use of Russian export capacity, said Guterres. "Higher fertilizer prices are already affecting farmers around the world. We cannot allow global fertilizer accessibility problems to morph into a global food shortage," he said. Over the past few days, the world has come to understand and appreciate the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative -- for stemming the food crisis, for easing prices and pressures on people around the world, for reducing the risks of hunger, poverty and instability, said Guterres, referring to Russia's suspension of its participation in the initiative. "The Black Sea Grain Initiative is making a difference ... As of today, 10 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been shipped through the Black Sea corridor. It has taken just three months to reach this milestone," he said. Despite all the obstacles, "the beacon of hope in the Black Sea is still shining," he said. Guterres also hailed the signing of an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. "It is a critical first step that paves the way for the unimpeded delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid and the resumption of public services. The human cost of this conflict has been devastating," he said. "I urge all Ethiopians to seize this opportunity for peace and I pledge the full support of the United Nations." The rescue of the Black Sea Initiative and the signing of the Ethiopian peace agreement demonstrate the power of multilateralism in action and the value of discrete but determined diplomacy, said Guterres. "We must never give up in the cause of peace and advancing the values of the United Nations. That is the spirit that every country must bring to the UN Climate Conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt," he said. COP27 must be the place to rebuild trust and re-establish the ambition needed to avoid driving our planet over the climate cliff, he said. In the last few weeks, report after report has painted a clear and bleak picture: emissions are still growing at record levels. Instead of going down 45 percent by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions are on course to rise by 10 percent. Meanwhile, temperatures are on course to rise by as much as 2.8 degrees -- with the present policies in place -- by the end of the century, said Guterres. "And that means our planet is on course for reaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible and forever bake in catastrophic temperature rise. We need to move from tipping points to turning points for hope," he said. That means urgently increasing ambition and trust, especially between North and South. Specifically, it is time for a historic pact between the developed and emerging economies -- a pact in which developed countries deliver on the commitment made in Paris and make additional efforts to reduce emissions in line with the 1.5-degree goal, and a pact in which wealthier countries provide financial and technical assistance -- along with support from multilateral development banks and technology companies -- to help emerging economies speed their renewable energy transition, said Guterres. "COP27 must be the place to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap. It must put us back on track to cutting emissions, boosting climate resilience and adaptation, keeping the promise on climate finance and addressing loss and damage from climate change," he said. "Getting concrete results on loss and damage is the litmus test of the commitment of governments to help close all these gaps ... There is no way anyone can argue there is no loss and no damage. The world must come together to support developing countries and vulnerable communities," he said. COP27 must lay the foundations for much faster, bolder climate action now and in this crucial decade, when the global climate fight will be won or lost. All nations and all people must be on board in these make-or-break next years, starting at COP27, he said. - In 2018, Roula Ali Adeeb, from Syria, brought with her the rosa damascena to the four-leaf clover-shaped exhibition center in Shanghai and took part in the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). - The four episodes of the CIIE so far have witnessed a romance between the rosa damascena and the "four-leaf clover" in the Chinese coastal city. And the story is still ongoing. BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- In 2018, Roula Ali Adeeb, general manager of BioCham Natural Extracts & Oils from Syria, came to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) for the first time, bringing with her the Damascene rose to the four-leaf clover-shaped National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. Through four years of the CIIE, Damascene rose has planted a seed, sprouted, bloomed and developed a romance story with the "Shanghai clover." PLANT A SEED "We were honored to be able to join the CIIE in 2018. It was very, very impressive experience. It was for us like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," said Roula, who had been through a tough time in the war-torn country. Thanks to the help of Chinese partner Dong Jingyan, she was able to introduce Damascene rose products to China, it was like planting a seed of hope, "I surprisingly found it was welcomed by the Chinese market -- the rose oil, the hydrolats, the dried roses." This photo taken on Nov. 2, 2022 shows the west entrance of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the upcoming fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) Not only did her products attract lots of buyers during the six-day exhibition, but she also got a chance to display and sell rose products in the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub(G-hub), next to the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, where the CIIE took place. Yearning for luck and success in the world's most populous consumer market, Roula registered for the second CIIE in 2019. During that time, the expo enabled her to increase the annual sales of Syrian local products and expand her business. SET UP A FAMILY In 2020, Roula couldn't attend the CIIE in person because of the COVID-19 epidemic. Syrian Import Pavilion, however, had grown substantially, with many more Syrian enterprises and products. "More Syrian enterprises have participated in this expo since the third CIIE," said Tarek Al-Shaybe, who registered his rose products company Dakka Kadima for the third CIIE held in 2020. Photo taken on Oct. 15, 2022 shows decorative installations near an entrance of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) From the CIIE, Tarek and his team found that China had a huge market for food and cuisine, so they started adjusting their business strategy, introducing more food products including rose jam and rose sweets. "The customers can find such food products at the Syria Import Pavilion in the CIIE and other branches of the Pavilion, in addition to many other Syrian products such as Aleppo soaps, olives, woodworks, natural cosmetics, Damascene brocade and rose tea," said Tarek, who registered for the 5th CIIE. During the four versions of CIIE, a large number of Syrian products of all types have gathered under the name of "Syrian Import Pavilion" in the G-hub. "Now the CIIE is not just benefiting individual companies, but opens a wider market to the Syrian industries as a whole and helps the country," said Tarek. FROM ROSES TO DIGITAL ROSES This year, the Damascene rose will shine in the Trade in Services Area of the clover-shaped venue for the first time. Syrian people take part in the picking process of the famous Damask, or Damascene Rose, in the town of al-Marah, north of the capital Damascus, Syria, on May 19, 2022. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) "The Syria Import Pavilion used to sell products only. But since the beginning of this year, it has provided a wide range of services such as design, technology and investment services," said Tarek. The efforts aim at showing that "Syria not only has outstanding products and industries, but also provides high-quality professional services." "We designed the interiors of many Syria Import Pavilion stores in important Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Tianjin and others to make consumers feel like shopping in Syria in person," said Mohammad Bakdash, a new exhibitor and CEO of Ram Agency. Saying that the Damascene rose "undoubtedly inspired us in our work, as it is the ambassador of Damascus to the world," Bakdash believed that his company, besides developing business partners in China and other countries, was also to shift the global perception of Syria after the country's image was distorted and depicted as war and destruction. They worked a lot to show the world the real Syria and spread the culture of Syrian products. They promoted it through campaigns, advertising videos, packaging design, marketing research and so on. "I expect great success for the exhibition, because it is a golden opportunity for companies to display their products and services in the most important international exhibition within a prosperous market that is open to the world," said Bakdash, who was working on a 3D digital image of rose on his computer. KIGALI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Congolese community living in Rwanda called for support of the Nairobi and Luanda agreements to end the ongoing conflict between the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) and government forces to bring peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Congolese diaspora in Rwanda said in a statement on Friday. "The Congolese Diaspora in Rwanda affirms its support for the strict application of the resolutions of the Nairobi and Luanda agreements," said the statement. In the statement, the Congolese diaspora in Rwanda also said it remained very concerned about the escalation of tensions between Rwanda and DRC, two neighboring countries with centuries-old relations. The DRC's government in late October ordered Rwandan Ambassador Vincent Karega to leave the country over Rwanda's alleged support for rebels of the March 23 Movement, an allegation Rwanda has repeatedly denied. According to the statement, the Congolese community reaffirmed the importance of a sincere dialogue based on substantive issues that are at the root of mistrust and tension between the two countries. The community also appealed to all Congolese and Rwandans to break the mistrust which negatively impacts bilateral relations between the two countries and to pursue the path of a real fraternity based on common African identity by placing dialogue and reciprocal trust in the foreground for the interest of all. QUITO, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least two people have been killed and 18 injured in a series of clashes this week between rival criminal rings at the Litoral Penitentiary in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil, police said Thursday. Clashes broke out Tuesday and continued through Thursday after police began the process of transferring 1,002 prisoners from the country's largest prison to other penitentiaries. In an updated report on the riots, the police said two inmates have been killed and 18 others injured, including six prisoners, nine police officers and three military personnel. Victor Zarate, commander of National Police Zone 8, which includes the city of Guayaquil, told local media that 700 police officers from tactical units and 470 Armed Forces troops intervened to regain control of the prison. The uniformed officers met with violence and armed attacks, and responded with force, he said. Meanwhile, the State Prosecutor's Office tweeted that it has started a preliminary investigation into the incidents. BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday rolled out a detailed implementation plan for private pensions, following the release of a guideline on pushing forward the development of private pensions to complement the nation's current pension system in April. The implementation plan was issued by five government departments: the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. It specifies the participation process, capital account management, the management of institutions and products, information disclosure, and supervision. Individuals can now make voluntary annual deposits of up to 12,000 yuan (about 1,653 U.S. dollars) into a pension account, and the funds can be used to purchase financial products that are of relatively low risk and have long-term investment horizons. Workers who currently contribute to China's basic pension insurance scheme can participate in the private pension scheme. The private scheme will complement the country's current pension system consisting of a basic old-age pension, enterprise annuities and commercial insurance for the elderly, offering another layer of support for the country's aging population. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Xi noted that Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and that it is also his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor. Xi said the visit will further enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and gives the two sides an opportunity to plan for the growth of bilateral ties going forward. Xi stressed that China-Germany relations could not have reached today's level without the extraordinary vision and political courage of generations of Chinese and German leaders, mentioning this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. The five-decade journey shows that as long as the two sides follow the principles of respecting each other, seeking common ground while reserving differences, maintaining exchanges and mutual learning, and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, bilateral ties will keep going in the right direction on the whole and making steady progress, he said. Noting the complex and fluid international landscape, Xi underscored the need for China and Germany, two major countries with great influence, to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to world peace and development. China will work with Germany for a future-oriented all-round strategic partnership and for new progress in China-Germany and China-Europe relations. Xi briefed Scholz on the 20th CPC National Congress, with a particular focus on the essence of Chinese modernization. He pointed out that modernization is an aspiration and goal shared by people in all countries. That said, countries should choose their paths to modernization in light of their own national realities. Xi said Chinese modernization has elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context, because of China's unique national conditions, because of China's social system and governance philosophy, and because of understanding gained through decades of endeavors toward modernization. The president said China has been upholding and promoting world peace through its own development. In this process, the development of China and that of other countries have become more interconnected and mutually reinforcing. China will stay committed to advancing high-standard opening up, keep to the right direction in economic globalization, promote an open world economy, and expand converging interests with other countries. Xi stressed that political trust is easy to destroy but difficult to rebuild and that it should be nurtured and protected by both sides. He cited a quote which former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt used and which he appreciated, that political leaders should have the serenity to accept the things they cannot change, the courage to change the things they can change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two. "It is important that China and Germany respect each other, accommodate each other's core interests, adhere to dialogue and consultation, and jointly resist disturbance from bloc confrontation and attempts to see everything through the prism of ideology," Xi said. He called on both sides to keep to the overall direction of bilateral ties from a strategic height, pursue the biggest common ground in a constructive manner, and advance practical cooperation with an open mind to create conditions for long-term and steady growth of bilateral ties. "There should be no self-imposed restrictions or unrealistic expectations," Xi said. Noting the high degree of stability and consistency in China's policy toward Germany, he called on Germany to follow a positive China policy for the mutual benefits of both countries. Xi pointed out that over the past five decades, bilateral practical cooperation has kept deepening, with two-way trade growing by almost 1,000 times, serving economic and social development in both countries. "The two sides should make the pie of common interests still bigger," he said, adding that while exploring more cooperation potential in traditional areas, efforts should be made to energize cooperation in emerging fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence and digitalization. China will work with Germany and Europe to further deepen aviation cooperation, conduct exchanges and cooperation on COVID-19, increase interactions and mutual learning on green development and ecological conservation, and encourage more people-to-people exchanges, he said, calling on Germany to join China in resisting protectionism so that the fruitful bilateral cooperation can deliver more benefits to the two peoples. Xi pointed out that China-Europe relations bear on global stability and prosperity in Eurasia and should be maintained and developed with efforts from both sides. Xi said China always regards Europe as a comprehensive strategic partner, supports the strategic autonomy of the European Union and wishes Europe stability and prosperity. China maintains that its relations with Europe are not targeted at, dependent on, or subjected to a third party. The more complex and difficult the situation becomes, the more important it is for China and Europe to uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, dialogue and cooperation, Xi said. "China will work with Germany and with Europe to step up coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly look for solutions for such global issues as climate change, biodiversity and food security." Scholz expressed his pleasure to visit China in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of Germany-China diplomatic relations and have an in-depth discussion with Xi on Germany-China relations and on important issues of mutual interest. He thanked Xi for the update on China's development outlook. He observed that in a complex and grave international landscape, Europe also faces unprecedented challenges. China is playing an important role on many global issues like climate change, biodiversity, COVID-19 response and food crisis. Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security. Scholz said China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole. Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling. Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses. Scholz said on issues where the two countries' positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties. A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously. Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be responsible. Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations. The two leaders also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi reaffirmed China's support for Germany and Europe to play an important role in facilitating peace talks and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe. Under the current circumstances, the international community should support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and call on relevant parties to remain rational and exercise restraint, start direct engagement as quickly as possible, and create conditions for the resumption of talks; oppose the use of or the threat to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used and that nuclear wars must not be fought, and prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia; work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and forestall disruption to international cooperation in energy, food, finance and other areas and consequent damage to global economic recovery, especially the economic and fiscal stability of developing countries; and make joint efforts to tide civilians in areas affected by the crisis through the winter, and improve the humanitarian situation to avoid a humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale. After the meeting, Xi held a banquet for Scholz at the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Wang Yi and He Lifeng were present at the events. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang holds a ceremony to welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is on an official visit to China, prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday held talks with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing. Noting that China attaches great importance to ties with Germany, Li said China is ready to work with the German side to promote the stable and sound development of China-Germany relations on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, so as to add more impetus to the global economy and better safeguard regional and global peace and stability. Li said that economic and trade cooperation is the bedrock of bilateral relations, and that China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Germany in areas such as trade and investment, manufacturing and COVID-19 response, and work toward a cooperation mechanism to act on climate change. For his part, Scholz said Germany does not advocate decoupling, and that Germany is ready to work with China to overcome the impact of COVID-19, deepen cooperation and facilitate personnel exchanges to further promote the development of bilateral ties. The two sides exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern, including the Ukraine crisis, pledging efforts to maintain world peace and regional stability. When meeting with the press, Li said that under the current circumstances, China and Germany should enhance strategic mutual trust, adhere to two-way opening up, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote bilateral relations, and use the stability of China-Germany relations to promote the stability of international relations and the world economy. "China and Germany have far more common interests than differences," Li stressed, noting that the two sides have agreed to increase exchanges and communication in various fields, and promote cooperation on key projects. Li said China will continue to foster a market-oriented and law-based international business environment to develop China into a high ground for opening up and a hot destination for foreign investment. He said that companies from all over the world are welcome to invest in China. For his part, Scholz said Germany is ready to have candid dialogues with China, enhance mutual trust, expand cooperation in key areas, promote the establishment of a cooperation mechanism to tackle climate change, jointly address challenges in food security, energy security and the ecological environment, and make positive efforts to safeguard world peace and stability. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is on an official visit to China, jointly meet the press after their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang holds a ceremony to welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is on an official visit to China, prior to their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang holds talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) LAGOS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two farmers were killed by a landmine planted by suspected extremist militants in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, a government official said on Thursday. Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs of the state, said in a statement that the incident happened at 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Thursday, when the farmers' vehicle transporting farm produce drove over the landmine on a road in the Chikun area of the state. The state government appealed to residents of the area to remain calm over the matter. There have been a series of gunmen's attacks across the most populous country in Africa, killing civilians and security operatives. KHARTOUM, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sudan has registered a record trade deficit of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months this year, amid signs of a deepening economic crisis. "The deficit in the trade balance reached its highest level during the third quarter of the current fiscal year 2022, recording more than 3.5 billion U.S. dollars," the Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) said in its newly released quarterly Foreign Trade Statistical Digest. Sudan's imports of foreign goods from January to September amounted to slightly more than 7.1 billion dollars, while its exports dropped to the lowest level of about 3.6 billion dollars, it added. Ali Ismail, a Sudanese economic analyst, said there is almost a constant deficit in the trade balance in Sudan. "For many years, the trade balance did not achieve a surplus because of the problem of decline in exports and increased imports," Ismail told Xinhua. He said the problem of weak exports should be blamed on more than one party, with the state, producers and exporters all responsible for the situation. Ismail stressed the need to address the issue of weak exports through attracting international companies to increase the production of exported goods at lower costs. Essam Al-Zain, director of an import and export company in the capital Khartoum, criticized the tax policies for leading to a rise in production cost, "which in turn leads to a rise in the size of imports." Sudan imports many products that could have been manufactured locally, but its investment has been attracted to neighboring countries because of the low cost of production there, he said. Sudan imports most of its petroleum, food and medicines from other countries, with gold representing its major export. To make things worse, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the United States and European countries suspended the flow of more than 8 billion dollars into Sudan in the wake of the state of emergency imposed by the military in October 2021. The Sudanese government has recently adopted measures including a significant increase in service fees in order to cover the deficit in state budget amid the economic crisis. Under these government measures, the Sudanese pound's exchange rate was weakened by 26.8 percent from 445 pounds to 564 pounds for one U.S. dollar. Port fees have also been raised by more than 300 percent, as port floor fees have nearly doubled four times, in addition to an increase in container shipping fees by about 500 percent in some ports. Sudan has been facing a worsening economic crisis after the United States and international agencies suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the African country in the wake of the imposition of a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021 and dissolution of the Sovereign Council. The United States immediately suspended 700 million dollars in economic aid to Sudan, while a loan of 500 million dollars from the World Bank and 150 million dollars in special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund were also halted. Sudan's debt relief process under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the International Monetary Fund has also been halted. In fact, Sudan has been facing an economic crisis since the secession of South Sudan in 2011 which cost Sudan 75 percent of its oil revenues. NAIROBI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya lost 1,235 wildlife between February to October thanks to the acute drought that has affected vast swathes of the country's arid and semi-arid lands, a government official said on Friday. Peninah Malonza, Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage said the prolonged dry spell has affected 14 different species of wildlife. "The mortalities have arisen because of depletion of food resources as well as water shortages," Malonza said in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya during the release of a report on the impacts of the current drought on wildlife in the east African nation. She said that the situation has been aggravated by depressed rains in the arid and semi-arid areas of the country during the October-December 2021 and March-May 2022 rainy seasons. Malonza added that the biting drought that has caused the mortality of mostly herbivore species is being experienced in southern, eastern and northern Kenya. She said the government has been providing hay to affected species such as Gravy's zebra and hippo, water trucking for wildlife in protected areas, enhanced surveillance of wildlife outside protected areas to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and mobilizing resources for mitigating the impacts of the drought. Malonza urged wildlife partners to supplement the provision of water as well as salt licks to wildlife in the most affected ecosystems, expand hay provision to Gravy's zebra in northern Kenya and support an urgent undertaking of a total aerial census of wildlife. According to the report, drought has resulted in the deaths of 512 wildebeests, 381 common Zebras, 205 elephants, 49 Grevy's zebras, 51 buffalos, 12 Giraffes, eight hippopotamuses, six elands, six Kongoni, two grant Gazelles, one ostrich, one rhino and one waterbuck. Elephants in Amboseli and Laikipia and Samburu counties in northern Kenya, the report says, are worst affected by the drought as the ecosystems have recorded more than 70 elephant deaths. The Amboseli ecosystem in south-eastern Kenya has lost 510 wildebeests, 358 common zebras, 76 elephants, and 19 buffalos during the current drought season, said the report. It notes that the rhino population has not been seriously affected by the drought with only one rhino aged about two years has died. MOGADISHU, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Somali National Army (SNA) forces backed by pro-government militia killed more than 100 al-Shabab militants on Thursday evening during an offensive at a village in Hiran region of central Somalia, a government official confirmed on Friday. The Ministry of Defence spokesman Abdullahi Ali Anod said the fierce fighting erupted during the military operation in El-Hareri village that resulted in the death of the extremists. "The SNA backed by the locals killed more than 100 al-Shabab terrorists during the intense fighting in El-Hareri village," Ali told journalists in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Ali who appealed for the citizens to support the ongoing offensive against the militants said the operation against the radical groups will be intensified across the country to flush out the extremists in the country. He said the soldiers also captured the village and destroyed al-Shabab bases which they have been using to stage attacks against the government and civilians. El-Hareri is about 15 km from the strategic town of Adanyabal in the Middle Shabelle region in southern Somalia. The latest operation came after twin terrorist bombings killed more than 120 people and wounded over 300 others in Mogadishu on Oct. 29. Al-Shabab which has been fighting for more than a decade to topple Somalia's central government and to establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law claimed responsibility for the bombings. ULAN BATOR, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A critically endangered Gobi bear (Mazaalai) has died in the southwestern Mongolian province of Bayankhongor due to unknown cause, the country's minister of environment and tourism said on Friday. "Our ministry has set up a working group to find out exactly when the bear died and the cause of death," Bat-Ulzii Bat-Erdene said in a statement. According to the latest survey, a total of 51 Gobi bears existed in Mongolia, the ministry said in May. Gobi bears, whose habitats have shrunk dramatically compared with the 1950s and 1960s, persist as a unique ecotype in the Gobi Desert of southwestern Mongolia, according to Gobi Bear Project, a non-profit organization focusing on the protection of the endangered species. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brunei Darussalam Central Bank (BDCB) announced on Friday that it will be issuing commemorative coins in gold, silver and cupronickel in conjunction with the official naming of the Sultan Haji Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Bridge, the longest sea-crossing bridge in Southeast Asia. The 30-km bridge, jointly built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), a Chinese state-owned company, and Daelim, a South Korean company, was officially named in honor of the current Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah's late father in July 2020 after six years of construction. The bridge reduces traveling time between Brunei's capital and its Temburong district from two hours to about 15 minutes by bypassing Malaysia's Limbang. According to the BDCB, the coins will all be legal tender in the country and will be available to the public on Tuesday. HANOI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported roughly 6.1 million tons of plastic worth over 10.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of this year, up 4.4 percent in volume and 10.8 percent in value year-on-year, the General Statistics Office said on Friday. Between January and October, the country spent nearly 6.9 billion dollars importing plastic products, up 4.9 percent from the same period last year, according to the office. In 2021, Vietnam imported over 6.9 million tons of plastic totaling more than 11.6 billion dollars, up 4.7 percent and 38.2 percent respectively from the previous year, it said. KATHMANDU, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Foreign tourist arrivals in Nepal have more than tripled in the first 10 months of 2022 than the whole year of 2021, show government figures released on Friday. The South Asian country received 473,563 foreign tourists by the end of October, a sharp rise from 150,962 recorded in 2021, according to the Nepal Tourism Board data. "It is clear that we're on the path to recovery," Binayak Shah, first vice-president of Hotel Association Nepal, told Xinhua. "We have received growing inquiries from foreign travel agencies about their clients' visit plans to Nepal," he added. Nepal's tourism sector, hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, has a long way to go before it can repeat the feat of having as many as 1.19 million foreign tourists in 2019. Amid rising tourist arrivals, the hotel occupancy rate has climbed to an average of 25 percent nationwide from almost nil last year, according to Shah. LONDON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang has encouraged the business communities of China and Britain to contribute their insight and strength to stronger practical cooperation between the two countries. "Your contribution will go a long way to create more highlights of bilateral cooperation," said Zheng when addressing the Fifth China-UK Economic and Trade Forum on Wednesday in London. The ambassador also shared with the audience the significance of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), introducing key words including Chinese modernisation, high-quality development, and peace and cooperation. The 20th CPC National Congress has underpinned new opportunities and new energy for China's relations with Europe and Britain, the ambassador noted. "We should strive for mutual benefits and reject decoupling and disruption of industrial and supply chains. And we should champion multilateralism and resist unilateralism," he said. Also speaking at the forum, Fang Wenjian, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, called on the participants to adopt an open and pragmatic mindset and take action to grasp the opportunities, and to create mutual benefits for the two peoples and societies of China and Britain. Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, also stressed that China is a great opportunity for the British. "It is important and vital to the British people, not just British businesses but we as a country, to engage with China and do business with China," he said. Hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, the forum gathered over 300 representatives from all walks of life to communicate and explore more opportunities for cooperation. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not in the picture) in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Nov. 3, 2022. Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkiye and should be allowed entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. In response to Stoltenberg's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. (Xinhua/Shadati) ISTANBUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkiye and should be allowed entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. "It's time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of NATO," said Stoltenberg during a press conference in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. "Their accession will make our alliance stronger and our people safer," he added, noting Finland and Sweden are ready to work closer with Turkiye to fight terrorism. Turkiye, along with Hungary, has not yet finalized the process of ratifying the NATO memberships for the two Nordic countries despite signing the initial protocol in July. Turkiye has repeatedly stated that before the process could be finalized, Finland and Sweden must take "concrete steps" to ease Turkiye's concerns, including signing criminal extradition protocols and lifting sanctions on Turkiye's defense industry. Stoltenberg aims to accelerate the ratification process by Turkiye during his three-day visit, during which he will also hold meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. However, in response to Stoltenberg's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. "Some steps were taken indeed," said Cavusoglu. "But it is impossible to state that they have been fully implemented by these two countries." "It is not our intent to block (NATO's) expansion," Cavusoglu said. "We just want to see concrete steps." Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R, Rear) and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L, Rear) attend a press conference in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Nov. 3, 2022. Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkiye and should be allowed entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. In response to Stoltenberg's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. (Xinhua/Shadati) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R, Rear) and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L, Rear) attend a press conference in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Nov. 3, 2022. Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkiye and should be allowed entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. In response to Stoltenberg's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. (Xinhua/Shadati) NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (not in the picture) in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Nov. 3, 2022. Sweden and Finland have fulfilled their obligations to Turkiye and should be allowed entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. In response to Stoltenberg's remarks, Cavusoglu stated that the two Nordic countries have not fulfilled all their obligations and more steps are needed to be taken by them. (Xinhua/Shadati) ISTANBUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the extension of the Ukraine grain deal during a phone call on Friday. According to the Turkish Directorate of Communications, Erdogan stated that extending the grain deal is necessary, which is about to expire in three weeks. It added that the Turkish leader also expressed satisfaction due to the resumption of the grain deal after heavy diplomatic traffic between Russia and Ukraine. Russia had put an indefinite hiatus to the agreement over the weekend, citing Ukrainian attacks against its Black Sea fleet. Moscow re-entered the deal after intervention by Turkish and United Nations diplomats. In late July, the United Nations and Turkiye brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative to allow grain exports from three Ukraine ports to transit through a safe maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea. Turkiye's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday that as part of the initiative, more than 10 million tons of grain leaving the Ukrainian ports had been shipped to those in need. MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Russia's newest nuclear-powered submarine Generalissimo Suvorov test-launched a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday. The strategic submarine fired the missile from underwater in the White Sea and the warheads successfully hit targets in the Kura test range in the Kamchatka Peninsula, the ministry said in a statement. Generalissimo Suvorov, the second vessel of the Borey-A class submarines, was undergoing the final phase of government certification tests before joining the Russian Pacific Fleet, TASS news agency reported. ISTANBUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he has agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to ship grain and fertilizers free of charge to some African countries. "During our conversation the other day, Mr. Putin told me to send grain to underdeveloped countries free of charge ... and we have agreed," Erdogan told an international trade expo in Istanbul. "We'll make sure that the grain-laden ships reach all the countries in need, starting with Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan, which are dealing with severe food crises," Erdogan added. Erdogan's remarks on Friday came shortly after he and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the extension of the Black Sea grain export deal during a phone call. Brokered by the United Nations (UN) and Turkiye, the Black Sea Grain initiative reached in late July to establish a maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea for grain and agri-product exports. So far, the deal has allowed about 10 million tons of grain to be shipped from certain Ukrainian ports. ISTANBUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck western Turkiye's Izmir on Friday, causing a panic in the city that killed one person and wounded 64 others, local media reported. The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority reported that the earthquake struck at 3:29 a.m. local time (0029 GMT) in the namesake city of Izmir province. Citing the emergency authority's warning, the Hurriyet daily reported that the quake centered Buca district, with a depth of about 14 km, followed by multiple minor aftershocks. According to local media, one person died from a heart attack during the panic. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted earlier in the day that 64 people were wounded. A mosque minaret has been toppled, and at least 20 buildings suffered from minor damages, according to the NTV broadcaster. Sitting on the top of major fault lines, Turkiye experiences a fair share of earthquakes. In 2020, more than 110 people were killed in a nearly 7-magnitude quake in the Izmir Province. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Experts have warned of a potential "tripledemic" in California this winter, with spikes in COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, local media reported. The warning came amid the latest signs of statewide resurgence of coronavirus cases, with a daily case rate reported at 6.1 per 100,000 residents, said the California Department of Public Health in a weekly update on Thursday. That's down 4 percent from the previous week, but the rate of decline has slowed, said a report of The Sacramento Bee, a major newspaper published in Sacramento, the capital of the most populous state in the United States. California, home to around 40 million residents, is now conducting only about 72,000 COVID-19 tests a day, its lowest testing volume since the first three months of the pandemic. The state was processing more than 250,000 daily lab tests as recently as in early June, the report added. As a result, statewide testing positivity is resurging in California, up from 4.1 percent last week to 4.5 percent as of Thursday. COVID-19 hospitalizations are also creeping back up, it said. The newspaper's report pointed out that California's latest positivity and hospital numbers remain well below the peaks of more than 16 percent and nearly 5,000 in hospital beds in July, but the recent growth comes as a new family of omicron subvariants starts to make up a rapidly increasing portion of cases, and as colder weather starts to drive more people to gather indoors. California, once an epicenter of the pandemic in the country, reported a total of 10,519,175 confirmed cases to date, along with 96,185 related deaths as of Thursday, the California Department of Public Health said in its latest COVID-19 facts update. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The western U.S. state of California may be in for a three-headed Cerberus of respiratory illnesses this winter as the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19 collide, said a report of CalMatters, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news website. Orange County in Southern California declared a local public health emergency on Monday over RSV, a common cause of pneumonia in babies that has contributed to a record number of pediatric hospitalizations and daily emergency room visits in the county. Health officials of San Diego, also in Southern California, warned last week that a sharp increase of flu and RSV cases could have "a severe impact on people's lives and the county's medical resources this fall and winter." Anticipating a possible winter wave of infections and hospitalizations, California plans to wait until Feb. 28, 2023 to end its COVID state of emergency, said the report. Hospitals have relied on provisions of the emergency order to better accommodate patients during surges. Even this end date may be too soon because the flu can also affect capacity and flu season typically runs through May, said the report. Belarus Lukashenko rules out sending troops into Ukraine 4 November, 08:40 PM Dictator Lukashenko (Photo:REUTERS/Didor Sadulloev) There are no plans to send the Belarusian army to fight in Ukraine, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Nov. 4, as reported by Belarusian news agency Belta. "Today they are shouting: Lukashenko wants to send his soldiers to Ukraine! said Lukashenko. As I have already said 1,200 times: I have no such plans. Lukashenko then claimed that Belarusian opposition is sending Belarusians to their deaths by encouraging people to volunteer to fight for Ukraine. Video of day "These are also someone's children, he said. But there is no one to complain to. As president, I did not send you there. We have no business there in Ukraine. And we do not need to send people to fight there. Why am I accused of this? Because they (Belarusian opposition leaders) themselves send these guys there. Throughout the war, Russia has been using Belarus as staging grounds to first invade northern Ukraine in February-March, and subsequently to launch air and drone strikes at Ukraines civilian infrastructure. On Oct. 4, Lukashenko admitted that Belarus is involved in the war against Ukraine: "As for our participation in the special military operation in Ukraine we are taking part in it, he said. We do not hide it. But we do not kill anyone. We do not send our military anywhere. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Iran seeking Russias help to bolster its nuclear weapons program, says US intelligence 4 November, 05:44 PM , (Photo:REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo) Iran is seeking Russias help to bolster its nuclear weapons program, U.S. news channel CNN reported on Nov. 4, citing U.S. intelligence officials. According to CNNs sources, Iran has been asking Russia for help acquiring additional nuclear materials and with nuclear fuel fabrication. It is noted the fuel could help Iran power its nuclear reactors and could potentially further shorten Irans so-called breakout time to create a nu-clear weapon. Video of day According to CNN, it is not clear whether Russia has agreed to help as the Kremlin has long been outwardly opposed to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. On Nov. 1, CNN reported that Iran is preparing to send Russia approximately 1,000 additional weapons to use in its war against Ukraine, including short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones. Ukraines Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov earlier warned that Russia could deploy Iranian missiles against Ukraine as early as November. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Nov. 3 that Irans plans to supply Russia with drones and ballistic missiles are unacceptable. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Russia may be storing suicide drones and Iranian missiles underground near Kursk nuclear plant 4 November, 04:53 PM Russia may be storing Iranian weapons near nuclear power plant (Photo:Ukrainian military intelligence) Civilian trucks with Iranian license plates have been spotted coming into the underground hangars of the Kurskatomenergoremont nuclear power enterprise in the village of Ivanino, Kursk oblast near the border with Ukraine for the last few weeks, Ukrainian military intelligence reported on Nov. 4. Its possible that the facility, which is directly adjacent to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, is used by the Russian troops for military purposes, Ukrainian intelligence speculated. Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities with Iranian-made suicide drones since the beginning of October. Ukraine believes that 200 more attack drones are to be delivered to Russia in November. Video of day Military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov earlier warned that Russia could deploy Iranian missiles, namely Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar, against Ukraine as early as November. On Oct. 16, The Washington Post reported Iran has secretly agreed to transfer not only attack drones to Russia, but also surface-to-surface ballistic missiles for its full-scale war against Ukraine. The Iranian authorities also intend to supply the Kremlin regime with approximately 1,000 surface-to-surface short range ballistic missiles, CNN reported on Nov. 1. Officially, Teheran continue to deny that it is supplying weapons to Russia, in spite of the abundant evidence of military ties with Moscow. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Ukraine has the right to retaliate against missile strikes from Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya says 4 November, 01:43 AM Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (Photo:Christoph Soeder/Pool via REUTERS) If Russia continues to launch missiles at Ukraine from the territory of Belarus, Kyiv has the right to respond militarily, Belarusian president-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in an interview with Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda on Nov. 3. I understand that if the missiles are launched from the territory of Belarus again, the Ukrainians and Ukraine have the right to attack in response, she said. Read also: Satellite images show Russia deployed in Belarus warplanes that can launch Kinzhal missiles That is why our task is to prevent Belarusian troops from invading Ukraine. Tsikhanouskaya stressed that the regime of Belarusian self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko became a co-belligerent in Russias war against Ukraine. Video of day She also noted that Belarusians are helping Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country, with what little means they have, adding that Belarusians are very proud of their fellow citizens, who together with Ukrainians help Ukraine defend itself from the Russian aggression. According to Tsikhanouskaya, Russian and Belarusian propaganda is making a great effort to sow discord between Ukrainians and Belarusians. "...Do you think we arent hurt and ashamed because the attacks came from the territory of Belarus? said the president-elect. Read also: Belarusian president Tsikhanouskaya says Belarusian regime unlikely to attack Ukraine There are so many victims of these missiles, flying from the territory of Belarus. Of course we are ashamed. And we understand that we didn't push it to end in 2020 (during mass protests in Belarus). We could say that we had very little outside support. But this is also our fault, and we feel guilty. But you can't go far on guilt alone. We must learn to communicate, learn to share our pain. The most important thing right now is to not divide our nations, so that we dont become enemies to each other." Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Gromov previously said that Russian troops could prepare a strike group for a second attack on Ukraine from Belarus, even if that could only be done in two-three months at the earliest. Head of the Ukraines Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that there was no threat of a new invasion of Ukraine from the territory of Belarus right now, but the situation could change very quickly after the liberation of Kherson. On Oct. 10, Lukashenko announced that Belarus will host a joint grouping of forces, comprised of both Russian and Belarusian troops. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Vultures feeding on a carcass in Nepal. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi It is the universal truth that everyone dies. However, the death rituals vary according to ones community and values. There are various kinds of death rituals and the ancient Tibetan funeral known as sky burial is one among many. It is a unique tradition as it follows an unusual but distinctive procedure. In this tradition, the deceased humans body is initially dismembered. Then, it is set on display in an elevated location, as an offering for the sacred vultures. This tradition is followed by people living in the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal, which includes the Humla, Jumla, Dolpa, Mustang and Manang districts. With time changing, the practice, however, is getting rare these days. The religious rationale for sky burial An image of sky burial at Litang Monastery in Tibet. Photo by Antoine Taveneau for Wikimedia Commons One of the reasons that the people living in the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal perform sky burial is the way they practise Buddhism. People attempt to follow the steps of Buddha, who sacrificed his own life to save the starving tigress. Giving the corpse to the vultures is regarded as a final act of compassion and kindness. Vultures are said to carry the deceaseds soul to heaven after exposing the body to the elements and animal scavengers. In addition, it is thought that after such a burial, a person will reincarnate as a human in their subsequent life. The process In this region, determining the funerals approach is the first action taken once someone passes away. A senior priest typically analyses a persons birth and death dates to determine what astrological signs they belong to. Through the use of basic astrology, they choose one of the five signs: earth, water, air, sky, or fire. After determining the sign, the person is either burnt, buried, cut and fed to fish, or chopped and fed to vultures. The corpse is initially tied up after a lama (priest) decides on the procedure, and then he starts chanting the necessary prayers. Family members join in chanting prayers and offering their final tributes to the deceased by offering khada, a religious shawl, for farewell. Then, the priest circles the corpse thrice, and it is carried to a place specially allocated for the funeral. Once they get to their designated location, the body breakers chop the corpse into precise pieces. The nails on the tips of the fingers are burnt with the head because they are believed to be poisonous to vultures. The lama begins to play a damaru (a musical instrument) once the offerings are prepared. Playing damaru is an invitation for the vultures to come down and consume the offerings. If the vultures do not feed on the corpse, it is thought to be a bad omen. It suggests that the body has sinned or that the ceremonies were not carried out properly. Changing times Vultures feeding on the rock used to expose bodies at a sky burial outside Lhasa, Tibet, during the first lunar month, March 1985. Photographs of the sky burial taken with permission of the participants, on condition that no photographs were taken before the vultures were called to eat the bodies of the three deceased persons. Photo scanned from a print. Photo by Babel Stone for Wikimedia Commons. Thakur Gurung of Chhusang, Mustang district, says, One of the reasons that gave birth to this practice is a lack of enough firewood for cremation. The ground in this region is hard and rocky, which makes digging a grave quite challenging. The article, Vultures and People: Some Insights into an Ancient Relationship and Practice of Sky Burial Persisting in the Trans-Himalayan Region of Nepal, published by Bird Conservation Nepal in 2020, informs about the participation of vultures in the process. A local Gyalche Bishokarma from Chhonup, who incises corpses for sky burial, thinks there are fewer vultures participating in the process now than there were 10 years ago. He states, Bearded vultures and cinereous vultures rarely appear while Himalayan griffon is a regular participant. Shedding light on the benefit of sky burial, former chairman of Lomanthang rural municipality, Subarna Kumar Bista, shares, If we could institutionalise the culture, tradition and the ritual of such community in the region, sky burial also could attract tourists. This practice is certain to promote tourism and become a source of survival for the vultures found in the trans-Himalayan Region of Nepal. But, according to a blog, From Recca to Mustang A Journey To The Sky Burial published in Kathmandu Films, Chhamba Dukta, a lama who performs sky burial in his village in Dolpa and in Mustang says, It has been around 10 years since any sky burial has been practised for the last time and the villagers have settled for easier burning funerals, rather than difficult ones. * Japan wary of spill-over effects from U.S. tightening * Yen remains under pressure from Fed tightening, BOJ easing * Suzuki warns of excessively weak yen led by speculative moves (Recasts, adds quote, context) By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday authorities should be vigilant to any downside risks stemming from the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy tightening, which has pressured the yen to historic lows. The yen has tumbled on the widening spread between U.S. and Japanese interest rates, with the Fed's aggressive interest rates hikes contrasting sharply with the Bank of Japan's massive monetary stimulus. "We need to continue to monitor how U.S. inflation and any changes in its monetary policy could affect Japanese and global economy," Suzuki told reporters. The minister echoed Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's recent caution about any spill-over effects from aggressive monetary policy tightening by the United States on Japan and other countries. The Fed raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point this week, signalling that it may be near a turning point in its aggressive monetary policy tightening. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has dashed expectations for any pivot. The Japanese yen rose a marginal 0.07% to 148.155 per dollar on early trade on Friday, hovering below its 32-year low near 152 yen. Turning to currency intervention, Suzuki said Japan was not targeting any specific levels when intervening in the currency market to prop up the yen. Japan spent a record $43 billion supporting the yen last month after it slumped to a 32-year low. In September, it conducted its first yen-buying intervention since 1998. "Basically the exchange rates need to move stably reflecting fundamentals," Suzuki said. "We cannot tolerate excessive fluctuations driven in particular by speculative trading, which could badly affect households and businesses," he said. "We will stick to our stance of taking necessary action if such moves emerge." (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sam Holmes) (Adds details throughout) Nov 4 (Reuters) - Vietnam's central bank held emergency meetings this week with commercial banks to discuss liquidity in the system, two informed sources told Reuters on Friday, as lenders face pressure from tightening credit conditions and higher interest rates. One of the sources with knowledge of the issue, who asked to remain anonymous because the information was confidential, said the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has held three meetings with more than a dozen banks this week, to address "difficulties" for some lenders to access sufficient liquidity and about deposits in the system. The SBV did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meetings. Pressure is building amid an anti-corruption crackdown which hit Vietnam's property sector and froze the debt market that was driving the housing market. The two sources said discussions with banks focussed on liquidity, with one of them stressing that talks also addressed the level of corporate bonds that lenders hold in their books. The market for corporate bonds is being closely watched by investors as 375 trillion dong ($15 billion) in property debt matures by 2025, according to the National Assembly's economic committee, and authorities have put restrictions on refinancing it. Corporate bonds worth billions of dong have been redeemed in recent weeks after the arrest last month of property tycoon Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City-based developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, over suspected bond-market fraud. Lan has made no public comment on the allegation. That also followed a tightening in September of the rules private placing of corporate bonds. In turn, the scramble for funds has contributed to a decline in the stock market and has driven the dong down 6% in three months. (Editing by Martin Petty) Kruck20 / Getty Images/iStockphoto North Carolina has long attracted residents-to-be with its top-notch universities, thriving economy and gorgeous natural scenery. In 2022, it was named America's Top State for Business by CNBC. Check Out: 6 Types of Retirement Income That Aren't Taxable Discover: 9 Safest Places To Retire Abroad for Less Than $2,000 a Month Yet it may be those who are calling it a day on business who have the most to gain in North Carolina. Retirees may relocate to the Tar Heel State because it touts a relatively low cost of living and has awesome tax breaks for seniors. It is also, as mentioned, a beautiful place, so if walks in nature are a priority for your golden years, North Carolina will definitely deliver. But North Carolina is a big place, and there are so many cities and towns to choose from when relocating there. Which ones make the best setting for retirees living on Social Security -- or really for anyone on a strict budget? GOBankingRates found the six best places to live in North Carolina on less than $2,500 a month. Kruck20 / Getty Images/iStockphoto Raleigh Monthly expenditures : $2,167 Livability: 75 A one-bedroom home in Raleigh costs $1,295 on average. Monthly groceries cost $441 and healthcare per month runs $431. Raleigh is known for its rich history, including the fact that it is home to the first all-Black college, Shaw University. In Raleigh, just 12% of the population is 65 and over -- the lowest percentage on this list. Take Our Poll: Are You Struggling To Keep Up With Your Utility Bills? Shutterstock.com Garner Monthly expenditures : $2,140 Livability: 73 Over in Garner in Wake County, rents for a one-bedroom average of $1,280. Monthly groceries cost $429 and healthcare costs $431 per month -- the same as it costs in Raleigh. Garner is reputed for its down-to-Earth charm and its close proximity to the famous Research Triangle Park. Fifteen percent of the population is 65 and older. Pictured: Neighboring Raleigh, North Carolina Meinzahn / iStock.com Wilmington Monthly expenditures : $2,109 Livability: 65 Story continues Wilmington is famous for its antebellum and Civil War history, along with its pop culture relevance (it's the setting for the TV show "Dawson's Creek" and the movie "Cape Fear"). A one-bedroom apartment here costs $1,132, while monthly healthcare will set you back $539 -- the highest on this list. Groceries are also pricey, at $438 per month. Wilmington has the highest percentage (18%) of people 65 and older on this list. Davel5957 / Getty Images/iStockphoto Durham Monthly expenditures : $2,060 Livability: 70 A one-bedroom place in Durham goes for $1,181 a month, while groceries for the month cost $435, and monthly healthcare costs $445. Fifteen percent of the city's population is 65 years or older. Durham is known as the City of Medicine, as healthcare is its most prominent industry. Scott Richie / Flickr.com Concord Monthly expenditures : $1,919 Livability: 83 Concord is the second most affordable city to live on for $2,500 a month, but it actually has the highest livability score of all of those featured. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that it's a cultural epicenter, with tons of art galleries and museums. A one-bedroom home in these parts costs $1,057 a month, groceries cost $429 and healthcare goes for $433. Kevin Ruck / Shutterstock.com Greensboro Monthly expenditures : $1,911 Livability: 66 If you have a budget of $2,500 a month, you'll get the biggest bang for your buck by living in Greensboro, where a one-bedroom place costs $1,069, groceries cost $420 and health costs hover at $423. Greensboro is also known as Tournament Town, in light of its abundance of athletic venues. Methodology: GOBankingRates determined where in North Carolina to live on less than $2,500 per month based on the (1) average monthly benefit for retired workers, sourced from the Social Security Administration; and ApartmentList data to find (2) average 2022 one-bedroom rent in North Carolina cities. GOBankingRates then researched Sperling's Best to find the cost of living index for each listed city, looking at (3) grocery and (4) healthcare index scores. GOBankingRates additionally used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020 Consumer Expenditure Survey to find the annual expenditure amount for both grocery ("food at home") and healthcare costs for people aged 65 and older in order to find how much a person 65 and over would spend on groceries and healthcare in each city on a monthly basis. GOBankingRates then added monthly housing, grocery and healthcare costs together. In order for a city to be qualified for the study, its (5) population had to be 10% or more over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; and (6) have a livability score of 65 or above, sourced from AreaVibes. All data was collected on and up to date as of Oct. 11, 2022. More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 6 Best Places To Retire in North Carolina on Less Than $2,500 a Month Auckland Museum The Auckland Museum provides Michael James McGrath was a war veteran in World War II. He fought honourably in the 30th (Mixed) Battalion B Force. It's the 8th Brigade of the New Zealand 3rd Division London, UK, Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Michael James McGrath was a war veteran in World War II the last major world conflict to have occurred. He and his many servicemen fought on the side of Australian and New Zealand forces. His enlistment was early on in the global conflict and his Battalion was eventually assigned to the war in the Pacific. It is here. Michael James McGrath, a war hero, was killed in action. Wars & Conflicts He fought honourably in World War II in the 30th (Mixed) Battalion B Force. This is the 8th Brigade of the New Zealand 3rd Division. This was an Expeditionary Force of the Third Echelon. It is believed that Michael James McGrath enlisted for service in 1940 when the war in Europe was in its early stages. Michael James Mcgrath Remembered For His Heroic Participation In WWII Michael James McGrath - 30th Battalion The 30th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the New Zealand 3rd Division, raised for Second World War service. The unit was known for its bravery and sacrifice and served with distinction in the conflict. Today, the Battalion is one of the most well-known New Zealand military units. It was originally formed in September 1940 and drew personnel from New Zealand areas. In particular these were the districts of Otago and Canterbury. Michael James McGrath joined the battalion as one of the first person. McGrath and his battalion were at first allocated to the 8th Brigade before joining up with the 14th Brigade at a later date. This is where Michael James McGrath served and experienced action in the Pacific. There they took on garrison duties in Fiji to guard the island against possible Japanese attacks. When the war ended, they were handed over to the US Army. The NZEF was closely linked to the AIF for much of the war. The New Zealand contingent was too small to form a separate division, so the New Zealand and Australian Divisions were combined to form the famous Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Both divisions were commanded by General Godley. Story continues The USS Arizona, which was the target ship of TF 38, was able to land its troops unopposed on the Green Islands, a pair of islands north of Buka. The SS Arizona landed 112 members of the New Zealand Commando Force in Vella Lavella and prepared to land on the island. Then, it headed north to the Green Islands, where the enemy garrison did not resist. By the time the task group reached the island, they had cleared the island of the enemy. Other Operations Australian & New Zealand Forces Took Part In The commonwealth armies such as Australia and New Zealand also took part in the European battle staged from the land of the United Kingdom. After more than four years of holding off German air attacks, thanks to radar technology and a steady production line of spitfires and bombers kept the Nazi forces at bay. The war changed course when Japan attacked the Pearl Harbour US naval base. The attack finally persuaded the US and its citizens to see sense and get a grip on reality after hesitating to fully commit to the war in Europe. Better late than never the old saying goes. Soon allied forces from Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world would join the British and Europeans fighting to safeguard the small islands of Britain and Ireland. Many of those Europeans already fighting alongside the British had escaped from countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Holland, and France took part. The key mission at the time was D-Day before several more operations to sweep across Europe. ### Help for Heros https://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ Phone: 0300 303 9888 The Auckland Museum The Auckland Domain Parnell, Auckland New Zealand + 64 9 309 0443 newsroom: news.38digitalmarket.com SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Global C4ISR market was valued at USD 119.5 billion in 2021, and it is expected to attain a value of USD 160.45 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period (2022-2028). Westford, USA, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the demand for C4ISR market is growing. C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and these systems are used to manage large amounts of data and information. They are essential for military and government organizations who need to be able to effectively communicate and coordinate operations. C4ISR systems are used by every branch of the military, and the need for qualified personnel extends across all ranks and specialties. The average soldier today carries more than 70 pounds of equipment into battle, much of it C4ISR-related. The Army alone has over 1 million users in the global C4ISR market spread across more than 150 countries. This growth is being driven by an increase in military spending around the world, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as well as by the continued development of new and more sophisticated C4ISR technologies. With each passing year, C4ISR systems are becoming more sophisticated as the technology needed to support them advances. The increase in computing power and storage capacity has allowed these systems to become more robust and capable of handling larger amounts of data. Additionally, the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence is providing C4ISR systems with greater analytical capabilities. The growing demand for C4ISR market is being driven by a number of factors. Firstly, there is an increasing need for effective coordination among military and government organizations. secondly, the amount of data that needs to be processed is growing exponentially. Finally, C4ISR systems are becoming more affordable as the cost of computing power and storage continues to decline. Given the growing demand for C4ISR systems, it is important that organizations invest in these technologies. Doing so will allow them to better coordinate their operations and make use of ever-increasing amounts of data. Story continues Get a sample copy of this report: https://skyquestt.com/sample-request/c4isr-market SkyQuest Study Says C4ISR Market to Witness Demand and Supply Gap Rising threats from nation states and terrorist organizations are driving up demand for C4ISR capabilities, as militaries seek to gain an information advantage over their adversaries. At the same time, commercial technology is maturing to the point where it can be repurposed for military applications, helping to drive down costs and improve performance. SkyQuests analysis for the demand and supply in the global C4ISR market estimate that there will be a shortage of C4ISR personnel in the US by 2025. It is estimated that the shortage may fall between 5,000 and 10,000 workers. The reason for the shortage is two-fold: first, because the skills required for C4ISR are in high demand but low supply; and second, because many C4ISR workers are nearing retirement age. Apart from this, our analysis for demand and supply of C4ISR market looks at the current inventory of C4ISR systems and capabilities across the globe and projects future demand based on a number of factors including population growth, urbanization, and the proliferation of weapons. The study also takes into account the production capacities of C4ISR suppliers to understand how future demand might be met. The findings of SkyQuest's analysis suggest that future demand for C4ISR will outstrip current supply levels in many regions of the world due to growing tension between countries like India-Pakistan, Russia-Ukraine, India-China, Poland-Russia, and Azerbaijan-Armenia, among others. This shortfall is likely to have serious consequences for militaries that are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges posed by increased demand. As such, our analysis provides a critical tool for decision-makers who must allocate resources to ensure that their militaries are prepared for the challenges ahead. Our study concludes that there is currently a high demand for C4ISR capabilities across the globe, particularly in North America and Europe. However, the supply of C4ISR systems is not keeping up with this demand. This discrepancy is resulting in increased competition and prices for system in the global C4ISR market. Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC): https://skyquestt.com/report/c4isr-market Top Advancements Roaring in C4ISR Market It has been found that most of the global players engaged in the market focus mainly on modernizing its C4ISR capabilities is driven by the need to keep pace with the latest advancements in technology and the evolving threats from nation-states and non-state actors. These companies are investing in a number of cutting-edge C4ISR technologies, including: Advanced sensors: The US DoD is developing new generations of sensors that can detect smaller targets at greater distances and identify friends or foes more quickly and accurately in the C4ISR market. These include ground surveillance radar systems, electro-optical/infrared sensors and space-based imaging satellites. Artificial intelligence: Several players are exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for C4ISR applications such as target identification and tracking, battle damage assessment and route planning. AI could also be used to help human operators make faster and better decisions in complex situations in the C4ISR market. Machine learning: Machine learning algorithms are being used to automatically detect and track targets, as well as identify potential threats. This type of technology is also being used to develop new methods for fusing data from multiple sources. Additionally, machine learning is being used to create digital maps of the physical world that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as route planning and terrain analysis. Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements: https://skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/c4isr-market Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are Leading the Global C4ISR Market C4ISR market is a critical sector for militaries and other government organizations around the world. SkyQuest's analysis of key players in this industry shows that there are a few large companies that dominate the market, with smaller players accounting for a significant portion of the total market. The largest company, Northrop Grumman, has a market share of over 15%. The other two top companies, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, have market shares of 12% and 10%, respectively. The remaining the market is split among a large number of small and medium-sized companies. The global C4ISR market is highly competitive, with the top three companies accounting for over 37% of the total market. This leaves a relatively small amount of market share for the rest of the companies in the industry to compete over. In addition, these three companies are all large defense contractors with significant resources and experience in developing and delivering C4ISR solutions. As a result, they are well-positioned to maintain their leading positions in the industry. Key Players in the Global C4ISR Market L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (US) Lockheed Martin Corporation (US) Rockwell Collins, Inc. (US) Northrop Grumman Corporation (US) The Raytheon Company (US) Elbit Systems Ltd (US) General Dynamics Corporation (US) Harris Corporation (France) Thales Group (France) BAE Systems (UK) Related Reports in SkyQuests Library: Global Fintech Blockchain Market Global Speech-to-text API Market Global Webtoons Market Global Mobile Application Market Global SSL VPN Market About Us: SkyQuest Technology is leading growth consulting firm providing market intelligence, commercialization and technology services. It has 450+ happy clients globally. Address: 1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886 Phone: USA (+1) 617-230-0741 Email: sales@skyquestt.com LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Growth Plus Reports Pune, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest report published by Growth Plus Reports, the global brain monitoring device market is expected to clock US$ 10.57 billion by 2030 and to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period. Owing to the rising prevalence of neurological disorders with a growing geriatric population. This exclusive information is published by Growth Plus Reports in its report titled brain monitoring device Market Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030 Download PDF Brochure of Brain Monitoring Device Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Developments at: https://growthplusreports.com/inquiry/request-sample/brain-monitoring-device-market/7889 Market Drivers The primary driving factor of the global brain monitoring device market is the increasing frequency of neurological disorders such as dementia, epilepsy, headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, etc. Additionally, the growing elderly population, which is more susceptible to brain disorders like Alzheimer's, and the rise in traumatic brain injuries are crucial contributors to the global market expansion. The adoption of cutting-edge technology and the growing use of brain monitoring equipment during and after surgery drive demand for brain monitoring devices. Furthermore, rising demand for non-invasive or minimally invasive monitoring devices with increased healthcare applications and constant innovation by leading market players are expected to propel the growth of the global brain monitoring device market. The global brain monitoring device market has been analyzed from four perspectives product type, diseases, end user, and region. Excerpts from 'By Product Type Segmentation' The global market for brain monitoring devices has been divided into several categories based on the type of the product, such as: Intracranial Pressure Monitors Mri Scanners Electroencephalograph (Eeg) Systems Magneto Encephalography (Meg) Systems Pet Scanners Ct Scanners Cerebral Oximeters Sleep Monitoring Devices Transcranial Doppler Story continues The electroencephalograph (EEG) systems will hold the largest market share of the global brain monitoring device market in 2021. The significant market share of EEG can be attributable to the increase in epilepsy cases, sleep difficulties, and other seizure disorders. Furthermore, EEG has an advantage because it can capture brain activity outside of a laboratory setting and is cost-effective because it allows for customization according to the user. Moreover, EEG has excellent temporal resolution because it captures information on when brain processes are active, increasing the demand for EEG, and thus boosting segment growth. Excerpts from 'By Diseases Segmentation' The global market for brain monitoring devices has been divided into: Diseases Including Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) Stroke Dementia Epilepsy Headache Sleep Disorders The large share of traumatic brain injuries can be attributed to the rise in traumatic brain injuries. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, TBI affects approximately sixty-nine million people yearly. The countries with low and middle income have three times more TBI rates than developed countries. Moreover, the rising geriatric population is also expected to boost segment growth as aged people are more prone to TBI. Excerpts from 'By End-user Segmentation' End-user segments of the global brain monitoring device market are: Hospitals Ambulatory Surgery Centers Diagnostic Centers The hospitals dominated the market share in 2021. The complex process of brain monitoring requires using high-tech, expensive equipment, typically found in hospitals where skilled professionals are available to operate these devices. In addition, most other end users cannot bear the cost of maintaining brain monitoring devices. Hospitals see more patients overall than other healthcare facilities and end users, causing brain monitoring devices to be employed chiefly in hospitals, boosting market growth. Speak to our Analyst to Understand the Impact of COVID-19 on Your Business: https://growthplusreports.com/inquiry/speak-analyst/brain-monitoring-device-market/7889 Excerpts from 'By Region Segmentation' Based on region, the global brain monitoring device market has been segmented into: North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the World North America dominated the global brain monitoring device market in 2021, followed by Europe. Asia Pacific market is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The large share of the of north America can largely be attributed to the rising prevalence of neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injuries (TBI), stroke, dementia, epilepsy etc. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are around 3.4 million people with epilepsy in the U.S, which is approximately 1.2% of the total population. Moreover, the rising geriatric population as aged people are more prone to neurological disorders. With top companies in the region and well-developed healthcare infrastructure, effective reimbursement policies are also expected to play a pivotal role in segment growth. Excerpts from 'Competitive Landscape' Some prominent players operating in the global brain monitoring device market are Nihon Kohden Corporation Philips Healthcare Natus Medical Inc. GE Healthcare Siemens Healthineers AG Medtronic Plc Compumedics Ltd Edwards Lifesciences Corporation Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA Advanced Brain Monitoring Inc. Masimo Corporation Spiegelberg GmbH & Co. KG Cadwell Industries Inc. NeuroWave Systems Inc. Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation Table of Content INTRODUCTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY PREMIUM INSIGHTS MARKET DYNAMICS GLOBAL BRAIN MONITORING DEVICE MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY PRODUCT TYPE GLOBAL BRAIN MONITORING DEVICE MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY DISEASES GLOBAL BRAIN MONITORING DEVICE MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY END-USER VALUE PROPOSITIONS RELATED TO THE REPORT: Powered with Complimentary Analyst Hours and Expert Interviews with Each Report Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative insights at segment and sub-segment level Covid 19 impact trends and perspective Granular insights at global/regional/country level Deep-rooted insights on market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) and business environment Blanket coverage on competitive landscape Winning imperatives Exhaustive coverage on 'Strategic Developments' registered by leading players of the market CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS: Distributor Landscape Assessment Pricing Intelligence Customer Base Assessment Investment & Initiatives Analysis 'Business Profile' of Key Players Directly Purchase Premium Copy of Brain Monitoring Device Market Growth Report (2022-2030) at: https://growthplusreports.com/checkout?_token=oqQkfpNtw5IgnRSsTl6XWvrrrTWZlndXVJ66HYjC&report_id=7889&license=Single About Us: Growth Plus Reports is part of GRG Health, a global healthcare knowledge service company. We are proud members of EPhMRA (European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association). Growth Plus portfolio of services draws on our core capabilities of secondary & primary research, market modelling & forecasting, benchmarking, analysis and strategy formulation to help clients create scalable, ground-breaking solutions that prepare them for future growth and success. We were awarded by the prestigious CEO Magazine as "Most Innovative Healthcare Market Research Company in 2020. CONTACT: Manan Sethi Director, Market Insights Email: enquire@growthplusreports.com Phone no: +91 96545 76783 Web: https://growthplusreports.com/ BW Offshore Contract extension for Sendje Berge BW Offshore has signed an agreement with Addax Petroleum Exploration (Nigeria) Limited for a six-month extension for the lease and operation of Sendje Berge. The firm period has been extended to Q2 2023. For further information, please contact: Stale Andreassen, CFO, +47 91 71 86 55 Anders S. Platou, Head of Corporate Finance & Strategy, +47 99 50 47 40 IR@bwoffshore.com or www.bwoffshore.com About BW Offshore: BW Offshore engineers innovative floating production solutions. The Company has a fleet of 10 FPSOs with potential and ambition to grow. By leveraging four decades of offshore operations and project execution, the Company creates tailored offshore energy solutions for evolving markets world-wide. BW Offshore has around 2,000 employees and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. This information is subject to a duty of disclosure pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. The Drone Performance Marks the Lead Up to the Game's 10 Year Anniversary on November 14th and a Treasure Trove of In-Game Rewards for Players Across the World NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ -- Candy Crush Saga, the iconic match-3 mobile puzzle game that hosts millions of players every day, is celebrating 10 years of fun, billions of candies matched and countless moments of joy for players across the globe. To mark the occasion, downtown Manhattan was transformed into a candified carnival. Viewers enjoyed a spectacular takeover of the New York City skyline as hundreds of glowing drones took Candy Crush Saga from the mobile phone to the biggest screen on Earth - the sky. For 10 sweet minutes, candies were matched at over 1,000 times the size seen on a mobile phone in a stunning performance by 500 synchronized drones. From electrifying Color Bombs to a larger-than-life Tiffi, some of the game's most iconic elements took flight in the night sky. Throughout the night, over 1,000 people joined in the fun at Battery Park Esplanade, while listening to a live DJ, Luda Love and enjoying Candy Crush Saga inspired food, drinks, a gigantic, adult, ball-pit, carnival games, and more. Beyond the candified carnival space, the show could be seen by countless New Yorkers from downtown to midtown as well as New Jersey residents across the Hudson. "We are honored to celebrate such an incredible milestone for Candy Crush Saga," said Fernanda Romano, Chief Marketing Officer at King. "Candy Crush Saga is one of the most beloved mobile games of all time and remains a daily source of fun in millions of peoples' lives. We wanted to mark this momentous anniversary by showcasing some of Candy Crush Saga's most iconic elements in a larger-than-life way above the world's most iconic city skyline. We're incredibly thankful to our players around the world who have kept us thriving for the last 10 years, and we are committed to continue making the world more playful for many years to come." Story continues "We wanted to help tell the Candy Crush Saga story in the most breathtaking way possible," said Jeff Kaplan, General Manager, Pixis Drones. "The game is brimming with beautiful iconography, but bringing that to life required months of collaboration and the full breadth of Pixis' engineering and design expertise. The end-product is one of the most sophisticated and vibrant performances we've executed, and we're thrilled to have partnered with Candy Crush Saga to help mark such a special moment." Beginning November 4th, on National Candy Day, Candy Crush Saga is providing daily in-game rewards, kicking off the #10YearsOfFun celebrations with unlimited lives across the globe. A flurry of surprises from Color Bombs to Lollipop Hammers and more will be released every day in the lead-up to the official anniversary date on November 14th. Download the Candy Crush Saga app via Apple App Store, Google Play, Microsoft Store, Amazon App Store and Facebook to get in on the fun. Candy Crush Saga has become a global phenomenon, attracting hundreds of millions of players from around the world. As one of the most played mobile games year in and year out, it's been downloaded more than three billion times since it launched in 2012. As of Q2 2022, Candy Crush was the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores for the 20th consecutive quarter. To date, over five trillion levels of Candy Crush Saga have been played in 200 countries and territories. Follow @candycrushsaga or visit www.candycrushsaga.com to stay updated on all of the incredible global activity to celebrate ten years of Candy Crush Saga. About King King is the game developer behind the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, as well as mobile game hits including Farm Heroes Saga, Bubble Witch Saga and Pet Rescue Saga. Candy Crush is the top-grossing franchise in US app stores, a position it has held for the last five years, and King's games are being played by 240 million monthly active users as of Q2 2022. King, which is part of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) since its acquisition in 2016, employs nearly 2,000 people in game studios in Stockholm, Malmo, London, Barcelona and Berlin and offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Malta. 2022 King.com Ltd. King, the King crown logo, Candy Crush, the Tiffi character, Candy Crush Saga and related marks are trademarks of King.com Ltd and/or related entities. Courtesy of Candy Crush Saga Courtesy of Candy Crush Saga Candy Crush Saga celebrates 10 years of fun in 2022 (PRNewsfoto/King) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/candy-crush-saga-celebrates-ten-iconic-years-of-fun-by-taking-over-the-new-york-city-skyline-with-a-mesmerizing-drone-performance-301669174.html SOURCE King Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/04/c4641.html Sinopec, Shell, China Baowu and BASF will explore open-source CCUS development to achieve carbon goals SHANGHAI, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, "Sinopec") has signed a non-binding MoU with Shell, China Baowu and BASF to launch the first 10-million-ton carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project in East China. The open-source project will support industries in the region to decarbonize their operations and establish low-carbon supply chains, leading China's CCUS development and achieving the region's "dual carbon" goals. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a non-binding MoU with Shell, China Baowu and BASF at CIIE 2022, to launch Chinas first 10-million-ton carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project in the East China region. (PRNewsfoto/SINOPEC) CCUS, the carbon reduction process of capturing and making effective use of CO 2 from industrial-sourced emissions, is a technology that has the potential to significantly reduce emissions on a large scale and be a key component on the path to achieve carbon neutrality. The project will explore the feasibility of transporting the CO 2 produced by industrial plants in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River(including from steel, chemical, power, cement companies) to a CO 2 receiving station, then transport the CO 2 to onshore or offshore storage sites via short-distance pipelines. It aims to offer a flexible and efficient carbon reduction solution for industrial companies. Sinopec, Shell, China Baowu and BASF will not only support the decarbonization of current industries and building of low-carbon product value chains, but also accelerate the development of low-carbon products and a green low-carbon circular economy. "Sinopec will work together with Shell, China Baowu and BASF to expand commercial decarbonization and actively promote the development of the full CCUS industry chain, not only making contributions to the green development of China, but also the world. Sinopec will continue to aim for mutually beneficial cooperation with global partners, fulfill our high-level opening-up and green development goals, and work towards realizing our carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals," said Ma Yongsheng, president of Sinopec. Story continues Sinopec is committed to leading China's industrial development of CCUS. In 2012, Sinopec launched China's first coal-burning power plant CCUS project in Shengli Oilfield, and in 2015 collaborated with Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industries Co., Ltd. and Sinopec East China Oil and Gas Company to pioneer the utilization of CO 2 resources utilization throughout its upstream and downstream companies. Sinopec captured 1.52 million tons of CO 2 in 2021. China's first megaton-scale CCUS project, the Qilu-Shengli Oilfield CCUS project, officially launched in early 2022. For more information, please visit Sinopec. Logo (PRNewsfoto/Sinopec) SOURCE SINOPEC Elon Musk is wasting no time making extremely deep cuts at Twitter, calving off many teams doing essential work at the company in the process. News of layoffs swept the platform on Friday, showing that Twitter's billionaire owner is painting in broad strokes when it comes to trimming down the team by half. The same day that Musk complained about supposed activists impacting Twitter's ad revenue, he cut some departments outright actions that are sure to make advertisers all the more skittish about Musk's ability to steer a ship with a skeleton crew. As he's only owned the company for a single week, it's impossible to imagine that such sweeping layoffs won't lead to dysfunction at Twitter, from the content moderation policies sure to prove crucial for Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections to product teams keeping the platform humming. Former Twitter employees affected by the layoffs describe a chaotic situation with little official communication beyond abruptly receiving a termination letter or seeing their access to internal tools like Slack or databases suddenly revoked. In the information vacuum created by Musk's disorganized and sudden approach to the layoffs, some employees aren't sure if their colleagues are still employed or if their teams continue to exist at all. The cuts appear to be as broad as they were deep, affecting everything from Twitter's trust and safety teams that handle content moderation to its marketing department. Here are some of the teams either eliminated outright or hit hard by the layoffs, and what the new incarnation of Twitter will be losing in the process. Human Rights Former Twitter Human Rights Counsel Shannon Raj Singh shared news that the company's human rights team was eliminated Friday. The team worked to protect users facing human rights violations around the globe, including activists, journalists and people affected by conflicts like the war in Ukraine. Story continues Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company. I am enormously proud of the work we did to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia, Shannon Raj Singh (@ShannonRSingh) November 4, 2022 Accessibility Experience Twitter's now former head of accessibility confirmed that the company cut the accessibility experience team, which improved the product for people with disabilities. The team appears to have had a lot still in the works before it was disbanded. So, the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter is no longer. We had so much more to do, but we worked hard! There aren't very many people that have had the opportunity to make such an important global platform like Twitter accessible, but we understood the mission. Gerard K. Cohen (@gerardkcohen) November 4, 2022 November #TwitterA11yStatus Launched: - Image description reminder In progress: - ALT badge copy/paste for mobile - Improved image description education Next: - Setting to disable keyboard shortcuts on Web Exploring: - Closed captions toggle - Anniversary images missing alt text Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) November 1, 2022 Communications It's not yet clear what parts of Twitter's communications team have been cut outright, but the cuts are deep enough that many prominent comms employees at the company, including many contacts that TechCrunch has spoken with over the years, were affected. Musk signaled his distaste for internal communications immediately after taking over the company, conveying little information to Twitter employees about the changes, so it's no surprise that the internal communications team is affected as well, including the head of internal comms. Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, Im leaving with the fullest , experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps. My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all. @TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher! #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/5tVUP575A6 Julie Steele (@juliezsteele) November 4, 2022 Many dont know all the details that went into internal comms this year, but I do. I also know that the people at Twitter embody #OneTeam . No one goes harder than @TwitterComms. Ultimately, I get to leave with the best people alongside me. Cheers Colette Zakarian (@colzakarian) November 4, 2022 Machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability Musk dissolved a team known internally as META, which was well-respected for its exploratory work in ethical AI and algorithmic transparency. Rumman Chowdhury, the team's director, was eliminated, along with the team's engineers and other members. Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. Joan Deitchman (@JoanDeitchman) November 4, 2022 Curation Some of the layoffs make sense, given the things Musk apparently has little regard for (human rights and accessibility, alarming!), but Twitter's new owner apparently also made cuts to teams that seemed poised to help him extract more value from the company. The curation team curated the moments tab, programmed the trending topics section, provided context on those topics and also handled live events many of the things Twitter does best. The team also worked to fight misinformation on the platform a serious and consequential concerns that Musk has already made worse in less than seven days on the job. So Twitters Curation team is no more. This site was recently launched to tell the world about our work. Give it a look for two reasons: 1) to see how it will impact your experience 2) if you want to hire the people behind it, get in touch via DMhttps://t.co/vGdlDSYh8r Andrew Haigh (@AndrewHaigh) November 4, 2022 Looks like Elon Musk fired the entire curation team. These were the folks who tackled misinfo, contextualized conversations via the 'Explore' page, and helped make Twitter an unmatched source for breaking news. This will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous & less interesting Richie Assaly (@rdassaly) November 4, 2022 Public policy Politico reports that half of the company's public policy team was let go, including Michele Austin, the former director of public policy and elections in Canada and the U.S. who was actively working on the U.S. midterms. Those cuts reportedly also included Twitter team members who work to verify the accounts of political figures. I helped lead the 2022 US midterms on platform. Same with #Elxn44 in Canada. I was responsible for social impact work in both countries. Twitter gave me amazing opportunities. Michele Austin (@_MicheleAustin) November 4, 2022 This story is developing... Patrick Pleul/Getty Images; Twitter; Vicky Leta/Insider Elon Musk began to terminate employees late Thursday, several people told Insider. Access to work platforms was suddenly cut off for many at Twitter, making it clear they'd been let go. The move came just hours after an email went out telling workers to expect layoffs to begin Friday. Twitter employees began losing access to work platforms soon after the now-Elon Musk-owned company told them to expect layoffs to begin the following day. Workers suddenly started to get locked out of things like Slack and email around 8 p.m. PT on Thursday night, multiple employees told Insider. Despite no official note explaining they had been let go, the employees were certain they could count themselves among the 3,700 of their colleagues expected to be hit with Musk's planned layoffs. "It's going East to West," one person said. People working for Twitter in London were first to find out, then New York, then people working remotely in the Midwest. California, Twitter's biggest hub, came last, multiple employees said. "My entire team is gone," one person affected by the layoffs in New York said. They worked on a team of 30-plus people. Another person estimated that 90% of their team was cut. Meanwhile, Musk ignored the layoffs publicly, tweeting "Why is small talk even legal" as his employees were being let go. By closer to 11 pm PT, more than 1,000 people at Twitter had lost their jobs, according to employees and messages seen by Insider. The cuts went across the company, from Singapore to the U.K. to Fan Francisco, hitting every department. Content moderation and health, advertising, data storage, product, legal, program management, all were hit with layoffs. Cuts were deep in most areas, but some were so drastic one person said they "don't know how we keep things going in some areas." Hundreds of Twitter workers began posting to Twitter about losing their jobs, too. Many wrote of gratitude for the years they spent working at the platform and for their colleagues. "Best job I ever had," one person said. "So it ends," another wrote. Story continues "It was a wild ride, but I dont regret a single second of it and I would do it over again in a heartbeat," another said. Just hours before, Twitter staffers received their first communication from the company since Musk took over last week. It was an unsigned note explaining they could expect layoffs to begin on Friday, sent after Insider reported such plans. Twitter said all affected workers would receive an email Friday morning at 9 am ET or 6 am PT and that's how they would find out they had been let go. When employees began to be cut on Thursday night, no one had received such an email, multiple employees said. In the note from Twitter, the company also said it was "temporarily" closing all offices. Employees were then told to leave immediately, with office security proceeding to go throughout the offices in New York and San Francisco ensuring employees were gone or leaving. The closures were sudden and took some workers off guard, particularly as Musk had started to demand intense levels of work since taking over Twitter, leading some employees to sleep at the office. The immediacy of moving people out of the office, with no date of when they could return, made more sense after people began being laid off that night. "It's a break-up by text," a person affected by the layoffs said. Earlier in the evening, responding to the news that they could expect layoffs on Friday, hundreds of Twitter workers began to flood Slack with blue hearts, signifying love for Twitter colleagues, and the "salute" emoji, according to employees and messages seen by Insider. "The Titanic hit an iceberg and we are that band playing music going down with the ship," an employee said. Last week, Musk quickly fired Twitter's entire C-suite and a number of high ranking managers, as Insider reported. Employees received no internal goodbye messages from any of them. Throughout Thursday, workers in the office in New York and San Francisco were taking photos with one another, two employees said, an effort to make it "the best possible final day," one of them noted. On Slack and in Private texts, employees jokingly referred to Musk's planned mass layoffs as "the Thanos snap," a reference to the Marvel character who made half the universe disappear with a snap of his fingers. "I'm actually relieved," another impacted worker said. "It's literally been the 'Hunger Games,'" another person said of the last week working under Musk. Musk has already gone about remaking Twitter in his own image, demanding constant work, rapid turnarounds on projects he's deemed "critical" and removing perks employees enjoyed. On Thursday, workers realized a company-wide "day of rest," a weekday where the entire company did not work, had been removed from their calendars. The days were put in place by former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey who frequently urged people to avoid burnout and to take time for themselves over work. Musk is now demanding people at Twitter "literally work 24/7" and at a "maniacal" pace, as Insider reported. Twitter under Musk is poised to be much different, as well as much smaller. Are you a Twitter employee or someone else with insight to share? Contact Kali Hays at khays@insider.com, on secure messaging app Signal at 949-280-0267, or through Twitter DM at @hayskali. Reach out using a non-work device. Read the original article on Business Insider OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada's health ministers have a golden opportunity next week to bring hope to Canadians and to 1.3 million health care workers from coast to coast to coast by charting a clear path of tangible action to help stabilize and begin rebuilding our struggling health systems. Patients and caregivers continue to suffer as health care providers burn out and leave their professions, wait lists grow and emergency departments close due to staff shortages. Canadian Medical Association Logo (CNW Group/Canadian Medical Association) With all 14 federal, provincial and territorial health ministers expected to meet in Vancouver, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and HealthCareCAN are calling on governments to put aside jurisdictional and partisan arguments, find common priorities and work toward solving the health system crisis that is affecting people in every part of the country. Today, the CMA, CNA and HealthCareCAN are providing governments with a prescription for hope, including steps that should be taken immediately to begin stabilizing the health system to support workers in their efforts to care for the people of Canada, specifically: provide retention incentives, reduce administrative burden and strengthen mental health and well-being supports for health care workers; implement a pan-Canadian health workforce planning strategy to gather workforce data and develop solutions to tackle the health workforce shortage and address the factors hindering recruitment and retention; scaling up models of care to ensure health care workers are enabled to work to their full scope of practice; implement pan-Canadian licensure to allow physicians to care for patients where they are needed most; invest in the physical and digital infrastructure needed to facilitate integrated, team-based care; improve access to primary care by creating a virtual care strategy integrated with comprehensive patient care and by boosting innovation in the system; and streamline the immigration and credentialing/licensing processes to help internationally educated health professionals get into the system to fill vacancies. Story continues The CMA, CNA and HealthCareCAN are adamant that governments must take the opportunity next week to address serious health system challenges and ensure that health care providers and organizations can continue delivering the critical health services that people across Canada need. Short- and long-term solutions must be developed to meaningfully address this crisis. The CMA, CNA and HealthCareCAN are ready to engage with health ministers immediately. Quotes: "Canadians are beginning to question if their health systems will be there when they need them. Health care workers and patients are united in calling on governments to take the steps necessary to stabilize and rebuild our health systems to ensure their survival. Our prescription for hope means action to achieve meaningful change. Our various health systems are challenged in similar ways across the country; now is the time for collaboration, communication, and coordinated action to begin overcoming those shared challenges." - Dr. Alika Lafontaine, President, CMA "Canada's health care system is failing people in Canada, and it is no longer working the way it should be. Nursing shortages and the health workforce crisis are having detrimental consequences to the health system. People are quickly losing confidence and they are concerned they won't be able to access critical health services when they need it. Solving this crisis requires a pan-Canadian approach and collaboration by all levels of government. We need structural reforms and urgent, concrete actions if we are to have a vibrant and sustainable health-care system into the future." - Dr. Sylvain Brousseau, President, CNA "Imagine a hospital teeming with patients, waiting in their rooms and in hallways with no health care providers to care for them. That is becoming Canada's sad reality and patients and health care providers across the country are looking to their political leaders for urgent action to shore up healthcare and health research in Canada. The gathering of the nation's health ministers next week in Vancouver is a critical opportunity to demonstrate leadership, bring forward strategic action and chart a collaborative course to build a system that works for providers, patients and Canada." - Paul-Emile Cloutier, President & CEO, HealthCareCAN About the CMA The Canadian Medical Association leads a national movement with physicians who believe in a better future of health. Our ambition is a sustainable, accessible health system where patients are partners, a culture of medicine that elevates equity, diversity and wellbeing, and supportive communities where everyone has the chance to be healthy. We drive change through advocacy, giving and knowledge sharing guided by values of collaboration and inclusion. About the Canadian Nurses Association CNA is the national and global professional voice of Canadian nursing. Our mission is to advance the nursing profession to improve health outcomes in Canada's publicly funded, not-for-profit health system. CNA is the only national association that speaks for all types of nurses across all 13 provinces and territories. We represent nurses that are unionized and non-unionized, retired nurses, nursing students, and all categories of nurses (registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed and registered practical nurses, and registered psychiatric nurses). About HealthCareCAN HealthCareCAN is the national voice of healthcare organizations and hospitals across Canada. We foster informed and continuous, results-oriented discovery and innovation across the continuum of healthcare. Learn more at healthcarecan.ca HealthCareCAN Logo (CNW Group/Canadian Medical Association) Canadian Nurses Association Logo (CNW Group/Canadian Medical Association) SOURCE Canadian Medical Association Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/04/c7262.html SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Global home health market size was valued at USD 301.09 Billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 514.68 Billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 7.96% over the forecast period (20222028). Westford,USA, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In an age where technology has greatly advanced and people are more connected than ever, it's no surprise that the healthcare industry is also evolving. Home health market is becoming an increasingly popular option for patients who want to receive care in the comfort of their own homes. There are many reasons why home health market is an attractive option for patients. First and foremost, it allows patients to receive quality care without having to travel to a hospital or clinic. This can be especially beneficial for elderly or disabled patients who may have difficulty getting around. Additionally, home healthcare can be more affordable than traditional healthcare since there are no travel costs involved. Lastly, receiving care at home can be less stressful and more relaxing than being in a hospital setting. Another factor driving the growth of home health market is the desire for more personalized care. When people are sick or injured, they want to be able to receive care from someone they know and trust. In a hospital or nursing home setting, patients are often cared for by strangers. However, with home healthcare, patients can have the same caregiver each time they receive services. This continuity of care can make a big difference in terms of both quality of life and recovery time. Finally, the rising cost of traditional healthcare is another reason why people are increasingly turning to home healthcare options. Hospital stays and nursing home costs can be very expensive. Get sample copy of this report: https://skyquestt.com/sample-request/home-health-market A few advantages of home health market that are fueling its growth are: 1. Enhanced patient convenience and comfort: Home healthcare provides patients with the convenience and comfort of receiving quality care in the comfort of their own homes. This is especially beneficial for those who have difficulty travelling or have mobility issues. Story continues 2. Increased accessibility to care: Home healthcare services are generally more affordable and easier to access than traditional health care services. With the help of technology, patients can now connect with home healthcare providers from anywhere in the world. 3. Improved quality of care: Home healthcare technology has advanced to a point where patients can now receive the same quality of care at home that they would receive in a hospital or other health care facility. In some cases, home healthcare may even be able to provide better quality of care due to the increased personalization and individual attention that home health care providers can give to each patient. SkyQuest Suggests Companies to Provide Comprehensive Suite of Services and Invest in Data Analytics SkyQuest's analysis of the home health market is detailed and insightful. We have assessed the current state of the industry and provided recommendations for future growth. The report highlights the fact that the home healthcare industry is growing at a rapid pace, with the number of companies and services increasing rapidly in recent years. This growth has been driven by advances in technology and an aging population. The market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. We recommend several strategies for companies looking to capitalize on this growth in the global home health market. First, they recommend that companies focus on creating a differentiated offering. Second, they suggest that companies focus on providing a comprehensive suite of services. Third, they advise companies to invest in technology and data analytics to improve efficiency and quality. Data analytics is critical for understanding the needs of patients and identifying trends within the home health market. By analyzing data, home healthcare providers can make more informed decisions about how to best serve their patients. Additionally, data analytics can help identify opportunities for cost savings and improve efficiency. Investing in data analytics is an important step towards capitalizing on the home health market. However, it is only one component of a comprehensive strategy. In order to truly capitalize on this opportunity, home healthcare providers must also provide a comprehensive suite of services. This includes everything from basic medical care to social services and support. By providing a complete package of services, home health market providers can differentiate themselves from traditional provider models and attract new patients. Overall, SkyQuest's analysis provides a valuable overview of the current state of the home health market and offers helpful recommendations for companies looking to grow in this sector. Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC): https://skyquestt.com/report/home-health-market Top 5 Trends Shaping the Global Home Health Market Home healthcare is an industry that is constantly evolving. New technologies and treatments are constantly being developed, and the industry is always looking for ways to improve patient care. Here are some of the top trends in home healthcare that you should be aware of: 1. Telehealth: Telehealth is one of the fastest-growing segments of the healthcare industry. It uses technology to connect patients with their care providers, whether they are in another city or across the country. This allows patients to receive care from the comfort of their own homes. 2. Home Care Services: Home care services are becoming more popular as people age and want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. These services can include everything from help with basic activities of daily living to skilled nursing care in the home health market. 3. Technology-Enabled Care: Technology is playing an increasingly important role in home healthcare. From simple devices like blood pressure monitors to more sophisticated ones like telehealth systems, technology is helping patients receive better care at home. 4. Personalized Care Plans: Care plans are becoming more personalized as we learn more about individual patient needs. This allows for better tailored care that can meet a patients specific needs and preferences. 5. Data-Driven Care Delivery: Data is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of healthcare, and home health market is no exception. By collecting data on things like patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness, we can make better decisions. Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements: https://skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/home-health-market Major Players in Global Home Health Market Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (Germany) GE Healthcare (US) Linde plc (Ireland) F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland) A&D Company (Japan) BAYADA Home Health Care (US) Invacare Corporation (US) Abbott (US) Amedisys (US) ResMed (US) Related Reports in SkyQuests Library: Global Healthcare Electronic Data Interchange Market Global Personalized LASIK Surgery Market Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market Global Telemedicine Technologies Market Global Healthcare IT Outsourcing Market About Us: SkyQuest Technology is leading growth consulting firm providing market intelligence, commercialization and technology services. It has 450+ happy clients globally. Address: 1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886 Phone: USA (+1) 617-230-0741 Email: sales@skyquestt.com LinkedIn Facebook Twitter ReportLinker Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Device Type (Fixed, Portable), By Activity Level (High, Medium, Low), By Age Group, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030 New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Device Type, By Activity Level, By Age Group, By End-use, By Region And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360870/?utm_source=GNW Multiparameter Patient Monitoring System Market Growth & Trends The global multiparameter patient monitoring system market size is expected to reach USD 18.0 Billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of during the forecast period. Increasing health concerns and the resultant requirement to constantly monitor the health parameters of patients, before and after surgery is creating demand for multiparameter patient monitoring systems. The market growth is also supported by the increasing need for hospital transport, such as intra-hospital or out-of-the-hospital transport. For special examination & therapy, hospitals need intra-hospital transport, which calls for more continuous monitoring of vital signs including blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry, heart rate, and electrocardiography. Healthcare providers are continually looking for innovative medical products to offer superior quality care, which is also expected to drive the market.Mobile solutions and data integration low-acuity monitoring are the significant trends that improve the cost efficiency of multiparameter patient monitoring solutions. Key players are introducing advanced patient monitoring products, such as integrated remote monitoring solutions with added features of greater connectivity through cloud technology and WiFi. For instance, Radius-7 Pulse Co-Oximeters by Masimo Corp. got U.S. FDA approval in March 2020. It is a wearable patient monitor with flexible functionality of WiFi, Bluetooth, and alarms. Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Market Report Highlights Portable was the largest device type segment in 2021 accounting for 65.7% 2021 due to growing home healthcare and easy mobility across different departments within the hospital By acuity level, the high segment has accounted for the highest market share in 2021 due to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, such as CVDs, respiratory disorders, and other critical medical conditions, which need continuous monitoring By age group, the geriatric segment accounted for the largest segment in 2021 with a share of 53.8% 2021 due to the rapidly growing geriatric population that is susceptible to various chronic disorders, which require continuous patient monitoring By end-use, the hospitals segment has accounted for the highest market share in 2021 due to the increasing number of patients being admitted to hospitals due to chronic diseases, injuries, and other emergencies North American region contributed the largest share to the market in the year 2021 attributing to the availability of technologically advanced equipment and high-quality healthcare system Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06360870/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 NORBIT ASA Trondheim, Norway, 4 November 2022: NORBIT, a global provider of tailored technology to carefully selected niches, will announce its results for the third quarter of 2022 on Friday 11 November 2022. The interim report and the presentation material will be available from 07:00 am CET at the company's homepage, www.norbit.com and Oslo Stock Exchange's news site, www.newsweb.no. A presentation of the results will be held by CEO Per Jrgen Weisethaunet and CFO Per Kristian Reppe at 10:00 CET. The event will take place at SpareBank1 Markets in Olav Vs gate 5 in Oslo. In order to register your attendance, please send an email to: corporateaccess@sb1markets.no. The event will also be available via a live webcast. Please use the following link to view the webcast: https://channel.royalcast.com/landingpage/hegnarmedia/20221111_5/. For further queries, please contact: Per Kristian Reppe, CFO, +47 900 33 203 About NORBIT ASA NORBIT is a global provider of tailored technology to selected niches, solving challenges and promoting sustainability through innovative solutions, in line with its mission to Explore More. The company is structured in three business segments to address its key markets: Oceans, Connectivity and Product Innovation & Realization (PIR). The Oceans segment delivers tailored technology solutions to global maritime markets. The Connectivity segment providing wireless solutions for identification, monitoring and tracking. The PIR segment offers R&D services, proprietary products and contract manufacturing to key customers. NORBIT is headquartered in Trondheim with manufacturing in Norway, has around 400 employees and a worldwide sales and distribution platform. For more information: www.norbit.com This information is subject to the disclosure requirements in the Norwegian Securities Trading Act 5-12. Company Logo Dublin, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Distribution Channel (OEM and Aftermarket), By Vehicle Type (Passenger Cars, Commercial Vehicles, and Two Wheelers), By Country and Growth Forecast, 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market is expected to witness market growth of 9.0% CAGR during the forecast period (2022-2028). Due to wheel movement and an absence of static camber, a high-end OEM aluminium wheel severely burned the tire's outside edge during testing. The Carbon Revolution CR-9, on the other hand, had substantially superior tyre wear, no blistering, and remained consistently faster on the track. Carbon wheels may maintain less static camber than aluminium wheels due to their stiffness. Braking, acceleration, and consistency are all improved as a result of this. Carbon fibre composites are the best material with limitless applications due to their versatility and characteristics. In addition, carbon is a perfect material for security in everything from racecars to fighter aeroplanes to passenger planes to sporting goods and medical gadgets because of its light weight, strength, and durability. Canadian companies are pioneering the development of game-changing automobile innovations. Global OEMs like GM and Ford, as well as tech titans like Uber, Google, and Nvidia, are investing heavily in autonomous and connected vehicle research thanks to Canada's strength in developing technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) areas such as deep learning, machine learning,neural networks, and computer vision are increasingly driving growth in Canada's thriving tech economy. Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, and Richard Sutton were early AI pioneers in Canada, and their work contributed establish the groundwork for self-driving cars. As electric and autonomous vehicles grow more common, handling data from vehicles is becoming a progressively crucial part of ensuring reliable and safe transportation. Canada has the expertise to analyze the big data that automated cars are already producing. In addition, Canadian companies are collaborating with global OEMs to handle huge quantities of data and optimize the performance of entire networks of vehicles, dueto groups of academic and commercial quantum computing R&D. Canadian businesses also have the know-how to keep that information safe. The US market dominated the North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market by Country in 2021, and is expected to continue to be a dominant market till 2028; thereby, achieving a market value of $229 million by 2028. The Canada market is experiencing a CAGR of 11.5% during (2022-2028). Additionally, The Mexico market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 10.6% during (2022-2028). Scope of the Study Market Segments Covered in the Report: By Distribution Channel Story continues OEM Aftermarket By Vehicle Type Passenger Cars Commercial Vehicles Two Wheelers By Country US Canada Mexico Rest of North America Key Market Players List of Companies Profiled in the Report: Carbon Revolution Ltd. Thyssenkrupp AG Hitachi Metals, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.) Dymag Group Limited HRE Performance Wheels Litespeed Racing Inc. Rolko Kohlgruber GmbH Ronal Group Rotobox d.o.o. ESE Carbon Company Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Market Scope & Methodology Chapter 2. Market Overview Chapter 3. North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market by Distribution Channel Chapter 4. North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market by Vehicle Type Chapter 5. North America Automotive Carbon Wheels Market by Country Chapter 6. Company Profiles For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9emy62 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 The Telegraph High bids: Editorial on torture and abuse of women in Bhilwara The Rajasthan district reveals the deep-set belief that women can be bought and sold to settle monetary matters between men The Editorial Board | Published 02.11.22 It would not be surprising if the combination of poverty, casteism and misogyny were to destroy the fabric of society. But it is alarming when this combination holds the social fabric together. Without this combination, people in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan would not know how to pay off their debts or settle financial disputes. Reports indicate that the district has a system of auctioning off girls to settle debts or money quarrels. The refusal to sell a girl results in the mother being raped. All this is overseen by khap panchayats. Since these caste bodies are outlawed, their systematic activity is likely to have come to the notice of the administration and reports about the system have been emerging for at least three years. The sale is done through stamp paper. What is most shocking is the apparent unawareness or inertia of the administration regarding girls from eight to 18 who are being auctioned off into slavery, sexual exploitation, abuse and torture and sent to other states and cities under the official veneer of stamp papers. Responding to a media report, the National Commission for Women has formed a task force to investigate the matter, while the Rajasthan Womens Commission will be making monthly visits to identify the villages in which this system operates. The NCW chairperson has asked the chief of Rajasthan police to institute action and has written to the chief secretary demanding to know what has been done or will be done. Not only is the hideousness of caste domination, oppression of the poor and vicious treatment of women laid bare in this system, so also is institutional complicity. Bhilwara reveals the deep-set belief that women can be bought and sold to settle monetary matters between men. The police chief said that his force has arrested some kidnappers and rescued a few girls. With the police so diligent, how can the auctions continue? If the State is serious about the unspeakable breach of human rights and humanity in the abuse, humiliation and terror of the girls, the inquiry into the trafficking ring should not be a cosmetic attempt to win brownie points. A system in which girls are sold via stamp paper demands the polices full and impartial attention. All that is needed is unwavering political will. Unless that is obsolete. o o The Tribune Editorials Girls sold to repay loans Getting to the bottom of Rajasthan shocker is vital Oct 31, 2022 THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have done well to initiate action by taking suo motu notice of a newspaper report which says that men in Rajasthan are selling their young daughters and sisters to repay loans. CM Ashok Gehlot, who initially tried to dismiss the report as an old one, has had to bow down as clamour grew over the horrible happenings. Along with the CMs promise of catching and punishing the guilty, the NHRC and NCW intervention should instill fear of the law of the land into anyone commodifying women. Inevitably, the sold girls end up being sexually abused, tortured, enslaved and trafficked. One such girl, a minor whose father had to sell her for Rs 6 lakh, is reported to have been sold three times and become pregnant four times. The moneylenders are rich sharks who exploit poverty-ridden families stuck in the quagmire of loans taken for the treatment of a sick family member or other exigencies. The scenario raises concerns about the prevalence of an organised trafficking ring run by the high and mighty, enjoying impunity. A thorough investigation and exemplary action against the criminals are warranted. This regressive mode of justice is being delivered by caste panchayats, whose writ still runs in many rural areas of North India. The disputing parties prefer to approach these kangaroo courts; non-compliance of the verdict is a crushing ostracism from the community. Settling matters of marriage, inheritance and also, apparently, loans, these panchayats have been largely known for ordering the honour killing of couples who opt for inter-caste or inter-faith marriages. It is abominable that such practices giving ownership rights over girls and women to men should still be around in this age. Education of both boys and girls is the key to gender equality and justice. It can change notions of what constitutes right and wrong. That some khaps in Haryana are tilting towards progressive ideas is encouraging and should inspire Rajasthan. Puts assets in the hands of proven leaders with a track record of building value for stakeholders Transaction would create the leading precious metals producer in Latin America Consolidates 100% ownership of the Canadian Malartic mine, one of the world's largest gold mines Increased value per Yamana share with low transaction risk Yamana Board has determined the offer to be a Superior Proposal VANCOUVER, BC and TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - Pan American Silver Corp. (TSX: PAAS) (Nasdaq: PAAS) ("Pan American") and Agnico Eagle Limited (TSX: AEM) (NYSE: AEM) ("Agnico Eagle") are pleased to announce that we have delivered a definitive binding offer (the "Binding Offer") to the board of directors of Yamana Gold Inc. ("Yamana") pursuant to which Pan American would acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Yamana (the "Yamana Shares") and Yamana would sell certain subsidiaries and partnerships which hold Yamana's interests in its Canadian assets to Agnico Eagle, including the Canadian Malartic mine. The transaction shall be implemented by way of a plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act (the "Arrangement"). Agnico Eagle Mines Logo (CNW Group/Agnico Eagle Mines Limited) The consideration consists of 153,539,579 common shares in the capital of Pan American ("Pan American Shares"); US$1.0 billion in cash contributed by Agnico Eagle; and 36,089,907 common shares in the capital of Agnico Eagle ("Agnico Eagle Shares"). Under the Binding Offer, each Yamana Share would be exchanged for approximately US$1.04 in cash, 0.1598 Pan American Shares and 0.0376 Agnico Eagle Shares, for an aggregate value of US$5.02 per Yamana Share based on the closing price of each Pan American Share and Agnico Eagle Share on November 3, 2022. The Binding Offer is not subject to any financing condition or additional due diligence. Pan American and Agnico Eagle have been informed that Yamana's Board of Directors, in consultation with Yamana's financial and legal advisors, have determined that the Binding Offer constitutes a "Yamana Superior Proposal" as defined in the arrangement agreement dated May 31, 2022 (the "Gold Fields Agreement") between Yamana and Gold Fields Limited ("Gold Fields") and that Yamana has notified Gold Fields of its intention to accept the Binding Offer, subject only to Gold Fields' "right to match" under the Gold Fields Agreement. Story continues The Arrangement would establish Pan American as a major precious metals producer in Latin America, with approximately 28.5 to 30.0 million ounces of annual silver production and approximately 1.1 to 1.2 million ounces of annual gold production, based on Pan American's and Yamana's 2022 guidance. The combined portfolio will consist of 12 operations concentrated in Latin America, a region where Pan American has over 28 years of proven expertise and experience operating mines. With the addition of four operating mines generating strong free cash flow, the Arrangement is expected to enhance Pan American's overall financial position and improve its ability to internally fund its growth projects. The consolidation of the Canadian Malartic mine would place a world-class asset into the hands of the best positioned operator to develop the mine's full potential and gives Agnico Eagle operational control during the remaining development period of the Odyssey project and future projects. Most importantly, Agnico Eagle has the unique ability to monetize future additional mill capacity at the Canadian Malartic mine, given its extensive operations and strategic land position in the region. Pan American's unparalleled track record in Latin America and Agnico Eagle's deep existing knowledge of the Canadian Malartic mine and presence in the Abitibi region uniquely position the two companies to effectively operate and rapidly unlock further value from Yamana's portfolio of assets to the benefit of the shareholders and other stakeholders of all three companies. Michael Steinmann, President & CEO of Pan American, commented: "The combination of our existing portfolio with Yamana's high-quality assets in Latin America would create a powerful precious metals mining company in the Americas with leading exposure to silver, and represents an exciting opportunity for growth for both Yamana and Pan American shareholders. The transaction is aligned with our disciplined approach of creating shareholder value through accretive acquisitions, together with our expertise in discovering, building and operating mines. Our established presence and expertise in Latin America will enable us to leverage the synergies and growth potential of Yamana's assets in the region in a way that is highly complementary to Pan American's existing mines there." Ammar Al-Joundi, President & CEO of Agnico Eagle, added: "This transaction is a continuation of Agnico Eagle's strategy to operate in regions where we believe we have a competitive advantage, in this case over 50 years of operating history. The full integration of the Canadian Malartic team and landholdings into our operational base in the region would enhance our Abitibi operating platform, placing Agnico in the unique position to further optimize the asset and unlock potential value through exploration and the leveraging of existing infrastructure, people and regional relationships." Agnico Eagle and Pan American are subject to customary restrictions in connection with making a "superior proposal" for Yamana. As a result, Agnico Eagle and Pan American are unable to make any further comment on the subject matter of this press release or engage in any communication that could influence the voting of securities of Yamana. Accordingly, we will not be hosting a conference call or investor meetings and cannot respond to media or other inquiries at this time. As soon as Agnico Eagle and Pan American are legally permitted to do so, they will actively engage with shareholders and other stakeholders to discuss the transaction. Strategic Rationale for Pan American and Agnico Eagle The acquisition of Yamana by Pan American and Agnico Eagle would create significant value and deliver multiple benefits to Pan American's and Agnico Eagle's shareholders: Transforms Pan American into a major precious metals producer in Latin America with unparalleled exposure to silver through further portfolio diversification Yamana's portfolio of assets in Latin America complements and strengthens Pan American's existing portfolio in the region, including by contributing low-cost production growth and long-life mineral reserves. The Arrangement will result in a portfolio of 12 operating mines and is estimated to increase silver production by approximately 50% and gold production by approximately 100%. In addition, Pan American would have an enlarged pipeline of potential growth projects in Latin America. Pan American has 28 years of proven expertise and experience building and operating mines in Latin America, making it well suited to realize more value from Yamana's mines in this region. Consolidation of 100% ownership of the Canadian Malartic mine Agnico Eagle currently holds a 50% joint venture interest in the Canadian Malartic mine, which it operates with Yamana through a joint management committee. Agnico Eagle has significant technical experience with the mine and is the best operator to unlock potential value for shareholders. In addition, Agnico Eagle is uniquely positioned to monetize future additional mill capacity at the Canadian Malartic mine, given its extensive operations and strategic land position in the region. Operational and Administrative Synergies The Binding Offer presents multiple opportunities for operational and administrative synergies, particularly between Pan American's and Yamana's corporate offices in Canada, as well as at Agnico Eagle's and Yamana's Canadian Malartic mine in Canada and at Agnico Eagle's other operations in the region. Strengthened platform for ongoing sustainable development Pan American and Agnico Eagle are committed to continuing to deliver best-in-class ESG performance and will bring their approach and values to the portfolio of assets. Low execution risk The proposed transaction between Yamana, Pan American and Agnico Eagle would not require review and approvals under the Investment Canada Act. Moreover, only a simple majority of Pan American shareholders would be required to approve the Arrangement. Key Benefits The Binding Offer would offer the following key benefits: Increased Value per Yamana Share Aggregate consideration with a value of US$4.8 billion, or US$5.02 per Yamana Share, based on the closing price of the Pan American Shares and Agnico Eagle Shares on November 3, 2022; total premium to Yamana of 23% to its spot price as of market close on November 3, 2022; and premium to the implied price of the initial offer delivered by Gold Fields of 15%, based on the spot price of Gold Fields shares as of market close on November 3, 2022. Attractive Consideration Consideration to Yamana shareholders comprised of (i) US$1.0 billion in cash; (ii) approximately 153.5 million Pan American Shares; and (iii) approximately 36.1 million Agnico Eagle Shares; a rollover for Pan American Shares issued to Yamana shareholders resident in Canada; and a distribution of Agnico Eagle Shares and cash on a tax efficient reorganization of capital. Exposure to World Class Assets through Ownership in Pan American and Agnico Eagle Pan American : Exposure to Pan American's expertise and experience in operating mines in Latin America for over 28 years; diversification of Yamana's current Latin American portfolio through exposure to Pan American's existing portfolio of eight producing mines in Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia; exposure to the potential reopening of Pan American's 100% owned Escobal mine, one of the world's premier silver deposits with past production of over 20 million ounces of silver per year, as Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines concludes a court mandated ILO 169 consultation process; and enlarged growth pipeline with exposure to Pan American's La Colorada Skarn project in Mexico and the undeveloped Navidad silver deposit in Argentina. Agnico Eagle : Exposure to Agnico Eagle's world class portfolio of producing mines in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico; and continued exposure to Agnico Eagle's expertise in operating the Canadian Malartic mine in Canada with 100% consolidation of Canadian Malartic ownership, including: (i) substantial expected future additional mill capacity at Canadian Malartic that Agnico Eagle is uniquely positioned to fill given its extensive operations and land position in the region; and (ii) Agnico Eagle is best able to develop, build and operate Wasamac given its extensive experience and expertise and infrastructure in the region. Transaction has low Execution Risk Simple majority approval (i.e. 50%+1) for Pan American shareholder approval; no Agnico Eagle shareholder approval required; and no review of the proposed transaction under the Investment Canada Act. Agnico Eagle Investment in Pan American In furtherance of its relationship with Pan American and as evidence of its belief in the opportunity for enhancement arising from the combination of Yamana and Pan American's Latin American portfolios, Agnico Eagle intends to purchase as a strategic investment, in the open market up to US$150 million of Pan American shares. Agnico Eagle's decision to make purchases of Pan American shares will be in its discretion and will be subject to market conditions, the price of Pan American shares and applicable securities law and stock exchange requirements. Agnico Eagle may cease making share purchases at any time. Management Integration Pan American will work cooperatively with Yamana to determine the integration of Yamana management into the management team of Pan American on or prior to the closing of the Arrangement. Pan American will establish a transitionary integration period in which the Toronto office employees of Yamana will support Pan American to integrate and manage the business and operations of Yamana. Those at a Senior Vice President level and below at Yamana will be approached to continue to support the management of the business during this transitionary period or longer, as may be required by Pan American. Pan American and Agnico Eagle's Binding Offer Under the Binding Offer, each Yamana Share would be exchanged for approximately US$1.04 in cash, 0.1598 Pan American Shares and 0.0376 Agnico Eagle Shares, for an aggregate value of US$5.02 per Yamana Share. In addition, all outstanding restricted stock units of Yamana will be satisfied in cash. The Arrangement contemplated under the Binding Offer will be implemented by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act and will require the approval of 66 2/3% of the votes cast by the holders of Yamana's common shares present in person or represented by proxy at a special meeting to consider the Arrangement. The completion of the Arrangement will also require approval of a simple majority of Pan American shareholders at a special meeting. The completion of the Arrangement will also be subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions customary in transactions of this nature. The agreement governing the Arrangement (the "Arrangement Agreement") will provide for customary deal-protection provisions, including mutual non-solicitation covenants and rights to match superior proposals. The Arrangement Agreement will include a reciprocal termination fee of US$250 million, payable by Yamana to Pan American, or US$375 million payable from Pan American to Yamana, as the case may be, under certain circumstances. The Arrangement would close late in the first quarter of 2023. At closing, existing Pan American and Yamana shareholders would own approximately 58% and 42% of Pan American, respectively. Similarly, at closing, existing Agnico Eagle and Yamana shareholders would own approximately 93% and 7% of Agnico Eagle, respectively. None of the securities to be issued pursuant to the Arrangement Agreement have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and any securities issued in the Arrangement are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Gold Fields Right to Match Pan American and Agnico Eagle have been advised by Yamana that it has provided notice of the Binding Offer to Gold Fields as required by the Gold Fields Agreement and has advised Gold Fields that the five business day matching period (the "Gold Fields Response Period") has commenced, during which Gold Fields has the right, but not the obligation, to propose to amend the terms of the Gold Fields Agreement for the Binding Offer to cease to be a Yamana Superior Proposal (the "Match Right"). The Gold Fields Response Period expires on November 15, 2022. Under the Gold Fields Agreement, the Binding Offer may be accepted and the Arrangement Agreement entered into between Pan American, Agnico Eagle and Yamana only upon the expiry or waiver by Gold Fields of the Match Right during the Gold Fields Response Period. The Arrangement Agreement would only become effective upon the Gold Fields Agreement not being approved by Yamana Shareholders at the Yamana special meeting scheduled for November 21, 2022 (the "Activation Date"). Upon termination of the Gold Fields Agreement in these circumstances, Yamana would pay a termination fee of US$300 million to Gold Fields within two business days of such termination. Pan American currently does not own any Yamana Shares. Agnico Eagle currently owns 70,565 Yamana Shares, representing less than 1% of the issued and outstanding shares of Yamana. At this time, there can be no assurance that the Binding Offer will lead to a termination of the Gold Fields Agreement and the execution of a definitive Arrangement Agreement with Pan American and Agnico Eagle. Advisors and Counsel BMO Capital Markets and GenCap Mining Advisory Ltd. are acting as financial advisors to Pan American in connection with the Binding Offer. BMO Capital Markets and National Bank Financial have each provided a fairness opinion to Pan American's Board of Directors. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is serving as counsel to Pan American. Trinity Advisors Corporation and Maxit Capital LP are acting as financial advisors to Agnico Eagle in connection with the Binding Offer. Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is serving as counsel to Agnico Eagle. About Pan American Pan American owns and operates silver and gold mines located in Mexico, Peru, Canada, Argentina and Bolivia. It also owns the Escobal mine in Guatemala that is currently not operating. Pan American provides enhanced exposure to silver through a large base of silver reserves and resources, as well as major catalysts to grow silver production. Pan American has a 28-year history of operating in Latin America, earning an industry-leading reputation for sustainability performance, operational excellence and prudent financial management. Learn more at www.panamericansilver.com. About Agnico Eagle Agnico Eagle is a senior Canadian gold mining company, producing precious metals from operations in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico. It has a pipeline of high-quality exploration and development projects in these countries as well as in the United States and Colombia. Agnico Eagle is a partner of choice within the mining industry, recognized globally for its leading environmental, social and governance practices. Agnico Eagle was founded in 1957 and has consistently created value for its shareholders, declaring a cash dividend every year since 1983. Learn more at www.agnicoeagle.com Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the statements and information in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can be identified by statements that certain actions, events or results "could", "may", "should", "will" or "would" be taken, occur or achieved. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements or information in this news release relate to, among other things: the benefits to Pan American's and Agnico Eagle's shareholders of an acquisition of Yamana by Pan American and Agnico Eagle; benefits to Yamana shareholders of an acquisition of Yamana by Pan American and Agnico Eagle; Pan American's expected production levels following the Arrangement; implementation and closing of the Arrangement; the ability of Pan American or Agnico Eagle to realize synergies as a result of the; approval of the Arrangement by Yamana shareholders; approval of the Arrangement by Pan American shareholders; regulatory approvals and closing conditions to the Arrangement; whether Gold Fields will amend the terms of the Gold Fields Agreement for the Binding Offer to cease to be a Yamana Superior Proposal during the Gold Fields Response Period; and the respective ownership interests of Yamana and Agnico Eagle in the Canadian Malartic mine at any time. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release reflect Pan American's and Agnico Eagle's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Pan American and Agnico Eagle, are inherently subject to significant operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. Pan American and Agnico Eagle caution the reader that forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release and Pan American and Agnico Eagle have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the possibility that the Arrangement and transactions contemplated thereby will not be completed in the expected timeframe or at all; the failure to obtain shareholder and/or regulatory approvals in the expected timeframe or at all; pending or potential litigation associated with the Arrangement; the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the Arrangement in the expected timeframe or at all; and general economic, business and political conditions. Additional risks, uncertainties and other factors are identified in Pan American's and Agnico Eagle's most recent form 40-F and Annual Information Forms, and in their respective subsequent quarterly report filings, which have been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities, as applicable. Although Pan American and Agnico Eagle have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set out or implied by the forward-looking statements and information, this list is not exhaustive and there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Investors should use caution when considering, and should not place undue reliance on any, forward-looking statements and information. Forward-looking statements and information are designed to help readers understand Pan American's and Agnico Eagle's current views in respect of the Arrangement and related matters and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Pan American and Agnico Eagle do not intend, nor do they assume any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, changes in assumptions, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. This news release does not constitute (and may not be construed to be) a solicitation or offer by Agnico Eagle, Pan American or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, representatives or agents to buy or sell any securities of any person in any jurisdiction, or a solicitation of a proxy of any securityholder of any person in any jurisdiction, in each case, within the meaning of applicable laws. Pan American Logo (CNW Group/Agnico Eagle Mines Limited) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pan-american-and-agnico-eagle-deliver-definitive-binding-offer-to-acquire-yamana-301669007.html SOURCE Agnico Eagle Mines Limited Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/04/c0740.html HOUSTON, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PCS Software (PCS), the leading transportation management (TMS) platform provider for shippers, carriers and brokerages in North America, announces new software updates that enable customers to further streamline freight transactions and enhance their service capabilities. PCS Logo (PRNewsfoto/PCS Software) New Features Unveiled for PCS Shipper TMS PCS Software updated its Shipper TMS platform with features that harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and improve results in key transportation and logistics processes. The feature updates include: LTL Rating - PCS Shipper TMS can now automate the LTL rating process. This update reduces errors and frees users from manual work, allowing companies to redeploy resources on more valuable activities like generating revenue, procuring capacity, and finding cost savings. DAT Rate Index - Users can now take full advantage of their investment in the DAT rating index. A robust integration with PCS Shipper TMS connects with the DAT rating index and gives users instant access to rates based on equipment type (flatbed, dry van, reefer, etc.), origin and destination, rate type (truckload, LTL, intermodal), period, geographic market, and more. Quote APIs - PCS has added the ability for users to access and book capacity for new trade lanes and commodities without resorting to spot market rating AND without procuring a contracted rate. The new service is backed by leading freight brokers such as Uber Freight, Convoy, and more. PCS Shipper TMS helps users save time and money by directly accessing a guaranteed rate for loads they need to cover. The above features are set to launch alongside several updates for Shipper TMS that include improved reporting capabilities, support for the movement of inbound materials, and a better user interface and experience (UI/UX). PCS Carrier TMS Expanding Capabilities for Dispatch Service Providers Dispatch service providers can now access a cutting-edge TMS to service their carrier clients. Story continues PCS Carrier TMS is now offering unlimited subordinate databases under a single company. This allows providers to streamline dispatch services for an unlimited number of clients without the need to jump from app to app or manually manage their databases with disconnected spreadsheets. By managing their services within a single platform, independent dispatchers can scale operations as their business grows without costly investments into additional TMS accounts. Open Trial for PCS Prime Express PCS is announcing that PCS Prime Express is now entering open trial stage. Prime Express is a novel AI Transportation Management Platform (TMP) that optimally matches loads, assets, and drivers within networks and across supply chains. Utilizing an innovative and holistic approach, Prime Express is a departure from traditional transportation management software. Rather than serving individual sectors of the transportation and logistics industry, PCS has developed a single, unified web-based solution that serves both shippers and carriers and brings them together into a single platform. The software automates load planning for shippers as well as dispatch notifications to carriers with one simple platform that integrates with their existing PCS Carrier or Shipper TMS. With built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, this new method offers immediate benefits not found in other systems, all through an easily accessible portal. "The release of Prime Express comes at the perfect time. With access to powerful load and driver optimization technology in a single, easy-to-use platform, shippers and carriers of all sizes will be able to increase efficiency and sharpen their competitive edge." About PCS Software PCS Software is an AI-driven transportation management platform leader fielding disruptive innovation for mid-to-large sized enterprise shippers, carriers, and brokers in the United States and Canada. Cloud-based, API-integrated, PCS Software automates the entire transportation logistics operation via a single, comprehensive solution. Accessible via the web or the companion mobile app, the PCS platform delivers powerful functionality to manage rate and route optimization, mode selection, dispatch/tendering, carrier and fleet management, safety and compliance, freight yard management, settlement/accounting and more. For more information, visit www.PCSSoft.com . PRESS CONTACT: Paul Beavers paul.beavers@pcssoft.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pcs-software-releases-3rd-quarter-updates-to-the-ai-transportation-management-platform-301668515.html SOURCE PCS Software Allied Market Research Rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases and growing awareness among patients about peptide therapeutic advancements drive the growth of the global peptide therapeutics market. By distribution channel, the hospital pharmacies segment held the major share in 2021. By region, however, the market across Asia-Pacific would cite the fastest CAGR by 2031. Portland, OR, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global Peptide Therapeutics Market was estimated at $33.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit $64.3 billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 6.8% from 2022 to 2031. The report provides a detailed analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, market size & estimations, competitive landscape, and evolving market trends. The market study is a helpful source of information for the frontrunners, new entrants, investors, and shareholders in crafting strategies for the future and heightening their position in the market. Download Free Sample Report (309 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/11591 Report coverage & details: Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20222031 Market Size in 2031 $64.3 Billion CAGR 6.8% No. of Pages in Report 309 Segments Covered Application, Route of Administration, Distribution Channel, and Region. Drivers Rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases Growing awareness among patients about peptide therapeutic advancements Opportunities High growth potential for the oral peptide therapeutics market Restraints Low bioavailability of peptides along with the high cost associated with the drug development Covid-19 scenario- Strong government support for the use of peptides in the creation of the Covid-19 vaccines create an array of chances for peptide adoption, thus accelerating the expansion of the market for peptide treatments. This drift is expected to persist even if the pandemic is almost over. Story continues The global peptide therapeutics market is analyzed across application, route of administration, distribution channel, and region. The report takes in an exhaustive analysis of the segments and their sub-segments with the help of tabular and graphical representation. Investors and market players can benefit from the breakdown and devise stratagems based on the highest revenue-generating and fastest-growing segments stated in the report. By application, the others segment held nearly one-third of the total market revenue in 2021, and is expected to dominate by 2031. The oncology segment, on the other hand, would manifest the fastest CAGR of 7.7% throughout the forecast period. Purchase Inquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/11591 By route of administration, the parenteral segment garnered more than three-fourths of the total market revenue in 2021, and is expected to dominate by 2031. The oral segment, on the other hand, would project the fastest CAGR of 7.3% throughout the forecast period. By distribution channel, the hospital pharmacies segment held more than half of the total market revenue in 2021, and is expected to dominate by 2031. The drug store and retail pharmacies segment, simultaneously, would cite the fastest CAGR of 7.2% throughout the forecast period. Based on region, the global market across North America generated more than two-fifths of the total market revenue in 2021, and is anticipated to retain the lions share by 2031. The Asia-Pacific region, at the same time, would manifest the fastest CAGR of 7.6% during the forecast period. The other provinces analyzed through the report include Europe and LAMEA. The key market players analyzed in the global peptide therapeutics market report include Amgen Inc., Bausch Health Companies Inc, Eli Lilly and company, AbbVie Inc, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Ever Neuro Pharma Gmbh, Pfizer Inc, GalaxoSmithKline plc, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi-GSK. These market players have embraced several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to highlight their prowess in the industry. The report is helpful in formulating the business performance, product portfolio, operating segments, and developments by the top players. Trending Reports in Healthcare Industry (Book Now with 10% Discount): Animal Vaccines Market by Type (Attenuated Vaccines, Inactivated Vaccines, Subunit Vaccines, Toxoid Vaccines, Conjugate Vaccines, Recombinant Vaccines, and DNA Vaccines) and Animal Type (Companion Animal, Livestock Animal, and Aquaculture): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030 Healthcare IT Market by Product Type (Healthcare Provider Solutions, Healthcare Payer Solutions, and HCIT Outsourcing Services), and End User (Healthcare Providers and Healthcare Payers): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030 Medical Case Management Market by Service (Web-Based Case Management, Field Case Management, Bilingual Field Case Management, Telephonic Case Management), by Case (Chronic Pain Case Management, Independent Medical Examinations, Catastrophic Case Management, Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability), by End Users (Medical Case Management Providers, Healthcare Insurance Companies, Healthcare It Service Providers, Healthcare BPO & KPO Vendors, Corporate Entities, Healthcare Institutions, Venture Capitalists, Government Bodies, Accountable Care Organizations): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030 AI in Healthcare Market by Offering (Software, Hardware, & Services), Algorithm (Deep Learning, Querying Method, Natural Language Processing, and Context Aware Processing), Application (Robot-Assisted Surgery, Virtual Nursing Assistant, Administrative Workflow Assistance, Fraud Detection, Dosage Error Reduction, Clinical Trial Participant Identifier, Preliminary Diagnosis, and Others), and End User (Healthcare Providers, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies, Patients, and Payer): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021--2030 Mental Health Market by Disorder (Schizophrenia, Alcohol Use Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Substance Abuse Disorders, Eating Disorders, and Other Disorders), Service (Emergency Mental Health Services, Outpatient Counselling, Home-Based Treatment Services, Inpatient Hospital Treatment Services, and Other Services), and Age Group (Pediatric, Adult, and Geriatric): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of " Market Research Reports " and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Follow Us on Blog: https://www.globalhealthcareindustry.com/ CONTACT: Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/reports-store/life-sciences NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Satellite Phone Market share is set to increase by USD 137.43 million from 2022 to 2027. Moreover, the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.2% as per the latest market forecast report by Technavio. The market will also record a 3.2% Y-O-Y growth rate during the forecast period. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Satellite Phone Market 2023-2027 To know more about the historic market size Request a Free Sample Report! Satellite Phone Market - Parent Market Analysis Technavio categorizes the global satellite phone market as a part of the global communications equipment market within the overall global information technology sector. The parent global communications equipment market covers manufacturers of enterprise networking products, including local area networks (LANs), Wide area networks (WANs), routers, telephones, switchboards, and exchanges. Technavio also includes communications infrastructure or telecom equipment market, within the scope of the communications equipment market. For more information parent market along with value chain analysis Grab an Exclusive sample! Satellite Phone Market Characteristics with Five Forces The Satellite Phone Market is fragmented, and the five forces analysis by Technavio gives an accurate vision Bargaining Power of Buyers The threat of New Entrants Threat of Rivalry Bargaining Power of Suppliers For information on the impact of the five forces analysis Click Now! Satellite Phone Market Customer Landscape The disruption threats are strategic in nature, and operational risks for suppliers have been mapped based on their negative business impact and probability of occurrence. The potential for the customer landscape will be available with Technavio Reports Buy Now! Satellite Phone Market - Segmentation Assessment Geography Segment Overview Technavio's market research report entails detailed information on regional opportunities in store for vendors, which will assist in generating sales revenues. The Satellite Phone Market as per geography is categorized into APAC, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. The report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all regions to the growth of the Satellite Phone Market size and actionable market understandings. Story continues Regional Highlights: APAC is projected to contribute 33% by 2027. The satellite phone market in APAC is experiencing the fastest growth among all the regions, mainly owing to the rapid increase in the demand for satellite communication from the developing countries in the region. Countries such as China, Japan, and India are investing in developing advanced satellite-based infrastructure capabilities at different locations. Cross-border security threats in APAC have been a prime motivator for governments to pursue development programs to manufacture multi-role satellites with advanced subsystems to ensure uninterrupted enhanced connectivity. Application Segment Overview The Satellite Phone Market as per type segmentation is categorized into Maritime, Aerospace, Government, and Energy. Revenue Generating Segment - The maritime segment accounted for a significant share of the global satellite phone market in 2022. The segment is expected to benefit from the rising investments in satellite technologies for surveillance, regional security, and spy intelligence in emerging economies such as China, India, and Russia. In May 2019, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched a new EO satellite, RISAT-2B (Radar Imaging Satellite-2B). The applications of the RISAT-2B include agriculture and forestry surveillance and support disaster management. It is also used for military surveillance, similar to RISAT-2, which was launched in April 2009 to monitor enemy camp activities inside Pakistan's border. The growth of this segment is primarily attributed to the increasing adoption of the satellite telephones market, which is driven by an increase in the global demand for the satellite phone industry. Download a FREE Sample Report that can help you to strategize your sales revenue - Get it now! Satellite Phone Market Market Dynamics Major Driver Boosting the Market The innovative features and user interfaces are notably driving the satellite phone market growth. Satellite phones utilize satellites to communicate with landlines, cellular, or other satellite phones across the globe. Satellite phones aid in maintaining the command and control functions during an emergency when the existing communications networks in that specific area are non-functional. Satellite phone communications companies are attempting to provide services with enhanced technologies such as better geographic coverage, audio quality, and reliability. Hence, the rugged nature of satellite phones will drive the growth of the global satellite phone market during the forecast period. Major trends influencing the growth of the Market Progression toward low-cost, satellite-based Internet services is the primary trend driving the satellite phone market growth. The constellation of nano and microsatellites placed in low-earth orbit (LEO), which is around 680 miles from the Earth, has lowered the latency in Internet services to approximately 20-30 milliseconds, which is comparable to the existing broadband Internet solutions that use fiber-optic cable networks. Nano and microsatellite-based infrastructure is, thus, a good alternative for providing low-cost satellite-based Internet services. Thus, the implementation of low-cost satellite-based Internet services may drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. Major Challenges interrupting the market growth Stringent regulatory standards for satellite phone development may impede the satellite phone market growth. Satellite mobile phones need to be manufactured in accordance with standards such as the European standard EN 62262/International Electrochemical Commission 62262 (IEC 62262), European standard EN 60529/International Electrochemical Commission 60529 (IEC 60529), and the US Department of Defense MIL-STD-810F. This long list of criteria that regulatory standards for satellite phones impose will hamper the growth of the global satellite phone market during the forecast period. To know about other factors of market dynamics Request a Free Sample! Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19-impacted market research reports. Satellite Phone Market 2023-2027: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027 Detailed information on factors that will assist satellite phone market growth during the next five years Estimation of the satellite phone market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the satellite phone market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of satellite phone market vendors Related Reports: Satellite Transponder Market by Application and Geography Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The satellite transponder market share is expected to increase by USD 6.05 billion from 2021 to 2026. Satellite Internet Market by End-user and Geography Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The satellite internet market share is expected to increase to USD 2.70 billion from 2021 to 2026. Satellite Phone Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2022 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.2% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 137.43 million Market structure Concentrated YoY growth (%) 3.2 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 33% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AT and T Inc., Inmarsat Global Ltd, Iridium Communications Inc., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Thuraya Telecommunications Co., United Parcel Service Inc., and Globalstar Inc. 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. Table Of Contents : 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Market Overview 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market Definition 3.2 Market segment analysis 3.3 Market size 2022 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers 4.4 Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition 5 Market Segmentation by Application 5.1 Market segments 5.2 Comparison by Application 5.3 Maritime - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 5.4 Aerospace - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 5.5 Government - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 5.6 Energy - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 5.8 Market opportunity by Application 6 Market Segmentation by Product 6.1 Market segments 6.2 Comparison by Product 6.3 GEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 6.4 LEO - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 6.5 Market opportunity by Product 7 Customer Landscape 7.1 Customer landscape overview 8 Geographic Landscape 8.1 Geographic segmentation 8.2 Geographic comparison 8.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.11 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 8.13 Market opportunity by geography 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 9.1 Market drivers 9.2 Market challenges 9.3 Impact of drivers and challenges 9.4 Market trends 10 Vendor Landscape 10.1 Overview 10.2 Vendor landscape 10.3 Landscape disruption 10.4 Industry risks 11 Vendor Analysis 11.1 Vendors covered 11.2 Market positioning of vendors 11.3 AT and T Inc. 11.4 Globalstar Inc. 11.5 Inmarsat Global Ltd 11.6 Iridium Communications Inc. 11.7 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson 11.8 Thuraya Telecommunications Co. 11.9 United Parcel Service Inc. 12 Appendix 12.1 Scope of the report 12.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist 12.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ 12.4 Research methodology 12.5 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 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/ Global Satellite Phone Market 2023-2027 Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/satellite-phone-market-to-grow-by-usd-137-43-mn-from-2022-to-2027--assessment-on-parent-market-five-forces-analysis-market-dynamics--segmentation---technavio-301666387.html SOURCE Technavio ReportLinker The Global Skin Laser Market size was estimated at USD 1,692. 11 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 2,079. 10 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 23. 12% to reach USD 5,895. New York, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Skin Laser Market Research Report by Product, Technology, Application, End Use, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341360/?utm_source=GNW 33 million by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across 7 major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2020 are considered as historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered as the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Skin Laser to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Product, the market was studied across Gas Dermatology Lasers, Pulsed Dye Dermatology Lasers, and Solid-state Dermatology Lasers. Based on Technology, the market was studied across Ablative Dermatology Lasers and Non-ablative Dermatology Lasers. Based on Application, the market was studied across Actinic Keratosis, Facial Rejuvenation, Hair Removal, Psoriasis, Scar Treatment, Skin Cancer, Tattoo Removal, Varicose Veins, Vitiligo, and Wound Treatment. Based on End Use, the market was studied across Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Dermatology & Cosmetic Clinics, and Hospitals. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Skin Laser market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Skin Laser Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Skin Laser Market, including Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Alma Lasers, Ltd., American Medical Systems, Inc., AngioDynamics Corp., Arizona Dermatology, Asclepion Laser Technologies GmbH, Bausch Health Companies Inc., Biolase Inc, Blue Harbor Dermatology, Cardiogenesis Corporation, Inc, Centrum Techniknik Laserowej Laserinstruments, Cutera, Inc., Cynosure, Inc., El.En. S.p.A., Hologic Inc., IRIDEX Corp., LightScalpel, Limmer Laser GmbH, Lumenis, Ltd., Novadaq Technologies, Inc., Photomedex, Inc., Sciton, Inc., Solta Medical, Inc., Spectranetics Corporation, STRATA Skin Sciences, Inc., Syneron Medical Ltd., and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Skin Laser Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Skin Laser Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Skin Laser Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Skin Laser Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Skin Laser Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Skin Laser Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Skin Laser Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341360/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Whipshots further expands into seven new states SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Starco Brands today announced that Whipshots, the innovative new vodka-infused whipped cream, is expanding its retail presence in Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, with Louisiana coming onboard in mid-November. The brand's increased footprint in 21 states comes fresh off its most recent business milestone, selling over 1 million cans in under one year. Whipshots Nation Following its national retail launch in early 2022, Whipshots continues to expand its footprint, launching in Arkansas (Central Distributors), Connecticut (Connecticut Distributors, Inc.), Idaho (Hayden Beverage), Michigan (Republic National Distributing Company), Ohio (Heidelberg Distributing), Wisconsin (Johnson Brothers), and Wyoming (Republic National Distributing Company) with availability through retailers such as Meijer, Albertsons, and Bevmax. In addition to the recent expansion in Hawaii, Missouri and Indiana, Whipshots will be available for purchase in these seven additional states in 50mL ($5.99), 200mL ($14.99), and 375mL ($24.99) sizes in all three flavors: vanilla, caramel and mocha. "With our recent milestone in crossing one-million cans sold, we are ecstatic to continue our expansion in retailers around the United States," says Ross Sklar, CEO of Starco Brands. "Being available in seven, soon to be eight, new states will allow even more consumers and hospitality establishments to join the fun just in time for the holidays." A Double Gold medal recipient in the 2022 SIP Awards and Gold medal recipient in the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition, Whipshots has 10% Alc./Vol, does not require refrigeration, and is a luxurious addition to any cocktail, dessert, or party. Whipshots is also available nationwide online at Whipshots.com, powered by The Spirits Network. Starco Brands is a disruptive and scaling company that prides itself on only creating behavior-changing products and technologies. Together with its retail partners, Starco Brands is making Whipshots easily accessible to consumers nationwide. Follow @whip_shots and visit Whipshots.com for more information. Story continues About Whipshots Developed by Starco Brands, Whipshots is a first-of-its-kind alcoholic whipped cream that is a party in a can and launched in 2021. Whipshots is a playful shot of sophistication that will indulge your curiosity and senses. A Double Gold medal recipient in the 2022 SIP Awards and Gold medal recipient in the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition, the boozy whipped cream is non-dairy (contains caseinate), does not require refrigeration and can be found next to other spirits at retail and in hospitality and entertainment locations. Follow Whipshots @whip_shots and visit whipshots.com for more information. About Starco Brands Starco Brands (STCB) invents consumer products with behavior-changing technologies that spark excitement in the everyday. Today, its disruptive brands include: Whipshots, bringing the fun back to a stagnant alcohol category with the only alcohol-infused whipped cream in the market; Winona Popcorn Spray, bringing home the movie-going experience with the first indulgent theater-popcorn taste powered by air. A modern-day invention factory to its core, and Art of Sport, a game changing personal care product line co-founded by Kobe Bryant. Starco Brands identifies whitespaces across consumer product categories. It draws upon a portfolio of innovative formulas and commercial manufacturing facilities spanning 10 product categories with limitless innovation potential. Starco Brands publicly trades on the OTCQB stock exchange, so retail investors can invest in STCB alongside accredited individuals and institutions. Visit www.starcobrands.com for more information. MEDIA CONTACT: Ariel Moses l Rogers & Cowan PMK Whipshots@rogersandcowanpmk.com Starco Brands Logo (PRNewsfoto/Starco Brands) Whipshots Logo (PRNewsfoto/Starco Brands) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/starco-brands-stcb-expands-retail-distribution-of-whipshots-301669114.html SOURCE Starco Brands (Adds Qogir, Cubal, Al Mayeda, Yenisei River and Al Khattiya, removes Clean Planet, Gaslog Georgetown, Elisa Aquila updates expected arrival date of Vivit Americas LNG, updates to show Magdala has arrived.) Nov 4 (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). Floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) terminals are added to the table when they become fully operational. As of Sept. 30 2022 this includes the Eemshaven terminal in the Netherlands. For the Reuters LNG guide, click here: LNG TANKER CAPACITY in EXPECTED ARRIVAL FROM PORT cubic metres BRITAIN Vivit Americas LNG 174,000 Nov. 4 United States South Hook Bilbao Knutsen 136,000 Nov. 5 N/A Dragon Al Mafyar 261,000 Nov. 6 Qatar South Hook Umm Slal 261,000 Nov. 8 Qatar South Hook LNG Adamawa 138,000 Nov. 9 Nigeria Isle of Grain Methane Mickie Harper 167,000 Nov. 10 United States Dragon Gaslog Windsor 176,000 Nov. 10 United States Isle of Grain Gaslog Sydney 154,000 Nov. 13 United States Milford Haven LNG Enterprise 174,000 Nov. 15 United States South Hook Grace Dahlia 174,000 Nov. 17 United States Milford Haven Qogir Nov. 17 Uniteds Isle 174,000 States of Grain LNG Bonny II 173,000 Nov. 18 United States Milford Haven BW Pavilion Leeara 161,000 Nov. 26 United States Isle of Grain BELGIUM Eduard Toll 172,000 Nov. 4 Russia Zeebrugge LNG Merak 174,000 Nov. 5 (L) Russia Zeebrugge LNG Dubhe 174,000 Nov. 5 (L) N/A Zeebrugge Rudolf Samoylovich 170,000 Nov. 5 Russia Zeebrugge Rias Baixas Knutsen 180,000 Nov. 7 Algeria Zeebrugge Al Marrouna 149,000 Nov. 9 Qatar Zeebrugge Yakov Gakkel 172,000 Nov. 9 Russia Zeebrugge Yenisei River Nov. 9 Russia 152,000 Zeebrugge Energy Pacific LNG 173,000 Nov. 11 Qatar Zeebrugge Al Khattiya Nov. 17 Qatar 206,000 Zeebrugge Al Mayeda Nov. 19 Qatar 262,000 Zeebrugge NETHERLANDS Energy Integrity 170,000 Nov. 3 N/A Gate Magdala 173,000 Nov. 3 (A) United States Eemshaven Diamond Gas Victoria 174,000 Nov. 4 United States Gate LNG Rosenrot 176,000 Nov. 5 United States Gate Maran Gas Achilles 172,000 Nov. 8 United States Eemshaven Seapeak Hispania 137,000 Nov. 9 N/A Gate Cubal Nov. 14 Angola Gate 160,000 Sources: Ports, AIS Live ship tracking, Refinitiv Eikon data. (^) Partial unload (*) Arrival date estimated based on flows data (Reporting By Susanna Twidale) Ultra Lithium Inc. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ultra Lithium Inc. (TSX-V: ULT OTCQB: ULTXF) (Ultra Lithium or the Company) announces that the Company has been advised that Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) Co. Ltd. (Zangge) has received an order from Government of Canada to divest its interest in Ultra Lithium. Ultra Lithium and Zangge have also mutually agreed to terminate the definitive agreement with respect to the Laguna Verde property announced on June 20, 2022. The Board of Directors and management of the Company are very surprised at Canadas policy against Chinese investment in Canadas lithium projects and believe that the announcement has been detrimental to the Companys many Canadian shareholders. The Company is assessing its legal and other options to preserve value for its shareholders. Ultra Lithium is in full support of Canadas push toward clean energy and has been committed to lithium and green energy since 2009. As a junior exploration company Ultra Lithium and many of its peers will require significant capital to bring their projects to production and build Canadas critical minerals supply chain. Ultra Lithium encourages the federal government to actively follow through on its commitment to Canadian businesses to identify and find alternative sources of capital and to retain Canadas status as a stable and top tier mining destination. Ultra Lithium is proceeding with planned work programs at its properties in Northern Ontario and Argentina. Forgan Lake and Georgia Lake Drilling Program Completed Completed approximately 7,000 meters of drilling. Many intersects show visible spodumene. Cut cores have been shipped for assay. Commenced soils sampling to identify additional pegmatites at Georgia Lake and Forgan Lake. Samples for metallurgical test work have been collected. Compiling data and information for preparing NI 43-101 report and resource estimates upon receipt of assay results and other planned work. Continuing to strengthen local First Nations relationships. Story continues Laguna Verde Drilling Program in Progress Cleaning the previous drill holes area to recommence the drilling program. Geophysical measurements on the previous drill holes showed encouraging lithium values in the Salar. About Ultra Lithium Inc. Ultra Lithium Inc. is an exploration and development company with a focus on the acquisition and development of lithium, gold, and copper assets. The Company holds a brine lithium property in Argentina, hard rock spodumene type lithium properties at the Georgia Lake / Forgan Lake area in northwestern Ontario, Canada, and a brine lithium property in the Big Smoky Valley, Nevada, USA. The Company also holds other gold and base metals properties in Argentina. For further information, please contact the Company at: Attention: Kiki Smith Telephone: 778 968-1176 Email: kiki@ultralithium.com Website: www.ultralithium.com or view the Companys filings at www.SEDAR.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Some of the statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, intends, is expected, potential, suggests or variations of such words or phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information are not historical facts and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties beyond the Companys control. Actual results and developments are likely to differ and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. A roundup of the most newsworthy press releases from Cision Distribution this week TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2022 /CNW/ - With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on Cision. To help journalists and consumers stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. Cision Canada - The Weekly Round-Up 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. Story continues Read more of the latest releases from Cision, see our resources for journalists, and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @cnwnews. About Cision Canada Cision is a comprehensive communications platform enabling more than 100,000 public relations and marketing professionals around the world to understand, influence and amplify their stories. As the market leader, Cision enables the next generation of communication professionals to strategically operate in the modern media landscape where company success is directly impacted by public opinion. Cision has offices in 24 countries through the Americas, EMEA and APAC, and offers a suite of best-in-class solutions, including Newswire, Brandwatch, Cision Communications Cloudand Cision Insights. To learn more, visit www.cision.ca and follow @CisionCA on Twitter. SOURCE Cision Canada Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/04/c6284.html The Caroline County Board of Supervisors would like to recognize area veterans at its next regular meeting, to be held the day before Veterans Day. Veterans of any branch of the U.S. armed forces are invited to attend the meeting Thursday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Community Services Center, located at 17202 Richmond Turnpike in Milford. All veterans will be recognized and veterans from Caroline County are especially encouraged to attend. Adele Uphaus Hong Kong: Comirnaty jabs for toddlers arrive A batch of about 96,000 doses of the toddler formulation of the Comirnaty vaccine for use by children aged six months to four years arrived in Hong Kong today, the Government announced. Soon after the batchs arrival, government staff carried out stringent checks and inspections in accordance with established procedures to ensure the vaccine complies with the product specifications and that the transportation process followed the relevant cold-chain requirements. The vaccine will be placed in validated ultra-low temperature freezers to ensure its proper storage according to the temperature specified by the drug manufacturer. In its recommendations submitted earlier to the Secretary for Health, the Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines considered that under the current epidemic situation, the benefits of authorising the use of a paediatric and toddler formulation of the Comirnaty vaccine for protecting against COVID-19 outweigh the risks. The Secretary for Health has authorised the paediatric and toddler formulation of the Comirnaty vaccine for emergency use in Hong Kong in accordance with the relevant regulation. This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. At the invitation of Prime Minister Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang will attend the 25th China-ASEAN Summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit and the 17th East Asia Summit to be held in Cambodia from November 8 to 13, and pay an official visit to Cambodia. Xinhua News Agency: Can you share with us the arrangement of Premier Lis visit to Cambodia? How does China view its relations with Cambodia? Zhao Lijian: China and Cambodia are friendly neighbors and iron-clad friends. In recent years, China-Cambodia relations have shown high-level robustness. Efforts to build a China-Cambodia community with a shared future has delivered fruitful results for both countries. Both Chinese and Cambodians have benefited from the growth of bilateral relations. As the pandemic lingers and the global economy is struggling to recover, uncertainty and instability continues to rise. China remains committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development, and it is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future. Acting on the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness and the policy of forging friendships and partnerships with its neighbors, China strives to enhance friendly ties, mutual trust, and converging interests with Cambodia and other neighboring countries. During his visit, Premier Li Keqiang will meet with His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, and have talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen. The visit provides an important opportunity for China and Cambodia to share experience in governance, deepen cooperation on agriculture, manufacturing, green economy and people-to-people contacts, be each others company on our respective unique path to modernization, contribute together to the diversity of developing countries pathways to modernization and create more benefit to our two peoples. CCTV: Facing rising uncertainty and instability in the international situation, what are Chinas view and expectation on how the leaders meetings on East Asia cooperation will drive regional peace and development? Zhao Lijian: The challenges we face in our world today sluggish economic recovery, global security volatility, and mounting risks in food, energy and financial security in the region all call for a collective response. The successful 20th CPC National Congress made it clear that China remains committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development, and it is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future. China hopes the meetings will: first, focus on the common development of the region, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, jointly respond to pressing challenges such as food and energy issues, and nurture new driver of growth such as digitalization and low-carbon development; second, push forward East Asias economic integration process, work together for high-quality implementation of RCEP, accelerate the negotiations of a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, and keep industrial and supply chains stable and unfettered; and third, protect peace and tranquility of the region, uphold multilateralism and open regionalism, bolster ASEAN centrality, and build an open and inclusive regional cooperation architecture. Yonhap News Agency: The US-ROK Security Consultative Meeting was held in Washington yesterday. Both leaders reaffirmed the commitment to deploy US strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary, in the face of the DPRKs nuclear threats. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: China has noted this. I need to stress that to bring about the political settlement of issues on the Peninsula and prevent a spiral of escalation, parties need to work with each other rather than take unilateral moves that exert pressure and heighten confrontation. We hope relevant parties will stop any move that may escalate tension and confrontation and undermine mutual trust. CRI: Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has concluded her visit to China today. Can you share more details of her visit with us? Zhao Lijian: Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan paid a state visit to China upon invitation from November 2 to 4. President Hassan is the first African head of state China has received after the 20th CPC National Congress. On the afternoon of November 3, President Xi Jinping had a meeting with President Hassan, and held a welcoming ceremony and a welcome banquet for her. On the same day, Premier Li Keqiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress Li Zhanshu met with President Hassan respectively. President Xi briefed President Hassan on the proceedings of the 20th CPC National Congress. He said, China has already found a development path suited to its national conditions. Chinese modernization is grounded in Chinas own realities, with features that are unique to the Chinese context. On behalf of the Tanzanian Revolutionary Party (CCM) and the Tanzanian government, President Hassan extended warm congratulations on the success of the 20th CPC National Congress and President Xis re-election as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. The two presidents announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, which provides strategic guidance for the development of China-Tanzania relations going forward. Both sides are of the view that China and Tanzania enjoy a time-honored friendship. The sound growth of China-Tanzania relations not only advances the common and long-term interests of the two countries, but also carries great significance for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. The two sides reiterated their firm mutual support for each other on issues concerning each others core interests, and agreed to work together to boost the level of trade and economic cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and carry forward the friendship between the two peoples, enhance cooperation in international and multilateral settings, and jointly uphold international fairness, justice and the common interests of fellow developing countries. The two sides agreed that in growing China-Africa relations, both sides need to remain committed to the overall direction of mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual learning and mutual assistance. Both China and Africa need to build on their time-honored traditional friendship, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and show greater historical initiative in advancing friendship between China and Africa. Chinas continuous development will create new opportunities for Africa. China will speed up the implementation of the ongoing nine initiatives for cooperation with Africa. With a particular focus on infrastructure, we will continue to nurture new drivers for China-Africa cooperation through trade, investment and financing. The Tanzanian side responds warmly to the Global Development Initiative and is willing to work with China to operationalize this initiative and build a community with a shared future for mankind. During the visit, the two sides issued a Joint Statement on Establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the Peoples Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania and signed 15 cooperation documents covering trade, investment, development cooperation, digital economy, green development and blue economy. AFP: A question on German Chancellor Scholzs visit to China. Have the two leaders discussed issues related to human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang? Zhao Lijian: Prior to our press briefing, China has put out the readout about the meeting between President Xi and Chancellor Scholz. You may refer to that. There are other meetings and talks scheduled between the leaders of the two sides. Please check back for updates. Shenzhen TV: According to reports, the Muang Xay station of the China-Laos Railway in Northern Laos recently launched its freight train services, which marks the opening of all freight stations of the China-Laos Railway. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: We noted the reports and would like to express our congratulations. Fully opened, these freight stations will add to the boosting power of the China-Laos Railway in accelerating regional connectivity and further bolster the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and ASEAN countries. As President Xi Jinping noted, connectivity is vital to advancing Belt and Road cooperation. We are happy to note that China and its neighbors have recently seen quite a few milestones in their connectivity. During the visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, China and Vietnam agreed to speed up the effort to sign a cooperation plan on promoting the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Two Corridors, One Economic Belt initiative. Under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China and Pakistan will speed up the implementation of projects including the Gwadar Port and the upgradation of ML-1. At the China-Singapore Bilateral Cooperation Mechanism Meetings, the two sides jointly announced important outcomes in connectivity and agreed to further deepen strategic synergy and advance the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. The 20th National Congress of the Party stated explicitly that China will contribute its share to building an open global economy and promote the high-quality development of the BRI. China stands ready to work with all parties to deepen the BRIs synergy with the development strategies of other countries and regional cooperation initiatives. China is committed to wider and more convenient connectivity and mutual benefit for people in all countries. Phoenix TV: Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been rising recently. Certain country said that countries in the world should take all measures possible to impose sanctions on the DPRK and hold it accountable for continued provocations. What is Chinas comment? Zhao Lijian: Sanctions and pressure does not help the political settlement of the issues on the Korean Peninsula. The right way forward is to resolve the legitimate concerns of all parties in a balanced way through meaningful dialogue. We hope parties concerned will face squarely the root cause and timeline of events regarding the developments on the Korean Peninsula, and play a more constructive part in resuming dialogue and safeguarding regional stability. Reuters: According to a Bloomberg report, China is considering ending the circuit breaker system whereby if there are more than a certain number of positive cases of coronavirus on international flights that arrive in China, then that route is suspended for a certain period of time. Can China confirm this? And also, if true, when? Does this signal that China is looking to ease its strict COVID policies? Zhao Lijian: Im not aware of what you mentioned. I would refer you to competent authorities. Chinas policy and position on COVID-19 containment are clear and consistent. AFP: The Chinese and Japanese leaders are reportedly planning to meet at international meetings to be held in mid-November in Southeast Asia. Can you confirm that President Xi will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the G20 Bali summit? Zhao Lijian: On your question, I have nothing to share at the moment. China News Service: China recently published the Special Plan on Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Field of Ecological Environment for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-2025). Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: On November 2, the Special Plan on Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Field of Ecological Environment for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-2025) was officially released. This is another important step taken by China toward building a beautiful country. The Plan lays out the 50 main tech development tasks in ten fields including eco-environment monitoring and climate response. The aim is to accelerate an all-round transition to a model of green economic and social development. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress states that Chinese modernization is committed to harmony between humanity and nature. We will continue to uphold the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and bring about bluer skies, greener mountains and clearer waters. China has announced the vision of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and established the 1+N policy framework for implementing carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. China will continue to actively participate in international cooperation on climate response. This Sunday, the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, and China will send a high-level delegation to the conference. We will join hands with all parties to address the climate challenge, and work together for positive, balanced and comprehensive outcomes. China Daily: The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly adopted the draft resolution Promoting International Cooperation on Peaceful Uses in the Context of International Security put forward by China, as had happened last year. Could you give more insight into this? Zhao Lijian: On November 3 Beijing time, the 77th session of the UNGA First Committee adopted Chinas draft resolution Promoting International Cooperation on Peaceful Uses in the Context of International Security. A peaceful world is the shared desire of all countries. Advancing common development is a long-standing pursuit of the developing countries. Utilizing science and technology for peaceful purposes and conducting relevant international cooperation are the inalienable rights of all countries conferred by international law. They also provide a key force driving sustainable socioeconomic development. For years, the right of the developing countries to the peaceful use of science and technology and to international cooperation free from discrimination has not received due attention. There are still undue restrictions on developing countries normal access to material, equipment and technology. The resolution is essentially about upholding developing countries right to the peaceful use of science and technology. It calls for open, inclusive and fair dialogue within the UN framework and aims to achieve mutually-reinforcing interaction of peaceful uses and export control. This resolution represents the shared stance and voice of developing countries and speaks for the important principles and commitment the developing countries stick to and advance on peaceful use, international cooperation and sustainable development. In the new context of our times, China will stay firmly committed to a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up and remain an integral part of advancing global governance through joint consultation and concerted efforts, promote inclusive sci-tech progress and create an international environment that is conducive to common development. China will work with all parties to advance the follow-up process of the resolution to ensure its full and effective implementation and the attainment of its object and purpose. AFP: According to French Foreign Minister, upon Chinas invitation, French President Emmanuel Macron will pay a visit to China in the coming weeks or months. Can you confirm this visit? Zhao Lijian: I have no information to offer at the moment. The New York Times: Another Long March rocket booster is expected to make its descent. Have any measures been taken to reduce the risk it might pose to populated areas? Zhao Lijian: I would like to refer you to the competent authorities for specific questions. To give you our principled position, I would like to stress that China has all along pursued the peaceful use of outer space in accordance with international law and the international customary practice. The reentry of a rockets upper stage into the Earths atmosphere is an established international practice. The rocket you mentioned is designed with special technology, and the overwhelming majority of its components will burn up during the re-entry into the atmosphere. The probability of this process causing harm to aviation activities or to the ground is extremely low. The competent authorities in China have been closely tracking the orbital parameters of the rocket remnants, and sharing information in an open, transparent and timely manner to the international community. Global Times: On November 3, the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) once again voted with an overwhelming majority for the US to lift economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. A total of 185 countries voted in favor of the resolution to lift the blockade, two countries abstained, and two voted against the resolution. This marks the almost unanimous adoption of such a resolution at UNGA for 30 consecutive times. Whats Chinas comment? Zhao Lijian: The fact that 185 countries voted overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution once again shows that the vast majority of countries in the world are seriously concerned about and firmly opposed to the US's arbitrary unilateral sanctions on Cuba that have gravely threatened the basic human rights of the Cuban people, and that they support Cubas just fight for its sovereignty and against the blockade. Just as Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said ahead of the vote, the embargo is a deliberate act of economic warfare with the purpose of...causing the economy to collapse and creating a situation of ungovernability. The 60-year-long embargo on Cuba has generated huge economic losses and grave humanitarian disasters in Cuba. While claiming to be a human rights defender, the US has been creating human rights disasters and tragedies one after another. It is certainly not human rights, but its own hegemony that the US seeks to protect. The US keeps saying one thing and doing another. Such hypocrisy is no secret to the world, and the world has acted in response. UNGA has adopted this resolution for 30 consecutive times, each time with an overwhelming majority. This should prompt the US to heed the voice for justice, put an immediate end to the economic, commercial and trade restrictions and embargo on Cuba, and stop being on the wrong side against the international community. China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers. Since 1992, China has voted in favor of all 30 resolutions calling for an end to the blockade. China will continue to firmly support the Cuban peoples efforts to oppose external interference and blockade and defend sovereignty and national dignity. AFP: Has China stepped up its effort in talking to the DPRK following the DPRKs firing of missiles this week? If yes, what specifically has been talked about? Zhao Lijian: I can assure you that the diplomatic channel between both sides is unimpeded. As to the particular details you asked about, I have no specific information to offer at the moment. The Paper: Twenty years ago today, government representatives of China and ASEAN countries signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. How does China see the role of the DOC over the past two decades? Zhao Lijian: This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the DOC. It is the first political document signed by China and ASEAN countries on the South China Sea, which established the basic principles and common norms for the parties on handling the issue. The signing and implementation of the DOC has consolidated political mutual trust between China and ASEAN countries and promoted bilateral dialogue and cooperation on maritime issues. It has not only played a key role in keeping the South China Sea peaceful and stable, but also created a sound regional environment for China-ASEAN relations. In July this year, China successfully held a workshop to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the DOC. Participants from China and ASEAN countries reviewed the spirit of the DOC, spoke highly of its role and landmark importance, and expressed their expectation for the continued full and effective implementation of the DOC. A peaceful and stable South China Sea serves the common interests of China and ASEAN countries and is desired by the international community. The 20-year success of the DOC fully shows that China and ASEAN countries have the confidence, wisdom and ability to properly handle issues relating to the South China Sea. China will continue to fully and effectively implement the DOC, advance the consultations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea at a faster pace, and deepen maritime dialogue and cooperation with ASEAN countries so as to build the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation. Reuters: Is China considering any adjustments or changes to COVID protocols? Zhao Lijian: I would refer you to competent authorities on questions about the COVID policy. Reuters: You just said that the channel between China and the DPRK is unimpeded. Do you think China has done enough in terms of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula? Zhao Lijian: I just stated Chinas position on the issues of the Korean Peninsula. The turn of events and root causes that have led to the current situation are clear to all. We hope parties concerned can demonstrate sincerity with actions, work with each other and play a positive role in seeking a political settlement of the issues of the Peninsula. The pedestrian killed early Wednesday in southern Stafford County has been identified as 54-year-old Karen Vincent of Stafford. Vincent was in the area of State Route 3 and Forest Lane Road about 1:40 a.m. when she was hit by a truck, police said. Stafford Sheriffs spokesman Ryan Wilbur said further details about the incident were not available pending the results of an ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, Virginia State Police are still seeking the publics assistance in identifying a red pickup truck involved in a fatal hit-and-run collision Tuesday morning in Spotsylvania County. Sgt. Brent Coffey said two people were walking east in the far right lane of the 4400 block of Lafayette Boulevard at 1:10 a.m. when they were struck from behind by the pickup truck. The truck continued on after striking the victims. Jon W. Kern, 36, of Spotsylvania died at the scene and a 36-year-old woman suffered minor injuries, police said. Coffey said the truck had a chrome tool box in the bed and a chrome rear bumper. He said it likely has damage on the front end passengers side. Anyone with information is asked to call Senior Trooper M. Gremillion at 540/891-4108 or send an email to questions@vsp.virginia. The City of Fredericksburg, the University of Mary Washington and Fredericksburg City Public Schools are in the process of conducting fleet assessments to see where switching to alternative fuel vehicles might help with cost savings. Representatives from all three entities attended an alternative fuel vehicle workshop last week presented by Drive Clean Rural USA, where they learned about what vehicles are on the market and talked to industry experts from Virginia Clean Cities, ABM, Sonny Merryman, ROUSH CleanTech and Blue Bird about the environmental and economic benefits of the vehicles. Drive Clean Rural USA is an eight-state program meant to provide rural communities and small towns with information about alternative fuel vehicles, technology, financing options and federal and state incentives. Fredericksburg is one of 24 localities across the eight states that was asked to participate, said MacKenzie Bellimam, the citys environmental sustainability coordinator. The program and its partners are wrapping up fleet assessmentswhich look at the lifespan of each vehicle in the fleetfor the city government, as well as for the school division and UMW, Bellimam said. The next step will be to put together a comprehensive report, which city staff and City Council will review. [The report] will be used to help inform our decisions moving forward to meet our clean energy goals, Bellimam said. Fredericksburg joins Drive Clean Rural USA project Fredericksburg has entered into an eight-state pilot project designed to help local governme Last yearin a process similar to what the city is undertaking nowVirginia Clean Cities conducted a fleet assessment for the Fredericksburg Police Department, which led to the purchase of three hybrid patrol vehicles. The hybrid vehicles debuted in August and five more will join police departments fleet next year, Bellimam said. The school division will add 10 electric school buses to its fleet, assisted by a $2.6 million grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Fredericksburg City Public Schools receives state grant for electric school buses Electric school buses will be coming to Fredericksburg City Public Schools, thanks to a $2.6 Were looking to continue that partnership and have it be a cohesive effort across all entitiesthe city, the schools and the university, she said. All three entities are aligned on a mission to be a much more clean and green city. City Councils goal is for all municipal operations, whether fleet or building energy usage, to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2035. Kenneth Horton knew he was going to advance to a new phase of the court program for veterans with legal problems, but he had no idea it would come with such pomp and ceremony. Craig Crenshaw, the Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairsand a retired Marine Corps major general, to bootwas a special guest Thursday at the regular session of the Rappahannock Regional Veterans Treatment Docket. Held at Spotsylvania Circuit Court and presided over by Judge Ricardo Rigual, who also served in the Marines, the session marked the first time that Horton moved up in the program. When his name was called, the 35-year-old stood in front of the judge, who praised him for all the good things hed been hearing. Horton, whod been charged with driving under the influence this spring, had been to the necessary meetings for treatment and support as part of the intensive program aimed to get nonviolent offers back on track. Veteran court program grad shows 'a level of bravery that most people can't face' Rick Rein, a veteran of the Iraqi war, Bronze Star and three-time Purple Heart winner, worked to overcome combat trauma and subsequent addiction. Horton had lost his drivers license with the charge and Rigual told him Thursday that the paperwork had been completed for him to get a restricted license. Then, instead of simply handing him a certificate, the judge asked the special guest to do the courtroom equivalent of pinning stripes on Hortonor at least the way the Marines would do it. Crenshaw cupped a special challenge coin in his palm, then shook hands with Horton and congratulated him. Crenshaw was on a tight schedule and had to scoot, but not before Rigual returned the favor and gave him a coin representing the veterans program. Meanwhile, Horton and his mother, Rosie, both have some experience with the Army. She retired after 20 years and he served from 200912, including as gunner in Afghanistan, providing support to medical units. Both were flabbergasted by Thursdays events, and the attention Kenneth Horton received. Im shocked, surprised and extremely happy about it, he said. I had no idea this was happening today. One by one, fellow program participants came over to congratulate Horton and wish him well. A program mentor waited for him outside the courtroom and told him to keep the momentum going. You got the whole world waiting for you, Dexter Griffin told Horton. Turn the page, take the step, dont forget that. Thats exactly what Crenshaw said to the courtroom during his remarks. Anyone whos been in uniform or worn the cloth of our great nation, feels the kindred spirit among fellow service members. The men and women who voluntarily serve as mentors, all fellow veterans, are as close as a phone call away, Crenshaw said. The mentors you have, the ones who sit there kneecap to kneecap and have those frank discussions with you, they have invested their time and their energy because they want to, because they want to be a part of your success, he said. So continue to do what you do, continue to recognize theres a light at the endand there are going to be challenging times through this journeybut you have a phone call you can make. Graduate of veterans court program 'is as tough as they come' Rachel Thornsberry plans to use her experience as a veteran and recovering drug addict to become a social worker and help others. As head of Virginia Veterans and Defense Affairs, Crenshaw focuses on opportunities for veterans and servicemembers who are making the transition from the military. Crenshaw said he could stand there for days and recite all the opportunities available in the state, which has 700,000 veterans and their families. Virginia also has the nations fastest-growing veteran population and the greatest number of veterans in the workforce per capita, according to Veterans and Defense Affairs. Crenshaw encouraged the veterans to make Virginia the place they choose to work and raise their families after the military. While his department focuses on necessary resources, he said organizations like the local veterans docket, which provides substance abuse treatment, mental health services and rehabilitation, all under court supervision, also work to make a difference. This goes a long way to that point, Crenshaw said. The treatment docket covers Fredericksburg and the counties of King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford. The partnership includes representatives from the courts, the Spotsylvania Commonwealths Attorneys Office, Office of the Public Defender, the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, the Rappahannock Regional Jail and the Veterans Administration. The docket initially was set up for veterans facing nonviolent felony charges, and the program covered five phases that lasted about 18 months. The docket recently expanded to include a limited number of misdemeanor cases and veterans with those charges will be in the program over three phases and a minimum of 12 months. Mentors are always needed, according to program officials. Those interested can contact Ann Baker at abaker@rrj.state.va.us. Fremont Police officers were dispatched at 8:01 a.m. Nov. 3 to the intersection of Downing Street and the Beltway for a report of a vehicle driving on a closed road in the construction area. Officers learned the driver had abandoned the vehicle in the roundabout and began walking. The driver, Daniel J. Kennedy, 38, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was located and arrested for driving during suspension, disobeying a traffic control device and possession of a controlled substance. As he looked into the crowds, Mark Shepard saw more than todays adults and students. He saw the future. The superintendent of Fremont Public Schools was among many area residents attending groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Howard and Washington elementary school buildings. After much planning, school administrators and board members, city and chamber officials, contractors, teachers, parents and students gathered Wednesday afternoon to mark the projects launch. New buildings for Howard, Washington and Deer Pointe (the replacement for Clarmar Elementary) are part of a 10-project, $123 million school facility improvements bond issue which voters approved in September 2021. More than 50 adults and 30 children attended each of the groundbreaking ceremonies at Howard and Washington elementary schools even amid very windy conditions. After thanking numerous individuals and businesses at the Howard groundbreaking, Shepard talked about the importance of investing in future generations of students. He told how many years ago during a bond campaign in Lincoln, his father, a lifelong educator, sat with retirees at a coffee shop. One individual was upset with the Lincoln Public Schools effort to pass a bond issue to improve facilities. The person said the schools were good enough for them and their now-adult children, so they were good enough for students today. Shepards father then reminisced about his time as a fifth-grader attending West Elementary School in Fremont on the current site of Rotary Park. He told how students packed their books and school supplies and walked down the street to the newly opened Linden Elementary. And he talked about people who had the foresight to think not just about the current generation, but generations to come. Dad finished his conversation that day with: Weve got to be willing to plant trees we will never get to sit under, Shepard said. Shepard noted that the new building will serve the community for the next 40 to 50 years. Thats going to be a tree that many of us will never get to sit under, Shepard said. Think of all the future generations that will benefit from that. FPS Board of Education President Sandi Proskovec spoke enthusiastically about the Howard groundbreaking. I started kindergarten here, my siblings went here, my three daughters went here, Proskovec said. This school that has served this community for 50 years is true to my heart. She thanked her mother (Sharon Martens), who volunteered at the school, was PTA president, worked there as a para educator and who continues to watch out her back door to make sure the school is OK. Proskovec expressed gratitude for neighbors who take care of the school like its their own. State Sen. Lynne Walz (Dist. 15) said she has the opportunity to visit schools across the state. When I stand up and talk about Fremont, I am very proud of the way our community and our schools work together, both public and private. The spirit of community and cooperation in Fremont and in the surrounding areas is second to none, Walz said. Walz, a former teacher, also said shes excited for what will take place within school. Within the walls of the school, our students learn skills that theyre going to carry with them for the rest of their lives math, reading, science, social studies, fine arts, Walz said. They will learn critical thinking skills, research skills, problem solving, financing and personal budgeting. Theyll learn how to make good decisions, respect others and they will learn how to lead with value. Walz also spoke of parents, teachers and community members, wholl work together to provide a nurturing environment and quality education for students. As a community, we are truly making an investment in our future to educate future health care workers, financial advisers, bankers, welders, electricians, plumbers, manufacture workers, farmers and technicians and future teachers, Walz said. All of those and more are really important and we depend on those people in our everyday life. Students decked out in red, plastic toy hardhats stood behind Howard Principal Mindy Chandler as she ceremoniously scooped a shovel of dirt. Afterward, a host of dignitaries took their turns at scooping dirt during a photo session. During both ceremonies, Caryl and Chuck Johannsen and Heidi and Brett Richmond, co-chairs of the Task Force for Kids Campaign committee, were recognized for their work in educating the public about the no tax levy increase facilities improvement bond referendum. Without their leadership and support none of this would be possible, Proskovec said. During the groundbreaking at Washington Elementary, Shepard said the building had served the community very well for 50 years. But its tired and it needs to be replaced, Shepard said. He said through the citizens committee, needs were prioritized and identified at all levels and in all segments and quadrants of the community. Proskovec also expressed her enthusiasm at the Washington groundbreaking. The teachers and the staff and the students are so fun here, Proskovec told attendees. Everybodys learning and everybodys excited. It is one of best so Im super excited that you are going to get a new building in about two years. In light of the two groundbreakings, Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg talked about the numerous local endeavors. Fremont is really on the move, Spellerberg said. Weve got a new library coming in a year. We just opened a new airport terminal. We have the Southeast Beltway and Highway 30 well have four lanes around Fremont. We have a lot going on in our beautiful downtown. Now is the time to be in Fremont. As she did at Howard, Walz also shared her comments with Washington groundbreaking attendees. Washington students also wore red plastic, toy hardhats as they stood behind Principal Erica Kobza, who ceremoniously scooped a shovel of dirt. Dignitaries again took their turns at scooping dirt while photos were taken. Wind may have tossed hair and made it tough to hear some speakers, but didnt seem to dampen the excitement of schoolchildren, who helped holler out countdown numbers before their principal scooped a shovelful of dirt. And who will be among generations learning within the walls of buildings provided by people, who will never sit under the shade of their thoughtfully planted trees. Welcome to Gandhara's weekly newsletter. This briefing brings you the best of our reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you're new to the newsletter or haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here. This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into the Taliban's alleged persecution of the Achakzai Pashtun tribe, the recruitment of former elite Afghan commandos to join Russia's war in Ukraine, and a secret school for Afghan girls. Taliban Persecutes Pashtun Tribe I report on the Taliban's extensive alleged killings and persecution of the Achakzai, a large Pashtun tribe in southern Afghanistan. Senior Achakzai political leaders told me that the Taliban has engaged in killings, forced disappearances, torture, detentions, displacement, and the seizure of tribe members' property. The community faces retribution for alleged atrocities carried out by the late General Abdul Raziq, an Achakzai and the most prominent anti-Taliban commander in the region. While the Taliban officially denies it is allowing its members to retaliate against the Achakzai in violation of the general amnesty it issued shortly after retaking power, human rights watchdogs have documented some grave abuses. "Afghanistan is hell for the supporters of the late General Abdul Raziq," said Akhtar Mohammad Khan Badezai, a former presidential adviser and spokesman for Raziq's family. Former lawmaker Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai alleged an estimated 18,000 members of the Afghan security forces that Raziq once led are the primary target of Taliban persecution. He claimed at least 300 of them, mostly Achakzais, were killed in the initial days of the Taliban takeover in July and August 2021. "This persecution that began during the Taliban takeover 14 months ago still continues," he told me. Patricia Gossman, an associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, sees the Taliban determined to crush any potential resistance. "They want to punish those who supported him [Raziq] or who might want to revive armed resistance," she said. Vagner Recruits Former Afghan Commandos Safiullah Stanikzai interviewed a former Afghan Army general who says Russia's private Vagner paramilitary group is recruiting Western-trained former Afghan special forces to boost the Kremlin's war effort in Ukraine. General Abdul Raouf Arghandiwal, a former commander of Afghanistan's elite 207 Zafar Army Corps, says some 15 former Afghan commandos have already joined the Russians as mercenaries and many more could be recruited. "[Vagner's] plan is to recruit 1,000 people in the first phase and 1,000 people in the second phase as a battalion and to gradually continue this process," Arghandiwal said, adding that former Afghan foot soldiers and officers who fled to Iran are being recruited with Iran's help. In Moscow, Sergei Danilov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Center for Middle East Studies, says there's little motivation for the Afghans to put their lives on the line for a foreign country. "They are trained, but they are not motivated," he said. "They don't pose a threat. Some were able to go to Pakistan -- or even to Iran -- and are now in the region and beyond.... But this is not tens of thousands or even thousands." Cafes Close After Taliban Hookah Ban Radio Azadi reports that the ban on hookah or shisha smoking is bankrupting the once-thriving cafe scene in Herat. The Taliban considers hookah smoking -- a popular pastime among young Afghan men -- to be "un-Islamic" because of its adverse health effects. But the ban has affected the livelihoods of thousands. "I will be forced to go to [neighboring] Iran to look for work," said Mohammad Qasim, who used to earn $100 a month working as a waiter at a Herat cafe. The Cafe Owners Association in Herat estimates more than 2,500 people have lost their jobs because of the ban. "How can I run a cafe when I have no income?" said Omid, an entrepreneur who had to dismiss seven staff members when he shuttered his establishment. Not everyone in Herat is upset by the ban, however. "This ban will prevent the youth from wasting their money and damaging their health," said Nazir Ahmad, a resident of Herat. Secret School For Afghan Girls In a video report, we take you to a secret school for teenage girls in an impoverished Kabul neighborhood. The school is one of many operated by Afghan teachers and activists that aims to help girls from grades seven through 12 continue their studies, which were disrupted after the Taliban closed most secondary schools for girls after seizing power in August 2021. "We can't forget about our future because of this government," said one of the students at the school. "Whatever happens, we come here secretly to get an education and move toward a better future." That's all from me this week. Until next time, Abubakar Siddique 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 United Nations human rights office has voiced concern over the detention of five people after the Taliban disrupted a press conference in Kabul intended to launch a new women's movement. One woman, Zarifa Yaqobi, and four male colleagues were arrested at the event and remained in detention on November 4, UN rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva. A women's rights activists who did not want to be named due to security concerns told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that Yaqobi was arrested after announcing the founding of the Afghan Women's Movement for Equality. "The whole place was militarized. We thought they were going to bring us all to one place," the activist said. "First they took the boys, then they locked the women in the room." The women were temporarily detained and subjected to phone and body searches before being released, the activist and the UN rights office said. The activist said that later on November 3 the Taliban took Yaqobi's sister, Arifa Yaqobi, and her husband-in-law's brother under the pretext they should be with Yaqobi at night. Laurence said the UN had received "deeply worrying reports that yesterday (November 3) afternoon in Kabul, a number of de facto security officials disrupted a press conference by a women's civil society organization." He said the UN rights office is "concerned about the welfare of these five individuals and [has] sought information from the de facto authorities regarding their detention." A Taliban spokesman did not immediately provide a comment, Reuters reported. The four men detained along with Yaqobi were her brothers, a women's rights activist told AFP. The activist, who identified herself only by the name Mandegar because of security concerns, said when the news conference started the Taliban told the organizers they could not hold it and asked the journalists who were present to leave. She said the Taliban sent in female police officers who "checked our phones and deleted all images of the event." The officers also "insulted and threatened us before they allowed us to leave one by one." Women's freedoms in Afghanistan have been undermined since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as international forces backing a pro-Western government pulled out. The Taliban has issued a slew of restrictions controlling women's lives, blocking girls from returning to secondary schools and barring women from many government jobs. Fawzia Kofi, a member of Afghanistan's Moj Talaq Party, told Radio Azadi that Yaqobi was also a member of the party and her actions show that the Taliban is afraid of women. "I expect the men of Afghanistan to stand by their sisters in this situation and not allow (the Taliban) to misrepresent religion and human rights," Kofi said. Shukria Barakzai, the former ambassador of Afghanistan to Norway and a women's rights activist, said such actions by the Taliban will have bad consequences for the militants. "Limiting the freedoms of Afghans, whether it is in speech or in the demands of the people, is the work of the Taliban. There is no doubt that today the Taliban consider women as their main enemies," she said. With reporting by Reuters and AFP A record number of refugees and asylum seekers found new homes this year in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, including about 700 in the Colorado Springs area, with the help of Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains. More than 2,500 people from 44 nations were resettled by the agencys Denver office, up more than 400% from 2021, with the largest numbers arriving from Afghanistan, Cuba, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said Margo Hatton, vice president of development in the agencys Denver office. Most of the refugees were fleeing the 2021 collapse of the previous Afghan government, political strife in Cuba, the war in Ukraine and political violence in Congo. The agency assigns a case manager and a volunteer to every refugee to help them get identification documents, find jobs and help children get settled into a new school once they arrive in Colorado Springs, Denver, Greeley and other locations where refugees are sent, Hatton said. Refugees also receive cultural mentorship from teams of trained volunteers who work with the families for six to eight months to become more comfortable in their new communities. Colorado Springs has been such an amazing community embracing these refugees, Hatton said. These families are escaping very difficult circumstances. They are hungry to become self sufficient by getting jobs and getting their kids settled into a school. The number of refugees and asylum seekers has grown dramatically since Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as president, nearly reaching the levels during the Obama administration. The number of refugees and asylum seekers fell sharply under the Trump presidency. In addition to its refugee resettlement services, the organization is known in Colorado Springs for operating the KPC Respite Center and Nursery, which offers free, licensed day care for children up to age 5 whose families are in crisis. The center reopened in September after an extensive 15-month remodeling project that gutted the former single-family home after a pipe burst in mid-2021 and caused extensive damage. Ascension Lutheran Church housed the center during construction. Lutheran Family Services uses funds from the Empty Stocking Fund to support the KPC center, which is the only facility of its type in Colorado. Hatton said Colorado Springs donors have a real heart for KPC because it is place to go for parents when they have no other options. The agency also operates a full-service adoption agency, including international adoption; foster care services for children unable to live with their birth families; the Anchor House program in Denver for teens who have aged out of the foster care system and still need support; and the SafeCare Colorado program that provides in-home services to parents to train them how to provide a safe home, address child health needs, and engage in positive interactions with their children ages 5 and under. Other programs operated by Lutheran Family Services include free mental health services and trauma-informed care in partnership with the Colorado Spirit Crisis Counseling Program for refugees, fire victims and others who have survived disasters and other traumas as well as its Pregnancy Options Colorado program for unplanned pregnancy counseling and the Lifework Aging Solutions program that offers guardianship services for seniors with cognitive issues. The agency was started in 1948 and had an annual budget of $13.4 million for its 2019-20 fiscal year, according to the latest annual report posted on its website. An El Paso County judge determined Thursday that Joel Hollendorfer will stand trial in the death of Kara Nichols, whom he is accused of strangling before reportedly burying her body in his backyard on top of the remains of a horse. Civilian investigator Tammy Gugliotta testified that Hollendorfer had been in contact with Nichols on Oct. 9, 2012, the last day she was seen alive. She worked as an escort and Hollendorfer was trying to set up a meeting between the two. Phone records presented by the prosecution show that the two had contact via text and phone calls throughout the night of Oct. 9. When Hollendorfer was first interviewed by detectives in February 2013, more than four months after Nichols' disappearance, he said he had been in contact with Nichols that day, but that they never ended up meeting because of disagreements on where the paid encounter would take place, Gugliotta said. In 2014, detectives reviewed cellphone data from Nichols that showed the final location her phone before it disconnected permanently was very close to the farm owned by the Hollendorfer family in Black Forest, prompting the El Paso County Sheriff's Office to acquire search warrants for the property. While investigators searched the property, Hollendorfer's mother identified several spots on the farm where animals were buried, Gugliotta testified. Because of the volume of "anomalies" detected by the radar equipment being used in the search, investigators couldn't determine a specific location to dig for Nichols' remains. From there, the case went cold until January 2022, when investigators reached out to Hollendorfer's ex-wife, who was uncooperative with the investigation when the two were married during the initial investigation. During interviews with investigators, Hollendorfer's ex-wife said he had told her he accidently "killed and strangled an escort" and "buried the body on top of a horse at the farm," El Paso County Detective Jennifer Arndt testified. Arndt said Hollendorfer's ex-wife wasn't certain if her husband was lying to her, and she had considered that maybe he was using it to intimidate her. Several witnesses on Thursday said Hollendorfer had an abusive relationship with his ex-wife, who since has remarried and moved to Virginia. Court records show that Hollendorfer had been accused and convicted of harassment and protection order violations numerous times in 2012 and 2013. Additionally, Hollendorfer was convicted of theft and two burglary charges in 1996, according to court records. Following the admission from Hollendorfer's ex-wife, detectives reviewed old evidence and interviewed both Hollendorfer and his mother. One spot on the farm became a point of interest for investigators, and when they asked Hollendorfer's mom what was buried there, she said it was the remains of her kid's favorite horse, Milo, Arndt said. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. But when detectives asked Hollendorfer about the spot, he said there was nothing buried there, said Detective Patrick Gallagher, who conducted the interview with Hollendorfer. Investigators found Nichols' remains after they obtained a search warrant for the property and dug at the suspicious spot. The defense's argument throughout the preliminary hearing was that Nichols' death wasn't a homicide, but rather an accident caused either by drugs or consensual choking during sexual intercourse. El Paso County Coroner Leon Kelly testified that he couldn't determine a cause of death because Nichols' remains were so decomposed, but that a toxicology report indicated she was "probably" intoxicated with heroin at the time of her death. Kelly testified that someone intoxicated on a significant amount of heroin would potentially be more likely to die as a result of brief strangulation where a healthy person would not, and that Nichols had a potentially lethal level of drugs in her system. Jennifer Cox, Hollendorfer's defense attorney, implied that Nichols died while with Hollendorfer, either via strangulation during sex or a drug overdose, and that out of "fear" he hid the body in his backyard. "The evidence in this case supports an accident," Cox told the judge during closing arguments. "There is no proof of any level of intent." The prosecution refuted the claims presented by Cox by pointing to the testimony of Gugliotta, who said that earlier on the evening of Oct. 9, Nichols was with a friend who said she had used the last of her drugs while they were together. The two were together hours before Nichols supposedly met with Hollendorfer, so the prosecution said the drugs couldn't have been the primary cause of her death and homicide had to be the only answer. Judge William Bain ultimately determined that there was enough evidence presented during the preliminary hearing to send Hollendorfer to trial, and for him to remain in El Paso County jail without bond. Autumn Hopfe, Nichols' best friend, told The Gazette after the preliminary hearing that having to wait 10 years has been immensely difficult for Nichols' family and friends. "We're reliving it again," Hopfe said of being in court on Thursday. "It's taken 10 years. ... Ten years for us to get answers is far too long. Her parents have grieved for too long." The court set an arraignment for Jan. 11, when Hollendorfer will enter a plea on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. If convicted of first-degree murder, Hollendorfer will be given a mandatory sentence of life in prison, per Colorado law. The Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriffs Office on Thursday investigated threats made against two schools, according to law enforcement and school officials. At about 7 a.m., Colorado Springs police received the first of several Safe2Tell notifications regarding a possible planned school shooting at Banning Lewis Preparatory Academy, a K-8 charter school on the northeast side of the city. Officers partnered with school officials and District 49 security personnel to investigate the threat, according to a news release from the department. After identifying the parties involved and conducting a home visit at about 10 a.m., investigators determined that at this time there is not believed to be any credible threat to the school, the release stated. "At this time, the threats appear unfounded, but we are remaining vigilant," a Banning Lewis official said in a Facebook message to families. Just after 12:30 p.m., officials at Air Academy High School learned that graffiti in the school bathrooms included a threat of a bomb attack against the school. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Academy School District 20 and the El Paso County Sheriffs Office placed a secure perimeter around Air Academy and nearby schools, including Douglass Valley Elementary, district spokeswoman Allison Cortez said in an email. After a full sweep of the campus, investigators concluded that the threat wasn't credible, school officials said. All is well and it is business as usual at all our schools, Cortez said. No arrests were announced in either incident. The incidents come two days after Colorado Springs police arrested a Vista Ridge High School student on suspicion of bringing a handgun to the campus. Officers found and arrested the student off campus after a brief foot chase, police said. No injuries were reported. Adams Countys election workers found what they described as suspicious powdery substance spilling out of a ballot envelope on Wednesday. Some of the substance was cooking material, but that it also included an unknown chemical, which the state lab is testing, officials confirmed. Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum said officials will know the results by Monday, although initial testing of the substance came back negative for narcotics, explosives and anything toxic. Election workers never opened the ballot after receiving it in an Adams County drop box, Zygielbaum said, adding they noticed the powder spilling from the envelope and could feel a very significant amount of granular substance inside. Meantime, election officials marked the ballot as received but damaged. Officials will work with the ballots owner to ensure that person is able to vote on time for the election, according to Colorado County Clerks Association Executive Director Matt Crane. Its their constitutional right to be able to vote, and, as election officials, were going to protect that right, Crane said. The only time an American loses their right to vote is when they are actually convicted and incarcerated on a felony. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Crane said he wants the public to know that elections are safe and secure and that election officials follow strict security protocols. The way you saw Josh and his team respond to this should give voters confidence ... about how our election officials are prepared for any potential or actual threats that come about, Crane said. Zygielbaum said the county takes its election workers safety very seriously. The election team who came across the ballot wore gloves, he said, adding personal protective equipment is also available for workers. Crane said this isnt the first time a suspicious powdery substance has been found in a ballot envelope this election cycle. Crane said Jefferson County officials had a similar situation in a previous year and the substance was found not to be anything nefarious. Zygielbaum urged people not to tamper with ballots, reminding the public to do so is a federal crime. While the incident took up some staff time, it did not interrupt the ballot process, Zygielbaum said. The defense attorney for Carlos Diaz, the man accused of four homicides in El Paso and Pueblo counties in April, chose to waive Diaz's right to a preliminary hearing on Friday. Tina Tussay-Cooper, Diaz's defense attorney, told Judge Chad Miller that they would be waiving the preliminary hearing to continue discussions over a potential resolution to the case with the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office. Tussay-Cooper mentioned that a resolution in the case would have to come in collaboration with Pueblo's 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office. A preliminary hearing is when a judge reviews evidence and testimony presented by the prosecution to determine if it can continue pursing charges against a defendant. By waiving the preliminary hearing, Diaz will have to face a trial if no plea agreement is reached. Diaz, 21, appeared in court in person on Friday morning. He faces two counts of first-degree murder in El Paso County in the deaths of Joseph Moore, 22, and Diego Martinez, 22. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Diaz awaits having charges filed against him in Pueblo County in the deaths of Manuel Zegarelli, 27, and Vetho Finnell-Vigil, 23. An affidavit details that Diaz allegedly shot and killed all four men in April over theft and drug-related disputes. The affidavit states that Diaz admitted to all four killings, but claims to have done so in part because he was, or was going to be, sexually assaulted by two of the men. Following the preliminary hearing being waived, Judge Miller set a status conference for Jan. 4 to discuss when to set a potential arraignment date. Diaz currently is in El Paso County jail on a no-bond hold. Colorados early voter turnout has reached 25.8% five days away from Election Day, according to Thursdays data from the Secretary of States Office. As of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, 981,210 Colorado voters have returned ballots out of the states more than 3.8 million active registered voters. Thats up around 118,600 ballots in 24 hours the second consecutive daily increase of nearly 120,000 ballots. Last weeks average daily increase was 90,300, but Tuesday saw a record 200,000 ballots. Despite recent gains, Colorados early voter turnout is still below previous years. At this point during the 2020 election, nearly 2.1 million ballots had been returned, according to data from the Secretary of States Office. While presidential elections typically yield higher voter turnout, at this time during the 2018 midterm election, just under 1.09 million ballots were returned. The biggest dip in early turnout is among Republican voters, who made up the plurality of early voters 35.1% at this time in 2018. Then, Republicans returned around 382,000 ballots so far. Now, theyve returned over 287,000 ballots. That 94,782-ballot difference nearly accounts for the overall 106,673-ballot drop between 2018 and 2022. Early turnout has also gone down among Democrats by around 60,000 ballots from 2018 to 2022 but it has increased slightly among unaffiliated voters, up by 39,000 ballots. This year, unaffiliated voters have consistently led the early turnout. More than 363,000 of the ballots turned in so far came from unaffiliated voters, making up 37.0% of the total. Democrats are in second place with 32.7% of returned ballots, followed by Republicans with 29.3%. Nearly 99.4% of ballots cast were mailed in, with only 6,382 people voting in person. Older voters are still dominating the early turnout but have fallen slightly. Voters aged 65 and over have returned 44.5% of Colorados ballots a strong plurality, but again sitting below 50% after losing the majority on Tuesday for the first time since early voting began. Voters aged 45 to 64 have returned 33.7% of ballots, and voters younger than 45 have returned 21.8% of ballots. Jefferson County voters continue to make up the biggest chunk of early voters, submitting more than 122,000 ballots so far. El Paso County was not far behind with about 123,600 returned ballots, including 48,262 from Republicans, 45,272 from unaffiliated voters and 28,548 from Democrats. The Secretary of States Office is expected to release updates on the returned ballots every weekday through Election Day on Nov. 8. Ballots were mailed to registered Colorado voters two weeks ago. Early voting officially kicked off last Monday with the opening of 411 drop boxes and 121 voting centers throughout the state. Voters can find their closest drop box or voting center and the hours of operation at GoVoteColorado.gov. By Election Day, there will be over 350 voting centers available to submit ballots, in addition to the 411 drop boxes currently open. The ballot for the general election includes 11 statewide ballot measures, as well as more than 150 state and local races, plus local ballot initiatives in some counties. The voter registration deadline to receive a ballot in the mail ended on Monday; however, Coloradans can still register to vote online at GoVoteColorado.gov and then vote in person until 7 p.m. on Election Day. In-person voting will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. RTD is offering free rides in its service area to allow voters to drop off ballots at ballot boxes or vote in person on Election Day. Colorados early ballot returns finally broke 1,000,000 four days out from Election Day, according to Fridays data from the Secretary of States Office. As of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, 1,099,847 Colorado voters have returned ballots, representing 28.9% of the states more than 3.8 million active registered voters. Thats up around 118,600 ballots in 24 hours the third consecutive daily increase of nearly 120,000 ballots. Last weeks average daily increase was 90,300, but Tuesday saw a record 200,000 ballots. Despite these recent gains, Colorados early voter turnout is still below previous years, and the gap is only widening. At this point during the 2020 election, nearly 2.3 million ballots had been returned, according to data from the Secretary of States Office. While presidential elections typically yield higher voter turnout, at this time during the 2018 midterm election, more than 1.2 million ballots were returned. The difference in early voter turnout from 2022 to 2018 has increased throughout the week, going from a 49,321-ballot gap on Tuesday, to 77,857 on Wednesday, 106,673 on Thursday and 112,793 now. The biggest dip in early turnout is among Republican voters, who made up the plurality of early voters 35% at this time in 2018. Then, Republicans returned around 424,000 ballots so far. Now, theyve returned almost 322,000 ballots. That 102,133-ballot difference nearly accounts for the overall drop between 2018 and 2022. Early turnout has also gone down among Democrats by around 66,000 ballots from 2018 to 2022 but it has increased slightly among unaffiliated voters, up by 44,500 ballots. This year, unaffiliated voters have consistently led the early turnout. More than 409,000 of the ballots turned in so far came from unaffiliated voters, making up 37.2% of the total. Democrats are in second place with 32.5% of returned ballots, followed by Republicans with 29.3%. Nearly 99.3% of ballots cast were mailed in, with only 7,903 people voting in person. Older voters are still dominating the early turnout but have fallen slightly. Voters aged 65 and over have returned 43.4% of Colorados ballots a strong plurality, but again sitting below 50% after losing the majority on Tuesday for the first time since early voting began. Voters aged 45 to 64 have returned 33.9% of ballots, and voters younger than 45 have returned 22.7% of ballots. Jefferson County voters continue to make up the biggest chunk of early voters, submitting nearly 138,000 ballots so far. El Paso County was not far behind with about 123,600 returned ballots, including 48,262 from Republicans, 45,272 from unaffiliated voters and 28,548 from Democrats. The Secretary of States Office is expected to release updates on the returned ballots every weekday through Election Day on Tuesday. Ballots were mailed to registered Colorado voters two weeks ago. Early voting officially kicked off last Monday with the opening of 411 drop boxes and 121 voting centers throughout the state. Voters can find their closest drop box or voting center and the hours of operation at GoVoteColorado.gov. By Election Day, there will be over 350 voting centers available to submit ballots, in addition to the 411 drop boxes currently open. The ballot for the general election includes 11 statewide ballot measures, as well as more than 150 state and local races, plus local ballot initiatives in some counties. The voter registration deadline to receive a ballot in the mail ended on Monday; however, Coloradans can still register to vote online at GoVoteColorado.gov and then vote in person until 7 p.m. on Election Day. In-person voting will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. More than 20 bright-eyed Clear Lake High School FFA students climbed upon Charlie Norris' combine for a group photo Thursday morning. All Norris had to say was, "Be careful." About five times. No students lost leg or limb, and the photo was taken. The young learners were at the Clear Lake FFA's 8-acre corn plot just east of the Mason City Motor Speedway at the fairgrounds to learn about production agriculture. Norris, along with his wife, Louise, donated the planting and harvesting equipment for the second-year program. Seeds were donated by Muff Ag Services and the land was made available by the North Iowa Fairgrounds for no fee. The grain will be transported to Golden Grain Energy in Mason City, and Clear Lake FFA will receive the profits. "We use it as one of our two main fundraisers for the year," said FFA adviser Elisa Russ-Poggemiller. The proceeds will be used for trips to national and state conventions, FFA blue jackets, scholarships, competitions and other activities. Charlie Norris said he and Louise got involved in FFA because of their daughter, Jennifer Cash, who passed away in 2019. Cash was an instrumental part of founding Clear Lake's FFA program. "Our involvement is kind of legacy for her. She was very passionate about it, and we are too," he said. "Our youth need to learn more about agriculture, and some of these youths will be involved in agriculture." The Norrises still farm on land between Mason City and Clear Lake, but most of the students live in town. "We have a lot of students that don't come from a farming background and don't have the opportunity to experience what production ag looks like," Russ-Poggemiller said. "So just getting them out here for a day, I hope that they learn more about where their food comes from and what it takes to actually grow the crops and tend to the land." The students had the opportunity to ride in the combine during the harvest. Charlie Norris pointed out the technology used today is much more advanced than when he started farming decades ago. Today's combines can basically drive themselves, sense yield, measure moisture and map the harvest in real time. "There's a lot of nice technology in the equipment these days. A lot nicer than the equipment when I started," he said. His equipment can harvest around 15 acres per hour. Junior Alexis Hauge was there at last year's harvest. She said there's only so much you can learn inside a classroom. Hauge said it's important for Iowa youths to understand what makes the economy and culture click. "I think it's been a really great experience for students. I didn't grow up on a farm, so for people like me it's really great to be out here and be learning about this part of agriculture," she said. "If you look at Iowa's economy and what Iowa's based on, it's agriculture. It's really great." Students were able to speak with and ask questions of experts in multiple fields of agriculture during a roundtable discussion after lunch. They were able to learn about everything from ag banking from Clear Lake Band & Trust Senior Vice President Pat Goedken, to ag communications from Amy Fleming, Sukup Manufacturing's community and internal communication coordinator. Russ-Poggemiller said the roundtable was an opportunity for students to learn that there are jobs directly related to agriculture that may not require one to ever set foot in a field. Hauge said she is considering using a marketing degree in the ag sector. She said she hopes to already have her associate degree in marketing by the time she graduates high school. "It's really opened doors with career paths," she said. "I think that's definitely something I'd be interested in looking more into." A send-off ceremony will be held for a local Iowa National Guard company that is headed overseas at 9 a.m. Sunday at the North Iowa Events Center in the All Seasons Building. The public is encouraged to attend. Approximately 160 soldiers from the 1133rd Transportation Company, headquartered in Mason City, will deploy to Poland in support of Operation European Assure, Deter and Reinforce, according to a press release. The unit is expected to be gone for nearly a year. The mission is part of the United States commitment to the international order and the security of our NATO allies. The 1133rd Transportation Company will transport equipment and supplies in support of U.S. and NATO forces. The unit was last activated into federal service in 2008 to support Operations Noble Eagle, Iraqi Freedom, and the global war on terrorism. The 1133rd Transportation Company will travel to its mobilization station at Fort Hood, Texas, to complete final training and readiness checks before deploying overseas. Army National Guard launches railway operation in Manly If you passed through Manly recently, you might have noticed a fleet of military vehicles. Rep. Sharon Steckman is seeking her eighth term as the area's representative in the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022. She is being challenged by Doug Campbell, a Republican and former Mason City School Board director, in House District 59. Steckman began serving in the Iowa House of Representatives in 2009 and is a retired educator. She resides in Mason City. 1. What made you decide to run? During my 30 years of teaching in the Mason City School District and overseas in Portugal I saw the importance of quality education for all kids. While serving as president and chief negotiator for the Mason City Education Association it was clear to me that everything we did was affected by the actions of the state Legislature. After retirement the opportunity came up to run for the position of state representative. I felt it was an opportunity to continue my mission of quality education for all. 2. Proudest professional accomplishment? While serving on the Education Appropriations Committee, I was introduced to some students who were part of a program called iJAG (Iowa Jobs for American Graduates). These students told us how they were pretty much checked out of their high school and were not feeling any connection or purpose. This program came to their school and it changed everything for them. iJAG is focused on making sure kids pass the classes they need to graduate, on how to achieve success, and they work hard on skills related to employment; job shadowing, how to apply for a job, writing a resume. Their graduation rate is over 90%. Funding is three-pronged; the state, the school, and a business. I immediately contacted the CEO of iJAG, Laurie Phalen, and asked when we could bring this program to Mason City. That started the ball rolling. Nine years ago, iJAG came to MCHS serving 30 students in 11th and 12th grades. Today there are three programs -- MCHS, JAMS, and Lincoln Intermediate -- serving 157 students. I am proud to currently be serving on the State iJAG Board and I work in the House to encourage other legislators to take a look at this wonderful initiative to make sure all kids get a great education and graduate with the skills needed to enter the workforce or continue their education. 3. What are your top two priorities for 2023? My two top priorities are education and lowering costs for Iowans. Iowans have counted on and been known across the country for our great public schools. Every child in Iowa should have access to a quality education no matter their zip code. Our half a million kids in public education are depending on state lawmakers to get it right. I worked with more than a dozen Republican legislators to keep our schools open and stop the voucher plan to shift money from public schools to private schools. They and I knew what it would mean for the rural schools. The nonpartisan legislative services determined the first year alone would cost the public schools $79 million. This money would not go to those already in private school. It would go to 10,000 kids in public school and will not be enough to cover tuition. I want to continue the excellent relationship our communities have with our public and private schools and not pit them against each other. The conservative Heritage Group ranked Iowa ninth in school choice; there are already choices for families. I also want to lower costs for families. This can be achieved by lowering taxes for the average family instead of the super-rich and corporations; expanding affordable child care; creating more affordable housing; and creating good-paying renewable energy jobs while also lowering gas and utility costs. 4. What sets you apart from your opponent? The choice is clear this election. I believe in our democracy and common sense, not conspiracy theories. I believe in investing in our public schools to make us first in the nation again, not funnel dollars away from our kids. We need to fully fund mental health care and allow men and women to make their own health care decisions without interference from politicians. Climate change is real, and we should be implementing solutions for clean water and healthy soil. I believe in the separation of church and state. Unions made our country and economy strong. When Iowa workers make a living wage, all Iowans benefit. We are elected to represent all Iowans, not special interests or single issues, and no law should be passed that encourages bullying, prejudice, or marginalizes any segment of our population. And finally, we need to get rid of our first-in-the-nation status for puppy mills. 5. Ultimately, why should people vote for you? I have spent my career here in North Iowa working in our schools for our kids and families, and fighting for our way of life at the state Capitol. These past years you have honored me with your vote and your confidence in me to be your representative. I do not and will not take that trust lightly. I have worked hard to be a voice of moderation and accountability while in office. I have been open and transparent, and I am always available to help constituents navigate the bureaucracy to resolve their issues. I would appreciate your vote to continue to be your voice in Des Moines. Between the two districts he oversees as superintendent, Darwin Lehmann has three schools that received the second-highest performance rating, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education. Central Springs High School, Forest City Middle School, and Forest City Elementary School received "high-performing" ratings, according to the Department of Educations 2021-22 annual accountability report. In order to receive this rating, a school had to score 60.61-66.30. Only 163 schools in Iowa received this rating. "It's that whole mentality of getting better every day," said Lehmann. The Iowa School Performance Profile gives each school a rating based on several factors including standardized test scores, attendance, staff retention, graduation rates, and suspension rates. Each school receives a score up to 100 and is placed in one of six categories: exceptional, high performing, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement, and priority. The cut point for the needs improvement and priority categories were increased in 2022 to ensure Iowa continues to meet the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement of identifying at least 5% of Title I schools in need of comprehensive support and improvement, according to the Iowa Statewide Accountability System Information Guide. Central Springs school community marks start of FFA program The Central Springs community and students have planted the seeds for a new program this year: FFA. This is the first year since 2019 that new schools are being identified for additional support to meet requirements of ESSA. According to a press release, the U.S. Department of Education offered states flexibility from federal accountability requirements for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years due to the unique circumstances caused by the pandemic. Central Springs High School was rated high-performing with an overall score of 61.41 in last year's report. That score increased to 61.92 this year. North Iowa superintendents navigate school security With recent school violence in the headlines, North Iowa school districts are evaluating sec The high school increased language arts proficiency to 79.49%, but math proficiency dropped to 67.74%, both scores well above the state's language arts average of 70.84% and math average of 64.97. Lehmann said Central Springs knows there is room for improvement with math scores. "We are satisfied, but we are not content," said Lehmann. The rest of Central Springs schools received performance ratings of "commendable." Central Springs Middle School has above-average math and language arts proficiency scores. Ratings for both elementary schools were not available since there were "not enough variables", according to the state profile website. Lehmann said because state testing starts in third grade, there were not enough data points for those schools. Lehmann says the district is "very happy" with its numbers, adding that all the schools contribute toward the high school's performance. "It speaks volumes of our schools," Lehmann said. The two high-performing Forest City schools were considered "commendable" last year. Forest City Middle School has an overall score of 63.42 and Forest City Elementary School has a score of 61.19 in this year's report. Forest City Middle School saw a dramatic increase in math proficiency this year compared with the last report, going from a score of 69.05% to 82.35%. The reason? Putting in the right work while coming out of a difficult challenge, according to Lehmann. Forest City school board approves strategic staffing plan in split vote On Sept. 12, the Forest City school board approved a strategic staffing plan for the 2023-24 "All but one grade performed higher than the state average," said Lehmann. The superintendent believes the scores at both districts started with great staffs. From there it is about providing support to staff, the culture, and the work of students producing results. "I would hang our hat on our professional development and support to staff," said Lehmann. The profiles are meant to be a tool for parents, educators, and community members to understand how schools are performing but do not give the full story, Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo said in a statement. While the Iowa School Performance Profiles does not tell the full story about schools, the website provides important data to help schools with their improvement planning, identifying supports to address high-need areas and improving student outcomes going forward, said Lebo. Forest City schools induct Hall of Fame members, present service awards The Forest City Community School District marked the start of its 2022-23 school year with a Schools can use information from the profile to assist in developing achievement goals and to guide their improvement efforts, according to the Iowa Statewide Accountability System Information Guide. Lehmann said Forest City and Central Springs community members should keep in mind there are a lot of factors not in the profiles, like the social-emotional health of students. But Forest City and Central Springs should be happy. "I hope that they would be very proud of the staff and students," Lehmann says. Central Springs scores: Central Springs High School Performance rating: high performing Overall score: 61.92 Math proficiency: 67.97% Language arts proficiency: 79.49% Central Springs Middle School Performance rating: commendable Overall score: 55.51 Math proficiency: 72.79% Language arts proficiency: 78.72% Central Springs Elementary School - Nora Springs Performance rating: commendable Overall score: 55.51 Math proficiency: not enough variables Language arts proficiency: not enough variables Central Springs Elementary School - Manly Performance rating: commendable Overall score: 55.51 Math proficiency: not enough variables Language arts proficiency: not enough variables Forest City scores: Forest City High School Performance rating: commendable Overall score: 59.06 Math proficiency: 75.73% Language arts proficiency: 78.84% Forest City Middle School Performance rating: high performing Overall score: 63.42 Math proficiency: 82.35% Language arts proficiency: 78.57% Forest City Elementary School Performance rating: high performing Overall score: 61.19 Math proficiency: 82.35% Language arts proficiency: 76.32% For more information about Central Springs or Forest City Community School Districts school performance profiles or other school districts, go to www.iaschoolperformance.gov/ECP/Home/Index. A 43-year-old Danville woman pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to student loan fraud, the United States Department of Justice reports. Appearing in Roanoke, Karren Warren waived her right to be indicted, according to a news release. She pleaded guilty to one count of student loan fraud and one count of unlawful transfer or possession of identification affecting interstate commerce. She faces up to 15 years in prison. United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh of the Western District of Virginia made the announcement via news release. Authorities said she used personal information of others to submit and receive the fraudulent loans. From 2013 to 2018, according to court documents, she devised a scheme to defraud the United States Department of Education (USDOE), the American Public University System (APUS) and Capella University by preparing and submitting false FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms, the news release stated. The Department of Justice said she admitted to recruiting others to provide their personal information. In turn, she used those details to prepare and submit fraudulent enrollment applications. Once the financial aid was obtained, Warren enrolled the individuals, whose names had been submitted using the false FAFSAs, in online educational institutions. Most individuals enrolled in this manner either did not participate or withdrew from the courses, the release stated. Warren then converted the federal financial aid funds for her personal use, thus failing to use the funds solely for education-related expenses as required by USDOE. Prosecutors said she caused a loss of at least $264,000. The United States Department of Education and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlene R. Day is prosecuting the case. Achievers Cone Health Foundation, Guilford Countys largest health-specific philanthropy, has added new members to its board of directors: Laura Pratt, senior vice president and manager of commercial banking for the Triad, First Citizens Bank; and Jose A. Sandoval, assistant vice president, financial center manager with American National Bank and Trust Company. Cone Health Foundation also elected the following board officers: Chairwoman, Kim Gatling, partner, Fox Rothschild; vice-chairwoman, Kristen Yntema, president and CEO, AuthoraCare Collective; secretary, Dr. Kelly Leggett, clinical transformation officer, Cone Health; treasurer, Wilson Lester, managing partner, Partners in Equity. * * * * The North Carolina State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners approved 91 individuals for North Carolina CPA licensure on Oct. 24. Local individuals included: Timothy Brian Kearns and John Alexander Reda II, both of Greensboro; Katherine Lindsey Way of Liberty; and Evan Anthony Piccirillo of Summerfield. * * * * Randolph Community Colleges nursing program was recently ranked third in the state for 2023 by RegisteredNursing.org, an organization of RNs based in California whose mission is to promote excellence in nursing by enabling future and current nurses with the education and employment resources they need to succeed. It was the seventh nursing school and program rankings for the organization. Western Carolina University had the top program, while Central Piedmont Community College ranked second. For the complete list, visit www.registerednursing.org/state/north-carolina/. * * * * The North Carolina State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners has announced that 47 North Carolina candidates, including Jeremy Carl Truhel of Greensboro, passed the Uniform CPA Examination in September. * * * * Gov. Roy Cooper has appointed the following local individuals to the Andrea Harris Task Force: Adrienne Spinner of Whitsett as a member of the North Carolina Council for Women. Spinner is the director of organizing at the North Carolina Housing Coalition. Lenora Richardson Campbell of Greensboro as a member at-large. Campbell recently retired after serving as the dean of the college of health and human sciences at N.C. A&T. In June 2020, Cooper established the Andrea Harris Task Force to identify best practices to help create economic stability in disadvantaged communities, improve health and wellness in underserved areas, and achieve environmental justice. * * * * Law Firm Carolinas partner Michael Taliercio has been re-elected president of the American College of Parliamentary Lawyers. ACPL was created in 2007 to acknowledge attorneys who have distinguished themselves through contributions to the practice of parliamentary law, including lawyers that work with nonprofit associations, unions, HOA and condo associations, houses of worship, and governmental bodies. Taliercio is both an attorney and a professional registered parliamentarian with the National Association of Parliamentarians. * * * * Allegacy Federal Credit Union recently announced the appointment of Quintin Williams as associate board member. Williams comes to the associate board position with a bachelors degree from Wake Forest University and an MBA from High Point University. He is the chief operating officer at Debbies Staffing Services. Announcements Workout Anytime, a 185-plus unit leader in the fitness franchise industry, has signed an agreement to open a 24/7 club in Oak Ridge, Holly Springs and Walkertown with Oak Ridge marking the franchise brands 18th unit within North Carolina and its 45th location signed in 2022. We are thrilled to welcome Matt and Steve Pogue to the Workout Anytime family, said Terri Harof, director of franchise development at Workout Anytime. Workout Anytime plans to open 25 locations in 2022. Additionally, the brand is targeting Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Arizona for growth. The startup costs for a Workout Anytime franchise range from $967,350 to $2,071,550, including the franchise fee. For information, visit https://workoutanytimefranchise.com. * * * * Businesses struggling to find manufacturing, automotive or information technology employees are invited to learn about Randolph Countys local youth apprenticeship program, Apprenticeship Randolph. Randolph Community College is hosting a Randolph County Employer Interest Luncheon from noon to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the JB and Claire Davis Corporate Training Center on the Asheboro Campus. RSVP by Nov. 9 to Stacey Miller, director of apprenticeships and pathways, at 336-318-4958 or tinyurl.com/44cy9ykh. Awards Each year, UNCGs college of visual and performing arts honors a select group of alumni for their achievements in artistic performance, research and education. The Distinguished Alumni Award recipients represent excellence in art, dance, music and theater. This year, this award is being given to four distinguished alumni. Among the four is UNCG Professor Emerita of Dance Melinda Waegerle. In 1981, Weagerle earned her B.S. in dance education from UNCG, where she studied under Sue Stinson. She started her career as the first dance educator in the Durham City Public Schools. She was hired to teach dance in Guilford County Schools at Parkview Village Elementary School in 1994, where she was formally recognized as Teacher of the Year in 2000. * * * * Sofia Crisp was named the recipient of the 2022 NC Realtors Ben Ball Community Service Award during the recent NC Realtors Convention and Expo in Cherokee. Crisp currently works as the executive director of the Housing Consultants Group and will be the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association President in 2023. Also, Kathy Haines was named the recipient of the 2022 NC Realtors Region 5 Service Award at the same event. Haines currently works as a real estate agent with Kathy Haines Homes Powered by EXP and was a regional vice president for NCR during 2021-2022. * * * * Applied Systems, a global provider of cloud-based software, has awarded the 2022 Pinnacle Award to Towne Insurance Agency. As Applieds highest honor, the Pinnacle Awards recognize partnerships with Applied Systems and celebrate innovative use of technology in driving digital transformation, business success and partnership in creating a connected insurance experience. W. Douglas Russell is president and CEO of Towne Insurance. These are trailblazing organizations who are leading the way in delivering a more connected insurance experience by embracing digital technology that drives productivity, connectivity, intelligence, and value for their customers and business, said Taylor Rhodes, chief executive officer, Applied Systems, of the recipients of this years Pinnacle Awards. The award was presented to Towne Insurance at Applied Net 2022, the worlds largest gathering of independent agents, brokers, insurers and managing general agents, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. On the Move Joel Davis , who has led firefighting academies and provided North Carolina state firefighter certification for more than a decade, has been named the program director of fire protection technology for GTCC. High Point University has welcomed the following new faculty members: Wanek School of Natural Sciences Jeremy Whitson, assistant professor of biology; Yul E. Sim, instructor of biology; Prashant Waiker, instructor of biology and teaching postdoctoral scholar; and Jacob Brooks, visiting assistant professor of physics. Nido R. Qubein School of Communication Robin Lindner, assistant professor of the practice of strategic communication; Jeffrey Bullins, instructor of media production; Nicholas Buzzelli, instructor of strategic communication; and Matt Jenkins, assistant professor of the practice of strategic communication. Hayworth School of Arts and Design Jesse Galas, assistant professor of musical theater, and Brandon Wallace, assistant professor of technical theater. Earl N. Phillips School of Business Bradley Venable, assistant professor of the practice of supply chain management; Jason Williams, assistant professor of the practice of management; and Brandon Dragone, visiting instructor of economics. Stout School of Education Tina Johnson, associate professor of leadership studies; Jordan Widelock, assistant professor of educator preparation; Doris Brown, assistant professor of special education; Hilary Tanck, assistant professor of educator preparation; and Tara Shollenberger, assistant professor of leadership studies. School of Humanities and Behavioral Science Shannon Lalor, instructor of Latin American history; Carmen Calhoun, instructor of Spanish; Autumn Grosser, instructor of English; Jonathan Sorensen, visiting assistant professor of criminal justice; MaryEllen Martino, visiting instructor of English; Gordon Ballingrud, assistant professor of political science; Morgane Haesen, assistant professor of French; and Mark Plume , associate professor of sociology State health officials are reporting the first pediatric death from flu for the 2022-2023 flu season. A child in the eastern part of North Carolina recently died from complications associated with influenza infection, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced in a news release. Officials are not releasing the child's age or county of residence. This is the first pediatric flu death reported since February 2020. North Carolina has seen a rapid early rise in flu cases in recent weeks after two years of relatively low flu activity since the COVID-19 pandemic began, officials said. Locally, physicians have expressed concern about the high percentage of tests coming back positive for flu in children younger than 18. "We ended last week (Oct. 24 - Oct. 30) with a pediatric positivity rate of 36.7%" or 504 cases from 1,374 tests for children younger than 18 across all Cone Health locations, spokesman Doug Allred said Friday. "For this current partial week (Monday - Thursday), we are at a pediatric positivity rate of 44%" or 451 positive cases from 1025 tests, he said. Five adult flu-associated deaths have already been reported in North Carolina during this flu season, according to the DHHS news release. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu vaccination every year for everyone 6 months and older. In addition to being the best way to prevent infection with the flu, vaccination can also make illness milder for those who do get the flu. Early treatment with an antiviral drug can also help prevent flu infections from becoming more serious. Antiviral treatment works best if started soon after symptoms begin, state health officials said. Other precautions residents can take to protect against the spread of flu and other viruses include: Staying home when you are sick until you have been fever-free for at least 24 hours Washing your hands frequently, preferably with soap and water Covering your coughs and sneezes with a tissue and then discarding the tissue promptly For more information on flu and to find out where you can get a flu vaccination in your community, visit flu.ncdhhs.gov. An Orange County DWI conviction could be overturned after a higher court ruled the drivers 2019 arrest violated her Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure. The Oct. 18 decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals takes issue with the moment at which Durham resident Jessica Eagle submitted to an Orange County deputys authority before her Nov. 14, 2019, arrest. Orange County judges ruled that Eagle was able to leave until the moment when the deputy took her drivers license. However, the Appeals Court disagreed unanimously, with Judge Darren Jackson writing for the three-judge panel that the deputy actually detained, or seized, Eagle when the deputy parked her patrol car behind Eagles car and activated the blue lights. What started as a simple traffic stop could have escalated to something much worse, Jackson said in the ruling. Defendant made the only safe and reasonable choice available by remaining in her car at the scene. Citing a 2006 case, Jackson said Fourth Amendment rights are enforced through the exclusionary rule, which says evidence obtained from an unconstitutional search or seizure cannot be admitted in court. The ruling sends the case back to Orange County Superior Court, where the case could be dismissed or scheduled for a new trial. Court records showed Eagle only has a Jan. 23 court date on an unrelated charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Eagle is accused of assaulting a Chapel Hill man with a knife earlier this year, records showed. The News & Observers efforts to reach Eagles attorneys, James Rainsford and Cyrus Griswold, by phone and email were unsuccessful. Blue lights, DWI charges According to court documents, Eagle, a 29-year-old Durham resident, pulled up to the closed gate blocking the driveway of Maple View Agricultural Center west of Carrboro around 3:20 a.m. on Nov. 14. Orange County Sheriffs Deputy Rashida Belk, who was in the parking lot of the nearby Maple View Country Store, saw Eagles white sedan stop and slowly drove by to see if the driver was turning around. Belk then backed up her patrol car and pulled in about 10 feet behind Eagles car, court documents show. She turned on her blue lights, and sat in the car for a minute to give the license plate number to dispatchers. The ruling noted that Belk did not immediately exit the car to conduct a welfare check. In court, Belk conceded she thought Eagle was lost and did not see any crimes being committed or have reasonable suspicion to stop Eagle. She turned on the blue lights, Belk said, because it was dark and her cruiser was partly in the traffic lane on Dairyland Road. When Belk spoke with Eagle, there was a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle, the drivers eyes were red and glassy, and her speech was slurred, she said. Eagles blood-alcohol level nearly two hours later was 0.16 twice the states legal impairment limit. Eagle was charged with driving while impaired, and in July 2020, an Orange County District Court judge found her guilty. She appealed to Orange County Superior Court and filed a motion to suppress the evidence, citing an unconstitutional seizure. When driver submits to police Rainsford said in the motion that he did not cite enough case law during Eagles Superior Court trial to address when she submitted to the deputys authority and was seized, or detained as part of a legal process. Since her car was blocked from leaving, Eagle had no other effective way to signal submission, he said, and since the deputy did not have probable cause to stop Eagle, any evidence collected against her must be thrown out by the court. As a general matter, law enforcement officers do not seize individuals merely by approaching (them) on the street or in other public places and putting questions to them, Rainsford wrote, citing a 1968 Ohio court decision. In another case, he noted, U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter wrote in 2007 that what may amount to submission depends on what a person was doing before the show of authority: a fleeing man is not seized until he is physically overpowered, but one sitting in a chair may submit to authority by not getting up to run away. Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour denied Eagles motion in 2021, saying Eagle was engaging voluntarily with Belk until the deputy took her drivers license. The defendant in the Supreme Court case, Baddour argued, was a passenger in the car when the driver was stopped for a registration violation that did not exist. Belk also was not aggressive in approaching the car, indicating she did not initially plan to issue a citation or make an arrest, he said. Eagle later pleaded no contest to the DWI charge in Superior Court, which is not an admission of guilt, and received a 120-day suspended sentence and 12 months of supervised probation. She appealed the decision to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Judge says driver couldnt leave Writing for the Appeals Court, Jackson argued Oct. 18 that Eagle was not able to leave that night, because her car was positioned between the cruiser and the locked gate. A reasonable person also wouldnt leave once an officer turns on their blue lights, he said. The deputys actions, even if unintentional, violated her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, Jackson wrote. The prosecutions argument is not only illogical, but it is also potentially dangerous, he said. Given that this incident took place late at night in a rural area with no lighting, we do not know what would have happened if Defendant had reversed her car toward Deputy Belk or the patrol vehicle in an attempt to leave the scene, Jackson wrote. Perhaps Defendant might have hit Deputy Belks patrol vehicle. Or worse, Defendant might have accidentally struck Deputy Belk when she was approaching Defendants car door. Perhaps any attempt by Defendant to leave would have made Deputy Belk feel threatened, leading her to fire her sidearm, he wrote. Salvation Army Bell Ringers needed This holiday season the need is greater than ever as more and more people in our community fall into poverty. Christmas is typically the time we raise the most money for our neighbors in need. Our red kettle bell ringers play an essential role in our ability to serve families and children this time of year. Without the support of enough red kettle bell ringers there are many families and children who will lose their hope for a happy Christmas this year. Please consider volunteering in Helena to bring cheer and hope to others as a bell ringer; follow this link to sign up: www.helena.salvationarmy.org, or contact: Major Brian West at 818-408-1023, brian.west@usw.salvationarmy.org. Volunteers needed for Thanksgiving dinner The Salvation Army in Helena is hosting a sit-down Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Salvation Army Gymnasium. We are excited to bring our dinners back and serve the community a traditional, family-style, sit-down, Thanksgiving meal. If you are interested in volunteering to help cook, set-up, clean-up or serve, call our office at 406-442-8244 or email: brian.west@usw.salvationarmy.org. The event is hosted by Salvation Army leaders in Helena, Majors Brian and Iva West. Together they direct The Salvation Armys office in Helena, which provides a variety of essential services to local families and individuals in need throughout the region. Missouri River Brewing holding fundraiser Angel Fund will have a fundraiser at Missouri River Brewing in East Helena, Thursday, Nov. 10. Between 4 and 8 p.m., $1 from every drink will go to help local students purchase school supplies, clothing and winter coats. $500 scholarships available from RHM November is National Scholarship Month, and nonprofit Reach Higher Montana is celebrating all month long with its annual Stick with Scholarships Campaign. The campaign encourages all Montana high school students to place a student-designed Reach Higher Montana sticker on an appropriate surface, such as a water bottle or book cover, snap a photo, and share it on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. All participating students will be entered into a random drawing for one of six $500 scholarships. Students from Billings, Florence, Helena, Huntley Project, Libby, Plains, Roundup, and Whitefish, designed this years stickers, each receiving a scholarship award for their efforts. All Montana high school counselors have received a supply of stickers to share with students, and anyone who did not receive a sticker can contact Reach Higher Montana to request more (info@reachhighermontana.org). The Reach Higher Montana website provides access to a list of hundreds of scholarships for Montana students, and the organization posts new scholarship opportunities on its Facebook and Instagram pages every Thursday. For more information, please visit Reach Higher Montanas website, www.ReachHigherMontana.org. Breastfeeding basics topic of class 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, Nov. 15, from 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. 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. Please enter through the main church doors (facing the Cathedral) and proceed downstairs using the stairs or elevator. Montanas top game warden will retire later this month and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will advertise for a new enforcement chief. Dave Loewen, who was placed on administrative leave from FWP in July, will retire on Nov. 22, according to an email obtained by the Montana State News Bureau. A spokesperson for FWP confirmed the authenticity of the email but declined to comment further. The email was sent earlier this week by FWP Director Hank Worsech to agency staff. In addition to announcing Loewens retirement, the director wrote that the agency will be recruiting a new chief with the announcement posted to the states website Friday. The email also states that Lee Anderson, FWPs Region 1 supervisor, will be acting chief as of Friday and working remotely. While the agency would only confirm he was out of the office but still employed, Loewen told the Montana State News Bureau in late August that he was placed on administrative leave after bringing forth to the Director's Office my concerns of false rumors being spread, defamatory comments being made, and inappropriate communication being held between management-level staff and field staff, I in turn was placed on administrative leave for allegedly creating a hostile work environment for suggesting those responsible be held accountable. Loewen said in August he was confident he would be exonerated and return to lead FWPs law enforcement division. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Assistant Chief J.D. Douglas was named acting chief in July, but was then also listed as out of the office in August, the agency confirmed, for unspecified reasons. Douglas' status has not changed as of Friday, a spokesperson said. Douglas declined to comment in August when contacted by the Montana State News Bureau. Ron Howell, former assistant chief and legislative liaison for FWP, has served as acting chief since August. He has returned to his role as the liaison, a spokesperson said. Loewen became chief in 2017 following 17 years in the field including serving as sergeant for the Helena area. His hiring to FWPs top warden position came after an unusual labor settlement. He successfully challenged the hiring of Thomas Flowers for the chief job, with the Board of Personnel Appeals finding that Loewen had scored higher during the hiring process and should not have been passed over. Loewens and Douglas absence from their senior positions came during a structural change in the enforcement division. Each of FWPs seven administrative regions houses an investigator who investigates major wildlife-related crimes. Investigators had traditionally reported to each regional captain, but FWP centralized the regional investigators into the Special Investigative Unit under oversight from headquarters in Helena about two years ago. Douglas was the captain in charge of the unit until he was named assistant chief earlier this year. This summer, Worsech decided to move oversight of the investigators back to captains in the region. Election Day is around the corner, and one of the most fundamental rights we have as American citizens is the right to vote. With so much at stake this year, I encourage you to ask yourself the following: Who will push back against the Democrats reckless tax and spend agenda that has left Montana families choosing between gas or groceries? Who will defend our Montana way of life and protect our Second Amendment rights? Who will work to secure the southern border? And lastly, who will work to keep Montana, Montana? With these questions in mind, your choices are clear this election. For the first time in 30 years, Montanans will have not one, but two voices in the U.S. House of Representatives. For Montanas First Congressional District, Ryan Zinke is the right person to serve. As a fifth generation Montanan, Navy SEAL Commander, and former Interior Secretary under President Trump, Zinke knows how to fight for our Montana way of life, and he will go to work for you. Zinke will hold Joe Biden and his Administration accountable, he will work to lower prices, and he will stand up for our freedoms weve seen the Democrats try to destroy. For Montanas Second Congressional District, Congressman Matt Rosendale is the right choice. As Montanas current Congressman, he has stepped up to address the southern border crisis. After Rosendale went to the southern border to see the crisis firsthand, he introduced legislation to secure our border to stop the rise in crime and flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants that are flooding into our communities. In Congress, Rosendale will continue to promote American energy independence, stand with our veterans, and put America first. Taking back our country doesnt stop with the congressional races every race down the ballot is critical to keeping Montana, Montana. The outcome of the Montana Supreme Court race is going to have a major impact on the continued success of our great state. Montanans have been let down by our Supreme Court for far too long and liberal activist judge Ingrid Gustafson has been a part of it every step of the way. Gustafson has ignored her ethical obligations, refused to recuse herself in a case brought by her own employee, and even ruled in favor of her own campaign supporters without disclosing her conflict of interest. Unfortunately, her corrupt tactics dont stop there. Gustafson was given an F Rating by the Montana Chamber of Commerce for being bad for Montana businesses. She has continued to side with criminals instead of law enforcement officers and put dangerous criminals back on our streets while also being a threat to our Second Amendment rights. Montanans deserve a justice who will put people over personal interests and who will preserve the rule of law. Luckily, Montanans have the option to replace Gustafson on the bench by electing James Brown. As a fourth-generation Montanan and constitutional conservative, Brown is the right person for the job. Brown has fought to protect Montana farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. He will prop up Montanas small businesses and protect Montana jobs. Brown will support our Second Amendment, not infringe on our Constitutional rights, and he will stand with the brave men and women who keep our communities safe. There is a lot on the line this year, but this election is our chance to get our great nation back on track. The choice is clear: vote for Republican candidates. If you do, we can help keep Montana, Montana. Hunting season is here. Many hunters including me will head out this weekend in search of good times and a chance at harvesting Montanas publicly owned game. While afield Im often reminded of how lucky I am to hunt and to participate in the North American Model of Wildlife Management. This fuels my desire to preserve our traditions and opportunities and push back against efforts to privatize and commercialize our wildlife. Time afield also provides an opportunity for introspection. It's easy to point fingers, but it's important to look in the mirror and recognize how our actions and behavior as hunters play a role shaping the future. Here are six ways hunters can help to defend our hunting traditions: 1. Be Respectful and Ethical: Show some decency and follow the rules. Whether you're hunting public or private, know that it's often hunters who are our own worst enemies; poor behavior by a few can ruin opportunities for all. Help police our own ranks and respect the multiple-use aspect of our public lands. Ethical and respectful behavior from the hunting community will lead to more opportunities to access and hunt elk. Recognizing this, FWP recently launched a campaign aimed at improving hunting behavior and ethics, called Its Up To Us - Respect Access - Protect the Hunt. Learn more at fwp.mt.gov/itsuptous. 2. Be Neighborly: Ask for permission to access or hunt private lands. Knocking on doors and making phone calls are still worthwhile strategies, but be courteous, offer help in return, and if possible, start this process long before the hunting season; don't knock on doors early in the morning or late in the evening, and dont expect to receive permission the day you ask for it; plan ahead. It's important that hunters show landowners that were good neighbors. 3. Participate in Elk Management: Harvest a cow elk where needed. Theres an allure to bull hunting, but any elk is a trophy. If we expect public hunting to remain an effective form of wildlife management, then we need to do our part to help where needed, and in some places, that means killing some cow elk. Most of these needs and opportunities are concentrated on private only (see #2 above), but if your tag is valid for antlerless elk, be proud to fill your freezer with a tasty cow. I know I am. 4. Get Engaged: Join a hunting conservation organization. Volunteer your time to help carry out worthwhile missions. Show up when the Fish & Wildlife Commission, to the Private Lands Public Wildlife committee, or to the Land Board meetings. Call and write elected officials. Participate during comment periods. Make your voice heard. 5. Donate to a Cause You Believe In: Donating personal time is hard; trust me, as the volunteer board chair for the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, I get it. Sometimes a monetary gift can be just as helpful. I encourage you to donate to groups and causes that are fighting back against the privatization of Montanas wildlife, like the legal effort to Keep Elk Public. 6. Vote: A mentor of mine often says that 90% of Montanas hunting and fishing issues are decided on election day. Vote! And then after the election, get to know your elected representatives. Call or write them. Ask to sit down with them for coffee or a beer. These are ordinary Montanans just like us and building relationships with them and explaining what issues are important to you is incredibly important. Do this now, before the legislative session begins in January. Thank you for doing your part to make sure our hunting traditions remain now and well into the future. And best of luck in the elk woods. DECATUR The Decatur Board of Education has posted the recordings from closed sessions during which they discussed the Lincoln Park/Dennis School proposal in violation of the Open Meetings Act. The recordings are on the district website, www.dps61.org. Go to Our District, click on School Board, then click on School Board Meeting Documents 2022-2023 and the recordings will be at the top of the page. Decatur resident Lee Ann Clary contacted the Illinois Attorney General's Office to request a review of the closed meetings, held between October 2021 and June 2022, after the news broke in June that the board had been in talks with the Decatur Park District about buying Lincoln Park and building a new Dennis School building there. Ultimately, the park district board decided against selling the park to the school district after community members organized opposition to the plan. The Attorney General issued a decision on Sept. 30 that the discussions in closed sessions was a violation of the Open Meetings Act and ordered the school district to release the recordings of those meetings. The school board voted at its Nov. 1 meeting to do so today. The board's legal counsel, Brian Braun, said at that meeting that staff in his office had edited the closed meeting recordings to separate those discussions from other closed meeting business and the result was about three hours of recordings, which are the ones posted today. This story will be updated DECATUR Incumbent state Rep. Sue Scherer was the one of the final House votes for the SAFE-T Act in 2021. In sum, 60 House members voted in favor of the act, 50 voted in opposition, and three did not vote. Scherers was thus one of the deciding votes effectively passing the bill. Now, the Decatur Democrat is about to face a challenger who says it was Scherers SAFE-T Act vote that helped convince her to run. Lisa Smith, a political newcomer who ardently opposes the act, argues it will lead to multiple unintended consequences. With Election Day now just days away, the SAFE-T Act is its own battleground for both candidates. Meet the candidates According to her website, Scherer was born and raised in Decatur. She attended St. Teresa High School, later graduating with her bachelors degree from Illinois State University and her masters from Eastern Illinois University. Scherer is a full-time legislator who first took office in 2013. Previously, she worked as a teacher in the Decatur and Maroa-Forsyth school districts for over 30 years. Scherer serves on the Elementary & Secondary Education Appropriations, Higher Education, and Small Business Tech Innovation committees, among others. She is also the chairperson of the Elementary & Secondary Education: Administration, Licensing & Charter Schools committee. She has four children and eight grandchildren and lives in Decatur. Born in Brownstown, Smith is a pediatric nurse practitioner who practiced for 14 years in Decatur and now works in Springfield. She has not worked in politics or run for office before. She earned an associate degree from Lake Land College in 1988 and a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in 1992. She later graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a doctorate of nursing practice in 2003. Smith lives south of Mount Auburn, and some of her 10 children still attend Taylorville schools. Sparring over SAFE-T With local candidates, states attorneys and even the governor all recently sharing their input on the SAFE-T Act, the law has come to the forefront of nearly all Illinois races. Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act (SAFE-T Act) was passed by Democrats in the middle of the night in early January 2021. Much of the law has already gone into effect, aside from its most controversial element the "Pretrial Fairness Act," which effectively abolishes Illinois cash bail system starting in January. Democrats argue abolishing cash bail will help prevent people from being jailed solely because they lack the funds to bond out while awaiting trial for nonviolent or low-level offenses. The new system still allows judges the discretion to order pretrial detention under specific circumstances, considering factors like a defendants danger to the public as well as their flight risk. Smith said tackling crime is a priority for her. You know, nobody wants people just walking in and turning around and walking out if they have done a crime that is violent, and where they could be a danger to people, Smith said. I think what we should do is repeal and replace with something that takes the good parts of the act, puts it in there, and takes out the bad things that arent going to help, that are going to, you know, make our citizens unsafe, she said. Smith didnt name any particular provisions she would choose to remain in effect but said shes been in communication with multiple law enforcement officers regarding how the bills language would affect their jobs. Like many Republicans, one of Smiths core frustrations is that the bill was introduced in the middle of the night with little time for legislators to read it in its entirety. Legislators signed this thing without reading it and without knowing if it was a good bill or not, she said. Just putting it through, because they're rubber stamps for the Democrat Party. And that's what my opponent did. She's a rubber stamp for the Democrat party. For her part, Scherer stands by her vote. People don't seem to really understand that there's a lot of misinformation out there, she said. Something the SAFE-T Acts critics might misunderstand, Scherer said, is how the elimination of Illinois cash bail system could stand to help certain populations. The bill was made to make it more fair for everyone, she said. And people are acting like they're being punished by it. I feel like it's, it makes it more fair for (the) working class and the middle class and the poor. Under the cash bail system, she argued, lower income individuals might remain in pretrial detention for the same crimes a wealthier individual might be able to bond out on. For people to say that, you know, rapists are going to be running free, that is just, it's inciting unnecessary fear is what it's doing, she said. Still, Scherer said she would potentially support trailer bills that might further amend the SAFE-T Act. Like Smith, Scherer said she has met privately with local law enforcement officers and legal professionals regarding changes they may want to see to the law. In addition to clarifying the bills language, Scherer said she also hopes to see several other changes. She declined to specify which changes, though, as Democratic SAFE-T Act discussions are ongoing leading up to the legislatures veto session Nov. 15-17. With the negotiations going on, I want to just wait and see what's in the final (trailer bill), she said. And then at that point, if there's still things that I think need to be in there, you know, then I will be working behind the scenes to make sure that that is in place. A district drawn for Democrats Scherer and Smith are running in a district strategically drawn to favor Democrats. Illinois Democrats, who controlled the states post-Census redistricting process, carved down the district from its former size in attempts to secure a seat for Democrats downstate, an area overwhelmingly represented by Republicans. The long, thin district stretches from the urban cores of Springfield to Decatur and features much unincorporated land in between. The current 96th District is even more compact than it was before, with its southernmost border now raised to exclude rural communities like Kincaid, Edinburg, Stonington and Blue Mound. According to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, the 96th District has an estimated Democratic vote share of 60.20%. The project gave Illinois final State House map an F grade for geographic features, suggesting it features too many non-compact districts and more county splits than typical. The General Assembly really divided up Macon County, Macon County Clerk Josh Tanner told the Herald & Review. We have five state reps, three state senators, two Congressional districts. And not only that, but the boundaries don't even follow precinct boundaries. So in the very same polling place, in the same precinct, you could have some individuals voting for one Congressperson and some individuals voting for another Congressperson. It really confuses the voters when we have that many districts in the county, he said. The 96th is the only contested House race in Macon County. William Hauter, R-Morton, in the 87th; Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, in the 88th; Tim Butler, R-Springfield, in the 95th; and Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, in the 107th are all running unopposed. The candidates other top issues Both candidates hope to tackle a number of other issues if elected. Smith said shes concerned about Illinois economic health and wants to ease the burdens of property taxes on Illinois homeowners. Were in a recession, she said. People are hurting. An NRA member, Smith said she is in support of expanding local police forces and criticized state law enforcement mandates that dont also provide funding. Smith also identifies as anti-abortion. She said she opposes Illinois far-reaching abortion laws and would vote against any pro-abortion legislation. In addition to pursuing potential changes to the SAFE-T Act, Scherer said she is also working on two new bills she hopes to pass in the upcoming legislative session one that would help foster parents maintain access to SNAP and other social benefits and another relating to election accessibility services for elderly and/or disabled voters. According to her website, Scherer is also concerned with fighting for equitable funding for local schools, and cutting wasteful spending while protecting critical programs and services for seniors, veterans, students, and middle-class families. DECATUR On Friday morning, Nanette Frank, 69, from Decatur, sat in her car waiting for a short line of cars to move during the Macon County Health Departments Drive-thru Flu Clinic. They have the shot for seniors, she said about her choice of where she got her flu vaccine. Fluzone High Dose was given to patients ages 65 and older, as well as the Flublok vaccine for those 18 through 64 years of age. Other Decatur locations are administering the special immunization. But they weren't sure what their stock was going to be, Frank said. When she called the Macon County Health Department to schedule an appointment, Frank was told about the drive-thru clinic. She decided to wait for her flu shot, since she was comfortable with the staff, having recently received a shingles vaccine. Theyve always been very professional, Frank said. They do this a lot for the community. Frank and her husband recently returned from Virginia where they received the COVID vaccine. We would wait 30 minutes to an hour in a line, she said, noting the wait of less than 10 minutes in the Macon County Health Department parking lot. So this isnt so bad. According to Director of Clinical Nursing Rachel Deerwester, the health department had ample supply of the vaccine for anyone interested. As many as the community needs, she said. To reduce the risk of hospitalizations and to reduce the spread of the illness, the Illinois Department of Public Health recommends flu vaccinations for children, older adults and people with chronic health conditions. Macon Countys true seasonal statistics are too early to assess, Deerwester said. But we have already started seeing Influenza A cases here in Macon County. The drive-thru clinic has been beneficial for the patients as well as the health department staff. It eliminates the need for an appointment and allows members of the community to come at a time that works best for them, said Assistant Director of Clinical Nursing Amber Holthaus. We are also working hard to decrease congestion in our building with COVID and the flu circulating. We want to protect our patients as much as we can. Decatur resident Valerie Shelby, 58, admitted she usually gets her flu vaccine from her employer, the Decatur School District. Although the opportunity had slipped by her, she knew it was important to get the shot. My mom is 80, and I dont want to get sick, Shelby said. And dont want to be around the kids and sick. DECATUR Police said a Decatur man is jailed after he opened fire at a womans car in a bar parking lot, shooting six bullet holes into the vehicle and putting the terrified victim in fear of her life. A sworn affidavit said the attack had happened the night of Oct. 25 and Decatur police found and arrested the 25-year-old suspect at 2 a.m. Thursday. He was booked on preliminary charges of the aggravated discharge of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. The affidavit, signed by Officer Philp Ganley, said the female victim had been sitting in her car eating food while the vehicle was parked outside 22nd Discount Liquor at 1325 N. 22nd St. She is quoted as telling police she had been in the bar earlier and noticed her ex-girlfriend, whom she said she has no problems with, was also there. She had then seen the man arrive and recognized him as the person who is now dating her former girlfriend. Later, while sitting in her car, she said she saw the man walk past her vehicle. (She) then observed (him) walk towards the back of her vehicle and begin to fire an unknown amount of shots at her vehicle, said Ganley. She advised she did not know why he was trying to shoot her The victim sped away and alerted a female bartender (who had already heard the shots) to call police after telling her the man had just shot at her vehicle and tried to kill her, Ganley said. Officers observed approximately six bullet holes to the back driver side door and window of the Cadillac. Officers located two bullet fragments inside the vehicle on the back passenger floorboard and in between the drivers seat and the door. Ganley said the man is a felon with convictions for offenses ranging from burglary to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and is not allowed to own a firearm. A check of Macon County Jail records Thursday showed he remained in custody with bail set at $200,000, requiring him to post a bond of $20,000 to be released. All preliminary charges are subject to review by the office of the states attorney. DECATUR A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the August murder of Arrion L. McClelland. In a news release issued Friday, Decatur police Sgt. Adam Jahraus said Omari C. Walker was taken into custody Thursday in Indianapolis. He is awaiting extradition to Macon County. He was was being sought on a preliminary charge of first degree murder in the shooting death of McClelland, 24, who died in hospital from his wounds in the early hours of Aug. 14. McClelland was found by police patrol officers after they responded to the area of the 1100 block of West Wood Street around 3:50 a.m. and then heard gunshots nearby. Police have already arrested Dionte A. Robinson and Kyle Escoe. Robinson, 24, was arrested after being intercepted by members of the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force. He has been charged with three counts of murder, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm. A pretrial hearing has been set for Feb. 2. He remains jailed on $2 million bail. Escoe, 18, was taken into custody by Chicago police on preliminary murder charges. No additional information on his status was available. Preliminary charges are subject to review by the state's attorney's office. Jahraus said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call Detective Massey at 217-424-2734 or Crime Stoppers at 217-423-TIPS. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 79F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A mostly clear sky. Low around 45F. NW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. A chorus of groans came from some of the first of approximately 75 local citizens leaving the Bristol Train Station Thursday night as the sickly sweet smell of the Bristol, Virginia, landfill reminded them of the fight that remained. Well, that just takes the cake, one lady said after smelling the emissions while walking to the parking lot after the hour-and-20-minute meeting filled with information from community volunteer engineers and activists concerning the citys plans to close the landfill and end the smells for good. The meeting, the first in more than a year, was sponsored by the Bristol Area Ministerial Association, or BAMA, and HOPE for Bristol. Unlike the first gathering in October of 2021 when there was no set plan in place and the group of citizens was struggling to call attention to the night emissions they call The Beast, this meeting had the tone of a group generally pleased with the direction the fight has taken them. This meeting was to explain how the groups were now tasking themselves with making sure the city does what it says it is going to do to make the two-year-old community plague just a bad memory. We are here tonight to fairly and objectively assess where we are in regards to the landfill. Where the city has done well, we are going to admit it, BAMA member and First Baptist Church Senior Pastor Kris Aaron said at the beginning of the meeting. Where the city still has a lot to do, we are going to be honest with you about that. HOPE volunteer Becky Everden presented a series of measurements to quarterly gauge the success the city makes toward closing the landfill and eventually controlling the emissions. Bristol has so much to do at the landfill. It is almost an overwhelming amount, Everden said. The measurements called, Gauging Success uses gauges that moves from red to green to track the citys process toward tracking objectives on everything from the process of capturing the emissions escaping along the sidewalls of the quarry to the gas collection system to communication. In all, there are five different categories HOPE will track as the closure process moves forward. While the group was generally pleased with the 10 recommendations from an expert panel that led to the landfill to discontinue accepting waste on Sept. 9 and begin a years-long process of closing the 20-acre quarry landfill, there remained some frustration with the politics and legal wranglings resulting from the debate surrounding the closure. I dont understand hiding behind a veil of litigation, or potential litigation if youve done nothing wrong. Thats a BS excuse. I dont understand not providing relief in the form of air purifiers, replacement filters or weatherization to citizens for a problem you have caused. I dont understand. If you have done nothing wrong, why would you not do that? How can you in your heart sleep at night if you cannot do those things? I dont understand, Joel Kellogg of HOPE for Bristol told the group in response to a question about why everybody hasnt agreed to fix the problem. The questions referenced the consent order from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality the city has not agreed to causing the DEQ to refer the issue to the Virginia attorney generals office. For over a year, the political BS. The legal BS, just the BS while our residents suffer on a daily basis. It just floors me. I cannot believe people would allow this to happen who have the ability to make the change. Dr. Dan Firth and Dr. Don Evans along with Everden formed a panel of community volunteer experts to help answer questions from the public ranging from the effect on the emissions from work being done at the landfill to any potential health effects or groundwater issues. The Rev. Jackie Nophlin, the president of BAMA and the pastor of the Household of Faith Community Church in Bristol, said working together as a community can help the group realize its goal of being able to breathe freely again in Bristol. One day we will be able to celebrate together that we have fresh air, Nophlin said. A former Hickory CEO is set to spend eight years in federal prison for embezzling more than $15 million from the company she once headed. Donna Osowitt Steele, 53, received her sentence Thursday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Charlotte. In addition to the prison term, Judge Kenneth Bell also ordered Steele to pay nearly $17 million in restitution, and she is required to stay on supervised release for three years following her active sentence. In handing down the sentence, Bell dismissed Steeles bid for leniency as excuse-making and said he doubted she was truly remorseful for her actions. Standing before Bell, Steele said: I am completely broken by my actions, my choice and my past. Steele was joined in the courtroom by four rows of family and friends. Being remorseful, in our opinion, would start with a check, TIGRA CEO Bernd Motzer, who came from Germany to speak to the court, said. He said the embezzlement nearly bankrupted the company, and that it is still stuck with millions in debt. Motzer was joined in the courtroom by about a dozen TIGRA employees. Steele, who is from Taylorsville, previously served as the CEO of TIGRA USA in Hickory, an American branch of a German-based tool company. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud in January, acknowledging she stole more than $15 million from the company. Steele used some of the money to fund a craving for luxury clothing and accessories, including spending more than $500,000 on jewelry alone and high-end purchases in New York City at stores that included Sephora and Ted Baker. Steele spent more than $1 million on personal travel, according to court documents. She also siphoned off money from the company to support her side businesses. Steele had earlier agreed to pay restitution. She agreed to start early repayment in March. A motion filed by the prosecution last week listed the agreed-upon restitution amount at roughly $16.9 million and included a nearly 2-page list of jewelry and accessories the government has seized. Attorneys hired by Steele asked for a five-year prison sentence along with supervised release while prosecutors sought a prison sentence between 70 and 87 months a range of roughly six years to a little more than seven years. In pushing for a relatively lenient sentence, Steeles attorneys argued that her mental health challenges, particularly a desire to buy love as a result of an abusive childhood, contributed to her embezzlement. Steele is undergoing treatment for her mental health problems, according to a letter from a therapist. The attorneys also faulted TIGRA. They noted the company hired and promoted Steele despite her lack of education and the fact she was on supervised release after serving a federal prison sentence for personally cashing checks from another business. The attorneys also claimed the corporate culture at TIGRA brought out the worst in Steele. The attorneys said that TIGRAs work environment was one where drinking was a big part of the culture and executives would hold meetings at a nude spa in Germany and subject Steele to sexual innuendo. Prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo that Steele went to great lengths to disguise her illicit activity by opening accounts in the companys name without the owners knowledge and pushing through transactions after they had been flagged as potentially inappropriate. Prosecutors also wrote that Steele created a wedge between employees and the German ownership. The memo said she blamed the owners for financial irregularities such as lapses in health insurance coverage and late paychecks. Steeles detractors and supporters submitted letters to the court seeking to influence the sentence. Among those arguing for a harsher sentence were employees who worked under Steele, one of whom wrote, We were all pawns in Donnas game. Those writing in support of Steele included her family members and representatives of a prison ministry Steele has worked with. Her supporters said she had taken responsibility for her actions. The sanctuary was warm and illuminated with soft yellow lights, a pleasant contrast to the cold drizzle falling outside. Upbeat gospel music played through the speakers as people gathered and talked before the service was set to begin. Mount Zion Baptist Church in Hickory hosted a candlelight vigil on Wednesday night to pray for the community. The nearly two-hour vigil was a follow-up to a vigil the church hosted in July following a wave of shootings in the Ridgeview community the month before. Several of those shootings involved young people, both as victims and suspects. There were two fatal shootings in the community in June, one claiming the life of 18-year-old Deveion Grayson and a second that killed 35-year-old Shonniel Blackburn. A 12-year-old boy was also injured in a shooting. Five teens are charged in Blackburns shooting death, as well as one adult. We live in a world where a gun is the first response of defense, Mount Zion Baptist Church Associate Minister Christopher Nivens said. No one throws hands or argues and agrees to disagree and walks away anymore. Nivens referenced the recent shooting death of Takeoff, a member of the rap group Migos, and a mass shooting in Chicago on Halloween night that injured at least 14 people, including three children. I am not the first Black minister to stand and implore change, nor will I be the last, Nivens said. Until it crosses ethnic backgrounds and crosses over the train tracks, we will continue to have these rallies and vigils to invoke change, because it is not an everybody problem right now. Between the prayers, a community choir consisting of members from four local churches led praise songs as the congregation clapped, cheered, sang and danced. The choir was formed as a symbol of unity with the Ridgeview community, Dyanne Sherrill, of Mount Zion, said. Exodus Missionary Outreach United Church of Christ, Morning Star Baptist Church, Mount Zion Baptist Church and Mt. Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church were represented in the choir, Sherrill said. At the end of the vigil, the sanctuary lights were turned off and the people in attendance turned on battery-powered tea light candles. Everyone raised the flameless candles above their heads, swayed their hands and sang a worship song about gratefulness. In a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, there is one true fact. Once nuclear weapons are used, there is no taking them back. No putting the genie back in the bottle. The use of nuclear weapons is an extremely scary proposition. It is true now, and it was true in 1962. On Oct. 16, 1962, President John Kennedy was briefed by national security adviser McGeorge Bundy about new Soviet missile sites in Cuba. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who vowed never to place offensive missiles in Cuba, had challenged Kennedy by doing so. Secret photographs taken by U-2 high-altitude spy planes revealed at least six missile sites in Cuba, about 90 miles away from the American mainland. The photographs also showed numerous Soviet bombers stationed there. Each Soviet warhead could deliver as much power as 1 million tons of TNT. By 1962, the United States held 25,000-plus nuclear weapons in its arsenal. The Soviets did not have half that number even though Kennedy had won the 1960 election in part because of a perceived missile gap. The American discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba seemed to contradict Khrushchevs recent promise not to send offensive weapons there. But, the year before, tensions had exploded between the two superpowers due to the failed CIA-led attempt to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Khrushchevs son later said it was his fathers idea to place the missiles so close to the United States. According to historian Mark White, The issue of how to remove Russian missiles in October 1962, while maintaining the peace, represented the greatest challenge of John F. Kennedys presidency. As the news spread of the discovery of the missiles, one overriding question Kennedy and his security team faced was whether to bomb the missile sites. The president quickly organized a 12-man group of advisers to recommend appropriate responses for the situation. The group, known as EXCOMM (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) began to discuss possible solutions to the crisis. The presidents brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, later wrote about these deliberations in a book, Thirteen Days. While somewhat self-serving, the book does provide a look into some of the issues discussed during those days. The EXCOMM knew the president could not appear soft on communism and debated bombing the missile sites, invading the island and attacking Cuba with low-level nuclear bombs. Eventually, the president and others suggested placing a naval quarantine around Cuba and demanding that the Soviets remove the missiles. On Oct. 22, 1962, Kennedy asked for national air time to address the American people on the situation: Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. He told the people any missile launched from Cuba would be considered an attack and an act of war against the United States. At a time when American bombers were flying nonstop over Europe in possible preparation for an airstrike on Cuba, the mood of the country was tense. People waited to see if the Soviets would honor the quarantine by turning their missile ships bound for Cuba away from the island. On Oct. 26, 1962, Kennedy was deep in planning a possible invasion in Cuba if the Soviets did not withdraw the missiles. He also sent his brother to meet with the Soviet ambassador in Washington the following day. In the end, the Soviet ships did not break the naval quarantine of Cuba, and their missiles were removed after a secret promise from Kennedy to have American missiles removed from Turkey. As Secretary of State Dean Rusk would later say, We were eyeball to eyeball, and the other guy just blinked. Yet those days were tense as well as masterful for the Kennedy administration. The following summer, the two superpowers signed the first nuclear test ban treaty that prohibited above ground nuclear testing. Politically, in going to the brink of war, each leader proved his abilities with his own people and the topic of peace was interjected into Cold War discussions. However, the crisis did not stop the military and nuclear buildup for either country. Reflecting on the moment many years later, songwriter Billy Joel, described what it was like to live through the Cold War crisis: But children lived in Levittown/and hid in shelters underground/Until the Soviets turned their ships around/and tore the Cuban missiles down/And in that bright October sun/we knew our childhood days were done. The Cuban missile crisis was the high-water mark of Kennedys presidency. He showed his political skills and his diplomacy in helping to avoid nuclear war when as many as 80 million American lives were at stake. While the FBI has received its share of criticism in certain political circles, I will say this: Agents did a fine job tracking down my $1.2 million. This week, I received an email from Nicholas Dimos, an assistant director for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Thats what it said, though it was obviously not from Assistant Director Nicholas Dimos. Of the hundreds of email scams Ive received over the years, this was among the most pathetically transparent yet audaciously creative Ive had the pleasure to read. It begins by catching me up on international happenings. Series of meetings have been held over the past 4 months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. At some point, those overseeing these high-level summits determined I was owed $1.2 million. Sounds legit. Assistant Director Dimos explained I deserved the money due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reasons and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund. The assistant director certainly has a way with words. In case I was skeptical, he assured me various international agencies have successfully passed a mandate to the current president of United States Of America His Excellency President Joe Biden to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts Thats pretty convincing. If United States of America His Excellency President Joe Biden is for it, Im all in. I can use the money to pay off my student loans and fill up with gas. With a little research I learned the FBI email scam is a common one. The bureau has issued warnings about them for decades. The schemes cover a range from threat and extortion e-mails, website monitoring containing malicious computer program attachments (malware), and online auction scams, the FBI said in 2008 news release. The social engineering technique of utilizing the FBIs name is to intimidate and convince the recipient the e-mail is legitimate. The FBI does not send out e-mails soliciting personal information from citizens. My email contained no threats, just a promise that if I paid a $270 processing fee and contacted Agent Brian T. Gilhooly at his Gmail address I would get my cash. (Im not sure when the FBI switched over to Gmail, but Im certain its more secure than its previous Hotmail accounts.) Instead, I replied to the original email: Nic: Its wonderful to hear from you. Congratulations on the assistant directorship. You deserve it. Whenever they said, That Dimos kid will never amount to anything I always said, You wait and see. The boys got moxie! "First, I want you to tell the fellows down at the bureau how proud I am of them for finding my $1.2 million. And Im glad to see youve got Gilhooly on the case. Hes a good man. Reminds me of a young J. Edgar, right down to the high heels. "Nic, in addition to picking up my $1.2 million, which I prefer in small bills, I want to offer my services to both you and United States Of America His Excellency President Joe Biden. I am willing to participate in an undercover operation to root out, as you so succinctly described them, those corrupt governmental officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reasons and some individuals who have taken advantage of my fund all in an attempt to swindle my fund which has led to so many losses from my end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of my fund. I have yet to hear back. The assistant director must be mulling it over with Gilhooly. The practice of lying in state began in the United States with Henry Clay, a Congressman and U.S. Secretary of State from Kentucky known as "The Great Compromiser." During much of Clay's life, the country was almost literally sectioned off, at odds over the question of slavery. Clay pushed through legislation to quell secession talk and to avoid civil war. (On his tombstone are these words: "I know no North no South no East no West.") He died on June 29, 1852, and lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda on July 1, 1852. Why was no one honored in this way before Clay? One reason: The Capitol wasn't completed until 1824. Advertisement Today, the honor is reserved for the nation's "most eminent citizens," according to the Architect of the Capitol, the agency charged with the stewardship of all the buildings and the 570 acres (231 hectares) of Capitol Hill grounds. According to custom and regulations, government officials presidents, members of Congress and some military figures lie "in state." The honor is not automatically extended to anyone except presidents and former presidents, and not everyone entitled to honor has it accepted by their survivors. Notable private citizens, too, sometimes get a rest in the Rotunda before burial, but they are said to lie "in honor." Coffins are placed in the Rotunda (the central part of the Capitol) under the Capitol Dome, often on a 2-foot-high (0.7-meters-high) catafalque made of pine, originally used to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln catafalque is not used for those lying in honor. Not all members of Congress who pass away, or all presidents, are afforded the honor of lying in state. The last Congressperson before Cummings and Lewis to lie in state was Senator John McCain, and he was only the 13th senator to do so. Before McCain it was Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who lay in state in 2012. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks is the first woman to lie in honor. Parks was a private citizen, not a government official, so she was considered to be "lying in honor" rather than "lying in state." She is still just one of only four civilians who have been bestowed this honor. That was in 2005. Congress has to propose and approve of the honor, either by pushing through a resolution or simply by having leadership agree to it. (Most often, no resolution is needed.) Once Congress decides on the honor, a whole cadre of people are set loose to get the Rotunda which is open to the public on most days ready. From the Architect of the Capitol: When the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is notified that a ceremony will occur, our team begins fabricating a wooden catafalque, a stand to hold the casket. Ceremonial stanchions are cleaned and polished, the floors of the Rotunda are buffed and waxed, stone entrances to the U.S. Capitol Building are power washed, and lamps and other lighting is checked. The evening before the ceremony, which is hosted by congressional leadership, the AOC installs ceremonial stanchions, chairs, podium and media risers. A viewing queue is established and staffed within the Capitol Visitor Center and tables with condolence books put in place. Electrical and sound requirements are met and tested including microphones on the podium and event lighting. Historically, the body has remained in the Rotunda for a period determined by Congressional leadership. Usually, it's a day or two. Diesel is the fuel of both business and commerce. The question is, Will the U.S. have enough of this all-important fuel? In late October, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese commented that the United States had a 25-day supply of diesel. That is the lowest inventory since 2008. Deese made those comments based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As shown in the chart Weekly U.S. Days of Supply Total Distillate, a 25-day supply isnt exactly cause for alarm. Since the early 1990s, distillate has fluctuated from roughly a low of a 25-day supply to a high of a mid-50-day supply during the height of the pandemic. That 25-day supply merely indicates that if all refineries stopped refining diesel, and if all importers quit importing diesel, the United States has 25 days of inventory. No such claim has been made that refineries are shutting down and that importers will no longer import fuel, so diesel supplies appear to be relatively secure. However, a reason for alarm on the diesel situation would be the ongoing supply chain hiccups in other sectors due to the pandemic. One example of this thats top of mind is the baby formula shortage that began in May 2022 when out-of-stock rates pushed into the 40% range and then surged to over 70%. That situation devolved into a critical matter rather quickly. Then theres the matter that some European refineries have experienced outages due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. That is limiting diesel inventories. In addition, diesel and home heating fuel are essentially interchangeable products, and the winter heating season is also placing strain on supplies. All of these concerns mean that diesel inventories are a situation that warrants continued and close monitoring. Price is up One thing is for certain, diesel is carrying a hefty price tag as shown in the chart On-highway diesel fuel prices. Its a simple interaction between supply and demand. Demand is presently outstripping supply. Beginning in May, on-highway diesel fuel moved into the $5 range, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Diesel peaked at $5.75 per gallon in July, as shown in the graph below. As a point of reference, on-highway diesel averaged $3.29 per gallon in 2021 and just $2.55 per gallon in 2020. Of course, on-highway diesel is more expensive than diesel used on farms. Vehicles that operate on roadways pay 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel. The rates vary on state taxes. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates that average state tax is 33.45 cents per gallon for diesel. To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com. (c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022 November 3, 2022 Elon Musk will begin mass layoffs at Twitter on Friday, significantly reducing the number of employees at the social media platform, the company said in an email sent to employees on Thursday. In order to get Twitter back on a healthy path, we will be going through the difficult process of global downsizing on Friday, the email read. According to the announcement, all employees will receive an e-mail today: those who keep their jobs will receive the message on their work account, and employees will be notified of the dismissal on their personal account. Employees were reminded not to disclose confidential company information on social media or to speak to the press. According to industry reports, the new owner of Twitter, Musk, may fire roughly half of the workers, which may affect a lot of people, since the company had more than seven thousand employees at the end of last year. By the way, Musk told investors that 75 percent of the employees, more than 6,000 people, had to be let go before closing the 44 billion dollar deal, which dragged on for many months. Later, however, communicating with the employees, he indicated that this number would be too high. After the handover, Musk fired the entire company management, after the American billionaire sees the entire management of Twitter in one person. (Guardians) Earthquake in Turkey According to the Turkish Disaster Management Agency (AFAD), the epicenter of the 4.9-magnitude earthquake was in the Buca district of Izmir and occurred at 3:29 a.m. local time. At least two people were injured after they jumped from a height in fear after leaving their home, Interior Minister Sulejman Soylu announced on the social networking site Twitter. Izmir Mayor Tunc Soyer said there were no reports of major damage other than the fallen minaret. Apart from the panic, fear and alarm of the residents, we did not receive any negative reports Soyer told HaberTurk television. The earthquake occurred days after Izmir commemorated the victims of the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that killed 117 people on October 30, 2020. Turkey lies on major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. In 1999, the strong earthquakes that hit the northwestern part of Turkey killed around 18,000 people. The earth moved in the Pacific Ocean According to the environmental protection minister of the Central American country of El Salvador, a magnitude 6 earthquake shook his country. The earth moved in the Pacific Ocean at 10:26 p.m. local time on Thursday night, at a depth of 41 kilometers, 37 kilometers south of Playa Mizata in the western part of the country, according to the statement, which did not mention any casualties or material damage. President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter that the earthquake did not cause any damage in the country, the army and the police did not report anything new. There is nothing new on the beach. The main routes were not damaged. The earthquake did not seem to cause any damage he added. According to local media reports, the tremor could be felt across the country, with some fleeing their homes in the middle of the night. The earthquake was also felt in neighboring Guatemala, and the local authorities are not aware of any casualties or damage. In Central America, where three tectonic plates meet, there is a high risk of earthquakes. Cover image source: Getty Images GJEPC promotes IIJS Signature in Nepal By Isabelle Crossley Published Nov 4, 2022 The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council has launched international visitor registration for its India International Jewellery Show. In order to promote the upcoming trade show, the travelled to Nepal to meet with jewellers and organisations in the country. GJEPC members at a recent Banking Summit - GJEPC - India- Facebook A group of GJEPC officials visited Nepal and extended an invitation to the Federation of Nepal Gold, Silver, Gem, and Jewellery Associations to take part in IIJS Signature in January, the GJEPC reported on its website. The delegation met with the organisations chairman Suresh Shrestha, vice chairman Ram Prasad Bishwokarma, and other office bearers to discuss the upcoming trade show, its new features for 2023, and how it could boost the Nepali jewellery industry. The GJEPC will hold its next edition of IIJS Signature from January 5 to 9, 2023. The trade show will feature a wide range of fine jewellery categories including gold and diamond jewellery, precious gemstone jewellery, and related products from manufacturing businesses across India. Focused on showcasing the Indian jewellery industry to international buyers, the trade show is designed to enable Indian businesses to expand their international distribution networks. The 2023 edition of IIJS Signature will be its first five-day edition and will feature more than 2,500 stalls with over 1,300 participating exhibitors, according to the GJEPC. The trade show will be spread over an area measuring over 65,000 square metres at venue the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai and is expected to draw a crowd of over 32,000 visitors from the international jewellery industry. CHARLESTON Supporters of HOPE of East Central Illinois gathered to shed light on the impacts of domestic violence with a candlelight vigil. HOPE kicked off its two-hour event Thursday night with a musical performance from local band Halo as attendees were welcome to view T-shirts domestic violence survivors decorated to share their experiences. This was followed by survivors sharing their stories and the reading of names of those who died as a result of domestic abuse. Kelly Hardy, HOPE executive director, said she was happy with the turnout of the event because she saw many faces she recognized as strong supporters of domestic violence victims. "I think it was a smaller crowd than what we were expecting, but I think that it is a crowd of people who are dedicated to supporting our mission and we're appreciative that people came out and joined us," Hardy said. Rachel Heicher, HOPE director of community engagement, was the main organizer for the event. She said she also was happy with the size of the crowd,saying it was "personal and more intimate in a way." Heciher said it is important to have events discussing domestic violence because it can shake the idea that domestic violence does not happen in small communities like Coles County. "I think a lot of people tend to think it's something that doesn't happen here or that when it happens it's not to people like them," Heicher said. "I think it's really important that we say the names and that we recognize that it does happen here, that it happens everywhere. Domestic violence doesn't discriminate. It happens to people of all types." Abby Haughee, who performed ahead of the vigil and previously worked with victims of domestic violence, said she was happy attend. "It's an important event and we want to support HOPE and everything they do," Haughee said. Hardy said she hopes people took away the idea of community after the event. "It's important to know that you're not alone, there's a community of people here to support you," Hardy said. Heicher said she hopes people remember what HOPE does for those affected by domestic violence and what they can do to also support those individuals. "Our mission is to empower persons to live nonviolent, independent lives through the provisions of housing, outreach, prevention and education. I think what we do more than empowering people is we help them empower themselves, and we help them find the strength that they have within themselves to help them remove as many of the barriers to independent nonviolent living as we can," Heicher said. "Domestic violence is everyone's business. It's not a private matter or a family matter, it's a public health matter and we're all in it together." NASA announced recently its new panel to study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena -- i.e., UFOs -- was staffed up and ready to get working. The panel is impressive, including planetary scientists, astrophysicists, experts from the Federal Aviation Administration, data scientists and a celebrated astronaut. I have worked with a few of these scientists, and the group represents a stellar collection (pun intended) of smart, creative people with high scientific integrity. But what exactly are these scientists supposed to be doing in the contentious domain of UFOs? More important, is this really something that NASA should give time and money, potentially risking the agencys credibility? The truth is, this groups nine-month study is unlikely to determine conclusively what these phenomena are. But NASAs pursuit can provide a transparent case study of how science is done on a subject full of unknowns. And the discussion can highlight the remarkable progress being made in the scientific search for life on distant planets. The last few years have brought enormous public attention to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. In 2020, the Department of Defense caused a stir when it released three videos of Navy jets encountering these phenomena. A preliminary, controversial government report released last year claimed the Navy had seen a variety of UAPs and most could not be easily accounted for. Congress added an amendment to the last defense budget to create a UAP office, which the Pentagon launched this year. This UFO furor reflects a longer-term cycle of public interest, government attention and eventual lack of clear resolution thats played out many times since the first widely reported UFO sighting in the U.S. in 1947. Back then the Air Force was concerned that UFOs might be Cold War technology that could be used against us, and the CIA worried that fears of UFOs could be used to drive mass hysteria. In all these cycles deeper exploration showed mundane explanations for most sightings. Those few sightings that couldnt be explained rarely had the kinds of data that might support firm conclusions about what happened. This, along with the conspiracy-theory inclinations of many UFO enthusiasts, is why most scientists steer clear of the subject. So what, if anything, has changed now? The last few decades have seen a revolution in the science of astrobiology, the study of life in the universe. It was led by the discovery of exoplanets, alien worlds orbiting distant stars. When I began my graduate work in the late 1980s, we did not know if any other star hosted even one planet. Now, thanks to spectacular advances in telescope technology, we know that almost every star in the sky is home to a family of worlds. Since life needs planets to form and thrive, this knowledge significantly increases the possibilities of life beyond Earth. Even better, the new technologies enable probes of those distant worlds. The search for biosignatures signs of a biosphere, the parts of a planet where life exists and technosignatures signs of intelligence is taking off. NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in December, is only the first among new observatories. But any claim that alien life has been found will have to pass through a gauntlet of stringent tests and strident skepticism before the scientific community could accept it. Its against this extraordinary progress weve made in our scientific search for life that the new NASA panel should be viewed. Its work can demonstrate how science goes about answering questions, especially ones with such high stakes. Given the panels short tenure, its chief job and the first job of any scientific investigation will be to ask what kinds of data is available. Is that data up to the task of answering the question posed? If not, what kinds of data are needed and what kind of effort is required to get it? This is how science works. This quest for data that meets tough standards of evidence is the process that gave us cellphones, safe jet travel and drugs that cure formerly intractable diseases. NASAs panel can begin to lay out what a rational investigation of UFOs looks like without assumptions about what UFOs are. Is a network of Earth-observing satellites required, or upward-looking ground stations? These are some of the questions it may take on. I would wager that most scientists including me overwhelmingly doubt that UAPs have anything to do with life beyond Earth. But a UAP panel can tackle the subject and demonstrate that most beautiful aspect of science: the ability to withhold judgment in favor of evidence. And it can do so with a broader lens than the Pentagon and congressional investigations, which focus on UAPs as a defense issue. At their best, these efforts can seize upon an issue of great public interest to offer a master class in how science works. For a nation awash in science denial, that would be no small thing. And by creating a blueprint of what evidence is demanded by a question as extraordinary as whether were alone in the universe, the panel can show the equally extraordinary progress science is making toward answering it. . Lake Land College kicked off Manufacturing Month by celebrating a new partnership with Kubota Tractor Corporation providing new career opportunities for students while creating a pipeline of talented technicians for area dealers. Beginning this fall, students enrolled in Lake Lands Diesel and Ag Power program will have the opportunity to earn eight industry-recognized, portable, stackable certifications through the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3). Graduates who earn these NC3 credentials will be qualified for careers as Kubota Technicians at any of Kubotas 1,100 dealerships around the country. This partnership is directly aligned with the colleges 2023-2027 strategic plan objective to expand corporate partnerships, work-based learning opportunities and apprenticeship programs. In addition, the Kubota program aligns directly with Lake Lands commitment to create stackable, transferable credential programs that provide students with the skills needed to succeed in business, while at the same time creating a pool of talented individuals for area businesses. Training students and incumbent employees for the manufacturing jobs of the future is essential to our region, state and country. The Lake Land College district is deeply rooted in the manufacturing sector with 20,000 jobs - nearly double that of the national average according to the Data for Decision Makers report. Beyond our district, there are 800,000 open manufacturing jobs nationwide, according to the Illinois Manufacturers Association (IMA). The IMA also warns that we are at a critical time in history, as an estimated 300,000 employees are beginning to retire. In gathering data for the new strategic plan, the college heard from more than 1,200 stakeholders that the top workforce challenges in our area are recruiting skilled workers, retaining workers and recruiting entry-level workers. To address these challenges, the Lake Land College Center for Business and Industry is working with area businesses to expand apprenticeship programs that provide customized training to students while they learn on the job, as well as address the workforce shortages and growing skills gaps. Lake Land College is grateful to partner with Effingham and Mattoon in a shared commitment to give high school students learning experiences with manufacturing careers through Manufacturing Days, the Effingham Regional Career Academy (ERCA), Leaders Innovating for Tomorrow (LIFT) in Mattoon, and new dual credit programs in automotive and welding. Manufacturing Month is an excellent time for business, community and educational leaders to join forces and develop creative ways to educate parents and students on the earnings potential of the technologically advanced manufacturing fields. I look forward to brainstorming strategies and creating new manufacturing partnerships that will help your business meet the workforce demands of the future. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad The independent transmission operator ICGB, which is responsible for the commercial operation of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, is now a member of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG), ICGB AD told Azernews. The role of the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators is to facilitate and improve cooperation between national gas transmission system operators (TSOs) in Europe, as well as to ensure the development of a pan-European transmission system in line with the energy and climate goals of the European Union. ICGBs membership application was unanimously approved during the latest General Assembly of ENTSOG. A total of 43 transmission operators from the EU member states are members of the organization. Among ENTSOG's commitments are the development of network codes for the market and system operation and development, which includes capacity allocation, network connectivity and operational security. The organization provides regular information on gas supply and demand on the European market and delivers common operational tools to ensure network security and reliability. "ICGB has strict commitments for full transparency of its activity and is obliged to systematically provide public information on the quantities of natural gas transported through the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector," ICGB AD said. 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), with the Bulgarian gas transmission system (Bulgartransgaz EAD) in the area of Stara Zagora. The total length of the gas pipeline is 182 km, and the diameter of the pipe is 32''. The interconnector has a total capacity of 3 billion cubic meters per year, more than half of which is already reserved under long-term contracts of up to 25 years. The remaining free capacity is offered at auctions on two of the leading European platforms - PRISMA and RBP. 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, while a ceremony to inaugurate the (IGB) was held in Bulgaria on October 1. Lowe's Cos. Inc. announced plans Friday to sell its Canadian retail business to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm specializing in retail, consumer and distribution-related investments, for $400 million in cash. The deal, which is projected to close in early 2023, also includes what Lowes called performance-based deferred consideration. Sycamore is perhaps best known in North Carolina as owner of the Belk department chain, which it bought for $3 billion in 2015. Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe's Canadian retail business operates or services approximately 450 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores under brands that include Rona, Lowe's Canada, Reno-Depot and Dick's Lumber. In 2016, Lowes paid $2.3 billion to buy Rona, a major Canadian retailer and distributor of hardware, building materials and home-renovation products. Marvin Ellison, Lowes chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement that Sycamore Partners that the sale is an important step toward simplifying the Lowe's business model. He said Canada represents 7% of Lowes full year 2022 sales outlook. Lowes expects to record a pre-tax non-cash impairment charge of $2 billion related to its Canadian retail business in the third quarter. Q. In your article about treating jellyfish stings, you suggested applying vinegar. That is bad advice! I dug into my memory and computer files for an article from the Sydney Morning Herald. A friend in Australia sent it to me in 2014, when I had just returned from a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We had discussed research that contradicted the use of vinegar. Aussie researchers have found that vinegar is not a good option for box jellyfish. A. You are absolutely correct. The Australian scientists found that vinegar increased the amount of venom released by box jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri (Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, March 2014). Vinegar is also contraindicated for stinging sea anemone, as is ammonia (Toxins, Jan. 1, 2022). It seems that vinegar is helpful for the stings of some jellyfish species and harmful for those of others (Toxins, July 21, 2021). Consequently, swimmers shouldnt use vinegar on jellyfish stings unless they know precisely which species has caused the sting and whether vinegar will be helpful. Hot water is often recommended. It should be hot enough to be painful but not so hot that it will burn the skin (110 to 113 degrees). Q. I have a terrible case of dandruff that I cant get rid of. Months ago, you wrote about milk of magnesia on the scalp for seborrheic dermatitis. As I understand it, that is basically dandruff. Do you have any details about how to use milk of magnesia? Is it applied to the scalp prior to shampooing for a number of minutes, then shampooed out? Or, is there some other regimen? Thanks for any information you can offer. A. There are no studies on milk of magnesia against dandruff, but several readers have praised it. They apply it in the shower and leave it on the scalp for several minutes while they shower. Then, they wash it out. Another popular approach involves rinsing the scalp with old-fashioned amber Listerine. It has antifungal activity that may be helpful against yeast. You can learn more about these and other dandruff remedies in our book, The Peoples Pharmacy: Quick & Handy Home Remedies. It includes hundreds of remedies for common ailments. If your local library does not have a copy, you can find it in the books section of the store at www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Q. What do you think about supplementing with Bacopa monnieri extract? I have taken a number of anticholinergic drugs for years, and I worry about the potentially negative impact on my brain. I have heard that this Indian herb might be beneficial. A. Anticholinergic medications are not good for the brain. They have been linked to a higher risk for cognitive decline. You can search www.PeoplesPharmacy.com for a list of anticholinergic drugs. We first heard about the Indian Ayurvedic herb Bacopa from neuroscientist Dr. Dale Bredesen. He recommends it for some of his patients who are experiencing cognitive difficulties. There is growing evidence that this natural product has neuroprotective properties (Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, September 2022). Animal research suggests that Bacopa reduces the accumulation of amyloid beta plaques in the brain. It has also been shown to improve memory in rodents (Frontiers in Nutrition, Aug. 18, 2022). Before it becomes popular for treating Alzheimers disease, however, we will need larger, well-designed randomized controlled clinical trials. A Forsyth County judge has sealed a search warrant that Winston-Salem police detectives executed on the house of a former nurse accused of murdering two patients and attempting to kill a third one. Johnathan Howard Hayes, 47, of Ransom Road, is facing two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill announced the charges Oct. 25 at a news conference. Hayes is a former nurse at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. ONeill said Hayes administered a near-lethal dose of insulin to Pamela Jean Little on Dec. 1, 2021. Little, 63, survived but later died from unrelated health issues. Then, on Jan. 5, Hayes gave a lethal dose of insulin to Gwen Zelda Crawford, 60, who died three days later on Jan. 8, according to arrest warrants and ONeill. Crawford had gone into the hospital for open-heart surgery, according to her brother, Jacky Jones. Hayes gave a second lethal dose of insulin to Vickie Lynne Lingerfelt, 61, on Jan. 22, ONeill said. Lingerfelt died on Jan. 27. ONeill called Hayes a rogue nurse who acted alone. ONeill has not announced a motive to the killings and has released few additional details about the case, saying that he needs to preserve the integrity of the investigation and ensure that Hayes has a fair trial. Judge Gregory Hayes signed an order Wednesday to seal the search warrant, which Winston-Salem police detective Michael Ognosky obtained from a magistrate on Oct. 25, the same day ONeill announced criminal charges against Hayes. Police executed the search warrant on Hayes house in the 800 block of Ransom Road. According to the sealed order, Hayes heard from someone from the Forsyth County District Attorneys Office and from Ognosky who said making the search warrant public would jeopardize the integrity of an ongoing investigation, and that disclosure of the facts alleged therein may impair the ability of the State and the Defense to a fair and impartial trial. Hayes sealed the search warrant until May 1, 2023, or until further order of the court. ONeill said at the Oct. 25 news conference that hospital officials conducted an internal investigation and turned their findings over to ONeill and Winston-Salem police detectives on March 21. ONeill requested that Winston-Salem police conduct a criminal investigation. Joe McCloskey, a spokesman for Atrium Health, said Hayes was fired March 18 and had worked at Wake Forest Baptist at various times over the past 15 years. Hayes received his nursing degree in 2000 from N.C. A&T Universitys School of Nursing, Jackie Torok, a school spokeswoman, said in an email. Hayes was licensed as a nurses aide from 1998 to 2000, according to the N.C. Board of Nursing. He was approved for a license as a registered nurse on June 27, 2000. That license is still active and is scheduled to expire in May 2024. Sara Griffith, chief nursing officer with the state nursing board, said a nurse has to report any criminal charges within 30 days of arrest or indictment. The nursing board, she said, has the authority to discipline nurses if they are convicted of a crime. Hayes was nominated as a nurse of distinction in the Celebrating Nurses of the Triad special section coordinated by the Winston-Salem Journal, News & Record and the N.C. Nurses Association. Misty Hayes, who submitted the nomination, said her husband took care of all his people on his shifts with that extra mile. He sings to them, makes sure theyre comfortable, makes sure they have everything they could possibly need, she said. He lets people know who he is and that they will be taken good care of. Misty Hayes has not returned several messages from the Winston-Salem Journal seeking comment. Johnathan Hayes is being held without bond in the Forsyth County Jail. His next court date is Nov. 10. A Forsyth Superior Court judge has ordered Dr. Anne Litton White to pay at least $332,000 to Bank of America Corp. for failure to meet the payment terms of her commercial business loan. Bank of America filed on Oct. 7 for a partial summary judgment against White and her former businesses of Carolina Family Medicine and Dermatology PA and Carolina Laser and Cosmetic Center. White had been the operator of Carolina Laser and Cosmetic Center since 2004. Richard Doughton, a retired special Superior Court judge, approved the partial summary judgment on Oct. 24, which includes $49,509 in attorney fees. The judge agreed to the restitution breakdown provided by the bank of $309,899 in loan principal, accrued interest of $20,164, late fee of $2,086 and additional interest accruing since May 24 at the daily rate of $63.27. The legal filing came nearly six months after White closed her businesses in mid-April to fulfill an N.C. Medical Board order to either take that action or sell her practice by April 16 as part of the indefinite suspension of her medical license issued in March. According to the complaint, Bank of America said it provided White and her businesses a 15-year loan in October 2013 with a principal amount of $504,798. White made a personal guarantee for the loan that had a monthly payment of $4,637. On May 13, 2022, the bank sent a letter to Whites attorney stating that she was failing to meet the terms of the loan and requested the full principal amount be paid. The loan was secured by Whites business assets. That letter was sent about a month after White closed her business. The loan has not been paid as agreed, and the borrower has stopped doing business, according to the banks letter to Whites attorney Joshua Bennett of Bennett & Guthrie PLLC of Winston-Salem. Bennett could not be immediately reached for comment. As we discussed, please provide more information concerning any proposal to sell the furniture, fixtures and equipment of the borrower. The bank asserts a property-perfected first and prior lien claim on all assets of the borrowers practice, including inventory and all accounts receivable. In the banks civil action complaint, it said that White has failed and refused to pay off the loan. Customer complaints It may take some time for Bank of America, as well as former customers, to resolve their financial and medical claims involving Whites practice. The Winston-Salem Journal has received emails and phone calls from former customers concerned about whether they will receive reimbursement or a refund for payments made ahead of services. The centers website said Whites booking fee for your personal treatment consultation is $110. The cost of the booking fee will be deducted from the cost of your procedure if the procedure is performed within 30 days of the consultation. Please note: booking fees are nonrefundable. Booking fee for skin care only is $95. Some customers told the Journal they planned to go to small claims court, while others considered filing a lawsuit to get their money back. The Medical Board referred customer inquiries related to reimbursements and refunds to Whites attorney. Attorney Dudley Witt, who represented White before the Medical Board, did not respond when asked what former customers of Whites can do to get refunds or reimbursements for treatments and procedures that were not performed before the closing of the clinic. Background The Medical Boards indefinite suspension of Whites medical license was issued at the conclusion of a Feb. 17-18 disciplinary hearing. The board ruled that White must wait two years before asking for her license to be reinstated and that she must tell her patients about her practices status. That two-year period began March 17. When asked why the 30-day wind-down period didnt begin Feb. 18, the board said in a statement that an indefinite suspension order is not in effect until it is in black and white and signed by both parties. Board attorney Brian Blankenship said that because White is the sole shareholder of the practice, accordingly she must divest herself of her shares to another licensee or shut down the practice. The board released its 10-page final report, as well as transcripts from the hearing. The focus of the hearing was how White ran her practice between March 18, 2020, and May 25, 2020. White told board investigators and a board-required monitor that her practice was one of the many businesses that closed under state order during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, former employees testified and provided documentation that White saw patients during that time. White testified that before the COVID-19 pandemic, she would average between $120,000 and $150,000 in monthly billings during a typical March through May period. The board also determined that White committed unprofessional conduct by failing to comply with a 2018 order under which she agreed to pay for outside monitoring of her practice. That determination allows the board to annul, suspend, revoke, condition or limit Whites North Carolina medical license. The board also said in the report the unprofessional conduct includes the committing of any act contrary to honesty, justice or good morals as it related to a separate complaint involving an insurance claim filed by White. We thought, based on the evidence, we respect the boards decision, Witt said March 17. Were disappointed in the outcome of the case. We will continue to look at options to get Dr. White back to practicing medicine as soon as possible. It was the sixth time White has been subject to a board notice of charges and allegations, the others occurring in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2017 and 2018-20. Before the Feb. 18 ruling, Whites license had been suspended for a combined 110 days since 2004, the last times from May 7-16, 2018, and from July 16-26, 2018. Her practice had been operational since the second suspension ended. Sharing my support I am writing to share my support for Jennifer Castillo for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board, District 2. First, I would like to mention the endorsement of Forsyth County Association of Educators for Jennifer Castillo; only a few candidates have the honor of the organizations endorsement. Jennifer is a parent of four children and has children attending Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. Jennifer has 10 years working with marginalized communities and voiceless communities. Jennifer is a product of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County student body is one-third African American, one-third Hispanic and one-third Caucasian. Now is the time for our community to practice equity and vote for a well-qualified Hispanic woman who is a current parent, whose children are in the district, who is a graduate of the district, who understands policy, who understands the needs of children and who will add a needed diverse voice to our school board. I look forward to working with Jennifer Castillo as one of our new school board members. Darrick Young Winston-Salem Republican rule The Journal, along with other media, has been pointing out how Republicans have been working to cement their majority in the state legislature. Youve written about the case before the Supreme Court right now and how, if our Republican legislators win, they will be able to gerrymander congressional districts that will allow them to stay in the majority even if Democrats in the state are more numerous. If they win, the courts cant stop them from setting election rules and even from appointing electors who would vote for the Republican presidential candidate rather than a Democrat candidate who may have received more votes. Everything in the state would be run by Republican principles. I dont see the problem. Gary C. Parent Winston-Salem Flyer avalanche Of the avalanche of campaign mailers weve received, no fewer than 14 have either admonished us to Thank Jeff Zenger or terrify us to vote against Carla Catalan Day, in the contest for state House District 74. The worst are placemat-sized ads manipulating her image, using dark, grainy filters, or cropped to resemble a mugshot. These are juxtaposed against inflammatory language and crime reports ripped from the headlines attempting to link Catalan Day to murder, rape and child abuse, suggesting she is somehow responsible for harrowing crime waves, before she has even held office. Each successive attack ad is larger, more shrill, more incendiary, to the degree that the latest version, in bright yellow, jaunty letters, calls her crazy. This is how the N.C. GOP treats the wife of a police officer. Meanwhile, her opponent, Zenger, wishes us to send him back to Raleigh to continue to try to cut sweetheart deals for himself and his developer friends. Our family is not falling for this libelous wall of noise. Will you? Kara Hammond Pfafftown Good advice In addition to taking a lot of cash from corporations and outsiders, Rep. Ted Budd must have also taken some campaign advice. He has followed three guiding principles throughout his campaign: Stand as close to Donald Trump as you can. Invite him to campaign for you, espouse your support of him and regurgitate his positions on major issues. Prominently display a gun. Show guns in your ads and continually remind people that you own a gun range. Keep your mouth shut. Do not debate unless absolutely necessary and limit the broadcast to as few people as possible. Do not give interviews to the media, especially major newspapers in the state. You have no independent thoughts and you need to keep quiet. Budds formula seems to be working for him, but North Carolinians deserve better. John Wigodsky Winston-Salem In 1985, I sat at the feet of Jerry Lee Lewis as he tore up the Saddle Club, a private establishment on the outskirts of Grand Island that had hired The Killer for a night. Sitting on the floor a few feet from his piano, plugged into Jerry Lees pure rock n roll was exhilarating to say the least. And that proximity got me some watch this grins and gestures from the master entertainer, in what is now, nearly 40 years later, still my most memorable show ever. Lewis, in classic fashion, was late for the gig. He and his band had flown in through thunderstorms, landed at the GI airport, drove directly to the horse club for the show with no soundcheck. He was a bit on the surly side when I exchanged some words with him in the dressing room. But, minutes later, he switched on The Killer and blew the doors off the place. That show, for me, encapsulated Jerry Lee, and immediately came to mind when I learned of his passing last week. That, of course, triggered a day of playing Lewis records (what the kids now call vinyls) 1964s incendiary Live from the Star-Club Hamburg, one of the greatest live records ever, his smash album Another Place Another Time that brought him to country stardom in 1968, his self-title 1979 rock n roll comeback album and, of course, plenty of his Sun Records records. Spinning the platters from an old boxed set of all Jerry Lees recordings at the Memphis studio where rock n roll was born also yielded what is likely the most famous studio conversation ever with producer Sam Phillips and Lewis arguing over religion and rock n roll. How can the devil save souls?, Lewis exclaims. I got the devil in me. Indeed, he did. His incorrigible, sometimes reprehensible and at times legally questionable behavior, which Im not going to recount here, caused many of the Lewis obituaries and remembrances to concentrate on his misdeeds rather than his music. In the midst of the Phillips/Lewis argument, one of the band members says lets cut it. And, a few minutes later they did. It was Great Balls of Fire, the sinful song that scorched the charts and stands as one of the top handful of rock n roll classics. So, thats how ill remember Jerry Lee. I will, however, confess to being more than a little bit nervous the first time I talked to the mercurial Lewis on the phone. That went fine as did the handful of other conversations I had with him. And it was always cool to have him call me Killer. The last time I saw Jerry Lee was in 2002 at Kansas Citys Folly Theater. Lewis, 71 at the time, shuffled unsteadily to the piano. But from the second he lowered himself onto the bench until he kicked it backward and started pounding away -- standing up on Great Balls of Fire -- rock n rolls original wild child again shook the world. That world shaking in person came to its end last week. But as Bob Dylan said during a concert in England, introducing his tribute to Lewis by playing Jerry Lees 1970 hit I Cant Seem to Say Goodbye: Jerry Lees gone. Were gonna play this song, one of his. Jerry Lee will live forever we all know that. Eagle Elementary School officials shared a warning with families this week after an apparent abduction attempt of a child who was on their way home from school. According to Principal Megan Flohr, the incident occurred after school on Tuesday. Eagle is a community 10 miles east of Lincoln. An email to families said the school had received a report of an older white man with a bald head and a "bigger belly" who was following a group of children. The man is believed to have been driving a four-door silver or gray car when he followed the group of children and eventually got out to pursue one child after the group had separated. The child was able to safely enter their home. Eagle Elementary officials are encouraging parents to speak with their children about walking with a buddy or a group and reporting any suspicious activity. As of Thursday afternoon, the Cass County Sherriff's Office hadn't identified the suspect. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Sherriff's Office at 402-296-9370. More than two years after a former Lincoln police officer pushed a 51-year-old man to the ground while working off-duty at a local hospital on Halloween, a Lancaster County judge will finally rule whether the action was criminal. Benjamin Rieker, now 34, had been an officer for about 18 months when he pushed the man amid a confrontation in the hospital's lobby that day. He resigned from the department in January 2021, after the Lancaster County Sheriff's office had launched a criminal investigation into the incident at the request of then-Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister. Carlos Monzon, Rieker's attorney, spent much of a 2-day bench trial this week casting Reiker's shove of the man as an act of self defense. Prosecutors in 2021 charged the former officer with third-degree assault and false reporting for allegedly providing knowingly false information to investigators. Both are misdemeanors. Rieker confronted the 51-year-old after the man, who had been admitted to the hospital with foot pain, had been verbally abusive toward staff members and demanded stronger drugs for his pain, witnesses and Rieker testified. It marked the third encounter between Rieker and the man that day. The man, though, was on his way out of the hospital against medical advice when he came face-to-face with Rieker near the hospital's ambulance bay doors on Oct. 31, 2020. In his reports detailing the event, Rieker wrote that the man had clenched his fists, squared his shoulders, began to stare at Riker's gun and started to raise his arm in the instant before the off-duty officer shoved him to the ground. But surveillance video of the incident examined frame-by-frame in the courtroom by Lincoln Police video analyst Jared Minary, who was called by prosecutors showed the 51-year-old never clenched his fists or raised his arm and he didn't seem to tense his posture. His eyes did shift downward, though Minary said he couldn't definitively say whether the man was staring at Rieker's gun. In closing arguments Wednesday, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Tyson Moodie emphasized the seeming lack of provocation that preceded Riker's shove arguing that the 51-year-old man's noncompliance to verbal orders and previous verbal threats did not justify Rieker's claim of self defense. "There's nothing that would show that he's clenching his fists as the defendant later reported," Moodie said. And, Moodie said, Rieker actually stepped toward the man as he tried to direct him out the ambulance doors behind him a move that the state argued was contradictory to his training, which calls for officers to retain a "reactionary gap" between them and subjects they're encountering. Rieker also reported that the man braced himself as he fell to the ground another claim that wasn't supported by video evidence, which showed the man land first on his backside and then hit his head as his hands flew forward. Moodie argued that the inconsistencies between Rieker's report and the video surveillance footage along with the former officer's communications with fellow officers amid the investigation into him amounted to false reporting. "That's significant, when you look at this case, because as these misperceptions, as the defense might have us believe, add up, it begins to look like something else," he said. Monzon, who peppered Moodie with objections that he often won throughout the bench trial and called for a directed not-guilty verdict from Judge Matthew Acton halfway through, cast the case as prosecutorial overreach and warned of the precedent it might set. "This case is about the new standard that wants to be created by the prosecutor's office," he said, arguing that it didn't matter whether the 51-year-old man had actually provoked Rieker's shove. What matters, Monzon said, is what Rieker perceived on that October day. "If a police officer writes a report and says, 'The car was light blue,' and then there's a video later on and the car is gray, was the officer lying on that report?" he said. "Was the perception incorrect? "That is what the prosecution is inviting you to do in this case. And I tell you, judge, I submit to you that's very, very, very dangerous." Monzon said the language Rieker used in his reports where he said he "perceived" the man to take a fighting stance was understandable given the man's demeanor and prior threatening statements to police and medical staff. The attorney also noted his client didn't get to review the surveillance video before writing either the reports he authored on the incident, one of which an additional case investigation report was itself the subject of a legal battle in the case. Last September, Monzon filed a motion asking Acton to suppress two statements Rieker made in the investigation: the additional report and an hourlong interview he had with Lancaster County Sheriff's Investigator Jeremy Schwarz, who testified for the state. Acton in January ruled that the interview could be used against Rieker, but the additional case investigation report couldn't because he was required to complete it as part of an excessive-force investigation by internal affairs under threat of losing his job. But District Court Judge Kevin McManaman reversed that ruling in June, saying the report could be used in trial. This week, though, Monzon argued that the inconsistencies between what Rieker wrote in that report and what video evidence showed didn't matter. "Who cares what he thinks now?" Monzon said. "At that time, when he was confronted with that situation, (the shove is) is what he believed was necessary, that's what he believed he needed do to protect himself and others. "That new standard that the prosecution wants you to adopt is incorrect. And that new standard does not exist under the law." Acton took the issue under advisement. A Lincoln woman is missing her Louis Vuitton wallet and a diamond ring worth more than $70,000 after she left both items unattended at a Costco food court, she told police. The 39-year-old was eating lunch at the Costco in south Lincoln at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday when she finished her meal and left the wholesale warehouse store leaving her wallet behind, Lincoln Police Sgt. Chris Vollmer said. Surveillance video from the store, near 14th Street and Pine Lake Road, showed an unknown man grab the wallet and leave the store before 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Vollmer said. Among items inside the wallet, the woman told police, was a 4-carat diamond ring worth $77,500. Vollmer said it's common for victims reporting thefts to provide photos of items stolen not necessarily for proof of ownership, but to help police track down missing items at pawn shops or in online marketplace postings. It's unclear if the woman provided photos of the ring, Vollmer said. An investigation into the theft is ongoing. By Azernews By Orkhan Amashov Moscow would bristle at this suggestion, but it seems that Azerbaijan and Armenia, disillusioned over the insipid vacuity of the 31 October Sochi meeting and unconvinced with the Kremlins soft-soaping, may now be close to a breakthrough agreement ushering in a qualitatively new phase of interaction between the two states. This is a mere possibility and there may be nothing in it. But it is all out in the open. The Armenian Hraparak newspaper, known for its anti-governmental leanings and regular revelations visibly aimed at embarrassing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his softness vis-a-vis Azerbaijan, has recently published an article claiming that the parties are likely to gather in Tbilisi in late November or early December, and conclude a deal which will amount to the full and irreversible renunciation of all Armenian pretensions over Karabakh. Whether this suggestion, which might have even sprouted out of an ulterior motive of the Armenian newspaper, is true or not, one aspect seems to be beyond doubt. Although the Sochi meeting did not achieve any tangible progress, it has revealed that, in light of the Russian drive to delay the consummation of a final comprehensive deal, both sides may consider a venue beyond the controlling influence of Moscow to envisage a shared future. There are some reservations. Firstly, the Kremlin-mediated format is not divorced from Brussels mediatory efforts: the two platforms may not be organically intertwined, but they are interconnected by virtue of having exactly the same agenda. It follows that a development under the aegis of one format could be evolved as the subset of another. For instance, the 3 November meeting of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and Yerevan in Brussels is not devolved from what took place in Sochi on 31 October. Secondly, Armenia has not yet officially become resigned to the idea that Karabakh is Azerbaijans internal matter. In this sense, a Moscow-perpetuated constructive ambiguity which mandates against having any say on the subject for now is not something to which Yerevan is averse. The construct seems to be that the parties engage in issues exclusively falling under the rubric of interstate relations. The absence of the Karabakh theme, for Azerbaijan, means the issue is no longer relevant, as it was resolved in its favour two years ago. For Armenia, however, this denotes quite a different meaning, for todays priorities are about the delimitation and demarcation of the state border and the reopening of communications, with Karabakhs future hanging in the air. Nevertheless, there are constraints curbing the malleability of this constructive ambiguity. There is a growing sensibility in Armenia that a peace process cannot be a moving target, running from the point of infinite possibilities to an abstract destination. Whilst addressing his own party members on 29 October, Pashinyan mournfully reiterated the obvious: Unfortunately, the international community, that is all countries without exception, consider Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, and this is seen in all documents. What the Armenian PM meant was that if the Karabakh issue were to be addressed at this stage of the negotiations, Yerevan would be compelled to acquiesce with Bakus principal view. In this context, Pashinyans indirect hint could be construed as indicating the inevitable necessity of unequivocal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over the region that Yerevan has hitherto resolutely viewed as out of contention. Both the Prague and Sochi meetings concluded with a formulation on the mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. The parties could still disagree on the interpretation of this clause. For Yerevan, the reference to these documents is of importance in terms of the delimitation and demarcation of the state border. For Baku, it is a vehicle to reaffirm Karabakhs rightful ownership by Azerbaijan. Russias role is of paramount importance. It is presently in the position of functionalising its peacekeepers temporarily stationed in Khankandi as an effective weapon of leverage vis-a-vis both sides. Its message to Azerbaijan is that, so long as Baku has not reached a final deal with Yerevan, it would be neither judicious nor practicable for it to withdraw from the region. Russia also wants Armenia to embrace the view that its peacekeepers are the only reliable guarantor of the security of the regions Armenian population, and, therefore, de facto Azerbaijani control of the remainder of Karabakh is currently unthinkable. On a different note, for Armenia, a fear of doing something that is contrary to what the Kremlin considers judicious is no longer as tormenting as was previously the case. What is probably preying on Pashinyans mind is how he can agree on a formula with Baku which will both firmly recognise Karabakh as under Azerbaijani sovereignty, yet not put an end to the superficial possibility of a special design for the security and rights of the ethnic Armenians inhabiting the region. Once the liminal line is crossed and a principal understanding on the reintegration of what is presently under the control of the Russian peacekeepers into the remainder of Azerbaijan is achieved, all the thorny issues of multi-tracked interstate normalisation will appear less daunting. COVID-19's impact on students' everyday routines translated into a spike in suspensions at Lincoln Public Schools last school year, although school resource officers issued fewer citations than in the pre-pandemic days. That's according to data in an annual report compiled by LPS and the Lincoln Police Department that examines school discipline, officer interactions and the disproportionalities among student groups that arise. Overall, there were roughly 5,500 suspensions involving LPS students last year almost evenly split between in-school and out-of-school amid an increase in behavioral issues coming out of the pandemic. That's compared to more than 4,400 suspensions in the 2018-19 school year, the last year before COVID. The large majority of suspensions were at the middle and high school levels. In 2020-21 marked by hybrid learning and 50% capacity in high schools for much of the academic year just more than 3,200 suspensions were issued. "If you have two years where the students are not in regular structure, it's really hard to come back to structure because they don't know how to be a part of school," said John Neal, LPS associate superintendent for general administration and governmental relations. The 163-page report was compiled for the third year in a row as part of an agreement between LPS and LPD that added six school resource officers to work in the district's 12 middle schools. A school resource officer has been assigned to each LPS high school for decades. Concerns from community members that the increased presence of officers in middle schools would contribute to a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects students of color spurred the creation of the annual report, which looks at calls for service, suspensions and survey data from students, parents and staff. This year's report was presented Thursday evening to the joint Safe and Successful Kids Board comprised of City Council and Lincoln Board of Education members. The Lincoln Board of Education already renewed funding for the 13 officers seven who are based at each high school in August. The district is paying $602,595 in general fund dollars toward the officers from LPD. This year's agreement is 4.95% higher than last year's, coming in just less than the 5% annual growth cap that was set out in the original agreement. The 2021-22 report is the first one in which officials were able to study the statistics involving the increased number of officers without any major COVID disruptions on the school calendar. And officials were pleased with what they found. Calls to law enforcement for service at schools were down compared to before the pandemic, and juvenile referrals when officers issue a citation decreased even more. Overall, there were nearly 1,300 calls for service in middle schools and high schools, down from more than 1,400 in 2018-19. Calls were up compared to last year (749) and 2019-20 (957), but COVID's impact makes comparisons difficult. The most common calls were for assaults, drug offenses, disturbances, vandalism, trespassing and larceny. Out of those calls, 205 citations were issued, marking a significant decrease from the roughly 400-citation average in the four school years before the pandemic. And officers initiated just 2.9% of calls that resulted in a citation, down from the four-year average of 4.2%. Most calls for service are initiated by teachers or administrators. "If there would be a potential for an increase in what some people call the school-to-prison pipeline, we think it would have started showing up in the 21-22 school year when behaviors increased, but referrals went down," said Rob McEntarffer, an assessment and evaluation specialist at LPS who helped compile the report. Jeff Peterson, manager of LPD's crime analysis unit, credits training and clear distinctions between officers' and administrators' roles for the declining number of calls and citations. School resource officers "do not want to put handcuffs on kids," Peterson said, but rather they want issues to be handled internally and talked through before escalation. That, officials say, gets to the core of the program: Officers are there to step in when serious situations arise, not to discipline students. Students of color, however, remained more likely to be both suspects and victims of crime, but disparity metrics didn't show any meaningful statistical change. To measure disproportionality, officials rely on a disparity index that compares the percentage of a subgroup of students to the percentage that were suspects or victims in calls investigated by officers. A disparity index of 1 means there is no disproportionality, while an index above 1 indicates overrepresentation. Black and Native students had victim disparity indices of 2.8 and 4.7, respectively, compared to 0.9 for white students. That marks an increase for Native students, but officials said it's hard to draw any conclusions from the change because of how small the population is. Likewise, Black and Native students were more likely to be suspects in calls. Black students had a disparity index of 4.3 (down from 4.6 in 2020-21), and Native students' index was 2.3, a slight increase from the previous year. The disparities carry over to suspensions, too. Students of color and those enrolled in special programs special education, the federal free- and reduced-lunch program and English language learners were more likely to be suspended than their peers, mirroring previous trends. Black students who make up 7% of the LPS student population made up 14% of in-school suspensions, in which students remain at school but away from the rest of the student body. Out-of-school suspensions, in which students do not come to school, are handed down for more serious offenses. Expulsions were down from the pre-pandemic average, with 101 students expelled last year. Closing disparate gaps in school discipline is one of the goals of the district's "All Means All" equity plan approved by the board earlier this year. According to the plan, LPS hopes to reduce suspensions by 20% and reduce disparity ratios to 1.2 or less for all student groups. LPS identified a number of strategies to do so, including providing training to school staff. The spike in overall suspensions comes amid more behavioral challenges for kids during the pandemic and its impact on everyday routines, according to LPS Director of Student Services Ryan Zabawa. The behaviors staff saw the most last year included conflicts between students including physical altercations and insubordination. Last year also saw the rise of social media trends that encouraged things like bathroom vandalism. This year's report also includes data from a perception survey sent to students, parents and staff, who generally had good experiences interacting with school resource officers. LPS provides training to all administrators and officers on how to respond to various situations and to increase collaboration with officers, according to Director of Security Joe Wright. Officials will often use scenarios from previous years that proved particularly challenging, part of continuing work to improve the district's procedures. "I think people see the report not as an endpoint but as a beginning point," Neal said. "Every time you get data, it's time to start working, not to say you're finished working." PARIS (AP) A French far-right lawmaker has been suspended from the country's parliament for 15 days, the maximum penalty, after he made a racist remark during a legislative session, which prompted condemnation from across the political spectrum. Gregoire de Fournas of the far-right National Rally party was heard shouting the words "return to Africa at his fellow lawmaker as Carlos Martens Bilongo, who is Black, was challenging the French government on Thursday about migrants stranded at sea. Bilongo said he was deeply hurt by the remark. Other politicians, including Frances president, said they were shocked by de Fournas remark, which raised new questions about xenophobia on the far right and in other parts of French society. His words prompted an immediate uproar in the National Assembly, leading the legislative chamber's president to suspend the session. Members of the National Assemblys managing body said Friday they unanimously to give de Fournas the maximum penalty, 15 days of suspension. De Fournas tweeted that he is innocent and feels the decision is "very unfair." Due to acoustic issues, it was unclear whether de Fournas said Bilongo should return to Africa or the migrants should. De Fournas said he was referring to Europe-bound migrants rescued at sea and not to his fellow lawmaker. I fully stand by my comments about the anarchic migratory policies of our country, he tweeted Friday. French anti-racism groups stressed that either way, the remark echoed the familiar invective of Black people being told to go back to Africa, regardless of where they were born or held citizenship. French group SOS Racisme called it "the true face of the far-right: that of racism. The group's president, Dominique Sopo, said no matter what de Fournas said exactly, obviously, they are extremely violent comments. Bilongo, a member of the far-left France Unbowed party, took part in a gathering Friday near the National Assembly called by his party in a show of support. Im torn between joy and sadness, Bilongo said. Because I received many messages of support overnight ... because I see all these faces here showing solidarity with me. Bilongo said he received thousands of messages following the incident from people telling him that they hear similar comments in their daily lives. He praised the immediate reaction of anger shown by a large majority of lawmakers from across the political spectrum. The Movement against Racism and for Friendship between People described de Fournas' remark as revolting. The National Rally remains, despite some efforts to normalize this far-right party, deeply racist and xenophobic, it said. The Elysee presidential palace said French President Emmanuel Macron was shocked by words he considered unacceptable in or outside" the assembly. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said he was extremely shocked," telling BFM TV it was the first time in his 15 years of political life that he heard such ignominious words in parliament. The National Rally is the party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who lost her third bid for the French presidency to Macron in April. Still, France's subsequent legislative election led to a major breakthrough for the party, which won 89 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, up from eight. Le Pen tweeted that de Fournas was obviously speaking about the migrants transported in ships by NGOs." The controversy created by our political adversaries is gross and won't deceive the French, she said. In the past decade, Le Pen has sought to make her party more palatable to the mainstream right, striving to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that clung to the party under her now-ostracized father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The National Rally's members are to gather Saturday in Paris to choose a new party head. Le Pen has said she plans to focus on leading the party's lawmakers in the National Assembly. Democratic nominee Patty Pansing Brooks said Friday that she is the 1st District congressional candidate who would work in a bipartisan manner to "fight for Nebraskans" rather than "walk lockstep with party bosses" as she says Republican Rep. Mike Flood has done since his election to the House in June. At a news conference in Lincoln that featured endorsements from a number of supporters, including Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, and retired Lincoln police officer Albert Maxey, the state senator from Lincoln pointed to what she described as "some of the worst votes Mike Flood has taken." Voters will choose between the two candidates Tuesday, with a spotlight turning toward Sarpy County residents in Papillion and La Vista who have recently been moved from metropolitan Omaha's 2nd District into eastern Nebraska's 1st District and could be key to the outcome of the contest. When Flood and Pansing Brooks first met in a special election in June to determine who would serve the remaining six months of former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's term following his resignation, Flood prevailed by 6,234 votes, winning all 12 counties other than Lancaster County, which Pansing Brooks won by more than 10,000 votes. Flood won in Sarpy County by 754 votes. "Patty is a champion for our children," Benson said at the news conference. Maxey said Flood has voted in the House "against bills that law enforcement wanted," including establishment of an Amber Alert-like network for emergencies involving active shooters. Responding to Pansing Brooks, Flood's campaign manager, Hudson Buell, said she is "one of the most partisan, liberal members of the Nebraska Legislature." "Her long record of support for higher taxes, shorter sentences for violent criminals, amnesty for illegal immigrants and inflationary spending is proof she'd be a rubber stamp for the Biden-Pelosi agenda in Congress," he said. Earlier, Flood joined with Republican members of the House Oversight Committee to ask Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas how the Biden administration plans to "fix the largest border crisis in our nation's history." "We cannot endure another year of the Biden administration's failed border policies," their letter stated. RACINE For the second time in two years the citys budget process concluded without any hard choices on what services would have to be reduced or cut. The budget passed Tuesday evening on a split vote. Aldermen Melissa Kaprelian and Henry Perez voted nay. Alderman John Tate, the president of the city council, abstained on one portion of the budget. Kathleen Fischer, finance director, previously outlined the budget and explained the stabilization was the result of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The budget also included an amendment that many would call good news: the city is moving forward with razing the community center at Lakeview Park, which was destroyed in a fire in 2019. The issued was raised by the alderman of the citys fourth district, Amanda Paffrath, whose amendment was co-sponsored by Mayor Cory Mason and Alderman Jeffrey Peterson. A developer had been eyeing the space specifically the portion of the property where the community center sits now for potential development, but that project is on hold for the foreseeable future and there is nothing in the budget for that space in 2023 and the developer did not believe a project was feasible. Peterson noted the city would not allow a private homeowner to let a burned-out property sit for years and years, but its own property was doing just that. I really think the community has spoken loudly about what citizens want to see happen at that park, Paffrath said. She continued, noting that the park sits on a beautiful corner, across from the zoo, with lakefront views. It does not reflect well on the city to have left the burned building for so long, she continued. The city received just shy of $1 million in insurance after the fire, which was deemed insufficient to raze the building and then build something new. Highlights The budget highlights included: The property tax rate was set at $13.58 per $1,000 of assessed value, the lowest rate in a decade. I.e. a home assessed at $200,000 would owe $2,716 in taxes. The property tax generated from the levy is expected to be $56.8 million. General fund revenues were expected to be $86.8 million. The budget was largely balanced with ARPA funds, which Mason credited as having saved the city each of the last two years from having to make drastic cuts. While shared revenue and tax levy revenue were up .94%, expenditures were up 2.11%. One notable increase in expenses was the cost of fuel. With the use of ARPA funds, the budget restores six of 11 officer positions cut in 2020, provides $350,000 to stabilize current positions, allocated an additional $400,000 for overtime on top of the $50,000 already allocated from federal funds. The budget authorizes a 12% pay increase over four years for the contract currently being negotiated with the police department union (whose contract expired nearly two years ago). Opposition The $86.8 million portion of the budget consisting of the general fund, special revenue funds, etc, did run into some opposition with two alders voting nay. Alderman Kaprelian voted in opposition without comment, but in an interview with The Journal Times she expressed her concern about future sustainability since the budget was balanced with ARPA funding. I could not support this budget, she said. Im always looking to the future. She described the budget as short-term focused and said it was a short-term fix for a long-term problem. I feel in a few years the city is going to be in a very hard place, making very hard decisions, Kaprelian said. She added that while it might feel good to have additions and to give wage increases, it is not going to feel so good having to lay people off in a few years if the city cannot sustain the funding after ARPA runs out. Its not a good approach, she said. Its not a sustainable approach. Perez said he voted against the budget because it did not have enough support for police, fire or the Neighborhood Watch. During public hearings he questioned whether the public safety budgets were sufficient for the job they had to do. He called the budget a values statement that should honor public safety. Staff There was one area of concern that was raised repeatedly: recruiting and retaining staff. Fischer said during the initial presentation of the budget that nearly every department is struggling with hiring and retention issues. Governments and businesses across the state and country are having similar issues. To illustrate the issue, when Adele Edwards, the chief information officer, was asked why a certain surveillance camera used by the police department was still not working, she explained it was an electricity issue that has gone unaddressed due to a lack of personnel to fix it from both the city side and the contractor side. Due to budget constraints, non-represented employees went three years with minimal wage increases. In 2020, they received only a step increase; in 2021 and 2022, they received only a 1% wage increase and no step increase. The 2023 budget included both a 2% wage increase and a step increase at a cost of approximately $1 million. However, the citys health care costs are down significant, with special reference to retiree health care and sick-leave payout, which underwent significant structural changes to reduce costs. Sick-leave payout was a past practice that allowed city workers to accrue sick leave, which could then be turned in for cash when the individual retired. At one time, Fischer said, the city budgeted $350,000$500,000 for sick-leave payout. The budget is now $112,000. She said the savings allowed the city to support its active employees with better wages and fringe benefits. The city also set aside $50,000 for signing bonuses for all non-represented positions that have been vacant for an extended period of time. In the previous year, the signing bonus was for positions that were challenging to fill such as public health nurses and CDL drivers. One avenue the city has pursued is developing pipelines from schools and the community to city jobs. Just as one example, Fire Chief Steve Hansen said the Racine Fire Department has been working with Racine Unified School District and Gateway Technical College on a Science Fire Pathway to move young people in the community towards jobs as firefighters and paramedics. There are currently 12 students in that pathway who are all Racine residents. The Racine Police Department has undertaken a cadet program with similar goals; that is, providing youth with a path towards careers in law enforcement. Chief Maurice Robinson said two of the five initial cadets will probably be recruit candidates next year. The city has also amped up its local recruitment efforts with an internship program to introduce residents to careers with the city and appearances at local events to promote city employment. MILWAUKEE A top Milwaukee elections official has been fired after sending falsely obtained military absentee ballots to the home of a Republican state lawmaker who has been an outspoken critic of how the 2020 election was administered, the city's mayor said Thursday. Kimberly Zapata, deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, requested military ballots for fictitious voters from clerks in nearby municipalities using the state's MyVote Wisconsin website, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said just days before the midterm elections. "This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement," said Johnson. The allegations against Zapata have been connected to, and possibly were inspired by, a somewhat similar situation in Racine County. As part of her job, Zapata oversaw the counting of absentee ballots in Milwaukee. The mayor said the city is investigating whether she might have committed any other offenses. The ballots were sent to the home of Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly elections committee and has voiced support for overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state and promoted false stories about the election. Earlier this week, Brandtjen's office said she had received three ballots for military voters she believed to be fictitious and that the Waukesha County sheriff was investigating. "I believe someone was trying to point out how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin," Brandtjen said in a statement at the time. On Thursday, Brandtjen said in a statement that "Unlike Mayor Johnson, I have actually been working on providing Wisconsinites a safe and secure election process." She then criticized Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, "the liberal media" and others who have criticized her, saying the she has "the backbone to take on the (election) issues." The announcement comes five days ahead of Election Day in a cycle in which officials are increasingly concerned about threats from within their own organizations. In battleground states such as Wisconsin, elections officials are seeing record numbers of partisan poll worker nominations that could put skeptics on the front lines of the voting process. Zapata's motive for allegedly obtaining and sending the ballots wasn't immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday at phone numbers believed to be hers. Michael Maistelman, an attorney for Zapata, didn't immediately respond to a voicemail. Maistelman previously legally represented a group that challenged the results of Racine Unified School District's $1 billion referendum in 2020, and also had worked for the campaign of Deborah Kerr, who ran for state superintendent of schools two years ago. The alleged actions echo those of a Racine County man who requested and received absentee ballots in the names of lawmakers and local officials in July. That man, Harry Wait, said he wanted to expose vulnerabilities in the state's elections system. He has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and two felony counts of identity theft charges that could land him in prison for up to 13 years. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office was reviewing allegations against Zapata and that he expects charges to be filed "in the coming days." In Wisconsin, military voters are not required to register to vote, meaning they don't need to provide a photo ID to request an absentee ballot. The Wisconsin Elections Commission and local elections officials who send out and collect ballots have a number of safeguards in place to catch fraudulent absentee ballot requests. The elections commission staff monitors the statewide voter registration system for indications of unauthorized requests. The MyVote website also requires a person requesting a ballot to verify that they are the person asking for it, along with a warning about potential penalties for committing fraud. Zapata was fired immediately after the city was made aware that she might have been responsible, and she no longer has access to city computer networks or offices, the mayor said. Zapata had worked for the elections commission for seven years and with the City of Milwaukee for nearly 10 years, according to Claire Woodall-Vogg, the elections commission's executive director. Woodall-Vogg declined to comment on why Zapata might have requested the ballots. Brandtjen earlier this week expressed shock at receiving the ballots, calling it "sad that people feel they have to break the law to get the attention of the Legislature." In August, after Wait's actions came to light, the election commission notified voters whose absentee ballot requests for the primary went to a mailing address different from the one on file to alert them of potential fraud. Ann Jacobs, a Democratic appointee to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, tweeted Thursday the same sarcastic metaphor to describe Zapata's alleged actions as she described Wait's: "Wal-Mart's open doors are a vulnerability, so I stole this TV to prove that vulnerability." Adam Rogan of The Journal Times contributed to this report. 1. Yes. Using marijuana odor to determine probable cause is vital to police investigations. 2. Yes. As the ordinance is written, it targets police; that shouldnt be allowed to stand. 3. No. The council should leave the ordinance alone and respect the will of the voters. 4. No. The council should repeal the ordinance altogether. It conflicts with state law. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the council should proceed on addressing the ordinance. Vote View Results By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli The Azerbaijani Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) demanded the world community investigate war crimes committed by Armenia, Azernews reports. "We, the Non-Governmental Organisations, operating in Azerbaijan, appealing to world and international organizations, demand that war crimes, committed by Armenia, are investigated by international structures, and a legal and political assessment be given to the mining of territories and the failure to provide reliable maps of minefields. We demand punishment of Armenia by the international community, and international organizations for the crimes it has committed against humanity," the statement reads. Further, the statement added that Armenia at all times acted against principles and norms of international law in relation to Azerbaijan's civilian population, committed terrorist acts, and genocide, targeted the civilian population during both Karabakh wars, and continued landmine terror after the end of the second Karabakh war. It was emphasized that Armenia, which occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories for 30 years, laid more than a million mines on these territories, including mines of Armenian production. As a result of mine explosions, 267 citizens of Azerbaijan were killed or seriously injured two years after the end of the second Karabakh war. To this day, within the framework of mine-clearance operations, tens of thousands of mines and unexploded ordnances have been detected and destroyed. The accuracy and reliability of the information in the mine maps presented by Armenia are very low, the statement noted. Another Azerbaijani civilian was injured in a mine blast in Jabrayil District on November 2. Armenia spared no efforts to plant land mines on Azerbaijani territory, not only during the 30 years of occupation but also just before days of quitting Azerbaijani lands as envisaged in the trilateral statement in order to cause human casualties. Rarely a day goes by without news of civilians or military personnel being injured or killed as a result of mine explosions in Azerbaijan's liberated lands. Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security, and cooperation. MOMBASA, Kenya The U.N. climate summit is back in Africa after six years and four consecutive Europe-based conferences. The 27th annual Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change better known as COP27 will be held in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and begins next week. It's been branded as the "African COP," with officials and activists hoping the conference's location will mean the continent's interests are better represented in climate negotiations. Host Egypt says the meeting represents a unique opportunity for Africa to align climate change goals with the continent's other aims, like improving living standards and making countries more resilient to weather extremes. Organizers expect over 40,000 participants, the highest number ever for a climate summit on the continent. Ever since the conference's first iteration in Berlin in 1995, the U.N. climate summit continues to rotate annually among the five U.N. classified regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, central and eastern Europe, and western Europe. Its the fifth time that an African nation has held the U.N. climate summit, with Morocco, South Africa and Kenya all serving as former hosts. The first African summit, held in Marrakech in 2001, passed landmark accords on climate funding and made other key decisions on land use and forestry. The following three meetings on the continent had some success on issues like adapting to climate change, technology and sowing the seeds for the Paris Agreement in 2015 years earlier. Marrakech is also the last African city to host the event, having hosted a second COP in 2016, that aimed to implement some of the Paris goals. The Paris Agreement, considered a major success of the U.N. climate summits, saw nations agree to limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with an aim of curbing it to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). And although experts don't expect agreement between countries to reach the same scale as Paris, hopes on the continent are high for the upcoming conference. Mithika Mwenda, who heads the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, told The Associated Press that the summit presents a unique opportunity to place Africa at the center of global climate negotiations and hoped the conference "truly delivers for the African people. Mwenda said that the special needs and circumstances of the continent need to be considered as it attempts to both increase access to electricity for millions of people while addressing climate change and limiting the use of fossil fuels. He added negotiations must prioritize how vulnerable countries will adapt to climate change, address compensation from high-polluting countries to poorer ones, known as loss and damage, and seek avenues for financing for both a move to cleaner energy and building resilience to climate change. Many developing countries look to the U.S. and much of Europe, who have contributed the largest share of emissions over time, to pay for damage caused by climate change. So far, pledges by rich countries on climate finance, such as the $100 billion-a-year promise to help poorer nations meets their climate goals, have not been met. The Egyptian organizers said the summit should focus on how countries can implement pledges made in previous years. Africas hopes for COP27 is that there has to be progress on a new goal on financing, said Jean-Paul Adam, who heads the climate change division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, adding there needs to be "clarity as to what will be provided as grants and what will be provided as concessional loans and the remainder being dealt with through prudential private sector investment. The onus is also on industrialized countries to rapidly reduce emissions so that the global climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius can be achieved, Mwenda said. African countries account for just 3% of total global greenhouse gas emissions but experts say they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in large part because they lack the ability to quickly adapt to the warming climate. The climate conference will be a real test of world leaders' commitment to addressing climate change, said Landry Ninteretse, regional director for the environmental group 350Africa.org. We are tired of years of empty talk and broken promises," said Ninteretse. "We are now demanding nothing else but robust funding mechanisms that address loss and damage in a fair, accessible and transparent way. Ninteretse agreed that the biggest emitters must commit to rapidly cut emissions" and "help the nations most vulnerable to climate change by financing climate initiatives. Past COPs have seen disagreements and hardline positions emerge as national interests clash, a concern for those hoping tangible results will come out of the negotiations. The discussions tend to be protracted, uncompromising and acrimonious at times," said Mwenda, a veteran of the climate negotiations circuit. "But in 2015, the world ratified the Paris Agreement, which was a major milestone. BOSTON Ruby Brown beamed with excitement in a community college gymnasium as she waited for Vice President Kamala Harris to take the stage at a political rally for the Democratic ticket in Massachusetts. "As soon as her name was announced, I said I had to find a way to go," said Brown, 58. The midterms are just days away, with control of Congress and statehouses across the country up for grabs, but Brown and her friends were really hoping for a hint of what might happen a few years down the line. "That's why we're here," said Lisa Palmer-Glover, 56. "To see what's next on the plate." The comments are just a glimpse of the expectations and special scrutiny that Harris faces as the first person of color and first woman to be vice president and someone who campaigned for the top job before agreeing to be Joe Biden's running mate. The vice presidency is never an easy position, requiring ambitious politicians to contort themselves into the role of sidekick. And it's been particularly difficult for Harris. She's a groundbreaking leader, a former U.S. senator and California attorney general. But she struggled with a portfolio of vexing challenges and internal staff turmoil soon after taking office. Allies say she's found a degree of stability since then, and they describe the midterm elections as an opportunity to project her own voice on issues such as reproductive freedom, which became a centerpiece of her message after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion this year. Now, with Democrats facing the possibility of a sweeping defeat at the ballot box next week, the party is bracing for another round of introspection about its future and by extension, Harris' own. It's not a conversation the vice president's inner circle wants to have as Biden lays the groundwork for a second term even as he approaches his 80th birthday. "They intend to run, and they intend to run together," said Laphonza Butler, who was as an adviser to Harris' presidential campaign and now leads Emily's List, a political organization that supports women who favor abortion rights. "So until there's another question, that's the answer." Still, midterm campaigning for other Democrats is a chance for Harris, who recently turned 58, to nurture constituencies that supported her in the past and could again. Her travel has focused on young people, voters of color and women, including at historically black colleges and roundtable meetings on abortion. In Boston on Wednesday, she rallied for a slate of all-female candidates, from governor down to auditor. And she told the crowd to "call your cousins who live in other states" to encourage them to vote for Democrats. "Elections matter," Harris said. "We got a lot done. And we still have more to do. And the stakes are high." Although Harris has a reputation for tying herself in linguistic knots, allies say she's at her best when campaigning for others and to borrow the rhetoric of the former district attorney's failed presidential bid prosecuting the case against Republicans. With poll numbers that remain underwater, she's steered clear of some of the tightest Senate campaigns in places like Arizona and Ohio. But her abortion advocacy has expanded her travels, taking her to Nevada and Wisconsin, where the president hasn't campaigned. She's also chatted with social media influencers and called into radio shows in battleground states. She's hosted more than a dozen fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee and visited Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, among other states. Chris Lehane, a former Democratic strategist who worked for Vice President Al Gore, says the midterms are an opportunity to make a "political brand deposit." "You're able to help folks who are running up and down the ticket. And they remember that," he said. Turnout among young voters tends to drop off in the midterms, with no presidential race to boost interest. So some of Harris' work has focused on reaching them through social media personalities who have hundreds of thousands of followers. "When you weigh in with your vote, you can get what you're advocating for," Harris told Hannah Bronfman, a health and wellness influencer. "But if you don't vote, your voice won't be heard." She also spoke with Keir Gaines, a therapist who creates online content about family relationships and mental health, to warn that "your auntie, your sister, your cousin, your daughter" are going to have less rights because of the Supreme Court's abortion decision. Harris can steer herself into rhetorical dead ends, causing her allies to cringe and her critics to try to turn them into viral videos. In September, she referred to the U.S. alliance with the "Republic of North Korea" after touring the Demilitarized Zone. Nathan Barankin, who served as Harris' chief of staff when she was a U.S. senator from California, said her gaffes are the result of being "someone who has been overly scripted, or someone who is very worried about deviating from a script that she didn't create." "I would put her head to head with any of the best retail politicians, at least behind closed doors," Barankin said. An October AP-NORC poll showed only about half of Democrats want Biden to seek a second term. But it's not clear that voters are clamoring for Harris instead. When she ran for president, her campaign stalled before voting began, and now her favorable ratings lag behind Biden's. That's largely because she's more unknown. Only 37% of U.S. adults have a favorable view of Harris, according to the same survey. Another 49% view her unfavorably, while an additional 13% say they don't know enough to say. Biden earns similar unfavorable ratings, but 45% say they have a favorable opinion of the president. Although being vice president can be a thankless task, no other job allows someone to take a dress rehearsal to be commander in chief. "She's making me look good," Biden said in Philadelphia last week. "And God love her. She's more like my buddy and my sister, but I trust her with my life. I trust her completely." JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. The call went out from leaders in the medical marijuana industry: Money was needed for a Missouri ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Their colleagues responded. Marijuana farms, manufacturers and retailers provided millions of dollars that footed a petition drive to put the proposal on the November ballot and promote it to voters. The deep-pocketed outpouring highlighted the depth of the emerging industry's roots in the traditionally conservative state, as well as its tremendous potential for growth. All told, marijuana legalization campaigns have raised about $23 million in five states Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. The vast majority of that has been in Arkansas and Missouri, where more than 85% of contributions have come from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports. The biggest donor is Good Day Farm, which describes itself as the largest licensed medical cannabis producer in the South with facilities in Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. It gave a combined $3.5 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas and Missouri. And when the Missouri campaign needed help gathering petition signatures, Good Day Farm paid an additional $1 million directly to the firm circulating the petitions. Its kind of the cost of doing business, I guess," said Alex Gray, chief strategy officer at Good Day Farm. "This is something that is a positive for the industry, but its also a positive for the state. Licensed medical marijuana businesses affiliated with Greenlight have given a total of about $1 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas, Missouri and South Dakota, according to the APs analysis. If the ballot measures pass, Greenlight CEO John Mueller said he expects to easily double a workforce of about 370 people at Greenlight-affiliated cultivation farms and dispensaries in Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and West Virginia. Obviously, your consumer base goes up when you go to adult use, said Mueller, a self-described activist who encouraged industry colleagues to contribute to the legalization campaigns. Provisions in the proposed constitutional amendments in Arkansas and Missouri would give established medical marijuana licensees a leg up in the new recreational marketplace. But Mueller said the measures dont merely enrich the industry. Its more jobs, more tax revenue get it off the black market, he said. Marijuana legalization efforts elsewhere have not eliminated illegal dealers. California voters approved recreational marijuana use in 2016 following a $36 million campaign for it, and the first retail stores opened in 2018. Yet a vast illegal market remains more than double the legal sales, by some estimates. Medical marijuana was authorized voters in 2016 in Arkansas and North Dakota, in 2018 in Missouri and in 2020 in South Dakota. Like elsewhere, it took a while to get the programs up and running. But in less than two years since Missouris stores opened, medical marijuana dispensaries have reported about $500 million in sales. The Arkansas campaign to legalize recreational marijuana for adults has raised over $13 million, including more than $8 million in October alone, while the Missouri effort has raised more than $7 million. Campaigns in other states have raised less than $1 million each. Maryland's initiative has been particularly low-profile, raising a little over $300,000 amid presumed broad public support. In Arkansas and Missouri, resistance has come from an unusual alliance of public safety groups, social conservatives opposed to legalization and some marijuana advocates who believe the ballot initiatives are still too restrictive. The Arkansas opposition is the best funded among the states. Uline CEO Richard Uihlein and Mountaire Corp. CEO Ronald Cameron each contributed $1 million to the Safe and Secure Communities campaign committee. Its ads have asserted that legalizing marijuana for adults will cause a spike in traffic fatalities and illegal use by youths, among other things. Other critics contend the Arkansas measure is structured to benefit only a limited number of dispensaries, noting it lacks provisions allowing adults to grow marijuana at home or expunging past convictions. This amendment is not a start, said Melissa Fults, executive director of Arkansans for Cannabis Reform. It is a brick wall. Missouri's legalization measure which does expunge many past marijuana arrests and convictions has drawn opposition from Pro-Choice Missouri. The abortion rights group said it backs cannabis legalization and expungement as an issue of reproductive justice but believes the measure doesn't do enough to address the historic harms from the racist criminalization of cannabis. A total of 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults since voters in Colorado and Washington state first approved ballot measures in 2012. Those early efforts were heavily funded by wealthy individuals, such as former Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis. Tech billionaire Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, ranked among the top donors to California's legalization campaign. KEARNEY The customers filed into the room, stopping at the first desk to gather their account information before handing over their cash or change to the deposit slip manager at the next desk. Once the tellers verified the deposit, each customer gleefully picked out a sticker or a small prize. While not a normal banking environment the customers and tellers are all Emerson Elementary School students everything from the money to the accounts are real. The banking program at the Kearney elementary school started in 2014 in partnership with Trius Federal Credit Union. The elementary students are able to open savings accounts with their parents permission and have the opportunity to deposit money into the account each week. The idea for the program began at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said TFCU Branch Manager Jaci Pohl. They felt like if you do build those habits as an elementary school student, you are more likely to have a banking account in high school, and that builds to saving accounts in adulthood, Pohl said. Beginning in kindergarten, students at Emerson can open a savings account with Trius. Bank employees visit the school once a week to give the students a chance to deposit money into their accounts. They can bring as little or as much as they would like. In fact, we had a student, a first-grader, this morning who brought in one penny, said Emerson Principal Jenny True. We are trying to teach that money adds up over time, and if you tuck away a little bit of money each week, that adds up. Fifth-graders get the opportunity to work as bank employees as part of the program. At the beginning of the school year, they fill out a job application and undergo a job interview. They learn about counting money and filling out deposit slips and customer service, True said. About 96% of students in the school participate in the program. True does a number of initiatives to encourage students to save money. The classroom that brings the most deposits each week are recognized with a poster for their achievements. She reminds families about the program during her Sunday night phone call, and there is a sign outside of the school on Tuesdays to remind parents and students to bring their deposits on Wednesday. In order to incentivize the students to save and deposit money, they can receive prizes for every three deposits as well as incentives for reaching monetary goals. Some of the prizes include a package of markers, T-shirts, gym bags or gift cards. One of the most popular incentives is when they reach $500 a Trius employee will bring in lunch of their choosing and have lunch with the student at school. They could choose McDonalds or Runza or whatever, and they bring it in, and they get to have their own lunch with a bank employee. ... They love when that happens, True said. The banking program has helped what can be an abstract concept for kids become more tangible, True said. So much of what we do spending and even savings wise is electronic. So, your paycheck gets deposited electronically, I pay my bills online or I use a credit card or debit card, and I dont ever see that tangible money. Students dont always understand that if I paid for something with the card, I have to have the money to back that up, she explained. This just kind of makes it more concrete for them and cements that idea in their mind that that is real, and we have to work for it. Once the students graduate from fifth grade at Emerson, they are presented with their savings in the form of a check. Many students will come to Trius to open a new account, and Pohl said one student continued to save his money until he was old enough to put a down payment on a car. The students have loved being involved in the program, and it has taught valuable lessons from working with money to being responsible and helping others, True said. They love it. They love banking day. ... Its a great chance just to work on responsibility with the kids because they bring their money in different ways. Some bring it in an envelope, some bring it in a baggie and then they hang on to that and keep it safe throughout the day. ... It just helps teach a lot of those skills, she said. LINCOLN Hunters are reminded they may donate harvested deer to the Hunters Helping the Hungry program at seven processor locations in Nebraska. Kearney-area processor locations are: Amherst Belschner Custom Meats. Franklin Franklin Locker. Hunters pay no processing costs for deer donated to processors for this program. But they should call the processor before hunting to check capacity; due to staffing difficulties, many processors are not accepting deer this year. This includes non-HHH processors. The HHH program is funded solely by tax-deductible contributions. Ground venison is distributed by charitable organizations to Nebraskans in need. Hunters should first talk with processors but may keep antlers, head and cape and donate the rest of the deer. Processors accept only whole deer in good condition to ensure a good yield of pure ground venison. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is also seeking cash donations to HHH, which was created by the Nebraska Legislature in 2012, so it can continue to feed Nebraskans. Each dollar donated provides two meals of ground venison. More than 850,000 meals have been distributed since the program began. Learn more about the program and how to support it at OutdoorNebraska.org/HHH or contact program coordinator Jordyn Riha at 402-471-5431 or jordyn.riha@nebraska.gov. By Trend The Azerbaijani Army launched a counter-offensive operation, later called the "Iron Fist", on September 27, 2020, in response to the large-scale provocation of the Armenian armed forces along the frontline, Trend reports. The erupted 44-day second Karabakh war ended with the liberation of Azerbaijans territories from nearly 30-year Armenian occupation and the restoration of territorial integrity. Chronicle of the 39th day of the Second Karabakh War: - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev shared on his official Twitter page that the Azerbaijani Army liberated several villages in Jabrayil, Zangilan and Gubadli districts. - President Aliyev gave an interview to the Italian la Repubblica newspaper. - The Armenian armed forces were forced to retreat by suffering losses. - The list of destroyed military equipment of the Armenian armed forces has been announced. - The Armenian armed forces fired on Tartar and Aghjabadi districts. - Armenia violated the ceasefire regime in the direction of the Tovuz and Agstafa districts - A video footage of the destruction of Armenia's anti-aircraft gun has been released. - Captain of the Armenian armed forces Ando Grigoryan was killed while driving UAZ. - The Armenian armed forces fired on Tartar district. - The Armenian armed forces sabotage attempt against the Azerbaijani positions in the direction of Zangilan district from the Armenian territory was prevented. Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong. Korea Times file By Lee Kyung-min A delegation led by Land Minister Won Hee-ryong has embarked on a trip to Saudi Arabia, a key prospective partner in Korea's overseas construction projects, the land ministry said, Friday. The six-day trip is the latest in a government policy initiative to help local builders win overseas construction contracts of $50 billion (71 trillion won) every year through 2027, a drive the ministry says will revive the industry. Saudi Arabia has generated $156 billion, or 17 percent, of Korea's overseas construction order total of $925 billion over the past five decades, according to the International Contractors Association of Korea. The figure is twice the $83.1 billion won from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Central to the five-stage project of $500 billion is winning orders involving Neom, a city being built in Tabuk Province in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The new city will incorporate smart city technologies and is expected to function as a tourist destination with a population of up to 9 million. 2nd Middle East construction boom "We will take a leap forward in overseas construction, as initiated by projects in Saudi Arabia," Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong said. "It will help Korea win a higher number of overseas construction projects in the years to come." A roadshow will be presented by Won and local construction affiliates of large conglomerates, including Hyundai, Samsung, GS, Ssangyong, Daewoo, Kolon and Hanmi, in Riyadh, the capital and financial hub of Saudi Arabia. Among those in attendance will be Saudi Arabia's transport and construction authorities as well as state-run and private agencies. Presentations on technology demonstrations will be led by Korean firms, followed by one-on-one consultations. Officials of both countries will discuss ways to fortify cooperation in transport mobility and sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for knowledge sharing, exchanges of human resources and business strategies. The success of the all-out promotional activities will be strengthened by the project management and underground tunnel-building capabilities of local firms overseeing The Line, a project involving the construction of a 170-kilometer, car-free, zero-carbon city in Neom. Muhammad Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, expects that the "futuristic economic zone will have 1 million inhabitants and no roads," enabled by the smart city planning of essential daily services. "Schools, medical clinics, leisure facilities as well as green spaces will be located within a five-minute walk," he said. The Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center in Cashton is seeking to add one service-oriented member to its team as part of the American Heart Associations HeartCorps program that launched earlier this year. Twenty-six states are participating in the program, a joint venture between AmeriCorps and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The domestic service opportunity is intended to: Help meet public health needs of local communities by providing needed capacity and support in state and local public health settings and advancing more equitable health outcomes for communities who are currently or historically underserved. Provide pathways to good quality public health-related careers by providing exposure through onsite experience, training, and more, with a focus on recruiting AmeriCorps members who reflect the communities in which they will serve. We are excited to partner with the American Heart Association to both connect our patients to more resources around healthy lifestyles and heart health, while also providing an opportunity for individuals to gain experience supporting community health and education, said Ashley Hemmersbach, Community Health Educator at Scenic Bluffs. As part of that effort, the AHA began its own Public Health AmeriCorps program, HeartCorps. The program is designed for those interested in driving health equity in rural America. All totaled, 100 service members are being sought for 2022-23. Applicants must be 21 years old and will receive for their 1700 hours of service. A living stipend of $25,500 (pre-tax) Healthcare benefits and a childcare subsidy if eligible A $6,495 educational award (pre-tax) 200+ hours of professional development Direct access to job opportunities upon successful completion of program Please complete the general application for HeartCorps service members or simply email us your resume. Be sure to indicate which state(s) you are interested in serving and/or willing to relocate to for this service experience. All accepted applicants must successfully pass a national criminal background check to become HeartCorps service members. For questions related to HeartCorps, please email HeartCorps@heart.org. The health challenges in many rural communities are acute, but there are so many organizations and individuals committed to changing that. Were excited for this program to help support those efforts, said Tim Nikolai, Sr. Rural Health Director at the American Heart Association. Seeking more ways to helpThe AHA launched this effort in large part, according to heart.org, because under-resourced communities and those who live in rural areas face the highest death rates due to hypertension. Those areas also face shortages in the number of available health care professionals, including public health care workers, which continues to negatively impact the care those in rural areas can receive. Nearly half of all Americans have high blood pressure, and many dont know they have it. Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a silent killer that causes unnecessary and inequitable disease, disability and death, robbing us of precious time with loved ones. It can cause heart attacks, heart failure, stroke and other devastating conditions. For nearly 100 years, weve been fighting heart disease and stroke, striving to save and improve lives, according to the website. A shared focus on cardiovascular health unites our more than 40 million volunteers and supporters as well as our more than 2,800 employees. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer worldwide, and stroke ranks second globally, according to the website. Saturday marks the seventh annual iFeed, where Interact students from seven area schools will come together to help alleviate hunger in their communities and internationally. Leading up to this event, Interact students from Aquinas, Caledonia, Central, Holmen, Logan, Onalaska and West Salem have been busy collecting financial donations and nonperishable food items for the Hunger Task Force. All items given to the Hunger Task Force will then be distributed to local community food banks throughout our region. Students have also raised additional funds by selling concessions at Moon Tunes throughout the summer to purchase the ingredients for meals to be packaged and sent to Poland for Ukrainian Refugees. On Saturday morning, over 25 teams made up of local businesses, community members, Rotarians and Interactors will gather together in the Logan High School gym from 8 a.m. to noon to assemble over 80,000 nutrition, vitamin-fortified rice and soy meals. These meals will then be packaged and sent to Poland for Ukrainian Refugees. While the international meals are being assembled, additional students will be counting and sorting the food they have collected from various events, including their Trick or Can initiative that takes place every Halloween. If you have any food items to spare, students are urging you to bring them to Logan High School from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. Students will be assisting with a drive-thru so no one even has to step out of their vehicles. Cash and check donations are also appreciated, with checks written out to iFeed. Their goal is to collect over 40,000 food items to help alleviate hunger in our surrounding communities. LAS VEGAS (AP) Nevadas former state prisons director alleged Friday that before forcing him to resign more than a month ago, aides to the Democratic governor now seeking reelection wanted him to reshape accounts of a convicted bombmaker's escape that went unreported for four days. Gov. Steve Sisolaks chief-of-staff, Yvanna Cancela, responded by accusing ex-state Department of Corrections chief Charles Daniels of attempting a political shakedown for more than $1 million taxpayer dollars" with a threat of going public and filing costly and time-consuming litigation. The governors office and the state will not have this matter politicized, Cancela said in a three-page statement. To date, Daniels has not filed a legal claim, it said. Sisolak press aide Meghin Delaney provided a copy of an Oct. 28 letter from Daniels attorney, Craig Marquiz, to state officials seeking an amicable solution amounting to seven years worth of Daniels $150,000-per-year salary, or $1.05 million. Otherwise, the letter said, Daniels planned to file age and racial employment discrimination claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a possible federal lawsuit. The letter identifies Daniels as an African-American male executive within a protected age class who was forced to resign under duress. The letter from Marquiz quoted Sisolak's praise for Daniels when he was hired in December 2019. Charles brings more than three decades of knowledge, management experience and perspective that will bring needed structure, accountability and reform," Sisolak said at the time. Daniels resigned Sept. 30. He stood Friday with Marquiz in front of a federal courthouse in Las Vegas and read prepared remarks that Daniels said were a response to statements which have defamed me and eviscerated my distinguished and faithful career on both state and national levels. He called his rare appearance before the media the first step in regaining my good name, honor and reputation. He answered no questions, including an inquiry about the timing of his announcement. Daniels described, in time-of-day detail, what he said happened after he and other top prison administrators were informed Sept. 27 that Porfirio Duarte-Herrera had escaped up to four days earlier, Sept. 23, from a medium-security facility outside Las Vegas. Duarte-Herrera was sentenced to life in prison for a fatal Las Vegas Strip casino parking structure bombing. Sisolak posted a statement about the escape after 5 p.m. Sept. 27, noting that his office had been notified that morning. This kind of security lapse cannot be permitted and those responsible will be held responsible, Sisolak said at the time. A tip from a ticket clerk at a Las Vegas bus station late Sept. 28 led to Duarte-Herreras arrest by Las Vegas police as he stood in line to board a bus to Tijuana, Mexico. Daniels did not say exactly when officials at Southern Nevada Correctional Center learned from another inmate of the escape. He said Duarte-Herrera had left a crude dummy under blankets on his bed. Gov. Sisolak publicly suggested ... there was a cover-up to hide that escape, that he was going to hold someone accountable, Daniels said, then publicly announced that he demanded that I resign or be fired. Elizabeth Ray, spokeswoman for Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the Republican candidate for governor, noted in a statement Friday that the public still hasnt been made fully aware of the details surrounding the escape. Daniels said he refused instructions from a top legal aide to Sisolak to change a timeline about the escape to make it consistent with the medias facts. He did not specify elements of what he called a narrative that was knowingly false. Delaney noted that Daniels did not say Sisolak told him to change the timeline. Sisolak campaign representative Molly Forgey said Daniels made his public statement without offering evidence. Daniels said he filed a whistleblower complaint that state officials acknowledged receiving before telling him to resign or be fired. I was not offered protection and I resigned under duress, he said. Daniels departure renewed a spotlight on trouble including violence and chronic understaffing at Nevada's seven prisons, nine conservation camps and two transitional housing centers. The state inmate population has dropped from about 13,000 inmates when Daniels arrived to fewer than 10,000 today, with about 2,850 guards and administrators. In her statement, Cancela said on Sisolak's behalf that for decades, Nevada's corrections system has needed everything from infrastructure upgrades to more personnel. This administration didn't create the bulk of the problems, she said, but it will make a serious effort at correcting them. Republican Attorney General candidate Eric Toney has repeatedly said that there is a systemic staffing problem at the Wisconsin Department of Justices Division of Criminal Investigation, the states top law enforcement outfit. Hes used the claim in an attempt to paint Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul as inept at overseeing public safety at a time of heightened public concern over rising violent crime. Toney, the Fond du Lac County district attorney, has frequently cited a figure of 88 out of 113 vacant DCI special agent positions, saying Kaul had effectively defunded the agency. Toney attributes those figures to comments he heard second-hand from DCIs administrator at a law enforcement conference earlier this year. But when DOJ released special agent staffing data last month, it showed a shortage of seven people, with 83 out of 90 positions filled, as of early July. Those figures put DCI special agent staffing at its lowest level since 2016. Year over year, though, Kauls tenure as attorney general had overall higher staffing levels than his predecessor, Republican Brad Schimel. DCI also had more authorized positions, not fewer, under Kaul. Even so, Toney continues to cite the 88 out of 113 figure, although hes moved away from calling them special agent vacancies and now calls them DCI posts. He knows the facts and what hes saying is false, Kaul said during a debate between the two candidates last week. To settle the issue, Toney has called on DOJ to release a detailed staffing chart showing which DCI positions are vacant. A copy of that chart, obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal through an open records request, shows that 80 of 90 authorized special agent posts were filled as of Sept. 1. Two of those are not actually vacancies but someone being trained by their predecessor, putting it in line with the previously released data, said DOJ spokesperson Gillian Drummond. In addition, four out of 12 special agent-in-charge posts were empty as of September. Those positions werent a part of the data DOJ released last month. They include the Madison and Wausau field offices, the Human Trafficking Unit and the State Fire Marshals Office. The former employees in the later three were recently promoted and all of those positions are temporarily being filled by agents in an interim capacity, Drummond said. Kaul did not respond this week to questions about DCI staffing, but campaign spokesperson Joe Oslund said Toney is clearly willing to say anything he thinks will help him win this election. Wisconsinites deserve an Attorney General who tells the truth, not one who spreads falsehoods for attempted political gain, Oslund said. Kaul has said DCI is in the process of hiring a 12-member class of agents to fill the empty positions and others that will be left open by retirements and promotions. If director posts and other supervisors are included with special agents, that produces a total number of 113 positions, which is Toneys figure. But among that larger group, the number of filled positions is also higher anyway: 98 out of 113. (In practice, 100 of those 113 positions are filled, as two of them are staff training their replacements.) It also leaves out dozens of analysts, victim services specialists and other posts at DCI, which are generally well staffed. Toney did not return a request for comment either. The staffing chart does underscore one of the points Toney has made during the campaign about how vacancies affect some parts of DCI more than others. The Eau Claire Field Office, for example, had two of its four special agent posts vacant, a figure Toney has repeatedly attributed to local law enforcement from Eau Claire. However, the Milwaukee and Appleton Field Offices, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Human Trafficking Unit had their special agent posts fully staffed. So whats the rest of the story? Staffing at DOJ, a 700-person agency, fluctuates. Kaul had more DCI posts funded and better staffing than his predecessor, with the current number of vacancies not materializing until this year. The release of the organizational chart, as Toney has demanded, only shows the additional special agent in-charge vacancies and is generally in line with the data DOJ released last month. Burlington Police officers reported that they responded to a driveway of a residence on the 100 block of Madison Street at 8:16 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a report of a woman yelling for help. When they arrived, officers said they found a man Richard "Rick" Lawrence Sallmann wrapping a jacket around a woman's head, attempting to suffocate her. "Officers intervened and stopped the assault," the BPD said Friday, and Sallmann was arrested soon after fleeing. LANSING, Mich. A shortage of poll workers has concerned local election officials in some parts of the country as the midterm elections approach. Not so in Michigan. Conservative groups and local Republican Party operatives who have pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election have recruited poll workers here by the thousands. Similar recruitment efforts on the right have bolstered the ranks of poll workers in some other states with nationally watched races. Seeding the ranks of front-line election workers with people recruited by groups promoting election conspiracies has raised alarms among some that the people at the foundation of the election system could try to undermine it. It concerns me when the motivation to serve as a poll worker is fueled through misinformation and people who have been fed lies, in some cases, for years now, said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. Since the spring, clerks have come at us with concerning questions theyre getting and in some cases, hundreds of poll worker applications that seem to be motivated by nefarious intent. In Oakland County, the states second-most populous, Republicans discouraged about the outcome of the 2020 election have been urged to sign up as poll workers through a new Republican National Committee recruitment program. If youre angry, fed up and fearful of a repeat of the horror show of November 2020, then this is one way you can help, the Oakland County GOP website reads. In Florida, three men who are part of the Miami-Dade GOP executive committee and also are reported to have ties to the far-right Proud Boys extremist group applied for and qualified to serve as poll workers in Miami. Election officials said they decided not to assign a precinct to one of them after learning he had been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The falsehoods have led some GOP officials to push efforts aimed at ensuring what they insist is election integrity. Among those efforts are the steps taken across the country to recruit and train people to work at polling places and serve as poll watchers who monitor for problems. The RNC said it has made a multimillion-dollar investment for this year's election cycle that includes 17 state election integrity directors and 37 in-state election integrity counsels. The group says it has recruited over 11,000 poll workers in Michigan. In neighboring Wisconsin, the recruitment effort has brought in an additional 5,000 In Milwaukee, that effort has led to five times as many partisans becoming election workers as in previous years. The head of the Milwaukee Election Commission, Claire Woodall-Vogg, said she is confident the system of checks-and-balances will catch anyone who might try to interfere with voting, noting that a second election inspector must sign off on each task. Anyone who might have bad intentions, we would immediately, I think, be able to identify, she said. The fraud claims about 2020 are especially deep-seated in Michigan, where the GOP candidates for governor, secretary of state and attorney general have repeated them. Election inspector manuals created by Michigan for America First, an affiliate of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynns group The America Project, encourage supporters to work at polls because election cheating and fraud is not possible without collusion from poll workers. Poll workers, known as election inspectors in Michigan, are hired, trained and paid by local governments to assist in running elections. They are required to disclose party affiliation and are expected to be impartial in their duties as government employees, but do not have to live in the county where they will work the polls. In Flint, the Michigan GOP and RNC are suing election officials to force them to hire more Republican election inspectors. Michigan law compels clerks to strive for equal party representation, but local officials say worker shortages often make that goal impossible to reach. Several issues with poll workers in Michigan already have surfaced this year. Before the state's August primary, a Republican candidate for governor instructed poll workers to unplug voting equipment as a way to root out potential fraud. In Macomb County, just north of Detroit, Clerk Anthony Forlini has faced backlash for his decision to hire activist Genevieve Peters to help recruit poll workers. Peters was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and is seen on video encouraging the crowd to storm the gates. Forlini said getting election deniers involved in the process helps them "believe in the systems weve put in place." A township clerk south of Grand Rapids had a similar intention when he invited James Holkeboer to participate in the primary. The clerk, Michael Brew, was quoted in police records as saying that Holkeboer is a person that doesnt have a lot of confidence in the election process. Holkeboer is now charged with falsifying election records and using a computer to commit a crime. He faces up to five years in prison after inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book the night of the primary. He told investigators he wanted his own copy to make sure the voter roll matched one that had been obtained through records requests. It was extremely alarming and incredibly egregious, said Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, a Republican. The Michigan Democratic Party is not recruiting election inspectors but is instead ensuring it has eyes and ears on the ground through poll watchers to ensure there is no voter intimidation or interference from within, said Erica Peresman, the party's voter protection director. She said that while the party has recruited for these positions in the past, the effort was boosted due to what we have been reading about with regard to the Republican Party's efforts and its allies' efforts this year. Peresman said Democrats are prioritizing polling locations such as Detroit where the party is especially concerned about partisan behavior. GOP leaders targeted Detroit following the 2020 presidential election, claiming fraud was possible there because just 170 of the 5,486 election officials were Republicans. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said Republicans sent her a list of 800 names to be poll workers earlier this year, a significant increase over previous election years. She said she welcomed the extra help and invited them to complete the necessary training though only 200 did. I think they just found for themselves that it wasnt going to be as easy as we thought it was going to be to disrupt the process, Winfrey said. Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger and Claire Savage in Milwaukee, and Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami contributed to this report. 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. Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after Im elected governor. Tim Michels So said the Republican nominee for governor during a campaign stop in Jefferson County on Halloween, and Democrats are hoping it makes you very, very afraid. In the days since, a slew of mainstream and left-wing media outlets, Democrats, and even late-night TV host Seth Meyers have pointed to the statement as another sign that Republicans led by election-denying former president and Michels supporter Donald Trump are the party of overthrowing democracy and installing themselves as a permanent dictatorship. Well, not quite at least in this case. Michels has said the 2020 election was maybe stolen but that decertifying its results is not a priority if hes elected governor. (Its also not legally possible.) But his statement on Halloween came after he spent about two minutes talking about what hes heard from two groups who traditionally vote for Democrats: inner-city Black people in Milwaukee and union members. People in Milwaukees Harambee neighborhood tell him they want to get crime down, they want to have better educational opportunities for their sons and daughters, he said. Their platform, their interests, is the same thing as my platform. Then he channels the trades guys, whom he says he runs into all the time. They tell us to vote for the Democrats all the time, Michels says they tell him, but I tell you what: Im voting for you, and everybody at work I know is voting for you because the Democratic Party has left us. Its all about the acronyms. Its all about LGBTQ and CRT and BLM. I just want to go to work, raise my family, go to church on Sunday, go to my kids ballgame, and the Democratic Party doesnt care about any of that. Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after Im elected governor. So whats the rest of the story? Michels was indeed tapping into some pretty scary stuff, at least for Democrats, but it didnt have anything to do with overthrowing democracy. Rather, what frightens Democrats is that Michels courting of Black and union voters might be just effective enough give him the governors mansion. Hes got at least some reason to believe it might. Not since Ronald Reagan has a Republican presidential candidate narrowed the gap between union and nonunion support like Donald Trump did in 2016. And while Black people overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, Trump increased his share of the Black vote from that 2016 election to the one two years ago. Michels, whos been endorsed by Trump and shied away from criticizing the former president, is hoping to tap into those trends, and believes the way to do so is to convince just enough union members and Black people that the GOP will do more for them than Democrats will. That was the all-important context to Michels statement about Republicans never losing another election. We are going to make sure that the working men and the working women, the working families in Wisconsin, understand that the Republican Party is their best bet for happiness, for success, for better opportunity for their sons and daughters, Michels also said at that Jefferson County appearance. Michels wasnt touting Republican plans for killing democracy. He was doing what politicians always do: Promising that if you vote for them, your life will get better. State Journal reporter Mitchell Schmidt contributed to this report. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Vice President of the Republic of Turkiye Fuat Oktay. Vice President Fuat Oktay extended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans greetings to President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state thanked for Recep Tayyip Erdogans greetings, and asked the Vice President to extend his greetings to the Turkish President. During the conversation, the sides underlined the importance of the Shusha Declaration. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans recent visit to Azerbaijan, and his participation in the openings of important facilities in the cities of Zangilan and Jabrayl as part of the visit were hailed. Recalling the telephone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdogan two days ago, the head of state described the start of electric car production in Turkiye as the next success of the brotherly country's industry. The importance of the Zangazur corridor in terms of the development of transport relations was mentioned at the meeting. The significance of Azerbaijan's investment of more than 20 billion dollars in the economy of Turkiye was emphasized, the increase in trade, and the successful cooperation in the field of energy was pointed out. Touching upon the issue related to gas export, the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as expanding the export possibilities of this corridor was emphasized. The sides also exchanged views on prospects for cooperation in the fields of transport and trade. President Ilham Aliyev welcomed the Turkish Vice Presidents planned visit to Shusha. Nov. 3, 2022 (EIRNS)Britains Ambassador to Russia Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry this morning over British military involvement in Ukraines Oct. 29 attacks on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. She left the ministry building without comment. On her way into the meeting, she passed through demonstrators bearing banners reading No to the U.K. Terrorist State. The Russian Foreign Ministry released its statement this afternoon. The British Foreign Office had nothing, but sent Reuters to cover the summons. Foreign Ministry statement on the United Kingdoms involvement in the terrorist attack against the Black Sea Fleet ships in Sevastopol In connection with the Defense Ministrys reports about the United Kingdoms involvement in the October 29 terrorist attack against the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, British Ambassador to Russia Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on November 3. A strong protest in connection with the British military specialists active participation in training and providing supplies to the units of the Ukrainian special operations forces, including with the goal of conducting acts of sabotage at sea, were expressed to the Ambassador. Concrete facts of that kind of activities by London were provided. The demarche emphasized that such confrontational actions by the British pose the threat of an escalation and can lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences. It was pointed out that such hostile provocations were unacceptable and a demand was put forward to stop them immediately. Should these acts of aggression that are fraught with direct implication in the conflict continue, the responsibility for their harmful consequences and the mounting tensions in relations between our countries will lie entirely with the British side. It was noted, in particular, that an agreement was reached in September 2020 between London and Kiev to expand the British instructors training program for Ukrainian military divers. In late 2020, the parties began implementing the Naval Training Initiative for the Ukrainian Navy, which included training courses for combat swimmers. British-Ukrainian naval cooperation is further reinforced under the Joint Multinational Training GroupUkraine program. This work is carried out at a separate Ataman Golovaty Spec Ops Center South of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (Military Unit A3199, former 73rd Marine Special Operations Center) in the city of Ochakov, Nikolayev region, and includes the training of underwater spec ops operatives for conducting operations in the Black Sea and Azov Sea. A military diving school in Odessa (which is part of the Ukrainian Navys 198th training center, Military Unit A3163, Nikolayev), is training special operations divers, including in deep-sea subversive skills, among others. With the participation of British specialists, the Ukrainian Navy carried out dives and a training detonation of a target on the coast and in the Black Sea near the cities of Odessa, Nikolayev and Ochakov. In August-September, on Pervomaisky Island in the Dnieper estuary 3 km south of Ochakov, British military instructors (about 15 men) taught servicemen from the Armed Forces of Ukraine to operate unmanned underwater vehicles designed to destroy ships. In August-September, the British trained the crews of minesweepers that were transferred to Ukraine. We have information that the British Navy has also transferred a certain number of UAVs to Ukraine. EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2022 Spotlight on Britains Role in Attack on Russias Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol Nov. 3, 2022 (EIRNS)Today the British Ambassador to Russia Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, over the British role in Ukraines Oct. 29 drone and missile attack on Russias Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Afterward, the Ministry released a statement identifying the place, date, time, and military units involved in British training and collaboration with Ukraines Marine Special Operation Center, recently, and since 2020. This Russian statement did not also include specifics of Britains involvement in the Sept. 26 attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, but Nikolay Patrushev, the Director of the Russian Security Council, reiterated today that Britain was likewise involved in that attack. Todays demarche with Ambassador Bronnert is part of a series of formal actions Russia has taken since the early morning attack on Sevastopol, Oct. 29, which provide yet another cut-and-dried case of crimes and fraud by leaders of Global NATO, showing that, to put it very politely, they are a bunch of lying, depraved bastards. Worst of all, this crowd is trying to conduct and win a chicken game of nuclear war threat with Russia. In that regard, Russia issued a warning yesterday, titled, Statement of the Russian Federation on Preventing Nuclear War. The Russian Nov. 2 document states: We are strongly convinced that in the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of nuclear powers. We urge other states of the nuclear five to demonstrate in practice their willingness to work on solving this top priority task and to give up the dangerous attempts to infringe on vital interests of each other while balancing on the brink of a direct armed conflict and encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction, which can lead to catastrophic consequences. In the United States, perhaps the most important event taking place anywhere in the nation, in the final four days before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, will occur Saturday, Nov. 5, at 11 a.m. (EDT). EIR News Service will hold an online international media availability, A Nuclear War Cannot Be Won, and Must Never Be Fought, with leaders who are sounding the alarm over the danger, and identifying the alternative course. The roster of speakers includes Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine and nuclear weapons inspector; Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former head of the U.S. Armys Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and a former Virginia State Senator; Ray McGovern, former CIA senior analyst; Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and leader of its recent international role for a new world security and development architecture; and others, including more leaders from Europe. Most prominently, Diane Sare will participate. She is the Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, who has not only campaigned in her state, for all to activate to stop the nuclear war danger, but she has also taken the call internationally. In Europe, there are more voices sounding, breaking ranks with the fight to the death of all NATO credo. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking on the eve of the G7 ministerial today, called for talks over Ukraine. The goal should be an agreement, a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, so that they could be able to sit down to talk. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin this week has moved to further new centers for development for world benefit. Yesterday, Putin and Indonesian President Joko Widodo conferred by phone about the Nov. 15-16 Group of 20 Summit, that Indonesia will host in Bali. They spoke of the agenda and goals, and in particular they discussed world food security as a priority. To the opening of the Arab League Summit in Algeria on Nov. 1, Putin sent a greeting to the opening, stressing the importance of the 22 member nations involved in the Arab League, whose populations number at least a half-billion, and whose leadership for new, productive economic and security measures will benefit the entire world. These initiatives are in the very same direction as that launched by the grouping on Oct. 7 of current and former legislators of Central and South America for a world mobilization of leaders to set policy on an emergency basis. The next seminar in this process is set for November 22, Stop the Danger of Nuclear War Now; Third Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World. There is no time to spare. In recent weeks, climate activists have thrown tomato soup, spread potatoes, and even attached themselves to famous paintings. The activists have said their actions were meant to call attention to the burning of fossil fuels and the environmental crisis worldwide. Last month, two activists dumped tomato soup over Vincent van Goghs Sunflowers at Londons National Gallery. What is worth more, art or life? the two activists asked people in the gallery. Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people? Weeks later, two other climate activists spread potatoes on a glass-covered painting by French Painter Claude Monet inside a German museum. Another activist attached his head to the glass covering of a famous Johannes Vermeer painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, at The Hague in Amsterdam. In a video widely seen online, the man who glued his head to Vermeers painting asked, How do you feel when you see something beautiful and priceless apparently being destroyed before your eyes? He added, Where is that feeling when you see the planet being destroyed? The actions followed a recent incident in which activists threw cake at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Activists also glued themselves to a copy of Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper at Londons Royal Academy of Arts, Sandro Botticellis Primavera at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, and a sculpture at the Vatican. Alex De Koning is a spokesman for Just Stop Oil, the group responsible for throwing cans of soup at Van Goghs painting. He said the group will attack paintings and art until the government makes a meaningful statement about ending new fossil fuel assets in the UK. He told Euronews: There are still people who are way more outraged about that action than the 33 million people in Pakistan being displaced by floods. But University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann said he worries the actions will hurt the activists cause. He told the Associated Press that such actions will alienate people who are natural allies in the climate battle. Some of those people, Mann said, will draw negative associations with climate advocacy and activism from such acts. Dana Fisher is a social scientist at the University of Maryland. She said the activists seemed to have targeted paintings that have a glass cover to cause less damage. She told the AP: These tactics are specifically geared toward getting media attention. Attacks on artwork have long gotten peoples attention. In 1914, a supporter of womens voting rights cut The Toilet of Venus, a famous painting by Spanish artist Diego Velazquez in Londons National Gallery. During the Vietnam War, an Iranian artist sprayed the words Kill Lies All on Pablo Picassos anti-war painting Guernica at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. The most famous painting of all, Mona Lisa, has been attacked more than any other work of art. People have thrown rocks, chemicals, paint and even a teacup at da Vincis painting over the years. The Louvre has since put Mona Lisa behind bulletproof glass and kept visitors some distance away. Following the attack on Girl with a Pearl Earring, a Dutch cultural official said, Everyone has the right to make a point. But please: leave our shared heritage alone. Attacking defenseless works of art is not the right way." Im Ashley Thompson. Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from The Associated Press and ArtNews. ______________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story glue - v. to attach something by using a sticky substance can - n. a closed metal container that holds food or drink alienate - v. to cause someone to stop being friendly tactic - n. action that is planned to achieve a goal heritage - n. traditions, achievements, .. that are part of history An official close to the Ethiopian peace talks says the government and Tigray forces have signed an agreement to end hostilities. The two-year-old war has killed thousands, displaced millions, and left hundreds of thousands facing hunger. The unnamed official told the Associated Press that the final agreement says Tigray forces will be disarmed, starting with light weapons within 30 days of Wednesdays signing. Ethiopian federal security forces will take control of all federal buildings, airports, and highways in the Tigray area. And a temporary administration will be established after talks between the parties. The agreement sets deadlines on disarmament but little else. And it could be difficult to get all involved to surrender their weapons to complete the deal. The Tigray lead negotiator described the agreement at Wednesdays signing as painful concessions. The deal came after 10 days of talks in Pretoria, South Africa, helped by the African Union. The union with representatives from both sides and African experts will follow the process. Observers of the conflict welcomed the agreement. This is very much a welcome first step, said a spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters she was very pleased because what it means is that lives will be saved. The government of neighboring Eritrea, whose forces have fought alongside Ethiopian ones, has not commented on the deal. The agreement says Ethiopian forces will be deployed along the borders and ensure that there will be no provocation or incursion from either side of the border. On Thursday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said during a visit to southern Ethiopia that his governments proposal at the talks was accepted 100 percent and the government was ready to open our hearts for peace. He also said the issue of disputed areas, widely seen as one of the most difficult, will be resolved only through the law of the land and negotiations. The day after the deal, Ethiopian media groups ceased using the word terrorist to describe Tigrayan forces. The signed deal says Ethiopias government agrees to end the terrorist designation on the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front party. Inside Tigray, one humanitarian worker in the town of Shire said there were no sounds of gunfire, as in the past few days, and a blockade of movement on people and vehicles was still in place. I'm Caty Weaver. Hai Do adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting from VOA News, The Associated Press and Reuters. ____________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story deadline - n. a date and time when something must be finished concession - n. something that is given up in order to reach an agreement provocation - n. an action that causes someone to become angry or to something incursion - n. a sudden invasion or attack By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli The Azerbaijani armys Special Forces have fulfilled various reconnaissance tasks and conducted special operations against an imaginary enemy, Azernews reports via Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, activities on taking control of the designated frontiers and points were carried out with the support of aircraft and artillery pieces, as well as attack drones. In accordance with the plan, an inspection of the special training continues in parallel, as well as the level of professionalism of servicemen in fulfilling combat tasks and overcoming a complex system of obstacles in a high mountainous and wooded area is being checked. Moreover, the Special Forces drills are underway. Azerbaijan periodically holds drills to improve its military personnels combat readiness. 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. Twitter began widespread dismissals of employees as new owner Elon Musk reorganizes the social media site. The company had told employees by email that they would find out by Friday morning if they had been laid off. The email did not say how many of the 7,500 or so employees would lose their jobs. Musk did not answer a question about the dismissal plan at a conference in New York on Friday. Investor Ron Baron had asked the businessman how much money he would save after he fired half of Twitter. Instead, Musk blamed activists who called on companies to halt advertising on the site. The activist groups have been successful in causing a massive drop in Twitter advertising revenue, he said. He added that Twitter had done its best to satisfy the activists. But, nothing is working, Musk said. Twitter employees have been expecting job cuts following Musks $44 billion takeover of the company. On his first day as owner, Musk fired several top leaders. He also removed the companys board of directors and made himself the only board member. On Thursday night, many Twitter employees expressed support for co-workers by posting heart emojis in blue the same color as Twitters bird logo. By early Friday, some employees posted that they could not log into their work accounts. They said those who worked in engineering, communications, product and content curation were among those being dismissed. Rachel Bonn, a Twitter user wrote: "Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old. Just got cut off from laptop access." Arnaud Weber, a vice president of engineering said his goodbye on Twitter on Friday: "Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I'm proud of what we accomplished. A worker said employees on the Twitter Blue team were also dismissed. The team was working on developing new products for the site. "Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this," the employee said. Is it legal? A spokesperson for Californias Employment Development Department told The Associated Press that Musk and Twitter had not given public notice of the coming layoffs. U.S. and California laws require employers with at least 100 workers to give public notice if planning to dismiss 500 or more employees. The requirement is for both publicly traded and privately held companies. On Thursday, several employees opened a legal action against Twitter in a federal court in San Francisco. One had been fired and the others had been locked out of the companys computer systems. The employees say Twitter plans to dismiss more employees and has violated the law by not providing the required notice. The layoffs come at a tough time for social media companies as companies are cutting back on advertising. In September, Facebooks parent company Meta said it was working on plans to reorganize and reduce workers. Big companies including General Motors and General Mills have all halted advertising on Twitter. The companies wanted to see how the service will operate under Musk. And Europes Volkswagen Group said Friday it is suggesting a suspension of paid advertising on Twitter for its car companies, including Audi, Porsche and Bentley. I'm Dan Novak. Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story revenue - n. money that is made by or paid to a business logo - n. a symbol that is used to identify a company and that appears on its products curation - n. the action or process of selecting and organizing online content access - n. a way of getting near something potential - n. something that can be developed to make better accomplish - v. to succeed in doing something layoff - n. the act of ending the employment of a worker or workers Editors Note: This is the first of a three part series about the Lexington Methodist Churchs 150 years of service. LEXINGTON The First United Methodist Church in Lexington is celebrating 150 years of service this year and can trace its roots back to Plum Creek in 1872. The FUMC is planning a special worship service on Sunday Nov. 13 at 9:45 p.m. with Something Worth Singing About, as the theme for the service. While a church is made up of people, there have been several places the Methodists have worshiped and those churches have played a role in the history of the community. From the 1877 one room church, to the larger steepled church in 1897 to the current brick church constructed in 1910. All have played host to their congregations over the years. Methodist Beginnings The early history of the Methodist church is closely associated with that of Plum Creek. In 1872, the only church was Catholic, having been established in 1867. Most histories date the start of Plum Creek with the arrival of the Philadelphia Colony, 65 men and women who had set off from Pennsylvania to the western frontier. Many of those people would go on to be a part of the first Methodist church. By the fall of 1872, Rev. Wm. J Wilson helped to organize the first Methodist Society in Plum Creek with a humble membership of 30 people. This amount of people could not support a full-time pastor and instead were served by the Circuit System. In sparsely populated areas of the United States it always has been common for clergy in many denominations to serve more than one congregation at a time, a form of church organization sometimes called a preaching circuit The pattern of organization in the Methodist Episcopal denomination and its successors worked especially well in the service of rural villages and unorganized settlements. The Plum Creek Methodist Society joined with those from Overton and Elm Creek to form the Overton Circuit, and a preacher served all three points. Their ministerial activity of the circuit riders boosted Methodism into the largest Protestant denomination at the time, the Overton Circuit continued to grow and in 10 years there were 23 groups in Dawson, northern Gosper, Furnas and Lincoln counties. One Methodist preacher, headquartered in Plum Creek, reported that he rode 23 miles on horseback to preach. In the days of the circuit system, there were no churches; services were held in sod homes, school houses or any empty building that could be used. Word that the preacher was coming and services were to be held was relayed from farm house to farm house; families would travel in wagons to the appointed place. Seating at these services was a luxury and during the warmer months, services were held outside. Some early Methodist records from the area tells of some discouragement among the young preacher circuit riders, given that they were on the frontier, attempting to build up some sort of permanent congregation. However, many local churches were to become the product of the circuit system, including Mt. Hope, Mt. Pleasant and Grace Methodist. In 1877, Rev. J. M. Dressler secured eight lots in Block 1 in MacColls addition for the Plum Creek Methodists. However, they could only raise enough money to pay for four of the lots; the Ladies Sociable of the Methodists had been able to raise $50. The first church was located near the corner of 7th and Jackson St. and the building faced north. The structure was made of wood with a steep gable roof, it featured one room. While it was a plain building, the congregation thought it satisfactory and better than meeting in private homes. This first church could hold around 100 people. By 1881, the population of Plum Creek had become more stable and the community was taken off of the riding circuit and became a station, for the Methodists. There were 54 faithful members at the time this decision was made. Growing Community, Growing Church In 1880, the population of Plum Creek was 344, by 1885 it had quadrupled to 1,392 and the community featured a hotel, steam mill, elevator, shops, warehouses. By this point, Plum Creek had developed something of a reputation; it was called a hard town, a cowboy town. In 1889, the movers and shakers of Plum Creek elected to change the name of the community to something more fitting for a growing town and to shake the past reputation. They chose Lexington, to honor the site of the famous battle during the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church was growing too; by 1896 the congregation had grown to the point that a larger building was becoming a necessity. The Temple family and members of the congregation, donated three lots at 9th and Grant St. It is said the community marvel at the fact the three block move of the small church building to its new location only took five days. A sanctuary was added to the north and the new church featured two spires and a bell which would be used for many years to come. The capacity of the church was 500. The Blymer church bell was purchased by the Hill family for $500 and the 1,000 pound bell was donated to the church. At first, the church was lit only by kerosene lamps but after Lexingtons electric plant was built, the Methodist Church was one of the first to have electric lights. The first night the lights were to be turned on, there was much excitement among the congregation. Then the moment came and the switch was pullednothing happened, no lights. While adjustments were being made the pastor called for the singing of the hymns, Let a Little Sunshine In, and Brighten the Corner Where You Are. When the lights eventually came on, the congregation broke out singing, When the Saints Go Marching In. It was said it was at that moment that a Peter Olsson, one of the local preachers, was walking down the aisle. This drew smiles as he was well-thought of by the members. In 1898, the Methodist preacher, David W. Crane, found himself in the middle of a tense town debate regarding temperance being put on the ballot in the Lexington election At this time, Methodist churches were aligned with the temperance movement. It was believed that alcohol continued to all sorts of societal ills including murder, gambling, prostitution, crime and political corruption. A Law and Order League was formed, including Methodists and other church goers, to make Lexington a dry community and allow no liquor licenses. The election was so tight that the vote for the mayor and treasurer was a tie. Those who wanted to keep liquor said the current mayor could keep their post, as long as liquor was made legal. The Law and Order League would not have it. After much debate, the decision came down to the drawing of straws. Crane wrote in his diary, The Law and Order League members began to pray and God, who had been in the battle all through, listened. The Law and Order League drew the longer straws and won the day. Crane noted, A big victory bonfire was held and great gobs of gloom hung from the countenances of the liquor dealers. The following morning, a large white crane was found nailed to the closed doors of the saloon, a clear shot at the Methodists who had been under the leadership of Rev. Crane during the election. By the turn of the century, the Methodist Church was prospering and it was becoming evident that an even larger church was needed. An article in the Clipper-Citizen from Jan. 28, 1910 tells of a Methodist revival that had been ongoing throughout the week. There were 40 conversions and as many additions to the church membership. Rev. Gaither, the pastor of this most worthy church, has received into its membership during the past three months 81 persons, which makes the present membership 450 persons. Earlier, 1906, Emma Temple, a devout Methodist, was nearing the end of her life and requested that her brothers set aside $1,000 of her estate to start a building fund for a new church, setting the stage for the third Methodist Church. Nebraska is one of the nations top agricultural states. Our farmers and ranchers have products that reach every corner of the country, as well as foreign markets around the world. In 2020, Nebraska exported $2.33 billion worth of soybeans/soybean products and $1.2 billion worth of corn. In 2021, Nebraska exported $1.81 billion worth of beef and $325.8 million worth of pork. Nebraskas ability to produce and export agricultural goods means international trade is vital to the economic livelihood of our state and its people. Our agricultural exports are also important to foreign nations, who rely on access to affordable, well-sourced products to help feed their country. Its troubling then that Mexico, a long-time trading partner of the United States, seems intent on enforcing a misguided ban on genetically modified corn. This issue goes back to 2020, when Mexican President Lopez Obrador suddenly issued a presidential decree that Mexico would phase out the use of genetically modified corn by 2024. Since then, there has been significant concern over whether the ban will actually be implemented, as well as what exactly it would cover. For example, the Mexican government has in the past indicated the ban would only apply to corn destined for human consumption, but there has been little action to clarify this. Making matters worse, between August of 2021 and March of 2022, Mexican regulators have begun rejecting corn, soybean, canola, and cotton biotech products. These actions, as well as comments from Mexican officials, suggest the country intends to move forward with the ban. Its important to note that this kind of ban is not based on science. Genetically modified crops are not only safe, but also vital to modern agriculture. These scientific advancements have helped farmers to reduce water/land usage, lower input costs, and boost yield. Such a ban would also be contradictory to the clear free trade commitments Mexico made under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The impact of Mexicos 2024 ban would be severe. Nebraska is the top state in the union for white corn, which is used in many food products. Nebraska exported over $348 million of corn to Mexico in 2020, making it our states largest export market for the product. Any restriction would devastate family farmers across our state. But the impacts of this misguided policy go far beyond Nebraska. Over 90 percent of all corn acreage in the United States is planted with genetically engineered seeds. A ban would also hurt the people of Mexico and their economy by dramatically raising food prices. Just the mere possibility of a ban is already impacting farmers. Without certainty about 2024, its hard for producers to know how to best plan out seed purchases and planting schedules. Mexicos ban against GMO corn would be a lose-lose for both countries economies, farmers, and science. Ive been tracking this issue closely, and have been working with stakeholders over the last year to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Its important that we all do everything we can to push back on this ridiculous policy and ensure it does not go into effect. I encourage the Biden Administration to fully enforce USMCA, including initiating an enforcement case if necessary, so we can reach a reasonable resolution with Mexico. Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week. Azerbaijani rear admiral awarded rank of vice admiral 04 November 2022 [15:45] - President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a Decree conferring the highest military rank of vice admiral on Rear Admiral Subhan Bakirov. Views: 658 Wisconsin author Alison Townsend wants everyone to be led by the land and to be a steward of their home places and she expresses that in her book The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home. The land surrounding Townsends home in the town of Rutland is much of the inspiration for her memoir, named after what she calls the magic time. She will discuss the book, published by UW Press, during an event at Mystery to Me later this month. Q: When did The Green Hour come out and how did the book come about? A: The book was supposed to come out in the fall of 2021, but because of pandemic-related supply chain issues, it didnt actually come out until March. (Revising it) was my project during the pandemic. Q: Had you been working on these essays for a while or did you write them all at once? A: It began when we bought 4 acres of prairie oak and savannah in the countryside outside Stoughton. Im not a native Wisconsinite, though I grew up in the country. So I had a lot to learn about prairie and oak savannah ecosystems. Were slowly restoring them both. In the process, I apprenticed myself to the land. I kept a place journal to study the world I was in, up close and personal. The weather, the sandhill cranes, little Island Lake ... and how I was relating and understanding it as a woman. Then I began to realize I was writing essays. This book took me somewhere between 10 and 15 years to write, in part because I didnt know I was writing a book at first. It was a very long process of shifting and filtering and organizing. When I realized that it was nature-based, and about place and dislocation, with a thread of early childhood mother loss running through it, I saw it was a book. When I realized all those things were themes, I was better able to focus. Many of the years I was working on it I was teaching full-time. I just really wanted to do it justice to the place and places I was writing about, letting the spirit of the land guide me. Q: What is your writing background? I understand youve written poetry, and Ive read that your essays in The Green Hour have a poetic quality to them. A: Ive always written poetry and prose. In my training, I focused on poetry. Creative nonfiction wasnt an option at the time when I was in grad school. But Ive always written lyrical prose. I actually feel that essays and poetry are the most closely related literary forms. I think that when the general public hears the word essay, they think of those horrible five-paragraph themes you had to write in school. I find that what Im writing about is very different ... a leapy, associative, image-based way of thinking ... that feels similar to poetry. Essays ... theyre a bigger canvas and need a bit more narrative spine running through them. Q: Would you explain what the green hour is? A: The green hour is such a magical time. Im walking into my sunroom to look out, where we look to the west and the north from our house, late in the afternoon, or even sometimes in the early summer evenings, when the whole landscape is just this amazing green. The green of the oaks, the green of the prairie, the green of the 80 acres of corn that my neighbors still farm. Its like looking at something from an illuminated manuscript. I started calling it the green hour. Thats where that comes from. Q: The book looks at five different areas where youve lived including Pennsylvania, Vermont, California and western Oregon. How has living in these different areas influenced the book? A: I was an unwilling transplant to Wisconsin. I came from the Pacific Northwest. Living in this beautiful, rural place summoned other places for me, most notably my beginning place, rural eastern Pennsylvania on Wild Run Farm, where I led an enchanted, somewhat isolated childhood. We left when I was 9 and moved to New York state ... and my mom died shortly after. Leaving a beloved place was associated with trauma. As an adult in my first marriage, I moved around. I lived in California and Oregon both places are really important to me. Ive had a lot of unplanned dislocations in my life, including coming to Wisconsin. Writing about this place was also a way of writing about other places that I have loved and lost those became themes in the book. Q: Do you think readers, after reading how youve connected with the land, will look for ways they can in their own areas? A: Some of the most moving feedback to me has been from ... people who I didnt know, who wrote to me about it. One person sent a letter to the Press ... they came out to Lake Kegonsa State Park, then went to Island Lake. Another woman, who lives in Stoughton, talked about how it evoked of her childhood in rural Wisconsin. A number of people have talked about the healing power of nature, crucial in the era of the Anthropocene. The natural world is such a wonderful teacher. Q: The book is so focused on nature do you have a favorite season in Wisconsin? A: I guess Id say fall and spring. Spring in Wisconsin, even after living here all these years, theres nothing slow about it. Its just Bang! One day its winter and the next day the Virginia Blue Bells are blooming. The last few days weve had the most amazing low-lying fog ... its so beautiful and mysterious. Its like that line from Keats: Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness. Q: Is there anything about The Green Hour that you want people to know that I havent asked about? A: Its a very personal book. The writing is very intimate in that I touch on life events, (such as) my mother dying when I was 9, a depressive episode when I was 36 and a divorce. Those are woven within the texture of the book. I do think that everyones intimate history is a contribution to the universal history. The book is my heart and soul, its my love song to places that have made me who I am. My hope is that the book is an invitation in thinking about that in the readers own life. (The book) seems to appeal to anybody whos interested in the natural world, memories, the personal essay, that sort of wide-ranging audience. Q: What are you working on next? A: Im still doing publicity for this book, but Im working on another book of essays called The Girl Inside. Its about female coming of age, another very personal book. Im also working on a poetry collection called The Zoologists Daughter. My mom was a trained zoologist. A serial burglar from Madison was sentenced Thursday to 42 months in federal prison after being convicted following a four-day trial in federal court in Madison, authorities reported. Ahmeeshadye Curtis, 36, was sentenced by Judge James D. Peterson for conspiring to transport and transporting stolen goods worth over $5,000 across state lines. Peterson ordered the sentence be served consecutive to the 30-month state sentence Curtis currently is serving for burglary-related crimes in Ohio, U.S. Attorney Timothy OShea said in a statement. Curtis was convicted of conspiring with Carl Carter, 39, of Madison, to commit seven burglaries and attempt another at stores in Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and to travel across state lines with the stolen merchandise from November through Dec. 24, 2019, OShea said. The stolen merchandise included cell phones that were primarily Apple iPhones, other electronics, and jewelry, with two of the burglaries in Janesville on Nov. 28, OShea said. Carter pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced on Jan. 4, 2021, to 30 months in federal prison. At sentencing, Peterson described the burglaries as high-level property crimes and emphasized the impact the crimes had on the owners of the stores, and on workers who no longer felt they worked at a safe location, OShea said. Curtis criminal history, which included numerous other thefts and a burglary in Ohio that occurred after Curtis was federally indicted and failed to report to jail in this case, also played a role in the sentence, OShea said. Former Sennett Middle School Principal Jeffrey Copeland has filed a grievance with the Madison School District seeking to overturn his dismissal, even as both sides still wont say why he was let go. Copeland was placed on leave Sept. 13, and on Sept. 26, the school district announced that he was no longer an employee. His grievance was filed with the district on Oct. 12, said James Dickinson, one of Copelands attorneys. Basically, Dr. Copeland is hoping to get reinstated. He would like his job back, Dickinson said. He said his legal team was working closely with the school districts attorney. Its still unclear what led to Copelands dismissal, which came just a few days into the school year. This was to be his first year in the district. The Wisconsin State Journal has spoken with several people familiar with the situation, but all refused to be identified, and their reports could not be independently verified. The State Journal was given a copy of part of the grievance letter, but nothing that detailed what led to Copelands termination. On Thursday, Dickinson declined to comment on the reason behind the dismissal. Parents and staff have publicly called for Copelands reinstatement. There has been no explanation, Beth Esser, a Sennett parent, said in a written statement to the School Board in September. At the same School Board meeting, Sennett staff credited Copeland for transforming behavior at the middle school. District spokesperson Tim LeMonds confirmed that the grievance has been filed. Dickinson said they are hoping to work out the issue amicably and that the process is still being negotiated. A person can file a grievance with the school district for several matters, including discipline, termination and workplace safety. The employee handbook outlines a step-by-step grievance process. However, the process can be expedited to a higher step if both parties agree, if it involves a termination and the initial grievance is filed on time. Nothing has been locked in at this point, but (going straight to the School Board) is one of the options that is very possible, Dickinson said. A review by the School Board is the final option for settling a grievance, and whatever decision the board makes is binding. Copeland came to Madison from Atlanta, where he served as a teacher and principal before taking the Sennett position, according to a Facebook post from the school district. Since Copeland left Sennett, recent Madison School District retirees Susan Abplanalp and Randi Kubek have been serving as the schools co-interim principals. Shortly after UW-Madison third-year graduate student Emily Case joined her economics program in 2020, she said she started getting warnings. Stay away from this professor. Never meet with that instructor alone. Its been dubbed the whisper network: Older students, professors from the economics department and others warn newcomers about which people in the department and in the industry have reportedly engaged in bad behavior or sexual misconduct, students say. Sometimes, students are informally warned around the time of admissions or even before, by professors at their undergraduate schools. Its disheartening, Case said, because the department otherwise fosters a collaborative environment. Graduate students in the econ department really have each others backs and really support each other, which to give you a picture of the field, thats not usual, she said. About 75 percent of graduate economics students recently signed a letter advocating for seven reforms. Those include ensuring that avenues for reporting misconduct have safeguards to prevent future retaliation and pledging that the university would listen to students. The letter wasnt meant as an attack on the department, said Case, who was one of the letters 167 signers. Rather, students want to see the department set an example for the rest of the economics industry. Because we love this department, were not going to sit here and accept a lower standard than what we think that this department can achieve with a lot of things, but recently with respect to how theyre handling sexual misconduct in the entire field and also in our own department, she said. Allegations of misconduct by UW-Madison professors have surfaced on Twitter and Reddit from student acquaintances and other professors in recent weeks and months, which is part of what motivated students to write the letter. The Wisconsin State Journal is not naming the staff members because it could not confirm the credibility of the accusations. Faculty misconduct has been an issue at UW-Madison for years. Graduate students have reported to the university threats over their funding slashed and negative job references; one student died by suicide in 2016 after enduring an abusive adviser. Policy enacted Following the #MeToo movement, the University of Wisconsin System established a policy to stop a practice known as Pass the Harasser. The policy requires sexual assault allegations and investigations to be recorded in personnel files and job finalists to answer whether theyve ever been found to have engaged in sexual harassment or violence or are currently under investigation. Those policies dont include academic bullying, which had been a persistent problem at UW-Madison. The latest data shows the Provosts Office investigated eight incidents of faculty bullying between 2017 and 2020, according to UW-Madison statistics. None were reported through the 2021-22 school year as of March. UW-Madison spokesperson Kelly Tyrrell said administration is encouraging anyone who would like to file a complaint or share additional information to come forward. Both the department and the university are committed to fostering an environment free from harassment of any kind and in efforts to ensure we have a campus that is welcoming and inclusive, she said. In response to the letter, economics department chair Chris Taber thanked the students for taking a strong stance against harassment and said the department was planning to form a committee to address the recommendations. The department is committed to fostering an environment that is free from harassment of any kind and supports efforts to ensure the field of economics is welcoming and inclusive, while also acknowledging that it has not always been so, Taber said. Whispered warnings Case and other students interviewed by the State Journal said they hadnt experienced any harassment themselves from UW-Madison professors. They have been piecing together a shared narrative on the online word processing and file sharing program Google Docs, which the State Journal has seen. But the students didnt want to be named or quoted in this story due to fear of retaliation. According to that document, the whisper network seeks to protect students as early as when they start applying to the program. Many of those warned are women, who are advised to not talk to certain professors alone, or at all. Those warnings dissuade students from coming to the graduate programs or choosing certain fields, the narrative document states. Case said the whisper network had warned her about avoiding certain faculty based on histories of racist or sexist comments. I dont want to speak for everyone, but I think most women, especially any young econ Ph.D. student whos remotely online, is not going to be surprised, she said. Taber declined to comment on the whisper network, citing confidentiality rules regarding employee performance. Realistic expectations In the process of writing the letter, graduate students tried to limit recommendations to those that are achievable. In addition to making reporting misconduct safer for students, the letter asks the department to pledge to not invite people with credible allegations of misconduct to seminars or conferences; to improve the investigation process; and to strengthen the use of the Systems Pass the Harasser rule. A lot of it was, Whats realistic to ask the department and what are we comfortable attaching our name to? Case said. In the response, Taber said that other faculty and staff share the graduate students concerns for recent allegations brought forward online about UW-Madison professors. Sexual harassment, including quid-pro-quo, is not tolerated, and students should feel safe to bring forward complaints without fear of additional harm or retaliation, Taber said. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a Decree on the construction of the Mughan-Birinci Pashali-Ikinci Pashali-Shorbachi-Birinci Udullu-Taghili-Ikinci Udullu-Gubali highway of Hajigabul District. According to the decree, the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads has been allocated AZN12 million ($7.059m) for completing the construction of the mentioned highway, linking eight settlements with a population of 12,000 people, in accordance with subparagraph 1.26.18 "Allocating funds envisaged for state capital investments in the state budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2022". Azerbaijan's Ministry of Finance was tasked with providing relevant funds, whereas the Cabinet of Ministers with resolving issues stemming from the order. MILWAUKEE Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was pushing for a tax cut provision in 2017 that benefitted his former plastics company and many others as his family was acquiring properties around the country, a newspaper review of property records revealed. The tax cut to companies called pass-throughs benefitted not only Johnsons company and big donors, as had been previously reported, but it came as the senators family was acquiring luxury properties that could also take advantage of the law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday. There is nothing illegal about Johnson or his family members taking the deduction available to limited liability companies and other firms that pass all of their income on to their owners or investors. Companies structured this way, often small, family-owned businesses, are not subject to corporate income tax. Johnson faces Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in Tuesday's election, a race that polls have shown to be tight. Johnson spokesperson Ben Voelkel said the senator and his wife have no beneficial interest in the properties, except their Oshkosh home and the Pacur property, the plastics manufacturer Johnson used to own. Voelkel said he did not know how many of the Johnson family companies have trimmed their tax burden by using the deduction contained in then-President Donald Trumps 2017 tax legislation. In the future, when anyone wonders why more good people dont run for public office, have them study the false attacks and character assassinations used by Democrats and their allies in the media during the 2022 U.S. Senate and governor elections in Wisconsin, Voelkel said. The Journal Sentinel reported that Johnson's three adult children are the beneficiaries of a family trust and are listed as managers of about 10 companies registered with the state Department of Financial Institutions. Those companies and the family trust own about two dozen properties around the nation with assessed values of $21 million, including at least two that were purchased in 2017 and 2020, the newspaper reported. In 2017, Johnson held up passage of Trumps tax bill by objecting to the plans already generous tax break for pass-through businesses. Originally, the Trump administration proposed allowing business owners to deduct up to 17.4% of their profits. Johnson fought to increase that to 23%. The figure ended up at 20%. Several studies have found that the tax cut primarily helped the wealthy. Ross Milton, an assistant professor at La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the pass-through provision is still a hotly debated topic among tax policy people. I think these pass-through provisions have been criticized because much of the benefit of them goes to very high income and/or high wealth households, Milton said. And presumably the Johnson family is a high-income household. After learning of the Johnson familys extensive real estate holdings from the Journal Sentinel, Barnes campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said she was not surprised. In his 12 years in the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnsons priority has been delivering tax breaks for himself and his wealthy donors at the expense of working families, McDaniel said. RAYMOND Six months after voters cast their ballots in a Raymond School Board election, one of the campaigns hottest issues appears to have been decided belatedly in favor of defeated candidate Jillian Berman. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has ruled in Bermans favor on the issue of whether she was a legally registered voter in the Village of Raymond while running for school board. Raymond village officials, however, are appealing the ruling and continuing the debate over Bermans residency in a civil lawsuit filed against the state in Racine County Circuit Court. Bermans husband, Mitchell Berman, said Raymond residents should know about the expenses being incurred in an ongoing effort to challenge the couples residency and to prevent them from registering to vote. All in an attempt to disqualify my wife from getting a school board seat, they (village officials) illegally disenfranchised us for two elections and spent taxpayer money in doing so, Mitchell Berman said. His comments came in an email that he sent before village officials decided to continue the fight by suing the state. The couple declined to comment further. The Village Board has hired the Waukesha law firm of Arenz Molter Macy & Riffle in an effort to overturn the state election commission decision. The villages appeal was filed Oct. 21. Village President Kari Morgan defended the decision to file suit, while casting doubts on the state election commission, which is a bipartisan panel empowered by state lawmakers to implement election laws. Referring to the Village Board, Morgan said, The board is a big proponent of voting integrity, and we are ensuring that the laws are being followed as listed in the state statutes and not being interpreted by a commission that is not elected by the people. The dispute stems from the fact that the Bermans registered to vote at an address where they were building a new house in Raymond. The couple ran into construction delays and were staying temporarily with friends elsewhere, having already sold their previous home. Using their new address on Eight Mile Road, the couple enrolled their children for school, signed up for utilities, got new drivers licenses, started getting mail and licensed their pets. But when Jillian Berman filed to run for school board, fellow candidate Gwen Keller challenged Bermans voted registration and joined others in the community in stirring questions about Bermans residency. Keller ultimately came out on top in the April 5 election, while Berman finished out of the running and lost her chance to serve on the school board. Keller declined to comment about the election commission ruling dismissing her challenge. She also would not say whether she owes Berman an apology. Village Clerk Linda Terry conducted a hearing on the matter in February before agreeing with Keller and invalidating the voter registrations for Berman and her husband. The couple then appealed to the state election commission. The state commission found that the the village clerk wrongfully stripped the Bermans of their status as registered voters. The state ordered the village clerk to reinstate the couple as registered voters at the Eight Mile Road address. Noting that even homeless people in Wisconsin have a right to vote, the commission found that denying the Bermans registration in the Village of Raymond would make it virtually impossible for them to vote anywhere. The couple was not permitted to vote in the April 5 school board election, even though Jillian Berman was on the ballot. State commissioners said the village clerk based her decision on an erroneous interpretation of the law that ran contrary to the fact that the Bermans were physically at the Eight Mile Road construction site daily, and that they intended to reside there once the new house was finished. A difference on any of these points, the decision stated, could have changed the commissions decision. The ruling was issued Oct. 3. The Village Board held a special meeting three days later, voting to take the matter to court. The suit seeks an order overturning the election commission ruling or remanding it back to the commission for reconsideration. The suit also seeks reimbursement for the villages costs in the suit. No hearing has been scheduled yet in the matter. Terry, who has been the village clerk for 12 years, is named as the plaintiff, although the village is making the appeal and paying the costs. Terry said she has taken steps to reinstate the Bermans as registered voters, but she still defends her earlier decision to invalidate them. I feel that I did what I was supposed to do based on the information that I received, she said. Asked if her actions resulted in denying the Bermans their right to vote, Terry said, People can read it how they want to read it. The voter registration dispute contributed to residency questions that created a shadow over Bermans eligibility to join the school board during the April campaign. The school district considered removing her from the ballot, but officials decided against such a move. Keller was joined by school board member Art Binhack in distributing fliers that questioned Bermans legitimacy as a candidate. Another board member, Audrey Kostuch, expressed similar questions on social media. Besides the residency issue, the election was an exceptionally rare one for Raymond School. In the two prior elections, there had been no contested races. In 2022, there had to be a primary since there were six candidates that needed to be narrowed down to a field of four, of whom two were elected to the board in April. Voters on April 5 elected Keller with 535 votes and Janell Wise with 478 votes, while Binhack and Berman fell short with 464 votes and 334 votes respectively. School board members serve three-year terms at a salary of $2,350 a year. Kostuch declined to comment about the election commissions ruling, and Binhack could not be reached for comment. School Board President Jeremy Childers said he did not take sides in the debate about Bermans residency, and he does not know whether the issue affected the outcome of the election. Childers, however, said he hopes that Berman remains active in the school district, and that she considers running for school board again. It was pretty contentious back and forth on both sides, he said. Its unfortunate that she went through that. Requests for abortion pills more than tripled in Wisconsin after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, which led abortion providers in the state to halt procedures as courts determine whether the states 1849 law banning nearly all abortions stands, a study found. Weekly requests for pills for self-managed abortions through Aid Access, a nonprofit telemedicine service based in Europe, increased to 2.9 per 100,000 female state residents after the June ruling, up from 0.9 per 100,000 before the courts draft decision was leaked to the public in early May, researchers said. The increase ranked 13th among 30 states studied, for which the findings were published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The states with the largest increases were Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma. The findings suggest that with further limitations on facility-based abortion services, requests for self-managed medication abortions will continue to increase, said an editorial co-written by Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, the editor-in-chief of JAMA. Researchers from Aid Access and the University of Texas analyzed abortion pill requests in states, including Wisconsin, where Aid Access doesnt provide regular telemedicine services. Through Aid Access, run by Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts, European doctors prescribe the pills that are shipped by a pharmacy in India, according to the groups website. Medication abortion involves the pills mifepristone and misoprostol, which are approved up to 10 weeks gestation. Before the Supreme Courts decision leaked, Aid Access got an average of 83 requests for pills daily from the 30 states, which increased to 214 requests a day after the court issued the decision. Some 31.4% of women in states with total abortion bans cited current abortion restrictions as their reason for requesting abortion pills before the leak. After the formal decision, that increased to 62.4%. The researchers found a similar shift in states with six-week bans. Another recent study found legal abortions declined by 6%, or more than 10,000, in the first two months after the Supreme Court ended federal abortion rights. The data came from WeCount, led by the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion rights. Awaiting license Meanwhile, a Madison doctor is waiting for his Illinois medical license to be approved before opening a clinic to provide medication abortions in Rockford, Illinois. Dr. Dennis Christensen in June bought two properties in Rockford, hoping to open one promptly for pill abortions. The Rockford Family Planning Foundation is preparing the second site for surgical and pill abortions, and plans to open in January. A city zoning decision delayed plans at the first site, but Christensen said he has resolved the issue by having his clinic manager agree to live at the site. The last step is getting his Illinois license, which has been held up for months, he said. We are ready to open as soon as that gets done, he said Friday. The parents of Gabby Petito filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department on Thursday alleging its officers were negligent in their interactions with the 22-year-old and her fiance two weeks before her death last summer. "The purpose of this lawsuit is to honor Gabby's legacy by demanding accountability and working toward systemic changes to protect victims of domestic abuse and violence and prevent such tragedies in the future," attorney James W. McConkie said in a statement. The lawsuit accuses the department and its officers of failing to follow the law and failing to protect Petito during an investigation into a domestic disturbance in August -- just weeks before he killed her. The lawsuit states that officers improperly determined Petito was the primary aggressor in the interaction and misapplied Utah's laws related to domestic abuse. The City of Moab issued a statement Thursday denying responsibility for her death and saying they would defend against the lawsuit. "The death of Gabrielle Petito in Wyoming is a terrible tragedy, and we feel profound sympathy for the Petito and Schmidt families and the painful loss they have endured. At the same time, it is clear that Moab City Police Department officers are not responsible for Gabrielle Petito's eventual murder," the city said. The city said its officers "acted with kindness, respect, and empathy toward Ms. Petito" during their interaction. "The attorneys for the Petito family seem to suggest that somehow our officers could see into the future based on this single interaction. In truth, on Aug. 12, no one could have predicted the tragedy that would occur weeks later and hundreds of miles away, and the City of Moab will ardently defend against this lawsuit," the city said. Petito was 22 when she and her fiance Brian Laundrie, 23, embarked on a road trip through the American West last summer, documenting their #VanLife experiences online in idyllic, sun-drenched posts. She was reported missing after Laundrie returned to his parents' Florida home on September 1, and parents were unable to contact her, sparking a nationwide hunt that became a fascination for online sleuths. Her body was found several weeks later in Grand Teton National Forest, and a coroner ruled she died by strangulation. Laundrie subsequently went missing in a Florida nature preserve, and his body was found in mid-October alongside a notebook in which he admitted killing her. In August, Petito's parents, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito filed a notice of claim against the police department, the first step in initiating a lawsuit. Her parents have also taken legal action against Laundrie's estate and have filed suit against his parents, accusing them of causing emotional distress by failing to act during the search for Petito. What happened in Moab The 35-page lawsuit filed Thursday is based on the traffic stop last August after officers were informed that a witness "had seen Brian assault Gabby." Police pulled over their vehicle -- a white Ford van -- after it exceeded the speed limit, abruptly left its lane and struck a curb, according to a police report. Footage recorded by police body cameras shows Moab, Utah, police officers talking to Petito and Laundrie, who admitted having a fight in which Petito said she struck her fiance first. Officers noticed Petito had cuts on her face and arm, and she "demonstrated how Brian had violently grabbed her face during their altercation," telling police Laundrie "gets frustrated with me a lot." But Petito also "displayed the classic hallmarks of an abused partner," the notice of claim says, by taking blame for the incident. The officers "did not press further," the notice says. According to the family's claim, a photo taken at the time, which has not been made public, "shows a close-up view of Gabby's face where blood is smeared on her cheek and left eye, revealing the violent nature of Brian's attack." Laundrie told police the couple had been under increasing stress. He admitted to pushing Petito away when she tried to slap him and to taking her phone, claiming he didn't have one -- and was afraid that she would leave him. However, later in the interview, he took out his own phone and gave officers his number, the suit says. Despite the cuts and Laundrie's inconsistencies, one of the officers said Petito must be booked into jail since, under the domestic violence statutes of Utah, she was considered the primary aggressor and Laundrie the victim. Both Petito and Laundrie objected, and the officers eventually agreed not to charge Petito if she and Laundrie agreed to spend the night apart. A review of the Moab Police Department's handling of the incident by an independent investigator -- a captain with the police department in Price, Utah, about 115 miles away -- recommended the two officers who responded be placed on probation, saying they made "several unintentional mistakes" -- namely failing to cite anyone for domestic violence, though there appeared to be only sufficient evidence to charge Petito. The investigative report, released in January, recommended new policies for the department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers. The city at the time did not address any potential discipline for the two officers but said it "intends to implement the report's recommendations" on new policies for the police department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers. The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. BERLIN (AP) German officials urged environmental activists to engage in constructive protests and avoid endangering lives Friday as government-appointed experts warned that the key European Union country risks missing its climate targets for 2030. A heated debate has broken out over activists' methods after road blockades caused by a Monday protest delayed a specialist rescue crew from reaching a cyclist fatally injured in a traffic accident in Berlin. Some German media declared the protesters shared the blame for the woman's death. Climate activists also were criticized for gluing themselves to a dinosaur exhibit, throwing food over valuable paintings and spraying political party offices with paint. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports all democratic engagement, and we have repeatedly stressed that in connection with the climate protests, Wolfgang Buechner, the chancellor's spokesperson, told reporters. But the form of protest that we are seeing now, this week in particular, is not effective or constructive. Buechner noted Scholz had stressed Monday that protests must not lead to endangering other people. Peoples lives must not be endangered, and so we do not accept this form of protest, Buechner said, urging instead protests that unite society to work for faster climate change. The chancellor's spokesman insisted that protecting the climate was the central concern of the German government and said it was already working hard on ambitious policy aims. Our aim is very clear: We, as the whole German government, want to implement effective climate policy, and we are making that clear with our determination to act, he said. Europes biggest economy wants to slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% from 1990 levels by 2030 and has plans in place to sharply boost renewable energy production while phasing out fossil fuels. But the government's own advisers cast doubt Friday on Germany's ability to meet that target, saying the country needs to reduce its emissions twice as fast as the yearly average from over the past decade. In some sectors, such as industry and transportation, the cuts would need to be 10 times higher or more, the five-member panel said. Its chair, Hans-Martin Henning of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, said Germany's efforts to improve energy efficiency were being undone by higher consumption, such as from larger homes and increased mobility. The panel's findings are a blow to Germany's green credentials ahead of this year's U.N. climate talks in Egypt, which start next week. Facing an energy crunch as a result of Russia's war on Ukraine, the German government announced plans to reactivate old oil and coal-fired power stations, import more liquefied natural gas and extract more coal from its own mines, angering climate activists. The government insists the measures are temporary and the overall shift to clean energy will be accelerated. On Thursday, Germany inked a preliminary deal to buy more natural gas from Egypt and to help the North African nation develop production facilities for hydrogen. Germany has also tried to make up for its own high historical emissions by helping countries that are now bearing the brunt of global warming's impacts. The government said Friday that it would provide Peru with about 352 million euros ($345 million) to help the Latin American nation improve its public transit system and to combat deforestation in the Amazon. Activists from the group Uprising of the Last Generation, which staged the museum protests and road blockades, expressed sadness at the cyclists's death Friday, but said they would continue to protest until the German government does enough to tackle the climate crisis. The Germany daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Friday cited a confidential report by the emergency doctor at the scene of the crash stating that the delayed arrival of the specialist crew made no difference to the victim's medical treatment. Follow AP's coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment BELOIT We have let our democracy down. Colleges and universities across America can be powerful stewards of democracy by encouraging young people to become civic-minded and cast their ballots. But how do educators inspire young people to vote? By celebrating that right, educating them on why it matters and lowering many barriers including canceling classes on Election Day. At Beloit College, one-third of students are registered to vote in Wisconsin, far lower than the 58% for the overall states population. (That number doesnt count those who may be registered in their home states.) Thats not a number were proud to share, but one were trying to change this fall. Statewide, voter registration is lowest for 18- to 24-year-olds. Turnout in midterm elections is lower than in presidential elections, especially for young people. And among college students of color, voting rates are even less. Thats why weve launched a statewide campaign Why Bother, Wisconsin? to thwart apathy among young people in our state. Our goal for Nov. 8, and for future elections, is that every college student who wants to vote has the resources and opportunity to vote. The boldest change Beloit College has made so far: We canceled classes Nov. 8 and turned the day off into a day of action. Weve created the Why Bother, Wisconsin? website with easy tools to help students register, request absentee ballots and research candidates. Weve held events and organized candidate debates. Weve pushed on social media. And were still worried its not going to work. Frankly, we at Beloit are befuddled why more Wisconsin residents are not worried. But our statewide campaign, Why Bother, Wisconsin?, is designed to combat voter apathy among young people and challenge the head-scratching efforts of older adults to restrict voting habits. Given todays issues, and the threat to the healthy functioning of American democracy, the stakes of college students not voting or failing to develop a lifelong voting habit are too high to ignore for everyone. Why Bother, Wisconsin? is committed to making it easier for college students to vote, even as others make it more difficult. Even now, days before Election Day, Wisconsins voting process is facing challenges in court, and polling places near campuses are threatening to close for lack of election workers. Beloit College and our growing list of partners they have all rallied to this civic effort. All colleges and university communities can do a few basic things to increase voter turnout as we head to the Nov. 8 election and beyond. Here are four: Encourage people to vote, not just on campus but in their surrounding communities. Explain the mechanics of voting: how to register, whats on a ballot, where to go to cast a vote, what documentation to show when you get there, and how to properly fill out a ballot so your vote counts. Teach people why elections matter. Work on reducing barriers for students to get to the polls. It is a critical time as Election Day approaches. Thats why, starting with our neighbors in Wisconsin, were calling on every college and university across America to act now to get students excited about voting and going to the polls. The future of American democracy depends on it. BURLEY An 18-year-old man died early Friday morning when the pickup truck he was driving left the interstate and rolled into the median, police say. Dylan Merrit, of American Falls was eastbound in a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 at 2:30 a.m. at milepost 206.5 on Interstate 84 in Minidoka County. Merrits pickup left the roadway and he overcorrected, causing the vehicle to crash, the Idaho State Police said. He was not wearing a seatbelt and died at the scene. One lane of I-84 was blocked for about three hours. By Abdul Kerimkhanov Azerbaijans popular Russian language news website Day.Az carries an article by Abdul Karimkhanov, editor-in-chief and expert, who sheds light on Iran's anti-Azerbaijani and pro-Armenian policies and why Tehran goes against the grain by tramping on own principles when it refers to Azerbaijan. The original article can be found at the link below: The Armenian government's lengthy attempts to seek help from power blocks and separate states remain futile. In lieu of trying to normalize relations with Azerbaijan, conclude a peace treaty as soon as possible, complete the process of border delimitation, and promote the opening of regional communications, Armenia is doing the exact opposite. Regular violations of the ceasefire along the state border, busing of protesters to Khankendi to artificially increase the number of protesters and similar provocations indicate that Yerevan is trying to delay the inevitable. Special attention should be paid to the chronology of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyans steps. Following the September 12-13 escalations, Pashinyan spared no time to cry on the shoulder of CSTO in an attempt to drag the military alliance into a confrontation with Azerbaijan to no avail. Further, he begged for help from the West. In particular, Pashinyan turned to France and asked Monsieur Macron to put pressure on Azerbaijan. Despite the efforts of the French side, this attempt was unsuccessful. That did result in a number of statements from the French president and other French officials, but it never burst into anything more. Later, Pashinyan initiated a meeting of the leaders of the CSTO countries, at which he once again was not met with understanding from other member states. Moreover, Nikol Vovayevich had to listen to harsh criticism from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. "If Yerevan drags out the peace process in the South Caucasus, it will only get worse," the Belarus leader warned Pashinyan. Generally, the prevailing atmosphere at the CSTO summit testified to the fact that the wishes of the Armenian side will remain just that, since all the member states have a reliable partner in the person of Azerbaijan, and no one intends to break off these ties for the sake of Armenias unfounded claims. The Sochi negotiations between President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin were fruitless for Pashinyan. The Sochi Document, like the Prague Declaration, points to sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of borders. It also does not mention a word about Karabakh, which underlines President Aliyevs words that the Karabakh conflict is history, and this issue is not being discussed. Immediately after the Sochi fiasco, Pashinyan's eyes turned to Iran, where he recently paid an official visit. Nikol Vovayevich considers the Islamic Republic as the last resort, trying to hear compassion from the lips of the mullocratic regime. The Iranian president did not let down his Armenian counterpart, saying at a press conference that "Pashinyan's visit to Tehran will be a turning point in the expansion of relations between the two countries". It's no secret that Iran has always taken a traditionally cold stance towards Azerbaijan and gravitated towards Armenia, at best remaining neutral between the aggressor and the victim. During the 30-year-long occupation of Karabakh, we have not heard condemning statements from official Tehran, which was satisfied with the ongoing status quo at that time. After the 44-day war, the Iranian leadership regularly makes ridiculous statements about the Zangazur corridor, trying to be more Armenian than Armenians themselves. In addition, Tehran constantly insists on the inviolability of Armenias territorial integrity and its border. This raises the question - where were the Iranian authorities when it came to the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, which was violated by the Armenian Armed Forces during the First Karabakh War? Iran's previous leaders were also very enthusiastic about the visits of Armenian officials (Kocharyan, Sargsyan), whose hands are soaked in the blood of innocent Azerbaijanis. On the Internet, you can find much fluffy affection of Iranian officials, "declarations of love" for the Armenian people, and other such revelations. It is no coincidence that this is Pashinyan's third visit to Iran, and during his previous visits, the Iranian leadership repeatedly hinted at certain "red lines". Azerbaijan has never given Iran cause for concern. The country's leadership did not join the anti-Iranian sanctions; cooperation in the field of trade with the neighboring country continues to develop. At the same time, we do not see a similar approach by the Iranian side, which behaves, mildly speaking, not in a neighborly way. Recent events convince us that Tehran while adhering to Islamic values in words, has actually taken the side of those who commit massacres of Muslims and destroy mosques. The Azerbaijani public is not blind to the hypocritical behavior of Iran. And it's time for Tehran to understand that speaking with Baku in the language of threats is to its own detriment. WENDELL For many, public lands in Idaho are a treasure. But the behavior of a small portion of users can put access at risk for everyone. Endowment lands, managed by the Idaho Department of Lands, are located near every community in Idaho. Theyve been set aside to be managed by constitutional requirement to generate revenues benefiting public schools. These are also public lands that frequently see recreational activity, and not everyone is a respectful public lands user. This week, staff from Idaho Department of Lands spent a day filling three trailers and three pickups with illegally dumped refuse on endowment lands north of Wendell. According to IDL spokesperson Scott Phillips, the issue has become more problematic statewide. Unfortunately its becoming more common as Idahos population continues to grow, and more and more folks are looking to recreate in the great outdoors, Phillips said. For many years we have seen illegal dumping on endowment land, and destructive activities such as tearing down gates, shooting trees, taking vehicles where they shouldnt be. But as population grows it does become more acute. And, Phillips said, if the recreational activities take place at a detriment to the primary purpose maximizing revenue the recreation opportunities will be closed off. Recreation is really a secondary activity that is allowed by the land board, provided it does not impact or get in the way of generating revenue for those beneficiary groups, Phillips said. Milner's rec area gets a clean-up courtesy of an off-road group With the help of a skid steer and trailers, they filled dumpsters with garbage that had been littered at the site. This has happened in areas around the state, and the Department of Lands this year closed off motorized recreational access to East Fork of Rock Creek outside of American Falls. In that situation, Phillips said the department asked for help from the community to keep the area clean, and for a while it worked. We put out a plea for help, some local citizens came together and helped us clean up the mess, and things got really good for a while, Phillips said. And then as this last season started, some of the bad actors and their bad habits came back to haunt that parcel of land, and we had to close it to public vehicular access. While the vast majority of public lands users are respectful of the areas, the actions of a few make the biggest mark. I think what we have are a few bad actors who may not realize that they are creating damage, Phillips said. They dont think about what they are doing and it impacts everyone who are good actors, who do respect the land. By diverting staff time and resources towards cleaning up areas, the department is spending resources that otherwise would be getting passed through to the schools, he said. And after a certain point, it makes more sense to close the area down. When things get too bad, unfortunately sometimes our only recourse is to shut the lands down to public recreation, Phillips said. And thats really the last course of action we ever want to see happen. The department has seen user groups volunteer time themselves to clean up areas. Other ways people can contribute is to pack out everything they pack in, and not leave anything behind when they leave. Think of endowment land, and all public land in Idaho as an extension of your backyard, Phillips said. Would you leave human waste in your own backyard? Would you leave a pile of garbage laying in your own back yard? Probably not. Treat public land like its yours because it is. The department also encourages people who see misuse, destruction, or illegal dumping on public lands to contact the local sheriffs department. During this campaign year, Idahoans have heard a great deal about how a government attorney should handle his or her job. Is the attorney supposed to call the legal balls and strikes for public officials and agencies, as Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has said? Or, is the job of representing government bodies political in nature, where the lawyer can pursue her or his political objectives? Phil Landrum, who has served 21 years as attorney for Pickens County, Georgia, gave an object lesson on how to perform governmental lawyering during a recent legal dust-up involving election skeptics. His story appears in an October 30 article in the Washington Post titled, How one small-town lawyer faced down the plans of election skeptics. Put the title in your browser because it is well worth reading. Landrum shows how a lawyer at the grassroots level of government can stand tall for the rule of law. A number of Pickens County Republicans questioned the county vote in two statewide races in Georgias May GOP primary and demanded that the county election board release the sealed election ballots so that they would become public records, accessible by anyone. Despite the election board telling its lawyer, Landrum, to authorize the release of the ballots, he refused, saying it would be a violation of state law. The election skeptics filed suit to get the ballots released but Landrum refused to give in. As a result of refusing to do what he determined would be against the law, he was vilified in the town where hed grown up. According to the article: He lost childhood friends, some of whom lobbied for him to be fired, saying that he was against community values, to which Landrum responded by explaining what being the Pickens County attorney meant. My role is not to represent community values, he told them. My role is to tell you what the damn law is. Against overwhelming community pressure, Landrum capsulized the government lawyers ethical and legal duty in that last sentence. It exactly coincides with Wasdens balls and strikes description. The unfortunate consequence of faithfully performing the job of government attorney is that it can turn your own friends and supporters against you, as Wasden learned in the May primary election. Wasdens main transgression was that he was not an election denier and refused to sign onto a completely frivolous Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The suit was unceremoniously tossed out by a unanimous Supreme Court, practically before the ink was dry on the papers. The suit has since been completely discredited, as it became clear to anyone who actually read it that the suit was not supported by either the facts or the law. Like Landrum, Wasden was subjected to ridicule and rejection, just for faithfully carrying out his sworn duty to read and apply the law. Among those who scorned Wasden for simply doing his job were a flock of Idaho Legislators, including Speaker of the House Scott Bedke and Majority Leader Mike Moyle. Rep. Bruce Skaug, a lawyer who should have known better, joined the ill-fated Texas suit. Congressmen Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson joined to support the Texas effort. Wasden lost the May 17 Republican primary to an election denier who still to this day vows he would sign onto the meritless Texas suit. He certainly fails the simple Landrum test. Maybe you have to be a lawyer to truly appreciate the Landrum story. But, it really struck me that a small-town government lawyer in the deep south would stand up for the rule of law despite the fact that many in the town turned against him for doing so. Regardless of your location, that is what the job requires. It is interesting that we have seen the same dynamic play out in the State of Idaho this yeardoes the States lawyer tell what the damn law is or does he recite what may be politically popular at the time? The answer may come on November 8. Incidentally, Landrum was vindicated. He won the court case, the judge holding that he was correct in his reading of the law. The law prevailed over community sentiment. We write to publicly show support for Ron Taylor as our next Idaho State Senator for District 26. A career firefighter and paramedic, most recently with Wood River Fire and Rescue, he has selflessly worked for the communitys safety for nearly three decades. Since retiring, he has volunteered for several different non-profits, and recently was awarded a Presidential Service Award. Mentored and endorsed by current Idaho State Sen. Michelle Stennett, hes well versed in the issues that Idahoans are grabbling with today including access to safe reproductive healthcare, cooperative use of natural resources, protection of public lands, and quality education for all. Weve known Ron, and his wife Alex, for many years. Without question, hes one of the most decent and sincere people weve ever known. A person we can all trust, Ron Taylor is a person of strong convictions and unerring integrity. We strongly urge District 26 voters to listen to Ron, visit his website (www.rontaylorforseante.com), consider your family and neighbors, and then vote for a good man who cares about Blaine, Lincoln, and Jerome counties in equal measures. Sincerely, Dana Dugan Ken Ferris Hailey Today is Friday, November 4, the 308th day of 2022. There are 57 days left in the year. In the Henry Bulletin in 1922: Next Tuesday is election day. This announcement will doubtless come as a surprise to many readers of the Bulletin. Old General Apathy has been in full command of political affairs in the congressional district this fall and there are some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of voters in this district who have forgotten when election day comes around or, in some cases, doubtless, that there is an election at all. 1947: The Junior Chamber of Commerce, with the cooperation of the City Police department, has begun a campaign to reward safe drivers, and the first winner chosen this week was Miss Shirley Adkins of 403 Virginia Street. Other safe drivers will be observed from time to time and presented with a check for $3 by the Jaycees, as was Miss Adkins. 1972: Mrs. Doris Jones of Inman street expresses her appreciation to Leggett employees on Church Street, and especially to an unidentified lady on the street, for their concern and help Friday, when her five-year-old daughter suddenly became very ill and collapsed on the street. 1997: Martinsville residents will have to confine their legal betting to the lottery and to bingo after defeat of a measure that would have brought legal betting on horse races to the city. Voters defeated a pari-mutuel betting referendum that would have allowed Colonial Downs, of New Kent County, to the city. Colonial Downs officials said the betting parlor would have brought about 100 jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to the city. The President of Liberia George Weah, guest of honor of the 14th edition of the MEDays 2022 Forum, held in Tangier, expressed his full support to the strategic Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project that will link the coastal countries of West and North Africa, from the Gulf of Guinea to the shores of the Mediterranean. Africa needs investment in the health and pharmaceutical sectors and partnerships in the infrastructure and energy sectors, said Dr. Weah, in a speech during the official opening ceremony of the MEDays Forum on Wednesday, the Amadeus Institute, organizer of the forum, reports in a statement. Liberia specifically encourages investment in the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. We are convinced that this large-scale energy project will boost economic integration and will benefit all nations involved, offering the possibility of multiplying their industrial potential, the president of Liberia said. Dr. Weah also called for more operational and mutually beneficial North-South cooperation momentum that will allow African countries to be more resilient in the face of external shocks, the statement added. Addressing another topic, Liberias George Weah underlined that the current challenges facing the African continent are part of a very complex international context, but must not prevent development and the search for solutions. We live in a world of crisis and chaos, said George Weah, stressing that these challenges threaten the heart of the international system. These challenges bear the name of Covid-19, Monkeypox or Ebola, they take the form of wars, natural disasters and nuclear threat, immigration, listed the president during his speech, explaining that these problems are a threat to the foundations of life. In this regard, George Weah, particularly denounced the crisis situation prevailing in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region, and in West Africa, by listing open conflicts between African countries like Ethiopia , Eritrea, Somalia, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Central African Republic. Why fight, arent we brothers? he wondered. In addition, the wave of military coups suffered by several countries on the continent is worrying, and contradict the constitutional requirements and the culture of democracy he added while emphasizing that they have led to the flight and displacement of populations. The 2022 edition of the MEDays forum, placed under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI, is held in Tangier November 2-5 under the theme From crisis to crisis: towards a new world order? The forum agenda includes several current geopolitical, economic and social themes, such as the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on Africa, instability and security, the climate change, food and energy crises. The Angolan government approved Thursday the Luanda Integrated Intervention Plan (PIIL), which includes 2,786 projects, budgeted at over 12 billion kwanzas (24.5 billion euros), to be implemented over the next five years. The PIIL portfolio includes the requalification and construction of primary and secondary roads, drainage ditches, public lighting, health and education infrastructures and the requalification of several Luanda neighborhoods in the next five-year period. The Integrated Intervention Plan for Luanda, which has more than 10 million inhabitants, was approved during a special session of the Council of Ministers, led by Angolan President Joao Lourenco. At least 2,786 projects are registered in PIIL, and the Angolan government plans to invest more than 12 billion kwanzas in the execution of the construction and requalification projects of several infrastructures. According to the governor of the province of Luanda, Manuel Homem, PIIL results from the aggregation of the projects of the Municipalities Integrated Intervention Plan (PIIM), the special projects of Luanda, the projects of the Public Investment Program (PIP). And of the ordinary treasury resources that the ministries have to implement in the province and the projects that the GPL [Government of Luanda Province] also has in these areas to implement in the territory and based on this work it allowed us to elaborate this integrated plan, he explained. The new PIIM projects or not, he noted, will be accompanied in an integrated way by the GPL in coordination with the ministerial departments in relation to each project. Speaking at the end of the meeting, which took place at the Presidential Palace, the governor assured that over the next five years the communication routes, north and south of Luanda, will be strengthened. Cape Verde will apply for leadership of the CPLP business confederation. Information advanced by the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Sotavento, at the end of a meeting with the President of the Republic, Jose Maria Neves. Marcos Rodrigues says that the Head of State guaranteed all the necessary support to leverage business issues. Expanding the market, reindustrializing the countries that make up the CPLP, especially the PALOP countries that have enormous growth potential. We are working and will work hard to help internationalize the CPLP companies and also bring a new dynamic to this market, which is necessary, he explains. Marcos Rodrigues advances that the elections for the leadership of the business confederation of the CPLP will happen this November, in Lisbon. After this conversation with the President of the Republic, no doubt remains and we are going to present our candidacy. Cape Verde will be a candidate for the leadership of the CPLP Business Confederation. The elections will be held before the end of November, so we have to run a little behind the situation and we will naturally as is public knowledge, he says. The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Sotavento, Marcos Rodrigues, adds that during the meeting with the President of the Republic other issues related to the business sector were addressed, including issues of financing the business sector, as well as resources available in the CPLP space. The Mozambican parliament yesterday recommended to the Planning and Budget Committee to draft a resolution on the State General Account for 2021 to be voted on by the plenary on a date to be announced. The president of the Assembly of the Republic, Esperanca Bias, pointed out that the General State Account (CGE) will not be voted on directly, but through a resolution by the parliaments Planning and Budget Commission. In the document, the referred commission recommends the vote or disapproval of the account. Esperanca Bias was speaking at the end of the debate session, which lasted two days. During the discussions, the benches of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), ruling party and with parliamentary majority, recommended the approval of the document, considering there was an effort by the Government to increase funds for sectors with impact on poverty reduction. For its part, Resistencia Nacional Mocambique (Renamo), the main opposition party, defended the lead of the CGE, arguing that the executive persists in disrespecting recommendations of the Administrative Court in the execution of the State Budget. The Administrative Court points out serious errors and repeated violations of the law, which embodies arrogance, arrogance and disrespect for state institutions and Mozambicans, said the Renamo parliamentary group in the opinions addressed to parliamentary committees. The third party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), also called for the disapproval of the CGE, accusing the government of sponsoring corruption by ignoring an alleged mismanagement of state resources in the institutions under its tutelage. Commenting on the positions of the parliamentary groups, the Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, today reiterated the governments commitment to rigorous management of public accounts, through measures and policies aimed at planning, budgeting and effective implementation of state resources. The CGE has never been disapproved by parliament, because Frelimo makes the document viable, by virtue of the majority it has always held in Parliament. In contrast, the opposition has always voted against the document, accusing the Frelimo government of mismanagement of state resources and of allowing corrupt practices with public resources. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday that he had obtained 100% of what his government was demanding in the agreement signed on Wednesday with the rebel authorities of the Tigray region to end the two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia. The agreement, reached in Pretoria where the two parties had been discussing since October 25 under the aegis of the African Union, provides for an immediate cessation of hostilities, disarmament of rebel forces and the delivery of humanitarian aid. In the negotiations in South Africa, 100% of the ideas proposed by Ethiopia have been accepted, Abiy Ahmed boasted on Thursday before a crowd of supporters in Arba Minch, in the south of the country. Among the victories obtained (in the agreement), the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia have been accepted by both parties, he stressed, as well as the principle of a single armed force in a given country. The agreement has not been published, but a joint statement read publicly by the delegations outlines the agreement. Among other things, the agreement provides for the disarmament of the forces of the rebel authorities in Tigray. But it does not specify the terms and conditions and does not address the future of the forces of the countrys regional states, or the presence on Ethiopian soil of the army of neighboring Eritrea, which has provided crucial assistance to the Ethiopian army in Tigray. The press does not have access to northern Ethiopia and communications are haphazard, making it impossible to know whether the cease-fire is being respected. By Azernews By Fatima Hasanova NATO supports the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations and welcomes the efforts of the European Union in this direction, reports Azernews. Javier Colomina, Special Representative of the NATO Secretary General for the Caucasus and Central Asia, shared on his Twitter page the post of Secretary General of the European External Action Service Stefano Sannino about the third meeting of the border commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels on November 3. Good news to see our partners discussing border delimitation, a must to increase security on the ground. #NATO supports the normalization of relations between Armenia & Azerbaijan, and welcomes #EU efforts towards that end, including hosting this talks and launching recently the @EMCAP, Colomina tweeted. King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful chaired, on Friday at the Mohammed V Mausoleum in Rabat, a religious ceremony in commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the passing away of late King Hassan II. During the ceremony, the Sovereign was accompanied by Prince Moulay Rachid and his son Prince Moulay Ahmed, and Prince Moulay Ismail. The religious ceremony was marked by the recitation of verses of the Holy Quran and the declamation of panegyrics of the Prophet Sidna Mohammed. The ceremony was attended by the Head of Government, the Presidents of the two Houses of Parliament, the Kings Advisors, members of the Government, the Presidents of constitutional bodies, the representatives of the Islamic diplomatic corps accredited to Rabat and several other civil and military personalities. A similar religious ceremony was held at the Assouna Mosque in Rabat under the chairmanship of Princess Lalla Meryem. The ceremony was attended by several female civil and military personalities. King Hassan II passed away on July 23, 1999, corresponding to Rabi II 12, 1420 AH (Hijrah year). This Friday, Rabi II 10, 1444 AH, marks the 24th anniversary of the death of the late monarch according to the Hijrah calendar. The late King reigned over Morocco for 38 years, from 1961 until his passing at the age of 70. The former monarch was renowned for his strong and wise character, as well as his peacemaking efforts in the Middle East and Africa. Earlier this month, Ethiopia awarded a Pan-African Prize to the late King Hassan II in recognition of his contributions to the setting up of the Organization of African Unity and promotion of Pan-Africanism. Cardiac arrest deaths have dropped significantly in the U.S., except in Black and rural communities, according to new research. Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating unexpectedly. A heart attack can trigger cardiac arrest, but so can other heart and non-heart issues. Higher bystander CPR rates and improved cardiovascular care have saved lives, but cardiac arrest was still a factor in more than 370,000 deaths in the United States in 2019. For the new study, researchers looked at trends to pinpoint who was most likely to die of cardiac arrest, both in and out of the hospital. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and adjusting the statistics for age, they found a steady overall drop of more than 40% in the rate of cardiac arrest deaths, from 7.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 4.4 in 2020. The 21-year average for all racial groups was 4.9 cardiac arrest deaths per 100,000 people. The average annual decline for everyone was 2.4%, the study found. Researchers then looked further at four racial groupsBlack, white, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander. The study found Black people were the only group that didn't experience a significant drop in cardiac arrest deaths, averaging 8.7 deaths per 100,000 during the study, with an annual average decrease of just 1.8%. Zeroing in on where people lived, researchers looked at large urban areas, medium-size urban areas and rural areas. While all three groups showed a significant decline, the cardiac arrest death rate in rural areas (8.1) was more than twice as high as it was in big cities (3.5). The study will be presented Sunday at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions. The findings are considered preliminary until full results are published in a peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Muchi Ditah Chobufo, the study's lead researcher, said the findings raise serious questions about access and quality of care and health education in rural areas and especially in Black communities. "On a society-wide level, we need to find ways for better training and awareness so we can get rid of these embedded disparities," said Chobufo, a cardiology fellow at West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown. Chobufo said the findings are also a strong reminder that people who witness a cardiac arrest should immediately call 911 and perform hands-only CPR. If they haven't already, they should take a bystander CPR course, he said. "The first few minutes are the most important when it comes to who survives and who doesn't," said Chobufo. He called for future cardiac arrest research "that makes a conscious effort to include a great number of African Americans, a group which is often poorly represented in these types of studies." Dr. Marina Del Rios, a clinical associate professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, said the study was important despite limitations, such as a lack of specific information on Hispanic people and the possibility of coding errors. Del Rios, an emergency room physician who was not involved with the study, called it "a wake-up call to the fact that advances in resuscitation science have not benefited everyone equally. It is time to critically evaluate our approach to cardiac arrest, especially in Black and non-metro populations." She called for future research to evaluate interventions aimed at removing "structural barriers and implicit bias in our management of cardiac arrest." She also urged resuscitation experts to partner with community groups to advocate for more bystander CPR training and AEDs in their communities. AEDs, short for automated external defibrillators, are portable devices found in some public places that can shock the heart of someone in cardiac arrest. Del Rios also called for an increased focus on cardiac arrest prevention. People, she said, should "have a conversation with their primary care physician about their risk factors for cardiac arrest and what they can do to prevent one." Copyright 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: Mayo Clinic Daylight saving time ends on Nov. 6 in the U.S. and Canada, meaning clocks are set back one hour. But does gaining or losing an hour of sleep affect a person's health? The spring forward, fall back seasonal time change can disrupt the body's biological clock, says Dr. Lois Krahn, a Mayo Clinic sleep medicine expert. The human brain has a circadian or biological clock that runs on a 24-hour cycle. "Humans do best if our schedule is consistent, and we go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time each night, day after day, because that's when our clock is really optimized," says Dr. Krahn. Credit: Mayo Clinic The clock change from daylight saving time to standard time can affect a person's ability to concentrate or pay attention to detail. "Studies done on different continents show that the rate of motor vehicle accidents increases after the clocks change in many different parts of the world," says Dr. Krahn. Along with a clock change comes less sunshine. If you struggle with darkness, Dr. Krahn suggests turning on the lights when you first wake up and consider a light box. Getting exercise is another way to adjust to the change, says Dr. Krahn. "Exercise helps signal to the body that it's time to get going in the morning. Also, live as healthy a lifestyle as possible." The statistical model performance of predicting fluid intelligence score on ABCD testing dataset. (A) All: training with all cortical and subcortical structures. (B) Cortical: training with only cortical structures. (C) Subcortical: training with only subcortical structures. Significant correlations are found between the predicted Gf score and the ground truth among testing dataset using all structures (A), cortical only (B) and subcortical only (C) respectively. The correlation (R) and p-value of the predicted score vs. the ground truth scores are given. The dashed line shows 95% prediction intervals for a new observation and the shaded regions imply the 95% confidence intervals for the prediction population. (D) Boxplots compare R scores over all three different datasets across all five folds. The red dots correspond to the mean R score generated from all five folds. (n.s.) Non significant, *p Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22313-x Northwestern investigators have developed a deep learning-based method that can predict cognitive function capacity based on brain shape and structure, detailed in a study published in Scientific Reports. The method, which uses graph convolutional neural networks (gCNNs), may also reveal new insights into the relationship between brain morphology and different cognitive functions as well as the decline of brain function. "When we apply the rich capabilities of CNNs to graph representation of the brain, we can explore the brain as an image in a previously unexplored way," said S. Kathleen Bandt, MD, assistant professor of Neurological Surgery and a co-author of the study. Understanding how the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function changes throughout the life course has remained elusive. However, previous work suggests that fluid intelligencethe ability to problem solve and think and reason abstractlydepends heavily on two regions of the brain: the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex, both of which are involved in decision-making and sensory perception, among other functions. Furthermore, investigating the association between brain structure and cognitive function may provide additional information about brain maturation and aging, as well as the physiological causes of cognitive impairment. In the current study, the investigators developed novel gCNNs, a specialized deep learning model that extracts distinct morphological features such as cortical thickness and subcortical structure from converted brain MRI scans to predict fluid intelligence. "We are reducing the brain to its surfaces only, meaning that we are able to capture information not only about folding patterns, but also about curvature and relationships between surfaces across tens of thousands of nodes including the outer cortical surface, the inner cortical surface and the surface of seven subcortical brain structures," Bandt said. Using their novel gCNNs, the scientists extracted morphologic information of cortical ribbons and subcortical structures from two large MRI datasets involving patients from different age groups. Using this approach, the investigators were able to demonstrate that their model significantly outperformed other similar state-of-the-art methods and that using a combination of cortical and subcortical structures provided the most accurate predictions. Additionally, across both datasets, they found that structural features of the amygdala, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens (NAc), along with temporal, parietal and cingulate cortex, drove the fluid intelligence prediction. "Prior work investigating the neuroanatomic substrate of fluid intelligence has identified associations between widespread cortical areas, but relatively few relationships have been reported with subcortical structures. Our study added to these studies by identifying involvement of the bilateral NAc, hippocampus in the prediction of fluid intelligence, which have been linked to the aspects of cognitive science such as reward processing in judgment and decision-making as well as emotion regulation," said Yunan Wu, Ph.D., a graduate student in the McCormick School of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and lead author of the study. According to the authors, their surface-based gCNNs offer the opportunity to map identified relationships between neurocognition and brain anatomy for myriad research purposes. The method also requires less training time and computations, making it more efficient to apply to other comprehensive datasets. For example, another recent study led by Bandt used gCNN analysis for aging and dementia, finding that the pace of brain aging differs between healthy individuals and patients with dementia. "We are now looking to see if similar cognitive measures can be predicted using this method as has been done in our work here on fluid intelligence, but also can we predict the onset of dementia and potentially prevent or delay it before it starts," Bandt said. More information: Yunan Wu et al, A multicohort geometric deep learning study of age dependent cortical and subcortical morphologic interactions for fluid intelligence prediction, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Yunan Wu et al, A multicohort geometric deep learning study of age dependent cortical and subcortical morphologic interactions for fluid intelligence prediction,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22313-x Credit: Queensland Paediatric Quality Council University of the Sunshine Coast research aimed at preventing infant deaths associated with suffocation has been linked to a 22% reduction in Queensland's infant mortality rate. An analysis of USC's Pepi-Pod research program found that the 22% reduction in the state's infant mortality rate from 2014 onwards aligned with the program's expansion into maternal and child health services across various geographic regions. The report by the Queensland Pediatric Quality Council, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Auckland also found an astounding 75% reduction in the infant mortality rate in areas of the state's west and far north with the highest level of community participation in the program. Pepi-pods are portable infant beds which create a zone of physical protection for a baby within a shared bed or other risk location. These purpose-designed sleep spaces are supplied to expectant and new mothers along with personalized education about infant breathing and safe sleeping strategies. Another key element is engaging parents as peer communicators within their own social networks and supporting them through ongoing communication with health care workers. UniSC Professor of Nursing and report co-author Jeanine Young AM said, "These results are really exciting for services and families across Queensland, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities which partnered with us to introduce the program as a pilot in 2011." Professor Young said although a retrospective analysis could not prove the program was responsible for lower mortality rates, the timelines and locations of infant mortality reductions indicated very strong associations. "In addition, the very positive feedback from participant families and health care workers has prompted us to seek immediate funding for statewide implementation to save more Queensland lives," she said. The report calls for government funding to expand the successful program over eight years, alongside real-time evaluation of its effects on the health and safety of infants under six months old. Queensland has a 30% higher infant mortality rate than the rest of Australia and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) is the leading category of death after the first four weeks of life. SUDI relates to infants under 12 months who die suddenly and unexpectedly, typically during sleep and where the cause is not immediately apparent. Risks which increase an infant's vulnerability include smoke exposure, low birth weight, mothers under the age of 20, remote locations, social vulnerability and substance and alcohol use. Professor Young said the report confirmed that sleeping in unsafe circumstances was a factor in almost every death in this category between 2013 and 2016. "The Pepi-Pod Program, designed by social innovation company Change for our Children, aims to separate the hazardous combination of antenatal smoking and direct bedsharing which reportedly increases risk of infant death up to 33-fold," she said. She said that since the USC research finished in 2018, the Pepi-Pod Program had continued only on an ad hoc basis in communities with support from non-government services or philanthropists. "While there is training underway at hospitals in Wide Bay, Redcliffe and Caboolture via a Queensland Technology Futures Fund grant, this study, Measuring the effectiveness of the Pepi-Pod Program in reducing infant mortality in Queensland, demonstrates the need for systematic, statewide delivery," Professor Young said. "The potential benefits are enormous, given that Queensland recorded 15 fewer deaths a year during this study, compared to an average of more than 50 each year. "The cost of this interventionabout $1.4 million a yearwould be extremely modest compared with what our Australian society has said it is prepared to pay for each life saved." In the report, Queensland Pediatric Quality Council Co-Chair Dr. Julie McEniery confirmed a much higher SUDI rate in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and concluded: "Improving the safety of the sleeping environment is a key strategy to prevent deaths." More than 900 Queensland families in priority areas have so far participated in the program. More information: Measuring the effectiveness of the Pepi-Pod Program in reducing infant mortality in Queensland: Measuring the effectiveness of the Pepi-Pod Program in reducing infant mortality in Queensland: www.childrens.health.qld.gov.a -Pod-Report-QPQC.pdf Provided by University of the Sunshine Coast Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study has shown that psychological first aid, training originally created for people to support others, can help health care workers in care homes improve their own mental well-being. First developed by the World Health Organization, psychological first aid (PFA) is the globally recommended training for people, such as health care workers, who support others during emergencies. It offers guidance on delivering psychosocial care in the immediate aftermath of an emergency event. Although PFA training was originally created for people to support others, scientists from Northumbria University and the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) have now also identified it as a suitable way of helping care workers look after their own mental health and well-being. As part of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2020 the U.K. government introduced free to access online PFA training in an effort to support frontline staff, such the 1.8 million people working in care homes across the country. Evaluating the effectiveness of this initiative, academics at Northumbria and UHI investigated the uptake of PFA training among health care workers in U.K. care homes and assessed its effects on their well-being. The study was the first of its kind and makes recommendations regarding further implementation of psychological first aid. The researchers found that while the uptake of PFA training was low among health care workersless than 10% of study participants had done the trainingthose who had undertaken PFA coped better. The results suggest that PFA training helped in overcoming stress and coping via self-growth and improving relationships with others, but there was a concern around accessibility, which academics say could possibly explain the low uptake of training. Some research participants described that it helped them cope better when thinking of giving up their job and promoted resilience, with one person commenting, "(PFA) has helped me cope better, it was a position I was thinking of giving up at one time and now I have the strength to carry on." Others described how it helped support them in their experiences of bereavement to overcome the trauma of the pandemic: "I found it (PFA) useful as it helped me cope with bereavement as well as the experience of seeing relatives affected by COVID-19." Another participant went as far as to say that PFA training "should be made compulsory for all staff especially in nursing and care homes during the pandemic or not." Dr. Mariyana Schoultz, the project lead and Associate Professor in Mental Health in Northumbria's Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, said, "Findings suggest that PFA training has the potential to: strengthen resilience for staff in health and social care; promote anti-stigma messages and normalize help seeking behavior; PFA holds the potential to minimize the risk of developing more serious psychological problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But we need more research in this area. "We therefore recommend that consideration be given to funding an integrated program of research and development to further develop, implement, and evaluate a co-produced iteration of PFA for use in the U.K. care home sector and beyond." Deepa Korea, Director of the RCN Foundation, said, "Staff working in social care during the pandemic faced significant pressures which inevitably had an impact on their own mental health and emotional well-being. That's why I am delighted that the RCN Foundation was able to commission this important study which adds to the body of evidence about the practical ways in which we can support health and social care staff." The study, "Uptake and Effects of psychological first aid Training For Healthcare Workers' Well-being in Nursing Homes: A UK National Survey" has been published in PLOS One. More information: Mariyana Schoultz et al, Uptake and effects of psychological first aid training for healthcare workers' wellbeing in nursing homes: A UK national survey, PLOS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Mariyana Schoultz et al, Uptake and effects of psychological first aid training for healthcare workers' wellbeing in nursing homes: A UK national survey,(2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277062 The device is designed to be easy to wear discreetly under clothes. A device attachable to the forearm is one of the possibilities the team is currently exploring. Credit: Juliana Harkki Aalto University researchers are developing a device that helps support sobriety in conjunction with other treatments, such as psychosocial treatments and pharmaceuticals. The new device is designed to suppress alcohol cravings through a pleasant touch to the skin that activates nerve pathways called C-tactiles. Through these, the stimulus reaches brain areas that are closely linked with alcohol cravings and other addictions. Juliana Harkki, the project's medical officer, says the brain processes touch in the tactile cortex and soft stroking in the cerebellum. "The parasympathetic nervous system is activated by gentle, pleasant touches, releasing dopamine and oxytocin, among other things. Touch also increases stress tolerance, and stress is a big trigger in alcoholism. The idea is not to replace intimacy with other people but to complement it by mechanically activating certain neural pathways," Harkki explains. A unique solution Alcoholism causes enormous human suffering and economic costs. According to the WHO, alcohol causes around three million deaths every year. Globally, about three quarters of people with alcohol problems don't get treatment, partly because of the stigma attached to it and also because of long waiting lists. Alcohol monitoring applications and support such as behavioral therapy are already available internationally. "The device we are developing would be the first technology-based medical solution," says Jukka Planman, the team's commercialization manager. HentoTouch team is also exploring the possibility of a back-mounted device. Credit: Juliana Harkki The researchers hope to make the device available from pharmacies without a prescription. This will make it suitable for people who have already made the decision to get sober on their own. The device, which was developed in the hentoTouch project, is designed to be easy to wear discreetly under clothes. "We are also looking at how often the activation needs to be done and in what dosage. It's possible that the device doesn't need to be carried around but could be used at home, for example," says Pauli Tuovinen, the team's head of technology. Harkki is a doctoral researcher with a focus on translational neuroscience, while Tuovinen studies in his doctoral research the activation of C-tactiles using biomedical engineering methods, and Planman is a start-up entrepreneur. The project's advisors are Professor Francis McGlone who is visiting Aalto from Liverpool and studies the effects of touch, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Rehabilitation Hannu Alho from the University of Helsinki and neuropsychologist Pekka Rapeli from HUS. Heikki Nieminen, Professor of Medical Engineering at Aalto University, acts as the project's lead researcher. "The research team has identified a significant need for which they have a solution based on scientific research. If the project and subsequent commercialization succeeds, the solution could improve the treatment of alcohol dependence worldwide," says Nieminen. The device will also be tested for treating similar conditions, such as a gambling addiction, as well as stress management. A patent application has been filed for the device. The project has also involved researchers working on social contact, including Aalto's Professor Mikko Sams and researcher Ilkka Nissila, and Professor Lauri Nummenmaa of the University of Turku. Sams is an advisor to the project, and the research team will use Nissila's and Nummenmaa's research results as part of the scientific background. HentoTouch was initiated in 2021 by the NeuroBiodesign project. NeuroBiodesign is a neuro-focused innovation project jointly run by the Helsinki Brain & Mind network and Biodesign Finland program. It involves researchers observing everyday life in hospitals to find problems that can be solved with medical technology. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have unearthed a secret that may explain why some people are able to resist viral infections, having screened the immune systems of women exposed to hepatitis C (HCV) through contaminated anti-D transfusions given over 40 years ago in Ireland. The extraordinary work, just published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, has wide-ranging implications from improving our fundamental understanding of viral resistance to the potential design of therapies to treat infected people. Between 1977 and 1979 in Ireland, several thousand women were exposed to the hepatitis C virus through contaminated anti-D, which is a medication made using plasma from donated blood and given to Rhesus negative women who are pregnant with a Rhesus positive fetus. The medication prevents the development of antibodies that could be dangerous in subsequent pregnancies. Some of the anti-D used during the 197779 period was contaminated with hepatitis C. From this outbreak, three groups of people were identifiable: those who were chronically infected; those who cleared the infection with an antibody response; and those who appeared protected against infection without making antibodies against hepatitis C. Cliona O'Farrelly, professor of comparative immunology in Trinity's School of Biochemistry and Immunology, is the senior author of the research article. Cliona, who is based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, said, "We hypothesized that women who seemed to resist HCV infection must have an enhanced innate immune response, which is the ancient part of the immune system that acts as a first line of defense. "To test this we needed to make contact with women exposed to the virus over forty years ago and ask them to help us by allowing us to study their immune systems to hunt for scientific clues that would explain their differing responses. "After a nationwide campaign over 100 women came forward and we have gained some unique and important insights. That so many womenmany of whom have lived with medical complications for a long timewere willing to help is testament to how much people want to engage with science and help pursue research with the potential to make genuine, positive impacts on society. We are deeply grateful to them." The scientists ultimately recruited almost 40 women from the resistant group, alongside 90 women who were previously infected. In collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris they then invited almost 20 women in each group to donate a blood sample that they stimulated with molecules that mimic viral infection and lead to activation of the innate immune system. Jamie Sugrue, Ph.D. Candidate in Trinity's School of Biochemistry and Immunology, is first author of the research article. He said, "By comparing the response of the resistant women to those who became infected, we found that resistant donors had an enhanced type I interferon response after stimulation. Type I interferons are a key family of antiviral immune mediators that play an important role in defense against viruses including hepatitis C and SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19. "We think that the increased type I interferon production by our resistant donors, seen now almost 40 years after the original exposure to hepatitis C, is what protected them against infection. "These findings are important as resistance to infection is very much an overlooked outcome following viral outbreak, primarily because identifying resistant individuals is very difficultsince they do not become sick after viral exposure, they wouldn't necessarily know that they were exposed. That's why cohorts like this, though tragic in nature, are so valuablethey provide a unique opportunity to study the response to viral infections in an otherwise healthy population." The lab's efforts are now focused on leveraging these biological findings to unpick the genetics of viral resistance in the HCV donors. Their work on HCV resistance has already helped ignite international interest in resistance to other viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The O'Farrelly lab has expanded its search for virus-resistant individuals by joining in the COVID human genetic effort (www.COVIDhge.com) and by recruiting members of the public who have been heavily exposed to SARS-CoV-2 but never developed an infection (www.viralresistanceproject.com). More information: Cliona O'Farrelly, Enhanced TLR3 responsiveness in hepatitis C virus resistant women from the Irish anti-D cohort, Cell Reports Medicine (2022). www.cell.com/cell-reports-medi 2666-3791(22)00363-9 Journal information: Cell Reports Medicine Cliona O'Farrelly, Enhanced TLR3 responsiveness in hepatitis C virus resistant women from the Irish anti-D cohort,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100804 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A national platform for diagnostic laboratories to share genetic evidence and build consistent interpretations of that information is paving the way for more accurate diagnosis of patient conditions. The variant hub and communication platform, Shariant, has been taken up by 11 laboratories in Australia, with more set to come on board in the next six months. The project is an Australian Genomics initiative in collaboration with the Brisbane-based QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the Center for Cancer Biology, an SA Pathology and University of South Australia Alliance. A tool developed by the Center for Cancer Biology, VariantGrid, was the basis for developing the Shariant platform. The Shariant story is described in the latest edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics where it reveals the complexities of interpreting the clinical data and the need for consistency. Laboratories use information from external and internal sources to interpret if a variant is disease-causing, benign, or of uncertain clinical significance. Therefore, interpretation of variants can sometimes differ between laboratories, potentially leading to differences in clinical management advice between patients with the same variant. One of the key outcomes of the project was establishing a process for laboratories to share knowledge about variant interpretations, and to promote consistent interpretation for newly discovered variants before a laboratory report is prepared. "This is the first time a diagnostic laboratory in Australia has been able to share a classification with other laboratories, and reclassify a variant based on shared evidence," said Project Lead Professor Amanda Spurdle of QIMR Berghofer. "By gradually standardizing interpretations nationally we can provide much more accurate diagnoses for patients irrespective of their location. Shariant now contains nearly 20,000 variant interpretations, and we expect this number to increase markedly." Shariant has also allowed Australian labs to share variant interpretations internationally, with a seven-fold increase in the number of variants submitted to the public database ClinVar from 2017 to August 2022an increase largely enabled by the platform. Clinical Geneticist Professor Zornitza Stark said sharing information between laboratories was key to improving test results: "It means that doctors can provide faster and more accurate diagnosis to patients." "Shariant has massively scaled up data sharing between Australian laboratories and made it easy for us to contribute internationally," she said. Professor Amanda Spurdle, project lead, said, "We know that Shariant information has led to a rapid genetic diagnosis and informed patient management of a critically ill child. "We believe that the success of this project hinges on the flexibility of the Shariant hub to work with whatever knowledge system a laboratory is already usingthe idea has always been to make sharing as easy as possible for laboratories. "As another positive outcome, this project has provided a network where lab members can meet once a month to discuss, and find solutions to, all sorts of issues relating to challenges they face in their day-to-day work. "This network has already led to many suggestions for additional features to further support laboratories, thereby leading to more genetic answers for patients and their families." Hamish Scott, head of Department of Genetics & Molecular Pathology, SA Pathology, said, "As the head of a diagnostic laboratory I have seen cases where patients from the same family were tested for the same mutation in different states, but where the diagnostic laboratories in those states arrived at different conclusions. "It's not that one laboratory is wrong, but that with new and shared knowledge we can come to more informed conclusions. "Shariant helps ensure that throughout Australia, and internationally, we know what other laboratories think and how to be consistent in the way the genetic information is interpreted and applied. "Knowing if a variant seen in a genetic test is the cause of a patient or family's problem can be life saving and life changing. It may lead to effective or preventative treatment for a disease such as breast cancer, or enable families to have healthy children." More information: Emma Tudini et al, Shariant platform: Enabling evidence sharing across Australian clinical genetic-testing laboratories to support variant interpretation, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2022). Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics Emma Tudini et al, Shariant platform: Enabling evidence sharing across Australian clinical genetic-testing laboratories to support variant interpretation,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.10.006 Provided by Australian Genomics Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain As hospitals, clinics and health systems seek to overcome the wave of burnout and departures among their clinical staff, they might want to adopt an approach that they've used over the past decade in clinical care: choosing wisely. That's the recommendation of a team of University of Michigan and Dartmouth College experts who call for managers overseeing health care staff to focus more on asking clinicians to spend their time on the tasks that are most needed, and reduce unnecessary or unproven work that contributes to burnout. Writing in JAMA Health Forum, the team calls for the adoption of the same approach that the Choosing Wisely campaign has used for the past 10 years. That campaign, founded by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation and embraced by medical professional societies representing many different specialties, has armed clinicians and patients with rules of thumb about which screenings, tests, scans and treatments they can safely avoid ordering for their patients due to lack of evidence that they make a difference. When it comes to the health care workforce, they write in a new Viewpoint, the same principles could apply to administrative management practices: Crowdsource: Ask clinicians to share which aspects of their electronic health record system, clinical management protocols and required administrative or training tasks eat up time without providing value. Evaluate: Where possible, check the evidence behind different practices and what might happen if some of them are stopped. Prioritize: Reduce the burden on clinicians by stopping, modifying Work for change: If "time sucking" tasks are required by regulations, health care organizations can elevate concerns to those in a position to evaluate and potentially modify the requirements. And types of care that lack evidence for their efficacy either way could be ripe for research studies to develop evidence that could guide decisions. "Choosing Wisely has had an incredible impact on the way we practice medicine," says Eve Kerr, M.D., M.P.H., the lead author of the new piece, chief of the Division of General Medicine at Michigan Medicine and researcher who has studied the Choosing Wisely movement. "If we can apply these same principles to the way we manage the time and duties of our health care professionals, we could potentially improve workforce satisfaction and retention at a time when this is a critical issue for our nation." Kerr and her colleagues cite the National Academy of Medicine's new National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being and the American Medicine Association's new Saving Time Playbook as sources of specific ideas for reducing unnecessary burdens on clinicians and enhancing their well-being. The Michigan Program on Value Enhancement, a joint effort of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and Michigan Medicine, is a good example of how researchers and clinicians can collaborate to drive change, says Kerr, who helped launch MPrOVE several years ago. The program now has a wide range of projects under way to bring evidence to our approaches for enhancing the value of clinical care, approaches that could be easily applied to improving the value of clinical work. More information: Enhancing the Value of Clinical WorkChoosing Wisely to Preserve the Clinician Workforce, JAMA Health Forum (2022). Journal information: JAMA Health Forum Enhancing the Value of Clinical WorkChoosing Wisely to Preserve the Clinician Workforce,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.4018 By Azernews By Yusif Abbaszada As instructed by Azerbaijani President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, Defense Minister Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov and the military top brass checked the combat readiness of military units and formations deployed in the southern region of the republic, Azernews reports. The defense minister was reported that the servicemen are professionally performing all the assigned tasks in the drills designed to test and further increase the combat readiness of the special forces. The interaction between the types of troops in special operations, being carried out with the support of the Air Force and rocket and artillery units, is organized at a high level, the press release read, adding that the fulfillment of tasks in accordance with the next stage of the exercises was then demonstrated. According to the plan of the military exercises, the Special Forces, advancing under open fire, using real ammunition in real combat conditions, approached the defending mock enemy, neutralized its manpower, firepower, and moved inland. During the military drills, actions were also carried out to conduct a battle in a populated area, troops landing in the depths of a mock enemy rear, setting up an ambush, and delivering supplies to groups by air. Positively evaluating the progress of the military exercises, Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov met with servicemen of the Special Forces, inquired about their needs, and spoke to the personnel. Addressing the servicemen, the defense minister underscored the courage and heroism shown by the Special Forces in the Patriotic War, as well as in recent confrontations, and mentioned the president's high appreciation to this end. The defense minister added that their supply and support, and a further increase in combat readiness are at the center of close attention. In conclusion, Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov gave relevant instructions for the study of the existing combat experience by the Azerbaijan Army and its application in the training process conducted by modern methods. The Missoula Symphony Orchestras next concert is a tribute to superheroes. Music director Julia Tai said they might literally be a superhero. Or they could be an everyday but exceptional person, like your grandmother. Or a longtime composition instructor. The concert includes works by a pioneering female composer, Joan Tower, and her piece, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. Finnish composer Jean Sibelius Lemminkainen Suite alludes to a folk hero in Scandinavia. The closing piece is a little humorous: Hollywood legend John Williams Superman March. The centerpiece, though, is Symphony No. 4, also known as the Lewis and Clark Symphony, by Donald O. Johnston, a University of Montana professor for decades. After his retirement, he was named its composer in residence. Tai said that during their first rehearsal, the music struck her as majestic, with rhythmic movements that represent the journey and the anxiety and also the urgency to step forward. Hes a wonderful composer in terms of so much depth to his counterpoint between the melodies and the development of motives, its a really beautiful symphony, she said. Johnston, 93, is well-known among classical aficionados in Missoula, she said. The orchestra includes former students, as he taught here from 1960-1993. He served in the Korean War and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service for a rare reason he wrote a march at the request of a general following a deadly loss by the 45th Infantry Division. Johnston studied at Eastman School of Music under Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson, whom he considers two of the great orchestrators in the world. Looking to start a career teaching at the college level after completing his doctorate, he saw an opening for his instrument (trumpet) at UM. His fourth symphony was originally written in the 1960s, then revised later. Its been performed a number of times in its entirety, but not recently. The first movement was performed by the MSO in 2018 under Darko Butorac. He said he feels a deep honor that she is bestowing upon me by performing the work. When he originally composed it, he thought of it as absolute music, that is, music that doesnt have any narrative, whether through literal singing or text or even in metaphor. One of his former composition students, Scott Billadeau, told Johnston that he thought it was delineating the story of Lewis and Clark. I became intrigued by that thought, because when I created it, I was just making music, he said. Originally, he wrote it around the opening movement and its horn movements. Taking some suggestions, that became Bad River Confluence, wherein the Corps of Discovery has a tense meeting with the Lakota. Johnston thinks some tension is audible. He moved the third movement to the second, where it expresses the grandeur of The Gates of the Mountains. Hed originally written three movements. The third is now Lost Trail Pass. He wrote a final, fourth movement, Ocean! O! The Joy that circles back to the themes laid out in the first. He said its not uncommon for people to hear narratives in music he wrote without any. His second symphony earned a nickname as his Medieval Symphony because of associations listeners came up with regarding a pastoral scene with knights and ladies. Tai said the idea connects, as Johnston spent so much time living in the same region that the Corps of Discovery passed through, and the score itself reinforces it. The majestic sound of the piece really connects with us when we see the Gates of the Mountains and the landscape in this area," she said. "Its a wonderful match. she said. Johnston, who now lives in Wyoming, hopes the weather in the passes is conducive to a drive over to hear the work. He said he enjoyed his time in Missoula, split between teaching and writing, although he wishes hed had more time to compose. In his 90s, he completed a piano concerto for local piano legend Barbara Blegen, whom he considers one of the best in the world. The rest of the program: Joan Tower, "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman": Tai has long wanted to conduct this piece, which represents the uncommon, unspoken women we have in modern America. Towers composition, Made in America, won three Grammys in 2008. Jean Sibelius, Lemminkainen Suite: The composer, who was working at the same time as Wagner, Tai said is uniquely Finnish because of the influence of folk, but also extremely Romantic with his harmony, and his melodic writing is just beautiful. Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26: The MSO will welcome the Missoula Youth Symphony on stage for another piece by Sibelius. Tai said many of the students have instructors in MSO, and the chance to play side by side for a concert audience is often what propels a young person to take music seriously. They hope to collaborate this way once per season. Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures have called for Chinas powerful leader to resign. That's an unprecedented rebuke. It came as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party. Police using pepper spray drove away demonstrators in Shanghai who called for Xi Jinping to step down and an end to one-party rule. Hours later, people rallied again in the same spot. Police again broke up the demonstration, and a reporter saw protesters under arrest being driven away in a bus. The protests began Friday and have spread to cities including the capital, Beijing, and dozens of university campuses. They are the most widespread show of opposition to the ruling party in decades. A coalition of environmental and tribal groups fighting to stop oil exploration in the Badger-Two Medicine area next to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation has appealed a court decision that would allow drilling to proceed. The appeal, filed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks to overturn a Sept. 9 decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon that ordered the Department of the Interior to reinstate a federal lease and drilling permit to Louisiana-based Solenex LLC. That lease potentially reopens 10 square miles of the Badger-Two Medicine area to road construction and oil rigs. The Pikuni Traditionalist Association, Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance, Montana Wilderness Association and National Parks Conservation Association, all intervening defendants in the case alongside the U.S. Department of Interior, filed the appeal. The Badger-Two Medicine is a 130,000-acre, currently roadless area that lies southwest of the Blackfeet Reservation in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. It's sandwiched between the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, Glacier National Park and Blackfeet Reservation. The landscape provides an important wildlife connectivity corridor between the wilderness, park and reservation. It is also home to Blackfeet creation stories, traditional food and traditional medicine, and is a federally designated Traditional Cultural District. And it has oil and gas reserves. The area was once dotted with 47 drilling leases issued in the early 1980s. All other leaseholders either abandoned or accepted tax-incentive buyouts on their leases. Solenex remains the last leaseholder pursuing drilling. The appeal is the latest action in the litigious and bureaucratic history of Solenex's 1982 lease, followed by a drilling permit in 1985. No one has ever been able to develop the lease for drilling first because of decades of circular administrative review and repeatedly reversed decisions on the drilling permit, then also because of a 2006 federal law that outlawed drilling in the area. The ongoing litigation is the progression of a lawsuit filed nine years ago, in 2013, spanning six confirmed or acting secretaries of the Interior and three presidential administrations. The tribal and environmental groups intervened as additional defendants in the 2013 lawsuit, brought by Solenex against then-U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and the administrative heads of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, among others. Current Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and other agency leaders are now the primary defendants in the case. Haaland, an appointee of President Joe Biden and a member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, is the first-ever Native American Cabinet secretary. Solenex had sued the government to approve its permit to drill. Jewell, an appointee of then-President Barack Obama, canceled Solenex's underlying lease and disapproved the permit in 2016 after Leon ordered her to make a decision on the company's drilling permit. Solenex filed a supplemental complaint in the lawsuit challenging the cancellation. In 2018, Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled on that complaint: He ordered then-President Donald Trump's administration in particular, then-Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke (now a western Montana congressional candidate) to reinstate the company's lease and permit. The Trump administration, tribal groups and conservation groups appealed the reinstatement. In that appeal, a three-judge circuit court comprised of Patricia Millett, David Tatel and Merrick Garland ruled that "delay by itself is not enough to render the lease cancellation arbitrary or capricious," according to an opinion written by Millett, because it was caused by justified review of environmental and cultural impacts of drilling. (Garland is now the U.S. Attorney General under President Joe Biden.) Further, Millett wrote, the delay was neither arbitrary nor capricious because it was the result of federal agencies retroactively performing analyses they should have conducted before a lease or drilling permit was ever issued. And regardless, the court wrote, a lease alone doesn't entitle a leaseholder to drill, because, as the lease terms state, drilling and its associated activities themselves are subject to further review before possible approval. The circuit court also ruled that Jewel had properly considered and offered to compensate Solenex for its interest in a lease that was eventually canceled. Solenex's founder, the late Sidney Longwell, stated in an affidavit that he spent about $35,000 to acquire and develop the lease. The Department of Interior offered to reimburse Solenex for the cost, the court noted. The court also pointed out that the lease has been suspended since 1985, when the Interior Appeals Board first remanded a BLM decision to issue a drilling permit. Since then, as the permit remained in flux, the government has not charged leaseholders for the lease. In June 2020, the U.S. Circuit Court in Washington overturned Leon's 2018 order and the case was remanded back to Leon's court. Last month, Leon once again ordered the government to reinstate the lease and drilling permit application, ruling that the U.S. government properly issued Solenex's lease decades ago and, therefore, the Secretary of Interior lacked authority to revoke it. Claims that drilling would irreparably harm sacred aspects of the entire area, he ruled, lacked basis in federal law. "How Kafkaesque!" Leon wrote. Wednesday's filing by Earthjustice seeks to appeal Leon's latest decision in the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. Earthjustice attorney Timothy Preso filed Wednesday's appeal representing the groups opposed to drilling. The Blackfeet Nation also has filed briefs in the case opposing drilling. A 2022 University of Montana Public Land Survey found that almost 80% of Montanans want tribes to have greater control over public lands with cultural value, such as the Badger-Two Medicine. A Missoula Justice of the Peace candidate is resisting his opponents requests for an unredacted letter detailing his disciplinary history at the sheriffs office. Bill Burt filed a complaint on Wednesday asking a Missoula court to not immediately release the unredacted letter. On Thursday, Flathead District Court Judge Dan Wilson set a show-cause hearing for Nov. 14 to review the complaint. That effectively pushes the matter beyond the Tuesday, Nov. 8 Election Day. Missoula County's district court judges recused themselves from the matter, moving it to the Flathead County court. Burt's filing follows current Missoula County Justice of the Peace Alex Beals request to the Missoula County Attorneys Office on Oct. 24 asking for an unredacted version of a letter describing Burt's behavior as a sheriffs captain. Burt filed to run against Beal in March for the 2022 Justice of the Peace race. In campaigning for the position, Burt has touted his career in law enforcement. The letter in question, dated Jan. 3, 2018, was from Missoula County Sheriff T.J. McDermott to Burt. It mentioned Burt taking responsibility for his actions (but didnt lay out what the actions were). Last week, Burt told the Missoulian the memo stemmed from a complaint against Burt concerning a 2017 party, where someone accused Burt of driving a county-owned car while impaired. Burt maintained he wasnt inebriated while driving, but understood that McDermott needed to look into the matter. The 2018 letter from McDermott stated Burt could remain in a captain position as long as he followed three conditions. The first two conditions are redacted, but the third condition is not. It reads: You are ordered to not consume any alcohol while utilizing your work vehicle. Burt contends in his Wednesday complaint that the letters release is something thats already been litigated, when the county released a redacted version in response to records requested by the Missoulian in 2019. He asks the court to declare once and for all that his right to privacy has already been established regarding the redacted information. and that the redacted material was related to plaintiffs private and personal life, and not his law enforcement duties, the filing continues. Burt argues the redacted bit applies to his personal life, wasnt related to his job in the sheriffs office and didnt violate any policies or procedures. Missoula County, the defendant listed in Burts complaint, responded and asked the judge to do an in camera review, meaning a judge will look at the documents in question privately and make a decision. It also asks the court to decide whether Burts privacy interests outweigh the publics right to know. Burt also said in his filing if the court deems it necessary, I request another in camera review of the letter. Burts complaint also calls out Beal directly. The records request makes it quite clear that Judge Beals intent is to affect the outcome of the upcoming election, Burt wrote. Beal's initial Oct. 24 letter and request to the county attorney cited a need for judicial candidate accountability. On Thursday in a phone call with the Missoulian, Beal maintained his original point that the information request is so voters can see what the record shows. By all means, Mandy MH Brannon considers herself a Missoulian. At the age of 12, Brannon's family moved out to Missoula from Wisconsin, and she has since called this city home. Brannon, now 45, is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps. Since joining in 2001, Brannon has served mostly as a logistics officer, all over the world. When the 9/11 attacks took place, Brannon decided it was her time to be a part of her generation's call to arms. "There's going to be an organized response," she told her roommates at the time. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm going to join the military." Brannon was already a college graduate when she decided to join the Marine Corps, meaning she could enter the service with an officer ranking. But with experience only in retail and television media and production, she decided to take the traditional path. "If I really want to do this, it will be step-by-step, small bites," Brannon told herself back in 2001. "I want to learn if I can be a good Marine first." Brannon's father served in Vietnam as a Marine, which is part of the reason she chose to be one. The other reason: Brannon wanted to serve in the hardest branch. Three weeks after the attacks, Brannon, then 22, entered boot camp. Soon after, she became a photographer at Parris Island in South Carolina. She quickly became an officer. "Having that baseline experience as a Junior Enlisted Marine really helped me understand their perspective," she explained. "If I got the opportunity to become an officer, I wanted to be able to empathize with them as I led them." Following her time as an officer, Brannon became a logistics officer, the role that she would stick with for the remainder of her time in service. Brannon spent three years around Japan, serving on the mainland in Honshu and off shore on the island of Okinawa. She then went on to serve in Iraq in two subsequent deployments in 2008 and 2009. During her first deployment to Iraq, at Camp Fallujah, she served as a senior watch officer to a combat logistics battalion, tracking convoys throughout the area. In her second Iraq deployment, Brannon was tasked with de-militarizing and turning over base control back to the Iraqi government in preparation for the U.S. military's withdrawal from the country. After her tours in Iraq, she worked at the Officer Candidate School as an adviser in Quantico, Virginia. Brannon became pregnant with her first child, and her husband, also a Marine, was preparing to serve two straight years in Okinawa. "At this time, I had a little 8-month-old baby," Brannon said. "The parental policies that the Marine Corps had at the time made it very, very difficult to have a career and also be a parent. So, I chose to go to the reserves." Brannon went to Okinawa with her husband and completed professional military education courses. She was also enrolled in online courses through the University of Montana's MBA program to prepare herself for coming back to the states. Through her service, Brannon earned 3 personal awards among her 12 service and unit related awards. She is now a member of the Talent Team, an all-volunteer team that works in part with the Marine Innovation Unit with the Marine Corps Reservists. While Brannon takes many lessons away from the military, one of her biggest takeaways is the confidence she gained in herself while serving. "You can have all the self-doubt in the world, but at the end of the day you gotta get the job done," she said. "Progressively, through the years and through the ranks, that has built confidence for me to look at problems and break them down." Brannon never anticipated that she would make the Marine Corps her life. "I wasn't even sure I'd make it through recruit training," she confessed. "It's been a step-by-step process." Over the years she tried to convince herself that she would go back to civilian life, but going to different places and meeting different people always kept her in. "I found connection and belonging as I grew professionally and personally throughout my service," Brannon said. "It was hard, obviously at times, but life is hard. National defense was never on my professional horizon, yet its become a calling connection, routinely, that grants a bright line of not only my American citizenship, but my connection to my common humanity." BILLINGS Tribes are sovereign, so why vote? Its a common refrain across Indian Country, where tribal council elections not federal elections dominate. Chad BadBear, a student at Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, said he doesnt know whos running in the federal elections this year. I want to know how it works, he said. But its all so complicated. Kiara Small, a student at Stone Child College in Rocky Boy, said, I dont pay attention to government. When asked why his peers arent politically active, Austin Valencia, a 26-year-old student at Stone Child, hit the nail on the head. Its more or less a sovereign nation kind of thing, he said. Thats why I believe most of us dont really try to look at state things. Its because we live on the reservation, where its a whole different thing. While tribes have self-governing authority, local, state and federal governments have tremendous influence on Indian Country. They affect tribal economies, infrastructure, education and health care. And various levels of government can and have attacked and eroded tribal sovereignty in the past. Tribal leaders, political analysts and organizers in Montana say Native voter participation has been low this year, and if Indigenous voters dont turn out, their tribal sovereignty could be at stake. Some people just think tribes are getting handouts left and right, said Shane Morigeau, a member of Montanas American Indian Caucus who is running for reelection. The problem is all of these federal programs are notoriously underfunded. If youre not represented (in government), youre going to be left out. While tribes have a special relationship with the federal government and interact with local governments, many people dont see how the dots connect. In close-knit tribal communities, it can be obvious how the tribal council influences ones day-to-day life, especially when members on the council are your relatives. But when it comes to state and federal politics, many people living on reservations say they dont know who represents them or why it matters. It can be bewildering to follow the connections from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on how the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and state governments divvy up law enforcement jurisdictions, down to whom a tribal police officer can make an arrest on a reservation boundary. Experts say the problem is structural, as the connection between state and federal policy and Indian Country has not been well communicated. Ronnie Jo Horse, executive director of Western Native Voice, said people living on rural reservations, where internet access is limited, may not be able to find information about policy. Tajin Perez, deputy director for Western Native Voice, called the problem multifaceted. The education on civics and the education on government (in small-town America) is not robust, he said. And individuals are living in varying levels of crises, personal and community crises, where theres other things that take precedence over being involved in policy-making. And then, of course, theres the mistrust of the government, and that is completely understandable. Western Native Voice and Red Medicine are the only two groups in Montana that specifically work to educate and engage Indigenous voters, and Perez said thats part of the problem. It shouldnt be up to non-governmental organizations like ours, Perez said. It should be something that the education system prioritizes. County influence Reservations in Montana overlap with 16 counties. In Tuesdays election, county positions such as commissioner, sheriff, coroner, attorney and school superintendent will be on the ballot. The government may seem a long way from Indian people, but its very close actually, said Janine Pease, former president of Little Big Horn College with decades of experience fighting for Native American voting rights. All of the services in counties are some of the most basic human services that are provided across the U.S. Things like garbage disposal, water services, water systems. The county runs nursing homes and hospitals. The county runs welfare systems. Tribal governments do not have the funds to provide these kinds of services, although their members are entitled to them by state and federal law. Many other social services, including SNAP and TANF benefits, are run by counties. While tribes are sovereign, tribal members are also U.S. citizens. As citizens, we have the right to any of these services that citizens across the U.S. do, Pease said. Citizens should want all the services that are rightfully theirs. For Pease, the relationship between county leadership and tribes is personal. Shes seen firsthand the consequences when county leadership excludes Native people from vital services. In 1986, she was the lead plaintiff in Windy Boy v. Big Horn County, which was the first court case in the nation that went to trial and resulted in a redrawing of school board and county commission district lines. In the case, plaintiffs brought forward evidence of discrimination in Big Horn County. Pease called the evidence hair-raising. The case demonstrated that poll workers were chosen by race, and there had never been a Crow poll worker in Big Horn County, which was 46% Native at the time. The county did not allow the use of Crow language in polling places and did not provide assistance to Crow speakers. Restrooms in the courthouse were for whites only, while Natives used a bathroom in the basement. The sheriffs office and ambulances had code words for Native victims, and the ambulances picked up white victims first. A dozen Indigenous deaths were ruled accidental by the county coroner, when the victims died of asphyxiation or were beaten. There were few if any Native teachers, and one physical education teacher in the county was found to have never given a Native student a grade higher than a C. At the time, Big Horn County had 205 employees, five of whom were Native and none Crow. Pease said county snowplows would plow out white ranchers' roads and plow in those of Native people. We had the testimony of an Indian woman whose husband actually died in her car because she couldnt get across the big heap of snow, Pease said. It was terrible stuff. Just terrible. Pease said she had no idea the discrimination in Big Horn County was so rampant at that time. Indian people are so used to it, she said. Whole generations were raised up in these conditions, and they didnt even call it discrimination. They said, Thats just how it is. Thanks to Windy Boy v. Big Horn County and several other lawsuits, Montana has a number of majority Native Senate, House, county and school board districts, meaning more Native people have been elected to positions of power. In Big Horn County, for example, County Commissioner George Real Bird, Attorney Jay Harris and Sheriff Pete Big Hair are Native. In 2019, 10 of the 13 elected officers in the county were Indigenous. Democracy is not something that you can go to sleep on, Pease said. You have to be active. If Indian people werent active on their own behalf, no one else would care. Really. State power All state policy affects all Montanans, but some policy disproportionately affects Native Americans. The state Legislature makes decisions on water rights, hunting rights, bison, health, education, jobs, taxation, transit, and funding for grants that support Native businesses, among other things. The Legislature also gets delegated to manage federal services. For example, Congress gives individual states the ability to opt in for Medicaid expansion. Perez said Medicaid expansion has created positive health outcomes for Native people, especially those living in urban areas. Its one example of how state policies, policymakers and who we elect to represent our communities in the Legislatures can have a real, direct effect to something like health, he said. Public school funding goes through the Legislature. Native kids go to public schools across Montana, Morigeau said. Who appropriates that money? The Legislature. So what happens when its monetized for religious and private schools? It takes away opportunities from others in Montana. Margarett Campbell, who served in the state Legislature from 2005 to 2011, said education decisions made on the state level also affect students on reservations. Campbell said Native students who go to a tribal college often go on to attend a state university. In Montana, Campbell explained, the state has an Indian Tuition Waiver to support Native students attending state universities. Campbell remembers testifying in the '70s to secure the fee waiver, but now she said she sees it being scrutinized again at the state level. I dont understand why you would want fewer Natives to go to school, she said. I just dont understand that. When a Native student goes to college, if they return home, they almost immediately impact the socioeconomic status of that reservation on their homeland. Clarena Brockie served in the state Legislature from 2013 to 2015. In 2012, she won by the thinnest of margins. I got in by three votes, and I made a difference, she said. I was able to get bills passed for Native Americans on scholarships and fee waivers. Brockie is proud of her work on the Indian Tuition Waiver. At the time, she said, for a Native student to receive a fee waiver they had to be at least one-quarter Native American. But, at the time the Fort Belknap Indian Community considered a person to be a member if they were at least one-eighth Native American. I didnt think that was right, Brockie said. The tribes should decide enrollment. That is their sovereign right. The policy was ultimately changed so that any member of a federally or state recognized tribe in Montana could qualify for the fee waiver. Discrimination in the Legislature While members of Montanas American Indian Caucus have made strides in state government, many say state lawmakers often propose bills that threaten tribal sovereignty. In the 2021 Legislative session, House Bill 302 was signed into law, requiring county commissioners to authorize bison relocations within their jurisdictions. Another law, House Bill 318, revised the definition of bison. While the two laws included exceptions for tribes, Native leaders said HB 302 infringed on tribes rights to transfer bison and HB 318 infringed on meaningful tribal history with bison. Additionally, last session, members of the American Indian Caucus argued that new election laws would disenfranchise Native voters, as they limited same-day voter registration and blocked paid ballot collection. While those laws have since been struck down in court, members of the caucus say theyre part of a concerning pattern. Ever since former President Donald Trump was elected, members of the American Indian Caucus say the state Legislature is less concerned with Montanans and has instead become a vessel for the national political agenda. Without the backstop of a Democratic governor and with the threat of a Republican super-majority, Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy, D-Crow Agency, said these kinds of laws are a threat now more than ever. The national agenda is the disenfranchisement of the common voter, said Stewart Peregoy, who is running for reelection. Its unfortunate because each state has different issues and different populations. Thats why youre seeing distrust and frustration from people. The American Indian Caucus, which is composed primarily of Democratic lawmakers, is a minority within a minority in the Republican-dominated Montana Legislature. Rep. Rynalea Whiteman Pena, D-Lame Deer, said the caucus got beat up pretty bad last session. They tried to snuff out almost every bill that was presented that would benefit Native Americans, she said. Whiteman Pena said that most state funding that benefits tribes is one-time only. Why is that when other issues are open and have continuous funding? she said. We have to fight every session for the same dollars. Last session, Indigenous lawmakers fought back after others proposed a $500,000 budget cut to the states language preservation program, citing a lack of outcomes and a slight amount of apparent interest among tribal members. Whiteman Pena and Stewart Peregoy said in the Legislature ignorance, stereotypes and racism are rampant. Were losing the tradition of decorum, Stewart Peregoy said. That decorum in both houses has been fractured. Whiteman Pena said chairs wouldnt recognize American Indian Caucus members when they stood up to speak last session. And Stewart Peregoy said lawmakers last session threw all of the stereotypes about Indians in our face. She said Rep. Linda Reksten, R-Polson, incorrectly stated on the floor that Native Americans dont pay taxes. In a redistricting meeting last August, the Daily Montanan reported that Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, said it wasnt fair that Indigenous people are overrepresented in the Legislature. Last session was the first time the American Indian Caucus achieved parity in the Legislature, meaning their representation in the House and Senate mirrored their representation in the state population. And the Havre Daily News reported this summer that former state Sen. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, said most lawmakers from reservations always vote for welfare and are not smart. The reservation doesnt always send their best and brightest, he was quoted. Perez said the lack of interest in and respect for Native communities is rooted in white supremacy culture. When we grow up in America, we dont know anything about Indigenous people, he said. Theres a lack of Native representation across the board. Whatever there is, its most often inaccurate, and at worst, its racist. Costumes and mascots may seem small and trivial to the dominant culture, but when youre fighting to be humanized again after centuries of genocide, those small things matter. Federal influence The federal government, which has a special relationship with tribes, dictates how states are run. Congress allocates funding for tribal communities for things like broadband and Indian Health Service investments. It establishes protections for wildlife and water quality. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Bidens nomination of Deb Haaland for Interior secretary, allowing her to become the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and American Rescue Plan Act, both of which included monumental investments in tribal communities. Federal funding, for example, brought a new wellness center equipped with gyms, therapy pools and preventive care specialists to the Fort Peck Reservation. Federal funding can also fall short. The Fiscal Year Presidents Budget, for example, proposed a $9.3 billion allocation for Indian Health Services, but a recent report revealed the federal agency would need $49.9 billion to be adequately funded. The federal government also structures jurisdiction and interprets tribal sovereignty. The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled in favor of allowing state law enforcement to prosecute non-Native people who commit crimes against Native people on reservation land. Experts and tribal leaders said the decision set a dangerous precedent as it undermined a tribes right to self-governance. (The case) concerns tribes ability to regulate issues in their territory, Morigeau said. Whether its someone who commits harm on members of your tribe or harm on your resources, thats one reason to care about what Congress looks like. Who you vote for matters. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments on Nov. 9 for a case that challenges the Indian Child Welfare Act, which outlines procedures for placing Native children in foster or adoptive homes. We retain inherent sovereignty, Morigeau said. But over time, Congress and the Supreme Court have really eroded that in so many ways. Stewart Peregoy said if Native people dont vote in this election, their voices will be silenced. They will be canceled out, and (our progress) will be rolled back. Vote, she said. Your life and your livelihood depend on it. Lee Montana reporter Nora Mabie is reporting from Montana tribal communities on how voter outreach and registration efforts resonate in Indian Country. This project was produced with financial support from the American Press Institute. Montana Resources alerted residents of Butte-Silver Bow County last week that some portion of a precipitous rockface visible from the community might collapse at the open pit copper and molybdenum mine. That happened around 11:23 p.m. Tuesday. A video camera trained on the east highwall captured the failure, which began gradually but quickly gathered momentum before ending in a cloud of dust. The east highwall failed last night in a predicted manner and at the predicted time, said Mark Thompson, vice president of environmental affairs for Montana Resources, on Wednesday. On Tuesday morning, anticipating the failure, the mine evacuated personnel from the vicinity of the highwall. No one was injured. Consultants had observed that the steep slope of the highwall increased the potential for instability. Thus, the mine has plans in the months ahead to reduce the slope. Thompson said last week that Montana Resources hoped the highwall would fail on its own, without intervention. Thats what happened. This is actually a very favorable failure as it significantly reduces risks as we lay that wall back to a flatter slope, he said. There are promising resources of copper ore at the base of the highwall that Montana Resources wants to excavate and process. In late August, Montana Resources had detected instability in the east highwall. Last week, Thompson said the movement was accelerating and that the failure would become more predictable as that process continued. Monitoring equipment have included radar and slideminder detection technology whose data about movement of the highwall were tracked by Montana Resources employees and consultants. Thompson said the highwalls instability resulted from active mining. Outside groups spent $2 million for incumbent Justice Ingrid Gustafson's re-election bid during the month of October, doubling the previous record for independent expenditures combined for both candidates in 2016, according to records with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. Outside groups supporting Gustafson's challenger, Republican Public Service Commission President James Brown, spent $646,810 in the same timeframe, the lion's share coming from the Republican State Leadership Committee's $500,000 ad buy just days after ballots were mailed out to registered voters. Nearly half of Gustafson's outside support came from Montanans for Liberty and Justice, a political committee connected to the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, which spent more than $970,000 in October, mostly on TV advertising purchases. Al Smith, treasurer of Montanans for Liberty and Justice, said in a phone interview Thursday that much of that spending was in anticipation and response to the horsepower Republicans put behind Brown's campaign, particularly the half-million dollar ad buy from the national GOP committee. "It stands out because its blatant politicization of a nonpartisan race," Smith said. Brown and Republicans have labeled the committee as leaning Democratic and denounced the spending as lawyers attempting to buy off Supreme Court justices in exchange for favorable rulings in the high court. Smith said Thursday the group is only fighting off partisan interests from reaching a seat on the court. "Truthfully, most of our members are Democrats but certainly not all," Smith said. "We're not looking for a justice who is on our side all the time and does our bidding." Brown's campaign has stood out from previous cycles for its name-brand Republican support. On Thursday Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte urged supporters in a Tweet to join him "in supporting Republican James Brown for the Montana Supreme Court." But the figures spent in this election stand alone, too. "Certainly both candidates have enough money to get their names out and there's a lot of interest in this race," Carroll College political science professor Jeremy Johnson said Thursday. "You can see that in the trail of dollars. People see a lot at stake." This race is something of a crescendo for the conflict between state Republicans and the judicial branch, which got underway last year when the GOP took the Governor's Office for the first time in 16 years and expanded their majority in the state Legislature. Republicans, whose legislative ambitions have been repeatedly struck down by the courts in the time since, have backed Brown, spending more on his campaign for the nonpartisan office than all of their Republican legislative candidates combined. The Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute that tracks judicial elections, has already taken note of the record-breaking spending in the race for Gustafson's seat. In an analysis published Monday, the Brennan Center noted the three states that have seen the highest spending so far, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio, each feature partisan judicial elections that will decide the high court's majorities in those states. Illinois has seen the highest tally in outside spending so far, with $5 million spent to support Republican candidates and $1.5 million spent to benefit the Democrats. The Brennan Center notes the race for Gustafson's seat won't tip the Supreme Court's majority one direction or the other, but justices could hear major questions on voting rights and abortion access as legal challenges against those legislative ambitions work through lower courts. Elections for justices in Montana are nonpartisan. On Tuesday, a week out from the Nov. 8 general election, voter turnout was at 28%. Johnson said Thursday that as Election Day draws nearer, the late spending campaigns in this nonpartisan race are critical to reach last-minute voters who are likely to vote straight ticket, but aren't engaged enough in the day-to-day politics to have made a decision on nonpartisan candidates. Five years ago, in recognition of the universitys 125th anniversary, Montana State University honored 125 extraordinary, ordinary women who have been important to the universitys history. Now, the university is seeking nominations of additional extraordinary, ordinary women to recognize as MSU celebrates its 130th anniversary, bringing the group of honored women to 130. The five newly inducted women will be celebrated at a luncheon on Feb. 16, the universitys Founders Day and its anniversary. Recognizing women and their extraordinary impacts inspired some honorees to seek national recognition and think of new ways to support the status of women, said Nika Stoop, program lead, gender equity in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and assistant director of the MSU Center for Faculty Excellence. I cant wait to learn about the next five extraordinary ordinary women of Montana State. Nominations will be accepted until 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21. Nominations should include the womans name, affiliation with MSU and information about how she had an impact on the status of women and inspired others by her example. The original 125 honorees in 2018 were selected from almost 400 nominations from across the state. Those honored were leaders, problem solvers and innovators from the present and throughout MSUs history. Profiles of the original 125 honorees are available at montana.edu/president/universitywomen/extraordinary/125women.html. The Extraordinary Ordinary Women awards are being coordinated by the Presidents Office with support from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. For more information about the Extraordinary, Ordinary Women of Montana State University, or to submit a nomination, visit montana.edu/extraordinarywomen. By Trend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his active participation in preserving the Black Sea grain deal in a phone call on Wednesday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah. In a statement on Telegram, Zelensky said he had also discussed further steps to return prisoners, saying Ankara's support was important. Turkiye has been involved in at least one high-profile swap of captives between Russia and Ukraine. Erdogan told Zelensky that the ability of Ukraine and Russia to sell grain was of critical importance for the whole world. Speaking after Russia said it would resume its participation in a deal freeing up grain exports from Ukraine, Erdogan said diplomatic efforts should be increased to end the war with a just solution. Todays business owners and operators know that hiring and retaining a great workforce is as challenging as it has ever been. Recruiting and keeping talent is at the heart of the Montana Top Workplaces program, which is underway for the third year. Any organization with 35 or more employees in Montana is eligible to compete for 2023 Top Workplaces recognition. The program identifies the best employers in the state as determined by the people who know best: the employees. Its an ideal way for employers to stand out in the job market, and its a way to make sure employers and employees are on the same page. Nomination deadline is Dec. 9. Anyone can nominate any organization, whether it is public, private, nonprofit, a school, or even a government agency. To nominate an employer, just go to https://topworkplaces.com/nominate/montana or call 406-206-9789. Workplaces are evaluated by employees using a short 24-question survey that takes about five minutes to complete. Before surveying employees, Energage contacts employers to verify they choose to participate. Montana companies will be surveyed from October to February. Energage, the Pennsylvania-based survey partner for the project, conducts Top Workplaces surveys for media in 59 markets nationwide and surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 8,000 organizations in the past year. After gathering data from employee questionnaires, Energage crunches all the numbers from across the state and informs those employers who have earned the distinction of being named a Montana Top workplace. Through the Top Workplaces survey process, organizations get the data they need to recruit the right talent and the insights they need to retain that talent, said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. If COVID taught us anything, its that asking questions and listening to employees is critical to navigating this new world of work. More than ever, you need to be more intentional about your culture. In 2022, we spotlighted 11 companies as Top Workplaces in Montana. In 2023, the top companies will again be honored in a virtual event broadcast statewide and featured in a special print section that will be inserted into the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Montana Standard in Butte, the Missoulian, and the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton. More than 2,700 employees were invited to take the survey last year, and 1,846 responded. For the 2023 campaign, the results will be published mid-year. Why participate? Its more than just the well-deserved bragging rights that come with the honor, though impressing your clients and competitors is a great benefit. Being selected a Montana Top Workplace also will raise an employers profile and serve as a strong recruiting tool. The survey reveals the passion of employees for their jobs and gratitude for their employers. Here are some examples: I am appreciated for the work that I do and the effort that I put in to help the company succeed. I work with good people who care about doing their job well. My manager works hard and truly cares about me personally and professionally. -- An employee from Computers Unlimited. I have the freedom to share my thoughts and feel heard and appreciated. I feel like an important and valued part of the team. An employee from Frontier Psychiatry. I feel respected, valued, and empowered to reach my fullest potential. My supervisor is supportive and motivating. The company culture encourages me to be my true self and doesn't make me feel like just another employee. An employee from Water & Environmental Technologies, Inc. The honor allows winners to celebrate that recognition with its employees, building their pride in their workplace. Love where you work? We welcome your entry. Its time for Montana to spotlight its best. Montana health care providers shouldnt face extreme felony penalties when providing compassionate medical care. Thats why our states health care leaders ask you to vote no on ballot initiative LR-131. Montanans will find the initiative LR-131, known as the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, on the back of their ballots, placed there by the 2021 Montana Legislature. As medical experts concerned about misleading information surrounding LR-131, wed like to make the message clear the measure poses harm to both families experiencing tragic pregnancy complications and providers. This ballot initiative would impose criminal penalties on health care providers who do not act to preserve the life of born-alive infants. It defines born-alive infants as those with a heartbeat, breathing, or muscle movements born at any stage of development (HB167). It states that measures must be aimed to preserve the life and health of a born-alive infant. Penalties for health care providers violating this law are up to $50,000 fine, 20 years in prison, or both. Tragically, not all infants born will live. Some are born far too early or have complex medical issues that are not compatible with life. LR-131s government overreach threatens to rob parents and infants of the opportunity to comfort one another, practice the rituals of their faith, and create memories that will sustain them through their grief. If LR-131 passes, physicians may elect to send patients experiencing pregnancy complications out of state where they can receive ethical medical care. Health care practitioners will certainly choose to leave or not come to Montana to practice at a time of critical health worker shortages. This ballot measure would not impact abortion law in Montana. The membership of the below supporting organizations represents health care experts across Montana with a broad range of views. MMA, MHA and MNA have not taken a position on abortion. What unites us is our opposition to the criminalization of compassionate care of dying infants and government overreach that would rob grieving parents of irreplaceable moments with their infant. These are tragedies, not crimes. LR-131 would worsen the grief of families facing these tragic circumstances, criminalize compassionate private patient care and offers no new solutions or protections for the care of infants. Montana providers shouldnt face jail time when providing compassionate medical and health care. Thats why Montana physicians, nurses and health care providers stand united against this ballot measure. Please vote NO on LR-131. Investigators said a man landed drug charges last week after a traffic stop in the eastern end of Burke County. Jeffrey Scott Ohmer, 33, of 2229 Putnam St., Morganton, was charged with trafficking methamphetamine, possession with intent to manufacture/sell/deliver methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a release from the Burke County Sheriffs Office. The charge came after narcotics investigators stopped a Ford F-250 on Airport Rhodhiss Road at Old Drag Strip Street on Oct. 27, the release said. A search of the Ford turned up a large amount of methamphetamine, marijuana, a pistol, digital scales and unused clear bags, according to the release. Sheriff Banks Hinceman told The News Herald investigators seized a total of 2 pounds and 15 ounces of methamphetamine. This isnt Ohmers first time getting charged with meth trafficking this year. He has a pending meth trafficking case in Caldwell County, along with a pair of pending felony probation violations, according to a records check on the North Carolina Judicial Branch website. His probation started in July for a conviction in Caldwell County of possession of a firearm by a felon and trafficking in methamphetamine, according to records available on the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website. He also has convictions of possession with intent to sell a schedule II controlled substance, receiving a stolen vehicle, possessing stolen goods, receiving or possessing a firearm and possession of a schedule II controlled substance, along with a few misdemeanors, records on the NCDPS website showed. Ohmer was issued a $250,000 secured bond, the release said. His next court date for the new charges is set for Nov. 17. A long-time Burke County educator, principal and administrator announced his retirement, according to sources at New Dimensions: A Public Charter School (NDS). After nearly 40 years in education, most of it in Burke County, David Burleson, school director of NDS announced his retirement in a resignation letter submitted to the school on Wednesday. Burlesons resignation will be effective Dec. 31. Over the years, Burleson served as a math teacher and then principal at Freedom High School before becoming Burke County Public Schools associate superintendent in 1996 and then superintendent from 2000-09. After tenures in Forsyth and Avery counties and a two-plus-year stint as the director of Burke United Christian Ministries, Burleson returned to the Burke County education scene in 2019 in his current post as the school director of NDS. In his resignation letter, Burleson said he is proud of what the school has been able to achieve under his leadership over the last three and a half years. Our school has grown numerically, and the students have progressed academically, Burlesons letter reads. We have also assembled a wonderful staff who care about student success and growth. Our school has developed a positive reputation in our community and is setting the standard for academic excellence. In the lette, Burleson cited his desire to focus more time on family as the primary motivator leading to his decision to retire. I truly believe that God opens doors that He expects us to walk through, the letter reads. For me and my family, I believe this is now the case. At this time in my life and after much prayerful consideration, I have decided to retire from full time work The bottom line is that it is time to concentrate on being a husband, father and grandfather. Burleson closed his letter expressing his confidence in the NDS faculty and staff to continue to excel and in the board to find the very best director to move our school to the next level. In a statement to The News Herald, Regina Rhodes, Board of Directors chair, said the school has flourished under Burlesons leadership. He has consistently been a champion for the students and providing the best educational experiences, Rhodes said. The dedication he has shown to the students, staff and Board has been evident in his actions and is seen within our community. Rhodes said while she and the rest of the board are saddened by his departure, they are grateful for everything he has done for the school. His legacy as a Warrior will continue to live on through the plans he has been instrumental in initiating and the lives he has touched, she said. Butte police reports Drugs found in car Police were investigating a separate incident Tuesday afternoon when they came across a car with expired license plates in the 600 block of South Dakota Street. A drug-sniffing dog circled the car, with Janet Dean White, 55, of Butte at the wheel. An officer requested to search the vehicle, but White refused. A search warrant was obtained and a fairly large amount of suspected methamphetamine was found inside, along with approximately 100 fentanyl pills and some cocaine. White was jailed on four felonies three counts of possession with intent to sell and one count of use of property. Not getting out An unidentified man called police at around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning stating that Ashley Lynn Watson, 36, of Butte would not get out of his car in the 400 block of Ohio Street. Watson was allegedly highly intoxicated and when police arrived, she told them she was not getting out of the car. At one time the woman exited the vehicle, but then jumped back in. She was arrested for misdemeanor failure to disperse. Felony warrant Brandi Michelle Brian, 44, of Butte was booked into the jail at 3 a.m. Wednesday on a felony criminal contempt warrant. She was a passenger in a car with no taillights that was stopped near the Thriftway, 901 E. Front St. Tuesday arrest Laurrie Jeakins, 59, of Butte was arrested late Tuesday afternoon at the Leggat Apartments. Jeakins had a $50,000 felony warrant out for her arrest out of Missoula County Taken to jail On Wednesday afternoon, Brianna Rose Lucas, 37, of Butte was in the lobby at Silver Bow Homes when approached by an officer. Turns out Lucas had a warrant out for her arrest for misdemeanor criminal contempt and was taken to jail. In custody Adult Probation and Parole took Chance Allen Chambers, 32, of Butte into custody Wednesday afternoon on a warrant for felony offense of unlawful possession of a firearm. More crime A person living in the 3900 block of Eagle reported an Apple watch had been stolen. A trailer hitch was taken from a vehicle parked at the Comfort Inn, 2777 Harrison Ave. A 14-year-old boy was cited for curfew violation at 1:35 a.m. Wednesday. The teen was in the Park Street Parking Garage. Stolen in the 200 block of East Second Street was a 2004 Buick LeSabre. It was reported that someone spray painted the window at La Casa Toscana Italian Food and Catering Services, 53 E. Park St. The Main Stope Gallery, 14 S. Dakota, will open its final exhibit of the year with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4. The reception will feature the music of Cindi Shaw, and drinks and refreshments will be served. The opening is appropriate for all ages. The Blizzard is a holiday showcase of artists from the around the area featuring original works from watercolor to printmaking. Nan Parsons, one of the 13 guest artists, hails from Basin, where she is part-owner of the Refuge Gallery. She specializes in oils and acrylics and has a number of paintings that show her unique perspective on water. These works sprang in part from her observations of the Boulder River, the Jefferson River and Basin Creek. At her small house and studio in Basin, Parsons has hosted artists from as far away as New York and Cape Town, South Africa. Hallie Zolynski grew up on a ranch outside of Whitehall. Her early connection with the land inspired her avid involvement with outdoor recreation and education, which has taken her as a climber to the some of the highest summits in South America. Her outdoor knowledge in the areas of avalanche safety and mountaineering is clearly seen in her watercolor painting. Her raw mountain landscapes not only take the form of typical canvas work but are also found on T-shirts, coffee mugs and stickers sold exclusively at 5518 in Uptown Butte. Some would describe Cassie Loretta Smith, originally from Helena, as an abstract artist. Smith says her work has largely been inspired by textile design and her love of patterns. Her most recent work has been created using pen and ink, acrylic paint and gold-leaf on hand-crafted birchwood canvases made by her dad, Sam. She has recently begun making silkscreen prints and is excited about perfecting her printmaking skills. Other featured artists are Paul Guillemette (jewelry), Pat Danks (felting), Keiko Nabb (origami), Pam Fletcher (photography), Judy Andrews (pottery), Debbi Smith (pottery), Margie Durkin (pottery), Kelly Packer (watercolor), and Thomas Pomarico (oil painter) and Sherida Holland (oil painter). MUSCATINE No injuries were reported but a family was left homeless after an early morning fire tore through a Muscatine home. At about 12:28 a.m. Friday, the Muscatine Joint Communications Center received a report of a structure fire at 2807 Mulberry Street. Muscatine firefighters found fire coming from multiple windows on the first floor and one window on the second floor. While the fire was brought under control in about 10 minutes, firefighters remained on scene over 2 hours doing overhaul and putting out hot spots. Muscatine Fire investigators were on scene Friday morning being assisted by the Iowa State Fire Marshals Office in the investigation into the cause of the fire. A husband, a wife and two children were reportedly at home at the time of the fire. The husband was assisted for smoke inhalation at the scene but was not hospitalized. The house has been listed as a total loss as well as the contents. The total value of the estimated losses is just over $200,000. A total of 18 firefighters responded to the scene, including Fruitland Fire Department which responded via automatic aid. The firefighters were also assisted by four officers from the Muscatine Police Department. The Red Cross has been in contact with the family and are assisting. The structure has been secured. It's time to mourn the vehicles whose time has come and gone and that are about to enter the automotive afterlife for the 2023 model year. For more than 70 minutes on Thursday night, at a rally at the Sioux Gateway Airport, former President Donald Trump painted a picture of America as a place where nearly everything has gone to ruin since he left office. By Trend Central Bank of Uzbekistan held a meeting with a delegation of US JP Morgan Chase Bank as part of the Uzbekistan Economic Forum, Trend reports via Uzbek media outlets. The parties discussed the current macroeconomic situation in Uzbekistan, the state of the banking system, issues of bilateral cooperation. As a result of the meeting, an agreement was reached on the participation of employees of the Central Bank in a number of international seminars to further increase their potential in managing international reserves. Armenia National Security Service exposes new case of high treason Turkey strikes 19 settlements in northern Syria Armenia ambassador-at-large: Azerbaijan agreed in Prague to continue meetings in quadrilateral format Armenia Security Council chief meets with France officials US man shoots his lover, 3-year-old son in order not to pay alimony Newspaper: Years end to be exceptionally rich with Armenia parliament special sessions MOD: Azerbaijan army fired at Armenia positions Stop killer robots! Lobbyists fight to save Europe from bad AI U.S. green subsidies increase fears about German industry NATO's looming fault line: China Estonian FM calls on European countries to double defense spending because of war in Ukraine Cavusoglu says Sweden and Finland have not yet fulfilled Ankara's requirements for NATO membership Police crack down on European cocaine super cartel Ardshinbank is the exclusive sponsor of Vladimir Spivakov's charity concert (PHOTOS) Japan's prime minister orders to double defense spending to about 2% of GDP in five years U.S. is considering sending 150-mile strike weapon to Ukraine EU countries resumes talks on introducing price ceiling on Russian oil Participants of international forum 'New stimuli for millennial relations' visit 'Tsitsernakaberd' Volcano eruption kicks off in Hawaii Condition of servicemen wounded as result of Azerbaijan's violation of ceasefire is satisfactory Russia and Iran sign memorandum on car exports Tokayev: There are issues in relations between Russia and Kazakhstan that require negotiations FT: Global inflation peaks but will slow in future 2 soldiers injured after Azerbaijan shells Artsakh defense army positions Japan to build constellation of 50 military satellites Azerbaijan hands over to Armenian side bodies of 13 Armenian servicemen Iraqi PM announces return of part of $125 million stolen from state Inaugural Divine Liturgy served at first Armenian church in Spain Russia and Kazakhstan intend to increase CSTO potential Process of US granting market economy status to Armenia is discussed (PHOTOS) Borrell says NATO has enough threats and challenges besides China Azerbaijani government-controlled media announces change in Baku's foreign policy Reuters: Turkey ready for ground invasion in northern Syria Cavusoglu: Turkey may appoint an ambassador to Egypt in the coming months Dollar, euro go up in Armenia Indian political analyst: Pakistan supported Azerbaijan during aggression against Karabakh Belgian police officers protest after officer killed Citizens of Western countries arrested in Iran for participating in riots Seyran Ohanyan: Drawing CSTO into our region in matters of use of force may cause serious conflict in future Armenia parliament opposition leader: Its not that we, as opposition, like everything in CSTO Political analyst: Cooperation with Yerevan becomes more important amid contradictions between powers New Ecuador ambassador presents copy of credentials to Armenia deputy FM Erdogan: Realization of the grain deal showed the possibility of diplomacy in Ukraine Armenia parliament speaker to head for Qatar, to watch World Cup match from stadium Toivo Klaar: Many challenges remain; restraint, strong political will be needed by Azerbaijan, Armenia Armen Baibourtian: Armenia-India cooperation on North-South road corridor started back in 2000s Armenian envoy: India becoming more sensitive about Azerbaijan ambitions towards Armenia India MFA: Cooperation with Armenia should be further deepened Deputy FM: Armenia can make use of progress with India to increase its security level Armenia Kurdish community staging protest outside UN office Pashinyan: Armenia attaches importance to development of cooperation with Albania Azerbaijan president receives Philip Reeker MP: Tourists visiting Armenia have difficulty making purchases over 300,000 drams at duty free shops Marukyan: 2 years ago Azerbaijan president signed ceasefire agreement where Nagorno-Karabakh is mentioned 5 times US diplomatic mission reveals details of CIA head with Naryshkin Karabakh army did not open fire at Azerbaijani positions in occupied territories UK intends to maintain military assistance to Ukraine in 2023 Copper prices falling World oil prices falling Gold falls in price Armenia PM, wife attend charity concert in support of soldiers undergoing treatment Azerbaijan army fires towards Armenia positions Eurasianet: Azerbaijan's Russian natural gas deal raises uncomfortable questions for Europe The Hill: Will a strong dollar trigger a global recession? Stanislav Zas: CSTO proposed several measures to help Armenia MOD: Artsakh Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijani positions Princess Diana was 'murdered' because she was pregnant with Dodi Al Fayed's baby, claims his father Israel will fall apart, says Irans Islamic Revolution Guards Corps chief Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan leaders summit to be held in Ashgabat Elon Musk announces he will support Ron DeSantis if Florida governor runs for US president Armenia MOD dismisses Azerbaijan disinformation Baghdad ready to help Tehran-Riyadh negotiations resume, Iraq FM says Russia presidential spokesman: Attempts to interfere with CSTO work will continue Protests staged in Shanghai over China COVID curbs Iran parliament approves law on country's membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization Worlds biggest nuclear-fusion project faces delays due to component cracks Erdogan announces Turkeys Bayraktar UAV fighter manufacture by end of 2023 Venezuela authorities and opposition resume talks, eyeing US sanctions relief Azerbaijan's Armenophobia policy to be presented in Australia (PHOTOS) Armenia FM: I am deeply shocked by news of Vladimir Makei's death The New York Times: Artillery breaking in Ukraine, becoming problem for Pentagon Karabakh MOD dismisses Azerbaijan statement Americans spend record $9.12bn on online shopping on Black Friday North Korea aims to have world's strongest nuclear force, Kim Jong Un says What is best age to seek jobs? Scholz says Germany will allocate another 10 million to ensure grain supplies from Ukraine Azerbaijan opens fire on Armenian border positions Parapolitika: U.S. drone base is being set up near the Greek city of Larissa Belgium to send to Ukraine 100 instructors who fought in Afghanistan U.S. household spending up $433 for the year Authorities of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine signs Declaration of Lublin Triangle PMs CIS Executive Committee says they agreed with CSTO, SCO on combining anti-terrorist exercises Over 10 people are missing in Italy after landslide Finns saving on alcohol Kyodo: Japan ready for joint counterstrikes with U.S. in case of attack OSCE PA session in Warsaw kicks off in darkness as sign of solidarity with Ukraine Times: Britain may triple its nuclear energy production by 2050 IAEA tells what blow to spent fuel at Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant will lead to AFP: Macron wants to dissuade Biden from unequal competition with EU ARF Dashnaktsutyun delegation meets with Spanish PM The Biden administration is warning Germany and other European nations not to let China take control of companies in strategic sectors, a senior US official said, pointing to a recent move to whittle down Chinas stake in the Hamburg port as a successful outcome, Bloomberg reported. The US had passed a message along via its Embassy in Berlin that China have no controlling interest in the port, according to the official. In the end, Germany allowed Chinese state-owned shipping conglomerate Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. to buy a 24.9% stake in one of Hamburgs port terminals. Thats just shy of the threshold thats considered a blocking minority in Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had initially supported the sale of 35% of one of the four port terminals by Hamburg Hafen and Logistik AG. The official said the Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, was working with European leaders to give careful scrutiny to investments in strategic areas so autocratic powers like China dont take control. Scholz was set to arrive in China on Friday with a delegation that will include Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume. US officials are anxious that the German leader not bind his countrys economy too closely to China for fear doing so could create the same dependency that Russia sought to exploit over natural gas. YEREVAN. Zhoghovurd daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan once again manipulates the topic of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict. For example, on November 2, he spoke in the parliament about the status of Artsakh and noted that he tried to put that word aside. "We have agreed with our Russian colleagues that now it is not worth going and trying to solve this issue because it will lead to an inevitable crisis, and I am happy here, I can say this now. The next problem which I had said publicly and I want to say in retrospect: we also proposed that in Sochi itself, on the spot, a decision would be made to extend the mandate of the Russian gamekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh for an indefinite period of time: for 20 years, 15 years, 5 years, etc., he said, adding that the proposal was not accepted, but the issue was put on the agenda. That is, Nikol Pashinyan states that he is not talking about the status of Artsakh because the Russian colleagues proposed to put off the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh for an indefinite period of time. But on April 23, 2022, Nikol Pashinyan announced in the parliament: "The international community proposes to lower the status bar of Artsakh a little." First of all, let's note that there was no mention here of the Russian side. And on the other hand, when he talked about lowering the bar, he did not say that they were going to discuss it later. It turns out that he once again manipulates the topic of negotiations and the Artsakh conflict. By Trend Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Thursday that his country has "absolute readiness" to conclude nuclear talks "as soon as possible," Trend reports citing Xinhua. He revealed in a tweet that he made the remarks during his recent "constructive" conversation with Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, where the two discussed the exchange of messages on the Vienna talks aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal. Besides, "the United States must stop double-dealing," Amir-Abdollahian said in the tweet. "Genuine will is needed. We remain fully committed to secure the rights of our people," he noted. A day earlier, the top Iranian diplomat said an Iranian delegation would travel to Vienna, Austria in the coming days for talks on enhancing cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. YEREVAN. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on Friday received Marek Szczygiel, the Head of the EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia and the members of his delegation, the foreign ministry of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. During the meeting, Mirzoyan briefed on the security situation in the region following Azerbaijan's military aggression against Armenia's territorial integrity and sovereignty on September 13-14, the positions of the Armenian side regarding the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Also, the FM highlighted the importance of the deployment of the EU civilian mission in Armenia, and expressed confidence that it will contribute to stability and peace in the region. Szczygiel, in turn, expressed gratitude to the Armenian side for the support provided to the EU civilian mission, and presented the scope of their activities and upcoming work in Armenia. The sides discussed as well matters of further cooperation. The Arnika and NESEHNUTI NGOs of the Czech Republic have issued a joint statement Friday on the plan to expand the gold mine in Karaberd town of Armenia. The statement treads as follows: With this joint statement by the two organizations Arnika and NESEHNUTI, we respond to the latest developments in the Karaberd settlement in the Lori region of Armenia, where public hearings on the plan to expand the gold mining operations in Karaberd are being held on 04.11.2022. In view of the circumstances mentioned below, we hereby express our opposition to the plan to expand the gold deposit in Karaberd settlement. Thus, by making a joint statement, we appeal to the Armenian public, the local authorities of the Pambak community, the regional government of the Lori region to prevent the plan to expand mining and express a negative opinion. We also call on the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia to conduct a proper inspection of the project in the future. Arnika and NESEHNUTI are Czech NGOs that have long been addressing environmental and social issues in the Czech Republic and abroad. NESEHNUTI and Arnika's goal is to protect nature and a healthy environment for future generations at home and around the world. Arnika has long advocated for less waste and hazardous substances, living rivers and diverse nature, and the right of citizens to make decisions about the environment. For a quarter of a century, NESEHNUTI has been promoting participation of locals in decision-making and civic campaigns not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the South Caucasus and Southern Ukraine. In 2018, Daniel Vondrous, the then director of the Green Circle network of environmental organizations, attended a CivicBarcamp organized by NESEHNUTI in nearby Vanadzor, where he highlighted the impacts of gold mining and shared his experiences with the introduction of a ban on the use of cyanide in gold leaching in the Czech Republic. Now he is working as an advisor of the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech republic. Gold mining can never be environmentally friendly and we therefore want to draw attention and appeal to local residents to be wary of the promises and decide together on the future of their community. Mineral extraction has widespread adverse impacts on the environment and the health of mine and ore processing company employees, as well as residents who live near these operations. Neglect of the necessary technological procedures, breach of waste management regulations and inadequate technical security can reduce the quality of life of residents and damage the surrounding countryside in the long term and irreversibly. The risks of mining include dust emissions, noise, potential accidents and chemical spills into local streams and soil or lowering of groundwater levels. Spills of chemicals used in mining and ore processing and metals in the ore itself [1] adversely affect human health. Data collected through pollution monitoring of mining communities in the Tumanyan and Stepanavan regions of Lori province, conducted between 2018 and 2021, confirmed these concerns. The results of Arnika's study highlight the presence of pollutants in the environment and the higher health burden on the population of communities in the region affected by mining compared to the population not exposed to these impacts. NESEHNUTI's work has reaffirmed the interest of Armenian communities in transitioning to sustainable development and greater participation in environmental decision-making. The above arguments highlight the risks faced by local communities and nature, which is why we call for the prevention of the expansion of the Karaberd gold mine. By Trend North Korea fired around 80 artillery rounds into a maritime border zone overnight, South Korea said on Friday, as defence ministers from Seoul and Washington vowed to demonstrate determination in the face of a barrage of missile tests by the North, Trend reports citing Reuters. North Korea fired multiple missiles into the sea on Thursday, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), prompting the United States and South Korea to extend air drills that have angered Pyongyang. Beginning shortly before midnight on Thursday, South Korea's military said it had detected more than 80 artillery rounds fired into the sea by North Korea, in what it says is a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean agreement. The South issued a warning communication to the North over the firing, the South Korean Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Meeting in Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup pledged to seek new measures to demonstrate the alliance's "determination and capabilities" following repeated North Korean provocations, according to a joint statement between the two countries. The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, are reportedly headed for Washington D.C. next week to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Turan reported. No details about the upcoming trilateral meeting have been publicly revealed yet, and the US State Department did not offer any comment. However, Ned Price, the Department's spokesperson, had told Turan that Washington remained "committed to Armenian-Azerbaijan peace and negotiations between the two countries." "We will do what it is we deem most useful to bring about the cause of lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Price said early this week when asked about potential communications between the secretary and foreign ministers. For long-time South Caucasus watchers, such as Richard Kauzlarich, who served as Bill Clinton's ambassador to Azerbaijan (19941997), the event in DC "sends a message to Putin that the U.S. is still engaged in the South Caucasus." Washington wants to "end the carousel of forum shopping Armenia and Azerbaijan engage in to avoid face-to-face negotiations," Kauzlarich said. Asked about Washington's objectives in hosting the next talks, Kauzlarich reiterated: "I'm not sure what the US objectives are other than signaling Moscow and pushing the parties to get off the forum-hunting carousel and resume direct talks leading to a peace agreement." As per Kauzlarich, the outcome of the recent meeting in Sochi, Russia, was unclear, but it is clear that Putin did not get what he wanted from either side. "I doubt the Washington meeting will change anything out of Sochi," he concluded. The Washington talks will also showcase the Biden administration's efforts and leadership on the eve of a congressional hearing in which the State Department's Caucasus negotiator Philip Reeker and Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried will testify publicly. Yerevan has received a proposal to hold interparliamentary talks between Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Tsovinar Khachatryan, spokesperson of the National Assembly (NA) speaker, informed about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am. Khachatryan noted that the proposal was made by the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, during NA speaker Alen Simonyan's visit to Russia. "Alen Simonyan gave a positive answer. But it is only a proposal; the format of the meeting has not been discussed yet," added Khachatryan. She recalled the recent tripartite meeting of the leaders of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in Sochi, Russia, and the statement issued at that time. Khachatryan noted that it is very important for Armenia that the provisions of this statement are implemented. "Only after their implementation can we talk about the contacts of representatives of other spheres, including in the interparliamentary format," she added. The results of the examination have already been confirmed in the case of five of the ten bodies of Armenian detainees transferred from Azerbaijan to the Armenian side, the examination of the others are in progress, and the minister of health will provide additional information when they will be completed. Health minister Anahit Avanesyan informed about this to reporters at the National Assembly Friday. Referring to the fact that even after the 44-day war in 2020, there were bodies with which examinations were carried out, Avanesyan said: "That process is completely finished. The entire process of examinations, identifications sent abroad is documented. Of course, we have cases when the identified bodies [of the fallen Armenian soldiers] were not accepted, were not buried by the parents. This is a very delicate topic; and the more time passes, the more difficult the process becomes." Also, she noted that the Armenian government has an obligation to bury those bodies. "After working with the [fallen servicemens] parents, relatives in one more course, we will make joint commission decisions to carry out the funerals. We have to take into account both spiritual and sanitary-hygienic issues, and many other nuances that cannot be resolved for years," the health minister emphasized. On October 27, Azerbaijan had returned the bodies of ten Armenian fallen soldiers to Armenia. By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan highlighted the necessity of extending the Ukraine grain deal in a phone call with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah. According to a statement released by the Presidential Communications Directorate, Erdogan and the U.N. chief discussed developments regarding the situation in Ukraine and the grain corridor. The president said he welcomes the resumption of the deal as a result of his busy senior-level diplomatic traffic with Russia and Ukraine. He continued by saying that it is now necessary to focus on extending the deal, which is set to expire in 20 days. For his part, Guterres thanked Erdogan for his contributions and efforts. Pentagon leaders plan to meet with defense industry executives to discuss ways to address supply chain issues amid an expected increase in demand for weapons from U.S. allies due to the war in Ukraine. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks will hold a secret meeting with top U.S. defense contractors to discuss National Defense Strategy, supply chain security and strengthening the military-industrial base, including workforce issues, Reuters reported, citing sources. There is growing concern among Pentagon officials that top U.S. defense equipment suppliers will face a surge in weapons orders from European countries such as Germany and Poland. Previous meetings between Pentagon officials and leading weapons manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Technologies Corp and General Dynamics Corp, have focused on Ukraine and hypersonic weapons development. Despite global interest in weapons, major U.S. weapons manufacturers continue to cite a limited labor market and ongoing supply chain problems due to the coronavirus pandemic to lower expectations about how quickly they can fulfill these anticipated orders. Pandemic supply chain problems continue to plague defense contractors because components and materials are not delivered on time, delaying production and, ultimately, payment. The Pentagon plans to devote $500 million to training and retention programs in the coming years, as well as more than $2 billion to invest in the supply chain as part of an effort to address the problems. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) Russia has always treated the people of Ukraine with warmth, and it still does, despite the current tragic confrontation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday, according to TASS. "It is Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, who are the first and main victim of the deliberate fomentation of hatred toward Russians, toward Russia. We can see this in the nature of even combat operations. It's just amazing what's going on there. In general, it is as if Ukrainians do not exist. They are thrown like into a furnace, and that's it... We have always treated the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth - it was and still is, despite the current tragic confrontation," he stressed. Putin believes that Russia's clash with the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine was inevitable. "Russia's clash with the neo-Nazi regime that emerged in Ukraine was inevitable. And if appropriate actions had not been taken on our part in February, everything would have been the same, only from a worse position for us," he stated. Putin believes that the situation in Ukraine was deadly for Russia. "The situation in Ukraine has been brought by its so-called friends to the point where it has become deadly for Russia and suicidal for the Ukrainian people themselves," he stated. Emory Universitys new Pathways Center launched Aug. 1 with the arrival of Branden Grimmett, Emorys new vice provost for career and professional development and Emory College associate dean. The Pathways Center, an integral part of the university-wide Student Flourishing Initiative, unites for the first time existing resources and programs from Emory College of Arts and Sciences and Campus Life including career services, experiential learning, national scholarships and fellowship, pre-health advising and undergraduate research under one roof. That integration will help students make better connections to the opportunities offered at Emory and visualize how they can apply their liberal arts education to potential professions and to lives of meaning and consequence postgraduation. Pathways resources will be available to all Emory College students and alumni, while also serving graduate students as well as undergraduates in other units. We are building a culture of collaboration and trust starting on day one, says Grimmett. We cant do this alone, so we welcome new ideas, collaborators, feedback and questions. Grimmett recently sat down for a Q&A about how the new Pathways Center amplifies Emorys liberal arts excellence and builds a fully integrated educational experience. Responses have been edited for space. Q: Tell us a little about your background and how you got here. I could never have imagined when I was 22 years old that as a music and religion double major I would be leading what we call the Pathways Center. But looking back, I see the connections that led me to this point. I have been working in higher education career services for more than 15 years, at six different private liberal arts institutions. My own personal experience as a theologian and musician has been helpful in navigating conversations with students and families, about their concerns around how a college student discerns their career path. I was more than my major and so are students today. Investment in education is not always immediately seen as valuable on the day you take a course or graduate. Most students Ive worked with look back on their time in college, and they really do see the value of what they learned. More importantly, they differentiate their own preparedness in the workplace compared to people who have not had a liberal arts education. Every Emory College graduates greatest asset is their liberal arts education. Q: The Pathways Center is an entirely new entity and approach to the student experience for the university and for Emory College of Arts and Sciences in particular. When asked what the Pathways Center is, what is your elevator pitch? The Pathways Center elevator pitch: We are a center that provides resources and experiences for Emory College students and alumni to help them reach their full potential. The Pathways Center will do this in a number of ways. We want to serve as a national model for higher education by seamlessly preparing students for and connecting them to local, national, and global internships, graduate and professional schools, post-graduate fellowships and full-time employment. The offices that compose the Pathways Center career services, undergraduate research, national scholarships and fellowships, pre-health advising and experiential learning are all connected through the new center, so that students dont carry the burden of navigating this themselves, but instead can rely on the institution to remove some of the obstacles for them. Finally, we want the center to serve as a single hub for recruiting Emory talent and attracting top employers in every industry, locally, nationally and globally. Q: One of the bigger changes is that the Career Center has moved from Campus Life and is now based in Emory College. What impact will that change have for Emory College students? The fact that the Career Center is now a part of the academic experience of Emory means that we can more closely tie classroom learning to the skills that will help students solve some of the biggest problems in the world. We will be realigning our work to be more closely integrated with academic departments, ensuring faculty understand what the Pathways Center is doing and how it can be helpful to their teaching, and working together to identify ways we can help each other. This will involve inviting faculty to our inaugural Career Trek program. We will be taking students to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC, to meet with alumni employers. We will bring faculty with us so that they can see how their teaching is applied in the workplace and how it benefits liberal arts graduates who are now in leadership roles. Q: Beyond career preparation, how do you envision the Pathways Center will impact the overall liberal arts experience of our students and help them flourish? Career preparation involves what the career center is doing with our students, but that represents only one of five areas of the Pathways Center. Undergraduate research also lives in the Pathways Center. It is important for our students to get involved in research as early as they can. Its also important for them to be able to conduct research on and off campus and for us to provide funding for students to be able to say yes to those opportunities. Through national scholarships and fellowships, Emory students can compete for post-graduate and current opportunities. While many scholarships and fellowships occur after graduation, some of the work involves faculty collaboration and it involves students thinking about how those fellowships might impact their future career growth and plans. We are already raising money to help remove obstacles to students ability to build experience and to discern their career path. To be able to say yes to a dream internship in say, London, or to be able to conduct research in South America; all of these will be funded opportunities through the Pathways Center. We are looking to remove financial obstacles for students and to work with our alumni population to raise money, so that Emory students can say yes to all of those experiences. Q: Emorys focus on excellent liberal arts education has long meant it views education as a public good, not a private transaction. How do we counteract an increasingly skeptical public that sees college as a transactional experience? The best way to counteract that is to look at the alumni of Emory College. We have a population of students who successfully launch after graduation by fully leveraging their liberal arts education to lead companies, governments, communities and international bodies. Emory College alumni are leaders because they have an ability to navigate ambiguity due to their liberal arts education. They are adept in approaching difficult situations with empathy and understanding. At the same time, they have developed the technical skills in their majors that allow them to lead with expertise. Everything we do in the Pathways Center will involve alumni, because they are the nearest expression of what our students hopes and dreams are. Q: How do you plan to demonstrate to students how Emorys commitment to liberal arts education, and the skills they gain in critical thinking, communication, team building, etc., can translate into potential careers in any field? We want students to understand that their liberal arts skills are the same skills that employers are looking for in all jobs. The National Association of College and Employers has a set of career competencies that map very cleanly with liberal arts skills. Employers recruit and evaluate early talent based on these competencies. The good news is that most employers looking for recent college graduates or interns, are really measuring the fit for jobs in the same way that students are being evaluated in their curriculum. When students successfully complete their time at Emory, whether they know it or not, they will also have prepared for navigating the workplace. Career discernment is not a cerebral activity. It requires action. The action that needs to be taken involves students reaching out to alumni from their major to learn about their career path. It involves students practicing how to articulate what they did in their internship. How do you describe it on a resume? How do you express it on a LinkedIn profile? How do I talk about it in an interview? How do you share the experience with the faculty that helped you secure the opportunity? Its not just about helping students land jobs or internships or research. Reflection and action helps them connect the dots from what they learn in the classroom to what they are doing to express those skills in a workplace setting. Q: Emory Advantage expanded this fall to eliminate need-based loans and replace them with institutional grants and scholarships, which is helping to address equity and access gaps for many of our students, but challenges remain. How will the Pathways Center help address those gaps, especially for first-generation students? We will build community with populations that have similar challenges or opportunities. We want to create programming for these populations, so we can speak directly to the challenges they face and connect them with those who can help them overcome those challenges. On the financial side, its important to know that the Pathways Center will be giving out dollars to support students pursuing these experiences. Eighty percent of employers expect our students to complete one or more internships before they consider hiring them. Yet we know students are often deciding between being fully immersed as a student on campus and working a part-time job. We want to make sure that Emory students are able to do the kind of work that doesnt just earn them money, but also allows them to discern a meaningful career path. We will have funding to support students pursuing unpaid or under-paid internships and students who are pursuing research. Our goal is to remove as many barriers as we can with funding, while also providing students with a robust learning experience. As more of our lives continue to move online, it can be easy to believe messages that ask for personal identification information or financial help for a friend are legitimate. But believing everything you read can make you a target for cybercriminals. Heres what to be on the lookout for and how to stay safer against scams. What are online scams? From phishing to hacking to extortion, there are plenty of scams to keep track of. While phishing attempts generally aim to get readers to click a link and enter their login information (which is then stolen), online fraud and scams are typically after money. Most messages use a scare tactic of some sort, relying on the readers knee-jerk reaction to deal with the problem. For example, students might receive messages that their academic standing or immigration status is at risk unless they give high sums of money to the sender. Faculty and staff are frequently targeted with messages from someone posing as a supervisor or coworker asking for money or gift cards to cover a family or personal emergency. At Emory, people have lost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. And that money can be hard to recover especially if it was sent in the form of gift cards. Here are some important tips to remember from Emory Police and IT security experts. How to spot a scam Cybercriminals have gotten more sophisticated over the years, which can make these attempts harder to spot. But most messages still offer clues that its spam if you know where to look. Urgency: If you receive an email that prompts you to take immediate action, it could be fake. As Derek Spransy, associate director of enterprise information security at Emory, explains, The sender is trying to instill some type of panic and make you believe that if you dont take immediate action, there will be a consequence. Theyre trying to short-circuit your instinct to question. Email links: Instead of clicking on a link, just hover your cursor over it to preview the landing page. Take a close look at the link. Is it sending you somewhere like emory.com instead of emory.edu? Now do the same thing with the from address. Use caution if its from an external source (any address thats not from @emory.edu), a source thats unrelated to the organization being impersonated or has a misspelling in it (like Microosoft instead of Microsoft). Emorys email system automatically adds an [EXTERNAL] tag to the email subject on messages that are sent by someone outside of Emory. A reluctance to talk by phone: Scammers will often impersonate colleagues or classmates when making an urgent request and theyll emphasize keeping the exchange over text or email instead of calling, claiming to be in a meeting or some other location where they cant speak. If anything about a message feels off-kilter, take a minute to think it through. Instead of responding to the message, directly contact the person who is supposedly making the request, either over the phone or in person. Morieka Johnson, communications director for the Emory Police Department, shares that people are busy and may sometimes mistakenly click links when they receive these messages. In other words, people are responding to the message first and then questioning its legitimacy later. Johnson also reminds faculty, staff and students that Emory already has key identification infomration the university doesnt need to reach out for more details, and reputable employers wont require you to send gift cards. The five most common scams Spransy shares the most common types of scams targeting members of the Emory community. Gift card scams: Frequently targeting employees, cybercriminals will impersonate team leaders and ask others in that department for a favor. Often, the first email asks for their best cell phone number before moving the conversations to text messages. Then, the criminal will ask the employee to purchase gift cards and send photos of the card numbers, all under the guise of reimbursement. More than a handful of staff and faculty across the Emory community have lost hundreds of dollars to this type of scam. Impersonation of a government agency or law enforcement: These messages usually claim youve broken a law or owe a fine; they might also threaten immigration status. Then, the sender will ask for a large sum of money to solve the problem. If you become the target of this scam, just remember: a legitimate agency will not contact you by text, email or phone call, and you wont be expected to pay. Extortion scams: These scams are more threatening, typically claiming that harm will come to you or your loved ones if you dont pay. The scammer might also threaten to expose compromising photos of you. If you receive a threatening email, report it to the Emory Police Department by emailing These scams are more threatening, typically claiming that harm will come to you or your loved ones if you dont pay. The scammer might also threaten to expose compromising photos of you. If you receive a threatening email, report it to the Emory Police Department by emailing police@emory.edu or by calling 404-727-6111. The Emory Police Department works with all of Emory University, including Emory Healthcare, and can help anyone in the Emory community determine what the best next steps are. Job scams: This tactic tends to target students and promises a job that is too good to be true. The positions usually include depositing money, making purchases or high compensation amounts but the victims usually get involved in criminal or criminal-adjacent behavior such as money laundering. Be wary of any job offer that you receive out of the blue, especially if it doesnt come from a trusted source such as This tactic tends to target students and promises a job that is too good to be true. The positions usually include depositing money, making purchases or high compensation amounts but the victims usually get involved in criminal or criminal-adjacent behavior such as money laundering. Be wary of any job offer that you receive out of the blue, especially if it doesnt come from a trusted source such as EagleOps through the Emory Career Center, said Johnson. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Tech support scams: You may receive an email from someone claiming to be with Microsoft, Apple or another tech company claiming something is wrong with your account (such as a virus). If this happens, remember that tech companies dont proactively reach out to you you have to contact them if something is wrong. Before responding to an email or acting on a request, Spransy recommends asking yourself, Does the request make sense in context? For example, does it make sense that a police agency would tell me I can pay my way out of an arrest warrant? If the answer is no, you can generally ignore that message. What to do if you experience a phishing attempt When in doubt about the validity of a message, report it by forwarding the email as an attachment to abuse@emory.edu. If youre ever unsure about a message, reach out to your IT service desk. For Emory University, thats 404-727-7777 and for Emory Healthcare, thats 404-778-4357. If you believe your password has been compromised, change it immediately at MyPassword. If you believe youve been a victim or attempted target of phishing, contact the Emory Police Department by email (police@emory.edu) or by calling 404-727-6111. That number is the same for both Emory University and Emory Healthcare. Emory police are available to support you 24/7. Campus Life is also available to support students well-being. TimelyCare offers confidential 24/7 virtual care, including access to mental health professionals through TalkNow; Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) provides confidential counseling, stress management classes and more; The Office of Respect provides support and advocacy for survivors of sexual and relationship violence and stalking; and Student Case Management and Intervention Services (SCMIS) provides support for basic needs, follow-up care and other resources. International Student and Scholar Services is also available to support students who have questions or concerns about phishing attempts. Call 404-727-3300 or email isss@emory.edu. Outside of the university, you can report the attack to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at complaint.ic3.gov. Bangalore (Karnataka)/Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 4 (ANI/PRNewswire): Global Tech Advocates (GTA), the world's first truly international grassroots tech community, and Tech India Advocates, today announce the week-long GTA Summit in India. Following the success of the first GTA Festival in China in 2019, the second iteration of the GTA Summit entitled 'Namaste, New India!', will see a global delegation of senior tech leaders visit key centres of technological growth and excellence in Bengalinternational grassroots tech communityru, Hubli and Mumbai. Over the course of the week commencing 7th November, the delegation of over 30 tech leaders, investors and entrepreneurs from around the world will seek to learn about the growth taking place across the Indian tech ecosystem. GTA is a community of tech leaders, experts and investors from 27 of the world's fastest growing tech cities and regions, who come together from around the world at the GTA Summit. The 'Namaste, New India!' Summit is supported by Tech Nation, Penningtons Manches Cooper, London Stock Exchange Group, Globalization Partners, Deshpande Foundation and the Rajasthan Royals. Future Energy Ventures is also a partner of Global Tech Advocates. Prominent figures attending from the UK tech sector include - Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Global Tech Advocates, Anne Glover, CEO of Amadeus Capital and Priya Guha MBE, Venture Partner at Merian Ventures and former British diplomat. Leading figures from both the UK and India tech ecosystems will be joined by representatives from around the world, including delegates from the UAE, Singapore, the US, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Throughout the week, the group will immerse themselves into the Indian tech ecosystem and take part in a series of tours, roundtables and events, including: - An interactive session on 'New India' with CEO of Action for India and award winning entrepreneurs- A visit to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru with an introduction to their cutting-edge Centre for Nano Science and Engineering- An evening reception hosted by the British Deputy High Commissioner to Bengaluru- The GTA Festival Summit, the anchor event of the week, taking place on Tuesday 8th November in Bengaluru at the Bangalore International Center. This will focus on decoding 'New India' and feature a range of Indian and international tech perspectives.- A day trip to Hubli in partnership with the Deshpande Foundation, with a focus on India's rural tech innovation and agritech- A tech investor roundtable hosted by the Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai and joined by Alan Gemmell OBE, His Majesty's Trade Commissioner for South Asia and the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India The Summit offers an opportunity to understand how India's tech ecosystem is evolving, and to meet the entrepreneurs and investors behind the country's most successful tech companies. India is one of the world's most strategically important tech hubs - it has the fifth-largest global economy, and negotiations for a free trade agreement with the UK are currently ongoing. Russ Shaw CBE, Founder, Global Tech Advocates said: "India is truly at the forefront of global innovation and technological excellence, and I have been keeping a watchful eye on the phenomenal growth and expansion of India's digital economy since my first visit back in 2015. In 2022, India's tech industry is expected to grow at almost twice the rate of the wider economy, with fields such as fintech and SaaS in particular going from strength to strength." "Throughout the week, we will be engaging in a series of exciting events, tours and networking opportunities with Indian investors, government officials and entrepreneurs - from the scientific expertise based in Bengaluru, to Mumbai's thriving tech community. This is a mutual opportunity for the GTA delegation to learn from the successes of India's tech sector, as well as deepening ties between India and the global tech economy." Ani Kaprekar, Co-founder, Tech India Advocates commented: "It is a pleasure to host this significant international gathering of tech leaders in India. The country's size, scale and appetite for innovation gives India unparalleled tech potential - with a rich heritage in IT, it has the foundation and expertise to accelerate growth in many tech verticals that are becoming major industries in their own right." "Tech India Advocates is dedicated to championing the tech sector by nurturing the exchange of talent and investment between India and the world. The GTA Summit will showcase the entrepreneurs, investors and leaders of India that are fuelling the nation to become a global tech powerhouse." Media contacts UK: Seven Hills - tla@wearesevenhills.com India: The Other Circle - durgesh@theothercircle.com Global Tech Advocates is the only truly international grassroots tech community with more than 20,000 tech leaders, experts and investors connecting 27 of the world's fastest-growing tech hubs and regions. Global Tech Advocates, founded by Russ Shaw, is the voice of tech worldwide, championing tech ecosystems and campaigning to address the challenges facing tech companies. Through a collection of networks in multiple cities, each with their own working groups dedicated to specific initiatives and verticals, Global Tech Advocates inspires tech leaders to volunteer their time to support each other, make connections and campaign for change. Global Tech Advocates is independent, not-for-profit and relies on the support of strategic partners to fund activities. GTA is an independent organisation supported by Future Energy Ventures. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire) By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova The Culture Minister Anar Karimov has addressed the participants of the recruitment competition for children's music and art schools, Azernews reports. In his speech, Anar Karimov touched upon the reforms implemented by the ministry in the culture in the last two years. "We are in the transition phase to a system that meets modern standards. The Culture Ministry started reforms from music and art schools, because this area plays the role of a base, and here the foundation of the processes should be more solid and reliable. Those who participated in the meeting today are among the first of our reforms. We are very glad that the recruitment of teachers took place in such a transparent manner. The selection of teachers by this rule is the beginning of the process which strengthens the personnel potential in schools. We will continue this work in other areas in the future," he said. The minister added that the projects, state programs, and reforms successfully implemented in the field of culture in recent years in Azerbaijan have created a foundation for the integration of Azerbaijani culture into the world. He stressed that major work is being carried out in the country's culture field in accordance with presidential orders. Speaking about the teacher recruitment process, the minister noted that the testing was held jointly with the State Examination Center on August 7, while the interview was on September 5-9. "Out of 1,992 candidates who registered to participate in the test stage, 1,709 participated in the exam, and 482 of them received the required passing score and won the right to participate in the interview stage. Around 383 people registered for the announced vacancies and confirmed their participation in the interviews. Out of 352 people who participated in the interviews, 215 were successful in the competition by obtaining the required passing score. Some 126 of them (59 percent) have higher education, 89 (41 percent) have secondary education. Moreover, 8 visually impaired people were successfully employed as well," the minister said. He noted that out of 215 successful candidates, Lala Ahmadova, a piano major graduate of the Baku Music Academy showed the highest result, which is 58 points from the test, and 15 points from the interview. Solmaz Rahimova and Gultakin Javadova, graduates of Azerbaijan National Conservatory, are among the top three for high results. Anar Karimov thanked the chairmen and members of the interview commissions for their work in conducting the competition at a high level. The minister pointed out that he instructed the directors of children's art and music schools operating in Baku and the country's districts to give young teachers at least 24 hours of work, at the conference on "Reform processes in art schools: goals and achievements" held at the International Mugham Center on October 14. The heads of regional departments were instructed to supervise this process. At the end, Anar Karimov, who presented honorary decrees of the ministry to the teachers and members of interview commissions who scored high marks in the competition, wished them further success in their activities aimed at the development of Azerbaijani culture and education. Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 4 (ANI/PNN): Shri Keshav Cement & Infra Limited (BSE - 530977), engaged in the manufacturing of Cement and Solar Power Generation and Distribution in the state of Karnataka has announced its unaudited Financial Results for the Q2 & H1 FY23. Key Financial Highlights: For H1 FY23 Revenues for Q2 FY23 at Rs 58.14 crore Revenues from manufacturing and trading in cement was at Rs 42.79 crore as against Rs 42.22 crore in H1 FY22 Revenues from solar power generation and supply were at Rs10.44 crore as against Rs 3.54 crore in H1 FY22. EBITDA grew 9.04 per cent to Rs 18.33 crore PAT was at Rs 27.61 crore higher by 468.11 per cent Cash Flow From Operation was at Rs 20.49 Crore For Q2 FY23 Revenue for Q2 FY23 at Rs 24.84 crore; up 4.84 per cent EBITDA for Q2 FY23 at Rs 8.96 crore; up 23.76 per cent; sales growth and fuel savings enabled stupendous growth in EBITDA EBITDA Margins were higher by 548 bps to 36.07 per cent Remarkable savings of 15 per cent in finance costs PAT for Q2 FY23 at Rs1.16crore Commenting on the performance, Venkatesh Katwa, Chairman of Shri Keshav Cement & Infra Limited said, "The demand for cement was good for Q2 FY23 despite the delayed exit of monsoon but expect H2 FY23 to be better than H1 FY23. Solar power was a growth driver and saw its revenue contribution increasing to 18 per cent to overall revenues in H1 FY23 from 7 per cent in H1 FY22. We look forward to H2 FY23 promising for both cement and solar business. We are investing on automation to minimize breakdown and also on augmenting cement capacities on existing land by balancing processes and modernising equipment. This will bring substantial improvement in revenues by about 3 times while operational expenses to rise by ~1.5 times, giving better profitability for the coming period. To ensure sustainable environment, we are promoting pozzolana slag cement that will effectively reduce carbon load/MT of cement." Incorporated in the year 1993 Shri Keshav Cement & Infra Limited (KCIL), formerly Katwa Udyog Limited) is engaged in the manufacturing of Cement and Solar Power Generation and Distribution in the state of Karnataka India. The Business segments are divided into two verticals 1) Manufacturing of cement 2) Generation of Electricity using Solar Power. The cement plants are located at Bagalkot district, Karnataka and the Solar power plant is located at Koppal, Karnataka. The Company manufactures 43 grade and 53 grade Ordinary Portland Cement. The inception of the company began with the acquisition of a sick cement plant of 20 TPD (Tons per day) in 1994. The capacity of the plant gradually increased year after year to reach 600 TPD. The further acquisition has added 300 TPD to the existing capacity. The current capacity of the company is 1,100 TPD with two cement manufacturing plants - one operating with a vertical shaft kiln (VSK) having a capacity of 300TPD in Kaladgi, Bagalkot and another unit having a capacity of 800 TPD operating with rotary kiln technology located at Nagnapur, Bagalkot. The company owns three very renowned regional brands of cement "Jyoti Power" "Jyoti Gold" & "Keshav Cement". The company supplies cement in North Karnataka, Coastal Karnataka, Goa and some parts of Maharashtra and Kerala. "Keshav Cement" is a premium brand of the company. SKCIL is producing cement by using 100% green energy (Solar) since April 2018. The cement industry is highly energy-intensive and power cost constitutes around 30% of the manufacturing cost in the cement manufacturing process. The current power requirement of the cement plants is 12 MW. The Company has two power plants that cumulatively generate 37 MW of power. After using it for its business operations, the balance of 25 MW is sold by the Company. The other group companies are, Katwa Infotech Ltd and Katwa Construction Ltd. The shares of SKCIL are listed on BSE (530977). This story has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/PNN) Leiden (Netherlands), November 4 (ANI) Airbus has recently unveiled an all-new cabin configuration for its A350 widebody jet with the goal to offer airlines more revenue opportunities and better efficiency. According to reports, the Netherlands-headquartered planemaker said it had announced a 10-abreast seating rows for its A350 variants, including the -900 and -1000, made possible by adding four inches of space to the cabin width by carving out the sidewalls. The company had said that the move is part of Airbus' New Production Standard which was launched at the end of September, that also improves performance and reduces weight. The planemaker had said with the added space, 10 seats can fit across instead of the standard nine, increasing capacity by a total of 27 seats on the (-900) and 34 seats on the (-1000) in a three-class layout. With a three-class layout, the aircraft operates with three classes of service. The increase puts the A350 more on par with the Boeing 777X, which can carry up to 426 people in two classes. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has also extended an invitation to French aerospace companies to set up an Airbus manufacturing plant in Karnataka, said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). Speaking at the inauguration of the French-Indo Chamber of Commerce at Palace Ground here on Thursday, he said that the French aerospace companies are based in Karnataka. Organizations like Airbus have set up units in Bangalore and are engaged in expansion. The state has a large-scale manufacturing unit in the aerospace sector and the manufacturing of aircraft parts is done in Bengaluru. Airbus is a European multinational aerospace corporation. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft in Europe and various countries outside Europe. The company has three divisions: Commercial Aircraft, Defence and Space, and Helicopters, the third being the largest in its industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. (ANI) The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has done a wonderful job with Agro Tech India by bringing in a synergy between agriculture and industry, and also by bringing all relevant stakeholders at one platform, Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said on Friday at the inaugural session of CII Agro Tech India 2022 here. "Our ultimate aim should be to generate sustainable incomes for our farmers. This will reduce poverty and enhance prosperity for our 'annadatas'. We need to focus on not just on food production, but also on food processing and value addition. This will go a long way in transforming Indian agriculture in the 21st century," Dhankhar said. The Vice President said with the contribution of visionary policymakers, ingenious scientific minds and above all 'annadatas' (food producers), India has attained the feat of becoming the largest producer of millet, pulses, milk, and jute. The CII flagged off the 15th edition of its biennial agro technology and business fair named CII Agro Tech India 2022 on Friday. Making its return to the city after 2018, the response on the first day was overwhelming with farmers from the region thronging the fair. Talking about the theme for this year, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman, CII Agro Tech India 2022, and Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd, said, "CII Agro Tech India 2022 focuses on sustainable agricultural technologies, enhancing productivity and innovations for growth. Agro Tech reflects one important intervention in our journey to make a meaningful contribution to transforming Indian agriculture from production centric system to demand centric system with modern technology and sustainable agriculture." The theme of this year's edition is 'Digital Transformation for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security', which encompasses focusing on sustainable agriculture; technologies; enhancing productivity and profitability for various stakeholders in the agriculture chain; innovations for growth and sharing of best practices for agri-excellence. The event will consist of 246 exhibitors, including 27 international exhibitors from four countries. Sharing about Haryana's agri sector, Governor Bandaru Dattatreya said though the state has a comparatively small geographical area, it is one of the biggest contributors to the food basket of India. Agriculture is backbone of GDP and Haryana's contribution to agriculture is such that 14 crops are being purchased under the minimum support price (MSP), which is the highest in the country, Dattatreya said. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit said, "The state having land area of only three per cent of the net cultivate land of the country contributes to 25-35 per cent of rice, 38-50 per cent of wheat to the central pool of foodgrain. The state ranks fourth in the world in the terms of productivity and first in India amongst all the other states. I am proud being a governor of Punjab," said Punjab and Haryana are the host states of Agro Tech India 2022, while the UT of Jammu and Kashmir is a partner state. --IANS vg/arm ( 493 Words) 2022-11-04-19:48:04 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced at the concluding ceremony of the 3-day Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Bengaluru that "investments totaling about Rs 9.82 lakh have been committed in diverse sectors in the state." Bommai thanked the participants in the event and investors. Addressing the gathering, the CM said, "This GIM is different from other such Investor Meets as this has been organised during challenging times and has succeeded in showing us the way forward. What Karnataka thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. We will work with the investors shoulder to shoulder to make all these investments fructify on the ground." Thanking all the investors and delegates who participated in the GIM 2022, Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister, Murugesh Nirani, said "Invest Karnataka has laid a strong foundation for the development of Karnataka in the next five years. I am happy that we have met the core objective of this GIM, which is to bring in investments in diverse sectors and create jobs, and take industries beyond Bengaluru." The valedictory session was also attended by Bhagwanth Khuba, Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Chemicals & Fertilizers. Inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually on Wednesday, the event culminated on Friday with the valedictory session in which Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai re-assured investors from all across the world of sustained support by his government. Among top industrialists, Chairman of Jindal Group, Sajjan Jindal; Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, Vikram S. Kirloskar; Chairman, Wipro, Rishad Premji; Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Rajan Bharti Mittal; CEO, Adani Ports and SEZ, Karan Adani and MD, Sterlite Power, Pratik Agarwal shared their experience in Karnataka and expressed continued interest in the state. The Global Investors Meet witnessed 30+ immersive sessions spread across three days. These sessions were a mix of innovative formats such as panel discussions, fireside chats, and TED-style talks. In addition to the speaker sessions, a number of networking events, cultural performances, business exhibitions (with 300+ exhibitors), and country sessions ran parallelly across the 3 days. The country sessions were hosted by partner countries -- France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and Australia. --IANS mka/uk ( 372 Words) 2022-11-04-22:08:02 (IANS) In the National Tribal festival held in Raipur from November 1-3, the folk artists performed the fusion dance form 'Lambadi dance' by taking inspiration from Rajasthani and Telangana culture. Talking about the dance, the team leader of the Lambadi dance group, Nagarjuna told ANI, "we have come from Telangana, we perform and show our way of living and every aspect of our life. Our attire belongs to Rajasthan." Lambadi dance is a folk dance of the Banjara tribe. A lot of folk dances originated in Telangana. Almost every community, big or small, has its own culture. They have their own dance forms, tales, and music. Some of them even have their own instruments. As tribal people lived for many years and now they have become part of Telangana tradition, revealed Nagarjuna. Lambadi dance is performed to seek blessing from god for a good harvest. Mainly women perform the Lambadi folk dance. Lambadi is a mix of Rajasthan and Telangana cultures. Talking further about the impact of tribal festivals on their own art form he said, "we earlier used to perform in Telangana but now after coming then we learnt that many other tribes are there and we understand each other. This interaction also expanded." Speaking about his experience in tribal dance festivals, he said, we earlier used to perform in Telangana but now after knowing about many other tribes and their dance forms and we have started understanding each other." Chhattisgarh celebrated its 23rd State Foundation Day on November 1, 2022, and as a part of the celebrations, Raipur hosted the 3rd National Tribal Dance Festival. The National Tribal Dance Festival was celebrated from November 1-3, 2022. More than 1,500 tribal performers from India and ten other nations, including Mozambique, Mongolia, Tongo, Russia, Indonesia, Maldives, Serbia, New Zealand, and Egypt, are performing at the event. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the festival on Tuesday. While inaugurating the festival, the chief minister said that the National Tribal Dance Festival has given a great opportunity to tribals across the world to share each other's thoughts and experiences. He said that there is a remarkable similarity in instruments, rhythm and feel of every tribal dance form, which proves that there is a special bond that unites all of them. He revealed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been reached between the State Government and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi to provide an opportunity and platform to the tribal artists of Chhattisgarh to perform abroad, which will increase the scope for the spread and exchange of tribal culture. (ANI) Taking to Instagram, Deepika shared the video and wrote, "Find someone who looks at you like you are their whole universe." Actors Deepika and Ranveer tied the knot in November 2018 after dating for six long years and the couple never fail to shower love on each other. Soon after the 'Race 2' actor shared the post, it got viral on social media and fans praised the adorable couple for their romantic chemistry. Recently, Deepika quashed the rumours suggesting trouble in her marriage and confirmed that all is well with Ranveer. Meanwhile, on the work front, Deepika will be seen sharing screen space with Shah Rukh Khan in 'Pathaan', which also stars John Abraham. The action drama is set to hit the theatres on January 25, 2023. Deepika will be also seen in 'The Intern' alongside Amitabh Bachchan and in a Pan-India film 'Project-K' along with south actor Prabhas. She also has 'Fighter' with Hrithik Roshan in her kitty. Ranveer, on the other hand, will be next seen in director Rohit Shetty's upcoming comedy film 'Cirkus' alongside Jacqueline Fernandez and Pooja Hegde. The film is all set to hit the theatres on the occasion of Christmas 2022. Apar from that, he also has director Karan Johar's next 'Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' alongside Alia Bhatt, Jaya Bachchan, Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi. (ANI) Although Hollywood star Johnny Depp was awarded USD 10.35 million in damages this summer in the defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, he's determined to not pay the USD 2 million that she was oddly awarded by a Virginia jury in a countersuit claim. According to Fox News, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor has filed documents to appeal the ruling from the same trial that he defamed Heard through his attorney, which had led to her being awarded the countersuit claim. In documents reviewed by Fox News, Depp argued the court "should reverse the judgment on Ms Heard's counterclaim," but he was otherwise in favour of the jury's decision. The documents stated, "The trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous." The jury had agreed with the 'Aquaman' actor's claim that Depp was "vicariously liable" for comments made by his attorney to a tabloid in 2020. Depp's lawyers, in his appeal, have argued that since Adam Waldman was hired as an independent contractor, Depp wasn't responsible for his remarks. Adding to that, the appeal filing from Depp stated, "No evidence of Mr Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial, so the judgment against Mr Depp cannot be sustained." His team also argued Waldman's words were a "non-actionable statement of opinion insufficient to support a claim of defamation," as per Fox News. The US lawsuit took place in a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia, during the course of April and May of 2022. It was based on the allegation that Heard had defamed Depp by referring to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse" in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post. Although the op-ed did not specifically referred to Depp, the actor claimed it harmed his reputation and wrecked his career. Heard and Depp separated a year before the op-ed was published, following two years of marriage, with Heard stating that Depp had subjected her to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse during their relationship. Heard's lawyers had previously asked Judge Penney Azcarate to set aside the US trial's verdict for several reasons, including the allegation that one of the jurors showed up to the trial despite never receiving a summons, reported Variety. That request had been denied by the judge. Depp later launched his own countermove, just a day after Heard gave formal notice of intent to appeal the verdict in the defamation trial against her. (ANI) New research has shown one type of muscle contraction is most effective at increasing muscle strength and muscle size and rather than lifting weights, the emphasis should be on lowering them. New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has shown one type of muscle contraction is most effective at increasing muscle strength and muscle size and rather than lifting weights, the emphasis should be on lowering them. The team, which also included researchers from Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University in Japan and Brazil's Londrina State University, had groups of people perform three different types of dumbbell curl exercise and measured the results. It found those who only lowered a weight saw the same improvements as those who raised and lowered weights -- despite only performing half the number of repetitions. ECU's Professor Ken Nosaka said the results reinforced previous research indicating a focus on "eccentric" muscle contractions -- in which activated muscles are lengthened -- is more important to increasing strength and size of muscles, rather than the volume. "We already know only one eccentric muscle contraction a day can increase muscle strength if it is performed five days a week -- even if it's only three seconds a day -- but concentric (lifting a weight) or isometric muscle contraction (holding a weight) does not provide such an effect," Professor Nosaka said. "This latest study shows we can be far more efficient in the time we spend exercising and still see significant results by focusing on eccentric muscle contractions. "In the case of a dumbbell curl, many people may believe the lifting action provides the most benefit, or at least some benefit, but we found concentric muscle contractions contributed little to the training effects." (ANI) Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday released a video of the BJP allegedly trying to poach his party MLAs. The Chief Minister was reacting to the incident that occurred on October 26. Speaking to the media Pragati Bhavan CM KCR said, "There are troubling situations in the country. Democracy is being killed in the country. I speak with great pain. I can't believe that such evil can exist. Unemployment has increased. The value of the rupee has fallen. The BJP has destroyed the country in all fields." KCR accused BJP of destroying all systems in the country. He said that in the Munugode by-elections they saw incidents that have never been seen before. "Elections come and go, but BJP is doing things that no one expected with its conspiracies to win every election," he said. In that regard, KCR said that a video containing elements of the conspiracy of what the BJP has done to buy the MLAs of his party has been released. He said that the videos are being sent to Supreme Court judges as well as High Court judges in all states and Chief Ministers of other states. He appealed to everyone to save democracy stating that this is the culmination of BJP's anarchy. Speaking about the broker, KCR said, "Ramachandra Bharati, a broker met Tandoor MLA Rohit Reddy. Then Reddy complained to us and we took it to the home ministry. One cannot lose any more governments to the BJP." KCR said "There is an hour-long video on buying MLAs. We are sending videos to all news, agencies and CMs in the country. The judges of the country, including the Supreme Court. Democracy should be protected in this country. I will send the video to all the judges in the country. I will also send the video to all central investigating agencies. The CM accused Tushar Vellapalli, who contested on a BJP ticket to losing to Congress' Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, of having spoken to TRS MLAs to assure them of the alleged defection deal. He said that the people who came to tempt their MLAs recently were not ordinary people. He said that it would be a shock to hear the things said by those who met the MLAs. These people said that they have already overthrown 8 governments in the country. They said that they are ready to overthrow some more governments. CM KCR also said that there was a conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Telangana, Delhi, AP and Rajasthan. CM KCR warned that this is not a simple case. He said that in these videos, the aspects of which the government has been overthrown in what manner have also been explained and if these unconstitutional forces are not stopped, it will be a danger to democracy. "PM in a meeting openly in Bengal said that Didi your 40 MLAs are in touch with me. How the rest of them would be if the country's PM speaks like this?" he added. Earlier, KCR had said that "Delhi brokers" were involved in the alleged attempts to bribe four MLAs of his party. Meanwhile, the MLAs poaching case in Telangana has taken a new turn after it emerged on Sunday that the KCR government had withdrawn the general consent earlier given to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The state government issued GO on August 30, 2022, which came to light today. This was informed by the Additional Advocate General (AAG) to the Telangana High Court during arguments on a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI or SIT investigation into the TRS MLAs poaching case for a fair probe. The notification dated August 30, 2022, was released by the state government today which stated that prior consent will be required on a case-to-case basis for probe in any case. This comes after the Bharatiya Janata Party moved Telangana High Court seeking the transfer of the TRS MLAs poaching case to the CBI. The Cyberabad Police had arrested the three persons Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji the farmhouse in Ranga Reddy on Wednesday evening, after being informed by the TRS MLAs about the poaching bid, which the leaders alleged was done by the BJP. The Telangana High Court, hearing the plea by Cyberabad Police seeking the arrest and remand of the three accused, on Saturday ordered the three accused in the MLA poaching case to surrender before the Cyberabad police commissioner for further investigation. (ANI) According to the Police, accused Edwin Nunes was earlier arrested and released on bail in connection with the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case. The Police said that after being released on bail, Nunes was called on several occasions at Anjuna Police Station in November for investigation purposes but he had produced a fake COVID certificate of a private diagnostics lab and evaded investigation. "Hence, Anjuna Police had lodged another FIR against him for submitting a forged document before the police station," Dalvi said. Accordingly, he was placed under arrest under Sections 468 and 472 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Police said that as Nunes violated the bail conditions, Anjuna police have made an application before the sessions court for cancellation of bail. "We have Informed Hyderabad Police to take custody of Edwin if required in their case," the police added. Further investigation is in progress. (ANI) Uranus Travel, a leading travel and tourism services provider in Dubai, has now joined hands with Veena World, a major travel company in India specializing in group tours, as its first overseas sales agent (OSA). With this endeavour, Veena World expands outside India, while Uranus Travels ventures into the segment of operating escorted group tours. Recently a business meet took place between Vijay Bhatia, MD, Uranus Travels, and Sunila Patil, Founder and Director, Veena World, in Dubai. Veena World, headquartered in Mumbai, is a well-established travel company with 19 sales offices across Maharashtra, Kolkata, and Bengaluru and close to 150 sales partners across India, along with their corporate office in Mumbai. Veena Worlds team of 700+ committed travel professionals, which includes 350+ in-house tour managers who are experienced in leading tours across the seven continents of the world, makes it the largest tour manager force in India Uranus Travel brings to its clients Veena Worlds wide range of fully escorted and most affordable family group tours and innovative specialty tours such as Womens Special, Seniors Special, Honeymoon Special Tours, Short Trips, YOLO Adventures, Treks & Hikes, Luxury Tours and more to destinations across the Indian Subcontinent and around Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, and even Antarctica. With this partnership in place, travellers from the UAE are now certain to travel more, explore more, celebrate life, and see more of our big, beautiful world, said Vijay Bhatia, MD, Uranus Travels. "This adds another feather into Veena Worlds hat. With close to 150 locations across India, we are now looking at also expanding Veena Worlds presence overseas. We strongly believe in the potential of showcasing our international destinations along with Incredible India to the world and strive to make major strides in our journey through this step, said Neil Patil, Founder and Director, Veena World. TradeArabia News Service Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday made public the evidence in the sensational MLAs' poaching case and appealed to the Chief Justice of India to protect democracy in the country. A week after three alleged agents of BJP were arrested in Hyderabad while trying to buy four MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) with offers of huge money, the Chief Minister held a news conference on Thursday evening, hours after polling came to an end in the by-election to Munugode Assembly constituency. The Chief Minister presented video and audio evidence to expose the alleged BJP 'conspiracy' to buy TRS MLAs by offering Rs 100 crore. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said the entire evidence including the conversation the 'brokers' had with the MLAs has been sent to the Telangana High Court. He revealed that the evidence has also been sent to the Chief Justice of India, all Supreme Court judges, chief justices of all high courts, agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the media. Citing the conversation the accused had with the TRS MLAs over phone and in person, he said they spoke about eight state governments already toppled and the plans to topple governments in four states -- Telangana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. KCR claimed that after catching the gang red-handed, he alerted the AAP government in Delhi about the conspiracy to topple it. Stating that democracy is under threat in the country, KCR appealed to the judiciary to protect it. "Whenever democracy was under threat, the judiciary played a key role. I am requesting the honourable Chief justice of India, all judges of the Supreme Court and chief justices of all high courts with folded hands to save democracy in the country," he said. Claiming that the gang involved in the attempts to topple the state governments is a big one comprising 24 members, the TRS chief demanded a thorough investigation to expose them and all those who are behind them and also to find out from where they were getting the money. KCR said while the gang succeeded in toppling the governments in other states, it was caught in the politically-conscious state of Telangana. KCR said Ramachandra Bharathi came here and held talks with TRS MLA Rohith Reddy, who informed the home minister. The police had arrested Ramachandra Bharati and two others when they were meeting the TRS MLAs at a farmhouse on October 26. The Chief Minister claimed to have three-hour long footage in which the accused explained how they toppled the eight governments and what they plan to do to topple others. He said one of the arrested persons spoke to Tushar Vellapally, who contested Lok Sabha elections against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad on a BJP ticket. He also released a photograph of Tushar with Home Minister Amit Shah. The TRS leader said the gang was well-organised as one person (Ramachandra Bharati alias V.K. Satish Sharma) holds multiple Aadhaar cards, fake IDs, PAN cards and driving licences. KCR also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop this scam and act against those behind it. "Stop this attack on democracy. You have become the Prime Minister of this country twice. This is the highest position one can hold. What more do you want," he asked. "Do some good work instead of destabilising state governments," he added. The TRS leader said he is ready to sacrifice his life but will not keep quiet on this onslaught on democracy. He appealed to all those who believe in democracy to raise their voices. --IANS ms/arm ( 614 Words) 2022-11-03-22:52:01 (IANS) The police in Madhya Pradesh have booked two teachers of a private school for allegedly punishing a student for raising 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogan during the school assembly. The incident happened at Christ Senior Secondary School in Guna on Wednesday. On Thursday, the family members and a few social organisations staged a protest in front of the school campus. A group of right wing members also joined the protest and organised 'Hanuman Chalisa Path' at the school premises. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Thursday intervened in the matter and directed Guna district police to lodge an FIR against teachers who punished the student for raising slogans. Mishra said that as soon as the matter came to his notice, he immediately spoke to the officials. Teachers -- Justin and Jasmeena Khatun, have been booked under sections 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC, and Section 75 in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, according to the police. In his complaint, the student -- Shivansh Jain, told the police that after the national anthem, he raised the slogan of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. "In the meantime, Justin sir came and he took me out of the line and said, 'what are you saying, go to the Father'. After that, my Hindi teacher came and said to go to your class teacher. When I met the class teacher, she said that I should raise it at home. "After that, I reached the classroom. One of my classmates has been chosen as vice-captain of the Red House on which my class teacher Jasmeena Khatun said that 'one boy is making the class proud and I am tarnishing the class's name'. After that Madam made me sit on the ground for the next four periods," the student wrote in his complaint. Reacting on the issue, Congress spokesperson Abbas Hafeez said a school should not be a "den of politics". "I think it is not right to lodge an FIR. Slogans are being raised for the support of the country, it should not be stopped. Every school has its own rules, it is right to raise slogans somewhere and it is wrong somewhere, but one should not stop slogans in support of the country. "I don't think it is right to file an FIR against the teacher. They could have been advised properly," he added. --IANS pd/pgh ( 411 Words) 2022-11-03-23:14:01 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted searches at 16 different places in Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as part of its ongoing investigation into a case related to alleged leakage of question paper for an engineering post in Arunachal Pradesh. The Arunachal Pradesh government had last week removed and suspended four members of Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), two months after the reported leak of the recruitment exam papers. So far, 10 persons, including APPSC deputy secretary-cum-deputy controller of examination, have been arrested by the state police for their alleged involvement in the paper leak case. The APPSC had conducted the examination for the post of Assistant Engineer (civil) on August 26 and 27. A source said that the CBI officials during the searches recovered incriminating documents, articles including counterfeit stamps of the executive magistrate of Arunachal Pradesh, executive engineer, State Bank of India, along with hard discs and pen drives, among others. The case was first lodged against Akhilesh Yadav of Jeju Institute, Itanagar, and unknown officials of APPSC. Following instructions from Chief Minister Pema Khandu, the state government recently handed over the case to the CBI, which also registered a case and a team of the central probe agency headed by a joint director visited Itanagar last week. The Chief Minister had said that the state government is determined to initiate the process of cleansing of APPSC in the larger interest of the people of the state. The state government, from day one, has made its intentions very clear for overhauling the entire APPSC and conducting the examinations for various posts in a free, fair and transparent manner, Kandu had said. The Chairman of the APPSC, Nipo Nabam, had resigned on October 14 "owning moral responsibility for the omissions and commissions of the officer of the commission" who was responsible for ensuring secrecy and preventing leakage of question papers. Many organisations, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation, have been demanding the suspension of the APPSC Chairman, Secretary and other officials for the reported leak of question paper ahead of the recent examination for the post of assistant engineer (civil). They have also demanded a "transparent" probe into the alleged leak. On August 28, a candidate for the examination had lodged an FIR at the Itanagar police station, complaining that the question papers for the APPSC were leaked. --IANS sc-atk/arm ( 412 Words) 2022-11-03-23:20:03 (IANS) He said this while attending the platinum jubilee celebrations of the AMC -- the oldest medical college in Assam. Speaking on occasion, Sarma said that the premier institute needs to upgrade itself into a state-of-the-art medical institute with an adequate thrust on research to deal with acute diseases. He also asked the medical college authority to coordinate the partnership between the state government and IIT Guwahati for high-end medical research. The state government will give Rs 300 crore to AMC for the construction of teachers' quarters and students' hostels, said the Chief Minister. Hailing the medical college administration for maintaining its rich legacy in medical education and treatment, he asked the college management to initiate its growth and development in sync with its green milieu. "Seventy-five years is a long time and during this period, the medical college has produced many doctors who are now leaders in their chosen fields of expertise," Sarma added. Sarma, acknowledging the dedicated role played by the AMC during the Covid-19 pandemic thanked the medical college fraternity. He said because of its unrelenting dedication, several human lives were saved. "The state government is committed to providing advanced, accessible and affordable health care delivery system to everybody in the state. Therefore, the state government has decided to increase the number of medical colleges to twenty-four," he said. A commemorative Platinum Jubilee Postal Stamp was released on this occasion. Assam Minister of Health and Family Welfare Keshab Mahanta, and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli also attended the function. --IANS tdr/pgh ( 302 Words) 2022-11-03-23:22:05 (IANS) The BSF also confiscated three vehicles in which these cattle were found crammed. "In a joint operation with Meghalaya Police, the Mobile Check Post (MCP) of BSF Meghalaya confiscated three vehicles crammed with 25 cattle meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh from the International border of West Jaintia Hills," said BSF in a statement. Further investigation is underway. Last month, police in Assam's Nagaon district seized two dozen cattle from smugglers. "On the basis of source information today, SI Simanta Ray, O/C, Jakhalabandha PS, along with PS staff, detained one truck bearing Reg. No. AS 25EC 9833 which was illegally transporting 24 cattle heads from Jorhat side towards Meghalaya," Nagaon Police tweeted. "Accordingly the vehicle and the cattle heads were recovered and seized. The following cattle smugglers were apprehended namely - 1. Rabul Islam, 27 years, S/O Akash Ali 2. Ekdil Hussain, 21 years, S/O Muslim Uddin Both of Vill Datialguri, PS Beloguri, Dist Morigaon," another tweet said. Back in October, the district police seized over four dozen cattle heads. In three separate operations at three locations, Nagaon Police recovered 50 cattle -- 4, 23, and 23 -- respectively. Illegal cattle trade is rampant in the state and Assam Police has been going hard against cattle smugglers and has strengthened its vigilance mechanism. (ANI) Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address a rally on Friday in Nagrota Bagwan in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. In a press conference held by Congress candidate from Nagrota Bagwan and party Secretary RS Bali said, "It is a matter of pride for us that Priyanka Gandhi will be coming to the hometown of former Congress leader and minister GS Bali. Her visit is a tribute to the development work of GS Bali." Bali further added that Nagrota Bagwan is the only rural constituency in the country where government engineering, medical, ITI, pharmacy and technical colleges are present in the same constituency. "GS Bali dedicated his life for development in the constituency and the state during his tenure as MLA and minister," he said. This will be Priyanka Gandhiji's first visit to the Kangra district. She will address a rally in Gandhi Ground of Nagrota Bagwan. With elections just around the corner, Congress has promised that it will restore the old pension scheme (OPS) in the first cabinet meeting as soon as it forms the government. Last month, while addressing the 'Parivartan Pratigya Rally' in Solan the Congress leader Priyanka Vadra on Friday had that if the party is voted to power in the forthcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, a decision will be taken on restoring the old pension scheme in the first meeting of the cabinet. "I am giving you a guarantee today that after forming the government here, two major decisions will be taken in the first cabinet meeting. First is to give one lakh government jobs and the second is to implement old pension scheme (OPS)," she added. Agniveer and unemployment are also crucial issues for the youth that Congress is banking on. Congress has promised that it will provide 5 lakh employment if it comes to power and 680 crore startup fund. The party is without its tall leader Virbhadra Singh in this election. He passed away last year. Himachal has been witnessing a bipolar contest between Congress and the BJP but Aam Aadmi Party is also trying to make its presence felt. The Congress declared its first list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state with the party fielding senior leaders including Kaul Singh Thakur, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mukesh Agnihotri, Asha Kumari and Chander Kumar. Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has again been fielded from Shimla Rural. The party has fielded sitting 19 MLAs from their traditional seats in the first list. Election Commission announced the schedule for the assembly election in Himachal Pradesh on Friday. The state will go to the polls on November 12 and the counting of votes will be held on December 8. In the previous election, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 44 seats while Congress won 21 seats. (ANI) The Delhi High Court has dismissed an application seeking impleadment of Elon Musk in a plea concerning the suspension of the Twitter account of a woman with a cost of Rs 25,000. While dismissing the plea, Justice Yashwant Varma said, "The application is thoroughly misconceived. The same is dismissed with a Rs 25,000 cost." The counsel for applicant Dimple Kaul said that he wanted to press this application as Elon Musk is not only the director but also a shareholder in the company. "Are you serious to pursue this application?" Justice Varma asked the counsel. Justice Yashwant Varma said, "The application is thoroughly misconceived. It cannot possibly be disputed that the corporate entity (Twitter) already stands represented. There is no account for the application to be moved. The same is dismissed with Rs 25 thousand cost." Senior advocate Sajan Poovaiya, who appeared on the behalf of Twitter had submitted that the company is duly represented. A plea had been moved to implead Elon Musk as respondent in an ongoing matter related to the suspension of the Twitter account of a woman. Musk took over Twitter last month. This plea was moved on behalf of Dimple Kaul and was listed for hearing before the bench of Justice Yashwant Varma. Kaul's plea was moved through advocate Mukesh Sharma seeking an order allowing the present application by impleading Elon Musk as the Respondent No.3 in the petition. The plea moved on behalf of Dimple Kaul stated that on October 27, 2022, Twitter Inc. has been moved into the private hands of Elon Musk. As of now, shares of the same are also not being traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It was further submitted that Elon Musk has a very different stand on free speech whereby his opinion is that as long as speech does not violate the law of the country in question, the same should not be curtailed by Twitter. Tweets in this regard made from his verified Twitter handle have been annexed with the plea. The plea has provided the addresses where Elon Musk may be served a notice. As well as Twitter handle @elonmusk be served with a copy of the petition on his address, email ID as well as via Twitter handle and he be impleaded as a party to the petition so that his stand can be ascertained, the plea stated. The Delhi High court on January 31 issued a notice to Twitter on Dimple Kaul's petition challenging the suspension of her account. She alleged that the account was suspended without giving any prior warning and any opportunity of being heard. The Petition further said that Twitter performs a public function and is bound by Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000 and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It was further stated that the suspension is in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India as it affects the right to free speech. Petition moved by Dimple Kaul said that her Twitter handle had more than 2,55,000 followers, which was used for posting educational content related to different subjects including literature, women's rights, Indic culture, non-violence, equality, politics and history. (ANI) Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to President Droupadi Murmu alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his minister's foreign visit was not conveyed to him "officially". According to sources from Raj Bhawan, Governor Khan wrote to the President in the second week of October that he was not informed about the chief minister's foreign visit for October first week. This is the recent development on the ongoing tussle between the Kerala Governor and the Chief Minister. Earlier, an October 18 press release from the Chief Minister's Office shared the details of Kerala's official delegation's visit to the European countries which was aimed at advancing the progress of the state. According to the press release, the visit was aimed at increasing cooperation in the fields of study and research, finding new job opportunities for Keralites, helping non-residents, exchanging ideas with the Malayali community and attracting more investors to the state. The group visited Finland, Norway and the UK. On Thursday, Governor Khan had challenged the chief minister stating that he would resign if the latter could show him any one example of his political interference in the appointments of the Vice-Chancellor. "He is saying that I am doing this (action against VCs) to bring RSS people. If I have nominated even one person, not just of RSS, any person, using my authority, then I will resign. Will he (CM) be able to resign if he is not able to prove it?" Khan said addressing the media in the national capital. This came after CM Vijayan lashed out at Khan for seeking the resignation of vice-chancellors of nine universities in the state and said that the Governor was misusing his powers as the Chancellor of varsities. Khan had sought the resignation of VCs of the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kannur University, APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, University of Calicut and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University. CM Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the powers and duties conferred on the Governor by the Constitution are to preserve the dignity of the State, the people and the Constitution. The powers and duties conferred on the Governor by the Constitution are to preserve the dignity of the State, the people and the Constitution," he had said, adding "According to the governor, the appointments of the VCs were made in all these nine universities without following the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules. In all nine universities, the Governor is the appointing authority. If the VC appointments were made illegally, then the primary responsibility lies with the appointing Governor himself. According to the logic of the Governor himself, should the VCs resign? It's good to think about that too." The Chief Minister had further said that Governor or chancellor has no right to remove vice-chancellors and there is no such option in the University Act. (ANI) Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has announced that IPS Sanjay Beniwal will replace the Directorate General of Tihar Jail in connection with the controversies associated with conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. The LG informed about the transfer of DG Prison Sandeep Goel with immediate effect via an official order from the Home Department of the Government of National Capital of Territory of Delhi read. It also stated that IPS Sanjay Beniwal will replace the DG now. In a conversation with ANI, Beniwal said that he is grateful that the government has selected him to play the said role. "It is my fortune that the government has chosen me for this challenging role," he said. The development came days after the conman wrote to the Delhi LG alleging that he was forced to pay Rs 10 crore "protection money" to the Aam Aadmi Party minister Satyendar Jain. In the letter, Sukesh Chandrashekhar stated he had known the AAP leader since 2015 and alleged that he had been receiving threats and was under pressure from Minister Satyendar Jain and DG (Prisons) Sandeep Goel on corruption and extortions. Chandrashekhar in his letter also sought direction to the investigation agency to file a case on a complaint which has been also given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). "I am ready to give all evidence supporting my Complaint against Satyender Jain of AAP. I am also ready to record my 164 Statement before Court and Judge. But the truth has to be out, as I am not able to keep it inside me anymore, I am being harassed, they and their so-called honest government have to be exposed and shown that ever in Jail they are involved high-level corruption," he said in a letter confirmed by his lawyer. In his letter dated last month, Chandrashekar claimed that the AAP promised him an important post in the party in the south zone and also to help him to be nominated to Rajya Sabha following the expansion. "I (Sukesh) have known, Satyender Jain of AAP since 2015, and have contributed more than 50 crores to AAP in the promise of giving me an important post in the party in the south zone and also helping me to be nominated to Rajaya Sabha following the expansion," said Chandrashekhar. He also alleged that Satyendar Jain had visited him in Tihar Jail several times. "After my arrest in 2017 for the two leaf symbol corruption case, I was lodged in Tihar Jail and was visited by Satyender Jain who holds the Portfolio of Jail minister is for multiple times, asking me if I had disclosed anything related to my Contribution to AAP to the investigating agency which arrested me," stated the letter. "Thereafter in 2019 again I was visited by Satyender Jain and his Secretary and his close friend Sushil in Jail, and asking me to pay Rs 2 crores every month to him as protection money to live safely in Jail, and to get even basic facilities provided. Also, he asked me to pay Rs 1.50 crore to DG prison Sandeep Goel. Minister's close aid forced me to pay and the total amount of 10 crores," he added. The conman said that all the amounts were collected in Kolkata through his associate Chatturwedi. "Hence a total amount of Rs 10 crore was paid to Satyender Jain, and Rs 12.50 Crore to DG prison Sandeep Goel," he said. "During the recent investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), I had disclosed about DG prison and also the Racket run by DG and Jail administration, and also filed a writ in the High Court of Delhi seeking CBI inquiry, where the Court issued notice and the matter is scheduled for a hearing next month, as per the letter," Chandrashekhar said. He said that he has disclosed all the amounts paid to Satyender Jain and AAP, and DG prison with the CBI. "Last month during an investigation by CB1/ACB Div-5, I had disclosed all the details of amounts paid to Satyender Jain and AAP, and DG prison. But no action has been still initiated," he said. As now Satyender Jain is lodged in Jail-7, Tihar, he has been threatening me through DG Prison and Jail administration, asking me to withdraw the complaint filed in High Court, I have been severally harassed and threatened," he added. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that Sukesh Chandrashekhar's allegations looks like a completely fictitious story planted to divert attention from the Morbi bridge collapse incident. "Morbi Tragedy occurred the day before yesterday (Monday). All TV channels raised this issue yesterday but it disappeared today and Sukesh Chandrashekhar's allegations appeared. Doesn't this look like a completely fictitious story planted to divert attention from Morbi?" Kejriwal said in a press conference held on Tuesday. (ANI) The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the various actions taken by the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi so far to control increasing air pollution in Delhi NCR, and asked the Chief Secretaries of the four states to be present before it on November 10 for a detailed discussion on the same. "The Chief Secretaries of these States are expected to inform the Commission within a week positively before this discussion about the steps taken by their respective governments to stop the burning of stubble in their regions," NHRC said in an official release. The Commission also asked the states to inform about the effect of smog towers and anti-smog guns as to how many such anti-smog guns are operational and measures planned by the government of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi and the concerned governments in near future. The commission also directed that the states of Punjab and Haryana specifically inform about the effect of the scheme of in-situ management of crop residue in their respective limits. The NHRC issued the directives in consideration of a report and the material on record received from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in response to its notice issued on June 22, 2022, following media reports which claimed that air pollution is a great threat to human health in India, reducing overall life expectancy by 5 years and 9.7 years for the people in Delhi. The MoEF&CC in its report also mentioned several steps being taken by the Centre as well as the State governments to reduce air pollution levels including the implementation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for reducing levels of air pollution in non-attainment cities (NACS) of the country since January 2019. The report also claimed an overall improvement in ambient air quality has been observed in 75 cities and no significant change or increase in 14- cities during 2021-22 has been noted as compared to 2019-2020. However, 18 cities, which were within the prescribed National Ambient Air Quality Standard (PM10 less than 60 ug/m3) in 2019-20, have shown an increase in air pollution in 2021-22. The NHRC in its release said that the measures are taken so far but observed that these are not enough to reduce the pollution level in the NCT of Delhi, and a lot needs to be done to curb the pollution level. Despite several directions from time to time, nothing much has improved and one of the major causes of air pollution in Delhi and the NCR region is crop/stubble burning in the states surrounding NCR, the commission pointed out. With the winter approaching, the NHRC, being the premier human rights body of the country, cannot remain a mute spectator of the situation affecting the human rights of the common citizens, it said. The air quality in Delhi- NCR has not seen the required improvement for a human-friendly environment, which cannot be allowed to remain so perpetually, the commission added. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rachana Reddy on Friday reacted to Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao's video on alleged poaching of TRS MLAs and said that it is nothing but a "ridiculous" attempt of KCR to defame and slander the BJP. "The so-called farmhouse link is an elaborated video of artists just sitting around and speaking dialogues instructed by KCR, where people are just trading names and using top people's names to defame and slander them without any proof," BJP leader Rachana Reddy told ANI. She wondered at KCR's "audacity" of accusing the BJP of buying MLAs while his own record is completely filled with corruption and dubious horse-trading of MLAs, she said. The BJP MLA further said that the BJP will hit and fight back but will not comment on the matter anymore since the issue is "subjudice". "The BJP is going to hit and fight back and is not going to comment anymore because the issue is subjudice, but the irony has not passed BJP because the man who has done horsetrading actually has the goal and audacity to question BJP with no evidence and the claim that the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, along with Telangana are at the risk of horse-trading by BJP," she said. "It is definitely defamation, slandering, and an attempt to deliberately malign, defame and completely destroy the name of BJP," she added further while mentioning that the Telangana CM will get a befitting reply. In her conversation with ANI, Rachana Reddy also called out at West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and asked her to show the evidence of poaching. She dared Banerjee to come forward and extend support to KCR. KCR released the said video on Thursday while reacting to the incident that took place on October 26. "There are troubling situations in the country. Democracy is being killed in the country. I speak with great pain. I can't believe that such evil can exist. Unemployment has increased. The value of the rupee has fallen. The BJP has destroyed the country in all fields," KCR said in a conversation with media persons on Thursday. KCR had also accused BJP of destroying all systems in the country. In the said regard, KCR asserted that a video containing elements of the conspiracy of what the BJP has done to buy the MLAs of his party has been released and added that the videos are being sent to Supreme Court judges as well as the judges of the High Court in all states and their Chief Ministers. He appealed to everyone to save democracy stating that this is the culmination of BJP's anarchy. Speaking about the broker, KCR said, "Ramachandra Bharati, a broker met MLA Rohit Reddy. Then Reddy complained to us and we took it to the home ministry. One cannot lose any more governments to the BJP." The CM also accused Tushar Vellapalli, who contested on a BJP ticket and lost to Congress' Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, of having spoken to TRS MLAs to assure them of the alleged defection deal. He said that the people who came to tempt TRS MLAs recently were not ordinary people. He said that it would be a shock to hear the things said by those who met the MLAs. These people said that they have already overthrown 8 governments in the country. They said that they are ready to overthrow some more governments. CM KCR warned that this is not a simple case. He said that in these videos, the aspects of which government has been overthrown in what manner have also been explained and if these unconstitutional forces are not stopped, it will be a danger to democracy. Notably, the MLAs poaching case in Telangana took a new turn after it emerged on Sunday that the KCR government had withdrawn the general consent earlier given to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The state government issued GO on August 30, 2022, which came to light today. (ANI) Acting on the call, a team from the Tardeo police station was rushed to the spot and a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) van was also scrambled to the scene. The police team scoured a Larsen & Toubro project site near the dargah but found nothing. The police tried to reach the anonymous caller again but his phone was found to be switched off. The city police then sought technical help to ascertain who the caller was and what the purpose behind his call was. The call to the Mumbai Police control room came around 2 pm on November 3, Friday. The sleuths learned that the caller was from Ulhasnagar. The Tardeo Police later put out a statement saying they learned that the caller was mentally ill and undergoing treatment. In a similar incident last year, a man was arrested for making a hoax bomb threat call at Mumbai's Zaveri Bazar. The arrested caller was identified as Dinesh Suttar and was booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after being produced before a local court. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of all the FIRs registered against Naveen Kumar Jindal, former media head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi unit, for his remarks against Prophet Muhammad, to the Delhi Police. A bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh transferred all the FIRs to the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police. The apex court also granted Jindal protection against coercive action for a period of eight weeks to enable him to approach the Delhi High Court for appropriate relief. "Considering the fact that the respective complaints of the FIRs which are sought to be transferred to New Delhi are arising out of the same tweet by the same Twitter handle, and also taking into consideration the order passed by this Court on September 23 in Navika Kumar case, we dispose of the present writ petition with the direction that all FIRs/complaints are ordered to be transferred to the IFSO unit of Delhi Police...," the bench stated in its order. Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra, appearing for the now-expelled BJP leader, relied on the orders passed by the apex court in the cases of former BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma, against whom FIRs were filed following the Prophet Mohammad remarks controversy. The senior counsel requested the apex court to grant Jindal protection against coercive steps, clubbing of FIRs lodged in Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Assam and to transfer of all the FIRs to Delhi Police. Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, appearing on behalf of the investigating agency, agreed to the proposal. Jindal came under the scanner for making certain remarks on Twitter about Prophet Muhammad which triggered protests in the country after which he was expelled. Earlier, the top court gave similar relief to Nupur Sharma and Navika Kumar. (ANI) Dr. Arun Rathod, the resident medical officer (RMO) of the hospital, was taking a walk on the premises near the nursing college building of the hospital when he stumbled upon the tunnel. Seeing a hole on a wall while taking a stroll, Dr Rathod sensed there was a tunnel and informed the authorities. The Archaeological Department of the government-run hospital will prepare a comprehensive report on the discovery and submit it to the local administration. Leela Lal Vora, an accounting staff at the hospital, said the 130-year-old tunnel runs from the delivery ward to the children's ward of the hospital. Earlier, in May, the JJ Hospital had reported the first successful organ donation in the city since the Covid-19 pandemic. The recipient was Reena Bansode, a 43-year-old advocate. She was admitted at the hospital on May 15 and was declared 'brain dead' on May 18 by a team of doctors. The hospital authorities then counselled the patient's relatives about an organ donation and after receiving a positive response, the organ donation procedure was conducted successfully. (ANI) The MoU was signed during a programme held at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati in presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the government informed in a press release. The Assam Chief Minister thanked the company founded by eminent businessman and investor Radhakishan Damani for its CSR contribution of Rs 150 crore for building the college. "We've initiated partnerships in PPP mode so private and public players can participate in the region's development process. I am sure this PPP initiative will go a long way in enhancing medical education and research in the region," Sarma said. Assam Health Minister Keshab Mahanta and other senior officials of the state government and the company were also present on the occasion. Earlier on Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attended the platinum jubilee celebrations of Assam Medical College (AMC) at Dibrugarh. He said this premier institute needs to upgrade itself into a state-of-the-art medical institute with adequate thrust on research to deal with critical diseases. He also said that the state government is keen to facilitate Assam Medical College to transform into a state-of-the-art research institute that deals with new-age ailments. (ANI) The elections for Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will be held on December 4 while the counting of votes will be done on December 7, said Delhi State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev. Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Delhi State Election Commissioner said that the Model code of conduct is implemented in Delhi from today itself. "The issue of notification will be on Nov 7 and will end on Nov 14. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is Nov 19. Voting for the polls will be on December 4 and the results will be announced on December 7," said Vijay Dev. Vijay Dev said that the delimitation process in Delhi has been completed and polling stations have been redrawn. "Now we are prepared for 250 wards in Delhi. The municipal corporation of Delhi has jurisdiction in 68 constituencies. 42 seats are reserved for SCs," he said. The state election commission also announced the number of seats reserved for the scheduled caste women and women of the general category. "Out of those 42 seats for SC, 21 seats will be for SC women. 104 seats will be reserved for women," said Vijay Dev. The total number of civic body poll wards in the national capital was reduced from 272 to 250 following a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday pertaining to the redrawing of wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. After the 'delimitation' of MCD wards by the central government, the total number of wards in the MCD will amount to 250 of which 42 are decided to be reserved. Earlier, the Delhi Congress had questioned the reduction of wards from 272 to 250. The Delhi Congress had also alleged a conspiracy to reduce the representation of the Dalit community in this regard, as the reserved seats have been reduced from 46 to 42. Notably, AAP Delhi raised concerns that there is no equal distribution of population in the delimitation of wards. Aam Aadmi Party leaders had also lodged their objection by meeting the state election officials. It is worth mentioning that the draft of the delimitation was prepared on September 12 itself and it was reviewed till October 3. (ANI) The Karkardooma Court of Delhi ordered the framing of charges against ex-AAP Councilor Tahir Hussain in a money laundering case in connection with the North East Delhi Violence held in February 2020. The Court also dismissed the bail plea of Tahir Hussain in the same case. Court said, "In view of the statutory provisions and the law discussed above, the transactions of Tahir Hussain, as detailed above, in a conspiracy to fraudulently withdraw money from the accounts of certain companies owned or controlled by him through bogus and mala fide transactions with bogus entry operators on the strength of fake bills with him being the beneficiary and with intent putting it to use towards riots." The court further observed that the then-accused Tahir Hussain would be set to be deriving or obtaining property as a result of criminal activity associated with/relatable to the scheduled offence as the proceeds of crime and will be guilty of money laundering. The Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat while ordering for framing of charges said that there is sufficient material on record, prima facie, creating grave suspicion against the accused for framing charge against him and to proceed further with the trial of the case. "Thus, I hold that a charge is framed against the accused Tahir Hussain for the offence under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002," said the Court. The court said that in terms of the contents of the complaint and the accompanying documents and statements, it emerges, prima facie, that accused Tahir Hussain, acting in conspiracy, engaged in money laundering, as stated in the aforesaid paragraphs, under the provisions of PMLA. The proceeds of crime generated in the conspiracy were put to use for riots. Tahir Hussain is an accused and facing several cases in relation to North East Delhi Violence. Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a complaint against him concerning the alleged funding of riots. Advocate N. K. Matta, Special Prosecutor for ED submitted that there is sufficient material on record against the accused and a case of money laundering is made out against him. SPP also argued that there is sufficient evidence and witnesses to the effect that the accused was involved in the funding of riots. He distributed money to other accused persons for riots and procuring weapons. On the other hand, Advocate Rizwan counsel for Tahir Hussain earlier submitted that no case of money laundering was made out against his client. He had argued that the basis of the Enforcement Directorate case is an alleged transaction of Rs. 1.5 crore on fake and bogus invoices. He argued that in the light of the said transaction only a case of GST is made out against him for transactions through fake and bogus invoices. According to the Delhi Police, Tahir Hussain is one of the prime accused in connection with North East Delhi Violence held in February 2020. ED had registered a complaint against him and other accused in the Prevention of Money Laundering ( PMLA) Act. (ANI) Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday lashed out at the Aad Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital, accusing it of 'failing on every front'. Amid the escalating war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP over the fast declining air quality in Delhi, the senior BJP leader claimed that the 'hollow propaganda' of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party had been exposed and the people were saddened by the government's failed promises. Goyal said the people will give a fitting reply to the AAP government's failed promises in the upcoming electoral battles. Buoyed by its resounding mandate in Punjab, the Kejriwal-led party will contest the upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in a bid to extend its national footprint. Speaking to ANI, the union commerce minister said, "Delhi government is failing on every front. The people will give a befitting reply to this. The people of Delhi are saddened by the hollow propaganda." The senior BJP leader claimed that the people in the national capital are determined to bring his party back to power not only at the Centre but also in Delhi in the next Assembly elections. "The people of Delhi have made up their minds to bring the BJP back to power at the Centre and the union territory. We are all set to come back to power," Goyal said. The BJP and the AAP are currently embroiled in a blame game on the worsening air quality in Delhi, which the former has blamed on alleged rising incidents of stubble burning in Punjab. However, the AAP hit back claiming that Punjab was being singled out when other states, including the BJP-ruled Haryana, were also to blame for the prevailing situation. In a joint press conference with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday, Kejriwal said stubble burning was a 'North Indian problem' and the central government needs to step in and find a sustainable solution to the problem. The BJP had earlier accused Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia of corruption in rolling out the new liquor policy. While Sisodia is facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, the new liquor policy has since been rolled back and the old policy restored. The AAP had, however, denied any foul play and accused the BJP-led Centre of a witchhunt against Sisodia. (ANI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated the 'Lakhpati Didi' fair at Survey of India Maidan, Hathibarkala in Dehradun on Friday. The fair is part of an initiative undertaken by the BJP government to empower women in the state. The Rural Development department of the Uttarakhand government has made preparations to make 1.25 lakh women from self-help groups 'lakhpatis' (earning over Rs 1 lakh) by 2025. As part of this initiative, the chief minister launched the 'Lakhpati Didi Yojana' on Friday. According to government officials, by the year 2025, which would coincide with the completion of 25 years of the formation of the state, 1.25 lakh of the 3.67 lakh women belonging to self-help groups will become 'lakhpatis' under a targeted livelihood initiative, as their annual income would cross Rs 1 lakh. Speaking at the event, CM Dhami said, "As part of our 'Vision 2025' initiative, when we celebrate the silver jubilee year of the establishment of our state, we will work to make 1.25 lakh sisters of our state lakhpati didis. The income of each female staff of various groups and departments will be increased to more than Rs 1 lakh per year." Dhami, who returned as chief minister on the back of the BJP's thumping victory in the last Assembly elections in the hill state, had earlier announced that all symbols of the country's colonial history would be removed from Uttrakhand. He said that in line with the ongoing drive across the country to remove all symbols of the nation's colonial history, from the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, a similar initiative would be implemented across the state. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday in an interim order stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order which had put on hold the government's decision to provide 30 per cent reservation to women domiciled in Uttarakhand in State civil services. A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian also issued notice on the Uttarakhand government's plea which challenged the August 24 order of the High Court. The State of Uttarakhand has challenged in the top court the interim order passed by the division bench of the High Court staying the 2006 order of the State of Uttarakhand. The High Court order had come on a petition filed by more than a dozen women candidates from outside the State who were under the unreserved category. The women said they were not allowed to appear for the State services main examination despite securing more marks than the cut-off set for domicile women of the State in the preliminary test held on April 3 this year. The Uttarakhand Public Service Commission had, by way of a notification on August 10, 2021, advertised the Uttarakhand Combined State (Civil)/Pravar Sub-Ordinate Service Examination 2021 and listed 224 vacancies for various posts in about 31 departments. The petitioners contended that the State government did not have the power to provide domicile-based reservation and that the Constitution of India only allowed reservation on the basis of domicile only by a law enacted by the parliament. The petition pointed out that the High Court has not taken into consideration the fact that the government order of 2006 was not challenged for around 15 years. (ANI) The activist reached his residence in Bairad village of the district in bullock cart containing papers to the beating of drums and created a buzz among locals. RTI activist Makhan Dhakad said that he had sought a response through RTI two months back to expose alleged scams in Bairad Nagar Panchayat. When he did not receive the information, he made an appeal to Bhopal and other places. Acting on his appeal, Information Commissioner's office in Bhopal said he should be provided information. "After that I was asked to deposit Rs 25000 for information of 12000 pages. I took the loan and deposited the money. Even after depositing the money, I get incomplete information," the activist said. Dhakad said he reached Bairad Municipal Council office on the bullock cart and took four friends along with him to count the pages. "It took two hours to count the pages," he said. He alleged that officials do not act against wrongdoings in various schemes and he will study the information and move court. Dhakad said he decided to turn the event of getting information into a kind of celebration and reached his home in bullock cart to the beating of drums from the Nagar Panchayat office. (ANI) Badruddin Ajmal has been again elected as the President of All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) during the party's general meeting on Friday. While talking to ANI, after being elected as the President of AIDUF by the party workers and leaders, Ajmal said "AIDUF is ready to join the all-India level opposition alliance to fight against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We have welcomed the all-India grand alliance being formed by Nitish Kumar. We want it to succeed in Assam too. They'll come here in a month. We expect Mamata Banerjee and Congress to join it by then. This has been formed to bid adieu to BJP at the Centre." He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government regarding the Hijab issue and Uniform Civil Code (UCC). "In India, UCC can never be implemented. Everyone has their own culture and no one can be forced to follow a particular culture," he said. While reacting to the Miya Museum issue, he said "there is no issue in it, it is completely a political issue". Miya Parishat recently inaugurated a private Miya Museum at the Dapkarbhita Lakhipur area in Assam's Goalpara district, which erupted in controversy and the indigenous Assamese community sees this as a threat to their identity. The so-called museum showcased traditional agricultural tools, fishing tools, and lungi, among some other artefacts. Reacting to it, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said nothing belongs to the Miya community except a 'Lungi' in the museum and said that the state government would probe the matter. "I don't understand what this museum is. The material which has been placed there belongs to the Assamese people except for Lungi (a piece of cloth). They have placed on Nangol (a tool used to plough land), fishing equipment there, but our scheduled caste people have used these traditional types of equipment for decades and decades. What is new in there except 'Lungi'?" the CM said. Meanwhile, the district administration has sealed the so-called museum citing that the museum was illegally inaugurated in a government-funded PMAY house. Three involved in connection with the museum have been arrested. (ANI) A Special Delhi Court has recently denied bail to Leena Maria Paul, wife of alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekar in connection with a money laundering case worth Rs 200 crore registered by Delhi Police. Another bail application moved by Pradeep Ramdanee has also been dismissed. This case was registered on the complaint of Aditi Singh, wife of Shivinder Singh, one of the accused in the Religare case. Special MCOCA judge Shailendra Malik on Wednesday dismissed both the bail applications after noting that conditions of section 21 (4) are not fulfilled which says that for granting bail, the court is to be satisfied to believe that accused is not guilty of the allegations against him. Advocate Wills Mathews, the counsel appearing for accused Leena Maria Paul said that the applicant has been implicated in the present case only because of the fact that she is the wife of the main accused Sukesh Chandra Shekhar. He also submitted that there is no evidence at all directly implicating the applicant in any alleged incidence of extortion, cheating, collecting money etc. None of the witnesses or in the confession of any of the co-accused, no role has been attributed as against the applicant. It was further submitted that the applicant has been successful in the field of modeling, acting, being a doctor and other business pursuits. "The age of the applicant is reaching upto 40 and she having suffered a miscarriage earlier, wants to become a mother in a legitimate manner and is also suffering from depression while being in custody," He submitted. "The applicant submits that she being a woman has already been the victim of the circumstances because of being the wife of the main accused despite no involvement in the crime," the counsel submitted. He also referred to the order of 2015 of the Mumbai court in another matter granting bail to her taking note of her status as being a woman and having no involvement in the crime. In the other hand advocate Akhand Pratap Singh, Spl. PP for State submitted that the applicant has failed to satisfy the conditions laid down under section 21(4) of the MCOC Act. He submitted while referring to the provision of section 21(1) of the MCC Act that provisions of section 437 Cr.P.C. would not be attracted and therefore applicant cannot seek bail as a matter of right on the ground of being a woman. "Even otherwise on merits, it came in the investigation from analysis of CDR that applicant was in continuous contact with main accused Sukesh through cell phone even when he was in prison," Spl. PP submitted. He also submitted that various bank entries came into her account which was taken in lieu of the cash and there is no explanation from the applicant as to how such a huge amount of money was credited to her account while her husband was in judicial custody. Besides this, the recovery of high-end cars was recovered beside other articles from the search of her house, SPP argued. The Court said in an order of November 2, that in this context, first of all, it is a matter of record that both the accused Leena Paul as well as main accused Sukesh Chandra Shekar has been involved in four other criminal cases registered at Chennai, Mumbai. It is mentioned in the charge sheet that the main accused Sukesh Chandra Shekhar and the applicant have been masterminds in the crime syndicate being run by them to have pecuniary gains. The Court further noted, " Not only there is the involvement of applicant with main accused in different cases including the present one. It came in the investigation of the present case that from analysis of CDR / IPDR it came to the light that the applicant was in continuous contact with the main accused through Cell Phone, while accused Sukesh Chandra Shekhar was in prison. While declining the bail application of Pradeep Ramdani, the Court said," In the present case evidence of recovery of Rs one crore at the trap, note in mirror age of mobile phone of accused/ applicant, as per the statements of the complainant and her sister, recovery of money on numerous occasions by the applicant as well as change of name by the applicant before the complainant and his identification by the complainant, are sufficient evidence for finding that conditions of section 21(4) of MCOC Act have not been fulfilled. Hence bail application stands dismissed. The Court said, " The accused cannot claim that he was not aware that such money was being collected from the complainant on the instruction of accused Sukesh Chandra Shekhar who was in at that time in jail. Besides the apprehension and arrest of the accused in the trap while collecting the money from the complainant, there is evidence showing one handwritten note on July 29 in 2021, mentioning the calculation of a huge amount in the names of different persons which was found in a mirror image of a mobile phone of the applicant, the court added. The court said that it was not only in the present case accused is involved with the main accused Sukesh Chandra Shekhar and his brother Deepak Ramnani, it is also a matter of record that a similar modus operandi was adopted in the case of EOW, which was registered on the complaint of the wife of Malvinder Mohan Singh. "In that case also money was collected from the complainant by making a call on her mobile phone by spoof call using App to show that call is being received from the landline number of the Ministry of Law, Government of India for helping the husband of the complainant to wriggle out from the criminal proceedings and in lieu of that money was demanded for party fund of BJP and complainant paid Rs 3.5 crores from the account of her daughter into a firm account in Hong Kong," the court added. (ANI) Officials in the district health department also admitted the increase as a large number of people suffering from fever and other symptoms could be seen standing at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital for sampling on Friday. People could be seen standing in long queues at the hospital waiting for their turn to give samples and collect test reports. "In all 44 people are admitted to hospital for fever and related symptoms of dengue, and 21 of them have tested positive," Dr Anand Kumar Ojha, the director of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital told ANI. Dr Ojha admitted the increase in dengue cases and said that people need to take precautions due to the prevalence of other infections too. People with symptoms are advised to get themselves tested, and consult with doctors, he added. (ANI) People suffering from breathing-related problems in Ludhiana saw an increase of 20% amid worsening air quality due to rising cases of stubble burning in the state. While talking to ANI, the locals and the farmers blamed the government for the rising cases of stubble burning and also said that they are against any government action against the farmers. MD Medicine, Ludhiana Civil Hospital, Dr Amanpreet Kaur, said the breathing-related problems increase during this time every year. "Every year during this time, the number of people suffering from breathing problems increases. It happens due to the rise in viral diseases during this time. The stubble-burning, smoke from Diwali celebrations worsens the air quality and it affects those suffering from TB, asthma and those with smoking habits. This year also, there has been a 20-30% rise in the cases of patients with breathing issues," she said. BKU Ugrahaan District President, Gurpreet Singh Noorpura told ANI that the farmers will protest against the government if the government takes any action against the farmers. "The prices of crops are very less, while the cost of diesel, medicines and DAP is very high. The farmers are not able to save and the burden of loans is increasing. The farmers had even protested outside the Chief Minister's residence in Sangrur. The government also promised to provide the farmers with compensation worth Rs 2,500 per acre and a Rs 200 bonus, but nothing happened. Neither they made arrangements to purchase the stubble. It doesn't leave small farmers with any other option. After this, if the government takes any step like 'Red Entry' of farmers, we will protest and 'gherao' against the government," he said. Stubble burning continued unabated in Punjab with the state reporting nearly 24,000 such cases so far, an official said on Friday. The incidents of stubble burning have seen a rise in parts of Punjab this year in comparison to last year. However, the area of fields burnt has witnessed a drop of 1 per cent so far. Speaking to ANI over the phone, Senior Environmental Engineer of Punjab Pollution Control Board, Gurbakhshish Singh Gill said that 1,144 incidents of stubble burning have taken place in the state till Thursday and 24,146 such incidents in Punjab. "We are working in coordination with the government. Efforts are on. Farmers are being sensitised. Our teams are monitoring the situation. We are hopeful of the situation being in our control this time," he said earlier on Thursday. He attributed various factors to the deterioration in the Air Quality Index (AQI)."There are various factors responsible for the deteriorating AQI. Stubble burning is one of them, other is Diwali, transportation and other atmospheric conditions," he said. Speaking to ANI on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Showkat Ahmad Parray said, "Nearly 1,200 incidents have been reported till now. Last year, it was nearly 900 which has increased this time. But the data that comes to us is not right in itself because there is some period during which the satellite does not capture the incidents. So if there is stubble burning taking place during that period, such incidents are not reported to us," he said. (ANI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against six accused in the case related to the seizure of arms, ammunition and explosives at Bastara toll plaza in Haryana's Madhuban, the agency said. The agency filed the chargesheet on October 31 pertaining to the recovery of three Improvised Explosive Device (IED), one pistol with two magazines, 31 rounds of live cartridges and Rs 1.30 lakh cash on May 5 from Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, Amandeep Singh alias Deepa, Parminder Singh alias Pinder and Bhupinder Singh. These accused were going to deliver the consignment by keeping it in a specially designed cavity in their SUV to Adilabad, Telangana, said the NIA. Those named in the charge sheet are Gurpreet Singh, Amandeep Singh, Parminder Singh, Bhopinder Singh, Rajbir Singh, and Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda. During the investigation, NIA said it is revealed that the explosives, arms and ammunition were sent by terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda of the proscribed terrorist organization 'Babbar Khalsa International' from Pakistan through drones into the Indian territory for executing terrorist acts in Punjab. NIA said Rinda was carrying out the delivery of arms, ammunition and explosives into Indian Territory through drones to his India-based associates for carrying out terrorist attacks in different parts of India. The case was initially registered on May 5 at Madhuban police station in Haryana under section 13, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substance Act 1908 and Section 25 of Indian Arms Act and re-registered by the NIA on May 24. (ANI) As per the visuals, he was welcomed by hundreds of BJP workers. Earlier on Wednesday, he urged voters to form a BJP government in the state again. "Mitti Ka Haq Ada Karna Hoga," (People of the state have to pay back to their land), Nadda had said. The BJP chief was addressing a public rally at Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh ahead of the state polls. Hitting out at former Prime Ministers, Nadda said, "It has been 75 years of independence. Who used to care about us? At that time, Prime Minister used to come here for political tourism in the summer season- never caring about or worrying about the state." "Today, PM Modi stands with you whenever called," he added. Mentioning the issue of misconceptions spread ahead of elections, Nadda at the rally said, "A web of misconceptions is spread as elections approach. Quite often we get tangled in this web and due to this we divert from the main issues." Earlier on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a public gathering in the Bhatiyat constituency of Himachal Pradesh's Chamba. Shah emphasised the government's developmental initiatives taken up earlier. "We have set up a medical park in Nalagarh which will give jobs to 10,000 people. We've also built the Atal tunnel that'll promote tourism," he said. Himachal Pradesh is all set to go to polls on November 12, the results of which will be declared on December 8. (ANI) As the air quality deteriorated in Delhi-NCR, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said that stubble burning is not a political issue and asked state governments to work together to curb it. "Proper management of paddy stubble is the collective responsibility of all to prevent pollution. Concerned State Governments- Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and Delhi were provided more than Rs 3 thousand crore for stubble management by the Centre," he said adding that Punjab was allocated the maximum fund of about Rs 14, 500 crores, while Haryana got Rs 900 crores, UP Rs 713 crores and 6 Crore rupees to Delhi. Out of this, about one thousand crore rupees are left with the states including Rs 491 crore with Punjab alone. The minister said that the PUSA decomposer, developed by the agri-research body ICAR, is effective in controlling stubble burning, and appealed to state governments as well as farmers to make use of more such machines. Notably, Under the guidance of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the Pusa Decomposer developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) for efficient management of paddy stubble with the aim of better and optimum utilization by the farmers was held in Pusa, Delhi today. Tomar said that more important than a political discussion on paddy straw is to discuss its management and how to get rid of it. "The problem of stubble burning is serious and on this issue levelling allegations and counter-allegations are not justified. Be it the Central or State governments or farmers, everyone has the same objective that agriculture should flourish in the country and there is prosperity for farmers," he said addressing a day-long event on 'Pusa decomposer'. He further said that a comprehensive solution to this problem is possible with the optimum utilization of 2.07 lakh machines made available to the states for stubble management with the assistance provided by the Centre. "The technology of decomposer has been transferred by Pusa Institute to other companies including UPL, through which it is being produced and made available to the farmers. Through these, the use and demonstration of Pusa Decomposer in the last 3 years have been done in Uttar Pradesh in 26 lakh acres, 5 lakh acres in Punjab, 3.5 lakh acres in Haryana and 10 thousand acres in Delhi, which have yielded very good results. This decomposer is cheap and easily available across the country," the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday remarked that pollution is not Delhi's but North India's problem, urging the Centre to take specific steps to relieve the region from the problem. Kejriwal also said that the Delhi government is mulling whether the odd-even scheme for vehicles should be implemented. He went on to announce that the primary schools in Delhi will be shut from Saturday onwards till the pollution situation in the National capital improves. (ANI) South Korean tech giant Samsung is preparing to announce an unprecedented 8K resolution version of its Odyssey Neo G9 monitor, AMD recently revealed at its RDNA 3 GPU event. According to The Verge, the upcoming successor will feature DisplayPort 2.1, but that's the only other thing that is currently known. AMD says more details regarding the massive curved screen will be unveiled at CES 2023 in January. Although the 32:9 aspect ratio of these monitors implies the screen won't be a true 8K resolution--for comparison, the '5K' Odyssey G9 has a height of only 1440 pixels in addition to its 5,120 pixels of width--it would probably represent a significant boost in the vertical dimension, reported The Verge. Nowadays, true 4K, 16:9 displays have a vertical resolution of 2,160 pixels, but a 32:9 '8K' monitor should do better. At 8,000 pixels wide and 32:9, there should be a height of 2,250 pixels, so users should get 4K quality or better in that dimension. However, the final specs of the monitor will only be out when Samsung debuts it. Also, the upcoming monitor will come with a hefty price tag as the Neo G9 debuted at USD 2,500, compared to the USD 1,480 price of the original, as per The Verge. (ANI) Anwar Hussain, a resident of Mangolpuri, has been arrested by anti-gang squad from West Vinod Nagar in Mandawali after a tip-off, Special Commissioner of Police Crime Branch Ravindra Singh Yadav said. He was absconding in a murder case since 2010 and was declared a proclaimed offender a year later. Anwar along with his maternal uncle namely Hussain and Arif and Mukesh Bhatt, killed one Rohit in the area of Mangolpuri police station in 2010. Anwar fled the spot and was evading arrest since then. Anwar disclosed that just after committing the murder, he left Delhi and shifted to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh at his aunt's house and worked there as a helper in a transport agency. After five years, he came back to Delhi and started working in an electronics showroom in West Vinod Nagar, Delhi and used to live alone in that area. (ANI) Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal on Friday called for enhancing bilateral trade and deepening cultural relations between India and the Kyrgyz Republic. He was addressing the 10th Session of the India-Kyrgyz Republic Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation (IKIGC), an official statement said. The 10th session of IKIGC was held in a virtual format. It was co-chaired by Piyush Goyal and Imanov Talantbek Oruskulovich, Minister of Digital Development of the Kyrgyz Republic. The talks were held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Goyal noted that India and the Kyrgyz Republic shared warm and friendly ties. He said that India was among the first Nations to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Kyrgyz Republic in March 1992 and observed that 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relationships between the two nations. The Minister said that the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2019 had raised the relationship between two nations to the level of strategic partnership. The Minister pointed out that there was immense potential for expansion of bilateral trade between India and Kyrgyzstan. He said that India was very enthusiastic about participating in trade shows and exhibitions in Kyrgyztan and invited Kyrgyztan to take part in trade expos in India* Both sides discussed mutual cooperation and steps to further enhance them in the fields of Trade & Economy, Development Partnership, Investment, Digitalization, Intellectual Property, Agriculture, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Education, Environment, Standardization & Metrology, Banking, Transport, Labour, Mining and Power sectors. Emphasis was given to increase the bilateral trade and investment opportunities. The sides agreed to take necessary measures to increase the interaction of exporters and importers of the two countries and expand the trading basket. A Protocol of the 10th session of the IKIGC was signed between India and the Kyrgyz Republic. Both the sides agreed to hold the 11th session of the IKIGC on a mutually convenient date. (ANI) A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to Anshar who is one of the main accused in the Jahangirpuri communal violence case. He had been in custody since April 17, 2022. The court granted the relief in view of his custody as the investigation is completed, and some other accused have also been granted bail. Communal violence erupted in the Jahangirpuri area during a procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti on April 16, 2022. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar of Rohini District court granted bail to accused Anshar alias Ansar alias Mohd Ansar. He has been granted bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with one surety of the like amount. The court said that the investigation of the accused has already been completed and a chargesheet has already been filed. The same has also been committed to this court for trial. It will take a long time to conclude the trial and no purpose would be served to keep the accused in judicial custody, the court added. The court further said that some of the co-accused have been granted bail by the Delhi High Court and some of the co-accused have been granted bail by this court. Advocate Satnarain Sharma counsel for the accused argued that the accused has nothing to do with the alleged offence and that the local police have falsely implicated the accused in the present case just to sort out their case. The accused is in judicial custody since April 17. The investigation qua the accused has already been completed, the counsel submitted. It had also been argued that the complete case as alleged in the chargesheet against the accused is that he was actively involved in the commission of the offence and was a member of the unlawful assembly of the riot that happened on April 17. The entire case of the prosecution is based upon the CCTV footage and there are around 50 accused in the present case it would take a long time to conclude the trial and make a submission that the accused may be released on bail, the counsel submitted. On the other hand, the bail application was strongly opposed by the state. In this case charge sheet has been filed against 50 accused. The case is at present at the stage of framing of charges. (ANI) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday targeted Congress by saying 'Congress ka haath, Mafia-Aatankiyon ke Saath', and further claimed that Himachal Pradesh may become a 'haven' for the mafias escaping from Uttar Pradesh if a 'weak' government is formed in the state. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister held three election rallies (Jawali, Jwalamukhi and Ghumarwim assembly constituencies) in Kangra and Bilaspur districts of Himachal Pradesh, the government informed in a press release. While addressing an election rally for BJP's candidate Sanjay Guleria in Jawali assembly seat of district Kangra, Yogi Adityanath said, "Our government is continuously running a campaign against the mafia in Uttar Pradesh. If a weak government like Congress comes to Himachal Pradesh, the mafia fleeing from UP would come here for a hideout and destroy the tranquility of this 'devbhoomi'." "I have come to appeal to all of you that we need a government that acts swiftly and decisively when it comes to issues of nationalism and development, and that the BJP will provide that, he stated." Yogi Adityanath said it was only under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India could fight with coronavirus. "India made all efforts to save lives and livelihoods of people during the Covid-19 pandemic. Free tests, free treatment and free vaccines were made available to 135 crore Indians while 80 crores got free ration," he said. Simultaneously, the UP CM also took a dig at the Congress party saying, "Had it been the Congress government, they would have gulped everything themselves." The CM went on to say that in the last 5 years, Himachal Pradesh has witnessed new heights of infrastructure development under the leadership of Jai Ram Thakur. "Even during the regime of Prem Kumar Dhumal, several welfare schemes were implemented. Medical colleges, AIIMS were established in every district. Har Ghar Jal Yojana was implemented. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, everyone got the benefit of development without discrimination," he further said. Stating that the Modi government has paved the way for a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Yogi Adityanath said, "Congress ruled the country for 55 years and the Ram Mandir was not built in Ayodhya because it was not their intention due to the politics of appeasement. All that mattered to them was their vote bank. The grand temple being built in Ayodhya is going to be the largest and the National Temple of India." "The abode of Baba Vishwanath in Kashi has been renovated again. Visit Mathura-Vrindavan to witness how magnificently the work has been completed. PM Modi has also inaugurated the Mahakal corridor. That is respect for heritage. The BJP government has always respected the faith of people," he added. Yogi Adityanath further said under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi no enemy has the courage to raise an eye on India and if they do so, the brave youths of Himachal have enough potential to give them back, that's the power of "New India". Taking a jibe at Congress, Yogi said, "Out of 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Congress has won only two seats. When a person dies, at least four people are needed to give shoulder to the dead body. Congress was unable to secure 4 seats." Yogi Adityanath addressed another election rally at Jwalamukhi in Kangra for BJP candidate Ravindra Singh 'Ravi', where he said that Modi had made India the fifth largest economy of the world. New India is touching new heights of development and prosperity under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. The status of India is rising on the global stage. Taking a swipe at Congress, Yogi said, "India has entered the 5G era under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi.When Congress was in power, there was a 2G scam." Stating that the Congress party always divided the country, Yogi remarked: "Since 1952, during the time of Jana Sangh, a slogan was coined, 'Ek desh mein do Vidhan aur do Nishan nahi chalenge' (There cannot be two Constitutions, and two flags in one nation). Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee sacrificed his life for the unity of the nation. Congress inserted Article 370 in Kashmir while Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed it in one stroke." Addressing rally for BJP's candidate Rajinder Garg in Ghumarwin assembly seat of district Bilaspur, the CM said that terrorism has been eradicated from the nation while infrastructure development has reached new heights in the last 8 years, the press statement said. (ANI) A Delhi court on Friday granted interim bail to jailed wrestler Sushil Kumar for the surgery of his wife who is suffering from lower back pain. Sushil Kumar is one of the 18 accused in the Sagar Dhankar murder case. The surgery is scheduled on November 7. The court has directed the deployment of two security personnel for surveillance and his security also. Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand granted interim bail to Sushil Kumar till November 12 in furnishing a personal bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties in the like amount. The court has imposed many strict conditions while granting bail. The court said, "Keeping in view the medical condition of the wife of the accused and also considering the fact that there are two minor children, this Court is of the view that the presence of the applicant/accused will be required, he is ordered to be released on interim bail till November 12 on his furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties in the like amount." The court directed him to surrender before the concerned Jail Superintendent after the expiry of the interim bail period i.e. on November 13. Keeping in view the threat perception of the witnesses and also considering the safety and security of the accused himself at least two security personnel shall be present with him round the clock to keep vigil over the accused, the court ordered on Friday. "As deploying two security personnel would incur additional expenditure on the concerned authority, it is directed that amount of Rs 10,000 per day will be borne by the accused for the deployment of security persons/policemen for keeping surveillance over the activities of the accused and also for the security of the accused," the court said. The amount of Rs 10,000 per day to be deposited with the Jail Superintendent concerned in advance. He is further directed not to threaten the prosecution witnesses or tamper with evidence or indulge in any crime. The court said that accused shall share his phone's live location as and when required by the IO. In case, it is prima facie brought to the notice of the Court that the applicant/accused is violating the said conditions, the interim bail granted to him shall be liable to be cancelled. It was submitted by the counsel for Sushil Kumar that during treatment, the wife of the accused had been advised operation on 10 August 2022 but the same could not be conducted. Similarly, on September 19 this year, a reference for surgery was also made by Acharya Shree Bhikshu Government Hospital, Moti Nagar, Delhi. The latest medical document of the wife of the applicant dated November 1 mentions that surgery is to be conducted on coming Monday. The medical history of the applicant reveals that she has been suffering from acute lower back pain and the same could not be got operated, the bail plea submitted. The submission of counsel for the accused that though there are other family members her operation could not be conducted as her husband who is accused in this case was not there and another person did not take it seriously seems justified as the first operation was prescribed on 10 August 2022 yet she could not be operated and in the meantime, her condition has deteriorated. It was submitted by counsel that the present application is being filed on behalf of the applicant purely on medical and humanitarian grounds. He further submitted that wife of the applicant namely Mrs Savi is suffering from severe lower back pain for a long and at different intervals. He has further submitted that somewhere in the second week of August 2021, she had acute Neck and Spinal pain and there was restricted neck movement the doctor has advised certain medicines and exercises to the wife of the applicant. It was also submitted by counsel that in the third week of February 2022 the wife of the applicant again had severe lower backache and the doctor has advised certain medications and an MRI of the Dorsolumbar Spine. It is further submitted by counsel that the lower back pain of the wife of the applicant got so aggravated that she was not even able to move without support. On the court on October 15 had framed charges and ordered a trial against Sushil Kumar and other accused for murder and other charges in the Sagar Dhankar murder and abduction case. (ANI) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will celebrate his association with Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College on Saturday on the occassion of its Golden Jubilee. "Before the establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur, the BRD Medical College has been the only major center for the treatment of about 60 million people in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the Terai of neighboring Nepal," the official statement said. "The medical college, which was in a dilapidated condition due to the neglectful attitude of the previous governments, has now emerged as a big center of trust among the people of Purvanchal in terms of medical facilities in the last five and a half years," it read. The government accused the previous government of the state for the bad condition of the hospital. "The previous governments never kept this center in their priority according to its importance. As a result, this medical college, which was responsible for the treatment of crores of people, started looking like itself sick due to lack of timely resources. When its plight began to reach its peak in the second half of the nineties, it was first taken seriously," it claimed. "There was no such session of Parliament since becoming an MP until he became Chief Minister in March 2017 when Yogi did not break the government's sleep over the problems of BRD Medical College. Sometimes due to lack of resources, sometimes encephalitis and sometimes due to the crisis of recognition, Yogi became the loud voice of the people of the eastern north in the country's house," said the state government. (ANI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has attacked the AAP government in Punjab over the law and order situation in the state after a Shiv Sena leader was shot dead in Amritsar on Friday. Badal said that "there is no such thing as a government in Punjab" while attacking the government. "Shiromani Akali Dal has always stood for peace and communal harmony and that remained the top priority of Sardar Parkash Singh Badal-led govts since 1997. Today's incident in Amritsar is yet another reminder that there is no such thing as a govt in Punjab," he said. He further said that there is a collapse of law and order and appealed to the Punjab government to preserve peace in the state. "There is an absolute collapse of will to govern, maintain peace, law and order and to ensure safety and security of life & property of people. Violence in any form is highly condemnable. Those in charge of running the state must not take peace & communal harmony in Punjab for granted," he said. "I appeal to them to find time from their politicking to attend to the sensitive and most crucial task of preserving peace. I appeal to the people and to all political parties to join hands for a united initiative to save Punjab and Punjabis from any conspiracy to set the state ablaze," he said further. Earlier today, a Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri died after being shot at in Amritsar. The firing took place near Gopal Mandir in Amritsar during an agitation. Soon after the incident, Suri was rushed to a hospital where he died. Police arrived at the spot and arrested the accused. Police also recovered the weapons. "Sudhir Suri was shot outside Gopal Mandir, Amritsar during some agitation. He sustained bullet injuries and was rushed to hospital and died. The accused has been arrested. His weapons are recovered," Arun Pal Singh, Commissioner of Police, Amritsar said. (ANI) The West Bengal government on Friday informed the Calcutta High Court that it has moved the Supreme Court against the high court's earlier decision directing the state government to pay to dearness allowances (DA) arrears to the state government employees within three months, the deadline for which has already expired. The matter is likely to come up for hearing at the Supreme Court on November 7. Incidentally, Friday was the deadline for state Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi and Finance Secretary Manoj Pant to file an affidavit in the high court, explaining why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for not honouring its judgement directing the state government to clear DA arrears by August 19. On May 20, the high court's division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta had directed the state government to pay the arrears within the next three months. However, after the deadline for the same expired, a contempt of court petition was filed at the same division bench against the state government. On September 22, the bench asked the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary to file affidavits by November 4 on why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them. Reacting on the development, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said that since the beginning, it was clear that the state government is not in a financial position to pay the DA. "So, they have moved the Supreme Court and I feel that the state government will be defeated there as well as it had in the Calcutta High Court and before that at the State Administrative Tribunal," he said. Till the time the report was filed there was no reaction from the ruling Trinamool Congress on this count. Already, the Confederation of State Government Employees too filed a caveat in the apex court for making it party in any case filed by the state government. --IANS src/vd ( 338 Words) 2022-11-04-19:30:05 (IANS) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is expected to make a state visit to India on his way to Indonesia for attending the G20 Summit in Bali on November 15 and 16. The India visit of Salman is expected as he had been invited for the same by Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar last month. The Saudi Crown Prince and Indian Prime Minister may discuss deepening their existing partnership in the areas of energy, investment and security. The Crown Prince has emerged as an undisputed leader in the Saudi Kingdom. He has ushered in several reforms when the country is standing at the cusp of transformative changes in society and economy. The Prince is expected to take Saudi-India cooperation to a new height as the Saudi economy is diversifying and seeking a new vision for creating a modern state. The Prince Salman is considered as a reformist and was instrumental in promotion of modernisation of Saudi Arabia, keeping the traditional and cultural values intact. The Prince is applauded for his initiative called the Saudi Vision 2030 programme which is a strategic framework to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism. Key goals include reinforcing economic and investment activities, increasing non-oil international trade, and promoting a softer and more secular image of the Kingdom. It is the desire of the Prince to give momentum to this initiative that is looking up to cooperation with emerging economies like India. One of the important components of the Saudi Vision 2030 is to create a thriving economy by increasing employment, women participation in the workforce, enhancing international competitiveness, setting up a Public Investment Fund (PIF), attracting foreign direct investment, and promoting non-oil exports. India could be a very important partner for the Saudi Arabia to realise its Vision 2030. For India, cooperation with Saudi Arabia is important for several reasons. It is an important trade partner of India with bilateral trade rising to USD 27.48 billion in the financial year 2017-18, up from USD 25.1 billion in the preceding year. Since then the bilateral trade has continued to increase in an uninterrupted fashion. Saudi Arabia is India's fourth largest trade partner (after USA, China and UAE) and a major source of energy as India imports around 18 per cent of its crude oil requirement and 22 per cent of its LPG requirement from the Kingdom. In FY 2021-22, bilateral trade was valued at USD 42.8 billion. During the period, India's imports from Saudi Arabia reached USD 34.01 billion and exports to Saudi Arabia were worth USD 8.76 billion registering an increase of 49.5 per cent over the previous year. Trade with Saudi Arabia accounted for 4.14 per cent of India's total trade in FY 2021-22. Even the Covid-19 pandemic did not affect the trade much between the two countries. Major commodities of export from India to Saudi Arabia include engineering goods, rice, petroleum products, chemicals, textiles, food products, ceramic tiles. Whereas, major commodities of import for India from Saudi Arabia are crude oil, LPG, fertilizers, chemicals, plastic and products thereof etc. Still there is a huge scope and potential for India to export in Saudi Arabia. Apart from trade relations, the two countries have substantial investment interest in each other's economy. Saudi Arabia is the 17th largest investor in India with investments amounting to USD 3.13 billion (March 2021). Major investments include PIF's investments in Reliance Jio Platforms (USD1.5 billion to acquire a 2.32 per cent stake) and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (USD1.3 billion to acquire a 2.04 per cent stake). On the other hand, Indian investments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have spiked in the recent years and have crossed USD 2 Billion. These investments are dispersed in diverse sectors such as management and consultancy services, construction projects, telecommunications, information technology, financial services and software development, pharmaceuticals, etc. Major Indian companies and corporate groups such as L&T, Tata, Wipro, TCS, TCIL, Shapoorji & Pallonji, Air India, Go Air, Indigo, and Spice Jet etc have established a robust presence in Saudi Arabia. There is a vast scope of cooperation between the two countries in their respective spheres of comparative advantages and the spheres which enhance mutual benefits. Saudi Arabia's Cooperation with India may go a long way to help give momentum to its National Transformation Programme to reach the ultimate goals of Vision 2030 while the former could be a reliable partner for energy security of India and an important market for exports given a vast array of commodities and services that India could offer at competitive prices. There is already a deep appreciation between the two countries about the huge potential for cooperation. During his visit to India in February 2019, Saudi Crown Prince had announced that the Kingdom would be investing USD 100 billion in India in diversified sectors such as energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining, manufacturing, education and health in the forthcoming years. In this reference, Ministry of Finance signed an MoU with the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources in February 2019 to invest in India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIF). India could be a partner for Saudi Arabia in modernisation of its human resources in telecommunications and Information Technology services apart from agriculture and biotechnology. Technological education is another area where India could be a partner. All these areas of cooperation would go a long way in enhancing cooperation between the two countries and it would be a win-win situation. Meanwhile, India is keenly pursuing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising six countries in the Gulf region - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The Framework Agreement of 2004 in this regard provided that both the parties shall consider ways and means for extending and liberalising the trade relations and also for initiating discussions on the feasibility of a FTA between them. Saudi Arabia as an important trade partner of India and an influential country in the region could help expediting the conclusion of the FTA with GCC. --IANS uk/ ( 1035 Words) 2022-11-04-19:36:05 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to be attend the meeting in which party President J.P. Nadda, General Secretary B.L. Santhosh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, among others, will be present. As the Election Commission announced the Gujarat Assembly poll schedule, parties are rushing to finalise the names of the candidates. Polling is scheduled for December 1 and 5 and counting will be on December 8. --IANS deepika/vd ( 122 Words) 2022-11-04-19:44:07 (IANS) After more than 30 years, Gujarat is all set to witness a three-cornered contest in the forthcoming Assembly elections to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. This was revealed by an exclusive CVoter-ABP Gujarat Opinion Poll to gauge popular perceptions and voting intent of adult citizens in the state with a sample size of 22,807 spread across all the 182 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat using random sampling techniques. As per the poll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has emerged as a formidable force in the state and is projected to gather a vote share of more than 20 per cent in the forthcoming elections. This makes the Gujarat Assembly elections a three-cornered contest like what was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh during the last three decades before popular support for the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) collapsed in the 2022 Assembly elections. The last time Gujarat witnessed a similar three-cornered contest was in 1990. In that election, the erstwhile Janata Dal had polled almost 30 per cent the vote share while the Congress' vote share had slumped to 31 per cent. An ascendant BJP had then polled about 27 per cent of the vote share. The popular sentiment in Gujarat that is leaning towards a three-cornered contest will inflict maximum damage on the Congress, just as it had done in 1990. According to the projections made by the opinion poll, the vote share of Congress is expected to crash by 12.5 per cent to 29.1 per cent this time, as compared to the 2017 Assembly elections. In 2017, the Congress had given a close fight to the BJP in a bipolar contest by winning 77 seats in the 182-member state Assembly. But the change from a bipolar to a three-cornered contest would hurt the Congress as it is projected to win between 31 and 39 seats this time. Gujarat will go to the polls in two phases on December 1 and 5. The results will be declared, along with that of Himachal Pradesh, on December 8. --IANS san/arm ( 352 Words) 2022-11-04-20:32:04 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday issued a slew of directions for payment of compensation to the families of victims in the 1992-93 Mumbai communal riots and also for the revival of dormant cases, by constitution of a special cell, in connection with absconding accused. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S. Oka, and Vikram Nath noted that Article 21 of the Constitution of India confers a right on every citizen to live with human dignity and it encompasses into itself the right to live a meaningful and dignified life. "If the citizens are forced to live in an atmosphere of communal tension, it affects their right to life guaranteed by Article 21. The violence witnessed by Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 adversely affected the right of the residents of the affected areas to lead dignified and meaningful life. It cannot be disputed that certain groups were responsible for the large-scale violence in December 1992 and January 1993," it said. Justice Oka, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said one of the root causes of their suffering was the failure of the state government to maintain law and order. Therefore, the affected persons had a right to seek compensation from the state government, he added. During the hearing, the bench had asked the state government whether 168 people, on the missing list, were included among the 900 identified victims. The Maharashtra government had provided Rs 2 lakh compensation to the riot victims and it was paid to their legal heirs. The bench noted that although 168 persons were reported to be missing after the riots, the state government told the court that it could pay compensation to only the families of 60 missing persons, as the legal heirs of the others could not be traced. "The state government will also place material regarding efforts made to trace family members of 108 missing persons who have been deprived of compensationa... the state government shall make all possible efforts to trace the legal heirs/family members of the missing persons," it said. The top court said the state government would provide details of 97 cases on dormant files to the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court within one month from Friday. It added that on receipt of the details, the high court should issue necessary communication to the courts concerned in which the cases are pending to take necessary steps to trace the accused. "The state government shall immediately constitute a special cell to trace the absconding/missing accused in these cases and to assist the concerned courts so that the trial can proceed against them," it said. "The state government shall pay compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the legal heirs of the missing persons traced out hereafter, with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from 22nd January 1999 i.e. from the expiry of the period of six months from the date of the second government resolution, till actual payment." The top court also constituted a committee headed by the Member-Secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) to monitor the implementation of the directions issued in the judgment. "The state government shall appoint a revenue officer, not below the rank of Deputy Collector, and a police officer, not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, who shall be the other two members of the Committee," it added. The bench added that the committee shall monitor the efforts of the state government to trace other victims who were entitled to compensation. "The victims identified hereafter shall also be paid the compensation with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from 8th January 1994 i.e. from the expiry of the period of six months from the date of the first government resolution, till actual payment," said the bench. The top court said the state government should comply with the requirement of submitting necessary details to the committee within a period of two months from Friday. "The entire exercise of payment of compensation and/or interest shall be completed by the state government within a period of nine months from today," said the bench. The top court passed these directions while disposing of a writ petition filed by Shakeel Ahmed in 2001 seeking implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report, which was constituted by the Maharashtra government to probe into the riots. --IANS ss/vd ( 753 Words) 2022-11-04-21:10:04 (IANS) Sharing the plan, ADGP, Law and Order, Jitendra Singh Gangwar, said that 92 dedicated teams have been constituted for the purpose of tackling the criminals. "The special unit will be only dedicated to keeping an eye on criminals, gangsters, and history sheeters and put them behind the bars. We have given the list to the dedicated team to work on it and arrest the criminals as soon as possible," he "The special dedicated team will have only one responsibility - to deal with criminals. We will not place an additional burden of other police jobs," he added. The ADGP said that the team will be deployed according to the numbers of criminals and their activities, and the maximum teams will be deployed in state capital Patna. "One dedicated team will be deployed in one district and it will be increased if the crime graph rises in the particular district," Gangwar said. --IANS ajk/vd ( 179 Words) 2022-11-04-21:16:02 (IANS) Sumit Kumar Singh was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 1,70,000 and Daya Ram to three years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 1,70,000. Both the accused were convicted under Sections 120B, 201, 461, 454 and 380 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code besides section 66F(1)(B) of Information Technology Act. The case pertains to the criminal trespass and theft of critical computer hardware components, including processors, RAMs and solid state drives installed on computer systems aboard Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Kochi, between July and September, 2019, thereby causing damage to sensitive defence infrastructure with the intention of threatening the security of India. The case was initially registered at Ernakulam Town South Police Station in Kochi in 2019 and later on, the probe of the matter was taken over by the NIA. The NIA investigators recovered one of the stolen SSDs and a RAM during search at the house of Sumit Kuman Singh in Bihar's Munger district. Investigations revealed that the accused had sold one of the stolen processors. All remaining items, reported to be stolen, were recovered from Gujarat's Surat, where he had stayed for two months, after leaving Kochi in September 2019. --IANS atk/vd ( 254 Words) 2022-11-04-21:56:05 (IANS) A novel sewage treatment system may successfully convert residual sludge to biogas. This development has the potential to help cities reduce waste treatment expenses while also benefiting the environment. Reporting in the journal, Waste Management, a Washington State University research team tested a pretreatment technology, adding an extra step to typical treatments and using oxygen-containing high-pressure steam to break down sewage sludge. They found that they were able to convert more than 85 per cent of the organic material to biogas, which can be used to produce electricity or upgraded to renewable natural gas (RNG) for the natural gas grid or for local use. Adding the new pretreatment step improves the anaerobic conversion of sewage sludge at the wastewater treatment facility from the current less-than-50 per cent conversion rate. They produced 98 per cent more methane overall compared to the current practice. "It was shown to be extremely efficient, and that's very exciting," said Birgitte Ahring, professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, who led the work. "This can be applicable and something we could begin to explore in Washington state. Not wasting waste but using its potential instead has major advantages." Sewage sludge is not a sought-after product. About half of the wastewater treatment plants in the U.S. use anaerobic digestion to reduce this waste, but the process, by which microbes break down the waste, is inefficient. The leftover sludge, called biosolids, generally ends up in landfills. Wastewater treatment facilities also use large amounts of electricity to clean up municipal wastewater. They are often the largest user of electricity in a small community. "If they could make their own electricity or for some of the large plants, make renewable natural gas and add it to the natural gas grid, then they can reduce the use of fossil fuels. Here we are beginning to move into the idea of the circular economy," said Ahring, who is also a faculty member in the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory at WSU Tri-cities. For their study, the WSU research team treated the sludge at high temperature and pressure with oxygen added before the anaerobic digestion process. The small amount of oxygen under high-pressure conditions acts as a catalyst that breaks down the polymers in the material. The WSU researchers have been studying this pretreatment process for several years, using it to break down straw and woody materials. They weren't sure the process would work with the different compositions of sewage sludge, such as lipids and proteins, but were positively surprised. "This is not a very high-tech solution," Ahring said. "It's actually a solution that can be useful even at a small scale. The efficiency has to be high or else you cannot warrant adding the extra costs to the process." She added that the technology could be beneficial for smaller communities, many of which are motivated to reduce waste and its climate impact. The WSU team is working with Clean-Vantage, a Richland-based clean technology start-up company active in the pretreatment area, as well as with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is doing a techno-economic analysis of the new process. The researchers are now scaling up the work in their pilot facility located at WSU Tri-cities to further demonstrate the process. They are also studying how to efficiently convert biogas to more valuable renewable natural gas by a new bioprocess. While biogas can be used to produce electricity, producing renewable natural gas could allow rural communities to produce local transportation fuel for fueling their municipal vehicles. (ANI) The Canadian government has conveyed to India that Canada will not recognise the objectionable 'Khalistan' referendum organised by the proscribed organisation Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) in Ontario on November 6, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday. "Government of Canada has conveyed that they respect the sovereignty of India and will not recognise the ('Khalistan') referendum... deeply objectionable that politically motivated exercises by extremist elements are allowed to take place in a friendly country," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during a weekly presser. "Our position on the anti-India elements to hold the so-called 'Khalistan' referendum is well-known. The Canadian High Commissioner here and the Deputy Foreign Minister reiterated this perspective earlier this week in separate statements. You all are aware of the history of violence in this regard," Bagchi added. India will continue to press the government of Canada on this matter and call upon them (the Canadian government) to prevent anti-India activities on individuals and groups based in Canada, Bagchi said. MEA also called on the Canadian government to designate, as terrorists under their law, those individuals and entities who have been declared as terrorists under Indian law. India recently served a demarche to the Canadian government, asking it to stop the so-called 'Khalistan' referendum organised by the proscribed organisation in Ontario on November 6. The Centre has asked the Canadian government to act against those who promote terror and violence against the largest democracy in the world. Amid the surge in activities of anti-India elements in Canada, High Commissioner Cameron MacKay last Thursday said the Justin Trudeau government supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. "Canada supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India," MacKay said to a question by ANI, in an apparent clarification of his earlier remarks. The envoy who was visiting the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in the national capital was asked about the measures that the Canadian government was taking to deal with the 'Khalistani' outfit, which is proscribed in India. MacKay, earlier, said all faiths are welcome in Canada, in response to how Canada was dealing with increasing anti-India elements in his country. "In Canada, we love people of all faiths," he said. When asked about the so-called referendums by 'anti-India' outfits, High Commissioner MacKay said, "All faiths are welcome in Canada" and repeated the statement once more for the third time. Meanwhile, last month India issued an advisory for its nationals and students in Canada to remain vigilant amid increasing incidents of crimes and anti-India activities in the country. In a statement, the external affairs ministry said Indian missions have taken up these incidents with the Canadian authorities and requested them to probe these crimes. The MEA noted that there has been a sharp increase in incidents of hate crimes, sectarian violence and anti-India activities 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. (ANI) The United States condemned the "assassination attempt" on former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying that there is no space for violence in politics. Taking to Twitter, US state Secretary Antony Blinken said, "The US strongly condemns the shooting of @ImranKhanPTI at a political rally. We wish him and all others injured a quick recovery, and we offer condolences to the family of the individual who was killed. All parties should remain peaceful. Violence has no place in politics." Imran Khan was injured in a firing incident at his container near Allah Walla Chowk in Wazirabad in Pakistan's Punjab province during his long march against the ruling coalition, reported ARY News. After the attack, Faisal Sultan, the former assistant to the prime minister on health, said that PTI chairman Imran Khan's condition is stable. "But according to X-rays and scans, there are fragments of bullets in his legs and there's a chip in his tibia shin bone," he told media persons outside the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, The Dawn reported. Sultan added that Imran has been moved to the operation theatre for further evaluation and removal of bullet fragments. Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also condemned the attack and wished Imran Khan a speedy recovery. "The attack on @ImranKhanPTI and his supporters is completely unacceptable, and I strongly condemn this violence. It has no place in politics, in any democracy, or in our society. I'm wishing a speedy recovery to Imran and all who were injured today," he said in a tweet. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia "expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's strong condemnation and denunciation of the attempted assassination of Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "The Ministry affirms the Kingdom's standing with Pakistan and its people against all threats to its security, stability, and development process, noting the Kingdom's support for all efforts aimed at eliminating violence, extremism, and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations while wishing the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its brotherly people safety, stability and prosperity," the statement added. In the latest development in the case, the suspect was caught by police in Pakistan for opening fire during the PTI's long march and said that he wanted to kill Imran Khan because "he was misleading the public," media reports said. "I thought of this as there was Azaan going on and on the other side, Imran Khan is taking out his container and making noise. My conscience did not approve of this. I decided this suddenly... I conspired against Imran Khan when he kicked off his long march from Lahore. I made up my mind that I will not leave him alive," the shooter said according to a video shared on social media. Responding to whether there was someone else in the conspiracy, the shooter said, "I have conspired this alone and no one else is involved in this. I came on a bike and I parked it at my uncle's shop. He has a motorcycle showroom." (ANI) Pakistan's Punjab province Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Thursday night instructed the police to form a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the attack on former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's convoy in Wazirabad. Officials of the counter-terrorism department will be placed on the team to investigate the motives of the incident, The Dawn quoted citing an official statement. "We want to know who is behind the incident, who trained the accused, how much money was he given and where did he get it from," the chief minister said, adding it appeared there were two shooters, not one," it added. PTI chief was injured after a man opened fire at him in Gujranwala near the party's reception camp. The former prime minister sustained injuries on his leg and has been shifted to a hospital for treatment, Geo News reported. Dr Faisal Sultan, the former assistant to the prime minister on health, has said that PTI chairman Imran Khan's condition is stable. "But according to X-rays and scans, there are fragments of bullets in his legs and there's a chip in his tibia shin bone," he told media persons outside the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, the Dawn reported. Sultan added that Imran has been moved to the operation theatre for further evaluation and removal of bullet fragments. Meanwhile,the Insaf Students Federation, in a tweet quoting Imran Khan, has said that PTI's long march towards Islamabad will resume from 11am tomorrow (Friday). Taking strict notice of the video leak containing a confessional statement of the suspect in police custody who allegedly shot at Imran Khan in Gujranwala, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi suspended the entire staff of the concerned police station. The video of the suspect was leaked soon after he was arrested at the crime scene. As a result, the chief minister has suspended the SHO concerned and his entire staff, and ordered strict disciplinary action against them, the Dawn reported. The province's chief minister directed the IG Punjab to launch an inquiry into the audio leak and take strict disciplinary action against irresponsible officials. Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the government to immediately register a first information report (FIR) over the attack on PTI chairman Imran Khan during the long march in Wazirabad today. In a media talk, he said that if the government wanted political stability in the country, it should step down and announce snap polls. (ANI) Chinese government's zero covid policy appears to have failed as new cases of the virus are still being found in various cities in China, Africa Daily Digital reported. At least 1,000 new cases of the virus are found in China every day, prompting the government to impose its draconian "Zero covid policy," which has caused fear, anger, and confusion among the Chinese people. China's Zero Covid policy has forced thousands of citizens to live in inhuman conditions. Zhang Weiya, a Shanghai resident, said, "My arms are literally trembling. I really don't know if my mental health would be able to withstand another isolation. Chinese citizens have already endured the pain of lockdown and now after the return of the zero covid policy, they are scared about its repetition, according to Africa Daily Digital. Government agencies have already ordered mass testing on 1.3 million people in Shanghai and ordered them to stay inside their homes until the results are out. Shops, schools, and restaurants have been asked to shut down in different parts of the country. Secretary of Datong City's Municipality Lu Dongliang left the Communist Party's crucial National Congress meeting midway and returned as he found the city was in a "dire situation." The famous tourist spot Disney Resort in Shanghai saw operations suspended without notice. The visitors and people living in the surroundings were subjected to strict measures. About 30,000 people inside the resort were not allowed unless their corona test did not come negative, reported Africa Daily Digital. According to Africa Daily Digital, at least 31 cities in China are under lockdown, which has affected over 232 million people's lives. The Universal Resort in Beijing too has been shut down as fresh cases of Covid are rising in the capital city. The fear of lockdown could be seen in the migrant workers employed in China's largest iPhone factory in Covid-hit Zhengzhou. In the viral video, droves of migrant workers have been fleeing back to their hometowns from the country's largest iPhone factory in Covid-hit Zhengzhou, amidst a lockdown triggered by the Covid outbreak. "Workers have broken out of #Apple's largest assembly site, escaping the Zero #Covid lockdown at Foxconn in #Zhengzhou. After sneaking out, they're walking to hometowns more than 100 kilometres away to beat the Covid app measures designed to control people and stop this. #China," tweeted Stephen McDonell, BBC's correspondent in China. Videos shared on Chinese social media showed people jumping a fence outside the plant, owned by manufacturer Foxconn, in the central city of Zhengzhou. It was previously reported that a number of workers had been placed under quarantine because of an outbreak of the disease. Citizens from time to time had expressed their anger on social media. One unknown protester put a banner near the venue of the National Congress, which read "Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity." Another banner said, "Go on strike, remove the dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping." Many in otherwise peaceful Lhasa in Tibet came on the street against the Zero Covid policy. Most of the protestors were migrant Chinese Han people, reported Africa Daily Digital. People are fearful about their livelihood since Zero Covid has dealt a serious blow to their incomes and has caused job losses. "I don't know how long it will continue to be like this. I can't find hope," said one angry citizen on Douyin, China's version of TikTok. "We haven't had any income for three months - but expenses have not been reduced even by a penny," said another post. (ANI) Pakistan Electronic and Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Thursday prohibited news channels from airing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar's video wherein he said that Imran Khan believed "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the country's Interior Minister and a top ISI General" were behind the attack, the Dawn reported. Senior PTI leaders said that Imran Khan believes that the bullets were fired at him at the behest of three people including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the country's Interior Minister and a top ISI General and his remarks were based on information he had received. "Broadcasting of such content is likely to create hatred among the people or is prejudicial to maintenance of law and order or is likely to disturb public peace and tranquility or endangers national security is a serious violation of Article 19 of the Constitution and Section 27 of PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as well as Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015," The Dawn quoted Media Regulatory as saying. PTI chief was injured after a man opened fire at him in Gujranwala near the party's reception camp. The former prime minister sustained injuries on his leg and has been shifted to a hospital for treatment, Geo News reported. Asad, quoting the PTI chairman, demanded that all three people -- the premier, the interior minister, and the senior military officer -- should be removed from their offices. It went on to say that investigation of the attack on the PTI chief was underway and "prior to the completion of investigation such kind of statement of a senior PTI leader circulated on social media may prejudice the investigation and inquiry at this stage", The Dawn reported. Subsequently, the statement added Pemra "hereby prohibits broadcast and re-broadcast of such statements being circulated on social media by PTI leaders which are unsubstantiated, vilifying, and cast aspersions against state institutions, with immediate effect". In the latest development in the case, the suspect was caught by police in Pakistan for opening fire during the PTI's long march and said that he wanted to kill Imran Khan because "he was misleading the public," media reports said. "I thought of this as there was Azaan going on and on the other side, Imran Khan is taking out his container and making noise. My conscience did not approve of this. I decided this suddenly... I conspired against Imran Khan when he kicked off his long march from Lahore. I made up my mind that I will not leave him alive," the shooter said according to a video shared on social media. Responding to whether there was someone else in the conspiracy, the shooter said, "I have conspired this alone and no one else is involved in this. I came on a bike and I parked it at my uncle's shop. He has a motorcycle showroom."(ANI) For the first time in Pakistan's 75 years history protests took place against ISI Maj Gen Faisal, all-powerful Peshawar Corps Commander for allegedly having a hand in former Prime Minister Imran Khan's assassination attempt. Hours after the assassination attempt against Imran Khan, people held protests in front of the Corps Commander House in Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as per a video shared by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Taking to Twitter, PTI said, "When non-political people conduct political press conferences and when people see no action against those threatening Imran Khan, the mistrust in the Establishment grows. It is alarming to see people protesting in front of Corps Commander House Peshawar!" Earlier, PTI Chief Imran Khan suggested a proposal for the appointment of the army chief but Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rejected that and instead offered to discuss the Charter of Democracy and Charter of Economy, The Express Tribune reported. "Imran had suggested that we give him three names and he gives three names for the post of army chief and then we decide on the appointment of the new chief from those six names," The Express Tribune quoted the Pakistan PM as saying with the bloggers. PTI chief was injured after a man opened fire at him in Gujranwala near the party's reception camp. The former prime minister sustained injuries on his leg and has been shifted to a hospital for treatment, Geo News reported. After the attack, Faisal Sultan, the former assistant to the prime minister on health, said that PTI chairman Imran Khan's condition is stable. "But according to X-rays and scans, there are fragments of bullets in his legs and there's a chip in his tibia shin bone," he told media persons outside the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, The Dawn reported. Sultan added that Imran has been moved to the operation theatre for further evaluation and removal of bullet fragments. In the latest development in the case, the suspect was caught by police in Pakistan for opening fire during the PTI's long march and said that he wanted to kill Imran Khan because "he was misleading the public," media reports said. "I thought of this as there was Azaan going on and on the other side, Imran Khan is taking out his container and making noise. My conscience did not approve of this. I decided this suddenly... I conspired against Imran Khan when he kicked off his long march from Lahore. I made up my mind that I will not leave him alive," the shooter said according to a video shared on social media. Responding to whether there was someone else in the conspiracy, the shooter said, "I have conspired this alone and no one else is involved in this. I came on a bike and I parked it at my uncle's shop. He has a motorcycle showroom." (ANI) French parliament was halted on Thursday after Gregoire de Fournas, the parliamentary representative from the National Rally (RN) party, shouted, "Go back to Africa!" during a Black lawmaker's comments while addressing the issue of a stranded migrant boat in the National Assembly. Gregoire de Fournas, interrupted Carlos Martens Bilongo, a representative from the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) during a session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, reported CNN. Bilongo was calling on the French government to cooperate with EU counties - notably Italy and its newly-elected far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - to assist several hundred African migrants rescued from the Mediterranean sea. De Fournas interrupted, shouting "go back to Africa," reported CNN. Bilongo was challenging the government over its approach to the people on the stranded rescue boat. The vessel is carrying hundreds of passengers in the Mediterranean Sea and NGOs have urged the French government to intervene with a solution. Chaos immediately ensued in the chamber, leading Yael Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, to temporarily suspend the session. Bilongo and his party have described the shout as a racist personal attack, though de Fournas' party has argued that the interjection was actually intended for the migrants under discussion, reported CNN. "Today, some people once again put my skin colour at the centre of a debate. I'm born in France and I am a French lawmaker and I didn't think that today I will be insulted (like this) at the National Assembly," Bilongo told reporters after the incident. Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, has demanded that de Fournas face the toughest punishment for a French lawmaker -- expulsion. "Racists like him have no place in our parliament," Panot tweeted. De Fournas said that he was referring to migrants, tweeting that the France Unbowed had "hijacked" his words in a "disgraceful manipulation." "My answer concerned the boat and the migrants, obviously not my colleague," he tweeted. Fournas later denied he was addressing leftist Carlos Martens Bilongo, saying the outburst was directed at migrants stranded on a rescue ship. In French, the words "he" and "they" are pronounced identically. According to French phonetic rules, there is little audible difference between the sentences, "He should go back to Africa" and "They should go back to Africa" as de Fournas expressed them, reported CNN. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right RN's party group at the French lower house, voiced support for de Fournas in a tweet. "Gregoire de Fournas obviously spoke about the migrants transported in boats by the NGOs that our colleague mentioned in his question to the government. The polemic created by our political opponents is crude and will not deceive the French," she wrote. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told journalists after the session that "racism has no place in our democracy," reported CNN. The parliament will hold a meeting Friday to decide on a punishment for de Fournas. Expulsion, the toughest punishment given to a lawmaker from the parliament, was only handed down once during the French Fifth Republic, to a communist lawmaker Maxime Gremetz for disrupting a parliamentary session in 2011, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. (ANI) British Ambassador to Russia, Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on November 3 to lodge a protest over the UK's involvement in a "terrorist attack" against the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. "A strong protest in connection with the British military specialists' active participation in training and providing supplies to the units of the Ukrainian special operations forces, including with the goal of conducting acts of sabotage at sea, were expressed to the Ambassador. Concrete facts of that kind of activities by London were provided," read the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. The demarche emphasised that such confrontational actions by the British pose the threat of an escalation and can lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences. "Such confrontational actions by the British pose the threat of an escalation and can lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences," tweeted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. It was pointed out that such hostile provocations were unacceptable and a demand was put forward to stop them immediately. Meanwhile, Russia warned that should these acts of aggression that are fraught with direct implications in the conflict continue, the responsibility for harmful consequences and the mounting tensions in relations between the two countries will lie entirely with the British side. "It was noted, in particular, that an agreement was reached in September 2020 between London and Kyiv to expand the British instructors' training programme for Ukrainian military divers. In late 2020, the parties began implementing the Naval Training Initiative for the Ukrainian Navy, which included training courses for combat swimmers," added the release. British-Ukrainian naval cooperation is further reinforced under the Joint Multinational Training Group - Ukraine programme. This work is carried out at a separate Ataman Golovaty Spec Ops Centre "South" of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (Military Unit A3199, former 73rd Marine Special Operations Centre) in the city of Ochakov, Nikolayev region, and includes the training of underwater spec ops operatives for conducting operations in the Black Sea and Azov Sea. "A military diving school in Odessa (which is part of the Ukrainian Navy's 198th training centre, Military Unit A3163, Nikolayev), is training special operations divers, including in deep-sea subversive skills, among others," added the release. With the participation of British specialists, the Ukrainian Navy carried out dives and a training detonation of a target on the coast and in the Black Sea near the cities of Odessa, Nikolayev and Ochakov, alleged Russian MoFA. In August-September, on Pervomaisky Island in the Dnieper estuary 3 km south of Ochakov, British military instructors (about 15 men) taught servicemen from the Armed Forces of Ukraine to operate unmanned underwater vehicles designed to destroy ships. "In August-September, the British trained the crews of minesweepers that were transferred to Ukraine. We have information that the British Navy has also transferred a certain number of UAVs to Ukraine," added the release. Russia on Saturday accused UK of "involvement" in the naval drone attack Black and Baltic seas and said that it intends to draw the international community's attention towards Sevastopol incident. "The Russian Side intends to draw the international community's attention, including at the United Nations Security Council, to a series of terrorist attacks committed against the Russian Federation in the Black and Baltic seas, highlighting the UK's involvement," said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "On Saturday at 4.20 am, Kyiv carried out a terrorist attack against the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships that were on the outer and inner roadsteads of the Sevastopol base. The attack involved nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones," said the Russian Ministry of Defence. (ANI) Amit Dasgupta on Thursday was appointed as an Honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to the Australia-India bilateral relationship. "Congratulations Mr Amit Dasgupta AM for your appointment as an Honorary Member, General Division, Order of Australia (AM). Honoured to confer this award, on behalf of Australia's Governor-General, to @amit_adg for his longstanding contribution to the Australia-India bilateral relationship," tweeted Sarah Storey, Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to India. Dasgupta is a tireless promoter of Australia-India relations, challenging the nations' governments and people to realise the underlying potential of a stronger bilateral relationship. "At a complete loss for words! Overwhelming and humbling to receive such a great and extraordinary honour. Thank you for the wonderful ceremony! Deeply touched," tweeted Dasgupta. As Consul-General of India to Australia from 2009 to 2012, Dasgupta was a staunch advocate for the principles of multiculturalism, which underpins contemporary Australia. During this period, attacks against Indian students threatened Australia's international reputation. Dasgupta's personal efforts assisted in diffusing tensions and reassuring the Indian diaspora. Dasgupta was instrumental in establishing the Australia-India Youth Dialogue. Now in its second decade, the Dialogue is a permanent fixture of the bilateral relationship and fosters connections between Australian and Indian young people. Dasgupta continues to advance relations between the two countries as a Distinguished Fellow of the Australia India Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Society for Policy Studies, and the Inaugural Country Director of the University of New South Wales since 2016. Dasgupta's deep and longstanding service to the Australia-India bilateral relationship is commendable and worthy of formal national recognition through his appointment as an Honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) There are a number of different Australian Honours Awards which are awarded for different reasons. The main Australian honour is the Order of Australia which confers the highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service. (ANI) To raise awareness about conservation and the usage of water resources in an integrated manner, the 7th India Water Week was organized on Friday in Greater Noida where Israel shared best practices and technologies for the water management. The Embassy of Israel in India participated in the 7th India Water Week, organized at India Expo Centre by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. Israel hosted a pavilion during the event in which six Israeli water companies participated from November 1st to 4th, 2022. The pavilion was inaugurated by Ambassador of Israel to India Naor Gilon and Economic Counsellor Natasha Zangin. "Israel is a leader in the global water sector and managing its water resources in a sustainable manner. We are very happy to share our advanced and cutting-edge water technologies, know-how and expertise with the Indian people, and work closely with all our partners in India as we continue enhancing the strategic partnership between our two nations. Water security has always been one of the most important pillars of our relations," said Gilon. The event provided a platform for discussions and opinions from global-level decision-makers, politicians, researchers, and entrepreneurs. It facilitated multidisciplinary dialogue in the form of a conference deliberating around the theme of Water Security for Sustainable Development and Equity, which was one of the major components of the event, where Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Ohad Nakash Kaynar and Dr Lior Asaf, Water Attache addressed the audience. India and Israel are celebrating 30 years of full diplomatic relations, and water security is a significant aspect of this partnership. India is the only country wherein Israel has the position of a Water Attache to help share Israeli best practices and technologies for advancements in India's water management sector. The Governments of India and Israel have an MoU on cooperation in water resource management and development signed in 2016 wherein they have identified various projects under the Indo-Israel cooperation. Israel is working closely with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) - Ministry of Jal Shakti, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) - Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and state governments. (ANI) Beijing's boundary activities are a severe threat to Nepal's northern border - not only because of negative ramifications for the country's cultural and religious traditions but also because of impacts on the local economy. Moreover, no evidence is presented to convince the Nepalese people that the country's northern border is secure. Tensions over border-related matters with China are largely side-lined by the Nepalese government, while its northern border is under severe threat, said Dr Siegfried O Wolf, Director of Research at South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF). This not only weakens parliamentary processes and hampers the freedom of expression (particularly through the suppression of criticisms regarding China) but offers Beijing an (additional) loophole to keep expanding its expansionist designs in the Himalayas. By refuting the concerns of various oppositions and local residents, Nepalese governments contribute to the country's record of side-lining the Parliament in matters of national importance. Indeed, Beijing tries to counter claims regarding its violations of Nepalese territorial integrity by promoting the false narrative that Nepal has no territorial issues with China, only with India. Nepal needs to collaborate with its South Asian neighbours, namely Bhutan and India, in finding a common approach to challenge Chinese expansionism, said Dr Siegfried O Wolf. This is even more urgent as Chinese President Xi Jinping was able to coronate himself for a new, unprecedented third term as ruler of the Communist Party of China - surrounded by "absolute rubber stamps". If Beijing remains unchallenged, Nepal and other countries will have to deal with an even more aggressive China in territorial and other bilateral disputes, reported SADF. Recently, a Nepalese government report accused China of encroaching into Nepal along the border shared by these two countries'. In the "official document", it is stated that Beijing started efforts 'to construct a canal and a road' as well as a fence around a border pillar in the country's far western Humla district. Beijing was also accused of 'carrying out surveillance activities in the Lalungjong border area, which is on Nepal's side of its border with China'. The latter not only 'had been limiting grazing by Nepalese farmers', but also 'restricted Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimages in the border region, reported SADF. According to former Nepalese diplomat Vijay Kant Karna '... they [China] want to disconnect relations across the border.' This is not the first time we witness reports of Chinese land grabs and interferences into Nepalese territory. In 2009, troops of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) 'crossed over into [an] undefended district and constructed a veterinary center for livestock'. In 2017, according to the Himalayan Times, a survey document was issued by the Ministry of Agriculture which 'shows that China had encroached 36 hectares of Nepal's territory at 10 places along the northern border'. The same report claimed that in 2016 China constructed several buildings inside Nepal. In 2020, an investigation 'found China had allegedly annexed 150 hectares of Nepalese land from five districts, including Humla.' Moreover, the PLA removed border pillars (demarcations) and then 'built alleged military bases inside the former Nepalese territory', said Wolf. The observation was further substantiated by Chakka Bahadur Lama, a Member of Parliament from Humla, who expressed his concerns that 'pillar number 11 went missing'. With Chinese land grabs and encroachments into Nepalese territory, it becomes clear that Beijing's immediate strategic goal is to achieve "de facto oversight" of crucial Himalayan peaks and mountain passes and thus enhance its control over the border, said Wolf. Beijing's activities in the frontier area with Nepal are part of a strategy to gain military superiority in the Himalayan region and support China's larger expansionist designs. Kathmandu needs to understand that there is a clear and urgent need to document comprehensively and communicate unequivocally - in both domestic and international spheres - Chinese encroachments into its territory and other violations of its northern boundary, added SADF. (ANI) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to New Delhi next week to participate in the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership on November 11, the US Department of the Treasury announced on Friday. "Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen will travel to New Delhi, India to participate in the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership on November 11," the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. On upcoming Friday, Secretary Yellen will highlight the strength of the US partnership with India, which continues to deepen. She will meet with technology sector leaders and visit the Microsoft India Development Center, where she will deliver remarks on the United States' economic partnership with India. The US treasury secretary will then hold a bilateral meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Following the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) dialogue, Secretary Yellen will join Minister Sitharaman for a fireside discussion with executives from major Indian companies and American companies operating in India. "To conclude the day, Secretary Yellen and Minister Sitharaman will sign a joint statement on the EFP dialogue. The Secretary's remarks and participation in the fireside discussion will be open to pre-credentialled press. There will be press sprays with remarks at the top of the EFP and bilateral meeting, and a photo spray at the signing ceremony," the treasury department said. Throughout her visit to India, secretary Yellen will discuss how the US and India have worked together to deepen their economic ties, it added. She will highlight the close ties between American and Indian people and businesses, and note ways we can further our bilateral economic relationship, including through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and stronger supply chains through friend-shoring. She will also reaffirm America's and India's shared democratic values and commitment to upholding a rules-based international order as the world's largest democracies. Yellen will also welcome India's assumption of the G20 presidency next month and discuss opportunities to make progress on global challenges through global climate action and evolving the multilateral development banks (MDBs). After concluding her India visit, Yellen will then travel to Bali, Indonesia to represent the US at the G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting on November 12 and accompany US President Joe Biden at the G20 Leaders' Summit on November 15 and 16. (ANI) China has accused Canada of "unreasonable suppression" of Chinese companies, after the Justin Trudeau government ordered three firms to exit critical minerals deals with its companies, citing national security concerns. "China urges the Canadian side to stop suppressing Chinese companies. We call for a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies doing business in Canada," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's said during a press conference on Thursday. Zhao the current global minerals industry and supply chains are a result of both the law of the market and the choices of businesses. "The Canadian side has overstretched the concept of national security and placed arbitrary curbs on normal trade and investment cooperation between China and Canadian companies," he said. This decision comes as China continues to dominate the rare earth elements around the world, while the west is pushing towards self-reliance in the procurement of scarce metals and minerals. However, China does not produce a lot of minerals. Instead, it has invested heavily in overseas mines in places like Canada to acquire the raw materials it needs, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported. Earlier, Canada's Science and Industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the decision was made after reviewing a number of investments in Canadian companies engaged in the critical minerals sector, including lithium. "While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad. In accordance with the ICA (Investment Canada Act), foreign investments are subject to review for national security concerns, and certain types of investment--such as those in the critical minerals sectors--receive enhanced scrutiny," Champagne said in a written statement late Wednesday. Western countries are now trying to upend China's dominance in the field and create a new supply chain. The Canadian government said these companies were reviewed via the multi-step national security review process, which involves rigorous scrutiny by Canada's national security and intelligence community. Ottawa said the government's decisions are based on facts and evidence and on the advice of critical minerals subject matter experts, Canada's security and intelligence community, and other government partners. (ANI) Though Pakistan continues to eye for fresh impetus on CPEC projects, China, on the other hand, will be extremely careful with Pakistan's demand for rescheduling of debt, reported Inside Over. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was on a two-day trip to China where he held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on expanding cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Both leaders discussed broad-based cooperation in the economy and exchanged views on regional and global developments. However, Pakistan's all-weather friendship has apprehensions about debt rescheduling with Pakistan. China has already rescheduled debt worth USD 1 billion early this year. It is pertinent to note that China is Pakistan's largest single-country creditor. Pakistan's debt servicing to China in 2022-23 accounts for almost 11 per cent of Pakistan's total external public debt stock and 45 PC of its total annual debt servicing. The total debt from China stands at USD 26 billion in public and private debts, reported Inside Over. Pakistan wants to reschedule its bilateral debts with China. The debt is a total of USD 20.3 billion which includes USD 9.7 billion of Chinese debt. International Monetary Fund has reported that Pakistan owed 30 per cent of its foreign debt to China. China's lending to Pakistan is three times greater than the IMF and far ahead of combined assistance by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. However, experts from across the globe have expressed concerns that Pakistan might see an economic crisis like that of Sri Lanka, a country often associated with China's debt-trap diplomacy. Floods in Pakistan have only worsened the economic crisis. Pakistan has requested the rollover of its USD 6.3 billion debt. In the next eight months, the debt will mature. Sharif and his team might find themselves faced with a great disappointment on the issue of debt rescheduling. China is surely going to push hard on its bargain on debt matters. (ANI) Pakistan on Friday informed that its High Commission in New Delhi has issued nearly 3,000 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims to attend the over week-long birth celebrations of Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak's birth celebrations are scheduled to be held in Pakistan from November 6-15. Indian Sikh pilgrims who will travel to Pakistan would visit Dera Sahib, Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib. "On the occasion of Birthday Celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has issued 2,942 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to attend the Birth Celebrations scheduled to be held in Pakistan from 6-15 November 2022," the Pakistan High Commission in India said in a statement. "During the visit, the pilgrims would, inter alia, go to Dera Sahib, Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib. They would enter Pakistan on 6 November and return back to India on 15 November 2022," it added. (ANI)